heavy snow and freezing temperatures are causing travel disruption across much of the uk. motorists are warned of treacherous conditions in the worst—affected areas. glasgow airport reopens after snow caused it to suspend all flights. it's advising passengers to check with their airlines. at least 12 people have died including a baby after a fire at an apartment block in the bronx district of new york. a medical breakthrough as a bone is re—grown in a lab saving this dog's leg. scientists say the technique will work on humans. also, easing the impact of excessive drinking on busy accident and emergency units. the nhs considers making mobile "drunk tanks" a permanent feature across england. and what a fantastic sports year we have had. we review the major ones in halfan have had. we review the major ones in half an hour in theee in sport of

2017 at 2. 30. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. weather warnings are in place for parts of northern england and scotland today after heavy snow and blizzard conditions affected large parts of the uk. glasgow airport was closed for a few hours with flights suspended, but has now reopened. the temperature plunged to —12c at loch glascarnoch in the scottish highlands overnight and forecasters say driving conditions will remain difficult for the rest of the day. judith moritz reports. grounded at glasgow, flights at the city's airport were suspended after snow settled overnight. the airport reopened by mid—morning, but managers have apologised for the knock—on disruption that was caused. temperatures plummeted in scotland. heavy snow fell in glasgow city centre, and in the highlands

the mercury fell to —12 celsius on what the met office described as the coldest night of the year. gritters have been covering the major routes, with everybody keeping an eye on the forecast. conditions are constantly changing at this time of the year. even with the detailed forecasts we get, we can't always get it 100% right. in daylight, the gritting continued. motorways remained free—flowing. the snow has been falling steadily all morning across swathes of northern england. as predicted, it has been settling most in areas like this just outside huddersfield on the higher ground. in cumbria, hazardous conditions left some vehicles stranded on the a590. there were also delays on other main roads.

but with schools closed and many off work anyway for the holidays, disruption has not been too bad. and there has been plenty of opportunity for snow—themed entertainment. and judith told me more about how people have been affected by the snow in huddersfield and across the north of england. it depends where you are, obviously. we usually report from this area in the winter because it's often the first place that gets any disruption, the trans—pennine routes the first to be affected. at the moment, the usual suspect roads have been closed. the cat and fiddle section of the road between buxton and macclesfield, the woodhead pass, those tra ns—pennine routes were closed this morning. but the m62, which you can see running freely behind me,

has been running all morning, although it was treacherous earlier on. and the m6 in cumbria has also stayed open, although it was reduced earlier today. i believe conditions there were also difficult. road recovery services today have predicted problems. the aa said there would be 10 million cars out on the roads today, and the rac says it is expecting to deal with one breakdown every ten seconds. so it has not been without difficulty, but by and large, the roads are moving, the main roads anyway. looking ahead, the met office are saying the snow will ease up, but there are warnings of icy conditions. that is the other thing to look out for. the advice across the board is just to take great care. 12 people have been killed in a fire at an apartment building in the bronx district of new york. the city's mayor, bill de blasio, called it the worst fire of its kind in the city in 25 years. the victims, including three children, died on various floors of the five—storey building, as jon ironmonger reports. this report contains

flash photography. it is new york's deadliest blaze for decades. fire broke out on the first floor of a five—storey apartment building and spread rapidly, sparking panic among residents in a busy corner of the bronx district. fire crews arrived at the scene within three minutes, but it was too late for many of the residents. those who managed to escape described the chaos as people rushed to flee the smoke. the fire truck wasn't even here yet when all the smoke and stuff was coming out at first. they weren't even here yet. they started to get everybody out, but people were on the fire escape already trying to get down on their own. that's how fast it was moving. at least 12 people were rescued from the building, as firefighters plucked residents from this fire escape. outside in the bitter cold, locals huddled under blankets. speaking after the fire had been brought under control, new york's mayor bill de blasio called it an unspeakable tragedy. in the middle of the holiday

