welcome to bbc news. our top stories— raising the flag on china's national people's congress in beijing. thousands of lawmakers are gathering to hit the country's priorities for the next year. president trump accuses barack obama of wiretapping his phone during the presidential campaign. the obama camp denies it. scandal striking french politics. fillon tries to keep his campaign alive as police raid his home. and a school that reaped a fortune on a small tech investment. over 3000 chinese lawmakers are meeting for the annual national people's congress. it is getting under way now in the capital. the

meeting is taking place in the great hall of the people and will last for about ten days. the chinese premier is due to deliver the country's economic report card. we can go to carry who is in tiananmen square for us. carry who is in tiananmen square for us. carrie, what will be the policy priorities that the chinese leaders will announce today? as you said a moment ago, the key thing this morning is the prime minister's work report. a kind of state of the nation address in which he sets out the achievements of the past year and the challenges and objectives of the year ahead. so there are two key numbers that for in this report the first is the rate of growth and that is the number thatis of growth and that is the number that is important not only to china but because china provides one third, one third of the world's growth, the economic growth rate inside china matters internationally. we expect that to

be... last year was between 6.5 and 7% announced and they turned in a healthy 6.7%. this year we expected to be somewhere about the same, probably about 6.5%. that will be one figure we look for. another vigorous defence spending we heard that yesterday from the spokesman from the great hall of the people behind us saying that that was expected to be about 7%. that is particularly interesting this year of course because our donald trump has been talking about raising american defence spending. there are some voices within the chinese military who are muttering about the need for a double digit rate of defence spending growth inside china to match, to catch up with the us. but that is not the tone of the government. they want to keep defence spending within that 7% limit. that is quite interesting. it still gives them growth but not as much a somewhat in the military would like. it is worth saying, of course, that this is a very ritual

of them. the queen has been emptied of them. the queen has been emptied of people. the only people here now are soldiers, police and journalists. the whole thing is choreographed down to the last moment and there are 3000 delegates. filed in quite shortly. buses arriving behind me now and they are really there to ritually applaud at key moments of the report and then —— overwhelmingly vote. key moments of the report and then -- overwhelmingly vote. what other issues shall we hear about? what happens is that each of the ministers in the government comes in and gives a report. there is also provincial leaders coming in and giving the party bosses, government leaders in the provinces, they give their reports on the state of events in that part of the country. so what it is, it is a giant networking event, effectively, for 3000

delegates. the party faithfulfrom all over the country and then also worth mentioning, 2000 other delegates to what is called the chinese people's consultative committee. that is kind of like a second chamber like the senate in the states or less elected. people chosen, maybe like the house of lords in the uk, they are technocrats, film stars, sports stars, various other people who come in to advise the government. because china calls itself a consultative democracy, i.e., not really a democracy, i.e., not really a democracy but one that makes a point of looking like it is listening to key figures in society. they are meeting here as well. they network with politicians make their views heard. it must be said that most of that happens behind closed doors. none of that is exposed to the public and the media or elsejust in

tiny little bloomers which come out in the chinese media. there is some excitement in the media about this but there is not much excitement about these two sessions of the parliament and that consultative committee among the chinese public. they are just getting on with their own lives. i am sure we will be talking about this a lot over the next ten days. now, thank you very much. a spokesman for barack obama has issued a strong denial of allegations by president trump that the outgoing administration tapped phones at trump tower in new york during the election campaign. in a series of tweets, mr trumper offered no evidence that described the alleged wiretaps as terrible and called his predecessor are bad and sick di. -- called his predecessor are bad and sick di. —— guide. it was warm handshakes and friendly bonhomie on inauguration day as donald trump peacefully took power from barack obama, two men fiercely hostile in the election campaign, coming together in a show of presidential and personal civility.

but early this morning donald trump launched the kind of public attack on a predecessor which in modern times is completely without precedent. "terrible," he wrote in a twitter tirade. a pro—trump rally outside his tower in new york, a skyscraper that donald trump claims was a crime scene. but he made his allegations without offering any proof or saying they came from intelligence briefings or reading reports from a right—wing website, breitbart news. it is extraordinary for a president to allege this against anyone let alone his predecessor, without citing any evidence. a key former aide of barack obama has shot back at donald trump, "no president could order

a wiretap," he says. he said things were put in place "to protect citizens like you". from people like you". during last year's election campaign the fbi opened an investigation which is still ongoing, looking into investigations between donald trump associates and the russians. the whole truth and nothing but the truth. this week the new attorney general jeff sessions faced calls for his resignation for not disclosing meetings he held with the russian ambassador. donald trump's national security adviser michael flynn had to resign last month because of conversations about us sanctions against the kremlin with the same ambassador. we will have made america are greater than ever before. donald trump began this week with a widely praised speech on capitol hill which was supposed to reset his presidency. but this is a speedy return to the kind of angry attacks that many think are farfrom presidential.

