Britain

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London Students Protest Over Tuition

And try to take a page out of the 'Occupy' playbook

(Newser) - Thousands of protesters marched through London today to protest the latest hike in British university tuition, as hordes of police watched and guided them. Four thousand officers were deployed to police a crowd that they pegged at 2,000-strong, but that organizers estimated contained closer to 10,000 people. The...

How Charles Dickens Explains the 21st Century

 Do Yourself a 
 Favor: Read 
 Dickens 
OPINION

Do Yourself a Favor: Read Dickens

As he nears 200, the novelist is more relevant than ever: Michael Levenson

(Newser) - Charles Dickens wrote in the 19th century, but at nearly 200 years old, he’s an expert on the 21st century as well. "For the mid-Victorians, government intervention was unthinkable, the market was king, only private philanthropy was tolerated," writes Michael Levenson for Slate . In other words, to...

7 Dead, 51 Hurt in 'Horrific' Crash

'Massive fireball' envelopes 34-vehicle pileup

(Newser) - A grisly multi-car pileup killed at least seven people and injured 51 today on the M5 freeway in southwestern England, the Daily Mail reports. Enveloped in a dark fog, 30 cars and four trucks collided on the wet roadway and triggered a "massive fireball," police say. Motorists tried...

Woman Passes Driver's Test— During Labor

First trip is to the hospital

(Newser) - Contractions 10 minutes apart didn’t stop a woman in Scotland from getting her driver’s license—and then speeding off to the hospital to give birth. She’d woken that morning at 4am after her water broke, but ignored her family’s advice and went through with the test...

Teacher So Drunk, Principal Feared Stroke

UK kindergarten teacher downs wine bottle at lunch

(Newser) - It’s Bad Teacher come true: A kindergarten teacher in London got so smashed during lunch that her coworkers called an ambulance. Her principal thought the stumbling 51-year-old, who had tried to teach after drinking, was suffering a stroke; paramedics soon discovered the truth. A teachers’ council has found her...

Ryanair Crew Fixes Pilot's Busted Window With ... Tape

Flight forced to turn around when it, shockers, comes loose

(Newser) - Ryanair crew members used tape to fix a pilot’s window before takeoff—only to turn around when the tape came loose 20 minutes into the flight, the Sun reports. “We were kept in the dark, and were terrified. I could see guys taping in the windscreen with what...

News Corp Phone Hacking Settlement: $4.8M

Money will go to Milly Dowler's family, charity

(Newser) - As the phone hacking controversy rages on , News Corp has reached a settlement with the family of a murdered girl at the center of the case, Bloomberg reports. In keeping with an offer last month , the company’s British branch is paying Milly Dowler’s family about $3.2 million,...

Prince William Goes Green on YouTube

He urges Brits to vote online to protect favorite open spaces

(Newser) - The man who would be king has turned tree-hugger on YouTube. Prince William has made a videotaped plea to Brits to pick their favorite green spaces for protection. Local authorities have chosen several sites for protection as part of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge, which is aimed at blocking...

At Yard Sale: McCartney Letter Seeking New Beatle

Now at Christie's; may fetch $11K

(Newser) - Looks like the stars were aligned for Ringo. A 1960 letter written by Paul McCartney sought a drummer for the Beatles two years before Starr joined the Fab Four. The note was discovered folded into a book at a Liverpool yard sale, the AP reports. It was a response to...

Top UK Minister Dumps Documents In Park

Anti-terror memos discarded after Oliver Letwin's morning stroll

(Newser) - As Cabinet Office minister, Oliver Letwin is David Cameron's right-hand man, and is responsible for advising the British prime minister on most aspects of government policy—but he doesn't seem to know what a shredder is. Journalists from the Daily Mirror watched as, day after day, Letwin walked...

Strapped Nations Seek Revenue in Sunken Treasure

US firm tracks long-lost cargo

(Newser) - Here's an alternative way to fix the deficit: Find long-lost treasure beneath the waves. Sounds like a fairy tale, but the British government has contracted a US firm twice this year to track down the remnants of shipwrecks. One is the British steam ship Mantola that sunk in 1917,...

Police Chase Woman, 76, for Miles—at 10mph

Cops form blockade to catch elderly driver

(Newser) - British cops spent more than an hour yesterday in hot pursuit of an elderly lady ... who was driving under 10mph. Police pursued Caroline Turner, 76, for 17 miles after she went the wrong way in a traffic circle, the Daily Mail reports. She didn't stop when police turned their...

Moody's Downgrades Top UK Banks

Including Lloyds, RBS, which are partially nationalized

(Newser) - Moody’s sliced the credit ratings of a dozen British financial companies today, including two of the UK’s "Big Four" lenders, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, both of which were partially nationalized during the financial crisis. Moody’s explained that it "believes that the government is...

Odd Theft Leaves Village in the Dark

Repeated cable robberies halt trains in Britain

(Newser) - A rash of power line thefts is dogging Britain. An entire English village lost electricity for several hours on Friday after thieves stole some 3,000 feet of cable—and it’s the second such theft in that county alone since August, This Is Lincolnshire reports. It’s a running...

Mount Everest's Mystery: Should We Solve It?

Two British adventurers may have climbed it first

(Newser) - A long-frozen roll of film may solve one of Mount Everest's most enduring mysteries. England has long been caught in the romance of two British adventurers who scaled the mountain with a team in 1924 and were last seen a few hundred yards from the peak. Did George Mallory...

Brits Plan to Boost Speed Limit to 80 MPH

Limit of 70 is stifling economy, government argues

(Newser) - Britain's government—citing major advances in vehicle safety and the fact that half the country's drivers are ignoring the current limit of 70 miles per hour—is planning to raise the speed limit to 80 on the nation's highways. "Britain's roads should be the arteries...

British Doctor Accused of Proselytizing Christianity to Patients


 Doctor 
 Accused of 
 Prescribing 
 Christianity 
'hell is their future'

Doctor Accused of Prescribing Christianity

Doc accused of proselytizing to 'vulnerable ... depressed' patient

(Newser) - A British doctor is proselytizing Christianity to patients and defending his right to do it. Health officials are now investigating whether Dr. Richard Scott promoted Christianity as a health benefit to a "vulnerable ... depressed 24-year-old" patient with "lifestyle issues," writes Nelson Jones in his New Statesman blog...

London Ditches Carbon Offsets for 2012 Olympics

Plan was part of bid to host games

(Newser) - As part of London’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, organizers offered a plan to keep the Games green—but they’ve changed their minds. The committee will “no longer pursue formal offsetting procedures,” it said, dropping its pledge to balance carbon emissions from the Games...

Porn Star Teacher Allowed to Return to Classroom

Sex ed teacher moonlighted as stripper

(Newser) - A sex education teacher who moonlighted as a porn star, stripper, and naked butler can return to his day job, a British disciplinary committee has decided. Benedict Garrett—stage name Johnny Anglais—was suspended from his job as a high school's head of personal, social, and health education after...

Is This Jack the Ripper?
 Is This Jack the Ripper? 

Is This Jack the Ripper?

Detective creates composite photo of German suspect

(Newser) - It's more than a century too late to show it to witnesses, but the first photo of a prime Jack the Ripper suspect has emerged. Trevor Marriott, a British homicide detective who went on the trail of the Ripper after retiring, created the composite photo from descriptions of German...

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