it was basra's slums that were worse hit.cess to clean drinking water. meet a housewife, she shows me the family's water source. her children all fell sick. several spent two weeks in hospitals. it was the whole neighbourhood sick? basra should be a wealthy city. it sits on top of oil. it is also whether countries are too great rivers converge. this is the shatt al—arab river. the big problem le sommer was there was not enough water coming down the river and that is incredibly important to flush the system because you have the river fighting the sea. the sea is pushing up fighting the sea. the sea is pushing up in the opposite direction and it faces resistance from the river but le sommer it was the sea that won the battle and the water became incredibly salty and that is a real problem because this is the main water source for the city of basra. and if that was not bad enough, basra dumps all its raw sewerage into the river. it was sitting here, stagnating in the summer heat. i went to meet the man who has responsibility for

basra was a broken city.ded protester cursed the city's a leaders, as the scum of the earth. a city once known as the venice of the east, had become a vision of hell. its canal, a symbol of corruption and dysfunction. the sweltering summer heat turning this into a toxic stew. tens of thousands were rushed to the city's hospitals, suffering from stomach cramps and serious diarrhoea. doctors and nurses were overwhelmed. the city had never seen a health crisis on this scale. it was basra's slums that were most hurt. people here live in toxic filth, and have limited access to clean drinking water. i meet rima, a housewife, she shows me the family's water source. where is the water? rima's ten children all fell sick. several of them spent two weeks in hospital. basra should be a wealthy city. it sits on top of most of iraq's oil, it's also where the country's two great rivers converge. the big problem last summer is there simply wasn't enough water coming down the river. that is incredibly important to flush the s

martin patience, bbc news, basra.ial ops force. the beluga whale was found wearing a strap that could hold a camera or weapon near the small fishing village of inga. georgina smyth has more. an unlikely wild encounter with a dark twist. this white beluga whale seemed to be tame, swimming up to swimming vessels and trying to pull straps off boats. fishermen noticed rope that was clipped into a harness that could hold a camera or weapon. translation: there were clips on the harness like these that were on the whale, we tried to reach those clips and open them, my colleague and i try to do this for some time but we couldn't do it. ever more curious, one of the fishermen got into a survival suit and jumped into the water. translation: then, afteri got in, he came up along the side of me and i could reach the clip and opened it. written on the side of the harness were the words "equipment of saint petersburg." marine experts believe that the whale probably escaped from the russian navy which has a long history of using mar

and to spanish tennis players going head to head in basra and find out who came out on top with deer in school. and over the weather is all quite unsettled over the southeastern parts of china now has been for a while now and you can see the latest pulse of activity making its way eastwards that's given us some heavy rain lots of thunder and lightning as well and will be more to come as we head through the next few days again they're working their way eastwards giving some heavy downpours shanghai well hey we're likely to see some heavy rains as well to the south there is a home grown here it should be dry temperature of around thirty degrees a bit for the south plenty of dry weather here as well particularly over the philippines it's only really in the far south we've got any significant weather a few showers here at times there's more lively weather across parts of borneo java and into somalia and i think that's where we'll see most of the activity as we head through the day on tuesday and a wednesday as well further north largely dry but one of the two showers may just crop up her

and investigating the toxic waters in the southern iraqi city of basra which caused ten of thousands

and investigating what led to last summer's explosion of anger on the streets of basra.'s poisoned rivers in half an hour, here on bbc news. good afternoon, and welcome to bbc news. sri lanka's security forces have said 15 people were killed in an explosion and gun battle with suspected islamist militants. six children were among the dead. the search is continuing for the bombers who carried out a series of attacks on easter sunday. from sri lanka, our correspondent yogita limaye reports. the search continues for those behind sri lanka's horror. police have been carrying out raids across the country. on friday, they followed a tip—off to this house in the eastern city of ampara. armed men were inside, who set off an explosion. a gun battle followed and the house burned down. more than a dozen died. six are believed to have been linked to the bombings. several children were also caught up in the violence. in another house, in the same city, police found a huge stash of bomb—making material — a discovery that shows how grave the threat of more attacks still is. this banner

