Fuel Prices Head For Highest Level Ever

Motorists have been warned that petrol prices may soon reach their highest level ever.

The AA said sterling's slide against the dollar and market speculation could push prices to record levels by Easter.

The warning comes as tanker drivers at the Grangemouth refinery, which supplies Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, started a three-day strike in a row over pay and pensions.

The strike, involving 42 Unite members at the refinery near Falkirk, will run until Monday morning with striking workers taking turns to man the picket lines.

The drivers, employed by BP, will then observe an overtime ban when they return but the union plans further strike action if there is no resolution to the dispute.

Average petrol (green) and diesel (red) prices since January

After surging 5p a litre over the past month, the price of petrol at the pumps has gone up a further 1p in the last five days, the AA said.

It revealed that the average cost of petrol in the UK is now 138.32p per litre, with diesel having risen 4.78p from its mid-January price to stand at an average of 145.10p.

The latest figures show that petrol has risen 6.24p since early January, adding £3.12 to the cost of filling a typical 50-litre tank.

The AA said the cost of filling up the 70-litre tank of a Ford Mondeo now costs £4.37 more than it did six weeks ago.

A two-car family's monthly petrol cost has risen £13.25.

Drivers have been caught between the pound weakening against the dollar and soaring wholesale prices, both due to stock market speculation.

Regionally, Yorkshire and Humberside and the north of England are the cheapest for petrol at the moment at 137.6p a litre, with prices in London and Scotland at 137.8p. Northern Ireland is the most expensive at 138.7p.

The picket line outside Grangemouth oil refinery on Friday

Yorkshire and Humberside remains the cheapest region for diesel, averaging 144.2p, while East Anglia, Northern Ireland and southeast England are the most expensive at 145.2p.

AA president Edmund King said: "We're no longer talking of the motorist as a cash cow for tax and speculator greed, but a horse slowly but surely being flogged to death.

"This is the third 10p-a-litre wholesale price surge in 11 months, given extra vigour by currency speculators betting against the pound."

Government revenue from fuel duty has also been hit hard as Britons reduce spending by cutting back on non-essential journeys.

Petrol price breakdown over the past decade

HM Revenue and Customs figures showed that January's UK petrol sales fell to the lowest tracked by the Government in 23 years.

Drivers consumed 1.465 billion litres of petrol last month, down 14 million litres on the previous all-time low set in March last year and nearly 100 million litres below December's consumption of 1.564bn litres.

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Rapper Kenny Clutch Dies In Vegas Shoot-Out

A rapper was one of three people killed when gunmen in a 4x4 opened fire on a Maserati on the Las Vegas Strip, causing a pile-up that triggered a giant fireball.

Kenny Clutch, whose real name was Kenneth Cherry Jr, was driving the sports car when occupants in a Range Rover opened fire.

The car veered out of control and smashed into a taxi carrying two people.

Mr Cherry, 27, an aspiring rapper, was regularly filmed for music videos, which appeared on YouTube, driving a silver Maserati along the Las Vegas Strip.

Kenny Clutch in a rap video with his Maserati

Attorney Vicki Greco, who has represented Mr Cherry for what she described as minor traffic issues and in a civil case, said she had been in touch with his family and friends and that they were "devastated" by his death.

The incident occurred near to where rapper Tupac Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, while riding in a BMW with Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight after the two men had attended a Mike Tyson boxing match.

Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie told a news conference that police had few leads on the Range Rover or its occupants.

The Maserati after the shooting crash

He said the men were considered "armed and dangerous", and they had launched a multi-state search and were seeking help from the public.

Sheriff Gillespie said: "I have been asked by many of you this morning, 'Is the Las Vegas Strip safe?' Yes it is."

After being hit by Mr Cherry's out-of-control Maserati, the cab exploded into flames in the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, a popular tourist area in front of several casino resorts, killing the driver and a passenger.

The shooting happened near to where rapper Tupac Shakur was shot in 1996

"This doesn't happen where we come from, not on this scale," said Mark Thompson, who was visiting from Manchester, England, with his wife.

"We get stabbings, and gang violence, but this is like something out of a movie. Like Die Hard or something."

Another witness said: "There was a loud bang and I hear two other booms. I looked out my window at Caesar's Palace ... and could see the fireball."

