27/12/2015 BBC World News

Our top stories. The needles and storms leave at least 29 people dead

in the southern United States. Here are warnings of an historic blizzard

to come. Flooding has left thousands without electricity in the north of

England. Battles to take the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State group.

And the British man who successfully rode his boat salt from the United

States of the week across the Pacific to Australia describes his

journey. It has been difficult the hallway but in fairness that is what

I was looking for. I just did not realise it would ease so difficult.

Daesh would be so difficult. There has been severe weather in the

southern United States. In the cold light of day,

the devastation caused by tornadoes The worst-hit area was in Garland,

where eight people were killed. Cars blown off highways

and homes were flattened. All the glass, which

was here, just cracked. Officials have said that more

than 600 buildings were damaged. The Dallas area is the fourth most

populace in the United States. This was the moment when one

of the tornadoes hit Texas. Size only made apparent by power

flashes as electricity It was a normal freight train type

sound, the next thing that we knew, all the neighbours, everybody,

we went out, took safe areas. Among the fatalities,

several were killed when cars The tornadoes have been

following a week of storms, leaving This one tore a path 100 miles long

between Mississippi and Tenessee. Flooding in Alabama was the result

of record rainfalls. As of Sunday morning,

more than 400 flights cancelled, With a histroric blizzard forcast,

people in Oklahoma and Texas have Let's get more on this. On the line

now from the National weather service in Dallas we have a senior

meteorologist. Tell out in the coming hours what is the situation

like for residents where you are? Now we have had a very strong cold

front moved through. We are just above freezing but the winds are

gusting through up to 45 mph. Combined with rain and thunderstorms

we are even seen Hill reports. It is pretty awful idea still. Let's stop

more about that. You said the wind was still severe in some places. Are

we likely to see to needles like those which have struck in the past

24 hours? There are some further to the east over East Texas and

Louisiana generally knew the Tyler areas and up towards more northern

parts. Overcoming these Texans will have too braced themselves for what

has been turned an historic blizzard. Doc as to what will

happen. That will stay well off to northern parts but it is generally a

strong upper low-pressure system which will lift over the top of the

called air tonight in areas like Oklahoma City, areas to the west and

north-west of Dallas up to Texas and Oklahoma where they have already

been hit hard by blizzard conditions so they are looking at close to one

foot of snow and loathing snow which will make travel very hazardous.

Compared to the weather we have seen strike the area in previous years

how unusual is this? It is unusual in the fact it is not our peak

season for needles but with our proximity to the very warm Alf of

Mexico and with the Rocky Mountains of to the West we have combined

different wind patterns coming together with moisture and strong

winds. We could a sickly get tornadoes any time of the year here

and there have been previous in 2006 and 2009 around this time we have

had a tornado out rate. Thank you for joining us.

Some 500 soldiers have now been brought in to deal with the severe

flooding in northern England, with another 1,000 put on standby.

Rescue teams have been evacuating residents in York,

where water levels are still rising, and across Yorkshire,

Lancashire and Greater Manchester thousands of people

David Cameron has pledged to do "whatever is needed" to help people

affected by what he called an "unprecedented" situation.

There are currently 223 flood warnings and alerts in place

across England and Wales.Of those, 24 are severe flood warnings,

defined as those which present a risk to human life.

In Scotland, there is now just one flood alert in place.

After Cumbria and Lancashire it is now Yorkshire was much turn.

The people knew that the city was vulnerable,

The call to evacuate was made last night.

Last night we started putting water and sandbags up.

The water came so quickly, before we could get everything

But not everybody has been happy to leave,

Some people have wanted to stay in their homes,

and although the weather is good, a dry day, it is when it gets

to the evening, and starts to get dark.

That is when people are going to change.

On this road, east of the city centre, the water levels have been

Never seen anything like it. and is worried she may

I'm concerned at the level it's getting to.

Might need to look at getting out the flat.

Mountain rescue teams are helping from across the north of England.

It is part of a massive emergency effort.

In York, this is the nerve centre, keeping track of the floods

Dynamic situation, driven by the water levels,

A plea has been made for an extra 5,000 sandbags.

