this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at nine... at least 70 people are feared dead after a suspected chemical attack on a rebel—held area of syria. many patients have suffered from symptoms compatible with exposure to chlorine gas. the home secretary, amber rudd, denies that falling police numbers are to blame for the recent surge in violent crime in london. the foreign secretary borisjohnson describes jeremy corbyn as "the kremlin‘s useful idiot". the labour leader hits back saying mrjohnson has "made a fool of himself" over russia. the authorities in germany say there's no indication of an islamist links to an attack that left two dead and 20 injured. also in the next hour... northern ireland win their first medal of the commonwealth games. 18—year—old niall mcclenaghan claimed pommel horse gold.

and olivia breen produced a commonwealth record to claims wales‘ third gold medal. good morning and welcome to bbc news. up to 70 people are reported to have been killed in syria in what appears to be a chemical attack in the rebel—held area of eastern ghouta, close to the capital damascus. unverified footage from rescue workers shows a number of bodies, many of them women and children, in the town of douma. the us state department has described the reports as "horrifying" and said that, if confirmed, it would demand an immediate international response. lebo diseko‘s report now contains disturbing images from the start. the victims of an alleged chemical

attack, according to volunteer rescue workers in douma. this footage, supplied to the reuters news agency, and not independently verified by the bbc, apparently shows medics desperately trying to help children and families. syria's government says the allegations are a fabrication, and staff from a medical relief organisation on the front line say they are worried about what could have been used. we have received many patients who suffered from symptoms compatible with the exposure to high concentration chlorine gas. also, their symptoms were deteriorating in a fashion that is not compatible with pure chlorine gas exposure. and that is why our physicians are concerned about exposure to nerve gas in low concentration. what is not disputed is the ongoing bombardment of douma, the last remaining rebel stronghold on the outskirts of damascus.

weeks of assaults from the air and the ground as the president's troops, backed by russia, try and reclaim control of the town, and that is perhaps why the us has been quick to blame both, saying the regime of president assad and its backers must be held accountable, and any further attacks prevented immediately. it said... it is civilians who suffer most is this conflict continues, but the end of this conflict seemingly nowhere in sight. let's talk to the president of the syrian american medical society who joins us on webcam from california. they are making the claims of

another chemical attack in syria. it joins us now on the webcam from california. thank you very much indeed for being with us. that is ahmad tarakji for us. what is the evidence and what do you believe has happened? over the last 36 hours there has been shelling on a douma, many people seek refuge and shelter in basements. last evening, damascus time, around 8pm, there has been reports of a high number of casualties and our colleagues of the civil defence went to try and evacuate the patients, they have seen a high number of patients and some of them suffered from the symptoms of exposure to chlorine with the airways irritated. that is why there are more casualties being counted as they are still doing

that. the patients who were evacuated to the hospitals, the vast majority had symptoms compatible with exposure to chlorine, irritation of the airways, difficulty breathing, gasping for air, and we have seen about six patients pass away as they are waiting for medical treatment. douma right now, we have only less than 20 physicians in douma and only one hospital that is functional. one of six patients have passed away, one was a woman. we have also seen four children who had clinical symptoms and they are wrong ventilators and receiving treatment. those are symptoms compatible with chlorine gas exposure, very high concentration. compatible with having the chlorine go into the basement where people were digging shelters and shields from the heavy bombardments from outside in douma.

