General news

• UK deputy PM says open to inquiry over spies' role in torture

  11-12-2014 23:57
  
  By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Thursday he would support an inquiry into whether British spies were complicit in CIA torture of terrorism suspects, if other investigations failed to uncover the truth. Clegg said that while he was sure British intelligence agents were not involved with torture now, allegations that spies had known about the mistreatment of detainees by U.S. authorities and others had to be fully examined. "I, like everybody else
  
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• The BBC Music Awards – liveblog

  11-12-2014 23:48
  
  The Beeb launches its very own Brits tonight, live from Earl’s Court – with Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Coldplay and Calvin Harris among those taking the stage. We’re following proceedings right here … 10.20pm GMT True, tonight was no reflection of what “we” have been listening to this year - no St Vincent, no FKA twigs, no Aphex Twin, Caribou, Beck, Run the Jewels or La Roux - and certainly it was miles from the billowy R&B and “sad rap” that have been on constant rotation in
  
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• Mother jailed for promoting terrorism on Facebook

  11-12-2014 23:46
  
  Runa Khan, from Luton, encouraged fellow Muslim women to urge their male relatives to fight jihad and posted picture of suicide vestAn “extremist” mother-of-six who took pictures of her toddler son holding a toy gun and daydreamed about sending his eight-year-old brother to fight jihad when he grows up has been jailed for five years and three months for promoting terrorism on social media.Runa Khan revealed her views on Facebook, encouraging Muslim women to urge male relatives to fight and p
  
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• The Green Prince review – gripping Israeli spy documentary

  11-12-2014 23:44
  The truth is put on trial in this arresting story about the son of a Hamas leader who became a spy for Israel
  
  • The Green Prince: Sundance 2014 - first look reviewLike all stories involving the testimony of former spies, this cannot be taken entirely at face value, and must be examined for what is not being said. But what a startling documentary, all about the greatest coup ever pulled off by Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency. In the late 1990s, they turned Mosab Hassan Yous
  
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• Apple-1 Computer sells for $360,000 at Christie's auction

  11-12-2014 23:43
  
  Computer named after its original owner Charles Ricketts is documented as having been sold directly by Jobs to an individual from his family homeA fully operational Apple computer that company co-founder Steve Jobs sold out of his parents’ garage in 1976 for $600 sold for $365,000 at Christie’s on Thursday. The Ricketts Apple-1 Personal Computer, named after its original owner Charles Ricketts, is the only known surviving Apple-1 documented as having been sold directly by Jobs to an individu
  
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• Boeing 747 jumbo jet lands in Heathrow after residents in flight path hear loud bang

  11-12-2014 23:41
  
  A British Airways jumbo jet was forced to turn back to Heathrow today, after residents on the flight path said they head a “loud bang”.
  
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• Steve Bell on Ed Miliband – cartoon

  11-12-2014 23:39
  
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• The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, Part 2, TV review: An impressive drama, but Joanna Yeates' story still wasn't properly told

  11-12-2014 23:37
  “You’re the murdering landlord,” Steve Coogan tells Christopher Jefferies (a beguilingly brilliant Jason Watkins) in the second and final instalment of Peter Morgan’s ITV1 dramatisation of the innocent Bristol teacher’s treatment as a suspect in the murder of Joanna Yeates.
  
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• Alan Pardew: Arsenal should name their stadium after Arsène Wenger

  11-12-2014 23:31
  
  • Newcastle manager backs under-fire counterpart
  • ‘His treatment at Stoke was one of total disrespect’
  • Booing of Wenger reflects media’s fetishising of discontent Alan Pardew and Arsène Wenger have crossed swords in the past but Newcastle United’s manager holds his Arsenal counterpart in such high regard that he believes the Emirates Stadium should be renamed in the Frenchman’s honour.“The stadium should be named after Arsène,” said Pardew, whose side vis
  
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• Serial nears its end, but the Reddit detectives keep working

  11-12-2014 23:29
  
  Podcast’s runaway success has inspired online commenters to carry out their own investigations – a phenomenon which at last seems to have been acknowledged by the show“I was just curious like everybody else … I just figured out where he lives and found out it wasn’t far,” a Reddit user messaged me late last month.The “he” the user was describing was Jay, the prosecution’s main witness in the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee. That’s the Baltimore case which Serial, the viral podcast
  
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• Olympians 'Shaken' After Mugging At Knifepoint

  11-12-2014 23:24
  
  Two medal-winning British Olympians who were left "shaken" after being mugged at knifepoint are set to take more safety precautions.
  
