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Co-op Group accepts chief executive's resignation

Co-operative Group in crisis as chief executive quits

The Co-operative Group was thrown back into crisis today after its chief executive quit the "ungovernable" group in the wake of a meltdown in boardroom relations.

The mutual accepted Euan Sutherland's resignation after he blamed "an individual, or individuals" at the top of the group for deliberately seeking to undermine him by revealing details of his £3.66 million pay deal to a Sunday newspaper.

ITV News Economics Editor Richard Edgar reports:

Chief financial officer Richard Pennycook has been appointed interim chief executive.

Mr Sutherland's departure after less than a year at the helm leaves the Co-op without a permanent boss and facing the biggest governance overhaul in its history.

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Twitter blames outage on 'unexpected complications'

Twitter has apologised for its earlier outage after the social networking site experienced "unexpected complications".

"Many users" were unable to access the site for 46 minutes, Twitter said on its website:

During a planned deploy in one of our core services, we experienced unexpected complications that made Twitter unavailable for many users starting at 11:01am [PDT].

We rolled back the change as soon as we identified the issue and began a controlled recovery to ensure stability of other parts of the service.

The site was fully recovered by 11:47am PDT. We apologise for the inconvenience.

Read: Twitter 'looking into' reason for site's outage

MPs to debate controversial power to close hospital services

Government wins vote on NHS Care Bill comfortably

by - Political Correspondent

In the end the Government won this vote comfortably despite the reservations of some backbenchers and Liberal Democrats. Less comfortable are likely to be the battles ahead over which departments to close in failing hospitals , or even in some which are quite successful.

Read: MPs to debate controversial power to close hospital services

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MPs to debate controversial power to close hospital services

Govt wins Commons vote 297 to 239 on NHS Care Bill

Labour has failed in a bid to halt plans the Opposition claimed would hand sweeping powers to ministers to close hospitals.The Government saw off an amendment which would have cut Trust Special Administration from the Care Bill, winning a Commons vote 297 to 239, majority 58.

Speaking earlier in the debate, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham compared Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to a burglar "changing the law to get his way", and warned the Government plans could see an otherwise good hospital closed because of its proximity to a failing one.

Read: MPs to debate controversial power to close hospital services

Rebekah Brooks cross-examination set to resume

Rebekah Brooks gives evidence on Milly Dowler

Nobody at the News of the World told the editor they thought Milly Dowler was alive and working in a factory in the Midlands while she was on holiday, Rebekah Brooks told the hacking trial.

Rebekah Brooks. Credit: Steve Parsons/PA Wire

Pressed by the judge Mr Justice Saunders if she would expect to be told if they had found Milly while she was on holiday, Brooks replied:

"I think if it had been believed back at Wapping that they were sure beyond all reasonable doubt that they had found Milly Dowler working in a factory in... Telford, wherever... that they would have told me, I'm sure. The fact is nobody told me."

On her 12th day in the witness box at the Old Bailey, she was questioned by prosecutor Andrew Edis QC about her contact with co-defendant Coulson when she was away.

Scientists launch project to analyse storms

A group of scientists has launched a project to fully analyse the effect of the recent devastating winter storms on coastlines and communities. Britain has had the wettest winter since national records began in 1910, with "energetic" storms that saw gusts of up to 108mph.

Spring tide at Tynemouth. Credit: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Lasting for 12 months, the 50,000 study has been launched to examine the direct impact of the weather in south west England. It is hoped the project, carried out by scientists from Plymouth University, will help develop adaptation strategies to protect from future storms.

Professor Gerd Masselink, principal investigator at the university's Rapid Coastal Response Unit said: "The coastal impact of this sequence of extreme Atlantic storms has been very significant.

"At several locations, prominent coastal landforms - such as bridges, stacks and arches - have disappeared, suggesting that at least some of the coastal changes will be permanent. However, many changes will turn out to be, in fact, reversible - such is the nature of a dynamic coastline."

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