General news

• Thousands Without Water In Northern Ireland

  20-01-2015 23:45
  
  Nearly 8,000 homes in Northern Ireland remain without water due to industrial action over pensions. Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh have been worst-affected after staff voted to withdraw on-call services. Representatives from NI Water and the unions have been meeting at the Labour Relations Agency, with both sides saying they would remain there overnight in a bid to resolve the crisis. In a statement, NI Water said it regretted that 7,750 properties in west Tyrone and Fermanagh were without their
  
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• 'Right hand man’ of Silk Road 2.0 online black market arrested

  20-01-2015 23:40
  
  A Washington state man has been arrested by federal authorities and accused of helping run Silk Road 2.0, the follow-up website to infamous online black market Silk Road.
  
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• Home advantage: The call for punitive taxation on owners who leave houses empty is justified when the cost to society is so high

  20-01-2015 23:39
  There is something poignant as well as oxymoronic about the phrase “empty home”. At a time when so many are finding it difficult to find any sort of shelter – not least the homeless veterans who are the subject of our charity appeal – it is galling to think of the thousands of habitable properties often purposely vacant. A home should be occupied. Property owners have a perfect right to do what they will with their homes, within the law; but the whole community has an interest in making
  
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• Page free: A symbolic victory that shows how Britain is changing

  20-01-2015 23:33
  
  Though the topless models never aged a day, time has finally caught up with The Sun’s Page 3. Rupert Murdoch’s paper quietly dropped the 44-year-old Fleet Street institution earlier this week, after thousands joined a campaign to end a feature of British cultural life that has – but for the odd break, after, for example, the death of Margaret Thatcher – demeaned women daily. The Page 3 girls remain online, uncensored, and the print version might return if sales drop off. But it already f
  
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• Tessa Jowell: Housing in London is unfair when the rich buy homes like gold bars and hundreds of thousands are on housing waiting lists

  20-01-2015 23:12
  When it’s good it’s very good. For business, innovation, culture and tourism there is nowhere on earth quite like London, but pride in that success mustn’t blind us to its problems.
  
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• Periods 'last taboo' for sportswomen

  20-01-2015 23:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ex-British number one Annabel Croft says sportswomen's periods are "the last taboo", after Heather Watson became unwell during the Australian Open.
  
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• Dambusters bomb sight tops £41,000

  20-01-2015 23:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A sight used to guide the "bouncing bomb" that breached the Mohne dam in the infamous 1943 Dambusters raid, sells at auction.
  
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• Tessa Jowell: I will tax the owners of empty homes in London

  20-01-2015 23:00
  
  Punitive tax penalties would be imposed on the owners of empty homes under a plan unveiled by Tessa Jowell, the senior Labour MP hoping to become Mayor of London.
  
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• Liverpool vs Chelsea match report: Raheem Sterling's magical goal shares the spoils in Capital One Cup semi-final

  20-01-2015 22:59
  It was a goal scored in the blink of an eye: a turn, a run and a shot that told you all you needed to know about the big-match temperament of Raheem Sterling.
  
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• Iraq War Inquiry 'Delayed Until After Election'

  20-01-2015 22:57
  
  The Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war is not expected to be published until after the General Election. Sir John Chilcot will explain the reasons for the further delay in an exchange of letters with Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday, according to Government sources. Mr Cameron is understood to have written to Sir John saying that he would have liked to have seen the report released before the election, but accepted that publication was a matter for the inquiry.
  
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• US Senator Chuck Schumer wants to change bomb-making law he says could prevent terrorist attacks

  20-01-2015 22:39
  
  Senior American politician Chuck Schumer said he was surprised to find out there was a loophole in a US law that allows people to make bombs in their homes and has proposed closing that loophole to help prevent future terrorist attacks.
  
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• Chilcot report after election

  20-01-2015 22:33
  
  The long-awaited Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war will not be published until after the general election in May, it has emerged.
  
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• Yemen 'coup': Shia rebels take presidential palace, but Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi clings on to power

  20-01-2015 22:33
  
  Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized the presidential palace today after fierce shelling. But the US-backed and increasingly embattled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi appears to have clung on to power.
  
