Test Tube Burger Served Up For First Time

By Alex Watts, Sky News Online

The world's first test tube burger, costing a whopping £250,000 to produce, has been unveiled in London.

The 5oz patty - made from lab-grown "cultured beef" - was dished up by its creator, Professor Mark Post, before journalists in Hammersmith, in the west of the capital.

The scientist-turned-chef made the most expensive beefburger in history from 20,000 tiny strips of meat grown from cow stem cells over a three-month period.

The billionaire co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, put £215,000 of his own money towards the research, saying he was doing it because it could be "transformative for the world".

The burger was cooked with oil and butter

Chef Richard McGeown fried the burger in sunflower oil and a knob of butter before it was sampled by Josh Schonwald, author of The Taste of Tomorrow, and food scientist Hanni Rutzler.

Ms Rutzler said it was "close to meat" but she was expecting the texture to be softer and it wasn't very juicy.

Mr Schonwald said the "absence is the fat ... it's a leanness to it but the bite feels like a conventional hamburger".

"This is kind of an unnatural experience in that I can't tell you over the past 20 years how many times I have had a burger without ketchup or onions or jalapenos or bacon."

Prof Post believes his artificial meat - known by the rather unappetising title "in-vitro meat" - could herald a food revolution and appear in supermarkets within the next 10 to 20 years.

Professor Post reckons commercial production could begin within 20 years

After trying his own creation for the first time, he said: "I think it's a very good start, it proved that we can do this, that we can make it and to provide a start to build upon - I am very pleased with it."

He said he was not worried about the verdict on the taste and added that in a couple of months they should be able to add fat into the product.

The burger could help save the planet by cutting the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases currently released by livestock, and may also be deemed ethically acceptable by vegetarians because it would dramatically reduce the need to slaughter animals.

But its success or failure will ultimately depend on how much it resembles the taste, texture and price of real meat.

Synthetic beef (centre) with hamburger meat (left) and minced beef (right)

The demonstration was originally planned for October last year, with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal cooking the burger for a mystery guest.

There was pressure from journalists in the audience who wanted to try the burger but they were told there was not enough to go around.

Up until now, the only outsider known to have eaten the synthetic meat was a Russian reporter who snatched a piece of cultured pork and stuffed it in his mouth during a visit to Prof Post's lab - before it had been passed as safe to eat.

He was reportedly unimpressed by the pork, describing it as "chewy and tasteless".

Prof Post's team at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands conducted experiments which progressed from mouse meat to pork and finally beef - the most environmentally destructive meat.

Google's Sergey Brin bankrolled the "cultured beef" burger

"What we are going to attempt is important because I hope it will show cultured beef has the answers to major problems that the world faces," he said.

"Our burger is made from muscle cells taken from a cow. We haven't altered them in any way. For it to succeed it has to look, feel and hopefully taste like the real thing."

The ingredients don't sound like something a chef would boast about on a menu - half-millimetre thick strips of pinkish yellow lab-grown tissue, each the size of a rice grain.

But Prof Post is confident he can produce a burger that is almost indistinguishable from one made from prime beef.

He points out that livestock farming is becoming unsustainable, with demand for meat rocketing around the world.

The industry accounts for nearly 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions - even greater than transport - with 228 million tonnes of meat produced each year.

And the environmental problems are only likely to get worse, with the UN forecasting that world demand for meat will double by 2050, largely driven by an increased demand from a growing middle class in China and other developing nations.

The in-vitro burger is cultured from cattle stem cells

Added to this, around 70% of all farmland is devoted to meat production, and cattle consume around 10% of the world's freshwater supplies, making meat farming a very costly, planet-damaging business.

Experts say 1kg of meat requires up to 10kg of crops to produce, making it a highly inefficient method of turning plants into human food, whereas synthetic meat uses about 2kg of feed.

Research by Oxford University scientists in 2011 estimated that cultured meat needs 99% less land than livestock, between 82% and 96% less water, and produces between 78% and 95% less greenhouse gas.

The burger launched today has cost  £250,000 to produce, but the Dutch team are hoping to dramatically slash the cost by industrialising the laborious process.

The Food Standards Agency said that before going on sale, synthetic meat would need regulatory approval, with manufacturers needing to prove that all necessary safety tests had been carried out.

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Derren Brown's 'Terror' After Theatre Plunge

Fans could be forgiven for thinking it was part of his act but illusionist Derren Brown has told of the "terrifying" moment a man plunged over a balcony at one of his shows.

