General news

• Mamadou Sakho: I never considered quitting Liverpool despite derby snub

  06-02-2015 23:50
  
  • Defender walked out of Anfield before home match with Everton
  • ‘I never doubted I would come back – I’m happy at Liverpool’
  • Gerrard: Liverpool must seal Sterling and Henderson deals
  • Sturridge may start against Everton, says Rodgers
  • Match preview: Everton v LiverpoolMamadou Sakho has said he never considered quitting Liverpool despite walking out of September’s Merseyside derby at Anfield following a snub from the manager, Brendan Rodgers.The France international init
  
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• Why it is better for golf if BBC makes itself scarce on the fairways

  06-02-2015 23:31
  
  From 2017 the Open Championship will go to Sky Sports and the national broadcaster will take two hours of highlights each evening – and not before timeIf it means putting the cash towards more Wolf Halls, I’m entirely in favour of televised sport migrating to subscription channels. Wolf Hall is what the BBC does best. Better than anyone in the world, you might think. Sport? Once upon a time but no longer.It was announced this week that golf’s Open Championship will stay with the BBC but on
  
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• Louis van Gaal: consistency will make Manchester United best team in country

  06-02-2015 23:30
  
  • Manager believes United can improve all aspects of their play
  • Ángel Di María set to start against West Ham despite burglary traumaLouis van Gaal believes that when Manchester United consistently find their best form they will be the country’s No1 team, though the manager said it also depends on how Chelsea and Manchester City develop.United trail Chelsea by 10 points and City by five yet Van Gaal, who will deny an FA charge of bringing the game into disrepute during the FA Cup four
  
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• Chelsea’s José Mourinho returns reluctantly to the media fray

  06-02-2015 23:30
  
  • Prickly manager admits he is ‘not super-happy’ to be at press conference
  • Familiar complaints aimed at Football Association over past decisionsJosé Mourinho has made a prickly comeback to media duties by offering a familiar reminder that Arsène Wenger escaped sanction for appearing to push the Chelsea manager on the touchline earlier this season, and reaffirming his belief that clubs who flout Uefa’s financial fair play rules, implying Manchester City, should be docke
  
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• Arsenal’s Arsène Wenger ready for battle with Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino

  06-02-2015 23:30
  
  Arsenal manager knows his opposite number in the north London derby is a tough opponent and has respect for his managerial achievements so farArsène Wenger had been asked for his memories of Mauricio Pochettino, the player, and he responded by turning his palm upwards and making a karate-chopping gesture in a diagonal direction.“Tough,” the Arsenal manager added, with a smile. Wenger, clearly, has vivid recollections of Pochettino’s brutal, scything foul on Michael Owen at the 2002
  
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• Jose Mourinho keeps Manchester City in his sights with FFP demand

  06-02-2015 23:30
  
  Jose Mourinho has again called for a points deduction for any club that fails to meet the Financial Fair Play rules, with his aim squarely at Manchester City who signed Wilfried Bony for £28m in the last transfer window despite sanctions last summer.
  
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• Jose Mourinho: Chelsea manager's sulky return makes less noise than silence

  06-02-2015 23:30
  
  Jose Mourinho was not quite the full Marshawn Lynch at his press conference at the Cobham training ground yesterday, but like that famously uncooperative Seattle Seahawks running back, he did want to make one thing clear: he was only there so he wouldn’t get fined.
  
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• Everton vs Liverpool: Roberto Martinez is paying the price for not adopting Brendan Rodgers' pragmatism

  06-02-2015 23:30
  Behind his surface optimism about a side who have at least rediscovered the concept of the clean sheet, Phil Jagielka must have wondered how on earth it came to be that today’s Merseyside derby conversation contains the words “Everton” and “relegation zone”.
  
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• Aston Villa vs Chelsea: Jose Mourinho's sulky return makes less noise than silence

  06-02-2015 23:30
  
  Jose Mourinho was not quite the full Marshawn Lynch at his press conference at the Cobham training ground yesterday, but like that famously uncooperative Seattle Seahawks running back, he did want to make one thing clear: he was only there so he wouldn’t get fined.
  
