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35,099,731 | Christopher Meli, 20, was found dead near houses at Glasvey Close. Detectives said he had suffered a sustained and vicious assault.
In court were Stephen McCann, 18, of Bearnagh Glen and Lee Smyth, also 18, of Colinbrook Gardens, both in Belfast.
A 16-year-old boy also appeared, but cannot be named for legal reasons.
Bail was applied for Mr McCann, but was refused.
A detective sergeant told the court he could connect all three with the crime.
When questioned by lawyers for the three accused, the detective discussed the events of the night Mr Meli was killed. It was an often confused picture of many figures and shifting groups and claims of fighting, sometimes with a knife.
All three teenagers were remanded in custody to appear again by video link on 11 January.
About 30 relatives and friends of Mr Meli, including his parents Christopher and Kathy were present in Lisburn Magistrates court for the hearing, sometimes crying out. Some left the court before the proceedings ended.
Two teenagers aged 18 and 17, who were arrested by detectives on Sunday, have been released on bail pending further inquiries.
Two more arrests were made by police on Tuesday evening. | Three teenagers have appeared in court charged with the murder of a man in west Belfast's Twinbrook estate at the weekend. |
38,200,768 | Former prime minister Sir John Major unveiled the blue plaque at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where puritan Cromwell was once a student.
Cromwell led the rebellion against King Charles I which saw the monarch put on trial and beheaded.
The Cromwell Association said a "long-standing oversight" had been corrected.
Chairman John Goldsmith said: "It is terrific that at long last Cromwell has got some kind of public memorial here in Cambridge.
"He was a man who represented Cambridge as an MP throughout the civil war and indeed afterwards and yet there is no public monument to Cromwell in the city at all."
It will be placed in the Market Passage at the site of the Black Bear Inn.
It was there where Cromwell held meetings to plan the parliamentarian effort when England descended into civil war in 1642.
The conflicts broke out between the Roundheads, led by Cromwell, and the royalist Cavaliers after hostilities between Charles I and parliament reached breaking point.
Cromwell became Lord Protector after the king's execution.
Sir John said: "I think we should recognise our history, not just Cromwell but all history.
"It points out what we did wrong, it will show us what perhaps we ought to do today."
He added: "If you look down the long avenue of our history over the last thousand years, there are very few people who have had the same significance on the way Britain lives as Cromwell." | A plaque has been unveiled in honour of Oliver Cromwell in the city he represented as an MP, for the first time in almost 400 years. |
13,598,824 | With their trademark white headscarves, the Mothers march every Thursday afternoon demanding information about the estimated 30,000 people who were kidnapped, tortured and killed during the country's military dictatorship.
But now the Mothers are embroiled in a financial scandal that threatens to also damage the reputation of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, less than five months before the presidential election.
Under investigation is the relationship between the Mothers' controversial leader, Hebe de Bonafini, and her former adviser and right-hand-man, Sergio Schoklender.
Mr Schoklender and his brother came to national attention in 1981, when, in their early 20s, they murdered their parents and were jailed for several years.
The union between the Mothers and Mr Schoklender raised few questions in the past, simply because of the respect and awe in which the human rights group is generally held.
But the issue has now erupted into a full-scale scandal.
As well as its campaigning work, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo builds houses for under-privileged people in a multi-million dollar, government-funded project called Shared Dreams.
Sergio Schoklender and his younger brother, Pablo, administered that scheme until Sergio was asked to leave last month in a cloud of controversy over missing funds, unpaid bills and his luxury lifestyle.
The investigations then revealed that Sergio was the major shareholder in Meldorek, the construction company used by the Mothers.
President Fernandez was reported to be livid when the scandal emerged.
Although she has not yet confirmed her candidacy, she is widely expected to stand for re-election in the presidential ballot due in October.
She is the favourite to win and a large part of her popularity is as a result of her campaign for human rights and her close association with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
The polarised Argentine media, either staunchly pro-Ms Fernandez or vehemently against her, has embraced the case enthusiastically.
Each day there are more details of further alleged improprieties in the building project or more information distancing the president from the scandal.
Opposition politicians have accused the housing foundation of over-pricing its work and are asking searching questions about what happened to millions in public funds.
Workers say their pension and social security contributions have not been paid.
The Argentine Central Bank is investigating the signing of cheques worth millions of pesos which never had the funds to cover them.
And the media are questioning Sergio Schoklender's use of a luxury yacht and private planes.
He denies any wrongdoing and says he can justify his earnings and his lifestyle.
Mr Schoklender says he earns royalties from electrical engineering inventions. Extensive media investigations have found no record of anything he has ever registered.
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo was founded when the military controlled Argentina between 1976 and 1983.
They protested quietly, marching in a circle in the Plaza de Mayo, outside the government palace in Buenos Aires.
They held aloft pictures of their children who had been detained by the authorities, most of them never to be seen again.
They march still. But the Mothers are much older now and the organisation has split into two groups, each with its own, different political objectives.
Hebe de Bonafini, who lost two sons and a daughter-in-law during military rule, is the head of the largest group.
Her branch of the Mothers has a newspaper, a radio station and a university. Their headquarters, near the Argentine Congress, also houses a restaurant and a bookshop.
When the late Nestor Kirchner became president in 2003, he championed human rights and established a close relationship with Mrs Bonafini.
His wife, who succeeded him in 2007, continued that alliance.
Sergio and Pablo Schoklender tortured and killed their wealthy parents in 1981. During a lengthy and much-publicised trial, they said they were responding to years of parental abuse but were nonetheless sentenced to life in prison.
Sergio was released, under strict conditions in 1995. Pablo spent eight years on the run in Bolivia, before being jailed. He joined his brother on his release in 2006.
He established a close relationship with Hebe de Bonafini, who called him her "adopted son" and employed him to help administer the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo finances.
The scandal has also inevitably brought Hebe de Bonafini's own controversial past back into the limelight.
For some, she is untouchable, a national institution worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. For others she is an embarrassment.
In 2001, she spoke in support of the al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers in New York, saying: "I felt there were many people at that moment who were happy and felt the blood of so many in that moment were avenged."
A few years later she said that Pope John Paul II had committed many sins and "was going to hell".
Argentina is waiting for President Fernandez to announce whether she will run in October's election.
Her announcement might now be delayed to allow time for this scandal to blow over and to give her the opportunity to distance herself from an organisation, and its leader, that previously served her very well. | For years, the Argentine human rights group, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, has been a potent symbol of the fight for justice. |
34,404,249 | It was from here that Haimanot, aged just 16, gathered all her belongings, borrowed 3,000 Ethiopian birr ($140; £95) and crossed the border into Sudan in search of a better life.
She travelled at first on foot under cover of darkness and with the help of an Ethiopian smuggler, who had promised to take her first to Sudan's capital Khartoum, then on to Libya.
"I was not in school and I could not find a job here in Ethiopia, so I decided to make the journey to Europe to try and make something out of myself," she tells me.
But she never made it out of Sudan.
Haimanot, 16:
"It was the scariest period of my entire life"
After running out of money in Khartoum she did odd jobs for a year, trying to raise enough money to pay another group of smugglers to take her northwards.
Things went from bad to worse and she was arrested by Sudanese police and spent weeks in prison.
"It was the scariest period of my entire life. I was arrested by police and they fired shots at me when I tried to escape.
"I was then arrested and beaten up by some 15 police officers," she says, three months after returning home.
Haimanot's story is not unique in Metema, where nearly everyone we spoke to knew of friends, relatives or neighbours who had crossed the border in the hope of a better life in Europe.
Many Eritreans - one of the largest groups of migrants reaching Europe - would also pass through the town.
Now as Europe grapples with an influx of migrants, Ethiopia's government has intensified a crackdown on the smugglers it blames for luring thousands abroad.
"This was and is still a big problem in Metema," says the town's mayor, Teshome Agmas.
"Smugglers are luring the young and old and then dumping them in the deserts or even killing them if they can't afford the money required to complete the journey.
"We had to do something and that is why we joined the government crackdown."
The government says it has arrested more than 200 smugglers operating along its 700km (435-mile) border with Sudan this year and has begun a massive awareness programme to inform the public about the dangers of making such perilous journeys.
It was spurred into action after 30 Ethiopian Christian migrants were killed in Libya by Islamic State militants in April.
Ethiopians were shocked by the killings after the Libyan branch of IS released videos of the men being beheaded and another group being shot.
More than 100 traffickers have been arrested in Metema, which also attracts migrants from neighbouring South Sudan and Somalia.
At one point more than 250 people were crossing the border into Sudan through Metema each day.
But after the police intensified patrols, smugglers were forced to seek alternative routes into Sudan, through heavily forested and mountainous areas.
"We are telling the smugglers that we are coming for them if they do not stop," the mayor said.
The Ethiopian government has also proposed harsher punishments for people smugglers.
The justice ministry has presented parliament with a bill that could see convicted smugglers facing the death penalty.
It has also embarked on a massive awareness campaign to dissuade the young people from making that perilous journey across the deserts and the Mediterranean.
The government has already banned Ethiopians from going to Middle East to work as domestic workers in 2013 because of the abuse some have suffered there.
Officials believe it is having an impact on some.
Alemtsehay Gebreselassie, 26:
"I watched videos that show the dangers of illegal migration. I don't want to make such an attempt. I am much happier here despite life being tough"
Twenty-six-year-old Alemtsehay Gebreselassie, who runs a cafe in a village next to Metema, said that after listening to some of the warnings, she decided to stay put.
"I watched videos and TV programmes that show the dangers of illegal migration - and the house maids splashed with boiling water and thrown out from buildings [in the Middle East]," she said.
"I don't want to make such an attempt. I am much happier here despite life being tough."
But many Ethiopians are still living in extreme poverty in towns like Metema, and some I spoke to - who did not want to be named because of the crackdown - are still prepared to risk everything for a better life elsewhere. | Metema, in Ethiopia's north-west, was once a people smuggler's paradise. |
35,837,743 | Adrian Ismay, 52, was seriously hurt after a booby-trap device exploded under his van in Belfast on 4 March.
The police said that a post-mortem examination showed he died as a "direct result of the injuries" of the bomb.
Police have launched a murder inquiry into Mr Ismay's death.
Ian Simpson, from the Prison Service Benevolent Fund, said the family had been left "devastated" by his death.
"It's a very difficult time for Issy's family after the blast. We had helped him through the week, we expected that he would make a full recovery in time," he said.
"Tuesday's events were totally unexpected and totally devastated the family.
"The family have asked me to speak on their behalf to say that they have a big sorrow in their heart.
"A wonderful husband, a loving father, a friendly, gentle grandfather has been taken out of all of our lives, but particularly his family and that is going to be a massive hill for them to climb."
A dissident republican group, widely referred to as the new IRA, said it carried out the attack.
The organisation said Mr Ismay was targeted for training officers at Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn, County Antrim.
A man appeared in court on Saturday charged in connection with the bomb attack on Mr Ismay.
The PSNI have also repeated an appeal for information on two cars that police believe may have been used by the bombers - a red Citroen C3 and a silver Skoda Fabia. | The family of the prison officer who died 11 days after being injured in a dissident republican bomb attack have been left with a "big sorrow in their heart". |
32,620,332 | A 2km (1.2m) stretch of the River Ennig at Talgarth, near Brecon, was affected by the release of pesticide, killing other species.
But the crayfish deaths were a "particular concern" as the native white claw is already under threat.
The juvenile crayfish were raised at a Natural Resources Wales-run hatchery.
A further 1,000 juveniles are due to be released next year.
So far, more than 3,300 crayfish have been released in and around the River Wye, with future releases planned in selected areas in west Wales. | Nearly 600 juvenile crayfish have been released into a river in Powys after the deaths of others in a pollution incident in 2012. |
34,447,243 | The American Airlines flight landed safely when the co-pilot took over the controls and diverted the plane to Syracuse, New York.
The airline is "incredibly saddened" and focusing on the pilot's family and colleagues, a spokeswoman said.
Flight 550 left Phoenix before midnight on Sunday and landed on Monday morning.
The pilot appeared ill during the flight, prompting the diversion, said Michelle Mohr, the spokeswoman.
A new crew was sent to Syracuse to fly the passengers to Boston, where they arrived on Monday early afternoon.
There was never a question about whether the flight would be able to land safely, said Ms Mohr.
"We're certainly well qualified to handle situations like these," she said. "That's why you've got more than one pilot in a cockpit." | A pilot on an overnight flight from Phoenix to Boston had a medical emergency and died, the airline has confirmed. |
39,636,925 | Peaty, 22, who became Britain's first male Olympic swimming champion for 28 years in Rio, took the British 100m breaststroke title in 57.79 seconds.
"This is what I race for, to win and I'm pleased with that time," he told BBC Sport.
Peaty gave away his British gold medal to a young fan in the crowd.
"Hopefully that lad will look at the medal and it will make him think, 'If I train harder, I can be out there too' and then he'll be here competing one day," said the Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth champion.
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Ross Murdoch should also be at the Budapest World Championships in July after finishing second in one minute flat.
In addition to Peaty and Murdoch, Rio Olympians James Guy and Stephen Milne (400m freestyle), Hannah Miley and Aimee Willmott (400m individual medley) all recorded times which will put them in contention for selection for the Worlds.
Peaty says he now wants to chase "legendary" status and lower the world record of 57.13 he set at the Rio Olympics.
"Me and my coach [Mel Marshall] have set this target, it's called 'project 56' and that's the aim, to keep going quicker and winning every race."
Guy - who missed out on individual honours at Rio 2016, but won two silver medals as part of the men's relay teams - took the men's 400m freestyle title.
Fellow Olympians Chris Walker-Hebborn (50m backstroke) and Hannah Miley (400m individual medley) retained their respective crowns, while 17-year-old Imogen Clark claimed her first GB title with victory in the 50m breaststroke in a British record of 30.21 secs.
Defending 200m freestyle champion Jazz Carlin was a surprise third in an event won by Ellie Faulkner in a personal best time of one minute 57.88 secs.
Welsh swimmer Carlin - who won Rio Olympic silver medals in the 400m and 800m freestyle events - will return for the 800m competition on Wednesday. | Olympic champion Adam Peaty booked his place at the 2017 World Championships with victory at the British Championships in Sheffield. |
16,097,439 | To his opponents, he was an authoritarian strongman who rode roughshod over the country's democratic institutions in order to preserve his hold on power.
Mr Fujimori's decade in power from 1990 to 2000 was marked by a series of dramatic twists and turns.
One of the key moments of his presidency was the hostage siege by Marxist MRTA rebels at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in 1996-97.
After a four-month stand-off, commandos were sent in to take the building.
All 14 rebels were killed and nearly all the 72 hostages were rescued in an operation that at the time cemented Mr Fujimori's talking and acting tough.
But a bribery scandal involving former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos helped tarnish the president's reputation.
In November 2000, Mr Fujimori fled to his parents' native Japan, where he lived for five years in self-imposed exile.
In an effort to resurrect his political career and launch a new bid for the presidency, he flew to Chile in November 2005, only to be arrested at the request of the Peruvian authorities.
Mr Fujimori then spent two years fighting to block his extradition to face a series of charges, a battle he lost in September 2007.
He was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail in December 2007 on charges of abuse of power, over the removal of sensitive video and audio tapes from Mr Montesinos's home.
In April 2009, judges found him guilty of authorising death-squad killings in two incidents known as La Cantuta and Barrios Altos, and the kidnapping of a journalist and a businessman.
Mr Fujimori repeatedly denied the charges, saying they were politically motivated.
The 15-month trial and the divisions in public opinion it generated echoed the controversy that accompanied Mr Fujimori throughout his political career.
When he won the presidential elections in 1990, few Peruvians knew what to expect.
An agricultural engineer born of Japanese parents, Mr Fujimori was a political unknown until weeks before the vote.
He inherited a country on the verge of economic collapse and racked by political violence.
He implemented a radical programme of free-market reforms, removing subsidies, privatising state-owned companies and reducing the role of the state in almost all spheres of the economy.
Though this shock therapy brought great hardship for ordinary Peruvians, it ended rampant hyperinflation and paved the way for sustained economic growth in the second half of the 1990s.
Mr Fujimori also tackled the left-wing rebels whose 10-year insurgency had caused thousands of deaths. But he says he never approved a dirty war against the rebels.
In 1992, with the support of the military, the president dissolved the Peruvian congress and courts and seized dictatorial powers.
He justified the measure by arguing that the legislative and judiciary had been hindering the security forces in their fight against the rebels.
Opposition politicians said he was really seeking to escape any democratic checks on his power.
But he was soon vindicated in the eyes of most Peruvians by the capture of the leader of the main rebel group, the Shining Path.
In 1995, Mr Fujimori stood for re-election and won an overwhelming victory. Most voters cited his victories over left-wing insurgents and hyperinflation as the reason for giving him their support.
But a growing number of Peruvians began to voice concern that the methods used against the insurgency were also being employed against the president's democratic opponents.
His critics accused him of using the intelligence service led by Mr Montesinos to intimidate and spy on rivals.
They said he exerted unfair control on the media and the judiciary, and used government resources to support his own campaigns.
This criticism increased when he announced he was to stand for an unprecedented third successive term.
Although he won the May 2000 elections, amid further allegations of vote-rigging, the prized third term began the start of his downfall.
After the Montesinos scandal broke, the opposition gained control of Congress for the first time in eight years and dismissed Mr Fujimori on grounds of "moral incapacity". | To his supporters, Alberto Fujimori was the president who saved Peru from the twin evils of terrorism and economic collapse. |
27,575,204 | The SNP and Labour each won two of Scotland's six MEP seats, with one each for the Conservatives and UKIP.
The Liberal Democrats, who came sixth, lost their only European Parliament seat.
The final result was delayed until 12:30 to allow for counting in the Western Isles.
The 31 other local authorities had declared overnight, but the island authority does not count votes on a Sunday.
The result saw the SNP's Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith elected as MEPs, along with Labour's David Martin and Catherine Stihler, Ian Duncan of the Conservatives and David Coburn of UKIP.
UKIP - which won 27% of the votes in England - picked up 10.4% north of the border, enough to send lead candidate Mr Coburn to the European Parliament.
Mr Coburn told BBC Radio Scotland that UKIP had "done extremely well in Scotland" and was "certainly not a party of protest".
He added: "We are basically going to give something different. It is not going to be the same arguments you get from all the tired old parties. All of the Scottish parties agree with each other, more or less, it is a left-wing agenda and now we are going to see something different
"We are going to see a libertarian agenda which I will be pushing as hard as possible".
Mr Coburn said his aim as an MEP was to keep "Scottish business and Scottish people aware of some of the crazy things going on in Europe that will affect their businesses and their jobs".
When challenged by presenter Gary Robertson to name some specific examples, Mr Coburn replied: "Off the top of my head I can't think but there's so many of them".
By Brian TaylorPolitical editor, Scotland
Was it a tactical error by the SNP to target UKIP in the final days of campaigning?
Yes, say Labour and others. No, say SNP strategists. They needed to energise their vote and prevent Labour from overhauling the SNP. UKIP provided the conduit.
Does it tell us very much about the referendum? Not really. That will be fought on different terms, with different tactics, different issues - and a much bigger turnout.
The complicated proportional voting system meant that the SNP had to extend its share of the vote beyond one-third of the total in Scotland if it had any chance of keeping UKIP out.
But Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's party fell just short with 389,503 votes - a 28.9% share.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who is also the deputy leader of the SNP, admitted she was "disappointed" by the election of a UKIP MEP in Scotland.
But she added: "Our winning share of the vote in Scotland is higher than UKIP's winning share in England, it is higher than Labour's winning share in Wales, and I believe it is higher than the DUP's winning share in Northern Ireland.
"So this is a pretty spectacular success for the SNP. We are seven years into government and yet we are comfortably winning an election and maintaining the share of the vote we got five years ago. That is a big vote of confidence".
The Green Party had also hoped to pick up its first seat and block UKIP, but ended with 108,305 votes (8%).
Green co-leader Patrick Harvie, said: "We have strengthened our position as the torch-bearer for radical ideas in Scottish politics, and are in the process of replacing the Liberal Democrats as Scotland's fourth major party."
Labour saw its vote increase by five points to 25.9% with 348,219 votes, keeping its two MEPs, while the Conservatives held on to their single seat with 231,330 votes (17.2%).
Re-elected Labour MEP David Martin accused Mr Salmond of allowing UKIP in by polarising the debate in Scotland.
He said: "I'd like to suggest to David Coburn that the first thing he does when he sits down and recovers from the campaign is write a letter to Alex Salmond because there is no doubt in my mind that Alex Salmond's decision to polarise the campaign, the Scottish debate, between two extremes is why David Coburn is with us today as a member of the European Parliament".
Tory MEP Ian Duncan, who takes over from the retired Struan Stevenson, said his party's vote was the highest it had been for 25 years.
He said: "We've bucked the national trend and it is a reminder that we have much to offer the people of Scotland.
"People are concerned about Europe and they want change. They want change to make Europe work for them, not against them, and I believe we have harnessed that concern and that feeling in a very simple way.
The Liberal Democrats won just 95,319 votes (7.1%) and lost their only MEP in Scotland while being beaten to sixth place behind the Greens.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: "We continue to pay the price for being in coalition and for the decisions we have taken in government. I get that.
"In this election, we put forward a positive case which was unashamedly pro European. Despite our defeat I am proud of that."
Turnout in Scotland was 33.5% - which was an improvement on 2009 when only about 28.5% of the electorate voted.
Across Scotland, turnout peaked at 43.1% in East Renfrewshire and 41.6% in Edinburgh. It was lowest in North Lanarkshire at 28.1%. | UKIP has won its first Scottish seat in the European election, it has been confirmed, while the SNP took the largest share of the vote. |
35,415,063 | It follows an emergency meeting between Lowland League club East Kilbride and the Scottish Football Association.
A new venue was required after Hamilton Academical said they were unable to host the game on Sunday 7 February.
East Kilbride had been told their K Park, which has a 500 capacity, was not suitable for the tie.
The SFA initially said that it should be played at Hamilton's New Douglas Park, which has a capacity of 6,000, as it was the closest suitable stadium.
However, it was East Kilbride's seventh choice of venue in an order of preference submitted to the governing body and Accies then announced that they were not willing to alter a schedule of community events planned for that weekend.
The home of League One club Airdrieonians has a capacity of 10,200, while the tie will be broadcast live on BBC Scotland.
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East Kilbride chairman Mark Horner said: "We've been in talks with various stadiums all day and put forward the Excelsior as the best, nearest and most suitable stadium to host the game against Celtic and we are delighted the SFA have agreed.
"The stadium is modern, a great size and the surface is similar to K Park which [manager] Billy [Ogilvie] and the players are delighted about.
"The stadium also has great disabled access, which is another plus point as we are planning to take hundreds of children from East Kilbride with ASN (Additional Support Needs) to the game.
"We are all really look forward to what will be a great occasion for the club and the town." | Airdrieonians' Excelsior Stadium has been chosen to host the Scottish Cup fifth-round tie between East Kilbride and Celtic. |
22,365,832 | Online poker was legalised in the state in February. And states across the US, probably starting with New Jersey and Delaware, look likely to follow suit.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board has issued a 30-day licence to allow websites to compete for customers, with UltimatePoker.com the first to go live.
Online gambling is expected to generate billions of dollars for US authorities.
Each year an estimated 10 million Americans play online poker, but the sites are currently based offshore, meaning state and federal authorities make no money from them.
Internet gambling was banned by Congress in 2006, but states across the US now hope to relax the rules.
Under the terms of the Nevada licence, players must be at least 21 years old and residents of the state. Initially, only online poker will be played.
UltimatePoker is a subsidiary of Station Casinos, which operates 16 casinos across Las Vegas.
US group Stop Predatory Gambling has said the alliance between government and the gambling industry is "actively encouraging people to lose money".
The UK is often cited as a leader in gambling regulation. Online sites are required to verify identities and link and provide support to help services for addicts.
Butt there has been a big increase in the number gambling addicts in the UK, where online betting is a £2bn industry.
In 2010, research from the Gambling Commission estimated there were 450,000 problem gamblers in the UK, with an average debt of £17,500, 200,000 more than in 2007.
Microgaming Software Systems, based in the Isle of Man, created the world's first online casino 20 years ago. | Nevada has become the first US state to allow residents to play poker online for money. |
35,876,460 | The attack on Iraqi forces was said to have been carried out by a militant named as "Abu Musa al-Britani".
The Awan family, from Huddersfield, claim a photograph of al-Britani, released by the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, was Mohammed Rizwan Awan.
IS claim that 30 people died in the attack, a figure denied by the Iraqi military.
Awan, 27, is understood to have attacked the convoy after it had left Ain al-Assad military air base and was heading towards Kubaysah in the north-west of Anbar province.
The Iraqi authorities said only the bomber was killed.
According to BBC Look North's community correspondent Sabbiyah Perrvez, who spoke to Awan's family, they recognised the photograph instantly and said they "knew in their hearts" it was him.
He had left the UK in 2015 ostensibly to visit Mecca, but his family have not heard from him since.
Letters found at his home said he did not plan to return to the UK and intended to settle in Saudi Arabia, the family said.
