Hilary Mantel: Kate Is A 'Plastic Princess'

Pregnant Kate: Baby Bump On Show

Updated: 12:16am UK, Tuesday 19 February 2013

By Paul Harrison, Royal Correspondent

Kate's baby bump will be on show for the first time in the UK later today as she visits a project for women recovering from substance dependence.

The visit to Hope House, a project run by her patronage Action on Addiction, comes just days after photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge wearing a bikini on holiday in Mustique were published in some magazines overseas.

The engagement also follows the announcement Action on Addiction will receive support from the philanthropic organisation 100 Woman in Hedge Funds.

As Kate approaches the half-way mark of her pregnancy, she will meet women recovering from drug abuse at the 23-bed residential treatment centre.

Action on Addiction was one of four patronages chosen by the Duchess in January last year.

Kate's last public appearance was in January when she unveiled her first official portrait in London.

Her baby bump was first photographed while she and Prince William took a private holiday on the private Caribbean island of Mustique.

Italian Magazine Chi and the Australian publication Woman's Day both decided to publish the photographs of the couple, on holiday with the Middleton family.

Today's engagement in Clapham will be the Duchess' first solo engagement of 2013.

St James' Palace has also announced the details of her next public engagement on March 5th.

The Duchess will conduct three public engagements in the Lincolnshire town of Grimsby.

The royal mum-to-be will visit the town's National Fishing Heritage Centre, the Havelock Academy and Humberside Fire and Rescue Service.

The fire-and-rescue service has been working in partnership with The Prince's Trust since 2011 and it will be the first time Kate has visited project run by her father-in-law's trust.

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Oscar Pistorius Sobbing During Bail Hearing

Oscar Pistorius has broken down in tears during his bail hearing after being charged with murdering his girlfriend.

The 26-year-old Paralympian is accused of killing model Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in the early hours of last Thursday.

Police said she was shot four times with a pistol owned by Pistorius at his home in South Africa. Hundreds are expected to attend her funeral in Port Elizabeth this morning.

In the courtroom in Pretoria, Sky's Alex Crawford said his "face was creased in pain" and he was "weeping" as the prosecutor outlined the case against him.

For the first time, Pistorius is expected to explain how his girlfriend died during the hearing.

Crawford said his defence team will detail why he should be given bail, arguing that he is not danger to society or himself and is not going to abscond.

More follows...

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Horsemeat: Minister To Meet Supermarket Bosses

The Environment Secretary is meeting supermarkets and food retail bodies to press for details on how they will restore the confidence of shoppers.

Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons are among those confirmed to be attending the meeting with Owen Paterson in Westminster.

They will be joined by the Institute of Grocery Distribution and the Food and Drink Federation.

It comes as a leading charity claims the Government was made aware that illegal horsemeat was in the food chain more than a year ago.

World Horse Welfare says it had a sit-down meeting with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2011, to flag up the problem of horse passports being fakes to allow the animals to be slaughtered.

Roly Owers, the charity's chief executive, told Sky News that problems had been reported ever since the passport system was set up in 2005.

"We know that in November 2011 we attended a meeting where the issue of the passport system ... was discussed with Defra and local authorities," he said.

John Young, a former manager at the Meat Hygiene Service, now part of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), told The Sunday Times he helped draft a letter to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in April that year.

But he told the paper the letter to former minister Sir Jim Paice on behalf of Britain's largest horse meat exporter, High Peak Meat Exports, which warned that flesh with possible drug residue getting into food could blow up into a scandal, was ignored.

The FSA revealed on Friday that 2,501 tests were conducted on beef products, with 29 results positive for undeclared horse meat at or above 1%.

The 29 results related to seven different products, which have already been reported and withdrawn from sale - Aldi's special frozen beef lasagne and special frozen spaghetti bolognese, Co-op frozen quarter pounder burgers, Findus beef lasagne, Rangeland's catering burger products, and Tesco value frozen burgers and value spaghetti bolognese.

