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40,365,775 | The move is part of the final report from the Scottish government's enterprise and skills review containing a range of measures to help business.
Economy Secretary Keith Brown said it showed how to "transform the performance" of the economy.
He said it recognised the need for dedicated support to southern Scotland as already offered in the Highlands.
Mr Brown launched the report while meeting Dumfries and Galloway business Kite Power Systems.
The company has secured £7m of equity funding for its innovative approach to harnessing wind energy.
He said the report contained measures to "enable more businesses to deliver strong, vibrant and inclusive growth at scale".
In addition to the new enterprise agency the final report also includes:
"We have recognised the importance of providing dedicated support to the south of Scotland in the same way we currently do for the Highlands and Islands," said Mr Brown.
"A new agency will be established to meet the distinctive economic needs of communities in the south of Scotland.
"The fundamentals of Scotland's economy are strong and - as this report confirms - we are doing all that we can to build upon these further."
However, south of Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth criticised the three-year timescale for getting the new organisation fully set up.
"A proposal was put to the government that would have seen a new agency up and running within months using the local councils under current laws," he said.
"Clearly the government's obsession with centralisations means they want to control everything including this new agency.
"The document they have published simply cuts and pastes the one the two councils produced in relation to the boundaries of the new body and what its aims should be.
"But the Scottish government hasn't proposed anything itself other than dither and delay."
Dumfriesshire Conservative MSP Oliver Mundell MSP said the announcement had his "wholehearted support".
"This is a Conservative manifesto commitment that is set to be delivered," he said.
"There is no doubt that the extra Conservative representation following the 2016 Scottish Parliament election reinforced the need for the Scottish government to take the economic priorities of the south of Scotland more seriously."
Susan Love of the Federation of Small Businesses said the Scottish government deserved credit for pursuing reform.
"While the review process was difficult and sometimes fraught- it looks to us like there's much to be applauded," she said.
"These good ideas now need careful and swift implementation."
Scottish Borders Council's Mark Rowley said it was "delighted" the needs of the area had been recognised.
"The south of Scotland faces particular challenges such as an ageing population, traditionally lower wages and digital connectivity issues," he said.
"The introduction of the south of Scotland enterprise agency means we can tackle these challenges differently, with the new organisation bringing a fresh approach to deliver the best outcome for businesses, learners, communities and individuals." | A new enterprise agency is to be created to "meet the economic needs of communities" in the south of Scotland. |
34,398,631 | Four crossings will be changed from half barriers to full ones and extra track will be laid.
Work is being done at crossings in Balderton, Rossett, Saltney and Pulford which will see some road closures.
Public meetings will be held, starting on Wednesday, to discuss the work with people in the area.
James Jackson of Network Rail Wales said: "We are carrying out work which will allow for more frequent and faster journeys for the increasing numbers of passengers travelling between north and south Wales.
"I'd like to apologise for any disruption this work may cause and thank the local community for their patience." | Level crossings on the railway line between Wrexham and Chester are being upgraded to improve safety and increase the number of journeys. |
34,424,017 | Danish worker Per Terp died and Frank Kroeger had to be resuscitated twice after the incident at Harwich in 2010.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard a missing bolt caused the accident but the HSE said it would have been avoided had "the right questions been asked".
Denmark-based Siemens Windpower A/S and London firm Fluor Ltd were both fined.
Mr Terp, 42, was crushed on 21 May 2010 at Harwich International Port.
His colleague Mr Kroeger was airlifted to Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge with serious, life-changing injuries.
A heavy blade root was being lifted in an H-type lifting frame by the jack-up vessel Sea Jack, but the frame gave way and dropped the load, the court heard.
Siemens pleaded guilty to two charges under the Health and Safety Act and Fluor was found guilty of one offence.
Judge David Turner QC said there needed to be "greater clarity" between the companies.
Speaking after the hearing, Health and Safety Executive inspector Julie Rayner said: "This incident could easily have been avoided had suitable systems and procedures been in place to ensure that all loads were properly connected whilst being lifted.
"Had the right questions been asked when the lift was being planned and had the bolt and two brackets holding the blade and frame together been checked before they were lifted, the death and serious injury of two workers could have been prevented."
Siemens Windpower was fined £375,000 and told to pay costs of £105,355, while Fluor was fined £275,000 with costs of £271,048. | Two companies have been fined hundreds of thousands of pounds over an accident with a wind turbine blade that left one man dead and seriously injured another. |
38,769,790 | The 50-year-old and three colleagues fish from two small, open-deck boats based in the seaside town of Lambert's Bay, on South Africa's windswept west coast.
Fishing using lines rather than nets, they typically catch just 20 fish a day per vessel, with the main species being snoek (a type of mackerel), and sea bream.
It's a tough life, and like anyone in his trade, Mr Shoshola has two main concerns - finding the fish in the first place, and then being able to sell his catch.
A new app called Abalobi is helping him to do both more easily.
The app, which is being piloted by the University of Cape Town, utilises GPS so Mr Shoshola can record for future reference exactly where he had a good haul. And he can now sell the fish via Abalobi before he has returned to shore, easily finding out the best possible price.
"It has removed a lot of the worry," he says. "I have a wife and three kids to support, and it gives me much more security."
With the help of a growing number of apps and digital services such as Abalobi, it has never been easier to pinpoint the exact spot where the prized fish await, and then sell them after you have caught them.
But with ever increasing concerns about depleting global fish stocks - the United Nations claims that 90% of the world's stocks are either full-fished or over-fished - is that a good thing?
Many of the digital fish trackers, including Abalobi, claim to have conservation at their heart, but not everybody is convinced.
"The problem is that in practice all that happens is unscrupulous people use apps to target the fish and wipe them out even quicker," says UK fishing expert Matt Hayes, who runs an Atlantic salmon fishery in Norway.
He is also worried that small-scale fishermen could ultimately become unemployed.
"You don't want to deprive someone of a living, but you don't want to bestow upon them the tech that means they will fish themselves out of existence.
"I wrestle with it a lot. It concerns me."
However, Dr Clive Trueman, associate professor of marine ecology at the UK's National Oceanography Centre, is more positive about apps like Abalobi.
"It's nothing that commercial fishermen haven't been doing by word of mouth for centuries," he says.
"Some of these apps may also end up being very effective for scientists and managers to work out where the fish are, and where they are going.
"We can use them to catch more fish, but also to direct conservation."
Serge Raemaekers, a fisheries researcher at Abalobi, says that conservation is at the very centre of their scheme.
Using Google's cloud platform technology, data collected by the fishermen is to be shared with students at the University of Cape Town who are monitoring the sustainability of South Africa's fish stocks.
The fishermen can also use the technology to monitor stocks, and stay away from any areas where they themselves think the fish population should be left to recover.
Technology is also being used on a worldwide scale to protect fish stocks.
In September last year, Google joined with ocean conservation group Oceana to launch Global Fishing Watch (GFW), a free platform that tracks the location of the world's commercial fishing boats.
It does this by utilising the fact that more than 200,000 sea vessels constantly transmit their position, speed and direction via the global automatic identification system (AIS).
GFW, which also uses Google's cloud computing services, already has more than 25,000 registered users, and more using the website without logging in.
"Anyone who is interested in a vessel, and wants to know where it is today, can go to a variety of sources that provide real-time data, and see where it is at that moment," says Jackie Savitz, senior vice president at Oceana.
"Authorities find out suspicious activity and then track vessels down."
Suspicious activity includes ships that switch off AIS or don't use it at all.
"It's possible the bad guys turn off AIS," says Ms Savitz. "But we can see when they turn it off, and we see it when it comes back on."
GFW has already notched up some success stories - using its data, a vessel was caught fishing in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in the Central Pacific and forced to pay a $2m (£1.6m) fine to the Republic of Kiribati, one of the poorest countries in the world.
In Italy, the University of Bari has partnered with US technology group IBM since 2012 to pilot a similar cloud-based fishing app to Abalobi.
The organisations say it has resulted in more targeted fishing, with the fishermen only catching as many fish as the market demands.
Back at Abalobi - which means "traditional fisher" in the isiXhosa language - the project has secured grants from the South African government. It has also been helped by mobile phone network Vodacom allowing the app to be used data-free.
More than 100 South African fishermen are now signed up, and Mr Raemaekers says Abalobi is receiving interest from groups in the Seychelles and the UK.
Mr Shoshola adds that using the service is helping him and his three friends expand the business, because for the first time they have recorded data that they can take to the bank and use as evidence to help them hook some loans to grow their fishing operation.
"I have got the numbers of every daily catch," says Mr Shoshola. | Braving the choppy waters of the South Atlantic four days a week, fisherman David Shoshola says a mobile phone app is helping him worry less about the risk of not being able to support his family. |
36,197,355 | For the first time, all of the local authority's seats will be contested. Previously only a third of seats would be up for grabs at each election.
Polling stations opened their doors at 07:00 BST and will close at 22:00.
Elections are taking place for more than 120 councils across England, while mayoral elections are being held in cities including Liverpool and Salford. | Polling stations have opened in Warrington to mark the start of the borough council's new electoral system. |
25,428,515 | Gunmen opened fire on their car as they travelled towards a health clinic, the eyewitnesses said.
Two of their bodyguards were also killed in the attack, while another Syrian and Somali doctor were seriously wounded, they said.
Many militias and criminal gangs operate in Somalia.
In recent years, the country has also been hit by an insurgency waged by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group.
However, it did not carry out the attack, an unnamed senior official of the group told the AFP news agency.
The Syrian doctors were believed to be in Somalia as aid workers.
The BBC's Mohamed Moalimu reports from Mogadishu that the ambush took place in Siinka Dheer, a government-controlled district about 20km (13 miles) south of the capital.
The gunmen escaped after firing indiscriminately at the vehicle, eyewitnesses told him.
The two wounded doctors are receiving emergency treatment at Mogadishu's Medina Hospital, our reporter adds.
The bodies of the six people killed in the attack have also been brought to the hospital, he says.
In August, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) announced that it was closing all its programmes in Somalia because of "extreme attacks on its staff".
Armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly "support, tolerate or condone the killing, assaulting, and abducting of humanitarian aid workers", it said at the time.
MSF had worked for 22 years in the war-torn country.
Over the last two years, al-Shabab militants have been driven out of Somalia's major towns and cities by pro-government forces and a UN-mandated African Union force of some 18,000 soldiers.
But the group still controls many towns and rural areas of southern Somalia.
It says it is fighting to establish an Islamic state in Somalia. | Three Syrian doctors and their Somali colleague have been shot dead in an ambush near Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, witnesses have told the BBC. |
40,546,338 | Goals from Lukas Schubert, Ronan Curtis, Aaron McEneff and Rory Holden clinched the victory to keep the Candystripes in fifth place.
Schubert headed in the first in the 32nd minute and Curtis drilled in the second on 62 minutes.
McEneff made it three with a penalty before Rory Holden came on as a sub to score his first goal for City.
Derry are now one point behind Shamrock Rovers and two behind third-placed Bray Wanderers.
Sunday's game came just three days after Derry's 10-2 aggregate defeat by Danish side FC Midtjylland in the Europa League.
Despite that experience, Derry are determined to get back into European football next year and this win over a ragged Rovers keeps them right in the mix.
Derry were on top for most of the match against Sligo who have not won on the road in the league this year.
Although boosted by a home win over Shamrock Rovers, Gerard Lyttle's men failed to make an impression at Buncrana.
Schubert, whose only goal of the season had been on the first day of the season, nodded in the opening goal after the ball spun up in his favour.
Sligo keeper Micheal Schlingermann made a string of fine saves to keep Sligo in the match but there was nothing he could do when the ball fell for Curtis who chested down to drill in his sixth goal of the season.
McEneff netted a 74th-minute penalty after Ben Doherty was fouled by defender Kyle Callan-McFadden.
Then 19-year-old Holden beat three players and finished superbly on 84 for his first goal in Candystripe colours. | Derry City secured their first win for over a month when they easily saw off Sligo Rovers at Maginn Park. |
40,165,646 | They said Pakistan-born Khuram Butt, 27, of Barking, London, had been known to police and MI5 but there had not been any intelligence about an attack.
The other attacker was Rachid Redouane, 30, from Barking, who police said had claimed to be Moroccan-Libyan.
The attackers were shot dead by police. All 12 people arrested after the attack have now been released without charge.
The seven women and five men were arrested in Barking on Sunday following the attack in which seven people were killed and 48 injured.
The attackers drove a hired van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in the area around Borough Market.
A vigil was held at Potters Field Park near London Bridge on Monday evening to remember the victims.
NHS England said 36 people remained in hospital, with 18 in a critical condition.
Redouane, who was a chef, also used the name Rachid Elkhdar. He had not been known to police.
Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said: "Inquiries are ongoing to confirm the identity of their accomplice."
He said the investigation into Butt had begun two years ago but "there was no intelligence to suggest that this attack was being planned and the investigation had been prioritised accordingly".
He added: "Work is ongoing to understand more about them, their connections and whether they were assisted or supported by anyone else."
Butt featured in a Channel 4 documentary last year about Islamist extremists with links to the jailed preacher Anjem Choudary.
The attacker, who had older siblings and was married with at least one child, could be seen in the programme arguing with police officers in the street.
An online CV seen by the BBC shows that Butt had achieved an NVQ Level 2 in business administration.
He went on to work in an administrative role for a company called Auriga Holdings, based in East Ham, which manages Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets.
He had also worked for London Underground for just under six months as a trainee customer services assistant, before leaving in October last year, Transport for London said.
And Butt was the sole director of a now-dissolved company called Kool Kosmetics.
The vigil began as a sombre and quiet gathering under the trees in Potters Field Park, where people stood in quiet contemplation looking out over the Thames.
So many spoke of their desire to stand together with others and show love.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan's speech roused the quiet crowd of thousands into hearty applause when he spoke of his disgust and defiance over the horror of Saturday's events.
After a minute's silence, many went forward to lay flowers beneath the flagpoles of City Hall.
It was a dignified show of solidarity and strength in the face of fear and hate.
Read more here.
BBC home affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani said two people in Barking had raised concerns about Butt.
One man called the anti-terrorism hotline in 2015, while a woman went to the local police station because she was scared Butt was trying to radicalise her children.
Security officials made him a lower priority than other targets because of a lack of information that he was involved in attack-planning, our correspondent said.
Sources in Dublin said Redouane was understood to have been carrying an identification card issued in the Republic of Ireland when he was shot dead, the Press Association reported.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said he was not a member of a "small group" being monitored by Irish police in respect of radicalisation.
Canadian national Chrissy Archibald, 30, was the first victim to be named. Her family said she had died in her fiancé's arms after being struck by the attackers' speeding van.
The sister of 32-year-old James McMullan, from Hackney, east London, said he was believed to be among those who died, after his bank card was found on a body at the scene.
A French national was also killed in the attack, according to foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Among other developments:
It is the third terror attack in the UK in three months, following the car and knife attack on Westminster Bridge in March, in which five people were killed, and the Manchester bombing on 22 May, in which 22 people were killed. | Two of the three men who carried out Saturday night's terror attack in London have been named by police. |
35,475,169 | Osprey Lydiate is back training after suffering a neck injury while Liam Williams (foot) played 60 minutes for Scarlets last weekend.
"Everything's good with Liam and Dan Lydiate has joined back in," said Wales forwards coach Robin McBryde.
Williams played the first hour of the Scarlets' defeat in Connacht on Sunday.
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It was his first appearance since limping off during Wales 15-6 defeat by Australia on 10 October.
Lydiate was forced off during the Ospreys' New Year's Day win over Newport Gwent Dragons and has not played since.
"Things went as well as they could for Liam," added McBryde.
"He definitely won one collision (when Connacht wing Matt Healy was forced off through injury) and he was pretty secure under the high ball.
"Difficult circumstances for him, but he's come through unscathed so whether he's fit enough to start an 80 minutes - he's certainly fit enough to play some part."
Lydiate is not alone as a Wales back-rower short of match time.
Captain Sam Warburton has played just once for Cardiff Blues in the last two months, against Calvisano on 22 January, because of an ankle injury.
"I think we've got to look at each individual as to how much game time they need before they get back to full steam," added McBryde.
"Sam Warburton doesn't need a lot of match time and he's straight back up there.
"It's a discussion to be had with Dan (Lydiate).
"The one thing we are seeing in a positive light is that Dan is taking part in our training sessions which are quite intense, and he's come through those scenarios okay, though it's not the same as a game."
Warburton did not play for Cardiff Blues against Edinburgh despite saying he would like more game time after his comeback.
"Warren just held him back," said McBryde.
"It was hard to manage last week because we lost all the French and English-based players after the start of the week, which left us with 10 or 11 players for the Friday and Saturday session."
Wales are due to announce their team to face Ireland at 1100 GMT on Wednesday, 3 February. | Full-back Liam Williams and flanker Dan Lydiate are in contention for Wales places in the Six Nations opener against Ireland. |
39,187,265 | The Sentencing Council for England and Wales says offending may be partly a product of discrimination and "negative experiences of authority".
It is the first guideline to stress discrimination as a youth crime factor.
Official statistics show that young people from minority backgrounds are over-represented in the justice system.
While national statistics show that ethnic minorities account for approximately 14% of the UK's population, the Youth Justice Board says a quarter of all young people arrested in the year to March 2016 were from these backgrounds - some 21,900 people.
The overall number of young offenders cautioned or convicted has been declining, but the rate of decrease has been slower for minority offenders.
In the new guideline - which applies to all offenders aged between 10 and 17 - the council says that any sentence must aim to prevent them from committing another crime, while also taking into account the child's welfare.
"While the seriousness of the offence will be the starting point, the approach to sentencing should be individualistic and focused on the child or young person," states the guideline, which comes into force in June.
It stresses that sentencing judges and magistrates should take into account underlying factors, including the over-representation of black and minority ethnic children in the justice system.
"The factors contributing to this are complex," it says.
"One factor is that a significant proportion of looked-after children and young people are from a black and minority ethnic background.
"A further factor may be the experience of such children and young people in terms of discrimination and negative experiences of authority.
"When having regard to the welfare of the child or young person to be sentenced, the particular factors which arise in the case of black and minority ethnic children and young people need to be taken into account."
The guidelines go on to tell judges and magistrates to take into account a youth's mental and educational development, emotional volatility and whether they were from a poor background or grew up around other offenders.
Evidence of abuse or neglect and peer pressure may have also played a role in criminality, they say.
Sentencing Council chairman Lord Justice Treacy - the judge who oversaw the trial of the racist killers of teenager Stephen Lawrence - said the guideline had prevention of reoffending at its heart.
"No-one wants children who commit offences going on to become adult criminals," he said.
"The guideline therefore looks with far greater detail at what kind of sentence would prevent this based on the age, background and circumstances of each child or young person, so that it can help them reintegrate instead of becoming alienated further." | Judges should consider whether a young criminal has suffered discrimination as an ethnic minority before deciding their sentence, under a new guideline. |
39,243,965 | A 2-1 defeat at fellow-strugglers Hull has left the Swans once more looking over their shoulders, just three points above the drop zone.
Two goals from Tigers substitute Oumar Niasse were enough to decide the contest, despite a late goal from the visitors' defender Alfie Mawson.
"We're nowhere near safe and we've got a lot of work to do," said Clement.
"Before we went into this game I did not think we were anywhere near safe.
"We are not in a dissimilar position to where we were when we started the game.
"There's still a lot of football to be played. We've 10 games to go, we've got to start playing well again and we've got to bounce back next time against Bournemouth."
Clement admitted his side were hit on Humberside by the loss of defender Angel Rangel and particularly the departure before the break of in-form striker Fernando Llorente.
"He's been a key player for us recently. He gives us a lot of different threats. So that was a loss for us," said Clement.
"But I don't think the injury is serious. He's got a dead-leg. Angel Rangel has an ankle injury.
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"The two injuries in the first-half have hurt us. Not necessarily because the players coming on are not good enough, they are good players.
"But what happens in the second-half is that you are limited in what you can do then. Then (Martin) Olsson got injured and we had to play with an injured player."
Clement was critical of his side's defending for the Hull goals and said his side needed to be more clinical at the other end.
"The way we defended was just not good enough on the day," the Swansea boss added. "We have to be disappointed with how they scored and how open we were.
"In recent games we have been much tighter than that.
"For long periods we looked like we had good control of the game, particularly in the first-half. The defensive shape was good, we created good chances on the counter-attack.
"We had a fantastic chance to score with a lovely ball from [Gylfi] Sigurdsson into [Wayne] Routledge - that was a key moment at 0-0.
"Overall, offensively we did some good things without being absolutely clinical." | Manager Paul Clement has warned that Swansea City remain in danger of relegation from the Premier League. |
37,616,348 | The psychoactive substances, including Spice, Killer Smeg and SpongeBob, are thought to have been bought in the Old Eldon Square area of Newcastle.
The drugs previously fell under the category of so-called "legal highs" before being banned in May.
Police said the six people suffered an adverse reaction but are not thought to be in a life-threatening condition.
Northumbria Police has urged anyone in possession of the drugs to hand them in to police to avoid anyone coming to further harm.
Ch Insp Barrie Joisce said: "So far we have not received any reports of a life-threatening reaction to these drugs but we are concerned that people could be putting themselves at risk.
"If you have drugs of this nature in your possession, or have any information about who may be distributing them, then contact police immediately." | Six people have been kept in hospital overnight after taking a "bad batch" of drugs, police said. |
39,678,122 | The 64-year-old said he had recently suffered "extended periods" of ill health and did not feel he could serve for a further five years.
Several well-known MPs, including Sir Eric Pickles and Alan Johnson, have said they are standing down ahead of the snap general election on 8 June.
Mr Allen said it had been "the hardest decision of my life".
The former warehouse worker won the Nottingham North seat in 1987 and successfully defended it in six further general elections.
Mr Allen has served as a senior whip and earlier this decade chaired a select committee on political and constitutional reform.
In a letter to constituents he wrote: "I have suffered extended periods of ill health this year with more expected.
"I would have enthusiastically completed the rest of the Parliament to 2020.
"However, the certainty of continuing at the pace and standards that I set myself for a further full five-year term cannot be guaranteed." | Graham Allen has announced he is to step down as Labour MP for Nottingham North after 30 years. |
33,806,964 | Australia, all out for 60 in 18.3 overs. Stuart Broad, eight wickets for 15 runs. All of it done with 20 minutes to go until lunch on the first morning of an Ashes Test. There are no missing characters in this paragraph, although there are plenty in this Australia team.
This has been a series on fast-forward, yet even by the standards of a nonsensical summer this was a morning that felt like watching the trailer rather than an actual film.
The shortest first innings in Test history. Only two players making double figures. Extras the leading scorer for the first time in an Ashes contest.
England supporters were in real danger of forgetting their own names, never mind the identity of their team's missing fast bowler. Only three times in Test history has a team bowling first been batting before lunch on the first day.
How embarrassing was it for the old enemy? Lunches themselves have lasted longer. Hell, so have cups of coffee.
Australia would have been mortified had the top score by any of their players had been 60. Had any single batsman not lasted for 111 balls there would have been questions about the team's attitude and technique.
Instead they lost their first three wickets inside the first eight deliveries.
After 20 minutes their scorecard read 0 0 6 0. That's the international dialling code for Malaysia, so if the rest of your number is 10 1 2 13 1, you might find yourself receiving some unusual calls.
Pity the person with tickets who stopped en route to Trent Bridge to pick up a paper or grab a sandwich for later. The first over alone saw 10 runs scored and two wickets fall, which felt like the entire daft series summarised in six deliveries until you saw what happened next.
These Ashes are not simply racing past at unprecedented pace. They are accelerating. We are getting to the point when buying tickets for the third day is as much of a gamble as walking out to bat without pads.
Adam Voges - poor old hapless Adam Voges, a grand total of 74 runs in the entire series - could at least complain that he fell to an impossible catch; Ben Stokes's one-handed dive at fifth slip was every bit as extraordinary as Andrew Strauss's Superman effort to see off Adam Gilchrist on this same ground a decade ago.
Even then his shot was poor, but in a rogue's gallery like this, no witness could ever pick it out.
Chris Rogers went for the first duck of his Test career. He has now been out three times in the last five balls he has faced from Broad coming round the wicket.
Steve Smith was squared up, David Warner beaten through the gate. Those first three set a template that all would follow: playing too hard, playing too early, playing in a manner that spoke of disintegrating confidence and an inability to cope with the moving ball.
Michael Clarke? He fell to a shot that would have felt inexcusable had it been the morning of the second day and his team 300 up. It was not so much a captain remaining on the bridge as his ship went down as grabbing the last lifejacket and smothering himself with it.
As you watched England's six slips crouching, as you listened to the joyously sarcastic standing ovation when the innings limped past 50, it was almost impossible to recall that this was a team who had handed out a 405-run thrashing less than three weeks ago.
Beaten by eight wickets in Birmingham last week, humiliated in less time than it takes for a Twenty20 innings a few days later. If this was cycling, the international governing body would be ordering spot-checks for motors in cricket balls.
For England's supporters it was wondrous stuff, perhaps only the dismissal of Australia for 98 on the first morning of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG in 2010 coming close in recent Ashes memory.
For Broad, on his home track, as the new leader of his country's attack, it was both a classic whirlwind burst and something entirely beyond those previous tornados like at Durham in 2013 and at The Oval in 2009.
Australia would take 8-15 as a score when the two nations meet again in the Rugby World Cup this autumn. Here those figures have surely cost them the Ashes.
They are the best figures by a fast bowler in any Ashes Test, home or away, and the best figures for England since Devon Malcolm's 9-57 at the Oval 19 years ago. Not since Sydney Barnes 102 years ago has an England bowler taken five wickets before lunch on the first day of a Test.
Somewhere there will be Englishmen bemoaning the speed of this match, wishing even on a subconscious level that Australia were acting more like the ultimate Test opponents and less like a bunch of hapless innocents.
