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Fox hunters have claimed more than 300,000 turned up at their traditional Boxing Day hunts - saying it is evidence of growing public support.
And the turnout, it is claimed, shows a groundswell of backing for their campaign to repeal the act banning hunting with hounds - passed by Labour four years ago in England and Wales.
The Bill made hunting with dogs a criminal offence, although exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are all still legal.
Tim Bonner, spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, leading the campaign to change the law, said: "From the hunts I have talked to, there seems to be a very large turnout at all the meets ... Obviously the good weather has helped that, but also a feeling that people are coming out just to support their local hunt and the campaign for the repeal of the act. It is a very positive feeling across the country."
Mr Bonner said the Hunting Act was a "bad piece of legislation, apart from being passed for bad reasons", and said if the Conservatives won the next General Election the law would be changed. "It will take a change of government to change it. David Cameron has consistently said he will allow a free vote," Mr Bonner added. "At the very least next year will be the penultimate Boxing Day under the Hunting Act."
Both sides say the current ban is unworkable and a bad law.
Anti-hunt campaigners claim "week in week out" hunters are breaking the ban by killing foxes with hounds - but the police and courts are not interested in prosecuting them. The Hunt Saboteurs Association say there has only been three prosecutions since the law was brought in, in February 2005.
Fox hunters say each conviction was overturned on appeal.
The biggest single gathering on Boxing Day was an estimated 6,000 people turning up for the Heythrop Hunt, which meet at the Fox Inn, Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire - just one of the 320 individual hunt's across the UK.
The majority of the Boxing Day hunts used "trails" - a scent of the quarry laid down artificially. An already dead fox is often the reward for hounds at a hunt's end. But a number will use the Act's exemptions which allows the flushing out of a fox by hounds for a bird of prey or the use of just two dogs to flush out the quarry for shooting.
-Nova
A nurse who has been missing for more than a week has been found alive in the boot of a car, police confirmed.
Magdeline Makola had not been seen since she left work at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on December 15.
The 38-year-old was found in the car boot in Airdrie at noon on Boxing Day, Lothian and Borders Police said. She was taken to Monklands Hospital in Airdrie for treatment to minor injuries.
A police spokesman said: "Magdeline was discovered just after midday ... by officers from Lothian and Borders Police. At the moment this inquiry is at its very early stages, and we need to establish the exact circumstances of how Magdeline came to be within the boot of the vehicle."
Police appealed for anyone who may have seen the nurse since she went missing to get in touch.
In particular, they want to hear from anyone who saw the red Vauxhall Astra, registration Y295 SRS, being driven in the central belt since December 15.
"We believe that the vehicle has been driven in the Chapelhall area of Airdrie, and in Glasgow city centre as well, and we want anyone who thinks they may have spotted it to get in touch," the spokesman said.
"Anyone with any other information that can assist our inquiries should also contact Lothian and Borders Police as soon as possible."
-Nova
Shoppers have descended on the Boxing Day sales in their droves as desperate retailers slashed prices in a bid to boost trade.
Some shoppers queued outside stores from the early hours as prices were cut by up to 70% by retailers who have suffered a "a poor Christmas" due to the looming recession and credit crunch.
Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, warned: "We'll see the full December figures in a few weeks, but they won't be pretty. Few retailers have not been hit by the slowdown but some harder than others. Discounts and promotions on a scale unprecedented for the run-up to Christmas, combined with weak sales, have put margins under severe pressure."
Approximately 2,000 shoppers queued up outside Selfridges in London early on Boxing Day waiting for the doors to open.
A spokesman said: "The first person in the queue had been there since 2am. She was there to buy a Chanel bag. It was mental when they came into the store. I've never seen anything like it. People were running into the store and grabbing bags. Some women had four of five bags in their hands. Security had to get more people down to the store to help."
It took some shoppers up to an hour to queue for the tills.
Debenhams, which slashed prices by as much as 70% in what it described as its biggest-ever sale, opened its doors at 7am.
A spokesman for the retailer said: "The stores at Lakeside (in Essex) and on Oxford Street saw queues of about 500 people from about 6am. And at the Trafford Centre store in Manchester there were queues of 200 to 300 people from about 6am."
Some 500,000 bargain-hunters flocked to London's West End to take full advantage of big discounts in the shops. Some had been queuing since 2am to be first in line when shops opened their doors at 7am on Oxford Street.
Jace Tyrrell, of the New West End Company, representing more than 600 traders in Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, said: "Are they mad? Well, it's very tempting when you've got designer handbags with 60% off."
