General news

• Russia nerve agent warning: Novichok could be at ‘TOXIC’ levels in Salisbury

  19-04-2018 23:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  TOXIC concentrations of the military-grade nerve agent used in the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal could still remain in “hot spots” around Salisbury, Government scientists have warned.
  
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• 'An icon of the Commonwealth’ The Queen to WIND DOWN duties as Charles is set to take over

  19-04-2018 23:21 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE Queen has been praised as an “icon of the Commonwealth” by the President of Ghana who suggested the monarch is due to “wind down” her duties as head of the organisation with Prince Charles primed to take over as Commonwealth leaders descended on Buckingham Palace tonight.
  
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• CCTV emerges of Yulia Skripal in Moscow

  19-04-2018 23:20
  CCTV emerges of Yulia Skripal in Moscow
  
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• Scientists warn of nerve agent potency as Salisbury clean-up begins

  19-04-2018 22:56
  The residue of the nerve agent used in the attempted murder of the Skripals in Salisbury could still be as potent as it was when it was deployed more than six weeks ago, government scientists believe.Experts responsible for the decontamination effort in the cathedral city said there could still be “hotspots” yet to be discovered where the novichok agent remains in high concentrations.The revelations were made at a public meeting held in Salisbury as new barriers were put in place aro
  
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• Exclusive - China nears first Americas refining capacity as CNPC, Petrobras talks mature: sources

  19-04-2018 22:56
  Brazil's state-run oil company is nearing a deal in which China National Petroleum Corp Ltd (CNPC) would invest in an oil refinery in exchange for crude oil, two people with knowledge of the talks told Reuters, potentially giving China its first refining capacity in the Americas.Petróleo Brasileiro SA , or Petrobras, may give the state-owned Chinese firm stakes in oil fields it operates in the Campos basin, off the Rio de Janeiro coast, along with the right to use the new Comperj refinery
  
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• How ISIS is EXPLOITING the ‘safe haven’ of cyberspace to plan attacks and raise funds

  19-04-2018 22:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  TERRORIST groups such as Islamic State are making use of the “safe haven” offered by cyberspace to plan attacks, indoctrinate and recruit new members and raise funds, a new report has revealed.
  
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• Peckleton explosion: Woman rushed to hospital as house collapses

  19-04-2018 22:43 via feedproxy.google.com
  A WOMAN has been rushed to hospital and a road is on lockdown by police after a house collapsed following an explosion in a Leicestershire village.
  
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• Save the Children international chairman Sir Alan Parker quits

  19-04-2018 22:41
  The international chairman of Save the Children has stepped down following the fallout from the Oxfam scandal earlier this year.Sir Alan Parker - who had been due to finish his 10-year term in December - said the "complex mix of challenges the organisation and the sector is facing" was the reason for his early departure.During his time in the role, Save the Children UK was forced to deal with what Sir Alan referred to in his resignation letter as "unacceptable workplace behaviour, involving hara
  
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• London Marathon 2018 route: Where to watch the race? Best pub guide

  19-04-2018 22:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  RUNNERS are gearing up for this weekend’s London Marathon 2018 but if you are a spectator, you are probably itching to know where you can enjoy the action with a leisurely drink. So, where are the best pubs along the course? Here is what you need to know.
  
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• Chairman quits scandal-hit Save the Children

  19-04-2018 22:16
  Save the Children is facing formal investigation over staff misconduct.Sir Alan Parker has resigned as Save the Children’s international chairman amid what he described as the “complex mix of challenges” facing the charity sector.The children’s charity has been engulfed in allegations that it failed to investigate sexual abuse and inappropriate behaviour by staff, which came out in the wake of the scandal involving Oxfam workers in Haiti.
  
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• London Marathon 2018: How to run the hottest ever London marathon

  19-04-2018 22:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE London Marathon 2018 is set to be the hottest marathon on record, bringing new challenges to runners. Here is how you can cope with the hottest ever London Marathon.
  
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• Bent juror is jailed six years over £3,000 drugs trial bribe

  19-04-2018 22:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  IN the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland a juror has been jailed for six years for taking a bribe. Catherine Leahy, 62, was spokeswoman on a jury in a marathon drug trafficking and money laundering trial which returned a not proven verdict in 2016 at the High Court in Glasgow.
  
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• UK weather: Why this isn't a heatwave... yet

  19-04-2018 22:02 via bbc.co.uk
  People across the UK have been enjoying unusually warm weather, but when can we call it a heatwave?
  
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• Cancer: Is it a good move to ditch Dr Google?

