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35,819,237 | Motorists called 999 after spotting the HGV driving north on the southbound carriageway at 01.30 GMT.
The vehicle performed three u-turns including one at the toll booths before it was stopped on the slip road, the Central Motorway Police Group said.
The incident happened between junction T4, Shenstone, and Weeford Plaza. The driver has been arrested.
Latest on this, plus more Staffordshire stories | A lorry travelled the wrong way on the M6 Toll motorway and performed three u-turns before being stopped by police. |
36,129,630 | Brendan Callan, 29, of Bond's Hill admitted assaulting the man occasioning him actual bodily harm on 17 September 2014.
He was jailed for eight months.
The court was told that the injured party remembered nothing about the incident except trying to go home and waking up in hospital.
A prosecution lawyer said witnesses noticed Callan, a woman and the injured party in a lane way.
Callan was seen with a bottle of vodka at one stage.
The injured party was seen to fall on two occasions, banging his head off a tree and a wall but on both occasions was seen to get up again.
Another man went down to move the people on and helped Callan to walk away.
As he turned to help the woman, he heard "four hard thuds" and turned to see Callan stamping once on the other man's head.
The victim was described as being unconscious and in "a bad way", and was gurgling.
He was taken to Altnagelvin Hospital and was placed in the intensive care unit with swelling to the back of his head and his eyes.
Callan was arrested a short distance away.
His clothes were seized and the victim's blood was found on his tracksuit bottoms and trainers.
At interview, Callan said he could not remember anything about the night in question.
A defence lawyer said that all involved were "heavily intoxicated".
The judge said the fact that Callan was drunk was no defence.
"You are responsible for what you do drunk as you are sober." she told him. | A Londonderry man who stamped on another man's head leaving him in intensive care has been jailed at the city's crown court. |
38,684,256 | MAHERSHALA ALI
Age: 42
Nominated for: Moonlight
The character: Juan, a Miami drug dealer who befriends the troubled Chiron as a young boy.
Oscar record: No previous nominations.
The critics said: "At first glance, Juan's gold front teeth and slow-moving menace project a kind of intimidating power, but Mr Ali imbues him with an uncommon tenderness, and he becomes an unlikely mentor whom Chiron later emulates." [New York Times]
JEFF BRIDGES
Age: 67
Nominated for: Hell or High Water
The character: Marcus Hamilton, a Texas Ranger on the trail of two bank robbers.
Oscar record: Won best actor for Crazy Heart in 2010. Has been nominated for best actor twice more - for Starman (1985) and True Grit (2011). And he has been up for best supporting actor three times - for The Last Picture Show (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1975), and The Contender (2001).
The critics said: "What's there to say about a man who makes it look so easy, and who - in one breathless, pivotal scene - runs through a range of emotion like a wild pony running across the land. Genius, any way you look at it." [Philadelphia Inquirer]
LUCAS HEDGES
Age: 20
Nominated for: Manchester by the Sea
The character: Patrick Chandler, a headstrong teenager who is forced to live with his brooding uncle after his father dies.
Oscar record: None
The critics said: "Hedges, as a temperamental teenager working through loss in his own authentically teenage way, is a real discovery." [Entertainment Weekly]
DEV PATEL
Age: 26
Nominated for: Lion
The character: Saroo Brierley, who was adopted by an Australian family as a child, and who embarks on a journey to trace his Indian roots.
Oscar record: None
The critics said: "Dev Patel doesn't appear until nearly an hour into Lion - but when he does his strong, soulful, Oscar-buzzed performance cuts deep." [Rolling Stone]
MICHAEL SHANNON
Age: 42
Nominated for: Nocturnal Animals
The character: A wizened sheriff who goes on the trail of a gang who attacked a family on a deserted desert road.
Oscar record: Nominated for best supporting actor in 2009 for Revolutionary Road.
The critics said: "A classic, laconic, Stetson-wearing Texas lawman, terrifically played by Michael Shannon." [The Guardian]
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Find out more about the best supporting actor nominees for the 89th Academy Awards, which will take place on 26 February 2017. |
30,190,753 | A culture that was decades in the making will take years to unwind, the joint study by Cass Business School and think tank New City Agenda concludes.
It estimates that poor standards have cost the UK industry £38.5bn in fines and customer redress over 15 years.
The banking industry said it was "striving hard" to rebuild trust.
The report found that at least £27bn of the £38.5bn in fines was due to mis-selling of personal protection insurance (PPI).
In the six years between 2008 and 2014, banks received 21 million complaints, it said.
Over two decades "an aggressive sales culture took hold in retail banking," with staff in some branches receiving cash bonuses, iPods, or tickets to Wimbledon for hitting sales targets, it said.
Those that failed to hit targets "were humiliated by having cabbages and other vegetables placed on their desks," it added.
"A toxic culture which was decades in the making will take a generation to turn around," said Conservative MP and New City Agenda co-founder David Davis.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who sits on the New City Agenda advisory board, said: "It is clear that much more needs to be done by all stakeholders for trust to be restored in our financial institutions."
The archbishop said that "huge fines" levied on banks in November in connection with attempted foreign exchange rate manipulation "illustrate the length of the journey of culture change that still needs to be travelled".
Many banks have culture change programmes underway, the report added.
The report's main author, Professor Andre Spicer, of the Cass Business School, said that some progress had been made in changing "a toxic sales culture".
"Regulation has improved, and big banks have all implemented new programmes to improve their cultures," he said.
"Smaller banks and challenger banks are beginning to offer the customer real choice, and often have healthier cultures."
"Many culture-change initiatives are fragile, and their success is not ensured. It's clear to us that much work still needs to be done," he added.
The British Bankers' Association (BBA) said that banks had made some progress in rebuilding public trust.
"There has been some important headway, with a new regulatory system, important reforms to pay and measures to ensure the British taxpayer will not have to shore up struggling banks in the future," a BBA spokesman said.
"It's very important that public confidence in this vital part of our economy returns, but that takes time and there is still more to be done," the BBA added.
There have been numerous calls for a change in banking culture since the 2008 financial crisis exposed wrong-doing and misdemeanours.
Last month, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said that some top bank executives had "got away without sanction" and were "still at the best golf courses". | A "toxic" and "aggressive" culture inside British banks that led to scandals such as mis-selling will take a generation to change, a report says. |
34,591,914 | It argues that school funding levels will feel quite different in the next five years from the previous five.
Schools are set to face real-terms reductions in spending per pupil for first time since the 1990s, it adds.
The report, however, says schools have been protected in recent years compared with other government departments.
Although there will be similar growth in nominal spending to that in the last Parliament, resources will shrink because of rising costs and increasing pupil numbers, it says.
Key cost increases include:
"Taking these together with pressures on other costs, we forecast that school spending per pupil is likely to fall by around 8% in real terms [based on a school-specific measure of inflation] between 2014-15 and 2019-20," the report says.
But a spokesman for the Department for Education said: ""We are protecting the schools budget, which will rise as pupil numbers increase and have made significant progress towards fairer funding for schools.
"This government is committed to making sure schools are funded fairly so all pupils have access to a good education - a key part of our core mission to raise standards across the country and make sure every child reaches their full potential."
The National Union of Teacher said many schools and colleges were already struggling.
Deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney said: "At a time when we face major problems with teacher supply, IFS notes that the government's pay cap of 1% could make recruitment and retention more difficult.
"With pupil numbers rocketing, we need to recruit more teachers just to stand still and we need to invest in capital funding to provide the new places needed." | Spending per pupil in schools in England is likely to fall by 8% in real terms over the next five years, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warns. |
23,822,110 | David Allen Brutsche, 42, and Devon Campbell Newman, 67, told a Las Vegas judge they did not recognise his authority to keep them in jail.
The roommates were arrested earlier this week after a sting operation.
Police say an undercover officer spent four months with the pair monitoring their alleged "sovereign citizen" plot.
There are 300,000 followers of the sovereign citizen anti-government philosophy around the US, according to a non-profit civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The two suspects shopped for guns, found a vacant house and set it up to bind and interrogate captives, according to the authorities.
They also allegedly recorded videos to justify their murder plot against police officers.
The investigation began when an undercover officer befriended the two accused in April, said police.
Las Vegas police Lt James Seebock told reporters the plot had been a case of domestic terrorism.
"They were furthering their 'sovereign citizen' ideology by committing criminal acts toward law enforcement," Lt Seebock said.
"The suspects believed that once the first kidnapping and execution was accomplished, they would be compelled to keep repeating their actions, kidnapping and killing multiple officers."
The judge sent them back to jail pending a court hearing on 9 September. | A Nevada pair has appeared in court accused of plotting to abduct, torture and kill police to promote their anti-government movement. |
39,267,153 | Ancient rocks from India suggest plants resembling red algae lived 1.6 billion years ago in what was then shallow sea.
The discovery may overturn ideas of when relatively advanced life evolved, say scientists in Sweden.
They identified parts of chloroplasts, structures within plant cells involved in photosynthesis.
The earliest signs of life on Earth are at least 3.5 billion years old.
The first single-celled microscopic life forms evolved into larger multi-cellular eukaryotic organisms (made up of cells containing a nucleus and other structures within a membrane).
Therese Sallstedt of the Swedish Museum of Natural History discovered some of the fossils. She described them as "the oldest fossil plants that we know of on Earth in the form of 1.6 billion year old red algae".
"They show us that advanced life in the form of eukaryotes (like plants, fungi and us humans/animals) have a much deeper history on Earth than what we previously have thought," she told BBC News.
The scientists found thread-like fossils and more complex "fleshy" colonies in sedimentary rock from central India. Both have characteristics of modern red algae, a type of seaweed.
Co-researcher Prof Stefan Bengtson of the Swedish Museum of Natural History added: "You cannot be 100% sure about material this ancient, as there is no DNA remaining, but the characters agree quite well with the morphology and structure of red algae."
The oldest known red algae before the present discovery date back 1.2 billion years. The Indian fossils are 400 million years older, suggesting that the early branches of the tree of life began much earlier than previously thought.
Claims of ancient life are always controversial. Without DNA evidence, confirmation must rest on whether more fossils can be found.
There is also debate over whether red algae belong in the plant kingdom or in a class of their own.
Modern red algae is perhaps best known for two commercial products - gelatinous texturing agents used in making ice cream - and nori - the seaweed used to wrap sushi.
The research is published in the journal, PLOS Biology.
Follow Helen on Twitter. | The origins of plants may go back hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought, according to fossil evidence. |
37,793,635 | The Football Association said it is alleged "Moyes used abusive and/or insulting words towards a match official".
The incident occurred in the 90th minute, after referee Chris Kavanagh waved away appeals for a foul on Sunderland striker Victor Anichebe in the penalty area.
Sunderland lost the EFL Cup match 1-0.
Moyes, who was appointed Black Cats boss in July and has managed only two points from nine league games, has until 18:00 BST on Tuesday to respond. | Sunderland manager David Moyes has been charged with misconduct after being sent off at Southampton on Wednesday. |
38,128,150 | Last April, Lincoln became the first place in the UK to introduce a ban on new psychoactive substances (NPS) and alcohol consumption in the city centre.
Incidents involving legal highs have dropped from 402 to 259 in a year.
However, one city centre church reported cases of people collapsing and fitting on its premises.
More on this and other local stories from across Lincolnshire
Jeremy Cullimore, a priest at St Mary le Wigford Church, said the problem had moved to other parts of the city, including the church.
He said the church had experienced a number of issues with people camping out in the grounds.
"We were getting somebody fitting, or collapsing, at least twice a week, and were having to call out ambulances," he said.
"There was a very real fear people were going to die."
He said despite problems at the church the council was doing its best, and was unable to bring "peace on earth and goodwill to all men".
There have also been further reports of people camping out in a graveyard on Beaumont Fee and taking legal highs, close to the city's police station.
The number of incidents involving NPS in the city increased from seven to 820 between 2010 and 2014.
Sam Barstow, from the authority, said while there had been a reduction in the use of new psychoactive substances "there is more work to do".
He said: "We were always conscious that this was never going to eradicate the issue entirely, but we've had in excess of 30 successful prosecutions under the order.
The Psychoactive Substances Act makes it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, or possess on custodial premises. | Church leaders in Lincoln have said a city-wide ban on so-called legal highs has compounded the problem in other parts of the city. |
33,210,166 | Geert Wilders said a "misunderstanding" with the network meant they were not broadcast on a slot on national TV allocated to political parties.
The controversial cartoons were shown at an event in the US last month that was attacked by two gunmen who were shot dead by security guards.
Mr Wilders was a speaker at that event.
The airing of the cartoons was supposed to be a key moment for Mr Wilders in what some Muslims have described as his crusade against Islam, according to the BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague.
But instead of cartoons, the slot allocated to Mr Wilder's Freedom Party featured an old recording about migrants.
A furious Mr Wilders shared the film on social media after it failed to appear on TV.
The images feature a bearded man in various guises. In one picture, he is wearing robes standing over a blood-splattered map of the world, while another shows snakes protruding from his beard.
Mr Wilders initially accused the TV station of sabotage but has since retracted that statement, saying there was a mix-up and that the cartoons will be shown next week.
"I have just spoken to [Dutch broadcaster] NPO boss [Henk] Hagoort. It seems to have been a misunderstanding," he tweeted.
He added that Mr Hagoort "assured me the video will now be broadcast at 15:55 GMT on Wednesday."
Have pictures of Muhammad always been forbidden?
The timing of the broadcast during the holy month of Ramadan is designed to have maximum impact, our correspondent adds.
Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are offensive to many Muslims.
Mr Wilders has often expressed his distaste for Islam and mass immigration and has called for the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands.
He decided to use a loophole allowing anything to be shown during a party political broadcast after parliament refused to exhibit the cartoons on its premises.
He says he is broadcasting the images to defend free speech following the attack on the conference in Garland, Texas, where the cartoons were first shown.
That conference included a contest that offered a $10,000 (£6,300) prize for a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
Dutch embassies around the world have been placed on alert after Mr Wilders announced his plans to show the cartoons.
There were widespread protests in 2006 when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.
In January, 12 people were murdered by two Islamist gunmen at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published similar cartoons.
And a gathering of free speech activists in the Danish capital Copenhagen was targeted by a gunman in February, killing a film director. | A Dutch far-right leader says cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad will be broadcast on Dutch TV despite them not being aired as he intended on Saturday. |
32,533,208 | Fabrizio Gianni photographed stars for some of the world's top fashion magazines and was Sergio Leone's assistant director on The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.
Having lived and worked in Milan, Paris, Tokyo and New York, Mr Gianni now lives in Falkirk with his wife.
The first ever exhibition of his work opens in the town on Friday.
Fantasia, the collection at the Falkirk Community Trust's Park Gallery, focuses on the Italian's work for fashion magazines such as Elle, Vogue, GQ and Harper's Bazaar, with star subjects including Anthony Hopkins, Sir Ben Kingsley and Keanu Reeves.
Mr Gianni told BBC Scotland that when he was asked to put the exhibition together, his collection of photographs had almost completely "disappeared" after being left in his cellar in Falkirk for 20 years.
He said: "The editor in chief of Vogue in France phoned me up and asked me to collaborate to do a book, and I said, OK, if I can find the photos. So I went down to the cellar and I found all this mould.
"All of my photos were in a cellar, all mouldy and ruined.
"Some of them were boxed when I moved from Milan, and remained boxed for 20 years.
"I basically lost 10 years of pictures. Only a few remained from the 1970s, most of what I have is from the 1980s and 1990s.
"I said to them, why don't we do a book of mouldy pictures? We could call it 'Saved from the Bin'."
Despite having worked at the top of the photographic trade, Mr Gianni insists that he is not an artist, but a good professional practicing his craft.
He said: "Gillian from the Falkirk Community Trust called me about doing the exhibition.
"I said, I accept, but you are never to portray me as an artist, because I was a good professional, that's all.
"You think, right away, what can I do to make those clothes become human, real? The designer doesn't think of this, they probably hate the women!
"Putting a normal woman into these so-called beautiful dresses - that's the difficult part.
"You take this girl - a young, beautiful girl, with skin like a peach - you put the clothes on them and put them in a beautiful location, in wonderful light at the moment of the day when the light is fantastic, and you do the photo.
"This is craft, not art."
Mr Gianni was assistant director on the classic "Spaghetti Western" film The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and is credited with styling Clint Eastwood's famously nameless character.
He said: "I was shooting a film in Munich as assistant director, and Sergio Leone came in and said to me that he wanted to do a Western. I thought, 'this guy is cuckoo, doing a Western in Italy?'
"It was an experience - he would go around terrorising people. It was a mix of being scared to not work with him any more, but being scared of the man himself.
"He was convinced he was an artist, he was convinced he was a genius. No-one could argue with that."
Admission to the exhibition at The Park Gallery at Callendar House in Falkirk is free between 10:00 and 17:00, Monday to Saturday. | The work of a legendary fashion photographer and film-maker is to go on show in Falkirk. |
33,083,034 | The Met Office said severe thunderstorms look likely to develop on Friday, followed by more widespread heavy rain moving gradually north by Saturday.
There is a chance of localised disruption, mainly from surface water flooding.
Lightning and hail could also affect the area. | Forecasters have issued a yellow "be aware" warning for rain in south and mid Wales. |
36,513,468 | He opened fire inside a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida in the early hours of Sunday, killing 49 people in the deadliest shooting in modern US history.
FBI officials say the 29-year-old, who was killed by police, appeared to "have leanings towards" radical Islamist ideology, although it was not clear whether the attack was a case of domestic or international terrorism.
Mateen made emergency 911 calls shortly beforehand in which he reportedly stated his allegiance to Islamic State.
The group later said that an IS "fighter" had carried out the attack, but did not specify whether it was directly involved or simply taking credit for inspiring it.
What we know
Eyewitness accounts
Meanwhile Mateen's father told NBC News the attack "had nothing to do with religion".
Seddique Mateen said his son became "very angry" after seeing two men kissing in downtown Miami recently.
He said the family had not been aware that Mateen might have been planning an attack. "We are in shock like the whole country."
But there are also reports Mateen used gay dating apps and was a regular at the club where he carried out the massacre.
Ty Smith told the Orlando Sentinel he had seen Mateen at least 12 times at the Pulse, saying he would sometimes drink heavily, becoming "loud and belligerent".
As questions emerged about the gunman's history, FBI Special Agent Ron Hopper told reporters that Mateen had been interviewed by FBI officers twice in 2013 following inflammatory comments to colleagues asserting ties to IS.
The investigation ended after officers were unable to substantiate the claims. However, Mateen was questioned again in 2014 about a potential connection to Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, the American known to have carried out a suicide bombing in the Syria conflict.
The FBI investigation found no "substantial relationship" between Mateen and Abu-Salha and the case was closed, said Special Agent Hopper.
Despite being on the FBI's radar, Manteen was not on an official terrorism watch list and was able to legally hold a state firearms licence, according to Florida records.
It has emerged that Mateen had worked as an armed security officer for the firm G4S since 2007.
Police say he attacked the Pulse nightclub wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun.
Mateen was born in New York to Afghan parents but had moved to Fort Pierce, a city about two hours' drive south of Orlando.
His ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, has said that he was violent and mentally unstable and had beaten her repeatedly.
The pair married in Fort Pierce in 2009 after meeting online, but her parents intervened and removed her from their home just months later after learning of his abuse.
"He was not a stable person," she told the Washington Post. "He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn't finished or something like that."
She told the newspaper that Mateen had not been very religious when she was with him and he had regularly exercised at the gym. She said he had owned a small-calibre handgun and worked as a guard at a nearby facility for juvenile delinquents.
Speaking to reporters later on Sunday, Ms Yusufiy said Mateen was bi-polar and although some commentators were trying to link his actions to IS or religion, the real cause was mental illness.
The couple divorced in 2011.
Police believe Mateen rented a car and drove to Orlando to carry out the attack on the nightclub, according to media reports.
In his alleged call to 911, he is said to have referred to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
In a series of social media photos, Mateen is seen wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the New York Police Department name and emblem.
However, the NYPD said Mateen had no association with the department and the shirts were unofficial merchandise that could be bought at any shop.
The gunman had filed a petition for a name change in 2006 from Omar Mir Seddique to Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, according to US media.
It has emerged that his father, Seddique Mateen, has a television show on a California-based channel that expresses anti-Pakistani government views and sympathy for the Afghan Taliban. | Omar Mateen was a US citizen who had been known to the FBI since 2013. |
22,000,943 | Progress on the treaty, which is expected to be passed by a majority, was delayed by major arms exporters like the US, which only approved the idea in 2009 after Barack Obama was elected president.
Opposition from three states under existing arms sanctions - Iran, North Korea and Syria - prevented the treaty being adopted by consensus, so it went to a vote instead.
While the treaty will be greeted by peace campaigners as a step towards conflict resolution, sceptics question its real impact.
What does the treaty aim to achieve?
The global weapons trade is worth an estimated $70bn (£46bn), feeding dozens of ongoing armed conflicts from the civil war in Syria to Mexico's drug wars.
UN treaties regulating weapons of mass destruction already exist, but none to control the conventional armaments which kill people daily.
According to a draft copy of the treaty published by the UN, it will set international standards for the trade in conventional arms and seek to prevent illegal arms-trading.
Governments will be expected to review arms export contracts to ensure the weapons do not violate existing arms embargoes, will not be used for war crimes, human rights abuses or organised crime and will not be diverted for illegal use.
Governments will also be expected to regulate arms brokers.
Which weapons are covered?
Battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large-calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, small arms and light weapons.
Ammunition, parts and components will also be regulated.
How will the treaty be enforced?
Signatories to the treaty must report back to a new UN secretariat about the action they are taking to control their arms exports, and their actual exports. However, their reports may "exclude commercially sensitive or national security information".
It is down to the individual governments to "take appropriate measures to enforce national laws and regulations" implementing the treaty.
Can countries just ignore the treaty?
Countries are not obliged to sign. Even when they do so, it is not a foregone conclusion that their parliaments will subsequently ratify them.
For a comparison, since the land mine ban treaty was passed by the UN in 1999, at least 160 countries have signed and ratified, according to the Arms Control Association. Among those who have not signed are the US, Russia, China, India and Pakistan.
Why did Iran, North Korea and Syria try to block the treaty?
Iran said the treaty was full of flaws and loopholes while North Korea argued that it lacked balance.
In Syria, the government complained that the treaty failed to prevent deliveries of weapons to "terrorist armed groups and to non-state actors" - an indication that it is worried about its own ability to continue fighting its civil war.
How have the top arms exporters reacted?
The US and Russia are the world's arms-exporting giants, with China, Ukraine and Germany also major exporters.
Germany is among the nearly 120 states, led by Mexico, which issued a joint statement on 18 March stressing the "necessity and the urgency of adopting a strong Arms Trade Treaty".
The US and Russia were not party to that call for action. Washington has said it will support the treaty but made clear that there would be no impact on its domestic gun ownership laws.
Russia has said there are "omissions" in the treaty and "doubtful" provisions.
When will the treaty come into force?
Countries may sign the treaty from 3 June 2013 onwards. It will take effect 90 days after it is ratified by the 50th country to sign. | After years of negotiation, the UN General Assembly is to vote on the first treaty to regulate the global trade in conventional arms. |
33,286,433 | They said they could not be certain Gary Douglass, 20, had intended to kill himself with the knife when police tried to detain him in Wrexham in 2013.
Mr Douglass received surgery but died two days after being released from hospital on 10 October.
He died from internal bleeding.
The inquest, which has been sitting for a week in Ruthin, Denbighshire, had been told Mr Douglass, from Llay, suffered from Asperger's syndrome, which led to him becoming obsessed with knives.
On the night he stabbed himself, on 2 October, Mr Douglass had taken the drug MCAT (Mephedrone).
After allegedly making threats at a house in Wrexham, he came across two students, allegedly attacking 19-year-old Sean Doyle and stabbing him in the torso.
Police found Mr Douglass in Crispin Lane, near the Glyndwr University campus, where he inflicted superficial cuts to his own throat.
He then stabbed himself so violently in the abdomen the blade almost reached his spine.
An independent expert witness told jurors that doctors at Wrexham Maelor Hospital saved Mr Douglass and he recovered quickly, being fit enough for release by 10 October.
He appeared before magistrates the next day and was later remanded to Liverpool's Altcourse prison where he became ill the next day.
He died on the evening of 12 October in the operating theatre at the Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool, as surgeons tried to stop the internal bleeding.
The jury was told he died of a haemorrhage caused by an infection weakening part of the aorta, which had been operated on following the self-inflicted stab wound.
The coroner John Gittins said no evidence had been presented to show any pressure was placed on medical staff to release him into police custody sooner than appropriate.
Mr Gittins told the jury they could reach one of three possible conclusions: suicide, misadventure or a narrative conclusion.
In giving their conclusion, the jury said that, while Mr Douglass had stabbed himself and it was "more likely than not he intended to take his own life", they could not, "beyond reasonable doubt, confirm the intent of suicide". | A jury has reached a narrative conclusion at the inquest of a Wrexham man who died in custody after stabbing himself in the stomach 10 days earlier. |
32,633,901 | Plaid held Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Arfon.
UKIP's leader in Wales, Nathan Gill came fourth in the poll for the seat of Ynys Mon, which Labour held on to.
Mr Gill tweeted: "Walking home from the count to the dawn chorus, magical night for UKIP Wales, cemented place as 3rd party in Wales".
The Conservatives retain their seat in Aberconwy. | Plaid Cymru won two of its three seats in north Wales in an election which saw the party make no gains. |
39,684,580 | The 30-year-old driver was the sole occupant of a red Seat Ibiza which crashed on the A93 between Braemar and Crathie at about 01:00.
The road was closed for several hours before reopening just after 11:00.
The accident has caused delays to a running event being held at nearby Balmoral Castle.
Police have appealed for witnesses. | A man has died following a road accident in Aberdeenshire. |
36,443,119 | It topped the rundown with combined chart sales of 38,000, according to the Official Charts Company.
The achievement comes after the group were named best British newcomer at the Brit Awards earlier this year.
"It's class to be number one with the new album. We're made up with that. Thank you!" the band told the Official Charts Company.
Drake's Views held firm at two in the chart, while Beyonce's Lemonade climbed one place to number three.
