General news

• Jeremy Corbyn says Labour manifesto will transform people's lives

  11-05-2017 23:40
  
  Jeremy Corbyn predicted Labour’s policies would prove popular with voters.Jeremy Corbyn has pledged Labour’s election manifesto would “transform the lives” of many Britons , after the radical blueprint was adopted by the party at a fractious meeting.After four hours of talks in central London, involving both the shadow cabinet and Labour’s governing national executive committee, the Labour leader emerged, to announce that his colleagues had “just unanimously a
  
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• Man hides from campaigning May

  11-05-2017 23:30
  
  A Southampton man has refrained from answering door to Theresa May as she campaigns.
  
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• Is Theresa May's team bringing in soft-Brexit Tories?

  11-05-2017 23:30
  
  Theresa May talks a lot about using this election to strengthen her negotiating hand in Brussels, what she does not talk about much is how she needs to bolster her powerbase in Westminster too.Mr Cameron knows only too well the problems of a restive backbench.One consequence of this election could be to give Mrs May more manoeuvrability over Brexit by diluting the influence of the 50 or so hard-line eurosceptics on her party's backbenches.
  
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• Theresa May faces angry NHS workers during radio phone-in

  11-05-2017 21:47
  
  Theresa May was put on the spot by a doctor considering resigning over understaffing in the NHS and low morale caused by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, as she took questions from members of the public on an LBC radio phone-in.The prime minister was told by Romeena from Leeds that healthcare professionals were finding it “near impossible” to provide safe care for their patients.The paediatrician said she was considering resignation after 12 years “because things have got so
  
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• NHS patients waiting months for vital bowel cancer tests, figures show

  11-05-2017 21:18
  
  Almost a quarter of English hospital trusts missed the target for colonoscopies in March.Patients with one of the most lethal forms of cancer are having to wait months to have vital diagnostic tests, in a new sign of the relentless pressure on NHS services.People suspected of having bowel cancer are facing waits of three months for tests when they should have them within a maximum of six weeks, the latest NHS waiting time figures show.
  
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• People weren't convinced Theresa May was being asked the tough questions during her LBC interview

  11-05-2017 21:16
  
  Unfortunately, a half-hour interview just didn’t feel like enough.
  
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• Ukip will not stand against pro-Brexit Tories in key marginal seats

  11-05-2017 20:35
  
  The Labour seat of Wirral West is one where Ukip is standing down.Ukip are not contesting hundreds of seats at the election in a move aimed at boosting the chances of pro-Brexit Conservatives at the expense of Labour in a string of marginals.After nominations closed on Thursday, an analysis of the candidates showed no Ukip choice in places such as Wirral West, the seat of shadow minister Margaret Greenwood, Newcastle-under-Lyme, the seat of Labour MP Paul Farrelly, and Wakefield, the seat of for
  
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• Priest 'punched by gang' at South Ealing Tube station

  11-05-2017 20:32
  Police are hunting a gang of three or four young people who reportedly attacked a priest on the platform of a London Underground station.The man, who witnesses said appeared to be a member of the clergy, was punched at South Ealing station on Thursday morning, police said.The victim has not spoken to British Transport Police and the attack was reported by witnesses.
  
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• Young HIV patients now living 10 years longer, study finds

  11-05-2017 20:13
  Young HIV-positive patients receiving the latest treatments can now expect a "near-normal" life expectancy, according to a study.Scientists writing in medical journal The Lancet said a 20-year-old who began antiretroviral treatment (ART) from 2010 can expect to live to 78 - similar to the general population.Professor Jonathan Sterne, who co-wrote the study, told Sky News that medical advances mean a HIV patient "taking one pill every day could expect near-normal life expectancy".
  
