27/03/2017 BBC News at Ten

Police say there's no evidence to link the Westminster attacker

But they say Khalid Masood, who was described by IS as one

of their soldiers, had clearly been interested in jihad.

Masood drove his car at over 70 miles an hour

hitting dozens of people in his path.

I would more describe him as somebody who's been exploited,

and a man who is clearly a lone actor, who has come up

from the basement, so to speak, to commit a murderous and cowardly

The family of one of the victims - the American tourist Kurt Cochran -

say they bear no ill will following the atrocity.

He was an amazing individual who loved everyone, and tried

And during the day, the attacker's mother has spoken for the first

time about the atrocity, expressing her shock and sadness.

Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May hold their first face-to-face

talks since the demand for a new independence referendum,

and two days before the Brexit process is triggered.

In Iraq, as the battle for Mosul intensifies,

we report on the plight of thousands of civilians.

It might be good for the tempo of the military operation,

but it isn't necessarily good for preserving civilian lives.

In Northern Ireland, the political parties get extra time

to try to reach a deal on forming a new power-sharing executive.

And - is this the kind of show that could transform the world of county

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News:

England Under-21s continue their preparations for

the European Championship this summer, with a comfortable 4-0

The Metropolitan Police says there's no evidence of any link

between Khalid Masood, the man responsible for

the Westminster attack last week, and the Islamic State group

Officers said that Masood "clearly had an interest in jihad",

and they were still investigating the circumstances that

led to the attack, which claimed four lives,

Masood's mother has broken her silence today,

Our home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford has the latest.

Ploughing across Westminster Bridge at speeds of up to 76 miles an hour,

Khalid Masood, using his hired 4x4 as a weapon.

Going back through CCTV, detectives have discovered that he

drove around Westminster sometime before his

attack too, possibly on a reconnaissance mission.

Today, Masood's elderly mother, Janet Ajao,

Detectives have established that the Westminster

attacker had a clear interest in jihad, but have so far found no

evidence that Khalid Masood discussed his attack with others or

had contact with Al-Qaeda or so-called Islamic State, who had

described him as a soldier of the caliphate.

I would more describe him as somebody who has been exploited, and

a man who was clearly a actor who has come

up from the basement, so to speak, to commit a murderous

In the last three minutes before the carnage, Masood's

phone used to be encrypted messaging service WhatsApp.

As the mountain of flowers and wreaths grow,

detectives made it clear today that the communications that Khalid

Masood had in the immediate build-up to the attack were a main line of

They are asking anybody who heard from him that day

to come forward to help them to establish what his state of mind

There is little doubt that Khalid Masood had a violent past.

Danny Smith got into an argument with him in 2003, when Masood

And he just pulled a knife out, and he sort of flinched to see

I thought, surely he ain't going to stab me for this.

Full-on punched me, stabbed me straight in the face.

On Wednesday, one week on from the attack,

the Westminster coroner will formally begin the inquests

into the four people killed before adjourning them for

On Thursday, she will do the same for

the man who murdered them, Khalid Masood.

Detectives trying to work out when Khalid Masood was radicalised have

ruled out for now his time in prison and they can't find any link with

the extremist group during his time when he was living in Luton. In

fact, while he was clearly a very violent young man, he seems to have

calmed down at around the time he converted to Islam and it was only

much more recently that he descended into a world of jihad on terror.

Thank you very much. Daniel Sandford at new Scotland Yard.

During the day, the family of an American tourist

who was killed in the Westminster attack said they bore no ill will.

Kurt and Melissa Cochran, from Utah, were on the final day

of a trip to London to celebrate their 25th

wedding anniversary when they were hit by the car

on Westminster Bridge, killing Mr Cochran.

The family said they wanted to focus on Mr Cochran's

Our correspondent Daniela Relph reports.

It had been their first visit out of the USA -

a tour of Europe to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.

But on the final day of their trip, Kurt Cochran was killed

His wife, Melissa Cochran-Payne, seriously injured.

