General news

• Sir Elton John says mum Sheila Farebrother's funeral was 'perfect'

  03-01-2018 23:13
  Sir Elton John has paid tribute to his mother and described her funeral as "perfect".Sheila Farebrother died in December, aged 92, shortly after she and her son had put behind them a long-running feud.In an Instagram post, the singer said that Mrs Farebrother had been remembered with a family service and went on to pay tribute to her.
  
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• Officer apologises over 'Hillsborough tweet' after Liverpool car park fire

  03-01-2018 23:13
  A police officer has apologised after his tweets about the Liverpool car park fire were construed as referring to the Hillsborough disaster.The posting triggered complaints to Northumbria Police with one person claiming it was a "disparaging remark about Scousers".Another message was sent to the officer's bosses in Berwick, Northumberland, that said: "Can you please ask pc Curtis Ritchie (8873) to elaborate on his recent comments to the people of Liverpool & particularly families of the 96?"
  
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• The row between the Trumps and Steve Bannon has spilled over onto Twitter

  03-01-2018 23:03
  The White House statement said Bannon had “lost his mind”.
  
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• Katie Hopkins joins far-right Canadian website Rebel Media

  03-01-2018 21:41
  Katie Hopkins has compared African migrants crossing the Mediterranean to ‘cockroaches’.Katie Hopkins, the former Mail Online columnist, has joined far-right Canadian website the Rebel Media, where Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League, is also a contributor.Hopkins will write a regular column through a new website called Hopkins World and will also contribute video commentaries and investigative reports.
  
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• Patients in Africa twice as likely to die after an operation than global average, report shows

  03-01-2018 21:30
  The study of 25 countries found just over 2% of patients died within 30 days of their operation.Patients undergoing surgery in Africa are more than twice as likely to die following an operation than the global average, despite generally being younger, healthier and the surgery they are undergoing being more minor, research has revealed.The study, which covered 25 countries, revealed that just over 18% of in-patients developed complications following surgery, while 1% of elective in-patients died
  
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• Department for Education defends Toby Young appointment

  03-01-2018 20:46
  Toby Young (L) at the opening of a free school in London in 2011 with Boris Johnson, who has said Young is ideal for the watchdog role.The Department for Education (DfE) has defended the appointment of Toby Young to the government’s new higher education watchdog in the face of mounting concerns over his suitability for public office.The ex-journalist and free schools advocate was appointed to the board of the Office for Students (OfS) by the education secretary, Justine Greening, earlier t
  
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• Windsor Council Leader Calls For Police To Remove Rough Sleepers Ahead Of Royal Wedding

  03-01-2018 20:33
  The Tory leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has written a letter calling for Thames Valley Police (TVP) officers to remove beggars and rough sleepers ahead of the royal wedding.
  
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• Europe battered by 100mph winds as Storm Eleanor strikes UK

  03-01-2018 20:32
  Storm Eleanor has hit Europe, with winds of up to 100mph (160km/h) affecting the UK and other countries, injuring people, leaving thousands of homes without power and bringing transport links to a halt.At least four people were injured by falling trees in England and Wales.France’s interior ministry said nine people were hurt.
  
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• Lost River Etive camera reunited with owner

  03-01-2018 20:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Images shared on social media helped trace the owner of the camera, a year after it was swept away.
  
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• McDonald's workers get pay rises after strikes

  03-01-2018 19:59
  McDonald's workers in the UK will have a bit more money in their pockets after a pay rise from 22 January.The move comes three months after employees at two McDonald's restaurants walked out over pay and conditions, in the first-ever strike to hit the fast food giant in Britain.Staff at the branches in Cambridge and Crayford had voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action, demanding more secure working patterns and a wage of at least £10 an hour.
  
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• Donald Trump Says Steve Bannon 'Lost His Mind' After Chief Strategist Lost Job

  03-01-2018 19:52
  Donald Trump has hit out at his former key advisor Steve Bannon, claiming he “lost his mind” after losing his job at the White House.
  
