Thieves Steal Fuel From Under Clegg's Estate

Thieves stole millions of pounds worth of fuel oil from a pipeline going under the official country estate of the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary.

The gang siphoned fuel from the pipe under the state-owned 3,500-acre Chevening estate, near Sevenoaks, which Nick Clegg and Philip Hammond are allowed to use.

It is thought around 30,000 litres of fuel was stolen each day for seven months - at a cost of around £8.3m.

The Sun said the fuel was funnelled along a 1,600ft pipe into huge plastic containers aboard lorries and driven away.

A Kent Police spokesman said: "Kent Police was notified of some tampering to a fuel pipeline in the Sevenoaks area on August 6.

"Initial indications are that this was a well organised crime, employing highly specialist techniques to siphon fuel from pipelines which operate at very high pressure."

Chevening has hosted visiting dignitaries such as Italy's Foreign Minister

The pipe was operated by Esso, which discovered the theft on Wednesday after introducing new security measures.

The South East Pipeline is 120 miles long and carries fuel from Fawley Refinery in Hampshire to Purfleet Fuel Terminal and Gatwick.

Esso said later: "We recently strengthened our pipeline security and monitoring procedures, and on Wednesday detected criminal damage at Chevening on the South East Pipeline.

"The section of pipeline was temporarily shut down to make repairs, which have now been completed.

"There has been no impact on supplies to customers.

"We strongly condemn the highly dangerous criminal action by those involved and are working closely with the police in their criminal investigations."

A spokeswoman for the National Crime Agency said: "We are aware there has been a report of some tampering to a fuel line in Kent and investigations are ongoing.

"If members of the public have any concerns about suspicious activity, such as excavation taking place at an unusual time or at an odd location, our advice is to contact the police, or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."

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Weather Warnings As Bertha Batters Britain

The remnants of Hurricane Bertha has brought gale force winds, heavy rains and flash flooding to Britain.

The deluge landed at Cornwall in the early hours and was sweeping across the UK from the south west of the country with gusts of 45mph reported on the Isles of Scilly.

In Dorset, trees were sent crashing down by strong winds and there were reports of flooding.

The Environment Agency has issued four flood warnings - including three for the North Sea coast - and 34 alerts, while the Red Cross has put hundreds of volunteers on standby in response to concerns that homes in some areas will need to be evacuated.

The Met Office has issued a yellow rain warning for much of the UK

High tides are expected around the Spa Complex in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Harbour Road in Bridlington and parts of the North Bank of the Humber Estuary.

Sky News weather presenter Isobel Lang said: "Heavy rain, associated with the remnants of hurricane Bertha, has already spread up across southwest England, Wales, eastern parts of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

"Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, received 21mm of rain in two hours between 4am and 6am and 15mm of rain fell in Cardiff between 6am and 7am with an area of thunderstorms now spreading across much of south Wales. 

Waves crash against the rocky coastline of Milford on Sea

"Wind gusts to around 40mph have been recorded along the south coast as the low pressure area has moved in.

"Intense thundery weather and gusty winds are now spreading into Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

"As the low tracks northeast into the Midlands and northeast England the winds are likely to become stronger across much of England and Wales with 50mph gusts expected, perhaps up to 60mph in exposure, with large waves also expected along the south coast."

A woman braves the strong winds and rain in Brighton

Alister McHardy, from the Met Office, said: "Britons should brace themselves and be aware that the rainfall could bring some flooding in places. It is a quick dose of autumn in the summer."

Today's forecast means part of the RideLondon-Surrey 100 bike ride has been cancelled.

Organisers have reduced the event to 86 miles to miss out a section including Leith Hill and Box Hill, where heavy rain is predicted.

Tourists in central London battle the elements

The start of the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race, due to get under way in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, has also been postponed until Monday morning.

Hurricane Bertha has already torn through the Caribbean, with 90mph winds leaving thousands of homes without power.

Its aftermath is not as potent - but the Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings telling people to "be aware" of rainfall for England, Wales and Scotland.

Brooding skies above Cambourne in Cambridgeshire. Pic: Alice Taylor

It follows flash flooding across eastern England on Friday which left more than 1,400 homes without power.

Further bad weather is expected at the start of next week.

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Laughing Gas Crackdown Amid 'Disturbing' Craze

A "deeply disturbing" laughing gas craze sweeping the country is being fuelled by internet videos that glamorise use of the substance, council leaders say.

Hauls of canisters are confiscated from UK streets every night, with one London council - Hackney - seizing 1,200 on one Saturday alone.  

Officials in Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Thames Valley have also reported increasing numbers of canisters being found.

