The next president of liberia will be the former International Football star, george weah. He wept with joy as he waved to jubilant supporters in monrovia, after winning more than 60 of the vote. With him was his running mate, Jewel Howard Taylor, the ex wife of the disgraced former president , charles taylor. George weah was the first and only player from africa to win the coveted ballon dor award and he made his name playing for ac milan. For the last three years, hes served as a liberian senator. When he becomes president next month, it will be liberias first democratic transition in more than 70 years. The bbcs umaru fofana is in monrovia. It has been wild celebrations, literally just about two minutes after the Electoral Commission chairman announced the results, hundreds of people were in front of the elections building in jubilation. From then on, across the city, you could hear the reverberating sound of jubilation, the honking of car horns. It has been 12 years of waiting for george wea h been 12 years of waiting for george weah and his supporters. I would bet my life will go on right until tomorrow morning. This is liberias first democratic transition in more than 70 years, tell us just how groundbreaking is that in itself . Very groundbreaking, this is the old est very groundbreaking, this is the oldest republic in sub Saharan Africa and it is the First Time Since 193a that there will be a democratic transition, even then there was not universal suffrage. Strictly speaking, in terms of universal adult suffrage, some people argue it is the first time it is happening in this country. This summer, they have voted for the first exit football on the continent to become the head of state, it is something which liberians are very proud of. That is right, are there any concerns at all about him being any concerns at all about him being a full all to leadership . Footballer. Just two years after he had retired from football, he announced that he wanted to run for president. The question was whether he lacks the academic wherewithal to transition himself into being a head of state, then he lost the ballots, that was won by the female president. He has become a senator for the last three years, and he has served in that position. His supporters believe that he will make that transition and that he will be able to do that. What is interesting about him is that his running mate is Jewel Howard Taylor, about him is that his running mate isJewel Howard Taylor, it about him is that his running mate is Jewel Howard Taylor, it shares the wife of the former president , charles taylor, who was serving time in prison for war crimes. How will the International Community see him . There was a lot of talk in International Community about the fa ct International Community about the fact thatjewel International Community about the fact that Jewel Howard Taylor, International Community about the fact thatJewel Howard Taylor, the wife of a convicted war criminal, was his running mate, and there was a phone call put through from england to mr george weah, but he denied that that was a deliberate call to him and denied that he was going to be influenced in any way. Mrs Jewel Howard Taylor going to be influenced in any way. MrsJewel Howard Taylor has argued that she is an independent woman, her supporters have argued that she is intelligent, she is intellectual, she is independent and she will be able to do the job notjust because she is the wife of the ex president , charles taylor. Earlier the president elect took to twitter. A suicide bombing in the afghan capital, kabul, has claimed the lives of at least a0 people and injured more than 80 others, with women and children among the casualties. The Islamic State group says it carried out the attack, which targeted a Cultural Organisation and news agency in the west of the capital. 0ur correspondent in kabul, zia shahreya, has sent this report. The force of the explosion is clear to see. Among the rubble, relatives desperately search for their loved ones. But there was little left behind. The bomb went off inside this building, a Cultural Centre and also home to an afghan news agency. Students had been marking the 38th anniversary of the soviet invasion of afghanistan. The suicide bomber apparently has entered through that way, inside this hall, where the seminar was happening, and the hall was full of people, students, female students, male students, from different universities in kabul. Translation i saw many dead in the area, i was looking for my cousin but i could not find his body. Im not sure what happened to him. The number of dead people has increased. After the explosion, ambulances took the injured to the hospitals nearby. This man, one of dozens badly hurt in the explosion. Some of the wounded were taken in for surgery. Translation a total of 35 dead were registered here and 20 others wounded. There are men, women, and children among the injured. For some waiting outside for news, it was all too much. Back in the area, to the west of the capital, where the bomb went off, armed guards patrol. The initial blast was followed by two other explosions, but no one was hurt in those. So who was behind the attack . So called Islamic State has claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the centre with a suicide bomber and other bombs. Its been behind a number of other attacks on shia targets across the country in recent months. The president s spokesman called the attack an unpardonable crime against humanity and pledged to destroy terrorist groups. Zia shahreya, bbc, kabul. Lets