Even with England's reply in progress it is worth reminding those neurotics of the myriad humiliations handed out in reverse in the last 25 years.
Eighteen months ago, Australia were thrashing Alastair Cook's team 5-0, an experience so miserable that the memory still brings a dread lurch in the guts of those Englishmen who experienced it.
The first session, Trent Bridge, 2015. Remember it forever, or at least until The Oval brings something even wilder and weirder. | Jimmy who? |
40,439,642 | Security forces fired warning shots and the driver, who is underage, was detained, a government statement said.
Mr Temer was not in the Alvorada Palace at the time.
Brazilian media have shown footage of a gate lying on the ground along with what appear to be a number of spent bullet cartridges.
Earlier, a Supreme Court judge sent a charge of corruption against President Temer to Congress - the next move in a process which could see him removed from office and face trial.
Mr Temer has been indicted for arranging to receive millions of dollars in bribes from a meat-processing company.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
The lower house of Congress is expected to vote in the coming weeks on whether to allow him to be tried.
Mr Temer, one-third of his cabinet, four past presidents, and dozens of politicians are either on trial, facing charges or under investigation in a giant three-year corruption inquiry linked to the state oil company.
Since taking office, he has led a market-friendly government which has tried to implement unpopular labour and pension reforms that, he says, are vital for Brazil's economic recovery.
His predecessor as president, leftist Dilma Rousseff, was removed from office following an impeachment vote in the Senate last year. She was accused of illegally manipulating the budget, a charge she strongly denied. | A car has rammed the gate of the Brazilian president's palace in the capital Brasilia as pressure grows on Michel Temer to resign. |
24,239,779 | A joint statement says: "All groups formed abroad without having returned to the country do not represent us."
They also call for the opposition to unite under an "Islamic framework".
Islamist rebel forces have become increasing prominent in the conflict in Syria, and they are believed to command tens of thousands of fighters.
The signatories include members of the Free Syrian Army as well as more radical Islamists - among them the powerful al-Nusra Front, which has links to al-Qaeda.
It comes amid fighting on the ground between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda, and more moderate rebel forces, especially in areas along Syria's northern and eastern borders.
In a video statement published online on Tuesday, 11 of the most powerful Islamist groups declared that they rejected the idea that opposition leadership could come from any organisation based outside Syria that was not working closely with those on the inside.
The Istanbul-based Western-backed National Coalition was formed in November 2012 and is recognised by more than 100 countries as a legitimate representative of the Syrian opposition.
"These forces believe that it they are most legitimately represented by those who have lived the same experience and shared in the same sacrifice of their honest sons."
"Therefore the National Coalition and its transitional government led by Ahmed Tomeh do not represent it and will not be recognised."
Mr Tomeh was appointed last month to form an administration to govern rebel-held areas of Syria and co-ordinate the provision basic services and supplies.
The statement also called on "all military and civilian forces to unite under a clear Islamic framework based on Sharia [Islamic law], which should be the sole source of legislation".
It urged members of the opposition to "reject division" and put "the interest of the Ummah [Islamic nation] over the interest of each group".
The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Beirut says the declaration reflects two growing trends.
One is the increasing influence of Islamist rebel movements within the coalition fighting President Bashar al-Assad; the other is the "Islamisation" of some of the other groups, including members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), our correspondent says.
The statement is an attempt to shift the political balance of power in favour of those doing the fighting on the ground and is also an indication that jihadist groups like the al-Nusra Front are very much centre stage in the conflict, an awkward reality for Western powers, he adds.
Charles Lister of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre said the three moderate Islamist groups which signed the statement - Liwa al-Tawhid, Liwa al-Islam and Suqur al-Sham - had represented the National Coalition's main rebel presence on the ground in Syria.
"The inclusion of the core of [the National Coalition's] force... effectively depletes [its] armed wing, the Supreme Military Council," he told the Reuters news agency. "It is likely that the moderate Islamist coalition has ceased to exist as a single organisation structure."
In a separate development on Wednesday, United Nations inspectors returned to Syria to continue their investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons during the conflict.
Last week, they confirmed that the nerve agent sarin was used in an attack on several suburbs of Damascus on 21 August, in which hundreds of people were killed.
They plan to visit three further sites - Khan al-Assal, Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqeb - where smaller scale chemical attacks are alleged to have taken place earlier this year. | Eleven Islamist rebel groups in Syria have announced they do not recognise the authority of the main opposition alliance, the National Coalition. |
36,726,409 | He told AMs he could not recommend the assembly consents to the next step of devolution without agreeing on funding.
Mr Jones's comments create the potential for another stand-off with UK ministers over Wales' budget.
Addressing AMs, Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said a similar deal had been reached with the Scottish Government.
The Wales Bill, currently going through Parliament, would give the Welsh Government some powers to vary income tax, without the need for a referendum.
For the tax powers to work, the rest of the Welsh Government budget will be adjusted by the Treasury under what is known as a fiscal framework.
A similar deal was agreed with Scotland in February, paving the way for more tax devolution there.
Although the Wales Bill is a matter for Parliament, AMs will be asked to give it their consent in a vote.
Mr Jones said he could not recommend that consent be given without an agreement on the fiscal framework to make sure Wales does not lose out.
"As the Bill currently stands, the Treasury can impose a financial settlement on the people of Wales without the agreement of this place and that is wrong in principle," he said.
"It does not apply in Scotland."
Mr Cairns said: "The Scottish Parliament naturally wouldn't pass a legislative consent motion until there was satisfaction over the fiscal framework, and I think that is a natural place.
"I've said clearly to the first minister that's the position I would expect the assembly to take."
Mr Cairns said AMs should "take confidence" from a UK government pledge to introduce a so-called funding floor, designed to protect the Welsh budget.
He added: "It is in that spirit that I want to continue this discussion that will be developed in parallel with the bill."
The Welsh Secretary was making his annual statement in the Senedd on the Queen's Speech - a tradition that will be scrapped by the bill.
Mr Jones criticised the failure to create a new separate legal jurisdiction for Wales and said the bill "cannot possibly be a lasting settlement as far as Wales is concerned".
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood criticised Labour MPs for failing to support a Welsh legal jurisdiction in a House of Commons vote on Tuesday.
She told Mr Jones "to tell his MPs to get a grip".
The bill would not offer stability "in anything more than the immediate short term", she added.
Mr Cairns said the existing England-Wales jurisdiction "offers businesses simplicity". | The assembly should not accept new powers without a deal with Westminster on the Welsh Government's budget, First Minister Carwyn Jones has said. |
37,033,394 | In 2014 there were 128, compared with 165 the previous year and 207 in 2004.
Fewer women smoking and campaigns to teach new parents the safest sleeping position for their newborn - on their backs - are both factors, experts say.
The Office for National Statistics said the fall was driving the downward trend in overall unexplained infant deaths.
Figures gathered from the ONS include cot deaths (sudden infant death syndrome) as well as deaths of children younger than one for which the cause remained unknown even after a full investigation.
Together these accounted for 8% of all infant deaths occurring in England and Wales in 2014 - 1% lower than in 2013 - with just over half of the victims being boys.
Rosie Amery, from the ONS, said: "A number of factors may have contributed to the fall, including warmer than average temperatures throughout the year, fewer women smoking at the time of delivery and greater awareness of safer sleeping practices," she said.
The ONS began recording sudden infant deaths in 2004.
Overheating is a known risk factor for cot death and during cold winters the risk of the baby getting too hot under extra clothing and blankets is increased, according to experts.
There are measures people can take to lower the risk of sudden infant deaths and Francine Bates, from the Lullaby Trust charity, urged parents to follow the "safer" sleep advice - lying babies on their backs at bed and nap time.
Source: The Lullaby Trust | Sudden unexplained infant deaths, or cot deaths, have reached the lowest level on record in England and Wales, according to the latest figures. |
34,917,226 | Up to three armed men took hostages in the town near the border with Belgium, reports said.
One of the hostage takers was killed during the police operation, according to local officials.
The incident was not related to the security situation in France following the 13 November attacks in Paris.
Local authorities said the hostages were now in a "secure place"; at least one suspect had been arrested, according to reports.
Local media said the incident took place at around 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT), and an area of the town was cordoned off.
It is not clear how many people were held hostage.
Gunshots were fired, according to local residents.
The armed men had been planning a robbery targeting a banker, reports say. | A hostage situation in the northern French town of Roubaix has ended, with the hostages now safe, local officials say. |
36,007,718 | In a first for a UK prime minister, Mr Cameron has released a summary of his tax returns from 2009-15 as he tries to defuse a row over his finances.
The two £100,000 payments were made a year after the PM inherited £300,000 from his father in 2010, papers show.
Ministers said he'd done nothing wrong but Labour said questions remained.
Meanwhile, Mr Cameron is to make a statement to MPs on Monday on government measures to tackle tax evasion.
In the past six years, Mr Cameron earned a total of almost £1.1m and paid about £400,000 in income tax, according to the three-page summary.
Last year, he paid almost £76,000 in tax on an income of more than £200,000. Those earnings included almost £47,000 from a share of rent paid on his family home in west London.
Downing Street is providing no details about the £72,000 the PM received for selling "other shares" beyond his investment in his Blairmore Holdings fund or the £40,000 he received in cash from his stockbroking account.
The payments by Mary Cameron to her son in May and July 2011 were given tax free, and will only become liable to inheritance tax of up to 40% if she dies within seven years of handing over the money.
Downing Street said the payments were an attempt to "balance" the sums received by all the Cameron children, as Mr Cameron's older brother had inherited the family home.
Mr Corbyn said Mr Cameron needed to publish his full tax returns dating back to before he became prime minister in 2010, when he sold off shares in his late father's offshore investment fund for a £19,000 profit.
"I want to see the papers," Mr Corbyn told the Andrew Marr show.
"We need to know what he's actually returned as a tax return. We need to know why he put this money overseas in the first place, and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010 when he became prime minister. These are questions that he must answer."
Asked about the £200,000 gift Mr Cameron received from his mother, the Labour leader said there was "possibly" a case for looking at inheritance tax rules.
He said: "It does actually reduce the level of inheritance tax that is available for the Exchequer as a whole."
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the prime minister had "effectively inherited £500,000 from his mum and dad and not paid a penny on it," which, he said, showed there was "something wrong with the system".
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has, meanwhile, published her tax return for 2014/15, and committed to publishing it annually for as long as she is First Minister. It shows she earned £104,817, and paid more than £31,000 in tax.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale was the first Scottish party leader to publish her tax returns, on Saturday, and was swiftly followed Ms Sturgeon, the Conservatives's Ruth Davidson and Lib Dem Willie Rennie.
Inheritance tax is paid if a person's estate (their property, money and possessions) is worth more than £325,000 when they die. The rate is 40% on anything above the threshold.
Married couples and civil partners are allowed to pass their possessions and assets to each other tax-free.
The deceased's estate may not have to pay inheritance tax on assets the deceased gave away as gifts while they were alive. The original owner must live for seven years after giving the gift.
By BBC economics editor Kamal Ahmed
One person's tax planning is another person's tax avoidance - so whether David Cameron's tax affairs are controversial or not is really a matter of where you stand on the payment of tax.
Most tax accountants would advise a wealthy family on "gifts" - payments of money - to their children and how to ensure they are not liable for inheritance tax by making payments in tranches to avoid breaching tax thresholds.
Mr Cameron's family appear to have done this, and Downing Street says the payments were made by the prime minister's mother to "even out" the inheritance payments made to her children following her husband's death. Not to avoid tax.
Read Kamal's full analysis
Mr Corbyn, who has promised to publish his own tax returns "very soon", also suggested Britain needed to be "much more assertive" on the question of overseas arrangements in the UK's overseas territories and asked why Britain was "encouraging" tax havens.
And he said greater openness around tax affairs might be expected from all those in public life, not just MPs, in future, saying: "I think we're moving in that direction".
The SNP are, meanwhile, calling on Mr Cameron to publish a financial statement on all government ministers, including Chancellor George Osborne, revealing whether they have benefited from offshore tax havens.
A Treasury source said: "We have been clear that the chancellor has never had any offshore shareholdings or other interests.
"His income and interests are straightforward and declared publicly: his salary, rental income from a property in London and a shareholding in his father's firm, Osborne and Little.
"He is always happy to consider ways to offer even more transparency."
Energy and climate change secretary Amber Rudd defended the prime minister on the Andrew Marr show, saying Mr Cameron had "said all there is to be said" about his tax affairs, having taken the "unprecedented step" of publishing details.
She said Mr Cameron and his family had done nothing wrong and had paid the correct amount of tax due, adding that going after tax havens had been a "key priority" for the government since 2010.
Mr Cameron has also announced a new task force to investigate tax-dodging allegations arising from the leak of 11 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, known as the Panama Papers.
The prime minister was dragged into the controversy when it emerged his late father's investment fund, Blairmore, was a client of the firm.
Downing Street issued a series of statements over four days as pressure on Mr Cameron mounted before he finally admitted he had benefited from the fund.
On Saturday, he admitted he could have better handled the row over his financial affairs, telling people to "blame me" for the slow response, not Downing Street officials.
He said he was publishing the information on his income to be "completely open and transparent".
Mr Cameron's tax schedule from RNS Chartered Accountants also showed:
The prime minister's salary was steady at £142,500 from 2010 to 2015, but there were tax variations due to treatment of his pension contributions and the different approaches to his £20,000 tax-free allowance.
In terms of rent earned on the Notting Hill house, Mr Cameron's 50% share, minus expenses, was £45,041 in 2011-12, £46,700 in 2012-13, £47,764 in 2013-14 and £46,899 last year.
The new tax task force announced by Mr Cameron will have initial funding of £10m and involve staff from the Serious Fraud Office and Financial Conduct Authority as well as HMRC and the NCA.
The government said the agencies had leading technology, experts and resources to tackle money laundering and tax evasion.
Mr McDonnell said proposals for the task force to report to the chancellor and home secretary were "unacceptable".
"Any inquiry must be fully independent and in public," he said. | David Cameron's mother gave him a £200,000 gift after his father's death which could potentially avoid inheritance tax, his accounts show. |
32,154,973 | A former tennis player, who competed in Wimbledon in the 1960s, he is an advocate of healthy eating.
But when it comes to business it appears he has a rather different appetite, one that stretches to ready meals and processed foods.
His company 3G Capital - which already owned Heinz and Burger King - bought the US food giant Kraft last month, in partnership with billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
The products may have a tendency to stretch your waistline, but Lemann, who was born in Rio de Janeiro, is obsessed with lean companies.
In late 2008, barely months after acquiring Anheuser-Busch, makers of Budweiser beer, Lemann and his associates overhauled the company, shedding 1,400 jobs, some 6% of its workforce.
In one year, 3G Capital found $10bn in savings and divestments.
Executives lost all sorts of privileges: walls were torn down and personal offices were joined together in open plan spaces.
The number of company Blackberries issued to employees fell from 1,200 to 720.
Freebies like free baseball tickets, free beer or first-class tickets were cut. Private jets belonging to Anheuser-Busch were sold.
"They take cost-cutting very seriously," says Cristiane Correa, a journalist and author of Dream Big, a book on the rise of Lemann and his two fellow countrymen and partners Marcel Telles and Beto Sicupira.
"Some people get really scared by that. Afterwards, of course, the company grows and they end up hiring again, but at start it is ugly."
Cost-cutting is one of 3G Capital's obsessions.
But there are others too, such as meritocracy and investing in the right people.
Some of 3G Capital's top executives that today are in charge of leading global brands have been with Lemann since the early days of Garantia - the bank he founded in the 1970s.
Back then, the magnate had already coined the term PSD to describes his ideal employees: "Poor, Smart, with a Deep Desire to Get Rich."
Marcel Telles, one of 3G's three strongmen and with a net fortune estimated upwards of $13bn, started out his career as a sort of office boy in Garantia.
One trait that is conspicuously absent in 3G Capital's business model is innovation.
The company makes its fortunes by finding optimum ways of producing something simple - like a burger or ketchup - and repeating that formula on a larger scale, without requiring much creativity.
"This model is well-suited to the food industry, where you can make a lot of money if you are disciplined enough to avoid waste when producing," says Leni Hidalgo, a professor at Brazil's Insper business school, who worked in one of Lemann, Telles and Sicupira's businesses in the 1990s.
Last month's Heinz-Kraft merger turned Lemann into a food tycoon, now leading the third largest food and beverage conglomerate in the US.
In the 2000s:
Massive offshore oil discovered
20 million people lifted from poverty
Achieved investment grade rating in credit agencies
Won bids to host Olympics and World Cup
Now:
Austerity measures and spending cuts
Large scale Petrobras corruption scandal
0.1% GDP growth in 2014
Rising inflation (7.7% compared with a target of 4.5%) and unemployment (5.9% up from 4.8% in January 2014)
Currency close to its lowest point in 12 years - $1 is worth almost twice as much as five years ago
It has been almost a decade since the business world saw the rise of another ambitious Brazilian - mining tycoon Eike Batista.
For much of the past 10 years, Batista - a flashy maverick with an extravagant lifestyle - was the world's seventh richest billionaire, and seen by many as the international face of Brazil's then vibrant economic growth on the world stage.
Much of Batista's wealth was made during a cycle of high commodity prices.
But once that cycle came to an end, a mixture of economic downturn and bad decisions meant he lost much of his lustre and fortune.
In a way, Batista's story is a chronicle of Brazil's journey from hype to economic downturn, in which the fortunes of South America's largest country roughly followed the same timescale.
Now the subject of a series of criminal charges his fall from grace was absolute, while Lemann claimed the post of Brazil's richest person.
Many commentators see him as the "anti-Batista" - a prudent manager with a low profile and discreet lifestyle who is not given to grandiose statements.
But just as with Batista in the 2000s, Lemann now seems like an appropriate choice to be the "face" of Brazil's tougher economic reality in 2015.
His philosophy of cost-cutting and efficiency savings is currently in vogue in his home country - as the government turns to austerity measures in a bid to put the Brics nation back on a path of sustainable growth.
But Prof Hidalgo says 3G Capital is, in many ways, the opposite of the typical Brazilian industry.
Their firms have discipline, high productivity and low waste - qualities many companies in Brazil are still lacking today.
"Brazilian businesses have much to learn from them," says the professor.
Brazil's government must surely be hoping that the country's fortunes also mirror one of its most successful sons. | Brazil's richest man Jorge Paulo Lemann does not eat burgers. |
39,616,148 | It was one-sided from the start with Paul Shiels, Neil McManus and Conor Johnston netting for the holders.
Fiarcha Bradley's goal saw Armagh trail 3-16 to 1-2 at the break before Johnston added two more Antrim goals in a 22-point victory.
Antrim's Paddy Burke and Orchard defender John Corvan were sent-off in the second half for two yellow cards.
This proved to be little more than a training session for Antrim ahead of next weekend's Christy Ring Cup encounter against Carlow.
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Antrim capitalised on a strong breeze on their backs in the first half and the outcome was settled by the interval.
Shiels hit the top corner and within a minute Ciaran Clarke set up McManus for an easy goal.
Armagh needed a bit of fortune and they got it when Connor Corvan's free struck the upright and Bradley reacted quickest to net.
The impressive Johnston burst clear and fired home Antrim's third goal to give them a 20-point advantage at the break.
Armagh did improve on the restart with the wind advantage and David Carvill rattled over six points in the second half.
Antrim's eased up with the game won but Johnston was hungry for more goals and the forward completed a hat-trick.
It was far from being a physical game but Burke and John Corvan were dismissed as the Saffrons were crowned provincial champions once again.
Derry claimed the Ulster Hurling Shield title by beating Tyrone 1-17 to 1-12, but they survived a major scare in the final at Pairc Eire Og in Carrickmore.
The Oak Leafers went into the decider as hot favourites to triumph and reclaim their place in the senior championship next season.
Ruairi Convery's dead ball striking was the difference in the end, a 12 points tally helping his side to a five-point win.
Convery and Tyrone's Damien Casey were the main marksmen in the first half, which ended with wind-assisted Derry ahead by 0-9 to 0-6.
Casey brought Tyrone level three minutes into the second half, but a Gerald Bradley goal settled Oak Leaf nerves.
Convery continued to hit the target as Derry went seven clear, but Tyrone hit back with a Justin Kelly goal to make it a three-point game going into the final five minutes.
But Derry's experience told in the end, with Convery landing another couple of frees. He also had a penalty saved by Conor McElhatton in stoppage time. | Antrim made it 16 Ulster SHC titles in a row by hammering Armagh 5-22 to 1-12 in Sunday's decider at Owenbeg. |
32,404,841 | Ron Phillips, 70, was repeatedly punched as he took cocoa back to the cabin he shared with his wife June, 68, Teesside Crown Court was told.
The couple were on an all-inclusive cruise off Lanzarote when the alleged attack occurred in January 2014.
Graeme Finlay, 53, from Glasgow, denies unlawful wounding.
The court heard Mr Phillips, who has had a hip replacement, was knocked out during the incident and his wife was later found to have suffered fractured two vertebrae after being shoved against a wall.
Mr Finlay, of Meadowside Quay Walk, told police he hit Mr Phillips in self-defence, but he denied attacking his wife during the cruise on board the Thomson Celebration.
Mr Phillips claimed he was carrying their two mugs of cocoa back to their cabin when he was punched in the corridor. His wife had gone before him and was holding the door open.
He said: "I turned my head to the left and the next thing I knew, I was coming to on the floor with various people around me."
He needed six stitches to a head wound and was treated by the ship's medical staff.
The court heard the couple had been assisted by the crew to get on board the cruise ship as they both had "limited mobility".
Lewis Kerr, prosecuting, said Mrs Phillips had seen her husband being punched several times and that when she went to his aid, she was pushed against a wall leaving her unconscious.
Mr Kerr said after the attack, the crew found blood stains in Mr Finlay's cabin and he was "disembarked" from the cruise.
Mr Finlay, who also denies causing grievous bodily harm, was questioned by police in the UK and said there had been an argument that night, and accepted he hit Mr Phillips, but did not accept causing the injury to Mrs Phillips.
The trial continues. | A man accused of attacking two frail Middlesbrough pensioners on a holiday cruise told police he acted in self-defence, a court has heard. |
40,307,747 | The 29-year-old moved to the Scottish Premiership side from Preston last summer on a three-year deal and scored 10 goals in 37 Rangers appearances.
Garner had previously found the net 57 times in 148 matches for North End over the course of three seasons.
He helped the Lancashire club win promotion to the Championship via the League One play-offs in 2015.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Ipswich Town have signed striker Joe Garner from Rangers for an undisclosed fee on an three-year contract. |
25,292,566 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Robertson, 31, fought back from 5-1 down to add the title to his World Championship and Masters triumphs.
"To become the first overseas player to win all three is a fantastic feeling," the Australian told BBC Sport.
Selby, the 2012 UK Championship winner, missed the chance to overtake Robertson as world number one.
Robertson won the World Championship in 2010 and the Masters - the game's most prestigious invitational event - at Alexandra Palace last year, while his UK Championship victory is his ninth ranking title.
"Mark in the first session was too good for me today," he said.
"If I was another professional, Neil Robertson would be the benchmark for me right now. He is dedicated, he is such a good competitor and to turn it round from 6-3 down was great. I always felt he was hitting the ball better than Selby."
"Tonight I came out 6-3 down and I just had to play good snooker to get back in. When I beat John Higgins in the Wuxi Classic, I said the way I played was the best, but today was definitely the best I have played in a final.
"When I came over to England, [China's world number three] Ding Junhui and I turned professional at the same time, and to get the Triple Crown ahead of him is a fantastic achievement."
Robertson and Selby, 30, had faced each other in the Masters final at the beginning of the year when Selby came out on top 10-6.
And the defending UK champion, who had made snooker's 100th maximum 147 break in the semi-final against Ricky Walden, started the match in stunning fashion, stroking in a sublime 130 clearance en route to a four-frame advantage.
But Robertson, who withstood a comeback from Stuart Bingham in the last four to reach the final, hit back with breaks of 54 and a superb 123 to stay in touch at 5-3 after the first session.
He then won three of the first four frames in the final session, including superb back-to-back centuries of 122 and 132 to restore parity at 6-6.
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All the momentum was with the Melbourne man as he won his fifth frame in a row to make it 8-6, but Selby took the 15th with a run of 74, his highest break since the fifth frame.
Robertson was 48 ahead in the next, but Selby gnawed away at the deficit and needed only the final black to level the match when he missed a fairly routine top-cushion pot, an astonished Robertson tapping in to go one away from victory.
And he clinched the 17th with a knock of 57 to secure the £150,000 prize money and complete the Triple Crown.
Selby - who has now won only three ranking titles from his 10 final appearances - told BBC Sport: "I played sort of OK in the first session but tonight I was very poor.
"I didn't deserve to win. I had more than my fair share of chances [but] I didn't take them and Neil did.
"If I had potted the black to make it 8-8, I probably wouldn't have deserved it. I've been quite poor this week so to get to the final is a good achievement." | Neil Robertson became only the eighth player in snooker history to win the Triple Crown with a 10-7 victory over Mark Selby at the UK Championship. |
37,758,621 | Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer of Woodstock, Ontario, appeared in court on Tuesday morning.
The victims were residents in two long-term care facilities where Ms Wettlaufer worked and were between 75 and 96 years old.
Police said seven of the victims were given a fatal dose of a drug.
The victims were five women and three men and were all residents of Caressant Care in Woodstock and Meadow Park in London, Ontario.
What we know about accused Canadian nurse
"The victims were administered a drug... there are obviously a number of drugs that are stored and are available in long-term care facilities," Woodstock Police Chief William Renton said at a news conference.
The chief declined to comment on a possible motive, but did add that investigators are confident that they have identified all victims.
Caressant spokesman Lee Griffi said the accused was a registered nurse and left their employment approximately two and a half years ago.
"We deeply regret the additional grief and stress this is imposing on the families involved," Mr Griffi said in a written statement.
Woodstock is a car industry and agricultural town of some 37,000 people, about 128km (79 miles) west of Toronto.
