Madeleine McCann Police Probe Possible Suspect

By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent

Scotland Yard is to appeal for information about a new suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Detectives are to issue an e-fit image of a man seen near the holiday apartment from where the then three-year-old vanished in 2007.

Her parents Kate and Gerry McCann have been shown the image and say they are "greatly encouraged" by the progress of the Metropolitan Police, who have effectively taken over the hunt for the missing girl.

The officer in charge of the case, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, is expected next week to give details of the suspect's movements around the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the day Madeleine disappeared.

But sources said police will not know how significant the suspect is until he is identified, traced and interviewed.

Kate and Gerry McCann believe their daughter is still alive

He is one of 41 individuals police believe are "people of interest" they need to talk to.

The image of the possible new suspect is expected to form a crucial part of fresh appeals at the beginning of next week.

Police will give some idea of what witnesses have said about his behaviour on Monday.

They will be making an appeal for new witnesses to come forward if they recall seeing him around the apartment six years ago, or recognise him now, from the detailed image.

The Metropolitan Police now has a team of six Portuguese detectives based in Faro who are carrying out inquiries on its behalf.

The Portuguese investigation is officially closed but authorities there are backing the Scotland Yard inquiry and officers from both countries will work together in pursuing new leads.

Madeleine's parents have said they remain "optimistic" of finding their daughter and will not accept she is dead until they are presented with clear evidence.

Her disappearance is to be the subject of a Crimewatch appeal on Monday to try to produce new witnesses in the case.

It will also be aired in Holland and Germany - where many tourists in the Algarve come from.

There appears to be some doubt as to whether it will be shown in Portugal.

Former Met detective Peter Kirkham told Sky News officers were likely to get "hundreds, if not thousands" of phone calls off the back of the world-wide coverage the television appeal would receive.

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E-Border Review: Thousands Of Alerts Deleted

More than 649,000 alerts relating to potential drug and tobacco smuggling into the UK were deleted without being read, an inspection into border controls has found.

The Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, John Vine, discovered the alerts were erased from a government system when he was examining the multimillion-pound e-Borders programme.

The border check system was set up by the Home Office 10 years ago to collect Advanced Passenger Information (API), which is then checked against terror and criminal watch lists.

The e-Borders programme is viewed by the Government as the front line in the battle to stop criminals and terrorists from entering or leaving the UK.

But Mr Vine found that records relating to drug and tobacco smuggling were deleted over a 10-month period due to "poor data quality and the prioritisation of immigration over customs work".

He said: "These deletions had a significant impact on the ability of staff at the border to seize prohibited and restricted goods and deal with those responsible."

The deletions amounted to three quarters of all the customs work completed at National Border Targeting Centre (NBTC), the hi-tech hub where watch list checks on passengers entering and leaving Britain are carried out, his report said.

The inspector also found the e-Borders programme had not delivered planned increases in passenger data collection, with only 65% of all passenger movements into and out of the UK covered, due to complications surrounding European law.

Mr Vine said: "Despite being in development for over a decade, and costing over half a billion pounds, the e-Borders programme has yet to deliver many of the anticipated benefits originally set out in 2007.

"I was surprised that the use of e-Borders information to 'export the border' by preventing the arrival of a passenger because they had either been deported or excluded from the UK previously, was not happening.

Drug smuggling alerts were deleted from the system, it was found

"The Home Office should now define clearly what the aims of the e-Borders programme are ahead of the new procurement exercise, and be transparent about what e-borders will deliver and by when."

Immigration Minister Mark Harper said Mr Vine's findings would be taken into account, but he said improvements had been made.

"Border Force - which the Government split from the UK Border Agency in 2011 - is making significant improvements in its performance," Mr Harper said.

"The 2011 Vine Report revealed that border security checks had been waived without ministerial authorisation consistently since 2007.

"Today, there is a clear operating mandate and all checks are carried out.

"A year ago, the Border Force had trouble with excessive queues at airports. Today, 99% of travellers are cleared within the service standards we've agreed.

"The security of the border is now at the heart of everything Border Force does.

"We have the best coverage of any country in Europe but we are working to improve our coverage further."

But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said border control was in "chaos".

"The Home Secretary must urgently explain why hundreds of thousands of possible drug-smuggling records were deleted in 2012 without having ever been read," Ms Cooper said.

"She needs to stop drug-smuggling information being deleted and get the proper border controls in place, rather than relying on divisive gimmicks like ad vans instead.

"It is an outrage that drug smugglers have been able to get away with it because basic information was never acted on."

:: Immigration will be one of the key issues of the next general election - and from Monday 14 October Sky News is hosting a week of special coverage examining its effects on the UK.

