hello from the bbc sport centre. the sport of darts has never seen anything like it — 16—year—old luke littler, on his debut, is through to the world championsip final. he'll take on another luke — luke humphries — who himself became world number one after his victory in the semi—finals. but it's littler who is making all the headlines and the chief executive of the pdc, matt porter, says the teenager is exceptional. we have got lots and lots of talented young players, but with luke, we are seeing a generational talent, somebody who is achieving something that is so unheralded and unheard—of, unprecedented, obviously we are being very careful with him. he is only 16 years old and there are also two issues around that that

we are doing our best to manage and working with his management and parents etc, but we cannot hold him back. his talent is there for all to see and in less than 12 hours�* time, he could be world darts champion. novak djokovic�*s 43—match winning run in australia is over after he was beaten by alex de minaur in the united cup quarter—finals in perth. de minaur, the world number 12, took full advantage of an out of sorts djokovic, who�*s been struggling with a wrist injury, taking the first set 6—4. and he showed few nerves in the second as he eventually closed out the match 6—4. it�*s djokovic�*s first loss in australia since the 2018 australian open, but he says his injury is not too big of a concern. i think ithinki i think i will be ok, to be honest. but it did have quite an impact. particularly on the forehand service, but again, i don�*t want to spend too much time talking about it and taking away credit from victory.

he was very solid, as he always is. and australia would go on to win that quarter—final 2—0 — ajla tomljanovic beating natalija stevanovic in the second match of the tie 6—1, 6—1. the hosts will face either greece or germany in the semi—finals on saturday. emma raducanu has been given direct entry to the australian open later this month following a series of withdrawals. she had expected to have to qualify after a long period out injured. another player on the comeback trail is naomi osaka, but the four—time grand slam champion is out of the brisbane international. in a really high—quality match, she took the first set against former world number one karolina pliskova, but the czech fought back to take the next two to set up a clash with third seed, jelena ostapenko, in the last 16.

well, it�*s been an amazing first day of the second test between south africa and india in cape town — both teams have been bowled out in their first innings. south africa won the toss and chose to bat, but slumped to their lowest test total since 1932, as they were all out for just 55. mohammed siraj taking six wickets forjust 15 runs. india�*s response looked to be comfortable on 153—11, but their last six wickets fell for no runs. in their second innings, south africa are 22 without loss. “33 without loss. and pakistan have posted a score of 313 on the opening day of the third test against australia in sydney — pat cummins�* five—wicket haul had the visitors in trouble, but half—centuries from mohammed rizwan and aamerjamal rescued the innings. australia finishing the day 6 for none in reply. and we�*ve just time to tell you about this rory mcilroy story. he says he would be open to playing in a tournament backed by liv golf

if it was similar to cricket�*s indian premier league. that would be a remarkable turn of events, wouldn�*t it? you can read all about it on the bbc sport website. but that�*s all the sport for now. thank you. some breaking news now, and a 15—year—old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder over the death of 16—year—old harry pitman in primrose hill in north london, on new year�*s eve. an 18—year—old man�*s also been arrested on suspicion of affray. harry pitman, from haringey, was attacked at around 23:40 on sunday after what police described as "an altercation" as crowds gathered to watch the new years fireworks display. yesterday a 16—year—old was arrested and then released pending further inquiries. let�*s just remind you of this developing story,

as we�*ve been hearing, state media in iran is reporting that at least 103 people have been killed and around 170 injured in two explosions near the tomb of the iranian revolutionary guards general qasem soleimani. it�*s reported the blasts happened in the south—eastern city of kerman during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his assassination. we have these latest pictures that have been verified. they show smoke rising over the crowds there in kerman. other videos show ambulances heading towards the cemetery, where hundreds of iranians had gathered to commemorate the fourth anniversary of soleimani�*s death. authorities in kerman say the blasts were caused by suicide bombers. no group has claimed responsibility yet. we�*ll bring you all the latest on this story as it develops, here on bbc news. here in the uk, hundreds of flood warnings are still in place after storm henk battered large parts of the country. strong winds and heavy rain caused power cuts and travel disruption. lucy grey has more.

travel delays are the main fallout today as train services struggle to get back to normal after the high winds and rain of storm henk, flooding and damage to overhead power lines has caused power outages, which means there�*s been delays on several services to southern, gatwick express, great northern and thameslink, and there are more than 300 flood warnings in place across the country, and more than 10,000 people still without power in central and southern england. motorists have been particularly badly affected, with trains coming down across roads and surface water causing breakdowns and crashes, and we have heard from gloucestershire police that a man in his 50s has died after his car was hit by a tree in kemble yesterday. a woman and her three—year—old daughter were in this car when it got stuck in a ford in birmingham. how many of you?

