this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall. the headlines at apm. reports now say 18 people were killed when gunmen stormed the biggest hotel in the afghan capital, kabul. a man has been arrested after an eight—year—old girl was stabbed to death in the west midlands. the ukip leader henry bolton has told the bbc it's not right for the party's ruling committee tojudge him on his personal life — an emergency meeting on his future is being held this afternoon. i'm not going to allow this party be disrupted by internal squabbling, which has exploited my own domestic situation in order to cause problems. germany's social democratic party has voted to begin formal coalition talks with chancellor angela merkel‘s conservatives. and a women's march in central london. hundreds of people have been taking part in a ‘time‘s up‘ protest against discrimination and harassment outside downing street. stephen sackur interviews president

trump is not former director of communications anthony scaramucci in half an hour here on bbc news. at least 18 people have been confirmed dead in an attack by taliban militants on a luxury hotel in the afghan capital, kabul. the gunmen entered the hotel last night, spraying guests with bullets before breaking into rooms and taking hostages. 160 people were rescued from the hotel by the security forces. our correspondent zia shahreyar reports from kabul. the final moments of a fight that had lasted all night. gunfire and explosions, as afghan special forces battled to regain control of the intercontinental hotel.

one soldier throws a grenade. he moves away, then the explosion. the room is soon on fire, evidence of the struggle that had taken place. the afghan national flag waving from the roof, proof that the building has been reta ken. more than 150 people, including some foreigners, were inside yesterday evening, when gunmen burst in and opened fire. translation: there were old people and children inside the hotel's rooms, and the attackers were knocking on the door of each room, trying to reach their targets. they killed ordinary people and officials, they were also targeting foreigners. these images got filmed by local tv,

showed people escaping by closing down bed sheets that they'd tied the balconies. this telecoms engineer fell from the sixth floor as he tried to get away. translation: when the sixth floor caught fire this morning, my roommate told me either escape or burn. i got a bed sheet and tied it the balcony. i tried to come down but i was heavy and my arms were not strong enough. ifell and injured my shoulder and leg. the hotel is one of kabul‘s most well—known landmarks. it has high levels of security because it is used by foreign visitors and politicians. it was last attacked seven years ago. this sustained and complex assault will prompt urgent questions as to how the gunmen got through. in germany, the centre—left social democrats have voted to begin formal coalition talks on renewing the four—year alliance with the conservatives of the chancellor, angela merkel. their decision comes four months after inconclusive

general elections. our correspondentjenny hill is following developments from berlin.... so they decided to go for it, after all? what swung it, do you think? indeed, we haven't actually heard from angela merkel no doubt, but no doubt she will be sighing a big sigh of relief this evening. this of course was her only realistic shot at forming a coalition government and avoiding fresh elections. i suspect what swung it in the end we re suspect what swung it in the end were some of the speeches from the party leadership. during a special conference today, there was and still is considerable opposition amongst this party to the idea of another four years of angela merkel. split broadly down two lines. those who believe that coalition with angela merkel is what led them to a terrible election result in september, and to think that another four years will destroy the party

together, and then there are those who say actually it is now our duties to help germany form a stable government, because it has been for months, nothing has moved, it is time that we swallowed this and got on with thejob time that we swallowed this and got on with the job of governing. those are the people who won it. fairly narrowly, they got a reasonable majority but there are still reasonable opposition, and that means while formal coalition talks can begin, possibly as early as tomorrow morning although it may be that now there are some talk of tabling talks later in the week. it may not be a done deal. first of all the negotiations have to proceed. we know there are sticking point over things like refugee policy, social security, health insurance and so on. but secondly worth bearing in mind that every single one of the 400,000 social democrat party members will have to approve any final draft coalition deal via postal ballots before any government can actually be formed. so mrs merkel is not out of the woods yet

but certainly the matching clears another major hurdle. what will the policy priorities be, then, for this somewhat uneasy coalition? we have a rough idea because there were some exploratory talks held, which certainly came out with a document looking very much as though europe and the eu's future would be a priority. they were talking about germany putting more money into the eu. there is talk of course of trying to modernise and reform the eu, particularly in the light of written‘s imminent departure. there isa written‘s imminent departure. there is a lot of talk too about britain's migration policy, whether to put a limit on the number of refugees coming in, what to do with people who want to bring family members from places like syria to join them. there will also be talk about tax reforms and there have only been some compromises made. what will be really interesting now is to see how much of the original document that arose from those exploratory talks will be stuck to, because people

