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31,653,274 | Alexander Mullings, 23, was jailed for life for conspiring to possess firearms with intent to endanger life.
His girlfriend Emily Ciantar, 20, was found guilty of the same charge and was jailed for 12 years and four months.
Mullings smuggled the guns into the UK from his cell in Wandsworth Prison, Luton Crown Court heard.
Spencer Inglis, 24, of Mitcham, south London, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for possessing a prohibited weapon.
Judge David Farrell QC called for an inquiry into security arrangements at HMP Wandsworth.
Five of the guns, which are similar to a weapon reportedly used by one of the terrorists behind the Paris attacks, are unaccounted for and could be in the hands of criminals, the court heard.
Ringleader Alexander Mullings, originally from Islington, north London, secretly smuggled the weapons into the country from Germany using delivery firm Parcelforce.
Ciantar, from Holloway, north London, acted as a courier while co-defendant Spencer Inglis took delivery of one of the guns.
The first gun was delivered to the Mitcham address of Inglis, 24, on 12 April.
All three were found guilty at the Old Bailey in January.
Mullings, 23, who is originally from Islington, was serving a sentence for a series of robberies, at the time he used a mobile phone to arrange the importation.
The judge told him: "It is a scandal that the security at Wandsworth was so wholly inadequate that you were able to do so."
Sentencing them, the judge said: "Each of you played a part in what was a well organised and precisely executed criminal enterprise to import machine pistols and the ammunition for them." | A judge has condemned as "a scandal" the prison security that allowed an inmate to import at least eight Skorpion submachine guns into Britain. |
22,370,940 | Labour made 21 gains in Thursday's poll, taking their number of seats to 24, with the Tories now having 34.
UKIP lost one seat and now has two, as do the Independents. The Liberal Democrats lost all four of their seats.
The council's leader, Conservative Philip Atkins, held his seat in the Uttoxeter Rural ward. All 62 seats were contested at the council.
In Stafford, Labour gained three from the Tories. Five were gained by Labour in Cannock Chase, four from the Tories and one from the Liberal Democrats.
By Phil McCannBBC Radio Stoke's political reporter
This has been a strong election for Labour but not strong enough.
They would have had a huge job on their hands to take control.
It would have meant going from three councillors to at least 32. But, they have been helped and the Tories have been hurt by UKIP.
People told the main party candidates on the doorsteps that they agreed with UKIP's stance on opposing immigration from Eastern Europe and opposing the new high-speed rail line that will go through the Staffordshire countryside.
But UKIP didn't get enough votes to help themselves, ending up with one fewer seat.
In Tamworth, Labour won three seats, with an independent winning another. The Conservatives held on to two of their seats but lost three.
Six members of the Tory group held on to their seats in South Staffordshire.
Staffordshire Moorlands was also held by the party, despite two Labour gains.
One of those gains was the seat of the Liberal Democrat party leader on Staffordshire County Council, Christina Jebb.
She had previously held the Biddulph South and Endon seat since 1989.
BBC Radio Stoke reporter Ros Chimes said "she looked like she was in tears" after hearing the result.
In Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Labour won five seats, UKIP won one and the Conservatives held two.
Councillor Derek Davis, leader of the Labour group in Cannock, said overnight that if local results reflected those coming through nationally, he predicted a hung council.
He put Labour's gains down to voters' concerns about the future of the hospitals in Cannock and Stafford, and the number of people voting for UKIP.
The Conservative MP for Cannock Chase, Aiden Burley, also earlier said he believed UKIP gains across England was "the real story of tonight".
"They've come from absolutely nowhere in this district to really taking huge numbers of votes from both the Conservatives and Labour," he said.
The results can be found on the BBC website. | The Conservatives have maintained control of Staffordshire County Council. |
36,856,168 | It's the one Qandeel Baloch rented for her parents. And this is where she died.
Inside, the walls are faded, the furniture is scarce. An old, disabled man is sobbing uncontrollably.
Qandeel's father Muhammad Azeem is grieving the death of his favourite daughter, allegedly at the hands of his own son, in the name of honour.
His wife sits on a day bed nearby. One moment she seems to sleeps as if to forget, the next she stares into space.
This is the household of the late social media sensation Qandeel Baloch, who's real name was Fozia Azeem. She was a kind of "agent provocateur" of Pakistani culture and society where religiously and culturally justified conservatism still rules.
She made a name for herself with outspoken social media posts and suggestive photos. She attracted public scrutiny and often fury, dished out with almost reckless abandon.
But her home life paints a picture of a much deeper personal struggle, a long journey from a life of poverty towards the path she carved out for herself.
How the murder reflects a divided country
The threats and abuse outspoken Pakistani women receive
Pakistan honour killings on the rise, report reveals
"We come from a very poor background," says her mother Anwar Bibi,
"We lived in a small village in Dera Ghazi Khan. Qandeel's father was in an accident and lost his foot. She brought us here, to the city, so he could get medical treatment, so we could live better."
Now her father spends his days hobbling from one police station to another on crutches, trying to seek punishment for his son for the murder of his daughter.
"She used to financially support everyone," he says, "When she sent money, they would all come running. Now when Waseem tries to see me at the police station, I don't even want to see his face. How could he kill his own sister so brutally?"
Qandeel's parents tell me their son Waseem was not living with them but he came to stay on a pretext when he heard Qandeel would be at home during the Eid holidays.
They say he put sedatives into their bed time milk so they would never know about their daughter's last moments.
Azeem's wrinkled hands tremble and jerk as his imagination takes hold of him.
"She must have cried out. She must have called her mother, she must have called out to her father, and we were sleeping like the dead", he says, beginning to cry. "Do you think we don't live with the pain?"
"I believe I am a modern day feminist. I believe in equality. I need not to choose what type of women should be. I don't think there is any need to label ourselves just for sake of society. I am just a women with free thoughts free mindset and I LOVE THE WAY I AM." (Facebook, 14 July)
Love me or hate me both are in my favour. If you love me I Will always be in your heart, if you hate me I'll always be in ur mind (Facebook, 3 July)
Originally hailing from a conservative village called Shah Saddruddin in South Punjab - where ancient traditions and customs still prevail - Qandeel moved to the city to make a future for herself.
A local photographer from Multan claims she tried to kick-start a modelling career from here.
"She came to me for her first photo shoot, but it didn't work out for her", he says. "Then she left the city and later her pictures and videos began appearing on her Facebook page."
But neighbours say that they did not know Qandeel Baloch or her social media celebrity status. Whenever she came back home, she seems to have been content to spend time with her parents in private.
One neighbour told me her fame reached the area only recently.
"We just found out about Qandeel Baloch, when news came out on TV of her selfie with religious cleric Mufti Abdul Qawi. Then her former husband appeared in the media."
"We only found out Qandeel Baloch lived here when they brought out her dead body."
Although she appeared keen on her "brand" as a woman who did what she wanted, baring her skin and her soul to all, it seems her personality had more than one dimension.
"My daughter was searching for peace, that's why she came to me," Anwar Bibi says.
"She said 'Mum I'm so tired, of the cases and the criticism. But my time will come. Everyone says I have a bad reputation but I'll show them all what a simple girl from a small village can do.' "
In a society where people often remain chained to the social class or cultural context they are born into, this woman was dreaming of freedom and escape.
Or at least this is what I think her mother wants to tell me about her, although she can't quite find the words. Then she stops suddenly, looks at me, and smiles.
"She was a girl just like you, she laughed a lot, she talked a lot." | In a lower middle class neighbourhood of Multan, among a row of dilapidated houses, one dwelling stands out. |
38,560,571 | Buyers currently pay an extra 3% levy on their stamp duty when purchasing a property to rent out.
A landlord group wants the new Welsh Land Transaction Tax (LTT) to remove the levy where a landlord is adding to the housing supply.
The Welsh Government says the revenue made by the higher rate is "essential to the delivery of public services".
LTT will replace stamp duty in Wales in 2018.
The Residential Landlord Association (RLA) says the levy will limit supply and push up rents and wants it scrapped "where landlords invest in housing adding to the net supply of homes", such as new builds.
Douglas Haig, vice chairman of the Residential Landlords Association and its director for Wales said: "The government has rightly made boosting the supply of housing, including homes to rent, a priority.
"Whilst we believe the planned levy on homes to rent out will most hurt vulnerable tenants needing a place to live, the assembly has an opportunity to make constructive changes to the bill to rectify this and back the nation's tenants."
A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: "Respondents to our consultation about the higher rate expressed a clear view about the importance of maintaining a single, consistent rate across the UK when stamp duty is devolved to Wales in April 2018.
"Last month the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast the additional revenue from the higher rate in Wales will be £58m in 2018-19.
"This funding will be essential to the delivery of public services across Wales.
"We will monitor the impact of the higher rate in Wales and will assess evidence as it emerges to ensure the land transaction tax higher rate remains appropriate for Wales."
The 3% levy was introduced last year by the former chancellor George Osborne.
The RLA says a landlord buying an average-priced house in Wales (£147,000) to let now pays £4,850 in stamp duty, £4,410 more than under the previous system.
AMs will debate the LTT on Tuesday. | Landlords are calling for the Welsh Government to partially remove a charge on people buying houses to let. |
38,597,930 | Contestant Tasha Smith said her partner told her to give the answer "Henrik Larsson" to any football question.
When she was asked to name a footballer who scored in Euro 2000 during the final round of the popular teatime game show, she wisely followed his advice.
The answer earned delighted Tasha and her sister, Jo, the £2,250 jackpot.
The object of the BBC One quiz show is to find the most obscure correct answers to a series of questions.
Winners take home a cash prize if they find a "pointless" answer in the final round.
After the win, Tasha told hosts Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman about the tip she received before the show.
She said: "My boyfriend Alex is a massive Celtic supporter and he knows that I'm rubbish with names and things like that so he said, anything football-related - he's played for Man U, he's played for Celtic and Barcelona, I think.
"He just said go for Henrik Larsson. And it's paid off."
It was one of three answers that the sisters, from Woking in Surrey, gave to questions relating to the year 2000.
Neither of their other answers would have earned them the jackpot.
But Osman confirmed that Larsson had scored against Italy while playing for Sweden in the European Championships in Belgium and the Netherlands.
He said: "I literally can't get over Henrik Larsson. It was absolutely brilliant.
"People often say 'I'm going to go for a punt'. The look of genuine shock on your face when that column started going down was fantastic."
He added: "It was one of the great endings to an episode of Pointless that we have ever had. What a lovely thing to watch."
Speaking to BBC Scotland online after the programme was broadcast, Tasha said she was "very surprised" to have won.
"Alex didn't believe me when I told him, he thought I was having him on," she added.
She said she spent her winnings on a trip to Italy, Croatia and Greece.
Asked what she thought about the reaction to her win, she said: "I can't believe how much attention the win is getting - it's so funny!"
Henrik Larsson played with Celtic for seven seasons between 1997 and 2004. He was also captain of the Swedish national side.
Watch the sisters' Pointless win on the BBC iPlayer here. | A teaching assistant has credited her Celtic supporter boyfriend and his hero Henrik Larsson with helping her win TV quiz show Pointless. |
14,591,183 | The motorway's southbound entry slip road and northbound exit slip road at Junction 12 will be closed from 06:00 BST on Saturday until 05:00 BST on Monday.
The closures are required to allow work to replace a gas main to take place.
Project manager Lynne Stinson said drivers should allow extra time for their journeys.
"We have worked with National Grid to minimise the impact and duration of the closures on road users and the local community.
"We do not expect a significant impact on traffic, however we would advise road users to plan their journeys, allow extra time and follow the clearly signed diversion routes," said Ms Stinson.
During the closures, northbound traffic will be directed along the M1 northbound to Junction 13, and back on the southbound carriageway to exit the M1 on the Junction 12 southbound exit slip-road.
Southbound road users wishing to join the M1 at Junction 12 will be signposted northbound to Junction 13, and back on to the M1 southbound.
A further closure will take place from 06:00 BST on Saturday 3 September to 05:00 BST on Monday 5 September.
The August Bank Holiday weekend will not be affected. | The Highways Agency is warning motorists about M1 slip road closures in Bedfordshire. |
21,524,101 | The figures have been rising for the past two years.
They are causing concern among doctors who are trying to reinforce the safe sex message.
Doctors at the Royal Victoria Hospital are also running clinics in gay clubs to try to convince hard to reach groups of the importance of testing.
Dr Carol Emerson, a consultant specialising in sexual health at the Royal Victoria Hospital, said the outreach clinics in gay venues in Belfast were essential.
"I'm really passionate about reaching people and ensuring they get HIV testing and full sexual health advice," she said.
"Some people find it a step too far to come to a GUM (sexual health) clinic and some people really regard confidentiality as the holy grail and bringing the clinic out has increased testing, increased knowledge and increased diagnoses."
Dr Emerson said there were many reasons why people did not want to come forward - not least the continued stigma about being gay in Northern Ireland.
Some patients are also married and have sex with men outside that relationship.
Others have simply ignored the safe sex messages and are too frightened to come forward.
"We are seeing a range of people over 45 testing for different reasons and it may be that they've had a stable relationship for a period of time and that has broken down and now they've found a new lease of life and they've picked up a new infection and that's not just HIV - it's the whole spectrum of sexual health," she said.
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus and on its own it does not kill you.
The virus can survive and grow only by infecting, and destroying, the immune system.
This continual assault on the immune system makes it weaker and weaker until it is no longer able to fight off infections.
Without treatment, it takes about 10 years from infection to the development of Aids - acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
It is then that "opportunistic infections", which a healthy immune system could fight off, become deadly.
People can die from pneumonias, brain infections, diarrhoeal illnesses as well as certain tumours such as lymphoma and cervical cancer.
The clinics run once a month at various different venues frequented by members of the gay community.
And there is an additional worrying trend.
Around half of those who are diagnosed need to go onto treatment right away because the condition has progressed to a serious extent.
"Their immune system isn't as strong as it might have been and they are being strongly advised to start the HIV treatment right away," Dr Emerson said.
The Rainbow Project, which lobbies for gay, lesbian and transgender rights, also carries out free testing.
Its director, John O'Doherty, is also worried about the increase in HIV in the over-45 age group.
"We're dealing with a community which spent a large part of their adult years being a criminal based on their sexual orientation," he said.
"So the new freedom and openness and visibility of our community has provided a lot more opportunities for relationships and to meet new people, so it does put them at increased risk."
The Kremlin club is Belfast's oldest and best known gay venue. It is one of a number of premises to host the clinics and Mr O'Doherty and his team often leaflet clubbers and hand out safe sex packs.
Philip Alexander and Matthew Armstrong are from Ballymena.
They are in their early 20s and often travel to Belfast for a night out in the Kremlin.
Matthew said his generation would be different.
"Good sexual health is something everyone should consider. You should put your health before anything," he said.
Philip added: "I think everyone of our age is worried about image and health.
"We are more health conscious. Definitely there are people out there who don't take it seriously - think there's no harm - but most of us are aware of the safe sex message." | One in five new cases of HIV in Northern Ireland are in men over the age of 45. |
35,797,936 | The Welshman held a 15-second lead over two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador heading into the final stage.
Contador attacked on the final climb of the race and Team Sky's Thomas cracked 1km from the summit but he made up 30 seconds on the descent to take the win.
Thomas joins Tom Simpson and Bradley Wiggins as British winners of the race.
Simpson was the first in 1967, while Wiggins, who was also riding for Team Sky, won in 2012 - the year he went on to win the Tour de France.
Thomas, who won the Volta ao Algarve stage race earlier in the year, said: "It's the biggest win for sure of my whole career."
It was an incredible finish to an enthralling "Race to the Sun", which had seen stage three cancelled because of heavy snow.
Tim Wellens of Belgium won the final stage on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice with Contador crossing the line second to pick up six bonus seconds.
However, 29-year-old Thomas, who was superbly helped by team-mate Sergio Henao in the final kilometre of the ascent of Col d'Eze, finished in a group just five seconds adrift of Contador to ensure he won.
"I felt good, I felt strong, in control [when Contador first attacked]," said Thomas.
"But when he went halfway up Col d'Eze, my legs went away. I thought it's going to be all over, but Sergio stayed with me.
"I had a 54 chain ring on in the descent and I needed that - I went just full gas to finally catch up in the last few kilometres."
It is a fourth win in five years for Team Sky after Wiggins' 2012 victory and Richie Porte's successes in 2013 and 2015.
Australian Porte, who now rides for BMC Racing, finished third on the final stage to take third overall.
Final classification:
1. Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Sky) 27hrs 26mins 40secs
2. Alberto Contador (Spa/Tinkoff) +4secs
3. Richie Porte (Aus/BMC Racing) +12secs
4. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus/Katusha) +20secs
5. Jon Izagirre (Spa/Movistar) +37secs
6. Sergio Henao (Col/Team Sky) +44secs
7. Simon Yates (GB/Orica GreenEdge) +44secs
8. Tony Gallopin (Fra/Lotto) +51secs
9. Romain Bardet (Fra/AG2R) +1min 00secs
10. Rui Costa (Por/Lampre) +1min 07secs
Stage seven result:
1. Tim Wellens (Bel/Lotto) 3hrs 16mins 09secs
2. Alberto Contador (Spa/Tinkoff) Same time
3. Richie Porte (Aus/BMC Racing)
4. Tony Gallopin (Fra/Lotto) +5secs
5. Simon Yates (GB/Orica GreenEdge) Same time
6. Arnold Jeannesson (Fra/Cofidis)
7. Rui Costa (Por/Lampre)
8. Jesus Herrada (Spa/Movistar)
9. Romain Bardet (Fra/AG2R)
10. Jon Izagirre (Spa/Movistar)
Selected:
11. Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Sky) Same time | Geraint Thomas has become the third British rider to win the prestigious week-long Paris-Nice stage race - holding on to win by four seconds. |
34,444,053 | At least 30 people, including MSF staff, were killed in the early morning attack of 3 October. MSF says dozens were injured and the hospital severely damaged.
The US in November 2015 said that the crew of a warplane that attacked the hospital misidentified it - believing it to be a government compound taken over by the Taliban.
In the early morning of 3 October, a US AC-130 gunship conducted an air strike on what crew members thought was a Taliban compound.
US officials have blamed malfunctioning electronics and human error for the targeting mistake.
An investigation by the US in November 2015 said that the crew of the AC-130 gunship relied on a physical description of the compound provided by Afghan forces. It was this which led the crew to attack the wrong hospital, which was about 410m (1345ft) away from the intended target.
The US military and MSF have differing accounts of the barrage, including the duration and the attempts made to stop it.
The military claims that the strike lasted for approximately 29 minutes, and ended before commanders realised a mistake had been made - despite a call from MSF urging an end to the firing 12 minutes into the attack.
The charity says that the firing lasted for nearly an hour, and desperate phone calls asking the military to stop firing were still being made about 20 minutes after the military says the assault ended.
MSF says the warring sides were well aware of the hospital's location in Kunduz, and have described the attack as a war crime and a black day in its history.
In a review released in early November, the charity said there were no weapons or fighting inside the compound in Kunduz before the bombing started.
The report said hospital staff were shot at from the air while fleeing the premises.
The US investigators said they found no evidence that the aircraft crew or US Special Forces on the ground knew the targeted compound was a hospital at the time of the attack.
The Afghan defence ministry said "armed terrorists" were using the hospital "as a position to target Afghan forces and civilians".
But MSF has denied this: "Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the US air strike on Saturday morning."
The US military's explanation for the incident has been muddied because it has changed its account of how the air strike came about.
Statements initially said US forces had come under fire, but then said air strikes were requested by Afghan forces under Taliban fire.
The US military chief in Afghanistan Gen John Campbell admitted in October 2015 that "the decision to provide aerial fires was a US decision, made within the US chain of command".
In November, he said that the US had "learned from this terrible incident," and that officials would be taking "administrative and disciplinary action through a process that is fair and thorough (and) considers the available evidence."
MSF says that statements from the Afghan and US forces imply they worked together to deliberately target the hospital - and amount to an admission of a war crime.
The organisation's president Joanne Liu said they "cannot rely on internal military investigations by the US, Nato and Afghan forces".
She has called on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) - a never-used body established in 1991 under the Geneva Conventions - to investigate.
The IHFFC is "the only permanent body set up specifically to investigate violations of international humanitarian law", Ms Liu said, and she called on the commission's signatory states to activate an inquiry.
However, according to the IHFFC provisions, an inquiry needs the specific endorsement of the parties to the conflict.
Neither the US nor Afghanistan is a signatory, and therefore they would have to issue separate declarations of consent to the investigation of the Kunduz bombing.
After details of the November 2015 US military investigation were released, MSF reiterated its calls for "an independent and impartial investigation into the attack," and said the errors detailed in the investigation illustrate "gross negligence on the part of US forces and violations of the rules of war".
War crimes are acts that constitute a grave breach of the laws of war. At the heart of the concept is the idea that an individual can be held responsible for the actions of a country or that nation's soldiers.
According to the International Criminal Court (ICC), war crimes can include:
International humanitarian law bans any attack on patients and medical personnel - indeed, any attack on medical facilities, which are zones that must be respected under the rules of war.
Even if combatants, such as the Taliban, take refuge in them, they should not be attacked.
In the case of Kunduz, US investigators say that the attacking plane fired 211 shells at the compound over a 25-minute period before commanders realised their mistake and ordered a halt.
Under rules established by the ICC, any such incident would probably result in too high a number of civilian casualties - what is called the rule of proportionality.
According to Human Rights Watch, "given the hospital's protected status and the large numbers of civilians and medical personnel in the facility, attacking the hospital would still likely have been an unlawfully disproportionate attack, causing greater harm to civilians and civilian structures than any immediate military gain.
"The laws of war require that even if military forces misuse a hospital to deploy able-bodied combatants or weapons, the attacking force must issue a warning to cease this misuse, setting a reasonable time limit for it to end, and attacking only after such a warning has gone unheeded," the group said in a statement.
Under international humanitarian law "constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects".
Medical units, the rules say, "must be respected and protected in all circumstances", although "they lose their protection if they are being used, outside their humanitarian function, to commit acts harmful to the enemy".
In February 2009, nine people were killed by shells which hit a hospital in a rebel-held area of north-east Sri Lanka.
The hospital, in the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu district, was hit three times in 24 hours, and shells were said to have hit a crowded paediatric unit.
Sri Lanka's army denied it was behind the shelling. It accused separatist Tamil Tiger rebels of using civilians as human shields.
The International Committee of the Red Cross at the time called the strikes "significant breaches of international humanitarian law".
Last year, at least five people were killed and 70 injured by an Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza.
Doctors at the al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip say several Israeli tank shells hit the hospital's reception, intensive care unit and operating theatres.
The Israeli military said it had targeted a cache of anti-tank missiles in the hospital's "immediate vicinity".
"Civilian casualties are a tragic inevitability of [Hamas'] brutal and systematic exploitation of homes, hospitals and mosques in Gaza," it said in a statement.
Experts point out that this is not the first time international humanitarian law may have been violated in Afghanistan's current conflict.
At least 18,000 civilians have died in 14 years of war. Hundreds of people have been killed in coalition raids and bombings - although many more have been killed in militant attacks.
At times, foreign and local troops have entered medical facilities to arrest people.
But because of its long-term implications on medical assistance, the Kunduz incident, in the words of one ICRC official, ranks as an especially serious one. | International charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has demanded an independent international investigation into the US bombing of its hospital in the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. |
37,864,363 | It gives the league a familiar appearance - but this season there is a new dimension, with the battle of the superstar managers well under way.
Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho have taken charge at Manchester City and Manchester United, Antonio Conte is the latest arrival at Chelsea, while Jurgen Klopp is in his first full season at Liverpool and Ronald Koeman is making an impressive start at Everton.
So how are the Premier League's big-name managers, including Arsenal Wenger at Arsenal and Mauricio Pochettino at Spurs, shaping up?
Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)
Pep Guardiola is the appointment Manchester City longed to make - and it has been justified as they sit top of the table and on a high after a magnificent 3-1 win against Barcelona in the Champions League.
Saturday's 4-0 victory at West Bromwich Albion ended a six-game winless run. It restored City's equilibrium as they faltered after opening with six straight league wins.
City's world-class stars such as Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne are in prime form while Ilkay Gundogan looks a class act, scoring twice against Barcelona.
Confidence will be overflowing after Barcelona were beaten in a manner that spoke eloquently about Guardiola's methods and that will strengthen belief between manager and players, as well as fans.
Rating: 9/10
Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)
Arsenal are back in business after a stuttering start to the season that saw them lose 4-3 at home to Liverpool and draw away at champions Leicester.
