Dolphin Bites Girl At SeaWorld Theme Park

An eight-year-old girl has had a lucky escape after a dolphin she was feeding bit her at a US theme park.

Jillian Thomas was holding out fish to feed to dolphins at Orlando's SeaWorld when she got an unexpected surprise.

While she was feeding the usually friendly mammals, a dolphin lunges at her and nips her hand. 

The girl, whose parents posted the video on YouTube to make other people aware of the dangers, suffered three small puncture wounds.

Jillian's father, Jamie Thomas, told local media the family were angry at the theme park for not warning them of the dangers of dolphin feeding.

"We felt powerless," he said.

"We thought, look, we've got this video, let's make it public, and let's try to put some pressure on SeaWorld to make some changes."

A SeaWorld statement said: "Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our guests employees and animals.

"Educators and animal care staff are always on-site at this area monitoring all interactions and are committed to guest safety."

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Winter Weather As Snow Hits Northern UK

Snow is continuing to fall across the north of the UK, with up to 10cm settling across the high mountains overnight.

Glasgow and Edinburgh have seen up to 5cm fall overnight, with up to 4cm settling in Teesside and County Durham.

The mountains in Cumbria, Northumbria and parts of Scotland have been decorated with a blanket of 10cm of snow.

Sky's weather presenter Isobel Lang said: "Winter started on December 1 and the weather has become more seasonal.

"In fact it looks set to stay that way with a continued threat of frost, ice and snow.

"Even looking ahead towards Christmas the rather cold and wintry story continues."

And the rest of this week is bound to be frosty, said Lang.

"On Tuesday colder north winds will bring in more widespread snow showers across northern and eastern Scotland, with these spreading across hillier parts of eastern England on Wednesday," she said.

"During Thursday another Atlantic frontal system is set to sweep east bringing in more persistent rain, preceded again by a period of snow."

Frozen flood water at York Racecourse, North Yorkshire, on Sunday

Further south, including Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, escaped the snowfall but were greeted with rain and very cold temperatures instead.

Eastern England shivered in temperatures dipping to -4C and it dropped to -7C in western Scotland.

But hasn't been cold all over Britain - areas of Cornwall and west Wales enjoyed far warmer highs of 11C.

The extreme weather in parts of the UK caused signal failures on transport, meaning delays for passengers on Sunday.

The big chill comes just days after severe flooding hit Britain, from which many areas are still recovering.

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M1 Crash: Two Men Killed And Motorway Closed

Two men have been killed in a crash on the M1 which forced the closure of a section of the motorway.

The collision between two black BMW cars happened shortly before 2.40am on the southbound carriageway between junctions four and five, near Watford in Hertfordshire.

One of the drivers and his front seat passenger were killed, while another two men travelling in the same car were taken to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, central London, with "serious injuries", a Hertfordshire Police spokeswoman said.

Two men who were in the other BMW are being treated in Watford General Hospital, although their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening, she added.

The accident happened between junctions four and five

An investigation is now under way to determine the cause of the crash, which resulted in the closure of five junctions of the motorway in both directions.

The northbound carriageway has since reopened but southbound between junctions four and five - Edgware to Watford - is expected to remain closed until at least mid-morning.

Drivers have been advised to use the A1, A40 or M40.

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Foreign Office Summons Israel's Ambassador

Apartheid Risk Looms On Settlements

Updated: 1:22pm UK, Monday 03 December 2012

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent

Avenues of palm trees. Air conditioned shopping malls. European coffee shops humming with chatter in Russian, French, English - and Hebrew. This could be California.

It isn't. It's the vanguard of Israel's permanent occupation of parts of the West Bank.

Maale Adumim, a Jewish settlement which cascades down the hillsides of the Judean Desert towards the Dead Sea, is illegal under international law.

That detail has not stopped Israel from building homes for some 500,000 Jews in settlements on Palestinian land captured in 1967.

The accelerating pace of settlement construction grew into an international controversy over the weekend following revelations that Israel planned to build a new town in an area known as E1.

The area, currently a forest park on the eastern edge of Jerusalem behind the Mount of Olives, would seal the Holy City off from the rest of the Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

Joined with Maale Adumim, it would also cut the West Bank in half.

In the words of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the construction of a settlement at E1 would be "fatal" to peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

A quick look at any of the maps produced by Israeli campaigners against the settlements reveals just how far Israel is already planning to go with this scheme to chop the West Bank in two.

The planned extent of the separation wall that cuts through the West Bank and was built to protect Israel from terror attacks, would fence a vast tract of land far bigger than E1 or Maale Adumim into Israeli-held territory.

