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After spending £300 million in the market under Louis van Gaal, the Red Devils have crashed out of the Champions League at the first hurdle in embarrassing fashion. How on earth did it come to this? Manchester United have been dumped out of the Champions League after an embarrassing attempt to negotiate one of the most favourable group draws imaginable. A club who have committed over £300 million on transfer fees alone in the past two years have got exactly what they deserved. They had two cracks at qualifying, first at home to PSV a fortnight ago, then on Tuesday against Wolfsburg. But on both occasions they contrived to throw away the opportunity. United cannot put this down to luck. Given the chance to grab the initiative in games, they haven't taken it. With an early 1-0 lead in Wolfsburg, they held their own for less than four minutes. And then, when they grabbed a second-half equaliser which momentarily appeared to have let them off the hook, fewer than 90 seconds wen...

The runner, who faces 15 years in jail, laughs and jokes at the courtroom where he was ordered to remain under house arrest. Oscar Pistorius has been granted bail as he waits to be sentenced for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The athlete's initial conviction of culpable homicide - manslaughter in other countries - was overturned last week by the Supreme Court of Appeal, after five judges unanimously ruled that Judge Thokozile Masipa had made a "fundamentally flawed" judgment. With the courts about to go into Christmas recess and no new sentencing date for his murder conviction set, there had been confusion about whether he would remain under house arrest at his uncle's home. At the latest hearing in Pretoria's High Court, it was ruled that Pistorius was not a flight risk even though he now faces a minimum jail sentence of 15 years. Granting bail, Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba said one of the conditions is that he hand over any pa...

Gospel singer TJ Bristol is stopped for not wearing his seatbelt but is able to sing his way out of getting a ticket. A man stopped by police for not wearing a seatbelt while driving has been able to charm his way out of a ticket - through the power of song. TJ Bristol, a gospel singer who works in his local church and is chaplain of Orange County Jail, was stopped by police in California. He captured the experience on what appears to be a selfie stick, beginning with him sitting in his car after being stopped, saying: "The craziest thing just happened to me - I'm being pulled over by police officers. I'm gonna pray my way out of this one." He then gets out of his car and has a polite conversation with the two female officers, Corporal Ricks and Deputy Hoagland. After promising them that he will wear his seatbelt from now on, Cpl Ricks, the widow of Deputy First Class Brandon Ricks, who was killed in the line of duty five years ago, asked Mr Bristol to sin...

After months of negotiations Sky News is invited into a West Midlands laboratory making bootleg steroids A number of illegal laboratories are manufacturing bootleg steroids to feed the nation's growing habit for muscle-building drugs, Sky News has learned. After months of negotiations our contact agreed to show us one of the blackmarket labs. We were taken to an inconspicuous garage somewhere in the West Midlands. Inside we witnessed anabolic steroids being mixed up. The products that are thrown together - in far from sterile conditions - will be injected by users to enhance their physiques.  The men behind the operation agreed to speak to us on the condition they remained anonymous. They told us the market is massive. "The fitness industry is growing - everybody sees all this stuff on the TV and wants to look good so we're getting busier and busier," they said. "More and more people want to start up their own lab but they don't have the kno...

The presidential hopeful defends his call for a ban on Muslims entering the US despite drawing criticism from the United Nations. Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for presidential hopeful Donald Trump to be banned from entering the UK. It follows the Republican frontrunner's call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on". Mr Trump's comments were designed to capitalise on a shooting by a radicalised couple in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people. But they have drawn condemnation both at home and abroad. In the UK, almost 30,000 people have signed a petition calling on MPs to impose a bar on Mr Trump. "The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech," the petition reads. "The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the UK. "If the United Kingdom is to continue ap...

Hours after Wired magazine claimed bitcoin was created by an "unknown Australian genius" called Craig Wright, his home is raided. Police have raided the Sydney home of a man named as the likely creator of cryptocurrency bitcoin, according to the Reuters news agency. Bitcoin's code was released in 2009 under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, and journalists and investors have been trying to track down the creator ever since. On Wednesday afternoon around a dozen federal police officers raided the house after a locksmith broke open the door - just hours after Wired magazine named Craig Wright as the man responsible for bitcoin. A Reuters reporter said officers told them that police were "clearing the house". However the police force said in a statement that the move was not linked to "media reporting ... about bitcoins". Instead it directed all inquiries to the Australian Tax Office, suggesting the raid could be linked to tax issues. Wired...