News

Updated: 14:03 EST

Cambridge student sets fire to £20 in front of homeless

A shocked passer-by watched while a drunk University of Cambridge student in a white bow tie and tails attempted to burn the banknote (left) in front of the homeless person (right). Video of the incident was seen by hundreds of students after it was shared on Snapchat. In the video the student struggles to light the note, while the film-maker panned to the homeless person. It is understood that the student was a member of the Cambridge University Conservative Association, who has since been expelled from the group. 

Typhoon jets are scrambled to intercept Russian bombers

The Tupolev TU-160 Blackjack bombers were in the UK's 'area of interest' but did not enter British territorial airspace, the RAF said. Typhoon jets from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland and RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire were scrambled to keep watch on the bombers in the latest sign of Russian military activity close to the UK. 

At the end of his appeal hearing judges said their decision would 'take some time' - but they appeared to rule out a retrial. His wife Claire left the Royal Courts of Justice to huge cheers from supporters.

Mahmudur Rohman ran a company which allegedly sold more than 100 tonnes of turkey to takeaways and shops across the East Midlands who thought they were buying the red met at a competitive price.

Police are failing to record tens of thousands of crimes, including victims' reports of rape and serious violence. Almost 60,000 calls are being ignored every year by four forces.

Jeremy Clarkson's ratings have plunged for The Grand Tour as the former Top Gear trio pulled just 2.3m UK viewers compared with 5.8m who watched the last episode of the BBC2 show.

Young people are 48 per cent more likely to sleep with someone before dating. And nearly a third use sex as a litmus test for whether or not they love somebody. 57 per cent of millennials feel lonely.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT: Stewart Vine, from North Tyneside, has already had his little toe and the side his left foot amputated after cutting it on a sharp object in the pool at Jolly Beach Hotel.

Bing

In 2018, EU consumers should be able to enjoy online streaming services including Netflix (pictured), BBC iPlayer and Sky Sports when they are on holiday in different European countries.

A record number of British tourists visited Spain (pictured, Tenerife) last year following terror fears in other popular holiday destinations including Egypt and Turkey.

Gibraltar police BLOCK RAF jet from taking off

A row over jurisdiction saw the plane grounded for nearly two hours after a Royal Gibraltar Police car drove onto the runway, physically blocking the RAF flight from leaving. A Ministry of Defence car in turn tried to block the police vehicle, according to reports. It is understood a member of the British military on board is suspected of a sex offence.

Ian Stewart told a jury that a tattooed thug called 'Nick' visited him at the couple's Hertfordshire home after snatching his bride-to-be and let him speak to her on the phone.

A bride-to-be was left scarred and humiliated after suffering a horrific allergic reaction to Veet waxing strips. Chloe Harrison, 24, from London was due to go on TLC's Say Yes to the Dress.

The 16-year-old's body was found in sleepy Dinnington, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, on Monday, with a suspect having already been charged with her murder.

Adrian Bramford, 23, of Nottingham, drove the car while his unnamed friend fired pellets at five members of the public, including a nine-year-old-girl.

The 22-year-old was out drinking with friends in the Blue Lagoon in Bristol when they found themselves surrounded by another group of men, who dragged him out of the premises on his belly.

Penny Hargreaves, 21, from Blackburn, would take cocaine occasionally with friends - but died after a party binge when she unwittingly shared a contaminated batch.

Alice Wardill spotted the dog walker edging across the semi-frozen pond in Chingford, Essex to rescue Freddie after he became trapped in the icy water.

Jackie Kennedy wrote to David Ormsby Gore - the 5th Lord Harlech and one of JFK's most intimate confidantes - explaining how marrying him would stop her finding 'healing' after her husband's death.

Ambulances and police were called to Barnt Green station in Worcestershire shortly before 7am this morning, where two people are said to have tried to cross the tracks.

Joan Daws, 64, died when she became trapped while moving a weighing chair at Laleham care home in Herne Bay, Kent. The owners initially denied wrongdoing but have now admitted several failings.

Karen Matthews pictured amid row over BBC Shannon drama

Karen Matthews - who faked the abduction of her daughter in order to make money from publicity - claims she is afraid to leave the house after the first episode of a two-part drama The Moorside, where she is played by actress Gemma Whelan (bottom right). Matthews, who was jailed for four years, still maintains her innocence and has now claimed that the truth about her daughter's disappearance in 2008 will eventually be revealed. Karen (pictured, top right, at the time of the abduction) complained that the new show, which angered other members of the family, opened up old wounds. The day after the first broadcast of the show yesterday evening, she was seen out and about in her new life in another part of the country (left and centre). Her daughter (inset) is now 18 and living under a new identity. 

