id
int64 10.1M
41.1M
| dialogue
stringlengths 15
174k
⌀ | summary
stringlengths 1
399
|
|---|---|---|
37,325,448 | Rovers' first half dominance was rewarded by James Coppinger's superb free-kick, but Andy Williams and Tommy Rowe both missed good chances.
The pair made amends soon after the restart when they combined well for Williams to double the lead.
The introduction of Ryan Jackson and Rhys Healey added impetus to County, but the home team always had the edge.
REACTION: Doncaster boss Darren Ferguson speaks to BBC Radio Sheffield
Match ends, Doncaster Rovers 2, Newport County 0.
Second Half ends, Doncaster Rovers 2, Newport County 0.
Foul by Jordan Houghton (Doncaster Rovers).
Jack Compton (Newport County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Doncaster Rovers. William Longbottom replaces John Marquis.
Foul by Liam Mandeville (Doncaster Rovers).
Dan Butler (Newport County) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt blocked. Jack Compton (Newport County) header from the left side of the box is blocked.
John Marquis (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Darren Jones (Newport County).
Corner, Doncaster Rovers. Conceded by Darren Jones.
Attempt blocked. John Marquis (Doncaster Rovers) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Dan Butler (Newport County) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
John Marquis (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Dan Butler (Newport County).
Scot Bennett (Newport County) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
John Marquis (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Scot Bennett (Newport County).
John Marquis (Doncaster Rovers) is shown the yellow card.
Substitution, Doncaster Rovers. Liam Mandeville replaces James Coppinger.
Foul by Joe Wright (Doncaster Rovers).
Marlon Jackson (Newport County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Jamie Turley (Newport County) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Tommy Rowe (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Jamie Turley (Newport County).
Corner, Newport County. Conceded by Cedric Evina.
Joe Wright (Doncaster Rovers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Attempt missed. Scot Bennett (Newport County) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Corner, Newport County. Conceded by Marko Marosi.
Attempt saved. Marlon Jackson (Newport County) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Foul by Tommy Rowe (Doncaster Rovers).
Marlon Jackson (Newport County) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, Newport County. Rhys Healey replaces Sean Rigg.
Substitution, Newport County. Marlon Jackson replaces Jon Parkin.
Attempt missed. Scot Bennett (Newport County) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left.
Corner, Newport County. Conceded by Cedric Evina.
Substitution, Doncaster Rovers. Riccardo Calder replaces Harry Middleton.
Goal! Doncaster Rovers 2, Newport County 0. Andy Williams (Doncaster Rovers) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Tommy Rowe.
Attempt missed. Harry Middleton (Doncaster Rovers) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Andy Williams (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half. | Doncaster moved into second place in League Two with a comfortable win over Newport County. |
37,874,366 | The stage door collapsed on Fisherman's Friends vocalist Trevor Grills and Paul McMullen at Guildford's G Live venue in 2013.
Shropshire-based Express Hi-Fold Doors Ltd was found guilty of a health and safety breach at Guildford Crown Court.
Director David Naylor, 57, was cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence.
The door, which allowed backstage access from outside, was designed and manufactured by the company.
Father-of-three Mr Grills, 54, from Port Isaac, Cornwall, and Mr McMullen, from Disley in Cheshire, were at the venue ahead of a performance due to be staged by the 10-piece group.
Mr McMullen, 44, died at the scene and Mr Grills in hospital three days later.
Sentencing, judge Philippa Whipple, said there was no "deliberate disregard for the law" but the company "fell far short of the appropriate health and safety standard".
The court heard the door had been folded in half and was being lifted "like a canopy" above the men when it collapsed.
Two drive chains linking the motor and gearbox to the drive shaft failed, and the chains themselves also failed, jurors were told.
The court heard there had been four similar failures involving the company's doors before 2010, including the collapse of a hangar door at Shoreham Airport in 2003.
The judge said: "The company made some modifications, but it failed to respond more fundamentally to ensure it had taken all practicable measures.
"There was an obvious risk of death or serious injury although the likelihood was not high."
The court heard the business barely traded in 2015 and was essentially liquidated.
Paying tribute to the men and their families, the judge said: "They died too young and I am sure they are greatly missed."
Fisherman's Friends had chart success with a top-ten album and performed at Glastonbury. | A company has been fined £30,000 following the deaths of a shanty group singer and the band's promoter after a two-tonne steel door fell on them. |
34,591,994 | Cornelly United will not let spectators inside its Meadow Street home ground following claims fans have failed to stay behind barriers on the pitch.
The club says it has been fined by the South Wales Alliance Premier Division in six out of eight games.
Club chairman Bryon Power said the club was not aware of such incidents and has appealed to the South Wales FA.
"It's devastating. We've never had fans on our pitch," Mr Power said.
"No other team in our league has been fined as much as we have. It starts off as £10 but it doubles and before we know it we're facing a £200 fine. We are finding it a little bit hard to take.
"We had no other choice but to ask fans to stay away from our home and away fixtures. We can't afford to take any more fines, we could end up folding."
The move has been taken a year after the club completed £32,000 refurbishments on its ground, funded by a Welsh government grant.
The South Wales FA said it was unable to comment as the matter was under review. | A football club in Bridgend has asked its fans to stay away from all future matches. |
39,314,462 | They also spoke to members of the emergency services who attended the Bataclan in 2015 and Nice last year.
The royal couple's official two-day visit to the French capital began on Friday.
They visited the Musee d'Orsay and will later watch the Six Nations rugby match between France and Wales.
Prince William and Catherine also attended a "Les Voisins [neighbours] in Action" event at the Trocadero square, highlighting the ties between young people in France and the UK.
In Nice last July, eighty-six people died after a lorry ploughed into a crowd, while 90 people were killed by gunmen at the Bataclan music venue in Paris in November 2015. Another 40 people died in attacks elsewhere in the city on the same night.
As the duke and duchess toured the historic Les Invalides hospital, where they also met war veterans, reports came in of an attack at Orly Airport in Paris.
Speaking at the start of the official visit on Friday, the prince said the UK's relationship with France will continue despite the vote to leave the EU,
He said the friendship and co-operation between the two nations "would not change".
The royal couple's trip began at the Elysee Palace, where they met French President Francois Hollande
In the evening they attended a dinner hosted by the UK's ambassador to France, Edward Llewellyn.
It is Prince William first official visit to the city where his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car crash in 1997.
The trip comes also comes after the duke faced questions over his work ethic for missing a Commonwealth celebration to take a skiing holiday with friends. It led to criticism from some newspapers after a video emerged of him dancing and in a DJ booth during the trip.
Prince William: How hard has he worked in 2017 so far?
Do you have what it takes to work for the Duchess?
The couple have travelled without their children, three-year-old George and one-year-old Charlotte.
Kensington Palace said the trip was at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "Royal visits play a very important role in the United Kingdom's bilateral diplomacy.
"Whilst every royal visit is unique, each visit is designed to support foreign policy objectives and promote closer ties across a range of areas, for example cultural, economic or political, between the UK and the host country." | The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have met survivors of recent French terror attacks during a visit to the military hospital Les Invalides in Paris. |
38,898,825 | Residents have stayed indoors and shops and schools have closed.
The Ivorian special forces, who report directly to the president's office, have accused their commanders of stealing part of their salaries.
It comes a month after regular soldiers staged a mutiny over pay and conditions.
"Gunfire began earlier in the special forces' camp and then the town began panicking as armed soldiers left the barracks," a high school teacher told the Reuters news agency.
The BBC's Alex Duval Smith in the main city of Abidjan says the special forces number up to 800, are rarely seen in public and are considered loyal to the government.
A delegation from the chief of staff's office has flown by helicopter to the base to negotiate with the commandos, she says.
Local media reports one soldier as saying that he has received only $80 (£64) of his $400 monthly salary.
Adiake is home to a maritime base that trains commandos and provides coastal surveillance.
Last month, the government agreed to the demands of the other mutinous soldiers, some of whom were former rebels who backed President Alassane Ouattara.
But the payout has angered other segments of the military, raising fears of a resurgence of the violence seen during Ivory Coast's 10-year civil war, which ended in 2011. | An elite unit of soldiers in Ivory Coast has mutinied, firing into the air at their base in the south-eastern town Adiake, near the border with Ghana. |
35,841,023 | The Drovers Inn in Gussage All Saints, near Cranborne, closed in November 2014 and was later sold but the buyer's plan to turn it into homes was refused.
Villagers who fought to get the pub listed as a community asset took possession of the keys last Friday.
The Gussage Community Benefit Society hope to reopen it in late May or early June.
The society said it had so far raised £160,000 through a community share offer and had successfully applied for a mortgage.
Society secretary Sally Marlow said: "We have got a refurbishment project that we are kicking off, taking about three months.
"We have changed the locks and we have got the boards off the windows. The chimney man is going to reline the chimney next week and we're getting the roof re-tiled. We have got a lot of volunteer helpers."
The group is continuing to raise money to for the internal works and equipment. | Campaigners hoping to reopen a Dorset village pub have bought the building and say refurbishment is under way. |
39,642,462 | The disease may end up wiping out all vulnerable species, with zoos and gene banks the only conservation option, they warn.
A fungal infection introduced to northern Europe several years ago behaves as a "perfect storm", say experts.
It persists in the environment and may be spread by newts and birds.
The fungus, known as B. salamandrivorans, or Bsal, killed almost all fire salamanders in an outbreak in The Netherlands in 2014.
Since then, there have been outbreaks in wild salamanders and newts in Belgium and Germany.
Researchers led by An Martel of Ghent University in Belgium, are calling for urgent monitoring across Europe.
However, they say that there are few options to prevent the disease spreading in the wild, meaning conservation efforts should focus on zoos, captive breeding and gene banks.
Commenting on the study, published in the journal, Nature, Matthew Fisher of Imperial College London, said the fungus was not unlike the "perfect pathogen" portrayed in the science-fiction film, Alien.
"More must be done to try to conserve fire salamanders and other susceptible amphibian species that have restricted ranges and are under direct threat of extinction from Bsal," he said.
"It is currently unclear how Bsal can be combated in the the wild beyond establishing 'amphibian arks' to safeguard susceptible species are the infection marches relentlessly onwards."
The fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) is one of the best-known salamander species in Europe.
Scientists expect local extinctions to occur, but say it will take a long time for the infection to reach populations in southern Europe, such as those in Spain and Portugal.
Prof Fisher said the real danger is for species of salamander that have very restricted ranges. Some, such as Lanza's alpine salamander and the golden-striped salamander, are on the European Red List of amphibians.
"If Bsal reaches these species, they could go rapidly extinct," Prof Fisher told BBC News.
Great crested newts are very susceptible to Bsal, he said. So far, the infection has not emerged in the natural environment in the UK, although it is present in captive populations.
"It is imperative that Bsal is not introduced to the UK natural environment as that could lead to declines or even extinctions in conserved UK species - primarily great crested newts," said Prof Fisher.
Follow Helen on Twitter. | Urgent action is needed to protect wild salamanders in Europe from a deadly infection, say scientists. |
29,829,467 | The 2m-high (6ft 6ins) human figure will be at Clavell Tower, Kimmeridge, from May for a year.
The statue will be one of five around the UK to mark the 50th anniversary of the Landmark Trust in 2015.
Historian Caroline Stanford said it will be Gormley's only solo exhibition in the UK next year and other locations were still to be announced.
Ms Stanford, who is head of engagement at the Landmark Trust, said the statue would be a "wonderful" and "thoughtful" presence at Kimmeridge and said: "It is a fantastic project to be working on with one of the generation's greatest artists.
"Everyone will be able to make up their own minds. We hope they will really enjoy everything about it."
Peter Wharf, Purbeck District Council's planning committee chairman, said it had divided opinion and added: "There was pleasure to have something so potentially attractive to tourists coming into town, but there was also concern about the potential for destabilising the cliff."
The artwork was approved by the council's planning committee on condition the foundations were dug by hand to avoid disturbing the cliff.
Mr Wharf said: "A robotic Angel of the North is how one person described it."
The temporary planning permission will expire in May 2016.
The Landmark Trust is a charity that restores at-risk buildings and lets them out for holidays.
It has rescued 200 buildings in the past 50 years. | An Antony Gormley statue described as a "robotic Angel of the North" will be installed on a cliff top in Dorset. |
34,687,470 | The raids in the Liberton, Gilmerton and Craigmillar areas were part of Operation Amyloid, a huge operation targeting organised crime.
Police said 22 residential properties were targeted, involving more than 170 officers.
A kilo of heroin worth £100,000 was recovered at a house in Niddrie.
Further dealer quantities of heroin, drug paraphernalia and 250g of cannabis were seized along with about £5,000 in cash.
Fourteen men, aged between 21 and 48, and six women, aged from 19 to 44, are expected appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
A 27-year-old woman has also been reported to the procurator fiscal.
Det Ch Insp Kenny Gray said: "This operation has been the culmination of months of intelligence gathering, but I want to make it clear that it isn't over.
"Police Scotland will continue to target those involved in serious and organised crime throughout Edinburgh and to send a message that these sort of offences will not be tolerated." | Twenty one people have been charged with various offences following a series of early morning raids in Edinburgh by Police Scotland. |
31,924,754 | It was founded in 1905 when the Ulster Unionist Council was formed.
In 1921, Ulster Unionists formed the government of Northern Ireland after the island of Ireland was partitioned, and they held power until 1972.
That year, the Stormont parliament was brought to an end by Westminster and direct rule from London was introduced.
That took place amid widespread civil disturbances and attacks by the IRA during the Troubles.
The UUP was closely aligned with the Conservative Party but the relationship soured when the Troubles began in the last 1960s.
The party played a key role in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
In 2003, the Democratic Unionist Party overtook the UUP as the largest party in Northern Ireland at the Northern Ireland Assembly elections.
At its height the UUP had ten MPs, but its decline began in 2001 when it lost three Westminster seats to the DUP.
The then UUP leader, David Trimble, struggled to maintain his authority within the party, which was divided over its pro-Good Friday Agreement stance.
The party's Westminster representation dropped further when Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson defected to the DUP following the party's poor performance at the Stormont election.
In March 2005, the Orange Order ended its 100-year formal association with the party, reflecting changes in both the religious organisation and in wider unionism.
After losing his Upper Bann Westminster seat in 2005, Mr Trimble resigned as party leader.
He was succeeded by Sir Reg Empey who, during his five-year tenure, oversaw further electoral losses for the party.
In 2010, the UUP and David Cameron's Conservatives agreed to field joint candidates, but none were elected.
Meanwhile, the UUP's last remaining MP resigned from the party in protest at the deal.
Lady Sylvia Hermon retained her North Down seat as an independent and the UUP lost its last foothold in Westminster.
Under Tom Elliott's leadership from 2010 to 2012 the party lost a further two MLAs at Stormont. Mike Nesbitt became leader in 2012 and, since then, three MLAs have left the party.
The party is keen to get a candidate re-elected to Westminster and in March 2015 it agreed a pact in four seats with the DUP, in the hope of regaining a seat. | The Ulster Unionist Party draws its support from the unionist community, the vast majority of whom are Protestant. |
38,718,657 | The gap between education establishments which are doing well and those that are not is still too wide, the watchdog said.
Altogether inspectors looked at 178 primary schools and 33 secondary schools in 2015-16, as well as two further education colleges, workplace learning places, special schools and pupil referral units.
Here is a summary of findings in key areas:
TEACHING
Teaching is one of the weakest aspects of provision in most sectors.
There is a tendency towards ticking boxes in lesson planning. Teachers may therefore become too concerned with following procedures rather than thinking creatively about the best way to encourage learners to achieve
Where teaching has shortcomings, leaders do not have a clear idea of what needs to be improved. Too few schools help staff to make the best of professional learning opportunities.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Inspectors highlighted good practice and successes, such as the year-on-year rise in literacy standards at Kitchener Primary School in inner city Cardiff. Here 27 different languages are spoken and English is spoken as an additional language by 86% of pupils. The school uses educational visits, a buddy system and story-telling as part of introducing new words, encouraging pupils to speak and making learning exciting.
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
276,950 pupils in 1,310 primary schools - a rise of 3,550 on 2015
178,650 pupils in 205 secondary schools - down 3,700
8,000 pupils in 34 independent schools
4,540 pupils in 32 independent special schools
730 in 25 pupil referral units
EARLY EXAMS - UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
The growing trend of entering pupils early for exams like maths can reduce time for teaching and learning and students can end up sitting exams with an incomplete understanding of the subject.
SPECIAL SCHOOLS AND UNITS
Inspection outcomes for maintained special schools are not as good this year compared with previous years and outcomes for pupil referral units (Estyn inspected four of the 25 PRUs) remain poor.
MORE ABLE PUPILS
A common theme in inspections was "underachievement of more able learners, including those from deprived backgrounds".
In about a third of primary schools, more able pupils do not make enough progress because the work they are set is not challenging enough.
In secondary schools, GCSE and A level results should be better at higher grades.
DIGITAL LEARNING
The potential of digital learning is being fully realised in "very few" schools.
But the report highlights work done at Cornist Park Community Primary School in Flint, where there are pupils acting as leaders on digital learning and events to educate parents about digital technology in the home.
WELSH LANGUAGE
Standards of Welsh second language in many English-medium schools are improving, but most pupils lack confidence when speaking Welsh.
Meanwhile, in Welsh-medium schools, many pupils speak and write well in Welsh and use their language skills confidently across the curriculum.
ATTENDANCE AND BEHAVIOUR
Attendance is improving and rates of persistent absence continue to fall.
Many pupils behave well, are punctual and have positive attitudes to their learning.
In a few schools, the rate of persistent absence remains high and the attendance of pupils eligible for free schools meals is significantly worse than in similar schools.
REFLECTIONS ON PISA RESULTS
The latest disappointing international Pisa results, which came out in December, "continue to highlight important weaknesses in Welsh education".
Too many pupils lack basic skills in science, maths and reading and too few pupils work at the highest levels in these subjects.
Schools from the foundation phase onwards need to ensure that pupils develop strong foundations in these essential subjects.
COLLEGES
Two of Wales' 13 further education colleges were inspected and both were identified as having excellent practice.
Gaps between colleges' performance are narrow.
Coleg Cambria - one of the largest in the UK with more than 21,000 students and created out of a merger of Deeside College and Yale College in 2013 - is praised for its excellence. | Estyn's annual report is a wide-ranging review of how schools, further education colleges and other places of learning are performing, following a year of inspections. |
38,840,988 | Mr Kengeter bought around 4.5m euros (£3.85m) of stock in his own company just over two months before the German exchange announced merger talks with the London Stock Exchange.
Deutsche Boerse said the December 2015 purchase was related to its remuneration programme.
"The accusations are groundless," Deutsche Boerse's Joachim Faber said.
"Only in the second half of January 2016 did the two chairmen and CEOs agree to begin negotiations for a merger of LSE Group and Deutsche Boerse," the Deutsche Boerse supervisory board chairman added.
The company and the chief executive were fully cooperating with the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office, it said.
Mr Faber, who is chairman of Deutsche Boerse's board, said Mr Kengeter bought the shares before an end-of-December deadline set by the group's management remuneration programme.
Under the programme, he could make a one-off share purchase worth up to 4.5m euros, which he would need to keep until the end of 2019.
As part of the deal, he received "co-performance shares" to the same amount, whose value depends on Deutsche Boerse's profits and its share price movement relative to a benchmark index.
Deutsche Boerse's stock has gained around 11% since Mr Kengeter bought the shares.
The European Commission is investigating the planned merger. | German prosecutors are investigating Deutsche Boerse boss Carsten Kengeter over possible insider trading. |
39,866,484 | The man was taking part in a "routine" activity at the time, the Department of Defence said. It did not give details of the incident.
The army has suspended all training exercises involving combat brigades while it reviews safety procedures, officials said.
It is the second death of an Australian soldier in training since last week.
Trooper Stuart Reddan, 21, was killed by a falling tree branch on 4 May while travelling in an armoured vehicle in Queensland.
The latest incident happened on Wednesday at the Mount Bundey training area near Darwin, the department said.
"He received immediate first aid at the scene and was transported to the Royal Darwin Hospital for treatment," a statement said.
"The soldier was subsequently pronounced deceased."
Relatives of the soldier, who has not been named, have been notified.
Defence Minister Marise Payne expressed "great sadness" over the soldier's death and sent sympathies to his family.
"Whether on deployment or while training, the men and women of the Australian Defence Force undertake hazardous activities to ensure our safety and security," she said. | An Australian soldier has died during a training exercise in the Northern Territory. |
35,786,022 | A group game between hosts India and Pakistan had already been moved from Dharamsala to Kolkata over security concerns, but the Pakistan government wanted further guarantees.
There has not been a Test series between the two fierce rivals since 2007 because of political tension.
Pakistan are due to play against a qualifier in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Its government had already issued one clearance to take part in the tournament at the end of February, but delayed the team's planned departure on Wednesday because of a perceived threat from Hindu extremists.
On Thursday, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ruled out sending the team until safety assurances were made by the Indian government.
"We have received communication from the International Cricket Council and Board of Control for Cricket in India. We have received a letter from the chief minister of Bengal and the police chief," said Pakistan Cricket Board executive committee chairman Najam Sethi.
"Our High Commissioner, Abdul Basit, met the Indian secretary and the assurances were given."
Pakistan's women have also been cleared to take part in the tournament and will begin against West Indies on Wednesday.
Media playback is not supported on this device | Pakistan will take part in the World Twenty20 after receiving security assurances from the Indian government. |
34,527,439 | Malware called Dridex harvested victims' online banking details so the attackers could siphon off funds.
The NCA said it was working with the FBI and other authorities to limit the malware's usefulness to criminals and one man had already been arrested.
One expert told the BBC the attackers had been particularly cunning to avoid being detected.
"This is very sneaky software that relied on people not being vigilant with their online banking," said Prof Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert who advises Europol.
"If you imagine thieves making lots of little transactions, rather than one big one, it is more likely to go unnoticed."
The Dridex Trojan infected computers through a malicious Microsoft Office document, typically disguised as an invoice and emailed to victims.
The malware relied on tricking people into installing it on their machines, rather than exploiting a security hole in the operating system.
It would then eavesdrop on people entering their bank account details and send the information back to the attackers.
"Banks have software running constantly in the background looking for suspicious transactions, but criminals are adopting patterns that are not flagged up," said Prof Woodward.
