the khmer rouge guerrillas triumphed in the spring of 1975. who emerged as the leader of the new cambodia was pol pot. it was a living hell. you cannot imagine. for the communist regime, time began when they took over. for them, 1975 became year zero, a time of grotesque social engineering with class slaughter and mass uprooting of the population. they were extreme communists, year zero means we start from scratch. no electricity, no books, no education, nothing. anyone educated had to be executed. doctors, teachers, and if you wore glasses. i lost many of my relatives and theyjust executed them, took them away and i never saw them again. literally millions of people were marched out of phnom penh to the countryside to begin building the new society. at the time, i think i must have been 17. i remember that morning we were in the kitchen, having breakfast. i heard a knock at the door and i saw two soldiers who both pointed their guns at me and shouted at me to get out of my house, right now, or i will shoot you. everyone packed on the road, on

known as brother number two, he was second—in—command to the khmer rouge leader, pol pot. during the 1970s, the regime carried out a policy of extreme repression that killed a quarter of cambodia's population. the us and the taliban are holding talks on ending the conflict in afghanistan. the afghan government isn't taking part, but a deal would stipulate talks between it and the taliban. the us wants to withdraw thousands of troops, but first wants guarantees from the taliban that they will prevent militants from using the country as a haven. strike action planned at london's heathrow airport for monday has been suspended to allow for more talks to resolve a pay dispute. 2,500 members of a union were set to walk out on monday after rejecting a revised pay offer. a strike is still planned for tuesday if a deal can not be agreed. the airport had cancelled 177 flights as a precaution. police in the uk say a six—year—old boy is in a critical condition after being thrown from a tenth—floor viewing platform at the tate modern art gallery in london. the boy landed on a fifth flo

a survivor of cambodia's ‘killing fields', where more than a million people were killed by the khmer rougeat's in half an hour, here on bbc news. good afternoon. efforts to prevent a derbyshire dam from collapsing, close to the town of whaley bridge, have entered a third day. emergency services are in a race against time to pump water out of the toddbrook reservoir and reinforce the dam. there are fears that more wet weather tomorrow could see water levels breach the dam, causing serious flooding and a danger to life in whaley bridge. this morning, some residents who'd spent a second night away from their homes were being allowed to return briefly to collect essential items. our correspondent, charlotte gallagher is in whaley bridge. here are some live pictures from just outside whaley bridge, where oui’ just outside whaley bridge, where our reporter is waiting for us. let's talk to our reporter, luxmy gopal, who's in whaley bridge. behind me, the police cordon is still there on the edge of the evacuation zone. down the road is lower wha ley evacuation zone. down the road is lower whaley b

genocide crimes against humanity and war crimes chair was one of the ideological architects of the khmer rouge the cambodian regime which oversaw the deaths of as many as 2000000 people between 175900 79 they died from starvation disease overwork and execution. the funeral of mogadishu. man has taken place in the somali capital osman known locally as engineer yourself meaning the small engineer due to his previous profession that was among several government officials injured in an attack on the city's government headquarters last month he was transferred to a hospital in doha but after several days of treatment died last thursday. coming up behind. him if we lost our great brother we the government and the people must continue doing the hard work and the service that he was doing until we reach a stable somalia we say goodbye to our brother and pray for him the president announced that 3 days of mourning will be held the man's family friends the government and everyone will participate. at least 31 people are dead after 3 ferries capsized in the philippines police say harsh weather conditions

now on bbc news, in this episode of witness history, we hear from a survivor of the khmer rouge and the who tried to find a cure for the common cold. hello, and welcome to witness history here at the royal academy in london. i'm tanya beckett. today we present five extraordinary moments in history as told to us by the people who were there. coming up, we meet the scientist to try to find the cure for the common cold. the diver who discovered the lost plane belonging to the author of the little prince. and the african man who ran away as a boy to live in the arctic. but first, it's a0 years since the end of the brutal regime of the khmer rogue in cambodia. around 2 million people are thought to have been killed under its extremist rule. sokphal din survived for years in what became known as the killing fields. a warning, this piece contains some distressing images. the cambodian people are the victims of a hideous experiment in communism that failed. the khmer rogue guerrillas triumphed in the spring of 1975. the man who emerged as the leader of the new cambodia was pol pot. it was a liv

