hello. this is bbc news. i'm nkem ifejika. our top stories: heading home. russian diplomats begin leaving washington in the latest tit—for—tat expulsions over the nerve agent poisoning of a former with israeli troops. two men accused of taking part in islamic state beheadings, complain they won't get a fair trial after losing their uk citizenship. hundreds pay their respects at the funeral of the world—renowned physicist, professor stephen hawking. and on a collision course. china's out—of—control space station could crash into earth in the next day or so. welcome to the programme.

dozens of the russian diplomats who were ordered out of the united states have left washington. on monday they were given seven days to leave the country in what has become a tit—for—tat diplomatic row. chris buckler reports from washington. behind the gates of the russian embassy in washington, you get a real sense of defiance. you had diplomats and theirfamilies standing there, clapping, cheering and waving, and music was being played as some colleagues got on buses with theirfamilies and with their suitcases to leave america. they had, of course, been given seven days to leave the us. 48 of the 60 officials that america had ordered out were based here in washington. and of course, that action was taken notjust because of the poisoning of a former spy in england, as well as his daughter, but also because of concerns about russian power and influence being used in countries like syria and also in the ukraine,

and indeed, concerns about espionage and interference happening inside america's borders. there's a deep concern about the actions of what the white house call ‘russian spies‘ here. but russia denies all of that, and they of course have already responded by ordering 60 americans out. i think the white house will be looking closely at what's happening with the uk and russia at the moment, with russia ordering yet more uk diplomats out of their country, because there is a concern in a sense that there is a danger of this escalating. certainly, if you look at deteriorating relationships, they do exist between america and russia, and you get a sense unless somebody says "0k, enough is enough, let's pause this for a second," there is a real chance that yet more diplomats and theirfamilies could be climbing on board yet more buses. meanwhile the foreign office in london says it's considering a request from russia

to be given consular access to yulia skripal. ms skripal is said to be conscious and talking in hospital after she and her father were poisoned with a nerve agent in the uk four weeks ago. simonjones reports from salisbury where the attack took place. given that the british authorities were so quick to point the finger at russia in the wake of the attack here for being responsible, it might seem extraordinary that the british government is now considering a request from russia to be granted access to yulia skripal in hospital. the key thing i think here, though, is going to be what yulia skripal herself wants. the big question — is she going to want any contact with the russian authorities, and even if she did, is she likely to be well enough any time soon for that to happen? now, the russian authorities say it is their right to have contact with her, and they've also listed 27 questions that they would like to ask the british government about the attack here,

and also about the treatment that she is receiving in hospital alongside herfather. they want to know why the treatment she is getting seems to be having a greater effect than on her father, who remains in a critical condition. they've also even asked to see photos of yulia and sergei skripal in hospital to prove that they are indeed here in salisbury and that they are indeed alive. there hasn't been a response to that from the foreign office, but what they say is they will consider russia's request under international law, but they're stressing yulia skripal‘s rights will be the number one priority. we've also learnt today further details about expulsions of british diplomats from moscow. we already knew 23 had been kicked out of the country. yesterday, we were told there were going to be even more who were going to have to leave. now, we've learned it's likely to be extra 27 or so diplomats

or possibly administrative workers who are going to have to leave moscow once again. now, what we're not sure is whether the british government are going to take any direct action following that. they say they're aware of what's happened, they're monitoring the situation, but they say it's regrettable, but it was to be expected. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. reports from syria say a deal has been reached to evacuate critically injured people from the last rebel—held town in eastern ghouta, douma. the agreement follows negotiations involving rebels and russia. syrian army officials said the whole of eastern ghouta, with the exception of douma, was now under its control. president trump has accused the online retailer amazon of not paying enough tax. on twitter, he said the us postal service was losing money on every parcel it delivered for the company. mr trump has become increasingly critical of amazon since its founder bought the washington post newspaper.

the nobel peace laureate, malala yousafzai, has visited her home town in pakistan's swat valley for the first time since she was shot there by islamist militants six years ago. ms yousafzai, who is now a student at oxford university, was attacked on a school bus and left for dead because she was campaigning for the education of girls. thousands of palestinians have attended funerals in gaza for the 16 people shot by israeli troops during clashes on the territory's border with israel on friday. the palestinians say they were unarmed protesters. the israelis say they faced a mass attempt to break down their border defences and to send in terrorists. our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, reports from jerusalem. gunshots. this was a day of mourning. thousands turning out for funerals in gaza. distraught relatives...

