General news

• Gina Miller to launch ANOTHER legal attack on Theresa May and Brexit

  27-12-2016 23:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  GINA Miller is poised to launch a new legal challenge to the government’s plans to trigger Article 50 and leave the European Union.
  
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• Carrie Fisher, actor and writer, dies at 60 – video obituary

  27-12-2016 23:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Carrie Fisher, the actor best known for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, has died in Los Angeles. She was 60 years old. Fisher made her big screen debut in the 1975 comedy Shampoo and would launch to superstardom just two short years later for her role in the sci-fi franchiseRead our full obituary
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• Ben Jennings on proposal for voter ID at polling stations – cartoon

  27-12-2016 23:00 via theguardian.com
  
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• APOLOGISE: BBC slammed for 'disgusting anti-Brexit coverage that hijacked Christmas'

  27-12-2016 21:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  BREXIT backers are demanding a public apology from the BBC for what they believe was "inappropriate" coverage comparing the result of the EU referendum to the decision to crucify Jesus Christ.
  
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• Sturgeon ROASTED for ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ Brexit plan as she claims leave voters are XENOPHOBIC

  27-12-2016 20:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  NICOLA Sturgeon has claimed Theresa May’s Brexit plans make “NO SENSE”, but it is HER SNP plans which have been torn apart by experts as being “all-but-impossible”.
  
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• Watership Down author Richard Adams dies at 96

  27-12-2016 20:39
  British novelist Richard Adams, the author of "Watership Down", which sold millions of copies and captivated a generation of children, has died aged 96, his family said. Adams, a self-confessed countryside-loving man, was a civil servant who left government after realising the city was not for him. Adams also wrote a sequel to Watership Down, the name of hill in the north of Hampshire, near where he grew up in the English countryside.
  
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• Richard Adams obituary

  27-12-2016 19:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Author of the classic 1970s novel Watership Down, the allegorical tale of a colony of rabbitsRichard Adams, who has died aged 96, was the author of one of the most successful books of the 1970s. Published in 1972, Watership Down, Adams’s story about a colony of rabbits travelling across the country in search of a better home in the Berkshire Downs when their burrow is destroyed, became a cult novel, with a “crossover” readership.Despite being published as an adult book, Watersh
  
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• Carrie Fisher obituary

  27-12-2016 19:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Actor who played Princess Leia in Star Wars was also known for her bristling intellect and writing that mixed candour, sweetness and wit• Carrie Fisher, actor best known as Star Wars’ Princess Leia, dies aged 60• Share your tributes and memories of Carrie FisherA less distinctive and eccentric performer than Carrie Fisher, who has died after a heart attack aged 60, might well have had an entire career eclipsed after playing one of the leads in the most successful movie franchise
  
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• Abuse and secrecy in the family courts | Letters

  27-12-2016 19:11 via theguardian.com
  
  As a retired lawyer I read your front-page report on the abuse of women in the family courts (23 December) with sadness, frustration and anger. Toward the end of my career, the government was determined to cut the civil justice budget by steamrollering the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishing of Offenders Act 2012 through parliament.My energy and that of colleagues in other organisations went into providing detailed and considered responses to the government’s consultation. We highlighted t
  
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• Watership Down and Plague Dogs author Richard Adams dies aged 96

  27-12-2016 19:08
  Watership Down author Richard Adams has died at the age of 96, according to a statement on the book's official website. The statement, issued on Tuesday, revealed the novelist "passed away peacefully" at 10pm on Christmas Eve. Watership Down was created by Mr Adams during bedtime story-telling sessions for his two daughters, Rosamond and Juliet.
  
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• Last Christmas 'girlfriend' pays tribute to 'amazing' George Michael

  27-12-2016 18:49
  The actress who played George Michael's girlfriend in the iconic Last Christmas video has spoken about the star she knew at the height of his fame. Debbie Killingback played the singer's current love interest - the famous 'someone special' referenced in the lyrics. The song was a massive hit for Wham! in 1984, only held off the top spot in the charts by Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?
  
