News

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The most heartwarming story of 2016 so far, comes from a beach in Brazil. A South American Magellanic penguin who swims 5,000 miles each year to be reunited with the man who saved his life. Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, lives in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found the tiny penguin, covered in oil and close to death, on his local beach in 2011. He cleaned the oil off the penguin’s feathers...

A baby was smuggled inside a passenger's hang luggage on board an Air France flight on Monday night, according to local sources. A passenger on board the flight from Istanbul to Paris CDG raised the alarm when they saw a woman was carrying a baby in her hand luggage, Planet.fr reports. He alerted the crew and they were redirected towards the front of the plane. The press service of Air France confirmed the information and said the child was travelling without a ticket.

The Government's campaign to encourage small and medium-sized businesses to export is failing to achieve its objectives, according to new research. A QuoteSearcher survey of 618 SMEs found just seven per cent of businesses are likely to take part in the campaign, with 69 per cent of respondents saying they had never heard of the campaign before. The UK Trade and Investment department is already facing an investigation as to whether it’s providing enough value to small businesses. The 'Exporting is Great' campaign...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Today is international Women’s Day and it has been revealed there is ONE town in UK where women get the same pay as their male counterparts...almost. In another area women even get paid more, but the rest of the country remains unequal. On the south coast, in the seaside town of Hastings, is the place where you will find the fairest pay structure in Britain.Full-time workers here on average earn £24,112 a year - just...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor There has been anger after Tory minister Baroness Williams said homeless people chose to sleep rough. Charities have said "rough sleeping isn't a lifestyle choice" after her remarks in the upper house during a debate. The Communities Minister made her controversial statement as she argued with other peers over the amount of beds available to get people off the streets. Labour's Baroness Armstrong, said rough sleeping had more than doubled since the Tories took power...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have said that extra direct competition would see greater efficiency, lower fares and better use of rail capacity. They said that rival train firms should run services on the same lines, which would see an end to the franchises on major intercity lines. This idea was considered and rejected on operational grounds when railways were first privatised in 1994. This report has been released just before Nicola Shaw’s review into the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor It was described by one peer as a “black day for disabled people” as the Lords was forced to accept cuts to ESA (Employment Support Allowance) given to sick and disabled people, the most vulnerable in society. After a brave fight by the Lords they were forced to back down in their opposition to the Government’s brutal plans. The Lords had managed to defeat ministers twice over plans to cut £30 a week from ESA. However,...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Jeremy Hunt is not exactly top of the our xmas card lists and as the junior doctors row continues to rumble on; support for the medics seems to be holding, and he looks increasingly under pressure. So maybe is was a good time to win an award, right? Wrong. Channel's 4 The Last Leg awarded him the title "dick of the year" and attempted to give Hunt his accolade, but he refused to accept it,...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The pentagon has said that a US air strike has killed over 150 al-shabab militants in Somalia. Military spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the strike hit a training camp where a "large-scale" attack was being planned. Davis said: "We know they were going to be departing the camp and they posed an imminent threat to US and forces. Initial assessments are that more than 150 terrorist fighters were eliminated.” Al-Shabab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, was pushed...