General news

• Michelle Obama and Chinese counterpart name Washington Zoo's panda cub

  25-09-2015 23:53
  
  Michelle Obama and her Chinese counterpart have named Washington Zoo’s baby panda.
  
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• Pope Francis visits Harlem school, Central Park and Madison Square Garden

  25-09-2015 23:29
  
  Pope Francis is in the heart of New York City.
  
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• British tourist dies in kayaking accident in New Zealand

  25-09-2015 23:29
  
  A British tourist has died while kayaking in New Zealand.
  
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• Georges de Paris: Tailor who travelled to the US and reinvented himself, going on to work for presidents from Johnson onwards

  25-09-2015 23:21
  The Washington tailor Georges de Paris, who would become outfitter to the city’s power brokers and political elite, liked to talk of a romance that brought him from Paris to Washington but left him disillusioned, broke and living in a park. He said his fortunes changed when a woman who worked at a men’s clothing store found him work as a tailor’s cutter. He saved his earnings to purchase a sewing machine and, eventually, open his own work space.
  
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• Jack Larson: Actor who played Jimmy Olsen to George Reeves' Superman but gave up his career to write for the stage

  25-09-2015 23:16
  Jack Larson was reluctant to play Clark Kent’s bow-tied sidekick, Jimmy Olsen, in Adventures of Superman, the first television incarnation of the comic-book stories. With aspirations to become a Broadway actor and playwright, he worried that he would become typecast in the role of the Daily Planet newspaper’s wide-eyed, enthusiastic junior reporter in the fictional city of Metropolis.
  
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• Ray Warleigh: Eclectic saxophonist who worked with jazz giants like Humphrey Lyttelton and pop greats like Scott Walker

  25-09-2015 23:14
  “To hear him play the blues was a special thing.” Evan Parker’s verdict on his friend and fellow-saxophonist sums up the reactions of those who worked alongside Ray Warleigh during a 65-year career in British jazz, rock and r’n’b. A self-effacing figure who always played for the band and for the music rather than for the spotlight, Warleigh had almost drifted out of sight as far as the record-buying public was concerned when Parker organised a 2009 studio date for h
  
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• Indian teenager Anoyara Khatun joins Bill and Melinda Gates to help women and children around the world

  25-09-2015 22:56
  
  An Indian teenager sat alongside Bill and Melinda Gates and called for an end to child trafficking as officials gathered to launch global targets aimed at improving the lives of women and children.
  
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• Mother finds five-year-old son with special needs 'dressed in bin-bag' by Chicago teacher

  25-09-2015 22:45
  
  A US child with special needs was allegedly repeatedly forced to wear a bin-bag in a Chicago classroom.
  
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• Seattle schools ban elementary school suspensions after evidence of racial bias

  25-09-2015 22:01
  
  The Seattle School Board voted on Wednesday to ban suspending elementary school kids as punishment.
  
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• Toby Young: Free school pioneer described working-class grammar school boys at Oxford as 'universally unattractive'

  25-09-2015 21:58
  
  Free school pioneer Toby Young described working-class grammar school boys who secured places at Oxford as “universally unattractive” and “small, vaguely deformed undergraduates”.
  
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• Independence poll opponents unite to back EU membership

  25-09-2015 21:44
  
  Opponents in the Scottish independence referendum have come together to defend the UK's place in the European Union in a debate held in memory of Charles Kennedy.
  
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• Robert Spencer: Meeting Britain's oldest surviving prisoner of war

  25-09-2015 21:39
  
  Robert Spencer has a German bullet lodged in his chest, dodged Stuka dive bombers on Crete in 1941 and spent the next five years as a prisoner of war, where he talked a Nazi officer out of machine gunning his pals and endured a gruesome Death March across the crumbling ruins of the Third Reich.
  
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• Hajj stampede: Muslim world rounds on Saudi Arabia amid claims Prince's convoy closed roads and led to crush

  25-09-2015 21:38
  
  The Muslim world has rounded on Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Hajj pilgrimage stampede, with its regional rival Iran leading the criticism and blaming the disaster on the “incompetence” and “inexcusable negligence” of the kingdom’s rulers.
  
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• Almost 70 per cent of Europeans don't think women can be scientists

  25-09-2015 21:38
  
  Almost 70 per cent of Europeans do not think women can be scientists, according to a new survey.
  
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• Yvette Cooper: Frightening levels of sexist abuse risk putting a generation of women off politics

  25-09-2015 21:32
  
  Labour risks putting off a generation of women from getting involved with the party because of its sexist and abusive activists who troll them online, Yvette Cooper will warn.
  
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• UK ministers urged to 'come clean' on when they were informed about VW emissions scandal

  25-09-2015 21:25
  
  UK ministers have been told to “come clean” on when they were first informed about the Volkswagen scandal.
  