season is a time when families are together. tonight, here in the bronx, there are families that have been torn apart. this is the worst fire tragedy we have seen in this city in at least a quarter of the century, based on the information we have now. this will rank as one of the worst losses of life to a fire in many, many years. the fire department said it was too early to comment on the cause of the blaze, and the search of the building is continuing. the mayor has warned the death toll could rise further. john ironmonger, bbc news. let's speak now to cbs correspondentjohn schiumo who is in the bronx for us. thank you for being with us. are the authorities any closer to getting to the bottom of why this fire started? we may learn some answers to those questions in a little while here. 10

o'clock local time we are expecting to hear from the fire commissioner. the residents are coming up to us asking questions, going to the local fire officials and police officials, asking questions. right now, we still don't know, as i reported earlier, in cold weather, people tend to do things to keep warm, including cannedles and apartments and they are looking into whether it was an accident and also we have learnt that the smoke detector on the first floor was defective, it wasn't working so that may explain how the fire started up to the fifth floor without residents being aware. the fire department arrived within three minutes and got as many out as they could. right now, four people remain critical. do they know how many people would have been inside the apartment block

at the time the fire started? do they think everyone is now accounted for and what are they saying around the figures on that, jon? i've heard of nobody who is unaccounted for. the local officials are asking people to call and say that we can't get in touch with a loved one or family member or friend. i get in touch with a loved one or family member orfriend. i haven't heard any cases of a big number of missing people. so there were 12 fatalities, there were four critically injured and eight others injured and about a dozen people got out ok. there were 25 apartments in this building in all, but it was also a little before seven o'clock so also a little before seven o'clock $03 also a little before seven o'clock so a lot of people were still coming home from work, the building was probably not at full capacity when the flames broke out. thank you very much for the update. police say a woman found murdered in north london had been stabbed and beaten. the body of iuliana tudos who was 22 and from moscow was discovered on wednesday in finsbury park, near her home.

it's thought she might have been attacked on christmas eve. a further 29 people in urgent need of medical assistance have now been transferred to damascus, from a rebel—held area near the syrian capital, in a deal with the government. the un says nearly 500 people are in urgent need of medical care in ghouta. 18 children and six women were among those taken out over the past few days. two men have appeared in court via video link charged with terrorism offences, relating to an alleged plot for an attack over christmas. our correspondent dominic cascani was at westminster magistrates' court. this morning's brief hearing here was the first appearance by these two men charged with the very

serious offence of preparation of an act of terrorism. the two men charged are—and—andy sami star, the owner of the mermaid fish bar on sheffield road in chesterfield, and fahad salah who lives at brunswick roadin fahad salah who lives at brunswick road in sheffield. they arejointly charged with preparation of an act of terrorism. in essence this case allegedly comes down to preparations to make a home made bomb. prosecutors told the districtjudge today that the pair jointly researched the chemicals for a bomb, looked into how to construct it, the components involved and also recorded a test explosion of a home—made improvised explosive device which was allegedly recovered from a device during this investigation. now during the case this morning, we heard both men were kurdish iraqis, mrstar this morning, we heard both men were kurdish iraqis, mr star is a settled refugee who has been in the country for a number of years and has been recently considering becoming a

british national. his lawyer told the courts today that his client vehemently denied any involvement in terrorism. the prosecutors say the heart of this case is a low explosive black powder which was recovered during the operation, but mr sta r‘s recovered during the operation, but mr star's lawyer said his client had nothing to do with islamic state or terrorism and had in fact been researching making his own fireworks and would plead not guilty at the earliest opportunity once the case goes to crown court. he told the districtjudge that, however stupid people mange his client's efforts were, they were innocent in nature and he will be clear about that when the case comes to court. the districtjudge here at westminster remanded the pair in custody to next appear before the old bailey on the 19th january. the case then could remain in london but it may also be transferred for trial to leeds crown court. researchers in scotland have saved the leg of a dog

