General news

• 'Calm guy' Olivier Giroud's red card gives Arsenal a selection headache - The Guardian

  26-12-2014 23:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Telegraph.co.uk
  'Calm guy' Olivier Giroud's red card gives Arsenal a selection headache
  The Guardian
  Nedum Onuoha of QPR, second left, looks at the referee, Martin Atkinson, after being butted by Arsenal's Olivier Giroud who was sent off. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images. Sachin Nakrani at Emirates Stadium. Friday 26 December 2014 17.02 EST.
  Arsenal 2-1 QPR: Alexis Sanchez and Tomas Rosicky goals seal win as OIivier ...Daily Mail
  Gunners beat QPR as striker Giroud sees r
  
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• SNP 'dominates voting intentions'

  26-12-2014 23:40
  
  The SNP continues to dominate voting intentions in Scotland ahead of next May's general election, according to a new poll.
  
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• Wild, wintry weather sweeps UK

  26-12-2014 23:15
  
  Wild and wintry weather swept the UK tonight, with heavy snow forcing Liverpool's John Lennon Airport to close temporarily.
  
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• Predictions: The FTSE 100 faded in 2014 - but what will it do in 2015?

  26-12-2014 22:56
  
  Blue-chip stocks are on course for their first losing year since the 2011 eurozone crisis, confounding the predictions of experts a year ago, when most expected the FTSE 100 to break through 7,000.
  
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• Foreign exchange fixing scandal sees bank fines soar to a record £1.5bn

  26-12-2014 22:48
  
  The figure is almost three times last year’s total of £474.3m, itself an all-time high for a financial regulator in the UK.
  
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• Tom Adams: Actor best known for 'The Great Escape' who was touted to play James Bond but had to settle for lesser spy films

  26-12-2014 22:45
  The screen career of Tom Adams had a notable early boost as one of the RAF inmates devising tunnelling systems in the perennial classic war film. The Great Escape (1963). Shortly afterwards, the heavily built, darkly handsome Adams benefited from the Sixties spy boom instigated by the James Bond franchise, starring in several espionage caper films. Belying modest origins in London’s East End, he was almost always well-dressed on screen, and possessed a finely modulated speaking voice.
  
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• Peter Rosser: Composer and teacher who eschewed computers to write his challenging and notationally complex works

  26-12-2014 22:43
  
  His works were a blur of hemi-demi-semiquavers and irrational time signatures, pushing the very limits of performance. But unlike many contemporary composers, Peter Rosser was not seduced by the power of technology as he crafted his complex scores. Where others saw limitless possibilities in computers, he railed against the “reclassification of music as sonic art”. Acoustic music was dangerous, vulnerable, human; a dialogue between writer, player, instrument and audience.
  
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• Inside-forward who shone for Celtic in the 1950s and 60s and was unlucky not to be picked for Scotland

  26-12-2014 22:41
  
  Anyone who played more than 200 times and compiled a century of goals for Celtic in the modern era would be swamped with medals and, in all probability, would possess an extensive collection of international caps.
  
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• Francois Hollande's TGV vanity project is on a high-speed railway to nowhere

  26-12-2014 22:40
  
  President François Hollande faces an agonising decision in the new year – not about France’s many problems but about one of its great successes, the high-speed train.
  
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• Avigdor Lieberman: Hard-right Israeli minister's fate in balance after aides arrested for fraud

  26-12-2014 22:37
  
  The future of Israel’s hard-right Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who had been poised to become kingmaker in the upcoming election, is in doubt after police disclosed some of his closest confidants are suspects in what appears to be one of the largest corruption scandals in Israeli history.
  
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• Immigrants make UK racist, says Ukip councillor Trevor Shonk

  26-12-2014 22:18
  
  Britain has become a “racist” country because Conservative and Labour governments have let in too many immigrants, according to a Ukip councillor.
  
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• Queen urges reconciliation in post-referendum Scotland

  26-12-2014 22:18
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - The Queen used her annual Christmas Day broadcast on Thursday to advocate reconciliation, especially in Scotland where an unsuccessful independence referendum earlier this year polarised public opinion. Channelling the spirit of a brief World War One Christmas truce between British and German soldiers 100 years ago, the 88-year-old monarch held the historic moment out as an example of how irreconcilable differences can sometimes be bridged. "Of course, reconciliation take
  
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• Saved by the Bell's Dustin 'Screech' Diamond arrested in Wisconsin

  26-12-2014 22:17
  
  Man once known as Screech charged with possession of switchblade, carrying concealed weapon in Ozaukee CountyDustin Diamond, who starred as Screech Powers in the hit 1990s television show Saved by the Bell, was arrested in Wisconsin on Friday, over an alleged stabbing at a bar. He was charged with felony second-degree recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon. Police in the Lake Michigan-bordering city of Port Washington told the Associated Press they had
  
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• Margaret Thatcher 'expressed fears of Asian rising' at Anglo-Irish summit in 1984

  26-12-2014 22:12
  
  Margaret Thatcher voiced fears of an Asian rising in Britain if Irish nationalists were allowed to express their identity in Northern Ireland, newly declassified government files reveal.
  