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• St Helens kick off Super League defence with victory over Catalans Dragons

  06-02-2015 23:29
  
  • St Helens 18-7 Catalans DragonsKeiron Cunningham tasted success in his first game as St Helens coach in a stop-start match against Catalans Dragons that saw former Australia centre Willie Tonga knocked out just 12 seconds into his Super League debut.Former London Broncos forward Atelea Vea marked his Saints debut with the game’s first try and 19-year-old Andre Savelio scored his first try for the club as the defending champions ground out an 18-7 victory against their injury-stricken oppon
  
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• European energy regulations could be strengthened under commission plans

  06-02-2015 23:25
  
  Proposals for new legislation on energy efficiency would be brought forward this October, but it could take years for any changes in directives to be enforcedRules on how buildings should be constructed so as to save energy are set to be strengthened in European member states, if plans under way from the European commission reach completion.
  The current directive on the energy performance of buildings, which sets certain standards for construction and refurbishment to ensure good insulation an
  
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• Wales vs England: George Ford belies his modest dimensions to stand tall in No 10 shirt

  06-02-2015 23:24
  
  As if this much-anticipated fixture needed any extra cranking-up, there was a five-minute delay to the kick-off while England refused to emerge from the players’ tunnel. Was it a case of the captain Chris Robshaw aiming to minimise his team’s jitters? Or did it indicate that the hairy-jawed Harlequin possessed the chin-out defiance once displayed by a predecessor martin Johnson, who once mucked about over a stretch of red carpet pre-match in Dublin, certain that those around him would not b
  
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• Katie Price takes Big Brother crown

  06-02-2015 23:23
  
  Katie Price has won Celebrity Big Brother, beating Katie Hopkins into second place.
  
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• Tax Havens Face Blacklisting Threat From Labour

  06-02-2015 23:20
  
  Tax havens such as Bermuda, Jersey and Guernsey will have six months to open their books or face international blacklisting if Labour wins the General Election in May, Ed Miliband has vowed. The Labour leader has accused David Cameron of failing to follow through on demands that all overseas territories and crown dependencies adopt transparency measures being introduced in the UK. Agreement on action to expose the owners of "shell companies" used to evade tax was hailed by Mr Cameron a
  
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• Lizabeth Scott obituary

  06-02-2015 23:13
  
  Film-noir femme fatale of the 1940s and 50sIn the mid-1940s, Paramount described their latest star signing, Lizabeth Scott, who has died aged 92, as “beautiful, blonde, aloof and alluring” and, in anticipation of her becoming another tough-girl siren of the period, nicknamed her The Threat. However, during her 12-year film career, the critics and public never saw her as a threat to the two other noirish dames she most resembled, Lauren Bacall and Veronica Lake, although they rarely played du
  
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• Ukraine crisis talks end after five hours with no word of a new peace plan with Russia

  06-02-2015 23:07
  
  Five hours of talks between European leaders and Russian president Putin have ended without any word of an agreement to resolve the crisis in Ukraine.
  
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• England storm back to beat Wales in stirring Six Nations opener

  06-02-2015 23:05
  
  • Wales 16-21 England
  • Relive the action with Dan Lucas’s MBM report
  • Wales v England: Six Nations in pictures
  • Player ratings from the Six Nations match in CardiffGreat occasions do not always produce classic games but England will long remember this frantic thriller. Under the Friday night lights this was as tense and breathless as any Anglo-Welsh contest in recent memory, a prime-time example of why the Six Nations retains its allure. If it is an indicator of what lies in
  
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• Wales v England: Six Nations 2015 – as it happened

  06-02-2015 23:03
  
  Match report: Wales 16-21 EnglandBen Youngs orchestrates shock win in Cardiff 10.03pm GMT Well what a result that is for England. They went into this match with nothing to lose, really, and have come away with a remarkable win. Yes they have greater strength in depth than other teams, but they can’t give everyone international experience and for such a novice group to come and win in one of the world’s most intimidating stadiums is remarkable.Wales looked rusty, both sides made mistakes and
  
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• Drink: when you’re serving fish, white wine isn’t always the answer

  06-02-2015 23:00
  
  Perceived wisdom is that you serve white wine with fish come what may. But it ain’t always necessarily soOne of the tricky things about picking a wine to go with food is that it’s not much help thinking only about the main ingredient. How it’s cooked will often have a much bigger bearing on your final choice.Take salmon, for instance, the subject of Yotam’s column this week. You’d want a different wine if you were cooking the fish en croute or with a creamy sauce (a chardonnay, I’d s
  
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• Wales vs England match report: Anthony Watson leads second-half fight back in thrilling Six Nations opener

  06-02-2015 22:59
  Stuart Lancaster's side made a storming second half fight-back to overhaul Wales' 16-8 lead in Cardiff, to take the opening match of this year's Six Nations.
  
