Anger at environment chief in flood-hit Somerset

Aerial pictures show the scale of the area that is flooded - and the efforts to try and keep the water at bay

Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith has faced anger from residents and a local MP, as he visited the flood-hit Somerset Levels.

He insisted he would not resign during his first trip to the area, ahead of more expected rain later on Friday.

Residents have been furious at the Environment Agency, and MP Ian Liddell-Grainger called Lord Smith a "coward".

His visit comes as about 80 homes in the village of Moorland in Somerset have been evacuated.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said a "handful" of other residents had chosen to stay, amid the latest bout of flooding in an area which has effectively been cut off for a number of weeks.

'Disaster zone'

Ahead of Lord Smith's visit, Conservative Mr Liddell-Grainger, who represents Bridgwater and West Somerset, said: "I will tell him what I bloody well think of him - he should go, he should walk.

"I'm livid. This little git has never even been on the telephone to me. When I find out where he is, I will give it to him.

"He has not told the local MPs, the local council or the local press where he is going to be. He's a coward."

Making his first visit since floods hit, Lord Smith said he had "no intention of resigning because I'm very proud of the work the Environment Agency and its staff have been doing right round the country in the face of the most extreme weather".

He said the residents he met had "made very clear" to him the distress they had experienced and difficulties they had faced - and how Somerset could be better protected in the future.

He added that £10m of extra government funding allocated to Somerset would enable the Environment Agency (EA) to dredge 8km (4.9 miles) of the rivers Tone and Parrett.

Houses flooded in the Somerset village of Moorland

Marines have helped the emergency services deal with flooding in Moorland

The Environment Agency has carried out flood relief work in Moorland

Soldiers have also been helping residents put out sandbags in Saffron Walden in Essex

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Stolen Stradivarius violin believed to be recovered

Authorities in the US state of Wisconsin say they think they have recovered a rare Stradivarius violin valued at $5m (£3m) stolen last month.

Police are working to confirm the instrument is indeed the three-century-old violin taken from a symphony concertmaster to whom it had been lent.

Two men ages 41 and 36 and a 32-year-old woman have been arrested in connection with the theft.

A $100,000 reward had been offered for the instrument's safe return.

A local broadcaster reported a violin believed to be the rare Stradivarius was found in the east side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Police will contact experts to confirm it is the stolen violin, Milwaukee Police Lt Jeffrey Norman told the Associated Press news agency.

"It has to be confirmed as to the actual authenticity of what it is," he said.

Police say a robber used a stun gun on Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond in a church car park after a performance, then fled with the violin.

Mr Almond was knocked to the ground but was not seriously hurt.

The case in which he kept the instrument was later found.

One of the suspects arrested on Wednesday had been linked to a prior art theft, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

The instrument, now known as the Lipinski Strad, was built in 1715 by master Antonio Stradivari, widely considered the greatest violin maker in history.

The Lipinski Strad was formerly owned by Polish violinist Karol Lipinski and 18th Century virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini.

The violin's current owner, who has requested anonymity, said her "heart is broken" following the theft.

"[I am] just a person who loved her family violin with all its memories and three hundred years of history more than the many opportunities to sell it," she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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Government announces extra £30m for flood repairs

The "vital" rail line running through Dawlish was battered by waves on Wednesday

An extra £30m has been pledged for flood repairs and maintenance after the prime minister defended the government's response to the storms.

That is on top of the £100m announced by David Cameron on Wednesday.

Mr Cameron will chair a Cobra emergency committee later as more rain is forecast for areas already saturated.

Meanwhile, the transport secretary said he would review alternative rail routes to south-west England after a "vital" Devon rail line was destroyed.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles told MPs that the severe weather had caused damage to the transport network and sea defences as well as power lines.

He said the government would carry out a "rapid review of the additional work needed to restore our flood defences and maintain them".

A further £30m would be assigned to flood works, Mr Pickles said, in addition to the extra £100m announced by the prime minister on Wednesday.

'Very proactive'

The money would "cover costs incurred during the current emergency response and recovery, as well as essential repairs to ensure that defences are maintained", he said.

BBC weather presenter Matt Taylor predicts more rain and strong winds throughout February

Of the £130m total, £30m is to be spent in 2014/15 and £100m in 2015/16.