The 55-year-old suffered a fatal head injury after falling about 12 feet from his bathroom window in Belgravia, central London. The coroner found he died as the result of an accident on December 12 last year.

The BBC Wales 30-second promotional video (pictured) asked 'What's Good About England', before showing speechless Welsh fans struggling to come up with an answer.

Nurse Lea Ledesma made a series of errors which led to the death of granddad Ali Huseyin at London Heart Hospital. She confused 'Huseyin' for 'Hussain' - a mistake which turned out to the fatal.

Cabin crew were forced to place a mask over the mouth of Khalid Mir (pictured) after restraining him on a seven-hour Emirates flight from Dubai to Birmingham.

Miller and Carter turned down interviewee with a text

Megan Dixon (left), 18, had been interviewed by assistant manager Shantel Wesson (right) for a part-time job at a new branch of Miller and Carter in Enderby, Leicestershire. But the A level student was shocked to receive a text message just moments after the interview, which said: 'It's a no' (inset). When the teenager responded to ask why, Shantel replied: 'Just not engaging. And answers we're "like" basic.' She then used the emoji which depicts someone laughing so hard that they're crying. Megan also claimed the assistant manager had behaved poorly during the interview, by not having a copy of the teen's CV to hand and drinking coffee throughout. A spokesman for Miller and Carter told the paper said they 'could not apologise enough' and that the texts were sent in error and intended for the manager.

A man was stunned when he poured his son a bowl of cereal and found a giant Bran Flake. Steven Marriott, 44, from Nottinghamshire found the six inch mega-flake and could now sell it on eBay.

Passengers at Barking station told of their horror after witnessing the fight at around 8:30am this morning.

Ringleader Shabir Ahmed (pictured), Adil Khan, Qari Abdul Rauf and Abdul Aziz are facing deportation to Pakistan after judges rejected their appeals against their British citizenship being revoked.

Kingston Road North Car Park sits beneath a luxury apartment block opposite Hyde Park in Knightsbridge. The mystery billionaire will house his collection of 80 supercars there.

The picture was posted to Brooks' Facebook page last year while he was in prison for a bungled knifepoint raid on a shop in Burnley, Lancashire, which he had carried out while dressed in a onesie.

Eastern areas, including Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland and East Anglia, will be covered with a dusting of snow as showers move westwards throughout the morning.

Stunned Paul Hunt, from Taunton, Somerset, was in stitches when the note (pictured) came home in his partner's ten-year-old son's school bag after he was heard using the word dildo in the playground.

Video shows lawyers fight over arm rest on Monarch plane

A video has captured the moment that two flight passengers claiming to be lawyers got into a vicious row over an arm rest. Footage taken by another flier shows the man (shown left) and woman shouting at each other as the flight crew desperate tries to calm them down. Many of the other passengers on the plane, believed to be a Monarch Airways flight from the UK to Malaga in Spain, can he heard laughing as the pair's feud escalates. The video starts mid-way through the row, as an air steward tries to get the man to move seats (shown right). As the row intensifies and voices get louder, other fliers can be heard shushing the pair. The woman (pictured centre) then claims that she is a lawyer and 'knows' her rights, leading the other man to scream: 'I'm a lawyer too, you stupid woman.' At the end of the video, recorded on New Year's Eve, an air hostess asks if the pair are travelling together, causing the rest of the passengers to burst out in laughter and clapping.

Tracy Proctor, 52, said she has been haunted by the 'protective' figure for the past 14 years with spooky sightings forcing her sons, boyfriends and male visitors to flee her home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was found dead by her cleaner

It emerged this morning that the socialite's body was discovered at her luxury west London apartment by her cleaner, as a close friend revealed that she had relapsed into 'a dark place' in the weeks before her death. It later emerged that builders had heard a 'loud bang' coming from the apartment last Friday and had not seen her since, but this afternoon the barman at her local pub, The Bottlery, confirmed he saw her on Saturday with her new, mystery boyfriend. (Pictured: Tara and her friend, gay rights campaigner Ivan Massow, and inset, her apartment.) 

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was found dead in her London flat yesterday aged 45, after a life in the spotlight from skiing with Prince Charles to making a big impression at glitzy parties around the world.

Piers Morgan and Duncan James have led a host of celebrity tributes to Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, following her shocking death at the age of 45.

Exactly a fortnight ago on January 25, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was photographed for the last time walking outside her flat in London, where she was found dead from a brain tumour today.

Following the death of socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson in London, hundreds of touching tributes have revealed a more vulnerable side to the one-time party girl. (Pictured: Tara at 16.)

