09/02/2018 BBC News at One

Two British jihadis captured

in Syria have been accused

of murdering more than 20 prisoners.

Relatives of hostages

murdered by the men say

they should be locked up -

and the key thrown away.

If it goes to trial,

I'll certainly be there.

I certainly want to look them

in the eye and let them know

that I'm who I am.

And they have destroyed

a big part of my life.

We will have the latest on their

capture.

Also this lunchtime:

The EU throws doubt

on a transition period

after Britain leaves next year -

Michel Barnier warns

that it isn't a given.

The 23rd Winter Olympics have

officially opened in South Korea.

This is the scene

live in Pyongchang.

There was a show of unity,

as athletes from north and south

Korea entered the stadium together

as one team.

And a handshake between

the President of South Korea

and the sister of the North Korean

leader, it was greeted by cheers.

The athletes from ROK and DPRK,

by marching together,

send a powerful message

of peace to the world.

Also, the world's most famous

dinosaur goes on tour -

Dippy the Diplodocus could be

coming to a town near you.

And in the sport on BBC News:

After talks with the Scottish FA,

former boss Walter Smith has ruled

out a return to replace

Gordon Strachan as the

country's new head coach.

Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC News at One.

Victims of two British Islamic State

jihadists, who've been captured

in Syria, have called for them

to face justice in court.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee

Elsheikh were seized

by Kurdish forces last month.

Bethany Haines, whose father David

was murdered by the cell,

says the men should be forced

to look the people whose lives

they've destroyed in the eye.

US officials say the group have

murdered more than 20 hostages.

Richard Galpin has the latest.

34-year-old Alexanda Kotey

was captured in Eastern Syria

last month, along with 29-year-old

El Shafee Elsheikh.

The news only confirmed

now by US officials.

They were caught by Syrian

Kurdish fighters like these,

who are backed by the Americans.

US forces have been

interrogating the two men.

The other members of the notorious

British gang of IS fighters

were Aine Davis, who's in jail

in Turkey, and the ringleader,

Mohammed Emwazi,

known as Jihadi John,

killed in a drone strike in 2015.

Kotey and Elsheikh were

the last to be found.

Today, the police went

to the family home of

El Shafee Elsheikh in West London.

All the gang came from the same

area, and were radicalised here

before leaving for Syria and Iraq.

Makeshift bomb shelters

in the bottom of a school...

The American journalist James Foley

was the first of at at least

27 Western hostages,

who US officials say

were beheaded by the gang.

The killing videoed,

and then put on the Internet.

And this is David Haines,

a British aid worker,

who was also captured

by Islamic State

and beheaded in 2014.

Alan Henning, a former taxi driver,

who became a volunteer aid worker

in Syria in 2013, was the second

British man to be murdered.

All these killings and

others carried out by

Mohammed Emwazi, Jihadi John.

This morning, David

Haines's daughter

gave her response to the capture

of Alexanda Kotey and Elsheikh, who

who are accused of torturing

hostages.

They should die a long,

slow, painful death.

And I think quite a lot

of people understand that,

that they shouldn't be

allowed to live.

But realistically, that's

not going to happen.

And you have to come

to terms with that.

The best thing for them is to be

locked up and throw away the key.

They should never be

allowed back into society,

because they will just recruit

people, and they will

just do this again.

If it goes to trial,

I'll certainly be there.

I certainly want to look them

in the eye and let them

know that I'm who I am.

And they've destroyed

a big part of my life.

Some Westerners guarded

by the British gang did

manage to get out alive,

including French journalist

Nicola Henin, who's delighted

by the capture of Kotey

and Elsheikh take

but want proper trial.

Revenge is an endless cycle,

where justice eventually aims

at extinguishing violence by setting

up all the grievances

and bringing back peace.

And this is what I want.

But it's possible Kotey and Elsheikh

may end up here at Guantanamo Bay,

where there would not be

a normal trial.

Although it's not confirmed,

the BBC believes they've been

stripped of their British

citizenship, which means

they could remain in American hands.

Richard Galpin, BBC News.

Our security correspondent

Gordon Corera is here.

