Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed began her political career as a pro-democracy icon, but fled mass protests against her rule in August 2024 after 15 years in power.

Since then, Hasina has been in self-imposed exile in India, where she flew after being deposed by the student-led uprising which spiralled into nationwide unrest.

On 17 November, a special tribunal in Dhaka sentenced her to death after convicting her of crimes against humanity. It was found Hasina had ordered a deadly crackdown on protesters between 15 July and 5 August 2024. She denied all charges against her.

Up to 1,400 people were killed during the weeks of protests leading up to her ousting, most by gunfire from security forces, UN human rights investigators said. Their report found that she and her government had tried to cling to power using systematic, deadly violence against protesters.

It was the worst bloodshed the country had seen since independence in 1971.

The protests brought an unexpected end to the reign of Hasina, who had ruled Bangladesh for more than 20 years.

She and her Awami League party were credited with overseeing the South Asian country's economic progress. But in recent years she was accused of turning autocratic and clamping down on any opposition to her rule.

Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other abuses all rose under her rule.

An order to 'use lethal weapons'

In January 2024, Hasina won an unprecedented fourth term as prime minister in an election widely decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the main opposition.

Protests began later that year with a demand to abolish quotas in civil service jobs. By summer they had morphed into a wider anti-government movement as she used the police to violently crack down on protesters.

Amid increasing calls for her to resign, Hasina remained defiant and condemned the agitators as “terrorists”. She also threw hundreds of people into jail and brought criminal charges against hundreds more.

A leaked audio clip suggested she had ordered security forces to "use lethal weapons" against protesters. She denies ever issuing an order to fire on unarmed civilians.

Some of the bloodiest scenes occurred on 5 August, the day Hasina fled by helicopter before crowds stormed her residence in Dhaka. Police killed at least 52 people that day in a busy neighbourhood, making it one of the worst cases of police violence in the country's history.

Hasina, who has been tried in absentia, called the tribunal a "farce".

"It is a kangaroo court controlled by my political opponents to deliver a pre-ordained guilty verdict... and to distract the world's attention from the chaos, violence and misrule of [the new] government," she told the BBC in the week before her verdict.

She called for the ban on her party to be lifted before elections due in February.

Hasina is also charged with crimes against humanity relating to forced disappearances during the Awami League's rule in another case at the same tribunal in Bangladesh. Hasina and the Awami League deny all the charges.

Hasina and other senior members of her former government are also facing trial for corruption in a separate court - charges they deny.

How did Sheikh Hasina come to power?

Born to a Muslim family in East Bengal in 1947, Hasina had politics in her blood.

Her father was the nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's "Father of the Nation" who led the country's independence from Pakistan in 1971 and became its first president.

At that time, Hasina had already established a reputation as a student leader at Dhaka University.

Her father was assassinated with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. Only Hasina and her younger sister survived as they were travelling abroad at the time.

After living in exile in India, Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and became the leader of the Awami League, the political party her father belonged to.

She joined hands with other political parties to hold pro-democracy street protests during the military rule of General Hussain Muhammed Ershad. Propelled by the popular uprising, Hasina quickly became a national icon.

She was first elected to power in 1996. She earned credit for signing a water-sharing deal with India and a peace deal with tribal insurgents in the south-east of the country.

But at the same time, her government was criticised for numerous allegedly corrupt business deals and for being too subservient to India.

She later lost to her former ally-turned-nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, in 2001.

As heirs to political dynasties, both women have dominated Bangladesh politics for more than three decades and used to be known as the "battling begums". Begum refers to a Muslim woman of high rank.

Observers say their bitter rivalry resulted in bus bombs, disappearances and extrajudicial killings becoming regular occurrences.

Hasina eventually came back to power in 2009 in polls held under a caretaker government.

A true political survivor, she endured numerous arrests while in opposition as well as several assassination attempts, including one in 2004 that damaged her hearing. She has also survived efforts to force her into exile and numerous court cases in which she has been accused of corruption.

Achievements and controversies

Once one of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh achieved credible economic success under her leadership from 2009.