Manager Arsene Wenger remained calm amid heavy early criticism and has been rewarded with seven Premier League wins from eight games - with the added bonus of being in a good position to finish top of their Champions League group.
Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are influencing games, Theo Walcott is excelling at club level - and are they now showing that added touch of steel that might actually make them prime title contenders?
Wenger looks rejuvenated and the Gunners look good.
Rating: 8
Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Is any side - or manager - more exciting to watch at the moment than Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp?
Klopp's effervescent and positive personality is reflected in his team as they have become a free-scoring, all-out attacking combination based on the quartet of £34m summer signing Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana.
Early days yet, but this Liverpool side - led by the charismatic Klopp - is showing some of the characteristics of the group that almost won the title in 2013-14.
Klopp has built a team in his own image in 12 months.
Rating: 8
Antonio Conte (Chelsea)
Antonio Conte has optimism rising at Chelsea after they suffered emotional lows with dreadful performances in the 2-1 home defeat by Liverpool and the 3-0 reverse at Arsenal.
The Italian held his nerve, changed his system and is now getting the best out of stellar performers such as Diego Costa and Eden Hazard, who lost their way last season as Jose Mourinho was sacked.
Four straight league wins, including a 4-0 thrashing of Mourinho's Manchester United, has ignited hopes they might be in title contention again this season.
Rating: 7
Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham)
It is strange that spirits are low at Spurs as they still remain the only unbeaten Premier League team after 10 games - but they are in danger of going out of the Champions League and have struggled to cope without injured striker Harry Kane.
The blistering performance in beating Manchester City 2-0 illustrated the potential of a team that pushed Leicester City so hard for the title last season but three successive league draws have halted momentum.
Confidence appears fragile at present but Sunday's visit to Arsenal presents a big opportunity to rebuild. A win could change everything.
Rating: 6
Ronald Koeman (Everton)
Ronald Koeman has brought instant stature, respect and experience to Everton and he has had a big impact on an off the pitch to put them in sixth place after 10 games.
Koeman inherited a shambles from the sacked Roberto Martinez after Everton finished 11th last season but he, and a fervent fanbase, can be quietly satisfied with a start that has been solid, if unspectacular - so a higher rating, given where they have come from.
Rating: 7
Jose Mourinho (Manchester United)
It has been a strange start to Jose Mourinho's reign at Old Trafford as they lie in eighth place, eight points off the leading pack after four games without a league win, including that 4-0 beating at Chelsea.
There is an unsettled air around Manchester United, with Mourinho downbeat and already in conflict with authority after getting a fine and touchline ban, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring only once in 11 games and uncertainty surrounding captain Wayne Rooney.
Very, very underwhelming from Mourinho and United.
Rating: 6
Guardiola
Manchester City moved back to the top of the league after their 10th game last season - a dull derby draw at Old Trafford. They have got one more point, 23, this season.
A year on there is a mood swing away from the low-key approach of Manuel Pellegrini to the moderniser Guardiola, arguably world football's most celebrated manager.
At the same stage they had scored the same number of goals, 24, and conceded one fewer (eight). This season City have had 64.93% average possession, played 5,913 passes with a completion rate of 85.3% - last season they had had 57.8% and had made 5,506 passes.
The biggest change is simply the mood and approach. City's players now look more bold and motivated under Guardiola.
Rating: 9
Wenger
Arsenal were also in second place after 10 games last season, again level on points with Manchester City on 22. The Gunners, however, have been more been more potent, scoring 23 as against 18 although they have conceded 10 this time around as opposed to eight.
As with City, the big change is the feeling that this Arsenal side looks better equipped to maintain their form for the long haul - whether this faith is justified remains to be seen.
Rating: 8
Klopp
Klopp was only two games into his Liverpool reign last season and they were in ninth position after a 1-1 draw with Southampton in his first Anfield league game.
The transformation in 12 months is clear as Liverpool are level on points with City and Arsenal, with Klopp's attacking approach reflected in the statistics. For a start they have 23 points compared to 14.
Liverpool have scored 24 goals compared to just nine at the same stage last season. This is level best with Manchester City, although they have conceded 13 as opposed to 11 after 10 games last term.
Klopp is prepared to trade the odd defensive lapse in exchange for firepower up front - and it is an exciting approach.
Rating: 9
Conte
A freakish set of comparison figures here when set against last season. This time last season Chelsea were 15th as the then champions collapsed under Jose Mourinho.
Chelsea had already conceded 19 goals compared to nine this time around and had lost five games compared to two this season - exceptional circumstances reflecting the turbulence.
After Guus Hiddink steadied the ship last season and Conte's appointment, Chelsea are now sailing in calmer waters and have already collected twice as many points as the 11 they had this time a year ago.
Rating: 8
Pochettino
Spurs were sixth after 10 games last season and despite a recent dip, things look more favourable this season as they are fifth and the last unbeaten team in the Premier League.
They have found goals slightly more difficult to come by this season, 14 as against 16 last term, although they have only conceded five as against eight at the same time last year. They have three more points with 20.
Rating: 7
Koeman
Everton look and act like a different team under the organised and structured Koeman compared with the carefree, almost reckless approach of Martinez - and it shows.
They are sixth rather than 11th last season and have scored more goals and conceded fewer than in the first 10 games under Martinez last year. Everton have scored 15 compared to 13, have conceded only eight goals compared to 13 and have five more points on 18.
Rating: 8
Mourinho
So are Manchester United better off under Jose Mourinho than Louis van Gaal?
Not yet - although plenty will say the football is better this season after lavish spending on the likes of Pogba, Ibrahimovic and the lesser-spotted Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
United are eighth compared to fourth last season and have five fewer points on 15 than they did under Van Gaal. They had scored 15 goals, two more, last season and only conceded eight compared to 12 this time around.
Fair to say this has been under-achievement by Mourinho so far.
Rating: 5
Guardiola
Questions have been asked about Guardiola's decision to shunt England keeper Joe Hart so unceremoniously towards the door - and at this stage Claudio Bravo, a £17m signing from Barcelona, does not look like an upgrade.
Guardiola, however, is not afraid to take the big decisions, including leaving Sergio Aguero out of the 4-0 Champions League loss in Barcelona.
He has built his new City around Aguero, De Bruyne, Silva and Raheem Sterling. The young England winger has almost become a project for Guardiola and has matured rapidly.
Guardiola may need to keep adapting as teams attempt to stifle City's passing game with pressing - but so far so good and his signature style is all over this side.
Rating: 8
Wenger
Wenger addressed the problems in central defence and midfield with the purchases of Shkodran Mustafi and Granit Xhaka - but it is in attack where Wenger is hitting the jackpot.
Alexis Sanchez scored twice in the 4-1 win at Sunderland. He has been involved in eight goals in his last eight league appearances. He has scored six league goals, while Theo Walcott has five.
Wenger's Arsenal is working smoothly in all departments and when this is happening it is a wonderful sight.
Rating: 8
Klopp
Klopp's tactical imprint runs through Liverpool's side. He has had a full summer to work on his "gegenpressing" approach. Opponents are not given a second's peace.
The attacking quartet mentioned defend from the front, which explains why Daniel Sturridge has been marginalised, while the arrival of Gini Wijnaldum has brought composure alongside Jordan Henderson in midfield.
Klopp must work on Liverpool's defending and fragile goalkeeper Loris Karius - but his decision not to sign a left-back and convert James Milner has proved inspired.
The German may need a "Plan B" when teams dig in, as Burnley did in inflicting Liverpool's only league loss, and Manchester United, but this is now a Klopp team.
Rating: 8
Conte
Good marks to Conte for proactive management to turn Chelsea's slump around.
Conte insisted he would find "a solution" after Chelsea lost at Arsenal - and so it proved as he reverted to his tried and trusted three-man defence that brought success at Juventus.
David Luiz, Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta were the men deputed with the task, while the deployment of Victor Moses as a right-sided wing-back has been a revelation.
Chelsea have won four league games without conceding a goal and are back in the top four.
Rating: 8
Pochettino
Pochettino's big problem has been Tottenham's inability to replace Kane's goals.
Spurs have played 903 minutes without Kane since he was injured against Sunderland on 18 September. They have scored 13 times in that period, including five against Gillingham in the EFL Cup.
The manner in which they disposed of Manchester City without Kane has proved an exception rather than the rule. Son Heung-min is not a goalscorer in the Kane mould while Vincent Janssen has not yet settled after his £17m transfer from AZ Alkmaar.
Kane's return, perhaps at Arsenal this Sunday, will make Pochettino's life much easier.
Rating: 6
Koeman
Koeman made it his priority to shore up a defence that conceded 55 goals under Martinez last season and almost considered defending at set pieces an optional extra.
The experienced, uncompromising Wales captain Ashley Williams replaced John Stones following his £47.5m move to Manchester City, while Idrissa Gueye provides a midfield security blanket after his £7m switch from Aston Villa.
The pair are crucial to Everton's improvement. They have only conceded two goals on one occasion in the league this season, the 2-1 loss at Burnley. A record of conceding 14 goals from set plays last season, "crazy" according to Koeman, has been addressed.
Koeman relies heavily on the goals of striker Romelu Lukaku but he has made great strides on Everton's biggest problem.
Rating: 7
Mourinho
The big question is whether Mourinho yet knows what his best Manchester United team is - a conundrum reflected in results.
Is it playing Ibrahimovic up front on his own and two wide players? One holding midfield man or two? Three central defenders or two? Who plays as the "Number 10" - Rooney or Mata? And does playing anyone there stifle £89m world record signing Pogba?
Work to do for Mourinho.
Rating: 6 | The Premier League is taking shape after 10 games and many of the usual suspects are assembling near the top of the table. |
36,106,712 | Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust admitted the failings in her care shortly after her birth.
The girl, known as X during legal proceedings, is now dependent on others for daily activities, said her lawyers Davies and Partners Solicitors.
The trust, which admitted liability, said it offered its "profound apologies" to the teenager.
The girl was born by Caesarean section due to concerns she was not growing in the womb.
Following her birth she was admitted to Worcestershire Royal Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.
But her health deteriorated with symptoms caused by a bowel obstruction which had not been diagnosed.
In a statement, the trust said: "The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has accepted liability for shortcomings in the care and treatment shortly after birth and expresses its profound apologies to the individual and their family.
"The Honourable Mr Justice Stewart has approved a figure of damages to be awarded and the trust are pleased that this legal claim has now been resolved and that damages have been agreed to ensure that the future is provided for." | A teenager has been awarded damages and compensation of nearly £8m after she was left brain-damaged at birth. |
31,497,524 | An ABC Four Corners report showed live piglets, possums and rabbits being chased and eventually killed by dogs.
Greyhounds Australasia has begun an urgent review of animal welfare.
Industry authorities in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland have suspended more than 20 people after raids on properties last week.
They were carried out after ABC handed over its footage ahead of Monday's broadcast.
Live baiting is outlawed but some trainers believe it gives their dogs an advantage in races.
The footage was secretly filmed at training tracks in Queensland and Victoria.
Some of the video showed struggling animals being flung around a mechanical lure before being torn apart by greyhounds. One possum was spun on the lure for almost an hour.
The footage also captured trainers apparently discussing ways of disposing of unwanted dogs, which is against racing regulations.
"What we have documented is sickening, shocking and profoundly disturbing, not only because of the horrific cruelty, but because of the human behaviour that is revealed," said Lyn White from Animals Australia, which helped gather the footage.
There has been condemnation from senior figures in Australia's greyhound industry.
In a statement, Greyhounds Australasia Chief Executive Scott Parker described the footage as "appalling", and called the use of live animals "disgusting, illegal, unethical and totally rejected by the industry".
Darren Condon, the CEO of Racing Queensland, said immediate action would be taken against individuals implicated.
Peter Caillard, chair of Greyhound Racing Victoria, said the use of live bait was "abhorrent and has no place in our sport".
"Any person engaged in live baiting can expect to be disqualified and prosecuted," he said, but added that he believed the practice was not widespread, and was isolated to one private facility in Victoria.
Depending on state laws, someone convicted of animal cruelty in Australia can face a jail term of between one and five years, and a substantial fine.
The Victoria state government has announced two separate investigations into the greyhound racing industry.
Animals Australia and Animal Liberation Queensland, who also helped make the report, have called for an end to greyhound industry self-regulation. | Australia's greyhound racing industry is facing outrage after a television report showing illegal live baiting during training sessions. |
33,633,101 | It happened at about 07:30 GMT on Thursday when a car crashed into the wall of St Eithne's primary school on the Springtown Road.
Police arrested a 30-year-old man on suspicion of driving while unfit and dangerous driving.
An 18-year-old man was arrested for taking a car without consent, driving while unfit and criminal damage.
SDLP councillor Shauna Cusack said: "It is extremely fortunate that school was out and there were no children on their way to class or this could have been so much worse.
"This area has been plagued by joyriders and those responsible for this reckless and irresponsible action should face the full extent of the law." | Two men have been arrested after a car crashed into a primary school in Londonderry. |
13,322,307 | Police said late on Friday that unidentified assailants had also burnt a number of houses in the village in Bauchi state, near Tafawa Balewa.
Bauchi is in Nigeria's middle belt, where the predominantly Muslim north meets the mainly Christian south.
There are long-standing tensions in the area rooted in power struggles and land disputes, correspondents say.
This has caused violence in the past between indigenous Christian or animist groups, and Muslim settlers from the North.
Hundreds have died in clashes in Nigeria following national elections last month in which Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, won the presidential poll against a Muslim, Muhammadu Buhari.
The worst of the violence was in Bauchi and Kaduna states. | At least 16 people have been killed in an attack on a predominantly Christian village in northern Nigeria. |
11,880,622 | Millions of other Turkish women do the same: it is estimated that at least 60% cover their heads.
Now, for the first time, almost all universities across Turkey have abandoned the official prohibition on women wearing headscarves.
The ban ended when the government issued a statement in September saying it would support any student expelled or disciplined for covering her head.
The Islamic headscarf has become a divisive symbol, which bars women from jobs and education, and came close to bringing down a government two years ago.
Yasemin can now go to her architecture classes at Yildiz Technical University for the first time without wearing a large hat or a wig to cover her hair.
"I feel happy that I don't have to stop in a mosque on the way and change into my wig," she said.
The exact status of the headscarf ban is mired in confusion.
There is no law against wearing one. Nor does the ban originate with modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, although he did discourage women from covering their heads, and passed a law barring men from wearing traditional Ottoman clothing.
The more recent ban on headscarves in universities and for public servants dates back to regulations passed by government departments in the 1980s, after the last military coup.
With leftist groups harshly suppressed, Islamic parties made strong gains among the Turkish electorate in the elections that followed, prompting a reaction from the avowedly secular military.
The university ban was only properly enforced after the military forced out an overtly Islamic prime minister in 1998.
What the regulations had in mind was not the traditional scarf, tied around the neck by peasant women in Anatolia, but the hijab, also called a turban in Turkey, which has become a symbol of pious or political Islam, worn by growing numbers of urban, educated women since the 1980s.
It is for that reason that military buildings will allow headscarfed women in if they take out the pin that holds the tightly-wound hijab in place - they have a special pin-box at reception.
Emine Erdogan, the wife of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was blocked from entering a military hospital in 2007 for refusing to remove hers.
Mr Erdogan tried to overturn the university ban in 2008, through a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to education.
It passed through parliament, but was thrown out by the Constitutional Court.
But this year, with the momentum behind him after winning the constitutional referendum in September and more compliant bureaucrats in the Board of Education, the government in effect ended the ban by stealth.
The Constitutional Court is in any case being restructured following the referendum, and is less likely to challenge the governing party so boldly in future.
Caught off-guard
The main opposition party, the secular CHP - previously a strong supporter of the university ban - wanted to negotiate its end with the government, but was denied the chance.
But the party has vowed to maintain the ban on civil servants wearing headscarves.
"The reason why we don't allow a headscarf for, say a judge, is that it is a symbol of religion. The state should be impartial to race, religion, everything," says Hursit Gunes, a deputy secretary-general of the party.
There are still academics appalled by the prospect of headscarves on campus.
"Universities are supposed to be places where science and scientific thought can be discussed freely," says Nezhun Goren, a biology professor at Yildiz Technical University.
"Religious faith can't be discussed, you either accept it or reject it."
Disadvantaged
The resistance to headscarves among many secular Turks seems to be driven by something deeper - a belief that the rigorous adherence to Islam it symbolises in the wearer will eventually reverse the modernisation of Turkish society under its strictly secular system.
Headscarfed women say right now they are the ones who are disadvantaged.
Fatma Benli is an experienced lawyer who specialises in defending women. But her headscarf bars her from appearing in court - she has to appoint bare-headed proxies to defend her clients.
"For 12 years I've been working long hours as a lawyer and I have specialist skills, in international law, so I should be well-paid," she says, "yet I still have to rely on financial help from my parents to run my office".
Dilek Cindoglu, a sociologist at Bilkent University who does not wear a headscarf, has done research which shows that the restrictions on headscarfed women in the civil service have spilled over into the private sector.
"Once they get employment they are being discriminated against in terms of promotions, salaries, and in terms of dismissals should the company decide to reduce the workforce."
I asked Yasemin if she understood the fear many secular Turks feel about openly pious Muslims like herself.
"I am forcing myself, but I cannot say that I totally understand it."
She argues that she was the one left with the psychology of fear, not them, because for 10 years she was unable to go to school wearing her headscarf. | Every morning Yasemin Derbaz puts on the piece of cloth that marks her out as an observant Muslim. |
38,839,328 | Gwent Police is investigating after a member of the public reported the discovery in Wentwood Reservoir.
There is a "possibility" they could be Sandie Bowen, whose husband murdered her in 1997 but never revealed where he hid her body, her daughter said.
The remains have been recovered and are being examined for identification purposes.
Mrs Bowen's daughter Anita Giles said police contacted her and told her they were carrying out examinations to establish if the remains were of her mother.
Forestry worker Mike Bowen was jailed for life in 1998 after his wife's blood and false teeth were found at their home in Llandogo, Monmouthshire.
Throughout his murder trial, he denied any involvement in her disappearance.
While Bowen finally admitted the killing in 2003, he refused to tell police where the body was, with police believing it had been buried in Wentwood forest.
Following the discovery, Ms Giles said police had been in touch with her.
She said: "They've contacted me because there is a possibility it may be my mother, but they won't know until the autopsy has been done - which could take up to two months." | Suspected human remains have been found in a reservoir near Newport, police have said. |
24,635,498 | The U-turn comes two days after it was revealed the firm had dropped a ban on clips showing extreme violence.
The BBC understands that Facebook did this in July after issuing new guidance to staff, but did not think the public would be interested to know.
The British prime minister has accused the firm of being "irresponsible".
Facebook's own safety advisers have also voiced concerns.
The US firm now says it will still allow some graphic content but will take a more comprehensive look at its context.
This time Facebook outlined its revised policy in a press release.
"First, when we review content that is reported to us, we will take a more holistic look at the context surrounding a violent image or video, and will remove content that celebrates violence," it said.
"Second, we will consider whether the person posting the content is sharing it responsibly, such as accompanying the video or image with a warning and sharing it with an age-appropriate audience.
"Based on these enhanced standards, we have re-examined recent reports of graphic content and have concluded that this content improperly and irresponsibly glorifies violence. For this reason, we have removed it."
At time of writing other decapitation videos could still be found on the site without warning messages.
The announcement follows a series of flip-flops by the company.
On May 1, when questioned about death clips being shared on the site, the firm told the BBC that its users had the right to depict the "world in which we live".
However, less than two hours after the BBC published an interview with one of the firm's safety advisers - who raised concerns about the harm this could cause teenagers - it announced a change of tack.
"We will remove instances of these videos that are reported to us while we evaluate our policy and approach to this type of content," it declared.
The company promised at the time to announce its decision when the review was completed.
But at the start of this week the BBC was contacted by one of the social network's members who had complained about a clip uploaded on 16 October, which the company was refusing to take down.
"The video shows a woman having her head cut off by a man in a mask," the user wrote.
"She is alive when this happens. Looking at the comments a load of people have reported this to Facebook and had the same reply."
An Australian police force was among those who had complained. It said it had been told by Facebook's moderators that the video "did not violate our community standard on graphic violence".
When questioned on Monday, a spokeswoman for Facebook confirmed that the ban had indeed been dropped and that the company had introduced a new rule: such material could be posted and shared on the site so long as the original post did not celebrate or encourage the actions depicted.
This prompted David Cameron to tweet on Tuesday: "It's irresponsible of Facebook to post beheading videos, especially without a warning. They must explain their actions to worried parents."
Stephen Balkam, the chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute (Fosi) charity - who sits on the network's Safety Advisory Board - said he was "unhappy" at the move, which he had not been told about in advance.
Many of the site's users also questioned why it allowed such extreme footage but banned images and videos showing a woman's "fully exposed breast".
Facebook subsequently added an alert to the video, replacing the banner image with the words: "Warning! This video contains extremely graphic content and may be upsetting."
But last night it changed its policy again, and visitors to the page are now told: "This content is currently unavailable."
In response Mr Cameron tweeted: "I'm pleased Facebook has changed its approach on beheading videos. The test is now to ensure their policy is robust in protecting children."
Mr Balkam also welcomed the move.
"The Family Online Safety Institute is encouraged by the changes that Facebook announced today to the posting of graphic or disturbing material," he said in a statement.
"In order to protect young people in particular, it is imperative that Facebook - and all other social media sites - have in place a review process for this type of material and provide warnings where appropriate."
London-based Childnet International, another of Facebook's safety advisers, said it still wanted more information.
"If they've taken it down I welcome that," said the charity's chief executive Will Gardner told the BBC.
"But I want to find out more and look into this further."
Google's rival Google+ social network has more restrictive guidelines on graphic content: "Do not distribute depictions of graphic or gratuitous violence," it states.
There are videos on its YouTube service in which people discuss beheadings and provide links to explicit footage, but the firm has removed videos showing the act of murder from its own site.
"While YouTube's guidelines generally prohibit graphic or violent content, we make exceptions for material with documentary, or news value," a spokesman added.
"In cases where a video is not suitable for all viewers, we're careful to apply warnings and age-restrictions to safeguard people using our site." | Facebook has removed a video clip showing a woman's decapitation and issued new rules about what can be shared on its site. |
38,729,340 | The Lawton Court Hotel - where rooms start at £78 a night - beat a host of luxury hotels from around the world.
The nearby Elm Tree Hotel was named the world's best bargain hotel.
Llandudno has won more awards than anywhere else in the UK outside London, with eight hotels given 20 "travellers' choice" awards between them.
TripAdvisor said winners were selected on the basis of millions of reviews and opinions collected on their site.
Owners of the Lawton Court Hotel Hannah and Scott Lawton-Jones said they were "here to help - and that's what they love to do".
"We are so grateful and lucky to have welcomed so many lovely guests to stay over the last three years, and not forgetting the fantastic hardworking team we have that share the same principles as us," the couple added.
Mr Lawton-Jones' parents Carol-Lynn and Ian Robbins own the nearby Lauriston Court Hotel, which was also named best hotel in the world for service in 2013 - and this year is number five in the list.
As well as topping the world's bargain hotels category, the Elm Tree Hotel was named sixth best small hotel in the world, and third best for service in the UK.
Tom Long, the Elm Tree Hotel's owner, said he was "overwhelmed" at the accolade, and added: "We would like to say a big thank you to all our guests for your reviews."
Elsewhere in Wales…
Broadmead Boutique B&B in Tenby was ranked across three categories: romance, best service and small, coming sixth, 11th and 21st in the UK respectively.
In Tal-y-llyn, southern Snowdonia, The Old Rectory on the Lake came 25th in a list of the UK's top B&Bs.
The Pier Hotel in Rhyl took the title of UK's fifth best bargain hotel.
TripAdvisor said the awards differed from others as they were based on feedback from guests.
"Travellers wishing to experience these world class hotels for themselves will need to book quickly if they want to find out why they earned such rave reviews throughout the year from fellow travellers," added TripAdvisor spokeswoman Hayley Coleman.
The Aria Hotel Budapest in Hungary won the title of world's top hotel for 2017, while the Bindon Bottom B&B in West Lulworth, Dorset was named best B&B in the world. | A Llandudno hotel's service has been named best in the world by travel website TripAdvisor. |
38,588,535 | Coleman, 46, who is from the city, was presented with the master of science (MSc) accolade at the University's Great Hall on Wednesday.
He was recently appointed an OBE after guiding Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 - its first major tournament in 58 years.
He said he was "delighted and honoured" with the award.
"It means so much that the recognition comes from my home city," he added. "I accept on behalf of all my family and friends who have helped me succeed in my chosen profession."
