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Amy Winehouse: no "illegal drugs found" says family
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Toxicology results have shown "no illegal substances" in Amy Winehouse's system at the time of her death, according to her family.
They say tests indicate alcohol was present but it cannot yet be determined if it played a role in the singer's death last month.
Winehouse's family thanked police and added that they await the outcome of an inquest on 26 October.
Winehouse, 27, was found dead at her home on 23 July.
The star had a well-publicised struggle with drink and drugs.
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A row of japanese tanks put up a smoke-screen during an annual live firing event, at a training range near Tokyo
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Hillsborough files: 100,000 sign online petition
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Ninety-six Liverpool fans were killed in the disaster
A petition calling for Hillsborough disaster Cabinet papers to be released has reached 100,000 signatures - enough for a Commons debate to be considered.
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish and Newcastle United player Joey Barton used Twitter to urge people to sign the Home Office website petition.
It follows a ruling by Information Commissioner Christopher Graham that the papers should be published.
E-petitions with 100,000 signatures must be considered for debate.
Celebrities including former Liverpool player Michael Owen, musician Billy Bragg, actor Simon Pegg and comedian Dara O Briain added their names to the petition on the Home Office website.
The Cabinet Office has said it will appeal against the information commissioner's publication decision - which followed a Freedom of Information request for the documents from the BBC.
The office said it believed the Hillsborough Independent Panel, established under the Labour government, should oversee the disclosure of documents relating to the tragedy.
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Obama in Close Race Against Romney, Perry, Bachmann, Paul
"PRINCETON, NJ -- President Barack Obama is closely matched against each of four possible Republican opponents when registered voters are asked whom they would support if the 2012 presidential election were held today. Mitt Romney leads Obama by two percentage points, 48% to 46%, Rick Perry and Obama are tied at 47%, and Obama edges out Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann by two and four points, respectively."
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Coventry hospital 'removed healthy part of brain'
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A Warwickshire hospital trust has admitted liability after a man suffered permanent brain damage when he was subjected to unnecessary surgery.
John Tunney, 63, from Sutton Coldfield should have been given tablets to control a pituitary gland problem.
But instead he was subjected to an unnecessary biopsy by a surgeon who then wrongly removed part of his brain rather than the tumour.
The former paramedic is now partially sighted and needs full-time care.
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust said the surgeon involved was no longer involved in such surgery.
Richard Kennedy, chief medical officer for the trust, said: "I very much regret the tragic outcome for Mr Tunney and his family and on behalf of the trust would like to apologise for this."
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"The 30ft-tall statue, which forms the centrepiece of a $120 million (£73 million), four-acre memorial to Dr King, opened to the public on Monday on the National Mall in Washington. It is the only memorial on the Mall that does not honour a president or fallen soldiers.
Standing in the shadow of the Washington Monument, the statue shows Dr King emerging from a mountain of Chinese granite with his arms crossed and is called The Stone of Hope.
However, there has been controversy over the choice of Lei Yixin, a 57-year-old master sculptor from Changsha in Hunan province, to carry out the work. Critics have openly asked why a black, or at least an American, artist was not chosen and even remarked that Dr King appears slightly Asian in Mr Lei's rendering.
Mr Lei, who has in the past carved two statues of Mao Tse-tung, one of which stands in the former garden of Mao Anqing, the Chinese leader's son, carried out almost all of the work in Changsha."
Outsourcing at it's best.
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Learco Chindamo robbery trial jurors consider verdicts
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Jurors in the case of Learco Chindamo - the man who killed headmaster Philip Lawrence - have retired to consider their verdicts in his robbery trial.
Prosecutors claim Chindamo, 31, bragged about his conviction to intimidate David Sexton into handing over money in Camden, north London, last November.
But the defence said Mr Sexton had branded Chindamo a "killer", "mocking" him and his two friends.
Chindamo, Gregory Jananto and Saeed Akhtar, both 32, all deny robbery.
Blackfriars Crown Court has heard a row broke out near a Sainsbury's supermarket in Chalk Farm Road.
Prosecutors claim Chindamo, of no fixed address, asked Mr Sexton: "Do you know who I am?" and "Do you remember about the head teacher in Maida Vale?"
It is also alleged he falsely told Mr Sexton his co-defendant Mr Jananto, of Percy Road, Shepherd's Bush, west London, had stabbed a witness in the 1996 murder trial.
Jurors were told members of the public do approach Chindamo over the killing of Philip Lawrence.
The defence claim Mr Sexton branded Chindamo a "killer" and mocked him, Mr Jananto and Mr Akhtar, of Chalton Street, King's Cross, north London, as they stood by a cash machine.
"The way that he came across and the way that he said 'killer', he had a smirk on his face and it was like he was mocking us," Mr Jananto told the court.
"Learco got quite upset by it," he said.
"I was very agitated and I was pacing around and I was trying to get close to him and I had a bottle in my hand ... I just wanted him to leave."
It is claimed Mr Sexton handed over £10 so Chindamo could buy a drink following the row.
