General news

• Miami Masters 2015: Andy Murray wilts as Novak Djokovic reinforces dominance in final

  05-04-2015 23:27
  
  Closer, but not close enough. Andy Murray pushed Novak Djokovic hard in the Miami Masters final on Sunday night only for the match to finish with the same outcome as their previous six encounters. Murray, who has not beaten Djokovic since the 2013 Wimbledon final, lost 7-6, 4-6, 6-0 as the Serb underlined his status as the world’s best player.
  
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• Teachers back call over LGBT rights

  05-04-2015 23:21
  
  Schools should be made to include a positive view of same-sex relationships as part of their sex education policies, teachers have said.
  
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• Memo 'written in Scotland Office'

  05-04-2015 23:20
  
  The leaked memo containing an account of a private meeting between Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon and the French ambassador was written in the Scotland Office, Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael has confirmed.
  
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• Danny Alexander interview: I heard a senior Tory tell a Lib Dem colleague 'You take care of the workers and we'll take care of the bosses'

  05-04-2015 23:04
  A senior Conservative minister told a Liberal Democrat cabinet colleague: “You take care of the workers and we’ll take care of the bosses” in a private Whitehall meeting to discuss the Coalition Government’s priorities.
  
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• Firms still hit by underground fire

  05-04-2015 22:40
  
  Places around an underground fire that blazed for more than 24 hours are still unlikely to be fully open for business almost a week on.
  
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• Fiennes on ultra-marathon mission

  05-04-2015 21:58
  
  Sir Ranulph Fiennes has completed the first stage in his bid to become the oldest Briton to complete the Marathon des Sables - a gruelling six-day ultra-marathon in the Moroccan desert.
  
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• Woman ‘lucky to be alive’ after 50ft Snowdonia fall

  05-04-2015 21:55
  
  A woman who fell 50 feet down a cliff edge in Snowdonia before landing on two friends hiking below was “lucky to be alive”, after she was among a number of walkers who had to be rescued in hazardous conditions by emergency helicopters over the Easter weekend.
  
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• 'Grossly incompetent' libor scandal banker hands £50,000 to Tory party

  05-04-2015 21:49
  
  The Conservatives have accepted a £50,000 election campaign donation from a senior city banker accused of being “grossly incompetent” by the party’s own chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards.
  
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• Energy drinks fuelling rise in bad behaviour in schools, warn teachers

  05-04-2015 21:39
  
  Caffeine-packed energy drinks are fuelling a rise in bad behaviour in the classroom as youngsters consume excessive amounts of these “readily available legal highs” that could even encourage use of illegal drugs, campaigners will warn on Monday.
  
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• Archbishop of Canterbury: Christians murdered in Kenya and Libya by Islamist terrorists are 'martyrs'

  05-04-2015 21:34
  
  Christians murdered in Kenya and Libya by Islamist terrorists are “martyrs”, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in his Easter Sunday sermon, as the Pope also called for an end to the bloodshed.
  
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• Radio silence in France as strike hits network in dispute over spending freeze

  05-04-2015 21:32
  
  In one of the most eventful periods in recent memory, France’s most respected radio shows are broadcasting “oldies” instead of the news.
  
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• The Last Hours of Laura K: The BBC's immersive murder mystery set in the world of social media

  05-04-2015 21:22
  
  After watching hours of CCTV footage, combing Facebook and Instagram accounts and examining blog posts, amateur sleuths will soon be desperately searching for clues that could solve the murder of Laura Kitchens.
  
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• Choke risk dummies recalled by Asda

  05-04-2015 21:21
  
  Asda has recalled some of its dummies over a choking risk for the second time in just over two years.
  
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• Boy, 16, dies in fall from cliff

  05-04-2015 21:21
  
  A 16-year-old boy has died after falling from cliffs.
  
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• California water shortage: One drought for the rich and another for everyone else as Golden State goes brown again

  05-04-2015 21:21
  The lush front lawns of Los Angeles are in the full bloom of spring, and it’s difficult to believe the Golden State is about to turn brown. But that is the inevitable implication of the drought, and of new rules which call for a 25 per cent cut in urban water use.
  
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• General Election 2015: Ukip claim to have another leader waiting in the wings

  05-04-2015 21:11
  
  Ukip has other potential leaders waiting in the wings if Nigel Farage fails to became an MP next month, one of the party’s best-known activists has claimed.
  
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• General Election 2015: Web developers collecting the CVs of every candidate standing

  05-04-2015 21:03
  
  Two dedicated web developers are on a mission to collect the CVs of every candidate standing in next month’s general election – and some of the submissions would leave job recruiters spluttering into their coffee.
  
