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35,281,218 | Kate del Castillo is a Mexican actress who brokered the deal between the Hollywood star and the most wanted man in Mexico and also was present at the meeting.
She is an actress who does not shy away from controversy.
Back in 2012, del Castillo made an open appeal to El Chapo urging him to use his drug trafficking empire for love, not violence.
She even said that she believed more in El Chapo than in "governments that hide the truth".
According to Sean Penn, the drug lord's lawyer contacted del Castillo after the appeal because El Chapo wanted to send her some flowers.
That was the starting point that led the actress to become the go-between for the Rolling Stone interview.
Kate del Castillo is a famous name here in Mexico for her acting roles.
Born in Mexico City in 1972 into an acting family, she is best known for her portrayal of drug boss Teresa Mendoza in the soap opera La Reina del Sur (Queen of the South).
La Reina del Sur is a drama based on the novel of the same name by Spanish author Arturo Perez Reverte.
In the series, del Castillo plays a young woman from Mexico who rises through the ranks of the Sinaloa drugs cartel to become the most powerful drug trafficker in southern Spain.
But for this latest "role", del Castillo has moved away from the fictional world of drug lords and is now at the centre of a real and very controversial drug trafficker's tale.
Del Castillo has not given any public comments since the Rolling Stone interview was published on Saturday. | While there has been much criticism heaped on US actor Sean Penn for meeting fugitive Mexican drugs lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, there is another well-known name behind the interview between the actor and the cartel leader. |
40,880,420 | The group of four men and two women were charged over their dancing and not adhering to the hijab dress code.
Instructors allegedly "attracted boys and girls, taught them Western dances", and posted videos to social media.
The Latin American fitness routine has proved controversial in Iran, which has laws restricting dance.
"The members of a network teaching and filming Western dances have been identified and arrested," Hamid Damghani, a commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was quoted as saying by local media outlets.
"They were arrested by the Guards' intelligence forces while teaching and creating video clips... as they sought to change lifestyles and promote a lack of hijab," he said.
Hijab rules govern the wearing of headscarves and clothing in public places by women, and dancing with the opposite sex is banned, except in front of immediate family members.
The case has some parallels to the 2014 arrest of six Iranians for dancing along to Pharrell William's song Happy - which saw them sentenced to 91 lashes and a prison term.
Mr Damghani said dancing as a sport "is a serious issue".
But Zumba, the aerobics-dance hybrid popular in the West as a fitness class, has taken off in Iran despite the restrictions.
In June this year, the country's sporting federation said the exercise included "rhythmic motions and dance and are unlawful in any shape and title".
That was met with derision on social media, with many comparing the ban on Zumba in gyms to the hardline actions of the so-called Islamic State.
One gym manager told the Aftab-e Yazd newspaper that he would simply teach Zumba, but call it something else.
"We need to have these classes. We have been teaching Zumba for 12-13 years and if they ban it, we will continue our class under a different name," he said.
"Zumba is one of the most profitable activities and the clubs cannot ignore Zumba." | Iranian officials have arrested six people accused of teaching Zumba dancing and trying to "change lifestyles", media reports say. |
35,891,167 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Captain Meg Lanning (56) and Elyse Villani (53) shared an unbroken second-wicket stand of 98 as the Southern Stars got home with 14 balls to spare.
Dilani Manodara and Chamari Atapattu both scored 38 for Sri Lanka but they were pegged back to 123-8 in Delhi.
In Group B, Pakistan beat Bangladesh by nine wickets, overhauling 113-9 with 21 balls to spare.
Sidra Ameen scored an unbeaten 53 and Bismah Maroof 43 to seal a victory that leaves their side third in Group B, behind leaders England who beat second-placed West Indies by one wicket in Dharamsala.
Pakistan can still reach the semi-finals if they beat England on Saturday.
In Delhi, Sri Lanka won the toss and were well set 75-1 in the 11th over as Dilani Manodara and Chamari Atapattu both scored 38 before Australia took 7-43 to slow the scoring rate.
The Southern Stars, now second in Group A behind New Zealand, face Ireland in Delhi on Saturday.
They will definitely reach the semi-finals if they beat Ireland and South Africa fail to win their last two matches.
Media playback is not supported on this device | Defending champions Australia cruised to a nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the Women's World Twenty20. |
32,274,491 | Labour will set out its devolution offer for Wales, including giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote by May 2016.
Their plan also includes devolving fracking, and powers over transport such as the Wales and Border rail franchise, ports and speed limits.
Meanwhile, the Lib Dems want a guarantee that funding for Wales will not fall below an agreed level.
Shadow Welsh Secretary Owen Smith said Labour's proposals "map out a historic new chapter in Wales' devolution journey, creating a lasting settlement allowing us to advance social justice, improve equality of opportunity and create a fairer society for all".
The Liberal Democrats have said they would introduce a Barnett funding floor, set at a level which reflects Wales' needs.
They said they would also commission a study to update the Holtham Commission's analysis, which five years ago estimated a funding shortfall to Wales of £300m.
The party said it would then seek to increase the Welsh block grant to an equitable level.
Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Jenny Willot said: "The Liberal Democrats not only recognise that Wales is underfunded, but we will commit to putting in place practical measures to address this."
Labour also said it would deliver "fair funding for Wales" through introducing a Barnett funding floor.
But Plaid Cymru said it was "a smoke and mirrors solution".
The party's candidate in the Vale of Glamorgan, Ian Johnson, said: "A Barnett floor does not offer a lasting solution, and if austerity continues then a Barnett floor will not generate any additional resources for Wales at all.
"At best it will stop the situation getting worse, it will not make the situation any better. It will not give fair funding to Wales.
"Plaid Cymru will fight to deliver parity of funding and responsibility for Wales with Scotland."
The Conservatives have previously also proposed introducing a "floor", but said the exact level would be worked out later. | Devolution and funding for Wales are under the spotlight, as the general election campaign continues. |
34,981,150 | Thai police said the body of Wayne Schneider, 37, was found in a grave not far from the beachside town of Pattaya.
Five masked men - none of them Thai - had taken Mr Schneider from his house and bundled him into a white pick-up truck on Monday, police told the BBC.
They believe Australian Antonio Bagnato was part of the gang and have issued a warrant for his arrest.
Maj Gen Amphol Buarubporn said police did not believe the killing was pre-meditated, as the grave appeared to have been hastily prepared.
Security guards at Mr Schneider's villa were quoted in local media as saying they were warned to stay away from the incident by a man with a gun.
Police were able to track the rented truck to a Chinese temple and followed tyre tracks into the jungle, where Mr Schneider's body was in a 2m-deep grave.
Maj Gen Buarubporn said the possibility the men were connected to the drug trade was among the motives being investigating.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a statement saying it was "aware of reports that Thai authorities have located what is thought to be the grave of an Australian man earlier reported kidnapped".
"Due to our privacy obligations, we will not comment further."
Mr Schneider had a long criminal history - he was one of New South Wales' 10-most-wanted fugitives in 2006.
Agence France Presse reported that Mr Schneider had been living in Thailand for about one month. | The body of an Australian who was formerly a Hells Angels gang member has been found in Thailand. |
38,351,924 | The man, in his 20s, was found in Moseley Street, Highgate, with suspected stab wounds on Saturday morning. He died on the way to hospital.
A murder investigation is under way and part of the street was cordoned off for forensic checks. CCTV is also being checked.
Anyone with information is urged to contact West Midlands Police.
Det Insp Paul Joyce said: "We are looking into reports there was an altercation, but I would urge anybody with any information to get in contact with me and my team as soon as possible." | A man died after being stabbed in a suspected altercation in Birmingham. |
39,879,300 | Constantino Banda-Acosta, 38, drove his truck through a stop sign and hit a car carrying a family of three on their way home from a trip to Disneyland.
They said they were one block from home when the collision occurred.
The six-year-old boy suffered brain trauma and is said to be in a serious condition.
The suspect fled but was arrested.
The truck hit the rear passenger door of the car on Saturday night in the San Ysidro district of San Diego, close to the US-Mexico border, said the family.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the suspect had been "repatriated to Mexico at least 15 times since 2002, most recently in January 2017".
"[ICE] has lodged a detainer against Mr Banda seeking to take him into custody if and when he is released by local authorities to pursue additional immigration enforcement action and/or criminal prosecution," a statement quoted by local broadcaster KGTV added.
He was charged with driving under influence, hit-and-run and driving without a licence.
Another man was also arrested in connection with the crash.
The boy is being treated at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego.
His father told CBS8 broadcaster of his son: "Right now he's got a lot of swelling.
"He can't open one of his eyes, so he's kind of scared about why he can't see."
More on US immigration debate
Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning | A man charged in a drink-driving crash that seriously injured a California boy had been deported to Mexico 15 times in as many years, US officials say. |
35,859,152 | Billy Paynter gave the visitors the lead after the break when he converted Jake Carroll's cross at the back post.
Nathan Thomas made it 2-0 when he drifted in from the right and drilled a low shot past Alex Cisak.
The O's, beaten twice over the Easter holiday, tried to get back into it, but visiting keeper Trevor Carson denied Jay Simpson and Blair Turgott.
They remain eighth in League Two, two points outside the play-off places, while Hartlepool's win moved them up to 17th. | Hartlepool stretched their unbeaten run to six games with victory at play-off hopefuls Leyton Orient. |
36,231,088 | The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 79.92 points, or 0.45%, to 17740.63.
The S&P 500 climbed 6.51 points, or 0.32%, to 2057.14 and the Nasdaq gained 19.06, or 0.4%, to 4736.16.
The US Department of Labour reported the economy added 160,000 jobs in April, analysts had been expecting more than 200,000 additional posts.
The rising price of crude oil following Thursday's gains, however, helped lift stocks.
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude rose 26 cents to $44.59 a barrel.
The price jumped on Thursday after producers around the Canadian city of Fort McMurray closed or cut output in response to a wildfire.
Shares of Chevron edged up 0.44% and Exxon Mobile nudged 0.53% higher.
The online review site Yelp was one of Friday's biggest winners. Its share price rose 23.7% after beating earnings expectations on Thursday.
A major faller was mobile payment company Square fell 21.7% after the company reported a bigger than expected first quarter loss. | (Close): Wall Street markets rose slightly on Friday as the price of oil climbed and investors shook off a poor April jobs report. |
34,631,902 | The team of Amy Tinkler, Ruby Harrold, Ellie Downie, Becky Downie, Claudia Fragapane and Kelly Simm finished third - behind the US and Russia but ahead of China - with eight places at the Rio Olympics in Brazil up for grabs.
"We are incredibly proud," Becky Downie said of their achievement.
"Coming in to this championships all our focus was on producing the best team results we could and to have placed third is very special."
As well as claiming the team final place, several GB gymnasts have booked places in individual finals.
15-year-old Tinkler will go in Thursday's all-around final on her senior World Championships debut along with Harrold, who will also take part in uneven bars.
Ellie Downie will challenge on vault and floor, where she will be joined by Fragapane. | Great Britain booked a place in the women's gymnastics team competition at next summer's Olympics with a superb performance at the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. |
14,925,942 | Politician Elio Di Rupo said the eight parties in the talks had agreed on moves to resolve key sticking points.
They included the division of power between French- and Dutch-speaking communities, he said.
The country has been without an elected government for 15 months. Disagreement centres on electoral boundaries in the linguistically divided Brussels region.
"The eight parties have together succeeded in overcoming the obstacles which have created difficulties these last few days," Mr Di Rupo said in a statement.
Belgium's political crisis worsened on Tuesday when caretaker Prime Minister Yves Leterme announced he was leaving to take up a new job in Paris.
King Albert II cut short a holiday in France to fly back to Brussels following the news.
The king had appointed Mr Di Rupo, leader of Belgium's second-biggest party the French-speaking Socialist Party, to negotiate a coalition deal.
On Wednesday Mr Di Rupo said that negotiations faced imminent collapse and warned: "The future of the country is at stake."
But after further intense talks on Wednesday he was finally able to announce a breakthrough.
He said the parties had agreed on solutions to sticking points including a dispute over Bruxelles-Hal-Vilvorde (BHV), a district covering the capital and the suburbs.
BHV is the only district officially bilingual rather than French- or Dutch-speaking.
"Even if the work is far from being finished and numerous debates have to be have to be worked out, the steps taken today... constitute an important step," the statement added.
Financial markets and rating agencies are pressing the country to create an effective government capable of carrying out structural reforms and reducing debt.
Mr Leterme announced he would leave by the end of this year to take up a post at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. | The mediator trying to form a government in Belgium has announced a breakthrough after tense negotiations. |
36,105,030 | The world champion already has a fight on his hands following his troubled start to the season, which has left him 36 points behind Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg after just three races.
Hamilton is only three points clear of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, and there is reason to believe the Australian and team-mate Daniil Kvyat could become a major threat before too long.
The team that dominated F1 from 2010-13 have had two tough seasons since the advent of turbo hybrid engines. But they have shown improved form this year, and developments in the pipeline could leapfrog them into Mercedes territory.
Ricciardo was on the front row at last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix and led the race in the early laps before a puncture wrecked his chances of a podium finish.
And Red Bull are hopeful an upgrade to their Renault engine due at the Canadian Grand Prix in June could help them "cause a bit of mischief ahead of us", as team boss Christian Horner put it in Shanghai.
That Renault has an upgrade scheduled for Montreal is well known. What has not yet come out publicly is how big it is.
BBC Sport can reveal Renault is predicting a lap-time gain of 0.45 seconds from the upgraded engine. Ricciardo qualified 0.52secs off Rosberg's pole position time in China.
Red Bull were further off the pace than that in the first two races in Australia and Bahrain but that is because those circuits are more "power sensitive", as F1 engineers describe the effect engine performance has on lap time.
The improvement Renault expect in lap time is equivalent to a power boost of just under 30bhp - and it is believed Renault's deficit to the standard-setting Mercedes is in the region of 35-50bhp.
Horner has expressed a degree of caution about the Renault upgrade - after all, it was the company's failure to deliver on its promises that led to Red Bull wanting to split with them last season.
"Let's see it first," he says. "Pieces of paper are all very easy to look at, but it is the stopwatch that doesn't lie."
In the end, Red Bull and Renault stayed together - albeit with the engine badged with the name of a sponsor - and the car company's renewed commitment to F1 following its decision to buy back Lotus and run its own team is paying off.
Renault improved the engine by a reputed 50bhp over the winter and insiders say they are very confident the Canada upgrade will achieve what they expect.
Even Horner - who was highly critical of his partner last season - is positive, saying: "You can genuinely see the progress that is being made."
Red Bull's domination of F1 in the early part of this decade was founded on the excellence of their aerodynamic design, led by chief technical officer Adrian Newey, arguably the greatest designer in the sport's history.
Even in 2014, when Renault were a long way off on engine performance, the Red Bull chassis was at least as good as Mercedes' - and that was enough for Ricciardo to win three races when Mercedes tripped up.
Last year, the Red Bull car was not up to its usual standard in the first part of the year.
From the summer onwards, though, the car returned to form and this year Red Bull have taken another step.
"We've built on getting that back," Ricciardo says. "The second half of last year, the team really turned it around, and that was really refreshing to see.
"This year we've started off on an even better footing. Definitely the vibe is somewhat like '14, and it feels good.
"It's really promising. Every race we have shown a strength we didn't think we'd have.
"We're getting there. We're definitely closing in, and if we keep closing in at this rate it's going to be a pretty spicy rest of the year."
Rivals say they can see from the GPS data available to all teams that the Red Bull is actually faster than the Mercedes in slow corners.
The Mercedes is quicker in the fast corners - but not by as much. And slow corners have a greater effect on lap time, as the cars spend longer in them.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Rosberg might have won all three races so far but in each his path has been eased by problems for Ferrari, Mercedes' closest rivals.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari believe the red cars are more than good enough to compete with the silver, once they stop having what Rosberg has described as "mishaps".
And if Red Bull can gain as much time as is expected, they could turn it into a three-way fight for victories.
An upgrade to the Renault engine as significant as the one being talked about will also provide an important boost to their works team.
This was always going to be a rebuilding year for Renault, having bought a team that had been starved of resources by its previous owners for the past few years.
Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer have been languishing close to the back this season as a result, but an extra half a second or so would lift them towards respectability at the lower end of the midfield.
Renault are looking at 2017 as the first season in which they can begin to make a mark.
By then, they will have a car into which they will have been able to put much more resources than the current one, which was designed when the team was still Lotus, and another big step on the engine.
Their optimism about and expectations for next season's generation of power-unit are even higher than for the one due this summer. | Lewis Hamilton's defence of his Formula 1 title could be about to get a whole lot harder courtesy of a surprise interloper - Red Bull. |
36,131,857 | Paint was thrown over the front of the building on Clifton Street sometime overnight on Saturday.
Insp David McBride has appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident or anyone with any information to contact police.
The hall has been attacked several times in recent years. | Police are treating an attack on an Orange hall in north Belfast as a hate crime. |
31,619,780 | Ed Miliband wants a ban on paid directorships and consultancies, while David Cameron said having people with outside interests made for a "stronger Parliament".
MPs are debating the subject in the House of Commons, where the Liberal Democrats are likely to join the Conservatives in opposing Labour.
More than 100 MPs declare additional employment in the Register of Members' Interests, without including things such as occasional TV appearances, book royalties and giving speeches. Of the 108 MPs counted using this methodology, 17 are Labour and 80 are Conservatives, according to BBC Analysis and Research.
Comparing MPs' outside earnings is complicated as they often relate to different timescales. One recent analysis, prepared by statistics company Statista and published in the Independent, puts former Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the top, followed by Conservative Geoffrey Cox and Respect MP George Galloway.
Based on the most recent Register of Members' Interests, Mr Brown recorded payments totalling £533,024.50 between 14 October 2014 and 5 December 2014. This did not include money received for flights, accommodation, or paying his staff. He has said all the money goes directly to charity or to help fund charity work.
Another high earner is Mr Cox, a barrister, who registered payments in October 2014 totalling £452,545 for work dating back to September 2013.
Mr Galloway registered media work between April 2013 and November 2014 with payments totalling £303,350 (see below).
Many MPs hold directorships, of the type Labour is trying to ban. But there are plenty of other occupations, which would not be affected by its plans.
A number of MPs work as solicitors or barristers alongside their day jobs. Conservative MP Sir Edward Garnier, who earned £275,584 last year working as a QC, said being an experienced barrister made him a better MP and that his constituents were able to vote him out if they objected to it. "There will always be barristers who will bring their knowledge to the House of Commons, and if Parliament doesn't want them, Parliament won't have them," he added.
Phillip Lee remains a practising GP alongside his work as the Conservative MP for Bracknell, Berkshire. In a Commons debate in 2013, he said the weekly work made him a better MP. He has previously called for MPs' pay to be increased, saying he took a £50,000 pay cut when he joined Parliament.
Conservative MPs Glyn Davies and Robert Goodwill are listed as farmers. Mr Goodwill is also the managing director of a company offering environmentally friendly burials in the North Yorkshire countryside.
Sir Paul Beresford, Conservative MP for Mole Valley works as a dental surgeon for Beresford Dental Practice. In December, he told Get Surrey: "When I became the MP for Mole Valley, they wanted people who had more strings to their bow, rather than people who knew nothing about life.
"If I had gone for selection without another job, then I would not have been successful."
David Cameron was quick to point out the shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, during Prime Minister's Questions. The Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central declares a salary as a lecturer in modern British history at Queen Mary, University of London.
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries' appearance on ITV1's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here in 2012 was a one-off but a handful of other MPs earn a regular income from TV work.
Labour's Diane Abbott is a regular pundit on BBC politics show This Week. She recorded 17 payments of £700 each relating to the programme between December 2013 and November 2014 on the register of member's interests.
Respect MP George Galloway, meanwhile, is paid for a weekly news show on Iranian news network Press TV. Between May 2013 and October 2014, the Bradford West MP declared 18 monthly payments of £6,600 each for one hour's work a week. He also presents two programmes per month for Al-Mayadeen TV, for which he is paid £6,000 each month plus return flights to Beirut.
Last year Mr Galloway's spokesman told Press Gazette: "He does believe in spreading his message as widely as he can - not just through the prism of Parliament."
Many of the MPs with second jobs hold these types of role, which Labour would like to ban.
Speaking in PMQs, Mr Miliband said his plan to ban MPs from being paid by businesses to work as directors or consultants while serving at Westminster would be a "big test" for the government.
But Mr Cameron has said Parliament is "enriched" by MPs with second jobs, and does not favour a complete ban, describing this as a "fundamental disagreement" with Mr Miliband.
During Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron said Labour's proposal would still allow an MP to be a "paid trade union official".
The Labour leader offered to add this definition to paid consultant and director in the Labour motion if he would agree. BBC political editor Nick Robinson said he was unaware of any Labour MPs who are paid to be union officials, although many MPs receive union funding for their private offices.
Not all politicians agree on whether all of an MP's time should be taken up by work at Westminster and in their constituency. Speaking on Monday night, Labour MP John Mann told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight programme he did not see how there could be time for other employment.
"My day began at 06:00, without a break I worked through to 22:00," he said.
"That is a standard Monday. In reality, when Parliament is sitting, most MPs have two jobs - a full-time job in their constituency and a full-time job at Westminster."
But in an interview on BBC Newsnight, former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine said he believed an MP's salary was "not designed to be the total income of all MPs".
He said: "Is an MP expected to be a full-time employee of his or her constituency?
"My own view is that it is not a full-time job, there's a huge commitment in it and you work all hours and all days but there is plenty of time in which you can do do other things providing it's within the rules that are laid down."
According to a recent YouGov poll, people are "overwhelmingly against" MPs having any second jobs. Only 26% agreed with the statement that "some MPs continuing to do second jobs like medicine, law or running a business keeps them in touch with ordinary people, and is better than having a House of Commons made up of just full-time politicians". | Debate about MPs' second jobs dominated Prime Minister's Questions, after an undercover investigation involving Jack Straw, Sir Malcolm Rifkind and a bogus Chinese company. |
14,095,831 | Television was a latecomer: state TV launched in 2001, several years after the first private station. TV viewing is eroding radio's traditional dominance.
Although the growth of the broadcast media has been hindered by a lack of capital investment, dozens of private FM radio stations are on the air, most of them in cities.
News from international radios - including the BBC, Voice of America and Germany's Deutsche Welle - is carried by many stations.
Government-owned media are "largely biased" toward the ruling party, says US-based Freedom House.
The mainland and Zanzibar have separate media policies. Many islanders can pick up broadcasts from the mainland and read the mainland Tanzanian press.
By June 2012, 5.6 million Tanzanians were online (Internetworldstats.com). | Tanzania's media scene, once small and largely state-controlled, developed rapidly following the advent of the multi-party era in the mid 1990s. |
36,952,847 | The building was to be pulled down as part of a redevelopment of the Lawn complex in Lincoln.
Bosses at Woodside Wildlife Park have now stepped in to save it and will move it to their site near Langworth.