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• New Volkswagen boss Matthias Muller vows to emerge from crisis 'stronger than before'

  25-09-2015 21:22
  
  The former Porsche chief executive Matthias Müller who was named as the new Volkswagen boss has said that the company has an opportunity to emerge from the crisis “stronger than before”.
  
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• Dalai Lama cancels month of events in US to return to India after 'health check-up'

  25-09-2015 20:55
  
  The Dalai Lama has cancelled a string of event in the US next month after doctors told him he needed "complete rest" following a routine health check.
  
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• China and the US progress on talks in Washington aimed at combating climate change

  25-09-2015 20:53
  
  The US and China declared a common vision for combating climate change at a formal summit in Washington DC between their presidents, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama. The two leaders also struck a preliminary deal to outlaw cyber-espionage.
  
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• What the top Tories really got up to at Oxford

  25-09-2015 20:48
  
  After delving into a variety of dusty archives and contemporary sources, here is the truth behind the headlines.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn to apologise for Iraq war on behalf of the Labour Party

  25-09-2015 20:40
  
  Jeremy Corbyn is set to use his first conference speech as Labour leader to apologise on behalf of his party for taking Britain into war in Iraq.
  
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• Starbucks to raise wages for UK employees from April

  25-09-2015 20:27
  (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp, the world's biggest coffee chain, said it would raise the minimum wage for its UK staff to 7.20 pounds ($10.92) an hour in April 2016, regardless of age, and offer interest-free loans to employees moving into new homes. Starbucks will pay the National Living Wage to all of its employees in the UK, including apprentices and more than 4,500 employees under the age of 25, the company said in a statement. A compulsory minimum wage for workers aged over 25 will be introduc
  
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• Edward Snowden: GCHQ collected information from every visible user on the internet

  25-09-2015 20:27
  
  GCHQ mounted a mass surveillance exercise which collected information from “every visible user on the internet”, according to documents obtained by the US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
  
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• Man died in 'excruciating' pain in jail after staff failed to provide medication, says lawsuit

  25-09-2015 20:26
  
  Relatives of a young man who died in police custody after enduring 17 days of agony and torment have sued the authorities and accused them of letting him die by failing to provide his prescribed addiction medication
  
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• Tories undermining global fight against climate change, say leading figures

  25-09-2015 20:23
  
  Britain’s reputation on the environment has suffered so badly under the new Conservative government that it could undermine the global fight against climate change, leading figures in the green movement have warned.
  
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• Labour will join forces with Scottish nationalists to end nuclear deterrent

  25-09-2015 20:21
  The Labour Party will work with the Scottish nationalists to try to block the renewal of Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent in a parliamentary vote due next year, Labour's new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Friday. The Conservative government backs the multi-billion pound renewal of Britain's ageing fleet of nuclear-armed submarines. It has a slim majority in parliament, so some of Prime Minister David Cameron's own lawmakers, as well as other opposition parties, would have to join with Labour
  
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• UK ministers 'must come clean' over when they knew of VW scandal

  25-09-2015 20:10
  
  UK ministers have been told to "come clean" on when they were first told about the Volkswagen scandal.
  
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• Pope Francis to release prog-rock album 'Wake Up!' ahead of Christmas charts

  25-09-2015 20:07
  
  Having lectured world leaders about greed and told US politicians they must bridge their differences, Pope Francis has now solved an even trickier problem – coming up with perfect Christmas gift for the person who has everything.
  
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• Airline evacuates entire flight after tarantula escapes from hold

  25-09-2015 20:06
  
  A flight in the US was grounded and the passengers transferred to another flight after a tarantula escaped from the hold.
  
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• Maryam Namazie: Secular activist barred from speaking at Warwick University over fears of 'inciting hatred' against Muslim students

  25-09-2015 19:55
  A prominent secularist and activist has been barred from speaking at a student union event due to fears her speech would “incite hatred” against Muslim students.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn 'will work with SNP to oppose Trident'

  25-09-2015 19:55
  
  Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he will work with the SNP to oppose the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons programme.
  
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• Carly Fiorina, profile: The Republicans' card to trump Hillary Clinton in White House race?

  25-09-2015 19:53
  
  So Bill Clinton’s a shoo-in to be the first First Gentleman of the United States? Not so fast. Keep an eye on one Frank Fiorina.
  
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• RBS former CEO Fred Goodwin kisses goodbye to his Executive Suite - as it opens up to house innovative start ups

  25-09-2015 19:49
  If the children depicted by William McTaggart in his oil painting “The Atlantic Surf” could see and hear the world outside, they would undoubtedly have some stories to tell. Why? The 1899 work by the celebrated Scottish artist has hung for years in the RBS boardroom at the bank’s global headquarters west of Edinburgh.
  
