Woman's Body In Freezer Sparks Murder Inquiry

A murder investigation is under way after a woman's body was found in a freezer at her home.

The woman, named locally as Louise Brough, was discovered after police forced their way into the council flat in Tyseley Road, in the Southsea area of Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Officers went there after the council became concerned about her well-being.

A 53-year-old man, from Southsea, was arrested on suspicion of murder and has been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

He is due to report back to police in November.

A Hampshire Police spokesman said initial inquiries indicated "there is no risk to the wider community".

Formal identification procedures and a post-mortem examination have not yet taken place.

The police spokesman said: "Until a post-mortem examination has taken place we are unable to confirm when the woman died.

"The woman was located inside a property in Wilmcote House.

"We are not able to confirm further details relating to this as it could form part of evidence used by the prosecution should the case come to court.

"We are in the process of locating next of kin to conduct formal identification procedures."

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Oscar Pistorius: 100 Witnesses Due At Trial

Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius will go on trial in March over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a judge has decided.

Pistorius returned to Pretoria Magistrates' Court this morning for the short hearing, in which a judge set his trial date for March 3 next year.

The judge asked him if he was well, to which he replied: "Under the circumstances, your honour."

He was formally charged and told that his bail conditions remained the same.

Court documents show that more than 100 witnesses will be called to give evidence at the trial, including one of Pistorius' ex-girlfriends.

Sky's Alex Crawford said that Pistorius was "very emotional", and appeared to be praying with his brother and sister before the proceedings started.

The three siblings held hands in a small circle, and at one point Pistorius wiped his face with a tissue.

Ms Steenkamp was shot dead at Pistorius' home in February

His brother Carl later tweeted a photograph of Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp, adding: "Remembered like yesterday. My life was impacted by u @reevasteenkamp & the lady u were! Always close to our hearts."

The 26-year-old double amputee is accused of killing Ms Steenkamp, who would have turned 30 today, in a shooting incident at Pistorius' home in February.

Pistorius denies he committed murder and says he shot Ms Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was an intruder.

The case was sent to the High Court in Pretoria.

A judge will preside over the trial and ultimately pronounce the world-famous athlete innocent or guilty. South Africa does not have trial by jury.

The mandatory sentence for someone convicted of premeditated murder in South Africa is life with a minimum of 25 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Ms Steenkamp's uncle has said he has already forgiven Pistorius for killing her.

Mike Steenkamp said the family have coped with her death by concentrating on her life rather than how she died.

In an interview on ITV's Daybreak, Mr Steenkamp said: "I think from the beginning and onset that we decided that we could never be sidetracked from Reeva's life, and I think that's helped us tremendously."

The family have gathered in Port Elizabeth for a family event to mark Ms Steenkamp's birthday.

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Prince William: George Is A Bit Of A Rascal

By Paul Harrison, Royal Correspondent

Prince William has revealed his son Prince George is "a little fighter" who "wriggles around quite a lot and he doesn't want to go to sleep that much".

In his first interview since becoming a father, the Duke of Cambridge talks about his "emotional experience" of the past few weeks, adding that his son is "a little bit of a rascal".

In the interview, which took place at Kensington Palace on August 2, William said: "Well yeah, he's a little bit of a rascal, put it that way.

"So he either reminds me of my brother or me when I was younger.

"He's doing very well at the moment. He does like to keep having his nappy changed."

Asked if he had changed the first nappy, the Prince replied: "I did the first nappy, yes. I had every midwife staring at me ... 'You do it, you do it'.

Prince William has given his first full interview since the birth

"He's growing quite quickly actually, but he is a little fighter.

"He kind of … wriggles around quite a lot, and he doesn't want to go to sleep that much, which is a little bit of a problem."

The Duchess of Cambridge did not take part in the interview.

Conservation efforts by the Prince's Charity Tusk Trust was the focus of the half-hour interview.

Asked how new mum Kate was coping with motherhood, Prince William said she was doing the lion's share of the night-time shifts, adding: "She's doing a fantastic job."

Reflecting on how he and Kate felt as they emerged from the Lindo Wing on July 23, the day after Prince George was born, William said: "I think more shock and dauntedness was the feeling I felt.

"I think I was on such a high anyway, and so was Catherine about George, and we were happy to show him off to whomever wanted to see him.

William and Kate left hospital cradling the new prince

"I'm just glad he wasn't screaming his head off the whole way through.

"As any new parent knows, you're only too happy to show off your new child and, you know, proclaim that he is the best looking or the best everything."

The search and rescue pilot was also asked about the pressure he might have felt handling a car baby seat for the first time in public.

He said: "Believe me, it wasn't my first time. And I know there's been speculation about that - I had to practise, I really did.