Council leaders are so concerned they have launched a campaign to highlight the dangers of the chemical.

Thousands of canisters are seized every weekend (pic Rob Brewer/Flickr)

In particular, the Local Government Association (LGA) is calling for web giants, such as YouTube, to crack down on internet videos which promote the use of laughing gas.

The association, which represents around 400 councils in England and Wales, said it was "deeply disturbing" that people widely view nitrous oxide as a "safe" legal high.

And the LGA warned that the chemical - which is regularly taken at nightspots, festivals and parties by almost half a million young people across the country - has been linked to a number of deaths.

It said abusing nitrous oxide can lead to oxygen deprivation resulting in loss of blood pressure, fainting and even heart attacks.

"It is deeply disturbing that this drug, which can be highly dangerous, is still widely viewed as safe," said Katie Hall, chairwoman of the LGA's Community Wellbeing Board.

"It is imperative that users understand just how harmful it can be. This gas can kill and much more needs to be done to get this message across.

"We are particularly concerned about internet pages and uploaded clips which are effectively 'promoting' this as a harmless drug.

"The web giants must do more to crack down on this, they cannot simply sit on their hands and ignore what is happening on their own sites.

"We are calling on the big internet corporations to step up to the plate and show responsibility by providing health warnings and links to drug awareness charities."

While inhaling nitrous oxide is not illegal, council officers are able to seize canisters under unauthorised street trading regulations.

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Don't Drink Two Days In A Row, Government Says

People should only drink alcohol every other day to avoid health problems like cancer, heart attacks and liver disease, government officials are warning.

The new guidelines drawn up by Public Health England, a government quango promoting healthy living, will recommend drinkers follow a "one day on, one day off" rule.

The 92-page paper says: "Daily drinking is a key contributor to increased risk, so it is possible that promoting a simple approach such as never drinking two days in a row would have a positive impact."

However, the advice has been criticised as "nannying" and experts questioned whether it would decrease health risks and encourage heavy drinkers to cut back.

"Giving up alcohol on alternate days is not something most doctors would recognise as a helpful strategy to curb excessive drinking," GP Martin Scurr told the Daily Mail.

"It's hard to see how this plan from Public Health England will persuade excessive drinkers to rein back."

Conservative MP and former minister Gerald Howarth said the advice was "completely unrealistic" and an example of the "nanny state".

"People have the common sense to know how to look after themselves," he told the Mail.

The Public Health England strategy said changes to alcohol pricing as well as the availability and strength of alcohol are more likely to have "immediate positive impacts" and it would continue to work on those areas.

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Senior UKIP Politician In 'Copy Hitler' Row

A senior UKIP politician has defended reports he urged young party members to "copy Hitler".

The Mail On Sunday acquired a recording of West Midlands MEP Bill Etheridge telling prospective candidates to "pick up little moments" of Hitler's speaking style.

Mr Etheridge can be heard saying the Nazi leader was "a hateful figure who achieved a great deal".

The Mail carried its story under the headline: "UKIP urges its youth wing: copy Hitler."

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Etheridge called the article a "silly, unpleasant attack".

"Hitler was an evil, monstrous tyrant but that doesn't mean he wasn't good at public speaking," said the 44-year-old.

The Mail On Sunday front page

"I wish he hadn't been, but we must be able to discuss historical figures without being slurred as agreeing with them.

"I speak about Tony Blair, Dr Martin Luther King and President Ronald Reagan - all kinds of people who were great public speakers.

"I regret that the Mail should stoop so low - it's embarrassing for all of us."

The recording - which Sky News has verified - was made last week at a conference for UKIP's youth wing, Young Independents.

Mr Etheridge, who is also a Dudley councillor, is heard saying: "If you look back to the most magnetic and forceful public speaker possibly in history.

"When Hitler gave speeches, and many of the more famous ones were at rallies, at the start he walks, back and forth, looked at people - there was a silence, he waited minutes just looking out at people, fixing them with his gaze.

"And they were looking back and he would do it for a while. And then they were so desperate for him to start that when he started speaking they were hanging on his every word.

Bill Etheridge urged candidates to "pick up moments" from Hitler speeches

"Again, I'm not saying direct copy - pick up little moments."

Labour MP Mike Gapes told the Mail On Sunday: "I thought nothing could surprise me anymore, but this just goes to show that (Nigel) Farage has completely failed to clean up his party.

"One of his MEPs training young candidates to speak like Hitler? Simply unbelievable."

But UKIP said The Mail On Sunday's interpretation of the speech was "truly disgusting".

