General news

• Europe readies riposte to Trump's 'America First' push in Davos

  21-01-2018 21:12
  European leaders will be out in force at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week to defend multilateralism before U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to deliver his "America First" message.Politicians, business chiefs, bankers and celebrities will meet in the Swiss Alps under the banner "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World" for the four-day gathering against an unsettling global backdrop.A decade after the bankruptcy of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers helped trigger a global f
  
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• Lake District zip wire attraction a 'significant hazard'

  21-01-2018 20:52
  Controversial plans for a zip wire attraction in a Lake District valley could be scuppered by claims that low-flying fighter pilots would be put at risk if it goes ahead.Several conservation groups including the National Trust have already objected to the £3m scheme to string wires 130m above Thirlmere reservoir to the south of Keswick and over a busy road.The area is highly regarded because an unsuccessful fight in the 1870s to prevent Manchester Corporation from flooding the valley was o
  
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• Real Betis v Barcelona: La Liga – live!

  21-01-2018 20:49 via theguardian.com
  All the latest from the evening kick-off at Estadio Benito VillamarínEvery January transfer from Europe’s top five leaguesEmail Will | or tweet @Will_Unwin 7.49pm GMT 3 min: Guardado wins the ball from Sergi Roberto 25 yards from goal and fires a left-footed shot just beyond the post.7.48pm GMT 2 min: It’s been an opening two minutes of each team getting a good spell of possession as they both feel their way into the game. The big question is whether the fans can keep the nois
  
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• Ukip in chaos after leader Henry Bolton loses confidence vote

  21-01-2018 20:46 via theguardian.com
  Embattled leader indicates he will not step down despite overwhelming vote against himUkip has been plunged into chaos after its leader, Henry Bolton, overwhelmingly lost a vote of confidence from the party’s national executive committee, but then indicated that he would not step down from the role voluntarily.If he stays, the party will have to hold an emergency meeting of members in the next month to try to force him out. Continue reading...
  
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• Jacksonville Jaguars v New England Patriots: AFC championship game – live!

  21-01-2018 20:45 via theguardian.com
  Jaguars (12-6) and Patriots (14-3) meet for a place in Super Bowl LIITweet Hunter at @HunterFelt or email him 7.45pm GMT How they got hereIn order to make it to this AFC Championship game, the Jaguars had to first beat the Buffalo Bills, which they did in relatively unexciting fashion: they won by the final score of 10-3 victory. Their wild win over the Pittsburgh Steelers was a lot more exciting. they held on to a 45-42 win after a last second Pittsburgh touchdown made it look like a tighter ga
  
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• UK braced for more snow and ice

  21-01-2018 20:38 via theguardian.com
  Five people injured in car crash as Met Office issues warnings after coldest night for almost two yearsMore snow is on the way in the UK after the coldest night for almost two years. On Saturday, the mercury dropped to -13.5C in Dalwhinnie in the Scottish Highlands, the lowest temperature since February 2016.Continue reading...
  
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• UKIP leader Henry Bolton loses no confidence vote after girlfriend row

  21-01-2018 20:30
  UKIP's ruling body has passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in party leader Henry Bolton following a row over his 25-year-old girlfriend.The party's National Executive Committee (NEC) held an emergency meeting on Sunday after married father-of-three Mr Bolton, 54, faced growing calls to quit over his relationship with model Jo Marney.Mr Bolton ended the "romantic element" of their relationship last week, when it emerged party activist Ms Marney had sent offensive messages about Prince Harry'
  
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• Up to a million Britons use steroids for looks not sport

  21-01-2018 20:04 via theguardian.com
  Health warnings as image culture drives usage of performance-enhancing drugsUp to 1 million people in the UK are taking anabolic steroids and other image- and performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs) to change the way they look, public health experts and doctors have said. This ranges from teenagers seeking the perfect physique to elderly men hoping to hang on to youthful looks. Continue reading...
  
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• Nigel Farage and Arron Banks in talks over new political project

  21-01-2018 20:03
  According to sources, Farage and Arron Banks’s new project would be a movement rather than a traditional party.As Ukip implodes amid the likely departure of yet another leader, it faces yet another threat: the possibility of its best-known figure, Nigel Farage, launching a new political vehicle.While Farage has not publicly said anything on the issue, he has been in talks about a possible new grouping with Arron Banks, the millionaire insurance businessman who was Ukip’s main financi
  
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• Government shutdown: Trump attacks Democrats and calls for 'nuclear option'

  21-01-2018 19:43 via theguardian.com
  Trump campaign ad: Democrats ‘complicit’ in murders by immigrantsSenate vote on funding measure to 8 February due by 1am MondayOpinion: This is how democracies dieAs the second day of the US government shutdown wore on, there appeared little sign of progress as both parties continued to blame each other.Related: US government shutdown: anniversary of Trump inauguration marred by chaosContinue reading...
  
