authorities in mozambique have defended their response to an attack by islamist militants on the town of palma. a security spokesman said dozens of people had been killed by the insurgents, but hundreds of others — including foreign gas workers — had been rescued. the mexican government has acknowledged that the true number of coronavirus deaths in the country is sixty per cent higher than previously reported. based on excess mortality data, it's now thought that more than 320,000 mexicans have died as a result of the pandemic. troops opened fire at a funeral in myanmar. the european union and the united states have stepped up their criticism of the military government for using deadly force against protesters.

as of today, a number of lockdown restrictions in england will be eased. 0ur correspondent katie prescott has been looking at what the changes are and what's still to come. spring has sprung and the uk is opening up once again. from tomorrow in england it will be easier to catch up with friends and family, just like in wales this weekend, when we are allowed to get together in groups of six outside, or two households. and there will be more to do locally, too as outdoor sports kick off again, something to keep us entertained, perhaps, until the next key day. the 12th of april in england, and a week earlier in scotland, shops will hear their tills ringing once again as they are allowed to reopen. we can go out for dinner or a drink, but a cold one, as it's alfresco only, and that rule of six, or two households, still applies. haircuts and manicures will be allowed, and there will be more

ways to spend our free time as gyms and theme parks reopen. may the 17th, the next big day. we will be able to go to the cinema again, and forget patio heaters — we can eat inside in bars and restaurants in groups of up to six. 0utside, though, restrictions are mainly lifted, and you will be able to meet in groups of up to 30 people. will and if you're dreaming ofjetting away, foreign travel was likely pencilled in from the 17th of may, but that's still very much under review. by the 21st ofjune, nights out in clubs will start again if all goes to plan. and things may be back to some kind of normal as restrictions on social contact are scrapped. we may even have seen the last of elbow bumping. katie prescott, bbc news. now on bbc news, the travel show. this week on the show, working in travel through a year of lockdown. we're doing a virtual

livestream, and tonight we are focusing on the plague. seeing spain from the skies. and rebuilding zanzibar�*s house of wonders. it was famous for being an early adopter of electricity and the very first elevator in east africa was in this building. that is actually how it got its name all those years ago, the house of wonders. hello, and welcome to zanzibar. this is stonetown, zanzibar city's historic quarter, known for its atmosphere and the cause of that besides these really nice winding alleyways

are the buildings. the architecture is from all over. there is an 0mani palace, an indian temple as well as styles left by european colonisers. however, the end of last year spelled disaster for one of the city's most famous buildings. more on that later. first, though... this week, the uk marked a full year since it first went into coronavirus lockdown, with a day of reflection, observed up and down the country, to commemorate the lives lost. for around 3 million people that work in britain's tourism industry, it has been a year of worry and uncertainty. initial reports suggest employment in the sector might have dropped by 10% last year, but with hundreds of thousands of vaccinations taking place each day and the prospect of restrictions easing in the weeks to come, we went to edinburgh to find out whether tours and professionals

are hopefulfor the summer and how theirjobs have changed over the course of the pandemic. rajan tells us more. with its castle, its cobbled streets and the annual fringe, reportedly the world's biggest arts festival, the scottish capital attracts more visitors to the uk than any other city outside of london, which means it's been hit particularly hard by ongoing travel restrictions. below the royal mile, the main street in edinburgh's old town, one attraction is figuring out how to welcome visitors while keeping its doors closed. i'm kitty, i'm the guest experience manager here at the real mary king's close. we are in the heart of edinburgh. a lot of people think that we are underground, however that's technically not true. in 1753, and the royal exchange was built and they built it

right on top of four tiny little streets. what this did, was it perfectly preserved the rooms, the houses and streets that we can still explore today. normally, this warren of passages and homes dating back to the 17th century draws around 250,000 visitors a year, but the pandemic has meant they have had to improvise. obviously we are closed so we can't open to the public but what we want to do is bring the close to people at home. we are doing a virtual live stream and tonight we are focusing on the plague. we are looking at the comparisons, specifically 1645 which was when the worst plague ever hit edinburgh and when you look at what we are going through today, it's quite unbelievable how similar it all is. the biggest one would be isolation, staying at home. if you thought you had the plague, if you were starting to feel a little bit sick, you'd hang a little white flag outside your house that basically said, "don't come near us, we've got the plague", and it would alert the right people to bring in food and beer because you couldn't go out to

get your shop, so it's almost like your tesco delivery but in 16115. so we have just finished our dress rehearsal for the live event tonight and it's always exciting to get, especially when we have the close set up like this, it's not our day—to—day. there's always a bit of nerves in case you say something silly orforget your lines. good evening, and welcome to the real mary king's close. thank you for tuning in to be with us here tonight. the hour—long webcast has taken six people a month to prepare. but other tour companies have decided against these big online events. fourth boat tours is

a family—run business that have been operating cruises around the firth of fourth since 2006. they've not organised virtual tours, saying they can't compare to the personal, physical experience. i think the main focus point here is the iconic fourth rail bridge along at the end there, that's the one that people come to see. they travel from all over the world to come and join us to go on a trip underneath the rail bridge. pre—pandemic, they'd also expect thousands of visitors from within the uk, but their tours have only been able to operate for 13 weeks over the past year. it's been a tough year to keep everything ticking over and to get everything and keeping up with new guidance to allow us to operate. i tend to spend a lot of my time out on the water between the tours here, dinghy sailing, paraboating, all of that has just stopped, it's just not happened. it's been difficult.