In 1996 Chindamo was ordered to serve at least 12 years in jail for fatally stabbing Mr Lawrence, 48, outside the gates of a school in Maida Vale, north-west London.
He was freed in July 2010.
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King Arthur Pendragon loses human remains legal battle
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A druid who went to the High Court to try to stop researchers examining ancient human remains found at Stonehenge has failed in his legal bid.
King Arthur Pendragon wanted the remains found in 2008 to be reburied immediately.
He was fighting a Ministry of Justice decision allowing scientists at Sheffield University to analyse the samples for five more years.
His bid was rejected at a High Court hearing in London.
Mr Justice Wyn Williams refused to give Mr Pendragon permission to launch a judicial review action, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to show that the Ministry of Justice might have acted unreasonably.
Former soldier Mr Pendragon, 57, who changed his name by deed poll, was dressed in white druid robes and represented himself at the hearing
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Foster's reports annual loss of $93m
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Australian brewer Foster's has reported an annual loss as it tries to fend off a hostile takeover bid by SABMiller.
Foster's reported a loss of 89m Australian dollars ($93m; £56.5m) for the year ending 30 June.
Despite the loss, Foster's said it planned to return A$500m to shareholders.
The move comes after Foster's rejected a $10bn takeover offer from SABMiller, saying the bid significantly undervalued the company.
"Options being investigated include a capital reduction and share buy back." John Pollaers, chief executive officer of Foster's Groupsaid in a statement.
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Trinidad declares state of emergency in crime hot-spots
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A limited state of emergency is in force in several areas of Trinidad and Tobago, as the government moves to tackle a recent spike in violent crime.
The measures, announced on Sunday by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, include an overnight curfew.
Ms Persad-Bissessar said they were taking action in what she called "hot spots" as part of a wider effort to tackle "wanton acts of lawlessness".
The opposition said it was a "panic response" by the government.
The declaration of emergency rule in six areas, which will last 15 days, came after the country saw 11 murders in just a couple of days.
Ms Persad-Bissessar said the killings were a reaction by drug gangs to recent major seizures by the police of consignments worth millions of dollars.
"These large sums of money simply do not disappear from the drug trade without consequences," she said.
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Costa Rica 'faces threat of drug gangs'
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Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla says increased international help is vital to tackle the drug cartels operating in Central America.
President Chinchilla told BBC Mundo that Mexican gangs were present in her country, working with local cartels.
Ms Chinchilla was speaking during a visit to Mexico focused on boosting co-operation against organised crime.
Mexican gangs are increasingly using Central America as a transit route for South American cocaine.
President Chinchilla said that Costa Rica remained one of the safest countries in Latin America, but that in recent years insecurity had become a growing issue.
"It's a problem that will get out of hand if we don't confront it now," she told the BBC during an interview in Mexico City.
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Policeman lynched in Sri Lanka town
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A policeman has been killed by angry residents of a town in north-west Sri Lanka in a vigilante attack sparked by fear of nocturnal prowlers in the area.
The prowlers, known as "grease devils", have been accused of assaulting women at night in recent weeks. Residents say the security forces are involved.
The policeman was hacked to death in the town of Puttalam and there were also clashes elsewhere on Sunday night.
The police deny wrongdoing and the army has set up two new posts in the area.
"As several Muslim groups in the east tried to disrupt peace, we had to deploy a brigade for security," government spokesman Lakshman Hulugalle told BBC Sinhala.
"However, police will be in charge of civil administration and law and order in Puttalam and the east," he added.
He said that 47 people have so far been arrested in connection with the "grease devil" attacks adding that the government can deploy the military "whenever necessary under the prevailing emergency regulations."
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Stock markets rise on hopes of more US Fed stimulus
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Stock markets and gold prices have risen, while the dollar has fallen, as markets anticipate further stimulus measures by the US Federal Reserve.
European markets were up 0.7%-1.3%, while gold hit a new record. The main US index, the Dow Jones, rose 1.3%.
The Fed's chairman, Ben Bernanke, is widely expected to discuss further stimulus actions in a speech on Friday.
This may involve more "quantitative easing" - buying up US debt to inject more cash into the financial system.
The Fed has already carried out two rounds of quantitative easing (QE), to stabilise the 2008-09 financial crisis, and more recently to boost the flagging recovery.
Earlier this month, the US central bank also took the unusual step of saying that it expected to keep short-term interest rates close to zero until 2013.
On Friday, Mr Bernanke will give the keynote speech at the annual meeting of central bankers at Jackson Hole in Wyoming.
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Debris covers the isle at the Miller's mart food store in Mineral, Va., Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011. A magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit the area which was felt up and down the east coast.
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One of the spires, left, of the National Cathedral is seen missing following an earthquake in the Washington, Tuesday, Aug., 23
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Cars are crushed under the debris that fell from a building complex near Old Courthouse Road in Vienna, Va.
