National / International News

Twitter's Vine video app is just 2 weeks old, but it's already been updated to add a 17+ rating. However, any user can just click "OK" to get around the age limit. Internet safety advocates say social media sites aren't doing enough to protect younger users from inappropriate material.

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Andre Barbosa had been been living in the 7,200-square-foot home with an ocean view since December. After consulting with the state attorney, police decided he was trespassing.

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The Polish slaughterhouse linked to the beef found in Newry which contained horse meat, has said it does not process equine products in its factories.

The controversy over President Obama's targeted-killings-by-drone policy is a reminder that the default position of presidents in times of crisis is to side with national security over civil liberties. That instinct has been true throughout history, and has been acted on by liberal presidents and core conservatives.

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The Royal Shakespeare Company is to take a season of plays to Newcastle, two years after its annual visits were scrapped due to funding cuts.

A woman indecently assaulted by a top choir director and his ex-wife died after giving evidence in their trial, it is revealed.

Breakdancing and hip-hop are offering young Indians a chance to escape the harsh realities of life growing up in the slums.

The body which represents many school caterers in the UK says it is confident about the quality of meat being served in school lunches despite the horsemeat food scare.

A nine-year-old girl found her mother and her partner dead in separate rooms of their Birmingham home, police say.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels reach a deal on the budget for 2014-20 which involves the first-ever real-terms cut.

The average tax refund last year was $2,800 -- enough to feel like a bonus pay check or a surprise inheritance.

“Many people, when they get that refund check, it’s their one day of the year of solvency,” says Richard Thaler, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. “I’ve preached that we should try to exploit this opportunity by making it as easy as possible to take some of that money and save it.”

That’s the idea behind an experiment by Washington University in Saint Louis and Intuit during tax season this year. Approximately 1.2 million households that use Intuit’s free TurboTax to file their taxes will see their refund amount and, at the same time, they might see a suggestion for much of it they should save.

One potential message reads, “Have a family or thinking about starting one? Start planning a bright future for them.”

Tax filers will then have the option to send their refund or a portion of it directly to a savings account or use it to buy a U.S. savings bond.

It’s crucial to give people an easy way to save before they have their checks in hand, says Michal Grinstein-Weiss, an associate professor at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University.

In fact, she calls it the “golden moment.”

“That’s the moment when they need to decide what they’re going to do with it,” she says. “And that’s when we’re intervening.”
Grinstein-Weiss will use a control group who don’t receive the messages to see if the approach increases savings.

She’s hoping that she’ll succeed where the recent financial crisis did not. Despite an initial uptick in savings during the height of the recession, savings rates did not significantly change.

Harvard professor Brigitte Madrian says, actually, this new experiment has a better strategy than the crisis.

“If you got an email in your inbox that said, ‘The financial crisis is happening, do you want to save more, click here,’ that would lead to bigger behavioral changes than just people watching it on the television,” says Madrian.

Scuffles break out in the Georgian capital Tbilisi as protesters seek to stop President Saakashvili from delivering his speech to the nation.

While a big number, it's way down from the $3.1 billion loss posted during that period last year. The Postal Service said it's already cut its operating costs, but it needs Congressional help to put it back on sound financial footing.

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Police continue a search for a missing rugby fan who disappeared after watching Wales' opening game in the Six Nations in the Millennium Stadium.

Lewis Hamilton has given a cautiously optimistic assessment of his new Mercedes during pre-season testing.

David Cameron hails a deal which will see the first-ever real-terms cut in the EU's budget as "good for the UK and good for Europe".

The assassination of Chokri Belaid has sparked protests. Emotions are running as high as they were two years ago at the start of the Arab Spring.

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More than 200 million people are on the move in China to be with their families for the Lunar New Year this weekend.

Chris Huhne's ex-wife tells a jury she felt ashamed and upset about talking to the Sunday Times after it revealed he had evaded speeding points.

Historian David Cannadine charts the fall and rise of New York's architectural gem and symbol of the gilded age.