welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: signs of more progress: north korea says it will close its atomic test site and allow international inspectors to see its dismantelment. president trump confirms negotiations to set up his meeting with kimjong—un are under way — the talks could take place in may. and we are doing things and the meetings in the next three or four weeks will be important — the demilitarisation of the north —— of the korean peninsula. de—nuke! de—nuke! tens of thousands return to the streets in spain after a court acquits five men of raping a teenager —

convicting them of sexual abuse instead. more mass demonstrations in armenia: the ruling party says it won't put forward a candidate for a new prime minister to try to ease the crisis. saving the tasmanian devil: scientists discover a family of marsupials free of a disease threatening their extinction. president trump says a meeting with north korea could happen over the next three to four weeks. earlier he'd tweeted that he'd had a long and very good phone conversation with the south korean president moonjae—in, following the ground—breaking summit between the leaders of the two koreas. at a rally in michigan, mr trump told his supporters about the role he played in making friday's historic summit come about. it started with the olympics, because, frankly, the olympics was not going to have a lot of people, and all of a sudden north korea called in and said, "you know,

we'd love to participate in the olympics." everybody said, "excuse me?!" but that was a good thing, it was a great thing. and they went from having a real potential disaster. you know, they worked on it for 15 years to make it great, and they did a greatjob, south korea did a greatjob. they didn't have people. who was going to go? all of a sudden they had a tremendous olympics, very, very successful. we are doing things that are very good. we will have a meeting of the next three or four weeks. very important meeting. the denuclearisation of the korean peninsula of north korea, denuke, denuke. i may go in, it may not work out, i leave. within the last hour, the south korean presidency said that the north korean leader kim jong—un announced

that he would close the country's nuclear test site in may in full view of outside world. he said he would invite experts and journalists from the united states and south korea to ensure "transparency" of the dismantling of the facilities. let's speak to bruce bennett, defence analyst with rand corporation. he has just got back from seoul today. he's in los angeles. thank you forjoining us. how significant is this announcement that the nuclear test site will be closed and in full view of the world 7 closed and in full view of the world? this is the first concrete measure in many ways that north korea is taking. they are finally doing something rather than just making promises. and promises from north korea, historically, have not met much. they have not kept those promises. serve them to be actually prepared to do something in me, this is major. on the other hand, we have to recognise the nuclear test site is in pretty bad shape, according to

many reports. we don't know how bad. iam sure many reports. we don't know how bad. i am sure our scientists will find out. but we are more concerned about them stopping their production of uranium, plutonium, they could be used in nuclear weapons, and they have not appeared to make a commitment on that, yet. let me ask you a bit about using the —— a bit about — you said it is not a test site in good condition. is this a concession on their part? the last as they made, in september last year, is bigger than what they expected, and caused fairly significant damage to the test site. we don't know how extensive the damage was, but apparently a number of the tunnels that had been dug collapsed. there may have been some radiation leakage. so for them to close at — chinese scientists argued

in the last week that they had to close it. that they did not have a choice. but americans have argued that it might not have been that bad. it won't be until our scientists look that we will know for sure. 0k. scientists look that we will know for sure. ok. this relationship between north korea, south korea, and the united states, it was full of so much symbolism. the handshake, crossing the border, that you have this question of the time zone, and north korea saying it will realign its time zone to south korea. is that symbolically significant as well? they've only cheated recently, about a year or so ago, to give them about a year or so ago, to give them a different time zone. —— they have only changed it recently. the change is important if they want to unify their countries. sooner or later they will have to do that so that they will have to do that so that they don't have different frameworks of time. it is important, but it is not as important as some of the

changes that are needed. they need to surrender— north korea does — their nuclear weapons, their uranium and plutonium production sites, and things that which mean that the report nuclear weapons are. what does it mean for a unified korea long—term? does it mean for a unified korea long-term? there we also do not know. kim jong—un spoke about unification in his news address this year. he mentioned the word a dozen times. but he was not talking about a south korean style unification. the north has always talked about unification under kim jong—un or his father or grandfather's control, under north korean control. so that is very different from what we typically hear about in south korea, which is a very democratic, liberal economic kind of unification. they would not be the case in a kim