have voted within the social democrats, but they have done so with a degree of discomfort, and with a degree of discomfort, and with the knowledge that they want their leadership to go back into negotiations and tried to strike harder bargains. the opposition wea ke ns harder bargains. the opposition weakens their bargaining position. some weeks of negotiations will no doubt yield some tricky conversations, but as i say, from the point of view of mrs merkel this isa the point of view of mrs merkel this is a really good result. that means those coalition talks can at least go ahead, and it breaks what were starting to look like an almost impossible deadlock in german politics. thank you. a man has been arrested after an eight—year—old girl was stabbed to death in the west midlands. police say they're treating it as a domestic incident, and aren't looking for anyone else. in the last hour, police have named the girl as miley billingham.

our correspondent liz copper is outside the house and gave us this update earlier. i think you might be to see behind me, police forensics teams are still hear this lunchtime. police were called first of all around quarter past nine yesterday evening to this bungalow. they found this eight—year—old girl with serious injuries. she was taken to hospital. sadly, nobody could do anything to save her life. she died a short while later. a 54—year—old man is also in hospital, he has a stab wound to his stomach. his condition is described as stable, and police say in due course they will be interviewing him. now they've said that they are treating this as a domestic incident, and as such they are not looking for anybody else in connection with the death of this little girl. they say that her family, they are describing the family as understandably absolutely devastated. they are being given the support of specially trained police liaison officers, and suddenly everyone i have spoken and certainly everyone i have spoken to on the street here today has described a deep, profound sense of shock at what has happened.

the ukip leader, henry bolton has insisted he will not quit his job. mr bolton says it's not right for the party's ruling body tojudge him on his personal life. he's expected to face a vote of no confidence at an emergency meeting today, after offensive texts , sent by his former girlfriend , emerged last week. i have been speaking to our political correspondent who told mr bolton tried to defend his relationship. he distances from his religion ship, saying that had been dealt with, this was separate, and he was focused on taking ukip forward. now many people in the party have lost confidence and henry bolton. he is facing that meeting with the national executive committee about now actually. will he be able to convince them to allow him to stay on? well, he was certainly fighting the case computer

orjohn pienaar‘s programme on radio five live that the party needs to move forward, and he said that the national executive committee should notjudge on his personal life. he said it should not act as a court of moraljudgment. i want to put all of this behind us, the personal issues relating to my marriage are for me to deal with. the issues withjoe marney is now dealt with, she is out of the party. there is nothing more that she or i or anyone else can do with that and it is the national executive who needs to recognise that by pursuing an action against me they are undermining the party further. if they do have a vote of no—confidence, what could they do to force him to step down, if that was the one? they can't sack him this afternoon. if they wanted to get rid of him they would need to put that toa of him they would need to put that to a wider of party members. perhaps henry bolton will decide if he doesn't have the confidence of the

pa rty‘s doesn't have the confidence of the party's ruling body, perhaps he will decide to fall on his sword and step down. we should know in the next couple of hours, or he could live to fight another day and tried to convince party members that he is the man for the job. convince party members that he is the man for thejob. but it is convince party members that he is the man for the job. but it is worth saying, if he does go, then ukip will be looking for a fifth leader injust over a year. will be looking for a fifth leader in just over a year. the party has been hit by a series of scandals, infighting, some people think this could be the final nail in the coughing of the party. it could cease to be. we will have to wait for the outcome of that meeting this afternoon. loyal party activists say the party has a future, they want to position it as a party, to keep the government's feet to the fire on brexit. but these type of scandals, and other leadership election is very distracting. a lot of people wonder what the purpose of ukip is now that brexit is going to happen, but how damaging have these revelations been to the party and the support they have in the wider population? it has created a divider, people who say his actions

