General news

• Clinton Foundation set to receive $1m in donation firm owned by foreign government, says report

  09-04-2015 23:58
  
  The Clinton Foundation is reportedly set to receive at least $1m from a firm owned by the government of Morocco – a move that will raise further questions about the family charity’s reliance on foreign donations as Hillary Clinton stands poised to enter the US presidential race
  
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• Walter Scott shooting: Dash-Cam video of victim fleeing from officer Micheal Slager revealed

  09-04-2015 23:36
  
  Video footage from the dash-cam of the police officer who shot and killed unarmed black man Walter Shot shows the victim fleeing his vehicle - but does not appear to show the actual shooting.
  
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• Walter Scott shooting: Dash-cam video of victim fleeing from officer Michael Slager revealed

  09-04-2015 23:36
  
  Video footage from the dash-cam of the police officer who shot and killed unarmed black man Walter Scott shows the victim fleeing his vehicle - but does not appear to show the actual shooting.
  
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• Ahead of election, Cameron's Conservatives hold narrow lead - ComRes poll

  09-04-2015 23:33
  
  With less than a month to go before Britain's May 7 election, Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives had a one percentage point lead over the opposition Labour Party, according to a ComRes poll. The poll, carried out for ITV News and the Daily Mail newspaper, showed the Conservatives down two percentage points to 34 percent and Ed Miliband's Labour Party up one percentage point to 33 percent.
  
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• General Election 2015: Tories pledge to freeze commuter rail fares for five years - saving season ticket holders an average of £400 by 2020

  09-04-2015 23:32
  Commuter rail fares would be frozen in real terms for five years by a Conservative government, David Cameron will promise.
  
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• England women's Under-19s reach European Championship finals after retaken penalty... from match played five days earlier

  09-04-2015 23:28
  England Under-19 women reached the European Championship finals in Israel in July in bizarre fashion, with Leah Williamson scoring with a retaken penalty from a match on Saturday.
  
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• Sabra hummus recalls 30,000 cases in the US over listeria contamination

  09-04-2015 23:27
  
  Potentially deadly bacteria has been found in Sabra hummus samples in the US, prompting a nationwide recall affecting about 30,000 cases of the popular dip.
  
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• Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may have spiked captain's drink with diuretic to force him from cabin

  09-04-2015 23:26
  
  Investigators probing last month’s Germanwings crash are trying to determine whether the Andreas Lubitz placed a chemical in the captain’s drink to force him to go to the toilet.
  
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• Ahead of British election, YouGov poll puts Conservatives ahead of Labour

  09-04-2015 23:23
  
  Ahead of Britain's May 7 election, Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives took a one percentage point lead over the opposition Labour Party, according to a YouGov poll for The Sun newspaper. The daily poll put Labour on 34 percent, down one percentage point from the previous day, and the Conservatives up one percentage point on 35 percent, The Sun said.
  
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• General Election 2015: Cameron would be held hostage by Ukip if Tories form minority government, says Clegg

  09-04-2015 23:04
  David Cameron would be held “hostage” by Ukip and “swivel-eyed” right-wing Conservative MPs if he forms a minority government after the election, Nick Clegg has warned.
  
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• Jeff Astle Day: 'Jeff died not knowing he'd been a footballer'

  09-04-2015 23:00
  
  “He always said his proudest moment was that goal. He said he felt so happy he could leap over the stands.” Laraine Astle is looking at the black-and-white photo, hanging in a golden frame, of her late husband Jeff’s winning strike in the 1968 FA Cup final.
  
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• Frank Warren: I like Anthony Joshua but to conquer the pro game he needs to face men his own age and size

  09-04-2015 23:00
  I am one of Anthony Joshua’s biggest fans. It is no secret that I tried to sign him after he became the London 2012 Olympic super-heavyweight champion as he is a fine prospect who one day may win the world heavyweight title.
  
