News about Graeme Smith

Hollyoaks star Peter McPherson has revealed his HIV diagnosis. The actor broke down in tears as he bravely opened up about living with the virus during an interview with Virgin Radio Pride. Peter, who played Gareth on the E4 soap, was joined in studio by his husband David Allwood as he told how he has been HIV positive for over 10 years.

Hundreds of Chinese police officers are seen smashing down doors and arresting nearly 80 young male and female suspected cyber criminals in Fiji, according to the video, which was shot by a Chinese security company and retrieved in 60 minutes. As they were flown back to China on a charter jet, the suspected criminals were later hooded, handcuffed, and sat in the middle of a row of Chinese cops. 'No matter how far away they are, They [criminal criminals] will be arrested,' a translation of the accompanying Chinese captions reads.

Chelsea Beckham (left), 27, climbed into the driver's seat of the man's vehicle after being met in the street in Chesterton, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, on April 9 2023 and sped away. Beckham, a string of previous convictions, met the man in Chesterton while driving someone else's Skoda before asking if he'd bring her and her partner around town. He pulled into an Esso service station on Liverpool Road (right) and filled up with fuel before rushing inside to pay, causing Beckham to clamber into the driver's seat, start the car up, and leave.

After raping 12-year-old schoolgirl in a hotel and spending £500 on her in a toy store, a paedophile teacher was jailed. A court heard Simon Murch, a Sheffield boy, told him she was aged 18, when she in fact she was 12. The 55-year-old asked her to post specific photographs and they decided to meet at The Tollgate Hotel in Blurton, Stoke-on-Trent. Prosecutors claim he would have known immediately that the child was underage when he picked her up in his car a short distance from her house.

Elaine Aiken of Stoke-on-Trent lied to the police to protect her son John Aiken, who had been arrested four times for breaking the speed limit. The elderly mother and her son were only discovered out when police in Elaine were alerted to a different issue and saw her'very slowly' in her living room. The 80-year-old told police she hadn't been driving in years, but officers discovered speeding tickets attached to her. The woman in the photos was identified as her son John Aiken after closer inspection. Both the two couples were given suspended prison sentences and told to pay £1,000.

Balal Khan caused fear when it revealed that he assaulted a woman while walking home in 2009, making him one of Britain's youngest rapists. The case's outraged, Conservative MP David Davies, now Welsh Secretary, was accused of a "crass misunderstanding" by referring to several ethnic minorities that were imported 'barbaric and medieval' views of women into the United Kingdom. Khan was sentenced to three years in a youth detention center in 2010 after admitting to rape and robbery, but a judge lifted restrictions prohibiting the publishing of his name and mugshot as a 'deterrent' to others. Since his counsel argued for his youth and that he had said sorry, the schoolboy was given a longer term.

In late October, Wagamama's parent company, The Restaurant Group (TRG), agreed to a £506 million buyout by private equity behemoth Apollo Global Management. In a £162 million contract, serial entrepreneur Clive Watson made another good income by selling City Pub Group to pub chain Young's a month later.

Steven Finn, the three-time Ashes champion, has announced his immediate retirement aged 34 as he 'admitted defeat' in a long-running battle against various injuries. Finn took 125 wickets in 36 Tests at an average of 30.4 between 2010 and 2016, but he had fallen out of contention a long time and hasn't played any first-class cricket since July last year. He ended a long association with Middlesex before signing for Sussex last summer, but a setback in his attempts to recover from a long-running knee injury has brought his 18-year association to a close.

Major League Cricket has announced a deal with CBS Sports to air games from the American league's inaugural season. On opening night of the season, the Texas Super Kings took on the LA Knight Riders, and the league's stars will be on television in the United States shortly. Starting from July 17, when the Texas Super Kings take on MI New York, all CBS Sports programming will be broadcast live on CBS Sports.

Dale Thomas (left) of Cult has revealed that he partied with Ben Stokes (right, inset), just four days before the Ashes, with the English skipper 'dancing around with bottles of vodka.' Paul Collingwood and Graeme Smith partied the night away before Stokes led England into the field in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, with Stokes leading England into the field, according to the Magpies premiership champions saying Stokes was in fine form on the dance floor.

