:00:10. > :00:13.thousands of people without power and travel severely disrupted.
:00:14. > :00:17.The southwest of England has borne the brunt, with the main rail route
:00:18. > :00:27.to Cornwall cut off after huge waves destroyed part of the line. I have
:00:28. > :00:31.never experienced anything like it. I have seen some terrible storms in
:00:32. > :00:37.the North Sea, but last night was a freak of nature. I will be reporting
:00:38. > :00:41.live from Dawlish in Devon, where rail engineers are trying to restore
:00:42. > :00:44.this stretch of track where they say it could take up to six weeks.
:00:45. > :00:47.Also this lunchtime: Travel chaos in the capital, as a 48-hour strike by
:00:48. > :00:51.London Underground workers brings rush-hour misery to millions.
:00:52. > :00:53.The Vatican is accused of "systematically" adopting policies
:00:54. > :00:56.allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of children - the UN says
:00:57. > :00:58.offenders must be removed immediately.
:00:59. > :01:08.Ten people are injured after an explosion destroys two houses and
:01:09. > :01:11.badly damages a third in Essex. And in sport, out of the England
:01:12. > :01:14.squad - the country's all-time leading run-scorer, Kevin Pietersen,
:01:15. > :01:18.says he's "so sad" at the decision, but wishes England every success in
:01:19. > :01:21.the future. On BBC London: Commuters take the
:01:22. > :01:25.buses, roads and the river to battle into work on the first day of the
:01:26. > :01:28.tube strike. And we will look at how you will be
:01:29. > :01:54.able to get home again tonight. Good afternoon and welcome to the
:01:55. > :01:56.BBC News at one. Parts of Britain have taken another
:01:57. > :01:58.battering from a powerful storm, with southwest England again
:01:59. > :02:02.suffering the worst of things. Engineers have worked through the
:02:03. > :02:06.night to try to restore power to thousands of homes across the
:02:07. > :02:09.region. Nine severe flood warnings remain in place. The police say
:02:10. > :02:14.they've received hundreds of 999 calls. The prime minister has
:02:15. > :02:17.announced an extra ?100 million for essential flood repairs. He'll be
:02:18. > :02:20.chairing a meeting of the emergency committee, COBRA, this afternoon to
:02:21. > :02:24.discuss the crisis. In Devon, the main rail line has been cut, causing
:02:25. > :02:34.severe disruption. Well, Ben Brown is in Dawlish now.
:02:35. > :02:39.Yes, the storms are still raging here in Dawlish. This stretch of
:02:40. > :02:43.railway line you can see behind me, well, normally it is picturesque and
:02:44. > :02:48.dramatic, but it is also vulnerable to the sea. In the last few hours,
:02:49. > :02:53.huge waves and 70 mile an hour gusts of wind have been coming in. Those
:02:54. > :02:58.waves have caused severe damage to this stretch of track, not only the
:02:59. > :03:02.track, but the sea wall and one of the platforms at the station down
:03:03. > :03:06.there has been swept away as well. It means the link between Exeter St
:03:07. > :03:11.Davids and Penzance in Cornwall has been simply cut off. Network Rail
:03:12. > :03:18.said could be six weeks before it is restored.
:03:19. > :03:21.Just look at that. Now the tide has receded slightly, you can see just
:03:22. > :03:30.how desperately damaged this track is. This is the main route between
:03:31. > :03:33.South Devon and into Cornwall. But look, the groundworks that supported
:03:34. > :03:39.the line have been completely washed away by the tide, but leaving the
:03:40. > :03:43.track suspended, hanging in the air like some kind of theme park ride.
