General news

• Save the Children apologises to female employees over ex-boss

  20-02-2018 23:27
  Response to claims about former chief executive Justin Forsyth was inadequate, charity admitsSave the Children has apologised to female employees who complained of inappropriate behaviour by the charity’s former chief executive, admitting their claims were not properly dealt with at the time.In a statement, the charity said Justin Forsyth – who has since become deputy executive director of Unicef in New York – was twice subject to investigation after concerns were raised about
  
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• British firefighter rescues injured woman from Bali volcano

  20-02-2018 23:25
  A Birmingham firefighter has described how he led the rescue of a woman who fell 40 metres into the crater of an active volcano.John Conway, 33, was on a sunrise trek of Mount Batur in Bali when he heard the woman had plunged from a viewing platform."I found out there was no air ambulance and the first aid supplies were really poor.
  
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• Paul Gustard: I am sat three feet from Eddie Jones. The tension never goes

  20-02-2018 23:13
  • Defence coach feels England have adaptability to win in Scotland
  • We want to be sure we’re prepared for everything, adds GustardThe message coming out of the England camp in the buildup to one of the most hotly anticipated Calcutta Cup matches in recent memory is clear. Scotland may be unbeaten at home in the Six Nations since Eddie Jones’s first match in charge of England back in 2016 but the hostile welcome that awaits at Murrayfield holds no fear for the defending cha
  
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• Tory MPs' hard Brexit letter to May described as 'ransom note'

  20-02-2018 23:08
  Theresa May will host a meeting of her Brexit ‘war cabinet’ on Thursday.More than 60 backbench Conservative MPs have sent Theresa May a list of hard Brexit demands ahead of a crunch meeting, triggering a furious reaction from colleagues who branded the letter a “ransom note”.As dozens of members of the party’s European Research Group added their names to the correspondence setting out their expectations for Brexit with “full regulatory autonomy”, other T
  
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• Tory MPs' hard Brexit letter to May described as ransom note

  20-02-2018 23:08
  Group of 62 backbenchers’ list of demands for exit of EU triggers furious reaction from colleaguesMore than 60 backbench Conservative MPs have sent Theresa May a list of hard Brexit demands ahead of a crunch meeting, triggering a furious reaction from colleagues who branded the letter a “ransom note”.As dozens of members of the party’s European Research Group added their names to the correspondence setting out their expectations for Brexit with “full regulatory auto
  
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• Ex-Save the Children boss Justin Forsyth 'faced complaints'

  20-02-2018 22:37 via bbc.co.uk
  Justin Forsyth was accused of sending inappropriate texts and commenting on what female staff wore.
  
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• Ex-Save the Children boss Justin Forsyth apologises over texts

  20-02-2018 22:37 via bbc.co.uk
  Former Save the Children boss Justin Forsyth was accused of commenting on what female staff wore.
  
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• Utøya July 22 review - recreation of Norway mass killing is a gut-wrenching ordeal

  20-02-2018 22:18
  The horrific events that saw 69 teenagers die at the hands of a rightwing terrorist has been turned into a brutal single-take drama from the victims’ perspectiveErik Poppe’s Utøya July 22 is a visceral, brutal, yet heartfelt and earnest movie, which imbibes the innocent bewilderment and horror of its young characters. On one unbroken camera take, it seeks to recreate the horrific mass murder of 69 defenceless teenagers in Norway in 2011 at a socialist youth summer camp at Ut&o
  
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• How rightwing media is already attacking Florida teens speaking out

  20-02-2018 21:58
  As students rise up to demand gun control the right aims to take them down, along with anyone who offers them supportAfter Parkland’s mass shooting, the wind seems to have changed. Students are speaking out, demanding that politicians act. And they’re getting some traction. Many found their voice on Twitter and directly attacked Donald Trump’s strange and distracted online response to the massacre. David Hogg, a student journalist who interviewed his classmates as the massacre
  
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• Paul Pogba primed and ready for Manchester United’s Sevilla test

