Seven lorries containing chocolate worth about £500,000 have been stolen during a robbery in Lancashire.

Two security guards were threatened and tied up by a gang at the Great Bear Distribution Centre in Skelmersdale at 0130 BST on Sunday.

About five men, some wearing ski masks and carrying coshes, held the guards in a field five miles away until 0600 BST.

Seven trailers, each containing about £80,000 worth of Cadbury's goods including Easter eggs, were stolen.

A Bristol graffiti artist is being sought by police after he caused £20,000 worth of damage to a railway bridge.

Banksy is being hunted after his identifying "tag" appeared on the bridge over the M32 at Easton.

Bridge owner Network Rail says commuters face disruption as the motorway and railway line will have to be closed for the clean-up.

DC Colin Saysell of Bristol Transport Police said: "It's going to cost at least £20,000 to put right. It's such a big piece there will be a lot of work to do.

A masked gunman was hit on the head four times with a hammer after a customer intervened to stop an attempted robbery on a pizza shop.

The would-be robber had ordered everyone in Stoney's Pizza, Columbus, Ohio, to drop to the floor.

Witnesses said he searched an office for money, but when he couldn't open a till, he tried to get away.

But customer, JR Croy, used his truck to block the gunman's getaway and a sledgehammer to subdue him.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court rejected a legal bid on Friday by an unemployed man who wanted the state to provide him with free pornography and trips to brothels because his wife is in Thailand.

The court in the southern town of Ansbach ruled that social services did not extend to satisfying the 43-year-old's sexual needs after he attempted to sue his local welfare office because it had refused to finance his appetite for prostitutes and porn.

"He wanted them to pay for four trips to the brothel a month, eight porn films a month, plus condoms," said court spokesman Peter Burgdorf. "He also wanted some sort of appliance for self-gratification to use when watching porn."

Parents who take their daughters abroad to undergo female circumcision will face up to 14 years in jail under new measures that have come into force.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said last year he would close a loophole in a 17-year-old act banning the practice.

Some ethnic minority communities have evaded the law by arranging for girls to have the operation abroad.

But the Female Genital Mutilation Act means circumcision carried out outside UK borders will now be included.

A US burglar has been sentenced to clean 100 prison toilets after raiding a house and defecating on the floor.

A Saginaw County judge has ordered Jonathan Naessens to carry out the sanitation duties at Saginaw County Prison after he admitted stealing a gun from a home in Richland Township, Michigan.

A man jailed for two years after leaving the scene of an accident in which a nine-year-old boy died is to have his sentence reduced.

Kamel Kadri, 38, of Wallace Parade, Goring, was sentenced at Chichester Crown Court on Thursday.

Callum John Oakford was hit by Kadri's Renault 5 on the A259 in Ferring, West Sussex.

On Monday, the CPS said the sentence on Kadri, an illegal immigrant, would be cut by at least two months.

Police hunting an escaped sex offender at large for three days believe he may be in London.

John McDermott, 45, who police say presents a particular danger to children, absconded from a hostel in Wakefield on Friday morning.

Police say McDermott, described as "dangerous", may have been spotted at Victoria Coach station in London at about 0800 GMT on Sunday.

A 21-year-old British student who was arrested at an American airport after joking she had a bomb in her bags has said she is "very sorry".

Samantha Marson was released on Wednesday after a visit by British consular officials and payment of a bond of $5,000 (£2,700).

She told the BBC she had made a "foolish mistake".

Miss Marson triggered a security alert as she boarded a British Airways flight from Miami to Britain on Saturday.

LONDON, England -- Convicted serial killer Harold Shipman has died after being found hanging in his prison cell, British officials say.

The family doctor, known as "Dr. Death," was confirmed as Britain's worst serial killer after an inquiry found he killed 215 of his patients over a 23-year period.

Shipman was found hanging at Wakefield Prison at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday. Despite the efforts of staff who immediately attempted resuscitation, he was pronounced dead by a doctor at 8:10 a.m., a Prison Service spokeswoman said.

Police in Sweden are confident of catching a burglar who used the toilet during a raid but forgot to flush.

Officers say they have recovered a DNA sample from the faeces left in the toilet bowl.

Nettavisen, quoting local paper Bohuslaningen, says more than £25,000 worth of computers were stolen in the raid on a paper plant in Dalsland.

