this is bbc news. the headlines at eight: president barack obama has imposed sanctions on russian officials in retaliation for hacking the us presidential election, saying "all americans should be alarmed by russia's actions". the united nations has welcomed a ceasefire in syria brokered by russia and turkey. russian president putin said the warring parties had declared their readiness to start peace talks. family doctors warn that patients in england could wait more than a month for an appointment because the system's overstretched. 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 in the next hour... tributes to hollywood star debbie reynolds, who's died at the age of 8a. # good morning, good morning! best known for her role in musical singin‘ in the rain, her death comes just a day

after that of her daughter, carrie fisher. and then half an hour, i will look back at the past 12 months for the royal family, dominated by celebrations to mark the queen's 90th birthday. that is 2016, the world yea r, 90th birthday. that is 2016, the world year, with me, daniela relph. —— the royal year. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the us president barack obama has authorised a series of sanctions against russia for intervening in the 2016 us presidential election. america is expelling 35 diplomats. and officials of the action was a response to the harassment of american diplomats in moscow. president obama warned of more action to come, saying in a statement, "these actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm us

interests in violation of established international norms of behaviour." a report on alleged russian interference during the us election is to be presented soon. the russian foreign ministry tonight described the move as counter—productive. there is more on that statement from the state department that we have received in the last few minutes. it is adding context as to why these expulsions have taken place. it says the state department of these actions as part of a comprehensive response to russia's interference in the us election and to a pattern of harassment of our diplomats overseas that has increased in the last format for years, including a significant increase in the last 12 months. it goes on to explain what form that harassment has taken. it says it involved arbitrary police stops, physical assault on the broadcast on state tv of personal details about our personnel which put them at risk. it goes on to say

the russian government has impeded oui’ the russian government has impeded our diplomatic operations in a number of ways. today's actions, it finishes by saying, send a clear message that such behaviour is unacceptable and will have consequences. we will be speaking to oui’ consequences. we will be speaking to our correspondent in washington, laura bicker, about that story in a moment. russia has announced a nationwide ceasefire in the syrian conflict. the deal has been brokered by russia and turkey, who've been on opposing sides in the conflict. the syrian government and main opposition groups have agreed to a ceasefire from midnight local time tonight. but some groups including so—called islamic state are not part of the agreement. the announcement was made in moscow, from where our correspondent steve rosenberg reports. for nearly six years, syria has been torn apart by civil war. a country reduced to ruins. a conflict that has left more than 400,000 people dead. there have been peace initiatives before, which brought no peace. but today, russia

announced a breakthrough. in the kremlin, russia's defence minister handed vladimir putin a list of syrian opposition groups which had signed up to a ceasefire with president assad. 60,000 rebels, he said, would stop fighting. this is how president putin summarised the deal. translation: three documents have been signed. the first document between the syrian government and the armed opposition is about a ceasefire on the territory of the syrian arab republic. the second document is a set of measures for monitoring the ceasefire. and the third document is a statement about readiness to start peace talks on ending the syrian conflict. the syrian government was persuaded by russia to sign today's agreement. it's with an assortment of seven syrian rebel groups. turkey's role was crucial in convincing them. not part of the deal are so—called islamic state,

or the main kurdish rebel group who are fighting them, the ypg. and there's confusion tonight over whether the agreement covers a key rebel group, widely seen as linked to al-qaeda. sidelined is washington. withjohn kerry's diplomacy, the us had been co—sponsor, with russia, of previous peace efforts for syria. but today, the kremlin has snubbed the obama administration. moscow said it hoped america would join the new round of peace talks when donald trump takes over. but will the ceasefire hold? today, the free syrian army, a loose alliance of rebel factions, was cautious. translation: during the talks, the russian government guaranteed to us that they will keep the syrian regime forces and their allies under control. during these talks, we have not met anyone from the syrian regime. meanwhile, the violence

in syria continues. this amateur video purports to show the aftermath of an air strike today in the suburbs of damascus. schoolchildren running, screaming, through the smoke and the chaos. when it begins, can the ceasefire end this war? you can understand why many syrians have low expectations. joining me now from moscow is pavel felgengauer, a russian military analyst. tell us about the significance of the timing of this announcement of this truce, and whether it could really have happened any sooner, given what has been happening in syria? well, it happened when the

