Woman In Scotland Tested For Ebola Virus

A female detainee who became ill at an immigration removal centre is to undergo tests for the Ebola virus.

The woman, understood to have arrived from Sierra Leone, was being held at Dungavel Detention Centre in South Lanarkshire.

A spokesman for NHS Lanarkshire said: "We are currently investigating a possible case of Viral Haemorrhagic Fever (Ebola).

"This is a precautionary measure and it would appear at this stage to be highly unlikely the patient will test positive for Ebola."

A Home Office spokesman said: "We do not comment on operational matters."

The case comes amid growing international concern about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

More than 1,000 people have died and almost 2,000 suspected, probable or confirmed Ebola cases have been recorded there.

Health experts say they are struggling to contain the epidemic, which started in Guinea last March.

It has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of a person who is infected.

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Salmonella Outbreak Cause Under Investigation

More than 150 people have been hit with salmonella poisoning, in an outbreak affecting several parts of the UK.

A third of the cases - 55 - have been in Hampshire, with a single east Asian restaurant linked to around two in five of those.

There have also been 43 cases of salmonella in the West Midlands, with another 33 in Cheshire and 25 in London.

All but two of the Cheshire cases are linked to a takeaway restaurant, while 34 of the West Midlands cases are connected to Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital.

A colony of salmonella (Pic CDC)

Public Health England (PHE) said the outbreak was in "isolated clusters" and had been "managed locally".

Genetic tests suggest a single source may be responsible.

Consultant epidemiologist Dr Paul Cleary, who is leading the investigation, said: "We are working with our colleagues across PHE, at the Food Standards Agency, in local authorities and with other public health organisations in Europe to investigate the cause of this outbreak.

"We are making good progress and hope to have more conclusive evidence shortly.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and if there is any further public health action necessary then we will ensure this takes place."

Symptoms of salmonella, which is often associated with poultry and eggs, include diarrhoea, stomach cramps and occasionally vomiting and fever.

Most people recover without medical treatment, although doctors say it is important to drink plenty of water.

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Missouri Teen 'In Robbery' Before He Was Shot

An unarmed black teenager shot dead by an officer was a suspect in a "strong-arm" robbery minutes before the fatal confrontation, say police.

Michael Brown, 18, allegedly stole cigars and shoved a clerk at a convenience store in suburban St Louis last Saturday, just before he was killed by a police officer, spawning almost a week of public disorder.

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released the police reports and documents on Friday morning as he named the officer who carried out the shooting.

Police say Michael Brown was a suspect in a robbery before he was shot

Darren Wilson, who has six years' service and no disciplinary record, is on administrative leave following the incident.

According to the police reports, Mr Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, were suspected of taking a $48.99 box of Swisher Sweet Cigars from a store in Ferguson that morning.

State Highway Patrol captain, Ron Johnson, has taken over security

Chief Jackson said Officer Wilson encountered Mr Brown about 10 minutes after the robbery, at around 12:01pm.

But a lawyer for the Brown family said they are "incensed" because they feel the police are trying to smear their son.

Protesters chant during Thursday's peaceful demonstration

Attorney Benjamin Crump said: "It's bad enough they assassinated him, and now they're trying to assassinate his character."

Police have previously said the officer at the centre of the investigation opened fire after he was pushed into his squad car by one of two men he encountered on the street.

They then assaulted him in the vehicle and struggled with the policeman over the officer's weapon, according to Ferguson police.

Ferguson protesters ride on a car

A shot was fired inside the car before Mr Brown was shot multiple times, according to police.

Dorian Johnson, 22, has been telling media a sharply different version of events.

Vigils were also held in more than 90 cities across the country on Thursday

He said he and Mr Brown were ordered by an officer to stop walking in the street. Mr Johnson said the officer then tried to pull Mr Brown into the squad car before pulling his weapon and firing as the teen had his hands up.

The developments emerged the morning after hundreds of protesters marched side by side with officers in a dramatic turnabout, following a law enforcement facelift in Ferguson.

Some Los Angeles residents also rallied to demand justice for Michael Brown

Gone were the officers in riot gear and armoured tanks as Missouri State Highway Patrol and its black captain Ron Johnson were appointed by the governor to take control of security.

Capt Johnson, who grew up in the community, told a Friday news conference that law enforcement did not use tear gas or make any arrests in the town the night before.

Police officers shook hands with protesters in Ferguson on Thursday night

Marchers had stopped to shake hands with police and troopers, in marked contrast to the previous four nights of violent demonstrations which drew a rebuke from President Barack Obama about "excessive force" by police.

"This is totally different," one demonstrator, Pedro Smith, 41, told Reuters news agency. "Now we're being treated with respect."

