Dolphin Bites Girl At SeaWorld Theme Park

An eight-year-old girl has had a lucky escape after a dolphin she was feeding bit her at a US theme park.

Jillian Thomas was holding out fish to feed to dolphins at Orlando's SeaWorld when she got an unexpected surprise.

While she was feeding the usually friendly mammals, a dolphin lunges at her and nips her hand. 

The girl, whose parents posted the video on YouTube to make other people aware of the dangers, suffered three small puncture wounds.

Jillian's father, Jamie Thomas, told local media the family were angry at the theme park for not warning them of the dangers of dolphin feeding.

"We felt powerless," he said.

"We thought, look, we've got this video, let's make it public, and let's try to put some pressure on SeaWorld to make some changes."

A SeaWorld statement said: "Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our guests employees and animals.

"Educators and animal care staff are always on-site at this area monitoring all interactions and are committed to guest safety."

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Tax: Starbucks, Google And Amazon 'Immoral'

By Darren McCaffrey, Sky News Reporter

Starbucks, Google and Amazon have been accused of "immorally" avoiding paying their fair share of tax in the UK, as the Chancellor prepares a blitz on tax dodgers.

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee criticised the companies for the "unconvincing and, in some cases, evasive" evidence they gave on why their corporation tax payments are so low.

Starbucks told the committee it had made a loss for 14 of the 15 years it has operated in the UK, a claim the committee said it found "difficult to believe".

In a report, the MPs added that Amazon's representative left them frustrated because he was "evasive and unprepared to answer legitimate questions".

They also said Google "undermined its own argument" that profits should be taxed in the countries where they are made because it transfers its non-US profits, including from the UK, to Bermuda, which has a more advantageous tax system.

Starbucks says it is reviewing its tax arrangements

Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, said: "Global companies with huge operations in the UK generating significant amounts of income are getting away with paying little or no corporation tax here.

"This is outrageous and an insult to British businesses and individuals who pay their fair share.

"Corporation tax revenues have fallen at a time when securing proper income from taxes is more vital than ever.

"There is little credible information about what is going on. The evidence we took from large corporations was unconvincing and, in some cases, evasive."

Starbucks has now declared that it is preparing to change its tax affairs so that it pays more into Britain's coffers and there is growing pressure on others to follow suit.

The report was published as George Osborne prepares to unveil a £154m crackdown on wealthy companies and rich individuals who dodge tax.

Officials will be ordered to use the cash to draft in an army of investigators to target high earners who aggressively avoid or evade paying tax.

The money will also fund extra staff to speed up work challenging multinationals' transfer pricing arrangements to stop global companies using legal loopholes to shift profits out of the UK.

However, Mr Osborne has warned against pricing Britain out of the world economy.

"If we make our taxes less competitive, that will just mean more companies stay out of Britain," he said.

But Katja Hall, from Confederation of British Industry, told Sky News that tax avoidance is not a widespread problem.

"Companies pay £163bn in tax in the UK every year and the large majority of companies pay the right amount of tax," she said.

The Institute of Directors condemned the "hectoring from Westminster" and called for the tax system to be simplified.

Director general Simon Walker said: "If these firms are immoral to take advantage of tax loopholes, then politicians are surely immoral for creating the loopholes in the first place.

"Taxes should be simpler to cut down on avoidance and relieve the burden our complex tax code puts on companies who do try to do the right thing."

An HMRC spokesman said: "HMRC ensures that multinationals pay the tax due in accordance with UK tax law. We have been very successful in reducing tax avoidance by large businesses in recent years.

"We relentlessly challenge those that persist in avoiding tax and have recovered £29bn additional revenues from large businesses in the last six years, including £4.1bn in the last four years from transfer pricing enquiries alone. These figures speak for themselves."

The latest tax crackdown will be outlined in this week's Autumn Statement, which is also expected to contain bleak news for benefits claimants.

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Bicester Murder: Janee Parsons Found Dead

A man is being questioned after his American beauty therapist wife was stabbed to death in the family home.

Janee Parsons, 31, was found by police who were called to her detached home on Saturday after neighbours reported hearing a heated argument and screams.

Despite attempts by officers and ambulance staff to resuscitate her, she was declared dead at hospital.

A 38-year-old man, believed to be her husband Andrew, remains in police custody after he was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Members of the victim's family who have flown from the US are believed to be caring for the couple's two young sons.

