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 01:14 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 50 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 14th march, aged 76. up to 500 family and friends attended the service. now on bbc news, a special programme — miscarriage to murder. our reporter ben zand investigates the controversial case of evelyn hernandez, a salvadorean teenager jailed for 30 years for having a miscarriage due to the country's harsh abortion laws. you may find some scenes in this programme disturbing. 0ur constitution in article 1 says

that we recognise the human being from the moment of conception. so i don't see the difference between killing a kid and killing a baby inside the womb of its mother. i was in el salvador, a country that has major problems with gangs and homicides. it's one of the most dangerous places in the world for women.

there's been a femicide involving a pregnant women. the funeral is taking place as we speak. and there's a lady we're just about to meet, who's a localjournalist, here — she covers this stuff week in, week out. and she's taking me along with her to see what happened. can you explain why we are going right now? i think it might be here. menle‘s worked covering cases like this for years. and it's a busyjob. again and again, she witnesses the terrible treatment of women in el salvador. it'sjust so depressing. this woman was supposedly killed by her boyfriend. she was eight months pregnant, she was strangled,

she was left in the street. and about two hours ago, there was another femicide, a woman who was shot by her husband. the cousin of the woman who was killed pulled me aside to talk. yesterday was his birthday. her birthday was yesterday? why do you think she was killed? troubles. just like an argument? yeah, couple troubles. that's all it was, just a bit of an argument? was she excited to have the baby? yeah, yeah, yeah. she was happy? yes, baby shower, in this saturday. for menley, there's another area where el salvador‘s treatment of women is particularly harsh. men? yeah.

we need the support of mens. abortion in all forms is banned in el salvador, including cases of incest, rape, and where a woman's life is at risk. since 1988, it's estimated over 600 women have been imprisoned under these laws, some serving sentences of up to a0 years for aggravated murder. even more shockingly, i'd heard many of the murder convictions relate to women who have had miscarriages. there is one case in particular involving a case called evelyn. evelyn is from a poor rural family. and injuly, 2017, at the age of 19, she was sentenced to 30 years injail. the prosecution accused her of homicide. but evelyn and her defence say she had a miscarriage. i arranged to meet her mum to find out more. and what happened? how did she end up in the hands of the police? evelyn's story was hard to believe.

how could a woman who apparently had a miscarriage be sentenced to 30 years in prison? i wanted to know more about the case, so i went to meet evelyn's lawyer, denis munoz. denis is one of the few lawyers in the country prepared to work on cases like evelyn's. they're controversial, and he has been derogatively labelled as the pro—abortion lawyer. how is it possible that a teenager who has a miscarriage can be sent to jail for 30 years? so evelyn is an example of that?

it sounds you're saying that any woman who has a miscarriage is at risk of being sentenced to 30 years injail? no matter your views on abortion, whether you're for it or against it, the surprising thing about the cases denis represents is that the majority of them have nothing to do with abortion — they are, in fact, stillbirths or miscarriages. and you'd be hard—pressed to find somebody who truly believes that a woman should spend 30 years injailfor having a miscarriage. ricardo parker is a right—wing parliamentarian for the arena political party here. we'd agreed to meet. 0h, hello.

hello, how are you doing? very nice to meet you, man. he's one of the most hard—line anti—abortionists in the country. and not only does he think evelyn is guilty, but he thinks people like her should be sent to jailfor even longer. 0ur constitution in article 1 states that we recognise the human being from the moment of conception. so i don't see the difference between killing a kid and killing a baby inside the womb of his mother. so someone like evelyn — so she was sentenced because — was it homicide that she was... yeah, homicide. but was the argument not that she didn't know that she was pregnant, then she gave birth, had a stillbirth... and she killed the baby. how did she kill the baby? one of the cases was mechanical strangling. the other was with a brick, with a stone, beating, breaking the — the — the baby's skull. ijust need to clarify something: i've found no evidence that this is true. there doesn't seem to be anything in evelyn's case that states physical injuries. she didn't know she was pregnant,

she had a stillbirth in the house... she did not know that she was pregnant? for — for real? that is the argument? have you ever been pregnant? no, i am a man. but there have been cases where women have been pregnant and not known. yeah, there are cases. how do you know she was not one of those cases? go — read — the — file. the psychiatrist who had the file told me "they're lying." and they are lying, trying to use and to change a reality. how long should they go to jail? well, the major felony here for killing — homicide — aggravated homicide, it's 50 years. if your daughter, when she's older, she's going to have a baby, there are complications in which her health could be negatively affected, do you think she should be able to have an abortion? no. so if—she — she could potentially die? yeah, she could potentially die. the baby might not even survive. yeah. both of them could — both of them could die. are you still saying that she can't have an abortion, so both of them could die?

