30/12/2015 BBC News

Still no respite for storm-battered Britain as heavy rain and gales

In Ayrshire, 12 passengers are airlifted from a bus stranded

In the Scottish borders, attempts to reinforce defences

with a "danger to life" flood warning issued for the River Tweed.

I am Peebles born and bred and I have never, ever seen it

Was the beach the best place to be managing the crisis from?

Back from his break, the Environment Agency chairman

returns from Barbados to meet victims of the floods.

We'll be looking at what might be causing the recent extreme weather.

Life sentences for the couple who plotted to bomb London.

The American actor Bill Cosby is charged with sexual assault over

And England's cricketers beat South Africa by 241 runs to win

A huge storm - the third to hit the UK in a month -

has been battering parts of Northern Ireland,

Scotland and northern England, bringing yet more flooding.

Storm Frank blew in overnight, causing high winds and persistent

Dumfries and Galloway and Aberdeenshire bore the brunt.

Across Scotland around 6,000 homes were left without power.

We have two reports tonight - one from Croston in Lancashire,

where there are three severe flood warnings in place.

But first, the situation in Dumfries, where the River Nith

There is still a severe weather warning in place for the Whitesands

year in Dumfries but the good news is what levels appear to have

stopped rising so for the moment, all eyes are on whether it does

start to increase, even though it still lapping away, or if it stays

where it is and if it does, the question is, when will that water

start to drain away? Nobody can say they were not warned

about the flooding here but some still needed a last minute left to

dry land anyway. Police acted fast to move people away as irreverent

burst its banks and rapidly rose. It floods here are a lot but really

like this, was up to 120 millimetres of rain forecast over 24 hours.

Property owners did what they could to hold the waters back but with a

strong sense that it was all in vain. I'm trying to get everything

off the ground, as high as we can and the locals have done quite good

in giving us a hand. When the flood hit, it lapped at dozens of

businesses, many still waiting to see what the damages before they can

even think about clearing up. This river has doubled in width and in

terms of intensity, it is much, much bigger. It is an impressive sight

that people have come to see but if you are one of the businesses on the

opposite side of the river, you will not be impressed one bit by what is

happening. At the time's Marina, the quayside vanished from sight, taking

boarding this vessel a risky business. The tall ship has never

quite stood as tall as this. The saving grace is that few residential

properties have been affected but it is not over yet. Some of the

businesses will suffer badly, some will struggle to get going again,

there will be a huge clean-up exercise. A Newtownstewart in

south-west Scotland, it with the first place to see evacuation is.

