this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 3pm. home secretary amber rudd calls on technology firms such as whatsapp to allow security services access to encrypted messages in terrorism cases. there should be no place for terrorists to hide. we need to make sure that organisations like whatsapp and others do not provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate. the westminster attacker khalid masood acted alone, say the police. his motive may never be known. detectives confirmed the attack lasted just 82 seconds. the family of the police officer who was killed, pc keith palmer, has thanked the people who tried to save his life. they say they're grateful he did not die alone. more than 30 people have been injured — two seriously — after a suspected gas explosion on merseyside. police clamp down on anti—corruption protests across russia main opposition leader alexei navalny is among those arrested. also in the next hour: the beginning of the end for mercedes‘ dominance of formula one?

ferrari's sebastian vettel pips lewis hamilton to the chequered flag in the opening race of the season in melbourne — his first win since 2015. coming up in half an hour — the final episode of click‘s special india season. hello, welcome to bbc news. the home secretary, amber rudd, has said the government will not shrink from taking action to remove material from the internet which could help terrorists. ms rudd also said the security services needed access to encrypted material on platforms such as the messaging service, whatsapp. it was used by the westminster attacker shortly before he killed four people last wednesday. nick beake reports. an attack at the heart of london

and its chaotic aftermath. scotland yard believes all this was the work of one man acting alone. but was khalid masood encouraged in some way? he was active on the messaging app whatsapp on his phone just seconds before he struck but the police are unable to see the content of these encrypted messages and in an interview this morning the home secretary said social media companies must do more to help the authorities. it is completely unacceptable, there should be no place for terrorists to hide. we need to make sure that organisations like whatsapp and there are plenty of others like it do not provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate. it used to be people would steam open envelopes or listen in on phones when they wanted to find out what people were doing, legally, through warrants, but in this situation we need to make sure the intelligence services have the ability to get into in situations like encrypted whatsapp. and her message was supported by the man running the eu

crime—fighting agency. i agree with the call for changes to be made. what the solution for that is for her and other lawmakers to decide but from my point of view i would agree something has to be done to make sure we can apply a more consistent form of interception of communication in all parts of the way in which terrorists invade our lives. all messages sent on whatsapp have end to end encryption which means they are scrambled and even if they are intercepted data cannot be read. but whatsapp, which is owned by facebook, said it had a duty to protect the private communications of its billion users worldwide. here at westminster at the tributes to pc keith palmer and the other victims continue to grow. the metropolitan police have now released more details about what was a brief but deadly assault. at 2:40pm on wednesday afternoon khalid masood mounts the pavement on westminster bridge.

he drives on and 30 seconds later crashes into the palace of westminster. the first 999 call is then received and half a minute later khalid masood is shot dead. a rampage lasting 82 seconds from start to finish. but for the police it is an ongoing and complex investigation. they warn they may never understand why khalid masood carried out the attack, which has carried criticism of the prevent strategy, the current government policy for combating extremism. i think in its current form it has huge problems, it is broken, the brand is toxic. there are questions about the training and the trainers and the level of quality of training within schools, how it is being implemented on the front line and therefore what i have asked for is a pause, an independent review. any changes will be too late for the victims of the westminster attack including pc keith palmer.

his family have thanked those who tried to save him and say they have been overwhelmed by the love and support they have received. merseyside fire and rescue say a suspected gas explosion in the wirral last night caused extensive damage and that it could be several days before local people are allowed back into their homes. dozens of people were hurt by the blast and several buildings collapsed. the scale of the devastation shows just how powerful the explosion was. one building, housing three businesses, totally destroyed. this is what it looked like before last night. the blast was heard up to six miles away. the sound of the building blowing up was captured by a car's dashboard camera. explosion what was that?! two people were taken to a trauma unit in liverpool with serious injuries. 32 others were treated at hospitals in wirral and chester.

