05/02/2014 BBC News at One

thousands of people without power and travel severely disrupted.

The southwest of England has borne the brunt, with the main rail route

to Cornwall cut off after huge waves destroyed part of the line. I have

never experienced anything like it. I have seen some terrible storms in

the North Sea, but last night was a freak of nature. I will be reporting

live from Dawlish in Devon, where rail engineers are trying to restore

this stretch of track where they say it could take up to six weeks.

Also this lunchtime: Travel chaos in the capital, as a 48-hour strike by

London Underground workers brings rush-hour misery to millions.

The Vatican is accused of "systematically" adopting policies

allowing priests to sexually abuse thousands of children - the UN says

offenders must be removed immediately.

Ten people are injured after an explosion destroys two houses and

badly damages a third in Essex. And in sport, out of the England

squad - the country's all-time leading run-scorer, Kevin Pietersen,

says he's "so sad" at the decision, but wishes England every success in

the future. On BBC London: Commuters take the

buses, roads and the river to battle into work on the first day of the

tube strike. And we will look at how you will be

able to get home again tonight. Good afternoon and welcome to the

BBC News at one. Parts of Britain have taken another

battering from a powerful storm, with southwest England again

suffering the worst of things. Engineers have worked through the

night to try to restore power to thousands of homes across the

region. Nine severe flood warnings remain in place. The police say

they've received hundreds of 999 calls. The prime minister has

announced an extra ?100 million for essential flood repairs. He'll be

chairing a meeting of the emergency committee, COBRA, this afternoon to

discuss the crisis. In Devon, the main rail line has been cut, causing

severe disruption. Well, Ben Brown is in Dawlish now.

Yes, the storms are still raging here in Dawlish. This stretch of

railway line you can see behind me, well, normally it is picturesque and

dramatic, but it is also vulnerable to the sea. In the last few hours,

huge waves and 70 mile an hour gusts of wind have been coming in. Those

waves have caused severe damage to this stretch of track, not only the

track, but the sea wall and one of the platforms at the station down

there has been swept away as well. It means the link between Exeter St

Davids and Penzance in Cornwall has been simply cut off. Network Rail

said could be six weeks before it is restored.

Just look at that. Now the tide has receded slightly, you can see just

how desperately damaged this track is. This is the main route between

South Devon and into Cornwall. But look, the groundworks that supported

the line have been completely washed away by the tide, but leaving the

track suspended, hanging in the air like some kind of theme park ride.

Let's talk to the man who has been assessing the damage, trying to work

out how they repair this, Patrick from Network Rail. How long will

this take? It is difficult to say at the moment and difficult to do an

assessment due to the high tide. Of the top of our heads, we dig it is

four to six weeks worth of work. But there is damage like this in several

locations at the moment, and until we can get a proper assessment, it

is too early to say. How does this rank in terms of the situations you

have to remedy? This is probably the biggest structural engineering feat

we have faced in the south-west for at least the last arcade . Local

teams have said this is the worst damage they have seen in their

careers to the sea wall. But obviously, we are keen to make sure

that we restore this as soon as is for the community of Dawlish. Let me

leave you with another shot of this as the tide comes in and keeps

battering, those waves hitting it. I wonder whether the line itself can

survive another high tide later today as it just keeps coming and

hitting that line. There have been thousands of homes

across the south-west that have been left without power. There are number

of severe flood warnings still in place, meaning a risk to human

life. Duncan Kennedy has this report now from Weymouth.

This is what is left of the London to Penzance railway line in

Dawlish. Looking more like a bridge than a train track, it was left

dangling in midair. It's entire foundations across a 50 metre

section were scooped out by the waves. The Devon town has been

battered for hours, huge seas that drew the familiar sight of storm

spectators, but packing the power to do this to concrete and metal. Last

night was just a freak of nature. If you see the wall through the gap,

there is nothing left. The highest heart has completely gone. I can't

describe it. It is almost like the end of the world at one point. Along

the coast of Topsham in Devon, the weather has brought more chaos.

