05/12/2015 BBC Weekend News

Heavy rain and strong winds have brought chaos to parts of

the country - with roads closed and people evacuated from their homes.

There are dozens of severe flood warnings in place

in Cumbria - residents told of how they had to flee their homes,

We just quickly went upstairs, got some dry clothes because they

were already soaking wet, and threw some clothes in a bag.

In southern Scotland, rivers have burst their banks

as floods and landslides have brought major disruption.

the severity of the rainfall and just how fast

We'll have the latest from our correspondents

The first images of RAF air strikes on an Islamic State target in Syria

are released by the Ministry of Defence.

And new measures to tackle stalking are proposed by ministers.

Strong winds and heavy rain have caused severe

disruption across parts of northern England and southern Scotland, as

Roads have been closed and rail services disrupted.

There are 44 severe flood warnings in place,

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

weather warning for rain in Cumbria - where it's advising people not to

Our correspondent, Fiona Trott, is in Keswick in Cumbria, where police

A few moments ago, a couple were evacuated from their home here. They

were put in a dinghy and towed to safety. There was this huge bang,

and we think a tree has been blown over on to the metal bridge here in

Keswick. Tonight, there is an appeal for doctors to help, there is an

appeal for people to raise ?1 million for the victims and there is

an appeal for volunteers to help out of the reception centres around the

county, including the ones in Keswick where the River Greta has

burst its banks. After 13 hours of rain, nothing was

going to stop this river, The barriers are somewhere under

and there's concern that the nearby bridge is in a dangerous state.

It's scary, with the houses, like, they are so high,

This is the scene in Cockermouth tonight.

People are desperately trying to protect their homes.

Floods destroyed their town six years ago.

That is why they are frustrated and anxious.

What's happened to the money that they are supposed to

have spent on the flood defences that don't seem to have worked?

Throughout the day, people have left their homes any way they can.

Our house is actually surrounded with water so we had to get out

through a window, so my dad and my uncle helped my grandma get out.

Back in Keswick, these two have come to check their house.

They were told to leave this afternoon.

That is your back garden under water?

So in the house further down is probably about a metre,

You have been through this before, but to see your home under water,

When it first happens, you know the adrenaline keeps you

The worst time is in a month's time when you are still trying to get it

The river next to the couple's home has now peaked.

They hope the worst is over, but the rain is set to continue

In a moment, we'll be talking to Catriona Renton,

who's in the Scottish town of Hawick,

but first to our correspondent, Danny Savage, who's in Carlisle.

This is Warwick Road in Carlisle. In 2005 this was the worst affected

area of the city, with the severe floods here. There is a severe flood

warning in place for the waters to peak here at 8.00am tomorrow. A

bridge in the middle of Warwick Road has become structurally unsafe

tonight. They are having to inspect it. They are sensitive about that

because back in the floods of 2010, a police officer was killed when a

bridge he was standing on was swept away in the floods. What this feels

like tonight is that all the worst parts of the floods here in Cumbria

over the last decade have been rolled into one again, with all the

worst of those aspects in one event happening now. The worst is yet to

come. People here have told me they are keeping their fingers crossed.

And Catriona, a severe flood warning's been issued

That's right. You can see the River Teviot is fast and furious this

evening. Bits of it have burst its banks. Around 1,000 people so far

have been evacuated from their houses. Here, 400 are without power,

and around 700 people from nearby have also been moved out of their

houses. There was a good group set up here in 2005, the last time there

was a big flood here in Hawick. They tell me tonight that this is worse

than it was then. The Scottish Government say they will put in

extra resources if they are necessary. And the famous Pringle

shop here has water up to its letterbox. Worst yet to come here as

well. The flood is set to peak between 3.00am and 4.00am. Catriona

Renton and Danny Savage, thank you both very much.

Meanwhile, in India, hundreds of soldiers

and relief workers have been sent to help relief efforts in the flooded

city of Chennai, which has suffered the heaviest rains for a century.

The authorities say they do now believe the worst is over.

The Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon,

has visited the RAF base in Cyprus, where Typhoon jets have joined in

air strikes against the self-styled Islamic State extremists in Syria.

The Ministry of Defence has released the first pictures of the British

Our defence correspondent, Jonathan Beale, reports from

Last night, the first RAF Typhoons joined

Not just loaded with Paveway bombs, but also white-tipped air-to-air

missiles, an extra precaution now flying in Syrian airspace.

They left with another two Tornados to find their target.

These 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

This morning, in Cyprus, the Defence Secretary met the air and ground

This campaign is not going to be short or simple.

And nor is fighting a war far from home.