there is a multitude of injuries that have happened but the two patients that have gone through to the major trauma unit at aintree, they have significant injuries. the emergency services won't speculate on the cause of the blast but a number of local people had said they smelt gas yesterday and on friday national grid engineers were on the scene. this incident is likely to be protracted, this is likely to last several days, very significant damage as you can tell. so it will be some time before people will be allowed back into their homes. some people whose homes had to be evacuated spent the night in a local church. nearby roads are likely to be closed for some time. lynsey davison update. we know some of those people remain in hospital this lunchtime

and an investigation is taking place to find out how this happened. the clean—up operation will take some time, there is a car park about 150 metres away and that and all the vehicles in it are completely peppered with bricks, debris travelled that far. opposite was a chinese restaurant which was very busy on a saturday evening, the blast blew the windows through and debris went through the windows. stories emerging, some people thought a bomb had gone off into cover. others dragging their friends and family out of debris. what remains is that we do not know which building the explosion happened then, the sentiment is that people are surprised and grateful there were not more people seriously injured. an update in berlin. a car has driven in to a group of cyclists taking part in a race event in germany. the race was taking

place in the outskirts of the capital, berlin. there are conflicting reports but a third cyclist and a steward will hurt although less seriously. in the united states, police in ohio say one person was killed and 15 others injured when at least two men opened fire in a nightclub in cincinnati. they say hundreds of people were in the club at the time, and that it was a "horrific situation". the authorities say it's not clear what prompted the shooting and that the investigation is ongoing. cincinati reporter megan mitchell from wlwt news five gave us this update from a nearby medical facility. iamata i am at a medical centre, eight victims are in different conditions, one is in critical condition and there is one person found dead on there is one person found dead on the scene. this happened after one o'clock and there were hundreds of people in a key nightclub, 18 plus

and in the united states it is spring break in cincinnati and that contributed to the population and the crowd in the nightclub. i spoke to witness earlier described the scene as chaotic and someone came over the speaker is saying evacuate the dance floor and shots were fired, 20 shots, you said and you can imagine how chaotic the scene was. really really chaotic. megan mitchell from cincinnati. three people have been taken to hospital after a car mounted a pavement and hit a group of drinkers outside a pub in north london. four teenagers have been arrested. the police say the incident in islington is not terror—related. the labour leaderjeremy corbyn says labour will oppose plans to give ministers the powers to change some aspects of european laws, without needing the approving of parliament. speaking ahead of this thursday's publication of a white paper

on the great repeal bill, he insisted that parliament could not be bypassed. we need total accountability at every stage of this whole brexit negotiation. i understand there is going to be about 12 ancillary related bills. we're not going to sit there and hand over power to this government to override parliament, override democracy and just set down a series of diktats for what is going to happen in the future. we'd be failing in our duty as democratically—elected parliamentarians if we did that. government will announce proposals to repeal the act from 1972. i asked about the repeal. the way they want to go about that is to transition the law into british law but they do not want any legal black holes. the government wants to give ministers special powers so they can tidy up

the stuff they say will not be necessary or make sense to have like if you advertise a public service contract you have to put it into an eu publication or the many mention of ease institutions. butjeremy corbyn says he is opposed to any special powers and anything taking power away from parliament as we heard him properly scrutinising the bill and a response from the leader of the house of commons and let us hear what he said. a limited and defined power, not to act like dick tack but by secondary legislation. the scope, the definition of those powers and when they can be used is something parliament will have to approve. he said the special powers will have to be voted on in parliament. the timing, definition and the rest of it. by coming into force, they will come through parliament so he says the sovereignty lies with them. the actual bill itself would not be voted on until the spring so plenty of time for the two parties

to thrash out their position. this will be a complicated process because in a0 years so much of the legislation has been introduced since 1972 has incorporated elements of european laws and somehow we have to take out the bits we don't want and keep the bits we do. it sounds like a needle in a haystack. you have so much to do in two years if the government sticks with its timetable to avoid the black holes. what the government wants to do is kick the can down the road and bring everything in and it says it is an efficient way giving ministers powers but labour is nervous behind—the—scenes about what the government might do with these powers and if changes that change the meaning of laws, notjust the tidying up exercise. the former ukip leader nigel farage has said that mp douglas carswell — who resigned from the party yesterday — has a duty

to trigger a by—election in his clacton consituency. the two men have been odds about the future of ukip. a short while ago, mr farage told me that he'd caused "endless division" in the party. just remember this — clacton is demographically the number—one eurosceptic seat in this country, and i would say this, a lot of people who voted him into parliament did not vote just because of him, they voted ukip, he has given up the label on which he was elected, and this is the man who led the charge in parliament for real recall, to give people a mechanism by which if 20% of the constituency, if they voted to have a by—election, they should legally be able to have one. so what we will do is take him at his word, and we will now write to every house in clacton and ask them, "do you want "a by—election or not?" if more than 20% say they do, we will find outjust how honourable mr ca rswell is. the headlines... the home secretary

