this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall. the headlines at seven: police launch a murder inquiry into the death of another russian exile in london. police are guarding his house. they say there is nothing to link his death to the poisoning of the former russian spy, sergei skripal. with mr skripal and his daughter still critical in hospital, the foreign secretary blames vladimir putin for the attack. our quarrel is with putin's kremlin and with his decision. we think it overwhelmingly likely it was his decision. cunning and devious — how police describe the 18—year—old convicted of attempted murder, following the london tube bombing. it's emerged ahmed hassan was on the government's anti—radicalisation programme at the time. former south african president jacob zuma is to stand trial on 16 charges of corruption, in connection with an arms deal. biting back at britain — warnings over snow and high winds as freezing temperatures return. also this hour, rescuers in miami say there are no more survivors following yesterday's bridge collapse. the authorities now say the focus is

on recovering bodies. and footage is released of the first polar bear to be born in british captivity for 25 yea rs. good evening and welcome to bbc news. a murder inquiry has been launched into the death of a russian businessman in london on monday. a postmortem has concluded nikolai glushkov died from compression to the neck, suggesting he was strangled. detectives say there's nothing at this stage to link the murder with the poisoning in salisbury of sergei skripal and his daughter. borisjohnson says he believes it's "overwhelmingly likely" that president putin personally ordered the attack on mr skripal. the kremlin has called his comments shocking and unforgivable. james landale's report

contains flash photography. borisjohnson brought the polish foreign minister to a battle of britain museum today, a memorial to a warfought in the air. every single plane that britain had was up in the sky. the foreign secretary used the opportunity to push forward fought this time over the airwaves, blaming vladimir putin personally for the nerve agent attack in salisbury. our quarrel is with putin's kremlin, and with his decision. and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the uk, the streets of europe, for the first time since the second world war. that is why we are at odds with russia. the kremlin spokesmen issued an angry statement, saying that mentioning president putin's name in connection with the attack was

shocking and unpardonable dramatic misconduct. —— diplomatic misconduct. the kremlin also confirmed that some british diplomats based at the embassy in moscow would be expelled, and that an announcement could come at any moment. it is retaliation for the uk's decision to expel 23 russian intelligence officers, who will leave london next tuesday. again, russia's foreign minister denied any involvement in the salisbury attack. translation: i don't want to comment on the current situation. let it stay on the conscience of those who have started this shameless, groundless business. and as for the language of the defence secretary? translation: he says russia should go away and shut up. maybe he lacks education. i don't know. officials at the foreign office believe the robustness of britain's response

and the unity of the western allies has surprised russia, and they say they are ready for any retaliation coming from moscow. as one source said, we have more stuff in the locker. but amid the diplomatic war of words, the metropolitan police announced that a russian businessman who had been found dead at his south west london home on monday, had been murdered. nikolai glushkov was a former associate of known opponents of president putin. detectives said they were keeping an open mind but there was nothing to link his death to the nerve agent attack. in salisbury, two weeks on, police were still in protective gear investigating the attempted murder of the former russian intelligence officer sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia, still making the streets safe. simon jones is outside nikolai glushkov‘s house in new malden for us. simon, what has been happening there

this evening? there is still a good deal of police activity. in the past few moments i have seen a number of officers going to one of the tents at the front of the house. there has been a large police presence since the body was discovered on monday evening. that suggested from the word go that police were perhaps treating this as simply —— as more than simply an unexplained death as they did at the start of the week. it is the russian authorities this afternoon who said they had launched their own investigation into what they were calling a murder. that prompted the met police to reveal further details. they say they were initially called on monday evening at about quarter to ii to this house, where they discovered the body. they say after that they carried out a postmortem investigation. they have just received the results. the cause of death was comprising to the neck. at

that point they were ready to label what happened as a murder. they are stressing, as we have heard, that they are not at present linking this to events in salisbury. there is nothing to suggest anybody has been poisoned. the investigation has been led by the counterterrorism unit. that is because this was a former prominent russian businessman who fled russia having beenjailed for money—laundering and fraud. he also had associations with other businessmen from russia who have been very critical of president putin. that is why it is being led by the counterterrorism team. the police are keeping an open mind. i have been speaking to some neighbours who say they saw the man coming and going. one of them didn't actually know he was from russia. she assumed he was aiming this man. she assumed he was aiming this man. she said hello. she was very shocked by what happened. what was initially an unexplained death has now been confirmed to be a case of murder by