Shannon Matthews' family fury over 'sick' BBC drama

The drama, starring Sheridan Smith (inset, centre) as family friend Julie Bushby, aired on Tuesday. It centred on the hunt for Shannon Matthews (right), who was nine when she disappeared from the Moorside estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in February 2008, but it was later revealed that her mother Karen (left) had staged it. Miss Matthews' grandparents led the outcry, saying they thought it was a 'disgrace' to dramatise the faked kidnap of Miss Matthews, who is now 18 and living under a new name. June and Gordon Matthews said: 'Shannon deserves to live her life in peace. She deserves to be left alone. What happened to her was a trauma, a tragedy. It is sick and disgusting that it is being turned into a TV show.'

The families of the soldiers killed in the IRA Hyde Park bombing have been refused legal aid to bring a private prosecution against the suspect, John Downey, after the case against him collapsed.

Fraud allegations involving Britain's £12billion aid budget have quadrupled in the five years since David Cameron's spending target was set, a damning report reveals today.

The new wave grammar schools expected to open in 2020 will accept the top ten per cent, while they currently take 25 per cent, minutes from a Grammar School Heads' Association have revealed.

A survey of councils revealed many vulnerable people routinely face delays of more than six months before they get the help they need with tasks such as washing, dressing and cooking.

An avian influenza prevention zone was declared on December 6 and will be lifted on February 28. Farmers disagree with Defra's plan to enforce measures in high-risk areas.

The gap is worst among girls at three years, eight months less than boys. In Wales and Northern Ireland the gap is around two years. In Scotland, the gulf is two years and seven months.

Kate and Gerry McCann have always claimed they were innocent of any wrongdoing despite former police chief Goncalo Amaral's allegations Maddie died in their holiday flat in Portugal.

Environment minister Lord Gardiner of Kimble insisted there was 'certainly no crisis' over the shortage of lettuce, pointing out that the 'even better' cos variety was still plentiful.

Former BNP member Jack Buckby told student Barbara Ntumy 'I hope you don't get raped' while debating the issue of whether Britain should allow more Syrian refugees into the country.

Gary Lineker saves a fortune by avoiding tax in schemes

From the moral high ground that Gary Lineker so resolutely occupies, he enjoys a crystal clear view of world affairs. Brexit Britain is a 'dystopian land' where the decision by voters to leave the EU makes him 'feel ashamed of my generation'. He has tweeted a number of times and protested against Donald Trump (top inset and right). Public attitudes to refugees can be 'hideously racist and utterly heartless'. Nigel Farage is 'disgusting'. Iain Duncan Smith is an 'irritable dunce'. Then at the weekend, he went into bat against an old foe - popular newspapers (bottom left inset), which had exhibited the temerity to reveal that David Beckham's efforts to manipulate the honours system had been stymied by his equally vigorous attempts to avoid paying tax. Yet one important area of Lineker's life is curiously absent. It also, coincidentally, has almost never been properly addressed in his public statements, or endless commentary on social media. Namely: His colourful tax affairs.

Just in time, Jeremy Corbyn did the business at PMQs. A milky Wednesday sun had risen over Westminster amid rumours (denied) that the Labour leader was contemplating resignation.

Mrs May was confronted in the Commons over the plans by former shadow Europe minister Graham Brady. At PMQs he told her schools in Trafford are among the worst-funded in the country.

The Labour MP (pictured) told David Davis, who is the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, to f**k off when he moved in to kiss her at Strangers' Bar at Westminster.

Former director of the Confederation of British Industry John Cridland warned that the pensions bill is spiralling out of control. 1.2m people already are working beyond state pension age.

Today reached a highest-ever figure of 7.45million weekly listeners between September and December, marking increase of around 400,000 on same period in 2015.

The Church of England through the Investors Group has written to some of the biggest firms in the country to tell them it will fight executive pay deals out of kilter with the pay of ordinary employees.

SNP ministers are coming under growing pressure to tackle Scotland's litter problem with opposition parties backing the Mail's campaign to rid the countryside and coast of plastic bottles and cans.

He has already pocketed £620,000 from speeches to banks and other City institutions but entries released yesterday show he has made £92,000 from just two speeches in January.

BBC radio chief James Purnell said the broadcaster would 'no longer dispense culture from on high' but instead adopt a 'thoughtful' approach without any 'elitism'.

Stoke grandmother accuses local hospital of mistreatment

Patricia Whitehouse (inset), 62, from Stoke-on-Trent, visited her GP seven times in two months complaining of back pain. She was also seen by nurses, a physiotherapist, paramedics and hospital doctors but was repeatedly sent away with painkillers for a twisted spine. The former charity project manager who ran her own crafting business, described on the video (main) how she had asked a locum GP for an X-ray to get to the root of her back pain, but was dismissed with an explanation that 'X-rays don't show everything'. The bed-bound patient added: 'The doctors have failed me, the NHS has failed me.'