:03:44. > :03:48.Let's talk to the man who has been assessing the damage, trying to work
:03:49. > :03:52.out how they repair this, Patrick from Network Rail. How long will
:03:53. > :03:59.this take? It is difficult to say at the moment and difficult to do an
:04:00. > :04:04.assessment due to the high tide. Of the top of our heads, we dig it is
:04:05. > :04:07.four to six weeks worth of work. But there is damage like this in several
:04:08. > :04:13.locations at the moment, and until we can get a proper assessment, it
:04:14. > :04:18.is too early to say. How does this rank in terms of the situations you
:04:19. > :04:20.have to remedy? This is probably the biggest structural engineering feat
:04:21. > :04:25.we have faced in the south-west for at least the last arcade . Local
:04:26. > :04:30.teams have said this is the worst damage they have seen in their
:04:31. > :04:34.careers to the sea wall. But obviously, we are keen to make sure
:04:35. > :04:38.that we restore this as soon as is for the community of Dawlish. Let me
:04:39. > :04:44.leave you with another shot of this as the tide comes in and keeps
:04:45. > :04:47.battering, those waves hitting it. I wonder whether the line itself can
:04:48. > :04:53.survive another high tide later today as it just keeps coming and
:04:54. > :04:56.hitting that line. There have been thousands of homes
:04:57. > :05:01.across the south-west that have been left without power. There are number
:05:02. > :05:04.of severe flood warnings still in place, meaning a risk to human
:05:05. > :05:11.life. Duncan Kennedy has this report now from Weymouth.
:05:12. > :05:16.This is what is left of the London to Penzance railway line in
:05:17. > :05:21.Dawlish. Looking more like a bridge than a train track, it was left
:05:22. > :05:24.dangling in midair. It's entire foundations across a 50 metre
:05:25. > :05:30.section were scooped out by the waves. The Devon town has been
:05:31. > :05:36.battered for hours, huge seas that drew the familiar sight of storm
:05:37. > :05:42.spectators, but packing the power to do this to concrete and metal. Last
:05:43. > :05:45.night was just a freak of nature. If you see the wall through the gap,
:05:46. > :05:51.there is nothing left. The highest heart has completely gone. I can't
:05:52. > :05:57.describe it. It is almost like the end of the world at one point. Along
:05:58. > :06:01.the coast of Topsham in Devon, the weather has brought more chaos.
:06:02. > :06:04.Local people have been scrambling to protect their homes as the water
:06:05. > :06:12.comes at them from the sea and the rain. It is the worst I have seen it
:06:13. > :06:19.in 50 years. As the tide was rising, the waves, pulled up by the
:06:20. > :06:24.southerly wind, were breaking over the wall. We came down here to help
:06:25. > :06:31.our neighbours, and there were at least 15 of us, taking turns on the
:06:32. > :06:35.bucket. We managed to keep the water mostly out. In Dorset, police shut
:06:36. > :06:39.the road to Portland, so bad were the seas along the spit, with
:06:40. > :06:46.residents want to stay in their homes until the storm eases. You can
:06:47. > :06:51.see that the weather is getting worse. We may have to move in a
:06:52. > :06:54.minute. All through the night, we have been putting warnings out to
:06:55. > :06:57.those communities that are affected. It has been the same here in
:06:58. > :07:01.Weymouth, where they were put on severe flood alert. The promenade
:07:02. > :07:09.has been drenched by the seas, and pelted with stones catapulted up by
:07:10. > :07:13.the waves. We have had enough now. But it is the power of nature. You
:07:14. > :07:18.can't fight it, you have just got to hope for the best. For a time, there
:07:19. > :07:21.was a force ten gale lashing in across this part of the coast. At
:07:22. > :07:25.one point, more than 6000 homes across the south-west were left
:07:26. > :07:29.without electricity supplies. These storms are presenting a huge
:07:30. > :07:35.financial and human built this country. -- a huge human built to
:07:36. > :07:40.this country. Well, yesterday, we were with the
:07:41. > :07:43.Prince of Wales when he visited the Somerset levels, that have been
:07:44. > :07:51.flooded for weeks now. Let's go to my colleague, who is on the Somerset
:07:52. > :07:57.levels in moorland. Let me show you what is happening.
