Most desirable gear in half an hour. Good morning and welcome to bbc news. Snow and ice are expected to cause more disruption in parts of the uk today. The met office says delays to road, rail and air travel are likely and is warning of possible power cuts. A yellow warning is in place for snow and ice in Northern Ireland and parts of england and southern scotland throughout the day. Theres an amber warning for areas of the north midlands, yorkshire and the north west of england until 11am, with heavy snow forecast around the southern pennines. Between 5 and 10 centimetres of snow is expected, with up to 15 centimetres possible over higher ground. And sub zero temperatures have been recorded overnight with lows of minus 12 in northern scotland. Highways england is advising drivers to plan theirjourney carefully before setting off. Gritters have been out overnight on the busiest routes. Be aware that if you are going out to work or visiting friends in the early hours that there could still be icy spots. The temperature could change while were at home before we come back in in the morning, it could start snowing, it could rain and wash the salt off. So, especially this time of year, the conditions are constantly changing and even with the detailed forecast we get, we cant always get it 100 right. Clare fallon is by the m62 motorway in west yorkshire. What is the picture there . M what is the picture there . It is very cold and the snow has now been coming down for a few hours since before 6am and conditions really are deteriorating, not just before 6am and conditions really are deteriorating, notjust in terms of snow itself, but you can probably see, visibility really not very good. Earlier we could see all of the hills behind me covered in snow. But now we cant see that far. Having said all of that, the m62 itself has been doing pretty well through this morning. We have been told that the gritters were out in force through the night and that does look to have done the trick. On this motorway any way. We know on smaller roads there have been problems on the Trans Pennine routes, where there are problems with the conditions. The snake pass and the cat and fid rl closed as they try to clear the snow and ice on the roads thchlt we have got this amber warning for snow in force for much of the north of england and also for the north of the midlands. That amber warning means that people should be prepared, people should ta ke ste ps should be prepared, people should take steps to try and protect themselves on the highest ground. There is the potential that there could be up to 15 centimetres of snow. So the advice is to drivers, dont go out on to the roads unless you have to and if you have to, just ta ke you have to and if you have to, just take some simple steps. Put a shovel in the car, make sure you have some food and water and possibly a hot drink ina food and water and possibly a hot drink in a flask, have a blanket and youre wrapped up warm. If the conditions on the road do deteriorate and you get stuck, youre going to end up being very cold in these temperatures. Thank you very much. A fire has swept through an Apartment Building in new york killing at least twelve people including a one year old baby. The Emergency Services said at least 15 people were also injured some of them critically. Jon ironmonger reports. It is new yorks deadliest blaze for decades. Fire broke out on the first floor of the 5 storey Apartment Building and spread rapidly, sparking panic among residents in a busy corner of the bronx district. Fire crews arrived at the scene within three minutes, but it was too late for many of the residents. Those who managed to escape described the chaos as people rushed to flee the smoke. The fire truck wasnt even here yet when all the smoke and stuff was coming out at first. They werent even here yet. They started to get everybody out but people were on the fire escape already, trying to get down on their own, that is how fast it was moving. At least 12 people were rescued from the building as firefighters plucked residents from this fire escape. Outside in the bitter cold, locals huddled under blankets. Speaking after the fire had been brought under control, new york mayor bill de blasio called it an unspeakable tragedy. In the middle of the Holiday Season is a time when families are together. Tonight here in the bronx there are families that have been torn apart. This is the worst fire tragedy we have seen in this city in at least a quarter of the century, based on the information we have now. This will rank as one of the worst losses of life to a fire in many, many years. The Fire Department said it was too early to comment on the cause of the blaze and the search of the building is continuing, while the mayor has warned the death toll could rise further. Police say a woman found murdered in north london had been stabbed and beaten. The body of Iuliana Tudos who was 22 and from moscow was discovered on wednesday in finsbury park, near her home. She was due to meet at a friends home in enfield later that evening before spending Christmas Day there, but its thought she might have been attacked on christmas eve. Two men have been charged with terror offences by Police Investigating an alleged plot for an attack over christmas. Farhad salah, from sheffield, and andi sami star, from chesterfield, have been charged with engaging in the preparation of an act of terrorism and will appear via video link at Westminster Magistrates Court today. They were among four men arrested earlier in december. A further twenty nine people in urgent need of medical assistance have now been transferred to damascus, from a rebel held area near the syrian capital, in a deal with the government. The United Nations says nearly five hundred people are in urgent need of medical care in ghouta. Eighteen children and six women were among those taken out of ghouta over the past few days. A huge fire at an office and restaurant complex in indias Financial Capital mumbai has killed at least fourteen people and injured several others. The blaze at the kamala mills compound, is reported to have broken out in a restaurant and spread quickly. The complex housed a collection of derelict Industrial Buildings which had been transformed into a hub of upscale restaurants and offices. Most of the victims are thought to be young women who were attending a birthday party. Samir hashmi has more from mumbai. The fire broke out in a roof top restau ra nt the fire broke out in a roof top restaurant at around 12. 