Most Wanted Criminals Hiding In Spain Revealed

By Rhiannon Mills, Sky News Reporter

An "unlucky 13" of Britain's most wanted criminals who are thought to be hiding in Spain have been unveiled, including the suspected leader of a £90m cocaine-smuggling ring.

Ian Stanton, 42, from Liverpool, is accused of being the mastermind of a gang that smuggled more than 400kg of cocaine to the UK hidden in a shipment of Argentinian beef.

The drugs were found at Tilbury docks in Essex in May, and the shipment was due to be delivered to a cold-storage company in Wigan.

He has links to Merseyside - specifically Crosby, Kirkby and Maghull - but also London, the Netherlands and Spain.

Other fugitives include Michael McCartney, 78, from Letchworth, who was convicted of abusing three boys. He groomed them by buying them expensive gifts before committing sex crimes.

He was found guilty of nine counts of indecent assault, indecency with a child and inciting sexual activity involving penetration in March 2013, and failed to attend court the following month for sentencing.

The 'unlucky 13' fugitives that police are hunting in Spain

Robert Mortby is suspected of attempted murder over an attack on a man outside a pub in Elephant and Castle, south London.

The victim was drinking at the Rose and Crown in July last year when he was hit over the head with a bottle and shot three times.

Mortby, 26, from London, is suspected of being one of his two attackers.

The full list of 13 was revealed in Madrid on Thursday by Crimestoppers, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) and Spanish police, in the eighth appeal of its kind run under Operation Captura.

Hank Cole, from the NCA, told Sky News: "They are a mixture of serious criminals ranging from alleged sex offenders, those who've committed or attempted to commit murder, and significant drug traffickers.

"So these are the worst or most serious criminals that the National Crime Agency is looking to capture.

"Historically Spain had no extradition treaty to the UK so it was seen as a safe haven for UK criminals. Since then the law has changed and we've successfully extradited large numbers of UK criminals back to the UK."

The initiative, targeting criminals thought to have fled to Spain, was launched in 2006 and so far has seen 53 out of 63 suspects caught.

Crimestoppers founder Lord Ashcroft said: "Despite our success so far, there are still a number of dangerous criminals who see Spain as a safe haven to hide from their past. But with the support of the Spanish and UK public, we can hunt them out and bring them to justice."

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MPs In £3.6m 'Back Door' Funding Scandal

By Anushka Asthana, Political Correspondent

MPs have spent more than £3.6 million of taxpayer money renting constituency offices from their political parties, it has emerged.

In a move that critics have slammed as "back door" funding of parties with public funds, politicians typically rent their offices from their local parties.

Figures released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority today show that 244 MPs have such arrangements, while 477 do not.

Sir Ian Kennedy, the IPSA chair, said: "Many MPs hire offices for their staff to work in and in which to meet constituents. It is right that we support them to do so. But we also think it is in the public interest to publish where that money goes.

"Transparency is crucial to re-building trust in politics, and making sure public debate is built on a foundation of facts."

He said MPs are allowed to rent from political parties but if they do so they must provide "extra assurance" including an independent valuation to show the lease represents the market rate.

While individual leases were considered appropriate, he said IPSA were considering if the cumulative effect of the move meant it was time to "reconsider this aspect of the rules".

Critics have accused MPs of using the rent agreements as a way of subsidising campaigning.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the Public Administration Committee, admitted there were risks. He told the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL): "There must be no impression that parliamentary expenses are being used as back door funding for political parties."

Among the 244 are Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg who paid £8,700 to sub-let his office from his Sheffield Hallam Lib Dem party.

More follows...

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Typhoon Haiyan Aid Effort Boost From UK Carrier

A second British Royal Navy warship is being deployed to the Philippines to help with the aid effort following Typhoon Haiyan last Friday.

David Cameron announced that helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious will follow destroyer HMS Daring which set off from Singapore earlier this week.

The Prime Minister said the Government has also raised the amount it is giving to the country to over £20m.

Illustrious is currently based in the Horn of Africa and is expected to arrive by November 25.

There have been reports of widespread hunger and thirst and a mayor of one of the affected areas said he would not be able to maintain law and order unless food arrived soon.

United Nations humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has said aid must reach survivors more quickly and that people had been "let down".

HMS Illustrious is a helicopter carrier

Ms Amos told reporters in Manila: "The situation is dismal. Those who have been able to leave have done so. Many more are trying. People are extremely desperate for help.

"We need to get assistance to them now. They are already saying it has taken too long to arrive. Ensuring a faster delivery is our ... immediate priority."

