LONDON (Reuters) - The United Nations should help investigate allegations that opposition figures in Bahrain have been tortured in prison in the run-up to next month’s elections, a British lawmaker said on Tuesday.
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U.N. must probe Bahrain torture allegations - UK lawmaker
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain promoted one of its top financial crimebusters on Tuesday to help keep experienced staff on board at a watchdog set to be abolished in two years’ time.
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Government promotes financial crimebuster as shake-up looms
LONDON (Reuters) - Two-time Man Booker winner Australian author Peter Carey, Emma Donoghue and Andrea Levy go head to head in a final field of six authors vying for one of the world’s most influential literary prizes.
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Two-time Booker winner Carey tops 2010 shortlist
LONDON (Reuters) - Retail sales growth accelerated last month, helped by clothes sales, a survey showed on Tuesday, but discounting played a part in the improvement and consumers remain reluctant to splash out on expensive items.
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Retail sales growth picks up in August
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. model and actress Jerry Hall is selling several works of art from her private collection, including a portrait by Lucian Freud, as a way of letting go of a past she shared with Rolling Stone Mick Jagger
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Jerry Hall to auction Freud portrait, Warhol
LONDON (Reuters) - A vicar who oversaw hundreds of sham marriages between African nationals and cash-strapped eastern Europeans to help migrants settle illegally in Britain was jailed for four years on Monday.
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Vicar jailed for sham marriage scam
LONDON (Reuters) - Tony Blair said on Monday he was considering cancelling a book-signing in London this week to mark the launch of his memoirs, over fears the event would be hit by protests.
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Blair "may cancel" book-signing over protests
LONDON (Reuters) - As commuters prepared for travel chaos on Monday at the start of a series of strikes on the London Underground, management and unions traded blows over new safety claims.
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London Tube commuters braced for travel chaos
LONDON (Reuters) - Entrepreneur Richard Caring is considering a counter-bid for British cafe and restaurant chain Carluccio’s, British newspaper the Mail on Sunday reported.
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Caring mulls counter-bid for Carluccio’s - report
LONDON (Reuters) - Tim Waterstone, the founder of the UK book retailer that bears his name, is considering a 100 million pound-plus bid to buy the chain from parent company HMV, the Observer newspaper reported on Sunday.
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Waterstone founder may take chain back - report
LONDON (Reuters) - The cost of car insurance has risen by almost a third in the past year, its biggest ever increase, as insurers seek to offset a sharp rise in claims expenses driven in part by fraud, AA Insurance said.
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Car insurance premiums jump 31 percent
LONDON (Reuters) - Liberal Democrat stalwart and former Rochdale MP Sir Cyril Smith has died aged 82, his party said on Friday.
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Larger than life Liberal Cyril Smith dies
LONDON (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown will join efforts to improve access to education and the internet as part of pro bono work following Labour’s election loss in May, his spokesman said on Thursday.
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Gordon Brown begins charity work
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of workers on London’s underground rail system will start a series of strikes next Monday after talks aimed at ending a dispute over job cuts broke down.
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London Tube strikes go ahead from Monday
LONDON (Reuters) - Scotland’s government announced on Thursday that its planned minimum price for alcohol would be set at 45 pence per unit, meaning a bottle of wine would cost at least 4.23 pounds and a bottle of whisky 12.60 pounds.
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Scotland announces minimum price for alcohol
LONDON (Reuters) - Ofgem is launching an investigation into whether four of the big gas and power suppliers are mis-selling products to customers, the energy regulator said on Thursday.
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Utilities probed for mis-selling to households
LONDON (Reuters) - House prices fell much faster than expected last month but further declines are likely to be modest, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Thursday.
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House prices fall in August - Nationwide
LONDON (Reuters) - British hedge fund company Man Group Plc named GLG head Emmanuel Roman as its chief operating officer on Wednesday, to help Man Group integrate its recent acquisition of the GLG business.
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GLG’s Roman named Man Group chief operating officer
LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in Spice Plc, Britain’s biggest installer of water meters, rose strongly on Wednesday in anticipation of a bidding war as the company revealed it was in talks with a second potential bidder.
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New bidder emerges for UK’s Spice
I just tried to make a list of the things that Facebook knows about me. I started with mundane stuff that anyone reading the printed version of this column would already know – my name, my gender, the fact that I’m an unwilling sufferer of male-pattern baldness. It knows I’m currently obsessed with a band called Everything Everything, because I persist in sharing their videos on Facebook despite one friend thinking that they represent some kind of punk rock betrayal.
