welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: preparations for north korea's massive military parade — and pyongyang says there will be no talks with the united states during the olympics. hopelessness in syria, as the human cost of the fighting gets worse again. hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending and another us government shutdown is averted. and a missing masterpiece — described as the african mona lisa — has been rediscovered in an apartment in north london. hello. the recent apparent thaw in relations between north and south korea looks to be taking a backwards step. the north koreans have now said they have no intention of using the winter olympics as a chance to meet with american delegates, and they are also

preparing a huge parade of their military prowess. us vice president has reiterated all options are still on the table, he said the us and the allies were striving to dismantle north korea's nuclear programme and alleviate the suffering of its people. he has already said the us will institute the us‘s toughest ever sanctions against north korea. well, here at pyeongchang, there was hope that it was possible that this high—level delegation from the united states and north korea, given that they're here at the games, might actually sit down and talk to one another. but we've heard from the north korean side that that delegation has, quote, "no intention whatsoever of meeting with the us delegation". we're getting this from north korea's official, state—run media, which said in an editorial, we've never begged for dialogue with the us in the past, and we don't intend

to in the future. and all this as the north prepares a massive display of its military might. yes, i mean, just as north korea is about to achieve something of a propaganda coup here at pyeongchang, with its unexpectedly high level of engagement, sending along kim jong—un‘s sister and the like, the joint hockey team — you know, what would you do to try and counter all that goodwill? how about a big, scary—looking mass military parade just across the border, to remind everybody of your nuclear weapons ambitions. now, it is thought that possibly they'll try and sort of somehow downplay this military parade, because there's not a lot of representation there from the foreign press corps, for example. but it's hard to get away from the fact that this will be happening, and there will be images going around the world showing this military parade in north korea, one day before the opening ceremony

here at pyeongchang. because it doesn't seem many hours ago that it was being hailed as a very positive step that kim jong—un‘s sister would be coming to the games. yes, the fact that, you know, the leader there's sister is coming for the opening ceremony — she'll be the only member of that dynasty to have ever come to south korea since the end of the war. so it shows an extent to which north korea is trying to achieve something of a diplomatic breakthrough here. and i guess it's also possible to imagine she's in the stadium at the same time as mike pence, i guess they could be going to buy coffee or something and bump into one another, who knows? there could be some sort of informal type of dialogue there. but yes, as i was saying, no official talks though, from the north korean side, even though kim jong—un‘s sister is going to be here.

we will keep you updated on any coffee shop diplomacy. japan's foreign minister has warned the "world must not be taken in by north korea's charm offensive" — taro kono also told our tokyo correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes sanctions are the only way forward, and he insisted they are biting. for weeks, rumours have been swirling that the trump administration is preparing a military strike against north korea, a so—called bloody nose, to force pyeongyang to the negotiating table. last month, these bz stealth bombers arrived at a us base on the island of guam. but japan's foreign minister, tara kono, told me such speculation should not be taken seriously. a military strike on north korea is far too risky. south korea's capital, seoul, is situated just 30 kilometres from the border. and, if any military action‘s taken,

the repercussion is outrageous. so i don't think anyone‘s seriously considering taking a military method. but, in order to get north korea to come to the dialogue, i think we need to increase the pressure on them. in his new year message, north korean dictator kim jong—un described the latest sanctions against his country as "life—threatening". they include a ban on north korean exports of coal, iron and seafood, and a cut on the import of oil. mr kono says that shows they're starting to work. well, sanctions are biting. now, we have a lot of indications the sanction is actually biting. what do you think is going on, with this sudden rapprochement over the winter olympics?

that's one of the indications the sanction is working. they wanted to do something, and they wanted to do a sort of charm offensive to south korea. i think north korea wants probably more, but i don't think the international community are ready to give them anything. on friday, north and south korean athletes will walk side by side as the winter olympics opens in pyeongchang. but mr kono says the world must not be taken in by pyongyang's charm offensive, or intimidated by its growing missile threat. if they use their missile or nuclear capability, there's going to be no more north korea, and they know it. so they are just making a threat, but they're just sitting in the middle of the sanction, and eventually, they'll run out

of their resources. so you're prepared to play a long game? yes, it is, yes. the sanction is not going to work in days or weeks. it takes months. we just have to be patient and we just have to be well co—ordinated, and that's the only way. the alternative is some kind of military action, which no—one wants. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. rescuers in taiwan are still searching for people trapped in the city of hualien, struck by an earthquake on tuesday. at least nine people were killed, 250 injured, but about 67 are still unaccounted for. aftershocks are still rattling the country — the strongest magnitude 5.7. rescue teams are focusing their efforts on buildings like this, tilting

