welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm lebo diseko. our top stories: george michael, one of the biggest pop—stars of the last 30 years, has died at the age of 53. the music world is paying tribute. elton john describes him as the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist. a major search operation pinpoints a russian military plane that crashed into the water with 92 people on board. it's been announced that the british singer george michael has died. he was 53. police say they were called to his home in oxfordshire shortly before 2pm on christmas day. they've confirmed he was

found dead at the scene. it's being treated as unexplained but not suspicious. george michael shot to fame in the 1980s with the group wham, and then went on to have a hugely successful solo career. andy moore looks back at his life. # well, i hadn't seen your face around town a while, so i greeted you, with a knowing smile... he burst onto the scene in the early 1980s when he formed wham with andrew ridgeley. the duo had number one singles around the world. they even conquered china, becoming the first western pop band to perform there. george michael loved fame but never became used to it. to be obviously a part of people's lives as an artist, that's what i dreamed of and that's what i'm still grateful for. but my god, i wish i could cope with the other stuff the way other people do. i wish i'd been born with that particular suit of armour, you know, because i wasn't.

# you know not everybody has got a body like you. but i gotta think twice before i give my heart away... as his career waned, he hit the headlines for other reasons. he was stopped for a series of traffic offences leading to a spell in jail. he was cautioned and fined for drug possession and received treatment for addiction. # time can never mend the careless whispers... in 2011, he suffered a life—threatening bout of pneumonia while on tour in austria. police said his death was unexplained but not suspicious. his family said he had died peacefully at home. they called him a beloved son, brother and friend. it has been a year of some

incredible losses in the music world 7 incredible losses in the music world? it really has. i've got to tell you, when i heard about george michael today, my stomach started hurting. i can't imagine losing another person. i was thinking yesterday, it's almost the end of the year, can we get through without losing anyone else? apparently not. he was such an important person in the world of music, especially during the 80s and 90s and was really one of those transition people that made the world of pop music, he made that big transition leading into where we are now with the musical world and with a lot of the musical world and with a lot of the alternative music that they now call alternative music, and a lot of the real club music we hear, george

michael was at the forefront of that. some incredible collaborations with mary] blige and aretha franklin and he was doing it at a time others weren't. that's right, he was a leader in a lot of genres. you met him during his one days, tell us about that. i did, it was a long time ago —— one. it was in the 80s when he and andrew was starting out. i was a reporter in boston and everybody came through boston in those days and they were so energetic and adorable. he was a handsome guy, let's face it, they both work, they lit up the stage and i got both work, they lit up the stage and igota both work, they lit up the stage and i got a chance to indicate them and both of them but george was always the electric guy, there was something and electric about him. i've got to tell you, i feel today like it is like the soundtrack of my

life seems to be leaving, you know? he said that he loved being famous but he also struggled with being in the public eye and he wished he could do it like other people. tell us could do it like other people. tell usa could do it like other people. tell us a bit about how he battled with that. it was a big battle for him. when i first met him he was very young and it was before the whole addiction thing took over his life. people had no idea how hard it is to be on the road like these guys are on the road constantly. you had no life of your own and everybody says that's what you get, if you're famous that's what you want and that's what you get and you do what you want to do and that's what they do. but we are now learning sleep deprivation is a really serious problem, nobody sleeps in the music business. you drink too much and you do other things too much and after a

while it gets to you unless you have the right people around and most of the right people around and most of the time celebrities don't. he was planning a comeback of sorts, he was about to work with a producer in a documentary coming out next year, what are your memories of him and how would you want him to be remembered? i think he should be remembered? i think he should be remembered as first of all a very important artist. an important artist of our time and the 21st—ce ntu ry artist of our time and the 21st—century because of the way he crossed the bridge and led the way to the new music that we have now and literally let the way to the digital world. he came out of the analogue world and took us into the digital world, and i think that's very important. younger people don't exactly understand that now but i think they will when they start listening to the original music that

george michael and wham were doing and how they crossed over and how everybody else, or many people did at least, followed them in the digital world. at least, followed them in the digitalworld. tainio, thanks for your time digitalworld. tainio, thanks for yourtime and digitalworld. tainio, thanks for your time and input under such sad circumstances —— tinier. your time and input under such sad circumstances -- tinier. i know, and merry christmas to everyone over there in england. —— tania. many have taken to social media to express their grief at the news of the singer's death. burlesque entertainer dita von teese posted a picture on instagram with caption detailing her relationship with michael and saying: singer carrie underwood also shared her memories of michael: thom geier is managing editor