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• Palestinian man charged with murdering British student Hannah Bladon

  11-05-2017 20:00
  A Palestinian man has been charged with the murder of a British student stabbed to death in Jerusalem.Hannah Bladon, 20, was attacked while travelling on a light rail train near Old City last month, an area which was packed as Christians marked Good Friday and Jews celebrated Passover.Israel's justice ministry said 57-year-old Jamil Tamimi has been charged with her murder, adding that he identified Miss Bladon as a "weak victim who wouldn't be able to resist".
  
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• Labour's manifesto 'unanimously agreed'

  11-05-2017 20:00
  
  Jeremy Corbyn announces the Labour Party's new manifesto, an early draft of which was leaked a day early.
  
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• MEPs will block Brexit deal if citizens' rights are ignored May warned

  11-05-2017 19:59
  
  Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, urged EU leaders to think about giving special privileges to British nationals after Brexit.MEPs will veto any Brexit deal that fails to uphold the rights of EU citizens, the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator has said, in a warning shot to Theresa May’s government.Guy Verhofstadt said the parliament would block any Brexit deal that failed to offer adequate protections for 3.5 million EU nationals in the UK an
  
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• Ukraine soldiers bombarded by 'pinpoint propaganda' texts

  11-05-2017 19:49
  
  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Television journalist Julia Kirienko was sheltering with Ukrainian soldiers and medics two miles (three kilometers) from the front when their cellphones began buzzing over the noise of the shelling. Everyone got the same text message at the same time.
  
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• BT to restructure Global Services after 'challenging year'

  11-05-2017 19:33
  
  BT, Britain's biggest telecoms group, said it would shake up its global service division that serves multinationals and scale back its dividend growth ambitions as it recovers from an accounting scandal in Italy and a profit warning.Reporting fourth-quarter revenue of 6.12 billion pounds, up 10 percent, and adjusted earnings of 2.07 billion pounds, up 2 percent and broadly in line with forecasts, the company said it had had a "challenging year".It said it would cut 4,000 jobs from its Global Ser
  
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• Labour 'unanimously agrees' General Election manifesto

  11-05-2017 19:27
  
  Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says the party has "unanimously agreed" on its election manifesto and it will be published "in the next few days".
  
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• It’s time for some clarity on election spending | Letters

  11-05-2017 19:10
  
  A Conservative party battle bus pictured during the 2015 general election campaign.Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
  
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• Fox News must let Ofcom meet harassment victims, lawyer says

  11-05-2017 19:00
  
  Wendy Walsh, whose complaint of sexual harassment prompted the ousting of Bill O’Reilly, spoke to Ofcom earlier this week.Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox should waive gagging orders on victims of alleged racial and sexual harassment at Fox News so they can speak to the UK media watchdog, a lawyer representing the victims has said.Douglas Wigdor talked about the allegations on Thursday with Ofcom, which is considering whether to approve 21st Century Fox’s acquisition of the 61
  
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• Gordon Brown battles for buddies in his own way | John Crace

  11-05-2017 18:58
  
  Gordon Brown in the engineering faculty of Coventry University after addressing a Labour rally on Thursday.Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
  
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• Deliveroo bows to pressure over 'egregious' rider agreements

  11-05-2017 18:57
  Deliveroo, the food delivery service whose soaring revenues have turned it into one of Britain's biggest technology firms, has bowed to political pressure to overhaul the terms on which thousands of riders work for the company.Sky News has obtained a new version of the "supplier agreement" used by Deliveroo, which handles takeaway orders for restaurant chains such as Byron, PizzaExpress, RossoPomodoro and Wagamama.It was due to begin circulating the contract to its 15,000-strong network of UK-ba
  
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• Nationalisation: What does it actually mean?

  11-05-2017 18:23
  
  The leaked Labour manifesto promises to nationalise a number of currently private businesses.
  
