A wildfire that started in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on Tuesday morning has spread across the west of the city at an alarming rate throughout Tuesday and overnight.

High winds and very dry conditions further fuelled the flames, causing the blaze to rip through neighbourhoods at alarming speeds. The fires reportedly spread from a size of 10 acres to nearly 3,000 in a matter of hours.

Firefighters have been battling the flames throughout the night, as residents were forced to flee amid evacuation orders affecting tens of thousands of people.

Photographers have captured dramatic scenes across the west of the city as firefighters work to control the fires.

The BBC's Regan Morris reported on fires raging out of control, leaving those without power and phone signal unable to receive updates on the latest evacuation alerts.

Meanwhile, CBS reporter Jonathan Vigliotti said firefighters were no longer "trying to save" houses in the Palisades, "they're trying to prevent these flames from jumping to other neighbourhoods".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia is closely monitoring the situation, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland from Denmark.

Peskov said the Arctic was in Russia's "sphere of national and strategic interests and it is interested in peace and stability there".

Trump's remarks on Greenland - a largely autonomous Danish territory - have drawn a warning from European leaders.

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has stressed that "we have to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Greenland", and Germany's Olaf Scholz has made clear that "borders must not be moved by force".

Trump said earlier this week that the US needed both Denmark and the Panama Canal "for economic security", and refused to rule out using either economic or military force in taking them over.

He also referred to the border with Canada as an "artificially drawn line". Denmark and Canada are both close Nato allies of the US.

Dmitry Peskov said Trump's claims were a matter for the US, Denmark and other nations, but Russia was watching the "rather dramatic" situation surrounding his remarks. "We are present in the Arctic zone, and we will continue to be present there," he said.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to dampen concern about the president-elect's remarks during a visit to Paris: "The idea is... obviously not a good one, but maybe more important, it's obviously one that's not going to happen."

About 56,000 people live in Greenland, and it is home to US as well as Danish military bases. It also has considerable untapped mineral and oil wealth.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede has been pushing for independence, although the territory's economy relies heavily on Danish subsidies.

Both he and the Danish leader have emphasised that it is "not for sale" and that its future is in the hands of Greenlanders themselves.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy played down Trump's comments, although he acknowledged the "intensity of his rhetoric and the unpredictability sometimes of what he said can be destabilising".

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said Copenhagen has a clear interest in ensuring that the US - "absolutely its closest ally" - plays a key role at a time of rising tensions in the North Atlantic, particularly involving Russia.

The European Commission said Trump's threat to Greenland was "extremely theoretical" and "wildly hypothetical", considering he was not yet in office.

However, it has confirmed that Greenland, as an overseas territory, does come under a mutual assistance clause requiring all EU states to come to its aid in case of attack.

The Kremlin ridiculed the European response, suggesting it was reacting "very timidly... almost in a whisper".

Last week, Greenland's leader said the territory should free itself from "the shackles of colonialism", although he made no mention of the US.

A former Greenland foreign minister, Pele Broberg, who now heads the biggest opposition party, told the BBC that most Greenlanders he talked to believed the US was vital for their defence and safety.

"We are part of the North American continent, that's why the defence of the US is in such a great place with regards to Greenland, because we create a buffer zone that doesn't need to be militarised."

He has called for a "free association agreement" with the US covering trade and defence which would give Greenland independence but hand the US responsibility for security.

Trump's allies have reinforced his views on Greenland.

Keith Kellogg, chosen by Trump to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, said a lot of the president-elect's remarks on Greenland made sense, "putting the United States in a position of global leadership".

Republican congressman Mike Walz told Fox News that the issue was "not just about Greenland, this is about the Arctic", because Russia was trying to take control of the polar region, with its mineral and natural resources.

"Denmark can be a great ally, but you can't treat Greenland, which they have operational control over, as some kind of backwater - it's in the Western hemisphere."

Indian authorities say they have arrested a Canadian man at Delhi airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage.

The 32-year-old man was at the airport on Monday to catch his flight to Canada when he was first stopped during security check.

