General news

• Hamilton wins Sports Personality

  14-12-2014 23:52
  
  Lewis Hamilton triumphed over Rory McIlroy to claim the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
  
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• Kerry Smith resigns as Ukip candidate following homophobic and racist remarks

  14-12-2014 23:47
  
  Ukip’s Kerry Smith has resigned as the party’s candidate in a top target seat after it emerged he had made homophobic and racist remarks and joked about shooting poor people.
  
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• Sports Personality of the Year 2014: Lewis Hamilton pips Rory McIlroy to collect prestigious award and cap brilliant year

  14-12-2014 23:36
  Lewis Hamilton tonight received further recognition for a stunning 2014 when he was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in Glasgow.
  
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• Demands grow on David Cameron for judicial inquiry into UK role in US torture

  14-12-2014 23:16
  
  David Cameron is under mounting cross-party pressure to approve a judge-led investigation into whether Britain was involved in the CIA’s torture of suspects during the “war on terror.”
  
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• UKIP Candidate Quits Over Offensive Remarks

  14-12-2014 23:15
  
  A high-profile UKIP Westminster hopeful has quit as the party's candidate in a top target seat after making offensive comments.
  
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• Haenow clinches shock X Factor win

  14-12-2014 23:04
  
  Van driver Ben Haenow is on the road to music stardom tonight after he was named winner of The X Factor.
  
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• CIA 'torture report': Agency conduct was driven by pressure to link Iraq to al-Qaeda following 9/11

  14-12-2014 23:00
  
  The CIA tortured al-Qaeda suspects because it wanted evidence that Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11 in order to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The agency was under intense pressure from the White House and senior figures in the Bush administration to extract confessions confirming co-operation between the Iraqi leader and al-Qaeda, although no significant evidence was ever found.
  
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• X Factor 2014 winner: Ben Haenow beats Fleur East in final

  14-12-2014 22:53
  
  Ben Haenow has been crowned winner of this year's X Factor after beating Fleur East in a nail-biting final.
  
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• Amazon glitch leads to 1p bargains

  14-12-2014 22:48
  
  Amazon customers were able to buy bargain goods for as little as 1p after a software glitch caused the prices to plunge.
  
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• UN climate change deal in Peru attacked by environmental activists as ‘weak’ and ‘ineffectual’

  14-12-2014 22:31
  
  The UN climate deal agreed between nearly 200 countries in the early hours of Sunday morning was welcomed by politicians – but environmentalists and climate activists denounced it as both weak and ineffectual.
  
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• Humanist weddings could stay illegal because of Coalition row between Tories and Liberal Democrats

  14-12-2014 22:20
  
  Thousands of couples planning non-religious humanist weddings could have their hopes dashed after a row between the Tories and Liberal Democrats saw Number 10 veto proposals to give such marriages legal status.
  
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• Robert Fisk on the CIA torture report: Once again language is distorted in order to hide US state wrongdoing

  14-12-2014 21:52
  
  Thank God for Noam Chomsky. Not for his lifetime of eviscerating assaults on our political hypocrisy, but for his linguistics. Long before I knew him, undergraduate Fisk laboured at his university linguistics course, where Chomsky’s work first alerted me to the pernicious use of language. Hence I condemn at once the vile semantics of the Pentagon and the CIA. Not just that old, wolfish, obscene phrase “collateral damage”, but the language of torture.
  
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• Mel B says thanks on XFactor return

  14-12-2014 21:37
  
  Mel B thanked the nurses and doctors who cared for her during the illness that saw her miss the X Factor on Saturday night.
  
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• Millions march: US protests against police violence and harassment against black people continue

  14-12-2014 21:28
  
  Protests against police violence and harassment of black people in the United States continued in several cities on Saturday night, from Washington DC to San Francisco. They waved signs reading “Black lives matter”, and chanted “I can’t breathe!” and “Hands up, don’t shoot”.
  
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• Lifeboat rescues girls from mud

  14-12-2014 21:26
  
  The dramatic moment two teenage girls stuck in thick mud were rescued from an incoming tide has been captured on camera.
  
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• Carrick 'catalyst for Man Utd form'

  14-12-2014 21:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  MOTD2 pundit Didi Hamann explains the part Michael Carrick has played in the turnaround in Manchester United's form.
  
