id
int64 10.1M
41.1M
| dialogue
stringlengths 15
174k
⌀ | summary
stringlengths 1
399
|
|---|---|---|
36,391,896 | Those athletes are from five different sports and six different countries.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) retested 454 selected doping samples from the 2008 Games in Beijing and a further 265 from London 2012.
It said the retests, conducted using the latest scientific methods, were focused on athletes who could take part at this year's Rio Olympics.
"These re-analyses show, once again, our determination in the fight against doping," said IOC president Thomas Bach.
"We want to keep the dopers away from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro."
The re-analysis programme remains ongoing.
UK Anti-Doping's director of operations Pat Myhill said: "The ability to retest samples, as a result of new intelligence or the development of new testing techniques, is a vital tool in the fight against doping in sport.
"It sends a clear message to those who dope - if you chose to make that choice, and think that you've got away with it, think again. We can, and will, catch you."
Last week, the IOC announced 31 athletes from the 2008 Games had tested positive following re-examination of their samples.
Russia confirmed 14 of those positive retests from Beijing concerned their athletes and included some medallists.
High jumper Anna Chicherova, who won bronze in 2008, vowed to clear her name after learning she was one of them.
"It's the most complete shock," she said. "I can't explain how it could have happened. I was always sure what supplements and medicines I was using." | Olympic chiefs have announced 23 competitors at the London 2012 Games have failed retrospective doping tests. |
34,687,529 | Three men entered a house in Parkgate Drive at about 01:20 GMT on Saturday, ordering the occupant into the living room and demanding money.
They ransacked the property and took two mobile phones and a tablet computer.
The occupant was not injured but he was left badly shaken. | Masked men armed with a gun have stolen a black Volkswagen Passat car during a burglary at a house in east Belfast. |
35,024,812 | Works, which began in February, are due to finish next week but users have complained there are no controlled crossing points.
The £5.7m scheme included the removal of signals to improve traffic flows.
The council said it would make the contrast of tactile paving more pronounced and add signs encouraging motorists to give way to pedestrians.
Joel Young, who is registered blind, said: "I wouldn't want to take that risk of trying to cross on my own without the support of someone else because there are no controlled crossing points.
"Taking away the traffic lights and pedestrian-controlled crossing points has taken away my ability to cross independently."
David Deriaz, vice chairman of Oxfordshire Transport and Access Group, said: "You need to watch out for cyclists, which I can do, and I am also concerned that crossing the narrow dual carriageways - there isn't enough space for pedestrians to wait in the central reservation."
The county council said it had met Mr Young and Mr Deriaz to discuss their concerns.
A spokeswoman said: "Any new design needs to be road-tested by users. In particular, innovative designs such as that at Frideswide are likely to require tweaks.
"Following our meeting, we will be improving the contrast of the tactile paving by introducing a band around its perimeter in a contrasting colour to further highlight their presence.
"The design of the square takes into account the needs of a range of people, including those with disabilities.
"There are contrasting and ridged paving stones leading to the crossing points where the tactile paving is.
"Clutter, such as seating and bins, is kept to a minimum and situated away from areas that could pose a problem for people with disabilities." | Changes are being made to Oxford's Frideswide Square amid concerns it could be dangerous for blind people. |
21,828,245 | The swine flu strain has learned how to dodge the antiviral drug Tamiflu and is emerging outside of hospitals.
The team who have studied it say the virus is "fitter" than other drug-resistant strains and the world should be on alert for outbreaks.
UK experts say they have seen a handful of similar cases.
The UK's Health Protection Agency said it would be closely monitoring the situation.
The Australian investigators presented their findings at a meeting on major infectious diseases.
Why can’t we beat viruses?
Experts at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases heard how the 'H1N1pdm09' swine flu virus is still sensitive to another antiviral drug Relenza (zanamivir).
But Tamiflu (oseltamivir) is now powerless against the strain that has been found in people in the community rather than sick patients with serious underlying conditions and weak immune systems.
Vaccines can prevent infection occurring in the first place.
Lead investigator Dr Aeron Hurt, from the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne, said: "The greatest concern is that these resistant viruses could spread globally, similar to that seen in 2008 when the former seasonal H1N1 virus developed oseltamivir resistance and spread worldwide in less than 12 months."
The new strain that they have been examining is emerging among people who have never been treated with Tamiflu, suggesting it is very good at spreading from person to person.
Dr Hurt says animal studies by his team confirm this.
Although the Tamiflu-resistant strain is still relatively rare, affecting about 2% of people with swine flu in the Australian population that they studied, Dr Hurt is concerned that it has the potential to turn global.
Similar resistant strains have been detected in Europe but at this stage only on an ad hoc basis, says Dr Hurt.
"The widespread transmission and circulation of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1pdm09 viruses remains a risk in the future.
"Close monitoring of resistant viruses in both treated and community patients remains important."
In the UK, the HPA has recorded eight cases of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1pdm09 in the community setting.
The HPA's head of flu surveillance Dr Richard Pebody said: "While the frequency of oseltamivir resistance in community settings has increased slightly since the 2009-10 pandemic from 1-2% in the 2012/13 flu season, rates of detection remain low."