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• Coup in Yemen? Shia rebels take presidential palace, but Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi clings on to power

  20-01-2015 22:33
  
  Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized the presidential palace today after fierce shelling. But the US-backed, and increasingly embattled, President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi appeared to have clung on to power.
  
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• Chilcot Inquiry into Iraq war 'will not report before election'

  20-01-2015 22:13
  
  The Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war will not report until after the UK election, it has been reported.
  
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• Chilcot Inquiry into Iraq war 'will not be report before election'

  20-01-2015 22:13
  
  The Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war will not report until after the UK election, it has been reported.
  
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• Briton who faked own death in Syria admits terrorism offences

  20-01-2015 22:13
  LONDON (Reuters) - A Briton who fought with an Islamist group in Syria and then faked his own death in the hope of being able to return home undetected has admitted to terrorism offences in a London court.
  
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• UK 'needs to rediscover principles'

  20-01-2015 22:11
  
  Britain needs to rediscover firm and moral principles on which to build its future, the Archbishop of York said.
  
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• UKIP replaces policy chief before election

  20-01-2015 22:07
  
  By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's anti-EU UK Independence Party abruptly replaced its policy chief on Tuesday, less than four months before a national election, because it said he was too busy to finish writing the party's manifesto. Political rivals have accused UKIP, which wants Britain to leave the European Union and to curb immigration, of lacking policies on other issues. A UKIP spokesman said outgoing policy chief Tim Aker had stood down in favour of Suzanne Evans, th
  
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• Donald Macintyre's Sketch: Wind fails to fill Sajid Javid's sails as official 'waxes lyrical' about energy policy

  20-01-2015 21:44
  
  Wasn’t it odd, Bournemouth West Tory Conor Burns asked Sajid Javid, that when invited to comment on an offshore wind farm threatening the Jurassic coast’s status as a World Heritage site, a Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) official had forwarded the wind-developers’ “impact assessment” (saying it was environmentally hunk-dory)? She then “waxed lyrical” about energy policy – which had nothing to do with the DCMS.
  
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• Donald Macintyre's Sketch: Lots of wind fails to fill Javid’s sails as he 'waxes lyrical' about energy policy

  20-01-2015 21:44
  
  Wasn’t it odd, Bournemouth West Tory Conor Burns asked Sajid Javid, that when invited to comment on an offshore wind farm threatening the Jurassic coast’s status as a World Heritage site, an official had forwarded the wind-developers’ “impact assessment” (saying it would be hunk-dory)? He had then “waxed lyrical” about energy policy – which had nothing to do with the Department of Media Culture and Sport.
  
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• Forensic science: How its use revolutionised the way we detect crime

  20-01-2015 21:44
  
  The Chinese military general and philosopher Sun Tzu once famously solved a murder in a village by asking all its residents to bring out their sickles and leave them in the sun. Eventually, flies settled on one particular sickle and the murder weapon, and the murderer, were identified.
  
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• Nigel Farage's suggestion of a privatised NHS flares tensions within Ukip

  20-01-2015 21:37
  
  Ukip is facing pre-election turmoil after policy differences and personality clashes burst into the open, with the party’s health spokeswoman slapping down Nigel Farage’s suggestion the NHS could eventually be privatised.
  
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• Farage’s suggestion of a privatised NHS flares tensions within UKIP

  20-01-2015 21:37
  
  Ukip is facing pre-election turmoil after policy differences and personality clashes burst into the open, with the party’s health spokeswoman slapping down Nigel Farage’s suggestion the NHS could eventually be privatised.
  
