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29,876,687 | Residents of Alchevsk, a city in the Luhansk region, had been urged to attend the "First People's Court" on 25 October.
The separatist "Prizrak" battalion (ghost), which controls the area, said it had conducted its own investigation into the alleged crimes and invited everyone to condemn the suspects.
Speaking on the phone from Alchevsk, a fighter using the nom de guerre Smuggler told me he was present at the "trial", and he was proud of it.
"I believe criminals and scumbags should be erased from the face of the Earth," he said.
"We all believe that," a comrade could be heard in the background.
"I've met their victims," said Smuggler. "They are devastated. We live under emergency laws, we have a lot of crime, we have no proper courts at the moment, so our people create 'people's justice'. I hope after this election we will have proper authorities, laws and courts."
Tanay Cholkhanov, a journalist sympathetic to the rebels who was embedded with the battalion at the time, attended the so-called trial and said it was a "complete farce".
"Most people who were there did not understand what was happening. It was tragic," he said.
The battalion's video of the trial, posted online at the weekend, shows some 340 people present, in a town whose pre-war population stood at more than 100,000.
The video shows the battalion commander, Alexei Mozgovoi, using the opportunity to issue a warning to all residents.
"Too many women go to restaurants," he said. "What kind of example do they show to their children? From now on, we will arrest all women we find in restaurants and cafes."
Incredulous gasps are heard from the audience.
The video shows how both suspects were presumed guilty on the basis of evidence presented by battalion investigators.
One was spared the death penalty and condemned to being sent to the front line, to "redeem himself and die with honour".
The other was sentenced to death by firing squad, despite desperate pleas from his mother, present in the audience.
By a large majority, the suspect is sentenced to death. "Good people, spare him," the man's mother screams. "Blame me, I am the one to blame!"
The battalion confirmed to the BBC that both convicts were currently held in custody and the sentences were to be carried out in the next few weeks.
The "Prizrak" battalion is reported to number some 1,500 men and controls an area with a population of 10,000 civilians.
"They intimidate these civilians, says Tanay Cholkhanov, who believes Commander Mozgovoi should be brought to justice.
But in the areas of eastern Ukraine now run by rebels, justice lies in the hands of those in power. | A show of hands was what it took to decide the fate of two alleged rapists in Ukraine's rebel east. |
36,505,834 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Gyfli Sigurdsson gave Iceland the lead in the first half when he converted a penalty after a foul.
Hungary dominated possession from then on but found themselves repeatedly frustrated by the Iceland defence.
However, Saevarsson turned Nemanja Nikolic's cross into his own net to hand Hungary a point.
The result means the Hungarians are top of Group F with four points and can clinch first place with victory against Portugal in their final group game on Wednesday.
The point for Iceland means they are second in the group and remain in the hunt for a place in the last 16, but it will feel like a defeat after they frustrated Hungary for so long.
They had won plenty of new fans by holding Portugal to a 1-1 draw in their first game on Tuesday, a result that prompted some scathing comments from Cristiano Ronaldo, who descried the Icelanders as having "a small mentality" and playing only to defend.
Iceland, though, are simply playing to their strengths. They conceded only six goals in 10 games during qualifying, earning wins by making the most of limited opportunities.
On Saturday, the Hungarians found themselves continually frustrated by a well-organised and disciplined backline and their task got harder six minutes before half-time. Veteran goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly fumbled a cross, Gunnarsson was sent to the ground by Kadar inside the area and Sigurdsson kept his cool to send Kiraly the wrong way from the spot.
From then on, it was all Hungary but it looked as if Iceland's defence would triumph again until Saevarsson, under pressure from Hungary substitute Daniel Bode, poked beyond his own goalkeeper.
It continued a run of late drama at Euro 2016, with Saevarsson's unfortunate goal the 13th to come after 85 minutes.
Hungary ended a three-decade run of missing out on major tournaments by qualifying for Euro 2016, and they made up for lost time with an impressive 2-0 win over Austria in their opening group game.
Having beaten Iceland in each of their past five meetings, they will have gone into the game confident of securing successive wins at a major tournament for the first time since the 1966 World Cup.
Gabor Kiraly caught the eye against the Austrians, both for his attire and his saves, as he became the oldest player to play at European Championship finals at the age of 40 years and 75 days,
However, he was less impressive on Saturday, putting his defence under pressure with poor passes before flapping at the ball to add to the panic that led to Iceland's penalty.
It was a nervy performance by the former Crystal Palace man, who will need to improve when facing Ronaldo and colleagues in Hungary's final group game against Portugal.
Hungary play Portugal in Lyon on Wednesday and three points will secure first place in Group F. Iceland, meanwhile, face Austria in Paris on the same day.
Match ends, Iceland 1, Hungary 1.
Second Half ends, Iceland 1, Hungary 1.
Attempt blocked. Eidur Gudjohnsen (Iceland) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Attempt blocked. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Iceland) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Foul by Adám Lang (Hungary).
Alfred Finnbogason (Iceland) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt saved. Ádám Szalai (Hungary) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Dániel Böde.
Richárd Guzmics (Hungary) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Alfred Finnbogason (Iceland).
Adam Nagy (Hungary) is shown the yellow card.
Foul by Adam Nagy (Hungary).
Alfred Finnbogason (Iceland) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Own Goal by Birkir Saevarsson, Iceland. Iceland 1, Hungary 1.
Foul by László Kleinheisler (Hungary).
Eidur Gudjohnsen (Iceland) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Hungary. Ádám Szalai replaces Roland Juhász.
Offside, Hungary. László Kleinheisler tries a through ball, but Dániel Böde is caught offside.
Substitution, Iceland. Eidur Gudjohnsen replaces Kolbeinn Sigthorsson.
László Kleinheisler (Hungary) is shown the yellow card.
Foul by Nemanja Nikolic (Hungary).
Kári Arnason (Iceland) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Adam Nagy (Hungary) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Kolbeinn Sigthorsson (Iceland).
Tamas Kadar (Hungary) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Tamas Kadar (Hungary).
Alfred Finnbogason (Iceland) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Dániel Böde (Hungary).
Ragnar Sigurdsson (Iceland) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Hungary. Conceded by Ragnar Sigurdsson.
Birkir Saevarsson (Iceland) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Balázs Dzsudzsák (Hungary) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Birkir Saevarsson (Iceland).
Attempt saved. Balázs Dzsudzsák (Hungary) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Alfred Finnbogason (Iceland) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Richárd Guzmics (Hungary) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Alfred Finnbogason (Iceland).
Richárd Guzmics (Hungary) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Dangerous play by Kolbeinn Sigthorsson (Iceland).
Attempt missed. Tamas Kadar (Hungary) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.
Attempt blocked. Tamas Kadar (Hungary) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. | Birkir Saevarsson's late own goal denied Iceland a famous victory as Hungary edged towards the last 16 of the European Championship with a draw. |
34,206,347 | Chris Henkey, from Reading, said he was "unlikely" to make a trip to Barbados, after which he was due to retire.
His fiancee said she was "very shocked", but praised him as a "hero".
Officials in the United States said the left engine of the Boeing 777-200 caught fire before take-off.
At least 14 people were taken to hospital with minor injuries after the incident on a runway at McCarran International Airport.
Describing the incident, Mr Henkey told NBC: "There was a loud bang and the aircraft sort of veered to the left. Because we had a third pilot he actually opened the door and went down into the cabin, saw how serious it was."
He told the network he had been due to fly to Barbados on Saturday and return the following Tuesday "and that would be it."
But he reportedly added: "It's safe to say I'm finished flying."
His fiancee, 40-year-old Lenka Nevolna, confirmed he was due to retire.
"He's a hero," she said. "He's a great man with a warm heart, and generosity, and I'm very proud of him."
In a recording, which appeared to be a conversation between Mr Henkey and air traffic control, he was heard saying calmly: "Mayday, mayday, Speedbird 2276 request fire services."
A woman in the control tower immediately replied: "Speedbird 2276 Heavy; fire services on the way."
Forty seconds later the captain added: "We are evacuating on the runway. We have a fire. I repeat, we are evacuating."
According to reports, Mr Henkey was applauded by passengers in the terminal building.
"I know the papers are saying now 'he's a hero'," the pilot told NBC. "[But] we have to remember there are two other pilots and cabin crew who all behaved very, very well."
BA would not confirm the identity of the captain but said he was "very experienced and has flown with British Airways for 42 years".
In a statement, the airline said the aircraft "experienced a technical issue as it was preparing for take-off".
Flight 2276 was bound for London's Gatwick airport.
There were 157 passengers and 13 crew members on board. | The pilot of a British Airways plane which caught fire at a Las Vegas airport, forcing the evacuation of 170 people on board on emergency slides, has told NBC he is "finished flying". |
39,421,228 | The incident happened on the River Dee near Gray's School of Art at about 18:20 on Monday.
Police Scotland said a 64-year-old man had been charged with culpable and reckless conduct.
He was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary but his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening. | A man who had to be rescued from a river in Aberdeen by the emergency services after crashing his mobility scooter has been charged. |
36,759,321 | Nearly 40,000 people donated almost NZ$2.3m (£1.3m, $1.7m) to buy the Awaroa beach in the Abel Tasman National Park, on the South Island.
Campaigners snubbed a businessman who offered them money in exchange for private access to part of the beach.
The seven-hectare site will now be run by a national park.
The previous owner, businessman Michael Spackman, agreed to sell the beach after the online crowdfunding campaign reached its target in a little more than three weeks.
The purchase ensured the beach will remain out of private hands.
"It's a great day," campaigner Duane Major told the BBC. "Sometimes you can feel powerless, so for us, it's been a marvellous experience of empowerment.
"There's been a real feeling of coming together. People in other countries have recognised what it's been all about too.
"We're in an age with various forms of technology that can pull people apart. But in this case it brought people together."
New Zealand's government made a small contribution to the crowdfunding campaign, which Mr Major said was started because of "gut instinct".
But another offer to contribute by a prominent businessman and philanthropist, who said he would make up any shortfall in exchange for exclusive access to part of the beach for his family, was rejected.
The campaign also negotiated with local Maori groups, who had argued the beach should be handed over to them.
Mr Major said the Maori community would be involved in the future of the land.
While the land is on a remote part on the north coast of the South Island, the land also offers access by air via a nearby airstrip. | A pristine beach in New Zealand bought through a crowdfunding campaign has been handed to its new owners - the public. |
27,100,817 | The men were travelling in a car in Shabwa province early on Monday when it was hit by a missile and destroyed.
Witnesses told the AFP news agency that a helicopter arrived soon afterwards to retrieve their bodies, suggesting one might have been a senior militant.
More than 40 militants are now believed to have been killed in a series of drone strikes over the past three days.
On Sunday, drones fired missiles at al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) training camps in the remote, mountainous area of Wadi Ghadina, in the neighbouring province of Abyan, killing about 30.
An official source at the High Security Committee was cited by the state news agency, Saba, as saying those targeted were "leading and dangerous elements" of al-Qaeda and were of various nationalities.
The operation was based on "certain intelligence information that terrorist elements were training in those camps and planning to target vital civilian and military facilities", the official added.
On Saturday, a drone strike on a lorry in the central province of Bayda killed another 10 suspected militants and three civilians, according to Saba. Officials said intelligence had suggested that AQAP planned to attack military and civilian sites in the city of Bayda.
The US carries out drone strikes in Yemen in support of the government's efforts to tackle AQAP and its allies, but typically does not comment.
The attacks come days after a video was posted online showing AQAP leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi telling a large gathering of militants in Yemen that the jihadist group would fight Western "Crusaders" everywhere.
"O brothers, the Crusader enemy is still shuffling his papers, so we must remember that we are always fighting the biggest enemy, the leaders of disbelief, and we have to overthrow those leaders, we have to remove the Cross, and the carrier of the Cross is America," he declared.
On Sunday, the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, Michael McCaul, said AQAP posed "probably the greatest external threat" to the US.
"And so I think the fact the administration now is going aggressively against these terrorists... is a very positive sign," he told ABC News. | Three more suspected al-Qaeda militants have been killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen, local officials say. |
38,022,015 | The four-time Super League champions were placed in administration for the third time on Monday.
The club's membership of the Rugby Football League has also been terminated and the club could face a points deduction or relegation.
Joint administrator Gary Pettit said: "We are excited by the interest shown."
He added: "We consider that several of the parties appear to have sufficient resources and experience to take Bradford Bulls forward.
"A lot of hard work is going on behind the scenes to safeguard the Bulls' heritage and legacy."
The Bulls entered administration in both 2012 and 2014 and finished fifth in the Championship last season.
They are scheduled to start the 2017 season at Hull KR on Sunday, 5 February. | Six different parties have expressed "serious interest" in buying the Bradford Bulls, according to the Championship club's administrators. |
33,109,219 | Police are searching for Rebecca Minnock, who fled with her son Ethan to avoid a ruling that the boy should live with his father.
Her mother Louise, 52, was convicted of contempt of court for hiding the fact they were driven to Cheltenham.
The driver, Andrew Butt, was jailed for 28 days for contempt.
Earlier Butt, Louise Minnock's partner, told Judge Stephen Wildblood QC at Bristol Crown Court he had lied about his role in events.
He admitted driving Rebecca and Ethan from Highbridge, in Somerset, to Cheltenham in Gloucestershire on 27 May. That morning, a family court had ruled Ethan should live with his father, Roger Williams.
Butt claimed he did not know where Rebecca and Ethan had gone after he left them in Cheltenham.
But the judge told him he did not believe him and was satisfied both had committed "a serious contempt of court". He told Louise Minnock she knew her daughter and Ethan had been taken to Cheltenham but had "obstructed the inquiry" by withholding that information.
During sentencing, Butt was told by the judge he could be released earlier if he chose to share more information.
The 56-year-old was also warned if he continued not to tell the truth about their whereabouts he could be given a further sentence.
After sentencing, Butt's solicitor, Iona Phillips read an appeal from her client to his former partner's daughter.
The statement read: "Becky, you need to seriously look at the situation. It's only going to get worse, not just for you, but for all of us.
"But there are some very good people who are helping support you. I have been with them today and I know.
"We have made our point. We have got our support. Come home."
The case against Butt centred around his car - a black Ford Focus - which was used to drive Ms Minnock and Ethan to Cheltenham on 27 May, the day they went missing.
Butt had denied driving them but changed his story in court on Friday.
He said Ms Minnock had asked him, the night before a family court hearing, to help her get away with Ethan.
She had withdrawn £300 at a cash point in Highbridge, Somerset, and Butt had dropped the two in Cheltenham, where Ms Minnock's aunt lives.
"Basically, the plan was to keep her away for as long as possible and to generate as much publicity as possible," Butt said.
"We felt we weren't getting anywhere. She said no-one was listening. I said: 'People will listen when you go missing'."
He said he did not know where the two were now and had not told the police what had happened because "I didn't want them to catch her."
"We didn't expect it to explode in the manner it has exploded."
Judge Wildblood said on Friday that Ms Minnock "should not see herself as being backed into a corner" and urged her to come forward with Ethan, adding: "Everything possible will be done to ensure that Ethan has an effective relationship with both of his parents."
He said the "immense strain" on Ms Minnock would "only increase with the passage of time".
The police chief leading the search has also issued a direct appeal to the mother to contact her to discuss "the best way to get you and Ethan back to some sort of normal life".
Ms Minnock has been engaged in a two-year legal battle with Ethan's father over contact with their son. In February, a district judge found she had fabricated allegations against Mr Williams in order to "frustrate contact" between him and Ethan
A social worker reported that Ethan was not "emotionally safe" with his mother. Ethan had been staying with his father four nights a week since February.
The day Ms Minnock disappeared with Ethan, a district judge ruled the boy should live with his father. | A grandmother has been sentenced to 10 days in prison for lying in court about the disappearance of her daughter and three-year-old grandson. |
31,637,937 | The main focus is on Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, where he is believed to have assaulted more than 60 people - the youngest aged eight.
Other reports on NHS hospitals and a Department for Education investigation into Savile's abuse have also been published.
The BBC looks at the key revelations.
The report found Jimmy Savile was an "opportunistic predator" who abused victims between 1968-92.
Savile had full and unsupervised access to all areas of the hospital for more than 20 years - even to clinical areas.
The entertainer sexually abused more than 60 patients, staff and visitors at the hospital. This included an eight-year-old patient, a pregnant mother in her 20s, and a 19-year-old paralysed woman in a wheelchair. Almost half the victims were under 16, and the crimes included rapes.
Savile's reputation as a "sex pest" was an "open secret" among junior staff and some middle managers. Working as a hospital porter, he was given a room in an accommodation block used by female students.
A number of Savile's victims complained to staff but none of the informal complaints were "taken seriously or escalated to senior management". One formal complaint made by a patient's father was dropped due to the victim's ill health, but it should have been reported to police.
Senior managers at the hospital were probably never told about Savile's inappropriate behaviour or the sexual assault claims.
Over the past 40 years, Stoke Mandeville employed three doctors who were subsequently convicted of sex crimes against patients.
A woman who was a patient at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the 1970s has described being sexually assaulted there by Jimmy Savile when she was 18. She said: "It was repulsive, it was horrible... I was stunned." The woman told nurses about the assault, but was advised to ignore Savile. "They thought it was funny really," she said.
Another woman who worked as a nurse at the same hospital said the abuse she had been subjected to had "ruined" a decade of her life. She told the BBC Savile had sexually abused her over an 18-month period - when she was aged 17 to 19 - assaulting her when she had been preparing milk feeds for children and even after she had been admitted to the staff sick bay.
A report by former barrister and NHS executive Kate Lampard reviewed how Savile could have abused victims at some 40 NHS hospitals across the country and set out lessons learned.
She warned elements of the Savile story could happen again, and said there would always be people who tried to gain undue influence within institutions such as hospitals.
She also indicated "the need for us to examine safeguarding arrangements in NHS hospitals, the raising of complaints and matters of concern, and how managers and staff respond to complaints".
Reports into Savile's activities in relation to other hospitals and hospice premises have been published. A total of 44 reports have now been published. The latest include:
The DfE has reviewed reports by local authorities into allegations of abuse by Savile at number of children's homes and schools.
Children's Minister Edward Timpson said none of the investigations had been able to reach "firm conclusions" about whether abuse took place.
"Although many of them say the informant was credible, the lack of corroborating evidence has prevented them from reaching a definitive conclusion," he said.
Dr Androulla Johnstone, lead investigator into Stoke Mandeville abuse, told a press conference: "All NHS services should be alert to predatory sexual offenders like Savile who can be placed in a position of trust and authority." She said those to whom the attacks were reported had ''failed'' in their duty to protect, but denied allegations of a "cover-up" by staff.
Hattie Llewelyn-Davies, Buckinghamshire NHS Trust chair, said: "On behalf of the NHS organisations that existed at that time and those that exist now, I would like to say sorry to all of Jimmy Savile's victims. I know how difficult it must have been for you to come forward and tell your stories after such a long time."
Lawyer Liz Dux, who represents 44 of the Stoke Mandeville victims, said it "beggars belief" that the report had found no evidence of senior staff having been aware of the abuse.
A Downing Street spokeswoman announced that a consultation on possible mandatory reporting of child abuse would now be extended to cover vulnerable adults. She said the PM's view was that "we absolutely must look at what lessons can be learnt from today".
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said people were "too dazzled or too intimidated to confront the evil predator we now know [Savile] was", but that vulnerable people had been let down. He said he would be accepting 13 recommendations in principle that were made in Ms Lampard's report.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham called for a more formal inquiry into the role of the Department of Health, ministers and hospital chiefs in giving Savile power at Stoke Mandeville. He said: "The question that will be growing in the minds of people hearing this news today is this, 'Where is the accountability?'" | Newly published reports on Jimmy Savile's links with hospitals and children's homes reveal the late DJ abused patients, staff and visitors at institutions over many years. |
29,661,409 | The commemoration to O'Connell stands in Albemarle Street.
The Kerry man was known as The Liberator for his battle for the right of Catholics to sit in the British Parliament.
The plaque marks his former home in the capital's Mayfair district.
Among those already honoured by the blue plates in London are John Lennon, Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx and Jimi Hendrix.
Outside the house, Prof Martin Daunton of English Heritage, which issues the honours, said O'Connell was arguably the Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi of his age.
"His campaign for Catholic emancipation and his principled opposition to slavery was - and still is - admired around the world," he said.
"We are delighted to honour this towering figure in the city which formed the backdrop for much of his career."
O'Connell lived at 14 Albemarle Street from February 1833 for up to six months, during a significant time for the groundbreaking 19th century politician.
During that year's general election, 39 of his supporters in the campaign against the Act of Union were elected to the House of Commons.
The plaque was unveiled at the house after O'Connell's descendants proposed the idea to a panel of judges at English Heritage.
At the official unveiling, Geoffrey O'Connell, his great-great-grandson, said they were delighted to see the commemoration in a city that did much to shape his beliefs and ideals.
"The 'prophet of a coming time' was how the future British prime minister William Gladstone described O'Connell and his peaceful struggle for universal rights for people of all races and creeds is as pertinent today as it was prescient then," he said.
A four-storey terraced house dating from the 18th century, the property has been converted into apartments and a retail outlet, squeezed between designer shops.
Blue plaques are granted to historical figures who lived in London for a significant time and who are deemed eminent and exceptional in terms of their public and national recognition.
O'Connell regularly visited and lived in London after fleeing revolutionary France for the city in 1793 to study as a barrister.
After taking his parliamentary seat in 1830 as the first popularly elected Catholic MP since the Reformation, he sat in the Commons for the rest of his life and was a major force in Westminster.
Irish Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan and Ireland's ambassador to Britain Dan Mulhall were among those at the unveiling.
The plaque's inscription includes O'Connell's popular sobriquet, The Liberator.
