hello, i'm marc edwards, and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: the winner takes 0—0. a boring no score draw in the manchester derby as fellani gets a straight red for headbutting sergio aguero. another win for maria sharapova on her return to tennis after 15 months out with a doping ban. ding junhui edges ahead of mark selby at the crucible in their snooker world championship semi—final. a match with so much hype, the manchester derby, city versus united at the etihad, pep guardiola versusjose mourinho, the hunt for champions league football and ultimately a totally underwhelming match. it finished 0—0 and all the morning headlines will be talking about a moment of lunacy from manchester united's marouane fellani. conor mcnamara reports. there were no goals here but no

shortage of incident. sergio aguero should have scored. it came off the post from close range. there was an excellent chance before half—time for manchester united but he headed it off target. the talking point of the game was the red card shown to fellaini. he was shown a yellow card for a challenge on sergio aguero moments before. within seconds he was involved with another tussle. for heads clashed in a forehead motion. he showed a straight red card. manchester city brought on gabrielle jesus since card. manchester city brought on gabriellejesus since picking up an injury on the 13th of february but his header wasjudged offside. it is a share of the spoils which for now leaves manchester city inside the

champions league places and manchester united are outside the top four at the moment. we controlled totally and quite easily. defensively the game was totally under control and we were a lwa ys totally under control and we were always dangerous. we almost scored. mkhitaryan, marcus rashford — big problems. in the second half, no. lam i am satisfied because i know how difficult it is to play against manchester united. so, how aggressive they are, but we missed the last shot, the last pass and it's not easy when you are defending with ten players behind. it is not easy and you have to be always in good position. there were three games played in spain. alaves were held to a goalless draw by eibar, athletic bilbao beat real betis 2—1 to move back up to sixth, and ahead of real sociedad in the battle for a europa league place, while sevilla beat celta vigo

2—1 to move level on points with third—placed atletico madrid. tennis, and maria sharapova continues to make progress on her return to the wta tour. the former world number one, who's playing in herfirst tournament since completing a is—month drugs ban, is through to the quarter—finals of the stuttgart grand prix. sharapova, who's bidding to win the tournament for a fourth time, beat her fellow—russian ekaterina makarova in straight sets. she won 7—5, 6—1 and plays estonia's anett kontaveit in the last eight. the level of the first set was quite good. i didn't get raped opportunities are until later in the first set which i was happy to take. that was important because she was serving extremely well. and off the return i didn't feel the angles very well, so my serve did a good job to

stay in the match, keep the pressure on her a little bit, staying up for—3, 5—4, i felt like on her a little bit, staying up for—3, 5—4, ifelt like i had the edge at the end of the first and i carried it into the second. there was an upset in stuttgart, though, with a shock defeat for angelique kerber. the top seed and defending champion was beaten by kristina mladenovic. kerber would have regained the world number one spot if she'd reached the semi—finals, but she lost in straight sets as the frenchwoman, who's ranked 19 in the world, won 6—2, 7—5. she'll face carla suarez navarro in the quarter—finals. and the number six seed johanna konta is also out. she was beaten in straight sets by the unseeded latvian anastasija sevastova. she won 6—3, 7—5, and now plays the numberfour seed simona halep in the quarter—finals. on the atp tour, andy murray finally got to play in the barcelona open, and he's through to the quarter—finals. the world number one, who had a bye in the first round, and was given a walkover in the second after bernard tomic withdrew through injury, was playing spain's feliciano lopez. murray was given a workout coming

through 6—4, 6—4 in a hard fought couple of sets. he now plays another spaniard, albert ramos vinolas in the last eight. yes, it was tough. at the end of the first set i served for the set, had some set points, didn't get them. i got the break the next game. he had quite a few chances on my service games, six or quite a few chances on my service games, six oi’ seven quite a few chances on my service games, six or seven breakpoints. i also created i think ten breakpoints on his serve, so both of us have a bunch of chances. thankfully i managed to convert a few more of mind. —— mine. the defending champion rafael nadal is also through to the quarter—finals. he remains on course for a tenth title in barcelona after claiming his 50th win in the city. nadal beat the big—serving south african kevin anderson 6—3, 6—4 and now plays the unseeded south korean chung hyeon for a place in the semi—finals. my my serve and forehand was much

better than yesterday. hitting well every day. forehand is one of the most important shots in my game and todayit most important shots in my game and today it worked well. japan's yuichi sugita is also through to the quarter—finals. the world number 91 pulled off another stunning victory with a straight sets win over the number seven seed pablo carreno busta. sugita, who qualified as a "lucky loser," won 6—3, 6—3, and he'll now play the number four seed dominic thiem. ding junhui showed his growing matchplay maturity scoring five half—centuries and a ton to take a slender advantage in his world snooker championship semi final against reigning champion mark selby. jamie broughton was at the crucible in sheffield for us. ding junhui is snooker‘s biggest global star with a vast tv audience in asia following his progress here. this match is a repeat of last yea r‘s this match is a repeat of last year's final at the crucible but unlike i2 year's final at the crucible but

