General news

• VIDEO: Britons 'felt compelled' to fight IS

  12-03-2015 23:54 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A former soldier and a City trader from the UK who have join the fight against so-called Islamic State in Syria, say they felt compelled to do so after seeing a IS photos and videos.
  
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• Lewis Moody's Six Nations column: Dublin was a reality check - England need a rapid response

  12-03-2015 23:42
  
  I said before the Ireland match that it was England’s most important game in 18 months, that winning it would deliver the very real prospect of a Grand Slam in a World Cup year – and that with huge swathes of first-choice players out injured.
  
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• Clarkson Told Colleague He Will 'Lose His Job'

  12-03-2015 23:34
  
  Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is facing new allegations over the "fracas" at a Yorkshire Dales Hotel that led to his suspension by the BBC on Monday. The Ward family from Leeds told Sky News that Clarkson ranted for up to half-an-hour at the Simonstone Hotel near Hawes and say they were shocked at his language and the way he treated his colleague. Sue Ward, 54, a medical receptionist, described Clarkson's behaviour towards the unnamed employee as shocking. Sue's brother
  
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• VIDEO: Police 'failed to investigate' child abuse

  12-03-2015 23:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  South Yorkshire Police had evidence that hundreds of girls were facing sexual exploitation in Sheffield in recent years, but failed to investigate many of the allegations.
  
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• Poteen, the old Irish moonshine, has made a comeback in today's coolest cocktails

  12-03-2015 23:20
  
  On 17 March, the bars of Britain will rock with fake Irishmen in green skyscraper hats and ginger leprechaun beards, waving tricolour flags and holding black-and-white pints of Guinness: a colourful celebration, not of Ireland of course, but of the cultural appropriation of Irishness.
  
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• Dodds sets out the DUP's demands

  12-03-2015 23:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Westminster leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party says an Ed Miliband government would have to offer a European referendum in exchange for the support of his in the event of a hung parliament.
  
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• Trio of historical piers up for sale

  12-03-2015 23:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Three well known English and Welsh piers are put up for sale for a collective price of £12.6m.
  
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• Social mobility worse than 30 years ago, says Have I Got News for You panelist Ian Hislop

  12-03-2015 23:07
  
  Have I Got News for You panelist Ian Hislop has warned that social mobility in the UK has “regressed” in comparison with 30 years ago.
  
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• Have I Got News for You panelist Ian Hislop warns social mobility has regressed

  12-03-2015 23:07
  
  Have I Got News for You panelist Ian Hislop has warned that social mobility in the UK has “regressed” over the past 30 years.
  
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• Missing UK Girls: Turkey Holds 'Foreign Spy'

  12-03-2015 23:02
  
  Turkey has arrested a man it said was a foreign intelligence agent who helped three British schoolgirls travel to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS). Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the "foreign spy" working for one of the states in the US-led coalition had helped Kadiza Sultana, 16, Shamima Begum, 15, and Amira Abase, 15, get across the border. Mr Cavusoglu said the agent was not American, or from an EU state, but did not elaborate. Reports said the suspect was w
  
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• UK Ebola patient home for treatment, four more for monitoring

  12-03-2015 23:00
  
  A British military healthcare worker who tested positive for Ebola in Sierra Leone is being flown back to Britain along with four others who do not have the disease but need precautionary monitoring, health officials said on Thursday. The unnamed healthcare worker who has Ebola was transported in a specially equipped medical plane and will be treated in an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London, the country's designated Ebola treatment centre. Two of the four close contacts who
  
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• Banished, episode 2, TV review: Jimmy McGovern’s drama is struggling to break off the shackles

  12-03-2015 23:00
  
  It’s all about the 1780s at the BBC as new period dramas Poldark and Banished barrel across our screens with their funny trousers, three cornered hats and overuse of the word ‘godforsaken’.
  
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• Mother's Day 2015: Literary matriarchs and their daughters, from Little Women to Carrie

  12-03-2015 22:30
  
  When I think of a mother figure, I imagine someone calling out "be careful!" That's my experience as a mother and as a daughter, a sense of visceral protectiveness. But the relationship can also be dense, difficult, close, loving, scratchy, enduring. It's the complication that counts. This is what makes them such great fictional territory, as the poet and critic Adrienne Rich said: "The cathexis between mother and daughter – essential, distorted, misused – is the great unwritten story."
  