Other Irish luminaries commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque include Ernest Shackleton, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde and WB Yeats. | Irish political giant Daniel O'Connell has been remembered as the Nelson Mandela of his day, as the newest of London's blue plaques was unveiled in his honour. |
34,095,603 | The man, a foreigner, was arrested in Nong Jok on the outskirts of Bangkok, a police spokesman said.
Bomb-making materials were found at the apartment along with 10 passports, said the spokesman, Prawut Thavornsiri.
The bomb tore through the crowded Erawan Shrine on 17 August injuring more than 100, mostly tourists.
Police said bomb-making material found at the apartment, including ballbearings and piping, was of the "similar or same type" used in that attack.
Mr Prawut said they believe the 28-year-old man they arrested "is a culprit in the same network".
But national police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang downplayed any suggestion that the suspect was connected to terrorism.
"He is a foreigner, but it's unlikely that he is an international terrorist, it's a personal feud," Mr Somyot told a televised news conference.
"He got angry on behalf of his friends and family members," he added, without elaborating.
Photos handed out by the police show a man with short dark hair and a beard and wearing a yellow shirt and trousers sitting handcuffed at the house.
But he may not be the prime suspect who was seen on security camera leaving a backpack at the busy shrine shortly before deadly the blast earlier this month.
A photofit image was released showing the suspect with dark hair and glasses.
It is also not clear from which country the passports came - although many unconfirmed reports suggest they are from Turkey.
Certain errors contained in the documents suggest they are fake, reports the BBC's Jonathan Head, in Bangkok.
Police said at the time of the attack that they suspected it had been planned a month or more in advance and involved at least 10 people.
A reward of one million Thai baht ($28,000; £17,950) has been offered for information but it is not known whether this played a part in Saturday's arrest.
The shrine is a popular destination for Chinese and Thai tourists. | Police in Bangkok say they have arrested a man in connection with a bomb that killed 20 people in the Thai capital nearly two weeks ago. |
37,756,401 | Figures gathered by the Local Data Company for PwC showed 203 outlets shut down - while 116 opened.
In the first half of 2015, there were 140 store closures, while 95 opened for business.
Falkirk was the only town or city in Scotland which saw more shops opening than closing in the first half of 2016.
The margin was tight, however, with four stores opening and three closing.
Edinburgh saw a highest net change, with the loss of 46 outlets, compared with the same period last year.
PwC said many of the closures in the capital had resulted from companies merging branches and closing two units to move into a larger outlet.
Men's clothing shops, banks and mobile phone stores were among the biggest high street casualties.
Car dealers, cafes and tobacco and e-cigarette shops were the big risers.
By the end of June, 3,114 stores were in business in Scotland - 87 fewer than in January.
The Scottish net change of -2.7% was the highest in UK, which recorded an average of -0.8%.
Lindsay Gardiner, from PwC in Scotland, said: "While Falkirk may buck the trend - as has happened previously - it is still very tight for the local economy, making a case of cautious celebration for the area.
"As this data covers the first half of 2016, the full ramifications of the EU referendum vote are not realised but we have seen hints of challenges - like foreign exchange rates, living wage pressures and business rate increases - in certain parts of the Scottish retail sector as costs challenges begin to materialise.
"These can be managed provided revenue is maintained - so consumer spending will be crucial in the coming months." | There was a rise in the number of store closures in Scotland in the first half of this year, according to new research. |
34,980,504 | A 10-hour House of Commons debate will culminate in a vote on whether the UK should join the US, France, Russia and others bombing targets in Raqqa, the group's stronghold, and other areas.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron says IS is a threat to Britain's security.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn opposes bombing but has given MPs a free vote amid divisions within his own ranks.
Mr Corbyn's aides say as many as 90 Labour MPs could back the government - and with both the Democratic Unionist Party and the Liberal Democrats backing action Mr Cameron is expected to win parliamentary approval for the UK to intervene militarily in the four-year conflict in Syria.
However, at least 110 MPs from six different parties - including the SNP, which opposes action - have already signed up to an amendment seeking to block air strikes.
The government motion would authorise air strikes "exclusively" against Islamic State - also known as Isis, Isil or Daesh - in Syria.
The debate is due to begin at 11:30 GMT - with a vote expected at around 22:00 GMT.
The prime minister caused controversy on the eve of the vote by labelling Mr Corbyn and other opponents of action as "terrorist sympathisers".
The BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the comments were a departure from the "carefully crafted" language that Mr Cameron has used over the past week.
It comes amid reports that Downing Street - which has been trying to court Labour MPs - was now keen to carry the vote through with support of its own MPs and the party's "natural allies", such as the DUP.
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said Mr Cameron's comments were a "contemptible slur" and showed he was losing the argument.
Addressing a meeting of the 1922 Conservative backbench committee, Mr Cameron warned that if Tory MPs voted against strikes they risked undermining a strong message that the UK was standing alongside its allies already engaged in military action.
According to BBC research, of the 640 MPs expected to vote, 362 MPs are in favour of the motion while 175 are against. Of the remainder, 19 are "leaning to" supporting the government, three are "leaning against" while 80 are undecided.
Wednesday's parliamentary schedule - including Prime Minister's Questions - has been scrapped to accommodate a whole day's debate on Syria.
The government says military action is "only one component of a broader strategy" to tackle IS and the UK government would not deploy troops on the ground.
The prime minister is likely to face tough questions about the scope of air strikes, their likely impact and how they fit into the strategy of helping to stabilise and rebuild Syria.
Mr Cameron has been asked to explain his claim there are 70,000 "moderate" ground forces able to fight IS in Syria.
The UK is already providing intelligence, surveillance and other logistical support to countries fighting IS in Syria. The RAF has also carried out thousands of raids on IS targets in Iraq since Parliament approved similar action there last year.
Analysis
By Laura Kuenssberg, BBC political editor
Some nights in Westminster you can feel a crackle in the air, you can sense the tension, and sometimes even see the weight of responsibilities that MPs know they carry collectively in the looks on their faces. Last night was one of them.
For government ministers this vote has been a very long time coming, an obvious extension of the action British forces are taking in Iraq.
Bombing is, to them, part of a complicated set of solutions, but a straightforward decision to make. Don't confuse that however with a sentiment that it is an easy choice.
Read Laura's full blog
The run-up to the vote has been marked by a week of turmoil within the Labour Party.
While Mr Corbyn has the support of the majority of his MPs, up to half of his shadow cabinet may vote in favour of bombing, including Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn and Deputy Leader Tom Watson.
The Labour leader urged those who take a different view to him to "think again", saying 75% of Labour members polled by the party indicated they opposed air strikes.
Party sources have claimed the number of Labour MPs likely to back the government is falling.
Mr Corbyn said efforts should focus on a political settlement and achieving a "credible line of government" across Syria.
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed her party's 54 MPs will be opposing air strikes, saying bombing on its own will not rid the threat of terrorism or bring peace to Syria.
But the DUP has said its eight MPs will support airstrikes and Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has said action is justified as part of "a measured, legal and broad-based international effort".
MPs rejected air strikes against Syrian government targets in 2013, but ministers say it is "illogical" to carry out strikes in Iraq but not Syria - as IS does not recognise the international border.
Thousands of protesters, led by the Stop the War coalition, took to the streets of London for the second time in four days on Tuesday to protest against bombing. | MPs will decide later whether to back UK air strikes in Syria against militants from so-called Islamic State. |
30,719,755 | Following back-to-back defeats against Valencia and Atletico Madrid, Real responded quickly as £71m signing James Rodriguez stroked in from 15 yards.
Gareth Bale curled in a 20-yard free-kick, off the post, to double the lead.
Left-back Fabio Coentrao was sent off for a sliding tackle but it mattered little as Nacho slotted in the third.
Carlo Ancelotti's side are four points clear of nearest rivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, with at least one of those sides poised to drop points when they meet in Catalonia on Sunday.
Real, who will have played a match fewer than their title rivals after the Nou Camp clash, have taken control of La Liga on the back of 12 successive wins.
Last Sunday's 2-1 defeat at fourth-placed Valencia ended their Spanish record run of 22 victories in all competitions, before they tumbled to another loss at neighbours Atletico in the Copa del Rey.
However, Italian boss Ancelotti insisted there was no cause for concern - and so it proved against mid-table Espanyol.
Rodriguez finished a classy move which saw Cristiano Ronaldo instantly pull back Bale's sublime cross-field pass into the Colombia midfielder's path.
Espanyol keeper Kiko Casilla was rooted to his spot as Bale whipped in the second, before Portugal defender Coentrao was harshly shown a red card after lunging into a 50-50 tackle.
But Espanyol could not take advantage of their extra man, with Spain defender Nacho drilling in Alvaro Arbeloa's left-wing cross at the far post for the third. | Spanish leaders Real Madrid returned to winning ways with a routine home victory over Espanyol, despite playing for almost 40 minutes with 10 men. |
18,444,032 | Joe Townsend, who lives in Polegate, is part of an eight-man team of wounded ex-soldiers who are taking part in the 3,051 mile Race Across America (RAAM).
He will take part in the eight day race, from Saturday, on a hand cycle, after being hurt in an IED explosion.
Mr Townsend, 24, said it was a "challenge of epic proportions".
"I'm fairly anxious," he explained. "The whole scale of the event is rather large - 3,051 miles across America, with 170,000 foot of climbing is going to be tough for anybody let alone a team of injured servicemen with life-changing injuries."
The team, which includes four double amputees on hand bikes and four on upright bikes, will cycle 350 to 500 miles a day, crossing 12 states.
Mr Townsend said the sheer blistering heat was one of his main concerns about doing the race.
"Being a hand cyclist, sitting just inches of the tarmac, you've got the sun beating down on you and the heat radiating off the tarmac which makes the cycling so much harder," he said.
Mr Townsend has completed in many endurance races since his injury in 2008, including the Bolton Iron Man in 2011, which he completed in just 12 hours.
He said: "It is proving to yourself that after disability, things still can be achieved and that there aren't any limitations really, you just need to adapt round to a way of achieving them."
The team are raising money for Help for Heroes to give back to other wounded servicemen and women. | A Royal Marine from East Sussex, who lost both his legs in Afghanistan, is to compete in one of the world's toughest cycle races. |
40,374,314 | Inspectors said some pupils' progress at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School (QEGS) in Blackburn was poor, not least in Key Stage 2 and the sixth form.
QEGS changed from a private fee-paying school to a free school in 2014, bringing it under Ofsted regulation.
However, inspectors highlighted effective leadership, which was welcomed by school bosses.
The school, founded in 1509, has about 1,200 pupils ranging in age from 4-19.
Inspectors said teaching was not consistently good across the school and policy on giving feedback to pupils was not being followed.
Pupil premium funding - provided by government to help disadvantaged pupils - was not being "evaluated thoroughly", the report added.
It also said governors were failing to "systematically check the impact of leaders' actions" to improve.
The inspection praised effective leadership from the "committed and passionate" acting head teacher and said leaders have "a clear vision" for the school.
The report also noted that "spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is a strength of the school."
David Peat, chairman of governors, said: "We are pleased that the inspectors have recognised so many good qualities in the school and we shall now work together to tackle what we need to do." | A 500-year-old former private school has been told it "requires improvement" after its first Ofsted inspection. |
38,928,661 | Fairytale Farm, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, has been closed for the winter and the tools were being used by staff to get everything ready for its reopening on Saturday.
Owner Nick Laister said: "We're going to try and beg, steal and borrow to get ourselves open in time."
A man was captured on CCTV at the farm after 03:00 GMT on Wednesday.
The footage has been put on YouTube in the hope that anyone who recognises him will contact Thames Valley Police.
Fairytale Farm was designed around the needs of children with sensory, learning and physical disabilities. It was inspired by Mr Laister's daughter Olivia who has cerebral palsy.
Among the stolen haul were angle grinders, drills and jigsaws, and other specialist equipment and attachments, collected since the farm was built in 2009.
Mr Laister called the theft a "big setback for us because we have to secure funding for everything we do".
He added: "The last thing we needed before opening was all our power tools being stolen.
"It's been a real headache for us so we're having to basically work through the night... we're having to do everything manually.
"We've got back ups for everything, but all our back ups have been stolen too... it's just really hard." | Thousands of pounds-worth of power tools have been stolen from a farm dedicated to disabled children. |
37,585,138 | Moussa is a magnificent tyro at 20, a young man who in the space of a week scored two Champions League goals against Manchester City and one international goal on his debut for France's under-21s and yet, despite all of that, was still over shadowed by his namesake, Karamako.
Thirteen-years-young, Karamoko almost broke the internet over the last few days. OK, not quite, but the reaction to his nine-minute appearance for Celtic's under-20s against Hearts on Monday night was worldwide.
If you search his name using Google you get "about 551,000" items. When you look at the YouTube clips of him playing there have already been nearly 400,000 views on one video, nearly 90,000 on another, more than 60,000 on another and tens of thousands of other hits on various websites around the globe, all showing his dynamic running.
There is a mesmeric quality to him, a mystique as to how he ended up at Celtic and not Barcelona, where these boy wonders usually hail from.
Many media outlets fell over each other to give you the lowdown. Ruud Gullit expressed his astonishment at his ability. A former coach compared him, inevitably, to Lionel Messi. Another gushed that little Karamoko could do 100 keepy-uppies from the age of five.
Ladbrokes went with the flow. As sponsor of the SPFL they should have known better, but people were driven to distraction by the young man and the bookmakers sought to tap into the hype.
However, the firm apologised and closed the book on him having taken no bets.
They offered a range of odds on what Karamoko was going to do next and when he was going to do it - his first team debut for Celtic, his chances of becoming Celtic captain, the likelihood of him scoring more goals than Henrik Larsson or, if you preferred, the chances of him being signed by Barcelona.
The hoopla - so to speak - was moving as fast as the wee man's legs. There's good in this. The boy gets a shot at a much higher level, if only for nine minutes. He's sent a message by his club that they will not hesitate to give him opportunities when the time is right. He's now on the radar of the Scotland international team. That's good, too. For him, for Celtic, for Scotland.
His family get to see their son admired all over the world - and who knows what that might lead to down the line. Maybe nothing, but every big club in Europe will now know of this kid, if they did not know about him already.
Celtic have the feel-good factor of having a boy of great potential. And by giving him those nine minutes, they send a reminder to parents who might be wondering where to send their own child prodigy that the club's academy is the kind of place that nurtures youth and gives youth a chance.
These things tend to sprout legs, though. One minute everybody is marvelling at the natural ability of this lad, the next minute everybody is checking themselves and saying 'Let's not be daft about this, he's only 13' and the minute after that, things get really heavy.
A celebration of a young talent morphs into a debate about the exploitation of children by professional football clubs. Tam Baillie, Scotland's children's commissioner, appeared on Good Morning Scotland on Thursday with some particularly serious comments.
He spoke about the "commodification" of young footballers. In light of Ladbrokes' novelty bets on the future of a 13-year-old, Baillie had a point. He went on to paint a grim picture. It's one he's been painting for a long time.
He spoke about 15-year-olds being held to contracts against their will, he mentioned reports of a "transfer market in children" and followed up by saying that football authorities in Scotland are "not capable of or not willing to exert sufficient regulation for the protection of our children".
That's a fairly thunderous accusation. The Scottish FA and Scottish Professional Football League said on Thursday night that they were "surprised" at Baillie's comments. Livid would be a more accurate description.
They pointed to the progress that's been made in recent times. The working party set up to examine youth football in Scotland. The changes implemented on the back of a Youth Football in Scotland petition. The appointment, by the SFA, of a Children's Safeguarding and Wellbeing Manager "to ensure that the rights of the child are at the heart of all decisions relating to young football in Scotland". The implementation of a complaints and mediation mechanism - the Young Players' Wellbeing Panel.
That's the vehicle by which Baillie can raise concerns. "If the commissioner has any evidence that could lead to a breach of regulations we would expect to have received communication from him," wrote the SFA and SPFL in their statement of Thursday evening. "To date, none has been forthcoming."
Allegations of a transfer market in kids and of the football bodies ignoring that transfer market is serious stuff. Big allegations demand big evidence, though. Baillie says he has provided it. The football authorities say otherwise. They say they have created the mechanism for him to raise a red flag on anything he does not like and that in the last year, since the working group was created, there has been no red flag.
You would hope, and assume, that young Karamako is oblivious to all of this. You would hope, above all, that he carries on loving his football and playing it with the elan that is so gloriously obvious in the few clips we have seen of him.
Football is a complicated and brutal business, but occasionally it's beautiful, none more so than when you see this kid slaloming through defences with a smile on his face.
Brilliant innocence. Hell mend the person who takes it from him. | Happy days for Celtic; they wait a long time for one Dembele and then two come along almost at once. |
38,501,164 | Wildlife experts have applied to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) for a licence to release 10 animals at an undisclosed location in south Wales this year.
But farming unions are worried about potential damage to land and crops.
NRW said it would have to consider the impact on existing wildlife and land use.
The Welsh Beaver Project said there would be a public consultation following the re-submission of the application - which was first made more than a year ago.
The group, which has previously identified the River Rheidiol in Ceredigion as a preferred location to release the animals, said they can be beneficial for ecology and help with habitat restoration.
Scotland recently listed beavers as a protected species following a successful reintroduction and a pair were released on the River Otter in Devon in May to boost the genetic diversity of a group already in existence.
But Dafydd Jarrett, policy advisor for NFU Cymru, said its members needed clarity about the scheme and its potential impact on agricultural land and livestock.
"Arguably it is not necessarily a reintroduction, it is an introduction of a species," he said. "We haven't had them in Wales for many centuries now.
"We do not know really what diseases they carry and the affect to other species. There needs to be very, very careful thought before they are brought in."
Mr Jarrett added that the union had been in touch with NRW and was awaiting a date for a meeting to discuss the issues.
The Farmers' Union of Wales said more work needed to be done before beavers were reintroduced, if at all.
"Beavers can threaten property, the dams they build cause problems for migrating fish, they can damage agricultural crops and negatively affect other natural resources, not to mention flooding," a spokesman said.
"There has to be a compensation and control scheme in place and there has to be a contingency plan." | Farmers' leaders are concerned about a plan to return beavers to Wales for the first time in centuries. |
36,569,789 | Halliday was part of a police firearms team that mistook the Brazilian national for a terror suspect at Stockwell Tube station, two weeks after the 7 July London bombings.
"Following advice, it was agreed with Andy that he would not travel to Brazil as a member of hockey's management team," GB Hockey said in a statement.
Halliday, formerly a specialist firearms officer in the Metropolitan Police, played what GB Hockey called a "peripheral role" in the operation on the London Underground.
In the statement, Great Britain Hockey said both it and the British Olympic Association had "been aware of the sensitivities of this matter in relation to Team GB competing in the Rio Olympics".
"Andy has continued in his role as team manager and will be working with the rest of the management team to help prepare the athletes for the event."
Halliday said: "Whilst I am obviously disappointed not to be going to the Olympic Games, I have known of this decision since last November and respect the process that has been followed and the decision itself.
"The performance interests of the team continue to be of paramount importance and I am focused purely on helping the team prepare for Rio 2016."
Great Britain Hockey's chief operating officer Sally Munday thanked Halliday "for the dignity and professionalism which he has shown throughout this process". | Great Britain manager Andy Halliday will miss the Rio Olympics due to "sensitivities" over his involvement in the operation that led to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005. |
36,028,224 | At least two people were injured, including the policeman, in the blast at an anti-terrorism court in the city of Karachi.
Some reports say the device was a grenade taken from the defendant.
Police later said it was just a detonator with an explosive element that should have been defused.
The incident took place on Monday at the trial of a man accused of extortion and of carrying out a number of grenade attacks.
Police said several devices had been found when they arrested him.
The device presented in court was at the request of the defence. Judge Shakil Haider then asked how it worked.
A part of the device was pulled from it and it exploded, throwing the judge off his chair.
Senior police official Jamil Ahmed said that explosives around the detonator had been made harmless, but added: "We are investigating as to how the detonator was brought to the court without being defused." | A device being presented as evidence at a trial in a Pakistani court blew up after the judge asked a police officer to show how it worked. |
40,302,279 | Now ranked number six, equalling his career best, the 19-year-old said he is focused on his next set of tournaments in the lead-up to Wimbledon.
His title in France was the first time a Briton had won a men's wheelchair singles title at Roland Garros.
"It has given me the confidence that I can do it again," said Hewett.
This time last year, Hewett, from Norwich, was ranked outside the top 10 and was a wildcard entry into Wimbledon, where he claimed the doubles title with fellow Briton Gordon Reid.
"The men's game is completely open right now," he said.
"I've got no expectations of getting to the top of the rankings by the end of the year because there's so many great players around who could also be up there. But after my win in France and closing the gap in points, it would be good to get into the top four."
A top-four ranking would mean he goes into major competitions and Grand Slams as a seeded player.
His historic win in his debut at Roland Garros saw him save three match points before going on to beat defending champion Gustavo Fernandez in three sets.
"Winning the tie-break in the second, and the second set overall, really gave me the confidence going into the third set," he said.
"It was an emotional tie-break for me but after I'd won it and I could see that Gustavo was starting to tire I started to believe it was my game."
That was not the first time he has come from behind to win a match. At an ITF1 event in Rotterdam in February he saved nine match points before going on to defeat Japan's Takuya Miki.
"Once you have that experience of a comeback it just gives you that confidence to know you can do it - and to do it in a Grand Slam final as well was amazing."
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Hewett returned home with more than just his first Grand Slam singles title. Thanks to an unfortunate incident at the hairdressers pre-tournament, he also came back with a new nickname.
"It was a bit of a shocker where basically I've ended up with a bit more shaved off than I usually do," he said.
"I got a lot of grief from the team out there because of it and they started calling me iced gem - like the biscuits. I think that's because of the little whippy bit I have at the top now."
He is now back on the training courts and preparing for the Open de France tournament.
As well as competing in singles, he will team up again with Scotland's Reid as they aim to make it to their fourth Super Series doubles final of the year.
Their opponents in their previous three finals have been the French pairing of Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer, who they lost to in the doubles final of this year's French Open.
