General news

• Aramco chair sees London 'in contention' for international listing

  08-03-2018 23:21
  London is "in contention" for the listing of oil giant Aramco, and is an attractive destination, the Saudi Arabian energy minister has told Sky News.Khalid Al-Falih added that Brexit represented a "hugely net positive opportunity", provided the UK could negotiate it well.The minister, one of the most important figures in Saudi politics and energy markets worldwide, suggested that London had a strong chance of securing the international listing of the country's mega oil company, set to be one of
  
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• Salisbury spy: How will UK respond if Russia was behind nerve agent attack?

  08-03-2018 23:13
  The Government has promised a "robust" response if Russia is behind the Salisbury nerve agent attack but what could be imposed on Vladimir Putin's regime?There have been calls to expel Russia's ambassador to the UK if the Kremlin ordered the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
  
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• Russian spy attack inquiry widens after medics treat 21 people

  08-03-2018 20:44
  Members of the fire brigade in green biohazard suits attach a tent over the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious.The investigation into the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal has widened, as police sealed off the graves of his late wife, Liudmila, and son, Alexander, and confirmed that a total of 21 people had been treated as a result of the incident.The officer who was also exposed to the nerve agent used on the Skripals, named on Thursday as DS Nick Bailey, remained in a
  
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• Asia-Pacific nations sign sweeping trade deal without U.S.

  08-03-2018 20:34
  Eleven countries including Japan and Canada signed a landmark Asia-Pacific trade agreement without the United States on Thursday in what one minister called a powerful signal against protectionism and trade wars.In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to press ahead with a plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, a move that other nations and the International Monetary Fund said could start a global trade war.The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Pa
  
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• 'Fireball' engulfed commuters when Parsons Green bomb exploded

  08-03-2018 20:14
  Victims of the Parsons Green bombing have described the moment a "fireball" burst through their Tube carriage, causing severe burns and sparking panic.The Old Bailey trial heard Ahmed Hassan had left the bomb containing 400g of explosives and shrapnel on the floor - and had got off the train at the previous stop.
  
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• Irish abortion referendum: Two women's stories

  08-03-2018 20:04 via bbc.co.uk
  The Irish public is to vote in a referendum on abortion, prompting women to share their stories.
  
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• NHS staff set to win 6.5% pay rise but must forfeit day's holiday in return

  08-03-2018 20:00
  The government is set to offer 1.3 million NHS staff a 6.5% pay rise over the next three years but is insisting that health workers give up a day’s holiday in return for the £3.3bn deal.Ministers hope they are close to finalising a package to give NHS personnel their first meaningful pay rise since 2010 after months of behind-the-scenes talks with union leaders.The Treasury and Department of Health and Social Care plan to propose that all non-medical NHS staff across the UK receive a
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn admits being member of controversial Facebook group

  08-03-2018 19:44
  Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has admitted being a member of a controversial private Facebook group about Palestine - but has denied ever seeing any anti-Semitic posts.A party investigation has been launched over claims that abusive messages about Jews were exchanged in the group.Mr Corbyn said he was signed up to the Palestine Live forum without his knowledge, but later exchanged messages on it.
  
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• Theresa May on letting her down on International Women's Day

  08-03-2018 19:35
  In an interview with ITV News at Ten anchor Julie Etchingham today, Prime Minister Theresa May was asked how she would be spending International Women's Day. In particular she was asked whether or not she would be letting her hair down with a perfect get-together with your girlfriends.
  
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• A hundred years after the suffragettes, let’s end all barriers to women in politics

  08-03-2018 19:31
  Women dressed as suffragettes marked the 100th anniversary of the Representation of People Act 1918, which gave women the vote. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty
  
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• More than £300m wiped off Bargain Booze owner's value after shock profit warning

  08-03-2018 19:25
  More than £300m wiped off Bargain Booze owner's value after shock profit warning
  
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• Experts hunt for traces of nerve agent in bid to track Skripals' attacker

  08-03-2018 19:25
  Specialist officers in protective suits attend the scene were Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found.Forensic experts will be looking for traces of nerve agent on the clothes of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and in the area where the two were attacked, in an effort to track down where the deadly substance was made, researchers say.If small amounts of pure agent can be recovered, scientists at Britain’s military research lab at Porton Down will analyse them for telltale impurities th
  
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• Canada minister says U.S. tariffs, quotas unacceptable

  08-03-2018 19:21
  SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Canada´s trade minister reiterated on Thursday the country´s stance that it will accept no duties or quotas from the United States, speaking just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump was slated to slap new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
  
