atletico in second place. they are 15 points clear of real madrid, in third. the keeper had no chance. in the aviva premiership, exeter chiefs have extended their lead at the top after beating second placed saracens at sandy park. exeter took an early lead against the european champions with a second minute penalty before ben earl went on to score the first try of the game. the chiefs ran out 24—12 winners over a depleted saracens who were missing most of their internationals. the final of the welsh open snooker is taking place right now in cardiff and it looks like it's going to be a tight affair. here are some live pictures from cardiff. the pair went into the evening session tied at 4—4, but as you can see from these live pictures, it's 5—4 to higgins, who

has edged ahead. it's been a high quality match — higgins has hit breaks of 138 and 141, whilst hawkins has responded with a break of 131. the match resumes at 7.00pm this evening — the first to nine frames claims the title. higgins is going for a fifth title. it looks like he's going to take this one. at the table, just three balls remaining. going for a fifth welsh open title. that is the blue gone in. just the pink and the black to secure this frame. nine more needed for victory. 50 this to secure this frame. nine more needed for victory. so this pink. to wind the frame. barry hawkins, who looks like he was going to level up at 5-5. looks like he was going to level up at 5—5. he did not. john higgins pinches the frame. he now leads 6—4 full—sized coverage continues across the bbc. deontay wilder says he ready to take on anthonyjoshua in a heavyweight unification

superfight that all boxing fans want to see, that's after the american retained his wbc belt overnight, stopping luis 0rtiz in the 10th round in new york. the cu ban was the cuban was knocked down three times and the fight was stopped in the tenth. britain's anthonyjoshua will defend his ibf and wba versions of the belt againstjoseph parker in cardiff. if he comes through it, that's super fight could be made, but wilder isn't convinced that the joshua camp are too keen on it. his promoter don't want that fight, and after tonight, he definitely won't wa nt after tonight, he definitely won't want it. it is going to be up to you guys, the fans. i've spoken enough. i don't really want to speak about it any more because i've said all i have to say. after tonight, i don't need to say no more. ijust want to prove to the world that i'm the best. and finally, as you may have heard in the news, many of the greats

of athletics have been paying tribute to sir roger bannister — the first man to break the four minute mile — who's died at the age of 88. sir roger secured his place in the sport's history when he created the new landmark at the oxford university sports ground in 195a. he was a distinguished neurologist and suffered from parkinson's disease in later life. the first person you are taught to look up to is roger bannister. when i was 15, 16, i thought, look up to is roger bannister. when iwas15,16, ithought, i look up to is roger bannister. when i was 15, 16, i thought, i wonder if i could run a four minute mile? and everyone is the same. at one point, a famous moroccan athlete, in the

mid—90s, was bowing down to bannister. if he understood what roger bannister meant to the sport, that, to me, was very heart—warming. it means the same to young athletes today. there is no athlete of any vintage, especially in long—distance running, that didn't look at bannister as a senior partner. the mile had a deep history before roger did what he did. but actually, that raced to the four minutes secured the mile as a british athletics institution, and we have a massive debt of gratitude. that's all from sportsday. there'll be more sport here on bbc news throughout the evening. aida edemariam has written an unusual biography — a rich and engrossing story of a woman of whom none of her readers will ever have heard. the wife's tale is the story

of her own grandmother, born 100 years ago, and a picture of her country, ethiopia. it reads beautifully, as if it's told in her voice, a book that will take you gently and unforgettably into another world. welcome. what was the quality of this story, the potential in this story, that convinced you that people who had never known your grandmother and have never been to ethiopia would want to read it? it was listening to her, it was listening to her language, her words, her stories. i kind of knew that they would translate quite well into english and that they would work.

you spoke to her and recorded her over a long period. i mean, not continuously, but you heard her talking. and what's striking about the book is that, although it's narrated by you, it's told by you, the rhythms and cadences of her language, the poetry of her language, the simple poetry of normal day speech, really comes through, and that's what's alluring about it. and that's really what convinced you? yes, it really did. there are a couple of things. one of them is it's an oral tradition. she didn't read until she was in her 60s. in an oral tradition, stories are remembered and told again. in ethiopia, the effect and the skill with which you tell a story is really important. the other thing that's obvious to anyone who approaches the book is, of course, that it's set in a country which has gone through huge convulsions in the century of the life that you mentioned — she died five years ago. let's just go through

that because the world that she grew up in — there was going to be a fascist invasion, there were going to be various political upheavals, the haile selassie years that we all remember, and, i suppose, to the current generation at home, the famines in the horn of africa, which have been such a crisis. so it was always going to be a troubled life. yes, but there's always pockets ofjoy and, for her, dancing. and you tell stories and you find little pockets where you can chat and enjoy things. in a way, it's a story of perseverance and survival. it is, and those big things happen to ordinary people, and history's lived by ordinary people. and i guess that's one of the things i was trying to get across. you talk about the fact that your grandmother didn't learn to read until she was in her 60s. can you really imagine what life was like for her

