General news

• Jeremy Clarkson: Is the word 'fracas' just a middle-class way of describing a punch-up?

  11-03-2015 23:50
  
  When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the early 18th-century lady of letters and wit, described in her journal a rakish young man of "royal blood" who was taking the fancy of a number of women, she wrote that he "occasions such fracas amongst the ladies of gallantry that it passes description". It was 1727 and the first time that the word "fracas" had been recorded anywhere in English.
  
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• UK military healthcare worker tests positive for Ebola in Sierra Leone

  11-03-2015 23:41
  LONDON/FREETOWN (Reuters) - Britain said on Wednesday a military healthcare worker had tested positive for Ebola while working in Sierra Leone and airport officials there said the patient would be flown home overnight.
  
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• Apple repairs stores after crash

  11-03-2015 23:39
  
  Apple has repaired its large-scale problems with iCloud and its iTunes stores which left users worldwide unable to complete purchases or access files.
  
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• Chelsea 2 PSG 2 player ratings: Eden Hazard and Thiago Silva among those to impress in Champions League tie

  11-03-2015 23:36
  Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League by PSG after an eventful night at Stamford Bridge that ended 2-2, seeing the French side advance on away goals.
  
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• Richard Branson's Virgin Group sued by former partner who claims the company 'stole his plans' for cruise line

  11-03-2015 23:35
  
  Virgin Cruises, the yet-to-be-inaugurated ocean-going cruise ship company unveiled last December, has sailed into early choppy waters as a former CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line sued owner Richard Branson and his Virgin Group for allegedly stealing his ideas and business plans.
  
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• Huge 13ft alligator spotted on Florida golf course

  11-03-2015 23:34
  
  Golfers at a course in Florida proved their commitment to the game today, as they continued to play despite sharing the green with a huge alligator.
  
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• Outlander is billed as the feminist Game of Thrones - so what's the secret of its success?

  11-03-2015 23:30
  
  If the BBC's new take on Poldark has whetted your appetite for hot-blooded romance, strong female characters and the perfect male form (see Aidan Turner, the actor playing Ross Poldark, for details), then the fact that, as of next week, the online streaming service Amazon Prime Instant Video will be screening the cult TV show Outlander in the UK will make it even keener.
  
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• Chelsea vs PSG match report: Thiago Silva's extra-time bullet header dumps Chelsea out of Europe despite Zlatan Ibrahimovic red

  11-03-2015 23:24
  Of all the ways Jose Mourinho might have imagined a Champions League elimination, he could hardly have conceived of an evening when Paris Saint Germain’s team of expensively-assembled superstars assumed the Stamford Bridge FA Cup spirit of Bradford City.
  
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• Sarah Payne memorial statue stolen from her former school

  11-03-2015 23:13
  
  A bronze statue of a young girl given to Sarah Payne’s former school in memory of the eight-year-old murder victim has been stolen.
  
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• Jeremy Clarkson Is 'Huge Talent' Says Cameron

  11-03-2015 23:03
  
  The Prime Minister has called Jeremy Clarkson a "huge talent" as he weighed into the row over the Top Gear presenter's suspension. More than 500,000 people have now signed an online petition calling for the 54-year-old star to be reinstated. Clarkson - who is a friend of David Cameron and lives in his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire - laughed off his latest controversy, telling reporters he was "off to the job centre".
  
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• John Maynard Keynes: New biography reveals shocking details about the economist's sex life

  11-03-2015 23:00
  
  Putting "sex lives of politicians" into Google yields 6,820 hits. The Roman emperors score 3,220. For great artists, it's a respectable, if that's the word, 2,090 hits. But "sex lives of economists"? "No results found".
  
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• David Luiz 'sorry' for celebrating against Chelsea, as this week's trend of enjoying goals against former clubs continues

  11-03-2015 22:55
  
  David Luiz had no hesitation in celebrating after he scored for PSG on his first return to Stamford Bridge, but said sorry to Chelsea fans after the match.
  
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• Plain cigarette packaging: Anti-smoking groups celebrate vote to enforce standardised

  11-03-2015 22:42
  
  Anti-smoking groups said they were “over the moon” as a vote to enforce standardised tobacco packaging was passed in the House of Commons.
  
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• Video ‘shows Oscar Pistorius playing football with ex-mafia boss Radovan Krejcir’

  11-03-2015 22:39
  
  Footage has emerged appearing to show former athlete and convicted killer Oscar Pistorius playing football with an ex-mafia boss in prison.
  
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• Facebook is planning a new company town - but would you want to live so near work?

  11-03-2015 22:30
  
  In Britain, company towns tend to conjure up images of model villages set up by Victorian businessmen who were God-fearing enough to know that they had to do right by the workers who made them millions – or they wouldn't be going to heaven. Houses in these places are sought after today. Bournville in Birmingham, set up by the Cadbury brothers between 1893 and the 1920s, and Saltaire in Bradford – developed by the textile-mill owner Titus Salt in the 1850s – are two of the most famous.
  