Its per capita income tripled in the last decade and the World Bank estimates that more than 25 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 20 years.

Much of this growth has been fuelled by the garment industry, which accounts for the vast majority of total exports from Bangladesh and has expanded rapidly in recent decades, supplying markets in Europe, North America and Asia.

Using the country's own funds, loans and development assistance, Hasina's government also undertook huge infrastructure projects, including the flagship $2.9bn Padma bridge across the Ganges.

But Hasina has long been accused of enacting repressive authoritarian measures against her political opponents, detractors and the media - a remarkable turnaround for a leader who once fought for multi-party democracy.

Rights groups estimate there have been at least 700 cases of enforced disappearances, with hundreds more subject to extra-judicial killings, since Hasina took power again in 2009. Hasina denies involvement in these.

Bangladesh's security forces have also been accused of serious abuses. In 2021, the US sanctioned its Rapid Action Battalion - a notorious police unit accused of carrying out numerous extra-judicial killings - citing human rights violations.

Human rights activists and journalists also faced increasing attacks including arrests, surveillance and harassment.

Hasina's government was also accused of "judicially harassing" targets with court cases, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus - who became head of the interim government after Hasina fled. He had been jailed earlier in 2024 and faced more than 100 charges, in cases his supporters say were politically motivated.

Hasina's government flatly denied claims of such abuses, while also restricting visits when it was in power by foreign journalists seeking to investigate the allegations.

The protests against civil service quotas, which sparked last year's uprising, came as Bangladesh struggled with the escalating costs of living in the wake of the pandemic. Inflation skyrocketed, the country's foreign exchange reserves dropped precipitously, and its foreign debt doubled since 2016.

Critics blamed this on mismanagement by Hasina's government, claiming that Bangladesh's economic progress only helped those close to her.

A South African man who was seen attending neo-Nazi rally outside an Australian state parliament has had his visa revoked.

Matthew Gruter, who has been Australia since 2022, took part in an anti-Jewish protest outside the New South Wales parliament organised by the National Socialist Network earlier this month.

He was seen in the front row of around 60 men clad in black, who held up a banner that said "Abolish the Jewish lobby", Australian media reports.

Australia has seen a recent rise in right-wing extremism. Its government made the Nazi salute punishable by a mandatory prison term earlier this year.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed the cancellation of Mr Gruter's visa, saying: "If you are on a visa, you are a guest.

"If you're a citizen, you're a full member of the Australian family. Like with any household, if a guest turns up to show hatred and wreck the household, they can be told it's time to go home."

Mr Gruter moved to Australia with his wife and works as a civil engineer, according to ABC News.

The National Socialist Network, which organised the rally on 8 November, is a well-known neo-Nazi group in Australia. Mr Gruter is a senior member of the group in New South Wales, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Protesters repeatedly chanted "blood and honour", a slogan associated with the Hitler Youth, according to ABC News.

It last less than 20 minutes and was legally authorised, the Guardian reports.

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Armed men have killed a teacher and abducted at least 25 students in an attack on a girls' secondary school in north-western Nigeria, police say.

The gang invaded the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, at around 04:00 local time (0300 GMT) on Monday, they said.

The attackers "engaged police personnel on duty in a gun duel" before scaling the perimeter fence and seizing the students from their hostel, a statement said.

One member of staff was killed while trying to protect the students. A second sustained gunshot wounds and is now receiving treatment.

Eyewitnesses described a large group of attackers, known locally as bandits, who arrived firing sporadically to cause panic.

Residents told the BBC that the gunmen subsequently marched a number of girls into nearby bushland.

The police said they had deployed "additional police tactical units, alongside military personnel and vigilante groups" to the area.

A coordinated search and rescue operation is underway in surrounding forests and suspected escape routes.

Over the past decade, schools in northern Nigeria have become frequent targets for armed groups, who often carry out abductions to seek ransom payments or leverage deals with the government.

However, this is the first major school abduction since March 2024, when more than 200 pupils were seized from a school in Kuriga, Kaduna state.

