Arsenal Co-Owner Is Now UK's Richest Man

Britain has a new richest man - Russian co-owner of Arsenal Football Club Alisher Usmanov has taken the top spot from the previous Rich List number one Lakshmi Mittal.

Mr Usmanov, who has a near-30% stake in Arsenal, is worth £13.3bn, putting him into the top spot of the 25th annual Sunday Times Rich List.

Researchers found the 1,000 richest people in Britain have wealth totalling almost £450bn.

There are now a record 88 billionaires among the country's wealthiest 1,000 individuals and families, up from 77 billionaires in 2012 and just nine in 1989.

The combined wealth of the top 200 people in the 2013 Sunday Times Rich List is £318.2bn, a more than eightfold rise on the £38bn for the combined wealth of the 200 people featured in the first Rich List in 1989.

In 1989, the Queen was Britain's richest person.

Russian businessman Mr Usmanov started off making plastic bags, but went on to found a business empire with numerous interests.

As well as Metalloinvest, the country's biggest iron ore producer, he owns a stake in mail.ru, the largest internet company, and has a big holding in MegaFon, a mobile phone operator that listed on the London and Moscow stock markets last year.

Uzbekistan-born Mr Usmanov, 59, also owns Sutton Place, the former Surrey home of the late oil baron J Paul Getty, as well as a £48m mansion in north London.

He shares a passion for sport with his wife, Irina Viner, 64, head coach of Russia's rhythmic gymnastics team, whom he met when he was a young fencer.

Second in the list is Ukrainian Len Blavatnik, the highest riser in the list in wealth terms.

Mr Blavatnik is now worth £11bn, an increase of £3.4bn on last year.

Odessa-born Mr Blavatnik, who owns Warner Music, received £2bn last month for his stake in TNK-BP, when company was sold to state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft.

After eight years at the top of the Sunday Times Rich List, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has dropped down to fourth place.

Mr Mittal is now only worth £10bn, making him the biggest faller in wealth terms.

The 40% stake Mr Mittal and his wife Usha hold in the steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal has plummeted from £28bn at its peak to £5.95bn.

The highest placed UK-born person in the 2013 Sunday Times Rich List is The Duke of Westminster, ranked eighth and worth £7.8bn. The Duke's interests are mainly in London land and property.

Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovic was fifth with £9.3bn.

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Queen Keeps Birthday Celebrations Low-Key

By Paul Harrison, Royal Correspondent

The Queen will celebrate her 87th birthday "in private" today, according to Buckingham Palace.

Her spokesperson added that the monarch would not remain in London to mark the occasion.

It is thought the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are staying at Windsor Castle, said to be their favourite home.

Queen Elizabeth II is the oldest serving monarch in British history, but as she begins her 62nd year on the throne, she is yet to be the longest serving.

Queen Victoria remains the longest serving monarch, ruling for 63 years and seven months.

But if she remains on the throne on September 9, 2015, the Queen will take her place.

The monarch has two birthdays - her actual birthday celebrated on April 21 and her official one in June, which is marked with the Trooping the Colour parade.

Despite her age, the Queen continues to conduct hundreds of public engagements, totalling 425 during her Diamond Jubilee year.

But there are signs the Queen is tailoring the type of public engagements she carries out to suit her age.

Last year, the Queen left all official overseas tours to younger members of her family and due to illness this year, cancelled her only planned overseas trip to Rome.

Suffering from symptoms of gastroenteritis in February this year, the Queen was forced to cancel a number of UK engagements before being admitted to the King Edward VII hospital overnight for treatment.

And while the 87-year-old takes it easy on her birthday, her grandson Prince Harry and granddaughter-in-law The Duchess of Cambridge today carry out official public duties.

Kate, a volunteer in the Scout Association, will attend the National Review of Queen's Scouts at Windsor Castle while Prince Harry will present winners' medals at the London Marathon.

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Measles Victim Died 'After He Was Sent Home'

The first victim to die in the measles outbreak in South Wales had been sent home from hospital, his mother has claimed.

Gareth Williams, 25, was found dead on Thursday morning at his home in the Port Tennant area of Swansea.