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A helicopter flies closely to the Washington Monument to survey its exterior for damage after a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck the east coast August 23 in Washington, DC. Police officers said that unidentified material had fallen off the Washington Monument as a result of the earthquake. All the monuments and buildings along the National Mall have been evacuated and closed.
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Office workers gather on the sidewalk in downtown Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 23, moments after a 5.9 magnitude tremor shook the nation's capitol. The earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Rhode Island and New York City.
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A bride in her wedding dress runs from the courthouse in Lower Manhattan in New York August 23.
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Damage is seen on the street outside a library at Euclid and 15th Street NW where part of the roof crumbled during a 5.9 magnitude earthquake.
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Christopher Hartman works on the roof installing a tarp after an earthquake tore down parts of the chimney on his dad's office in Mineral, Va., Tuesday Aug. 23, 2011.
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Traffic sits stopped at the New Jersey bound entrance to the Holland tunnel after tremors from a 5.9 earthquake on August 23 in New York City.
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Children are evacuated from the Jacob K. Javits Federal building in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 23 after an earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va. was felt.
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Co-workers Susan Sproul, left, and Susan Davidson hug after evacuating from their building after an earthquake was felt in Baltimore, Tuesday, Aug. 23. Downtown office buildings were cleared and workers were waiting for clearance to re-enter. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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People who came out on the street after an earthquake look up at a window that cracked during the quake on Market Street in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Aug. 23
''Where's Superman when you need him?'' :)
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^ Incidentally, standing under/outside a tall building following an earthquake is not recommended. They need to seriously revamp their 'assembly points' :)
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This undated photo provided by Penn State University Prof. Blair Hedges shows a Caribbean gecko, Sphaerodactylus ariasae, one of the two smallest reptile species known to exist, curled up on a dime. Found in the Dominican Republic, the gecko is about 16 mm, and is also the smallest amniote vertebrate of 25,000 species (includes birds, mammals, and reptiles). Hedges described "I found it with a colleague, while crawling on my hands and knees among dead leaves, anticipating a small lizard, but that not that small!" He said.
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This undated photo provided by Penn State University Biology Prof. Blair Hedges shows a threadsnake, the smallest snake species currently known to exist, curled up on a quarter. The tiny snake, found in Barbados, is approximately 1000 mm long, lays one single long egg, and is the shortest of 3,000 species of snakes.
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This undated handout image provided by the National Museum of National History in Paris, France, shows a blind new species, distantly related to the squat lobster family, which was found in 2005 in hydrothermal vents where the East Pacific Rise meets Antarctica. We live in a much wilder world than it looks.
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This image, taken in 2002, about one mile deep near a huge underwater volcano near Monterey Bay, provided by NOAA shows this strange marine animal, thought to be a new species that has yet to be described or named. It is a type of mollusk, called nudibranch, that sheds its shell early in life.
A new study estimates that Earth has almost 8.8 million species, but we've only discovered about a quarter of them. And some of yet-to-be-seen ones could be in our own backyards, scientists say.
So far, only 1.9 million species have been found. Recent discoveries have been small and weird: a psychedelic frogfish, a lizard the size of a dime and even a blind hairy mini-lobster at the bottom of the ocean
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Job candidates Denise Spells (L) and Queenie Thomas (C) fill out applications for Marriott Corp. as they wait in line at a U.S. Congressional Black Caucus Jobs Fair in Miami, Florida August 23.
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I really like these behind-the-scenes images that show how glamorous the job of an international journalist can be
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Members of the media gather in a corridor at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli August 23
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U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and daughter Malia Obama, 13, bike together on a bike path through Manuel F. Correllus State Forest while vacationing on Martha's Vineyard on August 23, 2011 in West Tisbury, Massachusetts. This is the third year the president has taken his vacation on Martha's Vineyard.
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Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) director Dominique Strauss-Kahn (C) departs Manhattan State Supreme Court with his wife Anne Sinclair (L) and attorney Benjamin Brafman on August 23 in New York City. A judged dismissed the criminal sexual assault charges against Strauss-Kahn today.
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Demonstrators chant and hold signs outside the Manhattan state Supreme Court in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 23 against District Attorney Cyrus Vance's decision to drop all sexual assault charges against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
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Rebel forces gained "full control" over Moammar Gadhafi's fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound in Libya's capital Tuesday, NBC News reported
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Lybian rebels celebrate inside the Gadhafi compound in Tripoli on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011.
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Libyan rebel fighters celebrate near a golf cart belonging to Gadhafi at the entrance of the Bab al Aziziya compound in Tripoli on Tuesday.
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Lightning strikes behind a house in the northern German city of Gesecke on August 23, 2011. Thunderstorms and heavy rainfall dominate the weather in Germany
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An artisan works on semi-finished clay statues of Hindu deities in Kumartoli, the idol-makers' village of Kolkata, India, on August 22.
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An artisan at work in Kumartoli. Ongoing monsoon rain has made it difficult for the artisans to finish their idols on schedule, with the recent economic slowdown and high inflation adding to the difficulties of the idol-makers ahead of the festive season.
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