Are we getting any clearer sense of

what will happen next?

We are not

sure yet, there are clearly options

that we heard there. It is possible

they could go on trial in the United

States, particularly for the killing

of US hostages. It is likely the US

Department of Justice are building a

case to do that. It is possible that

some people in the Trump

administration may want to send them

to Guantanamo, they have not said

that specifically, but in the last

few months, people have said they

would like to resume sending betaine

ease from what they

call the battlefield to Guantanamo.

It has happened in the past, which

hasn't been done some years. That is

likely to be a decision that comes

out of Washington and is

Washington's choice ultimately,

assuming they are in full control

because the Kurdish forces

originally picked them up. Written's

role is less clear, because it is

thought these men have been deprived

of their British citizenship under

special powers, and so, Britain's

role and the ability to bring them

here to trial looks less certain or

possible. The priority is to get

intelligence from the men to

understand what has happened to

other foreign fighters, two other

British National 's that have been

out in Iraq and Syria, and to

understand where they are and if

they pose a threat. There is the

issue of what happens in the future,

but also getting as much information

as they can from them.

Gordon, thank

you for now. Gordon Corera.

The EU's chief negotiatior,

Michel Barnier, has thrown

into doubt the UK's plans

for a transition period

after Brexit, saying it's

not a given, if disagreements

in the negotiations persist.

Mr Barnier also told a news

conference that checks at the Irish

border will be unavoidable,

once Britain has left the single

market and customs union.

This future relationship would

need to avoid a hard border,

and protect North-South cooperation

and the Good Friday Agreement.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen,

it is important to tell the truth.

A UK decision

to leave the single market

and to leave the customs union would

make border checks unavoidable.

Adam Fleming is in Brussels.

There was some tough language, Adam,

what should we be reading into all

of this?

Michel Barnier wanted to

remind everyone of this issue of

avoiding a hard border on the island

of Ireland has only been part, it

has not been solved, and it is still

quite a tricky one. He also wanted

to send a message that the British

objections to the EU's plans for how

the transition or implementation

period will work mean that it might

not be agreed as quickly as the UK

would like. To that, the Brits would

say it is a negotiation and they are

negotiating. There was also a weird

episode where there was a

disagreement between both sides

whether Michel Barnier could be in

the room this morning while British

civil servants were speaking to

European Commission civil servants,

and that one has not been solved

yet. I described last month as dried

anyway for Brexit and not much

seemed to happen, not the case in

February, is it?

At, thank you. Adam

Fleming in Brussels.

So where does this leave the Brexit

negotiations on the issue of trade?

Chris Morris from the BBC's

Reality Check team is here.

There are now less than two months

before the beginning

of the financial year

in which Brexit actually happens,

so it's hardly surprising that

pressure from business for greater

clarity is becoming intense.

As we've just heard,

negotiations between UK and EU

officials have been taking place

in Brussels again this week,

with plenty still to be resolved

over the withdrawal agreement

and the details of

a transition period after Brexit.

But in the long term,

this is what people want to know -

how is the UK's future relationship

with the EU going to work?

That means reaching an agreement

on trade arrangements,

trying to negotiate a security

treaty, and working out how future

foreign policy cooperation

will work in practice.

But it is trade, in fact,

the entire economic relationship -

that is proving

the most difficult to pin down.

Formal negotiations

haven't even started yet.

And yesterday we had a reminder

that the lack of clarity

is making people nervous,

even outside of Europe.

If there is no profitability

of continuing operations in UK -

not Japanese only -

no private company can

continue operation.

So it's as simple as that.

And this is all high stakes

that I think all of us

need to keep in mind.

Well, the UK government

plans to leave the EU single

market and the customs union -

the closest form of

cooperation between countries

anywhere in the world.

But we also know they want

to maintain frictionless trade -

no tariffs, no checks,

the minimum of bureaucracy.

The UK position is still being

negotiated in cabinet,

but it wants the freedom to diverge

from EU rules in certain areas -

agriculture is one obvious example,

foreign trade deals another.

It also says publicly that it wants

to finalise all negotiations

on the future before the UK

leaves the EU in March, 2019.