precariously. one of the great landmarks of paris, the eiffel tower, has been shut because a cold snap has blanketed the french capital in six inches of snow. commuters have been trapped in their cars as authorities try to clear the snow. in the uk, the giant supermarket chain, tesco, is facing the country's largest ever equal pay lawsuit — up to 200,000 shop workers, most of them women, could be due up to $5.5 billion worth of back pay. the shop floor staff have been earning less than men who work in the company's distribution centres, even though they say it's in effect the same job. human rights groups are saying more than 25 people have died, including at least 12 children, in eastern ghouta, where syrian government forces have carried out more airstrikes. it's one of the last areas still controlled by rebels fighting president assad. it's east of the capital, damascus, and is home to about a00,000, but medical supplies and food haven't been

allowed in since late last year. quentin sommerville‘s report contains images you may find distressing. syria's war isn't ending. it's getting worse. in eastern ghouta, near damascus, they're overwhelmed. death comes daily from the skies. more than 150 civilians have been killed here this month already. the rescuers have to move fast. here, they follow the sound of a child crying. then they reach for a scrap of cloth and pull hard, and a boy is removed alive from the rubble. hundreds have been left injured in eastern ghouta, and in the last week, more than a0 children have been killed. yesterday, rescue worker saeed al—masri was called to an emergency. the baby in his arms is his own. translation: as we were approaching, i realised it was my house that

had been hit. i heard a baby's cry, and saw my son was wounded. i went inside and my children had been injured, and my cousins too. my house was destroyed. three—month—old ibrahim is doing fine, but the family wonders when the next attack will come. regimejets drop unguided bombs. they fall haphazardly, and bring devastation. rebel shelling has killed a dozen people in government areas. there's a new ferocity to the conflict. it should look different here. this is part of a de—escalation zone, where suffering should be diminishing, but the opposite is happening. here and elsewhere, the conflict is intensifying. basic medical supplies are running low.

the region is under siege. but there's also a sense of hopelessness that the world has stopped caring. translation: we are completely drained. the roads are closed and we can't get new supplies. we've stopped believing that anyone will help us. we've given up on the international media and the un. we hoped they would help us, but they've done nothing. east ghouta is nearing exhaustion. at least 31 people were killed today. the bombing has stopped for now, but everyone here knows that this new surge of bloodshed is far from over. news isjust coming into us from the reuters news agency quoting us officials, that more than 100 pro—syrian government fighters have been killed during an operation involving us led coalition forces. we'll bring you more on that as soon as we have more.

party leaders in the us senate have struck a two year budget deal that should avoid any repeat of last month's federal government shutdown. but it still needs approval from the house of representatives, the lower house, and many are questioning a $300 billion increase to the bulging federal deficit. democrats also want to use the deal as leverage to bring in immigration reforms. from washington, our correspondent david willis told me it's not yet a done deal. bipartisan deals are in short supply, they have been at least, here in washington, dc. some say that you should count your lucky chances, let's see what happens. there is a major road block looming for all of this, no question about that, in the house of representatives, because the leader of the democrats in the house, nancy pelosi, who spoke for more than eight hours today without so much as a break but for a couple of glasses of water, she wants the same sort of agreement from the majority

leader in the house, paul ryan, that the democrat leader in the senate managed to wrangle out of the majority leader there, mitch mcconnell. in other words, a commitment to discuss the plight of the so—called dreamers — that's the nearly 2 million people who were brought here illegally through no fault of their own and whose deportation is potentially looming. now, unless that sort of agreement is forthcoming from paul ryan in the house, then nancy pelosi has said that she is minded to advocate to her caucus to vote against this budget measure. so with just over 2a hours to go until the deadline, nothing here is certain. and how many times have we heard that before? and even if it does go through,

it balloons the deficit, already ballooned by the tax cuts. absolutely. this is $300 billion more on spending for such things as defence, infrastructure, disaster relief, even coping with the opioid crisis here. certain conservatives have described this as fiscal madness, bearing in mind that the total deficit next year is calculated to top around $1 trillion. so there are those opponents as well in the house of representatives, meaning that potentially paul ryan is going to need the support of democrats and their votes, if he is to get this spending measure through. much more to come on bbc news. china shows off its latest surveillance fashion accessory — facial recognition glasses at the service of the security forces. 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 news.

