Free Republic

The world's oldest living man has declared he has no "special secrets" to pass on about his longevity as he celebrated turning 112. John Tinniswood, who was born in Liverpool on 26 August 1912, told the Guinness World Records he had "no idea at all" why he had lived so long. The lifelong Liverpool fan, who lives at a care home in Southport, became the world’s oldest living man in April when 114-year-old Juan Vicente Pérez Mora died. He said he had been "quite active as a youngster" and did "a lot of walking", but believed he was "no different"...

The UK teen accused of fatally stabbing three little girls and wounding 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class was identified for the first time Thursday as Axel Rudakubana. Rudakubana, 17, was born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents, according to the BBC. He is charged with the murders of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, as well as the attempted murder of eight other children, a yoga teacher and a businessman at the kids’ event Monday in Southport. Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary said that despite not being an adult, the boy can...

When I was a Masters ­student in ­Liverpool in 1996, I deliberately walked the long way into the city ­centre from university every day. It wasn’t superstition or ­paranoia. It was because I longed to experience the infamous Bold Street Time Slip. A handful of people claim to have been strolling down this gently sloping thoroughfare only to be suddenly transported back to the 1950s.

A family home was lit on fire after their 'electric car' reportedly exploded while sitting in their driveway. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service rushed to a family home in Bromborough, Wirral at around 10pm on Saturday night after receiving reports that a car was on fire. The blaze was put out in just ten minutes. The Liverpool Echo reported that the façade of the two-storey family home was blackened by the fire and that the garage was also previously on fire as well. One man told the Echo that after speaking to the owners of the car this morning they...

Kieran Prescot suffered from a cardiac arrest when he collapsed suddenly after football trainingA "fit and healthy" teenager is lucky to be alive after he collapsed suddenly following football training. Kieran Prescot, from St Helens, had just finished training for the Parkdale Sidac Celtic Under 18s team at Sutton Academy when he suffered from a cardiac arrest. The 17-year-old was rushed to Whiston Hospital and put into an induced coma after being given CPR by staff at the training ground and nearby leisure centre. Mum Sara Jones, 41, told the ECHO: "It was a normal day, I'd dropped him off...

THE Liverpool bomber who blew himself up in a failed terrorist attack at the city's women's hospital may have faked his conversion from Islam to Christianity in order to remain in the UK, the inquest has been told. Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, died shortly before 11am on Remembrance Sunday last month when a bomb he was carrying partially blew up in the back of a taxi outside Liverpool Women's Hospital. The Iraqi-born terrorist had constructed the homemade bomb with “murderous intent”, a coroner at Liverpool and Wirral coroner’s court said today. Al Swealmeen had also failed in an asylum application...

Now you see him, now you don't. [5 min video]

Local police as well as police specializing in counter-terrorism are investigating the explosion, which took place outside Liverpool Women's Hospital in northwest England Sunday. Authorities are keeping "an open mind as to what caused the explosion," an earlier police statement said. "So far we understand that the car involved was a taxi which pulled up at the hospital shortly before the explosion occurred," according to the statement. The injured person is being treated in hospital and has not suffered life-threatening injuries, police said. The incident occurred at about 11 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET). Members of the public are...

The English city of Liverpool was removed from UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites on Wednesday because new buildings undermined the attractiveness of its Victorian docks, making it only the third site to be removed from the prestigious list. Liverpool was named a World Heritage Site by the United Nation’s cultural organisation in 2004, joining landmarks such as the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After a vote in China by members of its World Heritage Committee, UNESCO said the new buildings in Liverpool were undermining the city’s “authenticity and integrity”. Liverpool —...

Penny Lane, the road in Liverpool that gained worldwide recognition after The Beatles wrote a song about it, is now “in danger of being renamed” if it can be proven that its title is linked to a slave trader, a local politician says. Steve Rotherham, the mayor of the Liverpool city region, issued the warning to Sky News on Monday as a debate has emerged over the origins of the name Penny Lane. One of the road’s signs was defaced on Friday with the word “RACIST” spray-painted next to it in an apparent reference to James Penny, a Liverpool-based slave...