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'Go Home' Govt Van Poster Was 'Misleading'

A campaign by the Home Office urging illegal immigrants to "go home" has been banned for using misleading arrest statistics.

However the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) cleared it over complaints that it was offensive and irresponsible.

The campaign involved two vans driving through six London boroughs between July 22 and July 28 with a poster saying: "In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest."

It drew 224 complaints to the ASA, including some from groups representing migrants in the UK, legal academics and the Labour peer Lord Lipsey.

The poster featured a close-up image of someone holding a pair of handcuffs and wearing a uniform with a "Home Office" badge.

It also pictured a box containing green text in the style of an official stamp stating "106 arrests last week in your area".

Small print at the bottom of the poster said the arrest figures were from the period June 30 to July 6 and covered Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Hounslow.

Several complainants challenged whether the claim "106 arrests last week in your area" was misleading and could be substantiated, while others said the small print was not legible on a moving vehicle.

The ASA said those who saw the poster would understand the claim "106 arrests last week in your area" to mean that during the previous week 106 people in the area in which they saw the poster had been arrested under suspicion of being in the UK illegally.

Liberty sent out their own van in response to the posters

It said: "Because the data on which the claim was based related to a significant part of London north of the Thames rather than to the specific areas in which the poster was displayed, and because the data did not relate to the week prior to the campaign, we concluded the claim was misleading and had not been substantiated.

"We told the Home Office to ensure that in future they held adequate substantiation for their advertising claims and that qualifications were presented clearly.

"The ad must not appear again in its current form."

However it was decided the message was "in no way racist" despite the phrase "go home" being reminiscent of slogans used in the past to attack immigrants to the UK.

"We recognised that the poster, and the phrase "go home" in particular, were likely to be distasteful to some in the context of an ad addressed to illegal immigrants, irrespective of the overall message conveyed, and we recognised that wording less likely to produce that response, such as "return home" could have been used.

"However, we concluded that the poster was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence or distress."

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We are pleased the ASA have concluded that our pilot was neither offensive nor irresponsible.

"In respect of the ASA's other findings, we can confirm that the poster will not be used again in its current format."

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Malala: Brit Doctor's Role In Saving Her Life

By Ian Woods, Senior News Correspondent

The remarkable story of how a Birmingham children's doctor helped save the life of the world's most famous child campaigner is only now being told - at the insistence of her patient.

One year ago today, Fiona Reynolds was visiting Pakistan with several colleagues to advise on transplant surgery when she saw TV reports about how 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai had been shot by the Taliban for publicly promoting education for girls.

Pakistani officials asked Dr Reynolds to visit the hospital in Peshawar where Malala was being treated.

"She was very ill. She was close to death," Dr Reynolds told Sky News.

"In Peshawar her father had been told by the Pakistani doctors, before I arrived, to pray for her and he took it to mean she was dying and he started to make preparations for her funeral."

Malala is writing about her ordeal in a new book

The initial surgery on Malala was a success, but poor intensive care facilities meant she would probably suffer brain damage - or even die.

"When I reviewed Malala I thought there was a good chance she could survive," Dr Reynolds said.

"But the quality of intensive care was compromising her survival and her ability to get through it without brain damage."

Dr Reynolds helped supervise as Malala was flown by the army from Peshawar to Rawalpindi, and then helped treat her in the critical hours after she arrived.

"By Friday evening it was obvious she was getting better. The threat of the infection passed," Dr Reynolds said.

"The facilities for rehabilitation were not well developed. My opinion was if you want the best outcome for her send her overseas for rehabilitation."

She recommended she be taken to Birmingham.

Malala was shot on a school bus in the Swat Valley

"They wanted me to compare various hospitals around the world and I wasn't able to do that," Dr Reynolds said.

"But what I was able to tell them was that everything I thought she would need was available in Birmingham."

Despite her key role in saving Malala's life, Dr Reynolds' identity was kept secret for security reasons.

Even Dr Reynolds' friends and colleagues knew nothing of her involvement until Malala insisted that her story be told.

But the doctor is not keen to share the spotlight, even turning down a chance to rub shoulders with some of Malala's famous admirers.

"I was invited to dinner with Angelina Jolie because of her role with the UN, but it was my husband's birthday so I said no," she said.

"All of this world of celebrity and what she does is really important, but I have a job to do here and it's not my world. I don't want to deal with all that celebrity."

Malala was moved to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham

She has only agreed to discuss Malala publicly because the schoolgirl encouraged her to.

"I met Malala as a doctor and I'm bound by an oath not to talk about her," Dr Reynolds said.

"She asked everyone to be named in her book, and I didn't want to be named, but Malala said the book had to be the truth.

"She wants her real story to be out there."

Dr Reynolds has plenty of her praise for her former patient, who is tipped to be named as the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize later this week.

