General news

• Parsons Green accused Ahmed Hassan 'used school prize to buy bomb materials'

  07-03-2018 23:31
  An Iraqi teen on trial over the Parsons Green bomb is alleged to have used a prize he won at school to buy chemicals to build the improvised device.Ahmed Hassan Mohammed Ali has been charged with attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life.In June 2017 Hassan won a £20 Amazon voucher from Brooklands College in Surrey for being "student of the year".
  
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• Labour seeks government defeat on cuts to childcare

  07-03-2018 23:00
  Labour’s shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, says the government is using ‘arcane procedures’ to ‘dodge proper scrutiny from MPs’.The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, is seeking to inflict a series of defeats on the government in the House of Commons next week over cuts to free school meals and childcare.Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the Commons, is expected to announce on Thursday that the government has granted Labour a three-hour debate and a ser
  
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• 'A sad state of affairs': Gender equality is 200 years away, #100Women told

  07-03-2018 22:48
  When a live studio audience of 100 women came together in Sky Studios to debate gender parity, there was a lot to discuss.Pay and parenting, sex scandals and sexism, women versus women and the behaviour of men were all on the agenda - as well as the question of whether feminism had gone far enough.Audience members were shocked to learn that gender equality is still more than 200 years away, according to estimates by the World Economic Forum.
  
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• Ex-Russia spy and daughter targeted with nerve agent in Salisbury, police say

  07-03-2018 22:46
  A former Russian spy and his daughter were targeted with a nerve agent in Salisbury, police have revealed.Detectives are investigating the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who are fighting for their lives in hospital.A Wiltshire Police officer, who was one of the first at the scene, is also in a serious condition.
  
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• Weatherwatch: is March a lion or a lamb?

  07-03-2018 22:30
  Street scene in Dunipace, Scotland during the early March snow. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA
  
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• May voices Yemen concerns after Corbyn accuses UK troops of 'directing' war

  07-03-2018 21:59
  Theresa May has raised "deep concerns" over the humanitarian crisis in Yemen with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, following Commons clashes over allegations of British involvement in the kingdom's conflict.Mohammed bin Salman posed with Theresa May outside 10 Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon ahead of talks between the pair, following lunch with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.On Yemen, Downing Street said the pair "agreed on the importance of full and unfettered humanitarian and commercial acce
  
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• UK, Saudi to monitor shipping lanes before Yemeni ports open - Al Arabiya

  07-03-2018 21:13
  RIYADH (Reuters) - Britain and Saudi Arabia will monitor shipping lanes in preparation for opening Yemeni ports, the British foreign minister said on Wednesday after meeting his Saudi counterpart in Yemen, according to Saudi-run Al Arabiya television.
  
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• Britain and Saudi Arabia target 65 billion pound trade and investment ties

  07-03-2018 21:10
  Britain and Saudi Arabia set out an ambition to build 65 billion pounds of trade and investment ties in coming years, London said on Wednesday, calling the agreement a vote of confidence in the British economy ahead of Brexit."The meeting agreed a landmark ambition for around 65 billion pounds of mutual trade and investment opportunities over the coming years, including direct investment in the UK and new Saudi public procurement with UK companies," a spokeswoman from Prime Minister Theresa May'
  
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• Sergei Skripal was deliberately poisoned with nerve agent, say police

  07-03-2018 20:56
  Police officers direct a fire engine outside the Zizzi restaurant in Salisbury.The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were deliberately poisoned with a nerve agent in a case that is now being treated as attempted murder, the police counter-terrorism chief has said.Scotland Yard assistant chief commissioner Mark Rowley said the police officer who was first to the spot where Skripal was found in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon was “seriously ill” in hospital.
  
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• What is a nerve agent and how does it work?

  07-03-2018 20:51
  The suspected poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury is now being treated by police as attempted murder by nerve agent.
  
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• Labour says ministers made false claims about cladding after Grenfell

  07-03-2018 20:37
  Labour said the certificate ‘called into question the government’s entire fire safety system’.The government’s chief fire safety adviser approved as safe for use cladding similar to that which spread the deadly Grenfell Tower fire, according to a certificate unearthed by Labour.Sir Ken Knight, who was appointed as the independent expert advisory panel on making buildings safe after 72 people died at Grenfell, signed a safety certificate in 2014 for a combustible aluminium
  
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• Sergei Skripal case: what do nerve agents do and how hard are they to make?

