Google Agrees To Block Child Abuse Images

Internet searches for child abuse images will be blocked for the first time by Microsoft and Google after months of mounting pressure.

The groundbreaking move will soon prevent illegal images and videos from appearing in more than 100,000 search terms associated with abuse.

Google says it has also developed technology that will allow illegal videos to be "tagged" so all duplicate copies can be removed across the internet.

The changes will apply across the world in more than 150 languages.

Microsoft, which operates and powers Bing and Yahoo, will reportedly confirm at a Downing Street summit on online pornography today that it is introducing similar reforms.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt, writing in the Daily Mail ahead of the No 10 talks, said: "We've listened.

"We've fine-tuned Google Search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in our results."

Illegal images showing child sex abuse will not appear in search results

The Prime Minister welcomed the move as a "really significant step forward", but threatened to bring forward new legislation if search engine companies failed to deliver on their promises.

Some child protection experts have raised doubts over the changes, saying paedophiles rarely use search engines but instead use services such as peer-to-peer sharing.

Jim Gamble, former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), told Sky News it was "not a solution".

He said: "My fear is that it simply masks the symptoms... It is a positive step forward and the prime minister's involvement is a good thing but at the end of the day the fact remains that paedophiles don't search out their images on the internet.

"Nor does the internet make people become paedophiles - we need to get to the root cause of this."

Calls for internet companies to take action against searching for illegal content grew following the trials of child killers Mark Bridger and Stuart Hazel earlier this year.

The UK's National Crime Agency is to join forces with America's FBI

Bridger, who murdered five-year-old April Jones, and Hazel, who killed 12-year-old Tia Sharp, both used the internet to search for child abuse images before the killings.

Senior figures from Google, Microsoft and BT were summoned to Parliament for a meeting with Culture Secretary Maria Miller in June where they were told they had to do more to combat the issue.

The crackdown comes as Mr Cameron is set to reveal at the summit that Britain's National Crime Agency is to join America's FBI to tackle online child abuse.

The transatlantic taskforce is being established by the US assistant attorney general and the British to target criminals who use the internet to hide from the law.

It will be specifically tasked with tracking down offenders who use the "dark web" - secret and encrypted networks that are increasingly being exploited by paedophiles and other criminals.

The NCA estimates the number of UK daily users of secret or encrypted networks will have risen to 20,000 by the end of the year.

Joanna Shields, the chief executive of Tech City UK, said it would be looking to spot the "threats of future" to protect the most vulnerable in society.

"It's vital that governments and industry work together to eradicate child abuse content from the internet, and that we mobilise the best and brightest in the technology industry to come up with innovative solutions to tackling this problem," she said.

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Twitter Launches 'Lifesaving' Alerts Service

An emergency alert system that highlights urgent tweets with potentially lifesaving text messages and pop-up notifications has been rolled out across the UK and Ireland.

Police forces in both countries have signed up to Twitter Alerts, which will be used in "crisis, disaster and emergency" situations.

The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales will use the service to warn of flooding, while the Foreign Office will send alerts in the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster overseas.

London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service will post critical updates during emergencies in the capital.

The service, which also highlights alerts on Twitter with an orange bell symbol, launched in the US, Japan and Korea in September.

The Met Police is among dozens of organisations which have signed up

It has since been used to warn of tornadoes, child abductions and gun attacks.

A spokesman for Twitter said British and Irish organisations are able to choose what type of information is posted as an alert.

"All of the organisations participating in the launch already use Twitter as a tool to communicate important information to their followers," he said.

"The added functionality of Twitter Alerts will help them reach their followers with important and accurate information during emergencies, natural disasters or when other communications services aren't accessible."

John Curtin, head of incident management at the Environment Agency, said digital communication had improved the way it shares information during times of crisis.

Twitter Alerts were launched in the US earlier this year

"During an incident such as flooding, we see significant spikes in related conversation," he said.

"Twitter Alerts provide an excellent opportunity to increase the visibility and urgency of our most vital warning messages so that people can take action to protect themselves and their property."

Commander David Martin, who is in charge of emergency planning for the Metropolitan Police, added: "Getting fast and accurate information to the public in a major incident or terrorist attack really could make a lifesaving difference."

Twitter users can activate and disable alerts on the subscription pages of participating organisations' accounts.

