:00:00. > :00:07.Tonight at Ten: President Assad says claims his forces launched
:00:08. > :00:11.a chemical attack on a rebel town are completely fabricated.
:00:12. > :00:13.He said Syria doesn't possess chemical weapons
:00:14. > :00:17.and the West made up the story - so America could justify the missile
:00:18. > :00:22.The West - mainly the United States - is hand in glove
:00:23. > :00:26.They fabricated the whole story in order to have
:00:27. > :00:33.It's his first interview since the chemical attack which left
:00:34. > :00:37.Also tonight: America confirms it has for the first time
:00:38. > :00:42.dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb - seen here in tests -
:00:43. > :00:46.on so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan.
:00:47. > :00:53.We are so proud of our military and it was another successful event.
:00:54. > :00:56.A new generation of grammars in England -
:00:57. > :00:59.the Education Secretary Justine Greening sets out her plans
:01:00. > :01:04.for schools for "ordinary working families".
:01:05. > :01:07.A show of force in North Korea, amid fears the military
:01:08. > :01:11.is about to carry out its sixth nuclear test.
:01:12. > :01:15.And 750 million miles away - Nasa says one of Saturn's moons may
:01:16. > :01:22.now be the single best place to look for life beyond Earth.
:01:23. > :01:25.And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News: An away goal at Anderlecht,
:01:26. > :01:29.as Manchester United attempt to gain the upper hand in their Europa
:01:30. > :01:56.Syria's President Assad says claims that his Armed Forces were behind
:01:57. > :01:59.a chemical weapons attack on a rebel town last week are
:02:00. > :02:06.Instead, he's claimed America worked "hand in glove" with terrorist
:02:07. > :02:08.groups to stage the attack as a pretext for American
:02:09. > :02:13.And he questioned whether TV images of dead children were real.
:02:14. > :02:17.But tonight, chemical weapons investigators said allegations
:02:18. > :02:20.of a chemical attack last week were credible.
:02:21. > :02:22.Our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has this report -
:02:23. > :02:29.The attack on Khan Sheikhoun produced terrible images of children
:02:30. > :02:34.poisoned by nerve gas and rescue workers struggling to help.
:02:35. > :02:37.Hosing victims down to try to wash it away.
:02:38. > :02:41.President Trump said he was so shocked by what he saw
:02:42. > :02:44.that he went from being prepared to deal with the Assad regime,
:02:45. > :02:47.to calling the Syrian president a butcher.
:02:48. > :02:51.Bashar al-Assad denies every accusation against him.
:02:52. > :02:54.There was no order to make any attack.
:02:55. > :02:58.We gave up our arsenal three years ago.
:02:59. > :03:01.Even if we had them we wouldn't use them, and we have never
:03:02. > :03:07.used our chemical arsenal in our history.
:03:08. > :03:12.There is credible evidence - samples, not just pictures -
:03:13. > :03:15.that chemical weapons were used in Khan Sheikhoun, according
:03:16. > :03:19.to the organisation that supervises the international ban on them.
:03:20. > :03:24.But these scenes, President Assad insisted, could have been staged -
:03:25. > :03:29.We don't know whether those dead, the children,
:03:30. > :03:38.Who committed the attack, if there was an attack?
:03:39. > :03:42.With the material you have no information at all.
:03:43. > :03:49.The fakery, he said, included the White Helmets rescue teams -
:03:50. > :03:55.We have the proof those videos were fake, like
:03:56. > :04:00.They are Al-Qaeda, they are al-Nusra Front, who shaved their beard,
:04:01. > :04:05.wore white hats and appeared as humanitarian heroes,
:04:06. > :04:12.The same people were killing Syrian soldiers
:04:13. > :04:15.and you have the proof of the Internet.
:04:16. > :04:19.The American cruise missile attack a week ago has changed a great
:04:20. > :04:24.For the first time it's been hit by the US.
:04:25. > :04:31.But the rhetoric has switched to regime change in Syria.
:04:32. > :04:34.The American attack, President Assad said,
:04:35. > :04:41.Our impression that the West - mainly the United States - is hand
:04:42. > :04:46.They fabricated the whole story in order to have
:04:47. > :04:50.Britain's Prime Minister was inspecting newly commissioned
:04:51. > :04:55.officers at Sandhurst and keeping up the pressure.
