Woman and young girl, 8, die after blaze at home in Collingham

Crime reporter(wp/es):

An eight-year-old girl and a woman have died following a house fire in Nottinghamshire. 

Emergency services scrambled to the scene at around 7am on Saturday after reports of a blaze at a property in Woodhill Road, Collingham. 

Nottinghamshire Police said five people, believed to be members of the same family, were removed from the building.

The young girl died along with a woman, 33, after the incident. 

A five-year-old boy and a 34-year-old man remain in hospital with serious injuries.

A 53-year-old woman was led to safety and treated at the scene.

The fire was brought under control and a joint investigation has been launched by Nottinghamshire Police and Fire and Rescue.  

Area Chief Inspector Rich Stapleford said: “This morning our Fire and Rescue colleagues were able to remove five people from a property affected by fire.

“Ambulance crews were on scene and provided emergency care at the scene and on route to hospital.

“Despite their best efforts it is with sadness that I confirm a girl aged eight and a woman aged 33 have died following the incident.

“A five-year-old boy and a 34-year-old man remain in hospital with serious injuries.

“A 53-year-old woman was lead to safety and looked after at the scene.

“It is believed that all five people were members of the same family.

“The fire was brought under control and a joint Fire and Police investigation is taking place to establish a cause.

“Collingham is a very close knit community and this includes some of the fire crews who responded. I know this news will hit the village very hard indeed. I speak on behalf of all the emergency services who were in attendance when I say our thoughts are with the victims, their families, friends and the community of Collingham at this difficult time.”

If you have any information call Nottinghamshire Police on 101 quoting incident number 189 of 15 December 2018.

UK court rules regulator treated Sainsbury's, Asda unfairly in probe

Business correspondent(wp/reuters):

A British court ruled on Friday that the country’s competition regulator treated Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) and takeover target Asda unfairly in not allowing the supermarket groups more time to respond to evidence submitted as part of a probe of their deal.

Sainsbury’s agreed a 7.3 billion-pound takeover of Walmart-owned (WMT.N) Asda in April and the deal is being probed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

On Wednesday the two companies said they would apply to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) for a judicial review of the CMA’s phase two investigation of the deal, which started in September.

Sainsbury’s and Asda had asked the CMA for an extra 11 working days over the Christmas period to respond to a large amount of evidence material recently provided to them, but the CMA had declined the request. 

Sainsbury’s and Asda said the CAT ruled on Friday that the timetables for responding to the materials and attending a hearing were unfair.

But the tribunal did not rule on the number of extra days Sainsbury’s and Asda should have, a CMA spokeswoman said, adding the court had not agreed with the Jan. 4 date sought by the companies.

The tribunal instead decided it was up to the competition regulator to decide how much more time the companies should have to respond, the spokeswoman said.

“The CMA will now consider how much more time to give the parties,” she said.

Sainsbury’s and Asda said in a joint statement they “took this step reluctantly and look forward to re-engaging with the CMA and Panel and working constructively with them going forward.”

British minister warns Brexit is stuck as no-deal or referendum loom

Political reporter(wp/Reuters):
Britain’s exit from the European Union was heading for an impasse, one senior minister said on Saturday, after a week in which Prime Minister Theresa May failed to win EU assurances on her deal and pulled a vote because UK lawmakers would defeat it.

With just over 100 days until Britain leaves the bloc on March 29, Brexit remains up in the air with growing calls for a no-deal exit, a potentially disorderly divorce that business fears would be highly damaging, or for a second referendum.

May pulled a vote on her deal on Monday after acknowledging it would be heavily defeated over concerns about the “backstop”, an insurance policy designed to avoid any hard land border for Ireland but which critics say could bind Britain to EU rules indefinitely.

Two days later, she survived a plot to oust her from her those in her own party who support a hardline Brexit, showing the level of opposition she faced.

May herself has acknowledged that Britain’s parliament appears deadlocked with no clear support for any option, with the small Northern Irish party that props up her government leading the criticism of her deal.

“Brexit is in danger of getting stuck – and that is something that should worry us all,” pensions minister Amber Rudd wrote in Saturday’s Daily Mail newspaper.

