:00:12. > :00:16.injured in the deadliest attack on British military in more than a year
:00:16. > :00:22.in Afghanistan. The soldiers died after their heavily armoured vehicle
:00:22. > :00:26.was struck by a roadside on in Helmand province. We have paid a
:00:26. > :00:29.high price for the work we are doing in Afghanistan. It is important work
:00:29. > :00:37.because it is vital that the country does not become a haven for
:00:37. > :00:42.terrorists. We are outside the barracks. Scotland's first Minister
:00:42. > :00:48.called it tragic news. Also this lunchtime: Bill Roache is arrested
:00:48. > :00:51.on suspicion of an historic allegation of rape. The jury at the
:00:51. > :00:55.trial of the man accused of murdering April Jones are told that
:00:55. > :01:00.DNA that might have belonged to her was found on his clothing.
:01:00. > :01:10.Amanda Knox gives her first television interview after being
:01:10. > :01:16.
:01:16. > :01:22.cleared of murder. Did you kill her? No. Were you there that night?
:01:22. > :01:32.On BBC London News the man who has died during eight Greenland ice clan
:01:32. > :01:51.
:01:51. > :01:56.Good afternoon. Diminishing of defence has confirmed that three
:01:56. > :01:59.British soldiers have been killed and six others injured in a bomb
:01:59. > :02:01.blast in Afghanistan. They were all members of the Royal Highlan
:02:01. > :02:05.Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. They died when
:02:05. > :02:12.the armoured vehicle they were in was hit by a roadside bomb. Their
:02:12. > :02:21.families have been told. 440 four British personnel have been killed
:02:21. > :02:28.in Afghanistan since 2001. Herewith more, our defence correspondent.
:02:28. > :02:33.The flags are flying at half-mast today. The soldiers' families were
:02:33. > :02:39.told yesterday. The news is only just beginning to sink in. The prime
:02:39. > :02:43.minister insisted the force and their work remains vital. We have
:02:44. > :02:49.paid a high price. It is important work because it is vital that the
:02:49. > :02:54.country does not become a haven for terrorists again. Today, our
:02:54. > :02:58.thoughts should be with the families of those that have suffered. The
:02:58. > :03:02.soldiers were travelling in a heavily armoured vehicle, a Mastiff,
:03:02. > :03:08.which has protected many over the past few years. But it he is a
:03:08. > :03:12.roadside bomb, killing three. The vehicle should deflect the blast
:03:12. > :03:17.but it is thought it hit a very big device, causing the explosion that
:03:17. > :03:23.left six others injured. This one incident has doubled the number of
:03:23. > :03:28.British deaths in Helmand province six this year. In 2012, there was a
:03:28. > :03:35.total of 44 British fatalities in Afghanistan compared with 108 at the
:03:35. > :03:38.peak of fighting, in 2009. Though the perception is that for
:03:38. > :03:44.British troops the fight is coming to an end in Helmand province, there
:03:44. > :03:49.are still some 8000 British personnel there. Many are advising
:03:49. > :03:53.and mentoring their Afghan counterparts.
:03:53. > :03:59.The Taliban spring offensive means all are aware of the threat that
:03:59. > :04:03.remains. Everybody has to be on their guard. The perception that it
:04:03. > :04:09.had gone quiet was probably due to the fact that the Afghan security
:04:09. > :04:16.forces are doing a great deal more of this work on their own. Their
:04:16. > :04:21.casualties are still appreciable. However, perhaps because the number
:04:21. > :04:31.of British casualties has come down, it has made less news over here. The
:04:31. > :04:35.total of 444 British troops have lost their lives since 2001.
:04:35. > :04:45.The Ministry of defence says that security has improved but the risks
:04:45. > :04:50.
:04:50. > :04:58.remain. Combat operations are due to We will be speaking to our
:04:58. > :05:05.correspondent. But first, to Cabo. -- Kabul. It is the so-called spring
:05:05. > :05:09.offensive. Explain what it means and the indications for British troops.