take a look now at some of the other stories making the news. Officials in alabama have formally certified Democrat Doug Jones as the winner of the states us senate race, after a judge denied a legal challenge by his republican opponent. Roy moore, Whose Campaign had been plagued by allegations of sexual misconduct, he had lost narrowly and had claimed voterfraud. His lawyers said thered been a higher than expected turnout. Indias lower house of parliament has approved legislation to outlaw the muslim tradition of instant divorce. A Supreme Court ruling has banned the right of muslim men to divorce their wives by simply speaking the word talaq three times. It means divorce in arabic. Italys president Sergio Mattarella has dissolved parliament ahead of an election scheduled for march the fourth. Immigration is likely to be a key issue, with the anti Establishment Five Star Movement currently leading in opinion polls. Tech giant apple has issued a rare apology to iphone users after admitting it deliberately slowed down their older model phones to help deal with weaker batteries. The company has also announced it will drop the price of replacement batteries for older iphones that are out of warranty. Apple expert Philip Elmer Dewitt says its a major embarrassment for the firm. This was a pr disaster because it was one of the great conspiracy theories that apple, just before it was about to come out with a new phone, it would do something to make the old phones just unbearable and some people would then swap their old phone for a new one, and the jokeis old phone for a new one, and the joke is that it turned out to be true but not for the reason that, according to apple, not for the reason people thought. Some geeks2u the benchmark test and they are actually able to show on a graph the performance of the iphone slowing down and what apple says is that they did it because the batteries in these iphones just naturally, they did it because the batteries in these iphonesjust naturally, the chemistry means that they get old, they cant carry as much, they can handle as much processor speed, so apple will throttle them rather than have the phone crash in the middle ofa have the phone crash in the middle of a phone call or while you are trying to take a picture, they would throttle it down. Yeah, and of course there have been a lot of allegations against apple for their lack of transparency around this. There had been speculation for weeks 110w there had been speculation for weeks now that is iphones were being slowed down, why do you think they have come out now . There was a p pa re ntly have come out now . There was apparently some change in the latest update to the operating system that made worse and bought the problem to the service, and that is what inspired these people to do the benchmark test. What happened is apple explained that a couple of weeks ago that he did not talk to people on the street, and they said yeah, it turned out to be true that apple is slowing down the batteries, so apple is slowing down the batteries, so then apple had to take the next step and explain in more detail and then give people something more ford, which is basically a 50 break on the replacement of a new battery, and if you replace your old battery in your iphone, it will be just as fast as when you first started. You think this will change the way that apple deals with its iphones, to make sure that they do not co nsta ntly crash . Make sure that they do not constantly crash . They a tech firm after all, there must be some solution . They cannot fix Battery Technology any faster than it is being fixed. That is the problem. You have to bring in the battery and eu is to have to pay 79 to replace it. What should change but probably wont is apples transparency, the extent to which they let people know what is going on. You have to. Your performance may deteriorate, one possibility is to change the battery, if they had let people know that, this never would have happened. Unfortunately, apple loves secrecy happened. Unfortunately, apple loves secrecy and i dont think that is going to change. The dissident filmmaker has been released in china. He was jailed for six years in 2008 after making a documentary in which ordinary tibetans expressed and the sflifitugl leader. The legi lens37. , me eeifiteet teeeer. The qetei tens37 ,. , me you a little of the group filming for tibet has long campaigned for Dhondup Wangchens freedom. Dechen pemba is a member of the group and has been in contact with him i have been in touch with Dhondup Wangchen on the fine and hes very relieved to be safe, he said that since being released from prison in 2014, he has not felt safe or free and so all he could do, or the inc was to escape and be reunited with his family, so it is a really moment that he has been reunited with his family. It is such a long journey, a risky one to get his. Thats right, you say it is risky and in fact, it was an arduous and risky one from china. What more do you think about what he went to to get out . To have been through detention, to have been detained, to have been tortured, to have an escape from prison, it is very risky, especially from somewhere like the peoples republic of china, with lower political prisoner, you were deprived of your political rights, constantly monitored under political surveillance, it was a very risky endeavour and he does not want to reveal too many of the details, as i can asi reveal too many of the details, as i can as i am sure reveal too many of the details, as i can as i am sure you can reveal too