and you will be aware that the syrian state is denying that it launched any chemical attack in saying the rebels in eastern ghouta, in douma are collapsing and they have been spreading false news, that is what the syrian government is saying. and that is what... we are asking for international committee to investigate those attacks and it is very simple step as a matter of fact because un agency office and the who offices less than five: that is out offices less than five: that is out of douma and all the... it is very easy for international agents to go to the hospitals, collect blood and you're in samples needed to document exposure to chemical weapons and preserve the samples. it takes about three months. meanwhile you are hopeful that any state. forward and

ask for a resolution to investigate this attack. and chemical weapons have been used several times, many times, and chemical weapons have been used severaltimes, many times, really, in syria. absolutely. as we have documented on the medicalfield absolutely. as we have documented on the medical field and the field of the medical field and the field of the civil society, there have been more than 200 attacks taking place in syria, the famous one in ghouta backin in syria, the famous one in ghouta back in 2013 where more than 11100 casualties were identified as a result of nerve gas. even on this attack, some of them are in the same position who treated the positions back then and we have been identifying some cases with the presentation, with atypical concerning for exposure to low concentration nerve gas. this is being reviewed by our experts, but this concerns. action is needed to

investigate this and to protect civilians. that is what we are asking for. thank you very much for your time, thatis thank you very much for your time, that is ahmad tarakji, president of the syrian american medical society joining us from california via webcam. thank you. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has described jeremy corbyn as the "kremlin‘s useful idiot" over his response to the nerve agent attack on sergei skripal, the former russian spy living in the uk, and his daughter yulia. writing in the sunday times. he said the labour leader was giving moscow "propaganda" false credibility by refusing to "unequivocally" back the government's view that russia was responsible for the attack in salisbury. labour said mrjohnson had "made a fool of himself" by misrepresenting what he had been told by chemical weapons experts. the home secretary amber rudd says rising violence on britain's streets is not caused

by falling police numbers. writing in the daily telegraph, she said evidence did not back up claims that cuts to resources were the cause of increased crime. the government has outlined a new strategy to tackle serious violence, including a new task force, and tougher controls on the purchase of knives and corrosive substances in england and wales. andy moore reports. amber rudd said the spate of recent attacks in london reflected a wider pattern of violence in major cities across the uk. she said she'd be launching what she called a serious violence strategy tomorrow, and chair a task force that would bring together key representatives to tackle the problem. she also rejected claims there were not enough police officers on the streets. she said in the early 2000s, when serious violent crimes were at their highest, police numbers were also rising. the government has announced that a new offensive weapons bill will be introduced next week. further restrictions will be placed on the sale of knives online,

preventing them from being posted to residential addresses. while certain other weapons, like zombie knives and knuckledusters, will become illegal to possess in private. the planned legislation also includes a ban on the sale of corrosive substances to under 18s. carrying acid in a public place will be a criminal offence. this is a really essential piece of legislation for the policing and for the public and communities. it will allow us to control the purchase by people under the age of 18 and it will allow us to have much more control as to who carries it in a public place and whether they have good reason to or not. labour said tough talking by the government was not enough. it needed to give the police the resources they needed to keep people safe. andy moore, bbc news. for more on this i'm joined by our political correspondent susana mendonca. everyone has been shocked by the

killings and the woundings in london this week. what is the home secretary saying about the rise in crime level? she is saying it is not down to police numbers. there is a real political debate, certainly in london, whether or not falling numbers of police is having an impact on this rise we have seen in knife crime, shootings, violent crime. what the home secretary is saying is that if you look at the statistics, looking back at the early naughties, at that time, we saw rising crime levels at that police as were increasing at the time. she shows there is not a cause and effect. labour would disagree, the mirror of london has talked about this, consistently. the reduction in police funding has meant they have had to roll back in the number of police officers working in the community and their point of view is that if you have more police officers in the

community they would be able to tour with low—level crime and have the relationship with people that perhaps would lead to less of the violent crime going forward. the government's point of view is there are other factors, not government's point of view is there are otherfactors, notjust government's point of view is there are other factors, notjust about police numbers, it is about social media, the impact of that on young people in terms of glorifying images, glorifying violence, and other issues like what is happening in local communities and the home secretary is talking about working with education providers, local authorities to try and deal with the root causes, drugs as well, the drug trade, another issue that the home secretary says has a direct effect on the amount of violent crime we see. new legislation. what can we see from bad? this is the offensive weapons bill and we understand it will be rolled out in weeks and we will hear about it this week. it will talk about the sale of knives,