and defiant militants. yesterday, palestinians said they planned a peaceful march on the israel gaza border. but israel's military says demonstrators threw stones and tried to breach the perimeter fence. that's when its soldiers opened fire and the result was deadly. at least 15 killed and hundreds wounded. palestinians here are demanding the right to return to land they lost 70 years ago when the state of israel was created. they say they won't give up, although israel has long rejected their claim. translation: they say that the old will die and the young will forget, but yesterday, there were young people, children, women and men at the borderers, showing the occupier that they will not forget. this is their land. we will not forget, nor will we surrender. the un is calling for an investigation,

but israeli officials blame gaza's leaders for stirring up unrest. of course they're allowed to protest, but this wasn't a protest. this was an attempt of potentially thousands of people to cross over into israel. any state in the world would have taken measures to stop people from infiltrating into its territory. for the next six weeks, palestinians say they'll stay in these camps near the israeli border. and the fear is that further mass protests here will lead to further violence. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. families of western hostages who were killed by the islamic state group have condemned comments by two british men accused of involvement. alexanda kotey and el shafee elsheikh, who are being held by kurdish fighters in syria, have claimed they won't get a fair trial because, they say, they've been stripped of their uk citizenship. duncan kennedy reports. the two men were picked up by kurdish forces in northern syria injanuary

and had been part of a sadistic gang of british is fighters that tortured and beheaded dozens of hostages. four of them stood out for their brutality. mohammed emwazi, known as ‘jihadi john', now dead. aine davis, now injail. and the newly captured pair, alexanda kotey and elsheikh. they're accused of at least 27 beheadings, including alan henning, an aid driverfrom eccles, and david haines, a former raf engineer from perth. now, in comments which have outraged their victims‘ families, kotey and elsheikh have called the murders of their hostages " reg retta ble". they also say the uk has illegally withdrawn their citizenship. one of their victims was the american journalist james foley, here in the helmet. his mother says she‘s worried the men could escape if there‘s a delay

in dealing with them. if somebody doesn‘t take the leadership and take them to trial, i fear they‘ll get away or something else. i am concerned that the international community and our government, the us government, and uk, need to work together to hold them accountable. but that raises the question of where the two men should be held accountable. the home secretary, amber rudd, hasn‘t confirmed that they‘ve both been stripped of their british citizenship. what is known is that the uk has been speaking to the americans about them, and that the last thing britain wants is to have them back here to stand trial. a view endorsed by the government‘s legal and political supporters. i‘m sure it would be desirable that individuals against whom there are serious allegations should be brought to trial. but that‘s not to say that the home secretary is wrong in her view that they should be deprived of british citizenship, which i understand she‘s done, although it hasn‘t been confirmed, and, therefore, has no desire to bring them into this country

to try them. but others say as the men spent most of their lives in britain, it‘s british justice they should face. we have a duty, i think, to try them, fairly as we will, and to punish them heavily. and to show the world just how british justice works. elsheikh and kotey stand accused of the most barbaric crimes. where and when they answer for them is now the subject of intense international debate. duncan kennedy, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the out—of—control chinese space station expected to land back on earth — with a bump. the accident that happened here was of the sort that can, at worse, produce a meltdown. in this case, the precautions worked,

but they didn‘t work quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these stations from resurfacing. the republic of ireland has become the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs or restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of the washington hilton hotel where he had been addressing a trade union conference. the small crowd outside included his assailant. it has become a symbol of paris. a hundred years ago, many parisians wished it had never been built. the eiffel tower's birthday is being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustave eiffel. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines — dozens of russian diplomats begin leaving washington — in the latest tit—for—tat expulsions over the nerve agent poisoning of a former spy in britain. palestinians observe a day of national mourning for at least 16 people killed in clashes with israeli soldiers at the gaza border. china‘s defunct space station is hurtling back to earth and experts say it‘s on course to crash in the next day or so. china lost control of the tiangong—i spacecraft after it was decommissioned in 2013. the 9—ton station should have had a controlled re—entry but after a technical glitch it‘s been spinning out of control ever since. doctorjonathan mcdowell is an astronomer at the harvard—smithsonian center for astrophysics. hejoins us now from boston. when is this thing falling? the latest predictions are anything

between saturday, late saturday, up until early late sunday to a early monday. we thought it might be saturday— sunday and now it looks like sunday— monday. the window sta rts like sunday— monday. the window starts in about 12 hours. we are following the orbit of very closely. what has happened? that is different and other prediction. it is like weather forecasting, it‘s very hard. we are forecasting that density of the upper atmosphere of the earth and when the sun and sends radiation towards the earth, it changes the density of the atmosphere, changes the headwind, so the tiangong—i spacecraft is going around the earth at 17,000 mph. it feels a headwind from the outer atmosphere and is

