General news

• Woman made to wear heels to work: ‘This is a women’s rights issue’ – video

  11-05-2016 23:46
  
  A woman who was sent home from work unpaid on her first day due to her refusal to wear heels says she will push for a petition she started to be debated in parliament. Nicola Thorp, 27, began the petition after she was told she had to wear 2-4in heels in her job as a receptionist as part of the dress code. If the document, which calls for the law allowing such stipulations by employers to be changed, will be debated by MPs if it reaches 100,000 signatures Continue reading...
  
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• Cannes 2016: Does Woody Allen's Cafe Society serve the right blend? - the Dailies podcast

  11-05-2016 23:41
  
  Cannes 2016 Special: our film team bring you the latest news and reviews from this year’s festival The first day of Cannes proper kicks off with the new film from Woody Allen, a 1930s Hollywood-set romance that sees Jesse Eisenberg attempt to win both a place in the studio system and the heart of his movie mogul uncle’s secretary (Kristen Stewart)Continue reading...
  
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• John Terry to be told by club that Chelsea career is over

  11-05-2016 23:30
  
  • Terry to meet the directors Michael Emenalo and Marina Granovskaia
  • Terry is suspended for Chelsea’s final game of seasonJohn Terry is to meet the Chelsea hierarchy on Thursday to discuss his future at the club, with the captain ready for confirmation he will not be offered new terms to extend his stay at Stamford Bridge into a 19th senior campaign.The centre-half’s dismissal in stoppage time against Sunderland last weekend means he will not feature again this season, mi
  
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• US Invictus Winner Gives Medal To NHS Hospital

  11-05-2016 23:16
  
  An American Invictus Games champion has asked Prince Harry to return her gold medal to the British hospital that saved her life. Sergeant Elizabeth Marks requested Harry give the medal to the medical team at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, as he placed it around her neck. Sgt Marks collapsed with a serious lung condition in 2014 on the eve of the first Invictus Games and was put into a medically induced coma.
  
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• Newcastle And Norwich Relegated From Top Flight

  11-05-2016 23:02
  
  Newcastle and Norwich have joined Aston Villa in being relegated from the Premier League.
  
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• Steve Bell on the anti-corruption summit – cartoon

  11-05-2016 23:01
  
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• Immigration post Brexit would depend on economy's need - Johnson

  11-05-2016 23:01
  By Kylie MacLellan EXETER, England (Reuters) - The level of immigration Britain would accept after a vote to leave the European Union would depend on the needs of the economy, former London mayor and de facto leader of the "Out" campaign Boris Johnson said on Wednesday. Polls show immigration is a key voter concern ahead of a June 23 referendum on Britain's EU membership and those who want to leave the bloc have made taking back control of the borders a central plank of their campaign. Johnson,
  
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• Public consent is key in immigration debate, says Boris Johnson

  11-05-2016 23:00
  
  On first day of Vote Leave bus tour, Tory MP says numbers should not have been so high without voters’ agreementBoris Johnson has argued that immigration could remain high in the event of Britain leaving the EU, if politicians can make a convincing case that new arrivals “turbo-charge” the economy.
  Visiting Cornwall on the first day of a Vote Leave bus tour, the former London mayor said he would like the UK to leave the EU so that it could turn away foreign workers who lack job
  
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• BBC3 to move half of its operations to hub in Birmingham by 2018

  11-05-2016 23:00
  
  UK’s second-biggest city will be home to a third of channel’s budget, some short-form content and new youth team for BBC NewsBBC3 is to move half of its operations to Birmingham, which will also be the home of a new youth team for BBC News and a base for the corporation’s partnership with local newspapers.
  The corporation shut the BBC3 TV channel, home to shows including Gavin and Stacey and Don’t Tell the Bride, to launch an online-only service targeting a youth audience
  
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• Splashdown! SpaceX Dragon returns to Earth with precious cargo

  11-05-2016 22:46
  
  A SpaceX capsule has returned to Earth with precious science samples from Nasa's one-year space station resident.
  
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• Ex-Barclays Banker Admits Guilt In Libor Case

  11-05-2016 22:44
  
  A former Barclays banker has pleaded guilty to a charge relating to the rigging of the Libor inter-bank lending rate, it has been revealed. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced the development after the judge in the trial of five other former Barclays employees lifted an order banning the publication of Peter Johnson's guilty plea. The order was originally imposed for fear his admission might prejudice the trial, which is taking place at London's Southwark Crown Court.
  