His identity has not been confirmed by the British Government or Iraqi officials.
If al-Britani is confirmed to be Awan, he will be the latest suicide bomber to have come from West Yorkshire.
In 2015, Talha Asmal, 17, from Dewsbury, was one of four suicide bombers who carried out attacks near an oil refinery south of Baiji in Iraq.
All four of the men who carried out the 7 July bombings in London also had connections to the region. | A British family fear a suicide bomber responsible for an attack in Iraq on Monday was their missing son. |
37,837,274 | But there are few areas of crime, in my experience, where the police approach has changed so radically than in domestic abuse.
For me, it was always an area of crime that struck at the very heart of community safety - if you can't feel safe in your own home, where and when can you ever feel safe?
It was an area of huge complexity, where the response needed to be joined up and effective and it was a crime that affected so many people, not just the obvious victim, but the hidden victims too - children.
It was also an area that did not discriminate; anyone could be a victim and anyone could be a perpetrator.
So I jumped at the opportunity to make a television programme on a subject so close to my heart.
The focus of the documentary is on women as victims and survivors, but that is not to say that violence against men does not happen.
In a 40-minute documentary, it was impossible to cover every aspect of this complex and deeply personal crime.
Three remarkable women told me their stories in detail, and without their courage to appear on camera, the documentary would not have been possible.
I spoke to a perpetrator of domestic abuse who also chose to tell his story, without disclosing his identity.
He was undergoing a programme which sought to help him address his violent behaviour before the matter reached court. And I spoke to representatives from some of the agencies working directly with victims and perpetrators.
It is clear to me that while there has been huge progress, the journey of responding to domestic abuse is far from over. Official police figures show that more and more victims are coming forward.
There is now a domestic incident reported to the PSNI every 19 minutes.
Society and, importantly, professionals have learnt more about this phenomenon, and policy and laws have changed.
More and more victims are pointing to emotional abuse in the form of totally unreasonable and controlling behaviour by perpetrators, with some saying that the long term psychological effects of such abuse are as grave as physical assault.
However, unlike in England and Wales, the law in Northern Ireland has not yet specifically recognised coercive and controlling behaviour. The programme highlights other discrepancies in protections for victims here compared to other parts of the UK.
Much has been said about domestic abuse, but in my view there could never be enough said about a crime which has been hidden for generations, and the full extent of which we may never truly know.
I wanted to highlight that there are many avenues of help and support for those suffering domestic abuse, that our laws need to catch up with developments elsewhere, and finally that children need to know what healthy and appropriate relationships look like.
If this programme achieves nothing other than delivering these three messages, it will have been a success.
Gillespie investigates... Domestic Terror is on the BBC Iplayer | Thirty-two years of policing in Northern Ireland exposed me to all sorts of sensitive and challenging situations, including the most serious and violent of crimes. |
35,264,935 | Edward Archer, using a stolen gun, fired at least 11 shots at Jesse Hartnett in Philadelphia.
Despite being shot, Mr Hartnett left his vehicle and was able to return fire, striking the gunman three times.
Mr Archer was arrested within minutes and later confessed to police he did it for Islam, officers told reporters.
"He has confessed to committing this cowardly act in the name of Islam," Police Commissioner Richard Ross said, because he believes "police defend laws that are contrary to Islam".
The 30-year-old from Yeadon, Pennsylvania, told police he pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
But there is no evidence that he was working with anyone else, Mr Ross said.
Philadelphia court records show he was convicted of assault in March and was set to begin a prison term. He had also been convicted of forging documents in a nearby suburb.
Mr Archer's mother, Valerie Holliday, said he is mentally ill and had suffered multiple head injuries, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
"He's been acting kind of strange lately. He's been talking to himself . . . laughing and mumbling," she told the newspaper.
"He's been hearing voices in his head. We asked him to get medical help."
Ms Holliday also told the Inquirer that he had been a devout Muslim "for a long time".
After the shoot-out, Mr Hartnett screamed into his radio: "I'm shot, I'm bleeding heavily." He has serious injuries and requires surgery.
"His will to live undoubtedly saved his life," Mr Ross said. "This could have easily been a police funeral."
Mr Ross said Mr Archer's gun was a police firearm that was stolen in 2013.
The shooting happened on the day two men who came to the US as refugees were charged with supporting terrorism - in Texas and California.
A month ago, attacks in San Bernardino, California, left 14 people dead, carried out by a couple inspired by Islamic State. | A man who shot and wounded a policeman at point blank range as he sat in his patrol car was inspired by Islamic State militants, police said. |
35,631,775 | From their decks, the commodities that once made this Scottish city a centre of commerce are still visible - the grand granite buildings of Union Street, and the few remaining fisheries in a harbour dominated by fuel storage cylinders.
One of those is co-run by James Robertson. Founded in 1892 by James's ancestor, Joseph, the firm has been in family hands for four generations.
In the 1970s and 1980s, when the North Sea energy boom began to drive up costs for local businesses, and the Cod Wars led to restrictions on fishing quotas, Joseph Robertson Ltd had to adapt to survive.
"We used to fillet fish," Mr Robertson says, but limited expansion meant that soon became unprofitable.
"Now we process fish cakes and frozen breaded fish for some of the UK's largest supermarkets".
But it's the North Sea oil industry, which fuelled Aberdeen's economy for more than four decades, that is now facing a similar challenge - adapt or die.
And, unlike granite and fishing, which faded slowly over a couple of decades, the pace of the fall in the oil price - from $120 a barrel to around a quarter of that in less than two years - has taken almost everyone in the city by surprise.
Just a couple of years ago, house prices in "the energy capital of Europe" were rising faster than in London. And the energy sector was so strong, that the impact of the global recession of 2008 was hardly felt.
Prior to the collapse in the oil price, it was said that if you wanted a job in Aberdeen, you got one.
Now, it has one of the fastest-rising rates of unemployment in the UK. An estimated 65,000 oil and gas jobs have been lost since the downturn began in 2014, and the number rises on a weekly basis.
The redundancies are made all the worse by the fact that the cost of living in Aberdeen is still high, powered by the six figure salaries that were commonplace in the oil sector just a couple of years ago.
"Many people are living above their means," says Dave Simmers, who runs a food bank as part of Community Food Initiatives North East, which has handed out staples such as cereals, rice and frozen fish to some former oil high-fliers in the last few months.
"They are two or three wage slips away from a brick wall."
Nonetheless, almost everyone you meet in Aberdeen is convinced that oil will rebound, if not to the heady heights of $120 a barrel, then at least to a level where the North Sea operations can be profitable again (somewhere between $60 and $80 a barrel, depending on whom you ask).
When it does, argues Sir Ian Wood, Aberdeen will still have some advantages.
Sir Ian, a billionaire-turned-philanthropist who made his fortune in North Sea oil (the family business was once fishing) says that while reserves are depleting, the Aberdeen-based industry could be "exploiting a million barrels a day" for some time to come.
Plus, the fact that it's a "politically and economically stable" region, especially when compared with other oil hotspots such as West Africa, will work in the city's favour, he says.
Most significantly, multinational operators in the North Sea were forced to do more with less as the oil price plummeted.
"The good news is the costs have been reduced," says Sir Ian.
"Our operating cost base is down something like $15 a barrel. That's a huge reduction."
BBC World Service: Aberdeen - life after oil
Sir Ian Wood's plan to help Aberdeen prepare for oil running out
How has the oil price fall hit Scotland's north east?
But the future of Aberdeen's association with oil does not necessarily depend on how quickly the platforms begin pumping again.
"Whatever happens to the oil industry," Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski, the vice-chancellor of Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University says, "there is going to be some aspects of it that will remain very important here for a long time to come - decommissioning being an obvious example."
For the university, which offers a plethora of postgraduate energy degrees (and still has one of the highest graduate employment rates in the country), expertise may become more important than the black gold itself.
"Next to the UK, the largest number of people working in the oil industry in Europe are in France," Prof von Prondzynski adds.
"France has no oil. If you look at Houston, it is still recognised by most people as the global centre of the oil industry, but there is no oil - only very minor amounts are left now.
"It's not necessary to actually have the natural resource there."
The woes of the oil industry have also had a positive effect on some local businesses, which found it hard to compete for labour when generous salaries were the norm.
"Prior to this we struggled to get people to come and work for us," says James Robertson, of fish processors Joseph Robertson.
"Our staff turnover was something like 30% a week - now it's around 5%. We've got access to some skills that we weren't able to access before."
Tourism is another beneficiary. Steve Harris, the chief executive of Visit Aberdeen, says it used to be "really hard for people to afford to come and get a hotel room" in the city, but "that's not the case anymore."
And those who do visit for something other than oil often do so to take in another treasure of the North Sea.
"It's a little known fact that Aberdeen is the best spot in Europe for dolphin watching," explains Steve, standing on the edge of the harbour, battered by the heavy hibernal winds.
"We got a bit obsessed by oil." | Off the coast of Aberdeen, a dozen oil supply ships sit idly, their crews waiting for word of work. |
39,580,308 | Concerns were raised after 17 schools in the capital were shut following a wall collapse at Oxgangs Primary in January last year.
Since then defects have been found at dozens of schools in 15 council areas.
While most of the buildings have now been repaired, work on six of them is still to be completed.
And fears have been voiced that there could be similar problems at other buildings constructed under public-private partnership (PPP) schemes like hospitals and care homes.
Problems first came to light when hundreds of bricks weighing a total of nine tonnes were blown from a wall at Oxgangs Primary School in Edinburgh during Storm Gertrude.
Ten primaries, five secondaries and two additional support needs schools - all built or refurbished as part of the same PPP scheme - were subsequently shut due to concerns over the standard of construction, affecting about 7,600 pupils.
A report into the Oxgangs collapse and wider Edinburgh issues identified problems with wall and header ties, which are used to hold exterior and interior walls together and attach them to the rest of the building.
BBC Scotland asked all of the country's local authorities if repair work involving wall ties or "significant structural issues" had been done at PPP schools, or others built under schemes such as non-profit distributing (NPD) or "design and build", in the past 18 months.
Relevant work was done at 72 schools in 15 local authority areas.
Adding in the 17 schools in Edinburgh, this totals 88 schools across Scotland - although 13 councils said they had not done intrusive surveys of the kind the Edinburgh schools report said was necessary to uncover problems.
And the figure may rise regardless, as Edinburgh City Council is still carrying out an estate-wide review and Highland Council did not respond to freedom of information requests.
Glasgow was the area where the most work had to be done, with 23 schools affected, including 22 built through PPP programmes and one under design-and-build. A council spokesman said all the schools surveyed were safe to occupy and the additional remedial work was carried out as a "precautionary measure".
Elsewhere, there were five in Aberdeenshire, four in Angus, five in Argyll and Bute, three in Dundee, four in East Lothian, two in Fife, three in Inverclyde, one in North Lanarkshire, 10 in South Lanarkshire, three in Stirling and three in West Lothian.
Clackmannanshire Council said it had carried repairs on two schools, but added that these were different to the structural defects identified in the Edinburgh schools.
Prof Alan Dunlop, a fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and a visiting professor at Robert Gordon University, said the potential scale of the issue was "frightening".
He said: "The PPP financing process was not only used for schools, it was also used for hospitals and a number of public buildings, care homes, things like that. I'm wondering, if they found a similar problem in schools, are other things happening in other building type that have been used and building under PPP?
"And this is focusing primarily on wall ties and header ties - are there other elements of the building's structure that are actually at fault? I find it difficult to believe it could only rest with wall ties and header ties.
"We have to review and re-think how we build these buildings, especially for our children.
"The only way we found out about Oxgangs was because the wall collapsed. If the wall hasn't collapsed, we would never have been any the wiser - so we need intrusive surveys to find out just what on earth is going on."
Ian Honeyman from the Scottish Building Federation agreed that there were "big implications" for the building industry.
He said: "The fundamental point that has to be addressed is that people have to have confidence in the buildings that are being produced, and also be confident that people are safe when they're living or working in them.
"I don't think it's something that can be tackled by one individual company or one individual organisation - I think it has to be done by a combination of all organisations and people involved in the construction industry to look at the fundamental things that have gone wrong here, and look at how we can address it as an industry rather than as individuals."
Mr Honeyman said the way work was signed off might need to be looked at.
He said: "The system itself in terms of the certification process requires ultimately one person to sign off a piece of paper called a completion certificate.
"Unfortunately there's not one person involved in the whole project who is actually in a position that can do that, because it's a combination of everybody - not one person can be on the site 24/7, see every piece of brick or steel or whatever else is put up, you can only be there so often.
"There are systems in place that are supposed to pick up these issues going through - but that relies on everyone in the chain to do what's expected of them. And when things get missed, that can have an impact further down the chain, and ultimately I think that's part of what's happened here.
"I think the whole industry has to look at the system and manage the system better than we have, as it's indicated at the moment."
Scotland's Education Secretary John Swinney told the Good Morning Scotland programme that since the establishment of the Scottish Futures Trust in 2007, the construction methods used to build schools had changed and that no school built since then had suffered the defects associated with the previous system.
He said: "These schools were built under a brick and block system. We now use a steel framing system, which is much more individually configured to individual schools and the Edinburgh example - where 17 schools were taken forward as a batch purchase by the City of Edinburgh Council - that no longer happens.
"We now do individual design, based on the steel framing system, to customise schools for the needs of individual localities and to give us much greater control over that construction process."
Mr Swinney acknowledged that ministers were unaware how many schools in total were affected by the issues that shut Oxgangs, adding that the responsibility lay with local councils.
He added: "Local authorities must be able to undertake the necessary technical changes and technical certification that is their statutory legal obligation to undertake and that's what I look to local authorities to undertake on behalf of parents the length and breadth of the country."
The Scottish Futures Trust is the arms-length company set up by the Scottish government to "deliver value for money across public sector infrastructure investment" and oversee contracts like PPP and NPD.
It wrote to local authorities and public bodies highlighting the Edinburgh inquiry report so each council could review its approach. The trust also noted the inquiry's recommendation that intrusive surveys were "the most reliable way of identifying similar issues which are not always clear from visual inspection alone".
A spokesman said: "We are now engaged as part of the Construction Procurement Review Team with Scottish government considering the recommendations of the report, in particular as they relate to procurement, supervision of construction and retention of as-built information with a view to producing updated guidance where considered necessary to reinforce the lessons which all engaged in the industry should take from the inquiry report." | At least 72 more schools in Scotland were found to have similar defects to Edinburgh schools judged to be unsafe, a BBC investigation has found. |
38,036,584 | Rochdale had won their last three matches in all competitions - including back-to-back 4-0 victories - but striker Nouble struck after the break before Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Mark Byrne wrapped up the three points late on.
In a quiet first half Gillingham found the net in the 37th minute when Baily Cargill turned in Bradley Dack's free-kick, but his glancing header was ruled out for offside.
Justin Edinburgh's side could not be denied after the break as substitute Nouble's shot ricocheted into the net off Dale captain Callum Camps.
Cargill went close twice within a minute shortly after as Conrad Logan was at full stretch to tip his header round the post and from the resulting corner he had a second header cleared off the line by Steven Davies.
Matty Lund had a shot hooked off the line by Scott Wagstaff as Rochdale fought back but Gills put the game beyond doubt in the closing stages.
First, Emmanuel-Thomas latched onto substitute Byrne's through ball in the 89th minute before slotting under Conrad Logan, who was beaten again deep into injury-time when Byrne converted Rory Donnelly's brilliant cross.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Gillingham 3, Rochdale 0.
Second Half ends, Gillingham 3, Rochdale 0.
Mark Byrne (Gillingham) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Steve Davies (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Mark Byrne (Gillingham).
Corner, Gillingham. Conceded by Scott Tanser.
Rory Donnelly (Gillingham) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Callum Camps (Rochdale).
Goal! Gillingham 3, Rochdale 0. Mark Byrne (Gillingham) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Rory Donnelly.
Paul Konchesky (Gillingham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Joe Thompson (Rochdale).
Goal! Gillingham 2, Rochdale 0. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (Gillingham) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner.
Substitution, Gillingham. Rory Donnelly replaces Cody McDonald.
Frank Nouble (Gillingham) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Ian Henderson (Rochdale).
Foul by Frank Nouble (Gillingham).
Harrison McGahey (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Gillingham. Mark Byrne replaces Bradley Dack.
Attempt missed. Matthew Lund (Rochdale) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
Attempt missed. Matthew Lund (Rochdale) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left.
Corner, Rochdale. Conceded by Bradley Dack.
Attempt blocked. Joseph Rafferty (Rochdale) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.
Attempt blocked. Ian Henderson (Rochdale) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Foul by Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (Gillingham).
Callum Camps (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Frank Nouble (Gillingham) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Frank Nouble (Gillingham).
Callum Camps (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Rochdale. Sanmi Odelusi replaces Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.
Foul by Frank Nouble (Gillingham).
Joseph Rafferty (Rochdale) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt saved. Steve Davies (Rochdale) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Foul by Jake Hessenthaler (Gillingham).
Callum Camps (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (Gillingham) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is blocked.
Baily Cargill (Gillingham) hits the bar with a header from very close range.
Corner, Gillingham. Conceded by Conrad Logan.
Attempt saved. Baily Cargill (Gillingham) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Joseph Rafferty (Rochdale) is shown the yellow card.
Corner, Gillingham. Conceded by Joseph Rafferty. | Frank Nouble's first League One goal of the season helped propel Gillingham to victory over Rochdale at Priestfield Stadium. |
36,125,849 | Dutchman Poels, 28, prevailed in a sprint at the end of a gruelling 154-mile race held in wintry conditions.
Poels had to fend off a late challenge from Switzerland's Michael Albasini, with Portugal's Rui Costa in third.
"To be able to win the first 'Monument' for the team is really special," said Poels. "It's a huge win for the team."
The Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the oldest of cycling's 'Monument' one-day races, a group that includes the Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Giro di Lombardia.
Sunday's race marked its 102nd edition and provided Poels with the biggest win of his career
"It's unbelievable," he added on Team Sky's website. "I'm really happy and I still can't believe I won Liege-Bastogne-Liege. It's a really nice victory that's for sure.
"I think everyone was really tired from the cold, rain, snow and everything else the weather threw at us today. I did a good sprint and luckily it was enough."
Final result: Liege-Bastogne-Liege:
1. Wout Poels (Ned/Team Sky) 6:24:29"
2. Michael Albasini (Swi/Orica) Same time
3. Rui Costa (Por/Lampre)
4. Samuel Sanchez (Spa/BMC Racing) +4"
5. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus/Katusha) +9"
6. Romain Bardet (Fra/AG2R) +11"
7. Roman Kreuziger (Cze/Tinkoff) +12"
8. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa/ Katusha)
9. Bauke Mollema (Ned/Trek)
10. Diego Rosa (Ita/Astana)
Selected others:
16. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar)
44. Ben Swift (GB/Team Sky) +1:56"
112. Chris Froome (GB/Team Sky) +10:31" | Wout Poels triumphed in Sunday's Liege-Bastogne-Liege to secure a first victory for Team Sky in one of cycling's one-day Classics. |
35,145,102 | It will be led by senior figures from the PSNI, An Garda Síochána, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Service and the Irish Revenue Commissioners.
The initiative is part of the Fresh Start deal agreed in November.
The latest details were announced at a meeting of British, Irish and Stormont ministers in Dublin on Monday.
It was attended by Northern Ireland First and Deputy First Ministers Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, Stormont Justice Minister David Ford and the Republic of Ireland's justice minister, Frances Fitzgerald.
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers were also present.
The task force was described by Mr Robinson said as an "important milestone" in the agreement.
Mr McGuinness said it provided "renewed energy, focus and additional mechanisms" to tackle what he called the "scourge of criminality on our communities".
Ms Villiers said it showed there was a "concerted effort to tackle cross-jurisdictional organised crime".
"I welcome the establishment of this joint agency task force, which strongly reaffirms the commitment from the United Kingdom government, the Irish Government and Northern Ireland executive to doing all we can to crack down on criminality by paramilitaries and make it absolutely clear that in no circumstances will paramilitary activity be tolerated," she said.
The Fresh Start Agreement outlines plans that would bring together agencies like HM Revenue and Customs, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the National Crime Agency - the UK's equivalent of the FBI - with their equivalents in the Republic of Ireland.
The task force is expected to have a budget of about £50m.
Earlier on Monday, the British and Irish governments also met to discuss implementing last month's agreement.
Mr Flanagan said he and Ms Villiers "shared the deep disappointment" that Troubles legacy issues were not addressed in November.
He said finding a solution was of "paramount importance for victims and survivors" and for "underpinning peace and reconciliation across our islands".
Mr Flanagan added that both governments would continue to work towards establishing the new institutional framework for dealing with the past agreed in the agreement.
"In the meantime, contacts will continue with victims' groups and the political parties in Northern Ireland to discuss their concerns and explore possible ways forward," he said.
Last month, after 10 weeks of talks, the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland's two largest parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin, agreed a way forward on paramilitarism and welfare reform.
However, they failed to break the deadlock over legacy issues arising from Northern Ireland's Troubles. | A new joint task force to help tackle cross-border organised and paramilitary crime is due to have its first meeting next month. |
40,675,684 | Diana McCrea said there had been a "continuing, unacceptable number of slurry pollution incidents".
She made her comments in a detailed letter to Environment Secretary Lesley Griffiths, saying she was "increasingly concerned and more needed to be done".
The Welsh Government said it would work with the industry to find a solution.
Soil, fertiliser and slurry from farms as well as waste from industry can find its way into rivers, killing fish and their food sources.
Ms McCrea outlined efforts being undertaken by NRW, the environmental regulator, including the establishment of a working group involving farming unions and Welsh Water.
It comes after river and fishing groups criticised the regulator's record earlier this year, claiming agricultural pollution was "out of control".
Ms McCrea said there had been 679 slurry pollution cases reported since 1 January 2010, mostly from dairy farms, ranging from about 70 to 118 a year.
Cautions, prosecutions and serving notices were used in 15% of cases, which were the most serious.
She said there were good examples of the NRW and Welsh Government working well together but she was becoming "increasingly concerned that we may have lost sight of the necessary overview".
Ms McCrea, who will raise the issue at the Royal Welsh show on Monday, wants Ms Griffiths to prioritise the work of officials to help take improvements forward.
She has set out her thoughts on improving good practice on farms, inspecting slurry and silage stores while they are being built and regulating anaerobic digestion plants on farms.
Ms Griffiths is also being asked to look at allowing the use of civil sanctions to help tackle agricultural pollution, to bring Wales in line with England, but it needs the Welsh Government to pass the legislation.
A Welsh Government spokesman said Ms Griffiths would respond to the letter in due course.
He added: "Tackling agricultural pollution is crucial if we are to improve water quality in Wales.
"We look forward to working with natural resources, the farming industry and other respective parties to find a solution that works for all parties." | Efforts to tackle agricultural pollution are not being prioritised by the Welsh Government, the chairwoman of Natural Resources Wales has said. |
33,532,724 | In its first billing cycle, it collected 30.5m euros (£21m), compared with about 67m euros (£47m) that was due.
In April, the company sent bills to 1.7m households. Irish Water said 675,000 households had paid so far and it had received 46% of payments due.
Anti-water bill campaigners are claiming a victory.
But the company defended the rate of payments, calling it "a solid start".
Head of communications Elizabeth Arnett said: "Typically, in well-established UK water utilities, customers take an average of three months to pay a water bill.
"No reminders have been issued to our customers and yet we have a payment rate that is broadly in line with what would be expected for a new utility sending out a new bill for the first time.
"This represents a solid start for Irish Water".
However, those opposed to water charges have said that the figures represent a victory for them.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said it signalled to the Irish government in no uncertain terms that the majority of the people do not support water charges.
Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy said it represented "a massive victory for people power" and that a clear majority of people have sent a message that they will not pay these charges.
Householders who refuse to pay face fines. | Irish Water has confirmed that less than half of households billed for water had paid by the due date. |
38,940,457 | It was a first half to forget, with neither side managing a shot on target.
As the game opened up after the break Doolan nodded the home side ahead from close range, shortly after Danny Devine had been denied with a similar chance.
Then Doolan made it two with another header, this time getting to Callum Booth's cross.
With Ross County losing at home to St Johnstone, the result moved Thistle into sixth place, five points clear of Accies in the relegation play-off spot.
With six of their seven previous meetings having ended all square, the opening exchanges indicated another tight affair in prospect. Neither side created a clear-cut chance during the first quarter of this fixture.
Hamilton goalkeeper Gary Woods dealt with a cross from the right with a powerful punch clear, while Tomas Cerny at the other end only dirtied his gloves by fielding a headed pass-back from Devine.
This was Cerny's 200th appearance in Scottish football and by coincidence it came in a fixture between the two teams with whom he acquired that total.
Having never been on the losing side in fixtures between the two, he was keen to maintain that trend.
However, his goal was threatened five minutes before the interval when Michael Devlin sent a glancing header wide of his right-hand post after connecting with a Danny Redmond corner kick from the right.
They talk about "Firhill for thrills" but that phrase was furthest from the mind after the first half. While there was plenty of endeavour, there was no end product.
Early in the second half Eamonn Brophy got his head to a Redmond cross but it flew wide of the target.