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Rhodri Marsden: Can four guys take on Facebook – and win?
LONDON (Reuters) - Adam Sandler’s new comedy “Grown Ups” has knocked Sylvester Stallone’s latest mercenary action movie off the UK box office top spot after just one week, according to Screen International on Wednesday.
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Adam Sandler’s "Grown Ups" knocks Stallone off top spot
British artists Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, otherwise known as the “jellymongers”, recently took over a London house and turned it into “a walk-through dining experience.” Related Stories Ikea: Home is where the art is Rhodri Marsden: Can four guys take on Facebook – and win? Is Ryanair taking musicians for a ride? Camel milk?
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Video - Bompas & Parr’s walk-through dining experience
Lamb burgers with feta by Lotte Duncan Related Stories British street food: Real meals on wheels Ikea: Home is where the art is Rhodri Marsden: Can four guys take on Facebook – and win? Is Ryanair taking musicians for a ride? Camel milk
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Around the world in 80 dishes No.21: Greece
LONDON (Reuters) - A doctor who deliberately cut the lip of a Harlequins rugby player to cover up a fake injury can continue to practise medicine, the General Medical Council said on Tuesday.
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"Blood" doctor free to carry on working -GMC
Google has acquired Angstro, a startup that sorts news and information across social networks like Facebook, a spokesman for the leading Web search provider said yesterday. Related Stories Artists flinch at ‘honour’ of hanging in Tory offices Drama series ‘Mad Men’ wins at Emmy awards BBC’s Sherlock to return for second series Mad Men honoured at Emmy Awards Axl Rose ends Leeds set with foul-mouthed rant
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Google acquires social networking startup Angstro
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of the public has little confidence in local authorities as they face massive budgetary cuts despite being sympathetic to their plight, a poll by Zurich Munich showed on Monday.
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Public has little confidence in budget-cutting councils
An American serviceman was killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan today and two others were killed in battles in the country’s eastern region a day earlier, Nato said.
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Three US troops killed in Afghan fighting
A volcano erupted on the Indonesia island of Sumatra today for the first time in four centuries, sending smoke 1,500 metres (about 5,000 feet) into the air and prompting the evaucation of thousands of residents, officials said. Related Stories Japan opens up its secret death chamber to the world Karzai tells US: exit timetable has boosted insurgency ‘We want to talk to the Taliban. But they would rather kill themselves’ NATO forces say Taliban base attacks repelled Tech billionaire Paul Allen sues Google, Apple, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo and eBay, amongst others
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Thousands flee as Sumatra volcano erupts
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A toilet that belonged to late Beatle John Lennon fetched 9,500 pounds at auction on Saturday, around 10 times its estimate, the sale organisers said.
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John Lennon’s toilet sells for £9,500 at auction
LONDON (Reuters) - Frank Lampard will miss England’s Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland with a hernia problem that will need surgery next week, Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said Saturday.
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Lampard out of England qualifiers
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Britain’s top annual comedy prize, the Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award, went to England’s Russell Kane at an Edinburgh Fringe festival ceremony on Saturday for his show “Smokescreens and Castles.”
LONDON (Reuters) - Rates of oesophageal cancer in men have risen by 50 percent in Britain in a generation, an increase that is probably being driven in part by growing rates of obesity and poor diet, scientists said on Saturday.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Steelmaker Corus, owned by India’s Tata Steel, said it had reached an agreement with Thailand’s SSI over the potential $500 million sale of its mothballed Teesside plant.
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Corus and SSI agree scope of $500 million Teesside sale
Google launched a website on Thursday for users who want to sift through news, comments and other information on the Internet in real time, letting them follow conversations on social network hubs such as Facebook and Twitter in one place. Related Stories Google to allow phone calls from Gmail I’m going on tour with Take That, says Robbie Williams The director who ignored Hollywood WikiLeaks builds a legal shield in Sweden
LONDON (Reuters) - Use of weight-loss surgery has increased 10-fold in hospitals in England since 2000 and those who have gastric bands fitted can reduce their risk of early death and cut health service costs, scientists said on Friday.
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Surgery for obesity increases 10-fold in England
LONDON (Reuters) - The government has declared war on the profusion of unnecessary road traffic signs, railings and advertising boards, saying they blight towns’ English character.
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Britain being "overrun" by street signs
LONDON (Reuters) - About 200 Alstom-Metro maintenance workers on London’s underground rail network will strike over pay, the Rail Maritime and Transport union said on Thursday, the second action announced this week by Tube workers.
