is, this is bbc news. we are going straight to valletta in malta, because we are going to hear an update following the successful ending of the hijacking of the libyan plane. let's go to the maltese prime minister. this request was rejected. after further negotiations, the hijackers agreed to free the remaining members of the crew and to surrender. they were asked to surrender. they were asked to surrender any weapons in their possession. they were found to be in possession. they were found to be in possession of the hand grenade and a pistol. nevertheless, the armed forces of malta are currently conducting a full search on the aircraft and a second pistol has been found so far. the search is ongoing. the two hijackers have been detained in custody and interrogations are ongoing. the rest of the crew and passengers are also

being questioned over certain events. once this interrogation process is completed over the next few hours, arrangements will be made to send the passengers and crew members back to libya with another aircraft. i would like to thank all those involved in the successful resolution of this crisis, namely the commander of the armed forces of malta, who was our chief negotiator. i will take a number of questions. we were clear that we were not willing to negotiate unless there was surrender. until now, they have made no demands. obviously, they are not ina made no demands. obviously, they are not in a position now to make demands, but we were clear that we we re demands, but we were clear that we were not negotiating. so far, no,

there have been no requests for political asylum. the commander confirmed to me that during his negotiations, the maltese government's position was crystal clear, so no demands were made. in the last few minutes, noda —— no demand has been made. there are speculations. we have some theories, but i am not here to speculate. i would rather stick to facts. you need to ask that to the libyan government. we were in continuous contact with our libyan counterparts, and i would like to thank the prime minister for his

support over the past few hours. and also other people from all over libya who were willing to support oui’ libya who were willing to support our initiative. we had only one line of negotiation, what matters to us, and the commander cannot comment on whether there were telephone calls to and from the aircraft. inaudible question. we were preparing for our lunch! god willing, it was a very good day and no casualties and people are safe. thank you robot. so that is the

maltese prime minister, jozef muscat, briefing reporters on the successful end of that hijack. the hijackers, who were claiming to have a hand grenade, took over the libyan plane and diverted it to malta before releasing everybody on board and surrendering. he said they had made no demands, that they had not requested political asylum, that the security forces of malta are now searching the plane and the hijackers who have been arrested are being interrogated and that the maltese authorities, all along, had made it clear they were not willing to negotiate. so it appears there we re to negotiate. so it appears there were no negotiations, just an eventual surrender. the german chancellor, angela merkel, has promised to take measures to make her country a stronger state in the face of the terrorist threat. speaking after the death of the tunisian anis amri, the suspect in the berlin lorry attack, ms merkel said her government wanted to speed up the deportation of failed asylum seekers and increase the number of those expelled.

she's already spoken to tunisian leaders about the issue. amri was shot dead in milan overnight after opening fire on police on patrol who asked him for id. translation: we are going to investigate into how state measures need to be changed. i therefore asked the interior minister, thomas de maiziere, in conjunction with the authorities involved and also with the regional authorities, to investigate and analyse each and every aspect of the case of mr amri. and i have asked him to submit the results as speedily as possible. wherever there is the need for political or legislative change, we will implement those changes in the federal government speedily. today, i was talking via telephone with beji caid essebsi, the tunisian president.

we talked about all our relations between germany and tunisia. tunisia have intensified their efforts to fight terrorism. i'm pleased about that. also, as regards the deportation and repatriation of asylum seekers from tunisia who do not have leave to stay in germany, we have also made progress with that. the repatriation process, we need to accelerate that and we need to increase the number of those repatriated. i told this to the president. ladies and gentlemen, towards the end of this week, we can be relieved that one acute threat has come to an end. but the threat posed by terrorism is a general threat which will continue. the authorities.

the authorities are trying to find out whether a support network helped amri escape to italy even as a europe wide manhunt intensified. our correspondent angus crawford reports. the body of anis amri lies on a milan street. his last act, to pull a gun from his backpack and shoot at police. his last words, god is great. the question for the authorities is how did he evade one of the biggest manhunts in german history and make it to italy? look, in the doorway. this is thought to be amri, just hours after the attack in berlin. caught on cctv, leaving a mosque in the city. after that, the authorities lost track of him. but we now know he travelled to chambery, in france, then crossing the italian border to milan, arriving early this morning.

at 3am, according to the italian interior ministry, he was challenged by a two—man police patrol and shot dead. translation: without a shadow of a doubt, the person who was killed is anis amri, the suspect of the terrorist attack in berlin. footage has now emerged of the attack. on the left, the lorry speeds through traffic lights. the taxi dashcam keeps filming as it heads towards the market. shoppers run away in terror. it took german police two days to focus on amri. his fingerprints were found on the steering wheel, his documents hidden in the cab. translation: our investigation continues with high intensity. we are particularly interested in revealing the network of accomplices to understand the course of events. but what do we know about amri?