"Upon examination, a skull with sharp teeth, resembling the jaw of a baby crocodile, weighing approximately 777g (1.71lb), was discovered wrapped in a cream-colored cloth," Delhi customs said in a statement on Thursday.

The man was arrested and the skull was handed over to the Department of Forests and Wildlife, they said.

Officials said the possession of crocodile skull violated India's wildlife protection law and its Customs Act.

An analysis of the skull by the Department of Forests and Wildlife found that it belonged to a species protected under India's Wildlife Protection Act.

"The texture, tooth pattern, well-developed bony palate, and nostrils confirmed the item as the skull of a baby crocodile," they said.

A forest official told the Times of India newspaper that the man had allegedly bought the skull from Thailand.

"The man did not possess the mandatory permission required to carry wildlife items," forest officer Rajesh Tandon said.

The man also told officers he had not hunted or killed the crocodile, the Hindustan Times reports.

Further tests are being carried out to identify the exact sub-species of the animal.

Meanwhile, Delhi customs says a case has been registered against the man and an investigation is under way.

Last year, a 32-year-old Canadian woman was stopped at Delhi airport after she was found to have horns of an unidentified animal in her luggage. The woman told officials she had picked them up during a trek in the northern Ladakh region and decided to take them back as a souvenir.

Out-of-control wildfires are ripping across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least five deaths, burning down hundreds of buildings, and prompting more than 130,000 people to flee their homes in America's second-largest city.

Despite the efforts of firefighters, the biggest blazes remain totally uncontained - with weather conditions and the underlying impact of climate change expected to continue fanning the flames for days to come.

What's the latest?

More than 137,000 people have been forced to leave their homes - many of them simply carrying whatever belongings they can.

Police say at least five people have died, and their bodies found near the Eaton Fire - but their cause of death is not yet known.

Like the even larger Palisades Fire, the Eaton Fire remains totally uncontained. Meanwhile, the new Sunset Fire is menacing the well-known Hollywood Hills area.

More than 1,000 structures are known to have been destroyed - including houses, schools and businesses on the iconic Sunset Boulevard. A fire ecologist has told the BBC that "entire neighbourhoods... have been wiped out".

Among the celebrities who have lost their homes are Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, who attended the Golden Globes just days ago, and Paris Hilton.

There is a glimmer of hope for firefighters, as the fire weather outlook for southern California has been downgraded from "extremely critical" to "critical".

But BBC weather forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas says there is no rain forecast in the area for at least the next week, meaning conditions remain ripe for fire.

Mass disruption has been reported due to traffic buildup. A number of schools and the the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have been forced to close.

A political row about the city's preparedness has erupted after it emerged that some firefighters' hoses have run dry - an issue seized upon by US President-elect Donald Trump.

• Follow live updates
• 'Where do I go?' Chaos as people flee flames
• In pictures: Dramatic scenes from west LA
• The celebrities who have lost their homes

Where are the fires?

There are at least five fires raging in the wider area, according to California fire officials early on Thursday:

• Palisades: The first fire to erupt on Tuesday and the biggest fire in the region, which could become the most destructive fire in state history. It has scorched a sizable part of land, covering more than 17,200 acres, including the upscale Pacific Palisades neighbourhood
• Eaton: It has struck the northern part of Los Angeles, blazing through cities such as Altadena. It's the second biggest fire in the area, burning around 10,600 acres
• Hurst: Located just north of San Fernando, it began burning on Tuesday night and has grown to 855 acres, though firefighters have had some successlimited in containing it
• Lidia: It broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the mountainous Acton area north of Los Angeles and grew to cover almost 350 acres. Authorities say it has been 40% contained
• Sunset: It broke out Wednesday evening in Hollywood Hills, growing to about 20 acres in less than an hour. It now covers around 43 acres

The earlier Woodley and Olivas fires have now been contained, according to local fire authorities.

• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire
• Watch: Fires reach Hollywood, with fears for iconic sign

How did the LA fires start?

Officials have pointed to high winds and drought in the area, which has made vegetation very dry and easy to burn.