The incident happened during Infamous at the Palace Theatre in London's West End on Saturday.

The man was reportedly sitting in the highest tier, 45ft (13.7m) up, when he was pushed by his wife as a joke.

Brown, 42, described on Twitter how the guest fell over the balcony and was left hanging from the upper circle.

He tweeted: "Tonight a woman pushed her hubby as a joke from the front of the balcony. He fell and caught the upper circle on the way down, and was hanging from it. He's fine, but what a finale. Sending best thoughts to him & wife, terrifying."

Theatregoer Rob Millwood told The Sun: "He hit the lights and grabbed the bar with one arm. Three or four guys ran down the steps and pulled him back.

"A few inches to one side and there would have been nothing to break the fall."

The man fell 15ft (4.5m) before he managed to hold on to the lighting rig, the newspaper reported.

The Palace Theatre warns guests on its website not to sit in the highest tier if they are scared of heights or have limited mobility.

Derren Brown uses psychological manipulation to convince people to take part in stunts such as committing an armed robbery or playing Russian Roulette.

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Dog Attack: Toddler Killed By Family Pet

A two-year-old Australian boy has been mauled to death by a mastiff cross dog at his grandmother's house.

The attack happened on Sunday afternoon at Deniliquin in New South Wales when the boy reportedly went outside to get an ice-cream from a back fridge and the family pet followed him.

The boy has been named by local media as Deeon Higgins. The dog, called Kingston according to reports, is thought to have belonged to his 24-year-old cousin.

It is not clear what sparked the attack. The toddler's mother and grandmother both desperately tried to pull the dog off the child but to no avail, with the boy suffering severe head and facial injuries.

Mastiff dogs are not considered a dangerous breed (File)

"The child's grandmother, aged 70, intervened but, was unable to release the child. The child's mother arrived and fought the dog off the boy," police said in a statement.

"He and his grandmother were taken to Deniliquin Hospital ... but he died a short time later. The older woman has been treated for exhaustion, bruising and abrasions."

The dog, not usually considered a dangerous breed, was captured and put down.

Detective Inspector Darren Cloak of Deniliquin Police said the family and residents were "shocked" and "distraught" by the death.

News of the attack is said to have shocked the small town of Deniliquin

"The community will be saddened by this, it's a tragic set of circumstances," he said.

A family spokesman told the Sydney Morning Herald that the family were devastated by what had happened.

"We have lost a gorgeous little boy who we all loved so much," the newspaper was told.

New South Wales state premier Barry O'Farrell said he would review regulations covering dangerous dogs, while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd vowed to give any support needed.

"I'm all ears in terms of anything any level of government wants by way of support, on practical levels, to control wild dogs," said Mr Rudd, who faces national elections in five weeks.

"We await those requests. All I can say is that this is horrible, absolutely horrible."

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Gibraltar Row: Spain Accused Of Sabre-Rattling

Gibraltar's chief minister has accused Spain of "sabre-rattling like North Korea" after it threatened to impose sanctions on the Rock.

Fabian Picardo said Spanish foreign minister Jose Garcia-Margallo was being belligerent by threatening to charge workers almost £90 a day to cross the border.

Prime Minister David Cameron has also now weighed in, with Downing Street saying he is "seriously concerned" by the escalating row.

A spokesman said: "The Spanish have not raised the prospect of introducing border fees with us. We are seeking an explanation from them regarding reports that they might target Gibraltar with further measures."

Mr Garcia-Margallo had suggested a levy on workers travelling from Gibraltar could be used to help Spanish fishermen who have lost out because of damage to fishing grounds allegedly caused by Gibraltarian authorities.

But Mr Picardo told Sky News: "The 10,000 Spanish workers that come into Gibraltar every day, they would be on the hook for 100 euros - 50 in and 50 out - when they might earn less than that each day.

"I think this is quite a silly remark for the Spanish foreign minister to have made. He is sabre-rattling a la North Korea. It almost makes you feel like you are listening to the politics of Franco in the 1950s and 60s."

In a separate interview, he said that the border costs would violate European Union freedom of movement rules.

Fabian Picardo (left) and Jose Garcia-Margallo

He also warned "hell will freeze over" before the Gibraltarian authorities remove an artificial reef Madrid claims is harming the interests of Spanish fishermen.

And he branded the possibility of Spain closing its airspace to flights from the Rock dangerous and the "politics of madness".