he left his family in tunisia, travelling illegally to italy in 2011. he spent four years there in jail for violence and theft, but without a passport, he couldn't be deported. so last year, he moved to kleve in germany. denied asylum, once again he wasn't deported. security services feared he was trying to get automatic weapons for an attack, but with no new evidence, surveillance of him was halted in september. from petty criminal to terror suspect — a journey that for anis amri ended here. angus crawford, bbc news. since the shooting of berlin terror suspect anis amri, footage has emerged in which he pledges his allegiance to the leader of the so—called islamic state group. translation: i pledge allegiance to

the commander of the faithful, abu bakr al—baghdadi, to obey and listen to him for better or for worse. bakr al—baghdadi, to obey and listen to him for better orfor worse. it i will not challenge those in command isi will not challenge those in command is i see an overt act of disbelief to which i have proof from god. that was part of the video that has emerged, voiced of course by an interpreter. anis amri filmed himself, pledging allegiance to the leader of so—called islamic state. two men have been convicted of using aid convoys to get cash and supplies to terrorists in syria. the old bailey was told that the high profile muslim community—led convoys became unwitting vehicles for the plan to fund terrorism. our home affairs correspondent dominic casciani has the latest from the old bailey. this is quite a significant criminal conviction here at the old bailey,

notjust because of the severity of the allegations, but also because it's the first official formal confirmation that the major aid convoys that people will remember from 2013, some of them were exploited and infiltrated by jihadists. this is a suspicion that was long held by intelligence chiefs and the verdict of the jury today confirms that. at the heart of the story is a man called syed hoque, who's 37, from stoke—on—trent. his nephew had gone to fight in syria in 2013. the two of them agreed that hoque would supply him with cash. the nephew wanted to buy a weapon in syria to take part in the fighting. hoquejoined an aid convoy injuly 2013 and took that cash with the aid convoy. it was a huge convoy and within that were £3,000 that he took for his nephew. after delivering the cash, he agreed to send an extra £1,500 on the second convoy which went

in december 2013. so these were serious allegations he faces and was convicted of today. commander dean hayden is the head of counterterrorism at scotland yard. this was what he had to say. i welcome the court verdict today. what happened in this case undermines the genuine work done by members of the public to help those involved in the suffering in the syrian crisis. aid convoys were infiltrated and the goodwill of charities was abused by taking money and goods from the uk to syria to help terrorists. that second tranche of cash which went out in december 2013 was taken with the help of a second man, mashoud miah, from east london. he was convicted today of funding terrorism. a third man in the convoy, pervez rafiq, is a well—known charity worker from huddersfield who has raised thousands of pounds for good causes.

he today was cleared of involvement. he told the trial he had been devastated in december 2013 because another man on the convoy was alan henning, the eccles taxi driver and a friend of pervez rafiq who was subsequently kidnapped and murdered by is fighters after going to syria as part of that convoy. mr rafiq told the trial he had no idea of these allegations of infiltration byjihadists, and that he had no idea there were attempts to take equipment or cash to syria. the jury heard from him that he had spoken to m15, who had asked him for his help in identifying who the bad guys were. he walked out of court todat a free man, as did a fourth defendant. we are waiting to hear about sentencing for hoque. i suspect that will come in the new year. large parts of the country are

preparing for storm barbara. the worst effects will be in parts of scotland. many homes have already lost power. let's cross to our correspondent james shaw who is in gourock for us now. it looks windy and rough, but what is your assessment of how bad it is in terms of what we might be expecting? it is definitely true that the wind has picked up where i am quite significantly in the last few minutes. i can see the clouds scudding across the sky and us is whipping up here to make pcs are whipping up here to make pcs are whipping up here to make pcs are whipping up here. we had thought the worst of storm barbara had passed over, but it seems we are getting an extra helping of it now towards the end of the day. in terms of updates,

a lot of people lost power in the western isles, in lewis and harris, around two o'clock. 30,000 people found themselves without power. but the company in charge of the grid, hydroelectric, had everyone back with their power within about an hour and with their power within about an hourand a with their power within about an hour and a half. there is a ferry terminal just hour and a half. there is a ferry terminaljust over hour and a half. there is a ferry terminal just over there. hour and a half. there is a ferry terminaljust over there. i don't know if you can see that one of the ferries has just arrived know if you can see that one of the ferries hasjust arrived back know if you can see that one of the ferries has just arrived back at the key. they have managed to run some services in this southern sector of the west coast of scotland. but in the west coast of scotland. but in the northern area where the ferry company operates to the outer hebrides and the smaller islands, all their services were cancelled. so there has been quite a significant amount of disruption, in particular in the north and the west. and a terrible time of year for people to lose power. other