"I was terrified it was going to fall off or it wasn't going to close properly. So, I had actually practised with that seat, but only once before."

The Duke of Cambridge is known for doing things his way, and spoke about choosing to drive the vehicle from the hospital to Kensington Palace.

Prince William said that driving his young son home was important

"Where I can be, I am as independent as I want to be, the same as Catherine and Harry," he said.

"We've all grown up differently to other generations (of royals), and I very much feel if I can do it myself, I want to do it myself.

"I think driving your son and your wife away from hospital was really important to me, and I don't like fuss, so it's much easier to just do it yourself."

The Duke also talked about his hopes for his son George, saying he plans to bring him up as if he is growing up "in the bush".

"I'll have toy elephants and rhinos around the room. We'll cover it in sort of, you know, lots of bushes and things like that, make him grow up as if he's in the bush."

But it seems sleep is the priority for the royal couple for the moment: "At the moment, the only legacy I want to pass on to him is to sleep more and maybe not have to change his nappy so many times."

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Rapper Murder: Victim Died In Children's Room

An aspiring rapper was stabbed to death by a masked raider while three children hid in the next room, a court has heard.

Terrified parents Matthew Purves and Zoe Lewis fought to protect the children, all aged under five, after two men wielding a kitchen knife and a fake gun forced their way into their flat.

Jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court were told how the couple's friend, Thomas Brittain, 26, was stabbed in the struggle and bled to death on the floor of the children's bedroom at the home in Colchester, Essex.

Mr Brittain, a local hip hop producer and songwriter also known as Twister, had suffered a punctured lung and several other knife wounds.

Tony Prosser, prosecuting, said Mr Purves and Mr Brittain were dozing in the living room when they heard banging and shouting outside the front door at around 2am on March 9.

Miss Lewis and the children were asleep in their bedrooms but were woken by the commotion.

Mr Prosser said: "One of the men held a pistol to Mr Purves' head and told him to keep down.

Andre Vella and Jack Hummerstone blame each other for the stabbing

"The man's face was covered by a hood and a scarf. Another man burst in carrying a large kitchen knife and wearing a balaclava."

Miss Lewis ran to see what was happening and was grabbed by one of the raiders, he said.

"One of the men pulled her hair, held a knife to her face and told her to shut up," Mr Prosser added.

"She managed to run back to the children's bedroom and shut the door behind her.

"Mr Purves joined them and later one of the men tried to force his way in. Miss Lewis said she saw a hand reaching around the door. Both parents tried to protect the children and hold the door closed while dialing 999 for help.

"It went quiet and Mr Brittain was heard to say 'I've been stabbed'."

Andre Vella, 19, from Village Close, Kirby Cross, and Jack Hummerstone, 18, of no fixed address, both deny murder and wounding with intent.

Vella denies possession of an imitation firearm while Hummerstone admits this charge. The court heard the men accept they carried out the raid but blame one another for the stabbing.

Mr Prosser said: "Andre Villa and Jack Hummerstone had clearly armed themselves with weapons. Whether this was a plan for a robbery, for drugs or a punishment beating, we don't know.

"What is certain is that they went to the flat with a hostile intention."

The trial is expected to last up to three weeks.

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Prince William: George Is A Bit Of A Rascal

By Paul Harrison, Royal Correspondent

Prince William has revealed his son Prince George is "a little fighter" who "wriggles around quite a lot and he doesn't want to go to sleep that much".

In his first interview since becoming a father, the Duke of Cambridge talks about his "emotional experience" of the past few weeks, adding that his son is "a little bit of a rascal".

In the interview, which took place at Kensington Palace on August 2, William said: "Well yeah, he's a little bit of a rascal, put it that way.

"So he either reminds me of my brother or me when I was younger.

"He's doing very well at the moment. He does like to keep having his nappy changed."

Asked if he had changed the first nappy, the Prince replied: "I did the first nappy, yes. I had every midwife staring at me ... 'You do it, you do it'.

Prince William has given his first full interview since the birth

"He's growing quite quickly actually, but he is a little fighter.

"He kind of … wriggles around quite a lot, and he doesn't want to go to sleep that much, which is a little bit of a problem."

The Duchess of Cambridge did not take part in the interview.

Conservation efforts by the Prince's Charity Tusk Trust was the focus of the half-hour interview.

Asked how new mum Kate was coping with motherhood, Prince William said she was doing the lion's share of the night-time shifts, adding: "She's doing a fantastic job."

Reflecting on how he and Kate felt as they emerged from the Lindo Wing on July 23, the day after Prince George was born, William said: "I think more shock and dauntedness was the feeling I felt.

"I think I was on such a high anyway, and so was Catherine about George, and we were happy to show him off to whomever wanted to see him.