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Bodies In Ditches: Woman Admits Three Murders

A woman has admitted murdering three men whose stabbed bodies were found in remote ditches in Cambridgeshire.

Joanna Dennehy pleaded guilty to killing Kevin Lee, Lukasz Slaboszewski and John Chapman between March and April this year.

The 30-year-old, from Peterborough, also pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful and decent burial of all three victims, as well as the attempted murders of two other men, Robin Bereza and John Rogers.

The bodies were found close to Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

She was arrested after a police hunt, during which officers distributed her picture and described the distinctive star tattoo she has under her right eye.

Appearing at the Old Bailey, Dennehy told the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney: "I've pleaded guilty and that's that."

Her barrister, Nigel Lickley QC, said: "The course of the arraignment is not one we had anticipated."

Mr Slaboszewski (L) and Mr Chapman were found with stab wounds on April 3

The bodies of Mr Slaboszewski, 31, who was stabbed in the heart, and Mr Chapman, 56, who died from neck and chest wounds, were found at Thorney Dyke, near Peterborough, on April 3.

Four days earlier, Mr Lee, 48, was discovered in a ditch in Newborough, around 10 miles away. He had been stabbed in the chest.

He was last seen on Good Friday and reported missing later that day when his Ford Mondeo was found burned out near a farm in Yaxley.

Mr Lee's body was discovered in a village north of Peterborough

In a statement released after his death, his family described him as a "wonderful husband, father, loving brother and son".

They said he had a "naturally infectious personality (that) touched everyone who knew him", adding: "He will be hugely missed by all his friends and family."

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Woman Denies Causing Sister's Death In Crash

A 20-year-old woman has denied causing the death of her older sister in a car crash.

Appearing in Hull Crown Court, Rosie-Ann Stone pleaded not guilty to careless driving causing the death of Jennie Stone, 28, on February 18.

The defendant is understood to have been driving her own car on the A165 near Fraisthorpe, in East Yorkshire, when the crash happened.

Jennie's car hit a tree and she suffered fatal head injuries.

The crash happened just a few months after their brother, Private Gregg Stone, was shot dead while serving in Afghanistan.

Pte Stone, of the 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, was killed while attempting to rescue an Afghan policeman in Helmand Province in June last year.

Stone will attend a plea and case management hearing on November 18. Her trial is set for January 13 next year.

Judge Simon Jack granted her unconditional bail.

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Benefits Cheat Tracked Down By Sky Jailed

An on-the-run benefits fraudster tracked down and confronted in Spain by Sky News has been jailed for three years.

Norman Brennan jumped bail in 2008 and fled to the Costa del Sol after admitting a £120,000 benefit fraud.

The 70-year-old was brought to justice after he was found living in Malaga in October this year.

The judge Mr David Aubrey QC said: "Your claims were dishonest through and through.

"Week by week, month after month, year after year you were stealing from the public purse.

"The amounts were large, the fraud persistent, prolonged, systematic and sophisticated." 

More follows...

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Strictly Come Dancing Venue Hit By Theft

Police are investigating the theft of items from a dressing room being used by Strictly Come Dancing stars.

Detectives say jewellery, an iPad and phone were taken from the female dressing room of Blackpool Tower Ballroom, where the show was filmed on Saturday night.

Lancashire police would not say who owned the stolen items, but they said the large room was being shared by dancers and contestants.

"We are investigating a theft that has occurred this evening at the Tower Ballroom at Blackpool," police said.

"It was reported to us at around 9.45pm that some items had been taken from a dressing room within the building.

"Officers are investigating the theft and are making a number of enquiries to trace the person or people responsible."

Cohen took part in Saturday night's show

Police said it was not clear how the thieves managed to gain entry to the room.

Detectives are appealing to anyone who may have seen anything suspicious around the building to contact them.

The BBC programme is usually filmed Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, but was hosted in Blackpool this weekend.

The contestants on this year's show include model Abbey Clancey, actress Natalie Gumede, singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, BBC presenter Susanna Reid and rugby player Ben Cohen.

Gumede, who recently had back problems and missed the previous week's show, scored the joint top score of the programme.

The former Coronation Street actress and Reid were both awarded 39 out of a possible 40 points.

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Antibiotics Warning: Resistance 'Growing'

By Enda Brady, Sky News Reporter

The world faces "unimaginable setbacks" unless it tackles the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics, according to an international group of experts.