In one of the biggest on-court rivalries in wheelchair tennis, Houdet and Peifer currently lead the 2017 Super Series head to head 2-1 but Hewett is confident that should they face them again in the final at the Open de France next week he and Reid can level the score.
"We're eager to play them again and every time we lose to them it makes us more determined to beat them next time," he said.
"I had a joke with Stephane that we were going to cause an upset on their home turf. Mind you, I do hope they don't do that to us at Wimbledon this year." | Britain's Alfie Hewett is hoping to break into the world's top four after climbing the rankings following his win at the French Open. |
34,199,451 | They say that Yusufu Mieraili was born in Xinjiang, home to China's Muslim Uighur minority.
A Chinese official told the Global Times that the bombing may have been the work of separatists in Xinjiang.
No-one has laid claim to the attack, which killed 20 people.
Thai police say Mr Mieraili is part of a group responsible for the blast.
The Global Times reported a Chinese official as saying that he belonged to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a small Islamist separatist group said to be active in Xinjiang province in western China.
The Bangkok Post reported that he told investigators that his parents still live in the region.
The main suspect - a man wearing a yellow t-shirt who left a rucksack at the shrine moments before the 17 August blast - is still believed to be on the run.
Mr Mieraili was taken to the scene of the explosion on Wednesday morning for a crime scene re-enactment.
Wearing a bulletproof vest and with his hands bound, he was escorted by police to the elevated pedestrian skywalk above the shrine.
Mr Mieraili has confessed to handing a backpack to the suspected bomber at Bangkok's main railway station shortly before the blast, Thai police say.
China is closely watching the investigation in Bangkok, correspondents say, as speculation mounts that sympathisers of the country's Uighur community could be the chief suspects.
China has long faced criticism for the perceived harsh restrictions it places on religion and culture in Xinjiang, where the majority of Uighurs live.
Thailand recently found itself in the spotlight following its forced repatriation of more than 100 Uighurs to China.
Any confirmation that Mr Mieraili is Chinese would throw the spotlight on an ethnic conflict that China has long argued poses an international threat, the BBC's Jon Sudworth in Beijing recently reported.
Thai police arrested Mr Mieraili, 25, at the beginning of this month in Sa Kaeo province on the border with Cambodia. He was holding a Chinese passport but police warned at the time that it could be fake.
Earlier another suspect, Adem Karadag was arrested in a raid on a flat on the eastern outskirts of Bangkok. | One of the alleged accomplices to the key suspect wanted over the Erawan Shrine bombing in the Thai capital Bangkok last month is Chinese, officials from both countries say. |
36,290,163 | A spokesman for the heavyweight told the Tass news agency the 36-year-old returned "low concentrations" of the substance in a blood sample in April.
Povetkin's promoters say the WBC will now decide whether the 21 May fight with Wilder in Moscow can go ahead.
The World Anti-Doping Agency said in September it was adding meldonium to its banned list from 1 January 2016.
Andrei Ryabinsky, the head of Mir Boksa promotions, described the situation as "ambiguous".
"He consumed it in September last year. He has not taken it since 1 January," he added.
"We have been in contact with the World Boxing Council, which is to decide if Povetkin's boxing bout against Deontay Wilder will take place or not."
Povetkin's fight against American Wilder, the reigning WBC heavyweight champion, is due to take place at the Megasport complex in the Russian capital.
Povetkin is the latest among several Russian athletes to fall foul of the new meldonium ban.
Tennis player Maria Sharapova was the first high-profile athlete to test positive for the Latvian-made drug - in a test taken at the end of January - but since then leading Russian athletes from boxing, skating, swimming and winter sports have all failed tests for the substance.
Recent Wada figures showed there had been 172 positive tests for meldonium this year - 27 of those involving Russians.
Wada says it is aware of the possibility of the drug remaining in an athlete's system long after taking it, as is claimed by Povetkin's management.
The organisation admitted last month there was "a lack of clear scientific information on excretion times".
It said that athletes might be able to show that they "could not have known or suspected" meldonium would still be in their systems having taken it before it was banned. | Russia's Alexander Povetkin has tested positive for meldonium ahead of his WBC world title fight with Deontay Wilder. |
39,290,585 | Six more episodes have been commissioned for the eighth series of the sitcom. It will air on BBC One in 2017.
The TV show will be filmed in Dumbarton and on location around Glasgow.
Still Game attracted its highest ever overnight audience for a single episode when it returned to the BBC in October after almost a decade.
There was also huge demand for tickets to the Still Game live shows at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, with five extra dates added to the February run of performances.
Written and created by its stars Greg Hemphill and Ford Kiernan, the comedy ran for six series between 2002 and 2007.
It follows the antics of Glaswegian pensioners Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade.
The new series will see other members of the core cast - Paul Riley, Jane McCarry, Mark Cox, Sanjeev Kohli and Gavin Mitchell - reprise their roles.
Kiernan said he was "chuffed to bits" to see the show coming back for an eighth series.
"Greg and I have been cooking up some absolute corkers and we can't wait to show you what they are," he said.
Hempill added: "We can't wait to get started on the next batch of adventures with Jack and Victor. We have lots of surprises in store for you."
Filming at BBC Scotland's Dumbarton Studios will begin in the summer.
Shane Allen, the controller of comedy commissioning at BBC Scotland, said: "It's rare for a show to attain the status of comedy classic whilst it's still on air.
"Ford and Greg are at the height of their creative powers and audiences all over the UK just adore their world with these fantastic characters.
"If previous audience figures are anything to go by let's hope the national grid can handle the demand." | BBC comedy Still Game is to return for another TV series following its comeback last year. |
35,918,278 | Cannabis, heroin, amphetamines, scales and gloves were recovered from the secluded campsite in Priddy in a police operation last July.
Richard and Ann Miles, of Brislington, Bristol were jailed for 11 and 12 years respectively. Three other men were jailed over the operation.
Police said they had "struck at the heart" of an organised crime group.
More than 40kg of amphetamines were found in the caravans, as well as heroin and cannabis. Arrests followed across London, Hertfordshire and Essex.
Mendip neighbourhood officer Inspector Mark Nicholson said those involved were "career criminals who chose to ply their trade in a quiet unassuming and idyllic part of Somerset, where they thought they were safe from prying eyes".
Police said they had seized drugs "worth £1.5m originally destined for the streets of the South West".
Richard and Ann Miles were both convicted of possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B drugs at Bristol Crown Court. Ann Miles was also convicted of conspiracy to supply class B drugs.
Their accomplice James Sanderson, from Lawrence Hill, Bristol, was jailed for three and a half years for possession and conspiracy to supply Class B drugs.
Bekir Arif, from Lewisham, south London, was jailed for 10 years for conspiracy to supply class B drugs - amphetamines with a street value of £1.5m. He had previously admitted breaching a serious crime prevention order.
Manny Carpel, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, was jailed for three years and four months for conspiracy to supply Class B drugs. | A couple have been jailed for masterminding a £1.5m drugs operation from two caravans in rural Somerset. |
37,720,580 | The Ministry of Defence revealed the name, to coincide with Trafalgar Day, for the first vessel of the £31bn project to replace existing submarines.
The MoD said nine Navy vessels had previously been named Dreadnought.
Perhaps the most famous was HMS Dreadnought, commissioned in 1906, which transformed naval warfare.
The name became used at the time to describe a new era of warship design.
Other Dreadnoughts included one that sailed with Sir Francis Drake to battle the Spanish Armada in 1588, and another that was present with Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
Britain's first nuclear-powered submarine, launched 56 years ago, also shared the name.
Critics of the project to renew the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system believe the enormous investment could be better spent elsewhere.
But Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "Every day our ballistic missile submarines are used to deter the most extreme threats to Britain's security.
"We cannot know what dangers we might face in the 2030s, 2040s and 2050s, so we are building the new Dreadnought class.
"Along with increasing the defence budget to buy new ships, more planes, and armoured vehicles, this commitment shows we will never gamble with our security."
Dreadnought will be the lead boat of the four new submarines, as well as the class name for the whole fleet.
The MoD, which received approval for the name from the Queen, said the next three boats would also be given names with "historical resonance".
But there are still groups fighting against the project who have said the bill will run much higher than predicted.
Dave Webb, chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "Replacing and running Trident is set to cost a staggering £205bn.
"The government dishonestly states Trident will cost between £31bn and £41bn, but that's only the cost of manufacturing four submarines.
"Hundreds of billions for a nuclear weapons system that does nothing to address the real and serious security threats we face - like terrorism and cyberwarfare - but not enough money for schools, hospitals, welfare and jobs. That just doesn't make sense to the majority of the population." | The first of four new UK submarines to carry Trident nuclear missiles will be named Dreadnought, a decision inspired by famous ships from the past. |
37,047,497 | Zenga, 56, is embarking on his first job in England after replacing Kenny Jackett at the end of July.
"Since the gaffer's come in, it's been fantastic," Coady, 23, told BBC WM.
"It's been relentless, he's been trying to get his point across to us and his attention to detail is brilliant."
Zenga was appointed shortly after the Championship club were taken over by Chinese investors Fosun International.
"His passion's amazing," said Coady, who scored his first goal for Wolves in their EFL Cup first-round win over League Two Crawley. "He's only been here a couple of weeks so it's going to take a bit of time.
"The fans are going to see a very passionate team - he wants us to get the ball back as quickly as possible and counter attack.
"We need to make Molineux a fortress, he's been big on that. We want teams to be frightened to play here."
Wolves' new owners have already funded moves for Portuguese trio Helder Costa, Silvio and Joao Teixeira, as well as Iceland international Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, who scored his first goal in Saturday's draw at Rotherham.
"They bring great quality - they like to run with the ball and it's up to us to help them along," said Coady. "The Championship's a tough league but they'll adapt and they're strong minded.
"You know when you give them the ball, something's going to happen and they'll get the crowd off their feet and will win us games."
Wolves have also been linked with a club-record £20m move for Benfica midfielder Anderson Talisca. | New Wolves head coach Walter Zenga wants the side to play with passion and make Molineux a "frightening" place for visiting teams to play, says midfielder Conor Coady. |
40,342,668 | Gary Clampett died after a disturbance in Fernie Place in the early hours of Sunday.
Barry Martin, 31, and Joseph Martin, 39, were charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder.
The Fraserburgh men no plea at Peterhead Sheriff Court and were remanded in custody. They are due to make a second appearance next week.
A Crown Office spokesman said: "The procurator fiscal also received a report concerning a 45-year-old male, in connection with an incident on 18 June.
"He was liberated from custody pending further inquiries and did not appear in court." | Two men have appeared in court charged with murder following the death of a 39-year-old man in Fraserburgh. |
35,159,462 | Volunteers who run the Lowther Hills Ski Club believe that, with improved facilities, they could draw hundreds of snowsports fans to the region.
Chairman Anjo Abelaira said they needed Scottish government backing for their ambitious plans for the region.
A government spokesman encouraged the club to hold talks with sportscotland.
The club wants to develop the area around Wanlockhead and Leadhills as the outdoor capital of the south of Scotland.
Over the past 12 months volunteers have installed a ski tow, engine hut, webcams and a temporary clubhouse building on the Lowther Hill.
Last winter club members enjoyed 20 days skiing on the hill and beginners were invited to learn to ski on a nursery slope in Leadhills.
Although the club received £5,000 from a nearby windfarm developer, most of the facilities were developed by recycling old equipment, crowdfunding, and accepting donations of hardware and labour.
In contrast, four ski centres in the north of Scotland invested a total of £5.5m in their equipment earlier this year.
About 75% of the funding for the Glenshee, Lecht, Glencoe and Nevis Range facilities, came from government economic development agencies Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise.
Mr Abelaira said: "We have a very driven and skilled team of people, as well as a massive community support that will keep working until this area is finally recognised as south of Scotland's outdoor capital.
"With our limited means, it will take us at least a decade to get there.
"If the Scottish government was willing to treat us as well as they treat other Highland ski centres, our area (one of Scotland's most deprived areas) would see real sustainable development and community empowerment happening much quicker."
The group believes the project could transform Upper Nithsdale, a deprived area of Dumfries and Galloway which, they claim, has suffered from long-term under-investment.
They have already heard anecdotal evidence that visitor numbers to the region have increased during the winter months since they began developing the snowsports facilities.
The club's predicament was drawn into sharp focus when their newly-installed clubhouse was destroyed in high winds in early December.
Committee member Ross Dolders said: "Some of the stuff we've had to use hasn't really been fit for purpose but needs must and we've mostly made it work."
He added: "The facilities we've developed so far in the Lowther Hills have been built through a community spiritedness that I've never seen before and so far without any taxpayer hand-outs.
"But we could do so much more for Dumfries and Galloway and south Lanarkshire if snow sports facilities in the south-west got their bit of help from central government too and help provide fit for purpose facilities and a boost for our own communities and our local economy along the way.
"Despite the setback from the storm that destroyed our temporary club hut, we'll get on with it as ever but that has brought it home how much we need external help and I think it's really central government that we need to look to now."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "We welcome the work Lowther Hills Ski Club is doing to encourage skiing in the south of Scotland.
"Sportscotland has already held discussions with Lowther Hills Ski Club and would encourage the club to continue its dialogue to assist in the development of their proposal and funding application | The south of Scotland's only ski centre could thrive if it received the same government support as its rivals in the north, it has been claimed. |
34,944,136 | The Chinese firm's latest model is a crop-spraying drone, which it claims is "40 times more efficient" than manual spraying, despite having just 12 minutes of flight time.
It will be released in China and Korea where hand-spraying is more common.
DJI made $500m (£332m) in drone sales in 2014 and some analysts predict the firm will hit $1bn in sales this year.
The Agras MG-1 has eight rotors and can carry up to 10kg of crop-spraying fluids per flight.
The foldable device is also dustproof, water-resistant and made of anti-corrosive materials, the firm says on its website (in Chinese).
Farmers around the world have used drones for some time but generally for monitoring their crops and livestock.
Huge farms use aircraft for crop-dusting but they can be very expensive.
"With this new product, we've shown that DJI can not only offer the ultimate aerial experience for the mass consumer, but also improve the efficiency of production and benefit so many others in all walks of life," said DJI chief executive and founder Frank Wang.
The Wall Street Journal reports it is expected to be priced at around $15,000 (£10,000).
DJI's current best seller, the Phantom 2 Vision+ camera drone, can cost up to $1100. | Billion-dollar drone company DJI is expanding from consumer and camera drones into the agriculture industry. |
32,673,753 | Humberside Police Roads Traffic Unit tweeted a picture of their speed camera reading on Saturday morning.
The driver was stopped on the M62 near Goole, East Yorkshire.
The roads policing unit tweeted: "M62 nr Goole. This speeder was twice over the drink drive limit with his little kids in the car! #inthecells". | A motorist who was allegedly twice the drink-driving limit has been arrested after being clocked at 121mph on a motorway with children in the car. |
36,772,461 | Ransomware encrypts computer files and is used by hackers who then demand money in exchange for freeing the content.
It is becoming a huge problem globally.
The solution - dubbed CryptoDrop - detected the malware and stopped it after it had encrypted just a handful of files, said its developers.
Patrick Traynor, an associate professor in UF's department of computer and information science, worked with PhD student Nolen Scaife and Henry Carter, from Villanova University, on the software.
"Our system is more of an early-warning system," Mr Scaife said.
"It doesn't prevent the ransomware from starting... it prevents the ransomware from completing its task… so you lose only a couple of pictures or a couple of documents rather than everything that's on your hard drive, and it relieves you of the burden of having to pay the ransom."
In tests, CryptoDrop had spotted 100% of malware samples and stopped it after an average of 10 files had been encrypted, researchers said.
In May, the FBI issued a warning saying that the number of ransomware attacks had doubled in the past year and was expected to grow even more rapidly this year.
It said that it had received more than 2,400 complaints last year and estimated losses from such attacks at $24m (£18m) for individuals and businesses.
Governments, large companies, banks, hospitals and educational institutions are all among the victims of such attacks.
Richard Cassidy, an expert at security firm Alert Logic said of CryptoDrop: "Whilst the step taken by researchers at the University of Florida are indeed a novel way in which to detect and contain ransomware, it doesn't serve as the 'silver bullet' for ransomware as a whole."
"There are new variants being written all the time and ransomware writers will indeed take the time to dissect and understand how this new technology operates, creating versions that will attempt to either bypass detection, or at the very least search more effectively for likely sensitive files, before encrypting them, with the hope of having the biggest impact of securing a ransom payment."
The team at UF currently has a prototype that works with Windows-based systems.
It is seeking a commercial partner for the software, having recently presented its paper on the technology at a conference in Japan. | Scientists at the University of Florida (UF) say they have developed software that can stop the growing problem of ransomware in its tracks. |
33,241,298 | Eight episodes of the show have been ordered and will air later this year, the broadcaster has confirmed.
Evans, recently confirmed as the new host of the BBC's Top Gear will return to present the programme.
TFI Friday, which mixed music and chat with stunts and skits, originally ran from 1996 to 2000.
A one-off revival of TFI Friday was broadcast on 12 June and featured appearances by former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher, Roger Daltrey and F1 champion Lewis Hamilton.
The show drew a peak audience of 4.2m viewers.
A short filmed sketch showed former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson instructing Evans in how to present the motoring show.
Evans was confirmed as the new lead presenter just four days after the programme was broadcast on Channel 4.
"Chris is the best of the best of live broadcasters and I never doubted for a moment that this TFI would live up to expectations," said Jay Hunt, Channel 4's creative officer.
"Confirming a series was a no-brainer."
"TFI Friday is indeed coming back for a short but perfectly formed run of eight shows pre Christmas," Evans tweeted on Tuesday.
Transmission dates and information about being part of its studio audience would follow soon, he promised.
"Oh my goodness, are we really going to get to do this again?" he added in a statement. "Looks like it - and leading into Christmas too.
"I might actually spontaneously explode on live television due to over excited-ness.‎ Does that still count as unpredictable cos [sic] I've said it now?"
Channel 4 said the show would feature "top celebrity guests, leading music acts and a variety of colourful segments" and would "once again be a key part of the Friday night schedule". | Channel 4 has commissioned a full new series of Chris Evans' anarchic chat show TFI Friday following its one-off revival earlier this month. |
37,763,383 | He is watched constantly by three masked guards, even when he uses the toilet, his partner says.
Ms Coronel complained to the National Human Rights Commission about Guzman's living conditions.
The leader of the Sinaloa drugs cartel is notorious for escaping from two maximum security jails.
His first escape came in 2001, from the Puente Grande maximum security prison, reportedly hidden in a laundry basket.
He used his 13 years at large to consolidate his criminal empire before being re-arrested in Sinaloa state.
But in July 2015, after less than two years at the Altiplano prison in central Mexico, he fled again, this time through a 1.5km-long (one mile-long) tunnel.
This time, he was on the run for six months before he was caught in Los Mochis in Sinaloa state.
He was first taken back to the Altiplano jail but was transferred to a prison in Ciudad Juarez in May.
"He hasn't been informed about any activities he could do in the jail, nor has anyone devised a plan of activities to match his needs, preferences and skills," Ms Coronel's complaint reads.
His lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, stressed that Guzman did not expect special treatment.
"Joaquin Guzman does not want a five-star hotel, he doesn't want a spa, he just wants to be treated like a human being," he said.
Guzman's 2015 escape was a huge embarrassment for the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto.
After his re-arrest, the Mexican government said it would extradite Guzman to the US, where he is wanted on drug trafficking charges.
A Mexican judge last week rejected Guzman's appeal against his extradition. Mexican officials say they expect to send him to the US by February. | Jailed Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman "fears he could lose his mind" before the end of the year, his partner Emma Coronel says. |
36,044,429 | Acting taoiseach, Fine Gael's Enda Kenny, was rejected with 52 voting for and 77 against.
His rival, Fianna Fáil's Micheál Martin, was defeated with 43 votes in favour and 91 against.
It is the third time TDs (members of the Irish parliament) have voted for a new leader.
Following February's election, Fine Gael had 50 seats, Fianna Fáil 44, Sinn Féin 23 and the Labour Party got seven.
But no party was able to form a majority government and TDs have failed to elect a leader on two previous occasions.
Following the second vote, Fianna Fáil, rejected an offer of a partnership government with its rivals, Fine Gael.
Caretaker Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, said Fianna Fáil's refusal of the offer was a "serious mistake".
The Fine Gael leader claimed the rejection was "driven by narrow party interests rather than the national interest".
However, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin told a press conference "the best interests of the Irish people are not served by a government made up of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael".
Sinn Féin is the third largest party with 23 seats, the Labour Party has seven TDs while smaller parties and independents make up the other 34 seats. | The leaders of the Republic of Ireland's two main political parties for taoiseach have been rejected for the third time. |
37,057,989 | More than 234,000 Zafiras made between 2005 and 2014 are subject to safety recalls to prevent them bursting into flames.
The cars should not be passed on to new owners until they've been repaired.
But some cars have been sold without the necessary work done and without buyers being told about the problem.
The potentially illegal sales have been uncovered by BBC Radio 4's consumer programme, You & Yours.
Jemma Osbourne's family from Benfleet in Essex bought a second-hand Zafira in January 2016, six weeks after a safety recall had been launched on that model.
Vauxhall wanted all these Zafiras returned to garages where they could be checked over and fixed free of charge to prevent them catching fire.
But the repair work had not been done on the vehicle Jemma bought and, a few months later, it caught fire.
"That day we'd booked to get ourselves some tattoos done", said Jemma. "We set out with my youngest who is a year and a half, drove a few miles up the road to Southend-on-Sea and parked directly outside the tattooist's shop".
Soon afterwards she looked out of the shop window and spotted smoke inside the car.
"We managed to get out of the back of the shop and by the time we'd gone from the front to the back, the car was on fire. It was really scary to think that I'd just got my daughter out of there".