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• Security services: Power with responsibility

  12-03-2015 22:17
  
  Security and intelligence agencies perhaps face greater challenges today than ever before. Sophisticated technology has become commonplace; the world nearly buckles under the weight of our digital communications. The activities of terrorists, criminals and other malign forces are difficult to spot, let alone monitor.
  
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• Thinking big: Terry Pratchett was as brave as he was visionary

  12-03-2015 22:14
  
  Sir Terry Pratchett, who died today, occasionally received letters from fans who had a terminal illness. They hoped, so he reported, that the Death they would meet might resemble his own much-loved Reaper. Pratchett imagined Death as a curious, rather kindly figure, a lover of cats and curry, often perplexed by humanity’s taste for self-delusion and always with a taste for EXPRESSING HIMSELF IN CAPITALS.
  
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• The Great British Sewing Bee: Matt Chapple named winner after wowing judges with avant garde dress

  12-03-2015 22:04
  
  Matt Chapple has emerged triumphant as the winner of The Great British Sewing Bee.
  
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• Jeremy Clarkson: A TV producer reveals what it's like having to endure presenters' tantrums

  12-03-2015 22:00
  
  Mont Blanc pierces the cerulean blue of the Alpine sky in front of me. I'm standing halfway along a piste on the best day of this year's ski season. Next to me is the director, the cameraman, a soundman and a researcher. We have all spent the previous day on a recce (ie ski-ing between restaurants above the glamorous resort of Megève). Yes, sometimes even we can't believe we get paid to do our jobs.
  
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• Max Clifford Arrested By Yewtree Police

  12-03-2015 21:43
  
  Former PR guru Max Clifford has been arrested over fresh sex allegations, it is understood. Scotland Yard said a 71-year-old man has been arrested under Operation Yewtree - the inquiry set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. Scotland Yard would not confirm the identity of the 71-year-old but said: "This is not a new individual to Operation Yewtree.
  
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• Wynton Marsalis cancels Caracas concert as relations between US and Venezuela plummet

  12-03-2015 21:31
  
  The American jazz trumpeter legend Wynton Marsalis has canceled cross-cultural concerts in Venezuela amid worsening diplomatic relations between the two countries.
  
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• Apple is launching a revival of the watch - but how do we really tell the time in the digital age?

  12-03-2015 21:30
  A century after soldiers strapped clocks to their wrists, and marketing men convinced us all to pull time out of our pockets, mobile phone companies have put it back, as so many of our old watches tick in the darkness of cupboards and drawers. The international symbol of time checking should no longer be a tap of the wrist, but a press or swipe of the thumb. But now those same companies are attempting to turn back the clock and restore time to our person.
  
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• Charity awards make Cowell 'proud'

  12-03-2015 21:24
  
  X Factor supremo Simon Cowell told the Prince of Wales that meeting young people helped by the Prince's Trust charity made him "proud to be British".
  
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• Everton v Dynamo Kyiv: Europa League – live!

  12-03-2015 21:17
  
  Europa League last-16 updates from the first leg at Goodison ParkLive scoreboard! Follow all of the latest action from the Europa LeagueAnd feel free to drop an email to [email protected] 8.17pm GMT 12 min: Goodison’s a fairly quiet place. The heavy rain, coming down in diagonal rods, dampening the spirits. Nothing much going on right now. 8.15pm GMT 9 min: Gusev lifts a cross into the Everton box from the left. Alcaraz is asleep, and Mbokani, rushing in, is very close to running t
  
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• Britain 'best place to invest'

  12-03-2015 21:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  China's richest man says that he considers the UK the best place in the world to invest as it has an open market and is subject to less scrutiny.
  
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• Kitchen sink drama for Miliband as homely photo backfires

  12-03-2015 21:03
  
  Labour leader seen as down to earth with no-frills cooking area on BBC film; until it was revealed as his home’s second kitchenA harmless picture of Ed Miliband and his wife Justine Thornton sipping a cuppa at their north London home, in what appears to be a relatively modest looking kitchen, has ended up providing dream tabloid headlines.It turns out that the couple were filmed by the BBC in a second kitchen at their Dartmouth Park home.Ed Miliband's kitchen is lovely. Daily Mail pix: the fun
  
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• Sea hawk: piers in Blackpool and Wales put up for sale for £12m

  12-03-2015 20:57
  
  Three of the UK’s historic piers, described as ‘jewels in the crown of the coastline’, have been listed on the market by owner Cuerden LeisureTwo of Blackpool’s historic piers together with the longest pier in Wales, at Llandudno, are for sale in move that could fetch as much as £12.6m. The landmarks, owned by the attraction operator Cuerden Leisure, are on the market with guide prices of £4.8m for Blackpool Central Pier, £3.3m for Blackpool South Pier and £4.5m f
  
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• US military helicopter has been found off Florida coast without survivors

  12-03-2015 20:52
  
  The US military helicopter that crashed off the coast of Florida on Tuesday night has been found and the Coast Guard has called off the search for the 11 missing soldiers and Marines that were aboard the aircraft, the New York Times reported.
  
