27/12/2017 BBC World News

This is BBC World News.

Our top stories:

Vladimir Putin's supporters nominate

him to run as an independent

candidate in next year's

Russian elections.

His political rival

is barred from standing.

Counting votes in Liberia's

Presidential election,

where former world footballer

of the year, George Weah,

is seeking the country's top job.

Peru's former leader,

who was serving a long prison

sentence for human rights

abuses and corruption,

asks for forgiveness,

after receiving a Presidential

pardon.

I am aware that the results produced

by my government were well received

by some but I recognise that I have

let others down. To them, I ask for

forgiveness from the bottom of my

heart.

And English footballer Harry Kane

smashes a 22-year-old record

for most Premier League goals

scored in a calendar year.

Hello and welcome to BBC World News.

A group of Russian electors have

formally given their support

to Vladimir Putin as a candidate in

next year's Presidential election.

Mr Putin is seeking

a fourth term in office

and will run as an

independent this time.

He still needs 300,000 signatures

before his nomination is confirmed.

On Monday, Putin's main rival,

opposition leader Alexei Navalny,

was barred from standing

in the election.

But the move has already prompted

a call for an opposition boycott,

and has raised fears of a lack

of political choice.

Absent from this presidential

nomination was Vladimir Putin,

apparently so confident of winning

this election he did not turn up.

That did not dampen the enthusiasm

of his reporters. They voted

unanimously to back Mr Putin for an

fourth term. TRANSLATION:

Our

country has been transformed from a

country that was destroyed and

without future, it into a really

powerful state.

Their candidate,

meanwhile, was he with children.

Invited to a New Year 's party at

the Kremlin. This was Vladimir Putin

the benevolent. Thinking of the

future of his country. Earlier,

Russian saw images of put in the

powerful entering his Cabinet. Here

he told a boy of the ruling a

country Russia was not hard. But

after 18 years of him doing just

that, the Kremlin is struggling to

inject energy into this re-election

race to ensure people come out to

vote when everything is so

predictable. This man is now

planning to make their task even

harder. Navalny calls himself the

only real rival to Vladimir Putin

but this week the popular

anticorruption campaigner was ruled

out of the presidential race the big

he has a criminal conviction he says

was politically motivated.

TRANSLATION:

It is not about me. It

is about the fact that a candidate

is needed who will finally come to

the election and speak openly about

everything that happens in our

country now. Who will describe darl'

reality honestly. The absence of

prospect, poverty. I did that and

that is why you don't know -- want

to let me take part in the election.

So now, Mr Navalny is calling for a

boycott of the entire process, to

undermine its legitimacy. Mr Putin

will not be too worried with a

boycott and in street protests grow.

Otherwise, he is betting that his

message of strength and stability

will secure him another six years in

power.

In the past hour the International

Committee of the Red Cross said that

the evacuation of critical

medical cases had begun

from Eastern Ghouta in Syria.

Eastern Ghouta, a suburb

near Damascus, has been under

the control of the rebels

and almost 400,000 people

besieged by forces loyal

to President Bashar al-Assad.

The United Nations had pleaded

for him to allow the evacuation

of patients who will die

without medical care.

Counting is under way in a runoff

election to choose the next

president of Liberia.

It is a straight fight

between the current vice president

Joseph Boakai, and world renowned

footballer George Weah.

Umaru Fofana reports

from the capital, Monrovia.

Voting went peacefully with no

reports of incidents. Accompanied by

his supporters, Vice President

Joseph Weah cast his vote. He

sounded confident. Asked as to

whether he would accept the results

he responded with a qualified yes.

After that a decision will be made.

Were willing to work for whatever

the final result is.

For supporters

of the former football superstars

George Weah it looked like a victory

dance when he went to vote. The man

who will won in the first round

sounded confident.

I'm not

associated with losing. I will win.

Boakai cannot win, and George Weah

can.

What happened cannot happen

again. Initial indications are that

the run-off was better organised

than the first round. Materials

arrived on time and there have been

no complaints so far of multiple

voting according to the main local

observation group. Turnout seemed

low. It has been quiet here at this

high school. Election officials are

nibbling around without a lot to do.

