Dramatic music studio they said it was going to be spectacular, and it certainly was. A good ten minutes of music and fireworks extravaganza taking place in hong kongs iconic victoria harbour. Beautiful and exciting scenes. Lots of tunes. There was auld lang syne. Very musical. Lets take you to the vatican now where pope francis is holding a thanksgiving for the past service in st peters square. Its part of the eight days of christmas, the octaves of christmas that started on christmas eve. We are now on day seven of the octave. These are the vespas. A traditional hymn will be some and after that pope francis will visit eight crib oi pope francis will visit eight crib or creche set up outside st peters at the basilica and he will spend some time in silent prayer. A flavour of how the world is bringing in 2018. We have been looking at new Year Celebrations around the world. People in the Southern Hemisphere have begun welcoming in the new year. Three, two, one. Auckland in new zealand, was the first major city to celebrate the beginning of 2018. The city put on its traditional firework display from the auckland sky tower. Around 3000 fireworks lit up the night sky for over five minutes. Next it was australias turn to usher in the new year with the traditionally spectacular display on sydneys harbour bridge. Five, four, three, two, one. Fireworks that was sydney. Hong kong havejust brought in their new year. The next big event is set to take place in dubai. Always a spectacular fireworks display there. And the uk is building up to its own celebrations. Here, the metropolitan police say a proportionate number of officers will be on londons streets this evening, to ensure the safety of new year revellers. Scotland yard say there is no intelligence to suggest any threat against the celebrations in Central London or anywhere else. A spokesman said there would be a visible police presence, and gave this advice to people coming to celebrate. If youre coming to this particular event, please only come with a ticket. There wont be Tickets Available on the door, as it were. But there are going to be a lot of people here, so we dont want to get overcrowded, if we can help it. For all those people who wish to come to Central London, first of all, wrap up warm. Its pretty chilly at the moment. If you are coming on transport, please plan yourjourney. Its never easy to travel through london at new years eve. And if you are meeting people, set yourself up a prearranged Meeting Place so people dont get lost. But above all, be reassured. The metropolitan Police Service and our Emergency Service partners are here to look after you. It is safe to come to london on this new years eve, but please be alert, dont be alarmed. If you see things that you think look out of place or suspicious, please tell us. A seaplane has crashed into a river near sydney, killing all six people on board. Reports suggest four of the victims are british, although this has not been confirmed by police. The Foreign Office here is in contact with officials in australia. The aircraft on a sight seeing trip ahead of the new Year Celebrations came down in a river close to the suburb of cowan. Ian palmer reports. Police divers have spent the day searching for bodies. The seaplane is underwater. The party was returning from a trip to a restaurant, before crashing into the river. Six people were on board. For reasons that are not known at this stage, the plane has hit the water and it has subsequently sunk. It is sitting in approximately 13 metres of water. At the time of the collision, the plane had a pilot and five passengers on board. I can confirm the six people on the plane are deceased. The aircraft crashed just after three in the afternoon local time. It is operated by the Company Sydney seaplanes. A major tourfirm, it offers many sightseeing trips across australia. In a statement the company says sydney seaplanes is deeply shocked by this incident and the resulting loss of life. We wish to pass on our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the passengers and pilot who were tragically killed. An eyewitness says he saw the single engine plane make a tight turn before dipping its wings and nosediving into the water. Police have recovered six bodies from the wreckage. Their identities have yet to be confirmed. People in the area of Hawkesbury River described the flying conditions just before the crash happened. A little bit bumpy coming over with the weather, but it was nothing to be concerned about. Like, i mean, iwasnt frightened. There are unconfirmed reports that four people from britain are among the dead. The Foreign Office says officials from the british consulate are in contact with local authorities. It says staff are ready to provide consular assistance. Ian palmer, bbc news. The headlines on bbc news. Police have confirmed that six people have been killed after a seaplane crashed into a river north of sydney. There are reports that four of the victims may be british. Iran has imposed restrictions on social media as demonstrations against the countrys ruling clerics continue. Fireworks and festivities bring in the new year as we have just seen hong and festivities bring in the new year as we havejust seen hong kong welcoming 2018 with a spectacular fireworks display above the iconic victoria harbour. Sport now and a full round up from the bbc sport centre. Heres 0lly foster. Hello. After 18 league victories in a row, manchester citys winning streak has come to an end. They were held to a goalless draw at Crystal Palace but might have lost had it not been for a late