Witness statements by Laimonas Jaktys were clearly prepared by others', insolvency judge rulesA claimant was being fed answers through his smart glasses while giving evidence in the high court in London, a judge has found.Laimonas Jaktys was untruthful in denying his use of the smart glasses" and his witness statements were clearly prepared by others", the insolvency judge Raquel Agnello KC ruled. Continue reading...

Djidji Ayokwe was handed to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this monthA sacred artefact looted by French colonial authorities more than a century ago has been returned to Cote d'Ivoire in one of the most significant cultural restitutions to a former French colony in years.The Djidji Ayokwe, a talking drum confiscated in 1916 by French administrators, landed at 8.45am on Friday at the airport in Port Bouet on the outskirts of the economic capital, Abidjan. It was handed over to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month after being removed from the Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Museum. Continue reading...

US also sees active few days of severe convective storms, while record breaking heat recorded in parts of South AfricaOn Monday 9 March, severe thunderstorms affected parts of southern France, with several departments including Herault, Var, and the Alpes-Maritimes put under yellow alert for heavy rain.Some of the heaviest rainfall totals came from a cell that passed over the Var department. Examples of high rainfall totals taken from some private weather stations come from the towns of Carqueiranne and Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, where 104.4mm was recorded in seven and a half hours, and 92.7mm in three hours respectively. However, as these are private weather stations, they may contain measurement errors. Continue reading...

Calls for Alexandra Cpitnescu's Choke Me to be banned as campaigners say lyrics are dangerous' and reckless'Romania's Eurovision entry Choke Me has been labelled dangerous" and reckless" for appearing to glamorise sexual strangulation, an unsafe practice that can lead to brain injury and death.Campaigners against sexual violence said the entry, in which the words choke me" are repeated 30 times during the three-minute song, was playing fast and loose with young women's lives". Continue reading...

Austrian officials took action after airline ignored court order to pay 890 to unnamed womenBailiffs have boarded a Ryanair aircraft after the airline refused to pay compensation to a passenger whose flight was delayed.Austrian officials took action after the airline ignored a court order to pay the unnamed woman 890 (742) in legal costs and compensation for a delayed flight two years ago. Continue reading...

Ministers face accusations of carrying out irresponsible deregulation' as they push through clean energy' proposalsEd Miliband has unveiled plans to cut regulations, costs and bureaucracy by the end of next year to speed up the development of nuclear power generation.The UK government said the changes, to be carried out this year, would deliver a win-win for building critical infrastructure while protecting nature and the environment". Continue reading...

More than 20% of weekend availability lost in England since 2022, forcing some to turn to A&E, says national associationPeople who need to obtain medication at the weekend are having to undertake long trips because more pharmacies are cutting their opening hours on Saturdays and Sundays.One in six pharmacies in England have reduced their hours at weekends since 2022, with some shutting altogether, as a result of unsustainable" pressures on their budgets. Continue reading...

Rudeness, social media posts and AI-generated complaints among issues harming staff wellbeing, union survey findsTeachers are used to outbreaks of rudeness and defiance from their pupils, but are now saying parents are some of the worst offenders and affecting staff mental health, according to a headteachers' union.More than 90% of headteachers and other senior leaders said they had been on the receiving end of challenging behaviour" from parents including rude or disrespectful responses, while 60% have had verbal abuse and threats within the past 12 months, according to the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). Continue reading...

Blake Miguez, 44, not criminally charged over allegation reported to local police but never disclosed to publicA Louisiana congressional candidate endorsed by Donald Trump was the subject of a 2007 rape accusation that was reported to local law enforcement the same day of the alleged assault - but never disclosed to the public or, reportedly, the president's team as he became one of the rising stars in the state's Republican party.That has raised concerns within the White House that Blake Miguez either wasn't fully vetted or wasn't forthcoming about discoverable documents from his past" before securing Trump's backing, the Atlantic reported on Wednesday, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the endorsement process. Continue reading...

Teenage boy and girl riding ebike were declared dead at scene in Greenbank on Thursday night, Queensland police say

Attack on residential part of M23-controlled city of Goma blamed by rebel group on governmentAt least three people, including a French humanitarian worker for the UN children's agency, were killed in a drone attack in Goma early on Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for the M23 rebel group has said.The attack happened at about 4am in a residential neighbourhood in the city, which has been under M23 occupation since January 2025. Continue reading...