Swine flu (H1N1) infected a fifth of people during the first year of the pandemic in 2009, data suggest.
It is thought the virus killed 200,000 people globally.
Although the pandemic has been declared by officials as over, the virus is still circulating.
During the pandemic, the H1N1 virus crowded out other influenza viruses to become the dominant virus. This is no longer the case. Many countries are reporting a mix of influenza viruses. | Australian experts are concerned about the threat of a new type of drug-resistant pandemic flu that is circulating in the population at large. |
40,624,266 | The 20-year-old Barcelona native impressed while on trial at the Welsh Premier League club.
"Anderson is an exciting prospect and another good signing for the club," Bangor manager Kevin Nicholson said.
The former CE Artesa De Segre player is the third Bangor recruit within the last week, along with ex-Wrexham striker George Harry, 20, and York City defender Danny Holmes, 28. | Bangor City have signed Spanish forward Anderson Cayola. |
33,093,164 | Gayle's final game will now be Friday's game against Surrey in Taunton.
The 35-year-old has scored 328 runs in three T20 Blast matches for Somerset, including 151 not out against Kent.
"Although slightly disappointed, his contribution to Somerset CCC during his stay has been immense," said Somerset director of cricket Matt Maynard. | Somerset's West Indies star Chris Gayle is to miss the T20 Blast match against Glamorgan on Saturday and return home early because of an "immense workload". |
38,739,301 | Renard guided his team to the last eight with a 1-0 win over Ivory Coast, who he led to the 2015 title.
He said: "I was very lucky to work with Ivory Coast and we share the same spirit. But now I have to continue and try to take Morocco far.
"We are not favourites to win the tournament, there are better teams than us. But we are still in it."
The Frenchman can achieve an unprecedented third title with a third different nation, having also lifted the trophy with Zambia in 2012.
But he was cautious after Tuesday's win over the Ivorians and suggested the shocking pitch at Oyem was a contributing factor to their success.
"I feel very good and give congratulations to the players. They did very well tactically, they didn't do very well technically - but the pitch is very difficult.
"Today we beat the Ivory Coast on a bad pitch that proved to be a leveller.
"But at the end when you win the game 1-0 against the African champions you are very happy. "
He also revealed that he gave his team a harsh reality check at the interval, even though they appeared comfortable in holding the Ivorians to 0-0 - a scoreline that would have put the Atlas Lions through.
"I told my team during half-time that if we continued to play as we were then we would go out, it was not good enough in the first half," he said.
"We were scared of facing the Ivory Coast and when you are scared of your opponents you cannot achieve anything."
Morocco remained defensively resolute after the break but also carried more of a threat going forward and in the 64th minute, substitute Rachid Alioui struck a spectacular winner from long range.
Assistant coach Mustapha Hadji revealed the Morocco bench "had a feeling" Alioui could have a decisive influence.
"It was a great goal," he said. "Football can be magic, sometimes you have a feeling and you don't know why, but it worked for us and it was great."
Morocco will find out who they will face in the quarter-finals when Group D reaches its conclusion on Wednesday.
Whether they come up against Ghana, Egypt or Mali, Renard wants his players to be prepared.
"Now a new competition begins with the knockout matches, and we will need a winning mentality," he said. | Morocco coach Herve Renard says there are better teams than his in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals. |
38,094,869 | The UN's 16 days of activism start on Friday and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) wants its 10 million members to take part, campaigning in their own schools and colleges.
Many girls "face violence and harassment on a daily basis", according to Nicola Grinstead, chairwoman of the association.
"The severity of the issue is significant.
For girls at school, "the fear of violence will stop many of them from reaching their full potential", said Ms Grinstead.
The WAGGGS, #16Ways in #16Days campaign includes:
The UN campaign will last from November 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women until December 10 UN Human Rights Day.
According to the UN, women across the world are subject to physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence, regardless of their income, age or education.
UN figures show:
Ahead of the campaign, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: "Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation, public health pandemic and serious obstacle to sustainable development. It imposes large-scale costs on families, communities and economies. The world cannot afford to pay this price."
A poll of more than 2,000 young people in 60 countries for WAGGGS suggests that more than half of girls are deterred them from studying or taking part in hobbies by the threat of sexual harassment.
And too often the perpetrators are fellow students or teachers, the figures suggest.
In the UK, MPs have called for action to tackle sexual harassment and violence in England's schools.
It followed a 2015 Radio 5 live Freedom of Information investigation which showed more than 5,500 alleged sex crimes in UK schools had been reported to police in the past three years
And Girlguiding UK has launched a petition calling for "urgent action to end this widespread and often hidden scandal" in England, Scotland and Wales.
The petition, from Girlguiding's advocate panel of women aged 14-25, warned of daily sexual harassment of girls at school. | Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 146 countries will enlist boys as part of a United Nations campaign against gender violence. |
38,171,982 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has long been aware of that truism, and after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix he heads into the off-season this winter with another problem on his hands - what does he do about Hamilton's actions at Yas Marina?
In attempting to win the championship by driving slowly to bring rivals into the private battle between himself and team-mate Nico Rosberg, Hamilton repeatedly disobeyed team orders not to slow down too much.