The cars crashed at a busy intersection near the Bellagio

The gunfire and collision near the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace hotels triggered another crash involving four other vehicles.

At least four people were hurt, including a passenger in the Maserati.

The Range Rover sped off and was last seen near the Venetian resort as it headed north from the scene.

Police investigate the incident

Sky's Jeff Randall, who was on the Las Vegas Strip, said: "People here are utterly bewildered because this is a city that has tried to portray itself as family friendly and the last thing in the world the leisure barons want here is a rolling gun battle and what police are describing as a massive crime scene."

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Vittorio Missoni: Plane Wreckage Found

Authorities are checking wreckage on the Caribbean island of Curacao to see if it is the aircraft that was carrying fashion boss Vittorio Missoni.

The plane was carrying Missoni, 58, his wife Maurizia Castiglioni, two Italian friends, and two Venezuelan crew members when it disappeared off the coast of Venezuela at the beginning of January.

The BN-2 Islander aircraft dropped off radar screens on its short flight from the Venezuelan resort islands of Los Roques to Caracas.

The Italian news service Ansa said local sources on Curacao were on the scene and examining wreckage. The island is located approximately 50 miles north of Venezuela.

A bag which was being carried on the plane was also found on the island several weeks after the incident.

Italian investigators have said the company which owned the plane was not fully licensed and that the pilot's licence was a month out of date.

It is thought the twin-engine plane had enough fuel for a three-hour flight, according to a statement released last month from Venezuela's aviation agency.

"The last position registered in radar data and those supplied by a system on board the aircraft was about 11 miles south of Los Roques," the agency said.

Missoni is one of Italy's oldest fashion houses and is especially known for its knitwear designs. It has also branched out into other luxury goods and begun opening a chain of branded hotels, including one on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

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Philpott Fire: Father Showed 'Little Emotion'

By Lisa Dowd, Midlands Correspondent

Mick Philpott showed "little emotion" as he waited in hospital for news of the condition of one of his children following a fire at their home in Derby, a court has heard.

Jade, 10, and brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six and Jayden, five, all perished in the blaze on Victory Road in Allenton in May last year.

Their brother Duwayne, 13, was taken to Derby Royal Hospital but died three days later after being transferred to Birmingham.

Philpott, 56, and his wife Mairead, 31, deny killing their six children after a "plan" to frame his ex-mistress went wrong. A third defendant, Paul Mosley, 46, also denies six counts of manslaughter.

PC Kevin Cassidy from Derbyshire Police told Nottingham Crown Court that he was appointed the family's interim liaison officer at the hospital.

He said Mick Philpott told him he and Mairead had been asleep downstairs at the time of the fire and they were woken by a smoke alarm.

When Mick Philpott went outside he claimed he climbed a ladder and used a monkey wrench to smash a window, but the "thick, black smoke" beat him back.

He described the father as "clear and concise in what he was saying and he showed little emotion ... his body language was very relaxed ... as if nothing had happened".

The officer said he only showed emotion when relatives arrived, then he was "casual" again. Mairead Philpott, he said, was "very emotional ... nine times out of 10 she had her head in her hands".

The officer said doctors in Derby told the Philpotts that Duwayne would receive "better treatment" at Birmingham Children's Hospital, but that Mick Philpott was "reluctant" to go there.

The scene in Derby last year

He told how the father said: "We are not going to Birmingham, I have a court day today with regards to access to my other children." He was, he said, "adamant he wasn't going to go, he had no intention of going".

The prosecution alleges that the defendant was violent towards his ex-girlfriend Lisa Willis and after she left the Victory Road home she shared with the Philpotts, taking her five children with her, he wanted to get the children back.

The officer told the jury that after discussions with a doctor at the Derby Royal Hospital, the defendants went for a coffee for 20 to 30 minutes. The doctor asked where they were because Duwayne needed to be transferred "immediately".

When Mick Philpott arrived back from the cafe, he was bare-chested and said he had spilled coffee down his T-shirt. The officer said he went to find him a hospital gown. The Philpotts were later taken in an unmarked police car to Birmingham.

Earlier PC Joanne Steele told the court that at the scene of the fire Mairead Philpott was "hysterical" and was "shaking, uncontrollable, very, very stressed".

PC Steele said Mick Philpott "seemed upset, but seemed to be pacing, anxious".

