Peaches Geldof: 'Rest In Peace Gorgeous Girl'

The family of Peaches Geldof may have to wait for days to find out how she died.

The death of the mother-of-two, who had worked as a DJ, model and television personality, is being treated as unexplained, but not suspicious.

Police were called to her house in the village of Wrotham, Kent, at 1.35pm on Monday after receiving a report of concern for the welfare of a woman.

The singer Lily Allen was among the stars to pay tribute

She had previously admitted drug use as a teenager but said in 2009 that she was "sober now".

A post-mortem is expected to take place in the next few days.

In her last message on Twitter, Ms Geldof posted a picture of her as a child with her mother, Paula Yates, who died of a heroin overdose in 2000 when Peaches was 11.

Lily Allen is among a host of celebrities to pay tribute following the sudden and tragic death of the 25-year-old.

The singer said: "My thoughts are with Peaches' family at this awful time. I hope they get to grieve in peace. Peaches, rest in peace gorgeous girl."

As news of her death emerged, Kelly Osborne, a childhood friend of Peaches, tweeted: "Words seem inadequate 2 express the sadness I feel about @peaches_g death We are here 2 support U @pixiegeldof1 stay strong my little Pepsi!"

TV and radio presenter Dermot O'Leary said: "Met Peaches several times. Really sweet girl. So so sad for the Geldof family. Thoughts and prayers..."

The Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon said: "No words can express any comfort at the loss of a child and mother as beautiful as Peaches Geldof. God bless."

Coleen Rooney, wife of England footballer Wayne, tweeted: "Can't believe what I have just heard. RIP Peaches Geldof, such sad news."

X-Factor creator Simon Cowell tweeted: "So sad to hear about Peaches. Rest in peace."

A private ambulance drives away the body of Peaches Geldof

He said later: "The few times I met Peaches she was a sweet, funny warm person. Much love to her family she has left behind."

Sharon Osborne wrote: "Devastated about @peaches--g. Sending condolences & respect to the Geldof family. It's unimaginable what they must be going through right now."

Presenter Myleene Klass tweeted: "The news of beautiful Peaches is utterly devastating, God bless her babies. RIP mama xxx"

This Morning host Phillip Schofield, who appeared with Ms Geldof on the ITV show, wrote: "Utterly stunned at the terrible news of the death of Peaches Geldof! The dreadful loss of a really lovely woman."

His co-host Holly Willoughby said: "Just heard about Peaches, so unbelievably tragic. So shocked and sad. Sending my thoughts and love to her family".

Police at the address where the 25-year-old was found dead

Coronation Street star Antony Cotton said: "May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest".

In a post on Twitter, rapper Professor Green said: "never knew Peaches but the loss of a life so young is a horrible thing, especially leaving behind two children".

Singer Ellie Goulding said: "Even if you think you've got it all figured out, some things still can't be explained or understood. Two beautiful children. RIP Peaches".

Her friend the model Daisy Lowe posted a picture of a broken heart on Twitter.

Author Irvine Welsh said: "Very sad to hear of the tragic, untimely death of Peaches Geldof. Thoughts with Bob G and the family."

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Hunt For MH370 'Pings' Delays Sub Launch

China Trying To Scoop Malaysia In MH370 Search

Updated: 3:31pm UK, Monday 07 April 2014

By Alistair Bunkall, Sky News Defence Correspondent

The authorities are, quite rightly, not publicly concluding that they've found the plane; but reading between the lines, there are clear signs that they believe this is it.

Tony Abbott, the Australian PM, phoned his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak this morning to tell him what ADV Ocean Shield had heard overnight.

That is a sign of how significant this development is. The two leaders wouldn't speak in person were it being treated as a routine update.

And the wheels are now fully in motion to fly the relatives to Perth, maybe in the coming days. The Malaysians are compiling a list of the next of kin. Again, a demonstration of how seriously this news is being treated.

No-one has mentioned the Chinese. At least not voluntarily. It was a tweet from Chinese state-run media that got everyone's hopes up on Saturday evening. Much was made of their find. Pictures from Chinese journalists on board showed Chinese sailors listening to a signal with the correct frequency.

