this is bbc world news, the headlines. recovery teams have been searching through the wreckage of an ethiopian airlines flight that crashed. feeling all on board. more than 30 this is bbc world news today. nationalities were involved. us backed syrian forces have begun their final assault i'm samantha simmonds. us backed syrian forces have begun theirfinal assault on us backed syrian forces have begun their final assault on the so—called islamic state in the east of the our top stories... country. rescue teams search through the wreckage of an ethiopian airlines plane that the british government has descended crashed shortly after take—off, killing all 157 on board. its —— defended its decision to we're at the scene. we have been talking to some of the revoke the citizenship of british people, they head a loud bang and teenagers shamima begum whojoined the islamic state group. two more then the plane burst into fire. syrian forces backed by the us have teenagers who also went to syria begun their assault on the last we re teenagers who also went to syria were also stripped of enclave held by so—called islamic state. meanwhile two more women who went to syria to join the islamic state group have been stripped of their british citizenship. and in sport, aston villa footballer, jack grealish is attacked by a spectator as his side play local rivals birmingham city.

hello and welcome to world news today. relatives have been officially informed that all the 157 passenger and crew on board the ethiopian airlines flight that crashed earlier on sunday, have died. it was on its way to the kenyan capital nairobi. the accident happened six minutes into the journey, with the aircraft coming down outside a town 37 miles from addis ababa. so far it's not clear what caused the boeing 737 to crash. the plane had only started service a few months ago. from nairobi, alistair leithead reports. there is very little left of ethiopian airlines flight 302. this is where it crashed, just minutes after take—off. there were 149 passengers and eight crew on board. a search and rescue operation began

but the fire was intense. the earth left blackened as the aircraft ploughed into the ground. eyewitnesses described the intensity of the impact. translation: it came directly from the sky downwards. we heard a huge explosion. there was no fire before it crashed but once it crashed, we saw a huge cloud of smoke. the flight bound for nairobi took off from the ethiopian capital addis ababa at 8:38 in the morning local time, butjust six minutes later it disappeared off the radar. it crashed near the town of bishoftu, just 37 miles from the airport. the cause of the disaster is not yet clear, however the pilot reported difficulties and asked to return to addis ababa, the airline said. there were people from 35 different countries on the plane. 32 of the passengers were kenyan, 18 were canadian and seven were from the uk. in south london, ben kuria heard this afternoon

that his fatherjoseph waithaka, who has dual british and kenyan citizenship, is among the dead. i found out that nearly everybody had passed away and it was just a frantic rush to work the phones to kind of try to get any information that we could get. a major international conference is being held here at the united nations headquarters in nairobi tomorrow and a number of the delegates travelling from all over the world were on the plane. the executive director of the un's world food programme said a number of his staff and other un employees were killed. the aircraft was brand—new. ethiopian airlines, africa's biggest and most successful operator, received its first boeing 737 800 max aircraft in june. the plane that crashed was only delivered in november, four months ago. it had flown up from johannesburg this morning. and it is the same type of aircraft

bought by lion air that crashed off indonesia last october with a loss of 189 passengers and crew, also shortly after take—off. boeing said it was deeply saddened and that a technical team was ready to provide assistance. while all thoughts are with the family of those killed, work has already began to find out what caused the crash. the us federal aviation authority says it will be involved in the investigation. emmanuel igunza is at the scene. well, the recovery efforts you see behind me have been continuing since early morning, when flight et302 came down here in this farming area not far from bishofta town. six minutes after the plane took off from bole international airport, it crashed on this site and villagers have been telling us they heard a loud bang and then parts of that plane burst into flames. just to give you an idea

of the crash scene, it's quite big, about the size of a football pitch and in the middle is a big hole. this is what is the landing point, the crash point of flight et302 and the impact of that can be seen everywhere you look around. the parts of the plane are spread across a huge area. we have seen some of the rescue services getting clothes, passports and personal items of some of those who lost their lives here. we also understand that earlier on in the morning, when the rescue and emergency services scrambled to the site, they did manage to recover some of the remains of those who perished here. now, this incident has shocked the country. we have been hearing of condolences being sent to the families of those who lost their loved ones, including from prime minister abiy ahmed who has sent his condolences. ethiopian airlines is africa's biggest airline and is a source of pride for the country, and this incident has really shocked many. we understand from the airline itself that the recovery efforts

