Authorities in California have begun evacuations as concerns grow about potential mudslides in the wildfire-scarred foothills across the southern part of the state.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo and Tulare counties because of the extreme weather conditions.

Officials ordered evacuation of 232 homes in La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, because of forecasts of more heavy rains on already saturated mountainsides.

San Diego police evacuated dozens of homes and businesses but no structural damage was reported in the city, said Lt Andra Brown. A commuter rail station was closed in the city’s Sorrento Valley area due to heavy rains. About a dozen homes were evacuated in a cul-de-sac south of downtown.

A mudslide closed one street in the La Jolla area of San Diego. Farther inland in Riverside, a surge of water swept through a homeless camp near the banks of the Santa Ana River.

Rebecca Truver, 45, was in her tent when her dog and her cat started acting strangely. “They knew something was happening,” Truver said of her dog and cat. “Then all of a sudden the water came through up to my knees.”

“We’ll keep our fingers crossed, but the more rain that comes, the possibility of mudslides is definitely real,” said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County sheriff’s office, which has rescued nine people from the flooding in the past 24 hours.

“We’ve been lucky so far, but I’m not sure how much longer the luck will hold out,” he said.

For all the perils of the torrential rains, there was a silver lining: The water is expected to help ease the effects of years of drought. Thursday is expected to be dry, with sunshine. There will be light rain on Christmas Day in parts of California.

The immediate concern, however, was the impact of the expected downpours, particularly in areas where wildfires stripped hillsides of the vegetation that keeps soil in place and burns up dead leaves and other debris that act like a sponge.

The United States has approved travel sanctions on Laurent Gbagbo and 30 of his allies as pressure mounted on the incumbent Ivory Coast leader to step down following last month’s presidential election that the international community says he lost.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency said that some 6,200 people already have fled the West African country’s post-election violence, and regional leaders called on Gbagbo to “yield power with dignity without further delay”.

The rebuke from neighbouring nations carries added weight because Gbagbo’s representatives have dismissed similar calls from former coloniser France and other Western nations as foreign interference.

The regional bloc, Ecowas, also said Gbagbo’s weekend demand that thousands of UN peacekeepers leave the volatile country “would further heighten tensions and worsen the plight of the vulnerable”.

The UN certified Alassane Ouattara as the winner of the November 28 vote, and Gbagbo on Saturday ordered the nearly 9,000 peacekeepers to leave immediately. The UN has refused to do so, and a Security Council resolution adopted unanimously on Monday has extended the force’s mandate until June 30.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on Tuesday that Ivory Coast faces “a real risk” of a return to civil war.

He said the UN peacekeeping force in Ivory Coast has “confirmed that mercenaries, including freelance former combatants from Liberia, have been recruited to target certain groups in the population”.

He said forces loyal to Gbagbo are also obstructing the movement of UN personnel and their operations and called on member states to do what they can to supply the UN mission.

Vince Cable is clinging on to his position in the Government after being humiliatingly rebuked by the Prime Minister for claiming to have “declared war” on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire.

David Cameron allowed Mr Cable to keep his post as Business Secretary but made no attempt to hide his displeasure, stripping the Liberal Democrat minister of responsibility for media regulation and branding his comments – caught on tape by undercover reporters – as “totally unacceptable and inappropriate”.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph has revealed that a string of Lib Dem ministers had voiced unease about coalition policies in comments recorded by reporters posing as constituents.

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore reportedly branded the hike in university tuition fees “a car crash, a train wreck”, while business minister Ed Davey said he was “gobsmacked” by the decision to strip child benefit from higher-rate taxpayers, and pensions minister Steve Webb acknowledged Lib Dems were being damaged by appearing “too cosy” with Tories.

Labour leader Ed Miliband called for Mr Cable’s dismissal, accusing him of breaching the ministerial code requirement for members of the Government to show objectivity in their decisions.

“Vince Cable should have gone. Having apparently breached the ministerial code and having said what he said, he shouldn’t be remaining in office,” said Mr Miliband.

Conservative ministers were reported to be complaining privately that they would be sacked for making a similar gaffe.

The Prime Minister ruled that Mr Cable would play no further role in News Corp’s bid to take a majority stake in the broadcaster BSkyB, while his responsibilities for media policy and competition go to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

A contrite Mr Cable said in a statement that he fully accepted the decision by Mr Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. “I deeply regret the comments I made and apologise for the embarrassment that I have caused the Government,” he said.

Mr Cable appears to have survived largely because Mr Clegg could not afford to lose another senior Liberal Democrat minister from the coalition so soon after David Laws was forced to resign over his expenses. But he is likely to emerge from the controversy as a seriously diminished figure, with Labour branding him a “lame duck” minister who has lost all credibility.

Transport operators are under severe pressure to get the Christmas getaway back on track after days of disruption caused by the snow.