Vigils were also held in more than 90 cities across the country to observe a National Moment of Silence on Thursday night.

Witnesses have said Michael Brown had his hands up when he was shot

Rallies took place in Detroit, Los Angeles and New York, where people were asked to wear a red ribbon, cloth or bandana as a mark of solidarity.

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Foreign Ministers Agree To Arm Kurds In Iraq

Al Maliki's Successor Faces Old Problems

Updated: 6:29pm UK, Friday 15 August 2014

By Andrew Wilson, Sky News Presenter, in Irbil, Iraq

The disaster in the Sinjar mountains turns out to be less of a public relations nightmare for Western leaders than first feared.

A few thousand destitute Yazidi people don't carry anything like the clout of tens of thousands.

The UNHCR operators on the ground had figured this out days ago. Their job is numbers and they know that in a brutal world, the problem isn't Sinjar anymore, it's the displacement of those that were there and are now here looking for long-term shelter from the Kurdish Regional Government and maybe even homes in Europe and America.

So what about the spread of this Islamic caliphate across Northern Iraq and Syria?

Well, as far as its leaders-in-waiting are concerned, it's going pretty well.

It's ominous dark shade on the Middle Eastern map is now one colour from Aleppo to Diyala on Iraq's eastern border. 

And, to date, that progress has been largely unchallenged.

Reports of executions and crucifixions have played a part; even the Taliban back in 2001 could not generate the kind of terror that precedes Islamic State (IS) fighters wherever they go.

But IS are picking their enemies strategically as well.

Few tears were shed in Washington when the extremists turned on President Assad, and as for Baghdad, it took so long for the West to declare mission accomplished and pull out that going back in now would be unthinkably embarrassing.

Better to find another old friend to blame, this time the stubbornly sectarian Nouri al Maliki.

It is all his fault that disgruntled Sunnis allowed the IS to swoop down in their armed pickups and help themselves to all the American weapons lying abandoned in the sand.

If only he had built a more unified Iraq with loyal officers and disciplined troops, says the West, failing to mention 2003 when a cadre of professional Iraqi generals stood ready to deploy their well-trained forces for the post-Saddam rebuild only to be shunned by the American occupiers who knew better. 

So now the successor is embraced. Haider al Abadi seems a decent man, more of a consensus builder than a bully.

He is still a Shia, of course, same party as Mr Maliki, in fact, and you wouldn't want his job for all the gold in Saddam's palace.

He will need three phones; for Washington, Tehran and Brussels, and they will all be on his case to fix - in no particular order - the Islamic Caliphate; Sunni minority rights; an army that's just given all its weapons to the other side; Shia aspirations for a greater Iraq joined by holy sites to Iran and, of course, tens of thousands of displaced Yazidis.

It's difficult, if not suicidal, to be a consensus politician in the Middle East.

Think Sadat, Rabin, or even Mahmoud Abbas sitting quietly in Ramallah with "Israeli traitor" daubed on the walls near his house.

Sadly, in this part of the world, where the borders were drawn by foreigners a long time ago, the time-honoured formula, still espoused by Assad, Sisi, the Royal families of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, is more simple: build a power base and crush your enemies.

Nouri al Maliki was on the way, but didn't make it.

And this time, no more boots on the ground.

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Ebola Epidemic Is Like 'War Time' Says MSF

Ebola Cure 'A Long Way Off': Facts About Virus

Updated: 12:08am UK, Thursday 07 August 2014

A cure for the deadly ebola virus, which has killed hundreds of people in West Africa, is "a very long way off", an expert has told Sky News.

David Evans, a professor of virology at Warwick University, said ebola is the latest disease to be transmitted "very efficiently" because of international travel.

More than 670 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria have fallen victim to the viral illness, which has a fatality rate of up to 90%.

Those with ebola will often be overcome by a sudden onset of fever, as well as weakness, muscle pain and headaches.

The body is then gripped by vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes, kidney and liver problems and bleeding.

The time between infection and symptoms appearing is anything from two days to three weeks.

Ebola is spread through the direct contact with the blood, organs or other bodily fluids of those infected.

The liquid that bathes the eye and semen can transmit the disease, Prof Evans said.

Horseshoe bats are believed to be the natural host of the viral disease, he said.

"These bats transmit the virus between themselves, but periodically it then ends up in probably primates or other types of bushmeat which are then hunted by villagers and the virus is then transmitted from the sick animals to humans," he said.

Transmission has also been documented through the handling of chimpanzees, gorillas and porcupines.

One of the reasons for the disease's rapid spread is a tradition at burial ceremonies for mourners to have direct contact with the body of the deceased.

"Therefore barrier methods that prevent that direct contact, including things like washing of hands and things like that provide a reasonable level of protection," he said.