Jemma and her partner Lewis Gillingham had bought their Zafira from a branch of the used-car dealers Big Cars Ltd at Witham in Essex. The couple say they were unaware of the problems with model B Vauxhall Zafiras and the sales team never said anything about it at the time of purchase.
"Nothing at all was mentioned about a recall", said Jemma. "It was the firemen that actually told us. I would never have put my children in that sort of car if I'd known the problems that they'd had".
It is not certain the fire was caused by the known fault with Zafira Bs. Big Cars Ltd says an independent report found it was caused by a fuel leak instead. But whatever the cause, the point is there was an outstanding safety recall on the car when it was sold, and that could put Big Cars Ltd on the wrong side of the law.
Guidance for the used-vehicle trade published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency states that if you are selling a vehicle to a consumer you will need to check for outstanding recalls and these safety recalls must be attended to prior to the consumer purchasing the vehicle.
"It's really important for any motor dealer that is having a Vauxhall Zafira that is affected by this recall on their forecourt to actually have this work done prior to exposing it to sale", said Tim Milsom, lead officer for the motor trade with the Chartered Institute of Trading Standards. "If they fail to do that then they might be constituting a possible criminal offence".
There's a duty under several pieces of legislation that any product sold in the UK must be safe for consumer use. It is a principle enshrined in both civil and criminal law.
Tim Milsom cites the Sale Of Goods Act, General Product Safety Regulations 2005, Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations and even - in the case of cars - the Road Traffic Act.
"Stating or otherwise creating the impression that a product can be legally sold when it cannot is also an offence. But it is important to say that only a court of law can interpret the law", he said.
You & Yours asked Big Cars Ltd to explain why a Vauxhall Zafira with an outstanding safety recall was sold to Jemma Osbourne and Lewis Gillingham and why the couple had not been told about the issue at the time of their purchase. In a statement the company said "after taking advice, we would not wish to comment at this time".
It pointed out it had provided a courtesy car to the couple for six weeks after the fire and says it values all its customers. It has now offered to meet with the family to discuss an ex-gratia payment.
Vauxhall issued a second safety recall on model B Zafiras after the first "fix" failed to entirely solve the problem. The second recall was launched on the 28 May, 2016 but some other used-car dealers have continued to sell the vehicles even though they have not yet had the second recall work done.
It means some customers have unwittingly bought Zafiras subject to not one but two outstanding recalls because work from the first safety recall launched in December 2015 had still not been done on their cars.
There are 234,938 Zafira B models affected by the fire risk. There is no precise number on how many of them have actually caught fire but a figure of 300 has been reported.
Vauxhall is continuing to write to owners to get affected vehicles booked in for the latest remedial work. In the meantime, it says it is "very important" that the cars' heating and ventilation system is set only at fan speed zero or four to protect against the risk of fire. | Used-car dealers may have broken the law by continuing to sell Vauxhall Zafiras which pose a possible fire risk. |
38,287,761 | Mr Sisi, who has declared three days of national mourning, named Shafik Mahmoud Mohamed Mostafa, 22, as the attacker.
The bombing on Sunday killed 24 people, many of them women and children.
Mr Sisi said that three men and a woman had been arrested in connection with the attack.
Dozens more were injured in the blast in a chapel adjoining St Mark's cathedral during a Sunday service, which Mr Sisi said caused "pain to all Egyptians".
He used his address to urge the government to amend the country's terrorism laws, which he said were "restricting the judicial system" in its battle to prevent such attacks in Egypt.
Mourners earlier packed the Virgin Mary and St Athanasius Church for a service led by the spiritual head of Egypt's Orthodox Christians, Pope Tawadros II.
However, hundreds of mourners were angry at being denied entry, the Reuters news agency reports, with a number of youths detained.
Inside the church, banners bearing the names of the dead were hung on the walls. Pope Tawadros II prayed over the victims' coffins and called them martyrs.
After the service, the victims' coffins were taken by ambulance to Nasr City for the state funeral.
The Christian minority in Egypt has often been targeted by Islamist militants. There has so far not been any claim for responsibility for the attack.
Egypt has seen a wave of attacks by militants since 2013 when the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi, an elected leader who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood, and launched a crackdown against Islamists.
Some of Mr Morsi's supporters blamed Christians for supporting the overthrow.
Sunday's explosion happened at about 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT). Video footage carried by regional media showed the interior of a chapel adjoining St Mark's Cathedral littered with broken and scattered furniture, along with blood and clothing on the floor.
"I found bodies, many of them women, lying on the pews. It was a horrible scene," said cathedral worker Attiya Mahrous.
"There were children. What have they done to deserve this? I wish I had died with them instead of seeing these scenes,'' another witness told the Associated Press news agency.
Coptic Christians make up about 10% of Egypt's population.
St Mark's Cathedral is the headquarters of the Coptic Orthodox church, and the home of Pope Tawadros II.
The Coptic Orthodox Church is the main Christian Church in Egypt. While most Copts live in Egypt, the Church has about a million members outside the country.
Copts believe that their Church dates back to around 50 AD, when the Apostle Mark is said to have visited Egypt. Mark is regarded as the first Pope of Alexandria - the head of their Church.
This makes it one of the earliest Christian groups outside the Holy Land.
The Church separated from other Christian denominations at the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD) in a dispute over the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ.
The early Church suffered persecution under the Roman Empire, and there were intermittent persecutions after Egypt became a Muslim country. Many believe that continues to this day. | Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has attended a state funeral for victims of an attack at Cairo's Coptic Christian cathedral, naming the suicide bomber he said was responsible. |
34,946,221 | The forward-looking GfK consumer sentiment indicator fell to 9.3 points for December from 9.4 points in the previous month.
The score is the lowest since February, but was above analysts' predictions.
Confidence in the economy among German consumers dropped for the sixth consecutive month, although the pace reduced.
Concern about the labour market led the way, according to the survey of 2,000 shoppers, with 69% of all those surveyed expecting an increase in unemployment due to the influx of asylum seekers this year.
This month's survey was conducted before the attacks in Paris on 13 November.
In contrast to general sentiment, optimism for making a big purchase improved, with the sub-index for willingness to buy climbing by three points to 48.9.
GfK analyst Rolf Buerkl said he was optimistic for this year's Christmas sales, as customers might be tempted to shop online if they are concerned for public safety.
"It is possible that a few people here and there will avoid going to the Christmas market or visiting a shopping mall," Mr Buerkl said. | Confidence among shoppers in Germany has dipped according to a survey, amid worries over Europe's largest economy. |
38,865,489 | Second Half begins Forest Green Rovers 0, Boreham Wood 0.
First Half ends, Forest Green Rovers 0, Boreham Wood 0.
Charlie Cooper (Forest Green Rovers) is shown the yellow card.
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up. | Match details to follow. |
40,569,818 | Aisha Buhari's comments seem to be directed at powerful ruling party politicians, said the BBC's Naziru Mikailu, in the capital Abuja.
They appear to be suspected of manoeuvring for presidency or deputy presidency while her husband is ill.
President Muhammadu Buhari has been in London receiving treatment.
The vice-president has been acting in his place while he is out of the country, but there is no suggestion he is part of any plot against Mr Buhari, our BBC reporter says.
Mr Buhari has spent two periods of medical leave in the UK, the first in January, returning home in March. He hinted he had undergone a blood transfusion, but did not explain what had been wrong.
He returned to the UK in May, where he has been ever since. Mrs Buhari, who joined him earlier this month, said in June that he was "recuperating well".
Mrs Buhari's latest comments came in response to a post from Senator Shehu Sani, who warned that people were "scheming... so that they can be kings".
"Prayers for the absent Lion King has waned," he wrote. "Now the hyenas and the jackals are scheming and talking to each other in whispers; still doubting whether the Lion King will be back or not."
But Mrs Buhari appeared to calm any concerns - suggesting her husband, positioned as the defender of the "weaker animals", was on the mend.
"God has answered the prayers of the weaker animals, the hyenas and jackals will soon be sent out the kingdom."
Her response was soon trending on Twitter in Nigeria, with many delighted by the suggestion her husband was on the mend.
But people were divided on her use of metaphor.
YOu SiP_RAiN†| Nigeria's first lady has warned the "hyenas and jackals" will be banished in a cryptic Facebook post apparently aimed at her husband's officials. |
20,197,023 | The Ministry of Defence confirmed a 19-year-old soldier from 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, had died. His family has been informed.
Police said three British tourists had been arrested following a reported altercation with four off-duty soldiers in the early hours.
The MoD has banned soldiers from Ayia Napa's centre after past trouble.
The town is a popular destination for thousands of young holidaymakers.
The two British military bases in the former colony, which gained independence in 1960, are home to more than 3,000 personnel.
The dead soldier is reported to have been stationed at the base in Dhekelia, about 12 miles (20km) west of Ayia Napa.
Police spokesman George Economou said the soldier was pronounced dead on arrival at Famagusta General Hospital in Paralimni. A knife has been recovered and is undergoing forensic tests.
The three arrested Britons are expected to appear in court on Monday.
The Foreign Office said it was aware of the arrest of three British nationals in Ayia Napa and was providing consular assistance.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "It is with great sadness that the MoD must confirm that a soldier... has died in an incident in Cyprus.
"An investigation is being conducted by Cyprus police and it would be inappropriate to comment any further. The family has been informed and our thoughts are with them." | A British soldier stationed in Cyprus has been stabbed to death in a nightclub in the resort of Ayia Napa. |
39,351,097 | The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) - which took part in President Obama's inauguration in 2009 - was due to take part in the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (AIYF) in July.
The SFGC said travel uncertainties were the main reason for the decision.
AIYF said it was disappointed, but understood the decision.
President Trump insists the travel restriction efforts are to stop terrorists from entering the United States.
The annual AIYF takes place this year from 28 July to 5 August, featuring groups from around the world.
However, Shelton Ensley, president of the board of directors of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, said they were concerned by news reports of people being unable to regain entry to the United States.
He said: "The Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus has been a leading performing arts organisation for decades and takes great pride in serving as a cultural ambassador.
"While the Chorus' concert and educational activities regularly take our choristers across the Bay Area, around the country, and occasionally to other parts of the world, increasing news reports relating to travel incidents upon re-entry to the United States prompted us to stop and re-evaluate the upcoming tour.
"Our number one priority, above all else, is the safety and security of every single member of the organisation.
"With so much uncertainty surrounding the developing story of travel related regulations, we felt that the tour presented an unnecessary risk at the present time."
Mr Ensley explained: "The many news reports circulating about travel incidents made it very difficult for us to predict future events with any degree of certainty.
"Reports have included United States citizens and lawful permanent residents being detained while attempting to enter the country or being denied entry outright.
"SFGC's Board of Directors unanimously agreed that the volatility of international travel, as it was developing at the time of this decision, was paramount above all else and solidified our action to cancel the tour.
"As is often the case with non-profit arts organisations, various additional factors - including financial, logistical, and artistic - were taken into consideration as part of the decision-making process.
"However, the increasing uncertainty relating to travel restrictions further complicated matters and gave the Board of Directors the most cause for concern."
He concluded: "As the parent of a chorister impacted by this decision myself, I share the disappointment from fellow parents and members of the Chorus but remain open to and optimistic about the prospect of another international tour in the future.
"We are grateful for the understanding of our partners at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival and the local community that were looking forward to our appearances."
Stewart Aitken, chief executive of AIYF, told the BBC Scotland news website: "Obviously we are disappointed, but we think they are being quite sensible at this stage.
"We are hoping they will come in future years.
"We treat is as one of the other challenges we face when people are coming from across the world - and we have plenty else to offer." | President Donald Trump's travel restriction plans have been blamed for an acclaimed US choir pulling out of a tour to Aberdeen for a festival. |
37,169,947 | Karkamis lies just across the border from Jarablus, an IS-held town which Turkish-backed rebels are expected to try to capture in the coming days.
A rebel force is massed in the area and preparing the offensive.
Turkey blames IS for a bomb attack that killed dozens of people in the south of the country at the weekend.
It says the group must now be cleared from the border region, and has been bombarding targets across the border in northern Syria ahead of an expected ground attack.
Turkey's increasing entanglement in Syria's war has added to the strain on its administration and security services following an attempted coup in mid-July.
It accused Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the attempted overthrow from his US home and has dismissed or detained thousands of the cleric's alleged followers. Mr Gulen denies any involvement.
On Tuesday, US officials confirmed they had received an extradition request for the cleric - and but they said it was on grounds of alleged crimes unrelated to the coup bid, though they did not clarify.
The BBC's Mark Lowen says the decision to evacuate Karkamis is not necessarily a sign that a ground operation is imminent, but a response to the shelling by jihadists.
The evacuation order came by loudspeaker, and minibuses were sent in to transport those without cars, he says.
As well as IS forces, Turkey has shelled Syrian Kurdish forces nearby, apparently to deter them from taking Jarablus themselves.
Fifty-four people were killed when the southern city of Gaziantep was hit by a suicide bombing on Saturday.
Our correspondent says the attack on a wedding in the city, blamed on IS, may have been spurred by reports of the imminent Syrian rebel offensive.
More victims of the blast are being identified and our correspondent says the wave of bombings in Turkey could intensify as the country becomes ever more embroiled in the Syrian war.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said that IS should be "completely cleansed" from areas in northern Syria near its border.
Turkish forces have been exchanging shellfire with IS positions in the Jarablus area since Monday.
However, Turkey is also wary of moves that might bolster Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the YPG, which it views as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Turkish-Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy since the 1980s.
On Monday, Turkey shelled YPG positions near Manbij, a town they took from IS this month.
The 1,500 fighters poised to enter Syria from Gaziantep are believed to be Turkish-backed Syrian rebels. A senior rebel official quoted by Reuters said they were fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.
The identity and motive of the suicide bomber who attacked the wedding party have yet to be revealed.
Soon after the attack, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said IS was the likely perpetrator but Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Monday that investigators actually did "not have a clue".
He downplayed earlier reports that the attacker was between 12 and 14 years old, saying this could not be confirmed.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said the wedding was for one of its members, and IS have targeted Turkish Kurds in the past.
Many of the victims were children - the two youngest were four years old.
Sixty-six people are still in hospital, 14 of them in a serious condition, Turkey's Dogan news agency reported.
A disproportionately large number of women and children were killed in the attack because it targeted henna night, a part of the celebration attended mainly by women and children, says BBC Monitoring's Turkey analyst Pinar Sevinclidir.
Syrian government forces are not directly involved in the battle for the border at Jarablus, having gradually lost ground in the north over more than five years of civil war.
Turkey's long-time position has been that President Bashar al-Assad must be ousted as a condition for peace in Syria.
However, Prime Minister Yildirim acknowledged this week that he was one of the "actors" and suggested he could play a role in an interim leadership. | Turkey has ordered residents in the town of Karkamis to evacuate after it was hit by mortars from so-called Islamic State militants in Syria. |
34,983,294 | The 27-year-old currently plays on the Symetra tour in the USA, with the top 10 each year earning an LPGA card.
She finished a career-worst 55th on the money list this year, but says she feels refreshed after changing coaches.
"With the way I'm feeling mentally and confidence-wise I don't see myself giving up until I achieve my dream of being on the LPGA tour," she said.
Jordan-Higgins says lack of money would be the only reason for her to quit, which was something she considered before finishing second in an event in Kansas.
"For the last few years I've been pretty much able to support myself. I'm not making too much of a profit, but I'm making enough that I can keep playing and keep trying to achieve my dream," she told BBC Radio Jersey.
"But this year was one of those where the decision was almost made for me as I was essentially out of money."
She now hopes 2016 will be the year that she finally earns the right to play amongst the world's elite women golfers.
"There's no question that I can finish inside the top 10, I've been close for four out of the five years," she added.
"I've got a new coach I'm working with and it's been very good.
"A lot of it is mental focus, working on pre-shot routines and making sure it's the same every time.
"I'm feeling really confident about what we're doing and I've got that drive back to want to achieve again." | Jersey golfer Olivia Jordan-Higgins says she will not give up on her dream of competing on the LPGA tour. |
22,692,453 | The cyclone, which hit two weeks ago, killed 18 people across Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Burma.
Majority Sinhalese nationalists said the king's name should not have been used in such a negative context.
The name Mahasen was one of a pool of names compiled by eight Indian Ocean nations a decade ago.
Meteorology department director-general SH Kariyawasam said that he was sorry "if any insult was caused to King Mahasen or the country's proud history".
In a letter to the National Council for the Protection of Historical Irrigation Cultural Heritage, Mr Kariyawasam said that the names "were merely proposed as Sri Lankan names and their selection did not have any basis, explanation or intention".
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says that nationalist monks and President Mahinda Rajapaksa all criticised the use of the name for the storm, saying the Sinhalese King Mahasen was a great man who brought prosperity to the nation.
More than a million people in Bangladesh were told to evacuate low-lying coastal areas as Cyclone Mahasen approached.
In Sri Lanka the storm was reported to have killed at least seven people and left thousands more homeless. | Sri Lanka's top meteorologist has publicly apologised for the naming of a recent deadly cyclone after a revered third century ruler, King Mahasen. |
39,316,564 | Gary Christie, from Cupar, was cycling on Carberry Road, Kirkcaldy, when he was struck by a Vauxhall Corsa on 1 November 2016.
The 38-year-old died at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh two weeks later.
The man who has been charged is expected to appear at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on 13 April. | A 54-year-old man has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving following a fatal collision with a cyclist in Fife. |
19,801,599 | Last year some 1.75 million bicycles were sold, about 2,000 more than the number of new cars registered, La Repubblica newspaper reported.
It attributed the change to a slump in car sales during the economic crisis and the rising price of petrol, as well as bikes coming back into fashion.
Car sales have slumped to the level at which they stood in 1964, it said.
Though bicycling has a strong tradition in Italy, the centres of big cities are largely dominated by cars and scooters.
Ahead of a cycling conference being held in Italy this weekend, President Giorgio Napolitano appealed to Italians to "catch up" with other European countries by making their roads more cycle-friendly. | Italians bought more bicycles than cars in 2011 for the first time in decades, according to local media reports. |
37,281,821 | Mr Duterte was responding to the US president's promise to raise the issue of drug-related extra-judicial killings in the Philippines at their meeting.
The Philippine leader, known for his colourful language, has insulted prominent figures before, but this time it has had diplomatic consequences.
He has now said he regrets the remark.
"While the immediate cause was my strong comments to certain press questions that elicited concern and distress, we also regret that it came across as a personal attack on the US president," a statement by his office said.
Summit diplomacy, Duterte-style
World leaders' offensive insults: Who's top?
Duterte: From 'Punisher' to president
What's the point of Asean?
In the past, President Duterte has called Pope Francis the "son of a whore", US Secretary of State John Kerry "crazy" and recently referred to the US ambassador to the Philippines a "gay son of a whore".
Both he and President Obama are in Laos for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit.
Mr Duterte has been forced to apologise for offensive comments before, but this is the first time he has had to confront the reality of his outlandish behaviour on the international stage
It is the president's first overseas trip - an opportunity that many leaders would have used to cement ties with neighbouring countries and superpowers like China and the US.
Instead Mr Duterte has spent the morning dampening down the controversy he created.
At the heart of this is the fact that Mr Duterte isn't used to being told what to do; and that he likes to display machismo and bravado, which plays well to his domestic audience.
But when he sits down for serious discussions with his Asean counterparts over the next couple of days, they'll be looking for Asian discretion and subtlety, not diplomacy Duterte-style.
Mr Obama, who flew to Laos after attending the G20 meeting in Hangzhou, China, had been set to raise concerns about human rights abuses in the Philippines.
But speaking in Manila on Monday before he left for Laos, Mr Duterte bristled at the suggestion, saying the Philippines "has long ceased to be a colony".
"Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum," he then said, using a Tagalog phrase for "son of a whore" or "son of a bitch".
Mr Obama initially appeared to play down the insult, calling his Philippine counterpart a "colourful character" and saying he had asked his aides to work out if this is "a time where we can have some constructive, productive conversations".
His aides later cancelled the talks.
Mr Obama's last scheduled trip to Asia as president has not been without incident: he was also caught up in a protocol row with hosts China over his arrival in Hangzhou.
In his comments on Monday, President Duterte pledged to continue with his anti-drugs campaign that has led to the killing of 2,400 suspected drug dealers and users in the Philippines since he took office in June.
"Many will die, plenty will be killed until the last pusher is out of the streets... until the [last] drug manufacturer is killed we will continue," he said.
The UN has repeatedly condemned Mr Duterte's policies as a violation of human rights. In August, two UN human rights experts said Mr Duterte's directive for police and the public to kill suspected drug traffickers amounted to "incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law".
This round of Asean talks comes against the backdrop of tensions over China's territorial ambitions in the South China Sea - the Philippines and the US are key players in that debate. | US President Barack Obama has cancelled a meeting with controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had earlier called him a "son of a whore". |
16,666,843 | Dr Rahul Khullar, also the commerce secretary in the New Delhi government, told BBC Scotland there was a "very strong" prospect of a free trade agreement this year.
However, it may take six to eight months to sign off.
Dr Khullar also expects India to embark on a new round of economic reforms.
These would come 20 years after the last round reduced heavy regulation and began the process of putting it onto its current fast growth path.
The official said the trade summit between the European Union and India on 10 February would give a "loud and positive" signal on a trade deal.
With whisky and other wines and spirits now facing a 150% import duty, he said the scale of the cut would be "surprising", and the Scotch whisky industry could expect "very good news".
A breakthrough on trade is also likely to mean cuts in tariffs across a wide range of products and services, including European car exports, law, finance and accountancy.
In return, Indians expect to see easier access to markets for agricultural produce, and relaxed rules on work permits for its IT workers when they are needed in Europe to service the technology contracts won by Indian companies.
A breakthrough on whisky has been strongly resisted by Indian distillers, and those close to the negotiations say there may be a tiered duty level, protecting India's cheaper whisky, but reducing the cost of premium Scotch.
