Fisherman's Friends Singer Dies From Injuries

The sea shanty group Fisherman's Friends are mourning the loss of their colleague following an accident in which their tour manager was also killed.

Trevor Grills, 54, suffered serious head injuries when he was hit by a falling metal door at the G Live concert venue in Guildford, Surrey, on Saturday.

The Cornish-based group's tour manager, Paul McMullen, died soon after the accident from leg injuries.

Mr Grills was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, where he was pronounced dead on Monday night.

Trevor Grills: 'A much-loved and valued friend'

In a statement, the 10-piece band paid tribute to Mr Grills as "a much-loved and valued friend". A spokesman added: "We are all devastated."

The statement said: "The Fisherman's Friends announce with great sadness that their friend and fellow band member Trevor Grills passed away last night as a result of severe head injuries inflicted during an accident on Saturday, February 9.

"Trevor was a much-loved and valued friend to all of us and was an integral part of the Port Isaac community. He will be sadly missed. Our thoughts are with Trevor's family at this very difficult time."

Darcus Beese, president of Island Records, the group's label, added: "We are all deeply saddened at losing Trevor. The Fisherman's Friends are exactly that: life-long partners in all they do and our thoughts and prayers go out to them and Trevor's family and friends."

Police were called to G Live shortly before midday on Saturday after a report that two men were trapped under a metal door in the loading bay.

Mr McMullen, who is believed to be a father and husband from Stockport, was treated by paramedics but was declared dead at the scene.

The Friends were due to be performing that night as part of a tour but the concert was cancelled following the tragedy. The venue has since reopened.

The Health and Safety Executive has been informed of the accident, Surrey Police confirmed.

The G Live venue at Guildford

Fans of Fisherman's Friends have paid tribute to Mr Grills, one of the younger members of the band who often took the lead in its more melancholic numbers.

Writing on the group's Facebook page, Sarah Lee said: "Words seem pointless, but apart from sending you all love there's not much else we can offer.

"Know that you are in our hearts at this terribly sad time."

Fellow fan Charlie Mason added: "Such sad news - we saw you all in Cheltenham on Thursday, and loved it - Trevor bought joy to people - a gift few of us have. We've lost someone special."

Steph Woodhouse wrote: "Oh such dreadful news, was hoping against hope he would pull through. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and all the village that has welcomed us so warmly over the years. Thinking of Port Isaac."

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Disabled Turtle Yu Given Prosthetic Flippers

A loggerhead turtle thought to have had her front limbs partly severed in a shark attack has been given a new pair of artificial flippers.

Yu, aged about 25, has been through 26 pairs of rubber limbs already - but all have proved too painful to keep.

The new ones are attached to a vest slipped over her head, said Naoki Kamezaki, curator at an aquarium near Kobe in western Japan, where Yu lives.

"We have worked hard to design the vest in a way that prevents the turtle from taking it off unwittingly," he said.

The vest with new rubber limbs attached is fitted to Yu

Yu, who weighs 96kg (212lbs) and has a shell 82cm (32ins) long, was pulled out of a fisherman's net and sent to the Suma Aqualife Park in mid-2008.

One third of her right limb and half of the left limb were gone following what Mr Kamezaki believes must have been a shark attack.

The aquarium started developing artificial limbs for Yu in late 2008 as she could swim only at about 60% of normal speed.

Earlier versions caused her difficulty because they were squeezed into the stumps.

Yu is a big draw at Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, Japan

"Similar attempts have been made to attach artificial limbs to turtles around the world, but we have not heard if they went well," said Mr Kamezaki, an expert on sea turtles, whose surname coincidentally means "turtle cape" in Japanese.

"Ours may be the only case in which a turtle with artificial limbs is still swimming without a problem."

According to National Geographic, loggerhead turtles, which are on the endangered list, can live for 50 years and can move through water at up to 15 miles per hour.

In 2004, a dolphin at an aquarium in Okinawa, southern Japan, became the first in the world to be fitted with a rubber tail fin after losing its own tail due to illness.

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Vatican: Pope Has Had Pacemaker For Years

The Vatican has admitted for the first time that Pope Benedict has had a heart pacemaker for several years.

The Pope, who is stepping down at the end of the month due to "deteriorating" health, had its battery replaced a few months ago in what was described as a "routine" procedure.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the 85-year-old had the pacemaker fitted "a long time" before he became Pontiff in 2005.

The Italian daily newspaper Il Sole 24 said Benedict had the pacemaker procedure less than three months ago in a Rome hospital and did not miss any public appearances.

