:00:23. > :00:26.Good afternoon. The Christmas misery for thousands
:00:27. > :00:28.is set to continue, with the Environment Agency warning this
:00:29. > :00:33.lunchtime of further significant flooding in parts of southern
:00:34. > :00:36.England. Around 13,000 households are still without electricity, and
:00:37. > :00:44.power companies are warning some customers may not be reconnected
:00:45. > :00:47.until the end of the week. Let's go live to one of the worst affected
:00:48. > :00:54.areas, Byfleet in Surrey, and join Ben Ando who's there. Ben.
:00:55. > :00:59.Good afternoon from Byfleet where the rubbish bins are floating around
:01:00. > :01:05.and anxious residents are keeping an eye on the water levels. There is
:01:06. > :01:09.good and bad news. Of the 24,000 homes that were without power this
:01:10. > :01:14.morning, nearly half have been reconnected. The bad news is there
:01:15. > :01:20.was more bad weather to come. It is the calm between the storms.
:01:21. > :01:25.In Byfleet, heavy rain caused the river to burst its banks. On
:01:26. > :01:31.Christmas Day, residents watched as water levels rose. They are still
:01:32. > :01:35.watching. It looks to be going up. Since yesterday afternoon and early
:01:36. > :01:44.evening, we have kept an eye on it. It is creeping across the car park.
:01:45. > :01:50.We have to go to work, how can we? We will not be in a proper frame of
:01:51. > :01:55.mind even when we get there because we are worried. We need to wait for
:01:56. > :02:03.the water to go down. Some tried to get through. That wasn't always the
:02:04. > :02:09.right decision. My car is floating water over my laptop. Everything is
:02:10. > :02:14.dirty. Elsewhere, the problem was power. This family, one of many who
:02:15. > :02:17.make the best of things with Christmas by candlelight. Extra
:02:18. > :02:21.electricity engineers have been drafted in, many having their
:02:22. > :02:26.Christmas break cut short, to work through the night. The storms before
:02:27. > :02:31.Christmas caused widespread damage across the South of England. At this
:02:32. > :02:36.caravan park in Kent, more than 70 people had to be rescued by the
:02:37. > :02:40.coastguard after heavy winds and rain. With more stormy weather
:02:41. > :02:42.forecast, more floods and power cuts could yet make this Christmas even
:02:43. > :02:48.more of a wash-out. Shoppers have flocked to high
:02:49. > :02:50.streets and shopping centres for the traditional Boxing Day sales.
:02:51. > :02:53.Hundreds of keen bargain hunters queued up overnight to ensure they
:02:54. > :02:59.were first in line for when the doors opened. Some stores even
:03:00. > :03:01.opened at 6am this morning. Andrew Plant joins us from Bristol city
:03:02. > :03:11.centre. Andrew, how's it looking there?
:03:12. > :03:15.It is looking increasingly busy. The bargain hunting started pretty
:03:16. > :03:23.early, people queueing from 3am this morning for the doors to open at
:03:24. > :03:28.6am. Crowds, about 100,000 through the doors. In Birmingham, they are
:03:29. > :03:34.expecting double that, 200,000. In London, it could be ten times as
:03:35. > :03:39.many. We took some pictures earlier, Selfridge's in London. People
:03:40. > :03:44.heading through the doors as soon as they opened. A lot of shoppers will
:03:45. > :03:48.have researched what they are looking for online. Retailers are
:03:49. > :03:53.starting their sales online first, people coming to the shops to pick
:03:54. > :03:58.up what they want. Analysts say it will be big ticket items doing well.
:03:59. > :03:59.Not just the high street but supermarkets are expecting their
:04:00. > :04:05.busiest Boxing Day ever. The funeral of a British doctor who
:04:06. > :04:08.died while being held in custody in Syria is taking place this lunchtime
:04:09. > :04:11.in London. Abbas Khan was days from being freed when the Syrian
:04:12. > :04:15.government announced he'd killed himself. His family say they believe
:04:16. > :04:19.he was murdered. A man has died after being shot
:04:20. > :04:22.inside a nightclub in London's West End. It happened in the early hours
:04:23. > :04:25.of this morning, at the Avalon nightclub on Shaftesbury Avenue. The
:04:26. > :04:28.man, who was 31, was found with multiple gunshot wounds. A man's
:04:29. > :04:32.been arrested on suspicion of murder.
:04:33. > :04:34.Hundreds of Boxing Day hunts are underway, nine years after fox
:04:35. > :04:38.hunting was banned across England and Wales. Supporters are calling
:04:39. > :04:42.for a new vote on the ban, while animal rights groups believe the law
:04:43. > :04:43.should stay as it is. From the Bedale Hunt in North Yorkshire, Dan
:04:44. > :04:57.Johnson reports. The hound, horses and riders
:04:58. > :05:01.gathered in the Market Square, as they have since the early 1800th.