with different parts of the uk opening up at different rates, about their ability to attract staycationers. following announcements made last week, forth boat tours plan to open up again at the end of april, when it is still uncertain whether scotland will permit non—essential travel from the rest of britain. yeah, i'm excited to get in the water. i have some optimism about the summer, i hope that we will get staycations. i think it is really important that people get a summer of activity and they are allowed to go and explore further afield from where they are. it is a big shame that the international tourists, it's probable that it doesn't look like they will be back soon. the other thing that we have got that we use a lot here in the forth is cruise ships and i think they have been in limbo for a wee while too and hopefully they return soon as well

because they play a big part in whojoins us on our tour. in the centre of the city, guesthouse owner vivian is feeling cautious about the next few months. she doesn't plan to open until mid—may despite restrictions lifting as early as april the 26. i don't see that there is going to be a return to normality for edinburgh this summer. i think people will only want to come to the city when they are guaranteed they can go for a pint around the corner or they can sit in the museum and take their time to look at things. the tattoo for example has said it is going ahead but the festival hasn't decided so i think people like to see what is going to happen from that. she has only been open five days over the past 12 months. guesthouses across scotland have called for more government support, after they were ruled and eligible for £6,000 top up grants, paid out to thousands of hospitality businesses, including restaurants and hotels. yes, i'm its meeting get an visitors from all over the world, but it's hit me, financially, the hardest.

money has been tight, funding from the government has been tight, it is my home as well as my business and i have still a mortgage to pay which i have had to pay every month, still, as well as all the bills that come with owning a house, owning a guesthouse. i'm not ready to throw the towel, i'm still fighting to keep alive and keep going with the business that i have which is a good business when it is open and this travellers here. i want the key thing to be taken away from this is to remember the resilience of the people of edinburgh. it is a really, really tough difficult time that they lived through... thanks again forjoining us tonight, folks. stay safe and be resilient. goodbye! smashed it! well done!

it's a different type of excitement we are feeling just now, withheld of all these hours of work and research, but you are not getting that immediate reaction that you do with your guests when they are on site. and as a team we are looking forward to welcoming guests again. and the close is hoping to open again in mid—may a couple of weeks after edinburgh's accommodation, attractions and shops are set to reopen themselves on april the 26th. well, international travel is still months away for most of us. we are all watching those infection rates really carefully. in the meantime we have found some creative new ways for you to soothe your itchy feet and see a bit of the world from your couch. is the's coming up in april and normally thousands of pilgrims head straight for st peter's square in the vatican for the big services.

last year they were light streamed as visitors were forbidden from going. but if you are more interested in the art and the history on show there, there are some great virtual tours available on the vatican museum's website including some rooms normally not open to the public. and just around the corner in rome, the mausoleum of augustus open earlier this month. it was built in 28 bc and has been hidden for 100 years, largely overlooked. a few years back, ade went to see how the restoration work was progressing. it's hard to believe that in its heyday, these walls were three times higher than they are now and they were covered in white marble. of course, none of us can go there and visit yet but the team has spent a lot of time and effort putting

and effort putting together the story of the motherly, which is told in an interactive timeline on their website. let's hope we can all go and visit soon. new york city is beginning to look ahead to a time when it can get its actors and musicians recording again. ny pops up is a festival of hundreds of surprise performances that began in february and will run until the tribeca film festival injune. the shows are unannounced and unticketed to stop too many people from gathering in one place and you will be able to catch some of them on the festival's instagram and facebook websites. and an annual highlight of the uk sporting calendar, the oxford cambridge boat race, takes place on 3 april, but not in its usual place on the thames in london. for social distancing reasons and because it's all taking place behind closed

doors at ealey in cambridgeshrie. the flat fenland there should provide some atmospheric backdrops to the race, but the big attraction in those parts is ely�*s enormous norman cathedral and, of course, its resident tour guide dave, who you'll find on the website. you must remember this is a medieval cathedral. it is out to get you. so mind your head. still to come on the travel show: we meet the spanish pioneers of aerial photography. and disaster at the house of wonders — how to fix zanzibar�*s heritage showpiece. it won't be as it used to be. it will be a repaired house of wonder. so don't go away. next this week to spain, and we are with the family who has spent almost 70 years photographing the country from the air.

collectively, they have amassed more than a million pictures documenting a period in which the country's landscape has been transformed by mass tourism, so we asked them to open their archives for us and share some of those images.

next this week, zanzibar, a short hop from the i'm doing a little bit of exploring through the winding streets of its capital. i think i'm lost! but i kind of like it, actually. these alleyways snake through stone town, which is zanzibar�*s historic quarter, and they are quite beautiful — actually, the whole place, all of this island, is really stunning. there are all kinds of influences — persian, arabian, african, of course, and european. this was a trading city.