Pub and hotel group Whitbread became the latest company to admit horse DNA had been found in its food, saying its meat lasagnes and beefburgers had been affected and removed from menus.

Horsemeat was also discovered in school dinners, with cottage pies testing positive for horse DNA sent to 47 Lancashire schools before being withdrawn.

The results of tests on further products are not expected to be available until later in the week.

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Fat Tax On Sugary Drinks Urged By Doctors

Britain's doctors want the cost of sugary drinks increased by a fifth and a ban on unhealthy food in hospitals, according to reports.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges says the moves would help to break the cycle of "generation after generation falling victim to obesity-related illnesses and death".

The Guardian cited a report by the academy which says doctors are "united" in seeing obesity as the greatest public health crisis facing the UK.

The academy said government efforts so far have been "piecemeal and disappointingly ineffective", given the scale of the problem.

Figures show that one in four adults in England is obese. Obesity can lead to heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

The academy's chairman, Professor Terence Stephenson, said the report did not claim to offer a full solution to obesity, but "it does say we need together to do more, starting right now, before the problem becomes worse and the NHS can no longer cope".

Its recommendations include an experimental 20% tax on sugary soft drinks for at least a year, to see what effect it has on sales.

The academy believes the potential £1bn annual tax yield could help fund an increase in weight management programmes.

Local councils are also urged to limit the number of fast food outlets near schools and leisure centres.

And NHS staff should routinely talk to overweight patients about their eating and exercise habits, the report adds.

Chef and anti-obesity campaigner Jamie Oliver welcomed the report as "the clearest warning sign yet that the medical profession is deeply concerned about obesity".

But the Food and Drink Federation, which represents produce manufacturers, said the report was a "damp squib" that added "little to an important debate".

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Brit Backpacker: I Feel Lucky To Be Alive

A British backpacker missing in the scorching Australian outback for three days has told of how he did everything he could to survive - including drink his own urine and contact lens solution.

Sam Woodhead, 18, became lost after he set out for a jog from the remote Queensland cattle station where he had worked for less than two weeks.

But the chance discovery of packets of lenses in his rucksack - put there by his father, Peter - helped to keep him going for 72 hours in blistering temperatures of around 40C (104F).

Sam Woodhead was a keen long distance runner

The former Brighton College student, from Richmond upon Thames, London, was found about three miles away from the ranch by rescuers in a helicopter. He had lost two stones in weight and was just hours from death.

He told Sky News: "I feel very fortunate to be alive and to be standing here.

"I know that so many people helped out ... and I genuinely believe that if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here today.

"It was a really amazing feeling to be actually picked up and realise that I was actually going to make it through ... and it wasn't going to be the end."

His mother, Claire Derry, has visited him in hospital in Longreach, about 50 miles away from where he was discovered. She said he had lost weight and his kidneys were not working properly due to dehydration.

She said: "His birth was one of the best moments of my life, and this is pretty close to it, getting him back again, because I was pretty convinced it was touch and go. I did an awful lot of praying during that flight.

Mr Woodhead with his mother and sister Rebacca before the ordeal

"He looks fantastic, he's suntanned, his mouth isn't blistered, he looks great, he's thinner and questionably a lot thinner than when I last saw him.

"The only concern is that his kidneys are not quite functioning normally and his blood's not normal. But that, the doctor says, is completely typical of somebody who's been completely dehydrated."

Ms Derry added: "He  tried to drink his own urine. He said he'd run out of the contact lens fluid and the contact lens capsules said they were 69% water. But they'd all gone so the urine had become very, very concentrated.

"So he said he couldn't stomach it, so he had nothing, he had nothing to keep him going, by the time the helicopter crew got to him."

She told Sky News: "Sam is an amazingly cool guy and he said 'hi mum' and I said 'Sam I didn't think I would be holding you in my arms again frankly'.

"But he didn't cry and didn't show very much emotion at all. He just said I'm really happy to see you."