when she was a teenager, when she was in her 20s? do you find it easy to picture? it took a while. i had maybe 60 hours of tape. i listened, and then i went away and read lots in the british library and read accounts of daily life, and then i went back and listened again. when you've got that lairing, you can start to imagine just the sort of warp and weft of it. because it's quite clear, in the way she must have talked to you, that the descriptive richness of it was considerable — i mean, the plants, the animals, the sky and so on. she was like that. the way she described cooking, for example, it was incredibly detailed. so there's a sort of party that happened every year, it was massive, and it took up a lot of her life. so the drama would be in describing how you make meat. that was where it was located

and therefore i had to try and recreate that somehow. and, also, the shocks to daily life that came about from political events that were sometimes really very distant. they are distant, but they always have ripples, and sometimes quite unexpected ripples. and, i guess, that was kind of what i was trying to catch, it was one of the things that, you know, she might be distant but, another moment, she'd be very close, like very close to the emperor — trying to petition him, for example. so you are talking about a world that we can only know in our imaginations. and yet, what you've been able to do, from these conversations, i think, is to create something which is very real. i mean, you can smell the food. i grew up there. your father's ethiopian, your mother is canadian. with the food, the food continued. in rural ethiopia, the life

is not that different, necessarily, that it was, you know, 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago, even. it was almost an excuse to go back to my childhood and get the feel and smell and touch of things. people will come to conclusions about your grandmother as they read the book, but what's your assessment of how she felt about her youth and about the circumstances of hergrowing up? because it seems that she was a person of great calm and few regrets. is that fair? i think, when stuff happens to you so early, and when it happens across the culture, there is an acceptance of it and an unquestioning of it. so any questions came much later. i think she regretted not having been able to read and some of the opportunities that she might have had, but she would also say,

well, that was the way it was. it's very, very touching when, at the end, you come to her death and, more to the point, her burial. it was obviously a very moving experience for you. it was. i'd never been to a funeral of somebody i knew before, apart from anything else. it's very visceral. and i think irish culture does something similar where grieving is very much allowed and expected, but there are systems. she was buried by the church into which she was married. and there's a procession, and the priests are in theirfull regalia. and the whole town, basically, sees her pass. one of the things, finally, that i think is striking about the book — you've kept yourself out of it almost entirely. why? it wasn't about me. it's about somebody who is very different to me. and, i think, you can show your working, as it were, but then you just get in the way. and if i had put myself

into it more, i would have been explaining it. and ijust wanted it to exist absolutely on its own terms and to come off the page on its own terms. that's an interesting answer. and, because of your conversations, you felt you could render it faithfully as it were, without your intervention. i hope so, yes. aida edemariam, author of the wife's tale, thank you very much. thank you. hello, thank you forjoining me, let's get you up—to—date with what is becoming known as the all—importa nt weather forecast. last week, certainly, many a scene like this, and for some of you some days to come will also look like that, because the snow won't just disappear straightaway. but there is no doubt about it, we are moving into something a good deal more clement than many of us have experienced. for that we have to thank this area of low pressure. we don't often thank areas of low pressure, but this system, anchored as it is away

towards the west and south—west over the next few days, will help to feed in relatively mild air from the atlantic, rather than something very much colder than the heart of continental europe. that doesn't mean to say it will be a heatwave, but we are already beginning to see some of those temperatures tick up across the southern counties of england and wales. through the course of the evening and overnight the temperatures will stay positive across the southern half of britain. further north, major towns and cities, yes, in positive territory, but in the countryside with the lying snow it will be another cold night, and there may be further snow showers, simply because this area of low pressure keeps things unsettled close by to the british isles, but it is helping to lift those temperatures slowly but surely. close to that area of low pressure down to the south—west, expect some heavy rain fall. further north, a weather front will produce some rain and sleet around about the coastal areas, and right up in the far north, maybe over the high ground of scotland we may well find further snow showers.

this is tuesday, and we are looking at a fairly settled picture, with a bit of dry weather in england and wales, pretty leaden skies it has to be said. a sprinkling of showers in the south—west. further rain around about the coasts of scotland, maybe over the highest ground, again, a further dusting of snow, and at this stage, temperatures in the south starting to push towards double figures. not a great deal of change on wednesday, save for some pretty hefty showers for some spots across england and wales, and all the while there is that chance of further wintry showers across the very highest ground in scotland. but those temperatures by that stage well in positive territory by day. so becoming milder in the coming week, rather unsettled because of the low, and if there is any snow it will be mainly on the hills. this is bbc news.

the headlines at 8... tributes to sir roger bannister who stunned the world by running the first sub—four minute mile. he was one of the cleverest people i think i've ever met and he was in equal measure modest as well. as syrian government forces are reported to have seized control of a quarter of the rebel enclave of eastern ghouta, our correspondent reports from damascus. the government promises to overhaul planning rules and press ahead with two new towns in an effort to address the housing crisis. also this hour... more disruption could be on the way as communities begin the clear up after this week's freezing weather. further snow and ice is forecast, with warnings in place for scotland, northern ireland and the north of england. and coming up later tonight on the news channel... we'll have full coverage of italy's general election, with results and analysis live from rome.