Brophy got closer with his next effort. This time he got beyond Liam Lindsay before firing in a low shot, but Cerny was alert to the danger and stretched well to turn the effort round the post.
Thistle should have opened the scoring through Lindsay when he blasted over from four yards when Woods parried a Devine header into his path.
Midway through the second half the home side made the breakthrough. Substitutes Chris Erskine and Doolan combined as the latter rose at the back post to head home the former's cross from the left.
And Thistle doubled their lead when Booth's cross was perfect for Doolan to dispatch another header beyond the reach of Woods.
Thistle have now gone 11 games unbeaten against Accies, and while Alan Archibald's men rise up to the top half of the table, the visitors are left in the thick of a relegation battle.
Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald: "It was a massive game and a massive three points. There wasn't a lot of good football on show, I think because of the size of the game and what was at stake.
"It is a boost (being in the top six). We don't harp on about it too much, I think the last time it lasted three days. I said to the lads we've nine huge games before the split, lets win the home ones and see where it takes us, we've done that today and hopefully we can build on it."
Hamilton Academical manager Martin Canning: "We were probably the better team for parts of the first half. We forced Thistle into changing their shape. In the second half you can clear see we tired which was going to happen given how stretched the squad is. When you've got a squad our size and you've got seven or eight bodies out it's going to take its toll.
"It's still all to play for, it's still a tight league, but it's going to be a grind."
Match ends, Partick Thistle 2, Hamilton Academical 0.
Second Half ends, Partick Thistle 2, Hamilton Academical 0.
Corner, Hamilton Academical. Conceded by Danny Devine.
Attempt missed. Blair Adams (Hamilton Academical) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
Attempt missed. Giannis Skondras (Hamilton Academical) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right from a direct free kick.
Rakish Bingham (Hamilton Academical) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Danny Devine (Partick Thistle).
Foul by Chris Erskine (Partick Thistle).
Darian MacKinnon (Hamilton Academical) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Abdul Osman (Partick Thistle) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Darian MacKinnon (Hamilton Academical).
Steven Lawless (Partick Thistle) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Grant Gillespie (Hamilton Academical) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Steven Lawless (Partick Thistle).
Goal! Partick Thistle 2, Hamilton Academical 0. Kris Doolan (Partick Thistle) header from very close range to the top right corner. Assisted by Callum Booth.
Ryan Edwards (Partick Thistle) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Darian MacKinnon (Hamilton Academical).
Giannis Skondras (Hamilton Academical) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Ryan Edwards (Partick Thistle) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Giannis Skondras (Hamilton Academical).
Substitution, Hamilton Academical. Blair Adams replaces Eamonn Brophy.
Substitution, Hamilton Academical. Gramoz Kurtaj replaces Massimo Donati.
Foul by Liam Lindsay (Partick Thistle).
Eamonn Brophy (Hamilton Academical) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Steven Lawless (Partick Thistle).
Grant Gillespie (Hamilton Academical) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Goal! Partick Thistle 1, Hamilton Academical 0. Kris Doolan (Partick Thistle) header from very close range to the top right corner. Assisted by Chris Erskine.
Attempt missed. Liam Lindsay (Partick Thistle) right footed shot from very close range is too high.
Attempt saved. Danny Devine (Partick Thistle) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Substitution, Hamilton Academical. Grant Gillespie replaces Daniel Redmond.
Craig Watson (Hamilton Academical) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Kris Doolan (Partick Thistle) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Craig Watson (Hamilton Academical).
Michael Devlin (Hamilton Academical) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Abdul Osman (Partick Thistle) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Michael Devlin (Hamilton Academical).
Attempt saved. Chris Erskine (Partick Thistle) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Substitution, Partick Thistle. Chris Erskine replaces Adebayo Azeez.
Foul by Ryan Edwards (Partick Thistle).
Michael Devlin (Hamilton Academical) wins a free kick in the defensive half. | Kris Doolan came off the bench to score twice as Partick Thistle beat struggling Hamilton Academical to move into the Premiership's top six. |
37,924,127 | The Institute for Public Policy Research wants lower level apprenticeships replaced by a pre-apprenticeship programme addressing 16- to 18-year-olds' "distinct needs".
Its report comes as universities are awarded £4.5m to develop 5,200 degree level apprenticeships from September.
Ministers said "apprenticeships work".
Apprenticeships Minister Robert Halfon said apprenticeship programmes and traineeships were part of the government's strategy to ensure that people of all backgrounds and all ages "can get on the ladder of opportunity".
He said that the existing apprenticeship programme for 16- to 18-year olds would boost participants' earnings, "by up to £74,000 more over their lifetime, thanks to the skills they gain".
He also argued that degree apprenticeships would "give people a real chance to earn while you learn putting you on the fast-track to a top career".
Degree apprentice courses will include nursing, construction, cybersecurity, food manufacturing, health care science and early years teaching.
The IPPR report says level-two apprenticeships for younger learners "are often very job specific, do not include much off the job training, and from next year they will not be required to include a recognised qualification".
"These sort of training programmes may make sense for adults who are already in work and looking to 'top up' their skills - however, they are not sufficient to help young people with relatively low levels of education get a foot on the career ladder," it says.
The research suggests a pre-apprenticeship programme be designed to "address explicitly the distinct needs of younger learners", with more "off the job training" and general education.
It suggests pre-apprenticeships be offered by further education colleges only, targeted at young people under the age of 18 and explicitly designed to help them move on to a level-three apprenticeship at the age of 18 or 19.
The scheme would also offer employers a subsidy they could use to cover a youngster's wages.
Clare McNeil, IPPR associate director for work and families, said: "Young people often struggle to make the transition from education to work.
"Our apprenticeship system is failing too many young people. It is just not giving them the opportunity they need to build a successful career, and to make the most of their talents.
"Britain can't afford to waste young people's talents like this anymore.
"Our system needs to help business and training providers to work together to deliver radically better training for these young people, learning from the best systems around the world."
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: "The AoC has been calling for the introduction of a pre-apprenticeship offer for some time, so it's good to see other organisations pushing for the same idea, even if we probably need to debate the level at which that is delivered."
In March, the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission warned the government's apprenticeships drive was failing to deliver for young people in England. | Too many apprenticeships in England do not help teenagers start a career or progress to higher vocational education, research suggests. |
35,402,664 | The 24-year-old tighthead will join the Premiership side, who play their home games in Coventry, after seeing out the rest of the season in the Pro12.
Moore, who has won 10 Ireland caps and been part of the past two Six Nations triumphs, missed last autumn's 2015 World Cup through injury.
"I am excited about the challenge ahead in the Premiership," said Moore.
"However, up until the move I am fully committed to Leinster and I would like to thank everyone here as well as the Leinster fans for the support they have shown me."
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young and his coaching team have first-hand experience of Moore's talent, having faced them in the European Champions Cup this season.
"Marty has already proven his international pedigree with Ireland and, at only 24, he has plenty of years ahead of him to continue his development and become a top-class tight-head," said Young.
"We already have talented tight-heads at the club, but his addition will strengthen the depth we have in this key position."
Moore is Wasps' first signing for next season, although they have already announced that stand-off Alex Lozowski will join Saracens.
Wasps released Samoan international tighthead prop James Johnston earlier this month to allow him to join Worcester Warriors. | Wasps have signed Ireland international prop forward Marty Moore from Leinster for the 2016-17 campaign. |
35,131,396 | Analysis of the rogue code shows that it can decrypt scrambled data being sent through virtual private networks.
In a security advisory, the internet hardware maker said whoever wrote the code would be able to use it to spy on encrypted conversations.
Juniper has released patches to strip the code out of its firewall software and urged customers to apply them.
The code was found in Juniper's ScreenOS software with which many large firms using its hardware keep an eye on data traffic entering and exiting their networks.
Juniper's routers and network switches are widely used in ISPs and by many large corporates.
An internal code review revealed that ScreenOS was harbouring the unwanted passenger, said the firm. No information was given about where the code came from or how it found its way into the firewall's core software.
The range of products affected suggests that the extra software has been lurking inside different versions of ScreenOS since 2012.
Juniper added that it had no evidence that the loopholes the code opened were being actively exploited.
It said it took the matter "very seriously" and had quickly produced software patches to remove the rogue code.
"We strongly recommend that all customers update their systems and apply these patched releases as soon as possible," said Bob Worrall, Juniper's chief information officer.
In a separate notice, Juniper provided more details about what was possible if the unauthorised code was used. One section gives attackers remote administrative access to a device and would let them hide any evidence of tampering.
Another would let an attacker strip out the encryption many firms use to protect communications between staff. | Juniper Networks has issued a warning after discovering "unauthorised code" in its firewall software. |
28,233,883 | The 23-year-old Denmark international signed a three-year deal last summer after moving from Aalborg for an undisclosed fee, but he now moves back to the Superliga club for a season.
He made six substitute appearances for Villa, scoring once against Sheffield United in the FA Cup.
His agent revealed in May Helenius was not in Villa's plans for next season. | Aston Villa have loaned striker Nicklas Helenius back to Aalborg after a disappointing season. |
33,431,894 | Jeremy 'Jez' Prescott, 51, from Telford, Shropshire, was "doing something he loved" when he died, his family said.
A tribute said: "We are obviously devastated to lose Jez, who was both a beloved husband and father."
Two people died and two were treated in hospital after the strike on Sunday.
One has now been discharged.
A Royal Marines cadet instructor who tried to help on Corn Du described the scene as "something out of a movie".
Mr Prescott's family said: "He was doing something he loved in a place he loved and had said only 10 minutes before the incident happened that he was glad he was up on the mountain and that it was a lovely day.
"Jez was passionate about his work with young people for the Duke of Edinburgh Award (DoE), which he had done part-time for Telford and Wrekin Council since 2001."
In a statement, the council described him as a "dedicated individual" and said it is considering how it can pay tribute to his work with young people.
"It was in this role that Jez was a team leader for a DoE expedition on the Brecon Beacons when he was fatally struck by lightning in a sudden storm at a check point on the group's route.
A DoE spokesman said the organisation was "shocked and saddened" by the death.
It is believed all four casualties were men from England.
James Nunn, of the Windsor and Eton Sea Cadets, was training in the beacons when the lightning strikes happened and said it was like "something out of a movie".
He said the weather "turned very bad", adding: "As we were climbing up we heard the lightning strike the top of the mountain."
Four mountain rescue teams had been called to separate incidents at the summits of Corn Du and Cribyn on Sunday.
One person was treated at Swansea's Morriston Hospital for burns and the other, who has now been discharged, was treated at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil. | One of the two men who died after lightning strikes on the Brecon Beacons has been named as a Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition leader. |
39,738,302 | It was "morally reprehensible" for the car maker not to warn customers sooner, MPs on the Transport Select Committee said.
And Vauxhall was too slow in general to take action over the fires, which came to prominence in 2015, MPs said.
Vauxhall said there were "lessons to be learned" from the Zafira fires.
The fires started behind the glove box in the heating and ventilation system, and were a problem in Zafira B cars, which are still subject to a recall.
Vauxhall was "too slow to acknowledge drivers' concerns, too slow to begin an investigation, too slow to address the causes and too slow to alert drivers of real safety concerns. Drivers and their families were needlessly put at risk," committee chair Louise Ellman said.
The first report of a Zafira fire was noted by Vauxhall in 2009, and in 2014, internal concerns over a pattern in reports of fires were raised.
However, Vauxhall did not launch an investigation into the fires until August 2015. At that time Vauxhall logged 161 fires.
Analysis: Richard Westcott, BBC transport correspondent
Even Vauxhall admits it was lucky that no-one was seriously hurt or worse in one of these car fires.
The MPs suggest that the company put money and reputation ahead of safety when it came to fixing the problem. The report uses damning phrases like "morally reprehensible" and "reckless disregard for safety" when describing the company's sluggish response.
It's especially scathing about the fact that Vauxhall let people drive around in cars that had been recalled and "fixed", even when engineers knew they could still catch fire.
And there's a wider issue here. Right now, there's no system in place to help owners, insurance companies, garages and emergency services report common problems so they come to light more quickly.
The full scale of the Vauxhall fires didn't emerge until a Facebook group, the London Fire Brigade and then the BBC's Watchdog programme started noticing and then highlighting a pattern.
These MPs are also calling for new laws to prosecute car makers who fail to sort a safety issue. The current system just relies on the manufacturer doing everything voluntarily.
In October 2015 a Facebook page was launched for Zafira owners that had been affected by the fires, and the BBC covered the issue in Watchdog on 22 October. A complaint was made to the DVSA about that time.
Vauxhall launched the first recall in December 2015.
In February 2016 it was told about the first fire in a vehicle that had been recalled, but it did not launch its second recall until 19 May 2016.
The MPs were particularly scathing over Vauxhall's decision to let people continue to drive vehicles that had been recalled and returned to the owners when the manufacturer knew the Zafiras could still catch fire.
"Vauxhall's decision to continue to let people drive affected cars amounts to a reckless disregard for safety. This is particularly damning given its admission that it should have notified customers earlier," the MPs said in their report.
"In the absence of any explanation for its tardy response from the witnesses that appeared before us we can only conclude that commercial considerations and the need to avoid reputational damage were put ahead of safety; this is unacceptable and morally reprehensible," they added.
The committee said that it wasn't aware of any fatalities or serious injuries caused by the fires, but they were "serious enough to destroy an entire vehicle and cause damage to other property and buildings in the vicinity".
The MPs added that the regulator, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) should be given powers to prosecute car companies that don't comply with instructions.
Vauxhall said that "there are lessons to be learned from the cases of fire in Zafira B models" as to how it investigates fires.
It said it had altered its recall process "to ensure we complete recalls swiftly and minimise customer inconvenience".
However, it said that it had "made it clear to customers" during the first recall letters "how they should operate the heating and ventilation system to keep them safe".
It added that it had made "very good progress" with the second recall.
"As of today 183,172 vehicles have had the second recall carried out and we have been working closely with DVSA as we complete the process," the car maker said.
That figure represents 79.1% of the affected cars. Vauxhall said it was aiming for a rate of 85% given that a certain number of vehicles have been stolen, seriously damaged, scrapped, exported or "sold to trade".
Industry body the SMMT said that the vehicle recall process in the UK "is one of the most comprehensive and successful in the world". | Vauxhall showed "a reckless disregard for safety" in allowing customers to keep driving Zafira cars after a fire risk was identified, MPs have said. |
35,232,369 | Mike Johnston escaped injury in the rocket and gun attack, but said the trauma of being hit by an RPG missile stayed with him for many years.
He said he had "the greatest respect" for the professionalism and belief of the IRA members who tried to kill him.
He made the comments on the Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster.
No-one was killed in the initial attack, but Mr Johnston said there was a "minor gun battle that ensued, which lasted for 10 to 15 minutes".
The helicopter pilot said that when the rocket struck, as he landed in Crossmaglen, he initially thought it was an engine fault.
Bullets
"It was when the bullets started hitting the tail of the helicopter and making their way down towards the main cabin that we realised that we were under attack," he explained.
Mr Johnston talked down the notion of post-traumatic stress disorder in his case, adding: "I certainly know that if someone slams a door behind me I'm probably more reactionary to it than the majority of people".
As time passed, he decided to try to find the person who launched the missile and wrote to Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness for help.
"Along with my wife, I visited Stormont, we had a very interesting and long conversation with Martin McGuinness, whom I found to be very honest and sincere".
Mr Johnston says the deputy first minister told him he did not have "the connections to find the individuals were involved in the attack".
Ex-IRA man
The former pilot did meet an ex-IRA man in south Armagh, a man he calls "Mr Moran".
Mr Johnston says this was a "very rewarding experience".
"I think my conversation with him was very honest and very understanding from both points of view," he said.
The former pilot says he would still like to meet the IRA members who took part in the attack, but "they have never been prosecuted and exposing them to that risk really would be unfair".
"For the individuals that honestly believed that what they were doing was right I have the greatest respect for them," he says.
Looking to the future, Mr Johnston expresses his support for the peace process and the need for honesty.
"The problem is that if you give people guns they try to kill each other," he says. | A former RAF pilot shot down by the IRA in south Armagh in the 1970s has returned to try to find the person who fired the rocket. |
36,080,563 | Harry Greaves went missing on 7 April after he announced plans to spend his birthday on a solo mountain walk.
The Lucie Blackman Trust said it was using drones to scour the area around the village of Pisac.
Mr Greaves was reportedly seen heading towards the village, although the sighting is unconfirmed.
The 29-year-old, who is originally from Bronygarth near Oswestry, Shropshire, was expected to return on 10 April.
More on this story and others in Shropshire
His father, Simon, told BBC News he has been spending most of his time "by the telephone and computer" at home in the UK, waiting for news from family in Peru.
He described his son as "intelligent, idealistic, resourceful and resilient" but said family and friends were "deeply worried" about his disappearance.
"On a personal level I'm not sleeping very much or eating a great deal," he said.
"I spend most of the day by the telephone or at the computer. We're supported by lots of very special friends.
"People everywhere have been so supportive and they've sent us great love."
He said the trust has told him Russian helicopters might be deployed as part of the search, although that has not been confirmed.
Mr Greaves, a furniture maker who lives in Wrexham, arrived in Peru on 20 February, and attended a permaculture course before visiting friends.
He had emailed his family twice to tell them how much he was enjoying the visit.
Ellen Greaves said a yellow tent spotted on a mountainside was almost certainly not owned by her brother.
She said the British Embassy was now assisting, but called for a "more co-ordinated effort" from authorities.
"What we really need is for someone to be a central point of contact and co-ordinate the search and rescue," she said.
"So far it's been Harry's friends - they're doing an amazing job, but they're not experienced in this."
Relatives have set up a fundraising page to find Mr Greaves, which has raised more than £31,000, exceeding its original £25,000 target.
"He is an extremely genuine and caring person who acts from his heart and with pure integrity," his family wrote on the page. | A British tourist missing in Peru was seen by a local shortly after he was reported to have disappeared, a charity has said. |
35,493,485 | Alexander Bain was given the honour for his pioneering work in the transmission of images.
The inventor was born at Watten in Caithness in 1810 and died in poverty in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, in 1877.
The Emmys are a series of awards for television excellence - the equivalent of the Oscars in the film industry.
Bain's invention is said to be one of the fundamental principles of television.
The honour was awarded at the 67th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas in January.
During his lifetime, Bain's achievements included the invention of the electric clock and important contributions to the electric telegraph, but he is perhaps best known as the inventor of the fax machine, which he patented in 1843.
The invention, which came 33 years before the patent was given for the telephone, contained the fundamentals of what would become television.
It was the first time an image had been scanned from one location to another.
His invention was so advanced that it would be another 80 years before the breakthroughs which led to modern television's development.
East Dunbartonshire Council, which maintains Bain's gravestone in the Old Aisle Cemetery in Kirkintilloch, has been chosen as custodian of the Emmy award.
Council leader Rhondda Geekie said: "Arrangements are now being made to have the Emmy put on public display in the Auld Kirk Museum in Kirkintilloch so everyone can have the opportunity to see this prestigious award and learn more about the work of Alexander Bain.
"Bain's achievements have gone relatively unnoticed in the 138 years since his death and it is important that we play our part in helping to bring his innovative work to the attention of a new generation of budding young engineers and help inspire them."
The council said Kirkintilloch and District Society of Antiquaries played a "key role" in ensuring the Emmy was awarded to Bain.
The society's president, Dr Ivan Ruddock, said: "It is no exaggeration to state that he can be considered the father of television, and is consequently worthy of the recognition that the award of this Emmy represents." | An Emmy awarded to a Scottish inventor almost 140 years after his death has arrived in East Dunbartonshire. |
36,660,682 | The new 18-hole course on the shores of the Moray Firth will be laid out in partnership with the golf legend's Arnold Palmer Group.
Highland Council's south planning applications committee grant the project full planning permission.
Construction of the Palmer Tribute course could begin later this year.
Palmer, 85, visited Castle Stuart and the proposed site of the new course last year.
Castle Stuart hosts this year's Scottish Open from 7 to 10 July. | Councillors have approved plans for a second championship golf course, to be dedicated to US golfer Arnold Palmer, at Castle Stuart near Inverness. |
31,789,939 | The Think About Me: Good Care Guide is paying for more information about care homes to be added to an existing review website in an effort to boost feedback.
Negative reviews are sent to care homes for a response before both comments are posted online.
Some campaigners have given the nine-month trial a cautious welcome.
They say a "scores on the doors" system, similar to that used for food hygiene ratings, would be better.
Kelvin and Gail Morris, from Hengoed near Caerphilly, are part of the Justice for Jasmine group, set up following the collapse of the biggest ever investigation into alleged neglect at care homes, Operation Jasmine.
Mrs Morris says her aunt was left for hours on her own and neglected in a care home more than 10 years ago.
Referring to the new web service, she said good reviews on the site would need to be policed as much as bad reviews to prevent people from being misled.
"It can be abused, this system of 1 to 5 ratings - it's a good idea but I don't know if it'll work.
"Everything has to be checked and double checked before its going to be a complete success I think."
Mr Morris said the scheme has some merit, adding that he struggled to find information about care homes for his 92-year-old mother last year.
"You need to know about things like complaints, turnover of staff, what will they do to settle your mum or dad - none of these things you know until you go, see and talk to people to hear their verbal opinions," he said.
"It's a start, but I would advocate that a rating system should be mandatory for homes… you get a score on the door just like the food hygiene rating, which we've seen the improvement in restaurants that people will want to improve to attract people.
"If you see a low score on the door of a nursing home and your relative is in there, aren't you going to ask more questions?"
The project is funded by the Health Technology Challenge Wales Awards, a scheme which looks to technology to find solutions to health issues.
Other websites offer users the chance to review care homes, but the Good Care Guide site said it contacts care homes for their feedback too, and is happy to publish non-abusive negative reviews.
It has the support of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and some councils in the south east Wales area.
Tanya Strange, from the health board, said: "Residents and relatives will be able to leave feedback about the home and this will enable providers to respond quickly to that feedback.
"Lots of organisations with an interest in care homes have come together to develop this initiative where people can review care through the eyes of those living there and make informed decisions."
Health Minister Mark Drakeford is launching the guide with carer home providers and families at the Christchurch Centre, Newport, on Monday. | A scheme encouraging people to use a Trip Advisor-style website to improve care home standards is being launched in Newport. |
32,445,535 | He was talking after a strained meeting between eurozone finance ministers and Greek government officials in the Latvian capital of Riga.
Ministers are trying to agree a deal to help Greece meet its debt repayments.
It must repay its creditors nearly €1bn (£720m) next month, and is struggling to raise the money.
Earlier this week, the government asked its public sector bodies to hand over any reserve cash to help make the payment.
Athens is also keen to secure the next tranche of funds from its main creditors - the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - totalling €7.2bn.
"It was a very critical discussion," said Mr Dijsselbloem after the talks ended with little sign of progress.
"A comprehensive and detailed list of reforms is needed... and a comprehensive deal is necessary before any disbursement can take place.
"We are all aware that time is running out."
Similar frustrations were expressed by the European Commissioner for the euro, Valdis Dombrovskis.
"Progress in technical negotiations has not been sufficient to reach any conclusion during this Eurogroup here in Riga," he said.
Eurozone ministers are waiting for Athens to present a detailed package of economic reforms to improve the country's finances, which they have made a condition of further support.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis moved to calm fears that a deal may not be concluded quick enough by focusing on the positive.
"We agreed that an agreement will be difficult but it will happen and it will happen quickly because that is the only option we have," he said.
Earlier on Friday, before the Eurogroup meeting, Mr Varoufakis wrote a blog post saying Athens and its creditors "agree on much", namely that Greece's tax and pensions system, as well as its labour market, need fundamental reform. However, he said his government and its creditors did not agree on how best to implement this reform.
Greece's new left-wing government Syriza is in a difficult position - it is under intense pressure from its creditors to cut spending and raise tax revenues, but was voted in on a mandate to end the austerity measures imposed by the EU, the ECB and IMF.
Markets are concerned that if the government fails to come up with a package acceptable to its creditors, Greece may default on its debts and, ultimately, be forced to give up the euro.
Analysis: Andrew Walker, economics correspondent, BBC World Service
More deadlines loom for Greece. Back in February the aim was to have a set of economic policies agreed with its lenders by the end of April. There's little chance of that happening.
Then there is the end of the extension to the European part of the bailout at the end of June. Of course there have been missed deadlines in his saga before and European governments could always choose to give Greece more time.
There is a limit of course. At some stage the Greek government will run out of funds to pay its bills, unless it gets more help.
And the European Central Bank (ECB) could at some stage pull the plug on emergency support for the country's banks.
But then again, ECB officials have said a government default doesn't necessarily mean the banks are bust.
So the conclusion? This cloud of uncertainty will probably hang over Greece for a long time yet. | Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselboem has warned that "big, big problems" need to be solved before any Greece debt deal can be agreed. |
27,961,448 | US conglomerate GE is bidding $17bn (£10bn) for Alstom's energy business. The deal still needs regulators' and Alstom staff representatives' approval.
The French government agreed to support the deal, which will involve the state buying a 20% stake in Alstom, and other steps to protect French interests.