It will be used as an attraction housing exotic animals and coral reef aquariums.
The conservatory is named after the Lincolnshire botanist who travelled with Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768.
The Grade II listed Lawn complex was sold by City of Lincoln Council last year to the Stokes coffee company which plans to open a cafe and museum on the site.
Neil Mumby, director of the wildlife park, said he wanted to save the building, which housed exotic plants and Koi carp and was popular with generations of families.
"I, like a lot of people, spent my younger days coming here and bringing my children here," he said.
"When I heard that it was being demolished and closing down, I thought we were probably in as good a place as anybody to save it."
Once rebuilt, the conservatory will be used for education and conservation projects, while retaining its heritage as a journey of discovery, Mr Mumby said.
He said the plan to house crocodiles, red pandas and exotic plants inside it would "highlight changes in our planet" since Sir Joseph Banks' voyage of discovery.
The council said it had donated a parcel of land at the Lawn to the Sir Joseph Banks Society to build a new conservatory. | A glasshouse built in honour of British explorer Sir Joseph Banks has been saved from demolition - and will become home to crocodiles and red pandas. |
33,110,188 | Will Pooley, 30, has been made an MBE for his services in combating the disease outbreak in west Africa.
The nurse, from Suffolk, recovered fully and returned to Sierra Leone in October and is now back in the UK.
There were at least nine MBEs for other nurses and about 7% of all the honours' recipients were from the health sector.
Oliver Johnson, programme director for the King's Sierra Leone Partnership for whom Mr Pooley worked, was made an OBE.
And Ciaran Devane, the former chief executive of cancer charity Macmillan Cancer Support, receives a knighthood.
Mr Pooley, from the Suffolk village of Eyke, travelled to eastern Sierra Leone in the summer of 2014 and in August, just six weeks after his arrival, became the first Briton to be evacuated from west Africa with the virus.
Mr Pooley did not want to comment on his award, but his mother Jackie told the Press Association news agency that the family was "very proud" of him and he is hoping to continue with his nursing career.
"We are very proud because he followed what he wanted to do. He followed it through even when it was uncomfortable and dangerous and he was quite aware that he was putting his life on the line," she said.
Mr Pooley had to be airlifted back to the UK for treatment for the virus. He was treated in a special isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London where he was given the experimental drug ZMapp. He told the BBC afterwards how scared he had been.
Following his recovery, he spoke at a summit in London to discuss the global response to the virus, choking up as he recalled the "horror and the misery" he had witnessed in Sierra Leone.
Oliver Johnson has been leading a small team on the frontline of the Ebola response at Connaught Hospital in the Sierra Leone capital Freetown.
He said he was "humbled" by his honour.
"Everything we achieved is due to the efforts of extraordinary local health workers and international volunteers, who have bravely led the fight against Ebola and did not hesitate to put their lives at risk to save others.
"They are the real heroes of the response, and I would like to dedicate this award to them, especially those friends and colleagues who lost their lives to the disease.
"We will continue to fight the virus until we have seen the last case, and to work with our local partners to rebuild and strengthen their health system in the coming years," he said.
More than 11,160 people are reported to have died in the worst ever Ebola outbreak, which caused deaths in six countries; Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the US and Mali.
The outbreak in Liberia, which had the highest number of deaths out of all the countries affected, was declared over by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 9 May, 2015.
In Sierra Leone, where Mr Pooley was working, there were only 15 new cases declared in the week ending 7 June, according to the WHO.
At its peak in December 2014, Sierra Leone was reporting more than 500 new cases a week. | A British nurse who contracted Ebola last year during his work in Sierra Leone, has been recognised in the Queen's birthday honours list. |
38,894,023 | Higher income from taxes and relatively low growth will combine to create this effect, according to the the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Austerity will continue into the 2020s, after Chancellor Philip Hammond's decision to scrap a target of balancing the nation's books, it said.
The Treasury said it was committed to repairing Britain's finances.
Forecasts by Oxford Economics, which contributed to the report, estimate the UK economy will grow by 1.6% in 2017.
In 2018, growth in gross domestic product will slow to 1.3%, Oxford Economics said. Growth is expected to be dulled as a result of inflation prompted by the decline of the value of the pound after the EU referendum.
While a weaker pound is likely to improve the performance of manufacturers and exporters, higher costs for consumers will more than erase this gain, said the report.
Ahmed: Public finances and the shadow of Osborne
"Though the UK economy has continued to achieve solid growth, it has been almost entirely reliant on the consumer," said Andrew Goodwin, lead UK Economist at Oxford Economics and co-author of part of the report.
"With spending power set to come under significant pressure from higher inflation and the welfare squeeze, the consumer will not be able to keep contributing more than its fair share. Exports should be a bright spot, but overall a slowdown in GDP growth appears likely."
The UK's economy could be 3% smaller by 2030 than if Britain had voted Remain, according to forecasts in the IFS's annual Green Budget.
This annual analysis, ahead of next month's Budget, says spending on health, social care and benefits for sick or disabled people represents a particular risk to the public finances because it accounts for almost one third of government expenditure.
The report confirms that the period between 2009 and 2014 saw the slowest rate of growth in health spending in England since the mid-1950s.
And it argues that health budgets by the end of this decade will be over a billion pounds less than what is needed to cope with England's growing and ageing population, regardless of what are likely to be significant rises in demand for NHS care.
In a statement, the Treasury said: "The government is committed to repairing the public finances and living within our means so that we can build an economy that works for all.
"That has required some difficult decisions on spending, but we are determined to deliver efficient public services which provide maximum value for every pound of taxpayers' money."
Spending on public services dropped by 10% since 2010, the report said, after adjusting the figures for inflation.
To meet his target of eliminating the deficit during the next parliament, which is from 2020 to 2025, Mr Hammond will probably have to find a further £34bn in tax rises and spending cuts, extending austerity.
The report said £17bn of tax rises could be needed to contribute to closing the gap for government between outgoings and income. | Tax is set to rise as a share of the UK's income to its highest level since 1986, according to a think tank. |
39,927,626 | The mill has been unused for more than a decade and various regeneration plans have failed to get off the drawing board.
The 24-acre site has been bought by a company which is associated with the Warwickshire-based St Francis Group.
Earlier this year, the St Francis Group was part of a consortium which bought the Sirocco site in Belfast.
Hilden Mill was formerly home to the Barbour Thread factory which had occupied the site since 1823.
The previous owner was granted planning approval for a redevelopment scheme that involved up to 600 homes though that planning permission has since lapsed. | The Hilden Mill complex near Lisburn, in County Antrim, has been sold to an English development company. |
37,590,589 | David Crompton was suspended by Dr Alan Billings, the region's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), after the Hillsborough inquest verdicts in April.
Dr Billings said he had no choice but to act as there had been an "erosion of trust".
Lawyers for Mr Crompton claim the resignation call was disproportionate and unlawful.
Responding to the announcement, Dr Billings said: "I am disappointed that Mr Crompton has issued judicial review proceedings. I will now have to seek legal advice.
"I called for Mr Crompton's resignation on 29 September at the end of the Section 38 process. This followed careful consideration of all the views and correspondence I received, including the Police and Crime Panel's unanimous recommendation that I should call for the Chief Constable to resign or retire.
"Mr Crompton tendered his resignation the same day."
Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Tom Winsor said Dr Billings' decision was based on three "misunderstood" words in a press release, and the mistake would be corrected in the High Court.
Mr Crompton was suspended after an inquest jury concluded police conduct contributed to or caused the deaths of 96 football falls at Hillsborough in 1989.
The families of those who died complained to the coroner and claimed a line of questioning by South Yorkshire Police was designed to try and blame the fans for the disaster.
After the inquests, Mr Crompton appeared to justify the questioning of the fans' conduct.
Summarising his reasons for asking the chief constable to immediately resign, Dr Billings said the statement showed Mr Crompton did not "grasp the gravity of the situation".
Mr Crompton had already said he would retire in November.
Dr Billings has appointed Stephen Watson as his successor. Mr Watson is currently running the force on a temporary basis. | The Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police has launched legal proceedings over the decision to ask him to resign. |
39,069,688 | The Norwegian ship Elizabeth Bergen smashed into cliffs at Gunwalloe, Cornwall, during a storm in 1846.
Three crew members were killed but Henry Cuttance, landlord of the Ship Inn rescued the ship's master and three other men.
The King of Norway rewarded his bravery with a silver mug.
Graham Bazley, of Penzance auctioneers WH Lane, said the tankard achieved well in excess of the guide price of £5,500 after "fierce telephone bidding".
The Elizabeth Bergen was wrecked on 20 November 1846 while carrying a cargo of salt back to Norway.
As the vessel tried to weather the storm off Cornwall's south coast it was blown aground at the base of the cliffs in Gunwalloe and, according to reports at the time, was "smashed to matchsticks" within half an hour.
Mr Cuttance hauled three of the ship's company and its master from the wreckage before sending out a search party to look for survivors.
On finding three more men cowering at the bottom of the cliffs, Mr Cuttance and his helpers lowered hot coffee and bread to the stranded men while they prepared a chair on a rope to haul them to safety in a 10-hour operation.
In recognition of Mr Cuttance's heroism the King of Norway presented him with a silver tankard.
It was auctioned earlier along with a number of other items from Mr Cuttance's colourful life, including a ledger detailing his stock and sales of smuggled goods which included cheese, brandy and bales of cotton. | A tankard awarded to a smuggler and pub landlord for his "brave and noble actions" following a shipwreck has been sold at auction for £8,100. |
38,044,193 | The Player of the Tournament at the 2014 edition was in a class of her own as she terrorised the hapless Malian defence.
USA-based Francisca Ordega and Uchechi Sunday also scored as the Super Falcons sent out a chilling warning to their rivals.
The Group B game produced a slow start as both sides struggled to find their rhythm.
But the complexion of the match changed after 22 minutes when Ordega - the Washington Spirit midfielder - struck to give Nigeria the lead.
The Super Falcons grew in confidence after that and were in complete control for the rest of the game.
Poor defending contributed to the second goal as the Malians failed to clear their lines and the ball fell to Oshoala.
The Arsenal Ladies forward kept her cool and rounded the goalkeeper Goundo Samake before slotting the ball into an empty net.
Just after the break, the Nigerians were awarded a penalty following a foul on Osarenoma Igbinovia.
Sunday made no mistake from the spot and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way.
The game was effectively over as a contest.
Three more goals from Oshoala gave the Nigerians a dream start as they bid for an eighth African title.
Nigeria's next game is against regional rivals Ghana on Wednesday.
Black Queens make winning start
In Sunday's other game in the group Ghana beat Kenya 3-1.
It was Kenya who opened the scoring through Esse Akida in the 23rd minute when she found herself in space inside the area after a neat build up and made the most of her chance to beat the keeper.
But Ghana fought back and, after having an early goal ruled out for offside, they equalised on 50 minutes when Samira Suleman scored with a diving header.
The Black Queens then went ahead through a controversial penalty for handball - skipper Elizabeth Addo keeping cool to convert the spot-kick.
And Ghana sealed victory with their third goal when Portia Boakye glanced home a header from free-kick swung in from the left.
Next up for Ghana is Nigeria while the losers Kenya and Mali also meet on Wednesday in Limbe. | Asisat Oshoala scored four goals as Nigeria began the defence of their women's Africa Cup of Nations title with a 6-0 drubbing of Mali in Limbe on Sunday. |
23,248,136 | Deputy Darren Duquemin suggested rebranding as "Guernsey Air" would be more effective in promoting the island.
Deputy Treasury Minister Jan Kuttelwascher said it would be discussed by the Treasury Department, the company's shareholder, on Tuesday.
Mark Darby, the airline's chief executive officer, said changing the airline's 45-year-old name was not currently among their priorities.
This week the States accounts revealed the airline's debts had grown to £12m by the end of 2012.
They also showed the States was guaranteeing a loan of £14.9m for the purchase of two aircraft and a separate £7.8m loan for the Aurigny Group, which is the airline and an aero engineering company.
Deputy Kuttelwascher, a former airline pilot, said the idea was discussed during the last term of government but did not receive much support.
"I'm neutral on the issue," he said. "It's primarily an operational issue for [Aurigny] to decide.
"In the current climate and Aurigny's financial situation, to try to put forward a business case which is acceptable for an expenditure which may or may not result in a benefit would not be an easy thing to do."
Deputy Duquemin said changing stationery and livery would not cost much and the change would ultimately benefit the Bailiwick.
He said: "If we can put 'Guernsey' in big letters on the side of a big, shiny new jet at Gatwick airport... people are going to be impressed that Guernsey has its own airline."
"At the moment, it's almost the island's best kept secret," he said.
He said the rebrand could happen with routine maintenance over a number of years, rather than happening "in one go".
Mark Darby, the airline's chief executive officer, said: "A name change would involve a large investment to rebrand all our aircraft, signage, websites, uniforms, stationery and marketing and there would be re-launch costs too."
He said the idea would "require careful thought by our board and consultation with our shareholder".
Aurigny was purchased by the States in 2003, in order to secure slots at Gatwick and secure the future of flights to and from Guernsey.
It currently competes on the route with Flybe but the Exeter-based airline has announced it will sell its slots to Easyjet and discontinue its services on the route from March. | The name of Guernsey's publicly-owned airline, Aurigny, could be changed. |
39,705,624 | Rouse, 24, has helped Kent win all three of their County Championship games this season, scoring 95 not out in their crushing win over Derbyshire.
However, he says he nearly quit the game two years ago after being released by Hampshire and Gloucestershire.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about other options," he said.
With England international Sam Billings playing for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League, Rouse has been behind the stumps for all of Kent's Division Two wins this campaign.
It's an opportunity he's grabbed with both hands, with his unbeaten 95 against Derbyshire a career-best first-class score, while his wicketkeeping has helped Kent take the maximum 60 wickets and make a flying start to their campaign.
But it has been far from a straightforward route to the first team for Rouse, who has had to fight for his place every step of the way.
The Zimbabwe-born keeper was let go by Hampshire and Gloucestershire before a temporary spell as cover at Kent turned into a two-year contract following Ryan Davies' move to Somerset in January 2016.
"It's been a bit of a rollercoaster - it's been quite tough to be honest. With the nature of being a keeper you're vying for one or two spots," he told BBC Radio Kent.
"Once I got released [by Gloucestershire] I qualified as a personal trainer, which kind of eased everything. It allowed me to have that sort of plan B, to concentrate on cricket for a bit.
"It was only a late call with Ryan [Davies] going to Somerset, but it's gone pretty well. Me having that personal training qualification and a little bit of something else behind me allows me to relax a bit.
"I've realised I do have a plan B. I can play with a bit more freedom, which is nice." | Kent wicketkeeper Adam Rouse says becoming a personal trainer has given him a plan B and allowed him to play cricket with greater freedom. |
30,342,999 | The Reverend James Percival, 64, of Holy Trinity Church in Freckleton, and daughter Ruth, 28, were also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to conceal the birth of a child.
His wife Susan, 65, was also arrested on suspicion of concealing a birth.
Lancashire Police said three people have been bailed until 5 March. A post-mortem examination was inconclusive.
A police spokesman said: "The 64-year-old man and 28-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of murder and conspiracy to conceal the birth of a child and the 65-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to conceal the birth of a child have all been bailed until 5 March 2015."
Further tests to establish how the baby died will be carried out.
Police arrested the vicar and his daughter on Tuesday after reports of a woman giving birth to a stillborn baby boy on 25 November. | A vicar and his daughter have been bailed after their arrests on suspicion of murdering a baby. |
34,899,278 | State media and activists said troops, backed by Russian air strikes, had seized the towns of Mahin and Hawwarin.
They lie to the east of a strategically important motorway connecting Damascus with major cities to the north.
The army has launched a series of offensives since Russia launched an air campaign to bolster President Bashar al-Assad's government on 30 September.
Russia has said it has targeted only "terrorists", but activists say its strikes have mainly hit Western-backed rebel groups which are opposed to IS.
On Monday, the official Sana news agency reported that army units and local pro-government militiamen had taken full control of Mahin and Hawwarin, about 65km (40 miles) south-east of the city of Homs, after destroying IS positions in the towns.
A military source said a large number of IS militants had been killed and that soldiers were dismantling bombs planted on roads, in farmland and homes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said Syrian and Russian aircraft had carried out dozens of strikes in support of the ground assault.
In addition to lying to the east of the north-south motorway connecting Damascus and Homs, Mahin and Hawwarin are close to the roads that link the IS-held town of Palmyra.
In a separate development on Monday, civilian flights in the Middle East faced further disruption as a result of Russian missile strikes in Syria.
Airports in northern Iraq have been closed for two days, and flights in and out of the Lebanese capital Beirut are being routed around an exclusion zone in the northern part of the eastern Mediterranean.
The Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq has protested to Moscow about the flight of cruise missiles launched in the Caspian Sea over its territory.
Russian warships in the Mediterranean are also firing eastwards into Syria.
Talks in Tehran on Monday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were expected to focus on the conflict in Syria and renewed international efforts to negotiate a political solution.
Iran and Russia have been staunch allies of President Assad throughout the four-year war, which has left more than 250,000 people dead and forced more than 11 million from their homes.
They were among 19 countries which signed a UN statement setting a deadline of 1 January for the start of peace talks between the government and opposition. | Syrian government forces are reported to have gained ground from Islamic State (IS) in the west of the country. |
32,632,066 | Jones, 29, collapsed during a League One game at London Skolars on Sunday and was later pronounced dead in hospital.
The Rugby Football League said the problem was not revealed when Jones underwent an ECG scan in late 2014.
His wife Lizzie will attend the Cougars' home match on Sunday.
Jones won 12 Wales caps and scored over 1,000 points in 150 games over two spells with the West Yorkshire club.
"Whilst the findings of the post-mortem do provide an explanation for why he died, they allow for little comfort for Danny's family or all those who knew him," said Gary Fawcett, Keighley Cougars chief executive.
Jones was father to five-month-old twins Bobby and Phoebe, and a fund set up for Jones' family has already raised £77,000.
"His tragically premature death is still very painful for everyone, not least because his heart condition could not even be detected by the ECG," Fawcett added.
"All we can do now is mourn his passing, celebrate his life and do everything we can for Lizzie, their children and their wider family." | Keighley Cougars and Wales rugby league player Danny Jones died from a cardiac arrest triggered by hereditary heart disease, a post-mortem has revealed. |
40,436,240 | There has been a drop of 14% in students from Wales training in medicine across the UK between 2015 and 2017.
Also only 30% of students in the two Welsh medical schools are from Wales.
Dr Dai Lloyd, chair of the Assembly's health committee said there was a "clear case for increasing medical school capacity within Wales".
The committee has been looking at the whole issue of medical recruitment in Wales and how best to fill vacancies.
It included support for students and the issue of work-life balance for medical staff.
It wants universities in Wales to do more to make sure students who achieve the necessary grades from Wales secure those places.
Despite some improvements, the number of Welsh students studying medicine is still lagging behind the other UK nations.
There are currently two medical schools providing undergraduate medical education in Wales - Cardiff and Swansea. The former also works in partnership with the universities in Bangor and Wrexham, with hospital placements in north Wales.
But there has been a drop of nearly 15% over the last two years in the number of Wales-based students applying to study medicine in the UK, a steeper decline than in other UK nations.
There is also a low number of Welsh medical students staying at home to study - and there is generally a tendency for students, once qualified, to stay to work in the area where they qualify.
Only 30% of Welsh medical school undergraduates were from Wales, compared to 80% in England and 55% in Scotland.
The committee wants the Welsh Government and the Wales Deanery, which is responsible for medical training, to look at key pressure areas.
It welcomed the Welsh Government's efforts to address recruitment issues, including the "train, work, live" campaign.
But it said there was still further work to be done to address "the wide range of factors that could attract new medical staff to Wales and retain the existing workforce."
The committee makes 16 recommendations in its report, including a new centre for medical education in Bangor.
The findings have been welcomed by medical bodies, who gave evidence to the committee's inquiry.
Vanessa Young, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, which represents health boards, said working in Wales needed to be made as attractive as possible.
"This is a country that has so much to offer in terms of career prospects and lifestyle for those working or aspiring to work in health and social care," she said.
"Encouraging individuals to train in Wales so they are more likely to stay and pursue their careers here is key."
Dr Charlotte Jones, chair of BMA Cymru Wales's GP committee said it had previously highlighted concerns that recruitment challenges are often more acute in more rural parts of Wales.
"Therefore the committee's call to develop an action plan for rural and medical training and education is also to be welcomed," she said.
Dr Gareth Llewelyn, vice president of the Royal College of Physicians in Wales said: "Implementing these recommendations will need a drastic change in mind-set and our doctors are clear that we want to work with Welsh Government and NHS Wales to improve patient care and solve this workforce crisis."
He said the RCP had already highlighted a 40% vacancy rate for consultants in 2015/16.
"There are ongoing major trainee rota gaps in every one of our hospitals. This cannot continue as it impacts directly on the quality and efficiency of patient care." | The number of medical school places needs to increase, including in north Wales, a cross-party committee said. |
32,297,446 | Sarah Eatwell, from Tockenham, Wiltshire, was due to lay her mother, Shelia Bizley, to rest in the same plot as her father at Fareham, in Hampshire.
But as the family travelled to the service she was contacted and told the original grave was not deep enough.
Ms Eatwell said the situation was "very, very distressing".
The family paid for a double plot when their father, Kenelm Bizley, died 27 years ago.
Fareham Borough Council must now apply for permission to exhume his remains before they can widen the grave.
Once this takes place, the funeral will be held "at the family's convenience" and the council will pay all associated costs.
Ms Eatwell added: "It is something you just cannot imagine ever happening.
"It should not happen. Funerals are never easy but for this to happen... words can't describe it."
Council leader, Sean Woodward, said: "I would like to apologise unreservedly to the family at this very difficult time on behalf of Fareham Borough Council.
"Clearly a mistake was made over 27 years ago and the only record that remains shows that there should have been a double grave.
"We expect permission for the exhumation to be received later today and the burial will then be able to go ahead at the family's convenience." | A family has been given an "unreserved apology" after their mother's burial had to be postponed less than two hours before the service. |
35,916,894 | By 2018 Welsh ministers will be able to borrow up to £500m and Labour plans to spend part of the money on the road.
Plans for the scheme include 24km (15m) of new motorway and a 2.5km-long (1.5m) viaduct crossing the River Usk.
But Kirsty Williams said the money should be used to build homes.
"We used our influence in the assembly to stop work on the M4. Mark my words: the Welsh Liberal Democrats would do so again," she said.
"We will use this money to build 20,000 new homes, building them across the whole of Wales so everyone will benefit."
Economy Minister Edwina Hart told AMs last year the Welsh Government was not intending to use all the money available on a single project.
A final decision on whether the motorway scheme will go ahead will be taken after May's assembly election. | Powers allowing the Welsh Government to borrow millions to fund investment should not be used to build a planned M4 relief road around Newport, the Welsh Lib Dem leader has said. |
36,604,505 | Gerald Stockwell suffered a collapsed lung and fractures in the collision in Lechlade, Gloucestershire on 19 June.