companies hopeful that they will be back on the grid in time for christmas? that's right. they have succeeded in getting people's power pack, so i am sure they will be satisfied with that. there is still theissue satisfied with that. there is still the issue of travel, and that has affected people trying to get flights to the scottish islands or trying to get ferries. some people manage to get their travel organised before the storm hit. others will be waiting for a weather window tomorrow. we expect that there will be ice and snow in parts of scotland, possibly later tonight and into tomorrow morning. so the disruption is not over. but i think it is probably fair to say that in terms of people expecting it to be extremely bad, the worst of the disruption has not been as bad as people feared it would be. stay safe

and keep warm! the headlines on bbc news: the hijacking of a libyan airliner forced to land in malta has ended peacefully, with those responsible surrendering to the authorities. germany says its terror threat remains high — despite the main suspect in the berlin lorry attack being shot dead in milan. two men are convicted at the old bailey of using syria aid convoys to funnel cash to extremists in war zones. and in sport, sam allardyce is close to becoming the next crystal palace manager. he's arrived at the club's training ground for talks less than 2a hours after alan pardew was sacked. oscar has become the seventh most expensive footballer in history after a £60 million move from chelsea to the chinese super league. and the double olympic champion petra kvitova has left hospital in the czech republic following the knife attack that left her needing surgery

on her hand. i'll be back with more on those stories. more now on the news that the berlin market attacker anis amri has been shot dead by police in milan. he fired on police who had asked him for id during a routine patrol in milan in the early hours of this morning. let's speak to oliver guitta, the managing director of globalstrat, experts in security. does this seem like a lucky break for the italian police? there has been a lot of criticism that anis amri managed to slip out of germany, into france and then into italy. very much a lucky

break. that is what is worrisome. even having the eight aliases that he was using, he managed to slip through france and italy. if not for those policeman asking him for his id, he might still be on the loose and possibly meeting accomplices in milan and plotting another attack. does it raise questions again about european border security and the whole schengen zone, where there is border free travel within europe? whole schengen zone, where there is border free travel within europe ?m not only raises questions, but i think countries like france and belgium that have been under attack by islamic state have realised that schengen the way it is is not possible any longer and that some sort of arrangement will have to be made. we cannot make it easy for terrorists to attack us the way it happened. and what about the german

authorities? there has been criticism of them, in the sense that they had this man on their radar and then decided not to carry out surveillance on him. what do you make of that? you are correct. we made a point of criticising the french and the belgians, but u nfortu nately, french and the belgians, but unfortunately, it looks like the germans did a worsejob in terms of following up on their leads. moroccan security services actually warned the germans twice, in october and november, that amri was on the verge of preparing a terror attack in germany, and nothing was done. and in the wake of the attack, they arrested a man who turned out to be the wrong man and there were precious hours lost in which amri was able to slip away from berlin and travel towards italy. exactly. and in many different cases we have seenin and in many different cases we have seen in germany in the past, one of

the terrorists they arrested killed himself injail. a lot the terrorists they arrested killed himself in jail. a lot of things are slipping through the cracks and it seems that some countries in europe are not prepared for the oncoming onslaught of terrorism that we are likely to see for another good while, unfortunately. we saw failures by the police and intelligence agencies in france with the paris attacks and in belgium with the brussels terror attacks, and now germany as well. yes. what is even more worrisome than just the intel failures or the law enforcement issues is that the country was not prepared for an attack. they didn't think about protecting the christmas market. we have to look at basics. when we saw the attack in nice, it is impossible that there were no concrete barriers put around the market and that nobody thought a copycat attack could happen. prevention is already

the first thing that germany and other countries in europe have to make do with. thank you for your thoughts. oliver guitta, managing director of globalstrat. a specialist police team created to tackle online extremism is on course to remove its 250,000th item of harmful material from the internet. the national counter terrorism internet referral unit was set up in 2012. it now wants an international effort to tackle the growing problem. with me now is our correspondent tom symonds. what do the people running this say about the success or otherwise, and where it all goes now? two things. this is nasty stuff. a lot of it is jihadist material that involves very graphic beheadings, combat videos and something the police refer to as