A rival offer from Siemens-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was rejected.
GE chief Jeff Immelt said the deal would be "good for France, GE and Alstom".
If approved, the deal is expected to be completed in 2015. Reports say it would be GE's largest ever industrial acquisition.
Under the deal, GE will sell its railway signal business to Alstom, and set up three joint ventures with the French company.
The joint ventures would cover Alstom's power grid business, renewable operations, and nuclear steam turbines.
Alstom employs about 18,000 people in France. The government had asked for assurances that French energy and transport interests and jobs would be safeguarded.
It plans to acquire a controlling stake in Alstom by buying shares from French group and main shareholder Bouygues.
However, the government wants to pay market price (28 euros per share) while Bouygues is demanding about 35 euros per share. | The board of French rail and energy group Alstom has unanimously voted to accept an offer from General Electric. |
39,810,288 | Sources close to the family said Michael Sandford, 21, of Surrey, landed at Heathrow Airport earlier, nearly five months into a year-long sentence.
He was arrested at an event in Las Vegas in the run-up to the US election.
Sandford, from Dorking, who has autism, admitted last year to being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
He also admitted disrupting an official function.
He suffers from a number of mental health problems and was diagnosed as having had a psychotic episode at the time of the incident, in June.
Sandford was released less than half-way through the sentence, despite fears Mr Trump might seek to intervene and keep him in jail for longer, or block his return to the UK.
His mother said he had been frequently put on suicide watch in prison and claimed Trump-supporting guards and inmates had been making his life a misery. | A man jailed for trying to grab a policeman's gun at a Donald Trump rally in an apparent assassination bid has returned to the UK. |
37,868,381 | The former technical director was found to have used "inappropriate and discriminatory language" towards cyclist Varnish in last week's ruling.
Varnish, 25, said Sutton told her to "go and have a baby", which he denied.
"I will produce the evidence," said 59-year-old Sutton. "Everything comes out in the dirty washing."
He added: "I am quite sure the evidence this time will prevail and I will win."
Australian Sutton resigned in April, having been suspended pending the investigation.
Former European team sprint champion Varnish said she was "relieved" by the ruling, while British Cycling expressed its "sincere regret".
Its report will inform the ongoing independent UK Sport review into the culture of British Cycling's world-class performance programme.
"I can categorically state I never made those comments I was originally alleged to have made," Sutton added.
"I'm pretty sure people will be sitting back going: 'Well, he's going to appeal' - which is going to happen now. I will take it from there." | Shane Sutton says he will contest British Cycling's finding that he used sexist language towards Jess Varnish and that "the evidence will prevail". |
36,827,769 | Hermann Hauser said he was "very sad" at news of the £24bn ($32bn) takeover which was announced on Monday morning.
The Cambridge-based firm designs microchips used in most smartphones, including Apple's and Samsung's.
ARM, which was founded in 1990, employs more than 3,000 people.
Mr Hauser called ARM Holdings his proudest achievement.
The man who helped spin ARM Holdings out from Acorn Computers in 1990 also said the technology firm had sold 15 billion microchips in 2015, which was more than US rival Intel had sold in its history.
Mr Hauser said ARM gave the UK "real strength".
He said it was a "British company that determined the next generation microprocessor architecture, that is going to be used in all the next generation phones and - more importantly - in the next generation of the internet of things".
The board of ARM is expected to recommend shareholders accept the Softbank offer - which represents a 43% premium on its closing market value on Friday of £16.8bn.
Shares in the UK technology firm ended the day 41.3% higher at £16.80 in London after rising as high as £17.42p a share, adding almost £7bn to ARM's market value.
Mr Hauser said the result of the Softbank deal meant the "determination of what comes next for technology will not be decided in Britain any more, but in Japan".
ARM said it would keep its headquarters in Cambridge and that it would at least double the number of its staff over the next five years.
Softbank is one of the world's biggest technology companies and is run by its founder, Japanese entrepreneur Masayoshi Son.
It has previously acquired Vodafone's Japanese operations and the US telecoms company Sprint. The $20bn deal was the biggest foreign acquisition by a Japanese firm at the time.
Softbank intends to preserve the UK tech firm's organisation, including its existing senior management structure and partnership-based business model, ARM said.
Mr Son, chairman and chief executive of Softbank, said: "This is one of the most important acquisitions we have ever made, and I expect ARM to be a key pillar of SoftBank's growth strategy."
It's hard to exaggerate just how important ARM is to the UK tech sector - and the shock many are feeling this morning at the news that it is about to lose its independence.
Its brilliance was to realise that if chips were about to come with everything, you didn't have to make them: designing them was the key.
Five years ago, Cambridge was home to at least three world-beating UK-owned technology firms: ARM, Autonomy and Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR).
Then Autonomy was swallowed up by HP in an ill-fated deal; last year the chipmaker Qualcomm bought CSR; and now ARM - the biggest and best - is about to have a Japanese owner.
In Softbank, ARM may well have found a good parent.
The Japanese firm bought France's Aldebaran robotics business and has gone on to give it a global profile.
But there will still be sadness in Cambridge, and beyond, that Britain's best hope of building a global technology giant now appears to have gone.
Prime Minister Theresa May said the Softbank deal showed the UK economy could be successful after the country voted to leave the European Union.
A spokeswoman said Mrs May believed the deal was in the country's national interest - a gauge that she will use to assess any future foreign takeovers.
"This is good news for British workers, it's good news for the British economy, it shows that, as the prime minister has been saying, we can make a success of leaving the EU," the spokeswoman added.
Dan Ridsdale, analyst at Edison Investment Research, said: "An increase in inbound merger and acquisition activity was one of the obvious consequences of Brexit and weakened sterling, but few expected it to manifest itself so quickly or at so large a scale." | The founder of ARM Holdings has told the BBC he believes its imminent sale to Japanese technology giant Softbank is "a sad day for technology in Britain". |
34,972,064 | The men, who are aged 53 and 34, are being questioned about dissident republican activity.
Mrs O'Hara was the mother of an INLA man who died in the 1981 hunger strike.
Dozens of people in paramilitary-style uniform attended the funeral last July.
The two men have been taken to Musgrave police station in Belfast for questioning. | Police investigating a series of offences committed at the wake and funeral of Peggy O'Hara in Londonderry have arrested two men in Strabane. |
40,846,295 | But only weeks after a diagnosis that threatened to shatter his world, the Englishman has made an astonishing recovery and is back playing.
Bussey, 24, was shocked as doctors decided to do tests on a lump in his throat when he had a viral infection.
"You hear the word and you think the worst," the loose forward, 24, told the BBC Radio 5 Live Rugby League podcast.
"At first, they didn't know what it was. Then after further tests, they confirmed it was cancerous.
"I didn't really take it as well as I could. I kind of bottled it up inside. I was scared.
"I couldn't comprehend what they were saying. I was thinking: Is my career over? Am I going to die?
"I was pretty scared at the time for my immediate future and my long-term future."
Bussey, who began his career with Featherstone and then moved to London Broncos before joining Toronto, had an operation in May to have the thyroid glands taken out, and surgeons told him the cancer had been removed.
A month later he was back playing rugby league, resuming his role as one of the Toronto's key players as they push for an history-making promotion from League One at the first attempt.
"I have to take drugs every day for the rest of my life. But I'd rather take the drugs than have the cancer," Bussey said.
When he was first diagnosed he kept his ordeal from his parents, his girlfriend and his team-mates.
"I only told my brother because I speak to him about everything," he said. "But I didn't want them to worry about me. It was to protect them. I was putting on a brave face for them.
"Then I finally broke down at one of our training sessions when I was talking to one of the physios.
"The boys and the coaching staff couldn't have been better. I keep them in the loop now because they are like family to me.
"The doctor who performed the surgery on me said it's very unlikely to happen to someone like me. It's normally the over-50s - and normally females over 50 - who contract something like this."
He now has a permanent reminder of his cancer scare - a 10cm scar across his neck as a result of the operation.
"It looks like somebody has tried to cut my throat," he said. "I've had a few comments on it. I actually don't mind it. At first I was trying to put oil on it every day to try to get the scar down, but now I'm bit proud to have it.
"Every time I look at it, I just think about what was in me and now its gone and I've battled it.
"Getting back on to the field just felt great."
It is likely that Bussey's eventful year will end in promotion to the Championship - one tier away from Super League.
The Canadians - rugby league's first transatlantic side - have only lost once this season in League One. Last weekend's 68-0 win at Workington put them three points clear at the top with only five games remaining.
Four of those matches will be at home at the Lamport Stadium in Toronto in an atmosphere described as 'unique' by Bussey.
"It's crazy," he said. "The matches themselves, I can't explain the experience, it's totally different.
"The crowd come in all the way through the game and afterwards they stay around. There's a DJ there, there's music going to get the crowd on their feet.
"They are getting used to the game now and they're picking up on what's good and what's bad and when there's a big hit they go crazy.
"I can only see it going forward in Canada. It's great." | Toronto Wolfpack rugby league forward Jack Bussey feared for his life after he was told he had thyroid cancer. |
28,054,500 | Edexcel will translate some responses because it was unable to recruit Welsh-speaking examiners in certain subjects.
But education campaign group Rhag said the move placed pupils studying in Welsh at a significant disadvantage.
Union UCAC said qualifications through Welsh should not be offered if the demands of delivering it are not met.
Edexcel said it had struggled to find Welsh-speaking examiners for its A-Level music technology and sport and active leisure principle learning qualification.
Instead it will have students' answers translated to English.
The exam board said the papers will be sent to a Welsh-speaking subject expert to confirm that the content has been fully translated.
Only then will the paper be marked in English, alongside the original script, with any translation queries referred back to the subject expert.
Edexcel told BBC Wales that "in no individual paper are more than 9 learners affected".
But Ceri Owen, of Rhag, said the decision was "a scandal".
"Such a situation is completely unacceptable and places pupils studying through the medium of Welsh at a significant disadvantage," she said.
"They should have the same conditions as their contemporaries who study through the medium of English, where there is no interference in the original work.
"In such circumstances, the work being assessed isn't that of the pupil's but another person's interpretation of that said work, in a completely different language."
Rebecca Williams, of Welsh education union UCAC, said it was impossible to guarantee the translated text would capture the precise meaning pupils intended.
"If an exam board is unable to cope with the demands of offering a qualification in Welsh, then they should not be offering that qualification in the first place," she said.
A spokesperson for Edexcel said it was working to ensure every student is treated fairly.
"We always aim to recruit Welsh-speaking examiners where we have entries for assessment that are offered in Welsh. In the majority of cases we are able to do so," said the exam board official.
"However in the rare instances where we are not able to recruit Welsh-speaking examiners with the necessary subject and assessment experience, we undergo a four stage process, using a translation agency also used by the National Assembly for Wales." | An exam board has been criticised over plans to translate Welsh-speaking pupils' papers so they can be marked by examiners in English. |
39,513,190 | The Palestinians - aged 32, 42 and 55 - were hanged after being convicted by a court of treason and conspiring with foreign parties, a statement said.
They are believed to have been arrested between six months to a year ago.
The executions come as Hamas investigates last month's killing of a senior militant, Mazen Fuqaha. It has blamed Israel and local collaborators.
Human Rights Watch condemned Thursday's executions as "abhorrent" and warned Hamas that they projected "weakness, not strength".
"Hamas authorities will never achieve true security or stability through firing squads or by the gallows, but rather through respect for international norms and the rule of law," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the US-based group's Middle East director.
Israel occupied the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Middle East war. In 2005, it withdrew its troops and some 7,000 settlers.
In 2006, Hamas won Palestinian Legislative Council elections. It took control of Gaza the following year after a violent rift with the rival Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Since then, the Hamas-run authorities have carried out 22 executions, most recently in May 2016, and courts in Gaza have sentenced 106 people to death since then, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
Hamas also killed 23 people without trials during its 2014 war with Israel.
Hamas has offered no evidence that Israel was behind Fuqaha's death.
An Israeli court sentenced him to nine life terms in 2003 for directing suicide bombings, but he was freed along with more than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners in 2011 in exchange for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
On Wednesday, Hamas offered collaborators a week to turn themselves in and seek clemency, so long as they were not involved in the Fuqaha killing.
It also maintained restrictions at the territory's main crossing with Israel that were imposed after the killing, despite criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups. | Three men accused of collaborating with Israel have been executed in Gaza, the Hamas-run interior ministry says. |
38,149,406 | The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is calling on Mr Trump to "act strongly to squelch harassment".
They also urge Mr Trump to "reach out to the communities he's injured".
Last week Mr Trump repudiated the fringe "alt-right" group whose members celebrated his election win with Nazi salutes.
The SPLC has released two reports into the aftermath of the businessman's win.
Along with representatives of teachers' unions and other civil rights groups, the SPLC outlines how they say Mr Trump's rhetoric and actions have affected US society.
The SPLC has been monitoring social media and news reports, and an online form that they have created for Americans to self-report hateful incidents.
"Mr Trump should take responsibility for what's occurring, forcefully reject hate and bigotry," the organisation said.
In their report, Ten Days After, they report finding hundreds of cases of attacks against minorities - including instances of violence and intimidation - some of which they directly link to the surprise Trump victory on 8 November.
"An awful lot of these crimes are directly linked to the Trump campaign in the sense that graffiti was left or words were shouted that directly invoked Trump," Senior SPLC fellow Mark Potok told the BBC.
Multiple instances have been recorded of black people being told to move to the back of the bus, a seating arrangement which was required under Jim Crow-era segregation laws.
The words "Whites Only" and "Trump Nation" were painted on to a church with a large immigrant population and a gay man was pulled from his car and attacked by an assailant who used a slur to say "the president says we can kill all you", the report finds.
In their second report, titled After the Election, The Trump Effect they surveyed 10,000 educators, finding that 90% have seen their school's climate negatively impacted by what they call the "Trump effect".
"It's time for our president-elect to use his voice to effectively and unequivocally denounce these hateful acts that are done in his name," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
The report also finds that more than a quarter of the teachers observed incidents of bigotry and harassment "that can be directly traced to election rhetoric", including swastika graffiti, physical fights and threats of violence.
The SPLC has been very critical of Mr Trump's decision to appoint a right-wing media executive to the role of chief White House strategist.
The group accused Stephen Bannon of being "the main driver behind Breitbart [News] becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill". | A prominent US civil rights group says it has identified almost 900 incidents of harassment following Donald Trump's win in the US presidential election. |
11,934,251 | Nonsuch Palace - named because no other palace could equal it - was built for the Tudor king to celebrate the birth of his first legitimate son.
Construction of the site in Cuddington, near Epsom, Surrey, began in 1538 but it fell into disrepair in the 17th Century and nothing now remains.
Joris Hoefnagel's watercolour had been expected to fetch up to £1.2m.
Henry VIII wanted Nonsuch to outshine the great palaces built by his rival, King Francis I of France.
The parish church of Cuddington was flattened to make way for it, in a demonstration of Henry's new dominance as head of the Church of England.
It was still incomplete when Henry died in 1547 and fell into disrepair in the 1680s. By 1690 it was all but gone.
The 1568 watercolour is said by Christie's to be the earliest and most detailed depiction of the palace.
Benjamin Peronnet, head of Old Master and 19th Century drawings at Christie's, said it was the most important depiction of the palace.
"Not only is it one of the earliest British watercolours and a work of art of immense beauty, but it is also the most exact pictorial record of Henry VIII's great commission," he said.
"Nonsuch Palace stood for less than 150 years and there are only four contemporary depictions that are known to survive.
"Of these, the watercolour is the earliest, and the only one to show a true impression of the 'lost' palace." | A detailed depiction of Henry VIII's "lost" palace has failed to meet its reserve price at auction. |
34,121,309 | Industry body Oil & Gas UK said the Efficiency Task Force (ETF) would support the drive to maximise economic recovery from the UK Continental Shelf.
ETF will build on informal arrangements already in place between companies.
The move follows a steep decline in the price of oil which has more than halved over the past year.
The taskforce will focus on three themes - business process, standardisation and co-operation, culture and behaviours.
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, was hovering around $50 a barrel on Tuesday, having been well over $100 in September last year.
Stephen Marcos Jones, business development director at Oil and Gas UK, told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "We're certainly not looking at decommissioning specifically.
"We're taking a three-pronged approach, looking across three themes - cooperation, culture and behaviours, standardisation in the sector and business process - how that can be optimised."
He added: "The whole point of the taskforce is to bring forward all of these great initiatives that companies have already started and make them pan-industry initiatives because unless we can get these pan-industry initiatives working we're not going to see the efficiency gains that this industry needs to ensure a sustainable future."
Oil & Gas UK co-chairman John Pearson said the taskforce would "encourage cooperation and focus on initiatives that add real value for our sector - helping the UK to compete globally".
He added: "Tackling efficiency has been at the forefront of industry minds for some time - but has become more acute and urgent as the value of our end product has more than halved in the last year.
"We now need to step up, increase the effort and resource we're putting in, and get the job done as a united industry."
He added: "What's essential here is that we don't try to boil the ocean. We've put a lot of thought into where we can have most impact - and will be working with the industry to see these projects through.
"Only if industry works together can we achieve the major transformation in efficiency we need to see." | A taskforce is being launched in an effort to improve efficiency and collaboration in the oil and gas industry. |
40,259,569 | Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) is proposing to contract the National Grid to lay a cable from Caithness to Shetland to provide electricity for the islands.
This is instead of building a new power station. Diesel generators would be installed as back-up.
Shetland MSP Tavish Scott said the plan was bad news.
Energy regulator Ofgem is to consult the community during the summer.
Lib Dem MSP Mr Scott said: "This is a disastrous policy for Shetland and we must not accept this very bad decision.
"Our future energy needs will be dependent on a seabed cable. What happens when that breaks? We will then be reliant on a diesel generator. So much for security of supply."
Dale Cargill, SSEN's director of customer operations, said: "We are pleased to have reached this important milestone in securing the future of Shetland's electricity supply.
"Working closely with the energy regulator Ofgem, our priority throughout the tender process has been to find the optimum solution in terms of economics, efficiency and reliability to meet Shetland's long-term electricity needs." | Lerwick Power Station is set to close by 2021, with the loss of about 20 jobs. |
36,714,617 | The largest group are boys aged 16 and 17, coming from countries such as Afghanistan or Eritrea.
A refugee charity says many children are facing "serious shortages" in legal advice to help them make their case to stay.
The Home Office said it had increased funding to cover the costs of care and other support for unaccompanied minors.
Figures released to the BBC England data unit under the Freedom of Information Act reveal at least 104 councils were caring for more unaccompanied minors than they were in 2015.
There were at least 4,156 children seeking asylum without parents or guardians and cared for by 147 councils on 31 March 2016, compared with 2,569 the year before. The figure is likely to be higher as some councils did not have up to date figures and some would only say they had fewer than five such children.
The BBC's findings coincide with a report by the children's charity, Unicef, which has called on the government to do more to help unaccompanied children driven from their homes by conflict.
Unaccompanied minors made up about 8% of all asylum claims in the UK in 2015.
For more stories from the BBC England data unit follow our Pinterest board.
Bilal is 22 years old and is now a passionate Leicester City supporter. He arrived from Afghanistan as an unaccompanied child, aged 15. The police handed him over to social services in Warwickshire.
"Every single minute I was missing my family," Bilal said.
"I tried to make myself busy with football, games, making friends.
"My English family tried to make me happy. When I tried to cry, they'd take me to the playground or to football.
"Before I'd cry, I'd try to busy myself. It was not easy."
He was initially fostered by an English family, then moved to Leicester, where he went to secondary school, and he still lives in the city. He is in the process of applying to settle in the UK permanently.
Yet he urges other refugees to think carefully about the journey.
"We were in a small boat for 10 to 15 people," he recalled. "It took three or four hours to Greece. It was massive water. If someone was coming now I'd tell them 'stop, it's not easy'. So many people are dying."
Bilal said Leicester was now his home.
"If I go anywhere I say I'm from Leicester, originally from Afghanistan."
The data shows Kent County Council, which includes the Port of Dover, now cares for more than one in five of England's unaccompanied minors.
It is followed by Croydon, which is where the UK's asylum screening unit is based and where asylum seekers must present themselves if they have already reached the UK.
Others in the top 10 include Northamptonshire.
A spokesman for its county council said: "Geographically, it is often the first place that lorries stop to take a break after coming in from the ports and there are a large number of lorry stops, the M1, A45 and A43 as well as warehouses and logistics companies."
When a child claims asylum in the UK they become the legal responsibility of the local authority in which they are discovered. Local authorities receive funding from the Home Office to look after these children and they are usually either placed into foster care or "semi-independent living" situations.
Councils' responsibility to looked after children does not end when they turn 18.
In Northamptonshire, there were 147 children 17 and under seeking asylum. However it was also working with a further 94 care leavers aged up to 24.
A spokesman for Northamptonshire County Council said there was often a shortfall between the government grant it receives and the costs.
Judith Dennis, policy manager for the Refugee Council, said the UK received about 3% of asylum claims made by unaccompanied children in Europe.
"Around the world, more lone children than ever before have been forced to flee their countries," she said.
"These children arrive without their parents or guardians and have escaped countries where conflict, violence, or human rights abuses are rife.
"It's often a child's parents, not the child themselves, who take the decision that the situation is so dangerous that the child must be sent to safety."
Ms Dennis said there were "serious shortages" in the availability of legal advice for children trying to navigate the asylum system.
The largest group of unaccompanied children are 17-year-old boys. And some are not believed by the authorities to be as young as they claim.
Bristol City Council, for example, gave details of two "children" aged 18 and 19, who were being cared for while "appealing age assessments".
Ms Dennis said: "One of the biggest issues young people seeking asylum face on arrival in the UK is that they are usually unable to verify their date of birth with official documents. Most countries from which refugees come don't register births in the same way as in this country, although some will have documents that can help provide information about age.
"Refugees may have to travel on documents that do not belong to them or have been obtained fraudulently; this is accepted in international law in recognition that people may not be able to obtain passports or travel documents from a government from which they are escaping.
"Such documents are likely to have an adult's date of birth because children would not be allowed to travel alone."
The number of people displaced by conflict was at the highest level ever recorded, the UN refugee agency said. About one in every 113 people on the planet were refugees, asylum seekers or displaced, half of them under 18 years old.
Afghanistan and Eritrea, which has been criticised for human rights abuses, account for the largest numbers of unaccompanied children cared for across England.
There were 148 unaccompanied Syrian children in the care of local authorities. These were not part of the relocation scheme for vulnerable Syrians fleeing the civil war.
And there have been instances of lone children coming from Russia, North Korea and Cuba.
For an interactive map breaking down asylum-seeking children by country of origin click here.
Get the data here.
From 1 July 2016, councils were no longer expected to look after more unaccompanied asylum seeking or refugee children than 0.07% of the general child population in their area. If the figure was exceeded they are now to transfer a child to another local authority.
Experts on migration are waiting to see what the impact is of distributing children more evenly across the country.
Dr Nando Sigona, of the School of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham, said: "A better distribution of unaccompanied asylum seeking minors across local authorities may sound like a sensible idea - but if it really is will depend on what criteria will be applied to guide the redistribution."
And Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: "While we welcome the huge efforts being made to help the most vulnerable, it is also important that in so doing there is no encouragement of people traffickers to ply their squalid trade and young people to risk their lives to get to the UK in the belief that once here their future is assured."
Peter Oakford, Kent County Council's cabinet member for specialist children's services, said the authority faced "enormous pressures" on services, foster placements, accommodation and finances.
"We believe that any national dispersal scheme should be mandatory," he said.
"We urge all local authorities to accept their responsibilities under this new system. We urgently need to share the numbers fairly across all local authorities.
The Home Office said children's safety and welfare was "at the heart of every decision made".
"That is why we have substantially increased funding to local authorities who are responsible for supporting unaccompanied asylum seeking children," a spokesman said.
"We are keen to ensure that no local authority is asked to take more [children] than the local structures are able to cope with."
From 1 July 2016, the daily rates paid to councils went up from £95 to £114 for under 16s and from £71 to £91 for 16 and 17-year-olds. | The number of asylum seeking children in the care of English councils has risen 62% in a year. |
33,221,338 | Justice Secretary Michael Matheson blocked previous plans for a 300-inmate jail in Inverclyde five months ago.
The prison, which will be built close to the existing Cornton Vale facility, will house the most serious offenders.
Another five regional units will also be created to house 20 female prisoners each.
The regional units will offer help over drugs, alcohol and domestic abuse and will allow offenders to be held close to their families to make it easier for contact to be maintained.
The Scottish government said it also intended to promote the use of community-based alternatives to short-term prison sentences, including the restriction of liberty through the increased use of electronic monitoring.
Cornton Vale, which was built in 1975, has had a notorious history, being nicknamed "the vale of death" after 11 prisoners killed themselves there between 1995 and 2002.
The latest figures showed there were a total of 408 female prisoners in Scotland.
Of those, 226 were at Cornton Vale, 80 in Edinburgh, 48 at HMP Grampian and 54 in Greenock.
Despite attempts to improve conditions, ministers decided Cornton Vale would close after former Lord Advocate Dame Elish Angiolini's 2012 report said it was "not fit for purpose".