The Bishop of Liverpool has said he will attend an international summit of Anglican leaders without his wife next year, in protest at a bar on the partners of gay clergy. Rt Rev Paul Bayes described the decision to prevent same-sex partners of clergy from attending the 2020 Lambeth Conference as an "act of exclusion". In a message posted on Twitter, he said: "I deeply regret that, in the fractious complexities of our life as a worldwide people, this act of exclusion has taken its place. "It is a grief to me and to my wife, and to many others....

A driver accelerated into a group of pedestrians in Liverpool in the early hours of Christmas Eve, inflicting “major trauma” on one. Partial footage published by the Liverpool Echo appears to show a large SUV creep up to a junction and come to a full halt, before suddenly accelerating at top speed into a group of four young males as they cross the road. The local newspaper describes two being struck, with one being knocked off his feet and spun off to the side of the car’s path, while his other, less fortunate companion was thrown in front of the...

Violent Russian thugs who attacked Liverpool fans in Ukraine have issued a stark warning to England supporters planning to attend the World Cup. Trouble Company, a notorious hooligan group, said fans traveling abroad will face 'hell' during the 2018 competition. The group's followers have released a string of messages on social media claiming responsibility for the violence in Kiev, which saw Brits hospitalised.

gas explosion which obliterated a Wirral dance studio in Merseyside is now being treated as a criminal investigation. Merseyside Police confirmed the incident is a police matter and they are working with the National Grid, Wirral Council and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to establish how the blast occurred. An official statement from the force said they are still working to “ensure the area is made safe and that residents are able to return to their homes or collect belongings”.

BREAKING: A large explosion has shocked the British city of Liverpool awake, with reports of two buildings having collapsed. The explosion happened in the Wirral area of Merseyside, alongside the river Mersey. Initial reports from the scene report the streets littered with debris and bricks.

A 26-year-old man is in a serious condition after being stabbed in the arms and legs. Police said the man drove himself five miles to hospital following the attack. Unconfirmed reports suggest there is a bullet hole in the vehicle he drove in.

This is Aimee Rouski, a 19-year-old from Liverpool, England, who has Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the digestive system. Crohn’s is an incurable disease which causes inflammation of the lining of any part of the gastrointestinal tract. It can cause abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, and malnutrition — which can become life-threatening. Many people with Crohn’s will have at least one surgery as part of treatment, either to widen a part of the intestine or to remove portions of the intestines or the colon and/or rectum. Rouski recently posted a few selfies with her ostomy...

Let us test Darwin, teacher says Science teaching materials deemed "not appropriate" by the government should be allowed in class, Education Secretary Alan Johnson has been urged. Chemistry teacher at Liverpool's Blue Coat School, Nick Cowan, says the packs promoting intelligent design are useful in debating Darwinist evolution. Education officials insist intelligent design is not recognised as science. It argues that evolution cannot explain everything so the Universe must have had an intelligent creator. The packs were sent out to 5,000 secondary schools by a group of academics and clerics known as Truth in Science. The Department for Education and...

A San Diego man discovered the guitar he had unwittingly jammed on for the better part of 45 years once belonged to the legendary John Lennon, stolen from the Beatles in 1963. The story of the long-lost guitar began in 1962, when Lennon and George Harrison picked up two, store-ordered Gibson J-160Es in Liverpool. Lennon played his on tour for about 15 months, until it went missing after a pre-Christmas performance in London. In 1969, it landed in the hands of John McCaw, a San Diego building contractor. He told NBC 7 that a friend had unknowingly bought Lennon’s instrument...

Suspected dissidents disappear after midnight visits to their homes; chilling screams can again be heard from Idi Amin's infamous torture chambers, reopened after a quarter of a century of disuse. From the few that escape come tales of punishment beatings and even mass executions. Welcome to President Yoweri Museveni's Uganda. One of Britain's favourite African states in recent years has, almost unnoticed in the West, become a sinister land where a corrupt regime uses its secret police to rule through fear. The reasons for this transition are not hard to fathom. Mr Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986, when his...