The likely impact of climate change has also been cited been blamed - although the exact circumstances remain unclear.

Some 95% of wildfires in the area are started by humans, according to David Acuna, a battalion chief at the Californian Fire Service, although officials are yet to state how they think the current fires started.

An important factor that has been cited in the spread of the blazes is the Santa Ana winds, which blow from inland towards the coast. With speeds of more than 60mph (97 km/h), these are believed to have fanned the flames.

• What are the Santa Ana winds?

What role has climate change played?

Although strong winds and lack of rain are driving the blazes, experts say climate change is altering the background conditions and increasing the likelihood of such fires.

US government research is unequivocal in linking climate change to larger and more severe wildfires in the western United States.

"Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.

And following a very warm summer and lack of rain in recent months, California is particularly vulnerable.

Fire season in southern California is generally thought to stretch from May to October - but the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, has pointed out earlier that blazes had become a perennial issue. "There's no fire season," he said. "It's fire year."

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Acuna said the Palisades Fire represented only the third occasion in the past 30 years that a major fire had broken out in January.

• How climate change is stoking the fires
• A simple guide to climate change

The pound has fallen to its lowest level for nine months after UK government borrowing costs continued to rise.

The drop came as UK 10-year borrowing costs surged to their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis when bank borrowing almost ground to a halt.

Economists have warned the rising costs could lead to further tax rises or cuts to spending plans as the government tries to meet its self-imposed borrowing target.

The government said it would not say anything ahead of the official borrowing forecast from its independent forecaster due in March.

"I'm obviously not going to get ahead ... it's up to the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) to make their forecasts."

"Having stability in the public finances is precursor to having economic stability and economic growth," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride claimed that the Chancellor's significant spending and borrowing plans from the Budget are "making it more expensive for the government to borrow".

"We should be building a more resilient economy, not raising taxes to pay for fiscal incompetence," he said in a post on X.

Gabriel McKeown, head of macroeconomics at Sad Rabbit Investments, said the rise in borrowing costs "has effectively eviscerated Reeves' fiscal headroom, threatening to derail Labour's investment promises and potentially necessitate a painful recalibration of spending plans."

The warning comes after the cost of borrowing over 30 years hit its highest level for 27 years on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the pound dropped by as much as 1.1% to $1.233 against the dollar, marking its lowest level since April last year.

The government generally spends more than it raises in tax. To fill this gap it borrows money, but that has to be paid back - with interest.

One of the ways it can borrow money is by selling financial products called bonds.

Globally, there has been a rise in the cost of government borrowing in recent months sparked by investor concerns that US President-elect Donald Trump's plans to impose new tariffs on goods entering the US from Canada, Mexico and China would push up inflation.

Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at AJ Bell, said chancellor Rachel Reeves' Budget in October, which increased borrowing, may have had a small impact but said the UK rises were similar to those in the US.

"In the UK higher yields put pressure on government finances and increase the risk that Reeves will come back with another tax raising Budget," he said.

But he also said the current rises in borrowing costs could be "a storm in a tea cup which dissipates quickly."

The official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), will start the process of updating its forecast on government borrowing next month to be presented to parliament in late March.

Some local councils in England would need to see at least a five-fold increase in new housing to meet government targets, analysis by BBC Verify suggests.

The BBC's figures lay out the immense challenge Labour has set itself in government with its "milestone" of building 1.5 million new homes in England over five years.

In total, 16 local authorities across England have new annual targets that are five times or more what they have recently delivered.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said setting a specific target will "give the British people the power to hold our feet to the fire".

With that in mind, the BBC has created a new online tool for tracking the government's progress towards this key goal.

Type in your postcode and see the house building situation in your own area.

The government has also set annual housing targets for each local authority in England, based on what it judges their contribution to the overall total should be.

The most demanding target is for the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which has been set a target for new homes nearly 22 times its recent average.

The target for Sevenoaks in Kent is five times what it has been delivering on average in recent years, while the target for Portsmouth is more than eight times the average.