William and Kate left hospital cradling the new prince

"I'm just glad he wasn't screaming his head off the whole way through.

"As any new parent knows, you're only too happy to show off your new child and, you know, proclaim that he is the best looking or the best everything."

The search and rescue pilot was also asked about the pressure he might have felt handling a car baby seat for the first time in public.

He said: "Believe me, it wasn't my first time. And I know there's been speculation about that - I had to practise, I really did.

"I was terrified it was going to fall off or it wasn't going to close properly. So, I had actually practised with that seat, but only once before."

The Duke of Cambridge is known for doing things his way, and spoke about choosing to drive the vehicle from the hospital to Kensington Palace.

Prince William said that driving his young son home was important

"Where I can be, I am as independent as I want to be, the same as Catherine and Harry," he said.

"We've all grown up differently to other generations (of royals), and I very much feel if I can do it myself, I want to do it myself.

"I think driving your son and your wife away from hospital was really important to me, and I don't like fuss, so it's much easier to just do it yourself."

The Duke also talked about his hopes for his son George, saying he plans to bring him up as if he is growing up "in the bush".

"I'll have toy elephants and rhinos around the room. We'll cover it in sort of, you know, lots of bushes and things like that, make him grow up as if he's in the bush."

But it seems sleep is the priority for the royal couple for the moment: "At the moment, the only legacy I want to pass on to him is to sleep more and maybe not have to change his nappy so many times."

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Tesco Strawberry Blunder Leads To £300k Fine

Tesco has been fined £300,000 for misleading customers after a single shopper complained about a national strawberry price promotion which allegedly netted the chain £2.3m in profits.

The case - brought by Birmingham City Council - related to the cost of 400g punnets of British strawberries sold at a store in the city.

The woman complained they were marked up as "half price" at £1.99 - with an apparent original cost of £3.99 crossed out.

She asked trading standards to investigate because she had never seen the original price and wondered if it was excessive and misleading.

The company admitted a number of offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act 2008 after failing at an earlier hearing to prevent the council bringing the case on a national basis.

The shopper complained after visiting Tesco's Sheldon branch

Trading Standards told the court that Tesco's offer (at £1.99) fell foul of rules as it ran for 14 weeks, but the strawberries were sold at the higher price of £3.99 for a much shorter length of time.

The case also included a similar promotion when a pot of cream was included in the discount.

Birmingham City Council argued both offers were presented in a way that misled or was likely to deceive the average consumer and the promotions earned the chain £2.32m in additional profits.

The judge described Tesco's turnover as a result of the promotions as "excessive" but agreed that while the supermarket chain had breached customers' trust, it was not the retailer's intention to deliberately mislead them.

In a statement Tesco said: "We apologise sincerely for this mistake, which was made in the summer of 2011.

"We sell over 40,000 products in our stores, with thousands on promotion at any one time, but even one mistake is one too many.

"Since then, to make sure this doesn't happen again, we've given colleagues additional training and reminded them of their responsibilities to ensure we always adhere to the guidelines on pricing."

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MasterChef Judge Gregg Wallace In Hotel Brawl

MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace knocked a diner to the floor and punched him in the face for allegedly touching his girlfriend, according to reports.

The former greengrocer and restaurateur - known for using the phrase "cooking doesn't get tougher than this" - was pictured brawling with the man after a five-hour evening of food and wine at a plush hotel.

Wallace, 48, is reported to have punched the man several times because he apparently touched his 27-year-old girlfriend Anne-Marie Sterpini's bottom.

The fight broke out after he had hosted Dinner With Gregg Wallace at the Wood Norton Hotel in Evesham, Worcestershire.

The hotel's website described Wallace as "the bald one who likes puddings" and promised guests a champagne reception followed by a five-course dinner.

But the scene turned ugly.

A picture in The Sun showed white-shirted Wallace grappling with the man while another man tries to restrain him as other guests look on.

The BBC host was eventually led from the oak-panelled room at the Grade II-listed building and taken upstairs.

Claire Shepherd, 31, who was at the £75-a-head evening, told The Sun: "He kept doing speeches and then we had a Q and A session.

"It became quite obvious that he was very self-important, so a woman on our table tried to make a joke, saying his bakery chain Greggs was doing really well and he must be happy.

"But he didn't laugh. He just said: 'End of questions, enjoy your meal.' It was a tumbleweed moment."

A source told the Daily Mail: "The vast majority of those present were very drunk. I'm pretty sure Gregg had enjoyed a few drinks too.

"In fact, his girlfriend was one of the only people there who seemed sober. Gregg took exception to this man who was supposed to have been touching his girlfriend up.

"A table was knocked over as they grappled."