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Alstom London tube staff to strike over pay - union
LONDON (Reuters) - The deputy prime minister on Thursday rejected a report by an independent and influential think-tank that said the government’s fiscal new measures will hit the poor hardest.
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Clegg rejects budget criticism
Hold on, doesn’t Paddy Power run Paddy Power? Related Stories Illegal scenes will stay in Facebook movie Apple ‘talks with media giants to rent shows’ The renaissance of New Orleans Revealed: the YouTube rich list Cigarette firms ‘are using product placement on web’
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The Business On… Patrick Kennedy, Chief executive, Paddy Power
LONDON (Reuters) - The home of a woman filmed picking up a cat and throwing it into a rubbish bin is under police guard in Britain after her actions sparked outrage from animal lovers and even death threats.
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Police guard for woman who put cat in bin
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of workers on London’s underground rail system will start four one-day strikes on September 6 to protest against proposed ticket office job cuts, unions said on Wednesday.
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London Tube staff to strike from Sept 6 - unions
LONDON (Reuters) - The government unveiled a new look passport on Wednesday after it was redesigned to include strengthened security features and iconic images from across the nation.
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White cliffs to feature on new UK passport
Apple is in talks with News Corp, Walt Disney and other media conglomerates to rent TV shows to viewers for 99 cents through iTunes, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. Related Stories George Michael faces jail sentence If the cap fits, wear it.
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Apple ‘talks with media giants to rent shows’
LONDON (Reuters) - A man who worked for the Secret Intelligence Service MI6 has been found murdered at a flat near the agency’s headquarters, media said on Wednesday.
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MI6 worker found murdered in London
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain recorded almost half a million new cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) last year, with teenagers and those aged under 25, especially young women, particularly affected, figures showed on Wednesday.
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Almost half a million UK sex infections last year
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron’s wife Samantha has given birth to a baby girl, his office said.
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Samantha Cameron gives birth to baby girl
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s City regulator slapped a $3.51 million fine on the UK branch of Zurich Insurance for data security failings after the loss of a tape in South Africa containing details on 46,000 insurance customers.
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FSA fines Zurich UK $3.5 million over lost data tape
BANGALORE (Reuters) - British IT and communications firm Redstone Plc said it planned to raise 8.5 million pounds via a stock and notes issue, failing which it would be difficult for it to continue trading.
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Redstone seeks funding to continue trading
LONDON (Reuters) - The upcoming UK-Dutch electricity interconnector is expected to link Britain to European power markets, which could result in additional supply at the right, but sometimes wrong, times.
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UK-Dutch Britned cable may import power price shocks
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest pubs firm Punch Taverns said it expected full year earnings to be marginally ahead of its previous expectations, reflecting the benefit of pub refurbishments and good summer weather.
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Pubs group Punch says FY to be ahead of view
Corrects Saturday story in last paragraph to remove reference to NCR.
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CORRECTED - Barclays’ network glitch causes nationwide chaos
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s tax authority will introduce reverse value-added tax (VAT) charges relating to carbon emissions trading from November 1, replacing a zero tax rate implemented last year to prevent fraud.
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UK to launch reverse VAT charges for CO2 trading
BANGALORE (Reuters) - British marine services provider James Fisher and Sons Plc posted a 4 percent rise in first-half pretax profit, driven by growth in its specialist technical unit, and raised its interim dividend by 5 percent.
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James Fisher profit up; raises interim dividend
LONDON (Reuters) - Natural disasters caused UK insurers Amlin and Hiscox to report a widely-expected slump in half-year profits on Monday, although both companies remained confident over their business models.
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Interim profits slump at insurers Amlin and Hiscox
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish building materials group Kingspan said on Monday it would resume paying an interim dividend after reporting a 9 percent rise in first-half operating profit, defying expectations for a 10 percent fall.
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Ireland’s Kingspan resumes dividend; profit climbs
Britain’s fondness for recalling the past surely finds its most fitting rationale in this summer’s high-profile 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Fly-pasts of warplanes mark Churchill’s oratory, while film-makers and writers remind us, almost weekly, of the debt we owe The Few who fought in the blue skies over Southern England. Ironically, on this day in 1940 the Luftwaffe was kept out by Britain’s natural defence system – lousy August weather
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Nicholas Jones: A battle we need not have fought
LONDON (Reuters) - The lead singer of pop band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool jumped to his death after playing at a music festival in Belgium, authorities have confirmed.