  19-04-2018 21:59 via bbc.co.uk
  BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew and his wife Emma chose not to look up the disease on the internet
  
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• MPs urge ministers to 'act now' on vaginal mesh controversy

  19-04-2018 21:35
  The Government must act now to suspend all types of surgical mesh, MPs warned in a heated two-hour debate in the House of Commons.Labour's Emma Hardy led calls to halt use of the procedure while a review into the use of vaginal mesh is carried out.The surgery, which usually takes less than half an hour, involves inserting a plastic mesh into the vagina to support the bladder, womb or bowel.
  
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• Pizza Hut chief Hofma clinches buyout of chain's UK division

  19-04-2018 21:25
  The British operations of Pizza Hut will be sold in the next‎ few days to a buyout team led by its chief executive, even as rival casual dining chains face painful restructurings or bankruptcy.The transaction will involve CEO Jens Hofma, who has run Pizza Hut UK since 2009, being backed by debt provided by Pricoa, a US-based institution.The management buyout was reported to be at an advanced stage exactly a year ago, with the reasons for the drawn-out nature of the deal unclear.
  
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• Two held following death of woman

  19-04-2018 21:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  TWO men were being quizzed by detectives last night after a schoolgirl discovered her mother’s body in their back garden.
  
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• Windrush immigrant on deportation threat: 'We thought we were British'

  19-04-2018 21:07
  Joan Thomas is part of the Windrush generation that came to Britain as thecountry sought to rebuild after the Second World War.The group is named after the cruise ship that brought one of the first large groups of West Indians to Britain.Here, she tells Sky News she has called a Home Office helpline with her concerns over warnings that she and her peers could be deported unless they can prove they are entitled to be in the UK.
  
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• 'Conservationist' fined for bid to sell endangered animal parts including TIGER head

  19-04-2018 21:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  A CONSERVATION biologist has admitted offering parts of endangered animals for sale over the internet. Richard Wales tried to sell a tiger’s head, tiger claws and a leopard claw with adverts on Gumtree and eBay.
  
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• ‘Sold down the river!’ £1BILLION MoD contract could go to foreign shipyard, union warns

  19-04-2018 20:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  THERESA May’s Government risks a “repeat of the blue passport fiasco” if a £1billion contract for new Ministry of Defence ships is granted to an overseas firm, a major union has warned.
  
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• BREXIT BOMBSHELL: Expat war veteran leads charge to block Brexit by killing EU guidelines

  19-04-2018 20:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  A GROUP of 13, led by British war veteran and expat campaigner Harry Shindler, are attempting to have the European Council’s Brexit negotiation guidelines annulled through the European Court of Justice as they fight the UK's European Union divorce.
  
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• Grieving mother warns of soft toy dangers

  19-04-2018 20:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  A GRIEVING mother has launched an awareness campaign after her 18-month-old daughter suffocated under a stuffed toy. Dexy Leigh Walsh found little Connie Rose had suffocated overnight on March 6.
  
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• Plastic waste: What are the alternatives?

  19-04-2018 20:35 via bbc.co.uk
  A ban on plastic straws and cotton buds is being considered. How can you play your part?
  
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• Tory MPs among backers of motion demanding vote on EU customs union

  19-04-2018 20:27
  Supporters of remaining in a customs union are concerned about the impact on the economy if the UK leaves.Three Conservatives – Bob Neill, Nicky Morgan and Sarah Wollaston – are among the signatories to the motion, which urges the government to “include as an objective in negotiations ... the establishment of an effective customs union”.The government lost a vote in the House of Lords on Wednesday night by a hefty majority of 123 on a cross-party amendment that would forc
  
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• Aisha Chithira, Who Died After Leaving Abortion Clinic, 'Did Not Seem Seriously Ill', Nurse Insists

  19-04-2018 20:14
  A nurse has insisted a woman who died after being discharged from an abortion
  
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• Hatton Garden murder probe after ‘viciously attacked’ builder found on roof

  19-04-2018 20:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  POLICE have launched a murder investigation after a builder was “viciously attacked” at work. The 47-year-old man was pronounced dead shortly after 3pm on Tuesday after police responded to reports he was injured on the roof of a commercial building in Hatton Garden, central London.
  
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• Northern Ireland: two die in light aircraft crash in County Antrim

  19-04-2018 20:03
  The aircraft, thought to be a Cessna, came down between Nutts Corner and Loanends.Two people have died after a light aircraft crashed in County Antrim, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has said.The small plane, thought to be a Cessna, came down between Nutts Corner and Loanends, about two miles from Belfast airport.
  
