this is bbc news. the headlines at four. weather warnings are in place for parts of northern england and scotland today after heavy snow and blizzard conditions. glasgow airport reopens after snow caused it to suspend all flights. it's advising passengers to check with their airlines. a child playing with a stove may have started a fire, in which 12 people died including three children according to the mayor of new york. it started from a young boy, three—and—a—half years old, playing with the burners on the stove. the fire got started, the mother was not aware of it, was alerted by the young man screaming. scientists hail a medical breakthrough as bone tissue is re—grown in a lab saving this dog's leg. trials will now see if the technique will work on humans. also, easing the impact of excessive drinking on busy accident apple bosses apologise for slowing

down older iphones. and the bbc‘s 100 women challenge heads to rio to tackle the issue of sexism in sport. that's levelling the playing field in halfan that's levelling the playing field in half an hour. 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 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. 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 is at the highways england control centre in wakefield for us now. just bring us up—to—date with the latest? yes. i've come inside from the snow. they took pity on me. this is much better and it's giving me the opportunity to get an overview of how the roads are looking across this part of the world, yorkshire and the north—east and kim taylor i’u ns and the north—east and kim taylor runs the control centre here. first

of all, look taggart monitors and around the region, it feels to me that the disruption that we'd feared really hasn't been as bad as it was threatened? yes, absolutely, that's fairto threatened? yes, absolutely, that's fair to say. we have not had any snow related accidents or incidents on the strategic road network in yorkshire and the north—east so that's been great. it's something you have had to monitor closely and i know that you work with other agencies as well to try to make things work as one. so for example the gritters, the met office, talk me through how that system works? it's a collaborative approach that we ta ke it's a collaborative approach that we take to dealing with severe weather or threatened severe weather. we have a met officer based in our national traffic control centre so we liaise closely with him to make sure we are prepared and to make sure we know what is forthcoming. the fleets of gritters that are out and about are deployed partly from what they are told from your information. how many gritters have been out? 350 gritters have been out continually salting the

network. some have been focussed in the north where it's been most severe today. the snow has blown through by and large but that is not the end of the weather warnings. what are we looking ahead to now? for the rest of the evening and through the night, we are looking at the chance of some quite severe ice on the roads, so again, we are out continually salting and monitoring the weather stations that gives a clear picture of the road conditions. so yes that is what is coming up next for us. you have got advice for motorists on how to cope particularly with ice? the first thing i say is consider whether the journey is necessary. if not, think about putting it off until the conditions have improved. if you have got to go out, check the vehicle, make surer prepared for any eventuality that comes your way. kim, thank you very much. ice is what we are talking about looking ahead to this evening and into

tomorrow. in particular, i'm told thatis tomorrow. in particular, i'm told that is something that will affect scotla nd that is something that will affect scotland and the north of england. where i am now looking across at the monitors, the motorways, the m62, the m1, around yorkshire and the, moving smoothly. the advice is to ta ke moving smoothly. the advice is to take care. twelve people have been killed in a fire at an apartment building in the bronx district of new york — 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. in the last half hour, the fire department gave this update. last night's tragic fire, other than 9/11, was the worst loss of life from fire in our city in almost 28 yea rs. from fire in our city in almost 28 years. the fire that occurred in

1990. we are in the midst right now of the worst month for loss of life in our city forfire in the of the worst month for loss of life in our city for fire in the past ten yea rs. in our city for fire in the past ten years. 12 people tragically died here, seven women, five men, five children, seven adults. four other people remain hospitalised with critical injuries and are seriously fighting for they've their lives right now. i said last night, it's not nice to have a situation like this. fire martials have been here trying to determine the cause —— marshals. we found this fire started ina marshals. we found this fire started in a kitchen on the first floor, started from a young boy, three—and—a—half years old playing with the burners on the stove. the fire got started, the mother was not aware of it, was alerted by the young man screaming. she exited her

apartment with her two—year—old and three—year—old and left the door open. so this fire quickly spread up the stairs. fire travels up, the stairway acted like a chimney, it took the fire so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react, they couldn't get back down the stairs, those that tried. a few that tried perished. others escaped, we re that tried perished. others escaped, were helped out on to the fire escapes and ta ken were helped out on to the fire escapes and taken down by our members. so although our members got here ina members. so although our members got here in a little over three minutes and bravely entered the building and did everything they could, and did save a number of residents, this loss is unprecedented. it is the time of year where people celebrate and certainly here, we have people who've lost their lives, lost their homes, lost everything. we grieve