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• 'Smooth' Brexit should allow solid UK growth, BoE's Carney says

  11-05-2017 18:21
  
  By Andy Bruce and David MillikenLONDON (Reuters) - Britain should enjoy solid growth if Brexit goes smoothly, but in the short run households are likely to be hit by inflation prompted by the decision to leave the European Union, the Bank of England said on Thursday.Governor Mark Carney, speaking a month before a national election, said the economy was still growing and employing a record number of people, playing down recent signs of weakness.Britain's economy was one of the best performing maj
  
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• Moving left, UK's Labour manifesto promises renationalisation

  11-05-2017 17:36
  
  By Elizabeth PiperLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's main opposition Labour Party will promise to renationalise rail and mail services and take some of the energy sector into public hands, betting that a shift to the left will win over voters before next month's election.According to a leaked copy of its draft manifesto, Labour, under its leader Jeremy Corbyn, will return to policies echoing those of three decades ago, promising to hike taxes on Britain's highest earners and companies to fund educatio
  
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• Ex-London oil and gas trader ordered to pay 453 million pound divorce bill

  11-05-2017 16:55
  A former London oil and gas trader has been ordered to pay his estranged British wife 453 million pounds - 41.5 percent of his wealth - in one of the biggest divorce settlements in English legal history.The 61-year-old man, who has not been named, met his wife, now aged 44, in 1989 in Moscow where she was studying and they married four years later, according to a judgement handed down at London's High Court on Thursday.The woman, originally from eastern Europe who was a housewife throughout the
  
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• Three UK theme parks close down water rides after girl's death

  11-05-2017 16:46
  
  Water rides at a number of theme parks across Britain have been shut down indefinitely after an 11-year-old girl died when she fell from a “river rapids” ride at Drayton Manor theme park.Evha Jannath, from Leicester, was at the park in Staffordshire as part of a school trip when she fell over the side of a raft on the Splash Canyon ride on Tuesday.Drayton Manor remained closed for the second day on Thursday while investigators continued their investigation.
  
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• Keep the faith, former PM Brown tells Labour activists as defeat looms

  11-05-2017 16:43
  
  By William JamesCOVENTRY, England (Reuters) - Gordon Brown, the last man to lead a Labour government in Britain, urged party supporters on Thursday not to lose faith through "difficult times", with polls predicting current party leader Jeremy Corbyn on course for electoral defeat.Brown, a key figure in the Labour movement that won three elections between 1997 and 2005 under Tony Blair, made his first political intervention ahead of a June 8 vote which is predicted to see Theresa May's centre-rig
  
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• 'Complete nonsense'- Hammond dismisses report of rift with May

  11-05-2017 16:11
  LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor Philip Hammond on Thursday dismissed a Times newspaper report suggesting that his relationship with Prime Minister Theresa May had deteriorated as "complete nonsense". The Times said relations between the teams of the two most senior members of the British government had worsened following a series of disagreements over policy and presentation ahead of a June 8 election. When asked about the front page report, Hammond told BBC TV: "No, complete nonsense." He added:
  
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• Driverless cars could help to reduce traffic on the roads

  11-05-2017 16:08
  
  New research from the US claims autonomous cars could help control traffic flow and reduce congestion.
  
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• Labour's draft manifesto: key policies analysed

  11-05-2017 15:56
  
  Polls suggest 67% of voters back the idea of renationalising Royal Mail.The most eye-catching proposals in Labour’s draft manifesto are the plans to renationalise the railways, the energy market and Royal Mail, and to abolish university tuition fees.What the draft manifesto says: “A Labour government will introduce a public ownership of the railways bill to repeal the Railways Act 1993 under which the Conservatives privatised our railways.
  
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• Car carrying Corbyn runs over BBC cameraman's foot

  11-05-2017 15:44
  
  A car carrying opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn ran over the foot of a BBC cameraman on Thursday while approaching a party policy meeting ahead of Britain's June 8 election.Television footage showed cameraman Giles Wooltorton filming as the car approached an entrance.You’ve run over my foot," the injured cameraman cried out as he fell to the ground.
  
