this is bbc news. the headlines at apm: a woman has died in the centre of wolverhampton after being hit by falling debris, as storm doris brings high winds and driving rain across britain. the latest storms have caused major travel disruption, with flights cancelled, and falling trees affecting rail and road journeys. net migration falls to its lowest level in more than two years, but it's still well above the government's target. prisons are to become places of rehabilitation as well as punishment under radical new proposals. iraqi forces seize mosul airport from so—called islamic state after a four—hour battle. in the next hour, we'll hear about new life—saving technology. wa ke wake up, the house is on fire at! safety experts say a voice, rather than a beep, in a smoke alarm

is much more likely to wake up the children. and, a bbc investigation finds a driver who is still legally on the road with 62 points on their licence. tens of thousands of others have more than 12. good afternoon, and welcome to bbc news. a woman has been killed as storm doris continues to batter parts of the uk with winds of up to 100 mph. ambulance staff said the woman suffered serious head injuries after being hit by a piece of debris in wolverhampton city centre. meanwhile, about 2,700 homes and businesses are still without power in northern ireland. that's down from more than 20,000 that were plunged into darkness when the storm hit.

trees and branches falling onto overhead electricity lines are the main cause of the disruption. there have also been power cuts in scotland, where heavy snow is causing chaos on the roads. and in england, homes in sheffield, lincolnshire and cheshire are without power. let's go to wolverhampton, where, as we heard, a woman died when debris fell onto the street. sarah bishop is there for us. sarah, do we know exactly what happened? well, we still have no official confirmation or any statement from the police yet. but it is looking increasingly from what we are hearing and seeing on the ground behind us that this woman was hit by a huge piece of wood. if you look over my shoulder, where that clump of police officers and firemen are, there is a health and safety man from the executive. they are about to retrieve the piece of wood now. it is about three foot long and

about a foot wide. it came down on top of herjust as she was outside starbucks coffee shop at about iiam this morning. we have had a statement from starbucks this afternoon in which they say they have been shocked and saddened by this terrible incident, as they describe it. they say they are helping police with this investigation. what we are hearing on the ground, and as yet it has to be confirmed by the police, is that this was part of a much larger structure that was on that building, that big brick building, behind the glass behind me. itjust literally blew off in the wind. some of it came down on this poor woman here. some other part of it, other debris, came further down. all this afternoon the fire service have been up afternoon the fire service have been up on the roots down here on dudley street fixing up masonry that has been loose and anything else that could possibly come down and injure people. at the moment, though, we have still no official idea of who

this woman was. i have heard anecdotally that she was a young woman, possibly in her late 20s. but the police are expecting to be releasing her identity in about the next half—hour. releasing her identity in about the next half-hour. and it looks pretty blustery still where you are. but obviously when this happened, the winds were very high indeed? yes, i mean who is to say how high they we re mean who is to say how high they were at the time, but we are hearing reports of 80, 90 mph. some of the buildings down here are quite old. some of them perhaps not as well looked after as you might imagine, not as well maintained. it seems that this was a really tragic accident. this woman perhaps shopping, probably local. just having something come down on top of her head, she suffered serious head and rees and was confirmed dead at the scene. thanks, sarah bishop. -- serious head injuries. we've also been speaking to our correspondent fiona trott, who's at new brighton on merseyside where there have been reports of injuries and travel disruption.

it is still choppy on the mersey at the moment. we are looking out towards the port of liverpool, which is closed. we have had gusts of 100 mph. that is why, it is a safety reason, there is no business there today. the whole of the coastline has been battered, as you know. really there is a lot of travel disruption in the north—west region. at manchester airport there are some cancellations today. iceland air flight was trying today. iceland air flight was trying to come in to land earlier at the airport. the pilot had to declare an emergency. it took a couple of attem pts emergency. it took a couple of atte m pts to emergency. it took a couple of attempts to land that plane. so, cancellations there today. cancellations on the isle of man, too. on the trains there are cancellations, disruptions or local regional services. also the west coast main line. but on the roads, the north—west motorway policing unit is asking people not to travel.

