General news

• US struggles to find response to N Korea hack attack - Financial Times

  21-12-2014 23:43 via ft.com
  Financial Times
  US struggles to find response to N Korea hack attack
  Financial Times
  The Obama administration struggled over the weekend to strike an appropriate public response to the devastating computer hack against Sony, as officials scrambled behind the scenes to come up with ways to retaliate and prevent future attacks. Publicly ...
  Obama says Sony hack not an act of warTimes of India
  Sony hacking: Barack Obama says he does not consider cyber attack an act of warBelfast Telegraph
  Rep
  
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• Essebsi declares win in Tunisia election, rival contests - Ynetnews

  21-12-2014 23:43 via ynetnews.com
  
  Wall Street Journal
  Essebsi declares win in Tunisia election, rival contests
  Ynetnews
  Veteran politician Beji Caid Essebsi declared victory in Sunday's presidential run-off vote, seen as the last step in Tunisia's shift to full democracy four years after an uprising ousted autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. Official results are not due until Monday and ...
  Exit polls suggest challenger has won Tunisia presidential electionLos Angeles Times
  Beji Caid Essebsi Claims Victory in Tunisia
  
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• Ten years on from the tsunami – where did all the toxic debris end up?

  21-12-2014 23:35
  
  Cars. Fishing boats. Houses. Entire villages. The 2004 tsunami left Banda Aceh with mountains of debris up to four miles inland.
  
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• Florida's Cuban exiles have mixed emotions over US rapprochement

  21-12-2014 23:31
  
  For so long, many of the exiles believed they would go back to Cuba in battle gear. They would vanquish Fidel Castro by any means necessary. “Next year in Cuba!” they would say when making a toast. Some trained in the Florida Everglades for the invasion that would surely liberate their homeland from the Communists.
  
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• Surrounded by high-rise flats is a little house filled with Lebanon’s history - clocks, rifles, swords, frogmen’s uniforms

  21-12-2014 23:23
  Ibrahim Najem lives in what’s left of the little port of Ein el-Mreisse just back from the Beirut seafront where he used to dive. He’s a magpie of a man who collects. And collects. And collects. He lost the use of his legs emerging from an 80-metre dive in a vain attempt to rescue a fisherman friend in 1982. Now he sits outside his door, a bright rug over his useless legs, talking with enthusiasm about his Phoenician pots, clocks, rifles, swords, frogmen’s uniforms, mortars, keys, radios,
  
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• Sacking of Islamophobic television presenter provokes free-speech row in France

  21-12-2014 23:20
  
  France has been split down the middle by the sacking of the nation’s favourite – and at the same time most detested – hard-right, Islamophobe misogynist.
  
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• Israel-Palestine conflict: Four months after the bombardment, Gaza’s wounds are yet to heal

  21-12-2014 23:14
  
  The sound of the explosions shook Hussein Abu Jamaa awake. “They were so loud, so close, that I thought the fighting had started again, that we have been hit once more.” He hobbled around on his crutches trying to ensure his children were safe amid shouts of alarm from neighbouring houses.
  
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• The Apprentice winner is revealed

  21-12-2014 23:08
  
  Apprentice candidate Mark Wright found he was Lord Sugar's Mr Right this evening when he was told "You're hired" in the final of the show.
  
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• Photographer Jane Bown dies aged 89

  21-12-2014 23:08
  
  Top photographer Jane Bown, who worked for The Observer for more than half a century, has died aged 89, the newspaper said.
  