A post-mortem examination found that mother-of-two Mrs Parsons died from multiple incised wounds, Thames Valley Police said.

Janee Parsons with friend Antonia Mariconda (pic: Antonia Mariconda)

It is thought the family moved from the US to Bicester, Oxfordshire, where Mrs Parsons was killed at the family's home in Lucerne Avenue.

She was originally from Yukon, Oklahoma, and for several years ran the Oxford Spa beauty salon in Oklahoma City before moving to the UK.

Her friend, health and beauty writer Antonia Mariconda, tweeted: "R.I.P my beautiful friend Janee Parsons murdered last night I'm devastated at her loss, words are beyond the grief."

Detective Chief Inspector Joe Kidman, leading the investigation, said: "The victim's family has been informed of the death and, although formal identification of the woman's body is yet to take place, we believe her to be Janee Parsons, aged 31.

"We are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident but are keen to speak with anyone in Lucerne Avenue who may have important information to help us establish the circumstances of this tragic incident."

Area Commander Superintendent Andy Boyd said: "I would like to offer the reassurance to residents that I can say at this stage that this is not believed to be a random attack and we believe that the victim and the offender knew each other."

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Tax Crackdown Ticks Right Boxes For Osborne

Multinational tax avoidance is a subject that ticks all the right boxes for the Chancellor two days before the Autumn Statement.

For one thing, unlike many other tax-related issues, trying to crack down on companies that pay less tax in the UK than many people would expect is an exercise that both Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers are happy to enter into with equal relish.

Tackling tax avoidance is one of the most punter-friendly things that the Treasury can do.

Recent weeks have demonstrated that there is a genuine wave of public feeling targeting companies like Starbucks, which has put the coffee giant very definitely on the back foot.

It is the sort of sentiment that any experienced politicians would be poised to exploit.

On top of that, the Chancellor knows there is more than the sniff of a chance that over the next few months he might be able to have a real impact on corporate tax avoiders.

Key to his hopes is the fact that the UK is due to take on the six-month stewardship of the G8 in the new year.

The Government has made clear it aims to put the issue of multinational companies' tax burden at the top of the agenda.

If international partners can be brought on board, there is much more of a chance of grappling with the problem.

After all, one of the main issues in the internationally competitive world of corporate tax is that one country's unilateral crackdown may only force companies to concentrate their activities elsewhere.

This is a problem that can only be dealt with by co-operation between the main global economic centres.

As a result, we can expect to hear a good deal more along the same lines from the Chancellor and his colleagues.

However, on Wednesday, the clamour of bad news will inevitably force his corporate tax crackdown from the forefront of the agenda.

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Louisiana: Explosives Find Sparks Evacuation

A whole town in northwest Louisiana has been been evacuated after more than 2,500 tons of explosive material was discovered being stored illegally.

State police have launched a criminal investigation into how the boxes and small barrels of M6 artillery propellant came to be stacked outdoors and crammed into unauthorised buildings leased by Explo Systems at Camp Minden, a former military ammunition plant.

"That's a lot of product, a lot of dangers in there. There are a lot of worst case scenarios, we need to work through those safely," Louisiana State Police Colonel Michael Edmondson said.

Officers had originally estimated there was around 450 tons (1,000,000lb) of the explosive material, which is used in howitzers and other artillery. But it turned out that there was just under 2,700 tons (6,000,000lb).

The weekend operation to move and secure the black powder into authorised storage facilities on the site is now expected to last until Tuesday.

About half of the 800 residents of Doyline left their homes on Friday. The authorities have now issued an order to evacuate the rest.

Police began investigating the company after an explosion at the site on October 15.

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Foreign Office Summons Israel's Ambassador

Apartheid Risk Looms On Settlements

Updated: 1:57pm UK, Monday 03 December 2012

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent

Avenues of palm trees. Air conditioned shopping malls. European coffee shops humming with chatter in Russian, French, English - and Hebrew. This could be California.

It isn't. It's the vanguard of Israel's permanent occupation of parts of the West Bank.

Maale Adumim, a Jewish settlement which cascades down the hillsides of the Judean Desert towards the Dead Sea, is illegal under international law.

That detail has not stopped Israel from building homes for some 500,000 Jews in settlements on Palestinian land captured in 1967.

The accelerating pace of settlement construction grew into an international controversy over the weekend following revelations that Israel planned to build a new town in an area known as E1.

