Charles: 'New Prince Will Be Called Georgie'

Prince Charles has joked his one-week-old grandson George will be called Georgie "in no time".

The third-in-line to the throne was born last Monday in a London hospital and went home a day later.

Outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's, George Alexander Louis was photographed with his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, in front of the world's media.

Charles was given a T-shirt for Prince George

HRH Prince George of Cambridge is set to be known as King George VII when he one day becomes king.

As they attended the Whitstable Oyster Festival in Kent, Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall were congratulated on the new arrival by throngs of well-wishers.

And Charles gave the newborn's name the Royal seal of approval, describing George as "very good".

But Sonia Rule, 38, whose partner works for the Whitstable RNLI Lifeboats crew said she heard Charles joke his grandson will "be known as Georgie in no time".

The Royal couple were showered with gifts for the baby including a tiny lemon T-shirt which they could pass on as a souvenir from their trip to the festival.

Shona Corcoran, 38, from Whitstable, and her three-year-old daughter Hannah gave Charles the gift.

"He said, 'Oh, that's fantastic, thank you. I'm sure he'll like to wear that'," she said.

Charles met a woman who also has a grandchild called George.

Margaret Quinney, 67, said: "He was talking about the grandchildren. He said there are lots of grandparents around."

It was after Charles met Mrs Quinney and her daughter Jo that he said: "George - a very good name."

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NHS Direct Plans Withdrawal From 111 Helpline

The troubled NHS 111 hotline is in fresh turmoil after one of its main providers announced it wants to pull out of the service.

NHS Direct, which provides the non-emergency phone line in nine regions of England, said it wanted to quit its contracts because they were too expensive.

It has found that the cost of providing the service, where staff give the public non-emergency health advice, exceeded the contract price.

NHS Direct is now seeking a "planned withdrawal" from the deals after projecting a £26m deficit for the coming financial year.

Its chief executive Nick Chapman said: "We will continue to provide a safe and reliable NHS 111 service to our patients until alternative arrangements can be made by commissioners.

"Whatever the outcome of the discussions on the future, patients will remain the central focus of our efforts, together with protecting our staff who work on NHS 111 to ensure that the service will continue to benefit from their skills and experience."

The announcement came as an undercover investigation revealed "serious failings" in the system, with staff shortages, long waits for callers and unnecessary ambulance call-outs.

In Channel 4's Dispatches programme NHS Undercover, one call centre manager was secretly filmed admitting the service was exposed at the weekends.

"We had a very bad service. Still realistically on the weekends we still are unsafe. We don't have the staff to deal with the calls that are coming in," the worker said.

Reporters posed as trainee call handlers and filmed secretly at centres run by the private health care company Harmoni, which has a third of the hotline contracts in England.

They found many patients had to wait longer than 10 minutes to hear back from a clinician and some workers with no medical training were filmed giving medical advice to the journalists.

A spokesman for Harmoni told the programme: "We provide a clinically safe service. We expect all staff to only provide advice according to their role and their level of training and take a zero-tolerance approach to any breach.

"Our audits show no evidence of widespread poor practice. Our staffing levels are extremely robust with around one clinical adviser to every four health advisers.

"While it has been acknowledged that NHS 111 services generally did not get off to a good start, we and other providers have successfully delivered substantial improvements including recruiting 180 more advisers."

The 24-hour phone line replaced NHS Direct as the number to call for non-emergency care but has been dogged by problems since its inception.

Patients complained about unanswered calls, poor advice and calls being diverted to the wrong part of the country.

Doctors claimed its "problematic roll-out" had left patients not knowing where to turn and it has also been blamed for fuelling the current A&E crisis.

Earlier this month, the Health Select Committee attacked ministers for the "premature" launch, claiming it was done with little understanding about how it would affect the wider NHS.

NHS Direct worked on the 111 pilot, which was based on a cost of £13 per call to cover staff salaries and other costs.

But it says local health commissioners refused to pay more than £7.80 per call when the first 111 contract was awarded in the North East of England.

NHS Direct initially won 11 of the 46 regional contracts for the hotline but pulled out of two before they were even launched.

It now wants to axe the remaining nine in Buckinghamshire, East London and the City, South East London, Sutton and Merton, West Midlands, Lancashire and Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire and Somerset.

