Nigeria Kidnappings: British Jet Deployed

The RAF has sent a state-of-the-art reconnaissance aircraft to help find the 200 kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria.

The Sentinel aircraft has a crew of five and is capable of flying for long periods at high altitude.

It is fitted with radar able to locate moving targets and offer radar imagery.

Departing from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, the plane is initially bound for the Ghanaian capital of Accra, west of Nigeria where Islamist terror group Boko Haram and their captives are in hiding.

The jet will then join US aircraft in attempting to locate the girls, who were seized from a school dormitory in the north-east of the country on April 15.

Rich Barrow, RAF Waddington's station commander, said: "The Sentinel with its wide area search capability and long endurance is perfect for this task.

"UK personnel will help to analyse the information gathered to improve the intelligence picture for the Nigerian authorities."

Foreign Secretary William Hague urged west African nations to come together to defeat Boko Haram during international crisis talks in Paris on Saturday.

And he said that in the long term, the UK and other countries would need to do more to support development in areas where Boko Haram is active.

"More will need to be done in the north of Nigeria in terms of clean water, healthcare, education and so on," he said.

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Pig Hearts For Humans 'A Step Closer'

By Gerard Tubb, Sky News Correspondent

Doctors have made a breakthrough in research that could lead to animal organs being transplanted into humans within the next 20 years, according to a leading British scientist.

Experiments in America have proved a pig's heart can be kept alive inside another animal for more than a year using a combination of genetic modification and new drugs.

In controversial research at the US national medical research agency NIH, a team led by Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin transplanted the hearts of genetically engineered pigs into the abdomens of baboons and kept one beating for 600 days.

Anne Higgs says she would accept a pig's heart

Dr Mohiuddin said his research will "instill a new ray of hope for thousands of patients waiting for human donor organs".

Professor Chris Mason, from the department of biochemical engineering at University College London, called the development a big breakthrough.

"It is very early, it is not in man and it's not even in the position of a heart, but it's a huge step forward," he said.

With around 1,000 patients dying in the UK while waiting for an organ transplant, Professor Mason welcomes the prospect of farming pigs to produce organs on demand.

"We are talking 10, 15 or more years away," he explained.

"This is early proof of the concept that shows that a pig heart can be transplanted into a non-human primate and not be rejected."

Heart attack victim Anne Higgs has been waiting for a heart transplant at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for four years and says she would have no qualms about accepting a pig's heart.

"It's another grasp at life," she said.

"Yes I would take it, I would run all the way to the Freeman with that little heart."

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Broadchurch Star Tipped For Bafta Success

Bafta TV Award Nominations

Updated: 9:11am UK, Monday 07 April 2014

The nominations for the Bafta television awards have been announced.

Here is a full list of the contenders:

:: Leading Actor

Jamie Dornan - The Fall

Sean Harris - Southcliffe

Luke Newberry - In The Flesh

Dominic West - Burton And Taylor

:: Leading Actress

Helena Bonham Carter - Burton And Taylor

Olivia Colman - Broadchurch

Kerrie Hayes - The Mill

Maxine Peake - The Village

:: Supporting Actor

David Bradley - Broadchurch

Jerome Flynn - Ripper Street

Nico Mirallegro - The Village

Rory Kinnear - Southcliffe

:: Supporting Actress

Shirley Henderson - Southcliffe

Sarah Lancashire - Last Tango In Halifax

Claire Rushbrook -  My Mad Fat Diary

Nicola Walker - Last Tango In Halifax

:: Entertainment Performance

Ant and Dec -  Ant And Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway

Charlie Brooker - 10 O'Clock Live

Sarah Millican - The Sarah Millican Television Programme

Graham Norton - The Graham Norton Show

:: Female Performance in a Comedy Programme

Frances de la Tour - Vicious

Kerry Howard - Him And Her: The Wedding

Doon Mackichan - Plebs

Katherine Parkinson - The IT Crowd

:: Male Performance in a Comedy Programme

Richard Ayoade - The IT Crowd

Mathew Baynton - The Wrong Mans

James Corden - The Wrong Mans

Chris O'Dowd - The IT Crowd

:: Single Drama

An Adventure In Space And Time

Black Mirror: Be Right Back

Complicit

The Wipers Times

:: Mini-Series

The Fall

The Great Train Robbery

In The Flesh

Southcliffe

:: Drama Series

Broadchurch

My Mad Fat Diary

Top Of The Lake

The Village

:: Soap and Continuing Drama

Casualty

Coronation Street

EastEnders

Holby City

:: International

Borgen

Breaking Bad

House Of Cards

The Returned

:: Factual Series

Bedlam

Educating Yorkshire

Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS In A Day

The Route Masters: Running London's Roads

:: Specialist Factual

David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive

Martin Luther King And The March On Washington

Richard III: The King In The Car Park

Story Of The Jews

:: Single Documentary

28 Up South Africa

The Day Kennedy Died

The Murder Trial

The Unspeakable Crime: Rape

:: Features

The Choir: Sing While You Work

Grand Designs

The Great British Bake Off

Long Lost Family

:: Reality and Constructed Factual

The Big Reunion

Dragons' Den

Gogglebox

The Undateables

:: Current Affairs

The Cruel Cut

The Hunt For Britain's Sex Gangs

North Korean: Life Inside The Secret State

Syria: Across The Lines

:: News Coverage

Channel 4 News

ITV News At Ten: Woolwich Attacks

The Dale Cregan Verdict: North West Tonight Special

The Lee Rigby Trial: ITV Granada Reports

:: Sport and Live Event

Bollywood Carmen Live

Glastonbury 2013

The Ashes 2013 - 1st Test, Day Five

Wimbledon Men's Final

:: Entertainment Programme

Ant And Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway

Derren Brown: The Great Art Robbery

Dynamo: Magician Impossible

Strictly Come Dancing

:: Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme

The Graham Norton Show

A League Of Their Own

The Revolution Will Be Televised

Would I Lie To You?

:: Situation Comedy

Count Arthur Strong

Him And Her: The Wedding

The IT Crowd

Toast Of London

:: Radio Times Audience Award

Breaking Bad

Broadchurch

Doctor Who: Day Of The Doctor

Educating Yorkshire

Gogglebox

The Great British Bake Off

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Britain's Richest 1,000 People Now Worth £519bn

Billionaire Britain: Rise Of The Super-Rich

Updated: 7:07am UK, Sunday 11 May 2014

More than 100 billionaires are now living in Britain - the first time the milestone has been reached.

According to this year's Sunday Times Rich List, 104 billionaires with a combined wealth of more than £300bn are now based in the UK - more than triple the number from a decade ago.

Britain has more billionaires per head of population than any other country, while London has more than any other city with 72.

Top of the list are the Indian-born brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who have an £11.9bn fortune.

The pair run the global conglomerate Hinduja Group and saw their wealth increase by £1.3bn in the last year.

In second place is Russian business magnate and Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov, who fell from the top spot after his fortune decreased to £10.65bn.

The richest Briton is the Duke of Westminster, who is 10th on the list with a fortune of £8.5bn.

Chris Dawson, who owns The Range discount store chain, saw his wealth rise by £695m in the last year to £1.28bn.

Jon Hunt, the founder of estate agents Foxtons, has a fortune of £1.07bn, a rise of £145m from 2013.

Mike Ashley, the founder of Sports Direct, and Virgin businessman Sir Richard Branson are also among the wealthiest 25 billionaires.

Ten years ago, a fortune of £700m was required to be among Britain's 50 wealthiest people.

Now it is £1.7bn - the first time since 2008 the minimum wealth of the top 50 has been more than £1.5bn.

The combined fortune of Britain's richest is now ahead of pre-recession levels of 2008.

Last year there were 88 billionaires, worth a total of more than £245bn.

A decade ago the number was 30, with a combined fortune of £65bn.

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Voice Coaches In Demand To Tone Down 'Toffs'

By Gemma Morris, Sky News Reporter

Speaking like the Queen could be losing its status as a desirable accent as a growing number of people are paying voice coaches to help them sound "less posh".

The Tutor Pages, one of the most extensive directories of UK private teachers, says it has seen a year on year increase in enquiries for elocution coaching.

But the interest does not tend to be from those wishing to speak with a cut-glass accent.

Instead, The Tutor Pages says most people want to adapt their voices for success in a variety of contexts - including trying to reduce posh tones.

Roisin Logan, an 18-year-old art student, believes her naturally well-spoken voice has caused others to judge her negatively.

She has been having private lessons to soften it.

"I don't want to sound like I'm pretending to be something I'm not. I just want to maybe tone down a tiny bit of like the posher edges of my voice to sound just a bit more normal."

One in five Brits have altered their accents at some point to 'fit in'

Roisin believes the coaching will make a difference to how she is perceived by others.

"I think I'll get less assumptions that I'm stuck up or that you're not able to talk to me because you think I've had a privileged life."

Voice coach Christine Hubbard said she has received around two requests per month from professionals who "don't want to come over as too posh" at work or while they are job hunting.

"It's also the kind of people such as social workers, policemen, lawyers, barristers, even teachers who do not want their clients to be saying 'Oh I'm not having anything to do with him he's too snooty'."

She believes traditional Received Pronunciation, also known as 'The Queen's English' or 'Oxford English', is starting to go out of fashion.

"Even the Queen has what we call a little bit of Estuary creeping into her voice these days. And certainly even the - shall we dare say - better spoken presenters on television have lost their extremely didactic way of speaking."

Research by www.trulawn.co.uk last year found more than one in five Britons said they had altered their natural accent at some point.

