welcome to bbc news — i'm monika plaha. our top stories: north america's deep freeze — severe winter weather claims 35 lives across the united states and canada. dozens of people are treated for suspected chemical poisoning in serbia after a freight train carrying ammonia derails. a bus plunges off a bridge into a river in galicia, in northwest spain. six passengers are killed. rescuers continue to search for two missing people after an avalanche on the austrian slopes. and king charles pays tribute to his late mother, queen elizabeth, in his

first christmas message. it is with this life—giving light and our service to others that i believe we can find hope for the future. welcome to bbc news. millions of people in the us and canada are spending christmas in the grip of a severe winter storm. it's brought extreme frost, heavy snow and strong winds. at least 35 people have died in weather related incidents and around 175,000 homes are without power. 0ur north america correspondent, nomia iqbal, reports. a very white christmas has turned more into a deep freeze. the city of buffalo in new york state is used

to tough weather conditions, but this storm has left it paralysed. many don't even have any power to cook their christmas lunch. i'm really glad that i have a fireplace because otherwise i'd be freezing right now. 43 inches of snow fell here as of christmas morning. driving is banned as the blizzard conditions leave roads impassable, power substations frozen and at least seven people dead. we are in a war. this is a war with mother nature and she has been hitting us with everything she has since the late hours of thursday and into friday, saturday and now on christmas morning. and this will go down in history as the most devastating storm in buffalo's long—storied history of having battled many battles, many major storms. in the midwest, four people were killed earlier in the week in a pile—up in ohio.

four others died in crashes in missouri and kansas. the nation's capital has avoided much of the worst weather but the bomb cyclone has left its mark. hundreds of water pipes are frozen, temperatures continue to drop and many of the city's homeless people have been given emergency shelter. the storm is continuing to barrel up along the east coast here and across much of the us, and the advice remains to avoid travelling unless it's essential. and it's notjust the snow and ice causing mayhem. high winds have brought high tides and flooding on the eastern seaboard. forecasters say the storm will ease off in the next few days but freezing temperatures are likely to linger for some time. nomia iqbal, bbc news, washington. well, let's get the latest from meteo—rologist, carl lam from wgrz—tv whojoins me now from buffalo. thank you ever so much for writing me. tell us about this

dramatic change in weather and what is the situation like where you are at the moment? well, i'm right television station, i've been here since friday with no way to get home because i livejust south of the city of buffalo, and conditions are treacherous especially right in the city. we had winds gusting as fast as 170 calamitous per hour, we had about one metre of snow at our airport and the drifts from our snow are about 2— 2.5 metres in some spots so it has just been a storm for the ages. this is historic and we really are just starting to deal with the cleanup phase of this storm after two days of brutal wins, lots of snow and just bone chilling cold. lots of snow and “ust bone chilling cold._ lots of snow and 'ust bone chilling cold._ chilling cold. oh, and you mentioned _ chilling cold. oh, and you mentioned that _ chilling cold. oh, and you mentioned that there - chilling cold. oh, and youj mentioned that there was chilling cold. oh, and you i mentioned that there was no chilling cold. oh, and you - mentioned that there was no way to get home so you are obviously having to spend christmas day in the studio and that's a reality for so many,

isn't it? it that's a reality for so many, isn't it? ., , , , , isn't it? it absolutely is but we take our _ isn't it? it absolutely is but we take ourjob _ isn't it? it absolutely is but we take ourjob so - isn't it? it absolutely is but| we take ourjob so seriously and it is so important to provide life—saving information for those that are watching that have power to take the appropriate precautions, but most importantly to remind people that if you don't have to travel, you don't need to go out because a lot of the traffic congestion was due to people going out and doing some last minute holiday shopping or other errands on the day before christmas eve and then they got stuck and then that led to a whole other set of problems where people were trying to get unstuck and it was just this kind of endless cycle of people getting stuck and unfortunately people were trapped inside their vehicles and snow was piling up so it really was a lose— lose situation. piling up so it really was a lose- lose situation.- piling up so it really was a lose- lose situation. and 35 eo - le lose- lose situation. and 35 peeple have _ lose- lose situation. and 35 people have died, - lose- lose situation. and 35 people have died, it - lose- lose situation. and 35 people have died, it is - people have died, it is obviously very serious. with the weather get worse? when is

it expected to get better? in buffalo we've had 12 kata —— we have had 12 casualties. people that weren't able to get the emergency medical care because emergency medical care because emergency crews could not reach their homes due to impassable road conditions and also people that were dying in their cars. so that type of situation, it is still being worked on as recovery is under way and the cleanup portion of the storm is happening in terms of improvement we do still have some snow on sunday evening into monday morning and then it will start to lessen by the time we get to monday night before things really start to warm up pretty dramatically stop by the end of the week temperatures here in buffalo are expected to be closer to about 10 celsius.— about 10 celsius. oh, well, carl, thank _ about 10 celsius. oh, well, carl, thank you _ about 10 celsius. oh, well, carl, thank you very - about 10 celsius. oh, well, carl, thank you very much l about 10 celsius. oh, well, i carl, thank you very much for joining me. it is christmas day where you are. thank you for