there are some closures on the m6, on the m 56. other major routes have been affected by falling trees. and that has caused casualties in the region, too. we heard about a man in his 60s in the crosby area who was hit by a falling tree. he had to be treated by paramedics. a woman in huyton has been injured when a tree fell on her car. we are hearing of casualties here in the region. but really the picture at the moment is severe travel disruption. people are being advised not to go out and travel today. fiona trott reporting from merseyside. 0ur weather forecaster helen willets told us more about the path of storm doris and its impact so far. probably the most vicious we have had so far this year. i say so far because we have a few months yet to run the digitally. we are only up to the d on named storms. which parts

of the country is it particularly hitting? it has been a double-edged sword with the snow in scotland. there is still a few hours across the higher parts of scotland, north—east england. there is an amber warning for the snow. 0bviously amber warning for the snow. obviously we have been seeing all of the disruption that has been caused by the severe gales. it is unusual to get severe gales inland, which is what we are seeing today. it is unusual to get girls and land, so mike —— let alone severe gales. the amber warning 1 ;.ggr.;;i 7 . é ? we ié had . é ééz? we ié had storm force winds around some of the coasts. we still have a few hours to come. it is quite a nasty storm. where has it come from? it developed across the atlantic in time with the jet stream. we talked all through january, it was a dry month, we didn't have the jet stream. we had the zonal flow with the high—level winds and the jet stream. it has

engaged with the energy way across the atlantic. you can see it here, the atlantic. you can see it here, the big lump heading for the uk. it is heading for europe after that. there could be consequences in scandinavia and the low countries, it is not just scandinavia and the low countries, it is notjust ourselves. it is almost out in the north sea now. we have had some exceptional gusts of wind, really. you would normally see them ina wind, really. you would normally see them in a storm across north wales, but to see it inland across city areas is pretty unusual. you can see we have still got that amber warning i have talked about, there is one for the wind and one for the snow, it is still stirring in the north. i hope that by the time we get to this evening's shallot we will be seeing the worst of it out of the way. u nfortu nately the worst of it out of the way. unfortunately it is heading to germany, they have amber and red warnings in germany, the loans and poland. by this time this morning it will be right across western side of russia, it is moving so quickly. helen willetts. we will have the latest weather forecast at 430 by.

—— at 4:30pm. net migration to the uk has dropped to 273,000 in the year to september. the fall is the first time net migration has dipped below 300,000 in two years, and the lowest level recorded since june 2014. but it is still well above the government's target figure of under 100,000. earlier, i spoke to our home affairs correspondent danny shaw, and he told me what the office of national statistics thought of the figures they've released. the figures are not statistically significant. the reason for that is because it is based on a survey. the survey has a margin of error, which means that they fall of 49,000 on their estimate is not something you can read very much into. however, it is politically significant. politically significant because the government has got this target to get net migration down to below 100,000. and these figures indicate that at last it is going on the

right direction, although it is still a long way off. it is also significant politically because these are the first figures which really ta ke these are the first figures which really take quite a bit of data from after brexit. and there will be some who might say, well, this shows that people are not so willing to come to the uk because of the eu referendum vote or that they are leaving in numbers. so there may be some significant spread into that. although i think it is too early days to draw any further conclusions. we have been asking the home secretary, amber rudd, for her views. this is what she told us stop the eu migration is largely stable. the fact is that some polls are going back is a long—term trend. at the moment we have open immigration with the eu members, freedom of movement, so they can come and go as they want. i don't see any particularly significant change within eu migration. the really big change will be when we leave the eu as we can make the choice ourselves what level of immigration we want to have, which is what we are seeing in

non—eu immigration. have, which is what we are seeing in non-eu immigration. what about the number of people applying to be british citizens. how do you interpret those figures? these are interesting, they are firm figures, not based on survey data. what they show is that the number of eu nationals, citizens from eu countries living in the uk, who are applying for residents, permanent residence cards, which they are entitled to do after five years, has rocketed in the past year. in 2016, 60 5000 people from eu countries plus three other european countries that are members of the european economic area were granted permanent residence cards. these are not cards that they have to have. you are automatically entitled to stay in britain after five years if you are from the eu. but i think it is a sign that eu citizens are anxious about their status, and they want to confirm with the authorities and show that they are entitled to be here. having a card like that will

allow them to do so. there has also been an increase in the number of eu set is as who have been granted uk citizenship, which they can apply for after six years. danny shaw reporting. john lewis is to cut more than 380 jobs as part of a company restructuring. but it says it will also be creating a similar number of newjobs. the changes all relate to the company's home fittings and catering teams. john lewis says the reorganisation will create more efficiency, and ultimately create more rewarding roles for its staff. the murderer of the children's author helen bailey has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of her killing. the judge said ian stewart would have to spend at least 34 years behind bars, saying it was, "difficult to imagine a more heinous crime". stewart drugged and suffocated helen bailey before throwing her body into a cesspit hidden under the garage of their hertfordshire home. ministers are calling it the biggest reform of prisons in england and wales for a generation. for the first time, the government will state in black and white that

a key purpose of prison is to reform offenders as well as to punish them. at the heart of the changes will be dealing with drugs and violence in prisons, and also cutting re—offending rates. here's our home affairs correspondent, daniel sandford. the last year has been one of the worse for prisons since the 1990s. as the staff cuts of five years ago started to bite and phones and drugs flooded in, violence soared.