agreement came together. it's not that it was deliberately postponed till the new year. it is a very complicated agreement between a great number of different groups outside states. it is russia, turkey and iran working together with the syrian assad regime and opposition groups, trying to put together some kind of agreement that would change the basic landscape of the syrian civil war. of course, this agreement came after the end of the battle in aleppo and as that battle ended, it was obvious that all sides needed an operational pause. so tactically speaking, it happened when everyone

needed a kind of pause even if they are not going to follow up the ceasefire. they needed to rearrange their troops and map out aleppo. so some kind of agreement was coming. 0f some kind of agreement was coming. of course, moscow wants a more lasting and strategic outcome from this ceasefire, an agreement with parts of the syrian opposition. moscow is pressing for an early beginning of talks in the kazakh capital as banner between the assad regime, the syrian opposition, with co—sponsorship from iran, russia and turkey. but how realistic are those talks if they are among the way, particularly given that not all factions involved in the fighting in syria are included in the truce?

well, it never was really for all factions to be involved. russia wa nts to factions to be involved. russia wants to split the syrian opposition, something the russian military and political leadership successfully d id military and political leadership successfully did in chechnya 15 yea rs successfully did in chechnya 15 years ago. they split the opposition. the extremists are part of the opposition. we don't have good infantry in syria. we have the shia militias and hezbollah, who are hostile to the sunni population and they report to iran, not to russia. so the best thing is to recruit the fighters of the syrian opposition if they are ready to be recruited. it is like the american awakening in iraq. turn part of the sunni

opposition. that is what we are trying to do. before you go, i must ask you about the decision by the united states to expel 35 russian diplomats and close two of the russian compounds in the us. it is already being dismissed by one politician as the death throes of political corpses. i assume he is talking about the outgoing obama administration. what is the likely reaction going to be at the kremlin to this? the reaction will be furious. it is going to be a serious diplomatic crisis. additional sanctions against individuals or organisations would not really change much. but such a massive expulsion means that moscow is going to expel american diplomats in the same number. it is going to be tit—for—tat. and this is going to be very nasty. donald trump will be

infuriated that he is coming in and we'll have to handle this crisis, because the expulsions are going to happen, no matter what. while obama is the president, there is only one president at a time in america, so this is going to be very serious. they will have to put a lot of effort in between putin and trump the kind of redo it after trump's inauguration. pavel felgengauer, military analyst, thank you for joining us. let's get more from our washington correspondent, laura bicker. tell us what has led to these expulsions? if you were following the us presidential election, you may remember that russia was accused of hacking into the e—mails of the democratic party. these were the e—mails of senior levels of the democratic party and some of hillary

clinton's closest aides. embarrassing details were released on wikileaks. the cia and the fbi both believe that russia was behind it. nor does people in russia, but it. nor does people in russia, but it is believed that it was directed at the highest levels of russian government. president obama says he will release a report containing all the information over the next few days, but that is what has led up to this action. president obama warned vladimir putin in october that he would not accept any interference in us democracy and today in the last hour, he has announced his retaliation. he will expel 35 russian officials from washington and san francisco. we understand that those officials, who have been described as diplomats, may also work in the intelligence sphere. the state department has described them as persona non grata. they say they we re as persona non grata. they say they were acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic or consular status. in addition, they are

closing two russian compounds, one in new york and one in maryland. these actions are not taken by president obama just because of what he described as malicious cyber activity. he says it is also in retaliation for the harassment of american diplomats in russia. he said they have been treated to physical assault, arbitrary police stops and broadcast on state tv of their personal details, which put them at risk. that is one of the reasons why these actions are being taken. he said further sanctions and actions will be taken in the next few weeks. he only has 20 or so days left in office, and he says these actions will be at a time of his choosing. how supportive are the republicans generally towards these sanctions? donald trump has a different view of russia to barack obama. we have heard from the senior

republican heads become paul ryan. he says russia has consistently sought to undermine us interests. he said the sanctions were overdue. so he is in favour of the sanctions. he said it is an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with russia. but that failed policy with russia. but that failed policy with russia were now be for the republicans to inherit in the form of donald trump. how will he handled this? this almost boxes him in. what does he do with these sanctions? does he rip up the paper and said you can come back and we open the russian compounds? in doing so, he would be disregarding the evidence of the fbi and the cia. senior intelligence officials, whose advice he will have to listen to over the next four years as he makes foreign policy and domestic policy decisions. they would put him at odds with his intelligence

