General news

• Tata Steel to launch UK sale process by Monday - minister

  06-04-2016 22:30
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - India's Tata Steel will launch the formal sale process for its British assets by Monday and give a "reasonable" timeframe to find a buyer, Britain's business minister said after meeting the company's chairman in Mumbai.
  
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• VIDEO: Lorry blown over in winds on bridge

  06-04-2016 20:14
  
  A lorry hit a lamppost after being blown over during high winds and closes the Humber Bridge.
  
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• Wolfsburg v Real Madrid: Champions League quarter-final, first leg

  06-04-2016 20:11
  
  Latest updates from the first leg of the quarter-final
  Follow PSG v Manchester City with Paul DoyleFilipe Luís questions why Barça’s Suárez wasn’t sent offEmail [email protected] | Tweet @michaelbutler187.11pm BSTLet’s unpack those teams then:Naldo starts! The centre back is arguably Wolfburg’s best defender and he starts alongside his Brazilian pal Dante. He hasn’t played since February though since having surgery on his shoulder a
  
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• Wisconsin primary: Sanders and Cruz narrow delegate gaps – campaign live

  06-04-2016 20:11
  
  Hillary Clinton and Democratic rival head to Philadelphia for rallies and Donald Trump will hold his first New York event as a white supporter faces charges over punching a black protester in North Carolina 6.59pm BSTLauren Gambino filed this missive from Philadelphia....For months, Hillary Clinton has quietly tolerated Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign. While Sanders declared a political revolution afoot, Clinton racked up a delegate count her campaign has called “nearly insurmount
  
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• Merle Haggard, country music icon, dies aged 79

  06-04-2016 20:03
  
  The musician, who was known as the ‘poet of the common man’ and defined the west coast country sound of the 70s died at his home in CaliforniaCountry giant Merle Haggard, who celebrated outlaws, underdogs and an abiding sense of national pride in such hits as Okie From Muskogee and Sing Me Back Home, died Wednesday at 79, on his birthday.Haggard’s manager, Frank Mull, said the country icon died of pneumonia in Palo Cedro, California. Continue reading...
  
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• PSG v Manchester City: Champions League quarter-final, first leg – live!

  06-04-2016 20:01
  
  Updates from the first leg of the quarter-final at the Parc des PrincesFollow Wolfsburg v Real Madrid live with Michael ButlerPSG v Man City emblematic of how Gulf rivals are fuelling footballManchester City and PSG ready to show money is not all that talksEmail [email protected]. Tweet @Paul_Doyle7.01pm BSTFour PSG players are a booking away from missing the next leg: Aurier, Ibrahimovic, Matuidi and David Luiz. Only one City comes into the game on a yellow: Otamendi. 6.46pm BSTAurier
  
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• Panama Papers reveal offshore secrets of China’s red nobility

  06-04-2016 20:00
  
  Disclosures show how havens such as British Virgin Islands hide links between big business and relatives of top politiciansThe Panama Papers revelations so farFrench villa at the heart of a scandalThe eight members of China’s Communist party elite whose family members used offshore companies are revealed in the Panama Papers.The documents show the granddaughter of a powerful Chinese leader became the sole shareholder in two British Virgin Islands companies while still a teenager. Jasmine L
  
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• How Mexico's attack on human rights undercut an international investigation

  06-04-2016 19:48
  
  Pushback goes beyond the Ayotzinapa case of missing students with reports of widespread torture and group accusing government of ‘smear campaign’
  With little fanfare, Mexican officials have quietly tried to undercut an international investigation into one of the country’s worst human rights tragedies: the attack on 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training school, who were kidnapped and presumably killed by police and whose bodies have never been found.
  At a press confer
  
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• Terror suspects face tougher measures in new UK bail regime

  06-04-2016 19:44
  
  Home secretary announces a new criminal offence for those who try to leave UK or fail to hand in passports while on pre-charge bail
  Terror suspects in the UK who attempt to flee the country or fail to hand over their passports will face jail under measures to toughen up the pre-charge bail regime. A new criminal offence will be introduced as part of counter-terrorism legislation, the home secretary, Theresa May, announced on Wednesday.Continue reading...
  