Local people have been scrambling to protect their homes as the water

comes at them from the sea and the rain. It is the worst I have seen it

in 50 years. As the tide was rising, the waves, pulled up by the

southerly wind, were breaking over the wall. We came down here to help

our neighbours, and there were at least 15 of us, taking turns on the

bucket. We managed to keep the water mostly out. In Dorset, police shut

the road to Portland, so bad were the seas along the spit, with

residents want to stay in their homes until the storm eases. You can

see that the weather is getting worse. We may have to move in a

minute. All through the night, we have been putting warnings out to

those communities that are affected. It has been the same here in

Weymouth, where they were put on severe flood alert. The promenade

has been drenched by the seas, and pelted with stones catapulted up by

the waves. We have had enough now. But it is the power of nature. You

can't fight it, you have just got to hope for the best. For a time, there

was a force ten gale lashing in across this part of the coast. At

one point, more than 6000 homes across the south-west were left

without electricity supplies. These storms are presenting a huge

financial and human built this country. -- a huge human built to

this country. Well, yesterday, we were with the

Prince of Wales when he visited the Somerset levels, that have been

flooded for weeks now. Let's go to my colleague, who is on the Somerset

levels in moorland. Let me show you what is happening.

This is the moorland. It is the house of a resident I just spoke to

. He has lived here for decades. This is his own pump, and this is

the water coming in behind his house. He has never known it this

bad. There is a severe weather warning in place here. Let me take

you through his flooded garden. These are all the sandbags, which

are redundant now. There is nothing he can do to keep the water out. Let

me check my cameraman is all right. Over here, a scrambling operation is

taking place by the Environment Agency. We have just got to be

careful, actually. There is another of sandbags being brought in. It all

feels last minute. A lot of residence they they don't know what

is going on. But they are basically filling as many sandbags as they

can. It is extraordinary. The Environment Agency told me this

morning that it is relentless and they are struggling to hold back the

river. This mound of sand was as high as me an hour ago. They are

doing what they can to fill the sandbags. Whether it will be enough,

we don't know. Let's show you the scene here in

Dawlish, along the seafront. We have had high tide already at about 1020

this morning. The waves have reduced in scale somewhat. If we Panorama

seafront, you can see they are still coming in, but much less than they

were. They have swept away a lot of beach huts, the section of road

along the seafront has gone. As you saw earlier, a whole section of the

railway track has been swept away, at least the ballast underneath the

track. Network Rail say that will take at least four to six weeks to

repair. They are confident that they will be able to do it, but they have

not done a proper assessment of the damage yet, let alone started work

on it. And the people of Dawlish are bracing themselves for more bad

weather tomorrow and at the weekend. It is not over yet.

Well, the power minister has told MPs that he will ensure that

vulnerable communities receive an extra ?1 million in government help.

Let's go to Westminster and our correspondent there. He will also be

chairing the COBRA meeting himself? Yes, it is normally chaired by the

Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, although the prime

minister says he is doing an excellent job, it is hard to avoid

the impression that the prime minister is shoulder barging Mr

Patterson out of the way and tried to personally get a grip on the

crisis partly because of the severity of the weather and in part

because it now involves different departments, transport, energy, the

environment, it also because of the PR and politics surrounding this. Mr

Patterson has struggled with the public relations of all this. He had

a difficult time when he went to Somerset. But the politics as well

are becoming trickier. We saw this in prime and Mr 's questions, with a

succession of coalition MPs venting their anger, one saying his

constituents felt abandoned, another saying her constituents felt cut off

and another saying, why are we spending this money on HS2, when it

could be used to protect the rail lines that have been armed by the

storms. I sensed that Mr Cameron does not just want to make sure the

government is seen to be doing everything it can, but also to make

sure this does not blow up into a political relations storm as well.

For the latest on the weather, you can visit our website.

Millions of commuters faced disruption in the capital this

morning because of a strike by London Underground workers. The

48-hour walk-out, which began last night, is in protest at the closure

of ticket offices and the loss of hundreds of jobs. The Conservatives

have suggested that their next manifesto could include restrictions

on industrial action by workers in essential public services.

It is the engine that tries England's capital, carrying three

times the population of Birmingham every day. Clogged up by strike

action. I have missed two buses so far, one of which, the doors closed

in my face. Some used it as a chance to get fit. Others just wished the

buses were bigger. Not many found their journey easy. Absolute

nightmare tried to get here. People pushing on the bus, the police are

pushing you onto it. This might be a Londoner strike, but it affects

everybody. One estimate says that it was the UK economy ?200 million.

Why? Because nearly as many people travel on the tube everyday as

travel on the rest of Britain's trains put together. Only a third of

services are running today, so what is the strike about? The unions are

angry over plans to close every ticket office and cut 950 jobs.

