welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: the un warns myanmar‘s leaders they could face genocide charges over the persecution of rohingya muslims. hoping to lead the anc and chart a new course for south africa. the party's delegates are voting now. the white house confirms the cia helped russia foil a terror plot in saint petersburg. president putin has personally thanked donald trump. chile's former president, conservative billionaire sebastian pinera, sweeps back into power. the prince, the president, and the probing interview — when harry met barack obama. if you start using long pauses between the answers, you're going to get — the face. let me see the face. 0h, 0k. i don't want to see that face. the united nations says the leaders

of myanmar could face charges of genocide over the persecution of the rohingya ethnic group. it is estimated that more than 650,000 rohingya muslims have fled to bangladesh since august, when attacks on police posts prompted a military crackdown. 0ur south asia correspondent justin rowlatt reports. this boy is 11 years old. he draws pictures of the horrors he has witnessed. translation: older women were stamped on, and then the military grabbed them by the hair and slaughtered them. because i saw that, i am drawing this. he's one of 650,000 rohingya

refugees who fled myanmar after a military assault that began in late august. "they are coming to kill us," says the man, "they are coming to kill us." the widespread and systematic nature of the violence has persuaded the un chief to say that it could amount to genocide, acts intended to destroy a group of people. can anyone rule out that elements of genocide may be present? he wants a criminal investigation to identify the perpetrators, and in an exclusive interview with the bbc, he does not rule out the possibility that aung san suu kyi or military leaders could end up in the dock. given the scale of the operation,

clearly these would have to be decisions taken at a high enough level. and then there's the crime of omission, that if it came to your knowledge that this was being committed, and you did nothing to stop it, then you could be culpable as well for that. he says only a court can judge that, but he is determined thatjustice should be done. in the meantime, though, this boy and hundreds of thousands like him remain in limbo. we asked aung san suu kyi for a response, but she has not replied. justin rowlatt, bbc news. thousands of anc delegates in south africa are voting to choose a new leader.

the result is expected to be close between the two candidates vying to replace presidentjacob zuma, whose time in office has been marked by deep divisions within the anc. sarah corker has more. beneath the singing and shows of unity, this has been a bitter leadership battle. the anc came to power 23 years ago, and this election is seen as a pivotal moment for the party. soaring unemployment and allegations of corruption have fuelled frustration towards south africa's ruling party. two candidates are vying for the votes of nearly 5,000 delegates, to succeed president jacob zuma as the party's leader. as things stand, comrades, we have two candidates for the position of president — comrade cyril ramaphosa and comrade nkosaza na dlamini—zuma. nkosaza na dlamini—zuma is the ex—wife of jacob zuma, and is promising to put more of the country's economy and land

back in black hands. she is a former foreign and health minister, but critics say she is too close to jacob zuma. cyril ramaphosa is currently the deputy president, and is running on an anticorru ption ticket. he's backed by the business community, and analysts say he is most popular with the middle classes. we're here to support cyril ramaphosa to become our next president, to clean the anc from corruption. we support comrade nkosazana dlamini—zuma, because i think what she's advocating for, she speaks a lot about the concept of radical economic transformation. whoever eventually wins will be well—placed to become president of south africa in the next general election, in 2019, but also faces the huge challenge of uniting this divided party. sarah corker, bbc news.

the white house has confirmed the cia provided intelligence to russian security services that helped foil a terror attack. russian agents raided a flat allegedly used as a base to plan an attack on the kazan cathedral in st petersburg. seven people were detained on charges of being members of so—called islamic state. president putin has thanked the us for its help. here's david willis in washington. vladimir putin thanked donald trump and asked him to convey russia's thanks to the cia and to intelligence officials for the information used to prevent this attack on st petersburg, and the cathedral, an iconic cathedral, and other parts of the city which are known to be of prime interest to tourists from around the world. what's interesting about this is that the two leaders themselves really do appear to be very chummy with each other.

i mentioned just last week there was a conversation between them, as well. that followed vladimir putin's annual press conference, in which he heaped praise on donald trump's handling of the us economy. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. police investigating the deaths of a 75—year—old canadian billionaire and his wife say the couple were strangled. barry sherman, who founded a major pharmaceutical company, was found dead with his wife, honey, at their mansion on friday. authorities in the philippines say 26 people have been killed following landslides on the island of biliran. it comes a day after tropical storm kai—tak pounded the east of the archipelago nation.