:04:56. > :04:59.British scientists have analysed material from
:05:00. > :05:03.They are very clear that sarin, or a sarin like substance, was used.
:05:04. > :05:06.As our ambassador to the United Nations made clear yesterday,
:05:07. > :05:09.like the United States, we believe it's highly likely that
:05:10. > :05:13.that attack was carried out by the Assad regime.
:05:14. > :05:16.President Assad insists he has nothing to gain
:05:17. > :05:21.He will be relieved if all he faces in the next few months are more
:05:22. > :05:36.The first time that President Assad has spoken about this. What does his
:05:37. > :05:40.interview say about the position he finds himself in? I have interviewed
:05:41. > :05:43.him a couple of years ago and judging by his demeanour he seems
:05:44. > :05:47.rather anxious at the moment. Things have really changed for him and
:05:48. > :05:51.really quite a short time. He seemed to be riding high in a stronger
:05:52. > :05:54.position as he'd been since the war started and in the last week, the
:05:55. > :05:57.Americans have hit him and the rhetoric has switched back to
:05:58. > :06:02.something really quite hostile. I think even if you believe what Assad
:06:03. > :06:06.says about these attacks, it doesn't really matter in a sense, because
:06:07. > :06:11.the Americans are saying that essentially he's telling lies. Now
:06:12. > :06:14.what really matters for Assad is the continuing patronage of President
:06:15. > :06:19.Putin and lost. And the Russians. He is their man. I think that those
:06:20. > :06:23.people who oppose him, who think the Russians may now flick a switch and
:06:24. > :06:26.replace him, are going to be disappointed because I think more
:06:27. > :06:31.than anything Putin wants to have his man in Damascus. He's got
:06:32. > :06:33.somebody there and I think that he doesn't want to rock the boat, bring
:06:34. > :06:35.more disruption into what for putting up until now has been quite
:06:36. > :06:40.a successful operation. Thank you. The US military has dropped
:06:41. > :06:42.the biggest non-nuclear bomb for the first time -
:06:43. > :06:45.the so-called mother of all bombs - on a tunnel complex used
:06:46. > :06:47.by the Islamic State The attack has been strongly
:06:48. > :06:51.condemned by the former Afghan president, Hamid Karzai,
:06:52. > :06:53.who said it was an inhuman and brutal misuse of their country
:06:54. > :06:56.as a testing ground The tunnels were located
:06:57. > :07:00.in the remote Achin district of eastern Nangarhar province,
:07:01. > :07:03.close to the border with Pakistan. Here's our North America
:07:04. > :07:16.editor, Jon Sopel. This is the GBU-43/B, also known as
:07:17. > :07:21.a Moab, a massive ordnance air blast. Or, as it's more commonly
:07:22. > :07:25.known, the mother of all bombs. And today, for the first time ever, it
:07:26. > :07:29.was used in combat, the largest non-nuclear weapon ever deployed.
:07:30. > :07:36.The target, so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan. We targeted a system
:07:37. > :07:38.of tunnels and caves that Isis fighters used to move around freely,
:07:39. > :07:42.making it easier for them to target US military advisers and Afghan
:07:43. > :07:46.forces in the area. The United States takes the fight against Isis
:07:47. > :07:51.very seriously and in order to defeat the group, we must deny them
:07:52. > :07:55.operational space, which we did. It's turning out to be a busy time
:07:56. > :08:01.for the commander-in-chief. We are so proud of our military and it was
:08:02. > :08:06.another successful event. White and no one can say it's not what he
:08:07. > :08:13.promised during the campaign. I know more about Isis than the generals
:08:14. > :08:18.do, believe me. I would bomb the BLEEP out of them. The towns and
:08:19. > :08:24.caves used by the Taliban over 15 years ago are now being used by IS.