Heathrow Airport’s second runway reopened on Tuesday night, raising hopes for the thousands of stranded air passengers – many of whom have spent uncomfortable nights in the terminals. It plans to run around two-thirds of flights on Wednesday but travellers were warned not to expect services to return to normal at once.

Forecasters, meanwhile, said a thaw was unlikely in the coming days as cold weather continued.

Prime Minister David Cameron expressed his “frustration” at the length of the disruption at Heathrow, while airlines accused BAA of failing to have enough de-icer to cope with the situation.

Speaking at a Downing Street news conference, Mr Cameron said: “If it’s understandable that Heathrow had to close briefly, I’m frustrated on behalf of all those affected that it’s taking so long for the situation to improve.”

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief executive of airline BMI, told The Times the Heathrow situation was “completely unacceptable”. He said: “BAA was not prepared. It did not have enough de-icing fluid.”

The EU Commission also slammed Europe’s air travel disruption as unacceptable and urged airports to “get serious” about better planning for bad weather.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews warned people not to expect normal services immediately and urged them to check before going to the airport. He also pledged to investigate how the situation was dealt with and why it took so long to clear snow from aircraft – but only after the “short-term” aim of getting passengers to where they needed to be had been achieved.

Rail travellers have also been affected. The East Coast line, one of the country’s main railway arteries, is returning to a “near normal” service after being suspended on Tuesday after hundreds of people were evacuated from stricken trains following damage to overhead power lines at Huntingdon, near Peterborough.

Andy Ratcliffe, forecaster at MeteoGroup, the Press Association’s weather division, said Heathrow and Gatwick could expect temperatures of 1-2C and a possibility of heavy snow early on in Wales, East Anglia and the Midlands.

The NHS risks being inundated with flu victims because of a “shockingly low” vaccine uptake, a senior doctor has warned.

Prof Steve Field, the former chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, also said it was “ill-advised” not to have had a public awareness campaign about the need for seasonal jabs.

He was speaking to The Guardian newspaper after the Department of Health revealed 302 people were in intensive care with flu.

It is unclear how many have swine flu but they are expected to be in the majority.

Prof Field told the Guardian: “Rates of uptake are shockingly low. It was ill-advised not to have the public awareness campaign on seasonal flu jab uptake that we usually have, because we knew that the public and healthcare professionals were likely to become complacent after last year’s swine flu pandemic wasn’t the serious attack on the country that we thought it could be.

“With the added winter pressures on the NHS, we need NHS staff to be vaccinated as soon as possible, so that they can continue working, and we also need pregnant women and people who are vulnerable to have a flu jab that includes the swine flu vaccine as soon as possible.”

As of Monday this week, there were 24 children under five in critical care with confirmed or suspected flu, another 12 aged five to 15, and 243 in the 16 to 64 age group. There were also 23 people aged over 65 in critical care. So far this flu season, 14 people have died with confirmed swine flu and another three from flu type B. Last year, 474 people died from swine flu.

Professor Dame Sally Davies, interim chief medical officer for England, said this season’s flu was “just winter flu” but with swine flu as the dominant strain.

“We have not got a pandemic,” she said, adding that a vaccine was available and there were levels of immunity in the community. However, she urged at-risk groups to get themselves protected.

To date, fewer patients than last year in at-risk groups, including pregnant women, have come forward for the seasonal flu jab, which also protects against swine flu.

Buildings wobbled and the ground rumbled after an earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale shook Cumbria and neighbouring counties.

Residents were woken up and sent scurrying outside when the tremor struck just before 11pm in Coniston, lasting for up to a minute.

It was felt in places across the county and as far away as Lancashire, south-west Scotland, Northumberland and the Isle of Man. No damage or injuries have yet been reported.

Peter Kelly, owner of the Yewdale Hotel in Coniston, said: “We felt the earthquake. It probably lasted about 30 seconds. It was quite noticeable. “We were just closing up the bar with a few residents in and we just felt like a bang and then a rumbling but we couldn’t decide what it was.

Hotelier Alan Robertson, who was in his 30-bed hotel in Eskdale, near Whitehaven, described how the entire building shook.

“I was watching TV and there was this sort of really loud rumble. Then the entire building shook,” he said. “I ran out of the front door, only to be confronted by my guests running out of their part of the house. We couldn’t believe it.”

Data from the British Geological Survey (BGS) showed the location of the quake at Coniston, with a depth of 8.9 miles. The rumble was also flagged up by the US Geological Survey.

BGS Head of Seismology Dr Brian Baptie said: “We get an earthquake of this size somewhere in the UK roughly every 12-18 months. Damage is very unlikely.

“An earthquake of this size and depth might be felt up to 80-100 km away. The earthquake has probably made windows and doors rattle and small objects might have been displaced.”

Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary said the force also had reports of people feeling a tremor in Dalbeattie.

