Philippines Typhoon Dead Remain Unburied

More than 1,000 victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan have still not been buried, seven weeks after the deadliest storm to ever hit the Philippines, according to locals.

About 1,400 corpses sealed into black body bags have been left in an open field in San Isidro, a village on the outskirts of the devastated city of Tacloban.

"The stench has taken away our appetite. Even in our sleep, we have to wear face masks," Maritess Pedrosa, who lives in a house about 20 metres from the field, said.

Haiyan victims celebrate Christmas with an improvised tree

Haiyan killed 6,111 people as it battered the Philippines on November 8, while another 1,779 remain missing, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Tacloban and nearby towns were virtually destroyed by giant waves that swept inland as the storm hit.

Eutiquio Balunan, a local village chief, said people in San Isidro were becoming sick because of the rotting corpses.

Tacloban was devastated by huge waves generated by the typhoon

"We are requesting the city government to please bury the cadavers because our children and elderly residents are getting sick," he said.

"This place has become a fly factory."

Forensics experts at the site attemept to identify any bodies brought there before returning them to the families or placing them in a mass grave at a cemetery about two miles away.

Millions of people lost their homes to Haiyan

Eight police officers guard the bodies. One told the AFP news agency they were under orders to prevent stray dogs from eating the corpses.

About four million people remain homeless following the typhoon.

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Tenerife: Two Britons Injured In Explosion

Two British people were among four injured after an explosion in a hotel pool bar on the island of Tenerife.

A woman suffered serious burns to her face and scalp in the blast in Adeje, on the south-west coast of the island, on Friday evening.

Her eight-year-old British daughter was also injured and treated for less severe neck burns.

Two other women - a Belgian national aged 38 and a 34-year-old Spaniard - suffered minor burns and were taken to hospital.

A staff member at the Bahia Principe Costa Adeje hotel confirmed to Sky News there was an explosion on Friday.

A spokesman said the British woman's husband and a second daughter had avoided injury, but were "obviously in shock".

He said: "This was an accident and we still are not sure what went wrong - we are awaiting the investigation of the judicial police.

"The explosion took place in a metal buffet container by the pool which uses a flammable gel to keep food warm.

"The swimming pool is now open again and the hotel is back to normal. We would like to wish those who were injured a speedy recovery."

Local authorities had claimed a British man also suffered minor abrasions in the blast, but this was denied by the spokesman.

Earlier, Ross Browning, editor of Canarian Weekly, told Sky News: "It's awful what's happened and with so many people around, in many ways it's probably a miracle that only five people have been injured.

"The woman has been transferred to La Candelaria in the north of the island with what is being described locally as severe burns to the face, neck and scalp."

A statement from local government in Adeje said: "At 4.09pm on Friday emergency services were called to an explosion in a machine in a poolside bar at a hotel in the town of Adeje, with several people suffering from burn injuries.

"Emergency resources were immediately mobilised. Fire crews attended to inspect the zone, but their intervention was not necessary."

A Foreign Office (FCO) spokesperson said: "We are aware of an incident involving two British nationals and are providing consular assistance.

"We are currently checking, but based on what we know so far there was no British man injured in the explosion."

Adeje is a popular holiday resort, with nearby sandy beaches such as Playa de Las Americas and Los Cristianos well-known to British tourists.

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New York 'Superheroes' Fighting Street Crime

By Hannah Thomas-Peter, New York Correspondent

On New York's mean streets there is a secretive group of men and women fighting crime, poverty and generally lending a helping hand.

They are part of a loose coalition of people called The Real Life Superheroes.

In the day they do relatively normal jobs, but when the sun goes down the costumes come out and the missions begin.

Nobody knows exactly how many are involved, but Sky News met three of them.

Nicole Abramovici is The Prowler, a 'superhero' who specialises in helping animals and the homeless.

The Prowler helps people declutter during the daytime

She runs her own business as a professional organiser, hired by clients to de-clutter and streamline their lives.

It means there is a ready supply of items to donate to the needy, which she tries to do at least twice a month.

Dressed in her cat costume at Penn Station in midtown Manhattan, she explained to Sky News why she does it.

