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Unemployment fell by 14,000 between August and November to 2.5 million, with the number in work rising by 154,000 to 29.7 million, meaning that 580,000 more people were in work than a year before. David Cameron toured India with an entourage of trade delegates. ‘Britain wants to be your partner of choice,’ he said. His visit came days after India suspended a £480 million contract to buy 12 Westland helicopters, following the arrest in Italy over bribery allegations of the chief executive of Finmeccanica, an Italian firm that makes AgustaWestland helicopters in Britain. The government auction of a spectrum for 4G mobile phones raised £2.34 billion; the Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast £3.5 billion. Deposits of slime of unknown origin appeared on grassland at the RSPB’s Ham Wall, Somerset, identified by some as nostoc or star jelly, once believed to come from shooting stars.
Two men from the Aberystwyth area and a man from West Yorkshire were arrested on suspicion of fraud over the presence of horsemeat in supermarket frozen food. Whitbread, a large hotel chain, found horse DNA in products sold as beef, and horse DNA was also found in cottage pies supplied to 47 schools in Lancashire. In a search for more horsemeat, 2,501 supermarket tests on processed meat products, ordered by the Food Standards Agency, found that none contained more than 1 per cent horse. Tests continued. A French company, Spanghero, through which horsemeat had reached Britain in frozen beef products, had its licence restored to produce ready meals, minced meat and sausages, but not to stock frozen meat. Richard Briers, the actor best known for his role in The Good Life, died aged 79.
Britain is to send 40 soldiers to Mali for up to 15 months as part as an EU training mission for infantry and artillery.
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