world
Guangzhou Evergrande: Inside China’s $185m football factory
Guangzhou, China. Rising from the early morning mist like a Disney castle sits the imposing face of what President Xi Jinping hopes is the future of Chinese football. Evergrande Football School is front and center in the push to bring footballing glory to a nation currently languishing in the lower echelons of the sport....
Now Putin ‘plans to ABANDON Assad’ after Russian leader hauls troops out of Syria
VLADIMIR Putin is poised to abandon his long-standing relationship with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Western diplomats believe. Negotiators locked in peace talks believe the Russian president's shock decision to withdraw troops from war-ravaged Syria suggests he could be prepared to force Assad to step down....
Sylvia Anderson dead at 88: Voice of Thunderbirds Lady Penelope loses battle with illness
SYLVIA ANDERSON who is best known for voicing Lady Penelope on the Thunderbirds has passed away aged 88 after battling with a short illness, her family has confirmed. Sylvia co-created the hit puppet series, which ran from 1965, with her late husband Gerry. She died in her home in Buckinghamshire her family said. Her daughter,...
Mass migration fuels baby boom: One in SIX of all new European babies now born in UK
ONE in six of all European Union births in a year took place in Britain, official figures reveal. Experts said the baby explosion was in part fuelled by mass migration to the UK, with more than one in four children born here now having foreign mothers. The shock figures prompted fears that schools, hospitals, GP surgeries and...
US election 2016: Winners and losers on Super Tuesday II
In a golf tournament, the day before the final round is called "moving day". It's when the leaders pull away from the rest of the pack. A rookie or little-known duffer may have strung together a few good holes or even posted a nice round, but time and pressure expose their flaws. Tuesday was such a moment in the...
You’ll never believe what UFO’s sci-fi sex siren Lieutenant Gay Ellis looks like now…
SHE was the sexiest sci-fi siren of the seventies, thanks to her intergalactic purple bob and skimpy silver dresses, but British starlet Gabrielle Drake looks very different today. The now 71-year-old burst on to screens as Lieutenant Gay Ellis more than four decades ago in science fiction television series UFO. Defending Earth...
Who’s at the controls of Iran’s bot army?
A group of Twitter accounts seems to be designed to pump out crude Iranian propaganda aimed at an English-speaking audience — but the people behind it and their true motivations are a mystery. Dozens of accounts tweet to thousands of followers in waves every few minutes throughout the day using the hashtag "Powerful...
The godmother of manga sex in Japan
A recent UN report weighed into a debate that provokes intense controversy in Japan, by including manga in a list of content with violent pornography. The BBC's Yuko Kato went to meet one of Japan's leading female manga artists, Keiko Takemiya, seen as the woman who opened the floodgates to sexually explicit manga. Some...
US student Otto Warmbier given hard labour in North Korea
US student Otto Warmbier has been given 15 years hard labour in North Korea for crimes against the state. Warmbier, 21, was arrested for trying to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel while visiting North Korea in January. He later appeared on state TV apparently confessing and saying a church group had asked him to bring back...
Pakistan: Bus bomb explosion kills 15 in Peshawar
At least 15 people travelling on a bus have been killed by a bomb in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, officials say. The vehicle was carrying government employees from nearby areas to the city. An improvised device apparently inside the bus caused the blast, police say. There has been no claim of responsibility,...
First Look: Ruger Silent-SR Suppressor
Ruger suppressors are now a reality with the introduction of the company’s first suppressor: the Ruger Silent-SR. The Silent-SR Ruger suppressor is designed for .22 LR, .22 WMR and .17 HMR rifles and pistols. In testing, the company found that this new suppressor reduced sound pressure levels by as much as 40 decibels....
How Donald Trump deals with protesters at rallies
US presidential candidate Donald Trump often yells at protesters to "get out" of his rallies and says that he wish he could knock them out. Fellow 2016 US presidential candidates have criticised Mr Trump for allowing a culture of violence around his rallies, but he has not taken responsibility. The Republican...