jong—un style operation. would not be the case in a kim jong-un style operation. thank you very much forjoining us. thousands of people have returned to the streets of the northern spanish city of pamplona to continue protesting, after a court acquitted five men of raping a teenager at the annual bull—running festival. the men were convicted of sexual abuse instead. it's the third straight day of demonstrations. sophie long reports. this is the third day people have filled the streets of pamplona and other cities across spain after a court acquitted five men of gang rape. their 18 of victim had been at pamplona's bull riding festival when they surrounded her and made her have sex with them. they used to smart phones to film it and brag about it, calling themselves ramanada, or the pact. at this court acquitted them of rape, and found

guilty of the lesser offence of sexual abuse, jailing them for nine yea rs. sexual abuse, jailing them for nine years. that, say these women, is not justice. translation: we believe this sentence is intolerable. justice blames us and does not protect us. translation: all we want is when we go out at night not to feel fear. we feel it constantly and this is so horrible and so unfair. the warning has led to an outpouring of support for the victim and mass protests about what is being seen as patriarchal justice. about what is being seen as patriarchaljustice. the government says it will review the legal code on rape. translation: the government wants to emphasise it has always been with the victims. it was for that reason that our first the victims. it was for that reason that ourfirst agreement the victims. it was for that reason that our first agreement of this legislature was the agreement against gender violence. we are still fighting to remove the scourge

of society. an online petition calling for the squalid legation of thejudges that calling for the squalid legation of the judges that could diddy men has received 1.5 million signatures. sophie long, bbc news. armenia's political turmoil continues, with three days to go until the country's parliament is due to choose a new prime —— it follows the resignation on monday of serzh sargsyan, after weeks of street protests against official corruption. armenia's ruling party says it won't nominate a new candidate for prime minister in an effort to ease tensions. the country's protest leader is rallying support to become pm instead. janey mitchell reports. he describes himself as the people's choice. opposition leader nikol pashinyan canvassing support and calling for the demonstrations against the country's ruling elite to continue. translation: power belongs to the people in the republic of armenia.

the people are the masters of their country. he says the only way out of the current crisis is for him to be elected prime minister next week. on the 1st of may at 8:00am we will take to the streets, we will fill the streets and squares of yerevan. the mass protests have been peaceful so far. in a bbc interview, the country's president praised the people's democratic will. armenia has shown an example that shows that society exists and that people are courageous and proud to express their opinion. that is a fantastic achievement for a country that has —— that is a fantastic achievement for a country that has decided to go towards the path of democracy. the ruling republican party has an acting prime minister in place, but it is now says it will not put up its own candidate on tuesday. it has not indicated who it will back. and it still holds a majority of seats in parliament. intensive talks are reported to be under way behind the scenes to try to defuse the turmoil. all sides will be keen to avoid a worsening of the crisis in the volatile south caucasus

region, and in a country traditionally allied with moscow. scientists working to save the tasmanian devil from extinction have discovered a small but healthy population of the animals in the remote south—west area of tasmania. more than 80% of the carnivorous marsupials have been wiped out in the past 20 years by a form of facial cancer. as you mentioned, 80% of the species has been wiped out by a cancer which is contagious. so for us to find a small, isolated population that is disease—free is significant. do you think the animals you have found are disease—free because they have not come into contact with others that had the disease, or do they have some kind of resistance? we are pretty sure it is because this particular area in tasmania is very rugged and isolated. so they are on the coast down in the south—west national park of tasmania. it is surrounded by extremely high and rugged mountains, and also is a habitat that is not suitable for devils. there is an area they won't cross, making it isolated from other populations.

what do you do with this information that you have, to encourage these animals to grow a bit more? do you keep them isolated? what do you do next? we don't actually need to do anything to keep isolated. i think they have done that well themselves. but the information for us is important in that we are looking to see whether the fact that they are so isolated might mean that they are genetically quite distinct from other devils on tasmania. devils in general are quite genetically non—diverse. so we're hoping that the fact that they are so isolated means that they could be genetically different from other animals. for us this could mean improving the genetic diversity of other devils in parts of tasmania, which can, hopefully, with breeding these genetics into other populations, it gives them a better chance of dealing with the disease in future challenges. dr samantha fox from the save the tasmanian devils programme. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: not the real thing — the french art museum that's discovered half of its exhibits are fake.

nothing, it seems, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government help to build better housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. it was only when radioactive levels started to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year war for them. they have taken the capital, which they have fighting for for so long. it was seven o'clock in the morning on the day when power began to pass from the minority to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is bbc news.