People try to salvage what property they could. In Ayrshire, passengers

had to be rescued from their service bus. Coastguards and the Royal Navy

helped with this one. Near the Queen 's Balmoral residence, hundreds were

forced to leave their homes. And in Peebles in the Borders, the speed

with which the waters rose was a surprise, even to those who thought

they had seen it all. It has come up very quickly I am Peebles born and

bred and I have never seen it as high as this before. Tonight, the

floodwaters are still high. Only tomorrow's daylight will truly

reveal what damage has been caused. In the village of Croston

in Lancashire, people are braced There are, as we heard,

three severe warnings in place After many questions in the last few

days about the adequacy of the UK's flood defences, the chairman

of the Environment Agency, Sir Philip Dilley, said he'd be

visiting flood victims. He's come in for criticism

for being on holiday in the Caribbean during some

of the worst storms in decades. In Croston's main street,

still littered with the debris of the Christmas flood,

residents kept an anxious eye on the river which had caused

so much damage so quickly. Two miles away, the giant pumps

had rumbled back into action, shifting floodwater off farmland

to make room for more. Since Christmas, millions

of gallons have been pumped back into the river,

downstream of a damaged flood bank. volunteers from a local rescue team

used their tracked vehicles to reach the breached defences

and assess the remaining threat. The storm today hasn't

helped us with that, you know, the high winds

have meant it's been too strong to get a helicopter out,

that is the only way we can move these large sandbanks

at the moment, but we will be continuing to get that done

over the next few days. In Croston Sports Club,

where villagers are co-ordinating

their own relief effort, news that the storm had moved

further north was welcome, One urgent call came

from this nursing home, its kitchen flooded,

its power disrupted. Donations of fresh water and food

were there within hours. Everyone, of all ages

and from all walks of life, have come in and helped

and asked what they can do to help. The plight of flood victims has led

to criticism of Sir Philip Dilley, back today from a Christmas holiday

in the Caribbean. Should he perhaps

have turned earlier? Was the beach the best ways to

manage this crisis from? I have been in close contact with a number of

people... In Tadcaster, the Environment

Secretary, here to see the town's badly damaged bridge,

pointed out that the agency's chief executive had visited

flood-hit areas over Christmas. Liz Truss said a plan to reunite

the two halves of the town I've met people in the town who just

want this back up and running, they want their lives

sorted out as soon as possible, and that is our

priority, to do that. there is still a reassuring

presence on the main street. Tomorrow, the clean-up can resume,

but there'll be more storms to weather in the weeks

and months ahead. Storm Frank has done little to dent

the determination of the committee and many others to get to something

resembling normality as soon as possible. Work year has been going

on through the afternoon and the managers of this pub just off the

village green in Boston have told me we will work through the night to

get it open for the New Year. Many thanks. Robert Hall there.

The relentless storms which have swept across the UK this month meant

it was a record-breaking December for rainfall in many parts

of northern England, Scotland and Wales.

It's meant the potential impact of climate change

Our Science Editor, David Shukman, looks now at what's causing

The coast of Cornwall was amongst the first to be hit by Storm Frank

Then, soon after dawn, County Waterford in Ireland

was struck by waves whipped up the dangerous winds.

And by lunchtime it was the turn of Anglesey in Wales.

And this extreme weather system reaches far beyond the

This animation shows how, out to the west of the UK,

the storm is so powerful it is driving a flow of warm air up

to the Arctic, making the North Pole far warmer than normal.

Here in Britain, the past month has seen a host of new rainfall records

If you look at the averages for December rainfall from 1980

to 2010, Capel Curig in North Wales normally gets 308 millimetres.

But it has been hit with 1012 millimetres -

The average for Shap in Cumbria is 215 millimetres but it

And the average for Bainbridge in North Yorkshire is 156,

We're on course for the warmest December in more than

And the wettest December for many parts of the UK,

including Scotland, Wales and north-west England in more

But we don't expect those conditions to continue right

And all this may be linked to what is called El Nino.

Here, this Nasa image shows warm water rising in the eastern Pacific

and this is happening on a large enough scale to disturb weather

Exactly the kind of thing that El Nino can bring.

And there are similar scenes in South America.

Back here, the aftermath of yet more devastating rain and because warmer

air can hold more moisture, it could well be that climate change

And that will raise more questions about how well the country copes

with more violent weather in the years ahead.

And if you want regular updates on that story,

the BBC Weather webpages have all the latest information,

including all you need to know about the affected areas.

Just go to bbc.co.uk/weather and follow the links.

A couple who plotted a terror attack in London have been jailed for life.

Mohammed Rehman and his wife, Sana Ahmed Khan, both in their 20s,

were convicted of preparing terrorist acts and will serve

a combined minimum sentence of 52 years.

Rehman had discussed targeting the London Underground

and Westfield Shopping Centre on social media under the name

The judge said that Mohammed Rehman and Sana Khan were so dangerous

they may never be released from prison.

He said the pair had even tested their explosive device

There's no longer any trace of the explosives

It's still a place where his family live,

and where his father runs a taxi business.

But he was testing these explosives

right here in the heart of this residential area of Reading.

This man has known the Rehman family for 20 years

and says no-one knew Mohammed Rehman had

That someone could get so caught up in this little world

in which I imagine he styled himself perhaps a hero,

but what I think he was attempting to do or might have done

The judge said Rehman and Khan, who had bought these materials

online, had never intended to travel to Syria or Iraq to fight

Rehman's parents, who didn't want their faces shown,

told me before today's sentencing they believed

their son was indoctrinated through the internet.

somebody must have put him on the wrong track.