"She understands international politics in a way many adults don't. She's brought the world's attention to very important issues," Dr Reynolds said.

"I'm biased. I think she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize - but it's up to the committee to decide."

Malala has written a book about her ordeal and ongoing campaign work called I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education And Was Shot By The Taliban.

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Passenger Tasered After Stripping Off At Airport

A drunk airline passenger who stripped naked on the tarmac and challenged the flight captain to a fight had to be tasered by police.

The burly, tattooed 52-year-old was caught on video stripping to his black underpants, shouting and remonstrating after stepping off the easyJet flight from Malta to Manchester.

He then removed the underpants and was given a hard slap across the face by his female companion before putting his clothes back on.

The stripper, who has not been identified, but spoke with a Manchester accent, also urinated on the side of the Terminal One building at Manchester Airport.

He was later tasered and arrested by the police.

Trouble reportedly began mid-flight when the man became abusive and started swearing at fellow passengers.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "At 9.50am on Thursday September 26 2013, police were called to Terminal One arrivals of Manchester Airport following reports a man was drunk and being abusive to passengers on a flight from Malta.

"As he left the plane, he took his clothes off and urinated against a wall.

"A 52-year-old man was stunned using an electronic stun gun and arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly in a public place.

"He was issued a fixed penalty notice."

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Royal Mail: More Than 100,000 Seek Shares

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Well over 100,000 members of the public applied to buy shares in Royal Mail ahead of last night's deadline, confirming the status of the £3.3bn sell-off as the biggest privatisation for decades.

Sky News understands that tens of thousands of people applied within the 48 hours prior to the cut-off point alone, encouraged by City speculation that the postal operator's shares could soar in the aftermath of its historic flotation.

One source said the final number of retail applicants could be as high as 200,000, although orders were still being counted on Wednesday morning ahead of ministers' decisions about the allocation of shares

The final number of retail applicants is expected to be confirmed on Friday but one source said the figure would be "well into six figures".

Even 150,000 retail applicants would mean that the distribution of Royal Mail shares was far narrower than some of the mega-privatisations of the 1980s, such as British Gas and BT, which saw stock sold to 1.5m and 750,000 small shareholders respectively.

Michael Fallon, the Business Minister overseeing the privatisation, has pledged that retail investors will receive their "fair share" of Royal Mail shares..

The political row over Royal Mail's privatisation has escalated in recent days, with Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, accusing his Labour shadow, Chuka Umunna, of "irresponsibility" for claiming that the shares will be significantly undervalued when they start trading next week.

Around 150,000 Royal Mail staff will receive about £2,200 of free shares as part of the flotation, although they will have to hold onto them for up to five years to avoid triggering a tax liability on the sale.

BIS declined to comment on the number of applications it had received for shares from members of the public.

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Mid Staffs Trust Admits Failings Over Death

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust has admitted breaching health and safety law over the death of a diabetic in-patient.

The scandal-plagued hospital trust pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the safety of Gillian Astbury, who lapsed into a fatal diabetic coma while being treated at Stafford Hospital in April 2007.

She died after staff failed to give her the insulin she needed.

The Trust admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to properly manage and organise hospital services, including its systems for record-keeping, patient information and communication between staff members.

The prosecution at Stafford Magistrates' Court was brought by the Health and Safety Executive.

It came three years after an inquest jury ruled that Mrs Astbury's death was contributed to by low staffing levels and a systemic failure to provide adequate nursing facilities.

The inquest also concluded the failure to administer insulin to the 66-year-old amounted to a gross failure to provide basic care.

Mrs Astbury, from Hednesford, Staffordshire, died in the early hours of April 11, 2007, while being treated for fractures to her arm and pelvis.

Stafford Hospital has previously been the subject of several highly critical reports, including a full public inquiry, which identified "routine" neglect of patients between 2005 and 2009.

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Passenger Lands Plane After Pilot Falls Ill

The pilot of a light aircraft who fell ill forcing his passenger to perform an emergency landing at Humberside Airport has died overnight.

During the flight on Tuesday evening, the pilot made a distress call when he became so sick he was unable to continuing flying the light aircraft.

Humberside Police confirmed the pilot died later that night but do not yet know his cause of death.

Two flight instructors were called in to talk to the passenger from the ground while he took control of the plane, an airport spokesman said.

The man had very limited flying experience and had never landed an aircraft before.

Despite this, he managed to successfully land at the North Lincolnshire airport just after 7.30pm.

The Aircraft seen today

Roy Murray, one of the instructors who helped coach the passenger down, said the man completed the landing with no lighting inside the cabin.

"I didn't want to upset him and tell him to move all round the cockpit (trying to locate the light switches), all I was interested in was keeping him flying the aeroplane straight and level."