Today, 13 members of their family spoke publicly for the first time.

From Utah, they are a Mormon family, who have found

I think it's hard for most of us to imagine here what it must be

Can you give us some sense of the impact on the family?

I think it's brought us really close together.

Our family's been always close together, and we've

always had some wonderful, wonderful times together.

We just love and support each other so much, and I think it's made us

Kurt Cochran ran a music studio back home, an enthusiasm

Their song was featured and they're about to get going right here...

There have been tribute concerts in his honour.

His family overwhelmed by the thousands of

What the Cochran and Payne families have shown today is what happens

when you are suddenly affected by an event of this magnitude.

It has brought with it trauma, grief and, for them, forgiveness.

None of us harbour any ill will or harsh feelings towards this.

We love our brother, we love what he brought to the world.

That lack of resentment or bitterness - a feeling shared

We should sort of try and unify through love and compassion,

rather than through our hatred and anger about what happened.

Today, Tobias Ellwood was in Parliament Square to pay his

The Foreign Office Minister had tried so hard to save the life of PC

This, a chance for him to remember all of those killed.

Daniela Relph, BBC News, Westminster.

Theresa May has held talks with Nicola Sturgeon, for the first

time since the Scottish government demanded a new

The First Minister wants a referendum within two years.

She says that Brexit has transformed the situation since voters voted

But the Prime Minister has restated her view that now is not

Our Scotland editor Sarah Smith reports.

Theresa May knows this could be awkward.

She's here to talk about her Article 50 letter.

She's here to press her demand for a referendum on independence.

So no handshakes, no press conference, just a couple

of souvenir photographs that neither woman looks like they're enjoying.

By stark contrast, their first meeting just eight months ago.

Then they said they had a good working relationship, not now,

as Mrs May says she will reject any request for a vote

My position isn't going to change, which is now is not the time to be

talking about a second independence referendum, because it wouldn't be

fair on the Scottish people to ask them to make that decision

Also because now is the time when we need to pull together,

to make sure we get the best possible deal for the UK -

The meeting, which took place on the 15th floor of this

hotel, was, I'm told, businesslike and cordial.

Probably the longest meeting between Nicola Sturgeon

and Theresa May yet, but very little was agreed.

The Scottish Government had been expecting to hear

about new powers to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament

after Brexit, but there was no detail on that,

and when the First Minister told the Prime Minister how she intends

to formally request another Scottish referendum she was told simply,

The First Minister says Mrs May agreed -

the shape of the Brexit deal should be clear in 18-24 months' time,

which is when the Scottish Government want to hold that

I've said that I want people in Scotland to have an informed

choice when the terms of Brexit are clear.

She has confirmed to me today that that will be in a period from autumn

We both agree, now is not the time to ask people to make that choice,

but since we both appear to be in agreement as to when that term,

the terms of Brexit will become clear on her timetable,

then that would underline my view that that is the right time.

Visiting Police Scotland, Theresa May announced a major

The message - the importance of coordinating security across the UK.

When this great union of nations, England, Scotland, Wales

and Northern Ireland, sets its mind on something, and

works together with determination, we are an unstoppable force.

In a speech to staff at the Department for

International Development in East Kilbride, she said she wants

But it is Scottish independence on the agenda at the Holyrood

Parliament tomorrow, when they'll almost certainly vote

Live to Westminster and our political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