The news took all of us by surprise.

The head of the search operation Angus Houston kept his nerve. By rights China's news should have been relayed to the world by him or the Malaysians. That would have been the protocol.

A mea culpa: I accused the Australians of losing control of the media strategy.

In some respects I was right, this was not how they wanted the news to break.  The Chinese had gone rogue.

But I should have given Angus Houston the benefit of the doubt. He has been extremely impressive since taking control of the situation and I think he knew exactly what he was going on over the weekend.

Behind the scenes he was learning about Ocean Shield's discovery.

On Sunday morning, in between a flurry of questions about the Chinese discovery, he mentioned that Ocean Shield had had an "acoustic event" but details were sketchy. Few of us gave it much thought: all eyes were on the Chinese discovery and HMS Echo steaming towards the area. That was the real discovery. Or so we thought.

Clearly, even to me, the two didn't match up. Either one of them had heard the black box, or neither of them. Given their distance from each other, it couldn't be both of them.

Patiently, Houston waited until Ocean Shield was sure about what it had heard, and only then was it announced as a major development.

In their respective press conferences today, Australia and Malaysia have declined to criticise the Chinese but the way they've answered questions about them, short and to the point, says much.

China has shown frustration with the Malaysians in particular throughout this past month. They first questioned and then demanded the Inmarsat data be handed over. They allowed their nationals to protest outside the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing. Things like don't happen without the state turning a blind eye at the very least.

And the breakthroughs were being made by companies in other countries: the British firm Inmarsat, the French company Airbus, Boeing from the US.

But I think they've also been frustrated with their own inability to find the plane. This was a chance to demonstrate the ability of their technology to the world. A chance to reassure their own people that China is superior.

A chance to say, "don't worry, we've got it; if anyone is going to solve this global mystery, we will".

They haven't managed to.

There were 154 Chinese nationals on board MH370 and clearly Beijing has a right to play a major role in the search, but more than once by various senior people I have been told how they are not operating as team players. There are clearly two separate search operations going on and that isn't helpful.

It might be a race to find the black box but it isn't a competition.

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Pistorius In Court For Defence Evidence

Oscar Pistorius has arrived at court in South Africa for the start of his defence case against a murder charge.

The athlete is expected to take the stand this week to explain how and why he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

It is understood he will not be the first witness for the defence. Instead, pathologist Theo Botha will be first up today - due to undisclosed "personal reasons".

Ms Steenkamp was shot dead on Valentine's Day last year

When Pistorius takes the stand, it will be the first time he speaks publicly about what happened that night.

His testimony may take several days and he can expect a gruelling cross-examination from state prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

The prosecution has wrapped up its case and both sides have agreed to an extension of the trial until mid-May.

The court has heard the couple had a difficult relationship

Just 18 of 107 possible witnesses were heard during the first three weeks of the trial, which is being held in Pretoria.

During the prosecution's case, the court heard about text messages Ms Steenkamp sent to Pistorius, in which she wrote: "I am sometimes scared of you."

An emotional message from Ms Steenkamp sent on January 27 last year accused Pistorius of picking on her "incessantly".

The Paralympian is accused of the premeditated murder of Ms Steenkamp, but says he mistook her for an intruder and shot her by mistake.

He is also accused of illegally possessing ammunition and two further counts related to shooting a gun in public in separate incidents prior to the killing.

The 27-year-old denies all the charges against him.

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Missing Plane: MH370 Team Detect Two Signals

Teams searching for missing flight MH370 believe they may have detected the plane's black box flight recorders after a ship picked up signals in the southern Indian Ocean.

The Australian defence vessel Ocean Shield picked up signals twice, around 370 miles north of where two signals were detected by a Chinese ship on Saturday.

Crucially, there were two distinct pinger returns - suggesting transmissions from a flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder on a Boeing 777 jet.

Angus Houston, the former Australian defence chief heading the search, said the information was "the most promising lead" in the search so far.

But he warned it could be days before authorities confirm if the signals are from the Malaysia Airlines flight, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board.

Search teams are involved in a race against time as the batteries on the plane's flight recorders could run out at any moment, meaning the signals would no longer be emitted.