Coldplay's A Head Full of Dreams jumped four places to four in anticipation of their Wembley Arena dates later this month, and ABC entered the chart at five with The Lexicon of Love II, their first top 10 in 26 years.
Fifth Harmony were another new entry at six with their second album 7/27, while last week's number one - Ariana Grande's Dangerous Woman - tumbled to number eight.
In the singles chart, Drake notched up his eighth week at the top with his single One Dance.
The track is now the longest-running UK chart-topper since Rihanna's Umbrella, which racked up an unbroken 10-week run at the summit in 2007.
One Dance sold just shy of 85,000 combined chart sales, made up of 23,000 sales and 6.15 million streams.
This week's highest new entry goes to Clean Bandit and Louisa Johnson's new single Tears, which dropped in at number six.
The track gives last year's X Factor winner a second top 10, following her number nine peak with the winner's single Forever Young.
US singer-songwriter Gnash enters the top 10 for the first time with I Hate You, I Love You, up four spots to number eight.
There are two more big climbers: Cheat Codes and Kris Kross Amsterdam's Sex - a reworking of Salt-N-Pepa's Let's Talk About Sex - which lifts six places to number 14; and Pink's Just Like Fire jumped 14 spots to 22. | Catfish and the Bottlemen have hit number one in the album chart with their second record The Ride. |
22,668,122 | Northampton's captain swore at referee Wayne Barnes and called him a "cheat" after a penalty decision went against his side in a 37-17 loss to Leicester.
"Dylan Hartley will now have to face an RFU disciplinary hearing. I do not think he will be able to board the plane to Hong Kong with the Lions on Monday. You would think a ban will come. This story is far from over - his Lions place is in real jeopardy."
Hartley, 27, who claims he was talking to Tigers hooker Tom Youngs, will face a disciplinary hearing on Sunday.
The entry point for an RFU ban for abusing an official is six weeks.
The Lions tour runs from 1 June-6 July.
Any potential RFU punishment can be increased or decreased according to the severity of the offence. Although unlikely, it remains possible the dismissal alone could be deemed sufficient punishment.
Hartley had already been warned by Barnes for speaking out of turn, before the dismissal late in the first half.
If Hartley is banned, Ulster and Ireland hooker Rory Best would be favourite to replace him.
A spokesman for the Lions said that if Hartley receives a suspension which was to rule him out of the second match of the tour, against Western Force on 5 June, then he would be replaced in the squad.
"The coaches and the team re-gather on Sunday. There will be an assessment of the situation and it is out of our hands," the spokesman said.
"Warren Gatland has always indicated that these players (competing in Premiership and Pro12 finals) would not play in the first match against the Barbarians but they would have to be available for the second match of the tour.
"That is the criteria for Hartley coming on tour. If he gets a suspension that prevents him from making that second game then that is where we are."
It's Dylan Hartley's own fault. Not only is it half-witted and wrong to talk to a referee like that but he doesn't know the rules of the game. Northampton kicked the ball straight out from a 22-drop-out which is completely stupid. Yes, Leicester pushed early at that scrum and the referee fell for it but Hartley is captain and he let his team down. The referee clearly told him it was his last chance after earlier dissent and has had to follow that through."
Northampton coach Jim Mallinder said Hartley's claim was backed up by a number of other senior players.
"I asked Dylan at half-time and I've just asked him again 'what happened? What did you say?' He said he was talking to Tom Youngs," said Mallinder.
"If you talk like that to a player I wouldn't expect anything to happen. Clearly, Wayne Barnes has believed Dylan has spoken to him.
"I support Dylan. He is my captain. If he says he wasn't speaking to the referee and he was speaking to a player on the floor I can only support what he says."
Gatland's Lions squad board the plane to Hong Kong on Monday ahead of their opening match against the Barbarians on Saturday.
Hartley could have become England captain in 2012 but missed out after being given an eight-week ban for biting Ireland's Stephen Ferris.
He was also given a two-week ban in December 2012 for striking Best.
Those incidents followed a 26-week ban in 2007 for "making illegal contact with the eye area" of Wasps players Johnny O'Connor and James Haskell. That ban ended his chances of making England's squad for the 2007 World Cup.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live as a pundit at Twickenham, former Lions hooker Brian Moore said: "It's Dylan Hartley's own fault.
"Not only is it half-witted and wrong to talk to a referee like that but he doesn't know the rules of the game. Northampton kicked the ball straight out from a 22-drop-out which is completely stupid.
"Yes, Leicester pushed early at that scrum and the referee fell for it but Hartley is captain and he let his team down. The referee clearly told him it was his last chance after earlier dissent and has had to follow that through." | England hooker Dylan Hartley is set to miss the British and Irish Lions tour after becoming the first player to be sent off in a Premiership final. |
37,866,766 | Warnock signed four free agents in his first week as Bluebirds boss after replacing Paul Trollope.
However, he is still looking for further additions and admits he may have to sell to bring in his own players.
"We may have to probably let go someone we may not want to, if it means getting the right player in," he said.
Warnock says the transfer window will be vital as he plots Cardiff's route away from the Championship relegation zone.
Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Wigan leaves Cardiff a point out of the bottom three ahead of a daunting trip to Newcastle.
"It's not the international break I'm looking forward to, it's January if I'm honest," he told BBC Wales Sport.
"I've learned a lot in the last few weeks, and we have to change certain things and probably one or two players as well.
"We haven't got an awful lot of natural goal scorers so we have to work harder for the goals, and we have to try and solve those problems in January.
"We have got to be out and about in these next few weeks, looking at international games and all the staff will be looking at players at different levels."
Warnock is aware of the need to balance the books.
"January is a difficult time to buy but needs must at times," he said.
"You don't really want to be buying in January if you can help it. Clubs don't want their best players to go so they want more money than you want to pay.
The former Crystal Palace boss has already discussed targets with the club's owners.
"I've got a great relationship with them; I speak regularly to Mehmet [Dalman] and Ken [Choo] and Vincent [Tan] is in touch with all of them.
"They seem to be on board with what I'm saying and it's up to me to try and generate the income to get the players in I want to improve the squad as soon as possible." | Neil Warnock says he is ready to sell players to bring in his own signings in the January transfer window. |
39,452,256 | The 49-year-old, who also won team dressage silver in Rio, finished third aboard Nip Tuck in the opening grand prix class with the medals decided after Saturday's freestyle section.
Hester scored 76.671% behind leader Isabell Werth who recorded 82.300%.
United States' Laura Graves is second with Ireland's Judy Reynolds in fifth.
"I always give my horse an easy ride in the grand prix so that he's perfectly rideable for Saturday," said Hester.
"I don't expect to be too far behind." | Britain's London 2012 Olympic champion Carl Hester is in contention to win a medal at the FEI World Cup after a good start to the dressage final. |
37,985,339 | In early May 2013, Jia Jinglong was preparing for his wedding day.
He wanted to have the ceremony at his family home in Hebei Province, not far from Beijing in northern China.
However, just prior to the big day, his house was knocked down to make way for a new development.
Adding to his woes, his fiancee then called off the wedding and he reportedly lost his job.
Jia Jinglong felt it was all too much. He sought revenge for the upheaval in his life following the destruction of his house without proper compensation.
In February 2015, he took a nail gun and went looking for the village chief, the man he decided was to blame. Then the groom-to-be-no-longer shot and killed the chief, 55-year-old He Jianhua.
For this he was sentenced to death.
In accordance with the rules governing all death penalty cases, his went to the Supreme Court for ratification. It was cleared to proceed.
There has been a major public campaign to have his death sentence commuted because of extenuating circumstances. Even some newspapers controlled by the Communist Party have been arguing that he should be spared.
But now word has come through from an official social media account run by the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court: Jia Jinglong has been executed.
Some outside China will be wondering why the general public and Chinese media might have felt the need to campaign for somebody who admitted to murdering his local Communist Party secretary.
Well it all comes down to class and injustice in modern China.
These types of forced demolitions are routine here. It would be hard to argue against the premise that for years this country's central government has turned a blind eye while property developers, in league with corrupt local officials, have bulldozed people's houses, using paid thugs to beat up villagers if they try to resist.
It is a way of clearing out pesky residents which continues to this day.
The "compensation" paid is usually nowhere near enough to buy an apartment in the same area, forcing evicted families to move to distant, low-grade housing estates.
How can I say this so confidently? Because I've seen it first hand time and again. I've seen the houses being destroyed, I've seen the crying families and I've seen the men sent in to silence them.
Ask pretty much any China correspondent and they will tell you the same thing.
We are constantly approached by desperate people claiming their homes have been effectively stolen and destroyed. The BBC could do a story on one of these cases in a different location every week if we wanted to.
Because this is seen here as such a widespread abuse of power against the lao bai xing (the ordinary punters) there has been a view that - while murder is not to be condoned - Jia Jinglong was pushed into a corner; that the crimes against him should have meant commuting his death sentence to some lesser penalty.
After all, people will tell you, government officials and those in the upper echelons of society are saved from a lethal injection for much less.
These cases are posing a real problem for the Communist Party in terms of perceived legitimacy, especially when its reason for monopoly power is supposed to be delivering a more just world for the downtrodden.
In 2009, a 21-year-old woman working as a pedicurist in a hotel building was on a break, washing some clothes.
Attached to the hotel was a massage and entertainment complex called Dream Fantasy City. Offering food, drink, massages, karaoke and often prostitution, these types of establishments are popular with government officials.
When a local Communist Party figure approached Deng Yujiao asking her to stop washing her clothes and instead provide him with "special services" he fully expected to get his way.
She told him she didn't do that kind of work there. It's said he then took a wad of cash from his pocket and started slapping her on the face with it. He then pushed her onto a lounge and got on top of her. To defend herself she stabbed him four times with a small knife. One of the blows struck him in the neck, causing the director of the local township's business promotions office to bleed to death on the spot.
Deng Yujiao was charged with murder.
Her case drew huge waves of support from Chinese people using the Internet to campaign in her favour. To many, she was seen as a hero. Finally somebody was standing up to these small-town, corrupt and arrogant officials.
The social media posts were censored but the momentum could not be stopped.
Prosecutors dropped the murder charge and granted bail. She faced a lesser charge of "intentional assault" but was never sentenced. This was apparently due to her mental state.
There are considerable parallels in these two cases but certainly not in one respect.
Despite the public outcry there was to be no sparing Jia Jinglong.
His crime was committed in the new era of President Xi Jinping. Justice now appears to be more hardline and the Communist Party remains well and truly in charge of the courts and all that takes place inside them. | The execution of a Chinese villager - despite widespread calls to commute his sentence - has drawn criticism from those who say this country's courts have one way of handling the powerful and a different way of handling the poor. |
25,641,216 | Brian Conroy, 30, claimed he was not responsible for stabbing 26-year-old David Mair at the flat in Dennistoun on 18 November 2012.
But a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh convicted him of attempted murder after hearing how he apparently admitted the attack in a text message.
The court heard that the attack had left Mr Mair permanently scarred.
The jury heard about an exchange of text messages in which Conroy was asked: "Why did you do it?" His reply had apparently agreed he was responsible.
During the trial Conroy claimed he had only taken part in banter and had only agreed he was the one who had spilled beer on a carpet.
He denied going into the kitchen of the flat in Findlay Drive and arming himself with a knife after arguing with Mr Mair.
Conroy, from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, was found guilty of attacking Mr Mair, brandishing a knife and striking him repeatedly on the body. | A man who attacked a fellow party-goer with a knife at a flat in Glasgow has been jailed for seven years. |
22,447,160 | A study of 814 expectant women, published in JAMA Psychiatry, showed that infection made bipolar four times more likely.
The overall risk remained low, but it echoes similar findings linking flu and schizophrenia.
Experts said the risks were small and women should not worry.
Bipolar leads to intense mood swings, which can last months, ranging from depression and despair to manic feelings of joy, overactivity and loss of inhibitions.
Researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center identified a link between the condition, often diagnosed during late teens and twenties, and experiences in the womb.
In their study looking at people born in the early 1960s, bipolar disorder was nearly four times as common in people whose mothers caught flu during pregnancy.
The condition affects about one in 100 people. The lead researcher, Prof Alan Brown, estimated that influenza infection during pregnancy could lead to a 3-4% chance of bipolar disorder in the resulting children.
However, in the vast majority of cases of bipolar disorder there would no history of flu.
So in the list of things pregnant women have to worry about, how high should it rank?
"I wouldn't say high," Prof Alan Brown told the BBC.
"The chances are still quite small. I don't think it should raise alarms for mothers."
He said seasonal flu vaccination, which is advised for pregnant women in many countries, would reduce the chances of catching flu.
Similar studies have shown a link between flu and schizophrenia
How flu could affect the foetal brain has not been completely explained.
Influenza is not thought to directly affect the foetus, but the mother's immune response to the virus could affect development.
Dr Fiona Gaughran, lead consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said: "This highly regarded group of researchers has reported similar links between schizophrenia and various maternal infections.
"If future work confirms the link reported here, policymakers may need to consider implications for flu prevention pre-pregnancy, but mothers need not be worried.
"The overall risk of offspring developing bipolar disorder is low, even if one did get flu in pregnancy." | Flu during pregnancy may increase the risk of the unborn child developing bipolar disorder later in life, research suggests. |
37,371,391 | The Victoria Derbyshire programme broke the story and shortly afterwards, the US company Concentrix was told it would not have its contract renewed.
HMRC has yet to comment on the claims.
But in a statement, Concentrix said the announcement had come "as a significant shock" to the firm.
The statement added: "Disappointingly (it) did not give us the opportunity to communicate appropriately with our staff ahead of the announcement.
"We are engaged with HMRC to fully understand the implications of this announcement and in the meantime we are exploring all options for our staff within Concentrix."
The £75m deal between ministers and Concentrix, signed last May, has been aimed at trying to save the government more than £1bn in incorrect or fraudulent tax credit payments.
But hundreds of people have complained to MPs that they have been incorrectly punished, while the Facebook group Concentrix Mums has attracted 8,000 members.
Single mother Nicola McKenzie, 19, told the Victoria Derbyshire programme on Tuesday that she had had her child tax credits stopped after she was wrongly accused of being married to a dead 74-year-old man.
On the same day as the story broke, the news about the company's contract ending next May was revealed.
A source told the BBC the two sides had been "close to" reaching an agreement before the show aired and that Concentrix had only learned of a change of heart about an hour before the government announced it would not be renewed.
The BBC understands that talks between government officials and Concentrix on Thursday will focus on the best way to bring the deal to a close with minimal further disruption to tax credits - payments made to households on low incomes.
Concentrix said it had been "contractually obligated to contact individual tax credit claimants based on information provided by HMRC. The case volumes handled by Concentrix are set by HMRC and agreed with them in advance."
HMRC said: "We want to reassure customers who have had their tax credits stopped that we will prioritise their cases and make sure that they are processed as quickly as possible.
"That's why we have decided not to extend our contract with Concentrix and HMRC is redeploying 150 staff so that customers can get through to advisers and resolve any issues about their claim."
The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel. | The government was "close to" signing a new deal with a firm tasked with cutting tax credit fraud before the BBC revealed hundreds of people had wrongly had payments stopped, a source says. |
27,024,881 | Ofsted found "a culture of fear and intimidation" had taken grip in schools at the centre of the so-called Trojan Horse allegations.
The inspections followed claims in an anonymous letter that hard-line Muslims were trying to impose their views on some of the city's schools.
Five have been placed in special measures, among them three academies from the Park View Educational Trust.
Mr Gove said the government would require all schools to "promote British values" and would back Ofsted's plan to introduce no-notice school inspections in England.
The chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, recommended:
In his speech to the House of Commons, Mr Gove said the need for action was "urgent".
"Academies will receive letters saying I am minded to terminate funding agreements," he told MPs.
If this goes ahead, it would mean that Park View Education Trust, which runs Park View and two primary schools, would no longer receive funding to run the schools.
The same will apply to Oldknow Academy.
A Department for Education spokesman said this would be the first time this had happened.
The DfE is awaiting a response from the trust and would have to find new sponsors for the three schools.
Mr Gove said the governors at local authority run Saltley School would be replaced.
The Department for Education said Birmingham City Council had already started the process of imposing an interim executive board at Saltley.
A sixth school, local authority run Alston Primary which has been in special measures since May, is already in the process of being turned into an academy "under a strong sponsor", said the DfE.
The prime minister defined British values as "freedom, tolerance, respect for the rule of law, belief in personal and social responsibility and respect for British institutions".
David Cameron said he hoped these values would be inculcated in any school in Britain "whether it was a private school, state school, faith-based school, free school, academy or anything else".
The Department for Education added: "We want to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs."
The Department for Education says the Independent School Standards, which apply to private schools, academies and free schools, already require schools to "respect" British values.
It plans to consult shortly on tighter wording that will require schools to actively "promote" British values.
From September the Ofsted framework will be changed to extend this requirement to all state schools, not just academies.
The DfE says it is working with Ofsted on how inspectors will assess the new requirement. Ofsted will also update its training and guidance of inspectors.
Advice to school governors and local authorities will also be updated to reflect the new requirement.
School governors will be expected to play a role "in setting and securing an appropriate ethos and monitoring practice" in schools, says the DfE.
The DfE will also update its advice to local authorities on intervening in schools causing concern.
Training for governors is currently optional. It can be provided by local authorities or by the National College of Teaching and Leadership. The Department for Education and the National Governors' Association (NGA) have both produced handbooks.
The NGA says training is essential to help governors understand their complex and challenging role and responsibilities.
Governors are expected to develop the ethos of the school, hold the head teacher to account and have financial oversight.
Governors should be committed to asking challenging questions, should develop good relationships based on trust and should know their school, its staff, pupils and local community.
The NGA says the academies programme has brought more autonomy to schools so governing boards have more responsibility than ever and need training.
"It is vital that governors know what is expected of them," it says.
The government says it will respond to Ofsted's recommendation on governor training "in due course".
THe DfE spokesman says training is the responsibility of governing bodies and they should "set an ethos of professionalism", including an expectation that governors undertake training "to fill any gaps" in skills needed for effective governance.
"If a governor fails persistently to do this, then they will be in breach of the code of conduct and may bring the governing body or the office of a governor into disrepute - and as such provide grounds for the governing body to consider suspension," said a spokesman.
Traditionally, local authorities have had a role in monitoring standards in the schools they control, acting as a "middle tier" between schools and the Department for Education.
Now more than half of secondary schools are academies, funded directly by central government, free of local authority control and able to decide their own curriculum.
Concerns have been expressed about the viability of Whitehall monitoring thousands of academies. The government is introducing regional schools commissioners and Head Teacher Boards to improve oversight of academies, while Labour proposes a network of regional school standards directors.
Academy chains, which control several schools, are currently inspected by the Department for Education. Sir Michael Wilshaw argues that Ofsted, which already inspects academy schools, should take over the role.
In March, an anonymous letter was made public that claimed to be a template illustrating how state schools could be taken over and pushed into adopting a more Islamic culture.
The document - now thought to be a hoax - proposed a campaign of installing governors and undermining and then replacing school leaders with staff who would be more sympathetic to their religious agenda.
It refers to "Operation Trojan Horse" as the name of the alleged conspiracy. This classical allusion refers to using a device to get past the defences and to take over the school system from within.
It was apparently intended for schools serving areas with a large Muslim population.
The tactics it proposed had already been used in Birmingham, the Operation Trojan Horse letter claimed.
It emerged that Birmingham City Council, the Department for Education's Extremist Unit, the West Midlands Police Counter-Terrorism Unit and the National Association of Head Teachers were already aware of the letter.
A former head teacher at a Birmingham school said that such religiously-motivated, concerted attempts at forcing out heads had been taking place since the 1990s. Another head teacher said he had told the DfE about the problem in 2010.
There have been claims that boys and girls are being taught separately, assemblies have put forward extremist Islamist views and that a culture is created in which other religions are downgraded. Schools have rejected claims of extremism.
There are also claims that teachers and head teachers have been discredited and undermined.
Michael Gove appointed former counter-terror chief, Peter Clarke, to investigate "the background behind many of the broader allegations in the Trojan Horse letter" for the DfE.
Mr Gove says he expects to publish these findings in July.
This appointment has created a controversy of its own, with the chief constable of West Midlands police calling it "desperately unfortunate" as people could draw "unwarranted conclusions" from Mr Clarke's former role in counter terrorism.
Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw took personal charge of the education watchdog's investigations.
Khalid Mahmood, MP for Perry Barr, believes there are reasons to be concerned. "All the information I'm getting... is there has been a serious bid to take over most of the schools in the east and south of the city," he said.
The National Association of Head Teachers says it takes the claims "extremely seriously".
Reaction to the claims and to Ofsted's findings from the schools has been robust. The chairman of one governing body described the inquiries as a "witch hunt" and Park View says it plans to challenge Ofsted's verdict.
Including Ofsted's, there are four investigations - carried out by Birmingham City Council, the DfE and the Education Funding Agency.
Ofsted said this was "new territory" - when it launched its biggest ever co-ordinated set of inspections over fears of extremism. It inspected 21 schools - a mix of primary, secondary, local authority and academies.
They carried out unannounced inspections of a type which focuses on a single concern, rather than the overall quality of teaching and learning.
When inspectors do not like what they find they have wide-ranging powers to intervene and order a change of direction.
The city council says that it is investigating 25 schools - prompted by more than 200 contacts from the public. An adviser has been appointed and there will be a review group of MPs, councillors, teachers' organisations, police and faith leaders.
There is a freeze on recruiting new school governors while this inquiry is taking place.
But the politics of education have also become involved, with the council saying it is frustrated that it cannot investigate academies which operate outside of local authority control.
The Education Funding Agency can investigate the financial arrangements of academies.
In a letter to the Education Secretary, Mrs May has raised concerns about the DfE's handling of the allegations of extremism.
She said concerns had been raised about the "inability" of local and central government to tackle the alleged problem in Birmingham's schools.
She also questioned whether Mr Gove's department was warned about the allegations in 2010 and asked: "If so, why did nobody act?"
The two senior Cabinet members have now moved to dampen down speculation of a rift. They have taken the unusual step of issuing a joint statement insisting they are "working together" on the issue.
Commentators are seeing the row as two Conservative heavy-weights jostling for position should there be any change to the party's leadership.
The biggest inquiry so far is the council's, which is looking at 25 schools in Birmingham, out of more than 400 in the city. The council says that it will also be talking to local authorities in Bradford and Manchester. | The government and Ofsted have produced an array of proposed changes to school governance after the publication of an inspection report on 21 Birmingham schools. |
29,630,978 | The project - City Quays 2 - will provide 124,000 sq ft of grade A office space and be completed in mid-2016.
Work on an adjacent office project, City Quays 1, is already well under way.
The harbour said there was "a high degree of interest" from businesses seeking accommodation in the area.
Graeme Johnston, Belfast Harbour's property director, said: "Following Invest NI's recent successes the time is right to further invest in City Quays and support the region's economic development."
Property advisors CBRE stated recently that at least 30 companies are searching for grade A premises in Belfast.
It said the demand - in terms of space requirements - was about three times the size of City Quays 2.
In a separate planning decision, the harbour has also received planning permission for a 200,000 sq ft extension of Sydenham Business Park located beside George Best Belfast City Airport.
The development, which will be demand led, will provide for 26 new business units. | A £20m office development in Belfast Harbour will support 600 construction jobs when work begins next year, after it obtained planning permission. |
34,373,372 | Wahlberg, who hosted the event in Philadelphia - dubbed the Festival of Families - said he owed all his success to "my Catholic faith".
"My faith has given me the ability to be a good father, a good husband and... a good person," he told the crowd.
He later said he hoped God "has a sense of humour" when considering his movies.
A 14-year-old choirboy, who sang Pie Jesu early in the evening, stopped to greet Wahlberg on his way off the stage.
"That, right there, was truly the voice of an angel," said Wahlberg, "but then he whispered in my ear that he loved the movie Ted... and I told him that was not appropriate for his age," Wahlberg joked to the crowd.
"Holy Father," he added, addressing the pontiff, "please forgive me. I've always hoped that the good Lord has a sense of humour when it comes, and pertains, to many of the movies that I've made."
Pope Francis later took to the stage to speak to the 300,000-strong who turned out to watch the open-air event.
"Families quarrel and sometimes plates can fly and children bring headaches, and I won't speak about mothers-in-law," he said.
"But those difficulties are overcome with love," he added, concluding: "Never let the day end without making peace."
Ahead of the Pope's arrival, Sister Sledge opened the festival with a rendition of 'We Are Family'. The 1970s disco group said their signature hit was "a perfect fit for His Holiness Pope Francis".
Grammy winner Franklin performed Amazing Grace - and returned to the stage towards the end of the evening for a surprise rendition of opera classic Nessun Dorma - while Italian star Bocelli performed The Lord's Prayer', accompanied by The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Heritage Chorale.
Folk singer Marie Miller, American rock band The Fray and Colombian pop star Juanes also performed.
The Festival marked the Pope's final evening in the US, with his six-day visit concluding on Sunday. | Aretha Franklin, opera star Andrea Bocelli and actor Mark Wahlberg were among the stars performing at concert for the Pope on Saturday. |
40,475,417 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Taylor, who has returned after a year-long break from cricket with anxiety problems, scored an unbeaten 74 off 67 balls in the seven-wicket win.
"It's nice to be back," Taylor told BBC Sport. "It's the place where I feel the most comfortable.
"There was one point out in the middle when I realised that this is why I am back and playing."
Taylor shared in a 148-run partnership with skipper Heather Knight, who is the tournament's leading scorer after three rounds of games.
The pair took England from 50-2 to 198-3, ensuring a comfortable victory after Sri Lanka had posted 204-8.
Media playback is not supported on this device
It was the hosts' second victory of the tournament after their shock opening-day defeat by India and the form of the batters is pleasing Knight.
"I'm chuffed for Sarah," said Knight, who also praised returning opener Lauren Winfield.
"We knew Sarah was batting well but to see her do it in the middle was nice."
With all-rounder Natalie Sciver also in good form after her century in the win against Pakistan, England are beginning to look like contenders, despite that loss to India.
"We've got a little bit of wind behind us now," said Taylor. "However, our feet are firmly grounded.
