The News Matrix: Thursday 12 July 2012

Man chained and tortured his wife

A man tortured his wife and kept her in chains for a decade. The 43-year-old victim was burned, had her foot crushed, and allegedly delivered a stillborn baby while enslaved. Peter Lizon, 37, is in a West Virginia jail and will appear in court charged with malicious wounding.

Romney booed by civil rights audience

The Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was booed by members of America's oldest black civil rights organisation yesterday when he said he intended to overturn Barack Obama's healthcare reforms. He also faces new assaults over not disclosing financial holdings overseas. MORE

Suicide bomber kills 10 police cadets

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of Yemeni police cadets as they were leaving their academy in the capital Sanaa yesterday, killing at least 10 people. Twelve suspects have been arrested. No organisation immediately claimed responsibility for the blast.

New airport borders staff cause concern

Senior staff at London's Heathrow Airport are concerned by the inexperience of new personnel brought in to speed up the immigration process during the Olympics. John Vine, the chief inspector of borders and immigration, said new staff asked fewer probing questions. MORE

£75m Moritz gift will see Oxford fees cut

A £75m gift from venture capitalist Michael Moritz means that Oxford University students with family incomes below £16,000 will have their tuition fees slashed from £9,000 to £3,500 per year. The first 100 beneficiaries will receive funding from October.

Rausing's body lay undiscovered

The body of socialite and Tetra Pak heir's wife Eva Rausing may have lain in her £50m London home for up to a week. A post-mortem examination failed to establish an immediate cause of death. MORE

Homeless workers used as slaves

An Irish Traveller family were convicted yesterday in the first quasi-slavery trial in Britain for more than 200 years. The Connors family built a lucrative block-paving business by using destitute and homeless workers, Luton Crown Court was told. One man described the site as a "concentration camp" where labourers worked 19-hour days. MORE

Camelot goes after gambling watchdog

Camelot says the Gambling Commission failed in its legal duty to protect it from Richard Desmond's Health Lottery. It asked the High Court to declare that the lottery watchdog is "unlawfully and unreasonably" resisting calls to set up a proper review of the Health Lottery.

1 in 5 sex offenders escape with caution

Erratic use of cautions and penalty notices means serious offenders are escaping justice, Ministry of Justice figures show. One in five sex offenders were cautioned last year, while £47m in penalty notices went uncollected over the last eight years.

Russian protection warships set sail

Hopes that Russia might be distancing itself from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime diminished yesterday as 11 Russian warships were dispatched to the eastern Mediterranean to safeguard Russian merchant ships delivering defence systems and helicopters. MORE

Morsi in talks to reinstate parliament

Egypt's new President, Mohammed Morsi, said yesterday he would push for talks with other institutions to resolve a constitutional crisis over his attempts to reinstate parliament. The move has led to tension with Egypt's ruling military.

Universal Studios sued by amputees

The Universal Studios theme park in Hollywood has been sued for barring two amputees from going on a rollercoaster. The lawsuit says one of the two men, Angel Castelan, was stopped from riding Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride in 2010 because could not grip the safety bar.

Viennese twirl-y tale of the piggy bank-er

A CCTV camera caught a wild pig on a night foray into a bank in Vienna. The pig opened a locked glass door at the bank in Hainburg an der Donau. It looked around and left without causing any significant damage and reportedly even managed to lock the door behind it.

Big Butterfly Count launched

Sir David Attenborough launched Butterfly Conservation's annual Big Butterfly Count yesterday. The veteran naturalist said: "[This year's] wet weather has made life really hard for our butterflies and things could get worse unless conditions improve."

Tigers maul man to death at zoo

Tigers mauled a man to death after he entered their enclosure at Copenhagen Zoo. Police spokesman Lars Borg said it was unclear yesterday how or why the 21-year-old got into the Siberian tiger den, but investigators could not rule out suicide as a motive. The man suffered multiple bite wounds.

Mark Twain comes to the rescue of library

The campaign against the closure of Kensal Rise library in west London gained another high-profile supporter yesterday in the shape of the Mark Twain museum in Connecticut, USA. The American author attended the opening of the library in 1900.

'Black Swan' drew most complaints

A lesbian sex scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman helped make Black Swan the most complained-about film last year. It drew 40 complaints, beating the latest Twilight film, Breaking Dawn, which contained a controversial emergency Caesarean section scene.

Florence cancels gigs after 'voice injury'

Pop star Florence Welch has cancelled two festival gigs to avoid permanent damage to her voice. The singer said she had suffered a "vocal injury" and had lost her voice after feeling something "snap". The Florence and the Machine star said the experience had been "very frightening".

Chip ban lifted for stadium workers

Workers building the stage for the opening ceremony have won the right to buy chips from their nearest catering van. Due to a chip monopoly in McDonald's sponsorship deal caterers could only serve chips with fish. The van has beaten the ban, but it still applies in other areas.