News Headlines - 22 January 2014

▽UK unemployment rate falls to 7.1 per cent - FT.com

The unemployment rate in the UK has fallen sharply to 7.1 per cent of the workforce, taking it close to the target under the Bank of England’s much-criticised forward guidance policy.

▽Bank of England seeks to ease rate hike fears as pound soars - The Independent

City traders sent the pound soaring following a shock fall in unemployment and the first explicit signal from the Bank of England on how it would handle a hike in interest rates.
The fall in unemployment to 7.1% in the quarter to November brings it to the brink of the Bank’s 7% threshold for considering rate hikes under the forward guidance regime introduced only last summer.

▽Stan Collymore calls for Twitter action over racist abuse - Telegraph

Former footballer Stan Collymore has accused of Twitter of putting profits before social responsibility by "not doing enough" to combat abusive tweets after he was targeted by internet trolls.
Police confirmed they are investigating a series of offensive messages directed at the ex-England striker, which were sent after he suggested Liverpool striker Luis Suarez cheated by diving during last Saturday's match against Aston Villa.

▽Syria: Horror photos 'prove President Bashar al-Assad tortured his victims' - Mirror Online

A sickening dossier of 55,000 Syrian “war-crime” photographs have emerged, boosting pressure on despot President Bashar al-Assad over regime atrocities. Horrific images of emaciated corpses, strangle wounds, cuts, bruising and signs of electrocution and corpses with no eyes reveal evidence of the torture and murder of 11,00 prisoners.

▽Gunmen shoot leading Thai government loyalist - FT.com

Gunmen shot and wounded a leading Thai government loyalist on Wednesday, further stoking the country’s political crisis as a state of emergency came into force in Bangkok.