The Pope will bid his followers a final farewell in an audience in St Peter's Square, Rome, on February 27, the day before he officially steps down.

"The last general audience will be held in the square since a lot of people will come," Mr Lombardi said at a press briefing.

He also said the traditional Ash Wednesday mass on February 13 would be his last major religious ceremony as Pope together with other prelates.

The mass, which marks the start of a period of penitence before Easter for Christians, will be held in St Peter's Basilica instead of a smaller Rome church in order to accommodate large numbers of people expected because of the announcement.

"We suppose there will be a lot of people who will want to come and pray with the Holy Father and the cardinals and bishops," Mr Lombardi said.

"It is an important concelebration. It is will be the Holy Father's last major concelebration with the public present," he added.

Mr Lombardi said the Pope would also speak about his experiences during the reformist Second Vatican Council in the 1960s at an already scheduled meeting with parish priests from Rome on Thursday.

"This is an important moment, an embrace from the Pope," he said.

Meanwhile, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, said his brother will stay out of the public eye and lead a quiet life in the Vatican when he returns to being Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

The priest , who lives in the southern German city of Regensburg and was ordained on the same day as the pope in 1951, said his brother has no plans to move back to his homeland.

"You don't transplant an old tree," said the 89-year-old.

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Poundland Graduate Cait Reilly Wins Appeal

A graduate who was forced to work at Poundland for free has won an appeal, in a blow for the Government's back-to-work schemes.

Cait Reilly, 24, from Birmingham, had argued that being made to work in the discount shop for nothing while she looked for a permanent job was illegal.

Jamieson Wilson, 40, an unemployed lorry driver from Nottingham who was stripped of jobseeker's allowance for refusing an unpaid cleaning role, also won his legal challenge.

Lord Justice Pill, Lady Justice Black and Sir Stanley Burnton, sitting in London, ruled that the regulations behind most of the back-to-work schemes were unlawful and quashed them.

The pair's solicitors claimed the ruling meant anyone docked jobseeker's allowance for not complying with the schemes could demand the money back.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has vowed not to repay anyone who had not been seriously trying to find work and said it was looking at "options" to avoid paying out.

Miss Reilly was forced to leave her voluntary post at a museum to work unpaid at Poundland in Kings Heath, Birmingham, in November 2011 under a scheme known as the "sector-based work academy".

She was told she would lose jobseeker's allowance if she refused and spent two weeks stacking shelves and cleaning floors.

Miss Reilly worked unpaid at a Birmingham Poundland store for two weeks

Mr Wilson, a qualified mechanic, was told that he had to work unpaid, cleaning furniture for 30 hours a week for six months, under a scheme called the community action programme.

He objected to doing unpaid work that would not help him re-enter the jobs market and refused, leading to him losing jobseeker's allowance for six months.

Following the ruling, Miss Reilly said: "I don't think I am above working in shops like Poundland. I now work part time in a supermarket. It is just that I expect to get paid for working.

"I agree we need to get people back to work but the best way of doing that is by helping them, not punishing them."

Following the ruling, Labour accused the coalition of being "incompetent" and unions hailed Miss Reilly a "hero" as they called for the programmes to be scrapped.

But the Government pointed out that the judges had agreed requiring people to join the schemes was legal, meaning they could continue.

Employment minister Mark Hoban said it would appeal the ruling while also drafting new regulations immediately to remove "any uncertainty".

"Ultimately the judgment confirms that it is right that we expect people to take getting into work seriously if they want to claim benefits," he said.

Public Interest Lawyers, which represented both claimants, called the decision a "huge setback" for the DWP.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said: "It beggars belief that David Cameron's Government is now so incompetent it can't even organise work experience."

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Derby House Fire: Children's Parents On Trial

A man accused of killing his six children in a house fire started the blaze as part of a "plan" to frame his ex-girlfriend after becoming locked in a custody battle with her, a court has heard.

Mick Philpott and his wife Mairead allegedly started the fire at their semi-detached home after telling police his former partner, Lisa Willis, had been threatening him and his family.

There were emotional scenes during their manslaughter trial at Nottingham Crown Court today as the 999 call made by the couple as the fire took hold was played to the jury.

Philpott stood and tried to leave the dock saying "I can't listen to it" before being made to sit down by security officers. He sat with his hands over his ears as Mairead wiped tears away.

The prosecution said Philpott claimed he and Mairead were sleeping downstairs when the fire took hold and were only woken by a smoke alarm. He said he had tried to save the children, who were asleep upstairs.

The scene of the fire last May

When emergency services arrived the plastic front door had "completely melted". Firefighters managed to extinguish the flames in the hallway but they had to feel their way upstairs because the smoke was so dense.

