hello and welcome to bbc news. pakistan s former president, general pervez musharraf, has died following a long illnes. he was 79. president musharraf seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999 serving in office for seven years from 2001. and in 2019 he was sentenced to death in absentia, for treason charges for absconding the murder trial of one of his successors, benazir bhutto. at the time of his death he had been living in exile in dubai, recieving medical treatment. the bbc s gordon corera looks back on his life. 1999. and when troops stormed the national television headquarters to put pervez musharraf in power, the people of pakistan heard a familiar refrain. the nation needed another leader in uniform to save it from self serving politicians. in the past, our governments have ruled the people. it is time now for the governments to serve the people. pakistan had already been under army rule for more than half the time it had been independent. general musharraf
in ukraine fierce fighting continues as russian forces advance on the eastern city of bakhmut. the deputy mayor says the region is almost destroyed. and the stars behind the irish comedy the banshees 0f inisherin speak to usahead of the oscars on sunday. to feel it as colloquial and then see it go out into the world and be received by people from all sorts of, you know, the corners of the globe that we share is pretty surprising and cool. hello and welcome to viewers in the uk and around the world. exactly a month after the devastating earthquakes which killed more than 50,000 people across turkey and syria, an unprecedented number of people are living without proper shelter. the united nations development programme the undp estimates that in turkey alone at least one and a half million people still inside the disaster zone are homeless. the true figure could be even higher. let s show you some live pictures from hatay in turkey which was one of the worst affected
two 15 year olds appear in court charged with the murder of brianna ghey. the death toll from the earthquakes in turkey and syria rises to more than 40,000 but people are still being rescued alive nine days on. and more turmoilfor welsh rugby, as players threaten strike action over uncertainty about their playing contracts. and coming up on the bbc news channel. welsh rugby players will consider strike action had of hosting england in the six nations in cardiff next week due to contract disputes. hello, and a very good afternoon. nicola sturgeon has resigned as scotland s first minister and leader of the scottish national party. she says she can no longer give the full commitment she believes the job requires and says it s time for a new leader to take both the country and her party forward. the snp leader hinted that after eight years as leader what she called polarised opinions about her, may be getting in the way of broadening the appeal of the case for an independent
let s start with big news here in the uk. scotland s longest serving first minister, nicola sturgeon, has resigned. she s been the leader of the scottish national party which wants independence from britain for more than eight years. she steered the country through brexit, covid, ukraine, five conservativce prime ministers and enjoyed huge ongoing public support. have a listen to some of what she had to say. in my head and in my heart i know the time is now. let s take a look back at her career. she entered politics full time in 1999 when she was elected to the new scottish parliament. she was twenty nine years old. herfirst big test in government came when she was deputy first minister and health secretary, as swine flu was declared a pandemic. she then oversaw planning for 2014 s independence referendum. the scottish people voted to stay part of the uk but today she said she remained committed to the independence cause. am firmly of the you there is no majority suppor
welcome to bbc news. our top story today: the us defense secretary says he had a rare phone call with his russian counterpart in the aftermath of a collision between a russian fighterjet and a us drone. the race is now on to recover the wreckage of the drone which is thought to be twelve hundred metres deep in the black sea. russia has also said it will try to find the wreckage. meanwhile, america s top general said the whole incident was a result of russia s increasingly aggressive behaviour in the area. us defense secretary lloyd austin gave this update earlier. as i ve said repeatedly, it s important that great powers be models of transparency and communication. and the united states will continue to fly into operate where ever international law allows. and it is incumbent upon russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner. our diplomatic correspondent, james landale has this report from kyiv. this is the kind of unmanned aircraft that crashed