A spokesman added: "Bill Etheridge gave a seminar on public speaking and highlighted great speakers of the past, like Churchill, Blair, Martin Luther King and Hitler as people whose style, not content could be studied.

"It is no surprise that two national newspapers have covered this conference - The Guardian and The Mail on Sunday. One gave it a fair hearing, the other as a Tory paper is terrified by the rise of UKIP and apparently will stoop to nothing to attack the party. We are disappointed, but unsurprised.

"During a period of respectful and pensive commemoration of those who gave their lives in war, the Tory Mail on Sunday's tasteless and desperate front page attack is truly disgusting."

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'Full' Hospitals Leave 300,000 Queuing Outside

Hundreds of thousands of patients are being left at the doors of A&E in ambulances because hospitals are too full.

Figures obtained by Labour show more than 300,000 patients in need of emergency care were caught in queues of ambulances last year.

Some 279,207 ambulances were delayed for more than 30 minutes in England during 2013-14.

Another 30,601 had to wait longer than an hour, Labour said.

The party sent Freedom of Information requests to all 10 ambulance trusts in England.

Among the replies was the revelation that one patient in the West Midlands was forced to wait for eight hours and 11 minutes.

More than 300,000 ambulances had to wait half an hour or more in queues

Another in the South West waited for seven and a half hours.

Labour said "handover delays" occur when ambulance crews cannot transfer patients because of staff or bed shortages.

Shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: "Under David Cameron, hospitals are full to bursting and he's forcing ambulances to queue at the doors for hours on end.

"Thousands of vulnerable people, many of them elderly and frightened, are being wrongly held in the backs of ambulances because hospitals don't have the space. And yet ministers deny that A&E is in crisis.

"People know from their own experience that the NHS is heading downhill on David Cameron's watch. It is clear the Tories can't be trusted with it."

NHS England said handover delays reduced by 30% in 2013-14.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "People rely on ambulances coming quickly in life and death situations and long handovers are completely unacceptable.

"We're already making good progress in reducing the number of patients waiting for 30 minutes or longer - down by almost a third last winter - though there's always more the NHS can do.

"We are providing extra support, including £28m for ambulances from funds already given to the NHS this year, to keep services sustainable year-round. In the long-term, we want to reduce demand by looking after people better in the community."

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Police Trial On-The-Spot DNA Testing Machines

By Mark White, Home Affairs Correspondent

British police have begun trialling on-the-spot DNA testing, which could help trace serious criminals within hours, rather than days.

The Home Office has given extra funding to police in Lancashire and Nottinghamshire to begin operating the machines.

The machines are about the size of a small photocopier and can be transported to a crime scene and used in the early stages of an investigation.

The machine's developers, Key Forensic Services, claim the Rapid DNA technology will allow investigators to input samples from a crime scene into the machine themselves.

Any match to samples on the national DNA database will be found in less than two hours.

DNA technology helped police convict serial killer Steve Wright

Currently, police have to send DNA samples off to forensic laboratories and any match can take several days.

Key Forensic Services' Chief Executive Paul Hackett told Sky News: "It essentially duplicates what we currently do in three or four laboratories using a large number of people and a lot of instrumentation. 

"So the results are directly comparable with the current lab-based process, they're simply faster - just two hours."

As well as analysing any traces of DNA found at a crime scene, the machine will also allow investigators to take swabs from potential suspects.

These swabs can then be quickly compared with the DNA evidence recovered.

Senior police officers hope the technology will give detectives the means to identify a suspect much more quickly.

They hope it will prevent them from going on the run, or committing other offences before they are identified.

Vincent Tabak was matched to DNA found at Joanna Yeates' murder scene

West Midlands Chief Constable Chris Simms, the Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman on forensic science, said: "The hope is that eventually this will become the dominant technology, that it's affordable, that it's reliable and we are in the position that at every single crime scene we're able to get DNA within a couple of hours. 

"I think that will then begin to revolutionise the way we investigate crime."

Developers say the portable analyser is the biggest advance in DNA profiling since the technique was introduced by the British geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys in 1984.

Police first used Sir Alec's new technique in 1988 to help secure the conviction of Colin Pitchfork who raped and murdered two schoolgirls in Leicestershire.

Over the years DNA evidence has helped prosecute thousands.

It allowed detectives to connect the serial killer Steve Wright to the five women he targeted in Suffolk in 2006.

Vincent Tabak was matched to traces of DNA found at the scene of the murder of landscape architect Joanna Yeates in Bristol in December 2010.

But technological advances can only go so far and detectives will still have to do the leg work, according to renowned criminologist Professor David Wilson.

