this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley. the headlines at apm: police appeal for information after four men are stabbed to death in london in unrelated new year attacks. tragically, there are four families who awake this morning to the heartbreaking news they have lost loved ones to the callous use of knives as lethal weapons. a mother and daughter are identified as being among five british tourists killed in a seaplane crash near sydney. an mp paid tribute to one of the others killed. will was an incredible young man, just starting off in his life, just 25, he was so passionate and energetic. iranian state media says ten people have been killed overnight in anti—regime protests. president trump uses twitter to say it's "time for change". also this hour: m00 vehicles are destroyed in a new year fire in a liverpool car park. one eyewitness said she saw a ball

of flame coming out of a land rover before it spread to neighbouring vehicles. and in half an hour, we look at the potential ‘demographic dividend' of africa's population explosion. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the metropolitan police has said that four young men have been stabbed to death between yesterday morning and the early hours of today in a series of unrelated attacks. three, aged 17, 18 and 20, were killed yesterday. a fourth, who was also 20, died after been stabbed on an estate in the old street area of east london in the early hours of this morning. officers say the murders highlight the scale of knife crime in the capital. during yesterday and last night there were thousands of police

officers on duty across london, determined to ensure millions of londoners were able to enjoy the celebrations, the passing of 2017 and the coming of 2018. to those millions of londoners i would like to say thank you for your cooperation in having a safe and enjoyable night. tragically, there are four families who awake this morning to the heartbreaking news they have lost loved ones to the callous use of knives as lethal weapons. 0ur detectives are working tirelessly today and going forward to bring those who have committed these murderers tojustice, and we've already made a number of arrests. we have certainly seen in recent months an increase in knife crime. we are working hard to tackle that, taking more knives off the streets of london and bringing offenders to justice. so whilst the events of the last 2a hours are unusual, we are working tirelessly to take knives off the streets

of london and stop people committing violence on the streets of the capital. earlier i spoke to barry mizen, whose16—year—old son jimmy was stabbed to death in south east london in 2008. he now campaigns against knife violence, and i asked him whether news like this brings back painful memories. certainly does, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those affected by this outrageous night, if you like. a terrible night for the families concerned. remind us of the circumstances in whichjimmy died. he went into a local bakery shop, day after he turned 16. he was attacked by a very well—known young man involved in violence at the time and had a glass dish smashed in his face, severed his arteries and he bled to death in a couple of minutes. the foundation you set up works to try and increase the prospects of young people not getting involved in this, what are the messages you try to put out? you will have heard this before.

youngsters saying i'm not aggressive, i'm not violent, but i feel safer if i have a knife on me to protect me against someone who might be like that. that is the message coming out. we invite people to see what we are doing, it is to enable young people to take responsibility for their own communities. as far as we are concerned, a strong community is a safe one, and in this instance we would urge people in communities who have knowledge of this crime and others, to come forward, because communities can make the change. much of it is about youngsters challenging their friends when they are aware they are carrying a knife, saying you are playing a lottery, thinking it will make them safer, but they don't know

the circumstances they could end up in. you are right but trying to get that across, to work the logic, doesn't happen with many young people, and it is about pushing on and encouraging, the police do a greatjob, and i'm sure they will get convictions for this, but encouraging the local communities, if you want it different, what are you prepared to do? it is notjust a london problem, we have reports overnight of a new year's eve party that was disrupted by people again being stabbed in knife attacks, but thankfully no one has died in that. but in london there has been a big focus on the numbers are quite high, 80 in the last 12 months alone, often young people, often young men. the mayor of london and his predecessor and his predecessor have all talked about making this a priority, do you have any sense of why we don't seem to be able to reduce it? is it about attitudes or the easy

availability of knives? we focus too much on knives, because if it wasn't knives, it would be another weapon, but it is about who are we looking to solve this for us. there's a stand—off between some parts of the community and the police, but can we come together and work together for the common good? we don't want this. there are young people out there very frightened, they don't want this, and the great young people we meet in schools in the capital and around the country do not want any of this. what are we prepared to do ourselves? it is not a case of sitting back and demanding the government and the police do theirjob, although they do have a job to do, but it needs to be backed up by strong community support. police investigating the death of a woman in north london over the christmas period have a arrested a 31—year—old man in east london the body of iuliana tudos — who was 22 and originally from moscow — was discovered last wednesday in finsbury park.

