welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm reged ahmad. our top stories: north korea warns the us that imposing new sanctions could halt any denuclearisation for good. police injapan investigate a blast at a restaurant, that leaves at least a0 people injured. the manhunt ends for a brazilian faith healer accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of women, after he turns himself in. vladimir putin goes head to head with russian rappers. we'll find out what's the beef. hello and welcome. north korea has turned its anger on the us state department — denouncing new sanctions and warning of a possible permanent block on any denuclearisation plans. the us imposed the sanctions on three north korean officials last week for alleged

human rights abuses. relations between the two countries seemed to improve after an historic summit between leaders donald trump and kim jong—un, but since then, ongoing talks have stalled. our correspondent dan johnson says the stalemate is getting serious. the us state department says these sanctions are justified because of human rights abuses. they've talked about censorship of the free press, of radio signals being blocked by the government, and of people who are caught watching foreign films being imprisoned or even executed. that's why they've identified these three officials, one of them an assistant to kimjong—un, and the north koreans have reacted very angrily. saying that this is a great miscalculation by the americans and that it will block the path to denuclearisation forever. now, they've played off the state department versus the us president.

they've credited donald trump for reaching out and trying to improve relations, but said the state department seems to be trying to turn back the clock to a time when there was an "exchange of fire", referring to the regular missile tests that were happening until about a year ago. now, there was supposed to be a meeting between the secretary of state and a senior north korean diplomat last month. that has been delayed. the north koreans have been angered by the us military restarting exercises with the south korean military. and there are questions about how this now proceeds into the new year, whether there will be further progress. things seemed to have slowed down since donald trump met kimjong—un in singapore, six months ago. but the president referring to the north korean negotiations on twitter, just a few days ago, said, there was no hurry and that things were going fine. dan johnson there. let's cross to the south korean capital seoul now, and speak to the bbc‘s korean service reporter, hyoung kim. this reaction from north korea, does

it show that these new sanctions are really going to bite when it comes to the regime? i think you can say that. however, when north korea reacts, what south korean analysts normally look at is who issued this statement? obviously, the statement was carried out by north korea's state media, however it was issued on the name of a director at research centre of north korea's foreign ministry, not the same person but another official from this research centre actually issued another statement a month ago saying that if this continues, north korea could go back to what they call pursuing both nuclear and economic recovery. so it is important to know who issued the statement and some people are saying that based on who issued the statement, this level of protest is not as strong as it used to be. so, what is the game that

they are playing then? why issued a statement, why issued directly about the state department? well, one of the state department? well, one of the north korean officials who faced the north korean officials who faced the sanctions, and you'll want to remember his name because he is the number to buy a north korea and the right—hand man to kim jong—un and the fact that the sanctions included him, the north koreans obviously had to react. i think it would not have made sense as they did not react, and also the fact that donald trump had said a couple of days ago that everything is fine, many people have said that there is nothing totally unexpected in this. obviously, both leaders want denuclearisation, however, the matter is how bad they wanted. this thinking to note is that he also appeared on state tv because today marks the anniversary of the death of kim —— kimjong il,

the father of kim jong—un. of the death of kim —— kimjong il, the father of kim jong-un. given what you are telling us, that this statement is not as strong as it habs was in past times, what is tell us habs was in past times, what is tell us about relations are with north korea and the united states? well, in terms of north korea, some a nalysts say in terms of north korea, some analysts say north korea is still hesitant about what move it should make afterwards, after the singapore summit, after the dmc summit, all those high profile summit, afterwards, where should we go? it also has to do some work within the state, persuading its people of the moves it may take afterwards, which may mean that the tory moves between washington and seoul really have to happen. so kim jong—un washington and seoul really have to happen. so kimjong—un really has to convince his own people that the next moves are really important for the state, and that might take months according to some analysts. thank you very much. in sapporo, in northern japan,

a huge explosion and fire has left more than a0 people injured. the blast happened at a restaurant and it damaged surrounding buildings and scattered debris over the area. police have launched an investigation to try to find out what happened. gemma coombe reports. bright orange flames and thick black smoke. the immediate aftermath of a huge explosion at a busyjapanese restaurant. it happened at 8:30pm on sunday, in sapporo, the capital city of the northern main island of hokkaido. the area has residential buildings, bars and restaurants, and is about three kilometres south—east of the city centre. japanese news outlet kyodo says the force of the blast was so strong, a number of nearby buildings collapsed. translation: the shock was just like an earthquake. as firefighters battled the flames, they warned of further explosions. but still, dozens of people gathered on the street, which was strewn with debris