the storm has also caused widespread flooding across the country and displaced thousands of families. hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled at atlanta international airport as a power outage left passengers stranded in darkened terminals or in aircraft idling on the tarmac. flights bound for atlanta were grounded, and departures delayed. three major airlines, united, american and south—west, all suspended operations at the airport. at least eight people have been killed and dozens of others injured after a suicide bomb attack on a methodist church in pakistan. it happened in the city of quetta, where there have been a number of attacks in the past year. tom burridge has more. a celebration ahead of christmas targeted by extremists. pakistan's police and army firing shots in the aftermath, as they surrounded the church. and earlier, the attackers‘ efforts to get in and kill as many as they could captured on cctv. watch the man in brown, who suddenly reveals a machine—gun, and starts to try and access the church compound. his accomplice, behind him

in white, falls over. it then takes a long time to climb the gate, but it is chilling to watch. as the men wearing suicide vests exchange shots with security guards, imagine the panic in the church nearby. officials say one of the attackers was shot dead at the entrance to the compound. a second man detonated his vest near to the church door. the bodies of those killed brought to the local mortuary. too much for relatives, their loved ones killed a week before christmas. and, at local hospitals, those injured spoke of their fear as the attackers did all they could to get inside the church. translation: we were all in the church, and when we heard the sound of gunfire, we closed the doors.

the firing continued for a while, then there was an explosion by the church door. the group that calls itself islamic state claimed responsibility for the attack, which pakistan's president described as cowardly. tom burridge, bbc news. police in lebanon are investigating the death of a british embassy worker. the bbc has been told the body of rebecca dykes was found on the side of a motorway on saturday. martin patience gave this update from beirut. well, we understand that rebecca dykes on friday evening was at a going away party for a colleague in a popular restaurant area of the city. and she left that bar around midnight, and some time after that, it's believed she was abducted. her body was found dumped on the side of the motorway on saturday morning, and police sources have told us that they believe rebecca was strangled. now, she'd been in the country for almost a year. she was working as a programme officer for the department

of international development, and we've been hearing from the embassy, the british ambassador, here in beirut. he said that the whole embassy was deeply shocked by the news, and he added that they were working closely with the lebanese authorities, who are conducting this police investigation. austria's new government is due to be sworn in on monday after the far—right freedom party agreed to join a coalition government. it will be the junior partner alongside the conservative people's party, taking charge of the foreign, interior and defence ministries. so what does the freedom party stand for, and has it influenced european politics? bethany bell has more from vienna. a campaign video for the far—right freedom party. a couple wakes up to discover their home has been overrun by strangers. the video avoids xenophobic images, but the message is clear —

austria for the austrians. support for the freedom party soared during the migrant crisis of 2015. then austria's conservative party under sebastian kurz also moved to the right. but now, mr kurz has formed a coalition with the far—right. it's controversial. the party, a majorforce in austrian politics, was founded by former nazis in the 1950s. observers say freedom party policies have helped set the agenda, not only in austria, but across europe. of course the freedom party is traditionally a far—right party. however, what you've seen in the last years is that many other parties in europe, and also here in austria, have joined their issues. they took over their issue positions. and, in that sense, i think they set a certain tone all over europe. the mayor of the town of wels is from the freedom party. he says it is not an extreme—right

movement, and people should not be scared. translation: we are a right-wing party, it is true. we're also a homeland party. but we stand by european values. we stand for democracy and human rights, and i can't understand where this fear comes from. but the past still troubles the party. this recently published photo shows a freedom party politician apparently giving a hitler salute. he denied the charge, but also did not take up his seat in the upper house of parliament. in the year 2000, there were huge protests against the freedom party, when itjoined the previous government. back then, the eu even imposed limited diplomatic sanctions on austria. there was an outcry in austria and across europe. but today, eu sanctions are very unlikely. austria's new leader, sebastian kurz, has pledged to form a pro—eu government. austria has changed,

europe has changed, and now some people are wondering if the freedom party has really changed too. bethany bell, bbc news, vienna. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a right royal exclusive. prince harry interviews former us president barack obama. after eight months on the run, saddam hussein has been tracked down and captured by american forces. saddam hussein is finished because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict, conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia, and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border

was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out. from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. welcome back. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the un warns leaders in myanmar they could face charges of genocide over the persecution of rohingya muslims. and voting's under way in johannesburg, where south africa's governing anc is choosing a new leader. the conservative billionaire sebastian pinera has won chile's presidential election, securing his return to power