"With thousands of computers infected, they only need to take a small amount from each bank account and suddenly they've got millions."
The NCA said it was trying to "sinkhole" the Trojan - working with internet service providers to divert the software's attempts to "phone home" with stolen bank account details.
The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday that a Moldovan man, Andrey Ghinkul, had been arrested in Cyprus in August and the United States was seeking his extradition.
The FBI encouraged people to use anti-virus software to help protect their computers.
"All the usual advice applies," said Prof Woodward. "Don't open unexpected email attachments, even if they appear to be from the bank.
"And check your bank statement for suspicious transactions. Query anything you don't understand, even if it's a small amount, as criminals may be taking a small amount from millions of other people." | The UK's National Crime Agency is hunting cyber-attackers who stole more than £20m from British bank accounts. |
32,163,541 | My first thought is that we really do live in a golden age of macroeconomic commentary. This is the sort of argument that used to play out slowly in academic journals and behind closed doors in seminars, today though anyone with an interest can read along in real time.
The question at stake is the issue of "secular stagnation", which is probably the biggest and most important controversy in macroeconomics today. This is not though a debate for the ivory tower, it's an issue with significant real world implications.
Whilst I doubt we'll hear any politician utter the phrase "secular stagnation" in our own general election campaign, it is (beneath the surface) one of the issues at stake.
Labour and the Conservatives are fighting the election on the basis of very different public spending plans, the largest gap between the parties in a generation.
At least in part, differing views on secular stagnation provide theoretical underpinning for these positions. George Osborne rejects the notion while Ed Balls co-chaired a commission that took the idea very seriously.
So what is secular stagnation? It's an idea that originated in the late 1930s with the US Keynesian economist Alvin Hansen. He worried that growth was fundamentally slowing and emphasised demographic factors (such as slowing population growth) as a driver of this. He was quickly proved wrong, in part by the postwar baby boom.
Larry Summers revised and updated the hypothesis in late 2013. Since then a veritable who's who of prominent macroeconomists have weighed into the debate on both sides.
In a nutshell secular stagnation is an attempt to explain the weakness of the global recovery in advanced economies since the 2008 crisis.
The central idea is that something has happened to the economy which means that the interest rate required to generate enough investment to bring the economy to full employment is now negative in real terms (i.e. after adjusting for inflation).
When inflation is low - as it is now across the advanced economies - that means it is exceptionally hard for central banks to set interest rates low enough to generate full employment.
If inflation is 2%, then an interest rate of 1% equates to a -1% real rate. But if inflation is zero, then an interest rate of 1% is still positive in real terms.
This is the issue of the "zero lower bound", the fact that (until recently anyway) there was widespread believe that interest rates could not be cut below zero.
Simply put, the Summers thesis is that advanced economic growth over the last few decades has been increasingly reliant on a series of financial bubbles (whether in tech stocks or housing) to generate enough investment to achieve full employment.
For Summers, the logic of secular stagnation points to a more expansionary fiscal policy.
If monetary policy is less effective due to the zero lower bound and low inflation, then fiscal policy (especially more government spending on infrastructure) should play a bigger role in driving growth.
Summers has restated the theory in a recent blog post.
Ben Bernanke takes issue with the idea of secular stagnation. His most important critique is that one has to consider the international dimension. He argues that if the rate of return on US investments was so low that investors would not be willing to investment without a negative real rate, they would seek higher returns abroad.
The availability of better investments abroad should help defeat secular stagnation at home.
As money flows out of the US that should weaken the dollar and help boost exports, which could help the economy get back to full employment. For Bernanke, secular stagnation in one country is unlikely to last.
He offers an alternative explanation for the macroeconomic history of recent decades, one focussed on international capital flows. It's a return to a previous theme of his own, the existence of a "global savings glut".
This the idea that, from the late 1990s until the late 2000s, there was a large excess of desired savings over desired investment in countries in East Asia and the oil producers in the Middle East.
These savings flowed to the US (and other advanced economies), pushing down interest rates and holding up the value of currencies such as the dollar. This led to large trade deficits in the US, as imports were cheap.
The observed behaviour of an economy suffering from secular stagnation or the impact of a global savings glut appear similar - low interest rates, low inflation and an inability get to full employment but the correct policy response is very different.
Under secular stagnation it is, as Summers argues, a fiscal expansion. But if the problem is a global savings glut then the right policy is to focus on what is driving the situation - i.e. over-saving abroad.
Bernanke argues that the big source of the previous glut was China but more recently it has been Germany.
Paul Krugman has now weighed into the debate. He agrees with many of the broad points made by both Summers and Bernanke.
Krugman points to the experience of Japan in the 1990s and early 2000s as an example of how a country can find itself trapped in a state of secular stagnation even with international capital mobility. Despite interest rates being much lower in Japan than, say, the US the real interest rates in the two countries were very similar.
The existence of deflation (falling prices) in Japan had a big impact on the real rates of return available. As Krugman explains:
"The moral of the Japanese example is that if other countries are managing to achieve a moderately positive rate of inflation, but you have let yourself slip into deflation or even into 'lowflation', you can indeed manage to find yourself in secular stagnation even if the rest of the world offers positive-return investment opportunities."
Professor Krugman argues that the current global savings glut - driven by Germany - is likely to persist. Poor demographics are likely to lead to weak demand in Europe, a continuing excess of desired savings over investment and persistently weak euro.
The problem for Krugman is that a secularly stagnating Europe is exporting much of that weakness abroad through a weak euro, which supports their own economy through boosting their exports but causes problems for producers overseas.
So whilst accepting much of Bernanke's analysis when it comes to policy, Krugman lines up with Summers. He thinks that if Europe's trade and investment balances are fundamentally about weak demand then the required response is boosting demand through fiscal policy.
So, who is right? Summers, Bernanke or Krugman?
All three make compelling cases and there are no doubt important elements of truth in all three cases. What we can say at this point, is that when three of the world's most distinguished economists disagree, it's worth paying attention to the debate.
I would add three observations.
The first is that Professor Krugman may (and it's just a "may" at this point) be too pessimistic on Europe. It sometimes feels like too many obituaries have been written on eurozone growth.
The second is that the debate between the three so far has focussed mainly on the demand side of the economy.
If we are trying to explain a historically weak global recovery it may be that neither secular stagnation nor a global savings glut offers the full story.
Certainly in the case of the UK, productivity growth (the ultimate driver of higher living standards) has been exceptionally weak. And even if the UK is an exceptional case, productivity weakness has been widespread globally - as Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Martin Weale has recently argued.
As Karl Whelan has argued, there are reasons to worry that this reflects a longer term trend rather than just a hang-over from the financial crisis.
In other words, if we are trying to explain weak growth we may need to pay as much attention to the supply side of the economy as the demand side. In fairness to Professor Summers, his broader secular stagnation thesis does take into account supply side factors which have reduced the desired rate of investment.
My final observation is one that is especially relevant during a general election campaign - that, to quite a large extent, the political debate on the economy suffers from an illusion of control.
Whether one listens to Krugman, Bernanke or Summers there are powerful global forces at work. Flows of capital and the state of world demand have a large impact on the size of the government's deficit, the level of interest rates and the economy's rate of growth.
In much of the British political debate most of these outcomes are assumed to be under UK policy makers' control.
I don't mean that be taking fatalistically or to imply that political choices don't matter for the economy - they very much do. But they aren't the only factor at work. | Over the last few days I've been reading a blog debate between former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers, former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman. |
29,343,927 | I stumbled on three themes.
One was the fury of Ed Miliband and his close circle with the prime minister - at what they saw as a cynical and short-termist attempt to turn English unease at the fiscal privileges going to Scotland into new voting procedures in the Commons that would favour the Tories.
A senior Labour official told me he didn't see how Ed Miliband could now negotiate the detail of Scotland's new budgetary arrangements with David Cameron, given the collapse of trust between the two.
All of which will increase the unease of Scottish nationalists that they may have been sold a hobbled pup of putative enhanced devolution by the main unionist parties in the closing days of the battle over whether Scotland would break free of the UK.
That said, if Cameron, Miliband and Clegg can swallow their personal animosities and sit round a table, what Labour would propose, or so I am told, would be a new federal structure for income tax.
This would divide income tax into a portion set by the UK chancellor of the exchequer, to cover the imputed proportional costs of UK-wide responsibilities, such as defence and diplomacy.
And then there would be a chunk reserved for Scottish responsibilities, including health, education and proposed additional elements of welfare.
The divide would be a bit spurious, in the sense that income tax - as opposed to other taxes, such as VAT - pays for only a chunk of total public services.
But this federal tax structure would give the Scottish parliament the wherewithal to expand or shrink the public sector according to the perceived needs of Scotland, and irrespective of what was happening in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
And if Wales and Northern Ireland wanted similar partial control over taxes, this federal model would presumably be workable for them.
But possibly Scots would feel short-changed by Labour's proposal, when the Tories have offered to hand stewardship of all income tax to them.
Also, would handing this power to Scotland be seen by English people as equitable, in view of the other element of what the unionist parties offered Scotland, namely more generous funding in perpetuity of public services from Westminster, via the Barnett formula?
Which brings me to my third Labour conference theme on all this, namely that MPs did in fact queue up to tell me how unhappy their constituents were that the Scots were getting more money than them from the UK kitty for public services, plus the right to set their own taxes.
The perception is that the Scots' public services are significantly better funded than England's. And at the level of the whole of England and the whole of Scotland, that is true.
But it isn't the whole story. Poorer English regions, such as the North East, receive more public funding per head than England as a whole - though they still don't do as well as Scotland.
So total public spending on services is £8,529 per head in England, £10,152 in Scotland, and £9,419 in north-east England.
As it happens, in the important provision of healthcare, the North East is actually a bit more generously financed than Scotland, receiving £2,066 per head, compared with £2,051 north of the border - though just £1,662 in the South East.
So is the bellyaching I heard from Labour's northern MPs about Scotland receiving special favours unfounded?
Probably not, for two reasons.
The first is that the North East is much poorer than Scotland as a whole, and has a disproportionate number of people out of work and in poor health. So it has been the convention since World War Two that there should be an element of correcting these regional social and economic inequalities in the allocation of public funds.
Using gross disposable household income as a proxy for inequality, folk in the north east are 12% poorer than Scots, and yet they receive 7% less money for all public services.
It is perhaps not unreasonable for north-easterners to argue that is unfair.
There is of course a school of thought that says public services should be earned, as it were, by the people who use them.
So there are Tory MPs in the South who say that the relatively small sums spent on health for their hardworking - and relatively prosperous - constituents is the true political crime.
Perhaps what these tensions and contradictory claims highlight more than anything is how there is no consensus about the regional distribution of taxpayers' money for public services.
And Scotland's new fiscal settlement has lit the touch paper on a potentially explosive national debate on all this.
One Labour MP, Nick Brown, told me he wanted a Barnett-style formula for all nations and regions - or a formula that allocates funding based on regional needs, such as the relative health of local people.
Or to put it another way, he wants to reduce the scope of governments to reallocate funds to constituencies and areas where a bit of de facto bribery might win precious votes at election time.
But assessing public service need is not hard science. There will always be an element of ideology and dirty politics in how public service funds are shared out.
That said, can anyone compellingly say why it is right to give comfort and confidence to the Scots that their public services will be generously resourced for years and years, while withholding that comfort from the people of the more deprived North East? | It did not feature much on the conference platform, but in the hurly burly of Labour's conference in Manchester the so-called English question loomed large - or what impact the planned, if vague, new constitutional settlement for Scotland should have on the way England is governed (and Wales and Northern Ireland too). |
38,791,978 | He told Scrum V Wales should give Davies' attacking abilities preference over fellow Osprey Dan Biggar at 10.
Davies said: "I would start with Sam Davies. You know what Biggar does and if it's a problem you put him on."
"It's all about creating opportunities and taking opportunities and that's the problem we've had," he said.
Davies thinks his namesake can help Wales' attackers to thrive.
"We haven't created anything. We don't score a lot of tries," he explained.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"And I think the problem we have is in our selection of midfield - are we creating enough or not?"
While Biggar, 27, could find himself out of the 10 jersey, Davies would be tempted to pick him at centre.
Wales coach Rob Howley has three regular specialists to choose from in Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies and Scott Williams.
"I might be tempted to play Biggar at 12 because he's got the distribution skills, he's got the kicking skills," said Davies.
"Get your three-quarter line going - and I think he's the best one in Wales.
"Biggar's a fine player. But if we are going to change genuinely and score 35 points a game, I think it starts with Sam Davies."
Davies also says wing George North must "step up" after not performing well "in the last couple of seasons".
Since bursting onto the international scene in 2010 as an 18-year-old, North has made 68 Test appearances, including a three-Test starring role for the British and Irish Lions as they beat Australia in 2013.
Northampton's North, now 24, has scored 29 international tries, 27 of them for Wales.
"George North has got to step up," Davies told Scrum V.
"We all recognise what a great player he has been for Wales, but in the last couple of seasons he hasn't performed.
"He needs to be on the stand-off or the centres' shoulder all the time (and they need to be) giving him the ball as much as they possibly can." | Sam Davies should start at fly-half in Wales' Six Nations opener against Italy, according to former captain Jonathan Davies. |
19,059,190 | Tuesday marks the 40th anniversary of the IRA bombings in which nine people were killed.
The Sinn Fein minister said the deaths and injuries were wrong and should not have happened.
He said they should motivate "everyone in our society to ensure such terrible tragedies never happen again".
"Today marks the anniversary of Claudy," Mr McGuinness said.
"It is also the 40th anniversary of two unarmed young men from Creggan in Derry who were shot by the British Army.
"Last week it was Bloody Friday. Next week is the anniversary of the killing of 19 people in Ballymurphy during internment week.
"It is my firm view that we need to find a better way of dealing with the legacy of the conflict which goes beyond individual acts of commemoration or remembrance and begins to deal with the very real hurt that exists throughout our society."
Mr McGuinness, a former IRA leader, said "all of the families of those who died or were injured deserve and are entitled to the truth about the deaths of their loved ones".
"We must collectively increase our efforts to heal the deep hurt caused by the Claudy bombings and all of the suffering in 1972, and continue to build on the progress of our peace process," he added.
Mr McGuinness has been criticised by Ulster Unionist security spokesman Tom Elliott.
"Martin McGuinness has rightly called the attack 'indefensible and appalling' but this means little when it is followed up by seeking equivalence for these IRA murders with the actions of the British Army who were seeking to combat that threat.
"To use the anniversary of what happened at Claudy as a means to attempt to revise history is shocking and certainly insensitive to victims' families," he said.
The Claudy bombings of 31 July 1972 were among the worst atrocities of the Northern Ireland troubles.
In 2010, a Northern Ireland police ombudsman's report said detectives had concluded that the late Fr James Chesney, who was later moved to the Irish Republic, was a suspect.
It said the police, the state and the Catholic Church had covered up Fr Chesney's suspected role in the bombing.
No action was ever taken against Fr Chesney, who died in 1980.
Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson said that the government was "profoundly sorry" that Fr Chesney had not been properly investigated.
Both Protestants and Catholics were killed in the Claudy blasts.
The youngest victim was eight-year-old Kathryn Eakin who was cleaning the windows of her family's grocery store when the first bomb exploded. | The Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, has said the Claudy bombings of 1972 were "indefensible and appalling". |
29,109,909 | The station will be used to fill Reading Buses' fleet of 34 gas-run buses, as well as 113 taxis which are going to switch to part gas.
Transport minister Baroness Kramer opened the station and announced £360,000 of government funding towards a hybrid gas taxi programme.
She said the town's commitment to using renewable energy was "very impressive".
She said: "If you look at communities across the UK there are very few that you can find, if any, that have so much of their public transport going to super green fuel."
She added gas use was good for the environment and air quality.
The station in Great Knollys Street will also be available to commercial vehicles.
James Freeman, chief executive of Reading Transport, said: "Not only do we have one of the biggest fleets of vehicles powered by bio-methane in the country, but we have the largest - and most comprehensive - fuel compression storage and delivery system in the UK bus industry."
Reading Buses also has 31 hybrid buses. | A £1m environmentally-friendly gas station has opened in Reading to power public transport in the town. |
37,815,314 | The 08:13 (07:13 GMT) and the 09:13 (08:13 GMT) Paris to London services were delayed by 20 and 30 minutes respectively.
Passengers were evacuated into the main hall at Paris Gare du Nord as a precaution and police were called.
A Eurostar spokeswoman said train services from the station then returned to normal. | Two Eurostar trains were delayed on Sunday morning after a passenger tried to take a World War Two shell on board. |
35,908,700 | The Justice 4 Michael Ross group has launched a website which alleges police lost a diary belonging to the victim.
Michael Ross was convicted in 2008 of murdering Bangladeshi waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood in a restaurant in Kirkwall.
Police Scotland declined to comment on the website's claims.
In 2014, Ross failed in a bid to have his conviction re-examined.
He was told by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission there was not enough evidence to support a miscarriage of justice claim.
Since his original conviction, Justice 4 Michael Ross has campaigned for the case to be overturned because of what it describes as a lack of evidence presented at his trial.
Ross was 15 when he shot Mr Mahmood, 26, in the head in Kirkwall's Mumataz restaurant in full view of a room full of diners, including families with children.
The former Black Watch sniper was jailed for a minimum of 25 years after being convicted of murder. | A group campaigning for the release of a man jailed for the murder of a waiter in Orkney in 1994 is claiming a vital piece of evidence was misplaced by police who investigated the case. |
36,417,994 | Manager Chris Coleman has hinted he is ready to field Bale in Stockholm, despite the concern of him picking up an injury ahead of the tournament.
Chester wants to see Bale go head-to-head with reported Man United target, Sweden star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
"To have the ability of both of them on the same pitch, it will make for a real spectacle," he told BBC Radio Wales.
Chester, more of a certain pick for his country than for club side West Brom, is looking forward to competing against Ibrahimovic, who broke the 50-goal mark this season at previous club Paris Saint-Germain and has previous form when it comes to tormenting British defenders.
"Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a player I have always watched and wondered how I would fare against him," Chester explained.
"He's one of those players who has it all, the physical side, he's very good on the ball with his feet, so it is a challenge where I am intrigued to see how I compete.
"Reaching the finals, we will being coming up against quality every game. But thankfully, they aren't all of the talent of Zlatan Ibrahimovic."
Chester feels the trip to Sweden is vital as Wales prepare for a first major tournament appearance in 58 years. They face in-form Slovakia in their first match on 11 June in a group also featuring England and Russia.
"The build-up will be Zlatan v Bale. It is a really good game to be involved in, it is important we get some form to take into [the] Slovakia game," he said.
"The result may not matter, but it is important to get some form."
Wales' qualification for France has been dominated by talk of their showdown with England in Lens on 16 June, but Chester feels Wales have every reason to feel they can surprise people at the Euros, especially with Bale and Aaron Ramsey in their ranks.
"It's great to be there after such a long time but we don't want to go and not give a true account of ourselves," he said.
"We performed really well in qualifying, kept two clean sheets against one of the best international teams in the world [Belgium] so I think we've shown that we've got a great team and two very world class individuals in our team on their day.
"If we can perform like we have done in qualifying then we can surprise a few people.
"We understand that if we perform to our best then we can be difficult to beat with Gareth and Aaron's ability.
"We know that if we can keep games tight then we're in a really good position to get results. Hopefully we can improve and get better and better." | Defender James Chester is hopeful that Gareth Bale can play his part in Wales' final warm-up game before the Euros. |
33,439,026 | The new movie is to be directed by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, the men behind the hugely successful Lego movie.
The charismatic criminal turned Rebellion hero returns in Star Wars' next instalment: The Force Awakens this Christmas.
Actor Harrison Ford last played Solo in 1983's Return of the Jedi.
No details or casting have been yet been announced but the script will be written by father and son team Lawrence and Jon Kasdan.
The senior Kasdan co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, the latter with director JJ Abrams.
There was a huge excitement in the fan community earlier this year when an extended trailer for the new film featured a brief appearance of Solo and his Millennium Falcon co-pilot Chewbacca, appearing to be on the deck of his famous spaceship, uttering the words, "Chewie, we're home..."
The untitled Han Solo project is scheduled to be released on 25 May 2018.
It follows the first stand-alone Star Wars anthology film Rogue One, which is due next year.
Aaron Paul
The Breaking Bad star has sent the rumour mill into overdrive after the Star Wars official Twitter account started following him.
The 35-year-old Instagrammed a screenshot of the moment, captioning that his "dreams are coming true." Unsurprisingly he is the favourite for the role according to bookmakers.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
The 25-year-old Brit and husband of Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson most recently starred in the Marvel blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Josh Hutcherson
No stranger to movie franchises, the Hunger Games actor is Buzzfeed's number one choice.
Chris Pratt
The Jurassic World actor's star has rocketed after Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World.
Rumoured to be the next star of Indiana Jones, could the Harrison Ford likeness make him a popular candidate?
Armie Hammer
Best known for his portrayal as the Winklevoss twins in 2010's The Social Network and the title for in 2013's The Lone Ranger, this role could propel Hammer into a superstar stratosphere.
Chris Hemsworth
The Aussie actor is known for his action roles, currently starring as Marvel's Thor and appearing in the Avengers movie franchise. He also appeared briefly in JJ Abrams' Star Trek reboot, as Captain Kirk's father.
Jack O'Connell
Angelina Jolie's a fan of this Brit, having cast him in her most recent directorial project, Unbroken. Last year's winner of the Bafta Rising Star Award, landing the part of Han would be the proof of the pudding.
Zac Efron
Known for his vocal roles in High School Musical and Hairspray, the role of Han would mark a change of direction for the 27-year-old.
Nicholas Hoult
Big action movies have become second nature to this 25-year-old having starred in the X-Men franchise as Hank McCoy as well as in Mad Max. He's an outside shot at the role though according to bookmakers. | A Star Wars spin-off film will tell the back story of space smuggler Han Solo, Disney has announced. |
34,447,899 | United Utilities said it has to close an existing badly-damaged sewer and create a new 130m stretch of sewer on Mancunian Way.
Manchester City Council said it is trying to minimise the disruption.
The second hole opened last month near to work fixing a road collapse caused by heavy rainfall in August.
Tony Griffiths, area manager for United Utilities, said it hoped to repair the sewer but had found the damage was greater than expected.