:07:58. > :08:01.This is the moorland. It is the house of a resident I just spoke to
:08:02. > :08:05.. He has lived here for decades. This is his own pump, and this is
:08:06. > :08:08.the water coming in behind his house. He has never known it this
:08:09. > :08:14.bad. There is a severe weather warning in place here. Let me take
:08:15. > :08:17.you through his flooded garden. These are all the sandbags, which
:08:18. > :08:24.are redundant now. There is nothing he can do to keep the water out. Let
:08:25. > :08:30.me check my cameraman is all right. Over here, a scrambling operation is
:08:31. > :08:33.taking place by the Environment Agency. We have just got to be
:08:34. > :08:41.careful, actually. There is another of sandbags being brought in. It all
:08:42. > :08:46.feels last minute. A lot of residence they they don't know what
:08:47. > :08:50.is going on. But they are basically filling as many sandbags as they
:08:51. > :08:53.can. It is extraordinary. The Environment Agency told me this
:08:54. > :09:02.morning that it is relentless and they are struggling to hold back the
:09:03. > :09:07.river. This mound of sand was as high as me an hour ago. They are
:09:08. > :09:15.doing what they can to fill the sandbags. Whether it will be enough,
:09:16. > :09:21.we don't know. Let's show you the scene here in
:09:22. > :09:29.Dawlish, along the seafront. We have had high tide already at about 1020
:09:30. > :09:35.this morning. The waves have reduced in scale somewhat. If we Panorama
:09:36. > :09:40.seafront, you can see they are still coming in, but much less than they
:09:41. > :09:46.were. They have swept away a lot of beach huts, the section of road
:09:47. > :09:49.along the seafront has gone. As you saw earlier, a whole section of the
:09:50. > :09:54.railway track has been swept away, at least the ballast underneath the
:09:55. > :09:58.track. Network Rail say that will take at least four to six weeks to
:09:59. > :10:03.repair. They are confident that they will be able to do it, but they have
:10:04. > :10:08.not done a proper assessment of the damage yet, let alone started work
:10:09. > :10:11.on it. And the people of Dawlish are bracing themselves for more bad
:10:12. > :10:18.weather tomorrow and at the weekend. It is not over yet.
:10:19. > :10:22.Well, the power minister has told MPs that he will ensure that
:10:23. > :10:26.vulnerable communities receive an extra ?1 million in government help.
:10:27. > :10:30.Let's go to Westminster and our correspondent there. He will also be
:10:31. > :10:34.chairing the COBRA meeting himself? Yes, it is normally chaired by the
:10:35. > :10:37.Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, although the prime
:10:38. > :10:42.minister says he is doing an excellent job, it is hard to avoid
:10:43. > :10:44.the impression that the prime minister is shoulder barging Mr
:10:45. > :10:48.Patterson out of the way and tried to personally get a grip on the
:10:49. > :10:52.crisis partly because of the severity of the weather and in part
:10:53. > :10:56.because it now involves different departments, transport, energy, the
:10:57. > :11:00.environment, it also because of the PR and politics surrounding this. Mr
:11:01. > :11:03.Patterson has struggled with the public relations of all this. He had
:11:04. > :11:08.a difficult time when he went to Somerset. But the politics as well
:11:09. > :11:12.are becoming trickier. We saw this in prime and Mr 's questions, with a
:11:13. > :11:15.succession of coalition MPs venting their anger, one saying his
:11:16. > :11:19.constituents felt abandoned, another saying her constituents felt cut off
:11:20. > :11:23.and another saying, why are we spending this money on HS2, when it
:11:24. > :11:27.could be used to protect the rail lines that have been armed by the
:11:28. > :11:30.storms. I sensed that Mr Cameron does not just want to make sure the
:11:31. > :11:34.government is seen to be doing everything it can, but also to make
:11:35. > :11:41.sure this does not blow up into a political relations storm as well.
:11:42. > :11:54.For the latest on the weather, you can visit our website.
:11:55. > :11:57.Millions of commuters faced disruption in the capital this
:11:58. > :12:00.morning because of a strike by London Underground workers. The
:12:01. > :12:04.48-hour walk-out, which began last night, is in protest at the closure
:12:05. > :12:07.of ticket offices and the loss of hundreds of jobs. The Conservatives
:12:08. > :12:11.have suggested that their next manifesto could include restrictions
:12:12. > :12:18.on industrial action by workers in essential public services.