after campaigning on a promise to boost the economy. he secured nearly 55% of the votes, defeating the left—wing senator, alejandro guillier. mr pinera, who was president until 2014, has promised a better life for all chileans. jane chambers reports from santiago. sebastian pinera is to the chile's president for the second time. all the opinion polls showed it would be very close race, but in the end, he with a comfortable lead of 55%. in the second round of voting, he was up the second round of voting, he was up against ex— journalist and senator, alejandro guillier. the candidate for the left—wing coalition. for the votes were counted, alejandro guillier called

sebastian pinera to concede defeat. in emotional defeat, he said... translation: i believe that we can feel proud of our proposal, but will also have to be self—critical. we suffered a heart defeat and it is in the defeats that you learn the most. we have to go out and defend the reforms that we believe in. the conservative billionaire sebastian pinera praise the defeated candidate and his work, saying that he wanted to find ways for them to work together for the good of the country ‘s. together for the good of the country 's. translation: in this election, the candidates were not the most important thing, the most important thing is you, yourfamilies, our country. today, the candidates are my voice of the candidates stopped and the voice of the lands was heard loud and clear. he has promised to lower taxes, create more work and kickstart chile's economic growth. he will take office in march, replacing the current president. jane chambers, abc news, santiago.

—— bbc news. weeks after votes were cast in the presidential election in honduras, the country's beleaguered electoral court has declared the sitting president, juan 0rlando hernandez, as the winner. the result is disputed by the main opposition candidate, salvador nasralla, who claims the electoral authorities manipulated the count in favour of president hernandez. earlier this month, the military imposed a night—time curfew in the country after clashes with demonstrators. let's return now to the rohingya crisis and the un's human rights chief has said he personally warned myanmar‘s leader aung san suu kyi about appalling atrocities against the rohingya people, but that her government questioned the methodology used by the un. zeid ra'ad al hussein told the bbc‘s justin rowlatt how evidence began to build that could lead to charges of genocide against myanmar‘s leadership. when the first campaign was launched last year,

on the back of an attack on a border post, allegedly, we began to sense that this was really well thought out and planned. and what seems to have happened is that they were pushing on a door and if it moved, then they would continue to push. the people of the village will be told that they don't belong there, and then the attacks on houses begin, either by setting them alight or by going after the individual people. the import is obvious, you will die unless you move. what difference will it make if it isjudged to be genocide? well, the gravity and the scale would be suggestive of a commission of a crime that requires a response by the international community. and you think using the term

genocide, classifying the nature and the scale of the crime is an important way to ensure that appropriate justice is done? what we said is on the basis of what you see, we feel that you cannot rule it out. the question of intentionality going back to genocide, it is hard to establish. the threshold is high. that is why we continue to say that a court has to do this. but it wouldn't surprise me in the future, if a court were to make such a finding on the basis of what we've seen. because of the systematic nature of it? the planning that went into this, we can infer that from the actions on the ground. and then there's the crime of omission, that if it came to your knowledge that this was being committed and you did nothing to stop it, then you could be culpable as well for that. given the scale of the military

operation, clearly, these would have to be decisions taken at a high enough level. but almost certainly at the very highest levels, because this attracted the attention of the world community very early on, and it is inconceivable that the army chief and, you know, aung san suu kyi, were not aware that this was happening in their country. the international news media was awash with imagery of burning villages, of claims that atrocities were being committed. so, certainly, one could make the argument that there was time sufficient for a halt to the operations and inquiries to be launched. and that didn't seem to happen. so i'm quite sure that a future jurisdiction in a court would probably ask those very questions. the high commissioner for human rights wrote a very, very critical report, published in february, 2017, so six months before this explosion of violence we saw against the rohingya. you met aung san suu kyi

after that and said to her, you know, something needs to be done, this must be stopped. i spoke to her on the phone and i appealed to her to bring these military operations to an end. and, uh, to my great regret, it didn't seem to happen. but you literally said to her there are appalling atrocities being committed in your country, please do something about it, and her response was what? she said this is awful, certainly, we want to look at it. she then, a couple of days after that, they began to question the methodology that we had chosen, they began to question whether the facts were correct. this was her government, not the military? this was her government. so that was a policy you think probably was sanctioned by her? that's what i'm supposing, yes. search and recovery teams in chile are continuing their search for 15

