General news

• UK weather: Cold snap to continue until Monday, after Storm Rachel wreaks havoc across the country

  15-01-2015 23:53
  
  One man died and at least three people were injured on Thursday, as gales and heavy rain battered parts of the UK– wreaking havoc for travellers and cutting the power supply to thousands of homes.
  
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• UK weather: Cold snap to continue until Monday, after extreme weather wrought havoc across the country

  15-01-2015 23:53
  
  One man died and at least three people were injured on Thursday, as gales and heavy rain battered parts of the UK– wreaking havoc for travellers and cutting the power supply to thousands of homes.
  
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• Oxfordshire Arson Blaze Reignited By Winds

  15-01-2015 23:53
  
  One of the three buildings hit by a suspected arson attack in Oxfordshire has been set alight again after burning embers were fanned by high winds. Firefighters were involved in a massive operation to bring fires at a thatched house in Rokemarsh, a funeral parlour and the offices of South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils from 3am on Thursday. Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed high winds had turned over loose material in one of the buildings on Thursday evening,
  
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• Winds reignite council offices fire

  15-01-2015 23:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Gale force winds help reignite a fire at council offices hit by a suspected arson attack.
  
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• PM: Terrorists Must Be Denied 'Safe Space'

  15-01-2015 23:13
  
  David Cameron has said terrorists should be denied a "safe space" to communicate with each other ahead of talks in the US. The Prime Minister, who is in Washington to meet President Obama and discuss the need to intercept internet communications, said there was a "broad agreement" between the US and UK. An unprecedented amount of intelligence co-operation and information sharing between the two nations is expected to be announced at the talks. "There is a broad agreement
  
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• For sale: Former intercontinental nuclear missile silo. An ideal fixer-upper

  15-01-2015 23:02
  
  Estate agent Jim Moore describes the property as having lots of potential uses. It could, he says, be turned into a home, a business headquarters or else be used for storage. At the height of the Cold War it was in the front line of the US’s efforts to avoid nuclear annihilation.
  
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• Iconic Land Rover Defender set be discontinued

  15-01-2015 23:00
  
  The ground is baked hard by the African sun, but it still throws up plumes of thick red dust. The road alternates between rutted track and washboard gravel that send vibrations up my spine. I'm behind the wheel of a Land Rover Defender as it soldiers on through Meru National Park.
  
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• Frank Warren column: Only boxing has got its head round concussion problem

  15-01-2015 23:00
  
  Being knocked unconscious is an unpleasant experience in any sport, whether it is in the ring or on the playing field. We have been hearing a lot about the effects of concussion on rugby players and I believe there is much to be learned from the way boxing deals with severe head injuries and the possible after-effects.
  
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• Fears of a 'disenfranchised generation' after almost a million people disappear from electoral roll

  15-01-2015 23:00
  
  Hundreds of thousands of young people could miss the chance to vote in May’s general election following a change in the way people register, prompting fears of a “disenfranchised generation”.
  
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• Lawro's predictions v Seann Walsh

  15-01-2015 22:57 via bbc.co.uk
  
  BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson takes on comedian and QPR supporter Seann Walsh.
  
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• Birdman and Budapest top Oscar list

  15-01-2015 22:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel lead the race for this year's Oscars with nine nominations each, while there is a strong showing for British talent.
  
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• Hospital ban for whistleblower medic

  15-01-2015 22:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A paramedic-turned-whistleblower says he is banned from entering two Worcestershire hospitals after speaking out about A&E overcrowding.
  
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• P J Harvey set to begin month-long residency inside glass recording studio at Somerset House

  15-01-2015 22:30
  
  It is the most eagerly anticipated appearance inside a glass box since crowds gathered by Tower Bridge, armed with tomatoes and other airborne-friendly objects, to see the magician David Blaine sit miserably in a 0.9‑metre by 2.1‑metre Perspex case for 44 days in 2003.
  
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• Oxfordshire fires: Did a planning row send local council headquarters up in smoke?

  15-01-2015 22:21
  
  Detectives are investigating if an embittered arsonist nursing a long-standing grudge over a planning application was behind a spate of early-morning targeted firebomb attacks that gutted a council headquarters.
  
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• Ebola in the UK: Suspected Ebola patient being treated in Scotland

  15-01-2015 22:17
  
  Doctors in Edinburgh are treating a patient suspected to have Ebola.
  
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• Scotland's oil slick: The fall in the price of crude will be painful, but in the long term it could help rebalance the economy

  15-01-2015 22:13
  It is impossible to watch the plummeting price of a barrel of Brent crude without recalling the Scottish referendum campaign. An oil price roughly double where it now stands was the principal assumption behind the SNP’s claims for the plausibility of Scottish economic independence. To be fair, these were widespread assumptions, and some experts might have judged them too low. But geopolitics and the rapid exploitation of American shale reserves have turned the world of natural resources, and t
  
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• Girls, if you enjoy science, go for it!