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• Yazidis cheer Kurds on Iraqi mountain for breaking Islamic State siege - Daily Times

  21-12-2014 23:02 via dailytimes.com.pk
  
  Daily Times
  Yazidis cheer Kurds on Iraqi mountain for breaking Islamic State siege
  Daily Times
  SINJAR MOUNTAIN: Iraqi Kurdish fighters flashed victory signs as they swept across the northern side of Sinjar mountain on Saturday, two days after breaking through to free hundreds of Yazidis trapped there for months by Islamic State fighters. A Reuters ...
  Iraqi Kurds Push Into SinjarWall Street Journal
  Jihadists in retreat as Iraqi Kurds retake Mt SinjarTelegraph.co.uk
  Iraqi Kurds Push Into Co
  
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• The Apprentice 2014 final: Mark Wright hired by Lord Sugar after battle with Bianca Miller

  21-12-2014 23:00
  
  Mark Wright has been hired by Lord Sugar in the final of The Apprentice, after beating rival candidate Bianca Miller to secure the business magnate’s £250,000 investment.
  
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• Row over ambulance times rages on - Daily Mail

  21-12-2014 22:49 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Daily Mail
  Row over ambulance times rages on
  Daily Mail
  Ambulance services today said proposed changes to response times would benefit all patients as a row continued to rage over the plans. Labour attacked Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, demanding more information and claiming he had treated Parliament ...
  Stroke and car crash victims could wait LONGER for an ambulance under secret ...Mirror.co.uk
  Ambulance targets 'may give patients a better response'BBC News
  Ambulance service say
  
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• Theresa May's curbs on foreign students are 'a silly idea', say Lib Dems - The Independent

  21-12-2014 22:46 via independent.co.uk
  
  The Independent
  Theresa May's curbs on foreign students are 'a silly idea', say Lib Dems
  The Independent
  Plans by Theresa May to force students from outside the European Union to leave Britain at the end of their courses and apply for new visas from abroad provoked anger and condemnation yesterday. The Home Secretary is pressing for the policy to be ...
  Theresa May backs student visa crackdownBBC News
  UK may send back foreign grads after course endsTimes of India
  May considerin
  
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• Lady Cobham interview: Tourism envoy with a sideline as David Mellor’s chauffeur

  21-12-2014 22:46
  
  It should have been a glorious day out. Lady Cobham, receiving the insignia of her CBE for services to tourism from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace last month, insists it still was.
  
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• Row over ambulance times rages on

  21-12-2014 22:42
  
  Ambulance services today said proposed changes to response times would benefit all patients as a row continued to rage over the plans.
  
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• 'Serial' fans have a new murder to unravel as Canadian detective crowd-sources investigation

  21-12-2014 22:30
  
  An enterprising murder detective has tapped into the growing popularity of amateur sleuthing inspired by cult US podcast Serial by “crowd sourcing” an investigation into an unsolved killing.
  
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• Exit polls suggest challenger has won Tunisia presidential election - Los Angeles Times

  21-12-2014 22:26 via latimes.com
  
  Los Angeles Times
  Exit polls suggest challenger has won Tunisia presidential election
  Los Angeles Times
  Exit polls in Tunisia suggested that a figure associated with the regime overthrown in 2011 won Sunday's presidential poll, but his rival refused to concede defeat and official results were not expected until later in the week. lRelated Fighting in Libya curbs flow ...
  Beji Caid Essebsi Claims Victory in Tunisia ElectionWall Street Journal
  Exit poll: Ex-regime official is Tunisia'
  
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• Public-sector whistleblowers 'are still seen as snitches', admits Civil Service boss Sir Jeremy Heywood

  21-12-2014 22:22
  
  Public sector whistleblowers are still seen as “disloyal snitches” who get “the treatment they deserve” if they are hounded out of their jobs, Britain’s most senior civil servant has warned.
  
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• Actress Whitelaw dies, aged 82

  21-12-2014 22:15
  
  Actress Billie Whitelaw has died aged 82, her son has told the BBC.
  
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• Service marks Lockerbie atrocity

  21-12-2014 22:08
  
  The 270 people who lost their lives in the Lockerbie bombing exactly 26 years ago have been remembered at a memorial service in the United States.
  
