:00:13. > :00:17.This is BBC World News today with me, Tim Willcox.
:00:17. > :00:22.The Syrian city of Homs is pounded for the 4th day in a row. Meanwhile,
:00:22. > :00:29.Russia, which vetoed last weekend's Security Council resolution, is
:00:29. > :00:32.treated to a hero's welcome in Damascus. The Syrian president
:00:32. > :00:37.assured me that he is completely in support of stopping violence
:00:37. > :00:41.wherever it comes from. Clashes in Athens - amid another
:00:41. > :00:47.general strike as the Greek government scrambles to thrash out
:00:47. > :00:52.even tougher austerity plans. The worst lead poisoning epidemic
:00:52. > :00:56.in history. Nigerian children risk dying in their thousands, according
:00:56. > :00:59.to Human Rights Watch. Also coming up: The cheerleader
:00:59. > :01:06.responsible for the right's resurgence in France. Vive la
:01:06. > :01:16.republic, vive la France! A repeat of the Le Pen affect but this time,
:01:16. > :01:19.
:01:19. > :01:23.it is Marine, rather than Jean- Marie who is leading the calls.
:01:23. > :01:33.And great expectations fulfilled as Britain and the world celebrates
:01:33. > :01:40.
:01:40. > :01:46.the 200th anniversary of the Hello and welcome. Russia's Foreign
:01:46. > :01:49.Minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in Damascus today to hero's welcome.
:01:49. > :01:54.President Bashar al-Assad told him that he was completely committed to
:01:55. > :01:59.the task of stopping the violence, regardless of where it came from.
:01:59. > :02:08.180 kilometres away in the city of Homs, men, women and children were
:02:08. > :02:11.being killed by government forces. Jim Muir reports from Beirut.
:02:11. > :02:16.As the Russian minister was flying into Damascus looking for a
:02:16. > :02:21.political solution, no sign of a respite for the people of Homs,
:02:21. > :02:25.after days of pounding and hundreds of deaths. The government has
:02:25. > :02:30.pledged to keep up its drive until what it calls the last terrorist is
:02:30. > :02:36.finished off. Regime supporters turned out in droves to welcome
:02:36. > :02:40.Sergei Lavrov and thank him for the veto which saved Syria from facing
:02:40. > :02:44.a united international community. He was said to be carrying concrete
:02:44. > :02:47.proposals although they have not been announced. In general, the
:02:47. > :02:52.Russians want President Assad to speed up reforms he has been
:02:52. > :02:57.preparing, but which the opposition say are too little far too late.
:02:57. > :03:01.Both sides seemed willing to look Keane and positive. TRANSLATION:
:03:01. > :03:06.The Syrian President assured me that he is completely in support of
:03:06. > :03:10.stopping the violence, wherever it comes from. But the regime's
:03:10. > :03:13.definition of stopping violence includes crushing any armed
:03:13. > :03:18.resistance. Countries which supported the veto resolutions are
:03:18. > :03:21.not waiting for the Russians to pull a rabbit from a hat. France
:03:21. > :03:26.joined Britain, other European countries and the US in pulling
:03:26. > :03:32.their ambassadors out of Damascus. The Gulf countries, led by Saudi
:03:32. > :03:36.Arabia, did the same and expelled Syrian ambassadors. And Turkey,
:03:36. > :03:41.Syria's powerful neighbour to the north, was scathing about the veto
:03:41. > :03:45.and the Syrian leadership. Scots to TRANSLATION: Syria is a test of
:03:45. > :03:48.sincerity for the world. Those turning a blind eye to what is
:03:48. > :03:53.going on and those not reacting the way they should will suffer the
:03:53. > :03:56.consequences, as if they were fuelling the bloodshed themselves.
:03:56. > :04:01.The process at the United Nations was a fiasco for the civilised
:04:01. > :04:04.world. Turkey is supporting the American
:04:04. > :04:08.idea of throwing more support behind the Syrian opposition. Will
:04:09. > :04:14.that mean backing fighters like these from the Free Syrian Army in
:04:14. > :04:20.Homs? The regime cause them terrace. It has vowed to wipe them out. They
:04:20. > :04:25.say they are trying to protect civilians against heavy odds.