Now, the EU says that's not

realistic, there's not enough

time to sort it all out.

It wants a broad political

declaration finalised by October,

but says negotiations will have

to continue in a transition

period after Brexit.

As for divergence, well,

it's warned the UK repeatedly

that it can't expect to cherry pick

the best bits of the current

relationship without taking

on the common responsibilities.

So that's why there's now so much

pressure on the government to set

out more explicitly

what it wants to negotiate.

And don't forget, if you see

headlines proclaiming

'agreement reached',

that's just here in the UK.

You have to get the other 27

EU countries on board as well,

and they all have their own

interests, and that's one

of the reasons why this

is such a complex process.

Chris Morris there.

Human eggs have been grown

in a laboratory for the first time.

Scientists from Edinburgh University

removed egg cells from ovary tissue

at their earliest stage

of development, and grew them

to the point they were

ready for fertilisation.

James Gallagher explains.

In laboratories in Edinburgh,

scientists have grown human eggs.

They've taken the immature eggs

women are born with and transformed

them so they're ready

to be fertilised.

It's taken decades of work to copy

what happens inside women's ovaries.

We never imagined that we would

be getting these kind of results

using human tissue,

so it's a significant step.

But of course, the main objective

for us is to improve

and to determine the safety of these

techniques, so that they

could, in the future,

go into some kind of application.

It could be used to help young girls

with cancer as treatment can

damage their fertility.

So how might it work?

A girl diagnosed with cancer

would have a sample of her ovaries

frozen before cancer treatment.

Then later, as an adult,

the tissue would be defrosted,

an egg grown, fertilised

and then put in the womb.

There may even be other applications

in fertility treatment,

but only 10% of eggs

completed their journey to maturity,

and none were fertilised,

so it's still uncertain how

viable they are.

Experts say more research is needed

before it can be used clinically.

There's going to be quite a few more

years before this technique

can be used clinically.

The eggs that arrive from this

procedure would have to be made much

more efficiently at a high

success rate, it has

to be tested genetically,

they would have to be tested to see

if they fertilised normally

and developing to normal embryos.

So quite a few things to go through.

But the work marks

an important proof of principle.

It will also give researchers

the opportunity to explore

how human eggs develop,

much of which remains a mystery.

James Gallagher, BBC News.

Publishing group Trinity Mirror

has announced a deal

of nearly £127 million to buy

the Daily Express and the Daily Star

newspapers from Northern and Shell,

as well as OK Magazine.

Trinity Mirror says the combined

group will be able to save money,

by sharing content

and reducing duplication.

Our Media Correspondent

David Sillito is here.

What does it all mean, David?

50

years ago, this would have been

unthinkable, because these were the

two giants of Fleet Street, selling

somewhere between eight million and

9 million copies a day. Now, if you

add the two, they are selling less

than a million. You can see the

decline that has happened in the

newspaper world, and this is all

about how to deal with that decline.

The Trinity Mirror group can save

£20 million out of the costs and

ring a bit more profit out of it.

However, when you look at it, this

is about that resting decline. It

does not address the basic problem,

it does not come up to the solution

that everyone is looking for, which

is, how do you make newspaper in a

time when people can get it for free

on their phones?

David, thank you.

Our top story this lunchtime...

Two British jihadis captured

in Syria have been accused

of murdering more than 20 prisoners.

Coming up...

Round two of the Six Nations -

old rivals England and Wales prepare

to come face to face

at Twickenham tomorrow.

Coming up in sport...

Riyad Mahrez's feud with

Leicester City looks to be over -

he's set to train with his

team-mates today, for the first time

since a move to Manchester City

fell through last month.

The 23rd Winter Olympics have

officially opened in South Korea -

and they're likely to the coldest

in history, with temperatures

of minus 25 degrees celcius.

In a mark of unity, North

and South Korean athletes

entered the stadium -

to loud cheers - as one team.

For 17 days, more than 3,000

of the world's best athletes

will compete in venues

across the country, in more

than a hundred medal events.

Team GB is aiming for its most

successful Winter Games yet.