With just two days until the start of the Brexit process, was any

realistic prospect of meaningful progress today? I think these two

leaders are at a stand-off. It might not be personally bad-tempered but I

think it has become politically bad tempered. There has even been spat

tonight over what was or wasn't agreed between the two behind closed

doors at their meeting. Number ten has disputed the SNP and Scottish

Government's suggestion that somehow the Prime Minister accepted their

version of what would be reasonable timetable. I think what we're

seeing, just a few weeks since Nicola Sturgeon put forward her

demand to press ahead with a second referendum, it seems abundantly

clear that in the first ages at least of this whole process, this

complicated path of taking us out of the European Union, that the

tensions between the Scottish Government and Westminster

government are going to be a constant feature of that as it

unfolds. This potentially that adds an extra layer to every decision

taken in this particular process, how will that decision go down in

Scotland? Also a reminder of how much this is not just a conversation

between us and the rest of the continent, it's conversation as well

between the shape of our country, how will decisions be seen in

Cardiff, in-store Mont, how will decisions be taken in the south-west

or right around the country? I think this whole issue between Nicola

Sturgeon and Theresa May is a very timely reminder of that. If they had

been in any doubt, for Downing Street the consequences of the

decisions they take, the path they navigate, which starts formally,

finally you might think, on Wednesday, will have consequences in

every corner of our country, not just around the EU. Laura, thank you

very much. Laura Kuenssberg at Westminster.

The Pentagon says it places the "highest priority"

on investigating claims that coalition air strikes,

led by the US, killed large numbers of civilians in the Iraqi city

In western Mosul today, Iraqi forces have been

intensifying their assault against so called Islamic State.

But thousands of people are fleeing the city,

and they're warning that many civilians are still at risk.

With the city still divided between IS and the Iraqi army,

our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen reports from the front

This is the Iraqi solution to an offensive that's

stalled over the last week or so - attack again.

It feels as if the air war over Mosul is intensifying.

They seem confident they won't get shot down.

And every day, a few thousand more people come walking out of the areas

of Mosul still held by the jihadists who call themselves Islamic State.

Many said IS used them as human shields, shooting out from the cover

of their homes and streets, but the response -

TRANSLATION: They destroyed our homes, our cars, everything.

Entire families are gone, they are under the rubble.

TRANSLATION: A lot of people died, children, women and men.

Some very sophisticated modern weapons are in this

fight, and so are these - locally made rockets

over a short range - a blunt instrument.

It might be good for the tempo of the military operation,

but it isn't necessarily good for preserving civilian lives.

But they want to win this battle, and they're

This family's saved some of their favourite things

now that the jihadists have been forced out of their area.

IS banned television and made them stay through the worst

Hassan Abdelfatah showed how their flat, still near the front

line, was virtually destroyed with them in it.

He said that men from IS stopped his neighbour taking six

daughters to safety, threatening to hang him

The people of Mosul have been left with impossible choices -

risk death by staying in their own homes, or risk death

taking their children across a front line.

The Iraqi authorities advised them to stay put.

Yassir Mohamed Ahmed brought his family onto their front

doorstep to watch the battle a couple of hundred metres

Euphoria at liberation from IS had stripped away his sense of danger.

Most of the people arriving in government-held territory

Many said IS fighters forced themselves into their homes.

But Hamoud Suleiman said "Don't bomb them with us there".

Nine of this woman's family were killed in the big raid on the 17th.

She said she wasn't escaping the jihadists, but air strikes

that use tonnes of bombs on a single sniper.

TRANSLATION: They destroy the houses when there are one or two or three

so-called Islamic State men inside them.

My children, nine of my family killed.

They call them smart bombs, but this is stupid.

Using more firepower may well speed up victory over

the jihadists in Mosul, but it is bad.

Killing civilians is bad for the future of Iraq.

These people are Sunni Muslims and they already feel like victims

If Iraqis are to have any chance of better lives,

then all of them need to feel as if their lives matter,

Iraq has been shattered by the years of wars and sectarian conflict

that followed the US and British invasion.

Even when this war against IS is over, it might be too late to put

In Northern Ireland, the political parties have

been given more time to try to form a power-sharing

government after failing to meet today's deadline.

After three weeks of talks, there's still no sign

of agreement between the Democratic Unionist Party

The Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire said he believes

there is no appetite for yet another election, as our

Ireland correspondent Chris Buckler reports.

