Mass Grave of Women and Children uncovered in Palmyra.

A mass grave including the bodies of women and children has been uncovered in the former Isis stronghold of Palmyra.

The government-controlled Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) said at least 40 corpses had so far been recovered from the site, with some beheaded and others showing signs of “brutal” torture.

The report linked the discovery to a massacre documented in May 2015, when Isis militants were reported to have slaughtered more than 400 mostly women and children in Palmyra just two days after capturing the city.

State employees, their families and those believed to be loyal to the regime were said to be among those targeted.

Isis committed numerous atrocities during its reign over Palmyra, when its world-famous ancient ruins became a favoured backdrop for gruesome propaganda videos showing the execution of prisoners.

During their nearly 10-month occupation of Palmyra, the jihadists executed at least 280 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor which confirmed the discovery of the mass grave.

Soon after IS stormed Palmyra, it shot dead 25 soldiers in the ancient Roman theatre.

It later released a video of the mass killing in which the executioners appeared to be children or teenagers.

Saudi Arabia Executions 2016

Saudi Arabia has already executed 82 people this year and is on course to behead twice as many prisoners as it did in 2015, according to new statistics compiled by a leading human rights organisation.  

The total death toll in Saudi Arabia could possibly reach a record high of more than 320 by the end of the year if the current rate is maintained as is mentioned by the UK daily paper the "Independence".

This would be more than double the 158 executions carried out by the Kingdom last year, which was in itself a dramatic rise on the 88 people it beheaded in 2014. The figures were compiled by the UK organisation Reprieve using a combination of official statements from the Saudi government and reliable local media reports.

Human rights groups are increasingly concerned about the fates of Ali al Nimr, Dawoud al Marhoon and Abdullah al Zaher, who have all been sentenced to death by the Saudis despite being children at the time of their alleged crimes. All three were convicted for alleged offences connected to protests calling for reform in the Kingdom and could be executed at any time without warning.

Saudi Arabia looks set for yet another record breaking year of beheadings. The deep injustices of the Saudi system mean that those being sent to the swordsman’s blade are in many cases tortured into ‘confessing’, guilty of nothing more than calling peacefully for reform, or even sentenced to death as children. 

True British TV Comedian Ronnie Corbett dies aged 85

Ronnie Corbett, the veteran entertainer and one half of The Two Ronnies, has died at the age of 85.

The diminutive star passed away surrounded by his family on Thursday morning, his publicist confirmed. It is understood that Corbett, who died in hospital, had been ill for several months.

He and the late Ronnie Barker became one of the funniest duos of their generation, hosting the BBC comedy sketch show that became one of the most popular TV programmes of the late 20th century.


Corbett and his wife Anne Hart, with whom he had two daughters, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last year.

The BBC aired a one-hour profile of the comedian and actor on New Year's Day, but it is understood that he was too ill to take part in the programme, which was produced in November.

His wife later revealed that, during a celebration to mark the achievement, he had collapsed in a restaurant and was rushed to hospital.

A statement from Corbett's publicist said: "Ronnie Corbett CBE, one of the nation's best-loved entertainers, passed away this morning, surrounded by his loving family.

"They have asked that their privacy is respected at this very sad time."

Corbett's health had suffered over the past few years, and in 2014 he was admitted to hospital with gallbladder problems.

Delusional Illusion - The Marriage

The other night I was out at the bar, enjoying some time away from the house and the kids. I’m a stay at home mom, so every couple of weeks I need a break. NEED.

I like to go out singing at my favorite karaoke bar. It lets me stretch out in my own skin for a while without any demands being made of me. It’s rejuvenating.

Since my favorite hobby happens to take place at a bar, I do get hit on from time to time. After ten years of marriage, I’ve gotten used to explaining to guys that I’m not only married, I’m committed-married. One would think a gold band on the third finger of the left hand would do it, but more often than not it simply elicits questions like, “Well, does that matter?” or “If you’re married, why isn’t your husband here with you?” – as if to imply that married people aren’t allowed hobbies of their own or time apart.

This last time I was out, however, I had an experience that changed the way I think about my answer to those questions.

A nice man (and, yes, married people can find other people nice) was chatting with me when suddenly the questions shifted a bit and I could tell he was starting to feel out if I was available. He was polite about it, and after I told him I was married, he asked, “Do you think it’s forever?”

I’d never been asked that before, in that context.

My reflex response was, “Well, yes – he’s my best friend!” I then talked for a bit about our life together, and some of the high-level stuff that made this a “forever” marriage.