officials. but to continue along this route would put him at odds with vladimir putin, and he has said in the past that this is a relationship that he would seek. so it is difficult to know how donald trump will react. laura, thank you. and we'll find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10.45 and 11.30pm this evening in the papers — our guests joining me tonight are claire cohen, women's editor at the daily telegraph and kevin schofield, editor of politicshome. the headlines on bbc news: president obama ordered sanctions against 35 russian officials in response to allegations that the kremlin interfered in the us presidential election. russian president led putin announces the syrian government and main opposition groups have agreed to the basic terms of the ceasefire and to the start of peace talks. britain's

leading gp says she is profoundly concerned about how doctors will cope with demand over the busy winter period. time for a round—up of the sport. there's a game between two of the championship's most prestigious clubs at villa park this evening. aston villa aiming to make up ground on a top six that includes opponents leeds. even so far. in the evening's other game, it's goalless between rotherham and burton. swansea have ruled ryan giggs out of the running to succeed bob bradley. giggs had been the early favourite, but swansea have decided to look elsewhere. bbc sport understands the wales manager chris coleman remains a contender, despite his wife suggesting otherwise on twitter. bradley departed after

the boxing day defeat to west ham afterjust 11 games and 85 days in charge. the hammers boss slaven bilic doesn't believe that was fair on the american. having been under pressure himself, he certainly has sympathy for bradley: it is such a short amount of time. basically, you depend totally on luck. if the people are expecting you to make something in a couple of months‘ time, this is like you have a game in two days and then you have a game in two days and then you have a game in five days. he didn‘t have any chance, to be fair. he was lucky to wina any chance, to be fair. he was lucky to win a few games. i should warn you that we have some eye—watering figures on the way for you. argentine

striker carlos tevez appears to have become one of the highest paid sportsmen in the world, after moving to the chinese super league. the former west ham, manchester united and manchester city striker has joined shanghai shenhua, who are coached by ex—brighton boss gus poyet. they have agreed a £71.6 million deal with argentine club boca juniors — including a salary for tevez of £615,000 a week. tevez joins a growing list of high—profile players to head to china including graziano pelle, ezequiel lavezzi, jackson martinez and oscar. rafael nadal has made a winning start to his latest comeback from injury. it was an emphatic victory too against tomas berdych at an exhibition tournament in abu dhabi. a wrist injury had troubled nadal throughout 2016, but there were no signs of rustiness — this was the first point back on court. it set the spaniard on course to take the first set 6—0, and he completed the job

in the second. nadal will play milos raonic in the semi—finals. andy murray will play david goffin in the other semi—final tomorrow lunchtime. former world champion ricky hatton has called for more support for retired boxers. hatton said that if there were some kind of union in place, others may be able to avoid the depression he‘s suffered in retirement. hatton fell into heavy drinking and drug—taking, and tried to take his own life on several occasions. he said that after quitting, boxers tend to spend the rest of their lives on their own. james wade is through to the pdc world darts championship quarter—finals after a thrilling comeback win against michael smith. the sixth seed was trailing 3—1 but won three sets in a row to claim a 11—3 victory and set up a potential meeting with peter wright. earlier, daryl gurney also edged through 11—3 against mark webster, whilst dave chisnall beat jelle klaasen 4—2.

that‘s all the sport for now. stay in touch via the bbc sport website — i‘ll be back with sportsday at 10.30pm. this return to our top story and the fa ct this return to our top story and the fact that the united states has announced that it is going to expel 35 russian diplomats and close two russian compounds in the united states. it is following on from those allegations against rush of interference in the us elections. we have also been hearing this evening of harassment of american diplomats based overseas. dr arash aramesh is aus based overseas. dr arash aramesh is a us foreign policy expert. hejoins me on webcam from houston. first of all, how likely was it that america was going to take some kind of retaliatory action like this? was going to take some kind of retaliatory action like thi57m was going to take some kind of retaliatory action like this? it was almost certain. after what russia

did to the us elections, trying to influence the presidential elections via hacking the e—mails of the democratic committee and other hillary clinton campaign officials, and then leaky that information slowly to wikileaks or other republican operatives and also to the news media, and also taking other actions. for instance, the news media, and also taking otheractions. for instance, over the past few years, russia operatives have been tried to hack the us state department. they have tried to hack the pentagon and so forth. so because we have had this pattern of russian cyber attacks, it was easy to identify the signature this time. what is different is the level of seniority involved, the senior level of government officials involved in this. it turned out in all 17 us intelligence agencies,