:04:25. > :04:29.TRANSLATION: We are the Free Syrian Army, the army of Assad the dock
:04:29. > :04:33.were here in this building. They are outside checkpoints and outside
:04:33. > :04:39.the hospital. We are here to respond and defend the local
:04:39. > :04:43.residents from Assad's snipers. the Russians have reached agreement
:04:43. > :04:47.with Assad behind the scenes of love they have failed to, the
:04:47. > :04:50.result will be felt here first and foremost in Homs where people are
:04:50. > :04:56.dying every day. To hear first-hand account of the
:04:56. > :05:06.bombing campaign in Homs, we can speak to Abu Abdo, a Homs resident
:05:06. > :05:10.and activist. What is the situation there tonight? Conditions here in
:05:10. > :05:17.the neighbourhood are quite miserable with a shortage of
:05:17. > :05:27.medical relief and supplies. We have a shortage of food, especially
:05:27. > :05:27.
:05:27. > :05:30.essentials like bread. Most places have been bombed violently by Assad
:05:30. > :05:40.forces which used all types of heavy weapons light tanks and
:05:40. > :05:40.
:05:40. > :05:49.mortars and shelling by rockets. Unfortunately, as that forces
:05:49. > :05:55.invaded the area also with tanks and all army vehicle types. They
:05:55. > :06:05.are shooting everything and bombing houses. We have so many burned
:06:05. > :06:15.houses, so many places that have been completely destroyed. Is the
:06:15. > :06:16.
:06:16. > :06:22.shelling continuing 24 hours a day? The shelling by rockets it starts
:06:22. > :06:29.at 3am in the morning. At 2pm it stopped a little bit. Then the army
:06:29. > :06:34.got into the city with another type of shelling by tanks. They are
:06:34. > :06:37.shooting everything and there are snipers everywhere so we cannot
:06:37. > :06:46.pull people from the street and we cannot reach people in order to
:06:46. > :06:51.help them. Thank you very much. Let's now go to Washington and
:06:51. > :06:54.speak to Professor Marc Lynch, an associate professor of political
:06:54. > :06:58.science and an international director of Middle East Studies at
:06:58. > :07:04.George Washington University. The UN route is blocked by stalemate,
:07:04. > :07:07.where do things go from here? think that what happened at the UN
:07:07. > :07:10.makes it extremely difficult to envision a political transition
:07:10. > :07:16.plan right now and I am really quite alarmed that we are going to
:07:16. > :07:21.be seeing the growth of this kind of armed conflict, pressure to try
:07:21. > :07:26.and on the opposition and effort by the United States and its allies,
:07:26. > :07:30.to try and build this through the friends of Syria group, different
:07:30. > :07:34.kinds of international pressure on Assad to step down and make an
:07:34. > :07:38.agreement. But I have to say, right now, the prospects of such an
:07:38. > :07:45.agreement are looking very dim. much opposition -- optimism de
:07:45. > :07:49.place with the Russian initiative? Almost none. I think there are very
:07:49. > :07:54.few people who find this to be a credible route right now. The
:07:54. > :07:58.Russian veto at the United Nations was, I think, really harsh hit to
:07:58. > :08:02.their credibility on the Syria file. I think it will be a long time
:08:02. > :08:05.before and on trusts them or trusts their intentions. My best guess
:08:05. > :08:09.about the Russian initiative is that they will try and find ways to
:08:09. > :08:13.draw the opposition in a dialogue which does not go anywhere, by time,
:08:13. > :08:18.stall, divide the international community and hopefully it will not
:08:18. > :08:21.work. The international thinking is this is not another Libyan
:08:22. > :08:26.situation but what to make of reports that there may be some kind
:08:26. > :08:31.of presidential finding from the National Security Council, may be
:08:31. > :08:35.thinking about covert the arming members of the Free Syrian Army?
:08:35. > :08:40.Whether the United States does ARM be Free Syrian Army, I suspect we
:08:40. > :08:44.will see more weapons flowing in as we get into an open civil war. I am
:08:44. > :08:50.very leery of this because the fragmented nature of the Free
:08:50. > :08:53.Syrian Army and the Syrian opposition. There is no unified
:08:53. > :08:57.leadership. We do not know what those weapons will be going towards
:08:57. > :09:01.and the more that it goes into an open civil war situation again, the
:09:01. > :09:05.less chance that there will be for any kind of soft landing or
:09:05. > :09:13.peaceful transition. I expect to see it but I find it very worrying.