The area, currently a forest park on the eastern edge of Jerusalem behind the Mount of Olives, would seal the Holy City off from the rest of the Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

Joined with Maale Adumim, it would also cut the West Bank in half.

In the words of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the construction of a settlement at E1 would be "fatal" to peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

A quick look at any of the maps produced by Israeli campaigners against the settlements reveals just how far Israel is already planning to go with this scheme to chop the West Bank in two.

The planned extent of the separation wall that cuts through the West Bank and was built to protect Israel from terror attacks, would fence a vast tract of land far bigger than E1 or Maale Adumim into Israeli-held territory.

But a wall can be pulled down. A settlement is a fact on the ground.

One as big as Maale Adumim or E1 is for all practical purposes beyond negotiation.

Once built, it is Israel - and no future government of the Jewish state is likely to say otherwise.

Israel had promised its ally the United States that it would not go ahead with E1 plans.

Washington took this undertaking at face value, and then received a slap to the face when Israel announced that it was considering opening the settlement area up again, along with 3,000 other Jewish homes in Arab East Jerusalem.

The US had been one of only nine countries to vote against a UN motion to admit Palestine to the body with non-member observe state status last week.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, and William Hague, her British equivalent, have both condemned the Israeli plans for E1.

On Monday Daniel Taub, the Israeli ambassador to London, was summoned by Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office Minister, for a warning.

Among the sanctions being considered if Israel does not drop its E1 plans are withdrawing the British ambassador to Israel -  at least for a short time - and asking the European Union to reconsider trade agreements with Israel which give it access to European markets.

The international view is simple.

The chances of a two-state solution to the long-running conflict, which means an independent Palestine, are fast dwindling because Israel is chewing up so much Palestinian land so quickly that a viable state cannot be established.

Israel rejects this and demands that the Palestinians return to peace talks without conditions, which so far include the demand that Israel stops building settlements.

This impasse means that, in the view of many Europeans, Israel must freeze settlement building or face international censure.

The drift of opinion, even among staunch allies of Israel such as the UK, is not in Israel's favour.

Not least because no-one quite knows what looms on the horizon.

If there is no two-state solution, does this mean that there can be a single-state solution? In a Jewish state, what place would there be for the Palestinians?

Few, outside the Israeli left, will say the word but the implication is there: a single state could usher in an apartheid state.

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Norfolk Shooting: Councillor And Wife Dead

Neighbours and colleagues of a council leader and his wife found shot dead outside their home have spoken of their shock and disbelief.

North Norfolk District Council leader Keith Johnson, 58, and his wife Andrea, 44, were found dead outside their bungalow at 2.50pm on Sunday, police have confirmed.

The couple lived in Compit Hills, in Roughton, near Cromer.

A spokesman from Norfolk Constabulary said they found the body of a woman in the front garden, and the body of a man in a nearby back garden.

Detectives are not looking for anybody else in connection with the incident.

North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said he was "deeply shocked" by the news.

"I've known Keith for some years through his work on the council and we both attended the wedding of a mutual friend a few years ago," he said.

"We've always been on very good terms despite the fact I'm Lib Dem and he was a Conservative.

"I didn't know Andrea beyond seeing them both at civic events but she was always good for a friendly chat.

"I share the community's sense of disbelief and my heart goes out to all of their family and friends."

Derek Houlston, whose garden backs on to the couple's property, said he had seen Mr Johnson "looking depressed" the day before he was found dead. 

"We moved in a month ago and they made us very welcome - he even offered to help sort out our bins with the council," he added.

 "She was bubbly and really friendly. We used to see her walking her dog. He was always very friendly too but we saw him doing his paper round - which she got him to do to keep fit - on Saturday and he seemed really depressed.

"I said hello but he just kept his head down and didn't respond."

Earlier, members and staff at the council gathered at the authority's Cromer headquarters where deputy leader, Tom FitzPatrick, read a brief statement.

He said: "I am sure that councillors and officers alike will share the deep sense of loss that I and the rest of the cabinet feel at this terrible news and will join me in sending our condolences to the families of Keith and Andrea.

"In the circumstances I am sure that you will all understand that I have decided to postpone the formal business of cabinet this morning as a mark of respect to a great friend and colleague."

The couple have been described by their local newspaper as "prominent and much-loved" figures in their community.

Mr Johnson was also a former Cromer mayor and a long-serving member of both the district and town council.

He was elected as council leader earlier this year, had helped organise the town's Christmas market, launched at the weekend as part of a series of festive events.