It can hold 307 women, but has frequently accommodated many more.
The previous justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, wanted to build a new jail in Inverclyde, but Mr Matheson dropped the plan, saying Scotland needed a new, radical approach for female offenders.
Mr Matheson said: "These are progressive proposals, they draw on the best available international evidence of what works, but they are tailored to specific circumstances here in Scotland.
"I've seen various justice policies labelled as 'soft' or 'tough' in recent years, but I think the time is right to move away from this kind of narrative - what we are doing here is taking a 'smart' approach, just as we've seen in our strategy for reducing youth offending which has proven so successful.
"What is important is doing the right thing for Scotland and our communities, based firmly on the evidence of what works in reducing reoffending. That is what we are implementing here."
He added: "What we need is a new approach. We need to continue to transform and improve services for women so that we can help them to break the cycle of reoffending.
"I believe that accommodating female offenders, where appropriate, in smaller units, close to their families, with targeted support to address the underlying issues such as alcohol, drugs, mental health or domestic abuse trauma is the way ahead."
The new approach has been backed by the Howard League for Penal Reform.
Its Scottish convener, John Scott QC, said: "The emphasis must be on preventing women from becoming caught up in the criminal justice system in the first place, diverting them at the point of arrest and prosecution wherever possible, and reducing the use of remand and short-term prison sentences.
"There must too be sustainable funding for community-based services and there are lessons to be learned from the success of work with young offenders and the reduction in numbers at Polmont.
"If we redouble our efforts and take a 'whole systems approach', there is no reason why the success in reducing the number of young people in custody cannot be replicated for women in custody in Scotland."
The 180 new prison places for women announced by the justice secretary are in addition to 50 which were part of the recently-opened HMP Grampian. | A new women's prison, catering for just 80 offenders, is to be built to replace Scotland's only female jail at Cornton Vale in Stirling. |
40,313,565 | Work began on Duxford aerodrome in 1917 during World War One, and in World War Two it became famous for its Battle of Britain and USAF connections.
It became derelict after the RAF closed it in 1961, before it reopened as a branch of the Imperial War Museum in 1976.
The Royal Flying Corps - renamed the Royal Air Force in 1918 - began work on Duxford in 1917.
The RAF was joined by the Women's Royal Air Force in 1918.
Artist Nick Ryan has now created DX17, the Cambridgeshire museum's first art installation, to tell the airfield's story.
Imperial War Museums' director-general Diane Lees said the "futuristic sound sculpture" tells the "personal stories of Duxford's past and present".
It includes a World War Two dogfight which was witnessed by WAAF Jean Mills, who watched as a plane crashed on her first day at RAF Duxford in 1941.
She was an aircraft spotter who later said the dogfight was the moment she realised her job "wasn't a great lark, it was quite a serious business".
Before then Duxford was one of the RAF's first operational fighter stations in the 1920s.
Thousands of spectators attended the 1937 Empire Air Day
In April 1943, the 78th Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Forces arrived - this aircraft was flown by the 78th's commanding officer Col John D Landers in 1945.
George "Grumpy" Unwin and his Alsatian Flash was a Duxford-based Battle of Britain pilot.
The miner's son was decorated for gallantry three times, retired as a Wing Commander and died in 2006 aged 93.
Duxford was later considered unsuitable for the next generation of Cold War supersonic jet fighters, and a decade after it was abandoned in 1961, the site was derelict.
But the base still had uses. The movie Battle of Britain was filmed there.
Actors Robert Shaw (second left) and Christopher Plummer (second right) took time out from shooting to talk to pilots Group Captain Bade (left) and Group Captain Peter Townsend (right) in May 1968.
In 1977, a year after the Imperial War Museum opened at Duxford, an airshow was held.
And since then a number of notable people have visited. The Duke of Cambridge came in 2015 to see a newly restored Supermarine Spitfire Mark I N3200.
Today the summer airshows attract thousands of visitors.
The contemporary art installation marking the aerodrome's 100th birthday is called DX17, named after the station's World War Two airfield identification code. | The moment a World War Two dogfight turned fatal is one of 100 stories being shared to mark the centenary of an RAF station. |
38,314,957 | The dates and venues for the games have been confirmed with the preliminary round match between Monaghan and Fermanagh on Saturday, 20 May.
There will also be two games on the opening weekend with the Donegal v Antrim quarter-final a day later.
This reduces the championship from 10 to nine weeks with the decider to be played on Sunday, 16 July.
Tyrone are defending champions and Mickey Harte's side will take on derby rivals Derry at Celtic Park on Sunday, 28 May. | The Ulster Senior Football Championship will begin on a Saturday for the first time next year. |
33,324,708 | Makkonen became known as the father of SMS after developing the idea of sending messages via mobile networks.
Despite the nickname, he was often quick to point out that he did not invent the technology single-handedly.
In 2012, he told BBC News - in an SMS interview - that he believed texting in some form would be around "forever".
Speaking on the 20th anniversary of the first text message, Makkonen said that he considered the development of SMS a joint effort and that it was Nokia who helped to popularise the service.
"The real launch of the service, as I see it, was when Nokia introduced the first phone that enabled easy writing of messages (Nokia 2010 in 1994)," he said.
Txt spk
He added that he did not use "txt spk" himself, though he pointed out that texting could be thought of as having had an impact on the development of language.
Jarmo Matilainen, managing director of Finnish telecoms group Finnet Association, had been working with Makkonen, himself a former managing director of Finnet Ltd, in recent years.
He described Makkonen as a "grand old man of the mobile industry".
"It's very sad. He was just going to retire and he should have had many years ahead," said Matilainen, who added that Makkonen's fascination with communications technology had been irrepressible.
"We liked to talk about SMS and that kind of thing, 3G and so on. He liked to talk about this all time," he said.
Although the use of SMS in the UK has begun to fall, it remains popular worldwide with trillions of texts sent every year. | Matti Makkonen, who helped to launch the worldwide sensation of texting, has died at the age of 63 after an illness. |
38,285,217 | The Three Million group is demanding assurances people will not be used as "bargaining chips".
Meanwhile, the think tank British Future wants a "fair" cut-off date for any settlement and citizenship changes.
The government says it wants to let the 2.8 million EU nationals stay in the UK, but member states must reciprocate.
The Three Million group delivered a letter to Downing Street on Monday, alongside 10 groups representing the 1.2 million UK citizens living in the EU.
It wants EU citizens living in the UK to be given permanent residence before Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty - getting Brexit negotiations with the EU under way - is triggered, which the government says will happen by the end of March.
"We are not bargaining chips," the letter reads. "We are people."
Speaking outside Downing Street, The Three Million's chairman Nicolas Hatton, a French former marketing worker who has lived in the UK for 21 years, warned Prime Minister Theresa May she would face a "bureaucratic nightmare" to register all the people unless she acted promptly.
The report by British Future, which describes itself as an "independent, non-partisan think tank", recommends the triggering of Article 50, as "a fair and legally watertight cut-off date", after which changes to the settlement and citizenship rights of other EU nationals "might apply".
It calls for the current EU permanent residence system to be converted into "indefinite leave to remain" status, which is already available to other migrants living in the UK.
But it also says the process should be streamlined and costs capped.
British Future's report says it is "morally wrong to use EEA (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) nationals in the UK as bargaining chips to secure the rights of UK nationals in Europe".
Labour MP Gisela Stuart, who was chairwoman of Vote Leave during the referendum campaign and chaired the British Future panel, which included a cross-party group of MPs, said: "Britain should make clear at the start of the Brexit negotiations that EU citizens already here before that date can stay.
"This would send a clear signal about the kind of country the UK will be after Brexit and the relationship we want with Europe."
Ms Stuart said EU nationals who have been in the UK for more than five years should have a fast-track process for acquiring UK citizenship.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's a question of who makes the first offer - then we can start these negotiations."
Ms Stuart added: "It must be right that people are free to plan their lives."
A government spokesman said: "The prime minster and other ministers have been absolutely clear that they want to protect the status of EU nationals already living here.
"The only circumstances in which that wouldn't be possible is if British citizens' rights in European member states were not protected in return." | European nationals in the UK and British citizens living in the EU must have a guarantee they can remain in place after Brexit, campaigners say. |
32,297,425 | Carwyn Scott-Howell, from the village of Talybont-on-Usk, near Brecon, fell 160ft (49m) after straying off the piste on Friday.
He was on holiday with his family in Flaine, 38 miles north west of Chamonix.
Investigations are continuing.
A family tribute said Carwyn was an "adorable, caring person".
Michel Ollagnon, police commander for the south-eastern town of Bonneville, said the family were making their last descent of the mountain when Carwyn's mother stopped to help his sister who had fallen.
It is thought he wandered off from the rest of the family who then lost sight of him.
"We don't know why, but he left the piste," said the commander.
"We don't know more - did he panic? Did he want to descend more quickly? That's all we know for the moment."
The police said a judicial inquiry was continuing into Carwyn's death, which is being treated as a tragic accident.
The police commander said formal procedures have been completed and Carwyn's family are able to return to Wales with his body.
The Foreign Office said it was providing consular assistance to the family.
Meanwhile, support is being offered to pupils at Carwyn's school, and a book of condolence has been opened at Brecon Cathedral. | The body of a seven-year-old boy who died after he fell on a skiing holiday in the French Alps has been released and is expected to be repatriated "soon", French Police say. |
35,271,975 | Stick 'Stuart Tomlinson fat chant' into a search engine and you'll find AFC Wimbledon supporters mercilessly taunting him with an "Any pie will do" sing-a-long during his time at Burton Albion.
Lord knows what they'd chant at him now as he dances his way to a wrestling ring wearing only a pair of boots and some pink polka dot trunks.
It turns out the former Crewe, Barrow, Port Vale and Burton keeper wasn't fat at all. Nicknamed 'The Tank', he had a torso chiselled out of granite, honed by hours in the gym. Another online video shows him bench-pressing 180kg. In flip-flops.
Tomlinson was so toned he did some modelling on the side and even adorned the cover of Men's Health magazine. It proved the launch-pad for a transformation that saw him swap the penalty box for a wrestling ring, and move from professional sportsman to sports entertainer inside a year.
The magazine cover was seen by a talent scout from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the world's largest professional wrestling promotion which has been home to the likes of Hulk Hogan, the Undertaker and the Rock.
"Most of the lads who I played with knew I was a wrestling fan, particularly at Port Vale," said Tomlinson. "When we were travelling, I was always talking about what I'd watched.
"Going into wrestling when I finished football was definitely something I thought about, but I never knew how to get involved. Luckily enough I was there when opportunities were being given, in the right place at the right time."
Tomlinson was still at Burton when he got invited to a WWE try-out, something he kept quiet because "in a changing room full of 20 or 30 lads you don't go running your mouth off".
He pitched up to his trial at the O2 Arena with no experience of what the WWE likes to call 'sports entertainment' - sport because the athleticism and risks involved are very real, entertainment because the characters are outlandish, the storylines soap-like and the results of matches predetermined.
Still, his football background gave Tomlinson the edge over thousands of others who applied for a shot at wrestling stardom - men twice his size, men who can perform a back-flip quicker than a hiccup, or have been wrestling independently at carnivals and in town halls.
"The try-out was tough, but luckily I'd been doing pre-season so my fitness level was high," he said. "Agility-wise, I was quite good, going against people who were bigger and heavier.
"Port Vale goalkeeping coach Mark Grew and Burton's Kevin Poole probably don't know how much they helped me - they'd had me doing fast feet, ladder drills and plyometrics every day for the previous couple of years."
Tomlinson went back to Burton, but had done enough to impress the WWE and stayed in touch for the next year.
In July 2013 he decided he no longer wanted to battle a knee injury and retired from football at the age of 28. Five months later, he signed a three-year deal with the WWE and moved to Orlando to join their developmental arm, NXT.
The Florida lifestyle was already a world away from diving around at Burton's Pirelli Stadium - "the sun is shining every day, I'm not on a pitch where it's raining and you've got fans calling me fat" - but his new training regime provided Tomlinson with another culture shock.
"A basic day at football would be train for an hour, maybe play a bit of five-a-side, have a laugh and a joke, then go home," said Tomlinson. "In a day, I would probably do two hours' work - an hour's training, an hour in the gym, then the rest would be free time.
"Now, a normal day would be wrestling for two or three hours - learning techniques, new moves, getting comfortable with what you're doing.
"You'd have a break for dinner, then do some weightlifting or power work for an hour or two, then we'd usually have a promo class for an hour."
For those unfamiliar with the theatre of pro wrestling, the promo is where the performer tells the crowd just how good he is. Think the braggadocio of a less controversial Tyson Fury, but solo in the middle of the ring, trying to tell a story to thousands of restless fans.
"Getting interviewed after a match stood me in good stead, especially when you're getting asked dodgy questions about losing 5-0 and it's all your fault," he said.
"You have to engage with the audience. If you are confident in your delivery, people will believe it."
His previous career not only helped Tomlinson with his oration, but gave him the confidence to put on a staged fight in front of packed arenas. After all, this is a man who played at Wembley, winning the FA Trophy with Barrow in 2010.
"I've not been fazed, maybe because I've played football in front of big crowds," said Tomlinson. "I've seen people try out in front of just their peers and they would struggle.
"I've always been fairly confident in my own ability to do something, ever since I was young. If you walk into something and you're not confident you will achieve, then you probably won't."
Confidence is what brings Tomlinson to his character, his alter-ego. He performs under the name Hugo Knox - a name chosen from a list of five he was given - in those polka dot trunks.
"Hugo Knox is a lively, high-energy and bubbly guy," he said. "On my way to the ring I'll be dancing my socks off, but when the bell goes then it's time to get down to it.
"Hugo Knox and I are the same person; he is a little bit more amplified. I'm myself, I'm not trying to be anybody else - it's just a little bit more turned up.
"The gear you wear in the ring is totally up to you. I went with the polka dots. Someone suggested toning it down, but there's no point training every day if you're going to cover it up. I want the smallest polka dot pants possible!"
Tomlinson speaks with the enthusiasm of a man who loves his new career, and appreciates the opportunity that a life outside football can offer.
"It's naive if someone thinks they are going to play football for the rest of their lives," he said. "Sometimes people get brainwashed in that whole football scene and a lot struggle to find work after they have been playing.
"People who make a career out of football are very lucky, but it was drummed into me from a young age by my mum and dad that it wasn't the be-all and end-all and I should always have other opportunities, to look outside the box."
The message got through. What began as a love for lifting weights in the gym led to the modelling, which in turn led to wrestling and ultimately, a new identity.
"I was a semi-decent footballer, respectable," he concluded. "I probably didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve, but I had good fun doing it.
"Within a year of training to be a wrestler, I have performed in front of thousands of people. I watched this year's Wrestlemania, where the crowd was 80,000, and I want to perform on those big stages.
"I would like to be remembered as one of the better wrestlers to come out of England. They might also say I was a footballer too." | As a goalkeeper, Stuart Tomlinson's size made him a regular target of abuse from opposition fans. |
39,646,987 | Giuseppi Roncari's body was discovered by officers in Blackburn Street, Salford at 19:20 BST on Monday.
Detectives said Mr Roncari, who was originally from Italy, had suffered injuries and his death is suspicious.
A post-mortem examination has taken place but the exact cause of death is not yet known.
Det Insp Andy Butterworth of GMP's Major Incident Team, said: "There is someone out there who knows what has happened to him but has not yet come forward." | A murder investigation has been launched after a 61-year-old man was found dead at a house in Greater Manchester. |
33,373,944 | Besti Cadwaladr, Hywel Dda and Cardiff and Vale boards did not manage within their allocated budgets for 2014/15.
Health Minister Mark Drakeford told AMs on Thursday they needed extra money to pay for some services and salaries.
All three must now draw up plans to recover the money.
Mr Drakeford said recovery of the money must be achieved in a way "which will not prejudice the continued provision of safe, sustainable and quality healthcare".
The remaining health boards - Powys, Aneurin Bevan, Cwm Taf and Abertawe - operated within their budgets for the financial year. | Three health boards overspent by a total of £50m last year, despite the Welsh government giving the NHS an additional £240m to deal with extra pressures. |
38,695,006 | But Peter Salovey thinks there is no better place to preach the gospel of empathy.
As president of Yale, he has direct access to the university's distinguished alumni. Some, such as Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman and Chinese billionaire Zhang Lei, are the very epitome of the so-called global elites against whom there has been somewhat of a populist backlash in the past year.
Prof Salovey comes to the World Economic Forum with a message.
He says the business leaders in Davos would do well to understand the ordinary men and women behind populist uprisings, such as the one in his own country, which culminated on Friday with the inauguration as President of such an unlikely candidate as Donald Trump.
"We live in a complex world, a world where our fellow citizens are telling us that they feel left out," says the convivial psychology professor.
Business leaders prepare to temper Trump
Davos coverage in full
In such times, he adds, reaching across cultural, political and economic divides is more important than ever, and Prof Salovey thinks he knows how to help Davos delegates do just that.
"How does one learn how to listen, how does one learn how to think critically, how does one learn how to communicate? And how does one learn to develop emotional intelligence, the ability to empathise with another person?"
The answer, he says, lies in education - in particular, the humanities.
To that end, the function room at the Belvedere Hotel in which Yale's annual reception is held features some rather novel exhibits, at least for a forum mostly dedicated to dealing with the immediate present.
In conjunction with the Smithsonian, delegates can explore some of the world's most endangered languages by watching interactive videos of their last remaining native speakers, or flick through an archive of pictures displaying ordinary Americans at work in factories and farms - taken for propaganda purposes at the behest of Franklin D Roosevelt, in order to highlight the success of his New Deal.
Perusing such artefacts, says Prof Salovey, can help the gathered Davos crowd grapple with complex problems such us: "What are the fundamental problems that humans have grappled with for millennia? What are ways in which we share a common humanity?"
He says people do feel that they have worked hard and paid their dues, and yet still they feel downwardly mobile. "That's not the American dream," he adds.
One person who understands the American dream all too well is Lonnie Bunch, the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which was opened to great fanfare by President Obama in Washington just a few months ago.
Since then, nearly a million people have wandered through its doors, and encountered one of America's darkest moments, in slavery, and one of its greatest strengths, in the huge contributions of African Americans to the country's cultural makeup.
"I think it is crucially important in the times we are living in to be able to give people a sense of hope and possibility, but to also help them understand that despite how bad you may think things are, they were once worse, and people struggled to improve, across racial lines," says Mr Bunch.
Addressing the assembled businessmen and women, he says: "You can't be a good businessman without understanding the societal issues that have shaped the moment you are in.
"Businessmen always forecast what they think is the next trend. Part of that comes from understanding the past.
"What we want is not only for people to understand the past but also to bring those skills of the humanities - critical thinking, nuance, ambiguity - to basically be able to be nimble, to wrestle with a variety of issues, not just have a single point of view."
However, Mr Bunch stresses, "change doesn't happen without struggle, without sacrifice."
Alluding to the incoming US administration, the historian says that it is "incumbent upon all who enter the museum to be an activist, to help make America better".
For his part, Prof Salovey is committed to defending the values of educational institutions such as Yale, not just as bastions of free expression, but also as havens for diversity.
"We believe that the most stimulating educational environment that we could create comes when we have a wonderful mix of the world on our campus," he says, in a thinly veiled broadside at Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric.
"We have policies on campus who support students called 'Dreamers', who came to the US as children, but perhaps their parents were not documented.
"We support DACA, the act that gives a status to people whose immigration status may be ambiguous, or undocumented."
Prof Salovey cites his own family heritage - his grandparents, he says, were uneducated immigrants and education lifted their children out of poverty.
This, he says, is the American value he most wants to protect.
"We want to educate the world," he emphasises.
"I'm not willing to give up on that, and I will advocate as vigorously as I know how, to continue that tradition in all of our institutions of higher learning." | The rarefied environs of a Davos cocktail party may not, at first, seem like the ideal place to teach people to understand those with whom they disagree. |
36,931,638 | The 62-year-old now faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.
Prosecutors say he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to award lucrative marketing rights to his country's World Cup qualifying matches to a Florida based company.
He was arrested in Guatemala in January and later extradited to the US.
He is among more than 40 individuals and entities from around the globe charged as part of a major corruption investigation at Fifa - the world governing body of world football.
Brayan Jimenez was head of the Guatemalan Football Federation (Fedefut) from 2010 until last year.
US prosecutors say he and former Fedefut Secretary-General Hector Trujillo took a "six-digit bribe" to sell the television rights to qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup.
Mr Trujillo was arrested in the US in 2015.
The US Department of Justice has said it asked for the arrests because the alleged offences were "agreed and prepared in the United States" and payments were also processed via American banks. | Brayan Jimenez, a former head of Guatemala's football federation, has pleaded guilty in a US court to racketeering and wire fraud. |
11,827,176 | On 1 October, the woman reported a sexual assault which she said happened near Ashbourne Road in Derby.
Following an extensive investigation, police confirmed the attack had never taken place.
Det Ch Insp Sam Slack from Derbyshire Police said all reports of rape or assault were thoroughly investigated by the force.
"It is always disappointing when a large amount of police time is wasted on reports such as this," said Det Ch Insp Slack.
"But this case should not deter anyone from reporting any type of offence immediately so that full inquiries can be made." | A 19-year-old woman has been cautioned for wasting police time after lying about being raped. |
35,985,332 | The Pilgrims were beaten 2-1 at St James Park, despite taking the lead and dominating for large parts of the game.
"Last Saturday was the hardest defeat that I've taken in my managerial career," he told BBC Radio Devon.
"To play in such a way and not be under any trouble and then one shot on target goes into the back of the net, that was hard to take."
The loss saw Argyle slip back out of League Two's automatic promotion places, but Adams says his side are still good enough to finish second or third, with leaders Northampton Town 16 points clear of the Pilgrims.
"We've put ourselves in a fantastic position," added the former Ross County manager, who took over at Home Park last summer.
"With six games to go we've got an opportunity of two automatic promotion places and that's the position we wanted to be in at the end of the season - in touching distance of that and we've been able to do it.
"We know how tough a league it is and squad-wise we're shorter than anybody else, and I think that we all knew that at stages in the season it would catch up on us.
"Performance-wise we've really done well recently, obviously against Exeter on Saturday we didn't get the rewards that we felt we deserved." | Plymouth Argyle boss Derek Adams says the club's defeat at rivals Exeter City was the worst of his managerial career. |
36,659,260 | Kitsch squiggles and merchandise made him a household name and millions of dollars.
Done's career has been a runaway success. Yet his life has taken as many twists and turns as the lines in one of his paintings.
"Everybody's life is filled with lots of hills and valleys," he says, "some valleys so deep you'd never imagine you'd fall into them."
Done is in the process of reshaping himself - attempting to forge a legacy as a serious artist after a troubled period in his life.
He lost millions of dollars in 2007 due to the actions of a rogue accountant; and then, in 2011, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"I'm better now than I ever was," he says, grinning beneath his silver-grey moustache at his gallery in Sydney.
"I've had prostate cancer, I've lost a rather large sum of money, but I'm still here."
Scattered around the gallery's backroom are a number of vivid, starry eyed paintings of the Harbour Bridge and Great Barrier Reef that have become Done's trademark. Most are rendered in colourful, childlike strokes that seem to reflect his optimism.
Throughout his career, Done faced rejection from the art establishment who criticised his work as shallow and populist.
The late acclaimed artist Brett Whiteley once famously scoffed: "I'd rather take methadone than Ken Done."
But in Done's twilight years, that back-handed attitude might finally be changing, not least because of his turnabout to tackle darker subjects.
Done's 2012 series Attack: Japanese Midget Submarines in Sydney Harbour, explores the 1942 Japanese assault on Australian waters. It earned him his first-ever serious praise from critics.
The previous year saw him create Portrait After Prostate Cancer, in which his disembodied bright yellow sickly head floats in a dark sky over a lurid red landscape.
This year, Done has three large exhibitions. Paintings from Antarctica, launched in the Ken Done Gallery this month; Great Barrier Reef, a solo exhibition of his reef paintings which opens in October at the Rockhampton Art Gallery.
In November, he is appearing as part of group exhibition, The Popular Pet Show, a showcase of artists with their pets, at the National Portrait Gallery where Done's contributions include paintings of him with his late dog, Spot.
After graduating from art school, Done found a job in the 60s as an ad man. He eventually moved to London, rising to become creative director of advertising agency J Walter Thompson.
Yet Done has always, above all, seen himself as an artist.
It was 1980, on his fortieth birthday, when Done held his first ever art exhibition.
Just three months later he opened his own gallery in The Rocks in Sydney.
His first T-shirt soon followed and business took off.
His fetchingly simple doodles, often of iconic Aussie settings, were printed on everything from sweaters to golf balls. Princess Diana was even photographed wearing a Ken Done sarong.
Within a decade the empire grew to include 15 shops, 150 staff, and, by the early 1990s, boasted an annual turnover of A$50m.
Today art colleges "don't even teach drawing, which I think is ridiculous," Done scoffs. "My track is much more old fashioned in the sense it involved drawing and discipline leading into painting."
"There is no need for any wall text in my gallery," he says. "You either like the painting or you don't."