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• UK Jihadi Who Faked Death Admits Terror Offences

  20-01-2015 21:32
  
  A British jihadist who faked his own death has admitted a string of terror offences after returning home from Syria. Imran Khawaja, from Hounslow in west London, spent six months in the war-torn country last year and attended a terror training camp. Khawaja was widely reported to have died in Syria after the terror group Rayat al Tawheed falsely announced his death. He then tried to slip back into the UK unseen, after asking his taxi driver cousin Tahir Bhatti to drive through Bulgaria to pick h
  
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• Fight back! Study finds career prospects not affected by standing up to bully bosses

  20-01-2015 21:32
  
  Long-suffering employees of aggressive bosses shouldn’t feel they have to put up with bullying, according to research which recommends they should fight back instead.
  
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• Baby Gammy granted Australian citizenship

  20-01-2015 21:25
  
  Baby Gammy, who was embroiled in a surrogacy scandal at birth after he was born to a surrogate mother in Thailand, has been granted Australian citizenship.
  
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• Hitler's war on women: The story of Ravensbrück concentration camp

  20-01-2015 21:19
  
  In 2005 just after my first book came out, Ursula Mackenzie – then publisher at Little, Brown-asked what I'd like to write about next. I had several ideas – another biography – a play or perhaps novel.
  
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• Nurse accused of poisoning hospital patients ‘chose victims at random’

  20-01-2015 21:19
  
  A nurse accused of murdering three patients and injuring 18 others by poisoning them with insulin caused panic at his hospital while choosing his victims “completely at random”, a court has heard.
  
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• Child abuse inquiry panel member says she has been ‘bullied’ by barrister

  20-01-2015 21:18
  
  A member of the independent panel into child sexual abuse has told MPs she has been “bullied” by the barrister conducting the embattled inquiry.
  
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• Coalition of investors to pressure oil firms to go green

  20-01-2015 21:09
  
  An unprecedented coalition of investors has pledged to put pressure on BP and Shell to become more environmentally friendly by forcing the UK oil giants to assess, announce and tackle the dangers they pose to the climate.
  
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• Maryam Najafian: Glasgow primary school teacher killed in sledging accident, described as 'shining light' by colleagues

  20-01-2015 21:05
  The colleagues of a young teacher who tragically died following a sledging accident have described her as a “shining light” in their school.
  
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• Why boobs are still news: Farewell Page 3

  20-01-2015 20:56
  
  So it's farewell to Julie, 23, Cardiff. Adieu Molly, 19, Essex. Goodnight Emma, 25, Leicester. With little fanfare (at least by the publication itself), it appears as though The Sun has quietly dropped Page 3.
  
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• Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo plans to sue Fox News for 'inaccurate reports' about Muslim no-go areas

  20-01-2015 20:50
  
  The Mayor Paris has said she is planning to sue Fox News for what she claimed were inaccurate reports about alleged Muslim “no-go areas” in the city.
  
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• American Sniper: How army sharpshooter Chris Kyle's story has become a political battleground

  20-01-2015 20:48
  
  In the States, it's this week's most popular film, and everyone involved claims it has nothing to do with politics. "Really," star actor Bradley Cooper stressed over and again in interviews, director Clint Eastwood's American Sniper simply explains the "plight" of a soldier, and provides a "character study".
  
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• Argentina erupts in protest over mystery death of prosecutor investigating bombing of a Jewish community centre in 1994

  20-01-2015 20:47
  The protests were tinged with sadness, disbelief and anger. Many of the thousands that thronged to Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires believed Alberto Nisman was the 86th victim of the bombing he spent more than a decade investigating. “No more lies!” the placards read. “Enough!”
  
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• Disneyland measles outbreak: Diseases spreads beyond California raising fears for children who have not received MMR vaccine

  20-01-2015 20:38
  Health officials in Southern California are scrambling to contain an outbreak of measles, which began at Disneyland over Christmas and has since spread to more than 50 people. The highly infectious disease is believed to have moved beyond those infected at the theme park between 17 and 20 December and into the wider community.
  
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• Two British businessmen arrested on suspicion of involvement in sale of naval vessels to Nigerian security company

  20-01-2015 20:38
  
  Two British businessmen have been arrested on suspicion of bribing a Norwegian official alleged to be involved the controversial sale of six former naval vessels to a Nigerian private security company.
  