30am. There was another roof top barlow kated right next to the restaurant. The fire spread to that area as well. At the time, there were about 150 people in the two restaurants. Some we re people in the two restaurants. Some were able to escape immediately, but some got stuck and were rescued by emergency teams that arrived within a few minutes. The rescue teams were able to dose off the fire in two to three hours. Some of the people who have died could not escape the building and were sheltering in the wash room area and died of suffocation. One victim was a 28 year old woman who was celebrating her birthday. The authorities havent commented adds to why the as to why the fire started. The police have registered a case against the restaurant and the owner of the restaurant. This rest ta nt is the owner of the restaurant. This rest tant is located in a very popular spot in mumbai. There are a lot of commercial offices and restau ra nt lot of commercial offices and restaurant and bars in the area and even during the week people go to the restaurant and bars after they finish at the office. This is not the first incident in which people have lost their lives due to fire. A few week ago a shop caught fire and ten people lost their lives. Most of the incidents happen due to lack of safety norms. That is where the local authority have been trying to crack the whip against these enterprises, but there are still a lot of office and residential buildings that dont have proper safety norms. After this incident there will be more pressure on the local authorities to take action against the builders as well as the management who dont follow proper safety norms. The head of the nhs in england is considering making mobile alcohol Recovery Centres known as drunk tanks a permanent feature across england, to ease pressure on accident and emergency units and ambulance services. Simon stevens said too many resources were being taken up by people whod drunk too much alcohol ending up in hospital, particularly during the festive season. Adina campbell reports. Binge drinking at its worst a big headache for police and a burden for the nhs. It is estimated up to 15 of attendances at Emergency Departments in the uk are alcohol related. At this time of year that number is significantly more with as many as 70 of attendances at a e because of drinking. The uks first mobile drunk tank was introduced in bristol three years ago and there are have been others in manchester, cardiff and newcastle. A supervised area in and newcastle. A supervised area in a city centre it offers those who have had too much to drink a chance to be checked over by medical staff and sleep off the chop. Keep alcohol. And now nhs england says it is considering routine use of the facility. We think that these facilities do have the potential to ta ke facilities do have the potential to take the pressure off a e departments. But we are interested in looking at them further and seeing the results over the winter er before making a decision about rolling them. If there are patients that we can manage elsewhere, and this is one potential possibility. Nhs england says it is monitoring new Year Celebrations to see whether the scheme should be extended to other areas. And it will make a decision early next year. With me is doctor Katherine Henderson from the Royal College of emergency medicine, and is also a consultant at guys and st thomas Nhs Foundation trust in central london. Are these drunk tanks a good idea, will they take pressure off a e units do you think . We need pressure taking off a e units, but the issue here is this where we have to be with this situation, do we have think about having a drunk tank. It isa think about having a drunk tank. It is a horrible term. Alcohol Recovery Centre maybe. Would we rather been able to have a conversation about people not drinking so much that they need these facilities. That is they need these facilities. That is the wish that people dont get hopelessly drunk, but it is always going to happen. Almost by having a facility, youre saying it is ok, you dont have to look after your friends, the nhs will provide a safe place to sober up. Rather than saying you need to think about how youre going to get home, how youre going to get your friends home safely and not end up needing to use health care resources. It is probably a good idea to evaluate it, to see whether this does make a difference. Because we need to avoid patients coming to emergency tpts. Departments. How much pressure on drunk patients putting on a e units, specially at weekends . A huge amount of pressure. At the moment hospitals are very busy and a lot of winter illness, we are extremely busy. So the ending up having more patients coming in, particularly at this time of year when it is hard to manage, it gist something we just something wejust dont it gist something we just something we just dont need. We are seeing patients so intoxicated that they need to be on a trolley. We see people need cleaning up and people who are mixed in and have serious injuries who maybe difficult to spot among the many that are extremely drunk. These centres or drunk tanks, whatever you call them, they would be staffed by nhs staff, is that the idea . Very often yes, youre using nhs staff and you get organisations like stjohns who use volunteers, but there could be other occasions they could be being used to see an elderly person, or helping somebody who has had a fall. To have to use them, youre still using nhs staff, but just them, youre still using nhs staff, butjust in a different location. Which is helpful, we accept that, to not have patients coming in, but it is still front line staff managing patients. What we need to focus on is getting the message out to people not to get hopelessly drunk and think about resources they take up if they do that . When you call an ambulance that . When you call an