this is bbc news. the headlines at 6. the russian president announces a ceasefire deal between the syrian government and opposition groups to come into force at midnight. translation: the documents have been signed. between the syrian government and the armed opposition in syria. there isa the armed opposition in syria. there is a document on measures to help control areas covered by this ceasefire and an agreement on the start of peace talks. stars pay tribute to hollywood actress, debbie reynolds, who's died, aged 84, just a day after the death of her daughter, carrie fisher. family doctors warn that patients might have to wait a month before seeing their gp over the busy winter period . devon and cornwall police investigate the discovery of the bodies of two men at a flat in st austell. detectives are treating the deaths as unexplained. also — the birds migrating earlier as global temperatures rise. a study finds some species

are missing out on vital resources — such as food and nesting places — as a result. and the first pictures of a rare giraffe born at chester zoo — discovered by staff when they arrived on boxing day morning. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the russian president, vladimir putin, says the syrian army and opposition have agreed to a nationwide ceasefire which will come into effect at midnight. there'll also be fresh peace talks. the deal was brokered by russia and turkey, who are on opposing sides in the conflict in syria. mr putin said they had signed a number of documents outlining the details of the deal.

daniel boettcher reports. russia and turkey have been pushing for a nationwide ceasefire, particularly since the collapse of the key rebel stronghold in aleppo. in a statement, the syrian army said the comprehensive ceasefire agreement was the result of recent military successes. the syrian government and rebel groups agreed the ceasefire from midnight tonight local time. russia and turkey, which have backed opposing sides, will act as guarantors. speaking at a meeting with the russian defence and foreign ministers, president putin announced a number of agreements have been signed and said they were fragile and needed special attention. translation: three documents have been signed. the first document between the syrian government and armed opposition on cessation of fire on the territory of the syrian arab republic.

the second document is a set of measures on control over the ceasefire regime and the third document is a statement on readiness for the start of peace talks on the syrian settlement. the syrian army says some groups, including so—called islamic state, will not be covered by the ceasefire. turkey says foreign fighter groups, including hezbollah, will need to leave syria. translation: we are thinking of enforcing this ceasefire before the new year. the leaders have expressed their will. we are working on it. we are always in touch with the russian foreign minister. we have brought the russians together with the opposition. we will be the guarantor of an agreement that will be signed by russia and opposition forces. this is the third nationwide ceasefire agreed in syria this year.

the previous two negotiated by washington and moscow collapsed. those backing this plan want to start peace talks in kazakhstan within a month of the ceasefire starting. our correspondent lina sinjab is in neighbouring lebanon. she told us more about the detail of the deal. it includes all the opposition groups, but excludes the group called by almost every side as a terrorist group, the so—called islamic state. both russia, turkey, the government and opposition say this is a group that should be excluded, but the syrian government is adding to the list, adding the al-qaeda's affiliate formerly known as al—nusra and they said everyone affiliated to these groups should not be

included in this deal and that is a worrying sign because in the past the syrian government has been targeting all rebel—held territories, claiming they are fighting terrorists. that is what the syrian government says. they paintbrush the civil defence forces known as the white helmets, president assad called them a face lift to al qaeda. the question is how much russia will be able to control the government military operations in fighting islamic state and not fighting other groups supported by the west and included in this deal. i suppose we have been here before with negotiated ceasefires which have not held. the difference this time is russia appears to be in the driving seat. yes, indeed. we have both the un and us missing in this deal. they don't have any stake in this deal, it is the powers

on the ground, like russia, turkey and iran. for the deal to come out and be announced by president putin, he is putting his weight behind it and wants to strike a deal to find a solution for the conflict in syria, for which he will take credit, especially before a new administration in the us is in office. he would put reality on the ground for the next american administration and he will take the credit for any solution for the war in syria. earlier i spoke to olga ivshina from bbc russian service, and i asked her if we had any detail about the documents president putin talked about. there are three basic points, but, number one, assad's regime and some of the rebel commanders signed a ceasefire deal which should start at midnight. point two is devoted to this transition period that russia and turkey would serve as guarantors

and try to ensure the ceasefire holds. point number three, if the ceasefire holds for a while, there will be peace talks about the political future of syria. in kazakhstan? yes. we hear russia and turkey will be guarantors of the deal, do we know what that means? it seems those parties will hold negotiations for quite a while and it seems they are trying to use the moment to establish themselves as important players in that region and basically to make a deal, not including the united states. russia and turkey have sufficient influence on the parties in that conflict, so russia has troops on the ground, it is participating in air strikes and, most important, russia has huge influence on the syrian president bashar al—assad. turkey is supporting some rebel groups and has