a militia, if you recall, had been destroyed back during the battles of march and april, 2008, in basra, in sadder city, other places. -- in asdr city, in other places -- in sadr city, in other places. it comes back to what bill was talking about with actions to undermine the effectiveness of elements that would like to, again, take control of iraq. iraq, a country that has to have a relationship with iran. again, it's always going to be the bigger name to the east. we have to understand that. we have to try not be an obstacle to that. it should be a mutually productive, mutually beneficial relationship. not one in which iran can lean on iraq and get what they want done through various levers of powers through which they control. now, what else do we need to do? well, we should certainly make sure that whatever our plans for syria are, that we do not allow the establishment of a ground line of communication. i'm talking now about a hardball road. you can go through the desert and other places iraq into syria. but we're talking about big trucks that would carry major items of equipment.

- in march of 2008 when we were fighting against the shia militia and a very significant battle in basra and he wanted to be sure that i knew of a controlled policy for iran when it came to iraq, syria, lebanon, gaza in afghanistan. and now presumably, probably put yemen in there as well. let's never forget that it is the cubs force that controls the policy, not the ministry of foreign affairs or some other state organization. again, there was no real opportunity for constructive dialogue at that point in time. >> as i said, the audience is watching and is the former director of the cia, i think they would be very curious, i know that i am curious, how you would rate american intelligence on iran both in terms of our assessments and understanding of the political trends and the technical. >> let me first say hello to the iranian people. believe it or not, we used to have a bit of interaction with them because i would go to the border crossings between iraq and iran and there were a lot of reasons to inspect them and we had careful procedures for that and i wanted to make sure that they w

and investigating the toxic waters in the southern iraqi city of basra which caused ten of thousands of people to fall ill last summer. that's in half an hour on bbc news. good evening. sri lanka's security forces have detained the wife and child of the man believed to be the ringleader behind the wave of bomb attacks on easter sunday. they were captured following a gun battle with suspected islamist militants in which 15 people were killed, including six children. a huge search is continuing for the bombers. from sri lanka our correspondent yogita limaye reports. the search continues for those behind sri lanka's horror. police have been carrying out raids across the country. on friday, they followed a tip—off to this house, in the eastern city of sainthamaruthu. armed men were inside, who set off an explosion. a gun battle followed and the house burned down. more than a dozen died. women and children were caught up in the violence. the wife and child of this man, zahran hashim, the alleged mastermind of the bombings, are believed to be amongst them. in another raid in the same area,

minister hans bold and public embrace of iran is likely to raise concerns and the white house saying basra the old zero. scientists are alarmed the russian government plans to allow increased levels of pollution in the world's biggest lake is like by car that contains twenty percent of the planet's fresh water. reports russian government leaders say they can better protect the lake by increasing permitted levels of waste. the fragile line between water and ice marks the entrance to the world's largest and deepest lake when the ice melts the water is so clear that fish and freshwater seals can be spotted with oxygen one and a half kilometers down near the bottom made by karl has a unique ecosystem found nowhere else on the planet but human activity on it six hundred thirty six kilometers long show us has increased and so has pollution every year more than one and a half million tourists visit the baikal natural park which lacks a proper sewage system to deal with their waste. or like to a woman has lived here for nineteen years he recalls how not long ago he would drink water from the lake

dollars millions of iranians are rebuilding their lives after the devastating floods a month ago as in basra v. reports now from laura started province the crisis has come at a bad time for iran shrinking economy hampered by u.s. sanctions. iran's government is measuring the cost of flood damage in the billions of dollars for iran's people measuring the cost is also very personal damage shops . broken furniture. even packets of spaghetti. our homes have been destroyed shops and businesses damaged everything is gone. now the cleanup the floods left this school filled with mud the goal is to clear up as fast as possible to get the chief.