with his now ex—girlfriend showed a lack ofjudgment, some of you cannot be trusted in his professional life. others say there should be a separation. every time we hear of political scandals that cross and the people's personal life, you a lwa ys the people's personal life, you always hear this debate about how much that should affect the way the public and voters see them. it is pretty inevitable it will be damaging when it makes headline after headline, and those calling for him to go say it has become too much of a distraction. in terms of the party ‘s support base, they hit a high in 2015 when they took third place in terms of the vote share. they have lost a lot of support since then, some say it is difficult to see how the party can carry on. they haven't been able to build a support base with mps in parliament, so this could be particularly the end of the road for them unless they can broaden the appeal and put the scandals behind them. theresa may has said she's to set out plans in coming weeks to crack down on company executives who enrich themselves while jeopardising their workers' pensions.

writing in the observer newspaper, she describes the practice as an unacceptable abuse that will be ended. i've been speaking to form a pensions minister, baroness altman. she explained what powers the pension minister has. in fact, as you say, the pensions regulator already has the power to stop a company paying dividends, if it believes that willjeopardise the pension scheme. but the pensions regulator would only do that if the trustees call it in, and the regulator looks at the scheme and decides that the company should be putting money into the pension scheme, rather than into the dividends payments. that also has the power to question executive pay as well. but i think there are duties on trustees and of course on company management that need to be taken really seriously when we have such problems with pension deficits in so many of our big companies. thousands of them are operating

with a black hole, i was reading, so what more needs to be done to make sure that trustees and managers act responsibly? well, i certainly think that the bhs and now carillion‘s situations are a necessary wake—up call, so that individual management and pension trustees, as well as investors, look more carefully at the pension situation. too often, i feel that pension liabilities have been almost ignored when a company's analyst is looking at what is happening, and if the analysis that hedge funds had done, which led them to short the carillion stock, partly because the cash flow wasn't sufficient, had also been undertaken by the pension trustees, and calling in the regulator, then it would have become much clearer, much sooner,

that the dividend payments may need to be controlled or curtailed, and also that the top executive management pay would need perhaps to be looked at, because money was definitely needed for the pension scheme, which hasn't necessarily gone into it. the headlines on bbc news. officials in afghanistan say 18 people were killed by gunmen who stormed a major hotel in kabul last night. 14 foreign nationals. iman has been arrested after eight—year—old girl was stabbed to death the west midlands force. she has been named as miley billingham. generally‘s social democratic party has voted to undergo formal talks with angela merkel‘s party. sport now with lizzie. england fozz

fitters have bounced back from their ashes defeat by winning the one—day series against australia in style. they are 3—0 up with two games to play after taking victory in sydney by 16 runs. under the guidance of eoin morgan, england fozz form game continues to thrive, yet recently the captain himself has struggled for runs. his, one of six wickets which fell, with the score looking unfavourable for the tourists. jos buttler and chris woa kes unfavourable for the tourists. jos buttler and chris woakes soon change that, as the pair dominated proceedings. the final over the innings delivered a half—century for woa kes, and innings delivered a half—century for woakes, and all innings delivered a half—century for woa kes, and all three innings delivered a half—century for woakes, and all three figures for buttler. 303 sets of victory, a target aaron finch fancied chasing down, showing in attack. but the real power on the field lies elsewhere. the umpires wanted to check their decision to give steve smith out. replays were somewhat inconclusive. but their opinion was

the one that mattered. not smith's. his team still kept up the attack. marcus stoinis set up a nervy end, but when he departed, england made sure their winning run would continue. on the tennis now. frexit man kyle edmund has reached his first grand slam quarterfinal, beating italy's andreas seppi at the australian open. the british number two recovered from a slow start to win in four sets in melbourne. edmund was a set and a break down at one stage but reduced the errors to secure his place in the last eight, where he'll meet grigor dimitrov next. definitely shows i'm improving. lots of ha rd definitely shows i'm improving. lots of hard work paying off. like you said, that constant working at everything, my game, on and off the