joining us us and have a very merry christmas.— joining us us and have a very merry christmas. now some breaking news — explosions have reportedly been heard at russia's engels air base, hundreds of miles from the front line from the ukrainian border. the airbase is near the russian city of saratov and the region's governor said law enforecement agencies were checking out information, about an "incident at a military facility". damaged. —— adding that civilian infrastructure had not been damaged. the engels air base is believed to house long—range strategic bombers and was also hit on december 5 by ukrainian drone attacks, according to the russians. ukraine has not publicly admitted its forces carried out those attacks. now to a developing story out of serbia, and dozens of people have been admitted to hospital after a train carrying ammonia derailed near the south—eastern city of pirot. people have been warned not to leave their homes. naomi choy smith has more.

what we know so far is that this freight train which was travelling from neighbouring bulgaria and carrying ammonia, which is widely used forfertiliser, actually came off the tracks. and it's still unclear what caused the train to derail but 20 carriages spilled off the tracks — one of them falling into a nearby river which prompted a toxic chemical reaction and released these toxic, noxious fumes into the atmosphere. now, 50 people have been sickened and poisoned by that released ammonia and they've been sent to hospital, and a state of emergency has been declared at this stage. schools will be closed on monday as a precaution to keep children safe and people are being urged at the moment in pirot, which is a town of about 6,000 people, they've been told to stay inside their homes because these gases can be very, very dangerous. and what more do we know about the chemicals as well? the ammonia that the train was carrying? so, ammonia is widely used as a fertiliser both on an industrial scale and even in some

people's back gardens. and it is usually safe if it transported and stored correctly and safely. however, in this case, obviously that went off the rails and this is something that many people are concerned about, especially with patients reporting all sorts of respiratory distress since this incident, it can cause burning in your airwaves, and inflammation. it can also be flammable so that's a big concern as the story develops. naomi choy smith speaking to me a little earlier. six passengers have died after a passenger bus plunged into a river off a bridge in galicia, in the northwest of spain. the river's strong current and high flow due to heavy rains hampered efforts to retrieve the bodies throughout the weekend. the vehicle's driver and a passenger. sergi forcada reports. the accident took place

on christmas eve on a road in a small town in galicia close to the border with portugal. a motorist raised the alarm after noticing a safety rail on the bridge had been damaged. then a call from a survivor helped emergency services find the wreckage. but strong currents due to heavy rains hampered the rescue operation. the mayor of the village where the accident happened, jorge cubela, described the incident as big misfortune. translation: it was a line bus travelling from lugo to vigo. i what we know is really what we see. the bus fell into a river from a 20m—high bridge. it is a tragedy. emergency services recovered two bodies near the accident site while four others were found in the river later on sunday. according to local media, people who had visited loved ones in one of galicia's prisons were among the victims. the rescue operation around the bridge has now finished and engineers are looking for a way to safely recover the bus from the river. the cause of the accident is not yet known

but local authorities believe the poor weather could have played a role. sergi forcada, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. dozens of rohingya refugees have drifted onto a beach in the indonesian province of aceh in a wooden boat with a broken engine. immigration officials described them as hungry and weak after many days at sea. it's not clear if they're part of a group of nearly 200 rohingya who became stranded at sea weeks ago, without food or water. french officials say the man suspected of killing three kurdish people in paris on friday has confessed to a hatred of foreigners. new footage of the 69—year—old has been released. it shows him going into a barbers shop armed with a gun. anger over the shootings led to violent protests in central paris, with many in the kurdish community saying not enough had been done to prevent the attack. iran says that seven people,

including dual nationals with alleged links to the uk, have been arrested in connection with the current wave of anti—government protests. a statement described the captives as members of an organisation involved in guiding and directing revolutionary plots. it's understood they were detained as they were trying to leave the country. thousands of people in nagorno karabakh have held a rally in the city of stepa na kert to protest against a blockade of their only land link to armenia. yerevan says the lachin corridor has been blocked for two weeks by what azerbaijan describes as eco—activists. it says they're preventing the delivery of food, medicine and fuel. the region has been the focus of a long dispute between the two countries.