the metropolitan police. simonjones, the metropolitan police. simon jones, thank you. with me now is yuri vendik, from the bbc‘s russia service. at the moment they are saying there is no connection between the glushkov death and the poisoning of the skripals. but the timing is going to raise eyebrows? yes, it is puzzling indeed. it is connected in the way that they are both connected to russia. at the same time we have to russia. at the same time we have to keep in mind that both of them we re to keep in mind that both of them were opponents of current russian authorities. they were not ideological opponents. one was a former double agent and the other just a businessman and partner boris berezovs ky, just a businessman and partner boris berezovsky, who struggled with putin for power but not on ideological grounds. yes, there is no connection at the moment. this coincidence, let

us at the moment. this coincidence, let us call it, looks very, very strange. who have you been talking to? you have been in contact with some people who know, who knew nicola brushed off? yes, i spoke to a person who used to be very close to him. —— nikolai chris kerr. he also lives here in london in exile. he is a businessman. a very rich man. i spoke to him on tuesday. i spoke to an ago. on tuesday he sounded, i would say worried and probably frightened. he said this death looked very strange to him because glushkov was 68. he was

convinced this death was not linked with the state of this health, which was not very good. today he said the death looks strange. he also said he does care about his own security, and he has his own personal security say... he will not be the only one who was looking over his shoulder, will he? there are few more persons like him, partners of boris berezovs ky, like him, partners of boris berezovsky, who also live here in exile, who fled russia together with berezovs ky. exile, who fled russia together with berezovsky. finally, we had the diplomatic expulsions earlier in the week. how likely is it there will be retaliation by russia ?|j week. how likely is it there will be retaliation by russia? i definitely think there will be retaliation. russian political commentators are

only guessing whether the comment —— foreign ministry is contemplating a responding in kind. that means expelling the exact number of british diplomats from moscow. or they are going to escalate. the spokesman for the foreign minister said two hours ago that all the necessary decisions regarding the response were being taken, and the british side would be informed about them in the nearest future, although not within the next few hours. thank you bring much. —— thank you very much. an iraqi teenager who sought asylum in the uk as a child, has been found guilty of the london tube bombing at parson's green. 18—year—old ahmed hassan left his bomb on a packed underground train during rush hour. the device only partially detonated, but injured 50 people. it's emerged that hussan was on the government's de—radicalisation programme, prevent, while he was

plotting the attack. the government says there are lessons to be learned from the case. june kelly reports. ahmed hassan buying batteries and screwdrivers in asda — everyday items but, for a violent extremist, part of his bomb—making kit. he's asked for id. he may have looked young but hassan is said to be mature, highly intelligent and calculating. cctv cameras captured his journey as the following morning he left home early with his bomb in a bag and a murderous plan in his head. he was setting off to cause carnage on the london underground system. he made for a train and then, a few stops down the district line, he got off, empty—handed, his bomb on a timer left behind. just after the train pulled into parsons green station, the bomb detonated, creating a massive fireball which rolled down the carriage. passengers were left burning and screaming in pain.

a gassy flare ran up above my head, singed my hair. there was panic all around me on the train. people were diving off the train. fortunately the doors were open so i managed to get off the train. my initial reaction was that there was a fault on the train rather than a device. hassan had strapped shrapnel to the device — nuts, bolts, screws and knives to cause maximum death and injury. it was said to be pure luck that his bomb only partially exploded. this computer—generated graphic shows the scene in the carriage after the attack. he had used the explosive tatp, known as mother of satan. at parsons green a major emergency operation got under way. terrified passengers were taken off the train, injured commuters carried out of the station. meanwhile, the teenage bomber left london and went on the run. the year before he declared it was his duty to hate britain because his father had been killed

by coalition forces in iraq. at the time of his attack he was on the government's de—radicalisation programme, prevent, aimed at turning people away from terrorism. he was very cunning and devious and, on the face of it, hassan was engaged on the programme but coming back to his devious nature, he kept it very secretive in relation to what he was doing, what he was planning, and nobody around him actually knew what his plot was. 2a hours on from the attack, firearms officers were surrounding hassan's house in sunbury in surrey. inside were his petrified elderly foster pa rents, penny and ron jones. this was a couple who had received mbes from the queen for fostering hundreds of children. ahmed hassan repaid them for giving him a home by secretly building a bomb in their kitchen. and it came out in court that the teenager staying in their spare bedroom had told immigration officials he had been kidnapped and trained to kill by the

