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Eurostar said only one train would leave London on Tuesday

Travellers heading for Europe face disruption from two separate strikes by workers in Belgium and France.

A 24-hour stoppage by Belgian rail workers, due to start at 2100 BST on Monday, will halt London to Brussels services through the Channel Tunnel.

Eurostar said it would be able to run only one of its services from London.

A 36-hour stoppage by general workers in France, starting on Wednesday night, is expected to affect pre-bank holiday travel for many Britons.

No connections

Eurostar advised all travellers to and from Belgium on Tuesday that they should change their travel plans and exchange their tickets for alternative dates or obtain refunds from the point of sale.

It said that Brussels Midi station would be closed for the 24-hour strike.

There would be no high-speed onward rail connections from Brussels to destinations in France, the Netherlands and Germany.

The only train leaving London's St Pancras international would be the 19:34 BST service, on the assumption that the Belgian high-speed line would re-open at 21:00 BST.

The French strike is due to begin at 1900 BST on Wednesday and last until 0700 BST on Friday.

Although Eurostar services to Paris are expected to operate as normal during this French strike, there is likely to be severe disruption for travellers within France.

The women were approached on Teignmouth seafront

A man with a fetish for plastic raincoats and cling film has pleaded guilty to two sexual assaults.

Nicholas Green, 47, of The Avenue, Newton Abbot, Devon, was arrested after two women, aged 49 and 46, were assaulted on Teignmouth seafront.

He admitted kissing them on the hand, neck and cheek and suggesting to one she should wear a plastic mac.

Green was given a two-year community order and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for five years.

Since you were a young child you have had a distressing fetish for plastic macs and cling film Sarah Munro QC

During the trial at Exeter Crown Court the prosecutor, Dave Bowen, said Green had previous convictions following a similar pattern.

In 1995 he indecently assaulted a 34-year-old woman, persuading her to put on plastic raincoats before kissing and fondling her.

He also went to the workplace of a 21-year-old woman and got her to put on a plastic "pack-a-mac".

He was also convicted for commonly assaulting a five-year-old girl, who he dressed in a raincoat and offered sweets.

'Incurable' fetish

He was traced, after the latest incident in Teignmouth, through his car registration number.

Recorder Sarah Munro QC said: "You have five previous convictions for similar offences and since you were a young child you have had a distressing fetish for plastic macs and cling film.

"You have used various ruses to ask women to put on plastic macs and cling film and your fetish appears incurable."

She warned Green that if he breached a voluntary behaviour contract to work with the probation service he would go to prison for "a very long time".

Johnson played the whole FA Cup final on Saturday

Two members of Portsmouth Football Club's winning FA Cup squad have had their winners' medals stolen.

England defender Glen Johnson, 23, and goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown, 27, had their medals taken from Oakley Court Hotel in Windsor, Berkshire, during the weekend.

Johnson's went missing from his wash bag while Ashdown's was in his jacket which was stolen from the team hotel.

Portsmouth chairman Peter Storrie said the people responsible had "deprived our players of a lifelong dream".

Thames Valley Police confirmed the medals had been reported stolen on Monday.

'Fingers crossed'

Johnson, who played the full 90 minutes of Portsmouth's 1-0 win over Cardiff City, found his medal missing when he returned to the hotel after Sunday's victory parade.

He said: "We checked out of the rooms on Sunday and left our bags in a safe place to collect them after the parade. But when I got back it was gone.

"I'm just so disappointed. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed someone's going to give it back."

Goalkeeper Ashdown, who was a substitute for the final at Wembley, said his jacket, which contained the medal, went missing after he left it hanging on a chair at the hotel.

Portsmouth chief executive, Peter Storrie, said: "If someone has taken these medals, they have deprived our players of their lifelong dream.

"Clearly someone has come in from outside knowing that these medals were about and focused on taking them."

All Mozambican policemen will have to undergo fitness training

Mozambique police officers are to undergo a compulsory physical training programme, because some of them are too fat to run after criminals.

Interior Ministry advisor Pana Chande told the BBC that the poor lifestyle of many police officers was to blame.

Many of them have very large bellies and drink too much alcohol and smoke cigarettes, he said.

"Some of them are so large it is affecting their health and ability to run," he said.

"We are in a process of training officers and commanders at our training centres… We need men who are able to perform without problems," he told the BBC's Jose Tembe.

Mr Chande said many were slow and inflexible, often unable to chase criminals or act swiftly to avoid crime from occurring.

The physical training involves, among other things, running, gymnastics and simulating the chase of criminals.

He explained that the retraining programme is not a form of punishment, but an exercise aimed at improving the performance of the entire police.

Sarah Ferguson said her daughter was fit and healthy

The Duchess of York has accused parts of the media of making "outrageous" claims that her daughter is overweight.

In an interview with the BBC, Sarah Ferguson said her eldest daughter Beatrice was a fit and healthy size 10.

"The press has been absolutely outrageous, calling her such horrible names... I just think they ought to take more responsibility," she said.