Mr Woodhead is helped by medical personnel after his helicopter rescue

Mr Woodhead, who is set on joining the Armed Forces and is a keen long distance runner, is expected to leave hospital on Sunday.

Mike Curtin from Queensland State Police said: "He was quite disorientated but, you know, his body seemed to bounce back fairly quickly once he knew that obviously he was located and so forth and he was quite happy of the fact that someone had found him."

Mr Curtin warned of the harsh Australian climate and called on young people to be careful when travelling or working in the remote Australian Outback.

He said: "It's one of those things and I think there's a lesson to be learned here from any of these young fellows who do take, or young boys and girls, who take jobs in areas like this isolated part of the state, to be careful, to be safe, and prepare.

"And never take the harshest Australian environment and our climatic conditions here for granted."

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Horsemeat: 'Ministers Were Warned In 2011'

Government ministers were warned in 2011 that horse meat was illegally entering the human food chain, it has been claimed.

John Young, a former manager at the Meat Hygiene Service, now part of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), told the Sunday Times he helped draft a letter to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in April that year. 

But he told the paper the letter to former minister Sir Jim Paice on behalf of Britain's largest horse meat exporter, High Peak Meat Exports, which warned that flesh with possible drug residue getting into food could blow up into a scandal, was ignored.

In the letter the company warned the Government that its passport scheme designed to stop meat containing the anti-inflammatory drug phenylbutazone, known as bute, getting into the food chain was not working, calling it a "debacle".

"Defra gave nearly 80 organisations the authority to produce passports and some of them are little better than children could produce... It's a complete mess," he said.

Sir Jim said he did not remember seeing the warnings, telling the Sunday Times: "If this information was in Defra and was not being acted upon, it warrants further investigation. I would like to know why on earth I was not being told about it."

He admitted the horse passport scheme to stop bute getting into the food chain was not working, saying: "We now know that and we need to know why."

Meanwhile the boss of one of the country's leading supermarkets warned that consumers could end up paying the price for the horse meat scandal, as ensuring food has the best safety guarantees means it can no longer be regarded as a "cheap commodity".

As many as one in 14 have stopped eating meat altogether, a poll sugfests

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mark Price, the managing director of Waitrose, said rising costs of rearing animals could mean that "somewhere along that long supply route, somebody has looked to cheat and take advantage of these circumstances either for their own personal greed or to keep a company afloat".

Waitrose has not been affected by the scandal, which Mr Price puts down to its rigorous verification processes.

On Friday, the Food Standards Agency released test results for possible horse meat contamination.

The watchdog said 2,501 tests were conducted on beef products, with 29 results positive for undeclared horse meat at or above 1%.

The 29 related to seven different products, which have already been reported and withdrawn from sale.

:: Almost a third of voters (31%) have stopped eating ready meals as a result of the scandal, a poll suggested, and as many as one in 14 (7%) have stopped eating meat altogether.

The ComRes survey for the Sunday Mirror and the Independent on Sunday, also found a majority in favour of a ban on all meat imports "until we can be sure of their origin" by 53% to 33%.

There was encouraging news for the Government as well: 44% said it had responded well to the crisis against 30% who disagreed.

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Meteor: Team Of 20,000 Sent To Ural Mountains

A 20,000-strong rescue team has reportedly been sent by the Russian authorities to the Ural Mountains after a meteor struck.

Some 1,100 people were injured after the meteor blazed across the western Siberian sky with a blinding flash and booming shockwave.

The Russian Academy of Sciences said it entered the Earth's atmosphere at 33,000mph (54,000kph) - 15 times the speed of a rifle bullet - and shattered into pieces around 18-32 miles (30-50km) high in the sky.

The meteor lit up the sky

It reportedly exploded with the force of 20 atomic bombs.

Nasa estimated its speed was even faster at 40,000mph, and said it exploded at about 12-15 miles high and left a trail 300 miles long.