"There are still areas to work on, but to still be winning in that position is a good place to be.
"It was a pleasure to watch Heather hitting it so cleanly today. She has an aura and calmness which rubs off on the rest of us."
England's next game is on Wednesday, against South Africa at Bristol.
Media playback is not supported on this device | Sarah Taylor says she is back where she belongs after helping England to World Cup victory over Sri Lanka in Taunton. |
33,011,633 | UK ministers want Carwyn Jones to hold a referendum on devolving control over 10p in the pound of income tax.
But he appears to have dropped his insistence that a referendum is needed.
The UK government said it was "right" that Mr Jones was "now willing to embrace income tax powers for Wales".
Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats have welcomed the change of stance, but said it should have come sooner.
However, the first minister maintained his insistence that income tax powers should not be devolved until a new funding deal is struck with Westminster.
In a speech in London on Friday he said he will "always consider proposals providing they are fair to Wales".
"I am instinctively pro-devolution and I can see the merits, in principle, in different parts of our Union being able to decide on the balance between levels of taxation, including those on personal incomes, and the level of resources for public services.
"But I have been absolutely clear that until we have a fair funding settlement it is not in the best interests of Wales to have income tax devolved."
The first minister added: "Having the flexibility to set taxes to respond to the needs of Wales and the preferences of Welsh citizens within a fair funding model is a logical next step."
Mr Jones has previously said that a referendum must be held before powers over income tax are given to the Welsh government.
But before the speech he told BBC Wales: "It's beginning to look increasingly strange of course that Scotland is getting a raft of powers - way beyond what Wales would get - without a referendum.
"I've no doubt ... if income tax-varying powers were offered to Northern Ireland there wouldn't be a referendum there, but in Wales we have to have a referendum."
Referendums should be reserved for "major constitutional issues and not for a bit of power here and there", he added.
Asked if Welsh voters should expect a referendum soon, he said: "We are not at that stage. We know the first thing to do is to consider a financial settlement that's fair to Wales and then consider what happens next."
In response, a Wales Office spokesman said: "We note with interest the first minister's comments that a referendum is not needed before income tax is devolved.
"This echoes the views of some others in the emerging debate around more accountable government in Wales."
Plaid Cymru welcomed "any late conversion" of Mr Jones to its position against the need for a referendum on income tax devolution.
Party leader Leanne Wood said: "It's a shame that previously both Labour and the Conservatives together have insisted on putting obstacles in the way of progress on Welsh income tax."
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams said it "would have been nice" if the first minister had possessed the "strength of character to speak up a little bit earlier".
"I welcome his change of heart, but his challenge now is to convince his party of the same argument," she added.
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said Mr Jones should concentrate his efforts on "the significant problems in the public services he runs, not least within his NHS".
Public spending per head is higher in Wales than in England, but Welsh politicians claim the so-called Barnett formula used by the UK Treasury to allocate resources is too generous to Scotland and Northern Ireland, and underfunds Wales by as much as £300m a year.
The UK government is planning a guaranteed minimum level for the Welsh government's annual grant - expected to be between 13% and 16% higher than English public spending levels.
Opponents say Carwyn Jones has changed his tune.
But the first minister's aides say the opposition is making mischief. This is a change in tone, not policy, they say.
Mr Jones is sticking to his line that Wales needs a guarantee it won't lose out before receiving these tax powers.
However, whereas in the past Labour has stressed the risks of tax devolution, Mr Jones has now laid out a path towards making it happen, providing a deal can be struck on the size of the Welsh budget. | Handing control of income tax to the Welsh government is a "logical next step", as long as a deal can be reached on the size of the national budget, the first minister has said. |
40,132,468 | Ariana Grande, Little Mix and Justin Bieber are among the stars at Sunday's concert, which will benefit the victims of the Manchester suicide bombing.
Fans who were at Grande's show on the night of the attack have been offered free places to the benefit gig.
In a statement, Ticketmaster confirmed it has allocated 12,000 tickets to such fans so far, out of 14,200.
But on Thursday the company said it had also received 10,000 "unscrupulous" applications for free places from people who did not attend Grande's concert.
Meanwhile, Grande has returned to the UK ahead of the benefit gig, and was photographed getting off a plane in London.
"Overnight, Ticketmaster processed a further 4,000 tickets for genuine fans, which is a total of 12,000 now processed out of the 14,200 we have set aside for genuine fans who were at the show on 22nd May.
"We urge all customers to check their inboxes, especially junk and spam folders, and claim their tickets by 2pm Friday.
"Registration has now closed, but we would like to reassure customers that we are still working through hundreds of applications and if they can verify that they were at the original show, they will get their tickets.
"There is a small number of instances where customers have not received their confirmation, however our customer service team continues to work extremely hard to contact customers as soon as possible and we ask for patience whilst we work through this.
"We will not stop until we have as many genuine fans at the show as possible."
After setting aside 14,200 places for attendees to Grande's original concert, Ticketmaster made about 35,000 further tickets available to the general public on Thursday morning. They sold out in 20 minutes.
But within hours some started appearing on secondary ticketing websites - which gives touts the potential to profit from what is supposed to be a charity event.
eBay told the BBC it was removing them as fast as it could.
"All tickets for this event will most certainly be removed by the team who are doing manual sweeps to pick up any that slip through," the company said.
"We also aren't allowing the sale of any item which profits in any way from the tragedy in Manchester. All of these items are being removed if they appear, and the sellers' accounts will be restricted."
Seatwave, Viagogo, GETMEIN and Stubhub have also stopped tickets from being listed.
Broadcasters in at least 38 countries have confirmed they will screen One Love Manchester live, despite the time zone differences.
TV networks in China, the US, Brazil, France, New Zealand, Canada and Australia will broadcast the show.
In the UK, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Manchester will all broadcast the concert live, in a programme hosted by Scott Mills, Jo Whiley, Phil Williams and Becky Want.
The concert will also be televised on BBC One and streamed live on the BBC iPlayer.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Ticketmaster has asked for fans to be patient as it works through the applications for One Love Manchester. |
33,346,307 | Costa, 24, has moved for a fee of £21m according to the Ukrainian club and signed a five-year deal with Pep Guardiola's side.
"A dream has come true for me today," said Costa, who has returned from Copa America duty with Brazil.
The transfer could increase speculation linking Bayern midfielder Bastian Schwensteiger with Manchester United.
Guardiola, who guided Bayern to their 25th Bundesliga title last season, has plenty of midfield options, including France's Franck Ribery and Spain internationals Thiago Alcantara, Xabi Alonso and Javi Martinez, meaning Schweinsteiger, 30, may feature less regularly.
The Germany international only played 20 league games in 2014-15, his lowest tally since 2002, when he signed professional terms with the club.
Costa scored 29 goals in 149 league games for Shakhtar, where he won the title five times.
"Douglas Costa will be good for our team," said Bayern sporting director Matthias Sammer. "He has great technical ability, a powerful left foot, he is very agile and extremely quick." | German champions Bayern Munich have signed Brazil midfielder Douglas Costa from Shakhtar Donetsk. |
38,090,269 | A report by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) describes overall punctuality and reliability across Britain as "mixed", but generally "poor".
The report covers the period from the start of April until mid-October.
It says the biggest drag on performance is Govia Thameslink Rail (GTR), which operates Southern trains.
Although this is only one franchise, because it carries a fifth of passengers in England and Wales it's big enough to warp the national stats.
All the rail companies are compared using the Public Performance Measure, or PPM. It mixes punctuality and reliability to come up with a percentage. The higher the number, the better the performance.
Adding the latest figures mean that for the year to mid-October, GTR managed a PPM of just 76%. The next worst was Virgin Trains East Coast, on 82.7%.
The best was c2c on 95.3%. The average across England and Wales was 87.7%, which is some way shy of the 92.5% it's meant to achieve by March 2019.
It's currently 89.5% in Scotland, which has the same 2019 target.
While I'm dishing out the stats, I've got one more for you, but it's a goody. It all adds up to 454,594 late trains in Britain over the past 6 months. So, presumably, about a million a year then.
GTR has suffered from a cocktail of issues. On-board guards have been periodically on-strike since April, over changes to their role. The report also talks about "a significant increase in sickness amongst these staff".
It goes on to say, "this makes the service harder to operate even when there are no other problems on the network, and when an incident does occur recovering the service is much harder. So, while Network Rail is responsible for 58% of delay minutes impacting GTR services, this is being made worse by GTR's train crew problems."
Strike action and staff sickness are merely compounding other problems on differing parts of the franchise.
Network Rail is rebuilding London Bridge station to make way for a much-improved Thameslink service. But - and this is the understatement of the year - the work was more disruptive than anyone realised.
Experts predicted 10,000 delay minutes per year. In reality, it's caused 10,000 delay minutes per week.
Couple that with a shortage of drivers and you get Britain's worst rail service.
The ORR report does have some positive things to say about Network Rail.
Health and safety performance is good. Renewal plans are ahead of target. And it's reached seven out of eight project delivery milestones, although that's after the new chairman had to scale back their ambitions earlier this year because they were slipping so far behind and so over budget.
Network Rail is also likely to miss the next delivery target for electrifying the line between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The company had a big boost from Wednesday's Autumn Statement. It's been handed a £450m cheque to put in digital signals, which should make the whole network much more efficient. | Endless problems on train services at Southern are dragging down national punctuality levels, according to the rail regulator. |
39,847,897 | Ingrid Watt, 36, who grew up in Orkney and now lives in Inverness, believes she has had the disease, which be transmitted to humans by tick bites, since she was 18.
Underlying health problems became worse five years ago and included reoccurring shingles and neurological issues.
She believes properties in the bee venom help control her Lyme disease.
Mrs Watt, who has tried mainstream GP-prescribed medicine, came across the alternative treatment while on a discussion forum used by other sufferers.
After further reading on the treatment, she began buying bees online. She says the insects involved are at the end of their lives and not endangered.
Using tweezers, her husband Darren puts bees on her back to sting her.
Mr Watt has this done 30 times every week.
She told BBC Radio Orkney: "At first we thought 'this is so crazy, what are we doing'.
"But within two weeks of having the bee therapy I feel I have more energy and less pain."
Mrs Watt said she plans to have her own bee hive so she can "give back" to nature in return for the help bees have given her. | A woman with Lyme disease has claimed being stung by bees helps ease her symptoms. |
11,919,256 | The incumbent Laurent Gbagbo took the oath to serve a new term, but within hours Alassane Ouattara also laid claim to the presidency.
The US, UN and France say last Sunday's run-off poll was won by Mr Ouattara.
He was declared the winner by the electoral body, but this was overturned by the Constitutional Council, which is led by an ally of Mr Gbagbo.
The presidential run-off was intended to reunify the world's largest cocoa producer after a civil war in 2002, but has now left the nation with two rival presidents.
At least four people have been killed in election-related clashes this week in the country's main city of Abidjan.
On the streets opposition supporters are protesting against Mr Gbagbo's investiture, saying it amounts to a coup d'etat.
Mr Gbagbo's supporters insist the UN does not have the right to say who won the elections and have threatened to expel the head of the 8,000-strong UN mission.
Ivory Coast has closed its borders and stopped broadcasts of international news media into the country. An overnight curfew remains in place over the weekend.
"I swear solemnly and on my honour to respect and faithfully defend the constitution," Mr Gbagbo said during the swearing-in ceremony in Abidjan on Saturday.
Mr Gbagbo took the oath to loud cheers from a number of his supporters at the presidential palace.
"In recent days I have noted serious cases of interference," he said.
"I am charged with defending our sovereignty and I will not negotiate on that. I have never called on someone from outside to put me in office," Mr Gbagbo added.
Within hours, Mr Ouattara, a former rebel from the predominantly Muslim north of the country, was sworn in at an Abidjan hotel guarded by UN peacekeepers.
"I, Alassane Ouattara... swear as follows the oath of the president of the Republic of Ivory Coast," he said in a handwritten letter to the country's high court, followed by the wording of the formal oath of office, AFP news agency reports.
Mr Ouattara has earlier said that "the Constitutional Council has abused its authority, the whole world knows it, and I am sorry for my country's image."
After the swearing-in, he immediately re-appointed Guillaume Soro as his prime minister. Mr Soro had tendered his resignation in Mr Gbagbo's administration just hours earlier.
Mr Soro - who is the head of the New Forces rebels in the north - has warned that overturning the results threatens to derail attempts to stabilise and reunify the country after the war.
On Thursday, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) declared that Mr Ouattara had won the 28 November run-off by 54.1% to 45.9%.
But after Mr Gbagbo and his supporters alleged the ballot had been fraudulent in some northern region, the Constitutional Council - run by Mr Gbagbo's ally - overruled the Commission.
The council said Mr Gbagbo had secured just over 51% of the vote.
Mr Gbagbo also has the backing of the head of the country's armed forces.
US President Barack Obama has rejected the Constitutional Council's decision.
"The Independent Electoral Commission, credible and accredited observers and the United Nations have all confirmed this result and attested to its credibility," he said.
He congratulated Mr Ouattara and said the international community would "hold those who act to thwart the democratic process and the will of the electorate accountable for their actions".
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Mr Gbagbo to "respect the will of the people, abstain from any action that might provoke violence" and to help establish peace.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier called on Mr Gbagbo "to do his part for the good of the country and to co-operate in a smooth political transition".
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the current chairman of regional bloc Ecowas, said all parties should "respect and fully implement the verdict of the Ivorian people as declared by the Independent Electoral Commission".
The head of the UN mission in Ivory Coast also said it regarded Mr Ouattara as the winner.
The African Union said it was "deeply concerned" by the developments and pledged to take action against "the authors of acts likely to undermine the integrity of the electoral process" as proclaimed by the IEC.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said the IMF would only work with an Ivory Coast government recognised by the UN. | Ivory Coast is in a major political crisis, after rival presidential candidates swore themselves in. |
32,163,883 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Dyke wants to increase the number of home-grown players in top-flight squads from eight to 12.
The plans have received the backing of five former England managers.
Arsenal boss Wenger claims the right to play has to be earned, while West Brom head coach Pulis says the quality of English youth teams is the problem.
Last season, English players accounted for 32% of playing time in the Premier League, compared with almost 70% 20 years ago.
"This trend cannot continue," read a letter signed by former England managers Glenn Hoddle, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Graham Taylor, Steve McClaren and Kevin Keegan.
"The FA and the Premier League are already doing a lot of good work to improve the standards of facilities and coaching at all levels of the game...offering young players unparalleled support and coaching.
"The one thing they are not being offered is the most important of all: opportunity."
McClaren, who is manager of Championship side Derby County, believes the future of English football is already exciting, but says the increase in the home-grown quota can only help.
"I am excited about the players," he said. "They have technique, they have pace and strength. Our Under-21s are very good, also the Under-20s and the senior team has been introducing young players with terrific ability and speed. It is coming. Giving them opportunities, we need to do that more."
McLaren also believes the Championship is a good platform for young English Premier League players to gain experience.
"The Championship is a nursery really where top teams can send their youngsters," he added. "The more we give them the opportunity the better."
Wenger, though, urged caution over whether the proposed reforms will lead to an increase in the quality of English players, suggesting that the England national team was not hugely successful between 1966 and 1996 when there were relatively few foreigners in the domestic league.
"I believe we are in a top-level competition and you earn your right through the quality of your performance rather than your place of birth," he said.
"I think between 16 and 21 the English youth teams, until now, have not performed. So that's the heart of the problem. Let's get better at that level, then if there is a problem integrating these players in the top teams, we have to do something about it."
Pulis added: "I think the Premier League is now not an English League, it's a world league. What we've got to do is produce English players that are as good as any players abroad.
"No disrespect to Greg Dyke but sometimes he says things that football people wouldn't agree with. I certainly don't agree with that."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood, who first played new England striker Harry Kane regularly while he was manager of Tottenham: "I think there were five players who had come through Tottenham's academy and four were on the pitch the other night [for England]. It was something we always pushed but everyone has to be on the same page."
Hull City boss Steve Bruce: "One thing that is staggering is that over the last 20 years we have invested millions in academies, but are we producing enough players? When you look back, where are they? For me personally, we miss children playing football at school."
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew: "You only have to look at the profits we've made to know that if you're in the Premier League, you should be turning a profi. We should be using that profit to develop young British talent. I'm all for that and I think an extra quota of British-based players is a good idea."
QPR boss Chris Ramsey: "It doesn't guarantee the national team will be any better than it is. It does however make the academy systems worth their while in giving players pathways to play in their country of origin." | FA chairman Greg Dyke's proposals to improve the quality of English players is flawed, according to Premier League managers Arsene Wenger and Tony Pulis. |
34,148,300 | The Met Police said the woman, 33, had been arrested at Luton Airport on suspicion of child abduction.
Police made an appeal for information after the family went missing from Waltham Forest last week. They were detained in Turkey on Tuesday.
The woman's four children are in police protection, police said.
The woman and her children - aged from four to 12 - were last seen on 25 August boarding a flight to Amsterdam from London City Airport, the Met Police said.
Detectives later found the family had been pictured on security cameras at the airport.
The force said that "due to concerns she [the woman] was intending to travel to Syria with her children" an appeal for information was launched.
Officers then received official confirmation on Tuesday that the family had been detained in Turkey by Turkish authorities. | A woman who went missing with her four children, amid fears they were heading from London to Syria, has been arrested on her return to the UK. |
39,226,493 | The infectious facial cancer has wiped out 80% of wild devils since it was first identified in 1996.
By injecting live cancer cells, researchers have used immunotherapy for the first time to successfully treat the disease.
The breakthrough is hoped to fast-track development of an effective vaccine, said the international research team.
The treatment successfully eradicated tumours as big as golf balls, said co-author Prof Greg Woods of the University of Tasmania.
"When we saw those tumours get smaller it was so exciting," he said.
"This is almost a eureka moment for us because it's the first time we can say for sure that it was the immunotherapy that was making the tumour shrink."
Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD), one of just three known transmissible cancers, typically kills nearly every devil it infects.
Researchers injected five captive animals with the immunotherapy treatment, likened to "fighting cancer with cancer", over a six-year period. Three of them survived.
"This is an important step along the way to developing a vaccine to protect against DFTD and potentially for immunotherapy to cure devils of established DFTD," Prof Woods said.
Co-author Dr Bruce Lyons said the study offered the best hope yet for the carnivorous marsupial, which is unique to Tasmania.
However, it was not yet practical for treating the whole population.
"It's not feasible to track down and immunise every animal in the wild," Dr Lyons told the BBC.
The surviving devils from the study have since died of natural causes.
In the two decades since disease was first documented, the population of devils has dropped from 150,000 to approximately 30,000.
Essentially a single tumour that jumps between hosts, DFTD is transferred when the aggressive beasts bite each other's snouts.
Last year, a genetic study uncovered signs that the animals were rapidly evolving to defend themselves against DFTD.
The latest research, to be published in the journal Scientific Reports, also involved the University of Sydney, University of Southampton, University of Southern Denmark and University of Cambridge, as well as Australia's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and biotechnology company CSL Ltd. | Scientists have discovered a potential treatment for a cancer that has ravaged Australia's Tasmanian devil population. |
34,984,179 | It has been one of the safest Labour seats in the country, with a majority at May's general election of 14,738.
But UKIP are mounting a vigorous campaign to snatch the seat from Mr Corbyn's party.
The by-election was triggered by the death of veteran left-winger Michael Meacher, who had been MP since 1970.
Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell reportedly branded UKIP an "evil force within society" that divides people on racial lines at a campaign event in Oldham on Saturday, with Labour candidate Jim McMahon.
According to the Spectator magazine, he told Labour activists: "We cannot allow them to get any from of toehold within our political system and that's why it's about defeating them but more importantly, defeating them - a clear contrast in terms of a sincere, local committed socialist candidate."
Mr McDonnell conceded in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live that the contest was "narrow" but victory by a margin of as little as 1,000 would "still be a win".
UKIP leader Nigel Farage hit back by accusing Mr McDonnell of peddling "divisive" politics and claimed Labour supporters in Oldham were turning their back on the party and voting UKIP.
Speaking at Oldham College with UKIP candidate John Bickley, he said Mr Corbyn's views on the monarchy and security could cost the Labour Party 50% of its votes.
"There is this basic feeling that he's (Corbyn) not patriotic," said the UKIP leader.
The BBC's Deputy Political Editor James Landale, reporting from the campaign trail last week, said Labour supporters campaigning on the doorstep were nervous about the outcome.
"They are picking up that many of the party's traditional supporters are planning to stay at home or even switch to UKIP. Many of these are from the white working classes in this less than well off constituency.
"They seem unimpressed by Labour's divisions and some don't like the cut of Jeremy Corbyn's jib. They don't seem to understand him and his brand of what they see as a form of metropolitan leftism. One voter told me: "I am a socialist, but he's ruddy communist."
But bookmakers are still predicting that Labour will hang on to the seat.
Full list of declared candidates:
Conservative: James Daly
Green Party: Simeon Hart
Labour: Jim McMahon
Liberal Democrat: Jane Brophy
Monster Raving Loony: Sir Oink A-Lot
UKIP: John Bickley
General Election 2015 result | The final day of campaigning is under way in the Oldham West and Royton by-election - the first electoral test of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour leadership. |
10,825,229 | Some 173 people were killed when fires tore across Victoria in early 2009.
Over 155 days a royal commission heard complaints from a string of witnesses about a lack of official information.
The report says authorities should build shelters in vulnerable areas and devise a full evacuation plan. Victoria has vowed to act swiftly on the report.
The state government says it will make a decisive response to the sharp critique of its actions.
Poor official information about the speed and direction of the fires was a major complaint among the more than 400 witnesses who gave evidence to the commission.
They said the emergency system simply fell apart under pressure.
The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission was established by the federal Australian government to investigate the causes and responses to the bushfires, which swept through the state in January and February that year.
The panel, which was headed by a former Supreme Court judge, also examined the individual circumstances of each of the deaths.
One of the most significant of the 67 recommendations in the report is the call for an overhaul of the so-called "stay and defend or leave early" policy, which has been a mainstay of fire management across Australia.
Many of the people who died acted on official advice that if they could save their house they could save themselves.
The advice was only withdrawn after "Black Saturday" on 7 February 2009, when hundreds of fires started north of Melbourne as temperatures soared to 48C and strong winds blew in from the interior.
Rather than abandoning the "stay or go" policy, the commission recommends adopting a hybrid model that includes strengthening public warnings, providing designated community refuges and bushfire shelters in areas of high risk, and developing plans for emergency evacuations.
The report also says that leadership during the crisis was "wanting", and recommends appointing a fire commissioner in each state.
Victoria's former police chief commissioner, Christine Nixon, was criticised for going out to dinner on Black Saturday and being out of touch for three hours despite being charged with co-ordinating the emergency response. She resigned as head of the Bushfire Recovery Committee earlier in July.
The commission says Ms Nixon, as well as former Country Fire Authority head Russell Rees and the department of the environment's chief fire officer, Ewan Waller, "did not demonstrate effective leadership in crucial areas" by ensuring that "prompt and accurate warnings were issued to communities in the path of the fires".
The commission also wants the state government to roughly quadruple the amount of controlled burning it undertakes, and develop a voluntary scheme to acquire land in areas of unacceptably high bushfire risk. It also recommends that ageing power lines be replaced with underground cables.
Jean Howard, a resident of Kinglake, one of the communities worst-affected by the bushfires, told the BBC before the report's publication that she hoped the report would offer constructive advice rather than simply condemning those in authority.
"I know people are going to be blamed for it but... I don't think anybody can be to blame because it was a day that nobody had ever lived through or seen before, and nobody could have prepared for a day that that was."
Victoria Premier John Brumby said the state government would undertake a community consultation process on the report before responding.
"As premier I feel the full weight of responsibility to make sure that we get our response to the commission's report right to make sure we make our state as safe as possible," he told reporters.
"The people of our state want the opportunity to have some input."
The BBC's Phil Mercer, in Sydney, says many Australians who survived Black Saturday have been too afraid to return to the fire zone, while those who have come back to start again believe that more needs to be done to protect their vulnerable communities from nature's fury. | A report into Australia's worst bushfires has called for sweeping changes to the way the authorities respond to natural disasters. |
39,065,565 | Workmen spotted a fire in plant room Q on the roof of the Victorian Palace of Westminster.
Down in the Commons Chamber, MPs were listening to a statement on British Home Stores....
Up on the roof, the workmen and firefighters put the blaze out.
Later investigation suggested an electrical fault had been to blame.
But imagine what would have happened if they hadn't spotted it, or if the fire had started after knocking-off time, or at a weekend. The result could have been catastrophic, because the Palace is dangerously vulnerable to fire, thanks to the network of ventilation shafts that criss-cross the main building.
It's one of 60 such incidents which could have led to disaster since 2008 - and it is far from impossible that the next such event could result in MPs and peers being bundled out of their chambers in mid-debate, possibly by torchlight, if the electrical system packs up.
This week the Clerk of the Commons, David Natzler, told the Public Accounts Committee that if MPs and peers managed to continue sitting in their hallowed chambers until the projected start of a massive restoration project, in 2022, it would be "on a wing and a prayer".
And under heavy cross questioning, he insisted that if MPs rejected the idea of moving out of Parliament and tried to stay put, with repair work taking place around them, they would probably end up facing an emergency evacuation. There was just too much chance of something going wrong.
The home of Parliament may be one of the three or four most recognisable buildings on the planet, but behind the gilded Victorian gothic splendour of the décor, it is in a terrible state.
In the prestigious offices reserved for top MPs, on the Upper Committee corridor, there's an audible crackle from the plugs. The lights could go phut!
Crumbling asbestos might leak out, or the sewers could back up and turn the place into an out of control metaphor. Water could come cascading through the roof in some key area. And there are genuine fears that, if a fire took hold, it would be impossible to control.
But still Parliament has not voted on plans to move out of its venerable home, to allow a five-year "Restoration and Renewal" programme (or R&R in Westminster jargon) to sort the place out.
Last year, a committee of MPs and peers recommended that Parliament approves plans to clear out of the building for, perhaps, five years to allow the building to be revamped, and helpfully provided a draft motion to be put before the House.