:12:19. > :12:22.It is the engine that tries England's capital, carrying three
:12:23. > :12:29.times the population of Birmingham every day. Clogged up by strike
:12:30. > :12:33.action. I have missed two buses so far, one of which, the doors closed
:12:34. > :12:39.in my face. Some used it as a chance to get fit. Others just wished the
:12:40. > :12:43.buses were bigger. Not many found their journey easy. Absolute
:12:44. > :12:51.nightmare tried to get here. People pushing on the bus, the police are
:12:52. > :12:54.pushing you onto it. This might be a Londoner strike, but it affects
:12:55. > :13:00.everybody. One estimate says that it was the UK economy ?200 million.
:13:01. > :13:04.Why? Because nearly as many people travel on the tube everyday as
:13:05. > :13:08.travel on the rest of Britain's trains put together. Only a third of
:13:09. > :13:13.services are running today, so what is the strike about? The unions are
:13:14. > :13:18.angry over plans to close every ticket office and cut 950 jobs.
:13:19. > :13:23.Transport for London, or TfL, says the plan would save ?50 million a
:13:24. > :13:26.year. They also say they are offering generous redundancy terms
:13:27. > :13:32.and around 1000 staff have already shown an interest, meaning no
:13:33. > :13:37.compulsory job losses. There is a table to be sat around by you and
:13:38. > :13:41.your team. But we can't do it with a gun to our head. At the centre of
:13:42. > :13:45.the row, two men who have not spoken for years, until yesterday. Union
:13:46. > :13:51.leader Bob Crow and London's Mayor, Boris Johnson. I getting people out
:13:52. > :13:57.from behind the plate glass, getting them into the public areas, they
:13:58. > :14:01.could be of more use. If you look at London Underground's own proposals,
:14:02. > :14:04.even they recognise the fact that if you are disabled or partially
:14:05. > :14:09.sighted, these proposals will make it harder for people to get a
:14:10. > :14:13.ticket. The argument is being put up that they are just tried to keep
:14:14. > :14:18.someone behind ticket office. That is not the case. Ministers are now
:14:19. > :14:24.looking at a new law to make it harder to strike if you work in an
:14:25. > :14:27.essential service. A United Nations human rights
:14:28. > :14:31.committee has accused the Vatican of adopting policies which allowed
:14:32. > :14:35.priests to rape or molest thousands of children. In a strongly worded
:14:36. > :14:40.report, it says the Catholic Church systematically placed its reputation
:14:41. > :14:45.above its duty to protect children. The main finding of the committee
:14:46. > :14:52.was that the Holy See has adopted policies which have led to the
:14:53. > :14:57.continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators. The
:14:58. > :15:01.Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of
:15:02. > :15:12.the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children's best
:15:13. > :15:17.interests. David Willey, this is deeply disturbing criticism here.
:15:18. > :15:22.Yes, well, within the past few minutes, the Vatican has issued its
:15:23. > :15:27.reply to these accusations. I would say that they have moved into damage
:15:28. > :15:33.control mode. They have said that they are going to study the United
:15:34. > :15:38.Nations document very carefully, but they criticise what they call an
:15:39. > :15:42.attempt to interfere with the religious teaching of the Catholic
:15:43. > :15:47.Church. This, of course, is a scandal which has been going on for
:15:48. > :15:53.many, many years now, and Pope Francis has been criticised somewhat
:15:54. > :15:57.for putting this issue really on the back burner. He has been dealing
:15:58. > :16:01.with other critical issues from the Church, but the other day he did
:16:02. > :16:07.announce that he had set up a new committee of inquiry in the Vatican
:16:08. > :16:12.administration to deal with this very problem. It is very troubling
:16:13. > :16:16.for the Church, and clearly they are going to have to consider very
:16:17. > :16:20.carefully this criticism, which I would say is some of the harshest
:16:21. > :16:24.that has ever been heard from the United Nations. The Vatican, of
:16:25. > :16:29.course, is an observer at the United Nations, not a full member. David
:16:30. > :16:34.Willey in Rome, 20 very much. Just after quarter past one, our top
:16:35. > :16:37.story this lunchtime: Part of Britain have been battered by fierce
:16:38. > :16:41.storms, thousands of people without power and travel is severely
:16:42. > :16:46.disrupted. The main railroad to Cornwall has been cut off after a
:16:47. > :16:49.wave destroyed part of the line. Still to come, spend it like
:16:50. > :16:54.Beckham, he is about to announce the starting a new Major League Soccer
:16:55. > :16:59.team Miami. Later on BBC London, Bert to the
:17:00. > :17:01.ground in the London rights, now Prince Charles visit Tottenham to
:17:02. > :17:08.meet residents finally moving back home. And he may be in Robocop, but
:17:09. > :17:17.we talk to Gary Oldman about his south-east London Road is.