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• Javi Gracia faces repair job as Marco Silva’s Watford affair ends in tears

  21-01-2018 19:41 via theguardian.com
  The Portuguese coach forged a thrilling side at Vicarage Road but his courtship of Everton leaves a sour taste all roundWatford have announced the former Málaga manager Javi Gracia as their new head coach following their surprise decision to dismiss Marco Silva.Gracia arrived in England Sunday afternoon – shortly after news of Silva’s sacking was confirmed – and has signed a contract until the summer of 2019 having been approached by club officials before Watford’s
  
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• Women's March: What's changed one year on?

  21-01-2018 19:40 via bbc.co.uk
  Thousands took part in the demonstration in London on the anniversary of the Women's March.
  
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• Labour warns of 'conflict of interest risk' with public contracts

  21-01-2018 19:18 via theguardian.com
  Research finds those policing public sector suppliers such as Carillion often sit on company boardsLabour has warned that the crown representatives who are supposed to police public sector suppliers such as the failed construction company Carillion face potential conflicts of interest, as its own research showed that several hold external directorships and one was a Tory donor.A dossier produced by the party showed that the former admiral Sir Robert Walmsley, who is responsible to the taxpayer f
  
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• Hartlepool receive a helping hand from the neighbours to stay afloat | Louise Taylor

  21-01-2018 19:17 via theguardian.com
  Middlesbrough fans open their pockets for the hard-up National League club and hopes rise that a new owner may soon take overMaybe David Cameron’s “big society” does exist after all? It certainly seems to be alive and kicking in Hartlepool. A genuine sense of community, connectivity and cooperation filled the frosty streets surrounding Victoria Park as 3pm approached on Saturday and a bumper crowd of almost 7,000 filed in to watch Hartlepool United face Wrexham in the National
  
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• Spurs and Mauricio Pochettino frustrated at Southampton despite Kane

  21-01-2018 19:13 via theguardian.com
  For Southampton, nothing was more satisfying than the sight of Mauricio Pochettino hopping up and down on the touchline as Tottenham Hotspur’s final attack petered out. It is almost five years since they introduced Pochettino’s gifts to English football and their gradual decline has been dispiriting to watch. Yet this gutsy performance was a reminder of happier times, filling Southampton with hope in their fight against relegation, and they took pride from making their former ma
  
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• New blue badge rules to benefit people with hidden disabilities

  21-01-2018 19:04 via theguardian.com
  Changes to scheme mean people with autism and dementia could be entitled to parking permitsPeople with hidden disabilities could soon be entitled to blue badge car parking permits under Department for Transport proposals.The DfT said the change would make it easier for people with conditions such as dementia and autism to travel to work, socialise and access shops and services in England. Continue reading...
  
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• Sarah Ferguson claims £45m in damages from Murdoch’s News Group

  21-01-2018 19:02 via theguardian.com
  Duchess of York reportedly blames Mazher Mahmood sting for loss of business opportunities Sarah Ferguson has reportedly demanded about £45m from Rupert Murdoch, claiming the now defunct News of the World wrecked a series of business opportunities for her when its former reporter Mazher Mahmood caught her in a sting.The sum is significantly greater than the £25m the Duchess of York was said to have claimed when she initially sued News Group Newspapers, the former publisher of the pape
  
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• 'I smile a lot more': Jelena Dokic finds strength after adversity

  21-01-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Former tennis star’s book documents abuse she endured from her father, but Dokic is finding support all around, including from Nick Kyrgios’s mumJelena Dokic has succeeded in getting the tennis world talking, on a topic people find notoriously hard to talk about. Returning to Melbourne Park to commentate for the first time since the release of her book Unbreakable, which documents in harrowing detail the abuse she endured at the hands of her father, Dokic has been overwhelmed by the
  
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• Bolton: 'UKIP will have to force me out'

  21-01-2018 19:00
  UKIP leader Henry Bolton is defiantly refusing to bow to calls to resign over his relationship with 25-year-old model Jo Marney.
  