  07-03-2018 20:24
  After days of analysis, police investigators announced on Wednesday that they believe a nerve agent was used to poison former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on Sunday, raising questions of how it was created and how the attack was carried out.A range of highly potent nerve agents were developed by military scientists from the 1930s onwards and a number have since been used in assassinations and terror attacks.The Malaysian authorities have charged two women with Kim’s murder
  
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• End of an era of excess, drugs and rock 'n' roll

  07-03-2018 20:18 via bbc.co.uk
  The NME, which is ceasing its print edition, was a massive part of many music fans' lives.
  
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• 'More women will die' if domestic violence funding is changed, refuge warns

  07-03-2018 20:18
  The manager of a domestic violence refuge has told Sky News that "more women will die" if funding changes for refuges go ahead.On the eve of International Women's Day, Sky News was given special access to a housing complex which provides a safe haven for vulnerable women and their children.Olwen Kelly, director of Swindon's Women's Aid, has been running the refuge for five years, and told us they have a constant flow of women needing their help who have faced physical and psychological abuse.
  
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• Officer seriously ill after nerve agent attack on ex-Russian spy and his daughter

  07-03-2018 20:12
  A former Russian spy and his daughter were targeted with a nerve agent in Salisbury, police have revealed.Detectives are investigating the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, who are fighting for their lives in hospital.A Wiltshire Police officer, who was one of the first at the scene, is also in a serious condition and understood to be in intensive care.
  
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• EU lawmakers tell UK - post-Brexit deal should be about more than trade

  07-03-2018 19:58
  The European Parliament will call for a broad-based "association agreement" with Britain after Brexit that goes beyond a narrow focus on trade, according to a draft resolution to be voted on next week.The draft resolution is intended as a contribution to discussions within the European Union about what kind of future relationship it will seek with post-Brexit Britain.The European Parliament's approval is necessary for both the terms of Britain's departure as well as a future trade deal.
  
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• Britain says former Russian spy poisoned with nerve agent

  07-03-2018 19:52
  A nerve agent was used to deliberately poison a former Russian double agent and his daughter, Britain's top counter-terrorism officer said on Wednesday, in a case that threatens to further damage London's ties with Moscow.Sergei Skripal, once a colonel in Russia's GRU military intelligence service, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found slumped unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the southern English city of Salisbury on Sunday afternoon.Both remain critically ill and a
  
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• Saudi prince poses with PM on controversial visit

  07-03-2018 19:48
  Saudi's Crown Prince is meeting with Theresa May during a controversial visit which has sparked protests.As the 32-year-old prince's car drew up to the Prime Minister's home, protesters thronged the vehicle - with one man arrested for throwing an egg during the protest.::Who is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman?
  
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• Britain First leaders jailed over anti-Muslim hate crimes

  07-03-2018 19:42
  The leaders of the far-right group Britain First have been jailed for a series of hate crimes against Muslims.The group’s leader, Paul Golding, was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, while deputy, Jayda Fransen, was sentenced to 36 weeks on Wednesday.“These defendants were not merely exercising their right to free speech but were instead aiming religiously aggravated abuse at innocent members of the public,” the prosecutor told the court.
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn accuses UK troops of 'directing' Yemen war as Saudi Crown Prince visits

  07-03-2018 19:34
  Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince has met with the Prime Minister and the Queen after Commons clashes over British involvement in the kingdom's conflict in Yemen.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn earlier prompted a political row by claiming "British military advisers are directing the war" in Yemen.
  
