:00:00. > :00:11.More weather misery as winter storms cause fresh disruption for large
:00:12. > :00:14.parts of the UK. There are problems on the roads and railways -
:00:15. > :00:20.thousands of homes are still without power.
:00:21. > :00:22.A huge explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut kills five people
:00:23. > :00:30.including the former Finance Minister.
:00:31. > :00:32.And in sport - finally, a good day for England in the fourth Ashes test
:00:33. > :00:55.in Melbourne. Good afternoon. Powerful gales and
:00:56. > :00:59.heavy rain have returned to the UK, causing further disruption. Around
:01:00. > :01:03.15,000 homes are without power across England, Wales and Northern
:01:04. > :01:07.Ireland. Rail services have been disrupted and many roads are closed.
:01:08. > :01:12.The Met Office is warning of gusts up to 80mph in north Wales and
:01:13. > :01:15.northern England. And there are still more than 50 flood warnings
:01:16. > :01:25.across the country. Judith Moritz is in Blackpool for us now. Yes, they
:01:26. > :01:32.are used to a recent Blackpool, you can see the Scots just behind me
:01:33. > :01:34.there, they are specially made to withstand high winds -- the
:01:35. > :01:41.sculptures. They have needed to be today will, with peak winds reaching
:01:42. > :01:45.80 mph. Even here where I am standing, we have had to find a
:01:46. > :01:52.sheltered spot to broadcast from, that was measured at 40 mph.
:01:53. > :01:56.Blackpool's seafront is often bracing in winter, this morning it
:01:57. > :02:00.was being buffeted by particularly high winds. The Gaels sliced across
:02:01. > :02:04.the sea, having been forecast to reach speeds of up to 80 mph across
:02:05. > :02:10.the coast of the Northwest. High winds have brought power lines
:02:11. > :02:13.down. In Northern Ireland, 20,000 homes had to be reconnected
:02:14. > :02:20.overnight and this house in County Down caught fire when an electricity
:02:21. > :02:23.pole fell on the roof. Unfortunately, for a lot of people
:02:24. > :02:29.Christmas has in effect been cancelled. Engineers, people working
:02:30. > :02:34.in our network companies, have been working around the clock since
:02:35. > :02:37.Monday. They are part of the local communities they serve, so they are
:02:38. > :02:41.their own neighbours may want to get people back on as soon as they can.
:02:42. > :02:48.On the rail network there has been disruption and delay across several
:02:49. > :02:54.lines. Some passengers at Victoria Station were in for a long wait.
:02:55. > :03:00.There is not even a seat here, so standing for three hours is bad. I
:03:01. > :03:04.have been here since seven, couldn't get a train, had to get a coach. The
:03:05. > :03:10.only one I could get was seven in the morning to meet these are 12, so
:03:11. > :03:13.I have been here five hours. It wasn't just the railways, the roads
:03:14. > :03:16.in the south of England still bear the marks of the Christmas floods,
:03:17. > :03:22.and that's the bad weather moves north, the authorities are keeping a
:03:23. > :03:25.close eye on the changing situation. Previous experience has taught us
:03:26. > :03:29.that it is important to have cruise on stand-by when we have the high
:03:30. > :03:32.winds, there are going to be a number of trees falling over
:03:33. > :03:37.particularly with the ground being as sudden as it is, so it is
:03:38. > :03:42.important to get the road reopened as quickly as practical. The
:03:43. > :03:45.holidays have been a wash-out for this family in Surrey. Their home
:03:46. > :03:49.flooded on Christmas Day and now they are spending the end of the
:03:50. > :03:53.year dealing with the damage. The worst of the weather has now moved
:03:54. > :03:56.the North of England and Scotland, and his later, but for some, this
:03:57. > :04:04.will be a Christmas they would rather forget. -- and will ease
:04:05. > :04:08.later. As we speak, there are still 7000 houses without power in Cumbria
:04:09. > :04:11.and here in neighbouring Lancashire, as you can see it is still a
:04:12. > :04:16.question of battening down the hatches. As we've been hearing,
:04:17. > :04:19.strong winds and flooding have caused major disruption on the
:04:20. > :04:23.transport system today. Roads have been closed and railways are