reducing the sale of knives online so reducing the sale of knives online so people cannot have it delivered directly to their homes. also banning corrosive substances like acid. that has been a big issue in london and other big cities. that is another thing they will focus on. also extending stop and search powers for police. that has been a controversial issue. looking back, people have wanted to move back from that. what we have seen is the mayor of london and the home secretary saying there needs to be targeted stop and search. and also on borisjohnson and jeremy corbyn, quite a spat between the two and the home secretary carling jimmy carter in the kremlin‘s useful idiot. he said there was no doubt that the substance that was used in the attack in salisbury had been produced in a brochure. then we heard from the porton down experts and they could not prove that. we have got the foreign secretary writing an article where he is putting the blame back in russia's

court and also focusing blame on jeremy corbyn saying jeremy corbyn has basically not been clear enough in his criticism of russia and needs to be more focused on that and talking of him being russia's useful idiot. we have heard from jeremy corbyn from the labour party, they have said that it is borisjohnson who has been the full because he is the one coming out with information thatis the one coming out with information that is misleading and batting it back at him. susannah, thank you very much. the headlines on bbc news... at least 70 people are feared dead in syria in what appears to be a chemical attack. unverified footage from rescue workers shows a number of bodies, many of them women and children. the home secretary, amber rudd, denies that falling police numbers are to blame for the recent surge in violent crime in london. the foreign secretary borisjohnson describes jeremy corbyn as ‘the kremlin‘s useful idiot‘.

the labour leader hits back saying mrjohnson has ‘made a fool of himself‘ over russia. german authorities say a man who drove a van into people outside a restaurant in the city of muenster, was a german citizen with no apparent links to terrorism. two people were killed and the driver shot himself dead at the scene. our europe correspondent bethany bell reports from muenster. our europe correspondent bethany bell reports from munster. the van drove into a crowd in a popular area of the old town of munster. it was a sunny afternoon and people were out sitting at cafes and restaurants. the driver of the vehicle, a german citizen, died after shooting himself in his car at the scene. he hasn't yet been officially identified. the authorities say there's no indication that this was an islamist attack. translation: the perpetrator who recklessly sped into a crowd of people is, according

to our investigations, a german citizen, not a refugee, as has previously been reported. german media reports say the driver had a history of mental health problems. police have searched his apartment. well, this part of town would normally be full of people out enjoying themselves on a saturday night but now, police have cordoned off the entire area. people who live here have been evacuated and a number of them are spending the night in a theatre just down the road. the incident comes at a time of heightened concern afterjihadist attacks in britain, france and spain. the local police urged people not to speculate and wait for official information. germany's chancellor angela merkel says she was deeply shaken by the incident. she said everything was being done to help the victims and their relatives.

bethany bell, bbc news, muenster. our europe correspondent bethany bell is in munster. is the scene there now? iam standing is the scene there now? i am standing right by the square where this happened. this square would normally be full of tables, people sitting out enjoying the early spring warm weather and the police have only just early spring warm weather and the police have onlyjust opened this square up after evacuating it overnight, it was cordoned off, people who live here were sent to other parts of the town to sleep, some ina other parts of the town to sleep, some in a nearby theatre. the police have been continuing their investigations. they have told us that the man, the driver of the camper van was a 48—year—old german man from munster but have said nothing more on possible motivations for the incident.

i suppose inevitably yesterday when it happened there were fears that this was another terror attack in germany? yes, people are on heightened alert at the moment, but that this might of been the case. the police were very careful, they were sending out warnings on twitter saying to people that they should not speculate over the causes of this incident and were urging people to wait until the investigations were complete. germany's authorities from angola medical down have promised a full—scale investigation of this. but the people here in the munster are wondering how it was that this peaceful little square could have become the scene of such horror. we know that there are people still in hospital, some in serious conditions, and two people have died. a50 conditions, and two people have died. a 50 rolled woman and a 65—year—old man.

