welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. and despite a five—week break from my name is lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: the sport, serena williams pulls out of indian wells mid— match with a families and fighters leave virus. the islamic state group's last stronghold in syria hello, and thanks for as the final assault by western—backed forces begins. joining us on sport today. it has been another weekend of frantic football action across the europan we have a special report. leagues. liverpool have narrowed the gap ethiopia declares a national day to just one point at the top of mourning after the plane crash of the english premier league after beating burnley outside addis ababa that killed 4—2 at anfield. they had to do it the hard way, though, after the visitors opened all 157 people on board. the scoring on six minutes. but roberto firmino equalised and sadio mane then gave them the trial of two women accused of killing kim jong—un‘s the lead before the break. half—brother two years ago resumes in malaysia. we'll be live from the court. in the second half, thousands protest in moscow firmino grabbed his second. against plans to cut off russia's but after burnley added a little pressure with another goal in the final minutes. mane ensured a comfortable and importnat win forjurgen klopp‘s side and those vital three points.

iam i am completely happy about the performance of the boys. against burnley especially, you always have to be so ready for a fight and playing football. it is not only plan, if you play a little bit, they smash you. if you don't fight there is no chance. so we did both again. good. never gets rid of us. generally the performance was good. i was pleased with the mentality, that's for sure. it is hard being 2-1, 3-1 that's for sure. it is hard being 2—1, 3—1 down at anfield. but we scored a good goal to get back in. maybe from that grandstand finale, from our point of view. you get another error, they punish you, the top sides always do. question the errors, but the general performance was good. it is to like this but we certainly made more of a game of it. elsewhere, manchester united lost their first game in the english premier league since ole gunnar solskjaer took over back in december. the defeat to arsenal came in his 13th game in charge since he replaced jose mourinho. david de gea misjudged a long range shot from granit xhaka before a contentious penalty allowed pierre emerick aubamayeng to make it 2—0.

well, disappointed with the result, but you look back at the performance and you cannot say that this was a game we deserve to lose, because we created five, at least, big chances. they scored on the first shots and got a penalty, so the performance was good. but there result was disappointing. chelsea salvaged a point against wolves at stamford bridge, denying the visitors a memorable victory in the dying moments of the game. eden hazard with the equaliser in the second minute of added time, but the result does mean chelsea remain outside the top four. we were unlucky because considering the goal in the first situation,

there was lots outside the 55 minutes, we made mistakes because today we had to play against the tea m today we had to play against the team that didn't want to play. so this is how the top of the premier league looks with eight games to go. manchester city are top byjust a point from liverpool, and there's a real fight for the top four. just four points separating spurs, arsenal, united and chelsea. there was an unsavoury incident in the traditionally fractious derby game betweeen aston villa and birmingham city in england's second tier. west midlands police have charged a man after he punched the villa captain jack grealish on the pitch at st andrews. the supporter jumped out of the crowd and hit grealish from behind. the person in question was led away by stewards and police. and grealish was ok — so 0k, in fact, he dusted himself off and scored the winner for the visitors.

after the game the midfielder said, "obviously there's rivalry in football but i don't think there's any place for that really. ijust tried to get on with myjob. to score the winner was unbelievable after what happened in the first half. i think it was set up for it. best day of my life. to come here, captain aston villa and score the winner is what dreams are made of, especially for me as a villa fan." to italy, and second—placed napoli made eight changes to their starting line—up, not the best of ideas. that backfired somewhat as they laboured to a 1—1 draw away to mid—table sassuolo in serie a on sunday. the hosts took the lead early in the second half when domenico berradi tapped home. napoli equalised late on, with lorenzo insigne capitalising on an error in defence by sassuolo veteran midfielder francesco magnanelli. the draw sees napoli stay second, 18 points behind runaway leaders juventus and six in front of third—placed ac milan.

let's take a look at the results from la liga now. there were wins for real betis and valencia. in the late kick—off, real madrid came from behind to beat real valladolid in the end comfortably although the result is unlikely to relieve the pressure on head coach santiago solari. bayer leverkusen got a helping hand from the snow in their 3—2 win at hannover in the bundesliga on sunday. hannover‘s genki haraguchi was denied an almost certain goal, with leverkusen 2—0 ahead, when he rounded the goalkeeper and shot toward the empty net only for the orange ball to get stuck in the snow before it had crossed the line. grateful defenderjonathan tah got back to clear the ball. dusan tadic and david neres continued their good form scoring two goals apiece as ajax thrashed fortuna sittard 4—0 in the eredivisie on sunday.

