Sniffer Dog Finds Stowaways In Coffin Truck

Three Africans have been caught trying to enter Britain illegally in a truck loaded with coffins.

The trio, Eritrean nationals, hid among dozens of boxed coffins which were loaded in a van from Bulgaria.

But the human cargo was unearthed by sniffer dog Mitzy.

The discovery was made on Monday when Border Force officers searched the lorry at the port of Dunkirk in northern France.

The truck, which was waiting to board a ferry to the UK, was carrying coffins bound for a funeral director in Hounslow, west London.

The stowaways were handed over to French border police and the vehicle was allowed to continue on its journey.

Paul Morgan, Border Force director for South East and Europe, said: "This was an unusual type of discovery, but in the past we have found people hiding in an array of freight, ranging from dog biscuits, bathtubs and now coffins.

"The incident shows exactly why we base Border Force staff in France - to stop would-be illegal immigrants before they can reach the UK."

He added: "As well as using sniffer dogs, officers also use heartbeat detectors, carbon dioxide probes and physical searches to find people hiding in vehicles."

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Study: Xmas Without 4G Will Cost Economy £120m

Another Christmas without a universal 4G service will cost the UK economy £120m in lost sales, according to a new study.

Slow connection speeds are set to pose a barrier for many consumers wanting to shop via their mobile phones.

The report by online auction site eBay claims a nationwide roll-out of 4G would have boosted sales from £373m to £493m.

More than half of consumers (55%) plan to use their mobile to browse the web this Christmas, while 39% say they will use their device to get gift ideas and check prices.

eBay.co.uk said it expected to see around a third of items in its Christmas campaign bought through a smartphone.

It said the top three barriers preventing consumers from shopping on their mobiles were slow connection speeds, payments timing out and network reliability - all problems effectively eliminated by 4G.

EE, formerly known as Everything Everywhere, has started to launch its range of 4G products and services in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Southampton and Manchester.

The network, which offers speeds up to five times faster than 3G, will be available on the Apple iPhone 5 as well as devices from HTC, Samsung, Nokia and Huawei.

Clare Gilmartin, vice president of eBay Marketplaces Europe, said: "Mobile devices have become virtual stores in our pockets, giving us the ability to shop anytime, anywhere.

"But for consumers, it's critical that the experience is quick, seamless and simple.

"While we welcomed the move by Ofcom to bring the 4G spectrum auction forward to early 2013 there's no doubt, as this research shows, that for the UK economy the cost of another Christmas without universal 4G is huge."

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Heseltine Reveals Radical Plan For Growth

By Joey Jones, Deputy Political Editor

Former Cabinet minister Lord Heseltine has published a sweeping report aimed at stimulating growth, which is littered with criticism of Government inertia and delay.

The report, entitled No Stone Unturned, was commissioned by the Chancellor more than a year ago, but has been dogged by rumours that senior ministers have become increasingly doubtful about its viability.

Lord Heseltine advocates a major shift of power and money from Whitehall departments to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), the grassroots business organisations that have replaced Regional Development Agencies under the current Government.

His proposals would result in a massive expansion of LEP finance. Currently each LEP manages a budget running into millions of pounds, but Lord Heseltine suggests they should be empowered to bid for tens of billions of pounds currently administered by central Government.

The report earmarks £49bn of Government funding under the current spending period that would be better spent by LEPs, but suggests the bidding process should only begin in the run-up to the next spending review.

Lord Heseltine is harshly critical of Government departments' unwillingness to change, and argues that the current administration has been guilty of damaging delay in its approach to major projects including re-equipping the aviation network in the southeast of England.

The former president of the Board of Trade admits that many of the ideas contained in his report have been put forward in the past only to be kicked into the long grass.

He argues that there are grounds for optimism in that the current Government will act where others have sat on their hands.

The fact that the Chancellor and Prime Minister were eager for him to take on the job indicates, in his view, their appetite for controversial but productive reform.

Lord Heseltine also points out that some of his proposals "go with the grain" of the Government's localism agenda.

When asked how he would react in a year's time if his report ends up gathering dust like so many before it, Lord Heseltine was philosophical.

"I'll just get on running my garden," he told Sky News. "I've done my bit."

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Savile 'Took Girls To Leeds Hospital Block Alone'

Jimmy Savile regularly took teenage girls to a private hospital block alone for a few hours at a time, a former porter has told Sky News.

Terry Pratt said the Jim'll Fix It presenter was given a key to the nurses' accommodation building at Leeds General Infirmary during the 1990s.

Unlike doctors at the hospital, who had to be let in by a porter, he was allowed to take the keys himself.