many of the details, as i can as i am sure you can understand. In fact, you are one of the last people to see it Dhondup Wangchen before he was jailed in the past on the use of the details that allowed this film to be seen worldwide, can you tell me a little about the risk you tell me a little about the risk you and others in your group have taken . That is right, i was the last person from a group to see him on the 10th of march, 2008. That turned out to be a historic day because that was the start of the historic uprising in tibet, he was able to pass me his tapes and i was able to co ordinate in tibet, from where the film was recently released. It has been a big undertaking all these yea rs. Stay with us on bbc world news, still to come the story of a welder, a pub, a lost wage packet and the immense power of social media. Thats in a few minutes. The most ambitious financial and political change ever attempted has gotten under way with the introduction of the euro. Tomorrow in holland we will use money we picked up in belgium today and we will use the same money in france. It has got to be the way to go. George harrison, the former beatle is recovering in hospital after being stabbed at his oxfordshire 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 thats better. This is bbc world news. The latest headlines the former footballer george weah has won liberias president ial election with 61 of the vote, easily defeating his main rival, Vice President joseph bokai. A bomb attack in the afghan capital, kabul, has left 41 people dead and more than 80 others wounded. Islamic state says it was behind it. Injust four months, 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled persecution in myanmar for the safety of bangladesh. But partly because a deal has been reached for the refugees to return, the Bangladeshi Government has been reluctant to let the refugees settle keeping them in refugee camps instead. But some bangladeshis are welcoming the new arrivals into their lives. The many bangladeshis welcoming the rohingyan into their lives. The iconic miss america beauty pageant is in turmoil over an e mail scandal thats forced its most senior Board Members to step down. The Huffington Post has published e mails, which allegedly show pageant officials making vulgar comments on contestants weight, sex lives, intellect even wishing one was dead. Miss America Executive director sam haskell has resigned, as well as president josh randle, and some other Board Members. An online petition with tens of thousands of signatures is gaining traction its calling for everyone on the board to be sacked. Mallory hagan, who was miss america 2013, was one of the women targeted in those e mails. She is leading the charge for everyone on the board to stand down. I spoke with mallory earlier. If you look at this, these are the people who have demonstrated categorically that they do not understand how to lead an organisation like the miss america 0rganisation by being complicit in these things were happening. For them to handpick more people to the leadership, essentially they are just choosing new leaders. And i dont trust their judgement at this point. I have to say i do not believe they will put the interests of the women of miss america at the forefront of what theyre doing. What you think needs to be done . |j personally think that the right solution, and many others, i think we are up solution, and many others, i think we are up to about 45, have signed up we are up to about 45, have signed up to an interim chairman of the board, Gretchen Carlson. Many people might recognise her from board, Gretchen Carlson. Many people might recognise herfrom being a Television News anchor, she also has a book out right now. People are looking to the fore this leadership in this time, looking to lead this organisation of womens empowerment. We are looking for Gretchen Carlson to be the interim chairman and to bring on otherformer to be the interim chairman and to bring on other former miss america winners on board. We want other people to step away. In the current movement, with the me to movement, the current context of a lot of accusations against very high profile men in hollywood and elsewhere, do you think this is helping your course, how do you feel about it . Absolutely. What they think is different about this is that in those in areas we have not seen that in those in areas we have not seen too many that in those in areas we have not seen too many men that in those in areas we have not seen too many men stand up for women, it is women coming forward and other women contributing to the conversation. What is different about this scenario is that the person who stood up for us was a man. Rent adams was an employee of the miss america 0rganisation man. Rent adams was an employee of the Miss America Organisation and he realised something was wrong. It took a while to figure out how to come forward with information and you try to do behind the scenes in italy and was not successful, because they refused to walk away from the programme, those people in those e mails and who were talking negatively about miss america, but he is the one who came forward with this to the press and maybe as a conversation. I think he deserves credit in this scenario for being a man standing up for women and saying this is not right, this type of conversation is not right and i will not stand for it. And that was mallory hagan, miss america 2013. The immense power of social media was once again in evidence this christmas time, when a welder from south west london left