The EU has sought a 20% tariff, but it is more likely to get the lowest tier down no further than 40%.
One reason why India is so appealing to Scottish distillers is that it already has the world's largest whisky market. Indians consume 250 million cases of "Indian made foreign liquor" per year, only 1% of which is imported.
That's in addition to 210 million cases of cheaper, unbranded "country liquor". And Scotch whisky has status for India's growing middle class.
Asked about Scotch whisky tariffs, Dr Khullar told BBC Scotland: "There's very good news on that front. We've structured a deal which will be really good on both wines and spirits, and the primary beneficiary on the spirits side will be Scotland.
"India is a large market for spirits, and the drink of choice is whisky, so scotch has a huge premium and market here, and I think you will get a lot of good news when we actually sign off."
On the trade talks more widely, he told BBC Scotland: "We're in the last round of negotiations. I have a couple of things to tie up and then I will need to get a mandate and an authorisation, because what Brussels is asking me for, today, is beyond what I have an authorisation for. I have got to get a mandate before I can make any commitments.
"Equally, I have been able to negotiate things for myself, which I have got to report back to the trade and economic relations committee. The EU-Indian summit will be held on the 10th of February, and right now we're keeping our fingers crossed if we can get things stitched up by then."
He added: "My sense is that you're not going to see a deal being signed. One is that some issues are still open. More importantly, even after we do a deal, even after negotiations are completed, the deal cannot be signed until it's negotiated with the European government - which means after negotiations are completed, the legal texts will be prepared, those have to be translated, and then circulated to parliaments. That takes six to eight months.
"So if you're looking for a deal being signed on February 10, it ain't going to get done. But if you're looking for signals as to where we are in terms of the negotiation, I think you'll get a very good and loud signal as to where we are."
Asked if it would be a positive signal as well, Dr Khullar replied: "Most definitely."
The commerce secretary also indicated there was a strong prospect of a new round of economic reforms, following the decline of the growth rate in India during last year.
"You have started seeing winds of change," he said, citing a recent announcement to allow in foreign supermarket chains.
"There are clear indicators that something is going to get done on aviation, and sooner rather than later," he added. "And there are lots of things in the pipeline.
"We have got what we wanted from the first wave of reforms. It pushed up our growth rate, it delivered on lots of things. I think a second wave has got to start, and my sense is that when those elections going right now are over and done with, that is when you will start seeing hopefully a spate of new reform."
Several regional states go to the polls next month, with results due on 6 March.
There is "cautious optimism" on the European side of the free trade talks, after many delays and sticking points. A source at the commission said the negotiations have reached a "crucial phase", and that its negotiators have always pushed for an ambitious free trade agreement. | The Scotch whisky industry is in for a pleasant surprise on exports to India, according to the country's chief trade negotiator. |
38,478,303 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The Welsh Premier League side have won 27 games in a row and broke Ajax's 44-year-old record for most consecutive top-flight victories, when they beat Cefn Druids 2-0 on Friday.
The Saints have a two-week break before facing Newtown on Saturday, 14 January.
"We want to come back fresh again and we want to win every game we can," Harrison told BBC Radio Wales.
"They've obviously got a fantastic attitude and mentality of winning.
"We'll come back and start again, almost, and go on a fresh run again of five or six games of wins again and it'll push us into the thirties."
Scottish fifth-tier side East Kilbride thought they had broken Ajax's record earlier in the season, but the record can only be set by teams playing in their country's top-tier.
A legendary Ajax side that included Johan Cruyff and Johann Neeskens set the previous benchmark of 27 games unbeaten in the 1971-72 season, but Harrison is keen not to draw too many comparisons.
"We're not comparing ourselves to Ajax in any way shape or form," Harrison continued.
"On a personal and domestic level, it's a fantastic achievement to be up there with them. We're not comparing ourselves to them, but in its own right the achievement shouldn't be frowned upon." | The New Saints boss Craig Harrison says they can extend their world record winning run and go 30 games unbeaten. |
36,066,880 | The 26-year-old opening batsman left New Road at the end of last season after rejecting a new deal.
Instead of a commitment to winter training in Worcester, he opted to play grade cricket in Australia for his adopted club side Geelong.
But he is back in England and will play for Shropshire in the Unicorns Trophy.
The first of their four group games is on Sunday, 24 April against neighbours Herefordshire at London Road, Shrewsbury.
Oliver, who made two first-class centuries for Worcestershire in 2014 after making an exciting breakthrough in T20 cricket while still with Shropshire, has received interest over the winter from other first-class counties.
"It's the right place at the right time for me," said Oliver, who will play under Steve Leach, younger brother of Worcestershire vice-captain Joe Leach.
"It's going to be great to go back and play for Steve Leach. He was very loyal to me when I was captain, so I can hopefully be in a position to repay some of the loyalty he gave me and make sure we progress through the group stages.
"I presume that availability's going to be good for the one-dayers. If we can emulate some of the success I've had with Shropshire in the past, that will be fantastic."
Shropshire have also signed fast bowler Alex Wyatt for the 2016 season, following his release by Leicestershire last summer.
They also brought in former Yorkshire and Derbyshire left-arm spinner David Wainwright in December. | Ex-Shropshire skipper Richard Oliver is to return to play Minor Counties cricket this summer after turning down an offer to stay with Worcestershire. |
37,800,512 | A growing and ageing population means more of us live with, or will one day need, care for long-term illnesses.
But are we - and that includes me - looking at health too much in terms of just how the NHS is operating?
Well, research suggests healthcare may in fact contribute as little as 10% towards the health and well-being of a country's population.
Or put it in another way: while the pressures on frontline services may dominate the news, the actual impact of those services to our health overall is actually relatively small.
Much more important, arguably, are things like the quality of our homes and the environment around us.
BETTER HOUSING IS A CORNERSTONE
Stuart Ropke, chief executive of Community Housing Cymru
"When the nation talks about health, inevitably the focus is always on acute services - A&E, admission to hospital, quality of GP services - which are of course really important, but for me there are obvious building blocks which need to be in place so people don't reach that stage.
"For me, housing is the keystone of good health. At the very basic level, the fabric of the home providing warmth and protection from the elements but also the community where people live is really important to their well being.
"It's not just about delivering physical homes on the ground but ensuring the people living there are healthy, active and being supported."
So how do you do that?
On the site of the old Ely paper mill in Cardiff, 800 new homes will soon be built.
But the boss of the company responsible for this site tells me the £100m project is quite different to things done in the past, where developers tended to build homes, sell them and move on.
David Ward, chief executive of Tirion Group
"Fifty percent of this housing will be affordable homes and we're going to be here for 50 years, managing these homes. It's important we get the quality right for people renting. So from a public health point of view, we're offering good quality, well-managed homes, at a price people can afford."
A community engagement team will be working on projects with residents which range from the design of a riverside park to healthy living initiatives.
"We're looking at the allotments on the other side of the river and whether there's something we can do with the local community in delivering a food project and we're finishing the missing link of the Ely Trail which will connect all the way from Cardiff Bay to St Fagan's, which people cans use for walking, running and cycling but will also mean a commuter route to the centre of Cardiff."
PREVENTING BAD HEALTH AND A CULTURAL SHIFT IN THE PART WE ALL PLAY
But it is about much more than just housing, all public services have a part to play in trying to make sure we and future generations the best chance to be healthy and happy and prosperous.
But how do you get them all working together to achieve that goal?
Last year, a new law was passed in Wales - the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act - with the aim of doing just that. It was described as a world first.
The woman, charged with driving it, and advising, promoting and encouraging sustainable ways of working said it was about a cultural shift.
Quite simply if we carry on the way we are, our services are going to fall off a cliff
Sophie Howe, Wales' first future generations commissioner
"One of the most critical areas I think is a focus on prevention - a shift from just dealing with the here and now," she said.
"If you like, it's not parking our ambulance at the bottom of a cliff and waiting for them to fall over - but getting them on top of that cliff and making sure they don't fall in the first place."
"This is about a nurse thinking it's as much her responsibility to identify an issue of domestic abuse as a police officer," she added.
"It's incredibly tough but something we have got to do. Quite simply if we carry on the way we are, our services are going to fall off a cliff."
THE PUBLIC SERVICES BUDGET CONUNDRUM
Others, too, sense a risk.
In successive recent budgets, hundreds of millions of extra pounds have been pumped into the NHS, largely to help it cope with the pressure its under.
Yet other areas have been squeezed.
We have to be wary of the health service in terms of its funding mechanism, crowding out other services
Steve Thomas, chief executive of the Welsh Local Government Association
"I pose this question: what do you want your public sector to be?
"If we carry on the same route, especially if austerity continues and deepens in this next period, the public sector will be schools and hospitals and very little else.
"The danger is you exclusively look at one part of the system and forget another part. We have to be wary of the health service in terms of its funding mechanism, crowding out other services.
"I'm hoping with the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, if the Welsh Government is serious about prevention, they will follow that philosophy through.
"Then you're going to have to start thinking about some of those services which stop people getting into hospital in the first place and you're going to have to think about properly funding them."
A WORLD PERSPECTIVE
Dr Piroska Ostlin, director of policy and governance for health and well-being at the World Health Organization (WHO), in Cardiff for a two-day public health conference, said: "The biggest challenge we have now is to address health inequities which are very closely related to social inequities.
"It has an economic side as well, it costs a lot of money. Health is a very expensive business but it's interesting we only spend only 2-3% on prevention and health promotion, the rest is curative care."
She said the Future Generation Act in Wales was a major forward-looking landmark which could be a model the rest of the world could use - but it needed to be implemented in Wales or there could be a rise in health problems.
"We know what the root causes of health inequalities are - bad housing, low education, low income, poverty - these factors cannot be controlled by the health sector, we need really the help of other sectors. We have to absolutely abandon the silo approach."
People understand the NHS is under more pressure than ever before.
And any opinion poll will tell you, it is top priority for voters.
But broadly speaking the NHS is there to help us when things go wrong.
The question is how do you prevent more of those things from going wrong in the first place.
Health is about so much more of course than the NHS. The challenge is about striking the balance. | Ambulances, A&E, GPs and waiting times - health is never far from the headlines. |
35,742,118 | The hashtag #RespectMyPM began to trend on Twitter on Sunday. It has now shot to the top of Malaysia's Twitter chart.
It is unclear if the hashtag started out as an official campaign.
But Johor politician Azalina Othman Said provoked an early outcry from netizens after she tweeted her support for Mr Najib along with her state flag.
"I am from #Johor, and I #RespectMyPM," she said in a tweet.
Other political figures, including Youth Chief Tan Keng Liang, also came out in defence of Mr Najib. "Criticism is fine but don't damage our own country," he tweeted. "We are all Malaysians. It's our country!"
"This is a good campaign," tweeted Adibah Baharum, "Even if you hate someone, it doesn't mean you have the right to insult them. Don't let your hate blind you."
Malaysia's 'mysterious millions' - case solved?
1MDB: The case riveting Malaysia
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak has been plagued by serious corruption allegations regarding his reported involvement in a high-profile financial scandal over the misuse of state funds.
While he has denied all charges and has been officially cleared, calls for his resignation continue to grow louder, especially among Malaysia's vocal netizen community.
Mr Najib has since issued a stern warning to netizens, urging them to refrain from abusing social media and "causing disharmony" in the country.
But that has not stopped thousands of his critics from stepping in to voice their anger, turning the hashtag into a battleground against the prime minister.
"Why should we respect our leader when he's actually destroying the image and the status of Malaysia?" asked student Leong Jia Meng.
"I'm sorry but I just don't respect my prime minister," said a Twitter user in the capital Kuala Lumpur. "Surely this is some kind of satire," another user remarked.
One Twitter user, student activist Dorian Wilde, pointed out the revision of the hashtag, which was used by Indian supporters by then-newly elected leader Narendra Modi in 2014.
"Oh the irony. Go back far enough and you'll see that #RespectMyPM was used by Modi supporters in 2014," he observed in a tweet.
The hashtag also gathered momentum on Facebook, where Malaysians flooded Mr Najib's official page with posts, including hashtags and comments criticising his role as leader of the country.
This movement has happened on his page several times before.
Calls demanding Mr Najib's resignation also continued to grow louder, with the addition of a second hashtag, #RespectMalaysia.
Malaysian netizens then began to retaliate against the pro-establishment voices on social media.
A strongly worded tweet from Syed Saddiq read: "Respect cannot forced. It must be earned. Respect Malaysia, not the prime minister."
"I firmly believe respecting Malaysia is a lot more important than respecting the prime minister," said another.
"I choose to respect Malaysia rather than any individual," tweeted another Malaysian user. | A social media war has broken out in Malaysia between supporters of embattled leader Najib Razak - and those demanding his resignation. |
34,345,578 | The Osprey, 26, has undergone surgery on the foot he injured in Wales' final warm-up game with Italy in Cardiff.
Wales full-back Leigh Halfpenny is also unlikely to play in the Six Nations after his knee injury in the same game.
"At this stage, Rhys is looking at a six to eight month period out of action," said Ospreys medical performance manager Chris Towers.
"Rhys sustained a significant foot ligament injury that required surgical stabilisation.
"He has had the surgery and will be non-weight bearing for six weeks and will then wear a protective boot for a further four to six weeks.
"Only after that will we be in a position to progress his rehab."
Webb left the field at the Millennium Stadium on a stretcher during the first half against Italy after his leg was caught in a ruck. | Wales scrum-half Rhys Webb is set to miss the Six Nations with the injury that ended his Rugby World Cup hopes. |
39,750,468 | There is less than six weeks until the UK goes to the polls, following local authority elections on 4 May.
Nicola Sturgeon campaigned in Neilston alongside incumbent East Renfrewshire MP Kirsten Oswald.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson was in North Berwick, while Labour's Kezia Dugdale visited Easterhouse.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie was in Pittenweem, where his party announced long-standing councillor Elizabeth Riches as their candidate for North East Fife.
The UK goes to the polls for a snap election on 8 June, five weeks after local authority elections across Scotland.
Campaigning in East Renfrewshire, which both the Conservatives and Labour have talked up as a potential target, Ms Sturgeon directed her fire at the Tories.
She said: "The first full week of the election has revealed the true cost of voting for the Tories at this election. From their defence of the rape clause to their failure to commit to fair pensions, and the slew of statistics outlining the consequences of Tory austerity, it's clear that the Tories are failing Scotland and will continue to do so."
Labour is standing former Better Together director Blair McDougall in the seat, which Ms Oswald took from then-Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy. The Conservatives have selected Paul Masterton, having taken the corresponding Holyrood seat in a three-way contest in 2016.
Tory leader Ruth Davidson hit the campaign trail in East Lothian, saying there was a "huge buzz" around the party's campaign.
She said: "We're working hard all over the country, and people in East Lothian, in the Borders and in Banffshire know that if you want someone that's going to stand up to the SNP, that is able to take on the SNP and lead the fightback against the SNP in Scotland, then it's the Scottish Conservatives that are the people to do it."
Labour has put forward Martin Whitfield in the constituency, which George Kerevan took for the SNP in 2015, 6,803 votes ahead of Labour in second.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale was in Easterhouse alongside Kate Watson, the party's candidate for Glasgow East.
Ms Dugdale said local people deserved a "champion", adding: "The election in Glasgow is a two-horse race between Labour and the SNP. The best way to send a message to Nicola Sturgeon that people want her to focus on the day job rather than campaigning for another divisive referendum is to vote Labour."
The SNP is in the process of selecting a candidate for the seat, won for them at the last election by Natalie McGarry, who ended the truncated parliamentary term sitting as an independent following a police investigation.
Meanwhile Willie Rennie campaigned in North East Fife alongside Elizabeth Riches, who the Lib Dems have selected to run against SNP incumbent Stephen Gethins.
The councillor has represented the East Neuk for 27 years and was depute leader of the council for five years. The seat was held by Sir Menzies Campbell for 28 years, but after he stepped down in 2015 Mr Gethins captured the constituency with a majority of 4,344, or 9.6%.
Mr Rennie said Ms Riches could be a "cracking MP", adding: "She has the determination, energy, intellect and steely backbone that North East Fife needs. She has been a doughty campaigner for the East Neuk for many years and will use that experience to stand up for us in Westminster." | Scotland's party leaders have been campaigning in battleground seats ahead of the snap election on 8 June. |
39,867,799 | Cricket Australia confirmed delays to the new 60,000-capacity stadium will mean the match from 14-18 December will revert to the city's traditional venue.
The five-Test Ashes series starts in Brisbane on 23 November, with Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney also hosting.
"It's good now we have some certainty," said CA chief James Sutherland.
CA confirmed the change after meeting with the Western Australia government and Western Australian Cricket Association representatives.
"We knew that everything needed to come together but it was still disappointing," said Sutherland.
"We were really hoping that the Test match could be played at this magnificent new stadium."
The regional authorities hope the fifth one-day international between Australia and England on 28 January will take place at the new venue.
Sutherland added it was "probably unlikely" that any of the domestic T20 Big Bash League or Women's Big Bash League matches in the 2017-18 season would be played at the new stadium, with the Perth Scorchers franchise to host matches at the Waca.
England have not beaten Australia in Tests at the Waca ground since 1978. | Perth's new stadium will not be finished in time for the third Ashes Test between England and Australia, with the Waca set to host instead. |
35,804,333 | This article was first published on 15 March, 2016
No-one did more to glamorise and popularise professional golf than Arnold Palmer, the 86-year-old host of the invitational tournament that bears his name and which starts at Bay Hill on Thursday.
Without his charismatic showmanship and commitment to the four majors, it is hard to imagine golf enjoying the status it does today.
Tiger Woods has been one of the world's most eminent sportsmen in the past two decades, but the impact of the 14-time major champion's brilliance would not have been so great without the foundations laid by Palmer.
Between 1958 and 1964, the man they called 'The King' won seven major titles and harnessed the new television era for golf as viewers fell in love with 'Arnie' and his heart-on-sleeve style.
He was followed by hordes of fans on both sides of the Atlantic, who became known as Arnie's Army.
This was especially significant because Palmer continued to travel to the UK for The Open at a time when many American pros were finding the oldest major rather inconvenient.
But golf's biggest hero embraced the journey across the pond and in doing so breathed new life into The Open.
The reward for his admirable perseverance was back-to-back Claret Jugs at Royal Birkdale and Royal Troon in 1961 and 1962.
That latter victory, at this year's Open host, attracted the championship's strongest field since the days of Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen, forever re-establishing the event's place among the majors.
Jack Nicklaus may have come along to wrest the mantle of the sport's leading player from Palmer, but his fame never waned. To this day you can order an 'Arnold Palmer' and the bartender will know to pour an iced tea with lemonade.
Even at the age of 86, he still ranks the fifth-highest earner in the game. According to Golf Digest's latest figures, Palmer's $40m income last year was beaten only by Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson, Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Mr Palmer, as the players refer to him, has always been an energetic ambassador for his event, conspicuous on the range, the course, in the clubhouse and the press tent. But, sadly, this year he is likely to be less visible.
"I don't think his liveliness is quite there like it has been," his grandson Sam Saunders, a PGA Tour player, recently told ESPN.
"The one thing that will never go away is his toughness. He's not just going to lay down and not do anything. He'll still be out there trying to push it.
"It's a very busy week. There's a lot of stuff going on. It's tiring for me and I'm 28. At 86, he's doing OK, but I think his availability to get out and be on the course and be seen as much will be limited."
Although age is catching up with his grandfather, Saunders revealed Palmer's eye for the game remains undiminished.
"It's amazing what he can still see and do," he said. "Every now and then, the words of wisdom that come out are mind-boggling. There are very few people in golf who know the game, physically or mentally, better than him."
The stature of this golfing great helps attract what are always strong fields at Bay Hill. McIlroy chose to play there for the first time last year, principally to honour Palmer's contribution to the game.
The Northern Irishman returns again this week for what will be his last strokeplay outing before next month's Masters and is joined in Orlando by Jason Day, Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson.
Adam Scott is also in the field, bidding to become the first man to win three PGA Tour titles in a row since Woods collected five in succession in 2007/8.
Two years ago, Australian Scott led for three rounds before a closing 76 handed victory to Matt Every.
The American retained the title 12 months later, so again enjoyed a congratulatory handshake with the exalted host behind the home green.
But no-one has been more successful there than the injured Woods, an eight-time champion who misses the tournament for the third year running.
Woods may not be there but, like all the PGA Tour's events, it will still be screened nationwide and internationally.
This, in large part, is Palmer's legacy. Not only did he make the game more popular but, in 1995, he also co-founded America's Golf Channel, which is currently available in 80 million US households.
The ultimate beneficiaries of Palmer's legacy are the players themselves. This week, they will all make time for the grand old man of golf, and he will appreciate their gestures.
"All the guys coming to the tournament and seeing the familiar faces will definitely get his spirits up," said Saunders.
It is the least they can do. | With another $6.3m up for grabs when the PGA Tour completes its Florida swing, it is an opportune moment to salute the prime architect behind such riches. |
35,916,578 | Punjab's law minister said those held were among more than 5,000 questioned in a sweeping counter-terror offensive.
Weapons and ammunition have also been seized in raids by security forces.
Taliban splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar said it carried out the attack against Christians celebrating Easter, although most of those killed were Muslims.
The area around Gulshan-i-Iqbal park was more crowded than usual, as members of Lahore's minority Christian community had gathered to celebrate Easter at a funfair there.
At least 29 of the victims were children. Another 300 people were injured, with officials saying they expected the death toll to rise.
"There are no militant safe-havens or no-go areas in Punjab," law minister Rana Sanaullah told a news conference in Lahore.
He said 56 intelligence operations had been jointly carried out by police, paramilitary, army and intelligence forces.
Both Pakistan's prime minister and the powerful army chief have vowed to bring the attackers to justice.
Reports say the military is preparing to launch a new crackdown in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous and wealthiest province - and the heartland of PM Nawaz Sharif's support.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar's spokesman mocked Mr Sharif on Tuesday, saying that war had "reached his doorstep".
