Toddler Murder: Teenager Charged Over Death

A man will appear in court today charged with the murder of a two-year-old girl.

Dean Harris, 19, of Yaxley in Cambridgeshire, will appear before Peterborough Magistrates' Court.

The toddler, who has been named as Amina Agboola, died on Thursday after being taken to Peterborough City Hospital suffering serious injuries.

A 28-year-old woman, believed to be the girl's mother, was also arrested and has been released on police bail.

Harris is understood to be the mother's partner.

The couple were arrested after taking the girl to hospital themselves.

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Grieve Warns Of 'Ethnic Corruption' In UK

Politicians need to "wake up" to the problem of corruption in ethnic minority communities, the Government's senior law officer has warned.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve said he was referring "mainly to the Pakistani community" in his comments.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph the Tory MP pointed out that it could also be found in the "white Anglo-Saxon" community but he said it was a growing problem "because we have minority communities in this country which come from backgrounds where corruption is endemic".

"It is something as politicians we have to wake up to," he added

The MP for Beaconsfield said: "I can see many of them have come because of the opportunities that they get. But they also come from societies where they have been brought up to believe you can only get certain things through a favour culture.

"One of the things you have to make absolutely clear is that that is not the case and it's not acceptable."

Baroness Warsi said electoral fraud also affects the Asian community

Asked if he was referring to the Pakistani community in his remarks, Mr Grieve told the newspaper: "Yes, it's mainly the Pakistani community, not the Indian community. I wouldn't draw it down to one. I'd be wary of saying it's just a Pakistani problem."

He added: "I happen to be very optimistic about the future of the UK. We have managed integration of minority communities better than most countries in Europe."

Mr Grieve highlighted electoral fraud as an area of concern, echoing comments made in 2010 by senior Tory Baroness Warsi.

Lady Warsi told the New Statesman magazine there were "at least three seats where we lost, where we didn't gain the seat, based on electoral fraud" and said the problems were "predominantly within the Asian community".

Mr Grieve also said that the UK's infrastructure could be put under strain if significant numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians come to the UK when controls expire in January.

He acknowledged that "the volume of immigrants may pose serious infrastructure issues".

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Teenager Killed Stranger With Single Punch

A teenager who killed a man with a single punch before going to a friend's house to play computer games has been convicted of murder.

Eden Lomax, 17, of Dean, Bolton, punched Simon Mitchell, 43, with such force that a witness described him falling over "like the minute hand moving from 12 o'clock to three o'clock".

He delivered the killer blow at the moment the victim stretched his arm out to shake his hand.

Lomax was found guilty of murder following a trial at Manchester Crown Court. He will be sentenced on December 9 and faces a mandatory life sentence.

The fatal attack came days after Lomax punched two other men unconscious in unprovoked attacks which were caught on CCTV in Bolton, Greater Manchester. He had already pleaded guilty to those assaults.

In the first incident, on the night of Friday, June 7, seven days before Mr Mitchell died, Lomax punched a 31-year-old man with learning difficulties in the face as he stood at a bus stop.

He struck again four days later, this time punching a drunken 41-year-old man without warning after they struck up a conversation.

The victim fell backwards through the open doors of a waiting bus, leaving him dazed and incapacitated on the floor.

Lomax then joked to the bus driver: "I think he wants an Adult Day Saver?" before running off.

Mr Mitchell had recently been made redundant and was given £200 cash by his brother who felt sorry for him and he had gone out to drink in pubs in Bolton town centre on the evening of June 14.

He began talking to the group Lomax was in, opening up about his life and his troubles.

Lomax became aggressive and his friends tried to restrain him but the teenager told the older man he would "bomb him" if he didn't go away.

When Mr Mitchell went to shake the youngster's hand and asked: "What's a bomb?" Lomax punched him in the face with such force that it fractured his jaw. He fell backwards, hitting his head on the pavement.

An ambulance was called and Mr Mitchell was pronounced dead at the scene from head injuries.

Lomax, meanwhile, left for a friend's house to play computer games.

In court he claimed he acted in self defence - but the jury did not believe him.

Detective Chief Inspector Pete Jackson, from Greater Manchester Police, said: "Like all cowards and bullies he (Lomax)  targeted people who he knew could not defend themselves or fight back."

