prince harry says it has brought him great sadness that he is leaving his royal duties — after he agreed a deal with the queen that allowed him and his wife meghanto stop their official roles. speaking for the first time since news emerged of his desire to quitthe duke of sussex said the couple felt they had no other option but to leave the royal family behind. he expressed his wish to have a ‘more peaceful‘ life as a family, but said the uk would always be his home. here's our royal correspondent nicholas witchell. they had hoped, they said in their personal statement of 8 january, to find a progressive new role within the royal family, in which, while stepping back, they could have continued to serve. that hasn't worked out. buckingham palace has taken a hard line. their royal role has been all but removed and harry is clearly disappointed. at a private dinner in london for sentebale, his hiv charity in southern africa, he said he wanted his audience to hear the truth. he recalled the aftermath of his and meghan‘s wedding. once meghan and i were married, we were excited, we were hopeful and we were here to serve. for those reasons, it brings me great sadness that it has come to this. he said the decision for him and his wife to step back is not one he'd made lightly. what i want to make clear is we are not walking away and we certainly aren't walking away from you. our hope was to continue serving the queen, the commonwealth and my military associations, but without public funding. unfortunately, that wasn't possible. and he said he would continue to serve his country. i will always have the utmost respect for my grandmother, my commander—in—chief, and i'm incredibly grateful to her and the rest of my family for the support they have shown meghan and i over the last few months. i will continue to be the same man who holds his country dear and dedicates his life to supporting the causes, charities and military communities that are so important to me. all of which establishes beyond doubt that this process of stepping away from royal life and royal duty has already fallen short of harry's hopes. he has taken responsibility for choosing this new path and he says he has accepted the conditions which have been imposed by the queen and her advisers. nicholas witchell, bbc news. protestors in lebanon have taken to the streets near the central parliament building in beirut, after a day of clashes with police that left nearly 400 people injured. the caretaker prime minister saad hariri has called on those involved in forming a government to ‘stop wasting time‘ so that an economic solution can be found. our correspondent carine torbey has more. next to parliament in beirut, barricades have not protected riot police from the stones and fireworks thrown at them by protesters. the police used water cannon, tear gas and even rubber bullets. many protesters were injured and dozens taken to hospital. but this did not seem to deter them. three months of mostly peaceful protests over the economic situation and against corruption seem to have reached a tipping point. translation: we're back on the streets today. i was here yesterday, i came back today, and i‘ll be on the streets every day. this is all for the future of our children, for us and for our children. the country is, as you can see, frozen, the situation is not normal. the state is not doing anything. they are a bunch of thieves. anger has risen amid prolonged political squabbles, delaying the formation of a government following the resignation of the former prime ministersaad hariri under the pressure of the street, late october. in the meantime, the country seems to be sliding into economic collapse amid a de facto devaluation of the local currency and warnings of his sovereign default. economic insecurity, banking restrictions and threatened livelihoods are causing desperation and the growing rage. carine torbey, bbc, beirut. joyce karam is a washington correspondent for the national — a newspaper based in the united arab emirates. she was previously based in lebanon and is monitoring the situation there. it‘s been a weekend of escalation and chaos in beirut, lebanon. the numbers coming from the red cross and civil defence, the latest numbers we have, it‘s over 500 wounded. some were treated on the spot, others according to reports we getting from beirut, our emergency rooms, the american university, beirut hospital and other hospitals, like hotel dieu, their emergency rooms are full tonight. so this is unprecedented escalation that turned to violence since the protests started in mid—october. as your correspondent mentioned, high economic insecurity. there is deep polarisation and a widening gap when we talk about the protesters in the street, and a political elite that has failed so far to get its act together and form a government. and yet the scenes that we‘ve seen on the street, the level of anger amongst so much of the population has done little to make the government try and move on from what has fundamentally been a huge political stalemate. indeed, i mean what we are seeing in beirut is a race to the bottom politically and economically. the political elite has failed to agree on a government since the resignation of saad hariri on october 29. the economy is very much in freefall. the lebanese currency has depreciated almost a0%. there is a cap on withdrawing dollars or sending dollars out of the country and, you know, people, my own family, people i speak to daily on the ground, they are stocking food, they are stocking gas, they are stacking cash, they are preparing for the worst and you know, this is a country, these are people who have gone through three decades of civil war so in a way, they are very resilient but what they are seeing now is very alarming. and joyce, briefly, what role does the international community —— let‘s get some of the day‘s other news. seven staff have been sacked following a mass prison break out in paraguay. 