hearts and minds propaganda, where the aim is to persuade families of people perhaps here in the uk to support young men going to fight in places like syria. so the police said they are doing an importantjob to get this stuff off the internet, and it is a never—ending job because they started in 2010, but then they started getting referrals in 2012. the number of referrals from the public has doubled. they also get information from their own intelligence and from pieces of material that link up over the internet. interestingly, far right material is starting to appear a lot more on the internet and they are having to remove that as well. so a major amount of work for them to do. earlier, i spoke to the detective superintendent clarke jarrett, who leads the team. it is the first team in the world to deal with intimate extremism. we are seeing more and more material being put out by terrorists and extreme right—wing groups on the intranet. they are looking to spread extremism and radicalise others. how important is it in their aim

of spreading extremism, does it actually have an effect? we see them trying to influence others to commit acts in their name. we are seeing material broadcast from islamic state, encouraging others to kill, explaining how they should make explosives. it's really important to remove that material from the internet, and stop vulnerable people finding it easily on social media sites. you mentioned an increase in far right material. what are they saying about how that ties in with their calls for other countries to start helping? there have obviously been a lot of stories during this very big yearin lot of stories during this very big year in the news, primarily over the murder of the labour mp jo year in the news, primarily over the murder of the labour mpjo cox. that has led to the public spotting more of this stuff online and telling this team about it. the sort of material we are talking about with the far right is often videos of

meetings, where people make speeches that are highly racist or illegal, and also videos of demonstrations. there is also a group, national action, which is a far right group that the government recently banned. they are putting up material that approaches thejihadi they are putting up material that approaches the jihadi videos, which can have quite high production videos, starting to appear online. the police say they are getting help removing that, but i asked whether this is a job for the police. this is something the intellect companies could be doing. i get the feeling that most of the internet companies are helpful removing this stuff, but some are not. the police would not name those companies, and they say they need more international cooperation, things like europol, the european policing organisation, to drive this forward. thank you. drivers and rail passengers setting off for the christmas break are warned they could face severe delays and disruption. extensive rail engineering work starts across the uk from midnight —

with 200 different projects over the holiday, including a big re—signalling scheme that will close the line between cardiff central, bridgend, newport and the valleys. services around manchester will be affected while paddington station in london will close to allow the crossrail line to be completed. roads are expected to be busy and britain's airports predict the busiest festive travel getaway ever. our transport correspondent richard westcott reports. it's going to be the biggest rail upgrade ever taken on and it all starts late tonight, hitting services across south wales, london and manchester. the lack of trains will make the roads busier. this is the m6 today. it's a popular time to fly away for the holidays. here's stansted. so why do they always pick christmas to close the railways? we have a huge programme of works that we have to deliver as part of our railway upgrade programme and some of that workjust can't be done on a live railway.

we have to shut the railway. so christmas is the best time to do it because it's one of the quietest times of year. 211,000 engineers will work on 200 sites across britain. one of the biggerjobs they are doing this christmas is to open up and test these new lines between the concrete blocks there. critically, they unblock a bottleneck between the trains going from heathrow into paddington station in london. it'll hit services across the country. paddington station will actually close for six days after the last train leaves tonight. services at other big stations, including london bridge, charing cross and liverpool street, will be severely affected. there'll be no trains late on christmas eve between cardiff central, bridgend, newport and the valleys as they finish the biggest re—signalling job ever done. it's affected me. i have to take an extra day off work because the replacement bus service is not good enough for what i need. but i understand the work

needs to be done. they know it is the busiest time of year. families want to get together and they haven't seen each other for a while, and they're all disrupted. you can't get to where you want to go. totally inconvenient. a lot of commuters over the christmas period, shopping between christmas and new year, so bus services totally are necessary. and new year, so bus services christmas engineering overran two years ago, causing chaos because the back—up plan failed. network rail says all the holiday work since then has gone without a hitch. most roadworks have been cleared for the holidays, but tonight could still be tricky. between the hours of 4pm and 8pm this evening, we think will be the busiest. that's the rush hour period. additional traffic travelling long distances, it's going to get busy. the pinch points will be the obvious choices of the m1, m6, m25 and m5. as ever, leave plenty of time before you head off — or take the sleigh instead! richard westcott, bbc news.

