Texas Six Flags Rollercoaster Fall Kills Woman

A woman has died after falling from the tallest steel-hybrid roller-coaster in the world.

The accident happened at the Six Flags Over Texas theme park in Arlington, Texas. Park officials confirmed the woman died but did not specify how she was killed.

However, witnesses said they saw the woman fall from the Texas Giant rollercoaster.

"She goes up like this, then when it drops to come down, that's when it (the safety bar) released and she just tumbled," said Carmen Brown who saw the accident happened.

Ms Brown said she was next in line behind the woman and saw her being strapped into her seat next to her son.

"They didn't secure her right," said Ms Brown."One of the employees from the park - one of the ladies - she asked her to click her more than once, and they were like, 'As long you heard it click, you're OK.' Everybody else is like, 'Click, click, click.'

"Hers only clicked once. Hers was the only one that went down once, and she didn't feel safe, but they let her still get on the ride.

"We heard her screaming. We were like, 'Did she just fall?'," Ms Brown said.

Six Flags expressed sadness over the death and said it was temporarily closing the section of the park around the accident site.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends during this difficult time," the park said in a statement.

Park spokesman Sharon Parker added: "We are working closely with authorities to determine the cause of the accident."

Arlington police spokesmas Sgt Christopher Cook referred all questions to Ms Parker.

The Texas Giant is 14 storeys high, has a drop of 79 degrees and a bank of 95 degrees. It can carry up to 24 riders.

The ride first opened in 1990 as an all-wooden coaster but underwent a $10m (£6.54m) renovation in 2010 to install steel-hybrid rails before reopening in 2011.

It came on the same day an Ohio amusement park's thrill ride malfunctioned when a boat accidentally rolled backward down a hill and flipped over in water, injuring all seven people on it.

Operators stopped the Shoot the Rapids water ride after the accident, said officials with Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.

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Royal Baby: The 'Great Kate Wait' Continues

The Duchess of Cambridge is thought to have returned to London from her family home fuelling speculation the arrival of the royal baby may be imminent.

The Duchess has been dividing her time between her official London residence at Kensington Palace and her parents' home in Bucklebury, Berkshire.

But Sky's Royal Correspondent Paul Harrison says it is widely believed that the Duchess and Duke of Cambridge have travelled back to London.

On Friday it was reported the Duke was with his wife because he is on annual leave from his job as a search and rescue helicopter pilot. His two-week paternity leave will begin when the baby is born.

After apparently returning from Berkshire, on Saturday Kate was thought to have gone to Kensington Palace but this has not been confirmed.

She is due to give birth at the private Lindo wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington this month but Kensington Palace has never specified an exact due date.

The royal couple have kept their baby's due date under wraps

Only 4% of women give birth on their due date. Most women go into labour one week either side of 40 weeks and statistically women pregnant with girls have shorter pregnancies than those having boys.

Louise Silverton, of the Royal College of Midwives, told Sky News: "One would presume the Duchess of Cambridge would have had a scan early on in her pregnancy and that's a very accurate way of determining the size of the baby at that stage.

"So I suspect they know pretty much when the baby is due  -  theoretically."

Since the start of the month, the world's media have been camped outside St Mary's Hospital waiting for the Duchess to arrive.

Harrison said: "Since disappearing off the scene in mid-June the Duchess of Cambridge has maintained kept a very low profile, keeping her due date a closely-guarded secret.

"In the 'Great Kate Wait' due date debate perhaps the biggest clue lies in where the Duchess is at any one time and the thought is she is back in London."

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Star Wars: Sand Dune To Engulf Tunisia Set

A migrating sand dune is threatening to bury a set used in the Star Wars prequel, The Phantom Menace, in Tunisia.

A satellite image shows the dune bearing down on the set

The fictitious Mos Espa space port from The Phantom Menace film is being approached by the shifting dune, known as a barchan.

Barchan dunes are arc-shaped horns that face downwind. As well as on Earth, they have also been observed on Mars, where the thin atmosphere produces winds strong enough to move sand and dust.

Scientists are using the film set - built on the Chott El Gharsa salt lake on the northern edge of the Sahara - as a geographical reference to monitor the progress of the dune as it is blown by desert winds.

