good afternoon. the director of public prosecutions, alison saunders, has said all current rape and serious sexual assault cases in england and wales are to be reviewed "as a matter of urgency" following the collapse of several recent trials because evidence was not disclosed to defence lawyers. today the attorney general told the bbc there was no evidence of "widespread malpractice or dishonesty" in the prosecution system. our legal affairs correspondent, clive coleman, reports. disclosure of evidence in some recent highly publicised rape cases has gone badly wrong. but how widespread is the problem? in december liam allan was acquitted of six counts of rape and six of sexual assault when it emerged evidence on a computer disk which police had examined showed messages from the alleged victim pestering him for casual sex. and the number of prosecutions in england and wales that collapsed because of a failure by police or prosecutors to disclose evidence has increased by 70%

in the last two years. now the director of public prosecutions, alison saunders, has ordered an urgent review of all rape and serious sexual assault cases, and conceded it's likely a number will be dropped. it's very apparent that in some cases mistakes have been made that simply shouldn't have been. it is important that when you look at that kind of case that the prosecutors and investigators look at social media traffic, look at text messages that have passed between the two individuals, because they can put what's happened in a very significant different light. a national disclosure improvement plan has been published. it includes a review of disclosure training, developing a group of specialists in every police force, and all multimedia evidence to be provided to the defence digitally. yesterday to are a people

trafficking case collapsed because prosecutors failed to disclose critical evidence to the defence. thejudge critical evidence to the defence. the judge commanded that an urgent explanation be given in a case made even more shocking by the fact that one of the young female defendants was held in prison for 13 months, during which time she gave birth. this problem has been known about for many years and it's a result of chronic underfunding of the police and prosecution service and especially defence lawyers.“ public confidence in north berwick i’ow public confidence in north berwick row system is to be maintained, fixing disclosure is now the criminal justice system's fixing disclosure is now the criminaljustice system's biggest challenge. at least 63 people have been killed and 150 injured in a bombing in the afghan capital, kabul. the device was hidden in an emergency vehicle and exploded at a police checkpoint.

the taliban said they carried out the attack. chi chi izundu reports. an ambulance packed with explosives driven into crowds on their way to work. the force of the blast shook windows of buildings at least a mile away. some low—rise structures collapsed and plumes of smoke could be seen from around the city. translation: i was sitting in my shop when a powerful explosion rocked the area. all the windows of my shop shattered. the attacker drove the vehicle past one police checkpoint claiming to have a patient inside. when guards at a second checkpoint became suspicious he detonated the bomb. the area is home to foreign embassies and the city's police headquarters. the road had been closed to public transport. the taliban have claimed responsibility, this their second deadly attack in kabul in the space of a week. 20 people were killed after a bombing on the intercontinental hotel last week. the afghan military, backed by us air power, has intensified its campaign to drive out the taliban from its rural strongholds. but as today's strike proves,

they are still able to mount deadly attacks against civilian targets in the heart of the country's major cities. chi chi izundu, bbc news. three teenage boys have been killed after they were hit by a car in west london. it happened last night in hayes. a man aged 28 who was in the car has been arrested. live now to our correspondent, anisa kadri, who's at the scene. anisa, what can you tell us? all morning a steady stream of people have been coming here to leave tributes for the three teenagers, all believed to be around 16, who lost their lives and in those tributes they have been named as george, josh and harry. they were by the bus stop behind me when they we re by the bus stop behind me when they were hit by the car, a 28 your old man inside the audi was arrested and

taken to hospital. it's not known if what happened was an accident but police have rolled out terrorism and are appealing for any witnesses. —— ruled out terrorism. paris is on alert as the level of the river seine has continued to creep higher, with forecasters warning the river could stay high throughout next week. leaks have started to appear in some basements, while many residents on the city's outskirts have been forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets. our correspondent kevin connolly reports. on patrol on the rising waters of the river seine. a police launch on the front line of the flood defences of paris. water levels are expected to peak this weekend. tourist boats are tied up. they can't park under the bridges on the swollen waters, they can't pass under the bridges on the swollen waters, leaving tourists to make the best of things. it's scary, because you don't know when it's going to stop. i'm not really worried.

i think we have reached the maximum for the moment. i mean, it's natural, for the moment you have strange things going on on the planet. for me, that's natural and i don't think it will go to a higher level. parisians have been bracing for this high water mark for weeks. it's only rained this heavily over the new year period in france three times in the last 100 years. they measure the river level here by this statue of a soldier that commemorates the crimean war. in the worst flooding in history, it reached up to his beard. it's been raining relentlessly in france for weeks, but it's eased off today. and it does now seem that there's a chance that the river seine will reach its peak without quite flooding into the streets of paris around it. we should know by the end of the day.

