General news

• Bradley Lowery: Boy with cancer is Sunderland mascot

  14-12-2016 23:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A five-year-old boy with terminal cancer appears as a mascot at the Sunderland v Chelsea game.
  
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• Yahoo hack: user information stolen in breach of 1bn accounts

  14-12-2016 23:25 via theguardian.com
  
  The latest incident to emerge – which happened in 2013 – is probably distinct from the breach of 500m user accounts in 2014Yahoo said on Wednesday it had discovered another major cyber attack, saying data from more than 1bn user accounts was compromised in August 2013, making it the largest such breach in history.The number of affected accounts was double the number implicated in a 2014 breach that the internet company disclosed in September and blamed on hackers working on behalf of
  
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• Artists are sharing their illustrations reacting to the events in Aleppo

  14-12-2016 23:07
  
  The city is back in the hands of the Syrian government.
  
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• New Aleppo ceasefire allows Syrian civilians to evacuate, rebels say

  14-12-2016 22:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Ceasefire expected to start half an hour before midnight local timeTwo besieged Shia villages included in deal as concession to IranA new deal to evacuate civilians from east Aleppo has been reached, rebel officials said late on Wednesday, after a day of intense shuttle diplomacy and violent bombardment in the opposition enclave.
  Under the terms of the deal, confirmed by two rebel officials, a ceasefire was expected to go into effect half an hour before midnight Aleppo time.
  Civilians and the wo
  
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• Cesc Fàbregas sweeps Chelsea past Sunderland and six points clear at top

  14-12-2016 22:56 via theguardian.com
  
  They say perfection is a flame that many touch but few can hold. If so, Chelsea are showing every indication of possessing sufficient ruthless consistency to achieve it this season, with the latest, fairly compelling, evidence arriving at Sunderland’s expense.A 10th straight Premier League win left Antonio Conte’s team six points clear at the top of the table on a night when Cesc Fàbregas not only scored the winning goal but, courtesy of a high-calibre central-midfield perform
  
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• Adam Lallana scores twice to ease Liverpool to victory over Middlesbrough

  14-12-2016 22:49 via theguardian.com
  
  The cameras attempted to pan towards Liverpool’s dropped goalkeeper on more than one occasion here but no one was really noticing. Jürgen Klopp’s side made sure that Loris Karius was not the story on a night when Adam Lallana starred in a convincing victory and they played the kind of scintillating football that has become their trademark this season.Simon Mignolet replaced Karius after his recent errors but the saga that dominated the build-up to this game was soon forgotten. L
  
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• Social care levy is 'Theresa May's poor tax', says council boss

  14-12-2016 22:40
  A likely increase in council tax to help fund social care has been labelled the Prime Minister's "poor tax". Ministers are expected to announce on Thursday that local authorities will be allowed to raise council tax 6% over the next two years to raise cash for elderly and disabled care. John Clancy, leader of Birmingham City Council, told Sky News that it was "just a further tax on the poor" in his city.
  
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• I'm in the UK...

  14-12-2016 22:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The US central bank has raised interest rates for just the second time in 10 years. How does it affect me in the UK?
  
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• Healthy baby born to woman who had her ovary frozen aged nine

  14-12-2016 22:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Moaza Al Matrooshi, 24, went into menopause after chemotherapy but had her fertility restored using thawed tissueA woman has given birth to a healthy baby boy after doctors restored her fertility with ovarian tissue she had had frozen as a child. Moaza Al Matrooshi, a 24-year-old from Dubai, had one of her ovaries frozen as a nine-year-old and is thought to be the youngest to have had the tissue stored for future use in a pregnancy.Continue reading...
  
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• Janet Yellen: US interest rate rise 'vote of confidence' in economy – as it happened

  14-12-2016 22:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Federal Reserve predicts three US rate hikes in 2017, as it increases borrowing costs for the first time this yearFed raises interest rates for second time since 2008 crisis 9.20pm GMTWe’ve waited a whole year for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. And when the big day arrived, the shock result of last month’s US presidential election rather overshadowed it. “Our decision to raise rates should certainly be understood as a reflection of the confidence we have in the pr
  
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• Newspaper headlines: Aleppo's 'darkest day' and rail strike 'chaos'

  14-12-2016 22:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The end of the battle for Aleppo as President Assad's troops seize control, and the impact of the Southern Rail strike feature on many of Wednesday's front pages.
  