The US Navy's aircraft carrier the USS George Washington has arrived in the Philippines. The huge warship can produce 1,500,000 litres of drinking water a day.

Officials are struggling to cope with the sheer scale of the disaster

It "will go to a position just off the eastern coast of Samar island in order to begin to assess the damage and provide logistical and emergency support to include medical and water supplies," the carrier's commander, Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, said.

Sky's Asia Correspondent Mark Stone, in Ormoc, said he and his camera crew had to barricade themselves inside a school overnight due to safety fears.

"Law and order is going to break down, because quite frankly, people are desperate," he said.

Officials are preparing to bury some of the storm's thousands of victims in mass graves in the hope of minimising the spread of disease in typhoon-hit towns.

Meanwhile Philippine Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla has warned that it could take six weeks to restore power to some areas.

There is a lack of fuel in many areas meaning the few trucks on the ground an unable to move aid from airports to cities.

The weather also remains a challenge, with frequent downpours.

Body bags are piling up as preparations are made for mass burials

Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save The Children, told Sky News his teams in Cebu are facing "huge logistical problems" which are only just beginning to improve.

He said: "The most important thing is not only flying aid in, but staying with these communities over the next weeks and months because they're going to have to pick up, rebuild their homes and livelihoods.

"There's another risk which is that we all respond in the next few days but we don't stay the course."

Thousands of desperate survivors are clamouring to escape Tacloban, where clean drinking water is in short supply and scores of dead bodies lie piled up in bags outside the ruined city hall.

"There are still so many cadavers in so many areas. It's scary," the city's mayor Alfred Romualdez said, adding that retrieval teams were struggling to cope.

He said: "There would be a request from one community to collect five or 10 bodies and when we get there, there are 40.

People queue to charge their mobile phones in Tacloban city

"We need more manpower and more equipment.

"I cannot use a truck to collect cadavers in the morning and then use it to distribute relief goods in the afternoon."  

Mr Romualdez said the plan was to start mass burials in the nearby village of Basper on Thursday, after attempts to lay to rest some of Haiyan's victims were abandoned when gunshots halted a convoy travelling towards a communal grave.

City officials estimate that they have collected 2,000 bodies but insist many more need to be retrieved.

The UN fears that 10,000 people may have died in Tacloban city alone, but President Benigno Aquino has described that figure as "too much". 

Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said 70% of the city's 220,000 people are in need of emergency assistance, and that only 70 of the city's 2,700 employees have been showing up for work.

US officials said relief was starting to get through, as an aircraft carrier expected to arrive in the Philippines by Friday headed towards the region.

Sky News Correspondent Katie Stallard, watching supplies arrive at an airfield in Cebu City, said: "We are seeing signs that the international relief effort is getting going, but many people will simply not know it is coming."

In Tabontabon, the town's mayor Brendo Gamez told Mark Stone that he feared a breakdown of law and order if aid was delayed.

He said: "We have no food ... if the people of Tabontabon suffer hunger, I don't think I can control them any more."

Some £13m has been raised by the British public in just 24 hours for emergency aid, which will go directly to help more than 11 million people affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

A toy and pair of shorts are hung on a washing line

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a group of 14 UK aid organisations, said that while life-saving aid is on the move, agencies are battling to overcome blocked roads, closed ports, an ill-equipped airport and increasing security concerns.

The disaster-ravaged country has become "increasingly volatile" as people become desperate for food and water, with some resorting to force, the DEC said.

Coree Steadmen, Christian Aid's emergency manager in the Philippines, said: "The devastation here is unimaginable. Aid workers are walking for hours and not seeing a single standing building.

"Most roads are covered with fallen trees and collapsed houses. Where roads are accessible, they are gridlocked with cars fleeing the area.

"Getting aid through is tough, but we are resourceful and we will find a way."

:: To make a donation to the DEC Philippines Crisis Appeal visit www.dec.org.uk, call the 24-hour hotline on 0370 60 60 900, donate over the counter at any high street bank or post office or send a cheque.

You can also donate £5 by texting the word SUPPORT to 70000.

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Energy Prices: Customers 'Not Cash Cows'

The Energy Secretary is to warn that customers are not "cash cows" to be squeezed for profits by the shareholders of energy companies.

Liberal Democrat Ed Davey will deliver the warning in a speech to Energy UK's annual conference at lunchtime.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey

He will urge the industry to "open up your books" to show how it is trying to keep tariffs low.

His speech comes amid warnings that gas prices could soar this winter if the national supply runs short during another cold snap.

Average price rises of 9.1% had been announced by four of the UK's six main energy companies. However, EDF today became the fifth energy firm to announce a price increase significantly unveiling a far lower rise - just 3.9% - than the other companies.