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• King's Cross trains cancelled for day

  26-12-2014 21:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  All trains to and from London King's Cross have been cancelled on Saturday because of overrunning engineering work, Network Rail says.
  
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• Exclusive: Abusers using spyware apps to monitor partners reaches 'epidemic proportions'

  26-12-2014 21:34
  
  The use of surveillance software by abusive spouses to monitor the phones and computers of their partners secretly has reached “epidemic proportions” and police are ill-equipped to tackle it, domestic violence campaigners have warned.
  
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• Labour faces wipe-out in Scotland despite change of leader - poll

  26-12-2014 21:33
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - The Labour Party could suffer a wipe-out in Scotland in a UK-wide parliamentary election in May, scuppering its overall chances of supplanting Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, a poll suggested on Friday. The poll is not the first to suggest that Labour is in trouble in what for decades was a traditional stronghold but comes just two weeks after it replaced the leader of its Scottish chapter and underlines the scale of the challenge it faces to turn the party&
  
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• NYPD on alert after spate of anti-police threats in wake of officers' shooting

  26-12-2014 21:23
  
  Six people have been arrested for making threats against officers, as police force warns officers to act with increased vigilance while on- and off-dutyThe New York Police Department has ramped up security at several precincts and seven people have been arrested for making threats against police officers in the days following the fatal shooting of two officers last weekend. The NYPD has warned officers to act with increased vigilance while on- and off-duty and to maintain heightened awareness of
  
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• VIDEO: McIlroy laughs off Sweet Caroline tune

  26-12-2014 21:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  World number one golfer Rory McIlroy sees the funny side as Sweet Caroline is played as he is interviewed at an Ulster rugby game.
  
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• Arsenal hang on for victory over QPR after Olivier Giroud’s rush of blood

  26-12-2014 21:10
  
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• The Boy in the Dress, TV review: David Walliams' Boxing Day treat is a celebration of being different

  26-12-2014 21:00
  
  Children’s telly can get a bit samey at this time of year with the regular fodder of family animated films and festive specials filling up the schedule. There are only so many Disney movies you can watch before resorting to a DVD marathon of The Killing.
  
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• The political parties aren't all the same – which means 2015 will be a 'big-choice' election

  26-12-2014 20:58
  
  A Conservative-leaning banker spoke for many on the eve of an election year: he didn’t want to vote Tory, Labour or Liberal Democrat, but didn’t know whom to support. Perhaps he wouldn’t vote at all. “The system needs to be knocked down so we can rebuild it,” he said.
  
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• The 10 top news stories of 2014 on theguardian.com

  26-12-2014 20:50
  
  Nude photo leak and Sydney siege received most attention as news fought for space with Instagram pics and cat videosGeorge Clooney got married and Tony Benn died. Germany won the World Cup, Scotland thought about independence, and two Malaysian airliners fell out of the sky. In the year of Isis and the ice bucket challenge, the Rosetta landing and #BringBackOurGirls, what were the stories that most gripped readers of theguardian.com? Here are the 10 most popular news-related articles, ranked acc
  
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• Kings Cross trains grind to a halt

  26-12-2014 20:48
  
  Thousands of railway passengers are facing travel misery as one of the country's busiest rail terminals grinds to a standstill tomorrow.
  
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• Arsenal vs QPR match report: Amazing Alexis Sanchez helps Gunners hold on after Olivier Giroud's moment of madness nearly costs them

  26-12-2014 20:38
  This was hardly a match Queen’s Park Rangers came to win, but they might have stolen their first away point of the season after Olivier Giroud’s idiotic red card handed them a route back in to a match that should have been long dead.
  
