hello, you're watching bbc world news, i'mjames menendez. our top story this hour: moscow denies us intelligence claims that it directed cyber attacks and interfered with november's presidential election. after dismissing claims of russian hacking again, donald trump is due to be briefed by senior spy chiefs later. welcome to the programme. our other main stories this hour: turkish police are still searching for a suspect who escaped after a bomb attack in izmir, officials say kurdish militants were behind the attack. more than 600 arrests in mexico after demonstrations over rising gasoline prices led to looting and violence. i'm aaron heselhurst. in business: never mind those exploding phones, samsung's on track for its best profit in years and pledges to put the galaxy note 7 debacle behind it. plus, technology, trade and trump.

the boss of sony tells us why goods and information must keep flowing freely. but first, american intelligence chiefs have given their most explicit warning yet about the threat, as they see it, from russian cyber attacks to the united states and beyond. they say there's no doubt russia tried to interfere with the us presidential election, although they've stopped short of calling it an act of war. they will brief donald trump later on friday. the president—elect is unconvinced, so far, about moscow's involvement and the kremlin denies it. dan johnson reports. the three wise men of us intelligence. together in their belief that russian hacking interfered with the presidential election, intending to help donald trump win. the hacking was only one pa rt trump win. the hacking was only one part of it, and it also entailed

classical propaganda, disinformation, fake news. but in the last few our president—elect has again questioned theirjudgement. it's the latest in a long list of online outbursts. first rubbishing intelligence officials before saying he's a big fan, then challenging them once again. the cia director said he is expecting a feisty meeting. i am hoping that he is going to be respectful of the profession, respectful of the agency as well as the rest of the intelligence community and i'm looking forward to a rather robust, if not sporty, discussion on this issue. there's been more blunt criticism of mr trump's approach from his political enemies. grow up,

time to be an adult, your president. and from republicans too. every american should be alarmed by russia's attacks on our nation, there is no national security interest more valuable to the united states of america than the ability to hold free and fair elections without foreign interference. mr putin is up to no good and must be stopped and mr president—elect, when you listen to these people you can be sceptical, but understand they're the best among us and they're trying to protect us. but at least two of these men won't be around for long. they'll be replaced when donald trump takes office two weeks from today. danieljohnson, bbc news. steve fish is a professor of political science at the university of california, berkeley. thanks for being with us on bbc world news. what do you make of donald trump's continued scepticism about this intelligence. it's very ha rd to about this intelligence. it's very hard to say, james. this is an

extremely strained situation to be in where the incoming president—elect seems to have more respect for a dictator in a country that regards the united states as its foe than it does for our president and our security agencies. it seems like a couple of different things could be going on here. first of all trump seems to think this whole hacking incident somehow imbues him having won the presidency. he seems to think that if he admits this actually happened then somehow the presidency will be taken away from him or somehow this will cast aspersions on his having won the campaign. another possibility is that, you know, he's got a really deep anti—government ideology. this is a guy that tends to believe all manner of conspiracy theories and he seems to actually distrust government agencies more generally. he distrusts the cia and the nsa and other security agencies, there's talk of him hiring his own security detail instead of using the

secret service officers to guard him when he becomes president, he doesn't want to win in the white house, he seems to think the oval office is bugged and he wants to live in from tower. there's a certain amount of bizarre anti—government feeling that he reflects which goes well beyond the normal conservative belief that the government is not efficient and government is not efficient and government needs to be in in someway is. this is something much deeper than that. and yet scepticism can be a good thing, it can sometimes suit intelligence agencies to inflate the threat? it can in some cases but i don't think there's too much inflation going on here, they're just presenting the facts, they're just presenting the facts, they're just saying this happened, lee is the evidence we see this hacking happened and that's the way it is —— here's. it's not an ongoing long—term thing where anybody is trying to make a case for war or peace, this is a report on the fa cts . peace, this is a report on the facts. it seems like mr trump's

scepticism is only selective, he's not sceptical about putin and his motives but he's very sceptical about the american president and his motives and the american security agencies. it's especially strange since the cia and the nsa and these other agencies aren't partisan, they are professionals and frankly most of these people are conservatives themselves in these agencies and for trump to distrust them strikes many americans as bizarre indeed. did it make any difference to the election result? i don't think it tipped the election. trump of course lost by 3 million votes, we've got this bizarre system which you know called the electoral college where the person who gets the most votes doesn't always win. if you look at it state—by—state and see how close some of the swing states were, some people argue it could have tipped the election. i don't think it did but at any rate we're never going to know the answer to that and it seems like it would make sense for mr

trump to simply accept the fact this happened and go on. even if it did tip the election, which we will never know, he is still president, nobody is talking about rerunning the election. thank you, steve flesch, professor of political science at the university of colourful new, burghley. —— university of california, burghley. a car bomb has exploded in the turkish city of izmir killing a police officer and a court official. police shot dead two militants in a gun battle outside the court but a third escaped. the turkish government says weapons found at the scene suggest a much bigger attack had been planned. catriona renton reports. cctv cameras captured the moment of the explosion. we cannot hear it, but we can see the scale of the damage in izmir. amateur video from nearby shows smoke billowing upwards in the aftermath. and this is the wreckage. people say the bomb was detonated after officers attempted to stop a vehicle in front of izmir‘s courthouse.