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• Volkswagen emissions scandal: Crisis is bigger than just VW - and the impact will be seismic

  25-09-2015 19:47
  
  There is no better time to take the helm of a corporation than in the heat of a crisis. Matthias Müller, who might have ascended to the top of Volkswagen during a feud between shareholders earlier this year, now has a golden opportunity to prove himself and refashion a German industrial giant. The fact that this emissions crisis is not of his making means he has no personal reputation at risk as he effects a clean-up. Staff who might otherwise have been wary of a new man at the top will ral
  
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• Ex-Doctor Who boss warns the BBC as we know it is doomed

  25-09-2015 19:40
  
  Former Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies has warned the BBC is doomed to be exterminated.
  
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• Ex-drug addict bears cross around Wales to show transformation

  25-09-2015 19:38
  
  The phrase "everyone has got a cross to bear" could not be more true for former drug addict turned family man Clive Cornish.
  
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• Catalan independence vote may push Spain into crisis

  25-09-2015 19:36
  
  Catalans go to the polls tomorrow in local elections that could plunge Spain into its deepest constitutional crisis since the end of the Franco dictatorship.
  
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• US banker enjoys ultimate revenge after buying ex-boss's holiday home, tearing it down, and building house double the size

  25-09-2015 19:34
  Never get on the wrong side of a banker.
  
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• Mystery of missing Russian plane loaded with roubles is solved after 80 years

  25-09-2015 19:32
  
  Back in 1935, a plane carrying 12 people and two million roubles – the equivalent of millions of pounds today – was lost over Russia. Now, the mystery of its disappearance appears to have been solved.
  
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• British Museum: German art historian Hartwig Fischer becomes new director

  25-09-2015 19:32
  
  The British Museum’s surprise choice of Hartwig Fischer to become its new director has been praised by former colleagues and cultural grandees in his native Germany as a stellar appointment.
  
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• US House Speaker John Boehner blames his exit on constant sniping from Republican right

  25-09-2015 19:28
  
  John Boehner, the Republican congressman from Ohio, has astonished Washington by promising to resign his seat and his office as speaker of the House, the third most powerful position in the United States, at the end of October – having been worn down by constant rebellion from the right flank of his party.
  
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• Michigan woman mocked in coffee shop writes viral Facebook post addressed to her bullies

  25-09-2015 19:27
  
  A mother who was taunted in a coffee shop by two women calling her a "whale" has seen her Facebook post about the incident go viral.
  
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• EU refugee crisis: With the UN nowhere to be found, the residents of Lesbos have had to help hundreds of refugees a day on their own

  25-09-2015 19:21
  It was 28 April and Dimitrios Vatis and his family were preparing to welcome the first guests of the season to their hotel with its private beach just outside Molyvos, on the north coast of Lesbos. “We were just opening,” says his daughter Aphrodite (also the name of the hotel), “expecting people to arrive, when a boat full of Syrian refugees turned up.
  
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• French universities crisis: Low fees and selection lotteries create headaches in higher education

  25-09-2015 19:15
  
  Ella, 18, is just beginning her first year of medical studies in Paris. Although she is part of a class of 1,500 students, she has already learned one lesson. Never leave your lecture notes unguarded.
  
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• UK resident Shaker Aamer to be freed after 13 years in Guantanamo

  25-09-2015 19:12
  
  Shaker Aamer, the last British resident to be held in Guantanamo Bay, is to be released after more than 13 years in detention without charge.
  
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• Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin 'told Kiev he may accept peacekeeping force in eastern region'

  25-09-2015 19:08
  
  Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, has said he may agree to the deployment of international peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine, the Foreign Minister in Kiev, Pavlo Klimkin, has told The Independent.
  
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• Pilots write to airline claiming fatigue levels are risking safety

  25-09-2015 19:07
  
  Cathay Pacific’s pilots have written to the airline warning that they believe flight safety is under threat as pilots are over-worked and exhausted.
  
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• Nigel Farage: Ukip MP Douglas Carswell has residual loyalties to Tories

  25-09-2015 18:59
  
  Ukip's only MP has "residual loyalties" to the Conservatives, Nigel Farage claimed as the tensions at the top of the party spilled over at its annual conference.
  
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• Protests and prayers held over hajj stampede deaths

  25-09-2015 18:32
  
  Prayers and protests have been staged amid mounting fury over the deaths of more than 700 worshippers during a stampede at the annual hajj pilgrimage.
  
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• Presenter Jon Snow 'in favour of Channel 4 privatisation'

  25-09-2015 18:11
  
  Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow has said he is "in favour" of the broadcaster's possible privatisation, after the Government inadvertently revealed its proposals.
  
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