that gets denser or less dense, it spirals in and speeds up or slows down. we overestimated how much the slowing would be, it gave it a few extra hours of life. we will see and things could still change but we are pretty confident it will come down sometime late on the first, early on the second. do we know where it might fall? that is the problem. it goes 30 three degrees north and a0 degrees south. every 90 minutes, at 17 mph. if you‘re off by the hour, you are 17,000 miles wrong in your prediction. right now, the latest window is about three hours either side and that is four times are round the earth, we don‘t know where it will come down. i‘m hoping that

by mid— tomorrow we will have a more accurate prediction that will get us down to a couple of hours either way and we will be able to start saying, all right, this confident is not going to be underneath but this one is. we are not going to get any better than that until after it has re—entered. should i wear a helmet? ido i do have from 1979, this skylab helmet from ebay. it is one in tens of thousands of anyone being hurt. the earth is a big place and most of it is pretty empty. even if some degree does come down in a populated area, the station will mostly melt

as it re—enters the earth and the bits won‘t crash faster than a few hundred mph. the damage would be too much. i feel a bit more knowledgeable. thank you. pope francis has led the traditional easter vigil mass in st peter‘s basilica, attended by around 10,000 pilgrims. during the service, the pope baptised eight people. one of them wasjohn ogah, a nigerian migrant beggar who became a hero in italy last september when he disarmed a thief wielding a cleaver in a supermarket. in his homily, pope francis urged believers to renew their lives. on sunday morning, he is due to deliver his traditional easter message from the balcony of the basilica. a malian national accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in timbuktu has been surrendered to the international criminal court in the hague.

the suspect, named by the court as al hassan ag abdoul aziz ag mohamed ag mahmoud, was the alleged chief of islamic police when the crimes of cultural destruction were committed in 2012 and 2013. a twin—engined light aircraft has crashed onto a french motorway at saint—chamond, in the loire, killing both passengers. emergency services say the pilot appears to have lost control and struck a signalling gantry overlooking the highway, while flying at very low altitude. the body of the pilot and a passenger were discovered in the wreckage of the plane. the funeral of the physicist, professor stephen hawking, has been held in cambridge. hundreds of people lined the streets near the church, close to the college where he was an academic for more than 50 years. jo black reports. he was one of the greatest scientists of modern times, an international icon, but home was cambridge, the city and the university.

the bell at great st mary‘s tolled 76 times, once for each year he lived. bell tolls. outside, in the drizzle and rain, thousands came to say goodbye to the man with the magnificent mind. professor hawking was such an inspiring person and it‘s a very sad day. history is being made today because stephen hawking is going to be interred in westminster abbey, next to sir isaac newton. he's a scientifical genius, like, he's discovered a lot of things, and it'sjust showing appreciation. people stood quietly, respectfully, breaking into spontaneous applause as professor hawking‘s coffin was carried in and out of the church. his family stood solemnly but proud. his first wife, jane hellyerjones, waved as the hearse pulled away. the service was very heartfelt.

we heard remembrances about his work, as well as his family, how he was as a man and how he was as a physicist and how he was as a wonderful human being. also among the 500 mourners were actor eddie redmayne, who played the professor in the film the theory of everything, comedian and science presenter dara o briain, and astrophysicist and musician brian may. this was a private service for professor hawking‘s family, friends, and colleagues. a group of 160 south korean musicians have started their trip to north korea. the girl group red velvet are among the k—pop stars taking part in a concert on sunday before a joint show with north korean artists on tuesday. it‘s the latest gesture in a campaign of cultural diplomacy. north korea has agreed to hold summits with the south on april 27. it‘s a0 years since

the establishment of a unique peace community in israel, ofjews and palestinians living and working together. it started with just four families — and now is home to more than 60. it‘s called neve shalom and two of its long—standing residents spoke to witness about life in this "oasis of peace". this is a remarkable picture. these are two kenny roberts who share a desk at school. they are friends. what is remarkable is that one is an arab and one is a jew—mac. they other product as neve shalom, hebrew for oasis of peace. the community was formed by four families. one palestinian family and one jewish families. we wanted to try and live

in an alternative way, jews and arabs in one piece of land. i am an israeli jew arabs in one piece of land. i am an israelijew and arabs in one piece of land. i am an israeli jew and they came to live here and 79. ——i came. israeli jew and they came to live here and 79. --i came. i am a palestinian arab. i am a resident here. it was a very small, tiny community with no trees, no running water no connection to electricity but we had the extremes. here we found hope and we wanted to start a live with people who are enlightened, who accept us as we are. when we can, of course there we re are. when we can, of course there were some questions are about, are you fall in yourself, are you going