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• Obituary: Billie Whitelaw

  21-12-2014 22:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Obituary of Billie Whitelaw, renowned interpreter of Beckett
  
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• De Blasio at centre of police storm after two NYPD officers shot dead

  21-12-2014 21:42
  
  Mayor attends mass as cardinal calls for ‘the peace only our lord can give’Ex-NYPD commissioner says mayor’s comments ‘set off this firestorm’Two NYPD officers ‘assassinated’ before anger turns on mayor – in picturesOpinion: ‘Wartime’ NYPD blames protesters. Have we learned nothing?It was a cold, cloudy and quiet morning in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, but from blocks away in many directions the flashing lights of a cop car could be seen. The car was statione
  
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• The Dozen: the weekend's best Premier League photos

  21-12-2014 21:34
  
  We round up our favourite pictures from Saturday’s and Sunday’s matches in the English top flight Continue reading...
  
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• Exclusive: Angela Merkel may back David Cameron’s plan to stop child benefits going abroad

  21-12-2014 21:25
  
  EU migrants in Britain would no longer receive benefits to support children back in their home country, under a plan being discussed by the European Commission.
  
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• Madonna: ‘I’m living in a state of terror’

  21-12-2014 21:21
  
  In an exclusive interview, the singer defends her description of the leak of demos from her new album as ‘artistic rape’Madonna has defended her description of the leak of 13 unfinished demos from her forthcoming album as “a form of terrorism” and “artistic rape”.Speaking to the Guardian on Sunday, the singer said she was “living in a state of terror” following the leak, adding that there was “a big possibility” that they were the result of her personal computer being hacked.
  
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• The Apprentice 2014 final – live!

  21-12-2014 21:21
  
  So will Bianca’s alleged ‘negative game’ bring her down at the final hurdle? Or will Mark’s tendency to bend the truth at times cost him big time? The two finalists go head to head
  8.21pm GMT Welcome to the final of The Apprentice 2014 liveblog with festive bleedin’ bells on. I’ve laid on this extended holly and ivy-strewn blog which will span the FULL two hours of the show and aftermath, yes, including You’re Hired straight afterwards. This is it, Alan fans. We, the faithful, wil
  
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• Prince Charles discovers 10 ways to antagonise architects with list of 'geometric principles'

  21-12-2014 21:02
  
  The Prince of Wales has been dismissed as a cranky elitist who believes that architecture should reinforce hierarchical society, after he outlined his 10 “geometric principles” for urban design.
  
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• Twitter and Instagram users can learn a lot about capturing the zeitgeist from a 1920s Chicago journalist

  21-12-2014 21:00
  
  Social media give us the power to create a real-time portrait of our age, just as pioneering journalist Ben Hecht documented his own eraChicago, late afternoon in 1921. Outside, the pavements are slick with rain and in the newsroom, amid cigar smoke, they can feel the rumble as the Chicago Daily News rolls off the press. Enter reporter Ben Hecht, with a new idea. He will write a daily sketch of the city’s life, modelled on the stories of Scheherazade and entitled 1001 Afternoons in Chicago. He
  
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• Ukip councillor Rozanne Duncan expelled for ‘jaw-dropping’ comments

  21-12-2014 21:00
  
  Kent councillor is alleged to have brought the party into disrepute in yet-to-be-broadcast TV interviewA Ukip councillor in Kent has been expelled for allegedly bringing the party into disrepute with “jaw dropping” remarks in a yet-to-be-aired television interview, it has been reported.Rozanne Duncan is a councillor in South Thanet, the Kent constituency where Nigel Farage intends to stand in next year’s general election and in August let slip the party leader’s plans, which had hitherto
  
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• The Apprentice final LIVE: Mark Wright and Bianca Miller fight for Lord Sugar's investment

  21-12-2014 21:00
  
  Tonight will see Bianca Miller and Mark Wright compete to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment in the final of The Apprentice.
  
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• The Apprentice final LIVE: Bianca Miller and Mark Wright fight for Lord Sugar's investment

  21-12-2014 21:00
  
  Tonight will see Bianca Miller and Mark Wright compete to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment in the final of The Apprentice.
  
