More than 70,000 people have been forced from their homes. The island of mindanao has been the worst hit area so far and a state of emergency has been declared in several locations there. The storm has now begun to travel west, hitting the popular resort islands of palawan. Andy moore reports. Clinging to the neck of his rescuer, a young boy is carried across the floodwaters. There was little sign of official help here just villagers doing their best to rescue each other with fragile ropes. In a country used to devastating storms, this took many by surprise. The authorities said too many people had ignored warnings to leave coastal areas and riverbanks. Many of the casualties were on the main Southern Island of mindanao. This man said houses were getting flooded, but people couldnt escape, so they got caught in the strong currents and swept away. Many places were hit by landslides. Flimsy houses were buried beneath tons of debris. The red cross is helping co ordinate the relief effort. Weve already provided water and hot food, and were going to be distributing non food items blankets, mosquito nets, and certainly hygiene kits for those who are in the evacuation centres, so we can alleviate the suffering of many of the folks there. The philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons every year. This particular storm is not over yet. And, as it passes over warm, tropical waters, its winds are set to grow again in strength. Andy moore, bbc news. Storm tembin is now heading towards vietnam Helen Willets from the bbc Weather Centre has the latest. Storm tembin is on the cusp of becoming a typhoon. Now, it has intensified as it has moved away from the philippines over open waters, and it is heading its way towards southern and central parts of vietnam. It is expected to weaken again as it does so, but nevertheless it will still pack a punch, with some ferocious winds, some coastal flooding, with large waves because of the strength of the wind, and a significant amount of rainfall, perhaps 150 200mm of rainfall for the likes of ho chi minh. And it strengthens the north east monsoon as it passes. That is why also some central parts really from da nang southward are at risk of some very wet weather with further flooding rains, mudslides and flash flooding. So, clearly, a lot of potential very destructive weather is on its way. We will keep you updated. That storm isnt the only disaster that the philippines has to contend with at the moment. At least 37 people have been killed in a fire that swept through the top floor of a Shopping Mall in the Southern City of davao. It started on saturday morning trapping people inside the four storey building. President duterte visited the burning mall and met the families of the missing. The sacked catalan leader, carles puigdemont, wants to be sworn in again as the regional president after parties that support independence from spain won a majority in thursdays election. Speaking from self imposed exile in belgium, he urged the Spanish Government to let him return for talks. As James Ransley reports the political instability isnt bringing down catalonias christmas spirit. Christmas toy ho, ho, ho Merry Christmas catalonia may be facing a political crisis, but it certainly has not dampened the Holiday Cheer of some locals. Translation people are in the christmas mood, because one thing has nothing to do with the other. Of course, there will be christmas dinners where people will discuss politics. But, in the end, the primary thing is the people. Nothing will happen. So what next for catalonia . That is what everyone in the region is wondering after elections that, once again, gave Pro Independence parties a majority. Now the separatist leader, carles puigdemont, has said he wants to return from self imposed exile in belgium, and continue as president. Translation i am the president of the generalitat right now, and i have not stopped being it, even if they sacked me by decree of the Spanish Government, which has failed in catalonia. Puigdemont, who is threatened with arrest in spain, has called for dialogue with the Spanish Government, led by mariano rajoy, even if that falls short of independence. Translation what i say is lets talk. Lets talk about everything, but above all, about what catala ns want. But mr rajoy insists on talking to this woman first ines arrimadas, the leader of the centrist ciudadanos party. They have the largest individual vote, even though it is unlikely they can form a coalition. And, if and when talks between madrid and the seperatists do take place, it is not clear what would be different this time. Of course, the Spanish Government will say no to their proposal of a legal referendum. So, in less than half a year, we will be on the same situation that we were before the elections. As the crisis continues, it is the economy that is most at risk. Tourism is suffering, and already, more than 3,000 companies are moving their legal headquarters out of catalonia. James ransley, bbc news. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news. A ceasefire has started come into effect in south sudan the latest attempt to end the civil war that has engulfed the country for four years. Earlier cessations of hostilities have failed, and over a million south sudanese have fled their country. This ceasefire is meant to be just the first step; negotiations will follow and if progress is made, eventually fresh elections will be held. The former president of peru, alberto fujimori, has been taken from prison to a hospital suffering from low Blood Pressure and an irregular heart beat. The 79 year old is serving a lengthy prison sentence for corruption and Human Rights Violations committed during his governments fight against left wing guerrillas in the 1990s. A candlelit vigil has been held in the lebanese capital, beirut, to mourn the recent murders of four women. Womens rights activists laid white roses on pictures of the victims two lebanese women, a syrian who was pregnant, and a British Embassy worker, rebecca dykes. Since her death last saturday, women have called for more attention to be given to widespread violence