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Forget 'The Dress': Here are five of the biggest news stories you might have missed

Gary Glitter, Jihadi John, Ed Miliband and murders are among the other news

Lizzie Dearden
Friday 27 February 2015 17:18 GMT
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Jihadi John was the name given to an Isis militant with a British accent seen on video beheading journalist James Foley
Jihadi John was the name given to an Isis militant with a British accent seen on video beheading journalist James Foley

As the internet continues to be transfixed by the debate raging around “the dress”, some significant news stories have gone almost unnoticed.

Here is a rundown of the biggest stories you might have missed while debating whether it is gold and white or blue and black.

In case anyone is still wondering, it is definitively the latter.

Meanwhile, in other news:

Gary Glitter jailed
Gary Glitter has been jailed for 16 years

Disgraced pop star Gary Glitter was sentenced to 16 years in prison today for a string of historic sex attacks on three schoolgirls.

Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, was previously found guilty of one count of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault, and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13 between 1975 and 1980.

The 70-year-old was the first person to be arrested as part of Operation Yewtree.

Ed Miliband pledges to cut tuition fees
Ed Miliband has claimed a Labour government would cut tuition fees

The Labour leader has pledged his party will cut university tuition fees from a maximum of £9,000 to £6,000 a year if it wins May's general election.

Tax relief on pensions for higher earners would be reduced to fund the change, which would have a predicted annual cost of £2.7 billion.

"Britain must not penalise the young, if we’re going to prosper in the future," Mr Miliband said. "Our economy and our country can’t afford to waste the talent of any young person.”

After the Isis militant known as Jihadi John was named yesterday as Mohammed Emwazi, from London, the families of his beheaded victims have reacted in dramatically different ways.

The widow of British aid worker David Haines wants him to be taken alive, saying he does not deserve an “honourable” death.

But Mr Haines’ sister insisted families would only feel “closure and relief” when “there's a bullet between his eyes”.

The mother of American photojournalist James Foley, the first to be killed by the militant, said she forgave Emwazi.

An American atheist blogger who spoke out against religious extremism and intolerance has been hacked to death in Bangladesh.

Avijit Roy and his wife were returning from a book fair at Dhaka University on Thursday evening when they were attacked.

Witnesses told local media their bicycle rickshaw was stopped by two men who dragged them on to the pavement but police chief Sirajul Islam said the couple were ambushed as they walked towards a roadside tea stall.

Seven people have been killed in southern Missouri by a gunman who went on an overnight shooting spree.

Officials said the killings took place at at least four different crime scenes. The 36-year-old suspect was later found in a vehicle dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The names of the victims, the gunman and a possible motive have not been released.

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