From Mercedes' point of view, it all ended well - Hamilton won the race, Rosberg finished second to clinch the title, having navigated his way through what he described as an "intense" 90 minutes or so.
But it leaves the team with a conundrum - what to do about Hamilton's disobedience, and how does it affect them going into next season?
There is one central issue that Wolff has not addressed in public - he and Mercedes need Hamilton.
For one thing, he is F1's biggest star and he gives the Mercedes brand an appeal to an audience demographic it otherwise struggles to reach.
For another, he is the fastest driver in the world and F1 is heading into a season with a major regulation change and no guarantee that Mercedes will continue to have such an advantage over their rivals.
One can argue that if you give the best team of the past three years, with demonstrably the best engine, new aerodynamic rules that increase drag and therefore make power even more important, they are likely to continue on top.
On the other hand, history suggests that when rules change, the man who gets it right more often than not is Adrian Newey - the design chief of Red Bull. And after three years, with a major engine redesign coming from the French company, their partner Renault could catch up Mercedes.
Hamilton is an emotionally driven character, who has been on a personal roller coaster this year because of his reliability problems, and who has admitted he reached "rock bottom" after his crash with Rosberg at the Spanish Grand Prix, when he was 43 points off the championship lead.
With the threat of a resurgent Red Bull, and their ultra-strong driver line-up of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, Wolff needs his team in the best possible shape in 2017.
And that means finding a way to handle this while keeping Hamilton happy.
On the eve of the race, Wolff pledged "not to interfere" in the battle between Hamilton and Rosberg "as long as they are not overstepping the mark in terms of what we see as sportsmanlike driving".
What he meant - although he did not say it at the time - was that he did not want to see Hamilton backing Rosberg up to the extent that it could affect Mercedes' ability to win the race.
Many observers, including senior insiders from other teams, feel Hamilton never actually stepped over that line, in that he was always in the lead and always in control and the victory was never in doubt - a point Hamilton himself made over the radio to the team.
But the team insist that was not the case. They say there were two moments when the win was at risk - when Red Bull's Verstappen was running second to Hamilton and ahead of Rosberg and it became clear the Dutchman was on a one-stop strategy; and later in the race when Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was closing in rapidly on fresh super-soft tyres.
Rivals feel Mercedes' claims that the win was under threat were disingenuous - Hamilton had so much pace in hand he could simply have sped up.
However, Mercedes say their strategy software said otherwise, hence their interventions to Hamilton - which went as far as executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe coming on the radio with an "instruction" to "pick up the pace to win this race". Lowe's intervention is the "highest escalation" of team orders, Mercedes say.
Hamilton's response? "I'm in the lead right now. I'm quite comfortable where I am."
From the perspective of a racing driver, Hamilton did nothing wrong. He had two options going into the race - disappear into the distance to make a point about him being the fastest driver whose season had been affected by bad luck; or try to get rivals in between him and Rosberg.
He chose the second and in doing so he broke no rules. It could be argued - indeed it was argued by Mercedes insiders - that taking the first choice would have been to claim the moral high ground. But what does Hamilton care about that when a world title is at stake? His view was: it's not cheating, so it's not a problem.
Even those inside Mercedes would admit that Hamilton was relatively gentle with Rosberg. He drove slowly all race, but could have done so much more aggressively and much earlier on.
Even during the closing laps, when he began to turn the screw, he only just managed to get Vettel on to Rosberg's tail on the final lap - although the suspicion is that Vettel had already made a decision not to get involved, which raises its own questions of morality.
Ask any racing driver and he would tell you there were many other options Hamilton could have chosen that would have had a much more dramatic effect.
It's almost as if he was fighting his own moral battle in his head while he was out there - do something, just don't do too much.
If so, it would be in keeping with his racing character. Hamilton is a hard racer but through his career he has generally been scrupulously fair. Not for him the darker arts of someone like Michael Schumacher, or even Ayrton Senna.
Mercedes view his actions through the prism of what they call their "team values and ethics".
"Undermining a structure in public means you are putting yourself before the team. And anarchy doesn't work in any team or company," Wolff said.
However, he added: "It was his only chance of winning the championship at that stage and maybe you cannot demand a racing driver who is one of the best - if not the best out there - to comply in a situation where his instincts cannot make him comply.
"It is about finding a solution how to solve that in the future because a precedent has been set."
Others would contend that there was no place for team orders in this context. Mercedes were already assured of the drivers' and constructors' titles, it was just a question of which driver was champion. Not even a crash that took both out of the race would have affected any of that.
But the team say you cannot pick and choose when to apply those values - it's no different at the last race than the first. After all, every race counts for the championship.
The issue is what to do now? Wolff is taking his time to think the matter over and as he does so, a number of factors will come into play.
The first is that Mercedes are facing here a situation with which no team has been confronted since McLaren with Senna and Alain Prost in 1989.
Ron Dennis' inability to handle that dynamic led to an implosion - Prost signed for arch-rivals Ferrari and the title was decided in a collision between the two drivers in Japan.
A not dissimilar situation arose when Dennis failed to handle the tensions created when Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were team-mates in 2007.