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• As soon as everyone heard about a 'clean Brexit', they all thought exactly the same thing

  27-12-2016 18:37
  
  It really does sound like a bad tribute band, doesn’t it?
  
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• Watership Down author Richard Adams dies aged 96

  27-12-2016 18:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The author of Watership Down, Richard Adams, has died aged 96, his daughter says.
  
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• Electoral fraud: Pilot scheme for ID before voting defended

  27-12-2016 18:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ministers say having to show ID before voting will reduce fraud amid claims it will put people off.
  
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• Man arrested over death of six-month-old baby

  27-12-2016 18:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A man is arrested following the death of a six-month-old baby on Christmas morning in Bristol.
  
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• Steve Bell on his best cartoons of 2016 – ‘The Danes demanded an apology’

  27-12-2016 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  How do you capture the events of an extraordinary year? Start with a condom, a clown and a Nazi …Continue reading...
  
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• Richard Adams: The man who turned a story about rabbits into a best-seller

  27-12-2016 17:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Richard Adams, the man who turned a tale about rabbits into a multi-million pound best-seller.
  
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• Employee found dead at House of Fraser store in Edinburgh

  27-12-2016 17:49
  An employee has been found dead at a department store in Edinburgh. The 30-year-old man's body was discovered in the city's House of Fraser shop in Princes Street at 9.15am on Tuesday. A House of Fraser spokesman said: "We are deeply saddened to confirm the death of one of our employees at our Frasers store in Edinburgh.
  
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• Liz Smith: Royle Family co-stars lead tributes

  27-12-2016 17:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Tributes pour in for Liz Smith, who played Nana in the Royle Family, after her death at the age of 95.
  
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• George Michael's partner tells of sadness at finding musician dead

  27-12-2016 17:21
  George Michael's partner has spoken of his sadness at discovering the 53-year-old musician, a multi-million selling idol of 1980s and 1990s pop, dead at his Oxfordshire home on Christmas morning. British police said the death of Michael, who had a turbulent private life and problems with drugs, was "unexplained but not suspicious". "It's a Xmas I will never forget finding your partner dead peacefully in bed first thing in the morning," Fadi Fawas, 43, said in a Tweet posted late on Monday.
  
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• George Michael's family 'touched' by 'outpouring of love' since his death

  27-12-2016 17:20
  
  The family of George Michael has been left "touched beyond words by the incredible outpouring of love" since his death, his publicist has said. It comes after the pop superstar's partner described how he found the 53-year-old dead in bed on Christmas Day. Fadi Fawaz said he made the terrible discovery after arriving at the musician's home to wake him ahead of a planned Christmas Day lunch.
  
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• George Michael's philanthropy comes to light after his death

  27-12-2016 17:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Tales of George Michael's philanthropy come to light in the wake of the pop star's death.
  
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• Antigua shooting victim Christopher Tester fund tops £40k

  27-12-2016 17:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A campaign to fly a British man shot in the head during an attempted robbery in Antigua back to the UK has raised more than £40,000.
  
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• Howard Bingham obituary

  27-12-2016 17:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Photographer who covered the 1960s race riots in the US and became a lifelong friend of Muhammad AliHoward Bingham, who has died aged 77, was a photographer who became Muhammad Ali’s closest friend and shot perhaps a million of images of the fighter. “I think we became friends because I didn’t want nothing from him,” Bingham said in 2004. “We just became friends, and we stayed friends.”The pair met in 1962, when Bingham was sent by a local black newspaper to a
  
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• Family survived under Isis for two years by pretending to be Sunni

  27-12-2016 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Shia father and sons stayed in Isis-ruled Mosul, where Iraqi forces now face difficult task of weeding out group’s supportersThe family of Ali Amin Abdullah make unlikely Islamic State supporters – not least because they are from the Shia sect, despised and persecuted by the jihadi militants. In order to survive for two years under the self-proclaimed caliphate in Mosul, however, they did what it took to avoid persecution and likely death at the hands of Isis fighters: they pretended
  