On Friday he attended the opening of a Waitrose store in nearby North Walsham.

It is understood the couple did not have children but Mr Johnson had a family from a previous marriage.

They had been together for 18 years and married in 2004.

Detective Superintendent Peter Hornby, who is leading the inquiry into the deaths, said: "Whilst I understand this is a very shocking incident for the neighbours of the two people involved, I can reassure them that, at this stage, we are not looking for anyone else in connection with it."

Post-mortem tests are being carried out.

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Hospitals 'Full' And Putting Patients At Risk

Death rates at 12 NHS hospital trusts in England were alarmingly high last year, according to a new report.

Patient safety is also being risked because hospitals are "full to bursting", with many regularly breaching the 85% limit set in place to protect patients, according to the Dr Foster Hospital Guide.

The recommended bed occupancy level for hospitals is 85% but the analysis suggests most trusts operate closer to 90% for the vast majority of the year.

The report points out that quiet times of the year such as weekends and bank holidays distort the true strain on services.

The Royal College of Nursing said it revealed "a health care system under great strain".

In a statement the organisation added: "This is a highly credible report which should be taken seriously by everyone involved in health care.

"It is of great concern that so many hospitals are operating close to capacity."

Each of the 12 trusts highlighted in the report fell short on two of four mortality rate indicators - which include deaths after surgery and the deaths of patients who were admitted for minor ailments or low-risk conditions.

The report also suggests that a shortage of senior doctors working out of hours could be linked to higher mortality rates at the weekends.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust and George Eliot Hospital Trust in Nuneaton had high mortality rates three years in a row, according to the report.

Authors also alerted authorities to problems at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust - where the deaths rates were also high for a number of years.

The trusts highlighted have defended their records.

Kevin McGee, chief executive at George Eliot, said death rates had improved so far this year. While a spokesman for the Dudley Group said recent reports suggested a "significant and sustained improvement."

The Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust strongly denied that it had a higher than expected mortality rate.

Medical director Graz Luzzi said: "The title says it all. This is a hospital guide, but our care is also delivered at home, in the community and in a hospice. To be effective it is important to compare like with like."

Dr Foster also found that almost a third of hospital beds in England  were occupied by patients who didn't really need to be there, with 3% of all hospital beds are occupied by people whose only diagnosis is dementia.

"These are people who have not been able to get the care in the community and as a result have ended up in A&E and put into a hospital bed - they really shouldn't be there," Roger Taylor, co-founder of Dr Foster, told Sky News.

Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was named Dr Foster's Trust of the Year for providing good quality and efficient care for patients.

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Kate Middleton: Duchess Of Cambridge Pregnant

St James's Palace has announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their first child.

The Duchess was admitted this afternoon to King Edward VII Hospital in central London with acute morning sickness.

As the pregnancy is in its very early stages, she is expected to remain there for the next few days.

Prime Minister David Cameron took to Twitter to congratulate the royal couple.

"I'm delighted by the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a baby. They will make wonderful parents," he tweeted.

The news comes just days after the couple's inaugural trip to their dukedom - Cambridge - where the Duke, an RAF search-and-rescue pilot, received a home-made romper suit from a new mum.

The baby grow was emblazoned with a picture of a helicopter and the words "Daddy's little co-pilot".

The Duke, all smiles, received the gift saying: "Fantastic, I'll keep this."

More follows...

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M1 Crash: Man Arrested After Two Killed

A 25-year-old has been arrested after two men were killed in a crash on the M1 this morning.

The man, from East London, is being held on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

The collision between two black BMWs happened shortly before 2.40am, near Watford in Hertfordshire.

The crash, on the southbound carriageway between junctions four and five, forced the temporary closure of a section of the M1, leading to morning traffic chaos.

The men killed, aged 22 and 24, were one of the drivers and his rear seat passenger.

Two other passengers of the vehicle, who are both men, suffered serious injuries and were taken to a hospital in London.

The accident happened between junctions four and five

The four men in the second car were also injured and were taken to hospital.

Those who escaped the wreckage started fighting with the occupants of a third car that had pulled over to lay blame over the death of their friends, the Evening Standard reported.

Basit Nasir, who witnessed the crash, told the newspaper: "They all jumped out and everybody started punching each other. They said, 'What have you done? You have killed them.'

"I tried to break up the fight and called the police from my mobile."

He also said: "It was total mayhem. There was mangled metal everywhere."

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