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36,761,808 | On 2 July, the night of the election, ultra-conservative commentator Andrew Bolt was first out of the blocks, telling Turnbull bluntly: "Resign."
"You have been a disaster," Bolt wrote. "You betrayed (former PM) Tony Abbott and then led the party to humiliation, stripped of both values and honour."
Opposition leader Bill Shorten spent last week gleefully calling Turnbull a "prime minister with no authority" and predicting Australians would be back at the polls within a year.
Australia PM Turnbull's conservatives win tight election
But while things look chaotic from close-up, Australia's recent political history suggests this is business as usual. Turnbull is suffering from a political malaise that's common "down under" - the second-term slump.
Amidst the rancour and heated denunciations last week, former prime minister John Howard offered a much cooler assessment of the government's performance and Turnbull's leadership.
"This hasn't been an outcome that we wanted, but it's not the end of the world and people shouldn't start slitting their throats," he said.
Howard knew this from experience - he, too, suffered from second-term slump.
In 1996, he took the conservatives to their first election victory since 1983 in a massive win that gave them a majority of 45 seats.
But in 1998, Howard broke a promise to "never, ever" introduce a consumption tax in Australia and took this policy to the polls. A 4.8% swing against the coalition reduced its majority to just 13 seats.
Howard went on to be Australia's second-longest-serving prime minister, staying in the job until 2006.
Australians have a history of punishing governments when they seek a second term.
Bob Hawke developed a minor case of the slump in 1984, when his Labor government's majority was cut from 25 to 16, surprising analysts who thought the popular PM would be returned with an increased majority.
Another Labor leader, Julia Gillard, suffered a particularly acute bout of slump in 2010, when a 5.4% swing against her government wiped its majority from 18 seats to zero, forcing her to do a deal with independents to stay in power.
Multiple complex factors were at play in each case. Hawke was forced to delay promised policies due to a hole in the budget and Gillard was always on the back foot after she deposed first-term prime minister Kevin Rudd in a coup.
But the pattern is clear to see - Australians typically return governments for a second term with a greatly reduced majority.
Turnbull is likely to secure 76 seats to Labor's 69, enough for the coalition to rule on its own. In this sense he is already doing better than Gillard, who still lasted almost an entire term before her panicking party ended her leadership and reinstalled Rudd, the man she deposed.
There's no doubt that Turnbull faces a tough road of internal unrest, unruly senators, an emboldened opposition and an uncertain global outlook. But his circumstances are hardly unique in Australian politics. | Critics have lined up to kick Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the conservative Liberal-National coalition's narrow election victory. |
31,816,051 | Ryan Gray, 24, was discovered with stab wounds by police on Horsell Road, Islington, on 4 June. Mr Gray, who is from Islington, died four days later.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of murder and sentenced at the Old Bailey earlier.
Met Police described the stabbing as "shocking and violent".
A post-mortem confirmed the cause of death as a stab wound to the chest. | A 17-year-old boy who stabbed a man to death in north London has been sentenced to 15 years detention. |
29,708,917 | While Hong Kong's students continue their protests and stumbling negotiations with the territory's authorities, democracy activists from around the world, some of whom have helped their struggle, gather together.
The Oslo Freedom Forum is one of the biggest meetings of human rights activists in the world, and this year its rather surreal proceedings have a different tension, as activists trying to take on Beijing's actions in Hong Kong seek to hold their ground.
Activists are furious at what they see as Beijing's proposals to fix the election of Hong Kong's next chief executive.
However, far from being impromptu demonstrations, it is an open secret at this meeting in Norway that plans were hatched in Hong Kong for the demonstrations nearly two years ago.
The ideas was to use non-violent action as a "weapon of mass destruction" to challenge the Chinese government.
Organisers prepared a plan to persuade 10,000 people on to the streets, to occupy roads in central Hong Kong, back in January 2013.
They believed that China's moves to control the Hong Kong election would provide a flashpoint where civil disobedience could be effective, and planned accordingly.
Their strategies were not just to plan the timing and nature of the demonstrations, but also how they would be run.
BBC Newsnight has been told that some leading protestors received advice and materials from Western activists to help them train as many as 1,000 of those who would later be involved in the demonstrations
Yang Jianli, a Chinese academic, was part of the protests in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago.
He has been talking to the Hong Kong students on a daily basis.
He says that the students are better organised than the Tiananmen protesters ever were, with clearer, more effective structures for their action and clearer goals about what they are trying to achieve.
But he adds that responsibility for what happens next is not just down to the protesters themselves, not just down to other democracy activists like those gathered here in Oslo, but to the rest of the world.
Jamila Raqib, the executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution based near Boston, which analyses and distributes studies on non-violent struggle, says it is clear that protesters have been trained how to behave during a protest.
"How to keep ranks, how to speak to police, how to manage their own movement, how to use marshals in their movement, people who are specially trained.
"It was also how to behave when arrested - practical things like the need for food and water, movement can last longer when people are taken care of, and also how to manage a water cannon being used against you, and other types of police violence."
In a statement Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) said none of its members had attended the Oslo Freedom Forum or received "any specific training" from the organisations mentioned in this report.
OCLP said it had openly held "non-violent protest" workshops in Hong Kong but these were "wholly organized by OCLP, without any support or intervention from foreign organisations."
It also said the "inititiators" of OCLP had never been in contact with Yang Jianli, nor had OCLP been in contact with Jamila Raqib.
Protests don't always work.
Srdja Popovic, one of the student leaders involved in overthrowing Slobodan Milosevic, was another of the protest veterans in Oslo.
He has since trained activists in 40 countries, but he says the techniques of non-violent action that he advocates have led to successful and lasting change in only six or seven countries.
He argues that there is more need than ever for the methods of organisation and leadership to be shared.
He says that after the 20th Century military race, "what we are seeing now is a new world race - now it is 'can the good guys learn as well as the bad guys?'."
Mr Popovic has not had any involvement with the Hong Kong protests, but says whether in Georgia, Ukraine, Egypt or Hong Kong "you can look at these movements - and see the set of rules".
"You have to understand the rules of the non-military battlefield."
His work in Oslo, along with the writings of the American human rights activist, Gene Sharp, is in high demand.
There is something incongruous about the Oslo meeting - seeing Chinese dissidents, American computer hackers, activists from Africa, the Middle East and Russia trade information over champagne and canapés.
Like any conference, a good deal of the work is done after hours, even if it is schmoozing for democracy.
Two members of Russian opposition female punk group Pussy Riot, members of which were put in jail by President Putin, are here too.
They say they want to "make personal contacts" and meet others doing similar human rights work.
What this event shows is that struggles for democracy or human rights in the 21st Century rarely happen in isolation.
Activists, whether those on the streets of Hong Kong right now, or from other parts of the world, are sharing information and insights faster than ever before.
30 October: Correction
This article has been amended after an earlier version may have given the impression that the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests were planned by foreign activists. The amended version makes clear that the planning for the Hong Kong demonstrations was carried out in Hong Kong, with support from abroad. It includes a statement from Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP), saying that none of its members had attended the Oslo Freedom Forum or received "any specific training" from the organisations mentioned in this report. The amended article also makes clear that Mr Popovic has not had any involvement with the Hong Kong protests. | Where might you find a North Korean defector, a self-confessed Serbian troublemaker, a Tiananmen Square protester and members of punk group Pussy Riot in the same room? |
24,457,052 | The body is calling for an "army of volunteers" to determine which of the 345,000 are at risk from neglect.
The process is part of the body's annual heritage risk survey but will take several years. More than 700 buildings were identified as needing attention during pilot programmes.
English Heritage itself only collects information on buildings within London.
The body has announced its first crowd-sourced programme to extend the programme to the rest of England.
"For English Heritage it means we will eventually get, for the first time, a complete picture of the condition of all England's listed heritage," said Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage.
He added: "We can use this information to decide how best to deploy our national expertise to help owners and all those tackling heritage at risk on the ground."
As part of pilot programmes run across the country, 350 volunteers inspected more than 5,000 Grade II listed buildings.
They found that 4.2% were at risk and 10.1% were vulnerable.
The pilot projects surveyed buildings in a number of areas.
Among those found to be in need of attention were The Ruins of Old Buckingham House, in Shoreham-by-Sea, in West Sussex. The original building, built in 1820, was badly damaged by fire in 1910. English Heritage said the surviving structures were in increasingly poor condition.
Volunteers also identified Big Mill in Leek, Staffordshire, Llanthony Provender Mill, in Gloucestershire and the western lock on the Northern By-Pass Channel at Appley Locks, in Lancashire.
Launching the Heritage at Risk Register 2013, English Heritage asked for more volunteers to come forward in order to cover the rest of England's Grade II structures.
English Heritage said that, during the programme's pilot phase, volunteers surveyed an average of 13 buildings per day each following a day and a half's training.
In Whitehaven, Cumbria, they picked out the former YMCA building, an 18th century structure vacant for a number of years, as in need of repair.
They also singled out the former Methodist Church in the town, which was designed by architect TL Banks. It was built in 1877 but has deteriorated and now stands with broken windows and crumbling stonework, English Heritage said.
David Day, who volunteered in Whitehaven, said: "Many of us are concerned about the neglect of local buildings that are crucial features of our town.
"We are worried that we will literally lose sight of the past and in so doing we lose the chance to understand the present."
Ann Buck, a volunteer in north Norfolk, said: "These buildings are our heritage and the fact that we have lost so many is tragic.
"English Heritage and the National Trust are the last resort for a lot of them, we are never the owners of such buildings, just the custodians."
English Heritage said some councils already kept lists of structures and what condition they were in, which the volunteers would help to update.
In other areas, they would be asked to create a list from scratch. The number of Grade II structures judged to be in need of some repair is expected to grow as a result.
Mr Thurley said: "We will have a grass-roots network to spread understanding and appreciation of local heritage so that less of [the buildings] become at risk in the first place.
"One pilot project even passed details of buildings found to be vacant and vulnerable to the police and fire services, making them better aware of places likely to attract crime."
The project is being launched at the Granary Building in central London - a Grade II building rescued from dereliction as part of the redevelopment of the King's Cross railway lands.
English Heritage said it hoped to begin recruiting for the first full surveys next autumn and asked would-be volunteers to contact its customer services department. | All of England's Grade II listed buildings are to be surveyed by English Heritage for the first time. |
38,194,136 | Gen Samir Sulaiman told the BBC he hoped all of Aleppo would be in government hands within weeks.
Gen Sulaiman was speaking a day after the army seized another district, Tariq al-Bab, from the rebels opposing President Bashar al-Assad.
Swathes of east Aleppo held by rebels have been seized by government troops and militiamen in the past three weeks.
Earlier reports on Saturday had suggested as much as two-thirds of the rebel-held area had been recaptured.
Up to 250,000 people remain trapped in besieged areas of the city, the UN says.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. The United Nations this week said conditions in east Aleppo were now so dire that medical operations were being conducted without anaesthetics.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Tariq al-Bab was recaptured more than four years after falling into rebel hands.
Clashes in the district left tens of fighters on both sides killed or injured, it said.
At least 300 people have been killed since the government-led offensive on east Aleppo.
Thousands of people fled Tariq al-Bab into neighbouring areas as fighting intensified.
The thunderous boom of shelling can be heard across Aleppo as Syrian warplanes and artillery pound districts to the east.
The army and its allies are advancing rapidly on the ground, Gen Sulaiman told me, and they expect to recapture 60% within days.
Rebel fighters are now regrouping and retreating south to more densely populated areas of their enclave.
UN officials here say they're bracing for another exodus of civilians. Thousands have already fled to this part of Aleppo.
Sources tell me that that Syria's ally Russia is involved in a new effort to co-ordinate with rebel forces to arrange the evacuation of the sick and wounded and allow as many as 1,000 civilian activists who are not involved in the fighting to leave.
But for all the discussions, what's clear to all is the Syrian military and its allies are determined to retake all of Aleppo within weeks.
Earlier this week, Stephen O'Brien, the UN's humanitarian affairs chief, said besieged areas of the city risked becoming "one giant graveyard".
He said some people inside opposition-controlled areas were so hungry they were reduced to scavenging.
On Thursday, Russia, that supports President Bashar al-Assad's government, indicated it was ready to discuss opening four safe corridors for humanitarian access.
Aleppo was once Syria's largest city and its commercial and industrial hub before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.
It has been divided in roughly two for the past four years. But in the past 11 months, Syrian troops have broken the deadlock with the help of Iranian-backed militias and Russian air strikes.
In early September they reinstated a siege of the east, and launched a large-scale offensive later that month to retake full control of the city.
The Syrian Observatory says more than 300 civilians have been killed in rebel-held districts since the offensive was stepped up in mid-November. | Syrian government troops have gained control of 50% of rebel-held areas of east Aleppo, says a military spokesman. |
33,860,780 | According to Ministry of Finance sources in Athens, there are still some minor details to be sorted out. We should see a more detailed statement in an hour or two.
And the package will have to be agreed by the Greek and German parliaments, and eurozone finance ministers, in coming days.
But this should be rescue number three for the eurozone economy, which since 2009 has more than any other shown up the flaws in the structure of the currency union.
It is nonetheless hugely significant for Greece's future in the euro that its creditors - the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the other eurozone governments - appear to be satisfied with a programme of austerity and economic reform agreed by Athens (and see what I wrote on this yesterday).
Although the Syriza government of Alexis Tsipras may be criticised by some of its supporters for agreeing to austerity that it originally rejected, he will point out that this year Athens is being permitted to run a deficit - yet again.
The newly agreed fiscal targets are a deficit of 0.25% for this year, a surplus of .5% in 2016, +1.75% in 2017 and +3.5% in 2018.
There are few things to say about these fiscal targets.
First, although Mr Tsipras will present the 0.25% deficit for this year as an easing of austerity and a political success, many will by contrast see it as simply a reflection of Greece's economic failure in recent months, the return to probable recession caused by the closure of the banks last month.
Which is why rehabilitating the banks, and easing restrictions on withdrawals and lending, is right now the sine qua non of a sustainable recovery in Greece.
And that in turn will take months of painful negotiation on recapitalising the banks - with perhaps 25bn euros of eurozone taxpayers' money - to provide proof to the people of Greece that their savings can be returned to banks from under the mattress.
Second there will be few economists who believe that Greece will succeed in generating a surplus of 3.5% in 2018 and then sustaining that surplus for years - partly because it is rare for any Western economy to stay on a path of spending less than tax revenues for any length of time, let alone an economy with a private sector as feeble as Greece's.
Third, and I am sorry to say you will have heard this a few times from me, the really hard negotiations start soon - on how to reduce Greece's massive debts, set to peak at close to 200% of GDP or national income in the next two years (according to the IMF) to an affordable level.
Without debt write-offs, prosperity will never return to Greece, and its future in the euro will never be assured.
With debt write-offs, populist parties throughout the eurozone will be able to claim to voters that they have nothing to fear and everything to gain from throwing out the mainstream establishment parties and re-asserting national sovereign rights to economic self-determination.
Or to put it another way, euro politics and euro economics of Greek debt forgiveness point in diametrically opposed directions.
Which is why no-one should see today's important bailout agreement for Greece as a permanent happy ending. | After months of delay and crisis, Greece has finally agreed a third bailout deal (well almost) - providing up to 86bn euros of new credit. |
37,895,105 | Clarkson left the BBC's popular Top Gear show under a cloud in 2015 after punching producer Oisin Tymon.
He said: "I was never sacked from the BBC, they just didn't renew my contract on Top Gear."
Speaking to the Radio Times, he added: "I haven't left. I've just done QI and Have I Got News for You."
But he said he was enjoying one aspect of working with Amazon on new show The Grand Tour that he didn't experience at the BBC.
"The really big difference between Amazon and the BBC is when we finish a film on The Grand Tour, Amazon ring us up and squeak, 'It's brilliant, we love it!'... You never got that from the BBC."
However, in a separate interview, Clarkson praised the BBC for the way it nurtured talent.
He said it is a "brilliant organisation for letting you grow".
"Everything I know about making television I learnt from the BBC," he said.
"How long were we bumbling around on BBC Two? Three or four years I suppose? Awful. (We made) terrible mistakes and nobody was really watching and then after Richard Hammond went upside down, everybody started to watch.
"By then the show had got quite good. So (the BBC) is very good at letting a show develop and grow, until it becomes the masterpiece that is Autumnwatch now."
He added: "The Beeb was tremendous. They were bloody good people."
He also defended the corporation over talent salaries.
He described the new Royal Charter as "disgusting" for demanding all BBC employees who earn more than £150,000 must reveal their salaries.
"Nobody talks about their earnings. You just don't do it," said Clarkson.
"I think if you're going to put somebody in a management position running the BBC, for example, Tony Hall, you would assume and hope he is capable of deciding who gets paid what, and he doesn't have to explain it to every single Tom, Dick and Harry in the country."
The Grand Tour reunites Clarkson with his ex-Top Gear colleagues James May, Richard Hammond and producer Andy Wilman.
It launches on 18 November on Amazon Prime.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or if you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, whose new Amazon show launches later this month, says he still hopes to "appear on the BBC all the time". |
40,409,179 | Out of the customs union.
Free of European Union laws.
Immigration under Westminster control.
If anyone was wondering whether the government might offer some substantial wriggle room on the Brexit negotiations to take account of the very different Parliamentary arithmetic following the general election, they have another think coming.
Dr Liam Fox, the cabinet minister for international trade, has told the BBC that nobody voted to "part-leave" the European Union.
The public either voted leave - which he takes to mean being out of the two substantive EU trading structures, the single market and the customs union - or remain, a vote to stay wholly in the union.
As leave won, Dr Fox argues, it is now time for the Conservatives to get on with it and deliver, even without a majority in Parliament.
"We have to go full steam ahead and get the job done," he told me, saying he didn't recognise the terms "hard" (fully out) and "soft" (partially out, or a delayed out) Brexit.
To coin a phrase, Brexit means Brexit.
And anyone, including Conservative MPs, sympathetic to a different approach - and who may feel emboldened by the election result - should remember the referendum outcome last year.
Dr Fox was speaking to me as part of a news special on BBC1 tonight at 8.30pm called Brexit: What's Next?
With colleague and Europe Editor, Katya Adler, it is an attempt to try to unpack what the remarkably close general election result means for Britain and the EU's approach to Brexit.
Dr Fox admits that getting the final Brexit deal through Parliament "won't be easier" after the Prime Minister lost her majority, but argues that Theresa May will stick to the position laid out before 8 June.
Which is fully out of the single market and the customs union.
There may be transitional arrangements as Britain moves to a new trading relationship with the EU, but Dr Fox refused to be drawn on how long that would be.
"How long is a piece of string?" he answered, after I put to him the former business secretary Sir Vince Cable's suggestion that it could be a decade before any final deal is completed.
I don't think that means Dr Fox is relaxed about how long any "transition" may take - he wants the deal done as quickly as possible.
But he does believe a "cliff edge" departure should be avoided - which may take some time, although how long, for Dr Fox, is still unclear.
"The British public made a decision to leave," Dr Fox told me.
"We have to honour that decision to leave.
"We didn't say we would part-leave the European Union.
"[The public] gave us an instruction to do so and anybody who is a democrat needs to follow that instruction.
"If we want to get what the British public voted for in the referendum - control of our laws, control of our borders, control of our money - then we have to have an exit which takes us outside the single market and outside the customs union - although we will want to maximise our ability to trade inside that market."
He said that the option of "no deal" had to be left on the table.
"What are these people actually saying to us?" Dr Fox said of those who say that "no deal" should be off the table.
"Are they saying that we should seriously go into a negotiation and saying whatever deal is offered we would accept that rather than walk away?
"I mean what sort of a negotiation actually would that be?
"It's effectively waving the white flag before the negotiations actually begin.
"It is not a sensible position for us to have
"But we don't want to get to no deal.
"We've set out the sort of deal that we want, a deal that's good for European citizens in the United Kingdom and British citizens in the European Union; that's good for British business, that enables us to trade maximally with the single market; that means there's as little friction at our borders as possible, giving Britain simultaneously the freedom to develop new trading agreements elsewhere."
Of course staying in the customs union - which would prevent Britain signing its own trade deals with countries outside the EU - would effectively make Dr Fox's department superfluous.
Dr Fox may not like the distinction between "hard" and "soft", but Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, is judged to have a rather different approach ("soft", if you like) to the type of deal Britain may strike with the EU, as I wrote last month.
And, for this BBC1 news special, both Sir Vince, who is standing to be leader of the Liberal Democrats, and Sir Keir Starmer, Labour's shadow secretary for exiting the EU, said they might be willing to join forces with Mr Hammond to put "jobs and prosperity" at the heart of the negotiations.
Dr Fox says that is a false division - and that the future prosperity of the UK is at the heart of his approach to Brexit.
Britain can be strong economically outside the EU, he says, despite the myriad of warnings that leaving the single market and the customs union could damage the UK economy.
"If you are looking at a free trade agreement in a global context, this one with the European Union ought to be the simplest in the history of mankind because we're beginning from a completely tariff free basis and we're beginning with exactly the same laws and regulations as the rest of our European partners," Dr Fox said.
"And the only reason that we'll not get to this perfect arrangement would be if the politics of Europe got in the way.
"That would be a pity because it would just say that they were putting the politics of Europe above the prosperity of Europe."
And on the chance of Britain ever staying in the EU - as some EU leaders have rather wistfully suggested - Dr Fox has a straightforward answer.
