and then signs of it drying up for many of us by the end of the week. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm james reynolds. our top stories: a new martyr for myanmar: crowds pay their respects to mya thwe thwe khaing, who was shot during protests against the military coup. remembering the victims of the christchurch earthquake a decade on: new zealand's prime minister jacinda ardern leads a memorial service. mapping the way out of england's lockdown: details on the government's plans to ease measures as coronavirus cases fall. and much more than some fun in the snow: meet the polish community rallying for a good cause.

in myanmar, thousands of people have lined the streets for the funeral of a young woman shot during protests against the recent military coup. mya thwe thwe khaing died on friday. it comes as britain's foreign secretary dominic raab is to call on the military authorities in myanmar to release the elected leader, aung san suu kyi. here's our south east asia correspondentjonathan head. this was the funeral of an ordinary young woman transformed into a show of political defiance for these extraordinary times. mya thwe thwe khaing was one of countless thousands in myanmar who came out to challenge the military�*s seizure of power, and she was the first to lose her life in its heavy—handed response to the protests. scenes of grief which must inflame public fury against the militaryjunta, but remind them, too, of the cost of resisting it. they had two more martyrs to mourn today, one a teenage boy.

both were struck by live rounds fired by the police in the city of mandalay. "we started this because we don't want a military dictatorship," said this woman, "and we'll fight to the end to make sure these lives weren't wasted". the plan now is to escalate this two—week—old protest movement into a nationwide general strike which will cripple the government, but must inevitably hurt ordinary people, too, in an economy already shattered by the covid pandemic. they dream of international intervention to help their cause — this rally is outside the us embassy. still a symbol of hope, but a fading one in a world which won't or can't act against generals who won't listen. jonathan head,

bbc news, bangkok. to the uk now where, later in the day, the british prime minister will outline how and when restrictions in england will be relaxed. so here is what we understand may be announced tomorrow. the first key date is the 8th march. on that date, all schools across england will reopen and children will be permitted to play sport when at school. one person can visit a care home resident. they will be able to meet indoors and hold hands, but visitors must wear ppe and be tested beforehand. one—to—one social meetings outdoors will also be permitted. the next key date is 29th march. from then, the rule of six will return for outdoor meetings. alternatively, two households will be allowed to meet outside, even if they are more than six people in total. and all organised sport can return. non—essential shops and retail are expected to open after that.

the uk's health secretary matt hancock says early data suggests there's a reduction in coronavirus transmission by people who've been vaccinated, but it's still unclear how the jabs work against the south african mutation of covid—19. so what are the main factors to be considered in deciding when and how to ease the lockdown in england? here's our health correspondent sophie hutchinson. so, what is a safe way out of lockdown? scientists say it relies on a mix of low infection rates, coupled with high levels of vaccinations — that's why the government's so keen to drive up the numbers of people getting the jab. already, more than 17.5 million people have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine in the uk. by mid—april, everyone aged over 50 and anyone who's younger with underlying health conditions will be offered the jab — that's around 32 million people. and by the end ofjuly, all adults in the uk —

that's more than 50 million people — should've had their first dose of the vaccine. whether those who've had the vaccine can still catch and spread the virus is a key question, but there's been some encouraging news from israel. it's started opening up again since almost half of the population has received a vaccine, and initial data suggests it may have reduced the spread. we have seen early data that there's a reduction in transmission from those who get the jab — but that is early data and there's more work that's being done. new variants are another concern. brentwood, in essex, is the latest place where residents will undergo testing after a case of the south africa variant was discovered there. scientists say it's vital infection levels are kept low. the more infections there are in the community, then the greater the risk of further mutations occurring.