She said: "It was the way that I could interact directly with the recipients of the goods I wanted to give, and not be held up by any bureaucracy or agency, and if wearing a superhero costume was what it took to do it, I was happy to do it.

The Dark Guardian has filmed himself undertaking his superhero patrol

"It's kind of become exciting for me. It helps with approaching homeless people when you have something that makes you stand out.

"They don't think I'm coming up to arrest them, or pick on them, and obviously something fun is going on, so it's a little bright spot in their day.

"The Real Life Superheroes are amazing," she says. "We all do different things. Some of us do homeless outreach in the streets, some of us break up fights that we see outside bars.

"But everybody has a great big heart, everybody has their own style ... we welcome more superheroes. please join us!"

Chris Pollak works at the more dangerous end of the spectrum.

He is a martial arts instructor by day. By night, he is the Dark Guardian.

Often joined by other superheroes, he patrols high-crime areas to act as a deterrent.

Chris Pollak - aka The Dark Guardian - is a martial arts instructor

He said: "We've gotten in the middle of fights, we've been up against some pretty tough criminals.

"We haven't had to really hurt anybody or do anything like that, most of the time de-escalating the situation, talking it down, will work.

"A vigilante is someone who takes the law into their own hands.

"We follow the law - we're not out there hurting people, putting our hands on people ... if somebody's in real danger that's when we'll step in.

"We're working on the first superhero school," he adds.

"It's going to teach martial arts, self-defence, parkour, but more than that it's going to teach heroic ideas and values, and we're going to teach people how to make a difference in the community and how to help others."

Chaim Lazaros is otherwise known as Life, a superhero who tours New York's addiction centres and homeless shelters.

He said: "The idea of the superhero allows me to explain very simply to them that I'm doing this purely as an individual, that I'm answering to my own authority, and that I'm doing this out of my own volition.

The masked Life tours addiction centres and homeless shelters

"There's a lot of people and they are struggling and holding on by a thread, and then that thread snaps and suddenly they find themselves in free fall and they don't know where to turn.

"There are great organisations that do lots of good and I just try to plug the many holes."

And this group of people are not alone.

There are other superhero collectives at work in the city and some people who work solely as individuals, unaffiliated with any group.

The NYPD does not have an official position on this kind of activity but police sources have told Sky News that they do not believe it is a good idea.

They point out that crime in New York is actually at a record low.

They also say that people are free to act within the law but are concerned they may be putting themselves in harm's way.

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Smacking Children Should Be Banned, Says Tsar

Parents should be banned from smacking their children, according to the Children's Commissioner for England.

Maggie Atkinson told The Independent it was her personal view that the law gives pets and adults more rights to be protected from violence than children.

Dr Atkinson said she favours a total ban on smacking, which would see parents face criminal action for corporal punishment.

Current rules make it illegal for a parent to smack a child if it leaves a bruise, but permit a lighter smack or "reasonable chastisement".

Dr Atkinson said: "Personally, having been a teacher, and never having had an issue where I'd need to use physical punishment, I believe we should move to ban it.

"Because in law you are forbidden from striking another adult, and from physically chastising your pets, but somehow there is a loophole around the fact that you can physically chastise your child."

She added: "It's a moral issue. The morals are that, taken to its extreme, physical chastisement is actually physical abuse and I have never understood where you can draw the line between one and the other."

Dr Atkinson, who has two adult step-children, said that despite her strong feelings about the issue, her office was not planning to fight for a ban next year.

She said in the current climate such a move would be "running up a blind alley".

Her comments are likely to re-open the debate about what constitutes "reasonable" punishment of children, the newspaper said.

Tottenham MP David Lammy said early last year that legislation surrounding the smacking of children needed to be relaxed so working-class parents could instil discipline in their homes without fearing prosecution.

He claimed that Labour's 2004 decision to tighten up the smacking law was partly to blame for last summer's riots, which erupted in his north London constituency.

The former education minister said: "Many of my constituents came up to me after the riots and blamed the Labour government, saying, 'You guys stopped us being able to smack our children.'