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• Arsenal 2-1 QPR - as it happened

  26-12-2014 20:36
  
  Arsenal were happily strolling to victory before Olivier Giroud was sent off in the second half and QPR fought their way back in to the matchMatch report: Arsenal 2-1 QPR
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• Flight MH370: ‘I just keep hoping he’ll come home’

  26-12-2014 20:36
  
  Nine months after the Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared, the family of its chief steward are still waiting for answersThere is no Christmas tree this year at the Gomes residence in Kuala Lumpur, no lights, and no big celebration over the holiday season; there’s nothing to celebrate. Jacquita Gonzales’ husband is still missing.“Usually Patrick is on leave from 22 December up until new year, so he would be home for almost two weeks,” she says of her childhood sweetheart, Patrick Gomes,
  
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• Twin Peaks meets The Killing in Sky’s £25m Scandinavian drama Fortitude

  26-12-2014 20:35
  
  Fortitude, starring Sofie Gråbøl, features blizzard of intrigue, infidelity, corruption and murderIt is a measure of the gamble being taken by Sky with its latest drama epic, Fortitude, that the series, starring Stanley Tucci and Sofie Gråbøl, is said to have cost more than the annual budget of the Sky Arts channel.The Arctic circle murder mystery, which co-stars Michael Gambon, Christopher Eccleston and Call The Midwife’s Jessica Raine, is the broadcaster’s biggest play yet i
  
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• Neil Warnock’s job at risk after Crystal Palace lose to Southampton

  26-12-2014 20:31
  
  • Manager appointed in August claims club were lucky last season
  • ‘I don’t see us having much luck this year,’ Warnock adds
  • Match report: Crystal Palace 1-3 SouthamptonNeil Warnock faces a fight to avoid becoming the first Premier League managerial casualty of the season as concerns grow among the Crystal Palace hierarchy about the club’s downward spiral.A large section of supporters at Selhurst Park voiced their discontent with Warnock as Palace sank to a 3-1 home defeat ag
  
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• Scottish politics: who are the leaders and how are they doing?

  26-12-2014 20:25
  
  As poll shows some party chiefs on the election campaign trail are far from well-known, Guardian writers compile a who’s whoFour parties returned MPs to Westminster from Scottish seats in 2010, but the contest between them next year is far from even. Friday’s ICM poll for the Guardian reveals that some of the “faces” of the campaign remain virtually unknown. Here we review the challenges facing each of the main players in the runup to 2015. Continue reading...
  
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• Liverpool airport closed after snow

  26-12-2014 20:22
  
  Snow has forced Liverpool's John Lennon Airport to close.
  
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• Xbox Live back up and running after Christmas hack

  26-12-2014 20:12
  
  Gamers able to log on again after Christmas Eve attack on Xbox and PlayStation networks leave millions twiddling thumbsMillions of people were able to use their games consoles again on Boxing Day after Microsoft overcame an apparent cyber-attack and restored its Xbox Live platform. But customers on the Sony PlayStation network continued to have problems with its services following a parallel attack.A group calling itself Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for bringing down both networks on Chri
  
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• Tango revolution sweeps Tbilisi off its feet

  26-12-2014 19:58
  
  Georgians embrace Argentinian dance with gusto as lessons become more affordable after decade of economic growthHands curl into each other and partners draw close. Glittering shoes scrape across the floor. Short skirts twirl.“It is becoming an addiction for me, a problem,” says Keti Antelava, 52. “I have a PhD in American studies to finish. Instead, I’m watching tango videos on YouTube and sneaking down here to dance.” Continue reading...
  
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• City Link’s collapse could hit more than 4,000 jobs

  26-12-2014 19:57
  
  Owner dismisses union’s claims of asset stripping as staff warned to brace themselves for ‘substantial redundancies’Job losses from the collapse of City Link could rise to more than 4,000 after it emerged that the parcel delivery firm partly relied on a 1,000-strong army of self-employed van drivers and agency workers.The Coventry-based company – which counted John Lewis and Mothercare among its customers – told its 2,727 staff to brace themselves for “substantial redundancies�
  
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• What I learned this year: the insanity of the obesity era

  26-12-2014 19:57
  
  Sage reflections on a calorie-counting, power-generating, cake-baking, selfie-taking, gay-wedding 2014In March, I met the Losers of the Year, as denominated by Weight Watchers, 10 women who between them had lost 720 pounds. The rubric of the weight loss world is that I should call them fabulous or awesome women; in fact, they were quite fabulous, but I feel to call them that is to endorse the worldview that excess weight is shameful, and to shed it is a fairytale dream come true. So they weren�
  
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• The Interview film review: Controversial gross-out satire is broad, bawdy and bad - but undeniably entertaining

  26-12-2014 19:51
  It’s a new festive tradition: by the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree, my in-laws and I gathered around a laptop to watch Seth Rogen push a large, uncomfortable object into his own anus. The Interview, the gross-out satire that has united Americans in support of free speech and against North Korea, is broad, bawdy and bad – but also consistently, undeniably entertaining.
  
