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MSPs have voted against legalising assisted dying in Scotland after a closely contested late night debate. The Scottish Parliament rejected plans that would have made it the first part of the United Kingdom to allow assisted suicide, while MPs at Westminster continue to discuss similar proposals. The result at Holyrood was fifty nine votes against and sixty seven in favour, with one abstention. Sources had said before the vote the […]

Afghanistan has claimed 400 people were killed in a Pakistan strike that it says hit a hospital treating drug addicts. Pakistan rejected the claim, saying its strikes in Kabul and eastern Afghanistan on Monday did not hit any civilian sites. The Taliban’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said 400 were killed and 250 injured. Sharafat Zaman, a health ministry spokesman, earlier reported more than 200 deaths and said all parts of […]

Plans to support households facing a sharp rise in the cost of heating oil are to be announced by the government. Prices have surged since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran, pushing crude oil above one hundred dollars, around seventy five pounds, a barrel compared with seventy one before the conflict began. Support worth about fifty million pounds A mother has been charged with murder after her baby […]

London’s Burning actor John Alford has died in prison two months after being jailed for sexual assault. In January, Alford, whose real name was John Shannon, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years after being found guilty of sexually assaulting two teenage girls in 2022. He rose to fame playing Billy Ray in the ITV drama London’s Burning and also appeared in BBC’s Grange Hill. A Prison Service spokesperson confirmed his death […]

Donald Trump says the United States has carried out what he called one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East. In a post on Truth Social, he said the strikes totally obliterated every military target on Iran’s Kharg Island. He added that for reasons of decency he had chosen not to wipe out the oil infrastructure on the island. Kharg is a small island […]

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the US Navy will be escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said on Thursday he plans to use the effective closure of the strategic waterway, which handles 20% of the world’s oil, as leverage against the US and Israel. Bessent added that tankers are already moving through, including Iranian and some Chinese-flagged vessels, and confirmed […]

A woman has been jailed for four and a half years after falsely accusing ten men of raping her. Stacey Sharples, thirty one, from Farnworth in Bolton, pleaded guilty at Bolton Crown Court to ten counts of perverting the course of justice. The false allegations were made between twenty thirteen and twenty nineteen. Greater Manchester Police said most of the men were arrested and spent time in custody, with some […]

US forces have carried out strikes on sixteen mine-laying boats near the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier, Donald Trump said ten inactive mine-laying boats had already been destroyed, adding there was “more to follow” in an update posted at 8:24pm. The announcement came less than an hour after the president indicated uncertainty over whether mines were present in the strait. He said Washington had “no reports” confirming Iran’s involvement, but insisted […]

RAF fighter jets have carried out military action to defend the nations of Jordan and Bahrain overnight, the Ministry of Defence says. The jets successfully took out an uncrewed aerial system in defence of Jordan and intercepted a drone heading towards Bahrain, it said. Iran's foreign minister has criticised the US for destabilising oil prices with strikes on the country. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is giving a statement in the House […]