huge influence on them. they may try to put pressure on their allies in order to make this deal work. you mention to keep out the united states. it is striking the united states is nowhere in this agreement. yes, i think russia and turkey tried to use this moment to their favour, because obama's administration is leaving so there is a transition period. on the other hand, russia and turkey have some strong and good cards in their hands during those negotiations. it seemed they decided just to make a deal, despite some disagreements they had, and also both erdogan and putin are ambitious leaders and will want to resend the message they can make things work, even without the involvement of the us, and of course this is a worrying sign for the international community. when it comes to president putin

and his position at home and on the world stage, what does this do for him? it is important for him to send this message internationally and internally because the russian economy is struggling because of sanctions and putin has always exercised the notion of russia opposing the west and being the only force for good in the region. despite heavy criticism which we saw, despite the statements by western leaders that russia is conducting some awful operations in syria and violating international laws, putin can say, i have delivered the deal, so that will be his strong line on that. olga ivshina from bbc russian service, tributes are being paid to the hollywood actress debbie reynolds, who died just a day after her daughter carrie fisher. reynolds, who starred opposite gene kelly in the 1952 musical singin‘ in the rain, had been rushed to hospital with a suspected stroke.

her son, todd fisher, said the stress of his sister's death had been too much for her and in her last words, she had said she wanted to be with carrie. david sillito reports. # i'm singin‘ in the rain, just singin‘ in the rain. singin‘ in the rain, debbie reynolds was just 19. she'd not really danced before this but this performance made her a star. it was supposed to be an innocent, virginal little girl and certainly i was that. i think it was a tough deal for poor gene to be stuck with me, who had never danced. it would have been far better for him to have a great dancer. but i worked so hard that i think, in the end when i look at that performance of that little girl, i think i did a good job. # all i do is dream of you the whole night through.# 64 years later, her death comes just a day after losing

her daughter, carrie fisher. she'd been planning herfuneral when she was taken ill. her son todd said the stress was simply too much. among the tributes, bette midler, who said it was hard to comprehend. damejoan collins said she was truly heartbroken. that mother—and—daughter relationship, meryl streep and shirley maclaine gave us a taste of the ups and downs in postcards from the edge. but it was far from the full story. indeed debbie reynolds wanted to play the role but was told she wasn't right for the part. you want me to do well, just not better than you. what she was right for was old school hollywood song and dance. the show always went on, even when she was abandoned by her husband, eddie fisher, for elizabeth taylor. my personal life is always sort of like this. that little choo—choo train that says, "i think i can, i think i can, i think i can."

i seem to marry very poorly. i have no taste in men. luckily for me, god was good and i have two wonderful children. in recent years, she played the role of grace's mother in will and grace, liberace's mother in behind the candelabra, and then this final moment, a mother grieving for her daughter. but if you want to remember what made debbie reynolds special, remember her like this. debbie this reynolds, who's died at the age of 8a. german prosecutors have released a tunisian man they'd originally linked to this month's deadly attack on a berlin christmas market. the ao—year—old was detained in berlin on wednesday. federal prosecutors had suspected attacker anis amri could have sent

the man a voice message and a picture shortly before the attack. our correspondent damien mcguinness has been following the story from berlin. he said it was a setback for the investigation. the worry is that a potential accomplice, or someone who at least supported anis amri, has not been found because police suspected that this particular man, who had been living in berlin, had in fact been part of a plot, or at least supported anis amri in this attack, because as you say, just minutes before the attack, amri had sent a voice message and a picture saying to this other person, "pray for me, brother, i'm in the car, all is fine", indicating there was somebody else involved in planning the attack. the authorities originally thought this ao—year—old tunisian man was indeed that suspect. it turns out that was not the case. he has now been released.

so now the search is on for any potential suspects. it's really not clear whether he was on his own, or whether he had a whole network of people helping him. there are still lots of questions to be clarified about what happened just before christmas. and in fact also the actions of the authorities who are coming under increasing criticism, of whether they acted quickly enough to find anis amri in the days after the attack and whether in fact he should have been allowed to carry out this attack at all, given that he was already known to the authorities and already deemed to be suspicious at the time. and prosecutors, when they were raising the information about the tunisian man, also spoke about the automatic braking system on the lorry and how that had potentially saved lives. yes, that's right, they said that the braking system, after about 70 metres, managed to stop the lorry,