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• Alexis Sánchez could be the man to restore Manchester United’s glory | Jamie Jackson

  21-01-2018 18:57 via theguardian.com
  The Chilean has similarities to Carlos Tevez, a key man in the 2007-08 side, and may give José Mourinho’s attack an edgeIn Alexis Sánchez, José Mourinho is about to acquire another world‑class player as he plots to make Manchester United an elite domestic and European force again. Manchester City hold a 12-point advantage over Mourinho’s team so a credible title challenge will have to wait until next season. Yet Sánchez’s arrival can help to pr
  
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• The Guardian view on sporting diplomacy: scoring not shooting | Editorial

  21-01-2018 18:55 via theguardian.com
  The joint North-South Korean ice hockey team planned for next month’s Winter Olympics is a small win, whatever their fortunes on the rinkWill a flag and half a dozen ice hockey sticks solve the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula? Of course not. If, as planned, a joint North-South women’s team strides forth under a pro-unification flag at next month’s Winter Olympics in the South, it will be a very small step forwards. But that is one of the paradoxes on which all sports dip
  
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• 16 of the best signs from women’s marches in the US, Canada and the UK

  21-01-2018 18:46
  Dogs and men joined the protests too!
  
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• How best to leave the world of work behind | Letters

  21-01-2018 18:39 via theguardian.com
  Readers respond to Andy Beckett’s recent Guardian articleAndy Beckett’s long read was elucidating and possibly prescient (Post-work: is the job finished?, 19 January). However, it’s not just a matter of whether workers can survive having the time and freedom of post-work but also how to manage the transition from one to the other. As a retiree of almost 70, most of my friends and I fill our days with meaningful activity alongside pleasurable family and leisure time. Nonetheless
  
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• Child sex abuse inquiry to query whether Gove asked about investigation

  21-01-2018 18:39 via theguardian.com
  Environment secretary’s alleged interest in inquiry into priest suspected of abuse surfaced last month The child sex abuse inquiry is to write to Michael Gove to ask whether he attempted to find out about the release of an investigation into a priest suspected of abuse at a prominent Catholic boarding school.The alleged interest of the former secretary of state for education in a police and local authority inquiry into the priest surfaced during evidence given to the Independent Inquiry in
  
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• Germany's SPD gives cautious green light to Merkel coalition talks

  21-01-2018 18:38 via theguardian.com
  Martin Schulz’s speech greeted with sarcastic applause and ovations for party leader’s criticsGermany has inched a step closer to forming a new government after the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD) gave its lukewarm endorsement for a renewed Angela Merkel-led “grand coalition”.At a special SPD congress in Bonn that welcomed a speech by the party’s leader, Martin Schulz, with sarcastic applause and saw standing ovations for his fiercest critics, 56% of the p
  
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• Bloodied Cristiano Ronaldo scores twice as Real Madrid beat Deportivo 7-1

  21-01-2018 18:31 via theguardian.com
  Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice but had to leave the pitch with his face covered in blood as Real Madrid eased their domestic crisis by hammering Deportivo La Coruña 7-1 at home on Sunday to reclaim fourth place in La Liga.Real had lost two of their last three league games and got off on the wrong foot against relegation-threatened Deportivo when the former Atlético Madrid forward Adrián López put the visiting side ahead against the run of play in the 23rd minute. Cont
  
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• Tonga's shirtless Rio 2016 flag-bearer qualifies for Winter Olympics

  21-01-2018 18:27 via theguardian.com
  Pita Taufatofua qualifies for cross-country skiing at PyeongchangAthlete gained fame after opening ceremony at Rio 2016Pita Taufatofua, the bare-chested and oiled Tongan taekwondo athlete who carried his country’s flag at the 2016 Rio Olympics, has qualified for the Pyeongchang Games as a cross-country skier. The 34-year-old, who went viral when he stepped into the limelight at the opening ceremony in Brazil, told the Olympic Channel that he had made it after a last ditch attempt in Icelan
  
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• Ukip leader Henry Bolton unanimously loses confidence vote

  21-01-2018 18:16
  Bolton’s was the only vote in favour of his staying in the role.Ukip’s leader, Henry Bolton, has unanimously lost a vote of confidence from the party’s national executive committee, plunging it into renewed chaos and potentially a fourth leadership election in just 16 months.Bolton’s was the only vote in favour of his staying in the role after an emergency meeting to consider the fallout from his relationship with a much younger party activist who was found to have sent r
  
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• Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s first year as president – cartoon

  21-01-2018 18:11 via theguardian.com
  Continue reading...
  
