The News Matrix: Monday 13 May 2013

Four peacekeepers freed by rebels

Rebels have released four Filipino UN peacekeepers abducted last week. The four are reportedly unharmed, but will undergo checks. Meanwhile, nine people are being held after two car bombs killed 46 people in Turkey. Syria has rejected allegations it was involved.

‘Bedroom tax’ blamed for woman’s suicide

A suicide note left by a grandmother faced with paying the “bedroom tax” blamed the Government for her death. Stephanie Bottrill, 53, had lived in her Solihull home for 18 years. She was struggling to find the extra £80 a month levied against her for having two underoccupied bedrooms. MORE

Huhne to be released from prison

Chris Huhne was to be released from Gloucestershire’s Leyhill Prison this morning. The disgraced former cabinet minister, who has been incarcerated for eight weeks, is due for early release and will have to wear an electronic tag. His ex-wife Vicky Pryce is also to be released this week. MORE

Firms paid to test drugs on people

Pharmaceutical companies paid millions of pounds to former Communist East Germany to use hospital patients as guinea pigs. Some 50,000 patients were unwittingly used for drug tests in which several people died. Epo was tested on premature babies and alcoholics. MORE

Katona returns in payday loan ad

Days after an “irresponsible” advert for a payday loan company featuring Kerry Katona was banned, the singer is back in a new advert for the same company. The ads for Cash Lady were heavily criticised. MORE

Stress of soaring utility bill costs

Rising utility bills are causing a headache for almost one in three householders. Some 31 per cent said the cost of gas, electricity and water was their largest worry, up from 23 per cent in 2001. Food prices were also found to be a cause for concern, but anxieties about the economy have fallen.

Mubarak said to have spoken about Egypt

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has allegedly spoken for the first time since being toppled from power. He reportedly told a journalist it was too early to judge the incumbent president and expressed sadness toward the conditions faced by the country’s poor. Mubarak’s lawyer denied these comments were made.

Campbell worried about role models

Sol Campbell, former captain of the England football team, believes too many young people are looking up to rappers and footballers. In tonight’s edition of Panorama, he says that instead, children should look for role models in local people “in the community or someone in their school, or maybe a manager”.

Tarantino’s Django unchained again

Quentin Tarantino’s violent slave-revenge movie Django Unchained returned to Chinese cinemas yesterday, a month after it was pulled for unspecified “technical reasons” – leading to speculation the film had run afoul of China’s strict censors.

Man finishes writing out the entire Bible

A New York man who has spent years writing out every word in the Bible is finally penning the last lines. Phillip Patterson, 63, began copying the complete King James Bible in 2009. Mr Patterson said it had helped him become more patient.