this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm: at least 41 people are killed in a bomb attack in a cultural centre in the afghan capital kabul. so—called islamic state says it was responsible. this is the building where the explosion happened and you can see the building has been almost completely destroyed. a murder investigation is underway after a woman found dead in a north london park is named as iuliana tudos. britain braces itself as forecasters predict the coldest night of the year. it comes as ice and sub—zero temperatures cause treacherous driving conditions in some parts. also this hour: finding mariusz. the social media campaign which helped to reunite a christmas wage packet with its owner. and coming up in half an hour... join me as i look back to the

photocall held here that introduced prince harry's bride to be. that's the royal review 2017. good evening. welcome to the bbc news. a suicide bombing in the afghan capital, kabul, has claimed the lives of at least a0 people and injured more than 80 others. women and children are among the casualties. the islamic state group says it carried out the attack, which targeted a cultural organisation and news agency in the western part of the capital. in recent months, so—called islamic state has attacked many shia muslim targets in this area of kabul — where the majority of the city's shia population lives. our correspondent in kabul, zia shahreya, has sent this report. the force of the explosion is clear to see.

among the rubble, relatives desperately search for their loved ones. but there was little left behind. the bomb went off inside this building, a cultural centre and also home to an afghan news agency. students had been marking the 38th anniversary of the soviet invasion of afghanistan. the suicide bomber apparently has entered through that way, inside this hall, where the seminar was happening and the hall was full of people, students, male and female, from different universities in kabul. translation: i saw many dead in the area, i was looking for my cousin but could not find his body. i'm not sure what happened to him. the number of dead people has increased. after the explosion, ambulances took the injured to the hospitals nearby. this man, one of dozens badly

hurt in the explosion. some of the wounded were taken in for surgery. translation: a total of 35 dead were registered here and 20 others wounded. there are men, women and children among the injured. for some waiting outside for news it was all too much. back in the area, to the west of the capital, where the bomb went off, armed guards patrol. the initial blast was followed by two other explosions but nobody was hurt in those. so who was behind the attack? so—called islamic state has claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the centre with a suicide bomber and other bombs. it has behind a number of other attacks on shia targets across the country in recent months. the president's spokesman called the attack an unpardonable crime against humanity and pledged to destroy terrorist groups.

police say a body found yesterday in finsbury park, in north london, is that of a 22—year—old woman, iuliana tudos. she had been missing since christmas eve after an evening out with friends. her body was found in a building near a sports pitch in the park. our correspondent tolu adeoye is at finsbury park. there was only yesterday that the body was discovered. it was phoned bya body was discovered. it was phoned by a member of the public that around a30, next to the sports pitch. police were called. dead at the scene. bocce was pronounced a

significant area of the park was cordoned off. police tent still up. we still do not know how iuliana tudos was killed, postmortem was due today. this is being treated as a murder investigation. police are seeking investigation from anybody who could have seen anything suspicious over the holiday period. still trying to put together the timeline of what went on, they do not know the motive. we know that the woman who was discovered yesterday was iuliana tudos. a aa—year—old man accused of stabbing a woman to death in a supermarket in skipton has appeared in court. neville hord appeared at leeds crown court and spoke only to confirm his details. he's charged with the murder of 30—year—old jodie wilsher, who was attacked at the aldi store where she was working. freezing temperatures around the uk have been causing travel disruption for a second day.