using a new technique to grow bones in the laboratory. the dog, named, eva, would have had her entire leg amputated, were it not for a novel method of creating bone. the treatment on eva is a world first. the team from glasgow university are planning to try it on human patients. pallab ghosh has this exclusive report. there's no holding her back, but last year eva's front right leg was broken in a road accident. her vet tried everything, but nothing worked. her entire leg was going to be amputated. she had not been able to get out for ten months, other than to the toilet. but to fiona kirkland's delight, her dog was saved by an experimental bone growing technique. it is absolutely fantastic, we're so pleased to have our dog back and fit and healthy. the vet showed me the problem. the blood supply to the edge of the bones had failed, so it was not able to heal the break.

the scientists coated the dead areas with artificial bone and afterjust six weeks, it was completely mended. the artificial bone mix was made at glasgow university. it consists of sterilised chips that are coated with bone cells and the chemicals that make them grow, like a fertiliser. we want to look at treating more dogs and cats who have had broken bones and other areas we can help these veterinary patients, things likejoint fusion where they've had a tendon injury sojoints can be held together to walk properly. researchers are so amazed at the success they have had in treating eva that they want to try out the technique on people. they plan to be the first researchers in the world to grow bone in the lab and put it into a patient in three years' time. these are the people that could be most helped.

it is 20 years since princess diana brought the issue of landmine victims to the world's attention. their limbs usually have to be amputated. landmine campaigners are funding the new research so it can be used to grow some bone back and attach an artificial leg. if they are able to have a prosthetic limb, it would make all the difference to their life, being able to provide for the family instead of having to be a burden on the family. it has been a happy outcome for eva and her owners. thousands of people could soon benefit from a technology that has put a spring back in her step. what a fantastic story. let's talk to professor matthew who we saw in that report from the university of

glasgow and he's one of the scientist who is helped develop this new tock nook. hello, a very good afternoon to you. hello. i mean, it sounds fantastically exciting but first, in terms of what you were able to do with the dog here, explain for people who are like me and not scientifically minded and not scientifically qualified, how this actually worked, how you reached this point? well, the technology that went into eva is what we describe as an a technology that will stimulates the cells to turn into bone. so what we did, we took bits of bone graft, particles from the bone that surgeon uses as a filler and coated them with a plastic. this plastic absorbs growth factors which is a biological molecule which is powerful and orchestrates our growth and should

be able foe underpin our generation if we can control the dose. typically they used a high dose which can cause unwanted side effects such as unwanted bone growth in different parts of the body or even tumours but the plastic we coated the particles with in eva was a low dose, allowing the cells to interact in a certain way that the cells like. this means we can deliver the growth factors in a very safe, topical way. now, this material coated with plastic was packed into the two centimetre break in eva's leg and regenerated it within six weeks. so two centimetres is not a huge area. you will understand, of course, that people are excited about this, notjust because it might help their beloved pets but of course in terms of what it might ultimately mean for humans as well. but i guess by definition, you are going to need a much larger area for a human. you are going to need a much larger area fora human. so you are going to need a much larger area for a human. so where do you ta ke area for a human. so where do you take all of this now, do you think?

that's a really great question because actually we are looking at a pairof because actually we are looking at a pair of technologies. the second is cellular to repair bigger defects we can't just rely cellular to repair bigger defects we can'tjust rely on the growth factors, we need cells as well. the second technology is nano—kicking that generates the cells a small amount telling them to turn into bone cells, it vibrates them and tells them to do that. the combination of the two technology also help us regenerate larger areas and it will be the cells component that we first try out in humans in 2021. that is a definite, is it, you will be able to try it in 2021, is that your schedule? that is our schedule. we are aiming and doing everything we can to get this technology ready to try it in a phase one clinical trial in 2021. so between now and then, are you