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• Labour takes as much as 6 percent point lead in pre-election poll

  09-04-2015 22:46
  
  By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - The Labour Party has taken the lead over Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, according to four opinion polls less than a month before the May 7 election, with one survey showing a Labour lead of six percentage points. Neither Cameron's Conservatives nor Ed Miliband's Labour Party is forecast to win an overall majority in Britain's 650-seat parliament after losing support to once fringe parties such as the Scottish National Party and
  
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• Charcoal has become the hot new flavouring in everything from cocktails to meat and mash

  09-04-2015 22:30
  
  Some words of comfort next time you overfry, overbake, overboil or otherwise burn your dinner to a crisp: charcoal, in all its dark and mysterious forms, is being embraced by some of the best in the food and drinks business. I'm not talking about cooking on a grill (although that's also a booming market), but charcoal as an actual ingredient – bringing flavour, colour, texture and a touch of playfulness to plates of food and bottles of juice. This news comes on the heels of Burger King Japan'
  
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• Marijuana can kill cancer cells, says US government-funded research

  09-04-2015 22:19
  
  The US government may be starting to officially recognize medicinal benefits of marijuana, as a government-funded research group has released a report claiming that weed can kill cancer cells.
  
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• Charges filed in Falklands dispute

  09-04-2015 22:11
  
  Argentina has filed criminal charges against British oil firms exploring in waters near the Falkland Islands in a fresh diplomatic row over the territory, the Argentinian foreign ministry said tonight.
  
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• A new era dawns for US-Cuba relations

  09-04-2015 22:04
  
  The seventh Summit of the Americas, which begins on Friday in Panama City, will be a historic affair, with the leaders of Cuba and the United States in attendance together for the first time.
  
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• US-Cuba relations: Cubans want change - but not if Uncle Sam takes over

  09-04-2015 22:02
  
  Strolling the scimitar-shaped seaside boulevard in Havana known as the Malecon, Pedro, a native of the city, knows what he doesn’t want from the nascent thaw in relations between Cuba and the United States.
  
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• Game of Thrones author George R R Martin condemns the ‘hijacked’ Hugo shortlist

  09-04-2015 21:51
  
  The author of Game of Thrones has warned the most prestigious sci-fi writing awards are being destroyed amid claims that they have been hijacked by racist and sexist elements of the genre.
  
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• The man behind The Fast and the Furious: £1.5 billion movie franchise began with one boy racer

  09-04-2015 21:50
  
  As a 24-year-old freelance reporter in 1998, Ken Li had no idea that his articles about urban drag-racing in New York City would get optioned by Universal Studios, let alone turned into 2001's The Fast and the Furious, starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Michelle Rodriguez. But the stories he wrote about a 30-year-old Dominican drag-racer named Rafael Estevez – first in the New York Daily News, and then in Vibe magazine – were so gripping, they became the seed for a 14-year-long movie fra
  
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• Jeremy Clarkson pulls out of Have I Got News For You appearance

  09-04-2015 21:41
  
  Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has pulled out of his planned appearance hosting BBC satirical show Have I Got News For You.
  
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• Schoolboy 'dies of meningitis'

  09-04-2015 21:40
  
  Health officials are reassuring parents following the death of a schoolboy after he contracted meningitis.
  
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• Gatwick oil discovery: Claims up to 100 billion barrels of oil met with substantial scepticism

  09-04-2015 21:39
  
  It was an announcement that sent shares soaring – conjuring up visions of a “new Dallas” of oil barons and billionaires in the countryside around Gatwick Airport.
  
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• UKIP Defends Porn Star Council Candidate

  09-04-2015 21:34
  
  UKIP has defended a council candidate and senior party official, who is also a porn star who goes by the name Rockard. John Langley, 59, who is vice chair for the party in Bristol, is due to stand in next month's council elections. The party has said it has no problem with Mr Langley's "unusual" line of work. A UKIP spokesman said: "Mr Langley is not doing anything illegal and it is a little bit unusual but at the end of the day he is a businessman.
  
