Banker Boumeester Found Dead

A Dutch financier who went missing after leaving his job at troubled banking group ABN Amro has been found dead with gunshot wounds.

Fears grew for the safety of high-flying banker Huibert Boumeester when he missed a business appointment. He had not been seen for a week.

Police said two of his shotguns had also disappeared from his homes in London and Scotland.

The body of the 49-year-old former chief financial officer at ABN Amro was found in woodland in Winkfield near Ascot, Berkshire, on Sunday morning.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said they could not confirm the identity of the dead man, but added: "He is believed to have died from gunshot wounds.

"At the moment it is being treated as an unexplained death. A definite cause of death has not been established."

Mr Boumeester joined ABN Amro, the 2007 takeover of which plunged the Royal Bank of Scotland into record losses, in 1987

He worked his way up to the post of chief financial officer before leaving early last year.

It is not known whether he left the company voluntarily or was forced out.

Staff at Artemis Assets Management, where the missing businessman was appointed to the board following a merger with ABN Amro, said he resigned in March this year citing "personal reasons".

Mr Boumeester, who set up the Boumeester Foundation in a bid to conserve cultures in countries such as Vietnam, China and Bhutan, was described by police as "feeling down of late".

His car, a blue 56-registration Range Rover, also went missing last week.

Warning As Britain Basks In The Sun

The Met Office has issued a heat warning for large parts of the UK as forecasters predicted temperatures could rise above 30C.

Health and social services will be preparing themelves under the Heat Health system should temperatures get too much for the young and elderly as increasingly hot and humid air will spread across much of Britain during this coming week.

The system uses four levels of response based upon threshold maximum daytime and minimum night-time temperatures.

These thresholds vary by region, but an average is 30C (86F) by day and 15C (59F) overnight.

Wales, the north and Scotland is at level one, the lowest, but the Midlands, east Anglia and the south of England is currently at level two.

This is triggered as soon as the risk is 60% or above for threshold temperatures being reached in one or more regions on at least two consecutive days and the intervening night.

Sky weather forecaster Isobel Lang said: "It's been warm enough already this past week, temperatures reached 28C (82.4F) in London on Saturday, and the heat and humidy has already sparked off intense storms.

"But it's going to get even hotter.

"The peak of the heat this week looks like being Wednesday or Thursday with a high of 32 Celsius (90F) possible in London.

"Night-time temperatures will be unusually high and obviously it's the build-up of heat over several days and nights which will cause the problem."

NHS Direct said the elderly and young children are most at risk from heat stroke in hot weather and that people should avoid going out in the hottest part of the day, between 11am and 3pm.

Medics advise:

:: Strenuous outdoor activity such as sport, DIY, or gardening is best avoided and that people outside should stay in the shade, wear a hat and light, loose-fitting clothes, preferably cotton.

:: Indoors, close curtains in rooms that get a lot of sun.

:: Take cool showers or baths, and splash yourself several times a day with cold water, particularly your face and the back of your neck.

:: Drink regularly even if you do not feel thirsty - water and fruit juice are best. Avoid tea, coffee and alcohol as they can cause dehydration.

The heat and humidity is expected to fuel some severe thunderstorms this week with the risk of flash flooding.

It has already claimed one victim after a teenage boy was struck by lightning in a park in Birmingham.

The 16-year-old suffered a heart attack after the incident in Small Heath Park and is now in a critical but stable condition in hospital.

Fears For Depressed Missing Banker

A depressed Dutch financier who recently left his job at troubled banking group ABN Amro has gone missing along with two of his shotguns, police have said.

Officers are concerned for the welfare of high-flying banker Huibert Boumeester, who has not been seen since Monday, when he missed a business appointment.

Kids 'Growing Up In No-Work Homes'

Almost a quarter of children in London live in households where no one is working, official figures show.


The figure of 23% is well above the national average of 15%, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The North East, North West, West Midlands and Wales all have a disproportionate amount of children in the same situation, with a rate of 18%.

The report also shows regional differences in the types of family children live in, their health, education and sentencing for crime.

An ONS spokesman said: "Although there are differences between regions, the data suggest that the most significant influence on children's experiences growing up is likely to be income deprivation."

The report also found London topped the list of regions with the highest number of families headed by lone parents - 31% compared with 29% in the North East, 28% in both the North West and Wales, and just 19% in the South East.

Two-thirds of families with dependent children in Northern Ireland and the South East involved married couples, compared with fewer than 60% in the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber and Wales.

The report also found child obesity rates were high in urban areas such as Hackney in east London (16%), Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, and low in Brighton and Hove (6%), Wokingham, Stockport, Sheffield, Windsor and Kingston upon Thames.

A lower proportion of young people in urban areas achieved five A*-C GCSEs or equivalent, compared with their rural counterparts.

London bucked the trend, largely because its non-urban areas cover a very small minority of pupils.

But there was also a significant variation in levels of attainment between urban areas, with more than 65% of children attaining five A*-C grades in Gateshead, Trafford, Wakefield, Solihull and Belfast in 2006/07.

Fewer than 55% attained the same results in Sheffield, Barnsley and Bradford, Coventry, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester.

The report's unveiling coincided with the release of a study by the Centre for Cities which warned the Government had to do more to tackle the problem of long-term youth unemployment.

Schoolboy's killers facing life: Photo

Three men found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Ben Kinsella are due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey later.

Ben, the brother of EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, was stabbed 11 times after a row in a north London bar.

Michael Alleyne, 18, Juress Kika, 19, and Jade Braithwaite, 20, all from London, face mandatory life sentences.