He also said that the geological problems had added to the company's difficulties.
Mr Griffiths said sealing off the old sewer - built in the 1920s - digging the first new tunnel in Manchester for many years had doubled the repair bill to £4m.
"It is not just a significant piece of civil engineering, it is also a significant cost," he added.
Councillor Kate Chappell (Labour), who is responsible for highways on Manchester City Council, said: "It is going to take until the New Year but the most important thing for ourselves and United Utilities is to make sure it is going to be the fix for the next generation."
The work would create disruption during the run-up to Christmas but she added the council was delaying some roadworks until the New Year and has brought other works forward to open new routes.
Repairs to the first hole, which was 15ft (4.5m), were being carried out by United Utilities and Manchester City Council. | A new sewer needs to be dug under one of Manchester's busiest roads as part of repairs on two holes which have opened in two months. |
38,168,327 | James Tainsh's bosses set up the hidden camera after the women complained bottles they had left on their desks "smelled funny".
A court heard that the conduct had been going on for some time before Tainsh was apprehended.
A sheriff told the 64-year-old his behaviour was "absolutely disgusting".
Tainsh, of Braehead, Stirling, was caught on CCTV taking empty water bottles and used cups out of a bin, urinating in them, and putting them back on female workers' desks.
He was also seen taking an empty chewing gum container out of a bin, performing a sex act with it, and putting it on one of the women's desks.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that two female workers at the firm had complained that items on their desks were being interfered with after they had gone home.
Prosecutor Samanatha Brown said: "The inference was that the women may well have drunk out of bottles affected.
"What drew their attention was that bottles that had been left on their desks had been moved around."
Tainsh admitted committing a breach of the peace in October.
The court ruled the offence contained a "significant sexual element".
Simon Hutchison, defending, said Tainsh had lost his job at the firm, where he had worked for 22 years.
Sheriff Derek Livingston said: "His attitude to the offence seems to be almost one of justification; that it's one of the women's fault because he thought she was flirting with him."
Mr Hutchison said: "Or flirting with someone else, and he wasn't happy about it."
Sheriff Livingston ordered Tainsh to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay the women compensation.
Tainsh was also placed under supervision and on the sex offenders register for three years.
Sheriff Livingston told him: "I am very tempted to impose a custodial sentence, your behaviour was absolutely disgusting." | A man caught on CCTV urinating into two female work colleagues' water bottles has been ordered to pay them £1,500 compensation. |
39,260,828 | The two Paris sides announced their intention to merge from next season in a joint statement released on Monday.
Stade Francais host Racing 92 in the Top 14 on 29 April.
"There is a desire to build a side that can maybe be better than any other club in Europe," said Richard Pool-Jones.
The former Stade player confirmed the move was also motivated by a need to find "a financially viable model" with both clubs having generated "significant losses forever".
"Of course there is the financial aspect to it, which is very important but there is a positive side of combining forces so we can win titles," Pool-Jones told BBC Radio 5 live.
Racing are the reigning French champions, while Stade won the title in 2015, but both have struggled this season, lying in eighth and 11th respectively.
When asked whether players would be playing for their futures at the new club when the sides meet next month, Pool-Jones said: "I think that's a fair assessment.
"Sport is about competition and players know there are financial challenges for both clubs.
"This is a shock, it's not a particularly comfortable place for any of the players, but it's where we're at."
Pool-Jones explained that negotiations between the two clubs had only been going on for "a matter of weeks" and the merger plan was kept "a very well-preserved secret" until players were informed on Monday morning.
He added that the merger needed to be done in "an intelligent and respectful way" because of the rivalry between the clubs.
Stade Francais supporters demonstrated against the proposed merger at the club's stadium on Monday.
"I spent years enjoying standing all over the Racing club shirt, not that we don't respect it, and the same can be said of the Racing players about Stade Francais," Pool-Jones said.
"It's a very strong rivalry, as strong a rivalry as you'll find in rugby.
"It's never easy but it's about bringing the fans around and it's important to preserve the historical identities of both clubs in the new entity."
That approach will see elements of both shirts incorporated into a new design as well as a proposal to alternate home matches between Racing's new U Arena, due to be completed later in 2017, and Stade's recently expanded Stade Jean-Bouin.
The proposed amalgamation has to be ratified by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). | Contracts at a new club formed by the merger of French sides Racing 92 and Stade Francais are "up for grabs" when the rivals play each other next month, according to Stade's deputy chairman. |
39,821,565 | With rampant unemployment, some are promising jobs and others cash hand-outs as they appeal for votes.
Given his record, winning this election ought to be easy for incumbent Hassan Rouhani - but his re-election is by no means a certainty.
Mr Rouhani managed to strike an historic deal in 2015 with world powers over Iran's controversial nuclear programme, resolving a long-standing crisis with the West.
International sanctions were lifted as a result, but average Iranians say they do not feel the economic benefits in their daily lives.
"For the past two years, many have stayed away from the property market, first with the hope prices would fall post-sanctions and now for the fear of what happens in the elections," says Ali Saeedi, a real estate agent.
"Many of my colleagues left their jobs because the market is dead," Mr Saeedi, 33, says.
Iran's housing sector shrank 13% in the year to March 2017, while the country's overall economy grew by almost 6.6%, estimates International Monetary Fund.
That growth came mostly from increased oil exports following the lifting of sanctions.
For young Iranians like Ali Saeedi there is no shortage of promises these days.
Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who is running for president, says he will create five million jobs in four years, if elected.
Iran's highest record in the past four decades has been creating 600,000 jobs a year.
Iran's current unemployment rate stands at 12.7%, up 1.7% over the past year. That puts the number of those with absolutely no employment at 3.3 million.
But when it comes to young people, one in every three of those aged 15-24 is jobless. In that age group, every other woman is unemployed.
For those without a job, Mr Qalibaf is also offering a 2.5m rial ($66) monthly unemployment benefit, a first in the 38 years since since the Islamic Revolution.
The price tag for this election promise alone is a staggering $2.6bn. Mr Qalibaf does not say where he will find the money, nor how he will manage to double Iran's job creation record.
Ebrahim Raisi, another conservative candidate, topped Mr Qalibaf's promise with a bid of his own, pledging to create six million jobs.
The 57-year-old cleric and former prosecutor, who runs the Shia shrine in north-eastern city of Mashhad - and its financial empire - also promised to triple cash hand-outs for the poorest 30% of Iranian population.
As compensation for removing fuel subsidies, Iranians receive 455,000 rials a month. Tripling that stipend for 24 million people would amount to $3.5bn a year.
Mr Raisi, too, has failed to specify where that money will come from.
"It's as if they are bidding in an auction. The economy does not work like that," says Ahmad Alavi, an Iranian economist based in Stockholm, Sweden.
"Those words are attractive, but what the populist candidates forget is that memories of Mr Ahmadinejad are fresh."
Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in his two terms (2005-2013) started cash hand-outs when removing subsidies, offered low-interest loans for small businesses and launched massive projects of affordable housing for the poor.
But when Mr Ahmadinejad left office the economy was shrinking by 7% a year and inflation reached 40%. He blamed international sanctions. Economists blamed Mr Ahmadinejad's populist policies and his mismanagement of the economy.
President Rouhani has brought GDP growth back into the black, inflation into single-digits and trade deficit into a surplus.
But expectations are high and Mr Rouhani himself is to blame, having promised miracles once the sanctions were lifted.
Most members of Iran's fledgling private sector say they will give Mr Rouhani another chance.
"We want him to improve the business environment and free the economy from rent-seeking, corruption and monopoly," says Hamid Hosseini, chief executive of Soroosh oil refinery in Iran.
Mr Hosseini is a board member of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines and the founder of the country's oil products export union.
He says a large group of private sector executives have come together to support Mr Rouhani.
"His government has given the society hope with lifting sanctions, increasing growth and tourism, attracting foreign investment and should be confident in this race," Mr Hosseini says.
But the choice for some young Iranians like Ali Saeedi is not crystal-clear.
"All I care about is that the property market moves. The real contenders are the lawyer [Hassan Rouhani], the cleric [Ebrahim Raisi] and the mayor [Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf]," he says.
"I may vote for the mayor, but the cleric will win!" | As polling day draws closer in Iran, the state of the economy has become the key battleground for the six candidates running for president. |
34,687,646 | The 34-year-old from Lambeth was arrested on Thursday and has been bailed until a date in December.
The Met said women should "remain vigilant" when travelling at night.
Police are appealing for information over a series of attacks, including one on a 26-year-old woman sexually assaulted on her doorstep.
Officers first arrested another man on Monday, but launched an appeal after the assaults continued.
The attacks in Clapham and Brixton Hill areas started at 23:30 on 9 October and were followed by a second nearly two hours later.
A third assault occurred on 22 October, prompting police to arrest a man on 26 October, but while he was in custody three more incidents took place that evening.
On Thursday, officers appealed for witnesses, which led to the recent arrest.
During the first incident, a 23-year-old woman was grabbed and sexually assaulted on Clitheroe Road, Clapham, she managed to raise the alarm and the suspect ran off.
Two hours later, a 30-year-old woman was grabbed in Deauville Court when a man approached her and tried to talk to her.
She asked him to leave her alone but he assaulted her before walking away.
On 22 October, a man put his hand up the dress of a 32-year-old woman walking along Trent Road.
Four days later a further three incidents occurred, police said.
About an hour before the woman was assaulted on her doorstep, a 35-year-old was grabbed from behind on Arodene Road as she walked home.
An hour later a man exposed himself to a 28-year-old woman on Sandmere Road as she entered her house.
Two more incidents were reported to police on Wednesday, when at 19:20 GMT a 28-year-old woman was grabbed on Southwell Road.
Hours later a 31-year-old woman was pushed into a nearby block of flats along Sudbourne Road and sexually assaulted before the suspect ran away.
Police patrols in Clapham and Brixton Hill have been increased.
Det Sgt Gordon Barclay, leading the investigation, said: "We would still like to advise women to remain vigilant when travelling at night."
The man arrested on 26 October has been bailed until a date in November. | A man has been bailed after his arrest following eight sexual assaults within three weeks in south London. |
38,096,370 | The Spaniard was clarifying comments he made to former F1 driver Mark Webber, who has retired after three years in the World Endurance Championship.
He said to Webber: "I will ask you many things when I join your adventure."
Alonso later said Le Mans was an "attractive challenge" but added: "The first thing I want to do and will do is to win the third world title in F1."
The 35-year-old has one year left on his McLaren contract and has said he will decide whether to stay in F1 after 2017 once he has experienced the new design of cars that will be introduced next season.
He described his comments about wanting to race at Le Mans as "nothing new".
"I am committed to F1 100% next year with the team," he said. "In the future it is a very attractive challenge and thing to do, the Le Mans 24 Hours, because I like the category and I like the cars.
"But that future, I don't know if it means in two years' time, five years' time or 11 years' time."
Alonso, champion in 2005 and 2006, said he felt 2016 had been one of his best seasons in F1.
He has out-qualified team-mate Jenson Button at more than 80% of races where a fair comparison can be made, at an average advantage of 0.34secs.
Alonso is 10th in the drivers' championship with 53 points, while Button - who will retire at the end of the season - has 21.
Alonso added: "2012 is probably my best season in F1. Then 2014 could be my second best, and then this one probably will be on the final step of the podium so far in my opinion because I felt very confident with the car in every condition.
"Even the last 10 laps in Brazil I felt really competitive with 40-lap old tyres and things like that.
"That gave me the opportunity to drive on the limit on many occasions and Jenson is an incredible driver. Last year I saw that and experienced it and this year I was able to be in front of him many times.
"I'm happy with the things we have done and the progress of the team as well, a completely different taste this final race in Abu Dhabi compared to 12 months ago when we were disappointed, sad, many things were going on in our heads last year.
"This year everything is optimistic and joy. We know there is still a long way to go to become champions but the feeling is much more happy than last year." | McLaren's Fernando Alonso says he is "100% committed" to staying in Formula 1 and winning a third world title. |
39,107,315 | He told NBC's Today programme a free media was needed to call those in power to account.
President Donald Trump has feuded with some media groups since taking office, calling negative news coverage "fake".
Mr Bush also said that the question of any links between associates of Donald Trump and the Russian government "does need to be answered".
President Bush was speaking to Today's Matt Lauer ostensibly to promote his new book - a collection of portraits of military veterans he has met.
Mr Bush said: "Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power."
Mr Trump has branded some parts of the media as "enemies of America".
Mr Bush said he had spent time in office trying to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin that he needed an independent media.
"It's kind of hard to tell others to have an independent, free press when we're not willing to have one ourselves," Mr Bush said.
Mr Trump's latest brush with the media was to announce that he was pulling out of the traditional White House Correspondents' Association dinner on 29 April.
And on Friday, the BBC, CNN, Buzzfeed and the New York Times were among media groups barred from an off-camera informal briefing held by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
Mr Bush was also asked about whether any links between Trump aides and Russian officials during a presidential election campaign that was dogged by allegations of Russian hacking attacks should be formally investigated.
"I think we all need answers... I'm not sure the right avenue to take. I am sure, though, that that question needs to be answered."
Mr Bush was also asked about Mr Trump's executive order attempting to temporarily ban immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations.
He said only that "I am for an immigration policy that is welcoming and upholds the law", but also stressed that "people should be able to worship who they want to or not at all", calling this the "bedrock of our freedom".
The former president was asked to compare the divisions today with those he faced after his election in 2000, with the contentious and disputed defeat of Al Gore.
He said: "It's hard to compare times. One thing is for certain the job's a tough job. Everybody looks at the presidency one way and when they they get into office, they find out there's a reality to the job."
But he said Mr Trump had only had one month in office. "You have to take the man for his word that he wants to unify the country," Mr Bush said.
The former president was promoting his book Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors, proceeds of which will go to help post-9/11 veterans and their families transition to civilian life. | Former US President George W Bush has said a free press is "indispensable to democracy" during a rare TV interview. |
36,067,663 | The 27-year-old was one over for the tournament after a final-round 70, with Joost Luiten a shot behind and Sergio Garcia finishing on three over.
Tournament host Garcia produced the best round of the final day with 67 but missed from 10 feet for an eagle on the 17th and bogeyed the last.
"It's great, I'm so happy with the way I played," said Johnston.
"I drove the ball well all week, chipped and putted pretty well but struggled a bit with my irons the first three days.
"I just kept going and digging in and found something on the fourth.
"I hit one four iron as a lay-up and hit it straight out of the middle and was like 'OK, there you go, that's the feeling', and I managed to keep that going the whole way through."
Overnight leader Michael Lorenzo-Vera quickly dropped down the standings before two-time major winner Martin Kaymer and playing partner Luiten had spells at the top of the standings.
However, they fell away and Johnston made up for a three-putt bogey on the 14th with a birdie from 20 feet on the 16th on the way to victory.
Never want to miss the latest golf news? You can now add this sport and all the other sports and teams you follow to your personalised My Sport home. | England's Andrew Johnston won his first European Tour title with victory by one shot at the Spanish Open in Valderrama. |
34,979,910 | Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Patricia Gallan said officers would "go forward" to confront gunmen in a marauding attack.
She was speaking after an exercise to test the way armed officers would deal with an incident in a shopping centre.
This routine training was arranged before the Paris attacks.
The firearms tactics were made public for the first time after the training exercise, although the approach has been used since the attacks in Mumbai, India in 2008.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw says although negotiation is still an option, armed officers are now trained to meet the threat head on, rather than stand back.
The Paris attacks appear to have reinforced the view within policing that officers need to go forward, he added.
Ms Gallan, Scotland Yard's head of specialist crime and operations, said the policy "would potentially save the most lives".
"We appreciate within that there could be casualties and when meeting that threat they will have to walk over casualties that might have been injured and wait for somebody else to treat them as they go forward," she said.
She added that the casualties might also include officers' colleagues.
"The most important thing is to actually get to the threat and stop them killing additional people, and that is why we've got to keep going forward and not tend to those that are injured at the time," she said.
By Danny Shaw, BBC home affairs correspondent
At 11:00 GMT on Tuesday, a group of men with guns stormed an empty office complex in central London.
It was the latest in a series of terrorism training exercises for police firearms officers, which have an extra sense of urgency about them since the Paris attacks.
The air inside the building soon filled with grenade smoke and the sound of gunshots, though the weapons fired paintball pellets rather than live rounds, one of few concessions to health and safety. This is about as realistic as a training session can be.
There remains a place for patient negotiations; incidents will still be assessed case by case.
But police know they have to be able to confront attackers head on, at speed, without looking back - and training is the best way to prepare.
There are more than 2,000 firearms officers in the Met and Ms Gallan said there was a "very good possibility" there would be an increase in the number of officers trained and authorised to carry guns.
The training exercise simulated a group of terrorists armed with guns and bombs storming a shopping centre.
It took place in the City of London and was part of annual training for the Met's authorised firearms officers.
Armed response patrols in London have been stepped up since the attacks in Paris last month, which left 130 people dead and hundreds more injured.
The group calling itself Islamic State has said it carried out the wave of shootings and suicide bombings, which targeted a concert hall, bars and restaurants. | Firearms officers might have to "walk over casualties" in the event of a Paris-style UK attack to deal with the threat, a senior officer has said. |
35,010,807 | The Passenger Name Record (PNR) system will allow access to passenger information including names, contact details and credit cards.
Details would be collected from European carrier flights entering or leaving the EU - as well as from those between member countries.
Security concerns were raised following the 13 November attacks in Paris.
What Paris means for Europe
The system would be "indispensable in the fight against terrorism", French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
Luxembourg Interior Minister Etienne Scheider said: "The compromise agreed today will enable the EU to set up an effective PNR system which fully respects fundamental rights and freedoms.
"After so many years of debate, we have finally reached a deal."
The PNR system was first proposed in 2007, but lawmakers struggled to pass it because of privacy concerns.
A new sense of urgency was brought to the negotiations in the wake of the Paris attacks. | The EU has agreed on a system to share airline passenger details in a bid to improve counter-terrorism efforts. |
28,313,388 | Woods, who won the last of his three Opens at Royal Liverpool in 2006, had surgery in March for a back injury that "made it difficult to get out of bed".
But despite playing only one tournament since then, the 14-time major champion said there was only one acceptable result at Hoylake this week.
"First," said the American. "That's always the case."
At 38, after four left knee operations, as well as neck and Achilles injuries, many observers believe age and an ailing body are the biggest barriers to Woods overtaking Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major titles.
The American has not added to his tally since the 2008 US Open, but Woods is adamant he can still succeed at the highest level despite no longer having a monopoly on golf's power game.
"When my knee was bad I could still chip and putt, I could still go out there on the golf course," he said.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"But with this back I didn't want to do anything. I couldn't get out of bed, I couldn't move around the house. I couldn't actually enjoy my life.
"The people who have had my surgery say the same thing. It changes your life. It takes away all the pain.
"You're sore from the incision but you don't have that radiating pain down the leg. Once that was removed, I knew it was only a matter of time before I could get out here and play at the elite level again.
"Once I started getting stronger, more stable, I could work on my explosiveness and start getting my speed back. I'm probably not at the level I think I can be as far as my explosion through the golf ball but I'm pretty darn close."
Woods missed the cut on his comeback from surgery at the Quicken Loans National at Congressional last month but was encouraged by how his back responded.
"It was such a big moment because I didn't have any setbacks," he said.
At Hoylake on Tuesday, Woods went out for a practice round at 07:10 BST, along with former world number one rival David Duval and fellow American Hunter Mahan.
Looking relaxed and in control of his game, Woods unleashed a drive up the fifth and fired a stinging long iron down the seventh, a shot reminiscent of eight years ago when he famously used his driver only once after an eight-week summer heatwave baked the Hoylake fairways and produced fiery, firm conditions.
Woods missed the cut in the US Open that year a month after his father Earl had died at the age of 74, but he says he experienced a sense of serenity at Hoylake as he clinched his 11th major title and cried on the shoulder of then caddie Steve Williams on the 18th green.
"I felt at peace," said Woods. "I really felt calm. It was surreal at the time. It felt like my Dad was watching me, like he was my 15th club."
Since then, Woods has won three more majors - the US PGA the following month as well as the 2007 US PGA and 2008 US Open - but scandal, divorce, injury and a change of swing coach have taken their toll.
"Life is completely different to how it was then," said Woods.
As a person I've gone through a lot. I've lost a parent, I've got two kids, I've got a completely different golf swing. A lot of aspects of my game and life have changed since 2006."
Media playback is not supported on this device
The one thing that remains constant is his competitive drive.
Asked if he really believes he can win despite his lack of competitive practice, Woods recalled an incident from 2008.
Following knee surgery, he failed to break 50 for nine holes on the Sunday before the US Open but went on to claim his 14th major, beating countryman Rocco Mediate in a play-off despite cruciate knee ligament damage and a broken leg.
"I've been in circumstances like this before," Woods told the media on Tuesday. "I've proven I can do it."
Another reporter asked Woods if he would continue playing through his 40s and even 50s to beat Nicklaus.
"Hopefully, I'll have it done by then," he responded. | Tiger Woods insists winning is his only goal at this week's Open Championship despite another injury-hit season. |
33,429,290 | In 2012 a tribunal ruled that the club's use of Employee Benefit Trusts, which provided tax-free loans, was not illegal.
Lawyers acting for HMRC told the court it was being asked to endorse a "fantastically silly proposition".
The challenge concerns the company which ran Rangers until 2012.
HM Revenue and Customs maintains that the effect of previous tribunal decisions in the case is that employees can avoid paying income tax by agreeing that payments be made to others of their choosing, rather than getting the money themselves.
Their lawyer, Julian Ghosh QC, told the court: "When money is paid for something you did it is also derived by the earner, the worker.
"This cash payment was part of the remuneration package. It was wages and bonuses. This money was earned for work done."
He said so far as the players were concerned it was for appearing in football matches and winning games and for the executives for work performed.
In July 2014, an upper tribunal dismissed an HMRC appeal against a first-tier decision on payments made to players and other employees, although it did send some aspects of the case back to the first tier tribunal.
The Revenue is arguing that both a first tier tribunal and the upper tribunal, chaired by Lord Doherty, erred in the case.
Its appeal argues: "The scheme in this case was established in terms that had effect so that, on appointment of the funds to the individual sub-trusts, the sums in question were 'paid' to the employee."
