20/12/2015 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today, broadcasting in the UK

The votes have been vast in Spain's general election.

Exit polls suggest that the conservative popular Party has

won with around 27 percent of the vote, but will fall short

There have been protests of the release from jail of one

of the attackers in a deadly gang-rape of a student in Delhi.

Also coming up: A massive rescue operation enters its second day

in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, following the collapse

The snow report for much of Britain and Europe

We'll be finding out what's going on.

Exit polls in the Spanish general election suggest

that the conservative Popular Party of the prime minister,

Mariano Rajoy will fall well short of winning an absolute majority.

They're predicted to win around 27 percent of the vote.

The Socialists appear to have finished second and two new parties

are predicted to win significant numbers of seats.

exit polls predicted Mr Rajoy's party would win between 114 and 118

seats - well below the 176 seats it would need for a majority.

The party had 186 seats in the last parliament.

It is an exit poll, just 175,000, I say just because of how many

people are able to vote.

The exit poll is clearly saying the party that will win the most

votes is the ruling party, the Conservative Party

of the current Prime Minister, the Popular Party,

but a massive reduction in the parliament they have enjoyed

over the last four years, but they have

which is just around the corner that is a majority,

The Socialists coming in second, Podemos

and the other party that has defined the election

so far is the new Liberal party, Citizens, that is polling at around

What we have suspected all along is the new parties have taken

It looks like a really strong result according to the poll

for the anti-austerity movement Podemos.

The youngest convict in the notorious 2012 Delhi gang

rape case has been released from a correctional centre.

There was global outrage after a 23 year old student was brutally raped

She eventually died from her injuries.

Legal challenges failed to prevent the release of one of the accused,

who was 17 at the time of the attack.

The police were keen to keep a lid on

The police are using force to break up this protest,

bundling the protesters into this bus and

convict in the 2012 Delhi gang rape. at the release of the youngest

He was released from a correctional facility, given a new identity

and handed over to a charity because of fears for his safety.

The parents of the victim campaigned against his release and believe

he should have been punished more severely.

TRANSLATION: My daughter was lying on the street crying for help,

I am hurt that I live in such a society.

I'm disappointed at our legal system.

It was onboard this public bus that the young woman was brutally

The case led to massive protests across India sparking a debate

Since then new laws have been brought in and many believe that not

The BBC's South Asia Editor is Joanna Jolly.

She told me more about the release of the juvenile, now aged 20,

who was found guilty of rape and murder.

There are five men who were convicted of the Delhi rape, but

this man was only a few months short of his 18th birthday when the crime

took place and because of that even though he took part in the crime and

it was very brutal, the rape and the murder, he has been sentenced to

three years in a juvenile detention centre and those three years are up

and he is set to be freed and start a new life. The other four men who

have been convicted are appealing their sentences and they have a

harsher sentence. What other reaction has there been to this

release? It has sparked a debate in India as to whether the juvenile law

should be changed. Under 18 you are tried as a juvenile, many are

calling for this to be changed to 16 so those years between 16 and 18 for

very serious crimes are tried as adults. There is a law at the moment

that is being introduced in Parliament but has become stuck

there, many MPs are saying they do think the law should be changed in

light of this particular case. We were both in India at the time of

the rape and I remember a huge debate about strengthening the law

is about making sure people come forward if they have been raped,

stricter laws on sexual offenders, what has changed? The laws have

changed, there are amendments to the laws and they are much stricter, but

they are not always being implemented. The changes have not

made that much difference on the ground. If you are a rape victim and

you complain to the police, sometimes the police will not take

it seriously and you may be subjected to accumulating medical

exam. When it comes to court you may not get much protection, they may

not put a screen up between you and the defendant. You may not be

protected in ways you would hope to be protected. This has deterred many

rape victims from coming forward and speaking about their crime. Since

the Delhi rape, many more people are reporting that they have been raped,

but other activists feel this is just the tip of the iceberg and

there is much more sexual crime in India that still goes unreported.

