The News Matrix: Saturday 21 September 2013

Police seek clues to Esme's movements

Detectives searching for a 14-year-old girl who has been missing for more than a week have released a new CCTV image of her. Esme Smith, from Farnham, Surrey, vanished after taking a train from Aldershot to London Waterloo just after 4pm last Thursday.

Elephant tramples birdwatcher

A retired geography teacher has been trampled to death by an elephant in south India. It is thought that birdwatcher Colin Manvell, 68, had been taking photographs at the time and did not hear warning shouts from his guides. MORE

PC avoids jail over attack on suspect

A police officer convicted of punching a suspect who spat in his mouth has avoided jail, Scotland Yard said.PC Rohan Scarlett, 47, assaulted Andrew Uba as he put him in a police van. Scarlett was sentenced to a three month community order at Highbury Corner magistrates' court.

Book reveals Ikea family's feud

A bitter feud with his three sons forced the famously thrifty billionaire founder of the Ikea furniture stores, Ingvar Kamprad, 87, to hand over billions of euros, a new book about the Swedish company claims. MORE

Sea melt not as bad as last summer

Arctic sea ice melted to below average levels again this summer, but nowhere near last year's record melt, figures have shown. The extent of the ice at the end of the annual summer melt dropped to 1.97 million square miles, 432,000 square miles less than the average minimum.

D-Day campaign grows even bigger

Our campaign to help the dwindling number of D-Day veterans record their memories so that future generations will never forget their heroism almost 70 years ago has been a huge success. So many veterans have come forward that the project is growing and still need funds. MORE

Hunt for source of brain-eating amoeba

A deadly, brain-eating amoeba has been found in the water supply of a Louisiana community near New Orleans, scaring residents and sending officials on the hunt for its source. Experts say the only danger is to people who manage to get the microscopic organism way up their noses.

Protesters call for release of activists

Protests have taken place outside Russian embassies worldwide calling for the release of 30 environmentalists, including six Britons, who were detained by coastguards after trying to disrupt oil drilling in the Arctic. Russia claimed its officers thought the group had a bomb. MORE

Rancher sentenced over nun's killing

A rancher in Brazil's Amazon has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for ordering the killing of American nun and environmental activist Dorothy Stang, 73, in 2005. Stang was shot six times outside the small town of Anapu, where she worked as an advocate for landless peasants.

Swimmer bids to circle Isle of Wight

A swimmer has begun her attempt to be the first person in three decades to swim around the Isle of Wight. Anna Wardley, 37, is expected to complete the 56.4 mile circumnavigation in about 30 hours, wearing only a normal swimming costume, goggles, and cap.

Shooting injures 12 in Chicago

A three-year-old boy was among 12 people hit by gunfire in an incident at a park in Chicago. All the victims were alive when they were transported to local hospitals, Deputy Fire Chief James Mungovan said, although the child, Deonta Howard, was said to be in a critical condition.

Zoologists discover new species of rat

A new rat has been discovered in the mountain forests of Halmahera in the Moluccas archipelago – a part of Indonesia where Sir Alfred Wallace independently came up with a theory of evolution. The Spiny Boki Mekot Rat was drawn by traps baited with roasted coconut and peanut butter.

A Big Mac and a crane to go, please

A crane has toppled through the roof of a McDonald's restaurant in Consett, County Durham. A spokesman for McDonald's said the crane had been on site to carry out scheduled development work and "toppled while moving an outdoor chiller unit". Nobody was injured.

'Pregnant' spaniel was full of stones

A family sprocker spaniel stunned its owners in Swansea, south Wales, when a suspected pregnancy turned out to be more than a kilo of loose chippings. The three-year-old pet had secretly gobbled down more than 140 stones and had to undergo life-saving surgery.

Historians get to the heart of the matter

Hungarian historians believe they have are closer to solving the mystery of what happened to the tomb containing the heart of Suleiman the Magnificent, the longest reigning ruler of the Ottoman Empire, after discovering the remains of a town in the part of southern Hungary.

Bloom's Romeo wins mixed reception

British actor Orlando Bloom has received mixed reviews for his Broadway debut in an interracial version of Romeo and Juliet. . The Lord of the Rings star, who plays Romeo, was praised in the New York Times for a "first-rate debut" but other critics said he lacked stage presence.