  15-01-2015 22:13
  
  The problem we face in this country is a lack of females at every level in the physical sciences. Where I teach – the maths faculty at the University of Cambridge – we  see the problem acutely. From undergraduates (less than  20 per cent) to PhD students (25 per cent) and as for academic staff – they can be counted on one hand. The lack of females  is a serious problem facing the UK, and a waste of valuable resources.
  
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• VIDEO: Tesco urged to 'get out of town'

  15-01-2015 22:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A council urges Tesco to sell land it owns in a Kent town after it pulled out of building a supermarket with restaurants and more than 200 flats.
  
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• Monroe clothes among memorabilia sale

  15-01-2015 21:57 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A collection of rare memorabilia worth about £10m - including Marilyn Monroe's bras and paintings by Churchill and Hitler - is to be sold to raise money for charity.
  
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• Winds fan flames at 'arson' site

  15-01-2015 21:54
  
  Gale force winds have helped to reignite a fire in a building that was hit by a suspected arson attack on three buildings.
  
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• Ukraine crisis: Residents flee savagery of the battle for Donetsk's airport

  15-01-2015 21:53
  
  Like the populations of other shelled districts in Ukraine’s war-torn east, the residents that can, have left Oktyabrsky. The vulnerable and least mobile have remained.
  
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• A homeless man was found impaled on a spike in a square in London's Kensington - but who was he and why did he die?

  15-01-2015 21:50
  Ed Boord's walk from the station to his office cuts through one of the wealthiest corners of London. Kensington Church Walk runs off Kensington High Street, behind St Mary Abbots, where Princess Diana used to pray under the city’s tallest spire. The quiet passage near Kensington Palace links a private members’ club, a sought-after primary school, and a line of boutiques, including one that only sells expensive Japanese kitchen knives.
  
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• Call for new rules after teacher avoids jail term for affair with pupil who 'groomed' him

  15-01-2015 21:48
  
  Child protection groups have called for a widening of rules governing “unduly lenient sentences” after the Attorney General announced he has no power to ask the courts to reconsider why a teacher who had an affair with a teenage pupil escaped prison.
  
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• Al Murray running for Parliament: Nigel Farage welcomes 'serious competition'

  15-01-2015 21:46
  
  Ukip leader Nigel Farage has responded to Al Murray’s announcement that his The Pub Landlord character will be standing against him at the general election, by declaring he finally has some “serious competition”.
  
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• Donald Macintyre's Sketch: The answer to US obesity epidemic? Haggis

  15-01-2015 21:40
  
  Lamenting that “not everyone fully understands the haggis,” Lord Purvis of Tweed today cited the story of a Burns supper which took place in Germany. The deathless description “Great chieftain o’ the puddin’ race,” he explained, was “translated into German and then retranslated back as ‘Mighty führer of the sausage people’.”
  
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• Andy McSmith's Diary: An anonymous Tory candidate may have discovered where the Nasty Party went

  15-01-2015 21:38
  
  It is no fun being a Conservative in a seat held safely by another party, to judge from a diary posted on the ConservativeHome website by an unnamed writer who gave up a good job to be an unpaid parliamentary candidate.
  
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• Google Glass: Tech giant to halt sales of headset in its current form but vows to look to future

  15-01-2015 21:35
  
  Google has appeared to admit that it hasn’t quite cracked Glass, as the tech giant announced that it would halt sales of its high-tech specs. The company said it remained committed to launching a consumer version of its smart eyewear, Google Glass, but would stop making the headset in its current form and focus instead on “future versions of Glass”.
  
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• Campaigners fight to save 'quirky and extraordinary' jewellery shop in the East End

  15-01-2015 21:28
  
  The Spiegelhalter’s jewellery shop in the East End of London may be tatty and disused – but as the shop that forced developers to build their grandiose department store around the small premises after the owners refused to sell up back in the 1920s, it still offers inspiration for any small business trying to fend off the advances of a giant rival.
  
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• UK receives more Chinese foreign students than from the whole of the EU, statistics show

  15-01-2015 21:21
  
  More first-year undergraduates from China arrived at UK universities last year than from the whole of the EU, according to official statistics published yesterday.
  
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• The mystery of shellshock solved: Scientists identify the unique brain injury caused by war

  15-01-2015 21:13
  
  When the war poet Wilfred Owen wrote of “men whose minds the Dead have ravished” he was attempting to describe the mysterious effects of shellshock which started appearing during the First World War and of which he himself was a sufferer.
  
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• Former NASCAR champion Kurt Busch tells court his ex-girlfriend is a 'bad-ass assassin'

  15-01-2015 21:12
  
  In a plot that might seem more fit for daytime television than national news headlines, a former driving champion has accused his ex-girlfriend of being a trained assassin that has carried out hits all over the globe.
  