:05:09. > :05:14.If you speak to Afghan officials, whether they are in the army or
:05:14. > :05:18.police, they add mid that this is the so-called fighting season. This
:05:18. > :05:25.is when the snow will have melted. The passes will be easy to go
:05:25. > :05:31.through if you are an insurgent. Simply, the dense forestation and
:05:31. > :05:38.feels mean you have to many places to hide. So they are prepared
:05:38. > :05:42.mentally for that. What we have also seen in the last few months is that
:05:43. > :05:48.Taliban insurgents have been attacking the security forces in
:05:48. > :05:58.some of the most remote quarters, including how man. -- including
:05:58. > :06:01.
:06:01. > :06:07.Helmand province. There is little or no air support from NATO or British
:06:07. > :06:13.troops, as will have been the case two years ago.
:06:13. > :06:17.Let's go now to Scotland. Laura, one can only imagine the reaction there
:06:17. > :06:23.today. As the Prime Minister said, their families are paying a high
:06:23. > :06:28.price for the work done in Afghanistan.
:06:28. > :06:32.Just over a month ago, 350 soldiers left these barracks. They had a job
:06:32. > :06:38.to do. Their role is to work alongside the Afghan police to train
:06:38. > :06:43.them and work alongside them to help give control of Afghanistan to them.
:06:43. > :06:50.The news today that three of their soldiers are dead will have come as
:06:50. > :06:56.such a devastating blow. They work alongside the soldiers. They will
:06:56. > :07:00.live alongside them. Alex Salmond described it as devastating. He said
:07:00. > :07:07.that the people of Scotland joined with him in offering condolences to
:07:07. > :07:11.the families involved. As for the troops, I am told that this news may
:07:11. > :07:18.make them more determined to do their job, do it well, and get home
:07:18. > :07:22.safely. The Coronation Street actor Bill
:07:23. > :07:26.Roache who plays Ken Barlow, has been arrested on suspicion of raping
:07:26. > :07:32.an underage girl. Lancashire police have confirmed that an 81-year-old
:07:32. > :07:37.was taken in for questioning this morning. What more can you tell us,
:07:37. > :07:40.Judith? News of this emerged with
:07:40. > :07:46.lectureship police confirmed they had arrested and 81-year-old man
:07:46. > :07:50.suspicion of rape. He is due to be questioned at some point today at a
:07:50. > :07:57.police station in the county. We know that it is in connection with
:07:57. > :08:00.two alleged offences of rape which are said to have happened in 1967,
:08:00. > :08:07.between April and July of that year, and to have involved one girl, who
:08:07. > :08:11.was 15 at the time. Bill Roache himself has not made any comment.
:08:11. > :08:15.Neither has ITV. He has played Ken Barlow in the soap since its first
:08:16. > :08:21.episode, in 1960. He has not been on screen recently because he has been
:08:21. > :08:25.away touring with a stage version of the soap in New Zealand. What we do
:08:25. > :08:30.understand, though, is that he will not appear in Coronation Street
:08:30. > :08:35.while this current investigations continue.
:08:35. > :08:38.A jury at the trial of the man accused of murdering a project has
:08:38. > :08:48.been told that DNA which may have belonged to the five-year-old was
:08:48. > :08:57.
:08:57. > :09:01.found on his clothing. -- murdering April Jones 's disappearance was
:09:01. > :09:05.reported around the world. But today, for the first time, it was
:09:05. > :09:09.revealed how she came to meet the man accused of her murder. The jury
:09:09. > :09:14.was also told about Mark Bridger 's movements around Machynlleth before
:09:14. > :09:19.and after the time she went missing. Some viewers may find the following
:09:20. > :09:24.reports distressing. October the 1st of last year started
:09:24. > :09:28.like any other day for April Jones. After school, she went swimming will
:09:28. > :09:33.stop then, as a tree, she played on her bike with her friend outside her
:09:33. > :09:39.home. Today, her parents were in court to hear how their daughter's
:09:39. > :09:44.path was to cross fatefully with a man accused of her murder. In the
:09:44. > :09:48.dock, Mark Bridger listened as the prosecution described how he had
:09:48. > :09:58.just picked up with his girlfriend. That morning, he sent her a text,
:09:58. > :10:13.
