General news

• PM: Labour 'let Ken Livingstone off the hook' over anti-Semitism row

  05-04-2017 23:39
  Theresa May is to accuse Labour of "betraying" the Jewish community by not expelling Ken Livingstone from the party.The attack on Labour comes as Mrs May launches the Conservatives' campaign for next month's local elections.In a speech in Nottinghamshire later, she will say the Labour Party is "totally out of touch with the concerns of the British people".
  
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• Theresa May has to take costly charter jet due to royal schedule clash

  05-04-2017 23:30
  
  Theresa May was forced to take a costly charter jet on her Middle East trade tour because the prime minister’s RAF Voyager plane was in use by Prince Charles, it has been revealed.The former military plane was refitted last year for David Cameron – leading it to be nicknamed “Air Force Cam” – in an apparent cost-saving move, with No 10 saying it would be cheaper than chartering private planes.The Ministry of Defence said at the time of the plane’s launch that
  
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• Theresa May warns internet giants over extremist material

  05-04-2017 23:06
  Theresa May has warned internet giants they are failing to deal with the scourge of online extremist material.Speaking to reporters on her trip to the Middle East, Mrs May was asked specifically about Google and its YouTube video sharing service.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn: add VAT to private education fees to fund school meals

  05-04-2017 23:00
  
  The provision of free school meals has been proven to improve the health and performance of pupils, Corbyn will say.Jeremy Corbyn will announce plans on Thursday to fund free school meals for all primary school children by adding VAT to private school fees.The Labour leader will make the commitment during a visit to Lancashire for his party’s local election campaign, saying the policy would benefit children’s health while ending a subsidy for the privileged few.
  
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• Ken Livingstone unrepentant over Hitler remarks amid fresh Labour probe

  05-04-2017 22:30
  Ken Livingstone has told Sky News he is "quite happy to go through another big inquiry" after Labour launched a fresh probe into his "grossly insensitive" behaviour.On Tuesday, the former London mayor was handed a suspension from the party for repeatedly claiming Adolf Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s - a decision that was branded "shameful" by deputy leader Tom Watson.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced the party's National Executive Committee would investigate Mr Livingstone again - thi
  
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• Tony Blair: Social media would have killed my hopes of being Prime Minister

  05-04-2017 22:09
  Tony Blair has admitted that if social media was around during his university days he would never have gone on to become prime minister.The ex-Labour leader said there would have been "bad stuff" from his days in a band, long before his political career got started.Mr Blair, 63, sang and played guitar in rock group Ugly Rumours while he was studying at Oxford in the 1970s.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn faces outcry over Ken Livingstone remarks

  05-04-2017 21:49
  
  ‘Ken Livingstone has caused deep offence and hurt to the Jewish community,’ Jeremy Corbyn said in a statement.Jeremy Corbyn is facing demands to force Ken Livingstone out of Labour for his comments linking Adolf Hitler and Zionism, as 100 of his own MPs criticised the party’s response to a growing antisemitism crisis.The Labour leader came under pressure to take more action after an unprecedented outcry from MPs and senior figures in the Jewish community about the decision to l
  
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• Police confident missing mum Samantha Baldwin and her two sons are still alive

  05-04-2017 21:08
  Police say they're confident a missing mother and her two sons are still alive, despite admitting they have had no confirmed sightings for nine days.Despite trawling through hours of CCTV and taking numerous calls from the public, the team of 100 officers have not had any positive sightings of Samantha Baldwin, Louis Madge, nine, or Dylan Madge, six.Ms Baldwin was last seen on Monday 27 March at a cafe in Nottingham shortly after leaving a family court hearing where she was told she had lost cus
  
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• Funding the NHS in a retail world | Letters

  05-04-2017 21:07
  
  ‘The NHS will seem increasingly irrelevant to citizens who have swallowed the idea that you can’t rely on the state to look after you,’ writes Dr Sebastian Kraemer.Your editorial (31 March) calling for repeal of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act is a transformative shift of position and potentially very significant.Repeal will save huge sums of money for the NHS with immediate effect.
  