kevin connolly, bbc news, paris. now, with all the big sport news here's mike bushell at the bbc sport centre. hello, mike. good afternoon. it was a tremendous final at the women's australian open. look away now if you are planning on watching the highlights, which follow the news on bbc one. it was always destined to be a first time grand slam winner as caroline wozniacki took on simona halep. and it was the dane, wozniacki, who won in three sets. it means she will also replace halep as world number one. soa so a double prize for her. in football, no sign of an upset in the first match of the fa cup fourth round. leicester are at peterborough in the fourth round of the fa cup this lunchtime. leicester went ahead early on thanks to this goal from foussemi diabate just ten minutes into his debut.

and it was soon comfortable for the premier league side. kelechi iheanacho made it 2—0. in fact, he has now made it 3—0. ben stokes has been snapped up this morning, for nearly £1.11 million in the auction of players for the indian premier league. he's been bought by the rajasthan royals. that's despite facing a charge for affray, after an incident, outside a nightclub in bristol. the all—rounder was the most valuable player of the twenty20 tournament last year. rory mcilroy is well placed in the dubai desert classic. he finished a fog—delayed second round on saturday in the lead with five birdies in his last seven holes. he's got a few holes left, this eagle at the tenth took him to 17 under overall. also well placed, after shooting a nine under par round of 63, is england's andy sullivan at 16 under. team gb will be sending their largest—ever team to a winter olympics next week and amongst them will be the snowboard cross athlete,

zoe gillings—brier. it'll be her fourth games, but first as a mother. nick hope has been to meet her and daughter lea at their base in austria. board boa rd cross board cross is among the most dramatic and unpredictable winter 0lympic events and zoe gillings—brier has had herfair share of ups and downs but life away from the slopes now has its own little challenge. lea arrived in 2016 and it's clearly a case of like mother, like daughter. lea is awesome, i love her but i'm her mum so awesome, i love her but i'm her mum soi awesome, i love her but i'm her mum so i would think she's the best kid in the world. she had herfirst so i would think she's the best kid in the world. she had her first go when she was one year and three days old, had a bit of snow —— off i go on the snow in argentina. who does the early morning, late nights? an

athlete needs her sleep. i've heard that a few times. i would be lying ifi that a few times. i would be lying if i said i got up with as early in the morning as done. certainly one of the things i want to do is allow isa week of the things i want to do is allow is a week to train properly. a lot of people asked me if i would be more scared when i'm on the mountain now i'm a mum but i don't seem to be, if it's changed to me at all it is made me more confident. this will be is there we's fourth 0lympics is made me more confident. this will be is there we's fourth olympics and although a metal has eluded her so far, success in these games may mean more than at any point in her career. the more successful i more than at any point in her career. the more successfuli am, the more i can help out lea and give her a good future. i'm doing it for me but also for her. the cutest

thing you will see all day. you can see more on all of today's stories on the bbc news channel. the next news on bbc one is at 5:25pm. from me, for now, goodbye. you're watching the bbc news channel. the prime minister has welcomed a landmark ruling by trade authorities in the us, overturning a decision to impose huge tariffs on planes which are partly built in the uk. the aerospace firm bombardier won a surprise victory in its dispute with the american company boeing about selling its passenger jets to us airlines. the wings for the planes are manufactured in belfast, as our ireland correspondent chris page reports. workers, politicians and business

leaders had feared one of bombardier‘s biggest projects would be grounded. the firm in belfast has 4,000 employees and a quarter of them work on the c series jet. but the programme was under threat after boeing claimed it was unfairly subsidised because of financial help from the canadian and british governments. the authorities in washington initially proposed to impose tariffs ofjust under 300% on imports of the c series. but last night, the us international trade commission decided not to go ahead with the tariffs. the four commissioners all voted in bombardier‘s favour. workers and their representatives were surprised but very pleased. the workforce has stood squarely behind this, put their shoulder to the wheel. we've seen politicians nationally give up the ghost saying this is something that can't be overturned, but we've demonstrated tonight the power of trade unionism globally, we worked with our colleagues in canada and the us and this is a victory for workers tonight. the prime minister spoke about the dispute to donald trump

at the world economics summit in davos this week. theresa may tweeted she welcomed the decision as good news for british industry. people here had been prepared for more bad news from across the atlantic but are delighted with this unexpected result. after months of worry, bombardier‘s victory in this trade dispute has brought a great sense of relief. chris page, bbc news, belfast. 0ur northern ireland business correspondentjohn campbell has been telling us how the news has been received in belfast. i think there is just an overwhelming sense of relief here because a lot of the commentary around this decision was that it would just ratify those tariffs. as chris said in his package, the panel ruled unanimously that it would remove these tariffs, so there was a plan that bombardier had, if it lost, it would, through its partnership with airbus, still try to sell the planes into the united states, that would have been very complicated and more expensive and open to fresh legal challenge but now they can get on

with building these planes and selling them to their big american customer and that releases a huge weight from the shoulders of the belfast workforce. but is bombardier really out of the woods altogether? this is a company which has been through the wars. it teetered on the edge of insolvency a couple of years ago, it had to be bailed out by the state government in quebec and i was speaking to a union leader who said there is a great sense of relief, it means we can crack on with the c series, but it is still a company which is still seeking to cut costs all the time, there were redundancies announced in belfast last year, they will still go ahead, so this is a company which now has some stability for the medium—term but it still needs to secure its long—term future and sell a lot more of these planes. 0ne thinks of belfast in historical terms as a great shipbuilding place but those days presumably are in the past now so bombardier is central for providing a lot ofjobs.