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• Chelsea and Watford face questions over agent links

  14-12-2016 22:10 via theguardian.com
  
  • Raiola among those who acted for club but had apparent player connection• ‘It is rare for any player not to have an agent advising’In the world’s richest football league the trading of players, compressed into two transfer windows, has become a billion-pound whirlwind, involving a flurry of agents whose roles and rewards have never been openly disclosed to supporters or the public. Earlier this year the Football Association injected a sudden gleam of daylight into t
  
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• Formal bid for Sky by Murdoch's 21st Century Fox thought imminent

  14-12-2016 21:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Offer would trigger a regulatory process – starting with the culture secretary, Karen Bradley, deciding if there is a media plurality issue Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is expected to table a formal offer for Sky as soon as Thursday.Murdoch is not thought to have raised his £10.75 a share offer, which values Sky at more than £18bn, despite the protests from a number of Sky’s smaller shareholders. Continue reading...
  
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• Amazon's Prime Air drone delivers first package to customer

  14-12-2016 21:48
  Online shopping giant Amazon says it has successfully delivered its first package to a customer using a drone.
  
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• First Minister Arlene Foster faces motion of no confidence

  14-12-2016 21:41
  An opposition party in Northern Ireland says it will table a motion of no confidence in the First Minister when the Assembly meets on Monday. With critics of the devolved government claiming a botched green energy scheme could cost the taxpayer £400m, Stormont has been recalled from Christmas recess. First Minister Arlene Foster MLA, who continues to resist calls for her resignation, said she would make a "full statement" on the Renewable Heat Incentive.
  
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• The Faliraki challenge and other Life in the EU tests for post-Brexit Britons | Marina Prentoulis

  14-12-2016 21:34 via theguardian.com
  
  European citizens in the UK face the notoriously tough Life in the United Kingdom test when Britain leaves the EU. But what if the roles were reversed?From time immemorial, any foreigner wishing to enter a city state had to prove they had earned the right to do so. Even Oedipus had to solve the riddle of the Sphinx before entering his – unbeknown to him – birthplace, Thebes. This has been a reality that most migrants have accepted too. Related: EU citizens should collect proof o
  
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• Southern Railway drivers on strike because they 'fear killing someone'

  14-12-2016 21:34
  A Southern Railway driver has told Sky News that staff fear "we will kill someone" if they are forced to accept driver-only trains on which they control the doors. The driver spoke anonymously to Sky News as a first day of talks between the ASLEF union and the train operator ended without a deal.
  
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• Do Retail Workers Know It's Christmas? Labour MPs record protest charity single

  14-12-2016 21:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Cover of Band Aid hit accuses companies of cutting workers’ perks after introduction of ‘national living wage’ as Christmas chart gets politicalIt’s Christmas time, and there’s plenty of reasons to be afraid if you’re a retail worker, according to a musical protest by Labour MPs.MPs including Dan Jarvis, Angela Rayner and Mary Creagh have recorded a Christmas single to the tune of the 1980s Band Aid hit Do They Know It’s Christmas, accusing companies of
  
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• Lord Coe: Russian doping ‘ripped apart’ London 2012 Olympic dream

  14-12-2016 21:17
  Lord Sebastian Coe says he is deeply angered by the Russian doping operation that corrupted the London 2012 Olympics. Last week an independent report revealed Russia "corrupted the London 2012 Games to an unprecedented degree". Lord Coe, who was chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, told Sky News: "I was angry (when I heard) because every athlete that was in that stadium had devoted half of their young lives to that moment.
  
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• Chile judge questions Pinochet's widow over embezzlement allegations

  14-12-2016 21:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Lucia Hiriart accused of using public funds for not-for-profit women’s group to fund dictator’s battle against extradition from BritainA Chilean judge has questioned the 94-year-old widow of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet over allegations she embezzled public funds through a not-for-profit women’s group she ran.Lucía Hiriart is accused of using money from the foundation to fund Pinochet’s battle against extradition from Britain in the 1990s. Continue reading...
  