his christmas wage packet in a local pub the alexandra in wimbledon. More than a Million People responded to an online appeal and identified mariusz so that the pay packet could be returned yesterday, six days after he lost it. 0ur correspondent Chi Chi Izundu takes up the story. This is the story of a welder, a pub, and lost wage packet. Last thursday, after a few hundred people had been here at the alexandra pub celebrating their christmas parties, at the end of the night a small brown envelopes stuffed with cash was spotted on the floor. The only reason i realised it was a wage packet was because i used to get paid in a similar packet when i first came to the country. All they had was the name mariusz and £600. The landlord and his wife posted a picture on social media which is reposted by authorjk rowling and then hundreds of thousands around the world joined in the search. We did not find him straightaway and a couple of celebrities retweeted it and it went bonkers. My phone was like a fridge buzzing we were getting messages from all over the world, so much interest trying to find this guy, people contacting asking if we found them . From canada and america and australia, everywhere. And then what happened . Lo and behold, yesterday, he walked in the door and said hello, im mariusz and i believe youve got my money it was like the biggest anti climax in history, he just wandered in he said, i think youve got my money. Mariusz explained he took out his phone to take pictures of his Christmas Party and that is probably when his wage slip fell from his pocket and under this chair, and he did not notice until about a day later. He had not seen the social media posts, it was his son who alerted him to them and he may have kept the loss quiet from his wife to have, as he called it, a stress free christmas he came in yesterday and got it. In a show of gratitude, he gave nobby a generous tip. How about this for an alternative Christmas Tree . It is in macedonia. The decoration of an underwater tree has become a tradition among local divers dressed as santa claus and has become quite the tourist attraction. This year it raised money for children with rare diseases. 0ne money for children with rare diseases. One thing the tree had to do without was very lights. That is it for this edition of the bulletin. Thank you so much for watching. Hallow friday starts with a number of wintry weather warnings from the met office covering many parts of the british isles. We have concerns about the amount of snow that is likely to fall across the northern pa rt likely to fall across the northern part of england. It will eventually bring quite a bit of moisture from the atlantic. At that moisture falls into a pretty chilly atmosphere, there will be a ready conversion of some of the rain into significant snowfall. Here we see the extent of it, around seven oclock in the morning on friday. And anywhere really from the central belt of scotla nd really from the central belt of scotland down towards the Higher Ground of Northern England we will see lying snow accumulating. Ahead of at some of the light rain will be falling onto pretty treacherous surfaces. There are warnings about ice. 0n the high ground of the pennines we may find up to 15 centimetres of snow. Further south it is one of those mornings. That rain will be falling onto some pretty cold surfaces. A risk of ice even pretty cold surfaces. A risk of ice eve n a cioss pretty cold surfaces. A risk of ice even across the southern counties of england. The bulk of that moisture moving out into the north sea. Following on behind, just the northern portion of that front lingering for a time, enhancing the snowfall across the southern auckland of scotland and the top end of the pennines. As that system moves away, it makes room for another set of weather fronts to work its way in, a crossbody goolie the southern half of the bridge staff as we get into the first half of saturday. A wet and windy, nation gradually clearing the way. You will notice the northern portion of the weather front eventually pushes up across the heart of scotland, with yet more snow to come. Chilly, as you can imagine. Further south, the temperatures rebounding. The sort of values we have seen of late. Even as far ahead as new years eve there is another commendation from eight and other system for wet and windy weather. Nothing hanging around for any great length of time. If you happen to have plans for seeing in the new year it will be a chilly start to the new year, no doubt about it. Further south, start to the new year, no doubt about it. Furthersouth, passing showers, perhaps. Given the strength of the wind we are showing eight degrees, but it may feel cooler than that. What news for the start of the new that. What news for the start of the new year . I suspect you have already guessed. More weather front coming in from the atlantic, more wet and windy weather to come. This is bbc news. The headlines. The former footballer george weah has won liberias president ial election with 61 of the vote, easily defeating his main rival, a bomb attack in the afghan capital, kabul, has left 41 people dead and more than 80 others wounded. Many of the 40 People Killed were stu d e nts many of the 40 People Killed were students attending the conference. Apple has published a letter to customers, apologising for what it calls a misunderstanding over iphones being deliberately slowed down. Doug jones has been officially declared the winner of the Alabama Senate race, after a judge denied a challenge by his republican challenger. And