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• Wales vs England match report: Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph lead fight-back as George Ford secures thrilling Six Nations victory

  06-02-2015 22:59
  History? It’s all bunk – especially the recent kind. Injuries? Nothing but a minor inconvenience. England, fielding half a team new to the bright lights of Cardiff and missing some of their most experienced forwards and midfielders, recovered from a rotten start to the most eagerly awaited cross-Severn game in ages, and with tries from the Bath backs Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph – two players fresh to the unique demands of Six Nations rugby – they set themselves up for World Cup y
  
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• From the big screen to a Texas court: the next chapter of American Sniper

  06-02-2015 22:36
  
  Two years ago last Monday, Chris Kyle swung his black pick-up off Country Road 2013, through the gates of Rough Creek Lodge & Resort and into a scorched landscape of brown-scrub fields punctuated by bleached buttes of fossilised coral.
  
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• Jackass star Steve-O exits The Jump

  06-02-2015 22:35
  
  Jackass star Steve-O became the latest celebrity to be knocked out of The Jump tonight.
  
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• Judge rules man's upskirt photos of girl, 13, at Target not a crime but appalling

  06-02-2015 22:28
  
  Portland man, 61, admits to snapping photos up her skirt, but he did not violate privacy laws because such sightings can occur by happenstance, judge cites An Oregon judge has ruled that a 61-year-old man did nothing illegal when he crouched in the aisle of a Target store and snapped photos up a 13-year-old’s skirt.It was lewd and appalling, but not outlawed, Washington county judge Eric Butterfield said. Related: In a world where upskirt shots are legal, there can't be enough anti-creep laws
  
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• The good mixer: kiss and tell

  06-02-2015 22:00
  
  Pucker up, beer lovers, for this subtly sour treatA beer cocktail, for a change, named for a subtle sourness that will make you want to pucker up. I’ve used the Wild Beer Co’s Ninkasi, but a lightly sour Belgian ale such as Orval would also work. Serves two.30ml Noilly Prat vermouth
  50ml elderflower liqueur (I use Chase)
  1 egg white
  10ml basic sugar syrup
  ½ tsp yuzu juice
  200ml Ninkasi (or similar)
  A pinch of sumac, to finish Continue reading...
  
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• Security alerts at churches now over

  06-02-2015 21:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Security alerts at two Catholic churches in Glengormley and Newtownabbey on the outskirts of north Belfast have been declared hoaxes.
  
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• Pair contacted Johnson over 'plot'

  06-02-2015 21:17
  
  Alan Johnson was contacted by two senior Labour figures at the height of speculation he was being lined up by plotters to replace Ed Miliband in an internal coup.
  
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• Police Hunt Pair Over Cadet Beheading Threat

  06-02-2015 21:15
  
  Police are searching for two men after female army cadets reported they were threatened with beheading outside an Army Reserve centre. The occupants of the car are thought to have asked the two teenagers "Are you in the Army?", before shouting threats as they drove past in Alexandra Road. The alleged reference to beheading has chilling echoes of the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby who was attacked in Woolwich, London, in May 2013. Northumbria Police have stepped up patrols in the area, f
  
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• Labour in 'tax havens' ultimatum

  06-02-2015 21:09
  
  Bermuda, Jersey and other British "tax havens" would have six months to open their books or face international blacklisting if Labour wins the general election, Ed Miliband has declared.
  
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• Keep daffodils away from spring onions, shops told

  06-02-2015 20:58
  
  Supermarkets across Britain have been asked by health officials to keep daffodils away from food after some customers mistook the poisonous plants for a kind of spring onion or Chinese vegetable.
  
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• Record-breaking Gaugin: What makes it worth $300m?

  06-02-2015 20:58
  
  Paul Gauguin began the first of his two extended visits to the post-paradisal world of Tahiti – French colonisers had succeeded in smudging out its innocence – in 1891, and the consequence of these visits was a tumult of paintings, some of which were very good indeed, and others less so.
  
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• Gauguin, Gauguin, gone! $300m sale rewrites art record books

  06-02-2015 20:57
  
  A painting of two Tahitian women by Paul Gauguin has sold for a reported $300m (nearly £200m), smashing the record price for a single piece of art.
  
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• Satanists: the beast worshippers of Bolsover

  06-02-2015 20:57
  
  Sitting behind what seemed an ordinary desk in an ordinary office, Andrew Tristram of Old Bolsover Town Council offered an apparently genial smile and reassured us: “I am not the emissary of Beelzebub. I am not the unholy servant of Satan. I am the town clerk.”
  
