Hello I'm Gerri Smits details have been released of tanks conversations between senior u.s. Diplomats showing that they discussed withholding security assistance to Ukraine while pressing Kiev to investigate President drums rival Joe Biden the messages were released by the Democrat chairs of 3 congressional committees conducting an impeachment investigation of Mr Trump Chris Barker reports in an open letter senior Democrats in the House Foreign Affairs intelligence and oversight committees accuse President Trump of being unethical and unpatriotic in encouraging Ukraine and China to investigate his political rival Joe Biden they were also published tax that they received as part of their impeachment inquiry in which the leading u.s. Diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor says that he thinks it would be crazy to withhold security assistance to try to ensure help with a political campaign I ever the American ambassador to Europe replies the president had stated that there was to be no quid pro quos the Hong Kong executive has banned the use of face masks in public in a bid to quell the increasingly violent anti-government demonstrations they've used a colonial era emergency law to enact the decree which was announced by Hong Kong's chief executive carry law we believe that the new law will create a deterrent effect against Master violent protesters and riot and where Sr the police and its law enforcement many activists wear face masks to hide their identity from the police and to help mitigate the effects of tear gas. Iraqi police have opened fire on a small group of demonstrators who gathered in Baghdad for a 4th day of protests in the capital there are no reports so far of casualties more than 30 people are reported to have been killed this week as thousands defied a curfew imposed by the author Artie's earlier the prime minister. They said the demonstrators were right to demand an end to corruption but added that it would take time to bring change a b.b.c. Investigation in Iraq has found evidence of the sexual exploitation of children and young women for money by some Muslim clerics it involves a controversial practice known as Pleasure marriage in which men are allowed to take a wife for a short period for sex this is sometimes permitted in Shia Islam but is outlawed in Iraq one girl told the b.b.c. a Cleric had used the practice to force her into prostitution from the age of 13. The Thai army has farts addition charges against 4 opposition party leaders and several academics after they discussed changes to the military bank constitution at a public meeting the forum was held in the southern province of Patani home to a violent separatist insurgency Well news from the b.b.c. . Senior government figures in the u.s. Britain and Australia have criticized Facebook's plans to encrypt his messaging services saying it could have security implications and open letter signed by the u.s. Attorney general and the British and Australian interior ministers calls for Facebook's chief Mark Zuckerberg to hold the inclusion plan under which only the sender and the recipient will be able to read the message it says encryption would severely erode the ability of tech companies to respond to illegal activity such as child exploitation and terrorism but Mr Zuckerberg has defended the plan and other types of security challenges that we have been fighting for as a collection integrity what we're basically figured out is that often it's not looking at the content that's most important look at the patterns of activity that even cryptosystems the British Government's Chief Frank says advisor has flown to Brussels to meet e.u. Officials who are skeptical about Britain's latest proposals on its departure the use chief negotiators says many questions remain over Britain's new plan which is attempting to take the country out of the e.u. While preventing a hard boarder on the island of Ireland a major wildlife study says more than a quarter of mammals in Britain and one in 7 of all wildlife species are facing extinction per Marshall has more details of this song that's just Schuyler this bird was once a common sight in the countryside now it's vanishing from our skies it's just one of the 40 percent of species studied that have declined since 1970 the state of nature report shows in grim detail that almost one in 5 plants and now at risk of extinction along with 15 percent of fungal in lichens and one in 10 invertebrates The report says modern intensive farming methods are a key cause of species loss along with climate change and that's the b.b.c. News. Hello you're listening to World update from the b.b.c. In London this is Dan Damon coming up later on our program will find out more about Chuni Zia after the 2011 uprising one of the most successful of those that took part in the Arab Spring that's coming up later here on World update 1st a b.b.c. News Arabic undercover investigation into marriage offices run by Shia Muslim clerics near some of Iraq's most important shrines has found that most of the clerics approached were willing to provide what are called pleasure marriages for very short periods of time to enable sex some were also willing to provide these time limited marriages to girls as young as 9 the b.b.c. Is now McGuffey has this exclusive report and I must warn you you will find some of the content of a sexual nature very distressing. This is cover media in central Baghdad one of Shia Islam's most important pilgrimage sites millions visit this holy shrine every year. In the streets around the shrine a marriage offices where couples come to get wed but they also hold one of Iraq's darkest secrets we've heard that some shock Erik's a performing a controversial religious practice called or pleasure marriage this allows a man to pay for a temporary wife they're illegal in Iraq but we found evidence that they're being used to exploit women and young girls it's impossible to know how widespread this is but out of 10 Carrick's we spoke to 8 said they performed it. Funnily enough say you had that ad was one our reporter told him he'd met a 13 year old girl and wanted to have hélène or religiously permissible sex for just half an hour of marriage a secret recording is noisy but there's no doubt say your dad said sex with a girl would be fine with a lot of them just be careful that she doesn't lose her virginity outside real marriage said the cleric but gentle sex is forbidden if the girl is still a virgin but there were other ways for what he called foreplay he went on to describe them in graphic detail. It. Was you can lie with or touch your body or breasts