:08:25. > :08:27.This bomb was dropped on comp external network in Nangahar
:08:28. > :08:32.province, close to the Pakistan border where a member of US forces
:08:33. > :08:36.was killed last week. This shows the administration takes Isis moving
:08:37. > :08:39.seriously from the Middle East to Afghanistan seriously. But the
:08:40. > :08:44.action has brought a furious tweet from Afghanistan's former president,
:08:45. > :08:48.Hamid Karzai. This is not the war on terror but the inhuman and most
:08:49. > :08:51.brutal misuse of our country as a testing ground for new and dangerous
:08:52. > :08:55.weapons. It's not just the dropping of a massive bomb on Afghanistan. In
:08:56. > :09:00.just over a week, President Trump has ordered the missile strike on
:09:01. > :09:04.Syria, a naval battle group to head to the Korean Peninsula, and he's
:09:05. > :09:10.restated his commitment to Nato. Some of Donald Trump's supporters
:09:11. > :09:14.are asking, whatever happened to the isolationist, America's first
:09:15. > :09:18.president of the inauguration? Jon Sopel, BBC News, Washington.
:09:19. > :09:20.And you can more analysis on that story shortly
:09:21. > :09:23.on Newsnight, over on BBC Two, after this programme.
:09:24. > :09:24.The Education Secretary - Justine Greening -
:09:25. > :09:27.has defended plans to introduce new grammar schools in England.
:09:28. > :09:29.There are already 163 grammar schools.
:09:30. > :09:32.Ms Greening said the new grammars would "support young people
:09:33. > :09:35.from every background, not the privileged few" and they'd
:09:36. > :09:39.help what she called "ordinary working families" -
:09:40. > :09:41.those with two adults, two children and a household
:09:42. > :09:48.But critics say there's little evidence that academically selective
:09:49. > :09:56.Here's our education editor, Branwen Jeffreys.
:09:57. > :09:59.After-school tutoring for grammar school exams.
:10:00. > :10:01.Competition for limited places is tough.
:10:02. > :10:05.Just passing isn't enough, so parents pay
:10:06. > :10:11.It's not the be all and end all, but I believe that if she passes
:10:12. > :10:14.strongly, she'll have a better chance of progressing
:10:15. > :10:18.into later life, if she has attended a grammar school.
:10:19. > :10:21.One of the schools he might like might be one of the grammar
:10:22. > :10:25.schools and, if he's taken the 11 plus, even if you pass the exam,
:10:26. > :10:27.there is no guarantees, so it's about keeping as many doors
:10:28. > :10:32.So are grammar schools just for the better-off?
:10:33. > :10:35.Today, the Education Secretary said they won't be.
:10:36. > :10:39.I want these new schools to work for everyone.
:10:40. > :10:43.This will be a new model of grammars, truly open to all.
:10:44. > :10:50.And it will reflect the choices of local parents and communities.
:10:51. > :10:53.So when you look at the family income of pupils, what do
:10:54. > :10:58.In nonselective comprehensives, the lowest, above-average
:10:59. > :11:03.and below-average income families get a similar share of places.
:11:04. > :11:07.In academically selective grammar schools, families on the lowest
:11:08. > :11:11.wages and benefits get just 9% of places.
:11:12. > :11:17.And pupils from families with above average income,
:11:18. > :11:31.It sets aside some places for boys on free school meals.
:11:32. > :11:33.The government expects all to follow this example.
:11:34. > :11:36.Ministers hope to convince MPs to scrap the legal ban
:11:37. > :11:43.There's cross-party opposition to the idea of new grammar schools,
:11:44. > :11:47.and that includes some Conservative MPs and peers.
:11:48. > :11:50.This wasn't in the Tory manifesto at the last election,
:11:51. > :11:54.and that gives them greater freedom to oppose it.
:11:55. > :11:57.Behind their unease, there is one fundamental fact.
:11:58. > :12:00.That however you look at it, grammar schools
:12:01. > :12:07.If you create a decision at the age of 11, whether a child is able
:12:08. > :12:13.enough or not to go to a grammar school, you are then saying possibly
:12:14. > :12:22.What do you think is going to happen?
:12:23. > :12:24.And today, no mention of the main challenge,
:12:25. > :12:29.the biggest squeeze on school budgets in England in 20 years.
:12:30. > :12:36.More families have accused the NHS Trust at the centre
:12:37. > :12:39.of an investigation into its maternity services
:12:40. > :12:42.for failing to properly investigate the deaths of their babies.
:12:43. > :12:46.The mother of Jack Burn, who died in 2015, said their concerns
:12:47. > :12:49.were dismissed by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust.
:12:50. > :12:52.The trust says it has learned lessons from all the deaths
:12:53. > :12:54.and is aware that it needs to improve its communication
:12:55. > :12:57.Our social affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan
:12:58. > :13:04.Kayleigh and Colin lost their daughter last April, but were forced
:13:05. > :13:12.Pippa died just a day after being born at home.