unlike 12 months ago the chinese superstar didn't start by losing the opening six frames. instead he quickly relaxed and made a confident start against the world champion mark selby. applause. selby can also score quickly when he gets the opportunity, and he fought back to level proceedings. applause. the englishman then took the lead for the first time after winning the fifth frame, which was scrappy. where is the cue ball going? 0h! ding junhui has shown mental toughness in this tournament and is determined to become china's first world champion. he continued to play attacking snooker and scored heavily. selby quickly saw his lead disappear as ding won three frames ina disappear as ding won three frames in a row. an excellent century break

rounded off the opening session in style. 17 is the target for victory when play resumes. in the other semi—final, former champion john higgins leads barry hawkins 5—3. higgins led 4—0 at one stage but hawkins recovered to win three of the next four frames. they'll also resume on friday. afghanistan and ireland could soon be playing test cricket after the world governing body, the icc, made a change to the way "associate" members can apply for test status. they'll no longer have to be recommended by other test playing nations, as the bbc‘s patrick gearey explains. what the icc has done is removed a barrier to potential new test playing nations like ireland or afghanistan. now, in the past, those nations would need to be nominated by two other nations of the icc and

they have removed that and said we will just they have removed that and said we willjust apply they have removed that and said we will just apply and they have removed that and said we willjust apply and are due on the criteria, that includes finances, the state of the grounds, the state oi’ the state of the grounds, the state or the first—class cricket and how competitive they are as an international team. we know that ireland say they meet the criteria with one or two tweaks and they are in there was cautiously optimistic that they would be accepted as a full member. we know that afghanistan have made huge strides on the pitch and have a friend in international cricket given how well they have developed even in the testing conditions that exist in that country. so expect both of those nations now to apply to the icc's those nations now to apply to the icc‘s membership committee with more confidence than ever before. finally, there are two games in the nba play—offs on thursday. toronto will qualify for the eastern conference semi—finals if they win at milwaukee. and they're looking to be walking through that one, things are looking good for them, the raptors leading 74- 56 with good for them, the raptors leading 74— 56 with around two minutes to go

in the third quarter, and a reminder that they lead the series 3—2, it is approaching the end there. later, san antonio spurs will be looking to complete a first round series win when they visit memphis. that gets under way within the hour. and that is all your sport for now. from me and the rest of the sport today team, we will have more sports for you in the next hour. hopefully see you then, bye—bye. hello. as we've been finding out recently, spring can offer up a wide variety of weather and sometimes we try to cram it all into one day. that was the way of it on thursday. at its best, absolutely no complaints in fife. elsewhere, nowhere near 15 degrees with showers around. that is how we are going to start friday too. the last thursday showers tending to migrate away from the eastern of the british isles down the way towards the west. what i think you'll notice

to wherever you start the new day on friday, it won't be just as cold, as was the start to thursday, where there was quite a widespread frost. i think not a particularly warm start to the day but two, three, four, five degrees perfectly acceptable for this time of year. the thick cloud across southern and western parts comes thanks to this rather weak weather front. if you are desperate for some reason i am afraid again that is not a feature for you. it will produce a wee bit of rain first for wales and the south—west midlands into south—west england but even here some areas will be dry right from the word go. and after a glorious start across some eastern parts as we get on into the afternoon the cloud will bubble somewhat and there could be a shower from that as well. temperatures in a range at best from around eight or nine on the eastern coast down to around about 14 or 15 on the south coast. the bank holiday weekend, breezy but the wind is coming from the south and south—east, so milder than of late,

and it wouldn't be a bank holiday without the mention of some rain. but we hold off on that prospect. there is a scattering of showers, no great organisation about them, many areas are dry and as i say the breezes coming from the south. this is where we start to mention the rain with a deal of uncertainty, it has to be said. a lot of isobars there, so you'll be flying your kite, that's for sure, on the beach on sunday, but it will be a damp affair certainly we suspect for the south—west, for wales, getting up towards northern ireland, butjust how far north and east rainbelt gets during the course of the day is open to a lot of uncertainty at the moment, so if you've got a plan for sunday keep checking the forecast is the watchword at the moment, because that whole weather system could move with time and also in space, but we are more confident that on monday the feature will have moved away to the north sea, leaving behind a legacy of cloud, a wee bit breezy in places but there should be dry weather for the holiday monday. a very warm welcome to bbc news,

broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: the pentagon launches an inquiry into president trump's former national security advisor. michael flynn's accused of accepting unauthorised payments from foreign groups. protestors storm macedonia's parliament, attacking politicians after the election of an ethnic albanian as speaker. little more than a week before france's decisive presidential vote, polls suggest emmanuel macron‘s lead over marine le pen is shrinking. and facebook says it's launching new ways to uncover fake accounts and fight abuse on its platform.