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• 'Insecurity is fantastic,' says billionaire funder of Brexit campaign

  11-05-2016 22:20
  By Andrew MacAskill and Anjuli Davies LONDON (Reuters) - The billionaire stockbroker bankrolling the campaign to pull Britain out of the European Union agrees with opponents of Brexit that it will make the country more insecure. "It would be the biggest stimulus to get our butts in gear that we have ever had," Peter Hargreaves told Reuters in an interview. "It will be like Dunkirk again," he said, comparing it to the sealift when Britain was forced to evacuate its forces from Europe after France
  
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• Judge criticizes Pentagon suppression of thousands of Bush-era torture photos

  11-05-2016 22:12
  
  Alvin Hellerstein, who presided over 12-year lawsuit to disclose military images of detainee abuse, may force further release of photographs in ‘near future’A federal judge has sharply rebuked the Pentagon for the process by which it concealed hundreds of Bush-era photos showing US military personnel torturing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, suggesting Barack Obama may have to release even more graphic imagery of abuse.Alvin Hellerstein, the senior judge who has presided over a tr
  
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• PM Apologises After Saying Imam Supported IS

  11-05-2016 21:59
  
  David Cameron has apologised for "any misunderstanding" after accusing a former London imam of being an Islamic State supporter. Suliman Gani threatened legal action after the Prime Minister made the claim during the London mayoral campaign. Downing Street said Mr Cameron was referring to reports that Mr Gani, a former imam at the Tooting Islamic Centre, supports "an" Islamic state.
  
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• Cameron sorry over 'IS' cleric comment

  11-05-2016 21:59
  
  PM David Cameron apologises for "any misunderstanding" after describing a former imam as a supporter of the Islamic State group.
  
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• David Cameron apologises to ex-imam for 'any misunderstanding' over IS comments

  11-05-2016 21:53
  
  David Cameron apologises for "any misunderstanding" after calling former imam Sulaiman Ghani a supporter of Islamic State, Downing Street has said.
  
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• Do NI Dissidents Pose 'Significant' Threat?

  11-05-2016 21:40
  
  Do dissident republicans really pose a "significant" threat? It was a dissident group - the so-called "Real IRA" - that carried out the bombing in the County Tyrone town in August 1998. Twenty-nine people died in what was the worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland troubles, one of them a woman heavily pregnant with twins.
  
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• PM praises countries' corruption action

  11-05-2016 21:06
  
  David Cameron tells MPs Nigeria and Afghanistan have taken "remarkable steps forward" on corruption - a day after calling them "fantastically corrupt".
  
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• The Guardian view on armed drones: a new code for a new form of warfare | Editorial

  11-05-2016 21:01
  
  Drone warfare is both lethal and real. Governments, including the UK, must stop looking in the other direction. An international legal code is the best hope of a rules-based approachDrones are us. Most weeks of the year, western drone strikes are used to kill terror suspects in several parts of the world’s most troubled zones – Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen prominent among them. Most of the drone strikes are American, but the US has long lost its monopoly of this very 21st
  
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• UK Brexit could lead to wider break-up of EU - Italian finance minister

  11-05-2016 21:00
  Italian finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Wednesday that a British exit from the European Union could lead to other countries breaking away from the bloc. "In other European countries there might be a temptation to do like the UK, to engineer other Brexits all over the place, so this would lead to widespread fragmentation in the EU," he said in an interview with Britain's Channel 4 television during a trip to London. "The UK and the whole of Europe would in fact enter a prolonged period
  
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• Top BBC stars 'will have to reveal salaries under reform plans'

  11-05-2016 20:53
  Top BBC stars including Chris Evans, Gary Lineker and Graham Norton will reportedly be forced to declare how much they earn under plans outlined in the Government's White Paper on the future of the broadcaster.
  
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• How London became a Labour city – and what it means for British politics

  11-05-2016 20:18
  
  Sadiq Khan’s crushing victory in the mayoral election has confirmed the party’s dominance in the capital. Is it time to stop treating London’s political stance as a weird anomaly?The constituency office of Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, is a low, workaday building with barred windows. In a part of London that has been gentrifying for half a century, it looks out of place. Many of the tall Georgian terraces on the street have been expensively resto
  
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• Talks continue in bid to reach settlement in junior doctors' dispute

  11-05-2016 20:12
  
  Doctors' leaders and Government officials have entered their third day of talks to try to come to an agreement over the controversial contract for junior medics.
  
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• George Osborne gives Treasury wonk licence to talk detail

  11-05-2016 19:59
  
  After two hours of questions, the chancellor came up with the most compelling case heard in months for remaining in the EU“Thank you very much for coming, chancellor,” said Jacob Rees-Mogg. The Conservative MP has always had the very best of manners. “You’ve been much more responsive than my friends on the leave campaign.”
  “I thought the chancellor was your friend,” Labour’s Rachel Reeves observed.Continue reading...
  