She said he told her that his ex, Lisa, had made "threats to kill them ... or set the house on fire".

Neighbour Joseph Peel told the court that he was woken by his dog, and when he looked outside it was "foggy" and "as I scanned I just noticed the door on fire". He said he then saw there was "black, thick smoke" coming out of a side window.

He dialled 999, put his clothes on and went outside. He said he banged on the caravan outside 18 Victory Road and shouted: "Mick, Mick, your house is on fire, we knew Mick used to sleep in there.

"I heard what I believe to be Mr Philpott in the back garden ... he was shouting 'my kids, get my kids out'."

Another neighbour, Daniel Stevenson, fought back tears as he told the court he made a number of attempts to save the children after he heard Mick Philpott shout "my babies" and his wife screaming.

He used a pickaxe and a wrench to try to get in, and only got off the conservatory roof when police assured him firefighters were already inside the property. When he got down, he said he saw Mick Philpott punch his van.

"I think he tried to get in the house," he said. "He was being restrained by police officers."

The trial continues.

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Beheading: Man Guilty of Brit Gran's Murder

A man has been found guilty of murdering a British grandmother who he decapitated on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

Deyan Deyanov, from Bulgaria, repeatedly stabbed 60-year-old Jennifer Mills-Westley in the neck in 2011 with a knife he had just picked up in a shop.

The homeless 29-year-old drug addict had denied murder, with his defence arguing he was not criminally responsible for his actions because he suffers from acute paranoid schizophrenia, but a jury of nine found him guilty.

After the verdict, Ms Mills-Westley's family spoke of how hard it had been to sit through the evidence but said lessons needed to be learned from what had happened.

In a joint statement, her children said: "It's hard to put into words the devastating impact that this preventable and needless act has had on us as a family - sadly mum was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jennifer Mills-Westley had retired to Tenerife

"It is clear to us that there has been a catalogue of failings - unfortunately it is now left to us to piece these together as we still have so many unanswered questions.

"We would like to make a plea that the care of people like Deyan Valentinov Deyanov is taken more seriously."

Ms Mills-Westley, a retired road safety worker originally from Norwich, was attacked while she was in a shop in the popular resort of Los Cristianos on May 13, 2011.

She had retired to the island in 2006 and owned two apartments in Los Cristianos, one of which she rented out.

That morning, Deyanov had walked into another shop and asked for a "big" knife because he was going to kill someone.

At 10.30am he went into the Mas Articulos Mejor Precios shop on Avenida Juan Carlos I, picked up a 22cm-long knife and plunged it into Ms Mills-Westley's neck 14 times.

He then walked out carrying her head, to the horror of onlookers, before being wrestled to the ground and arrested.

Living rough in Los Cristianos, the crack cocaine and LSD user was well-known to police and had been arrested at least four times since January 2011 for violent offences.

A warrant for his arrest had been issued just three days before the killing but officers had been unable to locate him.

He had previously been sectioned in the summer of 2010 under the Mental Health Act in Glan Clwyd Hospital, North Wales, and again at Tenerife's La Candelaria hospital before being bailed in early February 2011.

The jury found that Deyanov was guilty of murder because he took his victim by surprise and she could not defend herself.

Even though he was suffering schizophrenia and his responsibility was diminished, in Spanish law he is guilty of murder.

The shop where the attack happened

Deyanov remained quiet and still as the verdict was read out.

Asked by magistrate Maria Jesus Garcia Sanchez if he had anything he wanted to say, he told his Bulgarian interpreter: "I am the the second reincarnation of Jesus Christ and I will bring the fire of the Holy Spirit to bear against this court."

Prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence of 20 years in a secure psychiatric ward, while the defence asked for the minimum sentence of 15 years.

Among the relatives in court were Ms Mills-Westley's younger daughter Samantha, 39, her sister Sarah, 43, from Norwich, and her brother John Smith, 63.

In the joint statement, issued through charity Missing Abroad, her children said attending the trial had been "incredibly hard on us" and said it "has reiterated the horror of mum's death".

They said: "Since the May 13 2011, Jennifer Mills-Westley has become known as the lady who was beheaded in Tenerife.

"The truth is she was our mum, our mentor and our best friend.

"She was a highly gifted, selfless person with so much love in her heart and who has been taken away from us in her prime."