i wish we could! now, time for the weather. yes, a sleigh might be useful in scotland, because there has been snow there. this was the scene a while ago in there which —— lerwick in the shetland islands. gusts of wind of up to 90 mph and an amber warning from the met office. we have had squally winds, but they are moving swiftly away from england and wales. it will remain with the overnight across the north and there will be more snow showers in scotland. and there could be icy conditions here as well. although barbara will be out of the way by christmas eve, we will still have

gales across the northern half of the uk. a few showers coming to england and wales, but for many towards the east, it will be dry and sunny, but increasing winds as we head towards the end of the day. on christmas day itself, it should be very mild for the most part, but we will have some very gusty winds as well. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines. german officials say the terror threat remains high, despite the killing of the tunisian man suspected of the berlin lorry attack. chancellor angela merkel said she wants quicker deportation of failed asylum seekers from tunisia. translation: we need to accelerate the repatriation process and we need to increase the number of those repatriated. anis amri, who'd pledged allegiance to islamic state, was shot dead in milan in the early hours of the morning. amri's fingerprints were found inside the truck that drove into the busy christmas market on monday. the hijacking of a libyan airliner forced to land in malta has ended

peacefully after 118 passengers have left the plane and those responsible surrendered to the authorities. two men were convicted at the old bailey of sending cash and supplies to foreign terrorists using syria aid convoys. the court was told that muslim community—led convoys were unwitting vehicles of the plan. we will talk about those stories in the next few minutes. let's see what is in the latest sports news. sam alla rdyce is sam allardyce is in talks with crystal palace about becoming their next manager. alan pardew was sacked

yesterday. the palace assistant coach spoke today at a scheduled news c0 nfe re nce coach spoke today at a scheduled news conference and was asked about the former sunderland newcastle, west ham and bolton manager. he's an experienced premier league manager. he has been successful, he knows the game and how to set up his teams. he did a greatjob at sunderland. if it is sam, they'll get an experienced manager coming in. we've lost one u nfortu nately, manager coming in. we've lost one unfortunately, but sam is one of the 1's who has been there and done it. he'll be able to sort the players out. joey barton has been charged by the fa for breaking their rules on betting. it is alleged he placed 1260 bets over a 10—year period up to may this year. he was also charged by the scottish fa for betting on matches this season during his brief spell with rangers. he was given a one match ban for that offence which ill serve at

burnley after re—signing for them this week. he's got untiljanuary the 5th to respond to the latest charge. oscar is reported to have signed a contract with shanghai worth around £400,000 a contract with shanghai worth around £a00,000 a week. chelsea are getting £60 million for him which makes him the seventh most expensive player in history. the 25—year—old has been at stamford bridge for four and a half years, during which time he won three trophies, but hasn't had much of a look—in under antonio conte this season. meanwhile jose mourinho says morgan schneiderlin will be allowed to leave manchester united for the "right offer". after west brom confirmed they've made a bid for the midfielder. thought to be £13 million. that would be around half what united paid for the frenchman when they bought him from southamptonjust 18 months ago. former british middleweight champion nick blackwell has woken from a coma and is smiling again,

according to his brother, after being injured in a sparring session. blackwell had surgery to reduce swelling on his brain. the british boxing board of control are investigating the incident because blackwell was also placed in a coma earlier this year following a professional bout, and he had his licence revoked after that balt. —— bout. two—time wimbledon champion petra kvitova says she does not see herself as a victim, and doesn't feel sorry for herself, despite suffering a knife attack in her own home. she's left hospital today after needing surgery on her left hand following the burglary in her home in the czech republic. doctors told her she'll need to spend six months out, but kvitova says she's determined to return to the sport. yesterday morning during a session with the doctor, i was able to move the fingers on my left hand, which i think was the biggest gift i could have. to heal the fingers. this was the greatest christmas

present i could have wished for. michael smith won a thriller against mervyn king to take his place in the third round of the pdc world darts championship. despite throwing 1a maximums, he missed doubles to take the match in both the fifth and sixth sets. he found his form in a sudden—death decider. quite a thriller. winning the deciding set by two clear legs. earlier ian white was the first player to secure his place in the third round. fairly straightforward victory for him, 4—1 overjonny clayton. no match at alford jane hill and ben brown. that's all the sport now. ollie foster with all the sports news. you'll be back with the sport

after 5pm. let's talk about one of the main stories. the hijack of a libyan airliner plane on an internal flight has ended peacefully. two men brandishing hand grenades had forced the airbus 320 to land at malta international airport. they threatened to blow up the aircraft if it failed to land. it sat on the tarmac for several hours — during which period around 100 passengers and crew were gradually released. and in the end the hijackers themselves emerged from the plane holding a flag in support of the late libyan leader colonel gaddafi. eventually they were surrounded after they had left the aircraft and we re after they had left the aircraft and were taken away. they are now under arrest. after that, maltese troops scrambled up the steps of the plane to ensure

it was clear and no one was still on board. in the past hour, malta's prime minister, joseph muscat, has said the hijackers made no demands. after further negotiations, the hijackers agreed to free the remaining members of the crew and to surrender. they were asked to surrender any weapons in their possession. they were found to be in possession of a hand grenade and a pistol. nevertheless, the armed forces of malta are currently conducting a full search on the aircraft and a second pistol has been found so far. the search is ongoing. the two hijackers have been detained in custody and interrogations are ongoing. the rest of the crew and passengers are also being questioned over certain events. once this interrogation process is completed over the next few hours, arrangements will be made to send the passengers and crew members back to libya with another afriqiyah aircraft.

