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Weather creates travel misery

BRITAIN’S bleak midwinter continued today with strong winds, floods and fallen trees causing chaos to travellers trying to get away for Christmas. On the roads, many major routes were flooded or blocked by fallen trees, with Kent, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Cornwall among the affected counties. In Dorset fire crews had to rescue 25 people trapped in their cars by flood water, while as many as 100,000 homes across the country were left without power.

Video: Exploring the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class

To coincide with the announcement that its new C-Class has entered production, Mercedes-Benz has released a video exploring its design. Featuring design chief Gordon Wagener and other key members of the team, the video explains where their inspiration came from and how they experimented with proportions during its development. While the dropping bodyside feature line is a key element of the exterior, it's also found inside the C-Class, where the typical Mercedes sports car interior is combined with the floating, vertical center console.

Four big pickups get low marks in crash tests

Four 2009 full-sized pickups got low marks in side-impact crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group for auto insurers. Crash protection is "poor" in crew-cab versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and Nissan Titan without side-impact airbags, according to test results the institute released on Wednesday. The Dodge Ram with standard side-impact airbags got only a "marginal" rating, the institute said.