The set has become a popular tourist attraction. Pic: epimetheus/Flickr

The set of 20 buildings covers around 10,000 square metres and was constructed in 1997.

The barchan threatening Mos Espa is moving at around 4cm per day and is expected to entomb the set for several years before continuing on its way.

The front edge of the dune has already reached some of the Mos Espa buildings and it will make contact with the Qui-Gon's Alley part of the set in a few years.

The Repro Haddada part of the set was overrun by a barchan in 2004

Other locations such as Watto's shop and Sebulba's cafe will also eventually be buried. A larger barchan that will completely submerge the set is expected to overrun it in 80 years.

The dune's progress is being studied by an international team of researchers who suggest the damage it will do to the set could have an adverse effect on tourism.

The location of the Mos Espa set on Tunisia's Chott El Charsa salt lake

Using satellite images from Google Earth and photographs taken by tourists, the team have published a scientific paper on their observations of the dune's movement.

The Repro Haddada part of the set - built for the outdoor scenes of Anakin Skywalker working on his Podracer - was overrun by a barchan in 2004.

But although it was substantially demolished by the dune, the set is still an object of pilgrimage by Star Wars fans and tourists.

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Boston Bombing: Woman 'Fakes Injury For Payout'

A woman has been arrested after allegedly using fake hospital records to pose as a victim of the Boston Marathon bombings and fraudulently collecting nearly half a million dollars.

Police in Massachusetts said Audrea Gause, 26, has been charged with larceny after submitting a claim to the victims' fund last month saying she had been treated for a traumatic brain injury.

Attorney General Martha Coakley said Gause, from Troy, NY, received a cheque for $480,000 (£314,000) from the fund, which was created to help victims of the April 15 attacks that killed three people and wounded more than 260.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is accused of carrying out the attacks

Ms Coakley said the claim alleged that Gause sustained a brain injury from the bombing and experienced long-term memory loss, impaired speech, and loss of some motor function that would require future surgery.

Authorities got a tip last week that Gause may not have been in Boston on the day of the marathon, and the hospitals later said they did not treat her, Ms Coakley said.

"There is no evidence that Ms Gause was an actual victim of the bombing," she said at a news conference.

Investigators are attempting to trace the money given to Gause and if found it will be distributed to legitimate victims.

Ms Coakley said police were given a tip off about the alleged scam and that "one or two other individuals" may be involved.

The fund has collected more than $64m (£42m) for victims of the bombings, many of whom lost limbs.

This is the second allegation of a false claim.

Earlier this month, a Boston man pleaded not guilty to making a fake claim of nearly $2.2m.

Branden Mattier, 22, was arraigned on charges of attempted larceny and identity theft.

Suspected bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty to 30 charges, including the use of weapons of mass destruction.

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Six Jailed For Life Over India Gang Rape

Six men have been sentenced to life in jail for the gang rape of a Swiss woman in India, according to reports.

"All the accused have been convicted and we are satisfied with the judgement," said the public prosecutor in the case, Rajendra Tiwari, according to the Press Trust of India.

The 39-year-old woman was raped during a cycling trip in the country with her husband in March.

The pair were in the impoverished Madhya Pradesh state when they were attacked. The perpetrators tied up the man and raped the woman in his presence.

They also stole 10,000 rupees (£122) and a mobile phone from the woman.

The rape occurred three months after the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in Delhi, which brought simmering anger about the treatment of women in India to the surface.

More follows...

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Beijing Airport Blast 'Caused By Wheelchair User'

A man has been hurt after apparently detonating a homemade bomb in an arrivals hall at Beijing International Airport.

Pictures posted on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Weibo, showed smoke in Terminal 3 after the blast at around 6.30pm local time.

Witnesses have claimed that a man was sitting in a wheelchair in the arrivals hall, shouting and waving a small bag in the air before the explosion took place.

The Weibo microblog of state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said a man detonated a package of black gunpowder used to make firecrackers just outside the international arrivals exit.

Photos taken in the minutes after the explosion showed a wheelchair lying on its side, medical workers attending to someone and people running through the terminal.

Police appear to tend to a casualty. Pic: @mild_luna

A man, who local media named as Ji Zhongxing, who was born in 1979 and in Shandong Province, was injured in the blast and has been taken to hospital.

No one else was hurt in the incident and airport operations are now back to normal.