It said it was not passing on the rising cost of the Government's green schemes, which it claims would have added an extra £50 to the average household bill.

The move will put pressure on David Cameron to come good on his pledge to roll back green energy levies - the charges on a customer's bill used to pay for environmentally friendly energy production schemes.

The sixth energy firm, E.ON, is reportedly poised to increase its prices by 6.6%.

In his speech Mr Davey will say that power companies have to make profits to invest in infrastructure, secure supplies, and develop more energy efficient technologies.

He will warn: "Those profits cannot come at the expense of the elderly, the vulnerable, and the poorest in our society.

"Customers are not just cash cows to be squeezed in the pursuit of a higher return for shareholders.

"Trust between those who supply energy and those who use it is breaking down. It is so difficult for people to work out what exactly they are paying for that they fear the big energy companies are taking them for a ride when bills go up."

He will say that some customers see a reflection of the greed that consumed banks, and this is a "Fred the Shred" moment for the industry, a reference to former RBS boss Fred Goodwin.

He will say the Government is looking at how it could reduce the impact of its policies on bills, which would include backing any "necessary" regulations recommended by electricity and gas prices regulator Ofgem.

"But our commitment must be matched by a commitment in industry to open up your books and set out exactly how you are bearing down on your own costs to make bills as low as possible," he will say.

Industry analyst Peter Hughes told Sky News that a "perfect storm" last March of extreme weather and the shutdown of two major pipelines caused prices to double.

He added that could happen again because the Government has refused to support the storage of more gas.

"It foreshadows things to come," he said. "The situation in terms of the risks will only get worse as North Sea production runs down and demand rises."

Sky's Nick Martin, on a gas platform in the North Sea, said: "North Sea gas won't last forever, the harder-to-reach wells cost tens of millions of pounds to drill.

"Somewhere in the middle of this complex equation, the customer still expects value for money."

:: Watch a day of special coverage on energy costs all day on Sky News - on Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 82, Skynews.com and Sky News for iPad.

There will also be a special programme on the energy industry on Jeff Randall Live this evening at 7pm.

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Typhoon Haiyan: Families Search For Relatives

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, in Leyte

Many thousands of relatives of those who were hit by the typhoon still have no idea of the fate of their loved ones.

At the ferry terminal in Cebu city, hundreds are queuing to make the hardest of journeys.

Communications on the neighbouring island where their families live are down, the pictures emerging are grim and so the only way they will find out if their families survived is to go.

A woman with an umbrella stands amid the rubble of Tacloban, Leyte

Ramon Gerado Jnr, 46, has made an extraordinary journey to find his family.

Like so many Filipinos, Ramon works abroad. So for three days he travelled from Saudi Arabia, where he is a construction worker.

Aerial shots show the true scale of the Typhoon Haiyan destruction

"I am praying that my family is OK. But still, I am ...." he stops. It all seems too much.

We board the ferry for the two-hour crossing to Leyte Island.

It is packed, and with another storm coming, the sea is rough.

Everyone on board must be thinking the same thing: a mixture of hope and dread.

Some families have been forced to take food from damaged shops

Sitting next to me are two young women. They are in their late teens I would guess, and judging by their appearance they are sisters.

They are not talking. They are deep in thought. They seem far away, staring out of the window at the coastline of their battered homeland.

I decide not to break their thoughts by engaging in conversation, so I can only guess why they are making the journey.

It is pretty obvious though. If they are like the other 99% then they too are making the grim journey to find out the fate of their families.

Worried relatives have travelled to Leyte to look for loved ones

Both are clutching their mobile phones, presumably hoping the brightly-coloured handsets might suddenly defy the lack of signal and ring with good news.

As we arrive at the small city of Ormoc, on Leyte Island, we start to get a sense of the scale of devastation.

The buildings are roofless, the trees that are still standing have been stripped of all their branches. And this is only the beginning of the journey.

It will be many more hours before we get to Ramon's town. "I want everyone to witness what has happened here to my family," he said.

:: To make a donation to the DEC Philippines Crisis Appeal visit www.dec.org.uk, call the 24-hour hotline on 0370 60 60 900, donate over the counter at any high street bank or post office or send a cheque.

You can also donate £5 by texting the word SUPPORT to 70000.

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Typhoon Haiyan: Appeal For £190m In Aid

Aid agencies have launched a joint emergency appeal to get food, water and shelter to victims of the devastating Philippines typhoon.

The United Nations estimates that $301m (£190m) will be needed in aid.