:05:02. > :05:05.Most of the traditions haven't changed, plenty of people came out
:05:06. > :05:12.to take in the spectacle and show their support. There's people 's
:05:13. > :05:18.jobs who need to be kept up. They're very livelihoods. What they do their
:05:19. > :05:23.free time with. We try to do everything we can, to keep hunting
:05:24. > :05:29.going. But they say this will be no fox hunt. Pursuing them with hounds
:05:30. > :05:35.has been illegal since 2004. But almost ten years on, the debate is
:05:36. > :05:40.as fierce as ever. This Hunt traces its history back almost 200 years.
:05:41. > :05:47.Nowadays, it seems the debate over the hunting ban is as much part of
:05:48. > :05:52.the tradition. A survey carried out for animal welfare charities claims
:05:53. > :05:57.eight in ten of those questioned want hunting to stay illegal. A lot
:05:58. > :06:02.of wild animals are still being brutally killed, brought down by a
:06:03. > :06:06.pack of hounds in appalling cruelty. The government did promise to
:06:07. > :06:10.revisit the hunting ban, offering MPs a free vote, but it hasn't
:06:11. > :06:13.happened, and looks unlikely before the next election.
:06:14. > :06:17.The Treasury has announced it's considering new technology to speed
:06:18. > :06:21.up the process of paying in cheques, which can take up to six days to
:06:22. > :06:24.reach an account. It's looking at new technology, such as the use of
:06:25. > :06:28.smartphones, which customers can use to send a photo of a cheque direct
:06:29. > :06:39.to their bank. Our chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym reports.
:06:40. > :06:42.It could become as simple as this: Picking up your mobile phone, taking
:06:43. > :06:44.a picture of the cheque you have just received, and your bank account
:06:45. > :06:48.is credited. In other words, no more queuing at a
:06:49. > :06:50.bank branch. The government is considering legislation which will
:06:51. > :06:54.make this become a reality. We are determined, as a government,
:06:55. > :06:58.to make sure that banks are helping their consumers in every way they
:06:59. > :07:00.can. And if you can introduce a new innovation that will help clear
:07:01. > :07:05.cheques more quickly, that is very welcome.
:07:06. > :07:08.But what about security? Can an image of a cheque really be a safe
:07:09. > :07:11.substitute for the real thing? The banking industry says it does now
:07:12. > :07:14.have the right technology. Banks have rolled out mobile
:07:15. > :07:19.banking. All of that infrastructure is in place. They have also been
:07:20. > :07:22.upgrading their processing systems to deal with the image of the
:07:23. > :07:28.cheque. Around that, of course, is massive amounts of security. And
:07:29. > :07:30.moving into a virtual world will actually create a more secure
:07:31. > :07:34.customer experience than the paper experience today.
:07:35. > :07:40.More convenient, more secure. It's hoped that cheque imaging will
:07:41. > :07:44.speed up the clearing process. Time could be saved by not having to sort
:07:45. > :07:52.out paperwork between banks. The technology is widely used in the
:07:53. > :07:55.United States. The plan is not just aimed at
:07:56. > :07:57.consumers who receive cheques, for example, at Christmas, and can't
:07:58. > :08:01.then get them quickly into bank account so they can go and spend the
:08:02. > :08:04.money. It is also designed to help small businesses, plenty of them
:08:05. > :08:06.still use the cheque system. Ministers say this is all about
:08:07. > :08:08.preserving cheques using modern technology, rather than speeding up
:08:09. > :08:12.their decline. In cricket, England are once again
:08:13. > :08:18.in trouble in the Ashes. In front of a world-record crowd. England
:08:19. > :08:21.batsmen had a tough time on the first day of the fourth Test in
:08:22. > :08:24.Melbourne. Australia, who've already secured the trophy, won the toss,
:08:25. > :08:28.and put the visitors in to bat. At the close of play, England reached
:08:29. > :08:34.226 for six. From Melbourne, our chief sports correspondent Dan Roan
:08:35. > :08:38.reports. With a one-sided series one before
:08:39. > :08:43.Christmas, this could have felt like an anti-climax. Try telling that to
:08:44. > :08:49.the 90,000 who came here, a new world record test crowd. The last
:08:50. > :08:54.time England were here they retain the Ashes. Now they had to salvage
:08:55. > :09:07.pride. Alistair Cox has lost three Tests. But here, England batted. The
:09:08. > :09:10.skipper perishing for 27. Michael Carberry once again got himself in
:09:11. > :09:14.but then came a fateful misjudgement. Australia were
:09:15. > :09:25.applying the pressure. It was a matter of when not if Kevin
:09:26. > :09:32.Pietersen hit out. He got lucky. England's progress was painstaking.
:09:33. > :09:36.Ian Bell went for 27. Once again, Kevin Pietersen was living
:09:37. > :09:41.dangerously. Having received treatment having swallowed a fly, he
:09:42. > :09:46.went on to an unbeaten 50. Ben Stokes failed to build on his
:09:47. > :09:53.century in Perth. Jonny Bairstow was no match for Mitchell Johnson. 226
:09:54. > :09:59.six, to close. At times, this felt like a damage
:10:00. > :10:04.limitation by a team desperate to avoid a series whitewash. England do
:10:05. > :10:09.retain some hope stuff but as ever, it was Australia's day.
:10:10. > :10:10.You can see more