General news

• Women's World Cup 2015: Six facts you might not know about the football tournament Google is marking with a Doodle

  04-06-2015 23:49
  As a corruption scandal tears through Fifa, football fans at least have one thing to look forward to: the Women’s World Cup 2015 in Canada.
  
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• Boy born with no ears has pair made from his ribs

  04-06-2015 23:48
  
  A nine-year-old boy born with no ears has had a new pair created from his ribs, leaving him feeling “weird but great”.
  
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• US officials report massive data breach at federal human resources agency

  04-06-2015 23:43
  
  Hack occurred at Office of Personnel Management which is the human resources department for the federal government and does security clearance checksThe Obama administration is scrambling to assess the impact of a massive data breach involving the agency that handles security clearances and US government employee records, with suspicion quickly falling on China, which has been accused of carrying out cyber-espionage against the US in the past.
  Government officials familiar with the situation tol
  
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• VIDEO: Osborne confirms Royal Mail stake sale

  04-06-2015 23:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Government spending is to be cut and its remaining 30% stake in Royal Mail is to be sold, the Chancellor announces.
  
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• US officials claim massive breach of government personnel data

  04-06-2015 23:43
  
  US officials are claiming that the federal Office of Personnel Management and the Interior Department were hit with a massive hack and some 4 million personal records could have been stolen, according to the Associated Press.
  
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• Southampton lead suitors as Charlie Austin prepares for QPR exit

  04-06-2015 23:34
  
  • QPR seek up to £15m for 18-goal striker with year to go on contract
  • ‘I feel like I’ve worked hard enough to be a Premier League player’Charlie Austin will meet the Queens Park Rangers director of football, Les Ferdinand, after the international break to discuss his future, with the striker having suggested his aim is to remain in the Premier League.Austin, who hopes to make his England debut against the Republic of Ireland on Sunday, scored 18 goals in his first top-flight campaig
  
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• Juventus’ Paul Pogba can take next step to greatness in Champions League final

  04-06-2015 23:34
  
  The 22-year-old is not yet the finished article but he has the potential to follow his team-mate Andrea Pirlo by becoming one of Europe’s finest midfieldersCome the final reckoning in Berlin, when the last peep of the whistle confirms the outcome of this edition of the Champions League, it is inevitable some of the television close-ups will home in on two iconic players at the end of their European peaks. One of Andrea Pirlo and Xavi Hernández, maestros of the modern midfield, will be v
  
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• Andy Murray aims to profit from Novak Djokovic’s self-induced pressure in Paris

  04-06-2015 23:30
  
  • Murray hopes rival cracks under pressure in French Open semi-final
  • Djokovic desperate for title to complete career grand slam
  • Murray battles past David Ferrer to claim semi-final spotNovak Djokovic calls it the “privilege of pressure” but Andy Murray hopes the best player in the world cracks under the strain of expectation he has put on himself before their semi-final at the French Open on Friday.The world No1, who has lost only twice all year, needs the title for a career grand
  
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• Brentford head coach Marinus Dijkhuizen hails club’s brave new era

  04-06-2015 23:29
  
  • ‘I think it’s a brave decision to take me,’ admits Dutchman
  • Dijkhuizen happy to adopt club’s unusual, analytics-based systemBrentford’s emergence as one of the most interesting clubs in English football continues with Marinus Dijkhuizen hailing his appointment as head coach by the Championship side as “a brave decision”.The 43-year-old Dutchman was announced at the club’s Osterley training ground along with Rasmus Ankersen, the 31-year-old Dane who was hired as co-directo
  
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• Brendan Rodgers’s security a condition of James Milner’s move to Liverpool

  04-06-2015 23:29
  
  • Midfielder wanted to know Liverpool manager was staying
  • Danny Ings could soon move to Anfield tooJames Milner sought assurances from Liverpool that Brendan Rodgers would remain as manager before agreeing to join on a free transfer. The Manchester City midfielder’s move was confirmed on Thursday and he could soon be followed into Anfield by Danny Ings. Related: Brendan Rodgers to remain at Liverpool after positive talks with club officialsContinue reading...
  
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• Spending cuts: Where axe will fall

  04-06-2015 23:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A rundown of the budgets facing cuts - from an urban seagull scheme to the Royal Parks - as the government seeks to find £3bn in extra savings this year.
  
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• There is more cocaine in London's sewer system than any other European city, study shows

  04-06-2015 22:58
  
  A new study appears to show how widespread cocaine use is in London, as scientists say sewage from the capital has the highest concentration of the drug in the whole of Europe. 
  
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• Fans' thank you to Advocaat's wife

  04-06-2015 22:48
  
  Grateful Sunderland fans have raised more than £1,100 to buy flowers for their returning manager's wife.
  
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• Volunteers’ Week 2015: Celebrating the men and women who keep essential charities running

  04-06-2015 22:27
  
  Charities and community groups across the UK have thanked the millions of volunteers who devote their time and talents to helping others. Volunteers’ Week 2015, which concludes 5 June, seeks to recognise the contribution volunteers make in their communities.
  