penalty save. Ederson kept out milivojevic in injury time. City were also hit by injuries to gabrieljesus and kevin de bruyne, but they head into the new year 1a points clear at the top. Jesus will be added with a knee problem for several months. We are not sure about kevin de bruyne. They head into the new year 1a points clear at the top of the league. Big credit for Crystal Palace. At the end, they have a big chance to win the game. I think the first half was like this, like that. They had action, we had action. We did not control, we conceded lots of free kicks and corners. That means we are not in a good way. The second half was much better. We created lots of chances, they had one, the penalty. A deserved point for both teams. We will just focus. When we win, we focus on the next one. When we didnt win, focus on the next one. No one would have expected us to even get a single point from the game we should not start being too critical. 0ne game we should not start being too critical. One point against a team of this quality is always good for teams in our position. But on a couple of occasions now, with very late penalties awarded, we have failed to capitalise. You look at those four points and you think, if only we could have got those we would have been further away from the relegation zone, but the lads are doing a wonderfuljob. The days other premier league game sees arsenal travel to struggling west brom. No mesut 0zil no mesut 0le in the arsenal squad, leading to speculation that he is moving away from the gunners. It will be Arsene Wenger is 811th premier league match, setting a new record, over taking attached sir alex ferguson. Manchester uniteds ashley young has been charged with violent conduct by the football association. He was caught on camera elbowing southamptons dusan tadic in yesterdays goalless draw at old trafford. The incident wasnt spotted by referee craig pawson and young has until 5 oclock today to respond to the charge. Kyle naughton from swansea city was also charged with violent conduct for stamping during their match. Happy new year, mark warburton. Hes been sacked by nottingham forest. It follows their 1 0 defeat to sunderland yesterday, their fifth defeat in seven games. Forest are currently 14th in the championship. Director of football Frank Mcparland has also left his post. Gary brazil is to take over as caretaker manager while forest look to appoint a replacement. Englands cricketers have arrived in sydney ahead of the fifth and final ashes test which begins in four days time. England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow has given his backing to all rounder moeen ali saying he remains in their best 11. Moeen has only taken three wickets and averaged 19 runs with the bat this series. I think that is unquestionable, to even think that he is not in that best 11. He would not have played the first four test matches if he was not in that first 11. There are not many finger spinners that will come to australia and bowl teams out. It is very important that you get behind moeen. He can take the game away from you. Ben stokes wont be flying out to australia with englands one day squad as he continues to await news of any possible charges against him following an incident outside a bristol nightclub in september. Stokes was named in the squad for the matches which begin after the final test match but its now thought highly unlikely he will be involved the series. Dawid malan will replace stokes in the squad. World heavyweight boxing champion anthonyjoshua has told the bbc that a deal to fight wbo champion Joseph Parker in the new year is nearly done. Parker has been holding out for a bigger share of the fights purse, believed to be around 30 to 35 . Joshua is also targeting Deontay Wilders wbc title. To hold all five belts has never been done before, so i wont let negotiations get in the way of securing my legacy and what i can achieve in the sport, so i think we are 95 of the way there with completing with Joseph Parker. Thats all the sport for now. Ill have more for you in the next hour. The iranian authorities have moved to restrict social Media Networks that have been used to organise three days of anti establishment protests. Reports say president Hassan Rouhani will make a televised address this evening, the first by a senior figure since the unrest began. Meanwhile, two protestors have been killed in the city of dorud. Local officials said they had died of gunshot wounds, but denied that the police had opened fire. We are going to hearfrom a contributor i spoke to earlier. It will be generally seen by the demonstrators as a sign of encouragement, a positive sign. They would like it so that all these powers outside the country will support them, in a sense. But of course, the authorities, the government, the leaders of iran will be very angry. They will see this as interfering in irans internal affairs, pressurising iran not to deal with or confront the demonstrators. Talking about pressure, up until now we have not heard from mr rouhani, but we understand we will be hearing from him later tonight. Thats the latest news drop. Thats all we have at the moment. What is he likely to say . I have no idea. We will have to wait and see. In fact, there was a news item that he would speak today, and then they cancelled that and all the News Agencies took back that news item. And now again they have come up with the same thing. It looks as if there is quite a bit of doubt about the effectiveness of his speech. But nevertheless, he is going ahead, it looks like. He has to try and, i suppose, calm the