Swansea's honorary degree awards are made annually to recognise those who have made outstanding contributions to the university, region and Wales.
Coleman, whose side was knocked out by eventual Euro 2016 winners Portugal, was granted the freedom of Swansea in October. | Wales football manager Chris Coleman has been awarded an honorary degree from Swansea University. |
35,990,726 | The party wanted to "shake up the Senedd", she said, at the start of a two-day campaign visit to Cardiff.
Ms Lucas said she was confident of seeing Green AMs elected via the regional lists due to proportional representation.
She said the party would speak for those who cared about social justice, the environment and jobs.
Wales was the one place in the whole of the UK where the Greens did not have any elected members or councillors, the Brighton Pavilion MP added.
"We really are on the cusp of getting elected this time around," she said.
"We're really confident that once we do get elected we can make a real difference to Wales." | The Green Party has a "strong chance" of getting its first ever AMs elected in May, MP Caroline Lucas has said. |
32,154,141 | The Tottenham striker scored 79 seconds into his senior England debut against Lithuania on Friday, and made his first start in the 1-1 draw in Italy.
But the 21-year-old played a key part in helping England's Under-21s qualify unbeaten for the tournament in June.
Hodgson said: "Harry wants to go with the Under-21s. He wants to finish the job that he has done."
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that Kane might benefit from resting this summer. The tournament is being held in the Czech Republic and begins for England against Portugal on 18 June.
Everton manager Roberto Martinez has also said that Ross Barkley, 21, needs a "proper break" after representing the senior team at last summer's World Cup in Brazil.
But former England captain Gary Lineker said it would be a "national disgrace" if clubs blocked young players from taking part.
And England Under-21 boss Gareth Southgate does not expect Premier League clubs to block players from attending, while ex-England international Phil Neville said Kane's development would be "enhanced" by playing for the U21s.
The issue is further complicated for Kane as Spurs have a post-season friendly match in Australia three weeks before the Under-21 tournament begins.
Hodgson added: "He's had to work his way into the team and in my conversations with him it has been pretty obvious to me he would like to play in this tournament.
"Harry can play an important part and maybe help them go far. That certainly won't hurt his chances in the first team and I am happy to back him."
The England manager also played down suggestions that taking part in the tournament would leave the player exhausted: "I've got to say I'm not a great lover of the burnout argument," Hodgson said.
"If you want to be an international player then you've got to accept football tournaments take place in the summer at the end of the season.
"In my lifetime, as soon as the season has finished, footballers have gone to tournaments. Anyone who wants to be a top-class international footballer and really believes he can help his country get to these tournaments, can't then come and talk about burnout."
Meanwhile, Hodgson called on England fans not to chant anti-IRA songs when his England side play their next game, against the Republic of Ireland in a friendly in Dublin on 7 June.
"There's no way I can justify or be glad about any political chants of that nature," he added. | Harry Kane wants to "finish the job" at the European Under-21 Championship this summer, says England boss Roy Hodgson. |
37,210,411 | Raikkonen was angry after an incident during Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, the latest of a series of controversies related to the Dutchman's driving.
The Finn said: "If I had not braked, we would have had a massive accident.
"It will happen sooner or later if this doesn't change. I am fine with good, hard racing but that is not correct."
Raikkonen swore over the radio because of a tactic Red Bull's Verstappen has adopted repeatedly this year, which is to drive in the middle of the track and only make a defensive move at the last moment when he sees which way the driver attacking is coming.
Verstappen, Raikkonen and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel collided at the first corner of the race, with all three cars suffering damage, but it was an incident on the Kemmel straight later in the race that angered the Finn.
"Other guys defend but they do it correctly," Raikkonen said. "He waits and waits and turns after me and I have to brake and slow down. It is not exactly what should happen.
"Maybe it needs an accident before it makes it more clear to everybody but hopefully not because it can be bad for someone. Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt.
"Something is not correct in my view, but the stewards have a different opinion."
Verstappen rejected suggestions he needed to rethink his tactics.
"To be honest, it's a big lie," the 18-year-old said. "I'm just defending my position and if somebody doesn't like it, it's his own problem."
He added that Raikkonen and Vettel should be "ashamed" of criticising him and accused them of causing the first-corner collision between the three that damaged all their cars.
"If they screw up my race, I'm not going to make it easy for them," he said. "I think they should understand that.
"I'm not going to say: 'come on through'. But all that happened after turn one. If turn one hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been so aggressive and pushed Raikkonen out like that."
Verstappen's team boss Christian Horner said: "It was firm, it was on the edge. He got away with it. I'm sure he'll have a good look at it and maybe learn a bit for future races."
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said Verstappen's driving was "refreshing but it's dangerous".
"He comes in here no fear, no respect, puts the elbows out," Wolff said.
"He reminds me of the great ones, of Lewis [Hamilton], of Ayrton Senna and you can clearly see some guys around are starting to think twice how to overtake him.
"Until now, all that has proven he is on the right track. The FIA has not penalised him. The only thing that has happened is that he was being given a hard time in some driver briefing.
"Maybe he is going to get a harder time in the next driver briefing. I just fear it might end up in the wall heavily one day."
Raikkonen's team-mate Sebastian Vettel, who had his own on-the-edge tussle with Verstappen during the race, said he would try to "educate" the Red Bull driver.
"I am not a fan of penalising people," the four-time world champion said. "We need talk to each other and have respect.
"There have been a couple of manoeuvres that the rest of the field is not happy with his behaviour.
"The best way to educate is just to talk rather than create a fuss in the media. We are men." | Max Verstappen will cause a "massive accident sooner or later" if he does not change his driving tactics, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen says. |
35,124,280 | The Republican has repeatedly praised Mr Putin's macho style and policies towards Syria, on the campaign trail.
The Russian president brushed off concerns about Mr Trump's controversial proposal to ban Muslims from the US.
He said Russia was ready to work with whoever was elected the next president.
"It is not our business to determine his merits, that is up to US voters," Mr Putin told reporters after his annual televised news conference. "But he is the absolute leader in the presidential race."
"He is a very outstanding person, talented, without any doubt."
Putin pours fresh scorn on Turkey
New York billionaire Mr Trump has spoken warmly about Mr Putin's tough approach to foreign policy in the past.
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On Wednesday, he contrasted himself with President Barack Obama when he said: "I will get along - I think - with Putin, and I will get along with others, and we will have a much more stable - stable world."
Mr Trump has also backed Russian intervention in Syria, because Mr Putin said his target was Islamic State.
Relations between Mr Obama and Mr Putin have chilled in recent years following disputes over Ukraine and Syria.
Donald Trump likes to issue boastful press releases whenever he receives a new endorsement, but it will be interesting to see how he handles kind words from Vladimir Putin.
The Russian president has been a regular target of rhetorical heat from Republican candidates. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said in the presidential debate earlier this week that he would impose a no-fly zone over Syria and shoot down any Russian planes that violated it. Former corporate chief Carly Fiorina has maintained that she would refuse to talk with the Russian leader, relying on US military force to speak for itself.
It is definitely too early to mark Mr Putin's comments as a negative for the New York businessman, however. The Russian leader has long been admired by conservatives who say his resolute demeanour and toughness are qualities lacking in the current White House occupant. Talk to Trump supporters, and they'll tell you those are exactly the kind of attributes they admire in their man.
If Mr Putin views Mr Trump as a political soul-mate, that's likely just fine with them.
The Russian president appeared to welcome Mr Trump's overtures.
"He wants to move to another level of relations, a closer, deeper level of relations with Russia," he said. "How can we not welcome this? Of course we welcome this."
He is a very outstanding person, talented, without any doubt
And he was unfazed by Mr Trump's recently proposed ban on Muslims entering the US, which sparked condemnation from several world leaders.
Mr Putin said "his phrases that he uses to increase his popularity" was not of Russia's concern.
"It is not our business to rate this part of his work," he added.
Mr Trump, who leads the polls six weeks before Republican primary contests begin, has yet to respond to Mr Putin's praise. | Russian President Vladimir Putin has described leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as "undoubtedly a very colourful, talented person". |
34,133,269 | MSPs passed legislation on 2012 which set a minimum unit price of 50p.
But European Court of Justice advocate general Yves Bot said the move risked infringing EU rules on free trade.
In an official opinion, he said it would only be legal if it could be shown no other mechanism could deliver the desired public health benefits.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomed the opinion, saying it confirmed that minimum unit pricing was not precluded by EU law.
The Scottish government, which has argued that minimum pricing is vital to address Scotland's "unhealthy relationship with drink", has been unable to implement the policy while the legal process is ongoing.
The Scottish legislation was challenged by the Scottish Whisky Association (SWA) in 2013, when it argued that it acted as a barrier to trade.
Its legal bid was initially rejected by judge Lord Doherty at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
What's happening in Scotland? Keep in touch through our live page.
But following an appeal hearing, the case was referred to the European court in Luxembourg last year.
In an opinion released on Thursday, Mr Bot said a minimum unit pricing (MUP) system risked infringing the principle of the free movement of goods and would only be legal if it could be shown that no other mechanism was capable of achieving the desired result of protecting public health.
He stated that "a Member State can choose rules imposing a minimum retail price of alcoholic beverages, which restricts trade within the European Union and distorts competition, rather than increased taxation of those products, only on condition that it shows that the measure chosen presents additional advantages or fewer disadvantages by comparison with the alternative measure".
The European court is expected to take up to six months to issue its final ruling, before the case is referred back to the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "We welcome this opinion, in which the advocate general confirms that minimum unit pricing is not precluded by EU law, but sets out tests that the national court has to apply.
"Importantly, this initial opinion indicates it will be for the domestic courts to take a final decision on minimum unit pricing.
"The advocate general finds that the policy can be implemented if it is shown to be the most effective public health measure available.
"As such, the legal process is ongoing and we await a final response from the European Court of Justice, before the case returns to the Scottish courts.
"While we must await the final outcome of this legal process, the Scottish government remains certain that minimum unit pricing is the right measure for Scotland to reduce the harm that cheap, high-strength alcohol causes our communities."
The Scotch Whisky Association welcomed the advocate general's opinion.
Chief executive David Frost said: "The opinion encourages us in our long-held view that MUP is illegal when there are less trade-restrictive measures available.
"We await the Court of Justice's final ruling."
Tennent Caledonian Breweries, which backs MUP, urged the Scottish government to "continue to show leadership".
Managing director Alastair Campbell said: "Minimum pricing is an important step in addressing the very specific but damaging problem of strong, cheap alcohol.
"It would be a lost opportunity for Scotland if it were not introduced."
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: "After two-and-a-half years the Scottish government has not been able to introduce minimum pricing and today's ruling from the European Court hardly makes matters any clearer.
"Assurances at the time that there was no legal case to answer were clearly overly optimistic.
"Even if minimum pricing does finally jump all the legal hurdles it is far from clear if it will then be supported by the European Commission."
Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie criticised the whisky body for "delaying the introducing of minimum pricing for alcohol".
He added: "The stymying of minimum pricing by a lobby group representing big drinks multinationals mirrors the tactics of the tobacco industry when it tried to stop life-saving legislation.
"Today's statement from the European Court is disappointing and we must hope that wiser heads prevail when the final judgement is issued." | Plans to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Scotland face further delay, following an initial ruling by Europe's highest court. |
38,636,018 | A dog walker found the animal trapped inside the bin on Friday in an area known locally as The Approach.
The cat - which has been named Dusty - had been left with a puppy blanket but no food or water.
It is now being looked after at the charity's animal rescue and re-homing centre and being treated for eye and ear injuries.
Scottish SPCA Inspector Geraldine Lawrie said, "Dusty is a very friendly and affectionate wee man so he's obviously belonged to someone.
"He's lucky that he was found by the member of the public whose dog took an interest in the bin.
"Dusty was inside the bin with the lid closed."
She said that a vet who had seen the cat was confident it would recover from its injuries.
"We are appealing for anyone who has any information, or noticed any suspicious activity to get in touch with our animal helpline on 03000 999 999," she said.
The Scottish SPCA said that abandoning an animal was an offence under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.
It said anyone found guilty of doing so could expect to be banned from keeping animals for a fixed period or for life. | The Scottish SPCA has appealed for information after a cat was found dumped in a recycling bin in Stranraer. |
36,227,083 | The Scot produced arguably his best performance of the season to record a first win over the Czech on clay.
Murray, who beat 16th seed Gilles Simon to reach the quarter-finals, won 92% of his first-serve points and denied eighth-seed Berdych any break points.
The world number two, 28, will face nine-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal in the last four.
Home favourite Nadal, who is looking for a third successive tournament victory following his wins in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, beat Portuguese world number 35 Joao Sousa 6-0 4-6 6-3.
Murray broke Berdych's first service game of the match and quickly established a 3-0 lead in the opening set.
World number eight Berdych managed to hold off another break opportunity at 5-2, but Murray won his next service game to take the set in 45 minutes.
Murray then broke Berdych's serve in the fifth game of the second set, before closing out the match with minimal fuss to complete the victory in one hour and 16 minutes.
The former Wimbledon and US Open champion says he is ready for a possible semi-final against Nadal, after training with the 14-time Grand Slam winner ahead of the tournament.
"You prepare to play against the best clay court player of all time and get yourself ready for that challenge mentally," he told BBC Sport.
"I practised with him in Mallorca for a few days, which was good.
"It's great practice, but you can see some things, as well."
Murray believes his game is in good shape ahead of the French Open, which begins on 22 May, after a remodelling of his second serve over the winter.
"It is easy to say hit the second serve harder, but sometimes you need to make technical adjustments and have coaching on that," he said.
"I had to make some changes to my serve, and I did a lot of research on it myself.
"I feel much more comfortable going bigger on the second serve, as there is a lot more spin on it.
"I can control the serve better, which frees me up to go more on my first serve as well." | Defending champion Andy Murray beat Tomas Berdych 6-3 6-2 to progress to the semi-finals of the Madrid Open. |
35,272,814 | Ibrahim Halawa, the son of the most senior Muslim cleric in the Republic of Ireland, was arrested during a siege on the Al-Fath mosque in Cairo in 2013.
The mass trial of Mr Halawa and more than 400 others began in March 2015, after being postponed five times since his arrest.
The 20-year-old could face the death penalty if he is convicted.
Mr Halawa was on a family holiday to his parents' homeland when he and three of his sisters were arrested by Egyptian security forces during a crackdown on protests in the country's capital.
He was 17 at the time.
His family said he had taken refuge in the building during violent clashes between supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi and the security forces.
His sisters were allowed to return to Dublin in November 2013.
The Republic's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, told RTE the adjournment is "a matter of serious concern". He said Ireland's ambassador in Egypt attended court and spoke with members of Mr Halawa's family.
The minister said the Department of Foreign Affairs is maintaining close and regular contact with Mr Halawa, as well as his family and Egyptian team.
Amnesty International has said it remains concerned for Mr Halawa's well being, and it has reiterated its call for his release.
It is the twelfth time legal proceedings have been adjourned since 2013. | The trial of a Dublin teenager held in an Egyptian prison for almost two years has been adjourned until March. |
33,425,353 | And in the early part of this year, much of the gossip among the shop owners and stall holders centred on the goings on, and the money to be made, not far away on the other side of the dirty old Huangpu River, at the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
"I hadn't done any stock market investments before," Lin Jinxia tells me, "but I was influenced by all the talk."
Ms Lin lives at the top of seven flights of stairs, the landings of which are littered with dusty old bicycles, in a tiny apartment with her husband and her four-year-old son.
They're migrant workers who arrived from Fujian Province five years ago and, through hard graft in their shop selling buttons to a bustling garment industry, they've saved themselves a tidy fortune.
Then in May this year they ploughed a large chunk of it into the stock market, investing more than 200,000 RMB ($32,000: £20,000) into four separate stocks.
It seemed a sensible enough spread with picks from the electronics, fashion and car-sales industries. But the timing was terrible.
They all tanked, collectively standing now at just half of their original purchase price, amounting to a combined loss for Ms Lin and her husband of 100,000 RMB.
"I've lost so much of the money that I've worked so hard for," she says. "Now I'm having to save and cut down on my spending. We don't earn much, it was all money from our hard work."
In China, unlike in the European or US markets, individuals make up around 80% of the investors.
Many of them are new and inexperienced, often following whim and rumour to make decisions and so the market is arguably more vulnerable to quick turnarounds in herd behaviour.
Having been marching share prices up the hill for well over a year, on 12 June the crowd suddenly veered back down again and three weeks later almost a third of the value - $3.2 trillion - had been wiped away in three short weeks.
Chen Zhihui's small tailors shop can be found - although not that easily - down a passageway close to Lin Jinxia's home.
And like his neighbour, he too acted on the advice of all those who had, until recently, been making nice fat paper profits, not realising he was entering the fray at the worst possible moment.
"To me, personally, I knew there were risks," he tells me from his tiny workspace with his sewing machine whirring away beside us.
He bought just one company, 10,000 RMB's worth of a Chinese steel-maker, only to find his shares suddenly trading at around half their original value.
And while his losses are relatively small, Mr Chen is well aware that in almost every other shop and home in this district and beyond, there are others in a similar predicament, or fearing that they soon might be.
"If everyone lost 5,000 RMB it could add up to a big amount," he says.
For many analysts that explains why the Chinese government has been so keen to stop the market sliding any further.
Once it saw a buoyant stock market as a key part of its strategic shift to a consumer society with rapidly increasing share ownership having the twin benefits of both recapitalising the country's big debt-laden firms and, at the same time, making the small punter feel richer.
Now the Communist party faces the frightening prospect of the very opposite effect; as savings vanish into thin air, millions of investors are simultaneously tightening their belts with potentially chilling impacts for the Chinese economy and beyond.
For now, it is only the late arrivals to China's stock market binge that have been burned, with the recent, sharp depreciation in value still comfortably outweighed by longer term gains going back a year and more.
But the slew of measures the authorities have unleashed in the past few days are part of an attempt - perhaps futile - to stop things getting any worse.
It has been criticised by outside observers, of course, as dangerous political meddling in the workings of the markets and their ability to put a proper price on risk.
But then, it could be argued, that exact same charge could be levelled at the attempts to pump up the markets in the first place.
Some analysts dismiss the fear that a full blown stock market collapse could precipitate a wider economic shock.
"The stock market is too small, too tiny, completely irrelevant," Chen Long, China economist at Gavekal Dragonomics tells me. "It accounts for just 5% of Chinese household wealth and anyway the market is still up on where it was last year."
Much more could yet be wiped off the value of Chinese shares, it would follow, before anyone needs to panic, least of all the government. So perhaps, if this view is correct, Beijing's actions are motivated by the need to contain the political fallout, rather than the economic.
In the middle of an already tricky slowdown in GDP growth the last thing it needs is hordes of mom and pop stock traders taking to the streets. And so far, at least, that part of the strategy might be working with little sign of any anger.
Despite her already heavy losses, Lin Jinxia's plan is to hang onto her massively devalued stock in the hope it rises again. "I believe the government will come up with the right strategies," she tells me.
Liu Changrong is a restaurateur, selling noodles, pork chops and sticky rice a block or so's walk from Mr Chen the tailor.
He is either canny or lucky, or both. "You just need to buy at the right point," he tells me.
He did exactly that, buying 200,000 RMB worth of shares in a large Chinese conglomerate last year and then selling them all in May, just below their peak.
He made a very nice profit indeed, coming out more than 50%. You might think that would be a good place to call it a day.
But despite the cautionary tales of his neighbours all around him he's still confident the government will turn things around.
"When the market improves, I'll get back in again," he tells me as he puts a big pan of water on to boil. | Shanghai's old town - with its narrow alleys, pungent street food and tiny single room homes - may be being swept away by new development, but enough of it remains to sustain a vibrant community. |
31,146,651 | The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says flying is not harmful during a low-risk pregnancy, but there may be side-effects.
If more than 28 weeks pregnant, a woman should take her medical notes and a GP's letter.
Many airlines have their own rules on when pregnant women can fly.
Although everyone who flies is exposed to a slight increase in radiation, there is no evidence that flying causes miscarriage, early labour or a woman's waters to break.
The changes in air pressure and the decrease in humidity on an aircraft have not been shown to have a harmful effect on pregnancy either.
If the pregnancy is straightforward, flying is not harmful to the woman or her baby, the RCOG leaflet says.
Previously, the advice for women with multiple pregnancies was that the safest time to fly was before 34 weeks, but this has been changed to 32 weeks to tie in with International Air Transport Association (IATA) recommendations.
After 37 weeks, a woman may go into labour at any time.
The leaflet gives advice on the side-effects of flying when pregnant.
These include swelling of the legs due to a build-up of fluid, nose and ear problems caused by changes in air pressure and motion sickness making any pregnancy nausea a little bit worse.
Long-haul flights of four hours or more can increase the risk of developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT), when a blood clot forms in the leg or pelvis, and pregnancy increases this risk even more.
The leaflet recommends that women wear loose clothing and comfortable shoes, take regular walks around the plane and do exercises in their seat every 30 minutes.
Cutting down on drinks containing alcohol or caffeine and wearing elastic compression stockings can also help.
In some circumstances, however, it is better to take the decision not to fly when pregnant.
For example, if a woman has an increased risk of going into labour before her due date, has severe anaemia, sickle cell disease, has recently had significant vaginal bleeding or has a serious heart or lung condition.
Philippa Marsden, chairwoman of the RCOG's patient information committee, said the information was relevant for pregnant women travelling both short and long-haul.
"To help decide whether or not to fly, women should think about how many weeks pregnant they will be, what facilities are available at their destination and whether it will increase their risk of medical problems.
"It is important to discuss any health issues or pregnancy complications with your midwife or doctor before you fly."
Cath Broderick, chairwoman of the RCOG women's network, said the guidance offered sensible recommendations.
"There is new advice around what to take on board the flight such as your pregnancy notes, documents confirming your due dates, a European Health Insurance card and any medication you are taking." | The safest time to fly during pregnancy is before 37 weeks or, if carrying twins, before 32 weeks, new advice says. |
38,093,737 | Kuba Moczyk, 22, was knocked out in the third round of Saturday's fight at the Tower Complex in Great Yarmouth.
His family said he died on Wednesday night at the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, where he had been in a coma on a life-support machine.
A minute's silence will be held for Mr Moczyk at a meet-and-greet event with Tyson Fury in Gorleston on Thursday night, local promoter Leon Docwra said.
"I've been on the phone to Tyson last night and this morning and he is just so shocked," said Mr Docwra.
More on this story and others from Norfolk
A hospital spokesman said Mr Moczyk's family had been at his bedside when he died and some of his organs had been donated for transplant.
Mr Docwra, who trained Mr Moczyk three years ago, said he had a "heart of gold".
He said: "I've spoken to Kuba's aunt and sister and they are absolutely devastated - they are a lovely, close family.
"He was never going to be a champion boxer - although he was very good - as he was so kind-hearted and did not have a vicious streak.
"To get into a ring was a big step and everyone was so proud of him."
Mr Moczyk, originally from Poland, worked at a chicken factory and lived in the town.
His trainer Scott Osinski said on Wednesday Mr Moczyk was winning the fight when he took the fatal blow.
His opponent is believed to be 17 years old.
Mr Docwra said he has now banned his own sons, aged 11 and 16, from boxing.
Norfolk Police has confirmed it does not plan to investigate.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council has said the venue was licensed to hold boxing events but environmental health officers would be investigating as health and safety concerns had been raised.
In a statement they said: "The onus is on event operators to ensure they have sensible health and safety arrangements including risk assessments in place and that these are followed."
The Tower Complex has been unavailable for comment. | A boxer who suffered a head injury in his first match has died. |
36,358,511 | Lincolnshire Police began an investigation after the allegations first came to light in January.
G4S took over the running of backroom services for the force as part of a £200m deal in 2012.
The workers are being investigated and are due be interviewed by G4S and Lincolnshire Police.
More on this and other local stories in Lincolnshire
Police said the staff involved are all former Lincolnshire Police employees who transferred to G4S four years ago.
G4S will deal with the matter under company disciplinary procedures after it was determined there was no basis for a criminal prosecution.
The company aims to answer 92% of all 999 calls within 10 seconds, and the firm is subject to financial penalties if performance targets are not achieved.
John Shaw, a G4S director, said: "While I can reassure the public that at no stage did the actions of these people put the public or police colleagues at risk, I am nevertheless dismayed that this group of staff sought to influence important performance measurements.
"There is no place for anyone in our organisation who behaves in this way."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been informed, and is assisting with the investigation.
G4S previously said it had exceeded its targets for 999 call answering.
The firm has been at the centre of several controversies.
In January, it sacked four of its staff following a BBC Panorama programme which exposed the alleged abuse of inmates at a young offenders' institution in Kent.