The 66-year-old, from Swindon, was riding his Triumph Bonneville on the A361 when he was injured.
Police said a 31-year-old man, from Lechlade, had been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and failing to stop/report an accident.
He has been bailed until August while police carry out further inquiries.
A photo of Mr Stockwell in his hospital bed was released by Gloucestershire Constabulary on Tuesday in an attempt to prompt witnesses and the driver responsible to come forward. | A man has been arrested in connection with a hit-and-run collision in which a motorcyclist was seriously injured. |
37,468,209 | He said that under a Labour government "everyone will earn enough to live on".
He also set out plans to end austerity, fight for "the best" Brexit deal and to build a "manufacturing renaissance".
A new National Living Wage, which came into force in April, requires employers to pay workers over 25 at least £7.20 an hour, rising to £9 by 2020.
BBC economics editor Kamal Ahmed said that under Mr McDonnell's plans, a £10-plus an hour minimum wage would raise an annual salary for the lowest paid full time worker to £19,250, according to manufacturers' trade body EEF.
In his keynote conference speech in Liverpool, Mr McDonnell said Labour had become a "government in waiting".
He pledged that if the party won the next general election it would be an "interventionist government" with a "comprehensive industrial strategy" to invest in the UK's future.
And he got a standing ovation after ending his speech by saying of his policy programme: "In this party you no longer have to whisper it - it's called socialism."
The shadow chancellor - a key ally of leader Jeremy Corbyn on the left of the party - also announced plans:
The new mandatory National Living Wage (NLW) was announced in last summer's Budget by the then Chancellor George Osborne, in an effort to create a higher-wage, lower-welfare economy.
Mr McDonnell, who praised the introduction of the national minimum wage as one of Labour's "greatest achievements", said Labour would go further.
Analysis by Laura Kuenssberg, BBC political editor
It felt like John McDonnell had been waiting for a long time to say it. Up on the conference platform, at the very end of his speech, he told delegates, "you no longer have to whisper it, it's called socialism".
In fact, as other MPs reminded me after his speech, Tony Blair's controversial amended version of Clause 4, included the phrase, "The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party".
It was never an officially banned word, although no question, until Mr Corbyn's victory, talk of true socialism was not a popular subject at the conference lectern.
Read Laura's full blog
"Under the next Labour government, everyone will earn enough to live on. When we win the next election we will write a real Living Wage into law.
"We'll charge a new Living Wage Review Body with the task of setting it at the level needed for a decent life. Independent forecasts suggest that this will be over £10 per hour."
He said it would be a "fundamental part" of Labour's "new bargain in the workplace".
Mr McDonnell, who first announced his hopes of increasing the minimum wage level to £10 a year ago, said there would be support for small businesses to ensure that the higher rate did not cost jobs. Labour sources said the £10 level would be in place by 2020 if there was an early general election that Labour won.
Speaking earlier to BBC Breakfast, Mr McDonnell said Labour would be an "interventionist government" working with the private sector.
And he pledged that the UK would borrow in the short term for long-term investment and "future prosperity".
In his conference speech, the shadow chancellor said Labour would not stand by and let industries such as steel flounder, and he promised to "work with" wealth creators and entrepreneurs.
He said digital advances were encouraging firms to return to the UK but the Conservatives were "too blinkered by their ideology" to take advantage.
The danger many businesses highlight is that the living wage is becoming politicised, a battle between two political parties keen to show the effort they are making on low levels of pay.
The Low Pay Commission - which has guided increases in the minimum wage since its inception in 1999 - was mandated to balance income levels with impact on employment and the strength of economic growth.
Many businesses believe it is a mandate that should not be abandoned lightly.
Read more
Mr McDonnell said he would commit Labour to supporting major industrial employers and firms in emerging sectors, such as clean energy.
Arguing that the tide had turned around the world against "unfettered" globalisation, he claimed advocates of the free market would be unable to fully exploit the opportunities presented by the UK's exit from the EU.
Citing the government's response to the steel crisis, its cuts to solar and wind subsidies and its approach to R&D funding, he claimed only Labour could unlock the true potential of the British economy.
"Be certain the next Labour government will be an interventionist government," he argued. "We will not stand by like this one has and see our key industries flounder and our future prosperity put at risk."
The Labour leadership has alarmed some business leaders by calling for selective nationalisation - including the return of the railways to public ownership - and for business taxes to rise to fund investment and skills training.
But Mr McDonnell - who has previously called for "socialism with an iPad" - rejected claims that the party was anti-enterprise and its approach marked a return to the state planning of the 1970s.
"Our government will create an entrepreneurial state that works with the wealth creators, the workers and the entrepreneurs to create the products and the markets that will secure our long-term prosperity."
Asked whether the party would fight for the UK to stay in the EU single market, Mr McDonnell told BBC Radio 4's Today: "We want access to the single market... We want the best deal we can get."
On Labour unity, following Mr Corbyn's re-election on Saturday, Mr McDonnell said there was an "open door" to "virtually all" of the MPs who resigned from the shadow cabinet to return to the front bench.
He said he thought Labour was working "pretty well" until the mass walkouts and said it was time to "get back to business".
Mr McDonnell also said he did not anticipate that a reshuffle of Mr Corbyn's team would happen before NEC discussions about elections to the shadow cabinet had concluded.
Reacting to Mr McDonnell's conference speech, Treasury chief secretary David Gauke said working people would be "worse off" under a Labour government.
"Our National Living Wage and cuts to income tax mean more money in the pockets of millions of people.
"As we work to build an economy and country that work for everyone, Labour show they are too divided, distracted and incompetent to be a credible alternative government," he said.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat economic spokeswoman Susan Kramer said the shadow chancellor's speech showed he was "utterly out of touch".
"The fact is that rather than fighting for what our economy needs - continued membership of the single market, he is more interested is fighting the battles over the free market he and the hard left lost in the 80's."
Simon Walker, director general of the Institute of Directors, said Mr McDonnell "played a few good notes" but the overall tone of his speech was "concerning for business".
"While he is right to identify skills and infrastructure as important issues, a return to a subsidising industry through bumper levels of government borrowing is the last thing that Britain needs.
"At a time when we need an economy that is forward-looking and open to the world, protectionism must be avoided at all costs." | Labour would introduce a "real living wage" of at least £10 an hour if in power, shadow chancellor John McDonnell has told the party's conference. |
36,403,957 | She was handed over to a group of Roman Catholic Church mediators in the town of Ocana, in the northern region of Norte de Santander.
She was exhausted but in good health, said Catholic priest Ramon Torrado, one of the mediators.
Ms Hernandez Mora said she had been kidnapped by members of the left-wing National Liberation Army, or ELN.
"From the very beginning I was held against my will," she said.
There were moments of tension in the six days she spent in captivity, she said, "especially when we could hear the armed forces helicopters above us, looking for me".
Ms Hernandez Mora has lived in Colombia for nearly two decades, and has dual Spanish and Colombian nationality.
She has reported extensively on Colombia's rebel groups, working for Colombia's El Tiempo and Spain's El Mundo newspapers.
El Tiempo (in Spanish) said she had been investigating the eradication of coca crops when she went missing in the north-eastern region of Catatumbo.
The area is known to have a presence of left-wing guerrilla groups and criminal gangs that profit from drug trafficking.
Two Colombian journalists who went to the region to report on her disappearance were kidnapped by the ELN on Monday, but released a few hours after Ms Hernandez Mora.
Diego D'Pablos and Carlos Melo work for Colombian network RCN.
Earlier, President Juan Manuel Santos had said he was "celebrating Salud Hernandez's return to freedom" - but demanded the release of the Colombian journalists.
The ELN is estimated to have about 1,300 members.
It is Colombia's second largest rebel group after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, which has some 7,000 fighters.
The ELN has recently agreed to enter peace talks with the government, following the example of the Farc.
Negotiations between Colombian government negotiators and the Farc began in the Cuban capital, Havana, in November 2012.
A peace accord with the Farc is expected to be signed by the end of the year. | Colombian rebels have released Spanish journalist Salud Hernandez Mora, who had been missing since last Saturday. |
32,884,168 | Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has launched a consultation process over the move.
The "zones" would mean anyone caught walking their dog in the areas listed could face a fine of up to £80.
Some of the 96 areas proposed include the Knockagh Monument on the outskirts of Carrickfergus, as well as parts of Carnfunnock Country Park in Larne.
Playing fields and community centres in Ballymena, Greenisland and Whitehead are also included.
The consultation, which is open to the public until 19 June, has caused controversy among some dog owners.
Philip Thompson, the director of environmental services at the council, said: "Dog control issues, particularly the whole issue of fouling, are something that our elected members and officers are continually getting complaints about.
"So these dog control orders are there to try and deal with that issue."
He said the council would engage with people worried about the zones.
"This is a four-week consultation and we will genuinely listen and genuinely take on board those concerns," he said.
"If there are areas that shouldn't be on those, then we can remove them, but that will come back to council for a final decision." | A Northern Ireland council is considering setting up a number of dog exclusion zones. |
38,483,188 | The men and boys were killed in an explosion at Sneyd Colliery in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, on New Year's Day in 1942.
Official records at the time concluded the blast it was caused by a spark from loaded wagons igniting coal dust at the colliery.
The service at Holy Trinity Church in Burslem was held on Sunday afternoon.
Miners did not usually work on 1 January because of an old superstition, but they had gone down the pit to help with the war effort.
Keith Meeson, 71, from Stanley, campaigned for a memorial for the victims, near the Town Hall in Burslem town centre, which he said was unveiled in 2007.
The former miner said: "It's so important we do not forget it... working in those conditions.
"[In] another generation it could be forgotten forever."
Sneyd Colliery, once part of a huge mining industry on the Staffordshire coalfields, closed in the 1960s. | A memorial service has been held on the 75th anniversary of a pit disaster in which 57 miners died. |
33,668,542 | But there's one issue the prime minister might be less keen to talk about.
Lindsay Sandiford, a 59-year-old grandmother, finds herself on death row in Indonesia's notorious Kerobokan Prison, not knowing when she might face a firing squad.
It's two-and-half years since the former legal secretary from Cheltenham was sentenced to death after being caught smuggling 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine from Bangkok to Bali.
Her lawyers argued she was pressured into smuggling the drugs by a criminal gang.
She co-operated with the Indonesia police in a sting operation leading to the arrest of several members of that gang.
But at her sentencing hearing in 2013, that co-operation appeared to count for nothing as she was given the death sentence.
All appeal attempts have so far come to nothing.
It is a potentially awkward moment for Mr Cameron.
He is expected to announce hundreds of millions of pounds worth of trade deals with Indonesia.
At the same time a British citizen faces being lined up and shot.
Sandiford's legal team, which she is struggling to pay for, will be hoping Mr Cameron can exert some pressure on Indonesian President Joko Widodo when the two men meet here in Jakarta.
But it is a delicate business.
In the past such pressure has not worked.
So far this year Indonesia has executed 12 foreigners for drugs offences.
Perhaps the highest profile of them were two Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the Bali Nine drug ring.
They were executed in April after being caught trying to smuggling 8.3kg (18.2lb) of heroin from Bali to Australia in in 2005.
In their case the Australian government was publicly critical of Indonesia in an effort to get Jakarta to reverse the sentences.
Australian ministers even threatened to cut off foreign aid.
It didn't work.
Indonesia did not appear to like being told what to do.
And the death penalty for drugs offences has broad public support in Indonesia.
"Take one life to save the lives of many," one Indonesian man, who didn't want to give his name, told us on the beach in Bali.
"Drugs ruin people's lives."
And there can be no doubt that smuggling drugs in Indonesia, a country whose harsh treatment of drug offenders is well known, is a very stupid thing to do.
The rewards may be great but so are the risks.
"Britain or Australia don't criticise the United States which has executed hundreds of people," the man added.
And there is an element of double standards here.
Nobody realistically expects Britain to jeopardise trade ties with the US where there are 3,000 people currently on death row, including British citizens.
Or with China, which executes thousands of people every year.
In the run-up to the execution of Chan and Sukumaran there were large public demonstrations in support of the Indonesian government.
The death penalty is a vote-winner here.
So Mr Cameron is likely to try to avoid talking publicly about Sandiford's case.
Any pressure will probably be applied discreetly and behind the scenes.
Certainly speaking to Sandiford's legal team, you get the impression they want to avoid any public criticism of the Indonesian government or justice system.
What they would like is for the British government to help fund Sandiford's legal costs, something it has so far refused to do despite numerous legal challenges.
So despite Mr Cameron's visit, Sandiford's fate remains very much uncertain.
For more than two-and-a-half years, she has sat on death row, not knowing how many days, weeks, months or years she has left to live. | Trade and counter-terrorism co-operation are officially at the top of David Cameron's agenda on a two-day visit to Indonesia as part of a tour of South East Asia. |
39,055,065 | He said crocodiles had been given a higher profile in the current campaign than the crisis in the health service.
Speaking at the launch of his party's election manifesto, Mr Eastwood warned the election marked a "critical moment for power-sharing".
He said voters faced a stark choice between devolution, or a return to direct rule.
"If direct rule is the result delivered by Arlene (Foster, DUP leader) and Michelle (O'Neill, Sinn Fein leader in Northern Ireland) - it will take a long time to bring back our devolved institutions," he added.
"We know from history that bringing the institutions down is the easy part - getting them up and running again will be much more difficult.
"As we enter into the final stretch of this campaign, it is the very idea of power-sharing in the North which is now at risk."
The SDLP leader told supporters health and Brexit were the key priorities for them in the election.
"It is a disgrace that crocodiles have been given more mention than the crisis in health during the course of this campaign," he added.
He was referring to Mrs Foster's recent comparison of Sinn Fein to a crocodile that, if fed, would keep coming back for more.
Mr Eastwood pledged to bring in an emergency budget to deal with the problems in health on his first day in government, if he was elected.
"Taking the politics out of health doesn't mean that politics ignores the health crisis," he said.
The SDLP leader warned Brexit posed the "biggest threat to the economic, social and political interests of these islands".
He repeated his party's desire to secure special EU status for Northern Ireland in the Brexit negotiations. | SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has warned the "very idea of power-sharing" is at stake in next week's Assembly election. |
35,595,099 | A drone which has been used to scour the Devon coast has not been deployed due to "poor weather", police said.
The 25-year-old junior doctor's car was found on Friday at Ansteys Cove near Torquay, the town where she worked.
A police statement confirmed the search was continuing but said: "The drone has not been deployed because of poor weather."
Police divers have been redeployed to look for a missing man from Weymouth in an unconnected incident, Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed.
Read more on this story as it develops throughout the day on our Local Live pages.
The statement added: "Enquiries and localised searches are continuing this morning. Officers from the specially trained Force Support Group continue to scour the coast.
"Rose's parents are being supported by Devon and Cornwall Police."
The BBC understands that a note was found in Dr Polge's car.
It is believed its contents were mainly related to personal issues, but there was a passing reference to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
On Thursday, Mr Hunt confirmed the government would impose a new contract on junior doctors in England.
It is understood Dr Polge had been an active campaigner against plans to change working hours and conditions for junior doctors, and in January posted a new Facebook profile picture, featuring the hashtag #NotFairNotSafe.
Police said her disappearance was "totally out of character" and concerns for her welfare were rising.
Friday 12 February - Rose Polge's car is found in a car park near Ansteys Cove in Torbay
Saturday 13 February - The family and boyfriend of Dr Polge join more than 100 people searching the area around Ansteys Cove
Sunday 14 February - Torbay Hospital confirmed that Rose Polge works there as a junior doctor. "We will do whatever we can to support the authorities," a statement said.
Monday 15 February - Colin Smith, from Royston Hockey Club where Dr Polge used to play, said: "We just don't know what we can do."
Tuesday 16 February - Dr Polge's family release a statement saying they are "overwhelmed" by the support from her friends and colleagues
More than 100 people have been involved in the search operation, including Dr Polge's boyfriend and her family.
A district councillor for the village of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, where Dr Polge's parents live, said he has no doubt the community will "rally round".
Cllr Jose Hales said: "My heart goes out to the family at this terrible time. The pain and worry they must be feeling is unimaginable. Melbourn has a strong community and will no doubt rally round."
Police are appealing for the public to contact them with any information or sightings of Dr Polge. | Stormy weather and heavy rain is affecting the search for missing doctor Rose Polge. |
37,094,606 | "I know I'm a bit late with this, but my sadness is profound," Mayhew wrote on his website.
"No words seemed adequate to convey what we... have lost with the passing of my dear friend Kenny Baker."
Baker played the droid R2-D2 in the first six Star Wars films and formed a close friendship with Mayhew.
"Kenny and I became fast friends the first time we met and formed a lifelong bond after realising that we had so much in common," Mayhew said.
Many had passed comment about the pair's contrasting heights over the years - Baker stood at 3ft 8in (1.12m), while Mayhew is 7ft 2in (2.18m).
Mayhew wrote: "Although people liked to contrast the difference in our heights, we found we shared many of the same struggles, from finding clothes, driving cars and fitting in airplane seats to health issues and the ever constant stares of strangers; we understood each other on a level that few others can.
"I am so very glad I got to spend time with him in London earlier this month. His talent and his wicked sense of humour never diminished even as his health did.
"Ever the showman, Kenny was always eager to meet his fans. In the decades we knew each other, I never met anyone who enjoyed the public more.
"For all the joy he brought this world on screen and off I give my thanks, and a final farewell to my little friend with the giant heart who's gone to soon. Rest in peace Kenny."
After starring in the original Star Wars film, Baker went on to appear in the sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and the three prequels between 1999 and 2005.
He later appeared at Star Wars fan conventions across the world.
He was a consultant on the last Star Wars production - The Force Awakens - but actor Jimmy Vee was already lined up to take on the role of R2-D2 in the next film, due for release in 2017.
Baker's agent Johnny Mans said the actor had been ill for a couple of years.
Baker was a father of two and his wife Eileen died in 1993.
He also appeared on screen in Mona Lisa, Amadeus and The Elephant Man.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or email [email protected]. | Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew has paid tribute to his friend and Star Wars co-star Kenny Baker, who died at the weekend at the age of 81. |
39,162,741 | Barkhuizen gave the hosts the lead when he curled in from the edge of the box after good work by Daryl Horgan.
Horgan then doubled the advantage, slotting in at the second attempt after his first shot had been saved.
Barkhuizen volleyed in the hosts' third after the break from Horgan's free-kick, as Preston moved within six points of the play-off places.
Reading stay fifth in the table, but they are now only four points above seventh-placed Fulham following the Cottagers' 3-1 win at leaders Newcastle.
The Royals had a penalty appeal turned down early on when John Swift went down in the box, and they were denied the opening goal when Chris Maxwell produced a fine save to keep out Garath McCleary's long-range effort.
Preston controlled the game from then on, with Barkhuizen having scored four goals in three starts for Simon Grayson's side since arriving from Morecambe in January.
The Lilywhites have now won four straight league games at Deepdale, while Reading have lost three successive away games for the first time under manager Jaap Stam.
Preston North End boss Simon Grayson: "I'm obviously delighted when you beat somebody who are in the play-off positions 3-0, keep a clean sheet, with very good individual performances and could have had a lot more goals if we'd taken our chances.
"It's enhanced our opportunity of trying to catch the teams above us. We've always said over the last few weeks, we'll just see where it takes us. We've got nine games to go, I think if we win the next nine then we might have a chance but we've got some tough games from now until the end of the season."
"Wherever we finish, we'll have had a great season because they're an honest bunch of players and we'll keep fighting till the end and see where it takes us."
Reading boss Jaap Stam: "Everybody knows where we are, if you want to stay there, you need to defend and play in a certain way with a certain aggression and it's not only now towards the end of the season, it's the whole season because this is a tough league.
"It's very difficult to stay in the top six. All the teams, they want to stay up there, they want to do well, we do as well. I'm not interested in other teams, I'm focusing on our team, what we need to do and what we need to improve.
"If we keep on winning then we still can end up there and we need to be aware of that as well."
Match ends, Preston North End 3, Reading 0.
Second Half ends, Preston North End 3, Reading 0.
Attempt blocked. Roy Beerens (Reading) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by John Swift.
Chris Gunter (Reading) is shown the yellow card for hand ball.
Hand ball by Chris Gunter (Reading).
Attempt missed. Aiden McGeady (Preston North End) right footed shot from the left side of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Alan Browne with a cross.
Substitution, Preston North End. Jermaine Beckford replaces Jordan Hugill.
Corner, Preston North End. Conceded by Chris Gunter.
Foul by Jordan Obita (Reading).
Aiden McGeady (Preston North End) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Offside, Preston North End. Aiden McGeady tries a through ball, but Callum Robinson is caught offside.
Foul by Reece Oxford (Reading).
Jordan Hugill (Preston North End) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Reading. Conceded by Greg Cunningham.
Attempt saved. Danny Williams (Reading) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jordan Obita.
Corner, Reading. Conceded by Alan Browne.
Substitution, Reading. Roy Beerens replaces Lewis Grabban.
Foul by Garath McCleary (Reading).
Jordan Hugill (Preston North End) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Substitution, Preston North End. Callum Robinson replaces Tom Barkhuizen because of an injury.
Substitution, Reading. Reece Oxford replaces Paul McShane.
Attempt missed. Greg Cunningham (Preston North End) left footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Daniel Johnson following a set piece situation.
Foul by Chris Gunter (Reading).
Greg Cunningham (Preston North End) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt missed. Aiden McGeady (Preston North End) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left from a direct free kick.
Foul by Joey van den Berg (Reading).
Jordan Hugill (Preston North End) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Substitution, Preston North End. Alan Browne replaces Daryl Horgan.
Attempt saved. Tom Barkhuizen (Preston North End) right footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Jordan Hugill with a headed pass.
Attempt saved. Danny Williams (Reading) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Garath McCleary with a cross.
Attempt missed. Lewis Grabban (Reading) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Yann Kermorgant with a cross.
Attempt missed. Tom Barkhuizen (Preston North End) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Chris Maxwell.
Foul by Garath McCleary (Reading).
Daryl Horgan (Preston North End) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Danny Williams (Reading) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Ben Pearson (Preston North End).
Offside, Preston North End. Daryl Horgan tries a through ball, but Tom Clarke is caught offside.
Foul by Joey van den Berg (Reading).
Jordan Hugill (Preston North End) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Yann Kermorgant (Reading). | Tom Barkhuizen scored twice to help Preston keep alive their Championship play-off hopes by beating Reading. |
33,468,644 | But organisers have admitted the scene is "not an exact recreation of the real baptism" - partly because they started planning it more than 18 months ago.
The replica royal event is at St Peter and St Paul's church in Griston in Norfolk - one of six churches taking part in a Blossom and Yarn Festival.
Over 11,000 squares were used to create themed scenes for the six churches.
The themes include Easter, Christmas, wedding, baptism, remembrance and harvest.