:09:13. > :09:19.Thank you. Wigan's we can speak now to Sinan
:09:20. > :09:26.Ulgen is from the Carnegie Institute. He is a former Turkish
:09:26. > :09:31.diplomat as well. Is turkey potentially the key player in all
:09:31. > :09:35.of this? It already hosts the Syrian National Council. Do you
:09:35. > :09:43.think turkey will step up and provide some sort of buffer zone
:09:43. > :09:48.here? Certainly, Turkey is set to be a potential player here. However,
:09:48. > :09:51.there is deep dismay in Ankara about the outcome of the UN
:09:51. > :09:56.Security Council initiative and therefore today, as we speak, the
:09:56. > :10:02.overriding concern of the Turkish policy makers is really the
:10:02. > :10:07.inclusion of Syria. And a protracted civil war in that
:10:07. > :10:10.country. Turkey is going to be the state that is going to have to deal
:10:11. > :10:16.with the repercussions of that sort of protracted civil war and
:10:16. > :10:22.therefore, there is serious thinking in Ankara about how to
:10:22. > :10:27.manage the situation which will implicate Turkey in a major way.
:10:27. > :10:31.But Turkey, which tried so hard to build up relations with Syria in
:10:31. > :10:39.the past two years, has what, nailed its colours firmly to the
:10:39. > :10:45.mast of regime change there? Absolutely. That is quite a radical
:10:45. > :10:51.departure from traditional Turkish policy. In this particular instance,
:10:51. > :10:56.despite the reproach month which happened to be in -- between
:10:56. > :11:04.Damascus and Ankara, Damascus decided to burn bridges. It has
:11:04. > :11:09.given support. From that perspective, it is a clear
:11:09. > :11:13.departure from a policy which until now has made a point of not
:11:13. > :11:23.supporting opposition in neighbouring countries. From that
:11:23. > :11:23.
:11:23. > :11:29.perspective, Ankara is giving a strong signal to Damascus that...
:11:29. > :11:34.Very briefly, on humanitarian grounds, what leverage
:11:34. > :11:38.diplomatically do you think Turkey could wield? Turkey has a
:11:38. > :11:46.geographical advantage and it is already leveraging that, in a sense
:11:46. > :11:50.that it is providing support to the Free Syrian Army within the Turkish
:11:50. > :11:55.territory, both logistical support but also humanitarian and medical
:11:55. > :12:00.support. Going forwards, now that the Foreign Minister will be going
:12:00. > :12:04.to Washington in two days time, there will be discussions about
:12:04. > :12:08.whether the time has come to reassess this kind of support and
:12:08. > :12:15.strengthen the type of support that both the US and Turkey has been
:12:15. > :12:18.giving to the Free Syrian Army. Thank you for joining us.
:12:18. > :12:21.Thousands of Greek protesters gathered outside parliament in
:12:21. > :12:26.Athens once again today, demonstrating against austerity
:12:26. > :12:29.measures which are set to get even tougher. As we came to her, Prime
:12:29. > :12:36.Minister Lucas Papademos and political leaders were trying to
:12:36. > :12:40.thrash out an agreement to free up an essential bail-out to avoid
:12:41. > :12:47.defaulting on its debts next month. We can go to Athens and speak to
:12:47. > :12:50.our correspondent there. What news of that plan? I have just spoken to
:12:50. > :12:53.the Prime Minister's office who told me that the meeting between
:12:53. > :12:57.the Prime Minister and the three coalition party leaders which had
:12:57. > :13:00.been set to tonight has now been moved to tomorrow morning. That is
:13:00. > :13:04.because the text on the bail-out agreement, the reforms that Greece
:13:05. > :13:08.will undertake in order to get the bail-out funds, has not yet been
:13:08. > :13:11.finalised. It is being finalised as we speak and it will then be handed
:13:12. > :13:15.to the three party leaders for them to read and digest and probably
:13:15. > :13:19.sign off on tomorrow. What we understand is that the text will
:13:19. > :13:24.agree that the minimum wage he will be cut by 20 %, that pensions will
:13:24. > :13:28.be cut by some extent and the 15,000 civil servants will be laid
:13:28. > :13:32.off. Some of the reforms needed in order to secure vital international
:13:32. > :13:36.funds. But even if there is political consensus on this, will
:13:36. > :13:39.the Greek people accept it? They are very unlikely to because this
:13:39. > :13:45.is a country which has been living with austerity for much of the last
:13:45. > :13:51.two years, that feels extremely squeezed by the cuts. Unemployment
:13:51. > :13:55.is nearing 20 %, double that for young people. It is the 5th year of
:13:55. > :13:59.recession and Greeks feel that they cannot take any more. The
:13:59. > :14:03.demonstration today was cut short by heavy rain but I think this wave
:14:03. > :14:07.of unrest is set to continue. Greeks say the policy of more
:14:07. > :14:10.austerity is stunting this country's growth and removing the
:14:10. > :14:14.ability to grow out of recession and is worsening situation here.