"We've just launched an action plan focusing on the areas of food, health, sanitation, shelter, debris removal and also protection of the most vulnerable with the government and I very much hope our donors will be generous," humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told reporters in the capital Manila.

Police stand next to body bags near Tacloban

"That plan is for $301m dollars."

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), made up of 14 aid charities, said its members were already responding to the crisis but the scale of the destruction meant there was "huge unmet need".

A "huge injection" of funds is needed to get aid through to victims after the typhoon, known locally as Yolanda, made roads impassable and put airports out of action, the DEC said.

Although the official death toll stands at 1,774, around 10,000 people are thought to have been killed in the city of Tacloban alone.

The UN said 660,000 people have lost their homes while a further 10 million could be affected after the typhoon, said to be the strongest ever to make landfall, hit the southeast Asian nation.

Homes on a hillside in Tacloban have been obliterated by the storm surge

Sky's chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay is in Hagnaya in Cebu where he said people are begging on the streets because supplies from NGOs have not yet reached them.

He said nearly 100% of the buildings in the town have been damaged.

"There's concern that there is another weather front likely to hit the area with a lot of rain forecast in the next couple of days."

Authorities said they had evacuated 800,000 people ahead of the typhoon, but many evacuation centres proved to be no protection against the wind and rising water.

People in the devout Philippines still try to use a badly-flooded church

The Philippine National Red Cross, responsible for warning the region and giving advice, said people were not prepared for a storm surge.

Although weakened, the typhoon, has also killed eight people and devastated farmland since making landfall in southern China. 

DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: "The destruction in Tacloban city, on the east coast, is said to be reminiscent of the Boxing Day tsunami.

"There is currently no food, water or electricity. We can only imagine how much worse the situation will be for families living in towns and remote villages.

"DEC members are doing all they can to get aid through but they need a huge injection of funds in order to do so.

"The priorities are getting food, water and shelter to people in desperate need."

Sky's Asia correspondent Mark Stone, on the island of Leyte, said up to 20 people had been killed by falling bags of rice in the scramble to get to aid supplies from a warehouse.

Stone said he had travelled to the island with people who did not know if their family members were alive or not: "There's no mobile phone network here, no way of communicating."

The DEC includes the British Red Cross, Christian Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children.

Typhoon Haiyan has made landfall in southwest China, killing eight people

All of its members will support the appeal and 13 of the 14 are responding either directly or through partner organisations.

The UK is deploying a Royal Navy warship, HMS Daring, and donating £10m of humanitarian assistance in aid for the victims, Prime Minister David Cameron said.

The ship carries equipment to make drinking water from seawater.

Britain will also deploy RAF military transport aircraft in aid of recovery efforts, earmarking at least one C-17 cargo plane to move humanitarian aid and large equipment.

Meanwhile, Australia announced assistance of £5.8m and the US government has pledged $20m in immediate aid and has ordered the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the sail to the Philippines.

Japan said it will fly a relief team over to the ravaged country and Taiwan is sending £125,000 in aid.

The United Nations World Food Programme has also allocated $2m (£1.25m) and Unicef is sending emergency supplies.

:: To make a donation to the DEC Philippines Crisis Appeal visit www.dec.org.uk, call the 24-hour hotline on 0370 60 60 900, donate over the counter at any high street bank or post office or send a cheque.

You can also donate £5 by texting the word SUPPORT to 70000.

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Typhoon Haiyan Devastation: New Storm On Way

Rescuers are struggling to get desperately needed aid to areas of the Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan - as a new storm approaches.

Aid workers are being held back by blocked roads and damaged airports as they try to deliver tents, food and medicines to the worst affected areas.

Troops have been sent to the city of Tacloban to restore law and order after reports of looting, with Philippines President Benigno Aquino considering declaring a state of emergency or martial law where necessary.

Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless Pic: Save The Children

Looters have reportedly broken into supermarkets, while a Red Cross aid convoy was raided. Consumer goods such as televisions and washing machines have also been stolen.

At least 10,000 people are thought to have been killed in Tacloban alone by the typhoon, officials believe.

Corpses hung from trees in the city and were scattered in the streets. Many were buried in flattened buildings.

Looters break a shop's butter to make it easier to get food supplies

One UN official said he was told there had been a three-metre (10ft) water surge through the city.

A further 300 are confirmed dead with 2,000 missing on the neighbouring island of Samar.

Water has been cut off in many areas, making the relief effort more difficult.

A woman mourns next to the body of her husband and others

Threatening to further hamper relief efforts is a new storm approaching the southern and central Philippines.

Government weather forecasters said the tropical depression could bring fresh floods to typhoon-affected areas.