islamic state group. it is understood thejoneses were not given his full story. after the bombing, hassan headed for dover. he was arrested as he tried to flee the country which had given him a home and an education but for which he felt only hatred. he will be sentenced next week. joining us now is religious extremism expert afzal ashraf from the university of nottingham. thank you for coming in. the fact that he could you put so many people despite being on this de—radicalisation programme, what does it tell you about the worth of the programme? there are a couple of things we need to bear in mind. the police and others have admitted that the programme wasn't fully engaged with him and there is a problem they are trying to get to the bottom of why. the other thing i think we have

to remember is that the only people that can de—radicalisation must is themselves. there is a naive view among many well—meaning so—called de—radicalisation experts that they can do it. they can have a degree of success but ultimately the decision is made by the extremist, the individual themselves. that was one of the failures, was not to recognise that this particular individual had been trained in bomb—making, and he should have been given the priority that he did not get. that would be quite an alarming claim toa get. that would be quite an alarming claim to a lot of people, who are pinning a lot of hopes on programmes like prevent. not a perfect policy, but how could it be made better? that is a very important question. we need to know exactly what went wrong. whether there was a policy issue or operational mistake. i'm sure lessons will be learned. it is

an alarming prospect when you have a programme in place where we have what they believe to be safeguards funded by the tax payer and those safeguards are not being effective. we are very lucky, thank god, we got away without serious injury or death in this case. this is a wonderful warning that we need to take greater care, particularly for those individuals who were once paid up members of isis, who have had training to kill innocent people. those people should not be allowed to wander around freely until people are absolutely convinced that they are absolutely convinced that they are safe. and in this case none of that happened. you're talked about how difficult it is to convince somebody to give up those ideas. how is the process by which we track and help these individuals changed in the last ten years? it has changed a lot over the last ten years in that

people have begun to understand a little bit more about how people become radicalised. and some of the ways in which they can be helped. there is a great awareness among the police, but also social services, schools etc, particularly in the schools etc, particularly in the schools area. there is a rising awareness. it could be done better, the training. this area is a very specialist area. i don't think we have enough resources to train of people soon enough to be fully effective, so that they can understand how to recognise these threats and how to respond to them and where they need to go for specialist help when specialist help is needed. good to see you again. thank you for coming in. it is a pleasure. the headlines on bbc news: police launch a murder enquiry into the death of another russian exile in london. they say there is nothing to link his death to the poisoning

in salisbury. with sergei skripal and his daughter still in critical condition in hospital, the foreign secretary blames vladimir putin for the attack. an 18—year—old is convicted of attempted murder following the london tube bombing. ahmed hassan was on the de—radicalisation programme. after a couple of days when the sun shone and the wind dropped, we're back to freezing temperatures tonight, with warnings of snow and high winds over the weekend. our correspondent in norwich has been speaking to the man opening the doors of a former church, to give rough sleepers somewhere warm to sleep. there is a need and where there is a need we do our best to try and help. when the weather forecast was known earlier in the week, we were asked by some volunteers and also the council if we could do something to help. we have this building. we are delighted to be able to help where we can. because of people coming

together like this we are able to offer this facility tonight. you won't mind if people have never been to church? absolutely not. everybody is welcome. this is for people who really needed. the volunteers who come, some will go to church, some won't. this is about the community. it's great we can do together. the doors open at eight o'clock tonight. if the church gets full, there are extra beds in stand—by in shelters in norwich. emergency procedures will be in place until monday. pa rt will be in place until monday. part of the picture from east anglia. weather presenter phil averyjoins me. i couldn't believe it when i looked at my phone today to see what it is going to be like tomorrow. it seems so glorious. a huge contrast. i suspect you have spent much of the last couple of days in the south—east. 14.6 degrees today in northolt. i6 south—east. 14.6 degrees today in northolt. 16 in porthmadog. we are