But a wall can be pulled down. A settlement is a fact on the ground.

One as big as Maale Adumim or E1 is for all practical purposes beyond negotiation.

Once built, it is Israel - and no future government of the Jewish state is likely to say otherwise.

Israel had promised its ally the United States that it would not go ahead with E1 plans.

Washington took this undertaking at face value, and then received a slap to the face when Israel announced that it was considering opening the settlement area up again, along with 3,000 other Jewish homes in Arab East Jerusalem.

The US had been one of only nine countries to vote against a UN motion to admit Palestine to the body with non-member observe state status last week.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, and William Hague, her British equivalent, have both condemned the Israeli plans for E1.

On Monday Daniel Taub, the Israeli ambassador to London, was summoned by Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office Minister, for a warning.

Among the sanctions being considered if Israel does not drop its E1 plans are withdrawing the British ambassador to Israel -  at least for a short time - and asking the European Union to reconsider trade agreements with Israel which give it access to European markets.

The international view is simple.

The chances of a two-state solution to the long-running conflict, which means an independent Palestine, are fast dwindling because Israel is chewing up so much Palestinian land so quickly that a viable state cannot be established.

Israel rejects this and demands that the Palestinians return to peace talks without conditions, which so far include the demand that Israel stops building settlements.

This impasse means that, in the view of many Europeans, Israel must freeze settlement building or face international censure.

The drift of opinion, even among staunch allies of Israel such as the UK, is not in Israel's favour.

Not least because no-one quite knows what looms on the horizon.

If there is no two-state solution, does this mean that there can be a single-state solution? In a Jewish state, what place would there be for the Palestinians?

Few, outside the Israeli left, will say the word but the implication is there: a single state could usher in an apartheid state.

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Afghanistan: Taliban Suicide Bombers Hit US Base

Taliban suicide bombers have attacked a US base in Afghanistan, killing at least five people, and sparking a two-hour battle with American forces.

Militants drove two vehicles packed with explosives at the gates of Jalalabad Airfield before American helicopters fired on the attackers.

A guard said that after the initial explosion the airport had come under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms.

According to an Afghan security official, three Afghan guards were killed in the fighting along with two university students who were caught up in the battle.

A number of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) troops were wounded.

A local police official said nine militants were involved in the raid, three were killed by the car explosion and the remaining six were gunned down in the fire-fight that followed.

Lt Col Hagen Messer, a spokesman for Isaf, said:  "We can confirm insurgents, including multiple suicide bombers, attacked Jalalabad Airfield this morning. None of the attackers succeeded in breaching the perimeter.

"The final assessment of what happened this morning is not yet complete, but initial reports indicate there were three suicide bombers,"

Afghan president Hamid Karzai says the country can deal with the Taliban

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday morning.

On its website, the Taliban said: "First a fedayee (suicide bomber) mujahid ... detonated a car bomb causing the enemy heavy casualties and losses and removed all the barriers.

"After the attack other fedayee mujahids entered the base ... and started attacking the invading forces in the base."

The airport complex has multiple layers of security, with the Nato base set well back from the first entrance.

A senior Afghan security official said: "First there was a car bombing next to the entrance followed by gun attack by the insurgents.

"They couldn't reach Nato forces and they were killed in the area between the first and second gates."

It was the largest clash at the Jalalabad air base since February, when a suicide car bombing at the gate triggered an explosion that killed nine Afghans, six of them civilians.

The attack highlights the problems facing the coalition forces ahead of the pull-out of more than 100,000 Nato troops in 2014.

The country's president, Hamid Karzai, insists that Afghan security forces have made good progress and will be able to control the country when the troops leave.

However, there are concerns that the Taliban has managed to survive more than a decade of fighting and will stage a surge once foreign forces leave.

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Japan Tunnel Collapse: Five People Dead

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

Police say at least five people have died after being trapped inside their burning vehicle in a highway tunnel that collapsed in Japan.

The Sasago tunnel on the busy Chuo Expressway, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Tokyo, caved in just after 8am local time.

CCTV footage from inside the tunnel shows large sections of the roof lying across the road. 

Several cars are understood to have been crushed and a fire in the tunnel has complicated the rescue effort.

A fire in the tunnel complicated the rescue

Motorists described narrow escapes from falling debris, and a long walk through the darkness after abandoning their cars.

"When I was driving in the tunnel, concrete pieces fell down suddenly from the ceiling," a man in his 30s told public broadcaster NHK.

"I saw a crushed car catching fire. I left my car and walked for about an hour to get out of the tunnel."