They say there's been like this for

most of the day. Only one person has

come here in the last 30 minutes to

cast their vote. Was a result

expected this week, Liberians are

looking forward to the outcome. This

is the first time in over 70 years

that this country has set the stage

for a peaceful transfer of power

from one elected president to

another.

A British woman has been sentenced

to three years in an Egyptian prison

after being found guilty

of smuggling drugs into the country.

Laura Plummer, who's 33

and from England's north,

was arrested in October

when she was found carrying 290

tablets of the painkiller,

Tramadol, in her suitcase.

Daniela Relph reports.

Laura Plummer's family

and friends say she is naive,

not a criminal.

But today the 33-year-old shop

worker from Hull is beginning

a three-year sentence

in jail in Egypt.

Her mother, Roberta,

and her Egyptian partner,

Omar Caboo, have been

at court to support her

during the hearings this week.

Laura Plummer had been travelling

to the Red Sea resort of Hurghada

to visit Omar in October

when she was stopped

by the authorities.

In her suitcase were 290 tramadol

tablets, a painkiller which is legal

on prescription in Britain,

but banned in Egypt.

She said the tablets

were for her partner,

who suffers from severe back pain,

but she was arrested and has been

held since then in a communal cell

with up to 25 women.

Her family at home in Hull

have described today's

sentence as horrendous.

She's just a normal

girl who works in Hull.

She just sells clothes,

she comes home, she watches telly

and she goes to bed.

She doesn't drink, she doesn't

smoke, she doesn't do anything.

She lives to go to Egypt.

She loves Egypt.

She loves the Egyptian people.

She's in love with Omar.

We cannot believe this

has happened to her.

We are absolutely devastated.

Her supporters say she has been let

down by the country she has loved.

This woman doesn't deserve to be

incarcerated in an Egyptian prison

and, to be honest with you,

as much as I respect the customs

of Egypt and the laws

and the judiciary and everything

else, this will put people off

travelling on holiday

to Egypt in the future,

and I think the Egyptian authorities

need to be mindful of that.

The Egyptian legal

system is complex.

Laura Plummer will now appeal

against the three-year sentence,

a jail term her family say

is shocking and unjust.

Daniela Relph, BBC News.

The United States has placed

sanctions on two North Korean

officials, Kim Jong-sik

and Ri Pyong-chol, over

the country's nuclear programme.

The US treasury says both men

were key leaders of North Korea's

ballistic missile programme.

The UN Security Council imposed

new sanctions on North Korea

on Friday in response

to ballistic missile tests.

North Korea said the move

was "an act of war."

A heavy snow storm on the island

of Sakhalin in Russia's Far East has

caused severe disruption.

The authorities have opened mobile

'warming centres' for pedestrians,

many of whom were forced to walk

after public transport

all but ground to a halt.

A pensioner is recovering

in hospital after being blown

off a balcony.

The airport and the ferry service

with the mainland were closed.

Angry Kosovans have hung hundreds

of neckties on the fence outside

the government's

headquarters on Tuesday.

It's after Prime Minister Ramush

Haradi-naj said he was justified

in doubling his own salary,

because wearing smart clothes

was part of his job.

He sparked outrage by passing

a measure raising his

salary from about $1800

to $3,500 a month.

A Peruvian football official accused

of taking bribes has been cleared

by a jury in the US.

Manuel Burga, who led

football in Peru until 2014,

was accused of taking cash

in exchange for distributing

marketing and media

rights to matches.

Two other South American football

officials were convicted by the same

jury on Friday.

Peru is divided over the legacy

of its former president,

Alberto Fujimori.

Some see him as the man

who saved Peru from economic

collapse and communism.

To others, he was a ruthless

autocrat who authorised

death squad killings.

He had been serving a 25-year prison

term for human rights abuses.

But the current President,

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski,

has granted him a medical pardon.

In a video posted to Facebook,

Fujimori said he's deeply grateful.

TRANSLATION:

This has had a strong

impact on me. I have had mixed mixed

feelings of extreme joy and sorrow.

I am aware that the results produced

by my government were well received

by some at a whole I recognise that

I have let others down. To them, I

ask forgiveness from the bottom of

my heart.

Michael Reid is a senior editor

on Latin America at The Economist.

He joined me from Lima a short time

ago and I asked him what the mood

is like there.