with them, as everyone in this city should and does, at this terrible time. again, the lessons here, you know, of children left unattended, the mother was in the apartment but certainly not in close approximate imtoy to this young boy, how dangerous this can be, and also you have seen the ads, close the door, close the door, close the door. if u nfortu nately you close the door, close the door. if unfortunately you do have a fire in your apartment, you must close the door when you exit because the results if you don't are what happened here last night. it's just sad, it saddens our entire department this time offier that our members are carrying out folks, including young children. let's speak to our reporter from cbs news whojoins us from speak to our reporter from cbs news who joins us from the bronx. as we we re who joins us from the bronx. as we were hearing there from the fire department, this blaze apparently caused by a tragic accident?

that's absolutely right. it is a tragedy, three—and—a—half—year—old boy playing with a stove when something happened, flames ignited, the mother quickly grabbed her three—and—a—half—year—old and another child and ran out of the apartment but she made that fatal mistake of not closing the apartment door and allowing flames to escape out of the apartment and up the stairwell, affecting this five—storey building and the 25 apartments. we know that 12 people have died, among them five children. laura, for now, many thanks for the latest from new york. clash the independent police complaints commission says a former surrey police officer who investigated jimmy savile would have faced questions of professional misconduct over his role had he still been a serving officer.

savile who died in 2011 was revealed to have abused hundreds of mainly women and girls. the report into surrey police's investigation of allegations of sexual offences byjimmy savile at duncroft school in the 1970s, found that the officer had failed to pass onto details of an alleged indecent assault by the star at stoke mandeville hospital. researchers in scotland have saved the leg of a dog using a new technique to grow bones in the laboratory. the dog, eva, would have had her leg amputated were it not for this new approach and the treatment on her is a world first. the team from glasgow university now wants to try the technique on humans. our science correspondent 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.

we can now speak to eva and her owner fiona kirkland who are in our glasgow studio. thank you to both of you for coming in to talk to us. tell us first of all what it was like when you feared that you were going to have to lose eva's leg? it was terrible. she was a young dog, a dog that liked jumping and going through the undergrowth and the thought of her being on three legs, because she'd already sometimes when she'd been out in the garden to toilet, she'd trip and fall and i had visions of a three—legged dog, you know, co nsta ntly three—legged dog, you know, constantly colliding with the ground. so it was quite upsetting to be honest. at the same time, she

would adapt to it but you would rather not have to put your dog through that experience. this was after an accident she'd had? yes, she chased a fox and ended up getting hit by a car. how did you then find out about this potential new technique which eventually did save her leg? william marshall, the orthopaedic surgeon at the vet hospital told me that this was at the point in time when normally there would be no option but to take her leg off but because they were a research facility attached to glasgow university, there was this possibility of some research that could be used to help eva. he did emphasise it had only been used in la bs emphasise it had only been used in labs at this point in time, but it was an only option for eva, otherwise she would be three—legged. and we have seen those pictures of her leaping around apparently

com pletely her leaping around apparently completely sound in all four legs. how swiftly did she recover after having this treatment? 0h, how swiftly did she recover after having this treatment? oh, it was absolutely fantastic because, you know, the accident happened injuly, then the following march she'd had this surgery and when she went back for her check—up six weeks later towards the end of april, her leg was to all intents and purposes clinically healed. it was just phenomenal, all that time with her injured leg and then within six weeks it was healed. having taken a risk with an untried and untested technique, how surprised were you? surprised and very, very relieved. at the time that the research was being offered up, i didn't actually understand what was going on, what was involved in it. william had said that initially there might be a bit ofa that initially there might be a bit of a delay because the engineers we re of a delay because the engineers were having trouble and i was

thinking, is it some sort of metal that they are putting in her leg, i really didn't understand, it was only post—surgery i found out more that it was sir bobby charlton's charity, find a better way that funded the research and the team at the university that had been involved in devising the technique. so it's absolutely brilliant for everybody, but most of all for me, eva's got four legs. a pioneering dog clearly deserves every single one of those treats! it must be quite something to know that she has paved the way for research that could now help humans who are suffering possibly life—changing injuries? yes, that's the whole thing about it, you know, we are delighted to have a dog with four legs again. if you just think of all those poor people who've survived landmine blast attacks, what it can do to help them, as well as other people with different types of injuries. it's phenomenal where it