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• Amazon's first checkout-free grocery store opens on Monday

  21-01-2018 18:04 via theguardian.com
  Using ‘just walk out’ technology to end queues, Amazon Go fires a warning to the high streetAmazon will open its first checkout-free grocery store to the public on Monday, moving forward with an experiment that could dramatically alter bricks-and-mortar retail. The Seattle shop, known as Amazon Go, relies on cameras and sensors to track what shoppers remove from the shelves, and what they put back. Cash registers and checkout lines become superfluous: customers are billed after leavi
  
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• Britain to limit gambling terminal stakes to two pounds - Sunday Times

  21-01-2018 18:00
  The stake on gambling machines in British betting shops is set to be cut to two pounds to tackle the risks that the terminals can pose to problem gamblers, the Sunday Times reported, citing an ally of new culture secretary Matt Hancock.The government said in October it would reduce the top stake on the machines from 100 pounds to between 50 pounds and two pounds, with the limit agreed after a consultation that ends on Tuesday.A report by industry regulator the Gambling Commission last year said
  
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• Rally against sexual harassment held in London – video

  21-01-2018 17:54 via theguardian.com
  Crowds gathered in central London on Sunday to protest against sexual harassment and support the Time’s Up movement that was launched in the US. Helen Pankhurst, a women's rights activist and the great-granddaughter of the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, addressed the rally and called for 2018 to be the year that inequality is stamped out Continue reading...
  
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• Davos organizer still counting on Trump to attend

  21-01-2018 17:50
  The World Economic Forum (WEF) still expects U.S. President Donald Trump to attend its annual meeting in the Swiss Alps this week, the forum's chairman Klaus Schwab said on Sunday.    Schwab made the comments in an interview with Reuters a day after White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said the trip was up in the air because of the federal government shutdown in the United States.
  
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• Girl stabbed to death near Walsall named as Mylee Billingham

  21-01-2018 17:49
  Mylee Billingham, eight, who died of her injuries over the weekend.A man has been arrested after an eight-year-old girl was stabbed to death near Walsall, West Midlands police said.Officers were called to an address in Brownhills at about 9.15pm on Saturday and found the girl, named by police as Mylee Billingham, with serious injuries.
  
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• Seven UK police forces report zero charges under anti-slavery law

  21-01-2018 17:16 via theguardian.com
  Experts concerned that despite rising number of reports under Modern Slavery Act 2015 few cases lead to chargesAt least seven police forces in England have not charged a single person under modern slavery legislation introduced over two years ago, the Guardian has learned.The Modern Slavery Act was put in place in May 2015 to make the prosecution of modern slavery easier and help protect victims. But despite rising reports under the act, a number of police forces have not charged anyone while ma
  
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• Fans pay tribute to Dolores O’Riordan in Limerick

  21-01-2018 17:14 via theguardian.com
  Thousands gather at St Joseph’s Church to pay their respects to Irish pop star and Cranberries lead singerThousands have gathered in Limerick to remember the life of the Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan, who died last week in London.Fans young and old, many clutching white roses and daffodils, streamed into St Joseph’s church in the city for a public reposal on Sunday. Continue reading...
  
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• Gambling: ministers urged to be bold with curbs on FOBTs

  21-01-2018 17:03
  Campaigners say fixed-odds betting terminals are a highly addictive form of gambling in which 233,000 FOBT users each lost more than £1,000 in one sitting in 2016.Campaigners have urged the government to be bold in its response to the problem of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) amid reports that a consultation on the issue will this week recommend slashing the maximum single bet from £100 to £2.The review, ordered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCM
  
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• The best signs from the Women's March in London – in pictures

  21-01-2018 17:02 via theguardian.com
  Thousands of people gathered in London on Sunday a year and a day since Donald Trump took office as US president. We pick out some of the best signs from the Time’s Up march Continue reading...
  
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• Want to give your wallet a colonic? Head to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop summit

  21-01-2018 17:00 via theguardian.com
  I am sad I will miss the website’s second live event – if only because it would provide test subjects for my study on the correlation between assets and stupidityDo you think it is good Gwyneth Paltrow has largely stopped acting? Wait – let me finish the question. Do you think it is good she has stopped acting and now devotes her energy to flogging sex dust and vaginal eggs? If so, get to New York, which this week hosts the second Goop summit, provisionally titled Goop 2: Expen
  
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• Thousands join Women's March in London for gender equality

  21-01-2018 16:59 via theguardian.com
  Protesters hear speeches from activists at Time’s Up rally in support of equal rightsThousands of women have turned out for the global Women’s March in London despite the heavy rain and sleet, one year after millions marched in seven continents.
  Across the road from Downing Street and stretching back past the memorial to women in the second world war, protesters chanted “Time’s up” and “We want justice not revenge” on Sunday.Continue reading...
  
