welcome to bbc news. i'm nancy kacungira. our top stories: a libyan, suspected of making the bomb that destroyed a passenger plane over the scottish town of lockerbie in1988, is confirmed to be in us custody. officials in ukraine say their military has attacked the headquarters of russia's notorious wagner group, in the east of the country. four children are in a critical condition after being pulled from a lake in freezing temperatures, in central england. mission control: splashdown, from tranquility base to taurus—littrow, to the tranquil waters of the pacific, the latest chapter of nasa's journey to the moon comes to a close. and, orion splashes down, bringing a return to the moon one small step closer.

welcome and thank you for joining us. days before the 34th anniversary of the lockerbie bombing, a libyan man, accused by the united states of being the bomb maker, has been taken into us custody. 270 people died when pan am flight 103 exploded over scotland, just before christmas 1988. as our north america editor sarah smith reports, the suspect is expected to appear in a us federal court on monday. just a few days before christmas in 1988, the town of lockerbie was suddenly engulfed in flame. pan am flight 103 was flying from heathrow to new york, when over south—west scotland a massive explosion in the cargo hold

brought it down in seconds. all 259 passengers and crew died, most of them american, as did 11 others when wreckage fell on their homes. it remains the most deadly terrorist attack in british history. this is the man the us authorities accuse of making the bomb, abu agila masud, seen here in libya, where he had beenjailed for unrelated crimes. two years ago the us attorney general formally charged masud with making the device which brought down flight 103. the american and the scottish authorities have always stressed that they would never stop trying to bring other people to justice. it was five years ago that the fbi learned that abu agila masud had confessed to a libyan official that he had built the lockerbie bomb. now, he has finally been arrested and is being extradited to the united states. rick monetti died on the plane. his sister, kara weipz, welcomes the prospect of a court case in the us. to know now that one of those who is involved in the bombing

is coming to the us to stand trial and face justice through our legal system, i think that it is something that we have been fighting for for over three decades, so i think there is a sense of finally justice for our loved ones. the only man to have been convicted of the lockerbie bombing, abdelbaset al—megrahi, was jailed in 2001, but released eight years later and allowed to return home to libya because he was dying of cancer. some of the victims�* families still have doubts about his conviction and about the arrest of masud. it fills my mind with questions, really. first of all, why has it taken so long? secondly, what is he doing in america? this was a crime committed on scottish, well, above scottish soil, but which came to land on scottish soil, therefore it's the responsibility of the scottish legal system. with the prospect of a new trial looming, the 34th anniversary

of the bombing will be commemorated quietly in lockerbie in a few days�* time. sara smith, bbc news, washington. well, earlier i spoke to bob and eileen monetti, whose son rick was a passenger on pan am flight 103. i began by asking for their reaction to this latest suspect being charged. well, since attorney general barr announced the indictments a couple of years ago, the family members, and especially my daughter, kara, and otherfamily members have been lobbying the us, the attorney general, the fbi and the state department, to bring abu agila masud to the united states for trial. we had been hoping and wishing that this would happen sooner rather than later.

we are all getting older in our organisation and a lot of us would like to see some justice done while we are still alive. does this feel like a step towards that? it is a big step in the right direction. especially that he is coming to the united states and not to scotland. we have suffered through scottish law for a lot of years and infinite number of appeals and much better to have it in the united states where we can be involved and get to trial and see what is going on and understand what is going on. it will be much better to get the information out. your family and many other families have been fighting for convictions for more than 30 years. does this feel like the final curtain or is there still more to be done? well, i don't think we're fighting for conviction.

what we're fighting for is the truth and see where the truth takes us. is there more to be done? probably but i would hope that once this is done, it will be a big step towards bringing some conclusion. what about you, bob? the reality is that many of the people involved in this are dead already. and the guy in charge of masud is injail on a death sentence so he probably will not get out but if masud faces up and tells us what happened, who was involved, it will make the whole thing transparent, which it has not happened so far. it might even satisfy the sceptics who think libya did not do it.