That night as I drove home, though, the question came back to me. I thought about it’s implications some more, and I had some really beautiful revelations.

This is a forever marriage.

He truly is my best friend.

I can be out in the world and see other people who are attractive, intelligent, engaging, and fun, but they are all of those things in that moment.

My husband is all of those things to me, forever.

The man I’ve met in the moment has no idea which album is my favorite to listen to on Sunday morning while we make brunch.

He doesn’t know how to push my buttons by purposely mispronouncing words, or the hilarious arguments that can invoke.

He doesn’t know that when I grab his hand in a certain way, what I’m asking for is an epic thumb wrestling war.

He couldn’t possibly know the words to the song we made up about our old dog, sung to the tune of I’m a Little Teapot. This man I’ve just met doesn’t know that I can be depressed in the winter, and that I need a little extra emotional support over the months of February and March.

Or that I can be an explosive rage monster when I’m stressed out.

He might not be prepared to be a crazy hippie with me, raising and slaughtering chickens and rabbits for meat.

He sure as hell wasn’t there to keep our family from starving to death when we were homeless for a time in 2009.

He hasn’t put in the long hours of grueling work so his children could be raised at home by one of their own parents, which we agreed to do from the time we first discussed having a family together.

He didn’t intuitively know how to push a pressure point in my back during labor to ease my tension and make for an amazing, spiritual birth of our son.

He certainly didn’t conceive that son with me on a cold Valentine’s night on a crappy old mattress on the floor of a crappy old apartment that perpetually smelled like pot from the neighbors down the hall. It was the first place we lived with four solid walls after losing our house, and it felt like a mansion.

I’ve always known that we have a “forever” marriage (day by day we choose to make it so), but until I was asked that question in that context, I hadn’t really thought about the entirety of what was behind my response when I’d say, “I’m married.”

The guys who ask, “Are you happy?” are asking about now. And, truthfully, not every moment of a marriage is going to be happy. That question doesn’t examine where you’ve been or where you’re going. It asks you about now, because the goal for them is for satisfaction now. But, I never answer the question in the “now.”

Marriage isn’t a “now” thing. It’s a continuum.

I’ve turned down nice guys, creepers, and your average drunk who is throwing out lines in every direction hoping for a nibble. My rejection of the man has nothing, NOTHING, to do with who they are.

It has everything to do with who my husband is, and what our marriage is.

He is my best friend. And our marriage is, day by day, forever.

Marriage isn’t cheap, and it isn’t something to be taken for granted – real marriage is forever. Click below to share if you agree.

Hasnen Anwar Warekar & The Killings

The residents of Kasarvadavli village in Thane woke up to a horrific sight of a woman in blood soaked clothes, her throat slit, begging for help. She was trying to escape from her brother who had killed 14 members of his family.

Hasnen Anwar Warekar (35), allegedly killed his wife, two kids, four sisters, parents and six of his nephews and nieces with a butcher’s knife before committing suicide by hanging himself.

The sole survivor of the massacre is Hasnen’s 22-year-old sister Subiya, whose screams roused the neighbours and brought the police to their doorstep.   It is with the help of traumatized Subiya, who has received 25 stitches on her neck, that the police is trying to reconstruct the sequence of events eading to the midnight killings.

On Saturday, Hasnen had invited his three sisters and their children home for dinner. While no specific occasion was cited, he insisted that everybody joins him at his house. “Subiya, who stays in Koparkhairne, initially refused to join them since her daughter, Arsiya (5 months), was unwell. But he went to her house and picked her up and would not take a ‘no’ for an answer,” said a relative of the family.

It is suspected that Hasnen, an accountant, had laced their food with a sedative and slashed their necks after they went to bed, all of them having decided to spend the night at the house.

Incidentally, all of them retired to different rooms with Hasnen and his family going to sleep upstairs, the parents in the hall area and the sisters in another bedroom on the ground floor. Preliminary investigation by the Thane police suggests that Hasnen had procured a butcher’s cleaver used for sacrificing animals during festivals and killed his wife and children first. He then came downstairs and killed his parents before proceeding to kill his sisters and their children.

What has baffled the police is the apparent lack of motive as Hasnen was known to be a quiet and unassuming person with no known mental ailment. One of the theories doing the rounds is the possibility of the massacre being a ritual slaying which possibly had something to do with the accountant’s skewed understanding of the concept of ‘qurbani.’ Hasnen worked with a private company in Mumbai and had no known financial troubles or disputes.