calls on firms like whatsapp to allow security services access to encrypted messages for terrorism cases. more than 30 have been injured after a suspected gas explosion on merseyside. it could be several days before residents can go home. thousands have joined anti—corruption home. thousands have joined anti—corru ption protests home. thousands have joined anti—corruption protests in russia. alexei navalny has been arrested. in spore, the first formula 1 grand prix was won by sebastian vettel. he beat lewis hamilton who started on pole position but finished in second. england face lithuania in world cup qualification at wembley. northern ireland and scotland are in action later. scotland have won a bronze medal at the world curling championships. more details on those

and other stories in half an hour. thousands of russians are on the streets of moscow and other cities to protest against corruption. these are the latest pictures from moscow. the protesters want the prime minister — dmitry medvedev — to resign over corruption allegations. several people have been detained, including the main organiser — the opposition activist alexei navalny. the leader was detained and we are being moved by the police away from the square and the protest looks to be coming to an end. navalny will not been surprised to have been arrested.

presumably the authorities will have to handle this delicately given the likely response if he is not treated respectfully? absolutely. it is no surprise that he was detained. it is a dilemma because if they clamp down hard on alexei navalny that could see support across the country. there was a good turnout today for the protests across russia. but if they decide not to press charges against him, then we could see protests in the coming weeks. it is a dilemma for the authorities. looking ahead at the russian economy, if there are further economic problems here, social problems, that encourage more people to attend future protests. an investigation has been opened after the pentagon confirmed that american—led coalition fighter jets struck in the area near a site in the iraqi city of mosul —

where many civilians are reported killed. us central command says iraqi military requested the attack against islamic state fighters. day after day, the exodus from mosul continues. thousands of people have fled the violence as a battle rages for control of the city. plumes of smoke rise above the rooftops, air strikes and shelling taking a heavy toll. now the us military has acknowledged coalition aircraft hit a location in the west of mosul, and it may have been civilians who paid the price. both the iraqi military forces in the us coalition have acknowledged that there was an air strike and possibly hundreds of casualties. we are waiting to see what the results of the investigation are. we know that there have been many, many families that have been impacted

by this tragedy, and that there are a large number of injured, a large number of deaths. in a statement, us central command said... those protected sites, it's claimed, include schools, hospitals, mosques, and sometimes people's homes. this is the neighbourhood where the air strikes happened. eyewitnesses say at least 50 bodies were pulled from the rubble days after the building collapsed. the dead included children, the elderly, pregnant women. thousands have left the city, but thousands more remain. how many more will lose their lives as the battle for mosul continues? earlier, we spoke to our

correspondent yalda hakim who's in the nearby city of irbil who gave us this update on the us air strikes in the region. for over a week we have been hearing reports that us—led air strikes have left at least 150 people dead in west mosul. they did issue a statement yesterday, saying they had launched an investigation, that they respect human life, but that they wouldn't abandon this operation. this is perhaps the most difficult part or phase of this whole operation for iraqi forces. the front line has now reached the old city, it is densely populated, the streets and alleyways are incredibly narrow, so they will not be able to use tanks, and there will be a lot of street—to—street fighting, as well as house—to—house fighting. they will also be relying on air strikes, and so it is difficult, in the fog of war, in the murkiness of all this, for us as the bbc to be able to verify a lot of these reports.

our middle east editor, jeremy bowen, is in west mosul, and he has spoken to civilians who say that there are ongoing air strikes in the area, that they are very angry about it, but that is militants are also using them as human shields, positioning snipers within their homes, as well as on their rooftops. police have named the boys who died in north yorkshire yesterday, alex yeoman and harry watson from east clevela nd yeoman and harry watson from east cleveland wage 17 and their bodies we re cleveland wage 17 and their bodies were found at the bottom of the cliffs on friday and enquiries are ongoing. police say they are not treating it as suspicious. voters in the german state of saarland go to the polls today. in a regional election seen as an indicator of angela merkel‘s chances of staying on as chancellor in the german general election in the autumn.