:04:24. > :04:26.operating reduced services. The East Coast Mainline, Virgin Trains, South
:04:27. > :04:29.Eastern and Arriva services have all been affected as Network Rail check
:04:30. > :04:39.routes for fallen trees. Jane Francis Kelly is at Victoria Station
:04:40. > :04:44.in London for us now. Well, it's been a very frustrating day for some
:04:45. > :04:48.travellers here at Victoria. Passengers have been looking at rows
:04:49. > :04:52.of screens on which they asked seeing cancelled and delayed trains,
:04:53. > :04:58.and that is because South-eastern Trains were told to cancel their
:04:59. > :05:03.services until noon. The man in charge of the smooth running of the
:05:04. > :05:07.network is here. Give us an idea of what's happening in the rest of the
:05:08. > :05:10.country. We have a mixed picture, some places are running city well,
:05:11. > :05:16.the Midlands, the North, Scotland are in good shape, but the problem
:05:17. > :05:19.we have got now is flooding from all the rain we have had. It was
:05:20. > :05:23.difficult getting everybody where they wanted to be on Christmas Eve.
:05:24. > :05:28.We have now spent 48 hours clearing up the remains of the trees, a lot
:05:29. > :05:31.of landslips, mudslides, and on top of that we have the weekend of
:05:32. > :05:36.Christmas engineering works which kicked in on Christmas Eve so places
:05:37. > :05:41.like the Tory today, we have landslips in Kent, Sussex towards
:05:42. > :05:47.Dorking, we have a big one on the main line out of Waterloo on the
:05:48. > :05:50.line down to Portsmouth. So what passengers are facing today is some
:05:51. > :05:55.destruction anywhere because of engineering works, they would have
:05:56. > :06:01.been bussed substitutions... What about Scotland and Wales? We have
:06:02. > :06:05.some flooding, in the far north we have clear that out, there is a lot
:06:06. > :06:09.of wind up there, we're robbers with the trees and the overhead wires
:06:10. > :06:16.between Preston and Glasgow. Was it a mistake to tell South-eastern
:06:17. > :06:21.Trains to cancel? It's what we have done, I have explained before, this
:06:22. > :06:28.is what we do when we have big storms. It would be stupid to get
:06:29. > :06:31.the emergency services to come and rescue when everybody is so
:06:32. > :06:37.stretched. What we did again last night and last weekend, what I did
:06:38. > :06:41.with the previous dorm is to stop, check the network is safe before we
:06:42. > :06:47.let people run. -- the previous dorm. We have been told that train
:06:48. > :06:52.services in Northern Ireland are running smoothly but check before
:06:53. > :06:55.you travel. A former Lebanese Cabinet Minister
:06:56. > :06:58.is among at least five people who have been killed in a huge explosion
:06:59. > :07:01.in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The explosion is said to have taken
:07:02. > :07:03.place in the city centre, near government offices and the
:07:04. > :07:09.parliament building. Mohammed Chatah was a leading aide to the former
:07:10. > :07:11.Prime Minister, Saad Hariri. Our Correspondent Kim Ghattas is in
:07:12. > :07:20.Beirut, at the scene of the explosion. The Lebanese people were
:07:21. > :07:25.trying to enjoy the festive season, the holiday season. Thousands, if
:07:26. > :07:29.not hundreds of thousands of Lebanese across the country were
:07:30. > :07:32.enjoying this holiday period, thousands of people flying in from
:07:33. > :07:38.around the world to be with their family here in Beirut. A lot of them
:07:39. > :07:41.celebrating here in this glitzy part of town, where you have French
:07:42. > :07:46.restraints and designer boutiques. But it was all brought to a very
:07:47. > :07:54.abrupt and violent end earlier this morning. Horrorstruck the heart of
:07:55. > :07:59.Beirut at 9:30am this morning as people drove to work over the copy
:08:00. > :08:01.by the sea. The beautifully rebuilt centre of town, the scene of
:08:02. > :08:09.devastation for the first time in years. TRANSLATION: We were inside
:08:10. > :08:14.and felt glass breaking and coming in. Then we heard the sound, an
:08:15. > :08:22.explosion happened. We waited until it was over and then we went out and
:08:23. > :08:26.saw this. TRANSLATION: I think all this terrorism is damaging the
:08:27. > :08:34.country and the people. What more can we say? . Help this country.