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• Martin Rowson on Aleppo – cartoon

  14-12-2016 21:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Continue reading...
  
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• Greece on collision course with lenders as ESM freezes debt relief

  14-12-2016 20:41 via theguardian.com
  
  European financing body says it will not honour accord after Greek PM announced pre-Christmas bonus for pensionersThe dispute between Greece and its creditors has turned more ugly after the European body financing the country’s €86bn (£72bn) bailout programme decided to freezea debt relief deal.The prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, was taken by surprise on Wednesday when the European Stability Mechanism announced it would not honour an accord to ease the burden of Greece’s d
  
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• Tube suspended amid knife alert

  14-12-2016 20:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Part of the London Underground's Central Line was suspended during rush hour amid reports of a man brandishing a knife.
  
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• England captain Dylan Hartley is one thuggish act away from career oblivion | Robert Kitson

  14-12-2016 20:31 via theguardian.com
  
  The hooker can have no complaint at his six-week ban given his poor disciplinary record and the fact that rugby is cracking down on tackles to the headRugby has always been a game of sliding doors. What if Dylan Hartley had started for Northampton in the Champions’ Cup game against Leinster last Friday night, rather than steaming in off the bench with a point to prove? Would he have administered a swinging arm to the head of Sean O’Brien in a Test-match arena, where his recent discip
  
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• Cross-party MPs urge Boris Johnson to call for Bahrain activist's release

  14-12-2016 20:22 via theguardian.com
  
  US has already called for Bahrain to free Nabeel Rajab who faces up to 15 years in jail after criticising the war in YemenMore than 20 MPs from seven parties in the UK parliament have urged the British foreign secretary to echo US government calls for the release of the Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, whose trial begins on Friday.Rajab, who faces up to 15 years in jail for comments made on Twitter criticising the war in Yemen, has been held in pre-trial detention since June. He is a
  
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• The Guardian view on school funding: reforms could reveal the value of money | Editorial

  14-12-2016 20:20 via theguardian.com
  
  The national funding formula has merits, but schools will struggle, given the rising costs they faceIf it were easy to design a national funding formula for schools, it would have been done years ago. Now the education secretary, Justine Greening, has set out a plan in which she bravely tries to strike the right balance between fairness and simplicity. She might have had a better chance of success if she was not trying to devise a new way of slicing the funding cake while it is also shrinking un
  
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• Keynes would be disappointed by the way we work | Letters

  14-12-2016 20:20 via theguardian.com
  
  In his comparison between 1936 and 2016 (A view from 1936: what Keynes would say now, 12 December), Larry Elliott omits to mention one of the major differences, and one that JM Keynes would surely have noticed as he speculated on its implications – namely the enormous increase in the productive power of labour and of the economy.Our priority should be to help people reduce their working hours (whether over a lifetime or weekly or daily) so that they can enjoy the leisure their productive c
  
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• Bednest cot death inquest: Mum 'found baby's lifeless body'

  14-12-2016 20:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A mother tells an inquest about the moment she found her seven-week-old daughter dead in a bedside cot.
  
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• Moving the needle: the punk badges that defined the 1970s music scene

  14-12-2016 20:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Image as Virus, the world’s first exhibition of punk badges, highlights the work of Better Badges, a company that produced some of the most celebrated pins of the 70s. Founder Joly MacFie talks through some of the greatest Continue reading...
  
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• Gadgets are meant to streamline life – so why do we pine for a typewriter’s ping?

  14-12-2016 20:05 via theguardian.com
  
  I can barely contemplate being old, unconnected and unmodern. But when devices are so user-unfriendly, it’s hard to get excited about my fridge talking to my TVI really want to live in the future. I don’t want to be one of the left-behinds. Oh, no, I want to be out there, going places in my driverless car while being massaged by robots to a perfect soundtrack that has been chosen for me by a microchip just under my skin. All of it done unthinkingly, in some algorithmic purr. The
  
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• Big city schools hit in funding shake-up

  14-12-2016 20:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Funding changes for schools will see less for the cities and more money for schools in the suburbs and shires.
  