"There's about as much chance of us staying in the European Union as of me finding the tooth fairy." | Out of the single market. |
15,334,626 | The Family and Parenting Institute says intense scrutiny of parents has led to claims they are responsible for a deterioration in adolescent behaviour.
But its chief executive Dr Katherine Rake says there is no evidence of a decline in parenting standards.
If anything, parents are becoming more "professional", she says.
In an article to mark the start of Parenting Week, Dr Rake says parenting has become "one of the most charged political and cultural subjects of our age".
"The scrutiny of parenting has led to the idea of a parenting 'deficit', and the view that there are growing number of parents who are incapable," she adds.
"Yet, this focus of parenting skills is not matched by conclusive evidence about a decline in our standards of parenting."
The article is published after the government announced it was planning to try out free parenting classes in three areas of England.
Dr Rake continues: "There is a risk that the current debate on problem families unhelpfully adds another stereotype to a modern mythology of parenting.
"Alongside the 'pushy parent'; who helicopters around their child and elbows others out of the way in pursuit of their child's interests, we have the deficit model of a feckless parent, who is need of corrective state intervention."
She adds: "Much of the evidence available suggests that far from becoming a nation of apathetic, laissez-faire parents, many of us are spending more time with our children and having higher expectations of them."
She continues: "Working mothers now spend more time with their children than non-working mothers did in 1981."
She also quotes research that suggests that more parents in 2006 expected their children to be polite and do their homework than did so 20 years earlier.
Dr Rake adds: "One of the explanations for the criminal behaviour of some young looters over the course of the riots was the poor parenting they had received."
She adds that "while it would be impossible to ascertain conclusively whether the 'quality' of parenting has improved or declined over time", a recent study suggested there was no evidence for declining standards of parenting over all.
At the same time parenting has been subject to the forces of "professionalisation" and "marketisation", she says which has "in turn led to increased scrutiny of our private, domestic lives".
She adds: "While the debate on parenting has been genuinely important in improving the quality of parenting that some children receive, it also inevitable leaves others feeling judged and under pressure to deliver to a set of fixed, and inevitable elusive standards."
On problem families, Dr Rake said greater credence had been given to the idea that the government should intervene in what she described as "cases of market failure".
But there was an important distinction between so-called "problem families" who drive criminal activity and families who experience multiple problems, she said.
If the two were confused, the policies tackling the issue would fail, she suggested.
Helping such families turn things around, as was promised the wake of the summer riots, was likely to be a challenge and very costly, she warned.
Family Intervention Projects which have been seen as one of the main methods of doing this would require an investment of between £1.5bn and £2bn, she said. | Parents are stereotyped as either "feckless" or "pushy" in a society that puts huge pressures on families, experts say. |
33,520,188 | Two poignant episodes saw the street come to standstill as a funeral procession took Deirdre to her final resting place.
An average audience of 7.6 million watched the first episode, peaking at 7.9 million, overnight figures suggest.
Kirkbride died in January, aged 60, following a battle with cancer.
Her character was one of the longest-running in the soap's history, having made her first appearance in 1972.
The most affecting moment of the funeral was a five-minute eulogy from Deirdre's husband Ken (William Roache) - which he abandoned mid-way through to speak from the heart.
"She was a friend, a neighbour, a mother and a grandmother, a confidante," he said. "She was a woman who spent most of her life in one street. A lynchpin of the community.
"Her family were her priority. To Deirdre, family was family and that was that."
Reminding everyone of her "booming, life-affirming laugh", Ken reduced the mourners to tears.
Deirdre's coffin was then carried out of the church to Nina Simone's Feeling Good; while many viewers said they were moved to tears by the cast's rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Earlier, Ken had harsh words for his step-daughter, Tracy, who fled the church mid-funeral after he accused her of shedding "crocodile tears" for Deirdre.
But the show also incorporated some of its trademark humour.
When Liz McDonald described Deirdre as "my best friend", Eileen Grimshaw replied: "I thought I was your best mate?"
"Well... you are now," said Liz.
Writer Damon Rochefort had also used the double-bill to explore the soap's ongoing storylines.
The episodes were warmly received by fans, who paid compliments to the cast and crew on Twitter.
"Deirdre funeral was beautifully filmed," said Laura. "Wonderful words from Bill and beautiful acting. Must [have been] difficult to film."
Natasha Wilson added: "Ken Barlow's just broke me heart in to a trillion pieces."
"Watching the funeral of a fictional character knowing that the actress who played her has died," tweeted Jan Silverman. "Not sure who I was crying for."
"The wobbly rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water has finished me off," agreed Maya Anaokar.
Several Coronation Street cast members praised Rochefort's script, including Samia Ghadie (Maria Connor), Beverley Callard (Liz McDonald) and Sally Ann Matthews (Jenny Bradley), who observed: "You did her proud."
The writer replied that he was "very honoured to have written both eps of Corrie tonight", adding "it was a lovely send off."
The second episode of the double-bill was seen by an average audience of 7.6 million, with a peak of 7.8 million.
It fell short of the series' biggest audience of the year - which was recorded in January, when 8.7 million tuned in to see a mini-bus crash, which affected several of the show's major characters.
That figure rose to 9.72m once on-demand and catch-up figures where included. A similar effect is likely to be seen for the funeral episodes. | Almost 8 million people tuned in to say goodbye to Coronation Street's Deirdre Barlow on Monday, following the death of actress Anne Kirkbride. |
33,493,449 | Martin Fleetwood from PWC told the BBC's Inside Business show the UK-wide rate was reducing, meaning the proposed differential would not be as great.
Corporation tax - the tax firms pay on their profits - is now 20% in the UK.
The Northern Ireland Executive hoped to set its own lower rate but the plan has been held up by stalemate over welfare.
Stormont's aim was to cut corporation tax by April 2017, in a bid to compete for business with the Republic of Ireland where the rate is 12.5%.
In his July budget earlier this week, Chancellor George Osborne confirmed that the UK-wide rate will fall to 19% in 2017 and will be reduced again to 18% by 2020.
Mr Fleetwood, a senior partner at the leading management consultancy firm, said Northern Ireland needs to rethink how it sells itself as a place to do business.
"The game-changer that was hoped to come from corporation tax in Northern Ireland, the benefit from that is being eroded because the differential between us and the rest of the UK is reducing," he told Inside Business.
"I think that what that means for Northern Ireland is that we have to be even clearer about enunciating what out compelling sales message is as a FDI [foreign direct investment] location."
Under last December's Stormont House Agreement, the Westminster government agreed to legislate to devolve corporation tax setting powers to Northern Ireland ministers.
However, the move is dependent on Stormont minsters' ability to balance their budget and implement welfare reform.
There has been stalemate over welfare since March, when Sinn Féin withdrew its support for the Stormont House Agreement.
Martin Fleetwood's interview will be broadcast on Inside Business on BBC Radio Ulster at 13:30 BST on Sunday, 12 July. | The advantage Northern Ireland could gain by introducing a lower rate of corporation tax than the rest of the UK is being eroded, a tax expert has said. |
33,509,864 | But in Athens, there is little mood for celebration.
The hashtag #ThisIsACoup has been trending on Twitter since Sunday night - not just in Greece but in Germany and internationally.
Greeks have taken to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the conditions their government has signed up to.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will now have to rush measures on pension reforms, tax increases and spending cuts through parliament.
The agreement also includes plans for Greece to transfer assets to a €50bn fund to be privatised or managed under European supervision.
"It sucks to be honest," says 22-year-old physics student Dimitrios.
"It's another terrible deal. We are not just depressed, we are angry. I don't think this deal is going to help us."
The agreement was hammered out a week after Greeks sent a clear anti-austerity message by overwhelmingly voting "No" in a referendum on conditions offered by international creditors.
As Greeks try to go about their daily lives again today, many are asking where that message went.
Irene, 43, stops to talk briefly in the middle-class neighbourhood of Kallithea as she makes her way to visit a relative in hospital.
Healthcare is one of the areas of public services in Greece that has been hit hardest by the crisis.
"The vote was 'No', so why are we accepting measures people don't want?" she asks.
"I don't think this deal has the backing of the people."
Dimitra is waiting for a bus. "This deal is not for the people," she says. "It's for the banks and for the rich men who have already taken their money out of the country."
Her concerns are focused on higher taxes on basic food supplies such as pasta and beans.
"This is not Europe," she complains.
Crucially, the agreement includes no reduction in debt for Greece although Mr Tsipras said he had managed to secure restructuring of Greek debt.
But not everyone is angry - some are just relieved.
The economy here is close to collapse, capital controls remain in place, and there are still long queues at cash machines. People in line bunch together in patches of shade as they wait.
For Christos the most important thing right now for Greece is that the banks reopen so business can restart.
"I think it's a first step," he says. "People here rely on the banks.
"For the economy to recover, we need there to be faith in the financial system.
"Then people will feel more positive. This isn't a crisis, it's a cure." | Eurozone leaders say they have come to an agreement that will save Greece from disaster and stop the country falling out of the euro. |
37,800,098 | The debate about creating new grammar schools in England has heard many attacks on the negative impact of selection.
But to understand the durable appeal of grammars, there's a need to consider a different type of evidence, the personal experiences of former pupils, who can feel that their memories have been shouted down in all the political exchanges.
Norma Jennings has helped to write the history of her old school - Harold Hill Grammar School - which was abolished as a grammar school in 1973.
And her memories encapsulate how the grammars have retained such a hold on the post-War imagination.
She sent a copy of the book to Prime Minister Theresa May with a letter about what she thought had been lost when most of the grammar system was scrapped.
Harold Hill Grammar School was built in the mid-1950s to serve new overspill estates built in Essex to accommodate thousands of east London families needing homes after the Second World War Two.
It was a piece of deliberate social planning, designed to take the brightest children and create a new generation of professionals.
Mrs Jennings, who left the school in 1963, says it's easy to forget how radical and "revolutionary" all this seemed.
Working-class children were being given the chance to have an education that would never have been within the reach of their parents.
For these children, the first generation of the post-War welfare state, this was a system of free milk and opportunity, and Harold Hill was part of a wave of hundreds of new secondary schools built for an expanding, ambitious population.
Mrs Jennings's memories also refer to another touchstone of grammar schools - the strong impression made by teachers.
At a recent reunion, she said, there were stories of pupils who had kept in touch with their former teachers all their lives.
For schoolgirls in the 1950s, unlikely to come across many women in professions, female teachers were inspiring role models for staying in education and having a career.
Mrs Jennings talks of the "intellectual life of the school", separate from academic achievement, with teachers setting up all kind of clubs and societies, and leaving pupils with a "stamp of curiosity".
It was also a time of assumed values, when the head teacher could unselfconsciously write about staff being able to "distinguish what is first-rate from what is not".
Much of the symbolism and the cut-and-paste Latin might have been borrowed from public schools.
But what made grammar schools so distinctive was that the pupils were not from the playing fields of Eton but the overspill estates of Essex.
And these schools, with a strong sense of their own identity, often left an intense impression on those who spent time there.
Harold Hill was very much a "product of its time", says Mrs Jennings.
And it's hard to know how much the school could be separated from the era.
This was a time of boys being known only by their surnames, teachers wearing gowns, there were hymns and prize-givings, boys and girls were segregated into separate playgrounds and miscreants faced the cane.
It was also a type of education available only to the minority who passed the 11-plus.
But as a child Mrs Jennings was not aware of such debates, and she says there was no sense of social separation.
You can only remember the schooldays you had - and not what it meant for those who missed out.
Harold Hill's history also touches on another long shadow over the grammar debate.
How grammar schools were closed has left an often unhappy legacy, with a sense of schools being dismantled without sufficient care for what was being lost.
Mrs Jennings says it would have been better if there had been a way to adapt the selection system, rather than shutting down the grammar schools.
She says the mergers with secondary moderns were often rushed and disruptive, with buildings scattered across different sites.
Mrs Jennings went on to train as a teacher and spent a happy career in comprehensives, but she still describes the way grammars were abolished as a "disaster".
Many former grammar teachers struggled in their new environments.
And there was a whole demographic of pupils at school who faced this upheaval in the 1970s - with a long wake of turbulence, as former grammars readjusted to their new identity.
Mrs May is one of the most high profile of this generation, starting at a grammar that became a comprehensive. And who knows how much this has been a shaping experience?
Harold Hill's merger with a secondary modern was not to be long-lasting.
The comprehensive that emerged has also disappeared, and the site has now been redeveloped for housing. Nothing exists of it apart from the memories of former pupils.
Another former pupil of Harold Hill, Colin Sparrow, says his grammar school days were a "melting pot" of different social classes and a very positive experience.
But he says if the grammar system had survived, the school would have been "a very different animal" from the one he attended in the 1960s.
In terms of whether they were elitist, he quotes Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee, speaking in 1945: "I am myself in favour of an educational system which will break down class barriers, and will preserve the unity of the nation, but I am also in favour of variety and entirely opposed to the abolition of old traditions and the levelling down of everything to dull uniformity."
Reconciling those ambitions still seems to be as elusive.
Remembering Harold Hill Grammar School by Don Martin and Norma Jennings, Lavenham Press, Suffolk. | When Norma Jennings talks about grammar schools, she does not talk about statistics or education policy, she talks about her memories of teachers and how her schooldays still make such a strong impression decades later. |
39,734,998 | Russia confirmed earlier that the hull of the Liman, part of its Black Sea Fleet, had sustained a breach, with crew working to keep it afloat.
The cause of the collision is unclear but fog was reported in the area.
The ship hit a Togo-flagged boat carrying livestock, Turkish media say.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, to express his sadness over the collision, sources in the Turkish prime minister's office were quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) passes through the Bosphorus Strait for deployments in the Mediterranean, notably in Syria.
All 78 crew aboard the Liman were safely evacuated, the Turkish coastal authority said in a statement (in Turkish) on its website.
It collided with the Youzarsif H freighter, reportedly 29km (18 miles) from the Turkish town of Kilyos on the Black Sea coast just north of the city of Istanbul, and had sunk by 14:48 (11:48 GMT).
It was not clear whether either vessel was heading to the Bosphorus Strait at the time, Reuters news agency reports.
The BSF said the Russian crew had followed all the rules of sailing and manoeuvring and it suggested the incident had been caused by the other ship, Russia's Interfax news agency reports.
A former commander of the fleet, Adm Viktor Kravchenko, told Interfax the event was "out of the ordinary".
"There have been collisions but I do not remember a case like this, of a vessel, a warship sinking after it," he said.
The freighter reportedly sustained minor damage in the incident.
Built in Gdansk, Poland, the Liman was launched in 1970, when it served with the USSR's Northern Fleet before joining the BSF in 1974, according to the kchf.ru naval website (in Russian).
Based at Sevastopol in Crimea, the territory annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, it was a regular visitor to the Syrian port of Tartus for decades, the site notes.
In 1999, the Liman made international headlines when it was deployed to the Mediterranean to monitor Nato operations against Yugoslavia. | A Russian spy ship has sunk off the Turkish coast after being breached in a collision with a freighter, with all its crew rescued, the Turkish coastal authority says. |
34,966,040 | The "racist and Islamophobic" attack took place as the 22-year-old victim travelled on the number 50 bus along Alcester Road in Moseley, Birmingham, police said.
The man repeatedly lit a lighter towards the end of the abuse, that lasted half an hour.
West Midlands Police said a 49-year-old man had been arrested.
The woman was not injured as a result of the threats on Tuesday at 13:50 GMT.
But she was badly shaken and got off the bus two stops early as she feared for her own safety, police said.
Det Con Nigel Box said: "Following the appeal, we received a huge number of calls from the public, which led directly to [a man's] quick arrest." | A woman on a bus was racially abused and threatened by a fellow passenger who intimated he would set her on fire. |
38,171,910 | Now three new acts are vying for the title as the prize marks its 10th anniversary.
Pop diva Dua Lipa, blues singer Rag N Bone Man and dance vocalist Anne-Marie all make the shortlist, which is voted for by music industry experts.
The winner is announced on 8 December, ahead of next year's Brit Awards.
Unusually, all of this year's nominees have already tasted chart success in the last 12 months.
Anne-Marie is currently number one as the featured performer on Clean Bandit's hit Rockabye.
Dua Lipa, who was on the BBC's Sound Of 2016 list earlier this year, has scored hits with her singles Hotter Than Hell and Blow Your Mind (Mwah).
Rag N Bone Man, meanwhile, has been number one for nine weeks in Germany with his soul-stirring ballad Human. The song is set to enter the UK chart for the first time this week after being performed by X Factor contestant Emily Middlemas.
The nominees were chosen by a panel of music industry experts - from critics and record label employees to heads of the UK's biggest radio stations.
The winner will receive a statue designed by late architect Zaha Hadid, and will get to perform on the Brit Awards launch show live on ITV on 14 January.
Before they become ubiquitous, brush up on the nominees below.
Anne-Marie
After two stints in Les Miserables as a child actress, Anne-Marie was hired as a touring vocalist for dance collective Rudimental. They liked her so much they signed her to their label. Her solo single Alarm hit number 16 earlier this year and has been streamed more than 100 million times.
Age: 25
From: Essex
Inspired by: Eminem, 50 Cent, Prince, Lauryn Hill and... S Club 7
For fans of: Rihanna, Jess Glynne, Jessie Ware
Did you know? Anne-Marie is a three-time world karate champion.
She says: "I actually can't believe I am nominated for this amazing award. This is so sick. To everyone who voted for me I am so grateful and humbled, here's to 2017!"
Dua Lipa
Born in London but with an Albanian heritage, Dua Lipa attended the Sylvia Young stage school until, aged 13, her parents returned to Kosovo. She lasted two years before fleeing to London, where she worked in nightclubs to pay for her singing career. Possessed of a smoky voice and a hip-hop sensibility, she is due to release her debut album in February.
Age: 21
From: London
Inspired by: Chance The Rapper, David Bowie, Nelly Furtado, Pink
For fans of: Destiny's Child, Lana Del Rey, Charli XCX
Did you know? She once got in trouble for throwing bubble bath at a policeman.
She says: "This is the highlight of my year. I've hit a lot of milestones this year, from performing at Glastonbury, to doing my own European tour... [and] this is the icing on the cake."
Rag N Bone Man
Born Rory Graham, singer-songwriter Rag N Bone Man is the unlikely missing link between blues giants like Robert Johnson and the soulful pop of Sam Smith and John Newman. His gruff, emotive voice brings his tales of love, loss and redemption vividly to life - something his huge European fanbase have cottoned on to before the UK.
Age: 31
From: Uckfield, near Brighton
Inspired by: John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Roots Manuva, D'Angelo
For fans of: Joe Cocker, Sam Smith, Plan B, Ray LaMontagne
Did You Know? The singer's chose his stage name because he's a fan of the sitcom Steptoe and Son.
He says: "It's bonkers that I've been nominated for Critics' Choice. Absolutely bonkers. I've been grafting, I built a strong fanbase over the years with help from good people that put their faith in me. And now this! I'm very grateful."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Before they were famous, Adele, Sam Smith, James Bay and Florence + The Machine were earmarked for success by the Brits Critics' Choice award. |
29,966,848 | He was speaking after a ceremony in Kharkiv as another five coffins with remains were flown to the Netherlands.
The Boeing 777 Malaysian Airlines was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed in territory held by pro-Russian rebels.
The majority of the victims - 193 - were Dutch.
Both rebels and their supporters in Russia have denied shooting the aircraft down.
Investigators have struggled to gain access to the site as clashes continue nearby between Ukrainian government forces and the separatists.
Mr Koenders said experts had already come "a long way" with the identification process and would do everything they could to find more remains.
"We cannot say at this moment in any certain way... at what moment and even if we can recover the last nine, but we will do everything we can in co-operation with authorities here to make that happen," he said, quoted by AFP news agency.
He added that investigators still hoped to recover more remnants of the plane, but it was unclear when this would happen because of uncertainties about the security situation.
Initial investigations at the site were suspended in August because of heavy fighting in the area.
They resumed in September after a ceasefire deal was signed, with experts making four visits to the site.
A report issued in September by Dutch investigators found MH17 was hit by multiple "high-energy" objects.
The report did not apportion blame but it is believed to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile fired from an area controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
Russian officials have denied the allegations and instead suggested Ukrainian fighter jets were culpable. | Nine of the 298 victims of July's MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine are still unaccounted for, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders has said. |
24,631,170 | Born to a single mother in 1944, she had been put in an orphanage at the age of three weeks.
Her mother, from Armagh, never forgot her. She had gone on to marry and have other children and always intended coming back for her eldest daughter.
But when the day came and Ann's mother arrived at the Nazareth House facility run by nuns in Belfast, Ann had disappeared.
"I was there for five years," says the 68-year-old from her home in Perth.
"In between times my mother would come and visit me regularly as did her future husband and when the time came to come and collect me when I was five years old she was told I was not there.
"I had already been sent out to Australia without her consent and without her knowledge."
Ann's mother was not told at the time that her daughter had been sent to Australia. It was several years before she discovered. Ann, meanwhile, had been sent to an orphanage in Western Australia, part of a government scheme to help populate the country after the war.
Ann was one of 1,355 children from the UK, 112 of them from Northern Ireland, who were sent to Australia in the 1940s and 1950s. Most were sent out by religious orders, like the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers, who ran care homes.
Some were orphans, but others were not and in many cases the children were told they had no living relatives to ensure they did not try to return.
Last month, a team of experts that are running an inquiry into historical abuse in institutions in Northern Ireland went to Australia to take submissions from some of those who had been sent there.
Philippa White works for an organisation called Tuart Place based in Freemantle that helps so-called 'child migrants' like Ann.