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• Ofsted head seeks more powers to inspect unregistered schools

  07-03-2018 19:11
  Amanda Spielman said it was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain a system where ‘we simply don’t know what institutions exist, and what children are even in the country’.The head of the schools watchdog, Ofsted, has called for greater oversight of children who are being educated outside mainstream schools, describing the system in England as “unusually permissive”.Amanda Spielman told MPs she was very concerned about the growing number of children who were not
  
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• May defends Saudi ties as crown prince gets royal welcome in London

  07-03-2018 19:11
  Prime Minister Theresa May defended Britain's links to security ally Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Queen Elizabeth for lunch on a high profile to London that has drawn protests over Riyadh's human rights record.A fiery exchange in parliament between May and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn underlined tension in Britain over the trip, which is aimed at building a broader economic partnership between the two countries, but has sparked protests about
  
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• Police confirm Sergei Skripal was poisoned with nerve agent

  07-03-2018 19:03
  Police outside a restaurant in Salisbury, which Sergei and Yulia Skripal are believed to have visited.The former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was deliberately poisoned with a nerve agent in a case that police are now treating as attempted murder, Scotland Yard’s assistant chief commissioner has confirmed this afternoon.Mark Rowley said the police officer who was first to the spot where the pair were found in Salisbury on Sunday afternoon was now “seriously ill” in hospital.
  
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• Airbus says 3,700 jobs hit by slower A380, A400M deliveries

  07-03-2018 18:57
  Airbuswill cut production rates for its A380 superjumbo and A400M military aircraft, it confirmed on Wednesday, adding that up to 3,700 jobs would be hit in France, Germany, Britain and Spain.Dubai's Emirates saved the A380, the world's largest passenger jet, from death row in January with an order worth $16 billion at list prices.
  
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• MPs from all sides call for abortion law in N Ireland to be relaxed

  07-03-2018 18:55
  Protesters take part in a Rally for Choice march in Belfast, Northern Ireland.More than 100 MPs and peers from all parties have written to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, calling for women in Northern Ireland to be allowed access to abortion services locally rather than having to come to England.The letter, signed by 131 parliamentarians including eight Conservatives such as former education secretary Justine Greening and former chancellor Ken Clarke, former Liberal leader David Steel and the sh
  
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• NHS intensive care units sending patients elsewhere due to lack of beds

  07-03-2018 18:42
  Six in 10 intensive care units cannot function normally because they are so short of nurses, a survey has found.Patients whose lives are at risk are being turned away from their local hospitals because of a lack of intensive care beds, doctors who work in those units have revealed.Four in five intensive care units (ICUs) are having to send patients to other hospitals as a result of chronic bed and staff shortages.
  
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• ‘Pawternity leave’: work perks and handy tech for puppy owners

  07-03-2018 18:37 via theguardian.com
  The latest perks, purchases and pro tips for dog owners – from pooch-vision GoPros and fitness trackers for Fido, to work leave for doggy adoptionsSo you’re thinking about getting a puppy? Or maybe you’ve just brought home your very own furry ball of joy (and other, er, substances). Like human babies, the pitter-patter of tiny paws in your life doesn’t come with an instruction manual. While in an ideal world, we’d be able to devote all our time, effort and cash to b
  
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• Trade with Britain after Brexit won't be easier - EU's Tusk

  07-03-2018 18:35
  The chairman of European Union leaders, Donald Tusk, made clear on Wednesday that trade between the bloc and Britain would only get more difficult after Brexit.Tusk on Wednesday presented a draft joint stance of the remaining 27 states on their future ties with Britain, offering a free-trade agreement that is modest compared to what London had called for, and spelling out clear limits on the access British banks could have in continental Europe."Because of Brexit, we will be drifting apart," Tus
  
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• Leading the pack: how dogs took over the world (or, at least, the internet)

  07-03-2018 18:35 via theguardian.com
  From caveman’s best friend to #dogsofinstagram, via royals, artists’ muses and high-rolling heirs, track the rise and rise of the star canineOur four-legged friends have been stealing the spotlight for thousands of years. From the second-century BC Cave Canem mosaic found at Pompeii, to Boo the pomeranian pup with nearly 17 million Facebook followers, history is littered with tales of dogs having their day.Cave paintings from 12,000BC show humans alongside domesticated dogs – t
  
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• EU-UK trade deal could be deeper, but modelled on Canada, Japan accords - Tajani

  07-03-2018 18:35
  Britain and the European Union could negotiate a deeper free-trade accord that goes beyond the bloc's new deals with Canada and Japan, but such agreements remain the model, the head of the European Parliament said on Wednesday.European Parliament President Antonio Tajani also called on London to speed up its proposals to resolve the question of Northern Ireland as Britain leaves the bloc."Parliament is still waiting for a UK proposal preventing a hard border (on the island of Ireland)," Tajani t
  