Hasnen stayed with his wife Jabin (28), two kids — Mubashira (6) and Humaira (3 months) — in a two storey house in Kasarvadavli villa off Ghodbunder Road.  His parents — Anwar Warekar (55) and Asagadi (50) and an unmarried sister Batul Warekar (30) — also stayed with him. Three sisters — Subiya Bharmal (22), Maria Fakhi (28) and Sabeena Khan (35) — were married and stayed elsewhere in the city.

At around 2.30 am, a neighbour heard the sound of a vessel being struck on a window. When she checked it out, she heard a faint scream; the alert neighbour roused others in the cluster who rescued Subiya after breaking open a window grill.

“Subiya was standing at the window sill on the ground floor: her clothes were soaked in blood and she was screaming for help. When we tried to open the front door, she warned us that her brother Hasnen was out there with a knife and he had killed everybody in the house; also, that he was trying to kill her too. She asked us to break open the window grill and get her out,” said one of the rescuers giving a graphic account.

Sources claim that after Hasnen slit Subiya’s throat, he killed her five-month-old daughter in front of her. She also saw her one of her sisters and their children’s throat being slit. “She did not succumb to her injuries like the others and pretended to be dead; after he left the room, she dragged herself to the bedroom and managed to lock it from the inside. She then started hurling vessels on the window to wake up the neighbours,” said a relative.

Some of the neighbours, who tried getting into the house through another window, claim that they saw Hasnen allegedly roaming around the house with a knife. “He was alive when we got Subiya out. But five minutes later, when we tried to enter through the kitchen window, we saw him hanging from the ceiling fan with the bloodied knife in his hand,” said Farzan, a childhood friend of Hasnen. The police were alerted and they broke open the front door.

“There was blood everywhere – splattered on the walls, on the floor, on bed-sheets. It was horrific,” said an officer who first reached the house.

Death of British indie-pop band Viola Beach members along with their Manager

Four young members of British indie-pop band Viola Beach have died, along with their manager, when their car plunged through the barrier of an open bridge into a canal in Sweden.

Swedish police said the men, aged between 20 and 35, were killed in the early hours of Saturday when the vehicle plunged more than 25m (82ft) through a gap in the highway bridge which had opened to let a boat pass underneath.

The band, made up of four friends from their hometown of Warrington, Cheshire, were guitarist and vocalist Kris Leonard, 20; guitarist River Reeves,19; bass player Tomas Lowe and drummer Jack Dakin, 19. Manager Craig Tarry, 32, was the fifth person in the car.

The up-and-coming band was in Sweden to perform at the Where’s the Music? festival in Norrköping on Friday night. It was their first overseas gig.

The bridge, at the Saltskogs junction between the E4 and the E20 motorways, in the Sodertalje area of Stockholm, has a middle section that rises directly upwards without tilting, leaving a gap that the Nissan Qashqai drove into, Swedish police said.

A barrier, 50m before the opening, has flashing lights and signs warning there is a bridge opening, the officer handling the case said.

Inspector Martin Bergholm said: "For some reason, the car drove through the barriers and crashed down into the canal."

Police received a call at about 2.30am and were first to arrive on the scene, a "maximum five minutes" later. Police and fire brigade divers recovered five bodies.

The band is described on its Twitter page as "Bucketloads of loveliness and 'dreamy shoegaze pop'." It was just weeks away from playing a sold-out homecoming gig at Warrington's the Pyramid on March 12.

Viola Beach was also due to play at the Boiler Room in Guildford, in Surrey, on Saturday night with fellow band Blossoms, but the gig was subsequently cancelled.

The group - who have a huge and loyal UK fanbase - had also announced plans to play their biggest home town show at Warrington's Parr Hall on October 1.

The singer Billy Bragg posted a message on Twitter saying: "Tragic news about Viola Beach. Young band, first tour outside the UK. My thoughts are with their families and friends."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We can confirm that five British nationals died in a car accident in Sweden on February 13.

"We are in contact with local authorities and supporting the families at this difficult time."

Truck driver Jonny Alexandersson told the Stockholm-based news website Aftonbladet that he was behind two other stationary vehicles when the car drove past at "at least 70-80km/h (45-50mph)" as the warning lamps flashed and two barriers blocked the road.

He said he heard a loud bang when the car drove into one of the beams on the bridge, then it disappeared.

"Many were obviously very shocked by this," he told the news site.

