General news

• Game of Thrones, Series 5, Episode 1; TV review: Now that we've come to expect the unexpected, can the HBO show still shock like it used to?

  18-03-2015 23:59
  Ah, that theme tune! After four seasons of HBO’s most-watched television programme, Ramin Djawadi’s score has us salivating like Pavlov’s bloodthirstiest dog, right from its very first note. Tonight that note echoed through a dungeon-cum-screening room at the Tower of London, an appropriately medieval setting for the world premiere of Game of Thrones season 5. It promised another exciting round of high-stakes power-play and mortal combat, but now that we’ve come to expect the unexpected
  
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• Tunisia museum shooting: Country in shock as Tunis attack leaves more than 20 people dead

  18-03-2015 23:50
  
  Tunisia's prime minister has said that a total of 22 people have died in the attack against the Bardo museum in Tunis on 18 March, including 17 tourists, two Tunisians and two gunmen.
  
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• Apple, Google and Amazon are said to be chasing second acts - will their efforts to evolve succeed?

  18-03-2015 23:30
  The joke going around is that Apple is moving into the automobile industry: Its engineers are working on a car without Windows.
  
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• Barcelona 1 Manchester City 0: Pep Guardiola returns to witness genius Lionel Messi at work

  18-03-2015 23:23
  
  Anyone have any idea what position Leo Messi was playing in the first half last night? No? Manchester City neither. The idea that managers of truly great players just pick a formation with 10 men and then turn to the genius and say: “And you, whatever you want to do and wherever you want to do it,” must surely now apply to Luis Enrique at Barcelona.
  
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• Tower Of London Plays Host To Game Of Thrones

  18-03-2015 23:22
  
  The Tower of London has a bloody history and has now played host to the premiere of one of the most brutal shows on television. The cast of Game of Thrones descended on the landmark for a screening of the first episode of much anticipated fifth series. Sophie Turner, who is Sansa Stark, said: "It has been the best drama lesson ever. Game of Thrones has become known for its violence and sex which has turned some viewers off but Allen said he doesn't think it crosses a line.
  
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• Thailand warns women against posting 'underboob' selfies

  18-03-2015 23:18
  
  Thailand's military government has warned women against posting "selfie" photos of the lower half of their breasts.
  
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• Team is parachuted in to raise morale and marks at St Aldhelm's Academy in Poole

  18-03-2015 23:00
  
  The cavernous space echoes with voices as we walk down the a vast central passageway. In open areas lining the walkway, young people gather with varying degrees of attentiveness. The combined murmur of voices is amplified and distorted by the building, providing a kind of background interference. It's an oddly distracting sensation. But then this is an odd place. It's not the massive concourse of a train station or a shopping mall. It is, in fact, a school, and this huge, open-plan space is whe
  
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• Israel elections: The nation is less safe with Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm

  18-03-2015 22:51
  
  Against all predictions, Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu have come out on top in Israel’s parliamentary elections, winning 30 seats in the Knesset to the Zionist Union’s 24. Mr Netanyahu is likely therefore to form the next government with partners on the right and from the centre.
  
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• Barcelona vs Manchester City match report: Lionel Messi and Co outclass Manuel Pellegrini's men as final English team fall

  18-03-2015 22:39
  Manchester City have been eliminated from the Champions League after suffering a 3-1 aggregate defeat to Barcelona.
  
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• Charles plea for oceans clean-up

  18-03-2015 22:25
  
  The Prince of Wales has made an impassioned plea for action to end the dumping of plastics in the world's oceans - an issue that needed to be tackled for his future grandchild.
  
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• Engraved ring found in Sweden suggests contact between Viking Age Scandinavians and Islamic civilisation

  18-03-2015 22:24
  
  An engraved ring has suggested evidence of close contact between Viking Age Scandinavians and the Islamic world, more than a century after it was discovered.
  
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• Budget 2015 – tax avoidance: Door closed on popular legal loophole to avoid inheritance bill

  18-03-2015 22:18
  
  Taking a swipe at the personal tax affairs of Ed Miliband, George Osborne yesterday pledged to crack down on people who use a legal  loophole to avoid inheritance tax.
  
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• Soaring sales of wet wipes have contributed to increase in debris on beaches and 'fatbergs'

  18-03-2015 22:15
  At the LinkedIn wet wipe industry networking portal, which is managed by executives at Kansan Wet Wipe Machinery and Equipment in Turkey (its Jumbo 24 series can produce 19,200 wet wipes per minute), the members' page includes a list of the products it covers. If evidence were needed of the wipe-industrial complex that now guides our hygiene habits, read it and wipe: "Baby wipes, adult wipes, incontinence wipes, intimate wipes, sanitary wipes, personal care and cleaning wipes, make-up removal w
  
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• University of Virginia: Bloodied black student accuses police of racism as he is arrested

  18-03-2015 22:13
  
  Officials in Virginia have launched an investigation after images were posted on social media of a bloodied black student being detained by police.
  