She says: "From the sound of things there were some recruiting drives, there were quotas to fill and in some instances it sounds like a fairly aggressive process of finding children for migration."
Ann remained in care in the orphanage until the age of 15 when she was sent to work on an outback farm. She was 17 before she was able to write to her family and 21 before she was allowed to visit.
Cutting her off from her family left her feeling angry and bereft for the relationships she had been denied.
"Especially around Christmas time, when I was working in a department store and I'd see families with the kids and the mums and grandmas. That used to upset me because I used to think, I had none of that," she said.
"I started to get angry then when I had my own son, because I thought he'd missed out on aunties and uncles and cousins."
Paddy Monaghan is 76. His family came from near Belleek in County Fermanagh, though it took him more than 70 years to discover that fact.
Born outside of marriage he was given into the care of the nuns as a baby and was 10 when he was sent out to Australia.
He said the regime there was harsh, physically and psychologically abusive. For years he tried to find his family but was told he didn't have any.
"When I got married the first time I tried to find out about my relations but I was told that they'd all been killed during the Blitz in Ireland," he said.
"They just said, 'they're all dead'.
"Well what would you do if someone tells you your family is all dead, you say 'what's the point in looking?'"
He kept trying to find them however, visiting Ireland several times in the 1990s, but without success. His mother died in 1999.
Then a letter handed over by a nun in Sligo in 2009 unlocked the mystery of who he was and where he had come from.
It had been written by his mother more than 70 years earlier, agreeing to give up any claim on her child.
It led him to find an extended family of cousins in Ireland, England and Australia whom he now visits regularly.
After a 47-year search, he said he has found an instant family.
Both Ann and Paddy now have extensive contact with their families in Northern Ireland.
Both have made submissions to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry. Ann says she is hoping for an apology from the religious orders in Ireland like the ones that have already been given by those in her country.
And she says she would like to see a monument in Belfast docks to the children who were shipped to Australia. | Ann McVeigh was five years old when the nuns sent her away. |
39,844,107 | Matty Lee, 19, set two personal bests to win the 10m platform final and, alongside Robyn Birch, the mixed 10m synchro.
There was also gold for 21-year-old Freddie Woodward and James Heatly, 19, in the 3m synchro.
The Mexico Grand Prix is one of nine events that run throughout the year and are separate to the World Series. | Great Britain won three gold medals at the Diving Grand Prix in Mexico, adding to the two won in Canada last month. |
36,274,928 | The Independent Police Complaints Commission will review allegations Alison Hernandez failed to declare expenses as election agent in Torbay in the 2015 General Election.
It comes on the first day of office for Ms Hernandez as Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall.
She has denied any wrongdoing.
Read more on this story as it develops throughout the day on our Local Live pages.
The referral to the IPCC was made by the chief executive of the office of the police and crime commissioner, Andrew White.
The watchdog will decide whether to investigate, or refer the matter to another police force.
Ms Hernandez faced criticism for taking the oath on Tuesday and failing to stand aside amid a wider probe into Conservative MPs expense.
On Thursday she said she wanted to get on with her job "without distraction".
"Today I take up that post determined to serve every single person that lives in this police area and determined that the priorities I want to implement in the next four years are heard."
A spokesman for the IPPC said: "An assessment is under way to determine the appropriate level of IPCC involvement, if any." | The police watchdog is investigating claims a newly-elected crime commissioner improperly declared election expenses. |
37,671,366 | Sophie Smith was found injured at a house in Tempest Road, Beeston, in the early hours of Friday and was pronounced dead later in hospital.
Morgan Banks, 18, of Whitfield Square, Leeds, has been charged with her murder and is due to appear at Leeds Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Tributes to Ms Smith were paid on social media after news of her death broke.
One wrote: "I cannot believe you're gone Sophie, it doesn't seem real at all.. rest in paradise my long lost best friend/sister, you will never be forgotten." | A man has been charged with the murder of a 17-year-old girl in Leeds. |
40,766,169 | The South Group match was abandoned shortly after it looked as if the teams would play a five-overs-a-side contest with Gloucestershire set to bowl first.
Both sides take a point each, with Essex Eagles remaining bottom of the group with six points from nine games.
Gloucestershire Gladiators move up a place to sixth with eight points having played eight of their 14 group games. | Rain washed out all play in Saturday's only T20 Blast match between Essex and Gloucestershire at Chelmsford. |
34,472,389 | The light show, which is caused by electrically charged particles from the Sun entering the Earth's atmosphere, was visible as the Earth moves into a new alignment with the Sun.
The display was spotted across the North East, Yorkshire and Cumbria.
Here are some of the images that were captured.
Aurora hunting in the UK
iWonder: How can I see the Northern Lights in the UK? | The Aurora Borealis - better known as the Northern Lights - has been giving rare and spectacular displays over parts of England. |
35,939,788 | The sovereign wealth fund contains an estimated $67bn but has been restricted by sanctions since 2011.
The UN-backed unity government arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday but remains confined to the capital's port area after reports of gunfire in the city.
The new government is opposed by the coalition that controls Tripoli.
Over recent days, the city's airspace was intermittently closed to stop the new government, which has been based in neighbouring Tunisia, from arriving by air.
In a televised address, the head of the Tripoli authorities, Khalifa Ghweil, said he regarded the politicians as interlopers and said they were not welcome.
He urged "the illegitimate outsiders to surrender and be safe in our custody or to return to where they came from".
If the unity government can regain control of Libya, the UN's 15-member security council has pledged to lift an asset freeze on the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA).
The freeze was imposed in 2011 to prevent former leader Muammar Gaddafi removing funds from the country.
The security council unanimously renewed sanctions on Libya on Thursday and requested the new unity government confirm "as soon as it exercises sole and effective oversight" over the LIA, National Oil Corporation and the Central Bank of Libya.
But it is not clear how the unity government will be able to take over state institutions in Tripoli, given the stiff opposition they face.
Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Gaddafi by Nato-backed forces.
From 2014 it has had two competing administrations, one in Tripoli backed by powerful militias and the other about 1,000km (620 miles) away in the port city of Tobruk.
Western powers have recognised the new unity government as Libya's sole legitimate government but it faces opposition in east and west Libya.
In December, some rival lawmakers signed up to the UN agreement to form a unity government, but the deal has not yet been backed by all the country's many militia brigades that formed after the uprising.
The deal saw the formation of a nine-member Presidency Council, which includes the unity Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj who arrived with some of his deputies at a naval base in Tripoli on Wednesday.
Mr Sarraj said it was time to turn a new page and reconcile, saying he intended to build state institutions and implement a ceasefire.
"Revenge, alienation, antipathy, and hatred don't build a state," the AP news agency quoted him as saying.
UN envoy Martin Kobler said the politicians' arrival in Tripoli - after at least two failed attempts to fly in - marked "an important step in Libya's democratic transition and path to peace, security and prosperity".
US Secretary of State John Kerry said it was "not the time for obstructionists to hold back progress". | The UN has said it will consider lifting sanctions on Libya's sovereign wealth fund if a UN-backed government can regain control of the country. |
27,069,716 | At least, that's according to Isaac Asimov, one of the 20th Century's best-known science fiction authors, who in 1964 published an essay predicting what our world would look like today.
The occasion?
Not a mental breakdown - despite his insistence on the importance of psychiatry in the future - but rather the World's Fair in Queens, New York, which opened 50 years ago today.
Although the official theme of the fair, which ran for two six-month sessions, was Peace Through Understanding, today it is primarily remembered for its vision of the future.
And while some of those futuristic technologies on display never quite went mainstream - underwater housing and levitating cars, anyone? - a closer look at Asimov's World's Fair of 2014 reveals that his crystal ball was shockingly clear.
Here's a look at 2014, through the eyes of 1964.
1. "Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone."
The first transcontinental video call between two places was made on 20 April 1964 using technology developed by Bell Systems (later Bell Laboratories), which may have partly inspired Asimov's prediction.
However, he would certainly be surprised at the low cost of products such as Skype and Apple's FaceTime: in 1964, a three-minute video phone call from Washington DC to New York cost $16 (£9) - around $118 in today's money.
2. It will be possible "for you to direct-dial any spot on earth, including the weather stations in Antarctica".
Just dial country code 672 (for some parts - others use New Zealand's country code, +64).
3. "Robots will neither be common nor very good in 2014, but they will be in existence."
Asimov is credited with introducing the word robotics into the English language, so it is perhaps no surprise he was right in predicting that no real robot yet exits that can rival The Jetson's housemaid, Rosie - first brought to screen in 1962.
But there are projects under way to get robots to pass Japan's university exam, perform remote surgery, and even cook a gourmet meal.
Asimov also came close to identifying what has become a crucial component of modern life: "miniaturised computers", also known as smartphones, which he thought would serve as the "brains" of robots (anyone who has tried to navigate a foreign city without the use of a smartphone map might wonder if he really meant brains of "humans").
One of the most notable aspects of Asimov's predictions is that he often nailed the technology, but overestimated the enthusiasm with which such technologies would be greeted.
To give him his due, flat-screen televisions have replaced traditional sets, and 3D television technologies, while not in cube form, have long been a highlight of the electronics trade show circuit.
But audiences have generally shrugged: the BBC said in July it would suspend its 3D programming due to a "lack of public appetite".
5. "Conversations with the Moon will be a trifle uncomfortable."
Of course, Asimov was bound to have a few duds. The dawn of the Space Age might have made him a bit optimistic about communications with our Moon suburbs - calls would have a delay of 2.5 seconds, he thought - although he was spot on when he predicted that by 2014 "only unmanned ships will have landed on Mars".
He did not, however, predict the Mars Curiosity's Twitter account.
6. "Kitchen units will be devised that will prepare 'automeals', heating water and converting it to coffee."
Automated coffee machines do indeed exist.
Asimov's predictions that processed yeast and algae products would be available in a variety of flavours, including "mock-turkey" and "pseudo-steak", were semi-realised last year when scientists unveiled the first laboratory-grown burger.
Critics might be divided on whether or not Mr Asimov was right about the taste being "not bad at all": some who ate the burger said they "missed the fat".
7. "An experimental fusion-power plant or two will already exist."
The joke goes that fusion - essentially, harnessing the power inside stars - is the power of the future, and always will be.
And that continues to be the reality, although there is a $22bn multinational effort under way to get a reactor up and running by 2028 in the south of France.
But Asimov's predictions about large solar-power stations in desert and semi-desert areas like Arizona and the Negev desert are accurate.
Power stations in space, "collecting sunlight by means of huge parabolic focusing devices and radiating energy down to earth" remains an out-there goal.
8. "Much effort will be put into the designing of vehicles with 'robot-brains.'"
"Robot-brain" surely has a better ring than "self-driving car".
Asimov's other transport predictions - while just as catchy - still remain the stuff of dreams. The aquafoils, which "skimmed over the water with a minimum of friction" and impressed World's Fair visitors in 1964, haven't caught on. Neither have their successors - jet packs and hovercraft.
9. "Not all the world's population will enjoy the gadgetry world of the future to the full. A larger portion than today will be deprived and although they may be better off, materially, than today, they will be further behind."
Asimov predicted more - and got more right, or semi-right - than is possible to list here. His fears about population growth and birth control could be the stuff of an entirely separate article.
But perhaps his most prescient observation, or warning, was that while technology, both then and now, has the power to transform lives, without efforts towards equal access, it can hurt, rather than help, the goal of "peace through understanding". | It is 2014, and we should all be in therapy. |
24,148,852 | 18 September 2013 Last updated at 15:02 BST
In addition to the pylons, eight miles (nearly 13km) of cables would be buried underground in the Meifod valley.
National Grid has also identified a preferred "secluded" site for a substation, on the Tir Gwynt wind farm.
The wind farm plans have sparked opposition from campaign groups, while a public inquiry is already under way.
Kevin Renddell of National Grid and farmer Rob Whittall, an opponent of the wind farms, give their views.
National Grid's pylon plans unveiled | National Grid has revealed plans to use 25 miles (40km) of pylons to connect to controversial planned wind farms in Powys. |
40,232,236 | It is launching a Brexit-themed newspaper and billboard campaign aimed at people who live along the southern side of the border.
The airport says sterling's weakness against the euro means there can be a cost advantage to departing from NI.
The adverts proclaim 'Vote to Leave from Belfast'.
The airport's chief executive Graham Keddie previously criticised Tourism Ireland for not doing enough to promote the international airport.
He said: "We have been seeing a noticeable increase in the number of southern-registered cars in our car parks.
"For many in the southern border region it is easier to drive north than south."
In recent years Dublin Airport has seen its Northern Ireland-based passenger users soar to around 1m a year.
It offers significantly more flights and destinations and Ireland abolished air passenger tax in 2013.
Dublin Airport is one of the fastest growing in Europe.
Its 28m passengers a year is more than five times that of Belfast International. | Belfast International Airport hopes a fall in the value of the pound can help drive up passenger numbers from the Republic of Ireland. |
33,210,539 | Twelve out of 14 exhibits have been replaced at the site, where vehicles previously in storage have now been put on display.
The redevelopment has taken 15 months and the museum has been running at about half capacity for around six months.
It fully reopened at 13:00 BST, when an event began in Millennium Place.
The museum includes items from the cycle industry and more than 3,000 toy car models. It also reflects how Coventry's mass car-making came to an end and the effects on the city. | Coventry Transport Museum has fully reopened after a £9.5m redevelopment. |
40,869,920 | The hostages were freed on Tuesday, days after it was reported 50 civilians, including women and children, had been massacred in the Mirzawalang area of Sar-e Pul province.
But a provincial spokesman told the BBC many more were still trapped.
Taliban and Islamic State (IS) militants attacked the area last week.
The battle began on Thursday when a checkpoint manned by local police was attacked. Two days later, the militants entered the village and killed people - mainly Shia Muslims - in "a brutal, inhumane way", according to a provincial spokesman.
Seven members of the Afghan security forces had also been killed, as well as a number of insurgents, the spokesman said.
The Taliban denied killing civilians, saying that their fighters had killed 28 members of a government-supported militia in the area, and denied working with IS. There has been no comment from IS. Both are Sunni Muslim militant groups.
On Tuesday, following negotiations led by the provincial governor and local tribal elders, a large number of hostages were released.
But Governor Mohammad Zaher Wahdat told Afghan channel Tolo News they had not been able to recover the bodies.
He said the hostages, who have been taken to the provincial capital, "are so shocked they can't even speak to tell us about any more other hostages".
One security source told news agency AFP there were as many as 100 people still being held.
Fighting has intensified across Afghanistan in recent months. More than 1,662 civilians were killed in the half of the year, according to UN figures. | The Taliban has released 235 people held hostage following a brutal attack on villagers in northern Afghanistan, officials say. |
12,214,486 | Tax-payer support for the £460m 660-bed hospital at Wynyard Park, near Stockton, was axed by Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander last year.
But North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust plans to approach the private sector for funding.
Opponents say existing hospitals in Hartlepool and Stockton should stay.
The Teesside scheme, and 12 others nationwide, were scrapped in June 2010 as part of measures by the coalition government to save £2bn.
But now trust bosses say they want to press ahead with a smaller scale project, which would cost about £300m.
Chief executive Alan Foster said the site would have smaller patient rooms, wards and operating theatres.
He said: "Funding would come from the banks in the UK and abroad and we have also been talking to the European Investment Bank.
"There is still a lot of work to do and we will be looking to get the best financial option for the trust going forward."
Mr Foster said a new hospital would be more cost-effective than refurbishing the existing University Hospital of Hartlepool and North Tees Hospital in Stockton.
But Keith Fisher, from the Save Our Hospital campaign in Hartlepool, said: "The reality has always been that people in Hartlepool and south east Durham do not want a new hospital in Wynyard.
"I find it hard to believe that the two existing hospitals cannot be maintained for the amount of money they are proposing to spend on a new build."
The trust is expected to discuss possible new funding options at a meeting later this month. | Health bosses on Teesside have said a controversial super-hospital may still be built, despite public funding being axed by the coalition government. |
35,111,292 | There are now 88,000 people unemployed and looking for work - 5.9% of the working age population, according to Office for National Statistics figures released on Wednesday.
But the unemployment rate in Wales is still higher than the UK rate of 5.2%.
Although unemployment is down, the employment level has also fallen and there is a rise in economic inactivity.
This includes people who are not working or classed as unemployed, for example studying or caring for a family member.
The Welsh government said over the past year, Wales had "outperformed almost every other part of the UK", recording the joint largest fall in the unemployment rate and the second largest increase in the rate of employment.
Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb said the "fruits of Welsh economic recovery" were evident across the country.
But he added the mixed figures show "there is absolutely no room for complacency" and the recovery was "fragile". | The number of people out of work has fallen in Wales, with 17,000 fewer people unemployed than a year ago. |
36,546,206 | The team's Farnborough Air Show performance has been dropped in favour of flypasts, organisers said.
An RAF spokesperson said the "high speed and dynamic nature of the traditional Red Arrows' display is no longer appropriate".
The team is due to fly at the show between 15-17 July.
The RAF's statement said the routine had been changed "due to the large amounts of local housing, business areas and major transport links underneath the planned display area."
The announcement comes following an assessment of the risk associated with the team's flying display at the biannual air show.
Aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has imposed new restrictions on air shows in the wake of the disaster at Shoreham. | An aerobatics display by the Red Arrows has been cancelled because it was no longer considered appropriate in the wake of the Shoreham air disaster. |
36,369,015 | A moth called the Tomato Leaf Miner, or Tuta Absoluta, has ravaged 80% of tomato farms, Commissioner of Agriculture Daniel Manzo Maigar said.
He said 200 farmers together lost at least 1bn naira ($5.1m; £3.5m) over the past month.
The price of a basket of tomatoes has increased from $1.20 less than three months ago to more than $40 today.
Africa Live: BBC news updates
In Nigeria, officials declare a state of emergency to indicate they are taking drastic action to deal with a problem, the BBC's Muhammad Kabir Muhammad says.
In this case the state sent government agricultural officials to Kenya to meet experts on the Tomato Leaf Miner to learn how to deal with the pest.
Kaduna is in the north of the country, where according to the UN most tomato production takes place,
A tomato paste manufacturing business in northern Kano state owned by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, suspended production earlier in the month due to the lack of tomatoes, reports Forbes.
Tomatoes are a basic part of most Nigerians' diets and the word tomato has trended on Twitter as people discuss the rising price.
One of the memes being shared is a tongue-in-cheek look at Nigerian pain over discovering the annual festival in Spain where people throw tomatoes at each other. | A state of emergency has been declared in the tomato sector in Kaduna state, northern Nigeria, local media report. |
37,742,531 | The 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, who had won his previous 11 pro fights, never recovered from being knocked down by a right hook in the second round.
Ogogo was retired by his corner in the eighth with blurred vision.
Also on the card, Sam Eggington stopped Frankie Gavin to claim the vacant WBC international welterweight title.
Eggington knocked down his fellow Brummie in rounds three and six and frequently had his opponent hemmed in on the ropes.
Gavin took a barrage of punches in the eighth round and sunk to his knees before the referee intervened to stop the fight.
Cunningham, who has lost just one of his 18 bouts, was a 20-1 outsider with some bookies to beat Ogogo at the Birmingham Arena.
But Ogogo was struggling long before the end as he had no answer to the 28-year-old's powerful combinations and accurate jabbing.
Cunningham said: "I love being the underdog. Nothing fazes me.
"I had to check how quick he actually was. I fancied myself as a counter-puncher.
"My knockout record isn't great but if I catch someone, they're going to go." | Anthony Ogogo lost his unbeaten record as fellow Briton Craig Cunningham won the vacant WBC international middleweight title in Birmingham. |
36,233,578 | Already the chairman of the influential 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, Graham Brady, had warned ministers it would not get through parliament.
There was a danger of the political damage escalating.
George Osborne put these plans at the centre of his Budget in March.
Just last week they were defended by David Cameron in Parliament.
Today, when election results around the UK were dominating the news, Nicky Morgan had to front up the U-turn.
At her constituency office, on the aptly named School Street, she told me that, on reflection, it was right that schools should have the choice to become academies.
The 2022 deadline still stands she insisted, but schools will be persuaded, not pushed, to convert.
The end result will still be many more academies by 2020 when the next general election is due.
The government will press on with using its recent acquired powers to make schools classed as "coasting" into academies.
They will also consult on new powers to be brought forward in draft legislation in the autumn.
Any local authority area where just a handful of schools are still not academies will be given no option but to convert.
Councils which are deemed to be chronically underperforming will also have their schools pushed over the line by the Regional Schools Commissioners who oversee the process.
So the arguments aren't over, but the government has turned the heat down from a rolling boil, to a simmer. | The chorus of opposition was getting louder, the climbdown, when it came, was massive but inevitable. |
10,680,062 | In a speech in Liverpool, the prime minister said groups should be able to run post offices, libraries, transport services and shape housing projects.
Also announcing plans to use dormant bank accounts to fund projects, Mr Cameron said the concept would be a "big advance for people power".
Voluntary groups and Labour have queried how the schemes will be funded.
The idea was a central theme in the Conservative general election campaign and Mr Cameron denied that he was being forced to re-launch it because of a lack of interest first time around.
While reducing the budget deficit was his "duty", he said giving individuals and communities more control over their destinies was what excited him and was something that had underpinned his philosophy since he became Conservative leader in 2005.
"There are the things you do because it's your passion," he said.
"Things that fire you up in the morning, that drive you, that you truly believe will make a real difference to the country you love, and my great passion is building the big society."
