26/12/2013 BBC News

The Christmas storms leave thousands stuck without power and flooding

across the south of England. Is But there are warnings of further

flooding with more storms about to hit the UK. The weather for the next

24-hours is going to deteriorate and the flooding that is happening now

will get worse. And, they're off. Shoppers race to the Boxing Day

sales. Australia's bowlers put England under pressure again at the

start of the Fourth Ashes Test. Good evening. The Christmas misery

for thousands is set to continue, with the Environment Agency warning

of further storms to come and significant flooding in parts of

southern England. Just over 10,000 households are still without

electricity and power companies are warning some customers may not be

reconnected until the end of the week. It was difficult to see where

the river ended and the road was supposed to begin. Only rescue

vehicles could cope with these conditions. Their mission, to

evacuate anyone in danger. This is an ongoing situation. The weather

for the next 24-hours is going to deteriorate and the flooding that is

happening now will get worse. Many people without electricity have been

celebrating Christmas as best they can. Well, very difficult. No hot

water, no heating. It's very cold now. We've had to put off our

Christmas Day and we just have no idea when we will get our

electricity back again. Power cuts have hit many areas. 24,000 homes

were without electricity this morning. Winds gusting up to 70mph

are predicted for tonight. 76 people were rescued from a caravan park in

Kent. The Government is doing its best to help those affected. There

has been major disruption to power supplies. Energy companies have

brought people back off holiday to get power supplies up. It's an

inevitable thing when you have serious stormy weather and trees

down, knocking down electric cables it will take time to get the power

supplies up. I'm please today -- pleased today we got most people

back on electric power. Is being hit by storms at the moment. There is no

end in sight for the bad weather. We can talk to Andy in Byflee in

Surrey. Judging by the situation there, another difficult night for

people and warnings of more to come? That is right. We are in a lull

before the next storm at the moment. They are expecting about

two-and-a-half centimetres of rain, that is of concern to people around

here where river levels are very high. The water is not quite in the

houses though. They are concerned about what will happen tonight. We

have yellow and amber severe weather warnings for much of the country.

Very strong winds tomorrow, about 70-80mph. As to the power situation,

a lot of people have been reconnected since this morning.

10,000 homes without power tonight. Watch out, there is more bad weather

on the way. Thank you. The Civil Aviation Authority has confirmed it

is to hold a review into Gatwick Airport's response to the bad

weather before Christmas. Thousands of passengers faced cancelled

flights and delays on Christmas Eve after a power failure in the North

Terminal which the airport says was caused by flooding. Shop verse been

out in force for the Boxing Day sales. Some queued outside stores in

London from before midnight on Christmas Day. Analysts say there

will be 8% more shop they ares year, compared with Boxing Day last year.

London's West End alone is expect to see just short of 1.5 million

shoppers. It's not just on the high street, it's thought there will be

more than 100 million online purchases today. Our correspondent

Andrew Plant is in a shopping centre in Bristol. How busy has it been

there? People have been waiting from around 3.00 am trying to get a

Boxing Day bargain. Similar scenes across the UK. Good news for

retailers who were hoping for a bumper season. No time for a Boxing

Day breakfast this morning, these shoppers were hungry for sales.

Surrounding the accordings of Selfridges in London with many

tourists teaming through first. This morning's bargain hunting began with

some waiting since late on Christmas Day to bag the biggest discounts on

designer brands. In Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre the crowds

snaked around the corner with some shoppers waiting for six hours in

the cold to be first through the doors. It's fun. We have come for

the experience really. We have never done it before. Most people will get

out rather than sit-in front of the telly. It's fun. Across the UK some

2.5 billion could be spent today. More than ?500 million of that

online. With many stores now starting sales before Christmas, it

is still the high street and shopping centres that make up by far

the biggest slice of the Boxing Day sales. When you look at the number

of people who are here today, the question you could ask is, why

aren't they online? They could be sat in the warmth of their home

online they choose to come here. I think that there will always be the

benefits of actually shopping in the store. In Cardiff too shoppers hit

the high streets to pick up next year's presents with retailers

seeing the next seven days as a key spending window, hoping to have

their tills ringing more than ever in the post-Christmas spending

spree. The funeral has taken place in London of a British doctor who

his family and the Foreign Office claim was murdered by the

authorities in Syria. The Syrian government insists Abbas Khan took

his own life while in custody. He was arrested after going to the

country to work in a hospital in a rebel-controlled area. Family and

friends, even people who didn't know Abbas Khan, came to London's central

mosque today to pay their respects. For his mother, Fatima, the pain of

laying her son to rest was clear. I touch everybody's feet, please give

me my son. The 32-year-old was imprisoned by the Syrian authorities

in November last year. An orthopaedic surgeon, he travelled to

Aleppo to help victims of hospital bombings. In letters he wrote home

he told of his ill-treatment in prison. He said he had been beaten

for no or other reason than the pleasure of his captors. Abbas Khan,

seen here showing his medical kit, was found dead days before he was to

be released. The Syrian authorities claimed he took his own life. His

family say he was murdered. They criticised the British Government

for not trying to save him. The family will think they haven't done

enough. There has been no real contact with them whatsoever. They

tried to seek a meeting with William Hague, to no avail. They revealed a

letter from the Prime Minister post the tragic thing occurring. David

Cameron said Syria should be held to account in that letter. The

Government said they were giving them the privacy and space to

grieve. This family and community want answers. What happened to the

young father will be the focus of the inquest into his death which

opens tomorrow. The leaders of two of South Sudan's neighbours, Kenya

and Ethiopia, have held what officials are calling "constructive"