These specific targets will enable us to incorporate information into the tracker on what's happening on house building in every district in England.

It will show the number of homes added in an area and compare it with the local target set by ministers.

Our postcode lookup tool also shows the share of planning applications for new homes granted permissions in an area in the most recent year there is data for, and compares it with the England-wide average rate, so you can judge whether your council is approving enough building plans.

The tracker will be updated when relevant official data becomes available.

Hugely ambitious

The new government has described its housebuilding objective as "hugely ambitious" and that is no exaggeration.

To deliver 1.5 million homes, defined as "net additional dwellings", over five years implies a strike rate of about 300,000 a year - a number not achieved since the 1970s.

But while the England-wide target is highly ambitious in a historical context, the targets handed down to some local authorities are arguably even more so.

To create our postcode tracker we processed local data on:

• the number of annual net additional dwellings required
• the number of net additional dwellings created on average each year since 2021
• recent residential planning decisions by councils.

BBC Verify's analysis shows Kensington and Chelsea, a London borough, has been given a target of 5,107 new homes every year for the next five years. But the borough delivered an average of only 236 net additional dwellings between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

It did, however, approve 89% of planning applications for housing in the year to June 2024, considerably higher than the national rate of 71%.

Portsmouth, on the south coast, also has a very stretching target. The local council is being asked to deliver 1,021 new homes per year, almost nine times the 120 it delivered on average over the most recent three years.

Hastings has been tasked with a smaller total: 710. But this is still five times the 142 it has delivered on average in recent years.

Portsmouth approved 74% of residential planning applications in the year to June 2024 and Hastings 75%.

Councils were consulted on the targets last summer, with many expressing concerns they were "unrealistic", and the numbers were revised.

Councillor Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea, said it was "out of touch to let algorithms set targets without understanding local context".

"You only have to walk through the streets of our densely built borough to see how unachievable it would be to build 5,107 homes a year here; this borough is only 4.5 miles squared."

She said there were two major sites in the borough that would provide 6,000 new homes in total.

Councillor Darren Sanders, cabinet member for housing at Portsmouth City Council, said the target "does not work" because "most of the city is an island" with a dense population and "important heritage and natural assets".

"Portsmouth has approved more than 4,000 new homes in 2023 and 2024. Any lack of delivery is down to the rising cost of development," he said, "not whether the council approves them."

Sevenoaks councillor Julia Thornton said it was a "top priority" to protect greenbelt land, but added: "We will have a duty to do everything possible to meet the government's new housing targets."

Sir Keir's housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, has said if councils fail to deliver enough houses the government could intervene.

"The government can take a local plan off a local authority that is resisting putting one in place, and we are absolutely willing to do it, if we have evidence that [they] are refusing to comply," he told the BBC.

The obstacles

The government said it had "inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory" and "all areas must play their part".

It has set out "a major planning overhaul… unblocking barriers to building, and setting out targets for councils to ramp up housebuilding, so new homes are built where they are most needed."

Most housing experts agree planning reform is necessary.

Yet analysts say it is not the only obstacle.

The construction industry has warned it is dealing with a chronic shortage of skilled workers.

The Home Builders Federation has cited aging workers and Brexit as some of the factors behind shortages.

The Construction Industry Training Board estimates the sector needs to attract the equivalent of 50,300 extra workers per year to meet the levels of work expected.

There are also concerns about the availability of basic building materials including bricks and timber.

The Construction Leadership Council has warned a shortage of these could hinder the government's ability to get near its target.

Finally, many housing experts doubt private housebuilders are capable of delivering enough new homes each year to reach the targets.

This is because private housebuilders have a commercial interest in not building so many new homes that their average price declines.

The Competition and Markets Authority concluded in February 2024 "private developers produce houses at a rate at which they can be sold without needing to reduce their prices".

A sharp decline in residential planning permissions in England in the year to June 2024 - hitting a new record low - was due to a collapse in applications from private builders, not a decline in the share of applications being approved by local authorities.