There's been a lot of talk in Northern Ireland

about restoring power-sharing, but at times it's felt

like Sinn Fein and the DUP have been speaking a very different language.

Much of the funding for this class for migrant workers in Dungannon

comes through Stormont, but with no government, there's no budget.

can't be sure how much money they'll have once the new financial year

If there's no funding, it would mean imminent closure

Those concerns about budgets stretch across all departments including

But at four o'clock, the deadline for an agreement,

the politicians weren't electing a First and Deputy First Minister.

I think there are a short few weeks in order to resolve matters.

The reason I say that is because of this issue,

the stark issue in relation to public services here

and the lack of a budget having been set.

The Northern Ireland Secretary has a limited number of options.

He can call another election, but he's indicated that there

However, because he only has to call a vote

within a reasonable time period, that does allow more time

The other option is what's known as direct rule,

where the Westminster government would take control of the running

of Northern Ireland, at least for a time.

Last week at Martin McGuinness's funeral, the leaders of the DUP

and Sinn Fein did reach out to each other.

But any signs of friendship were missing at Stormont

today when Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill

There's a gulf between the parties on a whole range of issues,

from Sinn Fein's demands for legislation to give official

status to the Irish language to that thorny old problem of how

to recognise and deal with Northern Ireland's

That all leaves major worries about the future of power-sharing,

and in places like this Dungannon community group,

another generation affected by Northern Ireland's old divides.

Hundreds of Syrian rebels and their families have

left their last stronghold in the city of Homs.

They left the district of al-Waer under an evacuation deal

Rebel fighters boarded buses out of the city,

bound for another rebel-held area in the north,

Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet is in Homs

They held out as long as they could, fighters now leaving their last

Their families go with them, taking whatever they can carry.

Forced to leave behind the only homes they've ever known, it's hard.

And the rebels have to leave behind their biggest weapons.

Russia's military police also keep a close eye today.

This agreement was negotiated with Moscow's help.

In the weeks to come, thousands more will board these

buses and head to an opposition area in the north.

Despite the deal, a government cleric suddenly shows up...

pleading with a Muslim leader from the other side.

If you go, you'll end up like a refugee in a tent.

The governor insists this is a good deal for Homs.

TRANSLATION: The rebels had such a terrible impact

Once the armed men have gone, the city will be stable.

Restoring safety here will make all of Homs safe again.

Time and again over the course of Syria's war, this is how

battles have been ending, in these local deals.

The government calls them reconciliations which they say

But for the rebels, this amounts to surrender

and a forced displacement, many of them leaving their homes.

Thousands of people will remain here.

These pictures were filmed for us inside the rebel enclave.

It's still encircled by troops, so we can't go in.

What was once a vibrant community of 75,000 has been hollowed out

by nearly four years of bombardment and siege.

Food and medicine are scarce, but life goes on.

Abdul Hafiz tells stories to young schoolchildren.

"Will you be the mouse or the fox", he asks, "or the tiger?"

He has been teaching in Al Wa'r since 1964.

TRANSLATION: Forced evacuation is a war crime.

People have been forced to surrender because of the siege,

which has lasted for months. Even baby milk couldn't get through.

The rebels could have stayed, but they don't trust

the government's offer of an amnesty, fearing

that they would end up in detention or serving the army

They leave behind the city they once called the capital

Syria is moving away from war, but it's no closer to peace.

A brief look at some of the day's other news stories.

The Qatari government is investing ?5 billion

in the British economy, mainly in property

It says the vote to leave the EU doesn't affect its optimistic

Thames Valley Police are to install new security barriers

around Windsor Castle ahead of the next Changing of the Guard

Officers said the measures weren't in response

to specific intelligence, but followed a review in light

A leading surgeon has denied carrying out unnecessary breast

surgery operations in order to make money.

Ian Paterson is said to have exaggerated the risks of cancer

and faces 20 counts of wounding with intent against

He's on trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

Russia's opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced

to 15 days in prison for organising the biggest

anti-government protests in the country for several years.