:08:35. > :08:38.Pataki was this man -- the target was this man, Mohammed Chatah,
:08:39. > :08:44.soft-spoken and a voice of moderation in a polarised country.
:08:45. > :08:48.Crucially, he was a key adviser to Saad Hariri, the leader of the
:08:49. > :08:56.political bloc opposed to Styria's government and its ally here in
:08:57. > :09:00.Lebanon, Hezbollah. Saad Hariri is already -- has already indirectly
:09:01. > :09:03.accused Hezbollah of being behind the killing. Lebanon is living
:09:04. > :09:08.through crises, all compounded the war next door in Syria. There has
:09:09. > :09:15.been no Cabinet here in Beirut for nine months already. Hezbollah, a
:09:16. > :09:20.Shia group from Lebanon, is fighting alongside President Assad's forces
:09:21. > :09:25.in Syria, and in the hometown of Mohammed Chatah, cine militants
:09:26. > :09:29.regularly cross into Syria to support the rebels there. Hezbollah
:09:30. > :09:32.has also paid the price of its role in Syria, with suicide bombings
:09:33. > :09:39.targeting areas where it operates in southern Beirut. Lebanon is facing
:09:40. > :09:42.multiple crises, it is a complex country and it is still haunted by a
:09:43. > :09:48.long series of unresolved assassinations. But increasingly,
:09:49. > :09:53.with every bit of violence and every assassination here, there is a sense
:09:54. > :09:57.that the crisis in Lebanon is tied to the war in Syria and Lebanon's
:09:58. > :10:01.fate is increasingly tied to the outcome of the conflict across the
:10:02. > :10:05.board. The inquest into the death of a
:10:06. > :10:08.British doctor who died in prison in Syria has been opened and adjourned.
:10:09. > :10:10.Walthamstow Coroner's Court in north London heard that the Syrian
:10:11. > :10:15.authorities believe that Abbas Khan killed himself. His family insist he
:10:16. > :10:18.was murdered. The police are investigating the
:10:19. > :10:22.death of a man at a house in Nottingham. A woman was taken to
:10:23. > :10:24.hospital with what are described as potentially life-threatening
:10:25. > :10:27.injuries. Two children were also found at the property in Bircotes
:10:28. > :10:30.but they were uninjured. Police are still at the scene and are
:10:31. > :10:34.investigating the circumstances of the man's death.