In a letter to the judge, Khan said she didn't

know what Mohammed Rehman, the man she married in secret, was up to,

but the judge said both were Islamic radicals

Duncan Kennedy, BBC News, in Reading.

The American actor Bill Cosby is charged with sexual assault over

The comedian has been accused of drugging a former university

employees at his home near Philadelphian. He said under oath

that they had consensual sex. Our Washington Correspondent,

Laura Bicker, is in Washington This comes after dozens of women

have alleged assault This is a first, not charge but

against Bill Cosby and this is a man who was once the most highly paid

entertainer on network television and he was the all-American father

who once instructed young people in high to behave, now charged with

doping and sexually assaulting a woman back in 2004. But women

brought charges in 2005 but the district attorney decided not to

prosecute. New evidence has come to life -- night, a legal document

where under oath Bill Cosby admits giving women he wanted to sleep with

drugs and also paying women to keep quiet. He has always denied the

charges but since then, around 58 women have come forward and he will

face a legal charge in court this afternoon. Laura, thank you. Laura

Bicker there. The Cabinet Office minister

Oliver Letwin has apologised unreservedly for any offence caused

when he suggested in 1985 that "bad moral attitudes"

in black communities Mr Letwin's comments were made

in a confidential memo to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,

as our Political Correspondent, On the Broadwater estate

in North London, one officer was murdered

by a mob wielding knives. As riots broke out

in cities across England, Margaret Thatcher and her ministers

debated the causes Some told her that urban

deprivation in the largely black communities

was partly to blame, but one young Downing Street

adviser disagreed. In his memo to Mrs Thatcher,

Oliver Letwin wrote, "Lower class, unemployed

white people lived for years without a breakdown of public order

on anything like the present scale." He added that attempts to improve

inner cities would fail so long And he dismissed a plan

to encourage black entrepreneurs, saying they would set up

in the disco and the drug trade. Critics say Mr Letwin's comments

show how totally out of touch he was with what was

actually going on here in Tottenham 30 years ago, with no

mention of the high unemployment, the poor housing, and the growing

anger at the way that the police Oliver Letwin went on

to become an MP, and today he's

David Cameron's policy chief. are evidence of a racist

view of the world. Others say they raise questions

about his role in government. There must be real concern

about Tory party policy in relation to the inner cities

when Oliver Letwin is leading and we know that he held

views like these. Mr Letwin has apologised

for any offence caused, saying parts of the memo

were badly worded and wrong. Friends say fighting

discrimination It isn't the real Oliver Letwin

speaking, and he's a very civilised and enlightened person,

and I think the real message is that, over the 30 years

since that note was written, attitudes have been

absolutely transformed. The Broadwater estate

is also transformed, with better housing

and little crime. Mr Letwin's critics

want to know that his views have changed

with the times too. Cricket now, and England

have beaten South Africa The visitors comfortably

won by 241 runs. Our sports correspondent

Andy Swiss has more. A thumping victory for England

here in Durban. A crushing win over

the world's top Test team. For both England's players

and fans, so much to applaud. South Africa had begun the day

still with faint hope, Star batsman AB de Villiers

bamboozled by Moeen Ali, and it prompted the sort of collapse

more traditionally associated Temba Bavuma's rush of blood

offering the simplest of stumpings. For the South African balcony,

it was almost too painful to watch. And it wasn't about

to get any easier. Steve Finn ending Dale Steyn's

brief resistance in about as emphatic a manner

as you could wish to see. And by the time Ali picked

up his third of the day, not so much leg as

legs before wicket... ..South Africa had lost

four for just seven runs. Indeed, what could have been a long,

tense day was all over before lunch. whose last, desperate

review proved futile. Replays showed it hitting

the middle of the middle stump. A suitably decisive end

to an utterly decisive win. There's more throughout the evening

on the BBC News Channel. We are back

with the late news at 10pm. Now on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.