Initial tests revealed that Mr Williams, who is believed to have suffered from asthma, was infected with measles at the time of his death.

Further investigations are being undertaken by the Swansea Coroner to establish whether his death was due to measles or something else.

Mr Williams' mother, Angela Colfer, said he had been admitted to Swansea's Morriston Hospital after breaking out in red spots.

However, she said he had been released from hospital after several days because doctors thought he was over the worst of it.

More than 800 cases of measles have been reported in Swansea

Ms Colfer told the South Wales Evening Post: "He was covered in a rash, and what with the measles epidemic in Swansea we wanted to get him to hospital.

"He had been in Morriston Hospital for five or six days before he was sent home."

The claim came as hundreds more MMR jab vaccinations were administered over the weekend at emergency sessions at four hospitals around Swansea.

Thousands of children have received the MMR jab over the last three weeks amid rising concern at the rocketing rate of measles cases.

Mr Williams was treated at Morriston Hospital before his death

The headline rate rose to 808 on Thursday after 43 separate new cases of measles were recorded over a two-day period.

Up to 2,000 more children were vaccinated in school this week as efforts were targeted in communities most at risk.

With the pool of unprotected children reducing on a daily basis, hundreds have still turned out to hospital drop-in sessions.

Rapid vaccination teams at all four locations were well able to deal with the large numbers turning up.

Thousands of children missed out on MMR jabs from the late 1990s due to unfounded fears linking the vaccination with autism.

Despite the progress made in reaching thousands of unprotected children, the health board and Public Health Wales (PHW) are still urging those who have not been vaccinated to come forward.

They warn that people in the 10 to 18 age group, who missed out on the MMR jab in the past, are being hardest hit by the disease.

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Waterloo Good, But Not UK's Greatest Battle

Waterloo and the D-Day landings have lost the title of Britain's greatest battle to a vital - but lesser known - clash against the Japanese in World War Two.

The Battle of Imphal and the simultaneous Battle of Kohima saw British Empire troops fight Japanese forces in horrendous jungle conditions in northeast India in 1944.

Imphal/Kohima was picked over the more celebrated land battles in a contest organised by the National Army Museum in London.

Rorke's Drift in the 1879 Zulu War and the Battle of Aliwal in the Anglo-Sikh War in Punjab in 1846 brought up the rear.

"Great things were at stake in a war with the toughest enemy any British army has had to fight," historian Robert Lyman said of Imphal/Kohima.

Gurkhas supported by an M3 Grant tank advance along the Imphal/Kohima road

If Lieutenant General William Slim's army of British, Indian, Gurkha and African troops had lost, the consequences for the Allies would have been catastrophic, he said.

The criteria of the contest included the battles' political and historical impact, the challenges the troops faced, and the strategy and tactics employed.

Waterloo had topped an online poll which produced a list of 20 land battles fought since the English Civil War. The top five were then debated at the museum before going to an audience vote.

The winner was something of a surprise given the enduring prominence of Waterloo and D-Day/Normandy in Britain.

The troops who fought in India and Burma in World War Two called themselves The Forgotten Army.

Rorke's Drift saw just over 150 troops fight off up to 4,000 Zulu warriors

The Battle of Imphal/Kohima took place in 1944 in Nagaland when Japanese troops poured over the Burmese border to strike at India.

Fought over a vast area of jungle and mountain, it was marked by vicious hand-to-hand fighting.

The successful British defence meant they were then able to push into Burma and roll back the Japanese from mainland Asia.

"The victory was of a profound significance because it demonstrated categorically to the Japanese that they were not invincible," said Mr Lyman.

"This was to be very important in preparing the entire Japanese nation to accept defeat."

Saving Private Ryan depicted the US view of the Normandy landings

He ranked it with Midway, El Alamein and Stalingrad as the main turning point battles of World War Two.

His adversary in the debate, former Parachute Regiment Colonel Stuart Tootal, argued a strong case for the D-Day landings and subsequent Battle for Normandy against Nazi Germany in 1944.

Although movies such as Saving Private Ryan have highlighted the US role in the campaign, the operation was under the command of Britain's Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

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Nurses 'Drowning In Sea Of Paperwork'

Nurses are "drowning in a sea of paperwork" and spend much of their working hours doing admin, a survey reveals.

