this is bbc news. i'm carrie gracie. the headlines at 10:00: traces of the nerve agent used to poison a former russian spy and his daughter are found in a restaurant they visited in salisbury, according to bbc sources. sergei and yulia skripal remain in a critical condition in hospital. the widow of poisoned former agent alexander litvinenko says reassurances made to her have not been kept. unfortunately, it's happened again. it means something was not done, and a lesson received after the death of my husband was not learned. china approves the removal of term limits for its leader — the move effectively allows president xi to remain in powerfor life. also this hour: after thousands of homes and businesses were left without water, the regulator is demanding answers. 0fwat is to review whether proper plans were in place

to deal with the effects of the cold weather. talking movies goes to the oscars and looks back at the night of all nights in the world of film. good morning, welcome to bbc news. traces of a nerve agent that was used to attack a former russian spy and his daughter in salisbury have been found in the italian restaurant where they had eaten. sergei and yulia skripal were found collapsed on a bench nearby and remain critically ill in hospital. the substance was found in one part of the city's zizzi restaurant, during a continuing forensic examination. no—one who was in the restaurant at the same time is thought to be in danger. andy moore reports. a week after the attack with a nerve agent, the police

investigation continues behind a barrier at the pizzeria where sergei and yulia skripal ate. cctv filmed them leaving the restaurant. shortly after that, they were found on a park bench, fighting for their lives. one of the vehicles that took them to hospital was removed by specialist military teams, for fear it might also contain traces of the nerve agent. sergei skripal and yulia are both critically ill. russia has denied any involvement in their attempted murder. after chairing a second meeting of the cobra emergency committee, the home secretary said the investigation was proceeding at speed, with 200 pieces of evidence, and more than 240 witnesses. it's a really painstaking, detailed investigation, as the police go through over 200 pieces of evidence, huge amounts of cctv. but they are absolutely committed to making sure that we do that in a completely professional way. the third victim of this attack,

detective sergeant nick bailey, is seriously ill, though able to talk to his family. he released a statement saying he didn't consider himself a hero and was merely doing hisjob. alexander litvinenko was killed with polonium after defecting to the uk. marina litvinenko, the widow of alexander litvinenko, has been speaking to the bbc‘s andrew marr programme. it was a very difficult moment when i received this news, because i believed it's never, ever happened again after a public inquiry provided all evidence of the death of my husband. but unfortunately, it did happen, and now i'm reading every day with news from salisbury and try to understand

what actually happened and who might be behind this. of course, russia has a very bad reputation now and everything that happens in the world, doping in the sport or involvement in election, immediately russia in the front of all minds. but in this case, i would like to be very serious and take all the evidence and maybe sometimes to provide the truth. and wasn't exactly russia or any other country behind this crime? for us, it was ten yea rs behind this crime? for us, it was ten years to provide this fact and evidence. and it was all proof. and i want the same case to be made in the same way. it would not be politically motivated. and only after proper investigation we could say exactly who was behind this crime. kathryn stanczyszyn is in salisbury. what we know about the investigation

to date? seven days this afternoon since sergei and yulia skripal were found slumped on the bench behind me in this part in salisbury. you saw the pictures from that zizzi restau ra nt the pictures from that zizzi resta u ra nt a the pictures from that zizzi restaurant a couple of streets away. there is a barrier in place covering the entire frontage that restaurant. bbc news understands activity intensified last night when traces of the nerve agent used to attack the former russian spy and his daughter were discovered there. there are other locations have still cordoned off, as well as the park bench you can see here. we know that the cemetery on london road, in salisbury, remains a point of interest. the mill pub as well where the —— where the skripals visited, and his home. it is a wide—ranging investigation and the crucial thing is to establish where the skripals

we re is to establish where the skripals were exposed to this nerve agent. it seems that that must have been before, or during, that meal at zizzi restaurant and that will be a key pa rt zizzi restaurant and that will be a key part of this investigation. amber rudd, home secretary, said yesterday that it is complex, but police are proceeding at speed. there are 200 counterterrorism officers involved, 240 potential eyewitnesses. just underlining quite how public this investigation is. and still businesses here in salisbury city centre are closed because of it. you might hear the church bells in the background. mothering sunday service is taking place. but several churches saying they will be really reaching out to people who feel impacted by this in salisbury. no sign of any key work going on at any of the locations. what we know about the skripals at no update on their progress, just that they remain in a critical condition in hospital. thanks so much for that update.