i spoke to nick a short time ago from new york. he told me that the reaction these claims have been getting. people are stunned. certainly on the democratic side, that the president should use this sort of language. and that he should make these allegations without offering a scintilla of evidence. all day the white house has not come out with anything that backs up these claims. they have not said where the allegations came from, whether they be from an intelligence briefing or whether, as is suspected, that president trump had read a report on a right wing news website this morning, bright but news. and then reacted angrily on twitter. now it raises questions about donald trump's temperament. it raises questions about his judgement and it also shows that he is prepared to trash an unwritten convention of

american politics which is this— that american presidents past and present do not launch highly personalised attacks on each other. this is a surprisingly chummy exclusive club, the presidents club, and one of the reasons why is because the people who occupy the white house has such a high regard and high respect for the office of presidency. donald trump is signalling here that he is not bound by the same conventions. the obama camp came out with their swift response in terms of a denial. it is the denial enough, do you think?|j think the denial enough, do you think?” think their view is that donald trump has to prove his allegations, not that they have to... how do you prove a negative, the obama team would say. it is we pointing out as well that their response has been restrained. they spoke of the unwritten role, that cardinal rule, as they put it, in the obama white house that they should never interfere with ongoing investigations. well, this was simply untrue, that anybody at the

white house, and not least the president, had tried to influence this investigation. it is worth remembering that a lot of american administrations in recent times, the nixon administration had watergate, the reagan administration had the iran—contra. the clinton administration had monica lewinsky. the bush administration had frustrations over the use of intelligence. however the obama presidency was scandal free. nothing really happened in its entirety yea rs. really happened in its entirety years. there will be many people, not supporters of donald trump, but many people who will side with barack obama here becausejust many people who will side with barack obama here because just for that simple thing, he is far more trustworthy. but go to france now where there has been another eventful lea k where there has been another eventful leak for francois fillon, the centre—right presidential candidate. police at inserting his

country home in relation to a scandal over payments to family members. that is after his paris home was searched on thursday. 0n top of that, it has been announced that the conservative republican party will meet on monday to discuss his candidacy. underfire but under fire but defiant. underfire but defiant. francois fillon takes to the stage at a rally outside paris. mr fillon enjoyed the backing of faithful supporters. but within the republican party, that the port appears to be fading. translation: my friends, this campaign isa translation: my friends, this campaign is a straight fight. you are courageous and they want to intimidate you. i am being attacked by what they are looking for is to defeat the recovery of the nation. and the will for change that you represent. so i am asking you, do not abdicate, never renounced, your commitment must continue. facing

allegations he used taxpayer money to pay his wife and family members for work they did not do, senior members of his campaign are heading to the exit. in the past few days his campaign manager and spokesperson quit. there are now calls for him to step aside. translation: we are in a countdown. it is the stopwatch or the detonator. this is likely to explode oui’ detonator. this is likely to explode our political family and i detonator. this is likely to explode our politicalfamily and i do not wa nt our politicalfamily and i do not want it. on monday, the republican party will meet to discuss his failing campaign. many believe the door could now be open for the ex— prime minister to step in. it was convincingly defeated by fillon in the republican party primary in november. but a recent poll suggests he is now the best chance of the party in the presidential election. meanwhile, the far right candidate marine le pen faces her own legal troubles. also accused of misusing funds. but while her numbers hold,

mr fillon's continue to fall. he goes about trying to salvage a presidential election he was once favourite to win. malaysia has decided to expel north korea's ambassador after he criticised its investigation into the killing of the north korean leader's half brother. it comes after a steady deterioration in relations between the two countries in the last few weeks. the north korean embassy in kuala lumpur. ina the north korean embassy in kuala lumpur. in a little less than 48 hours it will need a new resident after this man pulled no punches in his criticism of the malaysian investigation into the brazen killing of the estranged half brother of kim jong—un. killing of the estranged half brother of kim jong-un. it has been seven days since the incident but there is no clear evidence on the cause of the deaths and at the moment we cannot trust the investigation by the malaysians

police. the malaysia prime minister called the diplomat‘s words undiplomatic reroute. tensions between the two nations ramped up in the following days as malaysia recalled its ambassador from pyongyang and revoked a visa free travel arrangement with north korea. but after the ambassador failed to apologise to authorities and did not turn upa apologise to authorities and did not turn up a meeting on saturday, that was the last straw. the foreign minister released a statement declaring him a persona non grata, barred from entering the country. with this deterioration in relations, north korea could find itself increasingly shut out from dialogue or even formally friendly nations. stay with us here on bbc news. still to come: a first look inside the asian city in city of palmyra. after being retaken from so—called islam at state for a second time. first the plates slipped gently off the restaurant tables. then suddenly the tables,

