19/01/2013 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. The Foreign Secretary, William

Hague, says the Algerian hostage crisis remains the "top priority"

until every British national is accounted for. Mr Hague is this

morning holding an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis.

Algerian special forces are still hunting the Islamist gunmen at the

remote desert gas plant, according to the state news agency. Ten

Britons are still thought to be unaccounted for. Bridget Kendall

reports. The kidnap nightmare continues for some, for others, it

is over. Two Norwegians who had been held,

made it back to Oslo overnight. In algears Airport, freed Algerian

hostages have been telling their story. They describe how the

militants sought out foreigners. TRANSLATION: They attacked the

living quarters and the factory as well. There were two groups. One

group returned to the factory, the other to the living quarters. Their

goal was foreign hostages. TRANSLATION: I told them I was an

Algerian Muslim. They said I should not be scared, that they had not

come for me. Meanwhile, deep in the Sahara

desert where Algeria meets Libya, the stand-off with the natural gas

plant is in its fourth day. How many foreigners are there is not

clear. Algeria reports that the remajoring hostages and the heavily

armed kidnappers are holed up in a corner of the plant, surrounded by

Special Forces. In London, William Hague, chairing a Cobra meeting,

said that the crisis would stay a top priority until every British

citizen was accounted for. The Americans are urging the Algerians

to be careful. For all of the relief for those who managed to get

away, there is increasing concern about those being held and

uncertainty as to how to free them The severe weather is continuing to

cause disruption across the UK. Safely.

Drivers are being warned of fresh ice on already treacherous ground

in some parts of the country. At Heathrow, both runways are open

today but there are still delays as hundreds of flights had to be

cancelled. Philippa Thomas has the latest. Hundreds of people spent

the night at Heathrow Airport after snow fell on the ground and a third

of flights were cancelled. British Airways a-- apologise as passengers

tried to get some sleep huddled on the floors.

They are just bundled up. They are trying to find space on the floor.

The airport supplied mats, blankets, food, water and the other

necessities. The snowploughs have been at work.

All of the stands and the taxiways have been re-opened but the airport

faces a huge challenge in getting everything back to normal. In the

early hours of this morning, Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5

looked like a refugee camp. Now it just looks like an extremely

crowded airport terminal. Thousands of passengers, desperate to get

away. On many roads drivers have been reduced to a crawl. Freezing

temperatures have created treacherous driving conditions. The

highways say that the fleet of snowploughs will be out in force

throughout the weekend. The worst- hit area is to the West. Parts of

Wales had as much as 25 centimetres of snow. In Northern Ireland,

around 900 moments are without power after a day of heavy snow and

high winds and it is not over yet. The Met Office issued warnings of

snow from eastern Scotland to the north-east and more is expected to

push up to the south-east tomorrow from France.

Chris Eakin is at Heathrow Airport for us. Chris, what is the latest

there at the moment? The runways are operating but they will have to

be anti-iced, as they call it. That takes about 20 minutes. That will

have another knock-on effect. I can tell you that passengers in

Terminal 5 have been told not to join the check-in queues, unless

the flights are within two hours, a sign of the chaos there and anger,

as we heard, from those who had to sleep stkwrofr night on the floor.

-- overnight on the floor. The M40 is closed, it may re-open shortly.

There are four train companies affected. They are London middle

Eurostar, south-west Trains and Virgin. So the snow may be great

fun for many but it is still causing traffic and travel misery

for others. Thank

The Highstreet retailer Blockbuster is to close 129 of its shops in the

coming weeks. You. The disgraced former cycling

champion, Lance Armstrong, says he still hopes that one day he'll be

able to compete again, despite being given a lifetime ban from

sport for doping. In the second part of a televised interview with

Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong said he didn't deserve the punishment. The

worst part was not losing the titles on the sponsorship, Lance

Armstrong, said, it was losing the cancer charity, Livestrong.

That was the most haunting. To get the call, two parts, one, to step

down as the chairman but stay on the board. Stay involved.

It wasn't enough. He lied time and again, of course,

so what made him do it? That is a guy who felt invincible, was told

he was invincible, truly believed he was invincible.

Lance Armstrong says he wants to compete again. Yet he faces a life-

long ban. If you are asking me, do I want to

compete again? The answer is, hell, yes. I'm a competitor.

As for that ban, others, he said, had been dealt with far more

leniently. I deserved to be punished, I'm not

sure that I deserved the death penalty. Lance Armstrong is in

Hawaii, but he face as lot of disappointed people when he returns

to his home town, here, probably more than anywhere else, people