  20-02-2018 21:35
  • Midfielder may return to side for Champions League first leg
  • ‘Mourinho is a pioneer in training methodology,’ says MontellaThe cameras were out late at Carrington on Tuesday morning and so was Paul Pogba, which was one way of announcing that the Frenchman should be fit to play in Seville. But José Mourinho said it was “unfair” to load him with the responsibility for carrying Manchester United to the phase of the competition where teams start to believ
  
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• Ombudsman: teenager's death in Wandsworth prison 'appalling'

  20-02-2018 21:14
  Osvaldas Pagirys had been found with a noose around his neck on five previous occasions.The death of a distressed Lithuanian teenager in the segregation unit of Wandsworth prison after he was arrested for stealing sweets has been condemned as “appalling and tragic” by the prisons and probation ombudsman.An investigation by the acting ombudsman has found that on the day of his death, Osvaldas Pagirys, aged 18, had rung a bell in his segregation cell but it took prison staff 37 minutes
  
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• Corbyn: Spy stories show press is worried by Labour government

  20-02-2018 21:10 via bbc.co.uk
  Labour leader warns right wing press barons "change is coming" and accuses them of printing "lies".
  
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• Government 'defending the indefensible' over Alfie Dingley's request for cannabis treatment

  20-02-2018 21:09
  The Government have been accused of "defending the indefensible" after coming under pressure from MPs to grant access to medical cannabis to a six-year-old epilepsy sufferer.Alfie Dingley, from Warwickshire, has a rare and extreme form of epilepsy and can suffer up to 30 seizures a day.Alfie's use of cannabis treatment is said to reduce both the severity and the frequency of his clusters of seizures, coming once every 27 days rather than every 7-10 days.
  
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• 'No choice' but for UK to impose budget on Northern Ireland, Bradley warns

  20-02-2018 20:51
  The Northern Ireland Secretary has delivered her strongest warning yet that some form of direct rule will be imposed on the country.Karen Bradley announced that the UK Government "intends to take steps to provide clarity" on a Stormont budget.Ms Bradley made the admission in Parliament, on the first day it reconvened since talks to re-establish an executive in the devolved assembly broke down.
  
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• Cadbury UK’s Twitter account narrowly averted disaster after Creme Egg pronunciation gaffe

  20-02-2018 20:46
  That was a close call.
  
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• Queen makes surprise appearance at London fashion week

  20-02-2018 20:22
  Monarch watches Richard Quinn’s show and then presents him with British design awardThere are few people that can get the usually aloof fashion crowd giggling in a state of high excitement. But then there is only one Queen of England. Her Majesty was a surprise guest on Tuesday afternoon at Richard Quinn’s show, the last of London fashion week and his second ever. There was a hush as she entered the room, with the audience standing up to greet the monarch and, of course, raising thei
  
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• Airlines sound alarm over 'blank cheque' for Heathrow third runway

  20-02-2018 20:16
  Airline bosses say the true cost of Heathrow expansion is likely to be ‘grossly’ higher than the £14.3bn estimate.The true cost of Heathrow expansion is likely to be “grossly” higher than the £14.3bn the airport has cited, airlines have told MPs, adding that transparency and guarantees should be supplied ahead of a crucial vote.Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, British Airways’ parent company and the main operator at Heathrow, said parliament should
  
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• Wales recall Leigh Halfpenny and Dan Biggar for Ireland clash

  20-02-2018 20:14
  • Warren Gatland wants his side to deal with expected aerial assault
  • Liam Williams also returns on the wing in place of Josh AdamsWarren Gatland has called on his Wales team to use their experience to deal with an expected aerial assault from Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.Wales have made three changes from the side that lost 12-6 at Twickenham in the last round, with each one aimed at adding to their kicking game in defence and attack. Leigh Halfpenny, who pulled out of the team to f
  
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• World's most powerful tractor beam 'like a pair of robot hands'

  20-02-2018 20:09
  Researchers have for the first time used a tractor beam to move a levitating object around an obstacle course.Sky News filmed the breakthrough at the University of Bristol, where engineers were able to manoeuvre a polystyrene ball that had been suspended in mid-air by the power of sound.The levitation technique used 256 tiny loudspeakers arranged around a laboratory test rig.
  