:13:13. > :13:14.Hours earlier, Kayleigh had called the local hospital worried
:13:15. > :13:25.So this is the babygro that Pippa went to bed in that night.
:13:26. > :13:32.As you can see, it's got splodges of dark brown mucus.
:13:33. > :13:39.The family struggled on, but Pippa's infection killed her.
:13:40. > :13:44.Weeks later, the Trust told the family the death was unavoidable.
:13:45. > :13:48.Members from the Trust sat here, on this seat, and said nothing
:13:49. > :14:01.The family fought for an investigation.
:14:02. > :14:07.Last week, a coroner ruled that Pippa's death was preventable.
:14:08. > :14:10.They weren't going to do an investigation,
:14:11. > :14:15.so that was when I said, that's not good enough.
:14:16. > :14:18.There will be an investigation and we will be involved.
:14:19. > :14:24.Pippa Griffith is one of seven avoidable deaths at this Trust
:14:25. > :14:30.As we revealed last night, the Health Secretary has now
:14:31. > :14:33.ordered an investigation into maternity services.
:14:34. > :14:37.The families of Sophiya Hotchkiss and Jack Burn are keen to take part
:14:38. > :14:44.as they say neither baby's death was properly investigated.
:14:45. > :14:47.Hayley Matthew's son, Jack, died in 2015 from an infection,
:14:48. > :14:50.hours after being born, but she says mistakes made
:14:51. > :14:54.during her 36-hour labour contributed to his death and can't
:14:55. > :14:59.understand why the Trust haven't answered her many questions.
:15:00. > :15:04.Why they didn't induce me the night I went in.
:15:05. > :15:11.The night I went in, I had nothing, I didn't have no infection.
:15:12. > :15:14.It was the two days I was in there when infection set in,
:15:15. > :15:19.and they didn't pick up on it, which now cost me my baby.
:15:20. > :15:21.After we raised concerns, the local coroner is now
:15:22. > :15:26.considering opening an inquest into Jack's death.
:15:27. > :15:29.The Trust meanwhile maintain they do examine all deaths.
:15:30. > :15:33.I'm aware that each of the cases that have been brought
:15:34. > :15:40.to our attention as part of this investigation has been investigated.
:15:41. > :15:43.We've done root cause analysis, which is a more detailed
:15:44. > :15:50.Kayleigh Griffiths will give birth once more next month.
:15:51. > :15:54.Given what the couple have suffered, they're understandably nervous.
:15:55. > :15:57.This family, every family here, need maternity services to improve.
:15:58. > :16:05.Michael Buchanan, BBC News, Shropshire.
:16:06. > :16:08.A record number of people who went to A departments in England
:16:09. > :16:12.this winter had to wait at least four hours to be admitted.
:16:13. > :16:15.Almost 200,000 people had to wait much longer
:16:16. > :16:18.than they should for a bed - a big rise on last year's figures.
:16:19. > :16:21.Nearly 100,000 more people had to wait longer than 18 weeks
:16:22. > :16:28.Penthouse apartments, impressive views -
:16:29. > :16:30.this is the North Korea that the country's leader,
:16:31. > :16:35.Today, he invited foreign journalists to watch as he cut
:16:36. > :16:37.the ribbon at a prestigious housing project in front of
:16:38. > :16:44.But it's all against a backdrop of increasing international pressure
:16:45. > :16:46.with fears that North Korea is about to conduct
:16:47. > :16:52.An American aircraft carrier group is being deployed to the region
:16:53. > :16:56.and North Korea's being threatened with tougher economic sanctions.
:16:57. > :16:59.Our correspondent, John Sudworth, sent this report from Pyongyang.
:17:00. > :17:07.His movements are being tightly monitored and controlled.
:17:08. > :17:11.They poured into central Pyongyang in their tens of thousands
:17:12. > :17:15.of citizens and soldiers alike, North Korea has always demanded
:17:16. > :17:35.And at the front of the crowd there was Kim Jong-un.
:17:36. > :17:40.Celebrating not a missile launch or a rocket test,
:17:41. > :17:43.but the construction of Pyongyang's newest street.