He added: "It is was a tragic way for Simon's evening to end. It has left his father and family devastated. My thoughts are with them and I hope that the justice delivered today will provide some comfort to them."

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Co-op Bank Tells Flowers: It's Payback Time

The Co-op bank has asked its former chairman Paul Flowers to hand back £31,000 as political wrangling over his dramatic fall from grace intensifies.

The troubled financial institution said it was seeking to recover contractual payments made to the former Methodist minister since he quit the £132,000-a-year post.

Mr Flowers, 63, who led the Co-op for three years, is being investigated by police for allegedly buying and using illegal drugs including crystal meth, crack cocaine and ketamine.

He has also been accused of incompetence and resigned in June after the bank found a £1.5bn black hole in its finances following the purchase of Britannia Building Society in 2009 and abortive attempts to take on hundreds of Lloyds Bank branches.

The bank now faces a rescue which will see 50 branches close and investors including US hedge funds take control of 70% of the business.

In a statement, the bank said: "When Paul Flowers relinquished his responsibilities in June, it was agreed, as per his contractual obligations, that his fees for the rest of his period of office would be paid.

"Following recent revelations, the board stopped all payments with immediate effect and no further payments will be made."

It comes as senior Tory MP David Davis said George Osborne and the Treasury had "serious questions to answer" about the oversight of the bank.

"There are really serious questions to answer about what they were all doing," David Davis told the Financial Times.

Mr Miliband has fought back against Mr Cameron's 'smears' over the scandal

Issues over the bank's operations were raised by a rival at the time of the aborted takeover bid of Lloyds branches.

"These problems were apparent to a rival and would have been - with a bit of work - to anyone else," Mr Davis said.

Labour - which accuses Prime Minister David Cameron of seeking to "smear" the party over its relationship with the Co-op - seized on the comments in a bid to move the spotlight on to the Conservatives.

Leader Ed Miliband insists the party acted with the "utmost integrity" in its dealings with Mr Flowers and suspended him when the allegations about his private life emerged.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who received a £50,000 donation to his office from the Co-operative Group, said he had "nothing to hide".

He told Sky News political editor Adam Boulton that he had never had a phone call or a meeting with Mr Flowers and stressed that the donation came from the Co-op Group and not the Co-op Bank.

Mr Cameron has announced an inquiry into the bank's ailing finances and the decision to appoint Mr Flowers - with details expected to be announced within days.

It emerged on Thursday that Mr Flowers was convicted of drink-driving in 1990 and for gross indecency in a toilet with a man in 1981.

In 2011, he resigned his role on Bradford council after being caught with pornography on his council laptop and it has been alleged he falsely claimed £75,000 from a drugs charity when he was chairman of trustees in 2004.

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Daniel Radcliffe Warns Social Media Celebrities

By Richard Suchet, Sky Arts and Entertainment Correspondent

Celebrities who tell fans what they are doing "moment to moment" on social media sites cannot expect to have a private life, according to Daniel Radcliffe.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, the Harry Potter star said he tries to avoid the limelight.

"There's certain things you can do to make it a lot easier on yourself," the 24-year-old said. 

"If you don't, for instance, go to premieres that aren't for a film you're in, or don't just turn up at other events and stuff like that, then that's going to help to not fuel the interest.

"Also, I don't have Twitter and I don't have Facebook and I think that makes things a lot easier because if you go on Twitter and tell everybody what you're doing moment to moment and then claim you want a private life, then no one is going to take that request seriously."

Radcliffe says he has a 'chip on his shoulder'

Speaking ahead of the launch of the second series of A Young Doctor's Notebook on Sky Arts 1 (Thursday, 9pm), he said that when he was younger he resented the attention that his success as a young actor had brought but that he has no regrets.

"When I was 18 or 19 there was definitely a level of frustration around... I did have to think where I went more than a lot of my friends and you do get a little frustrated around that age, but ultimately it's childish, petulant - oh I want that too.

"People always say to me, 'Do you feel like you missed out on a childhood? Do you feel like you had your childhood taken away?' And I'm like: 'No, what a ridiculous, like, kids who are abused have their childhoods taken away from them.'"

However, he admitted he now has a "chip on his shoulder" that people might think he was fortunate to win the Harry Potter role and now feels he needs to prove himself again.