The newspaper reported that three-times married Wallace and the man later calmed down, apologised to each other and shared a whisky.

Wallace's spokeswoman told Sky News Online: "I can confirm Gregg was involved in a disagreement at an event last night. The situation was swiftly resolved."

She confirmed that police had not been called to the event.

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Anti-Fracking Protesters Cleared By Police

Police have been forcibly clearing protesters from a road outside a potential site for fracking in Balcombe, West Sussex.

Activists are taking part in a six-day Reclaim The Power demonstration after Cuadrilla began carrying out exploratory drilling at the site.

Hundreds of campaigners have staged noisy protests in the face of a police presence of more than 400 officers.

Sky's Enda Brady, in Balcombe, said a number of people had been detained for public order offences, including Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.

Police confirmed that up to 30 people had been arrested by late Monday afternoon.

They were held after Sussex Police served a notice under section 14 of the Public Order Act, believing the crowd might cause public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community.

Caroline Lucas joined protesters at the site, and was among those arrested

Shouts of "shame on you" and "no violence" erupted from the crowd as police tried to move the protesters back to the main gate of the site.

Demonstrators chanted: "We are peaceful, what are you?"

Vanessa Vine, founder of Frack Free Sussex and Britain and Ireland Frack Free, said the police presence was disproportionately heavy and added that Reclaim The Power were "not nasty, violent people" but "altruistic people who are challenging what the Government is doing".

A protester is removed from the Cuadrilla HQ in Lichfield

Earlier, Sussex Police said on Twitter: "We would like to reiterate that protesters aren't being kettled and are free to leave the site as they wish."

Cuadrilla condemned the "illegal direct actions" against its staff and operations.

Campaigners opposing the controversial process of extracting shale gas blockaded the firm's headquarters while others superglued themselves to the building occupied by a PR firm used by the energy company.

Protesters glued their hands together through a plastic pipe

The action at Cuadrilla in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and at PR company Bell Pottinger in central London comes on the first of two days of "mass civil disobedience" which campaigners have pledged to carry out.

In a statement, Cuadrilla said: "Protesters broke into our Lichfield office, harassed our staff and chained themselves to filing cabinets.

"The police are on site dealing with this. We condemn all illegal direct actions against our people and operations."

The firm insisted that the morale of its staff at various sites is "fine", and they and the teams supporting the company are "doing a magnificent job".

Protesters' tents outside the office in Lichfield

"They know that what we are doing is legal, approved and safe, and that shale gas is essential to improve our energy security, heat our homes, and create jobs and growth," the firm said.

"Cuadrilla is rightly held accountable for complying with multiple planning and environmental permits and conditions, which we have met and will continue to meet.

"Clearly we are held to one set of legally enforceable standards while some protesters believe that they can set out and follow their own."

Campaign group No Dash For Gas said six protesters superglued themselves to the glass door of Bell Pottinger at 8am and deployed reinforced arm tubes to stop anyone else getting inside.

Meanwhile, it said 20 protesters shut down the Cuadrilla site in Lichfield by blockading it with their bodies. It said two people inside the building had also hung banners from it saying: "Reclaim the power" and "Power to the people".

A group of around 20 protesters also demonstrated outside the constituency office of Balcombe MP and Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.

Activists also targeted the home of former Tory minister and George Osborne's father-in-law Lord Howell, who drew criticism recently when he said fracking should take place in England's "desolate" North.

The group erected an estate agent's sign outside the Peer's house reading 'For Shale - Desolate Properties Ltd'.

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Second Shark Attack On Hawaiian Islands

A 16-year-old boy has suffered leg injuries after being attacked by a shark in Hawaii.

It is the second shark in a week on the Pacific islands.

A 20-year-old German tourist had her arm bitten off while snorkelling in Maui on Wednesday.

The latest attack took place on Sunday near Hilo on Hawaii island, the largest of the eight islands that make up the archipelago.

The boy was airlifted to hospital but details of his condition were not available.

Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources closed the waters along the Pohoiki coastline after the attack.

Hapuna Beach, on the island's northwest shore, was also closed on Sunday after lifeguards spotted a shark.

There have now been eight shark attacks on the Hawaiian islands this year.

A PE teacher was hailed as a hero following last week's attack on the German holidaymaker.

Rick Moore, 57, jumped into the water and brought the 20-year-old woman back to shore moments after she was attacked off Palauea Beach.

There were 11 shark attacks in Hawaii last year. The last fatal attack was in 2004.

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Google Stays Quiet After Mystery Black-Out

Google has failed to address questions about a mystery black-out that cut internet traffic by an estimated 40% across the world.