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• UK leaving single market for TPP could hit workers' rights, union warns

  03-01-2018 19:21
  Trade unions have issued a warning about the possible impact on workers’ rights if Britain leaves Europe’s single market and instead seeks to join a flagship Pacific trading group after Brexit.After claims that officials had embarked on informal talks about future membership of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said such a move would be “scraping the bottom of the Brexit barrel”.“Trade unions around the world have
  
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• UK leaving single market for TPP could hit workers' rights, union warns

  03-01-2018 19:21 via theguardian.com
  TUC delivers stark warning about labour abuses after trade secretary Liam Fox refuses to rule out membership of TPPTrade unions have issued a warning about the possible impact on workers’ rights if Britain leaves Europe’s single market and instead seeks to join a flagship Pacific trading group after Brexit.After claims that officials had embarked on informal talks about future membership of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said su
  
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• The history of empire isn’t about pride. It’s about truth | James McDougall

  03-01-2018 19:20 via theguardian.com
  Oxford professor Nigel Biggar has called for the British to ‘moderate our post-imperial guilt’. But it’s evidence alone that should inform our study of the pastThere is something ironic about an Oxford theologian being portrayed as persecuted for arguing that Britain should be proud of its imperial past, when 59% of the population agree with him. But it’s no laughing matter.Oxford’s Ethics and Empire project, announced last month by Prof Nigel Biggar, has drawn wide
  
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• Anger as Madrid chooses drag queen to star in Epiphany parade

  03-01-2018 19:11 via theguardian.com
  Conservative politicians accuse city hall staff of ‘distorting Christmas’ after allowing La Prohibida to take part in religious eventSpanish conservative politicians have criticised Madrid city hall for allowing a drag queen to take part in an Epiphany feast parade, arguing it is “distorting” an event aimed at children.La Prohibida (The Forbidden) will star on one of the floats in the event on Friday in the Puente de Vallecas district in southern Madrid, one of 17 Epiphan
  
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• Dog dies after eating fish washed up on Norfolk beach

  03-01-2018 19:07 via bbc.co.uk
  Dog owners are being warned to be vigilant about what their pets eat on beaches.
  
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• McDonald's Strike Workers Cheer Victory Over Inflation-Busting Pay Rise

  03-01-2018 19:06
  McDonald’s UK is to give staff in its wholly-owned restaurants an above inflation pay rise, just months after the company encountered its first ever strike by workers.
  
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• I would like to hear a decent case to stop Brexit. But this isn’t it | Owen Jones

  03-01-2018 19:05 via theguardian.com
  The vote to leave can’t just be wished away as if it never happened. Those who want to overturn it need a more grassroots, populist strategyIf only Brexit would go away. It sucks the political oxygen away from the issues we should all be discussing: like low wages, insecure jobs and the housing crisis. It is a rallying cry for a noxious alliance of anti-immigrant demagogues and regulation-stripping free marketeers. The bigotry, xenophobia and racism stirred up by the official leave campaig
  
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• 'Idiot': Murdoch mocked Trump after phone call on immigration, book claims

  03-01-2018 19:04 via theguardian.com
  Author Michael Wolff describes alleged foul-mouthed comment by media mogul after discussing visas with the then president-electRupert Murdoch described Donald Trump as “a fucking idiot” over his contradictory views on immigration policy, a new book reveals. Related: Trump Tower meeting with Russians 'treasonous', Bannon says in explosive bookContinue reading...
  
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• Berliner will be missed in the henhouse | Brief letters

  03-01-2018 19:04
  Annie Bullen says the Guardian’s impending change of format will deprive her of a childish pleasure. Photograph: shellhawker/Getty Images/iStockphoto
  
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• What the ancient DNA discovery tells us about Native American ancestry

  03-01-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  A new genome from a Pleistocene burial in Alaska confirms a longstanding model for the initial peopling of the AmericasSurprise as DNA reveals new group of Native Americans: the ancient BeringiansA little over 11,000 years ago, a grieving family in Central Alaska laid to rest a six-week-old baby girl, a three-year-old child, and a preterm female fetus. According to their custom, the children were interred under a hearth inside their home and provisioned with the carefully crafted stone points an
  
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• The crane mutiny: how Sydney's apartment boom spun out of control

  03-01-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Building apartments along transport routes in Sydney was meant to create a more sustainable city. But only developers seem happy with the resultsAcross the road, a giant crane has been working on a new block of apartments on the site of a former service station. Another is going up down the road, where the bank used to be. More units are planned for the local RSL site and for two factories within a few hundred metres, and on dozens of other sites in my inner-western Sydney suburb that were previ
  
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• Alcohol can cause irreversible genetic damage to stem cells, says study