a police officer and a court employee were killed, others were wounded. translation: i was at the security cabin and a black car approached and crashed into a policeman. he got out of the car and exploded the bomb he had in his hand. i ran into the market and lay down on the floor. a second car was blown up in a controlled explosion. police killed two of the attackers following a shootout involving officers and a number of men carrying machine—guns. a third person is reportedly still being sought. some believe a larger attack may have been prevented. translation: based on the preparation, the weapons, bombs and ammunition seized it's understood a big atrocity was being planned. protesters gathered at the scene of the attack. some shouting slogans against the kurdish separatists, the pkk. the governor of izmir has already said he believes they are behind the attack. the group, however, has not

claimed responsibility. 39 people were killed in a terror attack at new year in a nightclub in istanbul. so—called islamic state claimed to be behind it. speaking at the opening of a metro line in turkey's capital, ankara, the president said the country would not be divided by terror. translation: they couldn't destroy our unity and won't be able to do so. they couldn't harm our unity and solidarity and they won't be able to. now it is the normally peaceful seaside town of izmir that is in mourning as once again turkish people are left with a sense of fear for their safety in their own country. catriona renton, bbc news. and aaron is here with all the business news. good morning, how are you? some good news about samsung ? good morning, how are you? some good news about samsung? you remember the

phones exploded, it seems to be moving on from that. let me explain. we start with samsung. in the last few our in the last few hours south korean tech giant has said it's on track for the best quarterly profits in more than three years. it's a major boost for the company after the exploding smartphone scandal that put a serious dent in its reputation. let's give you the numbers. in the three months to the end of december, samsung is forecasting profits of $7.8 billion. that's up by half on the same period last year, much better than expected and the best quarter since mid—2013. that might come as a surprise as we know samsung was forced to scrap its top of the range phone, the galaxy note 7, after a spate of exploding batteries. hugely embarrassing, and hugely expensive.

it has warned the scandal sent more than $5 billion of profit up in smoke. so why is it doing so well? in a word, components. samsung makes chips and screens for the whole tech industry. samsung hasn't revealed the details but it's thought to have been the best quarter ever for its semiconductor division. it makes the complex chips that are more and more in demand as phones get smarter, and the prices of those have jumped. so despite the exploding phone scandal, samsung's investors have had a pretty good year, shares up by almost 50% over the past year. we'll be hearing from an expert on all this in 20 minutes' time. we are also at the consumer electronics show in las vegas, where the world's top technology bosses are showing off the latest phones, tvs, gadgets and robots. this week the show‘s organisers have warned that sales of technology will be down again this year.

they think political uncertainty might weigh on peoples willingness to spend money. our correspondent rory cellan jones has been speaking to the boss of sony, kazuo hirai, and asked him how concerned he is, particularly about the policies we may get from a trump presidency. you can hear what he has to say in 20 minutes' time. don't forget you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter, i'm @bbcaaron. see you very shortly. see you later. there's been violence and looting on the streets of mexico following a 20% increase in the price of fuel. officials say the unrest has resulted in the death of a policeman and a bystander and more than 600 people have been arrested. will grant reports. in mexico, they call it the gasolinazo, in part it refers to the government's overnight fuel price hike, which took effect on the first of january. it also refers to this.

at least 250 shops have been ransacked in response with hundreds of looters and protesters arrested amid the chaos. the eastern state of veracruz saw some of the worst of the looting with some stores emptied of clothing and food. others of electrical goods and flatscreen tvs. the protests quickly spread to other areas of the country to two, the protests quickly spread to other areas of the country too, including hidalgo in mexico state. including hidalgo and mexico state. in the capital, mexico city, traffic ground to a halt as those most affected by the price rises, truck drivers and transport union workers, set up blockades along the main thoroughfares. meanwhile, in the very centre of the city protesters turned out to call for president enrique pena nieto to stand down. translation: i'm marching because i'm angry about all of this corruption, the mishandling of things by the government and by congress. mexico can't take this any more. i want this government to stop overburdening us, to stop putting a rope