Danish researchers whose work on effects of vaccines has been called into question are at center of US vaccine policyNew details are leading experts to fear that an unethical" vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau is the prototype" for studies under Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US department of health and human services (HHS) and longtime vaccine critic.At the center of US vaccine policy is an unlikely set of Danish researchers whose work on the health effects of vaccines has been called into question. The study in Guinea-Bissau would have looked at the overall health effects of giving hepatitis B vaccines by only vaccinating half of the newborns in the study at birth despite an 18% prevalence rate in adults of the illness, which can lead to serious and sometimes fatal health consequences. Continue reading...

Leak of memo comes after a third of Labour Senedd members raise alarm devolution is being rolled back

Documents filed at Companies House over 2022 deal could complicate row with UK over how money will be usedJersey authorities may be investigating whether cash raised by Roman Abramovich's 2022 sale of Chelsea FC amounts to the proceeds of crime, according to documents filed at Companies House on Wednesday, potentially complicating a row with the UK government over how the money will be used.Accounts for Fordstam Ltd, the company through which the billionaire Russian oligarch owned Chelsea, show that the proceeds of the sale - currently frozen and gathering interest in a Barclays Bank account - have risen to 2.4bn. Continue reading...

Veoza, also known as fezolinetant, will be offered to women for whom HRT is unsuitableMore than 500,000 women in England are to be offered a drug on the NHS that prevents hot flushes.The green light for Veoza, also known as fezolinetant, comes after the medicines watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, on Wednesday authorised it for use. Continue reading...

Maga world figures throw weight behind Maryam Rajavi, MEK's leader, and Reza Pahlavi, the son of last Shah of IranAs a US battle group steamed to the Gulf in November 2002, competing Iraqi exiles, some championed by American insiders, jockeyed for position in the hopes of taking charge once George W Bush toppled Saddam Hussein. Bloomberg dubbed them Iraq's unruly opposition".The most notorious Iraqi exile, failed former banker Ahmad Chalabi, boasted to his neoconservative allies that his return to Baghdad would be welcomed by cheering throngs. Among his competition was a former doctor named Ayad Allawi, who was backed by Britain's MI6 and the Central Intelligence Agency in his bid for support to rule Iraq. Continue reading...

A different New Orleans judge approved the trip while the actor remains out on bond in Mardi Gras battery caseShia LaBeouf ultimately did get permission to travel to his father's baptism in Rome, days after the New Orleans courthouse handling the actor's recent battery arrest initially denied his request to make the trip.LaBeouf, 39, first sought authorization to travel to the Italian capital while out on bond at a court hearing on 26 February, during which state judge Simone Levine ordered him to enroll in substance abuse treatment. A court filing associated with the request said the trip would last from 1 to 8 March and was planned for religious purposes, including his father's baptism". Continue reading...

Carston Woodhouse, running for Wright in Adelaide's north, also claimed gender transitioning is an illusion'

Alleged offences occurred after pro-Palestinian activists gathered outside state parliament within hours of new laws taking effect

Hegseth follows Trump's suggestion war will soon be over by saying US will not stop until Iran decisively defeated'Tehran residents say the Iranian capital has endured what they described as its worst night of aerial bombardment, as the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, followed Donald Trump's suggestion on Monday the war could soon be over with a warning of more strikes to come.We are under heavy bombardment and I can hear back-to-back explosions. The place they hit has caught fire. It's not clear where it exploded, but the buildings are shaking," Niloufar, who lives in east Tehran said early on Tuesday, speaking under a pseudonym for security reasons. They are destroying Iran," they added, saying there were low-flying jets above. Continue reading...

Man was among at least six people who started shooting outside Union Station in state, which has adopted stand your ground law

Anglian, Southern, Wessex and South East allowed to raise charges more than originally permitted by watchdog

JLP, which runs department store chain and Waitrose, to report its results for year to January on ThursdayWorkers at the John Lewis Partnership are expected to find out this week whether they will receive their first annual bonus payment in four years.The retail group, which runs the John Lewis department store chain and Waitrose supermarket business, will also reveal how it has been progressing with its transformation strategy in an update on Thursday 12 March. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary hits back at former prime minister, saying Britain had to learn the lessons' of Iraq war

Stephen McCullagh also covertly recorded ex-girlfriend's counselling sessions after loss of a baby, jury hearsA man accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend in Northern Ireland beat a previous partner, a court has heard.Stephen McCullagh also covertly recorded the counselling sessions of the woman, just months before he met and allegedly killed Natalie McNally, Belfast crown court was told on Friday. Continue reading...