in the last hour, china's people's congress has voted to approve a constitutional amendment, abolishing two—term limits for the country's president. the move will allow xi jinping to stay in office beyond the end of his second term in 2023, and possibly rule indefinitely. among the nearly three thousand delegates, just two voted against the change and three abstained. earlier, i spoke to our correspondent in beijing, steven mcdonnell. the result was emphatic and the way that china is to be governed will be different from today. you know, we all expected xijinping to be successful in this vote, but of 2,964 ballot papers, to have only two people stand up and say no and three abstain is absolutely overwhelming, almost embarrassingly so. you know, people should also get used to seeing xi jinping as china's leader because there's no way

they would have gone to the trouble of changing this constitution unless he definitely intended to stay on as china's president beyond this second term. he could have hung on to powerjust as the head of the central military commission, or as chairman of the communist party, but he obviously wants that title as well of president of china, and that's why this vote has happened today. they all wear the same hair dye, they all wear the same suit. what is different about xi jinping, what difference does it make if he rules forever? well, it's a very good question. but, i mean, the obvious response to that is that should any leader just have that much power? it doesn't matter how good you are. and this was china's one form of a sort of checks—and—balances type system.

we all thought that every ten years, there would be a new leader come in and put their own people in, and so one person cannot amass that much power around them. that's why, in the 1980s, they brought this in in the first place — to stop another chairman mao coming along. well, now we have xi jinping, who was already so powerful. one and a half million communist party members have been punished in his anti—corruption crackdown, and there was the belief that he couldn't actually afford to stand down as leader because he's made so many enemies in the party. well, certainly, after this vote today, there's no questioning it'll be be so difficult for anyone to challenge him. and the old system we had of elected leadership in china, with discussions at the standing committee level, that has all gone. he's an uncheckable, powerful leader, who is going to be around probably for decades to come.

and i know there's been a lot of censorship of comment, or negative comment, about this in the media and in social media. what's going to happen to those two people who voted against, or those who abstained, and what's going to happen to all those people who might want on social media to say they don't want a president for life? well, we're told that the vote is a secret one, and you'd have to hope for their sake that nobody finds out who they are. of course, some cynics would suggest that maybe it was a 100% vote anyway and theyjust diddled the numbers to suggest it wasn't absolutely 100%, because that would seem too ridiculous. but as for comment from the general public, anything in social media — like on weibo or weixin, and people who have been to china will know those platforms — you can't talk about it. there is no possibility that anything said along those lines, even in commentary, is being censored.

there is no debate in the press about this. you would expect there to be panel discussions on television in any country — should a leader be able to stay on forever? we've seen none of that. in fact, the chinese press has kind of downplayed this, they're just making out — oh, there are a few constitutional changes going on at the great hall of the people — nothing to see here, everyone move along! so there hasn't really been a debate about this. and certainly, ordinary people won't be able to express their views either. the chancellor, philip hammond, is arguing that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the economy, as he prepares for his spring statement this week. the shadow chancellor, john mcdonnell, has criticised his approach, saying the conservatives can not deliver the change the country needs. joining me now is our political correspondent, jonathan blake. the message for a long time has been that spending needs to be controlled and the country has a debt problem and the country has a debt problem and the country has a debt problem and the aim on the government's part

has been to reduce the deficit and get it down to zero, the gap between the amount of money department has, again and the amount it spends. those plans have been loosened recently of brexit. but the chancellor philip hammond today signalling that there is, in his words, like at the end of the tunnel. he is known for being cautious and does not have the name, the nickname spreadsheet fill for nothing. but he is suggesting things may be able to change in the future. he says that we are at a turning point and this is what he had to say earlier. there is light at the end of the tunnel because what we are about to see is debt starting to fall after it has been growing for 17 continuous years. that's a very important moment for us. but we are still in the tunnel at the moment. we have to get debt down. we've got all sorts of other things we want to do, we've taken a balanced approach over the last couple of the school

