ICELAND has pledged to stop using palm oil as an ingredient in its own brand food by the end of 2018, warning that it drives the destruction of rainforests.

The company said it is taking the product out of 130 food lines, which will reduce demand by more than 500 tonnes per year, with palm oil already replaced with alternatives such as sunflower oil and butter in half of them.

Growing demand for palm oil for use in food, toiletries and biofuel has helped fuel widespread deforestation in south-east Asia, prompting industry efforts to promote “sustainable” palm oil which is not environmentally damaging.

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A 19-year-old man is to go on trial charged with murder after a nurse died from severe burns when acid was thrown over her.

Joanne Rand was allegedly splashed with a chemical on June 3 last year, in Frogmoor, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

She died in Stoke Mandeville Hospital 11 days later.

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DONALD Trump has said an apparent poison gas attack in Syria will be “met forcefully” hours after Russia warned US military action could cause “grave repercussions”.

The US president met with his military leaders in Washington on Monday night to discuss the response to the “horrible attack” on Douma, saying a decision would be made “tonight or very shortly thereafter”.

Mr Trump did not give a time frame for any retaliatory action, but said the US could not stand by as such atrocities take place because “we are able to stop it”.

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A RETIRED high court judge is due to give her ruling in the inquest into the death of six-year-old Ellie Butler, who was murdered by her father.

Ben Butler beat six-year-old Ellie to death at their family home in Sutton, south London, in October 2013.

The two-week inquest examined whether there were failures on the part of the authorities with regards to Ellie’s murder, including the sharing of information, co-operation and communication between organisations.

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It was not examining a family court ruling which returned the schoolgirl to the hands of her abusive father.