03/03/2018 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon.

Hundreds of people in the north

of England and in north

and mid-Wales, are without power,

as the UK struggles

with the continued effects

of the week's bitter weather.

Motorists and rail passengers

have been told to expect

continued disruption,

with Scotland receiving

the heaviest snowfall,

and some of the lowest temperatures

in the UK.

Elsewhere, it's

expected to get milder.

As the snow begins to melt,

the Environment Agency has issued 13

flood warnings for parts

of north-east and

south-west England.

Our correspondent

Dan Johnson reports.

Another day of Britain taking a

battering. After the snow, from the

high tides and the flood warnings.

On the coast, the seas have taken

over the railway line in Dawlish. On

the outskirts of Cardiff, the snow

is hanging around. 400 homes without

power. Some people have now seen

enough.

Very pretty and all of that

but I must admit it is getting on my

nerves now.

It has affected me in

terms of not being able to go to

work.

I didn't expect it to be as

bad as it is and we are getting

cabin fever.

The motorway across the

Pennines was deserted because of

heavy snow and high winds. Leeds and

Manchester were reconnected earlier

this morning. The traffic may be

flowing here but most of the roads

across these hills are still blocked

with snow and there are strong winds

in places, too, potentially causing

more snow drifts. The A1 has

reopened further north. Over the

border, just look what the trains

are having to plough through in

Scotland. With even more snow

expected to fall. Rail travel is

difficult across the UK. As well as

snow and ice, services are affected

by strike action in Merseyside.

Hundreds of flights have been

cancelled with teams battling to

keep runways open. In Manchester,

officers searching for a man who

went missing after leaving a

nightclub pulled a body from the

canal. Scarborough is one of the

places starting to clean up. There

are flood warnings in place in the

south-west and the north-east. The

long thaw may have begun but more

problems are still to come.

Some of the worst disruption

is in Scotland where much

of the rail network

is badly affected.

Our correspondent Catriona Renton

is at Glasgow Central Station.

It has been the coldest start to

march on record, what are the signs,

if any, of improvement?

Quite a lot,

actually. Some good news for you,

although it is far from a typical

Saturday here at Glasgow Central

Station but services are starting to

run. No trains between Scotland and

England but there are final checks

happening and it is hoped the

mainline will be up and running

later today. ScotRail are hoping for

a full service tomorrow. Other

travel, airports and roads, take

extra care and check before you

travel to the airports. We have

forecast for more snow here so

untreated roads still icy. The

Scottish government have urged

people to carry on that community

spirit we have seen over the last

few days and to keep helping each

other out. The picture around the

rest of the UK? As we heard down

say, it is gradually improving but

there are still warnings for icy

roads which remain treacherous. Then

there is the next thing when these

snow starts to melt and there are

flood warnings in parts of the

south-west and north-east of

England. With all of this disruption

around the UK, it'll take some time

to get everything back on track.

Thank you.

Consumer groups have criticised

the energy company E.On's

announcement that it's raising

prices for many of its customers.

The company, one of what are known

as the Big Six energy suppliers,

is scrapping the discounts offered

to some of its dual fuel

customers as well as removing

the discount for those who opt

for paperless billing.

Our business correspondent

Joe Lynam is here.

We often tend to think we are --

where one of these companies Leeds,

others will follow. Will they?

Too

early to say. E.On are saying they

are making it simpler for customers

to understand their tariffs and

compare them with other suppliers.

They are scrapping the discounts the

dual fuel customers, which has the

effect of raising the cost for

customers from next month by £22 on

an average bill. The real issue is

whether this will spread and cause a

new wave of price rises. We don't

know but we know oil prices are up

14% in the last year and there was a

huge spike in wholesale gas prices

as a direct result of the Beast of

the East. We know that companies buy

in large quantities which protects

them from these large spikes in

demand so they shouldn't raise their

prices as a result. The other key

thing to remember is that wholesale

gas prices is one of your -- one

part of your bill. Distribution,

getting it through your cables, is

about a quarter of the bill. And

their profits are 5%.

It is an

environment where the energy

companies are facing quite a lot of

political pressure. Are they worried

about the implications of price

rises?

There is a price cap on its

way, it'll be in force by next

winter, probably. And then, of

course, there is the Labour Party,

talking seriously about

nationalising a lot of the companies

and the water companies.

Thank you.

A number of people have been injured

and at least 100 arrested

in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Clashes between police

and anti-government demonstrators

occurred after the authorities

ordered a search of a protest camp

near the parliament.

Scientists are trialling

a new camera which could help

with the early detection of one

of the deadliest forms of cancer.

Almost 8,000 people died

from oesophageal cancer

in the UK last year.