police say she died of a stab wound to the abdomen and a head injury. it is believed she was attacked on christmas eve. air accident investigators in australia say it may take many months before they know why a seaplane carrying a prominent british businessman and four members of his family, crashed on new year's eve. richard cousins who ran the catering giant compass was killed along with his two sons, his fiance, her daughter and the pilot. phil mercer reports. the wreckage of the seaplane lies 13 metres below the surface of the hawkesbury river. one of the victims was the british businessman, richard cousins, the chief executive of the world's largest catering firm, compass, who was due to retire later this year. the company confirmed his death in a statement. mr cousins, who was 58, died alongside his fiancee, emma bowden, and her 11—year—old daughter, heather. also on board the seaplane that crashed intojerusalem bay, william cousins, 25, who worked for open britain — a pro—eu group set up in the aftermath of the brexit vote.

colleagues said they were shocked by news of his death. his brother, edward, who was 23, had recently graduated from the university of st andrews. the pilot, gareth morgan, had done more than 10,000 flying hours, 9,000 of which were on seaplanes. the pilot had collected mr cousins and members of his family from an exclusive waterfront restaurant and was heading back to rose bay on sydney harbour. shortly after take—off, the plane plummeted into the water. investigators say it quickly sank and there were no survivors. these are people who have come out on holiday to visit australia in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. and for this to happen to them in a place like that is nothing more than just tragic. it could take months to work out how and why a routine sightseeing trip could end in utter disaster. air crash investigators have begun their work.

their task won't be easy. the wreckage of the seaplane has been submerged in more than a0 feet of water. and although these idyllic bays and inlets are geographically close to sydney, the crash site is tucked away and hard to get to. sydney seaplanes, which owns the aircraft, has suspended all its flights until further notice. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney. the labour mp and former shadow business secretary chuka umunna worked alongside will cousins at the open britain campaign group and paid tribute to his former colleague. it's absolutely devastating. i cannot compute this happening. it's an utter tragedy for the family. will, who i knew best, he was an incredible young guy, starting off in his life, just 25. he was so passionate

and so energetic and so utterly dedicated to the pro—european cause in this country. we really have lost one of our very best. one of the last conversations i had with his father a few weeks ago — i was telling him how important will was to open britain as an organisation. he was telling me how proud he was of his son. and for will, richard, the whole family, richard's fiancee, to lose their lives in this way, it is just horrific. they will be really sorely missed. can you... you can't compute this. it is too awful to compute. a huge fire has destroyed up to 11100 vehicles in a multistorey car park in liverpool. the fire at king's dock,

next to liverpool's echo arena, is said to have started accidentally in one car and spread to others. many people were forced into temporary accommodation as nearby buildings were evacuated. danny savage reports. it was shortly after dark yesterday evening when fire took hold in the multistorey car park on liverpool's famous waterfront. it is understood a small fire in one car spread rapidly, destroying vehicles and then moving on to all levels of the car park. it was soon a huge blaze. merseyside fire and rescue say it's one of the worst they've ever dealt with. all the car owners could do was watch and accept they would never see their vehicles again. i've got a vehicle in there, yeah. i'm unsure at the moment what it's going to be. we can't get anywhere near it. do you hold out much hope for your car? looking at the flames, no. nearby flats and a hotel were evacuated too as the alarming

sight of the massive fire attracted lots of onlookers. the fire's still going on. i canjust see black smoke everywhere. the car park is attached to the liverpool arena, where an international horse show was taking place. all the animals were quickly led to safety. this morning, the blackened building was surrounded by fire engines as experts assess the site. the concern is that the car park may collapse. this spectacular fire certainly caused a huge amount of damage. the insurance bill for the cars alone will be several million pounds. the good fortune was that no one was hurt. danny savage, bbc news, liverpool. the headlines on bbc news: police appealfor information after four men are stabbed to death in london in unrelated incidents in new year attacks.

the six victims of a seaplane crash near sydney are identified, among them the british boss of one of the world's largest catering companies. a huge blaze at a liverpool car park destroys around park destroys around 11100 vehicles, stranding hundreds in the city centre overnight. sport now and a full round up from the bbc sport centre. well, the 1st of january of course means a host of new year's day football matches up and down the country. five of today's games come from the premier league, the first of which was an entertaining 2—2 draw between brighton and bournemouth on the south coast. maz farookhi was watching for us. waving in the new year on the south coast. for many 2018 offers a clean slate and for these teams their resolutions are as they were —

premier league survival. but after a festive workload, players understandably begin to feel the strain. anthony knockaert had to receive treatment in the warm up, but minutes later he proved his fitness and finishing were sharp. brighton's start was everything they hoped for, although bournemouth equalised against the run of play thanks to steve cook. the home side continued to dominate, they started the second half as they did the first. glenn murray on the end of the pass. brighton in front again. the win should have been secured 20 minutes from time. the colombian with the breakaway but not the finish. bournemouth were hoping to salvage something. it was a shame the final note was an ugly one of such an entertaining game. ping—pong football in the box and the points were shared. what became at times a fairly open game against a very good bournemouth side that have got a lot of power and pace, i thought some of our

