General news

• Creator of zombie nativity scene threatened with $1000 fine if he does not remove display from Cincinnati suburb

  23-12-2014 23:30
  A resident of a quiet Cincinnati suburb has offended his neighbours, by displaying a zombie-themed nativity scene topped with an inverted pentagram star.
  
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• Libya fighting could lead to prosecutions for war crimes, says UN human rights official

  23-12-2014 23:28
  
  Fighting between armed groups in Libya has killed hundreds of civilians and could lead to prosecutions for war crimes, a senior UN human rights official has announced.
  
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• Texas grand jury chooses not to indict police officer in shooting of an unarmed black man

  23-12-2014 23:27
  
  A grand jury in Texas declined today to indict a police officer involved in a fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in a shopping mall potentially giving new grist to the movement that has spawned protests nationwide about the role that race plays in policing and how justice is applied to minorities.
  
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• Thousands of refugees allowed to stay in Britain will be be destitute this Christmas, says Labour

  23-12-2014 23:25
  
  Thousands of refugees allowed to remain in Britain will be destitute this Christmas because of the Government's approach, according to Labour.
  
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• Canadian porn actor Luka Magnotta guilty of murdering and dismembering Chinese student

  23-12-2014 23:24
  
  A Canadian man who killed and dismembered a Chinese student in Montreal and posted his victim’s body parts to schools and political parties around the country was found guilty of first-degree murder today.
  
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• 'No outright victory' for Tories

  23-12-2014 23:05
  
  Conservative support has stagnated and the party will fail to form a majority government on current performance, pollsters have predicted.
  
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• Danny Alexander interview: Osborne savaged by his closest ally in the Coalition

  23-12-2014 23:00
  
  George Osborne has been accused by his Liberal Democrat deputy of planning the “wilful destruction” of key public services if the Conservatives win next May’s general election.
  
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• Danny Alexander interview: Chief Treasury Secretary blasts George Osborne

  23-12-2014 23:00
  
  George Osborne has been accused by his Liberal Democrat deputy of planning the “wilful destruction” of key public services if the Conservatives win next May’s general election.
  
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• Documentary recalling Crazy Gang's 'thuggery' has Bassett up in arms

  23-12-2014 22:55
  
  Former Wimbledon manager Dave Bassett has criticised sections of a new documentary about his old Crazy Gang side, being screened on Boxing Day, for being “total and utter rubbish”.
  
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• BBC boss "uncomfortable being a Jew in the UK" as anti-semitism is on the rise

  23-12-2014 22:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  BBC BOSS Danny Cohen has revealed his fears over anti-semitism in the UK and says he has “never felt so uncomfortable” in this country.
  
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• Jamie Scott takes MasterChef title

  23-12-2014 22:22
  
  Jamie Scott, a sous-chef from Arbroath in Scotland, has been crowned the winner of this season's MasterChef: The Professionals.
  
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• FBI warns of possible IS threat to bridge over Mississippi

  23-12-2014 22:22
  
  Are Islamist extremists looking to attack an historic bridge in the American heartland?
  
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• UK's desperate ambulance service looks to Poland to recruit paramedics

  23-12-2014 22:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  THE CRISIS engulfing the NHS deepened yesterday as it emerged one of Britain’s biggest ambulance services is desperately trying to recruit paramedics from Poland to fill more than 200 posts.
  
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• Revealed: Guildford Four member’s plea to Obama over last Guantanamo Briton Shaker Aamer

  23-12-2014 22:16
  
  The campaign to free a British man held in Guantanamo Bay for nearly 13 years is boosted today by the publication of an extraordinary letter from one of the Guildford Four.
  
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• Actress Helena Bonham Carter and Hollywood film director Tim Burton separate

  23-12-2014 21:55
  
  Actress Helena Bonham Carter and Hollywood film director Tim Burton have separated after over a decade together, it has emerged.
  
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• Ukip clears party's secretary general of sexual harassment

  23-12-2014 21:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  A SENIOR official in the UK Independence Party was yesterday cleared of impropriety following a probe into “sex pest” allegations.
  