around 100 passengers were stranded at stansted airport after a number of flights were cancelled yesterday. and drivers are being warned of icy conditions in many areas. 0ur correspondent anisa kadri has the latest. hanging around for a flight longer than you expected... it's not much fun, especially when the queues are just getting longer and you find out your flight is now notjust delayed, it's cancelled. more than 12 hours after sarah's flight to stockholm was meant to take off from stansted, sarah was still here and will now fly tomorrow. i only found out literally i think it was three hours after my flight was supposed to leave that it was cancelled. and there were no boards to tell us that it was delayed or anything so it was literally like going backwards and forwards between the one person who was there, kind of thing. ijust ended up lining up for like ten hours to try to get a new flight! did you get any sleep at all? no. i think i've been

awake 25 hours now. you only need to head to social media to get an idea of the frustration some people here felt last night. one person tweeted it was a shambles, another posted a picture of people sleeping on seats. stansted airport says it has cleared the backlog of stranded passengers and things are returning to normal. they say there still could be delays because of the weather. and the weather has been causing problems elsewhere, too. in the cairngorms, three climbers had to be rescued after getting lost in blizzard conditions. the rescue took five hours. the wintry weather is not going away, as we are being told to make sure our vehicles are safe for the road. check your tyres, make sure you've got some good tread and they are well inflated, that should keep you safe on the road, because they keep you gripped to the road, after all. and pack accordingly, so have your own winter breakdown kit with plenty of spare warm and dry clothing, a flask, some snacks, a shovel and certainly a fully charged mobile phone. today in inverness, people were enjoying the snow

but there is more on the way for scotland and the met office is warning that tonight could be the coldest night of the year. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 1030 and ii30pm this evening in the papers. our guests joining me tonight are broadcaster david davies and journalist dina hamdy. 10:a0, not1030. a british medical team is flying to bangladesh to help rohingya refugees who've fled myanmar. hundreds of thousands of rohingya muslims are living in refugee camps, following widespread persecution at home. more than a0 doctors, nurses and firefighters from the uk will spend six weeks in bangladesh tackling an outbreak of diptheria in the camps, as claire fallon reports. leaving manchester, british medics heading for bangladesh. now, another threat — diphtheria.

the makeshift home to thousands of rohingya muslims, this is the refugee camp. those living here left myanmar and a situation described by the un as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. 6,000 people have been killed, a figure denied by the government in myanmar. wonderful... among the a0 plus staff, sent by britain, becky, a children's nurse at watford general. i know from my experience as a paediatric nurse and as a mother, families will be feeling desperate. i know there are loads of children involved, 75% of the people affected by diptheria are under the age of 15. we need to act fast. when the team arrives, medics will be working in tough conditions.

diphtheria has been spreading rapidly, up to 160 new cases reported every day. it will be tough, 40 of us going out in its first tranche, more people coming later. we will be working with other organisations, not just 40 of us. this is the uk response, one of the fastest because of the critical nature of the emergency and the speed at which the disease can spread, because of the need to do something very quickly. the situation facing the rohingya people has been described as the fastest growing refugee crisis. with equipment and expertise, the british medics hope they will make a difference, and save lives. figures out today show the number of alleged sexual assaults committed by taxi or private hire drivers has risen by 20% in three years. according to the guardian, at least 337 assaults were reported

between april 2016 and march 2017 in england and wales. that's up from 282 in 201a/15. the figures were obtained from 23 of a3 police force. the union has been calling for a national database to stop drivers banned in one area to get a licence elsewhere. well, we know that there are definitive issues where people may work for one local authority, they lose their licence, we have heard anecdotal evidence of people moving from birmingham over to wolverhampton, as an example. it is not right in any situation. we've talked about the public transport figures. i think they were 650, up to 1,a68. it shows that it is notjust unique to private hire and taxis. i do want to add one other small point, i don't want to get away from these figures, but i also want to bring up the fact that on a regular daily basis private hire taxi drivers are assaulted verbally

and physically throughout the united kingdom. it is very rare those figures are reported or taken by the police as well. nhs hospitals in england made a record £17a.5 million from car parking charges in the past financial year. the figures, obtained through a freedom of information request, showed more than half of hospital trusts also charged for at least some of their disabled bays. 0ur correspondent phil mackie has the story. a hospital visit can be upsetting, even traumatic, and that's before you pay for your parking ticket. nhs hospitals in england made over £17a million in fees last year. that's a rise of 6% on the year before. and nearly £1 million came from fines, which was an increase of 32%. the hospital trust which make the most money was the heart of england, which runs three hospitals in sutton coldfield, solihull, and here in birmingham. last year its income from car parking was £a.8 million.