court, it is good when you get results and it comes together. onto football, and watford are expected to appoint javi gracia as a replacement for marco silva who was sacked as manager this morning. watford are 10th in the premier league and are blaming the change on everton for their interest in silva before christmas. southampton are playing tottenham. it was 1—0 to southampton after a very unlike the own goal from davinson sanchez, but harry kane has just made it 1—1. harry kane now only needs one more goal to have scored a hundred in the premier league in his career. in today's scottish cup 4th round action — the edinburgh derby went the way of hearts. they won 1—0 at tynecastle thanks to a scrappy 86th minute goal, christophe berra's downward header was just touched on by substitute don cowie and despite a valiant hibs effort to keep the ball out, it spun over the line. the only other game in the cup today between fraserburgh and rangers was postponed due to a frozen pitch. the quarterfinal line up for rugby union's european champions cup will be decided this afternoon... as the last few teams try to squeeze into the last 8... defending champions saracens face a nervous wait to see if results go their way....

what we know is that racing are now through after narrowly beating leicester who were already out. la rochelle need to beat harlequins, wasps, need a bonus point against ulster to keep their very slim hopes alive. munster will definitely go through is they play castres. and they are all playing at the moment. europe's number one golfer — tommy fleetwood stormed to victory in the abu dhabi championship to retain the title he won last year. fleetwood started the day two shots behind the overnight leaders but shot eight birdies in a seven—under 65 — six of them on the back nine — to win tournament. the 27—year—old finished two shots ahead of fellow englishman ross fisher, while northern ireland's rory mcilroy was a further two shots back. it's fleetwood's fourth career victory on the tour. the final of the masters snooker is under way at alexander palace... these are live pictures from bbc two. mark allen is playing kyren wilson — its three frames all. first to 10 wins it.

as you can see, wilson is about to make it 4—3. neither player has reached the final of a masters before. you can watch that on bbc two, if you wish. that is the sport for me, we will have more in an hour's time. let's return to events in kabul, and afghan officials say at least 18 people are now known to have died in a taliban attack on the intercontinental hotel yesterday. earlier, the afghan interior minister told the bbc it had been a mistake to transfer security at the hotel from the police to a private company three weeks ago. we can get the latest from our correspondent zia shahreyar live from kabul. tell us more about what the interior minister has been saying. that's

right, there was rather more criticism of the interior ministry, so it was more response to those criticism because in the nantes continental hotel —— intercontinental hotel is one of the best—known landmarks in afghanistan, especially in kabul. so the people are asking that there were already reports that one of the hotels will be targeted. so the question and the challenge for the minister of interior is why, despite the information, this wasn't secured and how do the taliban managed to penetrate? for militants of any particular group, how unusual is it for them to target luxury hotels like this? that's right, these are well secure, and to make this even stronger, the security was then handed over to a private company to

have a more focused security, but it looks like it was an insidejob, and the insurgents have managed to penetrate. what is also interesting from the eyewitnesses i have spoken about to the bbc is that the taliban was specifically trying to target foreigners. that may explain the high number of foreign nationals that have been targeted. in fact, this is one of the highest numbers of foreigners to be killed in a single attack since the overthrow of the taliban regime in 2001. will there certainly necessarily have to bea there certainly necessarily have to be a rethink of who provide security of that hotel and others in kabul? it is proving quite a challenge. the government obviously has been thinking, and this has been an

initiative, and the private sector will do a betterjob than ordinary police officers. but this particular incident proves that otherwise. it just shows how difficult it is to counter these insurgent attacks, because they work through the social networks, trying to adapt to different situations, different techniques, and it hasjust proven different situations, different techniques, and it has just proven a very tough challenge for the security forces here. the us senate is set to meet shortly, to try to end a budget impasse and reopen the government. federal services around the country have been closed since midnight on friday — when disagreements over border security, immigration reforms and military spending, spilled over. the republican leader in the senate said there would be a vote early on monday to try and fund the government. meanwhile vice—president mike pence has told us troops injordan that the trump administration

would sort the problem — and made it clear who he blamed for the shutdown. you know, i'm sure you are all aware of what is going on in washington, dc. despite bipartisan support for a budget resolution, a minority in the senate has decided to play politics with military pay, but you deserve better. you and your families shouldn't have to worry for one minute about whether you are going to get paid, as you served in the uniform of the united states. we are going to demand that they reopen the government. in fact, we're not going to reopen negotiations on illegal immigration until they reopen the government, and give you, our soldiers and your families the benefits and wages you've earned. david willis joins us from washington for more on this. this is day two of the shutdown, thankfully over a weekend, which might mitigate some of the worst of it. what is the impact so far? considerable so far,