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• UK's Chakrabarti wins second term as head of EBRD development bank

  11-05-2016 19:49
  By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Suma Chakrabarti won a second four-year term as head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on Wednesday, easily defeating a challenge from Poland's central bank governor and former prime minister Marek Belka. Chakrabarti, who won some 90 percent of shareholders' votes at the annual EBRD meeting in London, said the bank must maintain its presence in Russia, where it suspended new lending after the West imposed sanctions over the
  
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• Tesco CEO Gets £3m Bonus As Staff Share £185m

  11-05-2016 19:47
  
  The chief executive of Tesco has been awarded an annual bonus of nearly £3m after Britain's biggest grocer moved back into profit after notching up the biggest loss in its history a year earlier. Sky News has learnt that Tesco will disclose in its annual report - to be published on Friday - that Dave Lewis was handed a cash-and-shares bonus close to the maximum potential payout of £3.15m. Sources said that Mr Lewis had been determined to fulfil a commitment he made in April to reward
  
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• Ronan Farrow condemns media for handling of Woody Allen allegations

  11-05-2016 19:47
  
  Estranged son of the film director has said the media has not pressed his father enough over sexual abuse allegations made by his adopted daughter Dylan in the 1990s Related: Woody Allen at Cannes: artistic competition 'against common sense' The estranged son of Woody Allen, Ronan Farrow, has condemned the media for its handling of decades-old sexual abuse allegations against the film director, hours before his latest film opened at the Cannes film festival. Continue reading...
  
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• Former Barclays banker pleaded guilty to Libor rigging

  11-05-2016 19:42
  By Kirstin Ridley LONDON (Reuters) - Peter Johnson, a former senior Barclays banker, pleaded guilty in October 2014 to conspiring to manipulate Libor, a leading benchmark for pricing financial transactions worldwide, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said a court order restricting publicity of the guilty plea had been lifted five weeks into the London trial of five other former Barclays bankers on Libor rigging charges. Johnson's guilty plea, the first in a Libor-rela
  
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• Talking about Scotland's 'Ulsterisation' is jaw-droppingly disrespectful | Libby Brooks

  11-05-2016 19:12
  
  It’s true that politics in Scotland is divided along binary lines more than anywhere else in mainland Britain. But the word brings with it ugly resonancesWith two era-defining referendums and a pair of tsunami-like elections in under three years, Scotland has had to make its peace with political hyperbole. But the language that we use to describe this dramatically dynamic time in the country’s history – and that of the union - is important, and must bear scrutiny.One particular
  
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• Victims of the work dress code

  11-05-2016 19:11
  
  It's not just high heels that make workers grumble
  
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• Legal claims over MoD malaria drug

  11-05-2016 19:10
  
  A group of military personnel are seeking damages from the Ministry of Defence over an anti-malarial drug they say has caused mental health problems.
  
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• Genes that influence how long you stay in education uncovered by study

  11-05-2016 19:05
  
  Discovery of genetic variants which shape number of years spent at school and university, and could pave the way for more personalised teaching A haul of genes that influence how long people spend in education has been uncovered by one of the largest studies conducted in the field.The international effort by more than 250 scientists found 74 genetic variants that shape the number of years people spend at school and university, with most of the variants involved in brain development, particularly
  
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• Sally Brampton – the woman who made 'Elle girls’ the new normal

  11-05-2016 19:04
  
  The fashion editor, author and columnist, who had written eloquently on her dark periods of depression, died this week. Kathryn Flett reflects on a talented leader – and good friendThis is my favourite time of year, when Mother Nature wakes from the long, deep sleep of winter. The branches of trees are dusted with fresh, new green, and the woods are alive with the gentle colours of primroses and bluebells …”So wrote the author, columnist and founding editor of British Elle (an
  
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• Unless we think imaginatively, benefits will be consigned to history | Tom Clark

  11-05-2016 19:02
  
  Rather than fight each and every cut to benefits, the left needs to a new way of making welfare viableWhen the crash came in 2008, Britain had almighty reason to be grateful for its welfare state. Although more GDP disappeared than in any previous slump since the war, inequality did not immediately increase but actually briefly fell, far fewer jobs disappeared than during the 1980s, and not as many people were turfed out of their homes as had been in the more modest dip of the 90s. Wages were sq
  
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• Rugby Player Seb Adeniran-Olule Dies In Crash

  11-05-2016 18:51
  
  England under-20s rugby union player Seb Adeniran-Olule has been killed in a road crash. Harlequins' director of rugby, Conor O'Shea, said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with Seb's family and friends at this difficult time. "Seb was an incredible talent and had already represented England at under age level as well as making his senior debut for Quins at just 20.
  