Andy Swiss sent this report.

Opening ceremonies are always a

spectacle, but few have seemed quite

so significant. On a freezing night,

though thankfully not as cold as it

has been, Pyeongchang welcomed the

world. The theme of the ceremony was

a relevant one. Peace and harmony

seen through the eyes of five

children exploring a winter

landscape. A celebration of the

nation's culture. There was more

drama offstage. These games have

prompted a rapprochement between

North and South Korea. The South

Korean president shaking hands with

the sister of Kim Jong-un. US book

by -- vice president Mike Pence

looking on. Even just a few weeks

ago, utterly unthinkable. It was

soon time for the athletes to make

their entry. Team GB, leading by

their only gold medallist from the

last games, Lizzy Yarnold, they

certainly enjoyed the moment. It is

the biggest Brit -- British Winter

Olympic team ever and they are

targeting their best ever

performance -- performance. And then

entering under a neutral flag,

Olympic athletes from Russia. Their

presence here highly contentious. No

Russian collars because Russia is

banned from these games after their

recent doping scandal and yet some

168 of their athletes have been

allowed to compete as neutrals. And

only Olympic medal for bravery

surely goes to tongue's flag bearer.

What freezing temperatures? But

finally, historically, the moment

they had all been waiting for. Under

a flag representing their peninsula,

North and South Korea parading as

one. Joint flag-bearers from each

country, the sudden thawing of

tensions expressed a remarkable of

unity. More handshakes between the

north and South Korean delegations

and high emotion in the stadium. The

ceremony continued with its theme of

harmony, a spectacle of sound and

light, before the Olympic president

paid tribute to the show of unity

between North and South Korea.

In sport we are all equal. This is

how you show the unique power of

sport to unite people. A great

example of this unifying power is

the joint marcher tonight of the two

teams from the National Olympic

committees of the Republic of Korea

and the Democratic People's Republic

of Korea. We thank you. We are all

touched by this wonderful gesture.

We all join and support you in your

message of peace.

And it was soon

left to the South Korean president

to officially open the games.

There was no doubting the sentiment

-- sentiment of the night. Peace

illuminating the stadium before a

fitting climax. Two Ice Hockey

players, one from the north and one

from the south, took the Olympic

torch on its final journey and the

lighting of the cauldron. And so

even before the sport these games

have produced some indelible images.

A memorable day for the Olympics, an

historic one for Korea.

In a moment we'll speak

to Andy Swiss, who's in Pyeongchang.

But first to Stephen McDonell,

who's at the Olympic Stadium.

Politically quite a moment?

Absolutely remarkable. We would not

have expected anything like this

just a few months ago. There was

virtually no communication between

the two Korea. And here they are

marching together. I guess it is

part of the spirit of the Olympics

that you can achieve things like

this and it is hard to be cynical

about it when you see them coming in

together and that stadium full of

people cheering. One of the images

people will remember is that of US

vice president Mike Pence sitting in

one row of chairs, and just behind

him, the sister of the North Korean

leader within handshake distance. On

the one hand we got the Americans

trying to discourage South Korea

from rewarding the north too much at

these games. And yet it does seem

that the spirit of communication is

winning out over the message of

trying to keep the North Koreans

more isolated.

And Andy, how do you rate Team GB's

chances?

Jane, there are high hopes.

They are targeting their best Winter

Olympics ever, between four and ten

medals. They haven't got off to a

great start. Snowboarder Katie

Ormerod is already out of the games

after fracturing her heel during

training yesterday. It was a nasty

fracture. She has had to have

emergency surgery. Plenty of other

medal hopes still to come, including

speed skater Elise Christie. She

competed in Satty four years ago.

She crushed out of all three of

events, she received death threats,

she thought about quitting. She is

back as a triple world champion and

has an excellent chance of winning a

gold medal. The other talking point,

the temperatures. It has been milder

today. But temperatures forecast to

plummet at the end of the weekend,

down to -15, perhaps -30 with wind

chill. It is shaping up to be one of

the coldest Winter Olympics in

history.

Wrap up! Thank you.