:14:14. > :14:17.But the Greek government looks like to do plough one because it is
:14:17. > :14:23.under so much pressure from international partners to reform,
:14:23. > :14:28.to cut here, in order to get vital rescue funds to avoid a disorderly
:14:28. > :14:32.default. Thank you. Some 400 children have been killed
:14:32. > :14:37.and many more at risk after the World's worst lead poisoning
:14:37. > :14:42.epidemic in northern Nigeria. That is according to Human Rights Watch.
:14:42. > :14:47.Based a despite warnings, dangers gold mining in the area is
:14:47. > :14:53.expanding. Attempts to clean up villages have stalled.
:14:53. > :14:57.This is one of the poorest parts of Nigeria but his mineral rich. Many
:14:57. > :15:02.of the 9,000 here found they lived near gold. Like other villagers,
:15:02. > :15:07.they worked out how to mind and process it. But they dry milling
:15:07. > :15:12.came at a heavy price. Deadly lead dust was released as the All was
:15:12. > :15:18.crushed. Inhaled and ingested by hundreds, it entered people's homes
:15:18. > :15:24.and their blood. This is now the most contaminated village in the
:15:24. > :15:34.region. 20-year-old Amina grew up there. TRANSLATION: I have six
:15:34. > :15:35.
:15:35. > :15:41.children. Each time one died, I was so distraught. Seven children have
:15:41. > :15:45.died here, if you include mind, that would make it 10. Lead levels
:15:45. > :15:55.here are 60 times greater than what is considered safe. In villages
:15:55. > :15:57.
:15:57. > :16:00.like this, 400 children have We lost an entire generation. It is
:16:00. > :16:04.something that is clearly tragic and should never have happened. It
:16:04. > :16:09.is something that the authorities at that time should have done more.
:16:09. > :16:13.The mortality rate among symptomatic children has dropped
:16:13. > :16:17.significantly in the last number of years, and the Government has had
:16:17. > :16:21.to clean up several villages. has been some government action,
:16:21. > :16:25.but there are 2,000 children that are in urgent need of treatment
:16:25. > :16:29.right now. Those children cannot be treated until their homes are
:16:30. > :16:36.cleaned up and those homes cannot be treated a Punto safer mining
:16:36. > :16:40.practices are implemented. -- until safer money practices. Gold is
:16:40. > :16:44.expected to bring in half a billion dollars a year, so it is clear why
:16:44. > :16:47.it is such a draw for former subsistence farmers. They are
:16:47. > :16:53.worried that this would be banned in North End human rights groups
:16:53. > :16:57.are worried that this will force mining further underground. Local
:16:57. > :17:03.scientists are saying another number of villagers are affected,
:17:03. > :17:09.all of them facing the same problem, no readily available cash to deal
:17:09. > :17:13.with De contamination. The race against time continues as many
:17:13. > :17:20.children in the north face the possibility of brain damage or
:17:20. > :17:25.worse with an unavoidable problem. Joining me now is a deputy
:17:25. > :17:28.programme director at Human Rights Watch, and the problem here is,
:17:28. > :17:36.families are reluctant to report this because they make much more
:17:36. > :17:41.money from finding gold band from subsistence farming. -- a fan from
:17:41. > :17:46.subsistence farming. It is not about blaming the families, it is
:17:46. > :17:51.about people mining gold without putting their lives in danger.
:17:51. > :17:55.People get more from the gold. We are calling on the Government to
:17:55. > :18:03.ensure there are safer mining practices so that this gold can be
:18:03. > :18:06.mined without affecting their lives. This is bringing despair and we are
:18:06. > :18:10.calling on the Nigerian government to put cash on the table to get
:18:10. > :18:15.these villages cleaned-up and to ensure that there are safer mining
:18:15. > :18:19.practices. In the villages heard these clean about Thames had been
:18:19. > :18:24.made, how successful have they been? -- where these clean-up
:18:24. > :18:27.schemes have been made. There are some places that had been cleaned
:18:27. > :18:33.up, but there are still many compounds that need to be cleaned
:18:33. > :18:38.up. These are compounds where we went to one in a village a few days
:18:38. > :18:45.ago and 10 children died in that compound. It is about getting this
:18:45. > :18:50.done in a timely fashion. Between now and June is the time to act and
:18:50. > :18:55.clean up the villagers, because we will have to wait for another year
:18:55. > :18:59.for this to happen. As we keep on waiting, children are suffering and
:18:59. > :19:05.dying and the contamination is everywhere. It is time to act now
:19:05. > :19:09.and not wait another day. The way you described this is apocalyptic,
:19:09. > :19:17.and epidemic, how many thousands of children are at risk year unless
:19:17. > :19:21.something is done? We're talking several thousand at the moment. At
:19:21. > :19:26.least 2,000 children are in urgent need of treatment and they cannot
:19:26. > :19:31.be treated until the compounds are cleaned. They need to be cleaned up
:19:31. > :19:35.before treatment, because if you treat the children and bring them
:19:35. > :19:41.back to the contaminated compound, you have to start all over again.