Wolff is keen to avoid falling into that trap. But, realistically, what can he do?
After Rosberg and Hamilton collided in Austria for the second time in five races, he threatened both with suspension if it happened again. However, that's not what happened in Abu Dhabi.
So a suspension can surely be ruled out - despite Wolff's post-race remark that "everything is possible".
In time, Wolff will probably sit down with Hamilton and discuss it. But what then?
Wolff said: "Throughout these last three years we have really tried to create an environment and a set of values in the team and one of the reasons is the individuals in this team are very much part of it.
"They bought into these values. You cannot invent a rule for every single situation. This is motor racing and it would make it the most boring sport ever if we would have a corporate solution for every single situation.
"The tricky bit here is what does that mean for the future of the team and how can we progress and not be over-corporate and boring but allow them to race?
"It wasn't acknowledged that we have let them race over the last three years.
"We could have had a much smoother run and decided that 'you are going to win or you are' and this is how it happened in Red Bull and in Ferrari many years ago and how it happened many years in other teams.
"We are not here in the credit-taking business because it needs headlines - but I think we have coped quite well with this situation the last three years." | There is no such thing as an easy ride when it comes to dealing with Lewis Hamilton. |
36,794,430 | John O'Neill, 45, from York, was cleared of rape at a retrial last year but was made the subject of an interim sexual risk order (SRO).
An order prohibiting his identity from being made public has been lifted at York Magistrates Court.
North Yorkshire Police has applied for the SRO to be made permanent after Mr O'Neill allegedly breached it.
The single father-of-two has said he had an interest in sado-masochism and used to visit a fetish club.
He said the order violated his human rights and meant he could not have an intimate relationship.
"It's absolutely devastating. I don't have a life," he said.
SROs were introduced in England and Wales last year and can be applied to any individual who the police believe poses a risk of sexual harm - even if they have never been convicted of a crime.
The order requires Mr O'Neill to disclose any planned sexual activity to the police or face up to five years in prison.
Mr O'Neill is accused of breaching one of the conditions of the order by not giving police the Pin number to his mobile phone.
He has threatened to go on hunger strike in protest of the SRO.
A judge is to decide on the police's application at a hearing at the same court next month. | A man who must notify police 24 hours before he has sex can be named, a district judge has ruled. |
29,876,259 | Posting on Facebook, police said they had the "sad task of removing a number of underaged children from licensed premises in Waringstown" on 28 October.
"Sad because some of these teenagers (as young as 15) were quite clearly drunk."
Police have said they are investigating the matter.
The post added: "We do not want to spoil anyone's fun but the fact is that it is illegal to consume alcohol when you are under the age of 18 and it is illegal for licensed premises to serve alcohol when you are under 18.
"While at the premises we were able to see adults dropping teenagers off.
"We were then tied up and unable to respond to other calls as we waited with the children for parents to pick them up.
"The licensee of the premises was asked to close proceedings immediately."
Police said this "may seem like a harmless event for teenagers but when alcohol is involved, everyone becomes a little more vulnerable and events can take place that spiral out of control quickly".
"In this instance a number of those attending used fake identification to gain entry - this is an offence and criminal convictions can have long lasting consequences on work, travel and education opportunities," the post added. | Police in a County Down village have said they were unable to respond to other calls because they were monitoring drunken teenagers. |
37,737,740 | The game appeared to be heading for a draw until Hull captain Michael Dawson deflected in Daryl Janmaat's cross on 82 minutes.
Watford dominated the game with Younes Kaboul and Roberto Pereyra hitting the woodwork in the first-half, but they failed to muster a shot on target in the match.
Hull stay in 18th and are without a league win since 20 August, while Watford move up to seventh.
Watford are now above Manchester United and champions Leicester in the Premier League table after 10 games.
Hull meanwhile, are on their worst run in the top flight since January 2009, when they last lost six in a row.
Hull manager Mike Phelan said his players were "depressed" after the game, which he described as a "cruel defeat".
The Tigers had defended resolutely for 82 minutes until Dawson's own-goal and the devastation was plainly written on the former Tottenham defender's face at full-time.
In their past five games, Phelan's side have conceded 19 goals so a clean sheet and a draw would have been the perfect tonic.
For all Watford's dominance and their 22 shots, they failed to muster a single effort on target and Hull's defence worked hard with seven shots being blocked.
After being anonymous in attack in the first-half, Hull pressed forward after the break with Abel Hernández having their best effort, but his shot was straight at Heurelho Gomes.
Hull missed their injured attackers Adama Diomande, Dieumerci Mbokani and Robert Snodgrass, and with only three goals in their last six league games are clearly lacking an edge to their forward play.
Dawson's own goal was unfortunate - as Phelan said afterwards: "It could have gone anywhere."
Watford are the first team to win a Premier League game without directing a single shot on target since Sunderland beat West Brom in January 2006.
Not that Walter Mazzarri will care after his side moved up to seventh in the table.
His side have certainly impressed this season with wins over Manchester United and West Ham and they have only lost once in their last seven league games.
Speaking after the game Mazzarri said he was "happy" and felt his side's performances this season deserved two or three points more.