attacking play was really good. certainly on chances and what you regard as clear—cut chances we had by far the better of the clear—cut chances. to come here at 2—2 after leading twice and having the best chances, hugely disappointing, and it feels like two points lost. when there is one goal in it, any team in the premier league can look uncomfortable with what's at stake and the home crowd can get nervous. i felt we were better coming from behind, chasing the game, we looked stronger. we were trying to win it at the end and that is a good sign, the players were going all out for three points. there are three games going on at the moment. half an hour left. no goals for liverpool in their visit to burnley. leicester are leading against huddersfield thanks to a lovely volley from mahrez. big game for stoke city and their manager mark hughes. but their match is goalless.

manchester united manager jose mourinho, says he has problems ahead of today's premier league game at everton. united have slipped to third, after a run of three draws. mourinho has to contend, with injuries to romelu lukaku, and zlatan ibrahimovic, as well as ashley young beginning a three match ban. we have problems. we have difficulty now to rotate players. the fact we don't play the league cup semifinal is a good thing for us, i think that is a good thing because we have no players to play these possible extra matches in january. now we have to cope with everton and derby county. british number one yohanna konta has started her season with a two sets to one victory over madison keys, at the brisbane international. it's her first tournament with new coach michaeljoyce. she lost the first set to the american 6—4 but broke early in the second to take that — 6—4 and level the match.

keys lost her serve at the start of the deciding set and konta was untroubled from there — strolling through 6—3 to reach the second round. she'll play ayla tomlayanovic next. there are a couple of big matches in rugby union's pro 1a on sunday. leinster have made 13 changes for their match against connacht which isjust under way in dublin. while later ulster play munster. liverpool have taken the lead against burnley through sadio mane. that is all the sport for now. more protesters have been killed in anti—government demonstrations in iran. state—run media says ten people have died in protests in the last week. president rouhani says people have the right to protest, but violence is unacceptable. rana rahimpourfrom the bbc‘s persian service has been telling us that the circumstances surrounding the deaths remain unclear. very conflicting reports and almost impossible to verify.

the internet is almost shutdown and people say it takes half an hour to write a tweet so we have not received any footage and anything confirmed is almost impossible. but state television said about ten people have been killed overnight and they say they were rioters and some of them were armed. but it's impossible to find out. protesters say they have been killed by government forces. the evidence that these are serious protests is the fact that president rouhani was drawn to make these very clear comments. they have a right to protest, he said, but they don't have a right to be involved in violence, which implies that they had to take action of some kind to bring these protests to order. yes. that is why he has given a couple of speeches in the last 2a hours. clearly they feel there is serious tension. on top of that he acknowledges why

people are so angry. we are talking about very high unemployment, in some cities where protests are taking place 60% of people are unemployed. he acknowledges the fact that corruption is serious amongst the political elite, inflation has been very high, but he also has fears of possible interference of iran's regional allies and that is what he has been warning the protesters about. in essence he is saying to them, you are in danger of being used by outside forces who are hostile to our country. we were talking about this at the weekend, the idea that the protests might have been started by hardliners opposed to the president but then got out of control with people with other motives. it seems that's credible, because many officials have now commented about how it

originally started. it looks like there were some internal rivals of president rouhani who were defeated in the recent election and they asked supporters to get on the street and protest against inflation and basically against president rouhani's policies. but they miscalculated the level of frustration amongst many people, especially people in the more deprived areas that we have seen. so many cities in the south of the country and the west of the country, they are very young, educated but they don't have jobs. the youth unemployment rate is 28%. incredibly high figure. it is incredibly high. the interior minister says in some cities it goes up to 60% which is astonishing. on top of that there have been small protests in recent months against the banks, many of the investment banks were shut down because they almost

went bankrupt and people have lost their life savings. so there has been this thing going on, boiling under the surface, and i think as soon as it found a chance it erupted. the leader of north korea, kim jong—un, has warned the united states that he has a nuclear button on his desk, ready for use, if his country feels threatened. the comments came during a televised new year's day speech in which he also said that he wanted to lower military tensions with neighbouring south korea from where our correspondent sophie long reports. just after the first sun of 2018 rose over the korean peninsular, this kim jong—un delivered his new year's address live on state—run television, with an unsurprisingly defiant message for the united states. translation: the entire united states is within range of our nuclear weapons and the nuclear button is always on my desk.