and shattered glass. what caused the blast isn't yet known, but witnesses have reported smelling gas near the scene. translation: a lot of smoke came out and it started to smell strongly. police say 42 people were hurt but no one was killed. an investigation is underway. gemma coombe, bbc news. the head of hamas has affirmed his willingness to meet with palestinian president mahmoud abbas to discuss restoring unity to the territories. ismail haniya made the comments to thousands of supporters at a festival to celebrate the 31st anniversary of the group's founding. haniya also expressed hama's willingness to hold elections, and follows recent diplomatic talks held between the feuding groups in egypt last month. saudi arabia has denounced last week's us senate vote holding crown prince mohammad bin salman responsible for the murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. in a statement, it says the senate position is based

on "unsubsta ntiated claims and allegations" and contained "blatant interferences in the kingdom's internal affairs." the senate vote was a rare rebuke to president trump, who has maintained his support for saudi arabia. mr khashoggi was killed in october shortly after entering the saudi consulate in istanbul, in what riyadh called a "rogue" operation. police and right—wing, anti—migra nt protesters have clashed in brussels. police fired tear gas and detained nearly 100 of the more than 5000 people who attended the demonstration, which was sparked by a united nations migration pact that was signed in morocco last week. the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration is a legally non—binding agreement designed to frame an effective international approach to migration. it asserts the "fundamental" importance of legal migration and "reaffirms the sovereign rights of states to determine their national migration policy". the document was signed by 164 countries

after being ratified injuly. however, a handful of countries, including america, austria and italy have refused to formally adopt the agreement. those who have marched against the agreement in brussels fear it could lead to an increase in immigration. rahuljoglekar reports. a tale of one city, but two very different views on migration. on the one hand, thousands turned up as part of right—wing protests against a un migration pact. more than 160 countries signed the agreement to frame an effective international approach to migration. the fear among right—wing groups is that the pact will result in high levels of immigration into europe. translation: we want to raise our voice against the marrakesh pact. we think the decision was not made in a democratic way, with a minority in government and

a minority of the belgian people. that is what we are protesting against. chanting in another part of town, a smaller counterdemonstration. they're calling the right—wing groups fascists. translation: we want to raise the alarm bell to show the organisers of the other demo are fascists. they advertise hate and discrimination, and they are violent. we want to warn people and send a different message. right—wing groups called for protests after the pact was signed last week, something the united nations believes is a step in the right direction. it will reduce the chaos of irregular, dangerous migration. it will increase access through safe, legal pathways, for instance to the labour markets, that have deficits in human resources and will

need foreign workers. the issue of managing migration in europe is complex and one with far—reaching political implications. not least here in belgium, where prime minister charles michel's government lost its majority because of the pact. opposition parties are now calling for a no—confidence vote. as the haze from the tear gas settles on a deeply divided country, many are looking for answers about an issue that divides opinion far beyond belgium's borders. rahuljoglekar, bbc news. a fifth victim has died following tuesday's shooting at a christmas market in the french city of strasbourg. earlier, a memorial took place to remember the victims. the gunman, cherif chekatt, was killed by police on thursday night. caroline rigby has more. applause a minute of noise, rather than silence. several hunderd locals and tourists gathered in strasbourg for a memorial to honour those who lost their lives.

translation: i think we needed to get together to reflect because it's been a very painful week. i think something was broken because here in strasbourg, we had a small and very cosmopolitan community. translation: we had to be there to pay tribute to the victims and to be in solidarity with all the people of strasbourg. butjust hours after sunday's memorial, confirmation that a fifth victim had died. a 36—year—old polish national, he'd spent days in a coma but had been unable to recoverfrom his injuries. several other people remain in a critical condition in hospital. as visitors returned to strasbourg's christmas market this weekend, police continue to investigate how tuesday's attack was able to happen and whether the suspect acted alone. cherif chekatt was shot dead by police, following a two—day manhunt. french authorities have dismissed

a claim by the militant group islamic state that he had been acting under their orders, calling the statement completely opportunistic. caroline rigby, bbc news. a brazilian faith healer accused of sexual abuse by more than 300 women has handed himself in to the police. joao teixeira de faria had been declared a fugitive when police failed to find him to serve an arrest warrant. he has denied the accusations, as gail maclellan reports. the women accuse the faith healer of sexually abusing them during healing sessions. joao teixeira de faria, known asjoao orjohn of god, has thousands of followers, many of them celebrities. oprah winfrey famously praised his healing powers but has now issued a statement, calling for justice. he was consulted by politicians and his fame boosted by supposedly miraculous surgeries he claims