thank you very much. hungary will elect a new parliament today, with the prime minister, viktor orban, hoping to win another term in office. he's been in power since 2003. in his campaign, he presented himself as the defender of europe and hungary from muslim migrants — but critics say he is a racist and an authoritarian. our correspondent nick thorpe's in the hungarian capital budapest. he's at a polling station. i know it is a pretty complicated electoral system, but does it look like mr albarn is going to have a successful election? —— victor orban. the opinion polls ahead at giving his party over a0%. the best chance for the opposition parties is for a high turnout and for tactical voting. i have to say the latest figures we are getting are suggesting a very high turnout indeed. at 9am four years ago, the

figures were about 9%. this year they are already up to 13% of the electorate by nine o'clock in the morning. a very high turnout. the reason that could favour the opposition is that victor orban has been focusing on the core supporters repeating the messages, keeping out migrants, stressing national sure —— sovereignty. so far, with the hide turnout figures so far in the election, perhaps an upset on the clouds. of course much too early to say. has that issue of migration, has dominated the election? it has dominated from the government's point of view with the prime minister victor orban at rally after rally stressing that this is a choice between a country without immigrants, as it pretty much is at the moment, whether the eu forces migrants on hungary. the opposition

parties stressing other issues. they focus on widespread allegations of corruption against the government, again on issues of the poor state of the health care, the hospitals and education. and also they are stressing that so many hungarians, over 600,000 have gone to western europe, and they say to the government, if the situation is so good here, why are so many people leaving? thank you very much indeed. reporting live from budapest. one man has died and four firefighters have been injured in a fire at trump tower in new york. the victim was a male resident of the building who was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital, fire officials said. us president donald trump has a home and an office in the building, but is currently in washington. canadian prime ministerjustin trudeau says "an entire country is in shock and mourning" after 15 people have been killed in a road accident involving a canadianjunior ice hockey team. two other people are said to be in a critical condition. the humboldt broncos had been

on their way to a play—off match in the province of saskatchewan. tributes have been paid across the country. we take that time to recognise our... all of our young men and our coaching staff and everybody who has been involved in this tragedy. brazil's former president lula da silva has surrendered to police to begin serving a 12—year sentence for corruption. he has handed himself in after spending two nights at the metalworkers' union headquarters in sao paulo in defiance of an arrest warrant. lula was the frontrunner for october's presidential election, but his imprisonment leaves the race open. they were once extinct in england and wales. but last week, one pair of nesting ospreys that are left arrived back in cumbria after spending the winter in a warmer climate.

the birds are making a comeback in some parts of the country. judy hobson has more. this is foulshaw moss, one of the few places in england and wales where you might catch a glimpse of a very rare pair of breeding birds. the ospreys are nesting safely in the distance in the first set of trees. you can't actually see them from here unless you have a telescope. we can show you some webcam footage. this is of the male arriving a couple of days ago, because these birds have spent the winter in west africa. there are just 30 pairs of meeting ospreys in england and wales. six are in cumbria. they mate for life, and this pair have been coming back here for five years and have raised 11 chicks. both birds are in the nest at the moment, the male and the female. the male came in a little while ago, with a fish, and he shares that with the female and he will be feeding here all summer. the female arrived on march 30th. that's the same day as last year. and it is hoped that within the next couple of weeks there will be a nest full of chicks.

this footage is from two years ago, but this pair of birds are already attracting a lot of attention. people love to follow them. they build these huge nests right in the top of trees, they are quite bold, if you like. and they have got this fantastic highway man's mask and fantastic black and white markings, and people just find them fascinating. it is already busy here today, but over the next few weeks, around 7000 visitors are expected to come here to foulshawjust to see if they can get a glimpse of the ospreys. i heard so much about them and coming down from brighton, we don't get to see ospreys much down there. i thought i would nip across the border from north yorkshire and have a look at them. and what did you think when you saw it? it was cool. it looked really nice. osprey numbers declined due to years of persecution, but this is a conservation success story. they are thriving now in scotland and are slowly starting to spread

