Good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. An amber weather warning has been issued for much of england and wales as heavy snow continues to cause disruption for travellers across the uk. At heathrow airport, over 100 flights have been cancelled while a further 50 flights were also cancellations at sta nsted. They are warning of further delays into this evening although the ru nway into this evening although the runway there we are told opened again at lunchtime. Birmingham international, east midlands and Belfast International airports have also all been affected. A number of motorways have been covered in snow with police asking people to travel only if absolutely necessary. Electricity supplier sse says up to 2a,000 homes in oxfordshire, berkshire and wiltshire are without power. Elesewhere, a p 0 ferry bound for dover carrying more than 300 people ran aground in high winds at the port of calais in northern france. Officials say no one on board vessel was injured. Lee milner reports now on the impact the bad weather is having. This was the scene on the m25 in buckinghamshire today. Heavy snow brought motorists to a standstill. In llangollen in wales there was no chance of people getting anywhere today. This is by far the worst ive ever seen. Its probably the worst snow ive ever seen, to be honest, certainly about a foot deep around and still coming in. The rac says it is currently dealing with five breakdowns a minute and expecting around 7500 by the end of the day. With ten to 20 centimetres falling in some parts of the uk, gritters have been replaced with ploughs in areas like redditch in worcestershire. As snow continues to fall, the met office has issued an amber weather warning mainly for the east of england, West Midlands and wales. Passengers at birmingham and other uk airports are being warned about delays and cancellations. 20 flights have already been cancelled from sta nsted. Flying over wales it could be a scene from the snowman, a thick coating of white right across the mountains and lakes. For these children in the peak district, finally a chance to play in a winter wonderland. I like it because where we live we never get snow, it is just sleety. I like snow because you can make snow angels and snowmen and i find it really fun to do. For many it is a time for fun and enjoyment, but with more snow on the way, more disruption is inevitable. Leigh milner, bbc news. Ara reporter has been at east midlands airport which has now reopened after being closed for some hours. It has been a miserable day for people flying to and from airports in the midlands, both Birmingham Airport and the east midlands airport have been closed for the majority of the day. Here, the situation has improved and earlier, Birmingham Airport opened but both have warned of a backlog of cancelled flights meaning there will be delays. Here you can see the queue of people waiting to find out what will happen. 0ne queue of people waiting to find out what will happen. One of the passengers who has been affected is daniel who is originally from spain but lives in sheffield. You knew about the weather situation and you ta ke about the weather situation and you take extra precautions. Last night we arranged a hotel and we spent the night there to make sure we were here in the morning just to see what happens. We have been checking for updates, our flight was at ten past five, nothing has been said until around a quarter to four that the flight had around a quarter to four that the flight had been delayed. All of the flights there have been warnings and notifications, but not ours, ours ke pt notifications, but not ours, ours kept saying everything was fine. And then ata kept saying everything was fine. And then at a quarter to four, after the security checks, we got told it was cancelled. By the time we had been cancelled, other passengers, from other companies, i think it was thompson or another airline were getting people onto the plane to set off so we are not sure, no one has said anything, we are guessing where we had to go and we have justjoined a queue for ryanair. Someone said it would be three hours, we expected to be at least three or four hours. Despite all that preparation and being here the day before and ready to travel because of the weather, you have been delayed and you do not know when you will be flying, do you think it will be tomorrow . We have iio think it will be tomorrow . We have no idea. No one has said anything, iio no idea. No one has said anything, no one from ryanair has approached us. No one from ryanair has approached us. We just have joined the queue, iio us. We just have joined the queue, no one has said anything. You must field but pretty frustrated. We are. We have things to go to tomorrow in spain. We dont know what will happen. We might get a refund, which is not good for us. Thank you and the best of luck, i hope you get back. Both airports have apologised to passengers for the disruption and both have said they are expecting to stay open all night. Here they are expecting to stay open overnight despite more snowfall predicted over the next few hours but the advice is to check your airline and check the website before you travel. Our reporter at the east midlands airport. The advice is do not start your journey until you airport. The advice is do not start yourjourney until you know or you are told that your flight is going ahead. That does not include being cancelled as you get to the airport, conditions can change. I should bring you an update, i mentioned sta nsted, we bring you an update, i mentioned stansted, we had a statementjust before the top of the hour, about eight or nine minutes ago from the airport press office saying they do not have an exact number of flights that have been cancelled but they think it is around 50 today and there may yet be some further cancellations this evening. It said passengers should check their status with the airline before travelling and if their flight is cancelled then they should not travel to sta nsted. Then they should not travel to stansted. That then they should not travel to sta nsted. That is then they should not travel to stansted. That is the current situation. Stansted stansted. That is the current situation. Sta nsted has stansted. That is the current situation. Stansted has been fairly majorly disrupted but the runway did open at quarter past 12 having been closed since just before nine oclock this morning. 