Severe warnings as UK braces itself for arrival of Storm Barbara

Britain is braced for the arrival of Storm Barbara, which is expected to bring winds of up to 90mph to some parts of the country.

The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for much of the UK, with Scotland expected to bear the brunt of the storm.

An amber "be prepared" wind warning is in place for northern and western parts of Scotland for Friday afternoon, evening and overnight into Christmas Eve.

Two separate yellow "be aware" wind warnings are in also place, while flood alerts have been issued for the Highlands and Western Isles, as well as Skye and the Scottish Borders.

The Scottish Government said it is being regularly updated on the expected impact on travel across the country.

Meanwhile, Scotrail has withdrawn a small number of services and placed speed restrictions on others as a safety precaution.

South of the border, councils were said to be "fully prepared" for the onset of harsh conditions over Christmas.

The Local Government Association, which represents hundreds of councils in England and Wales, said it was issuing renewed advice on how to deal with flash floods.

Environment spokesman Martin Tett said: "Councils are fully prepared to protect residents and minimise disruption caused by Storm Barbara and other potential bad weather such as snow and flooding.

"Council staff will be out in force clearing roads of any debris and damage."

Storm Barbara's arrival comes on what is expected to be the busiest day for traffic over the festive period.

The AA predicts about 12 million cars will be on the roads due to a combination of people visiting loved ones, shopping trips and holidaymakers, as well as those travelling to and from work.

Berlin attack suspect's family: 'He deserves every condemnation'

The brother of a Tunisian man being hunted over the Christmas market attack in Berlin has urged his sibling to hand himself in.

Anis Amri's family, speaking from his hometown of Oueslatia, Tunisia, said they were shaken to discover he was the prime suspect in Monday's attack, in which 12 people were killed.

His brothers, Abdelkader and Walid, said Anis left Tunisia after the 2011 revolution and lived in Italy for three years.

He was in regular contact with his siblings on Facebook and on the phone.

In an interview with Sky News Arabia, Abdelkader said Amri did not talk to them about his life away from Tunisia.

He said: "When he left Tunisia he was a normal person. He drank alcohol and didn't even pray. He had no religious beliefs.

"My dad, my brother and I all used to pray and he didn't, maybe he got into this when he was in prison where he met Algerians, Egyptians and Syrians.

"The last time I spoke to him was 10 days ago, we had a brief conversation. He never used to answer with much but he did mention that he would be coming home soon.

"We expected more from him, we wanted him to develop himself and depend on himself and then help our family.

"He went into prison with a mentality and when he came out he had a total different mentality."

:: Armed police carry out raids as suspect sought

Speaking to Associated Press, Abdelkader said: "If he's guilty, he deserves every condemnation. We reject terrorism and terrorists - we have no dealings with terrorists.

"I ask him to turn himself in to the police. If it is proved that he is involved, we disassociate ourselves from it."

Walid added he wanted to blame him "for what he has done".

A neighbour of the family said he left Tunisia at the age of 16 or 17 after he was accused of stealing. He was sentenced in his absence to five years in jail in Tunisia, before fleeing to Italy.

:: Reward of €100,000 to find Berlin lorry attack suspect

Italian media has said Anis Amri served time in prison for setting fire to a school.

He arrived in Germany in July 2015, but his application for asylum was rejected in June this year.

His deportation, however, got caught up in red tape with Tunisia, which had denied he was a citizen for several months.

Amri's father told Tunisia's Radio Mosaique that his son left Tunisia seven years ago as an illegal immigrant.

Gambia’s Chief Judge Is Secretly Working To Keep President Yaya Jammeh In Office

Justice Emmanuel Oluwasegun Fagbenle, a Nigerian and incumbent Chief Justice of The Gambia, is working behind the scenes to provide legal support for President Yaya Jammeh’s bid to perpetuate himself in office after being defeated at the polls, SaharaReporters has learnt.

President Jammeh, who has ruled the country for 22 years, conceded defeat to the opposition candidate, Mr. Adama Barrow, but turned around to reject and unconstitutionally nullify Gambia's free and fair presidential election. His action has provoked widespread condemnation from the international community, with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) threatening to militarily evict him from power if he fails to respect the democratic wishes of Gambians.

President Jammeh used the excuse of errors in the vote tally, ignoring the insistence of the country's Independent Electoral Commission that the winner remains Mr. Barrow, who won with a revised count of 227,708 votes to President Jammeh's 208,487.

President Jammeh’s party, Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC), subsequently filed a legal challenge against the election results, a constitutional move complicated by the fact that Gambia's Supreme Court is not known to have a panel.