being very south east centric. in the north—east of england, eastern scotland, they are already had a weather front which has kept their temperatures close to three to 5 degrees. miserable. that weather front is important. i have some interesting graphics. look at this. here is one i made earlier! you won't want to see it. that area of low pressure in the atlantic was the dominant feature across us for a good part of the past week. but this is the weekend and that high—pressure, if you follow the isobars from northern scandinavia, check the flow across northern europe, the cold north sea, pick up the moisture from the north sea. i suspect you know what is coming next. as early as tonight, as you suggested in your introduction, we are going to see that weather front tom blitz way across the british isles. that is persistent snow across southern england and southern wales in the morning. becoming more showery with snow showers. further

north there is a complete supply of snow showers running in the north sea. eastern scotland, eastern england absolutely exposed to those. given the strength of the wind, temperature is feeling like —6, —7, minus eight. some of those snow showers will get into wales and the midlands. it sounds like it could cause disruption? absolutely. to that effect the met office have issued a number of weather warnings. he said! i'm doing these. a bit of a battle there as to whether it was me or the director. it is all under control! it is all my fault. as indeed is the weather. the amber warnings out there from about four o'clock on saturday afternoon ride through the night, into sunday morning at nine o'clock. these things tend to come in streets. that is why we have that sort of

projection from the humberto the wash, across the north midlands, southern pennines. with such strength on that wind, and we are looking at winds of 50 file —— 55 to 60 mph. that is why we have gone from springlike weather to being almost back to where we were a couple of weeks ago. that is not to say that the same amount of snow falls in the same place. how long will it last? can you tell me?|j can. it last until sunday. i will put the cloud by game just to suggest there will be some brightness get into east anglia to finish off the afternoon. the snow showers beginning to give up the ghost in the east. if three or 4 degrees is not your thing, hang on in there for next week. is going to get nice again? almost as quickly, from monday onwards, it will be six, seven, eight. by midweek back into double figures. at least in the

south. we will hold you do that. i know. i have worked before exmouth good to see you. the father of a female engineering student allegedly attacked by a group of women in nottingham has called forjustice for his daughter. 18—year—old mariam moustafa died on wednesday, nearly a month after she was assaulted on a bus in the city centre. nottinghamshire police says there is nothing to suggest it was a hate crime, although they are "keeping an open mind". sima kotecha sent us the latest from nottingham. 18—year—old mariam moustafa, an engineering student in nottingham. her family are from egypt and came here for a better life. her sister and father described her as loving, cheerful and intelligent. mariam was always looking up, looking forward for being in engineering. she was a hard worker. she always put all her effort to being in engineering. in february, as the teenager was making her way to see her mother and sister, she was attacked. she caught a bus on this street to try to get away from the girls.

however, they followed her. police say she was punched several times. she died on wednesday. this footage on social media shows what happened on the bus. you move out of my way, you move out of my way. yesterday police said there was no information at this stage to suggest it was a hate crime but that they were keeping an open mind. she was discharged from hospital after the attack but then she fell ill and was readmitted. that's when she went into a coma. the family gave us these pictures. for me to now think that she's gone, i still feel like she's around me, i feel like she's going to come knocking on the door. but that's not happening. the egyptian government, as well as her family,

have called on the uk authorities to bring those who did this to justice quickly. a 17—year—old girl was arrested on suspicion of assault but has been released on conditional bail. in a tweet this afternoon, the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, assured the egyptian authorities that nottinghamshire police was investigating the case. sima kotecha, bbc news, nottingham. in florida, at least six people have been killed after a newly built bridge collapsed onto a busy road in miami. the bridge had been put up in six hours just six days ago, using a method called accelerated construction to avoid traffic disruption. police say hopes of finding more people alive are fading. investigators will now conduct an enquiry into the cause of the collapse. the clothing chain, topman, has apologised for any offence that was caused, after criticism that a t—shirt it had been selling, could be seen to refer to the hillsborough disaster.