The attack in Kebbi State highlights the persistent security crisis plaguing the region, leaving families in Maga in a state of fearful exhaustion as they wait and hope for their daughters' safe return.

You may also be interested in:

• Nigeria's kidnapping crisis: Should ransom payments be banned?
• Kuriga kidnap: More than 280 Nigerian pupils abducted
• The bandit kidnap crisis in Nigeria

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Renée Zellweger has called a new statue of Bridget Jones "adorable," adding: "I think she's much cuter than me."

The actress was speaking to BBC News as a new statue celebrating the character she played for more than 20 years was unveiled in London's Leicester Square on Monday.

Bridget Jones was created in 1996 by the author Helen Fielding, and first adapted for the big screen in 2001. The fourth film came out earlier this year.

Speaking at the unveiling, Fielding refused to rule out taking her story further, saying you should "never say never".

Zellweger added that everyone can relate to Bridget, which explains her huge appeal.

"[It's her] vulnerability, her humanness," she said. "We recognise ourselves in her, we recognise ourselves in her struggles.

"It makes it OK for the rest of us to be authentically who we are. Imperfect."

The character of Bridget Jones went straight to many women's hearts, who took comfort in her trials and tribulations.

From her embarrassing work mishaps, to her infamous granny pants, Bridget spoke to a generation who saw themselves in her - and has recently won over a whole new set of younger fans too.

The fourth film in the franchise, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, was released in February, and sees Bridget living as a single mother and tackling modern dating.

It received mixed reviews, but earned the best box office opening ever for a romantic comedy in the UK and Ireland, according to Universal.

The film was billed as the final one in the series - but speaking to BBC News at the statue unveiling, two superfans, Faye and Wayne, said they were sure there would be a sequel.

"There were so many things that were left unresolved at the end of the last film," said Faye.

"Her character keeps evolving. I want to be with Bridget Jones all the way to the nursing home," added Wayne.

When asked about the possibility of a new chapter in Bridget Jones' story, Fielding said: "Never say never. Stories come to you as a writer. So if a story came to me that I thought was true and interesting and new then I would write it."

Some think the floundering and flawed heroine, who's fixated with her weight and relationship status, is not the best role model.

And Fielding herself has previously admitted some parts of the story have not aged well.

"Bridget Jones's Diary couldn't be written now, set now, because all those men in the office would be sacked," she said last year. "It was a really different time."

But speaking on Monday, she said she hoped the wider message of the book would continue to chime for readers.

"I think to have the comfort of seeing a character that you can relate to, because they are real and human and emotionally honest, it's like having the friend you can be honest with," she said.

The statue is the first to celebrate a rom com on Leicester Square's Scenes in the Square trail.

The Scenes in the Square trail originally launched in 2020 with the introduction of eight sculptures featuring Laurel and Hardy, Mary Poppins, Batman, Bugs Bunny, Don Lockwood, Paddington Bear, Mr Bean and Wonder Woman.

Since then, statues of Harry Potter, the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Indiana Jones have been added.

Agency refuse workers brought in to cover for Birmingham's long-running bin strike have voted to take industrial action themselves over claims of bullying and harassment.

Hundreds of members of Unite in Birmingham have been on all-out strike since March in a dispute over pay and jobs.

Unite claimed a growing number of agency staff were refusing to cross the picket lines of striking bin workers due to "unsustainable workloads" and a bullying workplace culture at the council's refuse department.

On Monday, agency staff voted to join offical picket lines from 1 December.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "This is a real escalation in the dispute with agency workers now joining picket lines due to the terrible way they have been treated by Job and Talent and Birmingham council."

Birmingham City Council previously denied the allegations and said it did not "condone any actions which are contrary to legislation and good employment practice."

Unite union members in the city began a full walkout seven months ago, and in September voted to extend their action until March.

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The family of Birds of a Feather actress Pauline Quirke have spoken of their "disbelief" at her 2021 dementia diagnosis.

Although the family are unsure what stage she is at, they said: "She's still funny, she's talking, she's happy."

Despite being "very private", they told BBC Breakfast they wanted to raise awareness and funds for the condition.