and so, it's certainly a risk if we allow high rates of infection in certain parts of the communities, younger individuals. but the biggest test of all when it comes to lifting restrictions is the number of seriously ill people in hospital and those losing their lives to covid—19. ensuring there's no return to rising numbers and a third wave will be key to the safe unlocking of society. sophie hutchinson, bbc news. an investigation is underway after seven people died when a nigerian military aircraft crashed near the capital abuja. the plane was on a mission to support a rescue operation, as paul hawkins reports. the remains of the nigerian raf light aircraft. all seven people on board were killed. officials say the pilot reported engine failure and was bringing the plane back to abuja international airport, but it crashed just short of the runway. as it was going down, it struggled to go back

to the airport. at the end of the day, just crashed down there. i saw it when the plane explodes. it was a bit slanted and the sound was so sharp and then i've seen smoke was coming out. so we ran, some of us picked bikes, trying to rush to the police. the fire service at the airport were quick enough to respond but, lo and behold, it was — it was not enough. the plane was heading for minna city, some 160 kilometres away. it was due to undertake a surveillance mission supporting a rescue operation. dozens of teachers and students had recently been abducted by gunmen from this school — the latest in a number of kidnappings to hit the north of the country. president muhammadu bahari has said he's deeply saddened by the crash. an investigation is under way. paul hawkins, bbc news. the us plane maker boeing has recommended suspending flights of its 777 aircraft powered by pratt & whitney 4000 engines until an inspection protocol is in place. an engine of this type caught fire on a united airlines

flight near denver, colorado on sunday. large pieces of debris fell on a residential area. the federal aviation administration in the us has ordered stepped up inspections as it tries to determine what happened. let's get some of the day's other news. in france, the mayor of nice is calling for a weekend lockdown to try and stop the flow of visitors to the mediterranean city amid a sharp spike in coronavirus infections. new weekly cases in nice are triple the national average in france. the mayor said tourists were still flocking to the area and this needed to be stopped, but without damaging the local economy. in a change of policy, truck drivers in the uk who return to france will no longer need to have a coronavirus test if they have spent less than 48 hours in britain. france had demanded that drivers must carry a negative test result to reduce the spread of a more infectious coronavirus variant detected in kent. the israeli government is advising citizens to avoid all beaches on the mediterranean after much

of the shoreline was covered with tar. the pollution has been described as one of the worst environmental disasters to hit israel in years. the cause is still unclear. thousands of volunteers have joined soldiers in efforts to clear the tar. a remembrance ceremony has been held in christchurch to mark the tenth anniversary of a powerful earthquake that left the new zealand city in ruins and killed 185 people. prime ministerjacinda ardern was amongst those leading the service at the canterbury earthquake national memorial. ms ardern paid tribute to those who died, and those that have lived on with the trauma of that day. the toll could not have been more significant and daily reminders made it harder. a fractured landscape, aftershocks, struggling friends and neighbours, and children with deep and unseen scars. ten years on, there will be people still living their daily lives with the long

shadow of that day. today, i want to take the opportunity to say to all those who may still feel overwhelmed, who may still feel uncertain, sad, tired, anxious, you survived an event which, by right, should not occur in anyone�*s lifetime. i hope you find the space to be kind to yourself, as you've no doubt been to others who you knew were carrying the same burden. dan ohs is deputy chief of ambulance operation for stjohn�*s ambulance and was first responder site commander on that day in 2011. i asked him to reflect on his experiences that day. it still seems very surreal to this day. i mean, one moment, you are at home — as i was — everything is normal and then,

you are called to work — and, in my case, when my call came in, i did not realise how bad it was because my particular home was ok. and then an hour later, here i am in the city that i grew up in and amongst collapsed buildings. so it was just — it's something that i think remains very surreal to this day and something that will be etched in my memory and those of my colleagues all of my life. the prime minister talked about continuing trauma for those who survived and for those, like you, who were rescuers. how did you and your colleagues deal with that over that decade? we have immensely good support frameworks in place. the best support framework is actually just talking to your colleagues and talking with other people who went through the experience together. however, time definitely helps, and things like today helps. we had a lovely time today. so we gathered at our station before participating in the formal memorial — about 200 of us from all emergency services — and it was a beautiful time