Folkert Koopmans, the CEO of FKP Scorpio, which arranged the festival in Norrköping, said: "It is horrible, a huge tragedy. I saw them playing on Friday night and it was actually the first time they played outside of the UK. They were really excited about it. My thoughts are with their families and friends.”

Kris explained last year how he formed Viola Beach with drummer Jack Dakin after bumping into him at Warrington bus station.

The pair both went to Bradshaw Primary School, in Grappenhall, Cheshire, but had lost touch with each other.

Kris had already met guitarist River Reeves on a music course at Priestley College and met bassist Tom at Warrington bar 'The Lounge'.

The Lounge was also where the band played their warm up show before making their debut at Liverpool's legendary Cavern Club on July 15.

Kris, said: "To play in this historic venue in front of all these industry people was a wake-up call.
"We had someone there from SJM Concerts who are now promoting our shows for us."

Viola Beach have also had airplay from Huw Stephens on Radio 1, Steve Lamacq from 6 Music and Jo Good at XFM.

The band's last post on Facebook was on February 2, when they excitedly wrote about playing a huge

gig in the USA next month - as they started to break into America.

They posted: "Very excited to announce we've been invited by to play BBC Introducing and PRS for Music Foundation's showcase at SXSW Music Festival in Austin Texas at Latitude 30 on Wednesday 16th March!!"

Viola Beach have become one of the fastest growing bands on the music scene after frontman and former cleaner Kris Leonard sent a track to BBC Introducing while in local newspaper The Warrington Guardian's office toilets.

The four-piece went on to tour with the Courteeners and work with Communion Records founder and Mumford and Sons producer Ian Grimble.

David Bowie Dies of Cancer aged 69

Singer David Bowie, one of the most influential musicians of his era, has died of cancer at the age of 69.

A statement was issued on his social media accounts, saying he "died peacefully, surrounded by his family" after an "18-month battle with cancer".

Tributes have been paid from around the world to the "extraordinary artist" whose last album was released days ago.

Sir Paul McCartney described him as a "great star" who "played a very strong part in British musical history".

Bowie's son Duncan Jones, who directed Bafta-winning film Moon, wrote on Twitter: "Very sorry and sad to say it's true. I'll be offline for a while. Love to all."

Saudi Arabia Executed 47 Prisoners Sparking Global Outrage

Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday along with 46 others, including three other Shiite dissidents and a number of al-Qaida militants. It was largest mass execution carried out by the kingdom in three and a half decades. sparking global outrage. The kingdom has been widely condemned by the international community for executing scores of prisoners in Riyadh, Mecca, Medina and in the eastern and northern regions.

Al-Nimr was a central figure in protests by Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority until his arrest in 2012, and his execution drew condemnation from Shiites across the region.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the execution Sunday in a statement on his website, saying al-Nimr "neither invited people to take up arms nor hatched covert plots. The only thing he did was public criticism." Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saudi Arabia's "medieval act of savagery" in executing the cleric would lead to the "downfall" of the country's monarchy.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said that by condemning the execution, Iran had "revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism."

The statement, carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, accused Tehran of "blind sectarianism" and said that "by its defense of terrorist acts" Iran is a "partner in their crimes in the entire region."

Al-Nimr was convicted of terrorism charges but denied ever advocating violence.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are locked in a bitter rivalry, and support opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of supporting "terrorism" in part because it backs Syrian rebel groups, while Riyadh points to Iran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shiite militant groups in the region.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Saudi envoy in Tehran to protest, while the Saudi Foreign Ministry later said it had summoned Iran's envoy to the kingdom to protest Iran's criticism of the execution, saying it represented "blatant interference" in its internal affairs.

In Tehran, the crowd gathered outside the Saudi Embassy early Sunday and chanted anti-Saudi slogans. Some protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the embassy, setting off a fire in part of the building, said the country's top police official, Gen. Hossein Sajedinia, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. He later said police had removed the protesters from the building and arrested some of them, adding that the situation had been "defused."

Hours later, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said 40 people had been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the embassy attack and investigators were pursuing other suspects, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, while condemning Saudi Arabia's execution of al-Nimr, also branded those who attacked the Saudi Embassy as "extremists."

"It is unjustifiable," he said in a statement.

By 4 p.m., some 400 protesters had gathered in front of the embassy despite a call by the government for them to protest at a square in central Tehran. Later, hundreds also gathered at the central square. Street signs on the street where the Saudi Embassy is located in Tehran also were replaced with ones bearing the slain sheikh's name. Tehran authorities could not be immediately reached to discuss the new name.