Mr Murray, who has taught flying for 30 years, said he's never come across a situation like this before.

"When I think about it now that lad did extremely well, no lights, in the dark, no experience, flying a strange aeroplane in a strange area, he must have been nerve-wracked as well as us."

The man took three passes over the runway before landing on the fourth approach.

Mr Murray says the man – who he knows only as John – kept his composure and was able to land the plane safely.

The plane took off from Sandtoft Airfield

"He was very calm and he followed all our instructions and he did a beautiful landing," he said.

"I've never met him, I'd like to meet him, obviously just to say 'Well done, lad. Together we did it'."

Police have not yet released the name or age of the pilot who died. His family has been informed of his death.

The light aircraft took off from Sandtoft Airfield, near Doncaster, for training with one passenger.

The man and pilot were the only two people on board the aircraft.

Humberside Airport praised the response of emergency services in a tweet: "We are pleased to say that the incident that started a few hours ago has been successfully dealt with. Great response from emergency svs!" the airport said.

Flights coming into the airport were delayed while the plane was moved from the runway.

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Artist Ovenden Jailed Over Child Sex Offences

Artist Graham Ovenden has been jailed after judges ruled his non-custodial sentence for child sex offences was "unduly lenient".

Court of Appeal judges sentenced the internationally-renowned painter to two years and three months in prison.

Ovenden, from Cornwall, abused children who posed for him in the 1970s and 1980s, and was convicted in April of six charges of indecency with a child and one of indecent assault relating to three girls.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, sitting with two other judges in London, quashed the suspended 12-month prison sentence the 70-year-old initially received and said Ovenden had not shown a "shred of remorse" for his victims

The judges also rejected Ovenden's application for permission to appeal the conviction, ruling that the verdicts were "safe".

When he was arrested the artist, whose youngest victim was just six, told police he had a "major reputation" for having "some of the best portraits of children in the last 200 years".

Ovenden claimed that his interest in young girls was artistic and not sexual - but that claim was rejected by the three judges.

Lord Thomas said the girls had "no understanding of the true purpose" behind what Ovenden was doing.

He said: "There was no doubt that his purpose was sexual. There is no doubt that he had a sexual interest in children."

When considering the appropriate sentence the court had to have regard to the fact that the only mitigation Ovenden had was his former good character and his age.

Lord Thomas added that against that "there are a very large number of aggravating factors", including the "very serious impact on the victims, magnified by the way in which he had grossly manipulated them and degraded them by the photographs he had taken".

Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC MP, decided to refer the 70-year-old's case to the Court of Appeal in July.

Speaking after the hearing, the Attorney General said: "Graham Ovenden committed terrible sexual offences against vulnerable young girls who were in his charge and ought to have felt safe. He manipulated them and abused his position of trust.

"It is right that sexual crimes, whether committed many years ago or more recently, should be punished appropriately.

"Today the court affirmed this and sent a clear message that people who have behaved in this way in the past will face the consequences through the courts."

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Sir Menzies Campbell To Quit At 2015 Election

Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell is to stand down from Parliament at the general election scheduled for May 2015.

Sir Menzies - known to all at Westminster as "Ming" - said he had written to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to inform him of his intention.

The 72-year-old has served as MP for North East Fife since 1987 and was leader of the Lib Dems from 2006-07.

Sir Menzies said: "It's been an enormous privilege to have been an MP for 26 years and to represent such a wonderful constituency as North East Fife. My wife and I have made many friends and have been supported by constituents of all political persuasions and none.

"It is always a regret to begin the process of retiring from the House of Commons but I believe now is the time to start. I have written to Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, and to Harry Wills, chairman of the North East Fife constituency party."

Sir Menzies (centre) in 2006 when he was elected party leader

In his letter to Mr Clegg, Sir Menzies said he had "reached the conclusion that now would be the right time to step down and to allow someone else to have the opportunity to serve the people of North East Fife".

He said he would maintain his links with the constituency through positions including his chancellorship of St Andrews University.

He told Mr Clegg, who replaced him as leader in 2007: "Between now and 2015 I will maintain my efforts to be as effective a representative of my constituents and their interests as I can and to the best of my ability support yourself, our party and its interests."

A barrister and former athlete, who held the UK 100m record and competed in the 1964 Olympic Games, Sir Menzies entered Parliament as a Liberal MP on his fifth attempt in 1987, and became a Liberal Democrat on the party's creation the following year.

He served on his party's frontbench - most prominently as foreign affairs spokesman - for the majority of his parliamentary career, but his stint as leader following Charles Kennedy's resignation was marked by poor poll ratings and he stepped down after just 19 months.

He has most recently served on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.

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