The ex-worker claimed that Savile, who was a volunteer and fundraiser for the hospital, would arrive with the girls in the early hours of the morning and then leave before dawn.

Mr Pratt, who was a porter at the Leeds hospital from 1989 to 2010, said Savile came in with girls, who were often "dressed up to the nines", on three occasions in one week.

It is understood Savile had his own office in the hospital's Welcome Wing for 10 years from about the mid-1990s.

Given to him because of his fundraising activities, he even had his name on the door. The wing closed down a few years ago.

Savile was regularly given a key to the hospital's nurses' block

The hospital issued a statement responding to the latest claims of abuse by the late television star and DJ.

A spokesperson for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We continue to be shocked by each new allegation. It is important that they are investigated properly.

"The Trust is in contact with senior detectives from the Metropolitan Police and we have indicated our intention to help with their enquiries. If there are any issues which need to be addressed following the police investigation then we will take action."

Leeds General Infirmary is one of three hospitals, alongside Broadmoor and Stoke Mandeville, where Savile has been accused of abusing children.

Scotland Yard is currently investigating the Top of the Pops presenter's activities, and he is now believed to have been of the UK's most prolific child sex abusers, with about 300 possible victims.

Detectives are following 400 lines of inquiry as part of the investigation while the BBC has launched an inquiry into the culture and practices at the corporation during the Savile era.

Girls were said to be dazzled by Savile's celebrity status

It is also looking at the decision-making process that saw a Newsnight investigation into his activities shelved.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said "heads will need to roll" at the BBC if it is discovered that abuse was ignored.

"Serious questions need to be asked and if after we find out what's happened, it's clear that people have turned a blind eye or, worse still, connived with it, then of course they're going to have to be held to account and - if that turns out to be the case - heads will need to roll of course," he told ITV's The Agenda.

Earlier this week it emerged Savile was barred from any involvement with the BBC's Children In Need charity.

Sir Roger Jones, a former chairman of the charity, said he had been uncomfortable about allowing Savile to have any association with their work.

Although he had "no evidence" that Savile was up to anything, he said he behaved strangely, adding: "I think we all recognised he was a pretty creepy sort of character."

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Ivan Leach: 100 Reported Sightings Of Fugitive

Some 100 sightings of a fugitive prisoner - suspected of committing a serious sex attack while on the run - have been reported.

Scores of possible sightings of Ivan Leach have been received by police since he went missing from North Sea Camp open prison in Boston, Lincolnshire, having failed to return from day release on October 9.

Leach, also known as Lee Cyrus, 47, is suspected to have committed a serious sex attack in Tayside after this and police have described him as "extremely dangerous and predatory."

The last known sighting of him was in his home town of Preston on October 19. Grampian Police ruled out the latest potential sighting of Leach in Aberdeenshire on Tuesday night.

Police have urged the public not to approach him under any circumstance.

Leach was jailed in 2005 for robbing a 90-year-old woman in her home in Ribbleton, Preston. He was given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of five years. Leach also has convictions for burglary, robbery and assault.

Leach is white, around 5ft 11in and stocky. He has a shaved head and hazel eyes. Police also said he has a scar on his top lip and was last seen wearing a black waterproof jacket, dark trousers and carrying a full rucksack.

Crimestoppers are offering up to £3,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Leach.

Grampian Police are also investigating the rape of a young woman in Aberdeen on Saturday morning. Officers said they are keeping an open mind about the identity of the rapist and are not focusing on a specific individual.

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Moss Reveals Her Topless Teenage Anguish

Supermodel Kate Moss has used a rare interview to reveal how distressed she was when she was forced to pose topless at the age of 16.

Moss told Vanity Fair magazine that later, while she was still in her teens, she suffered a nervous breakdown during a Calvin Klein campaign.

Now 38, she spoke about the pressures she was under and how for many years she had no-one "to take care of" her, apart from the time she spent dating Hollywood star Johnny Depp.

Moss told Vanity Fair how uncomfortable she felt while working on a shoot for style magazine The Face with photographer Corinne Day, which helped to propel her to fame.

"I see a 16-year-old now, and to ask her to take her clothes off would feel really weird," she said.

"But they were like 'If you don't do it, then we're not going to book you again'. So I'd lock myself in the toilet and cry and then come out and do it. I never felt very comfortable about it."

Moss said she was not happy with her "boobs" and insisted that the only man on the photoshoot turn his back while the pictures were being taken.

Moss is now happily married to musician Jamie Hince

The supermodel claimed her mental health suffered while working on a Calvin Klein campaign in the early 1990s.

"I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts," she said.