Protests also took place in Beirut, as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called al-Nimr "the martyr, the holy warrior."

Meanwhile, Al-Nimr's supporters in eastern Saudi Arabia prepared for three days of mourning at a mosque in al-Awamiya, some 390 kilometers (240 miles) northeast from the capital, Riyadh, in the kingdom's al-Qatif region. However, the sheikh's brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, told The Associated Press that Saudi officials told his family that the cleric was already buried in an undisclosed cemetery.

The cleric's execution could also complicate Saudi Arabia's relationship with the Shiite-led government in Iraq. The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad is preparing to formally reopen for the first time in nearly 25 years. Already on Saturday there were public calls for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to shut the embassy down again.

Al-Abadi tweeted Saturday night that he was "shocked and saddened" by al-Nimr's execution, adding that "peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does not last."

On Sunday, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called al-Nimr a martyr and said his blood and that of other Shiite protesters "was unjustly and aggressively shed."

Hundreds of al-Nimr's supporters also protested in his hometown of al-Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia, in neighboring Bahrain where police fired tear gas and bird shot, and as far away as northern India.

The last time Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution on this scale was in 1980, when the kingdom executed 63 people convicted over the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Extremists held the mosque, home to the cube-shaped Kaaba toward which Muslims around the world pray, for two weeks as they demanded the royal family abdicate the throne.

Also Sunday, the BBC reported that one of the 47 executed in Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Dhubaiti, was convicted over a 2004 attack on its journalists in Riyadh. That attack by a gang outside of the home of a suspected al-Qaida militant killed 36-year-old Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers. British reporter Frank Gardner, now the BBC's security correspondent, was seriously wounded in the attack and paralyzed, but survived.

Celebrities Who Died in 2015

A host of stars including household names from showbusiness, politics and sport died in 2015. Here we remember some of them.

The nation was united in grief in August when "national treasure" Cilla Black died aged 72.

The Blind Date and Surprise Surprise TV presenter and singer suffered a stroke after falling and hitting her head at her Spanish villa.
Some of the stars from showbiz, politics and sport who died in 2015

Some of the stars from showbiz, politics and sport who died in 2015

The Liverpudlian star will return to TV screens on Christmas Day, with an hour-long ITV tribute, Our Cilla, featuring celebrity friends Ringo Starr, Sir Cliff Richard and Paul O'Grady.

There was also much sadness when Anne Kirkbride - Coronation Street's Deirdre Barlow - died from cancer in January.

The 60-year-old actress, who starred in the ITV soap for 44 years, was famous for her oversized-spectacle-wearing, gravel-voiced alter ego, whose on-screen imprisonment for a trumped-up fraud conviction led then prime minister Tony Blair to give his support to the "Free The Weatherfield One" campaign.

Four men best-known for TV comedy also died this year. They included George Cole, famed for playing wheeler-dealer Arthur Daley in Minder, who died in August, aged 90.

The same month Stephen Lewis, who played Inspector Cyril "Blakey" Blake in sitcom On The Buses, died aged 88, as did comedy writer David Nobbs, best known for creating the television character Reginald Perrin, at the age of 80.

Warren Mitchell, who played Alf Garnett in TV series Till Death Us Do Part, died in November, aged 89.

Bafta-winning actress Geraldine McEwan, known for playing Agatha Christie sleuth Miss Marple on television, died "peacefully" in February, aged 82.

Actor Patrick Macnee, best known for playing urbane intelligence agent John Steed in 1960s series The Avengers, died in June, aged 93.

Ventriloquist Keith Harris, famous for his '80s television act - and pop career - with his puppet duck Orville, died in April, aged 67.

And former Antiques Roadshow presenter Hugh Scully died in October, aged 72.

The world of film was rocked by the deaths of Omar Sharif and Sir Christopher Lee.

Sharif, who starred in Hollywood epics including Lawrence Of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, died in his native Egypt in June at the age of 83.

Sir Christopher, who also died in June, aged 93, a ppeared in a string of horror films and played a Bond villain in The Man With The Golden Gun before enjoying a career renaissance playing Saruman in the Lord Of The Rings films.

Other actors to die included Ron Moody, who played Fagin in the 1968 Oscar-winning Oliver! Moody, who was nominated for the best actor Oscar, died in June, aged 91.

Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr Spock in sci-fi classic Star Trek on the big and small screens, died in February, aged 83.

