The News Matrix: Saturday 26 April 2014

US tourist arrested for ‘rash behaviour’

A 24-year-old US tourist has been detained, reportedly for “rash behaviour” while going through immigration, the state news agency says. The KCNA news agency yesterday said the American, named as Miller Matthew Todd, had been taken into custody on 10 April.

Care home manager stole from residents

A residential care home manager has been jailed for eight months for stealing money from “extremely vulnerable” clients. Rachel Stokes, 48, siphoned money from three residents at the home in Gloucestershire to fund a gambling habit over a year-long period.

Gross misconduct hearings to begin

Gross misconduct hearings for three police officers who could face the sack over the Plebgate row are due to take place in the next month. The hearings will be held in private, although Andrew Mitchell has been invited to attend. The row erupted when one policeman claimed the politician used the word “pleb”.

Castro hit hard by Marquez’s death

Fidel Castro was hit hard by last week’s death of his friend and Nobel Prize-winning Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Speaking in Havana, the Cuban First Vice-President Miguel Diaz-Canel said: “Fidel is a man of great human sensibility, so he feels the loss of his friends.”

Boffins battle it out over genome funding

Funding for a new technique for editing the human genome which could revolutionise disease treatment has divided the scientific community. Competing camps have emerged to establish scientific and commercial priority over what could be the scientific discovery of the decade.

Life of SNP’s ‘magic’ Margo is celebrated

More than 1,000 people gathered yesterday in Edinburgh to celebrate the life of veteran SNP politician Margo MacDonald, after her death at the age of 70. At the event, where The Proclaimers performed, her widower Jim Sillars told the Assembly Hall: “She was dusted with magic”.

Muslim student loses veil appeal

A court has rejected a Muslim student’s appeal against a vocational school’s ban on wearing face-covering veils in class. The Bavarian Administrative Court said the school’s ban did not infringe illegally on the right of the student to exercise her religious rights freely.

Four die in bomb aimed at Shia

At least four people were killed in the Pakistani city of Karachi when a roadside bomb aimed at a bus carrying Shia Muslim worshippers exploded. “We suspect that a bus coming from a Shia mosque was the likely target,” provincial police chief Iqbal Mehmood said.

Mayor proposes Mussolini museum

The mayor of an Italian town has backed a fascist museum in the birthplace of Benito Mussolini to honour the dictator. Giorgio Frassineti, the centre-left Democratic Party’s Mayor of Predappio, wants the museum to focus on a “piece of our history”.

Miliband confident of a Labour victory

The UK is one year away from a Labour Government, according to party leader Ed Miliband. Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, he said he had “real confidence” Labour would succeed in the 2015 general election and would “take up the cudgel of social justice”.

Ministers accused of ‘spending spree’

More than £36m was spent trying to prop up the Government’s troubled Green Deal programme in the last year, leading to the announcement of an investigation by Parliament’s spending watchdog. Ministers have been accused of going on a “breathtaking spending spree”.

UN diamond trade embargo to be lifted

The UN Security Council is set to lift a nearly decade-long diamond embargo on Ivory Coast, diplomats said, despite reports the ban has failed to stop the illicit production and trafficking of rough diamonds. The embargo was put in place nine years ago in the wake of a civil war.

Minister: war should not deter investors

The three-year civil war in Syria that has killed more than 150,000 people should not detract foreign investment, according to the tourism minister. “The situation in Syria isn’t as the world imagines,” Bishr Yazigi told Reuters. “There are areas that are 100 per cent secure.”

Doherty’s reunion riles Mayfair

News that Pete Doherty is to reunite with the Libertines has angered well-to-do residents of west London, home to Hyde Park where their comeback will be held. “It’s the last thing we need in the middle of Mayfair,” said one resident. The band will play the one-off gig on 5 July.

Jet ‘hijacker’ arrested in Bali

A drunken passenger who caused a hijack scare on a Virgin Australia flight by trying to break into the cockpit was arrested yesterday after the plane landed on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. The airport was closed for nearly two hours because of the incident.