General news

• Sourdough has escaped the bakery, and is now found in pasta, beer - and even ice cream

  13-08-2015 23:30
  
  A quick Google of this year's – and 2013's – "best restaurant in the world", Catalonia's El Celler de Can Roca, yields many spectacular dishes. But few are more intriguing than its "gyrating" dessert: a sourdough ice cream with cocoa pulp, fried lychee and Jerez vinegar meringue (a motor beneath the ice cream causes the novelty "gyration"). Online reviewers call the dish "fun and inventive" and "delicate and moreish", and it's rumoured to be a favourite of Mark Zuckerberg.
  
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• UK rain: Met Office issues yellow weather warning for England, Wales and eastern Scotland as heavy rainfall continues

  13-08-2015 23:11
  The Met Office has issued an yellow weather warning to most of the UK for Friday 14 August, with more heavy downfalls still to come.
  
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• Tel Aviv sur Seine: Pro-Palestinian protests mar Paris festival to celebrate the Israeli coastal city

  13-08-2015 23:04
  
  Steve Albert, a stylist living in the third arrondissement, Le Marais, is standing on a small stretch of Tel Aviv sand, ignoring the chants of Palestinian campaigners a few metres away as he eats an ice cream. It's no ordinary day at the beach. “It’s the Spanish inquisition,” he complains.
  
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• Labour leadership favourite Jeremy Corbyn eyes 'new kind of politics'

  13-08-2015 23:00
  
  Jeremy Corbyn has promised a "new kind of politics" if he wins the Labour leadership contest as the party prepared to send out the first ballot papers.
  
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• Daniel Pena-Sanchez: Mother appeals for teenage son with heart problem to come home

  13-08-2015 22:03
  
  A mother has appealed for her unwell son to come home, amid fears the teenager will not be able to cope in the wet, cold weather, after being missing for over three days.
  
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• Ill-judged welfare cuts have puts thousands at risk

  13-08-2015 21:57
  
  It’s been another bonus year for bailiffs as relentless rent rises and welfare cuts continue to bite at the heels of hard-pressed families fighting to stay in their home.
  
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• Is there trouble ahead for Jeremy Corbyn? Enter sibling Piers, the wacky weatherman...

  13-08-2015 21:50
  
  Piers Corbyn defies categorisation. But let's try. He's a left-wing physicist turned political activist and councillor, turned conspiracy theorist and maverick weather forecaster.
  
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• Alex Dyke: BBC radio DJ suspended after complaining about 'unnatural' breastfeeding

  13-08-2015 21:44
  
  A BBC radio DJ has been suspended after claiming on air that breastfeeding is “unnatural” and “has to be stopped”.
  
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• Labour leadership contest: Moderate MPs fear purge by 'aggressive factional nutters' on the left

  13-08-2015 21:38
  
  Moderate Labour MPs fear they will be “purged” from the party by “aggressive factional nutters” around Jeremy Corbyn if he is successful in his bid to win the party’s leadership. Senior figures in the parliamentary party told The Independent that there is growing concern that Corbyn supporters will use “trigger ballots” in Labour seats across the country to eject MPs considered to be too right-wing.
  
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• We need autistic actors playing autistic roles on stage, says Curious Incident adviser

  13-08-2015 21:31
  
  Performers and other creative people with autism should be taken “out of the ghetto” and on to major stages around the country, the only autistic solo performer currently producing his own work in the UK has said.
  
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• New York's darkest secret: The Hole is a Mafia graveyard that few people venture into

  13-08-2015 21:30
  
  It may be true, as the Old Testament counsels, that all flesh is grass, but sorry is the flesh that ends up as grass in the Hole, a Mafia graveyard and Deliverance-worthy outpost that may be the most forlorn of New York City's 250 or so neighbourhoods.
  
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• Mother in appeal for unwell teenage son to return home

  13-08-2015 21:10
  
  A mother has appealed for her unwell teenage son to come home after he ran away following a hospital visit.
  
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• Former Scotland star Kevin Gallacher clear over dog attack at pub

  13-08-2015 21:10
  
  Former Scotland international Kevin Gallacher has been cleared of not being in control of his dog when it bit a seven-year-old girl on the head.
  
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• Asda to increase price it pays for milk in bid to help farmers

  13-08-2015 21:10
  
  Asda has announced that it is increasing the price it pays its milk supplier to "a level that will assist" farmers.
  
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• BBC radio DJ Alex Dyke suspended over breastfeeding remarks

  13-08-2015 21:10
  
  A BBC radio DJ has been suspended after he said that "librarian-type moustached" women should not breastfeed in public.
  
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• How Manchester United's Class of 1992 handle life in the lower leagues - through their involvement with Salford City

  13-08-2015 21:09
  Salford is Manchester’s dowdy, half-forgotten sister, celebrated in L S Lowry’s paintings and Ewan MacColl’s song “Dirty Old Town”, with its lines about the gasworks’ wall and the old canal.
  