The poll by the Royal College of Nursing found its members, who work for a combined 14.3 million hours a week, are being hampered by bureaucracy.

Over four in five nurses (81%) said that having to complete non-essential paperwork prevented them from providing care.

Almost nine in 10 of the 6,000 nurses surveyed said the amount of non-essential paperwork such as filing, photocopying and ordering supplies, had increased in the last two years.

In February, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced he had commissioned the NHS Confederation to work with bodies to see how paperwork could be reduced.

"These figures prove what a shocking amount of a nurse's time is being wasted on unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy," said Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN.

"Yes, some paperwork is essential and nurses will continue to do this, but patients want their nurses by their bedside, not ticking boxes.

"We are encouraged that the Government has acknowledged this issue, and the ongoing review by the NHS Confederation is a step in the right direction, but urgent action is needed now."

Labour's shadow health minister Andrew Gwynne said: "David Cameron is cutting the NHS front line and wasting billions on a chaotic reorganisation, leaving hospitals to operate without enough staff. Now form-filling is taking nurses away from their patients for longer and longer.

"Under this Government, close to 5,000 nursing posts have been axed, with over 800 going in the last month alone.

"On understaffed wards, a nurse's time becomes increasingly precious - they must be free to care for patients. Ministers must stop the job losses and ensure all hospitals have enough staff to provide safe care."

Health minister Dr Dan Poulter said the coalition Government has significantly cut the amount of red tape in the NHS and is examining how to reduce bureaucracy further.

He added: "NHS staff need to be free to do what we were trained to do - look after patients, so patients not paperwork must be our NHS's priority."

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London Marathon: Tributes To Boston Victims

Thousands of runners at the London Marathon, including Olympic champion Mo Farah, observed 30 seconds of silence at the start of the race, which took place less than a week after the Boston attacks.

The poignant tribute was followed by applause as the runners gathered at the start line for the elite men's and mass race with large crowds lining the streets of the UK capital under heavy security.

Many of the 36,000 fun runners, athletes and fundraisers wore a black ribbon as a mark of respect to those affected by the attack.

Some had the name of the US city emblazoned on their vests, while some spectators held up banners saying "For Boston".

Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia won the men's race in , while Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya won the women's event.

The marathon has drawn thousands of people

Huge crowds turned out to watch the races on a glorious spring day in London despite concerns raised by the bomb attacks on the Boston Marathon.

"It was incredible, the amount of support, people coming out from everywhere, just cheering the whole way. Unbelievable," said a breathless Farah.

Prime Minister David Cameron wrote on Twitter : "Congratulations to the inspiring runners in the #LondonMarathon - a fantastic showcase for the city."

Prince Harry, who waited at the finish line on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace to hand out medals to the winners, said the large turnout was "fantastic" and "typically British".

He also paid tribute to Boston, saying: "The way that Boston has dealt with it has been absolutely remarkable.

"It's never going to get anyone down here, the great thing about the marathon is no matter what colour you are, or religion, no matter what nationality you are, everyone comes together to run a certain distance to raise money for amazing causes.

"I think that you can never that take away from people," he told the BBC.

Virgin London Marathon has pledged to donate £2 for every finisher to The One Fund Boston, which was set up to raise money for the victims of the explosions.

Three people were killed in Boston, including an eight-year-old boy, and over 170 injured, some seriously.

Priscah Jeptoo posing for photographers after winning the women's race

Following the attacks, hundreds of extra police were deployed in London - a 40% increase in the usual number of officers.

Authorities stressed the increased security was aimed at reassuring the public and was not a response to a specific threat.

Despite the sombre tributes and the increased police presence, the mood was a festive one, with spectators cheering the runners on and some competitors showing up in fancy dress.

"It means that runners are stronger than bombers," said Valerie Bloomfield, a 40-year-old participant from France.

Barbara Stephenson, charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in London, told Sky News the show of respect by London Marathon runners for the Boston victims underlined the "special relationship" between the two countries.

"We've had responses from Her Majesty the Queen, all through Twitter from the British people, and now we have got tens of thousands of London Marathon runners wearing a black ribbon in solidarity with the people of Boston."