ambulance thatis that . When you call an ambulance that is an ambulance not immediately available for someone else, someone having a heart attack, a sick baby, an old lady who has broken her hip. If the ambulances picking up someone from the roadside, vomiting because they have drunk so much alcohol, they have drunk so much alcohol, they are not available for a patient who might have a more serious illness. Thank you for coming in. Apple has apologised to its customers after it admitted slowing down older iphones in order to protect their batteries. The company said it would never intentionally shorten the life of any apple product and said it would offer replacement batteries at a discounted price. The Technology SpecialistCharlie Brown says the company has given in to anger from its customers. I think what was interesting was the groundswell of anger from customers proved so large apple had to respond. I do not believe apple had toissue respond. I do not believe apple had to issue an apology for what they did but more the way they did it, not telling your customer what you are doing in the background is a no no, especially when you are making a product that so many of us rely on day to day, to day, hour to hour. What we saw was every time apple did an update of software, when these changes to peoplesoperating structure would occur, there would be a massive spike on google of people searching slow iphone. That told us, hang on, something is going on. It did not ta ke something is going on. It did not take too long for the programmers to debunk what was going on. So the apology is obviously well received, the 30 for replacing the battery i think will be fantastic because iphone customers will be able to extend the life of their battery and i think you will see other manufacturers respond shortly, as well. The headlines, warnings of delays to road, rail and the headlines, warnings of delays to road, railand air the headlines, warnings of delays to road, rail and air travel at possible power cuts as snow and ice affects the uk. At least 12 dead including a baby after a fire at an apartment block in the bronx district of new york. Apple apologises for deliberately slowing down ageing iphones. It said the move was intended to prolong the life of the phones. Sport now. From the bbc sport centre, heres reshmin choudry. Good morning. Thank you. On the cricket story. Englands chances of victory in the fourth ashes test were hampered by rain in melbourne overnight australia were still 61 behind and two wickets down when the players came off for the second and final time. After the close however, the main talking point centered on pictures and insinuations in the australian media of a potential ball tampering story involving james anderson. Patrick gearey has the latest from the mcg. England denied by english conditions in melbourne. They took two australian wickets before the rain came down and showers turn to storms after three oclock and we got no more play but england will be consoled they are the only side with a realistic chance of winning the test to avoid the ashes whitewash. The innings lasted one ball this morning before anderson was out. Alastair cook 244 not out, batting all the way through the england innings undefeated, the first to do it since 1997 for england. England took two australian second innings wickets. Bancroft and khawaja. Then england bowling to david warner and steve smith, the two best australian batsman and the england tactic was to dry up the runs, which was effective, but they did not get them out and they will be there on the final day of play as the biggest obstacles final day of play as the biggest o bsta cles to final day of play as the biggest obstacles to england victory. Both sides in this match have been warned about throwing the ball deliberately into the pitch to scuff it and generate reverse swing but some in the australian media made serious accusations against anderson and his treatment of the ball. England were furious. I asked their head coach what he thought. As soon as i saw the headlines i raced into the umpires. Their words, nothing to worry about, absolutely fine. That is as much as i know. I am assured beat up these australian for made up. An element of spice going into an intriguing final day of the test match. Arsenal ended crystal palaces 8 match unbeaten run last night, with a 3 2 win in a thriller at selhurst park. Palace levelled the game at 1 1 just after half time, but an Alexis Sanchez double was enough to see arsenal hold out for the win, despite the hosts fighting back with a late goal. It lifts the gunners to sixth in the table, level on points with fifth placed spurs. Made some results at home in the final minutes. Overall, we were comfortable at 3 1, but not at all at 3 2. I believe overall we played a good game. We scored goals again today. But a bit nervous in the end. Phil the power taylor coasted into the quarterfinals of the pdc World Championship with a 4 0 victory over keegan brown. The sixteen time World Champion is playing in his farewell event and made light work of the 2014 world youth champion, dispatching him with a 106 check out to the approval of the ally pally crowd. He will play former champion Gary Anderson in the last eight. I will have more sport in the next hour. Thank you. More on the fire that killed at least 12 people in an Apartment Building in the bronx in new york. We can speak to a cbs correspondent who is in the bronx this morning. Thank you for being with us. What is the latest on this deadly fire . Fire marshals are trying to figure out what caused the blaze which started after seven last night in the bronx. Just a short walk from the famous bronx zoo. It started on the first floor and quickly spread. Firefighters responded within three minutes. 