Mr Pickles also said 42 new flood defence schemes were planned for 2014/15.

He made the statement to MPs in the absence of Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, who has been forced to pull out of leading the government's response to the floods to have emergency surgery on a detached retina.

But UKIP, which dismissed the extra spending as "far too little, far too late", called on the government to channel part of its foreign aid budget into helping those worst hit by the flooding.

It is urging the government to suspend payments from the £11bn annual budget and divert them "on a month by month basis" to areas in most need of repairs to storm-damaged property, renewal of flood defences and restoration of transport links.

Earlier on Thursday the prime minister rejected criticism of Mr Paterson, who has been accused of being slow to respond to the storms and subsequent flooding.

In a BBC Manchester interview Mr Cameron insisted that the government had been "very proactive" in its response to the storms and that Mr Paterson was "on top of the flooding issue".

Rail line concerns

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin's comments to MPs about conducting a "rigorous review" into alternative rail routes in the South West came after a storm destroyed parts of a railway line in Dawlish, Devon, that is considered a vital transport link between the region and the rest of the country.

Robin Gisby of Network Rail told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it would take "several weeks" to fix the line.

There are concerns among business leaders in Devon and Cornwall that the destruction of the line will cost the local economy millions of pounds.

There are more weather woes predicted for many areas already badly affected, prompting Met Office severe weather warnings for rain in southern parts of England and south Wales, and two severe flood warnings in the Somerset Levels.

Forecasters said there could be 20mm-40mm (0.8in-1.6in) of rain falling on saturated ground on Thursday, with further bouts of rain to come into the weekend.

The storm caused huge damage to the railway line in Dawlish, which is expected to take weeks to fix

Residents of the Somerset Levels have been urged to evacuate as the area braces for more flooding

Waves crashed over the harbour wall at Newhaven in Sussex on Wednesday

BBC weather presenter Matt Taylor said: "After some dry and bright weather to begin with across central southern parts of England and Wales, I'm afraid to say the rain is back - some heavy and persistent rain nudging its way northwards through the afternoon to take us into the early evening rush-hour.

"The winds, although not much of a feature of this to begin with... will strengthen as we go through Thursday night into Friday morning."

The Met Office has amber severe weather warnings - meaning "be prepared" - for rain for parts of southern England from 15:00 GMT.

There are yellow severe weather warnings - "be aware" - for areas including south-west England and south Wales.

The Environment Agency has severe flood warnings - meaning "danger to life" - in Somerset at Salt Moor and North Moor including Moorland, and at the A361 East Lyng to Burrowbridge.

There are about 60 flood warnings in England and Wales and more than 200 flood alerts. In Scotland, there are four flood warnings in Tayside, and a number of flood alerts.

Western Power Distribution said that at 12:00 GMT around 1,700 customers were without power across south-west England, of which 980 were in Cornwall, 60 in Devon and 690 in Somerset.

The company said about 44,000 customers had been affected by power cuts since Tuesday afternoon.

Looting fear

Many residents in the Somerset Levels have been evacuated amid fears flood defences could be overwhelmed.

Sue Sayer, in the village of Moorland, said: "They're advising, if you can, go. But there's an awful lot of people that are not because the risk then of looting if people see empty houses.

"There has already been looting in some properties, not directly in the centre of the village, but on the outskirts there's already been looting which is despicable."

The BBC's Sarah Ransome says temporary flood defences are being installed around the more vulnerable properties in the area to try to protect them from the next wave of flooding.

Pc Rob Jacobs, from Avon and Somerset Police, who was on patrol locally, said some parts were already impassable.

People fled their homes in Dawlish as the ground beneath them fell away

"We've got 4x4 vehicles but even then the access isn't great," he said.

"We've just tried to come down one way round into Fordgate and I think the water is probably a bit too deep. A couple of local farmers advised us that one route we were looking at to come down is at least 3ft, probably more."

Across Devon and Somerset, fire crews rescued 14 people from flood water overnight.

The storm damaged the railway at Dawlish after a part of the sea wall collapsed and left the tracks suspended in mid-air.

First Great Western said the line between Exeter St Davids and Plymouth was closed, and Network Rail estimated it could take at least six weeks to repair.

Network Rail's Robin Gisby said: "We haven't been able to do a proper inspection yet. What we will do in the next 48 hours is protect it against what we understand will be a further big storm on Saturday night."