to reflect and remember and, indeed, the service today gave us that opportunity as well, and all of that is immensely helpful, and just having people like jacinda acknowledging how difficult it is and the fact that the trauma is ongoing is very freeing as well. did anyone — any of your colleagues think afterwards they wanted to work in a differentjob? we had a number of people who left the ambulance service directly following the earthquake. and when we did some research on this, preparing for how we could best support our people, a lot of research suggests that that is the case. interestingly, though, we have had a much greater volume of people who have moved into different roles, so people like me who have moved into managerial and support roles, and so reflecting on the people who were there that day ten years ago and those who are working frontline in christchurch now,

we have had about an 80% staff turnover with staff either leaving the service or going to other roles and so, clearly it does take an impact. dan ohs there. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: find out the heart—warming reason this polish community is braving the cold to build an army of 1,000 snowmen. prince charles has chosen his bride. the prince proposed to lady diana spencer three weeks ago. she accepted, she says, without hesitation. as revolutions go, this had its fair share of bullets. a climax in the night outside the gates of mr marcos�* sanctuary malaca nang — the name itself symbolising one of the cruellest regimes of modern asia. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly using a cell from another sheep. warren beatty and faye dunaway announced to the world - that the winner of best film was la la land. . the only trouble was it wasn't. the mistake was only put right

in the middle of gushing - speeches by the team - behind the modern musical. not for 20 years have locusts been seen in such numbers in this part of africa. some of the swarms have been ten miles long. this is the last time the public will see this pope. very soon, for the sake of the credibility and authority of the next pope, benedict xvi will, in his own words, be hidden from the world for the rest of his life. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: huge crowds have gathered in myanmar�*s capital to attend the funeral of a young woman killed in protests against the military coup — mya thwe thwe khaing was shot in the head just before her 20th birthday. and, new zealand prime minister, jacinda ardern, honours the memory of the 185 victims of the christchurch earthquake, ten years on. iran and the un's nuclear

watchdog, the iaea, say they have reached a deal which will allow un inspectors to carry on essential monitoring of iran's nuclear work, despite iran's threat to stop snap inspections from tuesday. the move buys time for efforts to try to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. bethany bell reports from vienna where the international atomic energy agency is based. talks in iran to shore up access for un nuclear inspectors have ended with a temporary agreement. the head of the iaea, rafael grossi, flew there this weekend after tehran said it would significantly reduce cooperation with the agency unless the united states lifts sanctions. iran has been gradually breaching the terms of the nuclear deal since former us president donald trump pulled out of the accord in 2018 and imposed crippling sanctions. in the latest move, tehran is planning to suspend the iaea's additional protocol,

which allows the agency to carry out snap inspections. speaking on his return to vienna, mr grossi said the deal he had struck with iran was viable and salvaged the situation, for now. there is less access, let's face it. let's face it, there is less access. but still, we were able to retain the necessary degree of monitoring and verification work for what it is as it's been defined, as you will see, as you read it again, as a temporary technical understanding. he gave few details about the changes, but said this was a solution that would be in place for up to three months. the deal gives more time for diplomatic efforts to try to resolve the stand—off between iran and the us. under president biden, the us seems keen to return to the 2015 nuclear accord

but it says iran must return to compliance first. iran says the us must lift sanctions first. finding a compromise will be difficult, but this agreement with the iaea creates a window of opportunity. bethany bell, bbc news, vienna. mike pregent is a former us intelligence officer and a senior fellow at the hudson institute. he says iran has never allowed iaea officials to make snap inspections, even when the us was still in the 2015 nucler deal. thejcpoa called for these snap inspections and even when the us was in thejcpoa, iran refused to allow iaea inspectors access to sites — both declared sites and undeclared sites. they continue to deny, to delay and to stop the inspectors from going in. and under the trump administration, when they