malta's prime minister at a news conference in the letter in the last hour. —— in valletta. the syrian army has described the defeat of rebels in aleppo as a "turning point" in the country's civil war. pro—government forces took full control of the city yesterday after the final evacuations of opposition fighters and civilians from eastern aleppo. our guest from save the children told us it is not only aleppo where people have been suffering. the scale of the devastation was so huge that that took our attention, but we are in the year with 750,000 people living under siege. that is children and families being deprived of food, medicines, not allowed out. we had a father messaging as this morning from account on the border with lebanon, begging us to get his son out because he was injured 12 days ago.

he is about to lose his eye and he has not been allowed out for medical treatment. all of these towns need an end to the siege is so that we can evacuate people and get aid in. it is important that people should not be forced from their homes. what happened in aleppo is not a victory. those people getting out is not a victory. they have been forced under threat of bombing and starvation to leave their homes. we don't want to see that repeated in towns and cities across syria. we should be allowed to get help to people where they are. we have to be hopeful that 2017 will be the year. it is binding on. the suffering is appalling. there has been a failure to protect children and families, which is really depressing. and the fact that we have not been able to separate humanitarian aid, not bombing schools and hospitals, getting aid to people, and the political process has been disappointing. that is not to say that we can't do it. the only way to end this is through diplomatic negotiations. they will restart in january. only by bringing syrians together

and making an agreement can we bring a peaceful end to this war. there is no military solution to the war in syria. meanwhile, russia's president putin has said peace talks on syria will be held next year between the government of president assad, iran, turkey and russia. mr putin said a nationwide ceasefire should be put in place in syria followed by peace talks. with me now is samir puri from kings college london — a lecturer in a international politics. thank you forjoining us. what are your thoughts about the viability of those talks, whether there is any prospect of success? it's all about imposing a political solution onto the syrian rebellion. the really significant development has been a

meeting in moscow between the turkish, iranians and russian foreign ministers to talk about how they are going to impose the peace settle m e nt they are going to impose the peace settlement on what remains of the rebellion. specifically in relation to the americans who have a new president, signalling that the fight against isis is what will be given to the international community is the way in which they rebrand the war into the next year. the fighting won't stop just like that. rebranding it in the sense of?l won't stop just like that. rebranding it in the sense of? a war against terrorists. the credibility of that pitch will become quite difficult to challenge because there will be a weakened rebellion. that side of the conflict will probably see a reduction in terms of severity. a horrible scenes we have seen severity. a horrible scenes we have seenin severity. a horrible scenes we have seen in aleppo this year, that won't be repeated because aleppo was the showpiece battle, the showpiece conflict. now that has been won from

putin's perspective and assad's perspective, the rebels will not have a strong negotiating position. because a couple of years ago, if the international community had talked about peace talks, there would have been plenty of countries who said president assad can't be pa rt who said president assad can't be part of these talks. but things have shifted dramatically and he is absolutely part, and russia is key as well. they've shifted so dramatically that the turkish foreign minister was part of these talks on tuesday. turkey is still opposed to asad but the russians wa nt to opposed to asad but the russians want to get turkey participating in the evacuations. turkey isn't far from aleppo in northern syria. the turks are in a position where they are sitting with the iranians and russians on opposite sides of this issue of whether president assad should stay or go. the west will no longer be able to say that assad should go. otherwise they risk

ushering in anarchy. the russians will say we need to take up the isis enemy. striking listening to those comments this morning from one of britain's former ambassadors, really very critical about how the whole situation with syria has been understood, how it's been managed. for example, saying the west has made an assumption that the rebels are almost 100 and screwed and they aren't either. —— that the rebels aren't either. —— that the rebels area aren't either. —— that the rebels are a valletta. it is the american government that sets the tone for the response. some of the rebels have got cold feet because of the extremist tendencies of some of the rebels. they left the fragmentary opposition. the

americans and the west then didn't back them properly. as a result it isa back them properly. as a result it is a very, very sorry tale in terms of the west's approach, doing nothing seemed admirable after george w bush had taken to dramatically step but doing nothing has also left a serious problem in which the russians have moved in with their own conception of zero tolerance and a massive acceptance of causing humanitarian suffering. the ends did justified the means for the russians and syrians. thank you. police and prison authorities are investigating after part of a prison in kent was taken over by inmates yesterday before being brought back under control. specialist teams had to be sent into hmp swaleside on the isle of sheppey to get prisoners back in their cells. it's the latest in a number of disturbances at prisons over the past two months. a short while ago our correspondent andy moore gave us the latest from the prison.