All of the search engine's services - from Google Search to Gmail, YouTube and Google Drive - went down on Friday night in what technology experts called a "completely unprecedented event".

Three days on, Google is still refusing to offer any explanation.

The tech firm's representatives in the US and UK directed Sky News to its message on the Google Apps Dashboard.

All that reveals is that all of Google's services were hit and went down for between one and five minutes.

The US firm provided no details for what may have caused the disruption, which has caused much speculation on IT forums.

"Unfortunately beyond the information on our Apps Status Board we have nothing further to comment," a spokesman said.

The dashboard message said: "We're aware of a problem with Gmail affecting a significant subset of users. The affected users are able to access Gmail, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behaviour."

A later message added: "Between 15:51 and 15:52 PDT, 50% to 70% of requests to Google received errors; service was mostly restored one minute later, and entirely restored after four minutes."

Red dots on the Google Apps Dashboard show all its services were hit

According to web analytics firm GoSquared, global internet traffic fell by around 40% during the black-out, reflecting Google's massive grip on the web.

The outage cost Google an estimated $500,000 (£330,000) in the few minutes it was down. But industry observers said this would make a very small dent in Google's coffers or reputation.

"This money is very small compared with the $40bn (£25.6bn) annual revenue that Google generates," said technology news website TechNewsPlus.

"It is also estimated that the subsequent spike in traffic might have adjusted even this loss." 

Greg Sterling, a researcher with Sterling Market Intelligence, told The Financial Times: "This individual outage doesn't matter.

"The idea that Google could go down is unsettling to people but it doesn't create a problem for the company unless it starts to happen more frequently."

Analysts say the black-out was unlikely to have been caused by hacking, but say it cannot be ruled out. They think it was more likely to have been a physical infrastructure problem or human error.

Matt Oxley, head of creative technology at Tribal Worldwide, told Sky News: "To have a complete outage points to a single point of failure, but what are the single points of failure in a multi-national organisation such as Google?

"The simplest and most obvious would be the Domain Name System (DNS). Did someone manage to hack/attack their DNS? 

"Or did someone make a mistake and push an update (internal or external) that caused a cascading error through their name servers?

"The other possibility is they do actually have a single point of failure in their infrastructure that has been exposed either by external or internal circumstances (attack or mistake).

"If it was either of these cases then they won't want to publicise it before they fix the error. If it is the latter, then it could be embarrassing and damaging to their business/reputation."

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Prison Van Fire In Essex Sparks Investigation

A security van burst into flames while carrying prisoners, prompting an investigation by police.

Officers were called to secure the three prisoners while firefighters dealt with the fire in the vehicle as it travelled along the A414 near North Weald, in Essex.

A police spokeswoman said: "Police were contacted at 12.50pm with reports of a security vehicle on fire near the Talbot roundabout on the A414 towards Harlow.

"Officers are in attendance and have helped secure three prisoners who were on board.

"An investigation into the cause of the fire is under way and no one was hurt."

Essex Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was under control by 1.17pm.

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Tesco Strawberry Blunder Leads To £300k Fine

Tesco has been fined £300,000 for misleading customers after a single shopper complained about a national strawberry price promotion which allegedly netted the chain £2.3m in profits.

The case - brought by Birmingham City Council - related to the cost of 400g punnets of British strawberries sold at a store in the city.

The woman complained they were marked up as "half price" at £1.99 - with an apparent original cost of £3.99 crossed out.

She asked trading standards to investigate because she had never seen the original price and wondered if it was excessive and misleading.

The company admitted a number of offences under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act 2008 after failing at an earlier hearing to prevent the council bringing the case on a national basis.

The shopper complained after visiting Tesco's Sheldon branch

Trading Standards told the court that Tesco's offer (at £1.99) fell foul of rules as it ran for 14 weeks, but the strawberries were sold at the higher price of £3.99 for a much shorter length of time.

The case also included a similar promotion when a pot of cream was included in the discount.

Birmingham City Council argued both offers were presented in a way that misled or was likely to deceive the average consumer and the promotions earned the chain £2.32m in additional profits.

The judge described Tesco's turnover as a result of the promotions as "excessive" but agreed that while the supermarket chain had breached customers' trust, it was not the retailer's intention to deliberately mislead them.

In a statement Tesco said: "We apologise sincerely for this mistake, which was made in the summer of 2011.

"We sell over 40,000 products in our stores, with thousands on promotion at any one time, but even one mistake is one too many.

"Since then, to make sure this doesn't happen again, we've given colleagues additional training and reminded them of their responsibilities to ensure we always adhere to the guidelines on pricing."

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Oscar Pistorius: 100 Witnesses Due At Trial

Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius will go on trial in March over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a judge has decided.