:10:13. > :10:18.viewed pornographic images on his laptop and a series of 32 closed
:10:18. > :10:23.images of a local 14-year-old girl. Later on, he drove to a parents
:10:23. > :10:29.evening at the local school. He then moved on to this estate, where April
:10:29. > :10:33.lived. Witnesses say he approached two girls there, offering to arrange
:10:33. > :10:38.a sleepover with his daughter. Shortly afterwards, the prosecution
:10:38. > :10:43.say he abducted April. What followed was a search that became the largest
:10:43. > :10:47.in UK policing history. The jury was told that Mark Bridger initially
:10:47. > :10:52.claimed to know nothing about her disappearance. The next day,
:10:52. > :10:56.volunteers looking for April saw him carrying a black bin bag. Traces of
:10:56. > :11:01.April 's DNA were found in Mark Bridger 's home and on his clothes.
:11:01. > :11:06.When he was arrested, he told police, I know what it is about. I
:11:07. > :11:09.crushed her with a car. I don't know where she is. In the last few
:11:09. > :11:16.minutes, the jury has been shown images from inside Mark Bridger's
:11:16. > :11:23.home. He denies the three charges of
:11:23. > :11:30.abduction, murder, and averting the course of justice.
:11:30. > :11:33.A British adventurer has died during a track in Greenland. Philip
:11:33. > :11:37.Goodeve-Docker Was taking part in an expedition with two other British
:11:38. > :11:41.men went it is believed they were caught up in a severe snowstorm. The
:11:41. > :11:46.Foreign Office says the other men are recovering in hospital.
:11:46. > :11:52.There has been a big rise in the number of cross border legal battles
:11:52. > :11:54.over children, particularly those involving child adoption. A new
:11:54. > :11:58.report by the International Family Justice for England and Wales shows
:11:59. > :12:08.the number of cases referred to by British judges rose by 40%, to more
:12:09. > :12:10.
:12:10. > :12:17.than 250. Naomi's daughter was updated by her
:12:17. > :12:23.father on a family holiday to J eejit -- to eejit. I count the
:12:23. > :12:28.number of days it has been. I think it is one day closer to finding her.
:12:28. > :12:32.Everyday I get through is a success, it is one they further forward. I
:12:32. > :12:42.try each day to do something I can to move things forward. Today 's
:12:42. > :12:42.
:12:42. > :12:46.report, reveals a sharp rise in cases like Naomi's.
:12:46. > :12:52.The number of cases the office deals with has more than doubled in the
:12:52. > :13:01.past two years. There were three new cases in 2005. That rose to 92 in
:13:01. > :13:08.2010. 253 in 2012. Lawyers in the UK are noticing the increase in
:13:08. > :13:15.numbers. On average, we get one call a week.
:13:15. > :13:19.The increase in relationships across continents make it more public to do
:13:19. > :13:24.if there is a breakdown in the family relationship. Sometimes,
:13:24. > :13:27.parents take matters into their own hands. Almost half the countries in
:13:27. > :13:30.the world are signed up to an international agreement to return
:13:30. > :13:34.children who are abducted by one parent.
:13:34. > :13:39.It is generally regarded as pretty effective. But if a child is taken
:13:39. > :13:44.from the UK to a country that is not signed up, it can be impossible to
:13:44. > :13:50.get them back. The child is lost maybe four years. What we have to do
:13:50. > :13:57.is to persuade as many of the states that are outside the international
:13:57. > :14:02.agreement to join, to sign up to the international agreement. That, in my
:14:02. > :14:08.view, should be our first priority. Sadly for Naomi, Egypt's is not a
:14:08. > :14:18.party to the international agreement. Her weight to be reunited
:14:18. > :14:20.
:14:20. > :14:29.Our main story: Three soldiers die and six more are injured in a deadly
:14:29. > :14:32.attack on a British military in Afghanistan. Still to come, how the
:14:33. > :14:37.humble paperback is still holding its own against a generation of
:14:38. > :14:42.tablet readers. As the cruise ship season starts, we look at the
:14:42. > :14:46.traffic on the River Thames. And London's appeal as a destination.