Artistic director Lois Gill said: "We were always going to portray baptism in one of the churches, but then the Duchess of Cambridge became pregnant and it all fitted into the timing that we could replicate Princess Charlotte's christening."
The colours chosen for the figures were dictated by the wool available, which was either donated or from charity shops.
"We chose green for the Duchess of Cambridge, the Queen is wearing peach and the Duke of Cambridge is in a dark jacket and grey trousers," she said.
Prince Harry - who was unable to attend the event at Church of St Mary Magdalene at the Queen's Sandringham estate last Sunday - is in attendance at the knitted replica in "a very jaunty lilac colour".
Most of the figures and many other items, including roses, small animals and cakes, were made from 10cm knitted squares.
A likeness of the Bishop of Norwich, the Right Reverend Graham Jones, was one of the 31 human figures created by more than 100 knitters.
The real bishop said: "My admiration is enormous - if my life depended on it, I couldn't knit a bishop." | Knitters have recreated Princess Charlotte's christening in wool as part of a church fundraising festival. |
40,531,780 | The team won five medals at June's World Championship in South Korea, Britain's highest total at the event.
GB's best Olympic performance came at Rio 2016, when a squad of four athletes secured three medals.
"We want the maximum of eight athletes in Rio and the target is four golds," Hall told BBC Sport.
Bianca Walkden secured gold and Mahama Cho silver, while there were bronze medals for Jade Jones, Damon Sansum and 18-year-old Bradly Sinden at the World Championships in Muju last month.
There were also encouraging performances from teenagers Lauren Williams - a two-time world junior champion - and Max Cater.
"We have an exciting crop of young talent coming through, but also the old guard who are still at the top of their sport and will continue to be through to Tokyo 2020," said Hall.
The performance of Sinden, who was inspired by fellow Doncaster fighter and former world champion Sarah Stevenson, was a particular highlight for Britain.
He only joined the senior national programme 11 months ago and was making his World Championship debut.
"He's an exceptional talent with an incredible workrate and real fight brain who will continue to get stronger," said Hall.
"Bradly was disappointed with bronze and that's always a good sign."
Hall credits much of the success to the "world-class" support team in place at the team's headquarters in Manchester.
"You have to have exceptional talent in terms of the athletes, but then you have to have exceptional people to support that," he told BBC Sport.
"We have one of the world's best coaching teams, and the world's best support team, and when it all comes together, it's just outstanding."
The next major focus for Britain's fighters will be the World Taekwondo Grand Prix series, which begins in Moscow from 4-6 August, with the UK leg taking place in London from 20-22 October.
Media playback is not supported on this device | Britain's taekwondo athletes can achieve a record Olympic medal total at Tokyo 2020, team performance director Gary Hall says. |
39,458,062 | Over a cup of tea, in a secure office about an hour's drive from Turkey's border with Syria, I meet General Adeeb al-Shallaf, the founder and head of the Free Syrian Police (FSP) in Aleppo province.
Gen Shallaf is a tall man with considerable presence and a parade-ground bearing.
He once held a senior position within the Syrian government police force but that changed when his superiors ordered him to shoot at demonstrators during the popular uprisings in the country.
"Of course I refused to obey the orders," he tells me. "So I decided to defect."
In 2012 he and fellow officers decided to form the Free Syrian Police.
Gen Shallaf wanted Syrians to have a force they could trust after years of being policed by what was seen as corrupt instruments of the regime.
The force now has 3,300 mostly unarmed officers who provide community policing to the rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Idlib and Daraa provinces.
It is difficult and dangerous work. Gen Shallaf tells me he has frequently been the target of shelling.
"They have tried to kill me 20 times," he says, adding that more than 100 officers have died.
At first Gen Shallaf thought his officers should carry weapons, but now he firmly believes that law and order in Syria need not be administered at the point of a gun.
"Our strength will be in our weakness," he says. His officers' authority, he argues, comes from the support of the community. Policing by consent, we might call it in the UK.
It's an ambition that is supported by the British government. Our meeting is in a secure annexe maintained by Adam Smith International (ASI) in Gaziantep.
The office is nondescript - better to keep off the radar of so-called Islamic State, who are known to operate in the Turkish city.
Since 2014 ASI has administered about £30m (US$37.5m) worth of assistance each year from a number of western governments on behalf of the Foreign Office.
The UK contributes about 30% of the total bill.
"We've provided vehicles, uniforms, batons and so on," says David Robson, a former senior British Army officer who leads the programme team.
They also provide financial support and training for the organisation.
As well as funding the police, David's team supports an effort to provide Syrians with personal documentation, such as records of births and marriages.
The lawyer in charge tells me it is vital to preserving the identity of the Syrian people.
The police seem to be valued by the communities they serve.
A community representative from an area north of Aleppo told me: "Their work is more than brave. Brave doesn't begin to describe what they do."
She added: "People are tired of seeing weapons and arms everywhere, so people want to see unarmed police."
Crimes have decreased in her community, where there are night patrols. But the ability of the FSP to bring some of the armed actors in Syria to justice, is limited.
"In one example in Western Aleppo a few murders were reported over disputes related to water," a Syrian ASI staff member told me. "The FSP was not able to interfere due to many of those involved being armed."
One family was in control of the water supply and this was leading to conflict.
Instead, the police negotiated improvements to the water supply, forged an agreement about sharing it and as a result, the tension - and murders - ended.
But there is no escape from the conflict. The police work closely with the civil defence, known as the White Helmets, to deal with the aftermath of air-raids - fighting fires, providing medical assistance and securing damaged areas.
"We still lose friends and colleagues and at the end of every shift, the policemen still say goodbye to each other because they don't know whether they will meet again," a senior police officer working in countryside in western Aleppo told me.
Still they continue the work. Recently they carried out an operation targeting drug dealing in their area.
The FSP funders do not provide support to the court system. The police predominantly enforce Syrian law, but ASI's David Robson notes that armed groups have brought in various forms of Sharia law.
The FSP does not co-operate with extremist groups but sometimes control will switch to these groups, he says.
In such circumstances international funders are obliged to withdraw their support to the police in those areas.
In a busy cafe by the Bosphorus in Istanbul, activist Sandra Bitar regrets that this is the case.
"We are punishing the civilians in these communities," she says. In her view it is counter-productive and will force Syrians in these areas to engage with radical groups.
She also wishes donors would fund the court system.
The FSP numbers are growing, and the funders hope it will achieve change that lasts.
When peace finally returns to Syria, David Robson believes that the programme will have demonstrated the value of community policing.
But when that peace will come, regretfully, he could not say.
Chris Vallance reports for BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme. | The Free Syrian Police force, part-funded by the UK government, was set up five years ago - and demonstrates to Syrians that it is not necessary to carry weapons in order to administer law and order in the country. |
30,003,107 | The money will be used to extend the project at the Nerve Centre in the city.
It will also assist the development of a mobile facility in the north-west region to "increase outreach".
Culture minister Carál Ní Chuilín said she was pleased to be able to confirm that she had secured capital funding.
John Peto of the Nerve Centre outlined the benefits the mobile facility would bring to the community as part of the City of Culture legacy.
"The legacy is now to reach out to Strabane, to Coleraine, to Limavady," he added.
"The mobile lab will allow us to go out and deliver day sessions in places.
"But also it has the capacity where it can stay in an area potentially for a week, a fortnight, a month and start to embed these skills and build digitally enabled community resilience."
The Nerve Centre says a Fab Lab is a digital fabrication workshop which allows anyone "to make practically anything".
Users have "an unprecedented opportunity to access state of the art digital tools within a community setting".
The Fab Lab at the Nerve Centre is partnered with one at the Ashton Centre in north Belfast. | The Fab Lab in Londonderry is to receive a £350,000 cash boost from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. |
40,164,369 | Long-time Chelsea fan Pastor Azigiza encouraged people to come wearing football tops of their favourite team.
Standing behind a Chelsea cake on a stage made to look like a football pitch he said: "Chelsea, by the grace of God, came first."
He told the BBC he wanted to use the power of football to talk about God.
Azigiza also led the congregation in a verse of the Chelsea anthem Blue is the Colour.
The pastor, who at one time was a radio DJ, was also teasing his immediate boss at the Living Streams International Church, Reverend Dr Ebenezer Markwei, who is an Arsenal fan.
In his sermon, Pastor Markwei talked about "the good, the bad and the ugly of rivalry" suggesting that football fans should engage in friendly rivalry.
He said there was fellowship in rejoicing in others' successes, so when it is your turn others would do the same.
The one blemish in Chelsea's domestic season was that they lost the FA Cup Final - 2-1 to Arsenal.
But during the service Azigiza thanked God for Arsenal's victory "because it means that [Arsenal manager] Arsene Wenger will stay" and they cannot win the league with him, he said.
Fans of all teams were welcome to the service and Azigiza told the BBC that he wanted to defuse rivalry between supporters of different clubs.
Although, he added, they were reminded that Chelsea had just been crowned Premier League champions.
Chelsea won the Premier League in May with 93 points, seven ahead of their nearest rivals Tottenham.
The English Premier League has a large and passionate following in Ghana.
Research carried out by Twitter in 2015 suggested that Chelsea is the most popular side in Ghana and much of the rest of West Africa. | A church in Ghana's capital, Accra, has held a thanksgiving service for Chelsea following its recent success in the Premier League. |
36,588,383 | The former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international played 11 times for Wimbledon after joining in January.
Smith, 23, has signed for the Pilgrims subject to completing a medical.
The ex-Gillingham, Stevenage and Watford man failed to agree a new contract with the Dons.
Meanwhile, Plymouth boss Derek Adams has admitted that his squad will be "much-changed" in League Two next season.
The Pilgrims are waiting for decisions on contract offers from 11 players, but Adams wants new faces as well.
"A bit of both is always good because you need a freshness to the squad as well," the 40-year-old told BBC Sport.
"I think that you always want continuity, but the way the game is these days that is a very difficult thing to have.
Plymouth are preparing for their sixth season in League Two after losing in the play-offs two years in a row.
"The players that are still with us next season will have the benefit of that, but the squad will be much-changed from last season," added Adams.
"We have players that have been with us over the last number of seasons that will be with us next year, and we'll add to the team as well."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Midfielder Connor Smith has joined Plymouth Argyle from AFC Wimbledon less than five weeks after helping the Dons beat the Devon side in the League Two play-off final. |
35,303,392 | It has also been told it could lose funding altogether by 2019, putting its long-term future in doubt.
The 30-year-old hands-on learning museum in Cardiff and Wrexham relies on the funding for 40% of its income.
Education Minister Huw Lewis said Techniquest was "overly dependent on public funds" and it had to change.
Techniquest said it understands financial restraints and "is prepared to engage with the challenge of moving away from core public funding."
The educational charity is aimed at encouraging young people to engage with science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem subjects).
Since 1986, it has welcomed more than five million visitors, including 1.5m school pupils on organised trips.
It was first set up opposite Cardiff Castle in a gas showroom before moving to Cardiff Bay and it has been in a purpose-built centre since 1995.
It also has a centre on the Glyndwr University campus in Wrexham which was opened by the Queen in 2003.
Last year, 134,273 pupils visited Techniquest.
It also generates around £500,000 a year of its own income and exports interactive exhibits and educational resources to more than 20 countries.
Mr Lewis told AMs earlier that the funding model had to change.
"At a time of budgetary restraint, Techniquest is overly dependent on public funds. It's not a sustainable position, it's got to be restructured," he said.
"I know Techniquest acknowledges that and I've asked officials to work closely with them at a sensible reprofiling what public support for Techniquest looks like."
Techniquest has asked for five years to manage the transition and the Welsh government said it was "working actively with them to explore this and other opportunities in more detail". | Science education centre Techniquest is to have its £1.3m grant from the Welsh government cut by 22% from April. |
38,127,238 | Harminder Singh Mintoo was arrested from the main railway station in the capital, Delhi, on Monday, police said.
Armed men sprang Mintoo and five other inmates in a dramatic jailbreak in Patiala district on Sunday.
Mintoo has been called a leader of the outlawed Khalistan Liberation Force, accused of links with armed separatists in Punjab in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Media reports said he had been named as an accused in a case of possession of explosives in 2008, and had a dozen cases registered against him.
"The cases against him were very weak and in most of the cases he is described as the main conspirator. He has not been accused of direct involvement in any alleged militant activity," his lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjhpur told The Indian Express newspaper.
It is the latest in a series of jailbreaks which have embarrassed the authorities in India.
Last month eight prisoners escaped from a high-security jail in the city of Bhopal in central Madhya Pradesh state.
The inmates, members of an outlawed Islamist group, were killed outside Bhopal after they resisted arrest, police said.
Last year, two people escaped from Delhi's maximum security Tihar jail by digging a tunnel under a wall.
In the latest incident early on Sunday, five armed men in police uniform arrived in a car at Nabha prison in Patiala on the "pretext of depositing a prisoner in jail", police said.
"They asked the guard to open the gate. As soon as the gate was opened, they overpowered the guard and entered the jail, resulting in the escape of six prisoners," Punjab police chief Suresh Arora told reporters.
The men escaped in a convoy of vehicles.
Later on Sunday evening, police said they had captured a man in northern Uttar Pradesh state who they said was the mastermind of the jailbreak. | Police in India say they have recaptured a Sikh separatist leader, who escaped from a prison in Punjab. |
34,324,096 | But for now the plan will only apply to 66,000. The other 54,000 will only be moved when governments decide where they should go.
In emergency talks the 28 EU interior and justice ministers argued over how to help Italy, Greece and Hungary, which lack the resources to register and house so many refugees and other migrants.
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania voted against the plan, but they were overruled.
What is the plan?
The idea was to distribute 120,000 refugees over two years: 54,000 from Hungary; 50,400 from Greece and 15,600 from Italy.
But Hungary objects to being considered a "frontline" state in this crisis, and has rejected the relocation proposal. So Hungary's 54,000 will instead be transferred from Italy and Greece.
The 120,000 total corresponds to about 43% of all the refugees most in need who arrived in Italy and Greece in July and August, an EU statement said.
Despite Tuesday's vote, much uncertainty remains. Slovakia plans to take legal action against the decision.
Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec tweeted in dismay: "Very soon we'll realise that the emperor is naked. Today was a defeat for common sense! :("
The scheme will only apply to refugees most in need of international protection - not economic migrants. Vulnerable groups, including unaccompanied children and rape victims, get priority.
Only refugees from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea will qualify, because there is a threshold: at least 75% of refugees from those countries get international protection in the EU, according to official data.
The European Commission proposed a mandatory distribution key - a mechanism that would oblige even reluctant EU member states to take in refugees. It would be based on several indices, including an EU state's total GDP, its total of asylum applicants and its unemployment rate.
But that automatic mechanism was dropped from the final agreement.
After initial screening and fingerprinting a refugee will be relocated to another EU country, which will get €6,000 (£4,337; $6,700) per refugee in EU aid towards their integration.
Consideration will be given to a refugee's language skills and family connections when deciding which country he/she goes to.
The European Parliament supports the plan.
What happens next?
The four "refusenik" countries can now argue that they were coerced into it by the EU, despite being ill-equipped to integrate refugees.
They argue that Germany is exerting a strong "pull", as the destination of choice for most refugees. Many of the refugees will still try to get there, they argue. It is easy to move around in the EU's Schengen passport-free travel zone, they say.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said "as long as I am prime minister, mandatory quotas will not be implemented on Slovak territory".
The 22 September vote by qualified majority was highly unusual and contentious, because it directly affects national sovereignty. Traditionally each EU member state has its own rules concerning migrants from non-EU countries. The recognition rates for asylum seekers vary enormously across the EU.
There were hopes that the EU could have agreed by consensus, without having a divisive vote.
At least two other former communist states - Latvia and Poland - previously objected to mandatory quotas, but chose to vote with the majority.
Germany, France and Italy pushed hard to get mandatory quotas accepted.
Germany is currently taking in by far the largest number of non-EU asylum seekers - it expects at least 800,000 this year.
Despite much domestic opposition the German government says the influx is manageable, and the country - with its ageing population - will need more workers in future anyway.
Chancellor Angela Merkel sees helping refugees as a humanitarian duty, reminding EU partners that they signed up to such human rights standards by joining the EU.
But Germany is demanding EU "solidarity", saying its partners should take their fair share of refugees too.
The influx of migrants has created serious tensions between EU neighbours, notably since Hungary put up a razor-wire fence on its border with Serbia, criminalised illegal entry and tear-gassed migrants trying to get in.
Croatia has exchanged angry words with both Hungary and Serbia. Hungary is completing a razor-wire fence on its border with Croatia too.
Would all EU states take part?
No. Italy and Greece will not, because the idea is to ease their refugee burden. Hungary, which would have been exempt under the original plan, will now have to accept refugees.
The UK has opted out of this EU policy area. Denmark also has an opt-out, but said it would voluntarily take an extra 1,000 refugees.
Ireland has offered to accept 2,900 extra refugees, even though it also has an opt-out like the UK's.
The UK plans to resettle 20,000 Syrians over the next five years - Syrians currently housed in makeshift camps in the Middle East.
The EU also plans to set up "hotspots" around the Mediterranean, including in Turkey, Italy and Greece, to identify genuine refugees and prevent economic migrants entering the EU illegally.
EU migration: Crisis in graphics
Can the relocation plan really work?
There are serious doubts about this.
Legal wrangling might delay it, or even scupper it. The EU has an "emergency brake" which could provide grounds for blocking the relocation, if a country feels its national security is affected.
However, the plan was drafted in line with Article 78(3) of the Lisbon Treaty, allowing for emergency measures to deal with a migrant influx.
In July the EU agreed to relocate 40,000 refugees - that is, Syrians and Eritreans currently in Greece and Italy. But they have not been relocated yet, some countries will only accept far fewer than 1,000, and so far the country totals have only been agreed for 32,256.
The figure of a further 120,000 is dwarfed by the size of the problem. In January-July this year 438,000 refugees applied for asylum in the EU, compared with 571,000 for the whole of 2014.
Nearly half a million migrants have risked their lives crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe this year. And about four million Syrian refugees are living in squalid camps in the Middle East, with no jobs - many of them longing for a new life in Europe.
The EU plan says host countries will have to warn migrants of the consequences if they try to move elsewhere in the EU. They can be deported if they enter another EU country illegally.
Faced with a right-wing, anti-immigration backlash across Europe, the EU has pledged to strengthen the bloc's external borders and do more to remove failed asylum seekers, as currently the deportation rate is below 40%. | EU ministers have voted by a majority to relocate 120,000 refugees EU-wide, as this year's extraordinary influx via the Mediterranean and Balkans continues. |
34,187,490 | Gurpreet Sandhu hit Horace Downes as he crossed Brassington Avenue, Sutton Coldfield, to go to place a bet.
Mr Downes died of an infection four months after the November crash.
Sandhu, 27, of Church Lane, Handsworth, who previously admitted dangerous driving, was jailed for three years and banned from driving for seven.
He was driving about 56mph in a 30mph zone when he hit Mr Downes, West Midlands Police said.
Mr Downes, known as John to family and friends, suffered a life threatening head injury but was moved from hospital to a rehabilitation centre just over a month after the collision.
But he died as a result of infection after being readmitted to hospital in February this year. A post-mortem examination did not establish a link to the collision.
His family have since allowed footage of the crash to be released in the hope it will deter others from driving at speed.
Mr Downes's daughter Janet Turner described her father as "the heart and soul of the family".
Reading a statement at Sandhu's sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday, she said: "It is not possible to put into words the pain and distress felt by the family."
Sgt Adam Green, from West Midlands Police, said Mr Downes's family had endured suffering because of "the selfish actions of one individual".
"Gurpreet Sandhu was late for work on the day of the collision. He drove at twice the speed limit in heavy rain, in an area where the likelihood of pedestrians being present was high.
"In allowing the graphic CCTV footage to be released, John's family hope that people will realise the impact of speeding and it will prevent another family suffering the same consequences." | A man who was late for work and driving at almost twice the speed limit has been jailed after he knocked down a 91-year-old man, who later died. |
36,061,968 | 16 April 2016 Last updated at 10:50 BST
It marked the first public appearance for the baby bear, who was born on 6 November 2015.
Having weighed just 0.5 kilograms at birth, Nora now weighs over 23 kg and is growing at a healthy rate, according to Columbus Zoo officials.
Scientists estimate that only 20,000-25,000 polar bears remain in the wild.
But at Columbus Zoo, people will now have the opportunity to watch one grow, as Nora gets set to play outside for one hour each day. | A polar bear cub called Nora came out with a splash on Friday, as she went for her a swim in front of visitors at a US zoo. |
36,525,805 | Located on a street in London's Soho district, the historic centre of the city's adult entertainment industry, the entrance is designed to look like a sex shop.
Beside the recessed black door, neon lights proclaim "adult video", "peep show" and "girls, girls, girls".
In no way would a passerby guess that the venue was a Mexican restaurant - there is no restaurant signage whatsoever.
Instead you pass into a gloomy entrance area, and then walk down a dark stairway, until you then finally see the basement restaurant appear.
First opening in 2012, La Bodega Negra has been at the forefront of a growing global trend - the rebirth of the "speakeasy", bars and restaurants that hide their location.
The word speakeasy was first coined in the US during the prohibition era, when the sale of alcohol was generally illegal from 1920 to 1933.
To avoid police raids and prosecution, bars that sold alcohol would keep a very low profile. And their customers were told to speak quietly (speakeasy) about them.
Fast-forward to today, and with alcohol legal and freely available in most countries, why do some venues want to hide themselves away? And in doing so, how do they, at the same time, go about attracting customers?
Will Ricker, owner of La Bodega Negra, admits that "there is a fine line between keeping something exclusive and generating revenues".
Yet the 44-year-old adds that "you've got to stand out" in London's competitive restaurant market, and he says that the sex shop frontage has certainly got people talking.
Mr Ricker has also been very successful in attracting celebrities to La Bodega Negra, with rock band U2 hosting a Halloween party in the restaurant a few years ago, and former footballer David Beckham hiring the venue for a party.
Such celebrity approval has helped La Bodega Negra become a fashionable place to be seen, and it is packed out most evenings with people happy to pay its premium prices.
Berlin cocktail bar Beckett's Kopf is another modern day speakeasy.
Located on a quiet side street in the hipster neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg, rather than have its name outside, the owners have simply hung a picture of Irish poet Samuel Beckett (from whom the bar takes its name) in the window.
"We wanted to create an atmosphere of discovery, and bring back the curiosity you have as a child," says Oliver Ebert, 42, who opened the venue with his wife Christina in 2004.
With no name on display, and reliant solely upon word of mouth to build up business, Mr Ebert admits that it took three or four years to establish a strong customer base.
Now as many as 120 drinkers pour into Beckett's Kopf on weekend evenings.
For New York-based marketing and branding expert Allen Adamson modern day speakeasies are all about selling exclusivity, which is increasingly desirable to higher-end consumers.
"Exclusivity still drives desire and premium-ness," he says. "Part of effective luxury marketing is some sort of scarcity, or the need to dig deeper to find the story."
