General news

• Germany's Merkel Backs Cameron's EU Reforms

  12-02-2016 23:52
  
  Angela Merkel has given her support to David Cameron's EU reforms, saying they will "benefit Europe as a whole". Afterwards Mr Cameron addressed the St Matthew's dinner and echoed Mrs Merkel's sentiments.
  
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• Cameron defends Britain's desire for sovereignty before EU summit

  12-02-2016 23:24
  By Michael Hogan HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron defended Britain's desire to protect its sovereignty on Friday, appealing for understanding from the European Union in his talks for better membership terms that could be decided next week. At a dinner in German city of Hamburg with Chancellor Angela Merkel and civic and business leaders, Cameron said he knew some may see Britain as "argumentative and rather strong-minded" by trying to renegotiate its terms with the 28-me
  
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• Germany's Merkel says getting confident about UK deal with EU

  12-02-2016 22:50
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday she is becoming more confident a deal to keep Britain in the European Union will be reached, but she warned more compromises may be needed on both sides. Speaking at an event in Hamburg attended by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Merkel said issues such as changes to social security systems needed to be placed in a European context, not only a British concern. Cameron has said he hopes to come to an agreement with EU leaders over his plans to
  
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• Eight Children Hit By Car Outside School

  12-02-2016 22:03
  
  Eight children have been hit by a car outside a school in Liverpool leaving a number with serious injuries. Police were called by a passerby who witnessed the collision involving a yellow Peugeot car at about 3.20pm, close to Belvedere Academy in the city. Five 11-year-old girls and two 13-year-old girls were taken to Alder Hey Hospital, and a 16-year-old girl was taken to the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
  
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• Facebook's 'zero tolerance to child exploitation' despite claims over images

  12-02-2016 21:36
  Facebook has said it has a zero tolerance approach to child exploitation on its site, despite claims it failed to remove sexualised images of children.
  
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• Eight girls recovering after being hit by a car outside Liverpool school

  12-02-2016 21:02
  Eight girls are recovering from their injuries following a road collision outside a school in Liverpool.
  
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• Ben Cohen joins The Jump to bolster injury-hit line-up on winter sports show

  12-02-2016 21:01
  Former England rugby star Ben Cohen has been drafted in to join the dwindling number of competitors on The Jump.
  
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• Marcus Bent Avoids Jail For Drug-Fuelled Affray

  12-02-2016 20:51
  
  Former footballer Marcus Bent has avoided jail for confronting two police officers with a meat cleaver and a kitchen knife. Bent had called 999 reporting that he had heard intruders in his flat in Claremont Lane, Esher. But after police arrived at the property, backed up by armed officers, they were confronted by a bare-chested Bent who was "eyes wide, jaw clenched, his body rigid".
  
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• Levi Bellfield 'denies confessing to abducting and killing Milly Dowler'

  12-02-2016 20:27
  Murderer Levi Bellfield has reportedly denied that he confessed to abducting and killing schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
  
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• Air pollution kills 5.5m annually with majority of deaths in China and India

  12-02-2016 20:27
  Air pollution kills more than 5.5 million people each year, new research has shown.
  
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• Bellfield Denies Admitting Milly Dowler Murder

  12-02-2016 20:22
  
  Levi Bellfield has denied confessing to the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, his solicitor has confirmed to Sky News. Julie Cooper said Bellfield has made a legal complaint to Surrey Police over the matter, challenging the force to prove he admitted killing Milly. Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "According to his solicitor, he was formally interviewed in prison about other murders that police suspect him of.
  
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• UK arrests teen suspected of hacking CIA chief

  12-02-2016 20:19
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 16-year-old boy in Britain has been arrested on criminal charges related to the alleged hacking of email accounts used by CIA director John Brennan and other U.S. officials, according to U.S. and British sources familiar with the investigation.
  
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• 'Neurostatin' could help guard against Alzheimer's

  12-02-2016 20:00
  Millions of people could one day be given a "neurostatin" drug to guard against the early development of Alzheimer's, new research suggests.
  
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• 'Minibrains' breakthrough in neuro-research

  12-02-2016 20:00
  Laboratory-made "minibrains" that show a primitive ability to think could transform research on neurological diseases and treatments, scientists say.
  
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• Geneticist 'scared' by prospect of rogue IVF clinics altering babies' DNA

  12-02-2016 19:08
  A leading British geneticist has admitted to being "really scared" by the prospect of rogue IVF clinics adopting powerful new gene-editing techniques to alter the DNA of babies.
  
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• Six Children Hit By Car Outside School

  12-02-2016 18:53
  
  Six children have been hit by a car outside a school in Liverpool leaving a number with serious injuries, police have said. Emergency services treated the casualties, who are all girls aged between 11 and 13-years-old, at the scene of the accident close to Belvedere Academy. A number of them have injuries which are described as serious while others have minor injuries.
  