Tens of thousands of people attended the anti-corruption rallies

The Kremlin said the demonstrations were illegal, describing them

Our correspondent Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.

It wasn't difficult to guess what this verdict was going to be.

The police bus, ready and waiting to take Russia's main

Inside the courtroom, Alexei Navalny was upbeat.

He had called Russians onto the streets yesterday.

There'd been tens of thousands of protesters, he told me,

but there were millions of Russians who backed the fight

When the verdict came, he was guilty.

The crime - disobeying police orders.

As Mr Navalny emerged, his supporters held up good luck

messages, hoping he'd see them through the window.

The police saw them and took them away.

Yesterday's anti-corruption protests were the largest

In Moscow, riot police moved in to clear the crowds.

More than 1,000 people were detained.

But why had they come out in the first place?

One reason is this film, posted online.

In it, Alexei Navalny accuses Russia's Prime Minister of

He alleges that Dmitry Medvedev had used charities

to conceal vast assets, mansions, yachts, even a vineyard.

Propagandist attacks, says the Prime Minister's office,

but the film has gone viral, with 13 million views.

Mr Navalny called the protests to demand an official investigation.

Today, the Kremlin complained that many of yesterday's protests had

been unsanctioned and were therefore illegal, but the fact that one man,

one Kremlin critic, had been able to bring so many protesters

onto the streets, shows that Alexei Navalny is now a force

Mr Navalny has been opening campaign offices across Russia.

He's under pressure, though, from the authorities,

and he's come under attack, here sprayed with green ink.

But he remains determined, he says, to clean up Russia.

He may be spending tonight in jail, but these protests have reinforced

Alexei Navalny's reputation as Vladimir Putin's

More details have emerged about a new 2020 competition to be

introduced into domestic cricket in England and Wales.

It's hoped the tournament would rival the popularity of T20

competitions in Australia and India and feature fewer

But critics fear it could spell the end of 130

For more than a century, English cricket's been built

on the foundation of the counties, but a brand-new tournament

that does not involve them is getting closer.

With its glitz and glamour, the soaring success

of the Indian Premier League and Australia's Big Bash have shown

just how popular the shortened Twenty20 format of the game can be,

and today the man who's masterminding English cricket's

equivalent told me why there now needs to be a revolution.

The evidence that we have suggests that cricket exists

in a bubble and we've got to get outside this bubble

to be relevant to the broader consumer and actually say,

to cricket fans, we have the ability to make that

proportion of cricket fans that care about our sport much,

We need to be more open, we need to be more representative,

and we need to connect more with more people.

This is how the new tournament may look.

From 2020, there will be eight teams, as yet unnamed,

based around regions instead of counties.

Each will field a squad of 15 players, including

three from overseas, and in a crowded schedule

the competition will consist of 36 games over the 38 days,

The counties, meanwhile, are preparing for the new season -

Yorkshire taking on Lancashire in a friendly this week

These two clubs know they'll at least host matches

of the new tournament at their grounds.

Others, however, will miss out.

I think they might be quite disappointed that they've

not got a franchise, say it is one of the smaller

grounds, but on the other hand, I think I'll be getting quite

a hefty severance package anyway, so at the end of the day

Tomorrow, here at Lord's, the ECB's board will formally begin

the process of changing their own rules to allow this tournament,

with final ratification possible as early as next month.

Such is the sensitivity around it, the counties have been told not

to comment at this stage, but some traditionalists

are concerned that it could do lasting damage to the status

I think what we're doing here is future-proofing county

Cricket has been a sport which has always had the ability to evolve,

to actually innovate and change where it's needed to.

With most of the counties struggling financially,

resistance has been eased by the promise of more

than ?1 million per season to each in extra revenue.

The ECB says this is the biggest project it's ever undertaken,

but it's also a gamble that will change the cricketing

Tonight, we have the UK television exclusive, with the black activist

who turned out to be white. Here on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.