Pistorius returned to Pretoria Magistrates' Court this morning for the short hearing, in which a judge set his trial date for March 3 next year.

The judge asked him if he was well, to which he replied: "Under the circumstances, your honour."

He was formally charged and told that his bail conditions remained the same.

Court documents show that more than 100 witnesses will be called to give evidence at the trial, including one of Pistorius' ex-girlfriends.

Sky's Alex Crawford said that Pistorius was "very emotional", and appeared to be praying with his brother and sister before the proceedings started.

The three siblings held hands in a small circle, and at one point Pistorius wiped his face with a tissue.

Ms Steenkamp was shot dead at Pistorius' home in February

His brother Carl later tweeted a photograph of Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp, adding: "Remembered like yesterday. My life was impacted by u @reevasteenkamp & the lady u were! Always close to our hearts."

The 26-year-old double amputee is accused of killing Ms Steenkamp, who would have turned 30 today, in a shooting incident at Pistorius' home in February.

Pistorius denies he committed murder and says he shot Ms Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was an intruder.

The case was sent to the High Court in Pretoria.

A judge will preside over the trial and ultimately pronounce the world-famous athlete innocent or guilty. South Africa does not have trial by jury.

The mandatory sentence for someone convicted of premeditated murder in South Africa is life with a minimum of 25 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Ms Steenkamp's uncle has said he has already forgiven Pistorius for killing her.

Mike Steenkamp said the family have coped with her death by concentrating on her life rather than how she died.

In an interview on ITV's Daybreak, Mr Steenkamp said: "I think from the beginning and onset that we decided that we could never be sidetracked from Reeva's life, and I think that's helped us tremendously."

The family have gathered in Port Elizabeth for a family event to mark Ms Steenkamp's birthday.

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MasterChef Judge Gregg Wallace In Hotel Brawl

MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace knocked a diner to the floor and punched him in the face for allegedly touching his girlfriend, according to reports.

The former greengrocer and restaurateur - known for using the phrase "cooking doesn't get tougher than this" - was pictured brawling with the man after a five-hour evening of food and wine at a plush hotel.

Wallace, 48, is reported to have punched the man several times because he apparently touched his 27-year-old girlfriend Anne-Marie Sterpini's bottom.

The fight broke out after he had hosted Dinner With Gregg Wallace at the Wood Norton Hotel in Evesham, Worcestershire.

The hotel's website described Wallace as "the bald one who likes puddings" and promised guests a champagne reception followed by a five-course dinner.

But the scene turned ugly.

A picture in The Sun showed white-shirted Wallace grappling with the man while another man tries to restrain him as other guests look on.

The BBC host was eventually led from the oak-panelled room at the Grade II-listed building and taken upstairs.

Claire Shepherd, 31, who was at the £75-a-head evening, told The Sun: "He kept doing speeches and then we had a Q and A session.

"It became quite obvious that he was very self-important, so a woman on our table tried to make a joke, saying his bakery chain Greggs was doing really well and he must be happy.

"But he didn't laugh. He just said: 'End of questions, enjoy your meal.' It was a tumbleweed moment."

A source told the Daily Mail: "The vast majority of those present were very drunk. I'm pretty sure Gregg had enjoyed a few drinks too.

"In fact, his girlfriend was one of the only people there who seemed sober. Gregg took exception to this man who was supposed to have been touching his girlfriend up.

"A table was knocked over as they grappled."

The newspaper reported that three-times married Wallace and the man later calmed down, apologised to each other and shared a whisky.

Wallace's spokeswoman told Sky News Online: "I can confirm Gregg was involved in a disagreement at an event last night. The situation was swiftly resolved."

She confirmed that police had not been called to the event.

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Rapper Murder: Victim Died In Children's Room

An aspiring rapper was stabbed to death by a masked raider while three children hid in the next room, a court has heard.

Terrified parents Matthew Purves and Zoe Lewis fought to protect the children, all aged under five, after two men wielding a kitchen knife and a fake gun forced their way into their flat.

Jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court were told how the couple's friend, Thomas Brittain, 26, was stabbed in the struggle and bled to death on the floor of the children's bedroom at the home in Colchester, Essex.

Mr Brittain, a local hip hop producer and songwriter also known as Twister, had suffered a punctured lung and several other knife wounds.

Tony Prosser, prosecuting, said Mr Purves and Mr Brittain were dozing in the living room when they heard banging and shouting outside the front door at around 2am on March 9.

Miss Lewis and the children were asleep in their bedrooms but were woken by the commotion.

Mr Prosser said: "One of the men held a pistol to Mr Purves' head and told him to keep down.

Andre Vella and Jack Hummerstone blame each other for the stabbing

"The man's face was covered by a hood and a scarf. Another man burst in carrying a large kitchen knife and wearing a balaclava."