They looked comfortable against Hull and were unfortunate not to have scored through Kaboul and Pereyra, while captain Troy Deeney had a hatful of chances to score his 100th goal for the club and Odion Ighalo went close late on.
Hull boss Mike Phelan: "It's very hard to take. I've got a depressed dressing room after the efforts and the work they put into the game. It's cruel. If it is a worldy then you can hold hands up.
"We were competitive enough in the game, we created probably the best chances in the game, but were are on the end of another defeat. We have to react to that and I am sure we will do next week.
"When I think about it we could have done better at defending. It is a cruel one, it flashed across the box and hit someone on the leg and has gone in. It could have gone anywhere.
"To win a football match, you have to score goals and try and get that from forward play and forwards. Everyone has to weigh-in with goals and at the moment it is not happening. We have to keep positive, on the front foot and I'm sure it will change."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Watford manager Walter Mazzarri: "We played well in the first half an hour. We deserved to lead. We had patience on the counter-attack and finally scored, the victory is deserved.
"They defended well, we knew they would defend. We were unlucky, we should have scored at the beginning.
"I am very happy with how the team is playing now, giving me satisfaction. With how they are playing on the pitch, we deserve two or three points more at this stage."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Match ends, Watford 1, Hull City 0.
Second Half ends, Watford 1, Hull City 0.
Attempt missed. Curtis Davies (Hull City) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Ryan Mason with a cross.
Corner, Hull City. Conceded by José Holebas.
Foul by Troy Deeney (Watford).
Jarrod Bowen (Hull City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, Hull City. Jarrod Bowen replaces Markus Henriksen.
Foul by Etienne Capoue (Watford).
Jake Livermore (Hull City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Watford. Christian Kabasele replaces Sebastian Prödl because of an injury.
Attempt missed. Odion Ighalo (Watford) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Juan Zuñiga.
Substitution, Watford. Juan Zuñiga replaces Nordin Amrabat.
Own Goal by Michael Dawson, Hull City. Watford 1, Hull City 0.
Valon Behrami (Watford) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jake Livermore (Hull City).
Attempt blocked. Daryl Janmaat (Watford) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Substitution, Hull City. David Meyler replaces Will Keane.
Foul by Nordin Amrabat (Watford).
Sam Clucas (Hull City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Valon Behrami (Watford) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Abel Hernández (Hull City).
Attempt blocked. Nordin Amrabat (Watford) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt blocked. Daryl Janmaat (Watford) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.
Corner, Watford. Conceded by Michael Dawson.
Substitution, Watford. Daryl Janmaat replaces Younes Kaboul.
Attempt missed. Younes Kaboul (Watford) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Valon Behrami.
Attempt missed. Odion Ighalo (Watford) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Nordin Amrabat with a cross.
Etienne Capoue (Watford) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Will Keane (Hull City).
Foul by Valon Behrami (Watford).
Ryan Mason (Hull City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Ahmed Elmohamady (Hull City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Abel Hernández.
Foul by José Holebas (Watford).
Markus Henriksen (Hull City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Etienne Capoue (Watford) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Jake Livermore (Hull City).
Offside, Hull City. Ahmed Elmohamady tries a through ball, but Abel Hernández is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Etienne Capoue (Watford) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by José Holebas following a corner.
Corner, Watford. Conceded by Curtis Davies.
Sam Clucas (Hull City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. | Hull City suffered their sixth straight Premier League defeat as they conceded a late own-goal against Watford at Vicarage Road. |
39,686,065 | Graham was on course for the Games standard of 2:37 at 30km but finished in 2:42.38 - 44 seconds outside her PB.
Rio Olympian Seaward reached halfway in 67.07 but came home in 2:17.08, with the Gold Coast standard 2:16.30.
Scullion took almost three minutes off his previous best as he clocked 2:17.59 in the British capital.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Seaward's time was only eight seconds outside Athletics Ireland's world championship standard but the Loughborough-based schoolteacher has already indicated that he doesn't plan to compete in London.
However, the Commonwealth Games are on Seaward's radar so he is likely to have another crack at the Gold Coast standard in the autumn.
Seaward booked his place at the Rio Olympics when he clocked a personal best of 2:14.52 at the Berlin Marathon in September 2015 and he may try his luck in the German capital again in five months time.
Sean Hehir almost certainly booked himself a place at the World Championships with a 2:16.18 time on Sunday.
Holywood man Paul Pollock has already qualified for the worlds after clocking 2:15.30 in Japan in February.
After heading his fellow Rio Olympian Seaward as he reached halfway in 66:41, Raheny's Mick Clohisey struggled over the second half with his finishing time 2:18.34.
Up ahead, Mary Keitany of Kenya broke Paula Radcliffe's women's-only world record as she crossed the line in 2:17.01.
That was 41 seconds quicker than four-time British Olympian Radcliffe ran in winning the event in 2005.
In 2003 when Paula Radcliffe set her world-record time of 2:15:25, she ran with two male pacemakers.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Kenyan Daniel Wanjiru, 24, won the men's race in 2:05:56, with Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia second.
