Missing Yachtsmen: 'Give Sailors Another Chance'

The father of one of four yachtsmen missing in the Atlantic Ocean has pleaded for the search for them to be resumed saying the sailors needed to be "given a chance".

David Bridge told Sky News he was "devastated" to hear the US Coastguard had called off the rescue mission on Sunday due to treacherous weather conditions.

He said the group had set off a personal locator beacon suggesting the group were in a life raft.

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.

The overturned hull of a yacht matching the description of the Cheeki Rafiki was spotted and photographed by a cargo vessel assisting the search.

It reported no there were no signs of life on board and no life raft, however no one from the Greek-registered 1,000ft container ship Maersk Kure tried to climb down to the yacht to check if anyone was trapped alive inside.

The yacht reportedly capsized on the way back from the Caribbean

The crew was returning from Antigua Sailing Week in the 40ft yacht when it ran into difficulties 620 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Mr Bridge said he last heard from Andrew, 21, as they prepared to leave Antigua.

Speaking from Farnham, Surrey he told Sky News: "He's very experienced, he's done a lot of offshore racing. I think he's equipped as anybody would be."

He had been told in conference calls with the American authorities that they felt "they have done enough" after searching more than 4,000 square miles of the ocean for pings from the vessel's personal locator beacons over two days.

But he said the search should be resumed while doubts over their fate remain. 

"They need to go out there and carry on searching.They should give them another chance," he said.

Mr Warren's sister, Kay Coombes, said she and their mother, Margaret Warren, were convinced he was still alive.

The 46-year-old said: "It's an utter nightmare, we are grateful for the US and Canadian coast guards for what they have done so far but it's stopped too soon after two days, it's not long enough, we believe they are still alive.

L-R: Andrew Bridge, Steve Warren, James Male, Paul Goslin

"Everyone is just trying to put pressure on the US Coastguard using every channel possible."

Round-the-world record-breaking yachtswoman, Tracy Edwards told Sky News: "I understand there has been some nasty weather but I think it's inexcusable that the search has been called off completely."

She added: "There has to be a limit but you can't search 4,000 square miles of ocean in two days. That's impossible."

The US Coastguard said it cancelled the search, involving American and Canadian aircraft and three merchant vessels after failing to receive any transmissions from the locator beacons.

A spokesman also defended the actions of the crew of the cargo vessel which spotted what was thought to be the yacht, saying it did not the capabilities to search or pick up the Cheeki Rafiki.

Before running into trouble on their way back to Southampton, the crew joked on social media about their lengthening beards and the food they were eating.

A blog posted to Facebook on Tuesday, one of their last, said: "We are already thinking of home and the ones we love and miss, you know who you are!"

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Van Gaal Confirmed As New Man United Boss

Manchester United have confirmed that Dutch boss Louis van Gaal will take over as manager of the club for the 2014/15 season.

The Old Trafford giants confirmed that supporters' favourite Ryan Giggs will join the 62-year-old's team as assistant manager.

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Woman Killed, Four Children Hurt In Stabbing

Police have launched a murder investigation after a woman was killed and four children injured in a stabbing attack.

Officers called to a domestic incident in Huddersfield found a 37-year-old woman with a "serious stab injury" and a nine-year-old boy outside the property with an injury to his arm.

The woman was taken to hospital after the attack on Sunday evening, but she later died.

The boy was also taken to hospital for treatment to his injury.

Another nine-year-old boy, a boy of 11 and a six-month-old baby girl, who were also at the address in Reinwood Road, were treated for minor injuries.

Det Chief Insp Ady Taylor said: "A 39-year-old man was detained at the scene and is being treated in hospital for serious injuries.

"We are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident.

"Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident and Neighbourhood Policing Team officers are patrolling the area, offering support and reassurance to local residents."

:: Anyone with information is asked to contact Protective Services Crime on the non emergency number 101 or Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555 111.

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Arnold Pickering: Killer On The Run Arrested

A convicted murderer who absconded from prison while on day release has been arrested in Greater Manchester.

It was the third time Arnold Pickering, 44, had gone on the run.

He and armed robber Thomas Moffett, 51, had left HMP Kennet in Liverpool at 9.30am on Saturday morning and were due back at around 4.40pm the same day.

Swastika-tattooed Moffett was arrested around 9pm on Sunday in Blackburn, Lancashire, for being unlawfully at large.

