ceremonies are taking place to mark the 20th anniversary of the indian ocean earthquake and tsunami. reports from gaza say at least five journalists have been killed following an israeli airstrike on a vehicle in the nuseirat refugee camp. as temperatures soar — a fire ban is issued in the australian state of victoria with officials warning of an extreme risk of bushfires. it was the night before christmas where all through thames house... lamb not turkey — the tv spy sharing a christmas message for the real—life spooks at mi5. and after a five—year wait — gavin and stacey fans finally got the chance to see whether smithy accepted nessa's proposal.

hello and welcome — i'm anjana gadgil. commemorations are underway in countries across the indian ocean to mark the 20th anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people. a vigil has taken place in banda aceh on the island of sumatra, close to the epicentre of the huge underwater earthquake that triggered the tsunami. the vigil followed a siren that sounded shortly before 8am local time — the exact moment from the earthquake 20 years ago. the tsunami — on the 26th of december 2004 — is one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history, killing people in more

than a dozen countries. this is live pictures of a shrine until sri lanka. flowers have been laid out there. shortly we'll be talking to our correspondent at the scene. officials in kazakhstan say 38 people have been killed in the azerbaijan airlines plane crash near the city of aktau. the aircraft had left the azerbaijani capital of baku, en route to grozny in the russian republic of chechnya, but was diverted because of fog. duncan kennedy has the latest. this was the plane in its final moments. descending at high speed, its landing gear down. the pilot appears to be struggling to control the jet. it banks just before impact. much of the aircraft was crushed into a burning trail of wreckage. emergency workers converged on the scene, some crawling inside the plane

looking for survivors. incredibly, dozens of passengers made it out. this man, just one of those staggering from the carnage. they were saved by this tail section, the only part of the aircraft left intact. the local hospital was filled with those wounded, but alive. this man says, "when the plane crashed, my wife was sitting next to me. "i haven't seen my wife since the crash." this is the family of one of the flight attendants on board — theirfears calmed by a video call he made from his hospital bed... ..saying, "don't worry. tell mum not to worry. thank god we are safe." the plane had been diverted by bad weather en route to grozny, in southern russia. the president of azerbaijan

says experts will now look at all possible causes. translation: the reasons for the crash are not yet - known to us. there are various theories, but i believe it is premature to discuss them. a criminal case has been launched by the prosecutor general�*s office. president putin is sending in this plane, with specialist teams, to help. some of the passengers on the crashed aircraft were russian. it was made by the brazilian firm embraer, which has a robust safety record. it will now help with the investigation of a crash that both took, but also spared many lives. duncan kennedy, bbc news. reports from gaza say at least five journalists have been killed following an israeli airstrike on a vehicle outside al—awda hospital in the nuseirat refugee camp. this video — unverified by the bbc — shows a minibus with �*press' written on the doors. several others are believed to have been injured

in the blast. in a seperate incident overnight, five people were killed and dozens injured after israel bombed the zeitoun neighbourhood in gaza city. the israeli air force said on x that it had struck a vehicle containing — in its words — "terrorists in the nuseirat a rea" with me is said shehata from bbc arabic. what is the latest you can tell us about the attacks in gaza? the israel military says it was targeting what they call terrorists from islamicjihad, terrorists from islamic jihad, one terrorists from islamicjihad, one of the palestinian groups in gaza. and according to the palestinian sources, five journalists were killed. while they were broadcasting van — they were broadcasting van — they were broadcasting van — they were covering an event

near the hospital near nuseirat in central gaza. so the air strike hit the broadcasting van. and they accused the israelis of clearly deliberately attacking that, but the israelis are denying that, saying they were targeted attack on when they call terrorists. so, this is adding to the number ofjournalists to the number of journalists killed. to the number ofjournalists killed. according to the committee to protect journalists, an american government organisation, at least mi journalists were killed since seven october 2023. it's alarming. it's adding to the killing of more than 45,000 adding to the killing of more than 16,000 people, more than 100,000, from than 115,000 people, more than 100,000, from the international community and un, for hospitals, food, aid, and on top of that is the ceasefire. because they want to end all this tragedy of the gazan people since october last year.