In the residential neighbourhood where the Caressant Care facility is located, few people were seen coming and going.
Media were staked outside the property, across from a local school.
In the hallway of the adjoining retirement residence, a television could be heard playing the news of Ms Wettlaufer's arrest.
An employee at the facility, who was not authorised to speak on the record, told a reporter that it was a shame the actions of one person could colour a whole profession.
Ms Wettlaufer was also an employee at Christian Horizons, the long-term care facility confirmed.
A spokesperson for the organisation, which was not named in the police investigation, said she stopped working for them in 2007.
"Christian Horizons fully intends to cooperate with the authorities in their investigation in this matter," said chief executive Janet Noel-Annable in a statement.
The daughter of one of the victims said she felt something was amiss when her father, Aprad Horwath, died at 75 in the Meadow Park facility.
"You don't want to believe any of this until you get to this stage when you're actually hearing it on the radio, and then you know that it's real, and even then it's hard to believe," Susan Horvath told AM980 radio in London, Ontario.
"I wanted to talk and just for my dad so that people know what happened to him instead of putting it down as, 'oh he had a stroke' or, 'oh, the old age'."
Ms Wettlaufer says on her Facebook profile that she studied religious education at London Baptist Bible College before she went to nursing school at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ontario.
She lists Lifeguard Homecare as her current employer. A representative from Lifeguard Homecare has yet to respond to the BBC's calls.
On the College of Nurses of Ontario website, Ms Wettlaufer's profile states that she became a registered nurse in August 1995 and then resigned on 30 September 2016.
The profile also lists Parker as her former surname, and has recently been updated to note that she is facing murder charges and is remanded in custody.
Ms Wettlaufer frequently posted pictures of herself on social media with her elderly parents, and described her passion for animals and the Harry Potter series.
"Father's day is a great reminder of how blessed I am to still have my Dad alive and able to spend time with me", she wrote beneath a picture of her father.
In another post, dated 28 September 2015, Ms Werrlaufer spoke about her difficulties overcoming alcoholism.
"My own voice called to me in the darkness. Others hands lifted me when I chose the light. One year ago today I woke up not dead. 365 days clean and sober," she wrote.
The deaths took place between 2007 and 2014.
Police have identified the victims as:
Police revealed few details about the motive or circumstances surrounding the deaths, but said that the investigation into all eight deaths started on 29 September after police in Woodstock received certain information.
The investigation was a joint effort between Woodstock Police Service, London Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police.
Police said they do not know if there are other victims, but that the nurse worked in other facilities. They are urging the public to come forward if they have any information.
The criminal case is the largest in Ontario province since 2006, when five men were charged for murdering eight members of the Bandidos biker gang.
All five of the accused men were convicted in 2009. | A 49-year-old nursing home worker in Ontario has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder spanning several years. |
35,837,079 | The Private Housing (Tenancies) Bill creates a streamlined system aimed at protecting tenants from the threat of unfair eviction and big rent increases.
The Scottish Association of Landlords had claimed the bill could drive some renters out of the market.
After a lengthy debate in which a number of amendments were considered, MSPs voted for the bill by 84 to 14.
The provisions are aimed at creating a modernised system which is easier for tenants to understand.
During debate of the bill, Housing Minister Margaret Burgess announced that if the SNP are re-elected in May, fees will not be charged for tenants or landlords going to a tribunal.
Ms Burgess, who is stepping down at the Holyrood election in May, said the bill as it stands will allow tenants to feel "more secure in their homes".
She it was necessary to legislate to "rebalance" the relationship between landlords and tenants a fairer one, adding that there had been a "collaborative" approach to the bill.
Student accommodation is exempted from the bill, but Ms Burgess said in the private rented sector all tenants should be treated the same, including students.
Labour supported the government, with Ken Macintosh said the bill could have been done better and done sooner, but described it as "a good step forward".
The Scottish Conservatives did not support the legislation, with Alex Johnstone saying the government had come down on the side of the tenant and saying more should have been done for landlords.
He said: "We should have done more to create a proper balance between landlord and tenant."
The Lib Dems also backed the bill, while Green MSP Patrick Harvie said Holyrood should be more "bold" and "radical" to close the gap between the social rented sector and the private rented sector.
Provisions of the Private Housing (Tenancies) Bill include: | MSPs have approved new rules for landlords and tenants to regulate the private rental sector. |
20,080,203 | The Wellcome Trust team says a specific speech test accurately predicts whose stutter will persist into their teens.
About one in 20 develops a stutter before age five - but just one in 100 stutter as a teen and identifying these children has so far been difficult.
Campaigners said it was key for children to be diagnosed early.
Stuttering tends to start at about three years old. Four out of five will recover without intervention, often within a couple of years.
But for one in five, their stutter will persist and early therapy can be of significant benefit.
The researchers, based at University College London, used a test developed in the US called SSI-3 (stuttering severity instrument).
In earlier work, they followed eight-year-olds with a stutter into their teens.
They found that the SSI-3 test was a reliable indicator of who would still have a stutter and who would recover - while other indicators such as family history, which have been used, were less so.
It showed the test was highly sensitive and specific in classifying those with a stutter who would recover, those whose stammer would persist and those who were "fluent" - had no communication difficulties.
A fluency result is important because it shows the test can be used on unaffected children, which it would have to be if it was to be used to screen for problems.
This latest paper, published in the Journal of Fluency Disorders, looked at another 272 children with a stutter and 25 without, aged five to 19.
It showed that the test could reliably be used across the age range.
The researchers also found so-called "whole word repetition" was not a reliable indicator of persistent stutter.
Core symptoms were found to be prolonging parts of words, partial repetition of words or "blocking" on the first part of a word.
Prof Peter Howell, who led the research, said: "If we can identify children at risk of stuttering, then we can offer appropriate interventions to help them early on.
"Primary school is a key time in a child's development and any help in tackling potential communication problems could make a big difference to the child's life."
He told the BBC: "We had already looked at children aged eight to teens. But we wanted to establish if we could extend those findings to younger children.
"What the paper is showing is that the prospect of being able to screen children looks like a real possibility, based on this data."
Norbert Lieckfeldt, chief executive of the British Stammering Association, said: "The crucial thing about this research is that it seems to be able to be accurately predict which children will have a persistent stammer.
"That would be a huge step forward."
Mr Lieckfeldt added: "At five, there is still a window of opportunity to help those with a stammer.
"If we intervene early enough, there is a really high success rate of normal, fluent speaking, whereas for six- to eight-year-olds, the recovery rate drops like a stone." | A screening test for children starting school that could accurately detect early signs of a persistent stutter is a step closer, experts say. |
36,689,557 | Murray is the last British player left in singles' competition after defeats for Dan Evans and Tara Moore on Friday.
In the opening two rounds, Murray, the 2013 Wimbledon champion, has not lost a set and only dropped 15 games.
"If you can win matches easily it does help because you can rest. It has been a good start," he said.
Millman, 27, is ranked 67th in the world and nearly quit tennis after suffering a serious shoulder injury three years ago.
"I worked in the City for a little bit at one of my mate's companies - I was dressed up in a suit each day going in," said Millman, who admitted he had "never been inside Centre Court or Court One".
"I really have an appreciation of these moments right now, because there was a big time there where I wasn't too confident.
"You dream of playing on the biggest courts against the biggest players. I feel as if I deserve to be there and I'm going to give it everything."
That third-round match is scheduled to be second on Centre Court on Saturday and will be the first time Murray and Millman have met in a Grand Slam.
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Murray has only played Millman once, winning two sets to one in the second round of the Brisbane International on a hard court in January 2013.
"I didn't know him before we played in Brisbane," said the world number two. "He played extremely well that day. He was ranked about 200 at the time.
"I came off the court and I said to Dani Vallverdu, who I was working with, 'He's top 50 for sure if he keeps going'.
"He moves well and has a great attitude. But obviously it's a different surface, different place. The match-up will be a bit different on a grass court."
World number one Novak Djokovic has won 30 Grand Slam matches in a row, with his last loss coming against Stan Wawrinka in the final of the French Open in June 2015.
But he has a fight on his hands when he resumes on Court One on Saturday two sets to love behind against America's 28th seed Sam Querrey.
Querrey took the first set on a tie-break before cruising through the second 6-1 only for the rain to arrive, meaning they have to conclude their third-round match on Saturday.
"Querrey maintained his level and Djokovic looked as though he was uninterested," four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist Tim Henman told BBC Sport.
"He obviously isn't but since he is down two sets to love he will be happy to have a break and talk to his team.
"He has got to draw on last year's experience. He is certainly hoping that history repeats itself."
Last year, Djokovic trailed South African Kevin Anderson by the same margin in their last-16 tie when bad light stopped play and the Serb came back to win a day later.
Australia's Nick Kyrgios, who beat German Dustin Brown in a five-set thriller on Friday, is also in action on Court One on Saturday.
He takes on Spain's Feliciano Lopez with the winner playing the victor of the Murray-Millman match in the last 16.
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Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is going to have a busy schedule if she is going to have more success at the tournament, as she is yet to finish her second-round singles match.
She returns on Saturday with work to do to stay in the competition after losing the first set 7-5 to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.
Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, a Wimbledon runner-up two years ago, defeated British number one Johanna Konta on Thursday and is in action against 19th seed Dominika Cibulkova.
Wimbledon organisers have already announced that there will be play on the middle Sunday of the tournament for the first time since 2004.
The opening week's schedule has been disrupted by rain delays and there could be more frustration for tennis fans on outside courts on Saturday.
Steve Cleaton of BBC Weather said: "It will be bright, breezy and dry for lengthy periods, but there will be the risk of occasional showers through the course of the day.
"Any showers should move through fairly quickly, but they could be heavy."
You can now add tennis alerts in the BBC Sport app - simply head to the menu and My Alerts section | Great Britain's Andy Murray will be hoping to maintain his good form at this year's Wimbledon when he takes on Australia's John Millman on Saturday. |
34,927,553 | The former New York Giants star had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a statement released by NBC said.
Dozens of former professional US football players have suffered from the same degenerative disease, which can only be diagnosed after death.
His family decided to have his brain assessed by medics.
He suffered unspecified "cognitive and behavioural symptoms" as he grew older, according to their statement.
They "made the difficult decision to have his brain studied in hopes of contributing to the advancement of medical research concerning the link between football and traumatic brain injury".
Gifford, whose widow is NBC's Today host Kathie Lee Gifford, died at his Connecticut home aged 84 in August.
He played for the New York Giants from 1952-64, selected as the Most Valuable Player in 1956 and an eight-time selection to the Pro Bowl.
In 1977, he was inducted into the American Football Hall of Fame, and he helped the Giants win the NFL title in 1956.
After his playing career he moved into TV commentary, working for ABC's Monday Night Football from 1971 to 1997.
"Frank Gifford was the ultimate Giant. He was the face of our franchise for so many years," Giants President John Mara said after his death.
The author of Concussion, which has inspired a new film starring Will Smith, spoke to the BBC's Babita Sharma about the dangers of American football. | A legend of American football, Frank Gifford, suffered from a concussion-related brain injury when he died, his family has said. |
25,812,130 | You only find out if what you've ordered actually fits you once it's arrived - and if it doesn't, there's the hassle of packing it back up and returning it. It's a bigger problem than you may think.
"Almost one in four garments are being returned - 70% of those returns are because the customer's got the wrong size," says Heikki Haldre, chief executive and founder of London-based Fits.me.
Companies like his are using technology to reduce these high return rates.
Fits.me has developed a virtual fitting room that works in conjunction with a retailer's online store. Shoppers enter some basic measurements and a virtual mannequin adjusts to fit their dimensions.
The user can then dress the mannequin with different sizes, allowing them to see how different garments will fit before making their purchase.
More than 30 retailers have already signed up to the service, including Superdry, Hugo Boss and Thomas Pink.
Being more confident about getting clothes that fit also means shoppers buy more, says Mr Haldre.
"It removes the risk when buying online. And when this risk is taken away, the sales for the retailers increase. Fits.me virtual fitting room users buy almost two times more than non-users."
E-sizing technology has entered the world of high-end, bespoke menswear, too. Carlos Solorio, co-founder of American firm Arden Reed, wanted to change the way men were measured for clothes.
"Tailoring hasn't really changed in the last 200 years," he says. "And so we came up with The Tailor Truck."
His customised van is equipped with the latest 3D scanning technology and travels around the US. Using 14 Kinect sensors, the scanner takes more than 3.5 million body point measurements. These are sent to a production facility in Asia and the customer receives their tailor-made suit in four to six weeks.
"Customers get a custom suit with a price ranging from $500-1,500 (£300-900), which is lower than your typical custom suit," says Mr Solorio.
"We saw a problem in the market," he says. "Custom suiting was really limited towards wealthy individuals, and the experience wasn't the best.
"You'd have to do various fittings, you'd pay upwards of two or three thousand dollars for one suit, and the fit wasn't always there, even with an experienced tailor."
Computer scientists at London College of Fashion are developing software that allows shoppers to use their own, domestic equipment to try to find the perfect fit.
"Many people shopping online don't know their size for that particular brand," says Mouhannad Al-Sayegh, from the college's Fashion Digital Studio.
Using their own camera, whether a webcam or on a smartphone, the consumer takes an image of themselves and uploads it to the site. They tell the computer where their hands and feet are and provide some basic data like their height, weight, age and gender.
This information is sent to the server and the computer does the rest. It identifies the shopper's body shape, removes that from background, and then extracts the measurements.
"We realise people might have busy backgrounds, so we developed this technology so that it can be used anywhere. Even if you have a busy background, this algorithm will be able to pick that person out," Mr Al-Sayegh says.
Using garment data provided by the retailer, the software is able to make a size recommendation for the shopper. Mr Al-Sayegh hopes it won't be long before the technology is available on most online clothing stores.
"If we can provide technology that will help customers find their size at home, this will significantly reduce the returns rate."
And that's not just good for the consumer - it's good for the business.
On many occasions retailers cover the costs of ill-fitting items being returned. And when they are returned, they're often resold only at a heavily discounted price. This means retailers lose out.
"The problem is about €12bn (£10bn) - this is the value of garments either being returned or lost sales," says Heikke Haldre of Fits.me.
And then there are the environmental impacts. Mr Haldre says that for every 100 sales, there are 162 shipments due to returns and exchanges.
"One thing for me is clear," he says. "The virtual fitting rooms, whether it's Fits.me or whether it's someone else, these will be the standard solution for online shopping."
Click is broadcast on the BBC World Service every Tuesday at 2032 GMT and is also available as a free download.
Follow Rich on Twitter and join the discussion using #bbcclickradio | For many people, shopping for clothes online can be a bit of a gamble. |
36,536,066 | At the end of the day, the FTSE 100 was up 43.27 points at 5,966.80.
The benchmark share index fell below 6,000 on Tuesday for the first time since February on worries over rising support for the UK leaving the EU.
The pound also steadied on Wednesday. Sterling rose 0.52% against the dollar to $1.4189 and climbed 0.22% against the euro to €1.2625.
All eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve later as it announces the outcome of its latest policy meeting.
The US central bank is not expected to announce a rise in interest rates, but its statement will be examined closely for clues as to the timing of a rise later this year.
In London, mining shares helped to drive the increase in the FTSE 100 as the price of aluminium and copper rose. Glencore shares climbed 6.5% and Anglo American rose 5.2%.
But shares in housebuilder Berkeley Group fell 1.2% after it said new home reservations were down 20% ahead of the EU referendum.
The company also reported a 9% fall in full-year profits to £530.9m.
In the FTSE 250, shares in Jimmy Choo jumped 13.8% after the luxury shoemaker issued an upbeat trading update.
The company said it had made a good start to the year and was trading in line with its expectations. | (Close): The FTSE 100 recovered some of the ground lost in Tuesday's sell-off as shares in mining companies rose. |
39,079,210 | Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is investigating the incident after receiving reports of pollution of the tributary near Llanpumsaint.
About 200 trout, 40 lamprey and hundreds of bullheads have been killed.
NRW said officers identified the pollution as slurry from a nearby farm and have stopped any further pollution.
Kimberley Redman, natural resource management team leader for NRW, said the pollution has had a "significant impact" on fish in the river.
She added: "Following quick action from our officers to identify the source and stop the pollution, it's unlikely that we'll see further impact." | Hundreds of fish have been killed by pollution in the River Gwili in Carmarthenshire. |
38,628,097 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Konta, who broke into the world's top 10 last year, beat Agnieszka Radwanska to win her second WTA trophy at the Sydney International on Friday.
The 25-year-old begins her campaign against Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens on Tuesday (midnight on Monday in the UK).
"I'm very pleased with the level I played," said Konta of her Sydney win.
"But we all know that it's not a given. It doesn't decide how you will do in the next event.
"I'm taking it as a positive from the week itself, but I'm looking to again work hard here and really try to do the best that I can."
Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.
Sydney-born Konta reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open last year - the furthest she has ever progressed in a Grand Slam.
And despite enjoying her most successful season to date, she chose to split with coach Esteban Carril in December after two-and-a-half years together.
Konta is now working under Belgian Wim Fissette, who has previously coached former world number one Kim Clijsters and two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka.
"My previous situation came to a natural end so I was in the market. It came together nicely for us," Konta told BBC Radio 5 live.
"We're doing some great work together. I'm really enjoying learning from him. He's a coach who's been on tour for some time and has worked with some of the best players.
"I'm trying to be a sponge and trying to absorb all the information he's passing on."
Sue Barker, who reached the semi-finals of the women's singles at the Australian Open in 1975 and 1977, believes Johanna Konta is good enough to win this year's competition.
"Last year's Australian Open was her big breakthrough tournament," Barker told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek programme.
"We had been seeing her get better and better but at the Australian Open she started to believe in herself. She has not sat back and has improved week after week.
"I watched her final against Radwanska in Sydney last week and it was the best I've seen her play. She looked incredible and doesn't have a weakness.
"She is hitting the ball so hard and she is not just a top-10 player, she is a Grand Slam contender."
Konta will return to ninth in the world rankings on Monday following her win in Sydney and Barker thinks Konta can beat the best players.
"Johanna is seeded ninth so has not got the protection of being in the top eight but there is not one person that's just so outstanding in the women's game," added Barker.
"Angelique Kerber is a solid world number one but she is beatable and Johanna has the game to beat her. She certainly has a chance to win it." | British number one Johanna Konta says it is "not a given" that she will be a contender for the Australian Open title despite winning the warm-up tournament. |
35,170,513 | The sides were level at 10-10 at half-time after Nili Latu bundled over for Newcastle and Telusa Veainu brought Leicester back on terms.
Peter Betham wriggled through after a missed tackle to give Tigers the lead.
Leicester denied Newcastle a losing bonus point when Laurence Pearce crossed after Betham's fine offload.
Victory lifted Leicester to third before Harlequins' meeting with Gloucester on Sunday, while a dramatic late win for London Irish against Northampton saw Newcastle slip to the bottom.
Dean Richards' side, without a win this season, made the early running and were rewarded through Latu finishing off a five-metre line out from the catch-and-drive and Craig Willis kicking the extras.
Leicester tight-head Fraser Balmain was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle, but Newcastle's own indiscipline saw them reduced to 13 men at one stage in the opening 40 minutes.
Belisario Agulla and Mark Wilson went to the sin bin within the space of a minute for a dangerous tackle and failing to release respectively.
Leicester fly-half Freddie Burns chipped away at the deficit before Veainu ran through in the corner after having an earlier effort disallowed.
Mathew Tait also had a try ruled out against his former club as he failed to ground the ball, but Betham put Tigers ahead for the first time after Newcastle's defence was stretched.
The Australian then turned provider to make victory safe for Richard Cockerill's men when number eight Pearce crossed for Leicester's third try.
Leicester boss Richard Cockerill: "I'll take the four points but we were pretty ordinary, we were inaccurate and created lots of opportunities but Newcastle came and fought hard and made us work very hard for it.
"Newcastle were good and their set-piece was excellent and they worked hard, but if you're inaccurate and you let the official in and you don't control it yourself then you get what you get."
Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards: "If we can have a little bit more patience in attack and we didn't have that today... the first 20 minutes we showed that patience and that shape and it caused them problems and as soon as we lost that patience, our game went to pot a little bit and we had to defend long periods.
"When we did get the ball, we tended to lose it within two to three phases.
"I thought our pack was outstanding but again it comes down to that little bit of accuracy but I thought we defended really well.
"We're not even a third of the way through the season yet but as we have in the last few seasons we tend to come out and surprise people towards the end of the season and we'll start to get the wins that we want."
Leicester: Tait; Veainu, Betham, Smith, Goneva; Burns, B. Youngs; Mulipola, H. Thacker, Balmain, Barrow, Slater, Croft, McCaffrey, Pearce.
Replacements: T. Youngs, Aguero, Cole, De Chaves, Fonua, Harrison, Bell, Bai.
Newcastle: Hammersley; A. Tait, Agulla, C. Harris, Watson; Willis, M. Young; Vickers, McGuigan, Welsh, M. Wilson, Robinson, Hogg, Welch, Latu.
Replacements: Lawson, Rogers, Vea, Botha, Clever, Takulua, Catterick, Socino.
Referee: Tim Wigglesworth
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter. | Leicester Tigers recovered from a 10-point deficit at Welford Road to beat Newcastle, who dropped to the bottom of the Premiership table. |
35,430,343 | Following back-to-back league postponements, January signings Antonio German and Aidan Nesbitt are still waiting to make their debuts.
St Johnstone defender Brian Easton misses out again with a gashed foot but will resume training later this week.
New signing Plamen Krachunov could feature if international clearance arrives in time.
The Bulgarian provides cover for skipper Dave Mackay, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a hip problem.
Saints' planned visit to Firhill on Boxing Day was postponed after torrential rain and Thistle have been idle over the last two weekends after call-offs.
Those cancellations leave the hosts with four games in hand on their nearest rivals in the bottom half of the table.
"The players are desperate for a game," said manager Alan Archibald.
"There's a bit of pressure on us, we've got to take something from our games in hand.
"St Johnstone are a difficult proposition but we're the home side and we need to make sure we play at a good tempo."
Saturday's 2-1 win over Motherwell at McDiarmid Park was Saints' first three points since 5 December and lifted them up to fifth in the Premiership.
"It was nice to get the win," said manager Tommy Wright.
"It got us back into the top six and now this is one of the games in hand that we have got so we have to try to make the most of it and pick up more points.
"We are not taking anything for granted, it is one win and we have to try to build on it."
Thistle were 2-1 winners in Perth in October, while they triumphed 3-0 on St Johnstone's last visit to Firhill in March. | Partick Thistle right-back Mustapha Dumbuya remains sidelined with an ankle injury. |
20,314,809 | Paul Jacobs, 23, from Stourbridge, says he is "lucky to be alive" after being injured in August 2009 while serving with 2nd Battalion The Rifles.
He was awarded the George Medal for bravery after being left blinded by a bomb while on patrol.
But now he is taking up rowing - and wants to compete at the highest level.
If he fulfils his dream, it would be a remarkable achievement for Mr Jacobs, who is determined to "crack on with life" and is training most days.
"I lost the sight in one eye and the other faded within six months," he said.
"I was in Selly Oak Hospital for some time and then went to Headley Court."
After leaving the Surrey rehabilitation centre, Mr Jacobs moved from London to Stourbridge.
It was during his time at Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital that Mr Jacobs met his wife Louise, where she still works as a healthcare assistant.
"My wife's from Stourbridge and I just wanted a fresh start," he said.
He enjoys Thai boxing and has competed in marathons and triathlons, and hopes to compete in Ironman events, despite also suffering muscle damage to his right arm and leg in the bomb blast.
Relying on touch and verbal directions, even during the swimming leg of triathlons, Mr Jacobs said sport offered an escape.
"I keep myself busy so I don't have too much time to think about things.
"I'm determined to do the London Marathon next year and I've done other charity fundraising events too," he said.
However, it is in rowing that Mr Jacobs is bidding to compete for his country, targeting the Rio Games.
"I've got a very competitive streak. I don't like losing," he said.
He said sport had also offered him a chance to feel more independent.
He said: "They say you can be independent but you can't ever be truly independent; it's a fact that I have to rely on other people.
"I'm learning white cane skills which gets me from place to place but life is obviously easier when you can see what you're doing.
"Having no sight can be a bit crazy, you build up a mental picture of things you've never seen before.
"I guess it's your brain compensating and your imagination going into overdrive." | A former soldier has targeted the 2016 Games in Rio after being blinded in Afghanistan. |
27,920,028 | People trying to log on to the site were faced with a message saying: "Something went wrong. We're working to get it fixed as soon as we can."
The short shutdown drew attention across the web with many taking to Twitter to ask what all the fuss was about.
Facebook apologised for the problem but did not say what caused it.
"Earlier this morning, we experienced an issue that prevented people from posting to Facebook for a brief period of time. We resolved the issue quickly, and we are now back to 100%. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused."
It is not yet clear how many countries were affected. | Facebook's website was inaccessible for many of its 1.3 billion users for around 15 minutes this morning. |
36,824,522 | The suspects pleaded not guilty but the judge ordered they remain in custody.
They face three counts of murder for the deaths of lawyer Willie Kimani, Josphat Mwenda and their driver Joseph Muiruri.
The three went missing in June after Mr Kimani filed a case against a police officer on behalf of Mr Mwenda.
A week later, decomposing bodies of the three were recovered in a river, in the outskirts on Kenya's capital Nairobi.
Post-mortem reports said the bodies had signs of torture.
Africa Live: More on this and other news stories
Kenyans in fear of police 'death squads'
The killings sparked outrage in Kenya and many have blamed the police force for a series of extrajudicial killings in recent years.
The hashtag #StopExtrajudicialKillings gained popularity on social media as people gathered to take part in protests around the country.
A joint statement by 34 Kenyan and international human rights organisations condemned the killings.
The government has denied the existence of police death squads, saying any killings are the work of "rogue officers".