The United Nations is preparing for the possibility of 2.8 million people being displaced if fighting breaks out over southern Sudan’s independence referendum, according to an internal report.

Just over two weeks remain before voters in the south decide whether to remain with the Khartoum-based north or – more likely – to secede and create the world’s newest country.

Tensions are high over the vote. Aircraft from the northern Sudanese military have bombed areas in the south or near disputed north-south borders in recent weeks.

The UN report, obtained by The Associated Press, said both the northern and southern militaries had been rearming and that many southerners possessed guns and light weapons.

Both militaries have reinforced their positions along the border in recent months, hindering aid work, the report said. If either the north or the south does not accept the results of the January 9 referendum, the result could be a “war-like” situation, it said.

“A deterioration of the north-south relationship, as well as tensions within northern and southern Sudan could lead to large-scale outflow of people to neighbouring countries,” said the UN’s humanitarian contingency plan, stamped “Not for wider distribution”.

The north and south ended a 20-year-plus civil war with the signing of a 2005 peace accord that also guaranteed the south the right to hold an independence referendum. Some two million people died in the war, which left southerners scarred and suspicious of Khartoum’s Muslim Arab rulers.

In Sudan’s capital Khartoum, the leaders of Egypt and Libya met Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and southern Sudanese president Salva Kiir to discuss the future of Sudan after the vote.

If worst-case violence scenarios play out after January, the UN plan anticipates an estimated 2.8 million internally displaced people within Sudan and an additional 3.2 million people who may be affected by a breakdown in trade and social services.

The hardest hit populations would be those living along Sudan’s disputed and militarised 1,300-mile north-south border, as well as an estimated 800,000 southerners living in and around Khartoum who would “flee or (be) forced to move to southern Sudan as a result of violence and insecurity”.

US President Barack Obama has locked up enough Republican votes to ratify a new arms control treaty with Russia that will cap the former Cold War foes’ nuclear warheads and restart on-site weapons inspections.

Eleven US Senate Republicans joined Democrats in a 67-28 proxy vote to wind up the debate and hold a final tally. They broke ranks with the Senate’s top two Republicans and were poised to give President Obama a victory on his top foreign policy priority.

“We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons,” Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry, a Democrat, said after the vote.

Ratification requires two-thirds of those voting in the senate and Democrats needed at least nine Republicans to overcome the opposition of minority leader Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl, the party’s pointman on the pact.

The Obama administration has made arms control negotiations the centrepiece of resetting its relationship with Russia and the treaty was critical to any rapprochement.

Momentum for the treaty accelerated earlier on Tuesday, the seventh day of debate, when Lamar Alexander, the number three Republican in the Senate, endorsed the accord.

The treaty will leave the US “with enough nuclear warheads to blow any attacker to kingdom come”, Mr Alexander said on the senate floor, adding: “I’m convinced that Americans are safer and more secure with the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) treaty than without it.”

Mr Obama has insisted the treaty is a national security imperative that will improve co-operation with Russia, an argument loudly echoed by the nation’s military and foreign policy leaders, former presidents George Bush senior and Bill Clinton and six Republican secretaries of state.

In a fresh appeal for ratification, defence secretary Robert Gates said the treaty would “strengthen our leadership role in stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons and provide the necessary flexibility to structure our strategic nuclear forces to best meet national security interests”.

Conservatives against the accord – among them possible Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty – argue that the treaty would restrict US options on a missile defence system to protect America and its allies and lacks sufficient procedures to verify Russia’s adherence.

A small earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale has shaken Cumbria, geologists said.

Data from the British Geological Survey showed the location of the quake in the Coniston area 5.6 miles south-west of Ambleside and with a depth of 8.9 miles. It lasted up to 20 seconds, according to people in the area.

Hotelier Alan Robertson, who was in his 30-bed hotel in Eskdale, near Whitehaven, described how the entire building shook.

“I was watching TV and there was this sort of really loud rumble. Then the entire building shook,” he said. “I ran out of the front door, only to be confronted by my guests running out of their part of the house. We couldn’t believe it.”

The 36 year old, who had six guests at the Bower House Inn including a pregnant women, added: “The tremor must have last 15 or 20 seconds.

“It was sizeable enough to shake an old and well-established building. If I lived in a city, I would have assumed it was an explosion. I am still in shock. I can barely get my thoughts together.”

A spokesman for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service said: “We have had confirmed reports from officers around the county. It happened around half an hour ago. We felt it here in Cockermouth.

“We have had no requests from members of the public. At the moment, we don’t believe there is any structural damage.”

People who felt the tremor described the sensation with a flurry of online activity on Twitter: “Tremor in Ambleside..felt and heard a rumble,” one tweeted.

Another posted: “So it seems like we have just had an earthquake in Milnthorpe, doors rattling, house shook. Exciting…”