The Gambia Bar Association (GBA), in a statement dated December 12, described President Jammeh’s declaration of the poll results a nullity as an act of treason and rejected his party’s announcement of its readiness to file an election petition against the result.

The GBA contended that given that the country’s Supreme Court has not had a sitting since May 2015 because of the absence of a panel, there is no legitimate legal mechanism available in The Gambia to hear and determine the election petition filed by President Jammeh. The association warned that it would be against the principles of natural justice for President Jammeh to appoint Supreme Court judges to hear a petition filed by him or on his behalf and called on him to respect the wishes of the Gambian people as expressed in the results of the election. It noted that a Supreme Court empaneled by President Jammeh for the purposes of his election is tainted

“That would be tantamount to one being a judge in his own case, considering that the outgoing President has already pre-empted the outcome of the court process by declaring the election results as a nullity,” the GBA wrote.

The GBA is, however, unaware that President Jammeh had been working in the background, with the support of the country’s Chief Justice, Nigeria’s Justice Fagbenle, to impanel the Supreme Court.

President Jammeh said top Gambian judiciary sources, since October, had secretly appointed judges to his country’s Supreme Court from Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The appointments made, said sources, was kept as top secret by Justice Fagbenle.

Of the six judges appointed, impeccable sources told SaharaReporters, five are Nigerians. They are Justices Habeeb A.O Abiru, Abubakar Datti Yahaya, Abubakar Tijani,

Obande Festus and Akomaye Angim, a former Chief Justice of The Gambia. The sixth judge is Justice Nicholas Colin Brown, Sierra Leonean. The appointment of the Nigerian judges was based on request from Justice Fagbenle to the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar.

It remains unclear whether they have all accepted their appointment to seat on appeals before the Gambian Supreme Court.

The judges were originally slated to sit from January 11 to 19, 2017, but the current political developments, disclosed sources, have forced them to start considering a request for deferment of the sitting or rejection of their appointment.

A top source told SaharaReporters that Justice Abiru has decided to reject the appointment and already scheduled a meeting with other members who share his view so that they can communicate their position to the Chief Justice of Nigeria this week.

Justice Fagbenle did not just start working hand-in-gloves with President Jammeh. In a letter dated 12 December and exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters, the GBA called for Justice Fagbenle’s resignation from office, citing his conduct during the country’s presidential campaign as the basis.

“The position of the Chief Justice is a constitutional position, and as head of the third arm of government, you are expected to maintain and uphold certain standards. You have, in our considered view, woefully failed to adhere to these standards,” wrote the GBA.

Specifically, the GBA noted that Justice Fagbenle is in President Jammeh’s pocket, a situation that has brought disrepute to his office.

The GBA observed that before and during the campaigns, Fagbenle was appearing at the rallies of President Jammeh’s party.

“On the day of the nomination of the incumbent president, you were seen in front of the court premises waving and dancing in support of the incumbent presidential parade. Several members of the Bar saw you wearing APRC apparel on court premises. You were distributing APRC apparel to the court staff and making preparation for the victory celebration of the incumbent president,” stated the GBA.

In addition to these, the GBA said Justice Fagbenle’s tenure has been principally devoted to President Jammeh’s scheme to perpetuate himself in office. Notably, explained the lawyers’ association, Justice Fagbenle caused the dismissal of judicial officers presiding over cases involving the government of President Jammeh when they made decisions considered unfavorable to the state.

“In the case of the State v Ousainou Darboe & Ors, you caused the presiding judge to expedite the hearing of the case and their conviction. You transferred the case of the State v Lamin Sonko & Ors to the High Court sitting at Mansakonko. There was no basis for the transfer of the case, as the Mansakonko court had no jurisdiction to hear the case. This action was calculated to ensure that the defendants could not get legal representation, thus easing their conviction. You further failed to respond to the letter from the counsel representing the defendants protesting the transfer. You gazetted new rules for the Supreme Court without following due process. You further failed to respond to the GBA when it protested the action,” said the lawyers’ association.

Vladimir Putin pays respects to murdered ambassador Andrey Karlov

Russia's ambassador to Turkey, who was murdered by a man shouting "Allahu Akbar" and "Don't forget Aleppo", has been laid to rest at a ceremony in Moscow attended by President Vladimir Putin.

Diplomats and family members gathered at the Foreign Ministry building in the centre of the capital to pay their respects to Andrey Karlov, who was shot dead at an art exhibition in Ankara on Monday.

Television footage showed the 62-year-old's body lying in an open casket in the marble-clad lobby of the building, flanked by uniformed honour guards.