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• Abuse survivors welcome probe move

  21-12-2014 20:58
  
  Dozens of child abuse survivors have welcomed Theresa May's indication that a panel conducting a troubled inquiry into historical abuse could be disbanded in order for a new and more powerful body to take over.
  
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• New prisoners to be asked if they have served in armed forces in attempt to help veterans

  21-12-2014 20:56
  
  Every prisoner coming into custody will be asked whether they have served in the armed forces as part of an effort to improve how veterans are treated in the justice system.
  
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• Lazar Markovic’s wasted chances cost Liverpool a victory they deserved

  21-12-2014 20:55
  
  Brendan Rodgers’ 3-4-3 experiment would have succeeded if his players had converted even a fraction of the opportunities they createdIt would be hard to argue that Martin Skrtel did not deserve the injury time or the dramatic late equaliser that rescued a point for Liverpool. It was his nasty gash to the head that had occasioned a whopping nine minutes of added time in the first place and the defender was not only on the Arsenal six-yard line to head an unstoppable goal from Adam Lallana’s c
  
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• Theresa May's curbs on foreign students are 'a silly idea', say Lib Dems

  21-12-2014 20:50
  
  Plans by Theresa May to force students from outside the European Union to leave Britain at the end of their courses and apply for new visas from abroad provoked anger and condemnation yesterday.
  
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• Theresa May's curbs on foreign students 'a silly idea', say Lib Dems

  21-12-2014 20:50
  
  Plans by Theresa May to force students from outside the European Union to leave Britain at the end of their courses and apply for new visas from abroad provoked anger and condemnation yesterday.
  
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• Positional indiscipline leaves Arsenal struggling against Liverpool

  21-12-2014 20:46
  
  Mathieu Flamini forced to cover huge area as Arsenal centre-backs play deep and other midfielders stay too high up pitchLiverpool required an extremely late equaliser courtesy of Martin Skrtel but Brendan Rodgers’ side had been superior from the opening moments, causing Arsenal considerable tactical problems throughout.Rodgers’ 3-4-3 formation was no surprise considering he had used that system in Liverpool’s previous two matches, against Manchester United and Bournemouth, but Arsenal appe
  
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• Turkish TV show fined over ‘dance with a stranger’ stunt

  21-12-2014 20:44
  
  Gameshow ‘I Don’t Know, My Spouse Knows’ fined 410,000 Turkish lira for showing husbands dancing with other womenTurkey’s television regulator has handed a record fine to a popular gameshow for a segment where husbands were filmed dancing with other women as their wives looked on, reports said on Sunday.The show, I Don’t Know, My Spouse Knows, was fined 410,000 Turkish lira (£113,000) by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) which has come under fire in recent months fo
  
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• The price of football at Christmas 1982: £2.55 a ticket - but kits cost a bomb

  21-12-2014 20:40
  
  A look through 1982 copies of Shoot! to compare the prices of football back in the day reveals tickets were dirt cheap, replica kits and VHS videos were anything but
  Christmas 1982. Liverpool lead the First Division by five points from Manchester United. Renée & Renato’s Save Your Love, a 3min 6sec-sized cruise missile of an earworm – which still burrows into many worst-song-of-all-time lists – tops the charts. And, like many seven-year-old boys, almost everything I covet is
  
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• Mother appeals to burglars to return stolen laptop with last photos of daughter before she died, aged eight

  21-12-2014 20:36
  
  A grieving mother has described her distress after her house was ransacked by burglars just days after she buried her daughter.
  