Miss Lewis ran to see what was happening and was grabbed by one of the raiders, he said.

"One of the men pulled her hair, held a knife to her face and told her to shut up," Mr Prosser added.

"She managed to run back to the children's bedroom and shut the door behind her.

"Mr Purves joined them and later one of the men tried to force his way in. Miss Lewis said she saw a hand reaching around the door. Both parents tried to protect the children and hold the door closed while dialing 999 for help.

"It went quiet and Mr Brittain was heard to say 'I've been stabbed'."

Andre Vella, 19, from Village Close, Kirby Cross, and Jack Hummerstone, 18, of no fixed address, both deny murder and wounding with intent.

Vella denies possession of an imitation firearm while Hummerstone admits this charge. The court heard the men accept they carried out the raid but blame one another for the stabbing.

Mr Prosser said: "Andre Villa and Jack Hummerstone had clearly armed themselves with weapons. Whether this was a plan for a robbery, for drugs or a punishment beating, we don't know.

"What is certain is that they went to the flat with a hostile intention."

The trial is expected to last up to three weeks.

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Anti-Fracking Protesters Cleared By Police

Police have been forcibly clearing protesters from a road outside a potential site for fracking in Balcombe, West Sussex.

Activists are taking part in a six-day Reclaim The Power demonstration after Cuadrilla began carrying out exploratory drilling at the site.

Hundreds of campaigners have staged noisy protests in the face of a police presence of more than 400 officers.

Sky's Enda Brady, in Balcombe, said a number of people had been detained for public order offences, including Green Party MP Caroline Lucas.

Police confirmed that up to 30 people had been arrested by late Monday afternoon.

They were held after Sussex Police served a notice under section 14 of the Public Order Act, believing the crowd might cause public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community.

Caroline Lucas joined protesters at the site, and was among those arrested

Shouts of "shame on you" and "no violence" erupted from the crowd as police tried to move the protesters back to the main gate of the site.

Demonstrators chanted: "We are peaceful, what are you?"

Vanessa Vine, founder of Frack Free Sussex and Britain and Ireland Frack Free, said the police presence was disproportionately heavy and added that Reclaim The Power were "not nasty, violent people" but "altruistic people who are challenging what the Government is doing".

A protester is removed from the Cuadrilla HQ in Lichfield

Earlier, Sussex Police said on Twitter: "We would like to reiterate that protesters aren't being kettled and are free to leave the site as they wish."

Cuadrilla condemned the "illegal direct actions" against its staff and operations.

Campaigners opposing the controversial process of extracting shale gas blockaded the firm's headquarters while others superglued themselves to the building occupied by a PR firm used by the energy company.

Protesters glued their hands together through a plastic pipe

The action at Cuadrilla in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and at PR company Bell Pottinger in central London comes on the first of two days of "mass civil disobedience" which campaigners have pledged to carry out.

In a statement, Cuadrilla said: "Protesters broke into our Lichfield office, harassed our staff and chained themselves to filing cabinets.

"The police are on site dealing with this. We condemn all illegal direct actions against our people and operations."

The firm insisted that the morale of its staff at various sites is "fine", and they and the teams supporting the company are "doing a magnificent job".

Protesters' tents outside the office in Lichfield

"They know that what we are doing is legal, approved and safe, and that shale gas is essential to improve our energy security, heat our homes, and create jobs and growth," the firm said.

"Cuadrilla is rightly held accountable for complying with multiple planning and environmental permits and conditions, which we have met and will continue to meet.

"Clearly we are held to one set of legally enforceable standards while some protesters believe that they can set out and follow their own."

Campaign group No Dash For Gas said six protesters superglued themselves to the glass door of Bell Pottinger at 8am and deployed reinforced arm tubes to stop anyone else getting inside.

Meanwhile, it said 20 protesters shut down the Cuadrilla site in Lichfield by blockading it with their bodies. It said two people inside the building had also hung banners from it saying: "Reclaim the power" and "Power to the people".

A group of around 20 protesters also demonstrated outside the constituency office of Balcombe MP and Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude.

Activists also targeted the home of former Tory minister and George Osborne's father-in-law Lord Howell, who drew criticism recently when he said fracking should take place in England's "desolate" North.

The group erected an estate agent's sign outside the Peer's house reading 'For Shale - Desolate Properties Ltd'.

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Second Shark Attack On Hawaiian Islands

A 16-year-old boy has suffered leg injuries after being attacked by a shark in Hawaii.

It is the second shark in a week on the Pacific islands.

A 20-year-old German tourist had her arm bitten off while snorkelling in Maui on Wednesday.