Kenyan security forces carried out 25 extrajudicial killing between 2013 and 2015, Kenya's official rights body said.
However, non-governmental watchdog Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) says the police killed 97 people in 2015 alone. | Four police officers have been charged with the murder of a lawyer and two others, which sparked protests against extrajudicial killings in Kenya. |
36,227,096 | A post-mortem examination showed John Clift, 54, suffered the heart attack prior to the collision near Pwllheli on April 29.
Mr Clift died at the scene of natural causes.
The office of North West Wales coroner, Dewi Pritchard Jones, said there would not be an inquest into the death.
The incident between an emergency ambulance and a patient care service ambulance happened on the A499, north of Y Ffor.
Mr Clift, from Pwllheli, was driving the service ambulance. | An ambulance driver who crashed into a second ambulance in Gwynedd had suffered a heart attack at the wheel. |
32,379,678 | Howe received the accolade at the 10th annual Football League awards ceremony as recognition for his achievements with Bournemouth.
In two spells, the former Cherries player has guided the club from Football League survival after a 17-point deduction in 2008-09 to within two games of reaching the top flight for the first time.
The 37-year-old is on course to become one of only a small selection of managers to have guided a team through three divisions into English football's top flight, but how has he done it?
Here BBC Sport speaks to three men who know Howe better than most.
John Williams was in charge of Bournemouth's centre of excellence, first meeting Howe as a shy 13-year-old. The former Cherries defender has been a summariser for BBC Radio Solent for over 10 years, watching Howe learn his craft as a manager.
"He was quiet as a mouse. If you can imagine your first day at school, Eddie was like that for quite a while," Williams told BBC Sport. "In fact it nearly hindered him. There was an awful lot to come out in terms of personality and character. Tony Pulis [Bournemouth manager at the time] wasn't that sure whether he could come through. We had to get Tony to come down and watch him on a number of occasions before he took him on.
"Once he got in the changing room, he found his feet. He was one of the boys. When you get in the first team, it's another cup of tea. I remember him being man of the match in his first game.
"He is a fantastic, polite lad, who has become determined, super hard and that's the reason why he is hopefully going to be picking up the Championship in two weeks' time.
"He's learned things from managers he's played under. He's had some crackers like Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth.
"This is the best Bournemouth side I have seen going back to 1986. I speak to fans of 50 and 60 years and they say they have never seen such dynamic football.
"The attention to detail is the one. He is always looking for that different edge, that little angle. How your team, plays, defends - he is always trying to pick up on something that is going to make a difference."
Steve Fletcher was Howe's team-mate at Bournemouth and played under him in the final years of his career. Fletcher is Bournemouth's record league appearance holder and now works in their player recruitment and scouting department.
"He's so dedicated, he is meticulous," Fletcher told BBC Sport. "He works so hard and has a passion for this football club.
"He eats, breathes and sleeps football. It is his club. He watched as a boy from the terraces and he'd do anything to see Bournemouth get to where he wants them to be. He'll stop at nothing.
"I played for 24 years under some fantastic managers and he stands out. He is a million miles ahead of everybody else. He is just different. Every little thing you wouldn't think matters, matters to Eddie. I believe he will go on to do bigger and better things - hopefully with Bournemouth but he's definitely a unbelievable manager in the making.
"He is so meticulous on the training ground, his attention to detail is phenomenal and his man management skills are brilliant.
"He was my room-mate for a while - looking back I always realised he had an old head on young shoulders and he thought about things in more detail. He was a very deep and private man.
"Nobody could foresee the success he's had in such a short space of time. It's phenomenal what he's achieved. The award just proves how highly thought of he is. To have played with him for 11 years and then under him for five years and to have been his friend for 22 years, I'm so proud."
Harry Redknapp has always been considered Bournemouth's greatest ever manager - until this season. Redknapp signed Howe as a player at Portsmouth.
"I produced teams that play good football," Redknapp told BBC Sport.
"I had 10 years at Bournemouth, I was the most successful manager in their 100-year history. Eddie Howe has come along and blown me out the water. He is fantastic - I love watching them play.
"If I wasn't involved next year, I'd buy a couple of season tickets and watch them every week." | Eddie Howe has only been a manager for six years but has already achieved enough to be named as the first Football League manager of the decade. |
38,264,141 | Bottom-placed Swans face third-from-bottom Black Cats in a Premier League match on Saturday.
Bradley's side have picked up five points from his seven games in charge with pressure mounting for change.
"If that's the case it shouldn't be Bob Bradley that loses his job, it should be the person who employed Bob Bradley," said Moyes.
"Bob has only been in the job [a matter of weeks]. It must have been the people who made decision, that's the way I would look at it."
Bradley is the first American to manage in the Premier League and the fourth Swansea manager in less than three years.
Chairman Huw Jenkins has said he accepts responsibility for the turmoil in at the club.
Former Everton manager Moyes, who was under pressure himself after a poor start to the season, believes Swansea's plight cannot be blamed on a man who has been in charge for less than two months.
"I think Bob Bradley would have to be given time," he added.
"Whoever would go into Swansea, or Sunderland for example, or some of the clubs at this end of the table and expect it to be a massive turnaround? If anybody thinks that they are completely wrong. They really are."
Bradley has defended himself in the face of criticism, accusing some people of not liking him because of his American accent and claiming some critics are talking "garbage".
Bradley, who succeeded Francesco Guidolin in October, was the first football appointment made by Swansea's new US owners and previously managed Le Havre, Egypt and the USA national team. | Swansea's board not manager Bob Bradley should be under pressure according to Sunderland boss David Moyes. |
36,974,211 | Lee Ross, 42, from Colchester, Essex, decided to get inked after seeing a Facebook post asking if any fans of Gimp Man would consider doing so.
Gimp Man rose to prominence after he started appearing in public to raise money for Colchester Mind in 2014.
"Lee's taken quite a step. He's a walking advert now," Gimp Man said.
Gimp Man - whose identity is kept secret - gives £1 to the charity every time someone takes a picture with him when he is out in public.
He donated £50 after Mr Ross had the tattoo done, and a number of other donations have been made as a result of the inking.
"It's a big brave step, and I'm really thankful for his help in raising money," Gimp Man told the BBC.
Mr Ross said his wife and children were "used to the madness I get up to".
"I can live with doing crazy things if in some way it's helping someone out," he said.
"It's a great-looking tattoo - the detail is fantastic, and when it's healed it will look better."
Tattooist Nicola Baran offered her services after seeing Gimp Man's Facebook post and put together the design herself.
"It took about two and half hours to do," she said. "The most difficult part was the face as it was small, so it was tricky to get the detail in there.
"I think it's exciting to do something different. Often people have the same designs over and over again, so it was fun to do something out of the ordinary." | A baker has had a picture of the "Gimp Man of Essex" - a man who goes out in public dressed in head-to-toe latex - tattooed on his leg for charity. |
38,992,573 | Globally, there isn't as much sea ice as there used to be, and scientists are worried about this.
Find out below what sea ice is and why we're talking about it.
Sea ice is frozen ocean water.
Together, the Arctic and Antarctic are known as the Earth's polar regions
It forms on the surface of the water in winter when it's cold.
Generally, in the summer, it melts and becomes ocean again. However, some sea ice stays all year round.
It is found in the oceans around the Arctic (north) and the Antarctic (south).
Most of the world's sea ice is found in the Arctic.
According to the National Snow Ice and Data Center (NSIDC), sea ice covers just over 9.6 million square miles of the Earth. That's about 2.5 times the size of Canada!
It is different to icebergs as these are created on the land from fresh water or snow, which then break off into the sea.
Sea ice actually forms on the water from salty, ocean water.
Back in 1979, satellites started monitoring sea ice, to keep an eye on how much of it there was.
We are talking about sea ice because the satellite pictures are showing that, year by year, there appears to be less and less of it forming in the Arctic.
Not only that, but the speed at which it is vanishing there has sped up.
NSIDC reported that in January 2017, there was about 5.17 million square miles of Arctic sea ice recorded.
That might sound like a lot, but it is actually the lowest amount of Arctic sea ice recorded for January since it started being monitored in this way 38 years ago.
In fact, it's 100,000 square miles less Arctic sea ice than there was in January 2016.
In the Antarctic the situation is more complicated.
According to the NSDIC report in February 2017, the amount of summer sea ice in the Antarctic is the lowest on record.
But Dr James Pope, a climate scientist from the British Antarctic Survey, says that's unusual.
"Overall, Antarctic sea ice has been steadily increasing in size, year on year, from the 1970s. So what's happening now is against the trend."
He says this could be important and scientists will need to examine how the Antarctic sea ice behaves in the future.
Sea ice is important as, even though many of us will never even see it during our lives, it can have an effect on the climate.
The ice is very bright and reflects the sun's light back into space, meaning that polar regions with sea ice stay cooler.
When there is less sea ice, not as much sunlight is reflected back into space, so temperatures in the polar regions rise.
These warmer temperatures mean more melting, which means less sea ice - and the cycle continues, having a warming affect on the area.
As the ice melts, it also means there's more water in the sea, so levels can rise which can lead to flooding.
Warmer temperatures in the Arctic and the Antarctic can also affect how the world's atmosphere behaves, as air moves around the Earth.
This can have an influence on things like wind and storms as far away as Europe, where we live.
It doesn't just affect temperature though. Sea ice also influences how the ocean behaves and moves, as cold, polar water from beneath the sea ice sinks and heads to the Equator, while more warm water heads back towards the polar regions.
Finally, melting sea ice can have an effect on wildlife too.
For example, polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt. So if there is less sea ice, they can struggle to get enough food.
Seals and walruses also use sea ice for resting and giving birth.
Some people living in the Arctic also use it for hunting and transport, so melting sea ice can make their hunting seasons shorter.
Just five years ago, the Met Office predicted that, during the summer, the Arctic could have almost no sea ice by the year 2030.
More research is being done to establish what is happening to sea ice and the effect that it could have in the future. | There have been many stories in the news about something called sea ice. |
34,548,413 | The former Peterborough boss was appointed boss of the Keepmoat Stadium side, who are currently 20th in the table, on Friday.
"This club is ready to go, there is no question about that," the 43-year-old told BBC Radio Sheffield.
"There is a good blend of youth and experience. I've had plenty of time to look at them and there's a team there."
He continued: "It has been made clear that the aim is to get to the Championship. The reality of that means this season we need to get 21 wins from our remaining 35 games.
"It's an exciting challenge and one that we will meet head-on."
Ferguson, who is the son of former Manchester United boss Sir Alex, will take charge of the team for the first time in Saturday's home match against Bradford.
He has replaced fellow Scot Paul Dickov in the Keepmoat Stadium dugout after the former Oldham boss was sacked on 8 September after taking just six points from their opening six league games.
Interim boss Rob Jones won one of his six matches in charge to leave Doncaster above the League One drop zone on goal difference only.
Ferguson left Peterborough in February after four years with the London Road side and has signed a rolling contract with Rovers.
He said he had benefitted from taking some time out of the game.
"I wanted the break and I felt that I needed it in the right way," he added.
"I went straight from playing to management and then had maybe a month between leaving Peterborough and Preston and going back to Peterborough.
"There was an offer straight after I left Peterborough and in the summer, but the timing wasn't right." | New Doncaster boss Darren Ferguson believes the team can challenge for promotion from League One this season. |
36,751,760 | Media playback is not supported on this device
It was a first defeat in 11 Wimbledon semi-final appearances for the seven-time champion.
Afterwards, the 34-year-old saluted all corners of Centre Court, prompting speculation that he might be bidding farewell for good.
"To be very clear for you, I hope to be back on Centre Court," said the 17-time Grand Slam champion.
"It was a thank you for the crowd. That's what I was going through, not thinking that this might be my last Wimbledon."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Raonic, the first Canadian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final, will face Britain's Andy Murray in Sunday's final.
Federer's semi-final defeat followed a marathon five-set win over Marin Cilic in the previous round, in which he came back from two sets down and saved three match points.
The Swiss world number three is enduring the toughest year of his career. He missed the French Open because of injury, bringing an end to a streak of 65 successive appearances at Grand Slam events stretching back to 1999.
He has also failed to add to his 88 tour titles this year, suffering his longest drought since 2000, and arrived at Wimbledon having suffered back-to-back semi-final losses in Stuttgart and Halle.
Federer, who had surgery earlier this year on the same knee he hurt on Friday, will be 35 next month.
He has not beaten world number one Novak Djokovic at a Grand Slam since the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2012, when he went on to win his last major title.
"It's a dream to win my eighth title here but it's not the only reason why I play tennis," said Federer, who will represent Switzerland at the Olympics next month, injury permitting.
"I know Wimbledon is important, but it's not everything. I have played 10 sets [against Cilic and Raonic]. It's very encouraging for the season. I was insecure coming into Wimbledon." | Roger Federer said he had no intention of retiring after losing to Milos Raonic in the semi-finals at Wimbledon. |
35,114,972 | The move is expected to lead to a sharp devaluation of the currency.
President Mauricio Macri hopes it will boost exports and spark economic growth.
But consumers fear it could further drive up Argentina's already high inflation rate,
Some retailers also expressed concern that shoppers would be cautious in the short term as they see their purchasing power reduced.
Argentina has been plagued by financial volatility in recent decades with inflation running at around 25% according to private estimates.
The central bank's currency reserves have been depleted after the previous leader, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, used them to prop up the peso.
With reserves running low and many Argentines turning to the black market to get dollars, Mr Macri promised to change that policy as soon as he took office.
He was sworn in last week.
The peso will be allowed to float when markets open on Thursday.
Analysts predict a fall of up to 30% from the current controlled rate of 9.8 pesos to the dollar.
They say they expect it could fall to 14.5 pesos to the dollar, the rate at which the currency has been trading on the black market.
The Argentine economy is so dependent on US dollars that grandmothers give their grandchildren 10-dollar bills as birthday presents and adults hoard them under the mattresses. So that is why in dollar-addicted Argentina, the end of the "cepo" or exchange controls was anxiously expected.
The government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner tried to end the buying of dollars four years ago, but prohibition simply fuelled the black economy.
Since then, a legion of informal street sellers in Buenos Aires' main thoroughfare, Paseo Florida, offer foreign currency at much higher rates than the official one which is extremely hard to buy legally.
Argentines also found other creative ways to circumvent restrictions, from organised day-trips to neighbouring Uruguay to get US dollars from cash machines to Bitcoin trading.
The new policy may satisfy middle and upper-class Argentines who will now be able to get their dollars freely.
But they are also fearful of the consequences: higher prices and a potential devaluation of their currency.
Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said he accepted the rate would weaken to "close to" 14.2 to the dollar.
He said the central bank had been given the right to intervene if the exchange rate fell too quickly.
But he was adamant that change was needed: "The old system had killed the goose that laid the golden egg" by restricting the growth of the economy.
He outlined that exchange controls would end for all businesses who would be allowed to buy as many dollars as they needed.
But he said, for the time being, ordinary Argentines would still face restrictions on the amount of dollars they could buy a month. | Argentina has announced it will lift its currency controls, which were imposed four years ago to prop up the peso. |
36,749,938 | NI Screen, which helps fund the series, estimates it has brought almost £150m into the local economy since production began in 2010.
The worldwide hit fantasy drama receives generous tax breaks to film in Northern Ireland.
However, NI Screen insists the returns are high.
Chief Executive Richard Williams said: "In terms of jobs and services here, we're just creeping up to £150 million across the six seasons.
"To be very clear about that, that is spent on people who live here and on services that are provided by people here."
Tourism NI also believes the industry is getting a boost from Game of Thrones visitors who want to see landmarks from the show in reality.
The marketing body is currently collating figures to establish just how much fans of the show spend in Northern Ireland.
Judith Webb, Tourism NI's Experience Development Officer, said: "We can see already that businesses are growing on the back of the Game of Thrones series.
"Two years ago, there were three operators promoting Game of Thrones experiences and now we've over 25 with more in the pipeline.
"Those businesses are also reporting that business has doubled each year upon year which is just tremendous.
"People come for Game of Thrones and stay for Northern Ireland."
Like every TV show, Game of Thrones will eventually come to an end.
So what happens when it wraps up?
Richard Williams said: "There are people in China who don't know where Northern Ireland is, but they know Titanic and they know Game of Thrones, and we need to capitalise on that.
"Game of Thrones will leave us with two really substantial legacies.
"From my point of view, the most substantial one is the infrastructure - the film studios.
"On the other side of it, there is a huge legacy piece in terms of the awareness Game of Thrones has driven for Northern Ireland and importantly right across the globe." | Season Six may have just ended, but Game of Thrones is still big business for Northern Ireland - its principal filming location. |
40,828,530 | The Lions' League One play-off final victory over Bradford in May was marred by a pitch invasion after the game.
The EFL described that incident as "completely unacceptable", while City boss Stuart McCall said he was "close to clocking" some of the invaders.
Measures will include reviewing ticketing for Millwall away games.
An EFL statement said: "In the event Millwall qualify for any future EFL final at Wembley, the EFL and the club will review ticketing, security and stewarding arrangements, giving full consideration to any previous issues that have taken place.
"The EFL and the club will work on specific measures in relation to Millwall supporters attending fixtures at other EFL clubs.
"This initiative will see, amongst other things, the EFL and Millwall collaborate on how tickets are sold for away games."
A Millwall statement said the measures will be "fair and proper for the club's core supporters, who provide outstanding backing of the team".
The EFL added there was no timeframe to implement the measures and "further details will be announced in due course".
Millwall start the new season at Nottingham Forest on Friday, 4 August. | The English Football League (EFL) is working with Millwall "to repair reputational damage" caused by a "minority of the club's supporters". |
35,612,633 | 19 February 2016 Last updated at 15:18 GMT
Researchers at the University of Roehampton, in England, studied a group of ten king penguins.
They measured the penguins' weight and studied their movements on a treadmill, finding that fatter birds were less steady on their feet.
The team think wobbly penguins may face greater danger from predators as they slide around and struggle to stay upright. | A new study has found penguins have more of a wobblier waddle when they put on weight. |
40,946,386 | They are the latest Republican figures to weigh in on the backlash to Donald Trump's latest remarks blaming "both sides" for violent clashes in Virginia.
It culminated with a woman's death and nearly 20 wounded when a car ploughed into a crowd at the far-right rally.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump disbanded his jobs councils amid an exodus of CEOs.
Representatives from companies like Merck, Under Armour, and Intel had quit the group over Mr Trump's reaction to the events in Charlottesville.
Republican elected officials around the country expressed outrage when Mr Trump appeared to defend the organisers.
"As we pray for Charlottesville, we are reminded of the fundamental truths recorded by that city's most prominent citizen in the Declaration of Independence: we are all created equal and endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights," a statement from the two former presidents said.
"We know these truths to be everlasting because we have seen the decency and greatness of our country."
The violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday have sparked a heated debate on US race relations.
A public memorial for Heather Heyer, the woman who was fatally struck by a car that ploughed into a group of anti-racism protesters, was held on Wednesday in Charlottesville.
Her mother, Susan Bro, delivered a powerful speech calling on people to "find a way to make a difference". She added it was "just the beginning of Heather's legacy, not the end".
"They killed my child to shut her up. Well guess what, you just magnified her," she said before the crowd erupted into a standing ovation.
"I'd rather have my child, but by golly, if I'm going to give her up, we're going to make it count," she said.
The fallout from Mr Trump's comments on Tuesday continued in Washington, where Republican lawmakers reacted angrily.
Many echoed House Speaker Paul Ryan who said: "White supremacy is repulsive.. There can be no moral ambiguity."
"I think there is blame on both sides," Mr Trump told reporters at a tense press conference at Trump Tower in New York.
Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter
For some top Republicans lately, Donald Trump is He Who Cannot Be Named.
They find it easy to condemn white supremacists and the hate that motivated the violence in Charlottesville, but when it comes time to single the president out for blame - up to and including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan - the criticism becomes oblique and the condemnation implied.
Administration officials are treading even more carefully. Chief of Staff John Kelly may have repeatedly winced on Tuesday, but he's back on the job today. Gary Cohn, the president's senior-most economic adviser, reportedly told friends he was "disgusted" by the president's actions - but not so much that he would speak out on the record.
Perhaps some Republicans - with an eye on polls showing his support among the party faithful largely holding strong - are reluctant to draw the ire of a president known to keep close tabs on his friends and foes.
While outrage over the president's response to Charlottesville has reached a frenzied pitch, storms like this have erupted before and moved on, leaving Mr Trump still standing.
"This too shall pass" isn't always a balm for the distraught. It can also be a warning.
"You had a group on one side that was bad. You had a group on the other side that was also very violent. Nobody wants to say that. I'll say it right now."
"What about the alt-left that came charging... at the, as you say, the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt? (...) There are two sides to a story," Mr Trump said in response to one reporter.
He condemned the driver of the car, but said those who had marched in defence of the statue had included "many fine people".
His comments were said to have caught senior White House officials off guard.
Following the news conference, the White House sent a set official talking points to Republican congressmen, urging them to say Mr Trump was "entirely correct" in his latest remarks on Charlottesville.
"Despite the criticism, the President reaffirmed some of our most important Founding principles: We are equal in the eyes of our Creator, equal under the law, and equal under our Constitution," a bullet point read.
Mr Trump's remarks were welcomed by David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who tweeted: "Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa."
But many others strongly condemned the comments.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday it was important to condemn far-right views "wherever we hear them".
"I see no equivalence between those who propound fascist views and those who oppose them," she said.
Of the reactions of some 55 Republican and Democrat politicians collected by the Washington Post, only the spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, Kayleigh McEnany, expressed her support.
End of Twitter post by @kayleighmcenany
Veteran Republican Senator John McCain tweeted: "There is no moral equivalency between racists & Americans standing up to defy hate & bigotry."
One of Mr Trump's former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Marco Rubio sent a series of tweets.
End of Twitter post by @marcorubio
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO trade union federation, became the fifth prominent business leader to resign from President Trump's advisory body, the American Manufacturing Council, over the issue.
In another development, the response of former President Barack Obama to the violence in Charlottesville has become the most-liked tweet ever.
The message, quoting Nelson Mandela, reads: "No-one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion."
Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning | Former Presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush have called on the US to "reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism and hatred in all forms". |
36,185,795 | The 11 Asian females from the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus are being retired amid changing attitudes to animals used as performance acts.
The animals took to the ring in Providence, Rhode Island, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, ending nearly a century and a half of tradition.
They will be housed at a conservation centre in Florida run by the company.
Some animal rights activists have criticised the facility, describing it as little more than a breeding centre, with inadequate space for the elephants.
This is disputed by the circus's Center for Elephant Conservation, which says the focus is on animal care, conservation and health. The centre also carries out studies into the apparent ability of elephants to suppress cancer more easily than humans.
At the show in Rhode Island, where six elephants were displayed, ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson described it as an emotional time.
"That's history tonight there, ladies and gentlemen, true American icons,'' he told the crowd.
Elephants have been used in American circuses for 200 years.
Circus pioneer Hachaliah Bailey bought an African elephant, Old Bet, in 1808, said to be the first elephant to perform in the US.
They are still used in other circuses in the US, but in recent years animal rights campaigners have thrown a spotlight on the welfare of these and other animals in the entertainment industry.
In increasing numbers of US cities, it has become harder for circus elephants to perform, with some outlawing the use of the bullhook - a sharp instrument used in training. | Elephants have performed for the last time at one of the top circuses in the United States. |
29,321,143 | Norway will pay the impoverished West African country $150m (£91.4m) to stop deforestation by 2020.
There have been fears that the Ebola crisis would see increased logging in a country desperate for cash.
Norwegian officials confirmed details of the deal to the BBC at the UN climate summit in New York.
Liberia's forests are not as big as other countries but the country is home to a significant part of West Africa's remaining rainforest, with about 43% of the Upper Guinean forest.
It is also a global diversity hotspot, home to the last remaining viable populations of species including western chimpanzees, forest elephants and leopards.
But since the civil war ended in 2003, illegal logging has become rife.
In 2012, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf attracted international criticism when she handed out licences to companies to cut down 58% of all the primary rainforest left in the country. After protests many of those permits were cancelled.
Some researchers have connected the current outbreak of Ebola with the widespread destruction of the forests, bringing people into contact with natural reservoirs of the virus.
Now the Norwegians and the Liberian government have signed a deal that they both believe will protect the forests into the future.
"We hope Liberia will be able to cut emissions and reduce poverty at the same time," said Jens Frolich Holte, a political adviser to the Norwegian government, speaking to the BBC on the sidelines of the UN climate summit in New York.
"We have funded efforts in Indonesia and Brazil, but I think this is the first time we have entered a deal on a country level."
Under the terms of the agreement, Norway will help Liberia to initially build up the capacity to monitor and police the forests.
Liberia will refrain from issuing any new logging concessions until all existing ones have been reviewed by an independent body.
The country agrees to place 30% or more of its forest estate under protected area status by 2020. It will also pilot direct payments to communities for protecting the forest.
Ultimately the Norwegians will pay for results, with independent verification that trees remain standing.
The development has been welcomed by environmental campaigners in Liberia.
"This partnership holds promise not only for the forest and climate; but for forest communities that have been marginalised for generations," said Silas Siakor, a Liberian environmental campaigner and Goldman Environmental Prize laureate.
"The partnership's commitment to respecting and protecting community's rights with respect to forests is laudable."
Experts believe that Liberia has turned to logging as a way of raising cash in difficult times. With the current Ebola outbreak having a significant economic impact on the country, the Norwegian deal is timely.
"Our hope is that the situation there now will be contained and resolved," said Mr Frolich Holte.
"But we also need to give Liberia a long term hope for development and that is what this rainforest money will provide for them, a long term vision for a country with reduced poverty and reduced deforestation."
With widespread corruption and a government struggling to impose its authority, campaigners recognise that stopping all the logging in Liberia will not be easy.
"There is the potential for this to go wrong, both Norway and Liberia will have to make sure that this deal does not get affected by corruption, but I am cautiously confident it can be done," said Patrick Alley, the director of campaign group Global Witness.