situation rather than provoke the situation. And given the fact that iranians, these Anti Government demonstrators, have been denouncing him on the streets in the last few days, i am not sure whether he is in a good place to try and placate the demonstrators, try to calm down these protests. Its notjust him that has been denounced. Significantly, we are also hearing criticism of the Supreme Leader. And there is a question now of when we are likely to see the appearance of the revolutionary guard. Do you think it will go that far . It might well do. As you say, the revolutionary guards have held back so far. Are you surprised by that, the soft approach . I am surprised. There is not even a statement from them as an organisation. We had one or two revolutionary guard commanders saying this and that, but they havent issued a statement. They havent come out on the streets to deal with the protests in a way that we expected, a very high handed way, beating people up and trying to disperse the crowds in various parts of the country, they have not done that. And i assume they havent done that for fear of provoking the demonstrators and protesters. But they would do that. The iranian Supreme Leader has not said anything either. People on the streets have been calling on him to step down, the end of the clerical regime in iran. Basically calling for the overthrow of the government. He has not said anything. Well have to wait and see what line he will take. But generally, when you hear the politicians, the hardliners, even the reformists, the islamic reformists, and islamic hardliners in iran, speaking these days, they seem to agree that we have to acknowledge that there is widespread discontent, particularly on economic issues. But can iranians really achieve change via the street . Its difficult to say. I dont know where this is going to go. Nobody seems to know. And we havent been here before, because these are very spread out throughout the country, even in small towns. So we just have to wait to see how this is going to develop. That was the bbc persian Tv Correspondent take speaking to me early on about events and iran. Earlier on about events in iran. Thousands of rail travellers face disruption to theirjourneys today as workers from two Train Companies stage 24 hour strikes. Members of the rmt union on South Western Railway and crosscountry are taking action in disputes involving the role of guards, and rosters and sunday working. Anisa kadri has been assessing the disruption at the uks busiest train station, london waterloo. Weve been keeping a close eye on things for you. We have been going into waterloo, checking the boards. There have been a few cancellations as well. Basically, the advice is to plan yourjourney well in advance if you live in places like berkshire, hampshire, surrey, and other places as well. Trains from here go to dorset and many other places. The advice is to check online for any updates. You just have to go inside and they are very transparent that there will be disruption on new years eve. There are posters saying the station will be particularly busy this evening. We are not far from where the big london fireworks display will be. You may be heading there for your new Year Celebrations, but how are you going to get back . That is another question. Travel could cause you problems. Just to give you an idea of what South Western Railway is saying, it is saying that services are disrupted here, and that it is only expecting three quarters of trains to run. That means a quarter will not be running, obviously, and the travel situation, the strikes are also causing problems for crosscountry. That means that services between edinburgh and newcastle are limited, and between glasgow and aberdeen they are not running at all. Other lines are also affected when it comes to the crosscountry network. This strike action goes back to a dispute between the rmt union and the government and rail companies. The union says that there should be guards on trains, trains should not be driver only, in the name of safety. The government says they are just causing misery for passengers on new years eve by striking. As you can see, it was wet at london waterloo. Lets get the rest of the weather. If youre planning to see in the new year, expect showers. Storm dylan is heading out of the way but we have winds driving along the south coast, pushing bands of heavy showers, possibly with neylan thunderer, east overnight. There will be clear spells but it will be cold in scotland, especially in the north east. For the first day of the new year we could see rain running news, during the morning across southern england and wales. Then sunshine but gusty winds in Northern Ireland keeping showers going, with snow over the hills and scotland. More showers pushing into england and wales and perhaps the north midlands. Typical temperatures for the time of year. It will be colder overnight as the showers fade and the winds drop. Maybe a touch of frost in rural areas, but it is a very unsettled, changeable week ahead. Gale force winds are likely and there will be rain at times. Now on bbc news, Rebecca Morelle looks back on the year in science from a spectacular eclipse that wowed millions of americans to the end of a 20 year mission to saturn. Thats review 2017 the year in science. From a spectacular eruption at mount etna, this was the year we experienced a volcanos devastating power first hand. To one of natures most awe inspiring sights, a total eclipse that wowed america. In 2017 we also met this rhino, she could be the key to saving a species from extinction