Aerial footage showed black smoke billowing from the 2.8-mile (4.7-km) tunnel in Yamanashi prefecture.

The fire was extinguished about 11am local time but the rescue and recovery operation has been delayed by concerns that there could be further collapses.

The cause of the collapse is not yet clear. There are no reports of earthquakes in the region though there is a suggestion that a landslide could have contributed to the incident.

Given the frequency of earthquakes in the region, the authorities will have access to rescue equipment which will prove useful for this sort of operation.

NHK reporter Yoshio Goto, caught in Sunday's accident, hit the accelerator and managed to drive out.

"But it was a bit too late and pieces of ceiling fell on my car. I kept pressing the pedal and managed to get out," he said.

"Then when I looked around, I saw half of the car ceiling was crushed."

It was the worst such accident in Japan since 1996, when a tunnel collapsed and falling rocks crushed cars and a bus, killing 20 people.

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Starbucks Tax Backlash: Firm Pledges Action

Starbucks has announced it is reviewing its tax affairs after a public backlash over the low amount of tax the US company pays in the UK.

The Seattle-based company reportedly paid just £8.6m in corporation tax in 14 years of trading in Britain.

It recently revealed it paid no corporation tax for the past three years, despite sales of £1.2bn in the UK.

Now, the coffee chain has revealed it is in talks with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Treasury over its tax affairs as part of a bid to "build public trust".

"Starbucks is committed to the UK for the long term and we have invested more than £200m in our UK business over the past 12 years," the statement said.

"Starbucks has complied with all the tax laws in this country but has regretfully not been as profitable as we would have liked.

"We have listened to feedback from our customers and employees, and understand that to maintain and further build public trust we need to do more.

"As part of this we are looking at our tax approach in the UK.

"The company has been in discussions with HMRC for some time and is also in talks with the Treasury."

The firm is one of many multinationals to have the amount of tax they pay in the UK put under the spotlight.

Starbucks operates more than 700 stores in the UK

Chancellor George Osborne is set to address the issue in his Autumn Statement on December 5.

On Sunday Mr Osborne announced extra investment to help clamp down on the multinational companies' tax avoidance.

Last month, the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is charged with monitoring government financial affairs, questioned senior executives from Starbucks, Google and Amazon on why they pay so little tax in the UK while racking up millions of pounds' worth of sales.

"I assure you we are not making money," Troy Alstead, the chief financial officer of Starbucks, told the committee.

"It's very unfortunate. We're not at all pleased about our financial performance here. It's fundamentally true everything we are saying and everything we have said historically."

His comments came despite operating more than 700 UK stores and employing nearly 8,500 people, along with plans to employ another 6,000 staff and open 300 outlets.

Companies are able to sidestep the taxman legally by conducting different operations in different countries, and constructing complex global frameworks that allow them to move money through offshore subsidiaries and locations.

The three leading US companies and their corporate tax rates

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George Osborne Takes On The Tax Avoiders

Little Christmas Cheer From Osborne

Updated: 1:01pm UK, Sunday 02 December 2012

By Peter Spencer, Political Correspondent

Borrowing costs up, growth forecasts down. Little wonder, then, that George Osborne's Autumn Statement will look more like January's credit card bills than Santa's stocking.

And there's a rare degree of unanimity across Fleet Street about what form the nasty fiscal news will take.

This seems to point to behind-the-scenes briefings of a kind Lord Leveson would like to outlaw.

But for now it's everywhere.

The expectation is that George Osborne will announce tax rises on the pension pots of the wealthiest AND a freeze on many benefits.

It's also predicted there'll be a lowering of the annual limit of tax relief on pension contributions from £50,000 to £30,000. Alongside this, it seems, we can expect a freeze on out-of-work benefits.

However, any form of mansion tax - or splitting council tax bands - is likely to be ruled out. That's a battle the Lib Dems have lost.

A battle that Tory backbenchers appear to have won, by contrast, is agreement to delay the 3p per litre rise in fuel duty planned for January.

While that last one will come as some comfort for many, the overall picture is bleak.

No surprise there, given that economic experts from the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility to the Governor of the Bank of England agree that unless the Chancellor's prepared to let his debt reduction target slip further into the future, he has no choice but to make himself deeply unpopular.

Though he knows this as well as anyone, he's sticking doggedly to his script.

Speaking to The Sun On Sunday, he said: "We are still all in this together. Everyone must make a contribution to dealing with our debts, from the richest in our society to those living a life on benefits.

"The road ahead may be longer than we thought, but it leads to a better future. Let's have the courage to stay the course."