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• Angela Merkel: EU could consider amending treaties to convince UK to stay in union

  04-06-2015 22:19
  
  David Cameron won an early boost in his drive to win a new deal for Britain in the European Union when Angela Merkel said it could consider amending its treaties as the price for persuading Britain not to leave.
  
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• High productivity or low unemployment? You can't have both

  04-06-2015 22:12
  
  Reports that the French energy company EDF is gearing up for a fight with its employees over an attempt to reduce their 10-week holiday entitlement were greeted on this side of the Channel by the usual tut-tutting about the French economy. We had a field day condemning the “feather-bedding” enjoyed by French workers and boasted for the umpteenth time of the UK’s obvious superiority in the matter of “the market” that explained why so many young French people come to London to seek thei
  
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• NBA Finals: Answers to the top-five questions people asked Google about the Finals

  04-06-2015 21:40
  
  The NBA Finals are set to tip off and this year’s matchup is one of the juiciest in recent memory, with reigning Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry leading the Golden State Warriors against the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James, who is widely regarded as the best player in the NBA.
  
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• VIDEO: Queen teases WI cake bakers

  04-06-2015 21:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Queen opens the centenary annual meeting of the Women's Institute (WI) in London.
  
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• Andy McSmith's Diary: Salmond should mind his language around Anna Soubry

  04-06-2015 21:12
  
  Alex Salmond has invited trouble with the language he used to try to silence a Tory opponent. He was giving a speech on a subject that fascinates MPs, even if nobody else cares – who will sit on the Commons select committee on Scotland?
  
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• No evidence eating placenta after giving birth provides health benefits, says research

  04-06-2015 21:09
  
  There is no evidence that mothers who eat their placenta after giving birth receive any health benefit, research has found.
  
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• Ears op boy fulfils sunglasses wish

  04-06-2015 21:08
  
  A boy born without any ears has fulfilled his simple wish to be able to wear a pair of sunglasses for the first time after having a new pair of ears created from his own ribs.
  
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• Palestinians baffled by decision to appoint Tony Blair to chair European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation

  04-06-2015 21:04
  Tony Blair’s globetrotting brand of peace has taken another unexpected step. In Jerusalem, where he kept an office as impartial envoy to Arab states for the Quartet, there was bafflement at his decision to become head of Europe’s pro-Jewish body fighting anti-Semitism.
  
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• Fifa corruption: FBI investigates £295m deals handled by Brazil’s ex-football chief

  04-06-2015 20:58
  
  Brazil was pulled further into the ever deepening scandal engulfing world football as reports emerged that US investigators are examining alleged crooked payments involving millions of pounds made through the head of Brazil’s 2014 World Cup organising committee, Ricardo Teixeira.
  
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• Chandra Levy murder case retrial ordered by judge in Washington DC

  04-06-2015 20:58
  
  One the US’s capital city’s most notorious murder cases has taken another twist after a judge ordered a retrial of the man convicted of killing intern Chandra Levy.
  
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• Edexcel GCSE maths exam goes viral on Twitter after students complain paper was tough

  04-06-2015 20:47
  
  School kids who sat their GCSEs before Twitter was created only had their friends and family to vent to if they were convinced they had failed.
  
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• Mers: Outbreak of virus with no known cure and a mortality rate of 40% spreads panic in South Korea amid fears it may have mutated

  04-06-2015 20:43
  The schools, several hundred of them, suspended classes. The commuters on Seoul’s crowded trains wore face masks and passenger jets were searched for cases of a disease for which there is no known cure.
  
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• Donald Macintyre's Sketch: A bit late but it’s a victory for Ed Miliband

  04-06-2015 20:42
  
  This was seriously cool. A bit like Niki Lauda driving in the 1976 Italian Grand Prix six weeks after his Ferrari caught fire in a near-fatal crash at the Nürburgring, Ed Miliband returned to the circuit yesterday. And in style.
  
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• The New Spymasters book reveals the truth about espionage in the country

  04-06-2015 20:41
  
  At Fort Monckton, the secret service training base just outside Gosport, Hampshire, new recruits to Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) still get taught the art of pistol shooting by retired sergeant-majors.
  
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• There has to be a limit on how far Tory cuts can go

  04-06-2015 20:39
  
  Economists are beating their heads against a brick wall. They’ve been telling the Tories for years that it’s foolish and dangerous to compare a nation’s economy to that of an ordinary household. But the Chancellor was at it again.
  
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• George Osborne accused of tricking voters as £3bn cuts imposed earlier than expected

  04-06-2015 20:34
  
  About £3bn of spending cuts – including on education, public health and defence – were fast-tracked by George Osborne as he tried to end the pain well before the 2020 general election.
  
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• Australia's A$55.5m 'Cambodia Solution' settles just four refugees in the impoverished Asian country

  04-06-2015 20:33
  
  It was announced with great fanfare, sealed with champagne and is costing Australia at least A$55.5m (£27.6m). But a deal to resettle unwanted refugees in Cambodia has resulted in just four people volunteering to move to the impoverished country, and it seems unlikely more will follow.
  