:17:18. > :17:21.-- roots. These are the first pages of
:17:22. > :17:26.Britain's unmanned drone taking to the skies, it is called the Taranis,
:17:27. > :17:29.and it is capable of launching precision strikes in hostile
:17:30. > :17:33.technology. Flying invisibly to radar, it can be operated via
:17:34. > :17:37.satellite link from anywhere in the world. Here is defence correspondent
:17:38. > :17:42.Jonathan Beale. Just a few years ago with a fanfare
:17:43. > :17:46.and to a very select audience, BAE Systems unveiled its latest road.
:17:47. > :17:52.Taranis was named after the Celtic god of thunder. It has also been a
:17:53. > :17:54.top-secret project, part funded by the Ministry of Defence. And its
:17:55. > :18:01.development has been closely guarded. But these pictures of it
:18:02. > :18:06.flying have now been released. Taken during test flights last year at an
:18:07. > :18:09.unnamed location, believed to be in the Australian desert, far from
:18:10. > :18:15.prying eyes. In fact, few details are being made public, but it is the
:18:16. > :18:20.most advanced unmanned aircraft ever built in the UK. In engineering
:18:21. > :18:23.terms, this is exceptional. It is the confluence of all sorts of
:18:24. > :18:28.apparently conflicting design parameters, stealth requirements,
:18:29. > :18:31.performance requirements, amazing mission system requirements, and all
:18:32. > :18:35.of that in an unmanned system. It really is the pinnacle of
:18:36. > :18:40.engineering. This is the nearest we can get to Taranis, and of course
:18:41. > :18:44.this is a model. It is the size of a fighter jet. One of the reasons it
:18:45. > :18:51.is so secret is that it is meant to fly undetected deep into enemy
:18:52. > :18:55.territory. RAF pilots already fly Reaper drones over Afghanistan, able
:18:56. > :19:00.to launch a hellfire missile from a hangar in Lincolnshire at a target
:19:01. > :19:03.half a world away. Taranis is also designed to carry weapons, but it is
:19:04. > :19:09.stealthy, capable of flying on its own, and it is much faster. What
:19:10. > :19:14.speeds? Well, I am not sure I am allowed to tell you that. But twice
:19:15. > :19:20.as fast as anything we have flown before. Away from the promotional
:19:21. > :19:24.hype, there is still controversy. Questions about the safety of
:19:25. > :19:28.unmanned planes, as well as the legal and moral arguments
:19:29. > :19:32.surrounding their use. But Taranis shows British business and its armed
:19:33. > :19:39.forces are convinced this is the future of warfare.
:19:40. > :19:43.The Institute of fiscal is has set out again the scale of cuts needed
:19:44. > :19:48.beyond the election for the Government to balance its books. --
:19:49. > :19:55.the Institute of fiscal studies. Chief economic correspondent Hugh
:19:56. > :19:58.Pym is with me now. Well, the IFS always sets out its stall head of
:19:59. > :20:03.the Budget next month, telling it as it sees it, if you like, sketching
:20:04. > :20:07.out the landscape. It is reminding us that if you look at the planned
:20:08. > :20:11.spending cuts through to 2018 from 2010, only about 40% will have been
:20:12. > :20:16.achieved by the end of this year, so quite a lot more to come. It reminds
:20:17. > :20:19.us that unprotected departments have suffered quite big cuts and will
:20:20. > :20:24.continue to see further cuts. Even health, which is protected,
:20:25. > :20:28.ringfenced, so no cut in real terms under this Government and presumably
:20:29. > :20:31.in the next parliament as well, even health is suffering strains because
:20:32. > :20:39.of the demands of a rising population and an increasingly
:20:40. > :20:42.ageing population. Here is what the director of the IFS had to say about
:20:43. > :20:45.it. The total amount of money we are spending on health is not going
:20:46. > :20:47.down, but we are having to look after more people, in particular
:20:48. > :20:51.more older people, and we spend a lot more on older people through the
:20:52. > :20:54.NHS than on others, so the actual effect is about 9% less to spend on
:20:55. > :20:59.each individual given what has happened to the structure of the
:21:00. > :21:04.population. So even a protected departments like the NHS will see
:21:05. > :21:08.strains, if you like, less spending per person, as Paul Johnson
:21:09. > :21:11.explained there. The good news from the IFS and their economic analysis
:21:12. > :21:15.is that in terms of wages, they will start picking up this year and go
:21:16. > :21:20.above cost of living increases. The squeeze, they think, could be coming
:21:21. > :21:24.to an end. Hugh Pym, thank you. Ten people have been injured, two
:21:25. > :21:30.seriously, in what is thought to have been a gas explosion in a
:21:31. > :21:32.residential street in Clacton in Essex. Two houses have been
:21:33. > :21:39.flattened and a third badly damaged. 19 homes have to be evacuated.