against women. Californias deadly wildfire has now become the largest in the states recorded history. The blaze which has been burning for more than two weeks has scorched an area greater than new york city, brussels and paris combined. Among those tackling the flames are thousands of prisoners, some of whom have been given a new sense of purpose by the work, as our correspondent james cook reports. Its pretty challenging. Sometimes were right there, right next to the fire. Compared to being in prison and being here, its completely different. Here, you feel free. Youre out in the world. The biggest change for me is mental, because ive never pushed myself as hard, ever, in life. California has 4,000 inmate firefighters, men and women. Cutting firebreaks is risky work two have died this year but there are rewards, too, in reduced sentences and a sense of purpose. After being in this programme, ifeel like ive been rehabilitated and ifeel like i can go out there and achieve anything i want to, because ive done this. This is so hard. We were allowed inside this prison camp in malibu. There are no walls or fences here. Violent or volatile prisoners are not allowed to join the programme. With a job like this, there is only time to think about the work. Latoya najar is serving four years for causing the death of her 7 year old son in a drunken car crash. The attraction for me was because of my crime, i could come out here and do something positive. Its challenging mentally to get over something. Im never going to get over it but to try to ease my mind and this has helped. With california facing more frequent and more destructive fires, some critics call this slave labour. But the project is voluntary, it may reduce re offending and it provides some measure of redemption. Everyone is like, we love you, firefighters. We all wave back and we wave to the kids. Its amazing, yes. The work may be exhausting, it may be dangerous, but in the words of one prisoner, its better than twiddling your thumbs injail. James cook, bbc news, in southern california. London zoo has been closed after a fire broke out in a shop and cafe near the meerkat enclosure. A number of staff were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and shock, as the blaze was brought under control by 70 firefighters. Adina campbell reports. Rising flames and large plumes of smoke were captured on social media just before dawn. The fire started in the Animal Adventure cafe, and then spread to a nearby shop. At its height, more than 70 firefighters dealt with the fire, and brought it under control just after 9am. One person was taken to hospital and eight others were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and minor injuries. This is quite a complex site and weve had to put certain cordons in place for peoples safety because the building has been so seriously damaged. Vets at the zoo confirmed that a 9 year old aardvark called misha died in the fire, and four missing meerkats are also thought to have been killed. We are all really upset by this incident because this is one of our most loved animals in the zoo, misha, and the meerkats are also held in great affection by all of us who work here, but frankly by all of us who love london zoo. For those who turned up today, it wasnt the christmas visit they had hoped for. We travelled down from nottingham today. Oh, that must be disappointing. Yeah, it is a bit, but as long as the animals are ok. We are very disappointed, we came from a long way, from brazil, to see it. And its closed, and sad poor animals. Some of the staff who live on site here were called to the scene immediately, and started moving the animals to safety. Today, the zoo has been closed. It would normally have been a very busy day, being so close to christmas. Tonight, though, staff have confirmed the zoo will reopen tomorrow. Three quarters of the cafe and shop has been affected by the fire, as well as half the roof. The cause is still unclear. Adina campbell, bbc news. Stay with us on bbc news, still to come. A mission with a message we meet a group of nuns on a mammoth journey to encourage female empowerment in nepal. We saw this enormous tidal wave approaching the beach, people started to run, and suddenly it was complete chaos. United states troops have been trying to overthrow the dictatorship of general manuel noriega. The pentagon said the operation was 90 successful but failed in its principal objective, to capture general noriega and take him to the us to face drugs charges. The hammer and sickle was hastily taken away. The russian flag was hoisted over what is no longer the soviet union but the commonwealth of independent states. Day breaks slowly over lockerbie, over the cockpit of pan ams maid of the seas, nosedown in the soft earth. You could see what happens when a plane eight storeys high, a football pitch wide, falls from 30,000 feet. Christmas has returned to albania after a communist ban lasting more than 20 years. Thousands went to Midnight Mass in the town of shkroda, where there were anti communist riots ten days ago. This is bbc news. The main headline more than 180 people are known to have died in the philippines in flash floods and landslides triggered by a Tropical Storm. Many more are missing. Lets get more on that story. Earlier i spoke with lotta sylwander, Country Representative for unicef philippines. She gave us an update on the situation close to 200 dead. If we look at the whole sort of traverse of the typhoon across mindanao, there could be more, we dont know yet. And i think as day has now broken, the rescue missions in mindanao can start looking for missing people. We know a number of children have either drowned or gone missing. But of course, i think the bulk is probably adults trying to stay with their homes, trying to save their possessions. We are seeing pictures of some of the devastation. Very, very difficult for you and the other authorities to reach the communities that have been affected . Definitely. Roads have been blocked because of landslides. Electricity is down because the electricity poles have fallen and so on. So it is a really dire situation and i think the most important thing right now is really to get to people and start with life saving inputs. Make sure they have clean water. Make sure they have something to eat. Make sure they get shelter for at least tonight. Reallyjust keep them alive, keep them from getting different kinds of diseases at this stage. And of course, often these disasters tend to affect poorer people much, much harder. 