preparing to broaden its control the right hand man of poll pot the leader of cambodia's maoist khmer rouge regime has died aged 93 new on chair was sentenced to life in prison last year by year in back to court he was convicted of genocide crimes against humanity and war crimes cheere was one of the ideological architects of the khmer rouge the cambodian regime that oversaw the deaths of as many as 2000000 people between 175900 79 many died from starvation disease overwork and execution. a french inventor has crossed the english channel on a jet powered hoverboard frankie's a platter departed from songs at cali and reached over in just over 20 minutes but he had to stop for fuel ports. emerging from the early morning mist flanked by helicopters frankie's apart and his jet powered hoverboard reached over just after 7 30 am local time. it was an extraordinary sight and a remarkable achievement. the french inventor reach speeds of 160 kilometers an hour flying just meters above the waves. 110 years after louis blair is famous crossing of the english channel a new name has now been added to th

during pol pot's three and half years in power, the khmer rouge killed about 21% of the population. with pol pot no longer in power, approximately half a million cambodian people who managed to survive his regime sought refuge in nearby thailand. in addition 122,000 cambodian refugees joined them in thailand between 1980 and 1986. in vietnam, there was another outpouring of refugees known famously as the boat people. these people escaped by sea, people who had formally been political, military or cultural leaders in south vietnam, some were ethnic minorities fleeing persecution. about 160,000 went to china, while tens of thousands took to the oceans and made their way to other places in southeast asia, including thailand, malaysia, indonesia and the philippines. they sailed in boats that were hardly seaworthy, and an estimated 25%-50% died at sea. as they were lucky to make it to land, sometimes they were forced back to sea governments, like thailand and malaysia, that refused to accept them and take responsibility. those refugees were fortunate enough to live on and make it to a re

the ultra far—left khmer rouge overthrew the cambodian government and for four years carried out a policyf the population. electricity has been mostly restored in indonesia, after a widespread power blackout. tens of millions of people were affected in the capital jakarta. major phone networks, traffic light systems and the transit system were all disrupted. the heavily populated java island was also affected. iraq's oil ministry has denied that a tanker seized by iran's revolutionary guards corps is an iraqi vessel. iranian state tv reported that authorities seized an iraqi tanker that they say was smuggling fuel through the gulf. they reported that seven sailors have been detained. here in the uk police say a six—year—old boy is in a critical condition after being thrown from a tenth—floor viewing platform at the tate modern art gallery in london. the boy landed on a fifth floor roof and was taken to hospital by airambulance. a 17—year—old boy has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. a strike that had been due to start by now at london's heathrow airport for monday has been s

the ultra far—left khmer rouge overthrew the cambodian government and for four years carried out a policyo former chief ministers of indian—administered kashmir, omar abdullah and mehbooba mufti, have reportedly been placed under house arrest. it comes after the authorities warned of a terror threat there, and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of people in the state. tens of thousands of additional troops have been moved into the kashmir valley. police say a six—year—old boy is in a critical condition after being thrown from a tenth floor balcony at the tate modern art gallery in london. he landed on a fifth floor roof and was flown to hospital. a 17—year—old boy has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. firefighters in spain have been trying to stop wildfires from spreading into the guadarrama national park. ii helicopters were deployed to the area, just 60 kilometres north of the capital, madrid. while no official cause has been given, a heatwave injune sparked large wildfires that lasted for days. the gold—plated coffin of egypt's boy king, tutankhamun, has been see

from a survivor of cambodia's killing fields, where more than a million people were killed by the khmer rougef an hour, here on bbc news. good afternoon. there have been two mass shootings in the united states, just hours apart, in texas and ohio. in el paso, texas, 20 people were killed when a man opened fire on shoppers in a walmart supermarket in one of the worst mass shootings in modern us history. a 21—year—old white man has been arrested and police are investigating whether the attack, which happened a few miles from the us—mexico border, was a racially motivated hate crime. our correspondent, sophie long, reports. oh, my god. parents were shopping with their children when suddenly they were told to run. run, run, run! the walmart store was packed with thousands of people when a gunman started firing indiscriminately. 20 people were killed, 26 others were hurt. many, according to the governor of texas, sustained life—threatening injuries. on a day that would have been a normal day for someone to leisurely go shopping, it turned into one of the most deadly days in the history of texas. l