in the sense that it is pretty busy here in washington. president trump, instead of being in florida at his luxury golf resort, is spending the weekend in the building behind me here. whilst this wrangling goes on. and the senate leaders will meet in just under two hours' time. they talked yesterday, but it seems that instead of getting closer between republicans and democrats. any deal on keeping the federal government open be aligned to some sort of protection for the so—called dreamers, the 800,000 or so young people who were brought to this country illegally through now for the their own. they are due to be deported, or deportations are due to start in march. the republicans, for their part, say no, we want a simple agreement on financing the

government, keeping it open for a few more weeks, then we will talk about immigration. president trump for his part has accused the democrats of playing shutdown in politics, as he calls it, and putting the interests of illegal immigrant is above ordinary americans, members of the military, so we have this hardening of positions and it is difficult to see that this government shutdown will be lifted any time soon. think you're very much, david willis in washington. newspaper reports suggest that the reality tv show big brother and its celebrity sibling could be cancelled after 18 years. the show, which started on channel 4, has one season left of its current contract with channel 5. a spokesperson for channel 5 has dismissed the possibility the show‘s future on the channel is in doubt as "speculation". big brother first took to our screen on the 14th july 2000. the series scheduled for later this year would be the 18th season. the regular series of big brother has welcomed 290 housemates through its doors, with craig phillips being crowned the very first winner of the show back in 2000. in total, eight women managed to avoid eviction to win the public vote and be crowned winner, with a total 10 men also

receiving the title even inequality in big brother. sorry! i'm joined by toby early, tv editor and critic at london live. all speculation? there are two compelling reasons why this might be the last hurrah for big brother in 2018. the contract is up, as you mentioned already with the production company, and ben proud at channel five, the main man, has said in unequivocal terms he would prefer not to have it on the channel. why not? i think he would prefer channel five to be moving in a different direction, away from the channel which brought big brother over in 2011. i think you would prefer to maybe look at some other documentaries they have made, good documentaries they have made, good documentaries by the way as well.

and also produce more home—grown drama. it is all about brand perception, and also the kind of programming that i think he would like to be delivering, rather than endlessly bringing the brother back, time and timing in. what is the perception then that big brother is doing for that brand? you have just said, it is unequal. that's not the reason! there is a sense that its time has long passed. it is funny because at the same time the current series of celebrity big brother is actually proving to be quite educational, with shane j. actually proving to be quite educational, with shane]. he's speaking with great equanimity about representation and about equality in a way the show i don't think has ever really seen. so it is funny we are talking about it at a time in the show is actually proving to be quite worth. but it does feel passe in many ways. you only have to look at what happened last summer, i know you were a big fan of love ireland, and there were almost 2.5 million

people watched the finale of that on itv two, biggest ever ratings that channel. it actually kicked big brother to the curb le sommer, the kind of viewers they wanted, the young viewership, had departed and headed over to it. love ireland was on in our house but i was not sitting in front of it willingly —— love island. you look at big brother and what is it designed to do? to create toxic relationships, create conflict. if you look at the burning landfill that is our current affairs... i can't avoid it, toby! i know, hazards of the job, affairs... i can't avoid it, toby! i know, hazards of thejob, do affairs... i can't avoid it, toby! i know, hazards of the job, do you really wa nt know, hazards of the job, do you really want to sit in front of more television where people are being provoked and pushed into conversations where or argument arise? love island on the other hand was fairly happy viewing. was it? it was fairly happy viewing. was it? it was sunny, it was less about

confrontation and arguments. you know, it feels like quite a change in some of the public‘s appetites. marvellous. thank you for coming in. they're thank you. now the weather. hello. it is a slowly improving picture across the country with the mix of rain, sleet and snow eventually clearing away as we head into the overnight period. it'll still be cold in eastern areas before this milder air makes inroads from the west. more rain across the south—west. localised flooding. a much milder end to the night. milder airwill be much milder end to the night. milder air will be the theme as we head into the early part of the new working week. there will be quite a bit of rain across southern