"It's really good news, it's transformational for Liberia when all the news coming out of there is bad - I think this will be a real boost."
Follow Matt on Twitter. | Liberia is to become the first nation in Africa to completely stop cutting down its trees in return for development aid. |
35,942,609 | Fans will be able to access club-branded apps to get news, social media content, highlights and betting.
However access to the wider internet would not be possible.
The Football League said "the majority" of clubs had signed up to participate in the deal.
A full list of confirmed participating clubs will be announced after 30 June.
British wi-fi provider Intechnology will implement the service.
In an online article, the Football League said the service would "deliver the complete digital match day experience to supporters".
The free wi-fi would come as a boon to fans who had been frustrated with overloaded mobile networks at half-time, according to Intechnology chief executive Peter Wilkinson.
Having to use 3G or 4G services could also be expensive, he added.
However, wi-fi at sports events does not always prove popular with fans.
In 2014, supporters at PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands protested against the introduction of wi-fi at their club's stadium, saying spectators should pay attention to what is happening on the pitch, not their smartphones. | England's Football League has announced that free wi-fi, for a particular set of official apps, will be made available at Championship, League One and League Two stadiums. |
36,632,579 | It says Britain can trigger Article 50, which sets a two-year deadline for a deal, by making a formal declaration either in a letter or a speech.
UK PM David Cameron has said he will step down by October to allow his successor to conduct the talks.
But EU foreign ministers have urged Britain to start the process soon.
Since Thursday's vote there has been intense speculation about when, and how, the UK might begin formal negotiations.
A spokesman for the European Council, which defines the EU's political direction and priorities, reiterated on Saturday that triggering Article 50 was a formal act which must be "done by the British government to the European Council".
"It has to be done in an unequivocal manner with the explicit intent to trigger Article 50," the spokesman said.
"It could either be a letter to the president of the European Council or an official statement at a meeting of the European Council duly noted in the official records of the meeting."
On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU had "no need to be particularly nasty in any way" in the negotiations with Britain.
She said that deterring other countries from leaving the EU should not be a priority in the talks.
Mrs Merkel added that she was not in favour of pushing for a speedy withdrawal.
"It shouldn't take forever, that's right, but I would not fight for a short timeframe," she said.
In other developments:
Mrs Merkel was speaking after several EU foreign ministers, including Germany's, had urged Britain to quickly implement its exit.
"This process should get under way as soon as possible so that we are not left in limbo but rather can concentrate on the future of Europe," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
His Dutch counterpart Bert Koenders said the continent could not accept a political vacuum, saying "this will not be business as usual".
Speaking later to the BBC, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said he didn't think it was "even legally possible" to force the UK to speed up the exit process.
"I understand it is very difficult for Prime Minister Cameron, who was against leaving the European Union, to now go ahead and do this," he told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme.
"I think we should give them time; let them decide how quickly they want to do it."
He described Britain's exit from the bloc as "a disaster" saying Estonia had often aligned itself with the UK and had counted on Britain to present their shared views.
The UK's decision to leave the EU has sent shockwaves across the continent with leaders of Eurosceptic parties in France, the Netherlands and Italy demanding referendums in their own countries.
In response, some EU politicians have called for speedy reforms to quell further unrest.
French economy minister Emmanuel Macron suggested a new mission statement should be drafted and put to a referendum of all EU citizens.
"We've never had the courage to organise a true European referendum in its real sense," he told a conference.
"We would first build this new project with European peoples and then submit this new road map, this new project, to a referendum [across the bloc]."
The first summit of EU leaders with no British representation will be held on Wednesday, a day after Mr Cameron holds talks with members.
Global stock markets and the pound fell heavily on the news of the so-called "Brexit", while credit rating agency Moody's cut the UK's outlook to "negative".
Brexit: What happens now? | The European Union has clarified the way the UK can kickstart formal negotiations to exit the bloc following Thursday's referendum. |
40,232,374 | The Scottish Conservative leader said she wanted to build consensus around a Brexit deal that put economic advancement at its heart.
She also dismissed reports that Scots Tories might "break away" from the main UK party.
The Scottish Conservatives won an extra 12 seats in Thursday's election.
The performance of Scottish Tories was in marked contrast to that in England and Wales where Prime Minister Theresa May lost her majority in the House of Commons.
Ms Davidson spoke to reporters in Stirling as she showed off the 13 Scottish Conservatives who will now take their seats at Westminster.
She said: "I'm going to make sure that along with the 13 MPs we're sending to Westminster, we put Scotland's case forcefully and make sure that we deliver for Scotland and make sure that the union delivers for Scotland too."
She added: "I want to ensure that we can look again at issues like Brexit which we know we are now going to have to get cross-party support for - and move to a consensus within the country about what it means and what we seek to achieve as we leave."
Asked what she meant with her call for an "open Brexit" she said: "I've never believed in the terms of hard or soft Brexit.
"I want to talk about open or closed - and as someone who believes in open politics, that's about making sure we tear down barriers rather than put them up.
"It's about making sure we put free trade and economic advancement at the heart of the Brexit deal as we leave."
She also said she had received assurances from Theresa May that any deal with the Democratic Unionist Party would not erode LGBTI rights in Northern Ireland, and that the UK government would use its influence to "advance" those rights.
Earlier she had taken to Twitter to dismiss a report in the Daily Telegraph that she wanted to "tear her Scottish party away from English control" .
The paper, which stands by its report, said there were tensions during the campaign, and that Ms Davidson's aides were working on a deal to set up a separate organisation in Scotland.
Pressed on the issue in Stirling, she said: it had been decided when she became leader that "we would have complete autonomy over policy, candidates, campaigning, finance, which is what we have... but we would take the Conservative whip at Westminster and that is exactly what is going to happen".
Ms Davidson also confirmed she had given her "full support" to Mrs May staying on as prime minister.
Earlier the SNP's cabinet secretary for finance and the constitution, Derek Mackay, insisted his party had won the election in Scotland, despite seeing its number of MPs fall from 56 to 35.
He told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "The 2015 result was incredible, very difficult to repeat - but we won more seats than all the other parties put together."
He said it was too early to say whether the SNP would now "park" its demand for a second independence referendum after 60% of Scottish voters backed pro-union parties.
"Of course we will listen and reflect. It's too premature to say what we would do next around that," he said.
"We will continue to deliver good governance for Scotland, stand up for Scotland in the Westminster parliament, make sure we can get the best possible deal for Scotland in terms of the negotiations on Brexit."
Scottish Labour demanded Nicola Sturgeon ditch plans for a second independence referendum.
James Kelly, who was the party's election campaign manager, said: "Nicola Sturgeon has some very serious questions to answer now.
"She must categorically drop her plans for a divisive second independence referendum and get back to the day job.
"Across the UK, the election showed there is huge support for Labour's vision for investment in our public services, and Nicola Sturgeon needs to accept that she has been too distracted by the constitution for too long." | Ruth Davidson has said she will argue Scotland's case "forcefully" to the prime minister after major Tory gains north of the border. |
37,420,916 | He found prominence for his landscape paintings, many of his native Anglesey.
After teaching and studying art at Croydon Art College in London during the 1960s, he returned home to the island in the 1970s before retiring to focus on painting in 1996.
He has had international success, with works held in public and private collections in The Hague, Paris, New York, Australia and the UK.
"The loss of a fine artist is always sad, and none more so than the news of Wilf Roberts' death after his illness of the past 18 months," friend and gallery owner Martin Tinney said.
"His integrity shone through when preparing for a new exhibition - not for him the churning out of numerous works to please an audience - he released pictures from his studio only when he was happy that they were 'ready'.
"Over the years, I was delighted to become a friend of Wilf and his devoted wife Sue. She has been his rock over the past difficult months and my heartfelt sympathy goes out to her and the family." | The Welsh artist Wilf Roberts has died, aged 75, following an illness. |
31,712,369 | Anyone found breaking the law will face a fine and up to five years in prison.
Hindus, who comprise 80% of India's 1.2bn population, revere cows and the sale and consumption of beef is banned or restricted in many states.
Correspondents say most beef sold in India is actually from water buffaloes which are not considered sacred at all.
But in Maharashtra, buffalo meat, generally seen to be of inferior quality, makes up only 25% of the market and the ban is likely to be felt more keenly there.
The state includes India's commercial capital and biggest city Mumbai.
The Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill took 19 years to become law - it was first passed by the state's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena government in 1995 and was sent to the president for approval in January 1996.
The BJP, which returned to power in the state last year, once again pushed for it to be signed into law. Reports say a group of BJP MPs from the state met President Pranab Mukherjee last week to discuss the matter.
On Tuesday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted his thanks to the president:
The BBC's Shilpa Kannan in Delhi says the Maharashtra beef ban is the toughest so far in India - along with cows, it also forbids the killing of bulls and bullocks and even possessing beef, which will now be considered as contraband.
Unhappy beef traders in Maharashtra are checking if they can challenge the ban - they say the move will render tens of thousands jobless.
Although many Hindus consider cows sacred, large numbers of India's population still eat beef and unproductive cattle are slaughtered for their meat and other products.
Following the Maharashtra ban, there is concern over what will happen to bulls and bullocks or to cows too old to produce milk or to give birth.
Critics of the bill say their owners, mostly farmers, could now be stuck feeding them for years until they die of natural causes.
Our correspondent says beef is more popular with the poor in India as it is typically cheaper than other meats such as chicken or mutton.
But because of religious sentiments and bans in various states, most of India's beef is exported - with a 20% share of the global market and exports worth more than $4bn (£2.6bn) a year, it is now the country's top agricultural export, beating the more famous basmati rice. Buffalo meat, however, accounts for 80% of the exports.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who led his BJP party to a landslide win in last year's general election, has in the past complained about India's "pink revolution" of rising meat exports, and expressed hope of bringing in a national ban on cow slaughter. | The Indian president has approved a bill which bans the slaughter of cows and the sale and consumption of beef in the western state of Maharashtra. |
40,620,077 | About 250,000 people were hit by power cuts, officials said, mostly caused by snow-laden trees falling on cables.
One death was reported - of a worker trying to clear ice - and two other people were injured by a fallen power line, Chilean media said.
Meteorologists say it was the heaviest snowfall in Santiago since 2007.
It came as the city and surrounding region were enduring an unusually cold snap.
As well as the power cuts, the weather has caused traffic disruption in the capital and several sporting fixtures have been postponed.
The big freeze was not bad news for everyone, however, and thousands of children headed outdoors to build snowmen and throw snowballs.
Forecasters say lighter amounts of snow are still expected to fall. | A rare snowfall in the Chilean capital Santiago has caused disruption and blackouts, leaving thousands of residents shivering in the dark. |
39,143,565 | Inspired by a heartbreak, it juxtaposes downbeat lyrics with a euphoric chorus, over a driving percussion loop.
The song received its first play on BBC Radio 1, where Mistajam made it his hottest record in the world.
It's Lorde's first new material since the Disclosure collaboration Magnets in 2015 and precedes her second album, which is due later this year.
"Finally! It's only been three years, huh?" she told Radio 1.
Here's all you need to know about the song - and Lorde's new album.
"I am so proud of this song," wrote Lorde on Twitter. "It's very different, and kinda unexpected. It's complex and funny and sad and joyous and it'll make you DANCE."
"It's the first chapter of a story I'm gonna tell you. The story of the last two wild, fluorescent years of my life.
"This is where we begin."
Lorde told Mistajam that Green Light was "about me trying to figure out how to put myself back together" after her first significant heartbreak.
It opens on a sombre note, as Lorde recalls the beginning (or end?) of her relationship.
"I do my makeup in somebody else's car," she sings over a minor key piano. "We ordered different drinks at the same bar."
"Did it frighten you, how we kissed when we danced on the light-up floor?"
But Lorde goes on to call her lover a "liar", practically spitting the line: "Those rumours they have big teeth, they bite you."
As she ramps up towards the hook, she's getting ready to pack her belongings - while admitting she's finding it hard to finally make the break.
"I wish... I could just let go," she sings as, in the background, a chorus of cheerleaders chant: "I'm waiting for it, that green light. I want it."
The green light is a recurring theme in F Scott Firzgerald's The Great Gatsby, signifying the elusive promise of the future. Lorde may be referring to that or, more simply, a green light giving her permission to move on with her life.
Structurally and thematically complex, Green Light isn't as immediate as previous Lorde singles like Royals and Yellow Flicker Beat. In particular, there's an awkward gear change from the haunting, dramatic verses into the choppy, beat-driven chorus. But in common with one of the year's other great pop comebacks - Katy Perry's Chained To The Rhythm - the song rewards repeated listens.
The cathartic music video, directed by Grant Singer and featuring Lorde dancing in strobing green lights and on car roof-tops, helps give the song some context, too.
Lorde's spent last year working on her new album with US musician Jack Antonoff. You might know him as a member of the group .fun, the band behind the 2011 smash We Are Young. You might also know him as the boyfriend of Girls creator Lena Dunham; as the co-writer of three songs on Taylor Swift's synthpop opus 1989 - or even through his solo project, Bleachers.
Either way, Green Light (along with most of Lorde's new material) was recorded in his home studio in Brooklyn, as pictured in this Instagram shot.
"We worked out of the house for the better part of a year, in this tiny little room covered in bizarre animal wall paper," she said.
From the teenagers who hid in the school toilets to hear the song premiere, to the fan who wrote "this was worth the million year wait", it's fair to characterise the reaction as "broadly positive".
Last year, Lorde scolded an impatient fan who said he was "giving up" on the chances of hearing a follow-up to her debut album, Pure Heroine.
Speaking to Mistajam, she explained the extended break had been necessary.
"I needed to just go away, go home to New Zealand, and hang out by myself and figure out what I was going to do next. I knew I couldn't make the same thing again, and I had to figure out what it was that I wanted to say. And I'm so glad I took that time, because this record is the coolest thing I've ever made."
Earlier this week, eagle-eyed fans spotted the cryptic message "M*******A" in the title bar of Lorde's website.
They guessed, correctly, that this was a hint about her album title... with possible names including Macadamia (?), Mona Lisa or Musomania (an obsession with music).
But she's since revealed the record will be called Melodrama.
"I wrote this album about this crazy year of my life," she explained. "I partied a lot and I felt all the feelings - and it was all so fluorescent. So I decided to call the album Melodrama."
David Bowie believed the Lorde was "the future of music", according to one of his oldest friends - which is why the singer was chosen to pay tribute to him at last year's Brit Awards.
Going back to the studio after that performance, she said his spirit informed he writing.
"I feel like the whole time spent writing this record, I've had him in my thoughts, I've had him in my heart.
"It's hard not to make something and not think, 'What would David think of this? If I could play it to him, what would he say?'"
"This is as pop-dance as it gets," she told Mistajam. "We were just in the studio, mashing around on the piano and... that's what it is."
"We didn't turn it into the single, it was just born that way."
The 20-year-old added the new album was more varied than her debut. "There's a lot of beats again but there's also instruments that are going to surprise people."
Asked if she'd be visiting Worthy Farm this June, Lorde replied: "You know, farms are cool. I love farms. I'm a big fan of farms. So who knows?"
A week into Donald Trump's presidency, Lorde posted a link to the album Sweet Sexy Savage, by US R&B singer Kehlani.
"After a horrifying, anxiety-inducing week of news, music like this allows much needed catharsis," she wrote. "I truly believe in the necessity of cathartic pop records in times like these.
"I love the big sprawling projects too, but there's something about the falls & lifts of meticulous pop, moments designed for u to feel what u need to, that's more important than ever.
"You're probably guessing what kind of record I've made based on these tweets."
We can't wait.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | After a week of elaborate teases, pop star Lorde has finally unveiled her long-awaited new single, Green Light. |
39,554,200 | The foreign secretary urged Russia to "work with the rest of the world" rather than "stick like glue" to President Assad's regime.
G7 leaders are meeting to search for a unified solution to the Syrian war.
Russia and the United States have criticised each other following a US strike against a Syrian airbase.
US officials say the base was used to launch a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians.
Syria has denied using any chemical agents, and Russia says the US has failed to provide evidence Syria has chemical weapons.
Russia also accused the US of encouraging "terrorists" with its unilateral actions.
The UK government has backed the US action - and Mr Johnson, speaking as he arrived for the G7 talks in Lucca, said the strikes had "changed the game".
He said the evidence that President Assad's regime was behind a chemical weapons attack was "absolutely conclusive" and said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "toxifying the reputation of Russia by his continual association with a guy who has flagrantly poisoned his own people".
Asked about the possibility of further sanctions, he said "we will be discussing the possibility of further sanctions on some of the Syrian military figures and indeed on some of the Russian military figures who've been involved in co-ordinating the Syrian military efforts and who are therefore contaminated by the appalling behaviour of the Assad regime".
Earlier Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - who did not support the US strikes on the Syrian airbase - warned of a "proxy war" developing between the United States and Russia.
The Labour leader also accused Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson of "encouraging further bombing" for suggesting the US could launch more missile strikes against the Syrian regime.
The Labour leader said Mr Johnson should have held "robust" talks with Russia rather than pulling out of a planned trip to Moscow, adding: "The solution has to be political."
He said: "Surely we have to get Russia and America around the table together to put pressure on respective parties to this war, because it's in danger of becoming a proxy war between them, in order to have a meaningful and effective ceasefire."
The Foreign Office is believed to have prepared a paper on possible sanctions that could be imposed on Russia that will be considered by G7 countries, BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said.
Russia will also be offered a greater role in international affairs should it end its support for President Assad, in what Foreign Office sources described as "a carrot and stick approach", he added. | Further sanctions will be considered against Russia over the "appalling" behaviour of the Syrian regime, Boris Johnson says. |
37,972,571 | Danielle Hall, 21, fell from the ninth floor of the Bermudas Apartment Hotel on the Avenida de Esto-colmo in Benidorm in the early hours of Sunday, Spanish police confirmed.
She is believed to be from Northumberland and had arrived in the resort the previous day with her boyfriend and his family.
Spanish Police are investigating the circumstances of Miss Hall's death.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement: "We are providing support to the family of a British national who has died in Benidorm, Spain.
"We are in contact with local authorities."
Northumbria Police said they had been made aware of the incident and were liaising with Miss Hall's family.
She had previously worked at the Tesco Extra store in Hexham in Northumberland in the catering department and was employed by Compass.
A spokeswoman for Compass said: "We are greatly saddened to hear about Danielle's death.
"Although only employed by us for a short while, Danielle was a well-liked and valued employee who will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with her family and friends". ​ | A British woman has died in a fall from a balcony in Spain. |
25,757,175 | "All industries are being disrupted.
"Farmers in Ghana are saving time and money by using their smart phones to trade their products before the long walk to market begins, and underprivileged women in South Africa are breaking out of the cycle of poverty after training means that they can help US customers with their technology problems.
"Even the animal videos posted online, much mocked by some, are now enabling scientists to gather meaningful data about animal relationships that would never have been accessible before.
"But beyond the hyperbole, this 25th birthday and as part of that, I hope, this debate is a good moment to reflect on all of the different aspects of the web."
"My contribution is inspired by my first-hand experience of a 94-year-old friend who is determined not to be excluded, who has combated bereavement, loneliness, kept mentally active and even perhaps deferred or diminished the onset of mental illness by becoming internet proficient.
"In the UK today, there are 10 million people over the age of 65, and by 2050 that will be over 20 million. 11% of one-person households over state pensionable age had internet access in 2000 and today it's over 40%.
"However, my lords, there are still around six million pensioners who have never used the internet. 75% of people in the UK who are over 75 years old consider themselves lonely.
"My 94-year-old friend would never consider himself lonely. For him the internet is infinitely flexible. Online book groups, staying in touch with friends via email and text, Skype calls, downloading music and videos: that's what keeps him so alert and interested in the world outside."
"We celebrated the universality of the web at the Olympics opening ceremony, with Sir Tim Berners-Lee tweeting: 'This is for everyone.'
"I still find the speed of development since I first used the Netscape browser quite extraordinary.
"Sir Tim and the early pioneers of the web deserve huge recognition for their setting of the open and neutral standards which ensured the growth of the world wide web."
"Online pornography; the objectification of women; the bullying of young people: there's a dark side and we shouldn't be surprised at that, given that this is human nature engaging with a wonderful invention with all kinds of dark possibilities.
"I'm reminded from my experience of being a university teacher that when students in writing an essay search the web to fill up a couple of pages, you could always tell because it just didn't fit in the main argument, because they didn't understand what kind of angle it came from.
"The point of that, of course, is that information, that the web is wonderful at making available, information needs interpretation, and wisdom is interpretation on a very wide scale of the big picture."
"Unlike the early cry of 'free, open and democratic', we are all aware that the web has become monetised with a value that is entirely dependent on harvesting data, data created by interacting as much as humanly possible with the commercial platforms on the web.
"The millions spent on the vast and incremental experimentation of combining neuroscience and technology to keep us attached to our devices is not actually disputed by those who do it, but it does fuel a culture of compulsion and disclosure, and distraction that has a particular implication for young people who are not yet fully formed."
"The internet has been the greatest transformative force in history bar none, because of the speed of the transformation: 20 years.
"The invention of writing is perhaps the only parallel. That took 5,000 years and was only the prerogative of elites.
"There's never been anything like this before in history, so it's not surprising that it's rather difficult to come to terms with its long-term impact."
"One hundred and eighty three billion emails are sent every day. Had we had the wit at the outset to place a 1p levy on each email - these are unaudited figures, I hasten to add - it would generate today, worldwide, £730bn [a year].
"That's 29 times the amount spent by the UN and all of its agencies each year, it is more than the global aspiration for development and climate change mitigation, recommended by any agency.
"This tiny levy could totally change the landscape of aid worldwide.
"I realise it is rather late in day to suggest this, but it has another advantage: if there was such a levy, it might just allow people to pause momentarily before hitting that quite dreadful 'reply to all' button."
"If our banks exploited information about our private transactions in the manner of Google, there would be uproar.
"If the ugly, threatening sexist abuse that is harboured routinely on Twitter took place in the pub, it would more often be prosecuted.
"Online fraud takes place on a gigantic and global scale. In the UK we neither measure its impact on our citizens, nor do we do anything material to counter it.
"The task of the next 25 years is, without threatening in any way the precious, priceless benefits that the world wide web have brought us, is to extend to it civilised standards and the rule of law." | The government's former digital tsar and founder of Lastminute.com Baroness Lane-Fox has led a Lords debate on the 25th anniversary of the creation of the world wide web. |
37,695,489 | The larvae were being sold for food in south-eastern Katanga province.
Days of violence began when a group of Batwa, also known as pygmies, accused the Luba ethnic group of imposing an illegal levy on the sale of caterpillars and beating up vendors.
The two groups have clashed several times in the last few years.
The Batwa killed several members of the Luba ethnic group near the region of Kabalo in Katanga. The Luba then launched a revenge attack, killing at least 13 pygmies.
Tensions between the hunter-gatherer pygmies and the Luba, a Bantu ethnic group, have caused hundreds of deaths over the past three years.
Caterpillars are a delicacy in western DR Congo, in the area around the capital Kinshasa, hundreds of miles from Katanga where the deadly clashes occurred.
They are harvested from trees, smoked and often eaten with sauce.
However they are an unexpected cause of conflict in DR Congo, particularly in Katanga.
That province is not known for its love of eating caterpillars and people have certainly never killed for them before.
But there is a running feud in the area between pygmies and other ethnic groups.
Pygmies are native to the region but they feel they are marginalised, with unequal access to resources and education.
So when they felt that one of their main sources of income was being subject to an unfair tax, the result was violence. | At least 16 people have been killed in a row over a disputed charge on the sale of caterpillars in the Democratic Republic of Congo. |
40,614,788 | The Belfast Trust confirmed that a ward was closed briefly and two patients were affected in Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast.
C. diff is a bacterium which causes extreme diarrhoea in some patients.
One of the rehabilitation wards for elderly patients in Meadowlands was closed for a deep clean but has now reopened.
In a statement, the trust said it is continuing to "review and monitor the hygiene standards on the ward".
"The situation is being monitored closely and infection prevention control measures are in place to maintain a safe environment for our patients.
"We continue to work closely with staff and request visitors to adhere to the visiting policy.
"We would request families not to visit if they themselves are unwell," it added. | A hospital in Belfast has been affected by an outbreak of Clostridium difficile (C. diff). |
33,212,448 | Legal proceedings are ongoing over the store's location, originally planned for Sprucefield, near Lisburn.
Paul McMahon, who is also director of Belfast's Castle Court shopping centre, said clarity was needed over planning.
He said costly legal battles were counterproductive.
"What that does is send out the wrong message that Northern Ireland is not open for business," he told the BBC's Inside Business.
"We need a policy that is explicit and crystal clear around town centres first.
"If you were to apply that policy, that would bring John Lewis to a capital city, which in this case would be Belfast."
Inside Business is on BBC Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle at 13:30 BST on Sunday. | The controversy over the location of a John Lewis store in Northern Ireland sends out the wrong signal to potential investors, the president of Belfast Chamber of Trade has said. |
37,893,859 | Set a notional 539, the hosts were bowled out for 361 shortly before tea on the final day thanks to 21-year-old pace bowler Kagiso Rabada's 5-92.
Usman Khawaja made 97 and Peter Nevill an unbeaten 60 for Australia, who lost 3-0 in Sri Lanka in August.
Victory was South Africa's third in a row at the Waca, after 2008 and 2012.
It was completed without Dale Steyn, the world's number two-ranked bowler who was ruled out of the series on Friday with a fractured shoulder.
Australia, 169-4 overnight, survived for 119 overs in total in the fourth innings on a pitch featuring large cracks.
However, their first-innings collapse proved costly, slipping from 158-1 to 244 all out in response to South Africa's 242.
JP Duminy made 141 and Dean Elgar 127, putting on 250 for the third wicket in South Africa's second-innings 540-8 declared.