A company spokesman said it had encountered "significant problems" when it launched the three contracts in the north west of England and West Midlands in March.

She said the calls took "twice as long as expected" and as a result, NHS Direct did not have "sufficient capacity" to handle all the calls that it received.

The firm had worked on the pilot, which was based on a cost of £13 per call to cover staff salaries and other expenses, but local health commissioners refused to pay so much.

The NHS Direct board remodeled its costs and decided it could bid based on £7 to £8 per call and was later awarded deals covering 34% of the country.

However, its annual report says: "It is now clear that the trust is not able to to provide the 111 service within this lower cost range, and that the 111 contracts that the trust has entered into are financially unsustainable."

David Cameron's spokesman admitted there had been problems with the hotline's launch but insisted performance and patient satisfaction was now high.

"He is confident that we will continue to push up standards and deliver a high level of service for patients across the country," the spokesman said.

NHS England blamed the earlier problems on providers not having enough call handling capacity in place but also claimed they had now been resolved.

The Department of Health said NHS Direct had "struggled to meet the standards required" but defended the hotline as a whole and vowed it would continue.

A spokesman said: "There is widespread consensus that NHS 111 is in principle a good idea.

"It makes obvious sense that for many patients, accessing the NHS by phone is often the quickest and easiest way to get advice and speak to a doctor or nurse when needed.

"So of course it's disappointing that there have been problems with its implementation but these are flaws that can and will be overcome."

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Baby's Body Discovered In Undergrowth

By James Matthews, Scotland Correspondent

The remains of a baby have been discovered in undergrowth near a cemetery in Edinburgh.

Police have cordoned off the area around the Restalrig Path, close to Seafield cemetery.

A spokesman for Police Scotland said officers were called to the Seafield area of Edinburgh around 5pm on Sunday after a member of the public reported having discovered what they thought were human remains.

DCI David McLaren told Sky News: "It's too early to form an opinion around what's happened, we are keeping an open mind in terms of how the baby came to be here and, indeed, how it passed away."

"At this stage, I would appeal for the mother of the child to come forward.  Regardless of how the child ended up here, the mother of that child will, perhaps, need medical assistance or, indeed, emotional support."

"So our focus, in the first instance, is to track her down and take care of her welfare, while we establish exactly what has happened here."

The baby's remains were discovered near the path by a dog walker. A post-mortem is being carried out to establish the cause of death.

Sky News understands the infant was born recently but the sex has not been revealed.

Police officers stood on a footbridge over Seafield Place which was cordoned off, and a forensic team was at the scene.

There was police tape around a section of the residential street which borders the public park known as Leith Links.

Seafield Cemetery and Crematorium is privately-run and remained open today.

A worker at a car body repair centre on Seafield Place said he arrived to find lots of police activity outside the shop.

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Pope Francis: Gays 'Should Not Be Shunned'

Pope Francis has made some of the most conciliatory remarks of any pontiff on gays, saying he did not judge homosexuals who "seek the Lord".

He told reporters people should not be marginalised because of their sexual orientation - but he reaffirmed the Church's position that homosexual acts are a sin and said its opposition to gay marriage was clear.

The Pope, who was speaking on a flight back to Rome from his week-long visit to Brazil, also hit out at those who campaign on behalf of gays.

"The problem is not having this orientation, it is lobbying," he said. "That's the most serious problem I think.

"If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?"

The Pope has previously referred to a "gay lobby" in the Vatican's secretive administration.

He made his latest comments as he fielded questions about Battista Ricca, who was appointed to a key role at the Vatican bank and is now facing allegations that he had relationships with male prostitutes.

The pontiff was widely welcomed during his week in Brazil

Francis said he had ordered a "brief investigation but we found nothing on him".

The pontiff also told reporters he wanted women to have a bigger role in the Church, but said its ban on women priests was definitive.

Gay rights groups had voiced hope on Francis' appointment that he would be more accepting of homosexuals than his predecessor.              

Benedict, who stepped down from the papacy in February, had angered the gay community with his suggestion in 2008 that homosexuality was as much of a threat to the survival of the human race as climate change.

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Tia Sharp: Neighbour 'Wasted Police Time'

A neighbour of the grandmother of murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp told detectives he had seen her when in fact she was already dead, a court heard.

Bus driver Paul Meehan, 40, from Croydon, south London, is on trial charged with wasting police time.