0ur correspondentjoe lynam has been following the impact of todays weather. I spoke to him a little earlier and he gave this update. Lets start with heathrow airport, europes busiest airport, still. It is still functioning, still very much working but there are severe delays now. A viewer messaged me with some video that he shot in the course of the last hour or so from the inside of heathrow terminal 2, you can see planes waiting to take off, as it were. He also reported major queues for restaurants, because people dont know when their flights are going to take off as a result of the delays. Heres the real issue, it is not necessarily the airport which is, as you can see, an issue per se, but it is people getting to the airport which is the problem, and maybe perhaps missing their flights because it is taking them that little bit longer to get to the airport. And as a result, they might need to rebook or get another flight or a later flight or something later during the week. The ba policy as always is rebook or refund if they cant get an appropriate flight suitably, if the airline had cancelled it. As for luton airport, it shut its runway down in the course of the morning, briefly, to try and clear the runway. The same was the case for stansted, not far up in essex, it too had to shut the runway down temporarily to clear the runway of snow. It appears as if the heavy snow is turning to more slush and wetness and as a result, people should be able to get things back to normal. In terms of. There have been snow clouds over some airports which is a real sign of the seasonal conditions. We can see some of that from heathrow right now. But practicalities of this for airports, you said the runways are still wet, the surfaces are wet now that temperatures have risen a bit and the snow had melted. How big a problem will that be tonight and tomorrow morning, potentially . Thats the real issue, the backlog. Because if, for example. And also ice. Ice, if it freezes again, yes. But focus on the logistical side first, 119 flights were cancelled at heathrow this morning. They are not giving me a numberfrom noon onwards, we are nowjust after three oclock, it could double, who knows. Those people will need to be put on later flight the next day, that is the backlog issue. As for the meteorological issue of that slush freezing overnight, that again poses problems for the airport but they are well used to dealing with these things. Presumably this is not a unique set of circumstances, comparatively mild conditions in terms of other heavy snowfalls weve seen in previous years, who knows what the rest of the winter will bring. Are they able to do things like keeping surface temperature raised, to try and ensure runways stay clear, when you have got dropping temperatures overnight . That would be a huge cost. You have heard of undersoil heating, but under runway heating is possible but very expensive. A lot of friends in continental europe, especially Northern Europe, sweden, germany, etc, and Central United states and canada, deal with this every single year and scoff when we talk about snowmageddon when we get a few centimetres of snow. And of course, in north america, they have hundreds and hundreds of little airports dotted all over the country. And in chicago, 0hair is one of the busiest airports in the world, i think the busiest in north america, and every winter between november and february, they get this and flights still take off. They kind of scoff at us. The latest on what is happening at heathrow. To keep up to date with all the latest for your area go to the bbc news website and tune into your bbc local Radio Station or indeed bbc radio wales or bbc radio ulster. And well have full weather forecasts on this channel every half hour stay with us. Max clifford, the celebrity publicist who was jailed for multiple sex offences, has died in prison at the age of 7a. Clifford was jailed three years ago for assaulting teenagers as young as fifteen. He was in the middle of an eight year term, and its thought he died of a heart attack. Nick higham reports on a career that hid years of sexual predation. The former Record Company publicist was britains best known pr man. The king of the kiss and tell. He gave sensational stories to the tabloids, while keeping other clients out of the papers. In 1989, he fed a story about Pamella Bordes and her Numerous Affairs with influential men to the news of the world. But he had another client, a brothel madam. As far as my involvement was, it was really a cover up for something else. There was a story involving lots of stars which i was trying to keep out. Then there was the cabinet minister david mellor, whod had an affair with actress antonia de sancha. Angered, he claimed, by mellors hypocrisy, clifford took her on as a client. Once again, the most salacious detail in the story was made up. Mellor hadnt been wearing a chelsea strip. He advised faria alam, the former fa employee who had affairs with the chief executive and sven goran eriksson, the england manager. East anglia . Thats abroad and he represented jade goody when the big brother contestant was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It was the way she wanted it. Her life, her death, in the spotlight, because she wanted it to be in the spotlight. Whenjimmy saviles dark side emerged, max clifford was an obvious person to comment. I was aware of allegations, but no one ever came to me and said, jimmy savile abused me. But in december 2012, he was himself arrested. In all, he faced 11 charges of indecent assault stretching back decades. The allegations in respect of which i have been charged are completely false. Very upsetting, very distressing, but completely false. Ive never indecently assaulted anyone in my life. And this will become clear during the course of the proceedings. It wasnt true. Max clifford, it