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• What the closure of much-loved shop Blustons says about the threat to the high street

  09-04-2015 21:20
  
  The polka-striped dress has gone from the window. Perhaps to some hopeful Marilyn look-alike who was decades off being born when Monroe died in 1962; perhaps into a museum of bygone fashion. As some readers may know, since the fame of the shop in its last years spread beyond local newspapers to the BBC and the wider world, Blustons in London's Kentish Town Road – the home of "classic ladies clothing" – has finally closed.
  
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• Ex-Met boss facing watchdog probe

  09-04-2015 21:14
  
  Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens is to be investigated in connection with the inquiry into Scotland Yard's handling of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, it was revealed tonight.
  
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• General Election 2015: Blur's Dave Rowntree is drumming up support for Labour in Norwich until he's red in the face

  09-04-2015 21:01
  
  In Norwich city centre for the launch of the local Labour party manifesto. It’s cold, wet, and increasingly blustery. Around 30 hardy party members and activists are braving the elements for a short session of speechifying and a photo op.
  
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• Sir Ranulph's desert trek 'hell'

  09-04-2015 20:57
  
  Sir Ranulph Fiennes has been taken to the medical tent at the Marathon des Sables following concerns for his health.
  
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• Clarkson quits BBC satire show

  09-04-2015 20:55
  
  Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has pulled out of his planned appearance hosting BBC satirical show Have I Got News For You.
  
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• General Election 2015: Over 10,000 police jobs would be protected from cuts, Labour says

  09-04-2015 20:54
  
  More than 10,000 police jobs would be protected from cuts under a £800m scheme to be set out by Labour.
  
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• Heroic and tragic truth behind Poldark: Cornishmen shaped mining in Britain and pushed boundaries the world over

  09-04-2015 20:50
  Anyone who watches Poldark for a treatise on Cornish industrial history is clearly barking up the wrong tree – or, maybe, peering down the wrong shaft. The second BBC adaptation of Winston Graham's novels has already secured a sweating, straining place in prime-time costume-drama folklore that promises to eclipse even the spiky courtship of Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice – almost 20 years ago. Ask fans to divert their gaze from the unfastened gowns and naked torsos to
  
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• Ex-Met Chief Investigated Over Lawrence Claims

  09-04-2015 20:48
  
  Lord Stevens is being investigated over claims the Metropolitan Police failed to disclose information to the Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder probe. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) confirmed it was investigating the former Metropolitan Police commissioner following a referral from the London force. The investigation into Lord Stevens was launched following a complaint by the murdered teenager’s father Neville Lawrence last October, Channel 4 News reported
  
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• George Galloway accused of having supporter pose as his rival candidate’s dead father to obtain her marriage certificate and smear her as a liar

  09-04-2015 20:47
  George Galloway has been accused of having a supporter pose as his rival candidate’s dead father in order to obtain her marriage certificate and smear her as a liar.
  
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• Yemen crisis: Saudi bombing campaign against Houthi rebels is a war crime and genocide, says Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

  09-04-2015 20:47
  Iran’s Supreme Leader has condemned Saudi Arabia’s air strikes against Shia Houthi rebels as “genocide” claiming that Riyadh “will not emerge victorious”, after the US warned Tehran that any support for the militants would not be tolerated.
  
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• Sex Offenders Could Be 'Influenced' By Genes

  09-04-2015 20:44
  
  The risk jumps to five times if men have a brother who has been convicted, the study of more than 21,000 sexual offenders shows. Genetic factors account for 40-50% of the risk, with the remainder coming from the environment that men grow up in and other medical or social influences, according to results in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The researchers stress the overall risk is small - just 2.5% of brothers of sex offenders are likely to commit similar crimes themselves. There is no
  
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• Godzilla becomes tourism ambassador for Tokyos' Shinjuku ward

  09-04-2015 20:30
  
  Godzilla, Japan's fire-breathing arch nemesis, has returned to Tokyo – but this time as a welcome guest.
  
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• Ocean acidification killed off more than 90 per cent of marine life 252 million years ago, scientists believe

  09-04-2015 20:22
  
  They call it the Great Dying because it was the biggest mass extinction in history, and now scientists have discovered the first hard evidence that ocean acidification was the coup de grace that killed off more than 90 per cent of marine life 252 million years ago.
  