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• Presses to fall silent at Independent as paper goes online-only

  12-02-2016 18:48
  By Kate Holton and Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Independent is to disappear from news stands next month after its owner took the left-leaning title online only, one of the first national newspapers in the world to buckle under pressure from the internet. While other titles splashed popular fare like weddings, births and deaths of the royal family, the Independent focused on wars in the middle east and developments in science. In its 1990s heyday it briefly sold more copies than Ruper
  
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• UK's Big Four Banks To Award £5bn Bonus Pot

  12-02-2016 18:32
  
  Sky News can reveal that boardroom pay committees at Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) are finalising plans to announce the bonus pots alongside their annual results. The biggest payer will be HSBC, which sources said would award bonuses of just under £2.5bn. HSBC, which is finalising a decision about whether to move its headquarters from London after a ten-month review, is by far the most profitable of the four banks, as well as the largest dividend-pay
  
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• Man remanded over deaths of ex-EastEnders actress Sian Blake and their two sons

  12-02-2016 18:31
  The boyfriend of EastEnders actress Sian Blake has appeared in court charged with murdering her and their two children.
  
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• Tribunal clears GCHQ over 'equipment interference' surveillance policy

  12-02-2016 18:11
  Listening post GCHQ has won a legal victory over its operations to hack into suspects' smartphones and computers.
  
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• Five children injured after being hit by car in Liverpool

  12-02-2016 18:11
  Five children have been hit by a car in south Liverpool leaving a number of them with serious injuries.
  
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• Five children hit by car in Liverpool

  12-02-2016 18:02
  Five children have been hit by a car in south Liverpool leaving a number of them with serious injuries.
  
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• Closure of Independent print titles 'puts 75 jobs at risk'

  12-02-2016 17:34
  
  About 75 jobs are at risk in the wake of the decision to close the newspaper editions of the Independent and the Independent on Sunday, a source close to the business has said.
  
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• £1m booster for cancer drug side effects study

  12-02-2016 17:31
  A research project aiming to cut the side effects of cancer drugs has been launched with a £1 million investment.
  
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• PM Prepares For Key EU Speech In Germany

  12-02-2016 17:26
  
  David Cameron is preparing to make the case for Britain staying in a reformed European Union in his last major speech on the issue before a crunch summit next week. The Prime Minister is expected to use an address in Hamburg to set out the "wider agenda" behind his renegotiation of Britain's EU membership. The visit to Germany is also an opportunity for further talks with Europe's most powerful leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been broadly supportive of draft proposals for a deal.
  
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• Rupert Murdoch to return to Fleet Street for celebration with Jerry Hall

  12-02-2016 17:25
  Media mogul Rupert Murdoch will celebrate his marriage to Jerry Hall at St Bride's Church on Fleet Street, which proclaims itself the "spiritual home of the media".
  
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• Ex-Premier League player Marcus Bent escapes jail over affray and cocaine

  12-02-2016 17:25
  Former Premier League footballer Marcus Bent has escaped being sent to jail as he was sentenced for confronting two officers with a meat cleaver and a kitchen knife while in a "delusional" state under the influence of cocaine.
  
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• Queen asked for us to host 90th birthday show, say Ant and Dec

  12-02-2016 16:48
  
  TV presenters Ant and Dec have claimed the Queen personally asked for them to host a horse-themed show celebrating her 90th birthday.
  
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• My faith will not affect my work, says BBC presenter Dan Walker

  12-02-2016 16:48
  
  BBC presenter Dan Walker has said his faith will not "affect the way I do my job".
  
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• Father And Sons Jailed For Arson Murders

  12-02-2016 16:25
  
  Peter Eyre, 44, and sons Anthony, 22, and Simon, 24, will serve a minimum of 81 years between them. The judge at Nottingham Crown Court told the men they had carried out a "truly terrifying" crime in which the victims died "in the most dreadful circumstances". Amy Smith, 17, died in the blaze along with her baby daughter, Ruby-Grace Gaunt, and her friend Edward Green, who was also 17.
  
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• David Cameron setting out 'wider agenda' behind EU reform proposals

  12-02-2016 16:11
  David Cameron will spell out his case for reforming the European Union as he prepares for next week's crunch summit in Brussels.
  
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• Adam Johnson: Girl Had 'Enormous Crush On Him'

  12-02-2016 16:00
  
  England footballer Adam Johnson "abused his revered position in society" when he had sexual contact with a 15-year-old fan who had an "enormous crush on him", a court has heard. She said he "abused his revered position in society" when he had sexual contact with the teenager "in a way that he knew was both morally and legally wrong". The girl was 15 in December 2014, a time when Johnson lived with his partner, Stacey Flounders, who was then pregnant with their daughter, in Castle Eden, County Du
  
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• Streetmap website fights on after losing court case over Google dominance

  12-02-2016 15:45
  A UK-based website has vowed to fight on after losing a High Court action in which it accused Google of abusing its "dominant position" in the online search market by "driving traffic" from rivals to Google Maps.
  