Mr Houston said the Ocean Shield detected the sounds on two occasions over a period totalling more than two-and-a-half hours.

He said: "Clearly this is a most promising lead, and probably in the search so far, it's the probably the best information that we have had.

"This would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder."

Stressing the need for further confirmation, he said: "I am much more optimistic than I was a week ago."

But he added: "We are talking about a long operation here and we have yet to find the aircraft."

Search co-ordinators stressed the signals were picked up in very deep water - 4,500 metres - which is at the limit of underwater search equipment being used.

If a signal is pinpointed, search teams can send down an underwater drone

The position of the sound needed to be further pinpointed, and then an underwater drone could be sent down to investigate, Mr Houston said.

He went on: "It could take some days before the information is available to establish whether these detections can be confirmed as being from MH370.

"In very deep oceanic water, nothing happens fast.

"I would want more confirmation before we say this is it. Without wreckage, we can't say it's definitely here. We've got to go down and have a look and hopefully we'll find it somewhere in the area that we narrowed to."

A map shows where signals were picked up in recent days by search ships

The latest development in the search effort came as the British navy ship HMS Echo joined the hunt. The vessel carries sophisticated sound-locating equipment.

No wreckage from the plane has been found during the month-long search, despite a number of debris sightings.

Malaysian officials concluded - based on satellite data from several countries - that the aircraft crashed into the southern Indian Ocean to the west of Perth.

Investigators have not established why the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers and appeared to divert so far from its intended route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The backgrounds of passengers, crew and both pilots have been investigated, while terrorism and hijack have also been considered as possible explanations for the plane's disappearance.

The families of those on board have been frustrated by the huge international search operation, accusing the Malaysian authorities of mismanagement and holding back information. 

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MH370: Has China Cracked 'Mission Impossible'?

Experts say Chinese search crews will have overcome an "impossible situation" if they recover the black box from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

Chinese state media claims a signal has been discovered by the country's Haixun 01 vessel 1,000 miles northwest of Perth.

The signal is said to have a frequency of 37.5kHz per second - the same as that emitted by black-box devices.

Oceanographer Dr Simon Boxall, from Southampton University, told Sky News it would be a remarkable achievement.

"If it proves this is potentially from the pinger on the black box then we've gone from pretty much an impossible situation to locate this flight and the wreckage on the seabed to a situation where it's very feasible," he said.

"It would mean we've gone from an area of 85,000 square miles down to an area of 10 square miles.

"Because the signal is so weak on this locator, it can't be more than two or three miles away.

"Even if the seabed is fairly mountainous or there are issues on the sea floor, it's within the capability of 21st century technology to recover this black box if the signal proves to be from the aircraft.

"The search area would be doable but it could take months."

Dr Boxall says the next step is to confirm the signal is from MH370.

This would be done using a combination of side scan sonar and camera equipment attached to an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle).

If they confirm the presence of a black box, the operation will enter its recovery phase.

This could be hampered by weather, with relatively calm seas required for a whole day to allow the ROV to reach the seabed.

"You shouldn't underestimate the size of this task - it's not easy," said Dr Boxall.

The location of objects spotted in the southern corridor

"But you go to something that will happen, rather than something that may never happen.

"Possibly when they do that some of the mysteries of what happened to MH370 might be answered."

Another question is which country will lead any verification and recovery, as the signal has been found in international waters.

But Dr Boxall warns there is a long way to go before this becomes an issue.

"Without showing scepticism, it's interesting that this has happened four weeks after the event and it's happened at the point when people are saying, incorrectly, that the black box is going to run out in two hours," he said.

"The black box has a design transition of about 30 days. It could go on for longer, it could have been damaged in the crash itself.

"The ocean is full of noise. Both equipment we use as scientists or natural noises.

"The argument is that there's nothing else out there that will transit at 37.5kHz but we also know the signal was very intermittent, which we would sort of expect - but how intermittent?

"Because this is all second-hand information, then until this data has been looked at by the Australians, I'm afraid to say my scepticism will remain."