:19:41. > :19:46.There needs to be safer mining practices so that the miners can
:19:46. > :19:51.mind while the children can play on the ground without fear of having
:19:51. > :19:57.any lead in their blood. What sort of money are we talking about to
:19:57. > :20:01.clean up the compounds? What we have heard from a government
:20:01. > :20:05.sources and outside government, we are looking out at least 4 million
:20:05. > :20:12.US dollars to sort this out and it is something the federal government
:20:12. > :20:16.needs to do urgently. We are also asking for them to put in
:20:17. > :20:19.mechanisms so that the miners can go where they are urgently needed.
:20:20. > :20:25.The children need to be treated and that compounds need to be cleaned
:20:25. > :20:30.up and there needs to be said for mining practices. Thank you.
:20:30. > :20:34.10 years ago, the leader of the French far-right, Jean-Marie Le Pen,
:20:34. > :20:38.shocked the country and the world by winning through to the second
:20:38. > :20:42.round of the presidential election. He is now retired but on the of the
:20:42. > :20:46.leadership of his youngest daughter, his party's fortunes have gone from
:20:46. > :20:51.strength to strength. Less controversial and more personable,
:20:51. > :20:56.Marine La Pen is enjoying success in the polls. We went to find out
:20:56. > :21:00.why. A forlorn factory chimney, it once
:21:00. > :21:07.belonged to the sugar refinery in the village. A ghostly relic of an
:21:08. > :21:12.industrial giant that stood for 130 years. Until 2007, 79 people were
:21:12. > :21:16.employed here, the workers, many of them still unemployed, say they
:21:16. > :21:22.lost their jobs to European directives that would share the
:21:22. > :21:27.sugar beet quotas with new members of the European Union. TRANSLATION:
:21:27. > :21:34.There is an overwhelming sense of desolation, of sadness. Especially
:21:34. > :21:40.since the politicians that control our lives will never admit to us
:21:40. > :21:44.this that they made a mistake. local elections last year, 30 % of
:21:44. > :21:49.the people here voted for the Front National, and that is not because
:21:49. > :21:54.of a perceived threat to the way of life of France, this is a town with
:21:54. > :22:02.very few emigrants. This is about jobs and unemployment. It is about
:22:02. > :22:07.the economy. Vive la republic, vive la France! Marine La Pen, the new
:22:07. > :22:11.modernising leader of the party has shifted the focus from its narrower
:22:11. > :22:17.obsession with immigration towards the problems with Europe. She wants
:22:17. > :22:23.a return to the French franc and a robust policy of protection and
:22:23. > :22:29.took protect French jobs. -- protectionism and to protect French
:22:29. > :22:34.jobs. It is pretty effective. at the results, that is all. Look
:22:34. > :22:41.at the way we were 10 years ago and look at the way we are today, with
:22:41. > :22:45.the euro, today. That is all. Last week, Marine La Pen introduced her
:22:45. > :22:51.team on the campaign trail. includes a mother from the Ivory
:22:51. > :22:54.Coast and a civil servant with Moroccan origins. The party, purged
:22:55. > :23:00.of the skinheads and neo-Nazi rhetoric, is now a more palatable
:23:00. > :23:03.choice for the Euro-sceptic. TRANSLATION: The French are voting
:23:03. > :23:08.for Marine La Pen because they want a radical change and we are
:23:08. > :23:13.frightened of what is happening. Many of my customers feel like that.
:23:13. > :23:19.There is no doubt that the party is eating into President Sarkozy's
:23:19. > :23:23.slice of the vote. Marine La Pen's success reflects the isolation of
:23:23. > :23:29.many in towns like this, not just from the political elite in Paris,
:23:29. > :23:33.but from Brussels and Europe at large.