 Merseyside Police say Pickering was arrested at an address in Oldham at around 11.45am on Monday.

Pickering is serving a life sentence for stabbing to death a 55-year-old man, wrongly identified as a paedophile, in Oldham in 1990.

He had absconded twice earlier during his sentence, but later handed himself in again on both occasions.

Moffett had also gone missing but was arrested on Sunday

His disappearance came just two weeks after armed robber Michael Wheatley, known as "Skullcracker", absconded from Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, while on temporary release.

Michael Alcock was released from HMP Kennet after serving a two-a-half-year prison sentence. He said Pickering was asked by fellow inmates if he would abscond.

He told Sky News: "When he was asked by certain individuals, if he was going to come back he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

"Some of these lads don't want to be released from jail. Life is good to them in jail they don't want to be released back into the community with bills, worries and stress. They are institutionalised.

"Some people can't cope with the outside world and I personally think that's what's happened with this man."

Mr Alcock said Justice Minister Chris Grayling would be wrong to radically reform the current system because of some high-profile absconders.

"Temporary release for some people means making ties back with your family, finding work, finding re housing, resettling back into the community. 

"I've just been released today and the world is just going a million miles an hour."

Mr Grayling and the Prime Minister's official spokesman both said changes to the temporary release regime would be made "as soon as we can".

Mr Grayling told Sky News: "I don't mind the principle of somebody going out to do a day's work to get them back into the employment habit in preparation for release in a few weeks or few months' time.

"But the idea that we'd let serious criminals go and walk around town all day is simply unacceptable and that is something we're putting a stop to."

A statement issued by the Prison Officers Association said the current arrangements around open prisons involved "playing Russian roulette with public safety."

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Rolf Harris 'Tongue-Kissed Sick 11-Year-Old'

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Rolf Harris kissed a girl of 11 or 12 while she was off school "so he could be her first," a court has heard.

The woman, who is in her fifties and cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was left "frozen" and "repulsed" by what happened.

She added that as a result she still felt "frazzled" whenever she was kissed, saying it caused her "panic attacks".

The woman, from the Northern Territory, was the first Australian witness to give evidence on day six of the trial at Southwark Crown Court.

There is no charge against Harris regarding the woman and her evidence is being used to support the prosecution's case.

The woman told the court she was assaulted in 1969 and was staying with friends when she woke up, came downstairs in her pyjamas and found Harris polishing wood.

She told the court: "He asked me how old I was and he said he wanted to be the first one to introduce me to a tongue kiss.

"I stood there. I didn't think anything. I just froze. I didn't think he was being serious. Then he walked up towards me."

She said Harris ran his hands up her body, bent down and kissed her.

She added: "I was scared. It seemed to last forever but it must have been very quick. He put his tongue inside my mouth."

When asked how she felt afterwards the woman replied: "I was quite repulsed, absolutely. He just stopped and then said 'look at what I have been doing.'

The woman, who has been married three times, told the court the alleged incident had repercussions in her adult life as she found it difficult to tongue kiss.

She said: "It upset me a lot. I think it's a hang-up left over by Mr Harris. I told them (partners) not to pull me towards you. It makes me feel frazzled and scared, I almost have panic attacks."

The woman said she had not told her parents about what happened and friends did not believe her when she later told them her "first tongue kiss was with Rolf Harris".

She told the court she went to police after reports of the investigation against him emerged in the Australian media.

Harris, 84, from Bray in Berkshire, listened to proceedings from the glass-fronted dock, dressed in a black suit, striped shirt and tie. He occasionally made notes and glanced at the woman as she gave evidence.

His wife Alwen was in the public gallery along with other friends and relatives.

Harris denies 12 counts of indecent assault allegedly carried out between 1968 and 1986.

The trial continues.

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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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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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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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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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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 represents the biggest current risk to the economy.

And the number of large mortgages being approved to house buyers is on the rise, he added.

Mr Carney said that the UK is in need of new house building.

He said that compared to his home country of Canada, for example, the UK built half the number of new homes every year despite having twice the population. 

Canada builds around 200,000 new homes a year compared to just 133,000 similar properties that were built in the UK last year.

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

Mark Carney has issued a warning over the UK housing market

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?"

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."

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.

Earlier this month, the OECD think tank called on the Bank of England to impose measures to help quell rising house prices.

Both the coalition and Labour are committed to building hundreds of thousands of new homes.

However, construction still lags behind Government targets.

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