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• Donation funds evolution study unit

  04-06-2015 20:30
  
  The UK's first centre for evolution research has been launched following the largest donation to a university from one of its science graduates.
  
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• It is a myth that global warming has slowed down

  04-06-2015 20:26
  
  One of the biggest canards of the climate sceptic movement is that global warming stopped after 1998 and there has been no appreciable increase in global average temperatures this century.
  
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• Cornwall was scene of prehistoric gold rush, says new research

  04-06-2015 20:18
  
  New archaeological research is revealing that south-west Britain was the scene of a prehistoric gold rush.
  
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• Greece debt crisis: Syriza hardiners succeed in winning delay in €300m loan repayments to IMF

  04-06-2015 20:14
  
  The rank and file of Greece’s virulently anti-austerity ruling Syriza party were cutting up rough. And their show of strength appears to have succeeded with confirmation that Greece will not repay its first tranche of loans on Friday, bundling repayments at the end of the month.
  
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• Stephen Curry could use advice given by LeBron James to beat him in the NBA Finals

  04-06-2015 20:13
  
  Back in 2009, shortly after LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat then-rookie Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors team, James pulled Curry aside and gave him some career advice.
  
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• ‘Slow-down’ in climate change never happened, says major review

  04-06-2015 20:09
  
  A major review of global temperatures by a leading US Government agency has failed to find support for the view that global warming has slowed down since 1998, as many climate sceptics have repeatedly claimed over the past two decades.
  
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• Scientists develop test that can detect every known human virus in single drop of blood

  04-06-2015 20:04
  
  A simple test has been developed that can detect every known human virus in a single drop of blood. It can confirm present and past viral infections, even if they occurred many years ago, scientists said.
  
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• Police 'deliberately manipulated' accounts of a stop and search that resulted in death of Asian man, hearing told

  04-06-2015 20:01
  
  Five police officers deleted evidence “on a breathtaking scale” and “deliberately manipulated” their accounts of a stop and search that resulted in the death of an Asian man, a gross misconduct hearing was told.
  
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• New ears 'weird but great' - boy

  04-06-2015 20:01
  
  A boy born without any ears has fulfilled his simple wish to be able to wear a pair of sunglasses for the first time after having a new pair of ears created from his own ribs.
  
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• 'Fifa paid FAI over Henry handball'

  04-06-2015 20:01
  
  Fifa paid Irish football's governing body not to contest the infamous Thierry Henry handball which potentially cost the Emerald Isle a World Cup place, it emerged tonight.
  
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• Jean Ritchie served as inspiration for Bob Dylan, Shirley Collins and Joni Mitchell

  04-06-2015 19:59
  
  Jean Ritchie was one of the supreme giants of North American folk music. She was a lodestone for performers, her influence working on many levels. If you were Shirley Collins or Joni Mitchell or Wendy Waldman, it was impossible not to respond to her dulcimer playing.
  
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• US Presidential campaign 2016: Ten candidates, but the Republicans are hardly spoilt for choice

  04-06-2015 19:56
  
  Another day, another candidate – or even two. Rick Perry, former three-term governor of Texas, has joined the already crowded field for the 2016 Presidential nomination, hoping that voters will forget the blunder that drove him out of the race four years ago.
  
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• US Presidential campaign 2016: Rick Perry becomes latest runner in crowded field for Republican nomination

  04-06-2015 19:56
  
  Another day, another candidate – or even two. Rick Perry, former three-term governor of Texas, has joined the already crowded field for the 2016 Presidential nomination, hoping that voters will forget the blunder that drove him out of the race four years ago.
  
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• Greek court fines migrant strawberry pickers who were shot at for demanding pay

  04-06-2015 19:55
  
  A group of Bangladeshi strawberry pickers who were shot and wounded when they asked to be paid have been fined by a Greek court.
  
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• UK has highest rate of cocaine use among young adults in Europe, says new report

  04-06-2015 19:54
  
  Britain has the highest rate of cocaine use among young adults in Europe, a report indicates.
  
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• Letters reveal Prince's concerns

  04-06-2015 19:50
  
  The Prince of Wales wrote to ministers about the benefits of complementary medicine, the need for affordable rural homes and the threat to heritage buildings, previously secret letters have revealed.
  
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• Government awards contracts to monitor social media and give Whitehall 'real-time' updates on public opinion

  04-06-2015 19:48
  
  Politicians like to claim that they don’t care what people say about them. We’ve always suspected that’s untrue – but now we know it is.
  
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• Rick Perry: Five things to know about the presidential candidate

  04-06-2015 19:47
  
  Former Texas governor Rick Perry has announced his bid for the 2016 presidential election.
  
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• Tunnelling Completed On £14bn Crossrail Project

  04-06-2015 19:36
  
  Tunnelling has been completed in the £14.8bn Crossrail scheme - the biggest construction project anywhere in Europe at present. The plan to build a high-speed rail line connecting Reading in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, via London stations such as Paddington, Tottenham Court Road, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf, is hugely ambitious. It aims to bring together all of the capital’s key business locations - Heathrow, the City, the West End and Canary Wharf - on one connect
  
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