The second Test in Hobart starts on Saturday and the final Test in Adelaide on 24 November.
Australia batsman Joe Burns will replace Shaun Marsh, who suffered a broken finger in Perth, for the second Test, while the uncapped Callum Ferguson has been added to the squad.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Australia slipped to a fourth successive Test defeat as South Africa won the opening Test of their three-match series by 177 runs in Perth. |
28,005,387 | What we wanted to see on the fifth day, when defeat seemed inevitable, was some fight and character.
We got that and then some.
For England to take it to the penultimate ball of the match, so nearly pulling off the greatest rearguard in Test history, was absolutely extraordinary.
Everyone involved played with real passion and determination and, after everything that has happened in the past six months or so, it was important for England to put up such a fantastic show of resistance.
"The criticism of Cook is out of order - it's a few people with an agenda against him. But he is under pressure. He needs to find form with the bat and everything will flow from there.
"I don't think captaincy is a burden. Alastair is a strong character. It does all seem to be getting a little but too much at the minute. Perhaps that's why people need to support him rather than swinging axes."
At the end of it all, to see James Anderson, a man who has seen and done so much in a long career, in tears, was a very powerful image.
That England got so close to saving the game was down to Moeen Ali's outstanding maiden Test hundred.
Not only fighting to save the match, but also for his place in the side, Moeen, a natural flair player, produced an innings of discipline and determination. He could have done no more.
Looked at from an entirely neutral point of view, it was a wonderful Test, made all the more so by the fact it is the second in as many weeks to have such a dramatic finish.
Just like at Lord's, England should have won at Headingley. It is a skill to take the opportunities that present themselves in Test cricket, a skill that, at the moment, England do not possess.
However, despite the defeat, there are positives for England to take, not least Moeen, but also the runs scored by Joe Root, Gary Ballance and Sam Robson, and the hostile pace bowling of Liam Plunkett.
What they need now is for the captain to score some runs.
Which brings us to Alastair Cook, who is under pressure not only for the run of six defeats in seven Tests, but also because of a year-long run of poor form with the bat.
I had dinner with Cook on the second evening of this match and he was his usual, steely self. The manner in which he talked of the future gave no indication that he was considering surrendering the captaincy, and he confirmed as much in some bullish post-match interviews.
But he knows he is under the cosh and the criticism he is receiving is clearly affecting him.
There is an agenda out there, which can be seen by anyone on social media. Cook is not on Twitter but he has been made aware. These personal, vitriolic attacks by some high-profile individuals are out of order and have stepped over the mark.
However, Cook is such a steely individual that they might even make him dig his heels in even more. If that is the case, certain issues need addressing.
The first, most obviously, is his batting. An average of 25 over the past 12 months is well below the standard we expect from the man who has scored 25 Test centuries, more than any other England player.
England need Cook the batsman more than they need Cook the captain, and the man himself will know that his primary job is to score runs.
Although he would not want to give up the captaincy, he knows that, if necessary, someone else could do that job if it meant he could get back to his best at the top of the order.
Secondly, the rest of the England team must take responsibility for their own game because the captain is only as good as those around him.
"Cook is a really, really nice boy. He's honest and he's straight but his form is suffering. He needs to start scoring runs because it's a results-orientated business.
"He has to have some imagination with his captaincy, one plan can't fit into every situation."
Listen to Geoffrey Boycott & Jonathan Agnew review England's defeat in the TMS podcast
There are more reasons for Cook to continue than the obstinate streak that has made him such a successful batsman.
The England and Wales Cricket Board has invested heavily in him, making Cook the man around which the team will be rebuilt following the Ashes debacle. If Cook quits, the ECB will be very disappointed.
Also - and this is not damning him with faint praise - there seems to be no other viable alternative.
Stuart Broad is not physically fit enough to do the job - he has a long-standing knee injury that will require surgery - Matt Prior is working his way back in to the side and the feeling is Ian Bell is not a natural leader and would be better off left to concentrate on his batting.
A lack of leaders in the England side is one we have talked about for some time. These players hardly ever appear in county cricket, so have little experience of captaincy. For that reason, Cook has been learning on the job.
It has been suggested that he should give up the one-day job, but that is not relevant at the moment - England do not play another one-day international until the end of the India Test series. That is a discussion for another time.
Instead, with Cook still at the helm, England must concentrate on getting the captain and the rest of the team in the right frame of mind for the first Test against India starting on 9 July.
Jonathan Agnew was talking to BBC Sport's Stephan Shemilt. | Even with an Ashes whitewash fresh in the mind, the fourth evening of the second Test against Sri Lanka was about as low as we have been with the England team for quite a long time. |
37,241,645 | One week ago any debate would have been unthinkable. In authoritarian Uzbekistan, it would have been too risky to even acknowledge any health problems.
But Mr Karimov's daughter Lola posted a message on Facebook saying he had suffered a brain haemorrhage. Now a nation of 31 million is facing the prospect of an Uzbekistan without President Karimov, and no named successor.
In recent years any debate about the succession has inevitably been embroiled with the Karimov family's "dirty laundry".
Until just a few years ago, many believed that Mr Karimov would be succeeded by his glamorous eldest daughter, the pop diva, fashion designer and businesswoman Gulnara Karimova. She was clearly being groomed as such and regarded as one of the most powerful people in the country.
But her downfall was swift and brutal.
In 2013, with allegations of corruption swirling, Ms Karimova's businesses were requisitioned, and her TV and radio channels shut down. She was also probed for corruption in cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars in Europe and US. She is now believed to be under house arrest.
"Gulnara Karimova tried to go beyond what was permitted in the system," Dr Eric McGlinchey, associate professor at George Mason University says. "She tried to accumulate not just some of the economy, she tried to accumulate all of the economy. She didn't compromise, she didn't play by the rules."
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As Gulnara Karimova was losing power, she accused her younger sister Lola Tillayeva-Karimova and her mother of trying to get rid of her.
Many analysts say this family feud reflected a deeper power struggle in the nation.
Among those who Gulnara named as being behind her troubles are people who are now contenders for the job. One of them is Rustam Azimov, who is both deputy prime minister and finance minister.
Mr Azimov was appointed minister back in 1998 and considered very close to Islam Karimov.
Viewed as a more pro-Western voice he was the governor of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development for Uzbekistan in the 1990s.
Alisher Taksanov, an Uzbek journalist who lives in Switzerland argues that Mr Azimov has a good chance also because he is from the "Tashkent clan".
"This clan has managed to seize all key positions in the country - interior ministry, security services, finance ministry, etc. This clan is more powerful than their rival 'Samarkand clan' headed by the Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev."
Clans in central Asia are networks based on regional loyalties and these networks are used to accumulate power and wealth, so particularly influential at times of succession.
But others believe that Mr Mirziyoyev who has served as prime minister since 2003 is more likely to succeed President Karimov.
"If you look at who has more state resources, then Shavkat Mirziyoyev has better chances," says Kamoliddin Rabbimov, an Uzbek political analyst who used to work in the presidential administration before fleeing to France.
"He has been at this job for 13 years and appointed his people to key positions all around the country," Mr Rabbimov argues.
Most agree that the head of the security services Rustam Inoyatov, a former KGB spy, will be a power broker.
Mr Inoyatov is also one of those accused by Ms Karimova to be behind the demise of her empire. But such intrigue imparts a powerful message about how a power transfer will happen in Uzbekistan. Whoever wants to succeed President Karimov must reach a compromise with the rest of the political elite, something Gulnara Karimova refused to do.
"All things point to continuity, to someone who would be inclined to maintaining the kind of regime that Karimov created," Dr McGlinchey argues. "And the reason for that, if you look at Uzbekistan, all sources of wealth [there] come from the government. People who are wealthy in Uzbekistan will have a strong incentive to maintain the system that gave them the wealth in the first place."
So the transition is largely expected to be quiet and hidden from the public and many expect the tone Mr Karimov has set, where dissent is not tolerated and any protest quashed, to continue.
Indeed the successor may not necessarily be a well-known figure, analysts argue.
"This may be a compromise candidate that all power brokers are comfortable with and as a result might not be the big three that we keep hearing about," Dr McGlinchey says.
What is clear is that the new leadership will not try to change the authoritarian system in Uzbekistan. They will continue relying on repression and state propaganda to maintain their power, just as Mr Karimov has done for 27 years. | With the only leader Uzbekistan has ever known still in hospital, and the opposition speculating he might even be dead, the focus is firmly on Islam Karimov's successor. |
23,342,354 | Google stands accused of using its 90% market share of internet search in Europe to promote its own services.
The company has offered to change the way it displays some results to address the worries.
But European Commission competition chief Joaquin Almunia said Google must rethink its response and "present better proposals".
"I concluded that proposals that Google sent to us months ago are not enough to overcome our concerns," Mr Almunia said on Wednesday.
In response, Google spokesman Al Verney said the search giant remained committed to settling the case, and that its offer "clearly addresses" the four areas of concern highlighted by the EU.
Those areas of concern, first highlighted in 2010, were:
On advertising, competitors have complained that it is too difficult to place ads on Google's Ad service using third-party software.
Both sides of the dispute have said they are eager to reach a settlement, but if necessary, the commission could formally file a case - leaving Google open to the prospect of being fined 10% of its annual revenue.
Google submitted in April its proposal to solve the problem. It agreed to display links to rivals close to where it displayed its own services on its results page.
It also offered to more clearly label results from YouTube, Google Maps and its other sites.
But lobby groups from other companies, including Microsoft, disputed the effectiveness of the changes.
"It is clear that mere labelling is not any kind of solution to the competition concerns that have been identified. Google should implement the same ranking policy to all websites," Microsoft said in April.
Google had also been subject to an earlier US Federal Trade Commission probe into competition issues - which ruled there were no concerns.
After receiving Google's proposals in April, the EU submitted the offer to the complainants - Google's rivals - for their consideration.
By Mark GregoryBBC News
Until recently it had seemed that European competition authorities would follow their American counterparts in deciding there were no serious concerns for Google to address.
But now after studying the small print of the search company's proposed remedies, EU officials are clearly taking a much tougher line.
They seem to have some sympathy towards the view - vigorously expressed by Google's opponents - that the search giant's plans to give greater prominence to links to rivals' sites were essentially cosmetic, and would not lead to significant changes in the flow of internet traffic.
The EU has in effect thrown the ball back into Google's court, demanding that it volunteers more meaningful concessions, backed with a still-distant threat of a legal battle and severe penalties if it fails to do so.
The interested third parties include Microsoft, Expedia and Trip Advisor - who form part of Fairsearch, a group of businesses looking to increase competition in the search industry.
A study of UK web users commissioned by the group, conducted by a pair of US academics, suggested that, even under the new proposals, Google-owned services enjoyed "better placement, richer graphics and better visuals" than competitors.
It said that as many as one in five of the 1,888 people studied clicked on Google's commercial web services, compared to one in 200 clicking on its rivals.
Another group, the Microsoft-backed Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace (Icomp), called for a "tight deadline" for Google's revised offer.
"It is reassuring that the commission has recognised, as had been argued by many, that Google's offer of proposed remedies was inadequate," said Icomp's legal counsel David Wood.
"Frankly, Google's offer made rather surprising reading and clearly fell far short of meeting the key requirement." | Google has not done enough to address concerns it is unfairly stifling competition, an EU official has said. |
31,255,704 | McCoy, 40, announced on Saturday that this season will be his last in racing.
In an in-depth interview with the BBC, the 19-time champion jockey said a three-week injury lay-off earlier this season was the "toughest" of his career because it ended his hopes of reaching the 300 milestone.
He discusses the decision to retire, injuries and his plans for the future.
McCoy spoke to racehorse owner JP McManus, agent Dave Roberts and wife Chanelle before announcing his decision to retire after riding his 200th winner at Newbury on Saturday.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"Dave Roberts came for dinner and my wife, Chanelle, had no idea why he was coming down. The only person that I'd really spoken to about it was JP, my boss.
"I was a bit low for the next couple of days, so I think I'm going to have my moments.
"I jokingly said I started thinking about it five years ago. In some ways I was joking but I thought, '20 jockey championships, is that realistic? Could I possibly achieve that?'
"And then when I rode my 4,000th winner, I was quite happy and people were asking about riding 5,000. To this day I still feel I could ride 5,000 winners, if I wasn't in the position that I'm in.
"I've been very lucky all my life and the way it happened at Newbury couldn't have been any better.
"It was for JP. I'd ridden a winner earlier in the day on a horse of John Ferguson's to get me to 199. It was my local track, my wife was only down the road. She wasn't even going to come racing until she heard I'd won the first one.
"In some ways I wanted to and in some ways I didn't. I would have liked not to have to announced I was retiring."
With 200 wins this season, McCoy is 79 clear of closest rival Richard Johnson as the Northern Irishman closes in on a 20th jockeys' championship.
"I genuinely think if I retired today and came back as someone else tomorrow, I could ride another 700 winners, no problem. The thing for me was being lucky enough to be in the position I'm in.
"I've won 19 jockeys' championships and hopefully this year will be my 20th. You try to achieve that every year and I always had that little fear of carrying on longer than I should do.
"I've looked up to leading sportspeople all my life. In the last few years, you look at Brian O'Driscoll, who went out at the top. Sir Alex Ferguson won Manchester United's 20th title and retired. That is the way you should depart, when you're at what you think is the top of your game.
"That is the most difficult thing about it because you're leaving when you're still enjoying what you do and at a time when you'd like to carry on, but sometimes you've got to do the right thing.
"I thought about leaving it until the end of the year but I didn't want speculation and people writing about it and talking about it. I wanted it to be on my terms."
The extensive list of injures McCoy has suffered during his 20-year career includes a broken leg, arm, ankle, both wrists, shoulder blades, collar bones, cheekbones and all of his ribs. He has also broken several vertebrae in his back, suffered punctured lungs and had all his teeth replaced due to racing injuries.
Of all of his setbacks, McCoy said a fall at Worcester in October 2014 was the hardest to deal with because it meant he would not achieve his ambition of riding 300 winners in a season.
"I won't miss them but those things challenge you in life and maybe that's the way I am.
"I'm the kind of person who likes to be challenged. When I fell, I always felt I could get up again and carry on.
"After the fall at Worcester, at the time I was the only one who knew what I was dealing with. I had a punctured lung, I dislocated a collarbone, I had broken two ribs. I went back riding after three days and managed to break the same collarbone I'd dislocated.
"I was doing press-ups on the ground to show the doctors it wasn't sore. That's something I don't think I'd have been able to do 15 years ago. It's something I've trained my mind and body to cope with.
"I had the aspiration of riding 300 winners at that time and I knew if I wanted to do that then I had to carry on. I couldn't afford the days off but in the end I had to face up to it.
"Those three weeks I had off were probably, emotionally, the toughest in my racing career.
"At that point in the season I had ridden my fastest 50th winner, my fastest 100th winner, my fastest 150th winner and I thought, 'I can ride 300 winners and this would be the way I'd like to retire'.
"I'd have achieved what I have never been able to achieve in 20 years. When that was taken away from me, that's probably the one thing that hit me the hardest."
At 17, McCoy rode his first winner in Ireland in 1992 and began racing in England two years later. He says he has no firm plans for his retirement but would like to stay involved in racing.
"I'm slightly concerned I have a bit of an obsessive personality. I like to have this idea that I'm going to enjoy my retirement a bit. There's sporting events around the world that I would like to go and see.
"If Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather fought in Las Vegas, I'd like to go and see that. I'd like to go and see Rory McIlroy win the Masters and watch Arsenal win the Champions League final.
"I love racing and it's been so good to me. I'm not going to be bitter about the fact I can't ride any more. I'm well aware that this happens to everyone.
"Whether it be this year or next year, I know there's going to be a good horse that I could have ridden. I would like to stay within racing and try to do whatever good I can for the sport.
"I don't think retiring is anything to be congratulated for. I've been extremely lucky and I know it's the right thing and that the time is right." | Jockey AP McCoy says he will regret not being able to end his career with 300 winners in a season. |
32,202,995 | Selten, 45, was arrested in May 2013 for selling 300 tonnes of horsemeat labelled as beef.
He was found guilty of forging invoices, labels and declarations and using forged documents to sell meat.
Selten's lawyer said his client was "upset and surprised" by the verdict.
The scandal broke in Ireland and Britain in January 2013 when it was found that frozen burgers supplied to several supermarkets, including Tesco, contained horse DNA.
It resulted in a recall of 50,000 tonnes of meat products across Europe, making it one of Europe's largest food scandals.
Selten had been mixing horsemeat with beef and selling it on as 100% pure beef.
Dutch authorities took 167 samples from his meat supplies in February 2013 and 35 tested positive for horse DNA, the court in Den Bosch heard.
At least 336 tonnes of horsemeat passed through his two businesses between 2011 and 2012, the court said.
The court judgment says that because Selten, whose two companies were declared bankrupt in 2013, sold to foreign firms, "he contributed to a negative image for the Dutch meat industry and damaged the sector's interests".
Selten's lawyer told the BBC his client was "upset and surprised" by the verdict.
He said the court's judgment would now be read and a decision made as to whether to appeal.
At the end of his trial last month, Selten said: "Mistakes were made in our bookkeeping.
"I am not the big horsemeat swindler they're all looking for. I was careless with my administration, but not intentionally."
BBC Hague correspondent Anna Holligan says this was a case of food fraud, rather than food safety.
In handing down the two-and-a-half year sentence, the judge said that Selten had already suffered, she reports - he has been declared bankrupt and is facing damages claims of 11 million euros ($12m; £8m). | Dutch horsemeat trader Willy Selten has been found guilty of falsifying documents and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for his part in Europe's horsemeat scandal. |
40,118,370 | The six survivors, all women, walked to a remote village and are being looked after in Dirkou, Niger, Red Cross official Lawal Taher said.
They say several children are among the dead.
The Ghanaians and Nigerians were trying to get to Libya, reports Nigerien news site Sahelien.
So far no-one has visited the site to identify the bodies, Mr Taher added.
The route from Niger to Libya is one of the main ways migrants reach North Africa before crossing the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe.
Crossing the Sahara is one of the most perilous parts of the journey as migrants are crammed into pickup trucks often with only enough room for a few litres of water, reports Reuters news agency.
The harsh Sahara: By Martin Patience, BBC News, Nigeria
The unforgiving conditions of the Sahara Desert mean that a broken down vehicle is often a death sentence for migrants.
Niger serves as a transit point for West Africans hoping to reach Europe to start a better life.
Every year, tens of thousands of migrants cross the Sahara to reach Libya. From the Libyan coast they board rickety boats to ferry them to Europe.
Many drown in the Mediterranean but, perhaps, less well known, are the dangers they face while crossing the Sahara.
It's not known how many deaths there are every year - as it's a vast, ungoverned region. But many migrants die of thirst, while others are robbed and attacked by criminal gangs and security forces.
'My sister drowned getting to Europe'
Authorities told Reuters that is it almost impossible to know how many have died in the vast and unpoliced Sahara.
Last June, the bodies of 34 migrants, including 20 children, were found in the Sahara Desert near Niger's border with Algeria.
It appeared they had died of thirst after being abandoned by their smuggler, a government minister said at the time. | Survivors say 44 people have died of thirst after their truck broke down in the Sahara Desert in northern Niger, the Red Cross has told the BBC. |
39,089,300 | People have faced a 10-mile detour since Eastham Bridge in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, gave way in front of a school bus in May.
Two pairs of steel beams, 33m (108ft) long and weighing 84 tonnes in total, have been lifted across the River Teme.
The bridge is expected to open to traffic in two months.
The 18th Century original collapsed after fast-moving water undermined its piers.
The bus driver managed to reverse off the bridge as its apex crashed into the river below.
Farmer Celia Adams said she was "very very pleased" to come on Saturday and "see that we're getting the bridge put up again".
She said: "We farm either side of this river so we've had tremendous detours for months.
"Now [we've] just started lambing so we've got all the upheaval of all the flock of ewes to be lambed and we're not able obviously to go to the other side unless we do the 10-mile detour."
Worcestershire County Council said Saturday's work represented a "major milestone".
Head of highways Jon Fraser said: "People have been very concerned... It's massively important for the local people.
"It's a 10-mile detour with the bridge being down so we're keen to get the bridge connected as quickly as possible." | The base of a new river bridge to replace a Grade II listed crossing that collapsed last year has been put into place. |
38,010,903 | The 21-year-old lines up with Edinburgh team-mate Hamish Watson and John Barclay in the back row.
Grant Gilchrist replaces injured lock Richie Gray, while winger Tommy Seymour returns to take over from Tim Visser.
The final change from last weekend's late loss to Australia sees Fraser Brown start at hooker.
Ross Ford, who won his 100th cap in the 23-22 defeat, drops to the bench, along with Visser and Ryan Wilson.
Edinburgh back row Cornell du Preez was called up for the first time, but there is no place in the matchday squad for the South Africa-born 25-year-old, who became eligible last month through residency rules.
Cotter said that the game has come too soon for Du Preez to make his debut, but club-mate Bradbury gets the call.
"He's impressed us in training, he gets an opportunity," said the head coach.
"He's athletic and we're playing a team that moves the ball pretty quickly. He's well balanced between attack and defence, he's not a one-dimensional player.
"He can jump in the lineout and turnover ball he carries well. He moves across the ground.
"We're playing a team that offloads the ball a lot, with athletic forwards, so we need defensive qualities, but we also want to take the ball to them and Magnus gives us the opportunity to run very hard at them as well."
Richie Gray suffered a head knock against Australia, as did John Hardie, an early replacement for Wilson against Australia, who is expected to be out of action for eight weeks after surgery on his sprained ankle.
"If you look at last week's game, there were 500 collisions and Richie had a big part of those and can't take the field this week," said Cotter.
"That's what happens, but it's opportunities for others. We selected a squad knowing that getting to the last game we might have a few guys down. We just try do our best."
There are two changes among the replacements, with prop Alex Allan and lock Tim Swinson coming in for Gordon Reid and the promoted Gilchrist.
Scotland are aiming for a third consecutive victory over the Pumas, following a 41-31 success at Murrayfield two years ago and a 21-19 win in Cordoba in the summer of 2014.
Argentina have the upper hand overall, with nine victories from the 15 meetings since the first recognised Test in 1990.
"Every week we want to improve," added Cotter. "We did a lot of good things against Australia: we scored three tries to their two, we were aggressive in attack and our defence held strong for the most part.
"While it's disappointing we didn't walk off with the win, I'm proud of the courage the players showed and the way they adapted to changes due to injuries.
"Saturday's game is going to be a different challenge for us, both physically and mentally, against a very dangerous Argentina side."
Scotland: Hogg, Maitland, Jones, Dunbar, Seymour, Russell, Laidlaw (capt), Dell, Brown, Fagerson, Gilchrist, J Gray, Bradbury, Watson, Barclay.
Replacements: Ford, Allan, Low, Swinson, Wilson, Price, Horne, Visser. | Magnus Bradbury will make his Scotland debut as head coach Vern Cotter makes four changes for Saturday's Test with Argentina at Murrayfield. |
36,513,092 | After claiming five of the six points on day two, they needed just two-and-a-half points from Sunday's eight singles for victory at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club.
Bailey Tardy, Monica Vaughn and Andrea Lee all secured wins for the Americans.
But Meghan MacLaren held on to defeat USA's Bethany Wu at the 17th and secure the winning point for GB & Ireland.
A win for Leona Maguire over Sienna Brooks and a half-point from Olivia Mehaffey against world number one Hannah O'Sullivan had put the hosts on the verge of victory.
Following the flurry of American success, MacLaren saw her three-hole lead with four to play cut to a single hole before taking the penultimate hole for a 2&1 win to settle the overall contest.
Moments later, Bronte Law defeated Mika Liu by two holes to become just the second player ever to record a perfect 5-0 record, American Stacy Lewis having done so at St Andrews in 2008, the year the event switched from two to three days.
Mariel Galdiano defeated Irish golfer Maria Dunne in the last match to narrow the margin of defeat for the Americans to three points.
World number four Law said: "For me to end it this way - it's probably going to be my last Curtis Cup - is just a dream. I am so proud to just represent my country."
US captain Robin Burke felt her side had been capable of pulling off a similar comeback to that of last year's Solheim Cup team, who recovered from a four-point deficit in the singles in Germany.
"GB & Ireland just played really well yesterday," she said.
"They made a ton of birdies on us and we almost recovered. We just didn't quite get there." | Great Britain and Ireland won the Curtis Cup for only the second time in the last 10 contests after overcoming a resurgent USA 11½-8½ in County Wicklow. |
26,975,376 | However the study suggests performance has improved in other areas and there is no evidence that Wales is "lagging behind" any other part of the UK.
The research - comparing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - shows a significant deterioration in Welsh waiting times since 2009.
This was during an "unprecedented squeeze" on finances.
Those behind the research claim the performance on waiting times should "set alarm bells ringing amongst policy makers" at a time when governments across the UK are considering how to prioritise spending in a time of austerity.
But across a number of other measures - such as rates of avoidable deaths - the research suggests the NHS in Wales is broadly in line with the rest of the UK or has improved to a "similar level to England".
According to Health Minister Mark Drakeford the study proves Prime Minister David Cameron's recent attacks on the performance of the Welsh NHS had been "utterly unfounded".
"I would say this report shoots Mr Cameron's fox good and proper," he told BBC Wales.
The research, jointly commissioned by Nuffield Trust and The Health Foundation, also concludes that "the performance gap between England and the rest of the UK has narrowed in recent years" and that "there is little sign that one country is moving ahead of the others consistently across the available indicators of performance".
It also suggests differing health policies, introduced across the UK since devolution, may have had less effect on performance than may have been expected.
WAITING TIMES
In the years leading up to 2009/10, the length of time patients had to wait for a wide range of common procedures improved significantly in Wales and across the UK.
But since then waiting times in Wales for many of those procedures have lengthened substantially. This is in contrast to the trends England and Scotland.
