Adrian Chamberlain broke into the house before stealing the car’s keys and driving it away while the owner’s mother was asleep upstairs in their home.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 39-year-old was arrested shortly after the burglary on August 10, 2023, in Billingham.

Nicci Horton, prosecuting, said: “The victim was woken by the dog whining, went downstairs and noticed the door was ajar and the keys for the Audi and another vehicle were missing as well as a purse and bank cards.

“When she went outside, she noticed the Audi had gone.

“The police located the vehicle on August 16 in Thornaby, and it had been burned out.”

The court heard how police arrested the defendant for an unrelated incident the following day and recovered a mobile phone containing videos and photographs showing him trying to sell it.

Chamberlain, of Woodcock Close in Middlesbrough, initially denied the charges of burglary and theft of a vehicle but eventually pleaded guilty ahead of a trial.

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Chris Morrison, mitigating, urged the judge to pass a suspended sentence as his client was working on turning his life around and is now in a stable relationship.

He added: “I would submit that is a powerful influence away from the malign lifestyle and influences that were a feature of his life when these offences occurred.”

Judge Jonathan Carroll passed a 94-week sentence suspended for two years and ordered him to attend 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days and carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.

He said: “You made attempts to sell the car for profit, that failed so you just burned the car out causing a significant financial loss the victims.”

The family of an elderly Massachusetts couple is grieving after a tragic weekend accident on Cape Cod.

The high school sweethearts had been on a “normal” walk on Saturday before seemingly encountering trouble. Kathleen “Kit” Boucher, 71, died after being spotted half-submerged in the ice on Bee’s River. Two police officers also fell through the ice trying to rescue her, but managed to get to safety. Their dog had been spotted loose and wet on a nearby beach, officials said.

Her husband, Gerald “Jerry” Boucher, 72, remains missing.

Rescuers searched for Jerry over the weekend but stopped due to dangerous ice conditions. The search resumed Tuesday using divers, drones, and helicopters, with authorities hoping to continue Thursday or Friday, depending on the weather.

The couple’s daughters, Katy Boucher and Amy Lawson, said in a joint statement Tuesday to NBC Boston, “Our family is devastated by the tragic loss of our beloved parents, Kit and Jerry Boucher. We are deeply grateful for the heroic efforts of the first responders in Eastham. We are thankful for the outpouring of love, and appreciate the privacy and discretion the community is extending to our family during this unimaginably difficult time.”

“They walk all the beaches, all the time. They loved being on Cape Cod, they loved living here. This was their place,” said Dawn Varnum, who knew the Bouchers well, told the outlet,

Kit and Jerry celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year, Lawson told the New Haven Register.

“They have been together since they were 15 and died together on Valentine’s Day,” Lawson said. “They were best friends throughout life. They were fiercely dedicated to family and friends, and made everyone they met feel loved and important.”

Boucher said her parents took their dog for a walk on Valentine’s Day, a daily routine for her mother, likely joined by her father due to the holiday.

“When I arrived at their home after hearing the news,” Boucher said about their disappearances, “I could see their Valentine cards and chocolates on the kitchen table. They were just going to do their normal thing. My sister keeps saying, ‘They died alive.’ ”

Massachusetts State Representative Steve Xiarhos also sent his condolences to the family, posting on Facebook, “We are absolutely heartbroken over the tragic loss of Kit Boucher and the ongoing search for her husband Jerry in Eastham,” sharing a photo of the couple.

Saqib Razzaq (Image: GMP)

SAQIB RAZZAQ, 48, is wanted on recall to prison

Nhial Tay (Image: GMP)

NHIAL TAY, 22, is wanted on recall to prison

Mohammed Karbhari (Image: GMP)

MOHAMMED KARBHARI, 34, is wanted on recall to prison

Damian Cansell (Image: GMP)

DAMIAN CANSELL, 41, is wanted on recall to prison

Lois Williams (Image: GMP)

LOIS WILLIAMS, 31, is wanted on recall to prison

A police spokesperson said: “Anybody found harbouring any wanted person or helping them to evade justice will be arrested themselves and face possible court action and a criminal record.”

In the event of any sightings, please ring 999, while anyone with any information can leave a message on the police social media pages, or call independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey Catholic diocese this week agreed to a $180 million settlement to resolve allegations of clergy sexual abuse, a figure far exceeding agreements in some large dioceses but still dwarfed by other massive settlements.