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Ou Est frontman leaps to death at Belgian music fest
LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays said that a system crash that left thousands of customers in Britain unable to access their bank accounts or withdraw money from cash machines on Saturday had been fixed.
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Barclays says network problems fixed
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of Barclays customers in Britain were unable to access their bank accounts or withdraw money from cash machines on Saturday after a system crash caused chaos nationwide.
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Barclays’ network glitch causes nationwide chaos
Academic journals like to pride themselves on peer review, the process of sending out papers to other experts in the field for pre-publication checks.
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Nigel Hawkes: Peer-reviewed journals aren’t worth the paper they’re written on
After being driven from his farm in Somalia by terrorists, Mohamed decided to do what tens of thousands of Africans before him did and seek asylum in Europe. Related Stories Michael McCarthy: The French have a way with butterflies Rebecca Front: ‘Facial hair fashions include goatees and soul patches and the topiaried eyebrow’ Virginia Ironside: The Catholic Church should stay out of the gay adoption debate Nigel Hawkes: Peer-reviewed journals aren’t worth the paper they’re written on Julian Baggini: Google’s chief says privacy is dying. But does the Facebook generation care
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Peter Popham: Gaddafi’s war against the dispossessed
LONDON (Reuters) - Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has defended his party’s role in the coalition government in the face of internal criticism and slumping poll ratings.
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Clegg defends coalition against party critics
LONDON (Reuters) - Crystal Palace, who came close to folding earlier this year, came out of administration on Friday and can begin signing players, the English Championship (second division) club’s administrator confirmed.
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Crystal Palace come out of administration
LONDON (Reuters) - A BBC journalist has been charged with wasting police time over claims he made earlier this year that he had killed a former lover who was dying from AIDS.
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BBC man to be prosecuted over "lover killing"
LONDON (Reuters) - The government said Friday it was considering withdrawing benefits from those with drug or alcohol problems who refused to seek treatment.
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Government mulls stopping addicts’ benefits
LONDON (Reuters) - Distribution firm Stobart Group said it expected growth in the second half to be boosted by new contracts from drinks company A.G. Barr and new business with grocer Tesco.
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New contracts driving growth at Stobart Group
LONDON (Reuters) - The coalition government said on Friday it will introduce temporary bans on legal drugs that could be harmful to users.
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Government eyes temporary ban of "legal high" drugs
LONDON (Reuters) - The average petrol price in Britain fell slightly over the past month due mainly to a fall in the benchmark wholesale market, the Automobile Association (AA) said on Friday.
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Petrol and diesel prices dip in mid-August
Crude was steady near a six-week trough below $75 a barrel, on weak US economic data.
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Oil steady near 6-week low
LONDON (Reuters) - Male managers in Britain earn 10,000 pounds a year more than their female counterparts and it could be almost 60 years before that gap is closed, a Chartered Management Institute survey said on Thursday.
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Equal pay for UK women is "decades away"
Facebook’s users will soon be able to track friends’ whereabouts across the US, as site adds technology to increasingly tie its virtual world to everyday life.
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Facebook ‘Places’ lets users track friends
LONDON (Reuters) - Retail sales volumes rose nearly three times faster than economists’ had forecast in July, with almost all non-food sectors showing strong growth, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday.
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July retail sales stronger than forecast
Sonia Gandhi said today illegal mining had emerged as the “most serious menace” in a number of states.
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‘Illegal mining serious menace some states’
LONDON (Reuters) - Almost 10 percent of women working in brothels in England and Wales are migrants who are victims of human trafficking and come mainly from Asia, police said on Wednesday.
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Almost one in 10 brothel women are trafficked
LONDON (Reuters) - England won the toss and elected to bat in the third test against Pakistan at the Oval on Wednesday. England lead 2-0 in the four-match series.
LONDON (Reuters) - A passenger remains in serious condition in hospital after being injured when a train struck a sewage tanker on a level crossing in eastern England, police said on Wednesday.
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Passenger still serious after Suffolk train crash
LONDON (Reuters) - British oil explorer Cove Energy said it can’t commercially exploit an oil find offshore Mozambique though it would undertake tests to see if other parts of the geological structure could produce sellable oil.
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Cove’s Mozambican oil find is uncommercial
The government said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has spent over Rs 53,202 crore on road projects during the last three financial years.
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NHAI spent Rs 53k crore on road projects
European Union nearly doubled its aid to flood-stricken Pakistan to 70 mn euros and announced a trip by its top aid official after calls for Brussels to do more to help.
