General news

• VIDEO: Run or return? UK's Afghan refugees

  16-07-2015 23:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Chris Rogers meets Afghan refugees who have lived in the UK since they were children but who have been - or are under threat of being - deported back.
  
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• BoE's Carney signals rate hike decision around turn of year

  16-07-2015 23:41
  
  By Andy Bruce and John Geddie LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday the decision to raise interest rates from record lows will come into sharper focus around the end of this year, his strongest hint yet about the timing of the British central bank's next move. Carney spoke of strong momentum in Britain's economy and described a slowdown at the start of the year as merely a blip. Carney's speech puts the British central bank on track to follow the
  
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• Harman accepts Labour MPs' demands over Tory welfare cuts

  16-07-2015 23:33
  
  Harriet Harman has accepted Labour MPs' demands to be able to register a vote against elements of the Government's welfare squeeze in a bid to quell a mounting revolt over her support for a tax credit curb.
  
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• Two jailed for growing 570 cannabis plants at a Swedish school

  16-07-2015 23:25
  
  Two men have been sentenced to prison for growing cannabis at a drug farm in a Swedish school.
  
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• Johnson leads Open at St Andrews

  16-07-2015 23:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dustin Johnson outplays Grand Slam-chasing Jordan Spieth to lead the Open by two shots after the first round.
  
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• NI message in a bottle found in Med

  16-07-2015 23:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A message in a bottle, thrown into the sea off the coast of Northern Ireland 13 years ago, is found off an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
  
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• Balsamic, cyder, sherry - there's a vinegar to suit every dish - and it's good for us, too

  16-07-2015 23:00
  
  A vinegar tasting, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach? This doesn't sound like the best start to any day. Yet doing shots of vinegar for breakfast brings no undesired effects. Perhaps because, as I discover later, a slug of vinegar is an ancient tonic. And the storecupboard staple is now finding its way back into fashion for its numerous health, and taste, benefits.
  
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• Sheriff in Sandra Bland case was fired from last police department after racism allegations

  16-07-2015 22:52
  
  The senior police officer at the center of the controversial death of a black woman in police custody, was reportedly fired from his last job amid racism allegations.
  
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• Sarah Hilary wins crime novel award with Someone Else's Skin

  16-07-2015 22:52
  
  A disturbing debut thriller set in a world dominated by domestic violence has been crowned crime novel of the year.
  
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• Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez: Chattanooga suspect named as engineering graduate

  16-07-2015 22:52
  
  US media named the suspect as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. 
  
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• Author Hilary wins crime novel award

  16-07-2015 22:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Author Sarah Hilary wins the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award in Harrogate for her debut novel, Someone Else's Skin.
  
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• Poor Alexis Tsipras, forced to crawl along the banks of the Rhine in a thong

  16-07-2015 22:29
  
  What a relief that the Greeks have finally seen sense, and agreed to Angela Merkel’s demand that their Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras must scrub Berlin with a dishcloth, and crawl along the banks of the Rhine in a thong barking like a dog.
  
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• Sky Broadband customers receive legal letter asking for payment over alleged piracy of an obscure Robert Redford film

  16-07-2015 22:27
  A number of Sky Broadband customers have received legal letters from a American firm, which accuse them of pirating an obscure Robert Redford film and asking them to pay a fine.
  
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• Labour leadership contest: Senior party figures forecast doom after Jeremy Corbyn surge

  16-07-2015 22:22
  
  Labour is tearing itself apart with a fractious and divisive leadership campaign that risks consigning the party to electoral irrelevance for years to come, senior figures in the party have warned.
  
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• A message to Tim Farron: Unite, inspire and enthuse

  16-07-2015 22:19
  
  Our Liberal Democrat constitution is clear. Liberal Democrats exist “to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity”.
  
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• Forced marriage: 'I just thought it was a normal family holiday'

  16-07-2015 22:09
  
  More than a year after a new law criminalising the practice, there has been just one prosecution for forced marriage, despite more than 1,200 potential cases being discovered every year. As part of The Independent's series of articles on the subject here is the story of one schoolgirl who fell victim to the tradition.
  
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• Labour changes Welfare Bill tactics

  16-07-2015 22:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Labour Party changes its approach to the government's Welfare Bill which goes before MPs next week.
  
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• 'Revenge porn' suspect not in court

  16-07-2015 22:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  One of the first people due to appear in court under new "revenge porn" laws has a warrant issued for his arrest after failing to turn up.
  