Now doctors and physicists

in Cambridge have joined forces

to develop a new camera that

could pick out abnormal cells before

they develop into cancer.

Our science correspondent

Richard Westcott reports.

Right now, this is how you find one

of Britain's deadliest cancers.

Oesophageal cancer kills 21

people a day because it is

so difficult to spot.

Using a camera with a normal

white light on the end,

the doctors are looking

at the dark red patch.

These physicists already

use different coloured

lasers to study electrons,

now they are adapting the technique

to look for early signs of disease.

What happens is the tissue becomes

cancerous, you get a change

in the chemical composition

and different chemicals

have different colours,

which means that if we look

at the cancer with a technique that

allows us to capture information

from all of the different colours

of light that are being reflected,

we can get a fuller picture

of the disease state

that is present.

And this is how it might look.

Two thirds of our patients

will present with a cancer

that's already spreading

to the lymph glands.

And, then, after that, it can go

to the organs, like the liver.

If we treat a cancer

at the point at which it's

still within the tissue itself

of the oesophagus, and it hasn't

spread anywhere at all,

then we can remove it all,

and cure it.

And that's exactly

what happened to Jackie.

They caught her disease

in time and now she's fine.

I knew there was something wrong.

People shouldn't have

heartburn for 20 odd years.

Well, actually, it was 30 years.

They'll start trailling

the new camera on patients

in the next few weeks.

If successful, it could also be used

to spot other cancers

before they become fatal.

With all the sport,

here's Mike Bushell

at the BBC Sport Centre.

Good afternoon.

The system may have been

ridiculed in the week,

after the Spurs Rochdale FA cup

match, but the use of video

assistant referees has

today been approved

by football's world

governing body, Fifa.

It means despite the confusion

and delays it caused in that match

on Wednesday at Wembley,

it could now be used at this

Summer's World Cup.

It will mainly be used to decide

if a ball has crossed

the line for a goal,

in penalty decisons,

red cards and situations

of mistaken identity.

Lots of football matches

are off so check the sport

website for the details.

But the Scottish Cup quarter-finals

have survived so far.

The Scottish championship side are

holding up so far, goalless it

remains in the first half.

Seven Premier League games

all still on as well.

Burnley and Everton are just

coming up to half time.

And Everton are leading 1-0,

Turkish striker Chenk Tosun

scoring his first goal

since signing in January.

England are celebrating victory

against New Zealand in the third

one day international.

The Kiwis made a steady start,

as they chased 235 to win.

But Ben Stokes took a brilliant

catch, off Adil Rashid,

to start a run of wickets.

Moeen Ali took three wickets

as the Kiwis lost four

wickets for six runs.

A century from Captain Kane

Williamson did take them close

but in the end England won by four

runs and lead the series 2-1.

The man who has masterminded

Great Britain's domination of rowing

over the past two decades,

Sir David Tanner, has

retired this week.

But, while he'd been in charge

for over 21 years and his crews won

35 Olympic and Paralympic medals,

he never attracted much attention.

So, our reporter Tim Hague went

to meet him, to find out more.

Surprising really that one of

Britain's best elite coaches ever is

little known outside of running yet

British rowing under Sir David

Tanner's two decades of

leadership...

Great Britain on the

line!

Have won 35 Paralympic and

Olympic medals. Why is he retiring?

Why am I retiring? It will be hard

to step out. Rowing gives my hobby

and my life, in some ways but I

won't leave rowing. I've done 21

years which is quite a long time.

The first rowers have been out from

7am. You can see the sun is still

coming up and that commitment to

being the best comes from Sir David

all the way down. He is an ex-head

teacher and he still carries it with

him.

We've all been called into the

headmaster 's office and he has

created this incredible place of

success and inspiration and he will

always be remembered.

I was

confident that with financial

support, and that is where the

lottery comes in, I could build

something very good but not world

leading as we are now.

Does he feel

sorry for his successor? Comparisons

have been made with the

irreplaceable Sir Alex Ferguson when

he left Manchester United.

I don't

see myself as Sir Alex Ferguson at

all. I don't think I am a big cheese

in that way. I'm not modest about

being the leader of the best rowing

nation in the world, OK? But I don't

need to be somebody who puts his

head above the parapet too much.

But

success like Sir David's should be

celebrated. Did you know that since

you took over you've had a hand in

40% of British rowing medals in

British history?

I hadn't worked

that out. Is that right?

40%, the

first games was 1900.

It's not bad,

is it, then?

Not bad at all. And we

wish David a happy retirement.

That's all the sport for now.

You can see more on all of today's

stories on the BBC News Channel.

The next news on BBC

One is at 6:10pm.