welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is duncan golestani. our top stories: big ben bongs! london sees in the new year in style. 30 tons of fireworks light up the sky above the river thames. spectacular celebrations sweep the globe. dubai stages a record—breaking laser show at the world's tallest building, the burj khalifa. a defiant new year message from north korea. kim jong—un warns he's "always within reach" of the nuclear button. after four days of unrest, iran's president defends people's right to protest, but he warns violence and vandalism won't be tolerated. and in the uk, a huge fire in liverpool forces part of the city centre to be evacuated. no—one‘s been injured, but hundreds of cars are destroyed. hello and welcome to bbc news.

people across the world have been celebrating the start of 2018. in london, 100,000 people watched the fireworks display on the thames. thousands of party—goers packed the streets of edinburgh for the hogmanay celebrations. it follows exuberant displays elsewhere in europe, across the middle east and asia, all welcoming 2018. and within the past hour, the americas have started their celebrations. this report from briohny williams contains some flashing images. over two million people lined rio de janeiro‘s copacabana beach for the 17 minute firework display — one of the first major south american cities to see in the new year as 2018 sweeps across the globe. big ben bongs.

the iconic sound of big ben strikes in london. the party began with 10,000 fireworks along the river thames. the skies above berlin's brandenburg gate were lit up in every colour. the countdown in paris was watched by thousands at the arc de triomphe, as fireworks dazzled in the darkness. perhaps one of the most spectacular displays didn't involve fireworks at all. in dubai, they lit up the world's tallest building with lasers. the burj khalifa becoming a shimmering canvas, visible almost 100 kilometres away. hong kong ushered in 2018 with style. victoria harbour was transformed into sparkling splendour. auckland was the first major city to see in the new year with its sky tower lit up... five, four, three, two, one!

..followed by sydney, where 1.5 million people lined the harbour front to see in 2018. briony williams, bbc news. bitterly cold weather continues to blanket the northern united states and canada as forecasters warn that the deep freeze will continue into the first week of 2018. temperatures are predicted to remain below minus ten degrees celsius in some areas. in new york, people in times square are bracing themselves for one of the coldest new year's eve parties on record. sarah corker reports. parts of canada are colder than the north pole. niagara falls has become an ice—covered spectacle as temperatures plummeted. and arctic air is sweeping across

large parts of the united states, stretching from montana to maine — some 2,500 miles gripped by the big freeze. in erie, in pennsylvania, a record—breaking five feet of snow has fallen since christmas day. but the cold weather didn't deter visitors in new york. people started gathering in times square up to nine hours before the famous ball drop. i wasn't ready for this cold weather. i'm from a warm climate. it's, um, really, really cold. i expected it to be a little bit kind of around zero, but not like negative, like, —5. we love it! it'sjust freezing cold, absolutely freezing cold. but you can see me well dressed — five layers. five layers! two gloves. freezing cold! the temperature in manhattan is expected to drop below —12 celsius — one of the coldest new year's eve on record. people have been told to wrap up to prevent

frostbite and hypothermia. events in upstate new york and elsewhere have been cancelled and well into 2018, stronger winds are set to make it feel it even colder. sarah corker, bbc news. north korean leader kimjong—un has made a defiant new year message, saying he is always within reach of the nuclear button. it comes after months of escalating tensions over his country's weapons programme. in the televised message, it's reported kim jong—un said "the nuclear button is always on my table. this is not blackmail but reality". he went on to say he will use nuclear weapons only when north korea's security is threatened. well, earlier i was joined by our correspondent in seoul, sophie long. i asked her if the message from kim jong—un was a clear message for washington. this was his new year message that has become a tradition here.

it was broadcast here early this morning on the state television service, and those certainly were the headlines. he said that the whole of the united states mainland is now within reach of his nuclear weapons and he said "i have the nuclear button on my desk". he says "that's not a threat, it is simply reality". and he said because of that reality, the united states would now never be able to start a war with north korea. so it was a defiant message and clearly one for the united states, but he had a much more conciliatory tone when he was talking about south korea, the united states‘ ally and its neighbour, of course. he said that he was open to talks with south korea, particularly in terms of pyeongchang, the up and coming winter olympics due to take place in south korea at the beginning of february. there's been a lot of speculation about whether north korea would send a delegation and he confirmed in his new year's message that he was, indeed, considering sending a delegation to south korea to compete