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• Dead Marine's family demand inquiry

  11-03-2015 22:27
  
  The family of a Royal Marine killed in a "friendly fire" incident when he was hit by an anti-tank missile have demanded an inquiry into the Afghanistan conflict.
  
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• Plane sent for Ebola health worker

  11-03-2015 22:24
  
  An RAF plane has been sent to Sierra Leone to potentially evacuate a female British military healthcare worker who has tested positive for Ebola.
  
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• Woman, 18, on terror attack charge

  11-03-2015 22:22
  
  An 18-year-old woman has been charged with preparing to carry out a terrorist attack during October 2014, the Metropolitan Police have said.
  
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• Jeremy Clarkson suspended from BBC: Top Gear co-star James May calls presenter a 'k**b'

  11-03-2015 22:18
  
  Top Gear presenter James May has defended his co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson following his suspension, by calling his colleague “a k**b” but saying he "quite likes him."
  
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• Metro incident 'destroyed' victim

  11-03-2015 22:18
  
  A black man who was blocked from boarding a Paris Metro train by Chelsea fans singing racist chants said the incident has "destroyed" him, and left him unable to work or travel on public transport.
  
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• Fox-hunting lobbyists fronted by Otis Ferry target backing of Tory candidates in stealth campaign

  11-03-2015 22:05
  
  A pro-hunting group fronted by Otis Ferry is offering to supply canvassers to help Conservative candidates win parliamentary seats if they quietly agree to support repealing the fox-hunting ban.
  
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• Plain cigarette packaging: One in four MPs who opposed measures have declared links to tobacco industry

  11-03-2015 22:04
  
  One in four of the MPs who voted against introducing plain cigarette packaging today have declared links to tobacco industries in the past, analysis has shown.
  
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• New London exhibition takes a forensic look at ITV's old Spitting Image political puppets

  11-03-2015 22:00
  
  With the general election looming in May, what could be more fitting than getting the old Spitting Image puppets out for a photo shoot?
  
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• Basildon becomes the model for educational excellence as scheme turns around town's schools

  11-03-2015 21:53
  
  A town’s primary schools have undergone a remarkable transformation after burying the hatchet between local authority-run schools and academies to work together to improve standards.
  
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• Germany rejects Greek calls for Second World War reparations

  11-03-2015 21:30
  
  The already strained relations between Athens and Berlin worsened today, as German officials blocked a Greek effort to secure reparations for the Nazi occupation in the Second World War.
  
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• Donald Macintyre's Sketch: A whole lot of bed swapping going on as David Cameron warns voters

  11-03-2015 21:12
  
  David Cameron was the first to threaten that voters might sleep with one party leader and wake with another. Today, the Tory MP Nigel Adams produced a gruesome, strictly after-the-watershed, variant: “If voters go to bed with Nigel Farage on 7 May, they could wake up not only with [Ed Miliband] but snuggled up next to Alex Salmond.”
  
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• Jeremy Clarkson at Chelsea vs PSG as Top Gear host makes the most of his suspension

  11-03-2015 21:11
  
  How does one spend time after being suspended from their job due to a 'fracas' with a colleague? By spending the evening at the football it seems.
  
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• Tories creep ahead of Labour for the first time in three years, in latest poll of polls

  11-03-2015 21:05
  
  The Conservatives have edged ahead of Labour for the first time in more than three years, according to the latest poll of polls for The Independent.
  
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• Lib Dem grassroots plot yet another Bedroom Tax revolt

  11-03-2015 21:05
  
  Nick Clegg is facing a revolt from grassroots Liberal Democrats who will demand a firm pledge to scrap the bedroom tax at the party’s spring conference starting on Friday.
  
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• Andy McSmith's Diary: After Esther McVey, it was Chris Bryant's turn to get a rough ride from Speaker John Bercow

  11-03-2015 21:04
  
  John Bercow has apologised for the quip in which he likened the Employment minister, Esther McVey, to a washing machine. He was pulled up today by the Tory MP Heather Wheeler who suggested that it was not the sort of thing the Speaker should be saying to a female minister.
  
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• Louis Vuitton Paris Fashion Week review: Lots of slithery, slippery skins

  11-03-2015 21:00
  
  It’s fitting that Nicolas Ghesquiere’s collections for Louis Vuitton start the end of each Paris fashion week (namely, the 10am slot on the final day), given that not only many of this city’s shows, but much of the season as a whole, has been stamped with his aesthetic and ideological imprint.
  
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• The All-Islamic super-heroes: Muslim children love 'The 99' comics, but hardliners loathe their creator - whose trial for heresy is looming

  11-03-2015 21:00
  Just over a decade ago, Naif Al-Mutawa had a lightbulb moment. Sitting in the back of a London taxi, he decided not to follow his chosen field of study – despite two psychology degrees and a freshly acquired doctorate – but to create comic books instead.
  