it's shocking actually, because i come quite a lot with my son and the amount we have to pay, it's really bad. i don't mind paying a small fee but i've had occasions where i've spent £20 in one day. it's the hassle of visiting hospital on a regular basis, it's just another hassle. no—one from the heart of england trust was available today but they have given a statement saying they know that parking costs can be a financial burden to patients and visitors. they say that fees have come down in the past year and the money they make is reinvested in, among other things, utility bills and the maintenance of car parks. fees have already been largely abolished in scotland and wales and campaigners think it is time they were listed elsewhere, too. you might have to make 50 trips to hospital if you are receiving cancer treatment. sometimes you need to be there all day which means you might have to pay £25 or £30 just to cover the cost of your chemotherapy on that particular day. so it has a really big effect on people. today's figures will only raise pressure to cap or end charges in the future.

the former footballer george weah has won the liberian presidential election. mr weah played for a string of football clubs, including ac milan and chelsea, and is the only african footballer to have won fifa world player of the year. he entered politics after his retirement in 2002 and will succeed ellenjohnson sirleaf, africa's first elected female, as president. italy's president sergio mattarella has dissolved parliament on thursday ahead of an election scheduled to be held on march ath. the government met shortly after mr mattarella's decree was announced, and confirmed the election date. the headlines on bbc news: at least a1 people are killed in a bomb

attack in a cultural centre in the afghan capital kabul. so—called islamic state says it was responsible. a woman found dead in a north london park has been named as iuliana tudos. police launch a murder investigation. forecasters predict the coldest night of the year. it comes as ice and sub—zero temperatures cause treacherous driving conditions in some parts. full round up of sport now. 0ne match in the premier league this evening, with crystal palace aiming to move further away from the relegation places, at home to arsenal, who are currently 6th. they've been playing for around 15 minutes at selhurst park and the latest is... 0-0. no 0—0. no great chances. arsenal with most possession so far. the premier league's bottom club swansea have appointed the former sheffield wednesday boss

carlos ca rva hal as their new manager. carvalhal was pressing the flesh and doing his best to make a good impression at his first swansea press conference today. he'd been sacked by sheffield wednesaday on christmas eve with wednesday down in 15th place in the table and has never managed in the english top flight before. there's still plenty of chatter about liverpool's £75 million as this moment, everybody understands swansea are no difficult situation. some people could see it asa miracle, situation. some people could see it as a miracle, swansea staying in the premier league. i do not agree. miracles are something not from our world. these sort ofjobs... we can do all the things. there's still plenty of chatter about liverpool's £75 million the world's most expensive defender. one man who knows him well is leicester city boss claude puel, who managed the dutchman at southampton last season,

and believes liverpool have bought one of the world's best centre—backs. 0ne one of the best defenders in the world. he has got all the qualities to become the best. thy think it is fantastic, it is a very good possibility for liverpool. he can play in different teams, and it is a good reward for him. england's cricketers will begin the fourth day of the fourth ashes test in melbourne in control and with a great chance to seal the victory that would at least restore some pride. alistair cook is 2aa not out, with england on a91 for nine, a lead of 16a. still plenty of work for england to do, but for cook it was the highest total any batsman has made against australia at the mcg.