will continue until everything from this site is recovered. we do not know how long that will take but they are determined to continue with that. as we've been hearing, the aircraft was a relatively new model and concerns have been raised about its safety systems. our transport correspondent tom burridge has been looking into it. debris recovered in october, when another boeing 737 max went down off indonesia. the crash raised questions about automatic computer systems on board the aircraft and whether pilots were properly informed about how the new plane had been modified. in the weeks after the crash, the authorities in america issued an emergency airworthiness directive about the 737 max. investigators believe an automatic computer system designed to prevent the plane from stalling received incorrect data and put the plane into a nosedive. boeing later issued a warning to airlines to ensure pilots were aware of an override switch to deactivate the system.

ryanair is due to start flying passengers on the 737 max from next month. it's boeing's fast—selling, fuel—efficient short—haul plane. it only began commercial flights in 2017. some 11,500 of the 737 max have been ordered by airlines worldwide. the 737 max which has been involved in the incident today is the latest version of this aircraft. it is very important to boeing as part of their portfolio of aircraft offered to airlines and it's important to airlines because they want to build on the reliability of this model and they want the 737 max because it offers much greater efficiency and payload capacity. it is far too early to say what caused the ethiopian airlines flight to crash. former and serving pilots i have spoken to say the crater and debris suggest it descended fairly vertically and at some speed. a modern aircraft crashing twice in five months is highly unusual. airlines and passengers will want reassurance. tom burrdige, bbc news. seth kaplan is an aviation journalist. hejoins me live from our washington studio.

thanks forjoining us. from what we know and what you've heard in the reports we have had on, what is your assessment and analysis of what may have gone wrong here? there are certain very broad similarities with the other crash we heard about back in october in the sense that both classes perhaps involve something to do with speed but it is far from being able to say it is the same cause, in this case we are talking about perhaps erratic vertical speed as the plane was climbing. in october with lion air, as we head in the last report, issues with air speed, speed relative to the ground, errant readings perhaps which caused that new systems to try and prevent a crash and instead along with perhaps the actions of the pilots caused it. we have less information to work with because the other case had reports that in prior days the

plane had experienced something similarand plane had experienced something similar and that things hadn't gone tragically wrong. in this case, no reports of anything like that so far, it seems everything had been normal, as far as we know anyway, before this crash. what do you make of the pilot reporting difficulties and being asked to return? -- asking to return? it was not something extraordinarily sudden. at this point they have said they can't rule out, let's say, terrorism, and cannot rule in anything either but it wasn't anything so sudden that the pilots didn't have time to radio. if you remember malaysia airlines flight 17, which was shot out of the sign a sudden bomb, the pilot here new something was wrong, a experian ‘s pilot as we hear, and had asked for permission to return —— and experienced pilot. if you can ta ke —— and experienced pilot. if you can take about a tragedy like this, we are going to find out what is wrong. this is not anotherflight

are going to find out what is wrong. this is not another flight 370 malaysia airlines were five years on we still don't know. not only is there plenty of information so foul beat preliminary information, this plane crashed on the ground so you have a debris field. when it crashes in the quarter, it can be years before you get the debris field and the black boxes. takes in the water. i think within days we will start to learn that at least in general what will happen here, although the full investigation will probably take yea rs. investigation will probably take years. we heard about the stalling system years. we heard about the stalling syste m o n years. we heard about the stalling system on this relatively new planes and the fact some pilots might not have known about an override button, how much training do pilots get when a new plane is brought on board? significant training. it is a new type and just as switching from two older models, from one to the other,