The prime minister said community projects would be established in four parts of the UK - Liverpool; Eden Valley, Cumbria; Windsor and Maidenhead; and the London borough of Sutton - as part of efforts to "turn government completely on its head".
Each of the project areas - which Mr Cameron said had approached ministers asking to be involved - will be given an expert organiser and dedicated civil servants to ensure "people power" initiatives get off the ground.
By Norman SmithChief political correspondent, BBC Radio 4
The 'big society' is David Cameron's Big Idea. His aides say it is about empowering communities, redistributing power and fostering a culture of volunteerism.
Perhaps no wonder then that Tory candidates during the general election found it difficult to sell the idea to voters.
So why is David Cameron returning to this theme ?
In part because he does view it as his answer to Big Government - but there are also more basic political motives.
First, it's about providing a different agenda to the day by day litany of cuts, cuts and more cuts.
Second, it is - as Eric Pickles has acknowledged - about saving money. If people are doing things for free then you don't have to pay public servants to do them for you.
So beneath the grand-sounding philosophy there is hard-nosed, practical politics behind the 'big society' message.
More analysis from across the web
The initiatives being championed include a local buy-out of a rural pub, efforts to recruit volunteers to keep museums open, support to speed up broadband supply, and giving residents more power over council spending.
These schemes and others in the future, he said, would represent "the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street".
In the past, he said, the talents and initiative of people had been wasted, claiming that over-centralised government had turned public sector workers into the "weary, disillusioned puppets of government targets".
Mr Cameron acknowledged the transformation he was seeking would not happen overnight and stressed it was not a matter of the government stepping aside and letting people fend for themselves.
"Of course there is not one lever you can simply pull to create a big society," he said.
"We should not be naive enough to think that simply if government rolls back and does less, then miraculously society will spring up and do more.
"The truth is we need a government that helps to build a big society."
As well as encouraging greater volunteering and philanthropy, Mr Cameron confirmed plans to use funds stuck in dormant bank and building society accounts to enable "some of the most dynamic" charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to take over the running of public services.
It is hoped that hundreds of millions of pounds will eventually be available in start-up funding through a Big Society Bank, to be matched by private investment.
Mr Cameron rejected suggestions that the plans were "cover" for substantial cuts in public services due next year and that the public were either confused by or uninterested in the proposals.
"I don't accept that people don't understand what this is," he said.
Everyone was aware of the "great work" that volunteers were already doing in communities up and down the country, he said, and it was his ambition to simply expand this.
"It is incredibly simple idea and one, I think, is catching on," he said.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell called Mr Cameron's speech "a brass-necked rebranding of programmes already put in place by a Labour government".
She added: "We welcome the coalition's decision to continue our work in partnership with local communities, but these projects are dependant on funding and resources being put in place.
"It is therefore highly unlikely that civil society will become 'bigger' due to the large public spending cuts that are being put forward by this government."
Voluntary groups broadly welcomed the idea but expressed concerns about how equipped they were to take on more responsibility, given that public funds were likely to be cut as part of the budget squeeze.
"It is going to be very challenging for them to play a bigger role if they have less resources to do it," said Ben Kernighan, from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
And union leaders said public services must be based on certainty of provision and not whether there were enough volunteers on any given day.
"Make no mistake, this plan is all about saving money," Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said.
"The government is simply washing its hands of providing decent public services and using volunteers as a cut-price alternative." | David Cameron has launched his "big society" drive to empower communities, describing it as his "great passion". |
32,549,898 | About 60% of giant herbivores - plant-eaters - including rhinos, elephants and gorillas, are at risk of extinction, according to research.
Analysis of 74 herbivore species, published in Science Advances, blamed poaching and habitat loss.
A previous study of large carnivores showed similar declines.
Prof William Ripple, of Oregon State University, led the research looking at herbivores weighing over 100kg, from the reindeer up to the African elephant.
"This is the first time anyone has analysed all of these species as a whole," he said.
"The process of declining animals is causing an empty landscape in the forest, savannah, grasslands and desert."
Prof David Macdonald, of Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, was among the team of 15 international scientists.
"The big carnivores, like the charismatic big cats or wolves, face horrendous problems from direct persecution, over-hunting and habitat loss, but our new study adds another nail to their coffin - the empty larder," he said.
"It's no use having habitat if there's nothing left to eat in it."
According to the research, the decline is being driven by a number of factors including habitat loss, hunting for meat or body parts, and competition for food and resources with livestock.
With rhinoceros horn worth more than gold, diamonds or cocaine on illegal markets, rhinos could be extinct in the wild within 20 years in Africa, said the researchers.
The consequences of large wild herbivore decline include:
The biggest losses are in South East Asia, India and Africa.
Europe and North America have already lost most of their large herbivores in a previous wave of extinctions. | Populations of some of the world's largest wild animals are dwindling, raising the threat of an "empty landscape", say scientists. |
35,352,759 | Two-thirds of last year's 2.6 million stillbirths were in Africa.
Half of stillbirths happen during labour as a result of preventable conditions, notably syphilis and malaria, they add.
The studies argue stillbirths are preventable through high-quality antenatal care.
The studies say there is a widespread belief that stillbirths are due to birth defects and are unavoidable.
However, it points out that this only accounts for 7.3% of stillbirths after 28 weeks.
They ranked the three countries with the highest rates of still births as Pakistan, followed by Nigeria and Chad.
A notable exception is Rwanda, which the studies point out was able to reduce the number of stillbirths.
Source: The Lancet | Over 3,000 lives are lost to stillbirth a day across the world - most of which are preventable, according to studies published by The Lancet. |
34,780,273 | The SNP had said it would vote against the changes amid fears it could drive down Scottish workers' wages.
With other opposition MPs expected to join forces with some 20 Tory rebels, the plans would have struggled to pass.
The BBC's James Landale said the idea had been parked while talks continue with opposition parties.
Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader, welcomed the government's "U-turn".
He told the BBC the party supported Sunday trading but not "on the back of often lower-paid shop staff", and said it would be "open to discussions" on how to ensure safeguards.
Downing Street said there had been "absolutely" no U-turn on the policy.
The prime minister's official spokeswoman said the next steps would await analysis of the results of a consultation and be made clear "in due course".
Chancellor George Osborne promised in the Budget earlier this year that councils and mayors would get the power to set Sunday trading laws in their areas.
Large stores and supermarkets can currently open for only six hours every Sunday.
Although the legislation affects only England and Wales, the SNP had been convinced by shopworkers' union Usdaw that retailers would pay for the extra hours by cutting wages across the UK - including those of Scottish workers currently being paid premium wages for Sunday work.
Mr Robertson said the government would have to go away and think again about its proposals.
"We want safeguards, we want guarantees, we want to make sure that shop workers in Scotland and the rest of the UK are not worse off," he told the BBC News Channel.
The government launched a consultation over the summer to look at the changes which are designed to support High Streets and shopping centres by allowing them to stay open for longer at weekends and compete with internet shopping.
Shops in Scotland already have more freedom because the Sunday Trading Act does not apply north of the border.
Government sources pointed out that Scotland already controls its Sunday trading rules and the SNP was once again trying to block something that had no impact on their constituents. They said the SNP move once again made the case for the government's recent changes to parliamentary rules that gave English and Welsh MPs greater control over laws that affect only their constituencies. | Government plans to relax Sunday trading laws in England and Wales have been put on hold, after SNP opposition meant it faced defeat in the Commons. |
14,260,398 | The fee was agreed 11 days ago and the deal includes a buy-back clause of 10m euros after one year and 15m euros after two for the Spanish champions.
Romeu will arrive at Stamford Bridge once he has finished playing for Spain at the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia.
The 19-year-old has played in both of their games so far, a 4-1 victory over Costa Rica and 2-0 win over Ecuador.
The 19-year-old made two first-team appearances for Barca last season, making his first-team debut at the end of last season, but he was not part of boss Pep Guardiola's long-term plans at the Nou Camp.
Romeu, who spent most of the campaign playing for their B team in the Spanish second division, said earlier this week: "Chelsea is a great option for me.
"Leaving Barca hurts, but you have to take your chances."
The signing is a boost for new Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas who will be without Michael Essien for six months.
The Ghana international, 28, ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus during pre-season training. | Chelsea have signed midfielder Oriol Romeu on a four-year contract from Barcelona for £4.35m. |
33,315,476 | Mark Bullock, 50, from Stoke-on-Trent, died after he was badly scalded when steam from elsewhere in the system fed into the area where he was working.
John Pointon and Sons was fined £660,000 at Stafford Crown Court after admitting health and safety breaches.
The firm was also ordered to pay £187,000 in costs following Mr Bullock's death in 2011.
Health and Safety Executive Inspector Wayne Owen said: "The cookers in operation at the company form the core part of the business.
"Precautions should have been taken to ensure all avenues which had the potential to allow steam to be fed back into the cooker had been suitably isolated." | A food waste recycling company has been fined after a worker died carrying out repairs inside an industrial cooker. |
36,164,531 | Shahadat Hossain was suspended by the Bangladeshi Cricket Board (BCB) after he and his wife were arrested on suspicion of torturing the girl.
Mr Hossain, 29, has previously denied abusing Mahfuza Akhter Happy. He is currently out of prison on bail.
He apologised for his "mistake" in a news conference.
He said: "I beg forgiveness to the country. To err is human, and I have made a mistake.
"For the sake of cricket and my livelihood, I want to return to cricket. I appeal to the nation, the Bangladeshi Cricket Board (BCB), to allow me to return to cricket and correct my mistake."
Miss Happy was found in a street in September 2015 with multiple injuries, including a broken leg and a black eye.
She told police that she had been working for the couple for a year and that they had beaten and tortured her.
Mr Hossain had initially reported her as missing. He later handed himself in to police.
He and his wife, Jasmine Jahan Nritto Shahadat, were jailed before being let out on bail two months later.
If convicted, they could face jail terms of between seven and 14 years, plus a fine.
The charges have been brought under legislation designed to protect women and children from domestic abuse.
Local media report that Mr Hossein has already submitted a formal appeal to the BCB, which did not overturn the ban and said there were "legal complications".
He has played Test and ODI cricket and became the first Bangladeshi cricketer to be added to the Lord's honours board. | A Bangladeshi Test cricketer has asked to be allowed to return to the sport after being charged with torturing his 11-year-old housemaid. |
27,154,139 | Virgin Australia said a passenger had been handcuffed by crew on the Boeing 737 after acting aggressively.
The flight from Brisbane was boarded by Indonesian troops on landing after reports that it had been hijacked.
Virgin blamed confusion around the incident on a "miscommunication" and said the passenger had been drunk.
The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Indonesia said fears of a hijacking were caused after the pilot sent a distress signal to airport authorities.
"This is no hijacking, this is a miscommunication," Heru Sudjatmiko, a Virgin Australia official said.
"There was a drunk passenger, intoxicated and aggressively behaved. He was trying to enter the cockpit, banging the door but he did not enter the cockpit."
Crew members seized the passenger, who authorities identified as Matt Christopher Lockley, a 28-year-old from Australia.
An hour before landing in Bali, the plane's original destination, the pilot alerted traffic controllers to a possible hijacking on board, an Indonesian air force spokesman said.
Palani Mohan, a passenger on another flight that was about to take off from Bali, told AFP that the pilot of his plane announced the airport was in lockdown.
"The captain of my plane made an announcement saying we were delayed indefinitely because a hijack was going on in Bali airport, about 150 metres away from us."
"I saw at least five vehicles including military-style trucks, filled with men in uniform, rushing towards the plane," he said.
"Then the Virgin plane taxied away, followed by the convoy of security forces."
Police arrested the man shortly after the plane landed and all of the passengers were unharmed.
The airport was closed briefly but flights resumed shortly after the incident.
Virgin Australia Airlines, formerly Virgin Blue Airlines, is Australia's second-largest airline. | A passenger who caused a hijack scare on a flight from Australia to Indonesia has been arrested at Bali airport, officials say. |
32,141,042 | Bosses said insulation debris was left in the Paddock, but repairs can be made before a meeting at the weekend and the British Grand Prix is not under threat.
Engineers are currently assessing the damage to the Wing and the circuit was working to ensure minimal disruption during repairs.
The roof was damaged on Sunday afternoon and again on Monday night.
Sporting director Stuart Pringle said: "Although it looks a bit of a mess at the moment, the damage is largely cosmetic and the structural and functional integrity of the roof remains completely intact.
"Whilst clearly we will have to smarten the section of roof and clear the insulation debris from the Paddock, we don't anticipate any impact on this weekend's race meeting.
"It will not affect the season opener, the FIA World Endurance Championship over the weekend of 10 - 12 April." | Part of the "Wing" roof at the Silverstone motor racing circuit has been damaged by high winds. |
21,932,432 | It is demanding a means to monitor such applications, but Saudis say that would seriously inhibit their communications.
Saudi newspapers are reporting that the companies behind the applications have been given a week to respond.
No explanation has been given of why the demand has been made.
Ahmed Omran, a Saudi blogger who runs the Riyadh Bureau site, says that Saudi telecom companies may be tempted to go along with the request from the regulator - even though it will upset their customers - because of the loss of revenue they suffer from the free apps, which are hugely popular in the country.
One Saudi source goes further - with an article in the local Arab News suggesting that it may even have been the telecom companies themselves that have been demanding that action be taken against the apps.
The move is similar to attempts to rein in the Blackberry messaging service several years ago.
The explosion in social media networks has had a big impact in Saudi Arabia, which has the highest take-up of Twitter in the world, reports the BBC's Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher.
Outside interest in the phenomenon has largely focused on how this has allowed Saudis to express themselves in a public forum on social or political issues in an unprecedented way.
Saudis see this latest threat a little differently, our correspondent says. Any move to monitor or block sites like Skype and WhatsApp would potentially deprive them of what has become an essential means of simply communicating with friends and family.
One Saudi user told the local media that she would feel uncomfortable talking to her relative on Skype without her hijab (headscarf) if she believed someone might be monitoring her.
Expatriate workers have messaged newspapers pleading with the Saudis not to stop their only affordable means of communication to their families back home.
If it did happen, though, one Saudi told the BBC that it would not take long for people to find a new way to communicate for free. | Encrypted messaging services such as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp could be blocked in Saudi Arabia, the telecommunications regulator there is reported to have warned. |
35,918,471 | The committee said "the most significant" domestic risks to financial stability were connected to the referendum on EU membership.
It referred to risks of a period of "heightened and prolonged uncertainty".
It doesn't say explicitly that it has in mind the period after a vote in favour of leaving the EU.
But that is the most likely scenario the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) is referring too.
The result of that uncertainty, the committee judges, could "affect the cost and availability of financing for a broad range of UK borrowers".
These pressures could, the FPC says, reinforce existing vulnerabilities.
The current account deficit, which measures the UK's trade performance, remains high and it needs to be financed by foreign investment.
Those flows have contributed to meeting the borrowing needs of the government and business, the statement says.
The Bank also says a decision to withdraw "could spill over to the euro area", affecting financial markets and economic growth there.
It also notes that sterling could be forced lower, though that has potential benefits - making British industry more competitive and raising the cost of imports, which would arguably be welcome at a time when inflation is well below the Bank's target.
The Conservative MP John Redwood, who wants the UK to leave the EU, disputed the committee's assessment when he spoke to the World at One on BBC Radio.
He said: "International investors have been quite relaxed about the possibility of Brexit. At a time when the polls have been strengthening for Brexit, and we have been getting nearer to the vote, interest rates have come down a little bit and we have seen a lot of inward investment.
"Indeed we see the Germans trying to buy our stock exchange." | The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee says that the outlook for financial stability has deteriorated since November. |
36,410,139 | Sussex, who resumed on 342-4, lost Luke Wells (104) to the third ball of day three before Ben Brown's attacking 61 took them to 447-8 declared.
Trailing by 297, Derbyshire lost regular wickets in their second innings, including captain Billy Godleman for 49 as they fell to 106-5.
Derbyshire closed on 195-6, trailing by 102, with Shiv Thakor on 58. | Derbyshire look to be heading towards a heavy defeat against Sussex after another poor day with the bat. |
17,548,470 | With roots stretching back to the 10th century, Luxembourg's history is closely intertwined with that of its more powerful neighbours, especially Germany.
Many of its inhabitants are trilingual in French, German and Luxembourgish - a dialect of German.
Despite declaring its neutrality, Luxembourg was occupied by Germany during both World Wars.
After renewed occupation in the Second World War, Luxembourg abandoned its neutrality and became a front-rank enthusiast for international co-operation.
Luxembourg's prosperity was formerly based on steel manufacturing. With the decline of that industry, Luxembourg diversified and is now best known for its status as Europe's most powerful investment management centre.
Population 523,000
Area 2,586 sq km (999 sq miles)
Major languages French, German, Luxembourgish
Major religion Christianity
Life expectancy 78 years (men), 83 years (women)
Currency euro
Head of state: Grand Duke Henri
The ruling Grand Duke of Luxembourg succeeded to the title in 2000, on the abdication of his father Jean. He had already exercised the constitutional powers of the monarch since 1998.
Born in 1955, the future Grand Duke Henri studied politics in Geneva, where he met his Cuban wife Maria Teresa. He later underwent officer training at Britain's Sandhurst Academy.
The head of state's constitutional role is largely ceremonial, and in 2008 parliament further restricted it by rescinding the monarch's right to veto legislation.
Prime Minister: Xavier Bettel
Xavier Bettel formed a government in December 2013 after snap elections in October at which his Democratic Party, the Socialists and Greens emerged with a small majority over the largest overall group, the conservative Christian Social Party.
The vote was called after Jean-Claude Juncker of the Christian Social Party, who had been prime minister since 1995, lost his majority in parliament when the Socialists quit his coalition in July 2013 over a phone-tapping scandal.
The Christian Social Party had been in government since 1979.
Mr Bettel, the mayor of Luxembourg City between 2011 and 2013, is the country's first openly gay prime minister.
Luxembourg exerts immense media clout and has a long tradition of operating radio and TV services for pan-European audiences, including those in France, Germany and the UK.
Generations of British listeners grew up with Radio Luxembourg, which beamed pop music programmes into the UK. "The Great 208" is no more, but media group RTL is still a key player in media markets across Europe.
Luxembourg's media empire extends to the skies. It is home to Europe's largest satellite operator, Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES), which operates the Astra fleet.
Some key dates in the history of Luxembourg:
1914 - First World War. Luxembourg is occupied by Germany until 1918.
1920 - Luxembourg joins the League of Nations.
1921 - Luxembourg enters economic union with Belgium.
1940-44 - Luxembourg is again occupied by Germany during Second World War.
1957 - Luxembourg becomes founder member of the European Economic Community, a fore-runner of the European Union.
2000 - Crown Prince Henri becomes Grand Duke of Luxembourg on the abdication of his father, Jean.
2009 - G20 adds Luxembourg to "grey list" of countries with questionable banking arrangements. Shortly afterwards the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) commends Luxembourg for improving financial transparency with agreements with a dozen countries. | The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg - a small country landlocked by Belgium, France and Germany - is a prominent financial centre. |
36,624,275 | A temporary closure notice for the production areas of South Eastern Burry Inlet cockle bed has been issued.
Swansea council's decision follows advice from the Food Standards Agency Wales and the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aqua Science.
The council said beaches remained open and waters were safe to bathe in.
Council food and safety officer Ann Rodway said: "We would all like to see the bed re-open as soon as possible. In the meantime, our priority must be to protect public health.
"There is no health risk to beach users, but they must not collect or eat cockles." | A Swansea cockle bed has been closed due to concerns about "higher than normal" levels of E. coli found in shellfish samples. |
41,009,362 | Since 11 August some 290 people have been arrested for various offences and 190 knives and 18 firearms have been recovered, the Met Police revealed.
Another 31 people were held earlier following a number of dawn raids carried out across five boroughs.
The force said it was "committed to ensuring that Carnival remains a safe, vibrant and enjoyable event".
Met tweet sparks social media backlash
Tuesday's raids, which targeted knife crime, drugs and child exploitation, were carried out by more than 100 officers.
Twenty-one homes in Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster, and Wandsworth were searched and 18 people were arrested.
In Lewisham, eight people were arrested after searches at eight addresses and what was believed to be Class A and Class B drugs were seized.
Most of the arrests were for possession with intent to supply drugs.
The force said some of those arrested might be bailed but would have conditions imposed on them prohibiting them from attending the Carnival.
"Today's operation is aimed at ensuring that those who intend to cause trouble at Carnival are prohibited from doing so," Ch Supt Robyn Williams said. | More than 300 people have been arrested as part of an operation to prevent crime at the Notting Hill Carnival. |
38,879,909 | The Institute of Economic Affairs study says the right to 15 hours free care a week has distorted the market price.
It also argues regulations have made it more costly, with many families on average earnings spending more than a third of their income on childcare.
The government says it is investing £6bn a year on the facility.
The report argues that despite this investment, families are still paying huge sums for people to look after their children.
The way early years care is funded means that those who need help the most do not receive it, while many affluent families are generously subsidised, the report found.
It also highlighted what it described as "inequitable cross-subsidisation", where parents are required to pay high fees for a few extra hours, because the government funding rates are so low that the richer parents, seeking more hours, are effectively topping up the government's contribution.
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Currently, parents of three and four-year-olds in England are entitled to 15 hours free childcare a week, but this is due to increase to 30 hours from September.
And providers say that nursery costs for parents could "sky-rocket" in some areas as providers grapple with less funding for the scheme.
The report also argues that attempts to improve the quality of childcare have ended up increasing the amount of regulation, while failing to produce better outcomes.