It came as a huge surprise to

people. Demonstrators took to the

streets on Christmas Day in large

numbers and I think there will be

continuing protest. Just as

important is the reaction and

political opinion here and

internationally.

As you mentioned

here is a divisive figure and many

protesters believe this pardon was

somehow a legally wrought about.

What is the general opinion among

the people you speak to.

It was

always going to be controversial. He

has been in jail for over ten years.

He was found guilty in an exemplary

process of human rights violations.

But the circumstances in which the

pardon came about are quite

suspicious too many Peruvians

because it came three days after a

vote in Congress in which President

Kuczynski survived an attempt to

impeach him, thanks to the

abstention of ten Congress members

supported of Fujimori. It looks too

many Peruvians like a sordid quid

pro quo, however much the government

proclaims that its main motivation

was that it was worried for the

deteriorating health of the iMac and

did not want him to die in jail.

To

what extent do you think the current

government and President Kuczynski

is in a weakened state as a result

of this?

He is in an extremely

weakened state. There is no doubt

about that. Were -- he only just

survived the attempt to impeach him,

which was, one must say, an attempt

at political vengeance by the

Fujimori majority in Congress. He

has only a small group of supporters

in Congress. He did survive that

vote by appealing to the country as

a Democrat who is being faced with a

Parliamentary coup by what he saw or

what he portrayed as an undemocratic

group of Fujimori supporters. Those

who gave him the benefit of the

doubt and supported him, many of

them now feel that he betrayed them

by immediately turning around and

pardoning Fujimori.

This is BBC World News. Stay with us

because still to come, Australia

rules of the Ashes. After winning

the series their batsmen make the

English visitors were card in the

fourth test. -- work hard.

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:

Vladimir Putin's supporters nominate

him to run as an independent

candidate in next year's elections.

His political rival

is barred from standing.

Votes are being counted

in Liberia's Presidential election,

where former World Footballer

of the Year, George Weah,

is seeking the country's top job.

Now to some action from the Ashes.

Australia opener, David Warner,

struck a century, as England endured

a tough time in the field

on the opening day of

the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

Warner dazzled with some fine

stroke-play in a one-sided morning

session against an England side that

looked flattened after surrendering

the Ashes in Perth.

The tourists fought back and Warner

could have been dismissed on 99,

only for Tom Curran to be

denied his maiden Test wicket

when replays showed

that he had overstepped.

The BBC's Patrick Gearey

is in Melbourne for us,

and I asked him if Australia

was looking to take home

their advantage today.

They are. That is because who they

are going up against. Steve Smith,

the immovable object, the omens are

not good for him. The last time he

was out on a test match on this this

ground was in 2014. He scored 434

runs since that dismissal, and is

averaging 140 on this ground. That

is even more than the great Sir

Donald Bradman, the best there ever

was. 65 not out, Smith. England will

be desperate to get rid of them

early on the second day. To their

credit, they did well on the first

day after the swashbuckling century

from David Warner. But things will

not get easier for them on the

second day. The temperature is

expected to reach 35 degrees, really

high, not the weather you want to

run in. Australia will feel they can

back them out. It will be an

endurance test for the bowlers and

fielders.

The sunny day having an

impact.

It has been a great day for

the home crowd. There has been

criticism of the pitch at the

Melbourne Cricket Grounds. There

has. It is called a drop-in pitch.

That is because it is all so use for

AFL. It has been criticised for

being slow and flat. Shane Warne, a

man of Melbourne, called it flat as

an ironing board. Jimmy Anderson

said it was not the right surface

for a contest for the big crowds at

the MCG. If you are to take wickets

on this pitch, you have to bowl

defensively and dry up runs. That is

not a thrilling spectacle. Whichever

side wins, they will have to fight

hard. That victory will be earned in

sweat.

English footballer, Harry Kane,

has set a new record of 39 goals

in the Premier League in a calendar

year, doing it in style,

with a hat trick at Wembley.

Kane headed in a free kick

from Christian Erikson to give

Tottenham Hotspur a 1-0 lead over

Southampton and break

Alan Shearer's 22-year-old record.

A second goal followed just before

half time as he swept

in across from Son Heung-min.

And midway through the second half,

Son was again provider,

as Kane completed his hat trick

with a delicate chip

over the keeper.