"I have to say when this was first raised with me I was pretty disparaging. But I started to listen.

"These parents are scared to smack their children and paranoid that social workers will get involved and take their children away."

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Sandy Hook Shooting Documents Released

A police report into the Sandy Hook school massacre has revealed harrowing new details about the murders and the gunman's family life.

The paperwork, much of which is blacked out, includes several videos and hundreds of photographs from inside Sandy Hook Elementary and Adam Lanza's home.

It reveals how police officers were faced with terrible scenes inside the school and describes how many of the children were killed in a bathroom where they were hiding.

Lanza shot and killed his mother at their home before driving to the Newtown school, where he killed 20 children and six teachers.

A rifle magazine clip is seen on the floor in the hallway

The 20-year-old then committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a handgun as police arrived at the scene.

Included in the files were photographs showing bullet holes in walls, windows and classroom furniture.

Images of spent magazine clips and empty shell casings on the floor depict the gunman's path of destruction.

The report also included many photographs of the contents of the gunman's family house - including one of a young child holding what appears to be a gun, with ammunition in his lap.

In a letter accompanying the report, Reuben Bradford, commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, praised the efforts of all those connected to the horrific shooting.

He wrote: "In the midst of the darkness of that day, we also saw remarkable heroism and glimpses of grace. We saw Sandy Hook Elementary School faculty and staff doing everything in their power to protect their charges.

A gun seen just inside one of the classrooms

"The investigation of this incident is unparalleled in the 110-year history of the Connecticut State Police."

The documents revealed that a former teacher of Lanza's was quoted as telling investigators that Lanza exhibited anti-social behaviour, rarely interacted with other students and obsessed in writings "about battles, destruction and war".

"In all my years of experience, I have known (redacted) grade boys to talk about things like this, but Adam's level of violence was disturbing," the teacher told investigators.

The teacher added: "Adam's creative writing was so graphic that it could not be shared."

The documents also filled in more details about how the shooting unfolded, teachers protected their students and the school janitor confronted the shooter.

Teachers heard janitor Rick Thorn try to get Lanza to leave the school.

One teacher, who was hiding in a closet in the maths lab, heard Mr Thorn yell: "Put the gun down!"

An aide said she heard gunfire and Mr Thorn told her to close her door.

The documents' release marks the end of the investigation into the massacre on December 14, 2012, 

Prosecutors issued a summary of the investigation last month that portrayed Lanza as obsessed with mass murders.

Lanza kept a clipping about the 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting

But the report concluded that Lanza's motives for the massacre might never be known.

Lanza "was undoubtedly afflicted with mental health problems; yet despite a fascination with mass shootings and firearms, he displayed no aggressive or threatening tendencies," it said.

Lanza was diagnosed in 2006 with "profound autism spectrum disorder, with rigidity, isolation and a lack of comprehension of ordinary social interaction and communications".

He also displaying symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Kathleen Koenig, a nurse at the Yale Child Studies Center, told investigators that Lanza frequently washed his hands and changed his socks 20 times a day, to the point where his mother did three loads of laundry a day.

The nurse, who met with Lanza in 2006 and 2007, said Lanza's mother declined to give him prescribed antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication after she reported that he had trouble raising his arm, something she attributed to the drug.

Koenig unsuccessfully tried to convince Nancy Lanza that the medicine was not responsible, and the mother failed to schedule a follow-up visit after her son missed an appointment, police said.

In the documents, a friend told police that Nancy Lanza reported that her son had hit his head several days before the shootings.

And an ex-boyfriend told police that she cancelled a trip to London on the week of the shooting because of "a couple last-minute problems on the home front".

She told a friend two weeks before the shootings that her son was growing "increasingly despondent" and had refused to leave his room for three months.

They only communicated by email, with the mother saying he told her he wouldn't feel bad if something happened to her.

His isolation was so complete that he refused to leave his room during Superstorm Sandy, the report said.

Just before the shooting, Nancy Lanza was in New Hampshire. She told a lunch acquaintance there that the trip was an experiment in leaving her son home alone in Connecticut for a few days.