The research notes that in 2012/13 patients in Wales waited on average about 170 days for a hip or knee replacement, compared to 77 days in England and 67 days in Scotland.
The study also reveals that 10% of patients in Wales at that time had to wait almost 300 days for a knee or hip replacement, a coronary artery bypass, or removal of a varicose vein.
It also indicated the average Welsh waiting time for a hip replacement had lengthened by 69 days. In 2009/10 the wait was 101. Between 2012/13 it was 170 days.
According to the study, the reasons for the deterioration were "unclear" but it suggests the decision by the Welsh Labour government not to protect its health budget after the last assembly election in 2011 (in contrast England, Scotland and Northern Ireland) may be a contributory factor.
Between 2010/11 and 2012/13 the research notes health spending in cash terms rose by 1% a year in England and Scotland and by 2% a year in Northern Ireland. The NHS in Wales however saw a 1% a year cut.
Previously the Welsh government has claimed that despite the squeeze on NHS spending it has protected its social care budget to a much greater extent than elsewhere in the UK.
The report's authors concede the potential effects or benefits of that decision on social care may not have been reflected in this particular study.
OTHER MEASURES
But beyond waiting times the study suggests the Welsh NHS faces other distinct challenges.
During the period under study:
However other indicators are more encouraging.
Wales had the second lowest death rates for men and women due to diseases (such as heart disease) which can be treated by healthcare.
Although worse than in England, the avoidable death rate was lower than in the north east of England which has a similar, but not identical socio-economic profile. The north east has, however, seen a faster rate of improvement.
Meanwhile, life expectancy in Wales, although lower than in England continues to be higher than in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the north east of England.
The Welsh public seem to be more satisfied with the way the NHS is generally run and about the performance of their GP surgeries than patients in England and Scotland. However Welsh patients have the least positive experience of hospital stays.
And despite long waiting times, more knee replacement operations are performed in Wales per head of population than anywhere else, but fewer varicose vein removals. For gall bladder, coronary bypass, hernia and hip replacements the Welsh NHS is in the middle of the pack.
There is no significant difference, according to the report, between Wales and the rest of the UK when it comes to breast screening, immunisation rates and survival following kidney transplants.
ANALYSIS
With the political row about the state of the Welsh NHS showing no signs of abating, and with each side accusing the other of giving the public a misleading picture about its performance, this report's publication could not have been timed better. So what does the study conclude?
Given the ferocity of the attacks on NHS, the Welsh government will take some comfort from such findings as there is "little sign that one country is moving ahead or lagging behind".
In Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, David Cameron claimed yet again that Labour had a "truly dreadful" record on health and that the "shambles" in Wales was in stark contrast to the "well-run" NHS in England.
The critics however will seize on the far more pointed descriptions of Wales' lengthening waiting times where words such as "striking", "disproportionate" and "alarm bells" were used.
They will argue the study demonstrates how thousands of patients have had to wait longer in pain - simply because they live in Wales.
Throughout the report the evidence seems to suggests - broadly speaking - the more you spend - the better the NHS performs.
So there will be questions about whether the Welsh government made a mistake in not following the other nations in protecting it's health budget back in 2011.
Was the decision last year to give health a cash injection of over £600m over three years a tacit admission of that?
The health minister says the assembly government chose instead to protect social care to a much greater extent than elsewhere.
That decision he claims is now reaping many benefits - with a fewer numbers of patients in Wales than ever before facing delayed transfers of care from hospitals.
TRENDS ELSEWHERE IN THE UK
The researchers note the following trends in NHS performance across the four nations.
Since undertaking the previous study in 2010 (which used data up to 2006/7) England performs marginally better across a number of key indicators, including avoidable deaths, life expectancy and ambulance response times.
But, the report says the gap has narrowed and differences between the countries are often small. Nurse staffing levels have been lower in England than in the other three countries over the period studied.
Scotland shows a marked upturn in performance on indicators associated with targets and performance management, such as waiting times for planned surgery, which now broadly match England's, and ambulance response times.
Wales demonstrates improved performance on a number of indicators, but shows deteriorating performance on waiting times since 2010, with striking rises in waits for common procedures such as knee or hip operations. In 2012/13 a typical Welsh patient waited about 170 days for a hip or knee replacement compared to about 70 days in England and Scotland.
Northern Ireland has improved performance on most indicators, but MRSA rates remain higher than both England and Wales. There are no comparable waiting time data for Northern Ireland in recent years. | The Welsh government's decision to cut NHS funding may be responsible for longer waiting times, a report claims. |
23,600,242 | Tiny Rebel brewery in Newport wanted Swedes to taste bottles of its "unique schizophrenic" Fubar pale ale.
But the export drive was blocked after a consumer protection agency said the label was contrary to guidelines.
Co-founder Bradley Cummings, 26, said: "Looks like Fubar won't be heading over to Sweden any time soon."
The firm, launched 18 months ago, has already seen exports of bottles and kegs to Denmark, Norway, Italy and Australia.
But hopes of adding Sweden to the list stopped with an email asking the firm to review the label on the bottles of beer.
It said: "In reviewing this label, we believe this may be contrary to the Consumer Agency's guidelines for advertising of alcoholic beverages to consumers.
"The overall impression including weapons and bullet holes are not expected to exercise special moderation."
Mr Cummings said he had not long returned from a business trip to Sweden to discuss exporting Fubar so the email rejection was a surprise.
He said: "It might have been our fault for not looking at the advertising laws. Every country is different and we do appreciate that.
"It would be boring if everything country was the same. They have a very different drinking culture over there."
Fubar was runner-up in the Welsh champion beer awards in Cardiff in June, which saw the brewery sweep the board.
Mr Cummings said the firm, started with partner Gareth Williams, 31, now employs six people and produces the equivalent of 640 casks of beer, in casks for the UK market and bottles and kegs for overseas, a month. | A brewery's bid to export one its brands to Sweden has faltered because the beer's label features a hand grenade and bullet holes. |
31,795,526 | Mr Lungu, elected in January, collapsed while giving a speech to commemorate International Women's Day in the capital, Lusaka, on Sunday.
During the campaign, Mr Lungu's allies denied reports he was sick and he offered to undergo a medical check-up.
The election was called following the death of his predecessor Michael Sata.
Mr Lungu, 58, was treated at a local hospital and his office issued a report assuring Zambians that the president was "feeling better" and would return home on Monday.
A statement from the president's office said he was suffering from a narrowing of the oesophagus which needed "high-tech medical procedure which is currently unavailable in Zambia".
"Therefore he has been referred for specialised treatment abroad," it said.
It said this was a recurrence of a condition for which he had been treated 30 years ago.
The statement did not specify when Mr Lungu would have the operation and journalists were not allowed to ask questions at the press briefing.
Mr Lungu, a former defence minister, is due to serve the remainder of Mr Sata's term, until elections in 2016.
While Mr Sata was president, the government was accused of covering up his ill-health.
Journalist Meluse Kapatamoyo says that after the deaths of two serving presidents in six years, some Zambians are concerned about Mr Lungu's condition.
Mr Sata died while in London and Ms Kapatamoyo says Zambians are likely to be even more anxious when Mr Lungu goes abroad for treatment.
However, she says that some people have been reassured by the regular medical updates on Mr Lungu's condition. | Zambian President Edgar Lungu has to undergo throat surgery abroad, his doctors say, after earlier reporting that he had malaria. |
30,027,544 | Groups of bankers who went by the exotic names of The A Team, The 3 Musketeers and The Players colluded to fix foreign exchange rates for the advantage of their banks.
And themselves.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) helpfully published a selection of the messages - just so we could all see what was going on.
Mr McEwan is one banking chief executive who has actually faced the media music today. Of course, his bank is 80% owned by the taxpayer, so he has more responsibility than most.
But the approach is certainly in contrast to the response of others. HSBC, for example, put out a one line statement this morning after the announcement of the record fines for foreign exchange manipulation.
"HSBC does not tolerate improper conduct and will take whatever action is appropriate," it said.
In his interview with me, Mr McEwan was slightly more expansive.
"The chat room articles talk about the individual looking after themselves and not looking after the customer and that's the thing that makes me cringe," he said.
"We are building an organisation centred around the customer and these are a few people looking after themselves and their mates at other firms - unacceptable, totally unacceptable."
He said disciplinary action could follow and I understand that three people have already been suspended by RBS with a further six under what is known as "serious review". Over 50 present and former staff are having their work investigated.
"We have a major accountability review that started some months ago," Mr McEwan said.
"We've been looking through the millions and millions of emails and files and chat room conversations. That process is underway today to look at who is accountable.
"As an organisation we do want to hold people accountable for good behaviour and rewards - and bad behaviour. We will be clawing back [pay awards] and taking disciplinary proceedings where wrongdoing has been done."
This has been another grim day for banking.
Despite protestations that things are changing, there is evidence published by the FCA today suggesting that, before the official investigation, whistleblowers were ignored by banks and complaints from customers (the global businesses and pension funds that rely on foreign exchange markets) pushed aside.
Interviewing the Governor of the Bank of England on Monday, I was struck when he said issues of misconduct were now so widespread they could have an impact on financial stability.
And the banks are nowhere near out of this peculiar Groundhog Day - where fines arrive as regularly as London buses.
Banks are still setting aside billions of pounds to deal with the mis-selling of payment protection insurance.
Further, banks have paid out £1.4bn to settle claims they mis-sold interest rate hedging products to small businesses. There will be more to come.
On foreign exchange, criminal investigations are ongoing by the Serious Fraud Office and the Department of Justice in America.
They could drag on to 2016 with trials and possible jail sentences.
There are also investigations into the operation of the commodities market and the US housing market at the time of the financial crisis.
Legal action is pending over efforts by RBS to raise £12bn of capital in 2008 and Lloyds calamitous takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland the same year.
And RBS will soon hear the details of millions of pounds of fines it is facing over the collapse of its IT systems in 2012 which led to people being locked out of their accounts.
Barclays is also facing regulatory misconduct claims over its capital raising, also in 2008, from Qatari and Abu Dhabi investors.
And so it goes on. And on.
Public frustration is understandable. At the top - the likes of Mr McEwan - there seems genuine desire for change.
And of course, the vast majority of people working in banking - traders included - are simply trying to do a good job.
But while a handful of influential "Musketeers" and "Players" are talking about screwing the opposition and doing collusive deals (remember, the evidence published today is from as recently as last year) the public will remain sceptical that the banking stables can ever be cleaned out. | The chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has told me that he "cringed" when he saw copies of the chat room messages which talk of "making free money" and "keeping numpties out of the market". |
35,559,356 | Carwyn Jones said the OECD report "nails the lie that the NHS in Wales is being out-performed by England".
The Welsh Conservatives pointed out the OECD had not looked at waiting times.
Plaid Cymru said the report backed its view that local health boards were "not fit for purpose".
Mr Jones claimed David Cameron and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had "denigrated" NHS staff in Wales to gain political advantage.
He said the UK government should examine its own record on health in England.
"There is a good reason that junior doctors are not on strike in Wales," he said.
"It is because we value our NHS workforce, and work with them to modernise and bring through change.
"With a growing social care crisis in England, and the continuing doctors' strike, it is time the Tories focused on getting their own house in order.
"We accept that the NHS in Wales has challenges ahead - just like every healthcare system in Europe - and we are up for meeting that challenge.
"That is why we spend more on the NHS and on social care than in England; why access to cancer drugs is faster and why we are investing more than ever in training nurses and other NHS staff."
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said Labour needed to apologise for longer waiting times in Wales, availability of cancer treatments, and £1bn of budget cuts since 2011.
"Let's be clear - this report is not a comparison study, and it fails to take into consideration one of the most important aspects of the patient experience - waiting times," he said.
"Previous reports by the House of Commons Library, the Wales Audit Office and the Nuffield Trust have showed that spending has been slashed by Labour since 2011 and that waiting times are much longer here in Wales."
Plaid Cymru's health spokeswoman Elin Jones pointed to the OECD's criticism of the local health boards in Wales, and recommendation of "a stronger central guiding hand".
"The health board model that currently exists in Wales is too cumbersome and unwieldy, and Plaid Cymru is proposing a model to create nationally-designed hospital services serving local communities throughout Wales with a modern, safe service," she said.
"Plaid Cymru will create a Community NHS to integrate all local health and care services, to meet the needs of local communities and to be innovative in its response to those needs."
A UK government Department of Health spokeswoman said: "This report shows the NHS is a leader in transparency, implementing quality and collecting patient feedback, which are all essential to our promise to deliver high quality care to every patient, seven days a week.
"We know there is still much more to do in order to make the NHS the safest healthcare system in the world, which is why we have prioritised frontline care and invested £10bn to fund the NHS's own plan for its future."
The political stakes couldn't really be higher as the governments in Cardiff and London digest the OECD report this morning.
I was in Llangollen in 2014 when David Cameron made his remark about the Welsh border being a "line between life and death".
It animated the bitter disagreements between the two administrations on how the NHS should work, and it's soured the relationship ever since.
The Conservatives insist they were drawing attention to perceived failings by the Labour-run Welsh NHS - and given the Tory gains made in last year's general election, they may feel vindicated.
But Labour insist they were unfairly criticised - yes, some waiting times are longer, but on other indicators Wales is doing better than England.
It's fair to say some in the Welsh government found the relentless media focus in the wake of the Cameron remarks pretty bruising.
The OECD (which didn't look at waiting times, by the way) concludes that Wales isn't doing better or worse than its neighbours - hence the demand from the first minister for an apology from the PM.
He's unlikely to get one - and, with an assembly election in three months time, don't expect the rhetoric to be toned down either. | NHS staff in Wales deserve an apology from the Tories, the first minister has said, after a major report said the health service was no worse in Wales than elsewhere in the UK. |
19,568,120 | Composer Matthew Herbert, known for his use of "found sounds", has been appointed creative director.
One of his first commissions is a "sonic memorial" to the BBC's Bush House building which, until recently, was the home of the World Service.
The original workshop was known for its pioneering use of electronic sounds.
Founded in 1958, it was best-known for creating the eerie swoosh of the Doctor Who theme tune, but its compositions were also used in numerous radio dramas, The Goon Show and The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
As well as music, the workshop created sound effects - from champagne corks popping to the distorted, strangulated voices of the Daleks.
While the first workshop was based in the BBC's Maida Vale studios, the new incarnation will live online, at The Space, a new digital arts service developed by the Arts Council and the BBC.
Herbert will lead "seven fellow cutting-edge collaborators" in making new sounds and music.
The composer is known for his experimental sound collages, which often have socio-political themes.
On last year's One Pig film and album, he recorded the life of a pig from birth to its slaughter at 20 weeks, and its subsequent serving as a meal.
In a live performance at 2004's London Jazz Festival, he drove a tank over a replica of a meal Nigella Lawson had cooked for Tony Blair and George Bush.
More conventionally, he has worked on records at the innovative edge of pop, including Bjork's Vespertine album.
His first work for The New Radiophonic Workshop takes audio from 25 previous projects featured on the website - from theatre performances to poetry readings - creating a "curious murmur of activity".
It can be heard by clicking on a button labelled "listen to The Space" at the top of any page on the website.
"It is the perfect time for the rebirth of the workshop," he said.
"The rapid pace of change in technologies has meant our imaginations are struggling to keep up.
"By bringing together the people making the technology with people making the music, we are hoping to find engaging answers to some of the modern problems associated with the role of sound and music on the internet, in certain creative forms and within broadcasting."
The other artists joining Herbert in the New Radiophonic Workshop are Mica Levi, from the band Micachu and the Shapes, Yann Seznec, Max de Wardener, theatre director Lyndsey Turner, Patrick Bergel and broadcast technologist Tony Churnside. | The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, which created theme tunes and sound effects for programmes including Doctor Who and Blake's 7, is to reopen after 14 years. |
32,820,579 | McColgan, 24, broke her ankle in January and has suffered a setback in her return from injury.
"Initially, we believed this injury would be a small blip in the road meaning six weeks off from running," McColgan wrote in a training blog.
"Sadly, the fracture has fully extended."
The Scot competed at London 2012 in the 3000m steeplechase, failing to make the final, and came sixth in the same event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
She said: "There is nothing I can do except rest and attempt to let the bone heal as impacting the joint will continue to open the fracture.
"The healing becomes less likely as time goes on, so shortly I will find out whether I need to undergo surgery in order to force the bone to heal.
"Hopefully from September I can slowly build up my training again. A completely injury-free, illness-free, winter is going to be central to my preparation for 2016 and many athletes struggle to achieve that.
"Rio 2016 will come round before any of us realise and at the end of the day the Olympic Games is the pinnacle. All the hard work, dedication, and sacrifices are purely for the Olympics. Every athlete wants to be a part of it.
"My event choice is still under question - perhaps a move to the 5000m or 10,000m will be more feasible after foot surgery, rather than risking injury over the steeplechase in such an important year." | Eilish McColgan says the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio are "now more than ever" her goal after revealing she is unlikely to race again this year. |
31,814,933 | He was responding to a question by MP Dominic Grieve about the Heathrow spur.
Mr McLoughlin said: "I would now like to make clear that we do not intend to build the spur as part of Phase 1 or 2 of the HS2 scheme".
HS2 is a planned high-speed rail network from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.
Previously the government had said any decision about the Heathrow spur would be delayed until the Davies Commission's report on future UK airport capacity had been completed.
Responding to Mr Grieve's written Parliamentary question, the minister cited the Airports Commission review findings - published in November - which "indicated that an HS2 spur is highly unlikely to be necessary to support any expansion of Heathrow airport".
Nick Hurd, Conservative MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner tweeted he was "delighted" the government had dropped the idea and gave "credit to ministers for listening to our argument".
He said the best way of connecting passengers to Heathrow was via Old Oak Common. He said it also simplified the case for extending the HS2 tunnel to protect Ickenham and Colne Valley.
Paul Prentice, assistant news editor at Rail magazine said it was a "very sensible decision. Bearing in mind there is already a spur tunnel to Heathrow and another western link being built".
Campaigner Lottie Jones from Hillingdon Against HS2 said the group was "delighted" with the decision but cautious that it was not "just a pre-election sweetener" that might be revoked. | Plans for a new rail link to Heathrow Airport as part of the HS2 high-speed network have been ruled out by the transport minister Patrick McLoughlin. |
38,097,788 | Máirtín Ó Muilleoir told the BBC's Inside Business programme the funding could apply to private companies and councils.
"I am of the opinion, we've had a chance to discuss it very briefly at the executive that we should have our own stimulus package sitting at the centre," he said.
"So if we set x million pounds aside or tens of millions of pounds aside each year that we say to the councils in particular, we say to the private sector, could you match this if we set aside x million, can we have a multiplier effect of two or three times that."
Inside Business is on Radio Ulster at 13:30 GMT on Sunday 27 November. | The finance minister has asked the executive to consider an economic stimulus package which would see businesses matching investment money put forward by the government. |
34,580,178 | For 150 years, the town's steelworks, with plumes of smoke rising from their imposing towers, have dominated Scunthorpe's skyline and its manufacturing industry.
But the past 40 years have marked a long, slow decline, with numbers employed at the plant on North Lincoln Road dropping from 30,000 in the 1950s to 4,000 in 2015.
Now, almost a quarter of those people are set to lose their jobs.
"This will kill Scunthorpe, there will be nothing."
So says Karen Hope-Dilley, who runs the Grange Lane Cafe just down the road.
She said: "Morale of the customers is just at rock bottom. People are really scared about what's happening.
"They're worried about their jobs, their futures, their children, their families."
Adrienne Calder, who also works at the cafe, said it could cost the family their business.
"Everyone is in the same situation, we could potentially close down because we haven't got the people coming in to buy our food."
For those directly affected by the news, the future seems even more bleak.
Single dad David Sayers is the third generation of his family to work at the Scunthorpe site and described the news as a "disaster."
"I support my family and if I potentially lose my income, I could lose my home as well," he said.
For others, whose entire careers have been spent on the plate mills, prospects could be limited.
James Parkinson worked at the steelworks for more than 30 years, as did his father, uncles and grandfather.
"If you ask anyone in the town, they will know someone who's worked there.
84,900
Total employment
56,300 Full-time employed
20,600 Part-time employed
8,000 Self-employed
4,000 Tata steelworkers
"Now they're getting rid of 900 jobs and they're going to say, 'Sorry son, there's no jobs for you, here's your redundancy, we'll try to help as much as we can'.
In nearby Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lorraine Cable, whose two sons both work at Tata, said the future was no brighter for the younger generation.
200,000
People employed in the UK steel sector in the 1970s
30,000 People employed in the sector today
2,200 Job losses at Redcar
900 Jobs axed at Scunthorpe
270 Jobs to go in Lanarkshire
"They would have to sign on like everyone else because there will be so many people looking for jobs and there aren't any at the minute, even without people being laid off."
"There's nothing else here for them."
Resident Eric Longbottom said competition is likely to be fierce for the few jobs going once the redundancies are made.
"A friend of mine was out of work for two or three years and every time he went for a job, there were 20 or 30 people applying for the same one.
"So what's it going to be like now? There will be 100 people or more going for those jobs. It's devastating, it will affect people for miles around."
Nic Dakin, Labour MP for Scunthorpe, said the development was "devastating" for workers and their families.
"The key issue at the moment must be to make sure that they are given maximum support during this very difficult time," he said.
Many fear the latest announcement - which has done nothing to quell rumours of the site's eventual closure - could turn Scunthorpe into a "ghost town".
Asim Akhter, manager of Home Furnishings in the town centre, said something needed to be done to save the site.
"If it closes it will be chaos for the town. That site is half of Scunthorpe, if someone can come and take over, that could save Scunthorpe.
"If not, it's sad news for everyone."
One resident who spoke to BBC Radio Lincolnshire described the knock-on effect the job losses would have on the town.
"It's not just steelworkers' jobs, it's peripheral businesses, small construction companies, suppliers, they are all going to suffer," he said.
Meanwhile, chaplain for the steelworks Rev Peter Vickers said it was an emotional time for staff.
"You've got fear, you've got anger, you've got frustration, you've got doubt - you've got them all.
"There's been an awful lot of fretting going on and I suspect a lot of friction in various households, where all the parties in the family work on this site."
Retired steelworker David Jenkins, who worked at the plant for 40 years, said it was "a sad day".
"I feel very sorry for the lads who are left there. It's been coming for a long time," he added. | As 900 workers at Tata's Scunthorpe plant face losing their jobs, what will be the knock-on effect for the North Lincolnshire town "built on steel"? |
35,648,918 | Researchers push, kick and tease the remarkable new Atlas robot, which is an upgrade of models we've seen from the firm previously.
Despite the distractions, Atlas continues with its task of picking up and moving boxes.
In one instance, a member of the Boston Dynamics team gives Atlas such a severe whack to its upper back that it falls over, face first on to the floor.
After a moment of reflection, the robot pushes its arms out and jolts itself upright, before somewhat dejectedly walking out of the building.
Other demonstrations shown in the video posted by Boston Dynamics show Atlas walking around in the snow, righting itself whenever it encounters difficult terrain.
"It is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated," the company explained.
"It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain and help with navigation."
The robot is 5ft 9in (175cm) tall and weighs 180lb (82kg).
We learned in December last year that plans to develop a four-legged dog-like robot had been shelved after it was deemed too noisy for its purpose on combat zones.
It had been hoped that the robot would be able to follow troops while carrying extra kit.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook | Boston Dynamics - the robotics firm owned by Google - has created a humanoid that is able to withstand all manner of bullying and still achieve its task. |
31,142,437 | In a statement, the central bank said it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral for lending money to commercial banks.
The move makes access to cash more expensive for Greece's banks.
In Athens, the stock market fell more than 6%, while bank stocks tumbled as much as 16%.
The ECB said that its move was because it could not assume a "successful" deal on Greece's €240bn (£179bn) bailout.
Shares in Greek banks fell sharply, with Alpha Bank shares were down 10%, Eurobank shares down 15%, and National Bank of Greece 12.3% lower. The wider Athens stock market initially fell more 10% before recovering slightly.
Italian and Spanish stock markets were also trading down about 1% by mid-morning.
The yield, or interest rate, on Greek bonds rose more than two percentage points as investors demanded higher returns on the country's debt.
The newly-elected Greek government is in talks with international creditors over the terms of its bailout, which it thinks are too harsh.
The Greek finance ministry said the ECB's decision, which is due to come into effect on 11 February, would have "no adverse impact" on the country's financial industry.
It said the sector was "fully protected", with other options still available.
Banks can still access funding through the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) programme, run by Greece's central bank, and at a much higher cost to the banks.
According to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, the interest rate is 1.55%, compared with 0.05% on regular ECB financing.
Earlier on Wednesday, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, met the ECB's president Mario Draghi to discuss the country's bailout.
Analysts said the ECB statement was a sign the meeting had not been a success.
"This is clearly the ECB signalling to the Greek government: You're going to have to talk to [international lenders] the troika and get a deal,'' Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics told the Associated Press.
"Otherwise, really bad things are going to happen.''
The euro fell sharply against the dollar on the news, dropping more than a cent to $1.1331.
On Thursday, Mr Varoufakis is due to meet his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schaeuble, one of the toughest critics of the new Greek government.
The European Central Bank's decision reflects the uncertainty about whether Greece will reach an agreement on its bailout programme with the rest of the Eurozone.
Greek government bonds have such a poor credit rating that the ECB only accepts them as collateral if the Government has such a support programme in place.
The immediate direct impact on the Greek banks is likely to be relatively moderate. They can use other assets to borrow from the ECB and they can turn to the national central bank - but at a higher interest rate.
The move does however add to the pressure on the Greek government to do a deal.
Over the next few weeks the banks in Greece could face further stress.
Already, significant amounts have been withdrawn from accounts, and there is a possibility of further restrictions on their access to central bank funds. | The European Central Bank (ECB) has toughened its stance with Greece by restricting financing to the country's banks, sending shares falling. |
36,097,109 | Mary Colwell will walk from Enniskillen to the east coast of England to help the curlew.