Last week, the Leader of the House, David Lidington told MPs: "The government's intention is that there should be debate in government time before the Easter recess." Don't hold your breath; the government had previously promised debates "in the Autumn," and "before Christmas," but no debate has been scheduled - and behind the scenes, many MPs suspect that the political will is simply not there to stump up the billions required.
There is no doubt that the scale of the project is vast - the Victorian buildings have 28 acres of floorspace, 1,100 rooms and 3,800 bronze Pugin-designed windows, not to mention hundreds of miles of pipes cables and steam ducts, many of which could fail at any moment.
The concerns of government, the two Houses of Parliament, the heritage lobby and the taxpayer, not to mention issues of security and accountability all have to be balanced, and at the hearing another witness, Tony Meggs, the Chief Executive of the Government's Infrastructure and Projects Authority, suggested that one reason for opting for the most rapid scheme possible was to minimise the danger of a costly change of course imposed after the politicians changed their minds.
Mr Natzler's evidence to the PAC, which is investigating whether the vast sums being mooted are really justified, gave a foretaste of the delicate diplomacy already needed to soothe ruffled sensibilities.
It was a masterpiece of deferential insistence. Of course, he said, it would be technically possible to find a way to keep MPs in the building if they absolutely insisted. He then painted a picture of the parliamentarians picking their way through polythene tunnels to get to their Chamber, hoping the insulation protecting them from the asbestos-contaminated air would hold. All at a vast additional cost.
It was possible, but not feasible.
It was a very strong performance and clearly swung opinion on the notoriously hard-nosed PAC. Richard Bacon, the senior Tory MP on the committee, previously an R&R-sceptic, was impressed, telling me afterwards that he now believed the best option was for the parliamentarians to move out so that the work could be done as quickly as possible.
The team of parliamentary officials who have been working on the R&R project are convinced there is no realistic alternative to emptying the Palace of Westminster, while the work is done; their toughest task may yet be to convince the parliamentarians who must go, and the ministers who must pay, but they edged closer to that goal, this week.
* I'll be reporting on the PAC hearing and talking to Richard Bacon on Friday night's Today in Parliament on BBC Radio 4 at 11.30pm. | On 10 June last year at 4.20pm, Parliament might have burned down. |
38,518,047 | Mae'r safonau yn gosod dyletswydd ar gynghorau, parciau cenedlaethol a Llywodraeth Cymru i ddarparu rhai gwasanaethau yn Gymraeg.
Ar raglen Newyddion 9 dywedodd Gweinidog y Gymraeg, Alun Davies bod angen edrych eto ar y safonau wrth greu deddf iaith newydd.
Mae'n gobeithio cyflwyno papur gwyn ar y safonau iaith yn y misoedd nesaf fel rhan o adolygiad ehangach o bolisi ar yr iaith Gymraeg.
"Dwi'n meddwl ei bod hi'n beth da i ystyried effaith unrhyw gyfraith - mae'n werth ystyried yr effaith yn y gymuned," meddai Mr Davies.
"Pan dwi'n edrych ar y safonau dwi'n gweld rhai sydd yn cael effaith ambell waith gyda chyrff sy'n cynnig gwasanaethau drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg, ond dwi hefyd yn gweld cymhlethdod - llawer yn rhy gymhleth ambell waith - y broses o greu a'r broses o weithredu."
Cafodd y safonau gwreiddiol eu creu gan Gomisiynydd y Gymraeg, ond cafwyd eu beirniadu gan Lywodraeth Cymru am eu bod yn "rhy gymhleth, afresymol, anghymesur a ddim yn gwneud digon o ystyriaeth o effaith".
Tair blynedd yn ôl fe gyhoeddwyd y safonau dan enw'r llywodraeth.
Yn ôl y Comisiynydd, Meri Huws, mae'r ddeddf yn gymhleth ac mae ei gallu i gyflawni ei dyletswydd arall o hybu'r Gymraeg wedi derbyn ergyd ariannol.
"Un peth sydd wedi dod yn amlwg ydi fod y ddeddfwriaeth bresennol yn glogyrnaidd," meddai.
"Mae 'na gamau biwrocrataidd dianghenraid i mewn yn y ddeddfwriaeth.
"Teg yw dweud nad yw'r toriad yr ydym ni wedi ei brofi yn ystod y tair blynedd ddiwethaf wedi bod o gymorth o ran gwaith hybu a hyrwyddo.
"Mae o wedi bod yn gnoc i'r sefydliad ac mae hynny wedi torri fy nghalon i."
Mae nifer o awdurdodau lleol a pharciau cenedlaethol wedi herio'r safonau, ac mae cyn-brif weithredwr Bwrdd yr Iaith, John Walter Jones, yn dweud mai nad y llwybr deddfwriaethol yw'r ffordd i ddenu'r di-Gymraeg.
"Dwi'n credu mewn greddf, nid deddf, a dwi ddim yr unig un sydd yn gweld hynny," meddai.
"Twf mewn niferoedd sydd eisiau, twf mewn parch tuag at yr iaith, a dwi ddim yn credu mai trwy unrhyw fath o orfodaeth y byddwn ni yn gweld hynny.
"Dwi'n gofyn eto, ydy'r bobl ar gael i ddarparu'r gwasanaethau yma? Dwi'n amau." | Mae'r safonau iaith yn "rhy gymhleth" a bydd y broses o'u llunio yn cael ei adolygu, yn ôl Llywodraeth Cymru. |
33,633,130 | The Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said its full-year results would come in at the lower end of market expectations.
The company blamed a "marked deterioration in the UK print advertising market".
Shares in DMGT fell more than 8% in morning trading on Thursday.
DMG Media, which includes the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, saw revenues fall 3% in the third quarter.
This follows falls in revenue of 6% and 7% in the first two quarters respectively.
The group said MailOnline digital advertising revenue growth of £1m in the third quarter - an 8% rise - had partly offset a £7m decline in Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday revenues.
"Given the weaker than anticipated UK print advertising market for DMG media and the more challenging market conditions for B2B [business to business publishing], the outlook for the group's full year results is now towards the lower end of market expectations," it said in a statement.
City analysts expects DMGT to report revenues of between £1.82bn and £1.93bn and pretax profit of between £275m and £292m.
DMGT join rivals Trinity Mirror and Johnston Press in warning of weaker ad markets. | The publisher of the Daily Mail has lowered its profits guidance after continued falls in print advertising revenues. |
34,089,482 | Ajmal took 178 Test and 183 one-day wickets before he was banned in September 2014 for an illegal action.
But after being cleared to play again and recalled to the Pakistan squad in April, he has since been dropped.
"I'm confident that I can make a comeback for my country and prove my critics wrong," he said.
"I feel that I'm not a spent force when it comes to international cricket and as a bowler I still have something to offer my country."
Ajmal, who re-signed for Worcestershire in February as he began his comeback, was picked for the two-Test series against Bangladesh in April.
But having played only two ODIs and a T20, he produced one wicket in 22.3 overs and conceded runs at 6.57 per over.
Ajmal told PakPassion.net that despite rumours that he had been sacked by Worcestershire, his contract would run out on 4 September allowing him to return to play in Pakistan.
"There was no sacking or early termination of my contract as some media are reporting. My contract with Worcestershire is until 4th September as I will be leaving for Hajj the day after I return to Pakistan next week," he added.
"Worcestershire had wanted me to play for them for the whole season but I had decided and agreed with Worcestershire prior to signing the contract this season that I wouldn't be able to play the whole season and would return to Pakistan prior to the end of the season." | Banned off-spinner Saeed Ajmal says he is confident of playing for Pakistan again despite his struggles since returning with a remodelled action. |
24,004,836 | Speaking in Paris, he said the world could not be "silent spectators to slaughter" after Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons against its civilians.
The US accuses President Bashar al-Assad's forces of killing 1,429 people in a gas attack on 21 August.
EU foreign ministers say there should be no action before a UN report.
French President Francois Hollande, a key ally for the US on military action against Mr Assad, has said he expects the preliminary UN report into the incident to be submitted at the end of next week.
A G20 summit in Russia failed to produce international agreement on military action, with US President Barack Obama at odds with Russia's President Vladimir Putin, who blames the gas attack on rebels.
Mr Obama has said any military action will be "limited both in time and scope - designed to deter the Syrian government from gassing its own people again and degrade its ability to do so".
Sources: CSIS, RUSI
Syria chemical attacks: What we know
Syria's chemical weapons stockpile
Q&A: Threatened strike on Syria
Syria crisis: Western military options
Syria's options in case of US strike
Some 100,000 people have been killed in the two-and-a-half-year-old Syrian conflict, according to the UN.
Mr Kerry, who is in Europe for a four-day visit, met his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Paris, where both men spoke of their determination to respond to the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Repeating a phrase he used earlier in the week, Mr Kerry said the international community was facing a "Munich moment" - a reference to the policy of appeasement that failed to stop Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
"We in the United States know, and our French partners know, that this is not the time to be silent spectators to slaughter," he said.
"This is the time to pursue a targeted and limited but clear and effective response that holds dictators like Bashar Assad responsible for the atrocities which they commit."
"There are a number of countries, in the double digits, who are prepared to take military action," Mr Kerry said.
This was more countries than could actually be used "in the kind of military action being contemplated", he added.
Earlier, in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, Mr Kerry welcomed a statement on Syria by EU foreign ministers who were meeting there.
The EU ministers said available intelligence "seems to indicate strong evidence that the Syrian regime is responsible for the attack" and urged a "clear and strong response".
But they added that they welcomed French President Francois Hollande's call to wait for the report before taking any further action.
Mr Kerry is due to meet Arab League representatives in Paris before travelling to London for further talks with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Both Russia and China, which have refused to agree to a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, insist any military action without the UN would be illegal.
President Obama faces a tough week of trying to persuade Congress to authorise military action.
He has only a few days to convince Congress, which returns from its summer recess on Monday. Both the Senate and House of Representatives could vote on the Syrian issue next week.
A poll commissioned by the BBC and ABC News suggested more than a third of Congress members were undecided whether or not to back military action - and a majority of those who had made a decision said they would vote against the president.
Many remain concerned that military action could draw the US into a prolonged war and spark broader hostilities in the region.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis called for "reconciliation and peace" in Syria. "War always marks the failure of peace, it is always a defeat for humanity," he told Roman Catholics at a mass peace vigil on St Peter's Square.
Vigils were also held in churches, mosques and synagogues around the world.
Small crowds of demonstrators rallied in New York's Times Square and near the Capitol in Washington on Saturday to oppose any attack on Syria, the Associated Press news agency reports. | US Secretary of State John Kerry has said the number of states ready to take military action against Syria's government is in the "double digits". |
14,858,265 | The former prime minister said the fight against Islamic terrorism would only end "when we defeat the ideology".
And Mr Blair said the death of Osama bin Laden was "immensely important".
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Blair also revealed he once almost had to order a passenger jet to be shot down over UK airspace in the wake of 9/11.
In an interview with Radio 4's Today programme, marking 10 years since the 9/11 attacks, the former prime minister said: "The reason why these people are radicalised is not because of something we're doing to them. They believe in their philosophy.
"I see this out in the Middle East all the time. There is this view, which I'm afraid I believe is deeply naive in the West, that somehow these people, you know, misunderstand our motives, that we've confused them, that that's why they've become radicalised.
"Understand one thing - they believe in what they believe in because they believe their religion compels them to believe in it."
Mr Blair added that he did not believe the provision of democracy in Middle Eastern countries "by the way a process, as I say, not imposed as an act of imperialism should radicalise anybody.
"And until we stop accepting that somehow we, by our actions, are provoking these people to be as they are, we will carry on with this problem."
He went on to say that people in Iraq and Afghanistan wanted democracy and that this ideology was not being imposed on them.
"The Taliban party or the Saddam party could have come and won the elections. The fact is the people in those countries were glad to see the back of them. Now what they want is to see the back of the terrorism."
Mr Blair also said that while Bin Laden's death had dealt a blow to al-Qaeda, the fight against terrorism was not "just about one man".
Bin Laden, widely thought to have been the 9/11 mastermind, was shot dead in Pakistan by US forces in May. He had been on the run since 2001.
In an interview with the Reuters news service, Mr Blair said: "The risk is still there, but we have gone after them [al-Qaeda]. We have degraded a lot of their capacity and capability. We have either captured or killed many of their leading people."
He added that, although there had been "significant advances, the struggle still goes on".
Mr Blair said: "I think the narrative and the ideology of the movement is still there. So killing him [Bin Laden] was actually immensely important.
"It dealt a huge psychological blow to their movement but it doesn't alter the fact there are still large numbers of people out there who buy the narrative of this terrorist movement, even if they do not share or even agree with the methods."
He also said the war against terrorism would only end when the ideology was defeated, and that this battle would continue for a generation.
"The way to defeat this ideology ultimately is by a better idea, and we have it, which is a way of life based on openess, democracy, freedom and the rule of law."
But Lord West, who was a security minister in Gordon Brown's government, said Mr Blair "was wrong" about his views on radicalisation.
He told Sky News: "There's no doubt that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with a terrorist threat to this country.
"There's no doubt that foreign policy does impact on radicalisation. It is not the sole cause. I'm afraid prime minister Blair was wrong in thinking it didn't impact, because it does."
Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, recalled when he first found out that the World Trade Center in New York had been attacked.
He said: "I was preparing to give a speech to the Trades Union Congress in Brighton. I was in my hotel room. I was then interrupted by one of my aides who said 'Come and see what's happening on the television'. The first plane had already flown in and hit the tower.
"I was actually very, very clear right from the very outset that this was not just a terrorist attack of an extraordinary magnitude but one that had to change global policy. So really everything that followed from that, in a sense, followed from that event."
Mr Blair remained a close ally of then US President George W Bush as he launched a "war on terror", sending UK troops on US-led invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
Mr Blair has been criticised in recent weeks for his links to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader who was ousted last month amid allegations of widespread human rights abuses.
But the former prime minister defended his government's decision to restore normal relations with the regime in 2004.
He said: "The external policy of Libya changed. They gave up their chemical, nuclear weapons programmes.
"It was a great thing for the world, really important. They gave up sponsoring terrorism, co-operated in the fight against it.
"The trouble is, in the end they were not prepared to reform internally, to their people. So they were less of a threat to the outside world, but inside, they were a threat to their people."
Mr Blair said that military force should be considered to stop Iran developing a military nuclear programme.
"I don't think it would include invasion but I think you cannot rule out the use of military force against Iran if they continue to develop nuclear weapons in breach of the international community's obligations on them."
And he revealed how there was an incident some time after 9/11 when a passenger jet in UK airspace was deemed a potential threat, because it was not responding to air traffic control.
"There was a moment later in my premiership where we were really not very far away from having to take a final decision as to whether to bring the plane down," he said
"I ended up talking directly to the officer who was in charge of the operation and trying to work out whether the plane in question had [encountered] a mishap, which obviously was the overwhelming likelihood, but what if it wasn't?
"It was an extremely frightening moment."
He also said that fighter jets had been "prepared" in readiness to intercept the jet, which was later found not to be a threat. | Tony Blair has denied that military intervention in the Middle East has radicalised Muslims and encouraged them to engage in acts of terrorism. |
38,902,973 | General Gatot Nurmantyo accepted the apology from the chief of Australia's army, the Indonesian military said.
Indonesia last month said it had put all defence co-operation on hold, before clarifying the suspension was for one language-training programme.
The nation said the materials referenced several sensitive topics.
They were "soldiers in the past, East Timor, Papuan independence and 'Pancasila'", a reference to Indonesia's founding philosophy, Gen Nurmantyo said last month.
Indonesia announced the apology in a statement after Australian Army chief Angus Campbell met with military leaders in Jakarta on Wednesday.
"General Gatot has accepted the apology, and realised that in the era of global competition right now, unity and friendship are needed for neighbouring countries, without putting aside their differences," the Indonesian military statement said.
The BBC has contacted Australian officials for comment.
Indonesia's Security Minister Wiranto, who goes by a single name, said he was glad to see the military leaders "resolve the issue together like a family".
"The little incidents that may occur, they're just individual statements, really," he said.
"We can't let it destabilise the strong relationship between the two countries."
Indonesian President Joko Widodo was due to visit Australia in November but called off the trip after a violent rally in Jakarta.
Mr Widodo is now scheduled to meet Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on 26 February. | Indonesia's military chief says Australia has apologised over "offensive" training materials used at an army base in Perth. |
13,387,983 | The parasite initially reproduces in the liver and moves into the blood.
A study on mice, published in Nature Medicine, showed the parasite can trigger iron deficiency in the liver and therefore prevent more infections.
An expert said the research was "very cool and very interesting", and improved understanding of infection.
The researchers were looking at super-infections, when a patient already infected with malaria is infected with another batch of malaria parasites.
People in high-risk areas can be bitten by up to 700 different malaria-infected mosquitoes each year.
In experiments on mice, researchers showed that parasites in the blood were able to stimulate the production of the hormone hepcidin, which regulates iron levels.
This reduced the level of iron in the liver, preventing other malaria parasites from reproducing in the organ.
Dr Hal Drakesmith, from the Weatherall Institute at Oxford University, who was part of the Medical Research Council team, said: "Now that we understand how malaria parasites protect their territory in the body from competitor parasites, we may be able to enhance this natural defence mechanism to combat the risk of malaria infections."
Malaria is often accompanied by anaemia, which is treated with iron supplements.
In this study, mice given iron supplements were more susceptible to additional infections.
Dr Drakesmith said: "We may need to look again at the advisability of iron supplementation programmes in malaria-endemic regions, as possible increased risk of infection may need to be weighed against benefits."
Dr Rita Tewari, a malaria researcher at the University of Nottingham, said: "It's very cool and very interesting.
"It tells us a bit more about the mechanism of malaria infection and gives us some sort of tool, this molecule hepcidin, that you can manipulate which can affect infection." | The malaria parasite can ensure it keeps a host body all to itself by preventing further malarial infections, according to international researchers. |
39,441,185 | The letter expands on the prime minister's suggestion that more powers could be passed to the devolved administrations.
It says the process of further devolution must be a "considered one" involving "intensive discussions".
It cautions there will be areas "where common frameworks may be required".
Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU Referendum by a majority of 56% to 44%.
The letter says common frameworks will be necessary to protect the freedom of businesses to operate across the UK single market and to enable the UK to strike free trade deals.
It adds that the need for common frameworks will also depend on the nature of any agreement with the EU.
That suggests that, for some areas, further devolution will not necessarily mean much regulatory divergence from a UK norm.
The letter also says that in considering the replacement of EU funding the government is "aware of the importance attached to those programmes which have had unique resonance in Northern Ireland".
It cites the Peace and Interreg funds saying they have had a role in "enhancing community cohesion across Northern Ireland and in border regions".
The letter also restates the UK government's commitment to the maintaining the Common Travel Area and having an Irish border which is as "seamless and frictionless as possible".
Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday, starting a two-year countdown to the UK's exit from the EU.
She said there would be "no return to the borders of the past" and said the Conservative Party has a "preference that Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK".
Mrs May's Article 50 letter says the government wants to avoid a return to a hard border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, to be able to maintain the Common Travel Area and to make sure that the UK's withdrawal from the EU does not harm the Republic of Ireland. | The Brexit Secretary David Davis has written to the Stormont parties to give details of the government's Brexit priorities for Northern Ireland. |
35,340,949 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The world number one, who claims he rejected £110,000 to lose a match early in his career, says there is "no real proof" of fixing among the elite.
"It's just speculation," said the Serb 10-time Grand Slam champion.
The BBC and BuzzFeed News have obtained secret files that contain evidence of suspected match-fixing in tennis.
Those files indicate that, over the past decade, 16 players who have been ranked in the world's top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) over suspicions they have thrown matches.
All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Chris Kermode, head of the Association of Tennis Professionals, has rejected claims that evidence of match-fixing had "been suppressed for any reason or isn't being thoroughly investigated".
But he added: "While the BBC and BuzzFeed reports mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information."
Tennis match-fixing Q&A
UK Government minister John Whittingdale has told the BBC that tennis should "learn from the mistakes of other sports" and take prompt action.
He said that "past allegations of this kind" against athletics and football were seemingly "swept under the carpet".
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport added: "These are serious allegations and they need to be looked into very quickly."
Prime Minister David Cameron said he is "deeply concerned" that another sport is facing accusations of corruption.
His official spokeswoman said that "fans suffer most" from this alleged wrongdoing and these issues need to be investigated.
According to the BBC and BuzzFeed News, tennis authorities were presented with an examination of 26,000 matches in 2007, three of them at Wimbledon, which contained enough evidence to root out offenders.
However, no action was taken.
Nigel Willerton, who heads the TIU, insisted there had been a rigorous examination of material.
"All credible information received by the TIU is analysed, assessed and investigated by highly experienced former law-enforcement investigators," he said.
Djokovic had already revealed he had been approached to lose a first-round match at the St Petersburg Open in 2007.
"I was approached through people working with me," he said. "Of course, we threw it away right away. It didn't even get to me."
He added: "From my knowledge and information about match-fixing, there is nothing happening at the top level, as far as I know.
"At challenger level, maybe, maybe not. But I'm not entitled to really talk about it. I can give my opinion.
"But there is an organisation, authorities, people who take care of that on a daily basis and make sure to track it down."
A number of players competing at the Australian Open in Melbourne have been responding to the revelations.
Like Djokovic, Roger Federer said it was difficult to gauge if and to what level fixing went on, adding he wanted more information about who might be guilty.
"I would love to hear names,'' said the former world number one. "Then at least it's concrete stuff and you can actually debate about it.
"Was it the player? Was it the support team? Who was it? Was it before? Was it a doubles player, a singles player? Which Slam?''
The 17-time Grand Slam champion added: "It's super serious and it's super important to maintain the integrity of our sport.
"So how high up does it go? The higher it goes, the more surprised I would be."
World number one Serena Williams said that if match-fixing was taking place, then she "didn't know about it".
The American added: "When I'm playing, I can only answer for me. I play very hard, and every player I play seems to play hard."
Williams began the defence of her Australian Open title with a 6-4 7-5 win over Italy's Camila Giorgi.
Djokovic, who is the reigning men's champion, started with a 6-3 6-2 6-4 defeat of South Korea's Chung Hyeon.
The leaked files included details of an investigation into a 2007 match between Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello.
Both players were cleared of violating any rules, but the investigation developed into a much wider inquiry looking into a web of gamblers linked to top-level players.
Documents show the inquiry found betting syndicates in Russia, northern Italy and Sicily making hundreds of thousands of pounds betting on matches investigators thought to be fixed.
In a confidential report for the tennis authorities, the enquiry team said 28 players involved in these matches should be investigated, but the findings were never followed up.
Kermode said the TIU had won 18 convictions, including six life bans, since it was set up in 2008, adding that it "has to find evidence as opposed to information, suspicion, or hearsay". | Novak Djokovic says match-fixing is not prevalent at the top level of tennis, as allegations of corruption overshadow the start of the Australian Open. |
20,774,107 | Chris McDermott spoke out after the sport - along with basketball, table tennis and wrestling - lost all central support for elite athletes in the build-up to Rio 2016.
GB Basketball called the decision to cut its funding a "waste" of previous investment.
But Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson backed UK Sport's approach.
The British men's and women's handball teams had their £2.92m funding to support elite athletes cut completely after finishing last in their groups at London 2012.
However on Monday the sport had its grassroots funding doubled from £0.6m to £1.2m. Officials say sports which lost their elite funding should concentrate on developing the next generation of Olympic hopefuls.
UK Sport says it will not pay for sports that do not have a genuine chance of qualifying for Rio.
McDermott told BBC Radio 5 live: "It feels we've been misled and cheated.
"I think the whole tag and mantra of the Games was 'legacy', and handball has shown we're capable of producing a legacy. In England, participation in the sport has quadrupled since the Olympic Games. If you take away the elite end, what do these kids have to aspire towards?
"The level of the sport will never improve unless the elite end is funded. I'm 100% dedicated. I'm going to continue to play the sport and I'm going to continue trying to improve not only my own level but the level of the sport in the UK, but they're just making it so much harder for us."
In response to the cuts, handball head coach Bill Baillie has started a petition lobbying for a change to the way British team sports are funded.
British Basketball's performance chairman Roger Moreland called the decision to remove the sport's Olympic funding "devastating".
"Having been funded to the tune of £8.5m in the lead-up to the London Olympics because of the sport's medal potential for the future, this is a devastating decision and is a waste of that investment," he said.
"It doesn't seem much of a legacy from 2012 to dash the hopes and aspirations of a sport whose heartland is founded in Britain's inner-cities."
But Robertson supported UK Sport's "no compromise" approach to distributing public money.
"Basketball teams are expensive," Robertson said. "If they have no chance of qualifying for Rio, would you want to fund them and then take the money away from a cyclist or rower who has a good chance of getting a medal?
"The funding for Rio is done on a performance basis. You have to make hard choices."
Britain's volleyball teams managed only one win - their minimum target - in London but their funding has been cut by 88.7% to £400,000, with only women's beach volleyball benefiting.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, head of GB Volleyball Richard Callicott said: "It's been a devastating cut and we're still in shock, frankly. It's not a question that we failed - we delivered what we said we would do.
"We're part way through a programme and with no funding we can't complete that programme. So the legacy is zero. I call for a major review of the funding of team sports."
"The message from UK Sport was loud and clear. Those sports that can demonstrate they have a chance of delivering on its ambitious vision of winning more medals at Rio 2016 will be rewarded."
Read more: 'No room for sentiment on road to Rio'
British Swimming lost £4m in funding after underperforming at London 2012, and accepts it must "rebuild confidence".
Set a target of five to seven medals in London, the team managed just three.
"While I'm obviously disappointed [by the cut], I have to be realistic. We failed in London," British Swimming chief David Sparkes said.
Sparkes, who saw swimming's budget shrink to £21.4m, added: "We thought we could achieve more [in London] but the bottom line is we underperformed. We now need to focus our energies on driving the cultural change needed moving forward.
"We recognise we need to rebuild confidence that we can deliver medals at Olympic level consistently before we can demand more investment."
Despite a cut in funding from £7.4m to £5.9m, Badminton England said it was pleased with its allocation. Britain's badminton players all failed to get past the group stages in London.
Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy said: "I think the outcomes for Badminton England and the GB programme have been very good.