The Foreign Office has already voiced concerns over Mr Garcia-Margallo's comments and said Britain would not compromise its sovereignty over Gibraltar.

A spokesman made clear that the UK expects Madrid to live up to the commitments it made in the 2006 Cordoba Agreement.

These include deals on issues like border crossings and access for flights, as well as establishing a tripartite forum for regular dialogue between Britain, Spain and Gibraltar.

Spain's main opposition party, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) accused Mr Garcia-Margallo of "dynamiting" dialogue on issues affecting workers, fishermen and traders.

Its spokesman for EU affairs Juan Moscoso del Prado said: "You cannot threaten 50 euro fees when there are more than 10,000 people who go there every day to work. Workers should not be taken hostage by this conflict."

The dispute over the status of Gibraltar escalated recently following a number of alleged Spanish incursions into the territory's waters.

Spain claims sovereignty over the Rock, which stands on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula, but has been a British Overseas Territory since the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

However, the UK Government has made clear that it will not negotiate over sovereignty as long as Gibraltar's people want to remain British.

Foreign Secretary William Hague last month phoned Mr Garcia-Margallo to complain about Spain ramping up border checks, which forced drivers to wait for up to seven hours in searing heat.

On Sunday, the Foreign Office summoned the Spanish ambassador, to demand assurances that there would be no repeat of the excessive checks.

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France: Father Of Missing Family Found Hanged

A man whose wife and daughter are missing has been found hanged after leaving a suicide note protesting his innocence.

Francisco Benitez was found dead at his workplace in Perpignan, southern France, on Monday morning.

His daughter Allison, 19, and wife Marie-Josee Benitez, 53, have not been seen since July 14, when the two of them left home after an argument with Mr Benitez - which he told police about.

Allison and Marie Benitez have been missing since mid-July. Pic: Facebook

Officers found a letter next to Mr Benitez 's body at the barracks of the French Foreign Legion where he worked as a recruitment officer in Perpignan, proclaiming his innocence.

According to local media reports, he was wearing his military uniform. He also left information on who to contact and said that he wanted to be cremated in the note.

Mr Benitez's suicide came just a day after he gave an emotional interview to Paris Match, saying his daughter was "his life" and she would "never leave like that without giving news, it is impossible".

Police search the barracks where Mr Benitez was found hanging

Sobbing throughout he told the magazine, they were "a family like any other, with ups and downs".

He also responded to "violent attacks" on the internet connecting him to the disappearances. "The hardest thing is to read what people comment without knowing our private lives," he said.

Mr Benitez and his wife were in the process of separating when she and her daughter disappeared in mid-July, but it had been agreed that the two women would move in together and the father would pay the rent.

A police officer outside the French Foreign Legion building in Perpignan

Mother and daughter have not been in touch with any relatives nor used their credit cards or bank accounts since going missing. Their mobile phones cut off on trying to contact them and they have not posted anything on their social media accounts.

All this has prompted concern from investigators and a criminal case has been opened.

Allison had reportedly been preparing for months for the local 'Miss Roussillon' beauty contest, to be held on 11 August, but did not attend a meeting about it on July 15, French media network Europe 1 reported.

Police are continuing to search for the pair and a family computer has apparently been seized as part of the investigation.

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Bus-Sized 'Fatberg' Threatened London Streets

Repairs have started after Britain's biggest ever 'fatberg' - the size of a double-decker bus - was removed from a London sewer.

The 15-tonne mass of festering food fat mixed with wet wipes and sanitary products threatened to send raw sewage spurting onto the leafy streets of Kingston upon Thames.

"We've never seen a single, congealed lump of lard this big clogging our sewers before," said Gordon Hailwood, waste contracts supervisor for Thames Water. 

"The sewer was almost completely clogged with over 15 tonnes of fat," said Mr Hailwood.

"If we hadn't discovered it in time, raw sewage could have started spurting out of manholes across the whole of Kingston.

"It was so big it damaged the sewer and repairs will take up to six weeks."

It took 10 nights to blast the blockage out of the sewer. Pic: CountyClean

The foul blockage was discovered when residents of nearby flats complained they could not flush their toilets.

Investigators found that the 70x48cm sewer had been reduced to just five per cent of its normal capacity.

Mr Hailwood added: "Given we've got the biggest sewers and this is the biggest fatberg we've encountered, we reckon it has to be the biggest such berg in British history."