the latest headlines: north korea is about to hold a massive military parade, saying it has no intention of using the winter olympics to hold talks with american officials. party leaders in the us senate have struck a two—year budget deal that should avoid any repeat of last month's federal government shutdown. but it still needs approval from the house of representatives. the coalition agreement reached in germany between chancellor angela merkel and the social democrats, or spd, is good news for europe according to a senior eu official, the economy commissioner, pierre moscovici. the deal ends months of uncertainty since september's inconclusive elections, but as andrew plant reports, it will still need to be approved. marathon talks that began on tuesday

and continued through the night, to try to end more than four months of stalemate at the top of europe's largest economy. now, news that chancellor merkel‘s party has reached a deal tojoin forces in a ruling coalition. translation: i am convinced that the coalition contract we have worked out can lay down the foundations for the stable government that our country needs, and that many in the world are waiting to see. it has been called a marriage of convenience, but the deals made to make a coalition bring widespread criticism from members on both sides, who feel their core values have been compromised too far. so what could the new coalition look like? the sdp, thejunior partner could control crucial ministries including finance and foreign affairs. martin schulz, the party

leader, former leader of the european parliament, would step down and become the german foreign minister. translation: we're optimistic that we will step for our party members with such a good proposal that we can convince a large majority to allow us to enter into such a coalition. the implications of that are widespread on major issues in germany, like migration and workers‘ rights, but also on the brexit negotiations, as chancellor merkel looks set to enter her fourth term politically far weaker than before. but the deal is not yet done. martin schulz has promised his members a vote, and the results will not be in until 2 march. the australian prime minister has said he will issue a national apology to survivors of child abuse. a royal commission into the treatment of thousands of children who were abused in the care of churches, schools and homes across australia called the abuse a national tragedy. malcolm turnbull‘s announcement increases pressure on state governments and religious institutions that haven't signed up to a scheme to

compensate the victims. several people have been injured in australia, where a hot air balloon crashed during a dawn tour. it landed heavily at dixons creek, in the yarra valley, about 60 kilometres north of melbourne. police say some passengers were thrown from the basket as the balloon was trying to land in strong winds. a missing masterpiece described as the african mona lisa has been discovered in a north london flat. ben enwonwu's oil painting of the daughter of a yoruba king has taken on almost mythical status in his native nigeria. it is one of three portraits which went missing. it eventually surfaced when an art lover had it valued, not realising what it was. it will go on sale in three weeks‘ time. she was a princess, so she was a yoruba, and the artist, enwonwu, was of a different ethnic group. so the fact that the two of them

developed this close, personal connection over the course of this painting was a symbol of national reconciliation. back to germany now, and an unusual musical event that started in frankfurt. a special plane operated by the european space agency took a group of djs and theirfans up into the sky for a set in zero gravity. the bbc‘s tim allman takes up the story. studio 5a and the ministry of sound have nothing on this. an airbus a310 called zero—g. dozens of people from around the world given the chance to get high, very high, and not an illegal substance in sight. taking off for a whole new experience. music plays. # we hit turbulence... usually the testing ground

for astronauts, zero—g instead became the most exclusive and unusual nightclub in the world. a heavy beat, but the lightest of party—goers. for 90 minutes they danced, or at least they they try to dance, they floated, they spun. what goes up must come down, but this was one high—altitude rave, that blew people's minds. it was insane. it was so crazy. just floating upside down. and then steve aoki was doing flips down... it was just insane. it was like all your emotions at max level. and it was hilarious. i'm super—thankful. now, ijust want to do it again,

and again and again. for everyone involved, this was a unique gig, unlikely to be repeated. they say music can lift the soul. this went a lot further than that. tim allman, bbc news. police in china have started using sunglasses featuring facial recognition technology. the glasses are linked to an internal database of suspects, and allow officers to scan crowds looking for suspects. chinese officials claim the glasses have already helped police arrest seven people, but there are concern about how security forces might use them to track and profile political dissidents and ethnic minorities. more on this now from eric vanderburg, vice president of cybersecurity at tcdi, in cleveland, ohio. thank you very much for your time. china, of course, is building a huge surveillance state. there are obviously privacy concerns here. in fa ct, obviously privacy concerns here. in fact, though, this kind of

technology is in widespread use already, isn't it? yes, it is. facebook has been using it to auto tag photos, police officers in various states have been using it to verify drivers licenses, for the identities of people who do not provide drivers licenses, and it has been used to identify criminals and others on railways and bridges and others on railways and bridges and other places where there are public cameras. eric, how accurate is it in real life, as opposed to in the lab? there is obviously concerned about police arresting or shooting the wrong people. well, the chinese claim their camera is 98% accurate, 98.1%, actually. so there is still a fairly large margin of error, that 296. fairly large margin of error, that 2%. there have been some of the numbers that were lower than that, and this actually does do some validation of the results of various facial recognition systems, and they have done it every four years, and