i have dated myself —— doubted myself for 12 years. but i can be proud. going to that, delivering such a performance, it was great but it isa such a performance, it was great but it is a shame it is three quarters weeks late. i am going to have to live with that. but it was nice. the cheltenham gold cup winner sizing john finished well down the field in the big race of the day, the christmas chase at leopardstown. it was won by the 8/1 shot road to respect. ridden by sean flanaghan and trained by noel meade he came home comfortably ahead of 66/1 shot balkos day flow and 0utlander. that completed a one—two—three for thejigginstown stud. sizing john finished seventh. still 0—0 still 0-0 at still 0—0 at selhurst park. more in an hour. in the last half hour, the democrat doug jones has been

certified as the state senator of alabama. jones defeated republican candidate roy moore in the us senate election in alabama — who has filed a lawsuit to challenge the result, alleging voterfraud. mr moore, whose campaign was plagued by allegations of sexual misconduct, lost narrowly to jones earlier this month. christopher harress is an investigative reporter from mobile city in alabama and joins us via webcam. he covered the senate by—election for the news site al.com. thank you forjoining us. tell us if you would... remind us what roy moore was trying to do. he was trying to delay the certification process , trying to delay the certification process, by going to a judge, and asking him to hold back on this while allegations of voter fraud we re while allegations of voter fraud were investigated. and one of the things that has been present in the

news recently, this voter fraud thing. it was unsurprising to see him use this as a way to try to delay the process, possibly giving himself another chance. what has happened? himself another chance. what has happened ? what himself another chance. what has happened? what has the judge said? thejudge happened? what has the judge said? the judge released a statement, not long before doug jones was going to be certified, basically he said he does not have the restriction. that was the reason. not because he did not think there hadn't been voter fraud. wasjust not think there hadn't been voter fraud. was just because of that you restriction. how much support among the judiciary restriction. how much support among thejudiciary has restriction. how much support among the judiciary has roy moore restriction. how much support among thejudiciary has roy moore had? especially given the allegations? historically he has had a lot of support because of the alabama chief justice, his previous position. but

he lost that on two occasions. he has got this thing called roys boys. but i think the support, as he has become more desperate it has seen her supporters start to flee. i think that is why the judge has not made this fight for him. donald trump backed roy moore, how embarrassing for him? you saw his tweet after roy moore lost and doug jones won. he was backtracking and it was definitely embarrassing. it could make some supporters in alabama think twice before backing him again. polls have shown his support in alabama, some of the largest in the country, starting to decrease a little bit. it has been

embarrassing and could make people think twice. it also erodes further his majority in the senate! correct. he has already struggled to get some of his plans through the senate, he continues to have a majority but has struggled in the past. it is another seat that he has lost. it gives the republican senator is a lot of power. 0ne vote swing. it is going to make it more difficult in the future. whether or not it will prevent him getting laws through, we do not know. but it is going to make things more difficult. thank you very much forjoining us. every year, thousands of planning permissions are granted for new homes — but the properties are not actually built. there are currently 68a,000 valid permissions that haven't yet

been put into effect. the chancellor philip hammond has set up an urgent review to understand the reasons. so in the midst of an acute housing shortage, why is the process of building much—needed new homes proving to be so cumbersome? my colleague sophie long has been to clacton in essex to try to find out. clacton—on—sea. like many towns across the country, they need to build hundreds of houses here to provide homes for those that don't have them in a way that is sympathetic to those that do. well, this is a site that got planning permission two years ago for 300 homes, but as you can see, nothing is being built yet... one problem is that developers are not building on land where permission has been granted. what needs to happen is a fundamental look, i think, at planning and how it works, because the planning system, the planning laws are not working. you can't blame developers who are exploiting loopholes that they manage to find. the loophole they found here is that they can land bank, they can get permission on land with no intention of developing at any time soon, get the permission, put it in the bank, go on to the next site,

get permission for that one. the developers say they find that accusation staggering, that they would be building here now but this is a textbook example of local planning issues stopping house—builders from building the homes that the country needs. "we have," they say, "been thwarted by over two years of council bureaucracy, very poor decision—making and planning red tape." building is happening, but not on the scale needed to solve the housing crisis. developers say they are not the ones dragging theirfeet. overall, the system is just too cumbersome, there are too many things that get put through the planning system that don't need to go through the planning system. that means that once you've got an initial consent, you still need to do a lot of work before you can get on site and start development. nearly everyone agrees there's a housing crisis and more homes need to be built. the question is how and where? unblocking the problems in the planning process has now