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• BBC reforms 'will force top stars to reveal salaries'

  11-05-2016 18:48
  Top BBC stars including Chris Evans, Gary Lineker and Graham Norton will reportedly be forced to declare how much they earn under plans outlined in the Government's White Paper on the future of the broadcaster.
  
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• Global goals after Leicester's football success

  11-05-2016 18:43
  
  Leicester's universities want to cash in on football triumph
  
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• Campaigns for Britain to leave EU pull ahead in race to raise cash

  11-05-2016 18:43
  By Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) - Groups campaigning to take Britain out of the European Union have stolen a march on their rivals in the race to raise cash, securing 8.2 million pounds in recent weeks from leading businessmen in the financial services industries. Campaigns from both sides of the debate have appealed to big business to help them fight a referendum on June 23, a decision that will not only determine Britain's future in trade and world affairs but also shape the 28-member bloc. Ac
  
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• Fallon apology to cleric over IS claims

  11-05-2016 18:40
  
  Defence Secretary Michael Fallon apologises for suggesting prominent cleric Suliman Gani was a supporter of the so-called Islamic State group - a claim Mr Gani has denied.
  
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• Carwyn Jones blocked from returning as Wales' First Minister

  11-05-2016 18:32
  
  Opposition parties blocked the return of Labour leader Carwyn Jones as First Minister on the Welsh Assembly's first day back since the election.
  
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• Edwards retires after 'honest' talks

  11-05-2016 18:25
  
  England captain Charlotte Edwards retires from international cricket after "honest and open" talks with coach Mark Robinson.
  
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• UK's Chakrabarti gets second term as EBRD President

  11-05-2016 18:16
  Britain's Suma Chakrabarti won a second four-year term as head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the bank said on Wednesday. Former UK civil servant Chakrabarti, 57, secured the extension by seeing off a challenge from Polish central bank governor and former Prime Minister Marek Belka in a shareholder vote at the EBRD's annual meeting in London. In an interview ahead of the vote, Chakrabarti told Reuters that he would recommend halting the bank's recent rapid expansion and
  
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• Brexit 'contingency planning' under way

  11-05-2016 18:07
  
  George Osborne says contingency planning is taking place to anticipate the likely impact on financial stability if the UK votes to leave the EU.
  
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• Thank you Tony Cozier for those exhilarating rides on the airwaves

  11-05-2016 18:01
  
  Cock an ear to the radio and you’ll find yourself missing the majesty of Tony Cozier, the West Indian commentator and writer who has died aged 75Somewhere in the great celestial radio commentary box my dream team have been assembled. First the deep Basingstoke claret rumble of John Arlott at his poetic best. Next, The Major, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, clipped, eloquent, meticulous in all but timekeeping, and brilliantly, twinklingly precise. And now another. “After a few words from
  
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• Ori Gersht's best photograph: a bullet hitting a pomegranate at 1,600 frames per second

  11-05-2016 18:01
  
  ‘I used a pomegranate instead of a quince – since pomegranates explode like grenades’This image references a 1602 Baroque still life by Juan Sánchez Cotán titled Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber. It’s a very cerebral painting, because he was trying to create a sense of perfect static balance. It must have taken an awfully long time. My photograph was an act of destruction, taken at an unthinkable speed. I decided to use a pomegranate, instead of
  
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• Deadlock in vote for first minister

  11-05-2016 18:01
  
  Welsh Assembly members have failed to vote for a new first minister, with a tie between Carwyn Jones and Leanne Wood.
  
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• 'The BBC belongs to the public, not the government': readers defend the corporation

  11-05-2016 18:00
  
  Ahead of a John Whittingdale’s white paper on its future, our readers rally round the corporation in its current form – with some caveats
  Ahead of Thursday’s white paper, which could change the BBC as we know it, emotions have been stirred amid fears the government will erode the corporation’s editorial independence. Related: BBC charter renewal: the main sticking pointsContinue reading...
  
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• UK attack by dissident republicans 'a strong possibility'

  11-05-2016 17:51
  A terror attack in Britain by dissident republicans is now a "strong possibility", according to a new security assessment.
  
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• Leave and Remain EU donations revealed

  11-05-2016 17:51
  
  Rival Remain and Leave campaigners in the EU referendum raised £15.6m in the ten weeks to 21 April, according to the Electoral Commission.
  
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• Years of mistakes at Newcastle - Keegan

  11-05-2016 17:50
  
  Ex-Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan says owner Mike Ashley has made "a lot of mistakes" over the years to leave the club on the brink of relegation.
  
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