agreed to lift sanctions during his meeting with kimjong—un in singapore, as well as stopping american military exercises with south korea, as the north has long demanded. state media in pyongyang is also claiming both leaders have accepted invitations to visit each other‘s capitals. the british government has averted a damaging defeat for its brexit strategy — a mix of last—minute promises and negotiations persuaded a majority of 26 members of parliament to reject an amendment to the eu withdrawal bill. the amendment would have given parliament wide powers over the brexit process. france and italy have exchanged sharp words over hundreds of migrants on a ship in the mediterranean. the french president accused the italian government of "cynicism and irresponsibility" for refusing to let them land in italy. the 2018 world cup kicks off in russia on thursday and the england team are now on their way to their training camp where they'll prepare for monday's game against tunisia. from russia, here's our sports

correspondent natalie pirks. they may be the youngest of any team here, they may be the least experienced, but if prizes were handed out for enthusiasm, england would be front of the queue. the world cup is the biggest tournament in football, so this is what it is all about, this is what you work hard for as a kid and spend all them hours training. this is the stage you want to be on, the biggest stage in the world. this is finally a squad england fans feel connected to — thanks to some steady leadership. i think people can see there is a humility about the group, and there is absolutely no reason why there should not be, by the way. so, you know, that's important for us, that's important for the way that we work. we've got to keep wanting to improve, and we are representing our country in the greatest sporting tournament there is. they flew into st petersburg, home to the beautiful winter palace, site of the russian revolution. but if england plans

to stage its own, it will be a quiet one. 30km away lies repino, the sleepy resort town on the shores of the gulf of finland where england will call home. their forest hotel is heavily guarded, with police and security taking no chances. locals, though, are waiting for a glimpse of their new neighbours. translation: we found out that the england team will be staying here by accident, and now we're walking round here, and we really want to meet them. by the training ground, fences have gone up to keep prying eyes out. but it's not all bad for the locals — social houses in the area have received makeovers. this woman came home to find her house being painted a month ago. she also got a new roof and drainpipes. keeping up appearances is important here. well, as you can imagine, with only around 2500 inhabitants, there's really not much to do here, bar the beach and a few restaurants. now, gareth southgate dismissed

the notion of boredom as a nonsense, but with the buzz of st petersburg quite some way in the distance, he needs to hope he's got this one right. but cabin fever can't be blamed, says a former captain. you get given games, you get given books. whatever you want is provided on a plate for you. you're here to play football for a month of your life, that's not too much to ask. what is a big ask is for england to win. it's been 52 years after all, but at least fans can now see the green shoots of progress. natalie pirks, bbc news, repino. tens of thousands of children in pakistan are legally employed as domestic servants. they cook and clean for their employers, and are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. but as secunder kermani has been investigating for our world — there are rarely consequences for those who cause them harm. his programme contains some scenes which viewers may find upsetting. for losing a broom, this ten—year—old girl says

she was beaten and her hands were burned. this 16—year—old boy died allegedly after being assaulted again and again. their horrific stories highlight the plight of some children working as servants in the homes of the rich and powerful in pakistan. but their desperately poor families often choose not to pursue the cases... ..meaning those accused of abuse regularly go unpunished. wherever you go in pakistan, you can see young children working

to support their families. but others are less visible, working behind closed doors in upmarket neighbourhoods. tens of thousands of children are sent by their impoverished families to work as domestic servants in homes across pakistan. some of them are aged as young as eight or nine years old. and in most of the country, there is simply no law whatsoever preventing anyone from hiring them. ten—year—old tayyaba is learning to be a child again. he is very fat... (laughs). she used to work hundreds of miles away from her family, in the home of a judge and his wife

in the capital islamabad. these pictures of her taken in late 2016 caused outrage on social media. tayyaba is currently being looked after at a children's home run by a charity. sitting with her best friend and her carers, she agreed to talk to us. the couple employing her have denied mistreating tayyaba. but she told me she was beaten by the wife just for losing a broom.