the chairs and people crashed sideways and downwards and it was a matter of seconds before the ferry lurched onto her side. the hydrogen bomb on a remote pacific atoll. the americans had successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i had heard the news earlier and so my heart went bang and bang. the constitutional rights of these marchers have their rights as citizens of the united states and they should be protected even in the right to test them out so they don't get their heads broken and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy, i know you don't want to say too much about it, but does it worry you it's going to boil up when you get to the stage? well, it worries me, yeah. i hope everything will be all right at the end of the day. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: china's rubber—stamp parliament. the national people's congress is opening its annual session, with the premier, li keqiang, announcing economic targets and other policy priorities. president trump has accused barack obama of tapping his phone, during the presidential campaign. the obama camp strongly denies it. the prime minister of somalia says more than 100 people from a drought—hit region in the country have died of hunger in the past two days. the drought was declared a national disaster on tuesday and the united nations estimates that five million people are in need of aid. in south sudan, un agencies say 100,000 people are facing starvation. stephen o'brien is the un's emergency relief co—ordinator. he is currently visiting the south sudanese capital, juba.

in modern history it is the first time we have potentially been faced with this issue and it is timely now to reach —— meet these needs. i have spent the day injuba and i could see thousands of people who had to wade through marshes. i met with a grandmother who was nursing a grandchild, who was severely malnourished. its parent had gone missing after an attack. it was so emaciated. i've had discussions already today with the prime minister, and ifaid already today with the prime minister, and if aid worker —— workers have died in south sudan,

they need to get through to deliver and need the protection of civilians. the ancient syrian city of palmyra appears to have escaped its second occupation by so—called islamic state, with less damage than first feared. recent drone imagery released by the russian defence ministry last month seemed to show further destruction to the ruins. it has now become clear that the ancient ruins have survived expert's worst fears. it was built as a temple generating mesopotamian gods and survived occupations by the romans, conversions from temple to church the mosque and recently to a gruesome stage for executions by militants of the so—called islamic state. but the unesco site of palmyra is now back in syrian government hands and there's less damage to its site then —— than was

feared. under heavy russian cover government forces drove out is militants from the ancient ruins. the jihadist first took control of palmyra in late 2015 and after being pushed out they came back again late last year while syrian forces were focused on fighting rebels in the northern city of aleppo. this is the second time the government has cleared palmyra of the militants. speaking today, a russian military officer said that the effort was being supported by the russian air force. translation: over 1.5 months the syrian government troops in self—defence units overcame substantial resistance from the terrorists and pushed ahead. on the second of march they took full control over palmyra. it was feared that the ancient ruins had suffered further destruction after drones and satellite imagery seemed to show further damage while it was under the militants' further damage while it was under the milita nts' control. further damage while it was under the militants' control. but today

syria's antiquities chief told reporters it seemed there was less damage than archaeologists feared. palmyra had already lost its famed triumphant arch at its central temple of belle and dozens of antiquities in the museum. should the militants retake the ruins once more, it isn't certain it could survive. a school in california has struck gold after snapchat‘s debut on the new york stock exchange. five years ago the school invested $15 thousand into the app, now those shares are worth more than $40 million. our technology reporter dave lee has been to the school. if you are a hot, new text startup on other things you need is money. where can you get it? you could try to impress a billionaire investor, or you could speak to friends and family. but in the case of snap that pa rt family. but in the case of snap that part of their first investment came

from a much more unusual source. this high school is in a small city in northern california, best known as being the home of google. five yea rs as being the home of google. five years ago the school made a very shrewd investment, thanks to the advice of a student's father. his daughter was honoured with her friends in the phone in the kitchen and he was trying to figure out what they were doing and they said there was an app called snapchat. four yea rs was an app called snapchat. four years ago we made this $15,000 investment. when it started trading, the school sold one third of its day, cashing in $24 million. there is more good news. the value of the app has soared since that first day of trading, so if the school was to sell its remaining allocation that would be an extra $90 million. st francis is a private school where the tuition costs $17,000 a year, so a lot of the money raised will go towards offering scholarships for less well off families in the area.