Police are sending out a warning to persistent criminals - in hand-delivered Christmas cards.

Hampshire Police are sending out the greetings cards in an attempt to cut crime over the festive period.

Beat officers have personally delivered 40 cards to show offenders that the force is keeping an eye on them, even over Christmas.

The message in the card reads - Seasons greetings from Hampshire Constabulary. We look forward to you making a crime free New Year's resolution!

The mother of Soham killer Ian Huntley reportedly wants her son to be put to death because of his horrific crimes.

Lynda Nixon's comments in the Sun came as Huntley began a life sentence for the murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in August 2002.

She said her son's actions were "unforgivable" and he should pay for them with his own life.
Ms Nixon, 49, also said she had thought Huntley was guilty because she "saw it in his eyes" when he was arrested.

His grandmother Iris believes these sort of messages will make all the difference to him as he faces his first Christmas in a Japanese jail.

Mrs Baker, 54, of Oaksey, near Malmesbury, said her son, who has always protested his innocence, would be spending Christmas in solitary confinement, suffering from frostbite. She believes that receiving Christmas cards from well-wishers could keep his spirits from deteriorating even further.

Send cards to Nicholas Baker, Chiba Detention Centre, 192 Kaizuka-Cho, Wakabu-Ku, Chiba-Shi, Chiba-Ken, 2640023, Japan.

MAXINE CARR could be freed from jail in 30 days under an early-release scheme intended to ease overcrowding in jails in England and Wales.

Even if she fails to win early release with an electronic tag, Carr will be freed automatically from prison next May after serving half her sentence, including time on remand.

A tearful Carr was back last night in Holloway prison in North London, where she has been held on remand since being arrested in August 2002.

She was immediately put on suicide watch, with staff monitoring her round the clock because she was said to be depressed at the length of her sentence. It is understood she had been advised that she would be given a 2½-year jail term, which would have meant her walking free from the Old Bailey.

Property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten, jailed for killing a business rival, has been set free after winning a legal battle over a manslaughter conviction.

The Court of Appeal agreed on Monday that the prosecution's case against him did not stand up.

He had been cleared of murder but convicted of the manslaughter of father-of-six Mohammed Raja at the Old Bailey last year.

A woman is thought to be the first person in Britain charged under the new law against using a hand-held mobile phone while driving.

She was driving in Tayside, Scotland, in the early hours of Monday when she was stopped by police.

The 35-year-old woman did not receive an on-the-spot fine as she was also charged with drink-driving and both alleged offences will be dealt with at a later date.

A 19-year-old Norwegian has been convicted of drink-driving, even though he was sitting in the passenger seat of a car that didn't have keys in the ignition.

Oysten Haakanes has been convicted of the offence even though he had a sober designated driver.

"I think it's unreasonable," said Haakanes.

Haakanes and a friend were on their way home from a party when they stopped at a petrol station to buy some food near the town of Tinn, 80 mile west of Oslo.

A bus driver is due in court today charged with the murder of Devon teenager Alicia Eborne, whose body was found near remote moorland.

Lee David Holbrook, 39, was charged with Eborne's murder on Sunday and is due before Torbay magistrates, Devon and Cornwall Police Inspector Bob Hefford said.

Officers found the student's body on Sunday about five miles from where she went missing nine days ago.

Jurors in the Soham murder trial are due to visit the site where the bodies of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were found.

The jurors are due to spend about 90 minutes at the remote woodland spot in Lakenheath, Suffolk, where the bodies were found in a ditch in August 2002.

On Monday the jury visited sites in the Cambridgeshire town of Soham, including the former home of Ian Huntley.

Mr Huntley, 29, a former school caretaker, denies murdering the girls.

A Missouri motorist stopped by police threatened to sue them under copyright laws if they wrote down his name.

Daniel Smith is said to have told officers his name was copyrighted, and every time it appeared on a document he would launch a £300,000 lawsuit.

The 45-year-old allegedly told police if his claim wasn't paid within 10 days, it would cost them £900,000. He said if they failed to pay at that point, judgments would be entered against all parties involved and their property.

He was pulled over by police officers following an accident near the town of Independence, reports the Examiner

A "despicable" man who deliberately infected two women with the HIV virus has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Mohammed Dica was convicted at Inner London Crown Court on 14 October of two counts of "biological" grievous bodily harm.