Done is adamant he has had to overcome his own previous success in design to make his way as an artist. To pave the way, he started to strategically shrink his business in the mid-2000s to just one gallery and shop.
"The first thing that people saw in wide distribution might have been bed linen or a scarf - things I'd done as licensing arrangements, which I had spent a small amount of time doing but is widely seen by lots of people," he explains. "I think it's only now that people have understood and caught up with the paintings."
Life has taken a turn for the better too.
In 2011 Done's lawyers reached a settlement with the financial arm of Commonwealth Bank over his accountant's risky investments. He has also had his prostate removed - a medical procedure he believes that men should be able to talk about openly, in a similar way to breast cancer without shame or embarrassment.
Done continues to paint daily and hopes that at least a handful of his work will stand the test of time.
He may no longer be as rich as he once was; but he insists it does not matter.
Once a poor art student who counted pennies for every single sheet of paper, the most important thing is being able to "go into an art material shop and buy whatever I want.
"That's real success for me," Done says. | If you entered a typical suburban home in 1980s Australia, in all likelihood there would be a Ken Done print on the wall, a Done cover on the bed, or a Done swimsuit in the wash. |
40,362,754 | A judge ordered the exhumation as part of a new investigation into the cause of his death.
Carlos Saúl Facundo Menem, known in Argentina as Carlitos or Menem Jr, died when the helicopter he was flying crashed into high-voltage cables.
His mother Zulema Yoma said he was the victim of a terrorist attack.
She believes he was shot in the head and the body in his grave may have been swapped to hide evidence of a bullet wound. He was 26 when he died on 15 March 1995.
Forensic experts will carry out new DNA tests in the remains exhumed on Wednesday morning from the San Justo Islamic Cemetery in Buenos Aires province.
For many years, his father backed the official finding that the death was accidental.
But several years ago he accused the Lebanese Shia Islamist group, Hezbollah, of killing his son.
Mr Menem said the he could not have revealed the information before because it was a state secret.
Hezbollah was under investigation after prosecutors accused it of carrying out a deadly bomb attack in 1994 against a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires.
The bombing of the cultural centre run by the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association (Amia) in central Buenos Aires killed 85 people and injured many more.
Argentine courts blamed Iran for planning and financing the attack and its ally, Hezbollah, of carrying it out.
Tehran has always denied any involvement.
Mr Menem said his son's death was aimed at intimidating him to halt the investigation.
But he was formally accused of obstructing the investigations in a trial that opened two years ago. | The remains of the son of the former Argentine President, Carlos Menem, have been exhumed, 22 years after he died in a helicopter crash. |
12,643,261 | Last week a judge blocked construction of the Belo Monte dam, saying it did not meet environmental standards.
But a higher court on Thursday said there was no need for all conditions to be met in order for work to begin.
Critics say the project threatens wildlife and will make thousands of people homeless.
The Monte Belo dam is a cornerstone of President Dilma Rousseff's plan to upgrade Brazil's energy infrastructure.
Controversial plan
Licences still have to be granted for the actual building of the plant, but in January, Brazilian environment agency Ibama gave the go-ahead to clear land at the site.
The government says the dam is crucial for development and will create jobs, as well as provide electricity to 23 million homes.
The 11,000-megawatt dam would be the third biggest in the world - after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay.
It has long been a source of controversy, with bidding halted three times before the state-owned Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco was awarded the contract last year.
Celebrities such as the singer Sting and film director James Cameron have joined environmentalists in their campaign against the project.
They say the 6km (3.7 miles) dam will threaten the survival of a number of indigenous groups and could make some 50,000 people homeless, as 500 sq km (190 sq miles) of land would be flooded. | A court in Brazil has approved a controversial hydro-electric project in the Amazon rainforest, overturning an earlier ruling. |
13,362,676 | The Mid Fife and Glenrothes MSP won the five-year job in a ballot of Holyrood's 129 members.
Ms Marwick pledged to do her "very, very best" in the role.
Labour MSP Elaine Smith and Conservative MSP John Scott were elected as Holyrood's deputy presiding officers.
Out-going presiding officer Alex Fergusson said the election of Ms Marwick, a member of the party which will form the Scottish government, presented "fresh challenges".
Labour criticised the appointment, saying it gave "cause for concern".
Ms Marwick, 57, saw off a challenge from party colleague Christine Grahame and former Labour minister Hugh Henry.
The elections were held as Holyrood sat for the first time since the SNP's landslide win at the polls, last week.
Tricia Marwick was born on 5 November, 1953, in the Fife town of Glenrothes.
The miner's daughter worked as a public affairs officer for housing charity Shelter Scotland until her election, in 1999, as a list MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife.
She contested the Central Fife seat in subsequent elections, taking the constituency on the night of the SNP's historic win in 2007.
Ms Marwick, who has previously served as SNP business manager, won the new seat of Mid Fife and Glenrothes in the 2011 Holyrood election.
She has also served on Holyrood's management team, the corporate body.
In the second parliament, Ms Marwick brought forward a backbench bill to introduce the single transferable vote method of Proportional Representation voting for local council elections.
The move was rejected, but in reality was designed to flush out the Lib Dems, in coalition with Labour at the time, who favoured the move.
Ms Marwick was also convener of the Scottish Parliament's standards committee, but stood down in 2003, amid the fallout of a row involving former SNP MSP Dorothy-Grace Elder, who had made a complaint against her.
On her election as the Scottish Parliament's first female presiding officer in 2011, Ms Marwick said she would approach the job differently to her predecessors.
She said the different Holyrood factions must start being kinder to each other, adding: "We've had a lot of raucous behaviour - I will not tolerate that."
Ms Marwick insisted she would treat all parties equally, saying of the SNP leader: "I've stood up to Alex Salmond before.
"Alex and I have known each other for a very, very long time.
"Alex and I have been on opposing sides before - if necessary I would stand up to Alex Salmond as I would stand up to anybody else."
Ms Marwick also has an interest in animal welfare.
Brian Taylor's blog
Timeline: Post-election steps
Who are the MSPs?
The party will form Scotland's first majority administration, four years after it went into minority government following its victory in the 2007 election.
Paying tribute to her predecessor as presiding officer, Ms Marwick - who will resign from the SNP to take up the politically neutral post - told MSPs: "Alex was a class act and a difficult one to follow. I will do my very, very, best."
In an emotional acceptance speech, she added: "As presiding officer, I will be fair to all members. I will always act in the interests of the Scots parliament."
In his final speech as presiding officer, Mr Fergusson, who has returned to parliament as a Tory MSP, Mr Fergusson said each Scottish election had delivered a first for Holyrood - a coalition government in 1999, a "rainbow parliament" of seven parties in 2003, minority government in 2007 and, now, a likely majority administration.
Mr Fergusson, said: "The parliament itself seems to have taken this road of firsts to heart, electing a female member as presiding officer for the first time.
"Furthermore, it has also elected a member from the likely party of government for the first time and that in itself will present fresh challenges."
Mr Fergusson went on to say he could testify to Ms Marwick's "ability to put the interests of this parliament before the interests of any party within it."
In his pitch for presiding officer, Mr Henry, a former education and deputy justice minister, said he would not stand in the way of an independence referendum, which the SNP is staging in the second half of the parliamentary term.
Mr Henry was nominated for presiding officer by out-going Labour leader Iain Gray, and seconded by the Tories' Annabel Goldie.
His position came amid speculation that Nationalists would wield their majority to elect one of their own MSPs, because of fears that an opposition member could rule the referendum beyond the parliament's powers.
Labour business manager Paul Martin, said: "The appointment of the new presiding officer was a big challenge for the new majority government, and it has not got off to a good start.
"Labour wants to engage positively with it, but this appointment does not send out the right signal and is a cause for concern."
The election for first minister - with SNP leader Alex Salmond the only realistic candidate - is taking place at a later date.
Mr Gray and Miss Goldie have both announced they are standing down from their leadership roles in the autumn, while Tavish Scott earlier quit as Lib Dem leader with immediate effect. | SNP backbencher Tricia Marwick has been elected as the new presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, in the wake of her party's election win. |
32,383,809 | Aliaskhab Kebekov, head of the Caucasus Emirate, died with two other militants after special forces surrounded a house in Buynaksk, the Russian sources said.
Kebekov took charge of the militant group in March last year after the death of its founder, Doku Umarov.
The group was linked to al-Qaeda, but Kebekov did not support Islamic State.
The official Twitter feed of the emirate's Dagestan section - (@VDagestan_Arab) - also reported that Kebekov had been killed in a battle with Russian forces. However, there has been no official confirmation yet from the rebel command.
Kebekov was also known as Ali Abu Mukhammad al-Dagestani.
The Caucasus Emirate consists of militants fighting to set up an independent Islamic state in the North Caucasus. Islam is the dominant religion in Dagestan and neighbouring Chechnya.
Doku Umarov had claimed responsibility for major attacks in Russia and had been Russia's most-wanted man. Reports say he was poisoned in 2013. | Russian anti-terrorist officials say their forces have killed a North Caucasus jihadist leader in a shoot-out in the troubled republic of Dagestan. |
14,646,187 | Ex-senior policeman David Gilbertson has criticised a "disgraceful" absence of leadership and strategy.
Community leaders say they warned local police about the risk of violence at a meeting, hours before it began.
The Metropolitan Police admits officers were "overwhelmed", but insists the threat they faced was unparalleled.
Mr Gilbertson is a retired Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police who served as a senior officer in Haringey Borough, which includes Tottenham.
The violence in Tottenham was sparked by the death of local man Mark Duggan, who was shot by police on Thursday 4 August. His death is under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
His friends and family, angered by a lack of information from the police, marched to Tottenham police station on the afternoon of Saturday 6 August.
They remained outside for several hours, and frustration grew when no senior officer spoke to them. Violence erupted later that night, when a police car was set on fire, and shops were attacked and looted.
Having spoken to the police who were on the ground that day, Mr Gilbertson is very critical of the behaviour of their senior officers.
"There was a disgraceful absence of visible leadership, and that should be shaming for the Metropolitan Police," he told BBC Radio 4's The Report programme.
"With rank comes responsibility, and part of the responsibility is visible command. And secondly, there didn't appear to be a strategy [to deal with the demonstrators].
"It's blindingly obvious to say that you push them away from target-rich environments; a shopping area, a retail park, all of the places that were trashed by the rioters."
Local community leaders also insist the police should have been better prepared.
Ken Hinds is a local gang mediator, and family friend of Mark Duggan's girlfriend Simone Wilson. He attended a meeting with the police at lunchtime on Saturday 6 August and says he warned them explicitly about the risk.
"I told them the word on the street was that Mark was executed by the police, and the family was very upset.
"I also went on to say that if it wasn't handled sensitively, that we could possibly have another riot, another 1985."
That year saw riots around the Broadwater Farm area of Tottenham, after the death of Cynthia Jarrett, an African-Caribbean woman who died from a stroke during a police search of her home. The riots also claimed the life of PC Keith Blakelock.
Stafford Scott also took part in the protest outside the police station, and says he is astonished that senior officers did not make themselves visible.
He is especially critical of Haringey Borough Commander Sandra Looby who went on pre-planned leave on the Friday evening: "This is Tottenham. They [should] know that the following Saturday, we're taking to the streets and we're coming to the police station to demand answers. That's what we've done historically.
"So how the borough commander decided to get on a plane on Friday and leave Tottenham, I do not understand. It beggars belief."
But in her first broadcast interview, Sandra Looby told The Report that the police received no specific warnings: "We were aware there may be a family or others wishing to come to the police station for a vigil.
"At no point did we receive information that this was going to turn into the spontaneous criminality that subsequently happened."
She rejects the criticism that her decision to go away on pre-arranged leave left the borough under-resourced, pointing out that she handed over control to an officer with a higher rank precisely because of the sensitivity of the situation.
"There was a comprehensive plan put in place for the management of the borough, and I honesty believed [that] actually the shooting was going to be a really long-term issue to manage.
"I provided my strategic plan to an officer more senior to me... and I handed over command to that senior officer at 7pm on the Friday."
She also rebuts the complaint that senior officers should have been out talking to the crowd outside the police station:
"I think once the family arrived at the police station - and they were there a long time - members of my staff tried to engage with the family through community leaders that were outside that police station.
"Obviously we have been unable to directly speak to the family through the IPCC arrangements, and that is very frustrating both for the officers that were there and I'm sure very frustrating for the family."
The Report is on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 25 August at 2000 BST.
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But Deborah Glass, deputy chair of the IPCC, contradicts this interpretation of the rules: "There is some misconception about what happens when the IPCC is involved in an investigation.
"We do have in fact a very clear protocol in place to make it clear that the police are not gagged when the IPCC is involved in an investigation."
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh from the Met acknowledges that mistakes were made on the day.
However, he argues the police wanted to avoid being accused of a disproportionately strong response to what began as a peaceful protest.
He backs Sandra Looby's insistence that they could not have prevented what happened: "We didn't have enough numbers there to protect the whole of Tottenham, and yes they became overwhelmed - we've admitted that.
"We've spoken to the chief inspector and the other officers, they have never witnessed such appalling levels of violence directed at them and their community.
"The scale and the speed of the violence, the way that car was lit, the way officers were identified very quickly, meant that life became the priority."
But former policeman David Gilbertson remains convinced that weak policing on that Saturday night led directly to the events across the country: "If you are the person who is in charge of a police operation and you're not being assertive, the message that you're sending is 'well, come along' you might just get away with it, because the police are not going to be assertive. This is a failure of leadership."
The Report is on BBC Radio 4 on on Thursday 25 August at 20:00 BST. Listen via the BBC iPlayer or download the programme podcast. | Better preparation by senior police in Tottenham could have stopped the riots which erupted there and were copied across England, the BBC has been told. |
32,364,603 | The 22-year-old driver was trapped and died at the scene on Clay Lane in Hale, Greater Manchester at about 01:10 BST.
The passengers - two of whom are aged 21 and the other 25 - managed to escape from the car and were taken to hospital.
Greater Manchester Police said they were being treated for serious but not life-threatening injuries.
Officers appealed for witnesses to the crash, involving a Ford Focus, near the junction of Canterbury Road. | A man has died and three others injured when the car they were travelling in hit a tree and caught fire. |
18,679,621 | Defender Gary Doherty, midfielder Matthew Spring, both 32 ,and winger Sam Wood, 28, have all agreed two-year contracts with the League Two club.
Striker Dennis Oli, 28, and winger Lee Angol, 18, have signed 12-month deals.
"They're a group that will be able to cover a number of positions," Waddock told the club's website.
"It's a good blend of youth and experience."
The embargo was lifted on Monday after the club, now owned by Wycombe Wanderers Trust, filed accounts for the year ended 30 June 2011.
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The supporters group had completed the purchase of the Chairboys from previous owner Steve Hayes two days earlier.
Republic of Ireland international Doherty is returning to Adams Park from Charlton after playing 13 games for the club during a loan spell last season.
He began his career with Luton before moving to Tottenham for £1m in 2000 and also had a spell with Norwich City.
Spring, who also had a spell with Luton at the start of his career, has been recruited from Leyton Orient, while Wood has joined Wycombe from Brentford.
Oli, whose deal includes an option for a second year, has moved to the club after being released by Gillingham and arrives in search of first-team opportunities after coming through the Tottenmham youth academy.
Meanwhile, Ivor Beeks and Trust director Don Woodward have been appointed as joint chairmen of the club following the takeover.
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Beeks has been sole chairman for almost 25 years but a club statement said the joint chairmanship was intended "to ensure continuity during what is expected to be a very challenging period". | Wycombe Wanderers manager Gary Waddock has marked the lifting of the club's temporary transfer embargo by signing five new players. |
37,349,319 | The firm asked for Note 7s to be returned following cases of phones that exploded during or after charging.
An ad announcing the move appeared on the front page of the JoongAng Daily newspaper.
The software update to limit batteries seems intended to provoke users who haven't yet returned their handsets.
It will begin to be rolled out from 20 September, the ad says.
The Associated Press reported that a similar advertisement also appeared on the front page of the Seoul Shinmun paper.
It has not yet been confirmed whether or not a similar update will be pushed out to phones in other countries.
The recall of faulty Galaxy Note 7 affects 2.5 million devices.
In the UK, Samsung has offered to replace the handsets from 19 September and has asked customers to contact the retailers or mobile operators from whom they bought the phones.
There have been more reports about exploding Note 7s causing problems in recent days.
The New York Post reported that a six year-old boy in Brooklyn was burned after a Galaxy Note 7 exploded in his hands.
He was taken to hospital but has since been discharged. Other reports have, however, suggested the case involved a different Samsung phone.
And a Florida man claimed that the device exploded while charging in his Jeep, setting the vehicle on fire.
Nathan Dornacher, who was interviewed by Fox News, said the car had been destroyed as a result.
"Keeping the battery at 60% or less and an over-the-air update to resolve a hardware problem will not be acceptable to the majority of users, and Samsung's competitors can have a field day with this in device battery life comparisons," Chris Jones, an industry expert at Canalys told the BBC.
"Most users will want to get rid of the device as soon as they can if they haven't already."
"I would say it's not the best solution," added Will Stofega at market research firm IDC. "You don't want to limit the functionality at all."
A spokesman for Samsung said that the firm had worked "intensively" to ensure that the quality of batteries was now assured.
"Based on a thorough inspection, we are now confident that the battery issue has been completely resolved in the replacement devices that will be arriving in Europe shortly," he said. | Samsung will limit the batteries of South Korean Note 7 smartphones to 60% of their capacity following a recall of the devices. |
34,017,935 | Media playback is unsupported on your device
21 August 2015 Last updated at 18:38 BST
The paper's Dublin-based owners, Independent News and Media Limited (INM), said the move is down to the closure of its printing operation within the Royal Avenue premises.
BBC News NI's business correspondent Julian O'Neill reports. | The Belfast Telegraph is to cut up to 89 jobs and sell its famous 19th Century office building in Belfast city centre. |
34,050,484 | Barry McRae, 34, from Stonehaven, died after being struck by a vehicle south of Stracathro at about 02:45 on Friday.
Officers want to speak to anyone who saw a black Audi A3 travelling south from Stonehaven between 01:30 and 02:30.
It stopped in a layby north of the Brechin junction before the accident involving another vehicle happened.
The main Aberdeen to Dundee road was closed in both directions for several hours as a result. | Police investigating the death of a man on the A90 have issued a fresh appeal for witnesses. |
28,961,503 | Police in Arlington, near Washington DC, were called to Ambassador Ruben Maye Nsue Mangue's residence on Monday.
Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said they found a juvenile with a large cut to her head and other injuries.
"We determined the ambassador was the primary suspect," he said.
Mr Sternbeck said the girl had sustained a "significant laceration" to her head, bruises and a swollen eye and was taken to Virginia Hospital Center.
He said she had been beaten with the wooden leg of a chair.
Mr Sternbeck added that police officers, who do not have jurisdiction in cases involving diplomats, did not make any arrests and informed the US state department.
A state department official said the agency was in contact with local authorities but could not discuss the incident further.
The girl was widely reported to be the ambassador's teenage daughter. On Wednesday, a woman at the residence told the Associated Press news agency by telephone that the ambassador's daughter was fine and was in good spirits.
The embassy of Equatorial Guinea - a Central African country with a population of about 740,000 people - has not commented on the incident.
Mr Sternbeck said Arlington police had been called to the same residence over a domestic incident in December 2013 but due to diplomatic immunity no-one was detained or charged. | Equatorial Guinea's ambassador to the US is suspected of beating a girl with a wooden chair leg but will not be arrested because he has diplomatic immunity, officials say. |
36,506,226 | The tourists led with 18 minutes left before conceding 21 unanswered points against the world champions.
"We wanted to play positive rugby. You can't come here and be conservative and expect to edge a win," said Warburton.
"But we're really disappointed to concede seven points right at the end and make the scoreboard look a little bit ugly."
Replacement hooker Nathan Harris scored New Zealand's fifth touchdown of the game with the clock in the red at the end of the second half.
All Black captain Kieran Read - leading the team for the first time after the retirement of Richie McCaw - said they had expected Wales to be "fired up".
"We were not up to our normal standards in the first half and had to remember what Test match rugby is all about," he said.
"The boys had a really good attitude in the second half."
Wales play Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton on Tuesday before the second Test in Wellington on 17 June.
Warburton, speaking immediately after the game, added: "Some of our counter-attacking was good.
"But we were playing the world champions and against them one mistake becomes seven points and two mistakes become 14 points.
"We will be back next week, hopefully better." | Wales captain Sam Warburton backed his side's adventure after their 39-21 defeat by New Zealand in Auckland. |
36,791,782 | Michael Foster, who donated £400,000, said he was worried about "apparent manipulation" of the rules after Labour's governing body voted 18-14 to allow the Labour leader on the ballot.
His rivals Angela Eagle and Owen Smith need the backing of 51 MPs or MEPs.
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson called the legal challenge "very unhelpful".
The party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) had made a decision, he said, and questioning that was "destabilising" to the party.
"We must respect that decision and give our members a choice of candidates as soon as possible," he said.
The Labour leadership contest was sparked when Ms Eagle, who resigned from Mr Corbyn's cabinet, announced she was challenging her leader and secured the necessary nominations.
There was a dispute over the interpretation of Labour's rules, and whether they allowed Mr Corbyn to automatically defend his leadership, or whether he would also be required to secure 51 nominations.
After a reportedly highly-charged meeting, at which Labour's governing body considered legal advice, the NEC ruled in Mr Corbyn's favour.
But Mr Foster, who stood as a parliamentary candidate in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle in Cornwall, said he was concerned that "everyone in the room had a different political agenda".
He insisted his legal challenge was "not about politics", saying: "I'm simply concerned that this is an important issue. It's about the rule of law.
"The advice given was certainly not given the expert consideration given by a high court judge."
Mr Foster said three contrasting pieces of advice had been given by three different lawyers, and the matter must be considered by a neutral court of law.
"When you conduct a membership association and it has a set of rules, you cannot, in Britain, a democracy that stands or falls by application of law, bend the rules to suit a particular circumstance or particular position," he added.
He expected a court to hear the case within days, he said.
Labour Party members, affiliated trade union supporters and so-called registered supporters are able to vote although there are some key differences from the 2015 contest, which Jeremy Corbyn won:
Speaking after Tuesday's decision, Mr Corbyn said he was "delighted" and would fight to keep his position.
Ms Eagle said she welcomed the contest and was "determined" to win.
She said she had eventually decided to launch a formal challenge because Mr Corbyn was unwilling to stand down and she could provide the real leadership he could not.
On Wednesday, Owen Smith, also a former shadow minister in Mr Corbyn's cabinet, announced he would also run.
The Pontypridd MP, who quit as shadow work and pensions secretary last month, said he could "heal" the party and "turn the page" on its internal strife. | A Labour donor is launching a legal challenge to the party's ruling that Jeremy Corbyn can be automatically included in the leadership ballot. |
33,804,578 | Individuals are typically told they should invest their pension money in fine wines or overseas property.
But many of the companies involved are not regulated and are not qualified to give financial advice.
It is thought that the fraudsters may be capitalising on the new pension freedoms, introduced in April.
Those freedoms allow people over the age of 55 to access their cash, subject to income tax.
Citizens Advice - which offers official guidance through Pension Wise - said that emerging scams include:
"Opportunistic fraudsters are finding new ways to go after people's pension pots, including offering free pension reviews and promising to invest in funds that don't necessarily exist," said Gillian Guy, the chief executive of Citizens Advice.
A number of sites on the internet advise investors to transfer pension money into fine wine.
Most are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
They typically suggest that investors can achieve long-term average returns of 12-15% a year, or that wine is a better investment than shares.
One pension advisory firm, Portal Financial, has reported 11 such websites to Google this year, to try to get their adverts removed.
"Unless you know that it is a legitimate investment, you should be very careful," said Jamie Smith-Thompson, the managing director of Portal Financial.
He said other investment scams included land banks and carbon credit schemes.
Previously, so-called pension liberation scams have targeted the cash in a pension pot, charging a fee for "liberating" it.
But victims can lose more than half their money in such scams, as anyone under the age of 55 is liable for tax at 55%, while others may have to pay 45%.
Action Fraud - part of the City of London Police - said that cases of liberation fraud tripled in May, the month after the reforms were introduced.
However, the pensions minister, Ros Altmann, said she was not convinced that fraud was increasing as a direct result of the pension freedoms. | Fraudsters trying to steal money from people's pension funds are increasingly offering to invest the cash into other scams, says Citizens Advice. |
36,070,882 | Dr Carol Tozer says she is returning to the UK to be with her family.
There were calls in Alderney on Wednesday for her to stand down over the case of Dr Rory Lyons, who was cleared of any wrongdoing.
The States' chief executive thanked Dr Tozer for her hard work.
Paul Whitfield said: "I wish to take this opportunity to thank Carol for all of her hard work, energy and drive which she has brought to HSSD {Health and Social Services Department], often during some difficult and public times."
As chief officer of HSSD for 19 months, Dr Tozer held the reins during challenging times for the department, including an extraordinary review of maternity services, and the investigation into Dr Lyons following the deaths of four patients.