Three women in their 40s, 50s and 60s interviewed under caution in relation to alleged abuse by late Harrods ownerThree women have been interviewed under caution on suspicion of facilitating one of Britain's worst sexual abuse scandals, involving the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed and his alleged attacks over four decades.Scotland Yard said 154 women may have been raped or sexually assaulted by Fayed, or been subject to human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Continue reading...

Author of more than 30 novels, including Fado Alexandrino and The Inquisitors' Manual, was widely seen as one of the most important voices in modern Portuguese literatureAntonio Lobo Antunes, the Portuguese novelist whose dark, polyphonic fiction confronted the traumas of dictatorship, war and Portuguese society, has died aged 83.Widely regarded as one of the most important Portuguese writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, he produced more than 30 novels that reshaped Portuguese writing and made him a perennial contender for the Nobel prize for literature. He received numerous honours, including the Camoes prize, the most prestigious award in the Portuguese language, and several major European literary prizes. His death was confirmed by the publisher Dom Quixote. Continue reading...

Greg Craven, a former vice-chancellor of Australian Catholic University, chosen after no other bids made for the tender

Experts say US influence over South American neighbour will be hard to replicate in country with deep and long-standing antipathy to the westFirst, the CIA tracks the head of an oil-rich, US-baiting nation to a heavily guarded compound at the heart of his country's mountain-flanked capital.Then, that leader is removed from power with a deadly and irresistible show of US military force. Continue reading...

Two women who have lived almost all their lives in UK, but whose British fathers were not married, tell how they are having to battle for British citizenshipTwo women who have lived almost all their lives in the UK have had their lives thrown into chaos due to the new border control rules for British dual nationals because their French mothers were not married to their British fathers.Both women have been forced to prove their right to British passports as a result of archaic laws, which did not accord automatic citizenship to the children of unmarried British fathers in dual national relationships until the law was changed in 2005. Continue reading...

Federal and local officials have announced more patrols, counterterrorism measures and heightened monitoringGovernment officials across the US have taken new security measures because of fears that Iran, or its supporters, may launch attacks on targets in America to retaliate for the US and Israel's bombing of the country.Federal and local public officials have announced that they have taken steps such as increasing law enforcement patrols to prevent any attack, which could come directly from the Iranian regime or a lone actor, security experts said. Continue reading...

Singer was handcuffed by highway patrol on Wednesday night and has since wiped her Instagram profileBritney Spears was arrested in Ventura county, California, on Wednesday night for driving under the influence.The singer was stopped and handcuffed by the California highway patrol at about 9.28pm local time, as first reported by TMZ and confirmed by Variety. Continue reading...

Japanese baby macaque, who appeared to find comfort in the djungelskog toy after being rejected by his mother, seems to be mixing more with his peersPunch, a baby macaque that stole the hearts of animal lovers around the world, is outgrowing his Ikea djungelskog plushie that comforted him after he was initially rejected by his mother and other monkeys at a zoo in Japan.Images of the seven-month-old dragging around a toy bigger than him drew attention to the residents of Ichikawa city zoo near Tokyo. When other monkeys shooed the baby away, Punch rushed back to the toy orangutan, hugging it for comfort. Continue reading...

Weapons amnesty and buyback scheme will run until August as PM James Marape says illegal guns destroying families and villages'Papua New Guinea has asked residents to surrender illegal firearms in a bid to remove tens of thousands of weapons from the country, as it grapples with escalating violence and tribal fighting in the Highlands region.The police minister, Sir John Pundari, said the national gun amnesty and buyback scheme started on 27 February and it would run until late August. Continue reading...

Plan, which aims to preserve jobs in clean tech and low carbon sectors, could include UK if there is reciprocal market accessThe European Commission has proposed a Buy EU" plan to boost domestic low-carbon industries and help the continent compete against China.The commission published a draft regulation - called the Industrial Accelerator Act - on Wednesday, setting demands for EU-made and low-carbon content on bodies spending public money. The rules mark a major shift in economic thinking from Brussels, long a bastion of open markets. Continue reading...