the main story this hour: donald trump says he's planning to meet kimjong—un in the next three to four weeks. singapore and mongolia are reported to be possible venues. let's stay with that story. earlier i spoke to ambassador james jeffrey. he is a distinguished fellow at the washington institute. he was also deputy national security advisor in the george w bush administration. i asked him if president trump was right to be optimistic about north korea. so far so good. most important thing is we have frozen sanctions on north korea after imposing, with china's help, very tough economic sanctions that really had an impact, while north korea has frozen its icbm missile programme that could strike america and change the entire situation in korea. a very dangerous situation

has been averted. we seem to be working towards, as donald trump said, denuclearisation. that would be an extraordinary thing. for our viewers, icbm is an intercontinental ballistic missile. should they be meeting at this stage? absolutely. president moon of south korea meet it with him on the dmz. they had a productive meeting. i think under these circumstances, first of all we are averting a possible war because of the danger of the missiles they were creating and there is a real opportunity because people take donald trump's threats seriously that we can make progress. so do you think it was the erratic behaviour of president trump that brought the north koreans to the table? it is hard to say whether it is erratic or... ah, ah, enlightened. it was certainly effective.

0k. let us talk about iran. do you think the president will have as much success with iran as he has had so far with north korea? can he convince allies in the west to abandon the deal or amend it? just like with north korea, there is a military component, a diplomatic component, and a sanctions economic component, the same as with iran. he has worked with the europeans to try to toughen the terms of the iran nuclear agreement, while at the same time he has his new secretary of state, mike pompeo, will working first with the turks up at nato and then with the saudis and jordanians and israelis to do exactly what president macron urged him to do this week and stop or help to stop iran's much through the region. that is even a bigger threat than iran's missiles and nuclear programme. that is what donald trump is focusing on right now. president trump has missed the annual white house

correspondents' dinner in favour of attending a campaign—style rally near detroit. he's frequently attacked the media and its coverage of him since he first stood as a presidential candidate. it's the second consecutive year he's decided not to attend the dinner since taking office. andrew plant has more. a glamorous a list extravaganza. fixture of the washington calendar. but this year's white house correspondence dinner had one notable absentee. the president, who left in helicopter marine one early in the day, snubbing the event for the second year running. holding a rally in michigan instead. you know, you may have heard i was invited to another event tonight, the white house correspondence blip was dinner. that i would rather be in

washington, michigan, then washington, michigan, then washington, dc right now. mr trump was stung his seven years ago before his presidency by barack obama. the lovingly called him the donald and mocked his alleged believe in conspiracy theories —— lovingly. is that it conspiracy theories —— lovingly. is thatitis conspiracy theories —— lovingly. is that it is due to fake new stories that it is due to fake new stories that he chooses to forego the event. the correspondence association deniau attracts the biggest names in american entertainment, but after around 100 years of evenings with the president, it appears that he will not be continuing the tradition. a museum in southern france, dedicated to the art of the painter etienne terrus, has discovered that many of its canvasses are forgeries. a close examination carried out during renovation works revealed that dozens of them had not in fact been painted by the artist. it's estimated the cost of the forgeries amounts to almost $200,000. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. etienne terrus was a

relatively obscure artist. a friend of henri matisse, he specialised in the use of light and colour. he studied in paris but spent most of his life and career in the pyrenees, where this museum displays his work — or at least they thought they did. translation: we have appointed a commission of experts which has shown that the vast majority of the paintings that we have at the museum are fakes. the exact figure was 82 — at least half of the entire collection. paintings, drawings, and watercolours bought over a period of 20 years. the fact that they were fake? well, there were clues. translation: you see this tower? in the background is a building that was added in 1958. terrus died in 1922. there were several types of fake in the museum and other pieces made to look like his work.

the local mayor has apologised to anyone who visited the museum in good faith. an investigation is now under way and there are question marks over the work of other regional artists. it may not be just the paintings of etienne terrus that aren't the real thing. tim allman, bbc news. 25 years ago, after months of secret negotiations, a peace agreement was signed between israel and the palestinians. norway was instrumental in the negotiations leading up to the signing of the oslo accords in 1993. as part of the crossing divides season, the bbc‘s witness programme hears from mona juul, norway's ambassador to the uk, who was part of the team that planned and orchestrated the top—secret meetings that culminated in the historic deal. a once unthinkable moment had arrived, and two of the world's

bitterest enemies had become allies. it was something very, very special. very emotional. we were completely exhausted. so it was, you know, all of us having been involved, working day and night for almost a year. a husband and wife team succeeded in unlocking the israel—palestinian impasse, working away from the media circus of the united states. the fact that we could then offer them to come to peaceful norway, far away from the conflict — we told them we can facilitate secrecy, which was an absolute, absolute condition for them. and they relaxed in our company. nobody sitting there and making judgement, "no, you should do this,

