Berita terkini (7 Januari 2010)

InsyaAllah, kami di Durham tak terlibat setakat ni walaupun sekolah ditutup seminggu sebab cuaca yang tak menentu. Salji masih tebal dan snow kadang-kadang dan hari ni ada matahari sepanjang hari. Bekalan makanan masih banyak dan yang lebih baiknya, ada student yang bukak kedai barang-barang Malaysia kat sini, namanya Helmi (Pasaraya Pak Mie)

Britain Braces For Coldest Night (7 Januari 2010)

Britain is preparing for the coldest night of the winter so far as the deep freeze gets deeper. Temperatures in parts of the Scottish Highlands, Lancashire, Cheshire and Oxfordshire could fall as low as the minus 20s - as cold as Moscow.

The Met Office has issued widespread warnings, with the conditions already proving lethal. A man's body has been found under ice in a lake at a Surrey country club.
A teenage boy was killed and his mother seriously injured when they were hit by a lorry in North Yorshire late last night.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service has also paid tribute to firefighter Gareth Wyn Rees who died after he slipped and banged his head. The North East Ambulance Service says the conditions are putting it under immense pressure. Director of Ambulance operations Paul Liversidge said: "The driving conditions and volume of traffic on the road have made it difficult for our crews to get through to patients, particularly on residential estates."

Forecasters say the country can expect the arctic conditions to continue for another two weeks. Sky's weather presenter Sarah Pennock said: "Ice is still a real problem across the UK and temperatures will just plummet. Most places will struggle to get above freezing even in the afternoon sunshine."

Four thousand homes are without electricity in the south of England after snow brought down power lines. The National Grid has issued another gas balancing alert as supplies are squeezed, but says ordinary consumers are not affected.Sky's Amy Lewis reported from the M3 near Chertsey. She said: "It's very quiet on the roads as motorists appear to be heeding the warnings, but the RAC is still expecting around 11,000 call-outs today."

Some major roads have been affected, with the M275 in Hampshire, the A20 in Kent, the A1(M) in County Durham, and the A2628 in Derbyshire all closed. Motorists in Wales are being warned that conditions on the M4 are particularly poor, and many mountain roads in Scotland are closed.

Sky's Scotland correspondent James Matthews reported from the cut-off village of Pathhead in Scotland. He said: "In the rural areas people are being left largely to fend for themsleves as authorities struggle to keep up with the worsening conditions."

Supermarkets are reporting panic buying as the ice tightens its grip. Many councils warned that their stocks of grit were running low, with councils in Cornwall and Scarborough in North Yorkshire revealing they are using sand from beaches to grit pavements.

North of England correspondent Gerrard Tubb said: "The pavements here are absolutely full of ice. It's so dangerous, but the council can't grit everywhere". John Riby, of Scarborough Council, said: "Unfortunately at the moment I'm afraid demand for salt is outstripping supply, so we're having to prioritise."

Emergency measures to alleviate the gritting crisis were put forward to allow Britain's biggest salt mine Winsford to supply the country day and night. Sky correspondent Michelle May said: "The mine is working flat out 24 hours a day, with 25 lorries an hour leaving to get the salt out to where it's needed. But it is getting harder and harder to keep up."

In repsonse to the salt shortage the Government has activated "Salt Cell", a central group which allows officials to instruct suppliers to send salt where it is most needed. The transport minister Sadiq Khan MP told the House of Commons the Government was doing "everything possible" to keep the roads moving.

On the transport network rail services struggled to return to normal, with many operating revised timetables and suffering delays. The Eurostar is running a restricted service and is telling customers to cancel or postpone their trip if they can. A train broke down in the tunnel and had to be towed to safety just weeks after thousands of passengers were stranded inside the cross-country link because of the bad weather.

Gatwick Airport's runway was reopened on Wednesday night after being shut all day with more than 240 flights cancelled, but bosses warned passengers to expect delays and some travellers were left trapped on landed planes because of the conditions.
Heathrow airport says it has had a similar problem, with passengers on a small number of flights having long waits to get off their planes. British Airways and easyJet have cancelled a number of flights at Heathrow and Gatwick. Many councils shut their shcools, with around 10,000 closed across the country.


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