0h, of course. And in fact, the typhoon or the storm passed over some of the absolutely poorest areas in the whole philippines. People live in hard to reach areas. Areas which are not really suitable for housing, like close to rivers, close to streams and in very steep terrain. And thats why we see so many people have been killed by boulders or landslides and it really is something that, you know, the preparedness should be there for people not to actually live in those areas. It seems also the call for people to evacuate in good time, before the storm, actually didnt have an effect. And why was that . People did not think it would be that severe or they had no where else to go . I think both. I think many people dont have anywhere to go, and in one of the provinces, lanao del sur, which has recently been hit by a very long and out drawn armed struggle, there were obvious difficulties for people to move around because they were already displaced. But also, i think, when the winds we supposedly not very strong, people possibly became complacent and didnt move in time. Lotta sylwander. Russians will go to the polls in a president ial election next march with Vladimir Putin seeking a fourth term in office. Mr putin has dominated russian politics since the beginning of the century. 0pposition parties have also announced their candidates for the spring election as Georgina Smyth reports. Taking on challenges of a different kind in red square. Russian president Vladimir Putin was given a clear play in the ice rink before the goal of the election next march, the goal of the election next march, the competition might not be so friendly. Among those standing in his way, a surprise candidate from the russian communist party. The party who banks with Vladimir Putin drop this in order to get wider appeal. The session mac i can tell you our victory may be stolen. We have seen such things multiple times but victory will be ours. In another corner, colleges of an alternative is russian tv personality, ksenia sobchak. The daughter of a former met of Saint Petersburg and with connections to Vladimir Putin, she named protection of civil rights as a priority. The to session mac opposition rallies should he allowed as well as a fierce rallies, carnivals and gay pride. The sport minded to be it does not mind a contest minded to be it does not mind a co ntest a nd minded to be it does not mind a contest and that was the message as the 70 congress. The session mac we should expect opposition a desire to have an opposition. Translation . Now, to a group of buddhist nuns breaking down gender perceptions in the himalayas. Theyre called the kung fu nuns. And for the next month theyre swapping their religious robes for bike wear, as they embark on a journey through india and nepal to shed a light an ugly truth facing women in the region. Virginia langeberg reports. What started as a lesson in self defence came part of their meditational focus and now martial arts is ingrained in their identity. In the mountains of kathmandu, these buddhist nuns, of the drukpa lineage, call themselves the kung fu nuns. They are hailed by some as heroes of the himalayas for breaking down gender roles. Now, more than 200 of them are leaving their mountain nunnery in nepal and swapping their maroon robes for lycra leggings. They are taking their message of female empowerment to the road, cycling through nepal and india to promote gender equality. We are starting our fifth cycle yatra today and our main mission is about giving awareness about women empowerment, eco friendly environment and human trafficking. Nepal is still struggling to recover from the 2015 earthquake and modern day slavery is a growing problem. The countrys Human Rights Commission estimated there were more than 23,000 cases of trafficking or attempted trafficking last year. The nuns say they came across several such victims while volunteering after the earthquake. We had this idea of going on the cycle yatra and all the remote places, and telling the people, we are all girls, girls are capable of doing everything, they are not useless, they are not things to sell. The nuns will spend the next month cycling of 3000 kilometres from kathmandu, through south east india to delhi and then to the North East Indian city of darjeeling. Virginia langeberg, bbc news. Its been a difficult ashes so far for english cricket fans. Theyd have been hoping to be able to look forward to the boxing day ashes test, but australia have already wrapped up the series. Patrick gearey reports. In the days since the defeat in perth in the third test, when england lost the ashes, the question has been where do they go now . Well, the answer geographically, at least, is here, melbourne, the mcg, this great cathedral of australian sport, ahead of that great cricketing occasion, the boxing day test. There has also been debate around the reasons behind this ashes defeat. England have now lost eight test matches in a row on these shores. Some are blaming county cricket, saying it doesnt produce enough fast bowlers and spinners, whereas others say there needs to be widespread change in the management of english cricket. Well, the man at the top of the game is ecb chief executive, tom harrison, and today, he faced a few bounces of his own from the media but said there is no need for revolution just yet. Weve got a young captain who is doing a greatjob and ive been very impressed with him privately and publicly about how he is approaching his captaincy. We have got new players who have come in to the fold and stepped up to the plate. And it is just been disappointing that in the key moments of the key matches, we havent been able to turn the screw to get on top of the australians. Lets