a saudi teenager whose efforts to escape her family gained worldwide attention — arrives in canada where she's been granted asylum. rahaf, how does it feel to be in canada? canada's prime minister says the country's standing up for women's rights — in a move set to strain relations with the saudi kingdom. protestors in london call for a general election and an end to austerity — ahead of a crucial week in the commons. three people — including two firefighters — have died and nearly 50 others injured in a gas explosion in the centre of paris. stockdale‘s outside. 0h, he's shrugged off the challenge! and the smile on his face! and in rugby, a win for ulster takes them a step closer to a european champions cup quarter—final. good evening.

a saudi teenager whose efforts to escape her family gained worldwide attention has arrived in canada, where she's been granted asylum. last week rahaf mohammed al-qanun, who's 18, barricaded herself in a hotel room at bangkok airport, to resist deportation. she said she feared she'd be killed by her relatives — because she'd renounced islam. her family have said they only care about her safety. nada tawfik reports from toronto. rahaf al-qanun arrived with a smile as she took the first steps into her new life. rahaf, how does it feel to be in canada? she was escorted out by canada's foreign minister, chrystia freeland, who was on hand to welcome her and to pass on flowers from one of ra haf‘s supporters. after chronicling her ordeal on social media, she chose this moment, now safely in toronto, to let another speak on her behalf. she wanted canadians to see that

she's here, that she's well, and that she's very, very happy to be in her new home. although she did comment to me about the cold. it's been a whirlwind journey for rahaf al-qanun. it's extraordinary that just a few days ago she was an unknown teenager and now she has commanded the attention of the world's media and reignited a debate about the treatment of women in saudi arabia. rahaf al-qanun had been trying to reach australia by way of thailand when her passport was confiscated and she was told she would be deported. the 18—year—old barricaded herself in an airport hotel room and sent out fevered tweets saying that she feared her family would kill her for renouncing islam. i'm not leaving my room until i see unchr. i want asylum. within a day, the campaign #saverahaf went viral, piling on international pressure. thai immigration police initially

said her case was a family matter but reversed course and placed her in the care of the un's refugee agency. after a review, unhcr said she was a legitimate refugee. her family has denied any abuse. saudi arabia and canada have been on bad terms ever since ottawa criticised riyadh‘s arrests of women's rights activists in a tweet months ago. ra haf al-qanun‘s resettlement will likely exacerbate the already tense relations between the two countries. nada tawfik, bbc news, toronto. hundreds of people have marched through london today, demanding a general election and an end to austerity. it comes ahead of a crucial week in the commons, when mps are widely expected to reject theresa may's withdrawal deal with the eu. our political correspondent, chris mason, has more. tories out! central london this afternoon and left wing campaigners take to the streets.

theresa may must go! people have seen brexit‘s an absolute mess, the shambles the government is making of it, but what is the most important thing is to get a general election because then people can have a say on everything. have you got a spring in your step at the moment? absolutely. absolutely, yes. you don't come out here two weeks after christmas to plod around town, do you? you come for a reason and the reason is to get rid of this government. securing a general election isn't straightforward but the shadow chancellor was also here to make the case for it. the only solution to austerity, the only solution to tackling the threat that brexit poses, is a general election and the election of a labour government. this demonstration here wasn't primarily about brexit but this gathering, like others, is about seizing a political opportunity, seeing that the government is likely to lose on its plan for leaving the european union on tuesday, and so making the most of pressing

for what they want instead. 170 miles north in sheffield, another crowd with a cause, this one wanting another eu referendum. but, what would be the question? the obvious question to ask is about the two deals, the two propositions that are actually on the table. one is for the government, and people may or may not like it, it's very uncertain, but it's there, and the other deal is the one we already have with the eu, which in my view is a much better one, but let the people decide. the government is implacably opposed to delivering what people here want and its supporters are still trying to sell its plan. clearly there are a lot of people coming out who are complaining about the deal for one reason or another but i still think it's the only game in town — it's the thing that gets us out of the political institution and stops us paying so much money in, ends freedom of movement, and that's why i still encourage people, if they want certainty, this is the way to do it.