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• Weather bomb in pictures: Storms cuts power for tens of thousands, and snow is on the way

  11-12-2014 23:04
  
  Northern parts of the UK were faced with harsh gales, snow and lightning strikes over the last two days, which left tens of thousands of people without electricity.
  
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• Pharrell dominates BBC Music Awards

  11-12-2014 22:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  US producer-songwriter Pharrell Williams walks away the big winner from the first ever BBC Music Awards, with Ed Sheeran named British act of the year.
  
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• BBC Music Awards 2015: Ed Sheeran and Pharrell win big prizes at inaugural event

  11-12-2014 22:57
  
  Ed Sheeran has been crowned British Artist of the Year at the first ever BBC Music Awards in London.
  
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• Enrique Iglesias’s ‘Bailando’: Why did the global No 1 fail to trouble our top 50?

  11-12-2014 22:38
  
  We were sitting around the kitchen table with a Spanish friend. As is the modern way, there was an iPad out and we were taking it in turns to DJ. As the evening wore on, our friend suggested that it was the moment for “Bailando”. We looked at her blankly. “‘Bailando’,” she said again as if were stupid. “It is not possible you no know it.” (She really does talk like that.)
  
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• Moazzam Begg: Guantanamo detainee's 20-year link with extremists

  11-12-2014 22:02
  
  Moazzam Begg has been linked with Islamic extremists for more than 20 years.
  
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• Now Britain accused of using evidence obtained by torture of Guantanamo inmate

  11-12-2014 21:57
  
  British authorities used information obtained following the torture of Moazzam Begg to help capture al-Qaeda's top UK operative, it was claimed today.
  
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• Besiktas 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur

  11-12-2014 21:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Spurs slip to second in their Europa League group after losing a match marred by two stoppages due to floodlight failure.
  
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• Besiktas vs Tottenham match report: Lights go out on Spurs' hopes of finishing top of Group C

  11-12-2014 21:48
  
  Winning Group C is moderately important, but most of the drama here last night came far above the pitch.
  
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• Besiktas vs Tottenham match report: Lights go out on Spurs' hopes finishing top of Group C

  11-12-2014 21:48
  
  First the lights went out at the Ataturk Olimpiyat Stadium and then on Tottenham's hopes of topping their Europa League group as Besiktas eked out a hard-fought 1-0 victory.
  
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• Scot Young: Entrepreneur who accumulated a vast fortune but who had claimed to be broke in a bitter legal battle with his ex-wife

  11-12-2014 21:45
  Scot Young was an entrepreneur who had lived a luxurious but hitherto very private lifestyle, with homes in London and Florida, yachting holidays, fine dining and presidential hotel suites. His private life became the subject of public interest as a result of the acrimonious divorce case which began in 2006, when he separated from his wife Michelle, who claimed £300 million as a financial settlement. He was declared bankrupt in 2010, a result, he said, of property deals that had gone wrong and
  
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• Anthony Marshall: Diplomat convicted of conspiring to steal the fortune of his mother, the heiress Brooke Asto

  11-12-2014 21:40
  
  Anthony Marshall was a diplomat, CIA official and theatre producer who was convicted of conspiring to steal the wealth of his ailing mother, Brooke Astor, the New York socialite and philanthropist, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. He received a jail sentence of one to three years but, afflicted by congestive heart failure and Parkinson’s disease, he was medically paroled after serving eight weeks.  Once the doyenne of the New York elite, Astor died in 2007 at the age of 105.
  