to calm penetrator from the front but anal sex is Ok just don't go to the front so she loses her virginity. We then went to. The biggest pilgrimage site in the wild. Like other media their marriage offices all around the shrine run by clerics but. One of them was a man called Chef celery he said he belonged to one of Iraq's feared Shiite militias are undercover reporter pretended he had met a 12 year old girl and asked if the chef was certain that sex with her would be allowed to go on yes 9 years old plus there's no problem at all. According to Shari'a there's no problem we showed our footage to an expert on Islamic law Laith to Mimi a former high ranking Kerik himself he fled Iraq after speaking out against the religious establishment. That. My old the heart of what this man is saying is a crime that must be punished by law they says it's one reason he decided to speak out against the clerics the more and the having But I realize that these rules were are glee and cruel and could not come from God or from anyone human after 15 years of conflict there are an estimated 1000000 widows struggling to support their children in Iraq for a poor family without a male guardian marrying the daughter off is often the only option making women and young girls vulnerable to the powerful clerics who have the access to aide. I met a woman we're calling the dream her husband was killed in an i.a.s. Bombing soon after she and her 2 children lost their home and came to rely on charity from a cleric modified lad and in his village and look at what he proposed to pleasure marriage with me sort of half of that method that is to be honest I accepted it I didn't want this thing. I was forced to do it in order to survive after a few months Ream says the cleric started selling her to his friends but just sort of a thought I thought she would just say wanted violent sex I felt abused so I was forced to do body rate. Clerics had told us pleasure marriages were a way of helping vulnerable women but stories like reams show they're being abused and used for sexual exploitation we sought a response from but he didn't reply I say that I deny that he offers any pleasure marriage is a tool both say they're followers of grand. One of the most senior figures in Shi'a Islam we put our findings to his office which released the following statements if these practices are happening in the way you are saying then we condemn them unreservedly temporary marriage is not allowed as a tool to sell sex in a way that belittles the dignity and humanity of women re managed to escape her cleric but she remains traumatized at home but still Monica hey if they want for them a woman is an object and when they finish with her they throw her away. She they don't see her as a human being with feelings they're like animals they eat the flesh and throw away the bones. Well. That remain and in that special b.b.c. News Arabic investigative report from now on our McAfee Well I've been speaking about that report and about the issues raised to Yamaha much as a human rights activist from the organization called Women's Freedom in Iraq this is something I've been witnessing in the past more than 10 years more than a decade and I see the victims who have no other venues in life come to our shelters and victims of the pleasure baggage as I have no alternative in life the young woman the girls as young as 14 have come to our shelters because the have nowhere to go they were treated as commodities who where like their best bet was to be that good tool of pleasure for the males and they were given away in marriage is that with closer to prostitution very short matter just for the pleasure of males and it is something that sounds for the woman or for the young girl that it is the matter of she has been waiting for all her life but then again it's done like buy and sell and she has no options in life this one phrase pleasure marries I mean it's the most clumsy euphemism isn't it because there's no pleasure in it for these women a toll and they seem according to the reporting that we've just heard to be tricked into it they're told that this is something that will give them security but it's the most insecure kind of relationship. Yes you need to consider that you are a person you are a female who are a widow of war or an orphan of war and you have no other alternatives in life and sometimes you have children to feed you have a family where the parents have been lost so when you are desperate and in need of that money and here we are speaking about hundreds of thousands of women in Iraq who says whose fathers and brothers were lost in the war or are still in the ongoing wars against ISIS or in the army so when they have no other options in life this is the only venue that they do and they don't do it in broad daylight it is done in the dark where the extended family doesn't know about it where the neighbors don't know about it and once a woman has been through what she has lost all her standing in the society all her let's call it a cold and cold on earth so she has to go in hiding and she doesn't have options Islam wouldn't be the only religion to use Scripture to repress women to undermine their status but is there any Koranic or. Basis for this kind of. So-called pleasure marriage pleasure marriages came around and became a sort of institutionalized with with Iraq which was put together after the war in 2003 and Islamist she a government government came forward this she a sect is the one that cares more for institutionalizing it and making it general practice I had that in Iran not with children but it is a similar sort of short time marriage is possible to make short term relationships . Although when we have children when you know when the history of. Founders lots of Islam when the founder himself has married 9 year old girl it has become a precedent where the sect follows it and they try to put it into the Iraqi laws many times in the past years that male can marry a female who is as young as 9 years and they try to bring the Jaffa the law and to pass it in the parliament but the people of Iraq did not allow it the demonstrations were on the streets everybody wrote about it they didn't get away with it but they are still doing it in the in the dark underground but their offices that make those pleasure marriages are certified by the government as we heard indeed they do marriages not just these types what kind of campaigning is possible for women in Iraq to stop this not just women men who are recognizing that this is an absolute abuse campaigning when you campaign against your government and you are down in the