events, using flexibility that we had to continue paying down debt, but also to provide additional support our public services, to invest in britain's future and to reduce taxes for families and small businesses who are feeling the pressure. so cautiously optimistic. labour ta ke so cautiously optimistic. labour take a different view and the shadow chancellorjohn macdonald take a different view and the shadow chancellor john macdonald this morning was also speaking, setting out labour's plans as we saw in the election campaign to spend more on public services, take various industries back into public ownership. and as mr mcdonnell put it this morning. the government has put it wrong. last year, we had the lowest economic growth in the g—7 countries so we shouldn't be celebrating that. austerity, this is in me saying it, the head of the 0br has said it, austerity is holding growth back. and wages now, wages are below what they were in 2002,

2007, 2008, below the banking crisis. so this isn't a matter of celebration. and in terms of the deficit, we would promised by the conservatives that they would wipe the deficit out completely three years ago. but i think what he's done, very cleverly to be honest, very cunningly, he shifted the deficit onto the shoulders of nhs managers, onto the shoulders of headteachers and onto the shoulders of local, leaders. two different views on the economic outlook for the uk at the moment. and picking up from that point thatjohn macdonald was trying to make, the suggestion that hammond has shifted the deficit onto other public sector organisations, that is quite sensitive question in the week ahead for the spring statement? yes, on tuesday, we will hear from the chancellor an update on the economy. and the government's finances. we don't expect him, and we have been told not to expect any spending announcements. 0r

told not to expect any spending announcements. or any tax changes. so this will not be like a budget. it will be something of an update. but he will perhaps announce areas of consultation whether government will take a broad look at how the tax system might change in certain areas and they could be to do with social care, and the changes in the economy. more people taking on freelance work and working for themselves in the so—called gig economy. so the government wanting to look at those big social changes and see how it can better create taxes to pay for the more readily. jonathan, thanks so much. 0n tuesday. the headlines on bbc news: traces of the nerve agent used to poison a former russian spy and his daughter are found in a restaurant they visited in salisbury, according to bbc sources. sergei and yulia skripal remained critically ill in hospital a week after being taken ill. china approves the removal of term limits for its leader — the move effectively allows president xi to remain in powerfor life. the water regulator is demanding

a nswe rs the water regulator is demanding answers from the suppliers after thousands of homes were left dry. sport now. and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. richard. ireland are six nations champions with a game to spare, after they beat scotland and england lost to france. ireland won in convincing style in dublin by 28 points to 8, scoring four tries and earning a bonus point as well. and with england losing 22—16 in france, it means the irish can't be caught. ireland will now have their sights set on completing the grand slam against england at twickenham next week. joe wilson reports. the six nations was supposed to be settled next weekend, wasn't it? well, why wait? seize the moment on saturday night. up the irish! in dublin, confidence flowed from the moment scotland's misfiring attacking gave the ball to jacob stockdale. he's been the finisher for so much of ireland's good work in this six

nations. before half—time, he had his second try. a third for ireland soon followed. scotland's decisive passes had so often missed their man but here a move was finished. blair kinghorn — nice. the significant dive to the line came from sean cronin. beautiful in its own way, because it meant ireland had a bonus point to go with their win. well, everyone was keen to get an image of sean cronin and family. a great story for ireland here in dublin. what nobody knew at the final whistle here was how things would turn out in paris. england needed four tries against france to keep in step with ireland, but never looked near it. this high tackle in defence led to a yellow card for anthony watson and a penalty try for france. england conceded penalties throughout the match and ran into the french defence throughout the match. when they finally found their way to the line, it was too late. if you don't have power, you don't have momentum, said coach eddie jones. france suddenly have both. and ireland had it all tournament.