"My mum has always been a charitable person. It's what she would want me to do," said her son, Charlie Sheen.

Best-known for playing Sharon Theodopolopodous in long-running sitcom Birds of a Feather, 66-year-old Quirke was also nominated for a Bafta in 1997 for playing a convicted murderer in BBC drama The Sculptress.

In 2022, she was made an MBE for services to the entertainment industry, young people, and charities.

But earlier this year her husband, Steve Sheen, who she married in 1996, had to announce her retirement.

This ended both her 50-year acting career, along with her role as head of Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts, which has about 250 academies, and more than 15,000 young students across the UK.

Steve said they first got an inkling something might be wrong with Quirke in November 2020, after she received a script.

"She started reading it and she phoned me on that day and said, the words are not going in. That's where it started," he said.

Their reaction after the diagnosis was "disbelief, really".

"We looked at each other and went, 'Can't be, it's long Covid. Got the flu'."

Charlie added he was "quite surprised that this was possible in a woman in her 60s, and it can happen to people in their 50s, people in their 40s, so it's something you have to deal with and learn about".

Dementia is described as "young onset" when symptoms develop before the age of 65. It most often develops in people between the ages of 45 and 65 but can affect people of any age.

Asked what stage Quirke is at in her dementia journey, Steve said: "We don't know. She's still funny. She's talking. She's happy."

"Is it four years, eight years, 10 years, 12 years, 20, who knows?"

Charlie added: "And that's the problem, no one tells you.

"My mum knows exactly who we are. Every time she sees all of us, she smiles, laughs, says 'I love you', says 'hello'."

They spoke about why they were sharing their experience, and what they had learned so far.

"Unfortunately we are not in the state where we can do much about it," Steve said.

"Just take every day and try and take the best moment out of that day you can.

"It's a long journey. If we can just help a little bit by using Pauline as the catalyst to make more people aware, then we should, to use her to boost awareness and raise funds for dementia research."

Steve said the impact of the condition hit them slowly.

"It's so gradual that for the first year, two years, you're thinking, ah, she's alright.

"Now, we're three or four years in, it's a little bit different. This is why awareness is important. We didn't know how long it lasts or how long you have with it, or how bad it is or how quick it is."

Charlie added that it "progresses and changes every day, but so do we - we change and progress, and so we're forever learning".

The NHS website states dementia is a syndrome (a group of related symptoms) "associated with an ongoing decline of brain functioning".

Next month, Charlie is doing a fundraising walk for Alzheimer's Research UK, going 140 kilometres to places that shaped his mother's life, including homes she has lived in, theatres and TV studios she has worked at.

It will also include the Buckinghamshire headquarters of her children's drama academy.

"This is my mum's legacy," he said.

"This is going to be one of the stops on my trek, because she wanted to nurture the next generation of young actors."

Steve paid tribute to his wife, saying: "What you see is what you get. Loving. Brilliant. She's an iconic actress because her talent is immense."

Charlie added: "She is an incredible, strong, courageous woman that's been through a lot and she keeps going.

"She's a fighter and it's incredible to see, yeah, very proud of her."

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, support and advice is available via the BBC Action Line.

US President Donald Trump has called on House Republicans to vote to release the Epstein files, in a reversal from his previous position.

"House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night.

The shift from days of Trump fighting the proposal comes as the House is expected to hold a vote this week on legislation that would force the Justice Department to release the files to the public.

Supporters of the proposal appear to have enough votes to pass the House, though it is unclear whether it would pass the Senate.

Democrats and some Republicans have been pushing a measure that would force the Justice Department to make public more documents from the case.

Republican Representative Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that as many as 100 Republicans could vote in favour.

Known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the aim of the bill is to make the justice department release all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

This is a a breaking news update. More to follow shortly.

Vital supplies of US liquefied natural gas are due to start flowing into war-ravaged Ukraine this winter via a pipeline across the Balkans.

The deal was announced after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Sunday. Greece has been working to increase the flow of American LNG to its terminals to "replace Russian gas in the region", Mitsotakis said recently.