“If MPs (lawmakers) dig in against the prime minister’s deal and then hunker down in their different corners, none with a majority, the country will face serious trouble.”

At a summit in Brussels, May’s attempts to get legal assurances from the EU that the Irish backstop would only be a temporary measure was rebuffed with the bloc’s other 27 leaders saying they would not renegotiate the treaty.

However, May insisted at the summit’s conclusion on Friday that further clarification was still possible with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying: “We want to be helpful”.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said parliament could still rally behind May’s agreement with additional assurances and said such clarifications were likely because EU countries knew no deal would be a disaster for them.

“When the dust has settled, the only way we’re going to get this through the House of Commons ... is to have a version of the deal that the government has negotiated,” Hunt told BBC radio. “I don’t think the EU could be remotely sure that if we don’t find a way through this we wouldn’t end up with no deal.”

MINISTERS DIVIDED

However, the Times newspaper reported on Saturday that most of May’s ministers thought her deal was dead and were divided over the way forward.

Some were reluctantly leaning towards a second referendum, others favoured a closer, Norway-style relationship and a number, including Hunt, were willing to leave with no deal, the paper said.

One senior minister told Reuters on Friday that the risk of a “managed” no-deal Brexit was rising as was the likelihood of a second vote on EU membership.

“We are not ready for no deal, the public is not ready for no deal,” said the minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is no plan B, at least, not that will get the support of the House (of Commons).”

Rudd said a no-deal scenario “mustn’t be allowed to happen” and urged lawmakers from all parties come together to stop it.

“We need to try something different. Something that people do in the real world all the time, but which seems so alien in our political culture – to engage with others,” she said.

“We need to acknowledge the risk that parliament could spend the next precious few months debating about preferred solutions and end up with no compromise, no agreement and no deal.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, a leading pro-EU advocate, said on Friday a second Brexit referendum was now the most likely outcome to break the stalemate, a view shared by ardent Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

“We’re actually becoming more divided on this subject than perhaps we were two-and-a-half years ago and that’s why I think a second referendum gets closer,” Farage told BBC TV. “I hate the thought of it, but I tell you what, I’m going to spend every minute getting ready for it.”

Three teenage boys rushed to hospital after being knifed outside school

Crime reporter,barmingham(wp/es):

Three teenage boys have been rushed to hospital after being stabbed outside a school in Birmingham.

Emergency services were called to University of Birmingham School, on the university's campus in Selly Oak, at about 4.20pm on Monday.

They found the three boys suffering from knife wounds in Weoley Park Road.

They were rushed to hospital after the triple stabbing, which happened at the end of the school day.

Police said their injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said: “Enquiries are on-going to establish what took place this afternoon and to find those responsible.

“Part of Weoley Park Road remains closed at this time.”

Victoria and David Beckham make rare red carpet appearance at The Fashion Awards

Pic:David backham&victoria backham(wp)
Sports reporter(wp/es):

On Monday evening power couple Victoria and David Beckhammade a rare joint red carpet appearance as they arrived hand-in-hand at The Fashion Awards 2018.

Victoria Beckham is nominated for British Designer of the Year Womenswear at the annual awards for her eponymous brand, Victoria Beckham, which celebrated its 10th anniversary earlier this year.

VB looked every inch a style icon in one of her own designs, an elegant black evening gown with wrap front detail. The classic dress from her spring/summer 2019 collection also featured pockets, giving it an androgynous twist. 

Her husband, David Beckham, who is the Ambassadorial President of the British Fashion Council, cut a suave figure in a tailored black suit with an unbuttoned white shirt showing off his tattooed chest, the monochrome colour scheme perfectly complimenting his wife's ensemble.

 In recent years the private couple have only made a handful of joint red carpet appearances, Monday's ceremony being just the second time the former footballer and Spice Girl have walked a red carpet together in almost three years.  

The last time the duo attended The Fashion Awards was in 2015, when they put on a chic sartorial display in matching black suits.

Uber plans to integrate London bus, Tube timetables into its app: FT

ICT reporter(wp/Reuters):

Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] is planning to integrate into its app the bus and Tube timetables of Transport for London, the government body in charge of the capital’s transport network, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The move would put Uber into direct competition with venture capital-backed start-up Citymapper, the report said.