of the entertainment magazine, the wrap, i spoke to him in the last hour in new york and asked him why george michael was such a significant musician? i think george michael came of age asa i think george michael came of age as a pop star in the early 1980s just as the music video for dominant was really beginning to take off. it was really beginning to take off. it was the early days of mtv and he was really one of the pioneers that helped launch that format as a vehicle of expression for music and for pop music in particular. you think back to some of his early hits like careless whisper, faith, wake me up before you go—go, whether with wham or as me up before you go—go, whether with wham orasa me up before you go—go, whether with wham or as a solo artist, he was really on the cutting edge of that whole phenomenon. he also managed to make the transition that a lot of

people don't quite make from boy band pinup to actual serious respected artist. that is true. he started out as this kind of teenybopper star with andrew ridgeley and wham and transition very quickly to be this kind of new male sex symbol that we haven't really seen before, a guy with... who goes from being the teenybopper pinup idol to the stubbornly guy wearing the levi jeans end the faith video. it was really a remarkable translation. that faith video was interesting, we saw him bringing in models and he went on to work with a number of other people from different types of music, collaborating with people from r&b, now that's quite a common thing to do but it was quite ahead of its time at the time, wasn't it? absolutely, for him to work with artists of different genres, whether r&b artists or simply walk is true

is more recently in 2014 in his collaboration with sinfonia. the other thing too to remember is he was one of the early stars to come out as gay, first as bisexual and then gay, and that whole evolution that we've seen in terms of the public acceptance of gay artists, he was really at the cutting edge of that phenomenon as well.|j was really at the cutting edge of that phenomenon as well. i mean, it wasn't in the circumstances that he may have chosen but as you said, it was hugely significant, wasn't it? absolutely, he became a face for that phenomenon somewhat reluctantly in some cases but his advocate interview in 1999 was really one of the seminal coming out moments that we saw in terms of a public figure of that stature accepting and embracing his status as a gay man. how was that reflected in his music and how did it go on to influence his career? there was a new openness

that you saw in the nineteen nineties. his output at that point was not nearly as popular as his earlier stuff in the 1980s and yet there seemed to be a kind of legacy attachment and certainly among the 93v attachment and certainly among the gay community, he continued to be embraced as this seminal figure. how do you think he will be remembered? 0ne do you think he will be remembered? one of the things that is remarkable is he died on christmas day and he is he died on christmas day and he is also associated with two of the biggest pockets associated with christmas my last christmas, one of the last singles he did with wham, and do they know it's christmas?, the band aid phenomenon from 1984, he was one of the singers on the bob geldof hit. those two songs on this day is a kind of carol that calls to mind everything that made him successful and popular. jayjay epega worked alongside george michael's former publicist until 2011. i spoke to her in the last hour and asked what he was like to work with?

i had ihada i had a long history with him. i went to boarding school in bushey in the 80s, the highlight of the wham yea rs, the 80s, the highlight of the wham years, and are used to be one of the little girls that ran after him and andrew ridgeley and waited outside andrew ridgeley and waited outside andrew ridgeley‘s house, i got detention for leaving the dorms to get his autograph. fast forward to 1996, i was working at mtv europe in london when he did the mtv awards at the alexandra palace and i was assigned to look after him and his family andi assigned to look after him and his family and i looked after his mother, leslie, who passed away the following year, and fast forward to 2008, working with conservative was an absolute pleasure so he's been integral in many parts of my life. he went from this person you looked up he went from this person you looked up to, waited to try and see after school, to actually working with him

and developing a friendship. tell us what that was like? i wouldn't say it was a friendship, i worked with him, it wasn't a friendship in that sense but he was such a kind man, everybody loved him. he was very kind to everyone who worked for him. he was very beloved. he was quite shy as well in the sense of not being arrogant, as opposed to other talents being arrogant, as opposed to other tale nts to m being arrogant, as opposed to other talents tom who are globally known, even locally known, who are a lot more arrogant than he was. his friends loved him, people who work for him loved him, his assistant love him, he was a very kind man. he had controversies and heartache and heartbreaks losing had controversies and heartache and heartbrea ks losing his had controversies and heartache and heartbreaks losing his beloved mother and the love of his life, but he was loved always and his legacy lives on in his music. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: more on our top story, the death of the singer george michael at the age of 53.

we saw this enormous tidal wave approaching the beach, and people started to run, and suddenly it was complete chaos. 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 united states 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 broke slowly over lockerbie, over the cockpit of the pan—am's maid of the seas, nose—down 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 shkoder where there were anti—communist riots ten days ago.