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• This BBC cameraman's foot was run over by a car carrying Jeremy Corbyn

  11-05-2017 15:43
  
  Mr Corbyn was arriving to attend a manifesto meeting.
  
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• Met hacking claim: IPCC asks whistleblowers to come forward

  11-05-2017 15:38
  
  The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched its investigation after an anonymous individual alleged that the unit used hackers in India to obtain the passwords of the email accounts of the campaigners, and some reporters and press photographers.The individual, who said he or she worked for the intelligence unit that monitors the activities of political campaigners, outlined the claims in a letter to the Green party peer Jenny Jones.It was alleged that the police regularly checke
  
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• Labour meets to agree election manifesto after draft is leaked

  11-05-2017 15:22
  
  Senior Labour figures are meeting to agree the party's manifesto for the General Election, amid fallout from the draft being leaked.
  
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• Barnier tells Ireland he'll work to avoid hard border post-Brexit

  11-05-2017 15:09
  
  The EU's chief Brexit negotiator has reassured Ireland that he will work to avoid a hard border in the wake of Britain's exit.Addressing both houses of the Irish parliament, Michel Barnier said: "I am fully aware that some member states will be more affected than others."I want to reassure the Irish people: in this negotiation Ireland's interest will be the Union's interest ... Brexit changes the external borders of the EU.
  
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• British wife wins £453m in court divorce battle with ex-trader husband

  11-05-2017 15:08
  A former London oil and gas trader has been ordered to pay his estranged wife £453m in a divorce settlement by a High Court judge.Such family hearings are usually conducted in private, but it is thought the award could be the biggest made by a UK divorce court judge.Three years earlier, Galinan Besharova, the former wife of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, agreed to accept between £165m and £220m in a settlement.
  
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• BT to cut 4,000 jobs in restructuring after 'challenging year'

  11-05-2017 15:07
  
  By Paul SandleLONDON (Reuters) - BT will cut 4,000 jobs and replace the boss of its global services business in a plan to tackle the source of an Italian accounting scandal that stunned Britain's biggest telecoms group in January.A restructuring of the unit, which employs 18,500 people, is part of Chief Executive Gavin Patterson's attempt to recover from the scandal and a profit warning caused by a slowdown in government work that together wiped 8 billion pounds from the company's value."We've f
  
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• Highlights - Bank of England's Carney speaks following rates decision

  11-05-2017 14:29
  Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave a news conference on Thursday after the central bank said it may need to raise interest rates before the late 2019 date that markets had been expecting, assuming Britain can leave the European Union smoothly in two years' time."It is important to put this into context - the economy is still growing solidly, the economy is still creating jobs, wages are still growing and we actually expect that the pace of wage growth is going to accelerate as this year p
  
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• UK economic growth slowing - NIESR think tank

  11-05-2017 14:25
  
  Britain's economic growth probably slowed in the three months to April, the National Institute of Economic Social Research said on Thursday after data showed weaker-than-expected output in manufacturing and other sectors in early 2017."We estimate that growth slowed to 0.2 percent in the three months to April 2017, from 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year," Rebecca Piggott, a research fellow at NIESR, said.
  
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• Bank of England cuts growth forecast and warns real wages will fall

  11-05-2017 14:18
  
  Britons face a year of falling real wages, the Bank of England has warned for the first time, cutting its economic growth forecast less than a month before the general election.In its quarterly Inflation Report, the Bank cut its forecast for 2017 economic growth very slightly from 2% to 1.9% but raised its projection for economic output next year and in 2019.
  
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• Households face 'more challenging time'

  11-05-2017 14:00
  
  The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, explains why the Bank thinks households face a greater squeeze on their finances this year.
  
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• Do you agree with Corbyn's manifesto – or another Labour leader's?

