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That’s one sizzling couple. Stunned kids and parents at an Indiana aquatic park were grossed out recently when a wet and wild couple decided to make love in a pool, according to cops. The facility manager ordered the 33-year-old man and 40-year-old woman to break it up some 30 minutes…

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A teenager inherited a “ticking time bomb in his chest” from a sperm donor father who failed to inform sperm banks that he had a rare and often fatal genetic heart defect—and the inherited condition Marfan’s syndrome. The man fathered at least 24 children through three sperm banks. Advocates…

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Old Bailey bomber charged over murder of British soldiers

Marian Price is alleged to have supplied mobile phone to gang who shot dead soldiers at Massereene barracks The Old Bailey bomber and former IRA hunger striker Marian Price has been charged in connection with the murders of two British soldiers who were shot hours before they were due to leave Northern Ireland for Afghanistan. Price has been charged with providing property for the purposes of terrorism. It is understood that she is alleged to have provided a mobile phone to the gang responsible for the killings. Price, 57, who is in custody following the revocation of her release on licence, had been expected to appear before Belfast magistrates court for a preliminary inquiry on Friday. She was not produced after it emerged that her defence team wanted to cross-examine three witnesses, including two senior detectives. A date for the day-long committal hearing is expected to be fixed next month. Peter Corrigan, Price’s lawyer, said she was first questioned 18 months ago about allegations of supplying a phone. He said a legal bid would be made to have the case against her thrown out as an abuse of process. The charge relates to the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene barracks in Antrim in March 2009.The two soldiers were shot outside their base as they collected a pizza delivery. They were about to take a flight to Afghanistan and were already wearing desert fatigues. Two men, including the prominent Lurgan republican Colin Duffy, are due to stand trial accused of their murders later this year. Price, who is also known by her married name Marian McGlinchy, was jailed along with her sister Dolours and the current Sinn Fein minister Gerry Kelly for their roles in the IRA bombing of the Old Bailey in 1973. The Price sisters went on a hunger strike, during which they were force fed, in a campaign to be transferred to an Irish prison. Her early release licence was revoked after she appeared beside a masked member of the Real IRA at a republican commemoration in Derry at Easter. Ireland Europe Real IRA Northern Ireland Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk

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Chris Huhne questioned again by police over speeding allegation

Energy secretary and his former wife are reinterviewed over claims she took penalty points on her licence for him The energy secretary, Chris Huhne, has been questioned for a second time by detectives over claims that he made his former wife take speeding points for him. Vicky Pryce was also interviewed by police in Essex on Wednesday regarding the allegation, according to sources. Essex police said they are preparing a file to be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. Huhne and Pryce were reinterviewed this week after police obtained a court order last month to take possession of a tape recording in which the former couple apparently discuss the case. The material was handed over on 1 July. The pair were first interviewed by detectives in May over the claims Chris Huhne guardian.co.uk

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Fox News’ dead silence on the phone hacking scandal threatening Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has finally been broken. And no surprise, Bill O’Reilly is insisting there is absolutely “no intrusion” of the burgeoning scandal on Murdoch’s US operations, and that heavy-handed coverage of the scandal is driven by a liberal…

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US debt ceiling deal talks – live