ukrainian officials say their forces have struck the headquarters of russia's notorious wagner group in eastern ukraine, based at a hotel. wagner are state—sponsored mercenaries, according to western experts. their boss was filmed earlier this year recruiting people in prisons. translation: the biggest sin is desertion. _ no—one backs down. no—one retreats. no—one surrenders. the recruited prisoners were reportedly sent to fight in ukraine. hence the group has become a target and while the bbc was unable to independently verify wagner's presence at the hotel, stills shared on telegram show extensive damage to the building. our news reporter azadeh moshiri told me more about the wagner group. according to western experts, they tend to act in the kremlin's interests and do their bidding. that is naturally why they are in ukraine. they have been in other countries before as well, they were in libya, they've been in syria

and they were in crimea during the 2013 invasion that russia waged on ukraine. so essentially it's wherever russia wants to have a stronger military presence and while they are state—sponsored mercenary group, because of the fact that they are also a private entity, they tend to be a shadowy group, their leader yevgeny prigozhin, is a close associate of president putin's and he is a former restauranteur and he has been accused of various human rights abuses as well as war crimes. in the video you showed earlier, we saw him recruiting russian prisoners, convicts in russian prisons, and according to reports, what he has been doing is promising them they can have sentences commuted if they serve with a group in ukraine. naturally, this has a lot of risk involved and it was only earlier that the body of a zambian student was returned to his relatives at lusaka airport and according to the group he was recruited last month and he

was serving time for drug convictions and drug charges but the family naturally want a full explanation of what happened to him. all of these reasons why this group is such an important target to ukrainian forces. what more do we know about this strike? according to the ukrainian governor of luhansk there was a hit on the hotel that serves as a headquarter for this group. again, the bbc has not verified independently the group's presence at the hotel but according to the government, this meant there were serious russian losses during this attack but the backdrop to all this, there is a biting winter going on and yet the war is continuing. there is loss of life going on.

the latest attack has meant that odesa is suffering a lot of power cuts, russia is still using lethal drones. ukraine said they managed to hit five of those drones but five hit critical infrastructure and that means 1.5 million people are without power during this biting cold and winter. president zelensky did remind ukrainians it takes days not hours to restore power. meanwhile ukrainian forces are still trying to retake occupied territory so it is a difficult winter to come. let's get some of the day's other news: germany is to tighten gun laws following the suspected attempt to overthrow the government by far—right extremists, known as reichsburger. the interior minister said they were not harmless crazy people, but suspected terrorists, and all state authorities had to exert pressure to remove their weapons. the german secret service says the number of people close to the group has risen to 23000, and estimates that about 10% of

them are potentially violent. prosecutors in belgium have charged four people in connection with an investigation into alleged corruption and money laundering at the european parliament. a gulf state — reportedly qatar — is suspected of trying to bribe parliamentarians with money or gifts. one of the eu parliament's vice presidents has been questioned by police and has now been suspended. zambian police say the bodies of 27 people found by a roadside north of the capital, lusaka, show signs of suffocation. hunger and thirst is also being investigated as a possible cause of death. it's thought the men, aged underforty, were ethiopian migrants trying to reach south africa. police said one person gasping for air was taken to hospital. protests by supporters of peru's ousted president, pedro castillo, have continued over the weekend. police now say one person has died after they clashed with demonstrators. last wednesday, castillo was thrown out of office after trying to dissolve congress. his replacement, dina boluarte, named her new cabinet

on saturday, but protests against her rule have continued to grow. extreme winter weather in the uk has led to london stansted airport suspending all flights. heathrow and gatwick airports have also delayed or cancelled flights as snow, ice and freezing fog swept across the country. the met office has issued severe weather warnings for many areas this week. in the midlands, four children were taken to hospital after being rescued from a lake in the area. witnesses reported seeing six people on the ice prior to the incident. our midlands correspondent, phil mackie, has more from the scene. as light faded this afternoon, the emergency services were using every piece of equipment available to try to find anyone still missing. the lake had frozen and a group of children had been playing on the ice when first one, then others, fell through and into the water.

police, paramedics and firefighters were all called just after 2:30 and did all they could when they arrived to save them. they pulled four children out of the water. firefighters and police officers went into the freezing water to pull the children out. they managed to get the four of them to hospital where they are suffering from cardiac arrest. there is no update on their condition other than to say it is critical. locals gathered to offer theirsupport, including a local church which provided hot drinks for the rescuers. we were quite upset to see so many men working relentlessly and it'sjust, you know, we could come back and offer some hot drinks to them and we feel really upset about what has happened. initial 999 calls suggested more children may have fallen in. we were made aware that there were up to six people potentially within the water so after rescuing

the four children, we have continued search and rescue operations within the whole of the lake in order to confirm whether there are any more within the water. the specialist medical advice that we've been given on scene is that given the temperature of the water, given the age of those believed to have entered the water, and also the amount of time they've been in there that this would no longer be a search—and—rescue operation. the temperature has fallen back below zero but the recovery operation will continue despite the appalling conditions. stay with us on bbc news, still to come. tributes are paid to the renowned british ballerina dame beryl grey, who's died at the age of 95. cheering and singing saddam hussein is finished, because he killed our people,