the red top, which has now been withdrawn from sale, has a large 96 on the back and is being interpreted by some liverpool fans as a reference to the number of people who died in the 1989 disaster. topman say the design was inspired by a bob marley song. the first polar bear cub born in the uk in 25 years, could be glimpsed by the public as early as next week. the cub was born just before christmas at the highland wildlife park. iain macinnes has more. after the initial first cries, tentative first steps after weeks in the warmth of its ten. the polar bear cub emerged earlier this week to the delight of keepers at the park. it is fantastic. it is really chunky, it is growing rapidly and it is starting to investigate everything from a small pool of water we have given it, to carrots and salmon. it is not eating them yet. it is starting to investigate

all of that. just very playful and buoyant. the cub is learning slowly what it can and can't do. despite the slips and stumbles, keepers says it is settling in well. we will be offering mum the opportunity to go outside in the next couple of days, and bring the cupboard she wants too. i would suspect to feel anxious. she is very concerned about the club. —— cub. bit by bit we will be getting a confidence up. this is a big deal. there is a feeling of accomplishment among the team here. the park don't know is sex yet. but what of a name? amy at it as a girl. sandy if it is a boy. nevis is my name. the park is expecting a spike in visitor numbers. with the easter holidays approaching, it may be

bears and not bunnies that the centre of attention in the highlands this summer. —— easter. on the line now is douglas richardson from the highland wildlife park. douglas, how long will it take you to find out if it is a boy or a girl and when can you name it? it will probably be over the next few weeks, depending on how quickly mum calms down a little bit. we don't want to stress hareide. we will do it when we think she will be comfortable with a short separation, so we can examine the cub, microchip it, sex it and put it back with more mass quickly as possible. probably two to three weeks. it will be a huge draw for the public. how careful you have to be in introducing the mum and the baby to be in introducing the mum and the ba by to to be in introducing the mum and the baby to visitors? because of the nature of our enclosures, they are

about as far removed as the traditional polar bears —— polar bear enclosures you can get. there is lots of vegetation. if mum wants to stay ioo, is lots of vegetation. if mum wants to stay 100, 150 metres away from the visitors, it is easy for her to do. i am not envisaging that when we do. i am not envisaging that when we do openly area that that will cause her any stress. you mentioned the conditions they are kept in. how important do you think they have beenin important do you think they have been in actually getting this baby born in captivity after such a long gap from the last one? one of the reasons, well, the primary reason for the big gap in polar bears is that zoos in the 80s and 90s were under a huge amount of pressure to phase polar bears out because of how they were kept. these outdated concrete dens. so basically that is what happened. there is died there

we re what happened. there is died there were shipped out to other zoos. —— bares. when we were down to the last polar bear, which was at edinburgh zoo, we were asked to has it at the park, so we thought, 0k, how can we do this? so we started to think on a com pletely do this? so we started to think on a completely different scale than had been the case historically. and i think because of the size and dynamism of the enclosures that we have and the way we manage the animals socially, and the enrichment programme we have, theyjust settle in better. and so we produced a cockbain pretty much record time actually. does kerry worked. whatever you have done has clearly worked. as the luck with the cup and by mum. thank you for talking to us. —— best of luck with the cup and the marmot. it is a real winter's tale. we are back where we were a few

weeks ago. if you see any spring water or sunshine of late, forget all about that, it is potential disruption, snow and ice, starting tonight. a band of snow tumbling from the north—east of england down into the southern half of britain, wintry showers a plenty as those night—time temperatures really tumblr way. a raw start of the new day on saturday. —— really tumble away. snow showers only, no cloud. if you are seeing white, these are snow showers, and plenty of them. a bit more continuous for a time. it will feel colder than of late. temperatures barely above freezing in one or two spots. add in the strength of the wind and it will feel like —6, —7 or minus eight. saturday afternoon onwards into sunday, the met office have three amber warnings for slow and ice. ——. and ice. this is bbc news. our latest headlines: police launch a murder inquiry into the death of another russian exile in london.

they say there is nothing to link his death to the poisoning in salisbury. an 18—year—old is convicted of attempted murder following the london tube bombing. it's emerged ahmed hassan was on the government's de—radicalisation programme, prevent. the former south african president jacob zuma is to stand trial on 16 charges of corruption in connection with an arms deal. rescuers in miami say there are no more survivors following yesterday's motorway bridge collapse, which killed at least six people. authorities now say the focus is on recovering bodies buried under the rubble. theresa may has been accused of planning to "throw open" britain's borders after brexit, by a cross—party group of pro—european mps. it comes after transport secretary chris grayling said there won't be any border checks at dover when britain leaves the eu in march next year. peter whittlesea reports. with just over a year to go before