"Of course it's a breakthrough because of the speed, but at the end of the day even if you gather DNA results, you have to have a suspect, with which you can compare that result, so you have got to have someone who you've arrested with a view to charging," he said.

The Home Office has awarded £431,000 to help develop the faster DNA detection technique in Lancashire and Nottinghamshire. 

If successful, the technology will be rolled out to other forces.

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Harry Recalls 'Missing Limbs' Horror Of War

Prince Harry has recalled the "horrendous" images he saw during two tours of Afghanistan.

The Royal described seeing children who had died from roadside bombs and the horrific injuries of soldiers on the battlefield. 

Harry, who is a Captain in the Army, regularly flew injured personnel and civilians to the hospital at the Camp Bastion military base during his second tour.

Prince Harry served as an Apache helicopter pilot

Writing in The Sunday Times, he recalled: "On my first tour to Afghanistan in 2007-08 and again more so on my second tour in 2012-13, I saw some horrendous things: the tragic injuries and deaths of local people from roadside bombs, some of whom were children."

He recalled flying home last year looking forward to seeing family but remembers being joined on the plane by injured soldiers.

"I had never seen it first-hand," he wrote in the newspaper. "By 'it' I mean the injuries that were being sustained largely due to improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The Royal flew injured soldiers to the hospital at the Camp Bastion base

"Loss of life is as tragic and devastating as it gets, but to see young lads - much younger than me - wrapped in plastic and missing limbs, with hundreds of tubes coming out of them, was something I never prepared myself for."

In his role as Apache helicopter pilot, the Prince said the memory of having to use the code "Op vampire" still sent shivers down his spine.

The code was used to let the medical team know the casualty they had on board would require a lot of blood. 

The question of how people cope with the trauma of war, especially those left without limbs, was one Harry said played on his mind.

It eventually led him to setting up an international sporting competition for injured troops.

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Festival Death: Woman's Body Found In Toilet

A woman has died after she was found slumped unconscious in a toilet at a music festival by security staff and medics.

The 31-year-old was attending the BoomTown Fair event at Matterley Estate in Winchester, Hampshire, with her husband.

She was taken to hospital, where doctors tried to revive her, but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

Hampshire Police cordoned off the scene where she was discovered at around 1.50pm on Saturday.

The festival was being held at Matterly Estate in Winchester, Hamphire

The force said it was too early to speculate on the cause of death, adding a post-mortem examination would be conducted in due course.

The reveller's death is not believed to be suspicious at this stage.

A spokeswoman for the festival said: "BoomTown fair would like to express their sincerest condolences to the family of the young woman who was found unconscious on site.

"Our thoughts are with all her loved ones at this tragic time and the festival is doing all it can to assist those involved."

Last year, 18-year-old Ellie Rowe, from Glastonbury in Somerset, died at the festival after taking horse tranquilliser ketamine.

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Top Boxing Promoter Maloney: I'm A Woman Now

Former boxing promoter Frank Maloney - who helped Lennox Lewis become World Heavyweight Champion - has revealed he is living as a woman.

Maloney, once described as a "mental midget" by US promoter Don King, is undergoing a sex change and is now known as Kellie.

She told the Sunday Mirror: "I wasn't born into the right body. I have always known I was a woman. I can't keep living in the shadows."

Maloney guided Lennox Lewis to his World Heavyweight Championship

The 61-year-old, who announced she was ending her 30-year career in the sport in October, told the newspaper of her struggle to keep her secret in such a macho environment.

And she described how difficult it had been to tell her second wife in 2012, ending 15 years of marriage.

Maloney, who has three children, said: "What was wrong at birth is now medically corrected. I have a female brain.

"I knew I was different from the minute I could compare myself to other children. I wasn't in the right body. I was jealous of girls."

With Lewis In 1992

She said the transformation had taken place over two years and she had undergone the hormone therapy, hair removal and counselling needed ahead of corrective surgery.

Maloney said the union flag suits and the flamboyance of the life of a boxing promoter did help provide an outlet for her "feminine side" but it was not enough.

She said having to hide the urge to dress as a woman and struggling with transsexuality had triggered depression and heavy drinking.

Maloney ran as UKIP's candidate for London Mayor in 2004

Maloney, who managed Lewis from 1989 to 2001, was UKIP candidate for London Mayor in 2004 and came under fire for making homophobic comments.

She attempted to get elected as MP for Barking for the anti-European Union party in 2010.

She said she made the decision to retire last year and that she hoped the boxing world would be understanding.

"I hope society will be open minded," she said.

"I know I could have done my job in boxing as a female."

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