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• London moves to set Northern Ireland budget, step towards direct rule

  08-03-2018 19:15
  The British government on Thursday moved to impose a budget directly on Northern Ireland in the latest step towards re-imposing direct rule of the region, a move likely to upset Irish nationalists and that may spark a diplomatic row with Dublin.The British region has for over a year been without a devolved power-sharing executive, a central plank of a 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence between pro-British unionists and Irish nationalists.The latest round of talks between the pr
  
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• Nottingham Trent University Students 'Shocked' And 'Disgusted' By Racist Abuse Video

  08-03-2018 19:06
  Nottingham Trent University students have spoken of their “shock” and “disgust” after footage emerged of racist abuse being chanted outside a black student’s bedroom.
  
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• Complex and dangerous, nerve agents are rarely used for assassinations

  08-03-2018 18:45
  Thousands of people have been fatally gassed with nerve agents on battlefields since World War Two, most recently in Iraq and Syria, but they are not a weapon of choice for urban assassinations.Sergei Skripal, a 66-year-old former Russian double agent, and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia were poisoned with a rare toxin on Sunday at a shopping mall in Salisbury, southern England, and remain critically ill in hospital, police said.
  
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• Sinn Fein calls for British-Irish body to avoid direct rule of Northern Ireland

  08-03-2018 18:35
  Northern Ireland's largest Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, on Friday said a British-Irish body created under a 1998 peace deal should be convened urgently after London moved to impose a budget on the region because its parties have failed to form a government."The two governments must act on their responsibilities as co-guarantors of the (1998) Good Friday Agreement which provides for a British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference ... as a matter of urgency," Sinn Fein's leader in Northern Ire
  
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• Calais 'could be 10 times worse than Irish border' after Brexit

  08-03-2018 18:34
  The Calais port boss said the UK could have no more status than developing countries in getting goods through EU controls. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
  
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• Salisbury spy poisoning an 'act of war' against UK

  08-03-2018 18:29
  Russia will have committed a "brazen act of war" against Britain if Moscow is found responsible for a nerve agent attack on UK soil, the Government has been told.The poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, 65, and his daughter Yulia, 33, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, was described by Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Thursday as "attempted murder in the most cruel and public way".
  
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• 'It's laughable' Radio host rips into anti-Trump protestors who won’t condemn Saudi Prince

  08-03-2018 18:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  JULIA Hartley-Brewer has ripped into demonstrators who are willing to stand against US President Donald Trump but will not protest the state visit of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
  
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• Saudi crown prince met UK finance minister Hammond in London - government spokeswoman

  08-03-2018 18:16
  LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met British finance minister Philip Hammond at the Saudi embassy in London, a government spokeswoman said on Thursday, without giving further details of the discussions.
  
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• KFC goes back to old supplier after restaurant delivery crisis

  08-03-2018 18:15
  KFC has returned to its old delivery contractor to supply chicken to restaurants after hundreds of outlets were forced to close last month.Bidvest Logistics had lost its KFC contract only for DHL and partner QSL to struggle with maintaining the flow of meat and other goods to the brand's 900 sites, in what were described as "teething problems".The vast majority of restaurants were shut at one stage, with KFC facing taunts of "told you so" at the time from union officials, who said they had warne
  
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• Russian spy poisoning was a 'professional hit', experts say

  08-03-2018 18:12
  The nerve gas used in the poisoning of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are likely to have been supplied by a state, researchers say.The attack is being treated as attempted murder, but it is unclear what type of nerve gas was used or who used it.Sky News has spoken to two experts who believe this was a professional hit.
  
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• UK government moves to set Northern Ireland budget, includes DUP deal funds

  08-03-2018 18:07
  The British government on Thursday moved to impose a budget directly on Northern Ireland after parties there failed to form a devolved government, the latest step towards direct rule of the province for the first time in a decade.The secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley, published the outline of a budget for the financial year to April 5, 2019.It included 410 million pounds of the 1 billion pounds of funding promised as part of a deal last year by the region's largest pro-Briti
  
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• How shadow chancellor morphed from shady Trot to business's BFF

  08-03-2018 18:07
  Both Liam Fox and Rebecca Long-Bailey had been greeted in near silence as they opened the annual conference of the British Chambers of Commerce.Thanks both to the government’s apparent insistence on pursuing a hard Brexit and the Labour party’s recent enthusiasm for remaining in a customs union, the shadow chancellor has morphed from being an untrustworthy Trot to the businessperson’s friend and saviour.It’s an unlikely transformation that appears to have taken McDonnell
  
