04/02/2014 BBC Wales Today

Good evening. Swansea City Football Club have tonight sacked manager

Michael Laudrup. The Dane led the Swans to their first major trophy

last season, but less than a year later he is out of a job. Let's talk

to our football correspondent, Rob Phillips. How much of a surprise is

this? Doubts started to emerge about his future this morning, when there

was talk of Garry Monk, the long serving former captain of the club,

being taken on to the coaching staff. We did wonder then whether

this would undermine the position of Michael Laudrup. In a statement the

chairman said he met with Laudrup today, looking for ways to improve

the work of the backroom team. In a final attempt to support him, but he

was concerned about the constant uncertainty surrounding the club and

Laudrup's future. He's gone tonight. This is what the former Wales and

Swansea striker, Ian Morse, told us earlier. I think he would have gone

at the end of the season anyway. The results have been for. The attitude

of the players has been poor in some regards. The club and the board have

said, look, we needed changed quickly to survive in the Premier

League. And the club already has a new man in place. Gas, Garry Monk.

With the help of another long serving Swans legend, Alan Curtis.

He has been appointed for what the club is saying is the foreseeable

future. That could mean the rest of this season. This comes on the eve

of the big game for the club. I think this is the extraordinary

thing, the timing. It is four days before the South Wales Premier

League derby against Cardiff City at the Stadium on Saturday night. The

biggest league derby that we can remember between these two clubs. It

is amazing that the club have taken this decision now. Stormy weather

has been causing widespread disruption tonight. A man has been

taken to hospital after a tree fell on his truck in the Vale of

Glamorgan earlier. The casualty was freed from the vehicle and taken to

the Princess Hospital in Bridgend. Elsewhere, a car has crashed into a

fallen tree across a road in Pembrokeshire. We will have a full

weather forecast for you in a couple of minutes. A woman from Cardiff has

been convicted of killing her husband in the Dominican Republic.

Nicole Reyes, who's 37 and originally from the Rumney area, has

been sentenced to 12 years in jail for manslaughter, by a court in

Santiago. The mother of two had claimed she accidentally ran over

her husband, when he rode his motorbike next to her car. Her

mother says they'll appeal. An investigation has found that a fire

at Llandow industrial estate, in the Vale of Glamorgan, where recycled

material burnt for more than two weeks last November, was an

accident. South Wales Fire and Rescue Service say no criminal

charges have been brought and the investigation is now closed. The M4

is reopened tonight after being closed for much of the day following

a serious accident at Newport. It involved a coach carrying more than

50 foreign students. The bus driver and a passenger were airlifted to

hospital and 11 others taken by ambulance. Nick Palit reports. A

mass of mangled steel and glass, the front of this passenger coach gone,

following its impact with a lorry, a crash barrier and a car. The point

of impact, a bend just beyond the tunnel. It is what is probably

Wales' busiest stretch of motorway. This man was driving to work on the

M4 this morning and found himself caught up in the immediate aftermath

of the crash. My reaction was to ring 999. I was on the phone to them

for a couple of minutes and then they asked me to go out and assess

the situation. There was a lady stuck in her car, it was obvious

that the bus driver was hurt and needed assistance. I was just trying

to report back as quickly as possible, so they could get the

right people there as quick as possible. This accident happened

just after 9:30am, closing the motorway in both directions hearing

Newport for a time. There were 57 passengers on board the cold. The

trial # the driver has been airlifted to hospital at Morriston

in Swansea. 12 other people received hospital treatment. Two adults were

taken to the University Hospital in Cardiff, where their injuries are

not life-threatening. Ten others were treated at Newport's Hospital,

eight of them students from the bus. They are foreign students. They were

in the UK on a tour involving sports, hockey and rugby. We are

obtaining full details for them, making sure their next of kin are

aware and making sure their welfare and safety is paramount. The Newport

Centre was set up as an emergency triage centre. Some of the walking

wounded were treated there, while other uninjured students waited for

news of their friends in hospital. The M4 was closed in both directions

for a number of hours, causing massive tailbacks. Motorists here

are used to accidents at this bottleneck and the delays have a

serious economic impact. Denied everything is back to normal with

traffic flowing freely in both directions. But the crash today has

highlighted renewed calls for an M4 relief road to be built as a matter

of urgency. At the other end of the country, major delays on the A55

near the Britannia Bridge on Anglesey, after a lorry overturned.

The incident happened before the morning rush hour and led to the

closure of part of the westbound section of the road for several

hours. A crane was used to remove the lorry Rugby and Wales captain

Sam Warburton is back to lead the side for Saturday's Six Nations

clash with Ireland in Dublin. He returns along with fellow forwards

Gethin Jenkins and Andrew Coombs. Wales began their campaign with a

23-15 win over Italy. One of the attributes that Sam has is effecting

turnovers, getting penalties. He's as good as anyone in the world are

doing that. We expect him to get on the ball on Saturday and hopefully

he can create a few turnovers for us.

The weather is again causing problems tonight. Western Power

Distribution says it currently has 1,300 customers in west, south and

mid Wales without power. Engineers are working to fix the faults in

areas including Haverfordwest, Builth Wells and around Cardiff.

Fallen trees and structural damage all make for a pretty awful night.

Let's get the forecast from Benaz. Awful is a great way of describing

it. Terrible weather to come tonight and much more to come towards the

end of the week. As we go through the graphics tonight, there is a

warning for the wind. You need to be aware, the potential for further

trees to fall down and also further electric lines as well. Gusts up to

60 mph along the coastal areas. Inland, gusts of 50 mph.

Those blustery conditions will continue overnight. The main rain

band will clear but then behind it we've got those squally showers.

Very little break from the wet and windy weather. Temperatures getting

down to around four Celsius. This deep area of low pressure is

responsible. It brings very strong winds. We have another one waiting

out in the winds. If that wasn't enough, there's also another one

behind that. Terrible weather to come before the end of the week.

Tomorrow morning is going to be very unpleasant. Squally showers, gusty

conditions continuing. Mainly for areas anywhere south of Aberystwyth.

For the rest of the UK we do have a yellow warning for Scotland for the

rain. Then for the wind there is a yellow warning for Northern Ireland

and southern and western parts of the British Isles. The squally

showers continuing and we could see more damaging winds and some coastal

flooding possible, especially at the times of high water. Fairly mild for

the time of year. Tomorrow, very little change. Squally showers

continuing to pack in from the west. They will really give us some

terrible conditions into the rush-hour as well. Tomorrow night,

the showers continuing. By the overnight period we will get a brief

break. You are showers and the winds easing a bit, which will give us an

OK start first thing on Thursday morning. Some sunshine, a few

showers. Make the most of it, as by Thursday evening we will see the

arrival of the next rain band. That will clear through by early Friday

morning, we can look forward to some sunshine through Friday, but more

wet and windy weather in time for Saturday. We will have the aftermath

on that storm damage tomorrow. We'll have the latest news and sport,

traffic reports and weather updates in Breakfast from 6am tomorrow.

That's Wales Today. From me, goodnight.