The News Matrix: Tuesday 26 November 2013

Labour to encourage forces to merge

The 43 police forces in England and Wales will be encouraged to merge by a Labour government. The shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said yesterday that Labour would “implement the vast majority” of the recommendations suggested by an independent review commissioned by the party, including shaking up the system of police and crime commissioners.

Police patrol cycle accident blackspots

The Metropolitan Police deployed 650 officers to busy junctions in London yesterday in response to the recent wave of cycling deaths. Officers handed out leaflets and fixed penalty notices at 166 junctions in the wake of six deaths in just two weeks.

Adulterers to be stoned under sharia

Afghanistan is to be bring back the punishment of stoning for convicted adulterers, the latest sign that the country is reverting back to hardline, ultra-conservative Islamic values of the Taliban era, as foreign troops withdraw. A draft of a sharia penal code is being drawn up. MORE

Drug-abuse fears over austerity cuts

Drug experts and policy makers from around Europe have gathered in Athens to urge governments to exclude drug-abuse treatment from austerity cuts, citing an alarming rise in reported new HIV infections among drug users in Greece, despite a general decline in the EU.

Families in the dark over organ donation

Only half those who would like to be organ donors have expressed their wishes to their families, a poll suggests. While 82 per cent of the English public would like to donate their organs, just 50 per cent of these have told their family, according to NHS Blood and Transplant.

My country is sexist, says President

The President says the country is “sexist and prejudiced”. In comments marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Dilma Rousseff said crimes against women have “shamed” Brazil.

Deal for woman who sent ricin letters

The lawyer of a woman who will plead guilty to sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and the New York Mayor says both sides have agreed to a prison sentence of no longer than 18 years, and that Shannon Guess Richardson never intended “to harm anyone”.

8,000 Bulgarians set for UK, official says

Some 8,000 Bulgarians could come to the UK when restrictions on their movement are lifted next year, the country’s ambassador has said. Konstantin Dimitrov said Bulgarians could not legally be denied access to labour markets from January.

Airline requirement ‘inflammatory’

Beijing’s requirement that airlines inform it when entering airspace over disputed islands in the East China Sea is “unnecessarily inflammatory”, the White House said yesterday. China and Japan claim to own the same islands in the sea.