It was also stripped of responsibility for tagging criminals in the UK following allegations they charged the government for tagging people who were either dead or in jail. | Five 999 control room staff have been suspended amid claims workers made emergency calls at "quiet times" in a bid to improve call answering data. |
35,301,118 | The Australia-born forward, 27, had been touted as a possible England player, with Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter having discussed him with new national team boss Eddie Jones.
"Mitch is going to be out long-term," Baxter told the club website.
"It is a blow but any team in the Premiership has to be able to weather these things and get on with it."
Earlier this month, Baxter said it was unlikely that the club would bring in an extra second row to cover Lees' injury, which he picked up on New Year's Day.
Meanwhile, scrum-half Will Chudley, meanwhile, is unlikely to train this week after suffering minor ankle ligament damage.
Baxter hopes, however, that wing Jack Nowell's knee injury is "relatively short-term", allowing him to play for England in the Six Nations. | Exeter Chiefs lock Mitch Lees is set to miss about four months after having an operation on a bicep injury. |
28,103,320 | Mr Black, 52, a father of two from Cookstown, was shot dead on the M1 motorway as he travelled to work at Maghaberry Prison in November 2012.
Sean McVeigh, of Victoria Street, Lurgan, County Armagh, had been charged with his murder.
That charge and another of possessing an assault rifle with the intent to endanger life were dropped on Tuesday.
A lawyer from the Public Prosecution Service told Craigavon Magistrates' Court: "The charges in this matter are to be withdrawn.
"No prosecution has been directed."
District judge Mervyn Bates told Mr McVeigh that he was free to go.
"As far as this matter is concerned you may be released from custody," he said. "This case is now at an end."
Mr McVeigh is to sue the PPS and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for the time he has spent in custody.
When he was first arrested and charged in February, Mr McVeigh's lawyers had requested that the PPS review the case as they said there was no evidence against their client.
Two other people have been charged in connection with the murder of David Black. | Charges have been dropped against a man charged with the murder of County Tyrone prison officer David Black. |
34,660,159 | The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 198.09 points or 1.13% at 17,779.52, while the wider S&P 500 index added 24.46 points or 1.18% to 2,090.35.
The tech-focused Nasdaq index rose 65.54 points or 1.3% to 5,095.69.
Shares in Apple rose 4.1% to $119.27 after the tech giant released another strong set of results late on Tuesday.
Strong sales of iPhones helped Apple to report a 22% rise in fourth-quarter revenues to $51.5bn.
Shares in insurance group AIG rose 4.9% after activist investor Carl Icahn wrote an open letter to the company saying it should split itself into three. Mr Icahn also disclosed that he held a "large stake" in AIG. | (Close): US stocks veered downwards, then surged higher after the Federal Reserve held interest rates, but failed to rule out a December rate rise. |
40,387,090 | The BBC Sport website and app will stream the live radio and TV highlights from the Open, while a daily live text commentary will provide latest scores, analysis and the best of social media, plus up to six minutes of in-play video clips every day.
(All times BST)
Tuesday 18 July
13:45-14:45, BBC Two - Chronicles of a Champion Golfer
BBC Sport takes a look back at some of the most iconic Open Championship triumphs. This one-hour documentary focuses on the exploits of Tiger Woods, Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus, featuring first-person accounts from the American trio.
21:30-22:30, BBC Radio 5 live - The Open Preview Show
Wednesday 19 July
13:00-14:00, BBC Two - Chronicles of a Champion Golfer
This episode looks at the exploits of Darren Clarke, Sir Nick Faldo, and Rory McIlroy and promises to be a rollercoaster of emotions, not least with Clarke reliving his tearful 2011 triumph.
Thursday 20 July
10:00-12:30, BBC Radio 5 live
13:00-17:00, BBC Radio 5 live
17:30-19:00, BBC Radio 5 live
20:00-22:00, BBC Two - The Open highlights
Friday 21 July
10:00-12:30, BBC Radio 5 live
12:30-14:00, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra
14:00-17:00, BBC Radio 5 live
17:30-19:00, BBC Radio 5 live
20:00-22:00, BBC Two - The Open highlights
Saturday 22 July
12:00-19:00, BBC Radio 5 live
20:00-22:00, BBC Two - The Open highlights
Sunday 23 July
13:30-19:00, BBC Radio 5 live
20:00-22:00, BBC Two - The Open highlights
All times are subject to change. The BBC is not responsible for any that may be made. Also coverage on BBC Red Button can experience late schedule changes, so details may differ from this page. Further programmes and times will appear when confirmed.
You can view BBC Sport output as well as listen to our radio sports programming on the BBC iPlayer.
The BBC Sport website is available via desktop, mobile, tablet and app, giving fast and easy access to the live stream, reports and on-demand highlights of the day's action. The BBC Sport app is available free on Apple and Android devices.
National and regional variations have been included in this list where possible, but please check your local listings for more detailed information. | Follow live radio and online coverage plus TV highlights of the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale from 20-23 July. |
35,038,164 | Members of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board meeting on Tuesday backed a report recommending that services are left unchanged.
Staff shortages prompted the move, with services at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Denbighshire threatened.
The board said following a recruitment drive staffing levels have recovered.
The health board first put forward plans to change maternity care in autumn 2014, prompting widespread protests.
The preferred proposal would have seen maternity doctors from Glan Clwyd Hospital transferred to strengthen teams at Bangor's Ysbyty Gwynedd and Wrexham Maelor Hospital.
That meant Glan Clwyd would have only had a stand alone midwife-led maternity unit for low-risk pregnancies.
Campaigners were set to challenge the decision through the courts and the board began a fresh consultation process over the summer.
Deputy Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: "It has been important to give people certainty about the temporary options for women's and maternity services in north Wales.
"The approval of the recommendations by the board gives the public, staff, pregnant women and patients certainty for the immediate future."
For the Tories, Shadow Health Minister Darren Millar said it was "hugely welcome news and represents a victory for common sense".
The Clwyd West AM added: "It's now absolutely crucial that Labour ministers see through on their promise to swiftly establish the new neonatal intensive care centre for north Wales."
Addressing the board members, medical director Prof Matt Makin said services were becoming unstable in 2014.
"It was a challenge in recruiting middle-grade doctors and alarm bells were ringing," he said.
"We've kept things safe, but we have been managing things in critical incident mode.
"What's changed is that there's been a really big push in recruiting new staff. We appointed seven new consultants in late August."
Prof Makin said the recruitment meant "more boots on the ground" for maternity services.
The board unanimously backed the report recommendations, which also included rejecting temporary changes at either Ysbyty Gwynedd or Wrexham Maelor.
However, the board has also been warned that further work will be needed to "consider the long-term sustainable model" for maternity services.
The board is expected to consider a fresh report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on the issue in early 2016. | Plans to suspend consultant-led maternity care at one of north Wales' main hospitals have been scrapped, the health board has confirmed. |
38,958,511 | The 21-year-old former Portugal Under-19 international was most recently playing in non-league with Northern Premier League side Tadcaster Albion.
He spent one season at Barnsley but did not feature and also played in the Slovenian top flight for NK Celje.
"He's done well while he's been with us. He's lively and gives us something different," said boss John Coleman.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | League Two side Accrington Stanley have signed winger Erico Sousa on a free transfer until the end of the season. |
37,170,020 | A team looking like a fighter on the ropes, covering up for dear life and awaiting the sweet music of the final bell.
A clock that ticked so slowly that you thought on occasion that time had stood still.
A prize that was so close and yet so far away. Glory or despair - no Celtic fan who craved Champions League group stage football almost as much as they craved their next breath could be altogether sure which one it was going to be.
At the end, the cameras picked out some Celtic players and again the boxing metaphor seemed apt. There was joy, no doubt, but some of them looked too exhausted to celebrate. They were physically spent after playing two matches - the one against Hapoel on the pitch and the one against themselves in their heads.
Celtic wrestled with their own shortcomings all night and it must have been mind-altering. Their passing, defending, attacking and physicality. Nothing was easy. They had to dig deep to haul themselves across the line.
They did it, just. But 'just' is OK for now. 'Just' is absolutely fine when you've spent two years outside the Champions League watching the party with your nose pressed to the window.
They have many improvements to make, but they can think about them against the backdrop of Zadok the Priest - the soul-stirring Champions League theme song - rather than the death march that would have played on a loop had Tuesday gone wrong.
Celtic's recent history is littered with the names of men who have sickened them in the final minutes of European games, opposition players who capitalised on weakness and turned good Celtic nights into moderate ones and desperate ones.
Jo-Inge Berget for Malmo at Parkhead last season, Lasse Schone and Vaclav Cerny for Ajax in Glasgow and Amsterdam a few months later. Marcos Tavares for Maribor the season before. Jonathan Soriano for Salzburg, William de Amorim for Astra, Freddy Guarin for Inter.
Late goals that, mostly, turned Celtic wins into Celtic draws and Celtic draws into Celtic losses, all of the sucker-punches coming no more than 15 minutes from the end and the majority coming a whole lot closer to the conclusion than that.
The concession of late goals in Europe was a Ronny Deila curse and, in Israel, on Tuesday, it looked like the hex was about to transfer to his successor, too.
The endgame showed that Hapoel's dominance of possession stood at 62%. They launched a total of 21 attempts on Celtic's goal - three times Celtic's number. Uefa have a statistic for what they call dangerous attacks - Hapoel had 50, Celtic had 18.
Uefa also have possession stats. Celtic's inability to hold on to the ball was palpably obvious - and almost completely ruinous - in real time, but the numbers are worth a visit in any event. No starting Hapoel player had a passing accuracy of less than 70%.
Nobody will have much heart for beating up on Craig Gordon after his outstanding late save in the first leg and his penalty save in the second, but his distribution is something that Brendan Rodgers is looking at and his accuracy figure on Tuesday was 26%. Of the 10 goalkeepers in Champions League action on Tuesday night, Gordon was the least economical with the ball at his feet.
Kieran Tierney's number was 55%, Mikael Lustig 59%, Scott Brown 62%, Callum McGregor 63%, Scott Sinclair 65%, Saidy Janko 69%. They can be better. They'll have to be.
Celtic gave away a penalty (it was not a penalty, but it was given) and they survived it. They conceded a goal after 21 minutes that was farcically soft, then conceded another after 48 minutes that had the hallmarks of Chaplin and Keaton rather than Janko and Gordon.
Celtic were in freefall at 2-0. They gave Hapoel easy possession and free headers on goal, they gave them space and time and invitations to shoot. Celtic were out-played and out-muscled. It was as if the humidity had not just impacted on their ability to run and pass, but their ability to think.
But they did not cave, that was the difference, the change to the narrative. They found enough resilience and resistance, like that boxer on the ropes, ducking and diving and doing all they can to see it out.
For the past seasons it has seemed that all that mattered to Celtic people was getting back to the Champions League. Qualification was the be-all and end-all, but it isn't, not really, not to Celtic supporters.
They say that making the group stage is 'job done' and 'mission accomplished' and while that seems like enough right now, it won't necessarily feel that way to the fans when the smoke clears in the coming weeks. They will not expect last 16, but they will expect something. Some big nights, some wins, some glory.
Neil Lennon got a lot of love for bringing Celtic to the group stage in 2013-14 - and then a lot of grief when Celtic fared poorly against Barcelona, Milan and Ajax, winning just one from six. The feel-good of qualification dissipates. Rodgers knows that.
He will know that he needs to plug some holes in his team. He needs another option to Lustig at right-back and needs another passer, or two, in his midfield for those exacting, but thrilling, Champions League games to come.
On Tuesday night, given the drama, he might also have needed a blast of oxygen. He would not have been alone in having an unnatural heart-rate in those closing minutes. Celtic fans would have been forgiven for lapsing into hyperventilation, blowing into a bag on the full-time whistle while applying a wet towel to their brow.
It was that kind of night. The beauty for the club is that there is now a promise of more of them. | Celtic fans might not have expected it to be easy, but few could have thought it would be so hard. |
38,469,817 | The Spain-born winger had been tipped to switch international allegiance to his parents' homeland of Mali.
Brothers Sambou and Moustapha Yatabare are in the 26-man squad.
Crystal Palace winger Bakary Sako is included despite having played only 87 minutes for his club this season.
Mali have never won the Africa Cup of Nations. They were runners-up in 1972 and finished third in 2012 and 2013.
They were knocked out of the last tournament in the group stage but defender Hamari Traore believes the current generation have sufficient firepower to do much better in Gabon this time around.
"We know we are a young squad but we believe we can achieve success together as a team," Traore told BBC Sport.
"Mali have never won this tournament, that is the extra motivation for us to make a good impression.
"Yes there is no big star in our team because everybody is a star and that helps us mentally."
Mali are in Group D alongside four-time winners Ghana, Egypt and Uganda. Their opening match is against seven-time winners Egypt on 17 January.
The tournament kicks of on 14 January with the final on 5 February.
Mali squad:
Goalkeepers: Soumaila Diakité and Djigui Diarra (Stade Malien de Bamako), Oumar Sissoko (Orléans, France)
Defenders: Ousmane Coulibaly (Panathinaikos, Greece), Hamari Traore (Reims, France), Falaye Sacko (Vitória Guimarães, Portugal), Molla Wagué (Udinese, Italy), Salif Coulibaly (TP Mazembe, DR Congo), Mohamed Oumar Konaté (RS Berkane, Morocco), Charles Blonda Traoré and Mahamadou N'Diaye (Troyes, France), Youssouf Koné (Lille, France)
Midfielders: Yves Bissouma (Lille, France), Mamoutou N'Diaye (Royal Antwerp, Belgium), Lassana Coulibaly (Bastia, France), Yacouba Sylla (Montpellier, France), Samba Sow (Kayserispor, Turkey), Adama Traoré (AS Monaco, France), Sambou Yatabaré (Werder Bremen, Germany), Souleymane Diarra (Ujpest, Hungary), Moussa Doumbia (Rostov, Russia)
Forwards: Moussa Marega (Vitória Guimarães, Portugal), Kalifa Coulibaly (Gent, Belgium), Moustapha Yatabaré (Karabukspor, Turkey), Adama Traoré (TP Mazembe, DR Congo), Bakary Sako (Crystal Palace, England) | Middlesbrough winger Adama Traore has not been included in Mali's provisional squad for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations after opting not to commit himself to the West African country. |
40,393,025 | The 35-year-old former Oxford United man left Eastleigh by mutual consent in April after a seven-month stay.
A former Bristol Rovers trainee, Clarke has also previously played for clubs including Northampton Town, AFC Wimbledon and Forest Green Rovers.
"Ryan is a proven goalkeeper at this level and levels above," Torquay boss Kevin Nicholson told the club website. | National League club Torquay United have signed unattached, experienced goalkeeper Ryan Clarke. |
30,912,656 | PARA USA said it "regrets" working with Neeson after he said the proliferation of guns in the US was a "disgrace".
The company added that it would cut ties with the Taken franchise and urged other companies to do the same.
"There's just too many... guns out there," Neeson told Dubai's Gulf News last week. "Especially in America."
He continued: "I think the population is like, 320 million? There's over 300 million guns. Privately owned, in America.
"I think it's a disgrace. Every week now we're picking up a newspaper and seeing, 'Yet another few kids have been killed in schools.'"
Neeson made his comments in reply to a question about the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris earlier in the month.
The star, who took on the role of ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills in all three Taken films, said the gun problem was not connected to Hollywood's action movies.
"I grew up watching cowboy movies, loved doing that [gun gesture] with my fingers, 'Bang, bang, you're dead!' I didn't end up a killer," he said.
"A character like Bryan Mills going out with guns and taking revenge: it's fantasy."
PARA USA said Neeson's comments reflected a "cultural and factual ignorance that undermines support of the Second Amendment and American liberties".
On their Facebook page, the company added: "We will no longer provide firearms for use in films starring Liam Neeson and ask that our friends and partners in Hollywood refrain from associating our brand and products with his projects."
The latest film in the action Taken franchise, which sees Neeson's ex-CIA agent framed for the murder of a loved one, has topped the box office charts in both the US and the UK. | The firearms company that provided the guns for Liam Neeson's Hollywood movie Taken 3 has criticised the star for his comments about US gun laws. |
36,584,034 | The Office for National Statistics said borrowing, excluding support for state-owned banks, was £9.7bn in May, down £0.4bn from the same month last year.
It was the lowest May total since 2007, but economists had forecast £9.5bn.
The ONS revised down its estimate of the amount borrowed in the 2015-16 financial year to £74.9bn.
But for the financial year so far - covering April and May - borrowing has reached £17.9bn, £0.2bn higher than the same period a year ago.
Receipts from income, corporation and VAT taxes in May were all higher than a year earlier, but the government's total current expenditure also rose.
The ONS said that total public sector net debt - excluding banks - by the end of May stood at £1.606 trillion, the equivalent of 83.7% of gross domestic product (GDP).
The ONS says annual borrowing has been falling in general since the peak reached in the 2009-10 financial year.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which produces economic forecasts for the government, has estimated that the public sector will borrow £55.5bn during the financial year to March 2017; a reduction of about £20bn for the previous financial year.
Chancellor George Osborne has pledged to fix the public finances, and in March insisted that the UK was still on track to return a budget surplus by 2020.
But both the Treasury and Bank of England have said the economy has been hit due to uncertainty ahead of Thursday's EU referendum.
Capital Economics economist Scott Bowman said that the chancellor still "had a long way to go" to meet his projections.
"Admittedly, we would take the figures for the first few months of the fiscal year with a pinch of salt as they are often revised in time due to being largely based on forecast data.
"And if the UK votes to remain in the EU next month - as bookmakers' odds still suggest - then GDP growth should rebound in the second half of this year, paving the way for a more rapid improvement in the public finances," he added.
Ross Campbell, public sector director at accountancy industry body ICAEW, accused the chancellor of "taking his eye off the economic ball".
"Whatever the result on Friday morning, whether we remain in or leave the European Union, it is vital that government devises a comprehensive and rigorous strategy to kick-start a faltering economic recovery," he said. | Government borrowing fell slightly in May compared with the same month a year ago, according to official figures, but it was still higher than expected. |
32,201,429 | Ms Wood told BBC Breakfast she spoke fairly regularly to the Scottish first minister adding: "We're in touch via messaging as well, online."
The pair had not discussed potential future prime ministers, she said.
"It's not about personalities. It's about politics and policies," Ms Wood told the programme.
If the smaller parties hold the balance of power, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens would work to "present the alternative to austerity regardless as to who are the key people involved". | Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood keeps in touch with SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon via instant messaging in the run-up to the general election, she has revealed. |
26,461,833 | Addressing the company's annual reception in London on Wednesday, Ben van Beurden said he valued the "continuity and stability" of the UK.
He said the company had reached this view for the same reasons it supported the UK staying "inside the EU".
The Scottish government said an EU referendum was the "real risk" facing the oil and gas sector.
Last week, Shell hosted the UK cabinet at its headquarters in Aberdeen.
At the time, the chairman of Shell UK, Ed Daniels, said the independence debate was "a matter for Scottish people" and that "it would be wrong" for Shell to intervene.
Mr van Beurden's view on independence came on the day Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays both cited the Scottish independence referendum as a potential risk to their businesses.
In their annual reports, the banks listed the referendum alongside a raft of other perceived risks from the UK, Europe and across the world.
In his speech, Mr van Beurden said one of the "many things" the company valued about the UK was the "continuity and stability" it offered.
He added: "Yes, we're used to operating in uncertain political and economic environments. But, given a choice, we want to know as accurately as possible what investment conditions will look like 10 or 20 years from now.
"That's the chief reason we're in favour of the UK maintaining its long-established place at the heart of the European Union: it provides greater investment stability and certainty.
By Douglas FraserBusiness and economy editor, Scotland
So why are businesses speaking up now?
Partly, it's because this is a busy time of year for reporting financial results, and publication of annual reports, which require those risk registers to be made public.
But there's another factor. Several of the concerns raised about Scottish independence are within the context of greater concerns that UK voters could take the opportunity of a referendum to pull out from the European Union.
Three years out from that possible date with constitutional destiny, business is serving notice that it would make its presence felt in that fight.
And it may be wary that this May's European Parliament elections could build the momentum towards a referendum on the issue.
"But, as a global business with feet planted firmly on both sides of the Channel, we also believe that the UK's national interests are best served by a close relationship with Europe.
"The continent faces medium-term challenges - not least relating to its economic competitiveness. But we believe those challenges are best tackled - to the benefit of all - with the UK's voice loudly expressed and loudly heard inside the EU.
"It's for similar reasons that we'd like to see Scotland remain part of the United Kingdom.
"Shell has a long history of involvement in the North Sea - and therefore in Scotland - and we continue to invest more than a billion pounds there every year."
A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said: "The Scottish government agree with Shell that the real risk facing the oil and gas sector is the proposed in-out referendum on EU membership, which risks taking Scotland out of Europe with all the consequences for jobs, investment and prosperity that would entail.
"We would be happy to meet with Shell to discuss the future of the oil and gas industry in an independent Scotland.
"As Ed Daniels, chairman of Shell UK has acknowledged, the independence debate is a matter for the Scottish people. A recent Oil and Gas People poll showed that in fact, 70% of oil workers planned to vote for independence.
"Industry has significant confidence in the opportunities presented in the North Sea. Combined, operators, including Shell, have around £100bn worth of investment planned for the North Sea. And with more than half of oil and gas reserves by value still to be extracted, that investment will continue after independence.
"Shell is a company which already operates in more than 40 independent countries around the globe, and an independent Scotland with full control of its economy and huge resources will offer an attractive and stable environment for businesses in the offshore and other sectors."
Mr van Beurden's comments come after BP's chief executive, Bob Dudley, said he personally believed Britain "ought to stay together".
Speaking in response to Mr Dudley's remarks, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said he was "entitled to his personal opinion" but added that many other chief executives were firmly in favour of independence.
Interviewed on BBC Breakfast last month, BA group chief executive Willie Walsh said he thought Scottish independence would be a "positive development" for the company as he believed a Scottish government would abolish air passenger duty.
A spokesman for the pro-Union campaign Better Together said the latest big business interventions in the referendum debate showed independence would "cost jobs".
He added: "Shell is now the second key North Sea investor in a few weeks to call for Scotland to stay in the UK, following the intervention from BP's chief executive Bob Dudley.
"The best way to preserve jobs and to make the most of depleting North Sea oil and gas reserves, without allowing the volatility of the tax we get risking public services, is to take advantage of the broad shoulders of the larger UK economy.
"What we have seen in recent days is some of the largest employers and investors in Scotland outline big problems with Alex Salmond's independence obsession."
James Cook, BBC Scotland correspondent: "There is the battle of Britain and then there is the battle of Brussels.
"One is nearly upon us but the other may not be that far off, and both are exercising business.
"Scotland will vote on leaving the United Kingdom on September 18 and, if the Conservatives win the 2015 general election, David Cameron says Britain will vote on leaving the European Union before the end of 2017.
"Campaigners for independence say too little attention has been paid to the latter possibility.
"They point to comments from the chief executive of the engineering giant, GKN, Nigel Stein, who said this week that Scottish independence would make no difference to his company while the prospect of leaving the EU would be "deeply harmful".
"But opponents of independence point to a string of companies which appear less relaxed about the prospect of Scottish secession. Bosses from Standard Life, BP, RBS and Lloyds have all raised concerns in recent weeks.
"In the boardrooms, both battles are getting into full swing.
"Their outcome will shape the future of Scotland, Britain and Europe."
Glenn Campbell, BBC Scotland political correspondent: "When Shell hosted David Cameron's cabinet in Aberdeen last week, the company's UK chairman, Ed Daniels, stressed that the decision on independence was for Scottish voters and that it would be "wrong" for Shell to intervene in the debate.
"It seems that the chief executive of the global company takes a different view.
"In scripted remarks to those attending Shell's annual reception in London, Ben van Beurden made clear that he would prefer Scotland to "remain part of the UK" and for the UK to stay in the European Union.
"Most of his comments addressed the EU dimension ahead of elections to the European Parliament in May and a possible in/out referendum on UK membership in 2017.
"The Scottish government said this was the "real risk" to jobs , investment and prosperity in the North Sea and offered to meet Shell to discuss its plans for Scottish independence within the EU.
"It has set up an expert commission to review the tax and regulation options for the oil and gas sector in the event of a "yes" vote in September's independence referendum.
"The chief executive of BP, Bob Dudley, previously said he personally thought Britain "ought to stay together". Shell's boss appears to have expressed a corporate view.