Some of the barriers had to be lifted, pumps overwhelmed,

We have decided to deploy more personnel, but the emergency

As we just heard, the city of York has been dealing with unprecedented

A little earlier I spoke to Judith Moritz who gave us

Ironically it's been a nice day with sun in the sky but the water

very much still on the ground and that is partly because of

You need to understand the way the Yorkshire Dales function

to understand why we are seeing this flooding happen in the way

It is not thought likely the river will reach its peak until lunchtime

tomorrow. The river Ouse is at the moment about 5.1 metres above the

level it would be in the summertime. ER flood defences in the city that

can cope with what up to 5.4 metres so the anxiety is that people are

waiting here to see whether the water will continue to rise

overnight and into tomorrow and whether it will be contained within

those defences. You can see already a lot of the defences have an

breached because water have run over the rivers into the city centre.

This is typical, a lot of roads like this were the only way to get along

is by boat and people have been forced to get out of their houses

and apartments and in some cases we have had to be rescued by the Army,

the Fire Service and buy mine to rescue teams who have come in here

to help as well. On that note, lots of able have been forced to leave

their homes but I the emergency services still there and what are

they doing to aid them? You can see possibly just behind me there are

lights on in the building behind me. Those are flats which are not

flooded yet. The point is that the right on the cusp of possibly been

flooded and I have spoken to several able today properties like that who

have said our premises have not been flooded yet. Nobody has told us to

get out, we are watching the water keeping higher. The sandbags are out

and we are hoping nothing will affect us directly so we will stay

put at the are other people whose homes have been flooded and that

happened so quickly they have had to be rescued the Cosby thought they

had time and it was not going to happen but in the event he had to be

pulled out. We heard from people for whom it happened so quickly they had

to call for emergency help. The weather has been wreaking

havoc elsewhere too. More than a hundred thousand people

in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have been forced

to leave their homes because of some of the worst floods

in the region in five decades. In Paraguay, the worst affected

country, the authorities say water In Argentina, some 20,000

people were evacuated Officials in Paris say one

of the men who carried out the deadly Islamist attacks

on the French capital last month, Samy Amimour, has been buried

in an anonymous grave. They say he was buried on Thursday

in a suburb of Paris He was one of three suicide

attackers who killed 90 concert Meanwhile, the authorities

on the French island of Corsica have banned street demonstrations

in parts of the capital Ajaccio following several days

of anti-Arab protests. Security forces in Corsica also

cordoned off a largely-Arab housing estate, where two fire-fighters

and a police officer were injured in clashes on December

the twenty-fourth. The following day protesters went

into the housing estate Stay with us on BBC World News,

still to come, all the sport Stuart Broad takes three wickets on

day two to give the tourists a slight advantage in Durban. We saw

this enormous tidal wave approaching the beach and people started to run.