:17:44. > :17:46.The inauguration of a few tower blocks and shops would,
:17:47. > :17:53.anywhere else, raise barely a murmur.
:17:54. > :18:01.In Pyongyang, it's met with rapturous applause.
:18:02. > :18:04.It might seem like an extraordinary celebration to mark the opening
:18:05. > :18:07.of a street, but it's about so much more than that.
:18:08. > :18:09.It's about economic survival, resilience and sending a message
:18:10. > :18:17.to the outside world of total loyalty to the leader.
:18:18. > :18:21.The country's Prime Minister, Pak Pong-ju, told the crowds
:18:22. > :18:25.that the opening of the new street sends a more powerful signal
:18:26. > :18:36.to the world than any number of nuclear bombs.
:18:37. > :18:39.But in reality, for North Korea, bombs are vital.
:18:40. > :18:41.With reports that another nuclear test may be imminent,
:18:42. > :18:47."The dear Marshall Kim Jong-un clothes and feeds us",
:18:48. > :18:55.And, from an early age, she's told that it's
:18:56. > :19:04.bombs and missiles that guarantee his regime's survival.
:19:05. > :19:06.For a poor and isolated country like North Korea this
:19:07. > :19:13.Might it have gone the way of Iraq or Libya, its leaders ask, if it
:19:14. > :19:28.So foreign journalists are brought here to be shown a friendly face -
:19:29. > :19:31.and there are many of them - but also the willingness to endure.
:19:32. > :19:40."Sanctions don't bother us at all", this man tells me.
:19:41. > :19:45."United around our leader, nothing can harm us."
:19:46. > :19:49.The message is clear - North Korea is marching
:19:50. > :19:52.towards its nuclear future and no amount of threat or coercion
:19:53. > :19:53.from a US President will get in its way.
:19:54. > :20:07.A brief look at some of the day's other news stories:
:20:08. > :20:12.The UK arm of the American coffee chain Starbucks saw profits
:20:13. > :20:12.fall by 58% last year, to ?13 million.
:20:13. > :20:15.The company has blamed a slowing economy and the impact of Brexit.
:20:16. > :20:17.Starbucks has also faced increasing competition
:20:18. > :20:22.The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh,
:20:23. > :20:25.has given traditional Maundy money to 91 men and 91 women in a service
:20:26. > :20:33.The coins represent each of her 91 years.
:20:34. > :20:35.The passenger dragged from an overbooked United Airlines plane
:20:36. > :20:39.A lawyer for Dr David Dao said he was left concussed,
:20:40. > :20:47.with a broken nose and had lost two front teeth in the scuffle.
:20:48. > :20:51.13 years ago, Chechen separatists took more than 1,000 pupils,
:20:52. > :20:53.parents and teachers hostage at a school in the Russian
:20:54. > :20:59.The siege ended three days later, when Russian security forces stormed
:21:00. > :21:02.the building using tanks and flame throwers.
:21:03. > :21:04.More than 300 people were killed, most of them children.
:21:05. > :21:07.Today, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia
:21:08. > :21:09.had failed to protect human lives during the botched attempt
:21:10. > :21:12.Our correspondent, Sarah Rainsford, reported from Beslan
:21:13. > :21:14.during the siege and has returned to the town that's haunted
:21:15. > :21:31.The ruins of School Number One still stand in Beslan. The sports hall,
:21:32. > :21:34.once crammed full of hostages, is now a shrine to those killed. All
:21:35. > :21:39.the stuffed toys, a reminder that so many of them were children. This
:21:40. > :21:47.woman's daughter was just eight years old. She went to school that
:21:48. > :21:51.day with her mum and her sister. TRANSLATION: She was full of miss
:21:52. > :21:57.chief. She admits the house is horribly quiet with her gone. She
:21:58. > :22:05.describes the three day siegeand remembers how they had begun to lose
:22:06. > :22:11.hope. Even now, all this is very raw. But she's angry, too at the
:22:12. > :22:16.officials she accuses of handling the crisis terribly.
:22:17. > :22:20.TRANSLATION: They didn't prevent the ter o attack. They didn't rescue us.
:22:21. > :22:23.They couldn't even agree to get water to us. For the sake of the
:22:24. > :22:28.children, they could have done more. They could have negotiated so that
:22:29. > :22:33.more children were freed. Instead, this is how the hostages were held.