:14:46. > :14:56.And the street dance film looking at the very real prospect of youth club
:14:56. > :15:09.
:15:09. > :15:14.television interview since being freed. She says she may return to
:15:14. > :15:17.Italy to face a retrial. Speaking to ABC television, she described her
:15:17. > :15:25.need for justice and spoke about the long-running legal battle to prove
:15:25. > :15:35.her innocence. What happened to me hit me like a
:15:35. > :15:42.
:15:42. > :15:46.train... And there was nothing I first thing you thought when you saw
:15:46. > :15:51.Meredith? I was putting away things in my room when she came to my door
:15:51. > :16:00.and introduced herself and was immediately very nice, just this
:16:00. > :16:08.immediate exchange of, wow, this is someone who I can get along with.
:16:08. > :16:13.Were you ever jealous of her? Were you ever angry at her? No. It
:16:13. > :16:17.bothers me when people suggest she was not my friend. I was stunned by
:16:17. > :16:24.her death. She was my friend. My friend had been murdered, and it
:16:24. > :16:34.could just as easily have been me. Somehow, she had died in the house
:16:34. > :16:44.where we were living. And it could have been me. Did you kill Meredith
:16:44. > :16:54.Kercher? No.Were you there that night? No.Do you know anything you
:16:54. > :16:55.
:16:55. > :17:00.have not told police? No. I don't. I was not there. But you can first.
:17:00. > :17:07.Well, I didn't confess. I was interrogated, they acted like my
:17:07. > :17:12.answers were wrong. They told me I was wrong, that I did not remember
:17:12. > :17:19.correctly, that I has to remember correctly, and if I didn't, I would
:17:19. > :17:24.never see my family again. I cannot be afraid right now. I have to be
:17:24. > :17:26.ready to fight and defend myself. Her parents say they hope someday to
:17:26. > :17:30.see the Kerchers when they understand that Amanda is not
:17:30. > :17:40.involved. Amanda Knox said she does not want to add to their grief,
:17:40. > :17:40.
:17:40. > :17:46.hoping that someday... Eventually, I can have their permission to pay my
:17:46. > :17:56.respects at her grave. It is all I can give them, this memory that I
:17:56. > :17:59.
:17:59. > :18:02.have of her. To add to all of theirs that they can carry with them when
:18:02. > :18:07.she is gone. Amanda Knox speaking to Diane Sawyer
:18:07. > :18:10.from ABC News. The deputy leader of the Labour Party has denied that the
:18:10. > :18:13.party has been sending mixed messages about its economic policy.
:18:13. > :18:18.At the beginning of the week, Ed Miliband refused to say whether
:18:18. > :18:23.borrowing would go up if he was in power, but Harriet Harman said in an
:18:23. > :18:27.interview today that a short-term rise would be necessary to fund a
:18:27. > :18:31.temporary cut in VAT. Let's try to understand what is going on and hear
:18:31. > :18:38.from political correspondent Norman Smith, a little confusion over the
:18:38. > :18:41.economy here, Norman. Well, what is going on is that Labour's deputy
:18:41. > :18:43.leader was forced to come out today and say that the party was not at
:18:43. > :18:48.sixes and sevens over the economy, and is follow some awkward tangles
:18:48. > :18:51.it has got into over how it presents economic messages, starting with Ed
:18:51. > :18:55.Miliband refusing to say whether borrowing would go up under a Labour
:18:55. > :19:01.government, only for Ed Balls and today Harriet Harman to say, yes,
:19:01. > :19:07.indeed there would be a temporary increase in borrowing. And therefore
:19:07. > :19:11.Harriet Harman to say, not be able to say whether any companies had
:19:11. > :19:15.been signed up to the Labour Party jobs guarantee. Why this matters is
:19:15. > :19:19.very obviously we are in a week of crucial local council elections, but
:19:20. > :19:24.more than that, on the economy, credibility is absolutely critical,
:19:24. > :19:29.and if you do not speak with clarity and certainty and conviction, it is
:19:30. > :19:34.that much harder to convince voters. It does not amount to a full-blown
:19:34. > :19:38.jelly travel moment, a wobble on the economy, but I suspect there will be
:19:38. > :19:45.people in Labour circles who think that the party has got to stick with
:19:45. > :19:48.a good deal greater certainty in the economy if it wants to win voters.