Robert Jones from London-based brand consultancy Wolff Olins agrees, saying: "There's a huge cachet in rarity, obscurity, mystique. Inaccessible means desirable."
In Toronto, Canada, the Libertine is another speakeasy bar which thanks in no small part to its exclusivity is regularly packed out.
Instead of having the bar's name outside the venue in the city's West End district, there is a neon sign offering palm readings.
"From the outside it looks like a dive, or a place to get your fortune read," says Philipp Dumet, who bought the bar last year.
"[The speakeasy model] caters to our target clientele - the influencers, the tastemakers, the sort of quote, unquote cool kids of the west end, who operate really solely through the internet."
To engage with his customers, and promote the business, Mr Dumet, 29, extensively uses social media services Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Mr Adamson and Mr Jones both agree that the growth of social media in recent years has transformed a company's ability to create positive word of mouth, making it much easier, and cheaper, for would-be speakeasies to built up an exclusive customer base.
"Social media is the rocket fuel that has changed the marketing game," says Mr Adamson, while Mr Jones says word of mouth has been "turbo-powered by social media".
Meanwhile, fellow branding expert Rebecca Battman, says that word-of-mouth marketing "is now at its most powerful and effective" and affordable, thanks to social media.
However, Mr Adamson cautions that whatever the buzz a hidden bar or restaurant manages to create, it cannot forget the basic need to offer excellent service, drinks and food.
"In today's world, nothing will undo you more than a product that's disappointing," he says. | If finding the La Bodega Negra restaurant isn't enough of a challenge, you then have to brave walking inside. |
35,700,571 | Key changes since the last version are explained in a number of draft codes of practice, published by the Home Office:
1) On internet connection records - which are details of websites, social media sites and online apps - the code says:
Applications may be made by the public authority for the purposes of identifying:
It's this last category that's been added since the draft bill - and could include, for instance, police who are investigating a trafficking gang searching web browser details to see if they booked airline tickets, transferred money or looked up locations on a map.
2) Police and the intelligence agencies can apply to hack someone's smartphone or computer - so-called "equipment interference". This was included in the original proposals, but under the revised plans there's another situation in which hacking can be undertaken.
The code says an "urgent" equipment interference warrant can be obtained where there's "imminent threat to life or serious harm - for example, if an individual has been kidnapped and it is assessed that his life is in imminent danger".
This would also include situations where police were searching for a missing child or vulnerable person.
3) The bill provides for interception warrants to be issued in the interests of the "economic well-being of the UK so far as it is relevant to national security". There was fierce criticism of this proposal - the joint committee on the draft bill said it should be clearly defined.
In the government's response to the committee justifying its inclusion, it says warrants issued to preserve "economic well-being" might include the danger of "instability in parts of the world or unexpected crises which may undermine British markets and other economic interests or create difficulties in the continued supply of a commodity on which our economic security depended".
4) The draft proposals suggested some safeguards against unjustified intrusion into confidential discussions between people and their lawyers - which are subject to legal privilege. But they weren't in the bill itself.
The new bill has a new clause with the safeguards in place which says that intercepting such communications will be authorised only where "there are exceptional and compelling circumstances which make the interception or selection for examination of these items necessary".
5) The bill sets out time limits on examining and applying for warrants for bulk personal datasets. These are sets of personal information about a large number of people, most of which will not be of any interest to the authorities. Examples include the electoral roll, telephone directories and travel-related data.
It says UK-originated datasets must be looked at "within a maximum of three months" and for overseas-originated information six months. | The government has published the latest draft of its Investigatory Powers Bill, which sets out rules on surveillance by public authorities. |
13,598,386 | The cubs lost their mother in February in the Ranthambore tiger reserve. Officials there say they believe the male tiger, named T25, is their father.
Wildlife experts say cubs are usually raised by their mothers and male tigers often kill cubs they come across.
Officials believe there is no recorded evidence of males behaving like this.
Photographs taken by hidden cameras in the forest reserve in India's northern Rajasthan state have documented the tiger's behaviour. The most recent images show the male tiger walking just a metre behind one of the cubs, Ranthambore field director Rajesh Gupta told the BBC.
The cubs, who are believed to be about eight months old now, were first seen on 29 January with their mother T5, a forest official in Ranthambore told the BBC.
He said after the tigress died on 9 February, the cubs were being reared in the wild by forest department staff.
The cubs are too young to make a kill on their own and are being provided with bait by forest staff.
"During my visit to the park on Monday 30 May, I was standing on the top of a cliff and I saw one of the cubs down below eating the kill," Mr Gupta says.
"It is seen in good health," he said. It appears as if the male tiger is allowing the cubs to eat their kill and not taking it for himself."
"It's very unusual," UM Sahai, Rajasthan's Chief Wildlife Warden, told the BBC from the state capital, Jaipur.
"Normally the tigress keeps an eye on the cubs while the father is a visitor, who is seen off and on, especially when he comes to mate with the tigress," he said.
Wildlife experts say that it is common for male tigers to never even set eyes upon the cubs they father - especially when the mother is not present and many male tigers will simply see cubs as food.
Ranthambore, one of India's best known tiger parks, has about 40 tigers, including about a dozen cubs.
According to the latest tiger census figures released in March, India has 1,706 of the big cats.
The country had 100,000 tigers at the turn of the last century but there has been a serious decline in numbers since then.
Experts say that 97% of tigers have been lost to poaching and shrinking habitats. | Forest officials in northern India say a male tiger appears to be caring for two orphaned cubs in an extremely rare display of paternal feeling. |
39,609,548 | It ended the involvement of Northern Ireland teams in the tournament as Banbridge lost in a penalty shootout to Racing Club de France on Friday.
Sean Murray equalised soon after Marc Calzada had given Atletic an early lead.
But the Spanish team broke away to seal their place in the EHL KO8.
'Garvey had been hoping to become the first Irish club to reach the last eight of the tournament. | Lisnagarvey have been beaten 4-1 by Spanish giants Atletic Terrassa in their European Hockey League knockout round of 16 match in Eindhoven. |
35,663,583 | The review will aim to ensure Scotland has the strongest possible system in place to protect children from harm.
It will look at legislation covering children at risk of neglect or abuse to see if it needs strengthened.
The review will make its recommendations by the end of 2016, Education Secretary Angela Constance told MSPs.
Ms Constance said the review would focus on four key areas:
She said this would be backed by increased scrutiny through a revised inspection programme, a review of child protection legislation, and action to address the impact of neglect on children.
Ms Constance also announced funding for the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland.
And she confirmed timescales for the new level 9 qualification for residential child care workers, which will come into effect for managers, supervisors and new starts from October 2017 and for the rest of the workforce from October 2019.
Ms Constance said: "We have much to be proud of in the way we care for our children, but I want to make sure the systems to protect them when they are at risk are as robust as possible and able to act when harm has taken place.
"We already have child protection committees in every local authority area, we have modernised the children's hearings system and we have invested in professional development for all those working with vulnerable children and families.
"But we want to do more - that's why I am now announcing a review of the elements that make up the child protection system. We will also look at legislation covering children at risk of neglect or abuse to see if it needs strengthened and will bring in more focused inspections and robust scrutiny."
The announcement follows recommendations made in the Care Inspectorate's Triennial Review and a report by Jackie Brock from Children In Scotland. | A full review of Scotland's child protection system has been commissioned by the Scottish government. |
39,720,696 | Adm Harry Harris, head of US Pacific Command, told Congress the US would be ready "with the best technology" to defeat any North Korean missile threat.
The US has also deployed warships and a submarine to the Korean peninsula.
China argues that the US Thaad missile system will destabilise security.
Three people were hospitalised after protesters clashed with police as the anti-missile system was being delivered to a former golf course in South Korea on Wednesday.
Tensions have been rising amid fears North Korea could be planning further missile or nuclear tests.
Speaking ahead of a classified briefing for senators at the White House, Adm Harris said the advanced missile defence system would be ready within the coming days.
He said he believed that North Korea would try to attack the US as soon as it has the military capabilities.
"With every test [Mr] Kim grows closer to his goal, which is using nuclear weapons on US cities," he told the House armed services committee in Washington DC.
"As [US President Donald] Trump and [Defence Secretary James] Mattis have said, all options are on the table," he added.
Adm Harris said that the relationship between Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping remained "positive and encouraging".
"It is purely a defensive system. It is aimed north, not west," he said, adding: "It poses no threat to China."
His comments come after China launched its second aircraft carrier in the latest sign of its growing military strength.
The as-yet unnamed ship was transferred into the water in the north-eastern port of Dalian, state media said. It will reportedly be operational by 2020.
The heated rhetoric between the US and North Korea has intensified in recent weeks.
China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has called for an end to US-South Korea war games and also a halt to North Korea's nuclear development in order to reduce tensions in the region.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang spoke out against the Thaad deployment. He told reporters: "It helps in no way to achieve the denuclearisation of the peninsula and regional peace and stability."
The Trump administration, which has been urging China to rein in its ally, North Korea, is due to hold a briefing for senators on the situation later on Wednesday.
The Thaad (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense) system is designed to intercept and destroy short and medium-range ballistic missiles during their final phase of flight.
"South Korea and the United States have been working to secure an early operational capability of the Thaad system in response to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threat," South Korea's defence ministry earlier said in a statement. | The US military's top commander in the Pacific has said an advanced missile defence system in South Korea aims to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "to his senses, not to his knees". |
40,384,317 | The independent judge in the case adjourned for a week to review material provided by the Rugby Football League.
The hearing is set for Wednesday, 28 June and comes five weeks after Barba signed for the Super League club.
"The procedural process is proving to be inordinately long," said McManus.
"We were already bemused by the protracted period prior to being granted a tribunal hearing date.
"That has now been deferred further at the unilateral request of the RFL and without, in our opinion, good or valid reason."
Barba, who tested positive for cocaine just days after helping Cronulla win the NRL Grand Final last year, was a controversial signing on 24 May on a deal until 2019, after a short stint playing rugby union in France.
His cross-code move to France proved a contentious one for the 27-year-old - who was the NRL's player of the year in 2012 - as he escaped being sanctioned because the ban only applied to rugby league.
On Barba's return to rugby league with Saints, the RFL - who govern the Super League - sought clarity from the NRL about whether the ban was applicable outside the southern hemisphere competition.
The issue which the RFL has faced from the very beginning is not just about upholding an NRL-imposed suspension, but establishing that there is collaboration between the two competitions and that bans served in rugby league are recognised internationally.
In a statement on St Helens' website, McManus said: "We merely legitimately seek to appeal the discretionary decision of the RFL to adopt his 12-match suspension from the NRL.
"We consider that we have an extremely strong case."
If the ban was to stand, Barba will have served six matches by the time the appeal is heard and he will not be eligible to play until the fourth match of the Super 8s, which is likely to be in August.
The RFL originally requested the hearing be put back to allow Saints and the judge - who will head a three-member panel - time to review papers, which relate to cross-competition bans and drug suspension policies.
However, St Helens wanted a speedy conclusion and the RFL were willing to have the case heard as originally planned this week, only for the judge to then deny that request to allow more time to review material from both sides before hearing the case. | St Helens' appeal against Ben Barba's 12-match suspension relating to an NRL drugs ban has been deferred for no "good or valid reason", according to club chairman Eamonn McManus. |
38,269,662 | The blaze began in a shed on Friday afternoon before spreading to a semi-detached house causing substantial damage to the property.
45 fire fighters and 8 appliances were deployed by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS).
It is not yet known how the fire started.
Police have said the incident is not being treated as suspicious.
Fire Service Group Commander William Johnston said: "There were a lot of hazards within the unit at the back of the property, acetylene, LPG and potential asbestos.
"So we had to take all the necessary safety precautions to ensure the safety of the fire fighters who are dealing with the incident." | Homes had to be evacuated after a fire on the Upper Braniel Road in Belfast due to the presence of hazardous materials. |
40,975,521 | The 21-year-old, who can also play in defence, returns to League Two with the Spireites, having helped Blackpool win promotion from the division while on loan at Bloomfield Road last season.
He scored in his only appearance for Wigan this term, in a 2-1 win over Blackpool in the League Cup.
Flores is reunited with former Latics manger Gary Caldwell at Chesterfield.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Chesterfield have signed versatile midfielder Jordan Flores on a season-long loan from League One club Wigan. |
24,309,527 | Mrs Merkel's party won last Sunday's poll but it needs to form an alliance with either the SPD or the Greens to ensure a majority in parliament.
SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel said party members backed the move at a meeting.
The CDU took about 41.5% of the vote. The SPD won 26%, the Greens 8.4%, and the former communist Left Party 8.6%.
Meanwhile, the German news agency DPA says SPD leader Peer Steinbrueck wants to withdraw from frontline politics.
Mr Steinbrueck, 66, led the Social Democrats' election campaign but he will no longer hold a leadership role in the German opposition party, a party source told DPA,
"My political life will come to an orderly end," he is reported to have said at a closed-door meeting of around 200 SPD members in Berlin.
Mr Steinbrueck used to be state premier in North Rhine-Westphalia.
A poll carried out for German ARD television earlier this week suggested that most voters wanted Mrs Merkel's Christian Democratic Union bloc to enter into a grand coalition with the Social Democrats.
Mrs Merkel has not yet indicated which parties she might reach out to in order to build a coalition building.
CDU parliamentary group leader Volker Kauder said that the party "has a clear mandate from voters to form a government". The outcome showed that "voters want Angela Merkel to remain chancellor" for a third term, he said. | Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) has said it will begin talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) on forming a coalition. |
28,724,023 | Unlike in most other team sports, cricket umpires have no power to eject players from the field of play, with any penalties imposed by officials - such as the International Cricket Council's match referees - after the match.
Introducing football-style red and yellow cards would enable umpires to deal with misdemeanours as and when they occurred, but would be a fundamental change to a sport proud of its gentlemanly traditions.
The concept has been frequently considered by the MCC and was discussed by the ICC earlier this year.
Here are the cases for and against, plus your chance to have your say.
Behaviour on a cricket field is getting worse and will continue to get worse unless the umpires are given more power to intervene.
We need a system that operates throughout the formative years of a cricketer's career and acts as a deterrent against bad behaviour. Players need to understand that if they behave in a certain way they will be punished, and if they repeat their offence then the punishment will escalate.
That is where the idea of red and yellow cards comes in. It may sound radical but they said the same about bringing in coloured clothing 20 or so years back.
The exact working of the system would need more thought and discussion, but I would suggest a yellow card should be shown to a bowler for persistently abusing a batsman. I am not talking about sledging, but personal abuse and foul language that has no place in the game.
The card would result in them having to leave the field at the end of the over for a fixed period of time. If that bowler was in the middle of a great spell, or if the captain has a strategy based around him, it could be really harmful to the team. That evening, in the team meeting, the player could be singled out for having cost his side the game.
If a batsman is repeatedly wasting time, then the umpire could show him a yellow card, meaning he is is retired for an hour or until the next wicket falls. If a fielder misbehaves, he is demoted down the batting order, and so on.
And if something really serious happens - I'm thinking of the infamous dust-up between Javed Miandad and Dennis Lillee or something equally inexcusable - then the umpires would show a red card and you'd be out of the match.
This can all be refined, but the fundamental aim is to handle misdemeanours on the field and let the umpires be the boss on the cricket pitch.
Let's keep the lawyers out of this. No-one is killing anybody, after all. Let the umpire take charge in the same way that the referee does in football, rugby or hockey. Why should cricket be different?
Waiting until after the game and then issuing a fine achieves nothing. Unless the punishment causes hurt where it hurts, it has no effect.
Look what happened to South Africa fast bowler Vernon Philander in Sri Lanka. He was accused of ball-tampering, and it was established that he tampered with the ball and yet what did he get? A fine of 75% of his match fee.
I don't know whether he writes the cheque or whether his board pays it for him, but either way it's no deterrent to anyone thinking of tampering with the ball.
Introducing cards would add another level of theatre to the game, but that is merely incidental. The important thing is to make sure the game is played the way it is supposed to be played.
If you introduced red and yellow cards from the grassroots of the game, players would learn to respect their opponents and avoid the kind of behaviour that might see them have to leave the field.
Make the umpire the boss and it will remove all the animosity that is blighting our game.
Introducing red and yellow cards to cricket would set a dangerous precedent and take the game to places you shouldn't be taking it.
First and foremost, it would undermine the umpires. You are more or less saying that they are not strong enough and the authorities are not doing enough to stamp out issues.
What would you be bringing them in for? There is never any physical contact on the cricket field and I don't think there ever will be, so it seems over the top to me.
The James Anderson-Ravindra Jadeja incident happened off the field of play and was not seen by umpires, so there is no way they could have shown a card.
If it is for verbals or time-wasting then the umpires should be strong enough, and have been strong enough, to stamp out misdemeanours with a stern word or a fine.
There is a difference between sledging and personal abuse. For example, England have no doubt been chipping away at India opener Shikhar Dhawan, telling him he is playing for his place, jokingly urging him not to nick it.
India will be saying the same to Sam Robson, telling him he'd better score some runs or he'll be back playing first-class cricket for Middlesex. It is light-hearted banter which is part of the game.
But the minute you start effing and blinding and being personal, you have gone over the line and the umpire has to be strong to stamp it out.
In this series, the umpires have been fantastic. In Southampton, when Jimmy was dishing it out to Ajinkya Rahane, umpire Rod Tucker intervened and told him to cut it out. Jimmy went back to his mark chuntering away to himself, got it out of his system and bowled another ball.
I'm all for technology and making sure the game keeps up with the times, but red and yellow cards is a step too far. It would cause a lot of controversy, and stoke up tensions between the teams.
In football, there are written laws that dictate when to use a yellow or a red card but in cricket - the sport I love and played - the umpires have always used common sense to police the game.
If someone has overstepped the mark, the umpire should just have a quiet word with him. Tell him he was out of order and if he does it again he might get hit in the pocket. If you go any further you will be going to the match referee's office and could receive a ban. That should be enough of a threat because nobody wants to be suspended for a game of cricket.
If you start using a sin bin to take bowlers and batsmen off the field, you are cheating the public, who already pay far too much to come and watch cricket.
Red and yellow cards would just be another gimmick that would go against the traditions of cricket. Let's encourage the umpires to be strong and police the game out in the middle. | The fracas between England's James Anderson and India's Ravindra Jadeja during the first Test at Trent Bridge has raised the question: is cricket too soft on bad behaviour? |
40,094,882 | The German chancellor caused a storm this Sunday, particularly in the English-language press and Twittersphere, when she declared: "The era in which we could fully rely on others is over to some extent."
But, contrary to the hysteria about "Iron Angie" signalling a slamming of European doors on Trump USA and Brexit UK, what I mean by her "taking back control" is this:
Like the UK's Leave campaigners, Angela Merkel is heading towards a vote. Though Germany isn't debating EU membership, it's in the run-up to an autumn general election.
Mrs Merkel is now on the campaign trail and not at all above injecting some populism into her politics.
President Trump is hugely unpopular among German voters and his failure to commit to the Paris climate accord, at the G7, and to Nato's Article Five last week angered many Europeans.
Mrs Merkel's pointed comments about no longer being able to rely fully on allies were delivered to rapturous applause while on the campaign trail in the (conservatively) pumped arena of a Munich beer hall.
Campaign Trail Merkel, as we'll call her for the moment, is also aware that German voters aren't just partial to a bit of Trump-thumping - but also to a full-on promotion of Europe.
Liberal Europeans have felt immensely frustrated at the constant Brussels bashing by nationalist politicians over the past couple of years.
Resentment has built up, too, over Russia seemingly being able to do whatever it wants in Crimea, Syria and the cyber-sphere despite supposed international norms.
And there's real anger and fear about Donald Trump the Unpredictable, a man many in Europe judge to be ignorant about world politics, diplomacy and the workings of a democracy.
Germans believe more than ever now that Europe needs be assertive; to stick together and be strong together.
They are feeling more confident, too, with pro-EU, pro-Merkel Emmanuel Macron as French president.
Enter Chancellor Merkel's emotive language à la "take back control', except what she says is "Europe needs to take its fate into its own hands".
The Bavarian beer hall loved it, as do many Germans, giving Mrs Merkel that edge over her political rivals.
However.
Angela Merkel - political old hand and consummate pragmatist - has not been subsumed by Campaign Trail Merkel.
Would she like to be able to safeguard the stability and safety of Europe without relying on what she regards as an unpredictable US and an unreliable UK?
Absolutely.
She believes Europe must co-operate more on defence: pooling resources, spending military budgets more intelligently and bolstering itself as much as it can.
But she knows full well that Europe can't go it alone.
Certainly not Germany, with its post World War Two sensitivities about taking up arms.
Britain leaving the EU means the bloc only has one military power left - the French one - and one seat on the UN Security Council.
Nato is now more important than ever for EU safety.
Europe relies, too, on British intelligence and co-operation in fighting terrorism.
Chancellor Merkel has been around the political block more than a few times, and she is not now biting the hand that feeds (bear in mind, too, America's huge importance for German business).
Donald Trump may not be so sure about Nato, but the US vice-president and the defence secretary say they are fully committed.
And at Nato, the G7 and when she visited Donald Trump in Washington in March, Angela Merkel was diplomatic at all times, leaving snubs and small shows of strength to France's keen-to-prove himself presidential newbie, Emmanuel Macron.
When Angela Merkel says Europe needs to be take its fate in its own hands, she means keeping transatlantic links open and strong, but being politically, emotionally and - if possible - militarily prepared if it all falls apart.
Rather than closing the door on the US, she hopes very much the US isn't turning its back on Europe. | Angela Merkel is "taking back control" - to borrow the wildly successful, emotive phrase coined by those in the UK campaigning to leave the EU last year. |
25,716,386 | Andrew Iacovou, 55, was repeatedly hit with a hammer at a branch of Ladbrokes in Aberconway Road, Morden, on 25 May.
Shafique Ahmad Aarij, 21, of no fixed address, was jailed for a minimum of 26 years. He denied murder claiming diminished responsibility.
The victim was knocked down after the first blow but Aarij went on to hit him another eight times, police said.
The Met Police said Mr Iacovou, who had worked for Ladbrokes for 25 years, was alone in the shop in the morning when he was hit on the head with the hammer.
After the attack Aarij stole more than £296 from the shop and wired most of that amount to Pakistan within 90 minutes of the fatal attack, police said.
Southwark Crown Court was shown CCTV footage from the shop that captured the killer looking for money as the victim lay on the floor.
Det Sgt Eric Sword said: "This was an incredibly violent and unprovoked attack on a hard-working father-of-two.
"The level of violence was completely disproportionate to what the suspect sought to achieve which was robbing the shop.
"An initial hammer blow knocked the victim to the floor but Aarij continued to swing the weapon another eight times. He then calmly stepped over his victim in the hunt for cash."
In a victim impact statement Mr Iacovou's wife Anita said her husband was her main carer since she became disabled following an illness seven years ago and he used to look after their two children, boys aged 10 and 14.