-Nova
Drinking just one pint of beer a day increases the risk of liver and bowel cancer by a fifth, a health expert has warned.
A large glass of wine or a couple of spirits such as vodka or gin can have the same damaging effect, she said.
Dr Rachel Thompson, science programme manager for World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), warned that just two units of alcohol a day increases the risk of bowel cancer by 18% and the risk of liver cancer by a fifth.
"If you are drinking a pint of lager or a large glass of wine every day then this might not seem like a lot," she said.
"But the science shows you are increasing your risk of bowel cancer by 18% and your risk of liver cancer by 20%.
"When you consider how many cases of these types of cancer are diagnosed in the UK every year, it is clear that drinking even relatively small amounts of alcohol can make a significant difference.
"Yet despite strong evidence, most people still do not know that alcohol increases risk of cancer so it is clear we need to do more to get this message across."
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK, with more than 36,500 people diagnosed with it every year and around 16,000 dying from it.
In addition, more than 3,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with liver cancer each year and a similar number die.
According to the WCRF, there is also convincing evidence that drinking alcohol also increases the risk of breast cancer and cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx and oesophagus.
-Nova
The biggest slump in output since the aftermath of the Second World War could set Britain's economy back five years, an economic think-tank has warned.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicts that UK economy could shrink by as much as 2.9% next year as bank lending continues to stagnate.
This far exceeds official Treasury forecasts that the economy will shrink by between 0.75% and 1.25% next year, with the UK returning to growth in the second half of 2009.
But the CEBR's managing economist Ben Read said: "Our emerging central scenario suggests a contraction of 2.9%, driven by a steep fall in business investment of 20% due to continued restrictions on bank lending, as well as firms slashing budgets in order to stay afloat."
This would be the biggest slump since 1946 when the UK was wrestling with the aftermath of the Second World War and a freezing winter.
Several analysts have recently made predictions of a 2.5% fall in GDP next year - representing the worst annual performance since 1947.
Mr Reed said "things could be even worse", adding: "Despite public declarations by the Government that the banks ought to be lending more, it is clear the primary concern of many of our largest banks is to shore up their balance sheets."
CEBR's economists are warning about the danger of firms cutting investment at the same time as consumers rein in spending and save more.
Mr Read added: "If this...scenario occurs, a contraction of between 5% and 10% could be on the cards, setting the UK economy back by five years."
Earlier this week official figures confirmed the UK economy is sliding into recession faster than first thought. Revised data showed a sharper than expected 0.6% fall in output between July and September - the worst since 1990 and bigger than the 0.5% fall first estimated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
-Nova
A teenage prisoner has been found hanged in his cell, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed.
Jonathan Campbell, 18, died at HMP Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where he was serving a seven-and-a-half year sentence for kidnap, GBH and robbery.
Staff and paramedics attempted resuscitation but he was declared dead.
A MoJ spokeswoman said: "Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Mr Campbell.
"As with all deaths in custody the prisons and probation ombudsman will conduct an investigation."
-Nova
Some of England's most historic landmarks are being left to fall into disrepair because of a lack of funds for essential maintenance work, it has been claimed.
Hadrian's Wall, the Frogmore Royal Mausoleum at Windsor where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are buried, Lord Byron's ancestral home at Newstead Abbey, and the site of the 1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge in East Yorkshire are among those under threat, according to the Tories.
Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said that for the first time in almost a decade more sites were added to English Heritage's "at risk" register last year than were removed. While only 57 under threat buildings were repaired - half the number just five years ago - an additional 69 sites were added to the list.
Meanwhile, English Heritage has cut back its grants for repairs from £8 million in 1999 to £4.1 million last year.
Mr Hunt said that the Government should now allocate National Lottery funding to tackle the backlog of repairs that was building up.
"With more and more of our wonderful heritage under threat, the Government must act before some of our best-loved sites are left to rot," he said. "Returning the National Lottery to its original good causes would generate millions more for the sector and help restore some of these wonderful sites to their full glory."
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport however insisted that overall, the number of "at risk" sites was continuing to fall. "It is impossible to infer a trend from one year's figures alone - the slight increase this year is not typical, and in fact the trend is downward," a spokeswoman said.
"It is also important to note that the longer a site has been on the register, the more difficult it is to get off it, as all the 'easy' ones have already been addressed.
"English Heritage continues to work very hard at these older entries and still hope to have reached their target of 50% of the entries on the 1999 register having been removed by the 2009 register."
-Nova