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• Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir claims victory over ICC after it drops Darfur war crimes investigation

  14-12-2014 21:21
  
  Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir claimed victory over the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it shelved further investigation of war crimes in Darfur, and reaffirmed his hard line on the rebel region.
  
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• EastEnders star Wood exits Strictly

  14-12-2014 21:06
  
  EastEnders star Jake Wood made a shock semi-final exit from Strictly tonight.
  
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• Front National fear of ‘gay lobby’: Marine Le Pen appoints Sébastien Chenu as cultural adviser

  14-12-2014 21:03
  
  The deep rifts within Marine Le Pen’s far right movement in France have been exposed by the appointment of a senior gay activist as her “cultural” adviser.
  
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• Strictly Come Dancing results: Jake Wood loses to Mark Wright in semi-final dance-off

  14-12-2014 21:00
  
  Jake Wood has been booted from the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom in the semi-final.
  
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• Boost for Japan’s Shinzo Abe as ruling coalition heads for election win

  14-12-2014 20:51
  
  Japan’s ruling coalition was heading for a resounding victory in lower-house elections last night, firming up Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s hold on power as he prepares to push forward on several politically difficult fronts.
  
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• Boost for Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe as ruling coalition heads for election win

  14-12-2014 20:51
  
  Japan’s ruling coalition was heading for a resounding victory in lower-house elections last night, firming up Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s hold on power as he prepares to push forward on several politically difficult fronts.
  
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• The CIA’s torture is just a symptom of America’s unpalatable reality

  14-12-2014 20:47
  
  Last week we heard much about the US Senate report on torture after 9/11. So now we know. The CIA and its co-conspirators beat up, waterboarded, sexually threatened, assaulted and terrorised Muslims in the Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan, everywhere. Senators finally admit that what the agency did was degrading and wrong. But, as the admissions swelled up and grandiloquent statements were made by American leaders, many of us sensed the tremor of fakery and smelled the whiff of insincerity. T
  
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• Video: Girls Stuck In Mud Rescued By Lifeboat

  14-12-2014 20:36
  
  Two girls suffering from mild hypothermia were rescued after getting stuck in the mud whilst trying to take a shortcut.
  
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• Clock is ticking on Farc to make peace and end 50-year Colombia conflict

  14-12-2014 20:35
  
  Colombian officials and leftist Farc rebels returned to the bargaining table in Cuba last week, with both sides saying their two-year-old peace negotiations were on a stronger footing after having survived their first major crisis.
  
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• Pressure builds for torture probe

  14-12-2014 20:18
  
  The Government is facing mounting cross-party calls for a new judicial inquiry into allegations of British involvement in the torture of terror suspects following the exposure of brutal CIA interrogation methods.
  
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• Ronson tops chart with Uptown Funk

  14-12-2014 20:04
  
  Mark Ronson has topped the singles charts for the first time with Uptown Funk, which was rushed out after it was covered on The X Factor.
  
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• War against Isis: British troops to return to Iraq to help train Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmarga forces

  14-12-2014 19:39
  
  Two military commanders who prepared the way for the UK’s withdrawal from Basra five years ago will be in charge of British forces going back to Iraq in the war against Isis.
  
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• UK body seeks uncensored CIA report

  14-12-2014 19:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A parliamentary committee will act "without fear or favour" to establish if the UK played any role in the CIA's interrogation programme, its chairman says.
  
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• Ian Burrell: Hacks Hackers is the place smart, young, would-be recruits looking for the right job head to these days

  14-12-2014 19:15
  Finding a good job in the media used to be about old-school-tie networks or else climbing those long career ladders from making the tea in the newsroom to working as a “runner” in the corridors of broadcasting.
  
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• So close! Miss England misses out to being crowned Miss World

  14-12-2014 19:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  SHE came so close.
  
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• Israel-Palestine conflict: Hamas anniversary parade sees militants display rockets and heavy weapons as they vow to destroy Israel

  14-12-2014 19:08
  Around 2,000 armed Hamas militants have paraded through the streets of Gaza, as the group vowed to destroy “this illusion called Israel” on the 27th anniversary of its founding.
  
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• Swansea City vs Tottenham match report: Christian Eriksen's last-minute larceny leaves Monk sickened by wasteful Swansea

  14-12-2014 19:03
  Christian Eriksen was Tottenham’s late hero again as his last-gasp goal stole all three points in a feisty battle here today.
  