The Philpotts' children - Jade, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, Jayden, five, and Duwayne, 13 - were found upstairs in their beds.

Five were killed in the fire at their home in Victory Road, Allenton, Derby on May 11 last year. Duwayne died three days later in hospital.

The court was told the family shared an unconventional lifestyle. Philpott, 56, his 31-year-old wife and Ms Willis, 28, all lived in the same house.

A total of 11 children also lived there. Six were those of Mick and Mairead Philpott, while four were his with Ms Willis. Another child was Ms Willis's by another man.

Floral tributes laid outside the house

The couple, along with a third defendant, 46-year-old Paul Mosley, have denied six separate counts of manslaughter in relation to the deaths.

Prosecuting. Richard Latham QC told the jury the fire was started on the day Ms Willis and Philpott were due in court to discuss the residency of the children.

The court heard Philpott preferred his relationship with Ms Willis and had spoken of divorcing Mairead and marrying her.

They had been living as a "threesome" for 10 years but Ms Willis left the house in February last year after finding the situation "unacceptable" She took her children with her, and had become embroiled in a bitter fight with Philpott.

The prosecution claims he planned to frame her and eventually win his children back, and had made numerous reports to the police that she had threatened him, his wife and the children.

The Philpott children's funeral

Mr Latham told the jury of six men and six women: "By May 1st Mick Philpott was reporting to the police that Lisa Willis had made telephone threats to kill him.

"The police visited him, he was at times highly emotional and made it clear that he wanted Lisa arrested. If she had been this would have assisted him in the court proceedings, wouldn't it?"

About a fortnight before the fire Philpott told friends he had an idea for a way of getting Ms Willis and the children back, Mr Latham said.

"He told people he had a plan up his sleeve and that she wasn't going to get away with it - watch this space."

Mr Latham said the fire which killed the children was no accident - it had been started using petrol in the hallway of the house.

Pointing out the Philpotts were not accused of murder, he said: "This was a plan that went horribly wrong and resulted in total tragedy."

The trial is expected to last six weeks.

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Austria: British Girl Killed In Skiing Accident

A 10-year-old British girl has died after ploughing into a tree during a family skiing holiday in Austria.

She is understood to have been out with her father and brother when she hurtled off the piste into some woods.

The girl was unable to stop and crashed into a tree at Mayrhofen, in the Tirol region, police said.

Police in Mayrhofen said the family was on the last run of the day, on Sunday afternoon, when the accident happened.

A spokesman said: "After the girl lost control, she began to gain speed. She went faster and faster and sped over the edge of the piste and into the woods.

"She then hit the tree and was very badly hurt.

Mayrhofen is in south-west Austria

"Her father and brother were behind and they went after her immediately and saw the accident."

She was given first aid by her family before being flown by helicopter to hospital in Innsbruck, where she died on Monday.

The girl, who has not been named, was apparently wearing a helmet.

Her mother had returned to the bottom of the mountain by cable car and did not witness the tragedy.

The slopes around Mayrhofen have been popular with British skiers since the 1970s.

The resort boasts almost 100 miles of pistes and latest snow reports suggest conditions are excellent.

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Dale Cregan Pleads Guilty To PC Murders

By Mike McCarthy, North of England Correspondent

The man accused of murdering two police officers in a gun and grenade attack has dramatically changed his plea to guilty.

After initially denying the killings, Dale Cregan unexpectedly admitted the offences after a break in his trial at Preston Crown Court.

The court heard last week how the 29-year-old ambushed PCs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes after making a 999 call to report a bogus burglary from a house in Hattersley, Greater Manchester, on September 18.

The jury was told that he opened fire on the policewomen as they approached the front door of the house and that as they lay on the floor, he threw a hand grenade at their bodies.

Families of PCs Bone, 32, and Hughes, 23, wept in court as details of the murders were outlined. They heard a recording of the call made by Cregan and watched CCTV footage of the two officers leaving their police station in response.

None of their relatives were in court to hear Cregan admit the murders.

Cregan, of no fixed address, continues to deny murdering a father and son in two separate attacks earlier in the year.

Mark Short, 23, was shot at the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden, Manchester, on May 25, while his 46-year-old father David was found dead on August 10 following a blast at a house in nearby Clayton.

Cregan also denies four attempted murders and a single charge of causing an explosion, while nine other defendants deny all the charges they face.

The trial continues tomorrow.

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Scientist: Lamb Meals May Contain Horsemeat

By Thomas Moore, Health and Science Correspondent

A senior scientist has told Sky News that lamb products may also contain horsemeat and need to be tested.