Workmen used an extremely high-pressure jet hose to blast away the massive blockage - but the size of the 'fatberg' meant it took them 10 nights of graft.

"Attached to the front of the hose is a stainless steel 'bomb'," explained Graeme Sanderson from CountyClean Environmental Services.

"This works by injecting fresh water backwards at very high pressure.

"This drives the head forwards through any blockages and up the brick sewer cleaning the brickwork and washing blockages backwards."

Repairs on 20 metres of damaged pipe affected by the 'fatberg' started on Monday and are expected to take six weeks.

Water bosses want the public to change their ways to help avoid another gigantic fat blob forming under London's streets.

For fat, sanitary items and wet wipes - which do not break down like toilet paper - the message is: 'Bin it – don't block it'.

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Tia Sharp: Man Jailed For Lying To Police

A neighbour of the grandmother of murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp has been jailed for wasting police time after he lied about seeing her alive when she was already dead.

Natalie Sharp, Tia's mother, weeps after Meehan was found guilty

Bus driver Paul Meehan, 40, gave a false statement that he had seen the 12-year-old walk past his home on August 3 last year.

Meehan, who lived next to Christine Bicknell and her killer boyfriend Stuart Hazell, told officers he was "100% sure" he saw her outside his south London home.

But she had already been brutally murdered and her body hidden in the loft of Ms Bicknell's home in Croydon.

Meehan was convicted at Croydon Magistrates' Court of "causing wasteful employment of the police by making a false report".

Hazell was jailed in May for a minimum of 38 years for killing Tia. The court heard there was no suggestion Meehan was in league with Hazell.

Meehan remained impassive as the verdict was delivered. As the hearing adjourned, he sat down and buried his head in his hands.

Stuart Hazell is behind bars for Tia's murder

The last confirmed sighting of Tia was on Thursday, August 2, at 4.30pm. She was murdered some time that night going into the following morning.

With her family frantic with worry by the following Monday, Meehan told officers he had seen Tia walk past him the previous Friday while he was in his garden.

He gave a "vivid" description of what she was wearing, the court heard, which delayed police from interviewing Hazell earlier.

Police had spoken to Meehan about the case three times before he finally said he saw her.

His explanation was that he had "confabulated" seeing her - his brain mistakenly filled in the blanks in good faith.

Jocelyn Ledward, prosecuting, said Meehan had "deliberately lied" - possibly to put himself in an important position in the investigation.

Before jailing him for five months, District Judge Karen Hammond said Meehan was unreliable and that he had "basked to some degree" in the attention he received from being an apparently crucial witness.

Meehan, who had one previous conviction for theft, looked down and closed his eyes when he was told his sentence would begin immediately.

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Parking Row Death: Holmes Named As Victim

A 64-year-old man who was killed in a row over a disabled parking space in a supermarket car park has been named.

Brian Holmes died in hospital a day after the assault at the Asda car park in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire on Saturday afternoon.

His family said in a statement that he had only this week been given the all clear following cancer treatment.

He was described as a "family man who adored his grandchildren and family".

The statement said: "The family are devastated by the loss of Brian in such shocking circumstances. A wife has lost her husband, best friend and carer all in one go.

"Brian and his wife were only just starting to make plans for the future that they only dared to dream of."

The dispute took place at the Asda car park in Biggleswade

A 65-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the fracas and was released on police bail on Sunday night until August 19.

Detective Chief Inspector Tim Redfearn, who is leading the investigation, said: "The men were waiting in the disabled parking area at the time and got into a disagreement about parking.

"We know they became involved in a disagreement which resulted in one man punching the other, knocking him to the ground.

"It would seem an argument over nothing has led to tragic and devastating consequences for both men and their families."

The men involved in the row both had family members with them at the time.

Detective Inspector Liz Mead said: "I would like to hear from anybody who was in the car park at Asda on Saturday afternoon and may have seen the altercation taking place close to the disabled parking area.

"A number of people have already come forward but it is imperative that we speak with as many people as possible and collect all of the facts into what happened. Even the smallest pieces of information could assist us with our inquiries."

The suspect left the supermarket following the incident at around 3pm, but was arrested at his home address nearby a short time later.

A post mortem examination is due to be carried out later on Monday or early on Tuesday, police said.

Asda said one of its managers, a first aider, was first on the scene and helped the injured man until paramedics arrived.