Radcliffe stars with Mad Men actor John Hamm in A Young Doctor's Notebook

"It's as much to myself, as to anyone else. People always say 'oh he's got a chip on his shoulder' like it's a bad thing. I think it's a perfectly good thing if you let it motivate you.

"When you fall into a position when you're 11-years-old, you do tend to think that, you know, everyone, you were lucky to get there. And I was lucky to get there. And I think there's a sense that you just fell into it and that you rode the wave and carried on.

"And that's not what I'm about. I don't know how many people think like that - there may be none, there may be millions but it doesn't matter. It fires you up."

Radcliffe, who stars in the show with Mad Men actor John Hamm, also reveals that despite being worth an estimated £50m, his biggest indulgence is books.

"The only time I will spend a wad of cash in one go - and this is going to sound so nerdy - is in bookshops.  I've gone out of bookshops with a pile of 15 to 20 books before. It's excessive.

"I have this thing in bookshops where if I see this thing that there's a good chance I may never ever see again or sounds interesting then I have to get it.

"So that's a way of bleeding your money. The only slightly lavish thing that I do sometimes is that I might take all my friends out for a night out. And that's, like, once a year. I'm refreshingly boring."

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Britain's Cancer Survival Rates 'Unacceptable'

Around 10,000 lives a year could be saved if the UK matched cancer survival rates in the rest of Europe, a study has found.

Britain's cancer survival rates are lagging behind the rest of Europe and other major economies, with just Poland and Ireland faring worse in some strains of the disease.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report compares key health records from its 34 member countries as well as the so-called BRIC countries and other nations where possible.

It found that women with breast cancer were more likely to reach the five-year survival point in almost all countries other than Britain, with only the Czech Republic, Poland and Ireland trailing behind.

According to the research only the Czech Republic, Poland and Denmark had worse rates for surviving bowel cancer than Britain while cervical cancer rates were worse in only Ireland and Poland.

Cancer specialist Karol Sikora told the Daily Telegraph: "This is a really sad indictment of the priority we give to cancer - our place in the league tables is tragic.

"If we just met the average of the rest of the European league tables we could save 10,000 lives a year.

"In Britain there are lots of delays in the system; we need to speed up the whole process."

Macmillan Cancer Support chief executive Ciaran Devane told the newspaper: "It is simply unacceptable that cancer survival rates in the UK continue to lag behind those in the rest of Europe and these latest figures are very disappointing.

"Clearly, more needs to be done to encourage better screening attendance and early diagnosis."

The UK also had higher rates of infant death than most other countries, the Health at a Glance 2013 study found.

It recorded 4.3 deaths out of every 1,000 births compared with the OECD average of 4.1.

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Cyclist Tweet Is My Biggest Regret - Driver

By Rachel Younger, East of England Correspondent

A driver who tweeted about knocking a cyclist off his bike has said sending the message is the "biggest regret" of her life.

Emma Way, who was convicted of failing to stop after a crash and failing to report an accident but cleared of driving without due care and attention, clipped cyclist Toby Hockley on a country road in Norfolk last May.

She was fined £337 and given seven penalty points on her licence when she appeared at Norfolk Magistrates' Court.

The case came to the public's attention when the 22-year-old posted a tweet which read: "Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier. I have right of way. He doesn't even pay road tax!"

She ended her message with the hashtag #bloodycyclists.

Way, who has since left Twitter, sent this message hours after the crash

Mr Hockley told the court he was riding with a friend through Rockland All Saints, near Thetford, and had slowed down to about 18mph for a bend when a car came around the the corner "on my side of the road".

He said he ended up in a hedge, bruised, scratched and stung by nettles, after the car's wing mirror clipped his right arm.

He told the court there had been "quite a loud crunch" but admitted he had not come off his bike.

Jason Sexton, who was riding with Mr Hockley, told the court he had been riding just in front of his friend and had shouted to warn him about the approaching car before pulling into a lay-by.

He told the court he had also shouted at the driver, adding that his friend had been "as far across (on the road) as he could be to avoid traffic".

The crash happened in the village of Rockland All Saints, Norfolk

Way, a former trainee accountant from Watton, Norfolk, admitted her wing mirror had clipped Mr Hockley's bike with a "donk" but claimed he had been on the wrong side of the road, leaving her with nowhere to go.