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• Service to remember lorry victims

  23-12-2014 21:40
  
  Six people killed when a bin lorry lost control in a busy shopping street will be remembered in a special church service tomorrow.
  
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• Top Tories lock horns in the debate over international students

  23-12-2014 21:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  A LEADING Tory has blasted Theresa May’s plan to kick out foreign students once they have graduated as “mean-spirited”, claiming it will not “address the public anxiety about immigration”.
  
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• Grieving mother Jane Robinson donates toys to Christmas appeal after young twin son dies

  23-12-2014 20:41
  
  A devastated mother is donating her late son’s toys to a Christmas appeal, after the two-year-old died of an unknown illness days before his birthday.
  
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• Joe Cocker: Formidable vocalist who triumphed at Woodstock and won a Grammy with 'Up Where We Belong'

  23-12-2014 20:40
  
  A formidable vocalist whose unusual stage mannerisms were much parodied – most famously by John Belushi on the US TV comedy show Saturday Night Live – but whose powerful, gravelly tones remained unequalled and pretty much undiminished throughout a career that spanned five decades, Joe Cocker triumphed at the famed Woodstock festival in 1969 with his memorable version of "With A Little Help From My Friends", the Beatles tune originally sung by Ringo Starr on Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club B
  
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• Alan Williams: Politician who did sterling service for Labour but was kept out of high office when Neil Kinnock was elected leader

  23-12-2014 20:40
  For 41 years Alan Williams was my close parliamentary colleague and friend. From 1964 until 2010 he represented Swansea West, succeeding me as Father of the House in 2005. Until 1990 he was one of the workhorses of Labour's front bench, and from then until his retirement he was a workhorse of Parliament, serving as a pivotal member of the Public Accounts Committee, the oldest and most effective of the Select Committees since it commands all the resources of the National Audit Office.
  
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• Jeremy Lloyd the sitcom stalwart dies aged 84

  23-12-2014 20:27
  
  Jeremy Lloyd, one of Britain’s most successful television comedy writers and the co-creator of the hit sitcoms Are You Being Served? and ’Allo ’Allo! has died aged 84.
  
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• Italian police arrest 14 people to foil far-right terror plot

  23-12-2014 20:01
  
  The shadow cast over Italy by far-right terror groups has returned.
  
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• 'Distressed' seal taken for treatment

  23-12-2014 19:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A grey seal found in a field in Merseyside is taken to a specialist centre for treatment in East Anglia.
  
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• Glasgow lorry crash: Tributes are paid to those who died in nightmare before Christmas

  23-12-2014 19:59
  
  Tributes were have been paid to three members of the same family who were killed after an out-of-control bin lorry ploughed into Christmas shoppers in Glasgow city centre.
  
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• Glasgow lorry crash: Tributes are paid to those who died in horrific accident

  23-12-2014 19:59
  
  Tributes were have been paid to three members of the same family who were killed after an out-of-control bin lorry ploughed into Christmas shoppers in Glasgow city centre.
  
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• Diabetics told to check glucose before driving

  23-12-2014 19:51
  
  The UK’s leading diabetes charity has warned sufferers to check their glucose levels before driving, after a diabetic who killed a cyclist after falling ill at the wheel was jailed for 15 months.
  
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• Has the failed Spanish car bomber won the lottery?

  23-12-2014 19:50
  
  Bronchales in western Spain – population just 463 – has found itself in the limelight twice in the last week.
  
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• One year on from Gatwick travel chaos, passengers still feel they have been treated shabbily

  23-12-2014 19:41
  
  One year after a power failure at Gatwick wrecked the Christmas plans of thousands, some passengers still feel they have been treated shabbily.
  
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• The mogul who wants YouTube to face the music - to the tune of $1bn

  23-12-2014 19:35
  
  YouTube faced a possible $1bn (£644m) lawsuit last night after being accused of short-changing artists ranging from Pharrell Williams to the Eagles, by failing to pay required performance rights.
  
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• Dogs painted to look like pandas in Italian circus seized by police

  23-12-2014 19:32
  
  The dogs looked like dogs.
  