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• When Siri is spot on with a cultural reference who makes it happen, man or machine?

  16-07-2015 22:00
  
  Do we want our phones, tablets and watches to have a personality? Would we like them to be meek and compliant, bold and outspoken or hovering somewhere in between? This week it was discovered that Apple's voice assistant, Siri, certainly doesn't mess about if anyone dares to ask how tall former American Olympic decathlete Bruce Jenner is.
  
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• Obese men have just a '1 in 210' chance of attaining a healthy body weight

  16-07-2015 22:00
  
  Obese men have only a one in 210 chance of attaining a healthy body weight, according to new research that suggests diet and exercise strategies are not effective in combating the obesity epidemic.
  
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• Custody death 'due to excess force'

  16-07-2015 21:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The sister of a man who died in police custody claims that officers' use of "excess force" was to blame for his death.
  
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• UK 'strikes deal' over Greek bailout

  16-07-2015 21:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A legally binding agreement has been struck to protect UK taxpayers' money from the impact of the Greek bailout, the Treasury says.
  
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• Chelsea fans racism trial: Four men accused of racist chants oppose football banning orders

  16-07-2015 21:56
  
  Four Chelsea fans have appeared in court after being accused of singing racist chants on the Paris Metro and allegedly pushing a black man off the train as he tried to board.
  
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• Forced marriage: The warning signs

  16-07-2015 21:54
  
  Unlike an arranged marriage, where both future spouses agree to a union which has been set up between their families, forced marriage happens when one or both people do not consent.
  
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• Forced marriage: How hundreds of terrified British victims of the tradition are being failed every year by the services they need most

  16-07-2015 21:48
  As millions of schoolchildren across England and Wales break up for the summer over the coming days, a few hundred, the vast majority girls, are full of dread. These are the victims of forced marriage, a tradition that is spreading across the country, and spreading fear in its wake.
  
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• Former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao warns 'the trolls are winning' on the battle of the internet

  16-07-2015 21:47
  
  Ellen Pao, who recently stepped down as the CEO of Reddit, has warned that “the trolls are winning” the battle of the internet.
  
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• UK rates may rise at 'turn of year'

  16-07-2015 21:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Bank of England governor Mark Carney indicates that UK interest rates could rise "at the turn of this year".
  
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• The Open 2015: Dustin Johnson lights up Old Course and keeps Jordan Spieth in the shade

  16-07-2015 21:34
  
  There is a perception in golf that Dustin Johnson is not the brightest button in the box. One rather dismissive columnist advanced the view that Johnson is so dense light bends around him. Nice line, yet at some point, his talent being what it is, you have to think Johnson will rise to his full height and proclaim: “I am the light.”
  
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• Lena Dunham launches feminist e-newsletter called 'Lenny' for fellow-millenials

  16-07-2015 21:30
  
  She's already dished out more advice than Dear Deidre but Lena Dunham seems to think that she has plenty more pearls of wisdom to dispatch. It was announced this week that the actress and writer, together with Girls' executive producer Jenni Konner, will this autumn launch Lenny, an "email newsletter where there's no such thing as too much information".
  
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• New Lib Dem Leader: 'The Fight Starts Now'

  16-07-2015 21:22
  
  Tim Farron has told Liberal Democrats the “comeback starts right now" in his first address hours after being elected leader. He succeeds Nick Clegg who quit after the party's crushing defeat at the general election in May. The former Lib Dem president beat opponent Norman Lamb by 56.5% to 43.5% on a 56% turnout in the contest.
  
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• John 'Goldfinger' Palmer: IPCC 'will not investigate' how police failed to notice dead fraudster had been shot six times by hitman

  16-07-2015 21:21
  The police watchdog will not directly investigate how officers failed to notice that a notorious gangland figure found dead in his garden had been shot six times by a professional hitman.
  
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• Man re-arrested in US hacking case

  16-07-2015 21:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A British man accused of hacking US government computers is re-arrested by police in the UK.
  
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• Farron hails 'new Lib Dem army'

  16-07-2015 21:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Tim Farron says "a new army" of Lib Dem supporters can help the party recover in the polls after he is confirmed as its new leader.
  
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• Interest rates could rise at turn of year - Mark Carney

  16-07-2015 21:05
  
  Bank of England governor Mark Carney has suggested that interest rates could begin to rise at the turn of this year.
  
