26/12/2017 BBC World News

And we visit a shooting range in

India to meet the sure shot

grandmother who has become a local

celebrity at the age of 80.

Hello and welcome to BBC World News.

In Rome, Pope Francis has called

for an end to the suffering

of children, and for peace

in the Middle East.

It comes as Christmas celebrations

in Bethlehem have been quieter

than usual, after the violence

which followed President Trump's

decision to move the US

embassy to Jerusalem.

Meanwhile the Archbishop

of Canterbury here in Britain,

has used his Christmas Day sermon,

to reflect on what he described

as "tyrannical leaders

around the world."

Justin Welby said 2017 had

seen 'populist leaders,'

deceiving their people.

The BBC's Religion Editor

Martin Bashir reports.

Bright sunshine lit up the Basilica

in St Peter's Square.

But Pope Francis chose

to focus his Christmas Day message

on how conflict and oppression

are casting a dark

shadow over the world.

He said that Christmas makes us

focus on the Christ child,

and thereby pay attention

to the sufferings of children,

particularly in the Holy Land.

"We see Jesus in the children

of the Middle East," he said,

"who continue to suffer

because of growing tensions

between Israelis and Palestinians."

"On this festive day, let us ask

the Lord for peace for Jerusalem."

The Anglican archbishop

in Jerusalem, the Most

Reverend Suheil Dawani,

said that Christ himself wept over

the city 2,000 years ago,

and with Donald Trump's decision

to officially recognise Jerusalem

as the capital of Israel,

that grief continues.

When he wept at that time,

he wept for the absence of peace

and love in the life

of people who live here.

I'm afraid that our Lord Jesus

is really still weeping

for this city.

Happy Christmas!

At Canterbury Cathedral,

Archbishop Justin Welby said

that though Christ

was born without any

political leverage,

he provides more freedom

to individuals than the world's

most powerful leaders.

But midway through preaching,

his own powers of speech

began to fail...

Unlike the budget, it's not gin.

LAUGHTER.

In Rome, Canterbury

and here in Jerusalem,

Christian leaders have taken

the opportunity of this day

to challenge the wisdom

of the world that they say puts

power before people and has

failed to protect the most

vulnerable members of

society, our children.

Martin Bashir, BBC

News, in Jerusalem.

Russian investigators are examining

what caused a bus to careen

into a pedestrian subway in Moscow,

killing at least four people.

The victims include a woman

in her thirties and a teenager.

The driver told officials he had

been trying to apply the brakes

but they didn't work.

Faith Orr reports.

It is a task nobody would envy.

These emergency workers are picking

up the pieces after a bus crashed

into an underpass. It killed several

people and was only stopped by the

roof of the tunnel. This was the

terrifying moment the vehicle

barrelled down the steps, hitting

pedestrians. Officials say they are

working to try to establish what

caused the crash. TRANSLATION:

The

bus was driving away from the square

and due to unknown reasons, drove

into a pedestrian underpass. An

investigation is under way. As a

four people died and nine were

hospitalised, two people refuse to

go to hospital. The driver is in

shock and investigators are working

with him to try to figure out what

happened.

The driver has been

detained by police but there is no

suggestion this was terrorism. And

expection of the entire Moscow bus

fleet has now been ordered. However

it happened, it is a tragedy that

will leave the scar on the city into

the year to come.

Russian opposition leader

Alexei Navalny has called

for a boycott of next year's

election after the country's central

election commission rejected

his bid to take part.

The commission said that Navalny's

controversial conviction

for embezzlement meant

he couldn't run.

BBC Russia's Olga Ivshina

told us a little earlier

about the development.

We cannot call it a surprise but

this is a very important

We cannot call it a surprise but

this is a very important twist.

Yesterday he submitted signatures

and documents and just a few hours

later he was rejected because as the

head of the committee said, he has

outstanding criminal convictions. Mr

Navalny and a few human rights

organisations around the world say

the charges were politically

motivated but Russian authorities

insist well, the Russian court has

decided that is what has happened.

So he cannot run. First of all he

said he would appeal the decision

and secondly, if the band continues

he calls to boycott the election.

This is... Is adds a small intrigue

to the elections because almost all

political analyst believe that Mr

Vladimir Putin will win but the

question is the percentage and the

turnout.

Russia's Deputy Prime

Minister Vitaly Mutko,

has announced he's stepping down

temporarily from his role

as the country's most

senior football official.

Mr Mutko is relinquishing

his job as president

of the Russian Football

Union for six months.

He says he wants to concentrate

on contesting a lifetime ban

from the Olympic Games over

state-sponsored doping.