the children here are divided into houses, each with a specific carer, or mother, to look after them. azmat has been helping tayya ba recover from her ordeal. tayyaba's best friend in the home is another former child maid, fatimah. slightly older and more confident, she has taken tayyaba under her wing. tayyaba grew up in a small village about 200 miles south of islamabad. i went to meet her father to find out why the ten—year—old had

to leave home to go and work for a judge and his wife. children aren't legally allowed to work in most businesses in pakistan, but despite calls from campaigners, in the vast majority of the country there is no ban on them working inside homes. there are thought to be over 250,000 children working as domestic servants. some child maids end up working in homes alongside their mothers, orfind jobs in their own neighbourhood. but for others it is much more organised. there are employment agents acting as middlemen, and we are on oui’ way now to meet one of them. irshad bibi runs an employment agency on the outskirts of islamabad. she has no shortage of clients looking for domestic workers, and no shortage of families volunteering their children. some people would say these children

shouldn't be working, they should be in school. amidst the tangled streets of the historic centre of lahore, we discovered one of the most shocking examples of what can happen to children who are domestic servants. 16—year—old akhtar died while working in the home of a local politician and her daughter. his uncle was the first

from the family to recover the body. the home belongs to shahjahan, a local politician from the ruling party. she, though, was never accused of any wrongdoing. also living there was her daughter fauzia. both women deny abusing akhtar and say he died from an infection. but akhtar‘s 12—year—old sister also worked there. she said she and her brother were regularly beaten by the politician's daughter. the police registered a case against fauzia for killing akhtar and assaulting his sister lastjuly. the postmortem on akhtar‘s body revealed he had been beaten

repeatedly with a blunt instrument. 25 injuries. the lawyer who represented his father claims the evidence was clear—cut. he agreed to take on the case for free, as long as akhtar‘s father promised to pursue a trial and not take an out—of—court settlement. before the trial had even really started, akhter‘s father announced he no longer wanted to pursue the case. most criminal cases in pakistan aren't filed by the state

but by the victims or theirfamilies. that means they have the right to drop the charges and to reach a settlement. all they have to do is tell the court that they forgive a suspect in the name of god. usually the real reason, though, is that they are being paid off. i visited akhter‘s family home last october. they were building an extension — according to some relatives with money from a settlement, though they deny receiving everything. at the time, they refused to talk to me. but now i am my way back to meet the head of the village, who says he was a witness to at least some negotiations. muhammad ali claims representatives of fauzia's family came to see him and akhter‘s father. it is hard to pin down

exactly what happened next. different people allege different things about who received money to drop the case. but none of it can be proved, and fauzia's family deny paying anybody anything. i wanted to speak to akhter‘s father directly. this is where akhter‘s body now lies, largely forgotten amidst the negotiations, squabbling, and accusations of money. it would be easy to blame these

families for seeming to give up on the chance ofjustice for their dead children in exchange for a few thousand dollars. but when you see the kind of poverty that they live in, then perhaps it becomes completely understandable. the problem is that if no one is ever punished for these crimes, they'll never stop. i wanted to ask about fauzia about the allegations against her myself, but couldn't get an answer. fauzia livesjust up the road here. we have had no response to our allegations. we have been told that at the time of akhter‘s death, fauzia was working as a some sort of teacher. and now because there was no conviction, there is nothing preventing fauzia from working with children again. fauzia's mother, who we've been told

that with her at the time — even though she was not accused of any abuse — is still a member of the regional assembly. i managed to track her down. so she was just saying that she's out of breath, that she's a heart patient and can barely breathe. 0bviously didn't want to answer our questions. but it is really hard to understand how she could live in the same house as her daughter and this young boy akhter and not know what is going on.