so what is the latest on the ceasefire itself? unfortunately there's talk — ceasefire itself? unfortunately there's talk about _ ceasefire itself? unfortunately there's talk about progress - there's talk about progress over the last few days, but, like in the last few hours, there was reports that criticism of israeli official from within the israeli delegation who is working on to reach a deal on technicalities. there's the ministerfor there's the minister for defence of israel, said the security of gaza would be under the israeli control. in addition to that, mr netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, said it will — the war would continue even if there's a ceasefire. so, this will not appease hamas and hamas won't accept any ceasefire unless there's a withdrawal of israeli forces from the gaza strip. there's a big gap between them. all the optimism about that, it's not real, because the gap between them is huge. and

whatever optimism comes, agreed on some stuff, the north, but whatever, it's still critical issues, especially the presence of israeli forces and the corridor between gaza and egypt, and the withdrawal of israeli forces from gaza, and the future of gaza, so all of that, there's controversial issues. sticking points. there's no agreement about that. so there's no indicators of an agreement between both of them. and in syria — the authorities say m members of their forces have been killed and ten others injured in clashes with members of the ousted former leader bashar al—assad's alawite group. said shehata is still here. what's the latest you can tell us about this?— us about this? the demonstrations i us about this? the i demonstrations from us about this? tie: demonstrations from different alawite areas in tartous, homs, the stronghold of assad. so, all these demonstrations because of a video showed like

a fire in alawite shrine in aleppo. and the new administration in syria now said it's an old video, this video was meant by the former member of the regime to incite sectarian problems inside syria. so, there is was curfew imposed by the new administration. they say they arrested some people involved in that. and they said the main thing is to have control and peace and stability in syria, because this kind of — demonstration coming before from christians in damascus and other places because of the burning of christmas tree, like alawite demonstration, since the collapse of bashar al—assad, the fear is if the spread of this kind of demonstration and curfew and clashes, it may be a problem

for them. the hope is to contain that in the light of international community's support for the syrian administration to lead the country for the next — for the next step of a new government and a new constitution, and election to have a new government.— election to have a new government. election to have a new covernment. ., ~ , ., , government. thank you very much. back to our main story, commemorations are under way in countries around the indian ocean to mark the 20th anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people. let's speak now to our south east asia correspondentjonathan head, correspondent jonathan head, who is correspondentjonathan head, who is in bangkok. jonathan, first of all, what's taking place today to mark this 20th anniversary?— anniversary? just a multitude of small. _ anniversary? just a multitude of small, often _ anniversary? just a multitude of small, often multi-faith i of small, often multi—faith memorials. many communities holding them in all areas affected, that's on the

southern and western coast, where the wave came in totally unexpected. there were no warnings and it was peak season of course, this time of year, always peak season on the beaches of thailand. some 45 nationalities are among the victims. it's a very multinational event too. we've seen lots of people from different parts of the world, finding different ways to commemorate it. there's official commemorations, private ones too. in the places where they put up memorial, there's a particularly striking one, a double wall, one side of it tiled, which rises up to the height of the wave and that was very high indeed, towering above people. those who lost people, lost relatives or friends, have been hanging their photographs. in aceh, that bore the brunt of the tsunami and had by far the largest number of victims, it's a devoutly muslim area so they've been holding prayer

