:00:22. > :00:26.A woman in her seventies has died after a car ploughed into a coffee
:00:27. > :00:30.A number of people are said to have been injured at the Costa Coffee,
:00:31. > :00:33.and roads in the centre of the town have been closed to traffic.
:00:34. > :00:36.The car remains embedded in the front of the building.
:00:37. > :00:50.The operation to remove the car is just getting under way behind me.
:00:51. > :00:55.One shopkeeper he said the noise of the impact was so loud she thought
:00:56. > :01:00.it was a bomb. She could not see the car because it was lodged inside the
:01:01. > :01:02.shop. She went to give first aid and she could see the injured lying
:01:03. > :01:11.among smashed tables and chairs. An image taken soon after the car
:01:12. > :01:16.crashed into the Coffey shop. It is on the high street and a popular
:01:17. > :01:24.meeting place in the town. I heard a big bang outside and it was sounding
:01:25. > :01:29.like a big bomb. One of the Costa Coffee staff asked me to see a woman
:01:30. > :01:35.behind the counter. I went there and I spoke to her. She never replied
:01:36. > :01:41.back. But I can see clearly she is dead. Hours later the car remained
:01:42. > :01:45.lodged in the Coffey shop. Two people were cut free by the fire
:01:46. > :01:50.service. A woman in her 70s was declared dead at the scene. The car
:01:51. > :01:54.first lost control of the street. These fluorescent markers show its
:01:55. > :01:58.path across the pavement. It careered into Costa Coffee at
:01:59. > :02:03.10:30am. It was full of people kicking off their Christmas Eve. A
:02:04. > :02:09.total of five people were taken to hospital. Two men and two women were
:02:10. > :02:12.seriously injured. One woman had minor injuries. The police
:02:13. > :02:18.investigation is ongoing. But it appears to be a tragic accident. We
:02:19. > :02:22.have a coordinated approach to deal with casualties first. That was our
:02:23. > :02:25.main priorities -- priority, to save lives and make sure there were no
:02:26. > :02:31.further injuries. When that was done we helped people out. We then slowed
:02:32. > :02:35.the scene down so we could carry on with the investigation to get to the
:02:36. > :02:40.root causes of what happened. West Ham is a close-knit community. A few
:02:41. > :02:44.of its residents who had popped into a copy shop on Christmas Eve will be
:02:45. > :02:50.spending Christmas day in hospital. -- Coffey shop.
:02:51. > :02:52.The government's crisis response Cobra Committee will meet
:02:53. > :02:54.on Christmas Day to discuss the situation in flood-hit Cumbria.
:02:55. > :02:57.More heavy rain is forecast to hit the county -
:02:58. > :03:00.and the army has already been put on standby to help.
:03:01. > :03:07.River levels have been up and down for weeks now in Cumbria. But more
:03:08. > :03:10.wet weather means they are set to rise sharply again over the next
:03:11. > :03:18.couple of days and cause more flooding. So they are putting out
:03:19. > :03:21.the sandbags again. We are better prepared. I would rather be
:03:22. > :03:25.chastised for getting things in place and did not happening than
:03:26. > :03:30.somebody saying it is not kind to happen and it does. They have only
:03:31. > :03:33.just finished stripping out of these flats after the last flood. People
:03:34. > :03:38.living here say they have never known a month like it. To it has
:03:39. > :03:41.never stopped raining. We're never stopped raining. We're
:03:42. > :03:46.watching the river going up and down like a yo-yo. People getting sorted,
:03:47. > :03:50.back on their feet a little bit, and it could all happen again.
:03:51. > :03:55.The latest forecast of heavy rain means the Government is preparing
:03:56. > :04:00.for the worst. I think we need to be seriously worried. Although this
:04:01. > :04:05.river seems low now, if you had more rain it could come right up over
:04:06. > :04:09.these banks. It is not just true here. That will be true in Keswick,
:04:10. > :04:15.Cockermouth, Appleby and Carlisle. For Sony people affected by flooding
:04:16. > :04:20.so far, the festivities are the least of their concerns. We are
:04:21. > :04:23.bearing through it and looking forward to Christmas being over.
:04:24. > :04:28.Their focus is getting long-term accommodation and getting back on
:04:29. > :04:33.their feet. From tomorrow, once again attention will be focused on
:04:34. > :04:39.river levels here in Cumbria. It seems for people living here there
:04:40. > :04:42.is no letup. More rain is the last thing Cumbria needs at the moment.
:04:43. > :04:47.The misery of flooding is set to continue.
:04:48. > :04:50.Danny, people must be looking at the next few days with great
:04:51. > :04:54.apprehension? Just to underline how bad it is, the
:04:55. > :04:58.Met Office have confirmed today that is -- that this month in Cumbria has
:04:59. > :05:04.been the wettest on record. Those records have been going for 105
:05:05. > :05:08.years. There are still six days of the month left. There is more rain
:05:09. > :05:12.in the forecast. As for the outlook over the next couple of days, my
:05:13. > :05:17.understanding is there are places in the south of the candidate -- county
:05:18. > :05:22.that are particularly vulnerable. Appleby may flood yet again. Kendall
:05:23. > :05:27.may be affected. But the hope is looking at the current models, say
:05:28. > :05:31.the experts, is that the flood defences in Carlisle should hold.