She said she felt the collision had been his fault, telling the court: "I saw he had slightly wobbled. I hadn't hurt him. He was fine. I just carried on."

Asked whether she had thought any damage or injury had been caused, she replied: "No. I would definitely have stopped."

Way, who lost her job over the tweet, said she had been annoyed by the cyclist and sent the message on the "spur of the moment".

Asked by the defence to rate the stupidity of the post on a scale of one to 10, she replied: "I'd score it at 11."

"It was ridiculous and stupid and I apologise to all cyclists," she added. "It is the biggest regret of my life so far."

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Poor Language Skills 'Hampering UK Economy'

By James Matthews, Sky News Correspondent

Britain's inability to speak "important" foreign languages could jeopardise future prosperity and global standing, according to a new report.

According to the British Council, the UK has an alarming shortage of people who are able to speak what it regards as the 10 most important languages.

They are Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin Chinese, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese.

The Languages For The Future report identifies these languages as vital to the UK  over the next 20 years on economic, geopolitical, cultural and educational grounds.

John Worne, director of strategy at the British Council, told Sky News: "The problem isn't that we're teaching the wrong languages, because the most widely taught languages like French, Spanish and German all feature in our top 10.

"But the UK needs more people to take up the opportunity to learn, and crucially, get using these languages - along with new ones like Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.

"If we don't act to tackle this shortfall, we'll lose out both economically and culturally.

"Schools have their job to do, but it's also a problem of complacency, confidence and culture - which policymakers, businesses, parents and everyone else in the UK can help to fix.

"Languages aren't just an academic issue - they are a practical route to opportunity for the UK in business, culture and all our lives."

A YouGov poll commissioned by the British Council showed that three quarters of British people cannot speak the "important" languages well enough to hold a conversation.

French is spoken by 15% of people, German by 6%, Spanish by 4% and Italian is spoken by 2%.

Arabic, Mandarin, Russian or Japanese are each only spoken by 1%, while less than 1% of people in the UK speak Portuguese or Turkish.

The report calls for children to be taught a broader range of languages and for the subjects to be given the same priority as Maths and Sciences.

It also states that businesses should invest in language training for staff and that everyone should learn at least the basics of those languages deemed so important to the country's future.

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Snow Showers Mark Winter's Chilly Arrival

Wintry weather has brought snow to parts of Scotland as temperatures fell across much of the country.

There were snowfalls across the Highlands, Grampian and the southern uplands.

On Sunday night the mercury dropped to -4C (24.8F) at Aboyne in Aberdeenshire and the coldest place in the UK on Monday was Loch Glascarnoch in Wester Ross, where it was 4C (39.2F).

North-westerly winds whipping off the Arctic are expected to bring at least two weeks of near-freezing conditions, making November up to 3C (5.4F) colder than last year.

A sunset in Scunthorpe on Monday

Any further snow showers are likely to be confined to north Wales and northern Scotland with 5-8cm expected on Wednesday night.

Sky News weather producer Joanna Robinson said ice would be a concern in northern and western coastal counties.

"Tuesday will be sunny and dry for most, but there will be a few blustery showers around, giving a mix of hail, sleet and snow."

Further wintry showers are expected to move south as the week progresses.

Forecasters have said they do not expect the plummet in temperatures to cause any disruption and believe the mercury will climb again by next weekend.

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Npower Tops List Of Energy Customer Complaints

Npower has topped a customer complaints list leading an energy watchdog to describe its performance as "unacceptable".

Latest research compiled by Consumer Futures, which represents consumers in regulated markets, said npower had 202.5 complaints per 100,000.

This was compared with 38.3 per 100,000 for SSE, the lowest of the main energy providers.

Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at Consumer Focus, said: "The company is implementing system changes that inevitably caused disruption to customers, however its complaints performance is unacceptable and the company must take further steps to tackle this.

"Energy companies have repeatedly said they want to rebuild consumer trust.

"Along with price, good service is important to customers. People want to know the relative performance on complaint handling to help them make informed choices when deciding whether to switch.

"Customer satisfaction with how complaints are handled is low across a whole range of industries and the same problems are seen over and over again."

The figures were taken from the period April to June 2013 and do not include any complaints made in the wake of recent price hike announcements.