That takes his haul for club

and country to 56 goals,

making him the leading

goalscorer in Europe for 2017.

Earlier, the BBC spoke

to Bradley Allen.

He has been a coach at Spurs for 13

years and coached Harry Kane

as a youngster.

He also witnessed Harry Kane

make history at Wembley

as a co-commentator

for BBC Radio London.

My colleague Geeta Guru-murthy began

by asking him what he made

of his new record?

It is a remarkable achievement.

Something all of Tottenham Hotspur

is' supporters and the academy and

those who worked with Harry Kane on

this incredible journey, they have

loved it and it has been an

outstanding year.

Has anyone heard

from him since?

I have not had the

opportunity to actually watch him

live this afternoon, working on my

media capacity. I have seen develop

and have worked with him as a 14-15

year old kid. He has become a great

footballer. This is just the number

visible achievement.

Did you spot it

early? Were the signs there?

He

showed glimpses. One of the biggest

compliment I could give him if he

was just a fantastic learner. --

compliments. It is just a small part

the coaches have played along the

way. He deserves a lot of credit.

The new club owner has allowed him

to blossom.

Can you explain what it

is he does so well? Strength? Speed?

Skill? What makes him so good?

Any

idea he was given, he would be

prepared to work on those aspects of

his game and more, you know? I think

a player of Frank Lampard's

attitude. Frank Lampard really got

the maximum amount of the ability

that he had. The same with young

Harry Kane. You know? He comes from

a tremendously stable and supportive

family. He is just a lovely and

humble young man. He is a credit to

himself and the people around him.

How big is his future career

potentially, do you think?

His

achievement is exceptional. I think

Tottenham supporters will be hoping

in a few years, with the new stadium

on the horizon in the fascinating,

that Harry Kane will play his best

football. -- in 2018. You have the

World Cup in Russia next summer, of

course. And to be truly regarded as

one of the greats, Harry would most

definitely know he would have to

achieve and produce at the biggest

tournament. He will be looking

forward to that. First and foremost,

he loves playing for Tottenham

Hotspur. He thoroughly enjoys

scoring goals.

Formula One World Champion,

Lewis Hamilton, has apologised

after sharing a video,

on Instagram criticising his nephew

for wearing a dress.

In the video, which has since been

deleted, the driver says "boys don't

wear princess dresses."

The post was then the subject

of an online backlash.

Hamilton later made an apology

in a series of tweets,

calling his behaviour unacceptable.

Out of all the photographers waiting

to snap a picture of the royal

family at the Christmas Day

service in Sandringham,

it was a mum from Norfolk

who managed to capture the perfect

image on her phone.

The photograph taken

by Karen Murdoch has now been used

by publications from

all over the world.

Mike Cartwright reports.

The photograph that's

gone everywhere.

The picture that everybody wanted.

Taken, not by the press pack

or a royal photographer,

but Karen at Sandringham

with her daughter

on her phone.

The two of them and their dog,

Luna, back there today.

That picture, all over the papers.

It wasn't intentional,

it was just that it captured

the right moment at that time,

and there was no planning,

it was just fun.

It was lovely.

I caught the moment,

and it was great.

Somewhere in the crowd,

the two had been here

on Christmas Day before.

But they wanted to see Meghan.

Walking to church, the Duke

and Duchess of Cambridge,

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Karen never dreamt she'd scoop this.

A picture that may go down

in history, and now,

help pay her daughter's

college fees.

I don't know how much

I am expected to get.

A bit, I've been told.

Anything.

For me, when somebody said,

£50, I was like, "Yes!

Yes!

50 quid!

But it's going to go on my daughter.

I work on my daughter,

she's my pride and joy.

Oh, I think it's fantastic.

I think my mum deserves it.

I know she didn't do it

intentionally, but good things

happen

to good people.

Now shared dozens of times on social

media, that moment captured

by Karen in the right

place at the right time.

Mike Cartwright, BBC Look East.

Several people, including six

children, remain in a serious

condition in hospital

after a fireworks explosion

at a popular Cuban

carnival on Christmas Eve.

Amateur video captured the incident

in which injured 39 people

in the central town of Remedios.

The centuries-old Parrandas festival

takes place every year and draws

thousands of Cubans and tourists.

Authorities say the cause of

the explosion is being investigated.

That is