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• Labour suspends party members in antisemitic Facebook group

  08-03-2018 18:04
  Labour has suspended several party members who posted in a closed antisemitic Facebook group, of which Jeremy Corbyn was also a member, with the party’s compliance unit working through a dossier on the group compiled by a campaigner.Posts on Palestine Live appear to include links to Holocaust denial myths, allegations of Israel’s involvement in the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks as well as the training of Islamic State fighters, and conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family.It
  
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• Labour suspends party members in 'antisemitic' Facebook group

  08-03-2018 18:04
  Labour has suspended several party members who posted in a closed Facebook group which featured a number of antisemitic messages.The party’s compliance unit is working through a dossier on the group, of which Jeremy Corbyn was once a member, that was compiled by a campaigner.Some of the posts on Palestine Live appear to include links to Holocaust denial myths, allegations of Israel’s involvement in the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks and the training of Islamic State fighters, and conspi
  
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• US inventors build robot able to solve Rubik’s Cube in 0.38 seconds

  08-03-2018 18:01
  The time beats the Guinness World Record of 0.637 seconds set in 2017.
  
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• Sergei Skripal: Who, and what, could be behind 'poison' attack?

  08-03-2018 17:59
  A former Russian spy and his daughter remain in hospital in comas after being poisoned in Salisbury.Mystery surrounds how they came into contact with a nerve agent and who could have administered it, as well as what their motive would have been.Sergei Skripal and his daughter have been hit with a nerve agent, which interrupts the messaging between the brain and the body.
  
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• Russian spy latest: Hero police officer seriously injured by nerve agent named

  08-03-2018 17:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE POLICE officer seriously injured as he helped former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in last weekend’s nerve agent attack has been named.
  
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• 'TPP-11' signees to send powerful signal against trade wars

  08-03-2018 17:52
  Eleven countries will sign a landmark Asia-Pacific trade agreement without the United States in Santiago on Thursday in what one minister called a powerful signal against protectionism and trade wars.The signing ceremony comes the day after Europe and the International Monetary Fund urged U.S. President Donald Trump to step back from the brink of a trade war focussed on steel and aluminium imports.The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will reduce tarif
  
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• Nasa shared images of Jupiter’s cyclones and everyone’s making the same joke

  08-03-2018 17:34
  Pepperoni pizza, anyone?
  
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• EU demands £2.4bn in unpaid customs duties from UK over Chinese fashion imports

  08-03-2018 17:27
  The European Commission has demanded more than £2.4bn from Britain over unpaid customs duties on cheap Chinese fashion imports.It relates to shoes and clothes that have arrived in UK ports from China since 2007.The EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF, found that UK authorities took no action despite being informed of the risk of customs evasion and asked to take appropriate measures.
  
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• 'Hypocrisy' Fury after Luxembourg PM lectures UK on free trade behind 'protectionist zone'

  08-03-2018 17:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  A CHIEF economist has ripped into the Prime Minister of Luxembourg’s comments about Britain’s demands for a trade deal with the European Union post-Brexit.
  
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• What do we know about Yulia Skripal?

  08-03-2018 17:20
  Yulia Skripal is in a coma alongside her father, ex-spy Sergei Skripal, following mystery poisoning in Salisbury.
  
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• Rudd: Spy poisoning 'brazen and reckless'

  08-03-2018 17:20
  Home Secretary Amber Rudd tells MPs that the investigating authorities remain in the midst of a "complex" and "fast-paced criminal investigation".
  
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• Traveller family’s sex assaults: Council tries to ban group from creating illegal campsite

  08-03-2018 17:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  SOLIHULL Council is seeking a court injunction to ban a traveller family from setting up illegal camps in the borough after claiming they were linked to crime, including sexual assaults.
  
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• Crufts 2018 in pictures: ADORABLE fluffy pooches compete at famous canine event

  08-03-2018 17:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  WE bring you the best photographs of the most adorable dogs from the canine event. Crufts kicked off today at the Birmingham NEC arena where pooches are competing for the coveted title of Best in Show.
  