a real crossroads. people would come here for spices. but sadly, slaves too. one of the world's last open slave markets is marked by a powerful memorial. stone town was made a unesco world heritage site in the year 2000 and ever since, experts have complained about the condition of many of the old buildings here, the state of their conservation being a particular concern. and then in december last year, catastrophe. screaming. zanzibar�*s most famous building, the house of wonders, collapsed during restoration work. two people died and the city's cornerstone 0mani palace was left in ruins. the palace was built in 1883 by the second sultan of zanzibar. it was designed to impress. the front door, for example, was made wide enough to enter on an elephant. it was famous for being

an early adopter of electricity, and the very first elevator in east africa was in this building — it's actually how it got its name all those years ago, the house of wonders. i came here knowing there was going to be damage, but that is a lot of damage. is there a possibility to restore it? for the time being we're just protecting it from further collapse. but after the completion of this first phase of protecting the building, we are going to reconstruct the building in iron to ensure that the building will come as it was before, and it will be super. to help the restoration closely match the original building, experts from the university of cape town have been here with 3d scanners to digitally map the remains. i was shocked, obviously, right? because 20% of the building was not there any more. it was really a very spectacular building and it's — and in east africa, probably one of the more important buildings. we also documented the house of wonders in 2019, which turned out to be very fortuitous — now, we have a very accurate record of what it looked like. so the engineers see

construction, engineers see architects can now create an exact replica. i very much hope it can will reconstructed and i'm sure the capability is there, the expertise is there, actually, no — no question, and the will is there, so i hope there is gonna be another house of wonders in a few years' time. jamila grew up in the shadow of the palace and she'd had concerns about its condition for many years now. i stayed here, i played here, i know this place very well because i was almost in tears to see the house of wonders falling down. we are trying to see that it is being rebuilt and maintained as it used to be, but it won't be as it used to be — it will be a repaired house of wonder. we are very, very sorry. the buildings have affected every individual person in zanzibar, who really like this country,

because we say that is our face, that is our an icon. a symbol of zanzibar. so it holds our value. it represents us worldwidely as a cultural heritage town, so its collapse has really affected us psychologically. we are not happy. you hear so much about the natural beauty of africa, like its wildlife, and very little about the architecture. many of the old low—lying swahili trading settlements along the east coast are at risk from rising seas and coastal erosion. it's going to take a lot of money and a lot of will forfuture generations. well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have left for today. next week, lucy's here to revisit some of our favourite adventures in south america. including the time i lived like a gaucho in argentina's wetlands. this is one of the craziest things i've done in my entire life!

the water does not taste very good. and there's miscellaneous things — some slimy, some spiky — rubbing against most of my body! and remember, you canjoin our adventures by following us on social media. we're in all the regular platforms. for me, mike corey, and the rest of team here in beautiful zanzibar, keep planning your adventures and we'll see you next time. hello. it is going to feel like spring through the first part of the week for many of us. in fact, in some places you'd be forgiven for thinking summer had arrived early with values up to 22 or maybe 23 degrees. but by the end of the week

it will feel more like winter has returned. much colder air digging its way southward just in time for the easter weekend. and in the shorter term, northwest scotland could see localised flooding over the next couple of days as this wriggling weather front brings heavy and persistent rain. to the south of that weather front that's where we're going to be importing the very warm air but notice there is something much colder up to the north. that will come into play by the end of the week. along the line of our weather front, heavy rain particular for northern ireland and western scotland. very, very mild to start monday morning. 12 or 13 degrees in places. but it is going to be quite cloudy, misty and murky for many. rain pulling northwards out of northern ireland and continuing across western scotland all day long. heavy rain at that. some brightness for eastern scotland and certainly some brightest skies developing across england and wales. in the best of the sunshine here across parts of eastern england for example, we could get to 20 or 21 degrees, with a little bit cooler for some english channel coasts. through monday night and on into tuesday the rain continues across northwest scotland and it's the persistence of the rain that gives the potential for localised flooding. the further south and east you are on tuesday though, any early mist patch as you're

clear, there will be lots of sunshine and tuesday is set to be a very warm day indeed. we could get as high as 23 degrees. pretty exceptional for this point in march. not as warm further north where we keep cloud and rain. that cloud and rain on wednesday it will start to journey slowly southwards. the rain fizzling away but behind it some colder airdigging in. still some warmth towards the south on wednesday but up to the north, temperatures taking quite the tumble. and as we move out of wednesday towards the end of the week that frontal system in the north will finally journey its way southward. high—pressure building in behind so there there will still be a fair amount of dry weather but much colder weather sinking its way southwards for the end of the week. and for the easter weekend it is going to feel decidedly chilly. there could even be some wintry showers.

welcome to bbc news — i'm lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: dozens of people are killed in north—east mozambique in an attack by islamist militants. thousands are forced to flee. the mexican government admits the true number of its coronavirus deaths is sixty per cent higher than previously reported. an outpouring of grief in myanmar — security forces are condemned after opening fire on mourners at the funeral of a protester. and the case that shook america and reverberated around the world — a special report as the man accused of george floyd's murder goes on trial.