He was the neighbour of Christine Sharp, whose boyfriend Stuart Hazell was jailed in May for a minimum of 38 years for killing 12-year-old Tia.

Meehan initially told police he had not seen Tia on August 3 last year, but later claimed he was "100% sure" he watched her walk past his home at around noon that day.

Jocelyn Ledward, prosecuting, said: "He described her outfit and person in detail."

She said this was "thereby in fact confirming Stuart Hazell's account of her having walked out of the door at that time".

Tia's grandmother Christine Sharp

Tia's mother Natalie sat in the public gallery at Croydon Magistrates' Court during the trial, which is set to last one day.

Miss Ledward said Meehan's claim had the result of "compounding the family's false hope" that she was still alive.

It also led detectives to conduct "labour intensive interviews", she added. "These were a waste of valuable police resources at a crucial time."

But she told the court: "There is absolutely no suggestion Mr Meehan was in league with Stuart Hazell."

Instead, she suggested he made the report "perhaps in order to increase his importance in the investigation".

The court was read a statement given to police by Meehan, in which he claimed he saw Tia walk towards a bus stop while he was having a cigarette in his front garden.

Hazell was jailed for a minimum of 38 years for killing Tia

"From the time I saw Tia I didn't take my eyes off her," he told detectives.

He said the reason for watching her was "a parental thing" - but he did not attempt to talk to her as he thought she was wearing headphones.

Meehan insisted that "nobody has forced me" to make the police statement, saying: "I have made it under my own free will."

After his arrest, he told officers: "I definitely saw her leave the house. Whether she came back I don't know."

Meehan denies causing wasteful employment of the police by making a false report.

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Manchester Stabbing: Girl Fights For Life

Neighbours have spoken of their shock after a 13-year-old-girl was left fighting for her life from a stabbing attack in which her father died.

The pair - named locally as Robert Jackson, 41, and his daughter Ayesha - were knifed at Mr Jackson's home in Moston, north Manchester on Sunday night.

The suspected attacker also died with stab wounds a short time later after driving a car into the wall of a nearby pub.

Police found the seriously injured girl and the body of her father at 10.20pm in the Delta Walk house.

Neighbours in Moston heaped praise on Robert Jackson and his daughter

Neighbours said former carpet fitter Mr Jackson was separated from Ayesha's mother, named locally as Sam Collins, and that the teenager was visiting him when the attack happened.

He was described as quiet but well-liked on the estate where he had lived for more than 20 years.

A few hours after arriving at Mr Jackson's home, police were called to Watfield Walk in Harpurhey, a two-mile drive away, after reports that a man had threatened a car owner with a knife before stealing the vehicle.

The car was then seen by police near Rochdale Road, where a 34-year-old named locally as Darren Gasper drove it into the side of the Alliance Inn pub as officers approached him.

Wall damage to the Alliance Inn, which the suspected knifeman crashed into

He was taken to hospital suffering from a stab wound and injuries from the crash but died a short time later.

The two men are said to be known to each other.

One man who said he was friends with both dead men said: "Darren was more one of the boys round here. He'd been in jail. He was a tough kid, a big lad.

"I heard Ayesha was upstairs when it started and came down to protect her dad.

"They both had kids, it's sad what this leaves behind for them."

Mr Jackson's neighbour, Clare Calvert, told Sky News: "He was the nicest bloke you'd ever meet ... He'd bend over backwards to help anybody - (he) wouldn't hurt a fly."

Flowers are left at the house in Moston

She described Ayesha, Mr Jackson's only child, as "lovely".

Another elderly neighbour said he was "very quiet" and "didn't have any enemies".

A woman who lived nearby said: "He was known by everyone as Jacko, always said hello and his girl was absolutely beautiful. I only saw them together yesterday walking down the street."

Ayesha is understood to attend the Manchester Communication Academy.

Forensics officers are at the scene of the attack, where an area around the house has been sealed off. Flowers have been left nearby.

The attack happened a two-mile drive from where the stolen car was crashed

Sky's Nick Martin, who is in Moston, said: "The priority now will be to ensure that the girl pulls through - she will have critical information about the events that played out here."

Detective Superintendent Simon Barraclough, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "We are in the very early stages of our inquiries and are piecing together the circumstances that led to two men losing their lives and a 13-year-old girl fighting for her life in hospital.