Bishop Joseph Williams of the Diocese of Camden, covering southern New Jersey and its Philadelphia suburbs, announced the settlement Tuesday in a letter.

“For the survivors of South Jersey, this day is long overdue and represents a milestone in their journey toward restored justice and the healing and recognition they have long sought and deserve,” Williams said.

Mark Crawford, state director of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, said in a phone interview Wednesday that the settlement was long overdue but he was glad the ordeal was coming to an end. He praised the bishop for listening to survivors and for pledging transparency, contrasting him with his predecessor, who fought a legal battle over a state investigation into alleged clergy abuse.

“This settlement and this bishop have acted very differently,” Crawford said. “I hope it sends a message that this is possible, that this is right.”

Greg Gianforcaro, one of the attorneys representing victims suing the diocese, credited survivors’ persistence in reaching the agreement. The diocese has said there about 300 survivors of abuse raising claims.

“It’s been an extremely long and arduous battle,” he said in a phone interview.

It’s the latest agreement in a scandal set off more than two decades ago when the scale of the abuse and the church’s effort to hide it came to light in Boston. The New Jersey settlement agreement is more than the roughly $80 million settlements in Boston and Philadelphia, though settlements in California ranged much higher. In 2024, the Los Angeles Archdiocese agreed to an $880 million payment.

The Camden settlement comes less than a year after the diocese withdrew its objection to the state of New Jersey’s grand jury investigation into decades of alleged sexual abuse of children by religious. The state Supreme Court has since ruled the state’s investigation could move ahead.

The Camden diocese, like others nationwide, filed for bankruptcy amid a torrent of lawsuits after the statute of limitations was relaxed.

In 2022, the diocese agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle allegations involving clergy sex abuse against some 300 accusers, one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the U.S. The latest settlement announcement includes these funds, according to victims’ attorneys.

The diocese of Camden covers six southern New Jersey counties outside Philadelphia. The agreement must still be approved by a bankruptcy court.

Drones being flown into North Korea by civilians are harming inter-Korean relations, a South Korean minister has said. 

Chung Dong-young claimed three civilians had sent drones to the secretive state on four occasions since Lee Jae Myung became South Korea‘s president last June.

The suspects flew the aircraft between September 2025 and January this year, according to Mr Chung, as police and the military investigate.

The unification minister said drones crashed two times in the North, in line with claims made by Pyongyang.

On two other attempts, the drones returned to Paju, a border settlement in South Korea, after flying over Kaesong, a city in North Korea, Mr Chung said on Wednesday.

Authorities in the South were investigating the three civilians on suspicion of violating the aviation safety act and breaching criminal law by benefiting the enemy, he continued.

Some officials at South Korea’s military intelligence agency and the national intelligence service were also under investigation for alleged involvement with the trio, Mr Chung added.

“We express official regret to the North,” he said, and stated the government was taking the drone incursion incidents very seriously.

South Korea’s government plans to strengthen penalties for sending drones to the North, Mr Chung said, including up to a one-year jail term or a 10 million won (£5,100) fine.

Pyongyang hits out

North Korea has reacted angrily over the activity, saying last month that drones from South Korea entered its airspace, after another intrusion in September.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, urged Seoul to investigate the incident, warning provocations could result in “terrible situations”.

Mr Chung also expressed regret over South Korea sending 18 drones to North Korea under the alleged direction of ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol.

“It was an extremely dangerous incident aimed to induce an attack against South Korea by sending 18 drones on 11 occasions, to sensitive areas in North Korea including the airspace over the Workers’ Party office,” he said.

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Yoon was jailed on some charges in January, he is still facing others

Alleged covert drone operation

South Korean prosecutors have indicted Yoon, who declared a short-lived martial law in December 2024, before he was ousted in April 2025, on charges that include aiding an enemy state.

They accused him and his military commanders of ordering a covert drone operation into the North to raise tensions and justify his martial law decree.

Yoon denies wrongdoing.

A verdict is expected on Thursday as to whether his martial law declaration amounted to an insurrection.

This weekend some parts of the UK may experience their first burst of spring ‘warmth’, with temperatures of 15 or 16C possible in a few spots. However, it doesn’t mean that sunshine and dry weather is back.