Dr Mark Woolfe, formerly of the Food Standards Agency, said retailers should immediately test everything from lamb ready meals to doner kebabs for horse DNA to ensure their products are clear.

He warned the same pressures to find cheap sources of beef make it impossible to "verify" the lamb supply chain.

Dr Woolfe was in charge of the "food authenticity" unit at the FSA for 17 years and is widely respected for his research.

He said: "If I was a retailer I would be looking quite carefully at my lamb products as well.

"When I ran the surveillance programme, the only time I would say there was a problem was when I found a problem.

Findus products were revealed to contain up to 100% horsemeat

"That's why I say it would be diligent for people to look at other products."

Dr Woolfe blamed the current horse meat scandal on a sudden change to European Union rules last year that affected economy meat products.

For more than a decade manufactures rubbed the remaining scraps of meat from animal carcasses to make a fine mince called de-sinewed meat (DSM). It was the primary ingredient for cheap pies, sausages and ready meals.

But the EU decided last spring that DSM could no longer be used, forcing suppliers to find an alternative source of cheap meat within a matter of days.

"It left suppliers with big hole in their supply chain for the raw materials for their value products. They had to look elsewhere for product at same price or cheaper to fill that gap.

"If that can't be done in this country then they go abroad.

"If something is produced in the UK they have better control over the supply chain. It's more difficult to verify the supply chain outside the UK."

The warning comes after an expanding international scandal over processed beef products, which were found to contain up to 100% horsemeat.

The Environment Secretary is to hold another round of talks with the food industry to discuss the scandal.

Owen Paterson has told MPs that it appears "criminal activity" is at the heart of the scandal that has spread across Europe.

He will hold talks with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and food industry representatives tonight in what will be the second UK summit in a matter of days.

Supermarkets were forced to remove certain beef burgers and ready-meals such as spaghetti bolognese after details of the adulteration were exposed by Irish food safety officials.

Controversy and concerns about traceability of food deepened in early February when halal food supplied to prisons by a Northern Ireland-based company was found to contain traces of pork DNA.

It emerged that a number of ready meals including Findus beef lasagne, made in France and distributed across UK supermarket chains, contained up to 100% horsemeat.

One of Findus' main shareholders has told Sky he thinks the company have handled the public relations aspect of the crisis poorly.

Initially, suppliers in Poland were accused of replacing beef supplies with horse products, however the supply chain was later said to have used meat sourced in Romania.

The French supplier to Comigel, the ready meal giant which made the Findus and Aldi dishes found to contain up to 100% horsemeat, appeared to point the finger at two Romanian slaughterhouses.

But a preliminary investigation by the Romanian government claimed that the paperwork from the abattoirs was in order and that the livestock entering the facilities were accurately documented.

Romanians reacted angrily to the claims.

Sorin Minea, head of the Romanian food industry federation Romalimenta, told Sky News that the accusations are tinged with racism: "Look at the thief in the square, the gypsy. He is to blame."

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Republic Close To Collapse: Sky Sources

Republic is expected to call in administrators on Wednesday putting 1,000 jobs at risk, according to Sky sources.

The youth fashion chain will become the latest casualty of the high street in the year to date, following the collapse of HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster.

Ernst & Young have been lined up as administrators, says Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman.

Private Equity firm TPG owns Republic, which last month looked to switch to monthly rental payments in an attempt to avert cashflow problems.

The US-based buyout giant has injected new capital into the company on at least two occasions since it bought it two-and-a-half years ago - with around £20m pumped in over the course of 2012.

Tough trading conditions have hit the company in recent months, causing it to slow down its store-opening programme.

Republic, whose target market is young adults, sells brands including Diesel, Firetrap and G-Star.

Anusha Couttigane from retail analysts Conlumino said rumours of trouble at the retailer have been circling for some time.

"TPG cites crippling rental rates as the main cause for the company's breakdown, recently hiring KMPG in a desperate bid to offload some of its 121 stores," she said.

"In light of this, news of its administration suggests that attempts to renegotiate monthly payments have failed, bringing the business to a complete standstill and landlords facing the prospect of more vacant units on the high street."

She also stressed that its target youth market had been hard hit by the recession, adding: "Republic has failed to keep up with some pretty fierce competitors."

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North Korea Nuclear Test 'Strongly Condemned'

The UN Security Council has criticised North Korea's third nuclear test, describing it as a "clear threat" to world peace.

Its 15 members held an emergency meeting after the country confirmed it had carried out a test "to protect our national security and sovereignty against the reckless hostility of the United States".

More follows...

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