Sian Blake: Former EastEnders Actress Missing

Sian Blake played the character Frankie Pierre in EastEnders

Sian Blake, 43, who played Frankie Pierre in the soap, went missing from Erith, Kent .

She was last seen on Sunday 13 December in Waltham Forest, east London, with eight-year-old Zachary and four-year-old Amon.

Officers believe they are still in the London area - but Ms Blake also has links to Cambridge and Colchester.

Zachary (left) and Amon are also missing

Relatives have received text messages from her but she has not been seen since she went missing, the Metropolitan Police said.

The force added: "Officers are increasingly concerned for Sian and the children's wellbeing."

Ms Blake reportedly suffered from motor neurone disease and had been "looking very thin and frail" before she disappeared, her neighbour Sandra Metzgen told The Sun.

The actress appeared in 56 episodes of EastEnders between 1996 and 1997, according to the IMDb website.

She is described as being black, 5ft 2in and slim with short black hair.

She wears glasses but can also wear contact lenses.

:: Anyone with information should call police on 101 or Missing People on 116000, quoting reference 15MIS050346.

Saudi announces execution of 47 'terrorists'

Saudi Arabia has executed 47 "terrorists", according to the interior ministry, including Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr and al-Qaeda-affiliated Faris al-Zahrani.

In a press release read on state TV on Saturday, the ministry listed the names of all those it said were already convicted on charges of terrorism.

The death sentence of Nimr al-Nimr, who led the anti-government protests in the country's east, was confirmed by the the Supreme Court in October.

Al-Zahani, once considered one of Saudi Arabia's "most wanted terrorists", was detained in 2004 while allegedly in possession of weapons.

Among those executed were one Egyptian and one Chadian, the ministry said.

It added that the convicted had participated in attacks against residential compounds and government buildings.

Roadways begin to reopen in flood-ravaged St. Louis

 a rare, record-setting winter flood was receding in the St. Louis area Friday, allowing some major roadways to reopen and offering hope for flood-weary residents that the worst of this sudden catastrophe was behind them.

For others, the worst is still to come, with expected crests in coming days in southern Missouri, southern Illinois, then onto Arkansas, Tennessee and other southern states.

But the impact isn't expected to rival what was seen this week in suburban St. Louis. The city itself, protected by a flood wall and a sloping geography that keeps downtown and most homes out of harm's way, remained mostly dry. The southern suburbs were another story. The Mississippi River fellshort of a record crest by about 7½ feet at St. Louis, and damage on the Missouri River was limited.

The biggest problem was the Meramec River, a smaller tributary of the Mississippi. Some points along the river topped the 1993 record by 4 feet, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of homes and businesses in southwest St. Louis suburbs like Pacific, Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold. Several hundred homes took in water, and residents are just beginning to assess the damage.

With water finally going down, the Missouri Department of Transportation was able to reopen northbound lanes of Interstate 55 south of St. Louis on Thursday, about a day after they were closed, and southbound lanes opened Friday morning.

MoDOT spokeswoman Shaunda White said 76,000 vehicles pass through that area on a typical day, "so that's going to be a significant relief."

Water also shrank from Interstate 44, where a 24-mile stretch southwest of St. Louis has been closed for two days. White said crews still needed to clear debris and ensure the roadway was safe before reopening it, though that also could happen Friday.

The devastating flood, fueled by more than 10 inches of rain over a three-day period that began last weekend, is blamed for 20 deaths. Four others are still missing — two teenagers in Illinois and two men in southwest Missouri.

In Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, south of St. Louis, the Mississippi was still rising but there was good news: The crest forecast for late Friday or early Saturday, once expected to be a record, was now expected to fall about 2 feet short of the 1993 mark. Many downtown merchants had cleared out, just to be on the safe side, in case the levee gave way.

"We are breathing a bit easier," said Sandra Cabot, director of tourism for the historic French settlement that dates to the 18th century. "We are very confident in our levee. We've never been tested at this level before."

Other southern Missouri and Illinois towns were getting ready for the high-water mark. A record-tying crest was expected by the weekend in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, but a floodwall offers protection and is not considered endangered. Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers meet, seemed safe, despite a near-record crest prediction.

It appeared the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would not need to blast a hole in the Birds Point waterway in southeast Missouri, as it did in 2011 to relieve pressure from the flood protection at nearby Cairo, Illinois. The Corps said the intentional breach would be considered if the Ohio River reached 60 feet at Cairo, but the weather service projects it will top out at 57.5 feet on Sunday.

In Eureka, Missouri, firefighters and their boats have been in high demand, accounting for roughly 100 rescues of people in their homes, businesses or vehicles since Tuesday, said Scott Barthelmass, a Eureka Fire Protection District spokesman.

Nine levees — five on the Mississippi River, three on the Missouri and one on Illinois' Kaskaskia River — were topped by water this week, but those earthen barriers protect farmland and otherwise unpopulated areas.

MoDOT said it has begun an assessment of damage caused by the historic flooding, local news reported.

“You’ve seen the videos of the houses floating down and hitting the bottom of bridges. We have to inspect all those bridges and make sure it didn’t damage them and make sure they are safe,” Greg Horn, an MoDOT employee, told KMOV news channel. “This will be in the millions. Compared to snow, we usually spend about $50 million a year on snow."

UK Soldiers May Face Iraq War Crime Charges

British soldiers may face prosecution for war crimes, an inquiry head says

Mark Warwick, who leads the Government-established Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), has told The Independent there are "lots of significant cases" where there is substantial evidence for the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) to press charges.

Some of the "serious allegations" being investigated may meet the threshold of a war crime, he added.

As of September 2015, the multimillion-pound inquiry has been in contact with 1,515 potential victims - but 280 of them were allegedly killed in unlawful circumstances.