ourwomen, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict — conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteeing bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines — a libyan man suspected of making the bomb that destroyed a passenger plane over the scottish town of lockerbie in 1988 is confirmed to be in us custody. officials in ukraine say their military has attacked the headquarters of russia's notorious wagner group in the east of the country. nasa's unmanned orion capsule has successfully splashed down in the pacific after a three—week test mission. the orion spacecraft is part of the artemis project, which aims to return astronauts to the moon. our science editor rebecca morelle reports on the end of a key stage of an ambitious programme. after a million—mile journey through space, our blue planet comes into view. it's time for the orion spacecraft to come home. with images taken from the capsule just after it entered the earth's atmosphere,

orion has travelled faster and hotter than any space vehicle has done before. ground control: spacecraft about to go subsonic. - a series of parachutes open, rapidly slowing the capsule down. three good main chutes for orion, and there it is — high over the pacific, america's new ticket to ride to the moon and beyond now in view. then splashdown. the artemis mission is complete. from tranquility base to taurus—littrow to the tranquil waters of the pacific, the latest chapter of nasa's journey to the moon comes to a close. we are adventurers, we are explorers, we always have a frontier, and that frontier is now to continue exploring the heavens. three, two, one... and liftoff of artemis 1.

the mission blasted off in novemberfrom the kennedy space center on the most powerful rocket nasa has ever built. and over the course of 26 days, it performed a close flyby of the moon twice, capturing stunning images along the way, revealing remarkable detail of the lunar surface. the capsule also flew far beyond, further than any spacecraft built for humans. no people were on board this time — it's is a test flight. instead, mannequins covered in thousands of sensors recorded data from the voyage — and this is vital because the next step is to get astronauts on board and eventually land them on the moon. when you take just like a test campaign, you take a bunch of small steps that add up to some amazing like this. exploration's not going away. humans have been exploring the earth for as long as humans have been on the earth and we're going to continue exploring deep space. preparations are already under way for the next mission with new crew capsules being built.

we can have a look inside orion's capsule to see what it's going to be like for the astronauts when the rocket eventually does have a crew. at five metres wide — that's more than 15 feet — it is big. it can accommodate four people inside. in fact, there's more than twice as much room as the apollo astronauts had for their missions to the moon in the 1960s and �*70s. roger on that. we leave as we came and, god willing, as we shall return. today marks exactly 50 years since the last lunar landing by apollo 17. their footprints are still imprinted in the dust. no—one thought it would take so long to return but now, others may soon be making their mark as the moon is within humanity's sights once again. rebecca morelle, bbc news. earlier, i spoke to ken kremer, a scientist and journalist

and founder of the website space upclose about the importance of the success of this mission. this is a huge deal. this — this had to be successful in order to move forward to the next missions, to send people around the moon and eventually walk on the moon again, as happened the last time, 50 years ago, so it really needed a flawless test flight, the rocket worked perfectly — i was there, i watched it — and then, went around the moon, took great pictures, collected great data, all of the hardware worked perfectly. and then, just a few hours ago it splashed down in the ocean, and that was the number one objective of this mission, was test the heat shield coming in at 25,000 miles an hour and heating up to 5000 degrees fahrenheit and would the astronauts, if they had been there, survived, and it all worked out perfectly and the parachutes deployed and they recovered it, so now we can move forward to artemis 2 and artemis 3 and beyond.

yes, so, rebecca did mention in her piece there that there's already plans for the next missions. what's the next step for nasa now? the next step is artemis 2. i've seen that hardware at various nasa centres and the orion at the kennedy space center, so they're building the next sls rocket in new orleans, it'll be shipped here early next year, then they will combine it with the orion later in the year and then, that mission, artemis 2, will carry four astronauts looping around the moon — they won't go into orbit but they'll go around the moon, about a ten—day flight. there'll be three americans and one canadian, so they'll be the first person, non—american, to fly. and europe, again, will be involved in that, building the european space agency service module. and then, you know, in the future, then the astronauts will land on artemis 3 and european astronauts will fly eventually in the future, too. and, of course, zooming out to look at one of the key goals of all of this, it's

really about finding life beyond earth. why is that important? well, why is that important? that's like the most important question. are we alone in the universe, right? we only know one type of life here on earth. i'm a chemist and what we want to do is find out if there is any life beyond the earth and if it is different. and if it is different, we can think outside the box, maybe make new medicines. i'm a medical researcher, so it would give us a whole new way of thinking about things. so, we're going to live off the land on artemis 3 with the astronauts in future missions, they're going to drill into the lunar water ice. then, you have oxygen and you have air and you have rocket fuel, and that can carry you onto mars — that's the most likely place that life could be in our solar system — and then, we would explore beyond that, too. dr ken kremer.