Transport for London, or TfL, says the plan would save ?50 million a

year. They also say they are offering generous redundancy terms

and around 1000 staff have already shown an interest, meaning no

compulsory job losses. There is a table to be sat around by you and

your team. But we can't do it with a gun to our head. At the centre of

the row, two men who have not spoken for years, until yesterday. Union

leader Bob Crow and London's Mayor, Boris Johnson. I getting people out

from behind the plate glass, getting them into the public areas, they

could be of more use. If you look at London Underground's own proposals,

even they recognise the fact that if you are disabled or partially

sighted, these proposals will make it harder for people to get a

ticket. The argument is being put up that they are just tried to keep

someone behind ticket office. That is not the case. Ministers are now

looking at a new law to make it harder to strike if you work in an

essential service. A United Nations human rights

committee has accused the Vatican of adopting policies which allowed

priests to rape or molest thousands of children. In a strongly worded

report, it says the Catholic Church systematically placed its reputation

above its duty to protect children. The main finding of the committee

was that the Holy See has adopted policies which have led to the

continuation of the abuse by and the impunity of the perpetrators. The

Holy See has consistently placed the preservation of the reputation of

the church and the protection of the perpetrators above children's best

interests. David Willey, this is deeply disturbing criticism here.

Yes, well, within the past few minutes, the Vatican has issued its

reply to these accusations. I would say that they have moved into damage

control mode. They have said that they are going to study the United

Nations document very carefully, but they criticise what they call an

attempt to interfere with the religious teaching of the Catholic

Church. This, of course, is a scandal which has been going on for

many, many years now, and Pope Francis has been criticised somewhat

for putting this issue really on the back burner. He has been dealing

with other critical issues from the Church, but the other day he did

announce that he had set up a new committee of inquiry in the Vatican

administration to deal with this very problem. It is very troubling

for the Church, and clearly they are going to have to consider very

carefully this criticism, which I would say is some of the harshest

that has ever been heard from the United Nations. The Vatican, of

course, is an observer at the United Nations, not a full member. David

Willey in Rome, 20 very much. Just after quarter past one, our top

story this lunchtime: Part of Britain have been battered by fierce

storms, thousands of people without power and travel is severely

disrupted. The main railroad to Cornwall has been cut off after a

wave destroyed part of the line. Still to come, spend it like

Beckham, he is about to announce the starting a new Major League Soccer

team Miami. Later on BBC London, Bert to the

ground in the London rights, now Prince Charles visit Tottenham to

meet residents finally moving back home. And he may be in Robocop, but

we talk to Gary Oldman about his south-east London Road is.

-- roots. These are the first pages of

Britain's unmanned drone taking to the skies, it is called the Taranis,

and it is capable of launching precision strikes in hostile

technology. Flying invisibly to radar, it can be operated via

satellite link from anywhere in the world. Here is defence correspondent

Jonathan Beale. Just a few years ago with a fanfare

and to a very select audience, BAE Systems unveiled its latest road.

Taranis was named after the Celtic god of thunder. It has also been a

top-secret project, part funded by the Ministry of Defence. And its

development has been closely guarded. But these pictures of it

flying have now been released. Taken during test flights last year at an

unnamed location, believed to be in the Australian desert, far from

prying eyes. In fact, few details are being made public, but it is the

most advanced unmanned aircraft ever built in the UK. In engineering

terms, this is exceptional. It is the confluence of all sorts of

apparently conflicting design parameters, stealth requirements,

performance requirements, amazing mission system requirements, and all

of that in an unmanned system. It really is the pinnacle of

engineering. This is the nearest we can get to Taranis, and of course

this is a model. It is the size of a fighter jet. One of the reasons it

is so secret is that it is meant to fly undetected deep into enemy

territory. RAF pilots already fly Reaper drones over Afghanistan, able

to launch a hellfire missile from a hangar in Lincolnshire at a target

half a world away. Taranis is also designed to carry weapons, but it is

stealthy, capable of flying on its own, and it is much faster. What

speeds? Well, I am not sure I am allowed to tell you that. But twice

as fast as anything we have flown before. Away from the promotional

hype, there is still controversy. Questions about the safety of

unmanned planes, as well as the legal and moral arguments

surrounding their use. But Taranis shows British business and its armed

forces are convinced this is the future of warfare.

