Everything you need to stay up to date around the globe
END OF LINE FOR TASK FORCE HELMAND
The UK’s military headquarters in Afghanistan has been disbanded in the latest major step in the drawdown of British troops.
British-led Task Force Helmand came to an end yesterday after eight years of frontline military operations involving tens of thousands of UK servicemen and women.
Its functions will be absorbed into the wider US-led Regional Command (South West) in the latest step towards the withdrawal of UK troops, the Ministry of Defence said.
SCHOOL REVIEW AFTER PUPIL’S DEATH
Urgent school building checks will begin today after a 12-year-old pupil died when a wall in a PE changing room collapsed on her.
The girl, named locally and on social media as Keane Wallis-Bennett, was pronounced dead at Liberton High School in Edinburgh shortly before 10am yesterday.
Pupils were sent home early, while police and health and safety officials launched an inquiry.
CHILE EARTHQUAKE DEATH TOLL RISES
A powerful magnitude-8.2 earthquake struck off northern Chile, setting off a small tsunami that forced evacuations along the country’s entire Pacific coast.
Five people were crushed to death or suffered fatal heart attacks, the interior minister said, but Chile apparently escaped major damage or serious casualties.
The shaking caused landslides that blocked roads, power failed for thousands, an airport was damaged and several businesses caught fire.
NOW UK SUBMARINE JOINS JET SEARCH
Royal Navy survey ship HMS Echo is due to begin search efforts to help find missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
Yesterday evening a source said Royal Navy submarine HMS Tireless had also arrived in the area - the focus of the search for the missing Boeing 777 - where it will help in the hunt for the plane’s flight recorders.
Flight MH370, bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board, with a three-week search finding no sign of it.
NEW HILLSBOROUGH INQUESTS CONTINUE
The coroner in the fresh inquests into the deaths of the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster will continue his opening statement today.
There were emotional scenes in the packed courtroom yesterday as Lord Justice Goldring laid bare the “very many individual human tragedies” of the catastrophic events nearly 25 years ago.
Some of the hundreds of relatives present wept during powerful moments that included a roll call of the victims’ names and harrowing accounts of the fatal crush at the FA Cup semi-final on April 15, 1989.
’BEDROOM TAX’ CAUSES DISTRESS: MPS
Disabled people are suffering “severe financial hardship and distress” as a result of the so-called bedroom tax, a cross-party committee of MPs has concluded.
The decision to reduce housing benefit payments from social tenants deemed to have a larger home than they need - officially known as the social sector size criteria (SSSC) but described by ministers as the removal of a “spare room subsidy” - has hit vulnerable people who were not the intended targets of the reform and have little hope of moving to a smaller property, the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee found.
The committee voted down a proposal from Labour MP Sheila Gilmore to call for the policy to be scrapped, but it did urge ministers to exempt anyone whose home has been adapted to help them with their disability, as well as any household containing a claimant receiving disability benefits at the higher level.
CLEGG AND FARAGE IN SECOND TV CLASH
Nick Clegg is expected to ramp up his attack on Ukip leader Nigel Farage tonight when they face off in a second televised debate.
Polls suggested the Deputy Prime Minister came off worst in the first clash last week, which included arguments over immigration figures and the number of laws coming out of Brussels.
But Mr Farage was criticised over recent days after naming Russian president Vladimir Putin as the world leader he admires most.
’NEW VISION’ URGED FOR OIL INDUSTRY
The North Sea oil and gas industry needs to “significantly” reduce costs by billions of pounds to remain competitive, a report has warned.
Professional services firm PwC said “a new vision and new ways of working are urgently required” for the sector.
It argued it is “essential” that companies operating in the North Sea work together and collaborate, to help the industry “plan more effectively and further into the future”.
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