General news

• Met Police creates team to deal with historical abuse cases

  18-09-2015 23:51
  
  The Metropolitan Police is setting up a specific team in response to the growing demands of a number of historical abuse inquiries.
  
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• David Cameron lays flowers for Shoreham air disaster victims

  18-09-2015 23:51
  
  David Cameron has paid his respects during a "moving" visit to the area where 11 victims were killed in the Shoreham air disaster.
  
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• New survey reveals that the cost of living is Britons' most hated thing about London

  18-09-2015 23:46
  
  The things that Britons hate most about London are the cost of living and bad manners of its residents, according to a survey.
  
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• RWC 2015: England will draw solace from the fact they can only improve

  18-09-2015 23:42
  
  Every word of the opening ceremony seemed loaded with metaphorical significance. “We all know in life we have one chance to make a first impression. Let’s not let them down,” bellowed Will Greenwood as it all began. He was trying to encourage some mass singing, and though he little imagined when holding the World Cup aloft 12 years ago that he would be urging the massed ranks of Twickenham to join in “Sweet Caroline” 13 years later, the words were fitting for those
  
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• RWC 2015 England vs Fiji match report: Mike Brown and George Ford earn win after nervy start at Twickenham

  18-09-2015 23:22
  England may expect, but it is not at all clear that England will deliver at their own World Cup. Chris Robshaw’s side found their way past the proudest, most committed of Fijian sides before a Twickenham full house, despite a bad outbreak of first-night nerves and a near terminal case of butterfingered botch-uppery, but there was little in the hosts’ performance to keep Wales or Australia from their slumbers.
  
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• Obama nomination would be first openly gay leader of military branch in US history

  18-09-2015 23:07
  
  Barack Obama has nominated Eric Fanning to become the next secretary of the Army - paving the way for the first openly gay leader of a military service branch in US history.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn does not look like next prime minister - poll

  18-09-2015 23:00
  
  Voters overwhelmingly do not believe Jeremy Corbyn looks like Britain's next prime minister and a significant number of Labour supporters are ready to turn their back on the party, according to a poll.
  
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• British armed forces must recruit more people from ethnic minorities, says Defence Secretary

  18-09-2015 23:00
  
  Britain’s Army, Navy and Air Force will have to hire 30 per cent more recruits from an ethnic minority background by the end of the decade under plans to improve diversity in the armed forces.
  
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• Small shops to charge 5p for plastic bags despite being exempt from new rules making the fee compulsory

  18-09-2015 22:58
  Thousands of small retailers will charge customers 5p for a plastic bag from next month – even though they are exempt for new rules making the fee compulsory.
  
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• England Get Rugby World Cup Bid Under Way

  18-09-2015 22:47
  
  England's bid to win the Rugby World Cup is under way at Twickenham as the host team open the tournament against Fiji in Group A. The game is being watched by 82,000 spectators along with Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, David Cameron and Prince Harry. "Who could forget 1995 and President Mandela handing The Webb Ellis Cup to Francois Pienaar, or that drop kick in 2003.
  
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• Simon Fletcher: From communism to Jeremy Corbyn's consigliere

  18-09-2015 22:30
  
  When there is chaos at the top end of a political party, it is sometimes expedient to blame the leader’s advisers rather than the leader himself. Even those people high up in the Labour Party who wish Jeremy Corbyn well will concede that the opening days of his leadership were not as organised as they might have been.
  
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• Taking the plunge at the swimming pool that welcomes owners and their dogs

  18-09-2015 22:19
  
  A chocolate Labrador lollops around the side of the pool before lunging into the water over the head of a child who lets out an excited scream. In the water, 11 other dogs – including spaniels, a wolfhound and a Westie (West Highland terrier) – frolic with their owners – while displaying varying degrees of enthusiasm.
  
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• Je Suis Charlie, Toronto Film Festival, review: A powerful eulogy for the victims

  18-09-2015 22:11
  
  This documentary directed by father-and-son team, Daniel and Emmanuel Leconte, has been sanctioned by the publishers of Charlie Hebdo and contains new interviews with staff at the scene of the shooting in January 2015. The original French title of the film, L’humour a mort, has the literal translation, “Comedy has died”, and is a more accurate description of a film that attempts to give an overview of the attacks, both in a historical context and the reaction of French society
  
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• Good Energy: Juliet Davenport on getting 100,000 households to sign up to her cheaper, greener deal

  18-09-2015 22:05
  
  She’s the Oxford physics graduate who has just become one of the most powerful women in the UK energy industry after striking a deal that could bring her company Good Energy tens of thousands of new customers.
  
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• UK's hoarding habits leave £1,000 of banknotes in circulation for every Briton

  18-09-2015 21:54
  
  From the fluff-covered coins down the back of the sofa, to wads under the mattress, stuffed in the sock drawer or buried in the back garden, Britons are defying orthodoxy and hoarding cash.
  
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• Junior doctors threaten strike action in revolt over new contract plans

  18-09-2015 21:32
  
  Junior doctors are considering industrial action if the Government pursues plans to impose a new contract on the profession.
  