The use of employee benefit trusts relate back to Sir David Murray's time in charge of the Ibrox club before ownership changed.
The company which owned Rangers was subsequently forced into administration while under Craig Whyte's control and later went into liquidation.
The appeal at the Court of Session in Edinburgh before the Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Carloway, sitting with Lord Menzies and Lord Drummond Young is set down to last four days. | Three senior judges have begun hearing a legal challenge to the original outcome of the so-called Rangers "big tax case". |
40,579,766 | Joe Howlett succeeded in rescuing the whale, only to be struck by it moments later as it flipped into the water.
He was a lobster fisherman by trade and a founder of the whale rescue group on Campobello Island, New Brunswick.
Friends told the Canadian Press he had saved some two dozen whales over 15 years.
Mackie Green, a friend of Mr Howlett who had founded the rescue team with him, said: "They got the whale totally disentangled and then some kind of freak thing happened and the whale made a big flip."
"Joe definitely would not want us to stop because of this," he added. "This is something he loved and there's no better feeling than getting a whale untangled, and I know how good he was feeling after cutting that whale clear."
The animal was a North Atlantic right whale - an endangered species that may grow to about 15m (50 feet) in length and weigh up to 70 tonnes.
The species is "critically endangered", with about 500 left alive, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Seven were found dead in Canada's Gulf of St Laurence in the last month - a significant blow to the global population.
Mr Howlett was on board a government response vessel at the time of his death.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said he had rescued another whale days before, on 5 July. Rescuers like Mr Howlett had "immense bravery and a passion for the welfare of marine mammals", it said.
"There are serious risks involved with any disentanglement attempt. Each situation is unique, and entangled whales can be unpredictable."
Mr Howlett lived on Campobello Island, a small community on the border with the US, where locals have been paying tribute to the well-known rescue worker.
"There's only 850 people here on Campobello Island now and Joe was a very lively character, he had a great sense of humour," mayor Stephen Smart told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
"Everybody knew Joe Howlett and everybody respected Joe Howlett... it's a big blow." | A Canadian man has been killed during a rescue operation after he cut an endangered whale free from tangled fishing lines. |
30,359,468 | The trees, which have been in the field in Dunnington for seven years, were systematically attacked, causing £20,000 of damage, police said.
North Yorkshire Police said the owners of Market Garden on Eastfield Lane were "devastated" by the "cruel and malicious act".
The incident happened between 11:00 GMT on Tuesday and 10:00 on Friday. | Vandals have destroyed more than 1,000 Christmas trees being grown for sale near York. |
34,692,615 | It said the majority of the incidents on Saturday were located in the Southern Command Area (36%).
Most involved rubbish and bonfires. There were a number of calls about tyres that had been set alight.
Twenty-five of the incidents were bonfire-related with NIFRS crews only having to take action seven times. | The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) attended 113 incidents at Halloween, which it says is a slight increase on last year. |
33,592,242 | Platini is said to have had assurances of support from his own confederation, Asia, South America, plus North and Central America and the Caribbean.
It is thought 60-year-old Platini has yet to decide if he will stand.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter said on 2 June he would stand down and on Monday will announce plans for reform of football's world governing body.
On Monday, Fifa announced it will hold an extraordinary congress to elect a new president on 26 February 2016.
Blatter, 79, was elected for a fifth term as president on 29 May but four days later announced his intention to relinquish the post amid two corruption investigations.
Former Fifa presidential candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, who lost to Blatter in the May election, has called for the Swiss to leave immediately.
"President Blatter's resignation cannot be dragged out any longer. He must leave now," said the 39-year-old, who has been president of Jordan's national football body since 1999 and gave no indication whether he intends to run again for the presidency.
"He cannot be permitted to plan his succession and manage this election process. An interim independent leadership must be appointed to administer the process of the elections, in addition to the reforms that are being discussed prior to the elections."
Blatter is not expected to backtrack on his announcement to stand aside as president, despite appearing to suggest in June he was reconsidering his decision. | Uefa boss Michel Platini has been asked by a majority of world football chiefs to stand for the Fifa presidency. |
39,131,531 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The flyweight, 34, said she was determined to change people's perception of her sport.
Adams told BBC Sport she had already changed promoter Frank Warren's mind.
"He said seeing me compete in the Games, he wanted to sign me as a professional," she said. "Hopefully I can change more people's minds."
Adams was interviewed on ITV's Good Morning Britain on Wednesday.
Beforehand, presenter Piers Morgan tweeted he did not like watching women punch each other.
Speaking to the BBC later, Adams said: "I don't mind if you don't watch it. I don't mind if you don't like it, just as long as you don't stop the women and girls who want to compete in boxing from achieving their goals and their dreams and becoming Olympic champions like me.
"I've grown up alongside this my whole life during my career in boxing but it's sometimes nice to be able to change someone's perception about women's boxing."
Adams is aiming to secure a world title fight in 2018 after making her professional debut in Manchester on 8 April. | Two-time Olympic champion Nicola Adams says she does not mind objections to women boxing - as long as they are allowed to achieve their dreams. |
36,398,917 | Full-back Bolton, 22, leaves the Shaymen less than a week after winning the FA Trophy at Wembley, and is reunited with former boss Neil Aspin.
The England C international call-up, who can play right or centre-back, spent two full seasons at the Shay.
"I think he is good enough to play in the Football League," Aspin said.
"Hopefully we can make that happen at Gateshead. He has all the right attributes. He is tall, he is mobile and he has room to develop further. And I feel he will do that." | Gateshead have signed defender James Bolton on a three-year deal after his stint with FC Halifax Town finished at the end of the season. |
28,739,975 | Mr Abadi had previously been nominated prime minister by Shia parties, instead of the incumbent Nouri Maliki.
But Mr Maliki said Mr Abadi's nomination was a "violation of the constitution". Mr Maliki has made it clear he wants a third term in office.
US President Barack Obama is due to give a statement on the issue at 2045 GMT.
Meanwhile the jihadist insurgency in the north of Iraq continues to cause international concern.
Fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group have made substantial gains in northern Iraq in recent months, forcing tens of thousands of people from religious minorities to flee their homes.
The US has begun supplying weapons to the Kurdish Peshmergas who are fighting the militants, senior US officials have told the Associated Press.
Iraq's security forces are also supporting the Kurdish fighters, and have already delivered three plane-loads of ammunition, a US official told the BBC.
In Baghdad, Iraqi President Fuad Masum said in a TV address that he hoped Mr Abadi would succeed in forming a government that would "protect the Iraqi people".
"The country is now in your hands," Mr Masum told Mr Abadi, according to the French news agency AFP.
Following his nomination, Mr Abadi called on Iraqis to unite in the fight against the IS militants.
Analysts say the nomination and subsequent endorsement by the president of Mr Abadi is a public snub for Mr Maliki, whose State of Law coalition won the most seats in April's elections.
Now he has lost support from some of his own Shias - with the Shia National Alliance reported to have given Mr Abadi 130 votes, compared with just 40 votes for Mr Maliki.
Zuhair al-Naher, from the Dawa party to which both Mr Abadi and Mr Maliki belong, told the BBC that Mr Abadi was "much more pragmatic" than Mr Maliki, and had excellent relations with all political divides.
But another Dawa party member, Khalaf Abdul-Samad, read a statement on state TV saying that Mr Abadi "only represents himself", as Mr Maliki and other supporters stood beside him.
Mr Maliki has been prime minister since 2006, but even though his coalition won the elections in April, parliament has still not agreed to give him a third term. He has also lost the backing of the US.
Mr Maliki's popularity has suffered from the growing Islamist insurgency in the north - and even before that his support from Sunnis and Kurds was dwindling.
The White House said Vice-President Joe Biden called Mr Abadi to congratulate him on his nomination - and promised US support for the formation of a new government.
"The prime minister-designate expressed his intent to move expeditiously to form a broad-based, inclusive government" capable of countering the threat of IS, a White House statement said.
Mr Abadi's nomination was also welcomed outside Iraq. The presidents of France and Turkey called for him to form a government of national unity, while the UN urged Iraqi militias to keep out of politics.
Although he has fought long and hard to hold on to his job as prime minister, it is hard to see how Nouri Maliki can continue to cling on.
For the past four years, Mr Maliki has held the defence, interior and intelligence portfolios, building up a powerful network of personal patronage among the security forces, estimated at more than a million strong, as well as setting up elite units directly responsive to him alone.
The question now is whether he will try to use the army and police forces to keep himself in power through an in situ coup, despite his lack of political support virtually across the board.
His State of Law coalition came out ahead in the April elections, but far short of an outright majority.
Having broadly alienated the Kurds and Sunnis, he now finds that even the Shia majority has concluded that he is not the man to weld the country together against the radical Islamist threat.
The BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the arming of the Kurdish Peshmerga is a significant shift in US policy.
Until now, Washington has been reluctant to arm the Peshmerga for fear of accelerating a Kurdish break-away from Iraq, our correspondent says.
Washington has made clear that full-scale US support is contingent on new, more inclusive, governing arrangements in Baghdad.
Reports are emerging in northern Iraq that Islamic State (IS) militants have captured the town of Jalawla, north-east of Baghdad, after weeks of clashes with Kurdish fighters.
On Sunday, Kurdish forces said they had regained the towns of Gwer and Makhmur from the militants, helped by recent US air strikes in Nineveh province.
The US has already launched four rounds of air strikes targeting the militants near Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
In western Iraq, minority religious groups, such as the Yazidis, have been forced from their homes, prompting international aid drops.
Witnesses told the BBC that thousands of refugees near Sinjar had escaped to safer areas.
The US air strikes have been the first direct American involvement in a military operation in Iraq since the US withdrawal from the country in late 2011.
US President Barack Obama authorised the strikes last week after members of the Yazidi sect were forced to flee Sinjar into the surrounding mountains. | Iraq's president has asked the deputy speaker of parliament, Haider al-Abadi, to form a new government. |
37,173,229 | Credit card use for purchases in shops has been highlighted by the British Bankers' Association (BBA) as the key to rising borrowing on cards.
There were 168 million purchases on credit cards in July - the first full month since the Brexit vote.
This was higher than in June and the average of the previous six months.
However, there was a drop in the number of mortgages approved for house purchases.
"This month's statistics are the first set of borrowing figures gathered since the EU referendum. The data does not currently suggest borrowing patterns have been significantly affected by the Brexit vote, but it is still early days. Many borrowing decisions will also have been taken before the referendum," said Rebecca Harding, chief economist at the BBA.
"We are also clearly still a nation of shoppers and the Brexit vote has done nothing to change the fact that we use credit cards for short-term purchases. Strong retail sales figures appear closely associated with strong consumer credit growth."
Many economists have predicted that the UK economy will grow slower than previously expected as a result of the UK's decision to leave the EU.
This, in part, led to the Bank of England's decision to cut interest rates to a new record low of 0.25% in August. Part of the theory of an interest rate cut is to encourage consumers to spend rather than save.
The BBA figures cover a period that pre-dates this rate cut, but the organisation suggests that people were still willing to buy in the shops on credit cards, before quickly repaying nearly all of this borrowing shortly afterwards.
Borrowing by consumers, excluding mortgage borrowing, rose by 6% in July compared with the same month a year earlier.
The BBA also said gross mortgage borrowing hit £12.6bn in July, 6% higher than a year earlier.
However, the total of 37,662 mortgages approved for house purchases in July was down 5% on the previous month, and 12% lower than the average of the previous six months.
This could suggest that those planning to buy a home may have taken a wait-and-see approach with home loan applications during the referendum campaign.
Figures from HM Revenue and Customs, published on Thursday, showed that property sales had remained relatively steady in July. | The UK is a nation of shoppers unfazed by the EU referendum result when spending on plastic, says a trade body representing the major banks. |
33,149,889 | The country's Privacy Protection Commission (CPP) also accused Facebook of tracking the browsing habits of non-users, as well as its own members.
The action follows criticism of Facebook by the same body in May.
Facebook said it was surprised that the CPP had taken the "theatrical action" because it was due to meet the watchdog this week to discuss its concerns.
The CPP said it took the decision because Facebook did not provide "satisfactory answers" to the questions it raised last month, according to a spokeswoman.
The commission, which is working with German, Dutch, French and Spanish counterparts, accused Facebook of trampling on European privacy laws.
A Facebook spokesman said: "We were surprised and disappointed that, after the [CPP] had already agreed to meet with us on 19 June to discuss their recommendations, they took the theatrical action of bringing Facebook Belgium to court on the day beforehand.
"Although we are confident that there is no merit to the [CPP]'s case, we remain happy to work with them in an effort to resolve their concerns, through a dialogue with us at Facebook Ireland and with our regulator, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner."
The commission has asked the court for an immediate order banning Facebook from monitoring non-users in particular, which it may do via plug-ins or cookies.
In the past, Facebook has claimed that the Belgian commission's jurisdiction is "unclear" because the American firm is regulated in Europe by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner.
It also defended its actions when the Belgian commission released its report last month, saying that most websites used cookies, which it said has been an "industry standard for more than 15 years". | Facebook is being taken to court by the Belgian privacy commissioner over claims it tracks people across the web. |
38,793,254 | It has taken a 112bn yen ($1bn; £780m) charge, citing "an acceleration of market decline".
The rise of online streaming services has hit demand for traditional media such as DVDs and blue-ray discs.
Sony's movie division has also struggled, with recent flops including an all-female Ghostbusters sequel.
Sony had warned earlier this year its movie division could post more losses.
The Japanese firm, which reports its third-quarter results on Thursday, is still assessing whether the impairment charge will affect future earnings.
It plans to offset the loss by selling shares in medical web service M3.
The head of Sony's entertainment business, Michael Lynton, recently announced he would be stepping down in February after more than a decade at the firm. | Sony has taken a hefty writedown on the value of its movie business as the unit suffers from falling DVD and home entertainment sales. |
30,538,422 | A sample was taken as a precaution because the patient has a history of travel in west Africa, where almost all of the recent deaths have occurred.
Dr Marion Lyons, PHW director of health protection, had already said it was "unlikely" the patient had the disease.
The virus has killed more than 6,800 people this year but no cases of Ebola have been diagnosed in the UK.
Earlier, Ms Lyons said: "Based on our established evidence-based risk assessment protocol, we are confident that all appropriate actions are being taken to ensure there is no risk to public health.
"It is important to remember that there has never been a case of Ebola diagnosed in the UK and the infection can only be transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
"We have advised all frontline medical practitioners dealing with patients to be alert to signs and symptoms of Ebola in those returning from affected areas. Following such advice we would expect to see an increase in precautionary testing.
"Should there be a positive case in Wales, this information will be made available to the public." | A patient at Morriston Hospital in Swansea has tested negative for Ebola, Public Health Wales has said. |
35,487,183 | Geraldine Newman, 51, daughter Shannon, 11 and son Shane, six, were found on Tuesday in Allerton Bywater.
The children's father, Paul Newman, 42, from Normanton, was found dead on cliffs on Anglesey the same day.
West Yorkshire Police said the case was "shocking" and are not looking for anyone else over the deaths.
A post-mortem examination found Mrs Newman died from head injuries, while the children died from stab wounds.
Det Ch Insp Warren Stevenson said: "While our investigation into the full circumstances surrounding the deaths is ongoing, we can say that this appears to have been a domestic-related incident and we are not looking for anyone else in connection with it.
"We have specially-trained officers supporting the families who are understandably distraught at the deaths of their loved ones. They have asked that they are allowed to grieve privately at what will clearly be a very difficult time for them."
The bodies were found at their home in Beeston Way shortly before 12:00 GMT.
Mrs Newman, a branch manager for Wilko in Castleford, was found downstairs while the two children were discovered upstairs.
Mr Newman was discovered on a cliff ledge at South Stack, a rocky island about 180 miles from Allerton Bywater.
Tributes have been paid to Mrs Newman and her children.
A spokesman for Wilko said the mother-of-two was a "loyal and enormously respected member of the team".
Head teachers at St Wilfrid's Catholic High School in Featherstone and St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Castleford, described both children as "caring students" who would be missed by the whole community.
Friends and neighbours held a vigil outside the family home earlier and took part in a minute's silence.
More than 100 people attended the short service and said prayers and laid flowers at the scene. | A woman found dead in a house near Leeds died of head injuries while her two children were stabbed to death, tests have shown. |
34,277,913 | They have accused the government of favouring arable farming and want similar levels of subsidy payments as their English and Welsh counterparts.
Hill farms in England and Wales receive up to almost 13 times more per hectare.
The government said payments for crofting overall would go up from £20m to £33m by 2019.
But David Forbes, who runs a croft at Kinlochbervie, said the basic payment of £7 was not enough to help encourage people to remain in fragile communities.
He said: "This community will die.
"The youth will disappear and we cannot keep the schools open when the population drops."
Mr Forbes added: "The Scottish government will just complete a modern-day Highland Clearance and I think that a lot of people think that is what they want.
"They want a wild land, a wilderness. The definition of a wilderness is an area devoid of people."
Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said the government had come up with a subsidy system that supports a range of farming types.
He said: "Scottish agriculture is very diverse. We have big arable farms and we have crofters as well.
"What we have had to do is come up with a system that targets activity and pays different rates of payment for different types of land, and we agreed that with the industry."
Mr Lochhead said payments to crofters overall would go up from £20m a year to £33m by 2019.
He added: "Within that, if there are individual crofters or crofting communities whose payments are going down and that is not justified clearly we will want to look at that in future years." | A group of Sutherland crofters have appealed to the Scottish government to introduce a "fairer" subsidy system for hill farmers. |
33,181,792 | The Office for National Statistics said clothing sales were 1.6% down on April's level, the biggest fall since September 2014.
Economists had expected retail sales to be flat in May after sales in April were boosted by unusually warm weather.
By contrast, May was cooler than normal. | UK retail sales rose by 0.2% in May, a slowdown from a rise of 0.9% in April, after shoppers bought fewer clothes. |
38,464,603 | The tennis star made the announcement in the form of a poem.
She said he took her to Rome, where they first met, to propose to her - and she said yes.
It caps off a year in which Ms Williams won her seventh Wimbledon singles title and 22nd Grand Slam singles title, but dropped to world number two ranking.
All you need to know about Serena Williams
Reddit is a social media community where users group around topics, news articles and discussion points, rather than around people they know in offline life.
Mr Ohanian founded it in 2005 alongside a college friend, Steve Huffman.
Ms Williams posted to r/isaidyes, a forum where users share their stories of wedding proposals, saying he had taken her to the table in Rome where they first met, where he got down on one knee and "said four words".
One Reddit user responded by joking that the score was love-love.
Mr Ohanian and Ms Williams had kept their relationship quiet on social media and in the world of celebrity gossip, but rumours began to circulate last year that they might be romantically linked. | Serena Williams has used the social media platform Reddit to announce that she is engaged to its co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. |
38,991,843 | Now Miranda Hart is making her West End theatre debut in the musical Annie.
The Call the Midwife star, who will play orphanage owner Miss Hannigan, described it as "a dream role" that she never thought would become a reality.
"But here we are and I have a newly found musical theatre-esque spring in my step," she said.
Set in 1930s New York during the Great Depression, Annie tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who wants to escape from a life of misery at Miss Hannigan's orphanage and find her parents.
The score includes the songs It's A Hard Knock Life, Tomorrow and Easy Street.
"I hope people will leave the theatre feeling life is a little better and dreamier and jollier after watching it, as much as we feel that performing it," added Hart, who broke the "fourth wall" by addressing the audience directly in her sitcom Miranda.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some leg-warmers to put on."
The show will begin previews at London's Piccadilly Theatre on 23 May. Further casting will be announced shortly.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | She's best known for falling over and breaking "the fourth wall" on her BBC One sitcom. |
36,682,639 | The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said Willie Kimani's death was a "dark day for the rule of law in Kenya".
Kenya's police have often been accused of brutality and they have been blamed for a series of extrajudicial killings.
The police chief has ordered the arrest of three police officers suspected of being involved in his kidnapping.
Mr Kimani, who was 32, went missing along with his taxi driver and client after a court appointment over a week ago, the LSK said.
One other body has been found but there are conflicting reports as to who this is.
The relationship between Kenyans and their police force has always been an uneasy one.
Just a week ago, the National Police Service spokesperson came out to ask Kenyans to change their perception of the police.
He said he had noted that "there is pervading fear among the public as they believe that law enforcers are working with criminals".
He's not wrong. Many victims of crime would rather forsake justice than go through the process of dealing with the police. It is largely seen as a fruitless and frustrating endeavour.
The police service has worked to improve its image over the past 10 years - changing its name, vetting its officers, instituting community policing and establishing gender and children desks.
But it appears that the more recent incidents of police beating protesters at a demonstration, and a wave of controversial killings, are still sending the Kenyan public a much louder message.
A police source told the BBC that the two bodies had been found on the bank of a river 70km (43 miles) north-east of Nairobi.
Mr Kimani's body was found bound and wrapped in a sack, reports AFP news agency.
A search is ongoing at the site to find the third body, Kenya's Standard newspaper reports.
On Thursday, the inspector general of the national police service George Kinoti said that investigations would be pursued.
"In the event that a crime is disclosed linking any person, whether police officer or otherwise, the law will doubtless take its own course," he said in a statement.
Mr Kimani was working for the International Justice Mission, a US legal charity which focuses on cases of police abuse of power.
He had been representing his client in a complaint against a police officer who had allegedly shot him during a traffic stop in 2015.
LSK says this is the first time that a lawyer working on a sensitive case has gone missing.
However, LSK head Isaac Okero told the BBC's Mohammud Ali in Nairobi that the incident suggests "lawyers are becoming a target because of their work".
In 2011 a Kenyan human rights lawyer accused the Kenyan government of framing him for a bombing to get back at him for defending victims of extraordinary rendition.
Kenyan security forces carried out 25 extrajudicial killing between 2013 and 2015, Kenya's official rights body said. | The body of a Kenyan lawyer who was representing a client making a complaint against the police has been found. |
37,203,930 | They were struck near the junction of Kenton Road and Claremont Avenue in Brent, at 19:40 BST on Friday.
The boy and his 59-year-old grandfather were taken to hospital with the child in a life-threatening condition. The man's injuries were not critical.
A 22-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, the Met Police said.