  11-05-2017 13:58
  
  Tony Blair MP is pictured during his successful 1997 General Election campaign. Photograph: Tom Stoddart Archive/Getty Images
  
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• Interest rates may need to rise before late 2019 - Bank of England

  11-05-2017 13:47
  
  By Andy Bruce and David MillikenLONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Thursday that it may need to raise interest rates before the late 2019 date that markets had been expecting, assuming Britain can leave the European Union smoothly in two years' time.With only a month until a national election, the Bank said the short-term squeeze on households from inflation since June's Brexit vote would be more severe than it predicted in February, with price growth peaking at over 2.8 percent late
  
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• Former Irish PM: 'Major issue' is customs union

  11-05-2017 13:30
  
  Ireland's former Prime Minister Bertie Ahren on Ireland's future after Brexit.
  
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• Labour officials have say on leaked manifesto

  11-05-2017 13:10
  
  Senior Labour officials have their say on leaked manifesto
  
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• Record £400k fine for firm behind 100m nuisance calls

  11-05-2017 12:56
  A company behind almost 100 million nuisance calls has been fined a record £400,000 by the UK's data watchdog.Keurboom Communications received the highest ever fine that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued to a nuisance calling company.Keurboom broke the law by making 99.5 million automated calls in 18 months to people in the UK, encouraging them to make car accident and PPI compensation claims.
  
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• Post-Brexit UK still key for Swiss banks - finance minister

  11-05-2017 12:49
  
  Britain will be a crucial market for Switzerland's banks and insurers even after it leaves the European Union, Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said on Thursday."The UK, England, outside of the EU remains for Switzerland and the Swiss financial centre one of the most important actors," Maurer said at a banking conference.Earlier at the conference, Julius BaerChief Executive Boris Collardi said Brexit opens the door for a deal covering financial services between Britain and Switzerland, which i
  
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• Moving left, Labour manifesto promises renationalisation

  11-05-2017 12:41
  
  Britain's main opposition Labour Party will promise to renationalise rail and mail services and take some of the energy sector into public hands, betting that a shift to the left will win over voters before next month's election.According to a leaked copy of its draft manifesto, Labour, under its leader Jeremy Corbyn, will return to policies echoing those of three decades ago, promising to hike taxes on Britain's highest earners and companies to fund education and health."It gives us an opportun
  
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• N-Dubz rapper Dappy 'attacked woman with tennis racket'

  11-05-2017 12:06
  Former N-Dubz rapper Dappy has reportedly been arrested for hitting a woman in the face with a tennis racket.According to The Sun, the 29-year-old singer was hauled off the woman by four students, who called 999 after the incident in front of his family home in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.Dappy, real name Costadinos Contostavlos, is best known for being the lead singer of the now-defunct grime trio N-Dubz, alongside his cousin Tulisa Contostavlos and DJ Fazer.
  
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• Sterling dips as ONS figures support case that economy is slowing

  11-05-2017 11:46
  The pound has taken a hit after official figures showed a widening of the UK's trade gap and weaker than expected industrial output - bolstering evidence a Brexit-linked slowdown is now biting.While growth remained resilient in 2016 - defying predictions of a recession in the event of a Leave vote in last June's EU referendum - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported a weakening picture since.It gave an initial estimate of GDP growth of 0.3% for the first three months of the year -
  
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• Sinister text messages reveal high-tech front in Ukraine war

  11-05-2017 11:45
  
  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Television journalist Julia Kirienko was sheltering with Ukrainian soldiers and medics two miles (three kilometers) from the front when their cellphones began buzzing over the noise of the shelling. Everyone got the same text message at the same time.
  
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• 24 killed as wall collapses on wedding guests sheltering from dust storm - Belfast Telegraph

  11-05-2017 11:45 via belfasttelegraph.co.uk
  
  Belfast Telegraph
  24 killed as wall collapses on wedding guests sheltering from dust storm
  Belfast Telegraph
  A building wall has collapsed on to guests at a wedding in western India, killing at least 24 people, officials said. Hundreds of guests were having dinner or assembling on outdoor lawns when a strong dust storm blew into the area, forcing people on ...and more »
  
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