05/12/2015 BBC Weekend News

have struck parts of northern England and Scotland,

as a major storm sweeps across the UK.

The Met Office has taken the rare step of issuing its highest

where it's advising people not to travel unless it's essential.

There are 33 severe flood warnings in place,

Our correspondent Fiona Trott is at Keswick in Cumbria,

where police say conditions are without precendent.

Workers on the ground have said that people cannot get in or out of this

town, 100 people have already been evacuated today, and the river has

not yet peaked. The focus now is on the flood defences of the town,

which have already been breached, and the safety of a bridge nearby.

VOICEOVER: This is why people in Keswick are worried, somewhere below

the water, flood defences. They had to be reinforced a few years ago,

tonight, they are powerless to stop the force of this water. It is a bit

scary, like, the houses are so high, but this has never been this high,

either. I live out of Keswick, I am stuck in Keswick at the moment, I am

very scared. We are meant to be protected against a 1 in a hundred

year flood, six years after they did the design. I'm wondering how money

times this is going to happen! The river has torn its way through this

town... In the run-up to Christmas, this car park would normally be

filled with shoppers. Now, it is at the centre of a major incident. The

events today appear unprecedented, even surpassing 2005 and 2009, the

amount of rainfall we have seen is vast, we are working very hard to

protect the properties and the life risk that there is in the flood risk

areas. As was the scene in Appleby, earlier today, five people had to be

evacuated from their home. On the M6 motorway, gusts of up to 70 mph made

driving conditions treacherous. In Keswick, more than 100 people have

already been evacuated from properties here. Further north, in

the border town, the river is close to bursting its banks. Here and

elsewhere, it is yet to reach its peak, and still the rain continues

to fall. STUDIO: For the latest on the rising

flood water in Scotland, we can go to Katrina Renton, there is a severe

weather warning in place. The weather here in Hawick has

really deteriorated, you can see how strong winds are, the river behind

me, it is getting very angry, very swollen. Further down, where we are

not allowed to go, the river has burst its banks. Around 100

properties have been evacuated along the banks of the River Teviot and

people have gone to a sports centre for shelter, we have also heard that

people in year by Newcastleton have been evacuated as well. The Scottish

Government has held a meeting of its resilience committee today because

of the flooding, the river tea, has seen the most flooding it has had in

the last few years, and the advice is not to drive if you can possibly

avoid it. -- River Tee. The Defence Secretary Michael Fallon

has been visiting the RAF base in Cyprus from where planes are

launching raids in eastern Syria against self-styled Islamic State,

also known as Daesh. Mr Fallon's trip came

as the Ministry of Defence released the first

pictures of the bombing missions Our Defence correspondent

Jonathan Beale reports from VOICEOVER: Last night, the first RAF

typhoons joined in the fight against Islamic State. Not just loaded with

pave way bombs but also white tipped air to air missiles. An extra

precaution now flying in Syrian airspace. They left with another two

tornadoes, to find their target. -- Paveway. And this was it, the first

images of an RAF air strike inside Syria, bombing the same oilfields as

two nights ago, an attempt to cut off the supplies which help to fund

the extremists. This morning, in Cyprus, the Defence Secretary met

the air and ground crews involved, his message, this will take time.

This campaign is not going to be short, it is not going to be simple.

But they did now have the backing of Parliament. What we are doing is

upping the tempo, and the RAF, which had one hand tied behind its back

until now, is now able to hit Daesh harder where it hurts. Only the

second set of air strikes by the RAF over Syria, the first time that

Typhoon jets have been used, these are still early days, and even the

Defence Secretary does not know how long this will last. There will be

many more missions, before this is over.

STUDIO: President Obama says Americans "will not be terrorised"

following the mass shooting in California

In his weekly radio address, Mr Obama said it was

"entirely possible" that the married couple who carried out the killings

Laura Bicker reports from San Bernardino where

VOICEOVER: Tashfeen Malik, the mother who became a mass murderer,

the FBI admits that they know very little about her. She lived in a

quiet of urban California, raising a 6 -month-old daughter, and yet yards

away, she and her husband were stockpiling an arsenal of weapons

and bombs. Her family knew her as... She was soft-spoken, very

basic information, what they have seen of her. Typical housewife. Much

more is known about Syed Rizwan Farook, who worked alongside the men

and women he shot and killed at the office Christmas party. The

so-called Islamic State declared in a radio broadcast this morning that

the shooting was carried out by two of its followers, there is no

evidence linking the couple to a further terrorist network, or that

this attack was ordered by Isis, but Barack Obama believes the best way

to keep America safe would be to tighten the gun laws of the country.

People on the no-fly list can walk into a store and buy a gun. That is

insane! If you are too dangerous to board an aeroplane, you are too

dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun! I'm calling on Congress to

close this loophole. Critics say the president has been slow to deal with

the terror threat, and with Isis, the horror here may have raised a

wider debate, but the motivation of this couple is still not clear.

STUDIO: Here, police in the West Midlands say they are supporting

French police, investigating possible British links to the

extremists who attacked Paris last month. It's reported that the Paris

ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had connections with people in

Birmingham, and that another of the gunmen visited Birmingham and London

earlier this year. The Home Office is

considering plans to introduce a new court order to tackle stalking

in England and Wales. It's aimed at protecting victims who

are targeted by strangers or people they barely know,

amid fears that the internet is fuelling an increase in such

cases. VOICEOVER: Stalking can take many

forms, all of them are terrifying for the victim, some have been

followed on the street, others tracked online by people they may

know intimately or who they had never even met. Crime survey figures

suggest one in five women and one in ten men will be victims of stalking.

Jane Clough was stalked by her ex-boyfriend, for eight months,

before he killed her five years ago. He would stalk her, by means of

social media, by means of following her whereabouts using her telephone,

constantly sending text messages... The police knew the extreme risk

Jane was at, even so, she was still left without protection. Stalking

appears to be on the increase, in the past year, it has led to more

than 1100 prosecutions, that is a 50% rise on the year before. Victims

report more than half of stalkers are people they either barely know

or are total strangers. And it is spoken by strangers that is the main

focus of this Home Office plan, ministers at knowledge there is far

more help available for victims who know their abusers, and that

stalking protection orders could help those at longer term risk. If

we can intervene earlier, and we can intervene on the perpetrator

earlier, we believe we will be able to protect victims but also stop the

behaviour escalating into that very fixated, very serious behaviour.

Social media has made stalking by relative strangers easier than ever,

victims say that the government must also do more to keep them safe

online. We have real issues with the digital aspect of stalking, with

Facebook and Twitter, victims are told, if you are being stalked, come

off-line, come off Facebook, Twitter... That is not the response

anyone should be getting. It has never been easier for stalkers to

track our movements, pressure groups say that treating the compulsions of

the stalkers is also key to keeping the victim safe.

STUDIO: Leicester City are the new leaders of the Premier League after

beating Swansea city, 3-0, placing Manchester City, who were beaten 2-0

by Stoke City. There were also wins for the Arsenal and Watford.