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• The case for Gerard Coyne to lead Unite | Letter from Roger Lyons, Bill Morris and Margaret Prosser

  05-04-2017 21:05
  
  Unite leadership candidate Gerard Coyne.As former senior officials in Unite or the unions that gave birth to Unite, we are writing to endorse Gerard Coyne as candidate for general secretary (Unite leadership battle sees Labour factions line up against each other, theguardian.com, 27 March).With Brexit adding to the pressures on working people and injecting huge additional instability into the economy, it is essential unions are able to exert the maximum industrial strength.
  
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• Put nature at the heart of the education system | Letters

  05-04-2017 20:57
  
  Michael McCarthy (Screens have led to a nature deficit.Kids need to be outdoors, 1 April) highlighted my idea of developing a GCSE in natural history.In response to those who see problems, ranging from the lack of suitably qualified teachers to natural history being just a subset of biology, I would like to stress that the situation for nature in the UK is so serious there is now no room for negativity.
  
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• Man charged with planning knife terror attack in Birmingham

  05-04-2017 20:55
  A man has been charged with planning to carry out a terror attack armed with a knife, West Midlands Police say.Ummariyat Mirza was arrested by counter-terror police on Alum Rock Road, Birmingham, last Wednesday.The 21-year-old, from St Agathas Road, Birmingham, is accused of buying a blade and conducting research to carry out a deadly assault.
  
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• Pepsi pulls Kendall Jenner ad ridiculed for co-opting resistance movements

  05-04-2017 20:50
  
  The ad sees Kendall Jenner diffuse a standoff with police by handing the officer a Pepsi.Pepsi has withdrawn and apologized for a new ad campaign featuring Kendall Jenner, after the company faced a backlash for a video that co-opted the imagery of protest movements to sell soda.“Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding,” the company said in a statement to the Associated Press.
  
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• What does the public think about Steve Bannon's removal?

  05-04-2017 20:39
  
  The former Breitbart news chief has been removed from the White House Security Council.
  
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• Liam Fox's visit to the Philippines has been met with some serious criticism

  05-04-2017 20:30
  
  He said he wanted the UK’s relationship with the Philippines to “to continue to flourish”.
  
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• Anthony Grainger firearms officer met officer who killed Mark Duggan

  05-04-2017 20:26
  
  Anthony Grainger was shot through the chest by an officer referred to as Q9 as he sat in a stolen red Audi in the village of Culcheth, Cheshire.A firearms officer who fatally shot an unarmed man met the police officer who shot Mark Duggan before making his first detailed statement, a public inquiry has heard.The previously undisclosed meeting took place five days after the fatal shooting of Anthony Grainger, 35, in a car park in Cheshire in March 2012.
  
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• Almost 20,000 people prosecuted for pupil absences in 2015

  05-04-2017 20:22
  
  Jon Platt and his wife, Sally Platt, outside the supreme court where their dispute with Isle of Wight council is due to be decided on Thursday.Parents who took their children out of school without permission were punished with fines, community sentences and even prison, the Ministry of Justice information showed.A total of eight people were handed jail terms, while 553 were given community sentences.
  
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• Why Steve Bannon being removed from the National Security Council is such a big deal

  05-04-2017 20:04
  
  Everything you need to know about the White House shake-up.
  
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• Talks fail to avert rail strikes in Liverpool on Grand National day

  05-04-2017 19:38
  
  Merseyrail has revised its timetables for Saturday to prioritise people travelling to the Aintree racecourse.Talks between the RMT union and train companies to head off industrial action have broken down, with strike action now confirmed for Saturday across Southern, Northern and Merseyrail networks.The 24-hour walkout will mean many services being cancelled in the north, including on Merseyrail on Grand National Day.
  
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• Charities fined almost £140,000 for breaking donor privacy rules

  05-04-2017 18:39
  Some of Britain's best-known charities have been fined a total of £138,000 for breaking data protection rules to get more money from donors.The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found some charities "wealth screened" donors, targeted new or lapsed donors by piecing together information obtained from other sources and shared information with other charities to create a pool of donor data.The privacy watchdog said that some charities "don't know if the information has been shared one o
  
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• Man Down! Shia LaBeouf film sells just one ticket in UK opening weekend

  05-04-2017 18:35
  Shia LaBeouf's latest film Man Down sold just one ticket and grossed £7 in its opening weekend in the UK.While there aren't many movies that break box office records in their first weekend, it is a particularly bad result for the war drama, also starring Gary Oldman and Kate Mara.The film opened at just one UK cinema, the Reel Cinema in Burnley, and grossed just £7 pounds - less than the price of one ticket in London.
  