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• Budget 2015 – comment: The best thing was that Osborne didn’t try to fix what isn’t broken

  18-03-2015 22:10
  
  It’s no surprise the hot money was pouring into the bookies for the Conservatives to be the largest party, as well as some heavy bets for an overall majority, while George Osborne was still walking tall and on his feet yesterday.
  
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• Budget 2015: Chancellor throws the kitchen sink at Ed Miliband with barbs for the Labour leader and perks for voters

  18-03-2015 22:04
  George Osborne tried to pull the rug from under Labour’s election campaign in a highly political Budget which also attempted to reassure voters who doubt Tory motives.
  
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• Budget 2015: What George Osborne said... and what he really meant

  18-03-2015 22:04
  
  What he said We choose, as the central judgement of this Budget, to use whatever additional resources we have to get the deficit and the debt falling. No unfunded spending. No irresponsible extra borrowing.
  
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• Missing Claudia: CCTV Screening Near Her Home

  18-03-2015 22:01
  
  The six-year investigation into what happened to missing York cook Claudia Lawrence has taken a new direction with police hinting they could be close to making more arrests. In a carefully choreographed event close to her home in the Heworth area of the city, detectives invited locals to the screening of previously unreleased CCTV pictures and issued a warning that those with information should speak up. Despite a massive police operation, no evidence of Claudia has ever been found and no-one wa
  
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• Budget spending cuts: This chart shows the worst is still to come

  18-03-2015 21:55
  
  The enormous scale of cuts still to come is laid bare by this graph produced by the official spending watchdog, which predicted a “rollercoaster” journey ahead for the public purse.
  
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• San Francisco police officers allegedly send racist, homophobic text messages

  18-03-2015 21:49
  
  Four police officers in San Francisco face the sack after reportedly sending racist and homophobic text messages referencing ‘white power’, burning crosses and the Ku Klux Klan.
  
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• Budget 2015: Time is running out for Osborne

  18-03-2015 21:42
  
  The Chancellor claimed he will “pay down the national debt” even though his plans are for the debt to keep increasing in cash terms through 2018/19. Yes, the forecast is for it to fall as a share of GDP – but that hasn’t happened yet. 
  
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• Budget 2015 - the swing seat: Chester - a Roman city at the centre of a modern-day struggle for power

  18-03-2015 21:35
  If, after George Osborne’s final Budget before the general election, the indecision of voters out and about in the refined, medieval city of Chester was anything to go by today, then the result is going to be a close call. Again.
  
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• Budget 2015 – analysis: Austerity eased, but by less than many seem to think

  18-03-2015 21:35
  
  So is the recovery  accelerating in time  for the election?
  
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• The Railway Children stage show and Harry Potter studio celebrate the golden age of steam

  18-03-2015 21:30
  
  Rolling up the soot-stained sleeves of my shirt and pulling my cap down over my eyes, I climb into an LSWR T3 class express passenger locomotive and ready myself to drive this epic hunk of iron and steel. Full steam ahead!
  
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• Property for rent in London where you can shower under the bed

  18-03-2015 21:29
  
  A "cosy" flat in an upmarket area of west London is available to rent for a reasonable £520 a month… provided the tenant doesn’t mind showering under the bed.
  
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• Budget 2015: Osborne’s winners and losers

  18-03-2015 21:16
  
  All taxpayers will benefit from the raising of the tax-free personal allowance, the amount you can earn each year before  having to pay any income tax. We already knew it was climbing to £10,600 in April, but the Chancellor revealed it will rise to £10,800 in April 2016, and to £11,000 in 2017.
  
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• Budget 2015 – taxation: Higher tax threshold rises above inflation

  18-03-2015 21:06
  
  Middle-class voters received a pre-election fillip as George Osborne announced an above-inflation increase in the higher tax threshold.
  
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• Common interview: The rapper-cum-actor reveals the films that influenced his role alongside Liam Neeson in Run All Night

  18-03-2015 21:00
  History will surely regard this year's Oscars as having benefited from the Common touch. The hip hop artist-cum actor Common won Best Original Song for his song "Glory" from the Martin Luther King biopic Selma, which he sang and wrote with John Legend, and their inspirational performance sent social media, which had hitherto been regarding the Oscars as distinctly underwhelming, into an excitable frenzy.
  
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• Commute times: These cities have the longest commutes in the US

  18-03-2015 20:59
  
  New Yorkers face the longest commute times of anyone in the US, despite having the most extensive public transportation network in the world.
  
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• Budget 2015 – housing: 'Help to buy Isa' threatens further house price rises

  18-03-2015 20:55
  
  First-time buyers will get a handout from government to help them reach the first rung of the property ladder, under a new “Help to Buy Isa”.
  
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• Shocks predicted in Thrones series

  18-03-2015 20:55
  
  The stars of Game Of Thrones enjoyed a royal setting for the world premiere for the show's fifth series.
  
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• Donald Macintyre's Sketch: The politics with this Budget were about more than just Ed Miliband

  18-03-2015 20:52
  
  When he promised a “no gimmicks” budget, George Osborne obviously forgot the ones at Ed Miliband’s expense. But he was frank about them today.
  