in the winter olympics. and that's very important for people here. certainly, president moon of south korea, he gave a speech before kim jong—un spoke this morning. he spoke mainly about domestic issues but he said that he thought that the pyeongchang 0lympics could be really a turning point in terms of relations between the two koreas and in terms of reducing tensions on the korean peninsula which, as you rightly point out, have been ratcheting up throughout the course of 2017. i don't think anything he had to say in terms of his relations with the united states came as a surprise to anyone, but it was indeed a defiant tone. throughout 2017, particularly the latter part of the year, there has been several rounds of un sanctions aimed at punishing pyongyang for its testing of missile and nuclear tests. none of those seem to have had any impact in terms of pushing pyongyang to the negotiating table, and his message to the united states this morning was very much one of defiance. china's leader, xijinping, has used his new year's message

to suggest his country will play a greater role in international affairs in 2018. under previous presidents, china kept a lower international profile but president xi set out his foreign affairs priorities in a number of areas. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the palestinians have announced they are recalling their envoy to the united states. it comes after president trump recognised jerusalem as the capital of israel. palestinian president mahmoud abbas said he would not accept any us peace plan in the wake of mr trump's move. police in the us state of colorado say a sheriff's deputy has been killed and four wounded after they came under fire in a suburb of denver. they were responding to a report of gunfire during what police said was a domestic disturbance. police say two civilians were also shot, as was the suspected shooter, who is believed to be dead. venezuela's government is raising

the minimum wage by 40% with the start of the new year. president nicolas maduro, who's beset by financial difficulties and political unrest, said the measure will protect workers against what he calls washington's economic war on his country. but economists say it will fuel the already high inflation. the president of iran, hassan rouhani, has appealed for calm, saying people have the right to protest but not to commit acts of violence. in his first public comments since demonstrations against the government began on thursday, mr rouhani warned that violence and public disorder would not be tolerated. protests have now spread to many cities, and in tehran, police have used water cannon. here's kasra naji of the bbc persian service. the centre of tehran during the fourth day of anti—government protests. these protesters are shouting "death to the dictator" —

a reference to iran's supreme leader. the protests are the most serious challenge to the iranian clerical regime for many years. as the night fell, there were reports of demonstrations from at least a dozen or so cities up and down the country. president rouhani has finally made a comment on the unrest, days after they started — the first top iranian leader to do so. translation: the atmosphere for criticism, protests within a legal framework, is absolutely free. but the atmosphere for destruction and unrest is definitely not an atmosphere which people would tolerate. the wave of demonstrations throughout the country started on thursday here in mashhad, in the north—east, with what was supposed to be a small protest, sponsored by the hardliners, to criticise the economic policies of the government of president rouhani — something that quickly got out of control. earlier in the day, the government

moved to limit access in iran to the internet, and to popular social media apps like telegram. but in spite of these efforts, more and more videos are being posted on social media, and there has been more violence. here in the western city of kermanshah, for example, where a number of people are reported to have been injured. president rouhani's latest words are unlikely to calm these demonstrators, who are calling for the overthrow of the government. donald trump has commented on the protests, again, saying: footage has emerged from the scene where 12 people were killed

when a small passenger plane crashed shortly after take off in north—western costa rica. government officials said the single—propeller cessna had 10 us citizens and two local crew members on board. the cause of the crash is not yet known. media reports say five of the passengers shared the same surname, suggesting they were related. the incident happened near bejuco, in the mountainous region of punta islita, an area popular with tourists on the pacific coast. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: saying "i do" without the debt — a mass wedding for 400 cash—strapped couples in indonesia. the most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got under way with

the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland, we will use money we picked up in belgium today, and then we will be in france and again it will be the same money. it has just got to be the way to go. george harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his 0xfordshire home. a 33—year—old man from liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. i think it was good. you... just good? no, fantastic! that's better. this is bbc news.

the latest headlines: millions of people have thronged brazil's copacabana beach to celebrate the start of 2018. spectacular new year celebrations are sweeping the globe. in london a huge fireworks display lit up the sky above the river thames. a seaplane has crashed into a river near sydney, killing all six people on board. five of the victims are british including an 11 year old girl. the aircraft was on a sightseeing trip in the run—up to the new year celebrations. it came down in a river close to the suburb of cowan. well earlier i spoke to our correspondent phil mercer who told us the latest from west head, sydney. well, the authorities here in australia have named those five victims. they are richard cousins, who was chief executive of the compass group, which is the largest catering company in the world.

