31/12/2017 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon.

A seaplane has crashed

into a river near Sydney,

killing all six people on board.

Reports suggest four

of the victims are British,

although this has not been

confirmed by police.

The Foreign Office here is in

contact with officials in Australia.

The aircraft - on a sight

seeing trip ahead of

the New Year celebrations -

came down in a river close

to the suburb of Cowan.

Ian Palmer reports.

Police divers have spent the day

searching for bodies.

The seaplane is underwater.

The party was returning

from a trip to a restaurant,

before crashing into the river.

Six people were on board.

For reasons that are not

known at this stage,

the plane has hit the water and it

has subsequently sunk.

It is sitting in approximately

30 metres of water.

At the time of the collision,

the plane had a pilot

and five passengers on board.

I can confirm the six people

on the plane are deceased.

The aircraft crashed just after

three in the afternoon, local time.

It is operated by the company

Sydney Seaplanes.

A major tour firm, it offers many

sightseeing trips across Australia.

In a statement the company says:

Sydney Seaplanes is deeply shocked

by this incident and the resulting

loss of life.

We wish to pass on our heartfelt

condolences to the family

and friends of the passengers and

pilot who were tragically killed.

An eyewitness says he saw

the single-engine plane make a

tight turn before dipping its wings

and nosediving into the water.

Police have recovered six

bodies from the wreckage.

Their identities have

yet to be confirmed.

People in the area of

Hawkesbury River described

the flying conditions just before

the crash happened.

A little bit bumpy coming over

with the weather, but it was nothing

to be concerned about.

Like, I mean, I wasn't frightened.

There are unconfirmed

reports that four people

from Britain are among the dead.

The Foreign Office says

officials from the British

consulate are in contact

with local authorities.

It says staff are ready to provide

consular assistance.

Ian Palmer, BBC News.

Thousands of rail travellers face

disruption to their journeys

today as workers from two train

companies stage 24-hour strikes.

Members of the RMT union on South

Western Railway and CrossCountry

are taking action in disputes

involving the role of guards,

rosters and Sunday working.

Live now to Waterloo

and our correspondent there,

Anisa Kadri.

What more can you tell us?

Well, this is the UK's busiest

station. You only have to go into

Waterloo behind me and you will see

posters warning of disruption this

New Year's Eve. South Western

Railway says there will be reduced

services to places like Surrey,

Hampshire, Berkshire and that a

quarter of trains are expected not

to run at all. The strike action is

not only causing problems here. It

is also causing problems on

cross-country rail meaning services

between Newcastle and Edinburgh are

reduced, and between Adam Aberdeen

and Glasgow. The advice is to check

on updates because you may know

where you are going to celebrate New

Year's Eve but how you get there and

back may be a different story.

Thank

you.

Criminal gangs who claim benefits

under a false identity

are to be targeted by the government

using artificial intelligence.

The Department for Work

and Pensions says it will use

sophisticated computer programming

to detect fraud taking place

to claim universal credit

and jobseekers allowance.

Political leaders have been

reflecting on the past 12 months

in their New Year's messages,

with Theresa May calling 2017

a "year of progress" for the UK.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said

the hope of a new Britain

is closer than ever.

With more here's our

Political Correspondent, Emma Vardy.

After a political year

dominated by Brexit,

it's no surprise the subject played

a key part in Theresa May's

New Year's message.

She said the government has

pursued our Brexit objectives

with steady purpose,

and progress will continue in 2018,

when the talks move on to trade.

But not for the first time,

Theresa May made clear she wants

to be more than Madam Brexit.

Making a success of Brexit

is crucial, but it will not be

the limit of our ambitions.

We also have to carry on making

a difference here and now

on the issues that matter

to people's daily lives.

That means building an economy fit

for the future, and taking

a balanced approach to government

spending, so we get our debt

falling, but can also invest

in the things that matter,

our schools, police

and our precious NHS.

Mrs May also said next year

we will continue the fight

against all forms of extremism

and she said she believed 2018

could be a year of renewed

pride in our country.

Meanwhile, the tone

of Jeremy Corbyn's address

was rather different.

He said we are being held back

by a self-serving elite,

and pointed to the gains made

by Labour at the general election,

saying this was the year

when people said no more.

The old political

consensus is finished.

We are staking out the new centre

ground in British politics,

backing the things which most people

want, but are blocked

by vested interests.

We are a government in waiting,

while the Conservatives are weak,

divided and stuck in an outdated rut

with no new ideas.

The hope of a new Britain run

in the interests of the many,

not the few, is closer

than ever before.

The New Year messages draw

to a close what has been politically

a dramatic 12 months.

Emma Vardy, BBC News.

Technology is giving historians

a new insight

into everyday life in ancient Egypt.

Researchers at University College

London have developed scanning

techniques that show what is written

on the papyrus that

a sarcophagus case is made from.

Our science correspondent, Pallab

Ghosh, has this exclusive report.

The hieroglyphics found in the tombs

of the pharaohs show the lives

of the ancient Egyptians,

but the paintings are

what the rich and powerful

wanted the people to know.

They are the propaganda

of their time.

But now there's a wealth

of information about ordinary

people being discovered

using a new scientific technique.

With a specially-modified camera,

researcher Cerys Jones takes

photos of a mummy's case

at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent.

You can't see anything

with the naked eye,

but using infrared, a name

is revealed, Irethoreru.

A common name in ancient Egypt.

It is a Stephen

or David of its time.

It is amazing.

Everyone in the room gasped

and people jumped up

and ran for the computer,

because in that one image,

you could read it.

These scraps of papyrus are more

than 2,000 years old.

They were recycled to make

the breastplate that

covered a mummified body.

The writing is obscured

by the plaster and paste

that hold them together,

but researchers can see what lies

beneath by scanning them

with different kinds of light

which makes the inks glow.

These now constitute one of the best

libraries we have of waste papyrus

that otherwise would have been

thrown away, so it includes

things like tax receipts,

and everyday information

that we would nowadays throw away.

Back then, they would have thrown it

away, but fortunately

it was recycled into these objects.

Our knowledge of ancient Egypt

is through the eyes of pharaohs

and the very wealthy who were buried

with their possessions,

but this new imaging technique

is enabling researchers to find out

about the lives of

ordinary Egyptians.

Until now, the only way to see

what was written on the papyrus

was to destroy these masks,

leaving Egyptologists

with a dilemma.

Do they destroy these

precious objects or do

they keep them untouched,

leaving the stories

within them untold?

I am really horrified when I see

objects like these papyri cartonnage

being destroyed in order to get

at the text inside.

They are finite resources and we now

have the technology to both

preserve those beautiful,

precious objects that tell us

about ways of dying,

but also looking inside them

in order to understand the ways

that the Egyptians lived.

There are hundreds of cases

and masks that can be scanned,

each one telling its own individual

story of everyday life

in ancient Egypt.

Pallab Ghosh, BBC News.

Now as we gear up for our New Year's

celebrations,

it's already 2018 in New Zealand.

The traditional firework display

in Auckland marks one

of the first major countries to see

in the New Year.

Australia's next within the hour.

You can see more on all

of today's stories

on the BBC News Channel.

The next news on BBC One

is at five past six.

Goodbye for now.

Good afternoon.