"It didn't feel like me at all. I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn't like it. I couldn't get out of bed for two weeks. I thought I was going to die."

She went on: "It was just anxiety. Nobody takes care of you mentally. There's a massive pressure to do what you have to do."

Moss said Depp came to her aid during their four-year relationship, but following their split she said there was "years and years of crying".

She told interviewer James Fox: "I really lost that gauge of somebody I could trust."

Moss married musician Jamie Hince in 2011 and has an 11-year-old daughter, Lila Grace, from a previous relationship.

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Wife Makes Tearful Appeal For Missing Sailor

The wife of a Royal Navy sailor who went missing five months ago while in Dubai has made a tearful appeal for help in finding him.

Leading Seaman Timothy MacColl, who was serving on HMS Westminster, went missing while the ship was visiting the United Arab Emirates.

The 28-year-old was last seen getting into a taxi to return to his ship at Port Rashid in the early hours of May 27.

At a press conference in Portsmouth his wife, Rachael, appealed for information about his whereabouts.

Mrs MacColl, 25, said: "My husband is not just a sailor, he's an adoring father, son and uncle. He is my soul mate, my first love and best friend.

Mrs MacColl wipes away tears at the news conference

"We have been together since we were teenagers, we have grown together, got married and started a family.

"Days before my husband went missing we had celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary and his present from me were scan pictures of our soon-to-be third child who I had just seen at our 20-week scan.

"We had everything to look forward to and as I have said from the beginning my husband wants to be found.

"Growing up without a father meant Timmy put everything into being a great daddy and he would be heartbroken that he hasn't been with them the last few months."

Describing the moment that she found out that her husband was missing, she said: "Being a military wife you know that knock on the door is a possibility but you never think it will be you.

"When that knock came I collapsed for I was told that my husband wasn't dead or injured but missing. My head couldn't understand what they meant.

"For the last five months I have sat at home unable to give up hope, unable to move forward, unable to grieve and constantly dreading the fact that the knock on the door might or might not ever come again.

"So today is so important to all of Timmy's family because we want his face to be seen by everybody in the hope they may remember something that will lead to bringing Timmy home."

She added: "This has been the longest deployment so far but unlike others there's no rainbow or homecoming at the end."

Mrs MacColl said that she had become frustrated at the lack of co-operation from the Dubai police.

She said: "There's been a lot of communication breakdown, it has affected the whole of this investigation. As a family we find it very hard. I call Dubai police on a regular basis three or four times a week. I've run up a phone bill for £300-400, it's not as if we haven't tried."

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'Millions Face No Increase In Living Standards'

Millions of families face a decade of stagnant living standards because of low pay rises and job cuts, according to a new report.

The Resolution Foundation said low and middle-income households may miss out on any economic recovery unless steps are taken to ensure growth is shared over the next 10 years.

It warned that even with a return to steady growth, a large proportion of households in the UK will be no better off in 2020 than they were in 2000.

The think-tank said the Government could help avoid this scenario by introducing more state subsidies for cheap childcare and cutting council tax on smaller homes.

Increasing the tax on expensive properties and cutting national insurance contributions for workers aged over 55 would help fund such measures, it said.

The report warns: "On the UK's current path, come 2020, household incomes across the bottom half of the working-age population look likely to be lower than they are today.

"A typical low income household in 2020 is set to have an income 15% lower than an equivalent household in 2008, a return to income levels not seen since 1993.

"Were the UK to boost skills in the bottom half of the workforce to an ambitious but plausible degree, raise female employment so that it matches leading international benchmarks, and repeat the scale of past successes in combating low pay, the combined effect on household incomes could be highly significant.

"In a scenario that combines success on each of these fronts, a typical middle income household looks set to have an income roughly £1,600 higher in 2020 than on the UK's current path."

The study calculated that about two million senior and professional positions and 400,000 basic service jobs are likely to be created over the decade.

But it said there would be a demise of about 800,000 administrative and manufacturing jobs in the UK that are predominately filled by low and middle-income workers.

The report was produced for the Resolution Foundation by the Commission on Living Standards, a group of leading employers, trade unionists, economists and heads of parents' groups.

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Wind Farms Condemned By Tory Energy Minister

The Tory energy minister has infuriated his Lib Dem boss by appearing to declare there would be no further expansion of onshore wind farms.

John Hayes was slapped down by Energy Secretary Ed Davey for saying wind turbines had been "peppered around the country" and insisting "enough is enough".

Sky News understands that Mr Davey blocked similar comments from a speech the minister made on Tuesday at a Renewables UK event after being shown a first draft.

But to the Energy Secretary's fury, his deputy's controversial stance was revealed anyway after Mr Hayes spoke to the Daily Mail's political editor.