"While Mr van Beurden made Shell's constitutional preferences clear, he also pointed out that the company works in far less stable political and economic environments around the world and said it continues to invest around a billion pounds a year in North Sea oil and gas operations." | The chief executive of the oil company Shell has said he would like Scotland to "remain part of the UK". |
31,549,057 | Incentives to attract trainees to rural or deprived parts of Wales - and to persuade older GPs not to retire early - are called for by the health and social care committee after an inquiry.
But it added that GP training may need extending from three to four years to handle the complexity of the job.
"We all have higher expectations about the care we should receive," said committee chair David Rees.
The Welsh government said it would respond "in due course". | More young doctors need to be trained as GPs to solve shortages, AMs say. |
33,986,593 | Visitors have been leaving vehicles illegally in passing places on roads or parking badly on verges near the Fairy Pools and the Quiraing.
Officers from Police Scotland's Lochaber and Skye division have posted messages on Twitter about the problems.
In one police warned: "If your car causes an obstruction it may be towed away."
"Park safe," officers said in another of their tweets.
The Fairy Pools are a series of waterfalls and pools that give views of Skye's famous Cuillin hills.
The Quiraing is part of the Trotternish Ridge which was formed by a series of massive ancient landslips.
The Quiraing was the largest of the slips. | Police have been highlighting parking problems at some of the Isle of Skye's most popular tourist destinations. |
39,765,536 | Massimiliano Allegri's side had won all 17 home league games this season but that record looked like ending when Adem Ljajic curled home a free-kick.
The visitors had Afriyie Acquah sent off for a second yellow card in the Turin derby.
But Argentine striker Higuain smashed in a low finish on 91 minutes to preserve their unbeaten home record.
The £75m summer signing had started the game on the bench, but gave on-loan Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart little chance with his 32nd goal of the season.
Despite gaining a draw, the result meant Juventus' run of 33 successive home league wins came to an end.
With three games remaining, Juve are eight points clear at the top of the table ahead of second-placed Napoli and 10 points in front of Roma who have a game in hand.
Match ends, Juventus 1, Torino 1.
Second Half ends, Juventus 1, Torino 1.
Foul by Medhi Benatia (Juventus).
Andrea Belotti (Torino) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Goal! Juventus 1, Torino 1. Gonzalo Higuaín (Juventus) right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Miralem Pjanic.
Attempt missed. Adem Ljajic (Torino) right footed shot from outside the box is too high from a direct free kick.
Foul by Mario Mandzukic (Juventus).
Juan Iturbe (Torino) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Alex Sandro (Juventus).
Juan Iturbe (Torino) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Corner, Juventus. Conceded by Luca Rossettini.
Substitution, Torino. Juan Iturbe replaces Iago Falque.
Attempt missed. Kwadwo Asamoah (Juventus) left footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Mario Mandzukic.
Hand ball by Adem Ljajic (Torino).
Foul by Stephan Lichtsteiner (Juventus).
Emiliano Moretti (Torino) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Juventus. Alex Sandro replaces Paulo Dybala.
Paulo Dybala (Juventus) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Iago Falque (Torino).
Attempt saved. Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Miralem Pjanic.
Corner, Juventus. Conceded by Andrea Belotti.
Attempt blocked. Juan Cuadrado (Juventus) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Miralem Pjanic.
Juan Cuadrado (Juventus) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Juan Cuadrado (Juventus).
Andrea Belotti (Torino) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Torino. Joel Obi replaces Daniele Baselli because of an injury.
Attempt missed. Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Paulo Dybala.
Attempt blocked. Sami Khedira (Juventus) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Leonardo Bonucci with a cross.
Attempt blocked. Gonzalo Higuaín (Juventus) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Leonardo Bonucci.
Attempt missed. Gonzalo Higuaín (Juventus) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Kwadwo Asamoah.
Substitution, Juventus. Miralem Pjanic replaces Tomás Rincón.
Attempt missed. Sami Khedira (Juventus) left footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Paulo Dybala.
Foul by Medhi Benatia (Juventus).
Iago Falque (Torino) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt saved. Daniele Baselli (Torino) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Corner, Juventus. Conceded by Luca Rossettini.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Andrea Belotti (Torino) because of an injury.
Substitution, Torino. Marco Benassi replaces Lucas Boyé.
Attempt missed. Tomás Rincón (Juventus) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Leonardo Bonucci with a headed pass following a corner. | Gonzalo Higuain's injury-time equaliser rescued a point for Serie A leaders Juventus against 10-man Torino. |
33,001,212 | Ed Burnett, 43, designed Gloriana for a huge parade up the Thames during the jubilee celebrations in 2012.
Police said he was found dead at his home in Totnes, Devon on 26 May and there were no suspicious circumstances.
Tributes have been paid by colleagues and friends to the "fiercely intelligent and astonishing" man.
A pageant of more than 1,000 boats involving some 20,000 people sailed down the Thames on 3 June 2012 to mark the Queen's 60 years on the throne.
Mr Burnett was also one of the rowers on board the 94ft (28.6m) barge as it led the Queen and Prince Philip up the Thames.
Mr Burnett ran a yacht design business in Totnes and had been a member of the local rowing club for several years.
Former club chairman Peter Rouse said: "He was an enormously accomplished naval architect, one of the leading timber boat architects in the world.
"He contributed to and improved every area of the club; he was really capable and talented and it's a tremendous loss.
"Everyone who knew him is absolutely devastated."
Damian Byrne, project manager for building Gloriana, paid tribute to Mr Burnett, saying: "There are notable naval architects practising today who declare an understanding for classic shapes, but few have shown the understanding of the subtleties of form that deliver a classic timeless vessel."
Mr Burnett's death has been referred to the coroner. | A naval architect who designed the Queen's Jubilee barge has been found dead at his home, police have confirmed. |
32,477,545 | Wax has written a best-selling book called Sane New World and starred in a theatre show of the same name.
She is also patron for the British Neuroscience Association and supports mental health charities.
Wax is best-known for fronting TV documentaries and interviews as well as script editing the hugely successful Absolutely Fabulous.
Her OBE will be an honorary British award for foreign nationals.
She started her career as an actress, including time with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Having experienced clinical depression herself, Wax studied for a Masters degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from the University of Oxford in 2013.
Her mental health work has included speaking at Downing Street to raise money for neuroscience research.
Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford, said: "Ruby's campaigning reveals her rare skill of being able to speak of the deepest and most painful things with openness, wisdom and humour, bringing acute observations and fresh perspectives to a field that badly needs them." | Broadcaster and campaigner Ruby Wax will be awarded an OBE for her services to mental health. |
33,541,081 | An investigation took place after the newborn boy's body was discovered on 23 June.
Officers are still appealing for the mother to come forward to ensure she receives proper medical attention and is safe and well.
Det Insp Mark O'Shea urged her to contact her GP or midwifery team. | Detectives investigating the discovery of a baby's body in Cardiff's River Taff have released photographs of a sheet and towel used to wrap him in. |
40,599,398 | The vote reduces the chances of the president appearing in the dock.
But it is non-binding and still needs to be approved by the full parliament. The public prosecutor has said he will instigate new corruption charges.
Earlier ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he would seek re-election despite a corruption conviction.
Mr Temer was charged last month, accused of plotting to receive bribes from the boss of a giant meatpacking firm. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The final decision on whether he is tried by the Supreme Court lies with parliament, who is expected to vote on the matter within days.
In order for Mr Temer to face prosecution two-thirds of the 513 deputies in the lower house need to approve the charges against him. The government is confident it has sufficient votes to block an eventual trial.
The charges on Thursday were the first of several against the president made by Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot, who has said he will present more in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile former President Lula gave his first public reaction after being convicted of corruption charges and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison.
Vowing to appeal, he called the case politically motivated and said he plans to run for president in 2018.
"If anyone thinks that with this move against me they have taken me out of the game, they are wrong, I am in the game," he said.
Despite the conviction, and four more upcoming trials, Mr Lula remains a popular figure. | A congressional committee in Brazil has voted against recommending President Michel Temer be tried in the Supreme Court on corruption charges. |
37,138,951 | The 18-year-old forward came off the bench to strike the ball past Trotters keeper Mark Howard from 20 yards.
And another Charlton sub Brandon Hanlan could have won it right at the death, but his header hit the side-netting.
Bolton had taken the lead through Gary Madine in the 53rd minute after good work from Liam Trotter on the wing.
The late equaliser will disappoint Bolton boss Phil Parkinson, who was making his first return to the Valley since being sacked by Charlton in 2011.
Both sides could have gone into the break a goal up with Charlton's Jason Pearce heading wide from a free-kick, and David Wheater seeing his effort cleared off the line and onto the crossbar.
There was a lengthy stoppage of play at the start of the second-half as Bolton's Mark Davies was stretchered off after landing awkwardly when making a tackle.
Despite the late setback, Bolton remain unbeaten in the league and stay top of League One.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Charlton Athletic 1, Bolton Wanderers 1.
Second Half ends, Charlton Athletic 1, Bolton Wanderers 1.
Attempt missed. Nicky Ajose (Charlton Athletic) right footed shot from more than 35 yards is close, but misses to the left.
Attempt missed. Brandon Hanlan (Charlton Athletic) header from more than 35 yards is close, but misses to the right.
Ademola Lookman (Charlton Athletic) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jay Spearing (Bolton Wanderers).
Goal! Charlton Athletic 1, Bolton Wanderers 1. Ademola Lookman (Charlton Athletic) left footed shot from outside the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Andrew Crofts.
Substitution, Charlton Athletic. Brandon Hanlan replaces Josh Magennis.
Attempt saved. Josh Magennis (Charlton Athletic) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Corner, Charlton Athletic. Conceded by Jay Spearing.
Jason Pearce (Charlton Athletic) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Conor Wilkinson (Bolton Wanderers).
Substitution, Bolton Wanderers. Conor Wilkinson replaces Gary Madine.
Attempt blocked. Andrew Crofts (Charlton Athletic) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Ademola Lookman (Charlton Athletic) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Attempt missed. Josh Magennis (Charlton Athletic) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high.
Substitution, Bolton Wanderers. Andrew Taylor replaces Jamie Proctor.
Foul by Josh Magennis (Charlton Athletic).
Mark Beevers (Bolton Wanderers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt blocked. Ademola Lookman (Charlton Athletic) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Corner, Charlton Athletic. Conceded by Lewis Buxton.
Foul by Chris Solly (Charlton Athletic).
Jamie Proctor (Bolton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Corner, Charlton Athletic. Conceded by Lewis Buxton.
Substitution, Charlton Athletic. Ademola Lookman replaces Kevin Foley.
Corner, Charlton Athletic. Conceded by Jay Spearing.
Ricky Holmes (Charlton Athletic) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Josh Vela (Bolton Wanderers).
Patrick Bauer (Charlton Athletic) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Jamie Proctor (Bolton Wanderers).
Foul by Morgan Fox (Charlton Athletic).
Gary Madine (Bolton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Ezri Konsa Ngoyo (Charlton Athletic) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Jamie Proctor (Bolton Wanderers).
Foul by Ezri Konsa Ngoyo (Charlton Athletic).
Chris Taylor (Bolton Wanderers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Goal! Charlton Athletic 0, Bolton Wanderers 1. Gary Madine (Bolton Wanderers) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Liam Trotter.
Attempt saved. Josh Magennis (Charlton Athletic) right footed shot from more than 35 yards is saved in the centre of the goal.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Substitution, Bolton Wanderers. Chris Taylor replaces Mark Davies because of an injury. | Bolton's 100 per cent start to the season came to an end as a 90th-minute stunner from Ademola Lookman earned Charlton a point. |
33,105,848 | Dhoni is the only Indian athlete on the magazine's annual sporting rich list.
The magazine reports that Dhoni earned US$31m dollars (£19.98m) in the past 12 months.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather earned US$300m (£194m) to top the list, and his rival Manny Pacquiao is in the second spot with $160m (£103.4m).
The third place went to Portugal and Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo with his earning of $79.6m (£51.4m).
Dhoni retired from Test cricket at the end of 2014, handing over captaincy to Virat Kohli. But he is still the captain of India's ODI and Twenty20 teams.
He is India's most successful captain and is hugely popular among millions of fans around the country.
He took India to the semi-final of the ODI World Cup in March this year, but lost to eventual champions and hosts Australia.
Pundits say his popularity makes him "a brand ambassador of choice" for many forms.
That explains the breakup of his earnings. The batsman made $4m in salary and winnings, and the rest came from endorsements, reports Forbes.
Click here for full list
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. | Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been ranked 23rd in Forbes magazine's list of the world's highest-paid athletes. |
24,039,036 | A deal with the National Aeronautical Centre (NAC) in Wales will see aircraft tested for military or civilian use.
The NAC, which has authority to fly drones, said it was attracted to Newquay because its 3,000m runway is bigger than in Wales.
Testing will take place in a 3,000 sq mile segregated area for unmanned aircraft over the sea.
Ray Mann, from the National Aeronautical Centre, said: "We fly about three or four missions a day in west Wales.
"We have a 1,200m runway, but Newquay has one of the longest runways in the UK which is a huge advantage."
The NAC's agreement could see a number of its clients, which include the Ministry of Defence and Thales, operate their aircraft from Newquay.
Mr Mann said the firm was attracted by the prospect of office, hangar and security at the Aerohub enterprise zone, launched there in 2012.
He predicted huge growth in the sector with demand for drones in fisheries protection, air sea rescue and border controls, as well military use.
"We have to recognise where the sector is going," he said.
"We know there is demand and we have to be prepared to meet that."
Al Titterington, managing director of Newquay Cornwall Airport, said: "The UK aerospace industry has a major opportunity in the UAS (Unmanned Air Systems) market but first it must develop, demonstrate and prove that systems and sub-systems can contribute to ensuring safe and reliable operations, whilst being properly regulated." | Unmanned aircraft, or drones, could soon be flying out of Newquay Airport in Cornwall. |
38,203,019 | The man died at the scene after he crashed into a field near Lubenham, Leicestershire, shortly before 13:00 GMT.
The light aircraft went on to land safely after the incident near Market Harborough.
Leicestershire Police has launched a joint investigation with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
A police spokesman said: "From initial enquiries carried out at the scene, officers believe the glider had been in collision with a light aircraft prior to coming down in the fields.
"The man on board the glider has been pronounced dead at the scene."
A stretch of Laughton Road is closed and is expected to remain so until Monday. | A glider pilot has died in a mid-air collision between a glider and a light aircraft. |
36,472,434 | The Lisa Pathfinder satellite was sent into orbit to test elements of the laser measurement system that would be used on a future observatory.
Performance objectives were exceeded on the very first day the equipment was switched on.
"During commissioning, the requirements were being met already," co-principal investigator Karsten Danzmann said.
"We hadn't tweaked anything; we'd just turned everything on to see if the laser was running and, bang, there it was. And the performance has just got better and better ever since," he told BBC News.
There is currently enormous excitement around gravitational waves - the ripples in space-time generated in cataclysmic cosmic events, such as the merger of black holes and the explosion of giant stars.
The existence of these phenomena was first confirmed last year at the Advanced Ligo facilities in the US.
They picked up a very subtle disturbance in their laser interferometers as waves from far-distant, coalescing black holes passed through the Earth.
The success has been lauded as one of the great scientific breakthroughs in decades.
Ripples in the fabric of space-time
Researchers would like to take this same capability into space itself, to be able to observe the waves that are generated by types of event which are beyond the sensitivities of ground laboratories.
The coming together of gargantuan black holes as whole galaxies crash into each other is the kind of source this future mission would target.
But before so expensive a venture is approved, it has to be shown that the key technologies can work on the scale proposed. Hence, the European Space Agency's (Esa) Lisa Pathfinder mission.
The satellite was launched in December equipped with a single instrument designed to measure and maintain a 38cm separation between two small gold-platinum blocks.
These "test masses" were unclamped once in orbit and allowed to go into free-fall inside the spacecraft. A laser interferometer - in essence a very precise ruler - was then set the task of tracking the cubes' behaviour.
The results of this metrology experiment have now been detailed in a paper in the journal Physical Review Letters.
"Our requirement was that we had to measure the position of the test masses to nine picometres per root hertz, and our on-orbit performance is actually about 30 femtometres - so we're about a factor of 300 better than requirements," explained Esa project scientist Paul McNamara.
To put those numbers in more user-friendly terms: a picometre is a millionth of a millionth of a metre; 30 femtometres is tinier still, equivalent to about the diameter of a couple of gold atom nuclei.
The laser instrument has witnessed the smallest of accelerations in the test masses, such as those resulting from the impact of residual gas molecules still bouncing around inside Pathfinder in the vacuum of space.
"We see relative accelerations lower than a 10th of a millionth of billionth of Earth's gravity," said Dr McNamara.
"It's a very quiet environment; there's no seismic noise, there's no machinery switching on and off, no-one walking past. It's a perfect lab that we're in."
All this gives confidence that a mission proper to measure gravitational waves in space will work.
This would be done by sensing the ripples' very delicate disturbance of gold blocks separated not by 38cm, as in Pathfinder, but by a few million km; and across three spacecraft flying in formation.
It is this configuration that would make the future mission, dubbed simply Lisa, able to detect the long-wavelength, low-frequency signals that are beyond the range of Earth facilities like Advanced Ligo.
"With Lisa Pathfinder we have learnt not only to walk but to jog pretty well. So, we are now ready for the big marathon, to do the big race," said senior Esa official Fabio Favata.
"We haven't been sitting still. The technology on Lisa Pathfinder is key, but the agency has also been working on other technologies that will enable us to carry out this future mission."
Laser science: Measuring the distance between gold blocks
Lisa, or whatever name it is eventually given, is tentatively scheduled for launch in 2034 (although this could come forward).
Esa is currently in discussion with its US counterpart, Nasa, about a collaboration.
"Nasa has established a study team to see just how the US could participate," said study chair David Shoemaker from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Clearly, there's a bit of a dance to figure out what best comes from the US versus Europe. It's a question of working out where skills lie, and how the US fits into the plan developing in Europe.
"We're aware that the Europeans really want to firm up the way the mission is divvied up by the end of the calendar year, and so that sets a timescale for the discussions, between the scientists on both sides of the Atlantic and between the heads of the agencies which are starting to get more lively."
The success of Lisa Pathfinder is a fillip to British academia and industry.
The universities of Glasgow, Imperial College London, and Birmingham provided core parts of the instrument, while the satellite itself was assembled at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage.
Building Pathfinder was a painstaking process. Its own gravity could have disturbed the experimental blocks and so the layout had to be very carefully designed so that the tugging force exerted by the onboard equipment was evenly balanced in all directions.
"Our mass log in Stevenage where we wrote down what everything weighs has 10,000 entries," said Airbus programme manager Christian Trenkel. "We are very proud of what we have achieved."
[email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos | The mission to demonstrate technologies needed to detect gravitational waves in space has been a stunning success. |
40,618,294 | Peter Whittingham, Rickie Lambert and Emyr Huws have already left the Championship side.
Wingers Craig Noone and Anthony Pilkington, plus left-back Declan John could also be surplus to requirements at Cardiff City Stadium.
"There's players who won't be here at the start of the season," Warnock confirmed.
"Fans might guess without me telling them really. I don't envisage going with more than about 21 or 22 players this year."
Pilkington scored the winner in Friday's pre-season friendly against Taffs Well in which four of the club's new arrivals made their Cardiff debuts.
Winger Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, striker Danny Ward and midfielder Loic Damour all had a run-out against the Welsh League Division One side in a game that doubled as a charity event.
"Thanks to all the fans because it was a super night," Warnock added.
"I'm pleased for our lads as well, because when you're a pro and you come to a non-league club like Taffs Well you could get a wrong attitude.
"If you get a wrong attitude that's when you get injured, so I was pleased with our lads and it was a great night all round." | Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock says he will trim his squad further before the new season begins. |
35,503,790 | The West Yorkshire Combined Authority has agreed a total business flood recovery fund of £5m.
It said grants could include cash to repair or buy new equipment, pay to restore flood-hit premises or help with relocation costs.
The fund will be managed by the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership.
The money will come from the area's regional growth fund allocation from the government for 2016/17.
The city region area covers the 10 local authority areas of Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Selby, Wakefield and York.
It is believed around 2,000 businesses were damaged by the flooding in December.
Peter Box, chair of the combined authority, said: "I know how devastating it has been for many small and medium businesses and the knock-on effect for those companies that are suppliers or customers of those flood-hit firms."
Mr Box said he accepted the money would only "scratch the surface" and said the combined authority would continue to press for continuing support for flood prevention measures from the government.
He said the grants, which would range from £5,000 to £100,000, would be in addition to financial support already offered for flood clean-up costs by local authorities. | Grants of up to £100,000 are to be made available to support business in West Yorkshire hit by flooding over Christmas. |
31,087,545 | The man in charge of the Pisa tests, Andreas Schleicher, says the evidence from around the world reveals some big myths about what makes for a successful education system.
Teachers all around the world struggle with how to make up for social disadvantage in their classrooms. Some believe that deprivation is destiny.
And yet, results from Pisa tests show that the 10% most disadvantaged 15-year-olds in Shanghai have better maths skills than the 10% most privileged students in the United States and several European countries.
Children from similar social backgrounds can show very different performance levels, depending on the school they go to or the country they live in.
Education systems where disadvantaged students succeed are able to moderate social inequalities.
They tend to attract the most talented teachers to the most challenging classrooms and the most capable school leaders to the most disadvantaged schools, thus challenging all students with high standards and excellent teaching.
Some American critics of international educational comparisons argue that the value of these comparisons is limited because the United States has some unique socio-economic divisions.
But the United States is wealthier than most countries and spends more money on education than most of them, its parents have a higher level of education than in most countries, and the share of socio-economically disadvantaged students is just around the OECD average.
What the comparisons do show is that socio-economic disadvantage has a particularly strong impact on student performance in the United States.
In other words, in the United States two students from different socio-economic backgrounds vary much more in their learning outcomes than is typically the case in OECD countries.
Integrating students with an immigrant background can be challenging.
And yet, results from Pisa tests show no relationship between the share of students with an immigrant background in a country and the overall performance of students in that country.
Even students with the same migration history and background show very different performance levels across countries, suggesting that where students go to schools makes much more of a difference than where they come from.
South Korea, the highest-performing OECD country in mathematics, spends well below the average per student.
The world is no longer divided between rich and well-educated countries and poor and badly-educated ones. Success in education systems is no longer about how much money is spent, but about how money is spent.
Countries need to invest in improving education and skills if they are going to compete in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy.
And yet, educational expenditure per student explains less than 20% of the variation in student performance across OECD countries.
For example, students in the Slovak Republic, which spends around $53,000 (£35,000) per student between the age of 6 and 15, perform on average at the same level at age 15 as the United States which spends over $115,000 (£76,000) per student.
Everywhere, teachers, parents and policy-makers favour small classes as the key to better and more personalised education.
Reductions in class size have also been the main reason behind the significant increases in expenditure per student in most countries over the last decade.
And yet, Pisa results show no relationship between class size and learning outcomes, neither within nor across countries.
More interestingly, the highest performing education systems in Pisa tend to systematically prioritise the quality of teachers over the size of classes. Wherever they have to make a choice between a smaller class and a better teacher, they go for the latter.
Rather than putting money into small classes, they invest in competitive teacher salaries, ongoing professional development and a balance in working time.
There is a conventional wisdom that sees a non-selective, comprehensive system as designed to promote fairness and equity, while a school system with academic selection is aimed at quality and excellence.
And yet, international comparisons show there is no incompatibility between the quality of learning and equity, the highest performing education systems combine both.
More from the BBC's Knowledge economy series looking at education from a global perspective
None of the countries with a high degree of stratification, whether in the form of tracking, streaming, or grade repetition is among the top performing education systems or among the systems with the highest share of top performers.
Globalisation and technological change are having a major impact on what students need to know.
When we can access so much content on Google, where routine skills are being digitised or outsourced, and where jobs are changing rapidly, the focus is on enabling people to become lifelong learners, to manage complex ways of thinking and working.
In short, the modern world no longer rewards us just for what we know, but for what we can do with what we know.
Many countries are reflecting this by expanding school curriculums with new school subjects. The most recent trend, reinforced in the financial crisis, was to teach students financial skills.
But results from Pisa show no relationship between the extent of financial education and financial literacy. In fact, some of those education systems where students performed best in the Pisa assessment of financial literacy teach no financial literacy but invest their efforts squarely on developing deep mathematics skills.
More generally, in top performing education systems the curriculum is not mile-wide and inch-deep, but tends to be rigorous, with a few things taught well and in great depth.
The writings of many educational psychologists have fostered the belief that student achievement is mainly a product of inherited intelligence, not hard work.