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• Liz Kendall interview: Labour leadership candidate says a Jeremy Corbyn win would put the party 'in the wilderness for a generation'

  13-08-2015 21:00
  “None of the stuff on Twitter has bothered me,” says Liz Kendall, who has been labelled a “Tory”, “Margaret Thatcher” and much worse on social media by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn.
  
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• Labour leadership: Liz Kendall calls for voting pact with rivals to prevent Jeremy Corbyn win

  13-08-2015 21:00
  
  Liz Kendall has called for a voting pact with Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper, her rivals for the Labour leadership, in an attempt to stop the left-wing front-runner Jeremy Corbyn winning the race.
  
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• Airport VAT scam: Boots to review airport pricing policy after outrage from passengers

  13-08-2015 20:59
  
  Boots has caved in to pressure from campaigners and furious airport passengers and is now looking to overhaul its pricing structure at its airport stores, following revelations in The Independent that retailers are failing to pass on VAT savings to travellers leaving the EU.
  
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• Rugby World Cup 2015: Wales coach Warren Gatland gambles by dropping three Lions from his squad

  13-08-2015 20:57
  Any coach bold enough to drop a player as revered as the great Irish centre Brian O’Driscoll from a Lions Test team at the tipping point of a series against Australia is unlikely to quake at the thought of sacrificing a sacred cow ahead of a World Cup – especially if the specimen concerned is a little long in the tooth and entirely out of sorts. But two sacred cows? Three? A cull on this scale is either brave or foolhardy… or maybe both.
  
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• Climate change could see tourists avoid Spain and go to Latvia for summer holidays, EU study finds

  13-08-2015 20:55
  
  The tourism industry in southern European countries like Spain and Italy could be under threat due to climate change, an EU report has warned.
  
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• Milk farmer protests: Asda to increase amount it pays suppliers for product

  13-08-2015 20:39
  
  Asda has announced it will increase the amount it pays its suppliers for milk, after farmers staged dramatic protests in supermarkets over prices.
  
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• Syria conflict: As Turks turn on the Kurds, President Assad is no longer the only obstacle to peace

  13-08-2015 20:35
  
  Developments are rapidly taking place, some behind the scenes, which will have a significant impact on the Syrian conflict and the broader war against Isis.
  
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• La Coiffeuse: £9.6m Pablo Picasso painting that vanished 14 years ago finally returned to France

  13-08-2015 20:13
  
  It vanished from storage in the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris 14 years ago only to show up late last year in New York customs in a FedEx box innocently marked “handicrafts” and “toy”. But La Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser ) by Pablo Picasso has finally been returned to its rightful owners, the French government.
  
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• On The Buses actor Stephen Lewis dies aged 88

  13-08-2015 20:12
  
  Actor Stephen Lewis, known for his role in sitcom On The Buses, has died aged 88, his family said.
  
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• With hundreds of thousands of new supporters, Labour is on the verge of something big – what a complete disaster!

  13-08-2015 20:10
  
  It’s easy to see why those in charge of the Labour Party are so depressed. They must sit in their office crying: “Hundreds of thousands of people want to join us. It’s a disaster. And loads of them are young, and full of energy, and they’re really enthusiastic. Oh my God, why has it all gone so miserably wrong?”
  
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• Cats vs dogs: Scientists confirm that felines are better... from an evolutionary perspective

  13-08-2015 20:08
  
  It’s the debate that has long divided animal lovers. Now scientists have confirmed that cats really are better than dogs – at least from an evolutionary perspective.
  
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• Lord Janner must attend court over child abuse charges, judges rule

  13-08-2015 20:07
  
  Lawyers for Lord Janner have lost a High Court bid to prevent him having to attend court on Friday to face child abuse charges.
  
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• Greece debt crisis: Parliament holds emergency session on new austerity measures to secure third bailout

  13-08-2015 20:01
  
  Greece’s parliament has held an emergency session on new austerity measures to secure a third bailout, as unexpected positive news came in the form of 0.8 per cent growth in the second quarter of the year.
  
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• New tech discovers young Jupiter-like planet

  13-08-2015 20:00
  
  Astronomers have described the first world discovered by a new instrument designed to capture light reflected off planets outside the solar system.
  
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• Genetically engineered yeast provides short cut to making opioid medicine

  13-08-2015 20:00
  
  Scientists have genetically engineered ordinary baker's yeast to make a pain-killing medicine.
  
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• Genetically-engineered opiates could lead to illicit 'home-brewed' heroin, scientists warn

  13-08-2015 20:00
  
  The chemical precursors for making morphine and heroin have been produced by genetically-engineered microbes rather than poppy plants for the first time, raising the prospect that the most powerful painkillers known to science could be made from scratch in the lab.
  
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• 51 Eridani b: Astronomers discover young planet that 'looks like Jupiter' 100 light years away

  13-08-2015 20:00
  
  Astronomers have detected a methane-shrouded world 100 light years away that may hold the key to understanding how planets form in the dust clouds swirling around stars.
  
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• Tianjin explosion: China's safety record under scrutiny as nation counts the cost of a blast visible from space

  13-08-2015 19:59
  
  The giant explosion in the Chinese port city of Tianjin which left at least 50 dead and more than 700 people injured has prompted renewed questions over the safety record of the country’s vast chemical industry.
  
