General news

• New IRA develops new kind of under-car bomb, Northern Ireland police say

  01-09-2017 23:46
  Dissident Republicans have developed a new and highly dangerous under-car bomb, police in Northern Ireland have warned.The device, which involves a pressure plate designed to detonate when a car drives over it, was used to target an off-duty officer in Londonderry in February - but it did not detonate.Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) detective superintendent John McVea said the method of detonation, while not sophisticated, was "very effective".
  
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• Man arrested after 'mass brawl' and stabbing near London shopping centre

  01-09-2017 23:46 via theguardian.com
  Police attend after two men injured following violence near Westfield Stratford shopping centre in east London A man has been arrested following a stabbing near Westfield Stratford shopping centre in east London after reports of a “mass brawl”.Police were called to Stratford at about 6:15pm on Friday after a fight broke out near Stratford tube station. A man with stab wounds was taken to hospital by London ambulance service. His condition was not known as of Friday night. Continue re
  
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• Stuart Armstrong opens Scotland account in win against Lithuania

  01-09-2017 23:28 via theguardian.com
  Scotland kept their World Cup hopes alive following a convincing victory, with manager Gordon Strachan describing their performance in Vilnius as “phenomenal” and the best of his time in charge of the national team.The Celtic midfielder Stuart Armstrong scored his first goal for his country with a header from a Leigh Griffiths corner before Andy Robertson curled in a glorious second. James McArthur made it 3-0 from close range late in the second half to clinch three Group F points. C
  
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• Squeezed out: widely mocked startup Juicero is shutting down

  01-09-2017 23:26 via theguardian.com
  The company, which offered pre-sold packets of diced fruits and vegetables that users plugged into its $400 machines, launched only 16 months agoJuicero, a Silicon Valley juicer startup that raised $120m from investors and was widely ridiculed after the $400 machines were revealed to be the equivalent of two hands squeezing a juice box, is shutting down.The death of Juicero, announced on Friday, is the latest case of a San Francisco tech startup collapsing after raising substantial funds under t
  
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• Jason Woodward’s late try gives Gloucester win over champions Exeter

  01-09-2017 23:14 via theguardian.com
  • Gloucester 28-21 Exeter
  • Injury-hit Chiefs begin title defence on the wrong footExeter knew the defence of their Aviva Premiership title would be testing and so it is already proving. Not since last October had they tasted defeat in this competition but a thrilling try in the final seconds by Gloucester’s Jason Woodward abruptly ended the Chiefs’ attempt to overtake Leicester’s long-standing record of 17 consecutive league victories.The clock was already deep in th
  
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• Pyrotechnic planes light up Bournemouth

  01-09-2017 23:13 via bbc.co.uk
  The planes illuminated the night sky at an air festival.
  
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• Friend or foe

  01-09-2017 23:12 via bbc.co.uk
  What do the woes of the UK's biggest door-to-door lender Provident Financial mean for hard-pressed borrowers?
  
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• Archbishop tribute to Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor

  01-09-2017 23:10
  Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, has paid tribute toCardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, who has died aged 85.
  
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• Birmingham bin strike back on over redundancies

  01-09-2017 22:40
  Refuse collectors are striking again in Birmingham after the city council announced it would make workers redundant.
  
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• Global stocks rise as U.S. jobs data seen keeping rate hikes in check

  01-09-2017 22:22
  By Saqib Iqbal AhmedNEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks finished modestly higher on Friday after data showed U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in August, which could make the Federal Reserve cautious about raising interest rates again this year.Traders in currency and bond markets, however, viewed the data as not soft enough to completely rule out another rate hike by the U.S. central bank this year.The dollar climbed and Treasury yields rose.
  
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• Officer fired for racial comments during traffic stop

  01-09-2017 22:10
  Police Chief Mike Register remarked that, “there’s really no place for these types of comments in law enforcement.”
  
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• Shipwreck may have caused mystery gas cloud in East Sussex, coastguard says

  01-09-2017 21:58
  A gas cloud which affected hundreds of people on the East Sussex coast could have been caused by a shipwreck, the coastguard says.Residents were urged to keep windows closed after the unknown haze reached the shore on Sunday, prompting evacuations and causing 150 people to seek treatment for streaming eyes, sore throats and nausea.The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the possible causes for the chemical cloud include discharges from a vessel, previously unreported lost cargo, and emissions fr
  
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• Birmingham bin strike back on after redundancies

  01-09-2017 21:55
  Refuse collectors are striking again in Birmingham after the city council announced it would make workers redundant.
  