to have performed with his hands and without anaesthetic. translation: since i was eight years old, god gave me this energy. i believe in god and the power to heal comes from him. the abuse was said to have taken place at mr teixeira's spiritual clinic in abadiania, in the brazilian state of goias. he had been declared a fugitive, but turned himself in to the police on the roadside near the town. many of his followers refuse to accept the accusations and the scandal has shocked the town, whose economy has become dependent on the tourists brought in by the healing centre, which opened in 1976. john of god claims he's innocent and says he has now placed himself in the hands of earthlyjustice. gail maclellan, bbc news. stay with us on bbc

news, still to come: she's one of the greatest tennis players of all time and fought for gender equality. billie jean king gets a lifetime achievement award from the bbc. after eight months on the run, saddam hussein has been tracked down and captured by american forces. saddam hussein is finished because he killed our people, our women, our children. the signatures took only a few minutes, but they brought a formal end to 3.5 years of conflict, conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives. before an audience of world leaders, the presidents of bosnia, serbia and croatia put their names to the peace agreement. the romanian border was sealed and silent today. romania has cut itself off from the outside world in order to prevent the details of the presumed massacre in timisoara from leaking out.

from sex at the white house to a trial for his political life, the lewinsky affair tonight guaranteed bill clinton his place in history as only the second president ever to be impeached. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: north korea warns the us state department that new sanctions could derail de—nuclearisation permanently. dozens of people are injured after a huge blast in a restaurant in the japanese city of sapporo. the legendary tennis player billiejean king has been honoured with the lifetime achievement award at the bbc‘s sports personality of the year show. the 75—year—old american is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. she is an advocate for gender equality, and in 1973 won the battle

of the sexes match against bobby riggs. earlier, i spoke to sports writer ben rothenberg, who also co—hosts a podcast on tennis. i asked him what made her such an outstanding athelete. i think what made her a formidable player is what's made her a formidable person off the court as well. she was a fearless player. she was willing to come to net at a time when a lot of women were playing more passive tennis from the baseline. billiejean was an aggressive, assertive player who played very fun, very dynamic tennis, and that took her quite a long way in her career in both singles and doubles. she was also a real trailbrazer when it came to equality both for women, for the lgbt community, is that her enduring legacy that we still see in tennis today? absolutely. i think billiejean is the reason why women's tennis has become the incredible sport and platform for women that it is today. she got it off the ground at the beginning of the professional era, she led the players to fight for themselves, to stand up for themselves,

and her work on promoting equality in tennis has made tennis an amazing example for other sports for how close and how together men and women can be in sport as they are in the rest of the world. that is the philosophy very much at the core of what billiejean worked for. that famous match, the battle of the sexes match, with bobby riggs, at the time that was quite extraordinary? absolutely. it was watched by, i believe, over 100 million people at the time. it was a huge spectacle. it was irresistible for the press, this idea of women's feminist playing against a male chauvinist, as bobby riggs called himself. the match was an active pro on women's side against a long retired player on the men's side, which seemed like kind of a joke on paper but it carried tremendous symbolic importance for women's sports and the women's movement in general. a lot of women really felt empowered and emboldened by billiejean‘s victory, in standing up to the male establishment in a clear victory on court. on a personal side for her, as she fought for equality, was there a personal cost at all? it can't have been easy.

absolutely, especially when you talk about the time she spent off court fighting for equality in various boardrooms and various negotiations, it took a lot of time away from her tennis focus and she probably did not win as many grand slam titles as she would have had she been solely focused on being just a tennis player as some of her rivals were able to do, not having those off court distractions. and then when it came, later on to her lgbt visibility, she faced a lot of consequences from that early on. a lot of negative publicity, when she was outed in the early 80s, back when there was nowhere near the type of acceptance there is now for the lgbt community. she was demonised and faced a lot of trouble from sponsors and the general public, in terms of keeping her down. it was only years later that really that part of her life began to be widely celebrated. congratulations to billie jean congratulations to billiejean king and that was sports writer ben rothenberg. let's get some of

the day's other news. the united nations special envoy to yemen is urging both sides to respect the ceasefire signed in sweden last week. the deal was meant to end fighting in the port of hodeidah. but clashes between houthi rebels and pro—government forces have continued. the un says the truce will now come into effect on tuesday. customs officials in cambodia have seized more than 1,000 elephant tusks. the discovery was made at the port in the capital phnom penh. cambodia is becoming an important transit route for illegal trafficking of ivory fuelled by demand from china and vietnam. vladimir putin has called for his government to take charge of rap music after a series of concerts were cancelled across russia. the president admits it would be impossible to ban the music outright so the state should play a greater role in controlling it. the bbc‘s tim allman has more. this is husky, one of russia's most popular rappers. in his songs he has mocked and criticised the authorities. he recently spent time in jail