The latest research by the 26-strong group predicts major problems unless governments work together immediately.

Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria evolve mechanisms to withstand the drugs which are used to fight infection.

Lead author Professor Otto Cars, of Uppsala University in Sweden, said: "The causes of antibiotic resistance are complex and include human behaviour at many levels of society.

"The consequences affect everybody in the world.

"Within just a few years, we might be faced with unimaginable setbacks - medically, socially, and economically - unless real and unprecedented global co-ordinated actions to transform the way antibiotics are regulated and developed are taken immediately."

In the UK, research is focusing on how plant chemicals keep insects at bay

In September, the UK Government announced plans for a five-year strategy to tackle the problem, setting aside £4.5m.

Recent decades have seen vast increases in the use of antibiotics across medicine and agriculture, but the scientists argue that without adequate regulatory controls and better patient awareness, the huge global surge in antibiotic resistance will continue.

They say the problem is compounded by a desperate shortage of new drugs to treat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

Prof Cars added: "Antibiotic resistance is a complex ecological problem which doesn't just affect people, but is also intimately connected with agriculture and the environment.

"We need to move on from 'blaming and shaming' among the many stakeholders who have all contributed to the problem, towards concrete political action and commitment to address this threat.

Prof Laura Piddick says more funding is needed to develop new treatments

"Consumers and providers of antibiotics alike need to be empowered to tackle antibiotic resistance, as well as ensuring that those in need benefit from affordable, effective antibiotics."

One of the British scientists who helped compile the report said that alarm bells have been ringing - and ignored - for many years.

"For a long time there has been a sense of crying wolf over this," said Professor Laura Piddock, from the University of Birmingham.

"Science has been telling us about this problem for years. We need more academic research and funding. New treatments have been hampered by a lack of funding. It has always been viewed that this is something that the pharmaceutical industry should do."

At the John Innes Centre in Norwich scientists are going back to nature for the answers, studying how plants like eucalyptus trees produce chemicals to keep insects at bay.

"Plants have a distinct disadvantage in that they can't move out of the way of predators," Tony Maxwell, the centre's head of biological chemistry, told Sky News.

"And they have no end of predators, large and small animals, insects and bacteria. They have to produce a whole array of chemicals to defend themselves. What we are trying to work out is how we can use those chemicals for our own usage in antibiotics."

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Age Of Consent: No 10 Rejects Calls To Change

Downing Street has rejected a call from a leading public health expert to consider lowering the age of consent for sex to 15.

Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, said society sends "confused" signals about when sex is permitted.

But a No 10 spokesman said: "We reject the call to lower the age of consent.

"The current age is in place to protect children and there are no plans to change it."

Prof Ashton's intervention comes against a backdrop of official figures which suggest that up to a third of teenagers have sex before the present age of consent of 16.

He told Sky News: "The problem we have got is we have got this massive sexualisation and pornographication of childhood and early adolescence.

Lowering the age would make it easier for 15-year-olds to get contraception

"Huge commercial interests - pop music, fashion, internet pornography everywhere, social media.

"There doesn't seem to be any real appetite among politicians and leaders to address this.

"In the meantime, our young people are becoming sexually active at younger and younger ages.

"If we are not going to create an environment where they are not sexualised, then we need to address their needs."

He added: "What we know from other European countries that have lower ages of sexual consent, I am thinking here particularly about the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, is that very often what that leads to is where there's an atmosphere of discussion within the family, within the school, within the social environment, they actually defer putting off sex, even though the age of consent is lower, and that they have lower teenage pregnancy rates.

"It also means if they are not indulging in what's illegal activity, they won't be frightened to come forward for help if they are getting involved in a dangerous situation with an older male who's grooming them or what have you.

"We have got this conundrum. Where you have got illegal activity which large numbers of people are engaging in, you are creating an environment of risk, potential abuse, potential exploitation.

"We need to do something about the sexualisation of childhood, and we need to do something about responding properly to the needs of young people who are becoming sexually active, perhaps with somebody of a similar age where it is part of a normal maturing process into adult life, but also so that we can begin to tackle this problem of girls particularly, being exploited by older males."

The Faculty of Public Health, part of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, gives advice to ministers and civil servants although it is independent of government.