Mourners, who also included Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, approached to lay flowers.

Turkey has identified the assassin as Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, who had worked for Ankara's riot police. He was killed in a shootout with police.

Mr Karlov's body was repatriated to Moscow on Tuesday.

During a ceremony at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport the diplomat's widow wept as his coffin was carried from the runway to a hearse.

Earlier, the same plane carried 18 Russian investigators and officials to Ankara to participate in an investigation into the killing.

The Kremlin has refused to speculate whether Altinas was operating as a lone wolf or as part of a bigger operation, but said the murder was a blow to Turkey's prestige.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed Altintas was a follower of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim cleric who was blamed for orchestrating a failed coup in July.

Mr Erdogan said Altinas was part of what he calls the "Fethullah Terror Organisation".

He added that Turkey's intelligence agency was also looking into Altintas' possible foreign connections, saying there were "certain clues" indicating overseas links.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby dismissed "absolutely false" claims there was American involvement or support in the assassination.

He said: "We need to let the investigators do their job and we need to let the facts and the evidence take them where it is before we jump to conclusions."

Russia and Turkey have said the murder will not harm relations between the two countries, which have been strained over Syria.

Turkey's state-run news agency said authorities have released six members of Altintas' family who were detained for questioning in the aftermath of the killing.

A total of 11 people were detained, including his parents, sister and three other relatives. Those still in custody include Altintas' roommate.

'Bionic eye' implants offer hope for blind NHS patients

Ten people with an inherited form of blindness will be fitted with "bionic eye" implants in a procedure funded by NHS England.

Five patients with retinitis pigmentosa will be treated at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and five at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London in 2017.

They will be given a pair of glasses mounted with a camera which captures light and sends wireless signals to an implant in the retina.

The implant then sends information to the brain to help patients regain some sight.

Professor Paulo Stanga, from Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, was involved in trials using the Argus II Bionic Eye to treat the condition.


Video:Bionic Eye Helps Man See His Wife

He said: "I'm delighted that our pioneering research has provided the evidence to support NHS England's decision to fund the bionic eye for the first time in patients.

"It surpassed all of our expectations when we realised that one of the retinitis pigmentosa patients in Manchester using the bionic eye could identify large letters for the first time in his adult life."

The procedure will be funded as part of a scheme that assesses treatments that show promise for the future.

Patients will be monitored for a year to see how they implant improves their lives.

Video:Bionic Eye Helps Blind To See

Keith Hayman, from Lancashire, had the bionic eye fitted during a trial at the Manchester hospital in 2009.

The 68-year-old, who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in his 20s, had to retire as a butcher in 1981 when he became blind.

He said: "Having spent half my life in darkness, I can now tell when my grandchildren run towards me and make out lights twinkling on Christmas trees.

"When I used to go to the pub, I would be talking to a friend, who might have walked off and I couldn't tell and kept talking to myself."

Dr Jonathan Fielden, director of specialised commissioning at NHS England, said: "This highly innovative NHS-funded procedure shows real promise and could change lives.

"Now once again the NHS is at the forefront of harnessing ground-breaking science for the benefit patients in this country."

The Argus II retinal implant, made by Second Sight, has also been trialled to treat those suffering from age-related macular degeneration - the most common cause of sight loss in the developed world with between 20 and 25 million sufferers worldwide.

Celebrity deaths: The big names mourned in 2016

The world lost many of its best-loved celebrities in 2016. Here are the stars the world has said goodbye to this year.

:: January

Music legend David Bowie passed away early in 2016 following an 18-month battle with cancer. We also lost broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan, actor Alan Rickman and The Eagles frontman Glenn Frey.
Image Caption:Sir Terry Wogan was renowned for his work on Radio 2's breakfast show and Children In Need

:: February

To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee died in February. Her 1960 novel about a child's eye view of racial injustice in a fictional Alabama town in the 1930s became standard reading for millions of young people.

Frank Kelly - best known for playing the character of Father Jack in the comedy Father Ted - died in the same month.
Image Caption:Author Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, died aged 89 on 19 February

:: March

Comedian Ronnie Corbett, famous for his TV partnership with Ronnie Barker, died in March, surrounded by his family.

Magician Paul Daniels, Beatles producer George Martin, Coronation Street creator Tony Warren and legendary footballer Johan Cruyff also passed away.
Image Caption:Beatles producer Sir George Martin died aged 90 on 8 March

:: April

Prince was found unresponsive and alone in an elevator at his complex in Paisley Park, Minnesota, in April. He died of an accidental overdose.