According to the latest hospitality market monitor from NIQ and AlixPartners, high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis resulted in the closing of 4,593 licensed hospitality premises over the year to March. Despite this, the most recent estimates showed a slight decrease in closures in recent months in the event of higher than expected consumer demand. According to the latest reports, the number of hospitality establishments has decreased by 4.3 percent since March 2022, resulting in 12.6 closings per day. Restaurants in particular had a rough year, with the number of licensed restaurants down by 7.8% year on year. The findings came just a week after Italian dining chain Prezzo (right, a closed store in Egham, Surrey) announced plans to close down 46 restaurants as a result of rising energy and food prices, putting 810 jobs in jeopardy. In comparison, there was a 2.5 percent drop in high street pubs over the year. The figures, according to Kate Nicholls (inset), the UKHospitality's chief executive,'sadly' arrived as 'no surprise.'

Oliver Holland, 33, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, had 14 videos of the pet involved in a sex act with him in his sick stash. The court heard that 1,435 images and 320 videos of extreme pornography involving animal abuse, as well as 208 indecent photos of children were found in Stoke-on-Trent. The defendant has now been jailed for 40 months.

XCLUSIVE MATT HUGHES: After being appointed as South Africa's commissioner last year, Graeme Smith was so convinced of the need for their own international T20 tournament that he spent three months without being paid. South African cricket would have 'withered and died' without the new SA20 league, which follows two previous unsuccessful attempts that finally began last week. Smith's pessimism seems excessive, but Cricket South Africa (CSA) suffered more than $10 million in each of the last two years, and their cash reserves have dwindled to a few million, making bankruptcy a possibility.

A 92-year-old crying grandmother begged her family to let her die after a 33-hour wait on a trolley for a bed at Aintree University Hospital (left), while a Welsh man said to have slept on the ground after spending the day in an ambulance. These are just two of the never-ending list of horror stories coming out of Britain's fractured NHS. Graeme Smith, 37, of Merseyside, told his grandmother's gruesome NHS wait. Since she suddenly became sick, an ambulance was sent to bring the care home resident to the hospital on New Year's Eve. However, it took 'hours' for it to turn up. 63-year-old Wayne Erasmus (right) said he spent 24 hours in an ambulance before being forced to sleep on the ground on Christmas Day in Wales. To cope with the bleak situation, trust bosses are now considering treating patients in field hospitals, or tents (inset).

EXCLUSIVE: When more than 50 English players are up for auction in South Africa for a new tournament, Graeme Smith is hoping that it will rise to second place only on the international stage to the IPL. Smith, who captained South Africa in a world-record 108 Tests and is now commissioner of the new SA20 league, has stated that the competition would bring the game to his country with a financial lifeline. And he predicted that domestic leagues around the world would only get better, at a time when many are worried about the future of the international game.

OUTCOMING INTERVIEW BY AADAM PATEL: Even though possessing 90 percent, Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes had settled in with England in the second Test, where Lungi Ngidi's white-ball experience helped to shift the tide, resulting in slower balls and dipping yorkers. It was a measure of how the 26-year-old's skillset has improved and of the game's changing nature. 'It boils down to having the right to make the call,' says Ngidi. 'I've got these skills I can use so why not? Once Stokes was leading the game forward, I had to either slow down the game or provide an opportunity for us. A few of the yorkers, the boys, were late, and some might believe this isn't Test cricket, but the game is still evolving.

Visitors to Edinburgh's Fringe will undoubtedly experience mounds of rubbish (showned on the streets today) for the next two weeks after staff demanded more pay, impacting bin collection and street cleaning, as well as closing recycling centers. Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, has previously asked council representatives to make a 5% wage offer to council employees in order to prevent further strikes from affecting other local government departments. On Friday, hundreds of GMB and Unite workers were given a 5% raise in pay after previously refusing two percent and 3.5 percent offers. It's uncertain if they will accept this latest pay increase, which is expected to be funded with additional £140 million from the Scottish Government.