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• Mexico pays James Bond film studios millions to shoot its good side

  12-03-2015 20:50
  
  Officials offered Sony Pictures and MGM up to $20m in tax incentives to make changes to upcoming Bond film that cast country in positive lightMexican officials reportedly offered up to $20m in tax incentives to Sony Pictures and MGM in return for changes to be made to the next James Bond film, in an apparent attempt to combat the country’s negative image. According to a report on the US website Tax Analysts, Mexico offered incentives in exchange for changes to to the script of Spectre, includi
  
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• Mexico offered James Bond film studios millions to shoot its good side

  12-03-2015 20:50
  
  Officials offered Sony Pictures and MGM up to $20m in tax incentives to make changes to upcoming Bond film that cast country in positive lightMexican officials reportedly offered up to $20m in tax incentives to Sony Pictures and MGM in return for changes to be made to the next James Bond film, in an apparent attempt to combat the country’s negative image. According to a report on the US website Tax Analysts, Mexico offered incentives in exchange for changes to to the script of Spectre, includi
  
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• Silhan Ozcelik: ‘Disgusting’ trial for young woman who tried to fight against Isis

  12-03-2015 20:47
  
  A teenager has appeared in court after allegedly trying to join Kurdish fighters battling Isis in Syria, in the first prosecution of its kind in Britain.
  
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• Donald Macintyre's Sketch: Defence committee fires warning shot across George Osborne's bow

  12-03-2015 20:47
  
  Labour’s Dai Havard was congratulated on all sides for his “extraordinary insights” into the challenges facing the armed forces and for having set them out “very clearly”. The last tribute seemed doubtful.
  
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• Police will have to pick and choose what they prioritise, warns Britain’s top officer

  12-03-2015 20:47
  
  Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe gives biggest intervention yet in the debate about how police are to cope with large budget cutsPolice forces will have to refuse demands to take on extra priorities and others will have to do more to pick up “the pieces from society’s failings”, Britain’s top officer has warned.Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, warned large budget cuts and the changing nature of crime meant radical reform of how the public was kept safe was needed. C
  
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• Andy McSmith's Diary: A good day to bury unpalatable decisions

  12-03-2015 20:43
  
  It was Take Out the Trash Day today, when the Government delivers so many announcements that unwelcome news is likely to be buried under the volume. There were no fewer than 42 written announcements from ministers.
  
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• Robert Downey Jr. surprises young disabled boy by giving bionic arm as Iron Man character

  12-03-2015 20:38
  
  A disabled young boy who loves superheroes was given a shock when Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. gave him a bionic arm.
  
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• Ferguson shooting: Officers shot and wounded during protests were 'ambushed,' say police as incident receives widespread condemnation

  12-03-2015 20:38
  Two officers who were shot and wounded during a protest in Ferguson, Missouri, had been the victims of an “ambush”, police said today – as they vowed to track down those responsible.
  
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• Max Clifford reportedly quizzed on new sex claims

  12-03-2015 20:38
  
  Former PR guru Max Clifford has reportedly been arrested over fresh sex allegations.
  
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• Terry Pratchett: Indomitable and inimitable to the end, the light fantastic goes out

  12-03-2015 20:37
  
  Discworld fans are in mourning. Their literary wizard, Sir Terry Pratchett, local journalist turned internationally bestselling novelist of more than 70 books, died today aged 66.
  
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• For Britain’s armed forces it’s ludicrous to fetishise this 2% spending target

  12-03-2015 20:35
  
  Britain’s defence strategy should be based on the threats the nation faces, not perverse political totemsIt isn’t just military planners who seem happier refighting the last war. Politicians are too. David Cameron chooses to stay tactically quiet about defence because he was humbled by losing the Syria vote in 2013. But Ed Miliband, who won that vote, is just as cautious. Labour remains haunted by its own defence ghosts, many dating back to the unilateralist 1980s.Few would go so far as to c
  
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• Turkey claims foreign spy helped British girls to Syria

  12-03-2015 20:35
  
  A man has been arrested in Turkey for allegedly helping three British schoolgirls cross into Syria to join Isis militants, according to the country’s Foreign Minister, who accused him of being a foreign spy.
  