"We are satisfied with the investment, which is somewhere where we anticipated it to be. It gives us the opportunity to build on what we have been building and to continue to achieve what we set out to achieve."
Boxing, water polo, taekwondo and gymnastics have seen significant increases in money.
Olympic super-heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua told BBC Radio 5 live: "I was on the Olympic team for 17 months before London, and the improvements I made and the championships I was going to and the experience I was getting, all through the help of the funding, brought me on leaps and bounds and helped me progress to win my gold medal." | A British handball player says he feels "misled and cheated" after UK Sport removed the team's Olympic funding. |
34,790,412 | Benoit Paillaugue's four penalties put the French side in control early on.
But two tries in nine minutes from Luke Wallace and Nick Easter saw Harlequins turn around a nine-point deficit and lead 15-12 at half-time.
Jack Clifford and Danny Care scored tries after great driving mauls, while Ollie Lindsay-Haugue and Chris Robshaw also went over in the second half.
Montpellier, whose coach Jake White has said he is interested in the vacant England job, led early on through three successive Paillaugue penalties.
But the hosts were back in it when a great play from the lineout - after Evans had superbly landed a kick in the corner - saw Wallace sneak over from five metres out.
Evans missed the conversion attempt but was successful after Easter nipped in to score to help the home side to a three-point lead at the break.
A terrific driving maul saw Clifford go over and Evans added the conversion to score his 2,000th point for Harlequins.
Care then went over after another impressive driving maul to secure Quins a bonus point, while replacement Ollie Lindsay-Haugue raced in under the posts
And Kyle Sinckler's clever deft touch set free Robshaw for Harlequins' sixth try and ended Montpellier's six-game winning streak against English sides.
Harlequins: Brown; Yarde, Hopper, Sloan, Visser; Evans, Care (capt); Marler, Ward, Jones, Matthews, Twomey, Clifford, Wallace, Easter.
Replacements: Buchanan, Lambert, Sinckler, Treadwell, Robshaw, Dickson, Botica, Lindsay-Hague.
Montpellier: Mogg; Fall, Nagusa, Tuitavake, O'Connor; Trinh-Duc, Paillaugue; Nariashvili, Burden, Mas, Tchale-Watchou, Willemse, Ouedraogo (capt), Liebenberg, Qera.
Replacements: Ivaldi, Cilliers, Van der Linde, Timani, Galletier, Lucas, Ebersohn, Malzieu.
Sin Bin: Nariashvili (34).
Attendance: 8,500
Referee: Ian Davies (Wales). | Harlequins began their Pool 3 Challenge Cup campaign with an impressive bonus-point victory over Montpellier. |
37,984,118 | Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching altered their oaths to insult China, and promote Hong Kong's independence from China, when being sworn in last month.
Beijing pre-empted the court judgement, ruling last week that legislators who did not take their oath in a solemn way would be disqualified from office.
Critics called the intervention a violation of Hong Kong's rule of law.
The ruling has sparked large protests in recent weeks, both for and against the Chinese government's involvement.
Judge Thomas Au said that Ms Yau and Mr Leung had clearly refused to be sworn in properly - and as such were disqualified from office. He also issued an injunction to stop them from acting as legislators.
Ms Yau and Mr Leung condemned the ruling.
"The judgement simply reflects that elections in Hong Kong are meaningless," Mr Leung told reporters after the ruling.
"Our one role is to represent the Hong Kong people," he said, adding that they would appeal against the ruling even though the court costs could bankrupt them.
Mr Leung and Ms Yau, both members of the pro-democracy Youngspiration party, were elected in September.
At their swearing-in ceremony in October the duo unfurled a pro-independence banner and used what is considered to be a disrespectful pronunciation of the word China.
Ms Yau also swore while taking her oath.
Both their oaths were invalidated - and the government sought to block them from retaking their oaths, saying they should be disqualified altogether.
During their oath, the duo pronounced China "Shee-na" - a variation on Shina, a term used by the Japanese during World War Two that is considered disrespectful in China.
Hong Kong is semi-autonomous under the "one country, two systems" framework - in place since the territory was returned to China from the British in 1997.
Hong Kong's mini constitution, the Basic Law, states that it handles most of its affairs internally, while Beijing is responsible for defence and foreign affairs.
But the Basic Law also allows Beijing the final say in how to interpret its laws.
Beijing issued an interpretation last week, saying that oaths should be taken in a way that is "solemn, accurate and complete", and that anyone whose oath is invalidated does not get a second chance to be sworn in.
Critics say what Beijing has done is effectively change the law, rather than just clarify how it should be enacted.
However, Judge Au said that he arrived at his conclusion independently of China's ruling.
The seats of Mr Leung and Ms Yau have been declared vacant, and by-elections will need to be held to fill their seats.
However, Mr Leung and Ms Yau say they will appeal against the court decision - and apply for an injunction to stop a by-election in the meantime. It is not clear if the courts will grant an injunction.
They would not be drawn on whether they would stand in any by-elections, saying that appealing against the court decision is the priority.
"What is the meaning of a by-election if the result can be overruled by the government?" Mr Leung said.
The Hong Kong government welcomed Tuesday's court ruling - and is certain to fight any appeal.
And Beijing has also taken a firm stance. Li Fei, deputy secretary of China's top legislative panel, warned there would be "no obscurity and no leniency" in China's "firm and clear attitude towards containing and striking the Hong Kong independence forces".
Analysis: Helier Cheung, BBC News, Hong Kong
The court decision ends the immediate question of whether Ms Yau and Mr Leung are still eligible for office.
But the judgement, and last week's ruling from Beijing, also have wider implications for Hong Kong's politicians - as they leave open the possibility that other legislators could be disqualified because of their oaths, too.
Many pro-democracy legislators are known for expressing their views in parliament in creative ways - for example, by yelling pro-democracy slogans before or after their oaths, or holding yellow umbrellas to show their support for political reform.
Following Beijing's ruling, some Chinese officials have suggested that this could have invalidated the oaths of up to 15 pro-democracy lawmakers.
Now, several Hong Kongers have begun to attempt to launch legal challenges to disqualify legislators - on both the pro-Beijing, and pro-democracy, sides.
One lawsuit even argues that the Chief Executive CY Leung's oath should be invalidated, since he missed out the words "Hong Kong" when he was being sworn in. | Hong Kong's high court has disqualified two pro-independence lawmakers from taking their seats in parliament. |
36,997,703 | The attack followed a minor crash between a car and a van on Gressel Lane, Kitts Green at about 18:30 BST on Friday.
The van driver hit the car driver in an "unprovoked" assault before leaving the scene, police said.
The motorist suffered serious head injuries and is unconscious in hospital.
"This was a vicious attack on a family man who was on his way home to his partner and four-year-old child," Det Cons Katie Lees of West Midlands Police said.
"The road is a really busy road and we are sure that there were lots of people who would have seen what happened and we are appealing for them to come forward."
She appealed to the van driver to "search his conscience".
"We have several lines of inquiry and it is only a matter of time before we come knocking at your door," she added. | A 37-year-old man is in a critical condition after being punched in a road rage attack in Birmingham. |
36,997,639 | Petersen made 98, while Haseeb Hameed (89) and Luke Procter (54) also made half-centuries and visiting skipper Steven Croft is still there on 41.
After resuming on 70-1, that helped Lancashire close on 310-4, within 89 runs of avoiding the follow-on target.
Paceman Gareth Berg took two of the three wickets that fell for Hampshire.
Berg found an inswinger to take the wicket of teenage opener Hameed, whose latest half-century was his fifth in successive matches.
But, although he too missed on a third ton of the summer, his knock still took him past 1,000 first-class career runs in just his 15th appearance - and to 759 Championship runs for the season.
Petersen remains on 41 first-class centuries, 11 of which have come in the County Championship, five for Lancashire, three for Somerset, two for Glamorgan and one for Essex.
Lancs batsman Alviro Petersen told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"The pitch is deteriorating a bit. It is spinning more but it is still a good wicket and you can score runs. It could be tricky. I'm not gutted to get out of 98. I was dropped on 20 so I got 70 extra runs. The spinners are coming into it more but there is something still for the seamers.
"The best we can get out of this game is a draw. We would be happier of the two teams with that. We cannot win this game.
"I would have liked us to be closer to the top of the Championship. We will have to look in the last few games where we are. Are we going to fight to win the Championship or fight relegation?
"To win the title we need to win three games, but lose three and we are fighting relegation. We have to be on top of our game every single day." | Alviro Petersen missed out on a third first-class ton of 2016, but Lancashire lost only three wickets on another batsman-friendly day at Southampton. |
34,462,244 | Underlying profits for the first half of its financial year were £354m, 55% down on the same period last year, when it made £779m.
Its pre-tax profit was £74m, compared with a loss of £19m for the same period a year ago.
Like-for-like sales were down 1.1% for the UK, but sales volume rose 1.4%.
The number of transactions were also up by 1.5%.
Chief executive Dave Lewis has put pressure on profits by focusing on price cuts and putting more staff in stores, in an effort to attract customers back to Tesco.
He told the BBC he was "quietly confident" about Tesco's turnaround, admitting the group hit a low point at the end of last year.
"We obviously had some issues to deal with, we dealt with them. It meant that in the second half of last year we made no profit whatsoever in the UK.
"So if I compare to the second half of last year, the first half of this year feels like we've made some progress," Mr Lewis said.
"Our sales are growing compared to where they were either a year ago, or indeed in the second half of last year. And we've generated some profit as we rebuild the profitability of Tesco business. But importantly at the same time, improving what it is we're doing for our customers."
Mike Dennis, of global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, described Tesco's interim results as "disappointing".
"The risk now is that Tesco's recovery needs more time, requires more restructuring and asset sales and, with less cash flow, could require a rights issue to lower the indebtedness," he said.
Charles Hanover, investments partner at Dafydd Davies, said: "Tesco did not have a great set of numbers, but they were marginally better than expected.
"In the medium term, it's still a strong business, but in the short term, they still have hurdles to overcome in terms of competition from cheaper rivals."
Tesco has confirmed it will cost it about £500m to meet the government's proposed National Living Wage rate of £9 an hour by 2020.
Mr Lewis said the group already paid more than the £7.20 minimum which is being brought in under the National Living Wage plans next April.
He added that extra staff benefits already brought its hourly rate closer to £9.
Tesco has completed the sale of its Homeplus stores in South Korea, reducing its debt by £4.2bn.
It has decided to keep its Dunnhumby data business which runs its Clubcard loyalty scheme, after failing to attract enough interest in its sale.
In April, Tesco reported the worst results in its history, with a record statutory pre-tax loss of £6.4bn for the year to the end of February.
The supermarket is still under a criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) after it admitted overstating its profits by £326m nearly a year ago.
Mr Lewis declined to comment in a BBC interview on reports that the company was close to striking a deal with the SFO.
The results come a week after rival Sainsbury's forecast better-than-expected full-year profits, but the big four supermarkets continue to be under pressure from discount retailers Aldi and Lidl.
Tesco shares closed up 2.5%, or 4.8p, at 197p. | Troubled supermarket Tesco has announced another big fall in profits as it struggles to turn its business around. |
29,355,025 | A New York grand jury declined to charge Mr Stewart on Wednesday after hearing evidence in the case.
Ward, 20, was killed in August when he exited his vehicle in the middle of a race and was struck by Mr Stewart.
Prosecutors said two videos of the incident showed "no aberrational driving " by Mr Stewart.
And Ward was under the influence of marijuana the night of the accident "enough to impair judgment", according to Ontario County District Attorney Michael Tantillo.
Mr Stewart, 43, a three-time Nascar champion, has said the incident was "the toughest and most emotional experience of my life, and it will stay with me forever".
"While much of the attention has been on me, it's important to remember a young man lost his life. Kevin Ward Jr's family and friends will always be in my thoughts and prayers," he said in a statement.
On 9 August, Ward was racing alongside Stewart in a dirt track sprint race in Canandaigua Motorsports Park in New York State when his vehicle spun out.
Ward left his car and walked down the track, waving his arms at Mr Stewart in an apparent attempt to confront him.
Officials said another car swerved to avoid hitting Ward. Then, the front of Mr Stewart's vehicle appeared to clear Ward, but he was struck by the right rear tyre and was thrown through the air.
Ward's father later told a local newspaper there was "no reason" for the death, given Mr Stewart's experience and skills.
Mr Stewart went into seclusion after the fatal crash but returned to the racing circuit three weeks later. He co-operated with the grand jury investigation but did not testify in front of the panel.
Prosecutors asked the panel to consider charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
"There were not 12 votes to either charge," Mr Tantillo said. | Nascar driver Tony Stewart will not face charges for fatally striking fellow driver Kevin Ward Jr during a race, prosecutors have said. |
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The only answer to that question is because both Sky and BT believe it is. The breakdown of the bidding means Sky is paying an average of £10.8m for each of the 126 Premier League games it will broadcast each season from 2016-17 until 2018-19, and BT will pay around £7.6m for each of its 42 matches.
There are three reasons why these figures are so high.
The first is competition. There was interest from Discovery, which owns Eurosport, and BeIN sports, based in Qatar, and that interest has pushed BT and Sky to bid more in order to keep the rights.
The second reason is about choice. Sky has about 10.5m subscribers, but has never revealed how many of them buy sports channels. The bidding for the Premier League rights is about much more than sport. It is about being able to attract customers to buy broadband, landline and mobile packages alongside a comprehensive TV offering.
On Wednesday, Sky's shares opened more than 4% down, with BT's shares up more than 3%.
The third reason is the product itself, the Premier League. The audience tells rights holders it is as absorbing and interesting as ever.
Stoke City chairman Peter Coates said: "It is a bit over the top to call it obscene. It is an awful lot of money but we have a responsibility to football as a whole and I am sure we will exercise that responsibility."
If the Premier League clubs, players, agents and sports car dealers are the big winners from this auction, the one potential loser is the viewer.
These huge sums of money must be covered and over the course of the next two or three years it would be a surprise if the price of TV packages do not rise to cover some of these costs.
The audiences on Sky and BT are huge. Around 1.6m watched the north London derby between Tottenham and Arsenal on BT last Saturday, with almost two million tuning in for the Merseyside derby on Monday. The money this generates for these companies cannot be underestimated.
"It's what is known as the 'prune juice effect'," Lord Alan Sugar told BBC Sport. "It goes in one end and goes out the other."
The former Tottenham owner, who was involved in the first Premier League TV rights deal in 1992, added: "The more money that is given to clubs, the more money will end up being spent on players."
This issue is one of the most emotive. The Premier League was very quick to say it will invest £168m in "facilities and good causes" and build 152 artificial, all-weather 3G pitches.
It will also point to the huge tax revenue from players' wages and argue that more than a sixth of its overall income is distributed beyond the 20 clubs.
All of those contributions should also be seen against the backdrop of Premier League clubs paying agents £115m between October 2013 and September 2014.
But the reality for Football League clubs and below is that only around 5% of the Premier League's income filters down to grassroots.
FC United of Manchester, who play in the Northern Premier League, tier eight of the English football pyramid, are attempting to raise money to fund their new stadium. It would be used as a community hub, a centre for kids and youth club. That could be paid for with the amount of money Sky or BT is spending to broadcast one live match.
Former Football Association chief executive Mark Palios, who is now executive chairman at League Two side Tranmere Rovers, said: "You can't defend the issue of player wages. The issue is that the money coming down to grassroots is not entirely correct.
"The Premier League do provide a large amount of cash into grassroots but the problem is the structure and efficiency of British sport and how the money is divided.
"Politicians can say money needs to be input into grassroots but they should have a look at themselves and the structure they have set up."
It is great news. This incredible sum of money means the club that finishes bottom of the Premier League in the 2016-17 season will pocket £99m.
The champions will earn more than £150m in prize money and that is before additional fees are paid to clubs who stage more TV matches than others.
In the past, there have been increased TV deals spent on better players, bigger transfer fees and higher wages. That is likely to happen again, at least to some extent, and may even help England's best clubs bridge the gap to the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Champions League.
It also means that all 20 Premier League clubs could break into the top 30 richest clubs in the world - currently they all occupy a place in the top 40. Burnley are richer than Ajax.
But this deal takes the Premier League into a new stratosphere and is bound to have a lasting impact on the field. It may not be long until the days of the first £100m Premier League player, who is paid £500,000 per week.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore told BBC Radio 5 live: "In 1986 there was no one that wanted to broadcast football. There was not even a highlights programme.
"From the dark days of stadium disasters and other things, it's an amazing rise. We now put on a show that people want to watch and attend - and in ever increasing numbers. There's more interest than ever before."
They could, potentially, be the other winners. Scudamore said he hopes the clubs do not spend all their money on players and agents.
The BBC's Price of Football Study showed that ticket prices continue to rise at a rate that outstrips inflation and the figures prompted many to concede enough was enough. This TV deal would appear to be a genuine opportunity for clubs to pass some of this huge wealth on to the fans.
Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters' Federation, said it would allow the clubs to lower prices and still leave them with more money than they have had before. But it remains to be seen if this will be the watershed moment so many fans hope it will be.
A statement from Supporters Direct said: "Our member supporters' trusts in the Premier League have been campaigning strongly and vociferously for lower ticket prices - particularly given the effect that these broadcasting deals are having on kick-off times.
"We back their calls and those of the Football Supporters Federation on that issue."
Probably not. As astonishing as that sounds, the Premier League remains an incredibly attractive proposition, not only in this country but across the globe.
Market forces and competition are driving these prices and even off the back of a recession, that demand is still very much there. As the economic climate continues to brighten, it is hard to see these figures not continuing to rise, at least for one more round of auctions.
It is also worth remembering that now that the domestic rights auction has been settled, attention will turn to the global TV companies and how many they are willing to pay for rights.
That will be another record number and more good news for the clubs. Financial experts no longer attempt to predict when the Premier League bubble will burst.
Lord Sugar suggests the peak will only be dictated by the broadcaster's profits: "There will come a stage where if their income from their subscribers start to decline and they don't have the surplus amount of money available to pay for the rights, it will plateau out."
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The Premier League is one of the great British success stories. It will always be a target for scorn and criticism and that is understandable if only because of the unimaginable sums of money involved and because it makes the very richest even richer.
But from a commercial point of view, from the standpoint of how much income tax the players involved pay to the state, this outstrips almost any other sports league on the planet. Only the NFL generates more income.
This incredible rise may not last forever, but the Premier League's enduring appeal and pure entertainment value means that many cannot vividly remember the time before the Premier League existed. This is a truly global powerhouse and there is much to celebrate. | After Sky and BT Sport pay a record £5.136bn for live Premier League TV rights for 2016-17, BBC Sport looks at the changing picture for TV viewers and what the record rights package could mean for consumers. |
38,588,408 | The news coincides with Andy Murray's decision to commit to playing at Queen's for the rest of his career.
"To know that Andy will play at The Queen's Club for the rest of his career and that the BBC will cover it every step of the way is a huge boost," said tournament director Stephen Farrow.
I'm really happy to know that I will play at Queen's for as long as my career lasts
Murray, 29, won at Queen's last year en route to becoming the world number one.
His victory in the 2016 final against Milos Raonic was watched by 3.7m on TV, with many more listening on Radio 5 live and following online on the BBC Sport website.
Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, described the tournament as "one of the most cherished events in the tennis calendar".
"It's great that the BBC will continue to bring it to audiences across all platforms until 2024," she added.
"With a British tennis player as the current world number one, there's no better time for us to reinforce our commitment to the sport."
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Murray's record fifth Queen's title was just one chapter in a stellar 2016 for the Briton.
He followed it up weeks later by claiming his second Wimbledon title, while his second Olympic gold medal followed later in the summer.
He secured the year-end world number one ranking with victory at the ATP World Tour Finals before being named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for a third time.
He was subsequently knighted in the the New Year Honours.
"I'm really happy to know that I will play at Queen's for as long as my career lasts," said Murray.
"My first ATP World Tour match-win came at Queen's in 2005, so for it to become by far the most successful tournament of my career is a great feeling.
"Looking at the names that have won the tournament four times, [they are] some of the best players ever. Winning it five times means a lot to me." | The BBC will continue to broadcast the Aegon Championships at The Queen's Club on TV, radio and online until 2024. |
35,504,308 | McIlroy, 26, ended the day on four under par after an even-par round of 72, which left him six shots behind leader Rafa Cabrera-Bello of Spain.
The Northern Irishman made four bogeys on the outward nine and slipped back to level par with a fifth at the 11th.
He salvaged the situation with birdies on the 13th, 16th, 17th and 18th holes.
Cabrera-Bello, the 2012 champion, carded a second consecutive 67, while England's Danny Willett (65) and Ernie Els (67) were tied for second on nine under.
"I struggled in the wind a little bit," McIlroy told the European Tour website.
"I didn't get off to the best of starts again. The middle of the round was tough but I bounced back well and persevered and got something out of the round."
McIlroy bogeyed his opening hole for the second day running and then tossed away his ball after three-putting the fourth on his way to reaching the turn at three over for the day.
A three-putt bogey on the 11th then saw McIlroy slip back to level par and outside the projected cut, and it required a testing putt to avoid the same fate on the next before a run of birdies rescued his round.
"I was definitely thinking about (missing the cut), especially over the putt on 12," added McIlroy.
"If I missed that and went one over for the tournament it would have been a long way back.
"I've come back from bigger deficits than this and if I can get off to a faster start tomorrow, you never know." | Defending champion Rory McIlroy threw his ball into a lake in disgust before recovering with four late birdies in round two of the Dubai Desert Classic. |
36,487,566 | The £22.3m Diamond Bridge linking Danestone and Tillydrone is aimed at easing congestion.
It was supposed to be completed late last year but issues with re-routing underground utilities caused a series of delays. A worker also died in an accident on the site.
The Diamond Bridge name was chosen by local schoolchildren. | The third Don crossing in Aberdeen is to open to the public on Thursday afternoon, following months of delays. |
20,470,864 | The Institute for Fiscal Studies said George Osborne may have to find another £11bn from tax rises or spending cuts if the economy does not pick up.
This is on top of £8bn of cuts already mooted in the Budget.
Mr Osborne will deliver his Autumn Statement on 5 December.
The IFS warned that the statement could bring "more fiscal pain".
A spokesperson for the Treasury said that the independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) would make its economic forecast next week alongside the Autumn Statement.
The think tank's latest analysis takes account of "the now weaker outlook for the UK economy" and "the disappointing trend in tax revenues seen over the last seven months".
Figures last week showed the government borrowed more than expected in October with a fall in corporation tax receipts contributing to the rise.
The IFS said if borrowing continued at the same pace for the rest of the year, the government would miss its borrowing target by £13bn.
It sets out two scenarios for the economy:
It said that under the first scenario, "no further action above that already planned" would be needed for the chancellor to meet his fiscal mandate of balancing the budget by the end of a rolling five-year period, though he has already discussed the possibility of welfare cuts of £8bn over the two years from 2015-16 to 2016-17.
But under the second scenario, to meet that mandate would require extending the squeeze on public spending to 2017-18 and implementing a further £11bn of tax increases or welfare cuts, on top of the £8bn.
The Treasury spokesperson said: "Action taken by the government has cut the deficit by a quarter, whilst over a million new jobs have been created in the private sector, inflation is down, and the economy is healing.
"Britain still faces economic challenges at home and abroad but the government is taking the tough decisions needed to deal with our debts and equip our economy for the global race.
The IFS also said that Mr Osborne may have to abandon his other fiscal target - that debt should be falling as a share of GDP in 2015-16.
However, the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, has said that missing the debt target would be acceptable "if it's because the world economy has grown slowly and so we, in turn, have grown slowly".
Economists at Goldman Sachs have also suggested that missing the debt target would not necessarily result in the UK losing credibility or its AAA sovereign rating.
Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the IFS, said: "Since the Budget, the outlook for the UK economy has deteriorated and government receipts have disappointed by even more than this year's weak growth would normally suggest.
"As a result, the chancellor might find himself having to abandon one of his fiscal targets.
"If much of the additional weakness this year feeds into a permanently higher outlook for borrowing, then in order to comply with his other fiscal target Mr Osborne would need to announce yet more tax rises or spending cuts for the next parliament in next week's Autumn Statement.
"In that case the planned era of austerity could run for eight years - from 2010-11 to 2017-18."
He told the BBC: "If we do have a permanently worse outlook for borrowing, it would be sensible to announce now, measures for future implementation - not more pain now but more pain in future years to get that deficit down."
Chris Leslie, Labour's shadow Treasury minister, said Mr Osborne should use his Autumn Statement next week to "finally set out a plan to create the jobs and growth which are vital to get the deficit down".
"He must rethink his plan to give millionaires a tax cut next year while forcing millions of families and pensioners to pay more. People on low and middle incomes should not be paying the price for this government's economic failure."
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the IFS's analysis showed that the chancellor's economic strategy was "failing on all counts" and that he should "change course".
"Sadly (Mr Osborne) looks set to drive the economy even faster in the wrong direction," he said. | The chancellor may have to extend the squeeze on public spending until 2018 if the recent deterioration in growth prospects and tax receipts turns out to be permanent, a think tank has said. |
36,881,530 | No mention of China, which has been creating "facts" in the sea by building islands on disputed reefs.
No mention of the recent ruling at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that China had no historic rights over the area.
Once again, it was the smaller Asean members under China's thumb - Cambodia, and host-nation Laos - that were the weak link in the bloc's efforts to stand up to its giant neighbour.
Asean avoids criticising China over sea
And so, once again, the question pops up: what is the point of an Asean so crippled by its consensus-based decision-making that it rarely makes any decisions at all?
Many years ago I put this question to Singapore's then-trade minister George Yeo. He suggested I look not so much at what Asean had achieved, as what it had prevented. An impoverished, war-torn region caught up in the hottest of Cold War conflicts was, he said, turned into a zone of peace and prosperity.
By diffusing disputes through the "Asean Way" of meetings, seeking consensus and forswearing any interference in one another's internal affairs, the economies of South East Asia were able to tap into the global supply chain and start their impressive growth.
Asean's proudest achievements are its role in ending the Cambodian civil war and bringing the three Indochinese countries into its fold in the 1990s, and its patience, in the face of Western criticism, with Myanmar's military leaders as they shuffled in the direction of democratic reform.