"Obviously the community will be shocked as to what has happened but we can say we do not believe anyone else was involved and are not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident."

Harpurhey has been regularly cited as one of the most deprived inner-city areas in Britain. Mr Jackson's mother lives nearby and was recently widowed.

Anyone with information can call police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

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Italy Crash: Doctors' Life And Death Decisions

Doctors at a deadly bus crash in Italy say they had to make life and death decisions about who to free first from the wreckage.

"People were crying out amid the corpses," Maurizio Abbenante, who was among the first on the scene, told La Repubblica.

"We had to manage the situation, and decide which people had a chance of surviving, so we could free them first from the wreckage.

"We had to decide which of the passengers looked like they would definitely survive."

A firefighter walks among the wreckage of the bus and victims' possesions

At least 38 people were killed when the coach smashed into several cars, ploughed through safety barriers and plunged 100ft off a motorway flyover before splitting in two near Avellino.

The bodies of those who died were covered in white sheets or placed in wooden coffins at the roadside.

They were later taken to the gymnasium of a nearby school, where relatives and friends came to identify their loved ones.

Victims' relatives outside at a school where many of the bodies were taken

Italian president Giorgio Napolitano described the crash as "an unacceptable tragedy", while prime minister Enrico Letta said the country had been "profoundly moved".

Witnesses told Italian media the coach was travelling at "normal speed" before suddenly veering off course.

Some described hearing a noise as if the vehicle had blown a tyre, although parts of the vehicle's engine were found around 1km (0.6 miles) back down the road.

A crane was used to recover the coach from the crash site

The braking system will also be examined, as there were no signs of heavy braking.

Despite the severity of the crash, emergency services said 10 passengers had a "miraculous escape" and managed to walk away after being cut free.

"They're saying, 'we can't explain it'," journalist Tom Kington, at the scene, said.

Wooden coffins were lined up at the scene of the crash

"People just got up and walked out of the wreckage, including, miraculously, a whole family of four."

Enrico de Campora, medical director at Santobono Pausilipon hospital in Naples, said doctors were treating five children who were admitted without their parents.

Several of the youngsters are in a serious condition and two are in a coma.

A number of people in the cars received minor injuries

Highway officials said the coach had been warned about heavy traffic on the A116 motorway near Avellino, about 30 miles east of Naples.

Flashing signs near the flyover were also in place to warn vehicles to slow down.

As well as those killed and injured in the coach, about a dozen people travelling in cars on the flyover also received minor injuries, reported Italian media.

The coach crashed in a rural area about 30 miles inland from Naples

The A116 highway links western and eastern Italy and the passengers had been returning from a weekend trip visiting a religious site in nearby Benevento province, as well a thermal bath.

Most of the passengers were from the area around Naples.

"They were working class Italians," said Kington. "They club together and take trips like they were taking this weekend."

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Mairead Philpott Fails To Appeal Sentence

Mairead Philpott, who received 17 years for killing her six children in a Derby house fire, has failed in her first attempt to get her sentence cut.

The 32-year-old was jailed alongside her husband Mick at Nottingham Crown in April after being found guilty of the manslaughter of Jade Philpott and her brothers John, Jack, Jesse, Jayden and Duwayne.

A Judicial Office spokeswoman confirmed today that Mairead Philpott has had her application for permission to appeal against her sentence refused by a single judge considering it on the papers.

It is open to her to make a renewed application, which would then be considered by a panel of Court of Appeal judges in London.

At the sentencing hearing, Mrs Justice Thirlwall told Philpott she had ignored "obvious" risks to her children's lives by going along with a plan to set fire to her home in Allenton, Derby.

Mick Philpott was jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years after being branded a "disturbingly dangerous" man.

His wife, who is likely to be released after serving half of her 17-year term, took part in a plan to set fire to the couple's home in Victory Road in an effort to frame his former mistress.

The children were aged between five and 13.

Paul Mosley, 46, who was also found guilty of six counts of manslaughter and jailed for 17 years, had his sentence application rejected.

He can also make a renewed application if he wishes.

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Twitter Rape Row: Report Abuse Button Agreed

Twitter has agreed to install a report abuse button on every tweet after a feminist campaigner was subjected to a barrage of online rape threats.