The couple's 14-year-old son is autistic and his world has been turned "completely upside down" and the murder has left him frightened of leaving their flat.
The younger child "has somehow become the older brother and the carrier of all responsibilities of the family," Mrs Iacovou said.
She added: "Every step is so difficult and what happened to Andrew is never far from my thoughts.
"I worry about this man getting out and that he might find my family, I know it's irrational but I can't help it." | A man has been jailed for life for murdering a father-of-two who worked at a betting shop in south London. |
36,407,446 | Unless, of course, it's the Conservative Party when it's in the mood.
Just now, the Tories are in more of a mood than they've been since the chaotic days of the Major administration, and possibly since 1990, the year the party hacked down Margaret Thatcher in an orgy of political regicide prompted, naturally, by DNA-deep divisions over Europe.
A surely impossible demand from any senior Conservative for David Cameron to accept his manifesto pledge to reduce net migration into the UK to the tens of thousands is valueless on the ground it's "corrosive of public trust" - in other words because no-one believes it - would be embarrassing enough if delivered in private.
Published in an open letter by Michael Gove and Boris Johnson (Gisela Stuart's a co-signatory, but Labour's internal debate is another story) it amounts to an escalation of a battle that now defies all established principles of government discipline and collective responsibility.
And it does so in a way the prime minister will surely find very difficult to forgive.
Harder still to overlook is the suggestion from once-favoured Employment Minister Priti Patel that the Remain campaign is led by people who are too privileged and rich, too posh, to understand the effect of mass migration on the less well off.
She didn't actually name David Cameron or George Osborne, but it's not immediately apparent which other upper crust, public school and Oxbridge, multi-millionaires at the head of the Remain campaign she might have been referring to.
There is a big argument at the heart of this.
The Leave campaign calculates that worries about mass migration is a raw nerve which cannot be agitated too hard, or too often.
It's their natural advantage, according to all public opinion research and the anecdotal evidence of countless doorstep encounters.
Almost every Labour MP I meet tells me almost every voter they talk to brings it up, which I mention because Labour supporters matter hugely.
Conservative voters are generally judged to lean naturally towards a "Brexit".
In their open letter, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson's simple point is that EU open borders make immigration control impossible.
The Leave campaign needs that point to hit home.
The political cost of such a tactic may be high.
It accelerates a descent into internecine warfare which now threatens to make the Conservative Party ungovernable if the referendum ends in anything but a decisive victory for the Remain campaign.
So bitter has the conflict become, so taut the tension between the rival factions, that angry Eurosceptic Tories talk privately of challenging the prime minister's position even if Britain votes to stay inside the European Union.
One of the most militant MPs, Andrew Bridgen, has gone public.
He told me in an interview for BBC Radio 5 live's Pienaar's Politics that he believes it "highly likely" at least 50 Tory MPs would sign demands for a vote of no confidence in the PM if the campaign goes on as it has.
More than that, he suggests the Cameron administration could be reduced to what he and others call a "zombie government" by its divided MPs, unable to govern and forced to consider a snap election.
At Westminster, that kind of apocalyptic talk is becoming more common.
Some of the whispering is - and is probably intended to be - hair-raising.
I've heard it suggested that three members of the Cameron administration have become so upset by the tone of campaigning on the Remain side led by the prime minister that they are contemplating resignation, not just from the government, but from the Tory whip, effectively quitting the party.
True? We may never know. But the whispering is becoming feverish.
One MP on the now militant Eurosceptic wing said letters demanding a vote of confidence in the PM had already been submitted to the chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, who's a sort of posh shop-steward for Conservative MPs.
Mr Brady himself is bound by a sacred oath of secrecy where such matters are concerned, so we must wait to find out.
The Sunday Times newspaper carries more mutinous muttering.
Former Environment Secretary Owen Patterson told the paper: "The government now has four weeks to behave properly.
"If they don't, there are risks they will cause long term damage to the Conservative Party."
Another, unnamed MP, puts it more bluntly: "When you tell Tories they are immoral for supporting Brexiteers you are going to get a kick in the nuts."
We'll see, of course. Everything depends on which side wins the referendum, and perhaps on the margin of victory.
Mr Cameron insists he would carry on as prime minister if Britain votes to leave the EU.
The more common view, shared among his closest supporters, is that he would be toast.
If the vote is to remain an EU member, the reaction of Conservative MPs will be more a matter of chemistry than maths.
Angry Eurosceptics (should we be calling them EU-rophobes?) may, or may not, be cross enough and strong enough in numbers to force a vote of confidence in the prime minister.
Even then, winning that vote would be a tall order. It would need the support of 165 MPs. Not easy.
More immediately worrisome, it would need a fraction of that number - just nine Tory MPs - to defeat any government vote in the Commons when combined with all opposition parties.
On a realistic estimate, about 25 Conservatives are now sufficiently irate to press for a vote of no confidence in the PM.
Fewer than half that number could produce the "zombie government" to which Andrew Bridgen referred.
Ministers could be forced to discard any proposal that might meet any serious opposition, governing as if it was a minority, not a majority administration.
Life would suddenly become very difficult.
So a vote to remain could be a Pyrrhic victory if the margin is tight.
And until we know the outcome on Friday 24 June, this self-destructive struggle is likely to intensify before it calms again - assuming, that is, the party is not already broken beyond repair. | Anyone who's followed politics for any length of time knows no party's more prone to suicidal bouts of indiscipline than the Labour Party. |
39,843,356 | She was a pillion passenger on one of the two vehicles involved in the accident at the junctions of the A708 and B709, west of Selkirk.
The two male riders - aged 27 and 54 - are in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow and Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with serious injuries.
Anyone with information has been asked to contact police.
The accident happened near the Gordon Arms Hotel at about 15:00 on Saturday.
It involved a blue and white Suzuki GSR 600 which was travelling south on the B709 and a black Yamaha FJR 1300.
The road was closed for seven hours to allow collision investigations to take place.
Sgt Neil Inglis said: "A woman has sadly died in this collision and two men are seriously injured.
"We are keen to speak to anyone who witnessed the collision or who saw the motorcycles prior to it happening." | A 53-year-old woman has died following a collision between two motorbikes in the Scottish Borders. |
38,175,992 | Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), parent company of Southern Railway, has applied to the High Court for an injunction claiming the action breaches customers' rights.
Aslef said GTR is seeking "to prevent the voice of their put-upon employees being heard."
The union is planning drivers' strikes in December and January in a dispute over driver-only operated trains.
The company's chief executive Charles Horton said: "We have a responsibility to our customers to do all we can to protect their interests and maintain services for them."
The matter is likely to be considered by the High Court at a hearing in the coming days.
Earlier the RMT union, which is involved in a separate dispute, announced that it would cancel a three day strike planned over Christmas.
The Aslef strikes were announced this week, and are planned for 13-14 December, 16 December, and between 9-14 January.
Aslef drivers on the Southern network voted for walkouts by 87%. | A train company is attempting to put a halt to strikes by the union Aslef. |
35,141,196 | The soldiers, who were to be killed by a firing squad, will each serve 10 years in prison.
They were convicted by court martial over their refusal to drive down a road at night after dozens of colleagues died in a Boko Haram ambush.
The sentences were commuted following a review of court martials.
The review was ordered by General Tukur Buratai, the country's army chief of staff.
Nearly 600 other cases are also being considered.
Hundreds of Nigerian soldiers have deserted their posts, complaining that they are not properly equipped to fight Boko Haram, a terror group which has allied itself with the Islamic State group.
The group has been waging an insurgency since 2009 and is seeking to create an Islamist state in north-eastern Nigeria. It is responsible for the deaths of about 20,000 people.
The reprieves come as a former presidential adviser on national security is on trial for allegedly diverting $2.1bn meant to buy weapons for the military.
The review of the soldiers' cases is part of a wider investigation ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari into the military and corruption.
President Buhari won the country's March general election after pledging to destroy Boko Haram and to rescue more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the extremists. | Nigeria's military has announced a reprieve for 66 soldiers who had been sentenced to death for refusing to fight Boko Haram. |
35,863,580 | The controversial Operation Midland ended as ex-MP Harvey Proctor was told he faces no further action over claims against him of child abuse and murder.
He called on four Met chiefs to resign, but the force said it had been right to look into the single source claims.
The inquiry has cost over £1.8 million.
Mr Proctor, 69, who was MP from 1979 to 1987 for the Essex constituencies of Basildon and then Billericay, was interviewed under caution last August as part of the Operation Midland. He had always vehemently denied the allegations.
The investigation, which began in November 2014, was triggered by allegations made by a man in his 40s known as "Nick", who claimed he was abused for nine years from 1975, when he was seven, to 1984.
How one man's claims sparked inquiry
More people came forward to provide information but there was not enough evidence to charge anyone - although there was nothing to prove police had been knowingly misled by a complainant, the Met said in a detailed statement.
The 31 officers assigned to the inquiry have been released to work on other investigations, it said.
A freedom of information request made last year states that staffing costs for the inquiry were in the region of £1.8 million at that point.
Among allegations made by "Nick" was a claim that three boys were murdered by members of the supposed paedophile ring - including one resembling a boy called Martin Allen, who disappeared in November 1979.
Specialist investigators will continue to look into his disappearance - although as a missing person inquiry rather than a murder inquiry, the statement said.
Mr Proctor's lawyer was told the former MP would not face any charges in a three-minute phone conversation with a senior Met Police officer.
In a statement, Mr Proctor said Operation Midland should now be the subject of a "truly independent public inquiry".
He also called for the resignation of Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Assistant Commissioner Patricia Gallan, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse and Det Supt Kenny McDonald, the officer leading Operation Midland.
"Nick" and ExaroNews, a news agency which had reported on the story, should be prosecuted for allegedly "seeking to pervert the course of justice", he added.
Detectives working on Operation Midland had questioned Mr Proctor twice - in June and August last year.
Mr Proctor, who admitted gross indecency after a newspaper sting in 1986 when the age of consent for gay sex was 21, categorically denied the later allegations, and said they had "wrecked" his life.
When questioned last year, he blamed a "homosexual witch hunt" by police for the claims.
Established in November 2014, Operation Midland was set up to examine historical claims of a Westminster VIP paedophile ring, with allegations boys were abused by a group of powerful men from politics, the military and law enforcement agencies.
The inquiry was also intended to examine claims that three boys were murdered during the alleged ring's activities. Operation Midland related to locations across southern England and in London in the 1970s and 1980s, and focused on the private Dolphin Square estate in Pimlico, south-west London.
Historical child abuse: Key investigations
Among others accused by "Nick" were Sir Edward Heath, prime minister between 1970 and 1974, former home secretary Lord Brittan. and the then commander in chief of UK land forces, General Lord Bramall.
Lord Bramall was cleared in January this year. Police said they had found insufficient evidence even to justify passing the case to prosecutors.
He told the BBC he was "thankful" the operation had been closed down, and he had been caused a "very great deal of distress" on the "single, uncorroborated allegation of one man".
Lord Brittan died last year unaware that an investigation into a rape claim against him, which he denied, had been dropped.
The police took Nick's claims very seriously and appealed for witnesses. Det Supt MacDonald said in 2014 that detectives considered what "Nick" told them to be "credible and true".
The Met later acknowledged that the phrase could have given "the wrong impression" that the outcome of the investigation was being pre-empted, and insisted an open mind was retained throughout.
As it announced Operation Midland was closing, the Met said it recognised it had been "unpleasant" for those investigated to have their innocence publicly called into question.
However, the force said it would not apologise "for carrying out its duty to investigate serious allegations of non-recent abuse".
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rodhouse said non-recent investigations were challenging, but it was "absolutely right" that the claims had been investigated.
"Victims of non-recent abuse should have the confidence to come forward and know that we will listen to them, take seriously their allegations and investigate without fear or favour."
An NSPCC spokesman said: "It's vital that child sexual abuse allegations are fully investigated by police with an open-minded approach. Whilst many cases are extremely complex, swift resolutions with charges being brought or the accused told they will not be prosecuted is in the interest of all parties.
"It has taken many years for the public to believe that child abuse is a prolific problem but with disproportionate attention given to some cases over others there is a danger the progress that has been made will be tragically undermined."
He added: "Amidst all of the inevitable blame and counter blame as this operation ends we mustn't forget the victims of sexual abuse who will have suffered life-damaging experiences and, in many instances, are still seeking justice."
The founder of The National Association for People Abused in Childhood, Peter Saunders, called for a line to be drawn under Operation Midland so that police can continue to go after child abusers.
"The initial investigation and initial accusations obviously carried enough credibility and weight that the police felt justified in launching an investigation.
"Where they made an error was to refer to somebody's testimony as 'credible and true'. That was very, very unfortunate," he said. | A Met Police inquiry into claims a VIP Westminster paedophile ring abused children in the 1970s and 1980s has closed without charges being brought, Scotland Yard has announced. |
39,343,759 | Tom Watson said Mr Osborne would be expected to seek to influence ministers on media policy in his new role, and urged Mr Hancock to excuse himself from any matters relating to the Standard.
Mr Osborne has faced calls to quit as an MP after he accepted the editorship.
But he insists he can do both jobs.
In a letter to the minister of state for digital and culture, Mr Watson pointed to the long-standing personal and professional relationship Mr Hancock had enjoyed with Mr Osborne.
"It is a matter of public record that your first job in politics, in 2005, was as an economic advisor to Mr Osborne, who was then the shadow chancellor," he wrote.
"You later became Mr Osborne's chief of staff. These roles and the contacts you will have made through holding them, were no doubt helpful to you as you successfully sought selection as Conservative parliamentary candidate for West Suffolk, the constituency you have represented as an MP since 2010."
Mr Watson stressed that there was "no secret, and no shame, in a Conservative MP being a loyal ally of his former boss and powerful patron" - but he warned that as a minister he will now have responsibility for policy areas in which Mr Osborne and his new employer have a commercial interest.
Politics and journalism
He argued that, as the Standard's editor, Mr Osborne "can be expected to seek to influence ministers on media policy in line with his views and the views of his paper's proprietor Mr Alexander Lebedev, both in the pages of the newspaper and in meetings with ministers.
"You would be one of the chief targets of any such attempts to influence media policy," he said.
"Your long-standing relationship with Mr Osborne means that any ministerial decisions you make from now on which affect media policy will be subject to accusations of a conflict of interest which it will be difficult for you to disprove."
Mr Osborne's new job has caused controversy after he said he intends to combine the editorship role with that of representing his Cheshire constituency of Tatton - 190 miles from the capital.
But in an open letter to his constituents, Mr Osborne said: "There is a long tradition of politics and journalism mixing. One of the greatest newspaper editors ever, CP Scott, combined editing the Manchester Guardian with being an MP.
"In our age, politicians from Iain Macleod and Richard Crossman to, of course, Boris Johnson have combined the role of editor and Member of Parliament," the Knutsford Guardian reported. | Labour's deputy leader has warned Digital Minister Matt Hancock to avoid any conflict of interests in his future dealings with ex-chancellor George Osborne, now Evening Standard editor. |
34,390,166 | Record labels Warner and Universal sued VKontakte (VK) in 2014, demanding the removal of the pirated music and 50 million rubles ($1.4m) in damages.
The court ruling goes one step further by asking it to install preventative technology.
In July, VKontakte reached a settlement with Sony Music.
The Russian social network is something of an anomaly in the market, according to the body which represents the music industry, IFPI .
It told the BBC that VK is one of the few widely used social networks to still make pirated music available.
It had requested that the social network be forced to use fingerprint technology which could match uploaded music against a file of copyright music to filter out all pirated tracks.
It is unclear yet what technology will be used by VK but IFPI said that the ruling was good news for rights holders in Russia.
"This is a very important and positive decision for the Russian music market and for music creators in Russia," said IFPI chief executive Frances Moore.
"VK's infringing music service has been a huge obstacle to the development of a licensed business in Russia, making available hundreds of thousands of copyright-infringing tracks to more than 70 million daily users." | A Russian social network, notorious for streaming pirated music, has been ordered by a court to use technology to prevent future copyright infringement. |
39,790,821 | Bank stocks rose after the US Federal Reserve expressed confidence in the economy, lending hope that it would raise interest rates again soon. Higher rates help to boost banks' profits.
The Dow Jones index edged up 8 points to 20,957.90, while the broader S&P 500 fell 3 points to 2,388.13.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index fell 22.82 points to 6,072.55.
The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it would not change its interest rate target this month.
But it also said that a recent economic slowdown was "transitory", fuelling hopes among investors for future rate rises.
Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase both closed up more than 0.5% for the day.
Beauty company Estee Lauder also saw shares spike more than 4% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results.
However, shares at media groups Viacom and Time Warner slid after the latter said advertisers were taking a "wait-and-see" approach. Viacom is due to report quarterly results on Thursday.
Shares in tech giant Apple fell 0.31%, although it started the day down nearly 2% after news that sales of iPhones fell in the first quarter of 2017. | Gains in US banking shares were offset on Wednesday by declines in media stocks and Apple shares. |
29,521,490 | The council hopes to borrow £11.3m for a new 130-room hotel in the Talbot Gateway area and expects future profits to cover the cost.
Holiday Inn is the preferred chain although a deal is yet to be signed.
The town's hoteliers criticised the move, claiming there is enough four-star accommodation already available.
A third-party company will provide accommodation services for the hotel, which will be owned by Blackpool Council.
Deputy council leader Fred Jackson, said the hotel development would help to attract more conference business to the town.
"All the delegates for conferences won't stay in the four-star hotel, so the other hotels in Blackpool will benefit from this development as well."
He added: "One of the criticisms we've had in the past has been that the conferences no longer want to come because there is no quality hotel in the town centre."
Claire Smith, president of the hoteliers' organisation StayBlackpool, disagreed.
"The conference accommodation offer has never been criticised, it always was the conference facilities that they were going on about.
"Had it been a five-star hotel, that would add to Blackpool and we would have been in favour of it."
If planning permission is granted, the hotel is expected to open in two years' time on the site of the East Topping Street car park.
The council said it had already raised £2.7m towards the cost of the hotel from the regeneration of the Talbot Gateway area. | Blackpool Council has said it will pay £14m for the construction of a four-star hotel as part of plans to attract visitors to the resort. |
34,207,264 | Ness, who wrote A Monster Calls and the Chaos Walking trilogy, tweeted on Thursday that $1,018,000, or £659,755 had been raised for Save The Children.
He started the campaign on 3 September, saying he was "tired of just tweeting despair" about the refugee crisis.
Since then, numerous other authors and publishers have come on board to match donations from members of the public.
Ness himself matched the first £10,000 of donations, and on Thursday said he had also "donated the last amount to get us over a million bucks".
Authors including Philip Pullman, Suzanne Collins, Paula Hawkins, Cressida Cowell, Anthony Horowitz, Jojo Moyes, Francesca Simon, David Nicholls and Jessie Burton have each pledged £10,000 to match public donations.
Publisher Egmont Press has put in £10,000, Penguin Random House has chipped in with £15,000 and Hachette UK has pledged £10,000 now and another £10,000 if and when the total reaches £1m.
Soon after he began the campaign, Ness told The Bookseller: "I am astonished at how people have responded. I think, by pure accident, I happened to express my frustration at the right moment." | A campaign set up by author Patrick Ness to raise funds for Syrian refugees has raised more than $1m in one week. |
37,872,392 | Troops broke through IS defences and reached the eastern district of al-Zahra, which they say is now 90% under their control.
Special forces have been fighting the jihadists in the streets and alleys.
Meanwhile, the UN says there is growing evidence of IS atrocities in and around Mosul.
It has already expressed concern for the estimated 1.5 million civilians living in the city amid reports of mass killings and people being rounded up for use as human shields.
The battle so far
On schedule but not exactly to plan
How IS sells the battle for Mosul?
In another development on Friday, the first convoy of vehicles carrying hundreds of civilians fleeing the fighting around Mosul arrived at a camp east of the city.
The BBC's Karen Allen, who is at the camp, said many had not left their villages since IS took over more than two years ago.
Government and Kurdish forces began a US-backed offensive on 17 October to drive out the jihadists.
They have already retaken dozens of villages and towns in the surrounding area.
Troops from the Counter-Terrorism Service began their push towards al-Zahra, formerly known as Saddam district, at 07:00 (04:00 GMT), advancing rapidly after breaking down IS defences, said BBC Arabic's Feras Kilani, who is with the elite force.
Inside al-Zahra, militants continued to fight back and a coalition air strike was ordered to destroy an IS position.
There were no civilians to be seen but commanders repeatedly instructed troops via walkie-talkies to spare them any harm.
A military spokesman said IS was putting up stiff resistance.
"The battle is currently going on, the enemy is using snipers, car bombs and directed missiles," said Lt Gen Abdel-Wahab al-Saadi.
"God willing, we will return fire and will liberate the neighbourhood (of al-Zahra) soon."
Residents who spoke to our correspondent said IS had been expecting the attack and had withdrawn two days earlier, leaving behind four pockets of resistance to slow down the government advance.
Iraqi forces trying to enter another Mosul suburb - Karama, south of al-Zahra - had to partially pull back when IS launched fierce resistance.
"We weren't expecting such resistance. They had blocked all the roads," said one officer, quoted by AFP news agency.
"There are large numbers of jihadists. It was preferable to pull back and devise a new plan."
There were also fierce clashes in the nearby district of Intisar on Friday and Iraqi forces said most of it was now under government control.
The UN human rights office (UNHCR) provided more evidence on Friday of human rights violations taking place in and around Mosul.
It said that IS had shot around 50 of its own fighters for desertion on Monday and added that 180 government employees may also have been killed by the group.
Mosul satellite images reveal IS barricades
UNHCR spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said that more than 1,000 civilians were reportedly taken from the town of Hamam al-Alil to Tal Afar, possibly for use as human shields, and families in Hamam al-Alil were told to hand over children, especially boys over the age of nine, in an apparent attempt to recruit them as child soldiers.
"Apparently they have also been using loudspeakers mounted on the back of pick-up trucks or at the back of vehicles, and threatening severe punishment for families that do not comply with their order," she said.
A contingent of 200 Iranian Kurdish women fighters have joined the fight against IS around Mosul, Reuters news agency reports.
They are now part of a larger unit of some 600 fighters aligned to the Kurdistan Freedom Party.
"We are working hand in hand with the men who are fighting, our brothers, we fight together and co-operate with each other," said one of the women, Karin.
"We work together to protect our land from any threats it might face." | Iraqi government forces have battled their way into another suburb of Mosul, the northern city held for more two years by the Islamic State (IS) group. |
36,760,151 | Micah Johnson, 25, was angry with the recent killings of black men by police and wanted to kill white officers, police say.
Police chief David Brown said he was "convinced" Johnson had wider plans.
He told CNN that Johnson, a military veteran, appeared to have practised detonating explosives.
Meanwhile, Delphine Johnson, the gunman's mother, told US site TheBlaze.com that he had been "disappointed" by his experience in the US military.
"The military was not what Micah thought it would be," she said. "He was very disappointed."
