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36,146,288 | The 20-year-old from Seaforde clocked 2:03.70 at the British Para-swimming trials for Rio in Glasgow.
Firth, a 2012 London Paralympics gold medallist, had already achieved the 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke qualifying times at the trials.
She will compete in the 200m Individual Medley on Wednesday.
Firth won the 200m freestyle by two seconds from Jessica-Jane Applegate with Chloe Davies back in third.
The Co Down woman represented Ireland at the 2012 Games before her decision to switch allegiance to Great Britain in 2013.
Last year Firth had to pull out of the British team for the IPC World Championships because of a broken wrist.
After this week's British trials, Firth will head to Madeira for the European Championships which take place in Madeira from 30 April to 7 May. | Northern Ireland's Bethany Firth has broken her own 200m freestyle world record to qualify in a third discipline for the Paralympics in Rio this summer. |
36,060,859 | Crewe had early chances through two Marcus Haber headers and Callum Saunders failed to score against Latics keeper Joel Coleman in a one-on-one.
Oldham's Curtis Main had a volley blocked before Forte's strike from eight yards bounced in off the post.
Crewe's Brad Inman's curling effort went close but was saved by Coleman.
Oldham sit 17th in the table with four home wins in a row, while Crewe are at the foot of the table with no win in 15 games. | Jonathan Forte's winning goal for Oldham Athletic against already-relegated Crewe Alexandra confirmed their safety in League One. |
31,714,850 | But the sixty-minute session in which Facebook's founder was first interviewed by a journalist from Wired, then joined on stage by three mobile operators, was one big yawn, a missed opportunity.
Okay, the subject of the session - Facebook's mission to get people in the developing world online via something called internet.org - was not, on the face of it, controversial.
And Mr Zuckerberg was allowed to paint his business, in that typically happy-clappy Californian way, as motivated only by a desire to enrich more lives through an internet connection.
But there are some nagging questions to be asked about internet.org. It may sound great that mobile phone users in Kenya, for instance, are getting free internet access to sites like Wikipedia, one local Kenyan news site, BBC Swahili - and, of course, Facebook.
But who acts as the gatekeeper for this walled garden - and what about those other local news sites that aren't on the site and have to charge for access?
And what price net neutrality in Africa? A two-speed internet has just been ruled out in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission. But the laudable mission of internet.org could end up creating fast lanes for those deemed worthy by Mr Zuckerberg and his lieutenants.
Then there's the thorny question of Facebook's relationship with mobile phone operators. It was amusing to reflect that the three mobile companies represented on the stage could probably be gobbled up for breakfast by the hugely wealthy social network without a second thought.
Mobile networks are seeing their revenues threatened by messaging apps like WhatsApp, bought by Facebook a while back. Meanwhile, they are still much more heavily regulated - Deutsche Telekom's boss made a call in Barcelona for internet firms to face the same level of regulation.
But on stage the mobile operators joined in the love-in, praising Mr Zuckerberg's campaign for increasing the flow of data across their networks.
Facebook's founder was briefly asked about regulation. His answer, somewhat bizarrely for the chief executive of a major communications company, was that he did not understand the subject - "I'm not a regulator".
He kept repeating this phrase and was allowed to laugh off the very idea that regulation was anything to do with him.
The self-congratulatory session ended with little light shed on how the fractious relationship between the social network and the companies which have built the internet's infrastructure might develop.
But some time soon - just as Google has already discovered - the regulators will come knocking. Mr Zuckerberg will need to have some answers then. | He's probably the single most influential figure in the world of mobile communications, so Mark Zuckerberg's appearance at the Mobile World Congress was always bound to be a hot ticket. |
40,641,492 | The scarecrow, which was part of an annual festive trail, was taken from Scargill Primary School, West Hallam, Derbyshire at the weekend.
The head teacher appealed for the coat to be returned as it was needed for a school production on Wednesday.
The school tweeted the coat had been "unceremoniously chucked over [the] fence", but without the scarecrow.
"We would like to thank everyone who offered alternative Joseph coats," the tweet read.
"Who would have thought there were so many multi coloured coats!"
More on this and other stories across the East Midlands
In response, people tweeted it was the "best news of the week" and "I'm very glad someone had a conscience".
A staff member also offered to wash or repair the coat if need be before the play.
The coat was returned after a Facebook appeal was made by the school.
Head teacher Andrew Poole said the theft of the scarecrow and coat was "heart-breaking for everyone" because "lots of hard work and time" by the children and staff went into it.
Several other scarecrows were damaged or stolen from the trail, which is in its ninth year. | A school's "amazing" technicolour coat which was stolen along with a Joseph-inspired scarecrow has been returned. |
35,196,316 | Ricardo Jaime and Pablo Schiavi were given six- and eight-year sentences for negligence.
The accident, which injured 789 people, happened when a morning rush hour train hit the buffers at the Once rail station in the capital.
t was one of the worst train accidents in Argentina in decades.
The train driver received a three-year prison sentence.
Two of the directors of the company Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA), which operated the rail line concession at the time, received sentences of between five and nine years.
After the accident, the government of Cristina Fernandez nationalised Argentina's rail system and implemented a huge renewal programme.
A large group of relatives of the victims and supporters gathered outside the court to hear the sentences.
Many applauded the court's decision, although some said the sentences were too low.
"I think this was a historic judgement," said Maria Lujan Rey, the mother of Lucas Menghini Rey, whose body was found three days after the crash.
The train hit the barrier at about 12mph (20km/h), destroying the front of the engine and crushing the carriages into it from behind.
One of the carriages was driven nearly 6m (20ft) into the next.
The Buenos Aires rail system transports about four billion passengers a year, making it the biggest in South America.
In the 1990s most of it was privatised in the hope of boosting investment in infrastructure.
But little investment in the network happened since the companies were not obliged by contract to invest, and they had little incentive because they continued to receive income from state subsidies. | A court in Buenos Aires has given jail sentences to two former Argentine transport ministers for a train crash which killed 51 people in 2012. |
39,465,000 | The hosts took a somewhat fortuitous 26th-minute lead as the ball pinged around the Maidstone penalty area and then took a touch off Tom Mills before nestling in the net.
Maidstone goalkeeper Lee Worgan made a fine save to deny Jordan Burrow before a second own goal in the match in the 73rd minute, this time for the visitors as Liam Hogan's deflection was adjudged to have crossed the goal-line.
That seemed to galvanise the Stones, who took the lead three minutes later thanks to Bobby-Joe Taylor rifling home and they held on to walk away with all three points.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Gateshead 1, Maidstone United 2.
Second Half ends, Gateshead 1, Maidstone United 2.
Substitution, Maidstone United. George Oakley replaces Yemi Odubade.
Substitution, Gateshead. Dan Hanford replaces James Montgomery.
Goal! Gateshead 1, Maidstone United 2. Bobby-Joe Taylor (Maidstone United).
Own Goal by Liam Hogan, Gateshead. Gateshead 1, Maidstone United 1.
Substitution, Gateshead. Luke Hannant replaces Mitch Brundle.
Gus Mafuta (Gateshead) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Substitution, Maidstone United. Bobby-Joe Taylor replaces Jack Paxman.
Jack Paxman (Maidstone United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Substitution, Gateshead. Jake D Wright replaces Danny Johnson.
Second Half begins Gateshead 1, Maidstone United 0.
First Half ends, Gateshead 1, Maidstone United 0.
Own Goal by Tom Mills, Maidstone United. Gateshead 1, Maidstone United 0.
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up. | Maidstone United extended their unbeaten run to nine games in the National League after coming from behind to claim a 2-1 victory at play-off chasing Gateshead. |
39,999,928 | Dr Weatherhead died early on Saturday morning a few hours before the 2017 General Assembly was due to meet. He was 86.
He was born in Dundee in 1931 and appointed as moderator in 1993.
The Church of Scotland said he was a "wise and faithful servant of Christ and his church".
Dr Weatherhead was educated at Dundee High School before going to the University of Edinburgh where he graduated in arts and law.
His ministry began in 1960 when he became assistant minister at the Auld Kirk of Ayr.
In 1985 he succeeded Donald Macdonald in the office of Principal Clerk to the General Assembly, a role the Church of Scotland said he held with "great distinction" until his retirement in 1996.
Dr Weatherhead was also appointed a Chaplain to the Queen in 1991 and awarded the CBE for ecumenical work and public service in 1997.
He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Dr Anne Weatherhead, their sons David and Andrew, his three grandchildren, his brother John and his sister Janette. | The former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Very Rev Dr James Leslie Weatherhead, has died. |
37,431,834 | Dame Glenys Stacey said the standard of some services in the county was now "significantly lower" than before.
In 2014, the government replaced probation trusts in England and Wales with 21 rehabilitation companies, made up of private firms and charities.
A Probation Service spokesperson said it would "monitor performance closely".
Probation reforms, implemented by the then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling, overhauled the supervision of released prisoners and people serving community sentences in England and Wales.
As part of the changes, the probation service was split in two, with community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) supervising low and medium-risk offenders.
At the same time a National Probation Service (NPS) took over the supervision of high-risk offenders.
In one of her first inspection reports since the new system was introduced, Dame Glenys says she found no evidence that public protection was being made a priority by Reducing Reoffending Partnership - the CRC that won the contract in four counties in the East Midlands.
Her report said the "quality of work" provided by the company in Derbyshire was "significantly lower" than it was under the former Probation Trust - describing it as "poor" in some areas.
Dame Glenys said many staff felt the new approach to rehabilitation was "not yet a reality".
She said the CRC had "ambitious plans for an effective and modern probation service, to make a difference to people's life chances and reduce re-offending".
However, she said the implementation of the changes has been "troublesome and slow" and that "standards have slipped".
"Leaders do need to focus on delivering good quality services today as well as improving tomorrow," she said.
She went on: "The public can be reassured, however, that the National Probation Service in Derbyshire is managing high-risk offenders well."
Catherine Holland, chief executive of Reducing Reoffending Partnership, said the probation team in Derbyshire was working hard to keep the public safe "by reducing reoffending".
"We welcome this inspection report which identifies recommendations and many areas of good practice. We will use its findings to further strengthen our work," she said.
A government spokesman said "public protection and reducing reoffending will always be our priority.
"We hold providers rigorously to account for their performance and insisted a robust action plan was developed by the CRC. We will continue to monitor performance closely."
However, Andrew Neilson, from the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the report indicated the probation service was "letting down people who are trying to change their lives."
"The Howard League warned that ministers were taking a huge risk by dismantling a service that was performing well. We remain of that view," he added. | Supervision of criminals in Derbyshire has got worse since the government out-sourced parts of the probation service, the chief inspector of probation says. |
31,450,651 | The rescuers and volunteers at Farewell Spit, Golden Bay, managed to shepherd many mammals into deeper water, only for them to again run aground.
Conservation officials believe they have one last chance to refloat the whales on the high tide.
If that fails, the mammals may have to be put down.
The rescuers are now trying to keep the distressed whales comfortable by pouring water over them.
Those mammals who died are believed to have suffered great physical and emotional trauma.
Local conservation ranger Mike Ogle said it is the biggest beaching incident in 10-15 years.
"Because there's just so many whales, there are a couple of spots where a lot would gather together and that's kind of problematic from the aspect that you can't get in there, it's just too dangerous," he said.
Farewell Spit has been the location of many whale beachings.
Experts say its shallow waters seems to confuse whales and hinder their ability to navigate.
Once they are stranded, whales can suffer from dehydration and sunburn.
Pilot whales can grow to about 20ft (6 metres) and are the most common species of whale in New Zealand's waters.
Andrew Lamason from the Department Of Conservation said it could take days to refloat the whales and even then there would be no guarantees they would survive.
"We've had plenty times in the past where the pods have gone out to sea and turned around and come back again," Mr Lamason said. "We're preparing for a big few days."
Scientists do not know what causes groups of whales to beach themselves. | Rescuers are racing against the clock to refloat about 90 stranded pilot whales after more than 100 died on a beach on New Zealand's South Island. |
39,923,497 | While no team won more away games than Exeter this season, only three sides suffered more defeats at home.
The first leg against Carlisle finished 3-3 at Brunton Park on Sunday.
"There's something wrong if it's not a great atmosphere, because what more do people want?" Perryman told BBC Devon.
"You sometimes think there's a bit of negativity at home."
In the three matches involving the two sides this season there have been 16 goals, with Carlisle coming from behind in each game to earn two wins and a draw.
The play-off return game at St James Park has sold out, while 571 Exeter fans made the 694-mile round trip to Carlisle.
Asked about their away support, Perryman said: "Unbelievable, and yet they've been like that all season - we've given something to cheer, to be fair, with a great away record and we play a lot of quality football.
"I'd say that if there was similar noise, if there was more positive noise at home, I think you'd see more games like that.
"Don't anyone tell me that this manager [Paul Tisdale] lacks passion, don't tell me he lacks balls to make the decisions, to play forward and go for it." | Exeter City director of football Steve Perryman has called on fans to make "positive noise" during their League Two play-off semi-final second leg at home to Carlisle on Thursday. |
39,792,195 | She will receive the award at the TV Baftas ceremony which takes place later this month.
Perhaps best known for playing champagne-sipping Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous, Lumley has had one of the most varied careers in British entertainment.
After starting out as a model she was propelled to fame in the 1970s as Purdey in The New Avengers.
The Fellowship is, quite simply, the academy's highest honour. Previous recipients include Michael Palin, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Sir David Attenborough and Julie Walters.
Few would dispute that Lumley is a deserving name to be added to that list.
Here are just a few of the times she's been absolutely fabulous:
When you think of Leonardo DiCaprio's film The Wolf of Wall Street, a number of things come to mind.
Alcohol, drug use, crime, partying, sex and swearing were all pretty prevalent in the 2013 movie about stockbrokers living a life of excess.
Exactly the sort of place, then, that you'd expect Joanna Lumley to crop up. Right?
Well, no. But one of the things we love about Lumley is her tendency to appear in totally unexpected places playing totally unexpected roles.
In The Wolf of Wall Street she plays Aunt Emma, who DiCaprio's character uses to open a Swiss bank account to hide his money.
The two also had serious chemistry on screen, and Lumley later said their kiss took 27 takes to get right.
We're sure each one of those takes were definitely definitely necessary, of course.
When the TV adaptation of David Walliams's children's novels Gangsta Granny was commissioned, there was only one woman who could play the title role.
That's right, Julia McKenzie.
In one scene in the 2013 comedy drama, the Gangsta Granny and her grandson Ben are seen attempting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. As you do.
But once inside the White Tower, they come face to face with Queen Elizabeth II, played by our very own queen of the screen, Joanna Lumley.
She does the decent thing and pardons the pair, with a message that it's good to see young people caring for the elderly. Quite right.
This must have been quite the meeting of minds.
This 2014 documentary saw will.i.am give Lumley a look around his recording studio, play her some songs, invite her to dinner and give her a tour of his home - complete with a toilet with an automatic lid.
Amazing.
However, the programme didn't please everyone.
Jake Wallis Simons in The Telegraph wrote: "It came across like the meeting of a slightly nonplussed American musician and a fawning British acolyte. Which was nothing short of a national embarrassment."
It seems even national treasures aren't above the occasional bit of criticism.
Last year Lumley and Jennifer Saunders were interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the Ab Fab film.
Then the pair joined sports host Rob Bonnet to read out that day's racing tips.
The best moment, however, came when the item had concluded, and she told the presenter he "had very beautiful green eyes" with her trademark mischievous grin.
"[Rob] is going to be insufferable forever more, do you realise what you've done to the programme?" joked co-host Mishal Husain.
To be fair, we'd never shut up either if Lumley paid us such a classy compliment.
With all the current debate about whether Peter Capaldi's Doctor should regenerate into a woman, it's worth remembering that Joanna Lumley got there first.
In 1999, she starred in a special edition of Doctor Who for Comic Relief.
The Curse of Fatal Death saw the Time Lord played by a host of famous faces including Rowan Atkinson, Jim Broadbent, Richard E Grant and Hugh Grant.
The final regeneration saw the Doctor turn into a female version played by Lumley.
The script was written by Steven Moffat, who would go on to run the show after it was rebooted by Russell T Davies in 2005.
The list of charities and campaigns Lumley has been involved with is so long, we couldn't possibly mention everything she's been involved with in such a small space.
But just a few examples include her work for human rights organisation Survival International and becoming a patron of charities such as Trust in Children and Tree Aid, which fights poverty in Africa.
She also isn't afraid to get involved in politics, campaigning for a new garden bridge over the Thames in London and helping to secure the rights of Gurkhas who retired in 1997 to to settle in the UK.
Whatever cause she turns to next, we're pretty sure they'll be glad to have her in their corner.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Joanna Lumley is to be awarded the Bafta Fellowship, it has been announced. |
37,232,220 | More than £1bn was spent during the transfer window, but that is not to say all fans are delighted by the state of their squads.
We want to find out which fans look at their squad and can't see a single area of concern, which fans have concerns over a position or two, and which fans would happily bring in a completely new set of players.
But we need your help.
What we want you to do is find your team from the list of Premier League and Scottish Premiership clubs below, follow the link, and then use the team selector. However, rather than choosing a starting 11, you will simply be putting a tick or a cross for every position.
Think your first-choice keeper is fine - put a tick there.
Worried about the right-back - use a cross.
Think you've got one great striker but lack back-up or an alternative, put a tick in one attacking position, a cross in the other. You get the idea.
We will then analyse the data to find out which fans are the most content, which would make most changes and which individual positions are a cause for concern at clubs.
Arsenal
Bournemouth
Burnley
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Hull
Leicester
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Middlesbrough
Southampton
Stoke
Sunderland
Swansea
Tottenham Hotspur
Watford
West Brom
West Ham
Aberdeen
Celtic
Dundee
Hamilton
Hearts
Inverness CT
Kilmarnock
Motherwell
Partick Thistle
Rangers
Ross County
St Johnstone | Are you happy with the state of your club's squad, or are there positions that should have been strengthened during the transfer window? |
27,756,492 | The new emir becomes one of the most influential spiritual leaders in the country's largely Muslim north.
As bank governor, Mr Sanusi had levelled accusations of high-level fraud and was suspended in February.
The previous emir, al-Haji Ado Bayero, died after a long illness at the age of 83 on Friday.
Mr Sanusi made sweeping reforms during his time as the Central Bank Governor, tackling widespread fraud in the financial sector. Recently, he alleged that corruption within Nigeria's petroleum industry meant that the oil production did not match its revenue and so billions of dollars had gone missing.
This move did not go down well with President Goodluck Jonathan, who responded by suspending him.
Now assuming the throne in Kano, Lamido Sanusi's frosty relations with the president will be closely watched ahead of next year's presidential elections.
The emir of Kano is the second-highest Islamic authority in Nigeria.
The state government in Kano made the decision after four "kingmakers" had met and submitted nominees.
Those eligible had to be male members of the Ibrahim Dabo family - whose clans include the Bayeros and Sanusis.
Correspondents say Nigeria's traditional leaders hold few constitutional powers, but are able to exert significant influence especially in the north where they are seen as custodians of both religion and tradition.
One of Mr Sanusi's key roles will be helping tackle the mounting insurgency by Boko Haram militants in the north.
The group has accused traditional Muslim rulers of failing to enforce its strict interpretation of the Koran.
President Goodluck Jonathan's decision to suspend Mr Sanusi from the bank on accusations of financial recklessness and misconduct had led to concern among international investors.
Al-Haji Ado Bayero had been on the throne in the northern city since 1963.
He was the longest-serving emir in Kano's history and sought to reduce tensions with Nigeria's Christians.
He was also a critic of Boko Haram and survived an assassination attempt last year blamed on the Islamist group. | The ousted central bank governor and prominent government critic, Lamido Sanusi, has been named as the new emir of Kano in Nigeria. |
37,245,794 | Simpson's new contract will keep him at the club until 2019.
Team-mates Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy, Kasper Schmeichel, Wes Morgan and Andy King, and manager Claudio Ranieri, have all signed new deals this summer.
"I'm over the moon. I've been here two years now and the club is going places," Simpson said.
Simpson, 29, joined the club from Queens Park Rangers in August 2014 and played 31 times during their 2015-16 title-winning season. | Leicester City defender Danny Simpson has signed a new three-year deal with the Premier League champions. |
31,760,954 | The actor told The Huffington Post: "I don't know that my family nor my soul could take it."
Ratings for this year's televised ceremony were down 16% on last year, and the lowest for six years.
Harris's stint as host came in for a bashing, with criticism it was flat and even "embarrassing" in places.
He had previously won plaudits for his hosting of the Tony Awards, which appeared to suit his style more having a Broadway background himself.
Asked if he read the reviews, he said: "I didn't keep up with it obsessively, but it was interesting to see just what people thought landed and didn't."
He added: "It's so difficult for one who's simply watching the show to realise just how much time and concession and compromise and explanation has gone into almost every single thing.
"And I'm not saying that to defend everything I said as if it was the absolute best choice, but it's also an award show, and you're powering through 14 acts filled with 20 plus awards.
"So my job was to try and keep things as light and specific to this year's set of films as possible. And if people are critical of that, it's a big giant platform, so I would assume that they would be."
The blame for low ratings has been been partly blamed on the lack of blockbuster movies up for the big prizes, with the contenders including Birdman and Boyhood considered more arthouse than mainstream. | Neil Patrick Harris has said he doubts he will ever present the Oscars again, following his much-criticised hosting of the event this year. |
32,031,238 | The UN Budget Committee recognised gay spouses, regardless of whether or not gay marriage is legal in their country of origin.
Previously, the UN followed national legislation on the issue.
The vote went 80 to 43 against Russia's resolution, which had backing from China, India and Muslim countries.
EU member states and the US lobbied hard against the resolution and for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's plan to include gay couples in the staff benefits scheme.
Speaking after the vote, US Ambassador Samantha Power said: "We must speak plainly about what Russia tried to do today: diminish the authority of the UN secretary general and export to the UN its domestic hostility to LGBT rights" - referring to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Earlier, Russia's deputy UN ambassador Petr Iliichev said the UN should return to how the issue was previously regulated, calling it "an example of how the United Nations respects cultural differences, the sovereign right of each and every state to determine its norms".
Russia drew international criticism in 2013 when it banned the spreading of gay "propaganda" among teenagers.