This collapse in applications probably reflected the impact of still-high mortgage interest rates and high house prices relative to average incomes, undermining the ability of people to afford newly built houses.

That's why some argue meeting the government's targets will also require a major increase in Whitehall grants to not-for-profit local housing associations, enabling them to build tens of thousands of new social and affordable homes, mainly to be rented out, in the coming years.

Interactive tool developed by Allison Shultes, Scott Jarvis and Steven Connor

About the data

Annual data on new homes for England comes from the government's "net additional dwellings" statistics.

These figures are estimates of changes in the total number of homes in each area, taking account of new build homes and existing building conversions, minus any demolitions.

The targets are the government's new "local housing need" calculations, released following a public consultation.

Planning statistics are taken from quarterly data and combine applications decided for "minor" housing developments (fewer than 10 homes) and "major" schemes (10 homes or more).

The planning data for England is at local authority level. Applications decided by special authorities, such as those in charge of national parks, are not included.

We have included the latest data on new housebuilding "completions" by local authority area for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the 1.5 million homes target applies only in England.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Former Scotland rugby union captain Stuart Hogg has been given a one-year community payback order after he admitted a domestic abuse charge against his estranged wife.

The 32-year-old was previously given a five-year non-harassment order and fined £600 after breaching bail conditions.

He had admitted shouting and swearing and acting in an abusive manner towards his wife Gillian.

Appearing at Selkirk Sheriff Court, he was given a payback order - meaning he will do supervised work in the community - and the non-harassment order was imposed again.

Last year, Hogg, who plays for Montpellier, admitted a single charge which related to repeated abusive behaviour towards his now estranged wife.

Over a five-year period, up to August last year, he engaged in a course of conduct which caused her fear or alarm.

The court previously heard how he regularly shouted and swore at his wife while they lived in Hawick, as well as when they lived in Exeter when Hogg played for Exeter Chiefs.

The charge also involved Hogg monitoring his wife's movements through the Find My Phone app after they had split up in 2023, and him sending her sometimes hundreds of text messages in the space of a few hours.

The former Glasgow Warriors fullback amassed a century of senior caps for his country and was involved in three British and Irish Lions tours.

He remains one of Scotland's all-time leading try scorers and was awarded an MBE in the 2024 New Year honours list for services to rugby union.

Hogg came out of retirement last summer to sign a two-year contract with Montpellier.

What is probably the world's oldest ice, dating back 1.2m years ago, has been dug out from deep within Antarctica.

Working at temperatures of -35C, a team of scientists extracted a 2.8km-long cyclinder, or core, of ice - longer than eight Eiffel Towers end-to-end.

Suspended inside the ice are ancient air bubbles which scientists hope will help solve an enduring mystery about our planet's climate history.

The European scientists worked over four Antarctic summers, racing against seven nations to be first to reach the rock under the frozen continent.

Their work could help unravel one of the major mysteries in our planet's climate history - what happened 900,000-1.2 million years ago when glacial cycles were disrupted and some researchers say our ancestors came close to extinction.

"It's an amazing achievement," says Prof Carlo Barbante at Ca' Foscari University of Venice who co-ordinated the research.

"You have in your hands a piece of ice that is a million years old. Sometimes you see ash layers coming from volcanic eruptions. You see the tiny bubbles inside, some bubbles of air that our ancestors breathed a million years ago," he says.

The team was led by the Italian Institute of Polar Sciences and included 10 European nations.

It had to transport the drilling equipment, laboratories and camp 40km by snow mobiles from the nearest research base.

The drilling site, called Little Dome C, is on the Antarctic plateau on the east of the continent, at almost 3000m elevation.

Ice cores are a vital to scientists' understanding of how our climate is changing.

They trap bubbles of air and particles that reveal levels of greenhouse gas emissions and temperature variation that help scientists plot how climatic conditions have altered over time.

Data from other ice cores, including one called Epica, helped scientists conclude that the current rise in temperature linked to greenhouse gas emissions is caused by humans burning fossil fuels.

But scientists wanted to go further back in time.