75 prisoners escaped by digging a tunnel out although the justice minister has insisted some guards must have helped the escape. the escapees are mainly members of a notorius brazilian drug gang — brazil are sending police reinforcements to its border to try and recapture them. hundreds of canadian troops are being sent to newfoundland to help recovery efforts following a record—breaking snowstorm. 200 troops are expected to be on the ground by the end of sunday with an additional hundred in place on monday. a blizzard on friday dumped more than 75 centimetres of snow on newfoundland‘s capital, stjohn‘s. a deal‘s been struck between world leaders in berlin to try to bring peace to libya after 9 years of conflict. they‘ve pledged not to interfere in the country and to uphold a un arms embargo. libya has been torn apart by fighting and instability since colonel gadaffi was killed in 2011. last year the conflict intensified between militias loyal to the un—backed government of prime minister fayez al sarraj, and those fighting for general khalifa haftar. a truce was announced this month, but it‘s been repeatedly broken. both men were in berlin for the talks, but didn‘t sit in the same room. our correspondent jenny hill reports. volatile, complex. libya‘s at war with itself. two factions backed by foreign powers, as they wrestle for control of this oil—rich land. today, world leaders arrived in berlin to seek a solution. many of the countries represented at the table have sent troops, weapons, money to both sides, despite a un weapons embargo. today, they agreed to stop. translation: i am under no illusion that we have a difficult road ahead of us. and in libya at the moment, emotions are running high. but we agreed that in light of all the suffering that is happening and in light of the terrible situation, that it is worth it. outside the meeting, supporters of both libya‘s internationally recognised prime minister and his warlord rival. no truce today, but delegates hope an end to foreign interference might be a first step. they‘re fuelled by fear. that they can no longer rely on libyan oil supplies, that the instability will inflame islamist terror in the region and, for europe‘s governments, that more and more people will seek refuge in their countries. libya, known as a gateway to europe, already hosts hundreds of thousands of migrants. until now, we had an escalation of the libyan conflict with some foreign interference. now we were facing the risk of a true regional escalation. and that risk was averted in berlin. for libya, some respite. a ceasefire has held for several days now. the so—called berlin process doesn‘t guarantee it, nor does it mean the removal of existing foreign troops and weapons, and it‘s unclear how or even whether the agreement will be monitored or enforced. but in it, some see the beginning, perhaps, of a long and difficult road to peace. authorities in china are scrambling to stop the spread of a new pneumonia—like virus as millions of people prepare to travel for the lunar new year. in the past couple of hours the wuhan health commission has confirmed a third person has died after contracting the coronavirus in the central chinese city of wuhan. 136 new cases were confirmed over the weekend. earlier i spoke to wang linfa, the director of the emerging infectious diseases program at duke — nus medical school in singapore, who‘s just flown back from wuhan. i asked him what he‘d observed. yes, so in wuhan, the city is pretty calm at the airport is different now so every calm at the airport is different now so every traveller getting out of the city is screened by the thermal detector multiple times and there is a mobile kind of medical stop on board in the airport. but on the street to see a slight increase in people wearing masks in the taxi drivers obviously, every taxidriver is talking about the out leg. initially the government says there is no evidence of significant human to human transmission. this is very important. the first a0 or 50 cases they believe all had a direct link to that market. they call seafood market but they also have live animals traded there so now it‘s pretty obvious that there are people that got sick including the one that travelled to japan and taiwan who had never been to the market so that‘s a worry. it means there is a human to human transmission. china is banning plastic bags in its main cities by the end of the year as well as single—use