provided intelligence to the iaea, that's when you heard the iaea say, "listen, we're not gonna be your political tool to go into iran because you say there is intelligence" so unfortunately, the iaea under the trump administration did politicise things because, again, the trump administration took some very aggressive positions towards iran to include walking out of the iran deal. they did walk out of the deal in 2018. will president biden walked back in? well, not without preconditions. democrat senators here in washington, dc don't simply want the biden administration to rejoin an iran deal that is set to expire in ten years. we've already seen the arms embargo expire, ballistic missiles expire in three years, and the sunset clauses begin to end in ten years, so it is not a time tojump back into thejcpoa. it certainly is not — we should notjump back in and meet iran's preconditions that we lift all sanctions and simply rejoin

a fatally flawed 2015 iran deal. what's the alternative then? well, the alternative is those countries that are still in thejcpoa — to include russia, china, the uk, germany and france — hold iran responsible for violating the jcpoa. iran cannotjust cheat on the united states, iran is cheating on those countries, and those countries should put sanctions in place, should make demands on tehran. the us walked away, iran stayed in it. those other countries are still in it and they should demand that iran comply. iran and the us have been on opposite sides since 1979, the islamic revolution. will they ever find a way of coexisting? well, the regime cannot coexist with the united states and stay relevant. its whole foundation is to resist the united states. if the regime simply made the hijab optional, meaning did not have to wear it if you did not want to, the regime would collapse — that's how fragile this regime is. this regime's been in place

for 42 years and in 42 years, they have used this playbook of provocations or concessions, and they are hoping that playbook works with the biden administration. and we're seeing the biden administration tested in yemen, tested in iraq and tested now with these new — these new rules that they're putting in place with the iaea, meaning they cannot have snapback, or snap inspections of these cleared and undeclared sites. mike pregent there. the united nations human rights council begins its spring session in geneva on monday. britain and a core group of countries are expected to seek a new resolution calling on sri lanka to hold perpetrators of human rights violations to account and deliverjustice to victims of the civil war that ended in 2009. tens of thousands of people, mostly tamils, were killed in the ethnic conflict. the bbc�*s south asia editor, anbarasan ethirajan reports. sri lanka's devastating civil war lasted for

nearly three decades. it ended with the defeat of tamil tiger rebels in may 2009. the un and other agencies estimate that more than 40,000 people, mostly tamil civilians, thousands went missing, and the families of those disappeared have held protests demanding answers. following years of international pressure, the government in 2015 agreed to investigate rights abuses and disappearances. but it withdrew from the commitment months after gotabaya rajapaksa, who led the war effort, was elected as president in may 2019. now, britain and other countries want to hold sri lanka accountable. the position of our government, gotabaya rajapaksa's mandate, on which i went to geneva last year and announced that we would withdraw from the core group, the then government of the day. we did not have a mandate to get into such engagement under the constitution.

in a scathing report last month, the un human rights commissioner michelle bachelet accused the government of backtracking from its promises: but the government is defiant. the ground situation is totally different to what the commissioner's report is. that's why sri lanka disagrees with her, with documents and evidence and detailed reports and answered her draft report, and politely said

that we disagree and we reject. thousands of people from the minority tamil, muslim and christian communities held a rally earlier this month to highlight their grievances. muslim leaders are outraged by the forced cremation of muslim victims of the coronavirus. they say it's against their religious belief. but the government rejects accusations of bias. in the coming weeks, sri lanka will face intense scrutiny at the un meeting. anbarasan ethirajan, bbc news. the duke of edinburgh is spending a sixth night in hospital in london. prince philip who's 99, was admitted last tuesday for a period of observation and rest after feeling unwell at windsor castle. the exact reason for his admission hasn't been disclosed, however his stay isn't related to coronavirus. much of europe is still recovering from recent severe weather.