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• George Galloway Attacker Jailed For 16 Months

  11-12-2014 21:39
  
  A drug addict who attacked George Galloway in a London street, branding him an "anti-Semite little man", has been jailed for 16 months.
  
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• Louis Murillo: Circus aerialist known as ‘The Great Murillo’ who became a key member of The Flying Wallendas

  11-12-2014 21:34
  
  Louis Murillo, who became known as “The Great Murillo”, was a leading member of the globally renowned Flying Wallendas, a German-American group of circus aerialists who disdained safety nets. He and the troupe were famed for their unique three-tier, seven-person pyramid on the high wire, with a female member – the “top-mounter” – sitting or standing on a chair at the peak.
  
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• Nigeria bombings: Dozens killed in twin attacks in Jos

  11-12-2014 21:25
  
  At least 20 people have died in a twin explosion in the central Nigerian city of Jos.
  
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• VIDEO: Opera made for, and with, children

  11-12-2014 21:20 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The ENO's first ever children's opera, an adaptation of the best-selling picture book, The Way Back Home, opens in London.
  
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• 330 jobs at risk at engineering firm

  11-12-2014 21:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  330 jobs are at risk at a Chepstow engineering firm after it announced the proposed closure of one of its sites and the sale of another.
  
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• More enquire to sue Scouts over abuse

  11-12-2014 21:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Another 60 people have come forward to enquire about suing the Scouts over alleged historical abuse, lawyers say.
  
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• Isis militants push man from three-storey building 'for being gay'

  11-12-2014 20:50
  
  A gang of Isis militants have killed a man by throwing him from the roof of a building, after a make-shift court who believed he was homosexual ruled that he be punished.
  
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• CIA director John Brennan admits 'lapses' in interrogation techniques

  11-12-2014 20:47
  
  John Brennan, the CIA director, acknowledged there had been “lapses” in confining and interrogating detainees in the wake of the 11 September attacks on the United States, but insisted that the “overwhelming” majority of agency officers involved faithfully followed legal and policy guidelines.
  
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• David Cameron in talks with Irish PM to rescue Northern Irish peace process

  11-12-2014 20:40
  
  David Cameron and the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny remained in talks critical to rescuing the ailing Northern Ireland peace process last night, amid warnings a deal is still some distance away after more than a year of deadlock.
  
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• Does Santa Claus exist? Why we teach our children to believe in Father Christmas

  11-12-2014 20:33
  
  The ontology of Santa Claus didn’t impinge on my life until my son, Ari, was in reception class. Ari did not believe in Santa Claus. He was supposed to go to the zoo in early December with his friend Schuyler, and Schuyler’s mother, Tammi, called me up and said she didn’t want her son to go because there were reindeer there, and reindeer, she felt, would lead to a discussion of Santa Claus.
  
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• EE to end Orange Wednesday deal

  11-12-2014 20:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The mobile company EE is to end its Orange Wednesday cinema deal after 10 years as take up of the offer declines.
  
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• Death of Ziad Abu Ein: One autopsy, very different findings

  11-12-2014 20:21
  
  Israeli and Palestinian pathologists announced very different conclusions about the autopsy they performed jointly on senior Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein Thursday, with the Palestinian side saying he died as a result of being struck by a soldier and the Israeli side concluding his death stemmed from a pre-existing heart condition that made him vulnerable to stress.
  
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• CIA 'torture report': Director John Brennan admits techniques were 'abhorrent' but denies the agency mislead the public or the President

  11-12-2014 20:18
  The director of the CIA has admitted that some interrogation techniques used in the wake of the 9/11 attacks were “abhorrent”, but strongly defended the agency and denied it had misled the public or policymakers.
  
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• Elvis comes to the UK: The King is enshrined, forever young, as Graceland arrives over here

  11-12-2014 20:17
  
  On 8 January, had he lived, Elvis Presley would be celebrating his 80th birthday. It’s sobering to think of the 1950s king of rock’n’roll as an octogenarian, his rhinestone-encrusted white Las Vegas jumpsuits long abandoned in favour of – what? Maybe a sensible charcoal-grey suit, accessorised by trilby hat and walking stick.
  