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• Grieving mum warns of teddy danger after daughter's death

  19-04-2018 20:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Dexy Leigh Walsh's 18-month-old daughter suffocated under a cuddly toy in her bed in Dundee.
  
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• Leaseholders of flats face £40,000 bills over Grenfell type cladding

  19-04-2018 19:53
  Cladding on Grenfell Tower, North Kensington, London, which caught alight in the fire of June 2017.Residents of 80 flats managed by a company owned by David Cameron’s half brother-in-law are each facing bills of up to £40,000 because the building is clad with flammable panels similar to those used on Grenfell Tower, in London.Leaseholders of the Sesame apartments in Battersea, south London, fear they are trapped in unsellable homes and William Astor’s company claims it is not r
  
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• Cheltenham Race Abandoned After Horse 'Dame Rose' Dies On Hottest Day Of The Year

  19-04-2018 19:51
  The hottest day of the year has forced races at Cheltenham to be abandoned as
  
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• Two dead as light aircraft crashes near Belfast Airport

  19-04-2018 19:45
  The Cessna plane was seen on fire near Nutts Corner, just under 3 miles (5km) from the major airfield.It came down close to a wooded area, apparently in the vicinity of Loanends, shortly after midday on Thursday.Belfast International tweeted it was not thought to have been heading to or from the airport.
  
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• Windrush cases pass 200 as top MP calls for Home Office to do 'much more'

  19-04-2018 19:42
  A top MP has claimed the Home Office should be doing "much more" to get a grip on the Windrush immigration row, as the number of confirmed cases being investigated passed 200.Labour's Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told Sky News it was her view that the department should be proactively seeking out those potentially affected, instead of encouraging them to call a hotline which was established earlier this week.In its latest update, the Home Office said it was investiga
  
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• Windrush landing cards and a lack of humanity

  19-04-2018 19:34
  Your article (Home Office destroyed key data on Windrush citizens, 18 April) shows further evidence of what can go wrong institutionally in government.The destruction of paper records is hardly surprising.Bonuses and career advancement in the civil service depend on annual reports.
  
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• The real lesson of Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech

  19-04-2018 19:33
  Tomorrow, 20 April, is the 50th anniversary of Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech (Opinion, 16 April).This year, on the same day and in the same room as Powell made his speech, Birmingham will host a meeting celebrating its status as a multicultural city.Powell’s speech was a touchstone for racists and the far right, and is still celebrated by the racist right of today, who say “Enoch was right”.
  
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• Sir Cliff Richard: BBC reporter denies 'strong-arming' police over raid on singer's home

  19-04-2018 19:21
  A BBC reporter who broke the story about Sir Cliff Richard's home being searched by police has denied "strong-arming" senior officers into co-operating with him.Dan Johnson was the "toast of the newsroom" after landing the "gold-plated scoop" that the singer's apartment was being raided in August 2014, the High Court was told.Sir Cliff is suing the BBC over its coverage of South Yorkshire Police's search of his home in Berkshire and is seeking damages at the "top end" of the scale.
  
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• Nick Clegg targets Brexiters in drive-by shooting

  19-04-2018 19:20
  Nick Clegg now has a full-time career being a professional Nick Clegg.Vince Cable had spent the morning giving a speech on Taming the Tech Giants.Hard to believe given their standing under Tim Farron, but the Liberal Democrats have slid even further into irrelevance with Cable as their leader.
  
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• UK court orders Russian oligarch to hand over superyacht in divorce fight

  19-04-2018 19:18
  A Russian billionaire has been ordered by a court in London to hand over a 350 million-pound ($500 million) superyacht to his wife as part of Britain’s biggest-ever divorce battle.Justice Haddon-Cave at the High Court ruled that Farkad Akhmedov, 62, had used evasive and underhand tactics to keep the yacht beyond the reach of the English courts and avoid paying his wife, Tatiana Akhmedova, 41.The 377-foot "Luna" was bought by Akhmedov in 2014 from fellow Russian oligarch and Chelsea footbal
  
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• Robert Halfon’s views on education cause concern

  19-04-2018 19:17
  Robert Halfon’s quaint notion that vocational training should pass the “dinner-party test” is an indicator of how shallow his supposed blue-collar Conservatism is (‘The Tory party should change its name to the Workers’ party.The concerns of working-class parents and students are far more pragmatic, and many of them arise from the past eight years of Tory government: reduced access to free school meals, dwindling school budgets, the discriminatory and repressive use
  
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• In a variety of cases, Brexit starts to reach EU court

  19-04-2018 19:04
  The fallout from Brexit is starting to come before the European Union's top judges, in cases whose variety the head of the EU Court of Justice said defied the imagination."There are already Brexit cases pending," ECJ President Koen Lenaerts told a news conference.Lenaerts noted that he has been predicting a variety of Brexit cases since Britain voted in 2016 to leave.
  