this is bbc news. i'm lebo diseko. the latest headlines: the british singer, george michael, who shot to fame in the 1980s with the pop group wham!, has died. he was 53. tributes have been paid. elton john describing him as the kindest, most generous soul and a brilliant artist. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has held talks with the us ambassador after summoning him to explain why the united states cleared the way for a un security council resolution criticising israel. at his weekly cabinet meeting mr netanyahu criticised the us, but praised the incoming trump administration. 0ver decades, american administrations and israeli governments have disagreed about settlements but we agreed that the security council was not the place to resolve these issues. we knew that going there would make negotiations harder and drive peace

further away and, as i told john kerry on thursday, friends do not take friends to the security council. jonathan schanzr is from the foundation for defense of democracies and he joins us now from washington. take us back, why has the 0bama administration decide to do this so late in the day? i think this was untenable for the outgoing president. while he was trying to continue to bring the democrats on board, especially that he could not do this to hillary clinton while she was still in play. if she had won the election, it would be very likely that she would have told them not to do this because it would have encumbered heritability to negotiate with the israelis. 0nce donald trump

was elected, i think the president felt untethered and he may take further steps including appa rat felt untethered and he may take further steps including apparat and the —— parameter speech and one more un legislation. we are looking... we call this the lame—duck period in washington, where the president can essentially tried to wrap up loose ends, pardoning people, commuting sentences, perhaps putting the final touches on the legislation that is sit to pass. this is highly irregular. it is a major move against a us ally and obviously this stems to large part with his grudge match with benjamin netanyahu. they

have not got along for the entire time he was in office and this looks like a parting shot. how did it deteriorate to this degree?” like a parting shot. how did it deteriorate to this degree? i think pa rt deteriorate to this degree? i think part of it had to do with the fact that 0bama had different views from benjamin netanyahu at the beginning of the arab spring. the israelis mistrusted his view on the islamic brotherhood. this led to benjamin netanyahu coming to speak before a joint session of congress to object to the iran deal which the president did not appreciate very much. there is the question of settlements, and israel will make insistence of building in particular areas. president 0bama has not agreed with settle m e nts president 0bama has not agreed with settlements being built anywhere. threatening to do this and now he has followed through. thank you.

russian authorities say the location where a military plane, with 92 people on board, crashed into the black sea has been pinpointed. more than 100 divers have been exploring the seabed. so far, they have recovered 11 bodies. vigils have been held to remember those who die in the crash. most of the passengers were members of the russian army's famous band, formerly known as the red army choir. the transport minister says investigators aren't ruling out any possible reasons for the crash — that includes terrorism. steve rosenberg reports from moscow. this is one of the final images of the tupolev 154 jet. it was taken by a journalist before he boarded the plane. the flight would end in tragedy. the aircraft crashed into the black sea. the russians scrambled helicopters and ships, but the search became a recovery operation. there were no survivors. the plane had taken off from a military airfield near moscow. it flew south, stopping in sochi to refuel. the final destination was syria and russia's airbase near latakia, but minutes after leaving

sochi it crashed. president putin offered his condolences to the families of the victims and promised them his full support. on board were more than 60 members of the russian army's famous song and dance ensemble once known as the red army choir. they'd been due to give a concert at the russian airbase in syria. translation: we all loved this ensemble, we value them. they're our brothers, friends, colleagues. may they rest in peace. also killed in the crash, the prominent humanitarian activist and medic elizaveta glinka, known to millions of russians as dr liza. most civilian airlines have stopped using the tupolev154, once the workhorse of the russian aviation industry. in 2010, the tupolev carrying the polish president crashed in russia while trying to land.

the following year a similar plane caught fire in siberia before takeoff. throughout the day, muscovites brought flowers to the headquarters of the russian army choir. this disaster has left russia stunned and silent. the kremlin has promised a thorough investigation into this tragedy. it's also declared tomorrow a day of national mourning. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. back now to our main story and as we've been reporting the british singer george michael has died peacefully at his home in oxfordshire. police, who were called to his house shortly before 2pm on christmas day, say his death is unexplained but not suspicious. neil mccormick is a music critic for the daily telegraph here in the uk. he gave us his reaction. well, it is very shocking news. he