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• Restrictions lifted on moving poultry in UK after bird flu cull

  21-12-2014 20:34
  
  Government ends ban after 6,000 ducks are culled at Yorkshire farm following outbreak of ‘highly pathogenic’ H5N8 strainRestrictions imposed on the movement of poultry after an outbreak of bird flu have been lifted, the government has said. Some 6,000 ducks were culled on a farm at Nafferton, near Driffield, east Yorkshire, following the identification of “highly pathogenic” H5N8 bird flu last month.The disease was the same strain as that confirmed at a chicken farm in the province of Ut
  
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• US may put North Korea back on state terror list after Sony 'cybervandalism'

  21-12-2014 20:16
  
  Obama says North Korea’s Sony Pictures hack was not an act of warNorth Korea warns ‘toughest counteraction will be boldly taken’US seeks China help on North Korea cyber-attacksSony considers YouTube release for The InterviewThe United States may classify North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism after its “cybervandalism” of Sony Pictures, President Barack Obama has said.
  The president said the hack on the Hollywood studio was not an act of war but was “very costly”, and could lan
  
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• Elton and David Furnish tie knot

  21-12-2014 20:08
  
  Sir Elton John and David Furnish have got married exactly nine years after they tied the knot in a civil partnership ceremony.
  
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• Ben Haenow is Christmas number one

  21-12-2014 20:00
  
  The X Factor winner Ben Haenow has won the battle for this year's Christmas number one.
  
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• X Factor winner Ben Haenow wins race to Christmas No 1

  21-12-2014 20:00
  
  Something I Need gains combined chart sales of 214,000 in week ahead of singles by Mark Ronson and Ed SheeranThe X Factor winner Ben Haenow has won the battle for this year’s Christmas No 1 single.The 29-year-old’s Something I Need had combined chart sales of more than 214,000 and is now the second-fastest selling single of the year, behind Band Aid 30’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, which shifted nearly 313,000 copies in its first week in November but is now No 17 in the official single
  
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• How hip-hop millionaires rise from the margins

  21-12-2014 20:00
  
  As artists including Dr Dre and Jay Z build fortunes, the same entrepreneurial potential can be seen at street levelWhy do some rap artists take so readily to the boardroom, asked an article last week about the rise of hip-hop millionaires? And there was certainly evidence of that transition. Dr Dre is the top-dog rap mogul with a fortune – estimated by Forbes – of $620m in 2014. Jay Z and P Diddy had $60m on this count, fortunes built on music and spin-off merchandising. You never know who
  
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• Ben Haenow takes Christmas number one as Ed Sheeran breaks yet another record

  21-12-2014 20:00
  
  Ben Haenow has taken the Christmas top spot with his X Factor winner’s single “Something I Need”.
  
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• Stroke and car crash victims could wait LONGER for an ambulance under secret ... - Mirror.co.uk

  21-12-2014 19:54 via mirror.co.uk
  
  Mirror.co.uk
  Stroke and car crash victims could wait LONGER for an ambulance under secret ...
  Mirror.co.uk
  Stroke and car crash victims could wait up to 19 minutes for an ambulance under secret plans approved by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, it has emerged. Target waiting times could soar because of an unprecedented '999' crisis that sees targets missed ...
  Ambulance targets 'may give patients a better response'BBC News
  Ambulance service say lengthening wait times idea '
  
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• Sony considers YouTube as possible distributor for The Interview after hack

  21-12-2014 19:52
  
  Sony chief: ‘we would still like the public to see this movie’No major on-demand distributors voice willingness to release filmObama says North Korea cyber-attack not an act of warSony Pictures still wants and intends to release its controversial film The Interview, possibly via YouTube.
  As President Barack Obama again expressed disappointment in the company’s decision to withdraw the movie in the face of threats thought to originate from North Korea, Michael Lynton, the studio’s chief
  
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• The readers’ editor on… why I can urge and recommend – but can’t really play the enforcer

  21-12-2014 19:51
  
  The Guardian’s usage of anonymous sources and the term ‘illegal immigrant’ are just two of the issues I have tried to address this yearJust before we see the old year out, it may be helpful to readers to have news of how some of the issues discussed in Open door during the last 12 months or so have developed.On 8 September 2014, the column looked at the problem of the use of anonymous quotes within stories. Dr David Lowry had written to object about the use of anonymous quotes in a politic
  
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