south of the border. peter kay has appeared on stage for the first time since cancelling all future work projects, including his stand—up tour, for family reasons. the comedian greeted almost three thousand fans at blackpool opera house during the last of three charity screenings of his bbc comedy car share. he thanked them for coming to see the special finale of the sitcom, which was filmed before his announcement last december. not many bollywood stars can claim that they got the acting bug by watching coronation street with their mum in south wales, but it was the first step on the road to fame for banita sandhu. she's a rising star of bollywood — the indian movie industry — despite growing up 5000 miles away in newport, where her love of acting was sparked by soap operas. haroon rashid went to meet her.

this is one of the most talked—about bollywood movies of the year. october stars one of the highest grossing actress in bollywood, varun dhawan. but it's a fresh face on the screen that got everyone talking, and she lives 5000 miles away from mumbai. hello. how are you? well, thank you. banita sandhu is born and raised in the uk and i've come to her home near newport to find out more about her and her transformation into a bollywood star. i grew up in wales in a small village and when i was 18 i moved to london for university and it was a strategic move on my part, i have to say, because obviously i was studying but i knew at the same time, london being the hub of all film and television in britain, it was a great place to do castings at the same time. banita would fly around the world to shoot commercials during her holidays from studying

english literature at university, hoping eventually it would lead to her big break. it was during the making of this advert that she first met the director of october, shoojit sircar. unbeknown to me, shoojit, that ad we did together, it was kind of his way of auditioning me for october. mum, i'm on the tv! banita has dreamt of being on screen since she was ten, and her mother was more than happy to help her achieve her ambition. banita first showed interest in acting when we were watching coronation street together. we were snuggled up and she was watching it with me and said, "mum, that's what i want to be — i want to be an actress." i'm good, how are you? banita has come to cardiff to meet herformer agent and drama coach for the first time since she went to india. she looks good on camera and she's got a natural ability. that's the ticket, quite honestly. so this one, my sister and i...

banita shows me some of the bollywood films she grew up watching, and says being home keeps her grounded. i still don't feel like i'm famous. i'm so outside of that world. even if i do get "papped" — i hate that word — but even when that does happen i come back to this safe haven where nobody knows me and it's kind of nice to lead two lives. action! with the offers already flooding in ahead of october's release, and banita on course to graduate this summer, it looks like she'll be swapping newport for mumbai more often. lets see what the weather is doing this weekend. simon king has all the details. yesterday, we got to 19.1; degrees in the south—east of england. it was a very warm pleasant

day but it will be not as warm today across the south—east, more cloud and rain. further north, a decent start. plenty of sunshine this morning. down to the south—east where we have got cloudier skies and in kent in herne bay, lots of cloud here. we have had early morning rain as well. that has been associated with the weather front that is going to continue bringing rain across the south—east quadrant of the uk. further north and west, further settled conditions. not much going on, sunny settled conditions. not much going on, sunny spells. focusing on the rain, it will continue, movie bit further north and west towards east yorkshire and down towards central southern england, some of the rain in the afternoon. elsewhere, showers cropping up, some and thundery side, but with sunny spells in between. been quite

pleasa nt sunny spells in between. been quite pleasant with temperatures about 11 01’ pleasant with temperatures about 11 or 12. through this evening and to night, continuing with the rain across the south—east. elsewhere, clear spells, patchy mist and fog developing into the early hours of the morning. 3a celsius in northern parts. —— 3a celsius. how does this out of the new working week look? some to today, more rain expected in the south—eastern part of the uk, rain gradually moving further north and west. at once again, showers cropping up across scotland and northern ireland, sunny spells in northern and western areas, and the temperatures again 10—12. . areas of low pressure, temperatures again 10—12. . areas of low pressure, one temperatures again 10—12. . areas of low pressure, one big momentum going this way, front being thrown up across the uk on tuesday, a wet day for many parts of england and wales on tuesday. the rain