was one of the great superstars of british popular music, certainly of the 80s and 90s. a great talent. i had heard rumours that was not well and somebody said to me a few weeks ago that george michael is not well but that is the extent. i heard that he was back in the studio, he was recording material, he had intention to release music next year. i really shocked by the news. i am sure we all are. you mentioned he had biemans, he had all kinds of struggles with lifestyle, with issues of dealing with people, his romantic life, when you met him however he seemed always very together person, very strong ideas about who we was in the world and

very gracious in the way he dealt with people. really charming man as well as a very talented one. it is almost forgotten how difficult it can be to be a gay star. he was a closeted star, had big heterosexual idol carrying this big secret and when he came out of the closet, he really ca m e when he came out of the closet, he really came out of the closet. he became a great champion of gay rights and stronger by presenting sexuality. underneath all that, he was an incredible talent. he was such a great singer in a style that british pop music was not quite used to at that time. he is staying with the soulfulness of an american singer. he was a really great songwriter. how many times have we heard last christmas last christmas just over this period. he was a major talent.

paul lester is a freelance musicjournalist who's written for the guardian, and sunday times newspapers here in the uk. he explained how george michael also used his celebrity status as singer songwriter to focus on other causes that he cared about. i think he was like prince, one of those artists that really wanted to be taken more seriously and he did try to make moves into the political arena and he did espouse causes, so i think it wasn'tjust about songwriting and singing, there was more to him than that and i think that's what he wanted to do latterly. it was of course what he had done by his mid—20s, was absolutely achieve everything you could possibly achieve as a songwriter and musician. he was one of the biggest stars in britain, he made the move to become a global superstar, he played in china, he did everything you could do, there was really nothing left for him to do in the musical world and so he was looking outside of that to espouse causes that were dear to his heart. a reminder of our top story:

the british singer, george michael, has died at the age of 53. police, who were called to his house in oxfordshire, shortly before 2pm on christmas day, say his death is unexplained but not suspicious. he was one of the most successful recording artists of the past 30 years, selling more than 100 million records worldwide. in a statement his publicist said that: "it is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend george passed away peacefully at home over the christmas period. the family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time." if you want to get in touch with us here at bbc world news, you can do so on social media. and i'm @lebo underscore diseko on twitter. for most of us christmas day was very mild, due to south—westerly

winds ahead of the next main storm. there's an amber warning ahead. storm force winds for the north and north—east of scotland, the northern isles and for a time the western isles, so they will cause some issues. stormy conditions out to sea and we've had reports of dangerously high waves, so those will affect some coastal areas. severe gales around the coasts, gales inland and some wintry weather. snow showers have been coming in thick and fast and they will even fall at lower levels. so it could be wintry, with as few centimetres of snow building up by daybreak and a little icy. coldest for all of us first thing, then the rain clears away and it is dry and bright in the south. further north it's a stormy day, even for this part of the world.

very windy and combined with the snow showers, plenty of them. but very few further south. with cloud with the sunshine. a bit of a breeze. not the teens we had on christmas day, 6—8 is the average. but, given the sunshine, pleasant enough. further north, there could be a few wintry showers on the hills of scotland. gale force winds here. then escalating further in the northern half of scotland. it will be a stormy day, even for this part of the world. then it goes on to batter scandinavia and the baltic sea. further south and in the mediterranean, some nasty weather, with heavy snowfall in land, courtesy of low pressure. the intense high pressure will be building through the latter part of monday, pushing that windy weather away into the north sea and scandinavia, where it will cause some potential power outages and travel disruption.

dangerous conditions we've had and enormous waves already reported out to sea. coastal waves will be pretty large. through tuesday things are coming down. wednesday, the calming process continues. a lot of sunshine on tuesday, will be getting contaminated with low cloud and fog. where the fog lingers it will feel much colder. some nasty conditions around at the moment, however the amber warning in force on boxing day. as ever the details on the website. the latest headlines from bbc news. i'm lebo diseko. the british pop—singer, george michael, who shot to fame in the 1980s with the pop group wham has died. he was 53. his publicist said he died peacefully at home. wham achieved worldwide success with hits such as wake me up before you go—go and careless whisper. a huge search operation is continuing through the night off russia's black sea coast for victims

of a military plane which crashed, killing all 92 people on board. more than three thousand rescue workers are searching a wide area. more than 3,000 rescue workers are searching a wide area. vigils are being held in sochi and several other cities. queen elizabeth has missed her annual christmas day visit to church in sandringham because of a heavy cold. in her christmas message, she said she drew strength from ordinary people doing extraordinary things like volunteers, carers, community workers and good neighbours who she described as unsung heroes. coming up next it's reporters.