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• ‘World of Warcraft’ fraudsters: Cyber-crime chief warns of new threat

  06-02-2015 20:57
  
  Young people are being drawn into increasingly serious cyber crime after beginning with acts of petty theft inside online fantasy games such as World of Warcraft, Britain’s most senior cyber detective has said.
  
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• Ukip’s man in khaki: forget Russia, it’s Argentina and Spain we need to fear

  06-02-2015 20:52
  
  The Middle East may be awash with violence while fears of “total war” between Russia and Ukraine persist, but Ukip’s top military man appears to be gearing up to fight older battles.
  
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• M4 queues clear before Six Nations

  06-02-2015 20:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Queues on the M4 motorway towards Cardiff ahead of the Six Nations Wales-England clash are cleared.
  
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• Canada strikes down ban on assisted suicide

  06-02-2015 20:50
  
  Canada’s Supreme Court has struck down the country’s 1993 ban on assisted suicide, meaning doctors there can now help mentally competent patients with severe and incurable medical conditions to die. The ruling puts Canada among the few Western countries to permit the practice.
  
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• VIDEO: Rare animals killed at Bristol Zoo

  06-02-2015 20:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Bristol Zoo has lost three of its rarest animals after two fatal incidents, including one involving a male Warty Pig which killed its own baby.
  
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• Durham police chief says it 'ludicrous' to put extra officers near riverbanks 'to stop bright young things falling in' after three drownings

  06-02-2015 20:30
  Durham’s police chief has dismissed calls for extra officers to patrol the banks of the River Wear after three students drowned within a 14 month period.
  
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• Ukraine crisis: Country 'fights for survival' as US warns over unchecked Russian aggression

  06-02-2015 20:29
  
  In the eastern Ukrainian town of Debaltseve, a grim railway junction fought over by Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government troops for the last two weeks, there was a brief respite yesterday.
  
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• Malaysian 'Fire your Indonesian maid' advert sparks diplomatic row

  06-02-2015 20:15
  
  The Malaysian government has received a formal complaint from Indoesia over an “insensitive” and “demeaning” advert created for a vacuum cleaner brand, which said: “Fire your Indonesian maid now!”
  
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• Whether or not Miliband is anti-business, he has that image - and it's damaging

  06-02-2015 20:13
  
  “He doesn’t get business,” the chief executive of one of Britain’s biggest companies said after a rather frosty and inconclusive meeting with Ed Miliband last year. He judged the Labour leader badly briefed about his sector, and rather disengaged.
  
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• Murder inquiry after man's death

  06-02-2015 20:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A murder inquiry is launched after the death of a 27-year-old man in the Kennishead area of Glasgow.
  
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• After the death of Muath al-Kasaesbeh the tide may be turning against Isis in Jordan

  06-02-2015 20:10
  
  Everyone in Zarqa knows someone who has gone to fight in Syria or Iraq and, in recent years, funeral tents to mourn the deaths of young men have appeared with increasing regularity.
  
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• Isis US hostage killed: Who is Kayla Jean Mueller?

  06-02-2015 20:05
  
  Isis militants have claimed that Kayla Jean Mueller, a 26-year-old US aid worker, has been killed in a retaliatory air strike conducted by Jordanian planes.
  
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• Fake pregnancy woman found guilty of child smuggling

  06-02-2015 20:01
  
  A woman who faked her own pregnancy after years of infertility has been convicted of smuggling a child into Britain after apparently buying it from a Nigerian “baby farm” and passing it off as her own.
  
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• 'Rude' family court judge Robert Dodds rebuked twice

  06-02-2015 19:59
  
  A “gratuitously rude” judge who told a 13-year-old girl that her case was “codswallop” has come under attack from MPs after receiving his second official rebuke in a matter of days for breaching legal standards.
  
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• Ghoncheh Ghavami: Iranian director defies ban to release taxi-eye view of jailed woman

  06-02-2015 19:58
  
  An Iranian film-maker has defied the Tehran authorities who banned him from working by releasing a movie protesting against the jailing of a London woman for attending a men’s volleyball game.
  
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• Raif Badawi: Lord Mayor of London accused of ‘wearing Saudi muzzle’

  06-02-2015 19:57
  
  The Lord Mayor of London failed to raise the case of jailed blogger Raif Badawi when he led a business delegation to Saudi Arabia last month, in what human rights groups described as “yet another example of Britain voluntarily wearing the Saudi muzzle” on the issue.
  
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• VIDEO: Real cost of policing Assange

  06-02-2015 19:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The UK government has spent about £10m providing a 24-hour guard at the Ecuadorean embassy in London since Wikileaks founder Julian Assange claimed asylum there in 2012.
  
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