Police in Canada have found

the remains of at least six people

in the grounds of a house linked

to an alleged serial killer.

Bruce McArthur was arrested

last month, and charged

with murdering five men.

Charlotte Gallagher reports.

Police in Toronto have called this

investigation unprecedented.

Detectives have now found

the remains of at least six people

hidden in large plant pots

in a suburban home where the suspect

carried out landscape gardening.

This man, 66-year-old

Bruce McArthur, has been charged

with the murders of five men,

and detectives

believe more charges may follow.

Forensic teams are now

searching 30 properties,

battling the plummeting temperatures

to dig through the frozen ground.

Officers are now examining

Bruce McArthur's computer

and mobile phone, and are

investigating a possible link

between gay dating

apps and the murders.

There is an extensive digital

investigation going on.

We're going through computers, we're

going through cellphones, we're

going through online

applications and different apps.

We're preparing warrants,

and have prepared warrants

on different providers.

So that is a very big part of this

investigation as well.

In December, police tried to calm

community concern that

there was a serial killer stalking

the area, following a handful of

disappearances in the Gay Village.

Now officers are in the midst

of a huge investigation that spans

across Canada's largest city.

The authorities are reviewing

hundreds of missing persons cases

dating back to at least 2010,

amid fears the number

of victims may rise.

Charlotte Gallagher, BBC News.

The second round of rugby's

Six Nations gets under way this

weekend, and England head coach

Eddie Jones has ramped up

the mind games ahead

of their meeting with Wales.

Joe Wilson reports.

Build them up, knock them down. It

happens in all sports

metaphorically. In rugby it often

occurs literally. England's coach

spotted something in Cardiff last

weekend. The new look Welsh team

excelled, beating Scotland, led by a

young fly-half, Rhys Patchell, on

his Six Nations debut. It will be

different against England, say

England.

It is a massive step up. He

hasn't played much test rugby at

all. He is a young guy, hasn't got

great experienced players around

him. The pressure on him will be

enormous. It is whether he has got

the bottle to handle it.

I've just

been asking another Jones about

those comments. The Welsh captain.

It is a little bit insulting when

the coach questions the mental

approach, the bottle of arrival?

Not

at all. That is what you're made of,

an element of how much experience

you have haven't got. Those

questions are going to be asked

whether by your wrong camp or

another. You need to answer those.

That is the pressure that is

professional sport.

Rebuilding at

Twickenham is Rix, mortar and medal,

as you can see from the stadium.

That just requires money. Rebuilding

a team in the Six Nations, that is a

lot more difficult. Scotland, the

blues, so crestfallen in Cardiff

they have broadened their most

experienced players to play France.

Can't let another match slip by

them. England ran in seven tries

against Italy last weekend. It will

be different against Wales. Both

teams can agree upon that. Eddie

Jones' interventions are usually

designed to make an impact. So who

has got the bottle?

Joe Wilson, BBC News.

Dippy, the lifesize

cast of a diplodocus

skeleton is on tour -

he left London's Natural History

Museum last year, and was replaced

with a huge blue whale.

Now he's made it to

the Jurassic Coast -

well, the Dorset County Museum.

Duncan Kennedy is there.

Yes, here he is. What an incredible

site Dippy makes. This is the first

time in 113 years that he has been

seen outside London. For the past

year he has been undergoing some

conservation and repair work. Now

here in Dorchester, it is the first

leg of his nationwide tour.

It's taken about 150

million years...

Dippy is here!

I think we're in business now.

..and five days to bring Dippy

the dinosaur to Dorset.

OK, Dippy's 292 bones may be made

out of plaster, but this iconic

replica of the real diplodocus

is still palaeontology perfection.

Right up to his head.

Touch and go whether it

was going to fit in.

But it's absolutely perfect,

so I'm very happy.

How much does it weigh altogether?

Lorraine Cornish from

the Natural History Museum has led a

team of seven technicians

with the delicate job

of moving two-tonne Dippy

to Dorchester's County Museum.

I think Dippy is the

people's dinosaur.

A lot of people came

to see Dippy in London.

Fond memories of children,

perhaps bringing their own children.