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• Details Of Speaker Bercow's Spending Revealed

  12-02-2016 15:20
  Commons Speaker John Bercow is again under pressure over his expenses after he spent thousands wining and dining colleagues with the taxpayer picking up the bill. Mr Bercow used the money to provide lunches and dinners for other MPs, including more than £2,000 on a "standing down" supper for his former deputy. Details have emerged that the Speaker also charged for hundreds of postcard-sized photographs of himself that are "sent out on request," nearly £2,000 worth of beeswax can
  
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• Britain says missing Hong Kong bookseller 'involuntarily removed' to China

  12-02-2016 15:19
  
  HONG KONG (Reuters) - Britain said on Friday a missing Hong Kong seller of gossipy books on China's leaders had likely been "involuntarily removed" to China from Hong Kong, constituting a "serious breach" of a longstanding bilateral treaty between the U.K. and China.
  
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• Adam Johnson 'had sexual encounter with 15-year-old girl who idolised him'

  12-02-2016 15:09
  
  England footballer Adam Johnson had a sexual encounter in his car with a 15-year-old fan who had an "enormous crush on him" and idolised him, a jury has been told.
  
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• Tribunal backs GCHQ over 'computer network exploitation' intelligence gathering

  12-02-2016 15:07
  The regime under which listening post GCHQ carries out hacking of suspects' computers and smartphones does not breach human rights laws, a tribunal has ruled.
  
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• Adam Johnson Victim Had 'Enormous Crush On Him'

  12-02-2016 15:07
  
  England footballer Adam Johnson "abused his revered position in society" when he had sexual contact with a 15-year-old fan who had an "enormous crush on him", a court has heard. The 28-year-old is accused of two counts of sexual activity with a child between December 2014 and February last year  - a girl who "idolised" her favourite Sunderland player. Opening the prosecution case on Friday, Kate Blackwell QC said: "What has brought the defendant to this courtroom is a sexual desire for (the
  
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• Murdoch, Jerry Hall to celebrate marriage at 'journalists' church' St Bride's

  12-02-2016 15:06
  Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former supermodel Jerry Hall will hold a marriage service early next month at St Bride's church on London's Fleet Street, the spiritual home of British journalism. The 84-year-old executive chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox Inc and Hall, 59, announced their engagement last month in a classified advert in the Times newspaper, one of the papers his group owns. The couple's nuptials will be celebrated at St Bride's on March 5, the church said.
  
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• Sian Blake's Partner Charged With Murder

  12-02-2016 15:03
  
  A man has been charged with murdering former EastEnders actress Sian Blake and her two children. Arthur Simpson-Kent is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later. Ms Blake appeared in 56 episodes of EastEnders between 1996 and 1997, playing Frankie Pierre.
  
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• Man accused of plotting IS-inspired terror attack changes plea to guilty

  12-02-2016 14:57
  
  One of the men accused of plotting to use a moped in a series of Islamic State-inspired drive-by shootings in London has dramatically changed his plea.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn and Andy Burnham visit Hillsborough inquests

  12-02-2016 14:57
  
  Jeremy Corbyn has visited the ongoing inquests into the Hillsborough tragedy.
  
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• Rolf Harris faces seven more indecent assault charges

  12-02-2016 14:53
  Entertainer Rolf Harris has been charged with seven more counts of indecent assault against girls as young as 12.
  
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• Entertainer Rolf Harris to face further sex crime charges

  12-02-2016 14:48
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris, currently serving a six-year jail term for child sex crimes, is to be charged with seven more indecent assault offences dating back 45 years, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Friday.
  
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• Facebook loses French ruling in nude painting case

  12-02-2016 14:36
  Facebook has lost a crucial legal battle in France as a court ruled the social network can be sued over its decision to remove the account of a user who posted a photo of a famous 19th-century nude painting.
  
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• Man charged with murders of ex-EastEnders actress Sian Blake and her two sons

  12-02-2016 14:17
  
  A man has been charged with the murders of ex-EastEnders actress Sian Blake and her two children, police said.
  
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• Man Admits IS Moped Plot To Kill Londoners

  12-02-2016 14:16
  
  A man has admitted an Islamic State-inspired plot to kill civilians in London during a series of drive-by shootings on a moped.
  
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• Scientists resigned to loss of contact with Philae space probe

  12-02-2016 14:10
  Scientists say there is "almost zero chance" of hearing from the Philae space probe again after it touched down on a comet more than a year ago.
  
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• Presses to fall silent at UK's Independent as paper goes online-only

  12-02-2016 14:08
  Britain's Independent newspaper is to disappear from news stands next month after its Russian owner said the 29-year-old title would only publish online, in the starkest sign yet of the pressures weighing on the newspaper industry. A move to sell profitable sister title "i" to Johnston Press , announced on Thursday, put the future for the print editions of the loss-making Independent and Independent on Sunday in doubt. "This decision preserves the Independent brand and allows us to continue to i
  
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• Independent Newspaper Set To Close In March

  12-02-2016 14:06
  
  The Independent and Independent on Sunday newspapers are to cease publication and go online only, its owner has announced. But the paper has become the highest profile casualty of the change in reading habits brought about by the internet.
  
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