TEAMS with dogs have begun a grim search for more dead in parts of California wine country devastated by wildfires.

Searchers resorted in some cases to using serial numbers stamped on medical implants to identify remains that turned up in the charred ruins.

New deaths confirmed on Thursday took the toll to 31, making it the deadliest week of wildfires in California history.

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BORIS Johnson has said it is time to “put a tiger in the tank” of Brexit negotiations, after Brussels’ chief negotiator quashed hopes of trade talks beginning next week.

In a significant setback for Theresa May, Michel Barnier said a “disturbing” deadlock over the size of Britain’s exit bill means he cannot recommend moving on from divorce talks to discussions about future trade relations when leaders of the 27 remaining EU states meet in Brussels on October 19.

Brexit Secretary David Davis made it clear that the UK will press the other EU leaders to broaden Mr Barnier’s remit, allowing him to begin exploring the nature of a transition to the future UK/EU relationship before finalising details of the withdrawal agreement.

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THE Royal Mail has won an injunction preventing next week’s 48-hour strike by postal workers.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) were set to walk out from October 19 after voting massively in favour of industrial action in a long-running row.over pensions, pay and jobs The strike would have been the first national walkout since Royal Mail was privatised four years ago.

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THE number of people waiting longer than 18 weeks to start NHS treatment is at its highest level for almost a decade, figures show.

New data from NHS England reveals that waiting times for treatment are going up, with increasing numbers of people also waiting a year or more.

Earlier this year, NHS England’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, acknowledged that patients will face longer delays for non-urgent operations as the health service focuses on other areas.

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The latest NHS England data shows that 409,342 people had waited longer than 18 weeks in August 2017.