However, previous attempts by the government to change the ratio of children to carers were met with resistance from childcare providers, who said the changes would not lead to savings.
The report said the system has also limited choice for parents as alternative forms of care such as home-based childminders are priced out of the sector.
Len Shackleton, co-author of the report, said: "Government interventions in the childcare sector have resulted in both British families and taxpayers bearing a heavy burden of expensive provision.
"Regulation has led to an excessive formalisation of childcare and pre-school, which has not only pushed up costs but paid scant attention to parental preferences.
"Many families may not want the structured form of pre-school that the government requires as standard.
"At a time when many families are facing a cost of living crisis, it is important the government rethinks its involvement in childcare. Rowing back on unnecessary regulation and focusing public funds on those who need it, rather than subsidising the well-off, would be a good way to start."
Gayle Paris, a mother who contacted us via Facebook, said she found it difficult to use the free childcare allowance as it had to be taken over five days.
"If less affluent families aren't taking up the place, it is because they have less flexible working arrangements, and are likely not to be able to afford a private nursery to take partnership funding.
"Taking the opportunity of pre-school in the local authority away from those with more income is not a solution. Local authority pre-school is a good step into school for three to four-year-olds.
"Re-arrange the system so those working full time can better access it and the uptake among less affluent families will rise."
Craig Chew-Moulding said fewer parents would go back to work, if the subsidies were withdrawn, as it would not make economic sense.
Neil Leitch, chief executive the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said: "Yes, childcare is expensive, but reducing regulations - for example by abandoning rules around staff to child ratios - is not the way to reduce costs. When the government tried to relax ratios in 2012 parents and providers were overwhelmingly opposed to the proposals.
He added: "While we appreciate there are flaws in the government's early years policy - not least doubling the free entitlement from 15 to 30 hours without properly analysing how to fund the scheme - to remove state intervention entirely, as this report suggests, would be fool-hardy at best, and downright dangerous at worst."
A Department for Education spokesman said helping families with high quality, affordable childcare was at the heart of the government's agenda.
"That's why we are investing a record £6bn per year by 2020," he said.
"Our 30 hours free offer for three and four-year-olds is set to save working parents up to £5,000 per year and we're also supporting the most disadvantaged families through our free 15 hours offer for two-year-olds and our pupil premium - worth over £300 a year per eligible child.
"We make no apologies for regulations which keep children safe and well." | The free entitlement to childcare for all parents in England should be scrapped in favour of a system aimed at disadvantaged children, a report says. |
36,671,941 | Originally, the regulator won its case and ordered the social network to stop tracking non-members when they visited publicly available Facebook pages.
The Brussels Appeals Court overturned that, saying the regulator had no jurisdiction over Facebook, which has its European headquarters in Ireland.
Facebook said it was pleased with the decision.
"We look forward to bringing all our services back online for people in Belgium," it said in a statement.
Willem Debeuckelaere, president of the Belgium privacy commission said: "Today's decision means simply that the Belgian citizen cannot obtain privacy protection when it concerns foreign players. The citizen is thus exposed to massive violations of privacy."
It said that it would look into launching a final appeal with the Court of Cassation, which can throw out previous judgements, but not deliver new ones.
The case centres around Facebook's use of a cookie - a small data file that tracks and records web activity.
Initially the court found in favour of the Belgian data authority. It said that collecting the data on the web-surfing behaviour of millions of people who were not members of the social network was a "manifest" violation of Belgian data protection law, irrespective of what purposes Facebook used the data for.
It imposed a fine of 250,000 euros per day if it did not comply with the order.
In December last year Facebook agreed to remove cookies for non-users who were visiting publicly available Facebook content.
Some privacy experts felt that would open the floodgates for other countries to follow suit.
In its appeal Facebook argued that it had used the cookie - known as datr - for five years, that it helped keep the service secure and that it discarded the data after 10 days.
The ruling though was ultimately about who has authority over the social network.
"Belgian courts don't have international jurisdiction over Facebook Ireland, where the data concerning Europe is processed," the court said. | Facebook has won a long-running legal battle with the Belgian data protection authority over how it tracks non-users. |
31,488,376 | The money from the Department for Education is in addition to £27m already allocated for 2015-17.
The council has seen a "significant increase" in the demand for primary school places.
About 15,000 extra primary school places will be needed over the next five years, the council said.
Conservative councillor Roger Gough, KCC's cabinet member for education, said: "For the next few years the pressure will be predominantly for primary school places, but the need for extra secondary school places will then start to come through."
Seven new primary schools are being built at Knights Park in Tunbridge Wells, Kings Hill, Leybourne Chase and Holborough Quarry - all in Tonbridge and Malling; and East Folkestone Primary in Shepway, and Thistle Hill Primary, in Swale.
Tunstall Primary, in Swale, is being relocated and expanded. | An extra £92m has been awarded to Kent County Council (KCC) to help it meet the need for more school places over the next three years. |
39,173,876 | The 26-year-old Scot missed out on a medal by 1.5 seconds after working his way through the elite field in Lahti, Finland.
The race was won by Canadian Alex Harvey in 1:46:28.9.
Russia's Sergey Ustiugov took silver, with Finland's Matti Heikkinen third.
He said: "I am pretty happy, it was a good race, but at the same time I am a little bit disappointed that I didn't have a stronger finish and get onto the podium.
"I have got stronger in every race I have done and I have never done so well in a 50km so it is awesome.
"I have a lot of confidence going into the next World Cup and hopefully I can pull out a few more good races."
It was a tremendous performance by Musgrave, whose previous best result was sixth in a World Cup 15km.
Elsewhere at the 2017 World Championships, he finished 12th in the 15km Classic and 11th in the 30km skiathlon. | Andrew Musgrave recorded Great Britain's best-ever Nordic skiing result by finishing fourth in the 50km freestyle at the World Cross Country Skiing Championships. |
27,292,105 | Shopkeeper Alice Wheeldon was found guilty of a poison plot against David Lloyd George in 1917.
But a campaign to clear her name, which saw her former home get a commemorative plaque, has continued.
Now, her great granddaughter Chloe Mason has said a submission to the Court of Appeal is being prepared.
Known for their anti-war views, Mrs Wheeldon, daughters Nellie, Hetty and Winnie and son William were the focus of government attention.
On 31 January 1917, they were arrested and accused of plotting to kill Lloyd George with poison darts.
Mrs Wheeldon, Winnie and son-in-law Alfred Mason were convicted. Mrs Wheeldon served only nine months of a 10-year sentence but died soon after release.
Supporters have insisted the family were set up by an MI5 agent who was known for dishonesty.
Ms Mason, granddaughter of Mrs Wheeldon, said: "It is an ugly burden to carry that the family were not only convicted and went to prison but suffered terrible persecution subsequently for something we think they did not do.
"We need a criminal justice system that is fair and does things properly, so it is about the credibility and integrity of the system itself."
She has now met a legal team to begin work on a submission to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which will decide whether the case can go before the Court of Appeal. | An appeal to clear the name of a Derby suffragette jailed for plotting to kill a British prime minister is moving forward. |
35,393,501 | No agreement has been reached and, as things stand, Wright is planning to play O'Halloran in next weekend's League Cup semi-final with Hibernian.
O'Halloran set up a goal as Saints lost 3-1 to Premiership leaders Celtic, who went six points clear at the top.
"The latest is that there has been no change," said Wright.
O'Halloran started on the right flank before moving up front in the second half. He did not play last week, after news of Rangers' interest broke, because Wright felt he was not in the right frame of mind.
There was enough about his game to create an equaliser at Celtic Park, though, for Steven MacLean.
"Michael's our player and we can't stop clubs asking a question about him," Wright told BBC Scotland. "He played because all week he's been excellent in training.
"When it emerged and really hit the press last week, it did have an effect on him. But he's in a good frame of mind.
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"The chairman came down on the bus today and unless something's happened, Michael's still our player, so that's the only update I can give.
"I'm confident that he'll be our player in the morning. He's contracted to us for another 18 months.
"We do know that Rangers are seriously interested. There's a valuation and if that's met then he'll no longer be our player. I'll be preparing, come Monday, for him to be in the team for next week."
Wright was happy with O'Halloran's performance, and aspects of the team's display as a whole, despite the defeat.
"We put a lot into game," he said. "First goal, they get a little break with the deflection. But we should see it out to half-time when we get the equaliser.
"We conceded the second goal at a bad time. At the start of the second half we looked okay, we put Michael up top, but the third goal kills us.
"I thought it was a foul on Brian Easton, [Gary] Mackay-Steven's foot was high and I was disappointed the ref didn't give it.
"You need those situations to go for you, then to compound it [Craig] Gordon makes a great save from Liam Craig moments later.
"I'm pleased with how we played, but there are still things we could do better; retention of the ball. But you have to work so hard here to get the ball [that] at times you don't keep is as much as you would like.
"The attitude, organisation and desire was good, I just thought at times we won the ball back then gave it away too cheaply."
Celtic manager Ronny Deila was pleased with the way his side "controlled" the game and the number of chances they created.
Mackay-Steven scored twice, Stuart Armstrong also found the net and Deila believes his team will be hard to catch if they maintain the same level of performance.
"We play much more forward now and we're hard to beat because we have a lot of quick players in the team," the Celtic manager said.
"[Mackay-Steven] was very good. Stuart and him were very good, the full-backs were vey good coming forward, so there was a lot to build on there.
"We're going to be very hard to beat when we are playing so direct and with pressure, everybody working so hard and then we win the ball in good situations." | Tommy Wright asserted that Michael O'Halloran will still be a St Johnstone player "in the morning", with Rangers "seriously interested". |
24,038,749 | A curfew has been extended for a third day in riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar district. Clashes began on Saturday.
Hundreds of people have been arrested. Officials say security is improving.
Thousands of people fled their homes in the violence which was sparked by the killing of three men who had objected to the harassment of a young woman. | At least 38 people have been killed in clashes which erupted between Hindus and Muslims in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police say. |
39,575,962 | The fly-half, 21, was among 19 players selected from 15 of New Zealand's provincial unions for the opening match of the Lions tour in Whangarei.
The New Zealander plays for North Harbour, but was recently called up to Super Rugby side Auckland Blues' squad.
Warren Gatland will name his Lions squad on 19 April.
3 June - New Zealand Provincial Barbarians (Toll Stadium, Whangarei)
7 June - Blues (Eden Park, Auckland)
10 June - Crusaders (AMI Stadium, Christchurch)
13 June - Highlanders (Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin)
17 June - Maori (International Stadium, Rotorua)
20 June - Chiefs (Waikato Stadium, Hamilton)
24 June - New Zealand (First Test, Eden Park, Auckland)
27 June - Hurricanes (Westpac Stadium, Wellington)
1 July - New Zealand (Second Test, Westpac Stadium, Wellington)
8 July - New Zealand (Third Test, Eden Park, Auckland) | Bryn Gatland, son of British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland, has been named in the New Zealand Barbarians squad to face the tourists on 3 June. |
39,544,568 | The project at the £1.2bn Romandisea resort has been condemned as in "bad taste" by members of the British Titanic Society.
The resort's American designer said plans for a simulated iceberg crash experience had now been abandoned.
The Chinese firm said the attraction would be "respectful".
Shaojun Su, chief executive of Yongle Seven Star Cultural Tourism Development Company, said the Titanic had "many Chinese fans" thanks to the 1997 film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Speaking through an interpreter at the British Titanic Society convention, he said the full-size replica would "respect history and the universal love" of those who died.
The convention - a gathering of Titanic enthusiasts and relatives of those on board the ill-fated liner - was held between Friday and Sunday in Southampton.
One participant, Jean Legg, whose father was a steward on the ship, said: "They are using the Titanic because of the tragedy - it's upsetting."
Ms Legg said: "My dad lived to be nearly 90 and the sights and sounds of people fighting for their lives stayed with him to the end of his days.
"If he knew this was being replicated, I think he'd be turning in his grave.
"I find it very upsetting, I feel they could have replicated another liner - it's in poor taste."
Robert Burr, the grandson of a steward who lost his life, had the same objection. "It doesn't suit the situation," he added.
But the society's president, Commodore Ron Warwick, said the replica would "perpetuate the memory of those who lost their lives".
Bruce Beverage, whose American firm is helping to design the theme park, said he had convinced Mr Su to drop plans for a simulated iceberg crash as part of a "6D holiday experience".
He said: "When they hired me I said, 'No, it would be in poor taste'."
The original liner, built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, sank when it hit an iceberg on 15 April 1912 on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.
The replica is set to form the centrepiece of the theme park in Sichuan province, which is due to admit its first visitors in August.
Work on the ship began in May 2014 and is due to be completed by early 2019. | A project to create a full-size replica of the Titanic at a theme park in China has upset relatives of victims and survivors of the 1912 disaster. |
35,430,616 | Midfielder Morsy, 24, who spent time in Wolves' academy before moving from Port Vale to the Spireites in 2013, has signed a two-and-a-half-year deal.
Alex academy product Colclough, 21, has agreed a three-and-a-half year contract with the Latics.
After two injury-plagued campaigns, he is Crewe's top scorer this season with eight goals in 30 appearances.
"They are players we have been keeping a close eye on so to be able to get both over the line now is a major boost for us," boss Gary Caldwell told the club website.
"They are exactly the type of players we want at Wigan Athletic, young and hungry, but with plenty of experience at this level."
Both players are available for the game against Port Vale on Saturday.
The Latics have also announced that striker Grant Holt and midfielder Don Cowie have left after mutually agreeing to cancel their contracts.
"It all happened quickly after a morning call," he told BBC Radio Stoke. "It's disappointing, in terms of losing your best player at the moment.
"But it opens up an opportunity for someone else and gives us the chance to bring in a replacement.
"It has always been this club's policy to produce young players to give them the opportunity.
"If the right club, the right move and the right fee comes along, we're not going to stand in his way. That's the same for every player."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Wigan Athletic have signed Chesterfield captain Sam Morsy and Crewe forward Ryan Colclough for undisclosed fees. |
39,409,418 | Taylor, 28, will sit out the World Cup qualifier in Serbia on 11 June after being sent off for the challenge that broke the leg of Republic captain Seamus Coleman in Friday's 0-0 draw.
The suspension could increase to three games if Fifa reviews the incident once it receives the referee's report.
Gareth Bale will also miss the Serbia game after being booked on Friday.
It was the Real Madrid forward's second yellow card of the qualification campaign.
Republic boss Martin O'Neill, preparing his side for a friendly against Iceland on Tuesday, said the tackles by Taylor and Bale - on John O'Shea - were "very, very poor".
And Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny told the Irish Times the tackle by Taylor was "horrific".
O'Shea needed stitches after he was tackled by Bale in the second half of Friday's game, which left Wales four points behind the Republic and Serbia with five matches left.
Wales boss Chris Coleman defended his players, and said Bale did not even think the challenge on O'Shea merited a booking. | Wales defender Neil Taylor could face more than a one-game ban for his red card against the Republic of Ireland. |
35,725,392 | Media playback is not supported on this device
James, 24, is back from a two-year absence through illness and injuries.
She said: "To have a bronze after all I've been through over the last two years, at home, in London, with all the support here, is just incredible.
"I'm hoping I'm back in the team now and have given myself more opportunities."
James won the sprint and keirin titles at the 2013 World Championships in Belarus.
But in May 2014, she had an operation to remove abnormal cells following a cervical screening, which could have developed into cancer if left untreated.
She has also suffered knee and shoulder injuries.
James made her return to the British vest in January, but did not make the podium at the World Track Cup in Hong Kong.
"It's been a really, really tough road and the World Cups were really tough for me this winter.
"All I rode was sprint and I was knocked out first round, which was so frustrating.
"It's just been so good because I've just been working so hard and knuckled down since Hong Kong.
"I've just seen improvements week in, week out and managed to pull it out, so happy days."
James failed to qualify automatically for the keirin final, instead doing so via a repechage.
"I like to do it the hard way, put myself in the rep (repechage) to do a bit of extra racing," James told BBC Sport.
"I haven't actually ridden a keirin since the nationals in September so I've just been doing video analysis and specific keirin training.
"It's really worked and just to get myself in the top six, each step I made was like a complete bonus and once I got through the rep I was just so overwhelmed I couldn't believe it.
"And then getting third in the semis and then into the final - it just doesn't feel real.
"I'm so over the moon to be back." | Welsh cyclist Becky James hopes keirin bronze at the Track World Championships in London will help her bid to be part of Team GB's squad at the Rio Olympics. |
36,763,578 | It has extended to the UK, Canada and other countries where the number of people killed by police is a fraction of that in the US.
In the UK, members of Black Lives Matter London marched to the US Embassy. In Canada, Black Lives Matter activists brought Toronto's gay pride parade to a standstill in protest. In Germany, protesters staged a "die-in" in Berlin and read the names of black people killed by US police.
In the US, the Black Lives Matter movement gained prominence after deaths of black men like Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police. As the movement has grown, so has its goals and its reach.
"Black Lives Matter is not just about black lives, it is about the quality of black lives," says Janaya Khan, a founder of the Black Lives Matter Toronto chapter.
Among the protesters in London was Maryam Ali, an 18-year-old student from west London who helped found the movement's London chapter.
Ms Ali has never experienced police violence first hand. Just two people have been killed this year by British police, one of them black. US police have killed at least 512 people in the same period, according to a tally by the Washington Post.
So what prompts a student in London to throw herself into a protest movement about police shootings thousands of miles away?
"Part of it is solidarity with the US," she says. "I have family in America, and I fear for their lives. They could just been walking down the street and their lives could be be taken away.
"But the UK isn't innocent. There have been police killings here," Ms Ali says.
She mentions Mark Duggan, a black man whose death at the hands of police in 2011 sparked the riots in London that summer.
Like the UK, Canada has relatively few police killings, but Ms Khan says racial bias affects the country's criminal justice system.
"We really have to pay attention to what we mean when we say less anti-black violence," Ms Khan says. "Take our prisons for example; we make up only 2.9% of the Canadian population but 10% of the federal inmate population."
Black Lives Matter Toronto began, late last year, with two goals: express solidarity with what was happening in the US and apply the cause to Canadian issues.
To that end, the Toronto chapter is branching out into policy and education. This year it is running a pilot summer school in an attempt to reduce the numbers of young black people getting caught up in crime and to "teach a history that is more balanced".
The Freedom School was created and is run entirely by the Black Lives Matter chapter and the community, Ms Khan says.
"Some Black Lives Matter chapters focus on policy change and legislation, while others understand that their specific context requires them to be on the streets. The cultures in every city are difference and Black Lives Matter responds to those cultures."
The Toronto chapter sees its place as both on the streets - controversially it brought the city's gay pride parade to a standstill after being invited as guests - and at city hall.
It has made specific political demands, including the overhaul of Canada's Special Investigations Unit, which is tasked with holding police accountable but which Black Lives Matter campaigners say is too dominated by former officers to be independent.
The chapter has also called for the demilitarisation of Toronto police - an issue that came to the fore in the US when police deployed military-style vehicles and weapons at the Black Lives Matter protest in Ferguson, Missouri.
Back in London, the movement is less focused but no less passionate, Ms Ali says.
Ms Ali says the issues that drive the Black Lives Matters movement are not limited to the US.
"There is internalised racism everywhere. There is a system that targets young black people because of a stereotype that they are dangerous, without actually looking at who they are. It's a terrifying cycle."
Breaking that cycle is about raising awareness everywhere, she says, whether there are police killings or not. "We are trying to build an awareness of black lives worldwide, not just for those in close proximity with racist law enforcement."
When she is not at school, Ms Ali is working on organising new protests and actions.
"This is about trying to make a change for those who don't have a voice," she says. "And for me as well." | The power of the Black Lives Matter movement to galvanise people concerned about police misconduct has not stopped at America's borders. |
35,918,006 | Blackwell remains in an induced coma after Saturday's British middleweight title defeat by Chris Eubank Jr.
Fellow middleweight Etches set up the fundraising web page on Monday and more than £4,000 of the £10,000 target was raised in the first 24 hours.
"Nick is more of a rival to me than a friend," Etches told BBC Wiltshire.
"But never once has he been disrespectful. He's a nice kid. He's always polite, so 'why not?'
"It is brilliant that everyone is joining in. I don't want any credit for doing what I have done.
"The credit goes out to everyone that is doing it; boxers, fans and media are all showing their appreciation to Nick and support for his family."
Blackwell, 25, was found to have a small bleed on the brain after Saturday's fight.
The British Board of Boxing Control has said it was satisfied with how the bout was handled.
"Unfortunately, it is the dark side of the sport," Etches continued.
"The most important thing is that he makes a full recovery, and I'm sure he will do.
"One day you could be thinking about fighting for a world title - the next day you might not be able to box again. It only comes to light when the accidents happen."
Etches began the fundraising with a £200 personal donation and more than 200 contributions have followed.
"There is only big money in boxing at the top, if you're world champion," Etches continued.
"On your way up, it's a hard world. Nick knows that and every other boxer knows that and I think that is why boxers have come together and donated a small amount of money each." | Sheffield boxer Adam Etches says he is amazed at the response to his appeal to raise money for Nick Blackwell through a crowdfunding website. |
38,855,937 | The 23-year-old striker was one of two players brought in by the Alex on deadline day, along with Callum Cooke.
But he has appeared for Scunthorpe and previous club Lincoln during the current campaign.
Defender Bondz N'Gala's proposed move from Eastleigh to Gillingham fell apart on Thursday for similar reasons.