Now with this project Beyond Epica: Oldest Ice they have gained potentially another 400,000 years of history.

"There is a lot of the past in our future. We look at the past to understand better how the climate works and how can we project it into the future," says Prof Barbante.

The team had a "nail-biting last few days" as they were able to drill even deeper than anticipated from radar data, says Dr Robert Mulvaney, an ice core scientist at British Antarctic Survey.

The core was slowly pulled from the ice sheet using a drill machinery and scientists carefully carefully cleaned the ice using cloths.

It is now being cut into one metre pieces for transportation at -50C from Antarctica by boat.

The pieces will eventually reach the freezers of numerous European institutions, including the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, where scientists will begin their analysis.

Experts want to understand what happened in a period 900,000 to 1.2 million years ago called the Mid-Pleistocene Transition.

At this time, the length of the cycle between cold glacial and warm interglacials switched from being 41,000 years to 100,000 years. But scientists have never understood why.

This is the same period when, according to some theories, the ancestors of present-day humans almost died out, perhaps dropping to around just 1000 individuals.

Scientists do not know if there is a link between this near-extinction and the climate, explains Prof Barbante, but it demonstrates it is an unusual period that it is important to better understand.

"What they will find is anybody's guess but it will undoubtedly enlarge our window on our planet's past," Professor Joeri Rogelj from Imperial College in London, who was not involved in the project, told BBC News.

Follow Georgina on BlueSky.

Actor and comedian Russell Brand has pleaded guilty to speeding.

The 49-year-old was caught driving his Mini at 95mph on the M4 near Slough on 16 June 2024.

He also drove the car at 37mph in a 30mph zone in Shiplake, near his Oxfordshire home, on 23 March, High Wycombe Magistrates' Court heard.

The former Radio 2 presenter was fined £3,457 and handed eight points on his licence.

Brand, who did not attend the short hearing, was given three penalty points for the 37mph breach and five for the other.

He is currently under investigation by police over allegations of sex crimes made against him by multiple women.

An evidence file has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide if he should face charges.

It came after a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches revealed last year that four women had accused him of sexual assaults between 2006 and 2013.

Brand denies the allegations and previously said all his sexual relationships were "absolutely always consensual".

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Commuters are being warned of icy roads and travel disruption, as temperatures plummeted again overnight across the UK.

Fresh weather warnings have been issued, with snow, ice and fog forecast across southern England, Wales, Northern Ireland and northern Scotland on Thursday.

It will be mainly dry elsewhere with winter sunshine, but temperatures could fall again to as low as -16C on Thursday night.

The cold snap has already brought heavy snowfall to some areas, and dozens of flood alerts and warnings are in place due to either heavy rain or melting snow.

On Wednesday the lowest temperature recorded was -8.4C (16F) in Shap, Cumbria, according to the Met Office.

It comes as an amber cold health alert remains in place for all of England until Sunday, meaning the forecast weather is expected to have significant impacts across health - including a rise in deaths.

The Met Office says travel disruption to road and rail services is likely on Thursday in areas covered by warnings, as well potential for accidents in icy places.

There are five warnings in place:

• A yellow warning for snow and ice is in place for northern Scotland until midnight on Thursday
• A yellow warning for ice has been issued until 10:30 across southern England and south-east Wales
• Two yellow warnings for snow and ice are in force until 11:00 GMT - one across western Wales and north-west England, and south-west England; and another for Northern Ireland
• A yellow warning for fog until 09:00 in Northern Ireland

On Wednesday snow caused some roads to close and motorists to be stationary for "long periods of time" in Devon and Cornwall, according to authorities there.

Gritters working into Thursday morning have been fitted with ploughs to clear routes in the area.

Car insurer RAC said it has seen the highest levels of demand for rescues in a three-day period since December 2022.

"Cold conditions will last until at least the weekend, so we urge drivers to remain vigilant of the risks posed by ice and, in some locations, snow," said RAC breakdown spokeswoman Alice Simpson.

National Rail have also advised passengers to check before they travel, as ice and snow can mean speed restrictions and line closures.