also on that flight were his fiance, she was in her late 40s, she was travelling with an 11—year—old daughter. also on board were two of mr cousins‘s sons, aged in their early and mid— 20s. so it's a terrible, tragic accident that the authorities here in australia are investigating. as you say, the seaplane came down near the suburb of cowan injerusalem bay about 2k hours ago and the australian transport safety bureau, in the last few hours, has begun efforts to retrieve the plane because the seaplane still sits in about 13 metres of water, just to the north of where we are now. this must be incredibly shocking for the tourism industry there? well, where we are is surrounded with new year's day holidaymakers

from around the world, and people come to australia to see things that they can't see anywhere else, and now the job of the air crash investigation team is to find out how and why a routine sightseeing trip from rose bay on sydney harbour tojerusalem bay ended in such catastrophic circumstances. the plane crashed shortly after taking off from near to an exclusive waterfront restaurant, where the british victims were having lunch and we understand, according to an eyewitness, that the plane banked sharply to the right before nosediving into the water. it is worth mentioning too that the tragedy also claimed the life of a 44—year—old pilot too, so in total, six people have died in this seaplane tragedy here in eastern australia, and as we say, five of those victims were from the united kingdom, holidaying in australia from britain.

phil mercer. police in the english city of liverpool say a fire has destroyed about 2000 vehicles in a multi—storey car park, and forced the cancellation of an international horse show at the city's echo arena. emergency services were called at around 5pm on new years eve and nearby apartments and hotels have been evacuated due to smoke. the public have been advised to stay away from the area and traffic restrictions are currently in place. no—one has been reported injured. some of those attending the horse show at the arena have been speaking about what happened. theyjust said there was a small incident in the main arena, we sat on the seats up the top. the next minute they said there was a small incident, no harm or anything like that, about five, ten minutes later they said there was a small fire up in the car park. we were in the arena watching

the show, one of the horsesjust come out to do the jumps and they called it back in. we were all looking at each other wondering what was going on. then they said there was a fire on the top floor. nothing to worry about. then a bit later on we came outside, because we smelled smoke, we came outside and obviously the fire was a lot worse than they were letting us know, really. a little earlier i spoke with lee clarke who was evacuated from a nearby hotel and also lost his car in the blaze. we were in the hotel near the arena and we were told about 8 o'clock that there was a small fire that would be controlled within a couple of hours. a couple of hours later we were informed that we needed to evacuate the hotel. we are now in the hilton hotel car park across from the docks, where we don't know whether, we have got a bed to the right, well we know for a fact that we don't have a car any more.

we live in nottinghamshire, which is 125 miles away, naturally that will cause a problem for us getting home tomorrow. we are in limbo on both accounts at the moment. so it has been confirmed to you that yours is one of the cars destroyed? yes, from what i have gathered, i have been following the liverpool echo reporter and the police on twitter and they both confirmed that all of the vehicles that were in there, between 11100 and 2000 have all been destroyed. so as far as we know at this stage, we are carless 110w. lee, we are just looking at pictures of that fire, it looks very intense. were you nearby? can you describe it to us? yeah, we left the hotel and went for a bit of a walk at about 8 o'clock, went for a walk and was going to one of the nearby bars, we crossed one of the bridges where the dock is and from the one side it looked

0k, from the other side it was absolutely shocking. you could see the flames just building through every single floor of the car park. it was absolutely, honestly it was like someone was setting fireworks off in the car park. 0bviously that was cars, it was ridiculous. it was surreal, it was something i have never experienced before and not something i ever want to experience again, to be honest. at least 36 people have been killed in a head—on collision between a lorry and a bus on a notoriously dangerous road in kenya. the bus was carrying people to the capital, nairobi, when the accident happened on the nakuru—eldoret highway near nakuru. more than 100 people have died in the last few weeks on that stretch of road alone. ian palmer reports. few survived the crash. first—responders search twisted metal to help and recover the injured, the dying and the dead. police say the number of people killed on this dangerous stretch

of road has risen to 100 for the month of december alone. the east african country has one of the worst road—safety records in the world. it's either the brakes failed, or the driver, for one reason or the other, was unable to control the vehicle. you never know what happens at night. both drivers died in the head—on collision. officials say 3000 people die in road accidents each year in kenya. the world health organisation says the true figure could be as high as 12,000. ian palmer, bbc news. united nations peacekeepers in the democratic republic of congo say eight people were killed as security forces clashed with protesters. in the capital kinshasa seven people were shot dead during demonstrations

security forces set up roadblocks and used tear gas and live ammunition to break gatherings at several locations, including churches. the protesters are demanding presidentjoseph kabila's resignation. his second term as president finished one year ago, and the constitution bars him from seeking a third mandate. he promised to step down by the end of this year, but he didn't. translation: we are tired. we have never had peace in this country. nothing works. we don't have enough to eat. president kabila should go and rest. translation: even under president mobutu, which was a dictatorship, you could march peacefully. we are really tired of this president. after attending mass in kinshasa, the leader of the opposition called on his countrymen to take a stand together. translation: we're living