:19:48. > :19:51.Business Secretary Vince Cable has written to the Scottish legal
:19:51. > :19:56.authorities calling for a rapid decision on whether to prosecute the
:19:56. > :20:01.former directors of RBS. He said a resolution needed to be reached to
:20:01. > :20:05.maintain public confidence in the bank, which had a �45 billion
:20:05. > :20:09.bailout funded by the taxpayer in 2008. Chief economic correspondent
:20:09. > :20:12.Hugh Pym has more. The collapse of Royal Bank of
:20:12. > :20:17.Scotland was one of the most magic of the global banking crisis.
:20:17. > :20:21.British taxpayers had to pick up the pieces. No formal action has been
:20:21. > :20:24.taken against those who ran the bank before the crisis, although the
:20:24. > :20:27.former chief executive, Fred Goodwin, has been stripped of his
:20:27. > :20:32.knighthood. The financial regulator, the FSA, said in a report
:20:32. > :20:35.at the end of 2011 that the RBS failure resulted from work
:20:35. > :20:40.management decisions and the acquisition of a Dutch bank, ABN
:20:40. > :20:44.Amro, before the crisis had been an extremely risky deal. The Business
:20:44. > :20:48.Secretary said that in light of that report he had been advised that
:20:48. > :20:51.prosecutions could be considered. The issue was referred to the
:20:51. > :20:56.Scottish authorities early last year. Now he has written to them,
:20:56. > :20:59.asking what is happening. It is now five years since the banking crisis.
:20:59. > :21:04.I think the public are impatient in terms of holding people to account,
:21:04. > :21:07.maybe there is no basis for doing so, but I think it is quite
:21:07. > :21:13.legitimate to want to know what stage of the process we actually are
:21:13. > :21:16.at. Vince Cable says he understands that any decision on further action
:21:17. > :21:20.will be taken by the independent prosecuting body. He says he is not
:21:21. > :21:25.trying to influence the outcome of that process. Even so, his letter
:21:25. > :21:28.received a terse response from the Scottish legal authorities. The Lord
:21:28. > :21:33.Advocate, Frank Mulholland, the chief prosecutor in Scotland, has
:21:33. > :21:35.replied to the letter, which was sent to the advocate general, the
:21:35. > :21:39.British government 's law officer for Scottish issues. I am
:21:39. > :21:43.disappointed, he says, to hear that the Secretary of State has written
:21:43. > :21:48.to the Advocate general in such terms, the investigation is complex
:21:48. > :21:50.and ongoing, and the volume of material being considered is vast.
:21:50. > :21:53.One member of the Scottish Parliament questioned why Vince
:21:53. > :22:01.Cable had intervened at this stage and told us he was playing politics
:22:01. > :22:04.with an issue best left to lawyers. A 24-hour general strike is under
:22:04. > :22:08.way in Greece affecting public transport, ferries and hospital.
:22:08. > :22:11.Thousands of people have taken part in demonstrations in Athens over
:22:11. > :22:16.record unemployment figures and tough new austerity measures which
:22:16. > :22:19.have been passed by the government. Thousands of workers have also
:22:19. > :22:22.marched through the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, to demand improved
:22:22. > :22:28.safety after the collapse of a building housing clothing factories
:22:28. > :22:34.last week. More than 400 people are now known to have died. An estimated
:22:34. > :22:39.150 more workers are still missing. Deanna Durbin, one of Hollywood's
:22:39. > :22:46.biggest stars in the 1930s and 1940s, has died. She was 91. The
:22:47. > :22:49.Canadian born soprano and actress started her career as a teenager. By
:22:49. > :22:52.the time she retired in her late 20s, she was one of the worlds
:22:52. > :22:55.highest paid women. The advent of digital books
:22:55. > :23:00.initially caused concern for the future of the paperback and hard
:23:00. > :23:03.bike industry, but it seems those fears have been unfounded. New
:23:03. > :23:07.figures suggest that while digital sales have risen at a bar straight,
:23:07. > :23:11.sales of traditional books have also more than held their own with
:23:11. > :23:18.revenues for British publishers hire in 2012 than any other previous
:23:18. > :23:23.year, as technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones reports. Read a
:23:23. > :23:26.good book lately? Whether it is on one of the new e-readers, hardback
:23:26. > :23:29.or paperback, we seem to be reading more than ever, and Britain's
:23:29. > :23:35.publishers are confident they are coping well with the digital
:23:35. > :23:43.revolution. They say 2012 was a record year. Digital sales rose 66%,
:23:43. > :23:53.while sales of physical books were down just 1%. Overall revenue was up
:23:53. > :23:56.4%, up to �3.3 billion. E-books sales are going to grow over the
:23:56. > :24:00.next few years, but we are not heading to a world where physical
:24:01. > :24:04.books disappear, we are heading towards a world where it is 50-50.