to be in some kind of utopian society where it is not really realistic and asset may be but, you know, i hope it's going to teach others that it's actually possible because this is why we are here. although only 15 families live at neve shalom, 17,000 teenagers have passed through, attending its peace workshops. some had never met a member of the opposite community until they came here. member of the opposite community untilthey came here. it is member of the opposite community until they came here. it is really powerful to see a moment of change. people really realise that what they thought before, it‘s not the reality. and we learned a lot. this is how we started the school for peace. the different events that took place outside the village, the war in gaza, it initiated a lot of talk and discussions and debates. my youngest daughter, her opinion on theissue

youngest daughter, her opinion on the issue is for the jewish israelis. yukoner say no. —— you can't say no. she expects all the people that come to be part of this community, not to serve in the army. i know this is something, these are easy words to say on our part. i know it's extremely difficult for the other side. my three kids went to the army but not to be combat soldiers because they didn‘t want to fight to be soldiers. when i see children playing together, laughing together, it feels good. the majority of the kids that are studying here, they are not from

here, they are from outside. their parents want them to have all kinds of education. this exposure to the other side in of education. this exposure to the otherside in an of education. this exposure to the other side in an early age shows the effectiveness of this community. other side in an early age shows the effectiveness of this communitym isa effectiveness of this communitym is a working model of almost a0 yea rs is a working model of almost a0 years that we are here. it can work. residents of neve shalom in israel, speaking to the bbc‘s witness team. in sarasota county florida, the carver family were woken up by large noise outside. much to their shock, a huge eleven foot alligator had broken through the screening around their pool and decided to take a late night dip. the sheriff‘s office called out a specialist animal trapper to assist. it‘s thought low water levels in the surrounding lagoons may have been the reason for the alligator seeking a new swimming hole. if they are, you shouldn‘t be living there as a human being. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i‘m @nkem ifejika.

hello there. saturday was a pretty disappointing day across the board — it felt cool, it was cloudy, there were further outbreaks of rain across many central and eastern areas with some sleet and snow on the hills. this weather watcher picture from east lothian pretty much sums up how many places were throughout the afternoon. but there was some sunshine across the north and west of scotland. that‘s because a ridge of high pressure was moving in and for easter day, that ridge of high pressure will be very much in control. so we are starting off on a cold and frosty note with clear skies for many. it will be largely dry, too, and there should be plenty of sunshine around through the morning. temperature wise, we could be looking at —3 to —6 across scotland this morning. a cold start as well across wales, the south—west of england. but still some cloud to begin the day across central and eastern areas. again, a few showers around, maybe wintry over the higher ground, but for most of us, it‘s looking fine and dry. glimmers of brightness around. a few wintry showers across the far north of scotland. later in the day, a spell of wet and windy weather will arrive

across cornwall and devon, that‘s courtesy of this area of low pressure which will continue to move northwards during the early hours of easter monday, bringing a mixture of rain and sleet and snow. initially across southern areas, we will see the snow only to the highest ground but as it continues to bump into that cold air, we could see some sleet and snow down to lower levels across mid—north wales, the north midlands, northern england, the pennines and into central southern scotland, maybe northern ireland too, as it continues to march its way northwards. further south, all reverting back to rain because it will be turning mild. temperatures 10—12 degrees. but that snow could cause some some problems, particularly for central northern parts of the country, as it settles the lower ground as well. just keep tuned to bbc local radio and to all of the weather forecasts. as we head into tuesday, a different feel to the weather. we are bringing in very mild air from the south or south—west. plenty of heavy april showers. some sunny spells in between. some of them may contain some thunder, in fact. wet weather continuing across the north and west of scotland.

but notice the temperatures, ten to maybe 1a or 15 degrees. low pressure still with us as we head on into the middle of part of the week, so it does remain unsettled. a lot of rain at times too, but i think we are looking at heavy showers on wednesday. some will merge together to produce longer spells of rain. there could even be the odd thundery one for central, southern and eastern areas as again, it will feel very mild again in south—westerly winds. given some sunshine, we could be looking at highs of 1a or 15 celsius, and even quite mild across the northern parts as well. this is bbc news, the headlines. russian diplomats expelled by the united states over the poisoning of a former double agent in britain have begun leaving washington.

earlier, russia told britain it must reduce its diplomatic presence by just over fifty people palestinians are observing a day of national mourning for at least 16 people killed in clashes with israeli soldiers at the gaza border on friday. the un secretary—general has called for an independent inquiry into the deaths. two men believed to have been members of the islamic state cell known as "the beatles", complain they can‘t have a fair trial because the government has stripped them of their british citizenship. the funeral of world renowned scientist stephen hawking has taken place in cambridge. the theoretical physicist, who had motor neurone disease, died on 1ath march, aged 76. up to 500 family and friends attended the service.