:05:32. > :05:35.There should not be any flooding there as things stand. That could
:05:36. > :05:39.change. But looking at what people are saying here, and those who are
:05:40. > :05:42.affected living near rivers, the feeling is that if they do get
:05:43. > :05:47.flooded again, it causes more damage and causes another problem but it
:05:48. > :05:51.does not make things too much worse because things have already been
:05:52. > :05:55.destroyed. But it resets the clock. It causes things to go back to
:05:56. > :05:59.square one and having to start all over again. Plans have been made to
:06:00. > :06:03.get Cumbria back to some kind of normality in the New Year but that
:06:04. > :06:07.is some days away. There will be a lot more to get through, more
:06:08. > :06:11.flooding potentially in the next few days. I think people living here,
:06:12. > :06:15.people living close to rivers in this of England, to keep watching
:06:16. > :06:19.those forecasts, watching those warnings because it could come --
:06:20. > :06:22.could only come up with a potential 12 hours warning time.
:06:23. > :06:26.At least 13 people have been injured after a bus crashed into a building
:06:27. > :06:30.The single-decker bus hit the front of a building used as the regional
:06:31. > :06:33.offices of Guide Dogs for the Blind, after a collision with a car.
:06:34. > :06:35.Firefighters cut two people from the damaged car and several
:06:36. > :06:38.passengers on the bus have received treatment for minor injuries.
:06:39. > :06:44.The UK and US governments have issued a warning about possible
:06:45. > :06:46.threats to Westerners in the Chinese captial,
:06:47. > :06:52.British and US officials say they have received information
:06:53. > :06:56.of possible threats in Sanlitun, a busy bar and shopping district.
:06:57. > :06:59.It's not clear what the threat is, but armed police are being deployed
:07:00. > :07:04.and there will be increased security checks in the city.
:07:05. > :07:06.Afghan officials say Taliban militants have been forced out
:07:07. > :07:09.of part of the town of Sangin, in Helmand province,
:07:10. > :07:13.in a military operation backed by US air strikes.
:07:14. > :07:17.There's been no response from the Taliban.
:07:18. > :07:19.The group had earlier said it was in control of Sangin.
:07:20. > :07:22.More than a hundred British soldiers were killed there before Nato
:07:23. > :07:28.Two Burmese men have been convicted and sentenced to death for murdering
:07:29. > :07:35.The bodies of backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller
:07:36. > :07:38.were found on an island beach in September last year.
:07:39. > :07:44.From Thailand, Jonathan Head reports.
:07:45. > :07:51.Arriving at court to hear their fate. Two young Burmese men charged
:07:52. > :07:55.with a horrific crime on a holiday island. David Miller and Hannah
:07:56. > :08:01.Witheridge had been doing what so many young Britons do at their age,
:08:02. > :08:06.backpacking through Thailand. Their battered bodies were found last year
:08:07. > :08:10.on this beach early one morning. From the start of the police
:08:11. > :08:13.investigation was marred by accusations of incompetence. The
:08:14. > :08:17.crime scene was never seal. Evidence was poorly handled. Police
:08:18. > :08:24.statements were confusing. But when they detained the two suspects, they
:08:25. > :08:28.were put through a bizarre re-enactment. They both also
:08:29. > :08:31.retracted their earlier confessions, saying they had been threatened and
:08:32. > :08:35.beaten. There were many doubts expressed about the prosecution
:08:36. > :08:39.case, not just by the defence lawyers but also by international
:08:40. > :08:43.forensic and -- experts, in particular about the central piece
:08:44. > :08:48.of evidence, the police DNA tests which they said were unreliable.
:08:49. > :08:51.None of that was sufficient to sway the judges, who insisted the tests
:08:52. > :08:57.were up to international standards and enough to justify a guilty
:08:58. > :09:00.verdict and the death penalty. The emphatic outcome of this drawn-out
:09:01. > :09:01.trial gave some satisfaction to the family of David Miller, who
:09:02. > :09:08.attended. We believe the result attended. We believe the result
:09:09. > :09:14.today represents justice for David and Hannah. It is our opinion that
:09:15. > :09:20.the evidence against the two men is absolutely overwhelming. They raped
:09:21. > :09:28.to satisfy their selfish desires and murdered to cover up that fact. They
:09:29. > :09:31.have shown no remorse during the trial. It was a very different
:09:32. > :09:36.experience for the mothers of the two convicted men, who were visiting
:09:37. > :09:39.from Myanmar. In court, the defence lawyers had failed to convince the
:09:40. > :09:44.judges of the flaws they said riddled the prosecution case. Now
:09:45. > :09:49.they plan to appeal against the verdict, a process which could take
:09:50. > :09:51.years. Jonathan Head, BBC News.
:09:52. > :09:53.David Cameron has released his annual Christmas message
:09:54. > :09:55.in which he urges Britons to remember people fleeing
:09:56. > :09:58.persecution, including Christians, and reaffirms that Britain
:09:59. > :10:03.In the message, released on social media, the Prime Minister says
:10:04. > :10:06.that it is because of its Christian values that Britain has been such
:10:07. > :10:08.a successful home to people of all faiths and none.
:10:09. > :10:11.England pace bowler James Anderson has been ruled out of the first Test
:10:12. > :10:15.against South Africa in Durban on Boxing Day,
:10:16. > :10:21.England's leading Test wicket-taker was rested for the warm-up match
:10:22. > :10:26.There's more throughout the evening on the BBC News Channel.
:10:27. > :10:32.We're back with the late news at half past 11.