Conservative national traditions are already recognised under UN staff rules, as UN diplomats from countries where polygamy is legal receive spouse benefits for up to four wives. | The United Nations has voted to extend staff benefits to same-sex couples working for the UN, defeating Russian-led opposition to the measure. |
38,227,680 | The prime minister stressed the importance of the deal struck last year which "neutralised" the possibility of the country acquiring nuclear weapons.
But she added that the UK would work with Arab Gulf states to counteract Iran's "aggressive regional actions".
US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to scrap the nuclear deal.
Signed by Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers - the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany - the deal lifted crippling economic sanctions, after the International Atomic Energy Agency certified that Iran had restricted its sensitive nuclear activities.
Speaking at summit of the Gulf Co-operation Council - comprising Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain - Mrs May also said the UK wanted to "make a more permanent and more enduring commitment to the long-term security of the Gulf" and would invest more than £3bn in defence spending in the region over the next 10 years.
"Gulf security is our security," she said.
"Extremists plotting terror attacks here, in this region, are not only targeting the Gulf but, as we have seen, targeting the streets of Europe, too.
"Whether we're confronting the terrorism of al-Qaeda, or the murderous barbarity of [so-called Islamic State], no country is a more committed partner for you in this fight than the UK."
Mrs May said she was determined to build further on the trade and investment relationship between the Gulf and the UK.
"Just as Gulf security is our security, so your prosperity is also our prosperity. Already the Gulf is a special market for the UK."
She said that last year trade between the UK and the Gulf was worth more than £30bn and, at the same time, Gulf investment in the UK was helping to regenerate cities from Aberdeen to Teeside and Manchester to London.
Speaking on the final day of her trip to Bahrain, she recommended ongoing vigilance towards Iran.
"As we address new threats to our security, so we must also continue to confront state actors whose influence fuels instability in the region," she said.
"So I want to assure you that I am clear-eyed about the threat that Iran poses to the Gulf and the wider Middle East; and the UK is fully committed to our strategic partnership with the Gulf and working with you to counter that threat."
She alleged that Iran's activities include:
Mrs May added: "We secured a deal which has neutralised the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons for over a decade. It has already seen Iran remove 13,000 centrifuges together with associated infrastructure and eliminate its stock of 20%-enriched uranium.
"That was vitally important for regional security. But we must also work together to push back against Iran's aggressive regional actions, whether in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria or in the Gulf itself."
Iran is widely believed to have deployed troops to fight alongside Syrian government forces against rebel fighters supported by the UK, US and several Gulf Arab states. But it has only acknowledged sending military advisers.
Iran has also rejected assertions by the UK-backed, Saudi-led multinational coalition fighting alongside pro-government forces in Yemen that it is has provided military support to the Houthis.
The prime minister is also leading a discussion on Iran, in a session on regional security issues following her speech.
She is only the third Western leader, and first woman, to be invited to the summit.
The nuclear deal with Iran followed 12 years of on-off negotiations. It stipulated that Iran will reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium - which can be used to make reactor fuel, but also nuclear weapons - by 98% to 300kg (660lb) for 15 years.
Iran has denied seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and insists on exercising its right to have a peaceful nuclear industry. | Theresa May has said she is "clear-eyed" about the threat posed by Iran to the security of the Gulf and wider Middle East, in a speech in Bahrain. |
36,945,318 | But who was the Army officer whose parents are now locked in public battle with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump?
Khan was born in 1976 and his Pakistani family immigrated to the US two years later.
They settled in Silver Spring, Maryland, where Humayun grew up with two brothers.
His father has described him as a patriotic child with a fascination for Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founders.
While in secondary school, Humayun volunteered to give swimming lessons to disabled children.
After joining the University of Virginia, he signed up for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, which prepares university students to become officers in the US military.
His father, who is a lawyer, was opposed to the move. But the younger Khan persisted.
"He wanted to give back. That's what he wanted to do," his father told the Washington Post.
After graduating from university in 2000, he served in the Army for four years and rose to the rank of captain.
Before terrorists attacked New York and Washington in 2001, he had planned to leave the Army to attend law school.
But 9/11 changed his plans, and in 2004 he travelled to Iraq to support the post-war effort there.
During a phone call in May of 2004, his mother urged him not to be a hero and to return safely.
"Of course I will," his parents remembered him saying. "But Mother, you should know I have responsibility for these soldiers, and I cannot leave them unprotected."
A month later, Khan, 27, was dead.
While serving at Baqubah base, north-east of Baghdad, one of his duties was to inspect soldiers in the early morning near the compound's entrance gate.
On 8 June 2004, an inspection turned deadly when a taxi sped towards Khan's line of troops.
Acting quickly, he told his soldiers to step back and hit the ground as he moved towards the approaching car. He walked with his arm outstretched in a halt gesture for 10 to 15 seconds.
Just before reaching him, the driver detonated a suicide bomb.
The explosion killed Khan. But in blocking the vehicle, he succeeded in saving countless colleagues, including more than a hundred soldiers eating breakfast close to the gateway to the base.
Khan was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star - two US military honours.
He was buried in Arlington Cemetery, near Washington, in a funeral attended by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. | Capt Humayun Khan - a US soldier who died fending off a suicide bomber in 2004 - has become an unlikely player in the 2016 election. |
35,375,679 | Djilobodji, 27, moved to Stamford Bridge from Nantes in a £4m deal on transfer deadline day in September.
However, he has made just one appearance since then - as a late substitute in a League Cup win over Walsall.
The Senegal international, who started his career at Senart-Moissy, is contracted to Chelsea until 2019.
Bremen are third bottom of the Bundesliga - the relegation play-off place - two points off bottom spot.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Chelsea have loaned defender Papy Djilobodji to Werder Bremen for the rest of the season. |
38,714,252 | As part of the government's Green Paper on industrial strategy, it's expected that electric vehicles and battery technology will be identified as prime candidates for additional government investment. By way of coincidence, that is precisely what Nissan wants to build on, after investing £26m in battery technology a year ago today.
Nissan, it seems, is the perfect example of how to get government support by getting regional, sector and skills needs closely aligned. That's the way to do it under the government's new industrial strategy.
The words "industrial strategy" send a chill through those industry veterans old enough to have been working in the 1970s. Millions were poured into firms like British Leyland and British Steel - all to no avail.
The government's record at picking winners or identifying "national champions" is pretty poor. Under Thatcher, the government tried to get out of the way. Regulation was reduced and unions were diminished in the hope that animal spirits of business ambition would lead to growth and prosperity.
It did - for some. Financial services, for example, underwent a revolution while primary industries like steel and coal declined.
If we have learnt anything about "Mayism" it's that she doesn't think the benefits of business success will percolate through the country without a bit of a push from government.
Her business minister, Greg Clark, is also no believer in total freedom of the market. Today's industrial strategy is an attempt to lend a helping hand without having both on the steering wheel. The best way to do that, thinks the government, is to provide something that just about everyone agrees is needed and provide it in a location-appropriate way to sectors where we are already pretty successful.
A lack of skills is a perennial gripe of British business. Added to possible future restrictions on hiring from the EU and many businesses worry where they will get the right staff from.
Today's Green Paper attempts to address those concerns with a promise of £170m to beef up technical education by funding new colleges and replacing a plethora of courses - seen by business as low quality - with fewer higher quality courses designed to fit the needs of employers in the surrounding area. This emphasis on localism with skills and infrastructure spending, attempts to recognise that what's right for Birmingham is not right for Cornwall.
Business has a number of other concerns, primarily of course what our relationship with our biggest trading partner, the EU, will eventually look like. Given the political imperative to reduce immigration from the EU, it seems sensible to conclude that it will be harder to hire people from outside the UK. Home grown skills are both desirable and may be increasingly urgent.
However, there are other big questions for the PM and her business secretary to answer. For example: is it a good thing or a bad thing to see our very best businesses (e.g. ARM Holdings, Skyscanner) sold off at bargain rates to foreign firms?
At the moment, the biggest backers of British business winners are rarely British. Is "open for business" good for business? | The mystery of what was said to Nissan to get it to commit to further investment in Sunderland may be unravelled today. |
36,735,436 | Meanwhile, Aberdeen Asset Management extended a suspension of its fund.
The latest moves add to a flurry of suspensions this week as fund managers seek to prevent a stampede to the exit following the vote to leave the EU.
Investors are worried that a move to leave the European Union will send commercial property prices tumbling.
L&G has cut its £2.3bn ($2.99bn) UK property fund by a further 10%, following a previous 5% valuation cut.
Including Aberdeen, at least seven property funds have suspended trading following the UK's vote to leave the European Union.
Aberdeen Asset Management extended a suspension of its fund to 11 July on Thursday after announcing a 17% cut to its value.
It initially said on Wednesday it would pause the fund for 24 hours.
Henderson, Canada Life and Threadneedle became the latest on Wednesday to close their doors to traders looking to sell.
That followed similar moves by M&G, Aviva and Standard Life, which have all restricted access to their funds this week.
The large number of investors trying to sell their holdings in the funds is putting pressure on the fund managers to sell properties they own at sharp discounts, said the manager of one suspended fund.
"Sellers requiring liquidity are having to market properties at sometimes significant discounts to their recent valuations," said Martin Gilbert, chief executive at Aberdeen Asset Management.
The vote to leave the EU has led investors to worry that there may be significant falls in commercial property, while the impact on house prices is also being closely watched.
"At this time, it is still difficult to predict the exact impact of the vote to leave and subsequent market events on commercial property values," Legal & General Investment Management said in a statement. | Confidence in the UK property sector took a further pounding on Thursday after Legal & General made a deeper cut in the value of its property fund. |
37,343,782 | The accident happened in Dalness Street, Shettleston, at about 15:15.
The boy, a pupil at St Paul's Primary School, was taken to hospital with serious injuries where he died a short time later.
Police said the white Ford Transit van had gone in to Dalness Street from Tollcross Road. It was turning into a car park on Dalness Street at the time.
The 62-year-old driver of the van was not injured.
Sgt Jackie Dunbar, of Police Scotland, said: "It was picking-up time at the school and there were a number of people in the area at the time of the incident.
"I would ask that anyone who saw what happened, and who has not already been spoken to by police, contact officers at the road policing complex via 101."
Dalness Street at Dalness Close was closed and local diversions put in place.
The boy has not yet been named. | A five-year-old boy has died after being hit by a van in the east end of Glasgow. |
39,482,342 | The sought-after development could aid the millions of people without ready access to clean drinking water.
The promising graphene oxide sieve could be highly efficient at filtering salts, and will now be tested against existing desalination membranes.
It has previously been difficult to manufacture graphene-based barriers on an industrial scale.
Reporting their results in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, scientists from the University of Manchester, led by Dr Rahul Nair, shows how they solved some of the challenges by using a chemical derivative called graphene oxide.
Isolated and characterised by a University of Manchester-led team in 2004, graphene comprises a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. Its unusual properties, such as extraordinary tensile strength and electrical conductivity, have earmarked it as one of the most promising materials for future applications.
But it has been difficult to produce large quantities of single-layer graphene using existing methods, such as chemical vapour deposition (CVD). Current production routes are also quite costly.
On the other hand, said Dr Nair, "graphene oxide can be produced by simple oxidation in the lab".
He told BBC News: "As an ink or solution, we can compose it on a substrate or porous material. Then we can use it as a membrane.
"In terms of scalability and the cost of the material, graphene oxide has a potential advantage over single-layered graphene."
Of the single-layer graphene he added: "To make it permeable, you need to drill small holes in the membrane. But if the hole size is larger than one nanometre, the salts go through that hole. You have to make a membrane with a very uniform less-than-one-nanometre hole size to make it useful for desalination. It is a really challenging job."
Graphene oxide membranes have already proven their worth in sieving out small nanoparticles, organic molecules and even large salts. But until now, they couldn't be used to filter out common salts, which require even smaller sieves.
Previous work had shown that graphene oxide membranes became slightly swollen when immersed in water, allowing smaller salts to flow through the pores along with water molecules.
Now, Dr Nair and colleagues demonstrated that placing walls made of epoxy resin (a substance used in coatings and glues) on either side of the graphene oxide membrane was sufficient to stop the expansion.
Restricting the swelling in this way also allowed the scientists to tune the properties of the membrane, letting through less or more common salt for example.
When common salts are dissolved in water, they always form a "shell" of water molecules around the salt molecules.
This allows the tiny capillaries of the graphene-oxide membranes to block the salt from flowing through along with the water.
"Water molecules can go through individually, but sodium chloride cannot. It always needs the help of the water molecules. The size of the shell of water around the salt is larger than the channel size, so it cannot go through," said Dr Nair.
By contrast, water molecules flow exceptionally fast through the membrane barrier, which makes it ideal for use in desalination.
"When the capillary size is around one nanometre, which is very close to the size of the water molecule, those molecules form a nice interconnected arrangement like a train," Dr Nair explained.
"That makes the movement of water faster: if you push harder on one side, the molecules all move on the other side because of the hydrogen bonds between them. You can only get that situation if the channel size is very small."
By 2025 the UN expects that 14% of the world's population will encounter water scarcity. As the effects of climate change continue to reduce urban water supplies, wealthy modern countries are also investing in desalination technologies.
Current desalination plants around the world use polymer-based membranes.
"This is our first demonstration that we can control the spacing [of pores in the membrane] and that we can do desalination, which was not possible before. The next step is to compare this with the state-of-the-art material available on the market," said Dr Nair.
In a news and views article accompanying the study in Nature Nanotechnology, Ram Devanathan, from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, US, said more work needed to be done to produce graphene oxide membranes inexpensively at industrial scales.
He added that scientists also needed to demonstrate the durability of the membranes under prolonged contact with seawater and ensure the membrane was resistant to "fouling" by salts and biological material (which requires existing barriers to be periodically cleaned or replaced).
"The selective separation of water molecules from ions by physical restriction of interlayer spacing opens the door to the synthesis of inexpensive membranes for desalination," wrote Dr Devanathan.
"The ultimate goal is to create a filtration device that will produce potable water from seawater or wastewater with minimal energy input."
Follow Paul on Twitter. | A UK-based team of researchers has created a graphene-based sieve capable of removing salt from seawater. |
39,100,854 | Zoe Morgan, 21, and Lee Simmons, 33, were found near the Cardiff central store in Queen Street at about 05:50 BST on 28 September, 2016.
Andrew Saunders, 20, of no fixed abode, admitted their murders in December.
Cardiff Crown Court heard he stabbed Mr Simmons first, then Miss Morgan.
Saunders and Miss Morgan had split up before she and Mr Simmons began a relationship in July 2016.
The court heard Saunders approached the couple outside the store as Miss Morgan was waiting to start work.
Witnesses saw him attack Mr Simmons first, stabbing him "four or five" times "in a frenzy" as he pleaded for him to stop.
Mr Simmons called for help and tried to get up but was punched to the floor by Saunders and did not move afterwards.
Miss Morgan tried to help her boyfriend but was pushed away by Saunders, who told her: "I'm coming for you next."
He chased her down the street and eventually caught up with her outside the Boots store where he stabbed her several times.
After the attack, Saunders phoned his mother and told her he had killed the pair. He also sent a text to his father saying "thanks for being a pathetic, useless father. Just killed two people, cheers".
The court heard Saunders returned to his family home and updated his Facebook profile with swear words, and later with the sentence "just a product of society".
Police traced him to the home where he answered the door with a rifle. He was arrested and told officers: "I'm sorry, you know sometimes, you just snap."
He added: "I'm really sorry for what I've done. I just lost control."
He pointed officers to one of the knives used in the attack which he had wrapped in tissue and left in the kitchen. The other had broken in the attack, he said, and he discarded it in Cardiff.
Philip Bennetts QC, prosecuting, told the court Saunders had been unhappy that his relationship with Miss Morgan had ended and he had made threats against her and Mr Simmons when he found out they were in a relationship.
He contacted her via Facebook, telling her he knew she was "chatting" to someone else, adding: "I will kill whoever it is."
Days after making the threats he searched YouTube for videos including "Top five people who took revenge to a whole new level" and "10 people who got revenge with cheaters".
He also searched for information on how to make a pipe bomb, how to rig a car so it explodes when started, how to illegally buy a gun, and how to inflict knife injuries.
The court heard he then bought two knives, some latex gloves, an air rifle and 500 pellets.
Winston Roddick QC, defending, told the court a doctor who examined Saunders after the attack found he may have been suffering from a "minor" mental illness called an adjustment disorder at the time of the killing.
Mr Roddick said Saunders was in "emotional turmoil" which "must have" had an impact on his behaviour.
In the years before the murders, Saunders was a good student with "excellent grades", Mr Roddick said, and had won a scholarship to play American football at a university in Canada.
But he had been deeply affected by the death of his grandfather and had then struggled to cope with his emotions following his breakup with Miss Morgan, which he said had left him "heartbroken".
Mr Roddick told the court Saunders was genuinely remorseful and wished he could turn the clock back.
The hearing has been adjourned, with sentencing to take place on Tuesday. | A man who murdered his ex-girlfriend and new partner outside the Matalan store where they worked searched the internet for methods of killing in the days before the attack. |
25,943,192 | Sabine Kehm told the BBC the seven-time world champion remained in a "stable" condition at a clinic in Grenoble.
She has rejected as "speculation" a French media report saying Schumacher was being woken from his coma.
The German suffered a severe head injury on 29 December when he fell and hit a rock in the French Alps.
Surgeons have performed two operations to remove blood clots around Schumacher's brain. He is being kept asleep to reduce swelling.
Doctors in Grenoble have ruled out giving a prognosis for his condition in the coming days and months.
But it is medically possible for someone to spend several weeks in an induced coma and make a full recovery.
Schumacher: The unanswered questions
However Professor Gary Hartstein, a former F1 doctor who worked with Schumacher, said it "was extremely unlikely" that the 45-year-old would regain his previous level of health.
Prof Hartstein nevertheless described the champion's current state as encouraging.
"The fact that he is still sedated and not in an unsedated coma is better news than I expected," he told the BBC.
British neurosurgeon Peter Kirkpatrick suggested French medical staff may keep Schumacher in a coma to avoid chest infections and breathing problems.
"I think it's true to say that our French colleagues tend to ventilate patients for much longer than we do here, but I certainly wouldn't discount the possibility of Mr Schumacher still having a reasonable recovery."
Meanwhile, Ferrari - the racing team with which Schumacher had 72 of his 91 F1 wins - said in an online statement it was "waiting" for his return:
"Dear Michael, having spent so many years at Ferrari, you became one of us. You thrilled us so often, bringing us great joy, but the greatest one is yet to come: namely seeing you here in Maranello again, to meet your second family, the Ferrari one."
Schumacher's family have been by his bedside since the accident. They have received hundreds of letters and gifts from around the world, as a show of support for the popular sports star.
On Sunday, fans marched around the Spa-Francrochamps race track in Belgium to pay tribute to Schumacher.
He made his grand prix debut at the track in 1991 and won six of his seven world titles there.
Earlier this month, investigators probing the accident said Schumacher had been going at the speed of "a very good skier" at the time of the accident in the resort of Meribel.
He had been skiing eight metres off-piste when he fell, they added.
Experts reconstructed events leading up to the crash after examining Schumacher's skiing equipment and viewing footage filmed on a camera attached to his helmet.
The German retired from racing in 2012 after a 19-year career.
He won two titles with Benetton, in 1994 and 1995, before switching to Ferrari in 1996 and going on to win five straight titles from 2000. | One month after his skiing accident, Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher is still in a medically induced coma, his manager has said. |
40,756,676 | Randall, 21, can play in midfield and defence and Hearts coach Ian Cathro said he and his staff had been tracking him "probably since we arrived".
"Connor is a very hungry young player," explained Cathro. "He has experience in a number of positions and brings a great intensity to his play.
"Athletically he is excellent. He is a player that I am really pleased to have been able to bring."
Randall has made eight senior appearances, including one while on loan at Shrewsbury Town in season 2014-15.
Cathro's side, who lost at Peterhead on Tuesday, must beat Dunfermline on Saturday to ensure they progress from their Scottish League Cup first-round group.
The head coach admits there is pressure on the team to win but that is nothing other than he expects.
"I feel the pressure like all of us to go to Saturday's game, to be ready for the game, and to win the game," said the 31-year-old.
"But that is something that we feel ourselves for every single game that we play. I'm not overly affected by one or the other because we focus on the game that is ahead of us - the opponent that we play and how we play and to be ready to win the game.
"So that is something that is the same every single time."
With the transfer window not closing until the end of August, Cathro says his squad remains a work in progress but is happy with the business concluded so far, with defenders Christophe Berra, Rafal Grzelak, Michael Smith and Ashley Smith-Brown and forwards Kyle Lafferty and Cole Stockton brought in prior to Randall's arrival.
"I'm happy that we are ready to play the game tomorrow," added Cathro.
"After that, we will continue to work on a number of things. There is still time in the transfer window where we expect to do some things.
"And of course in that period of time we continue to improve. There is no concern. We have a difficult match and a very, very important match now against Dunfermline, who are a good team." | Hearts have signed Liverpool's Connor Randall on a season-long loan. |
40,685,087 | The 25-year-old has joined the French Ligue 1 side on a four-year contract.
Cardiff signed Saadi from French second division side Clermont Foot in 2015 but he made only two substitute appearances for the Bluebirds, failing to score.
Saadi spent last season on loan at Belgian club Kortrijk - also owned by Cardiff owner Vincent Tan - where he scored 16 goals in 35 games. | Strasbourg have signed striker Idriss Saadi from Cardiff City for an undisclosed fee. |
40,509,312 | Paul Robertson, 28, of Bridge of Don, pleaded guilty to driving dangerously on the A74(M) in December.
A court heard he had been driving out of a service area at Gretna when police tried to pull alongside to speak to him and he sped off southwards.
In addition to his jail term his BMW car was confiscated and he was banned from driving for 18 months.
Dumfries Sheriff Court heard how Robertson had been leaving the service area in Dumfries and Galloway at night when police noticed his car with a damaged wing and headlight.
They tried to speak to him but the driver suddenly accelerated and headed south on the motorway.
Fiscal depute Alison Herald said: "The police car gave chase and reached a top speed of 156 mph, but the taillights of the BMW were pulling away in the distance."