today was peaceful, for the most part, but this isolated incident, scuffles between rival protesters, was a reminder of the tension and anger swirling around our politics. chris mason, bbc news. a man has been released on bail after being arrested in connection with incidents in westminster earlier this week. james goddard was detained by officers this morning near st james‘s park tube station in westminster, on suspicion of a public order offence. last week a number of mps raised concerns about safety in westminster. three people — including two firefighters — have died and nearly 50 others injured in a powerful explosion at a bakery in the centre of paris. firefighters have been tackling a blaze through out the day, police suspect a gas leak caused the blast. our paris correspondent lucy williamson reports. on the site of a local bakery, around the corner from the folies bergere,

residents faced a charred and empty shell. the force of the gas explosion was felt in districts several miles away. along rue trevise, the blast shattered windows, blew out doors, and sent locals and tourists into the street, straight from their beds. translation: when i walked past the entrance i heard a huge explosion. i was hit by the debris. it's dry now and i've washed off a bit but there was a lot of blood on my neck and my head, too. 200 firefighters were called in to help those trapped by the blast. among those whose lives they saved was a colleague, buried for almost two hours beneath the rubble. but two other firefighters died. translation: firefighters were dealing with the blaze. the explosion is probably from a gas leak. it has had a very heavy toll on civilians, but also on firefighters who were on site. helicopters waited near the opera house to evacuate the wounded, some of whom are still

in a serious condition. the explosion is being treated as accidental but there's a risk of further fires and emergency work will continue all weekend. a crisis centre has been set up to house and care for the area's new homeless. this smart and lively part of paris, packed with bars and theatres, looks very different tonight. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. the partial shutdown of the us government has become the longest on record, now on its 22nd day. president trump is refusing to sign measures to pay all federal employees because democrats in congress won't include funding for the wall he promised on the border with mexico. our north america correspondent, david willis, is in washington. are there any signs of a breakthrough, david? it isa it is a side of the shear dysfunction here that the president is in the building behind me,

waiting for congressional democrats to make contact and they are at home with theirfamilies, to make contact and they are at home with their families, hence the president is doing what he tends to do when he is restless, he is on twitter, and in response to claims that he doesn't have a plan to end the current shutdown he said that he does. adding, to understand the plan you would have to understand the fa ct you would have to understand the fact that i won the election and i promise safety and security for the american people, elections have consequences, he said. the president has also claimed that democrats form the bulk of those who are currently involved in the government shutdown. meanwhile, the buildings around me are in darkness and many people are trying to work out how to make ends meet and it is snowing. washington's winter of discontent mayjust be getting started. david, thank you. heavy snow has continued to wreak havoc across large parts of europe, with power cuts, roads blocked, trains services cancelled and schools shut.

the situation is particular severe in austria, where seven people have been killed the past week and two hikers have been reported missing. 500 soldiers have been drafted in to clear roads and roofs in the most heavily affected areas. ministers are being warned that a proposal to scrap prison sentences of six months or less will only work if there is more investment in the probation services. the government says short sentences are less effective at cutting re—offending than community penalties. it's thought thousands of offenders in england and wales could be affected every year under the plans. chi chi izundu reports. "long enough to damage you and not long enough to heal you." that's how the prisons minister, rory stewart, described those serving sentences of six months or less in today's telegraph newspaper. annually, there are some 30,000 offenders in england and wales, who have committed crimes like burglary or shoplifting, who this could affect. but realistically, because of turnover, at any one time it would free up around 3,500 prison places.

we should not be using prison for these people. we should be turning their lives around and giving them support, dealing with their drug addiction, their homelessness, and getting them to make amends for the wrong they've done. that's really good for victims, it's good for the taxpayer and it will ease pressure on the prisons. in a statement, the ministry ofjustice said it's exploring potential alternatives and is yet to reach any conclusions. overcrowding in prisons like this one is a big problem in the uk, and the worry is, according to the government, that rehabilitation and reform won't happen. in fact, these prisons will turn one—time offenders into career criminals. this idea would need legislation to make it a reality and mps know promising to cut prison sentences is rarely a vote winner, and although prison reform groups have welcomed the idea, there are calls for better funding of every element of thejudicial system. i wouldn't say that the rehabilitation side works. it patently obviously doesn't. but what needs to happen is that

prison needs to be made to work. and that means investing in prisons so that the conditions are better, so that there is rehabilitative activity all day, every day, when they're there, and we maximise the chances of them not coming back. a similar scheme in scotland has beenjudged a success and is being extended to sentences of 12 months. simplyjailing offenders has doubled the prison population since the 90s and the government suggests reform of the offender isn't enough. they also have to look at the system. chi chi izundu, bbc news. with all the sport now, here's karthi gna nasegaram at the bbc sport centre. good evening. it has been an excellent day for irish rugby in the european champions cup, with ulster beating racing 92 to put them on the brink of a quarter—final place after a 26—22 win. leinster also beat toulouse while edinburgh had an historic win over toulon. newcastle, though, are out of the competition as patrick gearey reports. they used to call this the ravenhill

roar but now ulster stadium is officially known as the kingspan. whatever you name it, you can definitely hear it, especially when robert baloucoune of enniskillen went over on his european debut against racing 92 — one of the mightiest around. that try came from fermanagh. the next hailed from tyrone. jacob stockdale's smile summing up ulster‘s start. their dreamlike state lasted for the first 20 minutes before this brutal wake up call from virimi va katawa. still, ulster responded, sending a kick into the path of stockdale, a try, surely, but fate and physics abandoned them. the smile remained. racing reduced the gap to six points at the break but perhaps stockdale knew something, because this time the ball bounced for him. were the celebrations too early? racing came back, of course. once this brilliant try was converted, they were one behind. belfast breath was baited but this kick sealed a famous victory on a day when these ulstermen well and truly stood up. to the south of france for winter