:23:33. > :23:36.He was born 200 years ago, the second child of a humble enable
:23:36. > :23:40.Clarke in the English coastal town of Portsmouth, but Charles Dickens
:23:40. > :23:45.was to become one of the most famous writers of the Victorian era
:23:45. > :23:48.and perhaps the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Today,
:23:48. > :23:51.celebrations all round the UK have marked his life and work and
:23:51. > :23:54.reading a ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
:23:54. > :23:58.The words of his characters are instantly recognisable. His books
:23:59. > :24:05.have never gone out of print. Charles Dickens has become a
:24:05. > :24:13.literary superstar. His life began in a modest terraced house close to
:24:13. > :24:16.Portsmouth dockyard. Today, the street outside was crowded with
:24:16. > :24:22.well-wishers at the first in a series of celebrations which traced
:24:22. > :24:25.his career. And in the London borough of Southwark, people
:24:25. > :24:31.followed the dickens trail to an area which caused in painful
:24:31. > :24:36.memories. 200 years on, it is possible to find traces of the
:24:36. > :24:40.world that inspired his writing. This is the wall of the old sea
:24:40. > :24:43.prison. At the age of 12, his father was locked up here for a
:24:43. > :24:52.debt and gained first-hand experience of what it was lied to
:24:52. > :24:55.be disadvantaged. At another former home, now the museum, a royal
:24:55. > :25:02.audience for one of those that have to bring his stories to a new
:25:02. > :25:07.generation. His descriptions of character and state of being at
:25:07. > :25:12.that time in England Wells part of the historical record of what it
:25:12. > :25:18.was like back then. Charles Dickens had 10 children. In Westminster
:25:18. > :25:22.Abbey's Poets corner, the largest gathering of his descendants joined
:25:22. > :25:26.in an act of remembrance. As a member of the family, you have a
:25:26. > :25:30.different view. When you see the explosion of interest in Charles
:25:30. > :25:37.Dickens for the bicentenary, it hits the family rather hard and we
:25:37. > :25:43.realise quite what a special person the wires. This is an extract from
:25:43. > :25:48.one of his novels. Refines, now working on a new version of Great
:25:48. > :25:57.Expectations, reminded us of his great storytelling ability. --
:25:57. > :26:01.Ralph violence. Is there nobody here but you, Mr Woodcut? Charles
:26:01. > :26:05.Dickens had asked to be buried in Kent, a place he loved as a child,
:26:05. > :26:10.but the public demanded that he be allowed to join great literary
:26:10. > :26:13.figures serum Westminster Abbey, Amman that would have probably had
:26:13. > :26:20.preceded their efforts. -- a man that would have probably
:26:20. > :26:26.appreciated. The main news, the Russian foreign
:26:26. > :26:32.minister, Mr Lavrov, has held what he described as useful talks in
:26:32. > :26:34.Syria. He had a meeting in Damascus with the President, Bashar Al-Assad.
:26:34. > :26:40.Russian news agencies say that the President said that he was ready
:26:40. > :26:44.for dialogue with all political forces. Meanwhile, Homs is being
:26:44. > :26:49.pounded by artillery for a fourth day and arrow. We spoke to where
:26:49. > :26:59.resident he said it began at 3am. That is it from the programme, next,
:26:59. > :27:01.
:27:01. > :27:05.the weather, but from every one We are expecting the coldest night
:27:05. > :27:09.of the winter so far tonight. A widespread and severe frost across
:27:10. > :27:14.the country, so a very cold start to tomorrow morning. Not cold
:27:14. > :27:18.everywhere, it is mild in the north and west, because there are some
:27:18. > :27:21.pieces of Atlantic air and a weather front. We have an influence
:27:21. > :27:25.of high pressure stretching down from Scandinavia bringing the very
:27:25. > :27:31.low temperatures tomorrow morning. Some clout in the morning, but it
:27:31. > :27:38.will break with sunny spells by the afternoon. Temperatures are around
:27:38. > :27:43.1-2 degrees. A brisk wind in the east. Temperatures below freezing
:27:43. > :27:47.in the afternoon. Across the south- west corner, some cloud at times in
:27:47. > :27:50.parts of Somerset and Dorset, but Devon and Cornwall have a bright
:27:50. > :27:54.afternoon. Right across much of England and Wales with sunny spells
:27:54. > :27:59.for Wales and temperatures reaching 3 degrees. In Northern Ireland,
:27:59. > :28:03.this is where the weather front his, some rain for Northern Ireland.
:28:03. > :28:09.Quite heavy and different in terms of the temperatures. 5 degrees, the