The findings from Pisa also show this mistaken belief, with a significant share of students in the western world reporting that they needed good luck rather than hard work to do well in mathematics or science. It's a characteristic that is consistently negatively related to performance.
Teachers may feel guilty pushing students who are perceived as less capable to achieve at higher levels, because they think it is unfair to the student.
Their goal is more likely to be enabling each student to achieve up to the average of students in their classrooms, rather than, as in Finland, Singapore or Shanghai-China, to achieve high universal standards.
A comparison between school marks and performance of students in Pisa also suggests that teachers often expect less of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. And those students and their parents may expect less too.
This is a heavy burden for education systems to bear, and it is unlikely that school systems will achieve performance parity with the best-performing countries until they accept that all children can achieve at very high levels.
In Finland, Japan, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong, students, parents, teachers and the public at large tend to share the belief that all students are capable of achieving high standards.
Students in those systems consistently reported that if they tried hard, they would trust in their teachers to help them excel.
One of the most interesting patterns observed among some of the highest-performing countries was the gradual move away from a system in which students were streamed into different types of secondary schools.
Those countries did not accomplish this transition by taking the average and setting the new standards to that level. Instead, they "levelled up", requiring all students to meet the standards that they formerly expected only their elite students to meet.
In these education systems, universal high expectations are not a mantra but a reality. | Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says she wants England to get into the top five of the international Pisa tests for English and maths by 2020. |
20,431,655 | Andrew Wilkinson, chair of governors at Newport, and Prof Julie Lydon, vice-chancellor of Glamorgan, will fill those posts at the new body in 2013.
The name of the new university is expected to be revealed in December.
Plans were abandoned earlier this month to force a three-way merger with Cardiff Metropolitan University, which opposed the idea.
The announcement from Glamorgan and Newport follows a due diligence exercise to ensure there were no legal or financial barriers to their merger.
It comes after a drive led by the Welsh government to rearrange higher education in Wales to create a smaller number of larger universities.
Officials claim the new institution will rival Cardiff University in terms of size and provide the scale to produce additional benefits for students, staff and the local economy whilst also developing a global profile.
Prof Lydon said: "Our two universities have set in train a plan to create a new and exciting institution for south Wales.
"While both institutions have strong histories in the communities of south Wales, together we will be stronger than the sum of our parts and have an opportunity to enhance significantly the educational and training landscape of south-east Wales for the benefit of its people, communities and businesses."
Independent research on suitable names for the new university is said to be almost complete, with an announcement due in December.
Education Minister Leighton Andrews announced earlier this month that he was dropping consultation on a three-way union, including Cardiff Met, in order to allow Glamorgan and Newport to press ahead with their merger.
But he stressed at the time it was still his desire to see a single "super-university" for south-east Wales combining all the region's post-1992 universities. | Two universities which are merging in south Wales have named the senior figures to lead the new institution. |
29,044,793 | The 20-year-old former England Under-19s captain rejected a new contract offered by his home county.
He has played 24 first-class matches, scoring 1,288 runs at an average of 39, and taking 16 wickets.
"It's been tough to leave the county that has given me my start in pro cricket, but it's time to take the next step forward," Thakor said.
A Leicestershire club statement said they were "disappointed" by the decision, but would not be making any further comment.
Derbyshire elite performance director Graeme Welch said: "He is a versatile player who can contribute with both bat and ball across all three formats.
"He has shown for Leicestershire that he is a top player with England potential. The sky is the limit for the lad and I'm sure he will have a successful future in Derbyshire colours."
Thakor added: "I had several options on the table but, having met with Graeme Welch and the management team, it was an easy decision to join a progressive club like Derbyshire.
"The way he talked with passion about the club, its plans for the future and the role he sees me playing was too good an opportunity to turn down." | Leicestershire all-rounder Shiv Thakor is to join Derbyshire on a two-year deal at the end of the season. |
31,775,016 | The Northern Irishman had just pulled his approach shot into the water on the par-five eighth hole - and sent his long iron after it in frustration.
McIlroy, 25, carded a two-under 70 to lie one under for the tournament.
That leaves him eight shots adrift of leader JB Holmes, who shot a one-over 73 to add to his opening-round 62.
McIlroy's missed cut at last week's Honda Classic was his first since June 2014. He described it as a "kick in the backside".
Speaking at the end of Friday's round, he said he should not have thrown his club into the water.
McIlroy said: "It felt good at the time but now I regret it. Frustration got the better of me.
He told Sky Sports: "Following on from last week, I feel like it's very close and to hit shots like that you get frustrated, but I shouldn't have done what I did."
American Holmes found the water four times and carded a double bogey on the final hole of his second round.
Countryman Ryan Moore is two shots adrift of Holmes after a second-round 71, while Australian Adam Scott another stroke behind. | World number one Rory McIlroy threw one of his clubs into a lake during his second round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Miami. |
39,977,510 | Media playback is not supported on this device
But success will not only be measured on scorecards at Britain's biggest golf gathering outside the Open Championship.
This is a huge week for the European Tour as they use the Wentworth tournament to launch an elevated strata of events designed to compete with the might of the PGA Tour.
And be in no doubt, the American circuit's influence continues to grow. It is relentlessly dominant and ready to make its already wealthy players even richer.
So, on this side of the pond, the £5.4m Wentworth extravaganza needs to succeed as it tees up the newly branded Rolex Series of elite events on the European Tour.
This week should prove a turning point after recent PGAs left disgruntled players muttering about the West Course's suitability to hold such tournaments.
"There were murmurs a couple of years ago if we didn't do something drastic that the Tour could look elsewhere," Stephen Gibson, Wentworth's CEO, told BBC Sport.
"I don't think they have reason to now."
Gibson has overseen more than £5m worth of investment, which has been poured into renovating the West Course over the past year.
All 18 greens have been relaid with 007 creeping bentgrass, while sub-air technology, as used at Augusta, has been installed under every putting surface to control moisture.
Defending champion Wood agrees. The Bristolian shot nine under par to claim the biggest title of his career, and is convinced a lower score will be required for a successful title defence.
"I hope the changes don't affect my results too much," said a smiling Wood, who has been a consistent Wentworth performer in recent years.
"But they are really good changes and the big thing is the condition of the greens. They really needed looking at and you can't fault them.
"The greens are a shot easier purely because of the surfaces and I think the bunkers are not so severe."
There are 25% fewer bunkers, and those that remain are shallower and easier to get out of.
"Guys can hit irons onto the greens now instead of having to lay up," Wood told me.
"And that feeds back to the tee, where people will think, 'actually, I don't mind going in that bunker now, so I'll be a little bit more aggressive with my drive'. I can see lower scores."
Wood does not see any problem with that, but back in 2009 it was felt the West Course had become too easy.
Ernie Els' design team sought to toughen up the layout where the average winning score had been nearly 15 under. In the following seven years, that average fell to 11.6 under despite An Byeong-hun's record 21-under victory in 2015.
The changes were unpopular. Wentworth lost its charm and became a slog for anyone other than the best players.
Now it is more like its old self, and Wood believes players and fans will be delighted.
"You finish with two par-fives and there should be the opportunity for a birdie/eagle finish to change the tournament and that's not really been there the last few years," he said.
"For people watching, that takes away a lot of the drama and entertainment, so I'm quite happy to see lower scores."
European Tour boss Keith Pelley concurs.
"I think people love to see birdies, love to see long drives," he told BBC Sport. "In terms of the score, I'm not fussed by that."
Fans will see the biggest changes on the eighth, 11th, 14th and 16th greens, which have been completely remodelled.
The biggest improvement is at the eighth, where the putting surface has been lowered closer to the water level in front and left of the green.
A ludicrously deep bunker to the right has disappeared and is replaced by subtle mounding, more in keeping with the original design ethos.
"We created something which I believe is what the players wanted, and brought it back to that old Harry Colt design with some modernisation to it," Pelley added.
"The professionals say it is far more playable. It is definitely an elite golf course but also I think the members will really enjoy playing it."
Most important will be whether the new design provides a fitting stage for one of the tour's biggest tournaments.
It has attracted a strong field but Rory McIlroy's absence through a recurrence of his rib injury is a big blow.
His initial commitment was significant because the world number two gave immediate and vocal backing to the concept of the new Rolex Series, even though he is a paid ambassador for a rival luxury watchmaker.
Now the series will begin in the absence of the tour's biggest star, but it helps that July's Irish Open, backed by McIlroy's charitable foundation, also features, as do the French, Scottish, Italian and Turkish Opens.
"We want to say, 'look we play in iconic cities and great venues'," Pelley added. "The golf course itself is absolutely critical and that's why the changes at Wentworth were so imperative."
Creating a viable alternative to the PGA Tour is Pelley's primary objective, and he remains optimistic about the progress being made.
"Maybe you don't have to go to America," he said.
"When you look at the fields for our Rolex Series events compared to the previous years, the strength of field is stronger across the board. That's a positive sign."
But the competitive environment becomes no easier for Pelley and his Wentworth-based colleagues.
The PGA Tour recently unveiled a massive new deal for their FedEx Cup play-offs which currently carries a $10m (£7.7m) first prize.
"Just wait until we announce the increase in prize money," a leading official told me last week. "It will blow your mind."
Furthermore, the Florida organisation has pitched its stars and stripes in the European Tour's backyard by opening an office in central London.
This is aimed at making it easier to further develop sponsor ties and broadcast deals on Pelley's turf.
Be under no illusion, this is a vital week for his European Tour to demonstrate its wares and put on a tournament fit for the world's best, regardless of how low the scoring might be. | Defending champion Chris Wood predicts lower scoring at this week's PGA Championship at Wentworth. |
34,789,536 | James Purnell was responding to criticism by the Welsh ministers of a "lamentable" lack of English language drama and comedy for TV viewers in Wales.
He told a media conference in Cardiff "Wales loves the BBC".
But he acknowledged the BBC's spend was lower here than in the other nations.
The Welsh government said it had "real concern" about funding in its response to consultation on the future of the BBC.
In August, First Minister Carwyn Jones called for an extra £30m to be spent on BBC programming for Welsh audiences.
This was echoed by the IWA in its audit on the state of the media in Wales.
The audit found that spending on TV programming for Wales has been in decline since before the 2008 banking crisis, while BBC Wales' English language television service has seen a 27% reduction in hours of programmes since 2006-07.
"Tough" licence fee settlements imposed by the UK government in 2010 and 2015 "threaten" both BBC Wales and S4C, said the audit.
The report was published to coincide with the IWA's 2015 media summit, addressed by Mr Purnell.
He said the BBC had reduced overall spend on content while others had not plugged the gap.
But he added that the issue of reduced Wales content on TV was an issue for all broadcasters, not just the BBC.
After praising the spend of network productions in Wales he said "the next challenge was how to crack portrayal" of Wales.
Meanwhile, the IWA also warned S4C risked entering a "cycle of decline" unless its funding was sustained.
The IWA also recommended:
Analysis: TV, radio, newspapers and online
IWA - media audit 2015 in full
The IWA found Welsh newspaper circulations had "dropped sharply" since its last media audit in 2008, in line with global trends.
However, the decline had been "more than matched by the growth in usage of newspaper online sites".
A Welsh government spokesperson said it did not believe the time was right for a media advisory panel because it was still awaiting the outcomes of the BBC Charter review, "our ongoing engagement with the UK government about S4C" and consideration of the recommendations of the Silk and Smith Commissions on further devolution.
Follow @huwthomas and #IWAMedia on Twitter | The BBC's director of strategy said the broadcaster was "absolutely committed to addressing the needs of audiences in Wales". |
40,317,341 | Seven sailors were left missing and three injured after Saturday's collision, which the US Navy said almost sank the destroyer.
The US Navy said rescue workers found the bodies on Sunday after gaining access to damaged parts of the ship.
It said they will be taken to a Japanese hospital to be identified.
The incident took place some 56 nautical miles (104km) south-west of the Japanese port city of Yokosuka, at about 02:30 local time on Saturday (17:30 GMT Friday).
Japanese broadcaster NHK said the collision led to the flooding of the crew's sleeping quarters while they were asleep.
USS Fitzgerald crash: In pictures
"The damage was significant," 7th Fleet commander Vice-Admiral Joseph P Aucoin said. "There was a big gash under the water." Repairs would take some time to complete, he said.
At a press conference in Japan on Sunday, Vice Adm Aucoin would not confirm how many remains had been found so far. Families of the sailors are being notified, he said.
"This loss is something we all feel," he said.
Marine traffic records suggest the ACX Crystal, a 222-metre (730ft) Filipino-flagged container ship, made a sudden U-turn roughly 25 minutes before the crash. It is not known why it changed course.
Similar records for the USS Fitzgerald are not publicly available.
The Navy ship's starboard side was heavily damaged in the collision, but the vessel later managed to slowly return to its base in Yokosuka, with the assistance of US navy tug boats.
Japan's coastguard said the ACX Crystal had a gross tonnage of just under 30,000, about three times that of the USS Fitzgerald.
It sustained lighter damage to its port bow.
The Associated Press agency said there were no injuries reported among the 20 Filipino crew members on board the ACX Crystal.
It remains at port in Tokyo. | Sailors missing after the USS Fitzgerald collided with a container ship off Japan have been found dead, the US Navy and Japanese media says. |
38,175,542 | The 2013 British and Irish Lions tourist recently signed a new contract at English Premiership Gloucester, the club he joined from Ospreys in 2014.
The 32-year-old has not played for Wales since scoring a try in the 21-35 defeat by Ireland in a World Cup warm-up match in August 2015.
But when asked if he still had international ambitions, Hibbard said: "You're never too old."
Hibbard was left out of Wales' squad for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
His chances of adding to his 38 caps will have been made harder by the Welsh Rugby Union's senior player selection policy which means only three players who play outside Wales can be picked.
He has played 11 times for Gloucester so far this season in all competitions and has scored four tries in his 58 appearances for the club and had no hesitation in signing a new deal.
"I'm excited by the brand of rugby we've been playing this year," added Hibbard, who was part of the successful British and Irish Lions side which secured a series win in Australia in 2013
"It's faster, more physical in defence and I find it a real good brand. I've enjoyed playing it and it was a no brainer in the end.
"I feel I'm playing alright. There's always more and there's always improvements and I'll keep striving for them." | Hooker Richard Hibbard says he has not given up on playing for Wales. |
12,800,887 | The announcement came after tens of thousands of people turned out at funerals for dozens of protesters shot dead on Friday.
Earlier, Yemen's ambassador to the UN became the latest official to resign in protest at the killings.
At least 45 people were killed on Friday after gunmen in civilian clothes fired on an anti-government rally.
Despite firing his government, President Saleh has asked the cabinet to remain in place until a new one could be appointed, Yemen's official news agency reported.
President Saleh has faced a string of resignations over Friday's crackdown, which have caused widespread anger in Yemen.
The resignation by Yemen's ambassador to the UN, Abdullah Alsaidi, followed those of the ministers for human rights and tourism, several senior ruling party officials, the head of the state news agency, and the Yemeni ambassador to Lebanon.
Protests: Country by country
Mourners in the capital, Sanaa, gathered on Sunday in a square near Sanaa University.
The university was at the centre of Friday's crackdown, and bodies of many of the victims were laid out as people paid their respects.
Opposition parties joining the procession said they had changed their position from a demand for political reform to a demand of President Saleh's departure, the Associated Press news agency reported.
"This is an acknowledgment of the failure of the security in repressing the revolution, and the crowds that came out today are a signal of the readiness to put forth more sacrifices," said opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabry.
Demonstrations were also reported in several other regions.
President Saleh declared a state of emergency following Friday's shootings, which he denied had been carried out by his security forces.
But opposition accused the president of presiding over a "massacre".
President Saleh has been in power for 32 years. He has recently been challenged by a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda, and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.
He has promised political reforms and said he will not seek another term in office in 2013, but has also vowed to defend his regime "with every drop of blood". | Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has fired his cabinet amid continuing protests against his rule. |
37,256,623 | Ronald Burton was convicted of lewd and libidinous behaviour towards one boy, who was aged between 11 and 13, from 1994 until 1996.
The 60-year-old, from East Kilbride, was also convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in 2014.
At the High Court in Glasgow, a judge told now-retired Burton that he had acted "disgracefully" towards the boys.
Lady Stacey told him: "You abused the trust that the children had in you."
Burton, who maintains his innocence, showed no emotion as he was led handcuffed to the cells.
His lawyer said he had been a "gifted" teacher, but that his reputation now "lay in tatters".
The court was previously told that Burton had taught maths and had been an assistant principal teacher.
The jury heard that he got to know the first victim around 1994 when he was in first year and later went on to abuse him.
The abuse ended when the boy was around 15.
The victim told the court: "I ended up thinking I was the one in the wrong."
Burton later moved schools and eventually abused a second boy.
The teacher was reported to police after the first victim told he felt "worthless" and later confronted Burton.
In his closing speech, prosecutor Paul Kearney described Burton as "highly manipulative" in carrying out "systematic sexual abuse".
Burton had faced other charges including claims he raped the second victim and also tried to hypnotise him, but these were dropped by prosecutors. | A teacher who sexually abused two pupils at South Lanarkshire secondary schools has been jailed for six years. |
40,553,668 | Ramsay was joint runner-up behind Spain's Jon Rahm at Portstewart, while Drysdale was in a group a shot further back after his course-record 63.
That booked both Scots places at next week's Open at Royal Birkdale.
Drysdale described his own finish as "just awesome" and Ramsay said he was "very proud of myself".
Ramsay finished six shots behind Rahm alongside England's Matthew Southgate but was just happy to be challenging considering the Spaniard "played some fantastic golf".
"I am massively pleased," said Ramsay, whose final-round 65 was matched by the winner. "It was a tough last few weeks after missing the cut in France.
"But I hung around and ground it out over the weekend and worked hard.
"I am a big believer that, if you work hard, success will come and this year it has taken longer than it should do.
"I have managed to get there in the end and it was great to play - and to play to win."
Drysdale fired seven birdies in a row at the end of his nine-under-par final round to finish on 17 under along with England's Justin Rose, Daniel Im of the United States and New Zealand's Ryan Fox.
"I don't know what happened there," he admitted. "I just seemed to hole putt after putt and hit some good shots quite close.
"They just kept going in. Fantastic.
"I thought it was going to be quite tough going out this morning and thought two or three under par would be a good score.
"But I just went on that run from 12 onwards."
Drysdale, who described qualifying for The Open as "tremendous", also had a top-20 finish the previous week in France and is now looking forward to the Scottish Open at Dundonald Links near Troon, where play begins on Thursday.
"Hopefully we'll get some nice weather - the last couple of weeks have been a bit wet," he added.
"But the last couple of weeks have been good and I've done some great work.
"I've been striking the ball well and just working hard as usual." | David Drysdale and Richie Ramsay are exuding confidence as they return home for this week's Scottish Open after top-class finishes to the Irish Open. |
35,940,070 | The concert in Carnegie Hall was announced on 10 January as a retrospective of Bowie's life.
But hours later, the singer's family announced his death from cancer. The concert then quickly sold out.
Among the acts performing were the Flaming Lips, the Pixies, Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper and former REM singer Michael Stipe.
Demand was so high that a second concert was added for Friday night at Radio City Music Hall. It will be broadcast online.
David Bowie obituary
Bowie's life in pictures
"God bless David Bowie," Jakob Dylan said after performing one of the singer's most recognized songs, Heroes.
Another of his hits, Starman, brought the crowd to its feet, in a performance by Blondie leader Debbie Harry. Heart's Ann Wilson got the audience moving with Let's Dance.
The Flaming Lips performance saw singer Wayne Coyne wearing a suit of lights sat atop the shoulders of a band mate dressed as Chewbacca to sing Life on Mars.
But Cyndi Lauper's version of Suffragette City and Laurie Anderson's take of Always Crashing in the Same Car seemed to have failed to impress the public.
Other hits such as Rebel, Rebel and Life on Mars, and some more obscure songs, were also performed.
Carnegie Hall was where Bowie made his New York debut in 1972, a city where he would live for 20 years.
The annual tribute concerts, that have previously focused on acts including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell, were set up to raise money for charity.
Organisers were overwhelmed by requests by performers keen to take part after Bowie's death.
"We felt kind of awkward because we are usually so humbly grateful to anyone who wants to participate in this," producer Michael Dorf said.
One scheduled act, hip-hop band The Roots, pulled out of the shows on Thursday, after accusing another unnamed group of refusing to allow them to use their equipment. | An all-star tribute concert to David Bowie, announced shortly before he died, has been held in New York. |
12,271,690 | It is re-examining evidence about the News of the World following suggestions that the practice was widespread.
Meanwhile, former MP Paul Marsden says he may take legal action against another newspaper group, Trinity Mirror, over alleged phone-hacking.
Trinity Mirror said its journalists worked within the law.
Last week, David Cameron's chief of communications Andy Coulson resigned following continued speculation about phone-hacking at the News of the World when he was editor.
He resigned from the paper when royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed for intercepting the voicemails of royal aides, but said he had no knowledge that phone-hacking had been going on.
The practice was then said to be the work of just one "rogue reporter", but subsequently a number of high-profile figures have claimed they were also victims and lawyers have suggested hacking was widespread.
Prompted by these claims, the Crown Prosecution Service agreed to re-examine all the evidence gathered by police, and on Monday Keir Starmer QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said that inquiry would be widened.
In a statement, he said "any evidence resulting from recent or new substantive allegations" of phone-hacking would be "subject to the same rigorous assessment" as material previously gathered in the case.
He said he had asked Alison Levitt QC to "take a robust approach with a view to advising whether the Metropolitan Police Service should carry out any further investigation or deciding whether any prosecutions can be brought".
The allegation by Mr Marsden, former MP for Shrewsbury, is the first specific claim to be made against a newspaper other than the News of the World.
He has told the BBC he believes he may have been a victim of hacking by a journalist working for a Trinity Mirror title in 2003 and is considering taking legal action.
Trinity Mirror owns three London-based national newspapers - the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People.
"We have started those legal inquiries with a specific journalist and also the Mirror Group," Mr Marsden said.
"If it turns out to be true I would like it exposed in a court of law. I want to know the truth."
Trinity Mirror, owners of the Daily Mirror, said in a statement: "Trinity Mirror's position is clear. Our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct."
Mr Marsden defected from Labour to the Lib Dems in 2001, following a series of rows over his opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan.
Elsewhere, the BBC's business editor Robert Peston has learned that executives at News International - owners of the News of the World - are conducting their own extensive investigation to determine how widespread phone-hacking was at the paper.
They are currently trawling through tens of thousands of emails sent and received by the suspended head of news Ian Edmondson, and if any other staff members are implicated they will also be suspended, our correspondent says.
If any more victims are identified they will be offered out-of-court compensation, and any evidence of criminal wrongdoing will be passed to the police, he adds. | The Crown Prosecution Service says it will expand its review of phone-hacking allegations to include any fresh claims made by potential new victims. |
35,932,954 | Three children aged about eight attacked the owl at the Guisborough Forest and Walkway on 30 March.
Neil Thirkell from the centre, said instead of intervening, the adults they were with watched and laughed.
The £300 preserved owl replaced a previous bird which was stolen.
Mr Thirkell said: "It's just really sad that the kids think it is ok to do that and the parents think it is funny, that just encourages the children more."
"A lot of places have their animals behind glass but we wanted people to be able to touch and feel the animals.
"Sadly we may now have to reconsider that."
He said the parents "tutted" and walked away after a volunteer at the centre told the children to stop.
The owl, which was stuffed after being killed by a car near the centre two years ago, is part of a wildlife display which also includes a squirrel, hedgehog, badger and fox.
People have condemned the conduct of the children and their parents on social media.
One woman said: "How disgraceful, no wonder there is a lot of violence around now. Some parents have no control."
Another said: "Disgusting behaviour from both kids and parents." | Parents accused of laughing as their children repeatedly punched a stuffed owl at a visitor centre have been criticised online. |
26,587,357 | The 44-year-old man was taken to hospital in stable condition on Friday morning. Another man is in police custody but has not been charged.
A spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs told the BBC there was no indication the attack was "politically motivated".
The Russian Embassy in Canada has declined to comment on the incident.
Police and paramedics were called shortly before 09:00 local time (13:00 GMT) on Friday to a residential building in a neighbourhood of Canada's capital with several embassies.
The victim, who paramedics believed was intoxicated, was in the lobby of the building when they arrived and initially refused treatment, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
He had been stabbed in the arm and the back and was transported to hospital for treatment. | A Russian diplomat was found stabbed following a drunken quarrel in Ottawa, Canada, according to local media. |
39,220,869 | Kris McDowell, 18, from Coronation Street in Cefn Mawr, died on 31 May last year.