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• Revealed: 'Secret' Universal Credit Files The Government Tried To Suppress

  08-03-2018 16:48
  HuffPost UK has obtained previously restricted “Project Assessment Reviews”, which are internal government documents designed to detail problems and challenges with new policies.Universal Credit has been plagued by problems, including a perilous six week wait in payments, a surge in the use of loan sharks and food banks, and rip-off fees to call its helpline.Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey on Thursday confirmed her department would comply with a freedom o
  
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• Couple celebrating after old painting shoved away in spare room sells for £540,000

  08-03-2018 16:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  A COUPLE who hung an old painting out of the way in their spare room because they did not like it were celebrating today after it sold for £540,000.
  
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• Domestic violence: Are there more beds for victims?

  08-03-2018 16:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Amber Rudd claimed there are more beds available for women escaping abuse in England. Is this true?
  
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• UK, Saudi to strengthen U.N. inspection regime for Yemen -Johnson

  08-03-2018 16:22
  Britain and Saudi Arabia want to strengthen a United Nations inspection regime for ships headed to Yemen, the British foreign minister said after meeting his Saudi counterpart in London."Today we have agreed to strengthen the U.N. inspection of shipping in order to ensure that all Yemeni ports remain open to the humanitarian and commercial supplies that Yemen’s people so desperately need," Boris Johnson told reporters on Wednesday evening, without providing details.Saudi Arabia and its Ara
  
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• Global Markets: Who's the enemy? Draghi asks as trade war tensions simmer

  08-03-2018 16:14
  A sense of calm returned to global markets on Thursday, as traders took a break from worrying about a global trade war and focused instead on the European Central Bank's plans to end its 2.5 trillion euro stimulus programme.European U.S. and Asian share markets all edged up - the first two for a fourth day - after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested he may spare some key trade partners in his push to introduce protectionist tariffs.The central bank did however drop an explicit promise on its b
  
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• 'Be PREPARED' EU Commissioner's SHOCK warning EU financial firms risk slump after Brexit

  08-03-2018 15:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  EU COMMISSIONER Jyrki Katainen urged European financial firms to be prepared for the worst case scenario at the end of the Brexit negotiations.
  
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• Parsons Green attack survivors weep as they give evidence in court

  08-03-2018 15:29
  Survivors of the Parsons Green tube train bomb attack broke down and wept on Thursday as they gave evidence at the trial of the man accused of planting the device.One of the survivors, identified in court only as Miss S, became distressed as she described how her clothes caught fire after she was caught in the blast, while a second, Lucinda Glazebrook, began to weep as she was being assisted into the witness box at the Old Bailey.As they did so, Ahmed Hassan, the 18-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker
  
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• Maplin staff let go as buyer for troubled retailer remains elusive

  08-03-2018 15:16
  Administrators for Maplin have announced the first job losses at the electricals chain since its collapse last week and warned of looming store closures.PwC said head office workers - 55 in London and eight in Rotherham - were being made redundant.The retailer left 2,500 roles hanging in the balance when it missed a deadline to raise finances through a rescue deal - a move first reported by Sky News.
  
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• 'Europe couldn't be seen for dust!' EU ABANDONED UK to Russia threat, reveals ex-diplomat

  08-03-2018 15:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE European Union will once again fail to help the UK in its fight against Russia after a former Russian spy was allegedly poisoned in Salisbury, according to former ambassador Sir Tony Brenton.
  
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• Britain could use tracking devices on domestic abusers to protect survivors

  08-03-2018 15:05
  People who abuse partners or family members could be ordered to wear tracking devices and forced to attend addiction recovery programs as part of a proposed bill to better protect victims of domestic abuse, the British government said on Thursday.Coinciding with International Women's Day, the government said it was inviting charities, support workers, survivors and the general public to consult on its draft Domestic Abuse Bill to "ensure we get this landmark legislation right"."While we have mad
  
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• Germany arrests Iraqi youth suspected of planning attack in Germany or UK

  08-03-2018 14:53
  Germany's highest court has issued an arrest warrant for a 17-year-old Iraqi citizen suspected of planning an Islamist attack in Germany or Britain, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement on Thursday.The young man, who was first detained on Feb. 13 by local authorities in Frankfurt, had stockpiled a large number of powerful fireworks in his apartment in the German state of Hessen, and planned to extract their explosive powder.Prosecutors said the suspect, identified only as Deday A.
  
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• Russian spy: Rudd condemns 'brazen and reckless' poisoning

  08-03-2018 14:47
  The home secretary, Amber Rudd, has condemned the poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Salisbury as a “brazen and reckless” attempted murder.Updating the House of Commons on the nerve agent attack, Rudd said Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, 33, remained “unconscious and in a critical but stable condition”.
  
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