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• Kate Dickie: 'Breastfeeding a raven is the weirdest thing I've had to do'

  06-04-2016 19:43
  
  From Red Road to The Witch, Kate Dickie has carved out a career playing dark, feral roles. Couple in a Hole is no different. She talks about starving, stopping washing and the day she had to eat maggotsThe Witch is a supernatural horror film filled with haunting, indelible imagery. But nothing quite tops the sight of Scottish actor Kate Dickie breastfeeding a raven. It’s the sort of double-take weirdness with which she’s become associated, carving out a career defined by the unconven
  
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• France picks gay diplomat for Unesco role amid Vatican tensions

  06-04-2016 19:36
  
  Laurent Stefanini selected for UN role after resistance against earlier attempts to appoint him as ambassador to Holy SeeFrance has abandoned its attempts to appoint a gay man as ambassador to the Holy See amid resistance from the Vatican, choosing instead to select him for a post at Unesco.President François Hollande proposed , his head of protocol, for the Vatican position in January last year. Church officials did not confirm the posting for months, a delay French and Italian media att
  
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• Nicola Sturgeon denies knowledge of allegations in row over Chinese firm

  06-04-2016 19:30
  
  Opposition raises concerns that parent company of firm interested in investing in Scotland has been blacklisted by NorwayNicola Sturgeon has said she did not know about allegations of corruption against the parent company of a Chinese firm involved in a possible £10bn investment deal with the Scottish government.
  The first minister signed a formal “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) to explore investment in transport infrastructure, clean energy and housing projects with two Ch
  
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• Arianna Huffington on why she wants you to sleep in her bed

  06-04-2016 19:29
  
  The Huffington Post founder used to sleep for only three to four hours a night. Now, she’s so evangelical about her bedtime routine that she’s giving away a night in her personal ‘sleep sanctuary’When Arianna Huffington was surviving on three or four hours’ sleep a night, fairly standard for many CEOs, decision-making was more difficult. She was also “more irritable, more reactive, less present and absolutely less joyful in my life. When I’m sleep depriv
  
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• France passes law making it illegal to pay for sex

  06-04-2016 19:28
  
  French MPs finally approve divisive legislation that will criminalise customers rather than sex workers France is to make it illegal to pay for sex after MPs finally approved a new legislation on prostitution following more than two years of rows and opposition by senators.Under the new law, anyone caught purchasing any act from a sex worker will be fined and required to attend classes on the harms of prostitution.Continue reading...
  
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• Supersized black hole discovery forces universal rethink

  06-04-2016 19:25
  
  Massive galactic objects, billions of times heavier than the sun, could be more common than was thought, say scientistsOur universe could be riddled with monster black holes, new research has suggested.The revelation comes after a black hole with a mass of 17bn suns was found in a large, virtually isolated galaxy 200m light years away. Continue reading...
  
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• My brother, Bernie Sanders, has got it right on healthcare | Larry Sanders

  06-04-2016 19:19
  
  Looking at the shambles that is US healthcare, we need to fight privatisation of the NHS as hard as we canThis week my brother, Bernie Sanders, won the Wisconsin Democratic primary – which is great news. But it is also great news for a central and defining issue in his campaign, which is the shambles that is American healthcare. Related: Junior doctors legally challenge Jeremy Hunt's 'misconceived' contractContinue reading...
  
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• John Gunter obituary

  06-04-2016 19:11
  
  Set designer behind the look of many memorable theatre and opera productionsJohn Gunter, who has died aged 77, nine years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, was responsible for the look of some of the most memorable shows in postwar British theatre: Edward Bond’s stark, poetic and brutal Saved (1965) at the Royal Court, the DH Lawrence trilogy at the same theatre in 1968, Richard Eyre’s glorious 1982 revival of Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre (the stage was
  
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• Willie Mullins bids to seal trainers’ title at Grand National meeting

  06-04-2016 19:08
  
  • Annie Power can follow up her smooth Champion Hurdle victory
  • Trainer’s son lines up with winning chance in Foxhunters’ ChaseTwelve months ago, the all-conquering Willie Mullins had 10 runners, and just a single winner, over the course of the three-day Aintree Festival meeting. This year, he will send eight horses into action on Thursday’s opening card alone and it seems to be a question not of if, but when Mullins will overtake Paul Nicholls in the race to be Brit
  
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• Midnight Special star Michael Shannon: 'The US is a desperate environment right now' - video interview

  06-04-2016 19:06
  
  The star of Midnight Special, Jeff Nichols’s sci-fi thriller about a father protecting his supernaturally-gifted son, talks to Henry Barnes about the selfishness of parenthood and with the US election looming, why troubled times lead us to blindly believe in saviours. Midnight Special, which also stars Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst and Adam Driver, is released in the UK this Friday Continue reading...
  