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• If Andy Murray is game for a laugh Jonas Bjorkman will keep him smiling

  12-03-2015 20:33
  
  It will be fascinating to see how the Swede gells with Murray and Amélie Mauresmo, and the word is they have already hit it off wellAndy Murray would seem to have chosen a coaching aide of comforting normality in the 42-year-old Jonas Bjorkman, and he will be glad learn they share at least one embarrassing gaffe.As a fledgling editor of a tennis magazine after he had retired in 2008, Bjorkman interviewed the American player James Blake, who had recently been voted one of the sexiest men in the
  
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• Conservative MPs hit out at government plans to cut defence spending

  12-03-2015 20:31
  
  Twenty-seven Conservative MPs, including several former ministers, have signalled their dismay that a re-elected Tory government could cut military spending.
  
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• Climate change: Summer storms will give way to heatwaves and drought across Europe

  12-03-2015 20:27
  
  Summer storms over Europe have become weaker and less frequent over the past few decades, but if this trend continues it is likely to lead to more intense heatwaves and droughts according to climate scientists.
  
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• War with Isis: Iraq government claims that most of Tikrit is liberated

  12-03-2015 20:26
  
  The sound of rockets and mortar fire echoed across Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit for a second day, as Iraqi security forces clashed with Isis fighters in their drive to recapture it.
  
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• Cross-party outrage at Nigel Farage’s plan to end discrimination laws

  12-03-2015 20:23
  
  David Cameron and Ed Milband led condemnation of Nigel Farage after the Ukip leader called for much of the legislation banning racial discrimination at work to be scrapped.
  
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• Mirror hacking trial: 41 more celebrities encouraged to make claims

  12-03-2015 20:21
  
  Trinity Mirror is facing a soaring phone-hacking bill after dozens more high-profile figures – including Nigel Havers, Jemima Khan and Hugh Grant – came forward to lodge compensation claims.
  
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• Syria revolution four years on: Don't bet against President Assad - a ruler willing to see his country destroyed so long as he can cling to power

  12-03-2015 20:21
  How has Bashar Hafez al-Assad survived these past four years? Ever since the Syrian revolution of 2011, his overthrow has been predicted by the greatest statesmen of our day, by the finest journalists, by the most anonymous of “senior diplomats”. What is the man’s secret?
  
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• Syria revolution four years on: UN's credibility on the line as humanitarian aid fails to appear

  12-03-2015 20:21
  
  Four years after shots fired at protesters in the Syrian city of Deraa started a civil war, more than 200,000 lives have been lost. Now, anger at the UN Security Council’s failure to secure desperately needed humanitarian aid threatens the organisation’s credibility.
  
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• Nigel Farage, take note: if bosses could discriminate they’d probably prefer Polish workers

  12-03-2015 20:19
  
  The Ukip leader should be grateful for equality laws. They give British workers a chance of getting British jobsSo first the good news: racism is history! Yes, just like that. One minute a bunch of Chelsea fans are filmed refusing to let a black man into their Métro carriage, as if the last 40 years of slow progress towards enlightenment had never happened, the next: pffftt – pretty much sorted.Or at least this is the world according to Nigel Farage, who suggested in a TV interview with
  
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• Cyber Security Challenge: Hack into HMS Belfast and blow up the Mayor

  12-03-2015 20:19
  
  The cyber-terrorists have hacked the network. They have used compromised computers to turn the guns of HMS Belfast towards City Hall, ready to blast Mayor Boris and the rest of London’s administration to smithereens.
  
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• Isis ransacking of ancient Assyrian city confirmed by Iraq's head of antiquities

  12-03-2015 20:18
  
  Attack on Dur-Sharrukin, the latest by group on country’s heritage, comes as Brussels calls for creation of safe havens for Iraqi minoritiesIraq’s director of antiquities has confirmed that Islamic State militants have ransacked the ancient city of Dur-Sharrukin near Mosul, the group’s latest assault on the country’s millennia-old heritage.News of the latest attack emerged as the European parliament passed a resolution calling for the creation of safe havens in northern Iraq to protect t
  
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• Richard Glatzer: Inspirational director of ‘Still Alice’ dies aged 63

  12-03-2015 20:16
  
  When Julianne Moore won the Oscar for Best Actress at this year’s Academy Awards, the couple who co-directed Still Alice, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, watched from a hospital room in Downtown Los Angeles.
  
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