Rain will still feature across the UK during the weekend despite south-westerly winds dragging in milder conditions.

The Met Office have said that there is no sign of prolonged dry weather until the middle of March at the very least, with our weather remaining very “changeable”.

Despite this, the blocked weather pattern that has been the reason for all our problems so far this year has finally changed. It means that low pressure systems will sit in different areas and also progress across the UK more than they have done. The result will be a different distribution of rainfall across the country, with some western hills likely to experience the wetter conditions.

There should also be a few more drier and brighter days, but with rivers still very high and the ground saturated in large parts of the country any further rain could still bring the risk of more flooding.

After the unusually dry conditions through a large part of 2025, and the resulting drought in a number of areas, the turn around to flood has been fairly rapid.

Cancer treatment follows a familiar pattern: doctors spot symptoms, diagnose the disease and start treatment. But scientists are now exploring a radical shift in how we tackle cancer. Instead of waiting for tumours to appear, they want to catch the disease decades before it develops.

This approach is called “cancer interception”. The idea is simple: target the biological processes that cause cancer long before a tumour ever forms.

Researchers are hunting for subtle early warning signs. These include genetic mutations that quietly build up in our cells, giving them advantages against our immune defences.

They’re also looking at precancerous lesions like moles or polyps, and early visible changes in tissue. All of these appear long before cancer becomes obvious.

Large genetic studies reveal that as people age, their bodies accumulate small groups of mutated cells called clones that grow silently. Scientists have studied this particularly well in blood. These clones can help predict who might develop blood cancers like leukaemia, and the genetics, inflammation and environmental factors strongly influence them.

Crucially, doctors can measure and track these changes over time. This opens up possibilities for early intervention.

A 16-year study followed around 7,000 women and uncovered how these mutations work. Some mutations helped clones multiply faster, while others made them particularly sensitive to inflammation.

When there was inflammation, these sensitive clones expanded. Breaking down these patterns helps researchers identify people with a higher chance of developing cancer later.

Not a sudden event

The research reveals something fundamental about cancer. It’s not a sudden event that instantly produces a tumour.

Instead, cancer develops through a slow, multi-step process with detectable warning signs along the way. These early signs could become powerful targets for stopping cancer before it starts.

Scientists are developing blood tests to spot cancer long before symptoms appear. These tests, called multi-cancer early detection tests (MCEDs for short), search for tiny fragments of DNA in the blood.

MCEDs work by looking for circulating tumour DNA, or ctDNA – DNA fragments that cancerous or precancerous cells release into the bloodstream. Even very early cancers shed this DNA, so the tests might detect disease long before it shows up on a scan.

The results so far look promising. MCEDs can boost survival rates through early detection, especially for colorectal cancer. When doctors diagnose colorectal cancer at stage one, 92% of patients survive five years. But when they catch it at stage four, only 18% survive that long.

The tests aren’t perfect, though. They miss some cancers entirely, and positive results still need follow-up tests to confirm.

Even so, research suggests MCEDs could become crucial for catching cancers that usually go unnoticed until much later. The potential to save lives is significant.

Heart doctors already use a similar approach. They calculate a person’s risk using age, blood pressure, cholesterol and family history, then prescribe drugs like statins years before a heart attack happens.

Cancer researchers want to copy this model. They envision combining genetic mutations, environmental factors and MCED results to guide early cancer prevention.

But cancer differs from heart disease in important ways. Cancer doesn’t follow a predictable path, and some early lesions shrink or never progress.

There’s also the risk of over-diagnosis. Being told you’re at higher risk when you feel perfectly healthy creates anxiety.

Cancer prevention tools also vary widely in their effectiveness, unlike statins that work broadly across different cardiovascular risk groups. The risk-based model shows promise, but needs careful handling.

Treating cancer risk instead of cancer itself raises difficult ethical questions. When someone feels completely healthy, judging whether intervention will truly help them becomes harder.

There’s a danger of causing unnecessary worry or harm. Scientists warn that doctors sometimes overestimate benefits and underestimate risks, particularly for older adults.

MCED tests bring their own ethical concerns. Accuracy isn’t the only issue that matters.

The tests sometimes flag cancer when none exists, leading to follow-up scans and biopsies that patients don’t actually need. The anxiety from all of this carries a high cost, both for patients and the healthcare system.