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• Birmingham bin strikes resume after agreement collapses

  01-09-2017 21:44
  Refuse collectors are striking again in Birmingham after the city council announced it would begin issuing redundancy notices to workers.The move scuppered a draft agreement that brought an end to seven weeks of strikes on 16 August.Union leaders called the council's decision to issue redundancies, announced on Thursday night, a "deeply provocative act".
  
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• Ten Own Goals From The UK's Brexit Position Papers

  01-09-2017 21:43
  The Government’s own Brexit position papers repeatedly concede being in the EU has benefited Britain, pro-soft Brexit campaigners have said.
  
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• Birling Gap, Sussex Chemical 'Haze' Investigation Looking At Whether It Was 'Emission From Shipwreck'

  01-09-2017 20:53
  Emissions from a shipwreck may have caused the mysterious chemical haze that forced a the evacuation of a coast of Sussex coastline that left dozens of holidaymakers with streaming eyes, sore throats and vomiting.
  
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• U.S. gasoline prices notch first slide since Harvey, oil falls

  01-09-2017 19:50
  By Libby GeorgeNEW YORK (Reuters) - Benchmark U.S. gasoline prices slid for the first day since Hurricane Harvey struck the U.S. oil industry heartland, as some refineries restarted operations, but oil prices slid further.Closure of roughly a quarter of the U.S. refining industry sparked fears of fuel shortages before the Labor Day weekend and cast doubts on refinery demand for crude.This widened the crack spread, the difference between the prices of U.S. gasolineand crude oil .
  
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• F1 star Lewis Hamilton pens tribute poem for Princess Diana

  01-09-2017 19:39
  Formula One ace Lewis Hamilton has written a poem in tribute to "England's beauty" Princess Diana - a day after the 20th anniversary of her death.The three-time world champion posted the words alongside a video montage of images of Diana, accompanied by Van Morrison's Into the Mystic."There will never be another like you, Now a shinning star in the midnight sky I will always remember you, Princess Diana As our sweet nations Rose.
  
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• Student loans: Why is the interest rate so high?

  01-09-2017 19:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Nyasha thinks it's unfair the interest she pays on her student loan has just gone up to 6.1%.
  
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• Princess Diana’s very real role in fighting the stigma of Aids | Letters

  01-09-2017 19:36
  1987 was the year President Reagan first mentioned the disease in public, and the beginning of the UK’s “Don’t Die in Ignorance” campaign.As the New York Times reported in February 1987 in an article entitled Facts, theory and myth on the spread of Aids, “Experts say there is no danger in a peck on the cheek of an infected person but they recommend against any exchange of saliva and deep kissing with an infected person.” Stigma played a huge part in the ongoin
  
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• Questions on Labour’s Middle East position | Letters

  01-09-2017 19:32
  Jeremy Corbyn holds a copy of Labour’s 2017 general election manifesto.Roger van Zwanenberg (Blame China not CUP for censoring articles, Letters, 25 August) points up our double standards on free speech – criticising China but acquiescing in the domestic limitations imposed on criticism of Israel.A case in point is the migration in Labour’s position on Israel in less than three months.
  
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• Young Black People Are Nine Times More Likely To Be Jailed Than White Offenders

  01-09-2017 19:27
  Young black people are nine times more likely to be jailed than young white people, according to new analysis from the Ministry of Justice.
  
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• Government hypocrisy over UK’s gambling problem | Letters

  01-09-2017 19:25
  The government ‘needs to take note of the increasing evidence of the damage gambling causes’, writes Michael Meadowcroft.Your editorial rightly highlights the need to act on the excesses of the gambling industry (Problem gambling has reached crisis point.Time to regulate, 1 September), but there is one glaring omission: the hypocrisy of successive governments in inaugurating more and more gambling opportunities.
  
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• St Olave's allows rejected sixth-formers to return to school

  01-09-2017 19:10
  The grammar school revealed to be systematically pushing pupils out after just one year in the sixth form has backed down on its controversial policy, and said all pupils will be able to rejoin the school without conditions.Pressure from parents taking legal action and the media coverage following the Guardian’s revelations has seen St Olave’s grammar school in Orpington change its stance and drop its stringent academic requirements, which had seen pupils who had not achieved top mar
  
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• Davis laughs off Brexit divorce bill blackmail row

  01-09-2017 19:10
  Brexit Secretary David Davis says the ongoing dispute between the UK and the EU over the divorce bill is "one of many ripples" as the UK departs.
  