tadic, who inspired ajax to a 4—1 win over real madrid at the bernabeu to knock the holders out of the uefa champions league, completed the rout with five minutes left. the result sees ajax close the gap on leaders psv eindhoven to five points. england dismissed the west indies forjust 71 as they completed an eight—wicket win in the final t20 at st kitts and claimed a 3—0 series victory. west indies were bundled out in 13 overs with david willey taking a career—best 4 for 7. jonny bairstow struck 37 from 31 balls as the tourists chased down their target in 10.3 overs. west indies' innings was the fifth shortest completed innings in terms of balls bowled in t20 internationals. roger federer beat peter goyovchick 6—1, 7—5 on sunday in the second round at indian wells in california. federer saved six of seven break points against the german after losing just two points on his serve in the first set.

the swiss player has reached the final of the desert tournament in his last four appearances, winning two years ago. in all, he owns five titles at indian wells. he won his 100th career title in dubai last week. second seed simona halep was given a tough workout but managed to battle past qualifier, kateryna kozlova, 7—6, 7—5 in the third round. the pair had two breaks each in the first set, and in the ensuing tie—break the romanian world number two came out on top. kozlova provided halep with a tough test, but fatigue seemed to be catching up with her as the romanian broke in the 12th game of the second to win the match with backhand down the line. serena williams' return to tennis after a five—week break ended with her retiring from her match against garbine muguruza because of a viral illness. she was playing her first tournament since the australian open in late january, when she lost in the quarterfinals. she said in a statement: "before the match, i did not feel great,

and then itjust got worse with every second: extreme dizziness and extreme fatigue." 0pen champion francesco molinari sank a as—foot birdie putt to come from five shots behind on sunday and win the arnold palmer invitational. it gave him a two—shot lead at 12—under and no one got closer than two shots the rest of the way. he won for the fourth time in the last nine months. matt fitzpatrick shot a 1—under 71 to finish alone in second. andrea dovizioso held off marc marquez to win a thrilling motogp season—opener in qatar. it was a close finish as the italian ducati rider won with the reigning world champion just 0.023 back on his honda. britain's cal crutchlow was third. 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. wales on the hunt for what would be a first grand slam since 2012. england also very much in the mix. they take on scotland at twickenham while france are in rome hoping to bounce back from that rumbling at the hands of the irish. you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. but from me, marc edwards,

and the rest of the sport today team, goodbye. good morning. well, sunday morning started off for some on a wintry note. the far north and west of the country had overnight sleet and snow showers. icy stretches on the roads as well, as you can see by this weather watcher picture in tissington, derbyshire. a different story further south across england and wales. yes, sunshine, but gale force winds strong enough at times to uproot trees. it looks as though the winds will be a key feature to our weather forecast throughout this week. potential for severe gales and also heavy rain, particularly tuesday into wednesday. but, fingers crossed, some dry and bright interludes. you can see a little bump of high—pressure building as we speak, so allowing for a quieter day today but waiting

out in the wings another area of low pressure to arrive for tuesday. on this monday morning, we start with the risk of a few wintry showers which will ease through the morning. further north and west, still a windy start but nowhere near as strong as yesterday. and there will be some sparkling sunshine. highs around 8—11 degrees will feel more promising as the winds are lighter. by the end of the day, we will see gales strengthening in the far north—west as the area of low pressure moves in from the atlantic. it will bring significant rain, a couple of inches on west—facing slopes and some strong—gale force winds. quite likely 40—50 mph inland. 0n exposed coasts, 50—60 mph. a spell of wet weather moves south and east, clearing from the south—east corner during tuesday afternoon. behind it, sunny spells and scattered showers. some of these showers again with hail and sleet and snow mixed in. as we move out of tuesday and into wednesday, we could see the strongest of the winds through the night. to the southern flank of the low as it drifts off into the north sea, we could see a spell of severe gales for a time and that is certainly worth bearing in mind. if you are going to be travelling on the roads on tuesday night and into the early hours of wednesday morning, it is worth bearing in mind and keep abreast of your weather forecast and your bbc local radio station

will tell you if there is any disruption. as we move into wednesday, it looks as if the winds will slowly start to ease through the day. it will be a windy but showery day. i suppose the good news with the strength of the winds is those showers will rattle through at quite a pace but after those severe gales, the winds will start to slowly abate as we go through the afternoon. temperatures will probably peak at 9—11 degrees as the overall high. take care.