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• Oxfam sexual abuse scandal is built on the aid industry’s white saviour mentality | Afua Hirsch

  20-02-2018 20:09
  I’ve seen for myself how agencies operate, and the toxic and exploitative relationships that can so easily developA century ago doctors began to take notice of a disturbing condition affecting white men in “the tropics”. These men, hard at work with empire-building and civilising natives, were suffering from a kind of nervous breakdown: a mysterious condition that was so widespread it accounted for as many medical discharges as better known illnesses, such as malaria. Symptoms
  
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• No evidence Corbyn was a communist spy, say intelligence experts

  20-02-2018 20:09
  Researchers say archives suggest claims made against Labour leader are unfoundedCommunist-era files from the intelligence agency of Czechoslovakia provide no evidence that Jeremy Corbyn was ever a spy or agent of influence, experts and academic researchers who have reviewed the papers said on Tuesday.Radek Schovánek, an analyst with the defence ministry of the Czech Republic – which emerged, along with Slovakia, from the peaceful breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993 – has spent 2
  
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• We’re entitled to eat safe meat. Why has that become such a lottery? | Felicity Lawrence

  20-02-2018 20:03
  As meat products are withdrawn from sale, and cash-strapped councils struggle to enforce standards, the regulatory system is breaking downHere we go again: all the signs of another scandal involving meat and food safety. The first stirrings were in January, and while the authorities seem to have kept the lid on it for the moment, it has the feel of previous crises over food supply that have erupted after initial rumblings. There is confusion about what’s actually happened, and arguments ov
  
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• Queen and Anna Wintour in London Fashion Week front row

  20-02-2018 20:02 via bbc.co.uk
  She sat next to Vogue's Anna Wintour, before presenting an award to designer Richard Quinn.
  
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• UK should demand cost pledge for new runway - airline bosses

  20-02-2018 20:01
  British lawmakers should force Heathrow to promise not to raise passenger charges before they give the airport the green light to build a new runway, airline bosses said on Tuesday.Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said that the government aims to give the formal go-ahead to a new runway at Europe's busiest airport in the first half of 2018 subject to consultation work and securing the backing of parliament.Heathrow has pledged to keep down costs but the bosses of British Airways owner IAG
  
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• Queen attends first London Fashion Week front row in surprise visit

  20-02-2018 20:01
  The Queen is already known for her impeccable style - but now she has attended her first ever London Fashion Week front row.Sitting next to legendary US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the Monarch made a surprise visit to London Fashion Week where she sat on the front row - FROW as the industry calls it - of British designer Richard Quinn's show.
  
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• Alfie Evans' father: 'My son's been sentenced to the death penalty'

  20-02-2018 20:00 via bbc.co.uk
  The parents of a boy with a mystery illness lose a fight in the High Court for doctors to continue life support.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn rejects spy 'smears' and takes on press critics

  20-02-2018 19:47
  Jeremy Corbyn has dismissed as “ridiculous smears” the idea he gave information to a communist spy during the cold war, saying the only reason some newspapers are publishing the claims are because they are worried about a Labour government.In his first substantive response to days of headlines about supposed meetings during the 1980s with Ján Sarkocy, a Czechoslovakian diplomat in London who was later expelled as a spy, Corbyn said some proprietors had reason to worry.Labour w
  
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• The Queen on the 'frow' at London Fashion Week

  20-02-2018 19:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Her Majesty sat next to Vogue's Anna Wintour and gave an award to designer Richard Quinn.
  
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• Westminster's Robert Davis, the property developer and the Cube

  20-02-2018 19:34
  Hospitality in spotlight over landmark Paddington-based project of Irvine SellarIn April 2015 Irvine Sellar, developer of the Shard skyscraper at London Bridge, invited Robert Davis, chair of Westminster city council’s planning committee, for dinner at one of his building’s high-end restaurants with panoramic views across the city.Sellar, a 1960s fashion retailer turned property mogul, showed Davis the landmark building. Davis’s register of members’ interests, which detai
  
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• UK steel industry vulnerable despite post-crisis recovery - Tata Steel

  20-02-2018 19:34
  Britain's steel industry is vulnerable despite recovering from a 2015 crisis, with many challenges that led to thousands of job cuts still not resolved and risks related to Brexit looming, the chief executive of Tata Steel UK said on Tuesday.Any additional burden can still take us down," said Bimlendra Jha, speaking at a conference in London organised by EEF, Britain's largest manufacturing industry representative.The UK steel industry is emerging from a crisis that led to the loss of about 7,00
  
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• Is religion really a toxic brand?