The depression is expected to hit land on the southern island of Mindanao late Tuesday and then move across the central islands of Bohol, Cebu, Negros and Panay, which all suffered typhoon damage, forecaster Connie Dadivas said.

It could bring "moderate to heavy" rains, or about five to 15 millimetres (0.2 to 0.6 inches) per hour, he said.

Sky's Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay, in Manila, said: "The relief operation is only just getting going, it's fairly piecemeal at the moment.

"They really don't have the volume of aircraft they need to either get aircraft in or people out in sufficient quantities to try and control what has become, day-by-day, a more difficult situation."

Survivors make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings

At least six people have also been killed in Vietnam after the typhoon made landfall near the Chinese border.

Some 600,000 people were evacuated from at-risk areas in the north of the country before Haiyan - downgraded to a weaker Category One storm - battered the coast with 98mph (157kmph) winds.

All schools in the capital Hanoi were closed on Monday, and extra police were dispatched to redirect traffic in flood-prone areas.

The aid effort could be hampered by an approaching storm

In the Philippines millions of people are said to have been directly affected by the typhoon's path and the death toll is expected to rise further as rescuers reach cut-off areas.

"This area has been totally ravaged", said Sebastien Sujobert, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tacloban.

"Many lives were lost, a huge number of people are missing, and basic services such as drinking water and electricity have been cut off."

The winds felled trees and homes across swathes of the country

Haiyan hit the east coast of the Philippines on Friday and smashed through its central islands, with winds of 147mph (235 kmph) and a storm surge of 20ft (six metres).

Video from Eastern Samar province's Guiuan township - the first area where the typhoon made landfall - also showed a trail of devastation. Many houses were flattened and roads were strewn with debris and uprooted trees. 

Witnesses reported seeing looting and violence with President Aquino admitting it was a major concern.

Survivors now face the prospect of rebuilding their lives

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala told AFP news agency that 100 soldiers had been sent to help police restore law and order in Tacloban.

The United Nations said it was sending supplies but access to the worst hit areas was a challenge.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has directed the military's Pacific Command to deploy ships and aircraft to support search-and-rescue operations and airlift emergency supplies.

The European Commission has released €3m (£2.5m) in emergency funds, while the UK is providing £6m in aid and Prime Minister David Cameron has telephoned President Aquino to offer his support.

:: Sky News will run a special live programme on the story of the typhoon at 7pm tonight.

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Acts Of Remembrance Around UK For War Dead

Silence fell over the UK today as the nation stopped to remember its war dead to mark Armistice Day.

Acts of remembrance have taken place across the country, including a service at the national Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire.

The last surviving First World War widow, Dorothy Ellis, was among the guests at the outdoor event.

The memorial bears the names of more than 16,000 fallen service personnel.

The Armistice Day event in Trafalgar Square

The event took place within the walls of the Armed Forces Memorial, which is designed to allow a shaft of sunlight to dissect its walls hitting the bronze wreath sculpture when the two minutes silence takes place.

Services held in the capital included one at the Lloyd's of London market in the City attended by the Chelsea Pensioners, and another in Trafalgar Square, featuring musical performances and readings

Also this morning the funeral service took place of Harold Percival, a wartime airman who died in October aged 99 with no close friends or relatives.

Sunday's Remembrance Day Service at the Cenotaph

Following an internet campaign, hundreds of people attended the service at Lytham Park Crematorium, Lytham St Annes, in Lancashire.

Elsewhere, the the Duke of Edinburgh is travelling to Belgium to honour troops who fell at some of the First World War's deadliest battles.

He will take part in the Last Post ceremony in Ypres, where he will collect soil from Flanders Fields for a memorial garden at the Guards Museum in London.

War veterans at the Cenotaph on Sunday

The 92-year-old Duke will arrive at the Menin Gate memorial with Prince Laurent of Belgium to be greeted by members of the Last Post Association, which founded the daily ceremony to remember the war dead in 1928.

Philip will be joined by the minister-president of Flanders and the Belgian defence minister as the Band of the Coldstream Guards perform a royal salute.

During the ceremony, the Last Post - a bugle call played as the traditional final salute to fallen troops - will be sounded before a minute's silence is held.

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Typhoon Survivor: Tell My Family I'm Alive

Survivors of Typhoon Haiyan have described their desperate need for food and medicine after losing everything in the storm.

One woman, eight months pregnant, described through tears how her 11 family members vanished in the storm - which devastated parts of the Philippines - including two daughters.

"I can't think right now. I am overwhelmed," she said.

Erika Mae Karakot, a survivor on Leyte island, said: "Please tell my family I'm alive.