Mr Brown also said police were trying to find the significance of the letters "RB" that Johnson had written in his own blood, near where he was killed by a remote detonation by police.
Officers were also reading a journal found in Johnson's house that Mr Brown said was proving "hard to decipher".
Mr Brown also revealed that during two hours of negotiations last Thursday, the attacker taunted police.
"He just basically lied to us - playing games, laughing at us, singing, asking how many [police officers] did he get and that he wanted to kill some more and that there were bombs there."
"So there was no progress on the negotiation... I began to feel that it was only at a split second he would charge us and take out many more before we could kill him," Mr Brown added.
Johnson launched his attack in Dallas as a protest was taking place against the deaths of black men at the hands of police.
The deaths of Philando Castile in St Paul, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last week led to more protests across US cities.
Read more: 'Legendary' photo gains praise
In Baton Rouge, up to 40 people were arrested on Sunday during a protest rally.
Some of the demonstrators chanted "No justice, no peace!" during a stand-off with police in riot gear.
In Virginia, protesters briefly shut down an interstate motorway in Portsmouth. They were marching in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In Detroit, Michigan, police arrested four men for posting threats against police officers on Facebook, urging people to kill white officers.
In contrast to protesters in other parts of the country, the people of Dallas are uniting behind their police officers.
A makeshift shrine in memory of the five officers gunned down on Thursday night sprang up outside police headquarters in the Cedars district of the city within hours of the attack, and it is now a mass of flowers, balloons, stuffed toys and messages of sympathy.
Throughout the day, a constant stream of visitors have come here - black, white, Hispanic; young couples, elderly folk, little girls in sun dresses - to pay their respects, say a prayer or simply shed a tear.
An impromptu prayer session on the steps of police headquarters ended with hugs and a police officer breaking down in tears.
Earlier, a mother was overheard telling her son it was up to his generation to make things better: "This generation tried, but soon it will be up to you," she said.
Demonstrations have continued despite an effort by President Barack Obama to soothe the tension.
On a visit to Spain on Sunday, he demanded an end to anti-police violence.
"Whenever those of us who are concerned about fairness in the criminal justice system attack police officers, you are doing a disservice to the cause," he said.
Also on Sunday, the White House said Mr Obama would travel to Dallas on Tuesday. He will speak at an interfaith memorial service. | The man who shot dead five police officers in Dallas and wounded seven more was planning an even larger attack, the city's police chief says. |
13,898,232 | Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh is reportedly accused of corruption and denies the charges.
A number of people linked to the president have been dismissed and arrested in recent months.
Mr Malekzadeh was made deputy foreign minister last Saturday, but was forced to quit three days later, after a protest by parliamentarians.
A politician, Esmaeel Kosari, told the Mehr semi-official news agency that Thursday's arrest of Mr Malekzadeh was because of "financial charges".
Correspondents say the arrest appears to be another example of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei using his vast powers to rein in Mr Ahmadinejad, who has often challenged his authority.
Mr Malekzadeh has close connections to Mr Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, whom conservatives accuse of being part of a "deviant current" attempting to promote nationalist politics over Islamic clerical rule.
President Ahmadinejad is thought to favour Mr Mashaie to run in presidential elections in 2013. | An ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been arrested, according to the country's media. |
38,718,255 | Ikeme, 30, was sent off after pushing Wes Hoolahan in the chest, but the club have been advised it is normally considered only a yellow-card offence.
Wolves are hoping Ikeme will be cleared to play in Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round tie against Liverpool at Anfield.
"If it's feasible to win, then we'll try," boss Paul Lambert told BBC WM.
"Next week is a massive game for everyone at the club."
Norwich manager Alex Neil told BBC Sport after Saturday's game: "I don't think the goalkeeper should have responded in the manner that he did and deservedly got his red card.
"Wes has got the penalty and turned around to carry on the game. That was unprofessional from the goalkeeper and he obviously got his punishment."
Ikeme had never been sent off before, having received only three yellow cards in his previous 264 career appearances.
He posted on Twitter: "Apologise if anyone feels let down but this one is hard to take.
"Been mulling over whether to say anything or not . . . It's hard not to be frustrated when someone blatantly dives to win a penalty." | Wolves are to appeal against the red card given to goalkeeper Carl Ikeme in Saturday's 3-1 controversial Championship defeat at Norwich. |
34,074,557 | Between December 2011 and February 2014 the equivalent of about 90 people a month died after their Employment and Support Allowance claim was ended.
Campaigners have called for the "tragic" figures to be investigated.
The DWP said no link could be assumed between the deaths and claimants being deemed fit for work.
The figures - and the time frame they cover - were released after the Information Commissioner ruled the government should release the statistics, including mortality rates for benefit claimants, in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
The data does not contain a breakdown of how the people died.
The 2,380 people who died had received Work Capability Assessments (WCA) to decide if they were eligible to receive ESA, which replaced incapacity benefit, income support and severe disablement allowance in 2008.
Of the 2,380, 1,340 died after appealing against their decisions, though it is not known what proportion of those appeals were successful or failed.
Learning disability charity Mencap said the numbers appeared unusually high for people of working age who had so recently been declared fit.
The charity's Rob Holland, who co-chairs the Disability Benefits Consortium, a consortium of charities and other bodies, said: "These tragic figures are concerning and warrant further investigation.
"We know the fit for work test is failing disabled people, with devastating consequences."
The figures said 2,017,070 people were given a decision following their WCA between May 2010 and February 2013, with 40,680 dying within a year of that decision.
But the data showed a decline in the mortality rate of all benefit claimants - the number of deaths per 100,000 people - from 822 to 723 between 2003 and 2013.
This was slower, proportionally, than the decline in the mortality rate of the general population, which fell from 305 to 240 in the same period, according to the statistics.
Mike Sivier, a campaigner who made one of the FOI requests, said: "I am glad that the figures have come out.
"The whole point of making an FOI request was to raise questions. It is important to keep asking questions."
Labour leadership candidate and shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said they were "shocking figures" and called for an "urgent national debate" about the statistics.
The DWP said it had always intended to release the information but only "once they had met the high standards expected of official statistics".
It said it did not hold the information on the reason for the deaths which meant no link could be drawn between the WCA decision and the number of people who died.
A DWP spokesman said: "The mortality rate for people who have died while claiming an out-of-work benefit has fallen over a 10-year period. This is in line with the mortality rate for the general working-age population.
"The government continues to support millions of people on benefits with an £80bn working-age welfare safety net in place." | Some 2,380 people have died after being found fit for work and losing benefits, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures show. |
37,681,502 | 17 October 2016 Last updated at 15:51 BST
Ben, from Sheffield, was 21 months old when he disappeared on the Greek island of Kos.
An "item" believed to have been in Ben's possession at the time was found during fresh searches.
South Yorkshire Police said the current line of inquiry, that Ben was killed accidentally, was the most probable cause for the boy's disappearance. | Police have ended their search for missing toddler Ben Needham in Kos, saying he "most probably" died in an accident near where he vanished in 1991. |
29,381,914 | While a third of people are worried about getting dementia or cancer, only 2% are afraid of coronary heart disease, a survey by the British Heart Foundation has found.
And one in ten adults confessed to not knowing how to look after their hearts.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is responsible for about 74,000 deaths in the UK each year.
About one in five men and one in eight women die from the condition.
Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Your heart is the most vital organ in the body, but all too often we take it for granted.
"Despite being a largely preventable condition, coronary heart disease is still the UK's single biggest killer, causing unnecessary heartache for thousands of families."
As well as chest pain, the main symptoms of CHD are heart attacks and heart failure.
However, not everyone has the same symptoms and some people may not have any before CHD is diagnosed.
Risk factors include smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Gail Sullivan, from Oxted in Surrey, lost her son Daniel to the disease.
"At his age - 43 - he shouldn't have died the way he did and I am very passionate about trying to get this awareness across," she said.
"I don't want him to have died in vain. It's devastated the whole family. We didn't know there was anything wrong. There was no sign that he was ill whatsoever."
She said the call informing her that Daniel had had a heart attack remained "etched in my mind".
At the hospital she discovered he had collapsed at work with a cardiac arrest.
"They got his heart started, got him into the ambulance where he had another cardiac arrest, and then got him to the hospital and he had another cardiac arrest," she said.
"They got his heart started again and he was on life support for a couple of weeks.
"But they told us that his brain had died, and when they took away the machines he passed away on the Friday."
The doctors said that smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol had affected the health of Daniel's heart.
"When they say the silent killer, I now know what they mean," she said. "There were no signs of that. You wouldn't look at him and say, 'Oh gosh, Dan, you look really ill'. You would never have been able to tell."
The British Heart Foundation has issued 10 tips to prevent heart disease:
The poll was conducted by YouGov and included 1,010 men and 1,089 women.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on countries to take action on salt to cut deaths from heart disease. It wants governments to sign up to reducing global salt intake.
"If the target to reduce salt by 30% globally by 2025 is achieved, millions of lives can be saved from heart disease, stroke and related conditions," said director Dr Oleg Chestnov. | Many adults in the UK are unaware of the risk factors for heart disease, according to a new poll. |
40,860,966 | 8 August 2017 Last updated at 12:34 BST
But she's unhappy with new changes to the way that England's women are funded.
She's gone to meet players to find out what they think. | Fourteen-year-old Rebecca dreams of playing rugby union professionally. |
30,325,151 | Officers from North East Counter Terrorism Unit and the Wales Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit executed six search warrants on Thursday.
The men, aged 19-32, were arrested under section 12 of the act, creating offences in relation to the support of proscribed organisations.
Two of the men have been named as Rofi Islam and Sajid Idris.
The arrests are not linked to two men charged with offences on Wednesday.
Police said the arrests were linked to the Grangetown area of Cardiff and were part of a wider counter-terrorism investigation in Wales, but are not linked to brothers Aseel and Nasser Muthana who went to fight with IS in Syria.
South Wales Police Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Holland denied Cardiff was a hotbed of terrorism.
She said the Muthana brothers and Reyaad Khan had become poster boys in the UK for IS but said police were determined to tackle radicalisation.
"The scale of counter terrorism in Wales is minimal compared to other parts of the UK," she added.
Ramesh Rupaliyah, who works in a shop in Kent Street in Grangetown, said there were a number of police vehicles there at 07:00 GMT when the store opened.
"Police were already there when I got here," he said "there were police vehicles in the street." | Five men have been arrested under the Terrorism Act following raids in Cardiff and Barry. |
39,729,869 | The £23m inquiry into historical child abuse in Jersey ended in 2016 after three years.
The report was first expected at the end of last year.
The independent panel referred the BBC to a previous statement that said: "We will announce the date of the report's publication in due course".
Alan Collins, who has been representing the Jersey Care Leavers Association, says the victims are "getting impatient".
"The longer this delay goes on the more unacceptable it becomes, because the publish occasion of the report has now been delayed twice," he said.
"We've got no real explanation as to why the delay and I think two points arise for this: number one, the report should have been published long before now, and secondly, because it has not been published, I think everyone is entitled to know why the delay? What's happening?" | Delays in publishing the Jersey Independent Care Inquiry report are becoming "unacceptable" according to the lawyer working with the victims. |
37,420,086 | The Science Minister, Jo Johnson, will give details while opening a joint UK-Chinese plant research centre just outside Shanghai.
Scientists at the centre will investigate new ways of growing crops to feed an expanding global population.
The centre is the latest effort by the UK to tap into the rapid growth in scientific investment by China.
Chinese research has grown rapidly in the past 20 years. Spending on R&D is now over 40 times what it was in 1995, amounting to £150bn in 2015 - just over 2% of the country's economic production (GDP).
That compares with the UK government's spending on R&D of £8.4bn, which is just under 0.5% of Britain's GDP.
Despite this spending mismatch, the quality of UK research is still among the highest in the world. In order to maintain Britain's leading status, research leaders have decided that it is important to leverage our science spending with the emerging new science superpower.
At current growth rates, China is forecast to overtake the US to become the world's largest funder of R&D in 2022.
It is a science spending spree that the UK is ideally placed to tap into, according to Mr Johnson, who is in Shanghai with 150 scientists who are on a drive to strengthen links between British and Chinese researchers.
"Over the past 20 years, China has significantly increased investment in science and when UK and Chinese scientists work together, the results are proven to have more impact than when each country works alone. Frankly, it's obvious that we should continue exploiting our shared success," he said.
Collaboration between the two countries has grown steadily in recent years, particularly in areas of common interest, such as food security, energy and antimicrobial research. According to Prof Jane Elliott, who is the chief executive of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), collaboration between the UK and China is a marriage made in heaven.
"The UK really does punch above its weight in science and research so we are seen as the partner of choice," she said.
"One of the challenges for China is its aging population and they have a demographic puzzle as a result of having had their one child policy, so they are very keen to work out how to sustain and care for their aging population.
"Their problem is on a different scale from the UK but we also face similar challenges and so it's good to be able to collaborate on those sorts of topics."
Agricultural research is an important area of collaboration between China and Britain. As China has modernised its agricultural systems to increase productivity, its scientists have also been investigating ways of reducing the consequent CO2 emissions.
The UK-China Centre for Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture has brought Chinese universities together with one of Britain's leading agricultural research centres, Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, to form a scientific cooperative to find environmentally friendlier approaches.
Prof Melanie Welham, who is the CEO of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), said international collaboration with China was crucial:
"A lot of challenges that our researchers are addressing are global challenges. The UK leads the world in bioscience and that puts us in a really strong position to form international collaborations and partnerships," she told BBC News.
As China's vast energy sector continues to rely on coal, the need has grown for improved carbon capture technology to reduce CO2 emissions. A collaboration between Edinburgh University and North China Electric Power University led to a new process that reduced the energy needed for CO2 capture by up to 30%.
The UK-China Space Science and Technology Programme has brought together a UK institution, RAL Space, with China's Beihang University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, allowing researchers, businesses and agencies to collaborate in monitoring the Earth by satellite to monitor agriculture and the effects of climate change.
The new plant research centre just outside Shanghai is the latest UK effort to tap into the rapid growth in Chinese scientific expertise
Researchers at the Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science will investigate ways of improving crop yields, decreasing the threat from pests and diseases and reducing the need for artificial fertiliser. They will also study ways of harnessing the benefits of Chinese medicine.
The centre will work closely with the John Innes Centre (JIC) in Norwich. Its director, Prof Dale Sanders, said that the collaboration would build on historic ties.
"The partnership dates back to the 1980s when the JIC was among the first UK institutes to welcome Chinese researchers working abroad," he said.
"Today we are seeing our vision of a world class UK/China collaboration in plant and microbial sciences become a reality and I have no doubt that the excellent, world leading science delivered by this centre will make a huge impact on the big global challenges relating to food security and human health."
As well as the opening of the new plant science centre, the government announced a plan by the Open University and the CAS Centre for Excellence in Advanced Materials in Dongguan, Guangdong, to explore the development of a joint engineering centre with facilities in the UK and China and discussions to develop further collaborations in space science in the fields of remote sensing and satellite technology.
China has a long history of development work in Africa. In recent years, the UK has also made development research a priority, devoting more than £1.5bn to it over the next five years, and so this is another potential area of collaboration.
Follow Pallab on Twitter | The UK government is to outline its plans to strengthen collaborative research between Britain and China. |
28,192,683 | The association has refused to approve Brace's accreditation for Glasgow because of her involvement at the 2013 Unified Kickboxing World Championships.
The Welsh Boxing Association has accepted the ruling.
Brace, 23, had been included in Wales' 10-strong squad for the Commonwealth Games to compete in the 51kg category.
"Ashley is a fantastic young athlete with bags of potential," said Team Wales chef de mission Brian Davies.
"Both Welsh Boxing and the Commonwealth Games Council for Wales are saddened that she now won't have the opportunity to compete at the Games in just two weeks' time."
Women's boxing will be appearing for the first time in Glasgow with Charlene Jones and Lauren Price the representatives for Wales.
The Commonwealth Games begin on Wednesday, 23 July. | Welsh boxer Ashley Brace is out of this month's Commonwealth Games after the International Boxing Association deemed her ineligible. |
12,352,494 | Many of them are so old they have to be carried out to the lunch room, where they are served a frugal meal of rice, lentils and vegetables.
This is a shelter run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in the Indian capital, Delhi.
The men have been abandoned by their families, who can no longer support them financially, and so are dropped off here.
Among them is Hira Lal, who has not got much time to live.
"My two sons brought me here - I've become so old and sick that they can't look after me anymore. I would have preferred to die at home with my family - but it's God's will that I spend my last days here," he says.
The nuns at the shelter tell me his family has never been back to see him. It's the case with almost everyone here.
It's also a situation that most of India's elderly are being increasingly forced to confront.
Only the rich or privileged have access to proper health care - the rest are increasingly forced to battle alone.
But 2,000km (1,242 miles) away, in Kerala, there is a ray of hope.
At the Institute of Palliative Medicine in Calicut, Dr Suresh Kumar checks on a patient, a poor fisherman who is suffering from lung cancer.
Moved by the pain and suffering of terminally ill patients, the doctor gave up his job as an anaesthetist to set up a ground-breaking palliative care system that has now spread across the state.
"Most of the problems faced by elderly people are not medical. A lot of the issues are social, emotional, issues of loneliness and a lack of money," he explains.
"Since it's not practical or even ideal for many of the patients to come to a medical facility, the idea is to go to them."
It is particularly necessary, he adds, because most Indians prefer to stay at home with their families in the final stages of their lives.
Just outside Calicut is the village of Nadery - lush green coconut trees surround the small, mud huts where most residents live.
One of them belongs to Tirumala, who is terminally ill.
She is lying on a bed laid out on the floor. Painfully thin, she moans occasionally and her back is covered with bed sores.
Today she is being visited by a group of volunteers - all college students.
They carefully tend to her, cleaning her wounds. She is too weak to go to hospital so this is the only kind of treatment she can receive.
The head of the group of volunteers is Mohammad Yunus, a management graduate who spends most of his time organising the palliative care programme.
"We are taking care of 1,330 patients and we have 500 dedicated volunteers, all from college campuses," he says.
"We have a strong presence in every village and the moment a person registers with us, our volunteers pay a visit within 24 hours."
Apart from offering medical attention, the focus is on involving the community - the family or, if there is not one, the neighbourhood.
"Since most people find it difficult to cope, financially or emotionally, with a terminally ill patient, it's important that we train them and also support them," Mr Yunus says.
Their operations run round the clock and the service is free - funded entirely by voluntary donations from ordinary members of the community - students, pensioners, businessmen and even the police.
As Dr Kumar says, the involvement of the community is critical to the programme's success.
"We're trying to build a safety net around the patient enabling the family to look after the patient and also offering medical support from our side," he says.
It is a model that many believe can - and should - be emulated elsewhere.
But Kerala has high literacy rates and a strong sense of community - a natural advantage over other parts of India where the vast majority of the country's elderly still find themselves cast out and forgotten as they near the end of their lives. | Inside a long, poorly lit room several old men are lying on a row of bunk beds. |
16,439,807 | The last Ice Age ended about 11,500 years ago, and when the next one should begin has not been entirely clear.
Researchers used data on the Earth's orbit and other things to find the historical warm interglacial period that looks most like the current one.
In the journal Nature Geoscience, they write that the next Ice Age would begin within 1,500 years - but emissions have been so high that it will not.
800,000 years of Earth history, animated
"At current levels of CO2, even if emissions stopped now we'd probably have a long interglacial duration determined by whatever long-term processes could kick in and bring [atmospheric] CO2 down," said Luke Skinner from Cambridge University.
Dr Skinner's group - which also included scientists from University College London, the University of Florida and Norway's Bergen University - calculates that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 would have to fall below about 240 parts per million (ppm) before the glaciation could begin.
The current level is around 390ppm.
Other research groups have shown that even if emissions were shut off instantly, concentrations would remain elevated for at least 1,000 years, with enough heat stored in the oceans potentially to cause significant melting of polar ice and sea level rise.
The root causes of the transitions from Ice Age to interglacial and back again are the subtle variations in the Earth's orbit known as the Milankovitch cycles, after the Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovic who described the effect nearly 100 years ago.
The variations include the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, the degree to which its axis is inclined, and the slow rotation of its axis.
These all take place on timescales of tens of thousands of years.
The precise way in which they change the climate of the Earth from warm interglacial to cold Ice Age and back every 100,000 years or so is not known.
On their own, they are not enough to cause the global temperature difference of about 10C between Ice Age and interglacial. The initial small changes are amplified by various factors including the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as warming begins, and absorption of the gas by the oceans as the ice re-forms.
It is also clear that each transition is different from previous ones, because the precise combination of orbital factors does not repeat exactly - though very similar conditions come around every 400,000 years.
The differences from one cycle to the next are thought to be the reason why interglacial periods are not all the same length.
Using analysis of orbital data as well as samples from rock cores drilled in the ocean floor, Dr Skinner's team identified an episode called Marine Isotope Stage 19c (or MIS19c), dating from about 780,000 years ago, as the one most closely resembling the present.
The transition to the Ice Age was signalled, they believe, by a period when cooling and warming seesawed between the northern and southern hemispheres, triggered by disruptions to the global circulation of ocean currents.
If the analogy to MIS19c holds up, this transition ought to begin within 1,500 years, the researchers say, if CO2 concentrations were at "natural" levels.
As things stand, they believe, it will not.
The broad conclusions of the team were endorsed by Lawrence Mysak, emeritus professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who has also investigated the transitions between Ice Ages and warm interglacials.
"The key thing is they're looking about 800,000 years back, and that's twice the 400,000-year cycle, so they're looking at the right period in terms of what could happen in the absence of anthropogenic forcing," he told BBC News.
He suggested that the value of 240ppm CO2 needed to trigger the next glaciation might however be too low - other studies suggested the value could be 20 or even 30ppm higher.
"But in any case, the problem is how do we get down to 240, 250, or whatever it is? Absorption by the oceans takes thousands or tens of thousands of years - so I don't think it's realistic to think that we'll see the next glaciation on the [natural] timescale," Prof Mysak explained.
Groups opposed to limiting greenhouse gas emissions are already citing the study as a reason for embracing humankind's CO2 emissions.
The UK lobby group the Global Warming Policy Foundation, for example, has flagged up a 1999 essay by astronomers Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, who argued that: "The renewal of ice-age conditions would render a large fraction of the world's major food-growing areas inoperable, and so would inevitably lead to the extinction of most of the present human population.
"We must look to a sustained greenhouse effect to maintain the present advantageous world climate. This implies the ability to inject effective greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the opposite of what environmentalists are erroneously advocating."
Luke Skinner said his group had anticipated this kind of reception.
"It's an interesting philosophical discussion - 'would we better off in a warm [interglacial-type] world rather than a glaciation?' and probably we would," he said.
"But it's missing the point, because where we're going is not maintaining our currently warm climate but heating it much further, and adding CO2 to a warm climate is very different from adding it to a cold climate.
"The rate of change with CO2 is basically unprecedented, and there are huge consequences if we can't cope with that."