:21:40. > :21:44.The deadline for the removal of all Surrey's chemical weapons has been
:21:45. > :21:47.missed today. The United States has expressed concern, but Russia says
:21:48. > :21:51.it has had assurances from Damascus that the process will be completed
:21:52. > :21:54.by the beginning of next month. This report from world affairs
:21:55. > :21:58.correspondent Rajesh Mirchandani does contain distressing images.
:21:59. > :22:03.Almost six months now since these shocking pictures, apparent evidence
:22:04. > :22:07.that Syria used poison gas on its own people. The West stopped short
:22:08. > :22:12.of military action, but Syria did agree to give up chemical weapons.
:22:13. > :22:16.Now the US says it is stalling. They are not moving fast enough, they
:22:17. > :22:26.have missed a very important target state, the 5th of February. To have
:22:27. > :22:31.all chemical weapons out of Syria. As a greedy, you when inspected
:22:32. > :22:35.visited Syria, catalogued its toxic armourer and destroyed its ability
:22:36. > :22:39.to produce or use chemical weapons. -- as agreed. But an international
:22:40. > :22:43.fleet that was supposed to carry the running in stockpile out of Syria
:22:44. > :22:48.for destruction at sea have had little to do. The amount of chemical
:22:49. > :22:55.weapons material Jude to be transported out of Syria is around
:22:56. > :22:59.1300 tonnes. -- due. According to the US, as of last week, less than
:23:00. > :23:04.5% has been removed. At that rate, they will not even finish this
:23:05. > :23:07.year. Russia, a key ally of President Assad, says it has been
:23:08. > :23:12.ensured that the removal through conflict zones will be completed by
:23:13. > :23:16.March. One analyst think the Syrians have little incentive to comply. The
:23:17. > :23:21.Syrian regime really don't seem keen to do it at all. It is taking a huge
:23:22. > :23:26.amount of military effort for them to guard those convoys and move them
:23:27. > :23:31.to Latakia, really affecting their operations. And those operations
:23:32. > :23:37.continue. The Syrian government has been accused of using huge barrel
:23:38. > :23:40.bombs on opposition areas. Some fear that President Assad strengthening
:23:41. > :23:43.his position on the battlefield while international attention is
:23:44. > :23:48.focused on his chemical weapons. Rajesh Mirchandani, BBC News.