The European Commission plans to ban all imports of Russian gas to EU member states by the end of 2027, arguing that revenue from such sales funds Russia's war in Ukraine.

Zelensky is now in France for talks with President Emmanuel Macron over a major deal on air defence hardware.

Fighting continued overnight, with six people reported killed in Russian attacks in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.

Russia's military said it had taken control of three more Ukrainian villages - one each in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

None of the reports could be independently verified.

Speaking earlier in Athens, Zelensky was quoted as saying that deliveries of American LNG would begin in January.

"We rebuild each time the Russians destroy but this truly requires time, much effort, equipment and, regarding gas... imports to compensate for the destruction by the Russians of our own production," he said.

"Greece is becoming an energy security provider for your homeland," Mitsotakis told the Ukrainian president.

According to Reuters news agency, Zelensky said Ukraine had allocated funds for gas imports from European partners and banks under European Commission guarantees, as well as from Ukrainian banks, to help cover imports through to March at a cost of nearly €2bn (£1.8bn; $2.3bn).

Since 2015, when it stopped buying Russian gas directly, Ukraine has been receiving supplies from various EU states.

The Soviet-era Trans-Balkan pipeline links Ukraine to LNG terminals in Greece via Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria.

On Monday, Zelensky met Macron at Villacoublay airbase near Paris where he was to inspect Rafale fighter jets, the SAMP-T air defence system and several drone systems.

He was also due to inspect the nascent headquarters of a planned multinational force that may one day help oversee a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire.

Tens of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, have been killed or injured, and millions of civilians have fled their homes, since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Jurors in a high-profile Australian murder trial have been taken to the remote Queensland beach where the victim was found.

Toyah Cordingley was "repeatedly" stabbed with a sharp object and put in a shallow sandy grave with "little or no hope of surviving", the jury has heard.

Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.

The 24-year-old's body was discovered by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach - a stretch of coastline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The jury of ten men and two women plus three back up jurors attended the beach along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning local time, as the second week of the trial got underway.

In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, the judge, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, sports shorts and trainers rather than a wig and robes. Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers opted for polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

The jurors were led around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley was discovered.

Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones marked where the victim's car had been parked.

The trip was intended to help the jurors get familiar with key locations in the case and no official evidence was given.

Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's body was discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children and parents. He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution said.

It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley, whom prosecutor Nathan Crane described as "a young woman, blonde and attractive".

The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions missing. Those items were taken by the killer to avoid detection, the crown alleged.

Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.

No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found.

But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of evidence that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others".

This will include evidence that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.

The jury has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the killing – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.

Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has argued.

"As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was organising … a hurriedly-arranged one way trip back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he opened his case.

The defence is yet to present any evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire described his client as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time".

He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear - something he said was his "biggest mistake".

Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.

Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was among those who gave evidence last week.

The court heard he was an immediate police suspect - and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's disappearance, even before her body was found.

Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the court, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been doctored in any way.

The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the court house on Tuesday.

A South African man who was seen attending neo-Nazi rally outside an Australian state parliament has had his visa revoked.

Matthew Gruter, who has been Australia since 2022, took part in an anti-Jewish protest outside the New South Wales parliament organised by the National Socialist Network earlier this month.

He was seen in the front row of around 60 men clad in black, who held up a banner that said "Abolish the Jewish lobby", Australian media reports.

Australia has seen a recent rise in right-wing extremism. Its government made the Nazi salute punishable by a mandatory prison term earlier this year.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed the cancellation of Mr Gruter's visa, saying: "If you are on a visa, you are a guest.

"If you're a citizen, you're a full member of the Australian family. Like with any household, if a guest turns up to show hatred and wreck the household, they can be told it's time to go home."

Mr Gruter moved to Australia with his wife and works as a civil engineer, according to ABC News.

The National Socialist Network, which organised the rally on 8 November, is a well-known neo-Nazi group in Australia. Mr Gruter is a senior member of the group in New South Wales, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Protesters repeatedly chanted "blood and honour", a slogan associated with the Hitler Youth, according to ABC News.