this disturbance started about seven o'clock last night. it's understood that prison officers were carrying out a search. they seized some items that triggered the disturbance. fires were lit. prisoners posted videos of themselves on social media. the prison service said this involved one landing on one wing. the rest of the prison, about 1000 prisoners, was on lockdown. specialist teams were brought in and they got the prison under control by about one o'clock this morning. no prison officers were injured. no prisoners were injured. as you say, this is the fourth disturbance in britain's prisons in the last two months. there was that riot last week at birmingham prison, involving several hundred prisoners and lasting about 12 hours. before that, there were disturbances at bedford and lewis. we have had a statement from the prison service. they say britain's prisons are enduring long—standing problems and they won't be solved overnight. ina

in a moment we will take a look at the financial markets but first a reminder of the headlines. chancellor angela merkel says she'll speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers — as she thanks italian police who shot dead the berlin terror suspect. the hijacking of a libyan airliner forced to land in malta has ended peacefully, with the hijackers surrendering to the authorities. two men are convicted at the old bailey of using syria aid convoys to funnel cash to extremists in war zones. hello. i'm vishala sri—pathma. now a look at how the markets in europe have ended the trading session. it has been a half day trading in london. germany's deutsche bank says it has

agreed a £59 billion payment to us authorities over an investigation into its role in the financial crisis. credit suisse also announced a similar deal, while barclays is now under investigation as well. some positive news for the uk economy. the latest revised figures show that it grew by more than previously thought between october and december this year thanks to more output from business financial services. the consumer group which has begun legal action to strengthen protection for the owners of tumble dryers that pose a fire risk. five million affected machines were sold between 2004 and 2015. the manufacturer, whirlpool, is carrying out a repair programme. britain's charities have a challenging year ahead, dealing with european union regulations on how they can approach members of the public for donations. the new rules mean they have to get consent from everyone on their databases in order to contact them and ask for money. many charities fear this will lead to a drop in their revenues. some are coming up with new ways of filling that funding gap, asjeremy howell now reports the european union wants charities

to change the way they approach members of the public for money. the royal national lifeboat institute is the first charity in the uk to take the plunge. it spends £190 million a year maintaining lifeboats and crews around the coastline. to comply with the new rules, the rnli asked donors on its database whether they wanted to be contacted in the future by fundraisers. 400,000 people said yes — over half a million said no. the charity says it could now lose about 5% of its annual income. historically, the way charities have generally traded and raised income is to go to the general public on a general basis, to write to them and ask for income to support charitable aims. in the future, we will only be able to do that to people who have actively opted into the rnli to indicate a schedule. that reduces dramatically the number of people we have the

ability to speak to. ultimately, we believe that has opened up a gap in oui’ income streams across a five—year period of £36.5 million. the eu has given organisations until may 2018 to comply with its new data protection rules. many of britain's 200,000 plus charities are worried that they will also see a fall in funding. there are charities that are worried about how restrictive or not the rules might be. if this gets too restrictive, that will mean we will lose contact with people. we won't be able to ask for money and not only will the services lose money, we won't be able to deliver them, but actually, people that have donated in the past and would be willing to donate in the future won't have any contact with the charities they care about. many charities are devising new ways of raising money. blue cross, an animal rescue charity, has been using dogs fitted with contactless payment terminals. people tap on them with their debit cards to donate. and amnesty international,

which is trying to engage a tech savvy young generation by producing charity videos of relief work in war—torn syria. this new technology means in the future, we could be getting fewer old —fashioned cold calls from fundraisers and fewer charity mailshots on doormats. here's some other business stories we've been following today. planned strikes by british airways cabin crew on christmas day and boxing day have been suspended. employees were due to walk out in a row over pay and conditions. the unite union said 4,500 workers employed on so—called "mixed fleet" contracts, who have joined since 2010, were on lower pay than other staff. the government is introducing a £60 million annualfund to help areas of england with high levels of second—home ownership. the money will be shared by 150 councils over five years and will go into providing "affordable" housing forfirst—time buyers in places

where demand is high. the money has been raised through increases in stamp duty. one third of it will go to south—west england. london's eaton square has been named the most expensive place to buy property in britain, with a home costing an average of nearly £17 million. the belgravia address tops a list that shows every english region now contains "million pound" streets. the scores in st andrews tops scotland's list with an average of almost £2.2 million. that's all the business news. there is a round—up of all the top business stories on our website. a survey of rough sleepers suggests they are 17 times more likely to be a victim of crime than the general public. the charity, crisis, says homeless people are regularly attacked and abused. there are thought to be about 4,000 people sleeping rough in britain at any one time.