As the chase headed over the border onto the M6 in England, the Scottish officers notified Cumbria Police traffic cars and also a helicopter unit.
The fiscal added: "The 28-mile chase continued south before any trace of the car was lost near Penrith."
Robertson was eventually traced the next day at his home near Aberdeen.
His solicitor told the court that his client had been heading from Aberdeen to Liverpool and had panicked when approached by the police.
Speaking after sentencing, Insp Campbell Moffat said: "To drive at such a high speed over such a distance demonstrates a total disregard for both his own safety and the safety of others using the road.
"Speeding or driving at an inappropriate speed is a serious, dangerous and anti-social activity and is a known contributory factor in many collisions which all too often result in serious injury or death.
"The sentence given in this case clearly reflects the seriousness of the case and Police Scotland will continue to operate a robust policy of putting those who exceed the speed limit before the courts." | A motorist who led police on a cross-border chase at speeds in excess of 156mph has been jailed for nine months. |
37,231,829 | Surrey skipper Batty, 38, will be making his 247th List A appearance against Warwickshire captain Bell, who, at 34, has already clocked up 301 matches.
The majority of Bell's were for England, for whom he played 161 times, just one of which was as Batty's team-mate, a victory over Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in December 2004.
But when it comes to Lord's finals the two fair-haired Englishmen have a more comparable record.
By the time Saturday's game is over, only seven of the most recent 16 Lord's finals will have been played without either Batty or Bell.
Both have played in four - and both have tasted the vastly contrasting flavours of victory and defeat.
Bell just edges it at two wins and two losses to Batty's one win and three defeats - and both can claim an extra on-field Lord's one-day final appearance.
Batty's came in 2001, when, in his final year at The Oval before moving to Worcestershire, he was 12th man when Surrey beat Gloucestershire in the Benson & Hedges Cup final.
Bell's first appearance on the pitch at Lord's was also victorious - and arguably even more memorable. The current Bears captain was there, as an 11-year-old boy, to witness Warwickshire's sensational victory over Sussex in the 1993 NatWest Trophy final, when they chased down 321 to win off the last ball.
"I was there with my family in the Grand Stand," he recalled. "There were a lot of Sussex fans around us. They were quite chirpy for most of the day, but the day just built and built in a fantastic way.
"I remember running on to the outfield in the dark at the end. They are special memories. That day is the reason I wanted to play for Warwickshire. There was no Twenty20 then. It was unique. When I was growing up, they were big days. It was amazing to go to Lord's and watch Warwickshire play in a final - and win.
"That game was special in so many ways. It was probably the first game of one-day cricket in the modern style. There were even reverse sweeps. I remember Martin Speight sweeping Tim Munton, there were all sorts of shots that people were seeing for the first time."
This year's One-Day Cup final has thrown up a meeting of the two previous losers, Warwickshire in 2014 and Surrey in 2015.
Jade Dernbach's 6-35 for Surrey in last year's final against Gloucestershire were his career-best 'List A' bowling figures - yet it was in vain as the side batting first won for only the second time in eight finals.
Chasing 221 to win, Surrey slumped from 143-2 to 214 all out after former Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara was caught and bowled by Jack Taylor for 60.
"We can't wait, it's a massive game," Batty told BBC Radio London. "It's the showpiece for everybody. Hopefully we've learned from a couple of mistakes we made last year.
"We've played some very good one-day cricket this year, but I feel like we've still got our 'A' game to play, and hopefully we deliver that on Saturday."
They face a Bears side reliant on experience, Jonathan Trott having hit three centuries on the way to Lord's, while Bell himself masterminded the semi-final win over Somerset.
His 94 off 90 balls was a high point of a season which, after being discarded by England last winter, has brought a disappointing return of just 610 County Championship runs, 174 of which came in one innings against Hampshire.
"At the start of the season, I had a lot of starts and not really converted," Bell told BBC WM. "And it's not quite happened over the second half of the season.
"We've been inconsistent this season. But, after the disappointment of missing out on T20 Blast Finals Day, to have a chance to win a trophy at Lord's is fantastic. Surrey are a good side but, as long as we keep putting it in, we've got a great chance."
And Bell, with knocks of 65, 54, 107 and 81 in his four previous Lord's finals, remains the Bears' key big occasion player.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Mark Church, BBC Radio London:
"We have all had occasions where something has not gone according to plan and we have thought to ourselves 'I'd love to have a chance to have another go at that'.
"Well, Surrey have given themselves that chance in Saturday's final against Warwickshire. They have the opportunity to put the memory of last year's defeat by Gloucestershire to bed. That has been the fuel that has kept them going in this year's competition.
"Surrey's performances have improved game by game. They were excellent against Yorkshire in the semi-final. They know they will have to be at their best against a very talented Warwickshire side but they have given themselves the chance to complete some 'unfinished business' at Lord's."
Clive Eakin, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire:
"Warwickshire have saved their best performances in the second half of the season for the One-Day Cup, notably the final group match victory at Headingley and the semi-final win over Somerset.
"At the same time, in the Championship their decline has been alarming and they face a real scrap to avoid relegation in the last game of the season next week.
"The hope at Lord's is that they can put their Championship worries behind them and secure a trophy. Like Surrey they'll be hoping to vanquish recent Lord's final defeats, having lost their last two, in 2012 and 2014." | When rival captains Ian Bell and Gareth Batty toss up at Lord's for the 2016 One-Day Cup final on Saturday morning, there will certainly be no shortage of experience. |
37,009,434 | Nathan Gill said he would quit as an MEP if elected as an AM, but with no UKIP member to replace him he said he did not want to force a by-election.
The party's ruling National Executive Committee had threatened him with expulsion if he did not resign from one of the posts by Sunday.
But on Monday it voted to put the matter to the membership.
UKIP chairman Paul Oakden told BBC Wales it was the right thing to do.
Mr Gill did not respond to the request to step down by the deadline so was briefly expelled from the party.
But the NEC voted to reinstate him and let members decide his fate.
Mr Oakden said: "The NEC believes, as I do, that members in Wales are the best people to make this decision.
"I will now decide how to do this fairly, cleanly and as soon as possible." | UKIP members in Wales will vote on whether their leader should be allowed to continue in his two elected roles. |
36,460,213 | Roger Fletcher was last seen at about 08:30 on Sunday after leaving his holiday home in Bundalloch.
Police said he was thought to have gone for a walk in the Bundalloch and Camuslighne areas.
Mr Fletcher, who walks with the aid of two walking poles, failed to arrive at the location where he was to be picked up and taken back to his holiday home. | A 77-year-old man has gone missing after setting out for a walk near Dornie in the Highlands. |
36,286,210 | The Australian has made more appearances for a British club than any other foreign player, over 250 so far.
Dorn, who scored a hat-trick in Castleford's thumping 52-12 win over Leeds on Thursday, has also played for London Broncos and Salford.
"It will be with a heavy heart when I finish here, but it's a great club I am finishing at," the 33-year-old said.
"It's a completely different club from when I was here the first time and I think we've all played a part in where the club is at now.
"I think leaving at the end of this year, I'll be leaving this club in a good place." | Castleford Tigers full-back Luke Dorn will retire at the end of the Super League season. |
28,687,230 | Israel has offered to extend a three-day ceasefire in Gaza which began on Tuesday after nearly a month of conflict, Israeli officials say.
But there has so far been no agreement from the militant Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, as indirect talks continue in Cairo.
Deputy PM Nick Clegg says he wants licences stopped if violence returns.
A Downing Street spokesman said discussions on the issue within government were still ongoing.
Announcement imminent?
Prime Minister David Cameron is in close contact with the talks even though he is on holiday in Portugal, a Downing Street source said.
The priority was to do everything possible to ensure the ceasefire holds, the source added.
The UK government is already reviewing its export licences to Israel and no new licences have been issued for use by the Israeli military since the recent Israeli operation into Gaza.
Conservative peer Baroness Warsi criticised the policy when she dramatically stepped down as a Foreign Office minister earlier this week.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he hoped the coalition would agree a "tougher approach" and make an announcement shortly.
"I think it's crystal clear that it would be unacceptable to the British people and wholly wrong for us to do anything other than to immediately suspend any existing licences if that ceasefire were to come to an end and violence were to break out again..." he told LBC radio.
"If this ceasefire, this truce, ends and violence breaks out again, then clearly we should be suspending those licences."
Trust needed
Mr Clegg added: "In the face of the massive loss of civilian life - whilst of course condemning unconditionally, the indiscriminate use of rockets by Hamas to terrorise Israeli citizens... I just don't think we can be anything other than very clear and very tough with the Israeli authorities that what we think their doing clearly appears to be disproportionate and not in their long term interests."
US President Barack Obama has said a more durable truce requires risks being taken by leaders on both sides.
He said trust needs to rebuilt, which was difficult after a time of violence.
"Long term, there has to be a recognition that Gaza cannot sustain itself permanently closed off from the world," said the US president, speaking in Washington.
More than 1,800 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 67 Israelis, mainly soldiers, have died in the conflict.
A Thai national in Israel was also killed.
Gaza's health ministry listed 1,867 people as killed. The UN says more than 1,300 were civilians, and more than 400 were children. | UK ministers are discussing whether to suspend arms export licences to Israel if the truce in Gaza ends. |
37,291,831 | The new not-for-profit co-operatives would focus on renewables and have a "right to supply" energy directly.
In a speech on Wednesday, Mr Corbyn will also call for an end to fracking.
Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith said Mr Corbyn's previous actions meant he lacked credibility on green issues.
The result of the Labour leadership election will be announced on 24 September.
Launching his environmental manifesto, Mr Corbyn will say he is putting "new energy economics" at the heart of his plans to curb rising bills and tackle climate change.
If elected prime minister, he will commit to:
In his speech, Mr Corbyn will say he wants 65% of the UK's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, making Britain the world's leading producer.
"To achieve this we will accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, and drive the expansion of the green industries and jobs of the future, using our National Investment Bank to invest in public and community-owned renewable energy," he will say.
"This will deliver clean energy and curb energy bill rises for households; an energy policy for the 60 million, not the big six energy companies."
Mr Corbyn has previously floated the idea of bringing the UK's largest energy providers back into public ownership but he will say his focus is on tightening regulation and giving consumers alternative sources of affordable energy.
Making clear his opposition to fracking, he will say shale gas extraction - which has been licensed on a limited basis in the UK - is "not compatible" with tackling climate change and could potentially breach the UK's obligations under the Climate Change Act, which mandates emissions cuts of 80% by 2050.
"We will act to protect the future of our planet, with social justice at the heart of our environment policies" he will add.
Mr Smith said that by failing to campaign effectively for Britain to remain in the EU, Mr Corbyn had put vital environmental protections at further risk.
"It's impossible for Jeremy Corbyn to speak with credibility on environmental policy," a spokesman for Mr Smith said.
"He has called for the reintroduction of deeply damaging open-cast coal mining and only had one meeting with his shadow environment team in nine months as leader."
In a Commons debate on Wednesday, Labour will press the government to ratify last year's Paris Climate Agreement immediately - which it says would put the UK in the vanguard of international steps to cap increases in temperatures.
The government is in danger of missing its target of sourcing 15% of the UK's energy from renewables by 2020 but says it is still committed to it. | A future Labour government would challenge the dominance of the "big six" energy firms by championing more than 1,000 publicly-owned local energy providers, Jeremy Corbyn will say. |
33,057,927 | The analysis of genomes from 101 ancient adults suggests the gene for breaking down the lactose sugar in milk was still rare in the Bronze Age.
The results come as something of a surprise because the gene is widespread among modern Europeans.
The research by an international team is published in Nature journal.
The findings illuminate a debate over migrations during the Bronze Age (3,000-5,000 years ago), which - according to the picture emerging from ancient DNA research - was a particularly dynamic period.
"It seems like the Bronze Age is the period where the genetic diversity and distribution that we know today is basically formed," co-author Prof Eske Willerslev, from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, told BBC News.
The study shows that people of European origin penetrated en masse into Central Asia where they became known as the Sintashta culture. And a population from Europe's eastern periphery called the Yamnaya, who carried ancestry also found in Native Americans, pushed far into northern and central Europe.
The team was able to look at some of the genetic characteristics of these ancient individuals. One thing that stood out was the scarcity of a variant in the gene (called LCT) that codes for lactase, an enzyme that breaks down lactose.
The ability in adulthood to break down lactose is rare or absent in most parts of the world. Those without the mutation can experience unpleasant side effects if they consume substantial amounts of milk.
"The ability to drink milk is a very unique European feature - you also find it in a few African groups, but there it is due to different mutations," said Prof Willerslev.
Researchers had previously linked the emergence of lactose tolerance to the Neolithic period, when domestic cattle were introduced to Europe by Anatolian farmers. But Neolithic genomes haven't turned up any evidence of an increase in the trait at this time.
"At the end of the Bronze Age, this genetic ability is still extremely rare," said Eske Willerslev, describing the result as a surprise.
"We see a slight increased frequency not in Europe but to the east, on the steppe. One possibility is that after the Bronze Age, this genetic ability was brought into Europe and is then selected for."
Computer modelling work by Mark Thomas from University College London, UK, and colleagues has placed the start of the selection process in the Middle Neolithic. But, Prof Thomas explained: "It could be that it's not becoming visible in Europe until later because it takes time to rise to frequency. Or maybe it did evolve later. Or... it initially evolves in a region that hasn't been looked at using ancient DNA, then spreads to other regions later."
What has been really lacking is agreement over what's driving the gene frequency up - it's selective advantage. The classic explanation is that milk provides people with vitamin D, a particular advantage in northern Europe where humans are less able to make it through the action of sunlight on the skin.
But that reasoning doesn't work for Southern Europe, the Middle East or Africa, where lactase persistence is also found.
Prof Thomas told BBC News: "In my view there are a range of other explanations. One is that milk is just good for you - it's a 'superfood'. Another is that it is a good source of uncontaminated fluid. Yet another... is that populations have been dairying for a long time, but they've been fermenting the milk to make butter fat, yoghurt and cheese.
"Imagine you have a population with a mixed economy and their crops fail. They're going to become more dependent on fermented milk products and they're going to be somewhat malnourished. After that runs out, they're just going to be left with milk.
"If you are severely malnourished and you eat something that gives you diarrhoea, you're at serious risk of dying because of fluid loss and so on. So the times when people needed to consume unfermented milk were exactly those when you don't want diarrhoea. It might have generated really intense bursts of selection for those who were lactase persistent."
"I suspect that only more ancient DNA data will enable us to pin down why lactase persistence spread so quickly."
Dr Abigail Bouwman, from the University of Zurich, echoed the view that the selective advantage of this trait was greater when unprocessed milk was required. She told BBC News: "I would posit that the reason the Bronze Age LCT frequency is quite low despite the long history of cattle domestication and even dairying, is due to a combination of unprocessed milk not being essential for survival and the fact that the mutation(s) that allow for lactase persistence are spontaneous.
She added: "The European allele is only one mutation. It takes a while for one person's genetic heritage to spread to significant number of descendants."
The discovery that the Yamnaya, or a population like them, left an important mark on the genetic landscape of Europe backs up previous findings by a team led by Prof David Reich of Harvard Medical School, US.
Variation in the amount of Yamnaya ancestry seems to account for many of the genetic differences between people in southern and northern Europe.
These nomadic, horse-riding pastoralists, with their ox-driven wagons, buried the dead in earthen mounds called kurgans. They may also have helped spread languages belonging to the Indo-European family. Today, most of the languages spoken in Europe belong to this group, with a few exceptions such as Basque.
"Here we can see from the data that the spread of Indo-European languages fits very well with the spread of the Yamnaya culture," said Eske Willerslev.
The study also shows that the Yamnaya spread east into Central Asia, only to be replaced around 2000BC by a warlike, chariot-riding group that archaeologists know as the Sintashta culture. Contrary to suggestions, these incomers had an Asian origin. Analysis of their genomes links them to Bronze Age Europeans, suggesting a mass movement from west to east.
Follow Paul on Twitter. | The ability to digest milk may have become common only relatively recently in Europe, a major study of ancient DNA shows. |
29,357,105 | Arseniy Yatsenyuk told the UN General Assembly that Russian troops were still operating in eastern Ukraine.
Earlier, US President Barack Obama said sanctions could be lifted if Russia supported a ceasefire between Ukraine and separatist rebels in the east.
Russia denies arming the rebels and sending Russian troops to Ukraine.
Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea southern peninsula in March - a move condemned by Ukraine and the West.
The European Union and the United States later imposed sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine conflict.
UN officials say 3,245 people have been killed since fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia separatists began in April.
A shaky ceasefire has held since 5 September, and the two sides have since agreed to set up a 30km (19 miles) buffer zone.
"We ask our partners not to lift sanctions until Ukraine takes control of its entire territory," Mr Yatsenyuk said. "Crimea was, is and will be a part of Ukraine."
"Russian troops are deployed in the east of Ukraine," he said. "We urge Russia to pull back its forces... and to start real talks."
"Every day, despite the ceasefire, we are losing Ukrainian soldiers, we are losing civilians."
He told Russia: "You can win the fight against the troops, but you will never win the fight against the... united Ukraine nation."
Earlier, Mr Obama criticised Russian actions in Ukraine, but said that if Russia took the path of peace, "then we will lift our sanctions and welcome Russia's role in addressing common challenges".
On Wednesday, Nato said it observed a "significant" withdrawal of Russian troops from eastern Ukraine, but added that some forces still remained there.
Minsk memorandum on ceasefire: Key points | Ukraine's prime minister has urged the West not to lift sanctions on Russia until his country regains control of all its territory. |
18,372,855 | Saints had an offer for the 22-year-old accepted at the end of May, but the player's summer holiday delayed completion of the transfer.
"This is a great club who are where they belong [in the Premier League]," Rodriguez told Southampton's website.
"It's a squad I want to be a part of. The sky is the limit."
He has a hungry and enthusiastic attitude, with a desire to work hard in the positive environment that we have at Southampton
A string of Premier League clubs, including Everton,Aston Villa and Wigan, had been linked to the former England Under-21 international over recent months.
But newly-promoted Southampton were the only club to meet Burnley's valuation for the youngster, who had a year left on his contract and scored 21 goals last season.
They had been pursuing the striker for more than a year and failed with bids last summer and in January.
Burnley-born Rodriguez started his career at his hometown club, scoring 41 goals in 128 appearances overall.
"Jay is an exciting young English prospect, so I am really happy he is our first signing of the summer," said Saints boss Nigel Adkins.
"There has been a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes on several fronts and we are delighted Jay has signed for us as we get ready for our pre-season schedule.
"He has demonstrated a superb attitude and, when we met him, it has only confirmed what our research has told us.
"He has a hungry and enthusiastic attitude, with a desire to work hard in the positive environment that we have at Southampton where he will be able to develop his talent."
Rodriguez added: "As an outsider, you look at the club from where it started, and the drive they have to move up the leagues in quick succession is amazing.
"They want to push on even higher, and carry on the way they're going." | Southampton have completed the signing of Burnley striker Jay Rodriguez on a four-year deal for a reported club record fee of around £7m. |
23,941,835 | Computer salesman Gary Tweddle, 23, originally from Reading, was last seen at a business conference in Leura, west of Sydney, in July.
New South Wales Police said his body was recovered after it was spotted this week on a cliff edge by an ambulance helicopter on a training mission.
Mr Tweddle's family positively identified the body earlier.
Police are preparing a report for the coroner.
Mr Tweddle, who had been living in Sydney, disappeared after a work dinner in Leura.
He made a phone call to colleagues in the early hours of 17 July to say he was lost in bushland.
More than 1,000 people searched cliffs and gullies with helicopters, by abseiling and using bushwalkers.
His body was spotted near Leura at about 16:00 local time (07:00 BST) on Monday.
Joanne Elliott, a spokeswoman for Blue Mountains Local Area Command, said the "extremely rough terrain" meant police rescue officers had been unable to retrieve the body until first light.
Police previously said they were treating his disappearance as "accidental death". | A body found in bushland in Australia's Blue Mountains has been confirmed as that of a missing British man. |
35,988,723 | The all-weather surface, made by Italian firm Limonta Sport, will be laid in time for the 2016-17 season.
Saracens were the first to use an artificial surface in 2013, followed the next season by Newcastle Falcons.
But Sixways will be the first in the United Kingdom with an organic infill, rather than the more widely used rubber crumb made from shredded car tyres.
"Our pitch is our most under-utilised asset," said Warriors chief executive Jim O'Toole. "It is currently being used for fewer than 100 hours per season.
"The structure of our existing playing surface means that we have to allocate eight to 10 weeks per summer to refurbish it, thus removing the possibility of summertime playing usage or commercial activity.
"This exciting development not only allows us to play more rugby at all levels on our biggest physical asset, but also allows us to establish new commercial revenue streams such as concerts, festivals and other non-rugby events.
"It is a significant investment on behalf of the ownership and is another step in our journey to make the business profitable in the long term."
Limonta Sport, who meet World Rugby guidelines, have installed more than 650 full-size sport fields over the past six years for professional football and rugby clubs all over the world.
Despite suffering their heaviest defeat of the season at Exeter on Saturday, Worcester are now safe from the threat of relegation.
Dean Ryan's side stand 10th in the Premiership, 16 points clear of bottom club London Irish, who have just three games left.
The four-match winning sequence which lifted them clear of trouble included a 15-14 victory over Newcastle on the artificial surface at Kingston Park.
Their only previous experience of an artificial pitch was a thumping 44-20 defeat by Saracens at Allianz Park in May 2014 - on the day the Warriors' most recent relegation from the the Premiership was confirmed. | Worcester Warriors plan to become the third Premiership team to play on an artificial pitch. |
25,825,225 | Flames were seen pouring from the facade of a multi-storey building, along with large plumes of smoke.
The blast, in Arid Street in the southern Haret Hreik district, left at least 20 injured, reports say.
There has been a spike in sectarian tension in Lebanon blamed on the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
Hezbollah forces have been fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, while Lebanese Sunni Muslims tend to back the Syrian opposition.
Hundreds of people gathered at the scene as Hezbollah's emergency services worked to extinguish the blaze. It is not clear what the target was, though there are Hezbollah offices close by.