Follow Richard on Twitter | Human emissions of carbon dioxide will defer the next Ice Age, say scientists. |
33,484,025 | The Harbour restaurant in Porthmadog was also found to have inadequate controls to prevent cross contamination and poor standards of cleanliness.
Restaurant owner David Paton pleaded guilty to seven food hygiene offences at Caernarfon Magistrates' Court.
He has to pay £5,000 plus nearly £1,300 in court costs.
The case was brought by the council's public protection service. | A restaurant owner has been fined for having a substantial amount of out-of-date mouldy food which was intended for sale, Gwynedd council said. |
35,357,247 | Mike Holder, who was employed by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, said record keeping was "haphazard".
He said senior staff at the mental health trust were told safety failings could be breaking the law.
Chief executive of the trust Katrina Percy said: "We are constantly striving to find ways to do things better."
Mr Holder, a chartered health and safety practitioner, was employed as the interim head of health and safety at the trust in November 2011.
He told the BBC: "It was under-resourced, they didn't see how health and safety would apply to caring for the people in their care.
"I think their record keeping in general was very, very haphazard."
"I think there are missed opportunities and as a result of those missed opportunities, someone has lost their life.
"It's very, very disappointing, I feel for the families and it is something that should just not have happened."
An independent report in December found the trust had failed to properly investigate hundreds of deaths of patients with mental health problems and learning disabilities over a four-year period.
Connor Sparrowhawk, an 18-year-old with learning difficulties, drowned in a bath at a Southern Health building in Oxford in 2013 and the inquest into his death prompted NHS England to commission the report.
In a 13-page document seen by the BBC, Mr Holder outlined health and safety failings he had found for trust bosses.
Earlier in 2011 Ms Percy received an anonymous letter which said: "The trust is extremely under-resourced to deal with health and safety issues considering the size and complexity of the trust."
In a response to the BBC Ms Percy said: "We are constantly striving to find ways to do things better and challenging ourselves to improve services across the whole organisation, as in any NHS Trust.
"All of the issues raised in the memorandum sent more than four years ago were looked into and addressed.
"Those issues in no way relate to the independent review of deaths of people with learning disabilities and mental health needs in contact with Southern Health at least once in the previous year."
Southern Health is one of the country's largest mental health trusts, covering Hampshire, Dorset, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and providing services to about 45,000 people. | An under-fire NHS trust that failed to investigate hundreds of deaths knew about health and safety failings four years ago, the BBC can reveal. |
28,212,679 | Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar, both 22 and from Birmingham, admitted preparing to carry out terrorist acts.
They spent eight months in Syria and were arrested by West Midlands Police's counter-terrorism unit at Heathrow Airport on their return in January.
They had travelled to Syria to take part in its civil war after contacting Islamic extremists.
Police believe Ahmed and Sarwar fought with the al-Nusra Front, which is a jihadist group affiliated with al-Qaeda.
Their trial had been due to start but, at Woolwich Crown Court in London, they each admitted one count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorism acts, contrary to section five of the Terrorism Act.
A date for sentencing is expected to be confirmed in a few weeks.
West Midlands Police said they were alerted to the case after Sarwar's parents contacted them in May 2013.
They had found a six-page letter in which their son, who was a computer science undergraduate at Birmingham City University, admitted he had gone "to do jihad" in Syria.
He also left instructions to cancel his mobile phone contract and money to settle outstanding debts.
Prosecutor Brian Altman QC told the court: "Sarwar was not expecting to return to his family and that is because he hoped to die as a martyr."
Police said Ahmed, an unemployed former postal worker, had "considered going to Yemen and had sought advice from a fighter in Syria and from extremists in Denmark and Sweden".
A man living in Denmark, calling himself Abu Usama al-Mujahid, had told him: "You can be a mujahid [fighter] wherever in the world you are. Look at 7/7 from your country."
The men bought one-way tickets to Turkey then crossed the border to Syria - and when they got back officers were "waiting to arrest them", police said.
Police added: "Traces of military grade explosives were found on their clothing and pictures on their camera showed them brandishing weapons.
"Detectives used satellite imaging to establish from the photographs that the men had been in and around Aleppo - one of the main conflict zones."
Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale said the men had gone to "considerable lengths" to hide their plans from their families, and urged people to tell the police if they suspected a family member was planning to travel to Syria.
"It's not easy to know everything that a family member is doing all of the time, but we encourage parents to hold a healthy interest and curiosity into who their children mix with and who seems to hold a strong influence over them," he said.
He also said officers would try to protect those who were "vulnerable to radicalisers", to prevent them getting involved in crime. | Two British men who went to Syria to join rebel fighters have pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. |
36,149,043 | Initially the cars will be semi-autonomous, with real families travelling in them.
Similar trials will run in the Swedish city Gothenburg.
Drive Me London, as the trial is dubbed, will record data from these everyday journeys to help develop the technology and adapt it to real-world conditions.
Details of which roads the cars will be tested on are not yet known. The trial is due to expand in 2018 from a handful of autonomous cars to 100, making it the largest of its kind in the UK.
"Autonomous driving (AD) represents a leap forward in car safety," said HÃ¥kan Samuelsson, president of Volvo Cars.
"The sooner AD cars are on the roads, the sooner lives will start being saved."
Up to 90% of car accidents are presently caused by driver error and research suggests that autonomous driving could reduce this by at least 30%.
Britain wants to be at the forefront of autonomous driving and, this summer, cars will take to the pavements around the O2 arena in Greenwich in London, as well as in Milton Keynes. Other driverless car trials are running in Coventry and Bristol.
This week in the US, Google - which is also at the forefront of the driverless car revolution - joined forces with Volvo and Ford, as well as taxi-hailing firms Uber and Lyft, to form a coalition to promote the benefits of self-driving cars and help push through the necessary legislation to make fully autonomous vehicles a reality.
Some experts predict that cars without a person in the driving seat could hit the roads as early as 2021 although, for that to happen, there need to be big changes in legislation around the world.
Mr Samuelsson said that there were "multiple benefits" to autonomous driving including the reduction of congestion and pollution, as well as safety.
"That is why governments globally need to put in place the legislation and infrastructure to allow AD cars onto the streets as soon as possible. The car industry cannot do it all by itself. We need governmental help." | Swedish carmaker Volvo plans to run driverless car trials on public roads around London from next year. |
26,289,805 | The debate was sparked by a petition which calls for price caps to stop holiday firms "cashing in" on the school holidays.
No MP backed price regulation during the Westminster Hall debate, and the government also rejected the idea.
But term staggering and more power for schools received widespread support.
Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, who requested the debate, said the issue was a "considerable concern" to many people.
He said price capping was not a "practical solution", and a plan to suspend Airport Passenger Duty in the school summer holidays was "not a flyer".
A rule change which came into effect last September means head teachers can only grant time off in "exceptional circumstances".
Previously parents could be allowed to take their children out of school for 10 days per academic year.
Mr Hemming, who is MP for Birmingham Yardley, said one possible solution to the prices problem was to go "back towards" that system - but "not necessarily as far" as 10 days.
Leeds East Labour MP George Mudie said the change had been "smuggled through" Parliament, and called on Education Secretary Michael Gove to show humility "for once in his life" and undo the change.
North East Derbyshire MP Natascha Engel, also of Labour, gave the example of a girl with a brain tumour whose school had "cited government legislation" in refusing to grant her time off for a holiday.
She said the head teacher had "no choice", and said schools must be given "far greater discretion".
But consumer affairs minister Jenny Willott said: "The government has not said that no absence is possible.
"It has given head teachers the discretion to make that call and we also haven't specified what constitutes exceptional circumstances as we think individual cases need to be considered individually."
On pupils going on holiday during term time, she said the change in September was simply a "clarification" to remove the "misconception" that parents were allowed to take their children out of school for 10 days a year.
She said she was "very sympathetic" to people who struggled to afford them in peak season.
"But they should not be at the expense of a child's education, and school attendance throughout the school year does remain absolutely critical," she said.
She also said children missing school could have a negative impact not just on them, but also on fellow pupils and teachers.
Ms Willott said staggering holiday dates could "help bring prices down" and she understood why people wanted the government to organise dates which varied from area to area.
But she said local authorities currently decided term dates, and by 2015 all schools would have the power already given to free schools and academies to set their own dates.
One MP suggested the government should take a "leadership role" in co-ordinating dates, but Ms Willott said this "should be dealt with locally".
On the petition's proposal of price capping, she said the travel business was one of the most competitive industries in the UK, and this had led it to be "innovative" and "responsive" to customers' needs.
"The government is not convinced higher prices in school holidays are as a result of market abuse by the holiday industry, but rather they reflect the market forces in a very competitive sector," she said.
The e-petition which sparked the debate - signed by more than 168,000 people - calls on the government to "enforce action that caps the percentage increase on holiday prices in school holidays", but the debate did not focus on that suggestion as no MP supported it.
"Nobody in this country decides the price of a hotel room in Spain," said East Hampshire Conservative MP Damian Hinds.
It would be "inconceivable" for the government to attempt to cap prices, he said, adding that some European holidays may no longer be made available to UK customers if prices were controlled.
Mr Hinds, who said he had worked in the hotel industry for 10 years, said staggering holidays could have some effect but demand was not only driven by the school holidays.
He said August would still have the best weather - and "Christmas is Christmas".
Also in the debate, Mr Hemming raised the question of what "pressure" Ofsted puts on schools over term-time absences, and he said the Education Select Committee should consider creating regions to stagger term dates.
But the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills dealt with the petition, so no one from the Department for Education was present. Ms Willott said she would pass on MPs' comments.
Closing the debate, Mr Hemming said: "There are some issues that need to be sorted out. and let's get on with it." | MPs have suggested "staggering" school term dates and giving teachers more discretion on absences during a debate on the cost of holidays. |
34,926,322 | New chairman Sir Peter Hendy came up with the idea after he was drafted in this summer to rescue the company's disastrous £12.5bn enhancement plan.
He says by selling off non-core bits of property, Network Rail can now deliver "the bulk" of the planned programme.
It is the biggest SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) UK landlord.
When Sir Peter came on board, costs had been spiralling and deadlines slipping because Network Rail promised major changes by 2019 that it simply could not deliver.
Sir Peter has warned that "some projects will cost more and take longer than originally expected".
One critical scheme, the plan to electrify the line from Swansea to London, has been dogged with delays and extra costs.
The first budget estimate was £640m. It now stands at £2.8bn.
Work on the core part of the line, to Cardiff, should be finished by 2019, Network Rail says.
But new, multi-billion pound intercity trains are arriving more than a year before that.
It raises the embarrassing prospect of sparkly high-speed trains initially providing a slower service because they can't run on electricity for the whole route.
Other all-electric versions could be idle for months.
Meanwhile, plans to electrify other parts of the Great Western route, to Oxford (from Didcot), Swansea and the loop to Bath and Bristol Temple Meads, will not be finished until some years later.
Network Rail has struggled since it became a public body last year.
That was a move that immediately turned the funding taps off, because it could no longer borrow cash on the private markets. Instead, its £38bn debt went onto the government's books, and ministers refused to lend bosses any more money.
The Department for Transport will begin an eight-week consultation on the report next month. | Network Rail wants to sell £1.8bn of railway arch space, disused depots and shop space in bigger stations to help raise the cash to upgrade UK railways. |
40,876,178 | It's thought to have been the length of three London buses, half the width of a football pitch and as heavy as a space shuttle!
Fossilised bones of six of the young adult dinosaurs were found in a Patagonian quarry, in Argentina, in 2013.
Could there be even bigger, adult bones left to discover?
Scientists think that after the young adult dinosaurs died, their bones were preserved in mud.
Known as the Patagotitan mayorum, they're part of the Titanosaur species of dinosaur that lived 100 million years ago.
They were huge plant-eaters that stood on four legs.
One of the authors of the study, Diego Pol, said: "I don't think they were scary at all. They were probably massive slow-moving animals." | A study of dinosaur bones suggests that the Patagotitan mayorum was the largest creature to ever live on Earth. |
29,581,386 | Photos posted on a message board in the last few days have since been taken down.
Users who had accessed the service through third-party apps, and not the official Snapchat app, have had their images intercepted.
The company said its servers "were never breached".
Newsbeat's tech reporter, Jonathan Blake, says they are calling this "the Snappening".
"Its after the so-called Fappening which involved naked celebrity photos," he explained.
We've decided to take a look at exactly what's going on.
Hackers posted Snapchat photos on a message board on Thursday night. They have since been removed.
According to Business Insider reporter James Cook there's a threat more could be posted, with hackers boasting of having access to 13 gigabytes' (GB) worth of pictures.
Its claimed the photos have been intercepted over a number of years.
Not Snapchat, according to Snapchat.
The source of the leak has pointed towards two third-party, unauthorised services that offered the ability to save Snapchat messages permanently.
Its believed that at least one such service was keeping a database of all the pictures and videos that had passed through it.
One report suggests the hacked third-party Snapchat client was Snapsave.
Its a popular Android app.
It allows users to keep Snapchat photos and videos, which of course automatically delete when viewed through the official Snapchat app.
Developer Georgie Casey has denied his app is to blame though.
"Our app had nothing to do with it and we've never logged username and passwords," he told Engadget.
He also denied that Snapsave stores photos online.
Good question.
On Friday, the company said: "Snapchatters were victimised by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users' security.
"We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed."
Like the one involving celebrities and the iCloud? No.
These are said to be pictures of regular users but there are some doubts whether the images are real or fake.
Last month, photos of celebrities were shared on websites Reddit and 4chan after initially being taken from stars' iCloud accounts.
In a word, yes.
In several...
4.6 million usernames and phone numbers were leaked online at the start of the year.
More recently, the service has been suffering from spam messages being sent out from users' accounts without their knowledge.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | Hackers are threatening to publish thousands more explicit images sent through Snapchat. |
40,536,281 | One told Parliament's annual Youth Select Committee that "so many" young people were suffering from online abuse and feelings of inadequacy.
There should also be greater diversity in the media, the committee heard.
A Facebook and Instagram policy manager said the sites were committed to making sure users had positive experiences.
The Youth Select Committee, which comprises 11 members aged 13 to 18, chose the topic of body image to consider after nearly one million people voted it as one of the top 10 issues in the UK Youth Parliament's "make your mark" ballot in 2016.
Danny Bowman, who once claimed to be the "world's first selfie addict", told the committee he saw "so many young people who are suffering online" from being bullied or body shamed.
He said his own experiences of social media led him to have a mental health problem over his body image and to him being housebound for six months.
Mr Bowman said he thought Instagram - and the images it has of "six packs left, right and centre" - was "becoming more detrimental, especially to young men".
He added: "I think it translates into the idea of success and failure - a lot of young men are looking at these images and feeling they are inadequate, a failure…
"If we want to solve this problem we have to go directly to social media networks."
Harnaam Kaur, a body positivity campaigner, said there was a lack of diversity in the media.
Ms Kaur, who has claimed a Guinness world record for her beard, said this had encouraged her to set up an Instagram page.
"That is why Instagram is so important for me, to do photo shoots and show people it is ok to look different.
"I do also feel that companies need to open up their doors to people who do look different and actually stop photo-shopping images…
"The way that women's bodies and men's bodies that are being portrayed are not actually their natural form."
Stephanie Teboah, a plus-size model, said a "Westernised standard of beauty" dominated the media, and called for a greater variety of ethnicities and body types.
However, she credited Instagram as a site that also hosts "body-positive" content, too, adding that users can curate their feeds to see the content they want to see.
Karim Palant, Facebook and Instagram's UK public policy manager, told the committee Instagram was "absolutely committed" to making sure its community is "as positive as possible".
He added that the companies wanted to make sure policies and tools were in place so that "negatives are dealt with as quickly as possible".
The committee, which next meets on 14 July, will also hear from academics, mental health experts, education professionals, and government officials. | Internet companies should do more to tackle body shaming online, social media users have told an inquiry into how body image affects young people. |
38,641,367 | But while performance has improved since the first week in January, it remains way below its target of 95%.
Leaked data covering last week puts the national figure at 82.4% with only five hospitals meeting the 95% standard.
NHS England said they were doing "everything [they] can to ensure the best care possible is being delivered."
While the national figure remains low, it does show an improvement on the first week in January, which is usually the health service's hardest week. An earlier exclusive report by BBC News had revealed that, in that first week, 79.6% of patients were seen within four hours and only one hospital met the 95% target.
The new analysis by NHS Improvement, which oversees foundation and NHS trusts, reveals a general pattern of gradual improvement since the low of January 3, when the daily A&E rate reached a low of 75.8%. Over this weekend, the service managed to see more than 85% of patients inside the four-hour waiting target.
A spokesman for NHS Improvement said: "In the past few days, we've seen a real improvement in how quickly patients are being seen and discharged from accident and emergency departments - including to social care. But we know the pressures facing our hospitals will continue over the remaining weeks of winter and we're working hard to ensure they have the support they need to offer patients quick, safe, quality care."
The leak also reveals that, in the second week of January, 14,700 people who had been admitted to a hospital were left waiting for more than four hours to find a bed.
Of these, 140 people endured so-called "trolley waits" of more than 12 hours. While these figures are well down on the first week in January, they remain historically high - up by 3,000 on the equivalent week two years ago.
There are further signs of vulnerability: for the week covered by the data, which runs 9 to 15 January, the number of beds in use remained an exceptionally high 95.3%, with 4.9% of the service's beds occupied because patients were stuck in hospitals awaiting transfer to another care provider (a so-called "delayed transfer of care").
This is well above the preferred rate of bed use. A large number of studies of hospital management have demonstrated how, when there are few spare hospital beds, even very modest further reductions in the number of free beds can dramatically increase the likelihood of any given patient being caught in a hospital backlog, which can lead to significant delays in care.
That high utilisation rate is why, in addition to the elevated rate of trolley waits, there were 177 cancelled operations. That figure is much higher than the previous week, but is likely to be distorted because of the Bank Holiday. The rate at which operations was being cancelled also fell during the week.
The strain on the service will have been eased because of the expected fall in traffic over the second week of the year, with average daily A&E attendances dropping from 50,993 in the first week of the year to 47,195 in the second.
A spokesperson for NHS England added: "We started planning for winter this year earlier than ever before and will continue to do everything we can to ensure the best care possible is being delivered." | The number of people treated within four hours at A&E departments recovered in the second week of January, BBC Newsnight has learned. |
36,171,778 | Her appearances at protests are recorded in documents released after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to police.
Ms Lucas said the tracking sends a "chilling message" to those wanting to take part in peaceful demonstrations.
The National Police Chiefs Council defended the unit but would not confirm who was being recorded.
The file on the Brighton Pavilion MP lists her appearances at political marches and rallies as early as 2007.
A spokeswoman for National Counter Terrorism Police HQ said: "The National Counter Terrorism Police Operations Centre gathers data for policing purposes in accordance with UK law.
"The centre fully complies with stringent data protection legislation in regard to the collation, retention and deletion of records.
"We do not discuss details of records which may or may not have been compiled in relation to named individuals."
Ms Lucas described the monitoring as "a clear waste of public money and resources", adding no-one should be subject to "arbitrary surveillance".
The Green Party said another file lists the political activities of Sian Berry, its candidate in the London Mayor election.
The National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit website says it was set up to "help reduce the criminal threat from domestic extremism across the UK."
Professor Anthony Glees of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies said: "There is a need to keep people under surveillance and there is a need to ensure that people who might be planning acts of extremism, political violence of any kind should be known about by the police.
"But there is no evidence that Caroline Lucas or Sian Berry have been involved in anything that could cause a threat to national security."
In 2014, London Assembly member and Green Party peer Jenny Jones discovered her actions were recorded on a database of "domestic extremists" by the Met Police. | Green MP Caroline Lucas has said a police anti-extremism unit has "monitored" her and a party colleague. |
36,457,841 | The organisms have a cylindrical stalk capped by a flat, semi-transparent disc that houses visible channels branching outwards.
These channels, which resemble tree-like diagrams known as dendrograms, are the basis for its scientific name - Dendrogramma.
The original specimens were described for the first time in 2014 by a team of Danish scientists, one of whom had been aboard the 1986 voyage and later transported the samples to Copenhagen.
The Danish team classified the creatures as belonging to their own unique taxonomic group in a paper published in the journal PLOS One.
But the researchers were unable to support the claim with genetic evidence, due to the way the specimens had been preserved.
"Like forensics and in medicine, DNA has become an essential part of a modern zoologists' toolkit," says Dr Tim O'Hara, a senior curator at Museum Victoria in Melbourne.
"Publishing a new phylum without actually showing how it was related to other animals through DNA was a very old-fashioned way of doing things.
"They copped a bit of flak, but there the matter rested."
But in late 2015, after nearly 30 years without a reported sighting, the strange mushroom-shaped creatures were relocated by scientists aboard the Australian research vessel Investigator.
"It was a 'eureka' moment," says Hugh MacIntosh, a senior research fellow at Museum Victoria who identified the creatures.
"Holding one up to the light, the distinctive forked veins shimmered through the transparent body, and it suddenly dawned upon me that we had rediscovered the elusive Dendrogramma."
In total, 85 specimens were collected from a depth of around 3km on the continental slope near South Australia. They were stored in a solution that would enable DNA extraction.
"We could suddenly get DNA and complete the picture, which is what we've done," says Dr O'Hara, who led the genetic component of the research.
The results of the team's analysis, published this week in the journal Current Biology, have revealed that the deep-sea creatures are not unique in the animal kingdom.
Instead, they belong to a class of floating jellyfish known as siphonophores, found along the Australian coast, and in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish, also known as a bluebottle, is considered part of the siphonophore class.
"We were totally surprised," says Dr O'Hara. "We only vaguely knew what a siphonophore was because they don't turn up very often."
Although they appear to be one organism, siphonophores are actually comprised of many polyps, which are specialised for buoyancy, propulsion, gathering and eating food, reproducing, and fending off threats, explains O'Hara.
They also have a mushroom-shaped organ called a bract, which can become detached from the rest of the animal when it's disturbed.
O'Hara says the deep-sea mushroom is not an independent species, as was previously suggested, but a bract, which has been shed by a larger organism, and which lives for only a very short time afterwards.
"We were a little bit disappointed," he says. "It would have been nice to find a new phylum [or class of animal], but nonetheless we solved the mystery."
But with one mystery solved, another has immediately opened - with a diameter of 2cm, the mushroom-shaped caps are considerably larger than all the bract appendages of all known siphonophores.
Most bracts are closer to 2mm wide, says Dr O'Hara.
"We know it's part of something. But what our actual animal looks like in real life is still a mystery," he says.
The team's findings reveal how little we know about the deep ocean.
With no deep-sea submarines, he says Australia still has to "rely on old-fashioned dredges and sleds, which get dangled all the way to the sea floor, pulled along for a few metres, and then hauled back up again.
"It's all exactly the same as it was in 1870, really. So we're still groping in the dark when it comes to deep-sea research." | Australian scientists have used genetic material to pinpoint the origin of the deep-sea mushroom, an unusual gelatinous creature first dredged up near Tasmania in 1986. |
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