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• Balls to Blair: top 10 unpopular politicians’ comebacks of 2016

  27-12-2016 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From Neil Hamilton to Andrea Leadsom, Keith Vaz to Boris Johnson, here are 10 figures who tried to bounce back, with varying degrees of successThe politician who just won’t lie down. Even the publication of the Chilcot report couldn’t dampen his megalomania, and he is still frequently found on TV news channels trying to persuade the country he has a vital role to play in the Brexit negotiations. Despite this, he could be around a while longer; after losing two elections and heading f
  
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• Corbyn hits back after Obama suggests Labour has disintegrated

  27-12-2016 16:56
  Jeremy Corbyn has hit back at Barack Obama after the outgoing US President suggested Labour under his leadership had disintegrated and lost touch with reality. In a valedictory interview before leaving the White House, Mr Obama was asked if he feared the Democratic Party would lurch to the left after Donald Trump's election, like Labour in the UK.
  
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• BBC bids farewell to The Great British Bake Off

  27-12-2016 16:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A look back at some of the moments that made The Great British Bake Off such a popular show on the BBC.
  
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• National Front mayor creates 'Rue du Brexit' in French town

  27-12-2016 16:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A far-right French mayor has named a street in tribute to Britain's decision to leave the EU.
  
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• Manufacturer warns people to 'stop using bed immediately' after baby dies

  27-12-2016 15:58
  Playtime Beds warned that several of its products, including "children's cots, beds, twin beds", may pose risks to children including "asphyxiation or strangulation, falling, entrapment or crushing". North Yorkshire Police added that they were "running a joint investigation with South Yorkshire Trading Standards" and that "a 35-year-old man has been interviewed under caution and is assisting police with their enquiries".
  
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• New post on missing student Isabel Gayther's Facebook page but police continue search

  27-12-2016 14:54
  A post has appeared on the Facebook page of missing student Isabel Gayther claiming "am not on my way to Syria or being held hostage". "How embarrassing, this is the second time my mum has filed a missing persons report, for a missing person I just keep coming back... Police said: "We are aware that this morning, Tuesday 27 December, messages have been sent via Isabel's Facebook account.
  
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• Tributes build at George Michael's home

  27-12-2016 14:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Fans and friends of George Michael have been leaving tributes outside his home in Highgate, north London.
  
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• The Guardian's 'unwanted gifts' cartoon sums up 2016 perfectly

  27-12-2016 14:39
  
  From Vladimir Putin to the Southern Rail strikes, this cartoon has it all.
  
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• Reading group: which Penelope Fitzgerald book should we read in January?

  27-12-2016 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  She only started publishing at 58 and was one of the most controversial winners in Booker history. But a century after her birth her reputation is still growing. Let’s find out whyThis month on the reading group we’re going to read something by Penelope Fitzgerald. There’s been a long (and successful!) campaign of popular pressure to read one of her novels both in this group and over on our Tips, links and suggestions pages – and since December 2016 marked the 100th anniv
  
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• Messages sent via missing student Isabel Gayther's Facebook account

  27-12-2016 13:46
  Messages were sent on Tuesday morning via missing student Isabel Gayther's Facebook account, police have said. The Metropolitan Police said her disappearance was "extremely out of character" and that her family were very concerned. Isabel, who attends Goldsmiths, University of London, lives in halls of residence on Goodwood Road in New Cross, south east London.
  
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• M5 in Somerset closed due to ice on road

  27-12-2016 13:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Motorists face long delays after a large stretch of the M5 in Somerset is closed due to ice.
  
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• Richard Hammond is criticised for gay ice cream joke on Amazon show, The Grand Tour

  27-12-2016 13:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The TV presenter is criticised after making a joke about eating ice cream being gay on an episode of The Grand Tour.
  