:22:34. > :22:38.With explosives strung from the basketball hoops.
:22:39. > :22:42.The whole world watched in horror as the gunmen demanded Russians troops
:22:43. > :22:47.pull out of Chechenya. The end was sudden and chaotic. Two explosions
:22:48. > :22:50.and hostages running for their lives as the building was stormed. That's
:22:51. > :22:56.when most of the victims were killed. Among all the messages that
:22:57. > :23:00.are on the walls here, there is a promise, it says that what happened
:23:01. > :23:04.here in Beslan will never be forgotten. But ever since this siege
:23:05. > :23:08.happened there have been people here in this town haunted by questions
:23:09. > :23:11.about whether more could have been done to prevent the siege and
:23:12. > :23:17.whether so many people had to die when it all ended. For years, these
:23:18. > :23:22.parents have been pushing for an investigation. Rejected at every
:23:23. > :23:29.turn. Now, there's hope the ruling in Strasbourg could help bring the
:23:30. > :23:34.first officials to account. This girl writes music to help cope with
:23:35. > :23:38.what she lived through. She survived the siege but her song remembers 28
:23:39. > :23:43.classmates who were killed. Coming to terms with that is a painful
:23:44. > :23:48.process, so she has stopped thinking about who is to blame.
:23:49. > :23:52.TRANSLATION: Just after the terror attack, when we were still children,
:23:53. > :23:59.we felt like everyone had betrayed us. We blamed everyone around us.
:24:00. > :24:03.How could they abandon us? We were so desperate for someone to save us,
:24:04. > :24:09.but that's faded now because we can't change what happened. The
:24:10. > :24:13.siege has left deep scars on this town, but the families of those
:24:14. > :24:18.killed want lessons to be learned so no other mother has to suffer like
:24:19. > :24:25.this. Sarah Rainsford, BBC News, Beslan.
:24:26. > :24:28.Turkey had always seen itself as a bridge between the East and West.
:24:29. > :24:30.But there's been a mood change, starting with
:24:31. > :24:33.It led to a wave of patriotism and an increase
:24:34. > :24:38.Now, the country is going to the polls in effect
:24:39. > :24:41.Turkey will be voting on a series of proposals,
:24:42. > :24:46.including giving the President the power to remove
:24:47. > :24:48.the Prime Minster, limiting the powers of parliament
:24:49. > :24:51.and introducing 12-year terms for the president.
:24:52. > :24:53.John Simpson has been following the campaigns and sent
:24:54. > :25:04.Chora, in Anatolia, mostly agricultural and conservative,
:25:05. > :25:06.it's solid from a man who wants to strengthen his power
:25:07. > :25:16.Mr Erdogan knows just how to please them.
:25:17. > :25:19.He used to be a footballer, so he turns up wearing
:25:20. > :25:24.He understands how humiliated many Turks feel at being cold shouldered
:25:25. > :25:28.by Europe and he stirs them up against western countries.
:25:29. > :25:38.Afterwards, the crowd's still pumped up.
:25:39. > :25:41."They don't want Turkey to be strong", she says.
:25:42. > :25:44.This man says, "The West will have to treat Turkey
:25:45. > :25:55.We don't hate Europeans, we hate their leaders", he goes on.
:25:56. > :26:03.This is the mood which President Erdogan has created.
:26:04. > :26:08.It the was the attempted coup last July which gave Mr Erdogan
:26:09. > :26:11.the impetuous to pitch for much greater powers, even though
:26:12. > :26:24.One of those who was injured was the Mayor
:26:25. > :26:26.of a district in Istanbul where there was fighting.
:26:27. > :26:29.He's a passionate supporter of President Erdogan.
:26:30. > :26:33.If Turkey votes yes on Sunday, will it become a dictatorship?
:26:34. > :26:37.Some people are trying to make it look like that.
:26:38. > :26:43.But if our president wanted to use the powers he already has, then
:26:44. > :26:50.Turkey already locks up more journalists than any other country,
:26:51. > :26:56.this is the flat of one of them, Murat Aksoy.
:26:57. > :26:58.Axsoy's wife, Sehriban, is reading a letter from him.
:26:59. > :27:00.He was supposed to have been freed two weeks ago,
:27:01. > :27:10."My dear, my love, we'll see each other in a few hours",
:27:11. > :27:18.But it wasn't, and the judges who'd ordered his release were suspended.