Obama and Republicans are locked in talks over a deal to raise the US debt ceiling. Follow the twists and turns here live 11.41am: The debt ceiling seems to not be at the front of the minds of the people asking questions at the town hall. Next question: “Hi, my name is Steve, I’m a doctoral student here.” Obama responds: “What are you studying?” “Political rhetoric,” says Steve. “Uh-oh,” says Obama, “How am I doing?” 11.35am: Next questioner begins by asking Obama, “Obviously you’ve had a successful presidency…” Obama cuts in: “That’s not obvious to everyone.” The question is, what mistakes have you made? Obama replies that he would have been more aggressive on the economy in the first year: I could have told the American people more clearly how tough this was going to be, how tough and long lasting this recession was going to be. But the president has to project confidence and optimism, he says, and the banking sector was in serious trouble – suggesting that he had to talk it up. Over the first two years I was so foccused on policy, getting the policy right, that I forgot part of my job was explaining to the American people why that policy was a good thing. 11.26am: Obama now taking questions from the audience – and one from a man suggesting using the 14th amendment (allowing presidential powers) and waiting until the next election so that Americans have the chance to vote out “these hooligans in the House”. Obama replies saying that the debt ceiling needs to be raised now to avoid the possibility of a default, so he doesn’t have the luxury of letting that happen. “It is not an option for us to default. My challenge then is to get something passed.” On the 14th amendment, Obama says “I’ve talked to my lawyers” and they say invoking the 14th amendment here is not an option. That could change, of course. “There are going to be a certain set of equities that we are not going to be prepared to sacrifice,” says Obama, leaving a slight hint that there are circumstances in which he does hit the nuclear option of the 14th. 11.21am: Obama says he’s willing to sign up to a deal that makes heavy cuts in domestic and military spending – and reels off some statistics (the lowest level of domestic spending since the Eisenhower administration, and so on) to prove it. But he says that politicians in both parties aren’t happy. Obama is off on a well-polished riff about the problems of politics in Washington, tapping into the desire for a deal that recent opinion polls reveal. “Americans voted for a divided government. They didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government,” is one of his lines that is a ong-time favourite of his speech-writers. 11.15am: Before describing the debt ceiling debate as “a crisis manufactured in Washington,” Obama says that both parties are to blame for the size of the federal budget deficit: But both parties have a responsibility to solve it. If we don’t solve it every American will suffer. 11.10am: Obama now speaking at College Park – home of the University of Maryland and indeed a very large Ikea – and goes straight into discussing the debt ceiling and the state of the US economy: This is actually a debate about you and the people of America and the challenges we face. He says that his “number one concern” is the state of the economy. “It’s the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning ands the last thing I think about at night.” 11am: Welcome to live coverage of the non-stop negotiations over the US debt ceiling going on in Washington DC. So far there’s a lot of hot air – and that’s not just the incredibly humid twmperatures above 40C that the city is experiencing. But there are signs of a deal emerging. The New York Times reports today: Congressional and administration officials said that the two men, who had abandoned earlier talks toward a deal when leaks provoked Republicans’ protests, were closing in on a package calling for as much as $3 trillion in savings from substantial spending cuts and future revenue produced by a tax code overhaul. But can they sell it to their respective parties? It’s not looking good so far. Coming up, President Obama is about to speak to a town hall meeting in College Park, Maryland, where he is expected to address the debt ceiling talks and the state of the economy. US economy Obama administration US Congress Republicans US politics United States Economics Richard Adams guardian.co.uk

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Oslo explosion – live coverage