However, he will still remain

as chief organiser of next year's

football World Cup in Russia.

TRANSLATION:

Today, using the

opportunity I had, I address the

executive order in regard to the

temporary impossibility of

performing my duties while court

proceedings are under way. This is

to allow the Russian football

Federation to work normally. I ask

for my full powers to be temporarily

suspended for six months. I have not

resigned and my mandate will be

active until 2020.

Let's take a look at some

of the other stories

making the news...

Peru's president has granted

a medical pardon to jailed former

president Alberto Fujimori, leading

to mixed reactions from Peruvians.

His son Kenji posted a video

on Twitter showing the former

president's reaction to the news.

Fujimori was serving a 25-year

sentence for human rights abuses,

corruption and the sanctioning

of death squads.

A man has rammed his car

into the headquarters

of Germany's Social

Democratic Party in Berlin.

Police say the 58-year-old

was intending to kill himself.

He had gas cartridges

in the car and cans of petrol.

The man was injured

and taken to hospital.

Authorities in the Philippines have

ordered a criminal investigation

into a shopping mall fire

in the southern city of Davao.

At least 37 people died.

Deadly blazes occur regularly

in the Philippines, particularly

in slum areas where there are

virtually no fire safety standards.

A diplomatic row between Venezuela

and Canada has intensified.

Canada has announced it's banning

Venezuela's ambassador to Ottawa

from returning to the country and is

expelling its charge d'affaires.

The Canadian Foreign Minister said

the move was in retaliation

for the expulsion of its most senior

diplomat from Caracas

over the weekend.

The BBC's Americas editor

Leonardo Roccha explained

what the row is about.

It is about the opposition in

Venezuela and the way the President

handled the opposition movement in

protest this year. In April,

President Maduro announced he would

convene a constituent assembly. It

was controversial because this new

body would take over powers and

replace Congress. In Venezuela, that

was controlled by the opposition.

That sparked four months of protests

and around 120 people were killed.

Canada has been vocal and critical.

They went against the Venezuelan

government and what happened is that

over the weekend Venezuela expelled

the Canadian ambassador and Canada

said they could not stand by and

they will continue to support the

defence of human rights in

Venezuela.

It is a tit-for-tat

measure but the Brazilian Ambassador

was also expelled?

Yes. Foray

different reason. They have been

critical of President Maduro as well

and the Brazilian Ambassador said

that Brazil had broken the rule of

law with the impeachment of its

left-wing leader. What it shows here

is that Venezuela has decided to

strike against the countries that

are critical of President Maduro. He

is running for re-election next year

and they will get closer to their

allies, Russia, Cuba, left-wing

allies in Latin America. The

creation of the constituent assembly

reduce the powers of the opposition

and next year 's election should be

easier for Maduro?

The opposition is

quite weak. Many of its leaders have

been imprisoned, they have been

sentenced or have left the country.

The constituent assembly divided the

opposition completely. They did not

know how to act, to boycott or to

strike back. The President called

for elections early in April and he

is almost certain to win if he does

so, and get a number six U-turn.

With regard to the expulsion of

those countries, can you see this

escalating?

The conditions they

imposed for Brazil are impossible.

That would be the root turn of their

former president. For Canada they

said Canada is taking orders from

Donald Trump. There is nothing

really that can be done. For

Venezuela, what is crucial our

relations with the United States to

where they explore most of their

Royal, and with Russia.

In the state of Uttar Pradesh

in India, each year around 2,000

women are killed over dowry demands.

But an eighty-year-old grandmother

has been waging a unique fight

for gender equality.

Parkashi Tomar is India's

oldest shooting champion.

Here's her story.

Stay with us on BBC World News,

still to come: The art of reclaiming

waste and making it

into desirable new products.

We visit the Austrian workshop

that's pioneering "up-cycling."

We saw this enormous tidal wave

approaching the beach,

and people started to run,

and suddenly it was complete chaos.

The United States troops have been

trying to overthrow the dictatorship

of General Manuel Noriega.

The Pentagon said the operation

had been 90% successful

but it's failed in its

principal objective -

to capture General Noriega

and take him to the US

to face drugs charges.

The hammer and sickle

was hastily taken away.

The Russian flag was hoisted over

what is now no longer

the Soviet Union,

but the Commonwealth

of Independent States.

Day breaks slowly over Lockerbie,

over the cockpit of

Pan Am's Maid of the Seas,

nosedown in the soft earth.

You could see what happens

when a plane eight storeys high,

a football pitch wide,

falls from 30,000 feet.