might all lead. i just injuries. it's phenomenal where it might all lead. ijust can't believe it. the more i hear about it through talking with people, it's wonderful for everyone. problem with sound. unfore—natalie, i think that eva might havejust unfore—natalie, i think that eva might have just had a unfore—natalie, i think that eva might havejust had a bit unfore—natalie, i think that eva might have just had a bit of a swipe at your microphone, so we lost the end of it, but it's great to see both you and eva in such good shape andi both you and eva in such good shape and i hope you enjoy many long walks together. thanks a lot for talking together. thanks a lot for talking to us. thank you. the headlines on bbc news; weather warnings are in place for parts of northern england and scotland today after heavy snow. glasgow airport has now reopened after snow caused it to suspend all flights. a child playing with a stove may have started a fire, in which 12 people died including three children according to the mayor of new york. scientists at glasgow university are to begin trials to see whether a newly—discovered technique for regrowing bone tissue in this dog will work on humans. sport now and for a full round up,

from the bbc sport centre, here's james pierce. england's cricketers still have a chance of winning the fourth ashes test in melbourne, but they will have to hope that the weather is kinder to them tonight than it was today. rain stopped play on day four with australia 103—2 in their second innings, trailing england by 61 runs. patrick gearey reports from melbourne. at last, for england some hope. a chance to cheer without lurking fear. to read and not weep. why isn't alastair cook on the front cover? that score remained correct. cook's third day of batting lasted one ball. he watched it, jimmy anderson hit it, cameron bancroft caught it. cook carried his bat unbeaten, a lesson in focus and patience. england needed to bowl in a similarfashion. waiting worked initially. they removed cameron bancroft, then produced enough movement to tempt usman khawaja. england were still nearly 100 ahead

and making the best of a wearing ball. they, like australia, were warned about stuffing the ball on the pitch. but some on australian television made more serious accusations, to england's obvious irritation. as soon as i saw the headlines, i raced into the umpires. that was their words, actually — "nothing to worry about, absolutely fine". england's next obstacle was australia's rock, steve smith. he reached the boundary only occasionally. england shut off the taps. but they couldn't dry everything up. showers turned to storms, play finished at three. england denied by very english conditions at the mcg. they are the only side with a realistic chance of winning this test. and the weather on the final day looks far clearer. but the continuing presence of the australian captain steve smith at the crease is a dark cloud still looming over them. patrick geary, bbc news, melbourne. andy murray has made his long awaited comeback from a hip injury, playing a one set exhibition match in abu dhabi against spain's roberto bautista agut. the briton was a last minute

replacement for novak djokovic who has had to delay his return from an elbow problem. murray lost the first four games, never looked at his physical best and ended up losing the set 6—2. this was murray's first competitive match since wimbledon. djokovic meanwhile could be a doubt for the australian open. liverpool managerjurgen klopp says it was "not nice" paying £75 million for the southampton defender virgil van dyck, but there was little choice. the dutchman will become the world's most expensive defender when the transfer window opens next month. klopp emphasised how much prices have spiralled over the past 6 months. it doesn't mean that all transfers will now be in this category, but it's the same like it was before, half a year ago, i think it was a big transferfor half a year ago, i think it was a big transfer for an offensive player. now we have a big transfer for a defensive player and it's

around about a third of it as it a lwa ys around about a third of it as it always was. and this's it. it's not nice, it's not nice, but that's the market, that's the world and we have to adapt. that's how it is. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. police say a woman found murdered in north london had been stabbed and beaten. the body of iuliana tudos — who was 22 and originally from moscow, but had lived in london for some years — was discovered on wednesday in finsbury park. it's thought she might have been attacked on christmas eve. two men have appeared in court via video link charged with terrorism offences, relating to an alleged plot for an attack over christmas. they are jointly charged with preparation of an act of terrorism. in essence this case allegedly comes down to preparations to make a home made bomb. at least 12 people have been killed

in two separate attacks on coptic christians in egypt. two shop owners were shot dead inside their premises in helwan district, south of the capital cairo. ten people were killed in a separate gun attack on mar mina church in the same district. over the past year more than one hundred christians have been killed in bombings and shootings in egypt. authorities in the indian city of mumbai have launched an inquiry, after a huge fire at an office and restaurant complex killed at least fourteen people. the blaze erupted just after midnight in the popular kamala mills restaurant and shopping compound, and engulfed the structure within half an hour. most of the victims are thought to be young women who were attending a birthday party. the demonstrations began against