sunshine, strictly a business trip for the newcastle falcons who needed victory to stay in europe but there was no negotiating with montpellier who scored seven tries cloudless skies, just 1000 miles home for newcastle. edinburgh came even further for that welcome to toulon, a call for the local warriors from the mountains to the sea, preferably via their opponents try line. toulon lead at the break. that makes what edinburgh did afterwards even more remarkable, epitomised this incredible try. james johnstone made: pay, the victory worth running 5000 miles and then another 500 more. patrick gearey, bbc news. it's time to pop out of the room if you don't want to know today's premier league football results as match of the day follows soon on bbc one. a mo salah penalty gave liverpool victory over brighton

and extended jurgen klopp‘s side's lead at the top of the table to seven points. newcastle are in the relegation zone after defeat to chelsea while southampton moved out of it with victory over leicester. west ham beat arsenal and there were wins for burnley and watford. england's charley hull has won the opening tournament of the ladies european tour golf season. the 22—year—old claimed the ladies open in abu dhabi, winning by one shot after leading throughout. it's hull's second european tour title. there's more on the bbc sport website, including unseeded japanese darts player, mikuru suzuki, becoming the surprise new bdo world champion at the lakeside. kate. you can see more on all of today's stories on the bbc news channel. that's all from me. goodnight. hello. this is bbc news. let's get more now on the bad weather that's caused problems across europe. in austria, it's led to the deaths of seven people.

bethany bell reports from the austrian alps. the little town of annaberg is blanketed in white. like many mountain regions in germany and austria, it is experiencing unusually heavy falls of snow. these sensors are there to protect houses from avalanches. the authorities are struggling to remove the snow. these volunteer firefighters are working to clear the roof of annaberg's primary school. stefan obermeister from the lower austrian fire brigade says they need to ensure the building is safe enough for children to enter. the big problem is that the snow is very heavy so we have about 3.5 metres on the roofs. and that's the big problem.

because if the weather is changing and the snow gets heavier, the big problem is that the roofs crash down and so it is very dangerous for the people who are living here. cars have been buried under several metres of snow. and it is a constant struggle to keep paths and roads clear. in neighbouring germany, the army is helping to clear away snow. several areas have been declared disaster zones. and there is more snow on the way. the risk of avalanches remains very high. bethany bell, bbc news, annaberg in the austrian alps. and in the us, a massive snow storm is headed towards washington, after heavy snowfalls in the mid west. the storm is forecast to affect an 1,800—mile stretch of the us from colorada to the mid—atlantic. it's already caused several

road deaths in missouri and has covered iowa, illinois, indiana and ohio with deep snow. thousands of motorists have been stranded and hundreds of flights cancelled. as we've been reporting, ministers are being warned that a proposal to scrap prison sentences of six months or less will only work if there is more investment in the probation services. some are arguing that short sentences can do more harm than good to offenders who've committed minor crimes. we can speak now about this to john bache, chairman of the magistrates association, who kindlyjoins us from his home in cheshire. thank you forjoining us. what is your view of what the government is suggesting, the idea of scrapping shorter sentences and instead giving offenders community orders? there is a lot of evidence that shorter sentences are largely ineffective in reducing reoffending and should be used as rarely as possible. the

existing guidelines are clear that prison sentences should only be given when deemed absolutely unavoidable and so any proposed resumption against short sentences is unlikely to have a major difference because magistrates already use custody as a last resort. the problem we have is that magistrates don't have great confidence in community sentences. we have dissent in some way and so what if we encouraged the government to ensure that community sentences are available throughout the country —— we have to sentence. and that they are effective and that magistrate know exactly what they are sentencing people to. can you give me some more detail about what the problem is with them at the moment? the problem is that we don't know exactly what we are sentencing to. for instance, if you give an unpaid worker, so you gave them 120

hours unpaid work, we have heard reports that the offender could breach that sentence and not be brought back to court. there was a time when we were encouraged not to engage directly with the community rehabilitation companies that carry out the sentence. that has now changed. hopefully we are going to be able to have direct communication with those companies and therefore have more confidence in the sentences we are passing. what are the most successful forms of community service and community sentencing in your view and do you think they can work to rehabilitate people who have offended? there is no question they can work, but they need to be available and we need to know what exactly they entail. there are some excellent programmes but if the magistrates don't have access to those programmes then obviously they are not going to sentence them to programmes they don't understand or know are available so we need to