Read more: Who are Pakistan's Christians? | More than 200 people have been detained in Pakistan in the hunt for those behind the Easter Sunday bombing that killed at least 72 people in Lahore. |
27,344,438 | The winning sculpture, out of four designs, would be built and installed in Wyndham Park in Grantham.
A plaque, inscribed with the winner's name, will be displayed with the sculpture.
South Kesteven District Council and Wyndham Park Forum, which commissioned the competition, shortlisted the designs in April.
The four designs have been based around World War One and/or The Machine Gun Corps, which was based at nearby Belton House during the war.
John Knowles, chairman of the forum, said: "We encourage people to come and have a look at the designs in depth and choose which they feel they would like to see feature in the park.
"We feel it's right the public have the final say about which design they wish to see commemorate such an emotive part of the town's and Britain's history."
People will be able to vote when the four designs go on display at the Isaac Newton Centre, in Grantham, on 16 May and Wyndham Park on 17 May.
The memorial was commissioned after the announcement of initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund in January. | Members of the public have the chance to vote for their preferred World War One sculpture for a Lincolnshire park. |
35,120,567 | Douglas Edwardson, 58, was head of housing at Aberdeenshire Council.
The crash happened on the A944 Dunecht to Alford road on Saturday 5 December.
Relatives said in a statement issued through Police Scotland: "Douglas' family are devastated to confirm that Douglas has died. They are very grateful for all the support they have received."
Aberdeenshire Council chief executive Jim Savege said: "It is with great sadness that we have learned today of the death of one of our colleagues, Douglas Edwardson.
"Douglas was an incredibly warm, loyal and supportive colleague who will be greatly missed by many people right across this council.
"He had worked in the north east for more than 22 years, initially as director of housing and technical services with the former Banff and Buchan District Council, and was a well-known and respected figure in his role as head of service for housing with Aberdeenshire Council.
"Our thoughts are with his family, and for our colleagues who worked closely with Douglas over the years. We will be doing everything we can to ensure we provide them with the support they need." | A man has died after a car and tractor collided in Aberdeenshire earlier this month. |
35,902,164 | After a drab first half the Bees went ahead when Lasse Vibe pounced on an awful mix-up between Kelvin Wilson and keeper Dorus De Vries to poke in.
Nico Yennaris smashed home from Jake Bidwell's corner before Sergi Canos swept in a fine first-time shot.
Forest's misery was compounded when Eric Lichaj was sent off after picking up two yellow cards in four minutes.
Brentford had collected just seven points in 2016 before kick-off - the lowest tally in the Championship - but maintained their good recent record at the City Ground with a third win in four visits.
Forest captain Henri Lansbury's return as a second half substitute, after almost three months out with a knee ligament injury, provided the only cheer on a miserable afternoon for the hosts.
The Reds rarely threatened and have now failed to score in eight of their last 12 matches, with just two goals in their last seven home games.
The win moved Brentford nine points clear of the bottom three and up a place to 17th, level on points with Forest who dropped to 16th.
Nottingham Forest manager Paul Williams:
"I am really disappointed with the performance and the reaction to the fans to that performance is entirely valid.
"We did not put them under pressure. We did not get in their faces. I would not say I feel let down. They are human beings like everyone else.
"I will be looking for a reaction from this side, because that is the least the fans deserve. Can I explain it? Not really. We were second best from minute one. I thought Brentford were here for the taking and we had told the players that.
"I really do apologise to the fans for that performance. I will have a look at our preparation and see if it was too much and we will look at how we prepare for the next game now."
Brentford boss Dean Smith:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"Every win is a big win and our previous performances had merited far more than we had got. I thought it was a deserved win.
"We were defensively organised and allowed them very few chances - and Forest got very frustrated because of that.
"We capitalised on their indecision at the back, we got the first goal and that gave us renewed confidence after that.
"We have been on a bad run and they want to put that right. That was the kind of character we were always going to need." | Brentford eased their relegation fears and ended a four-match losing run with victory at a poor Nottingham Forest. |
25,151,104 | One of the most prominent is Omar Shishani, who was appointed by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) as commander of the northern sector in Syria.
Until recently Omar Shishani was leader of the Jaysh al-Muhajirin wa al-Ansar (Army of the Emigrants and Helpers), an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group comprising local and foreign fighters, including Chechens.
Omar Shishani was replaced by another Chechen commander, Salahuddin, as most Chechens in Syria refuse to pay allegiance to Isis.
Villagers here know each other, and some knew Omar Shishani ("Shishani" means "the Chechen" in Arabic).
One man, known as Abdullah, described Omar Shishani as "a good man".
Chechens drawn south to fight Assad
Another, Ayoub Borchashvili, a local imam in Jokolo village, said: "Omar is a respected man, a noble person and I like him very much.
"He and his colleagues flocked to Syria for the sake of Allah to help oppressed people there and to protect their rights."
The BBC has learned that Omar Shishani had served in the Georgian army a few years ago and was later jailed.
Someone who had served with Omar Shishani in the army told us: "He was a sober, respected person, who never showed signs of religious fanaticism or extremism."
No-one explained why Omar Shishani became motivated by religion, although his relation with the Georgian army could have played a role.
Through a middleman, the BBC managed to see a Georgian defence ministry official about Omar Shishani - or Tarkhan Batirashvili, his real name.
The record says Tarkhan Batirashvili was born in Birkiani, one of the major villages in the Pankisi valley, in 1986.
He performed national service in the Georgian armed forces in 2006-2007.
Afterwards, he joined the army at the end of 2007 as a rifleman.
The record says he took part in combat during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war and was promoted to the rank of sergeant.
Tarkhan Batirashvili was never decorated, according to the record. In 2010 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was considered unfit for the military service.
He was dismissed from the army and arrested a few months later, accused of illegally purchasing and storing weapons.
He was released from prison before completing his three-year jail term due to deterioration of his health.
According to people who knew him, Omar Shishani had "difficult times" with Georgian intelligence, causing him to move to Turkey.
From there he went to Syria, where armed conflict began, and there, thanks to his military skills, Omar Shishani - or Tarkhan Batirashvili - became one of the most influential military leaders of the Syrian opposition forces. | There are believed to be about 200 Chechens fighting alongside rebels in Syria, led by commanders from the Pankisi Valley in north-east Georgia. |
37,640,353 | The "respectful relationship" curriculum will be mandatory in all schools in Victoria from next year.
Students will explore issues around social inequality, gender-based violence and male privilege.
However, a report on a 2015 pilot trial accused it of presenting all men as "bad" and all women as "victims".
Pay inequality, anger management, sexual orientation and the dangers of pornography will be among the topics explored by students in the programme, costing A$21.8m (£13.5m; $16.5m).
Primary school students will be exposed to images of both boys and girls doing household chores, playing sport and working as firefighters and receptionists.
The material includes statements including "girls can play football, can be doctors and can be strong" and "boys can cry when they are hurt, can be gentle, can be nurses and can mind babies".
In high school, students will be taught the meaning of terms including pansexual, cisgender and transsexual and the concept of male privilege.
A guide for the Year 7 and 8 curriculum states: "Being born a male, you have advantages - such as being overly represented in the public sphere - and this will be true whether you personally approve or think you are entitled to this privilege."
It describes privilege as "automatic, unearned benefits bestowed upon dominant groups" based on "gender, sexuality, race or socio-economic class".
Year 11 and 12 students are introduced to the concept of "hegemonic masculinity" which "requires boys and men to be heterosexual, tough, athletic and emotionless, and encourages the control and dominance of men over women".
Some critics have suggested that although more needs to be done to protect the female victims of domestic violence, the programme lacks objectivity and nuance.
Jeremy Sammut, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies, a libertarian think tank, told The Australian newspaper that it amounted to "taxpayer-funded indoctrination" of children.
"The idea behind this programme - that all men are latent abusers by nature of the 'discourse' - is an idea that only cloistered feminist academics could love," Dr Sammut said.
"A lot of evidence suggests that like child abuse, domestic violence is a by-product of social dysfunction: welfare, drugs, family breakdown."
The royal commission that recommended education as the key measure for preventing future family violence found that 25% of victims of family violence are men. Critics argue that point is often overlooked.
Education Minister James Merlino has said education is the key to ending the "vicious cycle" of family violence.
"This is about teaching our kids to treat everyone with respect and dignity so we can start the cultural change we need in our society to end the scourge of family violence," he said. | A state in Australia has launched an education programme designed to smash gender stereotypes and tackle the root causes of domestic violence. |
39,928,476 | The decision was taken in a vote at the Royal College of Nursing's annual Congress in Liverpool.
The nurse who proposed the idea said reasonable adjustments could be made to the job for colleagues with dementia.
The plan was controversial though, with some members arguing it could put patients at risk.
A dementia nurse from London, Jo James, suggested developing an RCN strategy for supporting colleagues with the condition.
She told the conference: "A dementia diagnosis is likely to signal the end of a nurse's professional life.
"In a single moment they will go from nurse to patient, regardless of the severity of their dementia or how it's affecting them.
"We have robust laws in place against discrimination - but dementia is often seen as the exception to the rule and stigmatised."
An RCN steward from Coventry and Warwickshire, Phil Noyes, said he had represented a number of people with memory problems.
He said: "If we address this, we allow people to continue working for as long as they are able - and that's the limit point."
But some nurses expressed concern.
Mary Codling, a nurse from Berkshire, said: "I have grown up with people with dementia, and it's been a constant theme in my life for the past 20 years.
"My father had dementia. To the outside world, he looked quite normal and carried on with his day-to-day life.
"But he was actually driving up and down one-way streets.
"How do you ensure that that person is delivering safe practice to patients?"
And doubts were also voiced by Shirley Ali, a senior anaesthetic practitioner from London.
She told the conference: "We administer drugs to the miniscule microgramme.
"If I have dementia and try to do my job, how am I ensuring patient safety?"
Jo James thanked her colleagues for an "inspiring" debate.
She said: "I think we need an RCN strategy on this because it's difficult to manage in the workplace.
"We don't want people to hide their diagnosis from their managers because they're frightened they will lose their livelihood.
"We need people with dementia to be honest and open about what's happening.
"We should obviously never put patient safety at risk - but we can nurse in other ways."
Jo James added: "We employed a member of staff because she has dementia. It was complicated - HR had a paddy.
"She teaches our staff and gets fantastic feedback."
Afterwards, the head of the RCN Janet Davies said: "The chances are there will be workers who are developing dementia in every setting in the UK, in healthcare and beyond.
"Just because someone has a mental or physical impairment, it doesn't mean they're dangerous.
"The requirement for reasonable adjustments means you assess that person so they're not putting anyone in danger.
"If they didn't have the capacity, they wouldn't be making critical decisions or calculations." | Nurses who have dementia should be supported to continue their work for as long as they are able, a nursing union has agreed. |
33,550,068 | Seven-week-old "Laurie" suffered serious facial injuries including a broken jaw when dropped on the M58 in Merseyside at 05:30 BST on Wednesday.
A Tesco lorry driver spotted him cowering in the central reservation, and thought he had been run over.
Laurie is on painkillers and is also being treated for an infection. Vets are unsure whether he will survive.
Stephanie Taylor, from the Rescue Me Animal Sanctuary, said: "I was woken up by one of our supporters saying she needed help as they have got a kitten in the car. The lorry driver put him in the footwell and didn't know what to do.
"We had the cat checked over by the vet who said the injuries were more likely sustained by being thrown from a moving vehicle landing on its face."
In addition to a broken jaw - which cannot be wired and is infected - Laurie has a badly scraped face, a split lip, and has lost his lower teeth.
He had been in a "great deal of pain," said Ms Taylor, who added that he was very affectionate and enjoys rubbing up against people and purring.
It is the third kitten admitted to the sanctuary this week after being "dumped in isolated places with horrific injuries", she said. | A kitten which was thrown onto a motorway has been rescued by a lorry driver and taken to a sanctuary. |
36,804,714 | The assaults were said to have taken place between 2013 and 2015 at the Serco-run centre in Bedfordshire.
Home Office minister James Brokenshire said two further allegations were made at other immigration removal centres.
Serco said there were no proven cases of sexual abuse at the centre in the last three years.
Both the Home Office and Bedfordshire Police said they could not provide details of the outcome of the investigations, but Mr Brokenshire said all allegations were investigated.
Mr Brokenshire said: "Of these six allegations, one was made in 2013, three in 2014 and two in 2015."
Founder of Women for Refugee Women, Natasha Walter, said the claims were "really, really troubling".
"The women who are locked up in Yarl's Wood... the majority are survivors of serious sexual violence and often torture in their countries of origin."
She called on the new Home Secretary Amber Rudd to stop holding women who have sought asylum in detention centres.
Yarl's Wood, which holds more than 350 detainees, most of whom are women, was recently criticised for a lack of staff training.
Conservative MP David Burrowes, who is the vice-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees, said: "There is a need for greater transparency and openness at Yarl's Wood."
MPs are planning to visit the centre, following criticisms of the way it is run.
A spokesman for Serco said it "takes any allegation of sexual abuse extremely seriously" and complaints are referred with "no exceptions" to the Home Office and the police.
He added: "There have been no incidents of sexual abuse at Yarl's Wood in the last three years." | Female detainees at Yarl's Wood immigration centre made six allegations of sexual assault against staff in a three-year period, it has emerged. |
34,942,222 | Set in the 9th Century, the film earned Hou Hsiao-Hsien the Cannes Film Festival's best director prize in May.
It has now topped Sight & Sound magazine's Films of the Year poll, ahead of Carol and Mad Max: Fury Road.
Arabian Nights by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes was fourth, followed by Cemetery of Splendour by Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Seven of the top 10 films had "striking female leads", according to the British Film Institute (BFI), which publishes Sight & Sound.
They include The Assassin's heroine, played by Shu Qi, who was kidnapped as a child by a nun, trained in martial arts and sent to kill her cousin, a military leader.
Sight & Sound editor Nick James said: "It's pleasing that such a gorgeous work of revenge, magic and delicate restraint - a work of martial arts cinema only in the loosest sense - should win out with the critics.
"Todd Haynes' swooning, subtle lesbian melodrama Carol has no peers in terms of craft and guile, so it's no surprise to see it in one of the top spots.
"On the other hand, finding George Miller's mega-chase-movie Mad Max: Fury Road in third place might seem a surprise but many critics have waited a long while for such a sharp, vivid and imaginative blockbuster."
The highest-ranked British film was drama 45 Years, which starred Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay. Asif Kapadia's Amy Winehouse documentary, simply titled Amy, was also in the top 10.
Other films in the top 20 included Charlie Kaufman's animation Anomalisa (joint 11th place), horror film It Follows (=11th), Pixar's Inside Out (=14th), and Tangerine, which was shot entirely on iPhones (=14th).
The poll comes days after The Assassin collected five awards at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards, including best film and best director. | Taiwanese martial arts drama The Assassin has been named the best film of 2015 in a poll of 168 critics. |
33,298,314 | The warm weather has been blamed for the deluge of barrel jellyfish on the Dorset coastline in recent weeks.
Weymouth's sea life park said it was an unusual incident for the area, with very few reported sightings since the early 2000s.
Experts say their stings are not powerful enough to harm humans, but people are advised not to touch them.
The Sea Life Centre said the large amount of jellyfish could be because there is more plankton around in warmer waters, and strong winds can then sweep them into the shallows.
A centre spokeswoman said they "were getting washed up in their hundreds".
The barrel jellyfish are not severely poisonous, with people feeling something akin to a nettle sting when touched.
Dead jellyfish can still sting if touched.
A barrel of jellyfish facts
Source: Marine Conservation Society | Hundreds of dead jellyfish the size of dustbin lids have washed up on Weymouth beach. |
40,229,826 | The Scottish Conservative leader, who is gay, plans to marry her partner in the near future.
The DUP opposes same-sex marriage, with Northern Ireland the only part of the UK where it is not legal.
Ms Davidson said she had been given an assurance that gay rights would not be eroded in return for DUP support.
In a tweet sent on Friday afternoon, Ms Davidson highlighted a speech she made in Belfast about the importance of equal marriage.
She told the BBC's Reporting Scotland programme that she had spoken about the issue with Theresa May on Friday evening.
Ms Davidson said: "I was fairly straightforward with her and I told her that there were a number of things that count to me more than party.
"One of them is country, one of the others is LGBTI rights."
The Scottish Tory leader said she had asked for, and received, a "categoric assurance" from Mrs May that any arrangement between the Conservatives and the DUP would see "absolutely no rescission of LGBTI rights in the rest of the UK".
And she said the prime minister agreed to try to use her influence to advance LGBTI rights in Northern Ireland.
Ms May, whose party lost its majority at Westminster in Thursday's general election, says she will put together a minority government with the support of the DUP to guide the UK through crucial Brexit talks.
The DUP, which returned 10 MPs to Westminster, has garnered a reputation for its strong and controversial views on a number of social issues.
It opposes same-sex marriage and is anti-abortion - with abortion remaining illegal in Northern Ireland, except in specific medical cases.
In a short statement outside Downing Street after an audience with the Queen, Mrs May said she would join with her DUP "friends" to "get to work" on Brexit.
She referred to the "strong relationship" she had with the DUP, but gave little detail of how their arrangement might work.
It is thought Mrs May will seek some kind of informal arrangement with the DUP that could see it "lend" its support to the Tories on a vote-by-vote basis, known as "confidence and supply".
When asked whether she was comfortable about the arrangement given the DUP's views, Ms Davidson said there was "no suggestion" that the Conservative government would be dependent on the support of the DUP.
She added: "The prime minister has already made it clear that it is not going to be a formal coalition, so let's see how the future days go ahead."
Ms Davidson, who backed Remain in the EU referendum, has called for the Tories to listen to other parties to deliver an "open Brexit", which she defines as ensuring that free trade is at the heart of the Brexit negotiations.
She said: "I want to make sure that Scottish businesses can trade as freely as possible with the other 27 countries in the EU as well as the other countries around the world."
Ms Davidson's party won 13 seats in Scotland as its vote surged across the country. Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats returned seven and four MPs respectively, with the SNP winning 35 - a drop of 21 from the 56 the party won two years ago.
The DUP are pro-union (not Europe but UK), pro-Brexit and socially conservative.
The party, which returned 10 MPs to Westminster, has garnered a reputation for its strong, sometimes controversial views.
It opposes same-sex marriage and is anti-abortion - abortion remains illegal in Northern Ireland, except in specific medical cases.
One MP is a devout climate change denier, while a former MP once called for creationism - the belief that human life did not evolve over millions of years but was created by God - to be taught alongside evolution in science classes.
During the election campaign, the DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly was endorsed by the three biggest loyalist paramilitary organisations.
Read more about the DUP here and meet their MPs here. | Ruth Davidson has been told by the prime minister that any Conservative deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will not affect LGBTI rights. |
39,740,232 | Quigg, 28, moved to work under hall of fame inductee Roach at California's prestigious Wildcard Gym in February.
Quigg, who meets Romanian Viorel Simion in an eliminator for the IBF featherweight title held by Lee Selby, said he is now "a different fighter".
"He's the only guy who works harder than Pacquiao," said Roach, who also trains the eight-weight world champion.
"That's a big call," added the seven-time winner of the Boxing Writers' of American Trainer of the Year award.
"His work ethic is great and we've seen a lot of really good changes already in the gym."
Quigg, who lost the WBA super-bantamweight world title to Carl Frampton in 2016, won on his only outing at featherweight in December.
The meeting with Simion, who has one defeat in 22 fights, forms part of the undercard to Anthony Joshua's heavyweight title fight with Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium.
It will be Quigg's first bout since parting ways with Manchester-based trainer Joe Gallagher.
"I've always wanted to keep improving," said Bury-born Quigg. "I'm walking into the gym with Freddie and I feel like I'm back in school, keeping on learning. The sparring, the quality, just being around that environment I feel a different fighter.
"I think it's the best place to be. You're sparring all different kinds, you can't get better preparation. The subtle changes that have been made I'm putting into practice against world level opposition. I'm confident on Saturday night you will see the best ever Scott Quigg." | Former world champion Scott Quigg has a better work ethic than Manny Pacquiao, according to trainer Freddie Roach. |
39,421,985 | A 1-0 victory over Uzbekistan on Thursday had given them a chance of at least advancing to a play-off stage.
That match was played in Malaysia, where Syria's home games are being held because of the ongoing civil war in the Middle Eastern country.
But the 1-0 loss in Seoul on Tuesday leaves them four points adrift of the third-place finish they need.
Uzbekistan widened their lead over fourth-placed Syria with a 1-0 victory over Qatar, who remain bottom in Group A of Asian qualifying with three matches to play.
South Korea's win, secured through a fourth-minute goal from Hong Jeong-ho, ensures they keep the pressure on group leaders Iran, who beat China 1-0 to go four points clear.
The top two teams in the group qualify for next summer's World Cup in Russia. The third-placed team would have to win two play-off ties to advance. | Syria's hopes of reaching their first World Cup took a blow as they lost their latest qualifier in South Korea. |
40,804,343 | A group of about 70 people - 10 of them adults - from the Cleveland Army Cadets Force were in the County Down mountains when the weather became treacherous.
An emergency operation was launched on Wednesday morning to assist the group, which included children aged 12 to 17.
The Northern Ireland Ambulance said 16 people had hypothermia.
Others had minor injuries.
In a statement on Facebook, the Cleveland Army Cadets Force said that "all cadets have now been recovered from the mountains and accounted for".
The alarm was raised at 11:13 BST on Wednesday. Coastguard, ambulance and helicopter crews were called to the scene.
Medical staff treated several of the children on the mountain.
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) declared a major incident at 13:21 BST.
Ten accident and emergency crews, a hazardous area response team and Mountain Rescue went to the scene.
The emergency team set up a base at Annalong Community Hall to treat those who were hurt.
Dr Nigel Ruddell, medical director for the NIAS, said he called a major incident after it became clear that large number of teenagers were involved and several were having difficulty with the cold.