meaning fewer people were killed than might have been the case. this is an interesting detail because there was speculation that the original driver of the hijacked lorry, a polish man, had intervened and there's been a lot of talk about whether he managed to help prevent other fatalities. in fact it looks like it was the braking system rather than that but there are questions about when this driver died because he was found dead in the truck of the lorryjust after the attack. it seems he was alive until shortly before the attack but authorities have said this afternoon that they're going to have to wait for an autopsy to find out how he died and when. the headlines on bbc news: the syrian government says there is a real chance for a solution to the syrian conflict. the hollywood

actress debbie reynolds best known for her role in the musical singin‘ in the rain has died at the age of 84. in the rain has died at the age of 8a. britain's leading gp says she is profoundly concerned about how doctors will cope with demand over the busy winter period. patients could be forced to wait for more than a month to see their family doctor this winter — that's the warning from britain's leading gp. helen stokes—lampard says she's "profoundly concerned" about how general practice will cope and that underinvestment had left surgeries "skating on thin ice". but nhs england says new money over the next four years will mean more access to convenient appointments throughout the week. ben ando has been to a gp surgery in rugby. this is the central surgery in rugby and between christmas and new year it can be busy. the chair of the royal college of gps council says that gp services are stretched more and more thinly

and patients may need to get used to waiting up to one month for an appointment. despite the best efforts of practice managers, any wait for anxious patients can be frustrating. it is annoying you have to ring at 8:30am. sometimes you get through, sometimes you don't. it is a bit annoying. you don't want to be sat on the phone 20 minutes before you get to speak to anybody. that is the way it is going, it is getting worse and worse. i do not think it can be as instant as everyone thinks it needs to be. this time of year, people get ill over christmas and if you have to wait a day or two, as long as it is not urgent, i do not see an issue with it. i think there have been fewer gps wanting to go into the profession at the front—end and at the other end gps are emigrating, in

some are retiring early, others have decided to take another career. it is something to do with stress and the perception thejob is not enjoyable and perhaps a feeling that gps are not empowered to be in control like we used to be. dr stokes—lampard says that chronic disease management — seeing patients quickly to catch things early — is a great success story of the nhs. and if gps have to prioritise people with urgent conditions, that success story may suffer. a review of the youth justice system has concluded that child criminals should automatically be given life—long anonymity. it's understood ministers are now considering introducing legislation to indefinitely ban the identification of offenders who commit crimes while under 18. the review says naming child offenders such asjon venables

and robert thompson, who murdered two—year—old james bulger, undermines attempts to rehabilitate them. the nhs in england is to put barcodes on medicines and medical equipment. it's hoped that the scheme will reduce the likelihood of patients being given the wrong treatment — and make it easier to trace people if they are. sangita myska has the story. an angiogram designed to reveal the condition of patients' blood vessels is carried out in salisbury. as part of the piloting of the scanlisafety scheme, barcodes on medication and equipment record the materials used to treat patients, the time and place of the procedure and the name of the medical staff taking part. we can trace that patient very quickly. we scan all the equipment so there should be no drug errors. some drugs look very similar. it's to the correct patient, so we scan the patient making sure the right drug or the right blood product etc goes to the right patient and if they're going to roll it out to orthopaedics and other

types of equipment, we can trace those back in the future again to those patients. barcoding will reduce the average of an hour a day nurses spend collecting medicines and alert staff to those reaching their use—by dates. everything from screws used in knee operations to breast implants will be barcoded so their quality can be monitored. about once a week tragically someone dies in the nhs because they're given the wrong medicine. into someone's body and it has to be changed at a later date. if we use modern barcode technology then we can deal with a lot of these problems. one of the biggest advantages of scanlisafety could be in tracing patients when faulty products have been recalled. nearly 50,000 british women had breast implants made by the french company pip when they were revealed to be at risk of rupturing. the patchy record—keeping had made it difficult to trace the patients at the time.

sangita myska, bbc news. migrating birds are arriving at their breeding grounds earlier as global temperatures rise, a study has found. the research, conducted by scientists at the university of edinburgh, says some species are missing out on vital resources such as food and nesting places as a result. anisa kadri reports. up, up and away. at least 4,000 different species of birds are regular migrants, with some flying thousands of miles from one continent to another, many moving between north and south from where they breed to where they spend the winter. scientists already believe changes in temperature are having an effect on how some plants and animals behave, and now a new study from the university of edinburgh has found that some birds are reaching their summer breeding grounds earlier, — on average one day soon for every one degree increase in temperature. they say reaching their breeding grounds at the wrong time, even by a few days, might mean birds miss out on food and nesting places.