sessions but you've seen people quietly tending graves. there's mass graves right across aceh, many of them unidentified. so it's a mixture of the official, we've seen them testing the tsunami warning systems which they didn't have back then. rather chilling sound, but at least also an indication that were the same thing to happen again, at least this time people would be better prepared and many more perhaps would be able to escape. and many more perhaps would be able to escape-— able to escape. jonathan, you of course _ able to escape. jonathan, you of course were _ able to escape. jonathan, you of course were reporting - able to escape. jonathan, you| of course were reporting there in the region 20 years ago. what are your recollections of that day? what are your recollections of that da ? ~ ., , ., ., that day? well, it was - on a scale that — that day? well, it was - on a scale that none _ that day? well, it was - on a scale that none of— that day? well, it was - on a scale that none of us - that day? well, it was - on a scale that none of us had - that day? well, it was - on a. scale that none of us had ever experienced before. we had all covered natural disasters, so you're braced what to expect in terms of grief, distraction, trying to get a measure of. it but the scale of this because unbelievable. the first place i went to, a stunning and

beautiful island, cliffly holiday island in southern thailand. it was unrecognisable. nothing existed. the wave came in, slammed into that main tourist area and wiped it out. there was scarcely a building left standing. underneath all the rubble was bodies. many of them holiday—makers still in their colourful beachwear, and the thais, overwhelmed trying to retrieve the bodies in as dignified a way they could. you could see the enormous effort they were making to show dignity, but sometimes we saw excavators pulling them out on the claws of their machines. onto that i moved to aceh, the scale of death, grief and destruction was much larger. so many bodies. there was a carpet of bodies in the main river going from one side to the other, all interlinked. it almost hardened you to it. what was — the absolute despair of

the people, many people lost theirfamilies the people, many people lost their families and their entire communities. they used to wail when you talked to them, with a sense of "how could i possibly rebuild?" yes they did. there was a massive international assistance programme, unprecedented multinational programme to help them rebuild. we saw people bouncing back, building back, always affected by the memories. it's incredible when you go to these places today and you see the memorials there, the strange sights of giant ships still perched on buildings, but things very much back to the way they were. in some cases, improved! aceh, the shock of the tsunami helped push the government and rebels who were operating and fighting a really nasty civil war for many, many years to come to terms and bring peace to it. there were many useful lessons learnt as well. notjust about how many useful lessons learnt as well. not just about how to many useful lessons learnt as well. notjust about how to be prepared for such a disaster, but how to respond to it too.

we saw innovative methods to get aid to cut—off places very quickly. quite a lot of good came out of that experience as well for all the horror. jonathan, thank you very much. that's our south east asia correspondent. here are pictures of a memorial in sri lanka to the victims. let's get some of the day's other news 110w. president biden has called russia's christmas day airstrikes on ukraine outrageous and a deliberate attempt to cut access to electricity during the cold winter months. moscow fired more than 170 missiles and drones, killing one person and causing widespread black outs. japan airlines says a cyberattack has briefly disrupted some of its flights. the attack affected the airline's baggage check—in system. more than a dozen flights were delayed at several airports before engineers identified and isolated

the target of the attack. officials in mozambique say 1,500 inmates have escaped from prisons after a riot in maputo which left more than 30 people dead. they said 150 had been recaptured. there's been civil unrest since the disputed election in october. russia has blamed terrorism for one of its cargo ships sinking off the coast of spain. the ursa major began taking on water on monday, while on a journey from st petersburg to vladivostock. it's owned by russia's defence ministry, and is the subject of us—imposed sanctions. around the world and across the uk — this is bbc news.

a fire ban has been issued in the australian state of victoria as officials warn of extreme bush fire risk across the south east of the country. temperatures were forecast to reach up to a0 degrees celsius.

emergency services are currently battling a growing blaze at the grampians national park which has been burning for around a week, consuming about 500 square kilometres of forested land. some residents have been evacuated and others are being urged to take cover. let's speak to our correspondent in sydney, phil mercer. so phil, a worrying scene there, especially at the grampians national park. any sign the emergency services have these fires under control? no, not in the grampians national park. this is a beautiful area of the state of victoria, about a three—hour drive to the north—west of the state capital, melbourne. and communities around the grampians national park have in the last few hours grampians national park have in the last few ho