rescue teams are searching for survivors of an avalanche in western austria. it's thought two people remain unaccounted for after a number of skiers were buried by snow in an off piste area around the lech—zurs resort. helena wilkinson reports. a huge rescue operation is continuing tonight for two people who are understood to be still missing. helicopters are being used in the search over lech—zurs, two popular ski resorts next to each other in western austria. the avalanche happened at around 3:00 in the afternoon local time. around 100 people were brought in to help with the search. translation: emergency services are going to keep searching all night. if necessary, the search will go on the whole night. initially it was feared that

at least 10 people had been buried under the snow. it's now reported that six of them escaped uninjured. two others had to be treated in hospital. rescuers say they'll continue searching through the night in the hope they find the two people who are still missing. chopper whirrs helena wilkinson, bbc news. four major aid organisations are suspending all their work in afghanistan following the order by taliban authorities, banning the employment of women at humanitarian agencies. the international rescue committee, irc, has become the latest agency to halt its activity in the country. earlier, care, the norwegian refugee council and save the children said they could not effectively reach afghans in desperate need without their female staff. save the children chief operating officer david wright says the ban will have very real impacts on the people they help. why

.we . we have five dozen staff including _ . we have five dozen staff including community - . we have five dozen staff- including community volunteers including community volunteers in afghanistan. almost half of those are women. so essentially if we were to keep working we would have to turn up for work tomorrow with half our workforce missing stop to have access to women and children you need to have female health staff. and so if you don't have a female health staff you won't have access to those people so essentially it is just not possible for us to do ourjob with ourfemale possible for us to do ourjob with our female colleagues aren't even able to get out there. stay with us on bbc news. still to come. a time for giving — how the world's less fortunate are catered for over the festive period. the most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has got under way with the introduction of the euro. tomorrow in holland, we're gonna use money we picked up in belgium today and then, we'll be in france and again, it'll be the same money.

it's just got to be the way to go. crowd yelling george harrison, the former beatle, is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his 0xfordshire home. a 33—year—old man from liverpool is being interviewed by police on suspicion of attempted murder. i think it was good. just good? no, fantastic. that's better! big ben tolls. this is bbc news. the latest headlines — the severe arctic freeze claims 35 lives across the united states and canada.

rescuers continue to search for two people missing after an avalanche on the austrian slopes. german police divers have trawled through a canal in berlin, looking for clues into the 2019 jewel heist at dresden's green vault museum. six men accused of being involved in the $120 million robbery appeared in court back injanuary, and the whereabouts of many of the jewels still remains a mystery. emer mccarthy reports. police divers braved berlin's semi- — police divers braved berlin's semi— frozen canals for following clues to one of your's _ following clues to one of your's biggest heist. kristin's green vault _ your's biggest heist. kristin's green vault izyum _ your's biggest heist. kristin's green vault izyum robberies| your's biggest heist. kristin's i green vault izyum robberies are $120 million worth of artefacts stolen. —— dresden. prosecutors believe thieves sort through a

window and reattached it, to get to the window as early as possible. the christmas day dive comes days after german police said most of the stolen jewels have been recovered in what they hailed as a christmas miracle. dresden police overlooking the canal search said the operation could take several hours to several days. what exactly the divers were looking for remained a mystery. police only confirmed the search was related to the heist. emer mccarthy, bbc news. all around the world, millions of people have been, or are still, celebrating christmas. it's usually a time for family, friends and maybe a little excess. but for some, this is proving to be a difficult festive period, as the bbc�*s tim allman explains. sings. here in kyiv, not for the first time, the sound of song rings out in the middle of an air raid. singing.

in one of the city's underground railway stations, a carol service is under way — a celebration of the season but also a moment of defiance. translation: it was really hard at first, because it seemed - strange to celebrate this holiday, but if you perceive it as a carol for victory, as a carol of wishes to warriors, then it is normal. everything falls into place. no threat of war in rome but there are still plenty who are desperate and in need. this christmas dinner held annually at the church of santa maria is put on for the poor of the parish. translation: we are allj gathered here in harmony and peace with ourselves and others. it's a beautiful initiative that has existed for a0 years and thank goodness it exists. help can take many forms

and in the capital, it looks a bit like this — hundreds and hundreds —— help can take many forms and in the kosovan capital pristina, it looks a bit like this — hundreds and hundreds of father christmases running in the city to raise money for charity. for this organised santa run, we will have around 200 families in need and many, many people who are in need of food or something. christmas is a time for giving and plenty of dressing up. tim allman, bbc news. king charles has used his first christmas message as monarch to reflect on the cost of living crisis. he spoke of the "great anxiety and hardship" for those struggling to "pay their bills and keep theirfamilies fed and warm". the king also paid tribute to his mother, queen elizabeth, who is buried in st george's chapel, from where the king delivered his speech. 0ur royal correspondent

nicholas witchell has more. christmas at sandringham for the first time since the start of the pandemic. familiar routines were resumed, though, without that most familiar of figures, queen elizabeth. king charles and the queen consort led the royal family from church. just behind them, the prince and princess of wales with all three of their children, george, charlotte and 11—year—old louis. also there with the family group, the duke of york. the waleses spent time with spectators receiving their bunches of flowers and then, back to the main house for christmas lunch and the king's first christmas broadcast. # god save our gracious king #. the king's message was recorded in st george's chapel, windsor, close to the spot where the late queen was laid to rest. christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones.

we feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition. the king spoke about his mother's faith in the everlasting light of god. my mother's belief in the power of that light was an essential part of herfaith in god, but also herfaith in people, and it is one which i share with my whole heart. the king said this ability to touch the lives of others was evident in the selfless dedication of so many, including the emergency services and health and social care professionals, and it was particularly needed at the moment. at this time of great anxiety and hardship, be it for those around the world facing conflict, famine or natural disaster, or for those at home finding ways to pay their bills and keep their families fed

and warm, we see it in the humanity of people throughout our nations and the commonwealth who so readily respond to the plight of others. the king said he wanted to pay particular tribute to those who ran food banks, helping those in greatest need. 0ur churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and gurdwaras have once again united in feeding the hungry, providing love and support throughout the year. working members of the royal family were shown, however, there was no mention of the duke and duchess of sussex. the king's message ended on a note of hope. so, whateverfaith you have or whether you have none, it is in this life—giving light and with the true humility that lies in our service to others that i believe we can find hope

for the future. a first christmas message from king charles and one with a strong sense of social awareness for families who are struggling to feed themselves or keep warm. officials say it would be strange if the head of state did not recognise and feel an empathy for people facing such difficult times. nicholas witchell, bbc news at buckingham palace. now, here's something a little unusual. with the winter storm bringing in icy temperatures to the united states, iguanas that live in trees in south florida have been freezing and falling into the street. but in most cases, it's thought the creatures will survive the frigid weather, defrost, and be one their way again once temperatures rise. now, a little christmas musical treat. the world renowned tenor andrea bocelli has recorded his

and daughter, virginia. they've given the bbc a special preview. guitar and piano plays. # feliz navidad # prospero ano y felicidad # i wanna wish you a merry christmas

# from the bottom of my heart hello again. i thought i'd start off with confirmation of what you already know, and that is that the vast majority of the uk didn't have a white christmas — not with temperatures like these through christmas afternoon — 13 in chertsey, 12 for london. most parts of the uk had double figure temperatures. and even the far north of scotland, lerwick and shetland had temperatures around seven degrees. it was pretty mild, then, for most, but over recent hours and heading into boxing day, we do have a shot of colder air that's working its way in. starting to see some of these showers in highland start to turn wintry. and over the next few hours, yes, you probably will see some snow working into scotland with the risk of some icy roads as temperatures dip below freezing here. some pockets of frost as well for northern ireland and northern england. mild weather further south.

it's going to be a much colder day, then, for boxing day, with some accumulations of snow building in to scotland, where we could see 1—3 centimetres at low elevations. but up over the high ground, 5—10 centimetres of snow possible, where, along with the strong winds, we're talking about drifting and some blizzard conditions, so could well be some disruption locally in scotland. away from that, plenty of showers for northern ireland, the north—west of both england and wales. one or two wintry showers mixed in, temperatures a lot lower than they were on christmas day, ranging from around 4—10 degrees in london. ten is still actually on the mild side. now, heading into tuesday, we could see a few more issues as well as this area of low pressure piles into the cold air in scotland. now, it could well be that we see a bit of snow on the leading edge of this system with the snow then turning back to rain. but to the north of the central belt over the high ground, well, the snow could last a bit longer and i tentatively suggest we could see something like 5—10 centimetres. no warnings outjust yet, but it's worth keeping in touch with the weather forecast across northern scotland for tuesday.

further southwards, it's a mild day, quite a windy day, with a band of rain moving its way across england and wales. those temperatures widely still up into double figures but that colder air refusing to budge, really, across the very far north of scotland. heading into wednesday and thursday, the weather pattern stays unsettled with low pressures continuing to spin off the atlantic, bringing further zones of rain. and wednesday, we could see some fairly strong winds around as well, so that's something to bear in mind. running up closer to new year's eve, new year's day, it stays unsettled. generally, temperatures are a bit above average, but do expect more rain at times. bye— bye.

the headlines: millions of people in the us and canada are spending christmas in the grip of a severe winter storm. at least 35 people are known to have died. the national guard in buffalo in new york state has been called in to help. dozens of people have received hospital treatment for suspected toxic poisoning in serbia after a train carrying ammonia derailed near the south eastern city of piro. people have been warned not to leave their homes. a state of emergency has been declared after 20 carriages came off the tracks. six passengers have died after a passenger bus plunged off a bridge and into a river

in galicia in the north west of spain.