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• Former NASCAR champion Kurt Busch tells court his ex-girlfriend is a 'bad-ass assasin'

  15-01-2015 21:12
  
  In a plot that might seem more fit for daytime television than national news headlines, a former driving champion has accused his ex-girlfriend of being a trained assassin that has carried out hits all over the globe.
  
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• A 'manifesto for cats': Cat charity to launch its 10-point proposal at the House of Commons

  15-01-2015 21:03
  
  The nation’s first “manifesto for cats” has been drawn up in the hope that after Essex Man and Worcester Woman, the next voter group to influence the outcome of a general election will be Cat Lover.
  
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• New pensioner bonds 'snapped up'

  15-01-2015 20:58
  
  The Government's new market-leading pensioner bonds have proved "extremely popular" in their first day of going on sale with thousands of them being snapped up each hour, National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has said.
  
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• Aberdeen feeling the pinch amid falling oil prices

  15-01-2015 20:52
  
  Taxi driver Russell Whyte normally expects to be rushed off his feet ferrying oil rig workers to Aberdeen Airport, so they can catch the helicopter back to their oil rigs. This time, however, he spent a good part of the day reading his book.
  
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• Brit Awards 2015 Nominations: The Full List

  15-01-2015 20:48
  
  Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and George Ezra dominate the nominations for the Brit Awards 2015, but here is the full list of who they are up against:
  
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• Constance Briscoe: Judge left penniless after jail sentence for lying to police over Chris Huhne

  15-01-2015 20:38
  
  One of Britain’s first black female judges has become penniless and is £150,000 in debt to the taxman since she was jailed for lying to police investigating the Chris Huhne speeding-points scandal, a court has heard.
  
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• David Cameron receives red-carpet welcome for talks in Washington with Barack Obama

  15-01-2015 20:30
  
  The red carpet was rolled out for David Cameron as he arrived in Washington tonight for talks with Barack Obama.
  
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• Yosemite's El Capitan: Free climbers reveal they used positive thinking to beat world's toughest cliff

  15-01-2015 20:29
  
  Two American climbers who successfully scaled a 900-metre vertical rock face considered the world’s toughest climb have said the feat was a test not only of their fingers and toes, but of their will.
  
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• Carling, football and Jeremy Clarkson: The quintessential British 'lad' laid bare by YouGov

  15-01-2015 20:26
  
  The British ‘lad’ has been laid bare in all his Carling-drinking, football-watching, Astra-driving glory, by market research firm Yougov.
  
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• Google Glass eyewear sales ending

  15-01-2015 20:18
  
  Google is ending sales of its Google Glass eyewear.
  
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• Italian hostages released: Two female aid workers in Syria freed by militants

  15-01-2015 20:13
  
  Two Italian aid workers taken hostage in Syria five months ago have been released and will soon return home, Italy’s government has said.
  
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• Surprising oversights among the Oscar nominees

  15-01-2015 20:13
  
  The Oscar nominations turn out to be a near carbon copy of those for the Golden Globes, with Birdman flying high, plenty of Brits to the fore and the mandatory nod to Meryl Streep – but with surprising oversights, too.
  
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• Women are less likely to become scientists because of a 'misconceived idea of brilliance', study finds

  15-01-2015 20:00
  
  Women are less likely to become scientists and engineers because they are taught to believe that these professions require innate intellectual brilliance rather than sheer hard work, a study has found.
  
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• 'The Anthropocene': The human epoch started with first atomic bomb test, scientists decide

  15-01-2015 20:00
  
  On 16 July 1945 the first atomic-bomb test took place at the US Army testing range at Alamogordo in New Mexico, and with that first historic nuclear explosion a new geological epoch began on Earth, scientists have decided.
  
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• Cuba-US relations: Washington moves to ease restrictions on business and travel - but the economic embargo remains

  15-01-2015 19:52
  
  Barely a month after President Barack Obama declared an end to diplomatic hostilities between the United States and Cuba, Washington has moved to ease restrictions on business and travel links between the two countries.
  
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• North sea oil fields set to make a loss on every barrel produced as BP cuts 300 jobs

  15-01-2015 19:47
  
  North Sea oil fields are on the verge of losing money for every barrel they produce, according to a survey of industry forecasters carried out by The Independent.
  
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• Teachers' leaders brand move towards double Ofsted inspections a 'disgrace'

  15-01-2015 19:41
  
  Schools face double inspections on the same day this term as a result of a plan being trialled by education standards watchdog Ofsted to test the reliability of its verdicts.
  
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• Man hunted in PC murder inquiry

  15-01-2015 19:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A European arrest warrant is issued for a 30-year-old man by detectives investigating the murder of PC Neil Doyle.
  
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• Weather wreaks chaos for travellers

  15-01-2015 19:28
  
  A combination of gales and heavy rain brought misery to UK travellers and cut the power supply of thousands of homes.
  
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