Britain

Nov 29, 2011 1:00 AM CST

Brits Bust Racist Tram Ranter

Video of woman shouting racist abuse goes viral

(Newser) - Police in Britain have arrested a woman whose racist tirade on a London tram was viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube. In the video filmed by a fellow passenger, the woman—with a young boy on her lap—swears at black people and complains about immigrants from Poland,...

British Women Are Europe's Fattest: Study

UK Women:
'Europe's
Fattest'

study says

Nov 27, 2011 4:29 PM CST

UK Women: 'Europe's Fattest'

British women fatter than Maltese, Latvians, and Hungarians

(Newser) - The Brits clearly know how to toss a few back —but now it turns out they can wolf down a good meal or three, too. A new study finds that the UK has more overweight women than any country across Europe, the BBC reports. The survey of 19 countries...

James Murdoch Quits Boards of News Corp Papers Times, Sun

James Murdoch Quits
Times, Sun Boards

Nov 23, 2011 10:14 AM CST

James Murdoch Quits Times, Sun Boards

Move prompts questions over papers' future

(Newser) - James Murdoch has unexpectedly quit as a director at both the Times and Sun newspapers amid continued phone-hacking fallout. News International CEO Tom Mockridge is taking over Murdoch’s positions, leaving no Murdochs on the British papers’ boards; that prompts London’s Evening Standard to question News Corp’s plans...

Britain's Julie McCabe in Coma After Apparent Reaction to Chemical in Hair Dye

Mom in Coma
After Using
Hair Dye

Nov 22, 2011 4:42 PM CST

Mom in Coma After Using Hair Dye

She may have suffered severe allergic reaction to chemical

(Newser) - A British woman collapsed within minutes after using hair dye and is now in a coma, marking the second such tragedy in less than a month, the Daily Mail reports. Julie McCabe, 38, has just an 8% chance of survival and is likely to suffer permanent brain damage if she...

Hugh Grant Testifies at Leveson Inquiry on Phone-Hacking Scandal

Hugh Grant Testifies:
Mail Hacked My Phone

Nov 21, 2011 12:18 PM CST

Hugh Grant Testifies: Mail Hacked My Phone

Says Mail on Sunday hacked his voicemail

(Newser) - Hugh Grant’s latest role—as a central figure in the British phone-hacking scandal—continues to develop, as he testified in the case, accusing the Mail on Sunday of hacking his phone in order to fabricate a story about his personal life. The paper, he said, suggested that his relationship...

Cops Hunt Cat Swinger

Nov 10, 2011 12:20 AM CST

Cops Hunt Cat Swinger

Attacked 'distressed' animal manages to escape

(Newser) - British animal cops are hunting a cruel kitty hater captured on video wildly swinging a cat by its tail. The 2-year-old cat, Mowgli, finally managed to escape, and make it back home in a "distressed state," said officials. "This was a very violent, nasty attack on a...

London Students
Protest Over Tuition

Nov 9, 2011 2:50 PM CST

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...

Do Yourself a
Favor: Read
Dickens

OPINION

Nov 7, 2011 1:45 PM CST

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

Nov 5, 2011 4:15 PM CDT

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

Nov 3, 2011 3:31 PM CDT

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

Oct 25, 2011 5:57 PM CDT

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

Oct 24, 2011 9:25 AM CDT

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

Oct 21, 2011 11:44 AM CDT

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

Oct 19, 2011 2:21 AM CDT

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

Oct 17, 2011 2:32 PM CDT

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...

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

Oct 7, 2011 12:27 PM CDT

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

Oct 7, 2011 8:57 AM CDT

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

Oct 4, 2011 1:42 PM CDT

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...