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• Peugeot boss faces toughest adversary yet in IG Metall

  19-04-2018 19:03
  PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - PSA Groupboss Carlos Tavares, whose career has seen him thrash out margin-boosting labour deals for two carmakers in several countries, is now taking on Germany's IG Metall union, which has been the undoing of many a cost cutter.Under Tavares, a former Renaultexecutive, the Peugeot maker is demanding pay curbs and other concessions from workers at Opel, the loss-making German carmaker it bought from General Motorslast year, in return for new investment.Chancellor Ange
  
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• Police start security operation a month ahead of UK royal wedding

  19-04-2018 18:59
  Police in Windsor, where Prince Harry marries American actress Meghan Markle next month, said on Thursday they had begun one of the biggest security operations in their history to ensure the event passes off safely.Harry, 33, and Markle, 36, will tie the knot on May 19 at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, the home of the prince's grandmother which dominates the town about 20 miles (30 km) west of London.More than 100,000 visitors are expected to descend on Windsor to celebrate the wedding an
  
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• Carillion collapse: Super hospital in limbo after workers left site in January

  19-04-2018 18:38
  A new super hospital left in limbo by the collapse of Carillion is up to £125m over budget and patient care is being "jeopardised" by Government indecision.The enormous building site that is the Midland Metropolitan Hospital in Smethwick in the West Midlands has stood idle since workers left in January.Sky News was granted exclusive access on to the site, which is currently two thirds finished.
  
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• May was not opposed to 'go home' vans, official accounts suggest

  19-04-2018 18:37
  The vans, which were driven around six London boroughs with areas of high migration, became notorious as part of May’s ‘hostile environment’ strategy.Official accounts appear to contradict claims by Theresa May’s former special adviser that she attempted to block controversial “go home” vans telling illegal immigrants to leave the country.Nick Timothy, who was May’s adviser at the Home Office and her chief of staff at No 10 until July, said she had inten
  
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• ‘Fanatical Peers vs the people’ Lord Lawson issues stunning response to ‘NONSENSE EU plot’

  19-04-2018 18:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  LORD LAWSON exploded at pro-Remain "fanatics" in the House of Lords seeking to thwart the Brexit vote after a cross-party alliance delivered a defeat to Theresa May's EU Withdrawal Bill.
  
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• Queen hints Prince Charles could replace her as head of Commonwealth

  19-04-2018 18:24
  The Queen has hinted that Prince Charles could take over from her as head of the Commonwealth.
  
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• Engineer 'driven to die at euthanasia clinic after acid attack left him paralysed'

  19-04-2018 18:23
  Mark Van Dongen, 29, chose to take his own life after he was left unrecognisable and nearly blind from the alleged assault in September 2015.Mr Van Dongen, who was born in the Netherlands, had burns to 25% of his body and also had his lower left leg amputated, the court heard.Wallace, originally from South Africa, has denied a murder charge and a separate count of applying a corrosive fluid with intent.
  
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• Tessa Jowell hailed as an inspiration during MPs' cancer debate

  19-04-2018 18:21
  Tessa Jowell, the former Labour minister who helped bring the Olympics to London, has been praised by MPs across the parties as an inspiration.Before the debate began the Speaker, John Bercow, welcomed Jowell and her family to the gallery in a highly unusual intervention.Lady Jowell, who was diagnosed in May last year with a high-grade brain tumour, is now terminally ill.
  
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• Carillion bosses apologise to MPs for firm's collapse

  19-04-2018 18:20
  A joint session of two Commons select committees accused three Carollion bosses of trampling over the rights of tens of thousands of pension scheme members.
  
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• PPI scandal payouts top £30bn after Arnie warning

  19-04-2018 18:04
  Claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) hit their highest level in four years during the second half of last year.According to figures from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the number of complaints rose by 40% on the first six months of 2017 to 1.55 million.The City watchdog said compensation for PPI - a loan insurance product - had now cost the financial services industry £30bn in total.
  
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• The cute painted rocks you find while out and about are getting a dotty makeover

  19-04-2018 18:03
  As the weather warms, expect to see more of these mandalas.
  
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