He has been bailed until October. | A two-year-old boy is critical after he was hit by a car when out walking with his grandfather in north-west London. |
38,002,076 | It had said the Dadaab camp, home to more than 300,000 Somalis, should shut down by the end of this month.
But Kenya now says it has suspended the repatriation to allow more time for consultation and funding.
Rights groups had expressed alarm over the initial deadline for closing the camps and called on Kenya to roll back its decision.
Last May, Kenya's Interior Minister Joseph Nkaisserry said his country would be working closely with the UN and the Somali government to repatriate the refugees so the camp could be vacated for closure.
Back then, he said the decision was final.
But as the deadline loomed, human rights groups accused the Kenyan government of coercing refugees to return home despite the continued insecurity in Somalia.
Mr Nkaisserry said the decision to delay the closure of the camp followed a request by the UNHCR head Filipo Grandi.
It is not the first time that Kenya has backed down from a decision to close the refugee camp.
It had vowed to close down the camp last April in the wake of a deadly attack by Somali militant group al-Shabab on a university 100km (62 miles) away.
The al-Qaeda linked group has staged several attacks on Kenya in recent years. | Kenya's government has extended by six month the deadline to close the world's largest refugee camp. |
33,382,401 | It follows three days of industrial action by CalMac staff last week which culminated in a 24-hour strike.
The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) has sent out strike ballot papers to about 100 of its members who work for CalMac.
CalMac managing director Martin Dorchester said he was "extremely disappointed" by the RMT's decision.
The Scottish government said it was "very disappointing" that the RMT felt the need to call further strike action on one of the busiest weekends of the summer for ferry services.
Like CalMac, Argyll Ferries is owned by the state-owned David MacBrayne Group.
Talks between CalMac and the RMT are due to be held on Monday.
Talks planned for earlier this week were postponed by the ferry operator due to "unforeseen circumstances".
RMT members at Argyll Ferries did not take part in last week's industrial action, but the union said the staff was increasingly concerned about job security.
CalMac's contract to run the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services comes to an end next year.
The Scottish government has put the contract out to tender, in line with European rules.
The RMT union has concerns that, regardless of who wins, the new contract will see changes in employees' current terms and conditions.
A reduction in staff numbers and pensions are key areas of concern.
The RMT has asked that the government guarantee in the new contract that compulsory redundancies do not happen and existing terms and conditions are continued.
Read more.....
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "Despite the most strenuous efforts to negotiate a settlement on CalMac we are still not getting the clear assurances that we seek that will defend the safety-critical jobs and working conditions that go hand in hand with delivering safe and efficient lifeline ferry services to the communities that we serve.
"It is a cold hard fact that privatisation is all about a race to the bottom in order to maximise profits and our members will not sit back while they are caught in the crossfire of the tendering process."
He added: "Our members on Argyll Ferries now find themselves staring down the barrel of exactly those same kind of attacks on jobs and working conditions and have delivered a massive and rock-solid mandate for action."
Mr Dorchester said: "We are extremely disappointed that the RMT has chosen to continue with strike action.
"The best way to protect the existing terms and conditions of its members is to work with us to ensure we win the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS) contract and this action is damaging.
"We are anxious to avoid any more disruption which is not in the best interests of our employees and the communities we serve and would urge all our colleagues to turn out for work."
Two-thirds of state-owned CalMac's ferry services were cancelled last Friday during the 24-hour strike by RMT members, who make up about half of the company's workforce.
The dispute has been triggered by unions' concerns about the new contract to run the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.
CalMac's current deal to operate the network comes to an end next year.
The Scottish government has put the contract out to tender, in line with European rules.
The unions have raised concerns that, regardless of who wins, the new contract will see changes in employees' current terms and conditions.
A reduction in staff numbers and pensions are key areas of concern.
The unions have asked that the government guarantee in the new contract that compulsory redundancies do not happen and existing terms and conditions are continued.
A Scottish government spokesman said: "We have been continuing to talk with the RMT Union, so it is very disappointing that they feel the need to call further strike action on one of the busiest weekends of the summer for our ferry services.
"Discussions between Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure Keith Brown and RMT representatives took place in London earlier this week and both parties committed to further dialogue."
The spokesman added: "To comply with EU procurement law, Scottish ministers cannot compel bidders to guarantee no compulsory redundancies.
"Bidders can make a voluntary commitment through tendering processes, as was the case in the recent ScotRail franchise.
"We would seek to achieve a similar outcome in the next CHFS contract, regardless of the outcome of the tendering process, and will pursue this objective vigorously.
"This position has been made very clear to the RMT union in recent talks." | RMT union members working for Caledonian MacBrayne and Argyll Ferries are to hold a second strike on 10 July. |
32,750,276 | William MacKenzie was part of a masked gang that targeted security guards as they delivered cash to an ATM at a Spar store in Drumgelloch, Airdrie.
He was identified from CCTV footage and jailed for seven years in 2011.
The Scottish Prison Service said MacKenzie's family had been told that he died at Addiewell Prison in West Lothian on Wednesday.
Police have been informed and a report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.
A fatal accident inquiry will be held in due course. | A 50-year-old man who wielded a machete during a £40,000 armed robbery in North Lanarkshire in 2009 has died in prison. |
34,266,879 | A raft of big deals this year include the £2.3bn tie-up between Ladbrokes and Gala Coral in July, a £6bn merger of Betfair and Paddy Power in August, and GVC's £1.1bn ($1.5bn) acquisition of Bwin.party in September.
Analysts say a "mergers and acquisitions frenzy" is sweeping the UK.
In fact, in the year to August, there were more takeovers and mergers in the UK gambling sector than in any other country.
According to Nick Batram, an analyst at brokerage Peel Hunt, operators are looking to scale up for two main reasons.
He says: "On the one hand they are seeing the costs of tax, compliance and technology go up, and want to offset this.
"But they are also looking for new ways to grow as the market becomes more competitive."
At first glance this may seem odd. According to the Gambling Commission, revenue in the UK gambling industry climbed from £5.6bn in 2010 to £7.1bn in 2014.
But this disguises the fact that almost all of the growth happened online, with consumers increasingly opting to gamble on mobile devices.
As a result, High Street operators face tough trading conditions - a situation worsened by an increasingly challenging regulatory environment, which includes a maximum betting tariff of £50 each time on gaming machines.
Mr Batram says: "You have new restrictions placed on people who want to stake more than £50 a spin on machines.
"Furthermore, machine gaming duties now stand at up to 25%.
"And buying land-based assets is quite expensive anyway, because you have bricks and mortar."
High Street bookmakers Ladbrokes and Gala Coral joined forces this summer in a bid to offset these pressures. The deal will create the UK's largest bookmaker, with around 4,000 high street betting shops, resulting in a predicted £65m of cost efficiencies.
"Ladbrokes has pretty much been running the same business as Coral, but with a different colour and a different brand, " explains Paul Leyland from Regulus Partners, an advisory business that focuses on the gambling sector.
He adds: "[And] recently Coral has been doing it much better."
Mr Leyland says that if the two firms can eliminate duplication costs and stick with the "best breed of management", they will be in a stronger position to grow.
He also says the combined group needs to invest more in its mobile offering, and boost the overall user experience.
Paddy Power, a familiar High Street and online betting shop, used it's 2014 annual report to claim that "over 90% of future growth would be in mobile".
And so its agreement this summer to combine with website betting exchange Betfair - making them one of the world's biggest online gaming firms - came as little surprise.
Yet despite Paddy Power's optimistic forecast, the online gambling space is becoming more challenging as countries around the world update their regulations.
For the online gambling sector, this has resulted in higher compliancy costs and taxes.
Mark Jordan, a partner at accountancy group PWC, highlights the UK's crackdown on gambling websites which have their headquarters in Gibraltar, such as Ladbrokes' online offering, Bet Victor and Stan James.
He says: "Previously if I was headquartered in Gibraltar offering online betting to someone in the UK, that would be tax free, whereas now there is a point of consumption tax which is levied by HMRC at 15%."
Mr Batram says such pressures make it harder to invest in the technology underpinning a product.
"It's risky given how low the barriers to entry are in online gaming - providers have suddenly realised this comes off their margins, and so you're looking into consolidation and cost savings at scale again."
Mr Batram adds: "Gone are the days when you could just sling up an online casino and watch the money roll in.
"The online market is much more competitive, so your site has to feel right, look right and that costs money."
Mr Jordan says that private equity companies - which were all but absent from the gambling sector five years ago - are also driving consolidation.
He points to last December's announcement that Luxembourg-based private equity group CVC Capital Partners was buying a 80% stake in Sky Bet.
And this month online betting firm Bwin accepted a £1.3bn takeover offer from fellow private equity firm GVC Holdings.
GVC Holdings, which already owns Sportingbet, outbid rival bidder, gambling business 888 Holdings.
Mr Jordan says: "Private equity firms like to find a business with potential, build it up and then merge it with something else, so they're having a big influence on the market."
Most analysts expect that consolidation in the gambling sector will only continue as the years progress, with larger conglomerates coming to dominate the industry.
Such firms are said to be better placed to handle regulatory and tax pressures.
However, Mr Jordan also expects to see a "small hardcore of [small] online gaming companies survive, which may not adhere to regulation, or which pick markets where they don't have the same rules".
And Mr Leyland says that small and specialist gambling companies, focused on niche markets or new products, will also thrive.
He adds: "The big risk is for medium-sized firms with a lot of money, invested in doing exactly the same thing as all their competitors."
With firms like Paddy Power betting on a digital future, it seems that companies focused on the High Street are most at risk.
But Mr Batram says it would be wrong to write them off just yet: "I think land-based gambling can still offer value if done right, and there's a lot of talk about retail combining with digital to create more touch-points for consumers.
Just as online hasn't killed cinema or high street shopping, I think it will remain an important part of the mix." | The UK gambling industry is betting on a wave of mergers and acquisitions to secure a more profitable future. |
35,403,219 | Jack Letts, 20, from Oxford, has been labelled "Jihadi Jack" by some newspapers, which reported he left the UK to join the group when he was 18.
His parents John and Sally Letts said their son wanted to travel to Syria for humanitarian reasons.
And on his Facebook page Jack Letts also said the reports were false.
Speaking to the Oxford Mail newspaper Mr and Mrs Letts described their son as "a really kind, funny kid who is very gentle".
His mother said media reports claiming he had adopted the name Ibrahim or Abu Muhammed and had a son in Iraq were "absolutely ridiculous".
But she said he had converted to Islam and reports he was married could be true.
On Facebook, Jack Letts said: "Maybe they got bored worrying about what colour socks certain celebrities wear and took out the frustration on me."
A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "We are unable to comment on any specific cases in relation to individuals.
"Anyone who knows of someone who may be potentially vulnerable to being drawn into terrorist-related activity, including travelling abroad to conflict zones, should contact local police for advice and support." | The family of a British man who reportedly travelled to Iraq to join the so-called Islamic State group said the claims were "completely false". |
33,708,502 | Police also arrested 52 people across Wales under new drug-driving offences, which came into force in March.
Police carried out more than 12,000 breath tests during the June campaign.
In north Wales, a 36-year-old woman from Holywell, Flintshire was arrested after a reading of 125 micrograms, more than three times the legal limit.
In Wales and England, the alcohol limit for drivers is 80 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath or 107 milligrams per 100 millilitres of urine.
North Wales Police said it had carried out an intelligence-led operation, targeting people who frequently drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Ch Insp Darren Wareing from the force said: "We are seeing more arrests as a result of our intelligence-led operations, however, there is still a perception out there that drivers, particularly in rural areas, believe they have less chance of getting caught drunk or under the influence of drugs behind the wheel."
He added: "I would also like to personally thank each individual who contacted us during the campaign to give us the information we needed."
This is the first time the annual campaign has been able to target drug-drivers.
Police in England and Wales have been able to use "drugalyser" devices at the roadside since March.
The device can test for cocaine and cannabis from a saliva sample within three minutes.
Police can test for other drugs including ecstasy, LSD, ketamine and heroin at a police station, even if a driver passes the roadside check.
Drivers face prosecution if they exceed limits set for the presence of eight illegal drugs and eight prescription drugs which are sometimes abused.
Motorists who test positive can face a criminal record, loss of their licence for at least a year and a fine of up to £5,000.
The prescription drugs that fall under the new regulations are morphine, diazepam, clonazepam, flunitrazepam, lorazepam, oxazepam and temazepam and methadone.
The illegal drugs include cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, ketamine and heroin. | More than 300 people have tested positive for drink-driving in a month-long crackdown by Wales' four police forces. |
36,395,744 | He was the political "never never" man who became Northern Ireland's first minister.
Ian Paisley ended up leading a power-sharing executive at Stormont - although he had supported the strike to bring one down 30 years earlier.
From firebrand preacher, he moved on to earn the nickname of "chuckle brother" alongside deputy first minister, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness.
He died in September 2014.
Obituary: Ian Paisley
Last year, the Bannside Library, housing his collection of more than 50,000 books, opened in east Belfast.
And among the memorabilia on display are his letters from jail. He served three months in Crumlin Road prison, 50 years ago, for unlawful assembly.
With time on his hands, the preacher decided to write a book on the Epistle to the Romans. He wrote the pages by hand.
They are written very neatly in red, blue and black ink. He then sent them home to his wife, Eileen, for her to type up.
He also wrote letters to his family at home and that collection has now been catalogued by his daughter, Sharon.
He had a guaranteed audience of one for his book in the jail, she said.
"When Daddy sent these out of prison every week, the governor had to read them to make sure there was nothing that shouldn't coming out of prison, so he had to read the book as well," she said with a smile.
Among the memorabilia is a special handkerchief.
"There was a man in prison who was a gifted artist.
"Mum and dad would have had their tenth wedding anniversary when he was in prison. And the man took one of daddy's handkerchiefs and did the picture of mum from an electioneering poster. It is painted onto the handkerchief," she said.
The same man saw the hymn written on the fly leaf of Ian Paisley's bible and decided to copy it.
"He lifted this board from the prison yard with wet paint on the back of it and made: A Father's Prayer," said Baroness Paisley.
She said her husband never got the knack of new technology when writing his books and essays.
"He asked me one day if I would look something up in a book, and I said: 'Ian I can get you that on a computer.'
"And he said 'How can you? How did it get in the computer?' He almost seemed as if he was scared to touch a computer," she said.
He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of his thousands of books, his widow said.
No matter where he was in the world, he would ring her and tell her exactly where to look in his study - the bookcase, the shelf, how far along the line of books - if he needed a quote from a particular chapter.
And among his treasures was an illustrated guide book which he received as a prize at Sunday School when he was 11 years old.
"Northern Ireland: Our Lesser Known History" by Canon Hugh Forde has been reprinted by the Bannside Library to mark its opening.
Baroness Paisley sees the Bannside library as a fitting tribute to her late husband's love of books.
"It's amazing the people that have taken an interest, right across the religious and political board," she said.
"People have come to see it and to look at books and pick out some and say 'Oh, I never thought he would have a book on this'. And I would say: 'He had books on everything.''"
Baroness Paisley talks to Anne Marie McAleese on Your Place And Mine, BBC Radio Ulster, on Saturday 28 May at 08:05 BST. | A selection of letters and drawings has cast a light on former first minster and DUP leader Ian Paisley's time in prison. |
32,308,177 | Furnish Kennels in Fivemiletown claims to be the largest licensed dog breeding establishment in the UK.
A BBC Scotland investigation into the lucrative world of dog trading filmed hundreds of breeding bitches in battery-farmed conditions.
The firm's solicitor said the premises are run in accordance with the law.
The programme, to be broadcast on Wednesday, shows dozens of pups, just weeks old without their mothers, huddled together in disused trailers outside the main building in freezing conditions.
Sheila Voas, chief veterinary surgeon with the Scottish government, tells the programme: "It was barbaric. It was a production line. It was using animals as a commodity."
The establishment is run by brothers David and Jonathan Hamilton.
In a statement issued through his solicitor, David Hamilton said the premises were "maintained and run in accordance with all relevant legislation and regulations in an entirely open and transparent manner".
"All dogs are under the supervision of a nominated veterinary surgeon," he added.
The council responsible for inspecting the kennels said the premises, now called the UK Dog Breeding Academy, were inspected four weeks ago and that no puppies were found to be kept in trailers on site.
Fermanagh District Council said the premises complied with legislation.
The programme looks at the supply of dogs from source to sale, investigating the activities of Scottish couple Brian and Bernadette O'Neill.
It tracks Mr O'Neill's trips to County Wexford in the Republic of Ireland over several months, and hears from a Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigator who says the couple are significant dealers in pups.
It estimates that they are selling about 50 dogs each month, bringing in about £200,000 a year.
The O'Neills were asked to participate in the programme but they declined to do so.
BBC Scotland Investigates: The Dog Factory is shown on BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland at 21:00 BST on Wednesday 15 April and is available to watch afterwards on iPlayer. | Secretly filmed footage of a County Tyrone dog breeding firm shows "barbaric" scenes, a senior Scottish government vet has said. |
40,347,479 | Talks are under way with Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss about a series of 90-minute films based on Bram Stoker's novel about the Transylvanian vampire.
No scripts have been written and the Count has yet to be cast. According to the Radio Times, though, the series is likely to air in 2019.
Moffat's wife Sue Vertue will produce the show for Hartswood Films.
According to Variety, it is unclear whether Dracula, like Sherlock, will have a modern-day British setting.
First published in 1897, Stoker's novel tells of a blood-sucking count who travels to England for a quick bite.
Bela Lugosi, Gary Oldman and Sir Christopher Lee are among the many actors to portray him on screen.
Gatiss played Dracula himself in a radio version of the story that was released last year on the anniversary of the book's publication.
Moffat will step down as head writer and executive producer of Doctor Who after this year's Christmas special.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | The brains behind the BBC's Sherlock series are to make a new version of Dracula, the corporation has confirmed. |
11,996,983 | President John Atta Mills turned on the valve at an offshore platform.
A consortium led by UK-based Tullow Oil hopes to produce 55,000 barrels per day, increasing to 120,000 barrels in six months.
Ghana, one of Africa's most stable countries, is expected to earn $400m (??254m) in the first year.
Wearing safety gear and blue overalls, the president opened the valve in a televised ceremony some 60km (40 miles) off the coast from the town of Takoradi, Reuters news agency reports.
The discovery of oil off Ghana's coast has raised questions about whether Ghana can escape the "resource curse", where discoveries of valuable commodities fuel conflict and corruption instead of funding development.
Will oil make a difference?
Analysts have raised concerns about the lack of laws to manage oil revenue and the lack of an independent regulator for the sector.
The government has said it is working to get an oil bill passed.
The government has forecast that the oil will boost Ghana's economic growth rate from 5% this year to as much as 12% next year.
Production is eventually expected to bring in $1bn a year.
The Jubilee Field is estimated to hold 1.5bn barrels of oil. A second offshore field was discovered in September that is believed to hold another 1.4bn barrels.
The fields are some of the largest oil deposits found in recent years.
Observers say militant insurgency like that in nearby Nigeria's Niger Delta is unlikely as long as the government manages expectations.
By David AmanorBBC News, Accra
It is a momentous day for Ghana - barely three years after that first vial of oil was presented to former President John Kufour.
Hopes are high, tempered by a fair amount of realism - most people seem to understand oil production is unlikely in itself to bring about lower fuel prices and that it will take time for real benefits to accrue.
The government is currently negotiating huge multi-billion dollar loans for infrastructure developments, using oil as collateral, which has met with some stiff opposition from the parliamentary minority and other civil society groups. "We've looked at the experiences of other countries and it has not been positive," says Mohammed Amin Adam of campaign group Publish What You Pay.
Other concerns are focussed on how the oil money is spent rather than when. "Politicians' decisions tend to be very short-term and short-sighted," says Kofi Bentil of Ghanaian think-tank Imani.
"Transparency to population is very important," said Stephen Hayes, head of the Corporate Council on Africa - a group of some 180 mainly US firms that invest in Africa.
"They also have a fairly transparent society compared to other countries dealing in oil - so they've got a better opportunity to get it right," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa.
He says lessons can be learnt from others' mistakes and points out that Ghana's economy is more diversified than other oil-producing countries in Africa. It earns billions from cocoa and gold.
"The oil revenues expected only represents 6% of their economy - compare that to Nigeria where oil revenue represents 92% of the economy or Angola where it's almost 100%," he said.
"It indicates they won't be dependent on oil revenue... and are in a far better position to manage it more wisely."
The BBC's David Amanor in the capital, Accra, says there a positive mood about the pumping of the country's first oil - and plenty of advice about how the revenue should be spent.
"I'm very much excited because maybe that will be able to solve some of problems for us," a lottery-ticket seller said.
"The first area should be education, secondly agriculture and thirdly health."
Another man said the move was a blessing for him and the country.
"It's going to benefit me so I'm really excited. I've completed school but I've not found any work to do - I hope oil will help me to get a job."
Our reporter says Ghana also has a growing civil society community which is anxious to ensure environmental and development considerations are given a voice in the area where the oil is being bumped.
"A lot of the fishermen are now moving away because of the oil rig - they cannot fish within a certain parameter," says Adwoa Bame from the Women's Initiative for Self-Empowerment group.
"The men go out and bring the fish to the fishmongers, who are normally women," she told the BBC.
"So we need to look at how we can develop programmes that can sustain these communities in terms of livelihoods." | The West African nation of Ghana has begun to pump its first commercial oil after the discovery of the offshore Jubilee Field three years ago. |
39,003,166 | The directors of the Scottish Championship side have already said they will oppose the move.
Supporters group the Queens Trust secured the backing of Dumfries and Galloway Council in order to get the issue discussed.
However, it would need to gain significant support from other shareholders for the bid to succeed.
The supporters' organisation has been trying for some time to secure a director or a non-voting seat on the board.
It won the backing of the council - which has more than 6,000 shares in the Palmerston Park club - to get the subject on the AGM agenda.
The Doonhamers' directors have made it clear that they intend to vote against the resolution.
They recently appointed a liaison officer to improve relations with fans. | A bid by fans for a seat on the board of Queen of the South is to be debated at the club's annual general meeting. |
34,779,998 | The former stray, believed to be about five months old, was scavenging in a neighbour's bin in Bedworth when he got his head stuck in the metal can.
Felix bears an uncanny resemblance to the cartoon moggy used to advertise the cat food of the same name.