Dr Lyons was later exonerated and allowed to practise again.
An independent report into the investigation followed, which found there was not a "sufficient weight of evidence" when concerns about the deaths were raised with authorities.
Last week Mr Whitfield and the deputy chief minister, Allister Langlois, held a meeting in Alderney to discuss the report with islanders, where there were several calls from members of the public for Dr Tozer to resign over the Dr Lyons case.
Before coming to Guernsey to take up her role as chief officer of HSSD, Dr Tozer was executive director of services at the charity, Scope.
She had previously held several high profile roles in community and social services in the UK.
In 2011 she resigned from her post as director of children's services in Torbay, Devon. | The chief officer of Guernsey's health department has resigned a month after a report criticised her department's investigation into an Alderney doctor following patient deaths. |
37,236,746 | The 25-year-old Barton has signed a three-year deal with the Scottish Premiership club.
Having moved from Coventry City last summer, he played 26 times for Pompey, including five appearances this season.
Pogba was released by Thistle along with goalkeeper David Crawford, who only joined Thistle in July.
Guinea striker Pogba joined the Glasgow club after leaving Crawley Town and made 36 appearances, scoring three times.
However, he has found himself on the bench in recent weeks and now joins a club who have just won promotion to the Dutch top flight.
Crawford signed a short-term deal in July to solve a goalkeeping crisis at Firhill and made three appearances for Thistle.
Barton arrives at Firhill a day after playing for the English League Two outfit in a 4-3 Football League Trophy defeat by Yeovil Town.
The English-born player played a full international for Northern Ireland before also appearing for Republic of Ireland Under-21s. | Partick Thistle have signed midfielder Adam Barton for an undisclosed fee from Portsmouth as striker Mathias Pogba left for Dutch club Sparta Rotterdam. |
34,781,225 | Army units had made contact with troops defending Kuwairis airbase, east of Aleppo, and eliminated large numbers of militants, the Sana news agency said.
The facility had been under attack by the jihadists for nearly two years.
Meanwhile, at least 22 people were killed and many more wounded by rebel shellfire in the Mediterranean city of Latakia, state media and activists say.
The blasts hit two separate areas of the city, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. With many of the wounded in serious condition, the death toll is expected to rise, the Observatory said.
Latakia, which lies in the heartland of President Bashar al-Assad's minority Alawite sect, has largely escaped the conflict that has devastated most of Syria and killed more than 250,000 people.
Syrian government forces were holed up inside the Kuwairis base under siege from Islamic State, while pro-government forces tried to reach them with air support from Russia.
The successful assault on the base comes a week after the Syrian army battled Islamic State to regain control of a road southeast of Aleppo and took back control of the government's only supply route into the city.
Areas around Aleppo have seen weeks of heavy fighting after Syrian troops, backed by Lebanese and Iranian fighters, launched an offensive to retake surrounding territory from rebels and jihadist fighters.
The regime offensive has so far focused on clearing rebel-held areas south of Aleppo, rather than targeting the city itself. | Government forces have broken a siege by Islamic State (IS) of an airbase in northern Syria, state media report. |
39,550,816 | But in the murky waters of Western Australia's Fitzroy River, it offers little defence against sharks or crocodiles.
A new study, published in the journal Ecology, details the dangers posed there to the critically endangered species.
In it rare photos show a freshwater crocodile preying on a young sawfish.
The river system is a spawning area and a habitat for juvenile sawfish before they journey to the ocean to mature and breed.
Researchers and wildlife rangers examined 39 sawfish in the river and found evidence of bite marks on around 60%. Based on the appearance of the bite marks, the predators responsible were crocodiles and bull sharks, the study concludes.
Lead author, Associate Professor David Morgan, a fish biologist from Murdoch University said water levels are related to the survival of the young.
"The less water the more likely they are to encounter a predator such as a saltwater crocodile, particularly in the lower reaches of the river," he told the BBC.
Their unique snout, or rostrum, are prized as trophies and also make sawfish especially prone to entanglement in fishing nets.
Prof Morgan suggests that river crossings, weirs and dams be modified to allow the species to migrate upstream more safely.
"We now know that the Kimberly region of Western Australia is arguably the most important region for freshwater sawfish left on Earth," he said.
"They need the habitat and they need the water." | The freshwater sawfish's signature snout makes it one of nature's most stealthy predators. |
36,587,830 | The ban was imposed after accusations of state-sponsored doping.
It means Russia's track-and-field team is suspended from the Rio Olympics, although individual athletes can compete if they prove they are clean.
Dame Kelly, who won the 800m and 1500m in Athens, told BBC Radio Kent: "Until we make a stance, nothing changes."
She continued: "You can't go through life in sport with everybody being speculated on and everybody having a downer on sport.
"Being an ex-Olympian, I'm passionate about my sport. You don't want it tarnished by issues that happen in Russia and all over the world and in other sports, where people are cheating the system."
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The International Olympic Committee has the power to overturn the IAAF's decision, but has strongly supported it, saying the ruling was in line with the IOC's "zero-tolerance policy".
It said in a statement it "fully respected" the IAAF's position, adding: "The eligibility of athletes in any international competition including the Olympic Games is a matter for the respective international federation."
Dame Kelly, who retired in 2005, said her view is influenced largely by her own experience of competing against athletes she suspected of doping.
"It's been exposed now, but it's been happening for years," she said.
"You had people like myself, who went through years and years of determination, commitment, hard work and emotional trauma to try to reach my full potential, and you knew you could be in the same race as someone who has done it with no tears. That's not funny and not fair.
"There are many - 99.9% of sports people - who do it the way I did it, for the love of the sport and the dreams that you have.
"It's really not right when people do it by (unfair) means. That needs to be stopped. Until we make that stance, it's going to continue happening." | Double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes has welcomed the IAAF's decision to uphold Russia's ban from international competition. |
37,888,868 | Harsh, perhaps, but understandable given the circumstances.
Nagelsmann was just 28 and had never coached at senior level, while Hoffenheim, a village with a population of just 3,300 in southern Germany, were deep in relegation trouble, seven points from safety and running out of games.
What has followed in the past nine months is impressive.
Not only did Nagelsmann secure the club's Bundesliga place, but he has also seen his side move up to third in the table this season and become one of only five teams in Europe's five major leagues to remain unbeaten.
So, how has a managerial novice born in 1987 managed to transform Hoffenheim from relegation strugglers to a top-three side?
BBC Sport looks at the 29-year-old who has taken the German top flight by storm.
Long before he landed the head coach role at the club, Nagelsmann had already earned the nickname 'Baby Mourinho'.
It was given to him by former Hoffenheim and Germany goalkeeper Tim Wiese as Nagelsmann was making a name for himself after the defender's career was cut short by persistent knee problems.
Like Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, Naglesmann did not make it as a top player. Aged 20, he was forced to end a promising career while in Augsburg's second team, coached by Thomas Tuchel, who is now manager at Borussia Dortmund.
Nagelsmann then worked under Tuchel before moving to Hoffenheim via coaching 1860 Munich's Under-17s.
He then appeared on Bayern Munich's radar after masterminding Hoffenheim's German Under-19 Championship triumph in 2014, but he opted to stay at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena. And his appointment as head coach came six years after arriving at the Sinsheim-based club.
"I assumed a big deal would made about my age when I was appointed," Nagelsmann told BBC Sport.
"If you are appointed a boss of an established economic enterprise at the age of 28, this also would be a big story."
Hoffenheim had two wins from 20 games when Nagelsmann took charge nine months ago. They were next to bottom in the table and seven points from guaranteed safety.
Local newspaper Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung labelled his appointment a public relations stunt.
"I don't blame them," Hoffenheim's director of football Alexander Rosen said. "You look at Julian's age. He had already been here six years so we knew what he was able to do.
"He has a natural feeling for the group, he brings energy, passion and is blessed with talent."
Hoffenheim won seven of the remaining 14 games to finish one point above the relegation play-off spot.
"Straight away the team bought into my ideas and the way I would like to play football," added Nagelsmann, who lists Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola as his footballing heroes.
Hoffenheim had announced in October 2015 that the youth coach would take over as manager in the summer of 2016, provided they stayed up.
However, Nagelsmann was fast-tracked into the job with three months of the season remaining when experienced boss Hubb Stevens resigned because of a heart complaint.
And Nagelsmann's sense of technical know-how and ability to man-manage has converted critics into admirers.
"He had some experience in coaching but not as a head coach," said Joachim Klaehn, who covers Hoffenheim for the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung newspaper.
"Before Julian was appointed, they were in big trouble. They were bottom of the table during the winter break and everybody thought they would go down as they had no match plan.
"But it has been a sensation under Julian. He is a local hero."
With Hoffenheim's place in the Bundesliga secured, Nagelsmann got to work on rebuilding the squad in the summer.
Incomings included Croatia forward Andrej Kramaric, 25, who turned a loan from Leicester City into a permanent move, midfielders Lukas Rupp, 25, from Stuttgart and Kevin Vogt, 25, from Cologne, plus former Bayern Munich forward Sandro Wagner, 28, from Darmstadt.
Hoffenheim have scored in all but two of their 24 league games under Nagelsmann and even took the lead at champions Bayern Munich, managed by three-time Champions League winner Carlo Ancelotti.
"I have great respect for a coach like Ancelotti. Every coach dreams of being able to celebrate only a fraction of his achievements," added Nagelsmann, who was raised in the Bavarian village of Issing.
Since their young coach took charge, Hoffenheim have taken 43 points in 24 matches. But Rosen warned there will be times in the future when it may not be so rosy.
"He is an extraordinary talent," he said.
"However, we have to keep in mind the possibility that we will lose two or three games in a row. We have to be careful we give Julian the air to breathe when things are not going well.
"Let's not forget he has had 26 league and cup games as head coach, he is still learning."
How has Nagelsmann's appointment gone down with the senior players in the dressing room?
For starters, Hoffenheim have no major stars in their team after Roberto Firmino left for Liverpool in June 2015.
Instead they have assembled a squad of hard-working individuals, with the club operating a policy of signing young talent.
That means only three players are older than the head coach - second-choice goalkeeper Alexander Stolz, 33, Poland midfielder Eugen Polanski, 30, while Switzerland midfielder Pirmin Schwegler is 136 days older than his boss.
"We have eight players from our own academy in the first team squad," added Rosen. "For the past three years we have had the youngest squad in the Bundesliga."
Relaxed off the training pitch, Nagelsmann has been accused of being the opposite in his technical area.
Bayer Leverkusen head coach Roger Schmidt was banned and fined after calling his opposite number a "nutcase" during a game in October.
"I act out my emotions on the sidelines. I am also a very impulsive person and very involved in the speech to my players, but only as far as motivation is concerned," he added.
"I do not yell at my players because they made a mistake or rage in the dressing room," Nagelsmann said. "Of course, sometimes you get angry or your voice gets louder when you analyse a match but everything stays within the limits."
Hoffenheim, a former village team, were playing in the eighth tier of German football when former player Dietmar Hopp returned to buy the club in the early 1990s.
Hopp brought with him his personal fortune, made from a software company, and a dream to take his former club to the top level of German football.
Initial investment came in the form of modern training facilities and the large-scale development of youth academies.
This provided the foundations that saw a fairytale rise through the divisions with a team made up entirely of products of the youth set-up.
After rising to the second tier of German football, Hopp saw the opportunity and for the first time invested heavily in the squad and management.
Former Schalke boss Ralf Rangnick was appointed boss in 2006, and subsequently helped the club to back-to-back promotions, realising Hopps' long-term vision of making Hoffenheim a Bundesliga club.
This is their ninth season in Germany's top tier.
The Rhein-Neckar Arena, which holds 30,000 fans, has been their home since January 2009 and is situated in the southern town of Sinsheim, which is a short car ride from Hoffenheim.
Bayern Munich boss Carlo Ancelotti: "It is rare to observe such a young coach in the job. I hope that one day he will train the best team in the world."
Borussia Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel: "He's a very inquisitive and very hardworking young coach. He has enjoyed exceptional successes in youth football. I'm very happy for him and I believe in him."
Hoffenheim director of football Alexander Rosen: "Julian is 29 and I am 37. We have a combined age younger than [Arsene] Wenger!
Hoffenheim's 76-year-old owner Dietmar Hopp: "He's so good that I wonder if we can keep him. It would be best if we could keep him for a long time, at least as long as I live, and I hope that's quite a long time."
Although Nagelsmann is the youngest permanent head coach in Bundesliga history, he is not the youngest to oversee a Bundesliga match.
That honour belongs to Bernd Stober who was just 24 when he took charge of Saarbrucken in an interim capacity for their trip to Cologne on 23 October 1976. His side lost 5-1.
In Europe's other major leagues, Crystal Palace put Attilio Lombardo in charge at the age of 32 years and 67 days in 1998, while Lippo Hertzka had just turned 26 when he was appointed Real Madrid boss in 1930.
In France, Henri Cammarata was 29 years and 11 days old when he took charge of his first Toulouse match in 1945.
Former England striker David Platt was 32 years and 187 days old when he was appointed by Sampdoria in December 1998.
Nagelsmann was born on 23 July 1987. By then... | When Hoffenheim unveiled Julian Nagelsmann as the Bundesliga's youngest full-time boss in February, it was dismissed by local media as a "public relations stunt" and "a crackpot idea". |
32,498,229 | The boy, who cannot be named, said Michael Rogers, 53, from Romford, touched him sexually while in bed.
He described Mr Rogers as "mean" and a "bully" who punched several children.
Six women and four men are on trial at Norwich Crown Court accused of 38 charges of sexually abusing and neglecting five young children.
The boy said Mr Rogers also pulled the fractured arm of a girl to hurt her.
The court was shown a series of DVDs of interviews with the children said to be victims of the abuse.
In the first recording, the boy initially denied anything inappropriate happened to him.
But in another interview in 2012, two years later, he told police that a number of defendants engaged in sexual activity with the children.
"I thought everybody did it," he said.
He also said one of the defendants, Marie Black, 34, from Norwich, was nice, and said nothing else happened that hurt him or that he did not like.
Ms Black denies charges including neglect and ill-treatment, sexually assaulting children under 13, conspiracy to cause children to watch sexual acts and causing child pornography.
In another interview five months later, the boy revealed that Mr Rogers was "mean" and a "bully".
He also said Mr Rogers showed him films with sexual content.
The court heard him claim he was abused hundreds and hundreds of times.
In recorded interviews with police and social workers, he said defendant Jason Adams had abused him two or three times a day from the age of three until seven.
In another account, he said he was abused at a chiropractors and all 10 defendants assaulted him variously at parties and at homes.
Prosecutor Angela Rafferty QC said earlier the five children only began to tell what had happened to them when they felt safe.
The defence maintains the stories are made up and false.
The other defendants, all from Norwich, are Jason Adams, 43, Carol Stadler, 59, Anthony Stadler, 63, Kathleen Adams, 84, Nicola Collins, 36, Andrew Collins, 52, Judith Fuller, 31, and Denise Barnes, 43.
They are charged with offences including rape, child cruelty, causing children under 13 to engage in sexual activity and sexual assault.
All deny all charges, except Mr Adams, who admits four of five child cruelty charges against him.
The trial continues. | The trial of 10 people accused of abusing children has heard one boy, allegedly abused hundreds of times, thought sexual activity was "normal". |
34,746,942 | Nathan Matthews, 28, has admitted killing and dismembering Becky, his stepsister, but denies murder.
Defence barrister Adam Vaitilingam QC told a jury at Bristol Crown Court that Mr Matthews treated her body with "a lack of compassion and humanity".
His girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21, also denies murdering the 16-year-old.
In his closing speech, Mr Vaitilingam said Mr Matthews admitted he planned to kidnap his stepsister and claimed it had gone wrong, but denied he had done it with his girlfriend.
The barrister said the idea that the kidnap plot was sexually motivated was not the explanation "that fits best with the evidence".
"He did what he did and you have to judge what was in his mind at the time he did it," he told jurors.
He said Mr Matthews was "a man who has shown himself to be capable of killing a 16-year-old and then treating her body with such a lack of compassion and humanity".
"I do not ask for sympathy for Nathan Matthews. He deserves none," he said.
"I ask that you approach his case in the same fair way you would approach any defendant charged with any crime.
"His right to a fair trial... hasn't disappeared because of what he has done."
Shauna Hoare's barrister, Andrew Langdon QC, suggested Ms Hoare was unaware of Becky's death and Mr Matthews would have wanted to "keep it a secret" and to "stay in control" of the situation.
The court heard that Ms Hoare had searched online for a parody song entitled Do You Want To Hide A Body? when Becky's body was in the bathroom.
Mr Langdon said: "If she knew what had happened and what Nathan Matthews was doing, would she think it was time for a joke and a laugh?
"Shauna is not a murderess. She wouldn't be guilty of murder unless the prosecution had made you sure that she... intended that Becky be killed or caused really serious injury by Nathan Matthews."
Mr Matthews, of Hazelbury Drive, Warmley, South Gloucestershire, admits perverting the course of justice, preventing lawful burial and possessing a prohibited weapon. He denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap.
Ms Hoare, of Cotton Mill Lane, Bristol, denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap, a weapons charge, perverting the course of justice and preventing a burial.
Two other men, Donovan Demetrius, 29, and James Ireland, 23, deny assisting an offender.
The trial continues. | A plan to kidnap teenager Becky Watts, whose dismembered body was found in a shed, was "bone headed, extreme and frankly absurd", a court heard. |
36,351,990 | He and another male combatant were targeted as they rode in a vehicle in a remote area of Pakistan close to the Afghan border, the officials said.
The Pentagon has confirmed it targeted Mansour in strikes but said they were still assessing the results.
Mansour assumed the leadership in July 2015, replacing Taliban founder and spiritual head Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The operation took place near the town of Ahmad Wal at around 15:00 (10:00 GMT) on Saturday and was authorised by President Barack Obama.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan were informed about the strike shortly after it took place, the White House said.
"We are still assessing the results of the strike and will provide more information as it becomes available," said Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook.
An unnamed Taliban commander told the Reuters news agency: "We heard about these baseless reports but this not first time. Just wanted to share with you my own information that Mullah Mansour has not been killed."
The death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour, if confirmed, would be a big blow for the Taliban.
He was gradually tightening his grip on the movement by bringing into his fold other leading Taliban members, including a son and a brother of his predecessor Mullah Mohammed Omar, and by launching large scale attacks on Afghan security forces.
Under his leadership, the Taliban managed to capture an important city last year for the first time in 15 years.
Mansour also managed to silence the splinter Taliban group under Mullah Muhammad Rasool, which challenged his leadership, and is credited by his followers for containing so-called Islamic State in Taliban areas.
A vacuum created by his death would once again trigger a leadership struggle.
False rumours have often surrounded Taliban leaders.
Omar died in 2013 but this was only confirmed by the Taliban two years later, while Mansour was reported to have been killed in a gun battle last year, something dismissed by the Afghan government.
Mansour's appointment as Taliban chief was disputed, with a rival group selecting their own leader.
The Pentagon's statement said Mansour was actively involved with planning attacks "presenting a threat to Afghan civilians and security forces, our personnel, and Coalition partners".
The Taliban have made gains since international troops withdrew from an active fighting role in 2014.
Nato forces are increasingly being deployed in battle zones to support Afghan forces fighting the Taliban.
Profile: Mullah Akhtar Mansour | Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has probably been killed in a US air strike, US officials say. |
40,171,096 | For many, when the series appears in the TV schedules, their response is one of total indifference and tumbleweed.
But to its loyal fanbase, the show remains addictive television, 17 years after it first debuted.
Its series opening on Monday was watched live by an average of 1.2 million viewers - which is down on last year's premiere, which attracted an average of 1.4 million.
The dizzy heights of series two, for example, which saw a total of 13.7 million viewers tune in to Channel 4 to see Brian Dowling crowned the winner, are a distant memory.
How has the show changed since its debut, and who is still tuning in? Let's take a look.
Many of those who tune into the first episode of a series do so in order to decide whether they're going to bother with the rest.
You can usually judge from the contestants' introductions whether it's going to be a must-watch or must-avoid series.
Interestingly, the type of contestants the show now casts has started to change.
Reality TV fans will recognise Chanelle McCleary, who went into the house on Monday night, from Ex On The Beach, Take Me Out and Dinner Date.
In another year, such television credits might even have qualified her for appearing in Celebrity Big Brother.
But this year, producers are actively seeking familiar faces from shows like ITV2's Ibiza Weekender. The reigning Miss Nigeria UK also entered the house on Monday.
Channel 5 seems to have recognised that recognisability is good, even when it comes to the non-celebrity series.
But many of the show's fans object to the blurring of the celebrity lines, with one viewer tweeting: "Why has half of Ex On The Beach gone in Big Brother - thought they were meant to be nobodies?"
One reason producers might be trying to put more familiar faces on screen is that Celebrity Big Brother, which is broadcast twice a year in January and August, continues to be a bigger draw than the regular series.
The most recent celebrity version was down on last year but still attracted a fairly healthy 1.8 million when it launched in January.
The names involved aren't usually too bad - most people have heard of Katie Hopkins, Christopher Biggins, Jedward and Coleen Nolan - but it's a very specific kind of celebrity who takes part.
You probably won't see Rihanna or Jennifer Lawrence in there anytime soon, but many of the contestants that do appear are recognisable enough names.
Provided you're a dedicated Loose Women viewer.
This is perhaps what allows fans to feel a familiarity with the series without having to spend too long getting to know lots of new faces at once.
Another huge part of CBB's appeal is the shorter series duration. It's much less of a commitment to sign up for watching a month-long nightly show, than one that drags on for almost three times that length.
If you'd said words like "iPlayer" and "Netflix" to someone in 2000 they would have looked at you blankly because of the alien language you were speaking.
And yet, 17 years on, a huge number of those very same people have deserted terrestrial TV for catch-up and streaming services.
The idea of buying the Radio Times and looking at what's scheduled on your five TV channels on any given night seems ridiculous given the abundance of choice we now have.
In an average day in the office, you're far more likely to hear colleagues talking about Netflix shows such as 13 Reasons Why or Stranger Things than Big Brother.
Such programmes are exciting and new. They are the water cooler TV shows that Big Brother once was.
Having said that, it's worth bearing in mind that 1.2 million BB viewers is not to be sniffed at - that's a huge figure for Channel 5 and one that many other streaming services or Freeview, satellite and cable channels would kill for.
The format broadly remains the same, and the programme is past its ratings peak - so who are the people hanging on?
Well, the data may not be available yet for Monday evening's show, but figures for the launch of the last series of Big Brother offer some clues.
Here's a breakdown according to Barb, the ratings people.
It's worth remembering that these figures vary slightly for each episode of the series, but the broad trends are the same.
Celebrity Big Brother follows many of the same patters but skews slightly younger.
Much more fun than looking at numbers though, is looking Twitter. Here's a selection of what some viewers were saying on Monday evening:
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Big Brother has returned - with reactions ranging from glee to groaning. |
40,569,044 | Two pink, also known as humpback salmon, were caught by anglers last week.
The fish are native to Pacific Ocean waters and are a favourite prey of North America's grizzly bears.
A potentially invasive species to the UK, the salmon caught on the Ness maybe related to fish introduced to the Barents Sea in Russia in the 1950s.
Ness District Salmon Fishery Board believes it to be the first time a pink salmon has been recorded in the river, which flows from Loch Ness and through Inverness.
The fishery board, which has asked for any further sightings of the fish, said a pink salmon had also been caught this month on the Helmsdale in Sutherland. | A non-native species of salmon has been found for what is thought to be the first time on the River Ness. |
34,593,028 | Nathan Matthews, 28, told police he went to Becky's house to "teach her a lesson" but his "face mask slipped", and he "panicked" then "strangled her".
Bristol Crown Court heard he described himself in an earlier police interview as "psychologically disturbed".
Mr Matthews and Ms Hoare, 21, deny murdering the 16-year-old.
Becky went missing on 19 February. Body parts were later found at an address in Barton Court.
In a statement after his arrest on 2 March on suspicion of murder he said: "Shauna did not know anything about my causing the death of Rebecca or my attempt to dispose of the body."
Mr Matthews said he had gone to Becky's family home at 18 Crown Hill to return a tin to his grandmother, but had taken "a bag, a stun device, handcuffs, tape and a mask".
He said he had developed an idea to scare Becky by kidnapping her to teach her a lesson.
The court heard he said: "I believed she was selfish and her behaviour towards my mother was a risk to her health."
The jury was told that before Mr Matthews' statement was read, he said: "Do I have to listen to it or can I put my fingers in my ears?"
He said Ms Hoare had gone into the garden on arrival and he had gone back to the car and got the bag and other items.
In his statement, he said he took everything upstairs, knocked on Becky's door and when she opened it he was wearing a mask and "used the items I had to subdue Rebecca".
"During a short struggle, my mask slipped and Rebecca was able to see my face."
He said he panicked and strangled her - put her into the bag and took everything downstairs and put it in the boot of his car.
In an earlier police interview conducted on 28 February when he was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his stepsister the court heard Mr Matthews described himself as "emotionally unstable and psychologically disturbed".
In it he said: "When I'm aggressive, I'm similar to a caveman.