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• 400 critics of Erdogan expected to be arrested, says Twitter user

  11-12-2014 20:09
  
  As many as 400 critics of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are expected to be arrested today in sweeping raids across the country after a well-known but anonymous Twitter user, who is thought to be a government official, warned his followers of the imminent raids.
  
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• Revealed: The secret of how birds evolved from dinosaurs, lost their teeth and learned to sing

  11-12-2014 20:08
  
  Scientists have discovered when hens lost their teeth, why penguins have a thick skin, how the peacock got its tail and what links the song of the nightingale with the human voice.
  
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• Theresa May under pressure over immigration check failings

  11-12-2014 20:08
  
  Theresa May is under renewed pressure over her handling of the immigration system after a damning report revealed that a killer was among a number foreign nationals whose British passport applications were approved without proper criminal record checks.
  
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• Man guilty of teenager's 1993 murder

  11-12-2014 20:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Knife-obsessed loner Colin Ash-Smith, 46, is found guilty murdering 16-year-old Claire Tiltman in Kent in 1993.
  
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• Ed Miliband vows to balance books on public spending - but won't say when

  11-12-2014 20:06
  
  Cutting the deficit every year will be the first item on Labour’s “pledge card” at next May’s general election, Ed Miliband announced yesterday. The highly symbolic move came as the Labour leader tried to boost his party’s economic credentials by promising to balance the nation’s books while still protecting public services.
  
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• Runa Khan: Mother who encouraged her young children to fight jihad jailed for 5 years

  11-12-2014 20:03
  
  An “extremist” mother-of-six children, who took pictures of her toddler son with a toy gun and daydreamed about sending his eight-year-old brother to fight jihad, has been jailed for five years and three months for promoting terrorism.
  
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• Mother who encouraged her young children to fight jihad jailed for 5 years

  11-12-2014 20:03
  
  An “extremist” mother-of-six children, who took pictures of her toddler son with a toy gun and daydreamed about sending his eight-year-old brother to fight jihad, has been jailed for five years and three months for promoting terrorism.
  
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• VIDEO: Meet the Author: Alex Schlacher

  11-12-2014 20:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Alex Schlacher tells Nick Higham about her book Arc of the Gurkha.
  
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• Eurostar reveals bargain Mediterranean fares but surprisingly slow schedules

  11-12-2014 20:00
  
  From the Thames to the Med by train for less than the price of a London-Peterborough rail ticket - that is the offer from Eurostar as it takes on the budget airlines between the UK and southern France.
  
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• Crocodiles 'stuck in the past'

  11-12-2014 20:00
  
  Crocodiles are the closest living relatives of birds but compared with their feathered cousins are stuck in the past, new research has shown.
  
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• Thousands attend funeral of Palestinian official who died after scuffles with Israeli police

  11-12-2014 19:57
  
  Thousands of mourners attended the funeral yesterday of a senior Palestinian official whose death after being grabbed in the neck by an Israeli border policeman has already become a symbol in Palestinian eyes of the evils of Israeli occupation.
  
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• George Galloway left ‘scared to go out alone’ as street attacker jailed for 16 months

  11-12-2014 19:53
  
  George Galloway has revealed that he now feels too scared to go anywhere alone – as the man who attacked the Respect MP in a London street while calling him an anti-Semite was jailed for 16 months.
  
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• VIDEO: More enquire to sue Scouts over abuse

  11-12-2014 19:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More alleged victims of child abuse in the Scouts come forward after the BBC reported that 56 people have begun legal action against the movement.
  
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• US Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush uses UK fund that could lower his American tax bill

  11-12-2014 19:47
  
  Jeb Bush, a front-runner to become the Republican Party’s next presidential nominee, has used Britain to set up a private equity fund that could possibly allow it to avoid paying tax in America.
  
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