But vets had to rescue him from his metal mishap, stuck head first in a tin containing rival Whiskas meat.
Updates on this story and more from Warwickshire
Owner Sam Wellbank, 34, called Felix in for his breakfast and was greeted by the distressing sight.
"I heard a clatter as Felix jumped over the fence into the garden and when I looked outside, he was sat on the grass with the food can stuck fast on his head," she said.
"We picked him up but he was very stressed and trying to claw us. He was meowing loudly and was obviously in a lot of discomfort."
She rushed him to the PDSA's Pet Hospital in Coventry where he was taken into surgery and freed from his tin trap.
Felix suffered a cut to his ear and had a high temperature after surgery.
Veterinary nurse Debbie Evans, who admitted Felix, said staff were concerned he could suffocate if the can was not removed, and warned people to take care when leaving cans and glasses out for recycling.
"The sharp edges on tins and glass cause obvious risks to pets and wildlife, so we'd recommend keeping recycling covered or enclosed, if at all possible," she said. | A hungry cat called Felix was rescued from a Whiskas tin in a calamitous mash-up of cat food brands. |
15,446,663 | circa 2500 BC - Palau's first inhabitants - thought to have come from present-day eastern Indonesia - settle in the islands. The early Palauans develop complex social systems, practice fishing and farming.
English captain Henry Wilson's vessel, 'Antelope', was shipwrecked on one of the islands of Palau in 1783
1783 - English captain Henry Wilson is shipwrecked on a reef and becomes the first Westerner to visit. Wilson and his crew stay for three months and rebuild their vessel with local help. European contacts grow and Britain becomes Palau's main trading partner.
1885 - Spain asserts its claim to the islands.
1899 - Spain sells Palau to Germany, which begins to exploit the islands' resources using native labour. Phosphate is mined and coconut plantations are developed.
1914 - After Germany's defeat in World War I, Japan seizes Palau. The main town, Koror, is developed and becomes the administrative centre for Japan's regional possessions. The Japanese civilian population in Palau peaks at 26,000.
1940-45 - Japan's military fortifications and naval facilities in Palau are targeted in allied attacks during World War II. Some Palauan islands witness fierce fighting between US and Japanese forces.
1947 - Palau becomes a United Nations Trust Territory under US administration.
US Marines attack Japanese troops positioned in Palau
1979 - Palau - and the Marshall Islands - opt not to become part of a single, federal Micronesian state.
1981 - Republic of Palau comes into being, following the territory's adoption of a constitution in July 1980. President Haruo Remeliik takes office.
1983-90 - Successive referendums on a proposed Compact of Free Association with the US fail to approve the arrangement, under which Palau would manage its own affairs and the US would retain responsibility for defence.
1985 - President Haruo Remeliik is assassinated in June. Lazarus Salii is elected president in September 1985.
1988 - President Salii dies in an apparent suicide. He is succeeded by President Ngiratkel Etpison.
1992 - President Kuniwo Nakamura is elected, and re-elected in 1996.
1993 - After investigations by US authorities a Palau minister of state and his wife are found guilty of the 1985 murder of President Remeliik.
1993 - Proposed Compact of Free Association with the US gets the green light in a referendum. Requirements for the mandate were changed in a 1992 vote; only a simple majority vote was needed to approve the compact.
1994 - Palau becomes independent under the Contract of Free Association with the US. Palau receives financial and other aid from Washington, and the US retains responsibility for defence and the right to operate military bases. Palau joins the UN.
2000 November - Former vice president Tommy Remengesau wins presidential elections.
2003 August - Palau signs the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
2004 November - Incumbent President Tommy Remengesau is re-elected.
Referendum backs constitutional changes allowing dual citizenship, limiting terms in congress to three and allowing president and vice-president to stand for election as a team.
2006 October - Government institutions begin the move to a new capital, Melekeok.
2008 November - Former ambassador to Taiwan Johnson Toribiong wins presidential election, beating outgoing Vice-President Elias Camsek Chin.
2009 January - President Toribiong inaugurated.
2009 September - Palau creates world's first "shark sanctuary", banning all commercial shark fishing in its waters.
2009 October - Six Chinese ethnic Uighurs are freed from US military prison at Guantanamo Bay and sent to Palau for resettlement.
2010 January - US agrees to give Palau additional aid of $250 million, after Palau had rejected an earlier offer of $156 million. President Toribiong denies any linkage to Palau's agreement to host the Guantanamo Uighurs.
2012 November - Parliamentary and presidential elections. Tommy Remengesau is elected president for the third time, having previously served two terms from 2001-9.
2013 November - Typhoon Haiyan causes damage to a number of islands in Palau, including Kayangel and Babeldaob.
2014 February - President Remengesau announces that Palau plans to ban all commercial fishing from its waters. He says the country's economic potential lies in tourism rather than fishing.
2015 February: The governor of Palau's Peleliu State pledges to cooperate in efforts to recover the wartime remains of Japanese soldiers ahead of a visit in April by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. | A chronology of key events |
21,748,762 | Media playback is not supported on this device
McDermott, 51, led the club to promotion last season, but four successive Premier League defeats have left them four points adrift of safety.
A Reading statement said: "The search for a successor starts immediately. It is hoped a new manager will be in place as soon as possible."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Academy head Eamonn Dolan is in charge of the first team in the interim.
The Royals also confirmed first-team coach Nigel Gibbs had also left the club he joined in 2006.
McDermott joined Reading in 2000 as a scout/coach working under Alan Pardew and Steve Coppell.
He was named caretaker manager in 2009 following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers, before being appointed permanent manager.
McDermott just missed out on promotion to the Premier League in his first season in charge of Reading, reaching the play-off final but losing 4-2 to Swansea City.
However, a run of 15 wins from 19 games towards the end of last season secured the Championship title and the Royals' promotion to the top flight for only the second time in the club's history.
In May 2012, Reading were taken over by Russian tycoon Anton Zingarevich, who acquired 51% of the club, and also announced a reshuffle in the boardroom.
"I'm just hoping Reading don't end up in a similar situation Wolves find themselves. They sacked their manager before the end of last season, had an interim manager and this season they are near the bottom of the Championship.
"It's a big decision for the new owner to make and it will be an even bigger decision replacing him."
Reading struggled for the first half of this season, winning only two Premier League games, but they showed signs of improvement in 2013 with four successive victories in all competitions, including two in the top flight, and McDermott was named the January manager of the month.
However, defeats by Stoke, Wigan and Everton, followed before a 2-1 loss at home to relegation rivals Aston Villa at the weekend, left Reading 19th in the table, level on 23 points with bottom club QPR.
Dropping out of the Premier League would mean the club would miss out on a share of a new TV deal worth about £5bn across three years from August.
The Reading statement added: "[Reading] owner Anton Zingarevich wishes to place on record his thanks to Brian who had achieved great success with the club since taking over as Manager in December 2009.
"Brian gained promotion to the Premier League last year for only the second time in the club's history thanks to a remarkable run at the end of last season.
"However, in our current situation, owner Anton Zingarevich felt that a change was necessary."
Reacting to the news, Reading striker Noel Hunt wrote on Twitter: "Want to say thanks to Brian for everything he did for me especially. He's been a great manager, man and friend to me and will be missed!"
Former Reading captain Aidy Williams added: "I'm very surprised, more by the timing than the actual events.
"I presume someone will be placed in caretaker charge and we will get on with it. It's a strange atmosphere.
"Players become conditioned to the revolving door. It's a tough thing to deal with. We had Brynjar Gunnarsson leave the other day and it was tough.
"From a player's point view we have to believe in what we have. Yes, you can look at it that we've not got much experience but you cannot say we're not good enough.
"We always had the belief, everyone would like more money but we have a genuine belief we can stay in the league."
"I'm disappointed. I've known Brian for well over 10 years. His pride will be dented, he's a very passionate football man and has done his apprenticeship. But he can hold his head up high.
"He won the Championship against all odds, but in all honesty he was fighting a losing battle with budgets."
Current Reading player and BBC Radio 5 live pundit Jason Roberts said: "I'm in shock and I'm sad because he brought me in. I'm disappointed for him, the players and the club.
"I'd like to put on record our thanks to the manager for what he achieved. He achieved so much.
"Our budget was nowhere near the top ten so for us to win the league was a massive achievement. With nine games to go we still have an opportunity and it's now time to take stock.
"As a player we have to just get behind the new manager, we all want the same thing - to stay in the Premier League." | Premier League strugglers Reading have confirmed the departure of manager Brian McDermott. |
39,019,962 | Rumford, 39, was top of the leaderboard for all three strokeplay rounds and had a bye into round two for Sunday's six-hole knockout matchplay format.
He saw off Hideto Tanihara, Wade Ormsby and Adam Bland to reach the final, where a fine finish gave him a 2&1 win.
Australian Bland beat compatriot Jason Scrivener to claim third place.
Khongwatmai finished nine shots behind Rumford after the three strokeplay rounds and was in the highest-scoring group of the 24 players to qualify for the matchplay rounds.
He had to play one round more than Rumford and saw off Australians Sam Brazel, Lucas Herbert and Matthew Millar to reach the semi-finals, where he easily overcame Scrivener 3&1.
Rumford won the opening hole in the final at Lake Karrinyup, only for his teenage opponent to level at the next following a wayward drive from the Australian.
At the fourth hole, Rumford was in a perilous spot in sandy soil under trees to the left of the green but played a deft escape over a bunker and holed from 12 feet for a birdie four.
Then at the next he pitched to two feet at the par three and Khongwatmai conceded after taking two to escape from a bunker.
It was a sixth European Tour title for world number 274 Rumford, who had gone 80 events since his last win at the China Open in 2013, and it enabled him to regain full playing rights on the Tour.
"It really comes down to the people," he said of the new event, one of a series of innovations aimed at attracting new followers to golf. "If it's going to grow the game and it becomes an event with a bit more excitement and thrill about it then as a tour we've done a great job.
"I'm back and can't be happier."
Quarter-final results:
B Rumford (Aus) bt W Ormsby (Aus) second extra hole
P Khongwatmai (Tha) bt M Millar (Aus) 2&1
J Scrivener (Aus) bt S Jeffress (Aus) 1hole
A Bland (Aus) bt L Oosthuizen (SA) third extra hole
Semi-finals:
B Rumford (Aus) bt A Bland (Aus) 1hole
P Khongwatmai (Tha) bt J Scrivener (Aus) 3&1
7/8 play-off:
W Ormsby (Aus) bt M Millar (Aus) first extra hole
5/6 play-off:
L Oosthuizen (SA) bt S Jeffress (Aus) 1hole
3/4 play-off:
A Bland (Aus) bt J Scrivener (Aus) 1hole
Final:
B Rumford (Aus) bt P Khongwatmai (Tha) 2&1
Find out how to get into golf with our special guide. | Australian Brett Rumford captured the inaugural World Super 6 title with victory over 17-year-old Thai Phachara Khongwatmai in his native Perth. |
39,667,105 | The gruelling 26.2-mile race has taken place in the capital every year since 1981.
This year around 40,000 runners are expected to set off from the starting line, including this lot hoping to break some weird world records.
We want your good luck messages for the runners taking part!
To Diana and George, keep on running.
Jasmine, 9, Bridgend
Running for MS - GOOD LUCK, Heidi!
Lucas, 11, Malvern
Keep going, Auntie Fran!
Connor, 5, Sutton-in-Ashfield
Good luck, Claire Smith, running for Cancer Research UK! We love you so much and you've done us all so proud. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Millie, 12, London
Good luck to all the marathon runners, keep going your doing really well.
Bernice, 16, Buxton
Good luck, Mr Walker, head teacher of Ackworth Howard School. Raising money for the school. A great head teacher.
James, 7, and Harry, 7, Ackworth
Keep going, grandpa! Edward a 78-year-old man running the marathon today, we are so proud!
Ellie, 16, Solihull
Good luck, Mr Newell!! The whole class are so, so proud of you running for motor neurone disease, you're a legend, keep it up!!!
Jasmin, Surrey
Good luck, Simon at the London Marathon. You'll be great!!
Shannon, 10, and Sophie, 8, Orpington
Keep going, Uncle Richard.
Lucas, 7, Devon
Good luck to all the runners. I am so proud. Do not stop.
Yaaz, 10, Lingfield
Good luck to Chris Beasley and the team he is running with. You've got this, Uncle Chris!
Lauren, 14, Luton
Come on, Uncle Andy, we love you!
Sophie, 9, Buckingham
Well done to everyone who is doing the marathon. You should be very proud of yourself. GOOD LUCK!!!!
Eliza, 10, London
Lots of luck today to my friend Ivor's mummy, Alice.
Eshan, 8, London
Good luck, mum, you can do it! Xxx
Sonny, 10, and Coco, 7, Dorset
Good luck, Mr Parker, you can do it.
Izzy
Go Daddy Jacob! We love you!
Erica and Lillian, Chicago
Good luck, Dr Robinson and Mrs Dewar from Berkhamsted School. We think you are amazing!
Genevieve, 10, and Alexandra, 8, Berkhamsted
Everyone is proud of you, have a good run, dad (Tony).
Lillie, 11, North Wales
Good luck, daddy, I am cheering from the sofa as I am poorly. Mummy, Lucas and Rhys are cheering you on at the race.
Niamh, 4, Aberdeenshire
Good luck, Uncle Phil!! Running for Dementia UK!!
Sophia, 5, and Alfie, 2, Cumbria
Go Hollie - running for Cancer Research UK.
Joe, 8, and Evie, 6, Cornwall
Good luck, Kim and Leah, running in your first marathon, you have come through so much and we are so proud of you.
Phoebe, 14, Penyffordd
Good luck, Tom - do it for Be Be.
Harvey, 4, Surrey
Good luck, Clara, we all hope you do well, you got this! Xxxx
Rosie, 13, Luton
Go on, Roman Lad.
Tom, 13, Frodsham
Good luck daddy on your first marathon!!
Oliver, 5 months, Mansfield
Run, daddy, run! We are so proud of you and hope you enjoy your race.
Olivia, 10, Jacob, 7, and Owen, 5, Somerset
Good luck, Roman. You can do this. 😘
Helsby High School
Good luck, daddy, you are awesome!
William, Swindon
Good luck, Tim, so, so proud of you for doing this. You are amazing.
Jen, Swindon
Keep going, mum!
Hannah, 16, Cumbria
Come on daddy (Dale), we love you and are so proud! Lots of love. 😊
Johnny, 10, Camilla, 7, and the Davis Family
Good luck Mr Newell, your class are so so proud of you, you're amazing! Well done! X
Jasmin and Alice, Surrey
Wishing Miss Mackinder lots of luck from everyone at Chuter Ede Primary School - you're a true inspiration!
Chuter Ede Primary School, Nottingham
Good luck, Rebecca English, running for Evelina and our babies!
Emma, Tony, Ollie and Betsy
Just want to wish all the runners good luck. We have 600 ice poles waiting to cool you down.
The Palmer Family
Good luck, Uncle Tim! You can do it.
Leila, 7, Hackney
Wishing our daddy, Andrew, lots of luck on his first London Marathon. We love you very much and you are our hero. xxx
Grace and William
Good luck for everyone taking part and I hope you have fun! Looking out for the coolest and funniest costumes!
Alice, 9, Abingdon
Good luck, Mr Holmes! We will look out for the cap!
Class 72a, Foremarket Hall Prep School
Good luck to everyone running the London Marathon tomorrow! Always remember that we are all behind each and every one of you! Run with your heads held high!
Bella, Evesham
I would just like to say good luck to everyone. You can do it! I hope you all finish. And again, good luck. :)
Eleanor, 11, Bolton
Good luck, Uncle Richard - running to raise money for Cancer Research. We are very proud of you. x
Lucas, 7, Devon
Good luck, Mrs Whiteley! You can do it!
Class 5HC, Forres Sandle Manor School, Hampshire
Good luck, runners. Do your very best. I am very proud.
Hannah, 13, South Lanarkshire
Good luck to my brother, Simon, who is running to raise money for the Children with Cancer UK - the Mr Men and Little Miss team. Such a wonderful charity. You are an inspiration to the whole family, your nieces are so proud. xx
Becky, Rich, Soph and Jess, Yorkshire
Good luck, everyone, you'll do great.
Sky-Louise, 11, Doncaster
Good luck, David from Manchester, who is running to raise money for the Together Trust.
Kathleen, Malc, Andrew, and Hannah
Good luck all people who are running the marathon, especially my incredible mum, Catherine.
Daisy, 9, Bristol
I hope all of you do well in the London Marathon!
Isabel, Bedfordshire
Good luck to all the marathon runners. Never give up and try your best!
Izzy, 11, Hereford
Good luck to Jane from Gibraltar. Run, walk or skip, we are all supporting you.
Grace & James, Gibraltar
Good luck Auntie Jane, you're EPIC!
Love from Ben and Holly xx
Good luck and do your best.
Jessica, 16, London | The 37th London Marathon is taking place on Sunday, 23 April, with thousands of runners joining in to raise money for charity. |
33,817,733 | "At this stage we can confirm there are dead and wounded on all sides, and hostages," Lt Col Diarran Kone said.
Ukraine's foreign ministry says one of its nationals is being held hostage.
Residents told the BBC that before the attack, gunmen on motorbikes warned people via loudhailers to go indoors.
Sevare has an air force base and some UN peacekeepers are in the town.
The BBC's Alex Duval Smith in Mali says the town, which is about 600km (370 miles) north-east of the capital, Bamako, is the trading hub that serves the historic riverside city of Mopti.
The Byblos Hotel, scene of the ongoing incident, was reportedly attacked early on Friday morning by gunmen who had spent the night at the nearby Debo Hotel.
"An armed attack has been carried out on a hotel in Mali, and a Ukrainian national is among the hostages. Jointly with our international partners, we are taking urgent steps to free our citizen," Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Mariana Betsa said on Twitter.
Our reporter says there are several hotels near each other in the town that are popular with UN workers and those working for non-governmental organisations.
The BBC has learned that guests from France, South Africa and Ukraine are registered at the hotels, but it is not clear if they are caught up in the operation.
UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri refused to say whether any UN members of staff had been affected or were being held hostage in the Byblos Hotel.
A resident in the same neighbourhood as the hotel said: "We have never seen anything like this is Sevare.
"In 2012, the jihadists from the north were stopped at Konna, about 50km from here. So we only saw the war on television. Now that it has come to Sevare we are all traumatised."
Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants have been fighting the army in northern Mali for a number of years.
France, the former colonial power in Mali, intervened in January 2013 to stop their advance south to the capital.
Militancy in Mali | Soldiers in Mali have surrounded a hotel in the central town of Sevare where suspected Islamist militants are holding at least one foreign hostage, a defence spokesman has told the BBC. |
37,270,578 | Pole-starter Crutchlow, 30, held off title leader Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi on the final lap.
Andrea Iannone had threatened to take a podium place but crashed on his Ducati with five laps remaining.
Earlier, the race was red-flagged and restarted after a first-lap crash involving Loris Baz and Pol Espargaro.
Crutchlow, who become Britain's first MotoGP race winner in 35 years in the Czech Republic last month, was 3.480 seconds behind Vinales and just 0.583secs ahead of Italy's Rossi, the seven-time champion and 2015 Silverstone victor.
"It was a long race but good fun," Honda rider Crutchlow said on BT Sport.
"We deserved that result. The crowd deserved it. They've backed me for years. Pole and second, I'll take that all day long. I expected to be in the top six."
Crutchlow was overtaken by Italian legend Rossi from second at the start and had to refocus when the race was halted after Baz and Espargaro collided near the back of the grid.
At the restart, Vinales moved up quickly from third on the grid towards a healthy lead by lap nine, with Crutchlow at one point in danger of missing the podium.
However, Iannone slid out with five laps left before Marquez lost ground in the penultimate lap by going off the track, leaving Crutchlow the job of edging Rossi in to second place.
Vinales becomes the first man to win a race in each of the Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP championships, while it was Suzuki's first victory in nine years.
Lincolnshire's Alex Lowes finished 13th on his Yamaha, 40 seconds off the pace, on his MotoGP debut.
The next race takes place at Misano, in Italy, next Sunday.
Meanwhile, Silverstone will host the 2017 British MotoGP after the track agreed a deal with the Circuit of Wales.
The Welsh venue signed a five-year deal to host MotoGP in 2014 but work on the £315m project has been delayed.
1. Maverick Vinales (Spa) Suzuki 39 minutes 3.559 seconds
2. Cal Crutchlow (GB) Honda +3.480
3. Valentino Rossi (Ita) Yamaha +4.063
4. Marc Marquez (Spa) Honda +5.992
5. Dani Pedrosa (Spa) Honda +6.381
6. Dovizioso (Ita) Ducati +12.303
7. Aleix Espargaro (Spa) Suzuki +16.672
8. Jorge Lorenzo (Spa) Yamaha +19.432
9. Danilo Petrucci (Ita) Ducati +25.618
10. Alvaro Bautista (Spa) Aprilia +32.084
Click here for full standings
1. Marc Marquez (Spa) Honda 210 points
2. Valentino Rossi (Ita) Yamaha 160
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Spa) Yamaha 146
4. Maverick Vinales (Spa) Suzuki 125
5. Dani Pedrosa (Spa) Honda 120
6. Andrea Iannone (Ita) Ducati 96
7. Andrea Dovizioso (Ita) Ducati 89
8. Cal Crutchlow (GB) Honda 86
9. Pol Espargaro (Spa) Yamaha 81
10. Hector Barbera (Spa) Ducati 78 | Britain's Cal Crutchlow finished second in a dramatic British MotoGP at Silverstone as Spain's Maverick Vinales dominated to take his first-ever win. |
36,624,767 | The bout had been scheduled to take place in Manchester on 9 July.
Undefeated Fury, 27, posted on Instagram that he had been forced to cancel the fight after injuring himself while running in the Lake District.
"They've said it's not broken but it's badly sprained and to keep off it for six to seven weeks," he said.
Peter Fury, his uncle and trainer, said on Twitter: "Fight date will be postponed with new date released very soon, probably today."
Tyson Fury took the WBA and WBO heavyweight titles from Klitschko in their first bout in November.
"Of course, I am currently totally disappointed about the cancellation," Klitschko said.
"As well as for my fans, I´m very sorry, they were all very excited for this rematch. But one thing is also clear, this just means I'll get my belt a few weeks later."