"The explosion sound was loud," said a witness who gave only his family name, Chen. He said he was only 25m away from the explosion when it occurred.

Chen said there was only one explosion, and that the terminal was crowded with people.

"Since there was no second explosion, many people took out their phones and gathered near the explosion spot to take photos," he said.

He said police responded to the explosion immediately.

Only the wheelchair user was injured in the blast

Sky's China Correspondent Mark Stone, at the airport, said the man may have travelled to the capital to petition for a particular social cause.

"This is looking like a tragic story really. There are a lot of people in China who call themselves 'petitioners'.

"Every now and again they go a little bit further and it's a very much more extreme form of petitioning and that I think, is what this appears to be."

Stone said most petitioners complain of local corruption, land grabs and beatings.

He added that a blog purporting to have been written by the man contains claims he was beaten and paralysed by Chinese police in 2005. This has not been verified.

Terminal 3, which opened in 2008 just ahead of the Beijing Olympics, is the airport's hub for international flights. United Airlines and American Airlines operate out of the terminal.

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Dubai Pardons Brits Jailed Over Drug Offences

Three Britons who claimed they were tortured after they were arrested over drug offences in Dubai have returned home after being pardoned, according to Sky sources.

Grant Cameron, 25, Suneet Jeerh, 25, and Karl Williams, 26, all from London, were each jailed for four years for possessing synthetic cannabis after being arrested in Dubai in July last year while on holiday.

The men, who denied any wrongdoing, claimed they had signed documents in Arabic, a language none of them understands, following their arrests after they were threatened with guns to their heads.

David Cameron discussed the case with Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

Dubai police denied the claims.

After Cameron arrived back in the UK, his mother Tracy said: "After a year of waiting, we are deeply relieved and overjoyed to have Grant back home with us after his terrible ordeal.

"Obviously what Grant has been through has been very distressing for him, and the family as a whole. We'd ask that people give him the time, space and privacy he needs to settle back in.

Tracy Cameron campaigned for her son's freedom

"In the meantime, we'd like to thank everyone who has helped support Grant and his friends throughout their ordeal."

The Britons were pardoned by authorities under a United Arab Emirates amnesty.

Although the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it would not discuss details of specific cases, a spokesman said: "We are aware that the 2013 amnesty list has been announced in the United Arab Emirates and that the local authorities have begun the process of releasing those included.

In May, Prime Minister David Cameron raised the case with Emirati president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and talks have been continuing through other official channels.

Reprieve investigator Kate Higham said: "After everything Grant has been through, his release is welcome but long overdue.

"No one should have to go through what he experienced, and we are glad that he is safely back home. We hope the same will soon be true of his friends Karl and Suneet."

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Mel Smith: Comedian Dies From Heart Attack

Griff Rhys Jones has led the tributes to his longtime comedy partner Mel Smith who has died from a heart attack at the age of 60.

The pair were most famous for their TV shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones.

Jones, who had been friends with Smith for 35 years, said the comedian was "a force for life" to everybody who met him, adding he was "a gentleman and a scholar, a gambler and a wit".

He also said: "I still can't believe this has happened. We are all in a state of shock. We have lost a very, very dear friend.

"He inspired love and utter loyalty and he gave it in return. I will look back on the days working with him as some of the funniest times that I have ever spent."

Smith began his career as a theatre-director at some of the country's most established venues, but it was his partnership with fellow comedian Jones that made him a household name.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mel and Griff, as they became known, produced and starred in four series of the hit comedy, Not The Nine O'Clock News.

Their success continued with Alas Smith and Jones which was one of the most popular sketch shows in the 1980s.

Mel with Griff Rhys Jones and Elton John in 1987 at the London Palladium

It won an Emmy Award and The British Comedy Award for Top Entertainment Series where Mel and Griff were named Top Entertainment Performer.

The pair founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the UK's largest producers of TV comedy and light entertainment programming.

Smith, who died at his home in north west London, also directed the film The Tall Guy in 1989 and Bean in 1997 and starred in movies including Wilt alongside Jones in 1989. 

Other friends and colleagues have also been paying their respects.

Not the Nine O'Clock News producer John Lloyd said Smith was an "amazingly talented guy" but added that he had not been in good health.