Mr Warwick, a former police detective, has said members of the Armed Forces could be notified if they will face prosecution by 2019.

He explained: "We would look at the credibility of the allegation in the first instance; and, when we've looked at a lot of these extra cases coming to us, some of them are duplicates of cases, some of them we've already identified as part of our own investigation process, and some are multiple allegations where we would investigate as a single allegation."

The official also confirmed that the case of Baha Mousa remains a "live criminal investigation".

An inquiry found the Iraqi hotel receptionist died after being interrogated by British soldiers, in what was described as an "appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence".

Even though the inquiry's caseload is being reviewed "over the next 12 to 18 months", campaigners are calling for IHAT to work faster, as answers may only emerge 10 years after the war's 2009 end.

Carla Ferstman, of the human rights charity Redress, told The Independent: "The incredibly slow place at which IHAT is investigating allegations of criminality committed by UK soldiers against Iraqi civilians is wholly unacceptable.

"Things seem to still be moving at a snail's pace. We call upon the Government to ensure IHAT can, and does, do what it was set up to do, and to do it now. This cannot be a whitewash."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The vast majority of UK service personnel deployed on military operations conduct themselves professionally and in accordance with the law.

"The MoD takes all allegations of abuse or unlawful killing seriously. Where there is sufficient evidence, members of HM Forces can be prosecuted."

Rail Fares 'Divorced From Reality' After Rise

Although it is the smallest increase in six years, a travel watchdog has warned many passengers will be "amazed there are any fare rises at all" given the poor punctuality on some services.

Calculations by the Labour Party suggest commuters are now paying 25% more for season tickets than they did when David Cameron took office in 2010 - prompting Jeremy Corbyn to renew his calls for the railway network to be brought back into public hands.

Network Rail figures suggest 10.7% of trains arrived at their destination at least five minutes late in 2015 - and in June, a critical report concluded reliability on busy routes was "below requirements".

The Campaign for Better Transport has warned the price hike will anger many Britons, adding: "For some people, that is still a big increase when their wages are effectively frozen."

Although changes in the cost of annual passes are regulated, by being linked to July's rate of Retail Price Index inflation, about 50% of train tickets sold in the UK are unregulated.

Some fares, such as off-peak leisure tickets, can subsequently be increased by whatever amount is decided by train operators.

Bruce Williamson, from the Railfuture campaign group, has claimed fares are "increasingly divorced from reality" - and is calling for the Government to ditch its policy of using RPI.

"High street prices have remained stagnant for more than a year, with the official CPI inflation figure hovering around zero, yet the Government thinks it's fair to make rail travel even more expensive," he added.

From today, an annual rail pass from Basingstoke to London will cost £4,196 - £40 more than 2015.

Passengers who travel every day between Liverpool and Manchester will see their season tickets increase by £28 to £2,988.

Commuters on one of the longest routes, between Cheltenham Spa and London Paddington, are now dangerously close to paying a five-figure sum for their yearly pass - with the price of 12 months' travel increasing by 0.99% to £9,800.

And it's also bad news for workers making a daily return trip between Birmingham and London Euston on Virgin Trains, as they'll be welcoming in the New Year with a £10,012 bill.

Travellers on other routes can find out how the cost of their journeys are affected on the National Rail Enquiries website.

The rail industry has told Sky News that the 2016 price rises are justified.

Edward Welsh, from the Rail Delivery Group, said: "We understand that nobody likes to pay more to travel, particularly to go to work, but this is the lowest increase in six years.

"You only have to see where the money is going from fares - to the new stations, the extra lines and the new carriages."

Two marines gunned down hunting for Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzmán

A new round of raids in search of fugitive drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán left two Mexican Marines dead this week in a coastal town in Sinaloa state, Spain's El País newspaper is reporting.

Marines were patrolling the streets of Angostura, a town of about 5,000 people, Monday night when they pulled over a pickup truck. The driver got out and opened fire on the unit, the Spanish paper said. One marine was killed instantly and a second one died of his injuries at a hospital hours later.

The attacker, who according to El País was identified by Secretary of the Marines (Semar) as an ex–convict named José María Peñuelas Rubio, was killed in the firefight. No more information on the shootout has been made available.

Since Guzmán’s daring escape from a maximum security prison in July, security forces have been conducting raids in the so-called Golden Triangle area – a mountainous region that includes parts of the states of Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa, Chapo’s home state.

This is the second time in less than a week that the hunt for the cartel kingpin has been met with fierce resistance.

On Christmas Day, Marines and armed men battled in Guzmán’s hometown of Badiraguato. Authorities didn't release information about military casualties, but two of the attackers were killed. Their weapons were automatic rifles, grenades and munitions that are supposed to be exclusive to the Mexican Army.

In that incident Marines also confiscated four tons of marijuana.

Hundreds of people in the region have fled their homes to escape the military operations, which include house-to-house searches and sometimes turn violent.

The hope is not only to find Guzmán, but also prominent Sinaloa cartel members who are believed to be hiding out in the area, including Chapo’s right hand, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the people responsible for the 1985 murder of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique Camarena.

Pope's year-end message warns about 'tyranny of evil'

VATICAN CITY –  In the final hours of 2015, Pope Francis is encouraging humanity to hang on to recollections of good deeds, so that gestures of goodness can be seen triumphing over evil.

Francis was presiding over a year's end prayer service Thursday evening in St. Peter's Basilica, where he mused about how people are sometimes driven by "insatiable thirst for power and by gratuitous violence." He says it was impossible to forget "so many days marked by violence, by death, by the unspeakable suffering of so many innocents."

Still, Francis is calling attention to what he called "great gestures of goodness, love and solidarity" that don't make headlines.

Francis says: "These signs of love can't and mustn't be obscured by the tyranny of evil," and that good always triumphs.