Emily Ortega lies amid the debris at the airport in Tacloban

"We need water and medicine because a lot of the people we are with are wounded. Some are suffering from diarrhoea and dehydration due to shortage of food and water."

Another woman said: "I have no house, I have no clothes. I don't know how I will restart my life. I am so confused.

"I don't know what happened to us. We are appealing for help. Whoever has a good heart, I appeal to you."

Aid agencies have warned that many of the 480,000 people whose homes have been destroyed by the bludgeoning force of the cyclone face a desperate battle to survive.

"Everything is gone. Our house is like a skeleton and we are running out of food and water. We are looking for food everywhere," said Jenny Chu, a medical student in Leyte.

The birth of a baby girl amid the devastation of the typhoon has provided a rare moment of joy for survivors.

A medic places baby Bea on her mother's chest moments after the birth

Bea Joy Sagales was born at the airport in Tacloban, the city where officials fear at least 10,000 people have perished.

Her mother Emily Ortega, 21, was in a shelter when the storm flooded the city.

She clung to a post to survive and managed to reach the relative safety of the airport, where a military doctor assisted with the birth.

Cheers broke out in the terminal when it became clear the birth - described as "near miraculous" by officials - had been a success. 

In Tacloban, survivors have been scavenging for food and looting shops in order to stay alive, witnesses say.

'Zombie-like' survivors have been left to trudge through thick mud

"Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families," high school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, said as he warned of the increasing desperation of survivors.

"People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk. I am afraid that in one week, people will be killing from hunger."

Witnesses described how survivors are forming long queues at aid stations, waiting desperately for handouts of rice and water.

Some sit and stare, covering their faces with rags to keep out the smell of the dead.

Lieutenant Colonel Fermin Carangan, of the Philippine Air Force, said he and 41 officers were sheltering in their airport office when "suddenly the sea water and the waves destroyed the walls and I saw my men being swept by waters one by one".

He was swept away from the building and clung to a coconut tree with a seven-year-old boy.

"In the next five hours we were in the sea buffeted by wind and strong rain. I kept on talking to the boy and giving him a pep talk because the boy was telling me he was tired and he wanted to sleep."

He finally saw land and swam with the boy to a beach strewn with dead bodies.

He said: "I think the boy saved my life because I found strength so that he can survive."

:: Sky News will run a special live programme on the story of the typhoon at 7pm tonight.

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Remembrance Day Services Honour Veterans

War Graves 'Have Enormous Power To Engage'

Updated: 1:51am UK, Sunday 10 November 2013

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, in Burma

Just outside the chaos and the buzz of Burma's largest city, Rangoon, is a place of remarkable peace and tranquility.

Set back from the busy highway linking Rangoon to the Burma's new capital city Naypyidaw is the Taukkyan War Cemetery.

Taukkyan is the final resting place for 6,426 soldiers of the Commonwealth who fought and died in one or other of the two world wars.

The headstones are lined up in perfect uniformity. I spot a Private Jones and a Corporal Johnson.

Their names seem oddly incongruous so far from 'home'. It is a reminder of just how global the two world wars were.

As always at war cemeteries, the ages are sobering. Most of those I pause by in Taukkyan are teenagers.

Around the world there are a staggering 23,000 war cemeteries just like Taukkyan.

You will find them in 153 different countries, they hold the remains and bear the names of 1.7 million individuals and they are all managed and beautifully maintained by an organisation called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

"The CWGC maintains the very fabric upon which remembrance of the war dead is focussed," Peter Francis, from the CWGC, told Sky News.

"Today, the war graves and memorials are perhaps the only physical reminder of the war left. They have an enormous power in my experience to engage the individual in the war and the sacrifices made."

The gravestones that line the fields of Northern France are well-known, but similarly poignant cemeteries can be found in every country where battles of either world war were fought.

From Burma to Libya and from Turkey to Thailand they are all as moving as they are magnificent.

Some are in deserts, some in mountains, some under snow and some lined with palm trees.

Many of the cemeteries are the legacy of an extraordinary pledge made during the two world wars.

These were the days before repatriations of the like we see today. Back then, soldiers were buried where they fell, but admirable efforts were made to record each individual burial location.

When the guns fell silent, as many of the bodies as possible were 'repatriated', not home, but to a central cemetery where they could lie side-by-side.

Mr Francis points out that World War One marked a step-change in how the victims of war were remembered.

"Before the First World War it was unusual to remember the sacrifice of 'ordinary' soldiers," he explained.