  03-01-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Link between drinking and cancer clarified by study which indicates alcohol causes cancer by scrambling DNA in cells, eventually leading to mutationsAlcohol can cause irreversible genetic damage to the body’s reserve of stem cells, according to a study that helps explain the link between drinking and cancer.The research, using genetically modified mice, provides the most compelling evidence to date that alcohol causes cancer by scrambling the DNA in cells, eventually leading to deadly muta
  
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• How 'projection bombing' blew up on Twitter HQ

  03-01-2018 18:45 via theguardian.com
  From Gail Porter being beamed on to parliament to #refugeeswelcome lighting up the cliffs of Dover, this nifty visual trick has become a go-to viral hit for activists. As Twitter boss Jack Dorsey can confirm, it’s simple, eye-catching – and you can’t rub it offBy the standards of a guerrilla artform with unlikely roots in Cool Britannia, the latest example was modest, if direct. On Tuesday night, an activist group in San Francisco projected a brief message on to the walls of Tw
  
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• Doctors and patients accuse government of failing to stop NHS crisis

  03-01-2018 18:45 via theguardian.com
  At least 21 trusts are on black alert, meaning they cannot guarantee patient safety or provide full range of servicesNHS providers, doctors and patients have joined opposition parties in accusing the government of failing to stop the growing crisis in the NHS this winter.
  Pressure on the health service in England continues to mount with at least 21 trusts – many responsible for multiple hospitals – on black alert, known as opel 4, on Wednesday. Hospitals are forced to announce this w
  
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• Google faces new discrimination charge: paying female teachers less than men

  03-01-2018 18:43 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: former employee alleges that women hired to work as preschool teachers in the company’s childcare center were paid lower salaries than men with fewer qualifications doing same job Google, which has been accused of systematically underpaying female engineers and other workers, is now facing allegations that it discriminated against women who taught employees’ children at the company’s childcare center. Continue reading...
  
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• Branson's Kensington Roof Gardens to close

  03-01-2018 18:39
  Sir Richard Branson has blamed market conditions for the closure of his Kensington Roof Gardens venue in west London.The site was used for events, showbiz parties, awards ceremonies, weddings and dinners in its restaurant Babylon.Virgin became a tenant in 1981 but has confirmed it will not be renewing its lease.
  
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• From Grope Lane to Bell End: do rude street names affect house prices?

  03-01-2018 18:38 via theguardian.com
  The residents of a rudely named road in the West Midlands have launched a petition to have its name changed, the official reason being to ‘protect their kids’ from bullyingAs if we didn’t have enough to worry about in 2018 – what with the continued march to extinction of the natterjack toad and the turtle dove – the year opens with news that our our ancient heritage of rude street names is also evaporating.Shiteburn Lane in the City of London is long gone – it
  
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• The Tories are out of step with modern life – and Toby Young shows it | Ian Birrell

  03-01-2018 18:35 via theguardian.com
  The appointment of this boorish polemicist to the Office for Students will only confirm how toxic the current Tory brand is to younger votersToby Young has never been shy of self-promotion. He admits to possessing a “gargantuan” ego, writes frequently about himself and was famously the author of a book called How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. But even he must have been slightly surprised that the first big political story of the year should revolve around his suitability for
  
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• Poundland seals £180m financing deal to reduce reliance on Steinhoff

  03-01-2018 18:34 via theguardian.com
  Loan will allow UK retailer to distance itself from scandal-hit South African owner as it reports record Christmas trading Poundland has secured up to £180m of independent financing that will reduce its reliance on its troubled South African owner Steinhoff International after bumper Christmas trading.Pepkor Europe, the European owner of Poundland, the Pep&Co clothing business and two other chains, has arranged a two-year loan facility from US investment firm Davidson Kempner Capital M
  
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• Learning from accessibility: 'When we embrace inclusive design, everyone benefits'

  03-01-2018 18:34 via theguardian.com
  Accessible banking used to mean statements in large print. Now it involves fingerprints, face recognition and hi-vis debit cards. Next up, a helpful money management bot ... For Robin Christopherson, who is blind, getting cash out has traditionally been a socially uncomfortable and not entirely secure process. “Whenever I’m lining up at an ATM, I have to grab a person next to me and say to them: ‘Here’s my card, this is my pin, and this is how much I want,’” h
  
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• Why do Easter eggs in January annoy us so much?

