this is bbc news, the headlines: president trump's former campaign manager has been jailed for four years for tax fraud. president trump's former campaign paul manafort was convicted last chairman paul manafort has been year of hiding millions of dollars of income from his political sentenced to four years consulting in ukraine. he's also been ordered injailfor tax fraud, a considerably shorter to pay $24 million. spell than expected. britain has escalated efforts to secure nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe's release from an iranian jail, making the rare move to grant the dual citizen diplomatic protection. britain escalates efforts to secure it means the row over her detention nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe‘s release becomes a formal legal dispute. from an iranian jail, giving the dual citizen diplomatic el salvador‘s supreme court has protection. freed three women jailed for a decade after being accused el salvador‘s supreme court frees of aborting their babies. three women who spent a decade the women say they suffered behind bars accused of breaking miscarriages but were convicted of aggravated homicide. the country has some of the world's strict abortion laws. we report from greenland where a rise in rainfall means a gloomy outlook for strictest abortion laws. the country's ice sheet. now on bbc news,

thursday in parliament. in the past few hours president trump's former campaign chief, paul manafort, has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for banking and tax fraud offences. he had been expected to receive a much lengthier sentence, up to 2a years injail. the sentence came after the special counsel robert mueller revealed the crimes as part of his investigation into claims of russia interference in the presidential election. in a moment we'll hear from our correspodent gary o'donoghue, who was at the hearing, but first here's what paul manafort‘s defence attorney said outside the courthouse. as you heard in court today, mr manafort finally got to speak for himself. he made clear he accepts responsibility for his conduct. and, i think most importantly, what you saw today is the same thing that we had said from day one, there is absolutely no evidence that paul manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from russia.

thank you, everybody. 47 months in prison is far less than paul manafort could have expected. prosecutors were pushing for up to 2a years behind bars. but the judge said that kind of sentence would be unwarranted. just before sentence was passed, paul manafort spoke to the court. he was seated in a wheelchair, wearing a green jumpsuit. he said the past two years had been the most of the old ones of his life and he asked the court for compassion. he will have to pay restitution of $24 million and fines of $50,000. next week he will face sentencing in a separate case in the district of columbia, where he could get another ten years in jail. the question now is the extent to which is co—operation, before it broke down with the special counsel robert mueller, how much that will feed into robert mueller‘s final report on alleged russian collusion with the trump campaign and whether or not mr manafort will get pardoned by the president for the crimes he has committed.

eugene gorokhov is from the law firm burnham and gorokhov in washington dc, and his practice is in white collar and federal criminal defense. he's in our washington bureau. you specialise in white—collar and federal criminal defence. what did you make of this? i was very surprised by the sentence, it is a very large difference between the advisory sentencing guidelines, which came in at 19.5 years, sentencing guidelines, which came in ati9.5 years, and sentencing guidelines, which came in at 19.5 years, and the sentence he actually received, which isjust at 19.5 years, and the sentence he actually received, which is just one month overfour years. sol actually received, which is just one month overfour years. so i was surprised. i guess i was in courage thatjudge surprised. i guess i was in courage that judge elles took surprised. i guess i was in courage thatjudge elles took a close look at paul manafort‘s background, the likely has lived outside of these offences, and i think thatjudge ellis took a cl gave this a very close and careful consideration. —— judge ellis took a close look. this isa judge ellis took a close look. this is a curious case because there is another coming up next week where the sentence could be up to ten yea rs 7 the sentence could be up to ten years? that's right. this is such an

interesting and strange case in many ways, the fact that there are parallel federal prosecution is going onjust on parallel federal prosecution is going on just on two sides of the river. —— persecutions. it is kind of unprecedented. i think the issues and the case in dc are interesting because of the witness tampering charges, because of the, what the government has alleged to be a failed cooperation agreement, so it will be interesting to see what judgejackson does without. will be interesting to see what judge jackson does without. there was a plea deal, i believe, revoked because he was found to have lied to the fbi and contacted witnesses. i guess we shouldn't forget how extraordinary it is that donald trump's former campaign share has admitted passing on information to somebody widely believed to be an agent of russian intelligence. —— campaign chair. and living this lavish lifestyle, wondered by money he affect the bleak laundered? —— effectively. yes, again, it is an