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Mother Left Baby In Bag To Freeze To Death

A mother has admitted leaving her newborn baby to freeze to death in a plastic bag on a remote rural road in Illinois.

Katie Stockton pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the 2004 death of the infant, who became known as Baby Crystal.

Stockton is also believed to be the mother of two infants found dead in her car.

She was not arrested for Baby Crystal's murder until 2009, but when she was police officers discovered her car, which had been sitting in an impound for a year.

In the car they found the remains of two children wrapped in cloth and stuffed in separate plastic bags.

Authorities have said DNA testing found Stockton was probably the mother of those two infants, but she has not been charged in relation to those deaths.

Stockton was questioned about Baby Crystal's death in 2004 after the newborn's frozen remains were found along a dead-end road near her parents' home.

Prosecutors said that when detectives interviewed Stockton hours after the discovery, she lifted her shirt and asked if she looked like she had just given birth.

Stockton refused to provide a DNA sample but detectives investigating the death collected evidence from a cigarette butt they saw her discard.

Authorities said saliva on the cigarette butt matched blood found on the clothing with Baby Crystal.

After reaching an agreement with prosecutors, Stockton admitted the murder.

Winnebago County State's Attorney Joe Bruscato agreed to drop other charges in the case.

Stockton faces up to 60 years in prison when she is sentenced on April 5.

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Oscar Pistorius Gets Bail Over Reeva Killing

Oscar Pistorius has granted bail by a court in South Africa after spending a week in custody charged with murdering his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp.

Magistrate Desmond Nair's decision drew cheers from the Pistorius' family and supporters, while the athlete burst into tears.

The magistrate set bail at one million rand (£73,000) and postponed the case until June 4.

Pistorius will also be required to live at an undisclosed address, hand in his two South African passports and report twice a week to a police station in Pretoria.

Pistorius leaving the courtroom after being granted bail

The double amputee is also banned from drinking alcohol, must hand over his guns and stay away from the estate where he lived.

Prosecutors had warned that the star has the "money, means and motive" to flee South Africa if he was given bail, but his lawyers successfully argued the Blade Runner was too famous to flee justice.

In his two-hour statement to the court, the judge said he did not believe Pistorius to be a "flight risk" or "pose a danger to society".

But the magistrate said Pistorius still has lots questions to answer.

"I have difficulty in appreciating the accused did not ascertain the whereabouts of his girlfriend when he got off the the bed," Mr Nair said.

Pistorius' supporters prayed after the decision was announced

"I have difficulty with the accused not seeking to verify who was in the toilet when he could have asked.

"I have difficulty understanding why the deceased didn't scream back from the toilet."

Sky's Alex Crawford said Pistorius burst into tears when the decision was read out.

"He had been crying quietly anyway, and it just seemed to prompt even more sobbing from him," Crawford said.

The magistrate said Pistorius still has a lot of questions to answer

"His family are hugely relieved, some of them are crying, they're gathered together in a little huddle ... hugging each other, some are sobbing, they are holding hands, and some at least appear to be praying."

About an hour after the decision was read out, Pistorius was driven away from the court in a silver Land Rover.

The star is charged with premeditated murder over the shooting death of Miss Steenkamp, 29, in the early hours of February 14.

A representative of the state said the investigation was ongoing and there was more evidence to gather.

Outside the court, a friend and former flatmate of Miss Steenkamp, Kim Myers, said it has been a very sad time and people must remember the trial has not started.

Family and friends cheered and cried as the decision was read out

"The bail application is not a trial and we hope and trust that justice will prevail," she said.

"We need to remember that someone still lost their life.

"Our hearts and thoughts and prayers just go out to the Steenkamp family."

A spokesman for the Steenkamp family Nicholas Van Eden later said: "We're not sure what to feel in the case. We just want to know the truth, and whatever happens it's not going to bring Reeva back.

Pistorius left the courtroom in a silver vehicle

"We just want justice and the truth."

The Olympian's uncle Arnold Pistorius said: "Although we are obviously relieved that Oscar has been granted bail, this is still a very sad time for the family of Reeva and for us.

"We are grateful that the magistrate recognised the validity and strength of our application.

"As the family, we are convinced that Oscar's version of what happened on that terrible night will prove to be true."