:23:49. > :23:52.Two days before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, gay rights
:23:53. > :23:56.activists in 19 cities across the world are protesting against what
:23:57. > :24:01.they see as discrimination by the Russian government. Campaigners want
:24:02. > :24:02.the Russians and the IOC to uphold principles six of the Olympic
:24:03. > :24:09.Charter, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual
:24:10. > :24:12.orientation. -- Principle 6. Daniel Sandford said this report from
:24:13. > :24:16.Sochi. With Russia's controversial wind and
:24:17. > :24:23.index just two days away, Sochi airport this morning as the athletes
:24:24. > :24:27.poured in, among them Chemmy Alcott, Britain's top skier. How much of the
:24:28. > :24:38.concerns about gay rights and a possible terrorist attack affected
:24:39. > :24:45.her preparation? I am here to ski, I am here to race. The Olympic venues
:24:46. > :24:50.look magnificent, but Russia is struggling to shake off the gay
:24:51. > :24:55.rights issue. Activists across the world, including these in Jerusalem,
:24:56. > :24:58.have declared today and international day of action,
:24:59. > :25:04.encouraging big sponsors like Coca-Cola to speak out against a new
:25:05. > :25:08.Russian law. It bans what it calls propaganda to young people of what
:25:09. > :25:12.it describes as non-traditional sexual activities. None of these
:25:13. > :25:16.protests will be in Sochi itself, partly because the only place that
:25:17. > :25:21.anyone will be allowed to protest during the whole Winter Olympics is
:25:22. > :25:28.here in a park under a motorway flyover next to a railway line and
:25:29. > :25:33.ten miles from the Olympic venues. The target of the protests,
:25:34. > :25:35.Russia's Vladimir Putin, was yesterday at a project to
:25:36. > :25:40.reintroduce leopards to the mountains near Sochi. These games
:25:41. > :25:43.were supposed to be a showcase of his Russia, but they have
:25:44. > :25:49.highlighted the dark side of his government, too.
:25:50. > :25:53.David Beckham is expected to announce in a couple of hours' time
:25:54. > :25:56.that he is starting a new Major League Soccer team in Miami,
:25:57. > :26:00.Florida. Beckham, who ended his career with six seasons at LA
:26:01. > :26:04.Galaxy, is thought to be going into business with Simon Fuller, the man
:26:05. > :26:08.who managed the Spice Girls. Our correspondents Nick Bryant is in
:26:09. > :26:12.Miami for us now. Simon, setting up a professional
:26:13. > :26:16.soccer team in Miami, you would have thought, is a bit like setting up a
:26:17. > :26:20.Royal souvenir shop outside Buckingham Palace. There is a huge
:26:21. > :26:25.market in Miami, they call this the unofficial capital of Latin America,
:26:26. > :26:29.it is a Spanish-speaking majority city. Football is in its very DNA.
:26:30. > :26:32.So you would have thought this would be a no-brainer for David Beckham.
:26:33. > :26:38.The problem is that the last professional outfit she folded in
:26:39. > :26:43.2001, it had debts of 250 million dollars, it is reported. So,
:26:44. > :26:46.financially, there is something of a risk for David Beckham. He is going
:26:47. > :26:50.to be making this announcement in a couple of hours' time. A lot of
:26:51. > :26:58.speculation about what the new team is going to be called, Miami Spice
:26:59. > :27:01.is one favourite, even Miami Posh. There are all sorts of
:27:02. > :27:05.possibilities, Simon. I will believe you, Nick! Thank you
:27:06. > :27:09.very much. Kevin Pietersen says he is so sad that his England career is
:27:10. > :27:12.over. The man who scored more runs for his country than any other
:27:13. > :27:17.batsman has been told he's longer wanted. The new management team say
:27:18. > :27:23.the time is right to rebuild. Sports correspondent Joe Wilson reports.
:27:24. > :27:28.Like him or loathe him, there is now live without him. Where once stood
:27:29. > :27:32.Pietersen now lies a void, but was it avoidable? Newspapers on
:27:33. > :27:35.Wednesday morning portrayed Pietersen as both victim and villain
:27:36. > :27:41.in a cricketing coup, some still wondering why exactly Pietersen had
:27:42. > :27:47.to go now. I don't think this is the moment, there is too much going
:27:48. > :27:51.forward, a World Cup in four weeks, and Ashes series in 16 months, and I
:27:52. > :27:55.feel you need your best players. It is the wrong call at the wrong time
:27:56. > :28:00.for English cricket. From Lord Steel law, everyone in the cricketing
:28:01. > :28:03.world knows all about Kevin Pietersen's outstanding record. In
:28:04. > :28:11.test matches, he scored more than 8000 runs. In one-day international
:28:12. > :28:14.is, more than 4000. Over 1000 runs in Twenty20 international is. No-one
:28:15. > :28:20.who has ever played cricket for England can match these combined
:28:21. > :28:24.stats. With his talent came ego and attitude, certainly, and he was a
:28:25. > :28:30.disruption, definitely. In 2012 in Sri Lanka, Pietersen was forced to
:28:31. > :28:35.apologise for text message behaviour and reintegrate, but he has always
:28:36. > :28:36.had allies, notably the great Australian Shane Warne, who
:28:37. > :28:46.described the English governing body as a shambles in a tweet. Pietersen
:28:47. > :28:49.on Twitter today to limited his comments to regret, perhaps saving
:28:50. > :28:54.his full account for a book. Right now England have new men running the
:28:55. > :28:58.show, managing director and chief selector Paul Downton and James
:28:59. > :29:02.Whitaker, seen here in Australia. After that terrible tour, it is the
:29:03. > :29:07.captain's role which may need to grow, and Alastair Cook's influence
:29:08. > :29:11.and Kevin Pietersen's disappearance may well have been decisive.