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• More than 2,500 BA cabin crew could go on strike over Christmas

  14-12-2016 19:58 via theguardian.com
  
  Union representatives to decide what action to take after staff at Heathrow-based mixed fleet unit vote for walkout over payMore than 2,000 British Airways cabin crew based at Heathrow could go on strike over Christmas after voting overwhelmingly in favour of walkouts in a dispute over pay. Cabin crew in BA’s mixed fleet unit – who represent about 15% of stewards at the airline – voted to strike after rejecting a 2% pay offer on what the Unite union has described as “pove
  
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• Jess Varnish demands that British Cycling releases Shane Sutton data

  14-12-2016 19:58 via theguardian.com
  
  • Cyclist’s legal team requests all email and text messages sent about her
  • Jess Varnish steps up battle with British Cycling over discrimination claimsJess Varnish has dramatically raised the stakes in her long-running battle with British Cycling by making a formal request to see every text and email message sent about her by the former technical director Shane Sutton and fellow coaches Iain Dyer, Justin Grace and Jan van Eijden.Varnish, who accused British Cycling of allowing
  
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• Russia blocks United Nations tribute to Ban Ki-moon for promoting LGBT rights

  14-12-2016 19:54 via theguardian.com
  
  UN security council wanted to thank outgoing secretary general, under whom ‘the LGBT community have been heard and assisted’ but Russia objectedRussia has prevented the United Nations security council from thanking outgoing secretary general Ban Ki-moon specifically for promoting gay rights during his decade in office, diplomats said. The 15-member council met to pay tribute to Ban, who will step down later this month. Being gay is a crime in at least 73 countries, the UN has said, a
  
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• Don’t blame MPs: British bombs wouldn’t have saved Aleppo | Owen Jones

  14-12-2016 19:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Critics of non-intervention in Syria in 2013 should show some humility – and its supporters should show some consistencyAs east Aleppo falls to Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime, the postmortem has begun. How could this sickening onslaught and its miserable human cost have been avoided? All too predictably, fingers point back at the culprits of 2013, those who prevented the west from bombing Assad’s forces. Those who backed the wars in Iraq and Libya feel tainted by the bloods
  
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• MP stands to make £1.5m from Kurdistan oil company sale

  14-12-2016 19:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi has close ties to area and led series of visits by UK MPs and then London mayor Boris JohnsonA Conservative MP will receive a payout of nearly £1.5m if the sale completes of the Kurdistan-based oil company for which he has worked since July 2015 alongside representing his constituents in Stratford-upon-Avon.Nadhim Zahawi, who acts as chief strategy officer for Gulf Keystone, was granted “performance units” on Monday shortly before it emerged that China&rsq
  
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• UK prosecutor drops Somali corruption inquiry into Soma Oil

  14-12-2016 19:48
  UK prosecutors have closed a 17-month investigation into alleged bribery and corruption at Soma Oil & Gas, a private UK exploration company seeking oil in Somalia, despite finding "reasonable grounds" to suspect wrongdoing. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which opened the inquiry last July after a tip-off from the United Nations' Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG), said there was not enough evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction. "Whilst there were reasonable grounds to sus
  
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• Russian doping ‘ripped apart’ London 2012 dream

  14-12-2016 19:48
  Lord Sebastian Coe says he is deeply angered by the Russian doping operation that corrupted the London 2012 Olympics. Last week an independent report revealed Russia "corrupted the London 2012 Games to an unprecedented degree". Lord Coe, who was chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, told Sky News: "I was angry (when I heard) because every athlete that was in that stadium had devoted half of their young lives to that moment.
  
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• Top GP and Sandwell CCG boss admit £153k fraud

  14-12-2016 19:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A GP and a senior NHS manager diverted £153,600 meant for patients into their company's bank account, a court hears.
  