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• Budget 2015: Britain is not walking quite as tall as the Chancellor claims

  18-03-2015 20:46
  
  A growing economy, partially repaired government finances, and inevitably a pitch to voters to be allowed to go on doing the job. Leave that last bit aside – because who knows what will happen come 7 May – and focus on the first two. Is it really credible that the UK will become the largest economy in Europe? And how much of the repair job has really been done?
  
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• Budget 2015: George Osborne’s three jokes that cost the taxpayer £41 million

  18-03-2015 20:46
  
  George Osborne mocked Ed Miliband with so many measures in his Budget speech that questions were raised over whether he used taxpayers’ money to foot the bill for his jokes.
  
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• Royal appointment for sport greats

  18-03-2015 20:45
  
  The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh tonight met famous names from the world of sport as they celebrated 50 years of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.
  
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• Shafqat Hussain: Stay of execution issued for Pakistani man sentenced to death following claims he confessed under torture as a child

  18-03-2015 20:42
  A last-minute stay of execution has been issued for a Pakistani man sentenced to death for the murder of a child, according to anti-death penalty group Reprieve.
  
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• Where Do We Come From? Britain's DNA Map

  18-03-2015 20:37
  
  The most detailed-ever map of Britain's genetic ancestry has revealed the influence of European migration over thousands of years.
  
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• Budget 2015 – environment: UK to create the world’s largest marine reserve

  18-03-2015 20:32
  
  The UK is to establish the largest single marine reserve in the world, around the Pitcairn Islands, an overseas territory in the South Pacific.
  
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• The weird world of Boris Berezovsky: Alexander Litvinenko's inquest has provided an intriguing insight into the dead tycoon

  18-03-2015 20:30
  When Boris Berezovsky was found hanged at his ex-wife's Berkshire mansion on 23 March 2013, it seemed that the last chapter in the colourful and complicated life of the exiled Russian oligarch had been written. Any secrets – and there were presumed to be many – would accompany him to his grave at Brookwood Cemetery.
  
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• Budget 2015: Struggling oil industry is thrown a £1.3bn lifeline in tax cuts

  18-03-2015 20:24
  
  The struggling North Sea oil industry was thrown a lifeline with a package of tax cuts and allowances worth an estimated £1.3bn a year.
  
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• Son of ex-JJB Sports boss cleared

  18-03-2015 20:22
  
  The son of the former executive chairman of the now-defunct JJB Sports chain has been cleared of helping his father to use a forged bank statement, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has confirmed.
  
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• Prince walks in King's footsteps

  18-03-2015 20:18
  
  The Prince of Wales joked about feeling jet-lagged as his US visit began with a tour of towering monuments to major figures from American history.
  
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• Budget 2015: Lib Dems trumpet the alternatives inside their yellow ‘budget box’

  18-03-2015 20:18
  
  The Coalition will today reach a crucial parting of the ways as the Liberal Democrats set out their economic vision for the next five years.
  
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• DNA Map Shows How British Isles First Populated

  18-03-2015 20:12
  
  The most detailed-ever map of Britain's genetic ancestry has revealed the influence of European migration over thousands of years.
  
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• Life under Isis: Sunnis face an even bleaker future in Iraq if the militants' reign of terror is finally defeated

  18-03-2015 20:12
  Mahmoud Omar, a young Sunni photographer, is angered though not entirely surprised by the way in which the Baghdad government continues to mistreat his fellow Sunnis. Political leaders inside and outside Iraq all agree that the best, and possibly the only, way to defeat Isis is to turn at least part of the Sunni Arab community against it.
  
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• Man admits wife's kitchen murder

  18-03-2015 20:05
  
  A man who killed his wife of 17 years in the kitchen of their family home before getting rid of the weapon and going to work has admitted her murder.
  
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• Clooney bedroom blunder revealed

  18-03-2015 20:05
  
  George Clooney accidentally ended up in bed with supermodel Cindy Crawford after he drunkenly fell asleep in her home, her husband has revealed.
  
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• Israel election: 'Saying ugly things about Arabs' gave Likud victory

  18-03-2015 20:02
  
  In the heady closing days before the polls, Israel’s Arab political parties were preparing for their role of influence behind a new centre-left government. The rise of their ‘Joint Front’ was one of the triggers behind Benjamin Netanyahu’s infamous warning about the opposition “busing in Arab voters” to hijack the election.
  
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• Israel election: Palestinian hopes of statehood fade as Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to form coalition after victory

  18-03-2015 19:53
  Palestinian leaders appealed to the international community for help in keeping their hopes of statehood alive after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won a clear election victory and pledged to form a new coalition government quickly.
  
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• Budget 2015: French don’t fall for an uninspired jobs statistic

  18-03-2015 19:53
  
  To quote the acerbic Tory MP Alan Clark, the Chancellor appears to have been a little “economical with the actualité” while boasting about the North’s economic recovery.
  
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