Caroline Criado-Perez was receiving a threatening tweet nearly every minute at the height of the abuse after she successfully campaigned to have a female figure on the £10 bank note.

Her treatment sparked a furore and a 12,500-strong petition, which urged Twitter to take faster and stronger action against those posting abuse, and has called for an August 4 boycott.

In the three days since Ms Criado-Perez disclosed the level of abuse she has received Twitter insisted it had adequate processes in place to deal with the sexual abuse of women online.

However, the firm's inaction prompted a furious response from a number of women MPs, who demanded it do better, and Twitter has today agreed to the button.

A spokesman for the microblogging site said: "The ability to report individual tweets for abuse is currently available on Twitter for iPhone, and we plan to bring this functionality to other platforms, including Android and the web."

Everyday Sexism Project founder Laura Bates has also been abused

He added: "We will suspend accounts that once reported to us, are found to be in breach of our rules. We encourage users to report an account for violation of the Twitter rules by using one of our report forms."

Ms Criado-Perez, a freelance journalist, said: "It's sadly not unusual to get this kind of abuse but I've never seen it get as intense or aggressive as this.

"It's infuriating that the price you pay for standing up for women is 24 hours of rape threats. We are showing that by standing together we can make a real difference."

Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy, who has been supporting Ms Criado-Perez and has also been subjected to online abuse, said that more still needed to be done.

She told Sky News Twitter needed to make it clearer in its service code that sexual harassment would not be tolerated and that they needed to develop closer links with the police.

Internet trolls hide behind the web's anonymity to abuse women online

"This is illegal activity, it would be illegal if somebody said this to you in the street, it would be a form of harassment. It is illegal online," she said.

"I have been incandescent with Twitter because since Friday night when Caroline contacted me very, very distressed about what was happening to her, we have been trying to get a serious response out of Twitter."

She added: "It's only today that they confirmed to me that they are actually working with the police who have made formal requests to them for assistance."

Police questioned a 21-year-old man, from Manchester, in connection with the allegations of abuse made by Ms Criado-Perez. He was arrested on suspicion of harassment offences. He has been released on police bail.

Complaints of crimes involving Facebook and Twitter increased by 780% in four years, according to official police figures from 29 British forces.

The phenomenon of social networking crime was comparatively minor in 2008 when 556 reports were made. Last year this figure stood at 4,908.

Ms Criado-Perez is one of a number of women writing and campaigning online to have been subjected to abuse.

Stella Creasy MP says Twitter needs to do more

The founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, Laura Bates, told Sky News that she had been threatened so seriously online that she actually moved out of her home for a while.

Television classicist Mary Beard silenced an internet troll after naming and shaming him on Twitter.

Beard, professor of classics at University of Cambridge, retweeted the "highly offensive" post from Oliver Rawlings, who has 243 followers on the social networking site, earlier today. He swiftly apologised.

Andy Trotter, chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) communications advisory group, told the Radio 4's World at One that Twitter was not doing enough to combat internet trolls.

He said: "I was talking to Twitter only this morning about this and while we do work with them on some matters I think there is a lot more to be done.

"They need to make it easier for victims to report these matters and, from a police perspective, they need to know that they can report these things to us."

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Over 100 Children 'Saved From Prostitution Ring'

The FBI says it has rescued 105 children who were forced into prostitution while arresting 150 "pimps" and others in a series of raids in 76 American cities.

Undercover agents working with local law enforcement agencies tracked down children being trafficked at truck stops, casinos, on the street and on websites that advertise dating or escort services.

The operation involved undercover agents working in 76 cities

The three-day operation, dubbed Operation Cross Country VII, was the largest of its type and conducted under the FBI's "Innocence Lost" initiative. 

"Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across America," Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, said in statement.

"This operation serves as a reminder that these abhorrent crimes can happen anywhere and that the FBI remains committed to stopping this cycle of victimisation and holding the criminals who profit from this exploitation accountable."

The FBI said the Innocence Lost National Initiative has resulted in the rescue of 2,700 children since 2003.

John Ryan, the CEO of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children said: "Operation Cross Country demonstrates just how many of America's children are being sold for sex every day, many on the internet.

"We're honoured and proud to partner with the FBI, which has taken the lead in tackling this escalating problem."

The FBI said the investigations have led to 1,350 convictions, including 10 life terms and the seizure of more than $3.1m (£2m) in assets.

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