ensure that the necessary programmes are available throughout england and wales and we need the probation service to give us good presentence reports to explain what options we have got and to explain the benefits of the various programmes. we are very keen to give community sentences rather than custodial sentences rather than custodial sentences if we can but we need to know that the property centres are available which are going to be effective and have been shown to be effective. the other thing we are asking for is the power to monitor sentences so we see offenders, say six or eight weeks after the offence has been committed, after being sentenced, to see they are carrying out the community sentences effectively as they are meant to do and that it is being of benefit to them. the things we are asking the government to do are firstly to provide effective community sentences throughout england and wales and secondly to give

magistrates and judges the power to review and monitor offenders at a certain time after passing sentence. do you think this also will need more cash? some have said this is just motivated by the being overfull and not enough money and reluctance to build more prison capacity and yet some of the probation service have said that if you are going to change policy you need to put more investment into these follow—up services. i think it will need more investment but everybody knows how expensive prison is. i am quite sure that any investment in community sentences is going to be far less costly tha n sentences is going to be far less costly than keeping somebody in prison. what is even more important is going to be far more beneficial to the offender. there are many purposes of sentencing and one of them is punishment and obviously prison does that but the others

include rehabilitation, which is very important and the community sentences are far more likely to rehabilitate an offender than prison. magistrates really do use prison. magistrates really do use prison as a last resort. thank you so much, we are grateful to you for your time this evening and explaining that viewpoint. there have been more mass anti—government protests across france. police in the capital fired water cannon and tear gas at so—called ‘yellow vest‘ demonstrators as scuffles broke out near the arc de triomphe. thousands of officers have been deployed across the city, which has previously seen street clashes. groups of protesters gathered on and around the champs elysees, the scene of disturbances in recent weeks, many of them calling for president macron to resign. small groups broke away from the designated route and threw bottles and other projectiles at the police. across the country, around 80,000 people are reported to have taken to the streets. the nominations for this year's brit awards have been announced.

solo artists dua lipa and anne—marie have each earned themselves four nominations. whilejorja smith and jess glynne have received three and two nods repectively. it's only the second time in brit awards history that more women than men are up for the night's biggest prize, album of the year. the big tech companies lavish huge amounts of money on their gigantic stands at the international tech expo, the consumer electronics show. it's a chance to pitch their latest wares to electronic retailers and show off their freshest innovations. as the show closes in las vegas, our correspondent dave lee took a tour of some of the biggest displays. this is a demo to show off new kind of audio system, but what is capturing people's attention is the fact that the whole screen here is coated with this image like a big screen. the way they are doing that right

now is by using a projector strapped to the ceiling, but i guess it is one idea of what we might be able to do in a car if it was to become self driving in the future. tell us what we have here. this is the new lg styler. we have no need for plumbing hookups or anything. all you do is fill the water reservoir, it generates the steam. what does the shaking do? it drops the wrinkles out? the steam comes up from the bottom and allows the wrinkles to be released, the steam penetrates from the inside out, opening up the garment and it helps everything go away. how many times have you had to explain why this is shaking here at ces? way too many. you have the patience of a saint. here is a cute robot from samsung,

they call it the retail bot, and it is designed to intelligently know its way around a location such as a restaurant. it can bring you your food, warn you if the plate is hot and even suggest a dessert. because who needs a human to do that, huh? i guess we have found the sony stand. three, two, one, go! one of the trends we have found here is equipment being sold specifically for video bloggers or vloggers. it is big business for companies like sony, because many of those people are using equipment that is more expensive than broadcast companies like the bbc. that's it for ces but it is not over for technology in 2019.

it will be a huge year and we are just getting started. and you can read and watch reports from the event by dave and the rest of the bbc tech team a bbc. co. uk/ces2019. time for a look at the weather with susan powell. across a good chunk of the uk the skies look like this on saturday, quite flat grey with the occasional promise of something a bit brighter. hopefully sunday will deliver as clearer skies start to feeding from the north. behind this weather front isa the north. behind this weather front is a cold front, not much in terms of bringing rainfall but it will start to introduce some slightly chillier air. on the next few days we are sitting on the boundary between cold air from the arctic and milderair between cold air from the arctic and milder air pushing in from the

atla ntic milder air pushing in from the atlantic and that will flip—flop our temperatures as we move into next week. on sunday, we have mild sitting to the south ahead of the cold front, quite a bit of cloud, temperatures still set to reach double figures. further north, brighter skies, showers in northern and western scotland but the temperatures will fall through the day behind the cold front and we are looking at seven or eight in glasgow and aberdeen. overnight on sunday into monday, the colder air will slide all the way south across the uk and another where the feature will start to eat its way southwards and behind that of the air will be colder still and you can see the frost developing in lerwick and wintry showers feeling down the north sea. this is what it looks like on