Carl Wood, 59, Bill Lincoln, 61, and Hugh Doyle, 49, played roles in Britain's biggest ever burglary. The gang raided 73 safe deposit boxes in London's jewellry district, stealing gems and gold.

Jamie-Leigh Williams, from Oldham was banned from owning any animal for the next five years after pleading guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to dog Lennox by hitting and kicking him.

The ex-Coronation Street actor and Family Fortunes presenter pleaded guilty after being spotted  driving his Audi at 38mph in Liverpool on March 29 last year but was not banned from driving.

White-haired and weedy... the real Mr Darcy

Experts from University College London and Queen Mary London have created the first historically accurate depiction of Mr Darcy, the romantic male lead in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. With a pale complexion with powdered white hair, sloping shoulders, a pointy chin and a long nose, and a physique which was 'more ballet dancer than beefcake', he is quite different to the character depicted in the best-known adaptation where he was played by Colin Firth. The researchers said the genius of the author was to allow each generation to put their own version of masculine beauty onto the character.

The actor, 65, spoke candidly about the aftermath of the affair with ex-model and actress Polly Williams, who was his lover when he was still married to Carolyn Cox. He said he felt 'in a corner'.

It suggests that the nation's youngsters are less likely to feel optimistic, loved, confident and generally content than their peers in many other countries, including Indonesia, India, Germany and France.

By the time they hit 30, 'millennial' men - those born between 1981 and 2000 - have earned around £12,500 less than those in 'Generation X', defined as those born between 1966 and 1980.

There are just 5,000 black rhinos left in the wild as horns are worth £51k per kilo. Black rhino horns are used in Chinese medicine and as dagger handles in Yemen. They are now only found in five countries.

A new blood test could give doctors a simple way of diagnosing Parkinson's disease. Until now patients had to undergo a spinal fluid test to determine whether symptoms are caused by Parkinson's.

High-powered intrabeam radiotherapy, would save women with early-stage breast cancer up to six weeks of daily trips to hospital for lower-strength conventional radiotherapy.

Conservative rebels are said to be plotting with Labour, the SNP and Liberal Democrat and cross-bench peers to pass key amendments to the legislation in the Commons.

Veteran German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said cutting the City of London adrift would be counterproductive because it had capacity that did not exist in the rest of the continent.

Lawless Brazilian city death toll reaches 100

Military troops had to be deployed in the state of Espírito Santo after looting, rape and murders broke out on Saturday amid the industrial action in a row over wages, but even they can't wrestle back control. Since the walkout, more than 100 people have been killed in the metropolitan area of Vitoria, and officers' refusal to return to work has been labelled blackmail and holding the public to ransom by state officials. Schools, shops and public services remain closed in the city, and more members of the Brazilian army have been sent in to deal with the uprising.

Police have foiled a plot to launch a terror attack on European soil after they arrested six suspected Islamists and seized two dozen suicide belts in raids in both Turkey and Germany.

The leader of the Kremlin phoned Turkey's president Tayyip Erdogan to say sorry for the bombardment in Al-Bab that was meant for Islamic State terrorists, who control the Syrian town.

During the attack, four projectiles were fired into southern Israel, where three were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, according to the Israeli Defence Force.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hopes to be re-elected in September, is set to discuss a series of measures with leaders of Germany's 16 state governments.

The security measure is part of a multi-million euro plan to prevent jihadist attacks in the French capital, which have claimed 238 lives around France in the past two years.

Egyptian Abdullah Reda al-Hamahmy, 29, was carrying spray paints in his backpack, and told police he planned to damage paintings in the museum in order to 'avenge the Syrian people'.

WORLD NEWS

       

Gibraltar police BLOCK RAF jet from taking off

A row over jurisdiction saw the plane grounded for nearly two hours after a Royal Gibraltar Police car drove onto the runway, physically blocking the RAF flight from leaving. A Ministry of Defence car in turn tried to block the police vehicle, according to reports. It is understood a member of the British military on board is suspected of a sex offence.

An explosion occurred just 100 miles from the English coastline in the boiler room of EDF's Flamanville nuclear plant in France at 10am today resulting in one of its reactors being taken offline.

The 30-year-old woman was dragged outside after the 500-strong mob broke down the doors to her cell. She was being held on suspicion of starting a fire which claimed the life of a toddler.

Nazar Hussain, from Sajjadabad in Punjab, Pakistan, took his wife Suriya Begum to nearby Naurangabad for spiritual healing, by two fake holy men, known as pirs.

Where are the serious politicians making the case for lower taxation? There aren't any - or, if there are, they are making so little noise that we never hear so much as a squeak from them.

Amid Britain's social care crisis, it emerges that our embassy in Beijing is begging groups to apply for cash from a £1.3billion aid pot, funded by UK taxpayers - to look after the elderly in booming China.