Crewe are 19th in League Two, just four points clear of the relegation places ahead of Saturday's trip to Exeter.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page or visit our Premier League tracker here. | Crewe have cancelled a loan deal for Scunthorpe's Jonny Margetts because he has already played for two clubs this season, BBC Radio Stoke reports. |
34,577,720 | The peer told the BBC Labour faced an "existential threat" and was "anything other than a government in waiting".
He also took a swipe at the system used to elect Mr Corbyn, describing it as "bizarre and unacceptable".
Lord Warner has insisted he will not defect to another party.
Labour sources told BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg the resignation was "ego-driven" and Lord Prescott said Lord Warner was "no great loss".
Lord Warner served in Tony Blair's government and was made health minister in 2003, before leaving government in 2007.
In his resignation letter to Mr Corbyn, first reported in the Guardian, he wrote that he had resigned the Labour whip in the Lords and cancelled his party membership after concluding Mr Corbyn was "highly unlikely" to win back lost Labour voters.
"I have watched for some time the declining quality of the Labour Party's leadership but had not expected the calamitous decline achieved in 2015," he wrote.
In a direct attack on Mr Corbyn, who won an overwhelming victory in the Labour leadership contest after the party's general election defeat, he added: "The approach of those around you and your own approach and policies is highly likely to worsen the decline in the Labour Party's credibility."
He said he feared for Labour's future if Mr Corbyn's "supporting activists secure ever greater control of the party's apparatus and processes".
Lord Warner added: "Labour will only win another election with a policy approach that wins back people who have moved to voting Conservative and UKIP, as well as to the Greens and SNP. Your approach is highly unlikely to achieve this shift."
Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, Lord Warner suggested Labour could be out of power for 15 years without a change in direction.
"If it doesn't change itself very rapidly indeed, it hasn't a hope in hell of winning an election in 2020 or indeed in 2025," he said.
"It has to understand why a large number of people chose to vote for four other parties on 7 May. It hasn't done that re-examination. I want to try and push it to do that and I think the best way I can do that is to make a stand and leave the party."
He said he was not encouraging others to leave the party, was not joining any other party and would continue to be a "traditional, centre left" politician.
On Twitter, former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott said Lord Warner had in the past proposed charging people to use the NHS, adding: "No credibility. No great loss."
And shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith suggested the peer had "been leaving us for quite a while".
"He voted with the Tories a couple of years ago, under the last Labour leadership, to privatise parts of the NHS," he told BBC 2's Newsnight. "He is somebody who has advocated charging for the NHS, charging to stay overnight....I'm not sure we will miss him too much." | Ex-Labour health minister Lord Warner has said the party doesn't have a "hope in hell" of winning power under Jeremy Corbyn after he resigned the whip in protest at the party's direction. |
35,607,725 | England have won their last six T20 internationals and beat South Africa A by 44 runs on Wednesday.
"We ticked a lot of boxes," Morgan said. "The squad is starting to come together and show real strength.
"We have a number of match-winners within the side."
England take on South Africa in Cape Town on Friday after Alex Hales hit 78 and Reece Topley took three wickets to earn Morgan's men a comfortable victory in the warm-up match in Paarl.
"We played with a lot of aggression and committed to everything we did," Morgan said. "Alex Hales continued his great run of form.
"The team is looking in really good shape."
Morgan conceded that England's bowling remains a work in progress in the shortest format of the game.
"We need to continue the way in which we play and up our skills, probably more so with the ball than with the bat," he said. "South Africa are a very strong outfit and this is really good preparation for us.
"The wickets are probably going to be batsmen-friendly, so it's going to be a bigger test for our bowlers, which is really good, given that we don't play a lot of T20 cricket. For our young bowling attack, it's going to be a really good challenge."
But he said the form of spinner Adil Rashid and left-arm pacemen Topley and David Willey gave him optimism that the bowlers would be equal to the task.
"I'm not worried about the bowling," Morgan said. "The fact that the two left-armers swing it and pose a threat early on gives us a chance to take wickets in the first six overs, which is crucial.
"Since Adil has come back into the side, he's been outstanding. His experience at the Big Bash has been brilliant, he was one of the leading wicket-takers over there and the experience of playing as an overseas player in a different country was a huge responsibility to take on his shoulders and he cherished that."
Morgan has batted at four and five in England's most recent T20 games and says this sort of adaptability is important to keep England's batting line-up firing - including getting the best out of destructive wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler - at the World T20.
"The way in which we'd like it to formulate is to be flexible, similar to the one-day team," Morgan said.
"Within that flexibility of the batting order, using Jos as much as we can and as well as can is going to be key in the World [T20].
"I don't have an ideal spot [in the order]. If there's a situation where somebody is suited better for it, we'll send them in." | Captain Eoin Morgan says he is "really excited" by the potential of England's Twenty20 team as they prepare to face South Africa in two matches before the World T20 begins in India in March. |
35,423,712 | The county are relegation favourites and face a difficult league opener at home to Donegal on Saturday night.
Benny Coulter is back after a one-year sabbatical, with the others yet to commit to the Mourne cause in 2016.
"The three boys have lots of quality and would only help Down football," said the forward.
Clarke has not played inter-county football since 2011, subsequently rejoining AFL side Collingwood.
He returned home from Australia over a year ago after being diagnosed with Addison's Disease and has yet to decide on his future plans with Down.
"You hear all the rumours," added Poland.
"I'm from the same area as him and it seems to be a general topic of discussion around Down. You hear rumours he is coming back and that he isn't.
"I haven't spoken to him in a while but if I thought it was worth getting on to him, I would pick up the phone and give him a call.
"If I was a manager, I know I would be on to him.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"Down need all the best players playing and Marty is one of the best players in Down.
"It's the same with big Dan Gordon. If he came back it would help Down football, but I honestly don't know if he or Conor (Laverty) are coming on board."
Poland revealed he almost quit after Down's shock defeat to Wexford in last year's All-Ireland SFC qualifiers.
The embarrassing defeat led to the departure of Jim McCorry as manager and Poland, one of the team's stalwarts in recent seasons, admitted he contemplated retirement aged just 29.
"Wexford was one of the worst moments I've had in football but it was a knee-jerk reaction of my own (to consider retiring)," said Poland.
"I'm passionate about my county and want to see Down do well.
"There was a lot of ill-feeling abut Down football and people were saying things and it was annoying me.
"I don't know whether it's thickness or wanting to prove people wrong, but if fit I'm willing to be involved as long as Down want me." | Mark Poland hopes absent trio Marty Clarke, Dan Gordon and Conor Laverty all return to boost Down's chances of remaining in Division One. |
16,380,436 | Prosecutors accuse Juan de Dios Usuga and his brother Dairo Antonio of jointly leading the Urabenos gang, which controls much of the drug-trafficking in the north of Colombia.
Police say Juan de Dios Usuga, 44, was shot dead as officers tried to arrest him at his ranch in Choco province.
A police officer was killed in the 30-minute firefight.
The security forces continue to search for Dairo Antonio Usuga.
'Inside information'
Police said an informant told them Juan de Dios Usuga would be celebrating New Year's Eve at his ranch in Casa Verde, in north-western Choco province.
They deployed a special operations team to the area, which moved in on the ranch in the early hours of Sunday morning, local time.
The security forces said Mr Usuga and his bodyguards opened fire and shot a policeman as he was jumping off the helicopter.
They said Mr Usuga was killed in the exchange of fire which followed. Three suspected gang members were injured and arrested.
Ten warrants had been issued for Mr Usuga's arrest for alleged crimes including murder, forced disappearance and forced displacement.
Prosecutors say the two Usuga brothers control a 500-strong criminal gang named Los Urabenos after the area in northern Colombia where they have their roots.
Dairo Antonio is believed to have been at the ranch as well, but managed to escape from the police.
Los Urabenos is one of the groups the Colombian government calls Bacrim, short for bandas criminales (criminal gangs).
President Juan Manuel Santos says the gangs pose a grave danger to the security of Colombia and has made the fight against the Bacrim one of his government's priorities. | Officials in Colombia say the alleged leader of a powerful criminal gang has been killed in a police operation. |
30,297,316 | Figures from the county council revealed six claims were made that year and a significant amount went to a middle school-aged pupil who fell during a school trip in 2009.
The council would not disclose further details for fear of identification.
Nothing has been paid to pupils so far in 2014, the figures showed.
A total of £1,091,082 was paid to pupils aged five to 18 between 2011 and 2013 - but the vast majority of that amount was paid in 2013, with the amounts for 2011 and 2012 being £3,850 and £47,450 respectively.
The accident resulting in the largest payout involved a pupil falling from a height and suffering a spinal injury at the Malvern Hills Outdoor Centre in June 2009, the Health and Safety Executive confirmed.
The centre was run by the council at the time.
The authority said 90% of all payouts were made by its insurance company. | More than £1m was paid in compensation to school pupils in Worcestershire in 2013, a freedom of information request has shown. |
40,232,484 | Adam Purinton is accused of killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla and wounding Alok Madasani at the bar in the city of Olathe in February.
Mr Purinton also allegedly shot a bar patron who tried to intervene.
The attack drew worldwide condemnation and shocked the Indian-US community.
Mr Purinton was charged in February with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Federal prosecutors announced Friday that the 52-year-old was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly targeting two of the victims "because of their actual and perceived race, colour, religion and national origin".
He allegedly fired on Mr Kuchibhotla and his friend Mr Madasani, two 32-year-old Indian men who worked as engineers at GPS-maker Garmin, because he thought they were Iranian.
Witnesses said he inquired if their status in the US was legal before shouting "get out of my country" and opening fire.
Mr Kuchibhotla died and Mr Madasani survived. A third man, 24-year-old Ian Grillot, was wounded trying to intervene.
The US justice department indictment said that Mr Purinton "committed the offenses after substantial planning and premeditation".
It said he "attempted to kill more than one person in a single criminal episode, and knowingly created a grave risk of death to others on the scene".
The maximum penalty for such an offence is death or life in prison. The justice department said that a decision on whether to seek capital punishment would be made later.
After the shooting, Mr Purinton allegedly told a barmaid in nearby Clinton he had just opened fire on some "Iranian people".
The fallout from the attack reverberated across India and the large Indian community in the US.
US President Donald Trump condemned the shooting in a speech to Congress after earlier facing criticism for his silence on the attack. | A man accused of shooting dead one Indian man and injuring another at a bar in the US state of Kansas faces hate crime and firearms charges, the justice department says. |
38,668,906 | The US company is in the process of finalising a purchase of a controlling interest in Formula 1.
The FIA's approval was the final regulatory hurdle before the sale, which will see Liberty take over from investment group CVC Capital Partners.
The FIA believed its partnership with Liberty will "ensure the continued success and development" of F1.
Liberty is expected to complete its takeover of the sport within the next few weeks.
It bought just over 18% of the shares in Delta Topco, the holding company of the F1 Group, in September.
Liberty announced before Christmas that it had cleared all regulatory hurdles and had the necessary approvals for the purchase.
And on Tuesday in Colorado, the company's shareholders approved the buy-out.
Its purchase of its second tranche of shares, to take its holding to 35.3%, is due to be completed within the next few weeks.
Liberty has said it wants to protect F1's historic European races, establish new races in the USA and Latin America and grow the sport through the exploitation of digital media. | Formula 1's governing body the FIA has approved the sale of the sport's commercial rights to Liberty Media. |
23,512,965 | Its shares fell 7% to 159.5 Taiwanese dollars, a near eight-year low.
On Tuesday, the company warned that it may swing to an operating loss as its revenue projections missed analysts' forecasts, hurting investor morale.
It said its margins were hit by "relatively higher cost structure" as well as the "lack of economy of scale".
It said it expects its operating margin in the third quarter to fall to between zero and minus 8% on revenues of between 50bn and 60bn Taiwanese dollars (£1.3bn; $2bn).
Most analysts had forecast a margin of 2-4% and revenues close to 72bn Taiwanese dollars.
Once a major global player, HTC's fortunes have slid recently as it lost market share to rivals such as Samsung and Apple.
Its net profit dipped 83% in the second quarter from a year earlier.
In an attempt to revive growth, it has launched new products - including the HTC One - the response to which, it said, had been encouraging.
"With the help of HTC One, we have regained superphone market share across major markets including China," the company said.
It added that it plans to launch a range of innovative and competitive mid-tier products in the coming months, which it expects will help it "regain momentum and market share in these segments" in the coming months.
While the company said it expected an improvement in the fourth quarter, some analysts were sceptical that it would be able to improve in the near term.
"It doesn't seem like the company has any strategy that can turn this around," said Daniel Chang, an analyst at Macquarie Securities.
HTC shares have fallen 44% over the past 12 months and are trading at their lowest level since 2005. | Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC has warned it may make an operating loss - its first ever - in the third quarter, sending its shares down sharply. |
18,781,513 | Hethel Innovation Ltd will support 300 businesses and look to create 24 new ones at Hethel Engineering Centre, near Wymondham, Norfolk County Council said.
The authority said the firm, part of a ??7.8m innovation project, will focus on low carbon technologies and help ensure Norfolk's global competitiveness.
The company will be funded at the centre for three years.
It is being paid for by a European grant and county council loan.
Norfolk County Council said the firm's aim was to help businesses at the hi-tech centre create new products and services as well as encouraging new spin-off companies and jobs.
It said the company would "create opportunities for businesses to explore, engage, experiment, collaborate and cluster in order to be globally competitive and secure Norfolk as a county that is home to world class business, providing world class products and services". | About 240 jobs will be created at a new firm helping Norfolk's engineering companies develop new ideas. |
37,405,528 | The Swans are 15th in the Premier League after losing 1-0 against Southampton on Sunday.
Their only league win came away at Burnley on the opening day of the season.
"It doesn't look good because things are not right there," Ratcliffe told BBC Radio Wales.
"Guidolin is up against it now. They're in a relegation fight already this season, I'm afraid," he added.
For the second successive game, Guidolin faced questions over a player's reaction to being substituted.
The Italian apologised to defender Neil Taylor, who was taken off in their 2-2 draw with Chelsea a week earlier, but the Wales international did not feature against the Saints.
Following defeat at St Mary's, Guidolin said Ki Sung-yueng's "attitude" was "not good" as he was replaced by winger Jefferson Montero.
The South Korea captain looked unhappy and did not shake Guidolin's hand as he left the pitch.
Former Everton defender Ratcliffe said: "When the substitutions are being made, you can see the discontent the players have got with the manager at times.
"They're questioning his decision without asking him anything or saying anything to him - you can see it in their eyes in the way that they come off.
"Neil Taylor last week and this week once again. It's a bad loss and it's 1-0. It's flattering, it could have been more."
Ratcliffe also suggested Guidolin was slow to adjust the team's tactical approach at St Mary's.
"The manager's done nothing about it and when he does do something about it, it's too late - they've scored a goal," Radcliffe added.
"And then the other decisions - actually to bring off your captain Jack Cork, who, unless he's got an injury we're not aware of, I have to question that decision."
Swansea's record signing, striker Borja Baston, came on for Cork in the 82nd minute while Angel Rangel took over from Stephen Kingsley at the break.
Ratcliffe added: "I don't know if Kinsgley's picked up an injury or that was tactical as well.
"But if they are tactical decisions, they're wrong. They're absolutely wrong.
"And you've got to question the manager. The manager for me does not inspire me, I must admit.
"When I hear him speak, is he the type of man I can play for? Maybe not.
"I just don't think they've got the zip or buzz about them that they've had in the past."
Ratcliffe also questioned Leroy Fer's regular appearances for the Swans since arriving in the summer.
"I'm not a big fan of Leroy Fer. I was never a big fan of his when he was at QPR," added Radcliffe.
"I was never a big fan of him at Norwich - he couldn't get into those sides. But all of a sudden he can get in this side. I'm not quite sure. It's a strange decision."
Swansea host current league leaders Manchester City twice this week, in the EFL Cup third round on Wednesday and again the Premier League on Saturday.
After that, Liverpool travel to Liberty Stadium before the Swans then travel to Arsenal in the league.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Former Wales captain Kevin Ratcliffe has warned Swansea City they are "in a relegation fight already" with manager Francesco Guidolin "up against it". |
37,528,838 | It happened at about 05:00 BST on Saturday at Oxford Street's junction with Berwick Street.
Two males in the car and a woman passenger on the N55 bus were injured and taken to hospital.
Police said they had arrested three occupants of the car - the two injured males and another who was unharmed.
The Metropolitan Police said the car had been seen by officers on duty in a marked police car shortly before the collision.
The vehicle "did not stop and made off" before crashing, police said. | Three people were hurt when a car collided with a night bus before crashing into a shop on Oxford Street in London's West End. |
21,840,052 | Argentina has alleged that the bank used "fake receipts" to facilitate money laundering and tax evasion, and launder 392m pesos ($77m; £50m).
The country's tax authority said it had filed criminal charges against HSBC.
HSBC said that it would cooperate with the investigation, adding that the allegations were "of great concern".
"We are committed to working cooperatively with authorities to ensure a thorough review and appropriate resolution of the matter," said Lyssette Bravo, a spokeswoman for HSBC.
Last year, HSBC agreed to pay US authorities $1.9bn (£1.2bn) in a settlement over money laundering, the largest paid in such a case.
Argentina laid out its case against HSBC late on Monday.
"On the basis of what's been investigated so far, in six months we've recorded 392 million pesos in fraudulent transactions, generated by evasion and money laundering," said Ricardo Echegaray, head of Argentina's tax agency.
Mr Echegaray added that HSBC also helped clients evade taxes on an additional 224m pesos.
"We hope to recover what is due and see the courts apply an appropriate penalty," he said.
Money laundering is the process of disguising the proceeds of crime so that the money cannot be linked to the wrongdoing.
HSBC, which has previously admitted to having poor money laundering controls, has been taking steps to tighten its operations.
Last year, it said that it had spent $290m on improving its systems to prevent money laundering.
At the same time, it also appointed a former US official, Bob Werner, to work as its head of financial crime compliance, a new position the bank has created.
The bank said that he will be responsible for beefing up its anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance systems.
Mr Werner was previously the head of the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the agency responsible for enforcing the US sanctions on countries, including Iran. | Banking giant HSBC, which was hit with a US fine for money laundering last year, is facing fresh accusations of illegal activity in Argentina. |
40,637,068 | The right-back, 27, was out of contract after two seasons at Southampton and is reunited with former Saints boss Ronald Koeman, now in charge at Goodison Park.
Everton have already signed Jordan Pickford, Davy Klaassen, Michael Keane, Wayne Rooney and Sandro Ramirez.
"You can see this is a club that wants to achieve something," said Martina, who has 30 caps for the Caribbean nation of Curacao.
"Cuco Martina is an experienced player who can perform in different positions at the back, which is important," Koeman said.
"It's also important, with the number of games we will face in the coming campaign, that we have strength and competition in the squad."
Martina recently became captain of his national team.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Everton have signed defender Cuco Martina on a three-year deal. |
37,149,899 | They are receiving medical attention and none is believed to be seriously hurt, Oslo police said.
According to one report, some 1,800 students were attending a show by American house DJ Steve Aoki at Sentrum Scene at the time.
The premises were evacuated and cordoned off, and firemen secured the site.
One student told Norway's NTB news agency "it was total chaos".
Aoki said he was "saddened and shocked" by the incident. | Fifteen people have been injured in a ceiling collapse at a concert venue in the Norwegian capital. |
39,166,753 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Farah, who won 10,000m gold on the opening day, will attempt to secure Britain's second medal of the championships when he runs in the 5,000m final.
Jamaican superstar Bolt is aiming to end his glittering career with gold in the 4x100m relay, having had to settle for bronze in the 100m last Saturday.
Here's our guide to the key events and coverage times.
*All times listed are BST. The BBC is not responsible for any changes to event start times.
Seven gold medals: Women's high jump, women's 100m hurdles, men's javelin, men's 5,000m, men's decathlon, women's and men's 4x100m relay
BBC coverage: 09:30-12:00 & 18:30-22:10 BBC One; 09:30-22:00 BBC Connected TV and online (uninterrupted coverage); 12:00-12:30 BBC Two; 12:30-13:30 BBC Red Button; 20:00-22:30 BBC Radio 5 live
Main events:
19:05 - Women's high jump final: Russian Maria Lasitskene, competing as an independent athlete, won gold in Beijing two years ago and boasts the top 10 jumps of 2017. The 24-year-old has won her past 22 competitions and is the clear favourite. Among the chasing pack are two British heptathletes by trade - Morgan Lake and Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
20:05 - Women's 100m hurdles final: Kendra Harrison, one of four Americans in the final, broke a 28-year-old world record in this stadium 12 months ago at the Anniversary Games, but she only scraped into the final. London 2012 champion Sally Pearson looks in good form and could stop the United States from a clean sweep. Jamaica's Danielle Williams, the reigning world champion, crashed out in the semi-finals.
20:20 - Men's 5,000m final: The final championship track race of Farah's illustrious career. Victory here would be a fourth consecutive 5,000m win at the World Championships, but is he tired after his 10,000m heroics? Precocious 17-year-old Seleman Barega and Ethiopian team-mates Yomif Kejelcha and Muktar Edris, plus Kenya-born American Paul Chelimo, look to be his main threats. Fellow Briton Andrew Butchart, sixth in Rio last summer, also starts.
21:30 & 21:50 - Women's and men's 4x100m finals respectively: Hot on the heels of Farah's farewell comes Bolt's send-off as he competes for Jamaica, looking for a 12th world title to go with his eight Olympic golds. The American team are always strong - and could help Justin Gatlin to a second gold to follow his 100m triumph. The GB team, including Adam Gemili, will look to deny both victory - as long as they all make it through the heats at 10:55. Meanwhile, the British women's team will attempt to repeat their Rio 2016 bronze medal.