he isa he is a scientist and journalist. but stay in space a little longer. ajapanese space start—up launched a spacecraft to the moon on sunday after several delays. it's a step towards what would be a first for the nation and for a private company. ispace inc's mission took off without incident from cape canaveral in florida after being postponed twice due to inspections of its spacex falcon 9 rocket. the company says it expects the craft to land on the moon in late april. guatemalan authorities briefly cancelled flights into its main international airport on sunday following the eruption of the fuego volcano. the eruption, which began in september, intensified on saturday night. cars and houses in the area were covered by thick ash. fuego erupts roughly every four to five years. in 2018, more than 200 people living on the volcano's slopes were buried in a mixture of volcanic ash, lava and mud. the british ballerina dame beryl grey has died

at the age of 95. a commanding figure in the discipline, she made her debut with the royal ballet aged just 1a. she later worked with the great russian dancer rudolf nureyev. the bbc�*s tim allman looks back at her life and career. file: one thing everyone i admits about the russians, their ballet is the world's finest and the bolshoi theatre is its peak. so special was beryl grey, so talented, she became the first british ballerina to perform with the bolshoi in moscow. tall, charismatic and elegant, she commanded the stage, impressing every audience with her precision and her style. after hanging up her own ballet shoes, she became the artistic director of london festival ballet, later the english national ballet, instilling in her pupils the same discipline and rigour she had always possessed. all the dancers could see what they were working for, where they were going.

that was important. so, they had a sense of purpose. tributes flooded in on social media. the royal ballet describing her as: and english national ballet said she was a dedicated ambassador and talked of her: dame beryl grey was born in london in 1927. legend has it she gave her first performance in a local pub at the age of three. she made her official debut as a teenager and would go on to work with some of the greatest names in ballet. she once said she had been very lucky, it had been a lovely life, and dancing was a very personal expression of happiness. the british ballerina

dame beryl grey, who's died at the age of 95. that's all for now. stay with us on bbc news. hello. it's been a wintry weekend with many places struggling to get above freezing during the days, and we've seen some heavy snowfall for several areas. this is picture taken in gillingham in kent, before the sun went down on sunday, so there's been plenty of heavy snowfall — up to around 10cm in places. now, over the next few days, things are staying cold and we've got wintry hazards such as snow showers, ice stretches and freezing fog. overnight, this snowfall is pushing across the likes of east london, essex, up towards norfolk, even as far as lincolnshire, so 2—10cm of lying snow overnight and freezing fog that's going to be really quite dense for some areas, too. further north under those clear skies, we start monday morning with temperatures as low as about —15 celsius around the sheltered glens of scotland, so a bitterly cold start.

do watch out for lying snow and icy stretches. southern half of the uk in general stays quite cloudy. could be a few snow flurries coming out of this cloud. probably best of the sunshine in wales and south—west england. further north, we've got clearer skies and most places looking dry but after that very cold start, temperatures will struggle to get above freezing in places. through monday evening, then, still a few snow flurries working across parts of the midlands, perhaps north west england. more snow also heading in for northern and north—eastern scotland, so perhaps not quite as cold compared to sunday night as we move through monday night into tuesday morning but still, subzero, really, wherever you are, and a hard frost once again. so, for tuesday then, more snow showers across northern and eastern scotland, one or two working into the north—east of england with that cold northerly breeze. fairly cloudy skies working in from the south and again, some freezing fog that's going to be slow to clear. so, temperatures once again between around about freezing and perhaps three degrees for most of us. the blue colours, the cold air mass, still with us, and we can trace these wind arrows all the way back to the arctic through the middle of the week, so a bit of a change

in wind direction, more of a cold northerly wind. that will bring still some wintry showers in the north and east but improved visibility from midweek onwards, so we are going to be losing all the mist and freezing fog that we have seen recently. plenty of more heavy snow showers across northern and eastern scotland and north east england. between tuesday to thursday, it could be between 5—20cm of snow. largely dry elsewhere, temperatures again struggling to get much above freezing. stays cold for the working week but a little bit milder through the weekend, especially by the time we get to sunday. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the us says it's taken custody of the libyan man suspected of making the bomb that destroyed an american plane over the scottish town of lockerbie in 1988. it gave no information on how abu agila masud entered us custody. a spokeswoman for the families welcomed the news. ukrainian officials say their forces have struck the headquarters of russia's notorious wagner group in eastern ukraine. wagner are state—sponsored mercenaries, according to western experts. the bbc was unable to independently verify wagner's presence, but stills posted on social media show extensive damage to the building.

four children are in a critical condition in hospital