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    Five men have been arrested after students in Manchester were allegedly kidnapped and forced to hand over thousands of pounds. Police received four reports that people in the city centre had been robbed after being coaxed into a dark Audi A6 vehicle. Several people claimed they were forced to make online transfers of £3,000 from their bank accounts before being let out of the car. Others reported being driven to petrol stations to withdraw the maximum amount of cash available shortly before midnight, fill the car up with petrol then withdraw more money shortly after midnight. All four victims were allegedly kidnapped between Wednesday and Friday this week. Police say they foiled a fifth kidnap-robbery attempt after spotting a vehicle that matched the high-end mot...

    The Co-op is to be the first major supermarket in the UK to replace single-use plastic carrier bags with lightweight compostable alternatives that shoppers can reuse as biodegradable bags for food waste. The bags a stronger version of the biodegradable bags the convenience chain has been trialling since 2014 will be rolled out within weeks to almost 1,400 stores across England, Scotland and Wales, and then to all 2,600 shops. The change will start in towns, cities and villages where the bags are accepted in councils’ food waste collections, and the phased rollout will replace an estimated 60m plastic single-use carrier bags of the sort that have become an environmental scourge. The new-style bags will cost 5p, but shoppers also have the choice of plastic 10p bags fo...

    EU leaders have insisted a Brexit deal remains possible despite flatly rejecting the Chequers proposal put forward by Theresa May during an acrimonious summit in Salzburg. The prime minister endured a brutal reception from the national newspapers upon her return to London, with her treatment in the Austrian city widely seen as a humiliation. Amid the fallout, Mrs May used a surprise statement in Downing Street on Friday to issue an ultimatum to the bloc to accept her strategy or come up with counter-proposals. She declared the UK would continue preparations for a no-deal Brexit, acknowledging that the two parties had reached an impasse over two big problems in negotiations. The address was commended by senior Conservatives and Brexiteer MPs, although the latter ha...

    During the summit Donald Tusk ushered the Prime Minister over to a strategically positioned tray of cakes and offered her a morsel to eat. It was only after the closing of proceedings that it became clear that the former Polish prime minister had something else in mind than Ms May’s appetite. He posted a picture on Instagram of the prime minister and himself at the cake stand with the caption: A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cherries. The rinsing is a reference to a running joke in Brussels that Britain wants to “have its cake and eat it in talks. The UK has also been accused of cherrypicking because it wants to stay in the parts of the single market it likes but not the parts it doesn’t like. The EU insists that its single market can only be taken as a packag...

    Britain has dramatically increased arms sales to foreign governments despite warnings that controversial deals to allies including Saudi Arabia are costing the UK its reputation as a force for good. Documents seen by i weekend show that Britain almost doubled the value of defence equipment, including fighter jets and munitions, it cleared for export in 2017, as it vies with Vladimir Putin’s Russia to be the world’s second largest weapons supplier. The £6.6bn of UK arms licences represents an 83 per cent rise on the previous year. Senior ministers have promised to grow defence exports ahead of Brexit and manufacturers have been boosted by a succession of lucrative deals, particularly in the Middle East. In a year when public concern has risen to new heights about Sa...

    Khalid Masood made handwritten notes where he called his terror attack on Westminster Bridge an exciting opportunity days before the atrocity, an inquest has heard. The 52-year-old, who was shot dead after his rampage which claimed the lives of five victims, scrawled the lines on a map of the UK. This was found in a road atlas in the rented 4x4 he used in the incident on March 22, 2017. Masood wrote previous examples followed by this life right time and all outcomes are good so go ahead, in what are believed to be some of his final thoughts ahead of the tragedy. He drew a hand-drawn line to the word sheikh. Dominic Adamson, representing the widows of murdered Pc Keith Palmer, 48, and American tourist Keith Cochran, 54, said: Under that word, chillingly, 'exciting o...

    Michael Spurr, chief executive of HM Prisons and Probation (HMPP), has tendered his resignation after the permanent secretary decided that it was the right time to ask a new chief executive to take on this important role. He will be leaving at the end of March 2019, after 35 years in the service and nearly nine years leading it. It comes after inspectors found conditions in prisons across England and Wales to be the worse they had ever seen as authorities failed to take action over high levels of violence, self-harm and drug use. Announcing the decision, permanent secretary of HMPP Richard Heaton said: Michael's leadership has been exemplary. But we now need to look ahead, building on Michael's work and developing a strategy for the next decade. Justice secretary ...