And it tells great stories.

It really inspires people.

And the first of those children

were certainly wowed today.

What is the best bit about it?

Its tail because it can

whack people around.

What is so great about Dippy?

That he's ginormous.

It's massive, isn't it?

Dippy first appeared

at London's Natural History Museum

in 1905, and cost £2000.

But the museum decided it was time

for a change, and is

sending Dippy on a nationwide tour,

requiring a massive job of

reassembly in seven

destinations around Britain.

In fact, now that Dippy has

been put together, they

think that here in Dorchester alone

something like 70,000 people will

come to see him.

After that, he heads off

to the Midlands, to Wales,

to Scotland, on a grand

tour of the UK.

They think that over the course

of the next three years, something

like five million people will engage

with this incredible project.

And where better for

Dippy's first stop

than Dorset's Jurassic Coast.

If Dippy was going to

choose to go somewhere,

he would probably choose to come to

the Jurassic Coast, to find out all

about the fossils and all the other

creatures that were living in what

is now the British Isles around

the time that he was roaming

what is now Wyoming in America.

Wherever Dippy goes,

it will be free to see him - a

chance for older visitors

to relive childhood memories,

and for younger ones to create

some new ones.

To give you an idea of just how

popular Dippy is, if you are a

school in this area, forget about

coming. He is all built up until

May. There are still some individual

tickets. It goes to show how much

affection we still have for this

incredible dinosaur.

Fantastic! Duncan Kennedy in

Dorchester.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris has been

closed for the second time this

week, because of

snow and black ice.

The organisation that runs

the tower says de-icing

it is a complex procedure,

because salt is corrosive,

and sand could damage

the tower's lift mechanisms.

The tower, which attracts

six million visitors a year,

will be closed today and tomorrow.

Time for a look at the weather

with Louise Lear.

Time for a look at the weather

with Louise Lear.

Hello. We have had some snow this

morning. We had snow in the far

north and west. This was through the

night. Heavy rain cleared from the

south-east and colder air pushed in.

Plenty of snow showers falling in

the north-west. That has brought a

West, East split. Eastern areas have

been great. Further west, beautiful

blue skies and sunshine. Any showers

that you have had have been wintry.

A light dusting of snow. As we go

through the rest of the afternoon,

the rain is certainly going to ease

from that south-east corner. We

continue to see sunny spells. It

will not be very warm. Highest

values of around five to 7 degrees.

A brisk north-westerly wind will

make it feel cool. As we go through

the evening, rain arrives to the

West. A real West, East divide. As

it bombs into the colder air in

Scotland and Northern Ireland, a

spell of snow. Here and in sheltered

eastern areas is where we will see

the lowest values. The blue tones

suggesting temperatures will be

below freezing first thing tomorrow.

The snow could be an issue early on

Saturday. Between five and ten

centimetres. There will be icy

stretches with a combination of rain

and snow moving into the East. Snow

showers across the Lake District.

Rain through Wales and South West

England. That will push steadily

east. For many across England and

Wales it is not shaping up to be a

great Saturday afternoon. Conditions

will improve through Scotland. Some

brightness. Temperatures between six

and 11 degrees. Double digits in the

south-west. With the cloud and rain

it will feel miserable. Now I

understand there are some important

rugby matches taking place over the

weekend. A lot of rain around on

Saturday. The winds will be a

feature as well into Ireland. But

once we have got rid of that rain

and we move into Sunday, during the

early hours we could see severe

gales on the southern flank as it

pulls away. And behind, Winter

proper perhaps on Sunday. All these

showers will be falling as snow

across north-west Scotland, Northern

Ireland, north-west England.

Sheltered eastern areas will see the

best of the sunshine and a drier

day. It will be a bitterly cold

Sunday from any. Top temperatures of

around four to 8 degrees. Plenty of

whether to look out for. I will have

more details on afternoon light.

Thanks.

more details on afternoon light.

Thanks.

A reminder of our main

story this lunchtime.

Two British jihadis captured in

Syria have been accused of murdering

more than 20 prisoners.

That's all from the BBC News at One

, so it's goodbye from me -