24/12/2015 BBC News

The Army is tonight on standby in Cumbria, with six inches

of rain forecast to fall over Christmas night into Boxing Day.

People in the county have been warned to prepare for

The Government's crisis response committee COBRA will meet tomorrow

Parts of Cumbria have been flooded three times in the past month,

as our correspondent Danny Savage reports from Kendall.

River levels have been up and down for weeks now in Cumbria,

but more wet weather means they're set to

rise sharply again over the next couple of days and cause more

So they're putting out the sand bags again.

I would rather be chastised for getting things in place and it

not happening, for somebody who says it's not going to happen

They've only just finished stripping out these

Possessions that were saved are once again at risk.

They've never known a month like it here.

For people that don't live in Cumbria, how bad has

We're watching the river go up and down

People are getting back on their feet a little bit.

The Government's emergency response committee will hold a COBRA meeting

on Christmas Day to discuss the situation, such is the level

I think we need to be seriously worried.

Although this river seems quite low now, if you had another 60,

80, 100 millimetres of rain, it could come

That's not just true here, it's true in Keswick,

And for so many people hit by flood soing far,

the festivities are the least of their concerns.

The reality of Christmas is they're just

bearing through it and probably looking forward to Christmas

Their focus is getting long-term accommodation and getting

So from tomorrow, once again, attention will

be focussed on river levels here in Cumbria.

It seems for people living here, there's just no let up.

More rain is the last thing Cumbria needs

The misery of flooding is set to continue.

A woman in her 70s has died, after a car ploughed into a coffee

shop in Westerham in Kent this morning.

Five more people were taken to hospital -

four with serious injuries and one with minor injuries.

The car remained embedded in the window of Costa coffee

all day, before being taken away for examination

Tonight, the car was pulled out of the cafe.

It will be thoroughly examined by the police for any clues

And this was the scene soon after the crash.

The car had embedded itself right inside the cafe,

I actually heard that big bang outside

One of the Costa staff asked me to see a woman behind the counter.

She didn't reply back, but I can see clearly she is dead.

Hours later, the car remained lodged in the coffee shop.

Two people on board were cut free by the Fire Service.

A woman in her 70s was declared dead at the scene.

The car first lost control up the street there.

These flourescent markers show its path

It was full of people kicking off their Christmas eve.

A total of five people were taken to hospital.

Two men and two women were seriously injured,

The police investigation is ongoing, but it appears to be

We had a coordinated approach, to deal with

the casualties first, that was our main priority

to save life and make sure that there weren't any more

Once that was done, we got a count and helped

We then slow the scene down to carry on with the investigation and get

A few of its residents, who popped into a coffee

shop on Christmas eve, will be spending Christmas Day in hospital.

Two Burmese men have been convicted - and sentenced to death -

for murdering two UK tourists in Thailand.

The bodies of backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller

were found on an island beach in September last year.

From Thailand, Jonathan Head reports.

Arriving at court to hear their fate - two young Burmese men charged

with a horrific crime on a holiday island.

David Miller and Hannah Witheridge had been doing what so many young

Britons do at their age - backpacking through Thailand.

Their battered bodies were found last year on this beach

From the start, the police investigation was marred

When they detained the two suspects, they were put

They both also retracted their earlier confessions,

saying they'd been threatened and beaten.

There were many doubts expressed about the prosecution case,

not just by the defence lawyers but also by international forensic

experts, in particular about the central piece of evidence,

the police DNA tests, which they said were unreliable.

None of that was sufficient to sway the judges, who insisted the tests

were up to international standards and enough to justify a guilty

The emphatic outcome of this drawn-out trial gave some

satisfaction to the family of David Miller, who attended the hearing.

We believe that the result today represents justice

It is our opinion that the evidence against Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin

It was a very different experience for the mothers of the two convicted

Now, they plan to appeal against the verdict,

Europe's migrant crisis has been one of the defining stories of the year,

with more than a million people making their way

through the continent, in search of a better life.

16-year-old Nujeen Mustafa, a teenager who escaped the Syrian

Our special correspondent, Fergal Keane, first met her

in September on the Serbian-Hungarian border.

In a new country, it is a season of change.

Three months after reaching Europe, Nujeen Mustafa has found a new life.

Germany is as I expected her to be, beautiful.

My life is as regular as I wanted her to be.

The girl who is waking up early and going to school every day,

This was how she arrived, suffering from

Her epic journey from the Middle East made in a wheelchair

I first met her in September, stranded on the closed Hungarian

I'd love to be an astronaut, to go out and see and find

And on she travelled, across European borders.

No. They said to some camp or something.

Or where they're going to send you after this?

Onto Germany and the reunion with a beloved brother,

Nujeen shares this flat with her older sister.

She dreams of walking and has started

Her parents are still living as refugees in Turkey,

where they fled to escape the fighting.

If I asked you what your Christmas wish is, what is it?

Nujeen has come this far by force of her own

personality, the love of family and the kindness of strangers.

There's no telling what she may achieve in the years to come.

And finally, people from across the world have come

to Bethlehem in celebration of Christmas.

Festivities went ahead in Manger Square, despite high

security following recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Meanwhile, midnight mass has been celebrated at the Vatican in Rome.

Thousands gathered in St Peter's Square to celebrate Christmas.

Inside, Pope Francis called upon Catholics around the globe

to show compassion towards one another

You can see more on all of today's stories on the BBC News Channel.

From all of us here, have a wonderful Christmas.

A very merry evening to you. I'm sure it is quite merry for some of

us