A group calling itself the al-Nusra Front in Lebanon put out a statement on Twitter claiming to be behind the attack in revenge for "massacres" perpetrated by Hezbollah.
It is not clear what links the group has to the al-Nusra Front in Syria - an al-Qaeda-linked force fighting Mr Assad's government.
Lebanon's Haret Hreik district is densely populated with many shops. Buildings were damaged and glass strewn over the street.
Details of casualties are sketchy. But of the four deaths reported by Hezbollah's al-Manar TV, quoting Hezbollah officials, one is reported to be a woman.
Body parts thought to be those of the suicide bomber were scattered at the scene, Lebanon's national news agency reported.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called a meeting of the government's emergency response committee.
It is the latest of several recent explosions in Lebanon. Five people were killed and many others injured by a bomb blast on 2 January in the same Beirut district.
Former minister Mohamad Chatah, a Sunni and a critic of Hezbollah, was killed with five others by a car bomb in December.
There are fears that the spiral of violence could tighten further, says the BBC's Jim Muir, who went to the scene.
However, a Hezbollah official and MP told him the organisation did not plan to respond to Tuesday's attack, our correspondent adds.
Lebanon has been politically deadlocked since last March with an alliance led by Sunni former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hezbollah unable to agree on a coalition government. | An attack by a suspected suicide car bomber has reportedly killed four people in a Hezbollah stronghold in a Shia-dominated suburb of Beirut. |
34,109,685 | Spokesman Josh Earnest said winning Congress approval to close the jail would be the best option.
But he did not rule out executive action as a means to shut it down.
President Obama is determined to shut down the prison before the end of his term in 2017, but faces bipartisan opposition in Congress.
The US has slowly been sending prisoners back to their home countries or to third countries. Just 116 inmates currently remain compared to the prison's peak population of 684 in 2003.
But closing the prison would likely require the transfer of some Guantanamo inmates to jails within the US, a measure that has already been banned by Congress.
Some have been considered too dangerous to be released, but the US holds no evidence that can be used in civilian or military trials against them.
The White House says it will be sending a plan to Congress soon, the details of which have yet to be revealed.
Spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday the best way to close the site would be to win congressional approval.
"But the fact is the best way for us to do this is for members of Congress of both parties to work effectively with the administration," he told reporters.
Closing the prison was one of the first directives President Barack Obama ordered two months after he was elected in 2008.
The camp was established in 2002 by the Bush administration to detain the most dangerous suspects for interrogation and the prosecution of war crimes.
Controversy has centred on the period of time detainees have been held without charge and the use of interrogation techniques. | The White House says President Barack Obama is considering "a wide array" of options for closing the controversial US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. |
39,421,396 | Although the palm-sized device looks nothing like a womb, fallopian tubes and ovaries, the researchers say it should help with understanding diseases of these organs and tissues.
It also provides a novel way to test new treatments.
The work is part of a project to create the entire human "body on a chip".
The ultimate goal would be to take cells from any given individual in order to create a personalised model of their body to test drugs and treatments on, Nature Communications reports.
The 3D model is made up of a series of cubes that each represent the different parts of the female reproductive system.
Each cube contains collections of living cells from the respective bits of this system - fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix and vagina (all human cells), and the ovaries (taken from mice).
The cubes are connected together with small tubes, which allow special fluid to flow through the entire system, much like blood.
This also means the "mini organs" can communicate with each other using hormones, mimicking what happens in a woman's body during a "typical" 28-day human menstrual cycle.
One of the cubes represents the human liver because this organ plays an important role in drug metabolism, say the scientists.
Tests suggested that the tissues in the system responded to the cyclical ebb and flow of hormones, in a similar way to those of the female body.
Research Dr Joanna Burdette, from Northwestern University, said: "It's a biological representation of the female reproductive tract, so we call it Evatar."
Co-worker Dr Ji-Yong Julie Kim said: "Understanding how the uterus responds to hormones is really important. There is no animal model for a lot of the stuff that we study."
Experts welcomed the advance.
Prof Jan Brosens from the University of Warwick said: "This is genuinely a remarkable technical achievement.
"I am entirely confident that this novel technology represents a step-change in our ability to pinpoint defects that cause infertility and early pregnancy loss. However, it is not a system that can recapitulate all the specialised functions of the reproductive tract or replace IVF."
Dr Channa Jayasena, from Imperial College London and the Society for Endocrinology, said: "The results are exciting and represent an important innovation. However, we must remember that the rodent and human reproductive systems have important differences." | US scientists say they have made a mini working replica of the female reproductive tract using human and mouse tissue. |
39,978,284 | The event in the youngster's home village of Blackhall in County Durham ends a memorable week in which he was also named a "child of courage".
Bradley, who has struck up a remarkable friendship with England footballer Jermain Defoe, was in hospital on Wednesday when he turned six.
Defoe was one of 250 well-wishers at a marquee at the village cricket club.
At the weekend Defoe carried Bradley onto the pitch as mascot for Sunderland's last home game and on Thursday he was on the red carpet with him as he was named child of courage at the Pride of North East Awards.
Bradley, who has the rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma, has touched millions of people as well as the world of football.
Fans of different clubs have sung his name at matches and held banners for him.
An appeal to send him Christmas cards ended with him receiving 315,000 through the post.
On Wednesday, his family posted a video of Bradley in hospital in which he smiled and put his thumbs up, saying: "Thank you for my birthday messages everyone."
In April, it was confirmed the latest and final round of Bradley's treatment had failed and the family vowed to continue "creating memories".
His mother, Gemma Lowery, said: "I'm absolutely over the moon that we have managed to get this far and celebrate Bradley's sixth birthday with all of our family and friends.
"He is actually a lot better than he has been, he's still obviously poorly and in a lot of pain but he has rested well in bed all day and he was raring to go tonight.
"We are very grateful for Jermain to have taken Bradley in his heart. He is obviously now a friend of the family rather than Bradley's idol - although he is still Bradley's idol.
"He makes Bradley happy and he makes Bradley smile, and it's just lovely to see him with him." | Hundreds of people have attended a birthday party for terminally-ill Sunderland fan Bradley Lowery. |
35,050,790 | Joseph Hobbin, 60, was a resident of Kennedy Court in Haddington, which was owned by Ark Housing Association.
While a bath was being run, Mr Hobbin's legs slipped out of a bath chair and went into the water - probably due to an epileptic fit.
The housing association pleaded guilty to two contraventions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
It was fined at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
The presiding sheriff ruled that Mr Hobbin suffered "catastrophic injuries" due to the mishap in June 2013, from which he died two weeks later.
Sheriff Norman McFadyen said the Ark Housing Association had a "blind spot" over its failure to adequately assess the risks of scalding a person in their care.
Sheriff McFadyen added: "It is often said that an accident was waiting to happen.
"Given the lack of systems, training and equipment, it is indeed surprising in this case that there had not been a previous incident.
"Noting as I do the care with which various aspects of risk had been assessed and addressed, it seems all the more puzzling that only the most cursory mention was made in the company's risk assessment material of the need to check that water was not too hot and that nothing was said about how that was to be done."
He added: "Any parent of young children - and indeed most parents-to-be - will be only too aware that testing temperature by pinkie finger-tip at the tap end is not going to give a reliable indication of the warmth of water in a deep bath.
"In this case, the bath was estimated to be three-quarters full. And, indeed, it appears that the support worker did have concerns that the water might be too hot."
In setting his fine at £75,000, Sheriff McFadyen acknowledged that Ark Housing Association had taken "swift remedial action" to prevent another accident and has co-operated fully with investigators. The firm has turned over more than £19m in each of the last two financial years.
Jane Gray, chief executive of Ark Housing Association, said: "This was a tragic accident which we deeply regret. ARK has been honest and open, and admitted liability.
"We were glad to hear the Crown Fiscal note in court that ARK has co-operated fully with the Health and Safety Executive's investigation and that we took immediate remedial steps to ensure there could be no risk of such an incident occurring again. These steps included installing Thermostatic Mixer Valves where necessary, providing thermometers, training staff and implementing written instructions for bathing and showering.
"Our deepest sympathies once again go out to Joseph's family and friends." | A housing association has been fined £75,000 following the death of a disabled man who was scalded in a bath. |
37,651,594 | The 92-year-old told the BBC the apology had come from Met commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.
He said Sir Bernard had told him the force had been wrong to delay informing him no further action would be taken.
Lord Bramall was never arrested and had always denied the allegations.
Scotland Yard would not confirm an apology had been made.
Lord Bramall, a Normandy veteran who retired from the House of Lords in 2013, was accused in 2014 of child sexual abuse by a man known by the pseudonym Nick.
Within weeks, the Metropolitan Police launched a major investigation and the following year the home of the retired field marshal was raided by more than 20 officers. He was finally cleared in January this year, 10 months after the raid.
Lord Bramall told the BBC Sir Bernard had apologised in person for the time it took to give him the news of no action being taken, and for the raid. Sir Bernard had previously said he had no reason to make an apology.
Aspects of the Operation Midland investigation are expected to be strongly criticised in the next few weeks in an independent report commissioned by Sir Bernard from former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques.
Operation Midland was a Met Police inquiry into claims a Westminster VIP paedophile ring abused children in the 1970s and 1980s. It closed in March without any charges being brought.
Lord Bramall said he was very pleased to have received the apology.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he said: "Although police knew from very early on they had no case to answer they couldn't stop investigating because they didn't want to be accused of not investigating it properly.
"Sir Bernard told me, 'We couldn't take you out of it earlier,' because it would look like I had preferential treatment."
He also said he was unhappy that his wife, who was terminally ill at the time police raided their home, had died before he was told he would not face any charges.
"My wife died without me being cleared. It didn't come into their consideration that my wife was dying."
Lord Bramall did say he did "not want to be too hard on the police", and gave credit to Sir Bernard for setting up Sir Richard's inquiry "when he must have known that his officers were getting it all wrong".
"The trouble was after the apparent mistakes back in 2012 relating to revelations of very serious and serial child abuse, a mixture of public outrage and propaganda... put immense pressure through the home secretary, on the police."
This situation, Lord Bramall said, had produced a "witch-hunt culture in which child abuse, particularly historic child abuse, came to be dealt with entirely differently to other criminal offences". | Lord Bramall, the former chief of the defence staff, has said he has received an apology from the Metropolitan Police over its investigation of historical child abuse allegations against him. |
31,644,075 | But once spotted it was unmistakable: every time a black player from either side got the ball, a section of supporters behind each goal broke into monkey chants.
At one point a laughing fan performed an ape dance to match his grunting.
This was a football match in Russia, the next host of the World Cup.
Officials here play down suggestions that racism is a serious problem in the Russian game and say they are working to kick it out for good.
But those scenes at the match between CSKA Moscow and Zenit Saint Petersburg, two of Russia's biggest clubs, suggest that their efforts so far have had limited impact.
They followed soon after CSKA had been forced to play to two matches to empty stadiums, punished by Uefa for fan violence and racist conduct at a game in Rome.
"There is always something like this, coming from our opponents' fans," Zenit's Brazilian striker, Hulk, complained after the match in Moscow.
He ascribed the abuse to "ignorance and a lack of culture".
"If something like this happens during the World Cup, it will be a big problem," Hulk added.
Hulk was the first black player Zenit had ever signed. His arrival in Russia's second city in 2012 sparked protests by fans who described the lack of black players until then as an "important tradition" and an issue of "identity".
Last year, an official from football's governing body Fifa described the level of racism in the Russian game as "completely unacceptable" for a World Cup host country.
Piara Power, of Fifa's Anti-Discrimination Task Force, called on President Vladimir Putin to send a message that such attitudes would no longer be tolerated.
Hosting the World Cup is a matter of prestige for Moscow, especially as it faces increasing political isolation for supporting pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine.
There were already mumblings about a possible boycott over that crisis.
Then Western economic sanctions, piled on top of a plunging oil price, forced the government to cut spending on the tournament: two stadiums will be 10,000 seats smaller than planned.
And now there are questions over the treatment of black players and fans.
Sports officials no longer deny there is a problem but they do diminish it.
"There are problems everywhere but in Russia it's not very serious," Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the BBC.
"Sometimes fans shout racist things but we take measures. There are punishments. I don't think we stand out on this issue. There are lots of black players here and I don't see any problem."
Some of those players though, would disagree.
Earlier this season, Dynamo Moscow defender Christopher Samba suffered racial abuse from FC Torpedo fans. When he responded with what the Russian Football Union (RFU) called an "unpleasant gesture", he was given a two-match ban.
In another incident, a coach in Rostov - one of the 2018 World Cup host cities - commented that he had had "enough of the things" when asked if he was interested in signing a defender from Cameroon. He was referring to black players.
The coach, Igor Gamula, also joked that his squad might have Ebola, after several footballers fell sick.
His comments earned him a five-match ban when they hit the international press. The coach apologised, but still insisted his "joke" had been misunderstood.
Gamula's attitude chimes with that of many fans who see their monkey chants from the stands as simply part of the "banter". The crowd shouts at players from the opposing side, the argument goes, and they will pick on anything.
But such behaviour has been illegal for over a year now.
The "Fans' Law" passed in December 2013 seeks to regulate supporters' conduct and introduced strict sanctions for violations including inciting hatred, violence and racism.
The penalties range up to a seven-year match ban, stiff fines and 15 days' detention.
A RFU official insisted the law was being implemented but could not provide statistics.
Torpedo Moscow had to play a match behind closed doors after the incident with Christopher Samba but at the CSKA v Zenit match we attended, neither stewards nor police batted an eyelid at the repeated racist chanting.
A CSKA official later told the BBC most clubs lacked sophisticated surveillance equipment to tackle the problem properly and prosecute.
"The authorities have only recently started to fight racism," points out Alexander Verkhovsky, from the Russian anti-racism group SOVA.
"Five years ago there was impunity, they didn't care. We do need more decisive action, but the fact they are doing anything at all is progress
He attributes the problem to the "lamentably high level" of racism in broader society.
"Football fans aren't good little boys," one CSKA supporter - Jan - commented during the match with Zenit.
"They're lads from the streets, and can have radical views.
"Racism does exist in Russian football. I don't think it will be eradicated for at least a decade."
But it is just three years now to the World Cup. Fifa wants the event to showcase zero tolerance for discrimination. Russia is still a long way off achieving that. | The noise was hard to distinguish at first, mixed in with the fans' cheers and singing. |
35,344,613 | Janulis' photographs show the countryside covered in snow as winter takes hold.
"On the first day the snow fell, I went flying and taking pictures, not to miss the chance of capturing the moments while the trees are still holding the fresh snow," says Janulis.
"No matter how cold it was, I enjoyed the winter season.
"The very end of December and early January brought stronger cold to Lithuania, reaching -15C. No matter of this, I kept on flying."
Janulis's images capture the countryside and the capital, Vilnius.
"I have always loved looking at perspectives from above; it allows us to see so many things that would otherwise be unnoticed," says Janulis.
"Taking photographs from above grants us the possibility to see the same view of the daily world as others."
Janulis uses a DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus quadcopter to capture the pictures.
Here, the snow covers the damaged roof of a large building in Vilnius. | Karolis Janulis has been using a drone to take pictures of his homeland, Lithuania, from the air. |
32,950,173 | Mr Kerry, 71, is in a stable condition in hospital in nearby Geneva, Switzerland, a spokesman said.
He is expected to make a full recovery after breaking his right femur and is in good spirits, said John Kirby.
Mr Kerry, who was in Switzerland for talks on Iran's nuclear programme, has called off planned visits to Madrid and Paris and will fly home for treatment.
The accident took place in Scionzier, France, some 40km (25 miles) south-east of the Swiss border.
"Paramedics and a physician were on the scene with the secretary's motorcade at the time of the accident," said a statement by the state department.
Mr Kerry "is stable and... did not lose consciousness".
Mr Kerry was due in Madrid on Monday for the signing of a defence deal and in Paris on Tuesday for talks on combating the militant group Islamic State, but will now fly to Boston in the US for treatment.
Mr Kerry is known for his love of cycling and often takes his bike with him when he travels. | The US Secretary of State John Kerry has broken his leg in a biking accident in the French Alps. |
34,685,303 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Crewe had been reduced to 10 men just after the hour mark when goalkeeper Ben Garratt was sent off for bringing down Yemi Odubade outside the box.
Eastleigh went ahead when substitute keeper Dan Nizic tripped Ross Lafayette and Strevens stepped up to score.
Crewe's best chance saw Ben Nugent's header from a corner fly wide.
The victory was a deserved one for Eastleigh who had enjoyed the better of the game at Gresty Road even before Garratt was dismissed.
The lively Odubade almost put the Spitfires ahead in the first half but saw his effort cleared off the line by Nugent.
Andy Drury's angled shot flew inches past the post and Odubade twice more went close as Eastleigh finished the stronger before the break.
The turning point in the match came when Odubade raced onto Drury's through ball, but Garratt misjudged his challenge and upended the striker a yard outside the area and was shown a straight red card.
Strevens made Eastleigh's dominance count when he sent Nizic the wrong way from the penalty spot 15 minutes from time and the visitors held on to reach the second round.
Eastleigh manager Chris Todd told BBC Radio Solent:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"I'm very proud of my players, they've put in an incredible shift and deserve to be in the second round.
"When he [Ben Strevens] stepped up to take that, I was praying he scored because he's such a nice guy and he loves football and he deserved that glory today.
"It was a great performance and we deserved to win the game."
Match ends, Crewe Alexandra 0, Eastleigh 1.
Second Half ends, Crewe Alexandra 0, Eastleigh 1.
Attempt saved. Yemi Odubade (Eastleigh) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top left corner.
Corner, Eastleigh. Conceded by Danijel Nizic.
Attempt saved. Lauri Dalla Valle (Crewe Alexandra) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Foul by Ben Nugent (Crewe Alexandra).
Jai Reason (Eastleigh) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Adam King (Crewe Alexandra).
Andy Drury (Eastleigh) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Josh Payne (Eastleigh) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses the top right corner.
Hand ball by Ben Nugent (Crewe Alexandra).
Substitution, Crewe Alexandra. Lauri Dalla Valle replaces Jon Guthrie.
Attempt missed. Josh Payne (Eastleigh) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
Foul by George Ray (Crewe Alexandra).
Yemi Odubade (Eastleigh) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Yemi Odubade (Eastleigh) hits the bar with a right footed shot from the centre of the box.
Attempt saved. George Ray (Crewe Alexandra) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Bradden Inman (Crewe Alexandra) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Ben Strevens (Eastleigh).
Ben Nugent (Crewe Alexandra) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Yemi Odubade (Eastleigh).
Attempt blocked. Bradden Inman (Crewe Alexandra) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Goal! Crewe Alexandra 0, Eastleigh 1. Ben Strevens (Eastleigh) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.
Danijel Nizic (Crewe Alexandra) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Penalty conceded by Danijel Nizic (Crewe Alexandra) after a foul in the penalty area.
Penalty Eastleigh. Ross Lafayette draws a foul in the penalty area.
Corner, Crewe Alexandra. Conceded by Josh Payne.
Jamie Turley (Eastleigh) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Bradden Inman (Crewe Alexandra) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jamie Turley (Eastleigh).
Substitution, Eastleigh. Michael Green replaces Dan Harding because of an injury.
Delay in match Dan Harding (Eastleigh) because of an injury.
Substitution, Eastleigh. Ross Lafayette replaces James Constable.
Attempt missed. Andy Drury (Eastleigh) right footed shot from outside the box is too high.
Attempt missed. Josh Payne (Eastleigh) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.
Substitution, Crewe Alexandra. Danijel Nizic replaces George Cooper.
Ben Garratt (Crewe Alexandra) is shown the red card.
Yemi Odubade (Eastleigh) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Ben Garratt (Crewe Alexandra).
Attempt saved. Yemi Odubade (Eastleigh) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. | Ben Strevens's penalty earned National League side Eastleigh a surprise FA Cup first-round victory at League One's bottom side Crewe Alexandra. |
30,890,872 | Northbay Pelagic said its main processing and packing lines had been lost along with an office and administration block.
The blaze broke out on Saturday afternoon and burned for more than 10 hours.
The company, one of the town's biggest employers, said it would continue to meet customer needs.
An investigation into the cause of the fire is under way.
A statement on Northbay Pelagic's website said: "Key strategic areas of our facility remain fully operational and we continue to service our business and customer needs.
"We are currently looking at all of our options going forward and we will hopefully announce our plan of action soon.
"In the meantime, we are sourcing temporary accommodation for our administration and management staff and re-establishing daily communications with all of our customers and suppliers."
The fire was brought under control overnight into Sunday.
Nearby flats were evacuated but no-one was believed to have been in the factory at the time.
A rest centre was set up at Peterhead Academy for people evacuated from their homes in Errol Street and road closures were expected to remain in place for some time.
Northbay Pelagic is reported to employ about 300 people in Peterhead, one of Europe's busiest fish landing ports. | A fire at a fish factory in Peterhead totally destroyed two main areas of the facility, according to its owners. |
40,878,412 | David Goodfield had levelled after half-time following Diego Arana's opener, before Albert Beltran put Spain 2-1 ahead in the fourth quarter.
England started the tournament with a 9-1 defeat by the Netherlands on Sunday, but beat Germany 3-0 on Monday.
The competition serves as a warm-up for the EuroHockey Championships, which start on 18 August in Amsterdam. | England's Mark Gleghorne scored a last-minute penalty to earn a 2-2 draw with hosts Spain at the Four Nations. |
38,382,771 | Paul Briggs, 43, suffered a brain injury in a crash on his way to work for Merseyside Police.
His wife Lindsey had told the Court of Protection treatment should be stopped "given his previously expressed wishes" and he should be allowed to die.
Doctors treating Mr Briggs had opposed the withdrawal of treatment.
They had advised the judge to be cautious and a specialist said there was "potential" for the soldier-turned-policeman to emerge from the minimally conscious state.
But Mr Justice Charles said Mr Briggs, a Gulf War veteran, should go on to a palliative care regime at a hospice.
Mrs Briggs said: "The court case was the hardest thing we have ever had to do but we did it for Paul, to honour his wishes."
She said she was "grateful" Mr Justice Charles had shown compassion.
"He has been able to place himself in Paul's situation, and for that we will be forever thankful", she said.