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• Westminster attack: 'I have no hate toward my husband's killer', says Melissa Cochran

  05-04-2017 18:19
  
  Melissa Cochran, wife of Kurt Cochran, one of those killed in the attack, attends the service at Westminster Abbey.Hundreds of floral tributes still carpet a corner of Parliament Square, serving as a reminder of the shock that jolted the capital following those 82 seconds of mayhem and murder at its heart two weeks ago.Families of the four people who were killed, and survivors of the 22 March Westminster Bridge attack, were joined by paramedics, nurses, doctors – the first aid responders d
  
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• Westminster attack: Families and survivors joined by William, Kate and Harry at service

  05-04-2017 18:10
  A woman whose husband was killed in front of her during the Westminster terror attack joined families of other victims at a service to pay tribute to those who lost their lives.Arriving in a wheelchair after suffering a broken leg and rib in the atrocity, American tourist Melissa Cochran smiled as she was pushed into Westminster Abbey on Wednesday.Mr Cochran was one of four people killed in the tragedy.
  
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• Woman filmed urinating on Donald Trump golf course loses damages case

  05-04-2017 17:43
  A woman who claimed damages after she was filmed urinating on Donald Trump's golf course in Aberdeenshire has lost her case.Rohan Beyts alleged that staff at Trump International Golf Links Scotland had breached her privacy by "secretly filming" her at the golf course in Balmedie.The 62-year-old environmental activist, who has long campaigned against the course, had sought £3,000 in damages.
  
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• Labour launches fresh probe into Ken Livingstone's Hitler remarks

  05-04-2017 17:37
  Jeremy Corbyn has announced a new probe into Ken Livingstone's "grossly insensitive" behaviour since his suspension for suggesting Adolf Hitler supported Zionism.A decision to suspend Mr Livingstone from the Labour Party - and not expel him as had been expected - provoked anger among MPs and senior members of the shadow cabinet, with deputy leader Tom Watson branding it "shameful".Mr Corbyn, a long-time ally of Mr Livingstone, said the party's National Executive Committee would investigate the e
  
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• Charlie Gard: Mother of unwell baby weeps in court amid 'almost impossible situation'

  05-04-2017 17:35
  The High Court judge halted proceedings as Connie Yates sobbed whilst hearing medical evidence about her son's condition.Charlie's mother, Miss Yates, and his father, Chris Gard, have raised over £1.2m to send him for pioneering treatment in America.Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital, however, say he should be moved from life support treatment to palliative care and allowed to die with dignity.
  
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• Ken Livingstone faces fresh inquiry over Hitler Zionism remarks

  05-04-2017 17:07
  
  Ken Livingstone will face a new investigation into his recent comments that Hitler supported Zionism, as Jeremy Corbyn criticised his old ally for refusing to apologise for causing deep offence to the Jewish community.Labour’s ruling body will now launch a fresh disciplinary process against Livingstone, who was suspended from the party for a further year but not expelled over his original comments made in April 2016.
  
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• Victim Reker Ahmed pictured in hospital after suspected hate attack in Croydon

  05-04-2017 17:03
  Reker Ahmed, 17, is seen sitting up in bed, with what appears to be two black eyes, flanked by Kurdish community leaders.Mr Ahmed was placed in an induced coma after the alleged hate crime left him unconscious, with a fractured skull and spine and a blood clot on the brain.Police say Mr Ahmed, a Kurdish-Iranian, was chased and subjected to a "brutal attack" including "repeated blows to the head".
  
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• EU's Dombrovskis - must avoid race to bottom to lure UK banks

  05-04-2017 16:59
  European Union officials have heard complaints from some members of the bloc about others lowering the requirements for "passporting" rights to sell financial services in the EU single market, the European Commission vice president said.As Britain prepares to leave the EU, some British financial firms - and foreign banks using London as a European base - are already working on plans to establish new operations on the continent to keep access to the European market.
  
