Boris clashes with Russia over polls
THE funeral of a “happy, loving” father of six killed in a multi-car crash has taken place attended by hundreds of mourners.
Taxi driver Imtiaz Mohammed was laid to rest after a service at Birmingham’s Central Mosque.
The mosque is just a few hundred yards from the scene of the deadly collision which claimed his life and those of five others last Sunday. The 33-year-old was at the wheel of his cab when it was caught up in a collision on Lee Bank Middleway. Theresa May after the Prime Minister hailed the move as an expression of the UK’s post-Brexit “sovereignty and independence”.
The new design will no longer include the EU insignia. A SUPERMARKET worker who was stabbed to death in an aisle at work was a “bubbly, lovely girl”, well-wishers have said.
Customers pinned down the suspect after Jodie Willsher, 30, was attacked at an Aldi in Skipton, North Yorkshire, on Thursday afternoon.
A 44-year-old local man was being questioned on suspicion of murder.
The town council’s mayor Andy Rankine said: “The whole town is in shock.” IT WAS a case of cha-cha-cha rather than ho ho ho for the Duchess of Cornwall when she met the stars of the festive edition of Strictly Come Dancing.
Brendan Cole, the so-called “bad boy” of Strictly, got Camilla on to her feet when judges, professional dancers and past contestants filmed part of the Christmas special at Buckingham Palace.
After taking the royal hand and dancing the cha-cha-cha, he said: “She knows her way around a dance floor - don’t you worry about that.”
Cole added: “She was absolutely delightful, I didn’t know if I was breaking protocol or not but I did ask her if it was OK to ask her to dance, and she said ‘I’d love to’.
“I thought somebody was about to grab me by the scruff of the neck and kick me out.”
The duchess was hosting a tea dance, in her role as president of the National Osteoporosis Society, to highlight the benefits of older people staying active.
Former Strictly contestants Judy Murray, Robbie Savage and Colin Jackson, among others, are competing in the Christmas Day show and were filmed at the Queen’s official London home in November.
Earlier this month fans of the show saw their favourite Joe McFadden crowned the 2017 winner during the final.
Tennis coach Murray, who will dance with Neil Jones in the festive show, said: “I think the fact I said I’d do the Christmas special probably tells you how much I enjoyed it first time, it’s such a great show to be part of.
“I think the Christmas one doesn’t have the pressure of somebody really trying to win something or get everything right – it’s all for great family entertainment on Christmas Day.” BORIS Johnson has clashed publicly with his Russian counterpart over Crimea and Moscow’s alleged cyber attacks on the West, as the two men met in Moscow.
Sergey Lavrov denied claims the Kremlin had interfered in democratic elections online and accused Mr Johnson of being a “hostage” of untrue Western narratives on the issue.
But in a series of extraordinarily frank exchanges, Mr Johnson insisted there was “abundant evidence” of Russian interference in polls in the US, Germany, Denmark and France.
When the Russian foreign minister told a press conference in Moscow that Mr Johnson himself had confirmed Russia had not interfered in the UK’s election and Brexit referendum, the Foreign Secretary interrupted to add: “Not successfully.”
The clash came after Mr Johnson issued a warning to the Kremlin that Britain was “prepared and able” to respond in kind to cyber attacks. Speaking after more than an hour of talks on the first visit to Russia by a British foreign secretary for five years, both men acknowledged that relations between the two countries were at their worst for many years. Nevertheless they accepted their countries had a duty to work together as fellow permanent members of the UN Security Council on issues affecting global security like Syria, Iran and North Korea.
The two men insisted they had established a level of personal trust, with Mr Johnson joking that he had even handed his coat with “everything in my pockets, secret or otherwise” to Mr Lavrov when he arrived at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. Mr Lavrov joked back: “I can say that there was nothing in the pockets of Boris’s coat,” to which Mr Johnson responded in surprise: “So you have searched it already?”
However, when Mr Johnson rejected Mr Lavrov’s denial that Russia had attempted to interfere in British polls, the Russian foreign minister retorted: “He is afraid if he doesn’t contradict me his reputation is going to be ruined.”
Mr Johnson said Russian attempts to interfere in Britain’s referendums and elections “whatever they might be” had not been successful, adding that if they had, “that would have been an entirely different matter”.
Mr Lavrov said the evidence produced so far of Russian attempts at interference amounted to no more than the spending of “a few kopecks” on social media adverts.
“I think you have made all this up in your Western community and unfortunately right now you are hostage to this subject, it is very difficult for you to climb down from the fence you have climbed.”
He also criticised Britain for cutting off ties with the FSB security agency over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London.