unprecedented case in so many ways. it is not every day you see a campaign chairman prosecuted not in one but two federal courts. i would note, asjudge one but two federal courts. i would note, as judge ellis one but two federal courts. i would note, asjudge ellis noted today in his sentencing, that the charges paul manafort was convicted of an sentence for today were essentially run—of—the—mill white—collar chargers, at least in the virginia case, we are not talking about any kind of collusion or anything like that. —— charges. in the dc case we are talking about something that strikes much closer to the heart of international politics, with the foreign agent registration act. but thatis foreign agent registration act. but that is another case. there are also, i think, that is another case. there are also, ithink, some that is another case. there are also, i think, some documents, that is another case. there are also, ithink, some documents, there is an attempt to unsealed, which could be of interest to people? -- unseal. that's right. and the fact that they are sealed, it will be interesting to see what is there. i do think we should speculate as to what they contain until those documents come out. thank you very much. thank you, michael, good to be

here. in the last half hour we've heard that the uk government is granting a special status' to nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, the british citizen being held in prison in iran accused of spying. the aid worker recently went on hunger strike to protest against her treatment and denies any wrong doing. 0ur diplomatic correspondent james landale has the latest details. it is extremely rare for the british government to grant diplomatic protection to any of its citizens. no—one at the foreign office can remember it ever happening before. essentially, what it means is that the british government has decided that the way nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe is being treated by iran has not met its international obligations. she has not been given the right medical treatment, or due process in the law courts. and as a result, the british state has decided that it should give full protection to mrs zaghari—ratcliffe. now, what that means is that,

instead of this being a consular issue, this is now a formal legal dispute between the british government and the iranian government. in practical terms, that does not mean that iran is now forced to do anything to treat her in a better injail, in tehran, where she is being held since 2016, but what it does mean is now the british government can raise her case more easily in internationalforums, like the united nations, because it is not a consular issue, as i say, it is a formal international dispute between two nations. so the british can look for more allies and try and put more pressure on iran. it does potentially, theoretically, open potential legal avenues — the uk could, in theory, end up trying to sue the iranian regime for compensation, but officials make it very clear, they are not goingto go down that route, they do not want to get this bogged down in international courts the next two or three years. what they want is to put mores diplomatic pressure on iran, to essentially, say, look, the way you have been

treating her is not acceptable, you have to release her soon and that this issue is not going away and the british government is not give up on her. so it's a pretty strong signal. the question now, of course, will be how the iranians respond. do they respond positively or do they double down and say actually no, this is going to worsen relations rather than make things better? let's get some of the day's other news. two islamist militants have been found guilty of an anti—semitic attack that killed four people in brussels in 2014. mehdi nemmouche had opened fire in thejewish museum of the belgian capital with weapons supplied by his accomplice, nacer bendrer. the archbishop of lyon, one of the most senior figures in the roman catholic church in france, has been given a six—month suspended sentence forfailing to report child sexual abuse. the case was brought privately by a victims' association. cardinal philippe barbarin says he will go to rome to offer pope francis his resignation. president trump's former personal lawyer, michael cohen, has started legal proceedings in new york against the trump 0rganisation. mr cohen, who was sentenced in december to three years in prison accuses the group of failing to reimburse him for nearly $4 million in legalfees incurred while working for trump 0rganisation.

facebook says it will try to stop the spread of misinformation about vaccines on its network. it will remove misleading content and disable accounts that continue to violate facebook‘s policies on vaccine information. the company has faced pressure to tackle the problem. 0utbrea ks of measles in the united states and elsewhere were attributed to the growing numbers of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. japan is also fighting the worst measles outbreak in years. canada's prime minister, justin trudeau, has defended his handling of a growing controversy that's already led to two ministerial resignations. he's denied one of his key aides tried to put inappropriate pressure on the thenjustice ministerjody wilson—raybould not to pursue charges against a leading engineering firm that's accused of corruption. but she maintains she was pressured. nada tawfik reports from ottawa.