including the cia and the fbi, they are in agreement that senior officials in russia as high as president vladimir putin were behind this. they orchestrate do —— they orchestrated it and they wanted to tilt the us elections in favour of one candidate. that is what it was certain that president obama, while still in office, will take action not only against this sort of cyber attack, but also against the russian meddling from the past six months. but russia has denied any involvement in the hacking allegations. we have also had a member of the russian upper house of parliament saying these expulsions are signs of the death throes of political corpses, dismissing what is being done by the outgoing obama administration. so what is likely to happen in terms of escalation on the

russian side? they are also going to retaliate. the us ambassador to russia for a few years who is now back at stanford university, he has many tales of russian government harassing us diplomats and their families. russian officials would go on tv and talk about american diplomats and their private matters. so this is nothing new. they are going to retaliate. it depends how much they can retaliate, but it is clear that russia and president putin and his crowd are hopeful that a new incoming cupboard ministry will be much more russia and putin friendly than the obama administration was. and there were

confident that they hillary clinton administration would have been much more hostile to russia and vladimir putin. so while president obama has implemented these sanctions, the russians are hopeful that the incoming president donald trump would have a more positive outlook towards russia. that is why president obama implemented these sanctions and took action today. it would be horrid, politically, for a republican president or for any american president to try to undo justified actions against the russians just to be justified actions against the russiansjust to be nice justified actions against the russians just to be nice to the russians. so it will be hard for trump to do this. but how can donald trump to do this. but how can donald trump ignore all of those us intelligence agencies who are all saying the same thing? because donald trump can do things and get away with it. he has done so in the past. he will probably continue to do so. but his luck will come to an end at some point. he is not going

to have this free ride forever. but so far, he has been able to defy conventional wisdom and defy gravity, but i don‘t think that we‘ll asked. even his own base is going to be dissatisfied and alienated if he bends over backwards for the russians. dr arash aramesh, us foreign policy expert, thank you for joining us foreign policy expert, thank you forjoining us. the hollywood actress debbie reynolds, who starred with gene kelly in the musical singin‘ in the rain, has died. she was 8a. her death was announced a day after the death of her daughter, the actress carrie fisher. her son said the news had been too much for her to bear, as our correspondent 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.

i was supposed to be an innocent, virginal little girl and certainly, i was that. but 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. you could make an album, i could produce it. 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. and here she is, carrie fisher, six years old, watching her mother on stage. the photographer said she didn‘t move. 54 years later, debbie reynolds‘ final words: "i want to be with carrie." but if you want to remember what made her special, remember her like this. the actress debbie reynolds,

who has died at the age of 84. police in cornwall say they‘re treating as "unexplained" the deaths of two men whose bodies were found at a block of flats in st austell. one of the men, who was 31, has been identified and his family has been informed. the second is believed to have been in his twenties. eleanor parkinson reports. the bodies of the two men were found in a rented flat in this building yesterday afternoon. the police have not revealed how they died, but say their deaths are unexplained. officers from plymouth have been drafted in, along with a forensic team and a number of fire officers. this block of flats has been sealed off all day while officers search around the building and inside the property.

the police said the two men who died are a 31—year—old local man and a 22—year—old man, originally from plymouth. they say another man, arrested at the scene on suspicion of burglary, is not thought to have anything to do with the deaths. i just feel for all the families. obviously, i don‘t know exactly what‘s happened, but it is appalling that something like this can happen. the results of postmortem examinations are expected tomorrow, but the fire brigade have already ruled out the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning. the world‘s highest bridge for traffic has been opened in china. the structure stands almost 1,900 feet above a gorge in the southwest of the country. it‘s taken three years to build. let‘s ta ke let‘s take a look at the weather forecast. good evening. love leash sunshine in

the midlands earlier today, but fog thickening again. questions about the extent of the fog but it could mean more poor visibility and places, especially in the south—east by the end of the night. further north and west, a breeze but it is south—westerly, which will keep things relatively mild. by the end, there is wetter weather towards the north and west of scotland, that will be with you for some time. cold in the south—eastern corner where there is fog, temperatures either side of freezing. the fog is slow to clear. low cloud and there will be more cloud compared to what we saw earlier today. bricks in the cloud the high ground, and