a pilot would be retrained, same thing here. yet the ironyjust to explain it more, is that that system was designed to present something that caused previous crashes. some very famous ones. viewers might recall air france flight a47 off very famous ones. viewers might recall air france flight 447 off the coast of brazil ten years ago, pilots in that case feared a stall and did what you are not supposed to do. if you a pilot and thinking of the plane stalling, you try to pull back on the stick which makes the plane go up but actually you're supposed to dive into a stall. that was a famous incident where pilots didn't do that, forgot their training perhaps. another one that year, is small turboprop on behalf of continental airlines, same cause. there was interest in automated system to prevent this cogitating over and say let's go ahead and dive into the stall, to regain airspeed which then lifted back up —— event

this there is to lead to dispute about whether the pilot acted poorly, it seems that system played a role but it is possible to override the system. the airline accused boeing from not doing enough in its manuals to show how the system works and airlines redoubled their efforts, the us faa said pilots need to know more specifically what to do here. to be clear, all of that, we understand it played some role, at least in the lion air crash way too early whether an anti—stall system had anything to do with this crash. thank you. let s get some of the day's other news. venezuela is suspending school and business activities on monday as a blackout continues. the country's information minister made the announcement during

a televised broadcast on sunday. it's the second such cancellation since power went out last week. president abdelaziz bouteflika of algeria has returned to his country, ending a stay in a swiss hospital during which opposition to his rule has intensified. his plan to seek a fifth term in office has prompted major demonstrations across the country. russians have been protesting in moscow against plans to give the kremlin the capacity to isolate the country's internet service from the rest of the world. activists say 15,000 people took part, double the police estimate. the authorities in india have confirmed the dates for the forthcoming general election, in which about 900 million people are eligible to vote. the election will take place in stages across the country between the eleventh of april and the nineteenth of may. the prime minister, narendra modi, is seeking a second term in office. within the last few hours, the us—backed syrian democratic forces have begun their attack on the village of baghuz — the last enclave held by so—called islamic state in eastern syria.

here are the latest pictures of the assault. it had been delayed to allow the families of the trapped militants to evacuate the area. thousands of women and children streamed out in recent days, along with some is fighters who surrendered. a short time ago i spoke to our middle east correspondent quentin sommerville, who is in northern syria. the coalition warplanes have started bombing the area, while kurdish forces, the syrian democratic forces, have started a ground attack. in the distance, we can see flames above the encampment. it's probably useful to remind you that this is basically two tiny little tented encampment surround the village of baghuz. so that's what the islamic state, which once spanned countries, has now been reduced to. the kurds are saying this is the final assault but they have said that before. over the past few weeks, what we've seen is, we have a ceasefire, send in trucks and on those tracks, thousands of is supporters, men, women and their children, will then passed out.

—— will then be bussed out. and then there might be another assault again to soften up those die—hard is supporters who are still holding out in baghuz, and then we see yet another ceasefire. the kurds are saying this is the final assault but it may not be the case. regardless of that, clearing the islamic state from this last pocket in syria will be a considerablejob, because they've dug deep in tunnels and it's thought that they've been planning on this assault, planning to defend themselves from this attack for quite some time. it's also worth remembering that the islamic state group's leadership have already fled and that is now, though losing that last remnant of the caliphate, have spread out all across syria and all across iraq, so there we might be witnessing the defeat of islamic state groups, the caliphate of the islamic state, but we've still got plenty of fighting left. quentin, you mention the women and children who were in the city who have, some of them,

managed to leave. do we know if all of them were evacuated in time before the so—called final assault started? no, they weren't evacuated. in fact, the bbc was able to gain access right at the edge of is territory, just a day or so ago. and we could see women and children inside. we hear that fighters were moving inside. and they'd raised, again, that black is flag. we were also told by local kurdish commanders that people were praying, saying they would soon be sent to paradise. you could hear that across the no man's land, if you like. and still the is fighters inside were firing shots towards the kurdish. so the people that are in there are still in no mood to give up. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come... we'll have all the sport, including this attack by a spectator on aston villa footballer, jack grealish, as his side play local rivals birmingham city.