He said he was concerned that the 80m section of wall that had gone was leaving the rest of the line exposed.

Limited services were running between Plymouth and Penzance, with rail replacement services due to be provided from Thursday.

Tim Jones, from the Devon and Cornwall Business Council, said the destruction of the line - which connects Devon and Cornwall to the rest of the UK - would cost the region's economy between £1m and £2m a day.

Despite the problems expected by businesses, the managing director of St Austell Brewery, James Staughton, said of the region: "We are very resilient, we are very open for business and I'm sure we'll find a way round it, but we need a lot of government support to make it happen."

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'Plebgate' PC Keith Wallis jailed for a year

Keith Wallis came to believe his lies, his lawyer told the Old Bailey

A Metropolitan Police officer who lied about witnessing the "plebgate" row has been sentenced to 12 months in prison.

PC Keith Wallis, 53, admitted a charge of misconduct in public office last month at the Old Bailey.

Wallis, of West Drayton, sent a senior Tory official an email wrongly claiming he had seen a row involving MP Andrew Mitchell in Downing Street.

The incident involved another officer who refused to allow the then chief whip to cycle through the main gate.

Deborah Glass, head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said Wallis's actions had helped turn "a largely inaudible altercation lasting less than a minute into a national scandal".

They had caused an "injustice" to Mr Mitchell and "brought shame upon the police service", she added.

And Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said Wallis would be the subject of a misconduct process "as soon as possible", adding that his actions had "fallen way below the standards that me, my fellow police officers and the public demand".

'Betrayal'

Mr Mitchell, MP for Sutton Coldfield, was forced to quit as the government's chief whip as a result of the fall-out, of the Downing Street row. He has admitted swearing during the original incident but has always denied the allegation by the officer present, PC Toby Rowland, that he used the word "pleb".

After media reports of the incident in Downing Street, in September 2012, Wallis sent an email to John Randall, then Mitchell's deputy in the whips' office, claiming to be a member of the public who had witnessed the argument and heard Mr Mitchell use the word "pleb".

Andrew Mitchell was prevented from cycling through Downing Street's gates

He said he had been sightseeing near Downing Street with his nephew, when he was, in fact, off duty at the time and thought to have been nowhere near Downing Street.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Sweeney said Wallis had been guilty of "sustained, and in significant measure, devious misconduct which fell far below the standards expected of a police officer".

He added: "Indeed it was a betrayal of those standards, and was misconduct which, as well as having had an impact Mr Mitchell himself, has had a significant impact on public trust and confidence in the integrity of police officers."

'Out of hand'

Mr Justice Sweeney also said: "Passing sentence on you I am in no position to decide precisely what happened between the officers and Mr Mitchell in Downing Street, nor do I need to do so.

"But it is absolutely clear what did not happen. You were not an independent member of the public. You were not present, neither was your nephew, and neither of you witnessed the incident."

Last month, the Old Bailey heard how Wallis, who is a member of the Metropolitan Police diplomatic protection group, had admitted his offence in a police interview and offered to resign.

Mr Mitchell welcomed the guilty plea and there were calls for the prime minister to bring him back into government.

Ahead of sentencing at the Old Bailey on Thursday, Wallis's lawyer, Patrick Gibbs QC, appealed for his client not to be sent to prison.

He said Wallis, who had served for 30 years in the police, had suffered from both mental and physical illness and had been deeply affected by the death of his father, also a police officer.

He added that Wallis had been drunk when he sent the email and that events had got "completely out of hand" afterwards.

He had come to convince himself that he had actually witnessed the false incident he had reported, Mr Gibbs said.

He told the court: "While it is impossible to pinpoint the moment Mr Wallis came to believe that video in his head, he did genuinely come to believe it."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised in person to Mr Mitchell on Wednesday, saying that Wallis's behaviour had fallen "way below the standards expected" of his officers.

Following the 50-minute meeting in Mr Mitchell's Commons office, where they agreed on the importance of "drawing a line" under the matter, Mr Mitchell said: "I am grateful to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for his apology."

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Facebook reviews family memorials after dad's plea

John Berlin posted his emotional plea to Facebook on YouTube

A father's plea to watch a video based on his dead son's Facebook page has provoked the network to look again at how families can remember loved ones.