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• EU snubs Britain's post-Brexit trade demands, offers banks no special deal

  07-03-2018 18:35
  The EU on Wednesday offered Britain a free trade deal for their post-Brexit ties that fell well short of ambitions set out by Prime Minister Theresa May last week, notably for the country's dominant financial sector.In a draft seen by Reuters, the remaining 27 European Union members said they wanted a close partnership with Britain, but its depth would be limited by Britain's own wish to leave the bloc's single market and the customs union."Because of Brexit, we will be drifting apart," the chai
  
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• Momentum-backed NEC member: Labour should cut union links

  07-03-2018 18:31
  Senior NEC member, Christine Shawcroft, said it was ‘time to support disaffiliation of the unions from the Labour party.’ She later deleted her Facebook post.Union leaders reacted with fury on Wednesday after a senior member of Labour’s ruling national executive committee called for the party’s link to trades unions to be severed.Christine Shawcroft, who became the new chair of Labour’s powerful disputes panel in January, made a series of comments on Facebook &ndash
  
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• Banks line up behind British government in EU trade battle

  07-03-2018 18:24
  Banks and insurers lined up to back the British government's demand that a future trade deal with the European Union must include financial services, putting them on a collision course with Brussels.Faced with the world's biggest financial centre being cut off from a core market after Brexit, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday that finance should be at the heart of a new trade deal with Europe.
  
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• Lamentable Tory rhetoric on prisons

  07-03-2018 18:13
  A recent report said that HMP Liverpool (pictured) had the ‘worst conditions inspectors have seen’.The justice secretary David Gauke offers up more repackaging of stale news with his proposed “plan to recategorise prisoners into higher-security prisons based on their continuing risk of criminality in jail” (Tougher jails for more than 6,000 prisoners with crime gang links, 6 March).Security categorisation is already determined by assessment of the risks posed by a pr
  
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• Caring for a suicidal loved one

  07-03-2018 18:09
  My husband recently killed himself after six years of suffering from severe depression.Four years previously he had made a very serious suicide attempt.After three months on the ward, during which he had made a further suicide attempt and tried to escape on two occasions, he was discharged, still highly suicidal.
  
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• What is in the EU's Brexit guidelines document?

  07-03-2018 17:54
  This is the latest addition from Brussels to the hefty Brexit files: draft guidelines setting out how the EU council sees future trade and cooperation with the UK.The UK is offered tariff-free trade in goods, but only if both sides agree to maintain existing rights to fishing waters – a blow to the ambitions of the environment secretary, Michael Gove, and other Brexiters who campaigned on the promise of “taking back control” of British waters.The trade deal would also cover ser
  
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• People rescued after fire at top of Blackpool Tower

  07-03-2018 17:50
  Several people who were trapped at the top of Blackpool Tower have been evacuated after firefighters brought a fire in the building under control.Firefighters spent three and a half hours tackling a blaze which broke out on the roof of the iconic landmark.A number of people had been held in a "safe area" at the top of the building while the rest of the tower was evacuated, according to Lancashire Fire Service.
  
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• 10 of the most wince-inducing DIY medical procedures doctors have been faced with

  07-03-2018 17:45
  Warning: some of these will make you cringe.
  
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• UK's Hammond - trade deal with EU will only happen if it is fair

  07-03-2018 17:38
  A trade deal between Britain and the European Union will only happen if it is fair to both sides, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday, adding that it would be hard not to include services as well as goods."A trade deal will only happen if it is fair and balances the interests of both sides," Hammond said in a speech in London's Canary Wharf financial centre."Now given the shape of the British economy, and our trade balance with the EU 27, it's hard to see how any deal that did not
  
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• Police targeting of dead man's sister 'probably influenced by racism'

  07-03-2018 17:37
  Janet Alder was put under surveillance by police during the inquest into the death of her brother.The police’s decision to launch a surveillance operation against a woman whose brother had been unlawfully killed in a police station was likely to have been influenced partly by racial discrimination, a leaked report by a watchdog concluded.Janet Alder and her barrister were put under surveillance by police during the inquest into the death of her brother, Christopher.
  