Bekele - the 5,000m and 10,000m world record holder - looked to be mounting a challenge in the final stages, but Wanjiru found enough pace to finish strongly and eventually win by nine seconds.
Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia was the runner-up in the women's race, clocking a time of 2:17:56.
Meanwhile, a brilliant run by in-form Emma Mitchell helped Queen's beat defending champions Leevale to win the women's title at the Irish Road Relays Championships at Raheny.
After Sinead Sweeney's opening leg, Mitchell clocked a brilliant 10 minutes and 18 seconds for her two-mile leg which set up Rebecca Henderson to clinch QUB's victory as they clocked a cumulative 20 minutes and 58 seconds, which left them six second ahead of the Cork club.
All three Queen's athletes are coached by Eamonn Christie.
In the men's race, the Dooney brothers Kevin and Conor helped hosts Raheny clinch a thrilling one-second victory over Donore Harriers. | Northern Ireland trio Laura Graham, Kevin Seaward and Stephen Scullion were all outside the Commonwealth Games standards at Sunday's London Marathon. |
34,050,214 | Michael Jones, the Conservative leader of Cheshire East Council, said he would back plans to drill for shale gas if the process is found to be "safe".
Labour Councillor Sam Corcoran accused Mr Jones of making a U-turn, going back on "assurances" he gave last year.
The government last week awarded licenses for oil and gas exploration in Cheshire as part of a national policy.
The process of fracking - where water, chemicals and sand are blasted at shale rocks to release the gas trapped within - has proved deeply controversial in recent months.
Opponents have voiced concerns about earth tremors, water contamination and disruption to rural communities.
The industry, meanwhile, insists many of these fears are overblown, and that fracking can be carried out safely under the right regulations.
Leaving the safety issue aside, Mr Jones stressed he did not believe fracking would be "viable" in Cheshire East.
He told BBC Radio Manchester: "Most of our county is geothermal which is up to 5km deep and I believe if you go below 5km to find shale deposits they will evaporate.
"We don't think it is viable here. Our experts don't think it is viable.
"If they can get the evidence to say it is safe, if they can show people it is a good, viable entity, then I'm sure we'll pass it."
"We are in difficult times. National security, having our own energy is key. Geothermal in Cheshire East yes. If fracking works elsewhere and it is safe, I'm for it. But let it be safe."
Mr Corcoran said: "The problem is with the bombastic style of the statement made last year. It was a promise that was never in the power of Councillor Michael Jones to keep.
"So the current U-turn comes as no surprise to me."
Cheshire East will remain "fracking free", said the council in January last year. Leader Michael Jones told residents he was committed to exploiting much less controversial reserves of geothermal energy instead.
That caused problems though as councils are legally obliged to consider any planning application on its merits.
Today's dispute comes down to a battle of research - with Mr Jones claiming his research shows fracking just won't be viable in many parts of his borough.
But there does appear to have been one major concession made - Mr Jones said if fracking can be proven to be safe "then I'm sure we'll pass it".
Mr Corcoran agreed that the onus should be on those who want to frack to prove that it is safe.
He claimed government pressure meant instead that "local authorities have to prove it is dangerous before they reject planning applications".
In June, Lancashire County Council refused permission for Cuadrilla to frack at two sites. The company is appealing against the decision.
Ministers recently announced plans to fast-track fracking applications, saying they could take over the power to decide if councils repeatedly take longer than the 16-week statutory timeframe to evaluate plans. | Fracking could happen in parts of Cheshire after all, a council leader who previously ruled it out has said. |
39,665,542 | RNLI Loch Ness was alerted to the incident near Invermoriston just before 18:30 on Thursday.
Police, ambulance and fire service personnel were also called to the scene.
The casualty, who was seriously injured, was lifted from the gorge on a stretcher and airlifted to hospital.
The biker's condition in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness was not known. | Lifeboat and coastguard volunteers have been involved in the rescue of a biker who crashed and landed in a gorge near Loch Ness. |
40,485,634 | Lincolnshire Police said it was called at about 11:00 BST after an "industrial accident involving an HGV and an employee" at Stainby Quarry on Crabtree Road in Buckminster, near Grantham.
The 57-year-old man, who has not yet been named, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Health and Safety Executive have been informed and have started an investigation, the force said. | A worker has died following an incident at a quarry in Lincolnshire. |
37,852,471 | More than 20m tablets of the banned drug Mandrax, with an estimated street value of $450m (£365m), were seized in the western city of Udaipur in October.
Subhas Dudhani, a Bollywood producer, was arrested in Mumbai in connection with the find, an official told reporters.
It is believed the drugs were bound for South Africa and Mozambique.
Najib Shah, head of the central board of excise and customs, revealed the arrest on Wednesday in New Delhi.
"The total consignment was about 23.5 metric tons with an international value of 3,000 crore (rupees) [1 crore equals 10 million]," Mr Shah said.
The pills - discovered hidden in a secret room - are the largest synthetic drugs haul Indian officials have ever intercepted, according to Mr Shah.
But they are still trying to track down other people involved in the operation.
A customs officer told AFP on condition of anonymity: "We are on the lookout for several people involved in the drug syndicate."