The latest attack took place on Sunday near Hilo on Hawaii island, the largest of the eight islands that make up the archipelago.

The boy was airlifted to hospital but details of his condition were not available.

Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources closed the waters along the Pohoiki coastline after the attack.

Hapuna Beach, on the island's northwest shore, was also closed on Sunday after lifeguards spotted a shark.

There have now been eight shark attacks on the Hawaiian islands this year.

A PE teacher was hailed as a hero following last week's attack on the German holidaymaker.

Rick Moore, 57, jumped into the water and brought the 20-year-old woman back to shore moments after she was attacked off Palauea Beach.

There were 11 shark attacks in Hawaii last year. The last fatal attack was in 2004.

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Google Stays Quiet After Mystery Black-Out

Google has failed to address questions about a mystery black-out that cut internet traffic by an estimated 40% across the world.

All of the search engine's services - from Google Search to Gmail, YouTube and Google Drive - went down on Friday night in what technology experts called a "completely unprecedented event".

Three days on, Google is still refusing to offer any explanation.

The tech firm's representatives in the US and UK directed Sky News to its message on the Google Apps Dashboard.

All that reveals is that all of Google's services were hit and went down for between one and five minutes.

The US firm provided no details for what may have caused the disruption, which has caused much speculation on IT forums.

"Unfortunately beyond the information on our Apps Status Board we have nothing further to comment," a spokesman said.

The dashboard message said: "We're aware of a problem with Gmail affecting a significant subset of users. The affected users are able to access Gmail, but are seeing error messages and/or other unexpected behaviour."

A later message added: "Between 15:51 and 15:52 PDT, 50% to 70% of requests to Google received errors; service was mostly restored one minute later, and entirely restored after four minutes."

Red dots on the Google Apps Dashboard show all its services were hit

According to web analytics firm GoSquared, global internet traffic fell by around 40% during the black-out, reflecting Google's massive grip on the web.

The outage cost Google an estimated $500,000 (£330,000) in the few minutes it was down. But industry observers said this would make a very small dent in Google's coffers or reputation.

"This money is very small compared with the $40bn (£25.6bn) annual revenue that Google generates," said technology news website TechNewsPlus.

"It is also estimated that the subsequent spike in traffic might have adjusted even this loss." 

Greg Sterling, a researcher with Sterling Market Intelligence, told The Financial Times: "This individual outage doesn't matter.

"The idea that Google could go down is unsettling to people but it doesn't create a problem for the company unless it starts to happen more frequently."

Analysts say the black-out was unlikely to have been caused by hacking, but say it cannot be ruled out. They think it was more likely to have been a physical infrastructure problem or human error.

Matt Oxley, head of creative technology at Tribal Worldwide, told Sky News: "To have a complete outage points to a single point of failure, but what are the single points of failure in a multi-national organisation such as Google?

"The simplest and most obvious would be the Domain Name System (DNS). Did someone manage to hack/attack their DNS? 

"Or did someone make a mistake and push an update (internal or external) that caused a cascading error through their name servers?

"The other possibility is they do actually have a single point of failure in their infrastructure that has been exposed either by external or internal circumstances (attack or mistake).

"If it was either of these cases then they won't want to publicise it before they fix the error. If it is the latter, then it could be embarrassing and damaging to their business/reputation."

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Prison Van Fire In Essex Sparks Investigation

A security van burst into flames while carrying prisoners, prompting an investigation by police.

Officers were called to secure the three prisoners while firefighters dealt with the fire in the vehicle as it travelled along the A414 near North Weald, in Essex.

A police spokeswoman said: "Police were contacted at 12.50pm with reports of a security vehicle on fire near the Talbot roundabout on the A414 towards Harlow.

"Officers are in attendance and have helped secure three prisoners who were on board.

"An investigation into the cause of the fire is under way and no one was hurt."

Essex Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was under control by 1.17pm.

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Woman's Body In Freezer Sparks Murder Inquiry

A murder investigation is under way after a woman's body was found in a freezer at her home.

The woman, named locally as Louise Brough, was discovered after police forced their way into the council flat in Tyseley Road, in the Southsea area of Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Officers went there after the council became concerned about her well-being.

A 53-year-old man, from Southsea, was arrested on suspicion of murder and has been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

He is due to report back to police in November.

A Hampshire Police spokesman said initial inquiries indicated "there is no risk to the wider community".

Formal identification procedures and a post-mortem examination have not yet taken place.

The police spokesman said: "Until a post-mortem examination has taken place we are unable to confirm when the woman died.

"The woman was located inside a property in Wilmcote House.

"We are not able to confirm further details relating to this as it could form part of evidence used by the prosecution should the case come to court.

"We are in the process of locating next of kin to conduct formal identification procedures."

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