The adjournment will allow the family's solicitor to appoint an expert witness to report on the condition of the railing Mr McDowell was holding on to.
A new date has not yet been set.
North Wales East and Central coroner John Gittins also said he would give consideration to summoning a jury for the hearing.
The inquest was first opened in June. A post-mortem examination had given chest trauma as the provisional cause of Mr McDowell's death.
He was found at the base of the 120ft (36m) tall aqueduct. | An inquest into the death of a teenager who fell from the aqueduct at Froncysyllte, Wrexham, has been adjourned for more evidence to be gathered. |
32,724,318 | Much of this will feel familiar to anyone watching the UK economy over the past few years but, in the months ahead, that pattern may soon start to change.
As I noted on Monday productivity growth (the amount of output produced per-hour-worked) will be one of the key challenges for the UK economy over the next five years, in some ways it is the key challenge.
Since 2007 productivity has been broadly flat and employment has surged in recent years as firms have required more workers to produce more output rather than getting more from their existing staff.
In effect, economic growth has been generated by increasing the inputs (hours worked) rather than increasing the efficiency with which those inputs are used. The problem with this is that eventually the economy will run into a constraint, it will simply run out of additional workers to employ and, without an increase in productivity, output growth will hit a wall.
Unemployment was fallen from 8.5% in late 2011 to 5.5% today - its lowest level since the recession. The number of economically inactive people (neither employed nor actively looking for a job) has also declined sharply. It may be that the UK is approaching the point when it begins to run out of workers.
Estimating exactly when that point will be reached is tricky - it maybe that there is "hidden slack" in the labour market , people currently working part-time who want a full-time job, or some of the newly self-employed who would rather have a traditional employee position. Immigration, through providing new workers, can also ease the constrains on businesses.
While economists debate about the degree of "slack", the indicator to watch may be well wages. All things being equal, the tighter the labour market is the higher wage growth should be. In a tight market, with firms competing to employ workers, then wages should be nudged up.
Throughout 2011, 2012, 2013 and much of 2014 despite falling unemployment and falling inactivity rates wage growth remained extremely muted. But in recent months it has become to pick up.
Most of the growth in real wages (wages accounting for changes in inflation) since late 2014 has been a result of falling inflation rather than rising nominal wages. But that isn't the whole story. Nominal (cash terms) regular pay growth has picked up from 0.9% a year in August last year to 2.2% in today's figures. In the private sector regular pay growth is now running at 2.7%, up from 1.6% a year ago.
That sport of wage growth - given the absence of an improvement in productivity - suggests a tighter labour market.
So, what happens if the labour market continues to tighten and productivity growth continues to disappoint?
That outcome would be far from good. In the short run those in work would enjoy larger real wage boosts as earnings were pushed up by a tighter labour market. But, without productivity growth, firms would face a larger wage bill for any given level of output and so be forced into increasing prices. The real wage gains wouldn't last for long.
For all the worries about deflation and falling prices in the UK over the past year, it isn't (especially given the rebound in the oil price) hard to envisage a scenario where the lack of productivity growth makes rising inflation a bigger threat. If that was the case then interest rates would rise far quicker than currently expected.
It may seem perverse to be fretting about higher inflation when consumer price inflation is at zero, nominal earnings growth at half of their historical levels and real wages still heavily down on where they were in 2008. But that could be the consequence of a continuing productivity shortfall.
Productivity growth - it can't be emphasised enough - is crucial to what happens next in the UK economy. The other thing that can't be emphasised enough is that there is still no single agreed reason as to why productivity has been so weak.
One theory of weak productivity may be about to be tested and, if it is correct, there is far fewer reasons to be concerned.
The traditional way to think about productivity and real wages, is that weak productivity has led to weak real wages. Without the ability to get more out of their employees, firms haven't had the room for the sort of wage rises that were seen as normal pre-2008.
There are, though, those who argue that the relationship is the other way around. When demand fell during the recession of 2008/09 the UK's flexible labour market meant that, rather than unemployment soaring, wages fell. The rise in unemployment was much smaller than in previous recessions and the hit to wages much larger.
This may (and it's still just a "may") have incentivised the growth of businesses that relied on lower-waged work lowering overall productivity growth. This sort of "compositional effect", according to the Bank of England today, has been a drag on productivity.
In addition, faced with cheaper workers, firms may have decided to hold back on investing in new equipment, plant and machinery - why bother investing in getting more out of your existing workforce if it's cheaper to just hire some additional workers?
If the labour market really has tightened, then - if this theory is correct - one might expect that productivity gains will follow wage gains rather than leading them. In other words, faced with more expensive workers, firms may have to focus on increasing productivity and raising investment in capital equipment. That would be a much more benign outcome - high employment, faster wage growth and rising productivity.
Over the coming months, the next stage in the UK's productivity puzzle will be played out. | Another day, another strong set of employment growth figures from the Office for National Statistics and another downgrade in productivity forecast from the Bank of England. |
23,475,230 | The Public Administration Committee said the statistics were "not fit for purpose" and did not accurately assess how many non-UK residents were entering and leaving the country.
The MPs recommended finding new ways to gather migration information.
But immigration minister Mark Harper defended the statistics as "accurate" and "very robust".
Labour said the home secretary needed to look at how to measure immigration more accurately "as a matter of urgency".
In the year to June 2012, immigration was estimated at 515,000 while emigration was estimated at 352,000, putting net migration - the difference between the number of people entering and leaving the country - at 163,000.
The Conservatives want to reduce the net migration figure from non-EU countries to under 100,000 a year by 2015.
But the MPs warned that current net migration statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Home Office were "blunt instruments" and were "not adequate for understanding the scale and complexity of modern migration flows".
In particular, the MPs criticised the main source for producing migration figures - the International Passenger Survey (IPS).
It was designed in the early 1960s to examine tourism trends and is based on "random interviews" with travellers both arriving and departing at ports and airports.
The Office for National Statistics takes the raw IPS data and adds information about asylum seekers and migration statistics from Northern Ireland, as well as figures for people who have entered the country on short-term visas and decided to ask to extend their stay, before arriving at a final immigration figure.
The Public Administration Committee said just 5,000 migrants a year were identified through the survey and it had a "large margin of error".
It said the migration estimates based on the IPS were "too uncertain" to accurately measure progress against the government's net migration target.
And the IPS failed to gather the type of information needed to work out the social and economic consequences of migration, such as demand for the NHS or schools, the MPs said.
Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin said: "Most people would be utterly astonished to learn that there is no attempt to count people as they enter or leave the UK.
"As an island nation, with professional statisticians and effective border controls, we could gain decent estimates of who exactly is coming into this country, where they come from, and why they are coming here.
"As it is, the top line numbers for the government's 100,000 net migration target are little better than a best guess - and could be out by tens of thousands."
The committee said migration figures could be considerably improved if the Home Office and ONS properly recorded and linked the data they already gathered.
It also called for the e-borders system - which once operational is expected to collect details from passenger lists of all people entering and leaving the UK - to be implemented as quickly as possible.
Alp Mehmet from Migration Watch, which campaigns for tighter controls of immigration, backed the committee's findings, saying the current way of counting migration was not precise enough.
He told BBC News: "We need to have more interviews overseas. We need to have immigration officers on embarkation controls. We need to bring back common sense into the whole immigration system rather than relying on sample numbers that are no good to man nor beast."
But Mark Harper, the immigration minister, urged people to trust the ONS's methods.
"They're the experts in collecting data," he told BBC Radio 4's World This Weekend. "We know that we're issuing fewer visas for people coming to the United Kingdom....
"We're also getting the right people coming here. So we've reduced overall net migration by a third, but we've actually increased the number of skilled workers coming here."
The government had "rooted out the students who are bogus", he added.
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant said the government's figures were "a bit dodgy".
"What they should be doing is having a system of counting people in and out," the Labour MP said, adding that it would be an "own goal" if more British people were leaving the country, students were not coming to UK universities or if the NHS was unable to recruit from abroad.
Meanwhile, Business Secretary Vince Cable sought to distance the Liberal Democrats from their coalition partners, saying the target to reduce net migration was "misleading" because it included students, who were just visiting and were "good for the country".
He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "We're not a totalitarian state. We don't count every single person.
"The point about those numbers is it only really matters if you're pursuing some target.
"There's this net immigration figure, which the Conservatives are very preoccupied with, but it's not a government objective."
He also said a government pilot scheme to target illegal immigrants, which involved a van driving around six London boroughs carrying a billboard telling illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest", was "stupid and offensive".
"It is designed, apparently, to create a sense of fear in the British population that we have a vast problem of illegal immigration," he said.
"We have a problem but it is not a vast one and it's got to be dealt with in a measured way, dealing with the underlying causes."
Mr Cable said he and other Liberal Democrats in government had not been consulted on the scheme and it was "very unlikely" it would continue.
Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan said the billboard was a Conservative "attempt to try and win over UKIP voters". | Official UK migration figures are "little better than a best guess", an influential group of MPs has said. |
39,216,056 | The scale of her task and that of the chancellor is now becoming clear.
The Resolution Foundation analysis of the Office for Budget Responsibility's economic outlook says that average earnings will only return to levels seen in 2007 - before the financial crisis - by the end of 2022.
And that "balancing the books" - cutting the deficit to zero - may not be achieved until 2025.
Philip Hammond will find the analysis difficult to dismiss, he approvingly name-checked the think tank in his Budget speech yesterday.
On the big controversy of the day - the tax rise for the self-employed - the Resolution Foundation supports the government.
"The chancellor is right to begin tackling the unfair and expensive tax advantages enjoyed by self-employed workers by increasing the rate of National Insurance contributions they make," the organisation said yesterday.
On this far thornier issue - the incomes squeeze - it is far more waspish, saying that there has been "little policy action" in the Budget or last year's Autumn Statement to solve the crisis.
"The Budget offered the Office for Budget Responsibility and the chancellor the chance to respond to better than expected economic news in recent months, following grim forecasts about the outlook for Brexit Britain back in November's Autumn Statement," Torsten Bell, the director of the foundation, said.
"Both have largely ignored it.
"The big picture from yesterday's Budget is that the big squeezes on both the public and family finances have been prolonged well into the 2020s."
Mr Hammond has a political headache with the controversy over the rise in taxes for the self-employed.
He has an even bigger economic headache caused by stagnant incomes. | Theresa May has made supporting the "just about managing" the core of her political project - those who work hard but do not feel better off. |
40,684,579 | The firm said it apologised "unreservedly".
The emails regarded changes to the terms and conditions of the site.
However they also invited people to "reconsider" their opt-out.
Asking them to do this is against the law, said the ICO.
"Organisations can't get around the law by sending direct marketing dressed up as legitimate updates," said ICO enforcer Steve Eckersley in a statement.
"When people opt out of direct marketing, organisations must stop sending it, no questions asked, until such time as the consumer gives their consent. They don't get a chance to persuade people to change their minds."
MoneySuperMarket issued an apology.
"We take the protection of our customers' data and privacy very seriously," said a spokesman.
"We apologise unreservedly to the customers affected by this isolated incident and we have put measures in place to ensure it doesn't happen again." | Price comparison website MoneySuperMarket has been fined £80,000 ($103,000) by the Information Commissioner's Office for sending more than seven million emails to people who had opted out of receiving its communications. |
39,628,369 | He began wandering across the city, approaching young people who caught his eye, wanting to photograph them in an uncontrived, natural, positive way.
"The portraits, shot on the streets with natural light, reveal a tender side to a generation so often misrepresented and who face a world in profound flux," says Mahrlein, whose work has just been published.
Julian Mahrlein grew up in Germany but completed his studies in London, receiving his BA in photography from London College of Communication and his MA in art & politics from Goldsmiths.
London Youth by Julian Mahrlein is published by Hoxton Mini Press. | After the 2011 London riots, photographer Julian Mahrlein set out on a project to capture the faces of inner-city teenagers. |
22,460,962 | The interview comes as Huawei has been under scrutiny in countries such as the US over alleged contacts with the Chinese military and the government.
Mr Ren sought to allay those fears, saying jealousy over its success may be a factor behind such allegations.
The 68 year-old spoke to a group of New Zealand-based journalists.
He has avoided the media since he founded the company 26 years ago, but during a visit to see operations in Wellington, agreed to meet four local journalists.
No international media were allowed, nor any photographers.
"Huawei has no connection to the cyber-security issues the US has encountered in the past, current and future," he told the reporters.
"Huawei equipment is almost non-existent in networks currently running in the US. We have never sold any key equipment to major US carriers, nor have we sold any equipment to any US government agency," Mr Ren said.
Huawei has enjoyed tremendous success over the past few years, becoming a key global player in the telecom sector.
It not only makes telecoms equipment, but has also ventured into manufacturing smartphones, a sector where it has gained a significant market share.
However, fears about its ties with the Chinese military have frequently surfaced, not least because of Mr Ren's past.
He joined the Communist Party in 1978 and is a former member of the People's Liberation Army.
There have been concerns and allegations that Huawei was helping China gather information on foreign states and companies, charges that the firm has denied.
According to a Fairfax Media, one of the outlets to interview Mr Ren, he told reporters that he was confident that no staff member of Huawei would engage in spying even if asked to do so by Chinese agencies.
He also added that when he joined the Communist Party in 1978, it was expected all "exceptional" people in China would do so.
"At that time my personal belief was to work hard, dedicate myself or even sacrifice myself for the benefit of the people," he was quoted as saying.
"Joining the Communist Party was in line with that aspiration." | Ren Zhengfei, the founder of China's Huawei - the world's second-largest telecom equipment maker - has spoken to the media for the first time. |
38,934,221 | Adeel Rehman alleged the stop and searches by Staffordshire Police amounted to harassment and racial discrimination, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said.
It said it was told nothing was found and no action was taken by police.
The force said it made a voluntary referral to the IPCC.
Read more news for Staffordshire
Mr Rehman, of Normacot, Stoke-on-Trent, also complained that on one occasion officers used excessive force against him when he was stopped while driving.
The IPCC said its investigation would look at all allegations including the number of stop and searches and whether they were "reasonable, justified and in line with legislation, policies and procedures".
IPCC Commissioner Derrick Campbell said its inquiries were "obviously at a very early stage" and it would be carrying out "a thorough investigation of all the circumstances".
He said: "It is important for public confidence in policing and the complaints system that an independent investigation is undertaken."
In a statement, the force said it welcomed the independent investigation and would "co-operate fully with the IPCC as they undertake a comprehensive review of the matter".
It added: "We look forward to the publication of the report, once the thorough investigation has been concluded." | The police watchdog is investigating after a man said he was stopped in his vehicle and searched 17 times last year for no legitimate reason. |
31,779,537 | A formal coalition government at Westminster involving the Scottish National Party is not about to bloom.
Alex Salmond will not be climbing into a ministerial Jaguar with a red box of British state papers after the general election on 7 May.
Such an image would provoke outrage in England and, much more importantly for Mr Salmond, the howls would be even louder from the SNP's huge membership back home - 93,000 at the last count.
It simply won't happen, even if Mr Salmond and colleagues are elected to parliament.
But could the SNP prop up a UK government on an informal basis?
It depends, first of all, on arithmetic.
Polls suggest the nationalists could take almost all of Scotland's 59 seats at the general election.
These are incredible predictions. In 2010 the SNP returned six MPs. In the party's 80 year history its high water mark was 11 seats, in the autumn election of 1974.
The Conservative peer and pollster Lord Ashcroft has suggested the 2015 election may be heading for a dead heat with Labour and the Tories on 272 seats each and the SNP with as many as 56 MPs.
Clearly that would leave the two main parties a long way short of a theoretical majority - 326 seats - in the House of Commons.
If the result in Scotland this time really is an SNP landslide then its leader Nicola Sturgeon could find herself dangling the keys to Downing Street in front of David Cameron and Ed Miliband.
So what price entry?
The Scottish National Party would not countenance any agreement with the Conservatives, who are relatively unpopular in Scotland where they have just one MP, although the Tories did take a 16.7% share of the vote north of the border in the last general election, not a million miles from the SNP's 19.9%.
Since losing last year's independence referendum, Ms Sturgeon has suggested she might prop up a Labour minority government in return for three main policy commitments: more power for the Scottish Parliament; an end to austerity; and a decision not to renew the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system, which is based on the Clyde.
The working assumption was that the first minister would try to strike a "confidence and supply" deal with Labour's Ed Miliband, in other words she would agree to support his party in the House of Commons on votes of confidence and the budget if she had received assurances on her "red line" issues.
Having apparently revealed its negotiating hand the SNP is now busy trying to cover it up again.
Language about "red lines" on Trident and austerity appears to have given way to a more subtle approach.
Although she insists her MPs would never vote to renew the nuclear weapons programme, Ms Sturgeon now appears to be suggesting they could support Labour on an issue-by-issue basis without the need for any pre-negotiation at all.
If Labour were the largest party but short of a majority, that might work - at least for a while - but sooner or later it would surely run into trouble, perhaps in a vote of confidence, perhaps in a vote on renewing Trident, perhaps in a budget which included new funding for the nuclear programme.
At that stage the SNP would hope to turn the screw on Labour, securing concessions in return for continuing support.
They cite their own experience as a minority government in the Scottish Parliament from 2007-2011 which they survived, not with a formal deal, but with a combination of concessions, bravado and issue-by-issue support from opposition MSPs including, ironically, the Tories.
Interestingly the message from Ms Sturgeon's predecessor Mr Salmond sounds rather different.
Addressing supporters on Friday night in the Gordon constituency, where he hopes to be returned to Westminster in May, Mr Salmond said SNP support for any administration would come with "the condition of progress for Scotland."
Either way, would they really be in as strong a position at Westminster as they hope?
The notion of separatist social democrats imposing left-wing spending plans on the "Tory shires" and forcing the UK into a dramatic shift in defence and foreign policy would be controversial to say the least.
The former prime minister Sir John Major is not the only senior UK politician to warn of the dangers of Scotland imposing its will on England.
Independence-supporting websites are quick to point out that Scotland has tried to reject the Tories in every election since 1955, only to find itself governed by them for more than half of those 60 years.
You told us this was the price for a prosperous, secure union, they say to unionists. Why shouldn't other parts of the United Kingdom pay that price sometimes?
There are two obvious retorts to that. First, England has rejected Labour in the past only to find occasionally the party governing anyway thanks to Scottish votes. Second, why do two wrongs make a right?
For the SNP though, winding up the English isn't necessarily a problem. Scottish nationalists didn't get into politics to ensure the harmony and stability of the British state. They got into politics to break it.
To do so they must retain credibility with the electorate in Scotland, nowhere else. And here, history matters.
Those 11 SNP MPs elected in October 1974 went on to achieve a certain notoriety back home by voting in 1979 against the Labour prime minister Jim Callaghan in a confidence motion.
Mr Callaghan lost by a single vote, Margaret Thatcher became prime minister and much of Scotland spent much of the 1980s in a state of seething resentment about the Conservatives.
Although they insist Mrs Thatcher would have been in Number 10 within months regardless of their votes, the SNP have never entirely shaken off the "Tartan Tories" taunt.
With that in mind, an SNP decision to effectively bring down another Labour government would carry a huge risk.
There is, say Labour, a simple solution to all of this.
Every Labour seat lost to the nationalists heightens the "nightmare prospect" for Scotland of "vicious austerity" from a Tory government, says one source close to Mr Miliband.
The largest party forms the government, say Labour - especially if that party is already in power - and every seat lost to the SNP makes it more likely that the Conservatives will be the largest party.
Maybe. Forming a government is all very well but if you can't command a majority in the Commons that government won't last long and perhaps someone else can have a shot.
Why risk it, ask Labour activists on the doorsteps in Scotland, when the arithmetic is so uncertain?
So far the polls suggest that message isn't working.
How voters in Scotland respond to these competing arguments could have a profound effect on the future of the United Kingdom long after spring has turned to summer. | As the crocuses poke through the soil, the bright purples and yellows singing of spring, we can bury one idea in the damp earth. |
34,942,360 | Nick Alexander, 35, from Colchester, Essex, was killed on 13 November at the Bataclan nightclub.
He was identified by his fingerprints, Chelmsford Coroner's Court heard.
The hearing took place as his parents attended a ceremony for the victims in France.
They said they would be "proud to stand... in unity" with those taking part in the memorial service in Paris.
"Words cannot express the sadness we feel at the loss of our precious Nick," they said.
Mr Alexander was selling band merchandise for Eagles of Death Metal at the nightclub when he was killed in one of a series of co-ordinated attacks by gunmen across the city.
A post mortem examination was carried out on his body at Colchester General Hospital two days ago, the court heard.
Updates on this story and more from Essex
Senior Coroner Mrs Caroline Beasley-Murray said: "Please could the court's sympathy be expressed to the family.
"The court realises what a dreadful time this is for them."
She said his body could now be released so funeral arrangements could be made.
The Foreign Office has told the BBC, Mr Alexander was the only British national to die in the attacks.
His parents joined about 1,000 others, including President Francois Hollande, for the service where a minute's silence was held and the victims' names were read out.
"This is just the beginning of a long road where we will have to get used to the absence of his physical presence around us - a physical presence that we loved so much, that made us laugh, that we loved being with, and always held us close wherever he was," they said in their statement.
"We will get through this with the love and strength of our beloved family, friends and colleagues, and the support of so many people we have never even met.
"The outpouring of love from around the world has been a great comfort to us and makes us even more proud to have had Nick as our son.
"We will love and miss him forever." | The British man killed in the Paris attacks died from gunshot wounds to his stomach and chest, an inquest has heard. |
38,266,026 | He also said in a tweet that the Electoral Commission should be allowed to carry out its mandate.
Local media are reporting that opposition candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 72, has an unassailable lead but official results have not been released.
Final results must be declared by 17:00 GMT on Saturday.
The electoral commission announced on Thursday that it was manually verifying the results because its electronic system had been targeted by hackers.
In a tweet, it urged people to ignore the "fake results" circulating on social media.
"I want to assure the nation that we will respect the outcome of the elections, positive or negative," said Mr Mahama.
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate's quest for a second term is facing a strong challenge from a revitalised New Patriotic Party (NPP).
A run-off will be held later in the month if neither of the two main candidates secures more than 50% of the votes.
The campaign was dominated by Ghana's faltering economy.
In the previous election in 2012, Mr Mahama defeated Mr Akufo-Addo by less than 300,000 votes.
NDC candidate: John Dramani Mahama, 58
Can 'Mr Power Cut' John Mahama win a second term?
NPP candidate: Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 72
Third time lucky for opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo?
Defeat for Mr Mahama would make him the first incumbent to lose an election since Ghana returned to multi-party democracy in 1992.
He has been nicknamed "Mr Dumsor", a local word that refers to the power cuts that have blighted the country during his term, but on the campaign trial has been trying to convince Ghanaians that he is delivering on his promise of creating more jobs.
Mr Akufo-Addo has promised free high-school education and more factories, but his critics have questioned the viability of his ambitions.
The other four candidates include former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP), whose husband Jerry John Rawlings initially took power in the 1979 coup.
She is the first woman to run for president in the West African country.
Although the EC is yet to declare the winner, parliamentary results declared at the constituency level show that the NPP has won 107 seats out of 175.
The results for 100 remaining constituencies are still to come. | Ghana's President John Mahama has said that he will respect the outcome of Wednesday's tightly contested election. |
28,514,481 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The hosts, who came close to beating defending champions New Zealand in their pool on Saturday, lost 35-12 to South Africa.
Wales blew a 19-point lead against Australia, eventually losing 21-19, while England went down 15-14 to Samoa.
The All Blacks, who have never lost a match in Commonwealth Games sevens, saw off Kenya 19-7.
New Zealand will meet South Africa in Sunday's final (21:37 BST) after seeing off Australia 19-7 in their last-four tie.
South Africa beat Samoa 35-7 in the other semi-final.
Samoa and Australia will contest the bronze medal at 21:15.
Earlier, Wales blitzed the Wallabies in the first half of their last-eight tie, opening up a 19-0 lead through tries from William Harries, Lee Williams and Luke Morgan.
But Australia skipper Ed Jenkins scored a crucial try as half-time beckoned before Sean McMahon scored another to set up an exciting finale.
Wales should have made sure of victory but butchered a three-on-one overlap, before Pama Fou went over for a try under the posts with the last move of the match. Clark Cameron knocked over the conversion to secure the win.
England were under intense pressure for the first five minutes of their encounter against Samoa. But when Marcus Watson scored a breakaway try, it looked like England might take a lead into the break.
However, Samoa Toloa scored two tries just before half-time, taking his tournament tally to seven. Worse for England, James Rodwell was sent to the sin-bin for a cheap shot on Toloa as he slid in for his first score.