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• Search restarts for area willing to host highly radioactive UK waste

  21-01-2018 16:52 via theguardian.com
  Right geology and local consent are key in consultation due to be launched this weekThe government is expected this week to begin a nationwide search for a community willing to host an underground nuclear waste dump to store highly radioactive material for thousands of years.Britain has been trying for years to secure a site with the right geology and local communities which would volunteer to host a £12bn geological disposal facility (GDF), as a long-term solution for the most dangerous w
  
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• Steve Smith denies ball-tampering after Australia captain is seen wiping lip

  21-01-2018 16:43 via theguardian.com
  • Video has led to speculation that he rubbed lip balm on ball
  • ‘It’s the way I get spit from the side of my mouth and on the ball’Steve Smith has quashed talk of ball‑tampering after footage emerged of the Australia captain wiping his lip before shining the ball in the 34th over of England’s innings during the one‑day international in Sydney on Sunday. Related: Jos Buttler century inspires England to series-clinching ODI win over AustraliaContinue
  
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• Better maternity leave could help universities retain women – study

  21-01-2018 16:36
  Universities that offered their own childcare provision were also found to have more women professors on staff.Better maternity leave could boost British productivity by encouraging qualified women to stay in the workforce, according to researchers who found universities with the most generous maternity leave employed twice the number of women professors compared with those offering the least.Vera Troeger, a professor of economics at Warwick University, said her research found that the universit
  
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• Lloyd's of London to divest from coal over climate change

  21-01-2018 16:35 via theguardian.com
  Firm follows other big UK and European insurers by excluding coal companies from 1 AprilLloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest insurance market, has become the latest financial firm to announce that it plans to stop investing in coal companies.
  Lloyd’s will start to exclude coal from its investment strategy from 1 April. The definition of what is a coal company and the criteria for divestment will be set over the coming months.Continue reading...
  
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• Saturday Night Live: time for #TimesUp but sketches sell Jessica Chastain short

  21-01-2018 16:07 via theguardian.com
  The show took on the president’s surprisingly clean bill of health as well as the Women’s March, Stormy Daniels and Robert MuellerSarah Sanders (Aidy Bryant) is here, and she’s explaining the border wall: “It will be paid for by Mexico, with US taxpayer money”. Then she introduces Dr Ronny Jackson (Beck Bennett), to explain “just how not fat the president is”. Related: Saturday Night Live: Bill Murray as Steve Bannon … but downhill from thereConti
  
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• Whatever happened to the Jade Goody effect?

  21-01-2018 16:00
  Brave face ... Jade Goody inspired thousands of women to book a smear test.When the letter arrives informing me that I am due a smear test, as it does every three years for women aged 25 to 49, I do what many women do: I recycle it.The overall decline may seem small – in March 2017, the percentage of women deemed to have been screened adequately fell to 72% from 72.7% the year before – but the figures mask a persistent decline in women booking tests.
  
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• UKIP leader Henry Bolton: 'I will not quit'

  21-01-2018 15:30
  UKIP leader Henry Bolton: 'I will not quit'
  
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• UK courts service spending sees tenfold rise since 2010

  21-01-2018 15:29
  The MoJ said the increase of agency and contract staff was the result of their reform programme and they expected numbers to decline.The courts service spent £50m last year on agency and contract staff, a more than tenfold rise since 2010 when it spent less than £4m, while courts have been closing at an unprecedented rate.The annual cost of temporary staff has rocketed over a period when the Ministry of Justice has suffered the deepest cuts of any Whitehall department and closed more
  
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• UKIP leader Henry Bolton refuses to quit as party 'cannot afford it'

  21-01-2018 15:26
  UKIP boss Henry Bolton has defiantly refused to resign and insisted the party "cannot afford" a third leadership contest in the space of two years.The embattled politician has faced numerous calls to quit, along with the departure of a senior party figure, since he became embroiled in a row over his relationship with a 25-year-old model.Having split with his wife, married Mr Bolton began dating Jo Marney but ended the "romantic element" of their relationship last week when it emerged the UKIP ac
  
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• Kabul hotel attack: guests 'sprayed with bullets as they ran'

  21-01-2018 15:16 via theguardian.com
  Witnesses describe scenes of terror at Intercontinental hotel during attack that killed at least 18 including 14 foreignersWitnesses to a terrorist rampage at a luxury Kabul hotel have described guests being sprayed with bullets as they ran, whole floors engulfed in flames and a security team that fled “without a fight” from gunmen in army uniforms.
  Thick smoke billowed from Kabul’s Intercontinental hotel on Sunday as Afghan and western security forces regained control of the b
  
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