Dica, from Mitcham, south-west London, had told police both women knew of his condition before they had sex.

But the court heard the 37-year-old had told his first victim he had undergone a vasectomy and pursued the second victim telling her he loved her and wanted to have children with her.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Bright lights and toe-tapping tunes -- it could have been any song contest, but the wardens guarding the auditorium gave it away: the performers were all prisoners from Russia's notoriously harsh jails.

More than 800 hopefuls sent in demo tapes and judges whittled the numbers down to 23 who strutted their stuff in front of a 1,000-strong audience. Murderers and thieves belted out ballads in a Moscow concert hall, many singing as if their freedom depended on it.

But there were no winners as their fate had already been decided by the Justice Ministry, which organized the contest. The audience was told six of the singers had been released just hours before the show. But no one knew which ones.

Detectives have been given a further 24 hours to question two teenagers over the death of skydiver Stephen Hilder.

Humberside Police were granted a second extension on Thursday evening to interview two 19-year-olds - believed to be friends of Mr Hilder, who died when he fell 13,000 feet after his parachute was allegedly sabotaged.

The 20-year-old was accompanied on the three-man jump by fellow military college students Adrian Blair and David Mason, who later helped carry his coffin at his funeral.

Almost half of all car crime attacks take place outside people's homes, a study has revealed.

The research found "car muggings" - where thieves steal items such as stereos, mobile phones, cash and credit cards - have risen by 20% in the last year.

The worst town for smash-and-grab car raids was Blackburn, in Lancashire, which has taken over at the top from Slough, in Berkshire.

A Swiss woman claimed a burglar had broken into the offices where she was working late at night because she wanted police to come and get rid of a spider.

The young woman was alone in the office building in the Swiss district of Pfaeffikon near Zurich when she spotted the spider.

She scrambled on to her desk and used her mobile phone to tell police that there had been a break in, and when a patrol car arrived admitted she had lied about the burglar.

A Brazilian man walked into a police station and asked to be arrested 25 years after escaping from serving a life sentence.

Genival Lourival Moraes, 43, said he had escaped from the police after being convicted of killing a truck driver in 1978.

But he told officers he was tired of struggling to make a living by collecting and selling paper in the streets of Jundiai, Sao Paulo.

More than 500 officers are carrying out raids in north London in what police describe as a "pre-emptive strike" against gun crime.

Islington's chief superintendent Barry Norman said police had been receiving increasing reports from residents of guns being fired or people carrying guns.

He said he was concerned about an emerging culture of gangs and the raids were part of a series of operations to stop people bringing guns into the area.

Prison chiefs have been criticised over the riot at Lewes jail on Tuesday night.

The Prison Officers' Association (POA) has blamed staff cuts and the mixing of adult prisoners and young offenders for the disturbance which involved about 30 inmates.

And the local MP has called the prison a "tinderbox waiting to be set alight" because he claims the staff-to-prisoner ratio is too low.

One member of prison staff needed treatment for minor injuries after the inmates went on a rampage just before they were due to be locked up on Tuesday night at 2000 BST.

A teenage employee of a store in Ohio had to be rescued from a small safe after locking himself inside.

The 18-year-old and a friend decided to see if either of them could fit into the four-foot by two-foot safe.

One of the teenagers managed to get in to it, but then couldn't get back out again because the safe locked.

Efforts to open the safe using its combination failed initially, and fire crews and a locksmith were called to the store in Wooster.

A second vehicle has been found by police hunting for the two gunmen who killed one man and injured another in a drive-by shooting.

David King, 32, who was known to have a criminal past, was killed with an automatic weapon in the shooting in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire on Friday morning.

The burned-out silver Mercedes 180 car thought to have been used as a second getaway vehicle was found in the Maiden's Lane area of Bulls Cross, Hertfordshire, on Saturday night.

A Bolivian man spent two months in jail charged with smuggling cocaine before tests revealed he had in fact been carrying talcum powder.

Fernando Vásquez, 25, was arrested in late July at a Chilean police checkpoint.

Officers found a package of white powder in his luggage and charged him with trafficking drugs.

Vásquez told the Chilean police that he used talcum powder on his feet, but they didn't believe him.