"We have been able to manage thanks to pool working by all the emergency services," he said.
"At this stage, there are no reports of anybody with serious or life threatening injuries. The injuries seem to be fairly minor and the young people seem in good spirits."
Dr Ruddell said conditions on the mountain had been very difficult and that the group leaders had done a good job in protecting the teenagers.
Ken Johnston, chief press officer with the Ministry of Defence, Northern Ireland, said: "We had a number of young people from England attending an Army Cadet Force camp in Northern Ireland.
"This morning they were in the Mourne Mountains when that atrocious weather swept in. A decision was taken to withdraw as the weather and rain and wind continued."
He described the rescue operation as "remarkable".
"We are exceptionally grateful," he said.
"We are assessing the children, but we understand it is fairly minor injuries, ankle injuries and some cold injuries."
The coastguard said the PSNI and ambulance service contacted them requesting assistance after receiving "several reports that a large number of people were in difficulty after being caught out in inclement weather".
Colin McGrath, an SDLP MLA, tweeted: "Major emergency incident in the Mournes with helicopter, coastguard, medical and ambulance responding.
"Please God all will be ok."
Police have advised motorists to avoid Head Road in Annalong due to a build-up of traffic. Drivers should seek an alternative route. | Seventeen children had to be stretchered off the Mourne Mountains after an emergency involving a group of Army cadets from England. |
34,211,629 | Lifelong fan Nigel Daws said he created the figures, which include Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, to mark the club's 150th anniversary.
He said he has tried to make the players' facial expressions and hair look as realistic as possible.
Mr Daws said Peter Shilton's perm and Garry Birtles' quiff were among the most challenging parts of the project.
The designer, who is originally from Ilkeston but now lives in Manchester, said a friend had seen the England Lego team he had created for his son and asked if he could do one of the Reds.
Mr Daws said: "I tried to make the facial expressions as close to the real thing as I could - including Kenny Burns with his little snarl."
"Shilton was another interesting one to make - with his tight permed hair," he said.
"Lego don't do perms - so the only thing available was like an afro style - which I bought, but it looked ridiculous, so I had to find another one."
Mr Daws said Garry Birtles was also difficult to get right.
"There were a lot of mullets back then," he added.
Mr Daws has no plans to exhibit the 1.57in (4cm) figures, but added "it would be fantastic" if the club wanted to use them in some way to mark its anniversary.
A number of other tributes are also being paid to Nottingham Forest to mark the club's anniversary.
A documentary film - called I Believe in Miracles - tells the story of the club's rise under Brian Clough, from second division strugglers to European champions in 1979 and 1980, and is due to be premiered at the City Ground in October.
Nottingham Contemporary will also hold a short exhibition, alongside the release. | A Nottingham Forest fan has recreated the double European Cup-winning team of 1979/80 in Lego. |
32,140,173 | The 56-year-old took over in August with Genk 13th in the 16-team table after four games.
He steered them to within a point of the top six, failing to reach the play-offs for the league title.
"Communicating this decision creates clarity and will allow us now to put our focus on winning a Europa League place," said McLeish.
"Myself, the staff and players promise to give every ounce of energy as we did in the regular competition."
McLeish, who managed Birmingham City, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest after resigning as Scotland boss in 2007, signed a two-year contract on his arrival in Belgium.
The teams ranked seven to 14 in the Jupiler Pro League split into two play-off groups, with the winners of each section meeting over two legs.
The winners of that tie go on to meet either the fourth or fifth team from the top six, depending on where the cup winners finish, for the final Europa League spot. | Former Scotland and Rangers manager Alex McLeish is to leave Belgian club Racing Genk after one campaign. |
39,173,295 | The weapon was discovered when officers stopped and searched the vehicle on the Dublin Road on Friday afternoon.
The men, aged 21, 22 and 37, were questioned by the PSNI's reactive and organised crime branch.
The men are expected to appear at Enniskillen Magistrates' Court on Monday morning.
They face a number of charges including having a firearm in suspicious circumstances and possession of an offensive weapon. | Three men have been charged with firearms offences after police found a gun during a search of a car in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. |
35,885,433 | Chancellor George Osborne announced the proposals for an elected mayor covering Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk in his budget last week.
But some local MPs already fear the plan is starting to unravel.
It follows a unanimous vote by Cambridgeshire County Council to reject the deal in its present form.
There has also been criticism over the past few days by senior political figures including Sir Henry Bellingham and Lord Tebbit.
At Westminster Conservative MPs from the region have, off the record, used words such as "shambles", "dog's dinner" and "not properly thought through" to describe the current state of play. One senior Tory told the BBC: "I'm glad I have nothing to do with this."
The BBC understands MPs and a handful of local councillors from the East have approached the Treasury within the past 24 hours and asked it to appoint a senior figure, either a politician or a local business person, who can oversee the negotiations between the 23 councils.
They are also asking for longer to conclude a deal. At the moment the government wants all the councils to have agreed to it by the end of June.
Some MPs said the idea of an elected mayor was not popular with many people, while others said the money on offer - £1bn over 30 years - was not very much.
Government sources accepted there was a lot of unease at the moment and the idea of bringing in someone to oversee the negotiations and win widespread support for devolution was being considered. But they added agreement needed to be reached quickly and that a mayor for the region was non-negotiable.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "We are committed to the deal and will continue to work with all the councils in the area. This is a bottom up process and councils in East Anglia have until June to decide if they want to take part in this historic opportunity." | Supporters of East Anglian devolution are lobbying government ministers to "get a grip" and intervene to stop the deal from collapsing. |
35,990,687 | English Heritage said it had seen more "drunken and disrespectful behaviour" as crowds had increased each year.
It hopes the alcohol ban will help "better look after" both those attending the solstice and the ancient monument.
A £15 charge per vehicle is also being introduced to encourage more people to car share or travel by bus.
Senior druid, King Arthur Pendragon, previously said any charge would be a "Pay to Pray policy" and he would fight the "total ban on alcohol".
English Heritage said it was "mindful" of the practices of some druid and pagan groups who use alcohol as part of their ceremonial practice, and will consult on how moderate use of ritual alcohol might be incorporated into the new policy.
It also pledged to keep access to the monument free during the celebrations, despite growing attendances.
Kate Davies, Stonehenge's general manager, said: "Something has to be done or we risk losing what makes solstice at Stonehenge so special."
In 2000, approximately 10,000 people attended the solstice, while in 2014, the figure was close to 40,000.
That same year, the stones were vandalised during both the summer and winter solstice celebrations.
Despite it being illegal to damage the monument, last year the Heritage Journal wanted revellers banned from getting close to the stones in a bid to prevent the "annual vandalism". | Revellers at Stonehenge will face a ban on alcohol at this year's solstice celebrations. |
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Oxford had dominated the race in recent times but Cambridge took an early lead.
They held their rhythm through the tricky conditions on the Thames to triumph by five seconds.
Earlier, Oxford made it four wins in a row in the Women's Boat Race as the Cambridge boat almost sank in the latter stages.
The Dark Blues successfully found the shallower, calmer waters on the Thames and were able to power to a comfortable victory.
In the men's race, Cambridge - coached by 2000 Olympic gold medallist Steve Trapmore - made the most of their height and weight advantage.
"A lot of hard work goes into this - we wanted it more," said Cambridge president Henry Hoffstot, who had been part of the losing Light Blue crews in 2014 and 2015 along with cox Ian Middleton.
"Steve and I went out on the course yesterday," said Middleton. "We knew what the conditions would be like and the guys dealt with it really well."
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In the women's race, Oxford went in as favourites and coped better with the tricky conditions.
President Maddy Badcott praised cox Morgan Baynham-Williams, who engineered a move across the river, which helped give them victory.
"We are so lucky to have Morgan - she smashed it," Badcott told BBC Sport.
"Those conditions are probably the worst I have experienced on the Tideway and I'm so glad it has worked out for us and our training paid off.
"This is probably the best team I have ever been part of and that spirit got us through the race." | Cambridge claimed their first win in the men's Boat Race since 2012 as they used their power to beat Oxford in the 162nd edition of the race. |
37,380,895 | Deutsche Bank said it "has no intention to settle these potential civil claims anywhere near the figure cited".
The claim against Deutsche, which is likely to be the subject of negotiations for several months, was much bigger than expected.
The bank's shares fell nearly 7% in early trading.
"The negotiations are only just beginning. The bank expects that they will lead to an outcome similar to those of peer banks which have settled at materially lower amounts," Deutsche Bank said.
The sale of residential mortgage-backed securities played a significant role in the 2008 financial crisis.
Banks in the US have been subject to a number of investigations over allegations of giving mortgages to unqualified borrowers, then repackaging those loans as safe investments and selling the risk on to others.
At the current figure, the fine facing Deutsche Bank it is one of the largest penalties handed out by US authorities in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
The Department of Justice sought $12bn from Citigroup in 2014 for the sale of mortgage-backed financial products. The bank ended up paying $7bn.
In 2013, JP Morgan Chase was fined $13bn following allegations it overstated the quality of mortgages being sold to investors and in the following year, Bank of America paid $16.7bn to settle similar charges.
Goldman Sachs settled for $5.1bn in January this year.
The fine has emerged at a difficult time for Deutsche Bank. Its most recent results revealed a 20% fall in second quarter revenues and a 67% drop in profits.
In July, one of Deutsche Bank's US operations failed a stress test by the Federal Reserve, which it criticised for having "broad and substantial weaknesses" in capital planning and for making insufficient progress on previous year.
Neil Wilson at ETX Capital said that given the potential size of the settlement, "you have to wonder if financial regulators are starting to do more harm than good".
"Given the very precarious finances of some European banks, of which Deutsche is one of the riskiest and systemically important, it's disturbing and appears myopic and needlessly punitive.
"True, the final sum is unlikely to be as high as the $14bn claim, but somewhere around a third of that would seem par for the course. That would still represent a massive blow to a firm with a market cap of about €18bn." | The US Department of Justice is asking Deutsche Bank to pay $14bn (£10.6bn) to settle an investigation into mortgage-backed securities, the bank has said. |
31,173,309 | The Supreme Court agreed with insurers who claimed an assembly law passed in 2013 was outside its competence.
The court said Welsh ministers had no right to impose charges to fund the NHS, and insurers should not be given extra liabilities for asbestos exposure which long predated the bill.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) welcomed the judgement.
"The Welsh Bill would have seen increased insurance premiums for Welsh businesses but no extra compensation for mesothelioma sufferers," said a spokesperson.
"The insurance industry remains committed to doing all it can to help the victims of this terrible disease and would be happy to work constructively with the Welsh Government on this issue, as it does on other public policy."
Pontypridd AM Mick Antoniw, who first proposed the bill, said he was "gutted" at the ruling, having predicted the measure could have raised £1m a year for the NHS in Wales.
The bill had been referred to the Supreme Court by the Welsh government's Counsel General Theodore Huckle following objections from the insurance industry.
The Welsh government said it would give "careful consideration to this judgment".
Presiding Officer Dame Rosemary Butler called for "greater clarity" so everyone understood what laws the assembly could pass.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled in favour of the assembly on changes to local government by-laws and the re-establishment of the Agricultural Wages Board which had been abolished by the UK government. | Firms in Wales whose staff are treated for asbestos-related illnesses will not be ordered to reimburse the NHS. |
38,179,882 | Gary Johnson told the Mirror he had been abused as a youth player in the 1970s by Eddie Heath, who is now dead.
According to the Mirror, in 2015 Mr Johnson signed a confidentiality agreement and accepted £50,000 from the club, but they did not accept blame.
Chelsea said they had appointed a law firm to investigate a former employee.
The NSPCC children's charity said more than 860 people had called its dedicated football hotline, set up a week ago after several former players alleged past abuse by coaches.
The National Police Chiefs' Council said 55 amateur and professional clubs had been linked to police investigations in 17 force areas.
Mr Johnson, 57, was a member of Chelsea's first team from 1978 to 1981.
He joined the club as an 11-year-old in 1970 and said he had been groomed from the age of 13 by Heath.
He said once the abuse had begun, Heath would attack him at "every opportunity", adding: "He would get me naked in bed, try more adventurous things."
He said: "During the course of this three to four years, he got me to perform in threesomes with other boys, so I know there are other victims out there - it is now up to them if they come forward."
Mr Johnson said he had kept the abuse a secret for decades, until the Jimmy Savile scandal had encouraged him to speak out.
He claimed the Professional Footballers' Association did not return his calls, but the PFA told the BBC it had spoken to Mr Johnson in May and August 2013, and had advised him to go to the police.
Mr Johnson told the Mirror that in 2014 he was advised by police - who have not commented on the claims - to "go back to Chelsea".
He went to a law firm who approached Chelsea for compensation.
"[Chelsea] basically said 'prove it'," said Mr Johnson. "It made me feel like they thought I was faking it."
The BBC understands that the confidentiality clause was lifted on Wednesday.
Mr Johnson said: "Chelsea are one of the biggest and richest clubs in the world.
"All their fans deserve to know the truth. I know they asked me to sign a gagging order. How many others are there out there?
"I hope and pray no clubs are allowed to cover this up - no-one should escape justice."
Mirror editor Lloyd Embley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Chelsea had been right to lift the confidentiality clause, but there were still questions as to why the money had been paid.
He said: "Premier League rules would seem to suggest that a club would need to come forward and say if they had evidence of child abuse."
Football Association chief executive Martin Glenn said: "We have clear rules in the game and if there's any evidence of a breach of those - and hushing up would be one - when it's our turn to apply the rules, we absolutely will, regardless of size of club."
In a statement, Chelsea said: "Chelsea Football Club has retained an external law firm to carry out an investigation concerning an individual employed by the club in the 1970s, who is now deceased.
"The club has also contacted the FA to ensure that all possible assistance is provided as part of their wider investigation."
On Thursday, a number of former Southampton players alleged that they were subjected to years of grooming and sexual abuse by a former club employee.
Southampton FC said they would co-operate fully with any police investigation.
A former Newcastle United player, David Eatock, also came forward on Thursday, to say he had been abused by coach George Ormond.
Sir John Hall, chairman of Newcastle United at that time, said he had not been made aware of any allegations or rumours of abuse when in charge.
The sexual abuse charity Safeline said the abuse extended "way beyond" football, into other sports.
Neil Henderson, its chief executive, said the football revelations had prompted a 91-year-old man to call in.
He said: "He's lived with abuse for 80 years, and the courage of the footballers made him want to speak.
"We're getting people from schools, from scouts, from ice hockey, from different walks of life... we need to recognise that there are a lot more victims."
The FA is supporting the hotline set up by the NSPCC. It is available 24 hours a day on 0800 0232642. | A former Chelsea footballer claims the club paid him £50,000 to keep quiet about allegations of sexual abuse by a former chief scout. |
35,543,995 | The court accepted Meni Naftali's claim that he had been insulted and verbally abused, and awarded him 170,000 shekels (£30,200;$43,700) in compensation.
The ruling said Mrs Netanyahu's angry outbursts and demands had created "abusive" conditions for employees.
Sara Netanyahu had called the claims lies, saying she was civil with staff.
The prime minister's office did not offer any immediate comment on the ruling.
It has rejected past allegations of abuse against Mrs Netanyahu as "evil, skewed gossip".
An earlier case, where Mrs Netanyahu was accused of being abusive towards a housekeeper, was settled out of court.
In its ruling on Wednesday, a labour court found that testimony by Mr Naftali and other employees, alleging mistreatment by Mrs Netanyahu, had been credible.
The testimony pointed to "abusive employment conditions at the prime minister's residence as a result of Mrs Netanyahu's behaviour and her attitude," the court said.
"These included exaggerated demands, insults, humiliation and angry outbursts," according to the 40-page verdict.
Mr Naftali said Mrs Netanyahu had once called him at 03:00 on one occasion to scold him for buying milk packaged in a plastic bag rather than a carton.
On another occasion, he said, she threw a vase of day-old flowers on the floor, telling him that they were not fresh enough, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Mr Naftali resigned in 2012 after working at the Netanyahus' Jerusalem home for 20 months. | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara mistreated household staff, a labour court has found, in a case brought by a former caretaker. |
17,527,337 | The letter, recommending a gardener employed by her late mother at her home in Cumbria, is signed by H.B. Heelis, the Peter Rabbit author's married name.
Written on black-edged mourning paper, it is dated 25 March 1933.
It had been expected to go under the hammer for more than £1,000, but was sold for £750.
Simon Roberts, from Bonhams, said: "It sold for what I think was a relatively modest amount.
"We were hoping for perhaps excess of £1,000 for it so a bit disappointing on the day, but there were two bidders, and one dropped out relatively soon.
"Her letters do turn up, perhaps two or three a year might come on to the market.
"I thought this was a particularly nice one, but it didn't seem quite to grab the imagination in the way we'd hoped."
The letter was bought by a private collector from North America.
It describes gardener Benjamin Dawson as being in the service of the late Mrs Rupert Potter at Lindeth How, Storrs, Windermere, for nine years.
Mrs Heelis writes: "He has been accustomed to herbaceous border, some bedding out, green house, peach house, early vegetables, and the use of the motor lawn mower.
"Mrs Potter had a high opinion of Ben's usefulness, he is a thoroughly reliable man and strong in health." | A letter by the author Beatrix Potter has sold for a "disappointing" amount, according to a representative of the auction house Bonhams. |
36,727,294 | Public spending watchdog Audit Scotland has carried out its first major review of higher education.
It detailed "significant challenges" facing the sector.
The report highlighted a 6% real terms cut in the amount of cash universities receive from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
The Scottish government provided more than £1.7bn to universities and students in 2014/15 but the study said institutions were "placing increasing reliance on generating income from fee-paying students from the rest of the UK and outside the European Union".
The report said it had become more difficult in recent years for Scottish and EU undergraduate students to gain a place at a Scottish university.
It added: "The main reason for this is that applications have increased at a greater rate than increases in the number of funded places available for Scottish and EU students.
"Applications have increased by 23% since 2010, yet the number of offers made by universities has increased by only 9%."
With ministers having committed to ensuring a fifth of university students come from the poorest areas by 2030, Audit Scotland warned if this was to be achieved without an increase in funded places, it would "likely mean fewer students from less deprived backgrounds being offered a university place".
Students from Scotland and other EU countries are entitled to free tuition under the SNP's flagship education policy.
Since 2012/13 undergraduates from England, Wales and Northern Ireland have had to pay fees of up to £9,000 a year, while the charges for international students from outside of Europe can be as much as £47,200 a year.
With Audit Scotland saying the sector faces "a number of significant challenges", including the possibility of further cuts in government funding, the report highlighted the "increasing reliance" universities have on fee-paying students to boost their incomes.
Of the 232,570 students at Scottish universities in 2014/15, 66% were Scottish, the report said, adding that "the student population is becoming increasingly international".
At Scotland's four "ancient" universities - Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews - just under half (48%) of students were from Scotland.
The offer rate - the proportion of applicants offered a place - for Scottish students from universities north of the border has fallen from 57% in 2010 to 50% in 2015.
In contrast, the offer rate for international students from outside the EU in 2015 was 63%, with the rate for applicants from England, Wales and Northern Ireland ranging between 56% and 58%.
Last year almost one in five Scots (19%) applying to university did not receive any offers from a Scottish university, up from 15% in 2010.
Audit Scotland has now recommended the government and the SFC "undertake and publish research on trends in applications, offer rates and acceptances for Scottish university places to assess what impact the limits on funded places are having on access to the university system for Scottish and EU students".
Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland, said: "Given the growing pressures on public finances, the Scottish government must be clear about its priorities for higher education and how it will target public funding to support those aims.
"It also needs to work with the Scottish Funding Council and universities to plan for addressing the challenges ahead."
Shirley-Anne Somerville, the minister for further and higher education, said: "For the fifth year in succession, we are investing over £1bn in our higher education institutions to provide a stable base allowing them to grow and attract additional funding. Supporting all students, particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds, is a top priority for this government. That is why we have committed to implementing all of the recommendations made by the Commission on Widening Access and reviewing student support. Since 2007, the number of Scottish domiciled full-time first degree entrants to Scottish universities has risen by 11% and a record number of students successfully completed full-time higher education courses at colleges in 2014-15. Our commitment to free tuition contributes to Scottish average student loan debt being the lowest in the UK and our minimum income guarantee of £7,625 for the poorest students living at home is currently the best anywhere in the UK."
Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: "Labour was absolutely clear in the Scottish election that we would protect the education budget in real terms. We stand by that pledge. Faced with the choice between using the powers of our Scottish Parliament to invest in education or carrying on with the cuts, the SNP must use the powers to stop the cuts. This expert report lays bare the impact on higher education of the SNP's refusal to protect education budgets. Schools and colleges have suffered, but this report reveals how the budget for universities has also been cut."
Conservative education spokeswoman Liz Smith said: "The SNP's obsession with 'free' higher education is irresponsible and is starving the sector of vital cash required for teaching and capital development. It is also, as we know, having a detrimental knock-on effect on the college sector. Add to that the significant challenges posed by the SNP's insistence that all universities must take 20% of their intake from the most deprived communities by 2030 and it is easy to understand why the universities are so worried. This has major implications for student places and for funding. Unless additional money can be found for the sector Scotland's leading edge in higher education will be under threat. That is exactly why the Scottish Conservatives want to see the introduction of a modest graduate contribution."
Prof Pete Downes, convener of Universities Scotland and principal of the University of Dundee, said the report made it clear higher education was facing "a range of very real funding pressures". He said the university sector in Scotland was "one of the best in the world" but that was "seriously threatened" by the funding pressures identified in the report". "This assessment was reached before the Brexit vote which is causing instability and serious levels of risk in almost every aspect of universities' business. The continued sustainability of Scotland's universities cannot be in question. We want to work closely with the Scottish government, Funding Council and other stakeholders to address these challenges. We need to start from the same place; that higher education funding should be sustainable and competitive."