under a dictatorship. i'm simply asking our people to resist, and we need to think of alternatives. sunday's violence is a repeat of tensions that have erupted time and again over the past year. more than 50 people were reportedly killed in anti—government protests between april and october. and there are concerns this volatility will persist. pablo uchoa, bbc news. hundreds of indonesian couples have tied the knot in a mass wedding. with theirfamilies, they gathered in a large tent in the capital, jakarta, before signing marriage certificates in front of government officials. david campanale has more. as fireworks lit jakarta's sky to mark the arrival of the new year, over 400 couples gathered to celebrate the turning of a new chapter in their lives. though hundreds of couples were involved, individuals made their day special by wearing

elaborate traditional indonesian outfits and headdresses. just hours before midnight, the mass wedding commenced with the arrival of the governor of jakarta. it was the cost of marriage ceremonies he had come to resolve. the city government raised funds to make a legally binding marriage possible. allowing children of these couples to be legally recognised. the funds also stretched to cover the indonesian wedding tradition of exchanging token gold dowries. as well as giving congratulations, the governor acknowledged that financial hardship can keep low—income indonesian couples from taking on the cost of a traditional wedding. after a brief ceremony in front of government officials, the couples took the final step towards full recognition of their relationship by signing their marriage certificates. translation: those whose marriages were not certified can use this opportunity to legalise

their marriage, and it is especially helpful for those who can't afford to do so. translation: i'm very happy because we officially wed in the mass wedding, receiving a blessing from the whole of society. i am very pleased. as the happy couples left the venue to join the throng of new year party—goers, jakarta's governor promised the city would make marriage possible for many more couples by repeating the event on the next new year's eve. david campanale, bbc news. a reminder of our top story: the uk has welcomed the new year with a spectacular fireworks display in london and edinburgh. from all of us here, happy new year. good morning, and a happy new year to you.

before we leap ahead into 2018 and what the weather has in store for the week ahead, let's just take a quick look back at what 2017 brought us. for ennerdale, in cumbria, on the 15th of may, over six inches of rain in 2a hours. it was a hot day though at heathrow, on the 21st ofjune. 3a degrees. the hottest day of the year. in terms of wintriest weather, well, that was sennybridge, in the brecon beacons, on the 11th of december, with 31cm, around a foot, of snow. winter, of course, is not over by far. a very mobile and rather mild picture overall though across the british isles for the week ahead. you may have seen a low there to the south, which will get very close to the south coast this new year's day. strong gusty maybe even damaging winds along the south coast through the first half of new year's day and quite a bit of rain too. it becomes a little bit more showery as we get into south wales, and there should be some sunshine

to the north of that before we meet another area of low pressure that's developing across western scotland and northern ireland. that will bring some strong winds to the early part of the day. and sink its way into southern scotland, northern england and continue to feed showers into northern ireland through the afternoon. further south, our other low pulls off into the continent. we should see more in the way of sunshine. sunshine too for northern scotland. but a chilly story here, just 3 degrees in edinburgh. and then overnight, the showers clear, the isobars open and, with clear skies, temperatures are going to dip away significantly for early tuesday. the first day back at work in the new year, have the ice scrape or the de—icer ready, because it looks like we could see a fairly widespread frost. clear skies short lived though. another area of low pressure swinging its way from the atlantic, through the day. rain, some snow for the hills of northern england and the mountains of scotland. briefly rather mild though to the far south. another area of low pressure comes wheezing in overnight tuesday, into wednesday.

very squally winds in association with this low. windy day across the board on wednesday, with some heavy and thundery showers possible too. temperatures typically around average for the time of year, somewhere between the 6—10 degree mark. perhaps a little bit chilly again first thing on thursday as the winds fall light during the small hours of thursday. but into the day, another area of low pressure coming into the south and west and more heavy rain and a risk by hten of localised flooding. and a risk by then of localised flooding. a windy, wet start to 2018. this is bbc news. the headlines: revellers around the world have marked the start of the new year with spectacular celebrations. millions of people thronged brazil's copacabana beach to celebrate. in london, crowds saw 30 tons of fireworks light up the sky above the river thames. dubai marked the start of 2018 with a record breaking laser show at the world's tallest building, the burj khalifa. in his first comments since anti—government protests began

in iran, president rouhani has said people have the right to protest but their actions shouldn't lead to violence. earlier, police used water cannon against protesters in tehran. more than 1,000 cars have gone up in smoke in the english city of liverpool. they were parked in a multi—storey car park next to the echo arena when a large fire broke out. there are no reports of serious injuries. now on bbc news, hardtalk.