co nsta ntly between now and then, are you constantly working on refining this and continuing to use this technique on animals to monitor them, to see how it's sustained, what do you do in the intervening years? well, of course we wish to treat more veterinary patients, you know, and monitor the outcomes. eva, the dog we treated six months ago is doing fanically well. we suggested two centimetres is a small defect but it's large and leads to amp fissions in dogs typically. now she's a normal dog running around typically. we wa nt normal dog running around typically. we want to try more veterinary cases and more patients but we are focus on the human patients —— amputations. once we have got to the phase one trial, we'll be focus on the putting two technologies together. this is what will help us work with our partners to aim towards helping civilian victims of landmine blasts. goodness! so many applications.

really interesting to talk to you. thank you so much for your time this afternoon. really exciting development. thank you very much indeed. professor matthew dalby from the university of glasgow there on that remarkable technique that he and his team at the university have developed. and also just to tell you that for all the dog lovers watching, we are very much hoping we'll be hearing from eva and her owner a little bit later onthank. sadly not actually sitting right here because obviously that would be more fun but we hope to talk to them a little bit later on. these are the headlines: there are warnings of delays to road, rail and air travel and possible power cuts because of snow and ice in many parts of the country. glasgow airport has now re—opened after snow caused it to suspend all flights. at least 12 people have died, including three children, after a fire at an

apartment block in new york's bronx district. and, as we have been discussing, scientists at glasgow university are to begin trials to see whether a newly rediscovered technique for regrowing bone tissue in this dog can work on humans. a huge fire at an office and restaurant complex in india's financial capital mumbai has killed at least 1a people and injured several others. most of the victims are thought to be young women who were attending a birthday party. sanjoy majumder reports. the fire broke out on a rooftop restaurant in a popular commercial district in the heart of mumbai. within minutes, it spread, first to a bar next door and then through the entire building. most of the victims were women attending a party at the bar. those who escaped described the terrifying moments

as they desperately tried to get out. there was a stampede and someone pushed me, one of the survivors tweeted. people were running over me even as the ceiling above me was collapsing in flames. still don't know how i got out alive. the bbc‘s gujerati service editor was at the restaurant and has this eyewitness account. suddenly, we heard somebody screaming that there is a fire, everybody please run that way. he was pointing towards the fire exit. within seconds, before we could gather what went wrong, there was a stampede. in less than three minutes after the fire started, all of the area was engulfed in fire. before anyone, including us, could reach the staircase, the first place to catch fire completely was the fire exit. the blaze was eventually put out

early in the morning. the structure completely gutted. it was located in a congested neighbourhood that once housed the city's colonial era textile mills, and is now filled with bars, restaurants and offices. some are still located in the old factories, others in high—rise glass and steel towers. but many of them like proper safety systems and emergency exits. but many of them lack proper safety systems and emergency exits. an investigation has now been ordered to determine what caused the fire. the ftse 100 the ftse100 has ended the year on a record high up 7. 6% on last year. the mining sector saw the biggest

gains this year while utilities such as water and electricity were the wea kest. considering the routine deployment of mobile alcohol recovery units , nicknamed drunk tanks, to reduce hospital admissions. up to 70 % of visits to a—and—e departments on friday and saturday nights are linked to excess drinking. adina campbell reports. binge drinking at its worst — a big headache for police and a burden for the nhs. it's estimated up to 15% of attendances at emergency departments in the uk are alcohol—related. at this time of year that number is significantly more, with as many as 70% of attendances at a&e because of drinking. the uk's first mobile drunk tank was introduced in bristol three years ago, and there are have been others in manchester, cardiff and newcastle. a supervised area in a city centre, it offers those who have had too

