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Travel disruption warning after landslip
Major disruption to rail services are expected today after a main line collapsed in a landslip yesterday. The 44m-long damage happened on the embankment to the northeast of Hook station in Hampshire, on the line from London to Basingstoke. The damage has left only two of the four-track railway passable, with both these tracks designed for London-bound trains only. South Western Railway is advising customers to check before they
travel and to plan alternative transport for journeys to or from the south or west of Basingstoke to London today. A Network Rail spokesperson explained that the embankment was made of a mixture of London clay and other local soils which had become saturated after days of heavy rain.
British woman killed in Mont Blanc avalanche
A British woman has been killed in an avalanche while walking in the French Alps. The woman, 45, was airlifted off Mont Blanc’s Argentiere Glacier by mountain rescuers but died of her injuries. Col Bertrand Host, of the mountain rescue gendarmerie in Chamonix, said his team was called to the glacier at about 5pm local time on Saturday. “When we arrived we had to rescue this person but she was in a bad situation and we evacuated her from the valley. She was taken charge by rescuers and two dogs but we didn’t manage to reanimate her,” he said. Col Host said around 80 people die on the Mont Blanc massif each year.
Disgraced former MP considers standing at next election
An MP who quit after admitting watching pornography in the Commons said he is thinking of standing again at the next general election. Neil Parish resigned from his Tiverton and Honiton seat after declaring that he was the politician who other MPs had spotted watching X-rated material in parliament. Mr Parish says he feels he has “unfinished business” in Westminster and was considering offering to stand as a Conservative Party candidate once again. The constituency formerly held by Mr Parish was snatched by the Liberal Democrats in a June byelection.
Man arrested after uranium found at Heathrow
A man has been arrested on suspicion of a terror offence after traces of uranium were found at Heathrow airport last month. A small amount of the radioactive material was found on 29
December during the routine screening of a package found with a shipment of scrap metal that reportedly originated in Pakistan and arrived on a flight from Oman. Police said a man, in his 60s, was arrested on Saturday morning on suspicion of a terror offence at an address in Cheshire and has now been released on bail. Officers searched the man’s address but no material that was a threat to the public was found, the force said.
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