Morning session (GB athletes in brackets):
10:00 - 110m hurdles decathlon (Ashley Bryant)
10:35 - Women's 4x100m relay qualifying (GB in heat one)
10:55 - Men's 4x100m relay qualifying (GB in heat one)
11:00 - Discus throw decathlon (Ashley Bryant)
11:20 - Women's 4x400m relay qualifying (GB in heat one)
11:50 - Men's 4x400m relay qualifying (GB in heat two)
12:20 - Discus throw decathlon (Ashley Bryant)
14:15 - Pole vault decathlon (Ashley Bryant)
Evening session:
17:30 - Men's javelin decathlon (Ashley Bryant)
18:55 - Men's javelin decathlon (Ashley Bryant)
19:05 - Women's high jump final (Katarina Johnson-Thompson & Morgan Lake)
20:05 - Women's 100m hurdles final
20:15 - Men's javelin final
20:20 - Men's 5,000m final (Mo Farah & Andrew Butchart)
20:45 - Men's 1500m decathlon (Ashley Bryant)
21:30 - Women's 4x100m relay final (line-up TBC)
21:50 - Men's 4x100m relay, final (line-up TBC)
The final day sees 11 gold medals decided: Men's and women's 20km race walks, men's and women's 50km race walks, men's high jump, women's discus, women's 5,000m, women's 800m, men's 1500m, women's and men's 4x400m relay
BBC coverage: 07:40-16:15 BBC Red Button; 13:00-16:30 & 18:30-20:00 BBC Two; 18:30-22:00 Connected TV & online; 20:00-22:00 BBC One; 19:30-22:00 BBC Radio 5 live
Main events:
14:20 - Men's 20km race walk: Britain's Tom Bosworth finished a surprise sixth in Rio last summer. After setting a mile world best in this stadium a month ago, can he make the podium?
19:35 - Women's 5,000m: Laura Muir is hoping to improve on her fourth in the 1500m while Eilish McColgan also takes part. Great Britain's best performance in this event is Paula Radcliffe's fourth in 1997.
20:10 - Women's 800m final: South African two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya has not lost an 800m race since 2015. She recently lowered her own national record with a stunning Monaco Diamond League victory. Britain's trio went out in the semi-finals.
20:55 & 21:15 - Women's and men's 4x400m relay finals respectively: Rio 2016 bronze medallists Great Britain bid to repeat that success in the women's event. The men, who finished third in Beijing two years ago, will hope for better luck than in Brazil last summer, when they were disqualified in the heats.
Morning session:
07:55 - Men's and women's 50km race walks
12:20 - Women's 20km race walk
14:20 - Men's 20km race walk
Evening session:
19:00 - Men's high jump final (Robbie Grabarz)
19:10 - Women's discus final
19:35 - Women's 5,000m final (Laura Muir & Eilish McColgan)
20:10 - Women's 800m final (Lynsey Sharp)
20:30 - Men's 1500m final (Chris O'Hare)
20:55 - Women's 4x400m relay final (line-up TBC)
21:15 - Men's 4x400m relay final (line-up TBC)
Coverage on BBC Red Button can be subject to late schedule changes, so details may differ from this page.
National and regional variations have been included in this list where possible. But please check your local listings for more detailed information.
You can view all our TV and Red Button broadcasts as well as listen to our radio sports programming on the BBC iPlayer. | Mo Farah and Usain Bolt will be chasing gold medals on the penultimate day of the 2017 World Championships in London. |
27,572,007 | Nigel Farage pledged: "You've not heard the last of us," calling the result the most extraordinary for a century.
His party came first in six of the 10 regions to declare, with its strongest performance in the East Midlands.
The electoral "earthquake" Mr Farage had predicted came as radical, anti-EU parties on the right and left topped polls across Europe.
UKIP is on course to win its first seat in Scotland, although the confirmed result is not due until later.
But it finished third in London where it polled almost 10% lower than in the country as a whole.
Mr Farage put the party's success down to voters' "very strong desire" to have a "different relationship with Europe".
He told reporters: "The message is people have had enough of not being told the truth and not being given the opportunity to express their opinion.
"Five years ago the Conservatives won, giving us a cast-iron guarantee of a referendum they didn't deliver."
Giving his victory speech in Southampton the UKIP leader said the party's "people's army" would now move on to Newark where it is locked in a by-election battle with the Conservatives.
Voters in the Nottinghamshire constituency are set to decide who will replace disgraced Tory MP Patrick Mercer on 5 June.
UKIP's candidate in the poll and re-elected MEP Roger Helmer said he had an "excellent chance" of causing an upset.
"It depends on the voters of Newark," said Mr Helmer, who came first in the East Midlands region.
"They have to make their choice but I think we have set out tonight reasons why they should make this statement on behalf of Britain."
Mr Farage admitted the party's hopes were limited but added: "I am not writing it off."
In Thursday's European election his anti-EU party beat the Conservatives into second place in the Newark and Sherwood District Council area.
"We will go on next year to the general election with a targeting strategy," Mr Farage told jubilant supporters at the count in Southampton.
"And I promise you this - you haven't heard the last of us."
In Scotland, where UKIP looks like it will secure the party's first seat, would-be MEP David Coburn said: "With this level of support, UKIP would win significant representation at Holyrood and at Westminster."
People cast their votes across the UK on Thursday to elect 73 MEPs in 12 separate regional constituencies.
UKIP led Labour in some opinion polls ahead of polling day, but by margins too close to call.
The Conservatives topped the poll five years ago and UKIP, with 16.5%, came just ahead of Labour on 15.7%.
But with only Scotland left to declare UKIP is set to go one better this year, topping the poll with a projected 24 MEPs and 28% of the vote.
In other developments:
UKIP gained 161 council seats in the English local elections but its vote share was down on the previous year.
Its spin doctor Patrick O'Flynn, an ex-newspaper correspondent, was elected as an MEP in the Eastern region.
He hit back at the press for its attacks on the party during the campaign.
"We have a right to claim we are somewhat closer to their readers than some of those newspapers," he said. | UKIP has set its sights on Westminster after recording a resounding victory in the European elections. |
41,055,674 | Gales of up to 130mph (215 km/h) battered the coast.
The hurricane - the worst to hit the US mainland in 13 years - has since been downgraded to a tropical storm, due to decreasing wind speeds, but it is moving slowly.
It has left significant damage, with the town of Rockport one of the worst affected.
Vehicles and buildings were destroyed at the town's airport....
...as were several light planes.
Rockport was directly hit overnight.
The town's mayor had said before the storm hit that anyone staying should write their names and social security numbers on their arms, suggesting they were putting themselves in a high-risk situation.
Residents in the coastal city of Corpus Christi experienced a citywide power failure overnight on Friday.
On Saturday, they woke up to deserted streets, and scenes of damage that the storm had caused, including house fires.
But the town was spared the kind of devastation seen in Rockport.
On Friday, before landfall, the sight of the roiling seas drew curious locals and storm-chasers, though most then moved to places of safety.
Many people left the city and businesses were boarded up to prevent damage.
Authorities now warn of "catastrophic" floods in coming days, as torrential rains continue.
High rainfall of more than 10 inches has already been seen in several areas.
There has been flooding in Galveston.
And Port Lavaca.
Residents in the city of Houston - the country's fourth-largest city - have been stocking up on essential supplies, leaving supermarket shelves bare.
Authorities warn that in the Houston area, the most severe weather is yet to come.
Harvey has severely hampered Gulf of Mexico oil production and air travel.
About 45% of US oil refining takes place on the Gulf of Mexico coast
An oil tank was damaged near Seadrift, a city in Calhoun County.
Images posted by Nasa have revealed what the storm looks like from the space.
This photo was taken by astronaut Jack Fischer, from the International Space Station. | Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas late on Friday local time, arriving with life-threatening winds and the risk of severe flooding. |
36,824,487 | The news was confirmed at the Star Wars Celebration fan event in London, where the 26-year-old actor made a surprise appearance.
He told the audience he was "very, very excited" about being cast in the role made famous by Harrison Ford.
Ehrenreich's casting has been rumoured for months. Earlier this year he appeared in the Coen brothers' comedy Hail, Caesar!.
The American was chosen to play the space smuggler after the filmmakers saw around 3,000 actors for the part.
"I auditioned for about six months," Ehrenreich revealed on stage. "The coolest part of the audition process was I went on the [Millennium] Falcon."
The as-yet-untitled movie will begin filming in the UK in early 2017.
It will cover events in Han Solo's life before his appearance in the original 1977 Star Wars film, A New Hope.
It will be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, whose previous films include The Lego Movie.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or email [email protected]. | Alden Ehrenreich will play the young Han Solo in a Star Wars spin-off movie. |
35,900,731 | The procession began at Kilmainham Gaol, where 14 rebels were imprisoned and then shot dead. It ended at Arbour Hill cemetery, where they are buried.
Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams addressed the Lost Leaders march and the party asked participants to come in period dress.
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness also attended.
The 1916 Easter Rising was an ill-fated, six-day rebellion against British rule in Ireland but many historians view it as the event that transformed Irish republicanism, and led to the eventual creation of an independent Republic of Ireland.
More than 480 people were killed during the Easter Rising, over half of them civilians.
Read more on the 1916 Easter Rising
Addressing the crowd at Arbour Hill cemetery, Mr Adams paid tribute to the 1916 rebels, saying "a few hundred poorly equipped Irish men and women took on the might of the largest empire the world had ever seen".
He said the 1916 proclamation of independence "remains the mission statement for Irish republicans today".
The Sinn Féin leader said the centenary of the Easter Rising was "an historic opportunity to look realistically towards ending partition and sectarianism and division" and to "see how we can make the united, independent Ireland envisaged in 1916 a reality".
Mr Adams added that a united Ireland "means the unity of the people of this island, including those who see themselves as British".
"That is why Irish governments must pursue every avenue to promote all-Ireland co-operation and to build relationships between all our people," he said.
"This must include genuine efforts to outreach to the unionists on the basis of equality."
Friday's march included re-enactments performed by members of the Cabra Historical Society.
Relatives of the 1916 rebel leaders and a number of marching bands were also invited.
The event took place ahead of the main government-organised commemorations this weekend.
The main focus of the official events will be a military parade - the largest in the history of the Republic of Ireland - which will will pass through the streets of the Irish capital on Sunday. | Several thousand people have marched in Dublin to commemorate 1916 Easter Rising leaders, who were executed by British troops after the rebellion. |
38,176,693 | The letter was co-ordinated by the National Farmers Union (NFU).
It was also signed by 70 of the UK's largest food producers and grocers.
Other local signatories include Dunbia, Foyle Food Group, Linden Food Group and Mash Direct.
The companies said that as Britain's largest manufacturing sector, food production should be put "at the centre of negotiations".
The EU contributes about £250m a year to farmers in Northern Ireland.
In June, the UK voted to leave the EU although Northern Ireland voted to remain by a majority of 56% to 44%. | The Ulster Farmers Union has signed a letter to the prime minister that calls for continued access to the single market and European workers post-Brexit. |
34,639,616 | Nick Earl met rescuers and told them that despite being left temporarily paralysed and in extreme pain, he could see and hear what was happening.
The storm on Cribyn killed his friend Robin Meakings, while another walker, Jeremy Prescott, died in a separate strike a mile away on Corn Du.
Mr Earl met members of the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team who helped him.
He visited the scene on Saturday for the first time since the incident left him with difficulty walking after the lightning struck him and left an exit wound in his foot.
"I think he wanted to come back to the scene and try and piece together what happened," said deputy team leader Mark Jones.
"He suffered some memory loss and wanted to get it straight in his head and talk to the doctor who treated him."
Mr Earl, 58, from Surrey, had walked extensively in the area and at the time of the strike had been with Mr Meakings and another friend, who did not feel ready to return with him.
He met Dr Robert Powell and Richard Starke, who had attempted to resuscitate two casualties and treated Mr Earl during a rescue flight from the mountain to hospital. | A survivor of a lightning strike which killed one of his friends returned to the scene in the Brecon Beacons. |
36,629,252 | 25 June 2016 Last updated at 17:59 BST
Dancers and performers, including "the singing jeweller" put on a show in Rochdale for visitors to the newly revealed crossing over the River Roch.
Built in the 14th Century and concreted over in 1904 when the tram network expanded, the historic bridge has re-opened to pedestrians after a £5m project. | A celebration has marked the re-opening of a medieval bridge that was hidden from view for more than a century. |
17,893,340 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The 64-year-old West Brom boss has coached 18 sides in eight different countries, mainly in Europe.
So, how is he viewed across the continent?
Here we talk to former players and a top pundit to canvas opinion from four of his former haunts - Sweden, Switzerland, Finland and Italy.
Overview: Two league titles with Halmstad. Five with Malmo.
Full Hodgson factfile
Hodgson topped the table five years running during his time with Malmo in the late 1980s, and it was his dedication and enthusiasm which marked him out.
"His commitment in training was unbelievable, taking part and showing what to do in the sessions. If you show commitment, you win the locker room and the team," says former Swedish captain Patrik Andersson,who played under him at Malmo.
He said some of the club foundations laid by Hodgson helped the Swedish national side, which went on to finish third at the 1994 World Cup.
"His passion about the game was important to get the team together. Getting along with the players was one of his strengths," said Andersson, who was capped 96 times.
"He was always encouraging and always in front of the team, which is very important. He took the pressure from the players."
Andersson, who played for Blackburn in the 1992-93 season, said he could see why England would turn to his former Malmo boss, but he faces a tricky challenge in a Euro 2012 group alongside Sweden, France and Ukraine.
"I'm not surprised because he has been on the international scene since the late 80s and has done well with Fulham and West Brom. He knows the English scene, the pressure and the players and he has developed his leadership over the years," said the former defender.
"France, Sweden and England can all beat each other if they have a good day, so for me it's an open group.
"He has a great reputation here, but we have played so many games against each other, there will be no surprises."
Overview: Guided national side to last 16 of the 1994 World Cup finals and secured their qualification for Euro 96.
Hodgson took his first international post in 1992 after impressing in the country's domestic competition with Neuchatel Xamax.
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"We didn't qualify for a World Cup for nearly 30 years and he did that in 1994. He put Swiss football on the map and thereon is history," said former Swiss defender Ramon Vega.
The ex-Tottenham centre-back said his Swiss experience will help Hodgson with England, whose only major tournament victory remains the 1966 World Cup.
"In what way is it different to the Swiss job? What have the FA and the England team achieved since 1966?" he said.
"He's the only English manager at the moment proven to do something internationally and he's done it in the Premier League and he's a true English gentleman on top of that.
"He's an English manager who had the courage to go abroad, learn the language and culture and come back and prove himself as well."
Vega, who played 23 times for his country, believes Hodgson can handle the pressure from fans and the media.
"The beauty about this is he's managed Inter Milan, where there are major stars with major egos, and enormous pressure. England has the pressure too but the image of the England national team is not the best.
"I think what is needed now is to go back to basics and Roy Hodgson fits the bill to do that. He will focus on the sports side and that's what's needed."
Overview: Uefa Cup runner-up in 1997 during first of two spells at Inter Milan. Later had four months in charge at Udinese.
Hodgson is remembered in Italy as a competent, if unspectacular, coach.
"He was at Inter at a time when they were free-spending and under-achieving," says Italian football expert Gabriele Marcotti.
"He was one of a long line of managers who came in and tried to fix it but wasn't able to, probably because the club itself was dysfunctional. He wasn't great, but he wasn't terrible.
"Some people still talk about his decision to sell Roberto Carlos, who went on to become one of the best left-backs in the world, but it's easy to pick out errors of judgement like that and it may not have been his decision alone."
At Inter, Hodgson questioned the defensive qualities of Roberto Carlos, who later won the Champions League three times with Real Madrid
In his first spell at Inter, the side lost to German club Schalke on penalties in the Uefa Cup final. He returned two years later for a short stint as technical director.
"He was a good man-manager and a safe pair of hands, which is why he came back to Inter for a second time in a crisis situation," said Marcotti.
"People liked him, he was a gentleman but he wasn't considered a huge loss to Italian football.
"Personally, my reservations would be about his ability to judge players from a distance. At Fulham, with the exception of Brede Hangeland, they were mainly players he'd inherited. It was almost like they did well despite his signings."
Overview: Finland failed by just three points to qualify for Euro 2008, which would have been their first appearance at a major tournament.
Attention to detail and organisation were hallmarks of his time in charge, said former striker Jonatan Johansson.
"He rejuvenated my career. I was in and out of the team and under him, I mostly started," he said.
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"We had a very hard group with Portugal and Poland. He came and organised the team and we had a really good campaign under him. It's the closest we have been to qualifying for a tournament.
"He knows football, how to win games and pick up points. We had a limited squad, but he did a fantastic job.
"He's quite thorough, a very hands-on manager. Everybody has to defend as a team, even the strikers. I think we were the team with the fewest goals conceded in the qualifiers. With a team like England, I'm sure he's going to make them very hard to beat."
Johansson, who was capped 105 times and played for British clubs including Rangers and Charlton, said Hodgson was meticulous in his preparation.
"He was very good at analysing the opposition and knowing how to play against them. That will be a massive strength, particularly now as there is not much time to the Euros," said Johansson, who will manage the reserve side at Scottish club Greenock Morton next season.
"There was a lot of video analysis and going through strengths and weaknesses. He's very good at picking the right players in the right positions and making it work.
"He's strong and disciplined. He was very fair to everybody and has a good presence about him - someone you naturally respect. He's pretty calm, composed, intelligent and well spoken but I have seen him shout and get angry. He can be quite fiery.
"When I went on the pitch I knew what he wanted me to do and that always gives players confidence." | Roy Hodgson's experience over 36 years helped put him in prime position for the England manager's job. |
34,379,029 | Linda Carson was walking her dog on Muirhouse Road, in the Muirhouse area of Motherwell, when she was struck by a silver Ford Mondeo at 20:12 on Sunday.
Emergency services attended but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said inquiries into the crash were continuing and appealed for anyone who saw the incident or was in the area at the time to get in touch. | A 44-year-old woman has died after she was hit by a car which is believed to have mounted the pavement. |
34,916,543 | Finer points tend to be the most significant when a radical plan is being pursued and there are various factors to be considered while the idea is being assessed.
There will be various stages of permission to be overcome, beginning with the rest of the top-flight clubs, but more significantly concerning all of the game's governing bodies.
The idea ought to be fully explored, though, since a lack of innovative thinking has been a long-standing criticism of the executives in charge of Scottish football.
Financial gain has to be paramount. Commercial staff will bristle with opportunism, since an individual event can attract bespoke sponsorship and other revenue streams.
Television rights would need to be negotiated, since the Scottish Professional Football League already has deals in place with broadcasters for live and highlights packages. Even so, there would be a considerable domestic audience for a game played abroad and agreement could surely be reached.
The level of income is important since all SPFL deals are based on collective bargaining. Any money raised would be split between the 12 top-flight sides, which is a significant point since accommodating the fixture would require a rule change and so the support of other Premiership clubs in a vote.
Many chairmen would be torn between tradition and the prospect of additional revenue, but the latter is precious in the current environment of Scottish football.
Marketing worth can be overstated, since Celtic and Rangers have consistently sought to monetise the Irish and Scottish diaspora across the globe without making huge and regular financial gains. Several English Premier League clubs have tried to make inroads in other markets, too, including North America and the Far East.
Some reach can be established, but traditional markets remain more reliable and lucrative. Celtic can draw significant crowds in parts of the United States, playing in front of 34,018 when they faced Real Madrid at Philadelphia's Lincoln Field in 2012 and before 55,421 when they met Manchester United at the same stadium in 2004.
That element of the club's fanbase may be protected by regular visits, since affection for the club needs to be passed from generation to generation, but there is an argument that high-profile friendlies are more attractive than a regular domestic fixture, even if it is a competitive match.
Scottish football would be breaking new ground, though, since football fixtures are seldom played abroad. The Italian Supercopa has regularly been played outside Italy, in Washington in 1993, Tripoli in 2002, New York in 2003, Beijing in 2009, 2011 and 2012, Doha in 2014 and Shanghai in 2015.
However, that is essentially a friendly, between the winners of the previous season's Serie A and Coppa Italia winners. The game has not always been financially successful and has occasionally been dogged by poor event management, while Italian football in general has continued to fall behind the global reach of the German and English top-flights.
The innovative nature of Scottish football playing a competitive league match abroad would generate widespread interest that could be taken advantage of.
There are logistical challenges to overcome. Even if enough Scottish clubs voted in favour, the fixture would need the approval of the Scottish Football Association, the United States Soccer Federation, Uefa and Fifa. Any one of the governing bodies could scupper the plan and there has generally been a view that geographical boundaries should not be breached.
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The costs involved would need to be met by the income and would involve providing travel and accommodation for match officials as well as the teams. The integrity of the competitive nature of the game would need to be protected, since it would still be part of the regular calendar of top-flight matches.
Fans of both clubs would also be disadvantaged, since few would have the means to travel for the game. Season-ticket prices, for instance, would need to take that into account. There will always be a tension between meeting the needs and wants of long-standing communities of fans against trying to grow the brand and reach of teams abroad.
Although Celtic can be sure of the extent of their following in pockets of the US, other matches involving high-profile teams have not fared well. When Inter Milan played Roma in the International Champions Cup at Lincoln Fields, the crowd was only 12,169.