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• British jihadist who faked his death in Syria so he could return home facing life in prison after terrorism conviction

  20-01-2015 20:37
  
  A British jihadist who faked his death in Syria so he could return home undetected faces life in prison having been convicted of major terrorism offences.
  
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• British jihadist faces life in prison after faking his death in Syria so he could return home

  20-01-2015 20:37
  
  A British jihadist who faked his death in Syria so he could return home undetected faces life in prison having been convicted of major terrorism offences.
  
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• Vince Cable: Promising an EU referendum is 'dangerous' and 'utterly unrealistic'

  20-01-2015 20:33
  
  David Cameron’s promise of a referendum on a new deal for Britain in Europe is “dangerous” and “utterly unrealistic”, Vince Cable said today.
  
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• Andy McSmith's Diary: Tipsters always fall short of running naked down Whitehall

  20-01-2015 20:27
  
  The pundit and publisher Iain Dale has finally come up with a lame excuse for not keeping the most famous promise he ever made. On election night in 2010, Dale poured scorn on a BBC exit poll that predicted the Liberal Democrats would win as few as 59 seats. If that proved true, Dale promised, he would “run naked down Whitehall”. Actually, the poll overestimated rather than underestimated Nick Clegg’s appeal. They won 57 seats.
  
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• Britain confident of 'substantial' EU reform - Hammond

  20-01-2015 20:18
  
  By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - The foreign secretary said on Tuesday he was confident of negotiating a "substantial" package of reforms in the European Union after visiting capitals across the region and being told by EU members that they want Britain to stay in the bloc. Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's ties with the EU ahead of a referendum on its membership if his Conservative party is re-elected in a national vote in May. Philip Hammond
  
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• Fresh talks in health pay dispute

  20-01-2015 20:14
  
  Further talks are to be held in a bid to avert a strike by thousands of NHS workers in a bitter dispute over pay.
  
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• Gary Glitter 'Smelled Horrible' - Alleged Victim

  20-01-2015 20:00
  
  A woman who claims Gary Glitter tried to rape her when she was a child has told a court how she escaped his clutches after he crept in to her bed. Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, is charged with indecently assaulting and attempting to rape the woman, who cannot be identified. "It was Easter, because before I went home he gave me an Easter egg," she told Southwark Crown Court, describing how Gadd crept into the bed she was sharing with a friend after a dinner party at the home.
  
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• Growth makes the rich richer - but then it also makes all of us richer

  20-01-2015 19:57
  
  The State of the Union address is always about America first and foremost, but this year it has a resonance beyond US shores. That is because President Obama is seeking to tackle one of the concerns of pretty much the entire developed world: how do you spread the benefits of economic growth more widely?
  
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• Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta 'funded and orchestrated' violence of feared Mungiki militia after 2007 election

  20-01-2015 19:50
  
  President Uhuru Kenyatta funded, armed and mobilised the feared Mungiki militia responsible for violence in the aftermath of Kenya’s 2007 elections, which left more than 1,000 people dead, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has said.
  
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• Israel's attack on Hezbollah is a case of shoot first, ask questions later

  20-01-2015 19:27
  
  Very occasionally, the Israelis go for the jugular. Their helicopter attack on “terrorists” near the Syrian city of Quneitra at the weekend certainly drew aside the curtain of Hezbollah-Iranian assistance to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus. An Iranian general and six Hezbollah officers were wiped out in the attack, including Jihad Moughniyah – son of Imad Moughniyah, kidnap organiser of Western hostages in the 1980s and himself an assassination victim.
  
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• Tory EU referendum plan 'dangerous'

  20-01-2015 19:21
  
  David Cameron's plan to offer a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union by the end of 2017 has been labelled "dangerous" by a Liberal Democrat Cabinet minister.
  
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• Ancient texts on papyrus scrolls damaged during 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius can be deciphered at last

  20-01-2015 19:13
  Ancient classical texts written on papyrus scrolls blackened by the intense heat of being buried in volcanic ash have been read for the first time without them being unrolled and destroyed, scientists said.
  
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