Photographs from inside the Lanza home show numerous rounds of ammunition, gun magazines, shot-up paper targets, large knives and swords.

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Good Samaritan Dog Guards Dead Pal In Web Hit

Pictures of a dog faithfully watching over his canine companion who had been killed by a car in China have become a hit on the internet.

The sandy-coloured 'Good Samaritan' pooch stayed by his friend's side, despite his pal's body lying in the middle of a busy road.

And he refused to move for a whole night as temperatures plummeted to low as -13C.

Some people who live and work nearby saw the pair and decided to put a stool next to the animals to alert drivers and avoid a second dog death after the first accident on December 22.

Passers-by took pictures and put them online, and the images have been re-posted many times.

One woman called Ma Hongyan said: "It is our stool. A kind-hearted woman put it next to the dogs to protect them from being hit again by another car."

Another onlooker in the city of Yinchuan, in the region of Ningxia Hui, said: "The drivers must be careful and not hit them.

"The dog has been here for his friend all night."

Eventually, the deceased white dog was picked up by a restaurant owner and taken to the side of the road.

But even then, the sandy dog refused to let go. Trotting with his tail held high, he stuck close to his pal.

The unnamed man buried the white dog under a tree in a local park.

The fate of the Samaritan dog is not known.

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Boko Haram Leader Vows To Continue Violence

An Islamic extremist leader in Nigeria has said violent insurgency will continue in the country because Allah has said Muslims must decapitate and mutilate.

In a video released on Saturday, Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for a December 20 attack on a tank battalion barracks.

In it, he claimed his men - members of the al Qaeda-linked Boko Haram -  would have eaten their enemies, but Allah forbids cannibalism.

Witnesses said insurgents put soldiers to flight and set the complex ablaze, before they were driven off by fighter aircraft.

Shekau warned Christians not to go to churches during December, although Christmas passed in Nigeria without any of the feared terrorist attacks.

Five churches were bombed on Christmas Day in 2011, killing dozens of people.

Shekau also ridiculed bounties placed on his head. There is a $7m (£4.25m) bounty from the US and a $312,500 (£190,000) figure from Nigeria.

Earlier this year the Nigerian military had said intelligence suggested Shekau may have been killed. But a video which emerged in September, purporting to be of him, made reference to recent events.

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Irish Skier Killed In Switzerland Avalanche

A 27-year-old Irish man has died after he was buried under three metres of snow during an avalanche in the Swiss Alps.

The man, who has not been identified but was staying in Zurich, was reported missing by his girlfriend and his body was discovered near Realp by Swiss police.

Alpine Rescue Switzerland told the Irish Independent newspaper he had been swept more than 500 metres by the avalanche.

He is thought to have been cross-country skiing at the time.

Poor weather conditions prevented search and rescue teams being deployed and the man's body was not found until Friday when a helicopter was brought in.

Authorities are investigating whether the avalanche was triggered by falling ice. The area was experiencing heavy snow and strong winds at the time the man disappeared.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was providing consular assistance to the victim's family.

He is thought to have been one of a group skiing in the Uri province.

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Weather: New Year Flood Warning For Councils

Prime Minister David Cameron is calling on councils to have plans in place for New Year flooding as forecasters warn of more storms in the days ahead.

Mr Cameron led a Government push for action as thousands of homes were still without power following Christmas storms that swept across Britain and Ireland.

The PM, who was confronted by an angry flood victim in Yalding, Kent, on Friday, wrote on Twitter: "I've asked the Dept for Communities & Local Govt to ensure councils have robust plans in case of bad weather and flooding over New Year."

A Downing Street spokesman outlined action to be taken after ministers held a Cabinet Office Briefing (COBR) via conference call on Saturday.

The COBR meeting was chaired by Defra minister George Eustice, with housing minister Kris Hopkins, energy minister Baroness Verma, trade minister Lord Livingston and officials from the Environment Agency taking part.

Energy Minister Ed Davey is pushing UK Power Networks - which owns electricity lines in London and the south east - for a clear, public timeline for work to get the power back on, the spokesman said.

The Government has also made emergency funding available to councils affected by severe weather and flooding and is urging them to have a clear plan in place if they could face flooding over the New Year.