We can't identify crews, but one did raise concern about

Sometimes it takes as long as five days to get some of the things

in that we need so you have an aircraft on the ground for that long

He said he'd sort it, but they did now have Parliament's full backing

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 really hurts, on both sides of this very artificial border that

These are only the second set of air strikes by

the RAF over Syria, the first time that Typhoon jets have been used.

And even the Defence Secretary doesn't know how long this will

For the RAF, there will be many more missions, day and night.

And still questions as to what these air strikes will achieve.

Jonathan Beale, BBC News, RAF Akrotiri.

Here, police in the West Midlands have confirmed that they are

investigating possible British links to the Islamic State gunmen who

attacked Paris last month. It is claimed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud had

contacts in Birmingham and that another of the gunmen visited

Birmingham and London earlier this year. Christian Fraser reports.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the supposed ringleader attacks,

who boasted how easy it was to of the cross European borders.

Now it emerges that one of his connections involved

in the planning of the Paris attacks may have travelled

The report quotes French intelligence sources, who are

tracing the links between Abaaoud and Muslims of Moroccan descent

It's a real worry if people are able to get through our borders without

being detected, especially if their names were on a European database.

I think it's really important that there should be the closest possible

We all face the same threat and that is why it is important that

our borders should be as secure as possible.

Yesterday, the Home Secretary was in Brussels pressing

Since Paris, the Belgian prosecutors have outlined

a plot that stretches far across Europe, and it features more than

It's emerged that before Paris, Belgian intelligence had issued

a list of 87 people living in Brussels who had been

radicalised and, on that list, was the gunman Salah Abdeslam

and his associate, Mohamed Abrini, who travelled with him to Paris.

In September, Salah Abdeslam travelled from

Brussels to Hungary to collect two men travelling on false passports.

These are the photofits that were issued yesterday

One of them transferred money four days after the Paris attacks to

the woman killed in St Denis, Hasna Aitboulahcen.

All four of these men are still at large.

The UK authorities have refused to comment on this reported link to

London and Birmingham, or the risks it might present.

But again this week, Armed Response Units were in

President Obama says Americans "will not be terrorised" following

the mass shooting in California which killed 14 people.

In his weekly address, Mr Obama said it was

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

Laura Bicker reports from San Bernardino,

This is the mother turned mass murderer

Born in Pakistan, and raised in Saudi Arabia, she came here to

She had a six-month-old baby girl, but attached to this

ordinary-looking family home was a garage full of weapons

She met husband Syed Farook online, said to be a quiet loner.

The FBI is trying to build a profile of the couple, but friends

Until I found out what he did, that it was his name,

that he was the one that was found, that he was the suspect, until that

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

that this 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 the President acknowledged that the couple may have been

It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalised to

And if so, it would underscore a threat we have

been focussed on for years, the danger of people succumbing to

President Obama says stricter gun controls would prevent weapons

getting into the wrong hands, but his critics say he's failing to

We see a President of the United States who, rather than stand

up and say we will defeat radical Islamic terrorism, stands up

and says we want to take away the guns from law-abiding citizens.

You don't stop the bad guys by taking away our guns, you stop

It puts the President under pressure,

as opponents say he has floundered in the fight against Isis.

But the FBI is appealing for calm, until the full motivation

Laura Bicker, BBC News, San Bernardino.

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

Stalking can take many forms, all of them terrifying for the victim.

Some are followed on the street, others tracked online

by people they may know intimately, or who they have never even met.

Crime survey figures suggest one in five women and one in ten men

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

He would stalk her by means of social media, by means

of following her whereabouts using a telephone, constantly texting.

The police knew the extreme risk that Jane was at.

Even so, she was still left with no protection.

Stalking appears to be on the increase.

In the past year, it's led to more than 1,100 prosecutions.

That's a 50% rise on the year before.

And victims report more than half of stalkers are people they either

And it's stalking by strangers that's the main focus

Ministers acknowledge there is far more help available for victims

who know their abusers and that stalking protection orders could

If we can intervene earlier, and we can intervene

on the perpetrator earlier, we believe that we will be able to

protect victims, but also stop the behaviour escalating into that very

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

Victims say the Government must also do more to keep them safe online.

We have real issues with the digital aspect of stalking with

I still hear victims being told, well, if you're being stalked,

come off-line, come off Twitter, come off Facebook.

That's not really the response they should be getting.

It's never been easier for stalkers to track our movements.

Pressure groups say treating the compulsions of the stalkers is also

You can see more on all of today's stories on the BBC News Channel.

Good evening. Storm Desmond is continuing to produce a dangerous

combination of very strong winds and exceptionally heavy rainfall which

has been leading to scenes like the one behind me taken from Cockermouth

earlier today. Severe flooding. The Met Office has issued a red warning,

the highest