so both lives are going to die, so it's a double homicide? it's not a double homicide. there has to be a culprit. exactly. is society not the culprit if they are not allowing that woman to have abortion? we should be punished as a society, maybe, but on the side of abortion, i think it should be changed to be harder. even harsher. yeah, that's my point of view. ricardo parker is at the extreme end of the abortion debate in this country. there are other political parties trying to loosen the abortion laws. as of yet, though, there have been no changes. evelyn's case partly hinged on the prosecution's argument that she'd avoided antenatal care. they said this was tantamount to killing the child. but evelyn says she didn't even know she was pregnant. i wanted to talk to a doctor about this, to see what their opinion was on evelyn's situation. but it wasn't easy. finally, i found one who would talk. but this was no ordinary doctor. he was one of the very few willing to carry out abortions in el salvador, risking 12 years in jail. just moments before our arrival,

the doctor had performed on abortion, and the foetus was lying on the table in front of me. i don't really know how to describe it. it kind of makes you — oh, man, that is... oh, that's its legs. i actually don't know what to say. that's the horriblest thing i've seen. in a case like evelyn, where her defenders say she had a stillbirth or a miscarriage, in those types of cases, what do you think has happened? how many women are you seeing each week? what are your views?

is this life to you? a lot of people would feel like you are a monster for doing this. what would you say to them? do you know the reason she was getting an abortion? i mean, it's really difficult to describe. and when you see the arms and legs and crushed head sprawled out on the table, it looks

at the human being. you can understand why people feel that this is life. but you can also understand the need to help women who are at risk. for the past few years, el salvador has rated amongst the world's deadliest countries for women, and ranks first in latin america. a huge issue with rape is part of this. taking place both in people's homes by relatives and as a form of control by gangs. it was thought evelyn herself was in forceful relationship with a gang member, which made things a lot more complicated. el salvador‘s problem with gangs is out of control, with thousands of young men joining their ranks and living by their violent code. they have become infamous for their terrible treatment of women. if evelyn was raped by a gang member it may explain why no one knew

of her pregnancy, and why she may have had difficulty recognising any signs of it. late at night, ifound a gang member who was willing to talk to me. if you were in a relationship with a girl and she decided she wanted to leave you, how would you react? have you ever killed a woman? what happens if the girl gets pregnant, if you're going out with a girl? you don't want the baby, or you do want the baby, what do you do? it sounds like you might

actually be a psychopath. at this point, i just wanted to speak to evelyn myself, to see what life had been like over the last 18 months and to hear her account of what happened. finally, i got my chance. the prison said she would let me in. i was meeting her lawyer again, denis munoz, to head there. tell me a bit about the prison she is in now. what i don't understand is —

in whose interest is it to send a teenage to jail for 30 years is she has a miscarriage? very nice to meet you.

thank you for your time. how has your time been in prison? there were some reports that a member of a gang might have had something to do with the pregnancy. is that — is that true or is that not true? the case was concluded that

you had killed your child. what actually happened in your eyes? this is a depressing story whatever way you look at it. 0n the defensive side, a teenager who had a miscarriage after being raped in a violent relationship. 0n the prosecution aside, evelyn murdered her own child. her lawyer's confident she'll get out, and said there'll be a supreme court appeal in early 2018. but in the meantime, evelyn will stay where she is, with 28 years left of her sentence. 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 01:14 or 15 celsius, and even quite mild across the northern parts as well. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nken 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 spy in britain. it's one of syria's last rebel towns still standing. now, a deal has reportedly been reached for douma's civilian casualties to be allowed to leave.

hundreds pay their respects at the funeral of the world—renowned physicist, professor stephen hawking. and on a collision course — the out—of—control chinese space station expected to land back on earth with a bump. and it was billed as the battle of the heavyweights — what happened when two world champions met in one of boxing's biggest nights of the year.