Healthcare workers treating patients are particularly at risk.

Public Health England said in a risk assessment published earlier this month said that the current outbreak could increase the risk for Britons working in humanitarian and healthcare delivery.

But the threat to tourists, visitors and expatriates is still considered "very low if elementary precautions are followed".

Prof Evans said there had been "periodic outbreaks" of ebola since the first recorded instances in 1976, but this is the deadliest so far.

There were two simultaneous outbreaks in Nzara, Sudan and Yambuku, a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo located near the Ebola River.

Data from the World Health Organisation shows the previous deadliest outbreak was the one in the DRC, when 280 out of 315 people infected died.

In the same country in 1995 another outbreak claimed 254 lives, with 315 patients infected.

In 2000, there were 425 cases in Uganda and 224 people died.

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Marine In Urination Video Found Dead At Home

One of the Marines shown urinating on Taliban corpses in a 2011 video has reportedly been found dead at home, aged 28.

Retired Corporal Robert Richards was found at his home in Jacksonville, North Carolina, the reports said, citing lawyer and friend Guy Womack.

The Los Angeles Times said Mr Richards' body was found by his wife on Wednesday night.

The death did not appear to be suicide, though toxicological results from an autopsy are pending.

The results are expected in about two weeks.

Mr Womack told the paper that Mr Richards was under heavy medication for post-traumatic stress disorder and wounds sustained during combat tours in Afghanistan.

He was a veteran Marine who had served three times in Afghanistan.

During one of those tours, he and three other Marines were caught on video as they urinated on the corpses of three Taliban fighters in Helmand province.

One of the bodies was covered in blood.

One Marine looks down at the bodies and jokes, "Have a good day, buddy".

The video, which was made in July 2011 and surfaced in 2012, drew international condemnation and brought embarrassment to US forces.

After the video garnered attention on YouTube, senior military officials and government officials sternly condemned the behaviour of the Marines involved.

Mr Richards, who was then a sergeant, was demoted to the rank of corporal in a plea deal in July last year.

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'Mum Arrested' After Girl Drowns In Hotel Pool

The mother of a three-year-old girl who drowned in a hotel swimming pool near Blackpool has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

The youngster is believed to have been staying with her parents at the Dalmeny Hotel, St Annes, when she got into difficulty in the water on Thursday morning.

She was pulled from the swimming pool and taken to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in a critical condition but died later.

The hotel's owner Chris Webb told Sky News that several other guests witnessed what happened in the pool and gave statements to the police.

Two guests tried to revive the girl before paramedics arrived.

It is understood that the girl's mother was in the pool at the time.

Police confirmed a 40-year-old woman, from Galashiels, Scotland, was arrested on suspicion of murder and child neglect. She remains in police custody.

Witness Carole Greenwood, who has lifeguard qualifications, told Sky News that she tried to rescue the child.

"Children in swimming pools should be looked after by their own parents. It is not necessary to have lifeguards necessarily because they are there to prevent accidents.

'Parents needs to be aware children can't swim, they are not strong swimmers and they need to wear flotation aids, especially little children."

Ms Greenwood said lifeguards had not been on duty because it was not the policy of private pools.

"Obviously I am devastated for this poor little girl, it's very sad.

"At the time, you are quite shocked because all your training is now coming into action.

"It's something you think you'll never, ever do, but I am satisfied I helped out in this case."

A guest called Darren, who did not want to give his surname, also told Sky News he had seen the girl and her family having dinner at the hotel - and witnessed the paramedics arrive.

"I saw them come out of the ambulance with what looked like a defibrillator," he said.

"My daughter saw the little girl being carried out by somebody."

He said the pool had been shut and "lots of police" had been at the hotel.

He described how he later saw the girl's mother being led away by officers.

Detective Inspector Nick Connaughton, of Blackpool CID, said: "This is a tragic situation where a young girl has lost her fight for life.

"We are now treating this sad death as suspicious and are investigating just how the child came into difficulties in the pool."

The Dalmeny Hotel, which overlooks St Annes beach, is described as a family-friendly resort with a heated indoor pool, a spa and three restaurants.

The hotel refused to comment.

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Festival Called Off After Fork Lift Truck Death

A music festival has been cancelled after a man died in an accident involving a fork lift truck at the site.

The 33-year-old was setting up the Surround Festival near Stroud, Gloucestershire, on Thursday morning.

Emergency services were called to the Sallywood Farm site in Horsley at around 12pm.

Surround Festival, featuring a range of world class electronic and live acts, was due to start on Saturday.

In a statement, the organisers confirmed one of the team members had died while working.

"The incident involved someone highly experienced in their role, operating equipment they were fully trained to use," they said.