It last less than 20 minutes and was legally authorised, the Guardian reports.

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A Singapore court has sentenced an Australian man to nine days in jail for grabbing Hollywood star Ariana Grande at a movie premiere.

Johnson Wen, 26, was found guilty of being a public nuisance in the high-profile incident last Thursday at the Asia premiere for Wicked: For Good.

Videos posted on social media showed Wen jumping the barriers, charging at a visibly shocked Grande, and grabbing her shoulders while jumping up and down.

The incident sparked outrage in Singapore where many called for the arrest and deportation of Wen, who has a history of disrupting concerts and celebrity events.

Several accused him of "re-traumatising" Grande. The pop star turned actress has spoken of experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder after a suicide bomb attack at her May 2017 concert in Manchester, killing 22 people and injuring hundreds.

Singapore media reported that in Wen's trial on Monday, the court heard he had attempted to intrude on the movie premiere twice.

Moments after he grabbed Grande, her co-star Cynthia Erivo forcibly pried him off and security staff escorted him out.

He then made a second attempt to jump the barricades. Security staff stopped him and this time pinned him down.

Wen later posted videos of the incident on his social media accounts thanking Grande and stating that he was "free".

Singapore police arrested him the next day and charged him for public nuisance. Wen pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors sought a week's jail for Wen, arguing that he was a "serial intruder" who publicised his behaviour to gain popularity online.

Wen has posted videos of himself disrupting concerts by Katy Perry and The Weeknd, and invading the pitch at various sporting events. Australian media have reported he is banned from some stadiums and has incurred large fines.

Wen, who was not represented in the Singapore court, told the judge in mitigation that he would "not do it again".

Under Singapore's laws against public nuisance, Wen could have been jailed for up to three months, fined up to S$2,000 (£1,167; $1,537), or both.

Grande has not commented on the case, while continuing to appear in public at events in Los Angeles over the weekend.

But two days after the incident Erivo appeared to allude to the incident when she spoke about her relationship with Grande while making the movie, saying: "We have come through some stuff in our lives, our daily workings... even this last week, let's be honest."

"This is the room where my whole family was killed," says Safa Younes.

Bullet holes pepper the front door to the house in the Iraqi town of Haditha, where she grew up. Inside the back bedroom, a colourful bedspread covers the bed where her family was shot.

This is where she hid with her five siblings, mum and aunt when US marines stormed into their home and opened fire, killing everyone apart from Safa, on 19 November 2005. Her dad was also shot dead when he opened the front door.

Now, 20 years on, a BBC Eye investigation has uncovered evidence that implicates two marines, who were never brought to trial, in the killing of Safa's family, according to a forensic expert.

The evidence - mainly statements and testimony given in the aftermath of the killings - raises doubts about the American investigation into what happened that day, and poses significant questions over how US armed forces are held to account.

The killing of Safa's family was part of what became known as the Haditha massacre, when US marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including four women and six children. They entered three homes killing nearly everyone inside, as well as a driver and four students in a car, who were on their way to college.

The incident triggered the longest US war crimes investigation of the Iraq war, but no-one was convicted of the killings.

The marines said they were responding to gunfire after a roadside bomb went off, killing one of their squad members, and injuring two others.

But Safa, who was 13 at the time, tells the World Service: "We hadn't been accused of anything. We didn't even have any weapons in the house."

She survived by pretending to be dead among the small bodies of her sisters and brother - the youngest was three years old. "I was the only survivor out of my entire family," she says.

Four marines were initially charged with murder, but they gave conflicting accounts of the events, and over time US military prosecutors dropped charges against three of them, granting them immunity from further legal action.

That left squad leader Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich as the only one to face trial in 2012.

In a video recording of a pre-trial hearing, which has never been broadcast before, the most junior member of the squad, Lance Corporal Humberto Mendoza is questioned and re-enacts events at Safa's house.

Mendoza - who was a private at the time and was never charged - admits to killing Safa's father when he opened the front door to the marines.