The meteor weighed an estimated 7,000 tons and was about the size of a bus, Nasa said.

The meteorite was travelling at up to 40,000mph

Fragments of at least one meteorite were seen falling from the sky in the Chelyabinsk region at around 9am local time on Friday, around 930 miles (1,500km) east of Moscow.

The fall of such a large meteor estimated as weighing dozens of tonnes and the size of a double-decker bus, was extremely rare, while the number of casualties as a consequence of its burning up around a heavily-inhabited area was unprecedented.

"There was panic. People had no idea what was happening," said Sergey Hametov, of Chelyabinsk.

More than 1,000 people have been injured

Many were hurt by flying glass as windows were blown in. Witnesses described feeling a pressure wave and hearing explosions overhead as the object hurtled to Earth.

Lessons had just started at Chelyabinsk schools when the meteor exploded, and officials said 258 children were among those injured. Amateur video showed a teacher speaking to her class as a powerful shock wave hit the room.

Schools were closed for the day and theatre shows cancelled across the region after the shock wave blew out windows amid temperatures as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius (zero degrees Fahrenheit).

There was no immediate word on deaths or anyone struck by rock fragments.

Viktor was injured by a shock wave

Meteors typically cause sonic booms when they enter the atmosphere because they are travelling much faster than the speed of sound.

The defence ministry said it had identified a six-metre crater at a lake in the region and has sent soldiers to the site of the apparent impact of one fragment.

Thousands of rescue workers were dispatched to help the injured and locate those needing help.

Many drivers in Russia have video recorders fitted in their cars in case of accidents or disputes with traffic police. Footage from these uploaded to YouTube show the fireball crashing to the ground.

The meteor explosion appears to be one of the most stunning cosmic events above Russia since the 1908 Tunguska Event, when a massive blast most scientists blame on an asteroid or a comet impact ripped through Siberia.

The crash site of a piece of meteor (Pic: Chelyabinsk MVD)

"I am scratching my head to think of anything in recorded history when that number of people have been indirectly injured by an object like this... it's very, very rare to have human casualties," Robert Massey, deputy executive secretary of Britain's Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), said.

There were reports of traffic in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk grinding to a halt and people seeking shelter in buildings as the fireballs lit up the sky.                

Schools were closed for the day across the region and mobile phone networks were temporarily cut.

The meteor hit Chelyabinsk

The meteor hit hours before the asteroid 2012 DA14 made the closest recorded pass of an asteroid to the Earth, although scientists said the two events were not linked.

Resident Anna Pinkus told Sky News she saw a bright light outside her window and then heard three explosions.

"It was a very loud sound," she said. "After that our windows began to shatter and shiver so it was very terrifying. First we thought it was a plane crash."

Planetary scientist Professor Ian Crawford of Birkbeck University said this was an unusual case as meteorite hits rarely cause any damage.

"Several times a year meteorites are observed to fall on the earth's surface but damage to people or property is very unusual," he said. "There are only several recorded cases of buildings being hit by meteorites."

Describing the course of the meteorite he said: "I think it's very likely that it would have been a larger lump of rock that broke up in the Earth's atmosphere - this is usually what happens.

"The rock comes in from space and hits the Earth's atmosphere. That decelerates it and puts a lot of stress on it. Then it's likely to fragment into lots of pieces."

The office of the local governor said that a meteorite had fallen into a lake outside the town of Chebarkul in the Chelyabinsk region and television images pointed to a six-metre (20-foot) hole in the frozen lake's ice.

However it has yet to be finally confirmed if meteorite fragments made contact with the Earth and there were no reports that any locals had been hurt directly by a falling piece of meteorite.

Chelyabinsk is Russia's industrial heartland, home to many factories and other huge facilities that include a nuclear power plant and the Mayak atomic waste storage and treatment centre.

A spokesman for Rosatom, the Russian nuclear energy state corporation, said that its operations remained unaffected.

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