The Official Solicitor is to seek leave to appeal against Tuesday's decision.
The role of the Official Solicitor is to act for people who are vulnerable because of their lack of mental capacity.
Lawyers for the Official Solicitor represented PC Briggs' interests at the hearing.
Mrs Briggs said she was "dismayed" to learn the decision might be challenged.
Source: NHS Choices
In July, driver Chelsea Rowe was jailed for a year for crashing into PC Briggs in Birkenhead as he was riding his motorcycle on the way to work a nightshift.
He suffered a bleed on the brain and five fractures in his spine. He has been kept alive through medical intervention.
The court heard from barrister Victoria Butler-Cole, representing Mrs Briggs, that a doctor had diagnosed Mr Briggs as "being in a permanent vegetative state".
But doctors at the Walton Centre in Liverpool - a specialist neurology hospital - and an independent doctor determined Mr Briggs was "minimally conscious".
A barrister representing the hospital said Mr Briggs "would benefit from a more socially stimulating environment".
Mrs Briggs said she had been "living in darkness and despair" for the past 18 months.
Following the decision, the family "could find peace at Christmas time" knowing "Paul would finally be free from pain and suffering," she said. | Doctors should stop providing life-support treatment to a police officer who has been in a minimally conscious state since 2015, a judge has ruled. |
34,055,190 | Father-of-two Darren Mark Harvey, 25, of Portsmouth Road, Woolston, died on Saturday at about 23:00 BST.
Police said the accident happened on the A337 close to the Holland Wood Campsite near Brockenhurst.
A family statement said: "His untimely death leaves a void in his loved ones' lives, that no words can describe."
"Darren was a popular young man, who had a cheeky smile.
"A proud dad, a loving son, brother and grandson who recently married and was taken from us far too soon. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. A mother's love is eternal.
"Darren was a truly dedicated and loving husband and father, as well as a passionate car enthusiast.
"He lived for his wife Becky, and his two young boys, liking nothing better than to spend time with them and make them laugh.
"A kind young man, Darren would do anything for anyone, and was much loved within his family."
Police said a file was being prepared and will be passed to the coroner.
After the crash a fire crew member was taken to hospital with minor injuries and has since been discharged.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue said the fire engine had been on its way back to Winchester after dealing with a gas leak at a petrol station in Lymington.
A spokeswoman confirmed the vehicle did not have its blue lights on at the time of the crash. | The family of a man who died when a fire engine collided with his car in the New Forest has paid tribute to a "loving husband and father". |
34,938,232 | 26 November 2015 Last updated at 21:21 GMT
The detached six-bedroom home in the Terrace, Barnes, collapsed at about midday, when resident Stephen Beard was passing.
Local estate agents said it used to be owned by Aimee Duffy but had since changed hands.
Duffy is a Welsh singer-song writer who shot to fame in 2008 with the single Mercy and her debut record Rockferry won a Grammy award. | A man from south-west London has described the moment he saw a house once owned by the singer-song writer Duffy collapsing in front of him. |
30,559,769 | Mr Xi was marking the 15th anniversary of the territory's return to China.
Like neighbouring Hong Kong, Macau is a special autonomous region and has experienced protests by pro-democracy activists this year.
On Saturday, dozens of demonstrators marched in Macau's historic centre, demanding "universal suffrage".
Correspondents say the communist authorities in Beijing do not want Macau and Hong Kong to become hotbeds of dissent.
"We must both adhere to the 'one-China' principle and respect the difference of the two systems," Mr Xi said during his visit, where he was also present at the inauguration of Macau's Chief Executive Fernando Chui.
"This is the only way leading to sound and steady progress," Mr Xi added. "Otherwise a misguided approach from the beginning, just like putting one's left foot into the right shoe, would lead us nowhere."
Six months ago, demonstrators in Macau took to the streets to demand greater democracy. Mr Chui was the only nominee for the chief executive position, and was elected by a 400-person panel.
On Saturday, the protesters also gathered in Macao. "We want universal suffrage!" they chanted.
Some demonstrators also carried umbrellas - a symbol of protest movement in Hong Kong.
In his speech, Mr Xi also referred to Macau's struggling economy.
It is the world's biggest gambling centre, but has seen casino revenues fall about 20% over the past year.
Mr Xi said the territory should reduce its dependence on one sector.
"It is important for Macau to adopt a global, nationwide, future-oriented and long-term perspective," Mr Xi said. "Focus on building a global tourism and leisure centre... promote the Macanese economy's appropriate diversification and sustainable development."
Macau's gambling industry has been in decline for several years.
Analysts say the recent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong - a short ferry ride away - may have led to further losses in revenue by preventing tourists from visiting.
Activists in Hong Kong wanted Beijing to allow fully free elections for the territory's next leader in 2017. China says everyone can vote but a pro-Beijing committee will screen candidates.
The main pro-democracy protest camp was cleared earlier this month. | Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged Macau residents to respect the "one-China" policy during a visit to the former Portuguese colony. |
35,968,632 | The prize is awarded annually to an author for their entire body of work as opposed to one single book.
Rosoff is best known for her young adult novels including How I Live Now and Just In Case.
The Lingdren Prize jury said that Rosoff's novels "speak to the emotions as well as the intellect".
"In sparkling prose, she writes about the search for meaning and identity in a peculiar and bizarre world."
The Boston-born author will receive five million kroner (£434,000) in prize money.
Rosoff told The Guardian on Tuesday: "When I saw I had a phone call from Sweden, I wish I could say that I immediately thought it was the prize, but I actually immediately thought it was telemarketers.
"There have been so many times that I may have fantasised about winning whatever award, but I never imagined I would win this one."
She added: "I do genuinely believe, and I tell my students, that your job as a writer is not to read reviews or to be on Twitter drumming up business, but to write books.
"The goal of writing is to write, not to pay attention to accolades. But on the other hand, it does make a difference."
Rosoff has written seven novels in total and her work has been translated into more than 20 languages.
The prize is awarded to work "of the highest artistic quality featuring the same "humanistic values" of the late Astrid Lindgren, who wrote the Pippi Longstocking series.
The memorial award was created by the Swedish government after Lindgren's death in 2002. It is the world's largest prize for children's and young people's literature.
The award will be presented to Rosoff at a ceremony on 30 May. | Meg Rosoff has won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for literature aimed at children and young adults. |
33,991,733 | The escape had happened four years before the trial, in September 1983.
A memo on the file, dated June 1987, reveals the fate of the 19 escapees in what was described as "the biggest escape in British or Irish prison history".
Of these, three were recorded as dead: Kieran Fleming (a life prisoner) who had drowned while escaping from an engagement with the security forces on the Fermanagh border in 1984; Seamus McElwaine, a Monaghan IRA man, killed in a gun battle with the SAS at Roslea, County Fermanagh in 1984; and Pat McKearney, shot dead by the SAS at Loughgall in May 1987.
Ten men remained at large while two escapees; Gerry Kelly (now a Sinn Féin MLA), sentenced to life imprisonment for causing explosions, and Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane (the IRA commander in the Maze during the 1981 Hunger Strike) had been arrested and subsequently extradited from Holland to complete their sentences.
As the trial of the escapees was scheduled to take place in Crumlin Road courthouse in Belfast in January 1987, a meeting was held in Dundonald House earlier that month to discuss security precautions for the trial.
It was chaired by the Director of Prison Security, John (now Sir John) Semple and attended by the governor of the Maze prison and RUC personnel.
Mr Semple referred to an RUC intelligence report indicating that the Provisional IRA believed there were two possible escape options from Crumlin Road prison.
He also considered that the nearby courthouse was vulnerable from an escape point of view.
In reply, Insp Sexton of RUC court security confirmed that police officers would be located in the public gallery of the courtroom while the RUC would search members of the public entering the court.
Mr Ritchie of the Northern Ireland Court Service asked whether the prisoners would be handcuffed in the courtroom and both the RUC and prison authorities agreed that this was necessary.
The meeting debated the mode of transport for the prisoners and the practicalities of transport by road or air.
Major Radford of HQNI (the headquarters of the Army in Northern Ireland), having been assured that if a helicopter was used the prisoners would be handcuffed, agreed to consult the RUC on the matter.
Mr Baxter, the governor-designate of the Maze prison, stated that, on their arrival at Belfast jail, the prisoners would be fully searched while "top risk prisoners" would be housed in a separate wing.
Officials expressed concern that in recent weeks, the prison guard force at Belfast had ceased patrols of the area around the prison, something that was "very disconcerting [in view of] RUC intelligence reports".
It was agreed that the RUC and military would liaise on this aspect.
Other difficulties surrounding the trial began to emerge. A minute from R D Kendrick, Director of Prison Operations, on 24 February, 1987 revealed that "some of the prison officers due to give evidence in the escape trial themselves have criminal records".
Mr Kendrick reported that checks were being made "to ensure the accuracy of this rather disturbing information".
A final note in the file reveals that the 16 defendants were transferred by helicopter to Belfast prison on 21 April 1987.
"They have been dispersed throughout A and C Wings with the seven top-risk prisoners (including Mr McFarlane and Mr Kelly) being housed on the A3 landing," it said.
In addition, Mr Kendrick said, prior to their court appearance each day, all of the escapees would be strip-searched.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lowry refused to allow the prisoners to be handcuffed in the court. | There were high-level security concerns at the 1987 trial of those involved in the IRA's mass escape from the Maze Prison in County Antrim, according to newly declassified files. |
33,799,198 | The driver used an offensive term for homosexuals while using his radio to talk to the bus firm's control centre.
He said he was unable to drive along one of the city's main streets because of the crowds at Saturday's event.
It was reported that when he was challenged, he stood by what he said by repeating the offensive comment.
In a statement, bus operator Translink apologised to its passengers and staff for the driver's "offensive language".
"We take incidents of this nature very seriously and we expect all our staff to deal with their passengers and colleagues in a friendly, helpful and professional manner at all times," Translink said.
"A full investigation has been carried out and appropriate action is being taken."
A whistleblower wrote to BBC Radio Ulster's The Stephen Nolan Show to highlight what had happened.
John O'Doherty from the Rainbow Project, a gay and lesbian support group, said the incident was an indication of the "everyday homophobia" that "still exists within our society" and which "in many ways is tolerated".
"It shouldn't be tolerated in the workplace especially in relation to public employers but the reality is in too many places and too many parts of our society it is still acceptable," Mr O'Doherty said.
He added that it was "hugely disappointing" that the comments had been made on the day of the Pride parade.
"It was such a positive day for our city.
"Tens of thousands of people came out on the street to celebrate an amazing community, an amazing culture and we've seen such positivity and such benefit to the people of this city as well, not least of all financially." | A bus driver has been disciplined after making homophobic remarks over an open radio network during Belfast's LGBT Pride festival parade. |
30,535,721 | Visitors to Lujan Zoo in Buenos Aires pay £25 for the experience but animal activists have urged the government to investigate.
The Ministry of Agrarian Affairs is concerned that lives are at risk.
The zoo has denied the claims and says the animals, who some say appear to be "drugged," are more like "domestic dogs".
Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs of Buenos Aires, Leonardo Mascitelli, said: "What is happening here is against the Argentine laws that regulates activities in parks and estates where they are exhibiting animals.
He said the contact was against Article 8 of a local law which bans direct animal contact with the public in parks and estates where animals are exhibited.
It comes after his inspectors were tipped off by animal activists who sent in social media photos of tourists queuing to get in the cages with the zoo's lions, tigers and bears.
An online petition, with more than 11,000 signatures, has been set up to close the zoo.
Some of the complaints included the animals looked like they are "drugged", "neglected" and "not really clean".
The zoo has over 400 animals and is said to offer a "unique interacting experience" in which visitors can pet, stroke, cuddle and even sit on lions, tigers and brown bears.
It insists the animals are raised with domestic pets such as dogs and a keeper is always on hand in case anything goes wrong.
Zoo spokesman Neyen Rivero Longoria told Central European News: "The animals are no more dangerous than domestic dogs because we have taught them the boundaries.
"We are the only zoo in the world that practices special training techniques in gentleness."
Longoria added the animals are fed prior to interacting with visitors "so they won't feel hungry when a human is inside their cage".
However the zoo's claims of special training techniques were rubbished by some visitors on TripAdvisor.
The most recent posting on 13 December said: "I do not understand how this can be legal. No wild animal would tolerate the presence of various humans in such a stressful environment, they must be doped with the most disgusting substances."
Another, from Kansas, wrote: "The animals are clearly drugged, especially the lions.
"However, they are taken care of and it was still terrifying to get to get in the cages with them to pet or feed them."
Not everyone is against the zoo. One visitor wrote she was "thrilled" by the experience.
Out of 1,800 reviews only 130 said it was "poor" or "terrible" with more than half (960) saying their experience was "excellent".
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | An Argentine zoo where tourists can pose with lions could be closed over safety laws. |
38,250,674 | The Institution of Engineering and Technology claims such stereotypes could be putting girls off engineering and technology.
Its analysis of top retailers and search engine results found 89% of toys aimed at girls were pink.
Only 11% of girls' toys focused on science, technology or engineering.
Conversely, nearly a third (31%) of toys aimed at boys had a such a focus.
Researchers for the Institute analysed a total of 360 toys and images across the top 10 toy retailer websites, as well as 594 results from top search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.
They then looked at which toys were labelled as boys' toys and girls' toys.
However, previous research by the Institution shows high levels of interest in science, maths and computing on primary age girls.
Spokeswoman for the IET, Mamta Singhal, said: "Research shows girls clearly do have an interest in science, technology and engineering subjects at school, so we need to find ways to help this to translate into a higher number of women entering the industry.
"The marketing of toys for girls is a great place to start to change perceptions of the opportunities within engineering, moving from toys specifically targeted at girls to Stem toys (toys with a focus on science, technology and engineering.)
"The toy options for girls should go beyond pink, dolls and dressing up so we can cultivate their enthusiasm and inspire them to grow up to become engineers."
She added: "As a child I had traditional "girls toys" but I loved playing with cars, building blocks and creative kits too.
"The toy industry is changing slowly and over the years more gender-neutral toys such as science kits have started appearing.
"Toys can really influence what a child does in later years; therefore Stem toys are a natural move for the industry."
Jess Day, from Let Toys Be Toys - a campaign encouraging retailers to stop categorising toys by gender, said: "Play is crucial to how children develop and learn, and children should feel free to enjoy a wide range of play.
"But all too often toy marketing pushes the idea of separate toys for girls and boys.
"Many retailers have made real progress over the last few years, dropping gender labels in stores and online - our new research shows a 70% decrease in the use of online gender navigation options since 2012 - but there's still work to do to challenge the stereotyped ways that toys are often packaged and promoted."
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook | Parents are being warned against buying pink, gender-stereotyped toys this Christmas, so as not to deter girls from getting into science. |
39,743,636 | 28 April 2017 Last updated at 12:54 BST
Cheerleading is a sport that has been growing in popularity in the UK for many years.
Watch these young cheerleaders tell us their top five facts about it! | Spectacular stunts, awesome acrobatics and cheery chants! |
38,139,296 | England play Australia on Saturday and a win will equal the record 14-match winning streak set by Johnson's men.
"We had a very experienced team at that point," Johnson, 46, told BBC Sport.
"You've got a group now who have been around for a couple of World Cups, and have got a lot of caps."
As England team manager from 2008 to 2011, Johnson was responsible for giving the likes of captain Dylan Hartley and scrum-half Ben Youngs their Test debuts.
Both are now integral parts of the set-up, with Hartley leading the side throughout 2016 and Youngs a consistent presence at scrum-half.
"Players like Ben Youngs and captain Dylan Hartley have 50 caps-plus, so they are getting into the part of their careers when they are at their peak," added Johnson, who was recently inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame.
"We still need more players to come through and really hit that world-class level, and when you have a squad of 20-plus guys like that, you have a chance to really do something."
A year ago, England were knocked out of their home World Cup at the group stage, but recovered to win the Grand Slam the following spring.
And Johnson, who won 84 England caps, feels the players have used their setbacks as motivation.
"They have had some disappointments like we all do, and you either fall away or use them to motivate yourself," he added.
"I hope they are enjoying what they are doing. When you are winning it does create that momentum of good fun, and everyone wants to be in the group."
Twice a captain of the British and Irish Lions, Johnson hopes England's success will have a big impact on next year's tour to New Zealand.
"It's a Lions year and it would be great to see a whole chunk of Englishmen go on that tour," he said. | World Cup-winning former England captain Martin Johnson believes Eddie Jones' side is building a level of experience that could see it emulate his all-conquering team of 2003. |
40,242,158 | The Portadown drive took victory in race two from Ash Sutton and team-mate Rob Collard.
Turkington came home second in race one, after struggling to get past the Subaru of Ash Sutton.
Carrying maximum ballast for race three, Turkington held ninth early on before problems for cars ahead saw the 35-year-old collect sixth place.
Sutton won the opening race and took victory in the third race.
Turkington charged past Sutton on the run to the first corner in race two, holding the lead to the end of the race.
The Team BMW driver is now third in the standings, 12 points behind Honda's Gordon Shedden despite being 36 behind at the start of the weekend.
It was a weekend of frustration for Carrick driver Smiley, starting at the back of the grid after qualifying despite showing top-10 pace in practice.
In race one, Smiley made good progress in race one, moving from 27th up to 20th place.
He continued to make progress in race two, running as high as 16th but he was forced off the track by Jack Goff which resigned the 25-year-old to another 20th place finish.
However, Smiley claimed his best BTCC finish to date by crossing the line in 13th place in the final race with a fantastic drive from 19th on the grid.
Daniel Harper had a muted weekend in the Ginetta Junior class, collecting a trio of finishes in ninth, sixth and eighth.
James Turkington, younger brother of Colin, was close to making it a double podium success for the family but he could only finish fourth in the MINI Challenge race at Silverstone after sliding wide on the final lap.
He finished 5th in race two with youngster Reece Barr collecting eighth and sixth place finishes.
Fellow Portadown driver Adam Carroll had a quiet weekend in Formula E's double header in Berlin with 16th and 17th place finishes. | Colin Turkington has closed in on the lead of the British Touring Car Championship with a win at Croft. |
35,188,691 | She was found guilty of insulting the army chief by suggesting he wrap Aung San Suu Kyi's sarong round his head.
This followed humorous exchanges by internet users who noticed the colour of the army's new uniform matched some of the pro-democracy leader's clothing.
Critics say the conviction is part of a wider crackdown on protest and free speech in Myanmar, also called Burma.
The Facebook post in question was written in October after the army unveiled its new uniform as part of a rebranding exercise.
The army's commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing - who BBC correspondents say is a prolific Facebook user - modelled the new uniform online. The light green colour matched a sarong previously worn by Ms Suu Kyi.
This set off a series of internet memes, with composite pictures made to suggest the army chief was mimicking Ms Suu Kyi's sartorial taste.
The court in Ayeyawady Region found that Ms Chaw, 25, an activist for Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), shared the picture and added her own comment, saying: "If you love Mother Suu so much, why don't you wrap her sarong around your head?"
The activist was charged under the Electronic Transactions Act, which contains a broadly worded clause that makes it illegal to "extort, threaten, obstruct, defame, disturb, inappropriately influence or intimidate".
Her lawyer denied she shared the picture and her mother, Ei San, said: "We will appeal as we are not satisfied."
In a separate case, well-known activist Patrick Khum Jaa Lee, is awaiting trial after being accused of criticising the army on Facebook. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.
Myanmar spent decades under military rule. A nominally civilian government has overseen a series of reforms since 2011, but the military remains accused of rights violations and is shielded from oversight.
The NLD won a landslide in general elections last month and will form a government early next year. | Burmese activist Chaw Sandi Tun has been jailed for six months for mocking the country's army on Facebook. |
24,813,181 | 5 November 2013 Last updated at 00:03 GMT
A new law signed last year by Mayor Michael Bloomberg requires the release of all public data by December 2018.
In the meantime, officials who work for city agencies may be granted access to other agencies' information in order to help their workflow. And entrepreneurs can tap into the data.
"With the news of the NSA and Prism and all that stuff, people are scared about big data," says Joel Natividad, the co-founder of Pediacities.com, which compiles data about restaurants and schools.
"We're doing Big Data for good, for regular people."
The BBC's Jonny Dymond spent a day in the offices of NYC Open Data and met city workers and entrepreneurs trying to understand - and build on - big data's waves of zeros and ones.
Produced by Maria Byrne and Anna Bressanin | New York City officials collect an extraordinary amount of data, ranging from information about parking meters to phone calls to a city-run help line. |
38,323,591 | Rebel fighters and civilians had been due to leave early on Wednesday, but the ceasefire collapsed.
Rebel groups said late on Wednesday that evacuations would take place in the coming hours.
But there has been no confirmation so far from the Syrian government or its major ally Russia.
And a media unit run by the Lebanese Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian government, said negotiations were undergoing "big complications" and had not yet concluded.
Rebels said the new ceasefire would come into effect late on Wednesday, with evacuations to follow early on Thursday.
The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, in Beirut, said the new deal would also allow the simultaneous evacuation of two villages being besieged by rebels in north-west Syria.
Syria's government and its ally Iran had insisted the evacuation from east Aleppo could happen only when those villages were evacuated, our correspondent said.
Hours after the first agreement collapsed on Wednesday morning, air strikes resumed over rebel-held territory, where at least 50,000 civilians remain.
The UN said raids by the Syrian government and its allies on an area "packed with civilians" most likely violated international law.
In a statement, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: "The way this deal was dangled in front of this battered and beleaguered population - causing them to hope they might indeed live to see another day - and then snatched away just half a day later is also outrageously cruel."
Meanwhile, the BBC has learned that Western forces are using satellites and unmanned aircraft to gather evidence of possible war crimes in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.
Besieged residents have faced weeks of bombardment and chronic food and fuel shortages.
Medical facilities in the city have largely been reduced to rubble, as rebels have been squeezed into ever-smaller areas by a major government offensive, backed by Russian air power.
"The wounded and dead are lying in the street," one activist, Mohammad al-Khatib, told AFP. "No one dares to try and retrieve the bodies."
It is not clear how many people remain in the besieged areas. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura put the figure at about 50,000.
He said there were approximately 1,500 rebel fighters, about 30% of whom were from the jihadist group formerly known as the al-Nusra Front.