talks in a bid to halt the fighting which it's feared could leaded to

civil war. UN officials believe thousands have been killed since

violence erupted on 15th December when clashes broke out at a meeting

of South Sudan's ruling party. Of Boxing Day hunts are underway, nine

years after fox-hunting was banned across England and Wales. Support

remembers calling for a new vote on the ban. The latest poll suggests a

clear majority of people are against it. The From the Bedale Hunt in

North Yorkshire, Dan Johnson reports. Gathered in the Market

Square on what has been the biggest day in the hunting Calder. --

calendar. There are people's jobs who need to be kept up. People's

very livelihoods trying to be kept up and what they do with their free

time. We have tried to do everything we can to keep hunting going. There

were bitter protests outside Westminster when the ban was

introduced, almost 10 years later, it's still controversial. This hunt

can trace its history back almost 200 years, but nowadays it seems the

debate over the hunting ban is as much a part of the tradition. A

survey claims that eight in ten of those questioned want hunting to

stay illegal. A lot of wild animals are still being chased and brutally

killed, brought down by a pack of hounds in the most appalling

cruelty. The riders were off following a trail laid by farmers

following the scent of a fox. The Government promised to revisit the

ban and give MPs a free vote. It's unlikely to happen before the next

election. The Treasury has announced it's considering new technology to

speed up the process of paying in cheques which at the moment can take

up to six days to reach and an account. One option to be piloted

next year will enable people to pay in a cheque by sending a smartphone

image of it direct to the bank. It could become as simple as this.

Picking up your mobile phone, taking a picture of the cheque you have

received, and your bank account is credited. No more queueing at a bank

branch. The the Government's considering legislation will make

this become a reality. The we are determined as a government to make

sure that banks are helping their consumers in every way they can. If

you can introduce a new invasion that will help clear cheques for

quickly, that is very welcome. What about security? Can an image of a

cheque really be a safe substitute for the real thing? The banking

industry say it is does now have the right technology. They have rolled

out mobile banking that infrastructure is in place. They

have been upgrading their process systems to deal with the image of

the cheque. Around that of course is massive amounts of security. Moving

into a virtual world will create a more secure customer experience and

that the paper experience today. More convenient, more secure. It is

hoped that cheque imaging will speed up the clearing process. Time could

be saved by not having to sort and move paperwork between banks. The

technology is widely used in the United States. The plan is not just

aimed at consumers who receive cheques for example at Christmas and

can't get them quickly into bank accounts to spend the money. It is

designed to help small business, many of them still use the cheque

system. Ministers say this is all about preserving cheques using

modern technology rather than speeding up their decline. Football

now. Arsenal are top of the Premier League this afternoon after they

beat West Ham by 3-1 rat Upton Park. Elsewhere there were wins for

Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Southampton, Fulham, Sunderland and

Newcastle. Manchester United recovered from a dreadful start

against Hull City to win 3-2. First the handshakes, then the fireworks.

A Boxing Day blockbuster at the KC Stadium, Hull City threatened to

humble the Premier League champions. Barely had James Chester, a foer

Manchester United trainee, no less, put Hull ahead it was 2-0, Meyle

re-r's shot, Steve Bruce's delight. Suddenly, United stirred. Chris

Smalling led the come back. A breathless first half was capped in

breath taking style as Wayne Rooney put the visitors level. After the

break, Hull hung on, but their hopes turned to heartbreak. The man who

put them in front, now put them behind. Chester heading into his own

net, his expression said it all. In injury time, a final chance for

Chester re -- redemption surely. It wasn't to be. A cruel Christmas for

him. For United another welcome victory. Silviniaco Conti riden by

Noel has won the King George VI Chase. Cue Card had look set for

victory but Silviniaco Conti, trained by Paul Nicholls, pulled

away. It's the eighth time Nichols has won the race. England are once

again in trouble in the Ashes. They had a tough time on the fist day of

the Fourth Test. Australia who have already secured the series, won the

toss and put the visitors in to bat. England had reached 226-6. This

could have felt like an anticlimax, tell that to the 90,000 who came

here, a new world record Test match crowd. The last time the England

were here they retained the Ashes, now they had to salvage some price.

Alastair Cook has lost three Tests and Four tosses. They were asked to

bat. The skipper started well but perished for 27. Car berry got

himself in there was a fateful misjudgment. Australia were applying

the pressure. It was a matter of when, not if Kevin Pietersen hit

out. When he did, he got lucky. Nile with the catch, but ran out of room.

When it felt like the tourists were getting the upper hand, Ian Bell

went for 27. Pietersen was living dangerously. Having received

treatment after swallowing a fly he dug in to reach a crucial unbeaten

auto 50. Ben Stokes failed to build on his century in Perth. Bairstow

was no match for Mitchell Johnson. The tourists hopes of a competitive

total had begun to fade. It felt like damage limitation by a team Des

he per rate to avoid a series whitewash. England retain some hope.

It seems it was Australia's day. That is it for now. There is more

throughout the evening on the BBC News Channel. We are back with the

late news at