"It's like an instinct, I will react."
Mr Matthews, 28, of Hazelbury Drive, Warmley, South Gloucestershire, admits killing his stepsister but denies murder and conspiring to kidnap her.
He also admits perverting the course of justice, preventing Becky's burial and possessing a prohibited weapon.
Miss Hoare, 21, of Cotton Mill Lane, Bristol, denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap, the weapons charge, perverting the course of justice and preventing a burial.
Two other men, Donovan Demetrius, 29, and James Ireland, 23, deny assisting an offender.
The trial continues. | A man accused of murdering Becky Watts said he planned to "scare" her by putting her in a suitcase and putting tape around her mouth, a court heard. |
35,763,131 | The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), which hosts the world-famous tournament, has been pricing its latest debenture issue, with the cash raised going towards putting a roof over Court Number One.
The new debenture, which runs from 2017 to 2021, will set back tennis lovers some £31,000.
Sporting debenture holders pay a set sum of money, usually quite a sizeable amount, to be guaranteed the right to buy tickets to a top level sporting club or championship.
The seats are among the best seats available in the stadium, and the money raised is then usually used for capital works, such as stadium development.
At Wimbledon, debentures are issued in five year cycles, with separate schemes for the Centre and Number One "show" courts, which host the big-name matches.
The AELTC say their schemes are a way of satisfying a certain high-end, niche, ticket market, while at the same time raising money without recourse to public expenditure.
"The proceeds of the next Number One Court debenture issue will help to fund the implementation of the next stage of our Wimbledon master plan," says AELTC chairman Philip Brook.
When complete, the facilities will include a remodelled Number One Court, with a retractable roof, two extra rows of seating, and increased hospitality boxes around the court.
In addition a new public plaza will be built in place of Court 19, and a basement dining area for officials will also be constructed.
"It is a big project, with the major work beginning after the 2016 tournament, and everything will be ready for the start of the 2019 championship," says Mr Brook.
Debentures have a long history at Wimbledon, starting in 1920 when the first £100,000 issue was used to buy the current Church Road site and fund building of the Centre Court.
Some £100m was raised from the last Centre Court debenture, with money from that directed towards that court's roof project.
The Court Number One debenture provides tickets for nine days' play - the first week of Wimbledon and then until the Wednesday of the second week (when all remaining big matches move to Centre Court). An emergency extra day is also built into the package in case a day of play is lost to rain.
Some sporting debentures offer an annual interest rate return to holders. That is not the case at Wimbledon but holders also get access to facilities such as bars, restaurants and car parks.
Existing debenture holders get first chance to buy the next issue. On Court One there are 1,000 debenture seats out of the current 11,500 capacity, which will be expanded to 12,400 with the building work.
"Raising funds through debenture issues means that we can keep our ticket prices for everybody else at very affordable levels," says Mr Brook.
As well as providing access to must-see tennis matches, the tickets that come with the debenture - unlike other Wimbledon tickets - can be legally sold on, either through the AELTC or privately.
The debentures themselves can also be traded via Numis Securities, with recent sale prices announced in the Financial Times.
Such a fundraising method by UK sporting organisations is not as widespread as in the US. They are also generally pitched at such a price that only business people or the wealthy can afford them.
In the UK, as well as Wimbledon tennis, the Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Football Union have issued debentures, as have the MCC and Hampshire cricket clubs.
In the early 1990s football club Arsenal issued a debenture to help fund a new stand at Highbury, while a similar proposed plan by West Ham United met with fan fury.
Meanwhile, the business plan for the building of the new Wembley Stadium in the 2000s was heavily based on the issue of 10-year Club Wembley debenture packages.
Alan Levett is managing director of Alad, a firm which publishes specialist magazine Pan Stadia & Arena Management.
"The West Ham debenture plan brought a lot of protest from supporters," he says. "They reacted angrily, and thought it was fan exploitation."
He adds: "A more recent and famous example would be with the Club seats at Wembley, it was a major part of the FA's funding of the new stadium. It will be fascinating to see how their renewals process goes, as those tickets were for 10 years from 2007."
In the US the system of using supporter cash to build or improve infrastructure is commonly called the "personal seat licence" (PSL).
They are in place in many baseball stadiums for the premier tier and luxury lounge seats, and are also becoming very common in American football at college and NFL level.
For example, roughly one-third of the cost of building the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey was met by the two NFL teams which use the stadium, the Giants and the Jets, issuing PSLs.
And despite often initially being met with fan outcry, persistent sales efforts usually mean the seats' licences sell out.
Sports clubs in the US which are currently raising funds towards new stadiums through variants on the PSL include the American football teams the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons.
The Vikings's scheme is actually called a Stadium Builder's License (SBL), but is a similar beast to a debenture or personal seat licence; here you have to pay between $500 and $9,500 in order to secure the right to buy your season ticket.
"Debenture schemes are more popular in the US, where the whole concept was invented," says Mr Levett. "It is taken as a norm over there."
"In the US they were quicker to appreciate the quality of the seats being offered. However they have traditionally have had bigger stadiums and more space to offer these sorts of premium seats.
"Furthermore, corporations there have always been keen to use sport as a method of entertaining clients, and so would snap up these debenture seats."
Mr Levett, whose business also runs stadium trade shows, says there is scope to introduce this corporate seat model in other countries around the world, such as Japan.
"But I don't think there is a great scope in the UK for widening this sort of arrangement. It works for what you call the elite sports and events like Wimbledon," he says.
"I don't think we will see it being used as it is in the US, towards building new football stadiums." | As the latest touches are being put to the playing surfaces of the tennis courts at Wimbledon, so the finishing strokes are also being applied to the latest fundraising scheme to improve facilities at the historic sporting complex. |
38,263,837 | Two female suicide bombers detonated their explosives in a busy market, an army spokesman said.
No group has said it was behind the attack.
But Islamist militant group Boko Haram has been waging a seven-year insurgency against the government and often uses suicide attacks.
At least 33 people were wounded in the bombing, said Sa'ad Bello, of the National Emergency Management Agency.
The two bombers, who were "disguised as customers, detonated their suicide belts at the section of the market selling grain and second-hand clothing," local government official Yusuf Muhammad told AFP.
Madagali was recaptured from Boko Haram in 2015 and has been the target of previous suicide attacks.
A regional force has retaken most territory under the group's control in the past 22 months.
But as it advances into areas previously controlled by the Islamists, the army has found tens of thousands of civilians on the brink of starvation.
The number of people facing starvation in the north-east of Nigeria is as high as 120,000, of which 75,000 are children, the UN warned earlier this month.
More than two million people have been forced from their homes as a result of the Islamist insurgency. | At least 45 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Madagali in Adamawa state, officials say. |
39,400,797 | Countries in the oil cartel Opec and several other oil nations started to reduce production at the start of 2017.
The move initially pushed up the oil price, but it has dropped in the last few weeks on fears the limits would not be enough to deal with an oil glut.
A group of ministers agreed on Sunday to review extending the cuts by six months, taking them to the end of 2017.
At a meeting in Kuwait, they requested that officials report next month "regarding the extension of the voluntary production adjustments".
Opec countries and 11 other oil-producing nations, including Russia, agreed in December 2016 to slash production, the first time in 15 years that a global pact had been struck.
The price of Brent crude peaked at over $57 a barrel in January, before slipping back to below $51 a barrel in recent weeks.
That was after Opec revealed a surprise jump in global crude stocks in February, and US oil producers - who are not part of the cuts - started to increase production again.
Abhishek Deshpande, an oil analyst at Natixis, told the BBC the price had fallen after oil traders became "jittery" about the market.
In particular, they were uncertain about the commitment of Russia and Saudi Arabia, Opec's biggest member, to the cuts, Mr Deshpande said.
The oil countries now need to show "discipline" and cut back on production in the coming months because stocks are still too high, he said.
"The chances remain high for an extension to the supply cuts, as long as there are more stockpile withdrawals," he added. | Major oil producers are considering extending their recent cuts to output in a fresh bid to boost prices. |
38,343,184 | Amir Ali Qureshi, from the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, predicts adverts featuring a dog on a trampoline will boost sales.
But he also expects a spike in people with broken bones turning up at A&E this Christmas.
He said injuries were common, even with trampolines that come with safety netting.
"Just last week I had a 27-year-old female referred to me with a life-changing injury to her left knee as a result of a trampoline accident," Mr Qureshi said.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) says more than 13,000 trampolining injuries are treated each year.
Broken arms, legs, knee dislocations and neck injuries can all result from having an accident on a trampoline.
Mr Qureshi added: "Some of these injuries are simply unpleasant, but others can be extremely serious.
"The issue at the moment, particularly where young people are involved, is that the use of nets gives children and their parents a false sense of security that they will be fine whatever the level and intensity of activity on a trampoline.
"In my opinion, as an experienced orthopaedic surgeon, the equipment is dangerous and should only be used in appropriate circumstances, which I believe can only be achieved under professional supervision."
Dave Walker, the leisure safety manager at RoSPA, said: "When using a trampoline at home parents must be aware that, just like any high-energy leisure activity, there is a risk, and they should take precautions to prevent potentially serious and life-changing injuries.
"Having netting around the trampoline is a good preventative measure, as is only allowing one child on at a time, and supervision to ensure the activity being carried out on the trampoline is appropriate.
"Many serious injuries occur when a larger person is on with a child, so parents should avoid getting on at the same time as their children." | Trampolines should be used only under professional supervision, according to a senior bone surgeon. |
19,131,661 | It ended with the nation enjoying its best ever athletics session at a summer Games as three gold medals came in the space of just an hour.
Sandwiched in between, there was another track cycling success to savour, as the women's team pursuit took gold in the London Velodrome with another world record.
Britain took their tally of gold medals at London 2012 to 14, tightening their grip on third place in the table, with only the United States and China above them.
Here, BBC Sport rounds up some of the best reaction and analysis from an amazing day for British sport.
Rowing men's four:
Alex Gregory, Pete Reed, Tom James, Andrew Triggs Hodge
Rowing women's double sculls:
Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking
Cycling women's team pursuit:
Dani King, Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell
Athletics, women's heptathlon:
Jessica Ennis
Athletics, men's long jump:
Greg Rutherford
Athletics, men's 10,000m:
Mo Farah
Michael Johnson, four-time Olympic champion: "Mo went in with a race plan. He showed great enthusiasm and guts. I am really pleased for him because he had a lot of expectation on his shoulders. He was expected to win and he came through."
Brendan Foster, Olympic bronze medallist: "We have watched him for a long time, we have all supported him for a long time, and what an amazing achievement. What a night and I think it shows we should always have the Olympic Games in London."
Michael Johnson, four-time Olympic champion: "This is a phenomenal performance. After suffering the disappointment of missing Beijing through injury, she then comes back at a home Olympics to prove to everyone that she is the best. Not only that but that she can perform under incredible pressure and win gold. I am truly happy for her."
Denise Lewis, former Olympic heptathlon champion: "It's hard to find the words. We have witnessed greatness, we have witnessed someone who had a dream come and deliver on the world stage. People love her, they really do. She is one of the most-loved athletes around. I am honoured to have witnessed this."
Jonathan Edwards, double Olympic medallist: "Just remarkable. He is a massive, massive talent who has really struggled with injury. There aren't too many who would have had him down to win gold at the start of the Games or even the start of the day. I don't think he can believe it, I don't think anyone can believe it."
Darren Campbell, double Olympic medallist: "It is immense. He is so talented but he hasn't had that bit of luck to get onto the podium in a major championship before. This time he has had that little bit and now he is the Olympic champion. Greg Rutherford, take a bow."
James Cracknell, two-time Olympic champion: "You beauties! This is fantastic, not just for Team GB but for the two women involved. They have over-performed and over-delivered. Good on you, girls."
Sir Steve Redgrave, five-time Olympic champion: "Amazing. They can't believe it. I thought they could do it but I can't believe it."
Chris Boardman, Olympic gold medallist: "If they go any faster, they are going to need parachutes to slow down! To break a world record again after such a short gap between all the rounds is just incredible. What a fantastic experience. Tears all around because they've worked so hard for this. They've been so, so strong."
Rob Hayles, Olympic silver medallist: "That's six team pursuits by these girls and six world records. I don't know any other sport or any other team where that is the case. The sheer dominance is incredible, it must be unprecedented. Off the back of Beijing, people were saying this wasn't going to happen. They are proving people wrong."
Sir Steve Redgrave, five-time Olympic champion: "They were smooth and powerful and all the elements came together. It was close all the way down. The Aussies had to do something in the middle but they didn't make anything up. They didn't make any impact and it was a fantastic race by the GB men's four."
James Cracknell, two-time Olympic champion: "That was brilliant because the team never had a clear-cut margin. The Australians were always there, snapping and biting away at them like a little terrier but that was a stonking performance. They have had to withstand pressure from the Aussies all season, not just in this race, and they have dealt with it."
Daley Thompson: "What a night, Team GB awesome. We have to have an Olympics every year! This makes £9bn look cheap and unbelievably good value."
Rio Ferdinand: "Has British athletics ever seen a better night than this? I doubt it very much. Rutherford take a bow fella, huge from ya!"
Sir Clive Woodward: "Had some amazing days in sport, today was very special, very proud of British athletes, proud to live in this country, totally brilliant."
Gary Lineker: "I can honestly say that was the best day's sport I've ever seen! Above and beyond anything we could have hoped for #Olympicheroes"
Mark Cavendish: "I don't normally stand up off the sofa for much other than cycling, but I did just that while watching @J_Ennis bring home heptathlon Gold!"
Media playback is not supported on this device | Super Saturday started with two successive golds at Eton Dorney to cap the most successful Olympic rowing regatta for Great Britain. |
30,686,649 | The airline announced last week that it will stop the service from 22 February because of a lack of demand.
The daily flights began in October last year.
Council leader Drew Hendry said he was concerned about the loss of the service and said the local authority was seeking a meeting with Flybe bosses.
He said: "It seems premature to come to such a conclusion after just two months, when it must still be very early days for the new service.
"It is also disappointing that Highland Council has not been consulted in the decision."
Mr Hendry added: "Inverness remains well connected to the rest of the UK with flights to Gatwick, Belfast, Bristol and Manchester, as well as our international service to Amsterdam.
"However, it is vital for the continued economic development of the Highlands that our connectivity is sustainable and continues to grow."
Flybe said last week that it was "regrettably" suspending the service to London City Airport due to lower than anticipated passenger numbers.
The airline operated a service between Inverness and Gatwick Airport before selling the slots to Easyjet in a £20m deal in 2013. | The leader of Highland Council has described Flybe's decision to suspend its Inverness to London service as "disappointing". |
33,046,501 | The End Prostitution Now campaign claims the move would decriminalise victims of sexual exploitation and protect vulnerable prostitutes.
The initiative is being backed by the Women's Support Project and the Glasgow Violence Against Women Partnership.
Northern Ireland recently became the first part of the UK to make buying sexual services a criminal offence.
The End Prostitution Now campaign is hoping to put pressure on the Scottish government make the same legislative change.
Opponents of the move said it would drive prostitution underground and make it harder for sex workers to operate safely.
At present, it is not illegal to pay for sex in Scotland.
However, activities such as public solicitation, running a brothel and kerb-crawling are criminal offences.
Liz Curran, from the Women's Support Project, told BBC Scotland there had been "a shift across Europe" and many countries were moving to criminalising the demand for sex.
She said: "The crux of this campaign is about challenging the demand for prostitution which is inherently harmful to women. We have to tackle the root cause and from our campaign's point of view that is gender inequality and men's demand.
"The vast majority of women who are involved in prostitution are not there through choice. A small minority of women may make it a choice but the law does not represent the interest of minorities."
Scotpep is the sex workers' rights organisation which works with prostitutes on the streets and in saunas.
Molly (not her real name) from Scotpep told BBC Scotland the law criminalising buying sex had not worked in Sweden and Norway and there was no proof that there had been no reduction in the number of sex workers.
She said there was harm associated with the law, especially for street-based sex workers.
Molly said: "When the client is criminalised he is more jumpy.
"He needs to get away quickly and that means the worker has to get into his car more quickly if she wants to keep his business.
"That cuts down on the crucial time that she has to talk about services and prices and to assess whether he seems safe, whether he seems drunk, to write down his car registration number. So there is a huge increase in violence associated with laws like this."
Labour MSP Rhoda Grant has submitted amendments to the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Bill in the hope of tackling sexual exploitation.
She said: "Trafficking and exploitation of this kind are based on the basic principles of supply and demand, and we must tackle demand if we want to prevent vulnerable people being exploited in the first place.
"It's now illegal to purchase sex in Northern Ireland. We need to follow suit to stop Scotland becoming a haven for sex traffickers moving out of Northern Ireland and into a more hospitable environment here." | A new campaign is calling for buying sex to be made illegal in an attempt to stamp out prostitution in Scotland. |
39,065,060 | Ian Keatley and Andrew Conway return from Ireland camp and start on the bench, while full-back Jaco Taute has recovered from a shoulder injury.
Rory Scannell and Jack O'Donoghue are ruled out through injury and academy centre Dan Goggin replaces Scannell.
DTH van der Merwe is one of two recalls for the Scarlets after a hamstring problem along with hooker Ryan Elias.
Munster won 23-13 when the sides met in Wales in September and turned around an 11-point deficit to snatch victory against the Ospreys last week.
It was their 15th win out of their last 16 games, which has impressed Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac.
"Week in week out they're performing over the 80 minutes, every team is striving to do that but they've done it really, really well.
"They've had some close calls but they've come out on the right side and that's a sign of a well bonded team."
In making his second Pro12 start, academy back row Conor Oliver makes his first appearance in the number 8 jersey.
Tipperary lock Dave Foley links up with Billy Holland in the second row and Stephen Archer takes his place in the front row scrumming down next to Rhys Marshall and Dave Kilcoyne.
Fourth-placed Scarlets ran in six tries against Zebre last Friday and are boosted by the return of van der Merwe and Elias.
Scrum half Aled Davies has been released from the Wales camp whilst Steff Evans hasn't been made available for this weekend's game.
Former Wales Under-20s stars Dafydd Hughes and Ioan Nicholas have been named on the replacements bench with Hughes hoping to make his Pro12 debut.
Munster: Jaco Taute; Darren Sweetnam, Francis Saili, Dan Goggin, Ronan O'Mahony; Tyler Bleyendaal Capt., Duncan Williams; Dave Kilcoyne, Rhys Marshall, Stephen Archer; Dave Foley, Billy Holland; Dave O'Callaghan, Tommy O'Donnell, Conor Oliver.
Replacements: Kevin O'Byrne, Peter McCabe, Brian Scott, Darren O'Shea, Fineen Wycherley, Abrie Griesel, Ian Keatley, Andrew Conway.
Scarlets: Johnny Mcnicholl; DTH van der Merwe, Steff Hughes, Hadleigh Parkes (cat), Tom Williams; Dan Jones, Jonathan Evans; Wyn Jones, Ryan Elias, Werner Kruger; Tom Price, Tadhg Beirne; Aaron Shingler, James Davies, Will Boyde.
Replacements: Dafydd Hughes, Luke Garrett, Nicky Thomas, Rynier Bernardo, Morgan Allen, Aled Davies, Aled Thomas, Ioan Nicholas.
Referee: Dan Jones. | Pro12 leaders Munster make five changes to the starting team for Friday's game against the Scarlets at Thomond Park. |
35,385,150 | A statement from its board blamed "the challenges of securing new funding and dealing with cash-flow in a very difficult climate for our sector".
The charity ran the Where is My Public Servant? (WIMPS) project and also worked extensively with young people in sectarian interface areas.
It had won a number of awards for its work.
In 2012, the organisation became the first in Northern Ireland to receive a Big Society Award from the Prime Minister David Cameron.
It also took local young people abroad to South Africa, the USA and the Middle East.
The board's statement went on to say that "as we refuse to problematise and label young people, we often find that our work doesn't fit the boxes of funders and government departments.
"We urge the Northern Ireland Executive to consider more deeply the conditions of the lives of so many young people here.
"We have the highest youth unemployment in the UK (over 20%) and yet young people are our greatest asset."
The statement continued: "The stop-start nature of funding for our sector and the frequent gaps between funding programmes have been major contributors to the situation that has led to this regretful and very difficult decision."
Public Achievement was founded in 1999 and employed nine staff. | One of Northern Ireland's leading youth charities, Public Achievement, has announced it is closing. |
31,095,837 | Urban Realm magazine said Aberdeen had become the "poor relation" of Scotland's cities as it awarded the annual Plook on the Plinth Carbuncle award to the Granite City.
Aberdeen City Council acknowledged that there was work to do to improve the heart of the city, but said progress was "well under way".
Cumbernauld, East Kilbride and Leven had been among the other contenders.
Urban Realm highlighted planning issues such as Union Terrace Gardens , Marischal Square, and missing out on the 2017 City of Culture shortlist as evidence of Aberdeen's "dismal" status.
The architecture magazine's editor John Glenday said: "Aberdeen is a great city but despite its enviable financial clout and rich heritage legacy it has become the poor relation of the Scottish cities.
"It has been left behind by the likes of Dundee, which has made huge strides to transform its waterfront.
"The time to turn things around is now. In a few years' time it may well be too late."
The trophy will he handed over on Tuesday morning.
Aberdeen City Council's planning convener Councillor Ramsay Milne said Aberdeen was an "ambitious city" which had on Monday hosted a high-level summit at which the council pressed its case for the UK government to sign up to a City Deal.
He added: "This would provide the resources to make transformational changes to sustain the city for decades to come.
"This is a proud and historic city which can trace its roots back almost a thousand years. It boasts some of the finest buildings in Scotland, including the iconic Marischal College, and also enjoys a magnificent seafront with superb maritime views.
"Aberdeen City Council recognises that there is work to do to improve the heart of the city and progress is well under way to refine a City Centre Masterplan, which will set the framework to enhance the city centre in the short, medium and long term.
"The masterplan will seek to build on the many assets which the city already has."
Steve Harris, chief executive of VisitAberdeen, said: "I am pleased that we have been given this award as anything that draws attention to Aberdeen can only help people realise how preposterous and ignorant its award is.
"Aberdeen is a stunning city with beautiful parks and gardens, a beach that runs for miles right into the city centre and some stunning architecture.
"With development proceeding apace in many parts of the city and a new City Centre Regeneration Plan due this summer, the future looks bright."
The Plook on the Plinth award was established in 2000 to provoke debate.
Previous winners of the award include Cumbernauld and Glenrothes. | Aberdeen has won the unwanted title of the most dismal town in Scotland. |
29,372,492 | Mr Widodo, himself a directly-elected governor, called the vote a "big step back" for democracy.
The system was introduced in 2005 in a bid to allow new politicians to emerge, not linked to the old political elite.
But its opponents argue direct elections are too costly and have in many cases led to corruption.
Mr Widodo's opponents have a majority in the national parliament.
The bill was passed early on Friday after a heated debate that lasted for more than 10 hours.
Pro-democracy activists demonstrated against the bill by burning tyres outside parliament in Jakarta.
The bill stipulates that mayors, provincial governors and district heads will now be chosen by local parliaments, as they were prior to 2005.
The president will continue to be directly elected.
Ahead of the vote, Mr Widodo - who is known as Jokowi - said: "Directly elected leaders have a moral obligation to the people. They have to look after the people, because they were chosen by the people."
Mr Widodo, who won the presidency in July, entered politics by being directly elected as a local mayor. He then went on to run for the position of Jakarta's governor, winning a resounding victory in 2012.
His election as president was seen as heralding a new era for Indonesia, where leaders have generally been drawn from the military and political elite.
The BBC's Indonesia editor Karishma Vaswani said that Indonesians reacted angrily on social media.
"Rest in Peace democracy" became a trending topic on Twitter, and many commented that the decision was a huge setback for Indonesia's nascent democracy, says our correspondent.
Some say the decision takes the country back to the era of former dictator Suharto. Experts have said that under his 32-year regime, local parliaments engendered nepotism and cronyism. | The Indonesian parliament has scrapped direct elections for regional governors and mayors in a move widely seen as a blow to President-elect Joko Widodo. |
38,966,553 | Lewis Ball, 26, has not been seen since he left the Thekla on Bristol's Floating Harbour at 03:20 GMT on Sunday 5 February.
His brother Alex said: "It's not like Lewis at all, so you're just thinking about all the worst things."
Police said efforts to find Lewis "continue unabated".
Officers traced three people who left the nightclub at the same time as him, but they were unable to provide any information as to his whereabouts.
Mr Ball said: "They remember Lewis and they remember talking with him, but they just left him in the car park. That's all they could tell us."
He said his family is struggling to cope, and he has put posters up round the city centre and handed out leaflets at the venue as part of the search.
"You just have to keep in your mind that he's safe," he added.
Avon and Somerset Police is urging anyone who has information to contact the force.
Drivers have also been asked to check their dashcam footage if they were in the area at the time.
Lewis is described as white, 5ft 9ins tall and of slim build.
When he went missing he was wearing a black jumper, black skinny jeans and brown ankle boots. | The brother of a man who vanished after leaving a nightclub more than a week ago has said his disappearance is out of character. |
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