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• Placing a bet on Spurs losing is the only thing that cheers me up

  01-09-2017 19:03
  Tottenham played Burnley at Wembley on 27 August, during which Burnley equalised in injury time.Five years ago, I set up an online betting account.Watching Spurs had become so stressful that the only way I could mitigate the pain was placing bets against them winning.
  
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• Couple fined after husband ran naked with scissors during hotel rampage

  01-09-2017 18:51
  Guests at the Macdonald Loch Rannoch hotel fled the lobby to escape Robert Fergus, 72, and his 69-year-old wife, Ruth, in February.Mr Fergus ran naked with a pair of scissors in the public reception of the resort hotel and smashed through a pane of glass.Mrs Fergus, meanwhile, threatened to shoot a staff member after reacting badly to the alcohol she consumed, the BBC reports.
  
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• 'She loved the people' - Tributes to Diana

  01-09-2017 18:50
  Flowers have been left to Princess Diana outside Kensington Palace, marking 20 years since her death
  
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• Brexit negotiations quiz: put the face to the quote

  01-09-2017 18:35
  British Brexit secretary David Davis (L) and European Union (EU) chief negotiator Michel Barnier attend a joint press briefing in Brussels. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock“We can’t be blackmailed into paying a price on the first part... ...
  
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• Ex-Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor dies

  01-09-2017 18:25
  Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the former head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, has died aged 85.Cardinal Cormac served as the tenth Archbishop of Westminster from 2000 until his retirement in 2009.Pope John Paul II appointed him a cardinal in 2001, a year after he took the role of Archbishop of Westminster.
  
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• L'Oreal sacks transgender model after comments on white people

  01-09-2017 18:11
  French cosmectics giant L'Oreal sacked its first transgender model to appear on a British advertising campaign after she described all white people as racist on Facebook.London-based model Munroe Bergdorf had announced on her Facebook page on August 27 that she was to be part of the French cosmetics brand's new advertising campaign celebrating diversity.In an online message that later appeared on Friday to have been deleted, Bergdorf said, according to the Daily Mail newspaper: "Honestly I don't
  
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• Spa owner accused of 'sexual assault' claims she was just 'having a laugh'

  01-09-2017 18:00
  A health spa owner accused of sexually assaulting a man during an unwanted massage sent him a message afterwards claiming ‘ trying to have a laugh’, a court has heard.Kerry Brocklebank, 43, admits she was ‘a little bit tipsy’ and dressed in a swimming costume when she rubbed the man’s lower leg.Brocklebank, who owned and lived in the Huntingdon Spa and UK Sports Massage, in Cambridgeshire, was asked about a series of messages sent to the alleged victim aft
  
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• British schoolgirl named first non-Japanese winner of haiku contest

  01-09-2017 17:57
  Gracie Starkey, 14, from Gloucestershire, beat more than 18,000 entries to take the prize in the English-language section of the contest organised annually by a Japanese tea company.Starkey flew to Tokyo to pick up her prize, telling friends that she was off on holiday to a remote spot in Wales because she had to keep her win secret.The teenager was tasked with writing a haiku after a poet led a Saturday morning workshop at her school, Wycliffe College in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, where she h
  
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• Brexit Secretary David Davis expects Government to last five years

  01-09-2017 17:47
  David Davis has said he expects the Government to last a full five-year term, but declined to confirm that Theresa May would "write the final chapter in Brexit".The Brexit Secretary addressed the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, shortly after returning from what he admitted had been a "tense" round of talks in Brussels.Mr Davis conceded Britain had been put under pressure to resolve the issue of the divorce bill, which EU negotiators insist is agreed upon before talks can move on to the nex
  
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• British PR firm appeals against ruling it ran 'racial' campaign in South Africa

  01-09-2017 17:44
  British public relations firm Bell Pottinger has appealed against a finding that it stoked racial tensions in South Africa through a media campaign, an industry body confirmed on Friday.South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance DA, complained to Britain's Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) about a campaign organised by the PR firm which condemned opponents of President Jacob Zuma as agents of "white monopoly capital".
  
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• Davis sees good Brexit deal despite recent tense talks

  01-09-2017 17:43
  WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit minister told a business audience in Washington on Friday that he hoped talks to leave the European Union would produce a good deal for both sides, although he conceded that discussions were "getting a bit tense".David Davis had just returned on Thursday from Brussels, where EU officials warned that so far progress in their negotiations had fallen short of what was needed to move on to discussion of their future relationship."I am a determined optim
  
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• Liam Fox: We need open and liberal trading

  01-09-2017 17:20
  Trade Secretary Liam Fox has says "we need to maintain open and liberal trading in Europe".
  