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• Swansea City vs Tottenham match report: Christian Eriksen secures the points for Spurs with late winner

  14-12-2014 19:03
  Christian Eriksen produced another piece of late magic as Tottenham rode their luck to claim their fourth away win of the season.
  
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• Simon Wessely: 'If we treated people with diabetes the way we treat those with depression, there would be an outcry'

  14-12-2014 19:01
  Simon Wessely still remembers the letter that he received more than 20 years ago from a neurologist referring a woman with chronic fatigue syndrome (MS). “Please see and treat this patient,” it said. “There is nothing wrong with her.”
  
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• Dozens attend pantomime horse race

  14-12-2014 18:56
  
  It was a case of "may the horse be with you" as Star Wars characters Princess Leia and Darth Vader sounded the starting gun at a pantomime horse race for charity.
  
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• Mignolet is dropped 'indefinitely'

  14-12-2014 18:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Brendan Rodgers says Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet is dropped "indefinitely", with Brad Jones to retain his place.
  
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• Mel B returns to XFactor panel

  14-12-2014 18:47
  
  Mel B will return to the X Factor tonight after missing last night's show through illness.
  
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• Man charged with murder after Newcastle couple die from serious injuries

  14-12-2014 18:40
  
  A man has been charged with two counts of murder after a couple in Newcastle who were found seriously injured in their home later died in hospital.
  
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• Yemeni border guards shoot dead al-Qaeda militants disguised in veils

  14-12-2014 18:22
  
  A Yemeni border guard shot dead three suspected militants wearing women’s veils yesterday as they tried to enter Saudi Arabia with a male driver.
  
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• Three arrested in London Living Wage protest in Oxford Street for cleaners working at John Lewis

  14-12-2014 18:03
  
  Three people were arrested yesterday for allegedly assaulting a police officer amid a protest for the London Living Wage in John Lewis’ flagship branch on busy Oxford Street.
  
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• First 'e-cigarette child death': New York baby dies after drinking liquid nicotine

  14-12-2014 18:01
  
  A one-year-old baby has died in New York state after drinking from what is thought to have been an e-cigarette refill bottle, prompting calls to change how the liquid nicotine products are presented.
  
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• 'I'd do it again in a minute' – Dick Cheney unrepentant after CIA torture report

  14-12-2014 17:59
  
  Former US vice president Dick Cheney has defended the CIA's brutal interrogation techniques against prisoners.
  
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• Geminids meteor shower 2014: See the spectacular images of shooting stars lighting up the night sky

  14-12-2014 17:57
  
  Stargazers defied the freezing outdoor temperatures on Saturday night to witness one of the most spectacular astronomical events of the year: the Germinids meteor shower.
  
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• Earth could face sixth mass extinction within 100 years

  14-12-2014 17:52
  
  The earth could face a mass extinction by the next century if species continue to disappear at the current rate, according to a report by the scientific journal Nature.
  
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• George Clooney 'loses sleep' over negative reviews, hacked Sony emails reveal

  14-12-2014 17:31
  
  He’s the most admired and desired man in Hollywood - but George Clooney is deeply hurt by bad reviews, the latest tranche of leaked Sony emails revealed yesterday.
  
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• Margaret Aston: Historian who illuminated the study of religious life in England between the late Middle Ages and the Civil War

  14-12-2014 17:28
  Margaret Aston was an historian whose work illuminated the study of English religious life between the late Middle Ages and the Civil War. Although she was from the most establishment of backgrounds her chosen field was that of popular belief, and her main subjects were heretics and iconoclasts.
  
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• Spectre script leaked in Sony hack

  14-12-2014 17:26
  
  A draft script for the new James Bond film has been stolen and leaked by hackers, producers have confirmed.
  
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• Mary Ann Mobley: Beauty queen who was crowned Miss America in 1958 and went on to make two films with Elvis Presley

  14-12-2014 17:16
  
  Mary Ann Mobley was a raven-haired Mississippian who was crowned Miss America in 1958 and parlayed her victory into an acting career. The highlight was when she twice played opposite Elvis Presley in 1965.
  
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• Dozens of arrests in Turkish Erdoğan opposition crackdown

  14-12-2014 17:10
  
  Police have detained 24 people across Turkey this weekend believed to be close to the country’s Gülenist opposition movement.
  
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