around our necks with taxes that we don't understand clearly. for his part, the mexican leader continues to defend the price rise as a necessary measure. translation: there's no greater cost to a society than that of being irresponsible in looking after the stability of our economy, and that is why we must all take on this challenge so we can continue moving forwards. with the first wave of protests and looting, a new sense of fear has taken hold in parts of mexico with thousands of shops choosing to close for the day. rumour and counter rumour about the scale of the disorder is rife on twitter, sometimes using images from unrelated protests in different countries to sow fear. the gasolinazo is part of a year—long price liberalisation programme and with president—elect trump's policies already showing signs of hurting the mexican

economy, this may only be the start of a difficult period at the gas pump for millions of ordinary mexicans. will grant, bbc news. let's round—up some of the other main stories: —— it was an horrific attack, a young man subjected to hours of torture and mental abuse. and all shown live on facebook. well, four people in chicago have now been charged with hate crime and battery. the reaction to it has been particularly charged because the victim is a white man with learning difficulties — the suspects are black. they face charges including aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. police describe the video as "sickening". we spoke to rob elgus from abc seven eyewitness news, who told us a viewer alerted them yesterday to the disturbing video. we received a clip of the video yesterday from a viewer and as we looked at it in the newsroom our initial response was, could it be a hoax? we needed to confirm

with the chicago police department that it wasn't a hoax and then we started to put the pieces together. chicago police found the alleged victim wandering the streets of the north—west side of chicago. they saw the video that went viral on facebook and then the puzzle pieces began to come together. and this victim, according to the police, was from a suburb in chicago and he knew one of his alleged attackers and was with them for about 2k hours before they started to assault him in an apartment in chicago. he managed to escape, according to police, by running out of an apartment after two of the women now charged with hate crimes pounded down a neighbour's door. he got out and then police found him. it was a disturbing story and as you mentioned in that video, it was hard to stomach. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: could the sounds at stonehenge reveal something special about the world —famous prehistoric monument? the japanese people are in mourning

following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief. after half a century of delighting fans around the world, charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow, in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals.

this is bbc world news. i'm james menendez. the latest headlines: donald trump has tweeted again that he's sceptical about intelligence warnings on russian cyber attacks just hours before he meets intelligence chiefs for a briefing. a car bomb in the turkish city of izmir has killed two people. police say they shot dead two militants thought to be behind the attack. a third is still on the run. lets get more on that story now. first of all, izmir, we don't often hear about izmir first of all, izmir, we don't often hearabout izmir in first of all, izmir, we don't often hear about izmir in connection with these attacks. what might be the reason for that? they have seen plenty of attacks coming from numerous perpetrators and killing

hundreds of people in turkey over the last 15— 18 months and izmir has never been targeted before during this process, and now we are seeing attacks in the city, coastal city. it was kept fairly safe during the violent period of turkey and people say this even is considered a safer place in the country, this is heightening concerns about security and people feel more and more insecure and this latest attack also prompted a series of social media reactions and claims. for example, istanbul's biggest shopping mall has been evacuated because of serious terror threats. that wasn't true. these kind of rumisa —— rumours are gaining traction. this is becoming

the norm in the country. people are nervous indeed. the government pointed the finger at kurdish militants drawing a distinction between what happened in izmir and what happened in istanbul. yes, we have seen a couple of turkish officials, including the prime minister, stating the kurdish militants were behind the attack. over the course of the last one and a half yea rs over the course of the last one and a half years we have seen the pkk mainly targeting security forces. on the other hand the islamic state targeting civilians predominantly. and an offshoot of the pkk, however, tak, has been targeting civilians as well, so it is confusing and complex, it is hard to pinpoint, and so far there has not been a claim. it all amounts to a very difficult situation for the government, which is facing threats from all sorts of

different fronts. absolutely, as i say, for the last one and a half yea rs say, for the last one and a half years different groups include so—called islamic state and pkk and extremist leftist groups attacked in different cities. and also we have a failed military coup attempt. the government is putting the blame for the coup attempt on fatullah kulin, a cleric living in the us. the turkish government believes he was the mastermind of the coup attempt. so there are different moving parts and the turkish security forces are trying tojuggle them and the turkish security forces are trying to juggle them altogether. thank you. stonehenge in the south—west of england has always been associated with ancient mysteries and attracted modern—day druids. now an academic has recreated what he says is the strange acoustic of stonehenge from 3000 years ago. much of the stone circle has been lost over the years, but dr rupert till has used virtual reality to take us back to experience the original.