little line of cloud a lot of storms drift across iraq this one here just making its way surround basra just into the southeast of iran iraq will make its way further east was this is to say to the southwest of iran as you can see the the floodwaters do remain high the sun is out it's not raining a lace but we are still expecting more showers that will cause further problems and hence people moving their property out of the way try to get to higher ground away from the flooding scattered showers they make their way back in this week through friday and the similar picture as we go on into sas i think by the cloud around the child to some wet weather just about anywhere across iran at this stage where the weather will be over towards afghanistan brush the weather over towards. beirut at twenty four degrees celsius and pleasant sunshine coming through a lot of sunshine too across the robin is that we have got some cloud of rain you can see possibility of wanted to spots of rain there into the u.a.e. northern parts of vermont southern areas of saudi arabia i'm also the saturday. twenty one

next pockets of storms that are just rolling into the southeast of iraq is just around the basra area slide across the border into the southwest of iraq as we go on through the next twenty four hours this is the scene in the southwest of iran and you can see the sun is out it isn't running but the floodwaters do remain high and as a result of those pending shallots people on there having to move their belongings to higher ground getting away from those flood certain see as we go on through the next twenty four hours thursday into friday how the cloud will build a few showers just creeping across the border still seated around us that they're not going to still be wall to wall right by any stretch of the imagination but the showers the cloud will be there nevertheless i think more so as we go on into saturday was some heavy rain just sliding out of kuwait and making its way eastwards afghanistan seeing some really heavy rain as we go on into the weekend could see a little bit of heavy rain across southern parts of the gulf as we go through the next couple of days big downpours may. in

centred around the city of basra, last summer, more than 100,000 people were taken to hospital afteris film with our correspondent martin patients, who speaks to a self described water keeper, who talks about his efforts to improve water quality. let me just take it down as well, the supermarket with no tills, a sainsbury‘s local in london, trialling the use of no tills in its shop, customers have to scan and pay for items using an app, cash not allowed, no other types of payments and finally, four, thames valley police and hampshire police putting officers on buses to try and catch drivers using their mobile phones. height advantage that the boss gives them makes it easierfor them to spot drivers who are using their mobiles. and that's it for the morning briefing. let's catch up with the sports news, with a full roundup, here's sally nugent. good morning, what is your disney pixar acknowledge like? yes, that is buzz lightyear from toy story next to tottenham manager mauricio pochettino. here's why. the spurs boss says he's living the dream , and has even invoked buzz ahead of their

little line of cloud line is storms drift across iraq this one here just making its way some around basra just into the southeast all of iran iraq will make his way for the ace was this is to say to the southwest of iran as you can see the the flood waters do remain high the sun is out it's not raining a lace but we are still expecting more showers that will cause further problems and hence people moving their property after the way try to get to higher ground away from the flooding scattered showers they make their way back in this week i three friday is a similar picture as we go on into sas i think but the cloud around a child's to some wet weather just about anywhere across iran at this stage where the weather will be over towards afghanistan brush the weather over towards the ads and beirut to twenty four degrees celsius and pleasant sunshine coming through a lot of sunshine to across the robin is that we have got some cloud of rain you can see possibility of wanted to spots of rain them to the u.a.e. northern parts of amman southern areas of saudi arabia i'm also saturday. methamphe

consulate and basra.and what i see little bit of an and even kind of hyper personalized approach that i think is unfolding at the cost of expertise and civilian capacity and, unfortunately, bipartisan support for key relationships that shouldn't be partisan issues. now i think all this you won't be suppressor is likely to leave us worse off as a pivot to the future. it's my sense such an approach and unquestioning embrace of conflicts, partners, escalating tensions with iran without an offramp and shortchanging civilian power is unlikely to succeed on its own terms and maybe a recipe to deepen the regions key divide, sunni-shia, sunni sunni and tootle talked about citizen versus state and even some of the deficits outlined in the arab human developed over the years that i think that's likely to require more u.s. resources and spark more costly interventions in the years ahead. in my might a sound approach is to invest more deeply in the civilian side and aftermath of crisis occluding and about which shoul

that's one of the other reasons why so many people were sick in basra last summer. because these treatment plants, not their fault, they've got these jobs that no one has offered them any training and they don't know how to run these plants effectively. i know i'm running out of time. i wanted to say that since my trip to iraq last summer, usaid folks were in the audience and recommended i participate as a technical adviser on a program that they have running over there. it's a five-year program in theory. so since my series of workshops have been providing technical support on that program to the iraqi government, at the moment, particularly focused on basra, but for me it's been very rewarding to be able to, after that series of lectures, go back and work with the iraqi government and u.s. aid on finding solution toss the water crisis, particularly in the southern part of the country, but throughout the rest of the country. >> that's great. thank you. [ applause ] we have time for some questions. we'll follow the same format as the panel in front of us. if you wou