Public confidence in energy suppliers has been dealt a major blow since five of the Big Six energy firms announced that charges would rise by an average of around 9%.

Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: "Price hikes of 36% over the last three years, coupled with poor customer service, has compounded the lack of trust in energy firms as households struggle to afford to have a warm home."

A spokesman for Energy UK, the trade association for the energy industry, said: "The vast majority of energy customers are happy with the service they get with only around one in every 1,400 customers likely to need to contact their supplier about a problem.

"Most complaints only need a phone call to sort out - around four out of five queries are resolved by the end of the next working day - but, if the problem cannot be resolved, the energy ombudsman is there to ensure problems get fixed.

"Energy companies take their relationship with customers extremely seriously and work hard to improve customer service."

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Google Agrees To Block Child Abuse Images

Google has agreed to introduce measures backed by Prime Minister David Cameron to block child sex abuse content across its search engines.

The groundbreaking move will soon prevent illegal images and videos from appearing in more than 100,000 search terms associated with abuse.

Google says it has also developed technology that will allow illegal videos to be 'tagged' so that all duplicate copies can be removed across the internet.

The changes will apply across the world in more than 150 languages.

Microsoft, which operates and powers Bing and Yahoo, will reportedly confirm at a Downing Street summit on online pornography today that it is introducing similar reforms.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt, writing in the Daily Mail ahead of the No 10 talks, said: "We've listened."

He added: "We've fine-tuned Google Search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in our results."

Illegal images showing child sex abuse will not appear in search results

Mr Cameron has welcomed the move as "a really significant step forward", but threatened to bring forward new legislation if search engine companies failed to deliver on their promises.

Mr Cameron told the Daily Mail: "We learnt from cases like the murder of Tia Sharp and April Jones that people will often start accessing extreme material via a simple search in one of the mainstream search engines."

Senior figures from Google, Microsoft and BT were summoned to Parliament for a meeting with Culture Secretary Maria Miller in June where they told they must do more to combat child porn.

The crackdown comes as Mr Cameron is set to reveal at the summit later that Britain's National Crime Agency is to join America's FBI to tackle online child abuse.

The transatlantic taskforce is being established by the US assistant attorney general and the British to target criminals who use the internet to hide from the law, Downing Street says.

It will be specifically tasked with tracking down offenders who use the "dark web" - secret and encrypted networks that are increasingly being exploited by paedophiles and other criminals.

The UK's National Crime Agency is to join forces with America's FBI

The NCA estimates that the number of UK daily users of secret or encrypted networks will have risen to 20,000 by the end of the year.

While some will be using them for legitimate purposes, UK law enforcement and intelligence agencies believe that paedophiles involved in distributing child abuse material are using them to hide their identities.

At the same time a group of industry experts is being set up to look at new technical solutions for removing child abuse material from the the internet.

Joanna Shields, the chief executive of Tech City UK, said it would be looking to spot the "threats of future" to protect the most vulnerable in society.

"It's vital that governments and industry work together to eradicate child abuse content from the internet, and that we mobilise the best and brightest in the technology industry to come up with innovative solutions to tackling this problem," she said.

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Body-In-Well: Male Victim Had Been Assaulted

A man whose body was found in a well in the front garden of a house in Surrey had been assaulted, police have said.

An initial post-mortem examination did not prove conclusive in providing a cause of death and further tests will be carried out, Scotland Yard said.

However, the examination did reveal injuries consistent with an assault, a spokesman added.

The body was discovered by two workmen doing clearing work in the garden of the large house in Audley Drive, Warlingham, on Friday.

It was found 7ft below ground in several feet of water and was recovered by specialist police officers.

Seven men aged between 21 and 27 who were arrested on suspicion of murder have been bailed to a date in late December, pending further investigation.

The post mortem, carried out at East Surrey Hospital mortuary, confirmed that the body is male.

Specialist police officers recovered the body

The Yard spokesman said inquiries continue to try to establish the victim's identity.

Detective Chief Inspector Cliff Lyons said: "This is an unusual case and I would appeal for anybody who has concerns about a missing person, or who believes they may know something about this individual or incident, to call my officers.

"The post-mortem examination has revealed this person, who we now know is a white male, suffered injuries before being placed into the well. We are treating the incident as a murder."

