Schools minister Nick Gibb says new exam league tables will show up schools who prioritise their annual ranking ahead of educating all pupils.

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Schools warned over league tables

Schools minister Nick Gibb says new exam league tables will show up schools who prioritise their annual ranking ahead of educating all pupils.

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Schools warned over league tables

PASADENA, Calif. — Hosting the Golden Globe Awards has become his “extreme sport,” Ricky Gervais said Friday, a couple of days before his third crack at the annual trophy show on NBC. Appearing at Winter TV Press Tour 2012, Gervais insisted that he “stands by . . . every joke I did last year, and I don’t care what people think” of his performance as host of the 2011 Globes. Read full article > >

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Ricky Gervais ready to rumble as host of Golden Globes 2012

The Internal Revenue Service ’s workload has intensified as Congress has cut its budget, resulting in slower refunds and service to taxpayers, an in-house watchdog said Wednesday. The tax agency is resorting to shortcuts, relying excessively on automation that either fails to identify fraudulent claims or flags taxpayers for making mistakes when they haven’t, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson concluded in her annual report to Congress. Read full article > >

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IRS’s tight budget is hurting taxpayers, watchdog says

Pope Benedict XVI, appearing frail and tired, prayed for peace in the Middle East and Horn of Africa in his annual message, “Urbi et Orbi,” or “to the city and world,” from St. Peter’s Basilica.

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Pope Benedict Offers Prayers for Peace on Christmas

Standing in front of a brilliantly lighted 12-foot pine tree at her son’s home in Bowie, Gladys Boluda was all smiles, singing and dancing in step with her grandchildren to ’N Sync’s “Merry Christmas Happy Holidays.” With three days left before Christmas, the Boludas were putting the finishing touches on their annual Christmas video, a tradition that began with a family concert about a decade ago and has become a holiday essential, along with black beans and rice, yucca and other traditional Cuban fare. Read full article > >

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Bowie clan celebrates family and freedom on Christmas

Barbara Walters interviewed Kris Jenner and daughters Kourtney , Khloe and Kim Kardashian, as part of her annual most fascinating people TV special . But for an interview that was attempting to convince us this family is “fascinating,” it was kind of boring. Did Walters ask Kim about her divorce? No. Did she grill momager Kris about putting her youngest daughters in the public eye? No. Read full article > >

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Barbara Walters interviews ‘fascinating’ Kardashians; Lady Gaga is top-earning female musician

The University of California, Berkeley says families earning up to $140,000 would be expected to pay no more than 15 percent of their annual income.

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Berkeley Increasing Aid to Middle-Class Students

A new wrinkle in the annual question about what’s an appropriate holiday gift for a teacher: Does that gift ever cross over into bribe territory? A new Alabama ethics ruling [pdf] specifically prohibits teachers from receiving many kinds of gifts, including gift cards (and, perplexingly, hams and turkeys). Read full article > >

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Ala. teachers could receive jail time, $6000 fine for receiving gifts

West End musicals Matilda and Ghost – both directed by Matthew Warchus – will go head to head at the annual Whatsonstage.com Awards with nine nominations each.

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Matilda and Ghost vie for awards

It’s time for the annual guessing game entitled, “Who Will Be Named Barbara Walters’s Most Fascinating Person of the Year ?” ABC got the ball rolling earlier today by issuing a news release that revealed the first seven entries on Walters’s big list of 10: Pippa Middleton (who has apparently trumped Kate Middleton, named on last year’s list ), the Kardashian family (which, as a multi-headed publicity-seeking entity, qualifies as one person), Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson of “Modern Family” (also a single unit known as Cam-Mitchell), Donald Trump , Katy Perry and New York Yankee Derek Jeter. Read full article > >

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Barbara Walters’s most fascinating person of 2011: Who will it be?

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson calls for Catholics and Protestants to unite to end sectarian division, at the annual DUP conference.

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Robinson: ‘End sectarian divide’

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) desperately wants to spare the Government Accountability Office from deeper budget cuts this year — and he’s gone so far as to publish a 29-page report to help convince his colleagues. The nonpartisan congressional investigative office (which ranked third this week in the annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings) could face cuts of up to $42 million this fiscal year, a move that agency bosses say will result in furloughs, layoffs, delays in updating agency computers and supportive services that lawmakers fear could force cutbacks in the investigations and audits the office publishes almost daily. Read full article > >

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GAO budget cuts panned in new report

Several hundred people gather in Belfast for the annual tribute to those who died in the two World Wars and other conflicts.

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Remembrance tribute takes place

As the Queen leads the annual Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph in London, young fundraiser Lydia Cross, 10, tells the BBC’s Nick Higham how she raised £60,000 for war veterans.

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VIDEO: Girl raises £60,000 for veterans