Customs seize

designer labels

CUSTOMS officers said yesterday that they foiled a #4m counterfeiting racket when they seized 100,000 fake designer labels at Birmingham International Airport.

The labels would have been sewn into cheaply made garments to be sold on as genuine products of firms such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Timberland.

Mother held

ANNETTE Lofty, 30, of Bridlington, East Yorkshire, was remanded for a week at nearby Driffield yesterday charged with the murder of her five-week-old son, whose body was found in a cardboard box on a doorstep in the area last week.

Crew suspended

Three crewmen on a Shetland inter-island ferry have been suspended after an alleged incident eight days ago. Shetland Islands Council is understood to be investigating complaints from members of the public that two of the four-man crew were under the influence of drink while the ferry Leirna was carrying passengers and cars from Lerwick to Bressay.

Baby killed

AN eight-month baby boy has been killed and his mother severely injured in a car crash near Mold, north Wales, after the mother apparently lost control on a bend.

Rave charges

TWO men appeared in court at Blackwood, Gwent, yesterday after the death of a man of 20 who attended a rave party. David Thomas, 30, of Penpedairheol, near Bargoed, south Wales, and Matthew Diggle, 21, of Rhymney, Mid Glamorgan, are accused of possessing and supplying ecstasy and amphetamines.

Standing tall

THOUSANDS of war veterans are to take part in a ceremony to unveil a statue of Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery at Portsmouth on June 4. It was just outside Portsmouth that Monty helped mastermind the D-Day invasion and he was the city's garrison commander during 1937-38. The seven- foot high bronze depicts him wearing his favourite flying jacket over his field marshal's uniform, with a thumb tucked into a pocket.

M6 closed

TWO military staff were taken to hospital yesterday after a fuel tanker crashed and spilled kerosene on a motorway, police said. The M6 was closed between junction 14 and 15 for 90 minutes after the accident close to junction 15 near Stoke-on-Trent. The four-tonne bowser, part of a military convoy, had a puncture and collided with a bridge support.