we know the biggest challenge is ahead still. it's very muted upstairs, it's very strange to win the championship with a game to go and so much still to play for. and we know how difficult it's going to be with england. ireland get their own chance to beat england next weekend. joe wilson, bbc news, dublin. west ham united have launched an inquiry after supporters invaded the pitch during yesterday's 3—0 defeat at home to burnley. the game had to be stopped a number of times due to members of the crowd invading the pitch to protest against the clubs owners at one point, captain mark noble decided to intervene. that was one of a number of incidents that happened at the london stadium. burnley, though, weren't distacted by the turmoil, and went on to win comfortably by 3—0. but the west ham protests continued after the game and both the club and the fa say they will investigate. anyone who has got that aggressive

frustration, don't come to the home games because we need everybody all working together to try and that sufficient results in the five home games which we thought were all going to be a strength but became a massive weakness. the next games at home but pretty bleak because there is no way the team is going to be able to play and get the point to stay up. that much —— that atmosphere must never come back in the last five games. now to the winter paralympics in pyeongchang, where paralympics gb have won a couple of medals overnight. millie knight and brett wild claimed their second silver medals of the games in the women's super—g for visually—impaired skiers. while menna fitzpatrick and jen kehoe finished third. kate grey reports. two medals to add to the silver they won yesterday and it was nearly night and had dyed bright wild that will burst down the super g course

this morning. confidently taking on the bends, a very tricky course. but it did not seem to faze them and they crossed the line with the fastest time because they were the first down the slope. but they ended up first down the slope. but they ended up with the silver medal. the real story had to be men of fitzpatrick and her guide, they crashed out of the downhill yesterday and really had to be focused. their favoured event, they are already world cup champions and they were hoping to put them is performance out there. eight of 24 hours, they have been speaking to psychologists and they admit when i spoke to them it was a real anxious wait. the first half of today's run was just about building that confidence and by about half way down, you got into it and she started skiing really well. we super pleased. we have still got three more races. it is a massive dream come true. for both of us. i am just so glad we have done it together. so

a day off for the alpine skiers tomorrow but a nonstop schedule for the wheelchair curlers following a brilliant performance yesterday against world champions norway. there were hoping to carry that good form into their match today against switzerland, but was not meant to be ina switzerland, but was not meant to be in a match full of mistakes from both teams, and it ended switzerland seven, great britain for. they will get another chance again. they face fenland, so another tough match, and they will hope to find their winning form once again. —— fenland. golf now, and tiger woods will go into the final round in florida with a chance of racking up his first win for four and a half years. the former world number one isjust one shot off the lead at the valspar championship. woods has suffered from serious back problems in recent years and is currently 388th in the world. but the i4—time major winner is starting to show signs that he's on the way back. iam i am excited. ifeel good, iam excited. ifeel good, ifeel like i'm playing a little better, a

little cleaner. the less two days, andi little cleaner. the less two days, and i missed a shot with a sum which is today. other than that, it has been a pretty clean last couple days. really good, really consistent. i have moved myself off the board. i know it is packed up there, but at least i got a shot. that's all the sport for now. you can find more of those stories on the bbc sport website and we will have more in the next hour. thank you. the water regulator is to investigate why thousands of homes in england and wales suffered shortages or a total loss of supply after the recent cold weather. 0fwat says its review will determine whether companies had proper contingency plans in place. simonjones reports. emergency water handouts on the streets. tens of thousands of customers, particularly in south—east england and parts of wales, forced to endure days of inconvenience, as the taps ran dry. they sent me a message —

oh, the water's fixed. nothing was fixed! i think this is absolutely appalling. it's shocking that there's such poor communication... well, zero communication. as pipes burst in the thaw that followed the cold spell, the water companies said they were facing an unprecedented situation. the government ordered a review into what went wrong. launching it today, 0fwat said today it understood how distressing it had been for people to have been left without a vital public service. the review will examine... southern water, for example, is giving households who were cut off for more than a day £75 — condemned as "derisory" by some of those affected. 0fwat wants to hear from businesses, households and local authorities. it wants proof that lessons will be learnt. otherwise, it says, it may be forced to act. a charity co—founded by bono has apologised

following allegations of bullying, harassment and abuse of staff in south africa. the 0ne organisation has admitted "an institutional failure" and promised to reform its systems. one of the allegations involves a female worker being demoted after refusing to "become intimate" with a foreign government official. the police watchdog has launched an investigation following the death of a man in custody. the 35 year old — who was thought to be experiencing a mental health crisis — was detained in lewisham, in south—east london, on friday, before being taken to hospital, where he later died. the independent 0ffice for police conduct said it's reviewing body—worn camera footage from all of the officers involved. a police investigation has been launched after anti—muslim letters were sent to a number of people in several cities. the letters were delivered to addresses in bradford, leicester, london, cardiff and sheffield. they contained suggestions of a series of violent acts to be taken against muslims and mosques.