Comedian and actress Victoria Wood also died in April at her home in London. In a statement, her older brother Chris said her death "has robbed us of one of the brightest talents of our generation".

We also said goodbye to reality TV star and music producer David Gest, and agony aunt Denise Robertson.
Image Caption:Prince died of an accidental overdose in April

:: May

TV writer Carla Lane, who was behind a number of sitcoms including Bread, Butterflies and the Liver Birds, died in May.
Image Caption:The TV writer Carla Lane passed away in May

:: June

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali passed away in June. The three-time world heavyweight champion had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1984, three years after he retired from the sport.

Also in June, Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin died in a freak accident after becoming pinned between his own car and a brick mailbox at his home in Los Angeles.
Image Caption:Cassius Clay in May 1963 - the year before he changed his name to Muhammad Ali

:: July

The comedian, writer and actress Caroline Aherne - famous for The Mrs Merton Show and The Royle Family - died in July.
Image Caption:Caroline Aherne arrives at an awards show in 2007

:: August

Comedy legend Gene Wilder, who starred in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, died in August.

We also mourned Kenny Baker, who played R2-D2 in the Star Wars film franchise.
Image Caption:Gene Wilder pictured in 1996

:: September

Golf legend Arnold Palmer, who won seven majors, passed away in September.

He drew thousands of fans to the game in the 1950s and 1960s and his keen fan base earned the moniker "Arnie's Army".
Image Caption:Arnold Palmer with Tiger Woods in 1997

:: October

Jean Alexander, who played Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street, died in October.

We also lost Dad's Army and Hi-de-Hi! writer Jimmy Perry in the same month, along with American singer Bobby Vee - known for Rubber Ball and Take Good Care of My Baby.

Dead or Alive singer and former Celebrity Big Brother star Pete Burns also died after suffering a cardiac arrest, aged 57.
Image Caption:Former Coronation Street actress Jean Alexander died in October

:: November

Andrew Sachs, best known for his role as Manuel in Fawlty Towers, died in November.

Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen also passed away, along with the actor Robert Vaughn, Brady Bunch actress Florence Henderson and broadcaster Sir Jimmy Young.
Image Caption:Andrew Sachs as Manuel in Fawlty Towers

:: December

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor died in December. She starred in dozens of films and TV shows, but was perhaps better known for her love life, having married nine times.

Rock superstar Greg Lake also passed away in December, as did Sunday Times critic AA Gill and actor Peter Vaughan, who appeared as Harry 'Grouty' Grout in TV sitcom Porridge and as Maester Aemon in Game of Thrones.
Image Caption:Peter Vaughan in Game of Thrones

Armed police carry out raids as Berlin suspect sought

Heavily armed police carried out overnight raids in Berlin as a Europe-wide manhunt for the main suspect in the lorry massacre continues.

A spokesman for Germany's chief federal prosecutor denied reports in Bild that four people who were in contact with Tunisian Anis Amri have been arrested.

Amri, an asylum seeker who was known to police, is suspected of being at the wheel of a hijacked 25-tonne lorry which ploughed into a crowd of shoppers at a busy Christmas market.

:: Trump - Attacks in Berlin and Ankara prove I was right on Muslim ban

German officials said the 24-year-old came to their attention in March after a tip-off that he might be planning a robbery to raise money for automatic weapons to use in an attack.

They followed him until September, when it was decided there was no evidence to back up the original suspicions.

Rainer Wendt, the head of a union representing German police, said civilians are "rightly outraged and anxious that such a person can walk around here, keep changing his identity and the legal system can't cope with them".

Meanwhile, German newspaper Der Spiegel criticised authorities who "had (Amri) in their crosshairs and he still managed to vanish".

On Wednesday, it was reported that police searched a refugee centre in Emmerich, west Germany, where Amri stayed a few months ago, as well as two apartments in Berlin.

Prosecutors have warned that the suspect could be armed and have offered a €100,000 (£84,000) reward for information leading to his arrest.

Twelve people were killed and 48 others injured in Monday evening's attack, which has been claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group.

:: Sky Views - Trump's terror comments exploit fears

It emerged on Thursday that two British nationals suffered minor injuries.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said: "Earlier today, German officials informed us that two British nationals had received medical attention for shock and minor injuries and were discharged a short time later.

"We stand ready to provide assistance to any more British nationals caught up in the attack."

Amri is described as being 5ft 8in tall, with black hair and brown eyes.

He is thought to have used six different aliases and three different nationalities.

The Christmas market in Berlin will reopen on Thursday, although the section where the truck hit will be kept bare.