The News Matrix: Tuesday 10 March 2015

‘Sunday Mirror’ accused by actress

A former Coronation Street actress has told a court how journalists listened to her voicemails, resulting in stories that caused her son’s bullying. Shobna Gulati, who played Sunita Alahan, said the Sunday Mirror ran a story in 2003 that speculated on his parentage.

Golden Dawn trial on Hitler’s birthday

The leaders of Greece’s Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn party will go on trial, for allegedly running a criminal organisation, on 20 April – the birthday of Adolf Hitler. The trial will be held in a special courtroom inside a maximum-security Athens prison. The 70 defendants include all 18 Golden Dawn MPs elected in 2012.

Archaeologists find 3,000 skeletons

Archaeologists have begun excavating around 3,000 skeletons from a burial ground used during The Great Plague in 1665. The Bedlam burial ground is at the site of the new Liverpool Street station that will serve the cross-London Crossrail line. A team of 60 archaeologists will be involved.

‘No need for formal ban on male panels’

Jason Manford, the comedian, has said the BBC should not have formally announced its ban on all-male comedy panel shows. Danny Cohen, the BBC director of television, made the pledge last year. Manford told Radio Times: “I think it’s a brilliant idea,” but added: “Why say it? Just do it, and then let it become a thing.”

Former madam is convicted of murder

A former madam was convicted of murder yesterday in the death of a British dancer who died after silicone was injected into her buttocks. Padge-Victoria Windslowe’s colourful testimony during her Philadelphia trial included claims that she was “the Michelangelo of buttocks injections”.

Nick Robinson has lung growth removed

BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson, 51, was discharged from hospital yesterday after successful surgery to remove a lung tumour. Robinson was said to be recovering at home and hoping to be well enough to cover the general election.

‘Honour Tokyo firebomb victims’

Survivors of the Tokyo firebombing that killed 100,000 people in one night 70 years ago, more deaths than in any other single moment in history, want Japan to better remember the victims. There is no public museum dedicated to their memory.

Tree-lined avenues meet their Waterloo

Safety activists have won a battle to see swathes of the trees that line France’s avenues felled, claiming they endanger road users. Popularised by Napoleon, the trees have already drastically dwindled in number in recent years.

New York team to take on Cubans

Cuba’s national football team will reportedly play the New York Cosmos when the second-tier American club becomes the first professional sports team to visit since December’s rapprochement between Cuba and the US. Reuters reported the match could take place on 2 June.

i writer wins award for tackling abortion

Gillian Orr, who writes for i and The Independent, has won an award for excellence in journalism at the UK Sexual Health Awards. The judges said her Big Read, “She’s not having a baby”, about why abortion is still taboo in film and TV, would help to inform people that reproductive rights were still under threat.

Man who stole date’s car is caught

A man who allegedly stole a woman’s car during their first date last month has been captured. Gerald Tietz, 53, was arrested after the vehicle – which had the vanity plate “JSRYGRL” – was spotted. Tietz and the woman, identified only as a New Jersey resident, met online.

Scientists find the brain’s ‘ouch centre’

Scientists have identified the brain’s “ouch centre” – a region whose activity is directly related to pain. Scans were conducted on 17 volunteers who had a burning cream applied to their leg. The team, from Oxford University, discovered activity in only one area, the dorsal posterior insula, reflected ratings of how much the pain hurt.