Facebook recently launched a Look Back feature that creates a video generated by popular moments on a person's profile.

John Berlin posted a YouTube clip asking to see a Look Back video for his son Jesse, who died in 2012 aged 22.

After the plea gained support, Facebook told Mr Berlin a video would be made.

Mr Berlin, who is from Missouri in the US, was unable to create the video himself as he did not have access to his son's profile.

Facebook said it would create one on his behalf using content Jesse had posted publicly.

"It worked I was just contacted by FB by phone and they're going to make a vid just for us," John Berlin wrote in a status update.

"They also said they're going to look at how they can better help families who have lost loved ones."

Following the incident, Facebook has said it is working on implementing further ways to deal with death on the network.

"This experience reinforced to us that there's more Facebook can do to help people celebrate and commemorate the lives of people they have lost," a spokeswoman told the BBC via email.

"We'll have more to share in the coming weeks and months."

'Shot in the dark'

Mr Berlin posted a video to YouTube "calling out to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook".

"You've been putting out these one-minute movies that everyone has been sharing," he said. "I think they're great."

He went on to explain his son's death, and how he could not access his profile.

The clip was posted to link-sharing website Reddit where it gained a lot of support. Mr Berlinposted his son's obituary to allay concerns the clip may have been a hoax.

Local radio station Pix11 stepped in to put Mr Berlin in contact with Facebook.

Protected profiles

Facebook already offers a "memorialising" process for profiles of deceased users.

The service was introduced in 2009 after one of the social network's engineers lost a loved one and felt the existing measures were not sufficient.

Under the current set-up, family members can use the site's help centre to send links from newspapers or other sources confirming the news that someone has died.

Facebook told the BBC such processes were in place to ensure someone did not maliciously try to shut an account - and that there was an appeal process in place for the rare occasions when mistakes were made.

Memorialising means a user who has died will no longer appear alongside advertising, or in contextual messages - and friends will not be reminded of a person's birthday.

Facebook does not hand over full access to a person's account due to privacy concerns.

In the past, Facebook has come under criticism for displaying prompts to talk to people who were no longer alive.

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Bionic hand allows patient to 'feel'

Dennis Aabo was able to feel what was in his hand via sensors connected to nerves in his upper arm

Scientists have created a bionic hand which allows the amputee to feel lifelike sensations from their fingers.

A Danish man received the hand, which was connected to nerves in his upper arm, following surgery in Italy.

Dennis Aabo, who lost his left hand in a firework accident nearly a decade ago, said the hand was "amazing".

In laboratory tests he was able to tell the shape and stiffness of objects he picked up, even when blindfolded.

The details were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Implant

An international team carried out the research project, which included robotics experts from Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

"It is the first time that an amputee has had real-time touch sensation from a prosthetic device" said Prof Silvestro Micera from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa.

The scientific advance here was not the hand itself, but the electronics and software that enabled it to give sensory feedback to the brain.

Micera and his team added sensors to the artificial hand which could detect and measure information about touch. Using computer algorithms, the scientists transformed the electrical signals they emitted into an impulse that sensory nerves could interpret.

During an operation in Rome, four electrodes were implanted onto nerves in the patient's upper arm. These were connected to the artificial sensors in the fingers of the prosthetic hand, so allowing touch and pressure feedback to be sent direct to the brain.

Mr Aabo, 36, a property developer, spent a month doing laboratory tests, firstly to check the electrodes were functioning, and then with these fully connected to the bionic hand.

Dennis Aabo spent a month doing laboratory tests of the bionic hand

He said: "The biggest difference was when I grabbed something I could feel what I was doing without having to look. I could use the hand in the dark.

"It was intuitive to use, and incredible to be able to feel whether objects were soft or hard, square or round."

Hero

The bionic hand is still a prototype, and due to safety restrictions imposed on clinical trials, Mr Aabo required a second operation to remove the sensors.

"He is a hero," said Professor Paolo Rossini, neurologist, University Hospital Agostino Gemelli, Rome.

"He gave a month of his life and had two operations to test this device.

"We are all very grateful to him."

Prof Rossini said a lot of pre-training was done involving surgery on pigs, and with human cadavers, to ensure they knew exactly how to attach electrodes to the tiny peripheral nerves in the upper arm.