he's the golden boy of progressive politics, who outshines other leaders on the international stage. justin trudeau came into power promising to be different — honest, transparent, and inclusive. but now he's facing allegations that his office improperly pressured the former attorney general to shield the engineering firm snc—lavalin from a corruption trial. in a press conference — meant to put the controversy to rest — trudeau defended his government's actions, but admitted mistakes. over the past months, there was an erosion of trust between my office and, specifically, my former principal secretary, and the former minister ofjustice and attorney general. i was not aware of that erosion of trust but, as prime minister and leader of the federal ministry, i should have been. the former attorney general, jody wilson—raybould, contradicted the prime minister's account and accused his office of demoting her, in retaliation

for her refusal to strike a deal that would keep snc—lavalin out of court. i experienced a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. justin trudeau won praise for his commitment to women and minorities. he even touted the symbolic appointment ofjody wilson—raybould, who is a prominent indigenous woman. yet this scandal has pitted him against her, and it's not a good look for the prime minister, even as he tries to assert that he did nothing wrong. with a general election looming in october, trudeau is on thin ice with canadians. i think he should offer some kind of apology. he's a politician. i mean, he's doing the work of politicking. i think he should resign and call an election. trudeau's star power was cemented when he took on president trump, china, and saudi arabia, but controversy at home could remove him

from the world stage. nada tawfik, bbc news, 0ttawa. el salvador‘s supreme court has freed three women jailed for 30 years after being accused of aborting their babies. the women say they suffered miscarriages but were convicted of aggravated homicide. they were welcomed by well—wishers and activists near the capital san salvador. ramzan karmali has more. after a decade behind bars, alba rodriguez, maria del tra nsito 0 rella na rodriguez, maria del tra nsito 0rella na and cinthia rodriguez, maria del tra nsito 0rellana and cinthia rodriguez emerged from prisonjust 0rellana and cinthia rodriguez emerged from prison just outside the capital, san salvador. translation: we feel so happy, so happy. we are grateful to the citizen organisations, the national and international organisations, that have supported us. and we hope the state will also recognise the fact that there are many women inside that there are many women inside that are also innocent and hopefully one day they will regain their freedom. the three women were released after the supreme court commuted their original 30 year

sentences. since 1998, when abortion was banned in el salvador, dozens of women accused of aborting their babies have been sent to prison, evenin babies have been sent to prison, even in some cases where the women had been victims of rape. campaigners say at least 30 women jailed abortion have been freed by reviews in the past ten years, but around 20 remain in prison. translation: we want to do this injustice to be recognised. i think the state has a responsibility to put things right for them. the injustice that has been committed in separate to soar. —— is a threat to us separate to soar. —— is a threat to us all. efforts to decriminalise abortion have been unsuccessful. in 2018 two bills were put forward but never even made it to vote in the legislative assembly. last may, officials from the country's far right party gained the upper hand, quashing any possibility of relaxing the law. and the incoming president

has indicated he will only legalise abortion at cases where the pregnancy is a threat to the mother's life. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: from travelling solo to shunning motherhood — three chinese women talk to us about challenging stereotypes. the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief. this the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in modern times. in less than 2a hours then, the soviet union lost an elderly, sick leader and replaced him with a dynamic figure 20 years hisjunior. we heard these gunshots in the gym. then he came out through a fire exit and started firing at our huts. god, we were all petrified. james earl ray, aged 41, sentenced to 99 years and due for parole when he's 90, travelled from memphis jail to nashville state prison in an eight—car convoy. paul, what's it feel

like to be married at last? it feels fine, thank you. what are you going to do now? is it going to change your life much, do you think? i don't know, really — i've never been married before. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort has been jailed for four years for tax fraud. it's a considerably shorter spell than expected. britain has escalated efforts to secure nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe's release from an iranian jail, making the rare move to grant her diplomatic protection. the former foster carers of an iraqi teenager who left a bomb on a tube train in 2017, injuring more than 50 people,

are suing their local authority. they say officials were negligent in failing to tell them that ahmed hassan had been trained to kill by the islamic state group. he'd built the bomb in secret while in the care of ron and pennyjones, who've been speaking to our legal correspondent clive coleman. horror on the tube. the partially detonated bomb sends a fireball down the carriage, burning morning commuters who stampede to escape. the bomber is ahmed hassan, an iraqi asylum seeker, who, unbeknown to his foster parents, ron and pennyjones, had confessed to immigration officials he'd been trained to kill by the islamic state group. 18 months later, the couple finally feel able to come to parsons green, where the attack took place. ijust keep thinking about the ladies that were burnt and the men that were burnt and the people that got the crush injuries. i mean, 51 people. 51 counts of attempted murder. "to penny, from ahmed.