and you should — no, no, this is not possible..." we left it 100% up to them. in the tranquil setting of the norwegian fjords, for the past nine months, a secret channel forged the way to peace. the israel and the palestinian chief negotiators sort of hit it off extremely well, and between the two of them — and i think amongst all of them involved — there was so much talk about sort of theirfamilies, their upbringing... and it turned out that both the two negotiators had daughters called maya. there were so many times that they felt that this was not going anywhere. like i think it is in most negotiations. it's a rollercoaster. it goes ups and downs. don't make it make like a husband and a wife...

humour played an important part in these negotiations. suddenly they came out and said "this is over — we can't do it." "very sorry, you did a lot of good work," they told me, "but this is impossible." and i thought "oh my god, what?" and everything sort of... and suddenly they sort of burst out in laughter and said "joking!" "we have a deal!" it humanised the whole conflict. by august 19, when shimon peres arrived in oslo for a prearranged official visit, the deal was virtually done. any peace agreement is a compromise. i feel really privileged to have been able to watch truly arch enemies come together with a little help from us.

i want to express my congratulations and praise for the courage and vision shown by the israeli and palestinian leadership and the crucial role of norway. we have to remember that this was sort of life and death for them. but in order to do that, you have to have strong leadership, and i still maintain that you had that on both sides at the time. in oslo, private celebrations for the couple who helped bring about today's historic middle east accord. i am a true believer in passionate diplomacy. it is never wrong to bring people together. an incredible story. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, hello there.

yesterday we had a lot of cloud in the sky across much of england, thick enough to bring some rain as well. further north—west, showers developed through the day, but that cloud has been melting away as well. some passing showers in scotland, but a fine looking sunset here in oban. as the skies have cleared more over recent hours we have more pictures of the full moon being sent to us, spectacular shots from people out and about under those clear skies. clear skies, yes, but a chilly start to the day. for the early risers, frost patches to look out for in the rural areas of scotland. not quite so cold further south under this zone of thick cloud. most areas of cloud could be thick enough to give us a few spots of light rain on and off through the day. the best of the early morning sunshine again through western areas, but slow—moving

showers will form again, particularly in northern ireland. later in the day we will see a band of rain moving in from the continent, bringing some wet weather to end the day across south—east england, with strengthening winds here making it feel particularly chilly. that wet weather will continue to extend across south—east england and east anglia as we go on through sunday night. on into monday. we are going to get this area of low pressure moving up from the near continent. the rain gets more extensive and the winds get colder and stronger. this is what is in the forecast on monday. heavy rain, a windy day with gales around the east coast, and it's going to feel cold, more like a february day than one in late april. so the wet weather is there. a bit of uncertainty as to how far west this band of rain will reach. there is the chance of seeing a few snowflakes mixed in with this and some sleet, mostly on high ground, above 200 metres of elevation. even that won't settle.

it's mostly cold rain that will be falling, with those chilly winds. temperatures really struggling. highs in birmingham, five celsius. it is going to feel that cold. on into tuesday, that area of low pressure continues to feed cloud and bits of pieces of rain across eastern areas. another weather front moving in from the atlantic, bringing wet weather to northern ireland later in the day. in between these two systems the weather should be quite quiet on tuesday with some sunshine around. chilly where it is cloudy with the rain moving in, and in the best of the sunshine, temperatures climbing at least up into double figures fairly widely. looking at the outlook over the next few days and the week ahead, you will be pleased to hear once we have got rid of that chilly weather and the rain to start the week, the weather should improve. highs of 19 in london as we head towards next weekend. this is bbc news, the headlines: after friday's historic summit between north and south korea, us president donald trump says his meeting with the north korean leader, kim jong—un, could happen in the next three to four weeks. mr kim has promised to invite us

experts to watch the closure of the country's nuclear test site next month — that's according to the south's presidential office. more than 30,000 people in the spanish city of pamplona have protested against the conviction of a group of men for sexual abuse rather than rape. it's been the third day of demonstrations. protesters say the verdict is too lenient, and sets a dangerous precedent for gang—rape cases. there have been more mass demonstrations against corruption in armenia, with the protest leader rallying support for his bid to become prime minister. the parliament is due to choose a new prime minister on tuesday. the ruling party says it won't nominate a candidate in an effort to ease tensions. now on bbc news, it's time for click.