Mr Lyons said on Sunday that judging by the size of the body it was likely to be an adult.

He told reporters at the scene: "It's not been there for an extended period of time; it will be a matter of weeks at the most."

He was not prepared to discuss who lived in the house or a suggestion that the body was wrapped in carpet. He could not confirm whether the body was intact.

Asked about claims by local residents that there had been quite a bit of trouble in the past couple of years with the people who lived in the house, and that police had been called many times, he said: "The residents have expressed concern, there is intelligence to support that notion, yes."

Anyone with information is urged to call police on 020 8721 4961 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

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Antibiotics Warning: Resistance 'Growing'

By Enda Brady, Sky News Reporter

The world faces "unimaginable setbacks" unless it tackles the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics, according to an international group of experts.

The latest research by the 26-strong group predicts major problems unless governments work together immediately.

Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria evolve mechanisms to withstand the drugs which are used to fight infection.

"The causes of antibiotic resistance are complex and include human behaviour at many levels of society," said lead author Professor Otto Cars, of Uppsala University in Sweden.

"The consequences affect everybody in the world. Within just a few years, we might be faced with unimaginable setbacks - medically, socially, and economically - unless real and unprecedented global co-ordinated actions to transform the way antibiotics are regulated and developed are taken immediately."

In September, the UK Government announced plans for a five-year strategy to tackle the problem, setting aside £4.5m.

In the UK, research is focusing on how plant chemicals keep insects at bay

Recent decades have seen vast increases in the use of antibiotics across medicine and agriculture, but the scientists argue that without adequate regulatory controls and better patient awareness, the huge global surge in antibiotic resistance will continue.

They say the problem is compounded by a desperate shortage of new drugs to treat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

Prof Cars added: "Antibiotic resistance is a complex ecological problem which doesn't just affect people, but is also intimately connected with agriculture and the environment.

"We need to move on from 'blaming and shaming' among the many stakeholders who have all contributed to the problem, towards concrete political action and commitment to address this threat. Consumers and providers of antibiotics alike need to be empowered to tackle antibiotic resistance, as well as ensuring that those in need benefit from affordable, effective antibiotics."

One of the British scientists who helped compile the report said that alarm bells have been ringing - and ignored - for many years.

Prof Laura Piddick says more funding is needed to develop new treatments

"For a long time there has been a sense of crying wolf over this," said Professor Laura Piddock, from the University of Birmingham.

"Science has been telling us about this problem for years. We need more academic research and funding. New treatments have been hampered by a lack of funding. It has always been viewed that this is something that the pharmaceutical industry should do."

At the John Innes Centre in Norwich scientists are going back to nature for the answers, studying how plants like eucalyptus trees producing chemicals to keep insects at bay.

"Plants have a distinct disadvantage in that they can't move out of the way of predators," Tony Maxwell, the centre's head of biological chemistry, told Sky News.

"And they have no end of predators, large and small animals, insects and bacteria. They have to produce a whole array of chemicals to defend themselves. What we are trying to work out is how we can use those chemicals for our own usage in antibiotics."

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Body-In-Well Murder Mystery: Seven Held

Seven men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a body was found in a well 7ft below ground in several feet of water.

Police were called to the scene - in the front garden of a large house in Warlingham, Surrey - on Friday afternoon.

The body of the white adult was discovered by two gardeners who were doing clearing work at the property, which is in an acre of grounds in an affluent area.

It has now been removed from the well by specialist officers.

Earlier, detective Chief Inspector Cliff Lyons said: "The body presents a number of logistical challenges.

"The well is 2ft in diameter, it is 7ft deep to the water line, and the water is approximately 4ft deep.

"We need a police marine diving team, with breathing apparatus, and we need to recover the body intact to preserve forensic evidence.

Officers from the Underwater and Confined Space Search Team

DCI Lyons told Sky News: "It is clear to me the body has been placed in the well as opposed to falling in the well and therefore it is a murder investigation."

He added: "It is not possible to ascertain with accuracy the gender of the body but, judging by the size, it is most likely to be an adult, not a child. The person is white.

"It's not been there for an extended period of time, it will be a matter of weeks at the most."

He appealed for anyone who had concerns about a person who has gone missing, especially if they had connections to that area, to come forward.

Anyone with information is urged to call police on 020 8721 4961 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

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