our arts correspondent david sillito reports. people have been coming here for at least 4000— people have been coming here for at least 4000- 5000 people have been coming here for at least 4000— 5000 years, so we are walking in the feet of history. when the wind blows, some people say they hear a strange hum. thomas hardy wrote about it in tess of the debit bills and doctor rupert tell is convinced the sound of stonehenge as pa rt convinced the sound of stonehenge as part of its magic. —— tess of the d'urbervilles. you hear between this beat a little echo. the problem is this isjust a

fragment of the sound people would have heard 4000 years ago. at the site's historian susan greening. so this is the front door of stonehenge we are going through right now. that is right, yes, and we are coming into the central space now. it does change a little bit, doesn't it? into the central space now. it does change a little bit, doesn't mm does, you have the feeling of being enclosed within a space. and that is when many of the stones have gone. what we are looking at today is the ruin of stonehenge. many have been taken away from the site, many have fallen down, lots have been eroded, they are covered in lichen. com pletely they are covered in lichen. completely different atmosphere, wouldn't it? yes, it would. however, rupert tell has announced... what this technology offers is a possibility, a chance to, well, return back and see and also here

what this place used to look like in the past. —— hear. what this place used to look like in the past. -- hear. we have constructed it by rebuilding stonehenge digitally and rebuilding the acoustics of the space as it would have been that all of the stones were here. 50 would have been that all of the stones were here. so how different is the old sound to the sound we have today? well, ifi is the old sound to the sound we have today? well, if i tapped a strong you will hear a little bit of an echo. when all of the stones are put in place, there is a much more powerful sense of enclosure, a slight reverberation, more echo and it changes more as you walk around. and the reason he is convinced ancient people were interested in sound is because of his work on caves. hundreds of metres underground they found ancient instruments and human marks on certain stalactites.

instruments and human marks on certain sta la ctites. sta la ctites that unmusical. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. so, today it isjust ruin beside a city road, this today at chance to say goodbye to the 21st century and experience of the last sound of stonehenge. extraordinary stuff. and before we go, let's take a look at these pictures. a five—month—old baby elephant has been taking a dip in a swimming pool in thailand as part of a lengthy rehabilitation process to heal her injured foot. ba by farjam's front left leg was caught in a trap set by local villagers in november. but although the wound and her health improved significantly, she refused to put any weight on her injured leg. the treatment, which is being undertaken so she can avoid having to use a a prosthetic leg, could take up to two months.

hello there, good morning. yesterday morning we saw the lowest temperature recorded so far this winter in england. —8.1 in oxfordshire. the frost was quite widespread. this morning, the frost is not quite so widespread. there will be some across the south—eastern quarter of the uk. that is because we have more cloud coming in from the west. it is bringing some rain with it and helping hold those temperatures up. it is quite wet for the western side of scotland to start the day. the eastern side fares a little better. to go with that rain, some fog on the hills, and wet weather too in northern ireland. the rain fringing into the western side of england and wales. not quite into cornwall yet. a largely dry start here. head further east and we run into the lowest temperatures. it will be cold and frosty, and we also have patches of fog across east anglia and the south—east of england. bear that in mind if you heading out on the roads. visibility could be up and down. into northern england, much more cloud. not much in the way of rainfall, but a little bit. still quite chilly. two or three in many places. through the day, the main area

of rain will topple southwards and eastwards and get into the midlands through the afternoon. it never really gets to the south—east. here, the morning fog lifts into low cloud. that will break up into the afternoon. here, the lowest temperatures as well. further west, something less cold coming in from the atlantic. that less cold air continues to drift its way in through saturday morning, and saturday itself will be a fairly grey day. generally through the weekend, it will be less cold. a lot of cloud around. not much in the way of rain. a bit of patchy rain and drizzle to be had. it will be a grey start to the day on saturday. a lot of cloud. not much rain. a little bit here and there. a few breaks, but a quiet day in all. 10—11 degrees. something less cold for the united kingdom into the weekend. however, a cold wind will bring pretty low temperatures to central and southern parts of europe. as low as —10 by day in the balkans. back on our shores on sunday, a lot similar to the first part of the weekend. a lot of cloud and not much rain. temperatures around 10—12 degrees. for the early part of the week, more unsettled with a band of rain starting off in the north—west

and ending up in the south—east. this is bbc world news, the headlines: donald trump has voiced fresh scepticism about allegations that russia interfered in the american presidential election. mr trump's comments on twitter came just hours before us intelligence officials brief him on why they believe moscow ordered hackers to undermine his democratic rival, hillary clinton. two people have been killed and least five wounded by a car bomb in the turkish resort of izmir outside the city's courthouse. two attackers were shot dead by police and a third is said to be on the run. in mexico, a police officer has been killed and more than 600 people have been arrested in violent protests over petrol prices. demonstrators are furious about a 20% increase announced five days ago. prosecutors in the us city of chicago have charged four people with hate crimes over a video live—streamed on facebook,