Another member of the team, Dr Stanisa Raspopovic said: "It was a very exciting moment when after endless hours of testing....Dennis turned to us and said with disbelief, 'This is magic! I can feel the closing of my missing hand!'"

Those working in the field in the UK were also enthusiastic.

"This is very interesting work, taking research in upper limb prosthetics into the next stage by adding sensory feedback, said Dr Alastair Ritchie, Lecturer in Biomaterials and Bioengineering, University of Nottingham.

"This technology would enable the user to know how firmly they are gripping an object, which is vital for handling fragile objects - imagine picking up an egg without any feeling in your fingers."

Although a milestone in prosthetics, the bionic hand of movies remains the stuff of science fiction

The international team is now working on how to miniaturise the technology so that it could be used in the home.

"We must get rid of the external cables and make them fully implantable" said Prof Thomas Stieglitz, University of Frieburg, Germany, whose laboratory created the ultra-thin implantable electrodes.

Recently, scientists in Cleveland, Ohio released a video of a patientusing the fingers of a prosthetic hand to pull the stalks from cherries while blindfolded. But the research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

There is no precise timetable, but scientists think it could be a decade before a sensory feedback bionic hand is commercially available.

And they believe it may pave the way for more realistic prosthetic devices in the future which can detect texture and temperature.

'Bring it on'

But it will undoubtedly be very expensive, well beyond the means of most patients. And artificial hands still lack the precision and dexterity of the real thing.

The super-functioning bionic hand of science fiction films remains the stuff of fiction.

Nonetheless, Dennis Aabo, who now has his old prosthesis back, is ready to swap it for the bionic hand in any future trial.

"If they offer it to me, I will say bring it on, I'm ready."

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Sochi 2014: US warns airlines of Russia 'toothpaste' bomb threat

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Sochi says there is a strong security presence around the venues

The US has warned airlines with direct flights to Russia that explosives hidden in toothpaste tubes could be smuggled onto planes.

The Department of Homeland Security's warning comes ahead of the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

It said it was not aware of any specific danger to the US at this time.

Russia banned all liquids, pastes and gels from its airports and internal flights last month.

The move was part of a significant tightening of security in the country ahead of the Olympic Games, the BBC's Daniel Sandford reports from Sochi.

The Russian authorities have not yet commented on the US warning, but Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said the level of security at Sochi "is similar to that of any other safe city in the world".

Although the Games do not officially start until Friday, some qualifying events are now being held.

'Abundance of caution'

Unnamed US security officials were quoted as saying there were fears toothpaste tubes could be used to smuggle explosives which could then be used to assemble a bomb either in flight or upon arrival at the Olympics.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that "out of an abundance of caution" it "regularly shares relevant information with domestic and international partners".

"While we are not aware of a specific threat to the homeland at this time, this routine communication is an important part of our commitment to making sure we meet that priority," it added.

The White House National Security Council said the latest threat had not altered existing travel guidelines for Sochi.

"If we should receive information in the coming days and weeks that changes our assessment of whether people should travel to Sochi, we will make that information public," spokeswoman Laura Magnuson told US media.

Air travellers are restricted to carrying liquids - which include pastes, creams, gels and drinks - in containers no larger than 100ml (3.4 oz).

Sweeping changes to airport security regulations were brought in after three Britons were arrested for plotting to bring down transatlantic airliners with home-made liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks in August 2006.

'Olympic Truce'

Fears about security for the Winter Olympics in Russia were heightened following two suicide attacks in Volgograd in December, as well as numerous threats from Islamist militants in the Caucasus region.

The US has also placed two warships in the Black Sea ready to offer help in a case of a security emergency during the Games.

Security has not been the only controversy surrounding the build up to the Games.

Russia's controversial laws on homosexuality, passed last year, have provoked international criticism.

UN Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon referred to the issue in a keynote speech he gave at a session of the International Olympic Committee in Sochi on Thursday.

"Sport has an amazing power to spontaneously unite people," he said. "We must raise our voices against attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people.

"We must oppose the arrests, imprisonments and discriminatory restrictions they face."

Mr Ban also renewed his call for all warring parties around the world to observe the 'Olympic Truce' and "lay down their weapons during the Games - and to lift their sights to the promise of peace".

The Russian foreign ministry made a similar appeal, saying its call "is primarily addressed to the sides of the blood-letting in Syria".

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