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• With Brexit underway, EU drug agency prepares to leave London

  05-04-2017 16:57
  
  By Ben HirschlerLONDON (Reuters) - Europe's medicines watchdog is preparing to pack its bags and relocate from London, now that Britain has triggered the process of leaving the EU, and its executive director wants a decision on the agency's new home as fast as possible.Guido Rasi fears uprooting it could disrupt this work, unless done very carefully.At stake is not only the smooth-running of the European Union drug approval process, which is vital for companies, but also public safety, should re
  
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• Cars and boat seized, one arrest, in Dutch-British tax fraud crackdown

  05-04-2017 16:53
  Dutch and British authorities seized assets worth 6 million euros ($6.40 million), including luxury cars, a speedboat and villas and made one arrest after a cross-border tax fraud investigation.Dutch prosecutors said they had arrested a British woman, 46, as a result of the probe, which was triggered after she and her 51-year-old Dutch husband withdrew more than 300,000 euros in cash with credit cards linked to offshore accounts.A spokeswoman for the Dutch financial crime prosecutor said the ope
  
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• Labour launches fresh probe into Ken Livingstone Hitler remarks

  05-04-2017 16:49
  Jeremy Corbyn has announced a new probe into Ken Livingstone's "grossly insensitive" behaviour since his suspension for suggesting Adolf Hitler supported Zionism.A decision to suspend Mr Livingstone from the Labour Party - and not expel him as had been expected - provoked anger among MPs and senior members of the shadow cabinet, with deputy leader Tom Watson branding it "shameful".Mr Corbyn, a long-time ally of Mr Livingstone, said the party's National Executive Committee would investigate the e
  
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• UK charities fined by watchdog for wealth screening of donors

  05-04-2017 16:41
  
  Great Ormond Street hospital children’s charity was one of the charities that ranked its donors by wealth.Some were secretly subjecting millions of their donors to “wealth screening” operations to target them for additional fundraising.The Royal British Legion, Oxfam, Cancer Research UK and the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association are among those found by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to have broken privacy regulations.
  
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• BBC retracts report of Sounds of the 60s host Brian Matthew's death

  05-04-2017 16:34
  
  Matthew, who started work for the BBC in 1954.The BBC has retracted a statement that the DJ Brian Matthew, who hosted its long-running Sounds of the 60s programme, had died after being told by his family that he was critically ill.In an embarrassing clarification issued less than three hours after announcing his death on air, the BBC said in a statement: “We were informed by close family and friends that Brian had passed away in the night.
  
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• Watch this guy eat 3kg of doughnut in just over 10 minutes

  05-04-2017 16:33
  
  Sven, you are our hero.
  
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• Co-op changes 'sexist' Easter egg advert after customers complain

  05-04-2017 16:16
  
  Come on guys, it’s 2017.
  
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• Labour accused of feeble response to ex-London mayor's Hitler remarks

  05-04-2017 16:10
  
  By Estelle ShirbonLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party suspended former London Mayor Ken Livingstone for saying Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism, but was accused of being too soft on the veteran politician.The row comes against a backdrop of criticism within Labour and in the Jewish community, rejected by party leaders, that Labour has had a persistent problem with anti-Semitism under hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn.
  
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• Stuffed menagerie, complete with lions, recovered from London burglar

  05-04-2017 16:08
  
  A British burglar who stole 18 stuffed animals including lions, a giraffe and a snarling chimpanzee in a top hat and tie has received a suspended jail sentence, police said on Wednesday.The loot, which also included a stuffed rhinoceros, a crocodile, a sloth, a zebra, a penguin and a pink flamingo, belonged to a licensed taxidermy company and was worth about 100,000 pounds ($124,850) in total, police said.Jason Hopwood, 47, had pleaded guilty to burglary and fraudulent use of a registration plat
  
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• ECB's Weidmann would welcome smaller bond buys in a year

  05-04-2017 16:03
  
  The head of Germany's central bank would be happy to see the European Central Bank buying bonds at a lower pace in a year's time, he told German weekly Die Zeit.Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said in the interview the time to reduce the ECB's monetary stimulus to the economy was approaching as the recovery gained pace."The time to keep the foot no longer on the metal, but to take it off slightly ... is approaching in my view," Jens Weidmann said in the interview, due to be appear in Die Zeit
  
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• BBC wrongly announces death of Radio 2 DJ Brian Matthew

  05-04-2017 15:51
  The BBC has wrongly announced the death of Radio 2 DJ Brian Matthew, later clarifying that he "remains critically ill".The broadcaster earlier released a statement on behalf of the family saying that the presenter, who hosted the long-running Sounds of the 60s programme, had died.It said: "We were informed by close family and friends that Brian had passed away in the night.
  