happy birthday to a wonderful person." surrey county council, who placed hassan with thejoneses, didn't tell them he'd confessed to being trained to kill. the couple only found out via the judge at hassan‘s trial. surrey has stopped them fostering. and now they're taking unprecedented legal action, suing the council for negligence. they didn't tell us the truth. they should have been honest with us to start with. and the fact that we have lost our income, we have lost everything, we have lost our will to get up, basically, in the morning, because our life has revolved around children for over a0 years and there is — our life is empty. surrey county council, shame on you! a group of foster carers and supporters have gathered here, outside surrey county council, to demonstrate with penny and ron and to ask the local authority why a couple who gave a stable home to nearly 270 children

have had their foster caring career ended because they were asked to take in a young man who they weren't told was a trained killer. what do we want? justice! the demonstrators believe this case makes a broader point about the way foster carers are treated — something they wanted to communicate directly to the council. penny, what just happened? he just told me to get out. itjust shows that i am definitely on the scrapheap. in a statement, the council said: hassan was convicted and sentenced to life, thejudge branding him "devious". but penny and ron, an ordinary couple, continue to try to come to terms with extraordinary events. do you think you'll ever get over this? no, no. i think it will keep coming back. i think we will think we've got past it and then, all of a sudden, something will come back to remind us.

clive coleman, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news: in pakistan, the man who led a campaign to expose one of the country's most notorious so—called ‘honour killings' has been shot dead in the city of abbottabad. afzal kohistani drew attention to the case in 2012 in which a group of women were allegedly killed after being filmed singing a wedding song while two men danced. british and european union negotiatiors are preparing to work through the weekend to try to break the deadlock over brexit before a crucial vote next tuesday. there are nowjust 22 days to go until the 29th of march — the date britain is due to leave the eu. concerns are growing about the possibility of britain leaving without a deal. eu officials have given the uk until friday to come up with fresh proposals for brexit negotiations. in thailand, a court has ruled that an opposition political party be dissolved for having nominated a member of the thai royal family as its candidate for prime minister.

last month the thai raksa chart opposition party sent shockwaves throughout the country when it broke with convention and nominated princess ubol rat as their candidate. the move comes with just more than two weeks before voters head to the polls. a new study finds that rainy weather is becoming more common in greenland. as a result, the ice there is melting and scientists say they're surprised to find rain falling, even during the long arctic winter. our science editor david shukman reports on what the long—term impact of climate change could be. a torrent of water pouring off the greenland ice sheet. there's so much ice locked away here that if the whole lot melts, the level of the sea around the world would rise by 7m. and then once it's level, i will leave it to take the measurement. until now, scientists thought the big threat to the ice was from the warm sunshine of summer, but there's now something else for them to worry about — rain. these pictures were taken at a research camp while rain was falling, and it melts the ice —

notjust in the summer, but also in the winter, when the ice should be expanding. a big shock for researchers. it shows us that the ice sheet is becoming vulnerable, even in winter. and that's frightening to see, because you expect there's a huge ice sheet and a lot of ice and if you see the big area, the vastness of the ice sheet, and you see how vulnerable it becomes, even at times when it should gain mass. the big surprise is that even when greenland should be at its coldest, there can be flows of warm, wet air coming up from the south, and these are happening more frequently. so after five days of clear sky conditions, we have this rain. this scientist, jason box, needed shelter from the rain on the ice sheet, and he says that global warming will make rainfall more likely in future. there is a simple threshold, the melting point. and when the temperature goes

above that, you get rain instead of snow. and so, in a warming climate, it's not rocket science that we're going to have more rain at the expense of snow. two years ago, i saw for myself how the ice of greenland is melting. what happens here has the potential to threaten cities and communities on coastlines everywhere, which is why watching it so closely really matters. david shukman, bbc news. international women's day will be celebrated around the world on friday as people unite to champion the advancement of equality. in china, many companies offer female employees a half—day on international women's day. the bbc spoke to three women about what it means to be a woman in modern china. i would rather do my own thing and enjoy my own life. translation: i hope all chinese women can learn to enjoy the pleasures of sex. i have no interest in having a baby.