"One only has to look around London and see the memorials to Generals, or go to the battlefield at Waterloo (just 100 years before the Great War) to see that there was very little to mark the sacrifice of the soldier. The First World War and the CWGC changed all that.

"It is all too easy, for those of us who have grown up with the two minute silence, the poppy, the war graves, the memorials, to think there was an inevitability about the commemoration of the war dead. That is not the case."

Along with the 6,426 marked graves at Taukkyan is a memorial wall on which are etched the names of a staggering 27,000 others who died during the battles in Burma and who have no known grave.

Burma, now Myanmar, was a battle ground for both wars and has been for many more since.

The upkeep of so many cemeteries, some in countries now the frontline of new wars, is a huge undertaking.

Mr Francis tells me about one cemetery which is a 45 minute boat ride to a remote Scottish Island. Access to another involves a dangerous journey across Libya.

"Every site, every grave is inspected, assessed and maintained by our dedicated workforce - some 1,300 strong worldwide (the vast majority gardeners and stone masons)," he told me.

"Some may stay at one cemetery their entire career, others will move from country to country. Some are even the third generation of their family to work for us - one of the nice things about the organisation is that we do have a sense of 'family'."

While there are cemeteries in unstable counties like Syria, Iraq and Libya, there are challenges even in places like the UK.

"Here in the UK we face a very peculiar challenge," Mr Francis said.

"Most people do not realise that in the UK, the Commission commemorates more than 300,000 Commonwealth servicemen and women who died in the two world wars - their graves and memorials to be found at a staggering 13,000 locations.

"There is little awareness of this. These range from small rural churchyards to large urban civic cemeteries. In essence we have to enter into 13,000 agreements to maintain these sites."

The CWGC, which is well-funded by grants from Commonwealth-member governments, expects that visitor numbers will increase by up to 30% over the next four years.

It has now embarked on a renovation and modernisation programme.

"Our headstone replacement capacity is now at 22,000 headstones a year and we are re-engraving some 19,000 headstones a year in situ - maintaining the very fabric upon which remembrance of the Great War is largely based and keeping alive in stone the names of those who died."

The commission's website now contains an interactive database allowing people to search for a relative who died in a far-away battle.

Initiatives like this help younger people connect to a past with which they no longer have a direct generational link. 

"An increased awareness of, and sense of ownership in, war graves in the UK, will greatly assist the Commission's task of caring and maintaining for these sites, some of which may have been abandoned to nature over the decades," Mr Francis said.

Back at Taukkyan, I watch one of the commission's volunteers, an elderly Burmese man. He rakes away fallen leaves from the pristine grass around the rows of graves.

Two young Burmese boys wander past. I wonder how much they know of their country's troubled history. Hopefully for them, the troubles are history.

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Super Typhoon Haiyan: '10,000 Could Be Dead'

At least 10,000 people are thought to have been killed in the Philippine city of Tacloban by Typhoon Haiyan, officials believe.

The national government and disaster agency have yet to confirm the fatalities, a sharp increase from initial estimates on Saturday of at least 1,000 deaths.

A further 300 are confirmed dead with 2,000 missing in the neighbouring island of Samar.

Coastal villages in Leyte were flattened, or swallowed by the storm surge

If the death toll estimate by government officials is confirmed, it would be the deadliest natural catastrophe on record in the Philippines.

Up to 4.3million people are said to have been directly affected by the typhoon's path and the death toll is expected to rise further as rescuers reach cut off areas.

Up to 70-80% of homes have been destroyed in Tacloban and other areas in the typhoon's path, according to Justin Morgan of Oxfam.

A child is returned home after leaving an evacuation site in Tacloban

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas said: "From a helicopter, you can see the extent of devastation. From the shore and moving a kilometre inland, there are no structures standing. It was like a tsunami.

"I don't know how to describe what I saw. It's horrific."

Most of the dead are understood to have drowned or were crushed by collapsed buildings. Many corpses hung on tree branches, buildings and in the roads.

Shivering children wait ito be evacuated from a rescue centre in the city

"On the way to the airport we saw many bodies along the street," said Philippine-born Australian Mila Ward, 53, who was waiting at the Tacloban airport to catch a military flight back to Manila.

"They were covered with just anything - tarpaulin, roofing sheets, cardboards," she said. Asked how many, she said, "Well over 100 where we passed."

But the destruction extended well beyond Tacloban, a city of 200,000. Officials are yet to make contact with Guiuan, a town of 40,000 that was first hit by the typhoon.

A woman about to give birth is carried into a medical centre at Tacloban

Baco, a city of 35,000 people in Oriental Mindoro province, was 80 percent under water, the UN said.