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• Worse than the dictators: Egypt’s leaders bring pillars of freedom crashing down

  26-12-2014 19:49
  
  Adly Mansour and now Abdel Fatah al-Sisi are ruling by decrees, banning protest and severely curbing freedom of speechEgypt is enacting authoritarian laws at a rate unmatched by any regime for 60 years, legal specialists from four institutions have told the Guardian.Since the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Morsi’s successors in the presidency, Adly Mansour and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, have used the absence of an elected parliament to almost unilaterally issue a series of draconian d
  
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• City square attractions reopen

  26-12-2014 19:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Festive attractions in Glasgow's George Square reopen after the lorry crash which killed six people on Monday.
  
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• King’s Cross trains cancelled after Christmas engineering work overruns

  26-12-2014 19:36
  
  No services out of one of London’s busiest railway stations on Saturday as Network Rail fails to complete maintenance on east coast lineAll Saturday’s trains in and out of King’s Cross, one of the busiest station’s in London, have been cancelled because engineering work on the east coast mainline has overrun.King’s Cross was closed on Friday evening and will remain so for a further 24 hours as work to install new overhead power cables on tracks running north of the station, scheduled t
  
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• Islam's Dysfunctional State: In Isis-controlled Syria and Iraq everyday life is falling apart

  26-12-2014 19:32
  
  Isis’s vaunted exercise in state-building appears to be crumbling, as living conditions deteriorate across the territories under its control, exposing the shortcomings of a group that devotes most of its energies to fighting battles and enforcing strict rules.
  
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• Train Chaos: Major London Station Shut Tomorrow

  26-12-2014 19:24
  
  There will be no train services in or out of London Kings Cross tomorrow because of overrunning engineering works.
  
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• Business review 2014: boardroom dinosaurs and corporate ghosts

  26-12-2014 19:22
  
  Simon Goodley reviews the stories of the year from around the world of businessThis proved to be the year that the grocery market changed – possibly for ever. The chief executives of the UK’s two biggest players, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, both checked out: Sainsbury’s Justin King on his own terms, and Tesco’s Philip Clarke perhaps at the suggestion of others. There’s an argument that Dalton Philips, boss at the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket, Morrisons, might have been the third big
  
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• If I were queen for a day I’d want silly hats and Nigel Farage in the Tower

  26-12-2014 19:18
  
  I'd also convert the palace into schools, raise the minimum wage … and introduce a maximum oneMy first act would be to declare the third Tuesday of every month Silly Hat Tuesday. A little indulgence in sequinned berets, pork-pie hats or top hats with rabbits poking out the top would contribute in some small way to a more tolerant, light-hearted society.I’d make the Daily Express print “Remember, We Donated £300k to Ukip” in size 36 font across their masthead, and Mail Online would
  
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• Kings Cross trains to be cancelled

  26-12-2014 19:10
  
  Train services in and out of London Kings Cross, one of the country's busiest terminals, have been cancelled tomorrow because of overrunning Network Rail engineering works.
  
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• Trillion-dollar war in Afghanistan achieved its goal, says Barack Obama

  26-12-2014 19:09
  
  A week before the official end of the long US combat mission in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama has thanked troops at a Marine Corps base in Hawaii, telling them that the conflict has made the world “safer”, and that Afghanistan is “not going to be a source of terrorist attacks again.”
  
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• Kings Cross trains to be cancelled because of over-running Network Rail engineering works

  26-12-2014 19:09
  
  Train services in and out of London Kings Cross, one of the country's busiest terminals, have been cancelled tomorrow because of overrunning Network Rail engineering works.
  
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• Xbox back but PlayStation still down after online attack by Lizard Squad

  26-12-2014 19:05
  
  The pain and misery of thousands of gamers was slowly easing on Friday after the Xbox network was up and running again after an apparent attack by cyber miscreants. However, the PlayStation network was still suffering problems.
  
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• Snow falling in many parts of Wales

  26-12-2014 19:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Snow falls in many parts of Wales, as forecasters issue a yellow "be aware" warning.
  
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• Urgent talks call over City Link

  26-12-2014 19:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A union demands "urgent talks" with ministers and administrators about the collapse of the UK parcel delivery service City Link.
  
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• Labour set for a bloodbath in Scotland in general election, poll says

  26-12-2014 19:01
  
  Traditional Labour heartlands turning to SNP, which could win 45 of 59 Scottish Westminster seats, Guardian/ICM survey findsLabour is on course for a bloodbath in Scotland in 2015, according to a special Guardian/ICM online poll.The Scottish National party, which took only 20% of the vote in the 2010 general election, has subsequently more than doubled its vote to reach a commanding 43% of the prospective poll next May. Scottish Labour, which secured a very strong 42% in Gordon Brown’s homelan
  
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