Mary Senior, of the University and College Union Scotland, said the Scottish government needed to consider whether it needed to use new taxation powers to help fund universities. She said: "The report's conclusion makes it clear that public funding is central to our universities' success both in widening access and remaining world-leading institutions. The Scottish government needs to take a hard look at the level of funding it gives to higher education and how it raises that money. We believe the time has now arrived to properly appraise taxation policy and whether we need to use the parliament's new powers."
National Union of Students Scotland president Vonnie Sandlan said: "We've seen some great progress made in widening access in recent years, and it was really positive to see the Scottish government recently commit to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Widening Access in full. Those recommendations included some bold and ambitious targets for widening access, targets that we cannot afford to shy away from." | A report has found it has become "more difficult" for Scots students to get a place at a university in Scotland. |
41,089,852 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Hope, 23, became the first man to hit hundreds in both innings of a first-class match at Headingley with 118 not out as the tourists chased down 322 to win the second Test by five wickets.
Victory levelled the series at 1-1 after a heavy defeat in the first Test.
"We hope our fans back home will be happy," said Hope.
"They want to see us back on top so this is a stepping stone. We just need to continue and try to get more wins under our belt."
West Indies lost 19 wickets in a day as they fell to an innings-and-209-run defeat in the first Test at Edgbaston, and have been criticised by legendary former players.
"We're Test cricketers for a reason," said Hope.
"We know that we came here to play and that we have the fight, the belief and the players to do it, so we just needed to go out there and execute.
"I was just pleased to get the win, that was the main thing, just to get us back in the series."
The deciding match of the three-Test series is at Lord's from 7-11 September.
Victory would mean West Indies win a first series away from home, against a team other than Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, since 1995.
Hope averaged 18 in 11 Test matches prior to Headingley and had scored only one half-century - 90 in the second innings as West Indies beat Pakistan by 106 runs at Bridgetown in April.
Head coach Stuart Law said it was "just a matter of belief" that had prevented Hope from making more runs.
"I'm really proud of Shai," he told Sky Sports. "He's been going through a form dip but hopefully the pretty 20s are gone and the pretty 120s are here to stay.
"When he came out on day five, he just looked in total control."
Law added his side had "put a lot of doubters to bed" and it "took a lot of character" to recover from being thrashed in the first Test.
"After the kicking we got at Edgbaston, to get the boys back up and looking forward and then to achieve what they've done in the last five days was huge - I'm very proud of them," he said.
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England all-rounder Ben Stokes: "Even though we were on the losing side this Test match it was a great game to be involved in... on to Lord's for the decider."
Former Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara: "Fantastic win by West Indies. Character and guts. Congratulations to Shai Hope and the entire team."
England bowler Stuart Broad: "Excellent Test match. We gave everything. Exhausted. Credit to the Windies for a brilliant chase. On to Lord's for the decider!"
Former England captain Michael Vaughan: "Declaration was very good - the skipper was thinking of winning the game. West Indies were just too good." | West Indies' first Test victory in England for 17 years is a "stepping stone" for them to get "back on top", says batsman Shai Hope. |
36,122,490 | Foreign minister Ri Su-yong also told the Associated Press news agency that his country would not be cowed by international sanctions.
A US official has defended the drills as a sign of commitment to South Korea.
Meanwhile, the North said Saturday's submarine-launched ballistic missile test was a "great success".
"It fully confirmed and reinforced the reliability of the Korean-style underwater launching system and perfectly met all technical requirements for carrying out... underwater attack operation," the North Korean news agency KCNA said.
It added that the test gave the country "one more means for powerful nuclear attack".
North Korea is banned from nuclear tests and activities that use ballistic missile technology under UN sanctions dating back to 2006.
Earlier, Ri Su-yong defended his country's right to have a nuclear deterrent and said the US drove North Korea to develop such weapons as an act of self-defence.
He suggested that the suspension of the military drills could open the door to talks and reduced tensions.
"If we continue on this path of confrontation, this will lead to very catastrophic results, not only for the two countries but for the whole entire world as well," he told AP.
"Stop the nuclear war exercises in the Korean Peninsula, then we should also cease our nuclear tests."
It was a rare interview by a top North Korean official with a foreign media outlet. The conversation took place in the country's diplomatic mission at the UN, the agency said.
An unnamed US official quoted by AP defended the drills in South Korea as demonstrating Washington's commitment to its alliance with Seoul.
The US has insisted the North give up its nuclear weapons programme first before any negotiations and has ignored similar proposals in the past, according to the agency.
Ri Su-yong also said sanctions would not sway his country: "If they believe they can actually frustrate us with sanctions, they are totally mistaken.
"The more pressure you put on to something, the more emotionally you react to stand up against it. And this is important for the American policymakers to be aware of."
The interview came hours after North Korea said it launched a ballistic missile from a submarine, a type of missile that is harder to detect than those launched on land.
Some experts, however, think the North has fired missiles from submerged platforms, rather than from submarines.
The North's official news agency also said the country's leader Kim Jong-un observed from a test facility as the ballistic missile surged from a submarine and spewed out a "massive stream of flames'' as it soared into the sky.
It said the missile met all technical thresholds, but did not specify where the test took place.
South Korean officials, however, said the launch took place near the eastern coastal town of Sinpo.
The report also quoted Kim Jong-Un as saying that the North was now capable of "hitting the heads of the South Korean puppet forces and the US imperialists anytime as it pleases".
North Korea has so far conducted four nuclear tests - the first one in October 2006 and the latest in January this year.
The UN Security Council responded to the latter by imposing its strongest sanctions to date over the North's nuclear weapons programme.
Last month North Korea said it had developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on ballistic missiles, although experts cast doubt on the claims.
Analysts believe the North may be gearing up for a fifth test as a show of strength ahead of the North Korean Workers' Party Congress in early May, the first such meeting since 1980. | North Korea has said it will suspend its nuclear tests if the US stops its annual military exercises with South Korea. |
35,428,430 | Dianne Spragg, 48, of Caerphilly, forged 65 cheques from "mentally incapacitated" customers at Cardiff law firm Geldards.
Cardiff Crown Court heard she spent the money on shoes, clothes and furniture.
Spragg admitted charges of fraud and possessing criminal property.
Tony Trigg, prosecuting, told the court she targeted the accounts of injured and mentally incapacitated clients after she "developed the habit of shopping online for more than she could afford".
"She said she stole to ensure she never went without anything she fancied buying," he added.
One man, 76, who had a mental disorder, had £11,102 taken, while a scaffolder, who had suffered a serious head injury at work lost £37,945.
The court was also told she also took money she had collected on behalf of cancer charity Macmillan Cancer Support.
Adam Sharp, defending, said Spragg felt an overwhelming sense of shame over her actions.
Sentencing her, Judge Tom Crowther QC said: "This was a gross breach of trust. You depleted the accounts of people who, through age, accident or injury were unable to administer their own affairs.
"This money was not being used to feed hungry children but to see you never had to deny yourself anything you wanted."
All Spragg's victims have been reimbursed by her law firm. | A legal secretary who stole nearly £79,000 from vulnerable clients and spent it on shopping sprees has been jailed for two and a half years. |
12,307,678 | Police targeted the supply of crack cocaine and heroin in the city centre.
Operation Avignon was launched partly in response to a VBS.TV documentary called Swansea Love Story which showed addicts injecting themselves in public.
The Swansea Crown Court sentencing followed undercover offices targeting street dealing in the city centre.
Police said they were determined to disrupt the supply of class A, B and C drugs with a particular emphasis on heroin and crack cocaine.
It was partly in response to the number of drug deaths and overdoses in the area.
It was also motivated by the amount of discarded needles and other drugs paraphernalia found in the city.
Officers also said they wanted to tackle the image of Swansea portrayed in the film which followed the everyday lives of addicts.
During sentencing, Judge Peter Heywood said: "Heroin leads to a life of misery and degradation, it's a downward spiral for those who take it.
"The police very properly had concerns about the escalating problem of heroin use in the city.
"It was becoming readily available and easy to get hold of.
"It's almost at endemic levels in south Wales."
Supt Phil Davies of South Wales Police said the sentences reflected "the concerns that society has in respect of Class A drugs" and "in particular heroin supply within Swansea and the impact it has upon the the community".
"I also hope that these sentences will provide a focus for reflection upon the need to seek harm reduction advice for those who are addicted to this drug and a stark reminder of the likely consequences to those who continue supplying class A drugs within our community." | An undercover police operation targeting drug dealers in Swansea has seen 26 people jailed for a total of more than 50 years. |
36,586,820 | Former Leyton Orient player Demetriou, 28, joined Walsall last summer after playing for five years in Cyprus.
Capped 28 times by Cyprus, he played 53 times for Walsall in 2015-16 as they lost in the League One play-off semi-finals, but rejected a new deal.
McGlashan, also 28, was released by the Gills after scoring seven goals in 67 appearances over two seasons.
His contract has the option of a third year and he will face his former side in both of Southend's opening fixtures of the season, with the Essex side hosting Gillingham in both League One on the opening day and in the EFL Cup three days later.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Southend have signed right-back Jason Demetriou and former Gillingham winger Jermaine McGlashan on two-year deals. |
32,607,876 | The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) said it would ask three firms to help it look into expanding drone use and would launch an app for pilots.
The US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the he wanted to see the widespread adoption of drones.
One expert said the plan strengthened the case for registering operators.
As part of the project, the news organisation CNN will test how to fly drones over built up areas for newsgathering, while other firms will research drone use in agriculture and rail transport.
The FAA also demonstrated a smartphone app which it said would help drone users know whether it was safe and legal to fly.
The regulator's administrator Michael Huerta said that the app, called B4UFLY, would provide drone pilots and model aircraft enthusiasts with up-to-date information.
He said: "We want to make sure hobbyists and modellers know where it is and isn't OK to fly."
Referring to the tests, Mr Foxx said: "Government has some of the best and brightest minds in aviation, but we can't operate in a vacuum."
"This is a big job, and we'll get to our goal of safe, widespread UAS (unmanned aerial systems) integration more quickly by leveraging the resources and expertise of the industry."
But Prof David Dunn, a drone expert at the University of Birmingham, in England, called for caution.
He said: "As drone use becomes more common, there is perhaps more need for registration of drones and operators, and legislation insisting on geo-fencing and other safety and security features."
The tests are part of the Pathfinder Program, which was announced on Wednesday by the FAA's administrator Michael Huerta.
He said that, besides CNN, drone manufacturer PrecisionHawk and freight rail firm BNSF Railroad will be involved.
PrecisionHawk will research how drones can be used in farming, and BNSF Railroad will test their use in maintaining remote sections of train track.
While CNN will have to stick to existing rules requiring the drone to remain within the pilot's sight in built-up areas, that requirement will be relaxed in rural areas.
The other firms will be able to operate the devices beyond the pilot's line of sight.
"Even as we pursue our current rulemaking effort for small unmanned aircraft, we must continue to actively look for future ways to expand non-recreational UAS uses," Mr Huerta said.
"This new initiative involving three leading US companies will help us anticipate and address the needs of the evolving UAS industry."
Earlier this year, the FAA announced a series of proposed rules for the use of small civilian drones.
It included provisions against flying near airports, flying at night, or above 500ft.
It also recommended requiring the operator to be able to see the drone at all times.
It said it received more than 4,500 public comments and would address them all before it finalised its rules.
This latest round of tests goes further still after calls from the industry to be allowed to carry out research.
In March this year, Dr Ravi Vaidyanathan - a senior lecturer in robotics at Imperial College London - suggested the US authorities' sluggishness could be an opportunity for the UK as companies sought to test drones offshore. | Drones are going to be used to monitor crops, inspect train tracks and cover news stories in the US as part of a series of tests. |
38,219,812 | Janis Patterson, 64, from Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, put up an 18ft (5.5m) high pole in October and has flown poppy and Father Christmas designs.
Broxtowe Borough Council said her flags were not on an approved list, but admitted the rules sounded "barmy".
Ms Patterson said: "I can't imagine how my flags are causing any offence".
She told the Nottingham Post as an RAF veteran she had been around flags all her life.
She was bought the pole and flags as a present.
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The council's letter came as a complete surprise to Ms Patterson.
"I was just so shocked. First of all I never considered myself to be a criminal in my life," she said.
"And then a £2,500 fine when I'm on a state pension - I wouldn't know how I'd get the money for that.
"But I can't see that these flags are advertising.
"All they are is a bright colourful display on a gloomy day."
Council leader Richard Jackson said there had been a complaint and officials were obliged to enforce the law.
"It does sound a bit barmy to regard a Santa flag as advertising but those are the rules.
"But we are really keen to work with Ms Paterson to see if there is a way to get planning permission," he said. | A woman has been threatened with a £2,500 fine for flying an "unapproved" Santa flag outside her suburban home without planning permission. |
24,602,474 | One person was killed by the fire on Saturday evening as it engulfed several buildings in Leeuwarden, about 140km (87 miles) north of Amsterdam.
Local media said the victim was thought to be a 24-year-old man who had lived in a flat in the buildings.
Mata Hari was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in August 1876, to a shopkeeper and a Javanese mother.
In the early 1900s she left her husband and travelled to Paris where she found fame as an exotic dancer. Her work brought her into contact with many high society society figures.
But she was arrested by France during WWI, accused of being a spy for Germany.
She was executed by firing squad in 1917 after a short trial, though her guilt has long been disputed.
Several films have been made about Mata Hari's life, most famously in 1931 where she was played by Greta Garbo.
NOS TV said dozens of people had had to abandon their homes in the town centre building because of the fire, which started in one of the shops.
Fifteen homes and businesses were affected, said the channel, five of which were totally destroyed. | The house in the Netherlands in which exotic dancer and WWI spy Mata Hari was born has been destroyed in a fire. |
34,006,918 | Mr Carter said he would start his radiation treatment later on Thursday.
Mr Carter, 90, was recently treated for liver cancer, after which it was discovered the disease had spread.
He said he would "cut back fairly dramatically" on public works. "It is in the hands of God and I am prepared for anything that comes," he said.
A Democrat from Georgia, Mr Carter was a relative unknown in the US political world when he was elected president in 1976. He served from 1977 to 1981.
Mr Carter told a press conference on Thursday he had at first thought the cancer was confined to his liver and that an operation this month had completely removed it.
But an MRI scan the same afternoon showed four spots of melanoma on the brain.
"I just thought I had a few weeks left, but I was surprisingly at ease. I've had a wonderful life," he said.
"I have got thousands of friends and I have had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence."
Mr Carter said it was likely doctors would find cancer elsewhere in his body as his treatment continued.
But he said: "I feel very good. I have had no pain or debility."
Source: American Cancer Society
Since leaving the White House in 1981, Mr Carter has remained active, carrying out humanitarian work with his Carter Center in recent years.
Mr Carter's health has been closely watched this year.
In May, he returned early from a trip to observe elections in Guyana because he was "not feeling well".
Mr Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. | Former US President Jimmy Carter has revealed he is to be treated for cancerous tumours on the brain, in his first public comments on his illness. |
38,573,167 | JJ McMenamin dressed as the character while North Yorkshire Police searched for him at the weekend.
He was wanted for failing to attend court and handed himself in dressed in the costume on Monday.
The 30-year-old pleaded guilty at Northallerton Magistrates' Court earlier to driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance.
He was banned from driving for three months and fined £235. No further penalty was imposed for the stunt.
More stories from across North Yorkshire
McMenemin, originally from Middlesbrough, was wanted by police after he failed to attend court on 19 December.
He changed his Facebook profile picture to a photo of his head superimposed on an image of Where's Wally and went on to post a series of videos, including one in which he sang along to Lionel Richie's Hello, which contains the line "is it me you're looking for?"
He also filmed himself surrendering to Harrogate police station and broadcasted the event on Facebook. | A man who taunted police by dressing as Where's Wally has been banned from driving. |
15,838,288 | It examines how education is shaping the future in different ways around the world. It is the successor to the award-winning Knowledge Economy series.
If you have any ideas about an international education story send an email to the Global Education editor, Sean Coughlan, at [email protected]
You can join the debate about some of these stories at the BBC's Family & Education News Facebook page. | The BBC's Global Education series looks at education from an international perspective. |
40,360,951 | The New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs lineman told Outsports that fear of rejection spurred him to hide his homosexuality.
He even built a cabin near his Kansas City home and bought guns, planning to take his secret to the grave.
It is still exceedingly rare for top-flight male US athletes to come out.
The 33-year-old told Outsports, a website focused on LGBT issues in sport, that he realised he was gay while at high school in a conservative northern California town.
The 6ft 7in, 330lb (149kg) hulk saw the ultra-macho world of American football as the perfect camouflage for his true identity.
"No one is going to assume the big football player is gay," he said. "It's why a football team is such a good place to hide."
A litany of sporting injuries eventually led O'Callaghan into painkiller addiction.
"It helped with the pain of the injuries, and with the pain of being gay," he told Outsports.
Most sport fans 'would welcome gay players'
YouTube changes settings after LGBT row
"I just didn't worry about being gay when I took the Vicodin."
As his NFL career waned, he began to distance himself from his family, telling himself that it would make his suicide easier for them to accept.
O'Callaghan eventually plucked up the courage to tell Kansas City Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli about his sexuality.
"I'm gay," O'Callaghan said, after asking for a meeting.
Pioli responded: "So what's the problem you wanted to talk to me about?"
O'Callaghan, who retired from the NFL in 2011, described the huge relief the revelation brought him.
"As long as there are people killing themselves because they are gay," he said, "there is a reason for people like me to share my story and try to help."
According to Outsports, O'Callaghan is the seventh former NFL player to have come out as gay.
In basketball, the NBA's Jason Collins in 2013 became the first openly gay male athlete still competing in a major US sports league. | Former NFL player Ryan O'Callaghan has come out as gay, revealing that his anguish over his sexuality drove him to write a suicide note. |
25,831,906 | The report said that there was accumulating evidence that the figures may not be reliable - and they needed to be thoroughly overhauled.
The decision to "de-designate" police statistics does not affect the reliability of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which is the other official measure. But it is damaging all the same, given that the police should be fairly well-placed to tell us what is happening on the streets.
Sir Andrew Dilnot, the head of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), has now confirmed to MPs that the problems look so bad that the effort to fix police failings will probably lead to a rise in the number of recorded crimes.
Speaking to the the Public Administration Select Committee on Tuesday, he said: "It is quite conceivable, indeed I think quite likely, that if there is proper auditing introduced, the recording of crime is improved, that we will see recorded crime increase."
There's no dispute that crime has been steadily falling since the mid-1990s across the UK - as it has been in many other industrialised nations.
But about seven years ago, incidents recorded by the police began to fall faster than those uncovered in the extensive face-to-face interviews conducted by the rolling national survey.
What emerged from Tuesday's evidence was that the two measures of counting crime began to diverge in 2006-07. That coincides with the period when the Audit Commission lost its role in overseeing the police's collection and presentation of the data.
Experts at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) appear to have long suspected that the two events were linked - but they only began their own analysis when responsibility for crime data passed from the Home Office in April 2012.
After nine months of number-crunching, the ONS concluded in a technical report that there could be a real problem with police practices.
Within the pages of neutrally-presented evidence, the ONS said some police forces might be guilty of a "gradual erosion of compliance" with the national rules on counting crime. The report made headlines at the time because it begged a question: are police figures exaggerating falls in crime?
The ONS warned UKSA that the matter needed investigating - ultimately leading a year later to the decision to downgrade the police figures.
Those suspicions are now supported by evidence. While statisticians think some under-counting comes from human error, they say some mistakes could be caused by specific factors. These include a lack of training, failing to record offences which are dealt with informally at a neighbourhood level and even confusion among some officers over whether an offence even occurred when a suspect has gone free.
More seriously, the figures in some categories may have been massaged down to hit local performance targets. This could include defining a partially-reported offence as "no crime" or a "crime-related incident" - neither of which make it into national figures.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary has separately reported on major problems with figures from Kent. It is now preparing a national review of all forces and the inspectorate's chief, Tom Winsor, has warned that he expects his forthcoming report will uncover "fiddling".
All of that chimes with controversial evidence to MPs from police officers who explained how figures have been manipulated down the years - including allegations that the true level of sexual offences has been masked.
During his appearance before MPs, Sir Andrew Dilnot conceded that, with hindsight, the watchdog could have acted a little more quickly - and that's a lesson learnt.
But he stressed that the real question is how to best audit the police stats to ensure the figures can be trusted.
So we can expect to see audit and oversight teams walking into police headquarters - and that will ultimately lead to more crimes being recorded.
The paperwork will ultimately show a rise in the total numbers of crimes in England and Wales - and that will worry some people, even if, in reality, the actual crime rate hasn't changed at all.
Assuming those police stats go up, while the Crime Survey continues to show falls, it could be very, very confusing in the run-up to the 2015 General Election.
But in the long-term, we may get a clearer and more trustworthy set of figures that explain the real impact that crime has on society. | Last week, the UK Statistics Authority, the watchdog that oversees the publication of official data, said it could no longer approve crime figures based on information recorded by the police in England and Wales. |
35,343,436 | Cox featured in six games for Boro earlier this season after joining the club on a one-month loan in November.
The 25-year-old, who is out of contract in the summer, has made 42 appearances for Argyle since joining the club from Swindon Town in May 2014.
Stevenage currently sit 19th in the League Two table, ten points above the relegation zone. | Stevenage have re-signed midfielder Lee Cox on loan from League Two rivals Plymouth until the end of the season. |
36,399,756 | The Englishman, 28, had six birdies in his outward nine as he shot a four-under-par 68 at Wentworth.
On the 10th tee, Willett was 12 under and threatening Paul McGinley's tournament-record halfway score of 13 under but a bogey stalled his progress.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Rafael Cabrera-Bello and Joost Luiten are five under. | Masters champion Danny Willett carded 29 for the opening nine holes of his second round as he took the clubhouse lead in the PGA Championship. |
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