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Two Norwegian aircraft are involved in the search, along with a Sea King helicopter from RAF Boulmer, in Northumberland, and a Nimrod from RAF Kinloss, in Moray. Several fishing boats and oil standby vessels are also assisting efforts to locate the crew. Anders Bang-Andersen, of the Norwegian Coastguard, said the operation would continue as long as there was daylight. He said: "Still we are searching as long as we find the slightest hope of finding anyone alive - and even longer. "We have to ...

Two children who died on Corfu were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, Greek officials have confirmed. A pathologist said very high levels of the gas were found in the bodies of Christianne Shepherd, seven and her brother Robert, six. The children were found dead in their hotel room next to their father Neil Shepherd and his partner Ruth Beatson. The police are preparing to issue charges of negligent manslaughter against the hotel, the BBC has learned. The charges are being considered agai ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - One of the three Palestinian factions holding an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip said on Saturday it expected a solution to the crisis within days, but Hamas and a Palestinian Authority official were less optimistic. It was the first time since Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured in a cross-border raid in June that any of the factions has said that his releas ...

Graffiti apparently showing a naked woman cowering before a man with a gun has appeared at a sex attack scene. The images appeared at Halling, Kent, where a sex attack happened three weeks ago. One teenage girl told the BBC that locals thought it was "freaky". She said they thought it was linked to the attack because of the location. Police have asked people in the village if they know who is behind the images. Det Ch Insp Andy Rabey said it was thought a stencil was used. He did not suggest ...

Staff and students at one of Scotland's largest colleges are to march through Greenock in protest over changes to lecturers' conditions of employment. Staff also allege mismanagement at James Watt College, which they claim has run up a deficit of £2.4m. EIS union official Alan Ferguson said the crisis illustrated wider governance issues in the further education sector. However, the college said its recent offer would maintain staffs' position as the highest paid in Scotland. Mr Ferguson ...

UN Secretary General-elect Ban Ki-moon has had talks in China debating action over North Korea's nuclear tests. Mr Ban, currently South Korea's foreign minister, met President Hu Jintao as well as China's special envoy to North Korea, Tang Jiaxuan. The two sides "agreed on the need to put pressure on North Korea", a South Korean foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by news agency AP. Mr Ban has pledged to play an active role in ending the North Korea crisis. 'Keep calm' South Kore ...

The TV network behind controversial cartoon South Park has defended the latest episode which makes fun of the death of TV naturalist Steve Irwin. The episode shows a bloody Mr Irwin with the stingray that killed him in September hanging from his chest. John Beyer, of TV watchdog Mediawatch, called it "grossly insensitive". Comedy Central said: "The South Park guys do inappropriate things all the time...Their goal is to make people laugh, not to offend people." In the episode, shown on Comed ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Putting the clocks back an hour in the early hours of Sunday will cost lives this winter and the practice should be scrapped, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents says. British Summer Time (BST) ends this weekend and the country will revert to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), giving everyone an extra hour in bed overnight, but also meaning it will get darker earlier in t ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Air and sea rescue crews resumed a North Sea search on Saturday for crew missing after the Scottish trawler Meridian got into difficulty two days ago. On Friday one body was retrieved from the sea and rescuers also found the vessel's distress beacon and an empty life raft. Searchers are now looking for the Fife-registered trawler's second life raft. The boat was battered by h ...

By Jennifer Hill LONDON (Reuters) - Property prices have soared at more than three times the rate of stock market returns in the past decade, figures showed on Saturday. House prices have surged 187 percent since the market recovered in February 1996, while stock prices rose 61 percent over the same period, data from Halifax revealed. The increase in earnings and rate of inflation were even more  ...