barry is the parent who first took the idea of investing in snapchat to the idea of investing in snapchat to the school. he is a partner at one of silicon valley's top investment firms. here is this app that no adults know about a lot of kids are using it and itjust so happened out high high school was an early adopter of that. for others who see this and think they should be investing in technology companies, could this be emulated around the world ? could this be emulated around the world? it good, what it isn't easy. in silicon valley especially and maybe other areas with a lot of entrepreneurs. think it is great for investors to reach out to local and situations and schools to see if they can include them in some of their deals. something snapchat's popularity will be shortlisted and its value will come crashing down. —— some think. the school won't wait and see. when asked if they will sell the rest of their shares, they say they probably will. it involved

and asked to work hard to make sure we ta ke and asked to work hard to make sure we take care of it and to write why it and make sure that we use it. we are here to educate kids and we are happy that we have this opportunity. a very savvy school. cycling on ice — not normally a good idea, is it? but ‘ice biking' is actually becoming a booming sport all over the world. the sport has now arrived here in the uk and our correspondent mike bushell has been giving it a go. for some of us iceskating can be a bit of a challenge. unless you do it regularly, well, it can be quite a bit of pain and humiliation without much gain. but there's now a new way for us all to get up to speed on the ice. i'm ready to go. one of scandinavia's popular new sports has arrived on the ice in the uk as well

now. on these ice bikes, wheels have been replaced with skates. some people are afraid of iceskating and falling over at and giving it a try. this is a lot more inclusive. everyone can give it ago and you don't have worry about falling over or anything like that. anyone can do it. i've been overtaken again. this ta kes it. i've been overtaken again. this takes some getting used to at first, especially the way you glide around the corners. when you can we contact in his frantic wheel to wheel castles, the slightest of nudges we'll send you into a spin. even more so in the 400 metre races held across scandinavia and the netherlands, in which riders reach high speeds. and on this board —— this sport has now spread as far as mexico, as well as the uk. this really works the legs! you're

peddling furiously and then you fly around the corners. what a workout! it is very fast. you can lose it quite hard on the corners, but it is so much fun. it has been like a spin class, but nice. in scandinavia they hold their longer races on frozen la kes. hold their longer races on frozen lakes. while tamworth doesn't have such long races, they do have an endurance race around their track. introducing you to new things you haven't tried before. and no skating skills required. think lucky races but nice. looks like tiring work! that's it for now. good morning. saturday was a day of

mixed fortunes. sonny. and, wait for others. let's have a look at some of the weather watch pictures to illustrate the point. a pretty miserable day in aberdeenshire. the rain relentless all day. further south, some lovely spring sunshine and warmth to go with it. highs of 13 degrees close to london. it was beautiful here, but the rain continued. over an inch across parts of northern scotland and plenty of showers piling in around the load. as we go through sunday, the rain will clear into the northern isles and that will allow the weather front to push into the south—west. soa front to push into the south—west. so a change. looking at 9am in the morning, some sunny spells. a few showers across scotland, but on the whole and improving weather story. not that into northern ireland and northern england as well. sunshine from the word go. we might see rain pushing into the southern fringes of the isle of man and across the north—west of england and wales,

down through the midlands and into the south—east corner. a wet and windy start to sunday morning. even once the rain clears there will be plenty of showers towards the south—west and this will start to drift further inland, driven in by strong the gale force gusts of wind that are likely to develop through the day. gusts in excess of 60 mph is for a the day. gusts in excess of 60 mph is fora time, the day. gusts in excess of 60 mph is for a time, so a pretty miserable afternoon. for some of us who can get caught in the showers. for northern england, scotland and northern ireland, we keep the sunshine. a day off changed fortunes. 7—10 is the overall high. for the premiership matches if you are lucky enough to have tickets and you are keeping a close eye on the forecast, a few showers for the totte n ha m forecast, a few showers for the tottenham match into the afternoon, but the rain will have cleared. sunderland and man city should be dry, although clouding over a touch. into monday there's another low that is likely to threaten into the south—west for a brief spell, but it could be quite tricky up with some very strong to gale force gusts and

some heavy rain across parts of south—west england early on monday morning. we will need to keep an eye on that. it drifts into the near continent. it shouldn't cause much ofan continent. it shouldn't cause much of an issue for too long. behind, sunny spells and scattered showers for monday. moving into tuesday, another weather front looks likely to push in from the west. so things stay pretty unsettled. tuesday will see more wet and windy weather moving in from the west and by wednesday a quieter spell and a little bit milder. until then, take care. the latest headlines from bbc news. china's rubberstamp parliament, the national people's congress, is opening its annual session. the premier is preparing to announce economic targets and other policy priorities. he is expected to aim for a priorities. he is expected to aim fora 6.5to priorities. he is expected to aim for a 6.5 to 7% economic growth rate. the us president has accused his predecessor of wiretapping his

phone a month before he was elected. a spokesman for barack obama has issued a strong denial. the centre—right candidate in the french presidential election, francois fillon is fighting to stay in the race. he is embroiled in a growing corruption scandal. police have searched a number of his homes. malaysia says the north korean ambassador must leave the country in the next 48 hours. the two nations have fallen out after death of the half brother of the north korean leader.