The recreational drug, commonly known as M-Pills, buttons or smarties, is popular on the rave scene in parts of Africa and Asia.
But overdosing on Methaqualone, the chemical name of Mandrax, can be fatal or leave the user in a coma. | Officials say they have discovered one of India's largest-ever drug hauls concealed in a fizzy drinks factory. |
38,692,970 | Ms Bailey, 51, was found dead in a cesspit under the garage of her home in Royston, Hertfordshire, in July. She had been missing for three months.
Her partner Ian Stewart, 56, denies murder.
Det Con Hollie Daines, who interviewed him at the Royston home, said: "It was odd when he appeared to turn his head to the side and look at us and grin."
LIVE: Updates on this and other stories from Hertfordshire
She said he had refused to be interviewed at the first attempt on 21 April, claiming to be "feeling unwell" and he "couldn't be bothered".
"He seemed quite blasé and non-committal," Ms Daines told St Albans Crown Court.
When he was interviewed the following day, she said he was "really anxious", "restless" and was "pacing around" while the property was searched.
Earlier Sgt Stephen Oliphant told the court how he had prodded the surface of the cesspit with a garden hoe and the body floated to the top.
"I realised I was hitting a different object that felt slightly softer.
"Solid matter was moved away and the body came to the surface," he said.
The body of Ms Bailey and her dog Boris were recovered three months after Mr Stewart had reported her missing.
It is alleged she was killed on 11 April.
Sgt Nicole Goodyear told the court Mr Stewart followed police "everywhere" during a search on 15 April.
She said: "He was very interested in what we were doing, he wanted to know what we were doing and why."
Mr Stewart also denies preventing a lawful burial, fraud and three counts of perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues. | The man accused of murdering children's author Helen Bailey "grinned" when questioned by police, a court heard. |
37,992,573 | With one state left to count, Mrs Clinton has nearly a million more votes than him but lost last week's election due to the electoral college system.
Mr Trump said on Sunday the system was unfair and he preferred a simple vote.
But on Tuesday he insisted he would have still won a straight vote because he would have focused more on the big states won by Mrs Clinton.
"I would have campaigned in N.Y. Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily" the president-elect said on Twitter. He lost New York and California.
Meanwhile, retiring Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer from California has filed legislation to abolish the electoral college, saying the system was "outdated, undemocratic".
It is unlikely that the bill will be passed at it would involve a constitutional amendment, which would require passage by two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate, and then in three-quarters of states.
Was Trump's election democratic?
Full results on one page
Can Donald Trump get what he wants?
In an interview on Sunday with the 60 Minutes programme Mr Trump complained about the electoral college system, in which each state is worth a different number of votes, saying that he preferred the popular vote method.
He said that he has "respect" for the electoral college system "but I would rather see it where you went with simple votes".
"You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win," he told interviewer Lesley Stahl.
It's not the first time Mr Trump has lashed out at the voting system.
On election night 2012, he incorrectly tweeted that Mitt Romney had won the popular vote but lost to Barack Obama: "He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!"
In a subsequent post from that night he added "the electoral college is a disaster for a democracy" and "the phoney electoral college made a laughing stock out of our nation".
Bernie Sanders, the populist candidate who ran against Mrs Clinton in the Democratic primary, has also questioned the electoral college system.
When asked by USA Today if the electoral college should be changed, he responded "I think you ought to think about this... I think we want to rethink that."
Mr Trump has set up a transition team to help assemble his cabinet.
He is meeting top aides, and his vice president Mike Pence on Tuesday at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan.
According to media reports, he is considering former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or former UN Ambassador John Bolton for the role of Secretary of State, the top US diplomat.
The BBC's Gary O'Donoghue in Washington said the Pentagon has still not been contacted by the Trump transition team to discuss the handover of operations. | Donald Trump says he could have won the popular vote against Hillary Clinton if he had campaigned differently. |
37,067,858 | The home side went in front inside 10 minutes as Gareth McAuley headed in a Craig Gardner corner at the far post.
Everton carried more threat once Romelu Lukaku came on as a first-half substitute, and Kevin Mirallas rolled in an equaliser just before the break.
Barry then forced the ball in after Mason Holgate's touch from a corner.
Koeman said after the match that Lukaku would be staying at Everton - good news for Everton fans concerned that the striker may return to former club Chelsea.
The Belgium international, bought by Everton for a club-record £28m from Chelsea in 2014, was his team's top scorer last season, and his power up front played a significant part in turning the game around.
Koeman's team were flailing in attack for much of the first half, with the 5ft 9in stature of Gerard Deulofeu proving little match for Albion's 6ft 5in centre-half Jonas Olsson.
Lukaku, still straining for fitness after a recent heel problem, was thrown on to give Olsson a rougher time, with Deulofeu switched to the right flank. It worked, even though the Belgian did not score himself.
Everton, who dominated possession throughout, began to create more openings - and made them count. Lukaku passed up a great late chance to make sure of victory, as he was denied by a fine Ben Foster save, but his job was done.
Before kick-off Koeman was asked in a television interview if he had made special plans to counter West Brom's threat from set-pieces. He said that he had not.