  20-02-2018 19:30
  People queue to enter a soup kitchen run by the Orthodox church in Athens. Religion plays an important role in many such good works, writes Alan Bamber. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters
  
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• Important words about Brexit

  20-02-2018 19:30
  David Cameron in 2016. ‘When the British people speak, their voice will be respected, not ignored,’ he said.What a game-changer it will be when Keir Starmer gets up in the Commons and announces that Labour has decided that the best “Jobs Brexit” is “No Brexit”.Recent polling (Labour will win the next election if it becomes the party of remain, theguardian.com, 18 February) shows the majority of Labour members oppose Brexit and the majority of Labour voter
  
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• British man could lose toes after running in Yukon Arctic race

  20-02-2018 19:24
  Nick Griffiths of Bolton suffers frostbite in -40C temperatures during world’s coldest marathonTwo athletes, including a British runner from Lancashire, are facing the prospect of amputation after bitterly cold temperatures in northern Canada marred the world’s coldest ultra-marathon.
  This year’s Yukon Arctic Ultra, a gruelling trek of 300 miles, experienced delays due to extreme cold. Most nights of the nine-day race saw temperatures dip below -40C. Organisers had temporarily
  
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• Is Elise Christie Olympic nightmare down to bad luck or bad racing? | Sean Ingle

  20-02-2018 19:23
  One or two slices of misfortune would be natural. But a run of six successive crashes or disqualifications at a Winter Olympics is harder to explain awayEach time Elise Christie has stepped on to the ice at these Winter Olympics, there has been a gnawing sense among those watching that they are about to become rubberneckers at the scene of a high-speed smash or witnesses to another painful tearjerker.Part of that is the nature of short track speedskating, a wildly exciting but devilish spor
  
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• Metropolitan Police called as chicken shortage causes KFC branches to close

  20-02-2018 19:11
  The calls prompted a reminder from officers that they should only be contacted with ‘serious calls’.
  
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• Queen Elizabeth makes surprise appearance at London fashion catwalk

  20-02-2018 19:05
  Britain's Queen Elizabeth made a surprise appearance in the front row at a fashion catwalk on Tuesday where she watched a show by emerging designer Richard Quinn.The 91-year-old monarch, dressed in a pale blue suit, sat next to Anna Wintour, editor in chief of American Vogue magazine, as models displayed a series of bold and brightly coloured designs at the end of London Fashion Week.The Award has been initiated in recognition of the role the fashion industry plays in society and diplomacy, Buck
  
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• Life support for toddler Alfie Evans can stop, judge rules

  20-02-2018 18:56
  A judge has ruled doctors can stop providing life-support treatment to 21-month-old Alfie Evans against his parents' wishes.The High Court judge ruled in favour of hospital bosses after doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool said continuing to provide treatment was "unkind, unfair and inhumane".Alfie's mother Kate left the court hearing before the judge reached his conclusion and his father broke down as the decision was announced.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn says Daily Mail and Sun stories 'nonsense'

  20-02-2018 18:52 via bbc.co.uk
  Jeremy Corbyn responds to the Daily Mail by saying stories about him and a Czech spy are "nonsense".
  
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• KFC shortages to continue all week

  20-02-2018 18:48 via bbc.co.uk
  The chicken chain says some outlets will be closed all week and others will have a reduced menu.
  
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• UK regulator warns lawmakers over post-Brexit market rules

  20-02-2018 18:43
  Britain should not force its regulators into trade-offs between market stability and helping London remain a leading global financial centre after the country leaves the European Union, a top regulator said on Tuesday.Charles Randell, who becomes chair of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in April, told lawmakers the watchdog's predecessor agency floundered after being forced to balance market soundness with maintaining competitiveness."We ended up with a system called lite-touch, and I am a
  
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• Cancer drugs could help Nikki's blood vessel disorder

  20-02-2018 18:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists uncover faulty genes behind a rare blood vessel disorder and say cancer drugs could treat it.
  