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• Mmusi Maimane: South Africa opposition leader vows to 'stand up against President Zuma'

  18-09-2015 21:04
  
  Mmusi Maimane, the first black leader of South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance party (DA), is in forceful mood. With next year’s local elections looming, he is about to start a campaign that will highlight allegations of corruption against President Jacob Zuma and his governing ANC party. After months travelling the country since his landslide election as leader in May, next month Mr Maimane will unveil his party’s plan to tackle what he sees as South Africa’s gre
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn 'loses a fifth of Labour voters' with critics already plotting to oust left-winger

  18-09-2015 21:00
  
  Almost three in four people do not believe that Jeremy Corbyn looks like a prime minister-in-waiting, according to a poll for The Independent.
  
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• RWC 2015 opening ceremony: Groundsman Prince Harry leaves rugby waiting for 'self-aware' moment

  18-09-2015 20:59
  
  Will Greenwood wandered around the Twickenham pitch, mic in hand, in the rarefied final minutes before the 2015 Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony, promising - for some unknown reason - the “most inclusive World Cup in history”, before transporting us all to the playing fields of an English public school, where Prince Harry was working as a groundsman, sending the crowd predictably nuts.
  
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• Police hunt for man who robbed corner shop at knifepoint while wearing boxer shorts on his head

  18-09-2015 20:59
  
  Police are hunting for a man who robbed a shop at knifepoint while wearing a pair of boxer shorts on his head as a disguise.
  
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• Prince Harry has starring role at Rugby World Cup launch

  18-09-2015 20:55
  
  Prince Harry has emulated the Queen by making a cameo appearance in the opening of a major sporting event - starring in the launch of the Rugby World Cup.
  
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• Qatari sheikh makes speedy exit from US after 'drag racing his Ferrari' through the streets of Beverly Hills

  18-09-2015 20:49
  
  Even to the wealthy denizens of Beverly Hills, the sight of a rare supercar with a seven-figure price tag speeding through their quiet neighbourhood came as a shock.
  
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• LA's Mayor of Instagram: Eric Garcetti hopes to 'engage residents of all ages' in politics by exhibiting his collection of photos at a gallery

  18-09-2015 20:44
  Eric Garcetti may be the hippest mayor in America. The Los Angeles leader, who hopes to bring politics into the 21st century, is having his collection of Instagram photos exhibited at a city art gallery.
  
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• Five things Jeremy Corbyn has got right and five he has got wrong

  18-09-2015 20:40
  
  Jeremy Corbyn has survived his first week as Labour leader but despite a strong debut at Prime Minister’s Questions he has suffered a series of setbacks – all of his own-doing.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn: How confusion and errors marred the new Labour leader's first week at the helm

  18-09-2015 20:35
  
  Though Jeremy Corbyn must have seen victory heading his way, he seemed to be taken by surprise when it actually hit him last Saturday morning.
  
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• Rapper Waka Flocka Flame accuses Caitlyn Jenner of 'rebuking God' in transphobic radio interview

  18-09-2015 20:26
  
  Rapper Waka Flocka Flame has been criticised for transphobic remarks he made on a radio show, where he accused Caitlyn Jenner of "rebuking god" and giving in to "devil playing tricks on your mind."
  
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• Greece election: Alexis Tsipras on brink of return to power - to implement the austerity he fought so hard against

  18-09-2015 20:19
  His face is plastered across Athens and Alexis Tsipras, former Prime Minister and leader of Syriza, took to the stage in Syntagma Square, in the heart of the capital, to cap his election campaign with a triumphal rally. The 41-year-old former communist who came from nowhere to lead Greece’s left-wing radicals three years ago is the man to beat in Sunday’s general election.
  
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• Britain's oldest prisoner of war faces eviction after council 'failed to keep care funding pledge'

  18-09-2015 20:07
  
  A great-grandfather believed to be Britain’s oldest former prisoner of war is still living in fear of eviction and surviving off charity handouts – nearly six months after his case hit the headlines and his local council said it would meet his care costs.
  
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• Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter caught on 'kiss-cam' after 69 years of marriage

  18-09-2015 20:06
  
  Jimmy Carter has long explained his secret for a long marriage to anyone who will listen: place the other person at the centre of everything and never go to sleep without settling your differences.
  
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• BT in pledge to bring customer call services back to UK

  18-09-2015 20:06
  
  Telecoms giant BT has pledged to answer more than 80% of customer calls in the UK by the end of 2016 under plans to bring back services from overseas.
  
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• Refugee crisis: Croatia PM warns Europe 'we cannot accommodate these people any longer'

  18-09-2015 19:57
  
  Croatia’s Prime Minister has warned that his country will no longer bear the “burden” of Europe’s refugee crisis, becoming the latest nation to say it is overwhelmed by the thousands of people crossing its borders.
  
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• Tim Farron interview: The Lib Dem leader on fighting back after his party's worst ever year

  18-09-2015 19:46
  
  Tim Farron is trying to rally the spirits of a small band of bedraggled Lib Dem activists taking shelter from the rain outside Wood Green Underground Station.
  