Samir Qantar, a leading figure of the Lebanese group Hezbollah,

has been killed by an air strike in Damascus.

He died when rockets hit a residential building.

Hezbollah say Israel carried out the attack.

Around 80 people are still missing after a ferry accident off

39 people were rescued and three bodies have been recovered.

The boat had more than a hundred passengers on board

when it was overwhelmed by high waves.

The UN special envoy for Yemen says peace talks will resume

in mid-January at a location, yet to be announced.

Ismail Ahmed told a news conference in Berne

but that violations of the temporary ceasefire had caused problems

The Iranian government has ordered schools and kindergartens

in the capital, Tehran to close for two days because of smog.

Air pollution figures reached three times the level deemed

Tehran is home to twelve-million people, and has around six million

cars and over two million motorcycles.

Reports from northwest Syria say dozens of people have been killed

in an air attack on the rebel-held city of Idlib.

Rescue workers were quoted as saying that 43 people had been confirmed

dead, but that figure seems certain to rise.

The BBC's Middle East analyst, Alan Johnston has been

So often we have to report on raids on major Syrian centres, but even by

the standards of this war this seems to have been a particularly

devastating one. We know that there were several

air strikes, it seems, very close to the heart

of this large city. One report emerging

during the afternoon was saying that there were dead bodies strewn

on one of the main streets Reuters reporting, as you say,

that a busy marketplace was hit, that residential areas

and government offices You have to fear that many,

many civilians would have been Having said that, the group that

monitors the conflict, the Syrian Observatory

for Human Rights, says that it believes the raids were targeting

positions that the rebels captured in the city from government

forces earlier this year. And the monitoring group has been

quoted as saying that it believes that most of the dead

were probably fighters, but dozens of civilians

would have been injured too. Do we know who may be behind the

attack? There are reports from some locals that they believe Russia may

be behind this. That is right, they grimly familiar with some of the air

forces that fly Syria's skies. They believe this was a Russian air

strike, but we cannot confirm that this stage.

An emergency landing by an Air France plane in Kenya

was caused by a false bomb alert - according to the airline's chief.

The incident is the fourth false alarm the airline has had

Our correspondent Lucy Williamson is in Paris.

Just days before Christmas, a reminder of just how suddenly

Found in a toilet onboard this plane, a suspected bomb.

It turned out to be a false alarm, the device fashioned

from a cardboard box and a kitchen timer,

but the fears it caused were enough to divert the flight to Kenya

The 459 passengers on board reportedly unaware of what was going

on until their feet touched the ground.

The plane went down, slowly, slowly, so we just realised something

The people of Air France were just wonderful.

They kept everybody calm and really quiet.

A replacement flight is expected to bring the passengers back

Several of them have reportedly been questioned by police.

At a press conference in Paris, the Air France CEO described

TRANSLATION: We are still waiting to hear more about the legal

implications from the Kenyan authorities, and we are going to ask

Security around France and on board its national carrier

has been stepped up since the attacks in Paris last month.

It isn't clear who created the false alarm on the flight today,

or why, but with memories of the Paris attacks still fresh,

even hoaxes like this have the power to chill and disrupt.

Stay with us on BBC News, still to come:

Andy Murray has been named sports personality of the year. We will

have all the latest news coming up. Eurotunnel says delays have now

increased to a total of eight hours from Folkestone after a technical

fault at at tunnel. The operator has urged passengers

due to travel overnight Eurostar services have

also been delayed. It comes on one of the busiest

weekends of the year for travel. Our correspondent

Simon Jones has more. The big problem has been there has

been a problem with one of the tracks in the Eurotunnel, a small

crack in one of the tracks. That became available this morning and

then they started to run trains slower than normal, they had not

actually prepared it or examined it to any great extent. Earlier this

evening they took the decision to close one of the tunnels, there are

two panels that the trains run through and that has caused a lot of

problems with people having to wait six hours, for freight there is an

eight hour wait for people coming from Calais to Folkestone.