after staging an impromptu performance when one of his concerts were cancelled. unlikely to be a fan, vladimir putin, who it seems has a beef with the entire rap industry. speaking at a meeting of his council for culture and art, he said: but he admitted: of course, the russian state has a contentious relationship with popular music. the protest group, pussy riot, among those who have fallen foul of the authorities. this is probably the sort of think you have in mind when you think of russian music, a military band,

accompanying a martial parade. it's not clear how the russian government might take control of rap music... ..but if this police choir is anything to go by, the possibilities are endless. tim allman, bbc news. now, hunting for honey in the wild is one of the oldest traditions in rural nepal, and it's also an extremely dangerous one. the hunters have to make a difficult and trickyjourney to the beehives which hang from the rocks high in the mountains. a bbc team travelled to the remote lamjung district of nepal to find out why so many villagers are willing to risk their lives to collect the honey. the remarkable honey hunters of nepal. a reminder of our top story: north korea warns the us state department that new sanctions could derail de—nuclearisation permanently. more on that and all of our stories

on our website. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @regedahmadbbc. see you soon. hello there. we're seeing a significant change in weather type as we're heading towards christmas. the weather this week looks very different to last week. the weather didn't move an awful lot last week, a big blocking area of high pressure and we were drawing in some cold air from continental europe. but earlier in the weekend, storm deirdre blew away that really cold air and since then we have seen our weather coming in from the atlantic. that cloud will bring some rain, that cloud has already brought some rain. that's moving away and with clearing skies and light winds, it's going to be cold enough come the morning for maybe a touch of frost and perhaps some icy patches as well. but a lovely looking day for many central and eastern parts of the uk. it should be dry on monday.

there'll be a fair but of sunshine around, the winds will be lighter but further west, the winds are going to be strengthening, the cloud increasing and we see some outbreaks of rain and drizzle arriving, especially in the afternoon. later in the day, winds could be touching gale force across some western coasts. but it's a southerly wind, so it's a mild wind. 12 degrees in northern ireland and a milder day across the board than it was on sunday. now, eventually that area of low pressure is going to bring us some showers, but at the moment it's playing second fiddle to that weather front there which is bringing wet and windy weather in from the west overnight and continuing on tuesday. gales for a while. the rain moving very slowly eastwards, there'll be some outbreaks of heavy rain and with snowmelt in scotland there's likely to be some localised flooding. the weather should improve later in northern ireland, and it takes all day for the rain to arrive in east anglia. it will be another mild one, those temperatures up to 11 or 12 celsius. eventually that rain should push its way eastwards out of the way on tuesday night into wednesday morning, and then that area of low pressure

starts to get a bit closer and that'll be a focus for some showers. there'll still be some spells of sunshine on wednesday, a lot of places in the east will be dry, although the south—east corner catching a few showers here. most of the showers or even longer spells of rain coming into northern ireland across western scotland over the irish sea into western parts of england and wales. temperature won't be as high on wednesday, 7—10 degrees. still not bad, though. that area of low pressure is going to sit around during wednesday and into thursday as well. but it's a filling area of low pressure, that means pressure is rising across it, so it's weakening, the winds becoming lighter, the showers becoming fewer, but there will still be some spells of sunshine. there are shower around out the west and through the english channel as well and the temperatures on thursday much like those on wednesday. it could turn quite chilly overnight on thursday night, some mist and fog around as well. and then we look again to the atlantic to see another change, milder air bringing cloud and some rain up from the south—west. this is bbc news. the headlines: north korea has condemned the us state department for imposing new sanctions on its officials, warning of a possible permanent block on any denuclearisation. sanctions were imposed on three

north korean officials on monday, after reports of press censorship and people being imprisoned for watching foreign films. an explosion at a restaurant in the northern japanese city of sapporo has injured more than a0 people, at least one seriously. it's not known what caused the blast, but people living nearby reported a strong smell of gas in the area before it happened. a brazilian faith healer accused of sexual abuse by more than 300 women has handed himself in to the police. joao teixeira de faria, known as "john of god", went on the run on friday, after an arrest warrant was issued. he denies the accusations. it's a:30am. now on bbc news, hardtalk.