Eight per cent made themselves sound more posh while 4% said they had tried to sound less posh, increasing to 11% among Londoners who apparently said they did not want to sound like "toffs".

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'Migrants Must Learn English', Asian Minister

Immigrants must learn to speak English and respect Britain's laws and culture, the new Culture Secretary, Sajid Javid, has said.

Mr Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants and the first Asian Secretary of State, said that people were entitled to expect that immigrants made a contribution to society.

"People want Britain to have more control over its borders, and I think they are right," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"People also say, when immigrants do come to Britain, that they should come to work, and make a contribution and that they should also respect our way of life, and I agree with all of that. It means things like trying to learn English."

His comments come at a time when the Tories are under pressure from UKIP over the issue of immigration ahead of Thursday's European elections.

Mr Javid suggested that immigrants already well-established in the UK also needed to take greater responsibility for integrating with the rest of society.

"I know people myself, I have met people who have been in Britain for over 50 years and they still can't speak English," he said.

"I think it's perfectly reasonable for British people to say, look, if you're going to settle in Britain and make it your home, you should learn the language of the country and you should respect its laws and its culture."

A self-confessed Thatcherite, Mr Javid, MP for Bromsgrove, was appointed Culture minister during a reshuffle by David Cameron in April.

The son of a bus driver, who left Pakistan for Rochdale, had been a senior managing director at Deutsche Bank in charge of trading operations in Asia until 2009, where he had been earning an estimated £3m a year.

Mr Javid is tipped as a Tory leader of the future and has said he sees his Muslim faith as no barrier to one day taking the top slot.

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Revealed: The Selfie-Centre Of The World

More selfies are taken in London than anywhere else in the world, according to analysis of 6.3 million social media posts.

Tower Bridge is a popular location in London. Pic: Henrik Lowenhamn

Some 14% of all the selfies taken were captured in the UK capital.

Attractions such as Big Ben, the London Eye and Buckingham Palace were the most popular locations for the snaps, according to Suggestme.com.

Big Ben helped London take the selfie capital crown. Pic: Henrik Lowenhamn

The website analysed 6.3 million posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites.

It found New York was the second most popular location for a selfie, thanks largely to the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty, New York's selfie centre. Pic: Rich Anderson

The Dutch city of Amsterdam was in third place, with the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum the most common backdrops.

Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Sydney, Istanbul and Athens all feature in the top 10.

The Colosseum is the world's most popular site for selfies

The Colosseum in Rome was the most popular selfie destination overall.

A selfie is a self-taken photograph popular among social media users.

The most retweeted selfie ever, taken at the 2014 Oscars

In 2013 it was named Oxford Dictionary's word of the year.

At this year's Oscars, host Ellen DeGeneres broke a Twitter record with a selfie alongside Hollywood royalty such as Brad Pitt and Meryl Streep. It was retweeted more than three millions times.

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Carney: 'House Prices Biggest Risk To Economy'

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor

The British housing market has "deep, deep" problems, according to the Governor of the Bank of England.

In an interview with Sky's Murnaghan show, Mark Carney warned that rising house prices represented the biggest current risk to the economy.

He added that the number of large mortgages being approved to house buyers was on the rise and that the UK was in need of new house building.

Mr Carney said: "The issue around the housing market in the UK … is there are not sufficient (numbers of) houses (being) built."

Asked if more houses need to be built, Mr Carney replied: "That would help us out.

"We're not going to build a single house at the Bank of England. We can't influence that.

"What we can influence… is whether the banks are strong enough. Do they have enough capital against risk in the housing market?"

Mark Carney has issued a warning over the UK housing market

Mr Carney said they could also check lending procedures "so people can get mortgages if they can afford them but they won't if they can't".

"By reinforcing both of those we can reduce the risk that comes from a housing market that has deep, deep structural problems," he added.

Mr Carney said there was evidence that large mortgages, where lenders approve loans of more than four times people's salaries, are on the rise again.

"We don't want to build up another big debt overhang that is going to hurt individuals and is very much going to slow the economy in the medium term," he said.

"We'd be concerned if there was a rapid increase in high loan-to-value mortgages across the banks. We've seen that creeping up and it's something we're watching closely."

In an separate interview for Murnaghan, David Cameron admitted the Government needed to build more houses and said Mr Carney was "absolutely right".

However, he added: "The building of houses is going up. If you talk to any housing developer at the moment or builder they will tell you that the help to buy scheme the Government has put in place has been hugely helpful in bringing forward more development or house building.

"We are training apprentices in the building trade to make sure that we can deliver on these houses but we do need more, yes."

But shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the Government's Help to Buy scheme, designed for those who can afford mortgage repayments but not a large deposit, was making the problem worse and should be reformed.

He said: "The Governor's comment that the Bank of England can't build a single home puts the ball firmly in George Osborne's court to act on housing supply."

