The News Matrix: Friday 5 September 2014

Women gain greater role in appointments

Candidates for senior civil service jobs will have to include at least one woman in future as part of measures to stamp out a “macho” leadership culture in Whitehall, the Government is due to announce today. They will be interviewed by a panel containing at least one woman. A report found a minority of female civil servants thought promotions were handled fairly.

22-month-old boy ‘left in hot car to die’

A grand jury has charged a Georgia man who is alleged to have left his 22-month-old son to die in a hot car on purpose. Justin Ross Harris will stand trial for the murder of his son, Cooper Harris, who died in June while buckled to a car seat in a Hyundai Tucson for several hours.

Minister condemns garden city plans

A plan to build 3.5 million new homes has been rubbished by the housing minister Brandon Lewis a day after winning the £250,000 Wolfson Prize. Mr Lewis rejected allowing “urban sprawl” and claimed it would only build “resentment” in local communities.

Fifty die as bus plunges into gorge

A bus carrying at least 50 members of a wedding party – including the bride and groom – plunged into a flooded gorge yesterday. Heavy rains were hampering the search for survivors. The region has been pounded by storms for days and 16 people have died in the flooding.

Food unit to identify gangs’ bogus meats

A Food Crime Unit is to be set up following last year’s horsemeat scandal. Experts believe crime gangs are moving from drug trafficking into passing off horse and other products as more expensive meats because rewards are high and the punishments are less.

One in four young carers are bullied

A quarter of young adult carers have been bullied at school because of their responsibilities, a report by a charity has found. Young Adult Carers at School by Carers Trust found 26 per cent of young carers aged 14-25 had experienced bullying as a result of their caring role.

Lammy bids to become Mayor of London

Former Labour minister David Lammy has announced that he wants to become Mayor of London after Boris Johnson. The Tottenham MP said: “I am at the centre of British politics.”

Google to refund $19m to parents

Google has agreed to refund at least $19m (£12m) to settle charges that it unfairly billed parents for purchases that their children made while playing games on mobile devices. It has also agreed to modify its billing practices to ensure parents agree to purchases their children make.

I think I know the answer to this...

Students in Austria sitting down to take university entrance exams this week found themselves with a guaranteed pass – at least for a minute or two. The answers were already filled in. The University of Salzburg said 144 would-be psychology students were given the wrong envelopes.

Coca-Cola goes upfront on labelling

Coca-Cola is to adopt the use of the Government’s voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels. The single system of traffic-light-coded labels and Reference Intakes indicating how much fat, salt and sugar an item contains was introduced in the middle of last year with the aim of ending confusion among shoppers.

Movie helps Lego build on its revenue

Danish toy maker Lego saw revenue soar 11 per cent in the first six months of 2014, due to the success of The Lego Movie. The privately-owned company’s chief financial officer, John Goodwin, said: “Lego Movie products provided a significant boost to our sales during the first half of 2014.”

Hotly tipped to be a warm autumn

Bookmaker Coral has opened betting on the highest temperature this autumn, after the Met Office predicted a warmer than usual autumn. It’s odd-on at 4-5 that temperatures hit 25C and 16-1 that the mercury rises to highs of 28C this autumn. It’s 33-1 that the record high temperature for September is broken.

Church anger over ‘Chavez’ prayer

Venezuela’s Roman Catholic Church has admonished the ruling Socialist Party for re-writing the Lord’s Prayer into an ode to its beloved late leader Hugo Chavez. A party member introduced the prayer on the podium of the party congress on Monday, imploring Chavez for protection from the capitalism.