genocide crimes against humanity and war crimes gere was one of the ideological architects of the khmer rouge a cambodian regime that oversaw the deaths of as many as 2000000 people between 175900 79 many died from starvation disease overwork and execution. hours been restored to most parts of indonesia's capital jakarta after the city suffered a blackout for more than 9 hours the outage shut down commuter trains leaving hundreds of people stranded other passengers were trapped and had to be evacuated from jakarta's transit system the state's energy supplier says the blackout was caused by faulty transmission circuits at a number of power stations. at least 31 people are dead after 3 ferries capsized in the philippines police say harsh weather conditions caused the boats to overturn in waters between a low low city and groom are silent at least 3 people are still missing $62.00 other passengers and crew were rescued a group of 40 migrants rescued by a charity ship have landed in malta and will be taken in by several you countries under a deal brokered by germany the migrants were rescued from

just did not foresee that this would set a row of dominoes in motion that would end up with the khmer rouge coming into power and all of the sacrifices that hollywood made so real in the movie, the killing field. and it is a chilling bit of testimony and a good lesson for any statesman of the unintended consequences of your actions need to be factored in and not just -- you probably could argue need tothat george w. bush shoue gotten that lesson before he invaded iraq. but, it is what rumsfeld used to say -- the things you do not --w -- the known unknown's whatever that phrase was but you always should be very modest and humble about what you do not know when you are making life and death decisions like that. >> [indiscernible] jack: in cambodia? yes, i was a high school senior and the campuses exploded. kent state happened. in the senate, you had the first few cutoffs of funds resolution s passing first at the democratic caucus and then moving towards passage in the senate. putting pressure on nixon so he knows he has to cut a deal. and then of course, it also was so stressful for nixon th

just did not foresee that this would set a row of dominoes in motion that would end up with the khmer rouge coming into power and the sacrifices that holly made hollywood made so real. it's a chilling bit of testimony and a good lesson for a statesman that the unintended consequences of actions need to be factored in not just, you could probably argue that george w. bush could have gotten that lesson before he invaded iraq. it's what he used to say that things you don't know and the knowns and unknowns, you should always be very modest and humble about what you don't know when you are making life-and- death decisions like that. >> in cambodia? yes it did. i was a high school senior, the campuses exploded. kent state happened. in the senate you had the first few passing first to the democratic caucus and moving towards passage in the senate. putting pressure on nixon so that he knows he has to cut a deal. and then also it was so stressful that he makes this famous trip in the middle of the night to lincoln memorial to meet for protesting. than he gets in his limousine and drives up to capito

many of the people we were reviewing were remnants of the old khmer rouge, ineligible for refugee status. when we sent them to the ins with all of the files we normally do, they were getting turned down in large, large numbers. we couldn't do that. we worked and got a hybrid came through with a national security decision memorandum, just for cambodians. and it allowed us to really sort of reinsert the categories. wasn't popular when a lot of -- but there was no way otherwise that we could do it. but it is hard -- the transition from parole to refugee act was really, really hard. >> by design. we did not repeal the parole authority. in the refugee act of 1980. if we learned our lesson from earlier, you mentioned about the ink being dry, i remember the story i heard, lyndon johnson, when he signed the 1965 act into law, at the statue of liberty, the legislative history on parole was very clear. we had some conservative members at that time, back to francis again, who wanted to make sure that parole is not utilized for, quote, groups or classes of refugees. very clear the house report, legi

just did not foresee that this would set a row of dominos in motion that would end up with the khmer rouge coming into power and all the sacrifices that were made so real in the movie "the killing field." it's a chilling bit of testimony. it's a good lesson for any statesman that the unintend consequences of your actions need to be factored in, not just -- i mean, you could probably argue george w. bush could have got than lesson before he invaded iraq. it's what rumsfeld used to say. things you don't know are the knowns, unknowns, whatever that phase was. we always should be very modest and humble about what you don't know when you're doing, making life and death decisions like that. >> but it also had a big impact here. >> in cambodia? yes, it did. i was a high school senior, and the campuses exploded. kent state happened. in the senate, you had the first few cut offs of funds, resolutions, passing first the democratic caucus and moving towards passage in the senate, putting pressure on nixon so that he knows he has to cut a deal. it was a -- and of course, it was also so stressful for n