The News Matrix: Saturday 26 January 2013

Disgraced banker must give up £34m

A banker who was fired from his position as a trader Deutsche Bank after he was implicated in the Libor scandal has been forced to give up £34m in deferred pay. Christian Bittar colluded with a Barclays trader involved in attempts to rig the inter-bank lending rate. MORE

25 years in jail for sadistic child killer

The man who murdered 15-month-old Millie Martin after a "sadistic sexual assault" will spend at least 25 years behind bars. Barry McCarney, 33, of Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, carried out the attack in 2009. Her mother, Rachel Martin, said: "Twenty-five years isn't long enough."

Man dies after car plunges into river

A father died while taking his 11-year-old daughter to school when the car he was driving crashed into the River Wye. David Cox, 42, plunged into the water only five minutes before the same thing happened to his wife Ruth, who was driving their nine-year-old son in another car.

Gay rights activists held over protest

Police in Moscow detained 20 gay activists yesterday for staging a "kissing protest" against new legislation to ban "homosexual propaganda". The controversial bill passed the first of three readings in Russian parliament by 388 votes to one. MORE

Britain sends in a spy plane

Britain is deploying a spy plane to Mali to help with the French-led military intervention against the West African country's Islamist rebels. Yesterday French-backed government forces advanced into northern Mali towards the Islamist rebel stronghold of Gao. MORE

Terminal ill Wilko feels 'vividly alive'

The guitarist Wilko Johnson has said his terminal cancer diagnosis made him feel "vividly alive". The former Dr Feelgood member spoke of "elation of spirit" on hearing the cancer was inoperable. "I've spent most of my life moping in depressions and things, but this has all lifted," he said.

Hunt launched for snatched 5-year-old

An international appeal has been launched to find a five-year-old girl from Leeds who was snatched by her father in Egypt. Elsa Salama was taken on holiday by her father in 2011 to visit his relatives in Sharm El Sheikh, and her mother, Naomi Button, hasn't seen her since. MORE

Jail for father who bit love rival's finger

The father who bit off part of a love rival's finger at a school nativity play has been jailed for 11 months. Lee Wilkinson, 40, fought with Michael Dent at Harton school in South Shields in December 2011. The feud began when Mr Dent had an affair with Wilkinson's wife, a court heard.

Bodies of Japanese victims flown home

The bodies of nine Japanese men killed in the Algerian hostage crisis were returned to Tokyo on a government plane yesterday, along with seven survivors. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida placed flowers on the caskets after they were removed from the aircraft.

Premier accused over fire scandal

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf is facing accusations that he intervened in the case against the owners of a Karachi factory where 259 people died in a fire. Reports claim he instructed officials to leave out murder charges. Relatives of those who died are outraged. MORE

Regulator escapes closure by Coalition

The fertility regulator, earmarked for closure in the Coalition's "bonfire of the quangos", has been given a reprieve. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates IVF clinics and research on embryos, was at risk of being replaced by the Care Quality Commission.

North threatens South over sanctions

North Korea has threatened South Korea with "physical counter-measures" if Seoul joins an expanded set of UN sanctions against Pyongyang in the wake of the country's nuclear plans against the US. Pyongyang said any participation in the new sanctions would "mean a war and a declaration of war against us". MORE

Epic voyage of raft man ends in swamp

A Polish man braved stormy seas during a cyclone to travel 1,500 miles from Papua New Guinea to Australia on a rickety raft made of sticks and twigs. After passing through shark and crocodile-infested waters, he was found washed up in mangroves on Saibai Island. MORE

Street cameras shut off in row over bill

Street surveillance cameras in one of the world's most dangerous cities have been turned off because the government of Honduras has not paid millions of pounds it owes. The operator that runs them in the capital Tegucigalpa is now also threatening to suspend police radio services.

Director Abrams jumps star systems

JJ Abrams, the director of the 2009 Star Trek reboot and its upcoming sequel, is in negotiations to direct the next instalment in the Star Wars franchise, according to industry reports. Michael Arndt, who provided the script for Toy Story 3, is writing the screenplay. MORE

Chinese Girl could fetch £500,000

The original painting of Chinese Girl, thought to the world's most widely reproduced, is to go on sale at Bonhams in London. Vladimir Tretchikoff's artwork, which he claimed before his death in 2006 had sold half a million large-format prints, could fetch up to £500,000.

Who hasn't gone out with a kidnapper?

The Frenchwoman who has returned home after seven years in a Mexican prison said that she was naive to go out with a man accused of running a kidnapping ring, but she maintains her innocence. "Who at 30 hasn't had a relationship like that?" said Florence Cassez.

Pulver thrilled to be Bond author's wife

Lara Pulver will play a real-life Bond girl in a drama about 007 author Ian Fleming. The Sherlock actress said she was "thrilled" to be playing Fleming's wife Ann, who "had the ear of politicians such as Churchill and counted artists including Lucian Freud among her friends".

Tina Turner to be granted citizenship

Tina Turner is becoming a Swiss citizen. The American singer has lived in the Zurich suburb of Kuesnacht since the mid-1990s. The local council yesterday announced its decision to grant the 73-year-old citizenship in a notice published in Zuerichsee-Zeitung, a regional newspaper.

Captain Cook pistol to be auctioned

A pistol owned by Captain Cook is to be auctioned next month in Melbourne. The brass firearm, an early 18th-century Continental Flintlock holster pistol with a 13-bore barrel made by Dutch gunmaker Godefroi Corbau Le Jeune, is expected to fetch between £65,000 and £130,000.

Suggs' delay hits Quercus profits

Quercus, the publishing house that brought Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy to Britain, has created a mystery of its own after announcing its profits to last December would be below expectations due to the delay of a "key Christmas title" – Suggs from Madness's memoir.

Gold wreath found in Salonica subway

Excavation work during construction of a new subway in the city of Salonica has discovered an ancient wreath made of gold that was buried with a woman some 2,300 years ago. A total 23,000 ancient and medieval artefacts have been found there since work began 2006.

Sex scandal widens as 10 officials fired

A scandal involving Chinese city officials having sex with women hired by developers who secretly filmed them to extort construction deals widened yesterday as state media said 10 more officials had been fired. The case came to light when clips of one official, Lei Zhengfu, went viral.

'Gay Judge Dredd' upsets 2000AD fans

Comic fans have threatened to burn issues of 2000 AD after its authors suggested Judge Dredd could be gay. The latest edition entitled 'Closet', features a story about a teenager coming out. The first page shows the law officer kissing the youth in a gay club, saying: "I'd always known I was gay."