The Philippines has limited resources on its own to deal with a disaster of this magnitude, say experts.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has directed the military's Pacific Command to deploy ships and aircraft to support search-and-rescue operations and airlift emergency supplies.

But the command is headquartered in Hawaii, with one carrier group current in port in Hong Kong, so it is thought it will be some days before it reaches the affected area.

Residents beside a road littered with debris

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Philippine president Benigno Aquino: "We stand ready to contribute with urgent relief and assistance if so required in this hour of need."

Haiyan was one of the strongest tropical storms ever to have made landfall, lashing the Philippines with wind gusts of 275kph (170mph) and whipping up a storm surge which swallowed coastal towns and villages.

Although the cyclone has weakened, there are fears that many could be affected when it next makes landfall in Vietnam later today.

A pregnant woman cooks a meal inside a building overlooking Tacloban

Nearly a million people were evacuated from central provinces before the path of Haiyan turned further north.

It is now expected to be a category one typhoon, with winds gusting up to 95mph when it reaches the tourist area of Halong Bay, not far from the capital Hanoi, at about 8pm on Sunday.

The typhoon is also expected to pass very close to the Chinese island of Hainan.

Tacloban, a city of 220,000 people south of Manila, bore the brunt of Haiyan in the Philippines. Bodies have been seen floating in roads covered with debris from fallen trees, tangled power lines and flattened homes.

In Vietnam villagers are evacuated in preparation for the arrival of Haiyan

"The dead are on the streets, they are in their houses, they are under the debris, they are everywhere," said Tecson John Lim, a Tacloban city administrator.

Among those feared dead is an Australian ex-priest Kevin Lee, who moved to the Philippines after blowing the whistle on abuse in the Catholic Church in his home country, it has been reported.

The previous deadliest disaster to hit the Philippines was in 1976, when a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people.

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Terror Suspects Face Controversial Mosque Ban

The Home Office is considering banning terror suspects from visiting controversial mosques, Sky sources say.

Suspects subject to Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims) would not be allowed to worship at mosques on a Home Office's list, the sources said.

The plan could also clamp down on the amount of time they spent at mosques, the sources said.

The tougher restrictions would form part of a plan to further restrict terror suspects' freedoms after Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed escaped from a London mosque by dressing in a burka earlier this month.

Pressure is mounting on the Government to explain how the al Shabaab-linked suspect managed to escape surveillance despite being the subject of a Tpim.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told Sky's Murnaghan programme that lessons needed to be learned from the case.

"The security services and the police face a huge challenge monitoring very large numbers of potential threat streams and we are acutely conscious that the terrorist only has to get lucky once - we have to get lucky every time," he said.

"Because of the large numbers of potential threats that we are monitoring and managing, it is inevitable that every now and again that one will slip through the net.

"When that happens we have to learn the lessons, we have to tighten the system."

Home Secretary Theresa May has come under fire since Mohamed fled

Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP, said her Govermment counterpart Theresa May was "belatedly trying to close the stable door that she herself threw open" with the stricter measures.

"This Home Secretary repeatedly ignored warnings that ditching relocations would increase the risk that terror suspects would abscond," she said.

"After losing two out of the ten suspects she's been forced to admit there's a problem. But her hands are tied by her own legislation.

"If Theresa May has finally realised that she did the wrong thing by weakening terror controls, she should apologise. And David Cameron should take over the crucial decisions on terror suspects as its clear the Home Secretary can't be trusted to get it right."

A hunt involving the Metropolitan Police's counter terrorism command, MI5 and the UK Border Force has so far failed to track down Mohamed.

But he is not the first person to breach a Tpim since they were introduced to replace control orders in early 2012.

CCTV of Mohamed leaving the mosque in a burka

Last December, Ibrahim Magag, who is understood to have attended terrorist training camps in Somalia, absconded from a Tpim notice after ripping off his electronic tag. The police search for him is continuing.

Tpims were introduced in place of controversial control orders that individuals could be placed on indefinitely.

The control orders allowed forced relocation, curfews of up to 18 hours a day, electronic tagging and vetting of visitors.

The Coalition moved to the new system after sustained anger of the system, which some said amounted to virtual home arrest.

Tpims saw forced relocation scrapped, the curfews were replaced with a requirement to stay overnight in a house and they would no longer be indefinite and would instead need renewing every two years.

It has been revealed that before Mohamed escaped he had been twice remanded in custody for allegedly breaching controls imposed on him.

The 27-year-old was released from custody despite facing 20 charges for breaking the restrictions Tpim and the earlier control order.

Mohamed is currently seeking damages from the Government in a human rights legal challenge involving allegations of torture.

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