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• David Davis Warns Donald Trump Not To Turn His Back On Global Free Trade

  01-09-2017 17:12
  Brexit Secretary David Davis used a high-profile speech in the US to send Donald Trump a blunt message on the dangers of protectionism.
  
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• Houston Mosques Open Doors To Hurricane Harvey Homeless At Eid

  01-09-2017 17:01
  Muslims in Houston have opened their mosques on the eve of Eid to shelter victims left homeless by Hurricane Harvey.
  
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• Kidnap victim Stephanie Slater dies aged 50 from cancer

  01-09-2017 16:47
  Stephanie Slater, who was kidnapped by killer Michael Sams in 1992, has died aged 50 after a short battle with cancer.Then aged 26 and working as an estate agent, Ms Slater was taken at knifepoint during a house viewing in Birmingham.During Sams' 1993 trial, Ms Slater described how she tried to befriend him so he would be less likely to harm her.
  
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• Fianna Fáil attacks Sinn Féin rejection of DUP compromise offer

  01-09-2017 16:43
  Michelle O’Neill said Arlene Foster had not listened to the reasons why Martin McGuinness resigned.Ireland’s largest opposition party, Fianna Fáil, has criticised Sinn Féin’s rejection of a compromise offer from the Democratic Unionists over an Irish language act in Northern Ireland.
  
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• Rooney arrives home after arrest

  01-09-2017 16:40
  Former England captain Wayne Rooney was seen arriving home after charged with drink driving.
  
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• Scottish Conservatives' leader questions UK immigration target

  01-09-2017 16:20
  Prime Minister Theresa May's governing Conservatives should start a new "grown-up" debate on immigration as Britain leaves the European Union, Scottish Conservatives' leader Ruth Davidson said on Friday as she questioned government targets.Davidson, who has more influence in Britain's ruling party after Scottish election success in June, called for a fresh look at immigration seen by some politicians and businesses as crucial to economic growth but which was central to the Brexit vote with many
  
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• Disorderly Brexit chances 25 percent; UK economy to slow further - Reuters poll

  01-09-2017 16:18
  By Ross FinleyLONDON (Reuters) - The chances of Britain eventually exiting the European Union in a disorderly manner have eased a bit, according to a Reuters poll of economic forecasters, who still say a free trade deal, even if there is a transition period, is the most likely outcome.In the meantime, UK economic growth is forecast to keep slowing despite an upturn in the broader world economy.
  
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• Army veteran: Female troops 'disruptive'

  01-09-2017 16:15
  Major General Patrick Cordingley, who led the Desert Rats during the first Gulf War, says women troops would be "disruptive".
  
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• Why US storm is forcing up UK petrol costs

  01-09-2017 16:10
  Nicholas Lyes from the RAC explains the background to rising UK petrol prices.
  
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• Top British fee-paying schools investigated over exam cheating

  01-09-2017 16:02
  England's exam regulator has ordered an investigation into allegations of cheating at two of the country's most prestigious fee-paying boys' schools.Ofqual said it was reviewing whether teachers should be allowed to set question papers after cheating allegations at Eton College and Winchester College, which charge more than 30,000 pounds a year.Top fee-paying schools in Britain represent big business, attracting a large number of foreign pupils - although the vast majority of British children at
  
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• Theresa May Admits She Has Never Actually Tried Singing Karaoke

  01-09-2017 15:53
  In perhaps her least surprising admission to date, Theresa May has confessed that she has never actually done karaoke.
  
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• Ruth Davidson leader questions UK immigration target

  01-09-2017 15:32
  Prime Minister Theresa May's governing Conservatives should start a new "grown-up" debate on immigration as Britain leaves the European Union, Scottish Conservatives' leader Ruth Davidson said on Friday as she questioned government targets.Davidson, who has more influence in Britain's ruling party after Scottish election success in June, called for a fresh look at immigration seen by some politicians and businesses as crucial to economic growth but which was central to the Brexit vote with many
  
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• Andy Carroll pursued by motorcyclists

  01-09-2017 15:30
  CCTV footage of motorcyclists chasing footballer Andy Carroll after attempting to steal his watch at a set of traffic lights.
  
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