Labour say that course is made that desperately more uphill and potholed by HIS actions. Trying to cut the deficit too far and too fast.

But they know that if THEY'D won the election there'd still have had to be deeply unpopular austerity measures following the economic meltdown of 2008.

Governments across Europe have been falling like dominoes for precisely that reason.

But, in the short term at least, Mr Osborne's offering will be judged on the basis of fairness. Or otherwise.

Research by the consumer group Which? suggests that almost one in four UK households are already feeling "financially squeezed".

For them at least, any talk from the Treasury of discomfort (that favourite doctor's euphemism) will mean what it really means. Pain.

Which is why, for the Chancellor, the political stakes this week could hardly be higher.

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Freddie Flintoff Wins First Heavyweight Fight

Flintoff Swaps Lord's For The Ring

Updated: 12:46pm UK, Saturday 01 December 2012

By Charlie Thomas, Sports Presenter

What to do when you hang up the boots? It's the perennial dilemma for the professional sportsman. And the answer these days comes in a variety of forms.

You might choose to replace the discipline of training by going into coaching, or management.

Miss the dressing room banter? You could head for the studio and take up punditry.

There's always the celebrity circuit of dancing in sequined suits or eating bugs in Australian jungles.

And if you're a cricketer you might well think about becoming a correspondent, as Mike Atherton and Derek Pringle have done with notable success.

Few, though, plunge feet first into a completely different sport, which was what made Freddie Flintoff's desire to take up boxing so compelling.

Would he fall flat on his face or would he reveal skills hitherto hidden? In other words, was this just reality TV in another guise?

But then Freddie's life has never run according to most normal rules.

Comparisons with that other great England all-rounder Ian Botham followed him throughout his playing career, and Freddie also seems to share Sir Ian's maverick appetite for new experiences.

Where Beefy replaced life on the road with marathon charity walks over the Alps or the length of Britain, Freddie chose to raise money for Sport Relief by breaking various unlikely world records, like the farthest distance to score a bullseye and popping the most party poppers in a minute.

To his credit, Flintoff appears to have thrown himself into his latest sporting incarnation with complete professionalism.

Few expected him to win last night; most, especially his wife Rachel and trainer Barry McGuigan, were simply hoping he didn't get badly hurt.

But while there was scant evidence that Freddie had missed his calling by becoming a cricketer rather than a boxer, Super Middleweight champion Carl Froch told Sky News he was impressed by Flintoff's fitness and dedication.

The irony is that Freddie is probably fitter now than at any time during his professional cricketing career.

Had he shown such dedication to the gym in his younger years it's probable that he wouldn't have suffered the weight-related injuries that cut short his playing days.

But then again, he wouldn't have been Freddie Flintoff then would he?

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Snow Starts To Fall As Britain Shivers

A dusting of snow has fallen across parts of the UK, with more predicted over this weekend.

The frosty conditions are in contrast to the torrential rain and windy weather that played havoc in some parts of the Midlands and in North Wales at the start of the week.

Around 1cm of snow has settled in parts of northern England and Scotland, including Cumbria, Teesside and County Durham, while 2.5cm has covered the Pennines and the Southern Uplands.

In the midlands, southern England and Wales temperatures are below freezing, and as low as -5C in some areas.

The frosty weather is expected to last for the next few days, with more snow predicted in the north and Scotland tomorrow night.

Snow and ice follow torrential rain and floods earlier in the week

The freezing temperatures have brought with them a risk of ice, following the recent heavy rainfall.

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The Met Office issued a low-level warning of severe weather, affecting much of the UK for the morning.

It said: "Due to the recent wet weather there is an increased risk of icy patches, even on roads that have been treated with salt, where water run off/seepage may wash off any earlier salt treatment.

"The public should be aware of the risk of ice on roads and pavements."

Patroller Andy Smith warned the weekend would be "winter's first serious test for drivers and their cars".

"Ice is the real concern, as it's been so wet recently, and it's very hard to distinguish between a puddle on the road and treacherous black ice."

Forecasters expect more snow this weekend

Sky News weather presenter Jo Wheeler said: "For much of the day, it will be sunny for most.

"Snow showers will continue to run into northern and eastern Scotland, and may occasionally run into North Sea coasts.

"Top temperatures will reach 5 or 6 Celsius. In western parts, cloud will increase and temperatures will rise as rain spreads off the Atlantic.

"Progress will be slow, however, and it will be Sunday before that rain makes much impact on mainland UK, by which time, there is the risk of seeing some snow on the leading edge.

"For the bulk of the country, there will be a fine end to the day followed by a cold and frosty night, and a bright start to Sunday morning."

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