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Missing Plane: Three Acoustic Signals Detected

Chinese and Australian ships searching for missing flight MH370 have picked up separate acoustic signals in different parts of the southern Indian Ocean and are trying to verify if one could be from the plane's black box recorders.

Retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the international search, earlier said Chinese patrol vessel Haixun 01 picked up two "acoustic events" some 1,000 miles (1,600km) northwest of Perth.

The first was a faint signal. The second was picked up around 1.2 miles (2km) away and lasted for 90 seconds, he said.

They had a "ping" of 37.5kHz frequency - the same emitted by black box flight recorders.

The location where the signal was detected

More planes and ships were sent to assist in that area, but in the meantime Australia's HMAS Ocean Shield had reported a separate "acoustic event" some 345 miles (555km) away.

The Ocean Shield is carrying sophisticated US Navy equipment designed to pick up signals sent from the black boxes.

A Chinese air force plane also spotted a number of white floating objects in the area, said Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Mr Houston stressed that investigators are still a "long way" from concluding the signals are from the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people.

But he said they are "an important and encouraging lead" and show "some promise and require a full investigation".

The Malaysia Airlines plane vanished on March 8

Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in Tokyo: "This is the most difficult search in human history.

"We are searching for an aircraft which is at the bottom of a very deep ocean and it is a very, very wide search area.

"We need to be very careful about coming to hard and fast conclusions too soon."

Anish Patel, president of Dukane Seacom, the company that made the black box locator, told Reuters: "The 37.5kHz is the specific frequency that these locator pingers operate on.

Hishammuddin Hussein at a news conference in Malaysia on Saturday

"It's a very unique frequency, typically not found in background ocean noise," such as whales or other marine mammals, he added.

A dozen planes and 13 ships are scouring three areas about 1,240 miles (2,000 km) northwest of Perth.

Malaysia said on Saturday it had launched a formal investigation into the plane's disappearance that would include experts from Britain, Australia, the US, China and France.

The country's acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said it would be made up of three groups.

The first would examine maintenance records, structures and systems.

The second would study flight recorders, operations and meteorology.

The third, a "medical and human factors" group, would look into psychology, pathology and survival.

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Missing Plane Search: The Race Against Time

The search for flight MH370 has intensified again today in a bid to find the plane's black box recorders before their batteries run out.

Up to 10 military planes, three civilian jets and 11 ships are scouring more than 1,000 square miles of sea off the west coast of Australia.

Today's hunt will take in three large patches of the southern Indian Ocean, some 2,000km, 2,300km and 1,800km northwest of Perth.

Green shows areas to be searched today, grey is areas already searched

Dozens of flights by a multi-national taskforce have so far failed to turn up any trace of the plane, which was carrying 239 people when it vanished from radar on March 8.

Experts say the underwater phase of the hunt has reached a "desperate" stage with limited chance of success.

Marine salvage and radar experts laid out the scale of the challenge facing search teams, after Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston announced plans to use black box pinger locators deep in the southern Indian Ocean.

Speaking on Sky News, radar expert Professor David Stupples said the pinger locators would be able to cover just 150 square miles a day, in an overall search area of around 87,000 square miles.

Marine salvage expert John Noble told Sky's Ian Woods the latest phase suggested authorities were getting "desperate" in their search for the plane.

He said: "It's a desperate last-minute move because they know the pinger is going to run out within the next few days and if they don't give it a go now they'll never find it using these techniques."

As the extensive search wears on, Malaysia's opposition leader has accused the government of deliberately concealing information about the missing plane.

In an interview with Sky News, Anwar Ibrahim, who personally knew the pilot of the missing plane, cast doubt on official accounts coming from Malaysian authorities.

A pinger locator can detect signals from the flight recorder

The hunt for wreckage is relying on the plane's black box recorders emitting pings that can be detected by equipment on board the ships.

But the battery-powered recorders stop transmitting about 30 days after a crash.

With the clock ticking down since MH370 went missing more than four weeks ago, Mr Houston acknowledged time is running out for search crews.

He said: "The locater beacon will last about a month before it ceases its transmissions - so we're now getting pretty close to the time when it might expire."  

Locating the data recorders and wreckage after the devices stop working is possible, but incredibly difficult.

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