Christmas has returned to Albania

after a Communist ban

lasting more than 20 years.

Thousands went to midnight mass

in the town of Shkroda

where there were anti-Communist

riots ten days ago.

This is BBC World News.

The latest headlines:

The Pope has been giving

his Christmas blessing.

He called for peace for Jerusalem

and mutual trust on

the Korean peninsula.

Russian investigators are examining

why a bus ploughed into

a subway entrance in Moscow,

killing at least four people.

The deadly tropical storm that cut

through southern Philippines

on Saturday,

where it killed 240 people

in mudslides and flash floods,

is beginning to hit

southern Vietnam.

Up to one million people

are being evacuated

from low lying areas,

as anywhere from Da Nang

southwards is expected to have

up to 500 millimetres of rain.

A short time ago I was

joined by Nick Miller,

from the BBC Weather Centre,

who told me the storm

is now weakening.

At one stage it was a typhoon and

its strength in having moved through

the southern Philippines just before

reaching southern

the southern Philippines just before

reaching southern Vietnam's, it was

downgraded in terms of winds speed

to a tropical storm. Winter is not

the only feature to be worried

about. -- wind. The rain, the brain

in the southern Philippines caused

terrible problems and landslides,

but also the amount of water above

tide levels that will come into

low-lying areas and that is a

serious threat in the southern

Vietnam although technically it has

weakened we are still expecting

several hours of heavy rain and

there could be the potential

damaging winds and the worst

affected areas, reaching into

hundreds of millimetres as you

mentioned.

And then continues

heading west?

Again, it is a

weakening system. It is broken apart

in terms of its cloud structure from

what you would normally think as a

well-defined typhoon that the energy

from these moves our west into the

Gulf of Thailand and towards

Thailand and there will be areas

come the middle of the week that

will be affected by heavy rain.

Again, that brings the potential for

some flooding. By that stage perhaps

above 100 - 100 and 50 millimetres

so not producing as much rain as in

Vietnam and certainly not as much

rain and the terrible problems we

saw in the Philippines.

500

millimetres of rain in a relatively

short time. In the Philippines that

is what caused the mudslides?

Not

everybody will see that much rain.

It ties in to the topography, the

hills, the geography, so he can have

areas are seeing a lot of rain with

minimal impact but you can see a lot

of rain in the worst possible areas

and a lot of that rain will fall

down very quickly and produce

landslides and flooding so that

degree of thing is unpredictable in

terms of impact but we clearly saw

that in southern Philippines stock

we are at risk of seeing some

problems not on the scale of

southern Vietnam but that is why

some evacuations are taking place.

It needs to be watched closely.

Fresh air strikes and clashes in

Yemen have killed people as

pro-government forces pushed an

offensive against Houthi rebels.

Government troops and coalition

forces have been advancing along the

Red Sea coast recently.

A huge rockslide has taken place

near Innsbruck in Austria.

Rocks, soil and even trees fell

on the main service road,

which is now blocked.

People used the road to visit

a church for Christmas Mass just 10

minutes before the rocks came down.

Luckily nobody was injured.

Up to 150 people are still cut off

from the outside world and will be

until at least Wednesday.

TRANSLATION: As things are now,

after the last flight of the

helicopter, there is still the

danger of another rock fall. During

the morning, the situation is a

dramatised again. We thought we

could lift most of the roadblock but

during the day, it turned out that

there are still risks of rocks

braking.

Apple are facing the prospect

of a lawsuit in Israel over

the deliberate slowing of some

older models of iPhones.

According to Israeli media

the claimants are arguing that Apple

breached its duty to customers

by failing to disclose that

installing updates to the iPhone's

operating system could

slow their devices.

The tech giant admitted

to the practice last week but said

they only did it to try and preserve

the life of the devices.

You've heard of re-cycling but these

days the new buzzword

is up-cycling, transforming rubbish

into objects of desire.

A non-profit workshop in Austria -

supported by the city government -

is working with the long-term

unemployed to make furniture,

ornaments and jewellery out

of old household appliances.

Bethany Bell reports

from the Dismantling

and Recycling Centre in Vienna.

It's beautiful, but it is actually

all made from rubbish.

The process starts

here at this workshop.

Workers remove hazardous substances

from old computers and appliances.

The leftovers are sent

either for recycling,

or upstairs, to the

trash design team.

What we do is that we collect

specific kinds of garbage -

that means electric

and electronic equipment.

We make, design objects

and jewellery, and we offer

the old garbage an opportunity

to get reused, or to get upcycled.

