The News Matrix: Thursday 14 November 2013

Female cyclist dies in London collision

A female cyclist died yesterday following a collision with a lorry, bringing the number of cycling fatalities on London’s roads to four over just eight days. The woman, who was in her mid-20s, had been dragged under a truck on the Bow roundabout in east London and was pronounced dead at the scene. MORE

Single-earner poverty trap

Families with a single breadwinner are most likely to be leaving children in poverty, according to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Thirty-one per cent of the 1.3 million families below the poverty line in Britain are those where only one parent goes out to work. MORE

Mafia may plot to kill the Pope

Pope Francis’s life is in danger from Italy’s most feared crime group, an anti-mafia judge has claimed. Nicola Gratteri warned that the Pontiff’s crackdown on financial corruption in the Vatican has angered the bosses of ’Ndrangheta, thought to rule Europe’s cocaine trade. MORE

Three acquitted over tanker wreck

All three people charged in the 2002 sinking of the Prestige oil tanker off Spain’s coast 11 years ago, which triggered an environmental catastrophe, have been acquitted. Judge Juan Luis Pia said the court found no criminal responsibility and absolved the three defendants.

Right-wing parties combine for election

Leaders of two of Europe’s most popular Eurosceptic, anti-immigration parties – the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) and France’s National Front – have launched their vision for achieving a new right-wing bloc in the European Parliament at elections next year. MORE

‘Whitey’ Bulger faces his victims’ families

Families of victims of the Boston crime-lord James “Whitey” Bulger spoke out against him at a sentencing hearing yesterday, which became almost as colourful and unruly as the trial that preceded it. MORE

Fears grow for missing teenager

Concerns are growing for a 15-year-old girl who went missing while being treated for depression. Ella Hysom, of Colchester, Essex, was last seen at about 1.15pm on Monday in Ilford, east London. She had been receiving treatment at a residential hospital in Goodmayes for six weeks before she vanished.

Bolshoi ‘charged £6,000 for solos’

An American dancer has claimed she was asked to pay $10,000 (£6,237) to secure a solo role at the Bolshoi Theatre. Joy Womack, 19, the first American ballerina to graduate from the theatre’s ballet academy last year, told Izvestia that the demand came after the theatre’s artistic director declined to promote her.