  03-01-2018 18:29 via theguardian.com
  Shoppers are reportedly ‘incensed’ that the chocolate eggs appeared in stores straight after Boxing Day – but some supermarkets are determined to stock up earlyPeople are getting very cross about Easter eggs. Specifically, that they are already on sale in some UK supermarkets, despite the fact that the mince pies are barely off the shelves. The Mirror reported that shoppers – ie a handful of grumpy Twitter users – were “incensed”.The hard, hollow, ovoid
  
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• KFC channels Trump in Twitter dig at McDonald’s

  03-01-2018 18:27
  Early 2018 Twitter beef, anyone?
  
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• Tory MP couple nickname their baby 'Brexit Clifford'

  03-01-2018 18:19
  Two Tory MPs have revealed they jokingly call their son 'Brexit Clifford' because he was born on the day Article 50 was triggered.Andrea Jenkyns and Jack Lopresti, who both backed Leave in the EU referendum, named the baby Clifford after Ms Jenkyns' late father.Ms Jenkyns made the revelation after her wedding in the Palace of Westminster.
  
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• Jeremy Hunt apologises for cancelled operations as Theresa May denies NHS 'crisis'

  03-01-2018 18:18
  Jeremy Hunt has apologised to tens of thousands of patients whose operations were cancelled after hospitals reported extraordinary winter pressure.The Health Secretary admitted to Sky News the situation was "absolutely not what I want".The comments came after Theresa May denied the health service was in "crisis", saying it was more prepared "than ever before".
  
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• To Continue To Refer To 'Firemen' Is To Disrespect The Work Women Firefighters Do Each Day

  03-01-2018 18:17
  Women have been firefighters in the UK for over 40 years.
  
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• From Louis Theroux to Jeremy Corbyn: why are young people’s heroes all middle-aged? | Sam Wolfson

  03-01-2018 18:16 via theguardian.com
  Millennials admire people who grew up before the internet age. That’s why we love Stranger Things, 80s sportswear and old-school Glastonbury headliners, tooLouis Theroux debuted his feature-length film about Scientology at the London film festival in 2015, hoping to create a buzz that would lead to a cinema release, but he couldn’t find a company willing to distribute it. Eventually, a year after the premiere, he managed to secure a very limited cinema release.Those screenings sold o
  
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• Arsenal set to sign 20-year-old Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos

  03-01-2018 18:14 via theguardian.com
  • Mavropanos set to join Premier League side for a fee of £1.9m
  • Young centre-back expected to be sent out on loanArsenal are set to sign the Greek defender Konstantinos Mavropanos from PAS Giannina for a fee of £1.9m (€2.1m). The 20-year-old has travelled to London in order to complete the move this week.Mavropanos is regarded as one of the best defenders to emerge in Greece in the last 10 years. He made his debut in the Greek Super League for PAS Giannina as an 18-y
  
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• Marilyn Stafford's best photograph: Albert Einstein in his lounge

  03-01-2018 18:07 via theguardian.com
  ‘It was a little after the Hiroshima bombing. Einstein sat in his lounge wearing baggy tracksuit trousers – and spoke out against atomic weapons’In 1948, I was living in New York, hoping to break into acting. I’d been part of the Cleveland Play House’s first children’s group, along with Paul Newman and Joel Grey. Shirley Temple was famous and mothers all wanted their daughters to be stars.One weekend, two friends making a documentary told me they were driving
  
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• West Brom star Jake Livermore in altercation with fan over 'dead son remark'

  03-01-2018 17:59
  West Bromwich Albion and England midfielder Jake Livermore became embroiled in an altercation with a rival fan - allegedly over remarks about the footballer's baby son, who died in 2014.The incident, which saw the 28-year-old climb into the stands, took place after he was substituted during his side's 2-1 away defeat to West Ham United on Tuesday.The London club has since identified the fan involved after he was ejected following the confrontation, which led to the former Tottenham Hotspur playe
  
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• Why ‘pawternity leave’ is good for people and pets | Paul Fleckney

  03-01-2018 17:58 via theguardian.com
  More and more businesses are offering paid days off to those welcoming new furry friends. It’s the work perk animal lovers have been waiting forAny adult who’s had a pet will know the feeling. You’ve just got home with Moggie/Fido/Scargill, and all you want to do is hang out together for a few days, do some bonding, introduce your new animal to the idea of not pissing on everything in sight. Instead, the next day you have to trudge into work to hang out with other human beings,
  
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• Commemoration of British military victory sparks riots in India