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British Girl Dies On School Ski Trip In Italy

A 13-year-old British girl has been killed in a ski-ing accident while on a school trip in Italy.

Named by Sky sources as Poonam Bhattal, the teenager fell over 20ft from a ski lift onto a hardened snow piste in Claviere, in the Piedmot region in the north of the country.

She toppled to the ground, surviving the initial impact, but was pronounced dead by paramedics on the way to hospital.

More follows...

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Paxman: Savile Claims Were 'Common Gossip'

Top BBC executives denied having ever heard about Jimmy Savile's sex crimes, despite Newsnight host Jeremy Paxman's claim they were "common gossip".

Both former Director General Mark Thompson and Director of News Helen Boaden told an internal BBC inquiry they had never heard any "rumours" about the DJ and presenter.

The details were included in thousands of pages of evidence gathered during an inquiry by former Head of Sky News Nick Pollard.

It was set up last year to investigate if management failings were behind Newsnight's decision to drop its Savile investigation in December 2011, weeks before a Christmas tribute was broadcast.

The revelations about Savile, which were later broadcast by ITV, led to a major criminal investigation and focused attention on what police described as decades of predatory sexual crimes committed by the star.

Mr Paxman said the BBC's handling of the decision to drop its investigation was "almost as contemptible" as its behaviour during the years the DJ was one of its biggest names.

He said: "It was, I would say common gossip, that Jimmy Savile liked, you know, young - it was always assumed to be girls."

He added: "I had no evidence. But it was common gossip, I think."

Mr Thompson, who spent 30 years at the corporation in two separate stints, said he had never worked with Savile.

He said: "I had never heard any rumours at all, if you like of a dark side of any kind, sexual or otherwise about Jimmy Savile".

Ms Boaden said she "had never heard any dark rumours about Jimmy Savile" but did meet him at a lunch for veteran radio presenters.

Paxman: Savile was 'absurd' figure

She said: "He came to the lunch, he kissed my hand at the beginning, he kissed my hand at the end, he said not a word to me between those events".

Mr Paxman told the inquiry "the important question" was how Savile had been allowed to rise to prominence within the BBC.

He said: "What was the BBC doing promoting this absurd figure, this absurd and malign figure? And I think that has to do with the fact of the BBC having been aloof from popular culture for so long."

A producer at the BBC proposed running an investigation into child abuse carried out by Savile hours after the presenter's death, evidence gathered during the inquiry revealed.

An email released among thousands of pages of evidence from the report said that producer Meirion Jones suggested the show soon after it was known the former DJ had died.

Mr Jones - who was involved in the axed Newsnight investigation that prompted the Pollard inquiry - proposed the idea in an email headed "Jimmy Savile - paedophile".

He told BBC news bosses that some of the girls who had been molested by Savile were ready to talk about their experiences.

The email is among hundreds of documents and transcripts of interviews with senior figures that have now been released by the BBC.

Sky News' Media Correspondent Niall Paterson says the material from the report is in a format that makes it very difficult to review quickly.

He said it has been scanned and placed online by the BBC in a way that does not allow it to be electronically searched - meaning anyone wishing to locate particular passages must pore through the entire report.

Many of the pages feature sections that have been redacted to remove passages that lawyers feel could be libellous.

It has emerged that the Savile piece would have been shown on December 7, 2011, but Newsnight editor Peter Rippon decided the focus of the story should be changed to look at the Crown Prosecution Service's involvement.

'Flawed': Peter Rippon comes in for criticism in the report

Meirion Jones warned just days before the planned broadcast that it should go ahead because otherwise the BBC would be accused of a "cover-up" and a scandal could blow up.

He wrote: "I think if we go ahead with TX (transmission) next week there will be minor embarrassment to the BBC.

"If we cancel or delay till after Christmas there is a risk of another BBC scandal on the scale of the Queen or Jonathan Ross and similar damage to our core value of trust."

He urged the broadcast to go ahead because he said it would come out eventually, adding: "We know News International are all over this story."

Another of those interviewed, former Director General George Entwistle, told the inquiry the BBC had self-censored hundreds of comments placed by members of the public on a corporation tribute website to Savile.

The comments, which included one person who wrote "One of my best friends in 1972 was molested by this creep Savile. He was never the same again. Killed himself in 1985. How's About That Then?", were stopped from being published by a team of moderators.