straws in restaurants. smaller cities and towns will have until 2022 to implement the new rules. china will also phase out plastic utensils from the take—away food industry. and plastic waste imports will be outlawed, as part of a plan to tackle the country‘s huge pollution problems. britain‘s prime minister — borisjohnson has said he will raise the ‘driving habits‘ of us military personnel with the secretary of state, mike pompeo, after video footage emerged (00v)of another incident of a car being driven on the wrong side of the road, near the army base where harry dunn died. police also revealed details of a third incident in which a police vehicle was struck by a car being driven on the wrong side of the road in october. certainly raising all those issues about driving habits of us personnel at the base and we are continuing to work for the justice for harry dunn and for his family. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: a crucial test for elon musk‘s spacex crew capsule appears to go to plan. donald trump is now the a5th president of the united states. he was sworn in before several hundred thousand people on the steps of capitol hill in washington. it's going to be only america first. america first. demonstrators waiting for mike gatting and his rebel cricket team were attacked with tear gas and set up on by police dogs. anti—apartheid campaigners say they will carry on the protests throughout the tour. they called him ‘the butcher of lyon‘. klaus altmann is being held on a fraud charge in bolivia. the west germans want to extradite him for crimes committed in wartime france. there, he was the gestapo chief klaus barbie. millions came to bathe as close as possible to this spot. a tide of humanity that is believed by officials to have broken all records. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: prince harry says his decision, to step back from royal duties and move his family to canada, hasn‘t been taken lightly. hundreds of lebanese protesters have clashed with security forces in the centre of beirut, after three months of anti—establishment demonstrations. the bodies of eleven ukrainians who died when a ukrainian international airlines flight was shot down over iran earlier this month, have been returned home. ukraine‘s president, volodymyr zelensky, joined friends and relatives of the victims at a repatriation ceremony in the capital, kyiv. rich preston has this report. a ukrainian military plane brought the victims home. nine of the 11 ukrainians who lost their lives with their planes cream. the conference trapped with the ukrainian flying. a colleague sent out to pay their respects. president volodymyr zele ns ky respects. president volodymyr zelensky and prime minister oleksiy honcharuk were amongst them. friends and families gathered to remember those laws. all 176 people on board the flight were killed. many of them from canada. canadian investigators have visited iran but do not know of any plans of when data from the black box will be downloaded. iran said it has no plans to send the flight said it has no plans to send the flight recorder abroad. investigators are due to travel to ukraine and canada has called on iran not to delay investigation. our role is to stress the wish of canada, the wish of the co—ordination group but i would think the wish of the international community that the black box be sent to where it should be sent, whether it is ukraine — i know france has offered its expertise dash to make sure we have proper technical expertise when the black box is open and that it be done in a transparent manner. the repatriation follows iran‘s admitted it mistakenly shut down the passenger jet iran‘s admitted it mistakenly shut down the passengerjet a bit increased tensions with the us. ukraine has called on iran to compensate families and punish those responsible. rich preston, bbc news. the areas of australia worst hit by bushfires are now at risk of flash flooding and power cuts as a result of rainstorms. in the state of victoria, many fires have been put out by the storms but giant hailstones have also damaged property. john donnison reports. in a year of extreme weather, for australians, it doesn‘tjust rain, it pours. hailstones the size of golf balls in the state of victoria. so intense, it shuttered roofs. and all this in the middle of summer, as large parts of the country continue to burn. this is french island, also in victoria, where this weekend firefighters were struggling to contain a massive blaze. butjust 50 miles north, melbourne was being battered by high winds and rain. few here can remember such dramatic shifts in weather. such a freak storm. i was watching television, i went into the bedroom, and i just looked out the window and the gum tree, which is two stories high, just disappeared. it was a whiteout at this birthday party, abandoned as people huddled for shelter. and this is a cricket pitch. no chance of a resumption in play anytime soon, with more rain and hailforecast in the next 2a hours. but after months of hot temperatures fuelling the devastating fires, this, for many, will be welcome relief. john donnison, bbc news. well much of the build up to the first tennis major of