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• Popping into Picasso's: stranger's holiday snaps of artist on show

  20-02-2018 18:25
  Images taken in France 64 years ago by an amateur photographer revealed by Lightbox GalleryFor half a lifetime after Stanley Stanley met a jolly, heavily tanned, bald man on the beach at Antibes, the prints and hand-painted plate he brought back as a souvenir of their time in southern France were stored away under his socks in a chest of drawers. This spring, that evidence of the encounter between Stanley, an amateur photographer, and the bald man – Pablo Picasso – will be seen for t
  
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• Former Ukip leader Henry Bolton still in relationship with Jo Marney

  20-02-2018 18:23
  The former Ukip leader Henry Bolton, deposed by the party at the weekend following his relationship with a younger model who had sent racist online messages, remains in a relationship with her, he has said.On Saturday, Bolton was removed as Ukip’s third permanent leader since Nigel Farage left the role in 2016, by an emergency meeting of the party’s members.
  
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• Oxfam loses thousands of regular donors amid sex scandal

  20-02-2018 18:22
  Some 7,000 regular donors have stopped giving money to Oxfam following allegations of sexual misconduct against some of its workers in Haiti.Oxfam GB chief executive Mark Goldring revealed the figures as he was questioned by MPs on the International Development Select Committee.During a session that lasted almost two hours, Mr Goldring was one of three senior Oxfam bosses who repeatedly apologised to MPs for how the charity handled an internal investigation into the use of prostitutes by staff i
  
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• 'Beast from the East' cold blast could bring freezing weather until March

  20-02-2018 18:22
  A blast of cold weather known as "Beast from the East" is set to send temperatures plummeting across the UK.The Met Office said a rare North Pole phenomenon called a "sudden stratospheric warming" will bring a prolonged spell of cold weather that could last into early March.Next week temperatures are expected to hit 1C or 2C (33F or 35F) for most of the country, and -5C (23F) at night.
  
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• Britain set to take further budgetary control of Northern Ireland

  20-02-2018 18:21
  Britain must take steps towards setting a budget for Northern Ireland while it explores whether agreement can be reached to restore the province's power-sharing government, the British minister for the region said on Tuesday.Talks between the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Irish nationalists Sinn Fein to end that stalemate broke down yet again last week.Britain has already moved towards governing the region directly for the first time in a decade, setting a budget late last year
  
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• Standups on tour: ‘Why have I left my kids to stay in a rat-infested garret?’

  20-02-2018 18:19
  How do comics survive life on the road? They rob their minibars, turn roadies into bird-watchers – and read The Da Vinci CodeI once played in a tiny little school hall in a tiny little village called Drumnadrochit, on the shores of Loch Ness. After the gig, the manager came in and said the audience were refusing to leave. When I asked why, she said they were all expecting a raffle. So I had to go back out and conduct the raffle. Continue reading...
  
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• 'It's not a war. It's a massacre': scores killed in Syrian enclave

  20-02-2018 18:19
  Aid groups warn situation in eastern Ghouta could unfold into worst atrocity of war so farAlmost 200 civilians have been killed in dozens of airstrikes and shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in eastern Ghouta over two days of “hysterical violence”, which has led to warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe that could eclipse past atrocities in the seven-year war.The surge in the killing in the besieged region came amid reports of an impending regime incursion into
  
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• Corbyn warns bankers - finance will serve Britain under Labour

  20-02-2018 18:14
  Britain's financial sector will be "the servant of industry not the masters of all" if the opposition Labour Party gets into power, its leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Tuesday, accusing bankers of taking the economy hostage.Corbyn, a socialist who has won over many voters with promises to renationalise services and increase public spending, has long targeted London's lucrative financial sector, saying politicians have been in thrall to money-makers for too long.In a speech to a manufacturers' confe
  
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• Alfie Evans: Sick toddler’s life support ‘can end’

  20-02-2018 18:13 via bbc.co.uk
  Doctors can stop providing life support to Alfie Evans against his parents' wishes, a court rules.
  
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