people reported missing after a landslide killed at least five people. the avalanche of mud and rocks was caused by torrential rain in the remote village of villa santa lucia, in chile's lake region. nimesh thaker has more. the power and reach of the mudslide was enormous. some 20 homes and a school were destroyed and electricity and water supplies were cut off. with the backing of the chilean air force, the 300 villagers who saw their community destroyed now have more hope of relief and a start to their recovery. declared a catastrophe zone, the central government says more resources will be released to help the search and recovery teams. the region had been put on a red alert after more than four inches of rain fell in a 24—hour period. as the forecasters predicted, the intense rains which caused the mudslide have eased off. it has also allowed those who are able to help

their neighbours battle sporadic fires and provide medical support to those injured in the avalanche. in the first 2a hours, dozens of people were airlifted out of the disaster zone and to medical centres. it will take time, though, to rebuild and recover the lost land. prince harry has taken on a new role — as a journalist — and interviewed the former us president barack obama. the interview was recorded at the invictus games in september and will be broadcast on bbc radio over christmas. prince harry gave mr 0bama some interview advice ahead of the discussion. do i have to speak faster because i'm a slow speaker? no, no, not at all. ok. do i need a british accent? but if you start using long pauses between the answers, you're probably gonna get...the face. lemme see the face. oh, ok. i don't wanna see that face. but it's, as you know, for 40 minutes, there'll be 20

minutes package for the bbc for after christmas. that's good. we hope to use the whole thing as a podcast afterwards. excellent. ok. i'm ready. you guys have sound? you're sounding great. you all good? are you excited ? iam. you're excited about this, i'm nervous about this. that's what's quite funny. it's fun. i'll interview you if you want. no, no, let's keep it this way, i'd much prefer that. prince harry and barack 0bama for bbc radio there. the latest star wars film has generated more than $450 million

—— panettone is a staple in italy. it was a weekend of two halves, with saturday's sunshine replaced by sunday's cloud and drizzle. here was a scene by one of our weather watchers taken on sunday afternoon in stevenage in hertfordshire. grey skies there. monday will be a brighter start to the week ahead, which is looking mainly dry, rather cloudy, turning milder, particularly towards the west but we've got some dense fog patches to watch out for, particularly during tuesday. now, monday dominated by this big ridge of high pressure, so that's going to keep things generally dry and settled. quite a chilly start to the day with some frost around and also the odd mist and fog patch to contend with first thing too. if we look at monday morning, 8am, if you're heading to work or on the school run for instance, temperatures around four or five degrees across wales and the south—west of england. it's a dry start. colder, though, further east across england, towns and cities a degree or two above freezing. could be subzero in the countryside.

watch out for the odd icy stretch, perhaps some fog patches up towards manchester. much of northern england, northern ireland and scotland looking dry to start off the day. but could be a little bit of mistiness around, which should slowly clear during the day. so plenty of dry, bright weather on the cards through monday with light winds too. and it will be turning that bit milder, particularly from the west. here we'll see temperatures between around seven to nine degrees. further east across the country, slightly cooler, typically around 4—6 clesius for newcastle towards norwich, for instance. then through monday night, that's when we start to see visibility really going downhill. notjust mist but some really dense fog forming through the early hours of tuesday. in fact, freezing fog across parts of the south—east, which will be really slow to clear. could be quite problematic during tuesday morning. in fact, you may well see disruption to travel, air travel, road travel across central, southern and eastern parts of england with all that fog around. it will be really quite slow to clear i think during tuesday. further north—west across

the country, it's low cloud, hill fog and drizzle likely here. gradually pushing eastwards as we head through the day. either way, a foggy, grey sort of a day. five or six celsius towards the south—east, 10 to 12 in the north—west. then as we move through into the middle of the week, this frontal system starts to slip south and east across the uk for wednesday. so wednesday, a north—south split. drizzly and grey in the south, brighter skies further north. temperatures around nine to 12 degrees. still a little showery rain across southern parts of england and wales on thursday. brighter with sunshine and a few showers further north, seven to 11 degrees. bye— bye. this is bbc news, the headlines: the united nations has warned the leaders of myanmar could face charges of genocide over the persecution of rohingya muslims. the un's human rights chief said he assumes the country's de facto leader, aung san suu kyi, sanctioned their repression. some 650,000 rohingya muslims have fled to bangladesh since august. south africa's governing anc is voting to choose a new leader

to succeed presidentjacob zuma. nearly 5,000 delegates are expected to vote. deputy president, cyril ramaphosa, appears to be leading the nominations. president putin has acknowledged the help of the cia in preventing terror attacks in st petersburg. he told president trump the information had helped to track down and detain a terrorist group preparing blasts in kazan cathedral and other public places in the city. sir mo farah has won this year's bbc sports personality of the year.