the uk leaves europe, the transport secretary was given a grilling over whether these teams would become an everyday occurrence in cannes. but chris grayling last night reassured the question time audience in dover, saying gridlock because by lorry delays in a post—brexit britain. saying gridlock because by lorry delays in a post-brexit britain. we will maintaina delays in a post-brexit britain. we will maintain a free—flowing border at dover. we will not impose checks on the port. it was utterly unrealistic to do so. we don't check lorries now, we're not going to be checking lorries from dover in the future. but as they know only too well at this customs clearance centre, lorries are taxed. in fact, every lorry bound for coming from a non—eu country has to be cleared. here they wonder whether the funds but secretary has done his homework. from a personal point of view, i do find it difficult to appreciate what they say with so limited understanding of what happened is that they. is it concerning that the transport secretary doesn't have a

total grasp of what checks are carried out at the moment? look, everyone knows what chris grayling is talking about is the fact there are not routine customs checks on goods from the european union. what he is saying is, after we leave the european union, that is the ideal place for us to be. the cross—channel industry is so concerned about the threat of queues caused by customs checks that companies like eurotunnel have entered into private talks with the government, aren't by gagging clause is called non—disclosure agreements, so neither party can reveal what is discussed. the concerns are about how long it will take to implement whatever the decision is at the end of the day. where we need to get to now is the decision, and the decision needs to incorporate frictionless borders. industry insiders agree that frictionless borders are the only way to avoid gridlock on kent's ripped away network, and the government has taken that message on board. peter

whittle c. pauline bastidon is head of european policy at the uk—based freight transport association. she joins us from brussels. pauline, thank you very much. what's your view of this idea that we could drive straight through, no need to stop in dover? good evening. what chris grayling has said basically is that there wouldn't be any text of any sort on lorries in the uk. well, bats, you know, that's his view from the uk side —— wouldn't be any checks. we have to remember that there are two sides of the border. in this case, we need to look at what will happen on the french side, what will happen on the french side, what could happen in calais and in dunkirk, as well as what would happen in euro tunnel, for instance. and i'm sorry to say that basically if you leave the customs union and the single market, the french authorities would have no choice but to conduct certain checks. of course, there would probably be some

customs checks. you know, they've confirmed that much. if you look at the reports of french customs, the annual report of french customs published today, they were basically saying that, yes, they would have to prepare for physical checks. and that's why they also announced today that's why they also announced today that they are going to recruit a few hundred additional officials to do the checks at the border. that also what you have to remember is that there are all kinds of other rules that mean that french authorities would have to check her. for instance, sanitary rules. so if you have meat —— would have to check products. you have to check a certain percentage of the meat products that would be crossing the border. when they come into eu territory. so, it's 20% of physical checks for pork, beef or lamb. and 50% for poultry. wouldn't all of this mean, though, that thisjust

becomes france's rob lyttle and britain looks like it's more open for business than the rest of the continent —— that it becomes france's rob. what do you think happens when the ferry is delayed or whatever are waiting because there are checks on the other end? and it's going to be the same everywhere, because, you know, these are eu rules. so this will be required also in zebra girl, this will be required all over europe —— in belgium. this is a crossing. we are not, you know, the border is not the end of the story. you have dover and then you have the other side. to be honest, what we are also worried about is the suggestion that there will be no checks whatsoever on uk territory. it certainly seems that... it seems like a free for all. sorry, it seems like there will be her a lot more discussion —— like

there will have to be a lot more discussion and the eu 27 will have something to say. pauline, thank you for talking to us tonight. south africa's former president, jacob zuma, is to face prosecution for 16 charges of corruption relating to a multi—billion—dollar arms deal before he took office. the charges — which mr zuma denies — include counts of fraud, racketeering and money laundering. a french arms company has also been charged. mr zuma was forced to resign last month. he is facing 16 charges of corruption, including fraud, racketeering, and money—laundering. the charges had been controversially set aside nine years ago. paving the way for mr zuma to become president. the prosecuting authority says it has more than 200 witnesses lined up for this case. this is going to be a long and complicated trial. after consideration of the matter, i am of the view that there are reasonable prospect of a successful prosecution