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• The dramatic growth in plant cover will not offset the damage made from deforestation

  05-04-2015 20:50
  
  The dramatic growth in plant cover in the past decade gives a huge boost to the battle against global warming. But any celebrations should be muted by this sobering fact: the extra carbon being stored by this additional vegetation, while enormous, only represents seven per cent of the 60 billion tonnes of carbon that has been emitted into the atmosphere over the same period, which will remain there for centuries.
  
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• The climate change paradox: Rainforests are being felled... but the world is getting greener

  05-04-2015 20:45
  
  The dramatic demise of the world’s rainforests has caused concern for years while they have been chopped down at breakneck speed to grow crops and rear cattle – yet the planet has actually become greener in the past decade, with the total amount of plant coverage soaring.
  
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• Tories Accused Of 'Secret Tax Plan' By Labour

  05-04-2015 20:44
  
  The Conservatives have been accused by Labour of favouring the rich after the Chancellor refused to rule out cutting the top rate of income tax in a Sky News interview. George Osborne told the Murnaghan programme his party had "no plans" to further reduce the top rate of tax and insisted it was not a priority. But Labour claim the Chancellor has been "flushed out", pointing out Mr Osborne used the same words about VAT before the last election, which he then raised from 17.
  
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• Leaked memo 'one of those things'

  05-04-2015 20:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael says the leaking of the Nicola Sturgoen memo on David Cameron is "just one of those things".
  
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• Pensioners more likely to invest than blow annuities

  05-04-2015 20:41
  
  Freedom is also responsibility. If it is hard to predict the short-term impact of the freedom pensioners now have to cash in annuities, it is harder still to gauge what will happen in the longer term.
  
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• World warned: Prepare for more Ebola-like outbreaks

  05-04-2015 20:32
  
  Outbreaks of deadly animal‑to-human viruses such as Ebola could become more likely due to climate change and human encroachment into untouched natural habitats, a leading United Nations expert has warned.
  
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• Adams calls for referendum on unity

  05-04-2015 20:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams says his party is committed to securing a "referendum on Irish unity".
  
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• Pension deregulation arrives, but cashing in the pot in one go is not quite as simple as you think

  05-04-2015 20:21
  
  There aren’t many “where-were-you-when-they-shot-Kennedy?” moments in personal finance, but I vividly recall listening to the Chancellor’s words on 19 March last year, when he changed my world in his Budget.
  
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• Jochen Zeitz: The businessman who uses his millions to change opinions on climate change

  05-04-2015 20:09
  
  For someone so concerned with conservation, how fitting that Jochen Zeitz was present on the day that the world’s most famous athlete nearly became extinct.
  
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• Iran nuclear deal: Benjamin Netanyahu presses US to seek better terms to prevent Iran's 'free path to the bomb'

  05-04-2015 20:04
  
  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Washington to seek a better deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme, saying today that he would press the US not to give Tehran “a free path to the bomb”.
  
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• Jess Glynne stays at number one

  05-04-2015 20:00
  
  Jess Glynne has claimed a second week at number one on the official singles chart with Hold My Hand.
  
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• Jamie Oliver’s company: Online ‘vlogging' stars must clamp down on junk food ads that appear with their videos

  05-04-2015 19:59
  Online ‘vlogging’ stars should take care over the adverts that appear with their videos, Jamie Oliver’s company has urged, in the wake of controversy over unhealthy foods advertised to children alongside videos by YouTube celebrity Zoella.
  
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• Ukip is wilting in the heat of election battle — but perhaps the damage is done

  05-04-2015 19:38
  
  For a moment, I thought it was shocking honesty from Nigel Farage. 'I'm really very posh,' he told the Sunday Times as he discussed his electoral strategy for South Thanet. 'I think you're filthy, common people and you should laugh at my comedy act.' But reading it more closely it turned out to be his advice for Al Murray, better known for his alter ego The Pub Landlord, who seems to have rattled the Ukip leader by standing for the same seat in next month’s general election.
  
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• Yemen eyewitness: Saudi-led coalition's bombardment of Houthi rebels is hitting civilians too

  05-04-2015 19:36
  
  It was after midnight. We woke to an earth-shattering explosion that shook buildings and knocked people out of their beds, including me and my two boys of five and 10 years old.
  
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• Teachers' action call over funding

  05-04-2015 19:33
  
  Severe funding cuts to schools and colleges would damage pupils' education, lead to job losses and impact on teachers' pay, pensions and workload, it has been suggested.
  
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• Romanian security officer kidnapped while working at mine in Burkina Faso

  05-04-2015 19:17
  
  Security forces in Burkina Faso searched the desert close to the borders with northern Mali and Niger today for a Romanian security officer kidnapped at a manganese mine where he worked.
  
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• Teenage basketball player chased out of US school by boys yelling 'f****t' after coming out as gay on court

  05-04-2015 19:16
  
  A teenage basketball player has told how he was chased out of a school by boys calling him a “f****t” after he came out in the US.
  