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• Bear-faced cheek of circus's pretend panda

  23-12-2014 19:32
  
  The dogs looked like dogs.
  
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• O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie (due to traffic)

  23-12-2014 19:27
  
  The little town of Bethlehem is jammed with a big-city problem.
  
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• 'No home and no hope': Palestinians struggling to rebuild their lives amid the Gaza rubble

  23-12-2014 19:24
  
  The missiles flattened the row of houses.
  
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• US FDA recommends ending ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men

  23-12-2014 19:19
  
  The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to recommend the end of the ban on blood donations from homosexual and bisexual men.
  
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• Van Gaal 'needs' Ferguson support

  23-12-2014 19:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal says ex-manager Sir Alex Ferguson's "belief" in him has made his job easier.
  
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• Arbitrary terror comes to France prompting armed patrols to take to the streets

  23-12-2014 19:16
  
  France is torn between fear and incomprehension.
  
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• Sony confirms Kim film release

  23-12-2014 19:15
  
  Sony has announced a limited cinema release of The Interview, putting the comedy back on to screens after a huge international row.
  
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• VIDEO: Driver in disabled bay stand-off

  23-12-2014 19:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Matthew Sanders, a driver who wrongly parked in a disabled bay in Birmingham, refuses to leave his car in an attempt to stop it being towed away.
  
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• Homeless Veterans appeal: Visiting Afghanistan, I learned that our troops need support in times of peace as well as war

  23-12-2014 19:13
  As a little boy growing up behind the Iron Curtain in the last days of communism, I remember vividly the pictures on my parents’ television screen of coffins coming back from Afghanistan.
  
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• Last-minute Christmas shopping spree will see retail sales top £340bn

  23-12-2014 19:09
  
  Nearly six million shoppers will be pounding the high streets today looking for last-minute Christmas gifts in what is turning out to be one of the best festive seasons in recent years – for consumers.
  
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• Top UKIP Official Cleared Of Sexual Harassment

  23-12-2014 19:08
  
  UKIP's general secretary has been cleared of impropriety after an inquiry into claims he sexually harassed a would-be parliamentary candidate.
  
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• Northern Ireland Parties Hail Agreement

  23-12-2014 19:05
  
  Northern Ireland's political parties have reached agreement on a range of issues that had threatened the devolved government's future.
  
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• 'Bliss molecule' similar to THC in cannabis found in expensive black truffles dug out by pigs

  23-12-2014 19:02
  
  Black truffles sniffed out of the ground by pigs and dogs due to their attractive earthy and cocoa-like aroma have a similar high to that of cannabis, scientists have found.
  
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• Half-brother of Tory MP jailed for string of historic sex attacks on boys

  23-12-2014 18:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  THE half-brother of a leading Tory MP was jailed for 13 years today for hundreds of sex attacks on schoolboys going back nearly half a century.
  
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• Nursery cuts legal bill for council

  23-12-2014 18:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A council is accused of "an expensive mistake" after it loses challenges to budget cuts and has to pay £350,000 in campaigners' legal bills.
  
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• Bitcoin voted one of 2014's worst investments as value plummets

  23-12-2014 18:51
  
  It was the virtual currency set to transform global trading and turn those who could understand it into millionaires almost overnight.
  
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• US cinemas to show The Interview

  23-12-2014 18:47
  
  Several US cinemas have said they will begin showing The Interview on Thursday, seemingly putting the comedy back on screen after Sony Pictures Entertainment cancelled its release.
  
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• Coca Cola to cut up to 2,000 jobs after Christmas

  23-12-2014 18:40
  
  US drinks giant Coca-Cola has announced plans to lay off between 1,000 and 2,000 of its workers globally in the weeks following Christmas.
  
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• Landmine sanctuary: rare leopard finds haven in the lethal legacy of Iran-Iraq war

  23-12-2014 18:36
  
  For humans it probably ranks as one of the world’s most dangerous nature reserves, but the mine-strewn border between Iran and Iraq has become an unlikely sanctuary to one of the world’s most endangered species of leopard.
  
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