Around 4,000 homes were still without power on Saturday, according to The Energy Networks Association (ENA), as one of the UK's biggest power distributors promised to almost triple compensation for customers affected.

UK Power Networks said it will increase payments for 48 to 60-hour outages from £27 to £75 for those affected on Christmas Day as "a gesture of goodwill".

Additional payments will be made to customers who have been without electricity for longer than that time - up to a maximum of £432.

Despite forecasters predicting a weekend of more settled weather, the Met Office has issued a yellow warning - meaning be aware - for the early hours of Monday morning.

A woman helps workmen clear water from her flooded home in Yalding, Kent

Heavy rain is expected to spread across the south west of England and south Wales from Sunday afternoon into Monday morning, the Met Office said.

Winds of 60-70mph are expected to hit Wales and parts of south-west and southern England, while exposed areas such as the Isles of Scilly, west Cornwall and west Wales could see gales of up to 80mph.

Scotland is also braced for more heavy rain overnight on Sunday into Monday morning, with 20-30mm of rainfall predicted and much as 50-60mm over high ground.

The Environment Agency (EA) said the predicted rainfall meant there is a "continued heightened flood risk" across southern England, especially south-west England where river levels remain high and the ground is already saturated.

Large rivers such as the Thames, Severn and Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire are most at risk of flooding, while high water levels on the River Medway and Stour in Kent will cause continued flooding and travel disruption, the EA said.

A sad-looking Christmas decoration sits in a puddle in Yalding

Some 1,300 properties have been flooded during the recent storms in England, the EA said, while flood defences have protected more than 80,000 properties.

Craig Woolhouse, the EA's head of flood incident management, said: "Our thoughts are with those who have been affected by flooding over Christmas.

"Our teams remain out on the ground working around the clock to protect communities from flooding.

"With more wet weather expected early next week we are monitoring rivers and working to protect communities from flooding with our partners in the emergency services and local authorities.

"We urge people to stay safe and avoid driving or walking through flood water and visit the Environment Agency website for advice and sign up for flood warnings."

Some 81 flood alerts and 16 more serious flood warnings remained in place across the country this afternoon.

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Facebook 'Dead And Buried' As Teens Turn Away

Facebook is "basically dead and buried" with many UK teenagers feeling embarrassed even to be associated with it, new research says.

Young people are apparently turning away from it "in their droves" and are using "cooler" websites and apps such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp.

Professor Daniel Miller, from University College London which helped carry out the research, said: "Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to post about their lives.

"Parents have worked out how to use the site and see it as a way for the family to remain connected. In response, the young are moving on to cooler things."

He added: "What appears to be the most seminal moment in a young person's decision to leave Facebook was surely that dreaded day your mum sends you a friend request.

"You just can't be young and free if you know your parents can access your every indiscretion.

"The desire for the new, also drives each new generation to find their own media and this is playing out now in social media.

"It is nothing new that young people care about style and status in relation to their peers, and Facebook is simply not cool anymore."

With Snapchat, pictures disappear seconds after you have been sent

The EU-funded research, which questioned 16-18 year olds in the UK, suggested the newer sites and apps were not as good as Facebook in terms of functionality.

Facebook is more integrated, better for photo albums, organising parties and more effective for observing people's relationships, said the survey.

But WhatsApp is better for messaging and is now said to have overtaken Facebook as the number one way to send mobile messages, it added.

A lot of teenagers have also turned to Snapchat, a picture-sharing service that allows you to send pictures that disappear seconds after they have been sent.

With Facebook, there have been concerns about privacy as it was revealed this year that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was accessing data from the site.

But the migration away does not appear to be down to young people making a statement about mass surveillance or big corporations.

One of the most popular alternatives is Instagram, which allows you to upload and share photos, and which is owned by Facebook.

Mike Butcher, from Techcrunch.com, told Sky News: "Facebook used to be quite a private place, especially among university students.

"And gradually because Facebook needs to make money it had to open up and become more public.

"So that's what happening and they (young people) are going towards new kinds of platforms like Instagram or Twitter."

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