Fury's promoter Mick Hennessy added: "It's very unfortunate at this crucial stage of Tyson's preparations that this injury has occurred with just a couple of weeks to go.
"There was no way Tyson could go into the fight against Wladimir Klitschko less than 100% fit." | British world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has postponed next month's rematch with Wladimir Klitschko after injuring an ankle in training. |
35,693,947 | In his first interview since taking over at the bank in December, Mr Staley said that the core bank was performing well, but there was a lot of work to do "simplifying" the structure of the bank and improving conduct.
That restructuring will cost money, he said, and will lead to the dividend being cut for investors by more than half this year and in 2017.
The bonus pool will also be cut for senior executives, he said.
"We are working at Barclays to change conduct," Mr Staley told me. "I am truly dedicated that Barclays rests itself on the foundations of integrity and engenders trust from our clients, so the conduct issues will be a thing of the past.
"I do believe that trust is returning to our institution. But we will never rest, we are never done. We have to focus on building that trust every day."
He refused to repeat the pledge made by the bank's chairman, John McFarlane, last year that the bank's share price would double in three years.
The bank's share price has fallen 40% since the middle of last year. Mr Staley said he believed the market would respond positively to the simplification plans announced today.
On pay, Mr Staley said he wanted to pay "competitively" but he understood the public's concerns.
"In the last four years, Barclays' bonus pool has been cut in half," he said.
"But remember, we need to pay competitively, whether it's the branch manager in Manchester or the banker in New York."
He said that Barclays would look to sell the majority of its Africa business, largely ending a historic relationship that goes back over 100 years.
"In the last three months we've had to make some very difficult decisions. We've pulled the investment bank back from nine emerging economies," Mr Staley said.
"On top of that we have made a very challenging decision to sell our position in Barclays Africa.
"The reality is, in this new regulatory environment, we carry 100% of the liabilities but we only own 62% of Barclays Africa.
"It truncated possible returns from investing in Africa.
"We have to take difficult decisions if we're going to get Barclays into a focused, clear business model that generates returns for our shareholders."
Turning to Europe, Mr Staley said that it was better for Britain to remain in, rather than leave, the European Union.
"We believe staying in the EU is best for our consumers and corporate clients," he said.
"Having unfettered access to the great economies of Europe anchors some significant benefits for the UK." | The chief executive of Barclays has told me that the bank needs to regain the trust of the public as he announced that profits had more than than halved in the final three months of 2015. |
36,802,093 | Charles Mellor, 57, disappeared a week ago while fishing near the former Carnation factory.
His body was found in The Caul area on Thursday.
Mr Mellor's disappearance on Friday night prompted a major search operation, involving the coastguard and the police underwater unit.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Nith Inshore Rescue, and members of the Moffat Mountain Rescue Team were also involved in the search. | Police have confirmed that the body of a man pulled from the River Nith in Dumfries is that of a missing fisherman. |
30,077,311 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Former FA chairman David Bernstein said it was time for drastic action against football's world governing body.
"England on its own cannot influence this," he said. "If we tried something like that, we'd be laughed at."
He says a World Cup would be weakened without Europe's top teams and that a boycott would have public backing.
"If I was at the FA now, I would do everything I could to encourage other nations within Uefa - and there are some who would definitely be on side, others may be not - to take this line," he added.
"At some stage, you have to walk the walk, stop talking and do something."
Bernstein said he also wanted Fifa president Sepp Blatter to step down but described him as "formidable, very shrewd, very smart", conceding it would "not be easy" to bring his reign to an end.
In an exclusive interview, the 71-year-old also said:
Bernstein chose to speak out after a report into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups cleared Russia and Qatar of wrongdoing but was critical of England, accusing the FA of flouting bid rules in its attempt to win the right to stage the 2018 event.
Yet less than four hours of the document's release, it was questioned by Michael Garcia, the man who conducted the two-year investigation into corruption claims.
The furore surrounding the report is the latest controversy to hit football's world governing body, which has been riddled with allegations of corruption in recent times.
Now Bernstein, who led the FA for three years from January 2011, wants Fifa to change its ways or face a challenge it finds impossible to ignore.
When asked again if he was calling for the FA to unite with Uefa to boycott Fifa and the World Cup, he replied: "Unless it (Fifa) could achieve the reforms that would bring Fifa back into the respectable world community, yes I would.
"It sounds drastic, but, frankly, this has gone on for years now. It's not improving, it's going from bad to worse to worse."
He said there were 54 countries within Uefa and described Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Holland as "all powerful".
He added: "You can't hold a serious World Cup without them. They have the power to influence if they have the will."
Similar views have been expressed by German Football League president Reinhard Rauball, who suggested Uefa could leave Fifa if the findings of the two-year investigation into corruption claims are not published in full.
As for criticism of England by the Fifa report, Bernstein accused football's world governing body of trying to deflect attention from its own failings.
"I don't think much to these accusations," he said. "I don't think we should get away from the real issue. The real issue is Fifa governance and trying to achieve real change. But it won't happen easily."
"Fifa is sort of a totalitarian set-up. Bits of it remind me of the old Soviet empire. People don't speak out and if they do they get quashed."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Bernstein also described the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, where blistering summer temperatures means the event could be switched to winter, "as one of the most ludicrous decisions in the history of sport".
He added: "You might as well have chosen Iceland in the winter. It was like an Alice in Wonderland sort of decision. The attempt to change the timing is also absolutely wrong."
He felt the decision to choose Qatar as 2022 hosts could come under further scrutiny.
"There's also a background of political, social and employment issues that keep emerging and I think there's a danger that Fifa and football might be embarrassed by what emerges in the coming years," said the former Manchester City chairman.
"It's certainly not sour grapes. England didn't lose to Qatar, we lost to Russia. Qatar is clearly a totally unsuitable place to hold a World Cup."
Bernstein also revealed he has quit Fifa's anti-discrimination taskforce He described it as "ineffectual" and wishes to end his ties with Fifa.
Explaining his decision to leave the taskforce, which was introduced in 2013, Bernstein said: "I've resigned for two reasons.
"Firstly, the body has been pretty ineffectual. I've been on it for more than a year and we only had one meeting. Secondly, because frankly I don't wish to be personally associated with Fifa any further.
"Fifa sets up these things - and we've seen it with their regulation - that look good in theory but don't seem to do very much in practice." | The English Football Association has been urged to lobby Uefa for a European boycott of the next World Cup - unless Fifa implements meaningful reform. |
35,501,709 | The 35-year-old, whose contract expires in the summer, suffered the injury in his first appearance for seven months against Burnley on Saturday.
Czech Republic international Rosicky joined Arsenal in May 2006.
Asked if Rosicky had played his last game for the Gunners, boss Arsene Wenger said: "I hope not but the injury is quite a serious one."
Rosicky, who has made 246 appearances for Arsenal, signed a one-year contract extension last summer.
Meanwhile, striker Danny Welbeck made his return to action for the under-21s on Friday.
The England international, 25, has been sidelined since April 2015 after injuring himself in a 0-0 draw with Chelsea, but played one hour in the game against Brighton. | Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky has been ruled out for up to three months because of a thigh problem. |
38,479,189 | Akhilesh Yadav, 44, was sacked from the Samajwadi Party (SP), after a row over candidate lists for state elections.
His father, party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, made the U-turn after the two met on Friday.
"All misunderstandings are now over", Indian media quoted Akhilesh Yadav's uncle as saying.
Mulayam, a former chief minister of the state, announced he was expelling Akhilesh on Thursday, a day after his son released a list of 235 candidates for the upcoming polls, despite the party announcing its own choices earlier.
Who is Akhilesh Yadav?
The family feud rocking Indian politics
The list reportedly included Akhilesh's supporters, and excluded some of his father's loyalists.
Elections are expected to be announced in Uttar Pradesh in the coming days.
On Saturday, Mulayam also revoked the expulsion of his cousin, senior party leader Ramgopal Yadav.
Ramgopal earned the wrath of the party chief after announcing an emergency meeting of the SP on 1 January, which Mulayam said only he was entitled to do.
"Now we will all fight UP polls united and will form the government with majority," said Shivpal Yadav, Akhilesh's uncle and Mulayam's brother.
Earlier there were angry scenes outside the chief minister's residence as supporters vented their fury, the Times of India reported.
It said that 200 of the 229 party MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) attended a meeting there expressing their support for Akhilesh.
There are reported to be 20-plus members of the Yadav family active in Indian politics. The bitter feud between them has been simmering for some years, prompting infighting and factionalism in the SP.
Some political analysts say Akhilesh is more popular than his father, as he can reach beyond the caste boundaries that are prevalent in north Indian politics. | The chief minister of India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has been readmitted to his political party - a day after his father expelled him. |
32,495,931 | 28 April 2015 Last updated at 22:53 BST
Last year Labour's Glenda Jackson won by 42 votes, but this year she is not standing.
A key issue in the area is housing, as many of the borough's wealthier people could be hit by a mansion tax, while others are moving out as they cannot afford to live there.
BBC London's Alice Bhandhukravi talks to the candidates hoping to win the seat.
Click here for a full list of declared candidates for Hampstead and Kilburn and for more information about the constituency. | Hampstead and Kilburn is a key marginal seat in north London and the closest three-way seat in the country. |
28,325,442 | Dorchester's Grade-I listed Shire Hall was the scene of the significant moment in the history of the trade union movement in the 1800s.
Planning permission for the old courts and cells to be transformed into a £2.9m visitor centre has now been granted by the district council.
A bid for £1.1m of Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) cash is being put together.
If the Shire Hall Trust is successful in its bid this summer, West Dorset District Council will match the funding.
The project was initially awarded £69,000 by the HLF and £100,000 from the authority.
The six Tolpuddle Martyrs were agricultural labourers who formed a "friendly society" - a forerunner to a trade union - and swore an illegal oath to protect their falling wages in 1834.
They were sentenced to seven years' transportation to an Australian penal colony.
However, outrage about their punishment caused protests across England and after four years they were pardoned and returned home.
Novelist and poet Thomas Hardy was also magistrate at the court for 15 years.
As well as further funding the proposals for the building, on High West Street, also need the agreement of the secretary of state. | Plans to transform Dorset's Tolpuddle Martyrs trial court building into a tourist attraction have been approved. |
28,968,927 | Votes for the 18 September ballot were listed on internet auction site eBay, which has since removed the items.
The Electoral Commission said both the selling and buying of votes was illegal.
One online listing offered buyers a "unique piece of British history".
The Glasgow-based vendor wrote that he was selling his vote - with a starting price of 99p - because he did not "give a flying monkeys [sic] about any of this".
He went on: "This is my very own unique piece of British History!
"This could be the deciding vote. Who knows? I am a hard working Scottish citizen with a house, a gorgeous wife and 2 beautiful kids who are my world.
"This vote will not change anything in our lives so I have decided not to vote."
The listing was signed off: "Happy Bidding."
A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission said it had made an agreement with eBay that any such "votes for sale" listings would be taken down and referred to police.
She added that selling and buying votes was a criminal offence that could lead to a year in prison or a "substantial" fine.
"Anyone that believes an offence may have been committed, for instance because bids were made on a vote advertised as 'for sale', should refer this matter to the police," she told the BBC.
"We advise eBay to refer any such cases to the police themselves."
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "We will respond appropriately to any issues which arise.
"We are investigating these incidents and therefore cannot comment on the outcome of these incidents until all inquiries are concluded.
Where other incidents are reported they will be investigated and appropriate action taken." | Police have launched an investigation after a number of people apparently tried to sell their votes in the independence referendum online. |
40,324,822 | The Association of British Commuters (ABC) will attend a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on 29 June.
The drivers' union, Aslef, is due to begin an overtime ban on the same day.
Leaders of the RMT are due to meet this week to discuss the next move in their long-running disputes with Southern, Merseyrail and Northern (Arriva North).
The RMT is in dispute with the rail companies over driver-only-operated trains which they say would be unsafe and lead to widespread job losses.
Aslef and the RMT have been in a bitter dispute with Southern and its parent company, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), for more a year over the roles of train staff.
ABC said ministers acted unlawfully by failing to determine whether managers had breached franchise obligations. They said the court hearing could lead to a full judicial review.
Summer Dean, of ABC, said: "Passengers are the only people who still don't have a voice in this fiasco, and many thousands of them support us in our efforts to reveal the truth behind the Department for Transport's involvement in Southern Rail."
Mick Cash, the RMT's general secretary, said: "The spotlight is now well and truly back on the basket-case Southern rail franchise and their unconditional support from this minority government, regardless of the safety and service consequences."
The Department for Transport said it would be "inappropriate" to comment while legal proceedings were ongoing.
A GTR spokesman said: "We take our responsibilities to our passengers incredibly seriously, in particular disabled customers. We now have more staff assigned to work on our trains than we did before who can assist." | A commuters' group has been given a date for a court hearing in its bid for a judicial review of the government's handling of the Southern rail "fiasco". |
30,974,000 | This is because the CDF - a fund that will have £340m next year - exists to pay for treatments that would not be bought were cancer subject to normal NHS cost-benefit rules.
Cancer patients are given more support than other patients.
This is seen as a problem for two reasons.
First, basic fairness. Why care more about cancer than other diseases? Second, it undermines the cost-benefit system that officials and doctors work hard to make work for the rest of the NHS.
There remains one big undiscussed element to this, though.
The CDF is a "stop-gap". That's what everyone says.
Andrew Lansley, the former health secretary, said the fund "is not, and was never intended to be, a permanent solution" to the problem the NHS keeps raising about cancer drugs often costing too much.
At the moment, the NHS has an odd system for drug pricing.
It allows "free pricing", which means that pharmaceutical companies can name their price when they come forward with a product.
Then the NHS says "yes" or "no". The state makes a call on whether that price represents good value.
That decision-making role is currently occupied by NICE - the body whose main expertise is in assessing medical technologies.
It works out how much each new technology that it assesses either improves quality of life or prolongs it.
Nice says treatments should not cost more than £20,000 to £30,000 for each extra year of life in good health they bring. But there are exemptions.
Costs can go higher for end-of-life care, for example. But if a drug doesn't meets the criteria, we don't buy it.
This is not the only NHS cost-control mechanism: doctors have budgets to watch. And the total drug bill is capped.
If we overspend, the pharmaceutical companies pay a rebate. But NICE controls which drugs enter the main NHS bloodstream.
This process creates a political problem. Rejecting cancer drugs makes front-page news. It could make the whole NICE system politically toxic - hence why the CDF exists.
The role of the CDF is to shield NICE from campaigners.
But the argument about cancer has distracted us from other problems that the NICE system introduces.
For example, imagine NICE approves a new drug, so hospitals have to offer it. But, to pay for it, hospitals have to cut other treatments for other diseases that might be more efficient than the new product? That happens a lot.
Mr Lansley wanted to change the way we say which drugs the NHS can use when he was health secretary.
Rather than have a system where the NHS just says "yes" or "no", he wanted a process where the NHS would say to the companies: "We want this drug and we will pay £2,000 for a drug of this quality."
This is hardly novel: it's how much of the world works. But changing to his idea - known as "value-based pricing" (VBP) - would also mean a lot of change for the NHS.
Some could be good.
For example, if you are willing to set prices drug-by-drug and disease-by-disease, you can incorporate a wider range of issues into your assessment of value for money.
Technical assessments made by NICE could be supplemented by other work.
Mr Lansley wanted us to be willing to pay more for drugs that save money by reducing a patient's need for carers. So we could raise the maximum price we would be willing to pay for a given treatment for Alzheimer's, say.
We could also systematically pay more for things like mental health treatments, because we need to encourage so much research in that area.
We could do the same to encourage breakthrough research like the new post-statin cholesterol-busters.
And VBP could well lead to a pricing system that lets through a lot more cancer drugs on a more rational basis. Lots are innovative and some of their benefits are not fully captured by the current system.
The system would assume we would buy any drug at a price we would fix based on what it is worth to us, rather than simply saying "yes" or "no" to a price based on the pharmaceutical companies' assessments.
Still, changing this would be tough. The pharmaceutical companies do like free pricing. That's because the UK price can be used as a reference price for selling abroad.
The NHS would also need to cut prices for a lot of drugs. It can't be a one-way ratchet, where it only promises to pay more for stuff.
But there's no guarantee we could save money. There's also no guarantee we'd be good at it, or that we really would have enough pricing power to direct drug research.
A lot of health economists like the idea of VBP, but worry about implementation.
George Freeman, the responsible minister, said VBP "might involve a 10-year programme of deep and long-term change, but we are definitely committed to embracing it and to laying a policy foundation for it."
The argument about cancer drugs will be reignited in March.
This month, NHS England revealed that 25 treatments might no longer be funded by it. They are too expensive or ineffective even for the fund, officials say.
Those decisions will be finalised then, and patients who have been denied drugs will start coming forward soon afterwards.
When this starts again, it's fair to reflect that the CDF isn't really fair on patients of other diseases.
But we should be thinking about whether the CDF is the problem, or whether it is a drug pricing system built around just saying "yes" or "no". | A lot of people in the NHS hate the Cancer Drugs Fund - the pot of money dedicated to funding expensive cancer drugs for patients in England. |
40,774,843 | The £50m stadium and training facilities would be at Kingsford, close to the Aberdeen bypass, near Westhill.
The hearing will take place on Wednesday 13 September at Aberdeen Town House.
It will give people who have written in about the application a chance to speak about it directly to city councillors.
Aberdeen FC said if planning permission was granted in October, it could still have the stadium completed in 2020.
Objectors say concerns include traffic and parking issues.
The club believes the new stadium is vital if it is to achieve a sustainable future. | A pre-determination hearing into Aberdeen FC's plans for a new stadium on the outskirts of the city will take place in September. |
40,887,419 | The clubs acted after England wing Jonny May used a little-known regulation to leave Gloucester for Leicester for a fixed compensation fee, despite being under contract.
But following talks on Tuesday, the 12 existing Premiership clubs have voted unanimously to amend the stipulation.
The Rugby Players' Association (RPA) was not consulted on the change.
Previously, the regulation in the Premiership code of conduct enabled a player to be bought out of his contract by another club for a set transfer fee.
That amount was a one-off payment of a year's salary of what the player was being offered by the buying club, or what he was currently being paid - whichever was higher.
It is understood that the clause was designed to cover employees in other areas of the club, but it has rarely been used in the case of a player.
But this regulation has now been altered, with the fee becoming a negotiation between the two clubs. This fee will fall outside the salary cap.
It is hoped the change will protect smaller clubs from having their young players on low salaries poached, and will ensure the competitiveness and equity of the league.
It's understood all 12 Premiership clubs supported the amendment.
May's move to Welford Road had been seen as an important precedent, with some figures fearful of the impact it would have on the English game.
The latest development represents a shift in power back to the clubs from the players but, like in the negotiations surrounding the global season, the players were not involved in the discussions.
"We're talking to the players about how this will potentially impact on their careers," RPA chief executive Damian Hopley told BBC Sport.
"We want to ensure the players feel there is an open dialogue to be had. This has to work for both parties [clubs and players], and be done in a professional and swift way."
And Hopley says the latest change must not lead to inflated sums of money being demanded for players looking to leave a contract early.
"It must be dealt with in a fair and reasonable fashion, otherwise this could turn into a free-for-all and destabilise the entire marketplace," he said. | English Premiership clubs have closed a contract loophole which threatened transfer chaos in rugby union. |
31,657,716 | Plans to knock down 271 terraced houses in Toxteth and replace them with 154 new homes were blocked by the government last month in order to preserve its "Beatles heritage".
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles vetoed plans as the site includes Ringo Starr's birthplace.
The £15m Welsh Streets project had been recommended after a public inquiry.
The scheme was approved by the council's planning committee in August 2013 but was called in for a public inquiry by Mr Pickles.
Assistant mayor and Liverpool City Council cabinet member for housing Ann O'Byrne said: "We are not prepared to stand by and see Eric Pickles ignore local people and his own independent planning inspector.
"The long-suffering residents of the Welsh Streets have now been waiting more than a decade for new homes and we are standing up against this unacceptable political interference from Whitehall.
"This scheme was carefully developed and supported by the vast majority of local people in a thorough and detailed consultation."
Under the plans, The Beatles' drummer's former home at 9 Madryn Street was due to be refurbished, along with 36 other properties, although other terraced houses on the road would be demolished.
A letter giving the reasons for Mr Pickles' decision said the proposals were "short sighted as regards the future tourism potential of Madryn Street".
Other reasons given included:
Liverpool City Council had until the end of Friday to appeal against Mr Pickle's decision.
As well as Madryn Street, the scheme encompasses Wynnstay Street, Voelas Street, Treborth Street, Rhiwlas Street, Powis Street, Pengwern Street, Kinmel Street and Gwydir Street.
Sources differ on how long Starr lived at Madryn Street before his family moved to nearby Admiral Grove, where he was living as a teenager shortly before The Beatles shot to fame. | A decision to halt the demolition of Liverpool's Welsh Streets area has been challenged by the city council. |
29,712,916 | This poverty has become an issue in the mid-term election race that pits Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who's already been senator for 18 years, against Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy.
Ms Landrieu's supporters insist she has done a lot for poor families. Her opponents say it's not enough and she is just a lackey of President Barack Obama.
In fact, Mr Obama seems to be just as important a figure in this campaign as either of the candidates, and his name isn't even on the ballot. | Louisiana is hot, humid and poor - in roughly that order - and all three facts are unmissable. |
38,131,611 | These so-called "prohibited" subsidies are considered the most serious form of anti-competitive practice as they require an undertaking from the company in receipt of them to promise not to operate in other jurisdictions.
You can have the money if you promise you won't open plants elsewhere - in this case even in another US state.
This particular subsidy was offered by Washington State - home of Boeing's vast Everett and Renton plants - and covers the development of its wide bodied 777X aircraft.
Previous examples of this kind of ruling usually require immediate repayment - a sum that by some estimate could approach $9bn, a figure Boeing itself, however, hotly disputes.
Boeing has previously called for an Australian company, found to be in receipt of similar prohibited subsidies, to be forced to immediately repay them, but it's unlikely it will take such a hard line on itself.
This marks a victory for Airbus in a war without end.
Back in September the European aerospace giant, which employs 15,000 people in the UK, was on the receiving end when it was found that billions of euros in low interest loans amounted to illegal subsidies.