:29:12. > :29:16.Joe Wilson, BBC News. Let's have a look at the weather,
:29:17. > :29:22.Chris Fawkes is here with a screen that rather matches the mood.
:29:23. > :29:27.Yesterday evening we had wind gusting to 92 mph in the Isles of
:29:28. > :29:30.Scilly, the strongest this storm will give us, but nevertheless we
:29:31. > :29:34.have severe gales on the way through the rest of this afternoon across
:29:35. > :29:37.the south of Wales in southern England courtesy of this swirl of
:29:38. > :29:41.cloud we have been monitoring for the last few days. Quite a bit of
:29:42. > :29:44.cloud across the British Isles, the strongest winds being German in
:29:45. > :29:55.across the south of Wales and coastal counties. -- driven in.
:29:56. > :29:58.Ghosts on the coast of up to 70 mph. The winds will affect the Bristol
:29:59. > :30:04.Channel and the south coast of Wales, expect disruption on the
:30:05. > :30:07.Channel crossings. 70 mph gusts are on the cards for the coastline of
:30:08. > :30:12.the English Channel, a whole clutch of showers, not a great deal of
:30:13. > :30:15.sunshine between the showers. Lindy of downpours in Northern Ireland,
:30:16. > :30:23.more persistent rain for the South of Scotland. -- plenty of downpours.
:30:24. > :30:30.The one bright spot in today's bright weather, if you like. We are
:30:31. > :30:33.going to see more trees blown over, we will get inland gales fairly
:30:34. > :30:37.widely, further flooding is possible, and large, battering waves
:30:38. > :30:42.bringing dangerous conditions to the coastlines. This evening and
:30:43. > :30:46.overnight, the rain pushes northwards and eastwards, followed
:30:47. > :30:49.by an area of low pressure sat to the North West of Scotland. The
:30:50. > :30:53.winds will be not as strong as they are at the moment, so some
:30:54. > :30:57.moderation of conditions overnight, relatively mild, five or six
:30:58. > :31:01.degrees. Into Thursday, a band of rain affecting western Scotland,
:31:02. > :31:06.apart from that a reasonable morning with bright or sunny spells. But you
:31:07. > :31:09.cannot help but notice what is coming into the South, another band
:31:10. > :31:14.of rain pushing across the southern counties, the South of Wales,
:31:15. > :31:17.Midlands and East Anglia before the afternoon. It will be the rain that
:31:18. > :31:26.causes more concern than the wind, up to 40 millimetres expected. Over
:31:27. > :31:30.the hills of Wales and the Pennines, you could see a bit of
:31:31. > :31:34.snow for a time. That system clears out of the way, this is the chart
:31:35. > :31:41.for the weekend. It looks familiar, doesn't it you might deep
:31:42. > :31:45.low-pressure bringing severe gales. It could exacerbate the flooding we
:31:46. > :31:48.have seen. Any end in sight? I am afraid not, it looks like it will
:31:49. > :31:52.stay around for the next week or two.
:31:53. > :31:57.That leads to a reminder of our top story, part of Britain have been
:31:58. > :32:01.battered by fierce storms with thousands of people without power
:32:02. > :32:05.and travel severely disrupted. The main rail route to Cornwall has been
:32:06. > :32:06.cut off after huge waves destroyed part of the line.