A spokesman said: "We're helping the police get to the bottom of what happened. Our thoughts are with the gentleman's family during this difficult time."

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Twitter Campaign MP Sent Knife Threat Picture

A female MP previously threatened with rape on Twitter has now been sent an image of a masked man brandishing a knife.

A message accompanying the image sent to Labour's Stella Creasy read: "I'm gonna be the first thing u see when you wake up ...".

Ms Creasy, who is leading a campaign against the "trolling" of high-profile women retweeted the threat as an example of the kind of abuse being posted online and replied "carry on and 4 U will be the police".

The post - which appears to show the abuser dressed as serial killer Michael Myers from the Halloween horror movies - has been passed to the police and the user suspended from Twitter, which has vowed to make reporting abuse easier.

The picture emerged as television classicist Mary Beard revealed she had contacted police after receiving a message about a bomb outside her home.

The Cambridge University professor, who has faced a series of insults from users, called for a distinction to be made between mere abuse and proper threats.

Stella Creasy (2nd right) at the launch of the Jane Austen £10 note

"I've had lots of abuse, but only recently have I had these things actually threatening violence, rape and death," she told BBC Breakfast.

"I think we've got to be quite careful about drawing a distinction between those things because abuse is very nasty, it's sexist, it's misogynist but I think in some ways you can cope with that by naming and shaming.

"I think you have to be absolutely clear that these threats that have been coming to me and to other women ... these are criminal threats. They are threats of violence and death and all you can do is take them to the police.

"There is no two ways about it, threatening to kill someone is a crime and that's what I and other people have done and I hope other women who get these threats will do the same."

Ms Creasy is leading a "Take Back Twitter" campaign after becoming a target last week because of her support for Caroline Criado-Perez, who received rape threats following her calls for Jane Austen to be the face on the £10 bank note.

Professor Mary Beard received a bomb threat

Two arrests have been made in relation to rape threats against the two women.

Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman, Independent columnist Grace Dent and Europe editor of Time magazine Catherine Mayer separately received tweets saying they would be the targets of bomb attacks.

The same message was also sent to a number of other women, including Sara Lang, a social media manager at US campaign group AARP.

Police later said they were now investigating eight claims of harassment, malicious communication or bomb threats.

Twitter UK general manager Tony Wang posted a series of tweets on Sunday saying abuse was "simply not acceptable".

His messages came after the website clarified its rules on abusive behaviour and put extra staff in place to handle reports of abuse.

Ms Creasy, talking to Sky News at the weekend, called on Twitter to work with the police to identify particular accounts and users under attack and act more quickly to protect them.

She said: "There's been a lot of talk, a lot of concern, that somehow, if you started to deal with abuse on Twitter you'd shut Twitter down. I simply don't believe that.

"I trust in the wisdom of people who use Twitter, but what I want to do is make sure it's free from fear."

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Rolf Harris Re-Arrested Over More Sex Claims

The entertainer Rolf Harris has been arrested for a second time on suspicion of further sexual offences, Sky sources have said.

Harris, 83, answered police bail earlier and was told he faces additional allegations.

He was initially arrested in March by detectives from Operation Yewtree, the investigation launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse claims, and denied any wrongdoing.

Harris, from Bray, in Berkshire, had been interviewed under caution on November 29 last year, five days after police searched his home.

In May the Australian performed his first live show since his arrest over historical sexual assault claims, thanking fans for their support at the performance in Bristol.

The artist and broadcaster told the crowd: "You've no idea what this means, for you all to turn up with such support and such enthusiasm."

Scotland Yard did not name Harris, but released a statement which said a man had been "further arrested on suspicion of sexual offences in connection with further allegations made to Operation Yewtree".

He has been released on bail to a date later in August.

Harris, who painted a portrait of the Queen in 2005 and performed at a concert to mark her Diamond Jubilee last year, has been a household name for decades.

He gained cult status in recent years and performed at Glastonbury festival several times.

His first BBC1 programme, The Rolf Harris Show, was broadcasted in 1967 before moving to children's TV in the 1980s and then Animal Hospital, which he fronted for ten years from 1994.

Harris was awarded an MBE in 1968, an OBE in 1977 and a CBE in 2006. He was made Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours list last year.

Operation Yewtree has been run in three strands - claims involving Savile, those involving Savile and others, and those involving others.

Harris is being dealt with under the "others" strand. He was publicly named as a suspect in April when The Sun newspaper became the first media outlet to identify him in connection with the investigation.

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