:24:04. > :24:08.The speed at which we are moving towards digital reading depends on
:24:08. > :24:12.the book involved. A quarter of fiction that we buy is for
:24:12. > :24:17.downloading and reading on this kind of device, whereas for non-fiction
:24:17. > :24:24.books, like a cookbook, the figure is just 5%, and when it comes to
:24:24. > :24:32.children's books just 3% are read on screen. There is a strong novel
:24:32. > :24:36.bursting to get out... And when he -- while many find e-readers more
:24:36. > :24:41.convenient, members of this book club seemed reluctant to go digital.
:24:41. > :24:45.I love the feel and texture and the artefact and also the fact that it
:24:45. > :24:49.is something that is not going to run out of batteries. I have never
:24:49. > :24:53.got into those, but what I do love about them is that it gets people
:24:53. > :24:58.into reading who perhaps would not be reading otherwise. Or me, it does
:24:58. > :25:02.not matter how you read something, the important thing is that you
:25:02. > :25:06.read. It is thought more than 10 million people in the UK now own a
:25:06. > :25:15.e-reader, but even if our habits are changing, it is far too early to
:25:15. > :25:20.Well, one author who never had a problem selling books was Enid
:25:20. > :25:24.Blyton. Her novels, including Noddy, the Famous Five and the
:25:24. > :25:29.Secret Seven, have been in print since 1922. 90 years later, the
:25:29. > :25:34.first ever major exhibition into a life and work is being held in
:25:34. > :25:41.Newcastle. Colin Patterson has been to take a look.
:25:41. > :25:44.This is the mystery of Enid Blyton and the very long wait, author of
:25:44. > :25:49.the Famous Five and the Secret Seven, the number here is 45, that
:25:49. > :25:54.is how many years it has taken from her death for there to be an
:25:54. > :25:58.exhibition dedicated to her work. When she was alive and very active,
:25:58. > :26:02.she tortured and held events and talk to children about how she
:26:02. > :26:08.wrote, but from the 1960s through to the 1980s sea was less fashionable,
:26:08. > :26:16.and with that distance of time, we can appreciate all she brought to
:26:16. > :26:21.our literary heritage for children. Their mother is Enid Blyton, she
:26:21. > :26:24.rattles of 6000 words a day... exhibition includes a typewriter,
:26:24. > :26:30.the only unpublished full-length novel and areas dedicated to her
:26:30. > :26:38.most famous stories. Climbing up the top branch of the tree, there you
:26:38. > :26:42.are in some peculiar land! Oh, Noddy, look, do as I do! Despite
:26:42. > :26:47.selling upwards of 5 million books, Enid Blyton has been heavily
:26:47. > :26:51.criticised over the years. She has been called everything from a racist
:26:51. > :26:56.to a sexist to a classist, and some of those things, when you are
:26:56. > :27:00.looking at them from the perspective of 2013, might seem true, but you
:27:00. > :27:05.have to remember that she was very much a woman of her time. She was
:27:05. > :27:09.reflecting the values of the day. It seemed normal to most people.