of mrzuma on prospect of a successful prosecution of mr zuma on that charge is listed in the indictment. this case dates back to the early 90s, when the state purchased fighterjets, patrol boats and other arms in a massive defence of a hole, now known as the arms deal. the charges relate to allegations that mr zuma solicited bribes for his personal benefit from a french arms company through his financial adviser, mr shaikh. he a french arms company through his financialadviser, mr shaikh. he was tried and found guilty of corruption. but in 2005. but the former president has always maintained his innocence. this is what he told me when i asked him about these corruption allegations backin about these corruption allegations back in 2012. there's nothing to clear my name of. absolutely. nothing. mr zuma is no stranger to controversy. two years ago he was

ordered by the highest court in the land to repay some of the public money used for security upgrades at his private residence in a rural location. the current charges he is facing has nothing to do with his latest corruption scandal, involving his relationship with the controversial gupta family. milton nkosi, bbc news, johannesburg. one in four council—run secondary schools in england is running at a loss, according to new research by the education policy institute. the proportion of schools in deficit has nearly trebled in the last four years. the government says it doesn't recognise the report's findings, and is putting an extra £1.3 billion into schools. joining us now from devon is head teacher paul gosling, who is also a local secretary for the national association of head teachers. mr gosling, welcome. it seems there isa mr gosling, welcome. it seems there is a particular problem with this in the south—west of england. why would that be the case? well, traditionally, schools and the south—west have been funded poorly

under what existed before the new national... we started from a low base. the government introduced the new funding formula which added a bit of equity to these local authorities. at because schools in the south west have been traditionally underfunded and started from a low base, we are short of funds. we are struggling a little bit to hear you, but we will keep going with another question. what are the difficult choices, then, that had teachers are having to make about how they spend money? well, aided by z of our budget is on staffing costs is —— 80% of our budget. over the last few years, we have been cutting costs in books and back—office. but now we are having to look at staff cuts, teachers, teaching assistants, to make the

savings that we need to in order to balance the budget is. government is saying it is putting in extra £1.3 billion into schools. the ministers say they just don't billion into schools. the ministers say theyjust don't recognise these figures. where have you got them from if the government says it can't be the case? well, the government are right, it's the most money that's ever been put into education. however, inaudiable in education in this country, and we have the highest cost in things like staffing that without a hat. the money that we have but it has not been sufficient —— in staffing that we have had. we cannot meet pension contributions and the services that schools have to pay for. a 1% pay increase is nothing. inaudiable that has left a shot. white ball gosling, thank you very much for talking to us. -- paul gosling,

thank you. hundreds of nursing students at nine universities have been hit with errors in their student loan payments. the students we re student loan payments. the students were told they had in overpaid tween £600 and £5,000 by the student loans company, and to expect no more payments this year. some students say they have been left struggling to pay bills and rent. the headlines on bbc news: police launch in murder inquiry into the death of another russian in london. they say there is nothing to link this death to the poisoning. with sergei skripal and his daughter still critical in hospital, the foreign secretary blames vladimir putin for the attack. an 18—year—old is convicted of attempted murder, following the london tube bombing. it's emerged ahmed hassan was on the government's de—radicalisation programme, prevent. an update on the market numbers for you — here's how london and frankfurt ended the day. and in the the united states this is how the dow and the nasdaq are getting on.

all in positive territory tonight. now it's time for newswatch, with samira ahmed. this week, bbc coverage of child abuse in telford is under the spotlight. hello, and welcome to newswatch with me, samira ahmed. was the bbc too slow to report claims that up to 1,000 children in telford may have been victims of abuse by grooming gangs of mainly pakistani heritage? and, as calls are made for the kremlin—backed tv station russia today to be taken off the air in britain, should question time have chosen one of its presenters as a guest? first, the nerve agent attack on sergei skripal and his daughter yulia continued to dominate the news agenda this week, raising many questions for bbc news. one was the extent to which theresa may's unequivocal statement that russia was culpable for the attack should be taken on trust or challenged. some members of the audience felt

the bbc had erred too much in the former direction, with derek culson writing... and george skinner agreed. the prime minister announced on wednesday a number of measures to be taken against russia, but not one that had been widely to be taken against russia — but not one that had been widely mooted, taking the television station russia today off the air in the uk. the broadcaster is widely regarded as a mouthpiece for the kremlin, which made the choice of one of the panellists on bbc