Its numbers have declined rapidly in Northern Ireland in recent years.
It is now on a red list of birds giving cause for conservation concern. The journey will take Mary six weeks.
Along the way she will promote the plight of the wader whose evocative call was once common in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland has lost around 80% of its curlews in the past two decades.
The drainage of land, the planting of trees in wetland, and pressure from predators have all had an impact.
The RSPB is running several conservation programmes in Northern Ireland in counties Fermanagh, Down and Derry.
They are working with farmers to preserve habitat.
In Fermanagh, there are thought to be only around a hundred breeding pairs.
The bird likes rough, wet vegetation and grasses of different heights where they can hide from predators and forage for food.
Mary Colwell has had a lifelong interest in the birds.
"I love the way they look," she said.
"I love the long bill, it looks quite comical. It has got a little head and a plump body and long legs.
"But it holds all those characteristics with tremendous grace and beauty.
"And combine that with its call which is utterly evocative and beautiful, particularly at this time of year when they're breeding."
You can follow Mary's journey at this website and on twitter at @curlewcalls | A conservationist sets out on Thursday to walk 500 miles across the British Isles to raise awareness of the plight of one of our most threatened birds. |
35,763,679 | Goals from Kyle Bennett, Michael Doyle and a Matt Pearson own goal gave Pompey a 3-1 win in the League two match - their third victory in four games.
Portsmouth have lost only one of their last seven matches and are six points behind third-placed Plymouth.
"The first half was probably the best performance we have had in relation to the magnitude of the game," said Cook.
"We absolutely dominated a team that have been excellent at home," he told BBC Radio Solent.
"We took a lot of criticism at Barnet away and we have taken that criticism properly - we have stood up like men."
Portsmouth, who are now fourth in the division, host Newport at Fratton Park on Saturday. | Portsmouth manager Paul Cook described his side's first-half performance at Accrington as their best this season. |
32,149,449 | No other Brit has managed that many, and only 45 other players from around the world have passed the landmark since Open tennis began in 1968.
There are eight other currently active players who have passed 500 wins too, with Roger Federer topping the pile on 1,012 wins.
But which of Andy's 500 victories have been the most significant?
The 18-year-old Scot had already proved he knew his way round a grass-court by reaching the third round at Queen's where he came up against the 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson. Murray split the first two sets with the Swede on two tie-breaks, and it was nip and tuck in the decider when the Scot's physical condition deteriorated. He struggled with cramp, appeared to faint at one point and could barely run by the end of the match. Johansson came through 7-6 6-7 7-5 but Murray proved he could mix it with the world's best, although his weak physical condition was a concern.
By now Murray was hovering around the top 10 in the world but was yet to make a breakthrough in a Grand Slam. In the fourth round that year, Murray came up against the flashy Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who stormed into a two-set lead. Murray showed impressive steel and determination however to drag himself back into contention in front of an increasingly hysterical centre court crowd. Murray's physical condition was much improved and when he secured victory in the fifth set, he turned to his box and flexed his bicep, highlighting the work he'd put in off court to toughen himself up.
The Spaniard had thrashed the Scot in the last eight of Wimbledon a couple of months previously, but when they met again in the last four in New York, Murray was tougher both physically and mentally. It was his first appearance in a Grand Slam semi-final and he took the fight to the then world number one, even winning the physical battle with a player renowned for his strength and powers of recovery. Murray went through to the final in four sets, where he was dismantled by Roger Federer in three. Not the result he wanted, but it was further proof that here was a Grand Slam champion in waiting.
Murray was still waiting for that maiden major triumph after three previous final defeats, and anticipation was rightly high after he booked his spot in the Wimbledon final. On the other side of the net was arguably the greatest player of all time, particularly on a grass-court, Roger Federer. The Swiss is immensely popular wherever he plays, not least on centre court which is why the crowd's affection appeared to be evenly split. Federer impressed on the way to a four-set win, but it was during the presentation ceremony that Murray really left his mark. The Scot gave a tearful speech which endeared him to millions and released some of the pressure and tension he had been carrying on his shoulders.
Just a matter of weeks after his Wimbledon final defeat, Murray had the chance for revenge against the Swiss on the same court in the Olympic final. On this occasion there was no doubt where the crowd's loyalties lay; Murray swept to victory on the back of a vocal and euphoric wave of British Olympic fever. He handed the Swiss one of his most humbling defeats in a final, securing the gold medal with an ace. It may not have been a major, but it was his biggest title to date and it proved he was getting closer to that all important first Grand Slam crown.
Murray was the form player of the summer after that Wimbledon final and his gold medal triumph. However, he had suffered defeat in all his four Grand Slam finals to date. On this occasion it was the defending champion Novak Djokovic on the other side of the next. Murray made a strong start, taking the first two sets before being pegged back by the dogged Serb. At the start of the fifth Murray took a bathroom break when he looked in the mirror and promised himself he would do whatever it took to get over the line. He then dug deep to become Britain's first Grand Slam winner in 76 years by posting a 7-6 7-5 2-6 3-6 6-2 triumph in an epic four hours and 54 minutes in the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Murray had got the Grand Slam duck off his back, but the one everyone really wanted to see him win was Wimbledon. Unlike 12 months previously there was no doubt where the loyalty of the crowd lay, with Murray roared out as he stepped onto a blisteringly hot centre court. The atmosphere resembled the Olympic final of the previous year and Murray repaid his support by producing the most accomplished performance in a major final of his career. The Scot stormed into a two-set lead and served for the match at 5-4 in the third. What followed was a nerve shredding final game where break points came and went, before Murray eventually sealed the win at his fourth attempt, ending a 77-year wait for a British men's singles champion at Wimbledon.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | Andy Murray has joined one of tennis's most exclusive clubs after notching up the 500th match win of his career. |
24,327,786 | But the review acknowledged the need for a long-term vision for learning, assessment and qualifications.
Education Minister John O'Dowd commissioned the review following a plan to change the exams in England.
Mr O'Dowd presented the review findings to the assembly and has opened a consultation process.
The review was conducted by the Northern Ireland examinations board, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA).
It made 49 recommendations ranging from short-term changes to GCSEs and A-levels, to exploring the use of the GCSE and A-level brand alongside England and Wales.
Mr O'Dowd told the assembly he was pleased with the report.
"This an important piece of work and provides an unprecedented opportunity to set out our own stall for learners here.
"The recommendations articulate what we should do to improve the life chances of our young people.
"The report allows us to pro-actively determine what is right for us in the context of our own curriculum and to align our qualifications to our curriculum in the interests of all learners."
The report proposed that GCSEs and A-levels remain as they are, but there will be discussions about those names.
Pupils will still be tested periodically as well as at the end of the courses and coursework will still count towards the final result.
The review also said consideration should be given to streamlining GCSE English and English language.
It recommended a new mathematics qualification and a new IT course.
The Ulster Teachers' Union urged Mr O'Dowd to take on board feedback from teachers during his consultation.
Avril Hall Callaghan said its biggest concern was that Northern Ireland pupils "should not be disadvantaged by any changes".
"The education secretary in Westminster, Michael Gove, has also proposed swingeing changes to the system there, so we are facing a period of upheaval and it is vital that our young people should not suffer as a result," she said.
"Northern Ireland has traditionally produced some of the UK's top performing students and any changes to the system must ensure this gold standard remains."
President of the NUS-USI student movement Rebecca Hall expressed reservations about the planned removal of second re-sit opportunities.
"This could have a very negative impact upon people's ability to fulfil their potential and have access to the widest possible range of opportunities," she said.
"We do, however, recognise that the minister is ensuring a high degree of consistency in the qualifications.
"We also recognise the fact that this announcement today, in cementing the future of these qualifications, will hopefully help retain their integrity and portability."
In June, Westminster Education Secretary Michael Gove announced an overhaul of GCSEs in England, which would move from coursework to exams at the end of two years.
Mr Gove proposed that the changes should come in from 2015. | There is no case for replacing A-levels or GCSEs in Northern Ireland in the short or medium term, a report has suggested. |
16,473,598 | Eleven rugged oil beetles, which are believed to be in serious decline, were counted at the Elliott nature reserve on Swift's Hill near Stroud.
The Stroud valleys have been a stronghold for the beetle, as have reserves in Somerset and Wiltshire.
A Buglife spokesman said the beetles were usually found in low numbers, so to find 11 in one go was "impressive".
The beetle species was first recorded at the Elliott reserve in 2007 by entomologist Jon Mellings, from Dursley.
He returned to the site last November and recorded seven specimens which he reported to Buglife as part of their autumn rugged oil beetle survey.
Mr Mellings, said: "The beetles were feeding on various herbs and grass stems but were initially difficult to spot even with torchlight."
Subsequently a Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) ecologist visited the same spot a month later and recorded 11 beetles.
Kathy Meakin, from the GWT, said oil beetles were parasites of solitary mining bees and added that this particular species was "fascinating".
"It's a very good sign we are getting our habitat management right if we can find rare, specialised parasites," she said.
The rugged oil beetle - meloe rugosus - is one of four types of oil beetle believed to have suffered drastic decline in the UK, with another four oil beetle species now thought to be extinct.
Andrew Whitehouse, from the Buglife conservation charity, said the Stroud valleys were a "national stronghold" for the species.
"Somerset and Wiltshire are also 'hotspots' - we have historical records for a good number of sites," he said.
But he said they had fewer records in the past 10 years so wanted people to let us know if they see any of these brilliant beetles. | The sighting of a high number of rare beetles at a Gloucestershire nature reserve is being celebrated by experts. |
35,293,717 | There are two obvious answers to that question. One, the two sides will get back round the table in a bid to break the deadlock. In fact, the first talks are to take place at the conciliation service Acas on Thursday.
And, two, hospitals will start the process of rearranging all those cancelled operations.
Ultimately both tasks will prove tricky. The British Medical Association and government are, it is fair to say, still some way from reaching an agreement - the Acas talks are just focused on getting them back round the table rather than finding a solution to the deadlock.
And this is being done with the clock ticking before the next walkout - planned for 26 January - gets under way.
In the meantime, hospital managers are trying to find spaces on the operating lists for the 4,000 patients who have had their treatment postponed. This comes on top of the few thousand cancellations that were made ahead of the first strike on 1 December which ended up being called off at the last minute.
And all this, of course, comes in the middle of winter - the busiest time of year for hospitals. Suffice to say, it will be a logistical nightmare for hospitals in the coming weeks.
But sooner or later both these issues will be resolved. What is uncertain is the long-term impact of this dispute.
While the past weeks, if not months, have seen people poring over the details of the new junior doctor contract, if you step back it is clear that this row is about much more than payments for anti-social hours, career progression and limits on working hours.
It is a row that goes to the very heart of the challenge facing those who work in the NHS, those who use it and those in charge of running it. That is to say, how do we keep squeezing more from a system that it is plain to see is under so much pressure?
This week - Conciliation service Acas is hopeful that talks between junior doctors' leaders and government can restart
26 January - Doctors to stage second strike, this time for 48 hours, but emergency cover will again be provided
10 February - All-out strike to run from 08:00 to 17:00
The junior doctors' row explained
There are plenty of people - both in government and outside it - who think there is more the health service can give. And they may be right.
But it is also quite obvious that the tide of goodwill is running low. On the picket lines and on the wards, junior doctors have spoken almost as one, arguing the government is simply asking too much of them.
And it not just doctors who are angry. Last weekend thousands of nurses and midwives took to the streets of Manchester, Newcastle and London to object to government plans to take away their bursaries that cover the costs of studying.
They argue their degrees are different from other courses because they spend a lot of their time working in hospitals and in the community and do not have the opportunity to do the part-time work that many students do to help them with the cost of studying.
And this is likely to be just the start. Talks are already under way to reform the consultants contract, while many believe next on the hit list will be Agenda for Change, the contract which covers more than 1m staff from caterers and admin staff to nurses and midwives.
The NHS may be getting more money this Parliament - £8.4bn above inflation by 2020 - but that is dwarfed by the £22bn it has been told to make in "efficiency savings" in return.
Staff costs make up about half the budget. It almost goes without saying, they're the obvious target. | With the junior doctors' strike over, attention will naturally turn to what happens next. |
36,720,830 | Anas Abdalla had denied preparing for acts of terrorism by hiding in a lorry at Dover with another extremist.
The Birmingham man claimed he was fleeing unwarranted security services intrusion in his life.
At one point, two police officers were instructed by the CPS not to answer questions about MI5 in open court.
Abdalla was convicted by a majority of 11 to one and will be sentenced at a later date.
As he was taken down to the cells, he threw a plastic cup at a counter-terrorism officer and said: "One day we will be standing in a bigger court than this."
The prosecution, originally scheduled to be a three-week case at the Old Bailey, has taken 18 months to complete with four trials and highly unusual legal arguments over whether or not prosecutors should respond to the allegations levelled against the Security Service.
In April 2015 Abdalla, 27 and from the Acocks Green area of Birmingham, was arrested alongside two other men in the back of a lorry in Dover. The prosecution was initially expected to focus on public evidence from an undercover officer that the men had been planning to reach Syria to fight.
Named only as "Mohammed", the officer spent months infiltrating supporters of the self-styled Islamic State group in the West Midlands, including Abdalla and his friend Gabriel Rasmus. Mohammed described both men in court as committed supporters of the self-styled Islamic State, with the means to join it to fight.
Rasmus pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism while Abdalla and the third man in the lorry, Mahamuud Diini, denied the offence.
But the case became bogged down over whether or not prosecutors would respond to Abdalla's claims that he only wanted to leave the UK because MI5 had made his life a misery.
In February 2013, the Somali-born British citizen said detectives "tricked" him into a meeting at a police station with an MI5 officer called "Phil" who allegedly warned that if he did not become an informant his "life will be very difficult".
Over three months of legal clashes during the first two attempts to hold the trial, the defence and prosecution argued over what should be disclosed to the defence and jury about the purported meeting.
Eventually when two West Midlands Police counter-terrorism officers, Detective Constable Brett Bambury and Detective Sergeant Ryan Chambers, appeared in the witness box, both of them said they could "neither confirm nor deny" anything about the alleged meeting, an instruction given to them by the CPS.
That triggered further rows with Judge Christopher Moss QC complaining about the "unsatisfactory stance of the Security Services". He gave an undisclosable ruling against the prosecution - who then threatened to pull the entire case unless the Court of Appeal overturned it.
While they won that challenge against the judge, he had to halt the case days later amid more behind-the-scenes arguments.
At the third attempt to hold the trial in April, the same two police officers were instructed to give the same "neither confirm nor deny" answers.
This time, the new trial judge Richard Marks QC told jurors that they must accept the defendant's account as "accurate and reliable" in the absence of any contradictory prosecution evidence.
That jury failed to reach a verdict in the case against Abdalla - but cleared Mahamuud Diini who had said he was trying to go abroad to find his missing brother.
Ahmed Diini, also a close friend of Abdalla, had been banned from the UK in 2011 as a suspected extremist. He had disappeared in Turkey after jumping from the window of an immigration detention centre.
Anas Abdalla told the trial that part of the reason he was scared of the Security Services was that Ahmed Diini had told him that a British intelligence officer had been complicit in his earlier torture in an Egyptian prison.
As the fourth and final trial approached in August, prosecutors sought permission for "in camera" evidence from an unnamed witness who would specifically respond to Abdalla's police station allegation and his claims of ongoing harassment. The application did not state that there would be a response to the Egypt claims.
When this final trial got to the point where the detectives had been asked in the earlier trials what had happened at the police station, the proceedings went behind closed doors.
BBC News cannot report what the jury heard as the media and public were barred. But during Abdalla's later appearance in the witness box, he didn't repeat the allegation that he had been threatened at the police station.
Instead, he said he had left the meeting with MI5 with "a handshake and a smile" - although still refusing to help them.
In his ruling explaining why secret evidence would be allowed, Judge Marks said prosecutors had "significantly altered their stance" now that there was only one defendant involved.
While not specifying who the prosecution was calling as a witness, he said the new evidence was "extremely limited" and "highly relevant". He dismissed suggestions from the defence that this "late ambush" amounted to an unfair trial.
"It is eminently preferable and in the interests of justice [if the law allows] for the jury to hear the evidence so that they may be in the best possible informed position so as to be able to reach a conclusion that is fair to both the prosecution and the defence in so far as this critical aspect of the case is concerned," he said in the open ruling.
The judge said that he had been persuaded to allow the secret hearing because of the risk that whatever was said would indirectly compromise the trust that current and future informants place in the Security Services.
"There is a world of difference between, on the one hand, a would-be informant reading/hearing publicly what a defendant has said in open court and, on the other hand, reading/hearing the evidence of any state agent," said the judge.
"The knowledge that having co-operated with a state agency, a witness from that agency had given chapter and verse in open court about the dealings they had had, would in my judgment be highly likely to act as a serious disincentive to others who might otherwise be contemplating rendering assistance." | A would-be Syria fighter has been convicted of trying to smuggle himself to the war zone after a semi-secret trial with claims of MI5 harassment. |
38,880,732 | Robert Lewandowski had a shot cleared off the line and then hit the post.
But Vidal turned in Thomas Muller's cross in the 90th minute, before Robben thumped a second in stoppage time.
Bayern, who host Arsenal in a Champions League last-16 first-leg match on Tuesday, extended their league lead as RB Leipzig lost 3-0 at home to Hamburg.
Saturday's match was Bayern's first since captain Philipp Lahm made his surprise announcement that he would be retiring at the end of this season.
They remain on course to send him off with a treble of Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup - but were unconvincing for much of the afternoon.
Both Mats Hummels and Lewandowski were unable to convert early chances, before the Poland international ran on to Xabi Alonso's through pass and chipped keeper Martin Hansen, only for Marvin Matip - brother of Liverpool defender Joel - to clear off the line.
Muller was denied by Florent Hadergjonaj's goalline clearance early in the second half, and Lewandowski swerved a shot against the post before the two late goals turned one point into three.
RB Leipzig, in second, seemed to be the only team who could challenge Bayern for the title, but they fell to a fourth defeat in seven Bundesliga matches as Hamburg boosted their hopes of avoiding relegation.
Defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos headed in the opener against his former club, before Brazilian Walace added a near-identical second. Aaron Hunt wrapped up victory with his 50th Bundesliga goal.
That lifted Hamburg out of the relegation play-off place, into which dropped Werder Bremen, who were beaten 1-0 at home by Borussia Monchengladbach.
Third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund, in fourth, also lost. Javier Hernandez, the former Manchester United striker, scored twice for mid-table Bayer Leverkusen as they beat Eintracht 3-0 - with his first goal a clinical finish from seven yards, and his second a sublime volley.
The biggest upset of the day, though, was Dortmund's 2-1 defeat at Darmstadt, who had collected just one point from their previous 11 league matches. Terrence Boyd and Antonio Colak scored to give Darmstadt boss Torsten Frings victory over a club he used to play for.
Match ends, FC Ingolstadt 04 0, FC Bayern München 2.
Second Half ends, FC Ingolstadt 04 0, FC Bayern München 2.
Attempt missed. Stefan Lex (FC Ingolstadt 04) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Lukas Hinterseer.
Goal! FC Ingolstadt 04 0, FC Bayern München 2. Arjen Robben (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Douglas Costa.
Goal! FC Ingolstadt 04 0, FC Bayern München 1. Arturo Vidal (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Thomas Müller.
Substitution, FC Ingolstadt 04. Anthony Jung replaces Mathew Leckie.
Attempt missed. Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Thiago Alcántara.
Mats Hummels (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Lukas Hinterseer (FC Ingolstadt 04).
Foul by Arturo Vidal (FC Bayern München).
Lukas Hinterseer (FC Ingolstadt 04) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Javi Martínez (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Douglas Costa with a cross following a corner.
Corner, FC Bayern München. Conceded by Florent Hadergjonaj.
Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) hits the right post with a right footed shot from outside the box. Assisted by Arturo Vidal.
Corner, FC Ingolstadt 04. Conceded by Arturo Vidal.
Substitution, FC Bayern München. Rafinha replaces Philipp Lahm.
Substitution, FC Ingolstadt 04. Stefan Lex replaces Pascal Groß.
Foul by Thiago Alcántara (FC Bayern München).
Pascal Groß (FC Ingolstadt 04) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Arjen Robben with a cross following a set piece situation.
Pascal Groß (FC Ingolstadt 04) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Pascal Groß (FC Ingolstadt 04).
Foul by David Alaba (FC Bayern München).
Alfredo Morales (FC Ingolstadt 04) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, FC Ingolstadt 04. Lukas Hinterseer replaces Darío Lezcano.
Substitution, FC Bayern München. Arjen Robben replaces Joshua Kimmich.
Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card.
Romain Brégerie (FC Ingolstadt 04) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Joshua Kimmich (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Romain Brégerie (FC Ingolstadt 04).
Foul by Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München).
Romain Brégerie (FC Ingolstadt 04) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Offside, FC Bayern München. Thiago Alcántara tries a through ball, but Douglas Costa is caught offside.
Substitution, FC Bayern München. Douglas Costa replaces Xabi Alonso.
Foul by Xabi Alonso (FC Bayern München).
Markus Suttner (FC Ingolstadt 04) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München).
Marvin Matip (FC Ingolstadt 04) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Arturo Vidal (FC Bayern München) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. | Arturo Vidal and Arjen Robben scored late goals as Bayern Munich won at Ingolstadt and moved seven points clear at the top of the Bundesliga. |
36,699,036 | The warehouse is on the Wakefield 41 Industrial Estate, close to Junction 41 of the M1, West Yorkshire Police said.
Kenmore Road, Wakefield, is closed in both directions as fire crews tackle the flames.
A further 50 firefighters are also tackling a second West Yorkshire blaze at an industrial site near Halifax.
Footage of the Wakefield fire has been captured by eyewitness Graham Moore.
Around 80% of the 86,000 sq ft (8,000 Sq m) building is on fire, the fire service said.
Debris is falling around half-a-mile from the site, according to some reports on Twitter. | About 50 firefighters are dealing with a major blaze at a Morrisons supermarket depot in Yorkshire. |
39,217,710 | The child's body was found in Broadway, Sheerness, on Saturday afternoon, Kent Police said.
The remains had been found just before 12:50 GMT and the remnants of a small fire were also found at the scene, police said.
The girl who was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, is receiving support, a spokesman for Kent Police said. | A teenage girl has been arrested after the remains of a newborn baby were found in a Kent street. |
33,964,581 | The singer and TV star was "thrilled and excited" about the idea, Nick Fiveash said.
"Her manager, son Robert Willis, had been in continuous talks with a West End producer regarding early stages of planning, but obviously these are now on hold for the time being," he said.
Black is to be buried in her home city of Liverpool later this week.
Black, who emerged from the city's music scene in the 1960s before becoming the host of hit TV shows Blind Date and Surprise Surprise, died at her villa in Estepona on the Costa del Sol on 1 August.
A coroner ruled last week that the entertainer died from an accidental traumatic head injury after a fall.
Cilla Black's early years were dramatised in a three-part ITV series in 2014 starring Sheridan Smith.
Jeff Pope's drama charted how the young Priscilla White was transformed into a chart-topping singing star.
The entertainer's funeral on Thursday will take place at St Mary's Church in the suburb of Woolton.
After the funeral, her body will be laid to rest at a private ceremony in Allerton Cemetery, where her parents are buried. | Cilla Black gave her blessing to a West End musical based on her life before she died, her agent has confirmed. |
32,904,362 | Under the changes, union members will have to "opt in" if they want to pay a political levy as part of their fees, rather than having to opt out.
Labour's Harriet Harman said changes to party funding should not be "rigged in favour of the Tory Party".
The Trade Unions Bill will also feature a minimum turnout for a strike ballot.
Trade unions use their political funds to campaign on wider political issues.
Currently, once a decision has been taken by ballot to maintain a political fund, individual members have to take a deliberate decision to "opt out" if they do not want to contribute.
By proposing that trade unionists must now "opt in" the object is clear - fewer members are likely to make a conscious effort to do so, so funds would decrease.
This is precisely what happened between 1927 and 1946 when the "opt in" system was introduced after the general strike, only to be repealed by the post-war Labour government.
But what effect will this measure have on Labour Party funds today?
Changes introduced by Ed Miliband mean that those union members who want to be associated with the Labour Party - or, in the jargon, who wish to be "affiliated supporters" - must now consciously opt in.
It's estimated that affiliation fees from big unions such as UNITE and the GMB will fall substantially as a result.
So if the government now applies the same principle to political funds as a whole, this would hit Labour less hard than it would have done before the Miliband reforms.
But smaller political funds would also make less cash available to union leaders to make , at their discretion, the separate party political donations on which Labour increasingly depends.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said no further details were available as the bill was still being worked on.
A Unite spokesman said: "Political funds are already subject to approval being given in regular ballots by unions. Tory hedge fund and multimillionaire donors will face no similar restrictions, leaving boards free to write hefty cheques backing the Tory party.
"Absent from the Tory manifesto, there is zero popular mandate for this move which is just one more attack on working people. It is clear there is no place for trade unions in Cameron's 'one nation'."
Paul Kenny, of the GMB, added: "This will not deter or silence the voices of millions of working people who have already given their approval for political funds through democratic ballots governed by statute."
Responding for Labour to the Queen's speech, Ms Harman said: "If there are to be any changes to party funding, it must be on a fair, cross-party basis, not just rigged in favour of the Tory party."
The speech promised reforms of trade unions, to "protect essential public services against strikes".
These also include pre-announced measures including a 50% voting threshold for union strike ballot turnouts, and a requirement that 40% of those entitled to vote must back action in essential public services - health, education, fire and transport.
Time limits will also be introduced on a mandate following a ballot for industrial action.
Ministers say this will ensure strikes are the result of "clear, positive and recent decisions" by union members as well as ensuring that disruption to essential public services has a democratic mandate. | Unions have accused the Conservatives of a "shamelessly partisan attack" on Labour Party funding with reforms proposed in the Queen's Speech. |
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