Uber did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.

Brexit in turmoil as May pulls vote to seek changes to EU divorce

Political reporter(wp/Reuters):
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday postponed a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal to seek more concessions but the European Union refused to renegotiate and lawmakers doubted her chances of winning big changes.

May’s abrupt move less than 30 hours before parliament was to vote opens up a range of possibilities from a Brexit without a deal, a last-minute agreement or another EU referendum.

Admitting she faced defeat on Britain’s potentially biggest political and economic shift since World War Two, May was laughed at by some lawmakers when she said there was broad support for key aspects of her deal reached with the EU last month.

However, “If we went ahead and held the vote tomorrow, the deal would be rejected by a significant margin,” she told parliament of the agreement she clinched after 18 months of tortuous negotiations.

With her position in jeopardy, May said she would now go back to the EU and seek reassurances over the so-called Irish “backstop”, an insurance policy to ensure no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.

She questioned whether parliament was trying to frustrate the democratic will of Britons to leave the EU and warned that without agreement the world’s fifth largest economy would leave on March 29 without a deal.

The EU reacted coolly, with European Council President Donald Tusk saying it was ready to discuss how to smooth ratification, but that neither the withdrawal agreement nor the Irish backstop would be renegotiated.

“As time is running out, we will also discuss our preparedness for a no-deal scenario,” Tusk said. Brexit will be discussed at a previously scheduled EU summit on Dec. 13-14.

May will first meet Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday.

Sterling GBP=D3 skidded to its weakest level since April 2017, falling to $1.2507. It was trading at $1.50 on the day of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Yields on U.S. 10-year bonds dropped to the lowest since late August.

MAY’S STRATEGY?

The vote postponement marks what many lawmakers cast as the collapse of May’s two-year attempt to forge compromise under which the United Kingdom would exit the EU while staying closely within its orbit.

The EU’s 27 other members, with a combined economic might six times that of the United Kingdom, appeared unlikely to countenance substantive changes which could convince her domestic opponents.

A costly British exit without a negotiated accord looks increasingly likely, French European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said following May’s decision.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said there were no possibilities to amend Britain’s 585-page withdrawal deal and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said preparations for a no-deal Brexit should intensify.

May indicated she was seeking further assurances from the EU on the working of the backstop and would seek to give the British parliament more power over its application to satisfy sovereignty demands.

May said other EU leaders were open to discussion about the backstop, but few in parliament were convinced.

Any assurances May secures from the EU over the contentious backstop will be “completely irrelevant” if they are not included in the withdrawal agreement, lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading Brexit supporter, told reporters.

“It would be transformative if the backstop were removed,” Rees-Mogg said. “But, this is the whole backstop, this isn’t some paragraph saying it will finish in 2025 or something. It has to be out.”

“MAKE WAY”, SAYS LABOUR

The Northern Irish party which props up May’s minority government bluntly told her to ditch the backstop altogether or face the collapse of her deal. The Democratic Unionist Party is upset as the backstop could align Northern Ireland more closely with the EU than the rest of the United Kingdom.

The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said Britain no longer had a functioning government and called on May to “make way” for Labour.

Just a handful of MPs publicly supported her deal on Monday.

May said the deeper question was whether parliament wanted to deliver on the people’s will from the 2016 referendum, or open up divisions with another national vote.

“If you take a step back, it is clear that this house faces a much more fundamental question: does this house want to deliver Brexit?” May asked.

Her decision to halt the vote came just hours after the EU’s top court, the Court of Justice, said in an emergency judgment that London could revoke its Article 50 formal divorce notice with no penalty.

Both May’s ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour Party are publicly committed to carrying out Brexit. But a no-deal Brexit is seen as so disruptive, with customs checks potentially blocking ports and hitting trade, that parliament would be under strong pressure to block it.

The ultimate outcome will shape Britain’s $2.8 trillion economy, have far-reaching consequences for the unity of the United Kingdom and determine whether London can keep its place as one of the top two global financial centres.

“The only way not to have no deal is to have a deal and to agree a deal,” May said. Parliament will hold a three-hour emergency debate on Tuesday on May’s decision to defer the vote.