a rover vehicle on mars. after a seven—month journey from earth, the craft survived a high—speed plunge through the martian atmosphere, and tweeted a picture of the surface of the red planet. the perseverance mission will search for ancient signs of life. millions of people in the us state of texas remain without power — after gas pipelines and wind turbines froze in a winter storm. texans have been told to boil tap water — before drinking it — when the storm caused blackouts at treatment facilities. the us senator for texas, ted cruz, has defended taking a family holiday in mexico while some residents are struggling to access food and millions of people are still without water. mr cruz said he'd flown to the resort of cancun with his daughters because he wanted "to be a good dad." now on bbc news our world — human rights activist

now i'm bbc news, it's our world. hadicha is fighting forjustice. her husband, azimjan, has been in prison for ten years for crime he says he didn't commit. now he has one last chance of freedom. but as the court case approaches, coronavirus is spreading.

this is the story of hadicha and azimjan and their fight for justice. kyrgyzstan, a central asian country which borders china. most of the 6 million population are kyrgyz. but there arejust under1 million uzbeks. one of them is hadicha. for ten years she has campaigned for her husband, azimjan askarov, a human rights activist who is in prison.

hadicha and azimjan have been married for over a0 years, but in 2010 he became caught up in violent clashes between kyrgyz and uzbeks.

azimjan set out to find out. while azimjan was documenting the violence, police visited hadicha.

now azimjan found himself being interrogated by the same local police he had been investigating. he says he was mistreated. shortly after his arrest, he told a local journalist what happened. azimjan was sentenced

to life imprisonment for murdering a policeman and inciting ethnic hatred. he has always strongly denied the charges and says he was not given a fair trial. hadicha has spent the last ten years campaigning for azimjan�*s release. but despite international pressure and a un human rights committee calling for him to be freed, he remains in prison. hadicha and azimjan are both artists.

hadicha and azimjan have four children and ten grandchildren.

today, hadicha is making the 14—hour journey to the capital, bishkek, where the supreme court will make a final ruling on azimjan�*s case.

but right from the start, they find justice is hard to come by.

the court postpones the verdict and rules that hadicha has to pay $1600 to the family of the policeman who was killed. if she doesn't, half of her house will be confiscated. hadicha's monthly pension is $60.

every few weeks, hadicha makes the long journey to prison 19, where azimjan is being held.

but this time, they hit a problem. the coronavirus is now spreading across kyrgyzstan, which puts an end to prison visits. once a month, hadicha and azimjan talk on the phone.

despite the pandemic, the court pushes ahead with the final hearing in may. the court upholds azimjan�*s life sentence. it's the end of hadicha's hopes for justice. hadicha continues to wait and work on new parcels for azimjan.

today she's baking traditional uzbek food for azimjan. with coronavirus spreading rapidly through kyrgyzstan, amnesty international and human rights watch step up their calls for azimjan to be released on health grounds. he is 69 and considered to be at risk.

the kyrgyz government told the bbc:

azimjan was buried in uzbekistan on the muslim festival of eid al—fitr. his family believed holding the ceremony on a holy day was a good sign for his spirit.

hello there. the weather is going to be turning increasingly wet across western areas of the uk, thanks to an area of low pressure. this area of low pressure, in fact. and this cloud you can see here associated with the low is a weather front, a particularly slow—moving front. it's going to be bringing rain for some for the next couple of days. rainfall totals building up, then, but the wettest weather will always be over high ground — so the moors of southwest england, the brecon beacons, snowdonia, the cumbrian fells, northern ireland generally, and across southern and western scotland, particularly the highlands and the southern uplands. so we could see some localised flooding building in. the rain is beginning to arrive right now and, along with the wet weather some strong winds, mild air. temperatures about 8—9 celsius as we start the day on friday. further east it is dry, but it's chillier. temperatures around 3 celsius, most places should be frost—free. now for friday, it's a wet and windy starts the day across these western areas with gusts of wind potentially

running into the low—60s of miles per hour or so in places. outbreaks of rain with many of you for much of the day. there won't be much rain, though, across the northeast of scotland, and not a great deal of rain either across the midlands, east anglia, southeast england. there will be quite large tracts of the day that stay dry and bright, even. whereas further west, the rain pretty relentless. temperatures on the mild side, looking at highs of around 10—12 celsius fairly widely. and then into the weekend — more wet and windy weather to come across western areas. the eastern side of the country brighter and drier and, for some, it could turn very mild indeed for a time. the reason the weather gets a bit milder is the winds are going to start to come from a southerly direction, dragging the air up from north africa, spain, france, and on into central and eastern parts of england in particular, though east scotland not doing badly in places. further west on saturday, well, it's a wet and windy day coming up with the rain again very heavy and persistent at times. temperatures, well, around about 12—14 celsius across western areas — which is still mild,

but across the east of england we could see temperatures go as high as 17 celsius in 1—2 spots. very mild indeed. 0ur weather front is still with us on sunday, but it is tending to fizzle, just a lump of cloud with a few patches of rain left on it by this stage. so more in the way of bright weather for scotland and northern ireland, a bit more sunshine here, temperatures around 10—11 celsius. eastern england still having the highest temperatures, perhaps up to 15—16.

welcome to bbc news, i'm lewis vaughanjones. our top stories... touchdown confirmed — perserverance is safely on the surface of mars. the moment the perseverance rover, nasa's most ambitious mission to mars, lands successfully on the red planet. to work through all the adversity that goes, and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on mars, plus the challenges of covid — and just an amazing accomplishment. within minutes, the first image was beamed back by the rover. and it tweets, "i'm safe on mars. perseverance will get you anywhere." millions of texans are without power for a fourth day, after gas pipelines and wind turbines freeze over. as texas froze, ted cruz flew to mexico.

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