Other local sources say there could be as many as 100,000 people, many of them arriving from areas recently taken by the government.
Meanwhile, demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Aleppo have taken place in cities across the world, including Hamburg in Germany, Sarajevo in Bosnia and Rabat in Morocco.
The lights of the Eiffel Tower were also dimmed. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she hoped the gesture would highlight the need for "urgent action" to help the people of Aleppo. | A deal to evacuate the last rebel-held part of eastern Aleppo is back on, opposition fighters say, a day after a previous agreement fell through. |
32,590,494 | But a new enemy has been found haunting Russia in the run-up to 70th anniversary celebrations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany: swastikas.
The authorities seem so determined to eliminate even the slightest sign of "Nazi propaganda" that even Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer-winning comic book about a Holocaust survivor, Maus, has disappeared from bookshops. Why? Well, it has a swastika on its cover as part of its anti-fascist message.
"We are removing everything to do with Nazi Germans," a member of staff at a popular bookshop told Ekho Moskvy radio.
Maus is certainly not the only target of the current anti-Nazi campaign.
A few weeks ago, investigators seized toy soldiers in SS uniforms from a central Moscow toy store and launched a criminal case over "inciting national, racial or religious hatred".
The move caused outrage among some commentators, who accused prosecutors of fighting imaginary threats.
"In our Soviet childhood, in a country with a strict communist ideology, there was a whole lot of toy soldiers in fascist uniforms. And it didn't occur to any communist or Young Communist League ideologist that these soldiers promoted Nazism or insulted veterans," wrote Valeriy Yakov, editor-in-chief of the Novyye Izvestiya daily.
He said that prosecutors were busy fighting "myths" but turned a blind eye to the forum of European far-right parties in St Petersburg in March, where Nazi symbols were "openly promoted".
But such criticism does not seem to have deterred investigators and activists.
In a bizarre twist, a batch of women's sandals was recently seized from a shop in the city of Voronezh after activists complained the pattern on them resembled the Luftwaffe chevron.
Elsewhere, organisers of an exhibition featuring wartime Soviet posters in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky decided to cover up swastikas on German uniforms with stickers so as not to insult veterans, while a journalist in Saratov was fined for using a photo of a swastika as part of his anti-fascist collage.
"Fighting against symbols... it's what they do in a lunatic asylum," pro-Kremlin journalist Maxim Shevchenko told Ekho Moskvy.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. | You could be forgiven for thinking that Russian officials already had enough to worry about, as the Ukraine crisis threatens to flare up again, ties with the West are at their lowest point in years, and the rouble has suffered its biggest plunge in recent history. |
35,231,455 | A survey for the charity Action for Children found almost one in four mothers and fathers (23.1%) struggle to control their children's screen use.
But just 10% found it hard to get them to do their homework, while 17.5% struggled to get them off to bed.
Just under 5% found it difficult to get their offspring to have a bath.
The charity has published a series of tips to help families reduce the amount of time children spend watching television and using screens.
The suggestions include:
Carol Iddon, managing director of operations at Action for Children, said: "Technology is an often necessary part of the lives of children and parents alike, but it's important to maintain a balance with other activities and quality family time.
"We know from our extensive work with families that strong relationships with parents build resilience in children, making them less susceptible to bullying or abuse outside the home, and encouraging them to speak to their parents about any fears or concerns.
"As well as the conscious effort to cut down on screen time, some parents benefit from additional support, such as dropping in for a chat or attending support groups at children's centres, to learn how to better connect with their children."
The survey findings come amid continuing concerns that many young people may be spending too much time online or watching TV.
A Cambridge University study published in September suggested an extra hour a day of television, internet or computer game time in Year 10 was linked to poorer grades at GCSE.
The researchers recorded the activities of more than 800 14-year-olds. When they analysed their GCSE results at 16, they found those who had spent an extra hour a day on screens saw a fall in results equivalent to two grades overall.
Other experts have warned that pupils may arrive at school tired after spending time in front of a screen late at night. | Many UK parents find it easier to get their children to do homework, go to bed or have a bath than turn off their phones, laptops and TVs, a poll finds. |
35,418,709 | It was only the second time in the award's history that a children's book had won - and it was over a decade since Philip Pullman scooped the prize for The Amber Spyglass.
But change could be afoot as, only last month, The Fox and the Star - an illustrated fable about a fox and his friend - beat the competition to be named Waterstones Book of the Year.
Hardinge, delivering the winner's speech she had not thought she needed to prepare, urged more people to explore the "beautiful jungle" of children's and young adult (YA) fiction, whatever their age.
Has the genre finally stepped out of the shadows to stand side-by-side with adult fiction?
We asked authors and industry experts for their views:
I think there has been a general sea change - and we're definitely seeing it now, a move away from considering children's literature to be a little bit more lightweight.
I'd have been happy to see the Costa Book of the Year go to any children's book - but I'm very happy it's mine.
The cross-over market is now much more established than it was. Many adults feel less self-conscious to be seen reading, enjoying and appreciating it.
There has been interesting and complex children's and young adult fiction for quite some time, but in terms of the consumer landscape and people's attitudes, I think Harry Potter had a lot to do with it.
There has been a tendency to make assumptions about the books, to deem them as simplistic. But now, people are seeing their complexity.
The idea of the 'beautiful jungle' sprung to mind because it's a place of excitement, danger, beauty - and the unexpected.
We have published seven books by her and to now get properly recognised in this way, because Costa is one of the largest awards, feels amazing.
I think Frances does share some things with Philip Pullman, in that what she writes appeals to children and appeals to adults.
They are adult books, but the main character happens to be a child of 14. You get adults and children picking up the books.
I hope that Frances will reach a much broader audience.
Children's books do tend to get less mainstream coverage than adult books, so when something like this happens, it's incredibly important.
We really need to help parents, teachers and children themselves to have access to quality literature and find out about it. So anything that engages them, inspires them and gets them to read is really important.
The wider world is realising what people within children's publishing have known for a while - which is that the quality and output is getting better, year on year.
I don't think we're necessarily going to see children's and young adult books winning more adult book prizes, but in terms of people recognising the quality of children's literature, that will happen more often and people will pay more attention to children and young adult book prizes - there are so many of them.
As CS Lewis said, 'A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest' - and I think that's definitely the case.
For far too long, people have had this idea in their heads that children's and teenagers' literature was somehow inferior.
But the children's market has grown more quickly than the adult book market and hasn't been affected by the digital drive.
Hopefully, we will see more and more people recognising the quality of a really great children's book.
YA fiction has been dismissed as 'issue lit', but The Lie Tree shows it can be incredibly varied and very diverse.
It can be very difficult for children's books to go up against adult books, but The Lie Tree has a wider appeal beyond younger readers.
In the UK in particular, we have such a rich heritage of children's books, going all the way back to Alice in Wonderland - there is such a rich seam, and some of the very best books are actually for children.
Now, in terms of writing and production, children's publishers have really stepped up to the plate.
The Fox and the Star was about the quality and the beautiful design, while the Lie Tree is really about the storytelling and richness.
But I honestly don't know if I think it's going to be less rare for them to win such awards.
I have definitely noticed within the industry there's a lot more respect for children's publishing and children's book selling as a crucial part of the market.
Children's books are selling so well, that people have been paying more attention."
I feel that a story is a story, regardless of age, and this is something that has been recognised this year by the Costa awards, which is fantastic.
I don't think it's the case it makes the genre more credible, it's just that other parts of the book publishing industry are realising that there is an inventiveness, enjoyment and profundity in these books which appeals to readers.
The books have to stand up to being read many times, and have layers of meaning, and it's something that the industry now realises.
There was such a big gap between the last children's book winning Costa book of the year and now, so we can only hope there will now be more. And to have two awards for children in a short space of time is great."
I think Frances' prize is such a brilliant thing for young adult fiction.
For me, YA has been the biggest success story of the publishing industry over the past 25 years.
Publishers were aware because of the sales figures, and young readers were aware, but it never got the critical attention it merited.
This [Costa award] has forced people to sit up and take notice of how great this fiction is.
There's been a traditional view in certain quarters that writing for children or teenagers is easier than writing for adults. Having done both, I can say it isn't.
There can also be a view it isn't 'proper' literature, but anyone who reads it would be surprised at just how good the books are - they aren't inferior in literary terms. But it takes a long time for these attitudes to disappear. I hope if enough of these books come to the public's attention, it will gradually erode this misconceived ideas.
It could be another 15 years before another children's book wins the Costa award - but it's a step in the right direction and will lead to more awareness. | Anyone who saw Frances Hardinge's shocked face after her children's book The Lie Tree won the Costa Book of the Year prize On Wednesday night would know she was not expecting the accolade. |
34,787,402 | Who Viewed Your Profile-InstaAgent had topped the free app charts in several countries including the UK.
But on Tuesday, another developer posted evidence that it was copying people's Instagram usernames and passwords and sending them to an unknown server.
He said these were used to post spam to people's Instagram accounts.
Apple and Google both declined to comment.
The BBC obtained contact details for the app's creator, who registered the product under the name Turker Bayram.
However, the person who answered the Turkish phone number said he had poor English, did not reply to questions and walked away from the call.
The photo-sharing app Instagram is owned by Facebook. It's thought that hundreds of thousands of its accounts had been compromised.
Instagram told the BBC: "These types of third-party apps violate our platform guidelines and are likely an attempt to get access to a user's accounts in an inappropriate way. We advise against installing third-party apps like these. Anyone who has downloaded this app should delete it and change their password."
To confuse matters, there is another app available for iOS by a different Philadelphia-based developer, which is also called InstaAgent.
It remains available for download, although at least one review suggests people are confusing it with the pulled product.
"I wasn't aware of another app with a similar name until I started receiving support requests for behaviour that's impossible for my app to produce," Craig Pearlman told the BBC.
"It's especially troubling given the scrutiny iOS apps are subjected to before being approved for the App Store. I may need to consider renaming mine now." | A popular app has been pulled from Apple and Google's stores after being accused of stealing users' passwords. |
38,633,132 | The case is linked to a scandal that led to the impeachment of the country's President Park Geung-hye.
Samsung is accused of giving donations to non-profit foundations operated by Choi Soon-sil, a friend of Ms Park, in exchange for government favours.
The firm said the issuing of the arrest warrant was "hard to understand".
Seoul Central District Court must now decide whether to go ahead and issue the warrant.
If this happened, Mr Lee would be the first executive to be arrested in connection to the scandal.
He is currently vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, but since his father, Lee Kun-hee, suffered a heart attack in 2014, he is considered de facto boss of the entire Samsung Group conglomerate.
Mr Lee, also known as Jay Y Lee, was questioned as a suspect for more than 20 hours at the prosecutor's office in Seoul last week.
Charges the department wants to bring include:
- Grandson of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul, son of current chairman Lee Kun-hee.
- Aged 48, he's spent his entire career in the company and is vice chairman of Samsung Electronics.
- Last year was nominated to join the board of Samsung Electronics - an appointment confirmed on 27 October.
- Widely expected to take overall control of Samsung once his 74-year-old father steps down.
- Critics say his position on the board is due to his birth, not his business experience.
Samsung is South Korea's most high-profile company, and its sales are equal to about a fifth of the country's GDP.
A spokesman for the special prosecutor's office acknowledged the arrest of Mr Lee could be damaging for the firm, but added "while the country's economic conditions are important, upholding justice takes precedence".
The claims against Samsung centre on a controversial merger between the electronics giant's construction arm, Samsung C&T, and an affiliate firm, Cheil Industries.
Prosecutors allege that Samsung gave money to a company co-owned by Ms Choi and her daughter, in return for Ms Park's support for the deal.
Earlier on Monday the special prosecutor indicted the country's National Pension Service (NPS) chairman Moon Hyung-pyo on charges of abuse of power and giving false testimony.
The NPS is the world's third-largest pension scheme and was a major shareholder in the two Samsung Group affiliates. It is claimed Mr Moon pressured the organisation to back the deal - something the NPS has denied.
At the parliamentary hearing in December, Samsung admitted giving a total of 20.4bn won (£16m; $17.46m) to the two foundations, but denied seeking favours.
During that hearing, Mr Lee also said the firm had made separate payments to help fund Ms Choi's daughter's equestrian career, including buying an $850,000 horse - something the Samsung executive says he regrets. | South Korea's special prosecutor is seeking an arrest warrant for Samsung heir apparent Lee Jae-yong, accused of bribery, embezzlement and perjury. |
37,947,049 | Xiao Jiguo, a 30-year-old Chinese actor, rose to fame for his uncanny resemblance to the outgoing president.
Such is Mr Xiao's fame in his homeland, that the direction and popularity of US foreign policy had direct impact on his own burgeoning career.
"People in media, television programmes and movies were worried that inviting me could become political."
"When President Obama holds office, I sort of have to take political factors into account. But after he steps down, my path as an actor may become clearer," Mr Xiao told the BBC.
Mr Xiao had always dreamed of becoming a singer but after moving to Guangdong from Sichuan province over a decade ago, he worked as a security guard to make ends meet.
Then in 2008, one of his co-workers told him he looked like President Obama. At that point Mr Xiao had no idea who President Obama was as he did not really follow politics or global affairs.
But he scented opportunity and started mimicking President Obama: his expressions, gestures and unique way of talking.
In a curious sense, their careers can be seen to mirror one another. So just as President Obama was elected and sworn into the White House, so Mr Xiao launched his new and unusual career.
Mr Xiao speaks very little English but this never stopped him. He even developed a habit of making up words that approximated to English sounds when "giving speeches" during his performances.
But his career only really took off last year. His resemblance to the president attracted a lot of Chinese and international media interest, particularly during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States.
Mr Xiao has since then become immensely popular for marketing events and has landed several commercial and movie deals. He recently starred in a streaming comedy called "'Obama' goes on blind dates".
But, he says, this resemblance was not always helpful: "While he was in power, the name Obama became relatively sensitive in China," be said.
Mr Xiao recalls his first appearance on television, in 2012, when he appeared on a talent show to showcase his singing ability. When the producers realised that people on set were talking about his resemblance to Mr Obama, they ordered that the sequence be filmed again, without mention of the president, such is the sensitivity.
But it has made him richer than he could have imagined when he started work as a security guard.
The Obama impersonator told the BBC that he earns at least 100,000 yuan ($14,700; £11,700) every month now since last year.
The United States and China have not always exhibited the most cordial of relations, but Mr Xiao is counting his blessings.
"The majority of Chinese people know President Obama. He has left an impression among people from all over the world… People will not be able to forget him so soon."
"He is the first black US president. Putting politics aside, people admire that."
Mr Xiao is now studying part-time at a drama school in Beijing.
So the search must now be on for China's Trump. | US President Barack Obama will be leaving the White House in January, but does that mean that China's Obama will be out of a job too? |
36,689,346 | World champion Shi, 24, scored 406.05, nearly 20 points more than her nearest rival, compatriot He Zi.
Italian Tania Cagnotto won bronze in her last Olympics.
Reid, 20, became the first British woman to make the final of the 3m springboard since 1972, and secured eighth place with a final dive of 67.50.
Find out how to get into diving with our special guide.
"That was amazing. I'm gutted it's over to be honest but I loved every second," said Grace.
"I guess I saved my best until last. That's the good thing going in on a fresh page and taking each dive at a time, to walk away with that result is just amazing.
"My mum couldn't watch me dive when I was younger. She never liked me jumping off 10m and I think now she can finally watch me. She was in the crowd tonight and I'm really hoping she watched that otherwise I'm going to sit her down and make her."
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | China's Shi Tingmao won Olympic gold in the women's 3m springboard, as Great Britain's Grace Reid finished eighth. |
38,763,330 | The number of Scottish boats carrying cameras - which monitor the fish being caught - has halved since the scheme was introduced.
New species were added to the ban at the start of January.
They include North Sea cod and whiting, which can no longer be thrown back into the sea.
Fishermen have traditionally discarded unwanted fish because they carry a lower financial value but, if landed, would count against their quotas.
The environmental group says the fall in Remote Electronic Monitoring compromises stock management.
Figures from the Scottish government show there are now just 15 boats carrying cameras.
When the scheme was first introduced in 2014, there were 32.
Until this year, skippers were allowed an additional quota for North Sea cod if they agreed to install the camera equipment, but that incentive has ended.
The ban on discards is covered by Landing Obligations which are being phased in over a number of years. They identify which species have to be brought ashore once they are caught.
Helen McLachlan, the fisheries governance programme manager at WWF Scotland, said: "WWF is supportive of the Landing Obligation because, if implemented, effectively it offers clear opportunities, the most obvious of which is healthier fish stocks and a more resilient, profitable industry as a result.
"However, with North Sea cod and whiting coming under the discard ban at the start of 2017, we have significant concerns about the levels of monitoring and control of the ban.
"For this policy to work we need to be confident we know what is happening at sea and how much fish is being removed. Yet, on average, it appears that less than one per cent of fishing trips are being monitored."
The fishing industry has been opposed to the "inflexible" way in which the discard ban has been implemented under the Common Fisheries Policy.
They say the regulations are the problem rather than monitoring.
Bertie Armstron, chief executive of the Scottish Fisherermen's Federation, said: "Everybody's on the same side with reducing discards as far as physically possible. It's just a question of getting the rules right, which is a work in progress.
"Cameras, frankly, are a little sideshow and the presence or absence of them will not solve or fail to solve the problem."
Quota incentives for other species still exist under the scheme, even though the incentive for North Sea cod has ended.
By 2019, the disposal of all fish at sea will be banned.
A Scottish government spokeswoman said: "No-one wants to see dead fish being thrown back into the sea - least of all our fishermen.
"Our fleet has already made good progress to reduce the level of discarded fish in Scotland and we are working hard to ensure the ban is implemented in a pragmatic, proportionate and phased way.
"If managed sensibly, the landing obligation will be good for Scotland and help the conservation of fish stocks that offer up dependable and sustainable catches for fishermen." | The ban on discards in the fishing industry is being undermined because it is not being effectively policed, WWF Scotland has warned. |
33,039,797 | The female, ringed as KL, has successfully mated with an unringed male at the nest at Bassenthwaite.
The Lake District Osprey Project said the pair had produced a full clutch of three eggs, but one was not strong enough to make it out of the shell.
A spokesman said it was "delighted" they had returned for the third year.
Ospreys returned to the Lakes District in 2001, after an absence of more than 150 years.
Over the last 15 years of the monitoring project, more than 30 chicks have been raised at the nest.
A team of more than 100 volunteers provides a 24-hour guard at the site and crowds of people visit specially-created viewpoints to catch sight of the birds.
Live images from the nest are also being beamed to a big screen at the nearby Whinlatter visitor centre. | Two osprey chicks have hatched at a nest in the Lake District after the same pair of birds returned to the site for the third year running. |
35,786,482 | The first incident took place on Saughton Road North on Monday, when a man attempted to rob a teenage girl of her phone.
The second occurred on Saughton Mains Terrace on Tuesday, when an elderly woman was assaulted and robbed of her handbag.
He was due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday. | A 25-year-old man has been charged in connection with a robbery and an attempted robbery in Edinburgh. |
36,020,737 | For the second time, voters will pick their police and crime commissioners (PCCs).
The roles have been controversial from the start, although they have slipped somewhat into obscurity since their inception in 2012.
There is one for each of the Welsh force areas - and you can read more about Gwent, South Wales, Dyfed Powys and North Wales force areas in separate guides.
So, with the polls looming, it might be the right time to ask…
Police and crime commissioners were launched in 2012 in a bid to bring more accountability to policing.
The new roles replaced the former police authorities, which were largely made up of councillors appointed by local authorities that formed part of the force. There is a PCC for each force in England and Wales.
Like the former authorities, PCCs oversee and decide on police budgets.
They decide the precept - the bit of council tax that goes direct to the local police force and acts as a top up for grants from the Home Office and elsewhere - and comes out of your pocket.
Importantly, they hold the chief constable to account. They can hire a new one if a position becomes vacant and they can get rid of them and replace them with someone else, if they want.
The only example of this happening in Wales was in 2013, when then-chief constable Carmel Napier resigned after independent Gwent PCC Ian Johnston told her to retire or be forced out.
PCCs also set what is known as a "police and crime plan", setting out the force's strategy and policing priorities which are drawn up with the help of the public and victims.
No, they definitely do not do that.
It can be confusing - PCCs might hold the purse strings but they cannot decide what officers actually do.
This is called the operational independence of the police. It is protected in legislation and PCCs can have nothing to do with it.
You probably did not, and nor did most other people.
The PCCs elections' turnout, in a wet and miserable November 2012, was the lowest in peacetime Britain.
Fewer than 15% turned out in the 41 English and Welsh police areas, with the turnout in Wales at 14.9%. A polling station in Newport received no votes at all.
Others took to defacing their ballots in protest with 120,000 ballots spoiled, 10 times the rate of earlier general elections.
The Electoral Reform Society - a group which presses for changes to how elections are run - called it a lesson in how not to run an election. They criticised a lack of information about candidates and the fact that the poll was held during the winter.
This time the election is happening at the start of the summer, although it is difficult to argue the public are any more clued up about who their PCC is, or what they do, than they were in 2012.
There are plans to allow PCCs to take on the functions of fire and rescue authorities, but that would apply in England only.
The Home Secretary Theresa May has suggested PCCs could set up free schools, but given education is devolved to Cardiff Bay that is highly unlikely to happen here.
But Ms May has suggested that PCCs could have a role in youth justice, probation and court services - three areas that are still in the hands of Westminster.
Yes. You get two votes - a first preference and a second preference.
Voters can pick their first and second choice from the ballot. If a candidate receives more than half of all first choice votes, they are elected immediately.
If this does not happen, all other candidates other than the first and second are eliminated.
Secondary votes for the top two, from those eliminated, are then redistributed. The candidate with the highest combined total of first and second votes will be elected. | The polls to decide which AMs form the fifth assembly term will open on 5 May - but on the same day there is another election too. |
32,545,985 | The pledge was made by a party spokesman in an off-camera briefing to journalists.
Labour has claimed the Tories plan to cut child benefit as part of their planned £12bn welfare savings.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls accused the Conservatives of "weasel words", saying they had not ruled out taking it "from millions of families".
