The News Matrix: Thursday 2 June 2011

Four held after boy dies in Leeds flat fall

Two men aged 57 and 36, a 28-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl were released on bail after being held on suspicion of neglecting Liam Shackleton, six, who fell from an eighth-floor flat in Leeds. The city’s Safeguarding Children Board plans to oversee a review into the death.

Mladic ‘cooperative’ ahead of hearing

Ratko Mladic will appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia tomorrow. The man accused of murdering up to 8,000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica in 1995 is expected to plead not guilty to genocide charges. He was described as being “extremely cooperative”. MORE

Endeavour touches down for last time

The space shuttle Endeavour and its six astronauts returned to Earth yesterday, ending the next-to-last mission in Nasa’s 30-year programme. It is now bound for a museum in California. MORE

Miracle migraine pill nears development

A pill preventing migraine headaches could be on the way, British and Canadian scientists who discovered a gene linked to the condition said yesterday. The defective gene, known as Tresk, allows environmental factors to trigger pain centres in the brain when it fails to work properly.

Players arrested in match-fixing probe

Italy’s former World Cup striker Beppe Signori was among 16 people arrested after investigators broke a football match-fixing operation that was so big police dubbed it a “proper criminal organisation”. Magistrates claimed that players flunked matches for cash. MORE

70% of school girls ‘deficient in iodine’

Seven out of 10 teenage girls are growing up deficient in iodine, putting their unborn children at risk, a study has found. The mineral is essential for the neurological development of the foetus and the results suggest at least 100,000 babies may be intellectually handicapped annually as a result. MORE

20 full fee chargers not in world’s elite

More than 20 universities planning to charge the maximum £9,000 fee for students next year have failed to make the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings. Institutions including Liverpool John Moores and SOAS do not appear in the top 200 for any individual subject. MORE

Workers told: dress down to save energy

With energy supplies under pressure after the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, Japan has come up with a scheme to save electricity: get the country’s salarymen to ditch the suit and go casual. The rationale: cooler clothing means less air conditioning.

MTV defends Geordie Shore

MTV has defended Geordie Shore following complaints that the show, whose stars are shown binge drinking and having sex, promotes outdated stereotypes. Kerry Taylor, MTV UK’s director of television, said the cast have “some really admirable qualities”.

Vandals behead 18 birds and kill frog

Vandals broke into a horticultural centre and beheaded 18 birds, killed a frog and poured fertiliser into a fish pond. The intruders also caused more than £10,000 worth of damage at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester, after chopping down trees and smashing 130 windows.

Smoking prisoners are given carrots

Prisons in New Zealand are reportedly offering inmates carrots in a bid to wean them off tobacco as a strict indoor smoking ban comes into force next month. The prisons’ association president said the idea was to take prisoners’ minds off smoking while also supplying a healthy snack.