Liz Sayce tells MPs some civil servants tried to minimise extent of problems and deflect blameThe head of an official inquiry into carer's allowance has criticised forces of resistance" inside the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that undermined ministerial attempts to fix longstanding problems with the much-criticised benefit.Liz Sayce, whose review of carer's allowance was published in November, said rather than owning the problems, some at the DWP had tried to minimise" the extent of the department's failures and sought to deflect blame for the crisis. Continue reading...

Anthony Vaccarello marks decade at helm of fashion house with powered-up take on Yves Saint Laurent's classicThe most famous suit in the world, Yves Saint Laurent's Le Smoking, has returned to the Paris catwalk 60 years after its invention.Designed by the late couturier to be worn by men in smoking rooms to protect clothing from the smell of cigars, he adapted it for women, slimming the trousers and lapels. It wasn't a runaway success - only one sold from his 1966 collection - but it became a global symbol of power dressing and gender dismantling, and would appear in every collection until Saint Laurent retired in 2002. Continue reading...

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Annual political gathering kicks off this week in Beijing with the economy, technology and the military high on the agenda

Lib Dems table amendment to crime and policing bill, saying system simply not doing enough to protect women'Parliament is to debate whether all suicides in cases involving victims of domestic abuse should be investigated as homicide.The Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment to the crime and policing bill saying that if there is reasonable suspicion that a death by suicide has been preceded by a history of domestic abuse committed against the person by another person, the relevant police force must investigate that suicide as if it were a potential homicide". Continue reading...

No injuries have been reported in the strike and fire, Dubai's media office said on TuesdayAuthorities have put down a limited fire in the vicinity of the US consulate in Dubai due to a drone strike and no injuries were reported, Dubai's media office said on Tuesday.A US official and Dubai's government media office told the Wall Street Journal that a drone struck the parking lot of the consulate in Dubai. Continue reading...

At least four tankers have been struck by drones and maritime traffic has dropped by 80%, reports sayIran has effectively closed the strait of Hormuz to oil and gas exports for the past four days with a mixture of drone strikes and fear that has halted commercial maritime traffic despite intense US attacks on Iran's navy.At least four tankers have been struck and Lloyd's List Intelligence reported that seaborne traffic had dropped by 80% on Sunday, with little sign of a return as key maritime insurers cancelled cover the next day. Continue reading...

Valdo Calocane approached security at Thames House in 2021 but did not meet threshold for further assessment, public inquiry toldA man who killed three people during a 2023 knife attack in Nottingham had attempted to hand himself into MI5 for arrest two years earlier, an inquiry has heard.Valdo Calocane, 34, fatally stabbed Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, during a stabbing spree in the city on 13 June 2023. Continue reading...

Investors fear rising oil and gas costs will stoke inflation and delay cuts in interest ratesUK borrowing costs jumped for a second day on Tuesday as the potentially damaging effects of the Iran conflict spooked investors concerned that growth will stall across the major industrial economies.Investors fear inflation will rise, driven by rising oil and gas prices, hitting businesses and households just as they are recovering from a long period of elevated inflation. Continue reading...

Literacy experts say move comes over cost concerns and fears costumes can detract from reading for pleasureSchools in England are moving away from pupils dressing up as their favourite literary characters for World Book Day, with experts telling MPs they feared the cost of costumes undermined efforts to increase reading for pleasure.Jonathan Douglas, the chief executive of the National Literacy Trust, said schools were aware of the strains that preparing costumes could place on disadvantaged families, telling MPs on the Commons' education select committee: Many schools are incredibly sensitive to that, and are taking away the narrative around dressing-up on World Book Day." Continue reading...

Beijing's foreign ministry urges all parties' to avoid escalation as number of crossings drops 60% in one day

Spring forecast show UK unempoyment to peak higher than feared, as tax take heads for a record, but headroom against fiscal rules has increased

Grime artist was speeding and over drink-drive limit when he hit 20-year-old Yubin Tamang in LondonThe rapper Ghetts has been jailed for 12 years for killing a student in a hit and run while speeding and over the drink-drive limit.The grime artist, whose real name is Justin Clarke-Samuel, failed to stop after his BMW hit the Nepalese national Yubin Tamang, 20, in north-east London. He admitted dangerous driving and causing death by dangerous driving. Continue reading...

With the US and Israel apparently without a postwar plan for the country, we explore four possible scenarios

Keir Starmer says vessel, which will arrive in about a week, will help defend bases on island after RAF Akrotiri was targeted by drones