rising prices but have spiralled into a general outcry in iran against the country's clerical rule. a small number of people have reportedly been arrested in the capital tehran. protests have since spread to many of iran's biggest cities. apple has apologised to its customers, after it admitted slowing down older iphone, 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. joining me now from manchester is the technology specialist, tom cheesewright. tom, this seems to be an admission from apple of something people suspected for a long time? almost but not quite. it's an admission that they pacically made a huge mess—up on the pr front and failed to communicate what was a sensitive

move, as we all know the worst is that all our phones is the battery and they degrade over time. if the battery drops out and can't deliver the current process it needs when you're in aniedle of doing something, you can lose stuff. it's put measures in place to prevent that but failed to communicate that to users. people will clearly suspect this is a move by apple simply to ensure that those of us who've got not quite the latest model will then rush out to get the new when when it comes on the market? conspiracy theorists have been pushing this idea for a long time but objective tests have shown the new of the ware updates mean the devices have got faster rather than slower, as long as you do the maintenance of getting rid of the old stuff that chugs away in the background. this gives credence to the fact that old phones drag down the fact that old phones drag down the upgrade cycle on the new phones. do you think nonetheless though this

has damaged apple's reputation?” think it has. apple jealously guards that reputation. it's ruthless when it comes to communicating its own message clearly and it's failed on this occasion, very unusual and i think it has done damage. customer who is have got older phones, it now looks as though they'll be able to get them sorted out more cheaply, as apple tries desperately to try to salvage its reputation? this is perhaps the biggest boost for customers, a two thirds cost in the price of a new battery which is the wea kest price of a new battery which is the weakest component of older devices. if you are clinging on to an old device but it's starting to slow down or maybe the power is starting to go all together, they do start to turn themselves off when the batteries degrade, for £25 presidential beened 30 you can get a new battery and keep it going for maybe another year. thank you. newly—released national archives' files have revealed that margaret thatcher once refused to share a flight to washington with london zoo's giant panda.

lord zuckerman, president of the london zoological society, suggested that chia chia the panda could share the prime minister's concorde flight in 1981. washington's smithsonian institution had asked to borrow chia chia, to mate it with us—based ching ching. but mrs thatcher said pandas were not " happy omens" for politicians there is an awful lot of weather out there and some more serious stuff on there and some more serious stuff on the way. starve will bring us up—to—date with the latest. what is going on? thank you, carol. it's been severe at times across the south, certainly, and in the north where we had some heavy snow across glasgow. we are looking at this area of rain moving up this evening and overnight. could be a little bit of transient snow on its leading edge.

it should turn generally back to rain here. much milderfurther south, five to eight celsius. the mild airwill be south, five to eight celsius. the mild air will be across england and wales for saturday and on into sunday, but there is going to be a lot of rain moving in the next couple of days, on a strong south—westerly or westerly wind which will be strong at times. for saturday, apart from the north which will have further rain over the hills, the central slice of the uk will be dry with plenty of sunshine. the south—west will have a little rain later on. on the cool side in the north but good temperatures in the north but good temperatures in the south. 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 still advising passengers to check with their airline. 12 people, including three children, have been killed after fire swept through a new york apartment building. the fire, started by a child playing with a stove, is the deadliest fire in the city for 25 years. it started from a young boy, three and a half years old, playing with the burners on the stove, before i got started and the mother wasn't aware, but was alerted by the young man screaming. —— before it got started. apple has apologised after facing criticism for admitting to deliberately slowing down some ageing iphone models. the company now says it will replace batteries for less and will issue software in 2018 so customers can monitor their phone's battery health. a medical breakthrough as researchers in scotland save this dog's leg growing bones in a laboratory using a new technique. the scientists say the technique is likely to work on humans.

now on bbc news — in 100 women — julia carneiro is in the brazilian city of rio dejaneiro tackling the issue of sexism in sport. we're challenging teams of women in four cities around the world to tackle everyday problems that blight their lives... in the workplace... we need a working prototype by tomorrow morning. in education... this is not functional — emojis not showing up in the overlay. on public transport... there's only, i don't know, 50 more to do or something. and on the sports field. using bbc outlets, the teams can appeal for help from around the world.