But the association's weaknesses have been cruelly exposed by China. There is no mechanism to ensure solidarity in Asean, just a seemingly endless series of meetings - more than 1,000 every year - in which backroom diplomacy can undo a hard-won consensus decision in minutes.
The Asean secretariat, with just over 300 staff, is hopelessly under-resourced just to manage the logistics of these constant get-togethers.
There are no Asean institutions to rival the EU's Commission. Council of Ministers and Court of Justice. The so-called Asean Economic Community, launched with great fanfare in Malaysia last year, is little more than a set of distant aspirations.
Asean also lacks leaders of the stature of its founding fathers to drive the bloc forward.
Indonesia, traditionally the weightiest power in the bloc, no longer wields the kind of clout its long-standing former foreign minister Ali Alatas did in the 1980s and 1990s.
There is no-one now to match the charisma of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad.
Its supporters often cite Asean's usefulness as a forum that brings regional powers together, like the East Asia Summit, and the Asean Regional Forum which are attended by leaders and foreign ministers of countries as diverse as the US, Russia, India, China, Japan, Australia and North Korea.
It is true there is nothing else quite like these gatherings and, although they invariably produce bland and non-committal joint statements, they do offer unique opportunities for otherwise impossible bilateral meetings.
I recall the excitement in Brunei in 2002 when, in the aftermath of President George W Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech, we heard that Secretary of State Colin Powell had met his North Korean counterpart over a cup of coffee. It turned out, though, that with the complications of translation, they never went much beyond some innocuous pleasantries.
But the truth of these big meetings is they end up eclipsing Asean itself. It's a bit like holding a party, inviting a group of super-celebrities, and then finding that the stars only talk among themselves.
In a region confronted by growing tension among the powers on its borders, and challenges like climate change, it is no longer enough for Asean to be the mere talking shop it has been content to be for so long. | Fourteen years after they first began discussing their differences with China over the South China Sea, the 10 members of Asean - the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - have once again bowed to pressure and produced a watered-down joint statement at their summit, in Laos. |
37,181,377 | About 30,000 local students received their 2016 exam results on Thursday.
Overall, the number of entries awarded A* to C grades in Northern Ireland increased by 0.4% to 79.1%.
That is much higher than the overall performance of students across the UK, where 66.9% of all entries achieved A* to C grades.
Northern Ireland entries achieving A* and A grades also improved on 2015, up by 0.5% to 29.1% and 9.3% of entries received the top A* grade, up from 9% in 2015.
There were also improvements in GCSE English results, but the Maths results worsened.
Girls continue to outperform boys across the UK, with the gap widening by 0.5% since 2015.x
While 75.3% of entries from boys achieved A* to C grades, slightly up from last year, 82.9% of entries from girls attracted those grades.
In 2016 the proportion of entries in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) grew again, meaning they now make up almost a third of all GCSEs taken.
There were also more students taking GCSEs in biology, chemistry and computing.
However, entries for most languages fell again in 2016, with declines in the number taking French, Spanish and Irish at GCSE.
Many of those getting their results will go on to further study in their schools or in FE colleges.
However a significant number of pupils, especially from disadvantaged areas, will leave school with few qualifications. | Pupils in Northern Ireland have outperformed those in the rest of the UK in terms of A*-C grades at GCSE. |
34,962,715 | It comes from the iconic installation at the Tower of London which attracted more than five million visitors.
The Weeping Window is taken from the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red exhibit of 888,246 poppies which represented deaths in the British and colonial forces between 1914 and 1918.
It will be on show from next October.
Deputy culture minister Ken Skates said he was delighted Caernarfon Castle has been chosen to host the poignant display over some key dates in 2016, including Remembrance Sunday.
The Weeping Window is currently on show in Liverpool.
Wrexham council has lost out on its bid to host an exhibit called Wave, a sweeping arch of bright red poppy heads which is currently on show at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Council leader Mark Pritchard said: "I am, of course, very disappointed that the poppies will not be coming to Wrexham next year." | Caernarfon Castle will host a major sculpture of thousands of ceramic poppies remembering the dead from World War One in 2016. |
40,398,890 | The cable car was sent crashing to the ground, killing everyone in it.
Scores of people are reported to be trapped in other cable cars amid high winds. A rescue operation continues.
The cable is reported to have snapped after a tree was blown over in the gales. The dead include two children.
The cable-cars at Gulmarg are among the highest in the world.
Officials say they are working hard to repair the damaged cable and get people stranded in 15 other cable cars safely back to ground.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah alleged "carelessness" by the authorities.
"If this is what happened it begs the question as to why the cable car operations weren't suspended in high winds. That is a laid-down SOP [standard operating procedure]," he tweeted soon after the accident.
The cable cars at Gulmarg transport passengers to a height of 4,100m (13,450ft) and provide scenic views of the Himalayas which remain snow-capped even at this time of the year. | At least seven people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir when the wire supporting a cable car snapped in the high-altitude tourist resort of Gulmarg, officials say. |
33,800,073 | Images of the figures were published online by the website Gawker.
They show operating losses of more than $100m (£65m) in the second quarter of 2014, albeit coupled with steady growth in revenue.
In a statement, the company hit back at reports but did not deny them."Shock, horror, Uber makes a loss," it said.
"This is hardly news, and old news at that," it added. "It's a case of business 101: you raise money, you invest money, you grow (hopefully), you make a profit and that generates a return for investors."
The company was recently valued at $50bn and is the most-funded start-up in the world.
There has long been speculation over the health of Uber's profit to loss ratio, a subject on which the company has never officially detailed the sums.
One positive note to emerge was the fact that the company increased its cash holdings from $263m in 2013 to over $1bn the following year.
Uber has faced a string of difficulties this summer, including the arrest of two managers in France over allegations that the service was "illegal" there, and the imposition of a $7.3m fine in California after the company failed to provide detailed information about itself to regulators.
The car-sharing app has also been banned in a number of cities and countries around the world, including Spain, Thailand, several Indian cities and faces partial bans in Germany and the Netherlands. | Financial documents, allegedly from car-share start-up Uber, suggest the firm is running at losses of several million dollars each quarter. |
38,908,659 | From 1 March, manufacturers will not be allowed to sell backless booster seats for smaller children.
However, parents who already own one will still be able to use them for children weighing more than 15kg (2st 5lbs).
The forthcoming rules mean children using new seats will have to weigh more than 22kg and be taller than 125cm.
They are to be brought in after the United Nations warned booster seats without backs are not safe for smaller children because they do not protect against side-on collisions.
Data obtained by the price comparison website Confused.com suggest that only 13% of parents understood the new rules.
Freedom of Information requests by the company suggest there were 4,600 incidents where UK drivers did not adhere to child seatbelt laws in 2015. More than 19,000 offences were recorded between 2013 and 2015.
The changes will only apply to new backless seats and not ones already on the market that meet current safety standards.
Parents can continue to use their current model after the rule change and will not need to buy a new one for children weighing more than 15kg.
It will be down to manufacturers of new seats to ensure they meet the revised safety standards and are labelled correctly.
Many parents think they can judge which car seat they need to buy based on their child's age but it should only be used as guidance.
Car seats are typically categorised according to height and weight.
Height-based car seats, known as "i-Size" seats, must be rear-facing until the child is over 15 months old.
For weight-based car seats, the type depends on how heavy a child is. The current rules are: | New booster seat rules risk leaving parents confused and open to fines, according to experts. |
27,781,652 | Cue a furious response from the Department for Education, who said Mr Gove had never been a roadblock and Sir Michael had made a mistake.
On Tuesday I heard from Dominic Cummings, Michael Gove's former right-hand man. He believed Sir Michael had got it wrong and gave me a blow-by-blow account of events of that time - as someone whom, he said, had been "in the room for all the discussions".
Now, many inside government and outside see Mr Cummings as a troublemaker - at times pursuing dissent for his own ends.
But his version of events appears to chime with what the Department for Education is claiming.
He also mentions Henry de Zoete - Michael Gove's special adviser at the time - as another person present in the room then.
Mr de Zoete has confirmed this pattern of events to me:
On 6 November 2009, Michael Gove first raised the prospect of no-notice inspections, "lightning inspections" as they were originally called.
He pursued it again in government on 4 April 2011.
This was not because of any extremism problem, but because of a wider recognition that with advanced notice inspections, schools had time to get their behavioural problems sorted, and "bussed off the troublesome kids to the beach".
Sir Michael took up his post at the beginning of 2012 and agreed on the need for change.
But by April of that year, after three or so months in the job, Sir Michael, according to Mr Cummings, had lost his nerve.
He told Mr Gove that after a series of tricky encounters with the media and what Mr Cummings refers to as "car crash interviews", he didn't feel able to announce the no-notice inspections that month.
Mr Cummings remembers a conversation between Mr Gove, himself and Mr de Zoete, in which they were informed on the change of position, and they tried to talk the education secretary back into it, saying that Sir Michael was in an over-emotional state - not one in which big decisions should be made.
But Mr Gove stuck by Sir Michael's wishes, saying, I was told, he was new to the job and needed the department's support.
The mistake, according to Dominic Cummings, came a few weeks later, on 5 May 2012.
Michael Gove attended the National Association of Head Teachers annual conference in Harrogate, and told delegates: "The perception is Ofsted has become an arm of the Spanish Inquisition… particular concern that people fear it [no-notice inspection] sends a message that we don't trust the profession."
His language was incendiary - he went further than he meant to. It was seen as a climb down, a U-turn.
Worse, it gave the impression the decision had been taken by the Department for Education and not an independently minded Ofsted.
When a furious Sir Michael confirmed the decision a few weeks later, it was assumed by many Michael Gove had led the way.
Subsequently, Number 10 feared re-opening the debate, despite much public support for the no-notice inspection approach.
They worried, I'm told, that Michael Gove was antagonising teachers too much, and not taking them with him.
Mr Gove and his team have been itching to get to the place he announced on Monday for more than two years.
And what of Ofsted?
On Tuesday, it stuck bullishly to its side of the story, insisting it had always been in favour of no-notice inspections, and that Michael Gove had been the road block to its implementation.
By mid-afternoon, a press release from the Department for Education had emerged stating the chief inspector "confirmed that the Education Secretary did not ask Ofsted to halt its plans for no-notice inspections in 2012".
When I pressed Ofsted to understand if it was true, I was told it had agreed to the statement because it thought it was "pathetic to get into a tit-for-tat argument on something they were all now agreed on".
Is it backing down on claims Sir Michael made on Newsnight on Monday? It is not.
Over to you, to decide who's telling the truth. | On Monday's Newsnight, Ofsted chief inspector Michael Wilshaw told us he had called for unannounced inspections when he first took up his post, but that the Education Secretary Michael Gove had rejected the idea because of concerns among head teachers. |
35,362,199 | Cars, shoes, pizza scissors, vibrating forks and bluetooth water bottles. The list of consumer products - some pointless, some not - that we amass over our lifetimes is almost endless.
The problem is rising populations and rising aspirations mean that the earth's finite natural resources are feeling the strain.
One possible answer is simply to own fewer things. In other words, sharing, renting and swapping stuff, rather than buying it.
It's a concept that has exploded in recent years.
The variety of businesses set up within the sharing economy is staggering, from cars (for example Lyft, Blablacar, RelayRides, Liftshare and Getaround) and fashion (Girlmeetsdress, Fashionhire) to meals (Grubclub, Mealsharing, Tablecrowd and Vizeats) and wi-fi (Fon).
Anything goes at sites such as Rentmyitems and Yerdle (stuff), Storenextdoor (storage), Spinlister (bikes), DogVacay (pet boarding) and Campinmygarden.
And while this model would not be possible without the advent of the internet, it's the changing attitude of the younger generation that is key to this fundamental transformation.
Comfortable with sharing photos, personal information and recommendations on social media, so-called millennials are keen to embrace this new economic paradigm, where access is more important than ownership.
"We are now in the early stages of a different model of organising economic activity," says Prof Arun Sundararajan at New York University.
Indeed he argues the sharing economy taps into a basic human need.
"We are wired for social connection. The appeal [of sharing] is to integrate some semblance of human interaction into our economic activities."
However, the primary driver behind the extraordinary growth of the sharing economy is somewhat more prosaic, according to expert Benita Matofska - money.
Making or saving money is what drives most people to share or rent, while the social and environmental aspects keep them coming back for more, she says.
The benefits to the consumer are clear - you only pay for what you need, when you need it.
Why buy a car when, on average, you only use it for 4% of its life? Why buy an expensive designer dress to wear once a year when you can rent one, and rent a different one next time round, for a fraction of the cost?
Sharing is even changing the way we think about work, says Ms Matofska, with more and more people taking on one-off projects as opposed to traditional jobs thanks to shared work spaces and sites such as Upwork, Freelancer, Guru and Taskrabbit.
But the two start-ups that stand out from the crowd are taxi service Uber, now valued at more than $60bn (£42bn), and room sharing site Airbnb, valued at $25bn.
As a recent report on the sharing economy by US Crowd Companies says, "the world's largest hospitality brand owns not a single room or hotel. The world's largest car service owns not a single vehicle".
Indeed in eight years, Airbnb now has more rooms than the Hilton Group managed in almost 100.
And it's this kind of dizzying success that has grabbed the attention of the established order.
Understandably concerned that they may go the way of the music industry, where many traditional incumbents were wiped out by the advent of streaming, big global brands are desperately trying to work out how best to engage with this new economic model.
Prof Sundararajan's advice is simple: "They have to experiment aggressively with new consumption models".
And many are. Unsurprisingly given the impact of Uber and Lyft, carmakers have also been among the first to react.
Ford is offering financial incentives to customers who rent out their cars using sharing site Getaround, while Daimler runs its own service called Car2Go.
Rival BMW has also been quick to react with its DriveNow service based in a number of German cities, London, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
"There is physically not enough space for the one-car, one-owner business to grow; this is about selling one car a thousand times," explains Tony Douglas, head of mobility services at the German giant.
"Hope and threat are both drivers - it's about generating new business, [and] if we don't do it, someone else will.
"Why be a supplier for Uber or Zipcar and let them own the customer? We want to own the customer."
BMW started looking at the on-demand model four or five years ago, with a small project team of five people. It now has a dedicated and profitable business unit employing more than 100 people.
Other companies are engaging in a different, if rather less imaginative, way - by investing in or buying out sharing start-ups.
US giant General Motors recently announced a $500m partnership with Lyft, having already teamed up with RelayRides; while Hyatt Hotels has invested in Onefinestay, an upmarket room-sharing site.
Retailing, tourism, healthcare, energy supply and recruitment are likely to be the early adopters, but it's not just the private sector that is waking up to this fundamental shift in the way we buy and sell goods and services.
Local councils and charities are also looking to embrace sharing, for example Macmillan's Team Up initiative, where local people can help those suffering with cancer.
While the advent of sharing lifestyles should in the main help relieve pressure on resources, there could, however, be some unexpected knock-on effects.
For example, cheaper and more accessible taxi services could well provide an increasingly attractive alternative to public transport, exacerbating rather than reducing emissions of CO2 and pollutants.
Indeed there is increasing talk of a "rebound effect, where people who share have more money to spend on things, which muddies the water a little," says David Symons, director of consultancy WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff.
But given that those who embrace sharing are by their very nature less obsessed with accumulating material possessions than previous generations, sharing must be seen as a force for good. | We humans do love to acquire stuff. |
30,600,037 | The question many would ask as we approach 2015: is the world less safe than it was at the start of 2014 due to extremism? What have we learned about the nature of extremist terrorism and what does it tell us about future trends?
The first thing to note is that these groups did not suddenly change into bloodthirsty organisations in 2014.
What changed was that the Western world was awoken to their horrors.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had established a penchant for beheadings by 2004 when he founded al-Qaeda in Iraq, which eventually became IS.
Long after his death in 2006, the group consistently employed his ghastly methods. For example, in June 2013, it publically decapitated two men.
The Vatican originally identified one victim as a Catholic priest, a charge later denied by some sources.
The point remains that IS-style horrors have occurred for more than a decade without much attention being paid.
The TTP too had a long track record of brutal murder.
It has bombed innocent men, women and children in mosques, market places and in their homes. These attacks occurred almost weekly over the past decade.
The Peshawar school massacre was only distinctive in its scale and in directly targeting Pakistan's elite families.
Boko Haram came into existence in 2002.
By 2009 it had killed more than 5,000 people, mostly civilians, but was only proscribed by the US in late 2013, months before its shocking abduction of the schoolgirls.
Reports of child marriage, rape and murder of the girls continue to horrify their friends and families. The girls seem no closer to being released.
The success of these three groups owes as much to the failure of established governments as it does to their own strategies.
Boko Haram exploits the grievances caused by the economic corruption and ineffectiveness of the Nigerian state, which in turn has partly resulted from the encouragement of corruption by some firms operating in the region.
Years of corruption within the defence ministry and Nigerian army have meant that the army has so far proved incapable of confronting Boko Haram.
Similarly, IS gained strength by mugging groups receiving Western-backed financial and material support for the Syrian opposition.
The free rein given to Shia militia by the Nouri al-Maliki regime in Iraq, leading to the torture and murder of thousands of Sunnis and Baathists, provided IS with ready support in Iraq's Sunni majority areas.
Politicisation of senior Iraqi army positions, financial mismanagement and a lack of national leadership were as much the reason for Islamic State's spectacular territorial gains as any inherent military brilliance of its commanders and fighters.
The TTP also survived because of a lack of commitment by the Pakistani army to completely eradicate it, brought about by the army's desire to discriminate between elements that were useful to the country's foreign policy and those that were not.
Allegedly its neighbour, Afghanistan, was playing a similar game by allowing the TTP's leader Mullah Fazlullah to take sanctuary on its soil, while the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) looked on.
Previously, the Pakistani army conceded to Mullah Fazlullah's demands for Islamic law, or Sharia, to be implemented in certain areas.
Rather than pacifying him, the concession emboldened him.
"Secular" politicians, including Imran Khan, have lent credibility by supporting the Taliban's grievances against US drone strikes and in calling for talks to accommodate their demands.
What these patterns tell us is that terrorist organisations need to be confronted early to prevent them growing in strength and employing increasingly terrifying tactics.
Successful confrontation requires effective and just governance and a security strategy that fights all terrorists, without nurturing any that might prove useful for short-term political benefits.
Terrorism is primarily a rhetorical act intended to send a message. Without an audience, it has little utility.
So the increasing use of social media in communicating terrorist messages makes the imperative to counter violent extremism that much greater.
Even if the proposed measures to force internet companies to censor terrorist communications come into force, terrorists will always be able to get some messages through, just as they will always be able to get some bombs and bullets past good security systems.
The challenge for societies is to react and respond to terrorist communications in a different way.
Terrorists do and say things they believe will be successful.
When journalists and analysts comment on terrorist communications they unwittingly serve the terrorists' purpose.
While ignoring them is not a realistic option, highlighting their failures whenever reporting on terrorism is an important way to achieve a balance.
Not enough has been made of the failure of Islamic State's strategy to use beheading videos to deter the West from getting involved in Iraq. The result has been the opposite.
The massive repulsion of the vast majority of Muslims to all three groups mentioned, the many conferences and rallies, have been grossly under reported.
The most positive new development in terrorism has been that its veneer of championing a noble cause has been stripped to reveal its vulgar lust for violence.
By targeting children, education, sympathetic journalists and aid workers it has exposed its inherent ignorance, its absence of humanity and its innate cowardice.
No counter-narrative could have done this as effectively as the behaviour of these terrorists.
Even al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban have been forced to condemn the actions of IS and TTP, their ideological offspring.
The behaviour of Boko Haram, IS and the TTP does not just discredit al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban but also the political ideology that inspires them.
The very idea of mixing religion and political activism pioneered by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East and Jamaat-e-Islami in the Indian sub-continent is now seriously challenged.
Their ideas survive not because of their attraction but because the alternative forms of government in the relevant countries fail to provide the dignity and living standards required by their citizens.
The attraction of terrorism has therefore been reduced to the myth of success through violence.
As long as IS can continue to hold the territory it seized, it will continue to attract people from across the world, seduced by the idea of fighting to create a "utopian" state.
As long as the TTP can kill Pakistan's religious minorities and strike at the military, its largely brainwashed madrassa graduates will sacrifice themselves to commit vile acts of terror to establish their interpretation of Sharia.
As long as the Nigerian army retreats from the advances of Boko Haram, it will capture and abuse children of all backgrounds to prevent what it regards as foreign influences.
In 2014, Islamist terrorists handed the world a half victory by discrediting their own ideology.
The other half, arguably the easier half, requires the establishment of better governance at both the national and international levels.
It also requires more rapid and effective use of force to undermine the territorial and operational gains by which these organisations define their success.
Optimism for 2015 is prevented by pitifully slow progress on both these fronts.
Dr Afzal Ashraf is a consultant fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi). He was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force and worked as a counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency strategist for the US Commanding General and US ambassador in Iraq, as well as head of the Political Military Section in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office | Boko Haram's kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls, the graphic beheadings of journalists and aid workers by Islamic State (IS) and the Pakistani Taliban's (TTP) cold-blooded murder of schoolchildren in Peshawar have meant that 2014 has been characterised more by terrorism than any year since 2001. |
32,886,960 | At present, there is no channel for Scottish referees to outline their reasoning.
"If there was an opportunity, at times it would be good to explain decisions, but it is not my decision," he said.
"Right after a match isn't necessarily a good time because sometimes people would judge too quickly."
Collum explained: "Even when I'm judging my own performances, sometimes it's better to watch a match two or three days after rather than the evening of the match because sometimes you are too raw.
"But any opportunity when the Scottish FA ask me to speak to the media, I am happy to speak to the media."
Collum stressed how much hurt and disappointment officials feel after making an incorrect decision.
But he thinks his appointment to a Champions League quarter-final this season is an indication that Scottish referees are highly regarded across Europe.
"When I was a very young boy, interested in football, I never dreamt I would walk out and be on the field for a Champions League quarter final," he said.
"It is what dreams are made of, not just for me but the other five guys who accompanied me in that match.
"Anybody who is wanting to knock Scottish refereeing, you don't just get these appointments by chance - it is about performance and also performance domestically.
"We are not just judged only on Uefa matches. We are also judged on our performance in domestic matches as well."
Collum is taking charge of Inverness CT v Falkirk at Hampden on Saturday, his second Scottish Cup final, and he will be thoroughly prepared.
"People think that referees come on a Saturday and put their kit on, referee the match then forget about it until the next Saturday or next appointment comes in," he added.
"That's far from the truth. I can tell you on a Saturday or Sunday night whenever I've rewound the clip a hundred times, my wife is a wee bit fed up with that and my kids can't watch their cartoons.
"We take it very seriously. We are always trying to improve.
"We try to dust ourselves down from the mistakes, look at the mistake, see how we're going to improve on it.
"It is always important to learn no matter if it was a game without many mistakes or a major error.
"But, the old adage, we're humans and we always make mistakes - that's just the reality of refereeing." | Scottish Cup final referee Willie Collum would welcome the chance to explain decisions publically - but not immediately after a match. |
38,937,134 | Twenty-one groups will be in with a shout of winning the $7m Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE.
Some are professional scientists and engineers; some are just students.
Each team will enter a 2,000m-deep, 500-sq-km test zone in turn later this year and try to map at least 20% of it at a resolution of 5m.
They will also have to return, in addition to their bathymetric map, five images of sub-surface features that are of archaeological, biological or geological interest.
Operation within the test zone is limited to 16 hours.
The XPRIZE was launched in late 2015 to address the paucity of knowledge about our oceans.
Only 5% of the seafloor has been mapped using modern methods. Even around the UK, a nation with a long maritime history, almost a third of coastal waters have yet to be surveyed in detail.
The entire Moon, in contrast, is known to a resolution of 7m, thanks to satellite observations.
"At the close of registration in September last year we had 32 teams, and after the judges looked at their technical document submissions we're now moving to 21," explained Dr Jyotika Virmani, the prize lead and senior director with XPRIZE's Energy and Environment Group.
"Collectively, there are about 350 people involved in the various teams and they represent 25 countries. So, this is truly a global effort," she told BBC News.
The XPRIZE initiative hopes to foster new approaches that can eventually be used to fill in the big data gaps.
That means the competition has to be challenging. Teams will have to deploy their solutions from land or from the air; and they cannot themselves be in the survey area at the time.
This means no cable can be used to remotely operate vehicles; they will all need to be fully autonomous.
This is pushing the groups to think how best to use the technologies, from drones that can both fly and swim to robots that act underwater like a swarm.
Oceanzus is a team based in Durham, New Hampshire, and is led by James Case. He is an industry professional with experience in autonomous and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs and AUVs).
His group has the concept of continuous operation in mind. The team is putting together an autonomous surface "mothership" that would deploy a sub-surface vehicle that itself would then release multiple survey assets at depth.
"We decided we weren't going to develop a new AUV, we weren't going to develop new pieces of survey hardware - we would instead develop a platform that supports just about any survey assets that the world can throw at it," he told BBC News.
"It's a continuous deployment platform from both the surface all the way to full ocean depth. Therefore you can perform survey operations 24/7, 365."
The sub-surface deployment platform is to be called the MX-1. It will support six AUVs that will do the actual survey work, and a further two AUVs that will shuttle back and forth to the surface to cycle power and data.
Up to 10 teams are expected to progress through the semi-final to the final, which will be held before the end of 2018.
In the final, the teams will need to operate at a depth of 4,000m; at least 50% of the 500-sq-km zone will need to be mapped, again at 5m resolution; and the time limit will be set to 24 hours.
The number of archaeological, biological or geological features that must be identified and photographed will be 10 or more.
The organisers say they will announce the precise location of the semi-final test zone in mid-summer.
XPRIZE partner, Fugro, the big international geoconsulting firm that led the search for the missing airliner MH370, will have previously produced a baseline map of the area so the judges can properly assess what the competing teams produce.
A full list of the competition teams is on the XPRIZE website.
[email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos | The international competition to drive innovation in seafloor mapping has announced the teams that will take part in its semi-final stage. |
35,559,398 | Akhtar Javeed, 56, from West Ham, was gunned down outside his warehouse in Digbeth, Birmingham on 3 February.
