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Woolwich attack victim Lee Rigbys family pay tribute All he wanted to do was be in Army
Lee Rigby had dreamed of being a soldier since he was a young boy.Now his "unimaginable" murder in a London street in broad daylight yards from a primary school has left his two-year-old boy without a dad.Tonight Drummer Rigby's family issued the following tribute: "Lee was lovely. "He would do anything for anybody, he always looked after his sisters and always protected ...
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Oldest man to climb Everest Japanese mountaineer breaks record aged 80
A former extreme skier today became the oldest person to climb Mount Everest - at the age of 80. Japanese Yuichiro Miura also conquered the 29,028ft peak at 70 and 75. But his record may not last, his old rival Min Bahadur Sherchan, 81, is hot on his heels. In a phone call to daughter Emili from the summit, Yuichiro said: "I made it! "I never imagined I could make it to the top of ...
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Queen catches bus in Cambridge and ends up 15 minutes late for event
The Queen shows she's just like the rest of us - by turning up late for an event after taking a bus. Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in Cambridge by scheduled train today before boarding the single decker to travel though the city. Locals were delighted at the royal gesture - but the magic didn't rub off on public transport timekeeping. The monarch arrived 15 minutes ...
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Jeremy Hunts blundering blaming of GPs makes for bad politics | Polly Toynbee
Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for health: his 'attempt to blame the GP contract is, even by his standards, an eye-watering, breathtaking economy with the truth'. Photograph: Stefan ...
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High street blight are pound shops better than empty shops
The north-west of England has the highest number of empty shop units in the UK, and as big retailers leave our town centres, the kind of businesses that thrive in hard times are moving in.Town centres across the region are becoming swamped with payday lenders, pawnbrokers and pound shops. As our high streets become increasingly geared towards making money from people who don't have any, ...
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Titanic struggle to prove violin’s authenticity resolved
The violin thought to have been played by the band leader on the Titanic as the ship sank has been declared genuine following a computerised scan at a ...
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Woolwich attack police seeking source of suspects extremism
Among the questions for counter-terrorism officials after the Woolwich attacks is how the alleged attackers became radicalised to the point where they decided to carry out violence on Britain's streets.Part of that radicalisation can be tracked to extremist groups such as the now-banned al-Muhijaroun. Its former UK head, Omar Bakri Mohammad told the Guardian that he had known Michael ...
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David Blunkett We are living in a climate of very nasty and angry politics
David Blunkett said he believed that the perpetrators of the Woolwich incident were not part of the al-Qaida network. Photograph: Martin Argles for the ...
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Nursery reforms could cut childcare costs by 28 DfE calculates
children to staff in nurseries.Government plans are currently stalled due to a disagreement within the coalition between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.The new calculations released by the Department for Education under a freedom of information request said parent costs could be cut from 4 an hour to 3.49 an hour (a 12% cut) while teacher salaries could go up. Alternatively, if the ...
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As temperatures plummet government unveils heatwave advice
With Britain enduring hailstones, temperatures below 10C and records revealing the UK's "worst" spring for 30 years, Public Health England has, with impeccable timing and without irony, published its heatwave strategy for 2013.The report, published annually since 2004, possibly takes the precautionary principle to an unattained level.The first chapter of the 46-page strategy asks ...
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Jeremy Hunt proposes a rewriting of GPs’ contracts - video
Jeremy Hunt discusses proposals to rewrite GPs' contracts on Thursday in a speech at the King's Fund in London. The health secretary claims GPs are not rewarded for putting patients first, but instead they are rewarded for ticking biomedical boxes. Hunt wants GPs to be championed for their patients' care and hopes his new plans will lead to 'bold experimentation with ...
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HSBC faces court threat as deal on money laundering charges stalls
HSBC 's controversial $1.9bn (1.6bn) settlement deal with the US authorities over money laundering charges has stalled after a row between the justice department and the judge overseeing the case.The deal - known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) - meant HSBC was exempt from prosecution and triggered a storm of criticism. Judge John Gleeson is now believed to be considering ...
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GPs threaten to quit commissioning to concentrate on patients
NHS organisations that control 65bn of treatment budgets, to help their surgeries cope with the sharply rising workloads, medical leaders are warning.A few GPs have already pulled out of involvement with their local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) because they could not spend enough time with patients while also helping run the groups. The growing demand for GP services is also making ...
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Free Pussy Riot Sir Paul McCartney in plea to Russia to release punk band members
Sir Paul McCartney has pleaded for the release of Russian all-girl punk band Pussy Riot after one of its jailed members went on hunger strike. The former Beatle has written letters to Russian authorities in support of imprisoned anti-Kremlin activists Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. Alyokhina, 24, said she would begin a hunger strike after being denied access to her own parole ...