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• Refugee crisis: EU leaders expect to reach deal on fixed quotas at summit next week

  18-09-2015 19:40
  
  European Union leaders are poised to reach a crucial deal which will commit states to accept fixed quotas of thousands of migrants and refugees now reaching the continent, sources close to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has told The Independent.
  
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• Isis escape: One Yazidi woman's horrific ordeal and miraculous rescue from the hands of one of the caliphate's most-feared leaders

  18-09-2015 19:24
  Standing alone at the end of a dirt track on top of a mountain, the 18-year-old Yazidi woman is wearing a broad smile. It’s because it took us so long to get here. For a whole week my phone calls and entreaties to her relatives were batted back with the reply that “the Americans don’t want her to say anything”; the American Consulate in Irbil, in turn, wouldn’t even confirm or deny her existence.
  
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• Sgt Alexander Blackman: The case for and against the Royal Marine who murdered a wounded, unarmed Taliban fighter

  18-09-2015 19:23
  On 15 September 2011, Sergeant Alexander Blackman pointed his 9mm pistol at the chest of a wounded Taliban fighter and pulled the trigger with the words: “Shuffle off this mortal coil you c***. It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.”
  
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• Confederate flag: 20 Virginia students suspended for wearing prohibited symbol to school

  18-09-2015 19:14
  
  More than 20 pupils in Virginia are at the centre of a mounting controversy after they were suspended for wearing Confederate Flag symbols when the school had banned them amid “racial tension”.
  
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• Group of crabs invade the Newcastle Metro after making a bid for freedom

  18-09-2015 19:10
  
  Passengers on the Metro underground train in Newcastle had an unusual commute on Thursday - as a large group of crabs escaped from a bag and started scuttling around the carriage.
  
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• David Cameron is 'living on borrowed time' over independence, says Nicola Sturgeon

  18-09-2015 19:09
  
  David Cameron is “living on borrowed time” and driving support for independence by alienating people living in Scotland, the country’s First Minister has said.
  
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• Watch: Mhairi Black plays Titanic theme tune and discusses 'inevitable' Scottish independence

  18-09-2015 19:07
  
  Britain's youngest MP has two main obsessions: Scottish independence and the Titanic.
  
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• Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha's next idea: An Asian 'Game of Thrones'

  18-09-2015 18:58
  
  Gurinder Chadha, the director of Bend It Like Beckham, has called for more mainstream roles for Asian actors and story-writers in broadcasting as she revealed she is making an Asian Game of Thrones for British television.
  
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• Niloufar Ardalan: Women launch hashtag in solidarity with Iranian footballer stopped by husband from playing in Asian championships

  18-09-2015 18:56
  A hashtag is being used to highlight the restrictions facing many women who live in Iran, after a female footballer’s story made international headlines.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn criticised after appointing fire-conviction peer to frontbench

  18-09-2015 18:56
  
  Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised for appointing a peer who admitted putting lives in danger after deliberately starting a fire at a hotel to his frontbench.
  
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• Man secretly rents out couple's home on Airbnb without their knowledge

  18-09-2015 18:50
  
  A couple have spoken of their shock after discovering their professional house sitter was renting out their home on Airbnb.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn offered camerman Dai Baker a cup of tea, he says, while David Cameron ignored him

  18-09-2015 18:48
  
  A cameraman has revealed how Jeremy Corbyn offered to make him a cup of tea, while David Cameron didn’t even say ‘good morning’.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn offered cameraman Dai Baker a cup of tea, he says, while David Cameron ignored him

  18-09-2015 18:48
  
  A cameraman has revealed how Jeremy Corbyn offered to make him a cup of tea, while David Cameron didn’t even say ‘good morning’.
  
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• School teacher resigns after her explicit photos and videos emerge online

  18-09-2015 18:41
  
  A high school band teacher has reportedly resigned after explicit photos and videos of her emerged online.
  
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• Meet the woman who set up the Facebook page 'Cancer. You lose' to share her mastectomy scars in a positive way

  18-09-2015 18:35
  In April this year, five women from the same family had decided to undergo preventative double mastectomies in order to dramatically reduce their chances of getting breast cancer after being told they all had a 97 per cent chance of developing the disease.
  
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• Meet the woman who set up Facebook page 'Cancer. You lose' to share her mastectomy scars in a positive way

  18-09-2015 18:35
  In April this year, five women from the same family had decided to undergo preventative double mastectomies in order to dramatically reduce their chances of getting breast cancer after being told they all had a 97 per cent chance of developing the disease.
  
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• Australian artist Dennis Nona appealing conviction for rape of a 12-year-old - because he claims he didn't know sex with children was wrong

  18-09-2015 18:25
  Prominent indigenous Australian artist Dennis Nona is appealing his sentence for the rape of a 12-year-old girl, because he claims that he did not know that having sex with children was wrong.
  
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• Charities call for looser asylum rules as UK receives just 1 in 30 of total EU asylum claims

  18-09-2015 18:23
  Britain received just one in thirty of all asylum claims made across the European Union in the second quarter of this year, new figures have revealed, despite the UK accounting for an eighth of the EU’s population.
  
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