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• All-Islamic comic book heroes: 'The 99' creator has become hero and villain to opposing camps

  11-03-2015 21:00
  
  Just over a decade ago, Naif Al-Mutawa had a lightbulb moment. Sitting in the back of a London taxi, he decided not to follow his chosen field of study – despite two psychology degrees and a freshly acquired doctorate – but to create comic books instead.
  
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• Ferguson police chief steps down, effective 19 March

  11-03-2015 20:59
  
  Ferguson, Missouri Police Chief Tom Jackson on Wednesday resigned his post effective 19 March, according to sources close to the matter, adding to the fallout of a US Justice Department report on systematic bias within the city’s police department and courts.
  
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• Ferguson police chief expected to resign, reports say

  11-03-2015 20:59
  
  Ferguson, Missouri Police Chief Tom Jackson is expected to resign his post on Wednesday, according to sources close to the matter, adding to the fallout of a US Justice Department report on systematic bias within the city’s police department and courts.
  
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• Pakistan launches unprecedented paramilitary raid on offices of political party leaving one dead and three wounded

  11-03-2015 20:52
  
  Pakistan staged an unprecedented paramilitary raid on the headquarters of one of the country’s most powerful political parties today, seizing a cache of weapons and arresting some of its members.
  
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• Plain cigarette pack vote welcomed

  11-03-2015 20:49
  
  Anti-smoking groups and health charities have welcomed a vote by MPs to enforce standardised tobacco packaging, described as the "most important public health reform of this parliament".
  
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• Sarah Payne's Mum 'Sick' After Statue Stolen

  11-03-2015 20:39
  
  The mother of murdered eight-year-old Sarah Payne has told Sky News she "felt sick" after a statue given to a school in her daughter's memory was stolen. Sara Payne and the police have appealed for help to ensure the safe return of the 2ft-high bronze figure of a young girl. The statue is believed to have been taken from Burhill County Primary School in Hersham, Surrey, at around 1am on Wednesday. Sarah's mother, Sara, told Sky News she feared the statue could end up at a scr
  
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• PM hails 'huge talent' Clarkson

  11-03-2015 20:39
  
  Prime Minister David Cameron has weighed into the row over the suspension of Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, calling him a "huge talent" and saying he hopes the situation can be resolved so his children will not be left "heartbroken".
  
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• Chinese politician criticises Dalai Lama for saying he may not reincarnate

  11-03-2015 20:33
  
  A senior Chinese official has accused the Dalai Lama of “betraying” Tibet and the country's Buddhism after he suggested that he may not be reincarnated after he dies. 
  
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• Nowhere near enough black people are donating their stem cells in the UK

  11-03-2015 20:29
  
  The stats make for uncomfortable reading, whatever your ethnicity.
  
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• Homeland star David Harewood appeals for black people to donate stem cells

  11-03-2015 20:29
  
  Some black Britons are reluctant to volunteer as stem cell donors because they fear a “backlash” from community elders who see donation as disrespectful to God, the actor David Harewood has said.
  
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• David Cameron and Ed Miliband consider live internet debate

  11-03-2015 20:11
  
  David Cameron and Ed Miliband have been considering a proposal to join a live internet “digital debate” ahead of the general election campaign.
  
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• Hillsborough Inquest: David Duckenfield admits he lied about opening gate

  11-03-2015 19:52
  
  The senior policeman in charge on the day of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster made an extraordinary – and unexpected – apology for his lie to FA officials that Liverpool fans had forced open a gate at the stadium, when he in fact had ordered it be opened.
  
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• Shooting for the Moon: time called on Isle of Man space race

  11-03-2015 19:50
  
  The Isle of Man always seemed an unlikely contender in the space race – despite being ranked as the fourth most likely place to launch a mission to the Moon a few years ago.
  
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• Joy as MPs pass cigarette pack law

  11-03-2015 19:49
  
  Anti-smoking groups were "over the moon" today as a vote to enforce standardised tobacco packaging was passed in the House of Commons.
  
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• Government vows to keep defence vow

  11-03-2015 19:49
  
  Downing Street has insisted that it will stick to Nato guidelines when deciding what expenditure counts towards meeting the alliance's target of spending 2% of GDP on defence.
  
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• Isis execution video: Boy seen shooting dead Israeli 'spy' is identified as French citizen

  11-03-2015 19:42
  
  A boy seen executing an alleged Israeli “spy” in the latest Isis propaganda video is a French citizen, security officials have said.
  
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• Global warming could be destroying the world's oldest mummies

  11-03-2015 19:37
  
  It turns out that global warming does not impact only the people currently living on Earth, it can affect those who died millennia ago.
  
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• Star wars: UK threatens to pull out of telescope project if Italy is named its HQ

  11-03-2015 19:36
  
  The battle between Italy and the UK to host the headquarters of the world’s biggest radio telescope has escalated after the British government threatened to pull out of the multi-national project if Cheshire loses to Padua.
  
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