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• Former PM Gordon Brown calls for police probe into Murdoch paper

  07-03-2018 17:36
  Former prime minister Gordon Brown called on police to examine the activities of John Ford, an ex-private investigator who told the BBC he had been used by Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Times to obtain information about government ministers.Murdoch was forced to shut his News of the World tabloid in 2011 after staff admitted hacking into phones to get scoops, sparking a criminal trial and a public inquiry.The activities of Murdoch's newspapers have returned to the spotlight as regulators examine a bid
  
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• Two lorry drivers facing jail over M1 crash which killed eight people

  07-03-2018 17:33
  Two lorry drivers are facing jail after a crash on the M1 which killed eight people.A minibus driver and seven passengers on their way to Disneyland died in the collision during the August bank holiday weekend last year.Four other tourists were left seriously injured when the vehicle was forced under a lorry which driver Ryszard Masierak had stopped in the slow lane of the motorway.
  
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• Thieves use tech to steal a Mercedes in 40 seconds

  07-03-2018 17:32
  Footage has emerged of two tech-savvy thieves stealing a Mercedes from a driveway in less than 40 seconds.The men used relay equipment which is capable of receiving signals through walls, doors and windows.West Midlands Police say the theft happened at about 5.30am in the Marston Green area of Solihull, and the Mercedes has not been seen since.
  
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• Sergei Skripal believed to have been poisoned with nerve agent

  07-03-2018 17:26
  Police outside a restaurant in Salisbury, which Sergei and Yulia Skripal are believed to have visited.Investigators believe a nerve agent was used to poison former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury on Sunday.It is believed to have been a deliberate act and the two victims are described as being critically ill in hospital.
  
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• Several trapped at top of Blackpool Tower following reports of a fire

  07-03-2018 17:14
  Several people are trapped at the top of Blackpool Tower after reports of a fire breaking out.A number of people are being held in a "safe area" at the top of the landmark, according to Lancashire Fire Service.Firefighters were called to reports of a fire on the roof of one of the Tower buildings at 12.39pm.
  
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• Sanofi may seek U.S. approval for Dengvaxia despite Philippines outrage

  07-03-2018 17:13
  French pharmaceuticals group Sanofisays it will decide shortly whether to seek regulatory approval for dengue vaccine Dengvaxia in the United States, saying it was committed to the medicine despite a health scare in the Philippines.David Loew, the head of Sanofi Pasteur, the group's vaccines division, said the company had complied with all regulations and had no regrets about the vaccine, Dengvaxia, was developed despite the Philippines suspending a vast government immunisation programme because
  
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• UK partly responsible for Yemen civilian deaths, says Labour

  07-03-2018 17:10
  Speaking at prime minister’s questions, Theresa May said engagement was the only way to have influence over Saudi Arabia.Labour has said the British government must be held partly responsible for civilian casualties in Yemen, after Jeremy Corbyn challenged Theresa May over the lavish welcome for the visiting Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
  
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• Saudi crown prince's UK visit prompts heavy criticism by opposition

  07-03-2018 17:09
  The Saudi crown prince faced heavy criticism from British opposition figures at the start of a three-day visit to the UK that includes lunch with the Queen and dinner with the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge.Mohammed bin Salman was accused of funding extremism in the UK, committing human rights abuses domestically, and breaching international humanitarian law in Yemen, where Riyadh has intervened in a war that has killed thousands of civilians and driven the Middle East’s poorest cou
  
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• Gender pay gap: what we learned in week two

  07-03-2018 17:00
  This year, for the first time, all public and private sector organisations in Great Britain with more than 250 employees will have to reveal the difference between what they pay men and women.The mining company Anglo American reported stark differences in what men and women are paid.It reported not only a 49% hourly pay gap – meaning women earn half as much as men on average – but also a 72% gap in bonus payments.
  
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• M1 minibus crash: 'There is no life for me now'

  07-03-2018 16:55 via bbc.co.uk
  The widow of a minibus driver killed along with seven of his passengers has spoken of her grief.
  
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