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EU boosts flood aid to Pak to 70 mn euros
Federal bond yields rose to their highest in 3-½ months, as traders pared positions to cope with tight cash conditions ahead of $2.6 bn bond auction.
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Bond yields at 3-½ mth high, supplies weigh
Continuing its losing streak post poor quarter results, shares of Suzlon Energy today tumbled over 2 per cent to touch an year’s low on BSE in early trade.
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Suzlon Energy hits year low on BSE
LONDON (Reuters) - Below are highlights from a speech on the economy by Chancellor George Osborne on Tuesday.
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Osborne’s economy speech in London
LONDON (Reuters) - Asda, Britain’s No.2 grocer, said the outlook to the end of 2010 remains challenging with UK families facing the lowest amount of disposable income in the final quarter for two years.
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Asda says UK consumer faces income squeeze
(Reuters) - British public relations and marketing services firm Freshwater UK PLC said its full-year pretax profit would be below market expectations as it was hurt by the government’s policy on the National Health Service (NHS).
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Freshwater warns on FY after NHS cutbacks
At least 41 people have been killed and 112 wounded in a suicide bombing strike against Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad today. Related Stories Israeli soldier posts photos of Palestinian prisoner on Facebook Tehran decides on nuclear sites
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At least 41 killed in Baghdad bombing
At least 41 people have been killed and 112 wounded in a suicide bombing strike against Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad today.
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At least 41 killed in Baghdad suicide bombing
A suicide bomber blew himself up among dozens of Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad today in a devastating strike that officials said killed 51 people and wounded 119. Related Stories Israeli soldier posts photos of Palestinian prisoner on Facebook Tehran decides on nuclear sites At least 41 killed in Baghdad bombing At least 41 killed in Baghdad suicide bombing
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At least 51 killed in Baghdad suicide bombing
A suicide bomber blew himself up among dozens of Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad today in a devastating strike that officials said killed 60 people and wounded 119. Related Stories Israeli soldier posts photos of Palestinian prisoner on Facebook Tehran decides on nuclear sites At least 41 killed in Baghdad bombing At least 41 killed in Baghdad suicide bombing At least 51 killed in Baghdad suicide bombing
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At least 60 killed in Iraq suicide bombing
LONDON (Reuters) - Airport operator BAA and Unite union have reached a deal to prevent a strike at major airports, officials said on Monday.
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BAA and Unite reach settlement to avert strike - Acas
China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy last quarter, capping the nation’s three-decade rise from Communist isolation to emerging superpower.
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China takes No. 2 crown from Japan
Orders and sales at New York manufacturers decreased in August for the first time in more than a year and US homebuilders turned more pessimistic, indicating the economic slowdown is becoming broad-based.
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US factory orders falter, housing mood sours
LONDON (Reuters) - A British archivist believes he has uncovered the real-life inspiration for French novelist Victor Hugo’s mysterious character Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
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Archivist says uncovers real-life Quasimodo
BANGALORE (Reuters) - Barclays Bank Plc has inked a two-year deal with NCR Corp for the management and maintenance of its UK network of remote and host operated automatic teller machines.
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Barclays outsources management of UK ATMs to NCR
BELFAST (Reuters) - Rioters hurled petrol bombs at police in the Northern Ireland town of Lurgan on Saturday night, close to the scene of an explosion that injured three children hours earlier, police said on Sunday.
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Night of clashes follows bombing in Northern Ireland town
BELFAST (Reuters) - A small bomb exploded in a rubbish bin in the Northern Ireland town of Lurgan on Saturday, causing minor injuries to three children, police said.
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Bomb injures three on tense Northern Ireland parade day
Oracle Corp sued Google Inc, alleging patent and copyright infringement in the development of the popular Android smartphone software. Related Stories ‘Panic button’ sparks leap in Facebook alerts George Michael faces new drugs charges George Michael faces drugs charges George Michael charged over drugs India ‘may shut down’ Google and Skype services
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Oracle sues Google over Android
LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays’ small business arm has refused to sign up to UK lending targets because it could encourage irresponsible lending, the head of the division told the Financial Times on Friday.
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Barclays rejects UK lending targets
LONDON (Reuters) - Star-gazers will be hoping for clear skies overnight on Thursday when one of the year’s most spectacular meteor showers reaches its climax.
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Astronomers hope clouds clear for meteor shower
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday he wanted to see the European Union’s 140 billion euro (115.4 billion pound) budget reduced over time.
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Cameron wants to see EU budget reduced
Singer George Michael was today charged with possession of cannabis, police said.
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George Michael faces new drugs charges