If these tests are expensive or only available privately, they could make health inequalities worse. This concern hits hardest in low-income countries.

In the US, the medicines regulator is investigating how MCED blood tests should work. They’re examining how reliable the tests need to be and what follow-ups doctors should require to keep patients safe.

The UK is following suit. The National Cancer Plan for England, published on February 4, 2026, commits to providing 9.5 million extra diagnostic tests through the NHS each year by March 2029.

The plan also states that ctDNA biomarker testing will continue in lung and breast cancer. It will extend to other cancers if proven to be cost effective.

What all this shows is clear. Cancer doesn’t suddenly appear; it’s a steady process that begins decades earlier. Catching it before it grows could save countless lives. The question now is how to do that safely, fairly and effectively.

UEFA has appointed an ethics and disciplinary inspector after allegations a racist ‌slur was directed at Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior during last night’s Champions League match against Benfica.

The match, in Lisbon, Portugal, was halted five minutes into the second half, shortly after ​Vinicius gave the away side a 1-0 lead in the first leg of the knockout playoffs.

Cameras picked up the 25-year-old telling French referee Francois Letexier he had been targeted in a comment made to him by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni.

Prestianni has denied making a racist slur, claiming the Real player “misinterpreted what he thought he heard”.

In a statement, UEFA said that an “Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector has been appointed to investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour” during the game.

It added that “further information regarding this matter will be made available in due course”.

Responding to the UEFA announcement, Benfica said the club viewed the appointment “with a spirit of complete collaboration, transparency, openness and a sense of clarity”.

The statement added the club “clearly and unequivocally” reaffirms their commitment to “equality, respect and inclusion” but added that they regret “the defamation campaign to which the player has been subjected”.

The Champions League match was stopped for 11 minutes as Vinicius went to the sidelines at the Estadio da Luz.

Both coaches, Benfica’s Jose Mourinho and Madrid’s Alvaro Arbeloa, talked to him at one point.

It appeared that Benfica players were not happy with the forward because he celebrated his goal by dancing in front of the corner flag, and some went to confront him.

Vinicius had been shown a yellow card after the celebration.

After the forward’s complaint, the referee responded by crossing ​his arms in front of his ⁠face, activating FIFA’s anti-racism protocol and stopping the match.

Real’s players threatened ⁠to leave the pitch ​as tensions rose, but the referee ​eventually allowed the match to resume.

The teams are due to go to Madrid to play the second leg, with the Spanish side 1-0 up, but Sky News’ sports correspondent Rob Harris said there could be sanctions – including a ban for the Benfica player if he is found guilty of racial abuse.

In a post on his Instagram story after the game, Vinicius said that “racists are, above all, cowards”.

He added, however, that he felt “they have, on their side, the protection of others who, theoretically, have the obligation to punish”.

“Nothing that happened here today was new in my life and my family’s”, the Brazilian player said. “I received a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t understand why.

“On the other hand, just a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose. I don’t like appearing in situations like this, even more so after a great victory and when the headlines have to be about Real Madrid, but it’s necessary.”

In a message on his own Instagram, Prestianni said: “I want to clarify that at no point did I direct racist insults at the player Vinicius Junior, who unfortunately misinterpreted what he thought he heard.

“I have never been racist towards anyone, and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.”

Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, football’s world governing body, said he was “shocked and saddened” to see the incident of alleged racism towards Vinicius.

“There is absolutely no room for racism in our sport and in society,” he said. “We need all the relevant stakeholders to take action and hold those responsible to account.”

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Vinicius has made multiple allegations of racist abuse by both players and fans since he moved to Spain’s La Liga in 2018, including during matches against Real’s fiercest rivals, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona.

In 2023, he reacted to alleged racist abuse in a match at Valencia by saying “racism is normal in La Liga”.

Later that year, the Vinicius Jr law was passed in Brazil to combat racism at sporting events.

In 2024, at a news conference ahead of Brazil’s friendly against Spain in Madrid – a game organised to raise awareness of racism in the sport – Vinicius broke down, admitting he had “less will to play” because of the abuse directed toward him.

Tom Wernham, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the BBC using administrative records to “correct benefit amounts is going to be a big improvement to the quality of the data underpinning the UK’s official income and poverty statistics, and we definitely welcome that”.