Protests after the youngest convict in the Delhi gang rape case

The search continues, as dozens are missing after 22

buildings collapsed in a landslide in the southern Chinese city

If you are about to head off on a skiing holiday

in the European Alps you may be hoping for a change

Unseasonably high temperatures and dry conditions have

left some resorts in Austria and Switzerland short on the white

snow to provide any cover. bare - relying on artificially made

Unfortunately conditions are not expected to change

Philip Avery is in the BBC Weather centre, Philip -

why is it so unseasonably mild in Europe?

I have a picture behind me here that is just good enough to break the

heart of the travel agent. I just want to show you these darker areas

are indicative of the temperatures. For snow you need rain, the French

end of the Alps, they have had 20% in November of what they would

expect in a normal month. In the south-eastern port and -- corner of

Switzerland, they have not had as much. Temperatures 4 degrees above

what we would expect. View source on snow much higher and records have

gone back down to 67 in Austria. Austria as a whole has had the third

warmest winter on record. In the mountains where it really matters,

we are looking at the third warmest overall. What is the problem? Our

old friend the jet stream, this is the superhighway dividing warm air

to the south and cold polar air to the north. Along that low pressure

tends to run. It is the position of that jet stream that gives us the

chance of getting into the colder air, getting the northerly 's and

south-westerly 's. That is what the problem is. We have been on the

wrong side of that jet stream for far too long, the one side. We are

going to be stuck in that rut for the next few days, maybe the next

seven to ten days or so. Good luck, take the mountain bike rather than

the skis. No white Christmas perhaps then.

59 people are missing in China after a landslide engulfed

buildings in the southern city of Shenzhen, close to Hong Kong.

It happened at an industrial park in the city's

Guangming New District - with local media reports suggesting

the landslide was caused by the collapse of a mound of earth

The landslide swept away everything in its path.

The people watching paused to take in what they had just seen,

and then realised they might be in danger.

The wall of Earth engulfed an industrial park on the outskirts

of Shenzhen, once the fishing village,

now a symbol of China's economic boom.

Around 20 buildings were destroyed, including two dormitories

The authorities have some warning because they had

Afterwards, search teams combed the rubble and Earth,

looking for anyone who might be trapped underneath.

Media reports suggest the landslide was caused by collapsing Earth,

which had been dug up during construction work over

--For now, the focus is on those who still missing.

Preliminary results from a referendum in Slovenia

indicate that people have voted against legalising

If confirmed, the result will overturn a law

already approved by parliament back in March that would have allowed gay

couples the right to marry and adopt.

But campaigners had objected and forced a referendum before any

The results are incomplete, but unlikely to change

The former British Prime Minister, Sir John Major, has given his

backing to David Cameron's stance on re-negotiating

But there have been calls from other senior figures

within Mr Cameron's Conservative party to allow Cabinet members

to campaign for the UK to leave the European Union -

Our Political Correspondent Chris Mason reports.

It's 43 years since Ted Heath signed us up to what is now the EU.

In the next two years, we will be asked whether we want to stay.

This former Prime Minister says we should.

If we vote to stay out, then we are out and we will have

to get on with it and face the consequences.

David Cameron has been in Brussels trying to persuade fellow European

leaders that the UK needs a new deal with the EU.

He knows that back home some grumble, that they will say his

But changing things is important, John Major says, because...

It isn't common sense to sweep into countries more people

than we can provide for if they are sick,

Some in the cabinet, like Iain Duncan Smith,

are not exactly big fans of the EU.

Today, a former Cabinet colleague said they should be able

to keep their jobs and campaign to leave, just as he already is.

For me, two things had to happen to want to stay in the EU.