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• Trump wins Scottish golf course privacy rights case

  05-04-2017 15:47
  
  A grandmother who had sued a luxury Scottish golf resort founded by U.S. President Donald Trump for breaching her privacy by photographing her urinating on the course, lost her case on Wednesday.Rohan Beyts, a long-term opponent of the Trump International Golf Links (TIGL) on the northeastern coast of Scotland, had sought 3,000 pounds ($3,745) in damages at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court over the incident last year which she said had left her shocked and upset.At the time, the club was not register
  
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• This Creme Egg pizza is serious Easter goals

  05-04-2017 14:40
  
  Forget a traditional egg, this is what we want for Easter.
  
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• Brexit is the fault of "stupid, catfighting" Tories , claims EU's chief negotiatior

  05-04-2017 14:33
  
  The Belgian also claimed that the row over Brexit was a “catfight that got out of hand” and that Britain would one day try to rejoin the EU.Verhofstadt, one of the EU’s leading Brexit negotiators, was speaking in Brussels at the European Parliament as MEPs voted on negotiation plans for the UK’s exit.
  
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• Brian Matthew, former host of Sounds of the 60s, dies aged 88

  05-04-2017 14:07
  
  Matthew’s career at the BBC started 1954 on the Light Programme, at a time when the broadcaster rarely played pop music.The broadcaster Brian Matthew, who hosted Sounds of the 60s on BBC Radio 2 for 27 years, has died weeks after presenting his last edition of the show.Radio 2 played the show’s signature tune, Foot Tapper by the Shadows, as a tribute to Matthew, who was 88.
  
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• Royals attend 'service of hope' after London attack

  05-04-2017 14:05
  
  Queen Elizabeth's grandsons Princes William and Harry joined relatives of four people killed in a deadly attack near the London parliament two weeks ago for a "Service of Hope" on Wednesday.Khalid Masood, 52, ploughed a rented car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge killing three people and injuring dozens more before running through the gates of parliament and stabbing a policeman to death.British police have said it was a terrorist attack but that Masood appeared to have been acting alone.
  
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• Watch as dozens of troops parachute from planes as part of an Army, RAF and Navy training exercise

  05-04-2017 13:41
  
  Exercise Joint Warrior involves 2,000 troops.
  
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• Bumper performance: Record UK car sales ahead of tax change

  05-04-2017 13:37
  A record number of new cars were registered in March as drivers rushed to beat a new tax that came into force on 1 April.There was an 8.4% rise in sales of new cars from the same time last year - with more than 560,000 new cars registered.The new vehicle excise duty (VED) rates mean all new cars, except those with zero emissions, will be subject to a substantial annual flat rate charge.
  
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• Nigel Farage jeered by MEPs after comparing EU to the Mafia

  05-04-2017 13:27
  Nigel Farage has been jeered in Strasbourg after comparing the EU Parliament to the Mafia over its Brexit demands.Asked to retract his "unacceptable" remark by the body's president, Italian Antonio Tajani, the former UKIP leader agreed - saying "gangsters" was a more appropriate word.It became even more heated when Guy Verhofstadt, the EU Parliament's Brexit coordinator, said he expected the UK to rejoin the EU when the next generation "see Brexit for what it really is: a catfight in the Conserv
  
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• UK economic growth 'slowed to 0.4%' in first quarter, PMI data shows

  05-04-2017 13:18
  The authors of respected economic activity surveys believe UK growth slowed markedly to 0.4% in the first quarter of the year.The prediction ahead of an official estimate from the Office for National Statistics later this month was made following the publication of the Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers' index (PMI) for March.It found that business activity in the services sector, which accounts for almost 80% of UK output, bounced back from a five-month low in February as demand strengthe
  
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• Disability campaigners plan rush-hour protest at London Bridge station

  05-04-2017 13:17
  
  Disability campaigners are planning to block the concourse at a busy London train station in the middle of the evening rush hour in protest at new arrangements they say could prevent disabled passengers from boarding some trains.Dozens of wheelchair users who have experienced problems on the Southern rail network will congregate at London Bridge station at 6pm on Wednesday.It follows Southern’s decision to replace conductors with onboard supervisors (OBSs), a move that led to a series of s
  
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