The Institute of fiscal is has set out again the scale of cuts needed

beyond the election for the Government to balance its books. --

the Institute of fiscal studies. Chief economic correspondent Hugh

Pym is with me now. Well, the IFS always sets out its stall head of

the Budget next month, telling it as it sees it, if you like, sketching

out the landscape. It is reminding us that if you look at the planned

spending cuts through to 2018 from 2010, only about 40% will have been

achieved by the end of this year, so quite a lot more to come. It reminds

us that unprotected departments have suffered quite big cuts and will

continue to see further cuts. Even health, which is protected,

ringfenced, so no cut in real terms under this Government and presumably

in the next parliament as well, even health is suffering strains because

of the demands of a rising population and an increasingly

ageing population. Here is what the director of the IFS had to say about

it. The total amount of money we are spending on health is not going

down, but we are having to look after more people, in particular

more older people, and we spend a lot more on older people through the

NHS than on others, so the actual effect is about 9% less to spend on

each individual given what has happened to the structure of the

population. So even a protected departments like the NHS will see

strains, if you like, less spending per person, as Paul Johnson

explained there. The good news from the IFS and their economic analysis

is that in terms of wages, they will start picking up this year and go

above cost of living increases. The squeeze, they think, could be coming

to an end. Hugh Pym, thank you. Ten people have been injured, two

seriously, in what is thought to have been a gas explosion in a

residential street in Clacton in Essex. Two houses have been

flattened and a third badly damaged. 19 homes have to be evacuated.

The deadline for the removal of all Surrey's chemical weapons has been

missed today. The United States has expressed concern, but Russia says

it has had assurances from Damascus that the process will be completed

by the beginning of next month. This report from world affairs

correspondent Rajesh Mirchandani does contain distressing images.

Almost six months now since these shocking pictures, apparent evidence

that Syria used poison gas on its own people. The West stopped short

of military action, but Syria did agree to give up chemical weapons.

Now the US says it is stalling. They are not moving fast enough, they

have missed a very important target state, the 5th of February. To have

all chemical weapons out of Syria. As a greedy, you when inspected

visited Syria, catalogued its toxic armourer and destroyed its ability

to produce or use chemical weapons. -- as agreed. But an international

fleet that was supposed to carry the running in stockpile out of Syria

for destruction at sea have had little to do. The amount of chemical

weapons material Jude to be transported out of Syria is around

1300 tonnes. -- due. According to the US, as of last week, less than

5% has been removed. At that rate, they will not even finish this

year. Russia, a key ally of President Assad, says it has been

ensured that the removal through conflict zones will be completed by

March. One analyst think the Syrians have little incentive to comply. The

Syrian regime really don't seem keen to do it at all. It is taking a huge

amount of military effort for them to guard those convoys and move them

to Latakia, really affecting their operations. And those operations

continue. The Syrian government has been accused of using huge barrel

bombs on opposition areas. Some fear that President Assad strengthening

his position on the battlefield while international attention is

focused on his chemical weapons. Rajesh Mirchandani, BBC News.

Two days before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, gay rights

activists in 19 cities across the world are protesting against what

they see as discrimination by the Russian government. Campaigners want

the Russians and the IOC to uphold principles six of the Olympic

Charter, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual

orientation. -- Principle 6. Daniel Sandford said this report from

Sochi. With Russia's controversial wind and

index just two days away, Sochi airport this morning as the athletes

poured in, among them Chemmy Alcott, Britain's top skier. How much of the

concerns about gay rights and a possible terrorist attack affected

her preparation? I am here to ski, I am here to race. The Olympic venues

look magnificent, but Russia is struggling to shake off the gay

rights issue. Activists across the world, including these in Jerusalem,

have declared today and international day of action,

encouraging big sponsors like Coca-Cola to speak out against a new

Russian law. It bans what it calls propaganda to young people of what

it describes as non-traditional sexual activities. None of these

protests will be in Sochi itself, partly because the only place that

anyone will be allowed to protest during the whole Winter Olympics is

here in a park under a motorway flyover next to a railway line and

ten miles from the Olympic venues. The target of the protests,

Russia's Vladimir Putin, was yesterday at a project to

reintroduce leopards to the mountains near Sochi. These games

were supposed to be a showcase of his Russia, but they have

highlighted the dark side of his government, too.

David Beckham is expected to announce in a couple of hours' time

that he is starting a new Major League Soccer team in Miami,

Florida. Beckham, who ended his career with six seasons at LA

Galaxy, is thought to be going into business with Simon Fuller, the man

who managed the Spice Girls. Our correspondents Nick Bryant is in

Miami for us now. Simon, setting up a professional

soccer team in Miami, you would have thought, is a bit like setting up a

Royal souvenir shop outside Buckingham Palace. There is a huge

market in Miami, they call this the unofficial capital of Latin America,

it is a Spanish-speaking majority city. Football is in its very DNA.

