this is bbc world news, the headlines. one of the worst winter storms in living memory is covering much of the united states and canada, bringing heavy snow and freezing temperatures. minus 45 celsius was recorded in one town in the us state of montana. here in the uk the railways came to a standstill, earlier than usual this chrismas, after another walk out over pay and conditions. roads were expected to be disrupted but the aa said it was "not as bad as expected." the un has criticised a ruling by the taliban to bar afghan women from working for aid agencies, saying it violates their most fundamental rights.

last week the hard line rulers announced women were banned from attending university. now on bbc news — our world: harvesting turkey's tea.

hello there. for most of us, christmas day is going to turn out to be quite a mild day with temperatures pushing into double figures. on saturday, we did manage a bit of sunshine across the midlands and north—east england but otherwise it was a lot of clout around it we will continue to feed in rather cloudy skies for christmas day as well with the south—westerly winds dragging in mild air around this area of low pressure to the north. it's really late in the day that we'll start to see some colder air returning, particularly to parts

of scotland and in the northwest of scotland late on you could see a few snow showers. so one or two of you could see a white christmas. but for most, it's going to be a mild day for christmas. south—westerly winds then will continue to push bursts of rain across the country. the wettest weather will be across western areas, some bright or sunny spells across central and eastern areas, but it's across scotland that through the afternoon will start to feed in some slightly colder air. and by the time we get to the evening time, temperatures will be dropping low enough that we'll see some of the showers start to turn wintry. so it's across northwest scotland. you might see some snow showers arriving really late in the day here, possibly a white christmas, but otherwise pretty much no chance. now as we head into boxing day, the colder air continues to feed in. so certainly a cold start to boxing day with a risk of some icy stretches and a fairly widespread frost to start the day as well. then we've got the snow showers that will pile in across parts of scotland for boxing day, where we'll get accumulations 1 to 3 centimetres at low elevations. but over the hills, more than that,

5 to 10 centimetres with blizzard conditions on account of the strong winds. so it's certainly worth checking before travelling across scotland on boxing day because we'll have some poor travel conditions and potentially some localised transport disruption as well. otherwise it's a cooler kind of day. temperatures around 4 to 9 degrees celsius. mixture of sunny spells and blustery showers now heading beyond that into tuesday. low pressure really does flex its muscles. moving in off the atlantic, another band of rain pushes across the country. some of the rain will be quite heavy at times across england and wales. showers following to scotland and northern ireland where it will continue to be pretty blustery as well. but the temperatures, well, we're on the mild side for the time of year, nine degrees in edinburgh and glasgow, but 11 degrees in london. average for december was about eight degrees in london for this time of the year. now heading beyond that into the middle part of the week, it looks like we'll see further low pressures moving in off the atlantic. and these could potentially bring some even stronger winds, maybe

gales, possibly even some severe gales around exposed western coast. certainly there'll be a lot of rain around and with that comes the risk of some localised surface water flooding, especially given that the ground is saturated in parts, particularly across parts of southern england. temperatures still on the mild side, 10 to 12 degrees pretty widely across england and wales. and then the pattern beyond that, as we edge closer to the new year, it stays unsettled with showers or some longer spells of rain. temperatures across the northern half of the uk generally pretty close to the december average. but as we look at the weather conditions further southwards, you'll definitely see outbreaks of rain across parts of england and wales as we go from thursday through the weekend and into the new year. but those temperatures pretty high. 13 degrees in london for a time on saturday, new year's eve, well, that's around five degrees celsius above the seasonal average. so generally the weather pretty mild over the next week or so.

this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. one of the worst winter storms in living memory is gripping much of the united states and canada — tens of thousands are without power and christmas travel plans are cancelled for many others. here in the uk — the railways have come to a standstill — earlier than usual this chrismas — after another walk out by workers over pay and conditions. the taliban clamp down further on women's rights in afghanistan. after banning them from studying at university, they're now also barred from working for ngos. a second day of violent protests in central paris, after a fatal shooting at a kurdish cultural centre. the pope remembers those suffering from war — as he holds his christmas eve mass in the vatican.