  03-01-2018 17:58 via theguardian.com
  Celebration of 200-year anniversary by Dalits, who fought on side of British, was disrupted by nationalists, leading to widespread violenceThe commemoration of a 200-year-old British military victory in India has spilled over into days of violence and protests in Mumbai and across Maharashtra state.
  Streets in Mumbai were deserted on Wednesday as hundreds of Dalit protesters blocked roads and train lines and attacked buses, forcing transport delays and the closure of schools and shops in the fin
  
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• Falkirk vow to find fans who threw fake eyes at Dunfermline’s Dean Shiels

  03-01-2018 17:57 via theguardian.com
  • Midfielder lost the sight in his right eye when he was eight years old
  • Falkirk already missing two players banned for taunting Shiels previouslyFalkirk have apologised and vowed to take action against the culprits after some of their fans threw fake eyes towards the Dunfermline midfielder Dean Shiels during the Championship derby on Tuesday.Shiels was already the centre of attention in the East End Park meeting, with Falkirk still missing the suspended Joe McKee and Kevin O’H
  
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• NHS doctor: 'We are appalled by our own care'

  03-01-2018 17:56
  A London doctor tells Sky News what it is like to work in an overstretched NHS hospital where he says medics are desperately trying to treat hundreds of patients with not enough space to do so.Corridors don't have the correct equipment and they certainly don't come with the appropriately trained staff, but corridors are where patients are parked while they wait for beds in the hospital and the emergency room continues to fill.
  
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• Jake Livermore says remark about son who died led to West Ham fan altercation

  03-01-2018 17:54 via theguardian.com
  • West Ham have identified fan involved in altercation
  • FA could take sympathetic view towards West Brom player over incidentJake Livermore has told West Bromwich Albion officials that a remark directed towards him in relation to his baby son who died in 2014 prompted him to wade into the crowd at the London Stadium and become involved in an altercation with a West Ham fan.The supporter involved in the altercation has been identified by West Ham and faces a ban if found to have made t
  
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• We need a domestic violence offenders’ register. Theodore Johnson is proof | Joan Smith

  03-01-2018 17:53 via theguardian.com
  When Angela Best met Johnson, she didn’t know he’d killed two previous partners. New legal powers could help to save women’s livesWhy aren’t women being warned before they form relationships with dangerous men? Earlier this week, there was widespread shock when Theodore Johnson, 64, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to the murder of his former partner, Angela Best. Best had no idea, when she first met Johnson, that he already had convictions for killing his wife and anothe
  
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• Wales suffer Six Nations blow with George North set to miss opener

  03-01-2018 17:48 via theguardian.com
  • Northampton wing out for a month with knee injury
  • North looks likely to miss Scotland game on 3 FebruaryWales’s plans for the Six Nations have suffered a setback, with George North a doubt for the start of the tournament. He has not played for Wales since the end of last year’s Six Nations and the Northampton wing is out for up to a month after sustaining a knee injury at Twickenham last weekend on his comeback for the Saints. Related: Eddie Jones’s hunt for Test
  
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• First polar bear born in the UK for 25 years

  03-01-2018 17:47
  A polar bear has been born in the UK for the first time in 25 years.The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) says its resident female polar bear, Victoria, gave birth at the Highland Wildlife Park.Staff at the park in Kincraig near Kingussie had heard "high-pitched sounds" from Victoria's maternity den.
  
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• Cardboard, chewing gum, celebrity spectres: outsider art at Sotheby’s

  03-01-2018 17:44 via theguardian.com
  Exhibition at London auction house features ‘hugely inspiring’ work by artists creating outside the mainstreamThe first exhibition of outsider art to be held at Sotheby’s will open at the London auction house next week, showing a lifesize cardboard sculpture of a runner, minutely detailed drawings by a former punk rocker, and works in embroidery, found materials and chewing gum.The exhibition will feature pieces by artists working outside the traditional art world, including so
  
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• Joshua Boyle, former Taliban hostage, in court on sexual assault charges

  03-01-2018 17:36 via theguardian.com
  Canadian, 34, who was rescued with wife and children after nearly five years, also faced charges in Ottawa of forcible confinement and making death threatsJoshua Boyle, the Canadian man held hostage by Taliban-linked militants for nearly five years, briefly appeared in an Ottawa court via videolink on Wednesday after being arrested on more than a dozen charges including sexual assault, forcible confinement and uttering a death threat. Boyle was rescued in late 2017 in Pakistan, along with his Am
  
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