many countries across the continent were deluged in a blanket of snow. in eastern poland they were making lots of snowmen, and all for a good cause. tim allman explains. across the fields of korycin, an army gathers its forces but not just any army, mind you, an army of snowmen, proud and true. dozens upon dozens of them, in fact. a lot of carrots, a lot of cold and more than a few scarves. and this is an army that knows exactly what its mission is. translation: a thousand snowmen for bartek. - we have to do something crazy to draw your attention to this little boy who has a heart defect, and needs surgery urgently. we are running out of time. the surgery is planned for april and we still need a lot of money. funds are being raised to try and send a local boy abroad. he desperately needs an operation but poland does not have the right kind of surgeon. the whole community, young and old, is doing

its best to help. "i was making a snowman by myself," said this boy, "it is not very big, it is not finished yet but it is for bartek from my heart." time is of the essence, if the two—year—old child is to get his lifesaving operation. soon enough these snowmen will melt away and disappear. tim allman, bbc news. tennis, and it was another display of domination by the game's old guard in the men's. novak djokovic won his ninth australian open title. the serb comfortably beat russia's daniil medvedev in straight sets. 7,500 fans were allowed into watch. this is djokovic's third straight australian open win and his 18th grand slam victory — two fewer than rafael nadal and roger federer

do stay with bbc news. hello there. it's felt very mild over the weekend, almost springlike. and in fact, the temperatures are going to rise even more as we move through this new week, particularly tuesday and wednesday. this is the temperature anomaly map. you can see the temperatures well above the seasonal average, especially for parts of england and wales. but with this very mild air will come a lot of moisture, and it's going to pour down, in fact, across many western areas for tuesday and wednesday. some parts of western scotland, perhaps north—west england could see over 100 mm of rain, with a risk of localised flooding. eastern areas of the uk will actually be drier than average. for the start of the new week, though, it looks mainly dry with plenty of sunshine, but we still have some rain northern and western parts

of england, eastern wales, to start the day. it will transfer towards the eastern side of england and tend to fizzle out, leaving a legacy of cloud here, with other areas brightening up. so, quite a fine afternoon for many. plenty of sunshine for scotland and northern ireland and mild, 10 to maybe 1a degrees. that front clears away. underneath clear skies, it will turn a little bit cooler, in fact, but then this next area of low pressure will move in to bring wet and windy weather to northern and western areas. and those temperatures will range from around 2 or 3 across eastern areas, 7 or 8 in the west. now, this area of low pressure is here to stick around, i think, for much of tuesday and wednesday, and expecting to bring some very wet weather with this weather front, which will become almost stationary across the north and west of the country. lots of isobars on the charts, so it will be windy as well. dragging this air up, though, from the subtropical regions, which is why it's going to be extremely mild. so we start off dry. central, southern and eastern areas, it'll stay dry

through the day, but lots of rain across scotland, northern ireland, perhaps north—west england, the north and west of wales, and gales up the irish sea coasts and in towards western scotland. despite the wet and windy weather here, it's going to be mild. double figure values for all, but we could see 1a or 15 across the south and the east given some brightness. it'll stay very wet and windy across the north and the west on wednesday, extremely mild across the south east, 17 or 18 celsius. and then there's signs of it calming down a little bit as we end the week and head—on into the weekend, as high pressure builds in. so, for this upcoming week, it's going to be very mild for a time, but wet and windy across northern and western areas, with the risk of localised flooding, and then signs of it drying up for many of us by the end of the week.

this is bbc news, the headlines: huge crowds gathered in myanmar�*s capital to attend the funeral of a young woman killed in protests against the military coup. mya thwate thwate khaing was shot in the head just before her 20th birthday. two other protesters were killed in mandalay on saturday when the security forces opened fire. the british prime minister, borisjohnson will outline how and when restrictions in england will be relaxed as coronavirus cases continue to fall. it's believed schools will reopen on the 8th of march while one—to—one social meetings outdoors will and new zealand prime ministerjacinda ardern has led a moving memorial service to remember the victims 185 people lost their lives and thousands more were injured, the community spending the past decade rebuilding. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk with stephen sackur.