The Pollard Review  - which cost the corporation about £2m - concluded that the investigation in Savile was abandoned because of a "flawed" decision by the show's then editor, Peter Rippon.

Mr Rippon told Mr Pollard how he felt about making the decision.

He said:  "It was a fine judgement ... particularly because you are conscious of the kind of obligation and duty of care to the women that they are doing, that it makes it quite a big judgement to make."

The latest evidence is likely to place further criticism on the corporation for an apparent reluctance to hold to account executives whose actions brought about the crisis.

BBC chairman Lord Patten said: "These documents paint a very unhappy picture, but the BBC needs to be open - more open than others would be - in confronting the facts that lie behind Nick Pollard's report.

"A limited amount of text has been blacked out for legal reasons, but no one could say that the effect has been to sanitise this material, which again puts a spotlight on some of our failings. We need to acknowledge these shortcomings and learn from them."

Meanwhile, Scarborough Council has said it is likely that Savile will be formally stripped of his freedom of the borough title.

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Horsemeat: Caterers Pull Beef Products

Two leading UK catering firms have announced the withdrawal of frozen beef products after horse DNA was found.

Sodexo, which supplies food to schools, care homes and the Armed Forces, said beef had been pulled from its UK sites "with immediate effect".

The firm said despite "repeated guarantees" from suppliers, its checks had uncovered a frozen beef product that tested positive for equine DNA.

Another firm, Scotland Excel, which works mainly with councils, said it advised customers to stop using stocks of frozen burgers after horse DNA was found in a frozen beefburger at North Lanarkshire Council.

The company, which named Brakes as their supplier, stressed the move was a precaution.

Sodexo said its Tillery Valley Foods business, which supplies meals to the healthcare sector, was not affected.

A spokeswoman would not confirm which of its sites had been supplied with the frozen products. Catering at Ascot Racecourse, which hosts Royal Ascot, attended each year by the Queen, is run by Sodexo Prestige, according to the firm's website.

The spokeswoman also declined to name the supplier of the beef products which tested positive for horse DNA and would not say if it was a British or Irish manufacturer.

It comes hours after the owner of Birds Eye recalled ready meals from shelves in four countries.

The brand's traditional spaghetti bolognese 340g, shepherd's pie 400g and beef lasagne 400g are being withdrawn from sale in the UK and Ireland.

Birds Eye withdrew its beef lasagne from sale in the UK and Ireland

They were made by supplier Frigilunch NV, which also produces a branded chilli con carne sold in Belgium that has tested positive for traces of horsemeat.

Birds Eye said: "We want to reassure you from the testing we have completed that all Birds Eye beef burgers, beef pies and beef platters do not contain horse DNA.

"Whilst this is not a food safety issue, it is clearly unacceptable. In accordance with our high standards, we are immediately withdrawing this product from sale in Belgium."

Iglo Foods Group, the parent company of Birds Eye, said in addition to the three product recalls in Britain and the same meals in Ireland, it was withdrawing eight products in Belgium and one in the Netherlands.

The Continental food recall also affects ox tongue, mince, meat balls and hamburgers.

In recent weeks it has emerged European meat supply chains had been contaminated with horsemeat, which forced a number of British supermarkets to recall products.

The France-based Findus food company has also been hit by the scandal.

The Birds Eye revelation comes after it initiated a Europe-wide testing programme for horse DNA of its suppliers and on its finished beef products.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said: "It's unacceptable for any products to be marked as beef, when they also contain horse meat. Thankfully these results show that the vast majority of products on our shelves match what's on the label.

"Food businesses from throughout the industry, including retailers, manufacturers, caterers and other wholesalers, are putting enormous effort into getting this testing completed as quickly as possible. It's an important first step from them in rebuilding the certainty and trust that consumers deserve."

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) released the latest tranche of test results submitted by the food industry earlier. They showed that out of 1,133 meat products checked, only six - including Sodexo's - were positive for horse.

Results of industry tests on 2,501 beef products collated by the FSA last week revealed 29 positive results, relating to 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.

The FSA said no tests to date on samples containing horse DNA have found the veterinary drug phenylbutazone, or bute, to be present.

Retailers have completed about 90% of their tests so far, while manufacturers, caterers and wholesalers have completed about 80% of their tests, according to the FSA. Further test results are due next Friday.

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