Mo Farah says he overslept ahead of the race.

She went on to say that "it's moments like this when you know what the special relationship's really all about."

The winding route from Blackheath to Buckingham Palace took the runners past some of the capital's most famous landmarks.

Farah, the Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m champion, ran about half the race, stepping off the course at  the 13.1 mile mark near Tower Bridge.

He revealed before the event that he had overslept. "I'm late! I woke up late! I'm going to miss the bus!" he joked.

Paralympic star David Weir said he was disappointed with his fifth place in the men's wheelchair race.

Speaking near the finish line, the six-time London Marathon champion said: "It was a tough race, but I knew it was going to be tough after four months out.

"I just had to do my best, and that's what I did today."

The winners with Prince Harry and Richard Branson

Among the celebrities running this year were the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, and the singer Katherine Jenkins. Speaking on the finish line, Mr Balls said that the Chancellor, George Osborne, had sponsored him.

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Youth Crime Commissioner: No Further Action

No further action is to be taken against Paris Brown, formerly Britain's first youth crime commissioner, Kent Police have said.

The 17-year-old had been accused of racism and homophobia after making comments about gay people and others on Twitter when she was between 14 and 16.

Miss Brown became Britain's first Police and Crime Youth Commissioner after being awarded the £15,000-a-year job by Kent's Police and Crime Commissioner Ann Barnes.

On April 9, only a few days after being appointed to the role, she was forced to resign when details of her earlier tweets emerged after an expose by the Mail on Sunday.

A spokeswoman for Kent Police said today: "We have spoken to the CPS about our findings, and given them our view that this case does not pass the evidential threshold for prosecution.

"We will make no recommendations to them for charges and will take no further police action having discharged our duty to investigate."

"Whilst some of the language used is offensive, particularly the comments which derogatorily refer to particular social groups, we do not believe that in the context they are grossly offensive on a reasonable objective assessment considering intent."

Miss Brown, from Sheerness in Kent, was forced to issue a grovelling apology for the offence she caused.

She denied being anti-gay or racist, and said she is against taking drugs, insisting that a reference on Twitter to making "hash brownies" was from a Scooby Doo film. The offensive tweets have now been deleted.

In tears as she made her statement, she told reporters: "I have fallen into the trap of behaving with bravado on social networking sites. I hope this may stand as a learning experience for many other young people."

Miss Brown was taken on by police to provide a young person's perspective on policing and to help prevent crime.

The teenager's Twitter account was not checked as part of the recruitment process.

On Saturday it emerged lawyers representing Miss Brown had written to the chief constable of Kent Police complaining of a "wholly disproportionate" response to the Twitter comments.

Her questioning by officers came after the force received more than 50 complaints from members of the public.

Her lawyers, Olswang, wrote to Chief Constable Ian Learmonth about the scope and nature of the investigation, including the decision to seize her phone and for Special Branch to quiz her.

As part of the investigation, Miss Brown was requested to attend an interview under caution on April 14.

In their letter, her lawyers said: "As we are sure that you will readily understand, being subject to a police investigation is highly distressing for any person, but especially so for a teenager, particularly one who has been recently subject to such adverse media coverage.

"In such circumstances, we believe that the police must weigh carefully the extent to which an investigation relating solely to social media activity is merited."

Olswang also referred to the interim guidelines from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer, regarding prosecutions relating to social media.

Another youth commissioner will be appointed later this year, but Mrs Barnes said there were "lessons to be learned" before that happens.

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Darling: 'How Long Will Osborne Lumber On?'

The outstanding question in British politics is how long the Government will "lumber on" with failing economic policies, according to Alistair Darling.

The former Labour Chancellor said his party was right to sit and wait to see what George Osborne's strategy actually becomes.

He told Sky News' Murnaghan programme Mr Osborne had lost credibility and insisted Labour would be "very wise" to "wait and see what he actually comes up with".

Mr Darling highlighted the latest ratings downgrade, the IMF's comments and the Treasury Select Committee's criticism of housing policy as three major blows to the current Chancellor's policies this week alone.

He said: "What you saw last week were more and more people saying (Mr Osborne's) policy isn't working.