"It was an exceptionally unfortunate accident. Our thoughts are with their friends and family at this difficult time, and we are working closely with local authorities.

"We understand that this is deeply disappointing to everybody expecting to come, as it is for us. We fully intend to make refunds to all ticket holders and are working very hard to get our refund procedure in place.

"We hope you understand if there is a delay in responding to communications, it has been a difficult time and we are doing everything we can. Full details regarding the refund procedure will be announced as soon as possible."

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Police said the incident was not being treated as suspicious.

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Ukraine's Forces Attack Russian Armoured Convoy

Kiev's forces say they attacked a Russian armoured convoy that crossed into Ukraine "and part of it no longer exists".

Military officials in Kiev said they tracked the vehicles, including armoured personnel carriers, from the border and then attacked with artillery.

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko discussed the incursion with British Prime Minister David Cameron and said a "considerable part of this equipment was destroyed overnight by Ukrainian artillery".

Mr Cameron expressed "grave concerns" at the situation.

Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said the attack "is a very serious development" in the four-month conflict, and "could be the beginnings of something much more dangerous".

World stock markets have fallen on the news, with the rouble weakening against the dollar and euro.

Moscow's Defence Ministry denied Ukrainian forces had destroyed a Russian military column, saying no such military force had crossed into eastern Ukraine.

A Russian convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Ukraine

It dismissed Kiev's claims as "some kind of fantasy".

The European Union said it would consider any unilateral military actions by Russia as "a blatant violation of international law".

Around 23 Russian military vehicles crossed the border near the town of Donetsk on Thursday night, according to journalists from The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

This was later confirmed by Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who said it was a "clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in the destabilisation of eastern Ukraine".

Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint outside Donetsk

Earlier, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was "very alarmed" at the Russian military incursion and summoned the Russian ambassador to clarify the situation.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross said it is still trying to verify that an aid convoy from Russia to Ukraine is carrying nothing more than humanitarian aid.

Ukrainian border guards are checking the cargo on Russian territory near the Ukrainian settlement of Izvaryne, held by separatists.

A dozen Russian armoured trucks are waiting with the aid lorries.

Russian armoured vehicles outside Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in Rostov

Ukraine is concerned the convoy of about 260 vehicles would be used as a 'Trojan horse', allowing Russia to establish a permanent presence in the east.

In an effort to ease tensions, Russian officials allowed journalists to see the contents of trucks.

Among the supplies reporters saw were bottles of water, sacks of buckwheat and portable generators.

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Police Admission Over Cliff Richard Home Search

South Yorkshire Police have admitted working with the media before searching Sir Cliff Richard's home in Berkshire.

They said when they were contacted by BBC journalists with information about an investigation, they decided to "work with them in order to protect the integrity" of that probe.

They added: "Since the search took place a number of people have contacted the police to provide information and we must acknowledge that the media played a part in that, for which we are grateful".

Sir Cliff, 73, has said he did not know officers were planning to search his penthouse apartment on the Charters Estate in Sunningdale and only learnt about it through media reports.

Unmarked police cars leaving the Charters Estate

A search warrant was granted after a historical claim of sex assault was made involving a boy who was under the age of 16 at the time.

The accusation, which Sir Cliff has dismissed as "completely false", relates to an event held by American evangelist preacher Billy Graham in Sheffield in 1985.

A total of eight officers from South Yorkshire and Thames Valley police forces spent about five hours at Sir Cliff's home on Thursday, leaving with a number of items at around 3.30pm.

No one was arrested and  police stressed the investigation was in its "really early stages".

Sir Cliff performing at the O2 Arena in London

In a statement issued on Thursday, Sir Cliff, who is in Portugal, said: "For many months I have been aware of allegations against me of historic impropriety which have been circulating online. The allegations are completely false.

"Up until now I have chosen not to dignify the false allegations with a response, as it would just give them more oxygen.

"However, the police attended my apartment in Berkshire today without notice, except, it would appear, to the press.

"I am not presently in the UK but it goes without saying that I will co-operate fully should the police wish to speak to me."

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said the inquiry is not part of Operation Yewtree, Scotland Yard's investigation into historical sex crimes launched after the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Conservative MP Nigel Evans said "questions have got to be answered" over Sir Cliff's claims the press had been notified about the search.

Mr Evans, who was cleared of a string of alleged sex offences at a trial earlier this year, told Good Morning Britain: "It appears the press knew what was happening before he did.

"A press helicopter was up before the police even arrived - he is quite right to be angry about that. Questions have got to be answered."

Born Harry Webb in Lucknow, India, in 1940, Sir Cliff has become one of the most enduring pop stars of his era, with hits including Devil Woman, Living Doll and The Young Ones. He was knighted in 1995.

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