On Wednesday evening, poor weather was affecting Northern and Great Western Railway.

Buses are also replacing trains between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog until Monday.

• Get the forecast in your area on BBC Weather

The wintry conditions have caused significant disruption across the UK since snow swept many parts of the country at the weekend.

Hundreds of schools were closed in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including schools in Yorkshire, Merseyside, the Midlands and Aberdeenshire.

The country has also been hit by widespread flooding in recent days. Currently there are 68 flood warnings - meaning flooding is expected - in England and three in Wales.

The weather is expected to be less cold over the weekend.

A mandatory evacuation order has been issued in the Hollywood Hills following the spread of the wildfires raging across Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) said there was an "immediate threat to life" in the area and that it was being legally closed to the public.

At least five fires are currently active across Los Angeles, with five people confirmed to have been killed.

More than 130,000 people have already had to evacuate, and the homes of a number of celebrities - including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal - have been destroyed.

The first fire began on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, near Malibu, with others subsequently breaking out across the north of the city.

As of 20:15 local time (04:00 GMT), four fires in the areas of the Palisades, Pasadena, Sylmar, and the Hollywood Hills covered more than 27,000 acres (42 sq miles; 109 sq km) and were 0% contained, according to the LAFD.

One fire in the Acton area had been partially contained, while two others had been completely contained.

The fire in the Hollywood Hills - a residential neighbourhood overlooking the historic Hollywood area of the city - began at around 18:00 local time on Wednesday.

Less than two hours later, much of the heart of Hollywood was blanketed with thick smoke, and the tops of the palm trees that line its streets were barely visible.

People used sweatshirts to cover their faces to help them breathe, while others - clearly surprised by the fire - wore only pyjamas. Many carried bags and suitcases, talking on their phones as they made plans for where to go.

Many of the roads near the fire - including Hollywood Boulevard, home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame - were gridlocked with traffic. Some people even drove on the wrong side of the road as they tried to get out of the area.

Resident Anna Waldman told the BBC she had set out to walk her dog but smelled smoke almost instantly when she went outside.

She went back inside and, looking out her back windows, saw fire, and watched as it moved quickly thought the Hollywood Hills, coming to within a block of her home.

She packed what she could: food, clothes, blankets, food for her three small dogs.

"I can't believe this," she said in exhaustion, pulling down her face mask.

Makayla Jackson, 26, and her two-year-old son, Ramari, had been evacuated from a homeless shelter that was in danger of burning, and now stood on the street waiting for a ride to a high school where help was being offered to people.

"They just told us to get out and go," she said.

Firefighters tackling the blazes have experienced water shortages and have had to resort to taking water from swimming pools and ponds.

Officials said three separate one-million-gallon tanks were full before the fires began, but that the elevation of the fires meant water couldn't move quickly enough to hydrants in the affeted areas.

The city also doesn't typically see fires of this magnitude - the Palisades blaze is already the most destructive in its history - and its systems are designed for urban use, not fighting wildfires.

The government of Chad has insisted the situation in capitol N'Djamena is stable after gunshots were heard near the presidential palace.

Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said in a video apparently recorded within the palace complex that there had been a "little incident" but that "everything is calm".

Sources close to the African state's government said clashes had occurred between security forces and "terrorist elements".

The French news agency AFP quoted Koulamallah as saying that 18 attackers and a member of the security forces had been killed.

Following the incident, tanks were seen in the area and all roads leading to the palace were closed, the agency said

In the video, posted to Facebook, Koulamallah is seen surrounded by members of the government forces.

"Nothing serious has happened," he says.

"We are here and we will defend our country at the price of our blood. Be calm.

"This whole attempt at destabilisation has been thwarted."

He is then seen taking photos with, and raising his fist with, the soldiers.

Koulamallah was quoted by AFP as saying the assault had been launched by a 24-man commando unit, adding that six of the attackers had suffered injuries.

A further three members of the government forces also suffered injuries, he added.

The incident came just hours after a visit to the former French territory by China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, who met President Mahamat Déby and other senior officials.