streets them and straightening and writing about it you are immediately treated as an outlaw as we see what's happening in the streets in all of the Iraqi cities now people are asking for their basic rights and they are being shot by live bullets and all sorts of hot water hoses are opened on them so for women to demonstrate against an issue that's been institutionalized while they were victimized in the original basis is not an easy issue the organizations of women are doing their best but then again they are also treated as outlaws in Iraq for example our organization acronym is Alfie we've had our shelters open in the past 16 years but we were treated as outlaws being told by the government. That our shelters are illegal and why because they don't want us to shelter their daughters they have wifes their sisters from their abuse and they also don't want us to shelter any female who is to be used as a tool of pleasure for the males they are bringing their medieval misogynous thinking to Iraq and they are institutionalizing it in the time that Iraq has had many generations of women who had degrees who are professionals and with whom this way of objectifying women does not work that I'm a hommage She's from the organization Women's Freedom in Iraq there is more of that reporting on the b.b.c. News website if you want to have a look at b.b.c. Than Damon on Twitter at b.b.c. Time Damon if you have a comment or your own information about that kind of story keep in touch with us this is the b.b.c. . And coming up a bit later on our program we're going to talk about the exoskeleton this is something that's been built to allow a man who is suffering from spine damage and therefore can't move his limbs independently now science and technology are beginning to help we'll have something about that in just a few minutes time our top stories from our news room at the moment you know released text messages between senior u.s. Diplomat show that they discussed withholding security assistance to Ukraine as part of efforts to get Kiev to investigate President Trump's rival Joe Biden and the government of Hong Kong is to make it illegal to wear face masks as it tries to deter pro-democracy demonstrators we'll hear from there later to hear on the b.b.c. You're listening to World update from London. This is Dan Damon in London it's nearly 9 years since a young market stall holder in Tunisia set himself on fire in protest at the authorities there Mohammed to Bower's easy diet from his injuries he could have had no idea that that fatal gesture would kick off further protests which ended up bringing down the Tunisian government and those protests spread across the region in what was called at the time the Arab Spring that spring didn't have the success that many hoped in many parts of the world democracy didn't come to many of those countries Tunisia itself though continued along the same path and it is about to hold not one but 2 elections a parliamentary contest on this coming weekend and the 2nd round of presidential elections a week later poll most is in the Tunisian capital tew News poll. Yes and it's quite something to be here in the middle of this lively election campaign and to remember that less than a decade ago I was outside in the street just 50 meters from where I'm speaking to you now watching police beat up pro-democracy protesters and in some cases I'm afraid shoot them down these past few days the only thing I've seen disturbing the peace was an election rally with definitely loud music blaring out as he said to his ear is having not one but 2 elections the general election this Sunday which was always scheduled to take place the presidential election was more unexpected it's being held because the man who was President beige he died in office in July now there's no way around it the 2 contests are happening and it's bitter cynicism about politics here in recent local elections and in the 1st round of the presidential election voter turnout was down to below 50 percent and it's very hard to understand why people are feeling disillusioned people complain that corruption is still endemic everyone who seems to want to bend your ear with tales of politicians or police officers allegedly on the take but more than anything it's the economy which is failing to deliver jobs particularly for young Tunisians was. A professor of economics at Carthage university he argues that his year's 1st democratically elected leaders got their priorities completely wrong. The government that came after the other spring neglected the economy and instead talk about identity about religion how we should govern the country following the Islamic or. Their marketing model and well after the spring the economy is growing but the growth is not enough especially in terms of employment and joblessness. Now I have met plenty of Tunisians who did knowledge their country's economic difficulties and yet they're absolutely delighted to be having an election at all I went along to the rally rally held by one of the main political parties here which is called Heart of Tunisia and was struck me was that people there of course wanted to tell me why they thought this party was the best of the bunch but more than anything what came over was their share to lie just to being able to come to a political rally like this I feel so happy so proud of my country because Anyway we have democratic country and I feel so proud that I living in a country that respects different idea of people that we practice democracy a new experience in Tunisia I think we have a good future of Tunisia My name is where it's been said thank you I will come. Very welcoming voters at a campaign rally you mentioned earlier that the Arab Spring began in Tunis year I should say that something people here a very proud of. And there are also aware that the larger Arab country to the east of it has recently been experiencing protests again I've had a couple of people suggest in hoping to they say that if they can conduct democratic elections here in Tunisia freely fairly and peacefully they might once again to inspire others in the Arab world to see what's possible Dan thanks so much people mass in Tunisia and only more reporting from him over the coming days well it's been a long hope that technology could help those who spines have been damaged to regain independent movement and now a man has been able to move all 4 of his paralyzed limbs with a mind control exoskeleton suit the remarkable creation reads the brain signals of T.-Bo that the only name we have his 30 years old his spine was injured in a fall in 2015 and the creation t