it is, bombardier is at the centre of northern ireland manufacturing. it's the biggest manufacturing employer, it pays very well, it spends a lot of money on research and development, and also has very wide supply chains, notjust in northern ireland but across the whole uk, so it's hard to overemphasise just how important this company is to the northern ireland economy as a whole. john campbell reporting from belfast. let's get more on the news that all current rape and sexual assault cases in england and wales are being reviewed. the announcement from the director of public prosecutions follows the recent collapse of several high—profile trials, including that of student liam allan, where vital evidence had not been shared with defence lawyers. it's believed a number of cases could be stopped as a result. joining me in the studio is julia smart who was

the barrister for liam allan, who faced 12 counts of rape and sexual assault charges before new evidence came to light and the case was thrown out by thejudge. new evidence came to light, how did that happen, was it a struggle to find it? it was. we had asked for this evidence before and were cold it was not disclosable, and then once the trial had begun, eventually we we re once the trial had begun, eventually we were given this following an order by thejudge, i took it we were given this following an order by the judge, i took it away and reviewed it overnight and found these messages that undermined the prosecution case, material that should have been given to us at an early stage and had it been, the case would have been stopped there and mr allen would not have gone through this ordeal. the failings in the system lie mostly on the prosecution side. what has gone

wrong? there are several reasons, there may be a culture of trying to build upa there may be a culture of trying to build up a case rather than investigating objectively, there may also be stretched resources that the cps have a duty to disclose all material that may undermine their case 01’ material that may undermine their case or help the defence and that is not going on, as these cases have shown. quite a bit has been made of the fact we are now dealing with a different world, we don't live in a paper dominance of world anymore, it is electronics, mobile phones and other evidence. the world has changed and the way that prosecutors work has had to change, but not fast enough. yes, recently one sees a lot of evidence in digital form and enough. yes, recently one sees a lot of evidence in digitalform and if one is looking at rape allegations against individuals with

relationships, their lives will be played out at social media. if nobody looks at that carefully, there will be miscarriages of justice. what should be done? whereas it is welcome that there is a review of these sexual allegations by the cps, something wider needs to happen. lord morris, the former attorney general, has called for a judge led independent inquiry into disclosure and i welcome that because i wonder whether the public has confidence in the cps reviewing its own cases in light of recent developments. and more public money to be spent. it may be that if there are innocent people going to prison, one cannot put a cost on that, it is pa rt one cannot put a cost on that, it is part of our society that we have a faircriminal part of our society that we have a fair criminal system and the only way to do with is to ensure everyone

is doing theirjob properly. thank you. new research suggests that plastic found in many second—hand toys could pose a risk to children's health, as it doesn't meet current safety standards. scientists tested 200 used plastic toys they found in nurseries, charity shops and homes for nine hazardous elements. 20 toys had traces of all nine elements, with some concentrations high enough to fail european standards. for more on this i can speak to cath harrop, the founder of mum to mum market, which is a network of second—hand markets selling childrens‘ toys. when you heard this news, were you concerned and thought this was worrying? yes, although at our events it tends to be people who were selling fairly new toys, we call them nearly new sales, so most of the things for sale have been bought in the last couple of years.

sorry, we are breaking up a little bit, but you were saying it is mostly newer toys. safety standards have increased enormously but there are still a lot of toys which do not meet standards, things covered in plastic and old paint, parents have got to be on the watch out for that. yes, and we had a harm to our toy box today and found old toys i had when i was a child that don't meet safety sta nda rds when i was a child that don't meet safety standards but i think with these kind of things, i haven't given them to the children when i was little, because if i have held onto them for 30 years i don't want them to have them when they are too young, the advice not to let children put things in their mouth is important because we are finding

more things that are toxic every day and will probably find more things, so and will probably find more things, so you have to be sensible. in an earlier interview, this sort of materials used in these toys some yea rs materials used in these toys some years ago was quite frightening. the main danger is in things you would buy and sell because they tend to be relatively new but when you go to grandma's house and the box comes down of old childhood toys, those are the ones where the real danger is. the basic message for children is. the basic message for children is always don't put toys in your mouth. don't put anything in your mouth, there are probably worse things out there they could put in their most than some of these old toys. thank you. the winter olympics is just three weeks away, we have story about a man overcoming a life—changing injury to return to the sport he loves.