:10:35. > :10:37.Five British Greenpeace activists and one Canadian have left Russia,
:10:38. > :10:41.after being freed from prison as part of an amnesty by President
:10:42. > :10:43.Putin. They were among 30 people arrested during a protest about oil
:10:44. > :10:54.drilling in the Arctic. Our World Affairs Correspondent Rajesh
:10:55. > :10:56.Mirchandani reports. Along but welcome journey begins the
:10:57. > :11:03.these Greenpeace activists, five per and and one Canadian flew out of St
:11:04. > :11:06.Petersburg earlier today. Freed after a Russian government amnesty
:11:07. > :11:13.saw charges against them dropped stop most were relieved but still
:11:14. > :11:17.defined. To receive amnesty is strange because we are being
:11:18. > :11:23.forgiven for crime we didn't commit but I'm happy this is over and we
:11:24. > :11:28.can move on with our lives now. But Russia sees it differently. Industry
:11:29. > :11:33.Matic encounter in September, its authority surrounded and fired near
:11:34. > :11:42.a Greenpeace vessel in Arctic waters. The protesters want to stop
:11:43. > :11:46.drilling in the Arctic. 30 were arrested, including Kieron Bryan
:11:47. > :11:50.here. They were charged with hooliganism, which could have meant
:11:51. > :11:53.several years behind ours. With the accused said the prison they will
:11:54. > :11:58.help was like a concentration camp. A few days ago, except pieces were
:11:59. > :12:04.granted after Russia's parliament approves an amnesty bill. That move
:12:05. > :12:10.also bought freedom from members of the punk band Pussy Riot, jailed for
:12:11. > :12:14.singing protest songs in the Cathedral and for the tycoon could a
:12:15. > :12:20.costly, who spent ten years in prison on tax evasion charges.
:12:21. > :12:24.President Putin's decision to ease off on his opponents comes just
:12:25. > :12:29.weeks before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics. But now, the anxious
:12:30. > :12:35.relatives like this one, family reunions are all that matter. I
:12:36. > :12:39.think we're going to open a few beers and really enjoy the fact that
:12:40. > :12:42.he is back, almost for Christmas. We're properly going to have another
:12:43. > :12:48.Christmas day and enjoy the fact he's around again. Today, the
:12:49. > :12:52.British government welcome to the protesters's return but said it
:12:53. > :12:57.still has concerns about Russia's legal system.
:12:58. > :13:03.Cricket, and England are in a good position after the second day of the
:13:04. > :13:06.fourth Ashes test in Melbourne. After being all out for 255,
:13:07. > :13:09.England's bowlers got them back into the game, restricting Australia to
:13:10. > :13:14.164 for nine at the close. Our Chief Sports Correspondent Dan Roan
:13:15. > :13:16.reports. Generation has passed since
:13:17. > :13:21.Australia's greatest fast bowler struck fear into English hearts, but
:13:22. > :13:25.the first hour of day two, it felt like the MCG had gone back in time.
:13:26. > :13:31.Mitchell Johnson evokes memories of Dennis Lily in the face and in pace.
:13:32. > :13:35.Once again at his vicious best. Tim Bresnan didn't know what hit him. --
:13:36. > :13:40.hopes hinge on Kevin Pietersen but having daily added to his overnight
:13:41. > :13:46.67, four hours of maturity undone in a moment of madness. With cricket
:13:47. > :13:51.resembling a blood sport, Johnson went hunting again. Stuart Broad's
:13:52. > :13:59.scalp insured as defining series. England were all out for 255. That
:14:00. > :14:03.seemed inadequate but England's bowlers had other ideas as Shane
:14:04. > :14:07.Watson fell before lunch. Suddenly Australia knew they were in a fight.
:14:08. > :14:15.Rogers was felled by Stuart Broad and the hosts were 62 -- 62-3.
:14:16. > :14:17.Rogers propped up the innings with a dog of 50 but England have
:14:18. > :14:24.remembered how they used to win Ashes series. The tourists took
:14:25. > :14:27.control. Brad Haddin has been a thorn in England's side, again
:14:28. > :14:34.threatening to rescue his team but he could do nothing about the late
:14:35. > :14:38.flurry of wickets. Australia, 164 - nine at the end. England had fought
:14:39. > :14:44.that, if only the series were still alive. We were really hungry to get
:14:45. > :14:52.something out of this tour. I thought we chased everything, I
:14:53. > :14:58.thought Cook sets in good fields, it was a complete performance. After
:14:59. > :15:02.England's best day on tour, they may have the chance to seal would be a
:15:03. > :15:07.morale boosting consolation win. The Ashes are long gone, of course, but
:15:08. > :15:12.this still felt like an important first stage in England's road to
:15:13. > :15:13.recovery. There'll be more news from