emerged that his trial, was a liar and a hypocrite himself. He was convicted on eight charges. He promised his victimsjobs orfame. Instead, he made them his sexual playthings. Hed always been arrogant and manipulative. Now he stood revealed as a sexual predator as well. The career and death of max clifford, the former celebrity publicist who died yesterday after suffering a heart attack. His death was reported this morning. Our Home Affairs Correspondent danny shaw covered Max Cliffords trial i spoke to him a little earlier about his run ins with the man. He came across as a really arrogant man. And that arrogance was shown just a few days before the trial started, when i put in a call to his office with a query about the case going ahead. And max clifford himself called me back. And tried to kind of charm his way on the phone, dismissing one of the allegations saying, oh, itsjust a load of nonsense or whatever. And that was kind of how he played it through the trial. But as well as that, there was this really hard, steely, intimidating side of him. And when he was convicted, and he came outside court because he hadnt been sentenced yet, and there was a whole group of photographers and people were throwing questions at him. And i asked, one of the questions i asked, is it time to apologise to the victims . And hejust turned round and he stared at me as though he could intimidate me. And if that was just a little bit of what some of the women went through who were the victims of him, that gave you an idea of the type of man he was. What he had a talent for was being able to play off one potential tabloid story against another, didnt he . So, ill give you something if you keep this story off the front pages. And for a long time hejuggled those things quite successfully. Yes, he did. I mean, he was an expert at that, atjuggling those particular interests, getting stories that were favourable into the papers to keep other stories out, keeping newspapers sweet with a supply of different stories and so on. And he was the person you went to if you had a story to tell or a story you wanted to keep out or you wanted to further your career, it was max clifford that you went to. But what we heard at the trial was a succession of aspiring actresses and models were put in touch with clifford. You know, they went into his office and were then told to strip. He wanted to look at them. And then sexual favours. And some of the most disgusting sexual acts took place. And some of them were just left traumatised by this behaviour, thinking, is this completely normal . Is this what ive let myself in for . It was a real revelation. Did he ever show any sign of remorse . Not one sign of remorse. Not one sign of remorse at all, right throughout the whole trial. And he was still appealing against his conviction is at the time of his death. In fact, i think a hearing was scheduled for the next few months. So he was clearly protesting his innocence right to his death. Danny shaw, our Home Affairs Correspondent on max clifford whose death has been announced this weekend. The foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has left iran without an agreement on the Early Release of the british iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari ratcliffe. Mrjohnson met iranian president , Hassan Rouhani this morning where its believed he continued to press for her release. Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffes husband says his wifes expected appearance in court today to face possible further charges was postponed as a result of mrjohnsons visit. Richard ratcliffe described this as undoubtedly a good sign. Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe is serving a five year sentence over allegations of plotting to overthrow the iranian government, allegations which she denies. Their daughter has now been kept separate from her mother while she is in prison and her husband is in the uk and it is a difficult time for the family and her has and mr johnson will be hoping to reassure the iranians of better relations with the uk in the future. Well our Diplomatic CorrespondentJames Robbins told us about the meeting between president rouhani and Boris Johnson. They spent nearly an hour together. Now, borisjohnsons very deliberately said nothing publicly before leaving iran. This is so sensitive. But the Foreign Office put out a statement saying that they had discussed the full range of issues, including banking matters, and our concerns about the consular cases of dual nationals. Now, banking matters could include an outstanding debt of £400 million owed by britain to iran. Britain says the money is ready to be paid, and they are only waiting to make sure that they can do it in a way that is compliant with international sanctions. Neither side is linking the money in any way with this appeal for prisoner releases. But nevertheless, you can see that there is a possibility for progress, and thats what the Foreign Office say they are going to try and build on. James robinson there. In the last half an hour at james James Robinson there. In the last half an hour atjames has been speaking to Nazanin Zaghari ratcliffes husband richard about the developments. Tell me about the developments. Tell me about the developments. Tell me about the meeting but mostly what the foreign secretary was able to say. He was very clear and committed and said that seeing nazanin was a top priority and he had raised the case with everyone he had met, he did not promise he would get out tomorrow but he said it was the top priority and he was doing what he could and they came away much more reassured that he said that he would be meeting the president tomorrow and raising the case strongly and, if you look at the consequences of his meetings, she was not in court today. It is not the same as it all being over but it is definitely a positive step. What does nazanin think . She was relieved when i spoke to heron think . She was relieved when i spoke to her on the telephone. More upbeat. It is ongoing, she is up and down and there are moments where she still needs reassurance from me that it will be ok but she talked about