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A petition calling for an end to the practice of rewarding GPs with cash incentives to cut the number of patients they refer to hospital has reached 140,000 signatures. With the NHS cash-strapped and struggling to provide beds this winter, bosses are looking for any opportunity to save money. That means that in some cases GPs have been offered cash rewards to cut the number of patients they refer to hospital - including people who might have cancer. Campaigners say this practice...

We will continue to need gas over the short to medium term - the question is where that gas comes from and fundamentally where we can store it in sufficient quantity to guarantee supply and stable prices says GMB GMB, the gas and energy workers union, has today written to the Minister for Energy and Clean Growth Claire Perry calling for urgent meeting with trade unions and industry association to address the ‘Beast from the East’ gas crisis. As Britain...

He used hand operated rods attached to the accelerator and brake pedals to steer the vehicles - but crashed them on both occasions

It's dead cold

Business owner Jack Whiteley, 69, captured perfect CCTV of thieves making off with garden furniture - even noting down the licence plate of the van they were taken in

A previously unknown ”supercolony” of Adélie penguins has been discovered in the Antarctic, living on the Danger Islands, located off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The islands are both incredibly remote and surrounded by thick sea ice.In total there were 751,527 pairs of penguins living on the islands – more than the rest of the Antarctic Peninsula combined. “Until recently, the Danger Islands weren’t known to be an important penguin habitat,” said Professor Heather Lynch, an ecologist at Stony Brook University who co-led...

It might be freezing outside but the most bitter you are likely to feel, is knowing your MP has just got a pay rise. From 2018/19 they will take home a 1.8 pay rise, taking their pay to a chunky £77,379 a year, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said. Last year MPs only got a 1.4% pay rise, so they will be lining their pockets even more in the next round of pay hikes. Our MPs salaries will have risen...

This Londoner won't be able to drive to work today (Fri) - because their car was trapped in a block of ICE. The frozen motor was left unidentifiable after being turned into a block of ice by a burst water pipe. This Londoner won't be able to drive to work today (Fri) - because their car was trapped in a block of ICE.  Workers were scrambled this morning to repair the pipe, but the car, in Tower Hamlets, east London,...

The 'Beast of the East' claimed its first elderly victim today when a 75-year-old woman was found dead near her home in sub-zero conditions during a blizzard. The un-named OAP, believed to have been confused shortly before her death, was discovered lying partially under a car at 6am as temperatures plunged as low as - SIX degrees celsius. It's not known how long she was laid there unnoticed but police said there is nothing to suggest her death is suspicious...