Lio Lolo produced an acrobatic finish in the corner to increase Samoa's lead, before a moment of magic from Dan Norton, who kicked diagonally on the run before touching down under the posts, gave England hope.
But Samoa hung on to set up a semi-final against a dangerous-looking South African outfit, who cut hosts Scotland to ribbons in their last-eight encounter.
A try from Cornal Hendricks gave the Springboks an early lead, before a second from Branco du Preez further deflated what had been a raucous pre-match atmosphere.
Seabelo Senatla scored a third try for his side, taking his tally to eight in the tournament, before Mark Bennett touched down to make it 21-7 at half-time.
After the restart, Lee Jones jinked over for his sixth try of the competition before a second try from Senatla and another from Cecil Afrika put the Boks out of sight.
Ben Lam scored a brace of tries for New Zealand against a spirited Kenya as they continued their 16-year winning streak, stretching back to the sport's debut in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. | Scotland, England and Wales all failed to reach the Commonwealth Games rugby sevens semi-finals at Ibrox. |
34,971,277 | The Airports Commission published a report backing a third runway in July.
But the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report said firm plans to deal with climate-changing emissions, air quality and noise need to be put in place.
A final government decision is expected by the end of the year.
Labour MP Huw Irranca-Davies, chairman of the committee, said it would be "irresponsible" to postpone dealing with the environmental impact of expansion at Heathrow.
He warned that to do so "could lead to legal challenges as a result of the potential damage to public health from increased air pollution and noise".
"If the government decides to accept the commission's recommendation for a third runway in principle, we will seek assurances from the secretary of state for transport that environmental conditions will be met before it is given final approval," he added.
BBC business editor Kamal Ahmed said senior sources at the company that runs Heathrow have told him the "mood music" around the decision to expand is in favour of the third runway being approved.
The cross-party committee said legal air pollution limits would have to be reached if the west London airport expands and also called for a ban on night flights to ease noise.
The MPs said the airport had to show that an expanded Heathrow would be less noisy than it is with two runways. Their report also called for Heathrow to say it would cover the costs of surface transport improvements.
The Airports Commission has already called for flights between 23:30 and 06:00 to be banned.
Heathrow currently has said it wants a "review" of the issue and has not made any pledges over night flights. The airport has also said it plans to ensure more people arrive by public transport to keep emissions down.
Mr Irranca-Davies said: "The communities living near to the roads around Heathrow already put up with noise and extra traffic.
"It would be quite unacceptable to subject them to a potentially significant deterioration in air quality as well."
A strategy to deliver aviation emissions at no higher than 2005 levels by 2050 should be put in place by the government, the committee's report recommended.
It also called for a Community Engagement Board to be set up to increase trust between local residents and the government.
Mr Irranca-Davies said: "Planes are becoming more fuel efficient, but this alone will not keep aviation emissions in line with the government's climate change targets given the growth in passenger numbers.
"Even without expansion, aviation is on track to exceed its climate change target. We heard evidence that those targets might be met in theory, but at present there is a policy vacuum and evidence-based scepticism as to whether they can be met in practice."
Heathrow's chief executive John Holland-Kaye told the committee earlier this month that the airport could comfortably expand to include a third runway and still stay within environmental targets.
At the time, he said the issue of night flights was one that Heathrow was looking at and would comment on "in due course".
The issue of Heathrow's expansion has been a long-running and contentious issue.
In 2009, while in opposition, David Cameron ruled out Heathrow expansion, saying "no ifs, no buts".
The Airport Commission's recommendation in July was criticised by competing airport Gatwick, and by London Mayor Boris Johnson, who has argued for a whole new airport.
Environmentalists and residents who live near the flight path of the proposed third runway have also campaigned against it. | The government should not support the building of a third runway at Heathrow until a number of environmental conditions can be met, MPs have said. |
32,882,947 | We've boarded Turkey's high-speed train as we continue our election trip across the country. It's still new - this is only the second line, connecting Ankara to once sleepy Konya. It's cut what was a 16-hour train ride via another town down to just 1 hour 45 minutes.
The railway is a pet project of the government, intended to be an engine of growth for Turkey's economy - and for Konya itself.
"I'm very proud of this train", says Yavuz Ozden, commuting to his hometown. "Our people support the AKP because of it. They produce things; they have a vision. We always dreamt of a railway like this - and now it's happened."
Grand infrastructure projects have been a hallmark of the AKP's 12 years in government. Roads and airports have multiplied, as the government pinned its fortune on Turkey's development.
Coming to power after a financial crash in 2001 and a huge IMF loan, Turkey now boasts the world's 17th largest economy.
Annual growth hit 9% in 2010 - but has since slowed rapidly, to under 3% last year. Financial jitters are creeping back - but in Konya, the worries seem far away.
This previously agricultural city, known as Turkey's "bread basket", is soaring. Exports have risen 10 times in the past decade.
It is also one of Turkey's most conservative, religious cities, teeming with mosques: a world away from our first election stop, Izmir.
The Whirling Dervishes - the dance of the mystical Islamic order of Sufism - were born here eight centuries ago, still drawing the crowds to a weekly performance.
Both aspects - rapid economic growth and the profoundly religious character - have made it a stronghold of the Islamist-rooted AKP. In the last election, the party won its highest share of the vote here.
At the Konya Seker food factory, they're reaping the benefits. I'm shown the chocolate-making area, cutting-edge machinery moulding sweets before they're wrapped in multi-coloured foil.
Next door, biscuits are produced. Down the road, it's dairy products and potatoes. Waste is converted into biogas in another of its factories. Tomatoes are grown nearby. The list goes on.
"The business climate here has totally changed in the past decade," says chairman Recep Konuk. "We used to be seen [by the old secular regime] as Anatolian outcasts; we were branded 'Islamic capitalists'. But the AKP has shown that with ambition and effort we can succeed."
Konya Seker has built 33 new factories since 2004, its workforce increasing from 900 to 11,000. Its parent company is now among the 20 largest in Turkey. Keen to benefit from the economic rise, Mr Konuk is running as an MP for the AKP.
I join him on the campaign trail in the nearby town of Karaman. He tells me he intends to remain in his company if - and when - he's elected. The concept of conflict of interest is not really considered in Turkish politics.
He's warmly received at the local market, sellers of shoes and headscarves crowding around him as he stops for tea.
This religious side of Turkey felt isolated by previous governments, which adhered to the secular constitution. But the AKP has allowed religion to pervade politics - and its voters say this has given them a voice.
Turkey election trip: Izmir looks West amid growing conservatism
"Before, at hospitals, we were treated like dogs," says Ayse Derman, "but when the AKP came, we were given respect, seen as human beings".
Konya is now labelled an "Anatolian tiger", a term also used for the Islamic small businesses whose owners have become the backbone of AKP support. One, Murat Ozsandikci, runs a machinery company.
"We feel empowered by this government; we feel we own this country more," he tells me.
"Today I can go to a shopping mall or a five star hotel and ask for a prayer room. Before, we weren't asked our opinion. Now we don't feel pressure to look or think in a different way. It's not an issue anymore."
Criticism of Turkey's government - and especially the divisive President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - has exploded in recent years.
Declining freedom of speech, the lack of an independent judiciary and growing authoritarianism are frequently cited by opponents within Turkey and the West, with which relations have soured.
But it's only by spending time in a city like Konya that you recognise the depth of devotion that the AKP inspires.
For its supporters, the anti-government protests of 2013, the clampdown on social media or the stormy corruption scandals almost don't register.
Their AKP is the party that allowed girls in headscarves to study, that built them hospitals, schools and motorways - and they wouldn't dream of voting for anyone else.
Follow the BBC News journey around Turkey ahead of the election using the hashtag #bbcturkey15. | It zips through the Turkish countryside at 250 kilometres an hour: fast, efficient - and a vote-winner for the governing AK Party (AKP). |
36,363,683 | Babur Karamat Raja, 41, of Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, attacked the woman in the town centre on 4 March.
He also pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted child destruction, possession of a knife in public and the wounding and assault of two passers-by.
He appeared at court by videolink and will be sentenced in June.
Police arrested the company director in the Trinity Hill area after the woman, who cannot be identified because of a court order, was stabbed in the chest and suffered multiple wounds to her abdomen.
Prosecutor Benjamin Aina QC said the Crown did not wish to proceed on a further count of attempted murder against Raja relating to an attack on bystander John Mitchell.
He was "one of the brave members of the public" who went to the woman's aid, Mr Aina said.
Although Raja had attacked Mr Mitchell with a knife, he did not accept he had intended to kill him, the court heard.
A 40-minute hearing at Birmingham Crown Court was told the sentencing judge will be required to consider whether Raja's level of dangerousness should merit a life sentence.
Defence counsel Jane Humphryes QC, said Raja "would like to say... his sincere apologies". | A man has admitted attempting to murder a pregnant woman who was stabbed repeatedly in the street. |
24,770,379 | The £28m "managed realignment" at Medmerry in West Sussex has seen the building of 7km (four miles) of new sea walls up to 2km inland.
By letting the waters in, the Environment Agency says the risk of flooding for hundreds of homes will be reduced.
The surrendered land will become a wetland habitat for many species.
The sea has long been a threatening presence on the flat land of the Manhood Peninsula that juts into the English channel on the coast between Portsmouth and Worthing.
Caravan parks in Selsey and Bracklesham Bay have been flooded a number of times in recent years, as the shingle defences have yielded to the surging seas.
Since 2011, the Environment Agency have been working on a plan that they believe curbs that threat.
The project is billed as the country's largest ever coastal flood realignment scheme, but it has required the destruction of the existing sea wall at Medmerry and giving back to the sea some of the land nearest to the coast.
"We have made a hole in the sea wall," the Environment Agency's flood and coastal risk manager, Andrew Gilham, told BBC News on a visit to the site.
"But before doing that we've actually built 7km of new defences further inland from the coast. What we've been able to create here is an area that can absorb the energy of the waves and reduce the flood risk to people."
Although the new walls are much closer to local communities, the Agency says homes are much better protected as a result, with the development able to withstand a once in a thousand year flood.
The change is partly being forced on the Agency because of EU legislation that requires compensation for the loss of wildlife habitat through development. The Medmerry scheme makes up for the loss of similar conservation areas in and around the Solent.
"It is not politically driven," said Mr Gilham.
"But the benefit of creating the habitat here is not only to reduce flood risk in this area but also to reduce flood risk to communities in Portsmouth and Southampton.
Abbotts Hall Farm is owned by the Essex Wildlife Trust and managed retreat was pioneered there in 2002.
Located on the Blackwater estuary, a wall keeping out the waters was breached to create 80 hectares of wetlands and intertidal habitats.
According to Karen Thomas from the Environment Agency it has been a huge success, particularly in mitigating the flood risk further up the river in populated areas.
"It's a really great site to take the pressure out of the tide. On big surge tides it is not going up and overtopping other defences," she said.
The new marshland is an important breeding ground for birds and for 10 different fish species.
"What we are trying to do here is create sites of sustainable wildlife so that people and animals have this in the future as a legacy," said Ms Thomas.
"If we weren't able create habitat here we wouldn't be be able to do those defences."
The scale of the £28m development is enormous. Between the new earthen walls and the sea stand 183 hectares of land that the Agency says will rapidly become a saltwater marsh, with potentially huge benefits for wildlife in the area. It will be managed by the RSPB.
"Even in construction, we're seeing lots of migratory birds using this area," said Andrew Gilham.
"It is already starting to be used by the wildlife. It's a massive nature reserve and a massive opportunity on the south coast."
Local people are hoping that letting the sea in will not only protect their homes but boost the local economy as well.
Alan Chamberlain is the estate manager of the newly renamed Medmerry Park holiday village. His business, located next door to the new habitat, is actually below sea level.
"In the past we have been very close to flooding, and now we've got a one-in-one-thousand-year protection, one of the best in the country actually," he told BBC News.
"For us it's a win win, it will encourage visitors to the site, birdwatchers and those interested in nature."
The new development is facing its first big test on the day it opens as it will see one of the highest tides of the year. But the Environment Agency are fully confident it will pass with flying colours.
Medmerry is one of a number of managed realignment projects that the Environment Agency are involved in. Andrew Gilham says it's part of a new approach.
"Rather than fighting it, we are working with nature," he explained.
"It's an important change in approach, you can only keep building bigger and bigger defences for so long. We have to ask if we can make better use of public money.
"Certainly the habitat we are creating here is important to the broader ecosystem and the broader economy of the country by encouraging people to visit remote areas."
Follow Matt on Twitter. | A scheme to combat flooding by surrendering land to the sea will be completed on Monday on the south coast. |
38,529,607 | The 29-year-old was discovered in a Mercedes Vito parked near Low Leam Farm in West Woodburn, Northumberland, on Monday afternoon.
He was tied at the wrists and ankles and apparently unable to recall anything after 12:30 GMT on New Year's Day.
Northumbria Police described it as a "highly unusual case".
The purple vehicle, which was not damaged and had not been in a collision, had been spotted travelling northbound on the A1 at 06:15 GMT on Monday morning.
It was then seen parked near the farm at about 07:30 GMT.
The force is appealing for witnesses. | A man found tied up in the back of a van claims he has no recollection of how it happened. |
34,116,610 | In its short history, the 37-storey office tower has melted parked cars and critics have compared its three-storey roof garden to an airport terminal.
Thomas Lane, who runs the awards, said the carbuncle "crashes into London's skyline like an unwelcome party guest".
A YMCA building and student halls in Cambridge were also in contention.
Other buildings vying for architecture's wooden spoon were Parliament House, Southampton City Gateway and Woodward Hall in north-west London.
Mr Lane, editor of Building Design magazine, said it was a challenge to find anyone with something positive to say about the Walkie Talkie, officially known as 20 Fenchurch Street, which was completed in April 2014.
"It bulges out towards the top in a cynical move to maximise the amount of high-value space at the upper levels, in defiance of the principle tall buildings should taper elegantly inwards or at least feature parallel sides," he said.
"The result is Londoners now have to suffer views of this bloated carbuncle."
During its construction, sunlight reflecting off the glass exterior melted parts of a Jaguar car.
It has also been reported that the tower, designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly, creates a wind tunnel effect at its base.
Previous winners of the Carbuncle Cup include apartments above a Tesco store in Woolwich, south-east London, Liverpool's ferry terminal, student flats in north London, the renovation of the Cutty Sark and the Strata Tower in south London's Elephant and Castle.
To find a winner, readers of Building Design nominate their most hated buildings, which are then whittled down into a shortlist by a jury of architects and writers. | A City of London skyscraper, nicknamed the Walkie Talkie, has won the annual Carbuncle Cup, awarded to a building judged to be the UK's worst. |
40,520,799 | Resuming on 528-7 and still needing 33 runs to avoid the follow-on, the visitors were all out for 568, with Yasir Shah (4-165) taking two wickets.
Despite their first-innings lead, Kent scored runs at a moderate rate and did not look to force a result.
Sean Dickson made 60, while Joe Denly hit an unbeaten 78 as Kent declared on 184-3 to bring the game to a close. | Kent's batsmen continued to find runs easy to come by as the hosts drew with Northamptonshire at Beckenham. |
36,015,366 | Lady Melinda Rose Woodward - known as Linda - who was married to the star for 59 years, died on Sunday morning at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.
"Surrounded by her husband and loved ones, she passed away peacefully," a statement on 75-year-old Sir Tom's website said.
He recently cancelled concerts due to a "serious illness" in his family.
Sir Tom, famous for hits like Delilah, It's Not Unusual and Sex Bomb, had been due to perform at a number of his tour dates in Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, but apologised to fans after pulling out.
He met his wife, his childhood sweetheart, when they were both 12 and growing up together in Treforest, Pontypridd.
They started dating at 15 and married when they were 16.
They had one son Mark, 59, who is also Sir Tom's manager.
In his 2015 autobiography titled Over The Top And Back, Sir Tom revealed they wanted more children, but a miscarriage had left Lady Linda infertile. | The wife of singer Sir Tom Jones has died after a "short but fierce battle with cancer", it has been announced. |
22,855,271 | The men - a 52-year-old and a 26-year-old - were held at their home in Kent at about 06:00 BST on Tuesday.
They were both arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, and other charges, and later bailed until the end of June.
The total number of people arrested as part of Operation Elveden is 69.
Police said the 52-year-old was held on conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and misconduct in a public office. He was interviewed at a south London police station.
The 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office and money laundering, was interviewed at a Kent police station.
Operation Elveden is being conducted by the Metropolitan Police, under the supervision of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
It is running alongside Operation Weeting, the Met's phone-hacking inquiry, and Operation Tuleta, an investigation into computer hacking and other privacy breaches.
Those arrested in Operation Elveden so far include journalists, police officers, NHS staff and members of the armed forces. | Two serving prison officers have been arrested and later bailed by police investigating inappropriate payments to public officials, Scotland Yard said. |
26,307,745 | Mr Yanukovych has left the capital Kiev and his whereabouts are unknown. On Sunday, parliament voted to return ownership of the Mezhyhirya property to the state. Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov called for it to be put under state guard to prevent looting. | The lavish country estate of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has been thrown open to the public as parliament voted to remove him from power. |
40,267,771 | The two sides were close to reaching agreement to enable Theresa May to form a minority government and the talks were not in trouble, the sources added.
But they added that the London tower block fire made an announcement on Wednesday "inappropriate".
And diary commitments meant a final deal could be delayed until next week.
The DUP source told BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith the two parties were now finalising the "terms and conditions" of an agreement after Mrs May and DUP leader Arlene Foster met on Tuesday.
Downing Street sources told our correspondent talk of a delay in announcing a deal was "not coming from us."
If a deal was to be delayed it would mean the Queen's Speech, which had originally been planned for next Monday, could be delayed by at least a week.
It could also delay the start of Brexit talks.
The Conservatives are having to rely on the support of 10 DUP MPs after they fell eight seats short of winning an overall majority at the general election.
It means that Mrs May will remain as prime minister and the DUP MPs will be central to the survival of a Conservative Party administration.
The DUP have been playing their cards close to their chest, but we know the areas they're talking about because of a DUP plan drawn up in 2015 in anticipation of a hung Parliament.
Things have moved on a bit since then with Brexit, but we do know they're looking at trying to lower the cost to the Northern Ireland executive of any move on corporation tax.
They've been of the view that leaving the EU should lessen some of the stipulations in relation to state aid that were being applied by the Treasury to Northern Ireland, and that might take down the bill that the Treasury would put on the executive if corporation tax was lowered.
We know other matters, such as cutting air passenger duty and increased infrastructure spending, have been discussed, but we haven't got any sense of the exact details of the deal.
I suspect it will be top loaded with economic rather than political matters.
Some political issues, such as altering the definition of a Troubles victim or doing away with allowances for MPs who don't take up their seats, might be included.
Other legacy matters, such as protecting former soldiers or police officers from prosecution, may feature at a later stage.
The DUP will offer support for key votes, such as backing the Queen's Speech and the Budget and opposing any votes of no confidence.
The DUP campaigned for Brexit but is also conscious that 56% of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU.
They are thought to be advocating a Brexit that does not disrupt the "frictionless border" with the Republic of Ireland.
They are also opposed to Conservative polices such as means-testing the winter fuel allowance and have campaigned for a higher National Living Wage and to restore the spare room subsidy.
The party is also likely to push for more investment in Northern Ireland, with emphasis on increased borrowing powers and looser budget controls rather than direct cash.
Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday that talks with the DUP had been productive and that Brexit negotiations would begin as planned next week.
"I think there is a unity of purpose among people in the United Kingdom," Mrs May said, following a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
The agreement with the DUP is expected to be very different from the coalition deal agreed between the Conservatives and Lib Dems in 2010, with DUP politicians not getting cabinet jobs and their support for the majority of new legislation to be determined on a vote-by-vote basis.
Labour's shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey called it a "very dangerous deal" and said Labour was "ready and waiting to form a minority government".
She dismissed accusations of hypocrisy after it emerged then Labour leader Gordon Brown had tried to do a deal with the DUP in 2010, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's certainly not something that [current Labour leader] Jeremy [Corbyn] would advocate, and the Labour Party is certainly not advocating that.
"As I've said, it would create a lot of instability in terms of the peace process in Northern Ireland and it's a very worrying time.
"It just illustrates the chaos that the Conservative Party are in at the moment."
On Tuesday, ex-Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major said he was "dubious" about the idea of a deal and its potential impact on the peace process.
Sir John told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme there was a danger the government would no longer be seen as an "impartial honest broker" in restoring the power-sharing arrangements and upholding Northern Ireland institutions.
Asked about Sir John's comments, Mrs May said she was "absolutely steadfast" in her support for the 1998 Good Friday agreement - which created the Northern Ireland Assembly - and efforts to revive the power-sharing executive. | DUP sources have told the BBC an announcement on a deal with Tories has been delayed because of the unfolding tragedy of the Grenfell Tower blaze. |
38,268,388 | The club's future was put in doubt when five board members, including chairman Dave Allen, resigned in November.
Carson said Allen has agreed to continue to provide support until "a suitable investor" is found.
"The club will only be sold to someone who will satisfy not only Mr Allen's requirements, but also the long-term best interests of the club," he said.
"I am delighted that we have been able to bring talks to a satisfactory conclusion as there was a very real possibility of the club going into administration, which would have been disastrous." | Chesterfield director Ashley Carson says he is confident the club will avoid going into administration. |
35,136,147 | Chris Harvey, who was unemployed, charged up to 400,000% on loans, leaving people without food.
The 53-year-old, of Hengoed, Caerphilly, admitted a string of offences, including theft and fraud.
He was jailed for three years and four months at Cardiff Crown Court.
Judge Michael Fitton QC told him: "You have an arrogant and controlling personality.
"You spoke about these adults being fragile and vulnerable and what you have done is exploited them."
Harvey, who has had children with nine different women, spent ten years taking benefits from eight "disadvantaged" family members and friends, including his brother.
Prosecutor Timothy Evans said he took control of post office and bank cards and helped himself to more than £22,000 of their money - giving the victims smaller amounts to live on.
"It was deliberate and sustained abuse of vulnerable members of his own family," he said.
"He acted in a truly predatory way and was seen by these people as a friend.
Harvey's offences were uncovered by an investigation by the Wales Illegal Money Lending Unit.
When interviewed by police, he told officers "he was the patriarch of the family" who was carrying on what his father taught him.
Harvey has been unemployed for the last 16 years and claims Disability Support Allowance for epilepsy, diabetes, asthma and depression.
He pleaded guilty to four charges of fraud, three of theft and two of unlicensed money lending. | A father of 21 has been jailed for acting as a loan shark by taking benefit money from vulnerable relatives and lending it back with interest. |
33,134,157 | Police found the woman's body inside the flat in Skye Road after being called at about 00:50 on Friday.
A 26-year-old man, who had been assaulted, was taken to South Glasgow University Hospital for treatment.
A 35-year-old man was later arrested and is expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday. | A man has been arrested after a 36-year-old woman died and another man was assaulted in a disturbance at a flat in Cathkin, South Lanarkshire. |
35,467,131 | The scientists said they were delighted to witness the eruption of Australia's second-tallest mountain on Heard Island, 4,100km south-west of Perth.
Big Ben is known to have erupted at least three times since 2000, but such eruptions are rarely witnessed.
Heard island is dominated by the Big Ben massif and its summit, Mawson Peak.
The scientists on board the research vessel Investigator, who are researching whether active undersea volcanoes support life in the Southern Ocean, said they were thrilled to witness the eruption.
Professor Mike Coffin, a geophysicist from the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), called the experience "an amazing coda to this week's submarine research".
"We saw vapour being emitted from the top of the volcano and we saw lava flows coming down the flank of Big Ben," Prof Coffin, the voyage's chief scientist, said.
"This was a very exciting observation. There are very few ships that come to this part of the world and in fact the last geological expedition that landed on Heard Island was in 1987.
Prof Coffin said the lava flowed over the top of the glacial ice at the top of the mountain before descending beneath the ice further down the volcano's slope.
"So there's a strong interaction between glacial ice and molten lava on the side of Big Ben," he said.
The scientists aboard the Investigator are seeking to prove that iron from underwater volcanoes influences the phytoplankton blooms that fertilise the Southern Ocean.
The 2,745m-tall Mawson Peak is Australia's second-highest mountain, surpassed only by the Mount McClintock range in Australian Antarctic Territory at 3,490m.
Mount Kosciuszko, the tallest mountain on Australia's mainland, is 2,228m tall. | A volcanic eruption on a remote island in Australian territory outside the Antarctic circle has been filmed by scientists on a research expedition. |
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