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• Helicopter pilot arrested after canal pub crash

  16-07-2015 21:05
  
  The pilot of a helicopter which crashed into a canal side pub in Ireland has been arrested.
  
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• BoE's Carney - rate hike decision to come into 'sharper relief' by year's end

  16-07-2015 20:59
  
  By Andy Bruce and John Geddie LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday the decision to raise interest rates from record lows would come into "sharper relief" around the end of this year as inflationary pressures become clearer. Carney reiterated that any rise in the benchmark interest rate from its current 0.5 percent would be gradual and to levels about half as high as historical averages of around 4.5 percent. "In my view, the decision as to when
  
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• Donald Macintyre's sketch: MP attacks the Beeb's panel of 'piranhas'

  16-07-2015 20:53
  
  The main worry about Chris Bryant’s approach to the BBC is what he’ll have left to say if it really is dismembered. On Thursday his prose was not so much purple as a lush, glossy, pomegranate. The Corporation, the Shadow Culture Secretary told MPs, was not just “a beacon of accuracy and impartiality around the world”, or “part of the national furniture”. It was “a miracle of constitutional engineering… the cornerstone of our creative industries, earning respect and money for Brit
  
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• Greece bailout: Eurozone backs €7bn 'bridging loan' while ECB approves €900m liquidity lifeline to banks

  16-07-2015 20:52
  
  The European Central Bank moved unexpectedly to help Greek banks stave off collapse, hours after MPs in Athens delivered on the government’s promise to push a raft of spending cuts and reforms into law.
  
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• Mother wins two-year legal battle with council after taking her son out of school

  16-07-2015 20:50
  
  A former City worker who was praised by David Cameron for her home schooling network has won a two-year legal battle with her local council after taking her son out of school.
  
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• Canoe fraudsters 'have no assets'

  16-07-2015 20:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Canoe fraudster John Darwin and his ex-wife Anne now have no known assets, the Crown Prosecution Service says.
  
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• Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter 'thrilled' by Emmy nomination

  16-07-2015 20:44
  
  Downton Abbey star Jim Carter has said he is "thrilled and delighted" with his Emmy nomination.
  
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• BBC executives 'asked stars to sign' open letter defending corporation to David Cameron

  16-07-2015 20:37
  
  A letter signed by dozens of celebrities urging the Prime Minister to protect the BBC was organised by the corporation’s senior executives, Michael Palin as said.
  
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• Bank of England's Carney says rate hike decision to come into 'sharper relief' by year-end

  16-07-2015 20:35
  Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday that the decision to hike interest rates from record low levels would come into "sharper relief" around the turn of this year. Carney reiterated that interest rate rises, when they come, would be gradual and to levels "about half as high as historical averages". "In my view, the decision as to when to start such a process of adjustment will likely come into sharper relief around the turn of this year," said Carne
  
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• New Lib Dem leader Tim Farron pledges comeback

  16-07-2015 20:27
  
  Tim Farron declared the "comeback starts right now" for the Liberal Democrats as he addressed party members just hours after being elected leader.
  
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• Iran nuclear deal: British Foreign Secretary exchanges barbed remarks with Benjamin Netanyahu over the pact on visit to Israel

  16-07-2015 20:21
  The visiting British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, exchanged a series of barbed remarks in a meeting that underscored the sharp differences between Israel and world powers over the nuclear agreement with Iran.
  
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• Campaigner vows to win war after right-to-die court defeat

  16-07-2015 20:16
  
  The widow of right-to-die campaigner Tony Nicklinson has said her family's legal battle has ended after losing their case in the European Court of Human Rights - but vowed to win the war.
  
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• Hundreds of Afghans who grew up in UK face deportation to country they 'barely remember'

  16-07-2015 20:16
  
  Hundreds of Afghan children who grew up in Britain are facing mass deportation back to a country that they barely now remember, an investigation for The Independent has established.
  
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• BBC hits back after Government calls for a 'smaller, cheaper' national broadcaster

  16-07-2015 20:09
  
  The BBC is on a collision course with ministers after the Government took the first step towards creating a smaller, cheaper national broadcaster.
  
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• 50 sharks spotted circling in waters near Sussex coast

  16-07-2015 20:02
  
  50 sharks have been spotted circling in a small pool of tidal waters at an RSPB reserve near Selsey, in West Sussex.
  
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• MPs should accept 10% pay rise - David Cameron

  16-07-2015 20:01
  
  David Cameron has insisted MPs should accept their pay rise despite widespread anger over the £7,000 hike.
  
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