"Did you see his hands?" a lawyer asks him. "Yes sir," Mendoza responds, and goes on to confirm that Safa's father was not armed. "But you shot him anyways?" the lawyer asks. "Yes sir," Mendoza says.

In his official statements, Mendoza had initially claimed that after entering the house, he opened the door to the bedroom where Safa and her family were, but when he saw there were only women and children inside he did not go in, and instead shut the door.

However, in a newly discovered audio recording from Wuterich's trial, Mendoza gives a different account. He says that he walked about 8ft (2.4m) into the bedroom.

This is hugely significant, according to forensic expert Michael Maloney. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service sent him to Haditha in 2006 to investigate the killings and he examined the bedroom where Safa's family was shot.

Using the crime scene photos taken by the Marine Corps at the time of the killings, he concluded that two marines had entered the room and shot the women and children.

When we played him the recording of Mendoza saying he had walked into the room, Maloney said: "This is just amazing to me, what we're listening to, and I've never heard this before today."

He said it showed Mendoza was placing himself in the position where Maloney concluded the first shooter stood, at the foot of the bed.

"If you were to ask me: 'Is this a confession of sorts?' What I'd say is: 'Mendoza confessed to everything except for pulling the trigger.'"

Safa had given a video deposition to military prosecutors in 2006 but it was never shown in court. In it, she described how the marine who opened the bedroom door threw in a grenade, which failed to explode, and then the same man came into the room and shot her family. Mendoza is the only marine who ever said he opened the door.

Another marine, Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum did not deny he took part in the shootings, but said he had followed the squad leader, Wuterich, into the bedroom and initially claimed he did not know there were women and children there because of poor visibility.

But in three later statements obtained by the BBC, Tatum gave a different account.

"I saw that children were in the room kneeling down. I don't remember the exact number but only that it was a lot. I am trained to shoot two shots to the chest and two shots to the head and I followed my training," Tatum told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in April 2006.

A month later, he said he "was able to positively identify the people in the room as women and children before shooting them".

And then a week after that, he said: "This is where I saw the kid I shot. Knowing it was a kid, I still shot him." He described the child as wearing a white T-shirt, standing on the bed, and having short hair.

Tatum's defence lawyers claimed these later statements had been obtained under duress. Charges against Tatum were dropped in March 2008, and the statements were disregarded at Wuterich's trial.

Forensics expert Michael Maloney said the statements by Mendoza and Tatum point to them being the two marines who shot Safa's family. He believes Mendoza went into the bedroom first and Tatum followed "firing across the head of the bed".

We put the allegations to Mendoza and Tatum. Mendoza did not respond. He has previously admitted to shooting Safa's father, but said he was following orders. He was never charged with a criminal offence.

Through his lawyer, Tatum said he wants to put Haditha behind him. He has never withdrawn his testimony that he was one of the shooters in Safa's house.

Maloney told the BBC that the prosecution "wanted Wuterich to be that primary shooter". But before Maloney was able to testify, Wuterich's trial ended in a plea deal.

Wuterich maintained he could not remember what had happened in Safa's house, and agreed to plead guilty to one count of negligent dereliction of duty - a charge unrelated to any direct involvement in the killings.

Wuterich's military lawyer, Haytham Faraj, a former marine himself, said the punishment was "tantamount to a slap on the wrist… like a speeding ticket".

Neal Puckett, the lead defence lawyer for Wuterich, said the whole investigation and prosecution against his client was "botched".

"The prosecution, in granting immunity to all their witnesses and dismissing all their charges… essentially rendered themselves incapable of achieving justice in this case," he said.

Haytham Faraj agreed the process was deeply flawed.

"The government paid people to come in and lie, and the payment was immunity, and that's how they misused the legal process," he told the BBC.

"The trial of Haditha was never meant to give voice to the victims," he added.

He said that survivors' "impressions of a show trial with no real outcome, with no-one being punished, was right".

The US Marine Corps told us it is committed to fair and open proceedings under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, ensuring due process of law. It added that it would not reopen the investigation unless a wealth of new, unexamined, and admissible evidence was introduced.