"I've been saying that for the last three years, and it was pretty unfashionable to do so, but what you're now seeing are respected figures inside and outside the UK calling into question the strategy.

"The big question is how long does the present Government simply lumber on simply hoping something will turn up.

"I don't think my Labour colleagues need to take a position (on spending) until we see what the present Government is proposing - we don't actually know what they are doing.

"It's very difficult to plan ahead in any sort of sensible way. I think what we are better doing at the moment is concentrating our fire on the Government."

Mr Darling, who came under fire from his own side while Chancellor for predicting in 2008 this would be the worst downturn in 60 years, said Mr Osborne's plans had always been "fraught with difficulty" and now been "blown completely off course".

"It is manifestly obvious it is simply not working," Mr Darling added.

His comments came as it emerged that Britain is expected to narrowly dodge a triple-dip recession, although experts continue to label the UK a "crisis economy".

Most analysts are predicting gross domestic product (GDP) to have edged up 0.1% in the first three months of the year, which would mean the economy has avoided returning to recession.

The latest figures will be released on Thursday.

Incoming Bank of England governor Mark Carney added to fears last week by branding the UK a "crisis economy" alongside stricken eurozone countries and Japan.

His brutal assessment, made on the fringes of the International Monetary Fund's Washington meeting, came as IMF chief Christine Lagarde also voiced concerns over the UK economy, saying its growth numbers were "not particularly good".

Just days earlier the IMF cut UK growth forecasts from 1% to 0.7% for 2013 and 2014's projection from 1.9% to 1.5% as it said the private sector was being hampered by a lack of credit and economic uncertainty.

Also on Friday, ratings agency Fitch cut the UK's creditworthiness from the top AAA rating to AA+.

David Riley, managing director of Fitch, told the Murnaghan show Britain's "economic recovery has been very weak, almost non-existent".

He said: "It's not just about the austerity, the bottom line is the private sector borrowed too much in the UK, it's been very hard to rebalance the UK economy."

Mark Field, Tory MP for the City of London, told the show: "The big test isn't so much what the IMF say but what the markets say. The one lesson is that we have kept our interest rates very low."

A Downing Street a spokesman said: "Clearly from the Prime Minister's perspective these are very, very tough times.

"We are having to deal with the biggest peace-time deficit ... but the path that we are taking is the right one."

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Boston Murder Inquiry: Two Killed

Police have launched a murder inquiry after two people were killed during a disturbance in Boston, Lincs.

Three people were injured in the incident, a 26-year-old woman died at the scene and a 26-year-old man died of his injuries later in hospital.

A 24-year-old woman is being treated for less serious injuries at Boston Pilgrim Hospital. All of the victims were described as "local".

Police were called to a home in Boston at 5.07am after reports of a disturbance.

Officers will be carrying out house-to-house enquiries in the coming days to try to establish what happened in the hours leading up to the attacks.

A 41-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Police are appealing for anyone with information to get in touch with them on the non emergency number 101.

More follows...

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John Lewis Reaches £1bn Annual Web Sales

The John Lewis department store chain has reached online annual sales of £1bn for the first time and a year earlier than planned.

The group said it reached the milestone on a rolling 52-week basis, having recently revealed web sales soared 41% to £959m in 2012, which was a quarter of trade.

It is the latest retailer to highlight the shift towards online shopping.

The UK's biggest supermarket chain Tesco said it was scrapping more than 100 planned UK store developments under plans to focus more on internet sales.

The retailer said online sales reached £3bn after rising 13% in the year to February 23.

Tesco has scrapped over 100 planned UK store developments

Department store Debenhams also hailed a surge in online sales - up 46% in the six months to March 2 - which helped offset falling high street trade amid the snow and adverse weather earlier this year.

John Lewis had expected online sales to reach the £1bn mark in 2014, but IT director Paul Coby said the group was seeing "an unprecedented pace of online growth".

It is launching a new website to further build on its online success, having spent £40m and three years on the project.

The new website allows customers to build a "wish list" of products and includes a search history.

With online mobile access now accounting for over 25% of traffic to johnlewis.com, the retailer has also revamped its mobile offer and plans to launch a new app later this year.

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