:27:09. > :27:15.exhibition does not shy away from these issues, but its main aim is
:27:15. > :27:19.simply to celebrate the work of Enid Blyton and explain why her appeal
:27:19. > :27:23.has pleased generations. She was a genius at writing the right story
:27:23. > :27:29.for the right child at the right time at the right age. And it is
:27:29. > :27:38.clear she is still attracting young fans. I have read quite a few, about
:27:38. > :27:44.300. What have you liked so far? think the Secret Seven shared.
:27:44. > :27:50.you? The Secret Seven shared.That is popular! What is going on in
:27:50. > :27:53.here? While there is plenty of cake on show, one thing you will not find
:27:53. > :28:03.is lashings of ginger beer. The truth is, she never wrote that
:28:03. > :28:06.phrase in any of her books. Quite a few, 300! That is going
:28:06. > :28:16.some, Alex Deakin has joined us for the weather. The sunshine has been
:28:16. > :28:19.
:28:19. > :28:22.bringing us some cheer, is it going had a happy ending like Enid Blyton.
:28:22. > :28:27.It is a bit of a thriller this weekend. It is spectacular at the
:28:27. > :28:30.moment if you have got the sunshine, we started a touch below
:28:30. > :28:36.freezing, but the May sunshine is pretty strong, and it is covering
:28:36. > :28:41.the southern half of the UK. Further north, there is more cloud around,
:28:41. > :28:46.and still very windy across the far north of Scotland. There will be
:28:46. > :28:49.showery outbreaks of rain across northern England and North Wales,
:28:49. > :28:53.and still one or two showers in northern Scotland with a wintry
:28:53. > :28:58.flavour, some snow over the hills. A bright afternoon through central
:28:58. > :29:02.Scotland and Northern Ireland, some sunny spells here. Even in northern
:29:02. > :29:06.England and North Wales there will be some brightness. Across the far
:29:06. > :29:08.south, we will hang on to the sunshine across East Anglia and the
:29:08. > :29:12.southern counties of England and Wales with temperatures getting into
:29:12. > :29:16.the midteens, in one or two places may be as high as 18. Temperatures
:29:16. > :29:19.will fall again tonight, another chilly one, but more cloud across
:29:19. > :29:24.southern areas means it will not be quite as cold here. However, a hint
:29:24. > :29:28.of blue on the chart suggests, in rural areas of northern England and
:29:28. > :29:33.Scotland, we will get down to freezing. So it will be a cold start
:29:33. > :29:37.in the morning, but for the majority a sunny start. Maybe some folk
:29:37. > :29:40.through the north, a cloudy day for Northern Ireland, patchy rain here,
:29:40. > :29:44.turning right across northern Scotland with snow on the hills.
:29:44. > :29:48.Another big changes the extreme south-east, more cloud for Kent, one
:29:48. > :29:53.or two showers. For the heart of the country, with some sunshine,
:29:53. > :29:56.temperatures easily into the midteens, 18 or 19 is possible. We
:29:56. > :30:03.could hit 20 Friday where we get sunshine, which is most likely
:30:03. > :30:06.across eastern areas. Further west, cooler, wetter, rain late in the day
:30:06. > :30:11.for Northern Ireland, pushing into north-west England. That is from
:30:11. > :30:14.this weather front, which is the first player for the weekend. It
:30:14. > :30:18.pushes southwards during Friday night, it could still bring cloud
:30:18. > :30:23.and patchy rain across south-eastern areas at first, but it should clear
:30:23. > :30:28.away. More rain in north-west Scotland on Saturday, but most
:30:28. > :30:33.places like dry and bright, maybe not quite as warm, but 15 Celsius is
:30:33. > :30:36.possible. The long weekend has been giving us some headaches. This time
:30:36. > :30:40.yesterday we were confident that places would be dry and bright, but
:30:40. > :30:45.it looks like northern areas will be cooler with blustery showers. The
:30:45. > :30:54.best of the dry and bright weather is further south. There's more on
:30:54. > :30:57.been injured in the deadliest attack on the British military in
:30:57. > :31:02.Afghanistan in more than a year after their vehicle was hit by a
:31:02. > :31:08.roadside bomb. Bill Roache, Coronation Street's longest serving
:31:08. > :31:12.actor, has been arrested on suspicion of rape. Still to come on