they show about ten times increase in the effectiveness of these camera systems. i guess in china, if it turns out to be less accurate, we are not likely to hear about it, are we? nor is there anyway, really, for citizens to challenge the use, or find out what authorities are doing with the data. you are right about that. to use see it being used much more extensively, i mean, particularly to track down criminals? yes, i do see it being used more extensively for that, for tracking down criminals, for tracking down criminals, for tracking down criminals, for tracking down those who have been kidnapped, or other missing persons. and i suppose we are being a bit holier than thou about it, but looking at the figures, the uk already has something like 5 million cctv cameras. yes, it really is a fairly ubiquitous technology. we see it on our phones. phones used to log

your activity, using your face, it on our phones. phones used to log your activity, using yourface, so this is an activity that has already been embraced by many, many people around the world. human rights watch earlier said it is a bit matrix, it isa earlier said it is a bit matrix, it is a bit black mirror, and quite a lot 1984, but as far as you can see, it is here to stay. yes, i would say so. now, you would be hard—pressed to forget this moment from bbc news last year — professor robert kelly, in the middle of a live interview with the bbc from his home in south korea, when his two children burst into his office. they were followed shortly after by his wife, jung—a kim, trying to do a bit of damage limitation. professor kelly is in london for the broadcast tv awards, and he has just won the best tv moment of the year — pictured here with the bbc‘s james menendez, who was of course presenting at the time. thank you for watching. hello there.

for many places, the day ahead will bring a slightly different feel to the weather — something just a little bit milder. yes, many of us starting the day under cold air. but this wedge of milder air in the atlantic beginning to show its hand. this is tied up with a weather system pushing in from the atlantic. you can see the cloud here on the earlier satellite picture. that cloud is going to bring some outbreaks of rain as we go on through the day. a real split in temperatures as we start off the morning. perhaps as much as —5, —6, in the south—east. but temperatures generally above freezing for northern ireland and northern scotland. this is how the day starts off, at 8:00am. where we have the coldest weather in east anglia and the south—east, that's where we'll have the brightest weather. a lot of sunshine to come. the south—west, wales, northern england, here, thicker clouds, outbreaks of mostly light and patchy rain at this stage. a lot of cloud into

southern scotland, but for northern ireland and the northern part of scotland, something more bright. sunny spells returning. a rash of showers up towards the north—west, but because of the slightly milder air, most showers falling as rain rather than anything more wintry. now, as we go on through the day, we take this band of cloud and these outbreaks of rain further southwards and eastwards. and see the darker blue colours appearing on the chart? that indicates the rain will turn more heavy for wales and northern england into the afternoon. clouding over in the south—east, after the bright start. remaining chilly here. but up to the north—west, scotland, northern ireland, where we have sunshine and a few showers, temperatures getting up to 7—8 degrees. now, during thursday night, we push this band of at this stage quite heavy rain eastwards. behind it some some showers too, wintry showers. as we get into friday, the air will be turning colder again, those temperatures dipping away. seven in cardiff.

some rain, sleet, and snow perhaps in the south—east for a time. a few wintry showers elsewhere. but generally speaking, it's high pressure that's with us for the very start of the weekend. that will mean a cold and frosty start to saturday. another frontal system. perhaps a spell of snow in the north, then some rain, then a wedge of milder air. and then, for the second half of the weekend — you guessed it, back in the colder air. things are very much up and down through the coming days. this is the weekend. it will often be windy. we'll see rain at times on saturday. something brighter and colder for most on sunday. saturday could well bring double—digit temperatures in places. but with some outbreaks of rain, on sunday, it will feel colder, but it should be brighter. this is bbc news — the headlines. north korea's leadership has declared it has no intention of using the winter olympics in south korea as a chance to talk with the united states. senior officials from pyongyang will be there — the us vice—president too. and just before the opening of the so—called peace olympics, the north will be holding a massive military parade. human rights groups say more than 25 people have died — including at least 12 children —

in eastern ghouta, where the syrian government has carried out more airstrikes. the area is home to about 400 thousand people — it's one of the last still controlled by rebels fighting president assad. party leaders in the us senate have struck a two—year budget deal that should avoid any repeat of last month's federal government shutdown. but it still needs approval from the house of representatives, and many are questioning a $300 billion increase to the federal deficit. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.