They turn vinyl records into clocks,

and dead keyboards into rings.

The glass from washing machine doors

becomes sandblasted bowls,

complete with patterns.

And it's not just about

transforming trash.

Lives are changed here, too.

Many of the people who work

here are the long-term unemployed.

Susann says she has been

given a new chance.

TRANSLATION:

It is cool.

I find it really super.

You make something new out

of old stuff, but it hurts me

when I have to cut up

these old records.

I recently had an old Abba album

and I thought "No!",

and then it became a notebook.

But that's the way it goes.

And some of Vienna's famous

Christmas markets are also

getting in on the act.

Trash design is on offer alongside

the gingerbread and mulled wine.

The workshop has its own stalls,

where products are on sale,

often for pretty prices.

These items have come a long way

from the city's rubbish dumps

to the magnificent surroundings

of one of Austria's old royal

palaces, and when it comes

to Christmas presents this year,

the designers are hoping that it

will be upcycling all the way.

Bethany Bell, BBC News, Vienna.

London's Euston Station has been

turned into a shelter

for the homeless, as rail workers

and charity staff served

around 200 rough sleepers a full

Christmas lunch.

Caroline Davies reports.

Festive preparation under

the departures board

as Network Rail volunteers prepare

for their homeless guests.

They're part of our community,

they're here every day,

and I think some places would maybe

just shun them away,

but for us, they are an important

part of the community,

they're here, we have to engage,

we have to look after them and make

sure that they're safe.

Local charities invited 200 guests

to enjoy some festive music

and a four-course meal -

a meal which was only possible

thanks to the donations from 45

different businesses and groups.

Jed has been squatting

since he was 18.

It's unique, like, they've got this

space on Christmas Day.

It's quite interesting to see

somewhere like this on Christmas Day

and see it put to some good use.

Jesse now squats, too,

but spent many years living

in a tent, moving around the UK.

You know, it's a nice,

relaxing environment,

it takes us out of the usual chaos

of our lives, you know.

As well as leaving well fed,

guests were also given sleeping bags

and thermal clothes to help them

endure the winter cold.

For these guests, for now,

some Christmas cheer

on the concourse.

Caroline Davies, BBC News.

Christmas is of course

being marked in many different

ways around the world.

Funnily enough, many

seem to involve water.

Take a look...

It's a bit like English

weather here at the moment,

but we're just delighted to be here.

Lovely people, lovely atmosphere.

I'm afraid we've got silly hats on,

but that's part of the deal.

Merry Christmas!

Well, obviously, tea

is incredibly British...!

Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year.

CHEERING.

Mary Christmas from us. This is BBC

World News. -- Mary Christmas.

Not quite in sync with the big day

but for Boxing Day the weather

will feel more Christmassy.

Cold air pushing back

in across the UK.

13 degrees across the UK.

Ice on untreated surfaces

as Boxing Day begins

across parts of northern

England and into Scotland,

where there will be some sleet

and snow around Southern Uplands,

northern Pennines, even

to the relatively low levels

in places so do not be surprised

if you wake up to a wintry scene.

Some wintry showers return

to northern Scotland,

on throught the day

on a chilly wind.

One or two showers

for Northern Ireland.

Mixture of rain, sleet and snow

for some in northern England,

to begin with.

And a few showers running

into north-west England.

Some of these could be wintry,

especially but maybe not

exclusively on hills.

In the south, though,

I think you'll be struck by some

sunshine for a change,

after several grey,

murky but mild days.

Sunshine but it will feel colder.

If you are planning a Boxing Day

walk, to wed early as heavy rain

with strengthening wind coming back

in. It will be pretty wet here. The

rain beginning to extend a

in. It will be pretty wet here. The

rain beginning to extend a further

east across southern England as

well. To the north, take advantage

of the drier and sunny at weather.

In northern England, dotted with

rain. Sunny afternoon for southern

Scotland compared with the morning

but quite a few sleet and snow

showers peppering northern Scotland

at this stage. They will turn icy

again going through the night. In

the Wednesday, we need to watch this

weather system for snow development

into the Midlands. Uncertainty about

the details. The back edge of this

going east into Wednesday. If you

are travelling, do pay close

attention to update on this

forecast. Wintry showers on

Wednesday the northern Scotland. As

this system pulls a way, sunny but

chilly weather and quite a bit of

frost in two Thursday. The gap

between weather systems will offer

some sunny spells. Quite a nice day

on Thursday. Sunshine but quite

cold. Friday onto the weekend will

cloud, the weather system from the

Atlantic turning things milder,