The News Matrix: Tuesday 2 August 2011

Breivik’s mother is in a state of shock

Officials who interviewed the mother of self-confessed mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik have said she does not want to see her son again. Wenche Behring, 64, was said to be receiving psychiatric treatment and in a state of total shock after her son’s slaughter of 77 people. MORE

Traveller schooling threatened by cuts

The schooling of 100,000 traveller children is at risk from local authority funding cuts. Freedom of Information responses from 127 local authorities show nearly half have abolished their traveller education service, or drastically reduced front-line staff numbers. MORE

British woman, 21, found murdered

A British art student has been murdered in Poland. The 21-year-old, identified only as Katherine by police, was on a college placement in Krakow. Her body was found on a railway embankment on Saturday. The woman, who had dual UK-Polish nationality, was due to return to Britain in two weeks’ time. MORE

Papers defy ban to run train crash story

Newspapers in China have criticised the official handling of a fatal bullet train crash in an unprecedented act of defiance. The Communist Party had ordered newspapers to avoid all mention of the 23 July crash in which 40 died, but newspapers yesterday risked censure to run the story. MORE

UN told to take clear stance against Assad

Pressure is mounting on the United Nations to take a decisive stance against the Syrian regime as President Bashar al-Assad’s forces bombed the city of Hama for a second consecutive day. The Security Council was holding a closed-door session on Syria last night, after troops killed 100 civilians. MORE

Drink-driving numbers increase

More people, particularly the young, are drink-driving, police say. Some 88,629 drivers were breathalysed in June, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said, with 5,373 – about 6 per cent – testing positive, refusing or failing a breath test. MORE

Teenage hacking suspect is bailed

A teenager accused of hacking into the Serious Organised Crime Agency website has been bailed. Jake Davis, 18, was arrested in the Shetland Islands by police investigating the hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec. MORE

Fraud shame Labour MP is freed from jail

Former Labour MP Jim Devine was released from prison yesterday after a quarter of his 16-month sentence for expenses fraud. He had been branded a liar by his trial judge for falsely claiming £8,385. Mr Devine, 58 – one of six MPs and peers jailed over expenses – was released from Standford Hill prison, Kent. MORE

Netanyahu signals major policy shift

In what appeared to be a major policy shift, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night agreed to negotiate the borders of a Palestinian state roughly based on the 1967 ceasefire lines separating the West Bank and Israel. He angrily rejected a similar proposal from Barack Obama in May. The Palestinians said last night they had not yet received the proposal from Israel.

One in five is victim of cyber-bullying

One in five young people has been a victim of cyber-bullying, according to new research by Anglia Ruskin University. Cyber-victims can suffer more because they feel unable to escape from online and text threats, experts said. Girls were twice as likely to be targeted as boys. MORE

Trial date for nurse in saline inquiry

The trial of a nurse accused of tampering with saline at Stepping Hill hospital has been set for next February. Rebecca Leighton, 27, has been charged with criminal damage with intent to endanger life, in connection with the suspicious deaths of patients at the hospital in Stockport. MORE

25 migrants die in overcrowded boat

Twenty-five African migrants trying to reach Italy from Libya died in the hold of a rickety boat so packed with people that the migrants could not get out as they struggled to breathe. The 15m (50ft) boat was carrying 296 people, including women and children, with many of them stowed away in the hold.

FBI closes in on the hijacker DB Cooper

The FBI says it has a “credible lead” in its well-known investigation into “DB Cooper”. The unidentified man parachuted out of the back of an aeroplane over Washington state with $200,000 (£120,000) in ransom money in 1971. It is still the country’s only unsolved hijacking. MORE

‘Noisy’ Morris dancers thrown out

A group of Morris dancers have complained after they were thrown out of a pub because the bells on their clogs put them in breach of a ban on music. The Slubbing Billys troupe, based in Slaithwaite near Huddersfield, were thrown out of the pub because of their tinkling costumes. MORE

Drunk man let son, 8, drive highway truck

A man has been arrested for letting his eight-year-old son drive his pickup truck on a highway after he got drunk and fell asleep. The boy was driving the Chevrolet truck with his father in the passenger seat and his four-year-old sister in the back seat, said Louisiana police.

Biden charges his bodyguards rent

Joe Biden, the US Vice-President, is making $2,200 (£1,350) a month by renting out a cottage he owns next to his home in Delaware to the US Secret Service bodyguards, who must live nearby to protect him.

Ofcom clears drama over baby-swap plot

EastEnders has been cleared over its cot death storyline. Ofcom, the media regulator received 1,044 complaints about two New Year episodes in which one character swapped her dead baby for the newborn son of another. It said the scenes were not “unduly disturbing or graphic”.

Jail for classroom assistant with guns

A classroom assistant has been jailed for eight years after a stash of guns were found at her home. Police discovered four weapons at the home of Kimberley Bray, 45, who worked at St Paul’s RC High School in Wythenshawe, Manchester. Two guns were found hidden under her duvet.

Lingerie shops slow to let women in

Shop owners in Saudi Arabia have been accused of dragging their feet over plans to introduce saleswomen in lingerie stores. At the moment, only men can work in public places, but the government has ordered shops to hire women to sell underwear, to save customers’ embarrassment.

Pippa tops survey for best skin tone

Pippa Middleton’s tan is the “most desirable” skin tone of the summer. She saw off competition from Cheryl Cole and Christine Bleakley to top a poll, winning almost two-thirds of the vote. The survey of 2,000 women aged between 18 and 44 was to mark the launch of the TV channel, Really.