12 people were killed, four critically injured. Among the dead, three children and an infant. The cause is not known. Typically in new york city, in cold weather months, the Fire Department goes to a great outreach effort to educate new yorkers about not trying to stay warm using candles, space heaters, overloading power strips in the process. It is a possible cause of the fire in the bronx. Fire marshals are investigating to figure out the exact cause. The fire spread rapidly and residents did manage to get out. Yes, about 12 13 managed to escape relatively unharmed. Complicating matters last night and this morning is the bitter cold. Single digits with the wind chill yesterday, so the officials who responded setup a city bus for residents who need to come in from the cold. The red cross came quickly to help residents displaced by the fire. It is a tragic scene in the bronx. What new yorkers do in a time of tragedy, we come together. There have been people stopping by this morning asking if they can help. The mayor of new york has said it is one of the worst fires in the citys recent history. Yes, that is correct. The new york city Fire Department commissioner said it is of historic magnitude. The worst fire. We take september the 11th out of the story because of its severity in classifying it as some do as a terror attack, but besides that there was a triangle shirt factory disaster 27 years ago. And there was a social club fire that killed 87 people but this ranks up there, 12 fatalities is not the norm and it has left the city shaken this morning. Thank you. The Royal College of gps is asking patients to consider alternatives before making an appointment with their Family Doctor such as consulting websites to try to help ease the pressure on over stretched surgeries. Ben ando has the details. The season of goodwill can also be a time of bad health, and that means overcrowded surgeries, busy doctors, and a tough time for the nhs. Now the Royal College of gps is urging people to think twice and take three steps before booking a gp appointment. It wants patients to use the catchphrase three before gp meaning that in the first instance, they should try to manage their symptoms themselves. Next, they should look at reputable websites such as nhs choices. Failing that, the worried unwell should talk to pharmacists, who are better trained than many realise. Ifjust 5 of people who wanted to book an appointment today could get self help, see a pharmacist, sort themselves out by going online, actually, that would save 50,000 appointments for those who really need it. This is about using nhs resources in the best possible way, but also saving time for people as well. Doctors leaders say that for a population getting older, fatter and less healthy, there are not going to be enough doctors. They say that plans for a further 5000 by 2021, are injeopardy. They urge the home office to add being a general practitioner to the list of those jobs which could qualify potential migrants for a fast track entry into the uk. The Royal College of gps says it thinks up to one quarter of doctor appointments could be avoided if patients were willing to take more responsibility and make a trip to the doctor a step of last resort rather than the first call they make. The british polar explorer ben saunders has been forced to abandon his quest to cross antarctica unassisted, after he was left without enough food to complete his journey. He was undertaking the feat in memory of his friend henry worsley, who died attempting the journey alone last year. Saunders is only the third person in history, and the first briton, to have skied by himself to both the north and south poles. The anti Landmine Programme launched by Princess Diana is to getting by Princess Diana is to get extra funding to expand de Mining Operations across the world. The government announced it would match the £200,000 raised in a bbc radio appeal to tackle what was described as the hidden, indiscriminate killer. The money is on top of the 100 Million PoundProgramme Announced earlier this year by prince harry. Wyre davies reports. Although nearly 30 countries where de Mining Operations have taken place have now been declared mine free, there are still millions of mines littering existing and former war zones across the globe. Small plastic antipersonnel mines in particular kill or maim thousands of unsuspecting civilians every year, long after they were originally laid. In april, the department for International Development made a three year commitment worth £100 million to support de mining programmes in parts of africa, South East Asia and the middle east. The programme was launched with the support of prince harry, whose late mother, Princess Diana, brought the issue to public attention in 1997, when she walked wearing body armour through a partially cleared mine field in angola. The International Development secretary Penny Mordaunt has now announced plans to expand the uks de mining efforts to angola and has given a further £200,000 to the Mines Advisory group, which carries out this work. The funding matches the sum raised in a bbc appeal earlier this year. More about the weather dominating the news. Hearing that Glasgow Airport tweeted to say that they regret operations are temporarily suspended at Glasgow Airport. They say, our Winter Operations teams are working to reopen as soon as possible. We advise passengers to check with the airline for updates and we apologise for any disruption. That is Glasgow Airport saying operations at the airport or temporarily suspended, because of the weather and their Winter Operations teams working to reopen as soon as possible. That will have as soon as possible. That will have a lot of effects throughout the day on passengers to and from Glasgow Airport. Now a weather update. A lot of difficult conditions. Thats right this morning there was strong winds across the south. We have an amber weather warning out for snow for the north midlands and Northern England. We expect snow up to 15 inches at high levels and between three and five at lower levels. As it engaged with the cold air it started falling as snow and this is where we have it currently. You will find the snow will push off into the north sea this morning but will continue across southern and central scotland, into the highlands and grampians. The warning for be snow across the midlands, north midlands, and across Northern England expires in an hour. We had a band of rain and wind moving from the west to east across southern parts of england and wales. Thunder and lightning, and also some hail. As it clears, it will brighten up, but it will lead