that is what we wanted to ask her about. in the case of 10—year—old tayyaba, there was a conviction. maheen zafar was accused of assault and her husband, judge raja khurram ali, of cruelty to a child. before the trial, tayyaba told the police that she had been beaten. when she came to give evidence, she initially confidently repeated the claims, but under cross—examination, tayya ba contradicted herself and then withdrew them. the court apparently noticed a change in her behaviour. in the notes here, it says that whatever the defence lawyers were asking her, she responded with a simple "yes sir." tayyaba's father, withhelp his lawyer, had tried to get the charges dropped. but in this instance, the court refused to allow them

to do so. as long as there are poor families in poor villages, there are likely to be child maids. ushad bibi and one of the agents are going about four hours south of islamabad to meet potential recruits. this family say they want to send their ten—year—old daughter to work in islamabad. a few weeks later, i get a call from tayyaba's father, and says he wants to tell me the truth. tayyaba's father claims his lawyer was paid for by the suspects and convinced him to try and drop the case. was corroborated by a second source

involved in the negotiations. tayyaba's father's former lawyer says the claims are completely untrue and that tayyaba's father testified in court that he was not under any pressure. the lawyer representing ali and his wife said the claims were malicious and false. there were convicted of neglecting an injured child, and each was sentenced to one year injail. they were acquitted of all other charges, including assaulting them. there remain free was the appeal the verdict. but there is a chance for a happy ending. when tayyaba grows up, she wants to be a teacher, because she says children should be in school, not working.. hello there.

wednesday's weather will start off innocuously enough, but there is trouble on the horizon. after some sunny spells through the day, things as we go into the evening will turn very wet and very windy, unusually windy for the time of year. after what has been a relatively quiet spell of weather, thejetstream is breaking back from the west, bringing a lot of cloud from the atlantic. and, where you see these dips in the cloud structure, that is where we are developing some areas of low pressure. this one is going to bring a very wet and windy wednesday night.

but, for the time being, we're starting the day under the influence of a ridge of high pressure. so we're going to see a lot of dry weather and some good spells of sunshine through the day. cloud amounts will tend to increase from the west as the day wears on, could just be the odd shower, and then eventually we'll see some rain just splashing into the western side of northern ireland and the west of scotland, the winds starting to pick up here, as well. but ahead of that wet weather, it's going to feel quite pleasant, with highs of 21 or 22 degrees. now, as we go into wednesday evening, it'll stay dry across much of england and wales. but, for northern ireland and scotland, this rain will begin to pile in. you can see the dark blue colours indicating some really heavy downpours, all courtesy of this area of low pressure. quite a deep low, you can see the isobars really squeezing together. that shows that we're going to see some very windy weather indeed. as we go into the first part of thursday morning, we'll see the outbreaks of rain moving eastwards, and very strong and gusty winds for northern ireland, the far north of england and particularly scotland, where there could be wind gusts of 60 mph or more,

even for places like glasgow or edinburgh. that could well cause some travel disruption for thursday morning's rush hour, gales or severe gales, so do tune into your bbc local radio station to find out if there are any impacts where you are. now, the wet and windy weather will slowly ease as we go on through the day on thursday. so aside from a few showers, especially in the north, it's actually going to turn into a decent day. good spells of sunshine and temperatures — well, cool and fresh across northern areas, but actually, down towards the south—east, still getting up to around 22 degrees. then we look ahead to friday, a quieter day with light winds. some spells of sunshine around. some outbreaks of patchy rain, perhaps, across northern ireland and the north—west of scotland. best of the sunshine likely to be found towards the south—east, the highest of the temperatures here as well. and then, as we look towards the weekend, it's certainly not going to be completely dry. there will be some showers around at times. there should equally be some spells of sunshine, and temperatures in places up into the 20s. welcome to bbc news,

broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: north korean state media claims president trump agreed to lift sanctions at tuesday's summit with kimjong—un, and that both leaders have accepted invitations to visit each other‘s capitals. north korea promised, as it has many times before, that it would denuclearise. the us president shocked his allies in the region with this pledge on american military exercises. we will be stopping the wargames, which will save a tremendous

amount of money. in the uk, the government avoids a damaging defeat over brexit, but only just. and the french president criticises the new italian government for refusing to take in 600 migrants stranded on a rescue ship in the mediterranean.