two, and my daughter is three years old! a three—year—old and a mum. please get my daughter out! it�*s going to fall under the bridge! fortunately, this man was nearby and came to help. "my baby, please get my baby out the car, get my baby out the car," she's only two or three, _ i don't know, but she was shouting about her baby, and i'm a father, i've got kids, and that call, - it was a call for home, it wasjust instinct, - so i had to do something. he took the baby out, he got a rope from his car, tied up the car onto the railing, onto the bridge, and then he took the lady out and he saved both of them. the storm has now passed, but because more rain is forecast and it�*s going to be falling on ground that is already wet, more flooding is expected, so we can expect more difficult driving conditions and the roads to be closed for hours to come. heavy rainfall and flooding

is causing major disruption in northern france. a red weather alert has been issued as sustained rainfall caused by storm henk causes major flooding in the area. weather service meteo france has also put out orange alerts for three regions in the north and west. 2023 was a record year for female artists on the uk singles charts, with women spending more time at number one than ever before, according to figures from the industry body the bpi. but it was a very difficult year for new music. here�*s our entertainment correspondent colin paterson. # i can buy myself flowers...# flowers by miley cyrus, the best selling single of 2023, and leading a record breaking yearfor women. female artists were number one for 31 weeks, the highest figure since the charts began in 1952.

however, whatever spin is put on it, it was a very difficult yearfor new music. the best selling album of 2023 was an almost three—year old greatest hits compilation by canadian superstar the weeknd, and the rest of the top ten included best ofs by fleetwood mac... ..abba... ..and elton john. all acts who started out more than 50 years ago. this is because if someone streams a famous song by a heritage act, that play counts towards the sales of the artist�*s top compilation, even if the listener was hearing the track on a playlist. the result is a chart clogged with old acts. lewis capaldi had the best selling album made up of completely fresh material,

but it was way down the end of year charts, placing at 1a. streaming makes the whole of music history available at the click of a button. so it�*s becoming harder and harder for new acts to break through. colin paterson, bbc news. let�*s go back to iran, where we are now hearing from state media that 103 people have been killed by two blasts there and 170 people have been injured near the two of the irani revolutionaries guard qassem suleimani. hundreds of people on the street there. it is part of a ceremony to commemorate him. he was killed in a us drone strike in iraq in 2020 at the orders of then us president donald trump. 103 people deadin president donald trump. 103 people dead in these two explosions. no one has claimed responsibility, no group

has. more details next. good afternoon. today has brought somewhat brighter weather for many of us, but in the wake of storm henk, there�*s still a lot of water out there. the ground is saturated, numerous flood warnings in force, and there is some more rain to come. through the rest of the day, that rain mostly in the form of some quite hefty showers, it stays windy across southern counties of england and the channel islands, large amounts of cloud across scotland in particular with some showery rain, windy up towards the northern isles, and cold across shetland, ending the day with temperatures barely above freezing here, and generally speaking, temperatures around 6—9 degrees as we head into the early part of the evening. overnight, we keep fairly large amounts of cloud, still some showers here and there, clearer skies, though, a slice of clear sky spreading from the south—west. temperatures dropping to around 3, 4 or 5 degrees, some places just a little colder than that. into tomorrow, low pressure to the north of the uk, still generating some showery rain. this frontal system bringing some

rain into the south, in between this slice of sunshine, tending to drift a little bit further northwards through the day. the far north of england, parts of northern ireland and scotland staying cloudy, showery, windy in the far north, and then this rain starts to edge into southern counties of england. we will have to keep an eye on this, there�*s still a bit of uncertainty about this weather system, it may edge just a little bit further northwards, it will bring heavy rain in places where we really do not need it, moving into south—east england and east anglia through the evening, and on the southern flank it may be that we see another swathe of quite strong winds, but by friday that weather system is clearing out into continental europe. friday is a bit of a transition day, there will still be some showers around, but things will be slowly drying out and calming down. a lot of cloud, some sunshine, temperatures down on where they have been, and that drying out process continues into the weekend, with low pressure relinquishing its grip, and high pressure building more strongly across the uk.

there will be some showers around, some of those could even be wintry, because the air will be turning colder. with that colder air and high pressure, lighter winds, we will see some mist and fog patches by night, a touch of frost for some, as well, generally the days colder than they have been, but a lot of dry weather around with some spells of sunshine.

live from london, this is bbc news. more than 100 people die in iran in two explosions near the grave of a top revolutionary guards commander. the united nations peacekeeping mission in lebanon says it is deeply concerned about rising tensions, following the killing of a senior hamas figure. also coming up this hour... on verified today, we have been investigating one hospital under attack in gaza, and a series of health facilities that have been affected by the war. aftershocks and heavy rain complicate earthquake rescue efforts injapan — at least 64 people are now confirmed dead. and junior doctors in england begin the longest strike in the health service�*s history, in a six—day walkout over pay.