And he added: "Unless the Government acts, the danger is that the Bank of England will be forced to raise interest rates prematurely."

Last week, Mr Carney surprised many by playing down the chances of an imminent rise in interest rates despite fears of a growing house price bubble.

But he admitted the issue was the biggest current threat to the economy.

"The biggest risk to financial stability, and therefore to the durability of the expansion, centres on the housing market and that's why we're focused on that," he said.

Prices are currently rising at more than 10% a year across the country. Analysis by Sky News has shown the number of £1m properties has doubled since 2008.

Both the coalition and Labour are committed to building hundreds of thousands of new homes but construction still lags behind Government targets.

In an interview with Andrew Marr, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg indicated the Help to Buy scheme could be "pared back" if the housing market started to overheat.

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Ed Miliband: Nigel Farage Is 'Not A Racist'

By Sophy Ridge, Political Correspondent

Ed Miliband has told Sky News his political rival Nigel Farage is "not a racist", despite his controversial comments this week.

The UKIP leader has come under heavy criticism after an LBC interview in which he said he was uncomfortable with people speaking foreign languages on public transport.

He also told interviewer James O'Brien "you know the difference" between Romanian and German immigrants.

When asked whether Mr Farage was racist, Ed Miliband told Sky's Dermot Murnaghan: "Personally I don't think so.

UKIP's rise in the polls has brought with it increased media scrutiny

"I think his remarks he made were deeply offensive … I think they were a racial slur but I don't think of Nigel Farage as a racist himself."

Ahead of Thursday's European election vote, Labour is trying to present itself as a party with a tougher stance on immigration.

Mr Miliband admitted that the last Labour government failed to take people's concerns seriously enough, adding: "It was our attitude that was wrong, and needed to change."

David Cameron is also talking tough on immigration ahead of the crunch vote, arguing the Conservative stance on a referendum after the next election is the right one.

He also insisted he is still focused on the target of reducing net migration to the tens of thousands - despite there being little chance of achieving it in this parliament.

He told the Murnaghan programme the Government has taken "tough action on immigration", adding: "The point of having that target is it's what I want and what the British people want.

"We are working towards it."

When asked whether it is still a target, he replied "of course" - but refused to confirm when he hopes to achieve it by.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that Mr Farage's views should have "no place in modern Britain".

He told the Andrew Marr Show: "I think the mask is starting to slip and I think what's being revealed that sort of behind the beer-swilling bonhomie is a rather nasty view of the world."

He said anyone who singled out a nationality they would not wish to live next door to was practising the "politics of division".

The latest poll shows UKIP continuing its lead ahead of the European elections on 35%. Labour is second on 24% with the Tories on 20%. The Green Party is on 7% overtaking the Lib Dems on 6%.

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Four British Yachtsmen Feared Dead In Atlantic

Four Britons are thought to have died after the yacht they were sailing from the Caribbean to the UK capsized in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

The crew was returning from Antigua Sailing Week in a 40ft performance racer cruiser when it ran into difficulties 620 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts on Thursday.

Missing: Andrew Bridge (L) and Steve Warren

Contact with Andrew Bridge, 21, James Male, 23, Steve Warren, 52, and Paul Goslin, 56, was lost in the early hours of Friday while they were diverting to the Azores.

US and Canadian aircraft as well as merchant vessels carried out a search on Friday and Saturday, but now the operation has been called off.

The Britons had been sailing the boat, called the Cheeki Rafiki, back from Antigua for yacht training and charter company Stormforce Coaching when they went missing.

Director Doug Innes said the vessel had first started taking on water on Thursday.

James Male (L) and Paul Goslin have also disappeared

But he said the company had been in contact with the skipper at that time, and the crew were keeping the situation stable.

He said it was possible the crew took to a life raft after contact was lost.

Mr Innes added: "Although the search efforts co-ordinated ... were exceptional we are devastated that the search has now been called off so soon."

A US Coastguard spokesman two US and one Canadian aircraft had been helped by three commercial vessels until the search  ended at 5am local time.

The yacht reportedly capsized on the way back from the Caribbean

He said: "We searched with multiple assets over 4,000 square miles for pings from the vessel's personal locator beacons.

"After receiving no more transmissions we believe that we would have found them by now if we were going to find them.

"These beacons are small devices and the ones being used have a very short battery life."

Mr Bridge, who is from Farnham in Surrey, was being paid by Stormforce for his role on the yacht, a spokeswoman for the firm said.

But Mr Goslin, from West Camel, Somerset, Mr Warren, from Bridgwater, Somerset, and Mr Male, from Southampton, were also described as "very experienced offshore yachtsmen".

Antigua Week is regarded as one of the world's top regattas.

Stormforce, which was acting as the managing agent for the Cheeki Rafiki, is based in Southampton.

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