counter—terrorism police say they're investigating a possible hate crime. president trump has told crowds at an election rally in the state of pennsylvania that he believes north korea wants to make peace. he said, of a proposed meeting with the north korean leader kim jong—un, that it could lead to the ‘greatest dealfor the world'. the president was at the rally to endorse his fellow republican, rick saconey, who is facing a close contest with the democrat conor lamb, in a special election on tuesday. from washington, chris buckler reports. # and i'm proud to be an american where at least i know i'm free #. president trump went to pittsburgh to campaign ahead of an election for a single seat in congress, but the packed—out rally looked and sounded much more like the start of a presidential campaign. he even unveiled the slogan for his 2020 run for the white house. but our new slogan when we start running in — can you believe it — two years from now,

is going to be keep america great — exclamation point! keep america great! but another country was very clearly on donald trump's mind. he has now accepted the invitation to meet the north korean leader kim jong—un. and while, in recent days, it has appeared that the white house has been dampening down some of the expectations for that encounter, the president seemed to talk up the potential of some kind of peace deal. hey, who knows? if it happens, if it doesn't happen. i may leave fast, or we may sit down and make the greatest deal for the world and for all of these countries, including, frankly, north korea — and that's what i hope happens. this was a speech intended for his core base. trump raised the possibility of the death penalty for drug dealers and talked tough on trade, describing tariffs as his baby, and he again threatened to tax cars imported from the eu.

open up the barriers and get rid of your tariffs, and if you don't do that, we're going to tax mercedes—benz, we're going to tax bmw. the president's words will again raise concern and potentially even anger overseas, but these are the people he wants to hear them. donald trump is the master of the art of the deal, so we can look at it from a variety of perspectives — this is getting the conversation going. for years, the united states has been dumped on. buy a hat, get a free button. these supporters may have a new slogan, but with his protectionist policies, this was a president determined to show that he isn't changing. chris buckler, bbc news, washington. people living near a volcano injapan have been urged to wear hard—hats as its eruptions get more violent. mount shinmoedake is ejecting rocks and smoke several kilometres into the air.

it's the volcano's fourth eruption this century. andrew plant reports. night—time in south—western japan. high above these houses, the red glow of one of the country's most active volcanoes. this is mount shinmoedake — awake again after seven years. in 2011, locals were evacuated. it's now being watched very closely. smoke is rising more than 3,000 metres into the air. high winds blowing ash across the towns nearby. these schoolchildren now wearing protective hard hats, with authorities warning of the risk of flying rocks up to four kilometres around the volcano. deep in the south of japan, it's part of a long volcanic range, in a country with more than 100 active volcanoes. in 1967, it was made famous on the big screen, in the james bond film ‘you only live twice', as the location of the secret rocket

base for the mysterious villains of the spectre organisation. the volcano has been spitting smoke and lava since the beginning of march, and with ground tremors and more than ten eruptions every day, experts are watching to see just how violent this volcano will become. andrew plant, bbc news. rare footage of a baby western lowland gorilla has been filmed in a national park in congo. the baby is thought to be a week old. it will now spend two to three years clinging to its mother. western lowland gorillas are critically endangered, with only an estimated 100,000 left in the wild. so happy mother's day in the congo! coming up in the next few minutes.

talking movies goes to hollywood looking back at those who try and in this year's 0scars. early morning mist and fog is lifted, macleod is breaking and sunday will be sunny spells and scattered showers, weather fronts topping and telling the country, the swollen morfa player later on but the remnants of yesterday's rain looks likely to set into the far north of scotland better day generally for scotland, northern england and northern ireland and it will be a case of sunny spells and scattered showers for most of england and wales but the showers turning to more organised rain by the end of the day and the winds increasing down into the south west saw this area of low pressure will gradually drifted away across northwards as we go through sunday evening it will bring a spell of weather and slightly breezy weather