A bag of bones has been found in a river in Suffolk, which the police believe are human remains.
The discovery was made on Thursday afternoon in the River Stour between Meadow Gates and Croft Bridge in Sudbury, Suffolk.
Police have launched an investigation into the finding after being called to the river at around 4.35pm.
Suffolk Police said: "Officers would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed any suspicious activity close to the river, where a submerged shopping trolley and the bags containing the bones were discovered nearby.
"Alternatively, anyone who has seen the bags in the river or knows how they came to be in the water or who uses the route regularly is asked to come forward with any relevant information."
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Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
A man has abducted his three sons from foster care at knifepoint, prompting an international search.
Police are looking for Imran Safi and the boys, who were taken from a garden in south London.
Detectives believe that Imran Safi had learnt that his sons were about to be adopted
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Scotland Yard said ports had been put on alert after he threatened a foster mother with a knife and led Bilal, six, Mohammed Ebrar, five, and Mohammed Yaseen, three, from the property in Coulsdon, Croydon, last week.
Police do not know whether Mr Safi, 26, and the boys have left the country or gone into hiding. The foster carer did not suffer serious injury but was “understandably distressed”.
Detectives believe that Mr Safi, an Afghan with links to Pakistan, had learnt that his sons were about to be adopted. Eight people
Compensation payments for people who have to self-isolate have been branded “an insult” by a charity in one of the pilot areas.
The government is trialling payments to those who claim Universal Credit - or Working Tax Credit - to help them financially if they are asked to quarantine.
People that are eligible will be entitled to £13 a day, which totals £130 for someone who is isolating for 10 days, and £182 for someone who is doing so 14 days.
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Image:The compensation scheme is being trialled in Pendle, Lancashire
The scheme is being trialled in several COVID-19 hotspots, including Pendle in Lancashire.
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"Would you give up working, for £13 a day?," asked Lynne Mitchell, who works at food charity Pendle Food Club.
"I wouldn't. People here have no savings. We're wrung out. The 10 or so people who've come in today for food say it's not enough to keep them at home if they were asked to self-isolate.
"It's an insult, really."
Image:Lynne Mitchell says the payments are 'an insult'
Karl Murray, 45, also lives in Pendle and is a self-employed cleaner, currently claiming working tax credits. He says the government proposal is not enough.
"I'd have to go to work," he told Sky News, adding: "They say it's a choice, but you don't really get a choice, do you?
"Unfortunately I'd probably have to go to work."
Mr Murray is already accessing the food charity to stop himself going hungry.
He says not only would he not self-isolate if he was asked to, but he would be reticent to take a test if he had coronavirus symptoms.
"If I thought it might be just like a bit of a cold, or even if it could be COVID-19, I probably wouldn't go for a test", he said.
"I'd do what I had to do because of my personal circumstances. The £13 would maybe cover my gas and water bills, but the rest - it wouldn't cover that. It's need to be closer to what I could earn in a day."
Local councils, which have lobbied the government for additional support, believe the amount should be closer to the living wage - at around £50 a day.
One Pendle councillor, Mohammad Iqbal, told Sky News, the amount currently proposed by the government was "a slap in the face to normal working class people".
THE UK is set to be chilled by a polar plunge in its last weekend of the summer — making it the coldest Bank Holiday in nearly 50 years.
A sudden cold spell will come on because of a 500 mile-wide freak "polar plunge".
Beaches will be empty, with 10-18C daytime UK highs – 5C below average – from Saturday to Monday amid the cold polar air mass, shown on weather maps.
Summer frost is due in Scotland and threatening northern England with-1C lows expected.
And one of the busiest leisure travel days of the year tomorrow saw the Met Office forecast thunderstorms in the South, with strong winds and rain in the North.
Government data for the NHS Test and Trace system in the week ending August 19 showed some 6,115 people tested positive for coronavirus in England.
It was a drop of eight per cent week-on-week and was the first time positive test figures had fallen since the week ending July 15.
The fall in the figures also came as the number of tests had actually increased from the previous week, with 442,392 - a jump of 7,333.
Coronavirus figures had been increasing according the metric every week since July - possibly linked to an increase in testing over the same period.
The positive case figure had been falling from the end of May, but started creeping up again in the second week of last month.
Figures from the week ending August 12 had hit a high of 6,656 - the biggest number since June before finally falling away again last week.
NHS Test and Trace was first launched at the end of May in a bid to more effectively monitor the spread of the virus as the UK eased out of lockdown.
Anyone who tests positive for the virus is contacted by officials who will then try to track down other people the patient may have had contact with to alert them.
However, despite the fall in positive cases - NHS Test and Trace failed to hit its target of tracking down 80 per cent of close contacts of patients for the ninth week in a row.
Some 75.5 per cent of close contacts in England were reached in the week ending August 19.
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An NHS worker issues instructions at a Covid-19 drive through test station Credit: Getty Images - Getty
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A postman delivers mail during the local lockdown in OldhamCredit: PA:Press Association
The figure is however up from 71.6 per cent in the previous week, as the service tries to reach the target set by the Government's advisory group Sage.
It is hoped NHS Test and Trace will soon be able to reach 80 per cent of contacts of coronavirus cases within 48-72 hours.
Testing is broken down into the categories pillar 1, testing in hospitals and outbreak locations, and pillar 2, nationwide swab tests.
Ahead of this week's figures being published, Health Secretary Matt Hancock acknowledged the system was "not quite there".
He told LBC radio on Thursday: "One of the challenges is we want to get NHS Test and Trace up to over 80 per cent of contacts, getting them to self-isolate - we're at just over 75 per cent, so we're nearly there but not quite there."
Since the launch of Test and Trace, 246,262 close contacts of people who have tested positive for covid-19 have been reached through the system and asked to self-isolate.
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An electronic display board promoting NHS Test and TraceCredit: AFP or licensors
Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses, said it was "encouraging to see to see a significant fall" in the positive tests - but added it was a "mixed picture".
Ms Cordery said:"It’s worrying to see that too many people are still not being reached by the system."
"It’s also a real concern that overall turnaround times for swabs taken in the community are taking longer.
"This is a key component of an effective test and trace system which we’ll need for the months ahead. Clearly, we’re not there yet."
Baroness Dido Harding, the interim head of the new National Institute for Health Protection, said: "This country now has the capacity to test for coronavirus and trace contacts on an unprecedented scale to stop the spread of the virus.
“We will continue to build the service further to reach more and more people and to scale up our testing capacity by expanding our network of testing sites and investing in new technologies."
It came as today another 12 people died of coronavirus in the UK, with the daily figures remaining above the crucial 1,000-a-day mark.
However, the last time the death toll breached 20 was on July 29 - with 34 - as the number of coronavirus fatalities seems to have plateaued in the UK.
Daily case counts have crept up in August from a low of 353 in July, but the daily death figures remain relatively stable.
Experts have said that the rise in cases, but not deaths, is likely down to an increase in testing being carried out across the UK.
Some areas have reported a surge in cases, such as in Oxford and Redditch.
Meanwhile, previous hot spots mostly in the north - including Leicester and Oldham - have seen infections fall.
Residents had been told to keep out of each other's homes for a month after cases spiked.
Ministers have been clear the government was step in to try and control any outbreak to keep Britain from returning to months of lockdown - with a watch list of risk locations.
Fifty companies - from banks to retailers - were quizzed as part of an anonymous poll and 24 said they did not have any plans in place for employees to return.
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However, schools are preparing to reopen to all pupils next week as the government assured it will be safe for children.