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Arsonist admits killing paedophile Andrew Heath in firebomb attack
An arsonist admitted killing a convicted paedophile in an horrific firebomb attack on his home. Serial child abuser Andrew Heath, 52, was found dead inside his burned-out flat in December 2011. At the time of his death police said they were treating the blaze in Worcester as a possible vigilante attack. Mr Heath had five convictions for gross indecency and indecent assault against boys aged ...
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Genson Courtney murder Two killers jailed for minimum 31 years for cold-blooded execution
Two killers who carried out the "cold-blooded execution" of gangland celebrity Dave Courtney's stepson were each jailed for a minimum of 31 years today. David Pinto, 33, shot his nephew Genson Courtney, 22, in the eye at point-blank range over a family feud. Pinto and getaway driver Robert Bleach, 46, both of Greenwich, south-east London, were found guilty of murder at the Old ...
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Joan Collins at 80 The Dynasty icons life in pictures from starlet to siren
screen and stage goddess Joan Collins .From child actress to model, Hollywood starlet, iconic soap star and later general all round Brit-legend, Joan Collins has entertained and delighted millions of fans around the world for more than six decades.To celebrate her landmark ...
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Woolwich soldier Lee Rigbys death shocked and saddened community as tributes paid to loving father
"senseless" murder of soldier Lee Rigby has left the entire defence community "shocked and saddened", Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said tonight.Drummer Rigby, 25, was named as the victim hacked to death and beheaded by two Islamic extremists in Woolwich yesterday.Mr Hammond said: "I am shocked by the brutality of this cold-blooded murder of a serviceman on the ...
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Boston bomber DID kill his “only American friend” in triple murder spree pal admits
Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev DID kill his "only American friend" in a triple murder, a pal of the dead terrorist confirmed.Ibragim Todashev confessed they had carried out the gruesome execution of the three men when he was questioned by the FBI yesterday.But as Todashev was "about to sign a statement" the Chechen immigrant pulled out a knife and stabbed his interviewer ...
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Woolwich suspect Michael Adebolajo described as the typical boy next door from devout Christian family
Michael Adebolajo, one of the men arrested over the Woolwich murder, was a polite and well-mannered schoolboy rapper who turned to militant Islam after rebelling against his devoutly Christian ...
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Unhappy Mondays Its the day of the week when muggers steal the most phones
It is the most miserable day of the week, a return to reality from the elation of the weekend. To compound Monday's reputation problem, new figures indicate it is also the day when people are most likely to have their mobile phone stolen - with skint thieves who have spent their funds over the weekend to ...
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Don’t forget about my rights says Julian Assange ‘sex victim’
A lawyer for one of the women who have accused Julian Assange of sex crimes has called for more pressure to be placed on Ecuador to allow the WikiLeaks founder to face Swedish ...
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GP leaders clash with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt over AE crisis
Jeremy Laurance is Health Editor of The Independent and the i and has covered the specialism for more than 20 years. He thinks the harm medicine does is under-appreciated, the harm it prevents over-rated, and that cycling works better than most drugs. He was named Specialist Journalist of the Year in the 2011 British Press ...
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Attacks on Muslims spike after Woolwich killing
Tell Mama hotline for recording Islamaphobic crimes and incidents recorded 38 incidents overnight on Wednesday, including attacks on three mosques, with more reported on Thursday.The Metropolitan police put 1,200 more officers on the street on Thursday, with extra patrols deployed to mosques and religious sites as far-right groups reacted to the tragedy.The Tell Mama co-ordinator Fiyaz Mughal, ...
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Woolwich attack This echo chamber of mass hysteria only aids terrorists | Simon Jenkins
said David Cameron after the Woolwich murder on Wednesday . He then buckled. Everyone buckled. The home secretary buckled, the defence secretary buckled, the communities secretary buckled, the mayor of London buckled, the chief of police buckled, the press buckled, the BBC summoned its senior editors and they buckled. Everyone buckled.The first question in any war - terrorism is allegedly a war ...
London Featured
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London bike sharing a success
London in July of 2010 became one of over 44 cities in the world to introduce an aspect of communal consumerism into its public transport system with the implementation of a bike-sharing network and just ten weeks later had recorded over 1 million trips taken, proving the initiative to be feasible and sustainable.
Bike-sharing has been around since as early as the 1960s when the first community bike-sharing scheme was introduced in the Netherlands, but it lacked formal sharing systems and was overly-reliant on the good nature of the public, leading to mass theft, which ultimately destroyed the system. Read more
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