:27:19. > :27:20.TRANSLATION: I told our daughter very clearly that we were going
:27:21. > :27:22.to bring her dad home, but it would be late,
:27:23. > :27:29.She checked all the rooms, she asked where he was.
:27:30. > :27:34.I tried to explain to her, but I couldn't.
:27:35. > :27:37.President Erdogan is pulling out all the stops to get new powers
:27:38. > :27:46.Even if he loses on Sunday, he'll probably be able to do pretty
:27:47. > :27:51.And, if he wins, he'll have the chance of staying
:27:52. > :28:11.It's 750 million miles from Earth, but the American space agency Nasa
:28:12. > :28:14.says one of Saturn's moons - known as Enceladus -
:28:15. > :28:16.may now be the single best place to look for life beyond Earth.
:28:17. > :28:19.Samples of the waters erupting from the Moon's surface suggest it
:28:20. > :28:21.has all the conditions needed for life.
:28:22. > :28:23.The discovery was made by the Cassini spacecraft
:28:24. > :28:26.which is coming to the end of a 13-year mission to Saturn.
:28:27. > :28:27.Our science editor, David Shukman, reports.
:28:28. > :28:30.For over a decade, Cassini has shared the wonders of Saturn
:28:31. > :28:38.A Nasa video promoting a mission that keeps making astonishing
:28:39. > :28:47.A spacecraft, called Cassini, has focused
:28:48. > :28:49.on one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus.
:28:50. > :28:52.Beneath its icy surface is a deep ocean and great jets of water,
:28:53. > :28:54.blasting out of it, contain ingredients needed for life.
:28:55. > :29:00.In fact, Nasa scientists now say that on the floor of the ocean
:29:01. > :29:08.there may be hydrothermal vents, like these on Earth, making hydrogen
:29:09. > :29:11.So, conceivably, there could be life on Enceladus.
:29:12. > :29:14.This is a very significant finding because the hydrogen could be
:29:15. > :29:16.a potential source of chemical energy for any microbes that might
:29:17. > :29:21.So this is a very exciting finding for the Cassini team.
:29:22. > :29:25.Saturn, with its rings, is perhaps the most striking
:29:26. > :29:28.of the planets and this mission by Nasa and the European
:29:29. > :29:30.Space Agency has been incredibly revealing.
:29:31. > :29:32.The spacecraft itself, Cassini, is one of the largest ever
:29:33. > :29:36.sent into deep space, it stands nearly seven meters tall
:29:37. > :29:51.It left Earth back in 1997, flying out beyond Mars,
:29:52. > :29:53.weaving past Jupiter before arriving at Saturn in 2004, and it's been
:29:54. > :29:57.But now comes the most spectacular stage of all,
:29:58. > :30:00.as the spacecraft orbits inside the famous rings.
:30:01. > :30:06.We now know they're made of pieces of ice and rock,
:30:07. > :30:09.ranging from tiny specs to lumps the size of houses and flying
:30:10. > :30:11.this close will give us unprecedented views of the rings
:30:12. > :30:17.This journey of discovery will get closer to the rings than ever
:30:18. > :30:19.before, but the instruments were built back in the early
:30:20. > :30:24.1990s and the scientists aren't sure they'll work.
:30:25. > :30:30.The reason that I'm a bit nervous is that the final orbits
:30:31. > :30:33.were designed with mine instrument in mind and with the gravity
:30:34. > :30:37.And so, there's a lot of pressure on us to produce really good science
:30:38. > :30:40.and the instruments are getting old - just like we are -
:30:41. > :30:42.so I'm very excited, but I'm rather unsettled
:30:43. > :30:49.Cassini will skim the clouds of Saturn for the next few
:30:50. > :30:55.The idea is to make sure the spacecraft does not crash
:30:56. > :30:57.on to any of Saturn's moons and contaminate them, especially
:30:58. > :31:04.We've no idea if anything is actually alive on it.
:31:05. > :31:06.That won't be known until a future mission, maybe decades away.
:31:07. > :31:09.But with tonight's new findings, this becomes one of the likeliest
:31:10. > :31:25.places in the solar system to find life beyond Earth.
:31:26. > :31:26.Here, on BBC One, it's time for the news where you are.