and it's those with further to go that may miss out most, which may then affect when their young are born and their chances of survival. researchers hope their findings will help scientists improve predictions of how different species respond to current and future environmental change. keepers at chester zoo are celebrating the arrival of a very rare baby giraffe. this 6ft tall youngster, who is yet to be named, arrived on boxing day. the rothschild giraffe is said to be one of the most endangered species of the animal, with fewer than 1600 left in the wild. more now on the death of the hollywood actress debbie reynolds, just a day after her daughter carrie fisher. the 84—year—old star of singin‘ in the rain was at her son's home planning her daughter's funeral when she is believed to have suffered a stroke. six years ago, when debbie reynolds was a guest on the bbc‘s hardtalk

programme, she opened up about her three divorces, going bankrupt and bringing up two children and three step—children on her own. do i have to work? yes, everybody has to work and it is always bills, i raised five children. they went to university and they always had a mother that worked, so they had a lot of cars, colleges, you know. so i think that all parents work, don't they? especially if they have a divorce. your third husband left you bankrupt, didn't he? my second husband left me bankrupt. and the third one. my third husband just left with all the money. he didn't leave me bankrupt. that must have been very difficult because as a hollywood star you had amassed a huge amount of money until the marriage. husbands spend a lot of money. i could shop all day on what they spend. do you regret that you trusted your husband so much financially

and in the end it didn't work out for one reason or another and in the case of your second husband, he gambled a lot. the third husband it was a hotel complex investment that didn't work out. as a woman, i have to answer you honestly that when you fall in love you don't really ask — is the man in love with me? you really think that he is. otherwise you wouldn't get married. you just really do believe. i am rather victorian and i think if the man says, i love you, debbie, and i want to be with you the rest of your life, you must believe him or you wouldn't marry him. i am not a complete fool until after the fact, but then i was. yes, i have been married three times. twice, the second one went bankrupt, the third one went bankrupt but he didn't get everything. he took all the money and ran, but he didn't get everything. and i have great resilience.

they don't tackle me on the way out, theyjust leave me fallen, like a good punch. when you first discovered at the age of 16, what was it like to be on the verge of a hollywood career? who knew that? i was 16 and i was in school, i entered a local beauty contest just for fun because they gave away a free blouse and scarf. that is why you did it? a silk scarf. i never had a silk scarf or a beautiful blouse. i had this local contest in california and i won the contest and there was a talent scout there. they took me to warner brothers and they did a screen test and they asked me did i want to be in movies and i said, i don't... they must be a bit surprised by that because every young girl in those days wanted to be an actress especially in california. i truly had no thought about it. i loved to go to movies, but why would you think you're going to be in the movies?

it is one thing to go to the movies and see movie stars, but why would you think you were going to be in the movies if no one in yourfamily...? if you weren't exposed at all. i had no dream of that. all of a sudden i guess they thought it was so crazy that i would fit into show business. you have to be a little crazy to be in show business, i have decided that. it was a cold, frosty start in much of england and wales but not as much fog as expected. the fog stayed in the valleys, for example in shropshire, and thank you for this picture of the fog. at the moment that will clear in the west midlands. a lot of sunshine in england and wales. cloud working eastwards a cross

england and wales. cloud working eastwards across wales which will help to break up the fog in the west midlands. the majority will see sunshine. quite cloudy for a time in south—west england and wales but for most with sunshine, temperatures should get up to seven. in northern ireland, decent breaks in the cloud and sunshine. with a south—westerly breeze relatively mild. cloud breaking also in scotland. breezy in the north—west. spots of rain threatening the western isles. overnight, clear skies for england and wales. frost is likely again. we may see clouds developing through the night, particularly across western parts of england and wales, which will probably help lift the temperatures and early frost melting away. in northern ireland and scotland, a cloudy night and cloudy start to friday. in the far north of scotla nd start to friday. in the far north of scotland on friday a weather front

will bring persistent rain to the northern isles and western isles. the front is not moving too fast. for many on friday, drier weather, the cloud probe to breaks, particularly on high ground, so there will be spells of sunshine. on new year's eve, more of scotland will get wet weather along with parts of northern ireland with england and wales largely dry and turning milder. new year's eve, as we run up turning milder. new year's eve, as we run up to the big celebrations, we run up to the big celebrations, we see rain trickling southwards. mild to the south, but across the north, turning colder. on new year ‘s day, cold enough for snow particularly in the hills of scotland. a ceasefire in syria from midnight tonight, it has been brokered by russia and turkey. president putin says the syrian government and

opposition groups have agreed to the basic terms and to the start of peace talks. after nearly six years of conflict those behind the deal say it's a window of opportunity that mustn't be wasted. the third document is about a readiness to start peace talks. warning from gps that patients in innard may wait more than a month foran innard may wait more than a month for an appointment because the system is stretched —— in england. the actress debbie reynolds has