The 18-year-old was arrested in Derby on Thursday night and is in police custody.
A silver Renault Megane has also been seized and is being examined. Police had been looking for a similar car seen in the area at the time.
On the day of the shooting two masked men in a silver Renault Megane entered Direct Source 3 Ltd on Rea Street South, police have said.
Five staff members were handcuffed with cable ties and it appeared Mr Javeed was shot while fighting off the attackers.
He was found outside his business premises with a "major neck wound" and pronounced dead in hospital.
The robbers escaped empty-handed in the Renault Megane and turned on to McDonald Street, without their vehicle lights on, detectives said.
Det Ch Insp Martin Slevin of West Midlands Police said investigations into the Mr Javeed's death are continuing.
"We are still appealing for anyone who saw a silver Renault Megane in or around that time to get in touch," he said.
Detectives are also keen to speak to two people - a worker pushing a bike and a private hire taxi driver - also seen in the area at the time. | An 18-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a man shot and killed during a raid at his warehouse. |
33,150,177 | The club said it would be inviting Danny Simpson to contribute to an internal hearing this week.
The 28-year-old former Manchester United player avoided jail after he was found guilty of the attack.
He was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work at Manchester Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Simpson was arrested on 29 December after police had been called to reports of a row at a house in Worsley, Greater Manchester.
During his trial, he had denied trying to strangle his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child, Stephanie Ward.
Ms Ward later withdrew her statement and did not support the prosecution.
On Tuesday, the Foxes said they had now noted Simpson's sentence.
A statement read: "Now that legal proceedings have concluded, Danny will be invited to contribute to an internal hearing in the coming days where the extent of any club disciplinary measures will be determined."
Simpson, from Eccles, Greater Manchester, has also played for Newcastle and QPR.
He previously said he intends to appeal against the conviction. | A Leicester City FC footballer faces a club disciplinary hearing after being convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend. |
38,898,823 | 8 February 2017 Last updated at 15:59 GMT
The former Bongo Maffin singer tells the BBC why she thinks their anti-apartheid rebel music still resonates today.
Performance footage courtesy of Thandiswa Mazwai | Thandiswa Mazwai’s new album pays homage to some of the South Africa’s iconic jazz musicians. |
38,808,775 | Yn yr un modd, mae mwy o ysgolion wedi eu rhoi yn y categori gwyrdd - lle mae angen lefelau is o gefnogaeth arnynt.
Dyma'r drydedd flwyddyn i'r system liwiau gael ei defnyddio gyda phob ysgol yn cael gradd gan ddibynnu ar nifer o feini prawf.
Mae ysgolion yn cael eu didoli i gategori lliw sy'n mynd o wyrdd, i felyn, oren a choch.
Bydd y manylion yn cael eu cyhoeddi yma maes o law.
Fe gafodd canlyniadau 2016 eu cyhoeddi ar wefan Fy Ysgol Leol.
Yn ôl y ffigyrau diweddara' mae 54 o ysgolion uwchradd yn y categori gwyrdd, a 21 yn y categori coch.
Llynedd, 39 oedd yn y categori gwyrdd, gyda 26 yn ysgolion coch.
O ran ysgolion cynradd, mae 355 o ysgolion categori gwyrdd eleni, a 22 o rai coch.
Llynedd, roedd 294 o ysgolion cynradd gwyrdd, a 32 o rai coch.
Mae'r ffigyrau yn dangos fod cyfran yr ysgolion gwyrdd wedi cynyddu 5% yn y sector cynradd a 7% yn y sector uwchradd.
Hefyd mae'r ffigyrau yn dangos fod cyfran yr ysgolion coch wedi gostwng 1% yn y sector cynradd a 2% yn y sector uwchradd.
Mae 41% ysgolion arbennig wedi'u categoreiddio'n ysgolion gwyrdd.
Dim ond 8% sydd wedi'u categoreiddio'n ysgolion coch y mae angen y gefnogaeth fwyaf arnynt.
Dywedodd Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet dros Addysg, Kirsty Williams: "Nid graddio, labelu na llunio tablau cynghrair amrwd yw nod y system hon ond yn hytrach, mae'n ymwneud â darparu cefnogaeth ac annog ein hysgolion i wella.
"Mae'r ffigyrau rydym wedi'u cyhoeddi heddiw yn dangos bod 84.4% o ysgolion cynradd a 64.6% o ysgolion uwchradd yn y categorïau gwyrdd a melyn erbyn hyn.
"Mae'r cynnydd hwn i'w groesawu, a bydd gan yr ysgolion hyn rôl allweddol i'w chwarae er mwyn cefnogi ysgolion eraill, drwy rannu eu sgiliau, eu harbenigedd a'u harferion da."
Fe gyhoeddwyd y canlyniadau perfformiad cyntaf yn ôl y drefn newydd yma yn 2015, ac ers hynny mae'r nifer o ysgolion yn y categori gwyrdd - ac sydd angen lleiaf o gymorth felly - wedi cynyddu o flwyddyn i flwyddyn.
Yn yr un modd mae'r nifer o ysgolion coch - sydd angen y cymorth mwyaf - wedi parhau i gwympo.
Ond tra bod Llywodraeth Cymru, awdurdodau lleol a chonsortia addysg yn ymfalchïo yn y canlyniadau, mae'n werth nodi bod undebau dysgu'n parhau'n amheus am y modd yma o asesu ysgolion gan ddadlau nad yw'n llwyr ystyried yr holl ffactorau all ddylanwadu ar berfformiad ysgol.
Ac wythnos yn ôl fe gyhoeddodd y corff arolygu Estyn, adroddiad a feirniadodd safon y dysgu mewn ysgolion uwchradd yn enwedig.
Dywedodd llefarydd ar ran UCAC fod y ffigyrau yn bositif ond eu bod yn parhau yn amheus iawn "o broses sy'n gosod ysgol yn erbyn ysgol".
"Mae'n dangos fod safonau yn codi yn y sector cynradd ac uwchradd," meddai Ywain Myfyr, sy'n Swyddog Polisi efo'r undeb.
"Mae hyn yn amlwg yn adlewyrchu gwaith caled athrawon wrth addysgu a chefnogi disgyblion o bob oedran.
"Mae yn dangos ymdrechion mawr ysgolion sy'n wynebu heriau enfawr y dyddiau yma o safbwynt llwyth gwaith, diffyg adnoddau ariannol a thoriadau staffio."
Dywedodd David Evans, Ysgrifennydd yr NUT yng Nghymru, fod y ffigyrau yn rhai positif.
"Ond ni ddylwn gamddehongli'r ffaith fod categoreiddio ond yn un fodel o asesu, ac yn ddarlun o un rhan o'r perfformiad," meddai.
"Fe fydd perfformiad ysgolion yn amrywio oherwydd sawl rheswm, gan gynnwys y cyllid sydd ar gael a ffactorau eraill.
"Beth sy'n bwysig yw ein bod yn defnyddio'r canlyniadau mewn modd synhwyrol mewn modd i gefnogi ysgolion." | Mae canlyniadau ar gyfer perfformiad ysgolion Cymru yn dangos fod nifer yr ysgolion sydd angen y lefel uchaf o gymorth - ysgolion yn y categori coch - wedi gostwng o'i gymharu â'r llynedd. |
38,639,061 | The female cat was thrown out of a stationary, dark-coloured 4x4 onto Oakfield Street in the early hours of Wednesday.
It is not clear whether the cat was purposely dumped or had climbed into the car.
It was picked up by a member of the public who looked after it before it was taken to the Scottish SPCA centre in Edinburgh.
SSPCA Ch Insp John Chisholm said: "She's been named Cleo by our centre staff in Edinburgh where she is now recovering from her ordeal.
"We are unsure if she was purposely dumped or climbed into the person's car accidentally.
"She's a friendly cat but is still slightly nervous, which is understandable as she's not had the best couple of days."
Abandoning an animal is an offence under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.
Anyone found guilty of doing so can expect to be banned from keeping animals for a fixed period or life. | A cat has been rescued after being thrown out of 4x4 car in Kelty, Fife. |
37,348,019 | The central teams and departments dedicated to protecting information were found to be operating without cohesion and governance.
There are 73 teams and 1,600 staff across government with data security responsibilities.
However there was a lack of awareness among staff about who to contact for guidance, the NAO said.
"None of the departments we interviewed understood the specific roles of the various bodies involved, making it difficult to identify any single arbiter of standards or guidance," the report stated.
The Cabinet Office came under fire for failing to establish leadership in the area.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the majority of the data breaches cited in this report were "very minor", but acknowledged it needed to do more.
"The Cabinet Office conducted its own review of government security in early 2016 and many of our findings are consistent with the NAO report.
"So we are already well under way in strengthening oversight of information security by bringing together nine separate central teams into just two.
"We have also appointed the government's first ever Chief Security Officer to bring together all disciplines of government security under central leadership," they added.
In addition three major projects: the Government Security Classifications (GSC) system, the Public Services Network (PSN) and Foxhound, which were supposed to have delivered significant financial savings, had yet to do so, the report found.
The PSN, a network designed to limit duplication in the public sector by allowing various organisations to share data, was forecast to save £200m - £400m per year in 2012. By 2014 it had saved just £103m and no further savings are expected, according to the NAO.
It was also criticised for its lack of security.
"The increased security requirements, for example around encrypting data, proved problematic and too costly for many local authorities," the NAO noted.
"For example, many local authority staff used mobile digital devices that represented 'unsecured endpoints', potentially allowing unauthorised access to the PSN."
The report also described the reporting of security breaches within government as "dysfunctional".
"Departments must report data breaches in their annual reports, but each organisation reports its breaches in different ways," it stated.
"Protecting information while re-designing public services and introducing the technology necessary to support them is an increasingly complex challenge," said Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office.
"To achieve this, the Cabinet Office, departments and the wider public sector need a new approach, in which the centre of government provides clear principles and guidance and departments increase their capacity to make informed decisions about the risks involved." | The National Audit Office has issued a damning report of the UK government's approach to digital security. |
36,782,640 | Unite and the RMT have been in dispute with the firm over what the trade unions have described as a "swingeing" proposed pay cut.
Unite's ballot had a turnout of 86.6% and 99.1% voted for strike action, while 98.5% of the RMT's turnout of 67% also backed taking the same action.
Wood Group said it was "extremely disappointed" by the results.
It said it has addressed every significant concern and a resolution to the dispute would safeguard jobs.
There are 327 workers involved and most work on North Sea platforms Shearwater, Gannet, Nelson, Curlew, Brent Delta, Brent Alpha, Brent Bravo and Brent Charlie.
Wood Group provides maintenance and construction services to the installations, having signed a new three-year contract extension with Shell earlier this year.
In February, Wood Group announced it was cutting rates paid to about a third of its UK contractor workforce.
It blamed the "continuing cost and efficiency challenges affecting the UK North Sea oil and gas sector".
John Boland, Unite regional officer, said talks had failed to find "an acceptable deal" for the workforce in the pay dispute.
He said: "We now find ourselves forced down the route of industrial action and in the coming days the workforce will determine the timing and nature of that action.
"That said, we remain available for talks should the company wish to consider an alternative offer.
"However, any talks must respect the workers and especially with regards to exercising their democratic rights in a dispute situation."
Jake Molloy, RMT regional organiser, said employees, who had gone through two rounds of redundancy and were working longer under increased workloads, now faced reductions in their salaries.
He added: "The workforce message is clear. Enough is enough and it's little wonder we find ourselves in this situation."
Wood Group's Dave Stewart said the company remained committed to reaching a resolution, which would meet a "mutual goal of safeguarding jobs".
He said: "We are extremely disappointed with the outcome of the ballot.
"Throughout the extensive consultation with our offshore employees we have been fair and transparent, addressing every significant concern that our employees and the unions have expressed."
Industry body Oil & Gas UK and Shell said they were disappointed by the outcome of the ballots.
Shell's Paul Goodfellow said: "We hope that Wood Group's employees and management can resolve their issues.
"Our priority is to ensure that the safety of our people and assets will not be compromised during any industrial action." | Members of two unions at oil and gas company Wood Group have voted in favour of going on strike. |
38,971,336 | The visitors led 15-8 at the break, with Liam Sutcliffe kicking a drop goal after Adam Cuthbertson, Ryan Hall and Jimmy Keinhorst went over for tries.
Leigh's first-half tries came from Matty Dawson and Mitch Brown.
Ben Crooks got a third Centurions try after the break, but a Sutcliff penalty proved enough to seal victory.
Winger Dawson got Leigh's Super League homecoming off to an ideal start, opening the scoring after four minutes, with full-back Brown adding a second try soon after.
Prop Cuthbertson was the catalyst for the Rhinos' response, crashing through for a try within a minute of coming off the bench, while hooker Matt Parcell was instrumental in allowing second rower Carl Ablett to get winger Hall over for a second try.
Keinhorst forced his way over for Leeds' third try on 32 minutes, with Sutcliffe edging the visitors further ahead with a drop-goal from 40 metres.
After the interval both sides had chances before Leeds eventually added to the lead after Leigh had Jamie Acton sin-binned for a foul on winger Tom Briscoe.
Despite playing against 12 men, Leeds could only add two points from the boot of Sutcliffe, and Crooks set up a pulsating finish with a try 13 minutes from the end, with Keinhorst then making a try-saving tackle on Atelea Vea to ensure the win.
Leigh Centurions coach Neil Jukes:
"It was a big improvement but I'm really disappointed with the result.
"We hung in there for long enough and I thought there were two big moments at the end on our right edge, where we needed to pass the ball.
"They are fine margins and we've got to make sure we take them. We're going to have to win some tight games and to do that we've got to nail the plays when they are presented to us."
Leeds Rhinos boss Brian McDermott:
"I'm pretty pleased and proud of the defensive effort we showed in the second half but disappointed with what we did with the ball and how many times we turned it over, probably in the most cheapest fashion I've seen.
"There was error after error which is clearly not going to get us too far this year.
"But I know from experience that you can correct those things within a matter of days. What you can't put into a team is the toughness and steel you need to be to go through those tough periods."
Leigh Centurions: Brown, Higson, Crooks, Tonga, Dawson, Reynolds, Drinkwater, Hock, Pelissier, Maria, Paterson, Vea, Hansen.
Replacements: Hampshire, Hopkins, Acton, Tickle.
Leeds Rhinos: Golding, Briscoe, Watkins, Keinhorst, Hall, Sutcliffe, Burrow, Mullally, Parcell, Singleton, Ward, Ablett, Jones-Buchanan.
Replacements: Cuthbertson, Walters, Ormondroyd, McGuire.
Referee: Jack Smith (RFL) | Leeds Rhinos edged to their first win of the season by overcoming Leigh in the Centurions' first Super League home game for almost 12 years. |
39,060,714 | The men were sentenced to two years in jail last week for beating a handcuffed protester during the 2014 pro-democracy demonstrations.
The sentence angered many officers, who believe it was unjust and too harsh.
About 33,000 people attended Wednesday night's gathering at a police recreation ground, according to police associations which organised the event.
Organisers said they would help the jailed officers appeal against their convictions and clear their names, reported RTHK.
Many were heard yelling "Fight for justice" at the two-hour rally, one of the largest of its kind and a rare sign of police dissent.
The seven officers were sentenced to jail last week for assaulting social worker and activist Ken Tsang in 2014.
TV cameras had caught the officers removing Mr Tsang from the protest area to a nearby park and kicking and punching him as he lay on the ground.
It came at the height of the massive street protests calling for greater political freedom, which shut down central areas of the territory for weeks.
The incident shocked Hong Kong, where police are generally well regarded.
Mr Tsang was himself found guilty of assaulting and resisting officers on the same evening.
In sentencing the policemen, Judge David Dufton noted they had been working under "immense stress" but that there was "no justification" for their actions.
The officers' defence lawyer, as well as some in the police force, have argued that policemen at the time had to endure physical and verbal abuse from protesters.
One participant at Wednesday's rally told the South China Morning Post that the event was "a deep and heartfelt expression of genuine support for our colleagues and their families, who we feel have been unfairly treated and whose actions came out of a time of highly charged political emotion and stress".
Chan Cho Kwong, chairman of the Hong Kong Junior Police Officers Association, told Reuters: "Many people think that the police are professional and should tolerate these deliberate insults. But we have different views, we think that some deliberate insult should not be tolerated, which undermines law and order."
Several police associations plan to lobby the city's government to ban insulting acts against public officers on duty, reported the Post. | Thousands of Hong Kong police officers have staged a rally in support of seven policemen jailed for assault. |
18,993,884 | Bachchan said he was "honoured" to be asked to carry the flame and that it was "a proud moment for me and the country".
The actor was part of a relay team carrying the torch.
The 69-year-old star has acted in more than 180 films and remains India's most popular actor.
"Honoured to be asked to carry the Olympic torch in London at Southwark around 10:30 BST," Bachchan tweeted on Wednesday evening.
The star is not the only Indian celebrity to be associated with the London Olympics.
Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman has teamed up with Danny Boyle, artistic director of the opening ceremony, to compose a track for the pageant, reports say.
Rahman has written on his Facebook page that he has composed a "track in Punjabi celebrating the Indian influence in the UK".
"It's a part of a medley in the Olympic opening ceremony, according to Danny Boyle's creative wishes", he wrote. | Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan has carried the Olympic flame in London on Thursday, a day before the opening ceremony. |
34,138,462 | Thames Water said the burst pipe in Broughton Road, Banbury, left those in the OX16 postcode area without water or with low pressure.
Firefighters worked to stop homes from getting flooded. The flow of water was stopped at about 13:00 BST and supplies have since begun to return to normal.
The road has been closed between Bath Road and Beargarden Road.
It is not yet know why the burst occurred. | A burst water pipe in Oxfordshire has caused flooding in a road and left homes without water. |
39,054,422 | On the one hand a crowd of more than 4,000 at Cardiff Arms Park yielded a profit on a Wales women's home for the first time.
But the 63-0 scoreline in favour of England underlined that in spite of the strides made off the field there remains a chasm in playing terms between the very best and the rest.
So what's next for the women's game in Wales?
And how can they bridge the playing gap between the full-time professionals of England and the amateurs with jobs who wear the red shirts?
Wales women's team manager Caroline Spanton says despite the heavy defeat to England, playing all home games at Cardiff Arms Park has been an important development.
In previous seasons Wales have played home matches at various stadiums around the country.
"In terms of everything else around that day and that event it was hugely successful," she said.
"First of all it was to get the girls playing in a stadium of the right quality and of an international footing. That was a huge milestone in terms of Wales' women being represented in quality stadia.
"[It was] hugely positive. Playing in the Arms Park was not a decision that happened overnight.
"That has been a good 18 months in the making to make sure could do that" Spanton added.
The squad is coached by former Wales men's defence coach Rowland Phillips who made 10 appearances for Wales in the back row.
He saw a positive aspect to the defeat by an England team made up of either fully or semi-professional athletes.
"I think the main thing now is that I've got 23 players who have experienced absolute top level rugby and that is going to be invaluable going forward," he said.
"What we can do now is to try and close that gap".
Olympian Jasmine Joyce makes her debut in the full-form of the sport against Scotland on Friday night after appearing for Team GB's seven a side team at the 2016 Rio Games.
Student Joyce says it is challenging at times for the women in red to handle rugby and life commitments.
"We have teachers, personal trainers, it is hard work and a lot of girls find it hard to fit in a gym sessions in or running but we all fit it in somewhere and that is what makes us our team," she said.
"It is hard work."
Spanton says the team's immediate focus is not success on the field during the current season.
"We are looking and planning for the future so we are not talking about the next year or 18 months," she said.
"We know this is a long term plan.
"Rowland said this is not about the Six Nations for 2017 or necessarily the World Cup in 2017 it is about the next four years and the next eight years and he is committed to that.
"On the performance front our aspirations are to get on the [World Rugby Sevens] World Series for our sevens programme, to achieve success at the Commonwealth Games in the longer term and also to medal at the World Cup
"My role is to champion and lobby for the women's game and it is to champion and make sure these athletes get better support.
"I will not stop until I make sure we are getting it and looking after these players and I do have the backing of the Union for that".
Joyce says any women's player from would jump at the chance to become a professional.
In the build-up to Rio she spent a year playing and preparing full-time as a sevens player so understands the benefits of not having to juggle a job or studies with playing.
"As a player anyone would dream of a being a professional rugby player and that is the route we all want to go down," she said. | Wales' match against England in the Women's Six Nations was a bittersweet experience for the people running the game in Wales. |
37,320,564 | Amina Al-Jeffery, 22, who was born and brought up in Swansea, was taken to Jeddah in 2012 by her father, Mohammed, who said he did it to "save her life".
Mr Al-Jeffery denied the allegations at the High Court.
In August, Mr Justice Holman said she had been "deprived of her liberty" and her father must facilitate her return.
Swansea West MP Geraint Davies said Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson must "secure Amina's right to liberty" if her father did not comply with the court order.
Delivering the court order last month, Mr Justice Holman said Mr Al-Jeffery "must permit and facilitate the return of Amina if she so wishes to Wales or England and pay the airfare" by 11 September.
However, the judge accepted there was "little or nothing this court could do" to enforce the order if Mr Al-Jeffery "was determined not to comply with it".
But he said Mr Al-Jeffery might face contempt of court proceedings if he returned to Britain without having complied.
Ms Al-Jeffery, who has dual nationality, said her father took the action against her will after she "kissed a guy". | A father who is claimed to have kept his daughter locked up against her will in Saudi Arabia has until Sunday to return her to Britain. |
40,544,725 | Media playback is not supported on this device
We are down to the last 16 names in the women's singles on the Wimbledon grass but which one of them will win it is about as clear as mud.
"There is no-one who I would say for sure will be in the final," said Kim Clijsters, a four-time Grand Slam winner.
"There is no real favourite and it makes it so exciting. We can puzzle about it now, but I love that there are going to be surprises."
Former world number one Tracy Austin, a regular as a player and a pundit at SW19 since her debut here in 1977, also expects an eventful second week.
"In my 40 years coming to Wimbledon I have never seen a women's tournament as wide open as this one," she said. "I have no idea who will win.
"There are 16 women left in the draw and I legitimately think that there are 10 who have an opportunity to win this title. It will come down to who can handle the pressure and the nerves and some of these players have never been on this stage before.
"It is a really interesting time, with Serena Williams away on maternity leave and Maria Sharapova missing the first few months of the year through suspension.
"With two of the biggest names absent, there has been a real opportunity for someone to step up and fill that void, but it has not happened yet.
"Venus Williams is the only former Wimbledon winner left, so there is a big chance of a new champion - that would a life-changer for them because this is the biggest tournament in the world, and winning it would be a dream come true."
So, who will get their hands on the Venus Rosewater Dish on Centre Court on Saturday?
Clijsters and Austin look at the chances of some of the contenders.
Kim Clijsters: "She is the bookmakers' favourite but that does not really mean anything. Johanna is a smart girl and she knows she should not take it all too seriously - she just has to focus on one match at a time.
"Her next opponent is Caroline Garcia, who did very well at the French Open. Garcia is a very tricky player, with good hands and great volleys so she will not be an easy opponent - but I think Konta will win.
"It is her consistency that might make the difference for Johanna when it comes to getting through next week - she is the most consistent player out of everyone left.
"She might find it difficult against someone like Jelena Ostapenko or Ana Konjuh - big hitters who can make it hard for a lot of players - but she has every potential to be the champion."
Tracy Austin: "Konta had never got past the second round here before this year but she looks in amazing form.
"She came into the tournament in good form on grass so has real momentum, as well as the home support, and she seems to be handling the pressure.
"Her section of the draw is the toughest, but she can only play one match at a time so she should not be worrying about that."
Tracy Austin: "I see Halep as a possible winner but she is playing Victoria Azarenka in round four - boy, that is a tough draw.
"Azarenka is a two-time major champ now ranked 683 in the world after taking a year out. If I am Halep, I am thinking 'wow - how come I got the dangerous sleeper?'"
Kim Clijsters: "Simona has got the game for grass - she showed that in 2014. With her height and the way she moves, she is always balanced and she reads the game well.
"Simona is very consistent, but I think her coach Darren Cahill is trying to work with her on being a little bit more aggressive at times because that is what you need if you want to win here."
Kim Clijsters: "Ostapenko was so fearless in Paris and at times she was making a lot of unforced errors, but mentally she wasn't letting it get to her which was incredible to watch.
"She's still in the draw, still fighting and still doing her thing with a lot of confidence. Do I think she's going to win it? I don't know. There are a few players who are a little more consistent."
Tracy Austin: "There is a lot of expectation around Jelena after she won the French Open, but she is doing a good job of dealing with it.
"She has a tough match next, though, against Elina Svitolina - nobody ever brings her up, but she has won four titles this year.
"Svitolina's game does not seem to translate to grass, but that has not stopped her making it this far."
Tracy Austin: "Who would have thought that playing her 20th Wimbledon, Venus would still be such a huge factor?
"She is getting through matches rather than playing well but because the draw is so wide open, she plays so well on this surface and feels so comfortable here as the five-time former champion, she could certainly make the transition in form and win next Saturday."
Tracy Austin: "Konjuh is only 19 so Venus has been coming to Wimbledon before she was even on this earth.
"It just underlines the tremendous amount of variety in the 16 players that are left, and there are so many stories there."
Kim Clijsters: "Ana is actually one of my favourites to win. I love how she plays, and her attitude - she is aggressive, with a positive mind-set and she will definitely cause Venus problems when they meet in the fourth round
"That match especially is what this situation is all about. The new generation against someone who has played through a lot of generations already. It will be great to see, and I hope I get to commentate on it."
Tracy Austin: "My outsider would be Coco. She has been working with Pat Cash, who is a terrific coach. As a former Wimbledon champion, I think he is really going to help her figure out what shots to play on this surface.
"She has got a huge serve, powerful groundstrokes and loves to come forward to finish off points - so she has got a chance."
Kim Clijsters, who won the 2009 US Open 18 months after the birth of daughter Jada: "This is only Azarenka's second tournament since coming back after giving birth, but once you step out on a practice court or a match court, your routine is there.
"Like me, she has played tennis for so many years before she had her kid and it is so easy to get back into that bubble and to know the game and how to read your opponent.