become a national priority. a couple of miles along the coast is jaywick sands. developers don't want to build here. it is the most deprived place in england. transport links are poor, and unemployment is high. but the need for new housing is clear. there's a lot of houses what's empty, what could be done up for people who ain't got housing and everything. houses are being built where there's money to be sold, so the developers make their money back for expensive homes, they're not putting money for affordable living, i don't think. the council says it is now taking the lead, and community activists are hopeful that change is ahead. we've been talking about this for about four or five years, nothing has happened. my view is everybody should have a decent place to live, you know, the social housing has got to happen, council housing is there as part of it, everybody wants that social housing, and starter housing, stuff like that. the problem is that local

authorities and developers have different priorities. but the need to find common ground and get more new homes built quickly now has a new sense of urgency. the immense power of social media was once again in evidence this christmas time, when a welder from south—west london left his christmas wage packet in a local pub, the alexandra in wimbledon. more than a million people responded to an online appeal and identified mariusz so that the pay packet could be returned yesterday, six days after he lost it. 0ur correspondent chi chi izundu takes up the story. this is the story of a welder, a pub and lost wage packet. last thursday after a few hundred people had been here at the alexandra pub celebrating their christmas parties, at the end of the night a small brown envelopes stuffed with cash was spotted on the floor. the only reason i realised it was a wage packet was because i used to get paid

in a similar packet when i first came to the country. all they had was the name mariusz and £600. the landlord and his wife posted a picture on social media which is reposted by authorjk rowling and then hundreds of thousands around the world joined in the search. we did not find him straightaway and a couple of celebrities retweeted it and it went bonkers. my phone was like a fridge buzzing! has we were getting messages from all over the world, so much interest trying to find this guy, people contacting asking if we found them? from canada and america and australia, everywhere. and then what happened? lo and behold, yesterday, he walked in the door and said hello, i'm mariusz and i believe you've got my money! it was like the biggest anti—climax in history, he just wandered in! he said, i think you've got my money. mariusz explained he took out his phone to take pictures of his christmas party and that is probably when his wage

slip fell from his pocket and under this chair, and he did not notice until about a day later. he had not seen the social media posts, it was his son who alerted him to them and he may have kept the loss quiet from his wife to have, as he called it, a stress—free christmas! he came in yesterday and got it. in a show of gratitude, he gave nobby a generous tip. drinks on him. time for the weather. snow and ice have caused problems for many of us this week. there is an amber warning to be prepared for snow across parts of the country as we head through the early part of tomorrow, because the night, things will turn very cold, with a cold and widespread frost.

pennines, parts of lancashire, in towards west yorkshire. here, we could see up to 15 centimetres of snow on high ground, and even at low levels, a fair covering. further south, it is all about the rain. temperatures starting to climb in the south west. two for newcastle and glasgow. even some snow to lower levels for scotla nd. and glasgow. even some snow to lower levels for scotland. elsewhere, brightness and windy. this is bbc news — our latest headlines: at least a1 people are killed in a bomb attack in a cultural centre in the afghan capital kabul — so—called islamic state says it was responsible. police say a woman was murdered in a public park as she made her way home on christmas eve.

the body of 22—year—old barmaid iuliana tudos was found yesterday. no arrests have been made. britain braces itself as forecasters predict the coldest night of the year — it comes as ice and sub—zero temperatures cause treacherous driving conditions in some parts. now on bbc news, from the engagement of prince harry and meghan markle, to the retirement from royal duties of the duke of edinburgh, sarah campbell looks back on the key events in review 2017: the royal year. reporter: congratulations from all of us! how are you both feeling? thrilled!