-- translation: i have no interest in having a baby. the main stereotype of girls in china is that you are ready to get married. and second, it's kind of normal if you go to college, but don't go too far. like, if you ended up studying a phd, people will say you will be an old virgin and nobody will marry you because you are too intelligent, too knowledgeable. this is in luang prabang in laos. and this is a picture i took in pyongyang in north korea. a female solo traveller in china, especially for a lot of men, is not acceptable. some people would comment on my blog, saying if a girl is travelling around the world by herself, she is just a ‘human sofa' because everyone is sitting on her. i want to be who i am, not what society wants me to be.

translation: my company is the first online sex resource for women in china, and we teach them how to enjoy their sexual relationships. china's sex education makes people here think sex is vulgar. there is barely any reliable sex information here for adults and i want my company to fill that void. the first thing we teach is that women's bodies are their own. you should study it, use it and learn how to pleasure yourself. some have said that we have opened a new world for them, that we are like a beacon of light, giving women their confidence. the situation in china is that your mother and mother—in—law will say, you know, "women must have children". such stereotypes are objectifying us to be like machines. a woman's value should not

lie in giving birth. currently is a prime time for my career. i never want to have a baby, not now or in the future. i am considering having an endometrial ablation. it is a very good way to avoid getting pregnant. i also hope a future partner would consider a vasectomy. voices we don't hear often enough, from china. and before we go, a moment to put in your schedule for the next few hours. at the international space station, the inner hatch of the spacex dragon vehicle has been closed by astronauts. it's so that america's first private spacecraft can return to earth, and that will mark the end of its test flight. it's been docked at the space station for the last six days as astronauts ran tests which could see it approved by nasa to carry people later this year. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. there is more on button all the news any time on our website. more on

that. hello. if you thought thursday was windy, get used to it. very blustery weather on the way all the way through the weekend into next week. unsettled too, wet at times. a bit of a lull as we begin friday. frosty, but sunny for many of us, clouding over with rain later. here's the satellite picture. this area of low pressure has brought the windy weather, the wet weather in places on thursday. a bit of a gap between weather systems. we are in that gap as friday begins, but it's a cold gap. you can see the blue showing up where temperatures will be at their lowest as friday starts. widespread frost around, scraping the ice off the car. misty in places. lots of sunshine for most of us at the start of the day. already a bit of wet weather into the western isles. we can see more cloud pushing across the uk during the morning and then further outbreaks of rain spreading from west to east

as the day goes on. increasingly light and patchy as it does so. notjust rain, the hills of scotland north of the central belt will see a bit of snow as well. it will not be as windy thursday, though it is still breezy out there. temperatures mostly around 7—11 degrees. a bit of snowfall also into shetland before that system begins to clear away, and as we go into friday night, still showers pushing into the north—west of the uk on that breeze. wintry on the hills. not going to be as cold as friday morning, by the time we're all up and about on saturday for the start of the weekend, but it is going to be an unsettled one, with low pressure close by all the time. the atlantic is in charge of the weather, pushing in disturbances occasionally. at the very least that means we will be getting some showers, carried on strong to gale—force winds, so that will make it feel quite cold, even though temperatures will not be too far from average. some wet weather at times, notjust rain but snow,

especially on hills, but also some sunshine occasionally too. the best of the sunshine will be across the east and south—east of the country on saturday. showers already to the north—west will push further east during the day and it'll be a windy day once again. we can expect gusts fairly widely around 40—50 miles an hour, which will make it feel colder than these temperatures might suggest. some of these showers might merge to give longer spells of wet weather at times. plenty of showers coming in during sunday and there is a more wintry component to these showers, so we could well see sleet or hail to lower levels out of these as well. again, it's going to be windy. these are average speeds, but gusts will be around 40—50 miles an hour once again. temperatures a little lower on sunday, so it will feel even colder in that wind. that's your forecast.