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• World T20 success of West Indies must be followed by change at the top | Mike Selvey

  06-04-2016 19:00
  
  For cricket in the West Indies to move on, the impasse between the players and the president of the WICB will only be resolved when the latter steps downThose who have feared a terminal decline in West Indies cricket might just have to revise that view after the finals of the World Twenty20. The dramatic last-ditch men’s victory over England was the climax to one of the outstanding matches that the format, which generally precludes ebb and flow and narrative, can have produced at internati
  
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• Radioactive debris from supernova blasts discovered in ocean crust

  06-04-2016 19:00
  
  Two massive explosions, 2.2 and 1.5 million years ago, could have been as close as 300 light years distant, and would have been visible from Earth Radioactive shrapnel from one of the biggest blasts in the universe – a supernova explosion – has been identified in the ocean crust. The evidence is a scatter of a rare isotope of iron that could only have come from an exploding star.Scientists think the explosions – they believe there must have been at least two – could have
  
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• The Man Who Knew Infinity review – treacly maths drama doesn't quite add up

  06-04-2016 18:58
  
  Dev Patel is maths genius Srinivasa Ramunujan and Jeremy Irons his Cambridge mentor in this well-intentioned movie Related: Genius by numbers: why Hollywood maths movies don't add up This well-intentioned drama centres on the extraordinary, little-known story of Srinivasa Ramunujan, a young Indian man at the beginning of the last century whose untrained genius for pure mathematics and a staggering volume of original work produced unaided and outside the academic system stunned the fellows of Tri
  
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• Junior Doctors Begin 48-Hour Strike

  06-04-2016 16:39
  
  Thousands of patients are facing disruption as junior doctors stage their latest walkout in a row over contracts. Junior doctors have pledged to provide emergency care cover. It is the fourth walkout by the British Medical Association over contracts that stop junior doctors claiming extra pay for day shifts on Saturdays in return for a basic pay rise.
  
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• Hunt for vulnerable missing girl Jade results in 'vast amount of information'

  06-04-2016 16:35
  Police have received a "vast amount of information" in the search for a missing 14-year-old girl whose social media accounts have been "silent" following her disappearance more than 10 days ago.
  
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• Facebook removes water park adverts over scam fears

  06-04-2016 16:35
  
  Advertisements for a water park event across the UK this summer have been removed from Facebook amid concerns it is a scam.
  
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• Green Party broadcast features 5-year-olds playing key political figures

  06-04-2016 16:18
  Some people think politicians behave like children at the best of times, but the Green Party has taken it one step further by suggesting the main parties offer little more than "playground politics" in its local elections promotional video.
  
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• Green Wing stars join junior doctors on hospital picket line

  06-04-2016 16:05
  The cast of Green Wing have reunited at the hospital they filmed at to show their support for junior doctors.
  
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• Two polls give Britain's 'In' campaign a slender lead ahead of EU referendum

  06-04-2016 15:53
  Support for Britain staying in the European Union has fallen slightly but still maintains the narrowest of leads over those wanting to leave the 28-member bloc, according to two opinion polls on Wednesday. The ICM and YouGov online surveys both gave "In" a one percentage point lead over "Out." Britons vote on June 23 to decide on Britain's EU membership. "Neither side has managed to stir up enough interest to break the impasse during a relative lull in media attention," Will Dahlgreen from YouGo
  
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• Warning notice issued to NHS trust after 18-year-old drowned in bath

  06-04-2016 15:46
  Inspectors have issued a warning notice to an NHS trust where an 18-year-old drowned in a bath, telling it it must urgently improve.
  
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• Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch 'thrilled' to return for fourth series

  06-04-2016 15:46
  Benedict Cumberbatch said he's "thrilled to be back" as filming for the fourth series of Sherlock is under way.
  
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• Hillsborough Disaster Inquests Jury Retires

  06-04-2016 15:43
  
  Jurors in the Hillsborough inquests have retired to consider verdicts after the longest-running jury hearing in British legal history. Members of the jury have to decide whether or not the 96 fans who died at the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 were unlawfully killed. Sir John told the jurors in his summing up that they would have to be sure that David Duckenfield, the match commander on the day of the tragedy, was responsible for the manslaughter of the victims by gross negligence.
  
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• Ladywood house explosion: Man suffers serious burn injuries

  06-04-2016 15:42
  
  A man has suffered serious burn injuries after the two-storey house he is believed to have been inside was destroyed in a suspected gas explosion.
  