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• Rihanna to appear as 'special adviser' on 'The Voice'

  13-08-2015 19:50
  
  Rihanna, the 27-year star who performed on The Voice, has now been added as a “key adviser” for the upcoming season of the reality TV show
  
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• Burma's move towards democracy suffers setback after 'putsch' sees Aung San Suu Kyi ally Thura Shwe Mann ousted from ruling party

  13-08-2015 19:49
  Burma has been thrown into turmoil after the reform-minded former general Thura Shwe Mann, hotly tipped to become the next president, was ousted from the ruling party and confined to his home overnight.
  
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• Unarmed black 14-year-old shot 7 times by police officer in New Jersey

  13-08-2015 19:44
  
  A teenager was shot seven times by a police officer on Friday night while attempting to run away from cops.
  
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• RNLI lifeboat crew rescue swimmer stranded in water for four hours off Gravesend coast - video

  13-08-2015 19:42
  
  An RNLI lifeboat crew saved the life of a swimmer who was treading water in the Thames estuary for four hours.
  
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• A-level results 2015: Labour leader hopeful Jeremy Corbyn received 2 E-grades in his exams. How did other politicians fare?

  13-08-2015 19:36
  Amid this summer’s ‘Corbynmania’ – coupled with record A-level result pass rates – fans might be interested to know Labour leader frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn left school with just two A-levels – both at E-grades.
  
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• Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn tells Scottish supporters his critics are 'nervous about power of democracy'

  13-08-2015 19:32
  Jeremy Corbyn has taken his campaign for the Labour leadership to Scotland, telling supporters that Tony Blair and his other critics in the party were simply “nervous about the power of democracy”.
  
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• Brazil President Dilma Rousseff facing make or break fortnight as scandals, political schisms and protests threaten her position

  13-08-2015 19:27
  The walls are closing in around the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff. With the lowest approval ratings of any president in recent history, she now faces the biggest protests yet against her Workers’ Party government. But she refuses to quit.
  
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• 'Blakey' From TV Sitcom On The Buses Dies

  13-08-2015 19:22
  
  Actor Stephen Lewis, who played "Blakey" in the hit TV sitcom On the Buses, has died aged 88. The star died peacefully in the Cambridge Nursing Home, in Wanstead, east London, and was "in high spirits" right until the end, said his niece Rebecca Lewis. There were also three spin-off films - On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972) and Holiday on the Buses (1973).
  
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• Chilcot inquiry: Sir John accused of putting reputation of politicians before feelings of bereaved families

  13-08-2015 19:18
  
  Sir John Chilcot has gone too far in his pursuit of fairness, putting the reputations of politicians before the feelings of bereaved families, according to the lawyer behind a new legal action against the chair of the Iraq Inquiry.
  
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• Sex offenders 'receiving harsher punishment'

  13-08-2015 19:17
  
  Prison sentences given to sex offenders have jumped sharply, figures show.
  
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• It isn't 'terror' or 'unstable elements' providing the greatest threat to China's Muslims... it's AIDS, says whisteblower

  13-08-2015 19:12
  
  A Chinese whistleblower has revealed HIV is the most “harmful social phenomenon” sweeping a region in the country’s north-west – rather than “unstable elements” such as terrorism and religious extremism.
  
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• Egypt's alcohol restrictions have left consumers at the mercy of a single company or the option of drinking some potentially dangerous alternatives

  13-08-2015 19:08
  He pours two glasses, sniff and sip, sniff and sip. “This one is my favourite,” says David Molyneux-Berry, after uncorking a bottle of red Chateau de Granville 2014.
  
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• London's monk-themed 'cloud bar' Alcoholic Architecture lets visitors inhale cocktail vapour

  13-08-2015 19:01
  
  After the success of London's cat, cereal, and owl cafes, a "walk-in cloud bar", where customers can inhale a monk-themed cocktail, has opened in the capital.
  
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• Ex-IRA Man Gunned Down In 'Ruthless' Killing

  13-08-2015 19:00
  
  A former republican prisoner shot dead in a "ruthless and premeditated" killing in Northern Ireland may have been the victim of a suspected bloody feud between ex-IRA members. Father-of-nine Kevin McGuigan, 53, was shot repeatedly in the head and chest in front of his wife by two masked men outside the couple's home in the republican Short Strand area of Belfast. Mr McGuigan had fallen out with former colleagues in the IRA a number of years ago, it was believed.
  
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• A-level results day: Soaring number of new students leaves 25,000 scrambling to find a bed

  13-08-2015 18:58
  
  Young people heading for university this autumn are facing a student digs crisis thanks to a chronic shortage of suitable university accommodation and George Osborne’s decision to abolish the cap on student numbers.
  
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• US marines who lowered flag at embassy in Havana fifty years ago set for Cuba return

  13-08-2015 18:58
  
  Three former US Marines who lowered the stars and stripes outside the American embassy in Cuba when relations were formally ruptured by Fidel Castro and Dwight Eisenhower more than five decades ago will be on hand on Friday to run it up again as relations between Cuba and the United States are restored.
  
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