Boeing celebrated that moment as a comprehensive victory which would deal a mortal blow to Airbus and result in more US jobs.
The reality is that neither of these companies can exist without government subsidies.
The development costs of new aircraft are just too big, and the risks and rewards too great, for governments to stay out of it.
Boeing gets money from NASA and the US Department of Defence; Airbus from very, very cheap government loans.
For years this was the case and an uneasy truce reigned over the world aerospace market throughout the 1990s and beyond.
Then, in 2004, all hell broke loose and the lawyers on both sides have been at each others throats for 12 years - a nice little earner for them.
Could the end of this legal gravy plane be in sight?
Perhaps.
It's not just the US and Europe who are at it.
Canada's government subsidises Bombardier, and then there is the biggest threat to the Airbus and Boeing duopoly.
It is called Comac, the state-funded Chinese plane maker with the world commercial aviation market its number one target.
Its recent wide bodied aircraft combine features of both the Boeing 777 and Airbus A350 and caught many eyes at a recent airshow in China.
Perhaps this potential common enemy will one day prompt Boeing and Airbus to bury the hatchet.
The world's longest running and costliest trade dispute does shed some interesting light on the workings of the World Trade Organization.
This is a body the UK may get to know a bit better in the coming months and years if the UK leaves the EU without striking a replacement trade deal.
The big lesson is this: disputes take years, are rarely conclusively settled, and do not take the heat out of international trade disputes. | In a landmark trade ruling, the World Trade Organization will this afternoon find Boeing has illegally benefitted from billions of dollars from the most anti-competitive type of subsidy. |
38,654,436 | The male officer was slashed on the neck, face and hand while attempting to arrest Paul Owens at the Leeds store.
Owens, 36, of no fixed address, admitted wounding with intent to resist arrest, attempted theft and possessing an offensive weapon.
He was jailed for six years and 147 days at Leeds Crown Court.
The HMV store on Victoria Walk was closed for about two hours after the attack on 25 November, with witness Liam Hughes describing the incident as "absolute madness".
Owens was eventually arrested after store staff helped to stop him.
Nick Smart, chairman of West Yorkshire Police Federation, said: "Officers are acutely aware of the need to act on and off duty and place themselves in dangerous situations.
"The sentence reflects the seriousness of attack that he suffered." | A shoplifter who attacked an off-duty police officer with a knife when he was caught stealing from an HMV during Black Friday has been jailed. |
38,383,428 | Guide: Is homework a good idea or not?
That means lessons, assembly, seeing your friends and - for a lot of you - time to do homework again!
While giving homework to pupils in secondary schools is generally seen as a good idea, some don't think that kids in primary schools should have to do it.
For the last 100 years or so, experts have been trying to work out if it is beneficial to give homework to kids in primary schools.
In the UK, the government says it's up to the head teacher to decide whether or not their school will set extra work like this.
Find out more about both sides of the argument with Newsround's guide, and then let us know what you think of doing homework when you're in primary school.
Homework: A timeline
Homework generally means work that is set by teachers for you to do outside of your normal school hours.
When you're younger, your parents might help you to do it.
But as you get older, you will generally take more responsibility for doing your homework on your own.
Professor Sue Hallam from the Institute of Education - who is one of the most experienced researchers into homework in the UK - says that in 1997, just over 6 in every 10 primary schools made their pupils do homework.
Just two years later, this had risen to around nine in ten primary schools and the majority still set homework now.
Many think that giving homework to primary school children is an important part of their learning.
They believe it helps them to practice what that they have learnt in lessons, in order to get better at things like spelling and handwriting.
They say it helps to teach children how to work on their own and be disciplined with themselves - both skills that are useful later in life.
It can also allow parents or guardians to get involved in their children's learning.
To find out more about why people think homework is a good idea, Jenny spoke to Chris from the campaign for Real Education, which is a group of teachers and parents who care about how well schools are doing.
Members of the organisation believe that traditional homework is important.
Chris told Newsround: "If you like learning, homework helps to support your learning. It's really important to go back afterwards and think about what you're learning in class. Practice makes perfect."
"In parts of the world, children are doing much better in school than children in the UK. In most cases, they are doing much more homework.
"That doesn't mean you should be doing home work all the time.
"But a little bit of homework to support what you're doing in the classroom, involving your parents and guardians, is really good because it allows you to do as well as everybody else in the world."
Chris added that it is important to have a balance between homework and other activities.
"Homework shouldn't be overdone. Let's do some homework and some play."
Some people think that giving homework to children at primary school is not necessary.
They think it puts too much pressure on them and that the time spent doing homework could be used to do other activities.
Jenny also spoke to Nansi Ellis - assistant general secretary of one of the biggest teacher's unions in England, made up of teachers and heads - who doesn't believe that giving homework to primary school children is needed.
She told Newsround: "There is other good stuff you can do at home, like reading, playing sport or a musical instrument, or helping with the cooking, shopping or with your siblings. You might be a Guide or a Scout.
"Those things are really helpful for you to learn to work in a team, to learn to be creative, to ask questions and to help other people. These are really important skills.
"The trouble with homework is that it gets in the way of all of those good things that you could be doing and it doesn't necessarily help you with your school work."
Sometimes parents or guardians try to help with homework and, if they have been taught differently, it can end up being confusing for the child doing the homework. They can also end up doing too much of the work themselves!
Nansi added: "Some children live in really busy houses with lots of people coming and going, and they don't have a quiet space to do homework, so they can't use it to help them to get better at studying on their own, which doesn't seem fair.
"Teachers set homework for you to get better at your learning - that seems like a really good reason. But actually, the evidence isn't clear that even that's true."
Another expert Rosamund McNeil, from a teachers' organisation called the NUT, said: "Pupils in Finland are assigned very little homework yet they remain one of the most educationally successful countries in the world."
People have been trying to find out if homework is a good thing or a bad thing for many years.
Recently, a report was done by an organisation called the Teaching Schools Council, which works with the government and schools in England.
It says: "Homework [in primary schools] should have a clear purpose."
The report explains that if there isn't a clear reason for the homework and the pupils won't necessarily gain something from doing it, then it should not be set.
Dame Reena Keeble, an ex-primary school head teacher who led the report, told Newsround: "What we are saying in our report is that if schools are setting homework for you, they need to explain to you - and your mums and dads - why they're setting it, and your teachers need to let you know how you've done in your homework.
"We found homework can really help with your learning, as long as your school makes sure that what you're doing for your homework is making a difference."
Many people have different opinions. However, the truth is it's hard to know.
Professor Hallam explains that part of the problem is that it is difficult to accurately work out how useful homework is.
Generally, people agree that homework is good idea for children in secondary school.
But for primary school, it isn't clear if there's a right or wrong answer to this question.
Nearly 900 of you took part in an online vote about the amount of homework you get: whether it is not enough, just right or too much.
It's just a quick snapshot of what some of you think. Here's the results: | The Christmas holidays are over and it's back to school! |
38,805,402 | "I love a sunburnt country," she declared in her timeless poem My Country, and more than a century after those famous words were crafted, parts of Australia have endured another savage summer of heat. Sydney has had its hottest December and January nights on record and there have been new year heatwaves in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.
The bursts of scorching conditions are not only uncomfortable, they can be a silent killer. Doctors are worried that many Australians are underestimating the dangers posed by the heat, the nation's deadliest natural hazard.
In 2009, 173 people died in the Black Saturday bushfires in the state of Victoria, one of the most fire-prone regions in the world. However, more than twice as many victims lost their lives in a heatwave that preceded the fires.
"What we are seeing increasingly is weather that really pushes us to our limits," Dr Tessa Kennedy from the Australian Medical Association of New South Wales told the BBC. "Many people don't know that heatwaves are actually more harmful to human health than bushfires and floods."
Mackellar's epic love of the bush was forged in sun-baked rural New South Wales where her family owned land near Gunnedah. About 200km (124 miles) to the north, the people of Moree have been sweltering through an unprecedented heatwave. The temperature in the farming town that sits atop rich black-soil plains exceeded 35C every day in January, a record in New South Wales, beating the previous benchmark of 17 consecutive days.
Meteorologists believe it could near another record this week - seven successive days above 40C.
"We are sick of it," said Katrina Humphries, the mayor of the Moree Plains Shire Council. "Our son Robert and daughter-in-law Jacqueline moved back to Norfolk [in England] a couple of years ago because the heat here was so horrific.
"We slow down a lot though the middle of the day and look forward to the day when it cools down and we get some rain."
It's the very young, infirm and those over the age of 75 who are most risk from searing temperatures.
Heat-related illness, which can occur when body temperature exceeds 37.8C, includes dehydration, cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The consequences can be catastrophic, resulting in heart attacks, brain damage and death. Finding out exactly how the heat has killed an individual is often hard because many victims have pre-existing medical conditions, which can be exacerbated when it is very hot.
In early January, a Virgin Australia pilot died of dehydration and exhaustion while quad-biking in the Beerburrum State Forest, north of Brisbane. It was reported that 30-year old Matthew Hall's body temperature had reached 42C, which caused his organs to shut down. He died of critical heat stroke, two weeks before his wife was due to give birth to their first child.
More than 500 people die of heat stress across the nation each year, according to the Australia Medical Association. The symptoms of heat exhaustion include a rapid heart rate, headaches, nausea and fainting.
As the mercury climbs, spare a thought for those workers who have to endure roasting conditions on roofs, building sites or fuel depots, although they should be protected by strict health and safety laws.
"If it is 38C you are supposed to be not working," Tony Sheldon, the head of the Transport Workers Union, told the BBC. "There are a number of precautions that should be taken; hydration, proper clothing, rest periods. It is critical that people have those opportunities to get out of the heat and they have a legal right to do that."
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology defines a heatwave as "three days or more of high maximum and minimum temperatures that is unusual for that location".
Conservationists have argued that Australia's fabled alfresco lifestyle could be in jeopardy because more severe heat could restrict the amount of time people can safely spend outside. Scientists, too, believe that the world's driest inhabited continent is becoming hotter.
"There is clear evidence that heatwaves are intensifying in Australia. The overall trend in heatwaves is caused by global warming," said Andy Pitman, the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System, a collaboration of various universities and research organisations.
"I was recently in southern Sicily and no-one was out and about in the extreme heat - activities took place in the morning and evening. One can imagine… problems for sports that take all day [cricket, for example]. There are also major economic risks - human productivity drops off in the heat, so construction is already at risk. Agriculture is threatened by extreme heat, too."
As the latest blanket of oppressive heat and humidity smothered Sydney, the city seemed to slip into slow-motion to cope, although there were some die-hard runners pounding the pavements.
"Ah, I'm not too bad, mate," said one man, his face lobster-red and shirt dripping with sweat. "Us Aussies grew up with it, so it is not a big deal." | As a homesick teenager in Britain in the early 1900s, the writer Dorothea Mackellar yearned for the "pitiless blue sky" of Australia. |
39,200,671 | Labour member Jonny Morris made the gesture in protest after Conservative members voted to end a debate on raising Plymouth City Council tax.
He has also been suspended for three months.
Mr Morris confirmed the penalties which were agreed by the Labour group but declined to comment further.
The gesture - which was caught on camera - was met with a chorus of derision from fellow attendees at the meeting.
Opposition politicians branded Mr Morris an "utter disgrace" and demanded his resignation.
He apologised, and said he performed the salute because he was "very angry at the closing down of debate".
Plymouth Moor View Conservative MP Johnny Mercer said: "If he had a shred of integrity or any pride in his office he would have resigned.
"I think not to lose your job if you do a Nazi salute in a council chamber is extraordinary but it speaks of the standards the Labour group holds themselves to."
Labour leader Tudor Evans, who has previously condemned Mr Morris' actions, declined to comment on the sanctions against him. | A councillor who performed a Nazi salute during a meeting has been ordered to attend a diversity training course. |
35,695,210 | The federal upper house (Bundesrat) took the case to the constitutional court in the western city of Karlsruhe.
The petition argues that the NPD is racist and anti-Semitic, and poses a threat to Germany's democratic order.
A previous attempt to ban the NPD failed in 2003 because the judges dismissed evidence provided by state agents who had infiltrated the party.
The NPD is not represented at national level, but has members in the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania state assembly in former East Germany. It also has one seat in the European Parliament, held by former party chief Udo Voigt.
NPD members have joined regular "anti-Islamisation" marches by the right-wing Pegida organisation, based in Dresden.
The NPD's anti-immigrant stance is part of widespread German anxiety about the influx of non-EU migrants, many of them Muslim Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans fleeing war and human rights abuses.
Germany severely restricts the power to ban a political party - a legacy of de-Nazification after World War Two.
Only the Bundesrat, Bundestag (lower house) or government can launch a banning procedure.
And only the constitutional court can impose a ban, if two-thirds of the judges back it.
Critics of the new case against the NPD fear that a ban could turn far-right extremists into martyrs. The party has about 5,200 members.
There are two post-war precedents for such bans in Germany. The West German authorities banned the Socialist Reich Party in 1952 and the Communist Party of Germany in 1957.
A banning order forces a party to completely disband and its assets can be seized, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports. | Germany's highest court is considering whether to ban the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). |
39,735,037 | The 16-year-old boys were arrested on Wednesday in raids by West Midlands Police, who are investigating attacks in Moseley and Kings Heath in February.
Officers also seized cash, a car key, mobile phones and clothing. They believe the attacks were planned on the messaging service WhatsApp.
The boys have been bailed while investigations continue. | Three teenagers have been bailed after they were arrested in connection with a spate of car-jackings in Birmingham. |
33,405,370 | Dyfed-Powys Police has arrested a man on suspicion of murder following an incident at Temple Street, Llandrindod Wells, in the early hours of Sunday.
The dead's man family has been informed.
Detectives want to speak to anybody in the area around Temple Street between 23:00 BST on Saturday and 04:15 on Sunday. | Police are investigating the death of a 31-year-old man in Powys. |
40,393,152 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Before the tour party departed for New Zealand, I thought the All Blacks would win comfortably.
But then I considered South Africa and Australia's decline since the last Rugby World Cup, that England and Ireland have both risen in the rankings, that Scotland beat the Wallabies in Sydney last week, and thought the balance of power was shifting from southern to northern hemisphere rugby.
I looked at the considerable strength and quality of the squad at Warren Gatland's disposal.
Then I added in some weather forecasts that suggested there might be favourable conditions for the Lions forwards at Eden Park.
And maybe I got carried away.
In the opening three minutes, you saw Jonathan Davies go through, offload to Conor Murray and the Lions come up to within a metre.
From there, the All Blacks score.
But the Lions didn't.
Instead Elliot Daly was bundled into touch by a superb bit of defence from Israel Dagg and that set the tone for the game.
New Zealand's players have an individual skill set far above any of their rival teams.
Take second row Brodie Retallick, who is 6ft 8 and 19 and a half stone.
He can push in the scrum and jump in the line-out in his sleep.
When he wakes up though, he plays with the distribution and space awareness of a centre.
From one to 15, they all have the X-factor. But as well as the ability to execute remarkable handling skills, they also have an understanding of how best to deploy them.
Wing Rieko Ioane's first try was a case in point.
The All Blacks had the penalty advantage after a great scrum, but Kieran Read was not only able to scoop an extraordinary off-load off the floor to scrum-half Aaron Smith, but also to realise that, with the Lions pack wheeled, he was opening up the tourists' weak side.
Three passes later Ioane was in.
They were the eye-catching moments.
In general play though, their superiority sprung from a simple aspect of the game that is taught all the way from mini-rugby as a child.
They were coming onto the ball at pace. Or if not, they passed to someone who could.
It meant that they made yards to gain territory, it gave them the upper hand in the breakdown to secure possession and opened up the options of off-loads from which they create try-scoring chances.
The hosts won the collisions.
It was especially important given New Zealand attacked with less width than normal to try and avoid being trapped by a Lions rush that comes up quicker on the outside.
After the match, Gatland called for his men to be more physical, while counterpart Steve Hansen mocked the Lions' presumptions of front-five dominance.
Both coaches knew that basic truth.
The beautiful aspect of rugby is that through cohesion, organisation and commitment you can negate a team of more talented individuals and win through the collective.
The Lions will have come off the pitch at Eden Park thinking about what might have been because they had the opportunities to make the result very different.
They created plenty of chances from long range, one was finished by Sean O'Brien for a spectacular try after Liam Williams' deft sidestep inside his own 22m.
If you are viewing this page on the BBC News app please click here to vote.
But others were left unexploited.
Daly came close early on and could have put Liam Williams in after collecting Owen Farrell's kick on the half hour.
Jonathan Davies' break should have delivered at least five points at the start of the second half before Anthony Watson's weaving run had the All Blacks stretched, but ultimately unbreached.
Rhys Webb's try in the last play of the game may have been meaningless in terms of this weekend, but it was an important psychological blow. Whether it is the first minute or the last, the All Blacks hate conceding.
If the Lions finished off what they created, they could have won this game and that is their glimmer of hope.
The All Blacks always seem to come on strong in the final 20 minutes. The Lions need to be leading rather than chasing as the second Test heads into that decisive period.
I would go for younger, more athletic, options from the start.
Starting Maro Itoje ahead of Alun Wyn Jones in the second row would be the most obvious way to increase the dynamism of the side.
The 22-year-old England lock is an 80-minute animal and made an impact after coming off the bench with a fine line-out steal and several good cover tackles.
Webb's try was a fine piece of opportunism and fellow scrum-half Conor Murray had a couple of wayward kicks, but I would ignore calls for the Welshman to come in from the start.
Webb is a finisher, revelling in the open spaces and tired defences late on, but is too much of an individual to start.
However, I would have a long think about possibly replacing Owen Farrell, who lacked his usual influence, with Johnny Sexton at 10.
Farrell didn't play badly, but his positive contribution was not that obvious either. He missed a kick that by his own high standards was eminently makeable.
Perhaps bringing CJ Stander in ahead of Sam Warburton on the bench would bring more physicality and ball-carry ballast. Maybe Iain Henderson could come in to the 23 as a replacement.
There are not too many changes to make. Ultimately, whoever you put out, you are up against the All Blacks, who are just a phenomenal team. | I had so many emotions coming into this game. |
35,707,054 | Posh dropped to 16th in the table after losing 3-1 at Bury on Tuesday.
"We've given the fans some massive highs and now we're giving them a ridiculous low," said Westley.
"I hope people understand the reality of the situation. We had a team in November that won six straight and we're sick of talking about it, but we've lost eight of those in this run."
He told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: "We've been blooding players, given them their debuts and we've looked a bit disjointed - the little errors are adding up and costing us dear.
Westley's side were in the play-off places in mid-January, but since selling top scorer Conor Washington to QPR, Posh have only scored six league goals.
And they have lost every game since their FA Cup fourth round penalty shootout defeat by Premier League West Brom on 10 February, with injuries to midfielder Chris Forrester and striker Lee Angol proving untimely.
"Two or three weeks ago we were playing a Premier League side and matching them. We've had an awful period since then," said Westley.
"We have to take responsibility for what we are serving up, but we will get it right. We're all hardworking people, we know what we're doing, we're good at our jobs." | Peterborough manager Graham Westley is confident his side can recover from a run of five League One defeats. |
40,018,089 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Wood is one of 12 English players in the men's world's top 100, a statistic that compares favourably with the equivalent ranking in tennis, in which just four British players feature.
"There are 10 of us that have come through amateur golf and broken into the top 50 in the world," said Wood.
"If it was tennis, it would be global news."
The 29-year-old from Bristol said he often buys newspapers for the "back pages" but is frustrated at the coverage golfers receive.
"When you read about tennis players that are 100th in the world, but they are ranked number two in the UK, it is quite frustrating, because we're working just as hard as they are," he said.
"I know we're working hard at promoting the game in different ways, but the standard of English golf is really as high as it's ever been." | Defending PGA champion Chris Wood says home-grown players deserve more recognition for their achievements. |
38,979,341 | The five-stage event, won by Britain's Lizzie Deignan last year, will conclude in the capital on Sunday, 11 June.
Its fourth edition will also include stages in Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire and Derbyshire.
All of the world's top 15 teams will take part in the race, which is a part of the UCI Women's WorldTour.
"This year's route will combine testing climbs and beautiful scenery in the heart of England with the London finish, which will be an undoubted highlight of the sporting calendar," race director Mick Bennett said. | London will host the 2017 Women's Tour final stage, with the race to open on 7 June in Daventry. |
34,511,274 | The move brings Islamophobia in line with anti-Semitic attacks targeting Jewish people, which have been recorded separately for some time.
It comes ahead of the publication of yearly hate crime statistics, which are expected to show further rises.
The Metropolitan Police already records Islamophobic crime.
The government said creating a separate category across the board would "enable police, prosecutors, councils and the communities they serve to have a better understanding of the prevalence of anti-Muslim hate crime and allocate resources accordingly".
"It will provide the first accurate picture of the extent of anti-Muslim hate crime in England and Wales," Downing Street said.
At the first meeting of a new community engagement forum later on Tuesday, Mr Cameron will also announce new funding for the security of all faith establishments, including mosques.
The forum, which was announced in July, will discuss the objectives of the government's upcoming counter-extremism strategy, which is due for publication later this month.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Mr Cameron said: "We all have a role to play in confronting extremism. That's why I have invited important Muslim and non-Muslim figures to join the new community engagement forum so I can hear directly about their work in our communities, the challenges they face and so that they can be part of our one nation strategy to defeat it.
"I want to build a national coalition to challenge and speak out against extremists and the poison they peddle. I want British Muslims to know we will back them to stand against those who spread hate and to counter the narrative which says Muslims do not feel British.
"And I want police to take more action against those who persecute others simply because of their religion."
Home Secretary Theresa May said hate crime had "no place in Britain".
"Working with police to provide a breakdown in religious-based hate crime data will help forces to build community trust, target their resources and enable the public to hold them to account," she added.
Police recorded 44,480 hate crimes in England and Wales during 2013-14. That was up 5% on the previous year across race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender - the five key measures that feature in national figures.
But a further breakdown indicates there was a 45% jump in religiously motivated incidents to 2,273 - which an official report at the time said was partly down to more anti-Muslim incidents following the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby by Islamic extremists in south-east London in May 2013. | Anti-Muslim hate crimes will be recorded as a separate category by all police forces in England and Wales, the prime minister has said. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.