03/03/2018 BBC Weekend News

Good evening.

Thousands of homes are still

without electricity,

and motorists and rail passengers

face continuing disruption,

as the UK struggles

with the bitter weather.

Snow drifts are blocking some major

roads and many rural

communities remain cut off.

As temperatures begin to rise -

easing problems in some areas -

there's a new threat of flooding,

with severe warnings in place

in parts of north-east

and south west England.

Dan Johnson reports.

At least Manchester and Leeds

were reconnected this morning

when the M62 opened.

Lots of other roads over these

hills are still blocked,

though.

It's been quite incredible,

never seen anything like it.

We've had sort of five

or so foot drifts

around where we live, the other side

of the hill over there.

Cars getting stuck.

Including police cars and so on.

The ice roads of the North Pennines.

This lane leading to the tiny

village of Bewcastle's been blocked

since Wednesday.

This morning, local

farmers cleared the snow.

You never see a gritter

out here, never.

People here are feeling

a bit forgotten.

I rang the highways department

yesterday morning asking

them to send out some assistance

as our tractor was stuck in a

neighbour's.

And they said there's no way

anybody was going to be out

our way.

I think it's absolutely disgusting.

Right across the North, there's

still plenty of snow to clear.

We don't want any more, but,

you know, it is what it is

and we can cope with it.

When you see the amount of snow

here you get an idea

of what this community has had

to endure this week.

This is not the only village

that has been cut off.

High tides and flooding are now a

risk. This is Dawlish on the

south-west coast. And look what the

trains have to plough through in

Scotland.

We actually hopeful of a

near normal service tomorrow, which

will set everything of people going

back to work on Monday morning. Very

hopeful we can provide a really good

service come Monday.

Hundreds of

homes across Wales were without

power. Leaking boilers have only

added to the misery.

Bedding is

damaged, the bed itself is gone,

soaking wet, the carpet such rated.

Some supermarkets are running short

after the beast from the east, the

hysteria from Siberia. There are

signs of warmer climes back in

Bewcastle. The long, slow thaw might

have started, that doesn't mean the

problems are over.

North Devon has seen particularly

heavy snow and some remote villages

have been cut off for days.

Jon Kay is there for us.

Yes, this is the A39 which crosses

Exmoor and heads towards the tourist

town of Lynton connecting lots of

little remote villages. When we got

here the road was completely covered

in snow. Snowploughs are going

through bit by bit very gradually.

They've just got round the corner

there, that's as far as you can get

at the moment. It is incredibly slow

progress. Here is why.

One scoop at a time.

But it is a massive task.

Clearing the A39 to free

this area of Devon.

We need to dig through

to get the roads open

again.

Dan has been helping out

as a volunteer, helping council and

highway staff.

So supplies can get

in and villagers can get out.

Down in the dip it

gets even worse, so

it's just going to take

how long it takes.

And it won't be quick.

It could be days

before they reach the

town of Lynton four miles away.

What's happened here

is that the high winds have brought

all this snow in off the moors

and it's basically

become trapped on the road

by the high trees and the bushes.

And it can't go anywhere.

It can't get away.

Compare it, look, with

the hills after the side.

There the snow has

pretty much melted now.

But on the road itself,

completely blocked.

We received these pictures from deep

within Exmoor today.

How long until all this thaws?

Karen's worried help

might not be able to

reach her village if

there's an emergency.

Life here is getting tough.

People are running low on supplies

and I think that worries

people in this day and age

when we are not used those sorts of

circumstances.

Linda is helping her neighbours.

These remote communities

are clearly working together.

What you do is put

an appeal on the village

Facebook site and somebody will come

up to the door and help you out if

you're really stuck.

So what have you had?

Well, it's always nice getting some

potatoes when you're

short of potatoes, isn't it?

But there can be no fresh deliveries

until all this is cleared.

So tonight the work

continues on the A39.

Jon Kay, BBC News, Devon.

Use Justin. Three men have been

charged with manslaughter and arson

over an explosion in Leicester which

left five people dead. Several

people were also injured in the

blast in the Hinckley Road area of

the city last Sunday. Three members

of the same family died when the

shop and flat were destroyed.

Reports from Syria suggest

government forces have gained more

ground in an assault

on the rebel-held area of eastern

Ghouta, near the capital Damascus.

Once again, no aid was delivered

during the daily five-hour

humanitarian ceasefire in eastern

Ghouta - and no

civilians mad it out.

civilians made it out.

President Assad's ally Russia says

rebels have prevented

civilians from leaving.

The rebels deny this.

The trial use of new video

technology, to assist football

referees, is proving controversial

in the English game.

Now football's world governing body

has approved its use,

and it's set to be used at this

year's World Cup in Russia.

The system allows referees to review

key moments during a match,

such as goals and penalty calls.

But critics say it's slowing down

the action and ruining the game ,

as Richard Conway reports.

From Diego Maradona's hand of God

to injustice in the biggest games.

Football has long opposed technology

to help officials make the important

decisions.

But after an historic vote,

all that has changed.

Video assistant referees

or VAR, as it's

known, finally given the go-ahead.

VAR is good for football,

it's good for refereeing.

It brings more fairness in the game.

And for these reasons

we have decided to

approve.

VAR will be used to correct errors

relating to goals, penalties,

straight red cards

and mistaken identity.

Nearly 1000 games have formed

part of a two year VAR

experiment.

Tottenham's match against

Rochdale last week was

included in the trial but was

criticised given lengthy delays

while the referee

reviewed incidents.

Leading to claims

technology is killing the

atmosphere and pace of the match.

The holy grail of football is the

World Cup, surely if it's not good

enough for the FA Cup we can't we

let out into the most prestigious

tournament we have every four years.

But one of the architect of the new

system told me there is evidence

video assistant is working.

On clear error situations,

the accuracy of

the referee decisions went from,

initially, 93% up to around 99%.

Of course there are

grey areas where an

incident could be a penalty, could

not be a penalty, and they will

always remain grey areas.

Football's leaders want to eliminate

game changing mistakes.

As the video trial has shown, anyone

who thinks technology will stop

controversy may want to think again.

Richard Conway, BBC News.

Scientists are testing

new technology which could lead

to the early detection

of oesophageal cancer.

It's one of the deadliest

forms of the disease,

claiming around 8,000 lives each

year in the UK.

Now doctors and physicists

in Cambridge have developed a camera

to spot 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 doctor's 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 is we get a change

in the chemical composition,

and different chemicals

have different colours,

meaning 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 present

with a cancer that is already

spreading to the lymph glands,

and after that it can go to distant

organs like the liver.

If we treat a cancer at that point

at which it is still

within the tissue of the tissue

itself and has not spread anywhere,

we can remove it all and cure it.

That is is that what

happened to Jackie.

They caught her disease in time,

and now she is fine.

I knew there was something wrong.

People should not have

heartburn for 20 odd years,

actually it was 30 years.

They will start trials

of 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.

Richard Westcott, BBC News.

We're back with the

late News at 10:10.