"That is something she did very well against Britain's Heather Watson in round three. Maybe Azarenka is not playing her best tennis, but she is still able to play the important moments well."
Tracy Austin: "'Aggy' has actually won the second most grass-court matches of anybody on the WTA Tour right now behind Venus Williams. Radwanska has 60, Venus has 89.
"She has not really played well this year until Wimbledon, but I watched her play a fantastic match in round three on Saturday, and her game really is tailor-made for grass."
Kim Clijsters: "Venus is the only former Wimbledon winner left but also in the last 16 are Svetlana Kuznetsova, Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber, who have all won Grand Slams before.
"Svetlana knows what it is like to win a major tournament and that is something that is so important in the later rounds.
Tracy Austin: "Kuznetsova has got her consistency back but the question is, can she break through on this surface in her early 30s?
Tracy Austin: "Kerber had a tremendous 2016 but 2017 has been very disappointing for her so far, and she was close to going out in round three - Shelby Rogers had points to go a set and 5-2 up.
"But one win could turn it around for the world number one, and it could be that one she eventually got on Saturday. We know she has quality, it is just her confidence that is lacking.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"Kerber is playing Garbine Muguruza, another former Wimbledon finalist, in round four but then you have also have Magdalena Rybarikova who is ranked 87 in the world, playing against Petra Martic, ranked 135.
"So you have two players outside the top 100 looking for a quarter-final spot at Wimbledon - that is incredible." | Will it be the Briton, the veteran former champ, the young sensation, the new mum, the number one - or someone else? |
39,365,200 | The theme of the inaugural Wild Film Festival Scotland is "amazing journeys, wild places and rewilding".
Leading naturalists and broadcasters have been lined up for the event, which runs until Sunday at venues throughout the town.
They include film-maker Simon King of the Big Cat Diary fame, and Springwatch presenter Iolo Williams.
About 30 films will be screened during the three-day event, from full-length features to documentaries and shorts.
Organisers have promised an "exciting weekend of award-winning films, stunning photography, celebrity guests, inspirational talks, controversy, art and music."
Among the headline speakers is Sacha Dench, the woman dubbed the "human swan", who announced earlier this week that she plans a powered paraglider flight from tip to toe of the Hebrides. | A new festival celebrating the very best wildlife film and photography is getting under way in Dumfries. |
37,894,360 | Researchers from University College London say women need to be aware of other warning signs - such as nipple changes - so that they get help fast.
The researchers examined the symptoms of 2,300 women who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.
They found that women with non-lump symptoms were more likely to put off visiting their doctor.
The researchers are presenting their work at the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool.
Swellings in the armpit or an infection of the breast tissue should be checked out, they say. So too should nipple changes - rashes, bleeding or discharge - and any sores on the skin of the breasts.
Dr Karen Kennedy, director of the National Cancer Research Institute, said: "This research shows that, all too often, women are delaying going to their doctor with symptoms of breast cancer.
"This could be because people are simply unaware that breast cancer can present in many different ways, not just through the presence of a lump.
"With a disease like breast cancer, it's essential to be diagnosed as early as possible so that a treatment plan can be developed and started."
See your GP if you notice:
Source: NHS Choices
In England and Wales, about nine in every 10 women diagnosed with breast cancer will survive for at least five or more years.
And about six out of every 10 can expect to survive for more than 20 years.
The more time that passes since diagnosis, the less likely it is that cancer will come back.
Women in the UK aged between 50 and 70 are invited for breast screening every three years. | Around one in six cases of breast cancer begins with symptoms other than a suspect lump, experts are warning. |
38,920,860 | Apple's chief executive Tim Cook met Theresa May at Downing Street and said he thought the UK would be "just fine"' outside the European Union.
The company plans to build a new UK headquarters in London.
His comments came as the US Chamber of Commerce said US firms had been delaying UK investment decisions.
It has thousands of members in the US, including many large multinationals.
Its head of international affairs, Myron Brilliant, told the BBC firms were worried about future trade rules.
He said they thought there could be new regulatory challenges once the UK was no longer in the EU.
However, at his meeting with the prime minister, Mr Cook said:"We're a big believer in the UK - we think you'll be just fine.
"Yes there will be bumps in the road along the way but the UK's going to be fine."
In a statement following the meeting, Apple said: "We are proud that Apple's innovation and growth now supports nearly 300,000 jobs across the UK. "
Apple's new UK headquarters will be in the redeveloped Battersea Power Station. Last year the company said it would move 1,600 staff there in 2021.
Mr Cook described it as a huge headquarters and said the company was "leaving significant space there to expand."
Earlier the US Chamber of Commerce's Mr Brilliant told BBC Radio 5 live's Wake Up To Money: "They're [US firms] worried about what the transition rules are going to look like.
"They're worried about whether there are going to be new regulatory challenges, impediments, and so we're going to see how that plays out over the next two years.
"One also expects that the UK-EU will have a trade agreement. But what we're saying from Washington is that we're going to be vested stakeholders, as we have been in terms of our businesses here."
He added: "Of course, some companies are holding back investment to see how this plays out. That makes sense.
"But there is no question that Europe is an important part of any company's international strategy.
"And so it's not that they're going to pull back from Europe, but they are going to realign their investments, depending on how these negotiations go." | Technology giant Apple is "very optimistic" about the UK's future post-Brexit, its boss has told the prime minister. |
39,627,209 | Bogdanov, born in Neath, south Wales, died of a heart attack on Sunday.
He was known for his work with new plays, modern reinterpretations of Shakespeare, musicals and works for young people.
A family funeral in Wales will be followed by a memorial service in London at a later date.
Bogdanov directed in many of the world's leading theatres and companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Opera House, Sydney Opera House, Vienna's Burgtheater, on Broadway and the West End.
He was an associate director of the Royal National Theatre for eight years, directed eight productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company and co-founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 with actor Michael Pennington.
The father-of-five was chief executive of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Germany's largest national theatre, from 1989 to 1992.
In 1982, he went on trial at the Old Bailey for staging an act of simulated male sex in the play The Romans in Britain.
He had been accused of procuring an act of "gross indecency" likely to cause offence for his production at London's National Theatre, and spoke 30 years later of his "enormous relief" when the case collapsed and the prosecution withdrew its evidence on the third day of the hearing.
He also said he felt "very angry" that the private prosecution brought by the morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse had been allowed to happen at all.
His publicist said on Tuesday: "Michael's iconoclastic approach to Shakespeare influenced a generation of audiences and practitioners, he had a life-long commitment to education and creating shows for young people and his approach to theatre was to make it political, accessible, joyous and transformative."
Michael Kelligan, founder of the Welsh Fargo Stage Company, said: "He was a great theatre director and we were very fortunate he decided to return to Wales where he put on some wonderful shows and gave work to lots of actors.
"I think his coming here was the start of the strengthening of the Welsh theatre scene as it's become today.
"He was ready to explore everything and anything and he brought his great talent to everything that he touched. I'm just overwhelmed with the fact that he's gone."
Musician and composer Mal Pope told the programme Bogdanov had changed his life and that of a number of now Hollywood actors.
"You meet people in life who have an amazing effect on you and I can quite honestly say that Michael Bogdanov changed my life," he said.
"He took a risk on a musical which was only four or five pages long and we had our first musical together, about the Welsh Revival, back in 2005.
"He wasn't easy to work with all the time. Everybody's got a Bogdanov story about how he would maybe shout you out or he would have a go at you about something, but he was an amazing character and he had a wealth of stories about just about everybody in the world of theatre."
Mr Pope added: "He had an amazing love of Welsh theatre and wanted to see indigenous Welsh theatre thrive.
"He was already planning for our new musical to launch in Swansea. We had meetings two weeks ago. He was going to be 81 when he took to the stage with our final musical."
He said that during their last meeting Bogdanov talked about actress Whoopi Goldberg attending one of his master classes in Los Angeles.
"He changed so many people's lives," Mr Pope said.
Kully Thiarai, artistic director of National Theatre Wales, said Bogdanov was passionate about the arts in Wales and was always challenging audiences.
The National Theatre paid tribute to a "bold, ambitious and brilliant director (and co-founder of the National Theatre Cricket Team)"
The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama said it was a " huge loss for Welsh and international theatre".
Actor and director Samuel West, who revived The Romans In Britain in 2006, said: "His shows made Shakespeare feel like our contemporary".
Fellow actor and director Hugh Quarshie tweeted: "Heard Michael Bogdanov died eating, drinking & laughing. Great memories of a great global director, once a colleague, ally & friend. RIP".
Geoff Haden, chairman of the Dylan Thomas Society, of which Bogdanov was a member, said the director had been a collector of Dylan memorabilia and produced the play Under Milk Wood all over the world, including a version in Japanese.
He said: "On the centenary of Dylan Thomas's birth in 2014 he produced a 36-hour marathon reading of all of Dylan's work at the Grand Theatre in the poet's home city of Swansea.
"This was an ambitious project that Michael had planned for years and it was a credit to his standing in the theatrical profession that he persuaded stars like Sir Ian McKellen, Sian Phillips and Nicholas Parsons to take part."
Mr Haden added: "Michael was a true friend who was always ready to help promote the work at the birthplace and loved staying at the home of Dylan.
"He was also a patron of the International Dylan Thomas Prize in partnership with Swansea University and was due to attend the 2017 awards ceremony next month."
The artistic director of Flintshire's Theatr Clwyd Tamara Harvey said he had helped steer the Mold-based theatre through difficult times, while Pat Nelder remembers Bogdanov as being "ebullient" when he worked for him as technical manager. | The British theatre, film and opera director Michael Bogdanov has died at the age of 78 while on holiday with friends, his publicist has confirmed. |
36,167,321 | US prosecutors said it was sold under the award-winning St James Smokehouse brand, run from Annan in Dumfriesshire and Miami.
UpRiver Aquaculture, also known as MKG Provisions, pleaded guilty to violating a US law on false labelling of food.
It was fined £34,000, with three years of probation.
Court papers stated that it was supplying St James Smokehouse, though that client was not charged.
St James Smokehouse has won many awards for the quality of its products and for exporting, as well as a European grant for its Scottish processing plant.
Prosecutors did not publish evidence that the Smokehouse company knew that MKG had sourced its fish from Chile. However, it raises questions of whether it did enough to ensure the quality and legality of its branded products.
The offence took place in December 2012, when MKG took delivery of 286 cases of Chilean farmed salmon.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida issued a statement explaining: "MKG, acting through its employees and in connection with its business relationship with a client, St. James Smokehouse Inc, processed, smoked, and repackaged the salmon into bags provided to MKG by St James Smokehouse, which identified the salmon as a product of Scotland.
"The falsely labelled salmon was intended for wholesale distribution and sale by St James Smokehouse and was eventually sold to consumers through various retailers to which St James Smokehouse had sold the salmon."
The probation, which accompanies the $50,000 fine, is to "serve to provide oversight of the company's implementation of a government-required compliance plan to prevent a recurrence of the offence".
St James Smokehouse sells premium Scottish produce in Europe, the US and the Middle East. Its website emphasises the provenance of its salmon, and its many awards.
The packaging currently on sale in the US states: "This premium quality Scottish smoked salmon has been freshly crafted in Scotland, following a traditional family recipe".
Five months after the offence occurred in Florida, St James Smokehouse was successful in the Scottish Food and Drink Awards, its president picking up trophies as Scottish Food and Drink Entrepreneur, Business of the Year and Exporter of the Year at the awards in Edinburgh. In 2011, ahead of the offence, it had won best new retail product at the International Boston Seafood Show.
Brendan James Maher, who founded the firm in 2003, was quoted in Business Quarter magazine published six months before the offence involving Chilean fish, saying: "I saw a massive opportunity for us in North America quite early on.
"There's a huge demand for smoked salmon there, and a perception that anything 'Scottish' is superior, but what you had was US domestic smokers buying it in from Chile, smoking it and sticking it in a bag with a bit of tartan on it. The quality just wasn't there, so I decided to start knocking on doors."
He went on: "There was a gaping hole in the US market for a genuine Scottish product. We were confident we could fill that void.
"St James Smokehouse is now the most successful Scottish smoked salmon brand in the USA. It hasn't been easy, but we're now supplying the likes of Whole Foods Market, Mandarin Oriental hotel group and Kings".
Mr Maher set up his business in Annan, having moved north from Liverpool. He took over the Dumfriesshire plant which had previously been run by Pinneys of Scotland, part of Young's Seafood, and won a £210,000 grant from the European Fisheries Fund. He now lives in Miami.
Mr Maher told BBC Scotland: "We have worked entirely in accordance with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in this matter and have provided all information requested.
"In early 2013, we made the decision to locate and purchase 2.5 acres of land in central Miami, Florida, investing $5.5m to construct our own smokehouse in the USA.
"After two years of construction, the smokehouse was completed at the end of 2015 and we now have the newest state of the art smoking facility in North America.
"St James Smokehouse now has approximately over 100 full time employees in the US and Scotland collectively.
"Our purchasing department has sole responsibility for the procurement of every single ingredient and component in production of all products.
"Our dedicated team of craftsmen employ time honoured, traditional methods to create our artisanal products under the watchful eye of our master smoker and are reinforced by our quality team, food safety and laboratory managers ensuring strict HACCP compliance in food safety, quality, consistency and traceability." | An American salmon supplier has been fined and given probation for falsely claiming its fish was from Scotland when it had been imported from Chile. |
35,240,597 | If no-one matches six numbers on Saturday, the next tier of winners will share the Lotto prize.
The winning numbers for Wednesday, drawn at 20:30 GMT, were 8, 30, 40, 50, 54, 57 and the bonus ball was 13.
Camelot said it had sold about 200 tickets per second in the hour before ticket sales closed at 19:30 GMT.
The previous largest National Lottery jackpot was £42m, which was shared between three separate ticket holders in January 1996.
Its website crashed at about 18:00, making ticket purchases for the draw unavailable for about 10 minutes, although problems with logging on persisted for some time.
Parts of the website - including the results page and sign-in page - were down for much of Wednesday night with an error message saying they were "extremely busy".
Wednesday's jackpot is the result of 13 consecutive rollovers and follows the number of balls in the draw increasing from 49 to 59 in October.
This reduced the odds of a player getting six numbers from about one in 14 million to one in 45 million, mathematicians say.
Camelot argues its rule changes have increased the chances of becoming a millionaire with the introduction of a millionaire's raffle.
Lotto changes - behind the numbers
New Camelot rules mean the jackpot prize is shared out in the first draw after the prize reaches £50m.
This means if no player matches all six numbers on Saturday, the prize will be shared between winners in the next tier where there is at least one winner - almost certainly those people who have five main numbers and the bonus ball.
Camelot said this would make it "some of the best odds players have ever had to win a multi-million pound, life-changing jackpot".
In Wednesday's draw, two tickets matched five numbers and the bonus ball - winning £74,900 each.
Former hairdresser Susan Herdman won £1.2m in 2010 and used her money to focus on her hobby of amateur motor racing, and has become a national champion.
Nikki Otterburn, a former fitness instructor, owns a riding school after her £2.2m win in 2001.
Edd and Michelle Edwards won £1.9m in 2008 - Michelle is now working at her own cake baking and decoration business.
Ted and Marilyn Newton bought a woodland for the use of local children and scouts after winning £7.9m in 2009.
Morris and Carol Worrall bought a beach hut with some of the £15m they won in 2005.
The biggest single-ticket National Lottery win was £22.5m, which was shared by work colleagues Mark Gardiner and Paul Maddison from Hastings in 1995.
The biggest individual winner was Iris Jeffrey from Belfast, who won £20.1m in 2004.
Although no-one has won more than Mrs Jeffrey on the National Lottery, her jackpot has been dwarfed in recent years by British winners of the Euromillions lottery.
Money for that prize comes from tickets sales in a number of European countries and the jackpot often rolls over for many more weeks.
The biggest UK Euromillions winners are Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in North Ayrshire, in 2011 who collected £161.6m.
The couple gave large donations to several causes, including £1m to the Scottish National Party's campaign for Scottish independence. | The National Lottery jackpot will roll over to an estimated £57.8m, must-win prize on Saturday after no-one won the record £50.4m on offer on Wednesday. |
35,533,525 | The property, in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, was also "not for the faint hearted", the estate agent said.
It was put on the the market for £125,000 and went for £147,500.
Rob Kahl, of Scott & Stapleton estate agents, said: "It was obvious what the condition was like, so I thought let's be a little bit different and not flower it up."
The owners, who live in another part of the UK, had decided to sell up after it was left in a poor condition by tenants.
The property description also advised viewers to "wipe your feet on the way out" and Mr Kahl wrote "I think there may even be some fleas there to keep me company when I carry out viewings".
He said: "We had to go round with the bailiffs and it was full of rubbish, the kitchen was interesting, the toilet was fun and games and there's no point putting it on the market with the normal script - people needed to be pre-warned.
"Nobody was surprised or disappointed - I like to think I was honest."
The flat, on St Helen's Road, had 25 viewings and 10 firm offers in the two days after it went on the market on Friday, the estate agent said.
They estimated that if it were cleaned and decorated it would be worth £170,000. | A two bedroom flat, described as "mouldy" and "full of rubbish", has sold for £22,500 over its asking price. |
35,051,654 | Support for the language will fall by 5.9% to £25.6m in the Welsh budget.
The Dyfodol i'r Iaith (Future for the Language) campaign group said it "totally undermines" ministerial promises on the matter.
But a Welsh government spokesperson said it remained "committed to securing the future of the language".
Dyfodol i'r Iaith chair Heini Gruffudd said: "We can never reach the goal of a bilingual Wales without the government's enthusiastic support.
"We will be pushing for a meeting with the first minister as soon as possible to secure a full explanation of the situation and to emphasise the importance of this funding to the growth of the Welsh language."
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) also said it was concerned about the cuts and called for at least 1% of the Welsh budget - around £150m - to be spent on language projects.
A Welsh government spokesman said £1.2m had been allocated to support Welsh in the community, despite the overall cut.
"We are prioritising all activity on increasing the use of Welsh," the spokesman said.
"Funding alone however does not ensure that the language continues to thrive, and we will continue to work closely with partner organisations to secure a strong foundation for the language in the future." | Cuts in funding for the Welsh language have prompted campaigners to call for an emergency meeting with the first minister. |
36,922,829 | Builder Stephen Muncaster, 47, was found dead in the front garden of a property in Magdalen, near King's Lynn, on 12 July.
His wife Allison, 48, was found inside the house.
Assistant coroner Johanna Thompson, at Norfolk Coroner's Court, said they died from gunshot wounds to the head.
At the hearings in Norwich, she said she requested forensic officers to identify their bodies by using DNA evidence.
She said: "Mrs Muncaster was found at her home property by police, having suffered what appeared to be a gunshot injury to the head.
"A post-mortem report confirmed the cause as being due to a shotgun wound to the head.
"Mr Muncaster was found in the front garden of the property, having suffered what appeared to be a gunshot injury to the head."
She added that a post-mortem report confirmed that as the cause of his death.
As previously reported, shots had been heard and a gun was found at the scene.
Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
Mr Muncaster was the uncle of so-called "Lotto lout" Michael Carroll, who made headlines in 2002 by winning £9.7m in the National Lottery.
The former binman blew all of his winnings before taking a job in a biscuit factory.
Ms Thompson adjourned the hearings for a full inquest on 5 January 2017 at Norfolk Coroner's Court. | Forensic officers used DNA evidence to identify the bodies of a married couple found dead at their home, an inquest has heard. |
36,394,235 | Willett, 28, who won his first major last month, sank six birdies in a bogey-free round to trail YE Yang, Joost Luiten and Scott Hend.
"It's always nice to play in front of home crowds. The reception on the first tee was amazing," said Willett.
Fellow Englishman Robert Rock is five under; Luke Donald is one further back.
Former world number one Donald, who beat Lee Westwood in a play-off to win the Wentworth crown in 2011 and successfully defended the title 12 months later, said: "That was a perfect start for me.
"The last year or two has been tough, I've struggled to gain confidence and feel comfortable.
"But the last couple of months I'm feeling more and more comfortable and it's nice to see some better results. I feel like I am on the upward path."
Willett finished 11 shots behind winner Rory McIlroy at the Irish Open and wants the same support the four-time major winner got in his home event.
"We got a great reception all the way around," he said.
"It helped Rory last week coming down the stretch and hopefully it can do the same for one of the English lads this week."
Defending champion Byeong-hun An held the early lead when he carded four birdies in succession from the fourth but a scrappy back nine saw the South Korean sign for a level-par 72. | Masters champion Danny Willett is one shot off the first-round lead at the BMW PGA Championship after carding a six-under-par 66 at Wentworth. |
35,465,799 | Harris, 20, never featured for the Championship side in a competitive fixture has signed an 18-month deal.
Tuton, 24, scored 10 goals in 27 National League appearances for the Shaymen.
Meanwhile, Preston midfielder Josh Brownhill, 20, has had his loan extended until the end of the season.
Another midfielder, 19-year-old Josh Kay, has also joined Barnsley from non-league AFC Fylde.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Barnsley have signed Brighton midfielder Charlie Harris and FC Halifax striker Shaun Tuton for undisclosed fees. |
36,425,290 | A survey of 1,100 school leaders found delays to assessments, insufficient budgets and cuts to local authorities were hampering the ability to cope.
The study by The Key, which provides leadership and management support to schools, calls for increased funding.
The government says it has increased funding for those with "high needs".
Department for Education (DfE) statistics published last year showed there were more than 1.3 million children in England - 15% of pupils - identified as having special educational needs or disabilities.
How are children with special educational needs supported?
Of these, 1.1 million are in mainstream schools rather than special schools.
The research by The Key suggested:
Victoria Toulmin from County Durham has a 12-year-old son, Sam, with separation and anxiety disorder.
His condition means he's severely anxious, almost all the time, she says.
"He is on the autistic spectrum, but his school has say that because he doesn't misbehave in the classroom, his condition doesn't warrant him a diagnosis," she says.
Sam goes to a mainstream school, but his mother says he is not offered adequate support there.
"I have had meetings with the school, but they are rarely followed up. I received an email telling me that my son spends the majority of time during lunch and break times on his own.
"He needs some sort of counselling services. The school need to be supporting him and showing him that they are there to help."
She adds: "I am a teaching assistant and I used to work with children with learning difficulties.
"I've been in the situation many times where I am supposed to be looking after just one child with special needs, but actually have to assist more than one child."
Her concerns were reflected by one of the head teachers in the survey, who said: "School funding is so stretched that schools are unable to absorb any additional staffing and funding demands for children with SEND.
"The direction the curriculum is taking is also becoming less and less inclusive for these children, meaning schools need to look at alternative interventions which cost money and teacher time."
Another head who took the survey commented: "Teachers cannot possibly have or expect to gain knowledge, experience and skills to cope with the many differing needs of children now coming into school."
The report follows government reforms, which came into effect in September 2014, that aimed to put each child and their family at the centre of discussions about support offered.
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, special educational needs statements and learning difficulty assessments (LDAs) have been replaced with education, health and care plans (EHCP) covering people up to the age of 25.
The Key survey suggests primary schools are under the most strain when it comes to providing for pupils with SEND.
Eight in 10 primary school leaders said their budget was insufficient, while seven in 10 at secondary school level raised concerns about funding.
Nine in 10 at primary level have had the support they receive for SEND provision affected by cuts to their local authority, while this was the case for eight in 10 secondary leaders.
Delays in assessment of SEND and long waits for EHCPs also appear to be more common for children of primary school age.
Eight in 10 primary schools have pupils who have been waiting longer than expected, while the figure is just over six in 10 at secondary schools.
Fergal Roche, chief executive of The Key, said: "A year on from major reforms to the national system for SEND provision, these findings represent an important wake-up call from school leaders.
"Schools need adequate funding and a holistic, well co-ordinated and resourced system of support behind them to provide effectively for children with SEND."
Cllr Roy Perry, chairman of the Local Government Association's children and young people board, said: "We were clear with the Department for Education at the time that implementing the SEND reforms in the Children and Families Bill was significantly underfunded by the government and this has been borne out in reality.
"Councils are working hard to ensure all children and young people are being moved from SEND statements to EHCP by the deadline of 31 March 2018, but the transition process is complex."
The DfE spokesman said: "Schools have a vital role to play in this work, which is why we've protected the overall school budget and increased the funding for children and young people with high needs by over £90m this year.
"Ensuring teachers are trained to have an understanding of the needs of pupils with SEND is a key part of our drive to give all children access to the education they deserve."
SEND training will form part of the new core content for initial teacher training, the spokesman added. | Schools in England are struggling to support the 1.1 million pupils with special needs or disabilities (SEND) in mainstream classrooms, a report says. |
37,999,459 | New legislation to make it a criminal offence to own an unlicensed air weapon comes into force from 31 December 2016.
Police Scotland said 17,069 weapons had been handed in and 8,320 people had applied for a licence.
The Scottish government has estimated there could be up to 500,000 air weapons in Scotland.
Air weapons being held by people who have other firearms licences do not need to be declared until those licences are up for renewal - and some people may have multiple weapons.
However, that still leaves thousands of weapons unaccounted for, according to the Scottish government figures, with just 46 days left before the law change.
Police Scotland ran a high profile amnesty scheme earlier in the year which saw thousands of weapons surrendered at police stations across the country.
Air weapon owners have been able to apply for a licence from 1 July 2016.
Anyone who wants to surrender a weapon is advised to contact their local police station.
The Scottish government said the new licensing regime applied to people and not individual guns. Once someone has a licence, they can keep as many weapons as they wish as long as they have the appropriate storage and security measures in place.
A spokesman for the government added: "As part of the original bill, we estimated around 20,000 new applicants over five years and we are making good progress towards that figure.
"Furthermore, Police Scotland are not yet seeing many applications from people who already hold a firearm or shotgun certificate. Applications from existing certificate holders are not required until existing certificates require to be renewed, after 30 December."
The Scottish government pledged to introduce the licensing scheme following campaigning in the wake of the death of Glasgow toddler Andrew Morton, who was killed by an airgun in 2005.
The two-year-old died after being hit on the head with an airgun pellet near his home in the Easterhouse area of the city. | Tens of thousands of air gun owners are risking imprisonment or a fine if they do not surrender their weapons or apply for a licence by the end of the year. |
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