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• Questions Hillsborough Inquests Jury Must Answer

  06-04-2016 15:37
  
  Hillsborough inquests jurors have been given a detailed questionnaire they will have to answer about the April 1989 disaster.
  
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• Steel Tycoon Urges Action On UK Energy Costs

  06-04-2016 15:31
  
  A steel tycoon who is considering a takeover of Tata operations in the UK has stressed the need for a competitive energy price. He pointed out even after a previous change, energy prices remained double what they are in France and Germany. He was speaking as Business Secretary Sajid Javid arrived in Mumbai for talks with Tata as efforts continue to save thousands of steel jobs.
  
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• Hillsborough disaster inquests jury retires to begin deliberations

  06-04-2016 15:27
  
  The jury in the inquests into the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans at the 1989 Hillsborough disaster has retired to consider its verdicts, more than two years since the hearings began.
  
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• Officer 'involved in 999 call claiming radical Muslim would kidnap colleague'

  06-04-2016 14:58
  
  A serving police officer was involved in a "false and malicious" 999 call claiming a colleague would be kidnapped by a radical Muslim who had links to Islamic State, a court heard.
  
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• PM At Risk Of "Betrayal" Over Press Regulation

  06-04-2016 14:57
  
  Victims of media intrusion have accused David Cameron of failing to keep his promise to implement a system of press regulation with "real teeth". Other signatories include Christopher Jefferies, who was wrongly accused of the murder of Joanna Yeates, and relatives of people who died at Hillsborough. Mr McCann told the Guardian: "Feelings are very strong among those of us to whom the Prime Minister publicly and privately made his pledges.
  
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• Pfizer drops merger with Botox maker Allergan after US tax clampdown

  06-04-2016 14:31
  
  US drugmaker Pfizer has confirmed the biggest pharmaceutical deal in history has been pulled after the US unveiled new measures to stop tax avoidance.
  
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• Old Bailey judge says TV judges 'set the bar high' ahead of courts filming debut

  06-04-2016 14:31
  
  A senior Old Bailey judge joked that the Strictly Come Dancing panel had "set the bar high" as he prepared to feature in a pilot scheme to televise the courts.
  
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• NHS spending millions on taxis every year, figures reveal

  06-04-2016 14:31
  
  NHS trusts are spending millions of pounds every year on taxis for patients.
  
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• Janet Jackson tour delayed as singer and husband 'plan their family'

  06-04-2016 14:31
  
  Janet Jackson has announced she is delaying her Unbreakable tour because she and her husband are "planning their family".
  
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• Harry greets UK team for 2016 Invictus Games in Florida

  06-04-2016 14:31
  Prince Harry said he was "looking forward" to the 2016 Invictus Games as he unveiled the UK team chosen to compete in the sporting spectacle.
  
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• Ex-Big Brother contestant Glyn Wise bids for Welsh Assembly seat

  06-04-2016 14:31
  
  A former Big Brother contestant says he is confident voters will take him seriously as he bids to become a politician in the Welsh Assembly.
  
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• Southern trust ordered to improve care

  06-04-2016 14:30
  
  Inspectors tell Southern Health NHS Trust to urgently improve protection of patients after death of 18-year-old man
  
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• VIDEO: London mayoral election: UKIP cab share

  06-04-2016 14:27
  
  The UKIP candidate for mayor of London says he will push for a "proper, fair, controlled migration system" to get tackle housing issues if he were elected mayor in May.
  
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• Female front line soldiers 'foolish'

  06-04-2016 14:18
  
  Putting women soldiers on the front line would be a "foolish move" that would be "paid for in blood", says ex-British army chief Colonel Richard Kemp.
  
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• EU floods aid application delay

  06-04-2016 14:14
  
  Any EU payouts to help repair Christmas flood damage are likely to be months away because of delays in the bid process.
  
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• Dugdale quizzed about SNP work claim

  06-04-2016 14:09
  
  Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale plays down suggestions she applied for work experience with the SNP 13 years ago.
  
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• Toy dog Sam blasted into stratosphere

  06-04-2016 14:06
  
  Cuddly toy dog Sam takes a giant leap into the stratosphere as part of a children's science project.
  
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• Staying in EU will make NHS completely unrecognisable, says Lord Owen

  06-04-2016 14:01
  The NHS will become "completely unrecognisable" if Britain remains in the European Union, a former Labour foreign secretary has said.
  
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