ed stephens was a british junior ski champion, but at 19 a car accident left him with a traumatic brain injury and many complications. however, this week, five years on, he's done what many thought impossible, and returned to the slopes, in andorra, to learn to sit ski. mike bushell went with him. getting ready for one of the greatest sporting comebacks. in his room in his gloucestershire college where he stays, reminders when ed stephens was british children's ski champion before at 19 he was left with a brain injury and complex disabilities. i used to do a lot of skiing, would you like to see me ski? with his electronic devices he was keen to show me how he got to the top, and for five years, he's been on a mission to get back there. he's come a long way from lifting his head to be able to greet his mum in the morning again. morning, mum. fantastic! you can't talk and laugh at the same time, you know that, don't we!? physiotherapy staff

at national star college have been helping him realise his main dream, strengthening his head and right shoulder muscles that will help him carve his own way down the mountain once more. it's been a massive part of his life. to think that he's going to have a go at doing it again is just amazing, yeah. it means more than you can imagine. this week the moment came in andorra. it was a gamble because neither ed or anyone else knew exactly how he'd react to being back on the slopes. this is it and it's a moment his family never thought they'd see, and it's notjust a historic moment for ed as we go off down the mountain but also for the whole sport because in a way, this opens up the mountains for all. although he was being guided at first, his sit ski has been adapted so ed can soon control his own direction and speed with his head rather than relying on someone pushing him on a wheelchair. by the end of this week, he was nearly ready to fly down

the slope alone. how was it? pretty amazing. for him to do this isjust phenomenal and to be taking control. most of the students at national star need assistance with everything they do, so to be able to go out in a sit ski and truly experience the freedom skiing gives them, not to be wrapped in cotton wool, it's something hard to replicate anywhere else. ed still has the ability to ski and enjoy it. ed wasn't alone. in all 20 students from national star were back on the slopes and third years georgie and kyle showed how much freedom they can have. it really does open up the entire mountain. we really aim for giving everyone the maximum independence possible. josh, zoe, dom and abby all followed and the students wanted to give me a taste of how much skill is needed to control your descent with your upper body. i thought we were off,

i thought we were over! but on the slopes, i was always going to be in the shadow of the former british champion. another reason you love skiing, ed, is the apres ski. and you tell me there's some karaoke in there? g:— lots of was the right one, amazing. lots of snow there, i don't think we have much of that in the uk. let's get the weather. plenty of other things, not much snow because for many it has been mild this weekend but with

that dismal grey sky overhead in many places, some outbreaks of rain, this afternoon this light and patchy rain will sink south and east, northern england and northern ireland slowly brightening up, scotla nd ireland slowly brightening up, scotland some sunshine but also showers and strong winds and the wedge of mild air syncing south and east. tonight we lose that rain from the south—east, temporary clear spells, it will turn chilly but it clouds over by the end of the night and with that the return of mild air, ten or11 and with that the return of mild air, ten or 11 degrees in cardiff and belfast. a mild day, a lot of cloud, patchy rain in western areas and this persistent rain set in place for central and southern scotla nd place for central and southern scotland but if you get sunshine for any length of time, you could get to 14 any length of time, you could get to 1a or 15 degrees. rain sink south on

monday, and behind that are slightly colder feel for tuesday. this is bbc news. our latest headlines... the attorney general has acknowledged that "very serious mistakes" over the disclosure of evidence by prosecutors have led to the collapse of recent trials in england and wales. 63 people have been killed and more than 150 injured, as an explosion rocks the afghan capital, kabul. it comes a week after a major taliban attack on a high—profile hotel in which more than 20 people died. there is relief for a thousand workers at aerospace firm bombardier, as massive tariffs will not now be imposed by the us authorities. the prime minister has welcomed the landmark ruling. the release of serial sex attacker john worboys has been put on hold. it comes after two of his victims won the first stage of a legal challenge. three teenaged boys have died after being hit by a car, at a bus stop in west london.

the collision involved a black audi. a 28—year—old man, who was inside the car, has been arrested. paris is on high alert for flooding. record rainfall has caused the river seine to burst its banks in one of the wettest januarys in paris in more than a century. hundreds of homes have been evacuated, and tunnels and roads have been sealed off. now on bbc news — a special edition of inside out london, tarah welsh investigates the shocking truth behind the anti—epileptic drug sodium valproate. she uncovers new medical evidence suggesting that birth defects caused by the drug could be passed down through generations of the same family. a warning that you might find some of the issues discussed in this film upsetting. deformed, disabled, damaged.

thousands of babies around the world harmed by one drug. she can't go to the toilet, she can't walk, she can't talk. we bring