the piece hall in halifax has re opened today following a £19 million transformation. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. british gas will increase electricity prices by 12.5% in september, a move which will affect more than three million customers. its parent company centrica said the price rise is a because of the increasing cost of transmitting energy to people s homes, and government environmental policies. the government has indicated that it may still legislate to impose a cap on energy prices. our business correspondent theo leggett reports. british gas likes to say it is putting its customers in control. but even if they turn the heating down, those on a standard variable tariffs will see their bills going up. after the increases announced today, the cost of an average dualfuel energy bill, electricity and gas, provided by british gas, will be going up. it will now cost £1120 a year, an increase of £76 compared to last year. it is not the cheapest among the big
personally, i think they should be building statues to him, not sacking. malaysian authorities say the half brother of north korea s leader was killed by a vx nerve agent which is classified as a weapon of mass destruction. and wanted, a squirrel patrol to help protect the native red squirrel from disappearing from the uk. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. it was by any standards a very good result for the conservatives causing a major electoral upset by winning the long held labour seat of copeland in cumbria. their candidate beat labour by more than 2000 votes. it s the first time a governing party has gained a seat at a by election since 1982. in the night s other by election labour held stoke on trent central holding off the challenge of the ukip leader paul nuttall. the labour leaderjeremy corbyn says the party s win in stoke was a decisive rejection of ukip‘s politics of division . but he says their message was not enough to win through in copeland . 0
After more than 20 years. and on day m of the olympics, the start of the women s gold medal, football match is put back to avoid tokyo s extreme mid day heat. there has been fierce fighting in the southern afghan city of lashkar gah. dozens of taliban insurgents are reported to have been killed in a battle for control of the city. afghan forces, backed by us air strikes, are fighting on several fronts. this map shows you some of the key areas of the fighting in kandahar, herat as well as lashkar gah. this is the situation earlier on thursday in herat, with taliban fighters reportedly moving freely in much of the city.