In Pictures: BP Portrait Award 2012 shortlist
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The GuardianChocolate reduces risk of strokes for men, research claimsThe GuardianEating a standard chocolate bar every week could lower a man's risk of having a stroke in later life by 17%, according to a new study. It suggests that eating even mo…

AFPSevere Diet Doesn't Prolong Life, at Least in MonkeysNew York TimesFor 25 years, the rhesus monkeys were kept semi-starved, lean and hungry. The males' weights were so low they were the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall man who tipped the scales a…
Elves wanted: grinches need not applyThe ScoreShops are already gearing up for the season, but before you bury your head under the covers there is good news – job creation. With an increase in seasonal footfall around that time, shops require more st…
BBC NewsCancer sufferer John Baxter gets top marks in GCSE examsBBC NewsA County Tyrone schoolboy who was diagnosed with a brain tumour while studying for his GCSEs has "amazed" his doctors by getting 11 A stars and a B. John Baxter, who had …

Telegraph.co.ukPensioners enjoying more healthy years in retirement than ever beforeTelegraph.co.ukThe Office for National Statistics has found pensioners south of Hadrian's Wall can look forward to more years of healthy retirement than ever before…
Rescue workers combed the sea Wednesday for a vessel thought to have about 150 people on board that reportedly got into difficulties off the Indonesian coast, the authorities said.
An unspecified threat forced a New York-bound Air China flight to return to Beijing on Wednesday seven hours after takeoff, the airline said.
A decade after a stinging failure, Colombia appears once again prepared to enter into peace talks in an effort to bring an end to Latin America’s oldest insurgency.
A koala surprises a group of people in Australia by swimming across a river towards their canoe and climbing in it.
In 1948, a hospital outside London witnessed the birth of the Paralympic movement, as a Jewish doctor who had fled Nazi Germany sought to change the lives of patients with spinal injuries — and inspire new hope in them through sport.
Myanmar has released three aid workers, including two U.N. employees, who received prison sentences after being detained amid sectarian clashes that killed scores of people in the west of the country in June, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday.
One of Australia’s largest supermarket chains has come under fire for an online job ad that specified that “no Indians or Asians” should apply.
Laura Robson secures the biggest win of her career with a shock victory over Kim Clijsters in round two of the US Open.
Pakistani Christians in the UK feel that it is unsafe to return to Pakistan because of blasphemy laws there.
A five-year-old girl killed in a crash while on her way to feed ducks in Dorset died accidentally, a coroner rules.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said that he believes the Paralympics will “inspire a lot of people and change people’s views on disability”.
Some 80,000 people have gathered at the Olympic Park for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games – billed as a ‘journey of discovery’.
A 200-year-old tree on a Wiltshire estate has been officially named as the tallest oak in the UK.