Crime
Stepbrother charged
The stepbrother of the Bristol teenager Becky Watts was charged with her murder after police found her dismembered body. Sixteen-year-old Becky had vanished on February 19.
Nathan Matthews, 28, of Warmley, Bristol, appeared in court with his girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, 21, who was charged with perverting the course of justice. Four others were charged with assisting an offender.
Health
Lung cancer hope
British patients will receive an experimental stem-cell treatment for lung cancer that has reduced, and in some cases completely cleared, tumours in mice, UK researchers said. The therapy, which uses a patient’s genetically modified stem cells to target tumours, will be given to volunteers to ensure it is safe and then to 56 patients.
Lung cancer is one of Britain’s deadliest diseases, killing about 34,000 people every year.
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Professor Sam Janes, the lead scientist on the project, said: “Our treatment could be transformative.”
Defence
MoD to aid Ukraine
Britain will supply Ukraine with £850,000 worth of non-lethal military equipment, the government said. Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, said first-aid kits, night-vision goggles, helmets, GPS units and rugged laptops would be sent.
Last month, David Cameron announced British troops would be sent to Ukraine to provide advice and training to forces resisting pro-Russia rebels.
Fallon said: “This government is committed to supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”
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Education
Bit of a Grey area
A boy of 11 was excluded from his school’s World Book Day photographs after dressing as Christian Grey, the bondage fan in Fifty Shades of Grey. Liam Scholes wore a suit and carried cable ties and an eye mask. His mother, Nicola, said Sale High School, in Greater Manchester, had been wrong to make him alter his outfit to be James Bond instead. Its head, Lynn Nicholls, denied Liam had been barred from activities.
Politics
PM is ‘running scared’
Nigel Farage accused David Cameron of trying to sabotage pre-election television debates between party leaders from the outset. The Ukip leader told listeners to a radio show that he did not believe the prime minister’s recent “final offer” of a single 90-minute debate among seven party leaders.
Cameron has been accused of running scared after ruling out a head-to-head debate with Ed Miliband, the Labour leader. Miliband said the prime minister was “cowering from the public”.
“I haven’t put hurdles in the way,” Cameron insisted.
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Motoring
Your non-starter for 10
Drivers in England are to get 10 minutes’ grace before they can be fined for overstaying in a council-owned parking space. Councils will also be banned from “using parking to generate profit”, residents will be able to demand that a council review local parking, and CCTV “spy cars” will be banned except in no-parking areas such as bus lanes and near schools.
The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, said he hoped the new rules would end the “war on drivers”, saying a bad experience with one parking attendant had left him “a very bitter person”.