see if we can do that over the next two test matches. Harrison was also asked, perhaps inevitably, about ben stokes, the england all rounders of course missing from this tour, after an incident outside a bristol bar, for which he is still waiting to hear whether he will be charged. Stokes has decided to return home from new zealand, where he was playing cricket for canterbury, in order to spend time with his family over christmas. And harrison said that the game had been damaged by that incident. Wed built up a lot of trust with the audience, with the public over the last two or three years, with the way in which the team have played, the way in which they were connecting with the public, the way in which they were becoming very accessible. And obviously some of that is impacted by off the field, things like what happened in bristol which was a shocking day for the game, but we will rebuild that trust and we will get back to a situation where the public feel very connected to the england team, as they have done very recently. Well, another area of criticism has come from a somewhat unsurprising source ricky ponting, the former australian skipper. He has turned his fire onjoe root, the england captain. He says he looks like a boy and he has been soft. Well, root was defended by his wicket keeper, jonny bairstow. Look, everyone is going to have an opinion and that is all well and good, but i think rooty is doing a really good job as captain. I think the tactics that he has shown with the ball has been really good and i think he will only grow and learn by doing it. We forget that hes only been in the job not even a year yet, so lets not forget that its a learning process. There is very little time for rest over the Christmas Period if you are an england cricketer they are preparing right through the Festive Season and then on boxing day, they will walk out, whether batting or in the field, at this place. It will be packed to the rafters, it will be incredibly noisy, and i think we will find out one or two things about englands character. Not much christmas cheer from the cricket team but some from the czech republic. Hundreds of singers turned out in prague to perform that together. Its a tradition which began in 1989 after the fall of communism in what was then czechoslovakia. In the first year a few people gathered on the steps of the bridge, since then its become an altogether bigger affair with the crowd led by professional conductors and soloists, with the main train station also turned into a concert hall for the occasion. The piece of music theyre singing is by the czech composer jakub jan ryba. You can keep up to date on the bbc website and the bbc at stop app. Hello again. Although it has been a mild run up to christmas and that will continue today on christmas eve, we will notice a change by the end of christmas day. It is set to get much colder. The snow risk will increase and some of us may yet have a White Christmas and it could be windy in the next 48 hours. We had some brightness through the day on saturday. This was durham late in the day. We might not see as much brightness. There is an active weather front marching into the north and west of the uk now. We still have tightly packed isobars, so windy weather. They are coming from a mild south westerly direction and it is behind this weather front that the cold air is lying. It stays north for most and we start on a mild and murky note. There could be some morning fog but not as much as yesterday morning. It will still be dank, drizzly and grey for most of us as as we move in to this morning. 9s and 10s already as we get to day break. We may see some brightness around inland areas but not as much as yesterday. Not as much brightness for Northern Ireland and scotland because this weather front stays put. It sinks further south as we go through the day but the intensity remains with us for scotland. Argyll northwards in particular. It gets heavier through Northern Ireland through the afternoon. There is a fairly brisk wind and that is why i hope for the likes of the north east england and north wales, we may see some brightness. We might see it temporarily in northern scotland. As we go through this evening, another weather front joins forces with the one we already have so we are concerned we may see some flooding because it looks like a thoroughly wet 2a hours. As i say, argyll northwards could see 80 100mm of rain over the hills. The winds strengthen ahead of these two weather fronts as we get into of christmas day. It looks quite squally, the wind, across england and wales. It starts to move across the western side of england, wales, Northern England as well, and it is behind that that we get the snow risk. Very mild and windy ahead of it to the north of it, for the afternoon and evening, snow could be seen through lower levels of northern scotland and possibly Northern England. And then over night across the hills of wales and the south and west. That is because the cold air is coming back. Notjust across the north. It looks as though it will filter southwards across many areas by the time we get to boxing day. It will feel markedly colder. That is the weather system i am talking about. It is clearing out of the way. Then this weather system which could also bring a risk of snow. Please, stay tuned. This is bbc news the headlines. More than 180 people are thought to have been killed in a Tropical Storm that has battered parts of the southern philippines. Dozens more have been reported missing following flash flooding and mudslides. There are reports that some villages have been completely buried. The storm is now heading for vietnam. The sacked catalan leader, carles puigdemont, says he wants to return to catalonia and be sworn in again as the regions president , following the election last week. Hes currently wanted for arrest in spain on charges of rebellion. A wildfire burning in california is now the largest such blaze ever recorded in the state. More than a thousand Square Kilometres have been affected by the thomas fire, which started to spread early in december. Now on bbc news hardtalks review of 2017