One was a fundamental change in our relationship

with the European Union, but more importantly,

a change in direction for the EU itself, away from the concept

of an ever-closer union, and towards a much more independent

and looser association of sovereign states.

At the last European referendum in 1975, Labour Cabinet Ministers

were allowed to campaign on both sides of the debate.

David Cameron has so far avoided saying whether he will allow that

Here is only with the latest on the sports personality of the year and

the rest of the sport. -- Oliver. In the last few minutes,

Andy Murray has won the BBC Sports Personality

of the Year Award. The World Number 2 came out on tiop

in the public vote after a year in which he helepd Great Britain win

the Davis Cup for the first time They beat Belgium in

the final in Ghent. Kevin Sim field was runner-up.

Jessica Ennis Hill was third. -- Sinfield. I am really nervous,

apologies about that, congratulations to everyone. I would

like to thank all my team-mates, all of the staff, they were absolutely

incredible. This has been a five-year journey, we were down at

the bottom level of tennis and now we are ranked number one in the

world, I never thought that would be possible.

Jurgen Klopp says his Liverpool players lost their minds at Watford

today following an early clanger from their keeper.

Adam Bogdan dropped the ball from a third minute corner

and Nathan Ake pounced to give the home sdie the lead.

Odion Ighalo with a shot across Bogdan that found

on as Ighalo headed a third for the 3-0 win.

This is their fourth win in a row and leaves them a point off

Liverpool have only one point from their last three matches.

As always in football like this, somebody makes a mistake

We did not play what we wanted to play.

It was not easy, it was very complicated,

They had an easy pressing situation and always when we play

easy, it was better, we had our moments.

Managerless Swansea are still in the relagtion zone

after a goaless draw at home to West Ham.

The Hammers have now gone seven matches without a win

Gareth Bale scored four goals for Real Madrid as they beat

Real Vallecano 10-2 at the Bernabeu.

There was also a hat-trick for Karim Benzema as they closed

the gap on leaders Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to two points

Barcelona didn't play in La Liga this weekend,

because they are in Japan where they have won the Club World

It felt more like bonus areas than Yokohama as the fans are making

themselves heard. -- Wynne Azeris. Local organisers attempts to keep

things in an orderly fashion were not exactly working. Thousands of

supporters had made the journey from Argentina in the hope of winning the

club World Cup for the first time. Barcelona on the other hand are

expected to win and when you have Lionel Messi back after injury, that

expectation only grows. It has been reported this week that they could

have signed Lionel Messi before he went to Europe. He quickly showed

them what they have been missing and in the process he became the most

unpopular Argentine in the stadium. That is four goals in three World

Cup finals for Lionel Messi, the little man for the big occasion. --

in three cup finals. Luis Suarez took full advantage as the European

champions showed they were in a different class. There is no shame

in it, river will not be the first of the last to be chewed up and spat

out by the Barcelona machine. Luis Suarez with his second of the night

and fifth in the accommodation. Football looks so easy. World

champions again, the title the best team in the world is worn well. The

wait goes on the River plate to become World Cup winners -- to

become cup winners. It is the third time Barcelona have won this

competition and their first trophy of a remarkable 2015. -- fifth

trophy. Leicester Tigers have made

it four wins out of 4 in the European Champions Cup pool

stage with a 17-6 win over Munster Ulster have their first

away win in their pool, they narrowly beat Toulouse 25-23

Clermont Aurvergne thrashed Exeter We can expect to be eating a lot

over the festive season - if you have a sweet tooth this story

from Sweden is for you. It's the annual

gingerbread house competition This season's theme was focused

on new ways of living with entrants One of the top prizes went

to a house with it's own colourful Reminder of the main news. There

have been protests over the release of one of the attackers of the

deadly gang rape in Delhi. The man who was 17 when he was sentenced

served his three-year sentence. From me Rajini Vaidyanathan

and the rest of the team goodbye. Saturday was another exceptionally

mild day across many parts