A man lured a duck to him with bread before wringing its neck and slinging it in the bin in front of horrified onlookers, a court was told. Robert Muir, 49, killed the duck last May in a "callous act of cruelty" in a beauty spot in Richmond, south west London. Wimbledon Magistrates heard that police were called to the area by members of the public who had witnessed the horrifying act. CCTV footage showed Muir enticing the Mallard duck...

There’s plenty of drama in Michael McLean’s Years of Sunlight about friendship and the exodus of Liverpudlians living in 1960s slums to new purpose built town Skelmersdale, but Mark Rice-Oxley’s Paul, best friend of parent-less Emlyn, is directed by Amelia Sears to stand as still as one of Anthony Gormley’s iron men statues on Merseyside’s Crosby Beach at the top of the play. Basked in Joshua Pharo’s Rothko-esque very northern feeling like light, Polly Sullivan’s molten stage and landscape is...

February is the month of quiet vacations and competitive prices. Below is the first group of the best 10 destinations to celebrate Valentine's Day, including romantic cities and countries full of money, beauty and fame. A lot of travel agents in UAE offer special prices, particularly for famous cities that are usually expensive in summer. Holidays always end in February in Europe and most of the world, which makes it the less crowded month for tourist sights and attractions. The...

The government is splashing stretched education cash on affluent pupils as the gap between rich and poor grows, union GMB has claimed. Theresa May’s first flagship grammar school, set to open in Croydon in 2019, highlights the yawning chasm between the haves and the have-nots, it says, with the school allowed to cherry pick 1,000 pupils and get direct Government funding. GMB, the union for school support staff, says the decision to give cash to a selective school in the midst of...

Sport News 24/7 Was the Fourth Round a classic in the annals of FA Cup history? Two non-league sides made it into the Fifth Round hat for the first time this century and lower league sides were toppling their supposed superiors across the board. Magic of the Cup, innit? Not is all as it seems. Mostly owing to the fixture layout, the Fourth Round was also witness to sides making sweeping changes to their usual starting XIs. There are bigger...

By Bea Patel, TLE Property Editor and Director of Shop for an Agent - the estate agent comparison website There are many reasons why you may need to move home – most commonly because of marriage, upsizing as the family gets larger or divorce. Latest research by eMoov reveals not much has changed. In a survey, homeowners were asked: “what was the reason behind your last house move?”. Coming in at first place was having children, with 33 per cent...

An SOS service for the elderly which turns any mobile phone into a personal alarm promises to save families and the NHS millions of pounds a year. My SOS Family allows pensioners to alert relatives by touching a single button on a mobile phone if they suffer a fall or health emergency. The system then auto-dials, texts and emails relatives, who can then respond accordingly. Families currently pay up to £500-a-year for a manned call centre-based monitoring systems which operate via...

As the bills roll in, an online voucher code and money saving website has looked into whether families overspent on Christmas and whether they regretted it now. They found 47% of people regretted spending so much at Christmas, however 57% said they would do it again next year to keep their families happy. As many people are hit with bills from their Christmas spending, online voucher code and money saving website My Voucher Codes investigated to find out if people...

Boris Johnson’s response to Trump’s Muslim ban ‘inadequate and insulting’, says Britain's General Union. The foreign secretary has addressed the Commons following Donald Trump's controversial immigration crackdown, which prohibits refugees and citizens from countries including Syria, Iran and Iraq from visiting the US. He told the house British citizens were still welcome in the US -  however he then emphasised the ‘vital importance of this county’s alliance with the US’. More than 1.3million people have already signed a petition calling for...