the numbers of dead and wounded defied belief, the worst terrorist atrocity on the numbers of dead defied belief, the worst terrorist atrocity on european soil in recent times. the soviet union lost a elderly sick leader and replaced with a and eric figure 20 years his junior. we heard gunshots and they we re junior. we heard gunshots and they were firing, we were all petrified. james la, is 41, sentenced to 99 yea rs, james la, is 41, sentenced to 99 years, in eligible for parole and travelled to prison in a convoy. what does it feel like to be married at last? fine thank you. will it

change your life much?|j at last? fine thank you. will it change your life much? i don't know, really, i've never been married before! this is bbc world news today. i'm samantha simmonds. the latest headlines... rescue teams have been searching through the wreckage of an ethiopian airlines plane that crashed shortly after taking off from addis ababa killing all 157 people on board. western—backed syrian forces have launched an attack on a syrian village where members of the islamic state group have been holding out. it's emerged that two more british women who travelled to syria to join the islamic state group have been stripped of their uk citizenship. reema and zara iqbal, who are sisters, left their home in east london in 2013 and married is fighters. they are now living in detention camps in syria with their children. our home affairs correspondent dominic casciani reports. the latest scenes in syria

as families flee the chaos. the humanitarian crisis deepens, and some of those seeking sanctuary are foreign—born women who supported is. now the bbc has learned that more of the british women who went to syria have been stripped of their citizenship. they are called reema and zara iqbal, from east london. they left for syria in 2013 and, between them, they have five children. amber rudd, the former home secretary, deprived them of their citizenship in her last year in power. the home office stripped british nationality from more than 100 terrorism suspects in 2017. it's not yet clear how many more the current home secretary sajid javid has kept out. but with more reports of children trapped in camps through no fault of their own, questions are being asked about whether ministers are properly considering their fate. shamima begum, stripped of her citizenship after her baby boy was born in a syrian camp. he died days ago. today ministers have

defended not doing anything to try to rescue the child. this is a war zone. the mother chose to join a terrorist organisation, to leave a free country to join a terrorist organisation, and we have to think about the safety of the british officials that i would send into that war zone. one lawyer says legal action is looming. the question for the home secretary is, what is changing his assessment of shamima begum? in herfouryears in syria, when isis was at its peak, she was not deemed a risk to national security. it's inevitable that many of these cases will end up in the higher courts with these questions raised about the manner in which it's been implemented. shamima begum's sonjarrah was just one more innocent victim in syria. but with at least five more children with claims on being british now known to be in the same camps, this is a legal and ethical problem that is only going to grow. dominic casciani, bbc news. damianjohnson has all the sport.

hello and thanks for joining us on sport today. real madrid are in action. they are at real valladolid hoping to lift themselves after their champions league exit this week. they were a goal down but lead 3—1 with around fifteen minutes to go. coach santiago solari is widely expected to be replaced with jose mourinho, the favourite to take over — returning to a job he left in 2013. one game just finishing in serie a. lazio are at fiorentina. it's 1—1 at the moment. manchester united have lost their first game in the premier league under ole gunnar solskjaer. the defeat to arsenal came in his thirteenth game in charge since taking over from jose mourinho. so a first league defeat for ole gunner solsjkaer and his manchester united side drop out of the top four. but the norweigian felt the 2—0 scoreline didn't reflect the match. disappointed with the result but then you look back at the performance and you cannot say it was a game we deserved

to lose because we created at least five big chances. hit the woodwork twice. they scored on the first shot and got a penalty. the performance was good, result, disappointing. i think manchester united are very good, very good players. but today, a big atmosphere here, there were some defensive moments in the 90 minutes but we were playing very competitive for the 90 minutes. finding our moment. we battled manchester united with our players and i think we can be happy today. liverpool beat burnley 4—2 to gojust a point behind leaders manchester city. two from sadio mane and roberto firminho gave them the win and despite conceding twice, managerjurgen klopp says he was pleased with his side's efforts.