An explosion has damaged government buildings in Oslo with injuries reported. The cause of the blast has yet to be ascertained. If you have any information please email me at haroon.siddique@guardian.co.uk or contact me via Twitter @haroon_siddique 4.39pm: According to reports from the newspaper Dagsbladet, the bomb was meant to target the office of the oil and energy ministry, Lars Eriksen in Demark informs me. Rumours have been rife of additional bombs (possibly two more) in Oslo. NRK (the state broadcaster) is saying police believe there are no more bombs. But Nicholas Karlsen in Oslo emailed me to say that Aftenposten newspaper is reporting police believe it is possible there two more bombs that they haven’t located yet. 4.25pm: Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor at the Observer, says a jihadist group is most likely to be behind the blast: It has been known for some time that al-Qaida core and other related “franchises” – including in the most active in Yemen – have been attempting to develop operations. Which leads to a second question: why Norway?… The answer to that is three fold. In then first instance, with the increased levels of security and surveillance in the UK and the US as well as other European capitals, Norway might have been seen as a softer target despite the recent breaking up of an al-Qaida cell in Norway. A more detailed explanation of the problems that Norway has had with Al Qaeda were supplied a year ago by the Atlantic magazine i n an article by Thomas Hegghammer , a senior fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in Oslo, and Dominic Tierney. That piece followed the arrest of three men in Norway and Germany for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack involving peroxide explosives. All of those arrested were were Muslim immigrants to Norway. The first explanation,” wrote Hegghammer and Tierney, “is Afghanistan. Norway has been part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan from its foundation in late 2001…. In late 2007, for example, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s second-in-command, said that the group had previously threatened Norway because it “participated in the war against the Muslims… A second contributory factor for why Norway may have been eyed in the past for potential jihadi terrorist attack is the fact that in 2006, a Norwegian newspaper reprinted a series of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad which prompted threats against the country. A third potential explanation is the recent decision last week by a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he’s deported from the Nordic country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar – the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam – made to various media, including American network NBC. 4.14pm: The Norwegian state broadcaster now says two people are confirmed dead . 4.11pm: Oslo police also referred to “deaths and injuries” but did not specify numbers. So far one person has been confirmed dead as a result of the explosion, which police now say was caused by a bomb. 4.09pm: Oslo police have said the explosion was caused by a bomb, the BBC just said. 4.05pm: ABC News reports that the “was [the] result of a massive vehicle bomb, according to US government sources on the scene”. Swedish reporter Carl Kleberg has tweeted this: Police stops reporter of #Norway’s Aftenposten: “because there are still two bombs that we don’t know where they are.” #Oslo 3.59pm: An Icelandic MP has tweeted that seven people have been admitted to hospital in Oslo. Eyewitnesses say there are many ambulances on the scene. Mike Emery, working in Norway for a charity, emailed me: According to NRK (Norwegian public service broadcaster) there is broken glass up to 1km from the blast site. July is the holiday month in Norway and almost everyone goes on vacation. We have to hope that many people are on holiday. The blast happened after 3.15pm and Norway is on Summer Working Hours meaning people leave work at 3pm. Let’s hope this is the case. 3.51pm: Here’s another video showing the extent of the devastation wreaked by the explosion . _ 3.45pm: NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster, says that one person has been killed , Lars Eriksen in Denmark informs me. Senior adviser Oivind Ostang told Norwegian TV2. We can confirm that everybody who was working in the prime minister’s office today are safe. The only thing I know is that there has been a fire or something approaching a fire in the R4-buildling which houses the oil- and energy office. 3.42pm: This video shows windows blown out and people walking over pavements covered in shattered glass . 3.40pm: A Norwegian reporter told the BBC she is in a buidling five blocks away and its windows have been blown out by the explosion. She used the word “bomb” before clarifying that she had no evidence the cause of the explosion was a bomb but suggested that she could not see what else would cause an explosion of such magnitued. 3.34pm: Several people have been injured in a large explosion which has damaged government buildings in central Oslo, including the office of the Norwegian prime minster. A Reuters correspondent said he counted at least eight injured people after the unexplained blast. The tangled wreckage of a car was outside one building but the cause of the blast was unknown with police and fire officials refusing to comment. The explosion at around 3.30pm (2.30pm BST) blew out most windows on the 17-storey building housing prime minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire. Norwegian news agency NTB said the prime minister is safe. Newspaper offices in the area were also reportedly damaged. The city centre – which usually empties in July as Norwegians take holidays – is currently closed off with all public transport to and from the centre suspended. Norway Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will sign the death warrant for “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” soon after he is officially sworn in today, according to Pentagon sources. Panetta and other defense chiefs will certify that the military is ready to ax the policy barring gays from serving openly, starting a 60-day…

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Two young sisters have told police that their mom intended to hurt them in a deliberate car wreck because she was “mad at daddy,” according to investigators. The girls, ages 7 and 8, were treated for cuts and bruises after mom Teresa Caffrey of North Carolina drove their car into…

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Islamic extremists are working on an animated movie to attract junior jihadis to the cause, monitors of militant websites say. The al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula cartoon will depict raids, armed engagements and assassinations, and offer “an alternative to the poison that is broadcast by other TV channels to our…

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