Nightmare On Elm Street director Wes Craven died in August, aged 76, and Bollywood actor Saeed Jaffrey, who starred in films including A Passage To India and Gandhi, died in November at 86.

Away from the screen, three much-loved but totally different novelists died.

Jackie Collins, who sold more than 500 million novels in some 40 countries in her four decades-long career as a writer of raunchy female fiction, died of breast cancer in September, aged 77.

Crime writer Ruth Rendell died in May at the age of 85, months after suffering a stroke. One of the best-known names in the genre, she wrote more than 60 best-sellers, including the Inspector Wexford novels.

Best-selling fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett died in March aged 66 after a very public struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

Four musical greats from widely different genres also died.

Stand By Me singer Ben E King died at the end of April aged 76.

Hot Chocolate frontman Errol Brown died from liver cancer at his home in the Bahamas in May aged 71.

Irish crooner Val Doonican died in July aged 88.

And at the end of the year, veteran rocker Lemmy, the lead singer of Motorhead, died aged 70 within days of being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.

Acerbic art critic and broadcaster Brian Sewell died of cancer in September aged 84.

The world of politics lost several big hitters.

Former Conservative chancellor Geoffrey Howe, the minister whose devastating resignation speech effectively ended Margaret Thatcher's premiership, died in October aged 88.

His death came just days after that of a long-time opponent, former Labour chancellor Lord Denis Healey, who died aged 98.

While both men reached good ages, there was shock as well as sadness when former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy died in June aged just 55 after struggling with alcoholism.

In January, former home secretary and European Commission vice-president Leon Brittan, Lord Brittan of Spennithorne, died of cancer aged 75.

His death came as controversy continued over the inquiry into child sex abuse allegations triggered by questions surrounding a dossier handed to him while home secretary by then-Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens.

In sport, warm tributes were paid in April when former Australian cricket captain turned commentator Richie Benaud died aged 84.

There were also two high-profile deaths in the world of motor racing.

In July, Jules Bianchi, the French racer tipped to become a world champion, died aged just 25 after succumbing to devastating head injuries he suffered during the Japanese Grand Prix in October 2014.

Little more than a month later, British racing driver Justin Wilson died after being hit on the head by a piece of flying debris during an IndyCar race in Pennsylvania.

In July, tributes poured in for Sir Nicholas Winton, dubbed "Britain's Schindler" for saving the lives of Jewish children during the Holocaust, after he died aged 106.

Sir Nicholas organised eight trains to carry 669 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to London in 1939, fearing they would otherwise be sent to concentration camps.

He also helped to find foster families for the children once they arrived in England, but did not reveal his astonishing bravery for half a century, even to his wife.

Britain's best-known madam, Cynthia Payne - nicknamed Madame Cyn - died in November, aged 82.

She first hit the headlines in 1978 when police raided a sex party at her suburban home in Streatham, south London, to find elderly men paying for lewd entertainment with luncheon vouchers.


TV presenter and singer Cilla Black


Coronation Street actress Anne Kirkbride


Actor George Cole


Stephen Lewis, as Blakey in sitcom On The Buses


Comedy writer David Nobbs (British Humanist Association/PA)


Actor Warren Mitchell


Actress Geraldine McEwan


Actor Patrick Macnee, with Avengers co-star Diana Rigg (TV Times/PA)


Ventriloquist Keith Harris with his puppet duck Orville (Robert C Kelly/PA)


Antiques Roadshow presenter Hugh Scully


Hollywood actor Omar Sharif


Actor Sir Christopher Lee after receiving his Knighthood at Buckingham Palace


Actor Ron Moody


Actor Leonard Nimoy, best known for playing Mr Spock in Star Trek


Nightmare On Elm Street director Wes Craven


Actor Saeed Jaffrey


Novelist Jackie Collins after being presented with the OBE at Buckingham Palace


Crime writer Ruth Rendell


Fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett


Singer Ben E King


Hot Chocolate frontman Errol


Singer Val Doonican


Motorhead rock star Lemmy


Art critic and broadcaster Brian Sewell


Lord Geoffrey Howe


Former Labour chancellor Denis Healey


Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy


Former Conservative Cabinet minister Leon Brittan


Former Australian cricketer Richie Benaud in the Channel 4 commentary box at Lords


Formula One driver Jules Bianchi


Racing driver Justin Wilson


'Britain's Schindler' Sir Nicholas Winton


Cynthia Payne, Britain's best-known madam