Her remarks come ahead of a TV show in which the duchess helps an overweight family to improve their lifestyle.

Beach bikini

The duchess is a spokesperson for WeightWatchers and has long been concerned about the issue of obesity.

In recent weeks, some sections of the media have criticised 19-year-old Princess Beatrice's figure after she was photographed wearing a bikini on holiday in the Caribbean.

The most important thing we need to do is get people to understand: walk to work, or walk up stairs, take exercise, drink lots of water Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

"Her comment was 'will they be happy if I get anorexia because then they would write about that?'" Sarah Ferguson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"The thing is she is a regular size 10. She's very fit and well and healthy.

"I understand freedom of the press but what I don't understand is when it takes a regular, very healthy girl and tries to completely obliterate her confidence."

Wake-up call

She also spoke about how the family she helped in Hull as part of the two-part reality TV programme for ITV were typical of many others on low incomes.

She said they had not been educated about the ways they could make small, but significant, changes to their lives.

"Dad had diabetes and is now getting over it and I had to say to him 'you do realise, if you go on like this, you could be paralysed, you could lose your limbs', and I think it just gave him such a wake-up call, he'd never been told that," she said.

"The most important thing we need to do is get people to understand: walk to work, or walk up stairs, take exercise, drink lots of water.

"And you know, you can turn on the tap and drink water without having to pay for it."

The candidates are among 10 contesting Crewe and Nantwich

Tamsin Dunwoody, Labour's candidate in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, has defended her campaign's portrayal of her Conservative rival as a "toff".

She said activists dressed in top hats had helped highlight Edward Timpson's wealth and were "good visual imagery".

Mr Timpson said he had not been "hurt" by "old class-war tactics" with polls suggesting the Tories could make their first by-election gain since 1982.

And a Labour vice chairman told the BBC the campaign had been "a little crude".

There are 10 candidates for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, which takes place on Thursday.

It follows the death of long-serving MP Gwyneth Dunwoody - Ms Dunwoody's mother - who passed away last month.

'Difference'

The Labour campaign has portrayed Mr Timpson, who is a lawyer, as a "toff".

Ms Dunwoody's website says: "Do you want a Tory con man or a Dunwoody?"

She told the BBC her campaign had used "good visual imagery of the difference between my opponent and myself".

Maybe it's a little crude but it's trying to get across a legitimate political message Stephen Ladyman Labour MP

"I don't have a £53m pound fortune supporting me. I don't have a £1.5m mansion. I am just a single, unemployed mother of five fighting hard for a job," she said.

Mr Timpson said: "I've not been hurt at all. In fact, it's made me stronger and even more determined to put forward our positive message, which is really what people are interested in.

"They're not interested in old class-war tactics. What they're interested in are what are the local issues here, about the rising cost of living, the rise in crime and the cuts in local services.

"That's what matters to people and that's why we have campaigned very heavily on those issues."

I wouldn't be surprised if it continues at the general election, because there are sufficient Neanderthals at the top of the Labour Party that will insist on this strategy Eric Pickles Conservative MP

Labour vice-chairman Stephen Ladyman told BBC Radio 4's The World at One he thought his party could have been a "bit more witty" in getting its message across.

On the "toff" slogan, he said: "Maybe it's a little crude but it's trying to get across a legitimate political message that the Conservative candidate hasn't done anything in the area.

"He's a rich man and he won't understand the problems that people face day-to-day."

'80 siblings'

But Conservative MP Eric Pickles, who is running his party's campaign in Crewe, said the "class-war" tactics had "back-fired".

"When you see your opponents making a dreadful mistake and under-estimating the intelligence of the electorate, you should feel some joy," he said.

"My candidate's child's name is down for the local state school, his family belongs to a tradition of fostering and he has had 80 siblings, all from challenging backgrounds, so he is very much in touch with reality.

"Labour seems to think if they just press a couple of buttons, working class people are going to jump around on a basis of class envy.

"I think we have moved on. I think Britain is a much more civilised place than that."

'Mean and nasty'

Mr Pickles said he would not be surprised if these type of tactics continue into the next general election "because there are sufficient Neanderthals at the top of the Labour Party that will insist on this strategy.

"It's mean and it's nasty and it sums up Gordon Brown."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said on Sunday that he believes their candidate - Elizabeth Shenton - could win the by-election, whose result is due in the early hours of Friday morning.

He said the Labour vote was collapsing and that people were not turning to the Conservatives after asking questions about the "substance" behind their "rhetoric".

Bilbo has been credited with helping swimmers

Bilbo, Britain's only lifeguard dog, who patrols Sennen in west Cornwall will no longer be seen on duty.

The RNLI has taken over beach safety at Sennen from Penwith District Council this year.

And it says the 14-stone Newfoundland will be unable to patrol as a lifeguard because of a dog ban on the beach.

Bilbo's owner said the decision to keep a lifesaving asset off the beach was a "scandal", but Penwith council is backing the RNLI.