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• Glenda Jackson on her scary reputation: ‘I’ve never understood the fear thing’

  14-12-2016 19:41 via theguardian.com
  
  As an Oscar-winning actor, she could emasculate her leading men. As a Labour MP, she skewered her leader, Tony Blair. After her acclaimed King Lear, is she back to command the theatre world again?Glenda Jackson is small and slight, her face crumpled like an old £5 note. She looks out of place amid the glitz of London’s Langham hotel – she smokes and swears like a trooper and, at 80, she is as single-minded as ever.Jackson has always been her own woman. Who else would walk out o
  
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• David Davis hopes Brexit platitudes pass as a Brexit strategy

  14-12-2016 19:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Brexit minister’s vagueness leaves Brexit select committee on brink of head-butting their tableFirst the triumph, then the hubris. David Davis may never have been quite at the delusional Liam Fox end of the spectrum but he was certainly one of the more gung-ho Eurosceptics and his early statements as minister for Brexit tended to be along the lines of “The EU are a bunch of thieving foreigners and the sooner we’re rid of them the better”. Now that he’s been in the j
  
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• Corpse sex threat man gets 45 years

  14-12-2016 19:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A judge jails a prisoner - who was serving a 30-month jail term - for 45 years for threatening to kill people and defile their corpses.
  
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• Lego to raise its prices in UK from January

  14-12-2016 19:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Danish toy manufacturer says it is not ruling out further increases if sterling does not recover from post-Brexit vote plungeLego is to raise its prices in Britain by 5% next year as it becomes the latest manufacturer to respond to the plunging pound after the UK voted to leave the EU.The Danish firm confirmed it had decided to to hike the prices of its playsets, bricks and mini-figures in the UK owing to “currency fluctuations”, while not ruling out further increases if sterling doe
  
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• Valerie Gell obituary

  14-12-2016 19:22 via theguardian.com
  
  Guitarist and singer with the Liverbirds, the 60s Liverpool beat group billed as the female BeatlesIn the 1960s, Valerie Gell, who has died aged 71, was part of the all-female Liverpool teenage beat group the Liverbirds. They had their greatest success in Hamburg, with residencies at the Star-Club, where the Beatles had played on and off throughout 1962 before their chart breakthrough and where the Liverbirds were billed as “die Weibchen Beatles” (the female Beatles). Although presen
  
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• Splits form among Colombia's Farc rebels after commanders expelled

  14-12-2016 19:22 via theguardian.com
  
  Five mid-level commanders pushed out of group for failure to join peace deal as statement calls on their apparent followers ‘to distance themselves’Fissures have begun to show in the ranks of Colombia’s Farc rebels after five mid-level commanders were summarily expelled from the group for refusing to demobilize and join a peace deal to end their 52-year war.The Farc leadership said in a statement that the five commanders, who were all part of guerrilla units located in far east
  
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• 'Iron Lady' Thatcher tops female power list ahead of Beyonce, Bridget Jones

  14-12-2016 19:16
  Late prime minister Margaret Thatcher, known as the "Iron Lady" for her steely resolve, topped a list of females who have had the biggest impact on women's lives over the past 70 years, the BBC said on Wednesday. Thatcher, who died in 2013, was Britain's first woman prime minister and also the country's longest-serving leader of the 20th century, governing from 1979 to 1990. Thatcher, who died in 2013, led the list of seven women compiled by BBC Radio 4 "Woman's Hour" programme for its 70th birt
  
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• Labour MPs record Christmas song about workers' rights

  14-12-2016 19:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A group of Labour MPs has recorded a Christmas song about workers' rights.
  
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• Bank of England says finance sector needs transitional Brexit deal soon

  14-12-2016 19:10
  By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) - A transitional deal "sooner rather than later" on Britain's exit from the European Union would ensure Brexit does not undermine financial stability, a senior Bank of England official said on Wednesday. It would be in the interests of both Britain and the rest of the European Union to maintain a "good degree" of integration between their respective financial markets after the UK leaves the bloc, Sam Woods, a deputy governor of the Bank of England, told a parliament
  
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• Southern strike: 'Progress made' at Acas talks

  14-12-2016 19:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Talks aimed at ending strikes on Southern rail see some progress but a planned strike will still go ahead on Friday, Aslef says.
  
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• New Italian PM faces criticism over 'puppetmaster' Renzi

  14-12-2016 19:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Paolo Gentiloni has won senate backing for his government, but opponents say it is still controlled by his predecessor, Matteo RenziPaolo Gentiloni, the new prime minister of Italy, has won a vote of confidence in Italy’s senate, in a move that will allow his government to formally take office amid relentless political attacks. The 62-year-old former foreign minister was backed by the upper house of the Italian parliament on Wednesday in a 169-99 vote. But, ever since he was chosen to take
  
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