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• Our politics are more confusing than ever — but we must understand what's at stake this election

  05-04-2015 19:10
  
  On Question Time last week, I said I wanted to hug Michael Gove, the government chief whip. Yes, really. I said it and did it too after the programme ended. Gove was on the panel, as were Danny Alexander, Andy Burnham and Peter Hitchens of the Mail on Sunday. I have always found Mr Gove wrongheaded and obnoxiously self-righteous. So what prompted this sudden gush of affection? Gratitude, that's what.
  
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• Little Italy: Rising rents threaten the last of New York's traditional community

  05-04-2015 19:08
  
  Few Italian-Americans remain in Manhattan’s Little Italy, a neighbourhood of old tenement buildings and narrow streets where a small museum tries to keep a fading ethnic heritage alive.
  
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• Fiennes bid for desert marathon

  05-04-2015 19:07
  
  Sir Ranulph Fiennes today set off on his attempt to become the oldest Briton to complete the Marathon des Sables - a gruelling six-day ultra-marathon in the Moroccan desert.
  
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• Yemen: Houthis call for halt of Saudi Arabia's bombing campaign that's killed 500 people in two weeks

  05-04-2015 19:01
  
  Yemeni fighters who control the capital are ready to talk peace with a Saudi Arabia after a devastating bombing campaign that’s left more than 500 dead and 1,700 wounded in just two weeks.
  
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• Tulip Siddiq: Improving the woeful diversity of Westminster

  05-04-2015 18:59
  
  When the fight for election in one of Britain’s most marginal seats gets tough, Tulip Siddiq sometimes has to reassure her family, most of whom were assassinated 40 years ago. In 1975, soldiers stormed her mother’s home in Bangladesh and killed everyone. Their target: Siddiq’s grandfather, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s first leader. In an attempt to cut off his bloodline, they also shot dead his three young sons, but his two daughters were on holiday in Germany. They had to be wo
  
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• Greece plan to release 3,500 illegal immigrants from asylum centres sets it on a collision course with Europe

  05-04-2015 18:58
  Inside the barbed wire and fences at the Amygdaleza camp, undocumented migrants of all ages wander around the yard, tending to clothes hanging to dry outside shipping containers.
  
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• Which of this weekend's great goals was the best? Vote for Defoe, Zamora, Rooney, Adam, Sanchez or Giroud

  05-04-2015 18:52
  
  The Premier League's claim that it's the best division in the world can seem overblown, but this weekend it's been difficult to disagree.
  
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• Seven officers suspended in San Francisco accused of sending racist texts that referred to lynching and burning crosses

  05-04-2015 18:45
  Seven police officers have been suspended in San Francisco accused of sending racist and homophobic text messages.
  
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• 1,500 migrants saved from sea by Italian navy

  05-04-2015 18:45
  
  Italian navy and coast guard ships rescued around  1,500 migrants aboard  five boats in the Mediterranean in less than 24 hours, officials said today.
  
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• Easter eggs gift to whole village

  05-04-2015 18:34
  
  Residents of a small village awoke to find a mysterious benefactor had left an Easter egg on the doorstep of every house.
  
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• Top Gear final episodes featuring Jeremy Clarkson may 'never be screened'

  05-04-2015 18:32
  
  The last two episodes from the final series of Top Gear featuring Jeremy Clarkson may “never be screened” even though there is enough footage, according to sources.
  
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• Underground WWI graffiti shows nearly 2,000 soldiers' names inside former quarry in France

  05-04-2015 18:31
  
  Graffiti made up of nearly 2,000 First World War soldiers’ names – believed to be the biggest collection in the whole of Western Europe – has been found in the depths of a former chalk quarry in France.
  
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• Anti-EU party predicts more defections from Cameron's Conservatives

  05-04-2015 18:16
  Several lawmakers from British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives will join the anti-EU UK Independence Party if he renews a coalition with the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, UKIP's leader Nigel Farage said. Cameron, whose party has been in coalition with the Liberal Democrats since 2010, has promised a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union by the end of 2017 if he is re-elected next month. Two Conservative lawmakers defected to UKIP last year and several o
  
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• Six Ukrainian soldiers killed in rebel uprising on one year anniversary of fighting

  05-04-2015 18:16
  
  As the crisis in Ukraine reaches its first anniversary this weekend, six members of the Ukrainian armed forces have today been killed.
  
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• Six Ukrainian soldiers killed in rebel attacks on first anniversary of uprising

  05-04-2015 18:16
  
  As the crisis in Ukraine reaches its first anniversary this weekend, six members of the Ukrainian armed forces have today been killed.
  
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• Six Ukrainian soldiers killed a year after fighting breaks out

  05-04-2015 18:16
  
  As the crisis in Ukraine reaches its first anniversary this weekend, six members of the Ukrainian armed forces have today been killed.
  
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