the year, the australian open, focused on the playing conditions given the bush fires that are ravaging the country. but the weather has changed dramatically, much to the relief of tournament organisers. john watson is in melbourne for us. i think tournament organisers will be pleased because, as far as things go on the opening day, the air quality is pretty good. there has not been a disruption to the tournament schedule as we saw last week with those qualifying matches which were affected. so i think the tournament organisers will be pleased because they were fairly resolute in saying that it was always going to go ahead. obviously they have been monitoring the air quality with index readings that they have been watching closely. but it was really last week that we saw problems arise. obviously on tuesday and wednesday we saw qualifying pushed back and delayed and suspended. a number of players were really angry that they were even allowed to play when you consider that the local advice here, was for people to stay indoors so astonishing that that was the local advice yet here they were, professional players, undergoing their qualifying matches ahead of the tournament. so real frustrations last week but they will be pleased that, as far as the air equality is concerned at the moment, that smoke has not returned. the major issue i think facing organisers on the opening day today is the weather. we could see heavy rain storms. we saw heavy rain here some yesterday. more predicted again today. that will certainly affect play on the outside courts. but we know that the main show courts have roofs. so that shouldn‘t effect the schedule too much. interesting to note, they have been putting up screens around the site here and, on them, you ca actually see the air quality reading and it is looking pretty good today. but obviously they will be monitored closely, whether or not they stay up for the remainder of the tournament. it certainly has dominated the conversation in the lead up to this year‘s tournament. bring us up—to—date on the sporting aspect, what‘s been going on? naomi osaka is the defending champion. she is successfully through to the second round. she opened things up on rod laver arena, the main show court here. and we‘ve not got serena williams following her. so what a lineup in the opening day on the rod laver arena. she has done really well, she‘s taken the opening set 6—0. so she‘s looking pretty good. all as we know, all eyes, as it always is, on serena williams to see whether or not she can win this elusive 2ath grand slam title which would pull her level with margaret court‘s all—time record. those probably the two big names that account those probably the two big names to account for in the women‘s draw. ash barty as well, the world number one, she is in action later on in the evening session on rod laver. roger federer, novak djokovic and nadal also in action. always talking about the so—called big three, aren‘t we, in the men‘s draw? we just wait to see whether or not any of those sort of younger players will come through to challenge them this year. but novak djokovic the defending champion in the men‘s singles and arguably will be the favourite to go on and win what would be a record extending eighth australian open title, if he can do so come the end of this fortnight. the private american aerospace company spacex has been conducting a trial with nasa of its plans to take astronauts to the international space station. it tested the emergency landing system, necessary to qualify the company to fly astronauts to the station. here‘s our science correspondentjonathan amos. a spacex rocket launch with a difference and something you‘d rather not see. this falcon vehicle is climbing into the sky with the deliberate intention of failing. 80 seconds into the flight and the engines turn off. the rocket blows itself apart in spectacularfashion. but there was purpose. making its escape from the top of the rocket, moments before the fireball, was spacex‘s new astronaut capsule it calls the dragon. it was a demonstration of how you save lives in an emergency. for this test, there was no one on board. but had there been, the crew would have floated down to a gentle splashdown in the atlantic ocean. this was billed as the last major milestone for california‘s spacex company, before nasa agrees to certify its hardware to carry astronauts to the international space station. not since 2011 have american crews launched from american soil. this apparently successful test means that long hiatus is about to come to an end. jonathan amos, bbc news. a us technology company is showcasing a way to turn sunlight into drinking water. they‘ve developed a technique that can absorb moisture in the air and convert it into liquid. the theory behind it isn‘t new but the potential scale could be revolutionary. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. the dry, arid lands of southern nevada. there is water here but you have to look pretty hard to find it. these might help. they are called hydropanels, new technologies based on the oldest of discoveries, condensation. we take light and air and produce water. it is mineralised, stored and delivered and basically any volume that is needed by the home, school, hotel, 01’ needed by the home, school, hotel, ora needed by the home, school, hotel, or a whole community. this is how they work. the panels absorb moisture and heat it up causing the vapour to condense into water. the inventors claim each one can produce more than 130 litres a month. although the principal is fairly simple, the potential benefits could be huge. the whole spectrum of humanity, ranging from the people who have a lot to the people who have a lot less, the water solution is now exactly the same. we have created a global water source that is effectively a well we can establish anywhere on the planet and resolve people ‘s shortages immediately. the hope is the panels will be mobile and relatively cheap, helping communities anywhere in the world. a whole lot of sunlight potentially becoming a whole lot of water. tim allman, bbc news a rare turtle has been rescued off the east sussex coast, by two women who were out swimming. the injured olive ridley turtle, usually found in the warm waters of mexico or the canary islands, was spotted 20 metres off seaford beach. she will be treated at the brighton sea life centre. thank you for your company. by bye for now. hello. for much of england, wales and southern scotland, it‘s a cold and frosty start to monday. also some problems with fog, particularly across wales, north—west england and the midlands. we have already seen some poor visibility in places through the first part of the night. another thing of note is that the pressure reading across parts of wales has exceeded 1050 millibars and is continuing to rise. that‘s the highest it‘s been since 1957. this area of high—pressure is the dominant feature in the week ahead, bringing a lot of dry weather. this frontal system will bring some outbreaks of rain into northern scotland later on monday. but we start monday, for many, cold, frosty, temperatures as low as —6 or —7 across parts of southern england. close to freezing for northern england, southern scotland and northern ireland. eight or nine for the far north of scotland. and for scotland and northern ireland, monday is a cloudy, breezy day. some of that cloud extending down into northern england and some of the mist and fog i spoke about could well be slow to clear. but there will be further spells of sunshine across a large sway of england and wales. perhaps not as much as we saw through sunday, through east anglia and south—east england. light winds for many. away from northern and western scotland, those touch gusts could touch 50mph, maybe 55 mph. ten or 11 celsius though for the far north of scotland. 6—9 for most. and close to freezing where any fog is slow to clear. so through monday nightand into tuesday, the cloud thickens across northern and western scotland, with outbreak of rain sliding their way southwards. it runs into an area of high pressure and that rain will tend to fizzle out. clearer skies further south, still with some mist and fog. and again it will be a frosty start to tuesday for much of central, southern england but not as cold as sunday night. so this is how tuesday shapes up — high—pressure still very much in charge. this frontal system trying to slide its way southwards but, as it runs into that area of high—pressure, most of the rain is going to tend to fizzle out. we will see more cloud arriving into northern england down to the midlands. another cloudy, breezy day across northern ireland and for most on tuesday a much cloudier day, a colder—feeling day as well. for central, southern england, temperatures here not much higher than six or seven celsius. here‘s this area of hig hpressure still with us as we go into wednesday, a longer, drier spell for much of the uk, in the week ahead. it does not necessarily mean sunny weather. a good deal of cloud around on wednesday. underneath the area of high pressure, we‘re feeding in a lot of moisture and we can see some mist and murkiness and poor visibility. best chance of anything brighter will be along some eastern coasts. temperatures around nine or ten degrees celsius. so to sum up the week ahead, a lot of dry weather. some frosty nights, particularly at first. a bit of sunshine but generally a lot of cloud and also further problems with mist and fog. goodbye. this is bbc news, the headlines: prince harry has expressed great sadness at his decision to step back from his royal duties — but said he felt there was no other option. in his first public comments on the matter — the duke said the move followed months of talks and years of challenges. violent demonstrations in the lebanese capital — beirut — have ended after security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets against stone—throwing anti—government protesters. unusually heavy rain also helped drive people off the streets near the parliament building. hundreds of demonstrators are reported to have been injured over the weekend. a deal‘s been struck between world leaders in berlin — to try to bring peace to libya after nine years of conflict. they‘ve pledged not to interfere in the country — and to uphold a un arms embargo. libya‘s been torn apart by fighting and instability since 2011.