He said: "We did know he was ill. He's been ill for some time.

"So although it is the most awful news - I mean, it's a tragedy, it's a great loss not just as an amazingly talented guy in all sorts of areas but also as a friend.

"I think he was not in good shape, so in some ways we try and put a good spin on it by saying it's a relief for him."

Smith directed the film Bean starring Rowan Atkinson

Actor and fellow funny man Rowan Atkinson, who worked with Smith on both Not the Nine O'Clock News and Bean, the first Mr Bean film, said he was "truly sad" to hear about his death.

Atkinson said: "He had a wonderfully generous and sympathetic presence both on and off screen."

Comedian and author Stephen Fry tweeted: "Terrible news about my old friend Mel Smith, dead today from a heart attack. Mel lived a full life, but was kind, funny & wonderful to know."

Smith was described as having "extraordinary natural talent" by Peter Fincham, director of television at ITV.

Mr Fincham, who was the business partner of Smith and Jones at Talkback Productions as well as their agent, said: "Life was always exciting around Mel.

"He was my friend and business partner for many years and had extraordinary natural talent with the rare gift of wearing it lightly.

"Being funny came naturally to him, so much so that he never seemed to give it a second thought. Mel and Griff were one of the great comedy acts and it's hard to imagine that one of them is no longer with us."

Father Ted writer Graham Linehan said he and writing partner Arthur Mathews had been helped in their career by Smith, with their first sketches being broadcast on Alas Smith and Jones.

He said on Twitter: "Very sad to hear news of Mel Smith's death has been confirmed. He and Griff gave Arthur and I our break. Was always so kind & generous to us."

Actor and comic Peter Serafinowicz also paid tribute on Twitter. He wrote: "Very sad to hear about Mel Smith. He did something very kind for me early in my career even though he hardly knew me. Such a funny man."

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Chris Froome Set For Tour De France Win

Team Sky's Two Remarkable Riders

Updated: 4:42pm UK, Saturday 20 July 2013

By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent

When Team Sky was founded in 2010, Sir Dave Brailsford's stated ambition of winning the Tour de France within five years was greeted by the sound of people laughing behind their hands.

Some did not even both concealing their mirth.

A Briton, after all, had not won cycling's greatest test at all in its 97 years. Three years later, in the centenary running of Le Tour, a Brailsford Brit is about to win it for the second successive year.

There are many reasons for the British annexation of the Champs Elysees but chief among them is the presence in Sky's black-and-blue ranks of two extraordinary athletes.

The first, Sir Bradley Wiggins, was familiar to the public when he won the race last year having developed within the Olympic track team run by Brailsford.

He secured national treasure status a week later in the 2012 Games.

Chris Froome, who come sunset in Paris on Sunday night will inherit Wiggins's title, is a very different character, but his rise is no less remarkable.

Both men have been shaped by bumpy upbringings outside the UK, and both have lost a parent. But there are few other similarities, beyond the bikes.

Wiggins grew up in Belgium, close to cycling's roots, and endured the absence of his father who left the family having planted the seed of cycling in his son's head.

Froome was schooled in the sport as far from its European epicentre as it is possible to imagine.

Born in Kenya to English parents who separated when he was just 11, he learned the sport riding with a cycling club founded for poor black Africans.

It was an early lesson in self-sufficiency that has served him well throughout his career.

His peers and teachers at boarding school in South Africa talk of Froome's fierce motivation, and hours spent on the rollers in his room hammering out static miles that laid the foundations of the astonishing strength and determination we have seen this last three weeks.

He ploughed a lonely furrow, struggling to find a professional berth in South Africa and then in Europe before his talent and promise was spotted by Brailsford, who signed him up to his formative team.

That came two years after Froome's mother Jane died from cancer.

His formative years did not leave him with the purest technique. While Wiggins's flat back and languid leg strokes seem to eat up the miles, Froome strikes a hunched silhouette.

It may not be pretty but it is just as effective, particularly in the mountains that have punctuated this ferociously tough Tour.

It is arguable that in taking victory in this of all years Froome has demonstrated that in the Grand Tours at least, he is a superior performer to Wiggins.

There was evidence last year, which Froome spent as Wiggins's super-domestique, leading him up the most testing climbs and, notoriously, suggesting at times that he had the team leaders' measure.