The intervention will delight scores of Conservative MPs, who have been urging David Cameron to block further expansion of onshore wind farms, but infuriate their Lib Dem partners.

And it prompted environmental campaigners to round on the Government, who branded Mr Hayes "petulant" and accused the coalition of a "growing energy shambles".

According to the quotes in the Daily Mail, Mr Hayes said the spread of turbines "seems extraordinary" and they should no longer be "imposed on communities".

"I can't single-handedly build a new Jerusalem but I can protect our green and pleasant land," he said. "We have issued a call for evidence on wind. That is about cost but also about community buy-in. We need to understand communities' genuine desires.

"We will form our policy in the future on the basis of that, not on a bourgeois Left article of faith based on some academic perspective."

The senior Tory insisted only a minority of proposed wind turbines were needed to meet green targets set by the Government.

John Hayes (left) has infuriated his boss Ed Davey (right)

"If you look at what has been built, what has consent and what is in the planning system, much of it will not get through and will be rejected. Even if a minority of what's in the system is built, we are going to reach our 2020 target," he said.

He added: "I'm saying enough is enough."

And he claimed new research on wind turbines would make a far wider assessment of their impact on the rural landscape and property prices.

"I have asked the planning minister to look again at the relationship between these turbines and the landscape," he said.

"It seems extraordinary to have allowed them to be peppered around the country without due regard for the interests of the local community or their wishes."

Mr Hayes also said the visual impact of onshore wind farms on environments had been "neglected" and renewable energy needed "genuine community support".

"The salience of aesthetics to discussions about renewables has often been neglected," he added. "All that we do must be sensitive to local environments."

In a public rebuke, Mr Davey issued a statement making clear the Government was not closing the door on new onshore wind farms and that its policy had not changed.

"Onshore wind is one of the cheapest renewables, which is why we've been able to cut the subsidy. It has an important role to play in our future," he said.

The Energy Secretary stressed no targets or caps are being applied to wind farms and that no reviews are being done about their effect on landscape or property values.

Mr Davey had reportedly already taken steps to limit Mr Hayes' responsibilities after the Tory was given the energy brief in the September reshuffle because he was so concerned about his views.

Maf Smith, deputy chief executive of RenewableUK, said his organisation was "disappointed" by the minister's comments.

Greenpeace energy campaigner Leila Deen added: "John Hayes' petulant outburst adds to the Coalition's growing energy shambles and to a deepening divide within Government between those who care about green growth and the economy and those who just want more oil and gas.

"Here is a new minister veering off brief and publicly contradicting his bosses. His comments threaten jobs and his approach will drive up energy bills. Cameron needs to take charge."

When confronted by Sky News arriving at his department on Wednesday, Mr Hayes insisted he supported a "balanced energy policy".

"I don't have any comment to make above or beyond what I have already said on the record," he said.

But at PMQs, David Cameron risked fuelling the row by hinting that wind farm numbers could be reviewed once existing targets are reached.

"We have got a big pipeline of onshore and offshore wind projects that are coming through," he said.

"We are committed to those but frankly all parties are going to have to have a debate in this House and outside this House about what happens once those targets are met."

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Missing Pierre: Dad Fears Son Lost Forever

By Paul Harrison, News Correspondent

The father of missing 12-year-old Pierre Barnes has told Sky News a "perfect storm" of events means his son is unlikely to be found alive.

Stephen Barnes, a father-of-four, also confirmed the search for his son will be scaled back in the coming days.

"Today, the weather is appalling just like it was the night Pierre disappeared, so the authorities have suspended their search," said Mr Barnes.

"They'll start looking again on Thursday but the number of people will be scaled back," he added.

The Prefect of the Var region of France last night declared search teams had scoured most of the island of Porquerolles but said they had been "let down".

Mr Barnes, his French wife and children arrived on the small Mediterranean island on Saturday for a week's holiday.

Helicopters have been out when the weather has allowed

Just a few hours later, before dark, 12-year-old Pierre took a short cycle ride and has not been seen since.

Shortly after the alarm was raised, the youngster's bike was discovered along with his shoe, which was lying nearby.

"We came to this island because we thought it would be a safe place for the children, but it didn't turn out that way," said Mr Barnes.

"Events on their own like the terrible storm and Pierre's bike breaking down wouldn't have caused a problem, but they happened all at once."

Torrential weather along the southern coast of France has interrupted the search effort on the two-and-a-half mile long island.

"We are having to face the prospect that Pierre will not be found alive," said Mr Barnes. "I accept that when I talk about him, I do so in the past tense."

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