jenny hill reports. not a vote cast yet, but already a victory march. the social democrats think the saarland, and germany, is ready for change. translation: he is a breath of fresh air for the party, he has many new ideas, and i think he can deliver them. she is talking about martin schultz the man from brussels who has stirred up berlin. the book—seller turned politician famously beat alcohol addition. he has got angela merkel‘s conservatives on the back foot. in saarland they are fighting back, pretzels and politics at the factory gates. like angela merkel, the region's prime minister is established and well known here. but like angela merkel, she might well lose her seat. translation: it is a challenge, yes, but that is the essence of democracy. from now until the national election it is about who has got a better plan for the country,

and on this martin schultz has not delivered anything. we on the other hand, will offer a better plan and an excellent candidate. saarland maybe small, but what happens here matters. translation: it is a regional election which should deal with regional issues, but this time everything is different. the schultz effect is strong, and this is germany's first regional election this year. the vote will be heavily influenced by national politics. but the result will also affect the general election. expect some bruises. the right—wing are no longer in the game. this is angela merkel versus martin schultz. translation: he puts too much emphasis on criticising the other parties. i like merkel better. she showed her a human side in the

refugee crisis. he comes across as authentic, he says what he things, people like that. but i think you cannot implement many of the things he promises. this is what the schultz effect is all about. it could transform this tiny german state, and it might, just might, change the face of german politics. the taxi firm uber has suspended its pilot programme for driverless cars after an early model of its self—driving car crashed on a roadway in arizona. the accident is the latest in a series of crashes involving autonomous vehicles. it's not yet known whether the car was in self driving mode at the time of the crash. uber said it caused no serious injuries. staying in hong kong, at least 18 people have been injured, one seriously, after an apparent escalator malfunction in a shopping centre. the escalator was packed with shoppers when it apparently went in to reverse at high speed and dozens of people were thrown to the bottom.

one man received a serious head injury. a spokesperson for the langham place centre said the escalator had passed a recent safety inspection. what a terrifying experience. hong kong's new chief executive has been chosen. carrie lam, seen in the middle here, is believed to be beijing's preferred candidate. she won in the first round of voting by a specially chosen committee. pro—democracy activists had denounced the poll as a sham, arguing that everyone should have a vote. fossilised bones that capture a time that dinosaurs ruled the earth, more than 65 million years ago. by measuring how they changed over the years, researchers worked out

how they are related, and how they evolved. but a new assessment published in thejournal nature, which suggests that that theory which has lasted 130 years, maybe wrong. the current theory is that there are two main groups of dinosaurs. one, including the stegosaurus, and another which has two branches. the vegetarians such as the brontosaurus, and the meat eaters such as the savage tyrannosaurus rex. it turns out that the meat eaters are in the wrong group and should be with the stegosaurus. it also shows that the very first dinosaurs did not originate in east africa, but much further north, possibly in an area which is now britain. we have taken dinosaur origins, which originally were thought to be southern hemisphere and brought them into the northern hemisphere, and it could well be that dinosaurs originated even within britain itself.

what we have here is a key specimen in this analysis. and here is the fossil that led to this shock finding, a primitive dinosaur the size of a cat was found in lossiemouth in scotland. it was an animal like this that led to the creatures that dominated this planet for 165 million years. the new family tree will mean that we will have to rethink our ideas of how they evolved and spread across the globe. this is a fairly major change to our knowledge of dinosaurs. we have had a system in place for 130 years, we thought we understood the relationships of these big groups of animals, but it may be that we have a major rearrangement of the dinosaur tree. this re—evaluation of fossils challenges a theory that has been accepted since the victorian era, and so will be controversial. but if it is proved to be correct, textbooks on the subject will have to be rewritten. great to see him dominating these

huge dinosaurs. terrific graphics. john hammond has the weather. yesterday was the warmest day of the year until today. 20 degrees in some highland glen is courtesy of clear sky. most of us had blue skies from dawn until dusk. it will stay dry as we head into the evening. some changes, low cloud creeping in to central and eastern areas, fog by dawn. cold and in rural spots across the northwest dipping close to freezing. watch out for low cloud, fog patches across central and eastern parts, the overcast conditions prevail across north—east england nudging into scotland knocking temperatures on the head

but for the rest of us another fine day, plenty of sunshine and warmth, 17 degrees in london and we lose the breeze across the south. a dry start, enjoyed it. sunshine in between rain. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines at 3:30pm: the home secretary has called on social media providers to end the encryption of messaging services. her comments come after it was revealed khalid masood used whatsapp messaging just before launching his attack in westminster last week. scotland yard has confirmed the attack carried out by masood took just 82 seconds. detectives have revealed his motive may never be known. they believe he acted alone, despite one of the 11 people arrested in connection with the attack remaining in custody. the family of pc keith palmer who was killed in the attack have paid tribute to him and thanked those who helped him after he was stabbed. they said they wanted to ‘express their gratitude' to the people who were with him in his last moments. more than 30 people have been

injured, two seriously, after a suspected gas explosion in merseyside. several buildings collapsed and others were damaged in the incident and homes nearby have been evacuated, it could be several days before owners can return. police have named two