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• Mountain gorillas could survive for thousands of years at very low population levels due to resistance to the genetic effects of inbreeding

  09-04-2015 20:21
  Mountain gorillas could survive for thousands of years at very low population levels of just a few hundred individuals because they appear to be resistant to the genetic effects of inbreeding, a study of gorilla genomes has found.
  
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• General Election 2015: Three opinion polls see Labour ahead of Tories

  09-04-2015 20:19
  
  Labour received a boost after three opinion polls put it in the lead over the Conservatives.
  
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• Donald Macintyre's Sketch: Boris Johnson kisses babies, poses for selfies - and quotes Sappho

  09-04-2015 20:18
  
  The Mayor of London was in a stationer’s shop in New Malden discussing Sappho. As you do.
  
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• General Election 2015: When push comes to shove, the SNP will be forced to back Miliband

  09-04-2015 20:07
  
  If the polls are correct (and do not change significantly over the next few weeks), it looks likely that on 8 May we will wake up with a party that doesn’t want to be part of the United Kingdom holding the balance of power in the UK Parliament.
  
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• General Election 2015: Backlash follows Tory attack on ‘backstabbing’ Labour leader

  09-04-2015 20:06
  
  The Conservatives have been accused of panic and dragging their election campaign into the “gutter” after a cabinet minister launched a vicious personal attack on the Labour leader Ed Miliband.
  
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• Andy McSmith's Election Diary: The truth about a Tory-SNP pact

  09-04-2015 20:01
  
  A document has been unearthed that proves that the SNP secretly approached the Tories to do a deal after the general election. No matter what Nicola Sturgeon may say, they were anticipating if not hoping for a Conservative victory. The price they demanded for co-operation was a free vote on devolution.
  
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• The Tories' defence of non-doms has backfired? It's almost as if people don't like tax avoiders

  09-04-2015 20:01
  
  It’s a fascinating tactic by the Conservatives, to shout, “If Labour stops billionaires being allowed to pay less tax by claiming  their true homeland is elsewhere, the billionaires will leave the country. Then they’ll go and rob a different country, depriving Britain of being robbed, which will ruin this country. Not only that, but those billionaires love this country, which is why they claim it’s not their home, and you’ll force them to live in the country they say was their homela
  
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• Labour takes four point lead over Conservatives in the pre-election poll - Survation

  09-04-2015 19:56
  
  Britain's opposition Labour Party has taken a four percentage-point lead over the Conservatives of Prime Minister David Cameron in an opinion poll published on Thursday, ahead of national elections on May 7. The survey by polling firm Survation and conducted for the Daily Mirror newspaper, also said Labour leader Ed Miliband had overtaken Cameron in terms of net personal approval ratings. It was the first time Miliband had outpolled Cameron since Survation began asking voters about personal
  
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• Video: Will Ukip's 'tampon tax' scrap win them more female voters?

  09-04-2015 19:56
  
  Ukip has announced plans to scrap the "tampon tax" on feminine hygiene products if they form a government in May.
  
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• Secret Service supervisor suspended for alleged sexual advances at party celebrating his promotion

  09-04-2015 19:55
  
  A supervisor within the US Secret Service who was just promoted has now been suspended for alleged sexual advances against a female member of the agency, the Washington Post reported.
  
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• British pensioner found dead at bottom of well in Normandy

  09-04-2015 19:53
  
  A French man has been arrested after the body of a 70-year-old British man was found at the bottom of a well in Normandy.
  
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• Stick with banks and cyclical stocks in run-up to vote - OMGI's Buxton

  09-04-2015 19:52
  LONDON (Reuters) - Investors should hold on to banks and cyclical stocks and use any panic selling around the May 7 UK election to buy up more shares, said one of Britain's best-known fund managers.
  
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• Talent pool 'good, bad and crazy'

  09-04-2015 19:44
  
  Britain's Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon has promised viewers some "wonderful bad acts" in this year's series.
  
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