It was complete chaos. As a series of tornadoes and storms

leaves at least 29 people dead forecasters warn that some areas now

face major blizzards. And here in Britain,

the army is called in to help deal with unprecedented flooding

in the north of England - homes have been evacuated

and thousands of people Iraqi forces have made fresh gains

against militants from the so-called They're on the verge of retaking

the major city of Ramadi - west of Baghdad - which fell

to IS in May in what was seen It's the last key

position in Ramadi. IS have been using the compound

to organise against the Iraqi army - who have been trying

to retake the city for weeks. The BBC's Thomas Fessy sent this

report from Baghdad. This is what it takes to retake

a city from so-called Islamic State. The scene in Ramadi after a six-day

offensive with Iraqi soldiers leading a ground campaign,

supported by air strikes Iraqi troops fought a battle street

by street, house to house. IS fighters had months

to build their defence, the whole city centre

was booby-trapped. But the security forces have

now forced the jihadis to abandon their stronghold,

the former provincial government compound, from where

they organised their resistance. Taking control of this position

is key to retaking Ramadi. Sporadic fighting continues

in the neighbourhood, but Iraqi forces are confident

they now have the upper hand. TRANSLATION: Our operations

started a few days ago, so a rough day today for the armed

forces and counterterrorism forces, but we gained control to enter

the governmental square. And this is what Iraqi

soldiers want to forget, when they abandoned the city

to Islamic State fighters. Pictures of their hasty retreat

were an embarrassment It has taken months for the security

forces to work out a plan to retake They first isolated the city

from all sides to cut off IS militant supply routes

before this final push. This is a success in the fight

against Islamic State, but it is only the start of a battle

that will get much tougher The director of Israel's missile

defence programmes has been sacked for what's been described

by the government as a grave breach The Israeli media say Yair Ramati

stored classified documents Yair Ramati was responsible

for overseeing projects such as the Iron Dome and Arrow

anti-missile interceptor systems. Pope Francis has called

for Central American countries to show generosity in dealing

with the rising numbers of Cuban refugees who have become stranded

in the region as they attempt to get The Pope made his remarks following

his blessing on Sunday to people in the square. My thoughts go at this

moment to the numinous Cuban migrants who find themselves that

difficulty in Central America. Many are Vic aims of human trafficking. I

call on the government to renew a commitment to find a solution to

this human drama. There has been an 80% rise in the number of Cubans

seeking to reach the US this year. There are worries that the lesions

between Washington and Havana made give preferential treatment to the

Cuban migrants. As many as 5000 people are stranded in camps on

Costa Rica was much order with Nicaraguan. The allowed travel

across the territory sparking a diplomatic row between the

neighbours. As migrants continue to flow, Costa Rica tried to broker a

deal with its neighbours before suspending transit visas ten days

ago and warning future arrivals would be deported. That has had a

knock-on effect with 300 Cuban migrants now stranded in Panama.

Many have hitched tents near the border in anticipation of a long

wait. England will feel they have a slight

advantage over South Africa at the end of the second day

of the first test in Durban. Stuart Broad was the man who helped

to shade it for the tourists as he took three wickets

as the hosts finished England were 253-8 before a late

flourish saw them finish Nick Compton made 85 on his return

to the side. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel

were the pick of South Africa's bowlers who finished

with four wickets each. South Africa were in trouble

when Broad struck with two early wickets, as the hosts slipped to 14

for two before Dean Elgar De Villiers went for 49

as Broad struck again, finishing with three

wickets for just 16. The morning session will be crucial.

We were hoping for more of a swing than we got. We threw it into the

car more than we wanted. It is a heavy outfield and the bowlers

suffered a camp from that. If we get out early tomorrow morning and get

more of the swing we will hopefully get some wickets in that first hour.

Over in Melbourne, a dramatic collapse in the final session left

the West Indies in trouble as they reached 91-6 at stumps

on the second day of the second test with Australia.

It came after centuries from captain Steven Smith and Adam Voges drove

the hosts to a daunting first innings declaration of 551-3.

It leaves the Windies 261 runs short of the follow on

Pakistan bowler Yasir Shah has been charged with an anti-doping

violation and provisionally suspended by

Yasir tested positive for the banned substance following the second

one-day international against England in Abu Dhabi last month.

The 29-year-old made his test debut for Pakistan

last year, and earlier this month was named in the ICC's Test team

Yasir has made no comment and the ICC has said that no further

information will be released until a full investigation

The Scottish Premiership Champions Celtic missed the chance

to extend their lead at the top of the table as they were held

to a 2-2 draw with Hearts at Tynecastle.

Twice they took the lead, but twice Hearts pulled level.

Their second goal came in the 90th minute, as Celtic move just one

point clear of second placed Aberdeen.

Saracens maintained their 100% record in rugby union's Premiership

this season with a 26-16 win over Wasps in Coventry,

a result that sees the defending champions return

Elsewhere, Harlequins left it late to rescue a point against Gloucester

In the day's other game Bath beat Worcester 21-14 for only

Elsewhere Edinburgh beat Glasgow warrior 23-11. That is all the

sport. A British man has become the first

person to row non-stop and solo across the Pacific Ocean

from North America to Australia. John Beeden, who's 53,

set off from San Francisco on the first of June and rowed

for an average of fifteen John Beeden celebrated

with family and friends, after completing the journey

we could only dream of. The 53-year-old Briton has been

rowing for up to 15 hours a day, It has been difficult,

but that is what I was looking for. I did not realise it was

going to be so difficult. I did the Atlantic, three years ago,

and although it was hard work, I found the process of doing the 53

days, relatively easy, I wanted to look for

something more difficult. John had hoped to reach

the north-eastern Australia, weeks ago, but was slowed

down by bad weather. After travelling more

than 14,000 kilometres, he was greeted one month

later than expected, Getting pushed back hundreds

of miles you've already rowed Some much needed downtime,

after returning to home in Canada. But what will be next

for this adventurer? He said he's not going to get

in another boat for a while, but after a couple of weeks,

I'm sure he will be The latest Star Wars film continues

to sweep all before it, becoming the fastest ever film

to make $1 billion dollars The movie achieved

the feat in just 12 days. The news comes as the director

and cast of the Star Wars film were in China for the

official premiere there. Don't forget you can get in touch

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