This year there has been no argument that Froome is the strongest man in the field, and certainly his own team, which has been a shadow of the devastating black road-train that propelled Wiggins to yellow last year.

His strength in the mountains has left rivals in awe, in part because he has often had to defend the yellow jersey above the tree-line alone.

The defining stage came a week ago on Mont Ventoux, when Froome rode away from the peleton and his rivals with a superlative display of climbing.

It was immediately hailed as one of the great stage wins in 100 years of the Tour, and more immediately consolidated his grip on the yellow jersey.

He has not looked like relinquishing it, not on the double ascent of Alpe D'Huez last week or the final mountain stages on the road back to Paris.

On Sunday he will find the Champs Elysee en fete and ready for a floodlit firework celebration of the world's greatest bike race.

And its champion will be a Briton so good even the most partisan Frenchman will have to applaud.

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Heatwave Causing Rise In Child Sunburn Cases

Hospitals across the UK say they have seen a rise in the number of severe sunburn cases among children, as Britain continues to bask in its longest heatwave for seven years.

Of the 14 hospitals with specialist burns units contacted by Sky News, almost two-thirds said they had seen a rise in the number of admissions.

A four-week-old baby was among 10 children admitted to the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex.

With the hot spell expected to continue well into next week, doctors have warned that prolonged unprotected exposure to the sun could have fatal consequences.

London's Marble Arch fountains provided a respite from the hot weather

Dr David Lloyd said: "We know that children who burn their skin when they are under the age of 12 are much more likely to end up with skin cancer later on in their lives."

Matthew Breydin, 11, was admitted to Birmingham Children's Hospital last Saturday after suffering from severe sunburn during a family trip to Weston-super-Mare.

His mother Caroline said his back started to blister a few days after the outing although he applied sun cream regularly throughout the day.

"You have to make sure they are not in the sun for very long and keep them well covered all the time because the slightest bit of sun to the skin causes so much damage and there's so much pain as well," she said.

Dr Naiem Moiemen, a burns and plastics consultant surgeon at Birmingham Children's Hospital, said: "In the last week or two we've had a surge of small burns but substantial burns in children and sometimes we've see it in very, very small kids and that's really a high concern.

He said it has been unusual for sunburn cases to get this bad.

"We may have been caught by surprise and not taken the normal and sensible precautions," he said.

"We have to go out and enjoy the sun but also we have to use high sun factor cream on all areas, don't miss any part of the body that will be exposed. Hats are very important and white shirts and T-shirts that prevent sunbeams going to the skin."

A firefighter tackles a wildfire in southeast England

The heatwave is believed to have caused up to 760 premature deaths across the country.

Elderly residents are among the most vulnerable, with the British Red Cross opening two call centres in eastern England to ensure patients recently discharged from hospital are coping with the heat.

The Met Office has issued a level three health watch for the South West, the West Midlands and the North West, requiring social and healthcare services to implement specific measures to protect high-risk groups.

This has now been downgraded to level two for most of England, including Western areas, alerting social and healthcare services to be prepared.

Graham Bickler, of the Health Protection Agency, said: "There is considerable evidence that heatwaves are dangerous and can kill.

"In the 2003 heatwave there were 2,000 to 3,000 excess deaths in England. Across Europe, there were round 30,000 excess deaths."

The NHS urged people to consider staying out of the sun between 11am and 3pm, to take cool baths or showers and to drink cold drinks rather than tea, coffee or alcohol.

"Most of the information is common sense," Mr Bickler said. "It's not rocket science but it can have a dramatic effect."

Meanwhile, tinder dry conditions are continuing to cause problems for firefighters, who have been tackling numerous grass fires across the UK.

One of the worst outbreaks is on Merseyside, where crews after fighting a large grass fire in the Caldy Hill area of West Kirby.

Sky's Home Affairs Correspondent Mark White reported an area of grassland measuring 1,000 metres by 1,000 metres had been affected.

Fire crews in London say they are dealing with twice as many grass fires this summer compared to last year.

Forecasters say the mercury could climb to around 33C next week, with 35C possible in some places.

However, temperatures - which reached a 2013 high of 32.2C in London on Wednesday - are unlikely to top the high of 36.5C recorded in Surrey in July 2006.

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