i am completely happy about the performance of the boys. you have to, against burnley, you have to be so ready for a fight and playing football. if you only play a little bit and they smash it, it is not playing. if you don't fight, you don't have a chance. we did both again. good. headline — nobody gets rid of us. chelsea dropped points at home to wolves. an injury time goal from eden hazard rescued a point but they are sixth losing ground on the champions league places. below the premier league in the championship, aston villa's jack grealish was attacked by an intruder on the pitch at birmingham. the game was stopped briefly as a fan jumped out of the crowd and appeared to aim a punch at the villa captain. the person in question was led away by stewards and police, and grealish was ok and able to continue. he went on score the winning goalfor villa. england have bowled the west indies out for just 71 runs in theirfinal twenty20.

david willey took the wicket of shai hope with the first ball of the match in saint kitts and nevis. he took four in total. their run chase has just begun. england have clinched victory in the three match series already having won the first two matches. in dublin, ireland claimed a bonus point victory over france to keep their six nations hopes alive. captain rory best set the tone with an early try whilejohnny sexton, jack conan and keith earls also crossed as the defending champions redicovered their form, which seemed to have deserted them during this tournament. yoann huget and camille chat scored late consolation tries for france — but failed to mask another disappointing performance. it was a big step in the right direction. the first half, we showed a lot of intensity that had been missing in the first three games. a lot of the accuracy. we will look back at chances we didn't put away, but in terms of how we rate ourselves, that was definitely a lot closer to it. that's all the sport for now.

thank you. just before we go, we want to bring you this story. a bus has burst into flames in the swedish capital stockholm after hitting the roof of a tunnel entrance near the central bus station. the impact caused the fuel tank on top of the bus to explode. these pictures from the scene show the vehicle engulfed in flames, with a plume of thick black smoke visible across the city. the driver has been taken to hospital with serious injuries. no passengers were on board. a reminder of our top story. recovery teams have been searching to the wreckage of an ethiopian airlines plane that took us from addis ababa, killing all on board. they came from almost 30 countries. they came from almost 30 countries. the united nations dead 19 of its staff are on the flight. it crashed

in farmland near the capital addis ababa, leaving in farmland near the capital addis aba ba, leaving a in farmland near the capital addis ababa, leaving a huge crater. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of my team on twitter. headlines are coming up next. good evening. he would have thought for some we be waking up to a picture postcard setting with a dusting of snow this morning? some areas on higher ground is so several centimetres. this beautiful picture from kinross. england and wales had plenty of sunshine but we had gale force gusts of wind throughout the day. gusts in excess of 60 to 70 miles an hour across england and wales and that was strong enough to bring down some trees. plenty of isobars on the chart. the front that brought the rain, sleet and snow moved off into the north sea with the trail

of showers lingering in the far north—west. they will continue overnight with rain, sleet and snow. the winds will ease down but it will be a blustery night across the country. but with clearer skies elsewhere, it is going to be cool as well. a notable wind but temperatures into low, single figure so we could see a touch of light frost in some spots. a chilly start to monday morning and a blustery star but also a sunny one and monday is shaping up to be a lovely day. fools gold perhaps the sunshine, because it is all change from tuesday onwards. if you can make the most of it, do. monday will be a lovely day, breezy afternoon but plenty of sun. the highs across england and wales, nine to 11 degrees. the cloud and the rain is gathering into the far west and another area of low pressure moving on from the atlantic and plenty of isobars associated with the low. the spell of heavy rain, perhaps an inch in places on west facing coasts as it moves steadily south and east.

we will see gail. self went. ! gale force gusts of wind. the rain will push its way into eastern england and south—east england by tuesday lunchtime. behind it, sunny spells and scattered showers but the winds will remain a feature, particularly into the far north—west. seven to 8 degrees in scotland and eight to ten further south. it is on the southern flank of the low as it tracks eastwards into the north sea that we could see the most damaging gusts of winds, perhaps severe gales on exposed coasts, something to keep a close eye on. the weekend ahead looks stormy. severe gales around with heavy rain and also drier, brighter interludes.