The date of the match would need to be carefully chose to avoid clashing with other major US sporting events but also to limit the impact of the travel on the two competing sides in the domestic fixtures that immediately follow a trip to North America.
When England's Premier League considered the 39th game - an additional round of fixtures involving all of the top-flight clubs to be played in cities that bid for the right to host the games - the idea eventually ran out of enthusiasm.
There was little encouragement from the governing bodies, while many clubs and individuals within the game felt that playing the games abroad would undermine the credibility of the Premier League.
Scottish football needs to be more innovative, since it cannot rely on the broadcast income of the English top flight, but there are similar concerns to be addressed about the reputation of the Scottish game.
Some clubs may feel that the only two sides that could realistically gain substantially from the endeavour would be reigning Premiership champions Celtic and Championship leaders Rangers, since they already have established fan-bases in the US and Canada.
Accommodations are already made for sides wishing to play lucrative friendlies. SPFL rules allow each club to request one weekend off each season. Only Celtic and Rangers tend to have the drawing power to make that work for them. | The detail has still to be pored over if the prospect of Dundee facing Celtic in a Scottish Premiership fixture in the United States is to become a reality. |
32,973,985 | The party is choosing a new UK leader after the resignation of Ed Miliband.
But Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews tweeted on Monday night: "I really don't care who English Labour choose #federallabournow."
He argued in a 2013 lecture that Labour was already "de facto" a federal party, with separate leaders in Wales and Scotland.
In an article for the Guardian last week, the Rhondda AM wrote: "Just what, after 7 May, does British Labour amount to?
"No one could have done more than Jim Murphy to raise Labour's fortunes in Scotland, but we were cuffed resoundingly there. In southern England outside London we barely have a seat, and in northern England, UKIP is eyeing up its chances.
"As [former cabinet minister] John Denham has argued, Labour in England needs its own identity.
"Is there space for a three-nations Labour in a federal British party? Time will tell." | A Welsh Labour minister has called for the party to adopt a federal structure following its general election defeat. |
34,128,128 | Herbert Thorn, 89, of Saxonford Road, Christchurch, was a passenger in a car and died following the collision on Sunday on the A35 at Hinton.
The crash between a Ford Fiesta and Honda Civic happened at 14:30 BST and five people were taken to hospital.
Mr Thorn, who lived in the Christchurch area for more than 40 years, is survived by his wife and two sons. | A man who died in hospital after a crash which left four others hurt has been named. |
40,788,331 | The LuMee smartphone case, which is promoted by Kimisaprincess Inc, comes with an integrated light to help users take the perfect selfie.
But now a man called Hooshmand Harooni has claimed in a $100m (£75m) lawsuit that the idea was copied from him.
He says he patented an "integrated lighting accessory and case for a mobile phone device" in 2013, which he licensed to a company called Snaplight.
Mr Harooni's patent infringement lawsuit reportedly claims Snaplight's profits have suffered as a result of the LuMee case and Kardashian's promotion of it.
Kardashian receives a cut of LuMee's profits, according to the court documents.
In a statement, Snaplight's founder Bardia Rahim said LuMee "created doubt in our technological and operational integrity" by launching the product.
"It's illegal to try and monopolise the market, but more than that, it's un-American to do it when you're being deceptive and unethical the entire time," he added.
A representative for Kardashian said: "The patent lawsuit filed by Snaplight has no merit and is just another attempted shakedown. Kim has done absolutely nothing wrong."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Kim Kardashian West's company is being sued over a selfie case. |
38,655,102 | Manchester City were charged last week for failing to ensure anti-doping officials knew where players were for testing.
The Premier League club face a potential fine, but Minichiello feels punishments should be harsher.
"Football isn't testing to the same level as athletics," he said.
In response to Minichiello's comments, the Football Association said it operates "one of the most comprehensive national anti-doping testing programmes in the world", adding that 3,200 tests will have been completed by the end of the current season.
Testing is carried out across first teams, reserve teams, under-21 teams and youth teams for Premier League and Football League clubs as well as Women's Super League 1 and 2 teams.
Players who miss a test receive a "strike". Three strikes in a rolling 12-month period result in a disciplinary charge and a possible two-year ban.
However, Minichiello does not believe individuals are being tested often enough for that to be an effective deterrent.
"Let's say a club have 30 players, that is only about two players a month being tested," he added.
"The testing programme doesn't go on for 12 months according to the Football Association, so it would take you more than a year to test everybody at least once at the club.
"Jessica Ennis-Hill was tested between 12 and 15 times a year. And that's a combination of whereabouts, in-competition and out of competition testing."
Minichiello suggested that footballers need to be monitored more closely in the months after a season ends and before a new one starts.
They can still be tested at any point during this time, but clubs only need to provide residency information for their players.
"In athletics, you always have to be available, even in the off-season, for that one hour a day," added Minichiello. "If you go on holiday, you have to put down the address of the hotel.
"For football to be able to just give [a player's] residential address - yet they could spend two months abroad somewhere - seems unusual to me, and ought to be something that actually the FA tighten up on." | Football is not doing enough to deter potential drug cheats, says Toni Minichiello, former coach of Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill. |
36,237,658 | The change of tack came after strong opposition from some Conservative MPs and councillors.
Many of you got in touch to give us your views on the subject. Here are three of the responses we received.
Jenny Brown, 62 was a primary school teacher in Brent, north London, until 2014.
"The education White Paper in reverse is a victory for children and primary schools.
"I was the nursery teacher in a good primary school with outstanding features in Early Years. Although this was our judgement in 2013, a year later we were judged to be 'inadequate' and the head teacher and governors were removed. The confusion and bad management that followed was awful to work with. I have not yet returned to class teaching for fear of walking into a similar experience of forced academisation.
"This is a kind of school destruction, not school improvement.
"Even if it were possible to find a multi-academy trust that is better than the rest, we will have no way of knowing it would stay this way.
"The reverse gear that Nicky Morgan found will need to continue reversing so that we can return to teaching and valuing each pupil as a human child and not a commodity. An end to forced academisation for all schools does feel like a victory. Nevertheless, parents, teachers, head teachers and support staff know this is not yet celebration time."
Julie Simpson, 54, is the principal of the Saint Barnabas Multi-Academy Trust in south-east Cornwall. The trust is made up of six primary schools in the region.
"The conversion to an academy trust was for a financial reason. We felt our schools were valuable in their locations and we felt we needed to sustain that.
"It's been a really positive experience, and it's been beneficial to us and particularly to the children. The model we have isn't going to suit everybody.
"What makes a school is strong and effective leadership and good teachers. There are some very strong, good or outstanding primary schools which are financially sustainable with the models that they have got. There's no reason they should have to convert to academies. There's no reason at all.
"I am very pleased the government has given the choice back to the leaders of successful and effective schools.
"I think this shows the government is willing to listen to the voice of the profession and its own MPs and to make the changes when necessary."
David Soulsby, 78, has been a governor for 14 years at the rural Alfriston Primary School in East Sussex.
"I'm pleased that the government has climbed down.
"My concern is there is no clear evidence whatsoever that conversion to an academy drives up standards. If there is any such evidence, why has the government not quoted it?
"One of the conditions remaining in the government's changed policy is that if so many of a local authority's schools have converted to academies that the local authority can no longer support them, those too can be forced to convert. If a local authority can't provide for schools, that school will have academisation forced on them."
"When are they actually going to devolve things and stop grabbing things for themselves?"
Interviewed and written by Daniel Avis | Education Secretary Nicky Morgan announced on Friday the government has scrapped plans to turn all state schools in England into academies. |
36,898,645 | Imre Marton, from Oxford, received threats and hundreds of Facebook messages from 22-year-old Charlie Howells, from Wantage in Oxfordshire.
She was jailed for two years in April but is due to be released in August.
Mr Marton said Howells told him: "I will make you ugly so no one else will want to be with you."
He said: "Everybody was laughing about it, it was just a joke. They thought I should feel lucky because I had a girl following me around in love. But this is just a terrible feeling.
"She knew where I worked, what I did in my free time, where I lived, she went to my house a couple of times. All the time, I had to look over my shoulders because she could be there."
Howells bombarded Mr Marton with love notes and rode his route for hours on end after learning his timetable off by heart.
She was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court to two months in jail for harassment and for two years for breaching a restraining order.
Mr Marton said: "She's locked up but she'll be out soon. The police are fitting my house with panic buttons. It's so crazy, I just want to run away.
"But if I press the panic button and there's a knife in my stomach, what good is that? I'm not bulletproof.
"It is difficult to prove and speak out, slowly it's killing you but you have to make some moves. You can't give up, that's my message to other victims."
Det Insp Ivan Reaney said victims of stalking are "strongly advised" to report it to the police.
He added: " In many cases, the conduct of the stalker might appear innocent, but, when carried out repeatedly and is unwanted, it may cause significant alarm, harassment or distress to the victim."
Prisoners serving determinate sentences are released automatically halfway through their terms, and some can qualify for earlier release depending on their behaviour in prison. | A bus driver who was stalked by a woman for three years is having panic buttons fitted in his home ahead of her release from prison. |
34,886,571 | Chancellor George Osborne will confirm the increase to £119.30 a week from April 2016 in next week's Spending Review.
The 2.9% rise will be worth an extra £174.20 a year to someone on a full basic state pension.
Pensions minister Ros Altmann said pensioners had "done their best for society, worked hard, and we owe them".
The Treasury also said in a statement that the government was meeting "its pledge to help to deliver security for older people as savings are made in other budgets".
A triple-lock pledge on pensions - a government promise for the next five years - means the state pension rises each April to match the highest of inflation, earnings, or 2.5%.
This latest increase will take total spending on the state pension to £95bn next year.
From April 2016 the full basic state pension will be worth around £1,125 a year more in cash terms than in 2010, a figure that will rise to at least £1,770 by the end of this parliament.
Baroness Altmann said: "Over the last quarter of a century, pensioners have fallen below the rest of society as average earnings have done so much better than the increases in the state pension.
"Since 2010, we have really begun to correct that.
'We are now back to the highest level for a quarter of a century - and quite right too. Pensioners deserve to be treated much better than they have been in the past and to have security in retirement." | The basic state pension is set for its biggest rise in real terms since 2001, the Treasury has said. |
38,101,790 | Real Madrid's Bale, 27, will have ankle surgery on Tuesday and is expected to be out for four months.
However, Coleman said: "I'm hoping it's going to be more like three months.
"He's an absolute machine and physically he's an absolute specimen. We'll know a little bit more probably next week or the week after."
Bale hobbled out of Tuesday's 2-1 Champions League win at Sporting Lisbon with what has been diagnosed as a "traumatic dislocation of the peroneal tendons" in his right ankle.
Wales are third in Group D, four points adrift of leaders the Republic, who they face at Dublin's Aviva Stadium on 24 March.
Bale has scored four times in Wales' opening four qualifiers and is now second to Ian Rush on his country's all-time goalscoring list with 26 goals. | Wales manager Chris Coleman is optimistic injured forward Gareth Bale will be fit for the World Cup qualifier in the Republic of Ireland in March. |
35,143,563 | Player-coach Derrick Walser put the Giants ahead and after Jacob Johnston levelled, the Giants then notched four unanswered goals in Scotland.
Kris Beech, James Desmarais, Darryl Lloyd and Mike Radja were on target as they Giants moved into their 5-1 lead.
David Rutherford replied before further Mike Forney and Beech goals.
The sides will meet again in the Scottish capital on Sunday evening with a 17:30 GMT face off.
On Saturday, Walser opened the scoring in the third minute and while Johnston levelled two minutes later, Beech's first goal restored Belfast's lead seconds before the end of the first period.
Further strikes from Desmarais and Lloyd increased the Giants advantage to 4-1 by the end of the second period before Radja fired in Belfast's fifth goal.
Rutherford cut Belfast's lead to 5-2 in the 45th minute but Forney and Beech added further final-period Giants goals. | Belfast Giants got their series of festive fixtures off to a winning start as they earned a comprehensive 7-2 Elite League win over Edinburgh. |
17,601,579 | 14-15th centuries - Principality of Moldova stretches roughly between Carpathian mountains and Dniester river.
16th - early 19th century - Moldovan territory disputed by several powers with the Ottoman Empire and Russia as the main rivals. Numerous wars.
1812 - Treaty of Bucharest grants Russia control of eastern Moldova or Bessarabia, the area between the River Prut and the west bank of the Dniester. The Ottoman Empire gains control of western Moldova.
1878 - Ottomans recognise independence of Romanian state including western Moldova.
1918 - Following the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, Bessarabia declares independence. Its parliament calls for union with Romania.
1920 - Treaty of Paris recognises union of Bessarabia with Romania. The Bolsheviks do not.
1924 - Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic established east of the Dniester river within Ukraine.
1939 - Romania carved up in pact between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's USSR. Bessarabia is one of the areas to go to the USSR.
1940 - Russia annexes Bessarabia and combines it with most of the Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to form Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
1941-1945 - Following Nazi attack on USSR a Romanian puppet regime is installed in Moldavian SSR but driven out shortly before the end of the war when the Soviet Union regains control.
Late 1980s - Resurgence of Moldovan nationalism in the wake of the era of 'openness' introduced in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Gorbachev.
1989 - Romanian is reinstated as the official language. The Latin script is adopted to replace the Cyrillic script (Russian).
1990 - Moldova declares its sovereignty.
The Gagauz people in the southwest declare their independence, followed by the Trans-Dniester region. The central power in Moldova annuls the declarations.
1991 - Moldova declares its independence. It joins the Commonwealth of Independent States, the successor to the Soviet Union.
1992 - Moldova becomes a member of the United Nations.
An upsurge in fighting in the Trans-Dniester region leads to a state of emergency being re-imposed. Hundreds die in the fighting. Russian peacekeepers are deployed after a ceasefire agreement.
1993 - The leu is introduced to replace the rouble.
1994 - A new constitution proclaims Moldova's neutrality, grants special autonomy status to Trans-Dniester and the Gagauz region, and declares Moldovan to be the official language.
1996 - Petru Lucinschi elected president.
1997 - Negotiations resumed with Trans-Dniester. Agreement is signed granting further autonomy and calling for more talks.
1998 - Elections see communists emerging as biggest party, but a centrist, reform-minded coalition forms the government.
1999 - OSCE summit in Istanbul sets end of 2002 as deadline for withdrawal of Russian troops and ammunition from Trans-Dniester, despite opposition of authorities there.
2000 - Moldovan parliament fails to agree on a successor to President Lucinschi. Parliament is dissolved and early elections are called for February 2001.
2001 February - The elections see the communists under Vladimir Voronin win just over 50% of the vote. Voronin is elected president in April.
2001 April - Parliament dismisses the heads of state radio and TV in a move which critics say consolidates the Communists' hold on society.
2001 December - Trans-Dniester authorities halt withdrawal of Russian arms which had been proceeding in accordance with international agreements.
2002 January - Announcement of plans to make Russian an official language and compulsory in schools sparks months of mass protests which end only when the scheme is shelved.
2002 September - Trans-Dniester authorities agree to allow resumption of Russian withdrawal in exchange for a Russian promise to cut gas debts.
2002 December - OSCE extends deadline for withdrawal of Russian weapons from Trans-Dniester until end of 2003. The deadline is later extended into 2004. Russia says its troops will stay until a settlement is reached.
2003 November - President Voronin pulls out of signing Russian-proposed deal on Trans-Dniester settlement following protests by nationalists who say it gives too much influence to Russia.
2004 July - Dispute over closures of Moldovan-language schools in Trans-Dniester using Latin rather than Cyrillic script. Moldova imposes economic sanctions on region and pulls out of talks on its status.
2004 October - Defence Minister Gaiciuc dismissed in row over thefts from arms depots.
2005 March-April - Communist Party tops poll in parliamentary elections. Vladimir Voronin begins second term as president.
2005 June - Parliament backs a Ukrainian plan for Trans-Dniester region autonomy within Moldova, calls on Russia to withdraw troops by end of year.
2006 January - Russian gas giant Gazprom cuts off supplies when Moldova refuses to pay twice the previous price. A temporary compromise is reached as talks continue.
2006 March - Trans-Dniester leadership reacts angrily to new regulations requiring goods entering Ukraine from Dniester to have Moldovan customs stamp. Moldova says the rules, backed by the EU, US and OSCE, aim to stop smuggling.
Moldova protests against a Russian decision to temporarily suspend imports of Moldovan wine on health grounds, saying the move is politically motivated.
2006 July - Eight die and several dozen are injured as minibus explodes in Dniester.
2006 September - Trans-Dniester referendum VOTE overwhelmingly backs independence from Moldova and a plan eventually to become part of Russia.
2007 March - Government accuses Romania of undermining the country by easing Romanian citizenship application procedures for Moldovans. Romanian citizenship allows Moldovans to travel without visas within the EU. Government reverses decision to allow Romania to open two new consulates in Moldova.
2008 March - Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev resigns, saying the country needs a government with more public appeal. President Voronin nominates deputy prime minister Zinaida Greceanii, another Communist, as Moldova's first woman premier.
2008 April - President Vladimir Voronin and Dniester leader Igor Smirnov meet for the first time in seven years; agree on the need to restart peace talks which broke down in 2001.
2009 January - Russian-Ukrainian dispute over gas prices leaves Moldova without supplies for several weeks, and Moldovans in several towns without any heating.
2009 April - Ruling Communists declared winners of disputed election. Result triggers violent protests and political deadlock.
2009 May - Communist MPs elect outgoing President Voronin as parliament speaker.
2009 July - New parliamentary polls. Communists lose their majority.
2009 August - Mr Voronin resigns as speaker, and is succeeded by Liberal Party leader Mihai Ghimpu.
2009 September - Four pro-western parties form coalition government. Liberal Democratic Party leader Vlad Filat becomes prime minister. Mr Voronin resigns as president, and is succeeded by Mr Ghimpu on an acting basis.
2009 December - Opposition Communist MPs refuse to back the governing coalition's candidate for the presidency.
2010 March - Constitutional Court orders fresh parliamentary election to be held in bid to end deadlock over parliament's failure to elect president.
2010 September - Referendum to introduce direct election of president by people fails on account of low turnout. The referendum was proposed by the pro-Western liberal governing coalition in a bid to break Moldova's political impasse.
2010 November - Third parliamentary election in less than two years. The ruling pro-Western coalition wins, but again fails to secure enough seats to enable it to appoint a new president.
2010 December - Marian Lupu, a former rising star on the liberal wing of the Communist Party who switched to the Democratic Party in 2009, takes over as acting president.
2011 December - Anti-corruption campaigner Yevgeny Shevchuk defeats pro-Russian candidates in Trans-Dniester's presidential election. Pledges to establish "friendly relations" with Moldova while continuing to press for the independence of the separatist region.
The Moldovan parliament again fails to elect a president.
2012 March - Nicolae Timofti elected president, ending years of failure to agree.
2012 November - Moscow issues an ultimatum telling Moldova to withdraw from energy agreements with the EU or face losing discounts on gas supplies from Russia.
2013 January - Mysterious fatal wounding of businessman Sorin Paciu on a hunting trip sparks a political scandal and tension within the ruling coalition when anti-corruption campaigners accuse the prosecutor-general of involvement in Mr Paciu's death.
2013 February - Prime Minister Vlad Filat's Liberal Democratic Party says it is pulling out of the governing alliance in power since 2009 and calls for a new coalition deal.
2013 March - Prime Minister Vlad Filat's government resigns following a no-confidence vote in parliament.
2013 April - Iurie Leanca is appointed acting prime minister. He is formally designated as prime minister in May and forms a new government.
2013 September - Russia bans import of Moldovan wines and spirits, saying they contain impurities. The move is seen as being taken in retaliation for Moldova's moves to forge closer ties with the European Union.
2013 November - Moldova initials an Association Agreement with the EU, which says that the move paves the way to establishing a privileged trade relationship with the country. The agreement is due to be signed in September 2014.
2014 March - President Timofti warns Russia against trying to annex Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region in the same way as it has taken control of Ukraine's Crimea.
2014 June - Moldova signs association agreement with the European Union, prompting Russia to impose import restrictions on the country's agricultural produce.
2014 November - Pro-EU parties retain their majority in parliamentary elections, although the strongly pro-Russian Socialists become the largest single party, eclipsing the Communists. National Bank uncovers official inaction over embezzlement of $1bn - about 12.5% of annual GDP - from the banking system, prompting a major political crisis and credit crunch.
2015 February - Parliament approves a minority pro-European government led by businessman Chiril Gaburici as prime minister, which falls in June over the banking scandal and questions about the prime minister's university degree.
2015 July - Valeriu Strelet is chosen as prime minister by a new pro-European majority coalition, only to be dismissed in October amid mass protests over the banking scandal.
2015 September - Former prime minister Vlad Filat is arrested on corruption charges, including the 2014 banking case.
2016 January - Pavel Filip of the pro-European-Union Democratic Party forms a new coalition. Pro-European and pro-Russian activists storm parliament to protest at his ties to controversial businessman and fellow Democratic Party luminary Vlad Plahotniuc.
2016 January - Thousands of anti-government protesters demonstrate in the capital Chisnau demanding early elections.
2016 March - Moldova's constitutional court rules that presidential elections will be decided by popular vote and not by parliament.
2016 April - Moldova sets its presidential election for 30 October, the first time a new head of state will be appointed by popular vote since 2001.
2016 November - Pro-Russian candidate Igor Dodon beats pro-European candidate Maia Sandu to win the presidential election. | A chronology of key events: |
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