The lead prosecutor in the case did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

Now aged 33, Safa still lives in Haditha and has three children of her own. She says she can't understand how no marine was punished for her family's deaths.

When we show her the video of Mendoza, she says he "should have been imprisoned from the moment the incident happened, it should have been impossible for him to see the light of day".

"It's as if it happened last year. I still think about it," she says of the day her family was killed.

"I want those who did this to be held accountable and to be punished by the law. It's been almost 20 years without them being tried. That's the real crime."

Additional reporting by Namak Khoshnaw and Michael Epstein

Armed men have killed a teacher and abducted at least 25 students in an attack on a girls' secondary school in north-western Nigeria, police say.

The gang invaded the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, at around 04:00 local time (0300 GMT) on Monday, they said.

The attackers "engaged police personnel on duty in a gun duel" before scaling the perimeter fence and seizing the students from their hostel, a statement said.

One member of staff was killed while trying to protect the students. A second sustained gunshot wounds and is now receiving treatment.

Eyewitnesses described a large group of attackers, known locally as bandits, who arrived firing sporadically to cause panic.

Residents told the BBC that the gunmen subsequently marched a number of girls into nearby bushland.

The police said they had deployed "additional police tactical units, alongside military personnel and vigilante groups" to the area.

A coordinated search and rescue operation is underway in surrounding forests and suspected escape routes.

Over the past decade, schools in northern Nigeria have become frequent targets for armed groups, who often carry out abductions to seek ransom payments or leverage deals with the government.

However, this is the first major school abduction since March 2024, when more than 200 pupils were seized from a school in Kuriga, Kaduna state.

The attack in Kebbi State highlights the persistent security crisis plaguing the region, leaving families in Maga in a state of fearful exhaustion as they wait and hope for their daughters' safe return.

You may also be interested in:

• Nigeria's kidnapping crisis: Should ransom payments be banned?
• Kuriga kidnap: More than 280 Nigerian pupils abducted
• The bandit kidnap crisis in Nigeria

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

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The UN Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution backing Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza.

The text, submitted by the US, would give a mandate for the deployment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) and to set up transitional governance there.

The US says multiple unnamed countries have offered to contribute to the ISF, though it is unclear whether it would be required to ensure Hamas disarms or function as a peacekeeping force.

Its formation is a central plank of Trump's 20-point plan which last month brought a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in their two-year war.

The draft also raises the possibility of a Palestinian state - something Israel strongly opposes.

There have been intense negotiations over the draft text of the resolution, with Washington warning that any vote against it could lead to a return to fighting with Israel.

As well as authorising an ISF, which it says would work with Israel and Egypt - Gaza's southern neighbour - the draft also calls for creation of a newly trained Palestinian police in Gaza. Until now, the police there have operated under the authority of Hamas.

According to reports on the latest draft, part of the ISF's role would be to work on the "permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups" – including Hamas – as well as protecting civilians and humanitarian aid routes.

This would require Hamas to hand over its weapons - something it is meant to do under Trump's peace plan.

But in a statement published overnight, Hamas called the draft resolution "dangerous" and an "attempt to subject the Gaza Strip to international authority".

It said Palestinian factions rejected any clause relating to the disarmament of Gaza or harming "the Palestinian people's right to resistance".

The statement also rejected any foreign military presence inside the Gaza Strip, saying it would constitute a violation of Palestinian sovereignty.

The draft goes on to endorse the formation of a Board of Peace, expected to be headed by President Trump, to oversee a body of Palestinian technocrats that will temporarily administer Gaza and take charge of its redevelopment.

Following pressure from key Arab states, the latest text mentions a possible future Palestinian state, though without calling for one as the goal.

Even so, the inclusion of such a reference drew sharp reaction from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after allies in his governing coalition criticised the draft, including threatening to leave the government if Netanyahu did not push back.

"Regarding a Palestinian state," he said on Sunday, "our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory west of the Jordan [River], this opposition is existing, valid, and has not changed one bit."

Trump's peace plan in effect suspended the fighting between Israel and Hamas which had raged since Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in that attack.

More than 69,483 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.