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A second man has been arrested in connection with the Andrew Mitchell “plebgate” investigation.

The 23-year-old, who is not a member of police staff, was held on Wednesday night and has been released on bail. This follows the arrest of a police officer on Saturday.

Mr Mitchell quit as chief whip after it was alleged he called Downing Street police “plebs”, which he denies.

CCTV footage has cast doubt on the original police accounts of the row.

The man was arrested in north London at around 20:00 GMT on Wednesday “on suspicion of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence of misconduct in a public office on or around last Friday”. His home was also searched.

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said this had been “about the time police received fresh information about it [Plebgate]”.

Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking during a visit to Afghanistan, said a “full-scale police investigation”, supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, was needed.

“I think that’s very important. Let’s get to the truth,” he said.

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Famous Stoke City footballer Michael Owen, tried his hand as a CCTV control room operator on Friday as he guided Police to a would-be burglar outside his home.

Owen took to Twitter as he watched the intruder on his CCTV system.

He tweeted: “Great TV tonight. Been watching some fella on my cameras for an hour weighing up what to nick!”

He explained that the police had visited the scene but the man concealed himself in the woods of Owen’s £1.6m home in North Wales.

After the police had left the scene, he ran back to a parked van and hid in the back of it.

Owen continued: “Watched it all laughing my head off as the police returned to drag him out.”

Owen also tweeted screenshots from his home CCTV system of the police at the scene, revealing an apparently complex system of at least 26 cameras.

Footballer’s are frequent victims of crime with criminals targeting their homes when they know that players are away from home at a match.

One of Owen’s 1.5m followers observed from one of the images: “Sector 24!!! Jesus mate how many you got!”

Owen had a simple warning for any other burglars: “Enough to catch anyone so don’t even think about it!

Private security company G4S is about to sign a deal which would see it building and staffing the first British police station run by a private security contractor.

The deal with Lincolnshire Police Authority – expected to be signed within days – represents the most radical outsourcing of law enforcement so far, according to a report last week in the Financial Times .

The contract will see G4S take over jobs previously handled by police officers including custody and ID duties (but with custody sergeants still on hand), control room staffing, town enquiry officers, the crime management bureau, the criminal justice unit and firearms licensing.

But Simon Reed, vice-chair of the Police Federation, told the FT that he had some reservations about the scheme, as private employees may not have the same enshrined sense of public duty as police officers.

“Our concern is the resilience of the companies doing this,” he said. “When we have national emergencies or unforeseen events, will they be able to bring their staff in to work long hours, regardless of what their contracts say?”

The police station move is part of a £200m contract with G4S over 10 years. Other police forces are said to be considering similar moves.

In a joint statement announcing the contract last December , Lincolnshire Police Authority chairman Barry Young and chief constable Richard Crompton said:

“Over the period of the contract this new approach will make significant savings, whilst also providing investment in key areas like IT infrastructure. The subsequent streamlining of processes will free up officer time to concentrate on operational policing. Read More

It’s a common grumble that politicians’ lifestyles are far removed from those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay. Meet the president – who lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay.

Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and Manuela, a three-legged dog, keep watch outside.

This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world leaders.

President Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife’s farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.

The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.

This austere lifestyle – and the fact that Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 (£7,500), to charity – has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.

“I’ve lived like this most of my life,” he says, sitting on an old chair in his garden, using a cushion favoured by Manuela the dog.

“I can live well with what I have.”

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The planned merger of commodities trader Glencore and mining group Xstrata has moved a step closer after Xstrata’s second-largest shareholder said it would back the deal.

Qatar Holdings said in a statement that it would vote in favour of the merger next week.

The shareholder vote follows after Glencore increased how much it would pay for each Xstrata share.

The merger plan was first announced in February.

Analysts said the deal between the two Anglo-Swiss companies would now likely be backed by Xstrata shareholders.

While Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of Gulf state Qatar, has said it will vote in favour of the merger, it added that it would abstain on a controversial linked vote on whether Xstrata’s board members should receive multi-million pound payments to stay with the future merged company.

Several other Xstrata shareholders, including Standard Life, have criticised the planned payments.

The merger would still need competition approval by the European Commission.

To help secure this, there are unconfirmed reports that Glencore has offered to sell part of Xstrata’s German operations.