much to drink a chance to be checked over by medical staff and sleep off the alcohol, keeping them away from a&e or a police cell — and now nhs england says it is considering routine use of the facility. we think that these facilities do have the potential to take the pressure off a&e departments. that's why they have been opened in some areas of the country. but we are interested in looking at them further and seeing the results over this winter before making a decision about rolling them out more widely. it's obviously important to reduce pressure in a&e. if there are patients that we can manage elsewhere, that we find alternative services for those individuals, and this is one potential possibility. nhs england says it is monitoring new year celebrations to see whether the scheme should be extended to other areas, and it will make a decision early next year. adina campbell, bbc news. apple has apologised to its customers, after it admitted

slowing down older iphones it says, in order to protect their batteries. the company said it would never intentionally shorten the life of any apple product, and that it will now offer replacement batteries at a discounted price. the technology specialist charlie brown says the company has given in because of the reaction from its customers. what was interesting was the ground swell of anger from customers grew so swell of anger from customers grew so large that apple had to respond. i don't believe they had to issue an apology for what they did but more the way they did it. not telling your customer these days what you we re your customer these days what you were doing in the background is a real no—no, especially when you are making a product that so many of us rely on day—to—day hour—to—hour. what we saw was every time apple did an update of this software when these changes to people's operating

structure would occur, there would bea structure would occur, there would be a massive spike on google of people searching slow—i phone. so that then told us hang on a second, something's going on here, and it didn't take too long for these programmers to debunk what was going on. so the apology is obviously well received. the $30 for replacing your battery i think is going to be fantastic because i phone customers will be able to extend the life of their battery and i think you will see other manufacturers respond in kind shortly as well. the british polar explorer has been forced to stop his journey as he has run out of food. he was doing the

journey in memory of his friend. the royal college of gps is asking patients to consider alternatives before making an appointment with their family doctor, such as consulting websites, to try to help ease the pressure on overstretched surgeries. ben ando has the details. the season of goodwill can also be a time of bad health, and that means overcrowded surgeries, busy doctors, and a tough time for the nhs. now the royal college of gps is urging people to think twice and take three steps before booking a gp appointment. it wants patients to use the catchphrase "three before gp" meaning that in the first instance, they should try to manage their symptoms themselves. next, they should look at reputable websites such as nhs choices. failing that, the worried unwell should talk to pharmacists, who are better trained than many realise. ifjust 5% of people who wanted to book an appointment today could get self—help, see a pharmacist, sort themselves

out by going online, actually, that would save 50,000 appointments for those who really need it. this is about using nhs resources in the best possible way, but also saving time for people as well. doctors' leaders say that for a population getting older, fatter and less healthy, there are not going to be enough doctors. they say that plans for a further 5000 by 2021, are injeopardy. they urge the home office to add being a general practitioner to the list of those jobs which could qualify potential migrants for a fast—track entry into the uk. the royal college of gps says it thinks up to one quarter of doctor appointments could be avoided if patients were willing to take more responsibility and make a trip to the doctor a step of last resort rather than the first call they make. now time for a look at the weather.

weather details have been essential this morning after the heavy snow which affected the glasgow area. ten centimetres of snow there. lots of sunshine and improvements this afternoon. the next batch of rain is moving up. as it bumps into the cold air in wales and northern ireland, there could be some transient snow turning back to rain eventually as it moves north. another cold night in scotland, particularly where there's lying snow, freezing with there's lying snow, freezing with the risk of ice but much milder further south. further north, you can see the blue colours, indicating it will remain chilly. not so cold across scotland and northern ireland though. certainly not as cold as it has been. for saturday, further rain and snow over scotland. rain pushing

in towards the south—west. you can see the central slice of the country and it's not a bad there here at all. widespread sunshine and a very mild ten to 13 for england and wales. that's your weather. this is bbc news, our latest headlines: heavy snow and icy conditions are causing disruption to travel across parts of northern england and scotland. glasgow airport has reopened after suspending flights for a time — but is advising passengers to check with their airline. 12 people, including three children, have been killed after fire swept through a new york apartment building. 15 people were injured, four of them critically.