The Tories say they will freeze working-age benefits, including child benefit, for two years but have not spelt out what else will be targeted.
During Thursday night's special edition of Question Time, Prime Minister David Cameron said child benefit was "vital" to parents and "stays" in place.
On Friday he told ITV News: "Let me be absolutely clear. We are not cutting child benefit, we are keeping child benefit."
Later a Conservative spokesman clarified the party's position and said the Tories would not cut child benefit for the whole of the next parliament.
Labour leader Ed Miliband, however, has said it is "brutally clear" the benefit would be cut under the Conservatives, saying family budgets faced being "devastated" by the £12bn welfare savings, which have not yet been set out in detail.
Labour claims the Conservatives cannot save that amount without restricting tax credits and child benefits.
In a speech in Cardiff, Mr Miliband focused on welfare, promising to begin the process of reversing cuts to housing benefits for social tenants - dubbed by critics as the "bedroom tax" - on day one of taking office.
The opposition has seized on Lib Dem claims that their coalition partners considered £8bn worth of curbs to child benefit in 2012.
"The prime minister was asked three times (on Thursday) whether he had a plan to cut child benefit," Mr Miliband said.
"He apparently used 600 words when just one word would have done - the word no. But he did not use that word."
This election issue includes access to benefits (apart from pensions), poverty and inequality.
Policy guide: Where the parties stand
The Conservatives have said they will freeze working-age benefits, including tax credits and child benefit, between 2016 and 2018, affecting 11 million households and saving £3bn.
This comes on top of a one-year freeze in the value of child benefit in 2013-4 and a 1% cap on increases between 2014-6.
Speaking during a visit to an Asda depot in Leeds, Mr Cameron suggested there would be no further reforms to child benefit.
"With child benefit we've made our reform. We said that it's absolutely a vital benefit for Britain's families: it goes straight to the mother in most cases; it forms the key part of families' budgets; and we've made our reform.
"We've said that we had to freeze it in this Parliament, we said that we're going to have to freeze it for the start of the new parliament, but child benefit stays because it's so important." | The Conservative Party has said it will not cut child benefit for the rest of the next parliament. |
39,258,957 | Mr Rutte was taking on his main rival, the controversial populist Geert Wilders, in a TV debate ahead of Wednesday's election.
Mr Wilders has pledged to take the Netherlands out of the EU, close all mosques and ban the Koran.
Some opinion polls suggest his Freedom Party could win the most seats.
That would hand him the first run at forming a coalition government, but the other parties contesting the election have ruled out working with the Freedom Party, making that an unlikely scenario.
Monday's televised debate was the first head-to-head between the two frontrunners, after Mr Wilders refused to take part in several previous debates.
Armed police swarmed round the university corridors outside the auditorium. Geert Wilders' public appearances are rare and always considered high risk. Students acting up as ushers handed out ice-cream wafers as the audience flipped down their seats.
This was the first chance to see Rutte versus Wilders, live and face-to-face. The firebrand populist looked uncharacteristically anxious to start, as Mark Rutte laid into him with warnings about playing party politics with the country's future.
But Mr Wilders soon found familiar territory accusing the prime minister of caring more about asylum seekers than his own people.
As the audience filed out afterwards, one member, tall and blonde, a quintessential Dutchwoman told us she had been disappointed by the tone. She feared their self-serving barbs would only deeper the divisions which have come to characterise this campaign.
When I ask her what constitutes the oft-cited "Dutch identity" she tells me, "it used to be tolerance, freedom and equality - but these men don't represent those things".
Dutch ambassador barred by Turkey
The two men clashed over a recent diplomatic spat with Turkey, which followed Mr Rutte's decision to ban two Turkish ministers from addressing rallies in the country. In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the Netherlands of being "Nazi remnants".
Mr Wilders said at the debate that Mr Rutte should have immediately expelled the Turkish ambassador. "Otherwise we accept that we are being insulted and our police are being insulted too," he said.
Mr Rutte's reply - that the remark showed the difference between "tweeting from the sofa and governing the country" - won him a sustained round of applause.
With two days to go until the election, one poll cited by Reuters suggested the Turkey spat, and subsequent riots by ethnic Turks in Rotterdam, had given anti-immigrant parties a boost.
The poll put the Freedom Party in second place behind Mr Rutte's VVD party. General polls suggest a significant number of Dutch voters are yet to make up their minds, meaning the debate could carry weight.
Mr Wilders does not shy away from controversy. He has vowed to ban Muslim immigration, shut mosques, and tax women who wear the Muslim headscarf, and in February he said some Moroccans were "scum".
Two months ago he was convicted of hate speech in a trial over a promise to reduce the number of Moroccans in the country.
Mr Wilders is highly unlikely to be able to form a government and so become leader, but a win for his party would be significant in the first European general election since Mr Trump became president in the US.
It would also foreshadow next month's presidential election in France, where far-right, anti-EU contender Marine Le Pen has widespread support, and September's election in Germany, where another right-wing party, Alternative for Germany, is likely to win seats for the first time. | Dutch PM Mark Rutte has warned his country not to succumb to a "domino effect" of populism that he linked to Brexit and to Donald Trump's election. |
36,836,216 | The body of India Chipchase, 20, was found at a house in Stanley Road, Northampton, on 31 January.
Birmingham Crown Court heard Edward Tenniswood, 52, of Stanley Road, Northampton, denies her murder.
Christopher Donnellan QC, prosecuting, said Miss Chipchase's body was found on a mattress at the defendant's home.
LIVE: For more on this and other stories from Northamptonshire
Mr Donnellan said Mr Tenniswood turned up outside NB's cocktail bar in Northampton in the early hours of 30 January when Miss Chipchase was in a "fairly pickled state" and could "barely stand up".
"Others nearby thought from the way he spoke to her, he knew her," said Mr Donnellan. "He was overheard by others to say 'not to worry' and he'd get her home safe - he didn't."
The jury heard Miss Chipchase's death "was no dreadful accident" and that Mr Tenniswood "raped and throttled" her at his home in Stanley Road.
"When she resisted he gripped her around the throat and squeezed. She suffered a blunt force trauma to the head and face and appeared to put up a struggle," he said.
After she died, Mr Tenniswood set about tidying up, Mr Donnellan added.
"He re-clothed her, covered her in a sheet and left her. He removed her belongings."
The jury was told Mr Tenniswood had put on clear plastic vinyl gloves that were later found in a bag of rubbish.
"He was obviously aware of what he was doing and put on clear plastic vinyl gloves," Mr Donnellan said. "They were found in a bag of rubbish - India's blood on the outside of the gloves and his DNA on the inside.
"It is very likely his motive was sexual and when she resisted him he was determined to have sex and he grabbed her around the throat and squeezed."
The court heard Mr Tenniswood checked into the Ibis Hotel in Mare Fare at about 21:30 GMT on 30 January. Miss Chipchase's body was discovered inside his home at about 15:30 the next day and he was arrested three hours later, the court heard.
When Mr Tenniswood was arrested police saw a scratch on his neck and other marks on his body, the court heard.
The trial continues. | A bookkeeper was heard telling a young barmaid outside a nightclub "I'll get you home safe" before she was raped and murdered, a court has heard. |
37,290,149 | Wasps took an early lead as Jimmy Gopperth slotted two penalties and set up a Christian Wade try, either side of Freddie Burns' penalty.
Lachlan McCaffrey replied for Tigers, but after half-time Guy Thompson and Sam Jones opened up a 27-8 Wasps lead.
Leicester clawed their way back through Ed Slater and three Burns penalties before Gopperth's try.
Both sides came into the game having started their 2016-17 campaigns with victories, but Wasps made the better start in an error-strewn first half.
The away side led 13-8 at the break and Leicester were again caught sleeping at the start of the second period as Wasps side stretched their advantage to 19 points.
Tigers began their charge with 30 minutes left as fly-half Burns set up Slater and slotted three penalties to bring his side back to 22-27, with Wasps' Guy Thompson in the sin-bin.
But Leicester's comeback was halted when Ellis Genge and Peter Betham saw yellow.
Gopperth, having missed two penalties to put his side beyond reach, secured victory as the clock turned red with a dart over the line from the back of the Wasps maul.
Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill: "I'm disappointed with parts of our game. It was good to get back into the game with 12 minutes left.
"But we got outfought in too many departments and Wasps played well and deserved to win.
"We are too easy to play against at the moment. The stats don't lie, conceding eight tries in two games is not good enough.
"It's my fault and we will have to get on top of that and make sure we get better very quickly."
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young: "You don't come here and win too many times. Since I have been at Wasps we have not won here. So we have to enjoy it.
"We found a way to win in the last 10 minutes. The good thing is that we have won without the perfect performance. In years gone by we would have had to play out of our skin.
"Jimmy Gopperth has been really good for us. I have shown in my recruitment that we want to play with a ball-playing 12 and play an expansive game.
"With players injured Jimmy was the best to play 12 and in fairness he has responded well. He has been a foil for Danny Cipriani as well. He takes the pressure off Danny with the kicking."
Leicester: Tait; Thompstone, Betham, Smith, Pietersen; Burns, Harrison; Marcos Ayerza, T Youngs (capt), Cole, Slater, Fitzgerald, Hamilton, O'Connor, McCaffrey.
Replacements: McGuigan, Genge, Bateman, Kitchener, Williams, B Youngs, Williams, Roberts.
Wasps: Miller; Wade, Daly, Gopperth, Bassett; Cipriani, Simpson; McIntyre, Taylor, Moore, Launchbury (capt), Symons, Jones, Young, Thompson.
Replacements: Johnson, Mullan, Cooper-Woolley, Gaskell, Hughes, Hampson, Macken, Halai. | Wasps claimed their first victory at Welford Road since 2008 with a bonus-point win over 13-man Leicester. |
30,585,782 | Media playback is unsupported on your device
23 December 2014 Last updated at 12:20 GMT
People could see a wall of ice on the banks of the river.
The entire waterfall could soon be completely frozen. | Extremely cold temperatures have frozen parts of the Hukou waterfall on the Yellow River in north-west China. |
36,447,598 | The former Bluebirds manager was moved to a new role at the end of the 2015-16 season and was replaced by Paul Trollope.
Slade was appointed Cardiff boss in October 2014 in succession to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Cardiff finished 11th and eighth in the Championship under Slade, with several players departing.
The 55-year old previously managed Leyton Orient, Brighton and Yeovil Town.
"The club feels that it is necessary to have a change. We want to create a spark to take us to another level," Cardiff chief executive Ken Choo said about the decision to remove Slade as boss.
Slade is understood to be keen on a return to management and is among the favourites for the vacant Charlton Athletic role, the south London side relegated to League One last term.
He endured a difficult time with Cardiff City's supporters, who were often not shy in voicing an opinion against him, despite his tenure including a backdrop of wage reductions and player sales.
Cardiff let Kenwyne Jones and Joe Mason leave the club in January when a transfer embargo was slapped on them for breaching Financial Fair Play rules.
The previous season Slade was forced to reduce the bloated squad he inherited from Solskjaer. | Russell Slade has left his role as Cardiff City's head of football after only 28 days in the job. |
33,269,343 | Belo, who, like Wood, is a former Big Brother winner - quit the show after the row, saying he felt "degraded".
Wood's behaviour drew 3,784 complaints on last year's show - which she went on to win - amid allegations of bullying.
Ofcom said they would assess complaints from Wednesday night's show "before deciding whether to investigate".
Belo became increasingly worked up during Wednesday's show on Channel 5, which saw the contestants invited to play game in which Big Brother posed a series of antagonistic questions for the contestants to answer about each other.
Wood and Belo argued, culminating in Wood telling Belo: "Brian you look like a rapist, you look like a murderer-slash-rapist."
Various contestants told Wood she was "out of order", but she continued her invective, telling Belo "you have issues".
"The men in the white coats are waiting for you, Brian," she told him, as he stormed into the diary room.
The row resulted in Wood and another contestant being given a formal warning.
Speaking in the diary room, a visibly upset Belo said: "I feel like I'm being ganged up on. I don't want to cry. I've tried to keep away from there.
"I shouldn't have come back here. This is really hard. I feel like I'm living in hell. I'm defeated. I'm getting a barrage of abuse."
He described Wood as having "the morals of an alley cat". "I just feel degraded," he told fellow contestant Nikki Grahame.
He ended up quitting the show, by climbing over the garden wall.
Former contestants Wood, Belo - who won in 2007 - and Grahame were brought into the show two weeks ago, as part of this year's "time bomb" theme.
Following his departure, Wood said she had called Belo a rapist "to get a reaction", and was glad he had left the house because he "made my skin crawl".
She added honesty was "one of my best qualities".
In a statement, a Channel 5 spokesman said: "Big Brother takes rule breaking very seriously.
"Helen and Marc (O'Neill) were both warned regarding their behaviour and as with all housemates they continue to be closely monitored at all times." | Ofcom has received more than 1,000 complaints after Big Brother contestant Helen Wood compared fellow contestant Brian Belo to a rapist and murderer. |
37,513,462 | The firm's turnover also rose by more than 50% from £38.65m to £58.89m.
It works with most of the world's major cruise lines and recent jobs include a refit of Cunard's Queen Mary 2.
Earlier this year it bought the former Shackleton Barracks in Ballykelly where it intends to start an aviation fit-out division.
It also owns the Mivan fit-out business which is based in Antrim.
The chief executive Gary Annett said the group has continued to grow by securing of a number of multi-million pound contracts with leading customers.
He said the business has also achieved increased efficiencies and a reduction in overheads.
MJM is owned by its founder Brian McConville. | MJM Marine, the Newry-based cruise ship and fit-out company, more than doubled its pre-tax profit to £4.94m in 2015. |
40,668,320 | The weekend-long event features a fun fair, stalls and musical performances on the Town Moor, and a parade through the city centre on Saturday.
Newcastle Cathedral is holding a Pride Eucharist - a special service of communion to celebrate diversity.
There will also be a candle-lit vigil to show support for those who have lost their lives - and those who keep fighting - for LGBT rights worldwide.
Mark Nichols, chair of Northern Pride which organises the event, said: "I hope it's raising the awareness of the community, that we are your neighbours, your work colleagues, part of your family.
"We are ordinary people; there's nothing different to us, and that's the message I want people to take away, and just want to be able to combat homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia."
In 2016 the festival attracted more than 73,000 visitors and contributed more than £10.4m to the economy, according to estimates.
The event was first staged in August 2007 after a brief gap in Pride activities following the closure of Pride on the Tyne. | Newcastle's Pride Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary. |
39,891,911 | The 23-year-old former Northern Ireland midfielder has also played for Ipswich Town and York City.
Linfield boss David Healy said earlier on Thursday that Carson had told him he wanted to "move one" as he had reached the end of his Blues contract.
Meanwhile, Keith O'Hara's 20-year stay at Portadown has ended after he turned down a new deal.
It's a big blow for the Ports following their relegation from the Premiership last month.
Bannsiders boss Oran Kearney is delighted to bring in Carson, who has played over 100 games in English football.
"Josh fits the bill in every way - he has serious pedigree and quality," said Kearney.
"He came home last season and a number of clubs were interested in him. He signed for Linfield and played a lot of games at the start before breaking his toe.
"When he came back they were on that fantastic run and the team was picking itself."
Carson said he was signing for "a massive football club" and he hopes he can get back to his best in a Coleraine jersey.
He added: "Watching Coleraine last season you could see the progression in the team and they were really impressive.
"When you're not getting football elsewhere you look about and see what clubs will be interested in you, and fortunately for me Coleraine were one of those clubs and it was a no brainer to sign.
"My aim is to influence the team and try to get back to the highest level." | Josh Carson has signed for Coleraine in a two-year deal just hours after leaving Premiership champions Linfield. |
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The Ghanaian walked off the pitch against Italian team Pro Patria after he was racially abused by their fans.
His actions come after Liverpool's Luis Suarez and Chelsea's John Terry were sanctioned for using racist language.
Boateng, 26, said: "A player who does something wrong, who is racist, can never play for the club again or can never play in the country again."
The former Portsmouth player admitted walking off the pitch in January during a mid-season friendly against the lower-league club was "not the right thing to do".
But, ahead of a meeting with Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who praised Boateng's actions, the player believes it sent a "big message" to racists in football.
Asked if more black and ethnic minority players should be in positions of power, Boateng replied: "If it's more multi-cultural, it gets more people and more countries involved and these things can help.
"Let's hope that soon there's going to be a black [Jose] Mourinho and Pakistani [Pep] Guardiola."
Liverpool's Uruguayan striker Suarez was given an eight-match ban and a £40,000 fine by the Football Association after being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra in October 2011.
Eleven months later, Chelsea captain John Terry was suspended for four matches and fined £220,000 for racially abusing Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand, although Terry was cleared of the same offence in court.
And Boateng said football authorities needed to be stricter in their punishments for fans and players.
"Money doesn't really hurt, it's not the subject that can hurt you so much," Boateng told BBC Sport.
"Kevin-Prince Boateng's principled stance was a watershed moment for football and has forced its authorities to get tough and introduce a new sanctions regime.
"New penalties under consideration by the game's custodians include points deductions, relegation or exclusion from major competitions for errant teams.
"Fifa and Uefa both argue that football is simply a mirror on society and they can't be blamed for its ills.
"But after years of punishing teams and players financially there is widespread agreement that the penalties must be substantially increased if the game is to effectively deal with an issue many thought had been consigned to the past.
"If there's a fan who has done something wrong and he can never come to the stadium again, that is something that can hurt you because you're a fan and you love the sport.
"Or a football player who does something wrong, who is racist, and can never play for the club again or can never play in the country again. These are the things that hurt and I think this is the right way to go. [It needs to be] very strict, very hard and make it very clear."
That stance has already been backed by Fifa, with new anti-racism chief Jeffrey Webb believing tougher penalties like relegation and exclusion from major tournaments need to be introduced.
Webb also said he had plans to meet the perpetrators and victims of racism in English football.
Uefa fined Serbia £65,000 after England Under-21 players were the subject of racist abuse in a Euro 2013 play-off, while the European governing body has imposed fines on Italian team Lazio for racist chanting this season.
Boateng's AC Milan team-mate Mario Balotelli has also recently been racially abused by fans of rival team Inter during the Milan derby, with the club being sanctioned by Serie A officials.
Reflecting on his walk-off in January, Boateng added: "If I look back I know it wasn't the right thing to do because we are professionals, we are entertainers, we have to entertain the people and we are paid to be on the field.
"So maybe it's not the right thing to do but someone had to do it. It is not that I woke up one day and said 'I want to be that one'. I just did it out of emotions and I think it was a big, big signal and a big message.
"From that signal, from that message, we can move on and go in the perfect, right direction to fight against [racism]." | AC Milan's Kevin-Prince Boateng says racist players should not be able to play for their club again. |
32,337,828 | Claudia Martins denied killing her baby and hiding the body in a suitcase shortly after giving birth to her at her sister's flat in Bristol.
She claimed the baby was stillborn, but was found guilty of manslaughter with diminished responsibility.
At Winchester Crown Court, she was sentenced to a community order for two years with a supervision requirement.
During her trial at Bristol Crown Court, the jury heard the 33-year-old gave birth alone on 12 September last year, having allegedly kept the pregnancy a secret.
Paramedics were called after friends found the Portuguese national, of Marshall Walk, Knowle, sitting in the bath with "a lot of blood" and she was taken to hospital.
Three days later, police were called to the flat following reports of a smell and discovered the body of a newborn baby inside a small, black suitcase.
The court was told that despite the symptoms of pregnancy, the mother-of-five had not accepted she was pregnant and the birth had induced a "great panic".
Judge Mr Justice Teare said she suffered from a mental abnormality, arising from a condition known as a pathological denial of pregnancy.
Her actions were "wholly out of character" and her "intellectual disability" had probably contributed to her condition, he added.
"Why you developed the pathological denial of pregnancy is unclear but it is likely to be the result of living with two of your children in very cramped conditions in a foreign country," the judge told the court.
"Having regard to the fact that you suffered from an abnormality of mental function this does not require a custodial sentence." | A mother who killed her newborn baby daughter by filling her mouth with toilet paper has been spared jail. |
32,117,018 | The study, of nearly 200,000 people, found sections of DNA that control both height and heart health.
The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed every extra 2.5in (6.4cm) cut coronary disease incidence by 13.5%
The British Heart Foundation said short people should not be unduly worried and everyone needed a healthy lifestyle.
Coronary heart disease, which includes heart attacks and heart failure, is the leading cause of death in the UK.
More than 73,000 people die from the disease each year.
The idea that height plays a role in heart health was first proposed more than 50 years ago, but researchers did not know why.
Some thought the relationship was a consequence of other factors, such as poor childhood nutrition stunting height and also affecting the heart.
But the study at the University of Leicester suggests the answer lies deeper - inside our DNA.
They analysed 180 genes that have a known link to height.
The results showed that every 2.5in of height affected the risk by 13.5%, so the difference in heart risk between a five-footer and a six-footer would be around 64%.
Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, from the University of Leicester, told the BBC News website: "In the context of major risk factors this is small - smoking increases the risk by 200-300% - but it is not trivial.
"I wouldn't say shorter people need to take greater precautions, because if you're 6ft 1in (1.85m) you still need to stop smoking.
"This is only one of many factors affecting risk, everybody should be cautious."
The study also showed those genes cutting height were also increasing the amount of cholesterol and fats in the bloodstream.
The researchers believe some of the height genes may also be controlling both growth and blood vessel development.
"Understanding these pathways may lead to new treatments and that may be more valuable in the longer term," Prof Samani added.
But it is worth remembering it is not all good news being tall. as height increases the risk of cancer.
Prof Peter Weissberg, the medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "This study does not suggest that short people should be unduly worried about their health or that doctors need to focus on the health of shorter patients.
"Everyone, regardless of their height, should do everything in their power to reduce their risk of future heart disease by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and not smoking.
"Currently available health checks are designed to help you understand what measures you need to take to reduce your personal risk." | The shorter you are, the greater your risk of heart problems, a team at the University of Leicester says. |
32,069,698 | On Your Feet Britain says sitting for long periods at work is linked to a host of health problems, which are not undone by working out in the gym.
It is calling on people to stand regularly, walk around more and embrace ideas such as standing meetings or standing desks.
Experts described inactivity as "one of the biggest" challenges in health.
Heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers and poor mental health have all been linked to sedentary behaviour.
The effect is found even in people who class themselves as fit, such as those who cycle to work, if they also spend long periods of time sitting.
Prolonged sitting is thought to slow the metabolism and affect the way the body controls sugar levels, blood pressure and the breakdown of fat.
The campaign is a partnership between the group Get Britain Standing and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) charity.
Their survey of 2,000 office workers suggested:
Gavin Bradley, from Get Britain Standing, told the BBC News website: "We're all victims of our environment, we've taken a lot of activity out of the workplace and we're sitting longer and longer.
"We need new and innovative ways of addressing the issue.
"Stand up when you're on the phone or in meetings, do everything you can to avoid sitting."
Other ideas including using the stairs instead of a lift, eating lunch away from your desk, taking a break from your computer every 30 minutes and walking to a colleague's desk rather than phoning or emailing them.
Get Britain Standing says standing burns an extra 50 calories per hour than being seated.
Dr Mike Loosemore, head of exercise medicine at University College Hospital, told the BBC: "Inactivity and sedentary behaviour is one of the biggest challenges we have in public health today.
"Compared with 100 years ago, our levels of activity are tiny, the number of manual jobs are continually reducing, even if you dig a road up you sit in a little tractor.
"It's about changing attitudes to how people behave at work and changing the culture of the workplace that just means moving around at little bit more, even just standing up can make a big difference to calories burned and how alert, creative and productive you are."
Lisa Young, project manager for the BHF's Health at Work programme, said: "We're all guilty of being too glued to our screens sometimes, but these results show just how far the couch potato culture has infiltrated the workplace.
"Too many of us are tied to our desks at work, which could be increasing our risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
"That's why we want workers to get up and get moving on 24 April and take a stand against cardiovascular disease.
"A bit of healthy competition in the workplace could go a long way to reversing this trend whilst raising vital funds for our ground-breaking research." | Office workers need to get off their backsides and move around more, according to a new campaign. |
20,870,161 | NHS patients in England will be able to access Kalydeco, also known as ivacaftor, from 1 January.
The Cystic Fibrosis Trust said not funding the drug in Scotland would cause "dismay and heartache".
The trust said it was appalled that people in Scotland were denied a potentially life-changing treatment.
Ed Owen, the trust's chief executive, has written to the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) on the day before the NHS in England begins to fund it for all people over the age of six with the G551D cystic fibrosis mutation.
A decision by the SMC over the drug is expected on 14 January, the charity said.
In his letter Mr Owen said: "We trust that the SMC will reflect carefully on the decision in England, and its rationale, before making its decision on funding in Scotland.
"As the organisation representing people with cystic fibrosis across the UK, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust would be dismayed and appalled at a situation where people in Scotland were denied a potentially life-changing treatment freely available to those in England.
"Such an outcome would cause considerable and unacceptable heartache for families across Scotland."
The charity said around 4% of patients across the UK have the G551D mutation, compared to around 11% of the Scottish cystic fibrosis population.
It said this equates to about 80 people in Scotland who would be eligible for Kalydeco. | A new drug for people with a particular form of cystic fibrosis, available in England, must also be prescribed in Scotland, a charity has said. |
38,478,431 | He returned to his property on Deerpark Road about 23:20 GMT on Saturday and confronted three men.
One of them hit him with the bar but he was not seriously hurt.
The men left with a sum of cash in a blue coloured Volkswagen Tiguan that had been reported stolen in a creeper style burglary in the Rectory Road area of Ballyclare earlier in the evening.
An attempt was also made to steal a second car in a creeper style burglary in the Riverdale Park area of Ballyclare around 22:15 GMT.
The Volkswagen Tiguan was found burned out on the Ballyhampton Road in Larne a short time after the incident in Glenarm.
Police are investigating a link to the incidents in Glenarm and Ballyclare. | A man in his 50s has been hit with a metal bar during an aggravated burglary at his home in Glenarm, County Antrim. |
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The 52-year-old Portuguese had been in his second spell at the club, taking charge in June 2013.
Chelsea finished eight points clear last season and won the League Cup, but have lost nine of their 16 league games so far and are 16th in the table, one point above the relegation places.
Mourinho's final match was Monday's 2-1 defeat at leaders Leicester City.
Pep Guardiola, Guus Hiddink, Juande Ramos and Brendan Rodgers have all been touted as possible successors as Blues owner Roman Abramovich begins another managerial search.
"Chelsea Football Club and Jose Mourinho have today parted company by mutual consent.
"All at Chelsea thank Jose for his immense contribution since he returned as manager in the summer of 2013.
"His three league titles, FA Cup, Community Shield and three League Cup wins over two spells make him the most successful manager in our 110-year history.
"But both Jose and the board agreed results have not been good enough this season and believe it is in the best interests of both parties to go our separate ways.
"The club wishes to make clear Jose leaves us on good terms and will always remain a much-loved, respected and significant figure at Chelsea.
"His legacy at Stamford Bridge and in England has long been guaranteed and he will always be warmly welcomed back to Stamford Bridge.
"The club's focus is now on ensuring our talented squad reaches its potential.
"There will be no further comment until a new appointment is made."
BBC Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer said he was "shocked" by Mourinho's departure but admitted Chelsea's form had been dreadful.
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"I've never known a capitulation like it from a football club," the former England captain told BBC Radio 5 live.
"I have never known players to perform like they did last season and then be so bad now. It's unprecedented."
Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce said he was "shocked to say the least", adding: "They must already have somebody lined up to have done it now.
"I'm sad to see Jose go because I got to know him quite well and he's a great manager with great character. He's a loss to the Premier League."
Former England and Arsenal defender Martin Keown said Mourinho had "lost the players".
"It has imploded in front of our eyes," he said. "It is astonishing. I saw players who were not giving everything.
"There is no trust there, respect is gone. Ultimately it is easier to change a manager than 22 players."
Tim Rolls, of the Chelsea Supporters Trust, told the BBC News channel that fans would have preferred to lose some of the players rather than Mourinho.
"The point he was making about betrayal was they spent hours training to stop Leicester's Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez and they both scored goals, so they betrayed his methods rather than him.
"Mourinho is one of the great managers in world football and Chelsea have let him go twice, I think that's a great shame.
"Even when we have lost matches at home the supporters have chanted his name, there has been very little dissent about him going [wanting him to go]. I would have thought there would be frustration with some of the players."
Ex-Blues defender Graham Roberts told BBC Radio 5 live: "He came in and said he was 'The Special One'. He's not 'The Special One' any more."
"Jose Mourinho had a meeting with the club at around 14:30 GMT, when he was told the end had come.
"He won't be paid the £40m compensation speculated. My understanding is he has been paid until the end of this season, what was left of the annual salary of £12m he receives.
"While he has undeniably enjoyed so much success around Europe, he has failed to secure a lasting legacy and enjoy success over a prolonged period of time.
"Chelsea faced a huge decision and Roman Abramovich had to make it."
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Mourinho leaves with Chelsea only a point above the relegation zone and 20 points behind Leicester.
Champions League qualification via one of the top four spots in the Premier League looks highly unlikely.
However, the Blues are through to the last 16 of European football's biggest club competition, where they will face French champions Paris St-Germain in February and March.
Mourinho only signed a new four-year contract on 7 August and is Chelsea's most successful manager.
He won three Premier League titles, two of those in his first spell between 2004 and 2007.
The Portuguese has also won the FA Cup, in 2007, and the League Cup three times - in 2005, 2007 and 2015.
It has not only gone wrong in the Premier League for Mourinho; he has also had his issues off the pitch.
A 2-2 draw with Swansea on 8 August was overshadowed by a fallout with his medical team, in particular club doctor Eva Carneiro.
Carneiro had her role downgraded after Mourinho said his medical staff were "naive" for running onto the pitch to treat midfielder Eden Hazard.
She eventually left on 22 September and is now taking legal action against Mourinho and the Blues.
Mourinho also received a suspended stadium ban and £50,000 fine for claiming referees were "afraid" to award his team penalties in a 3-1 home loss to Southampton in October.
He subsequently had to serve a one-match stadium ban and pay a £40,000 fine for his behaviour during a 2-1 defeat by West Ham, when he spoke to referee Jon Moss at half-time.
It is unlikely he will be out of management for long, given his record of success at Chelsea and other top European clubs.
He guided Porto and Inter Milan to Champions League glory in 2004 and 2010 respectively, then Real Madrid to the Spanish La Liga title in 2012.
However, Shearer said his departure from Chelsea "will tarnish him".
At 52, Mourinho is still some way from retirement age, but he has expressed a wish to coach the English and Portuguese national sides at some stage in his career.
In fact, he claimed he turned down the chance to become England boss when Steve McClaren was sacked in 2007.
Mourinho has a proven track record of bringing success over the short term but doubts will remain over his ability to build a dynasty.
Will that make his candidature less appealing to the kind of club he is used to managing, such as Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Manchester United or Manchester City?
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The Blues may be struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League table, but they are still in the Champions League and the FA Cup, while achieving European qualification is not impossible.
The key for any new manager is improving the morale of a talented squad that has underachieved this season.
Players such as Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Willian, and Oscar were key to Chelsea winning the league title but performances have fallen well below the heights they reached last year.
After the 2-1 defeat by Leicester Mourinho said he felt his "work was betrayed" by his players, and midfielder Cesc Fabregas has said it is time for everyone to step up.
"If you are a big player and paid like a big player, you must play like a big player and behave like a big player," said the Spain international.
Short term, it's looking like ex-Netherlands coach Guus Hiddink, who has already had a stint in charge of the Blues, and former Tottenham Hotspur and Sevilla manager Juande Ramos.
Both are without a job at the moment so are able to slot in quickly.
But will either be in charge beyond the end of the season, when the likes of Pep Guardiola might be available?
The former Barcelona boss is due to make an announcement on his Bayern Munich future next week.
Speculation is he will quit the Bundesliga giants when his contract finishes at the end of the current campaign.
Other likely candidates are Atletico Madrid's Diego Simeone, Carlo Ancelotti, who guided Chelsea to the Premier League and FA Cup double in 2010, and former England boss Fabio Capello. | Chelsea have sacked manager Jose Mourinho seven months after he led them to the Premier League title. |
37,139,999 | Neither side was able to take the initiative before the break. Omari Sterling-James ventured forward and drilled against the base of a post for the Moors and that was the closest either side came.
Ryan Cresswell broke the deadlock early in the second half when he advanced to head in an inswinging corner.
Another defender, Reda Johnson, soon made it two as he connected with a long Michael Green throw and dispatched past Nathan Vaughan.
The comfortable win saw Moore end his new club's four-match losing streak with a fully deserved clean sheet.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Eastleigh 2, Solihull Moors 0.
Second Half ends, Eastleigh 2, Solihull Moors 0.
Substitution, Eastleigh. Jai Reason replaces Andy Drury.
Andy Drury (Eastleigh) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Substitution, Eastleigh. James Constable replaces Ryan Bird.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Stefan Moore replaces Jordan Gough.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Connor Franklin replaces Darryl Knights.
Goal! Eastleigh 2, Solihull Moors 0. Reda Johnson (Eastleigh).
Goal! Eastleigh 1, Solihull Moors 0. Ryan Cresswell (Eastleigh).
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Shepherd Murombedzi replaces Bobby James Moseley.
Second Half begins Eastleigh 0, Solihull Moors 0.
First Half ends, Eastleigh 0, Solihull Moors 0.
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up. | Ronnie Moore celebrated his first home game as Eastleigh manager in style with a win at home to Solihull Moors. |
36,320,321 | Nearly 60% of the country's smartphone users own an Android handset.
Devices running Android 4.4 or higher and fitted with an NFC (near field communication) chip will be able to use the service.
The firm said it had chosen the UK as the next place to offer mobile payments because of British familiarity with contactless payments.
Until now, the facility had only been available in the US.
Apple Pay has been in use in the UK since last summer, with thousands of retail outlets - from sandwich shops to the London Underground - now accustomed to customers using their phones to pay.
I've had a preview of the Android Pay app, and if anything it is even simpler to use once you have uploaded your cards to the app.
Your phone has to have some kind of lock - a fingerprint, or pattern or Pin code - but when the device is on, you don't even need the app to be open to tap-and-pay on a contactless terminal.
For now, just as with Apple Pay, most retailers will only allow payments up to £30 using your phone. The promise is that a software upgrade to payment terminals will allow higher amounts, although you will then need to use your unlock method to authorise the transaction.
Given that Apple last year listed a number of retailers that would be accepting higher payments, and only a handful have so far done that, I would be surprised if there is rapid progress on this front.
At launch, many Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards will work with the app, although Barclays customers will not be able to use Android Pay. That is because the bank is going it alone, making contactless payments available through its own mobile banking app.
To add to the confusion - or perhaps choice - the leading maker of Android phones is launching its own payments service. Samsung Pay arrives in the UK "later this year" and, according to a spokesman, will offer a uniquely simple solution combined with special offers for users.
Here's where the closed nature of Apple's operating system, compared to Android, may prove an advantage - for Tim Cook's business at least.
I'm sure that Barclays would prefer that its iPhone-wielding customers could use its mobile banking app to make contactless payments, but because Apple does not allow outsiders to come anywhere near the NFC functionality on its phone that is not possible.
So, is this the moment when the dream of your phone becoming a mobile wallet - promised for at least a decade - becomes a reality?
That was supposed to happen with Apple Pay but a source in the payments industry tells me that was a bit premature. "Last time I looked at our figures, one in 10 payments was contactless, but fewer than one in a 100 were from a mobile phone," he said.
But he went on to point out that contactless cards, first launched in the UK in 2008, had also been slow to take off. The decision of Transport for London, Europe's biggest single retailer, to allow the use of contactless credit and debit cards on buses and tube trains, had been the tipping point.
Nowadays, shop staff in the capital seem embarrassed when they tell you that they cannot take contactless payments.
Android Pay, with a huge potential audience in the UK, could do for the mobile wallet what TfL did for contactless cards. For the first time, just about anyone who owns a smartphone can use it to pay.
If they discover it is simple, convenient and that they can get access to money saving deals via their phones, then paying by card could begin to look as old-fashioned as writing a cheque. | Google is launching Android Pay, its tap-and-go contactless payment service, in the UK. |
32,390,754 | The charges are in connection with a police investigation into comments made at a republican commemoration event in Lurgan on Easter Sunday.
Detectives searched properties in north Belfast and Lurgan as part of the investigation.
The man is expected to appear at Craigavon Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. | A 33-year-old man has been charged with encouraging terrorism and supporting a proscribed organisation. |
33,017,599 | Mr Bond died on Friday morning at the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth days after undergoing heart surgery.
Mr Bond, who was born in the UK, became one of Australia's richest men, funding Australia's shock win of the America's Cup yachting race in 1983.
But he fell from grace in 1996 when found guilty of Australia's then biggest corporate fraud.
His children John Bond and Jody Fewster, speaking outside Fiona Stanley Hospital, said he had died earlier that morning. He had been in a coma since his heart surgery three days ago.
His body "finally gave out after heroic efforts of everyone involved here at the intensive care unit at Fiona Stanley Hospital," John Bond said.
Mr Bond paid tribute to his father, saying that to a lot of people, he was a "larger-than-life character" who started with nothing and rose to the heights of corporate Australia.
"He really did experience the highs and lows of life," said his son.
"To us, however, he was just Dad - a father who tried his best to be the best dad he could."
Alan Bond: Colourful character's fall from grace
Australia II, skippered by John Bertrand and equipped with a novel winged keel, sailed into national folklore when it grabbed the cup away from the prestigious New York Yacht Club, breaking the longest winning streak - 132 years - in sporting history.
Most Australians had never heard of the America's Cup. But the victory sparked massive celebration across the country and Bertrand was welcomed home with a ticker tape parade.
But it was Alan Bond who made it all possible.
At the time one of Australia's richest men, he bankrolled the Antipodeans' fourth bid to beat the Americans, and Australians loved him for it.
Mr Bond shot to public acclaim in Australia in 1983 after he bankrolled what would be the country's successful challenge of the coveted America's Cup yachting race.
But a decade later, the man dubbed Australian of the Year in 1978, fell spectacularly from grace.
In 1992 he was declared bankrupt, with personal debts totalling A$1.8 billion ($1.4bn;£900m).
He was jailed in 1997 for what would be described as Australia's biggest case of corporate fraud.
In Western Australia (WA), where his corporate collapse had the most impact on investors who lost money, not everyone remembers him favourably.
Few were willing on Friday to go on the record with their views. However, the Australian Financial Review quoted several business people who knew him well remembering how he had angered many with his "jet-set lifestyle" after investors were left with just half a cent in the dollar from his company's collapse.
WA Premier Colin Barnett said Bond was "a controversial figure but will also be remembered for a proud moment in Australia's history, which also put Western Australia on the map".
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said Bond had been a colourful character, but had caused "a lot of reputational damage to Australia".
"Frankly he left a number of positive legacies but there were a lot of tears along the way," he told Radio 2GB.
Many harsh comments about Mr Bond's business dealings were also posted on Twitter.
Mr Bond is survived by his ex-wife Eileen and three of his children, John, Craig and Jody. | Controversial Australian businessman Alan Bond has died at the age of 77, his family have announced. |
30,608,398 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The Championship club are 120 places above Blyth in the football pyramid but trailed to two Robbie Dale strikes.
The Blyth captain - a barman in his mother's pub - turned in a Jarrett Rivers cross from six yards and added his seventh goal in six FA Cup ties with a run and finish from 18 yards.
His efforts sparked a standing half-time ovation from the 3,644 fans packed into Croft Park but when Lee Novak drilled home on 52 minutes, the mood shifted.
Birmingham striker Wes Thomas's determined finish to level was in fitting with his side's second-half attitude and his headed winner from four yards prevented a first defeat by non-league opposition in 21 years.
Blyth - conquerors of Hartlepool in round two and the lowest-ranked side left in the competition - could be forgiven for dreaming of just a second fourth-round appearance in their 116-year history at the break, such was their control.
The Northern Premier League outfit looked far from a side sat 16th in the seventh tier of English football and familiar with the test their bobbly home pitch offers.
After Birmingham's Nikola Zigic blazed the first chance of the game over Spartans - who also boast a taxi driver, labourer and engineer in their ranks - grew in confidence, none more so than Rivers.
His centre found Dale - a player who says he is not too bothered about football - to apply an easy finish.
Spartans' Stephen Turnbull described drawing Birmingham as an "anti-climax" but he and his team-mates looked eager and motivated when Dale dribbled from the left wing unchallenged to drill into the bottom right-hand corner.
Striker James Maguire, a plumber, saw a shot tipped over just before the half-time whistle as they almost made it 3-0.
But Birmingham boss Gary Rowett has instilled fight in his side and boasts just two defeats in 11 games in charge.
Though his 10 changes from the win at Nottingham Forest looked sluggish in the opening half, the response was vicious and when Novak reduced the arrears, Thomas delivered terminal blows to Blyth's cup dreams.
Blyth defender Joel Dixon powered a header wide at the death but they will now focus on making up the 11 games they have in hand on some sides in their league as a result of cup exploits.
Birmingham will look forward to Monday's fourth round draw. | Birmingham City came from two down with three goals in six second-half minutes to avoid an embarrassing FA Cup upset at non-league Blyth Spartans. |
34,712,868 | Michael Smithyman was given two life sentences for the violent murders carried out in Kent in January 1990.
He said he also knew who started the New Cross fire, in which 13 died.
A source told BBC South East Met Police detectives were told to halt their inquiries into all the claims. The force said reviews found no evidence.
Smithyman pleaded guilty to the murders of his girlfriend April Sheridan and Terence Gayle.
Ms Sheridan was 22 years old and the mother of his child when he shot and murdered her using a sawn-off shotgun in Meopham, Kent.
The murder of Mr Gayle was a contract killing in which Smithyman was paid £3,000. His body was also disposed of in Kent.
Documents seen by BBC South East Today detail conversations Smithyman had with Metropolitan Police detectives in 1991.
They show he made a catalogue of confessions detailing his alleged involvement in scores of serious violent crimes, including a significant number of murders.
The source - who agreed to be interviewed by the BBC on the grounds that his identity was protected - heard the confessions.
"He was talking about murder on more than one occasion... these are still listed as crimes that have never been solved and there must be a lot of people who will be looking for justice," he said.
Smithyman also spoke about being present when a fire which killed 13 black youngsters at a birthday party was started in New Cross, south east London, on 18 January 1981.
No-one has ever been convicted over the blaze.
Smithyman told detectives in 1991 he saw people trapped in the flames, and it had been started by a criminal associate who petrol bombed the house as a reprisal for being refused entry.
The Metropolitan Police said "extensive investigations" were carried out into the New Cross fire claims.
However, the BBC discovered the team of detectives investigating all of Smithyman's confessions were abruptly ordered to halt their inquiries.
The BBC's source said the investigating officer later told him that "his career was in jeopardy unless he did exactly what he was told."
In 1991 a small team of Met Police detectives were given the task to investigate Smithyman's claims.
We understand they spent many months carrying out inquiries and were taking the confessions very seriously, creating separate dossiers for each crime. But after more than a year's worth of work a decision was taken to halt the inquiries.
When the investigation team disbanded there was frustration and disappointment amongst some of the officers.
The confessions left many at the time baffled, not least some highly experienced Met detectives - some of whom feared there may be some truth in Smithyman's boasts.
Smithyman, who is now 50, now lives as a woman in prison, and is now known as Michelle.
In correspondence via her solicitor, she now denies committing four of the murders she had previously confessed to being involved with.
She also asserts she was not present when the New Cross fire started.
With regards to the other crimes she said she was either serving a jail sentence at the time of the alleged offence, served sentences in respect of them, or has no recollection of the confessions taking place in 1991.
In a statement, the Met Police said it had spoken to the retired officer who oversaw the investigation.
"He states it was closed after a thorough investigation meant there were no further meaningful lines of enquiry.
"A number of reviews and follow-up inquiries have been conducted over the years into claims made by this person, and no evidence has been found.
"Any new and genuine information will be thoroughly assessed by the Met." | A convicted double killer confessed to scores of other crimes including 12 murders which, it is claimed, were not fully investigated, the BBC has learnt. |
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