David Tucker, head of policy at the NSPCC, said he would be happy to have a debate on the issue but said he would want to see the evidence for Prof Ashton's claims.

He said: "Has there really been a significant change in the amount of young people having sex over the past 20 or 30 years?

"If it has changed, then is reducing the age of consent the most sensible way to deal with it?"

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Body In Well: Seven Bailed In Murder Inquiry

Seven men arrested over the discovery of a body in a well in Surrey have been bailed by police.

The body was recovered by specialist police officers on Saturday.

Two workmen made the discovery as they were doing clearing work in the front garden of a large house in Audley Drive, Warlingham, Surrey, which stands in an acre of grounds in an affluent area.

The seven held on suspicion of murder are aged between 21 and 27. They have been bailed to a date in late December, pending further investigation, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

A post-mortem examination is due to take place today at East Surrey Hospital mortuary.

Detective Chief Inspector Cliff Lyons said on Saturday: "It is a murder investigation. As far as I am concerned, when a body is found in a well it either fell in there or was placed in there, and the evidence is apparent that the body was placed in there."

He said the body presented a number of logistical challenges, requiring a police marine diving team with breathing apparatus to recover it intact to preserve forensic evidence.

"The well is two feet in diameter, it is seven feet deep to the water line, and the water is approximately four feet deep," he said.

He said it was not possible to be sure of the body's gender, but judging by the size it was most likely to be an adult. The person was white.

Mr Lyons told reporters at the scene: "It's not been there for an extended period of time; it will be a matter of weeks at the most."

He was not prepared to discuss who lived in the house or a suggestion that the body was wrapped in carpet. He could not confirm whether the body was intact.

Asked about claims by local residents that there had been quite a bit of trouble in the past couple of years with the people who lived in the house, and that police had been called many times, he said: "The residents have expressed concern, there is intelligence to support that notion, yes."

He appealed for anyone who had concerns about a person who has gone missing, especially if they had connections to that area, to come forward.

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Breast Cancer Surgery Scandal: £3m Payout

By Adele Robinson, Midlands Correspondent

Sky News has learned that more than £3m in damages has been paid by the NHS to patients involved in a breast cancer surgery scandal.

Ian Paterson carried out hundreds of unnecessary and unregulated procedures on women while working for the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.

He performed so called "cleavage sparing" mastectomies when carrying out breast removal, which left a small amount of tissue behind for cosmetic reasons.

£3.2m has been paid out in damages to patients so far by the Trust regarding Mr Paterson's surgery.

In total there are 503 claims, of which 135 are continuing claims and 285 relate to private sector treatment.

More than 1,000 women may have been affected by his surgery in both the private sector and the NHS.

Admissions have been made in many other NHS cases and negotiations are ongoing.

There's been concern from patients over the potential for cancer to return in the residual breast tissue Mr Paterson left behind.

Kashmir Uppal, from Thompsons solicitors in Birmingham which is representing nearly 400 patients, says on the basis of their medical expert evidence there is a link.

"We've had lots of clients who have had the cleavage sparing mastectomy originally and a few years later they've had a recurrence within the residual breast tissue so those facts speak for themselves.

"Some of these women are really struggling to cope with it all. They put their Trust in him and the NHS and have been very badly let down."

Mr Paterson worked at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield from 1993 to 1998 and at Solihull Hospital from 1998 to 2011, when he was suspended.

He also worked privately for Spire Healthcare at Spire Little Aston Hospital from 1993 and Spire Parkway hospital from 1996.

In 2004 an internal report at Solihull hospital highlighted the potential risk of "cleavage sparing" procedures but it wasn't until 2007 that a review was carried out.

In December 2007 Mr Paterson was told to stop performing the unregulated operations however there is evidence he carried on until at least 2010.

An independent review carried out by Sir Ian Kennedy into Mr Pateron's surgery for the NHS at is due to be published in the next few weeks.

Chief executive of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Mark Newbold, said in statement: "I would like to re-emphasise that, on behalf of the Trust, I very much regret what has happened to so many women, and our thoughts are with them and their families."

He promised to respond swiftly to Sir Ian Kennedy's findings and recommendations.

The police are investigating and Mr Paterson is currently suspended from practicing by the General Medical Council.

He declined to speak to Sky News due to patient confidentiality and the ongoing investigations.

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