So you would have thought this would be a no-brainer for David Beckham.

The problem is that the last professional outfit she folded in

2001, it had debts of 250 million dollars, it is reported. So,

financially, there is something of a risk for David Beckham. He is going

to be making this announcement in a couple of hours' time. A lot of

speculation about what the new team is going to be called, Miami Spice

is one favourite, even Miami Posh. There are all sorts of

possibilities, Simon. I will believe you, Nick! Thank you

very much. Kevin Pietersen says he is so sad that his England career is

over. The man who scored more runs for his country than any other

batsman has been told he's longer wanted. The new management team say

the time is right to rebuild. Sports correspondent Joe Wilson reports.

Like him or loathe him, there is now live without him. Where once stood

Pietersen now lies a void, but was it avoidable? Newspapers on

Wednesday morning portrayed Pietersen as both victim and villain

in a cricketing coup, some still wondering why exactly Pietersen had

to go now. I don't think this is the moment, there is too much going

forward, a World Cup in four weeks, and Ashes series in 16 months, and I

feel you need your best players. It is the wrong call at the wrong time

for English cricket. From Lord Steel law, everyone in the cricketing

world knows all about Kevin Pietersen's outstanding record. In

test matches, he scored more than 8000 runs. In one-day international

is, more than 4000. Over 1000 runs in Twenty20 international is. No-one

who has ever played cricket for England can match these combined

stats. With his talent came ego and attitude, certainly, and he was a

disruption, definitely. In 2012 in Sri Lanka, Pietersen was forced to

apologise for text message behaviour and reintegrate, but he has always

had allies, notably the great Australian Shane Warne, who

described the English governing body as a shambles in a tweet. Pietersen

on Twitter today to limited his comments to regret, perhaps saving

his full account for a book. Right now England have new men running the

show, managing director and chief selector Paul Downton and James

Whitaker, seen here in Australia. After that terrible tour, it is the

captain's role which may need to grow, and Alastair Cook's influence

and Kevin Pietersen's disappearance may well have been decisive.

Joe Wilson, BBC News. Let's have a look at the weather,

Chris Fawkes is here with a screen that rather matches the mood.

Yesterday evening we had wind gusting to 92 mph in the Isles of

Scilly, the strongest this storm will give us, but nevertheless we

have severe gales on the way through the rest of this afternoon across

the south of Wales in southern England courtesy of this swirl of

cloud we have been monitoring for the last few days. Quite a bit of

cloud across the British Isles, the strongest winds being German in

across the south of Wales and coastal counties. -- driven in.

Ghosts on the coast of up to 70 mph. The winds will affect the Bristol

Channel and the south coast of Wales, expect disruption on the

Channel crossings. 70 mph gusts are on the cards for the coastline of

the English Channel, a whole clutch of showers, not a great deal of

sunshine between the showers. Lindy of downpours in Northern Ireland,

more persistent rain for the South of Scotland. -- plenty of downpours.

The one bright spot in today's bright weather, if you like. We are

going to see more trees blown over, we will get inland gales fairly

widely, further flooding is possible, and large, battering waves

bringing dangerous conditions to the coastlines. This evening and

overnight, the rain pushes northwards and eastwards, followed

by an area of low pressure sat to the North West of Scotland. The

winds will be not as strong as they are at the moment, so some

moderation of conditions overnight, relatively mild, five or six

degrees. Into Thursday, a band of rain affecting western Scotland,

apart from that a reasonable morning with bright or sunny spells. But you

cannot help but notice what is coming into the South, another band

of rain pushing across the southern counties, the South of Wales,

Midlands and East Anglia before the afternoon. It will be the rain that

causes more concern than the wind, up to 40 millimetres expected. Over

the hills of Wales and the Pennines, you could see a bit of

snow for a time. That system clears out of the way, this is the chart

for the weekend. It looks familiar, doesn't it you might deep

low-pressure bringing severe gales. It could exacerbate the flooding we

have seen. Any end in sight? I am afraid not, it looks like it will

stay around for the next week or two.

That leads to a reminder of our top story, part of Britain have been

battered by fierce storms with thousands of people without power

and travel severely disrupted. The main rail route to Cornwall has been

cut off after huge waves destroyed part of the line.