The meat appears to have arrived in the UK via a factory in Luxembourg belonging to French food supplier Comigel. It reached there from Spanghero, a food plant in France, which in turn received horsemeat from Romania. Comigel's president claims the company was unaware that Spanghero's meat was coming from abroad.

Many, including Environment Secretary Owen Paterson, suspect criminal gangs are to blame. "What a mess the processed meat trade seems to have got into," says Tim Lang, professor of food policy at London's City University. "The much-vaunted control of big companies over their supply chains is looking tattered."

There has always been food fraud. Once upon a time it might have been watered down beer or bread adulterated with sawdust. Today, rising food prices, long supply chains and high mark ups on some foods have made fraud easier and more profitable.

Operation Opson in 2011 targeted ports, airports and retail outlets in 10 European countries, including the UK. Among the products seized were 13,000 bottles of substandard olive oil, 30 tonnes of fake tomato sauce, about 77,000 kg of counterfeit cheese, 12,000 bottles of substandard wine, five tonnes of substandard fish and seafood; and nearly 30,000 counterfeit confectionery bars.

The 85-year-old German-born Pope, hailed as a hero by conservative Catholics and viewed with suspicion by liberals, said he had noticed that his strength had deteriorated over recent months.

A Vatican spokesman said the Pope had not resigned because of "difficulties in the papacy" and the decision had been a surprise, indicating that even his closest aides were unaware that he was about to quit. The Pope does not fear schism in the Church after his resignation, the spokesman said.

Before he was elected Pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known by such critical epithets as "God's rottweiler" because of his stern stand on theological issues. But after several years into his new job he showed that he not only did not bite but barely even barked.

In recent months, the Pope has looked increasingly frail in public sometimes being helped to walk by those around him. A Vatican spokesman said the pontiff would step down from 2 pm ET on February 28, leaving the office vacant until a successor was chosen to Benedict who succeeded John Paul, one of history's most popular pontiffs.

Not long ago Greeks were enjoying high paid salaries, early retirements, excess cash, and seemingly never ending economic growth. Today, just a short time after a financial collapse that rocked global financial markets, Europe’s darling has turned into a frightening example of what happens when governments and their people take on more debt than they can ever hope to repay.

The end result is a warning to the rest of us.

Hundreds of people jostled for free vegetables handed out by farmers in a symbolic protest earlier on Wednesday, trampling one man and prompting an outcry over the growing desperation created by economic crisis. Images of people struggling to seize bags of tomatoes and leeks thrown from a truck dominated television, triggering a bout of soul-searching over the new depths of poverty in the debt-laden country. “These images make me angry. Angry for a proud people who have no food to eat, who can’t afford to keep warm, who can’t make ends meet,” said Kostas Barkas, a lawmaker from the leftist Syriza party.

We don't know how much of the story is based in reality, and how much may be propaganda or furthering someone's agenda. What we do know is that the source of the story: offshore-based, Falun Gong-affiliated NTDTV has historically been a credible source of information that the China communist party desperately tries to censor, such as breaking the news of the SARS epidemic in 2003 some three weeks before China publicly admitted it. Its motto is "to bring truthful and uncensored information into and out of China."

If that is indeed the case, and its story of major troop movements and mobilization of various types of military vehicles and artillery into the Fujian and Zhejian provinces, bordering the East China Sea and closest to the Diaoyu islands, is accurate, then hostilities between China and Japan may be about to take a major turn for the worse.

But perhaps the worst joke of all could be found on packets of Findus beef lasagne, which were withdrawn from sale last week after tests showed that some of them contained 100 per cent horsemeat. “We use only the best ingredients,” proclaimed Findus, one of Europe’s leading frozen food brands. How laughably hollow those words now sound as it emerges that criminal gangs from Italy and Eastern Europe may have been supplying the contaminated meat that has ended up in the freezers of millions of British homes. In an attempt to provide reassurance the Government tells us that this is only a “labelling” issue rather than one of food safety.

There is no real risk involved in eating horsemeat, Ministers argue, even though many of us might be repulsed by the idea. But such language is hardly convincing. After all given the scale of the problem how can the Government be sure that there is no threat to consumer safety? Exactly the same comforting rhetoric was used by the Conservative government in 1990 during the BSE scare.

Claims that there is no risk from these contaminated products are wholly unjustified, especially since wide-ranging scientific tests have only just started. In fact early results from one investigation show that perhaps as much 1.5 per cent of the horsemeat legally exported from Britain for processing in Europe may be contaminated with the drug phenylbutazone.

Also known as “bute”, this chemical is used on horses to combat inflammation and fever but it is banned from the human food chain because it can lead to serious blood disorders. Yet even in the face of this evidence the Food Standards Agency is still allowing the export of these potentially drug-affected carcasses, whose by-products could soon end up on our kitchen tables.

The boy's hand was lodged "halfway down the animal's throat" and his mother had to kick the fox to get it to release it. He suffered a serious injury to his finger which required surgery, the Mail on Sunday said. The fox attack is believed to be the most serious in the capital since 2010, when twin baby girls were mauled by a fox at their family home in Hackney, east London. The two nine-month-olds, Isabella and Lola Koupparis, were attacked as they slept in a bedroom. One of the girls suffered injuries to her face, the other was bitten on her arm.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, told The Mail on Sunday: "My thoughts are with the baby boy and his family. Thankfully this sort of attack, though terrible, is rare, but we must do more to tackle the growing problem of urban foxes."

"They may appear cuddly and romantic but foxes are also a pest and a menace, particularly in our cities. This must serve as a wake-up call to London’s borough leaders, who are responsible for pest control."

"They must come together, study the data, try to understand why this is becoming such a problem and act quickly to sort it out."

Chris Packham, the wildlife presenter, said rubbish left on streets had led to an increase in fox numbers. He said: "If you want fewer foxes in towns, then don’t cull them, but stop getting people to throw food on the ground, and into bins, because that’s what’s helping their numbers rise."

Lincoln was scheduled to be moved to Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipyard later this month to begin the 4-year refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the ship. “This delay is due to uncertainty in the Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations bill, both in the timing and funding level available for the first full year of the contract,” the message said.

“CVN-72 will remain at Norfolk Naval Base where the ships force personnel will continue to conduct routine maintenance until sufficient funding is received for the initial execution of the RCOH.”