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• Isabel Gayther: Missing student 'posts on Facebook'

  27-12-2016 13:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A university student who was reported missing posts on Facebook, police say.
  
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• The fakest people of 2016: from ‘spokesman John Miller’ to Keith Vaz’s ‘Jim’

  27-12-2016 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  We’re living in a post-truth age. No wonder five of the most notable folks of the year didn’t actually existOur top tip for Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary: his longtime spokesman John Miller. It’s true that Miller hasn’t been around in recent years, but in Miller’s own words, he is someone Trump “knows … trusts and likes”. We say “own” words but it’s fairly obvious Miller and Trump are, in fact, the same per
  
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• Rachel Roddy’s Tuscan beef stew recipe | A Kitchen in Rome

  27-12-2016 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  This classic, slow-cooked Tuscan beef stew involves just six ingredients, though this one comes with one extra – a great story, which, as we know, makes all food taste betterSomewhere there is a photograph of my mum clinging to a large terracotta pot. When the picture was taken she was in on the joke. A few hours earlier, however, as she tore open the letter from Customs and Excise, noting that she had illegally brought a Tuscan pot into the UK and that it would be confiscated if she didn&
  
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• Hunting of the wren festival – in pictures

  27-12-2016 12:58 via theguardian.com
  
  This festival is held every St Stephen’s Day, the 26 December, in Dingle, Ireland. A fake wren is paraded around the streets on top of a decorated pole Continue reading...
  
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• Hunt continues for Christmas Day killer after Glasgow murder

  27-12-2016 12:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A murder investigation is continuing after a 43-year-old man died following a violent Christmas Day attack that also left another man in hospital.
  
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• Man's body found in car on causeway

  27-12-2016 12:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A man's body is found inside an overturned car on the causeway to St Mary's Lighthouse in Whitley Bay.
  
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• Monty Python star’s illness ‘sparked huge interest in dementia’

  27-12-2016 12:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Michael Palin says news of Terry Jones’s diagnosis prompted huge outpouring of support and interest in the diseaseThe news this autumn that the former Monty Python actor Terry Jones is suffering from dementia prompted an extraordinary outpouring of support and interest in the illness, his colleague Michael Palin has said.“The response was not just great sympathy for Terry and his family, but great interest in dementia,” Palin said. “So many people from all over the world
  
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• John Montague obituary

  27-12-2016 11:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Prolific poet, writer and translator inspired by his Irish homelandThose who enjoy the Chieftains may not realise that the band took their name from a collection of short stories, Death of a Chieftain (1964), by the Irish poet John Montague, who has died aged 87.Anyone who heard Montague himself performing, however, is quite likely to recollect what the poet Derek Mahon called his “mythical stammer”. This struggle to express himself, to find words for the ineffable or the unspeakable
  
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• Father-of-two killed 'on way home for Christmas' in crash

  27-12-2016 11:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A father-of-two was on his way home for Christmas when he was hit and killed in a crash, his family says.
  
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• Airbnb boss teased Twitter with some big things that might happen to our holidays in 2017

  27-12-2016 11:18
  
  The chief executive teased a few improvements that we could look forward to seeing next year.
  
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• 17 times politics briefly broke off from making us cry in 2016 to make us laugh

  27-12-2016 11:07
  
  You need some light relief in this troubled political time.
  
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• The funniest and most unusual animal photos of 2016

  27-12-2016 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A selection of images captured by photographers over the past 12 months, including a Donald Trump lookalike pheasant, kissing parakeets, and a lost sloth Continue reading...
  
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• Cassetteboy remix the news: 2016 review special – video

  27-12-2016 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Mashup artist Cassetteboy presents his take on one of the biggest news stories of the year, shining a humorous light on Brexit. The video lampoons a host of Conservative MPs – David Cameron, Boris Johnson, George Osborne, Michael Gove, Theresa May as well as Ukip’s Nigel Farage – all of whom played a major role in the EU referendum Continue reading...
  
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