our social affairs correspondent, michael buchanan reports. 3am in worcester city centre, and two men approach a rough sleeper. one stamps the head, the other kicks the legs. casual, unprovoked violence is a daily fear for rough sleepers. they have no shelter, anyone, at any time, could attack. this man was homeless for five years and took to sleeping on london commuter trains after being assaulted. i was in leicester square, got into a discussion with a young man around the fact i was homeless. he became quite aggravated, i would guess, by the fact i was homeless and i was saying, being homeless, everybody‘s an individual and people are homeless for different reasons. and from there he ended up punching me in the face, basically. and it was quite a nasty punch. his experience is fairly common, says today's survey. 30% of rough sleepers say they've been deliberately hit or kicked. 31% say they've had

things thrown at them. 7% were actually urinated on. it's notjust the incident itself but it's the impact it has on that individual, on their mental health, on their ability to even ask for help. we found that most homeless people who are rough sleeping actually feel ashamed already, and surely if you're then urinated on you're going to feel even more ashamed and even more marginalised. some rough sleepers have had their possession set on fire. one man told researchers he was thrown from a height while still in his tent. most attacks were carried out by people they didn't know. the one question this survey didn't ask is why on earth would somebody punch or kick, or urinate on a rough sleeper? the answer is usually alcohol. rough sleepers rarely report abuses to the police, feeling they won't be believed.

officers say they protect everyone and will fully investigate all crimes. michael buchanan, bbc news. there is more coming up at 5pm. the latest on the situation in berlinger and dead of the main suspect. and we will have a look back on the year in film at 5:30pm. time for a look at the weather. good evening. we have two storms heading towards the uk. heading to the north of scotland. it is here we will have the worst of the weather. the second storm that is going to arrive is conor and it's going to develop from this crowd. you see

this cloud we've got here, this is storm barbara. it's on the doorstep right now. this was the scene in the shetland islands earlier on. this pa rt shetland islands earlier on. this part of the country will see the worst of the weather. some gusty winds along western coasts, for example in cumbria. the gusty winds came on this band of rain and has continued to move east. the worst of the wind is still to come in the far north of scotland. but squally band of rain pushing east. plenty of showers packing into scotland and it's the north of scotland where the wind will peak this evening. we still have that amber warning from the met office which expires at midnight. overnight, the winds won't be as strong but it will still be windy across the northern half of the uk. there will be a lot of wintry showers with a bit of snow to come. that will lead to some icy

conditions, very poor in the mountains. further south, clearer skies. ourfirst storm barbara is out of the way. still blustery across the northern half of the uk. frequent showers for scotland and northern ireland, wintry in scotland. further south they few showers coming in, but for many and southern and eastern areas it will be dry and breezy. some rain in the north—west later in the day. that rain coming from these weather fronts and our next storm is getting close of the christmas day and is developing into storm conor. the christmas, very mild. it will be windy with really gusty winds particularly over and to the east of the high ground. some rain around particularly on this weather front. it will move south through the day, allowing some colder air to come to scotla nd allowing some colder air to come to scotland and by later christmas day,

it could turn into a white christmas in the north of scotland. on boxing day, this is when conor is at its closest to the uk. the main impact for the north of scotland, especially the northern isles. very gusty winds across the rest of scotland. there will be some showers, too. further south showers won't be as strong and it should be dry with some sunshine. stormy weather over the coming few days. lots of weather warnings, if you wa nt to lots of weather warnings, if you want to find out about all of them head to our website. see you later. today at five, the suspect in the berlin market attack is shot dead in milan. anis amri was killed after opening fire on police who'd asked him to identify himself. it brings to an end a europe—wide manhunt — but germany says its terror threat remains high. terrorism is a challenge for all of

us terrorism is a challenge for all of us and it is good to know how resolutely and well we worked together. we will have all of the very latest and we will be talking toa very latest and we will be talking to a former director of europol. the other main stories. the hijackers of a libyan plane, with a hundred and eighty people on board, that was forced to land in malta — are arrested. storm barbara begins to kick in — with worse to come as, ninety mile—an—hour winds are forecast. and delays in the christmas getaway — with warnings of significant