When McAuley headed in Gardner's corner early on, it looked as if Everton would pay for that approach.
It certainly raised hopes for Guochuan Lai, the Chinese businessman who led a takeover at Albion earlier this month, and who was watching his new club in person for the first time.
Albion were managing to make life uncomfortable for Everton's three-man central defence, despite having only around a third of the possession.
Yet if the loss of a goal seconds before half-time knocked the home side off their stride, it was the manner of Everton's second that was something of a surprise.
Head coach Tony Pulis prides himself on having well-drilled teams, yet they were caught out defensively from a corner, with Barry getting free of his markers to turn in a loose ball that should have been dealt with.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Pulis expressed concerns before the match about the strength of Everton's bench - which included Lukaku, Yannick Bolasie and Ashley Williams.
"It's a top-six bench," said the West Brom coach, who has struggled to strengthen his own squad during the summer, bringing in only winger Matt Phillips from QPR for £5.5m.
The fact that Koeman had options in reserve undoubtedly helped. Winger Bolasie, signed from Crystal Palace during the week, was excellent after coming on, racing past Jonny Evans down the right to deliver a cross that Ross Barkley somehow headed wide with under 20 minutes to go.
Yet Everton's willingness to mix up their approach - not always the case when they played a possession-based game under Roberto Martinez last season - was also a factor in changing the game.
Their equaliser was straight out of the Martinez playbook, with Barry and Barkley exchanging quick passes to feed Mirallas, whose shot had just enough on it to beat Ben Foster.
Yet they were prepared to go direct to Lukaku when needed, and carried a threat at set-pieces, with Foster reacting well to save Ramiro Funes Mori's header from a free-kick seconds before Barry's winner.
Media playback is not supported on this device
The EFL Cup is next up for both teams on Tuesday: Everton host League Two side Yeovil, while West Brom go to Northampton, of League One.
Match ends, West Bromwich Albion 1, Everton 2.
Second Half ends, West Bromwich Albion 1, Everton 2.
Attempt missed. Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right following a set piece situation.
Hand ball by Mason Holgate (Everton).
Jonny Evans (West Bromwich Albion) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Yannick Bolasie (Everton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jonny Evans (West Bromwich Albion).
Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Everton) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Ross Barkley.
Maarten Stekelenburg (Everton) is shown the yellow card.
Corner, West Bromwich Albion. Conceded by Leighton Baines.
Attempt blocked. Rickie Lambert (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by James McClean.
Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Everton) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Yannick Bolasie.
Foul by Mason Holgate (Everton).
Gareth McAuley (West Bromwich Albion) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Salomón Rondón (West Bromwich Albion) left footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Rickie Lambert with a headed pass following a corner.
Corner, West Bromwich Albion. Conceded by Romelu Lukaku.
Corner, West Bromwich Albion. Conceded by Mason Holgate.
Ross Barkley (Everton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Rickie Lambert (West Bromwich Albion).
Phil Jagielka (Everton) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Darren Fletcher (West Bromwich Albion).
Ross Barkley (Everton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Claudio Yacob (West Bromwich Albion).
Attempt saved. Craig Dawson (West Bromwich Albion) with an attempt from the centre of the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by James McClean with a cross.
Foul by Leighton Baines (Everton).
Jonathan Leko (West Bromwich Albion) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Substitution, Everton. Ashley Williams replaces Kevin Mirallas.
Attempt blocked. Rickie Lambert (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by James McClean with a cross.
Substitution, West Bromwich Albion. Rickie Lambert replaces Saido Berahino.
Attempt missed. Yannick Bolasie (Everton) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Romelu Lukaku.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Kevin Mirallas (Everton) because of an injury.
Foul by Kevin Mirallas (Everton).
Craig Dawson (West Bromwich Albion) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Gareth McAuley (West Bromwich Albion) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by James McClean with a cross following a corner.
Corner, West Bromwich Albion. Conceded by Gareth Barry.
Foul by Romelu Lukaku (Everton).
Jonas Olsson (West Bromwich Albion) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Ross Barkley (Everton) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Yannick Bolasie with a cross.
Attempt missed. Leighton Baines (Everton) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top left corner. Assisted by Idrissa Gueye. | Gareth Barry's close-range header secured Ronald Koeman's first victory as Everton manager as they came from a goal down to win at West Brom. |
35,576,032 | Taylor, ranked 447 in the world at the start of the week, only got into the tournament on Monday as first reserve.
The 39-year-old American secured victory when overnight leader Phil Mickelson missed a five-foot birdie putt on the 18th to force a play-off.
"I don't even have my tour card - now I am playing in the Masters," said Taylor, who finished on 17 under par.
The victory means Taylor qualifies for the first major of the year in Augusta in April.
Overnight leader Mickelson was trying to win his first tournament in 50 starts since the 2013 Open Championship but a level par final-round 72 left him one shot off the pace.
"It never crossed my mind that I wouldn't make that one," said Mickelson, who missed out on a fifth career victory at Pebble Beach.
A three-under 69 took England's Justin Rose into a tie for sixth, while world number one Jordan Spieth finished tied for 21st. | Vaughn Taylor hit a seven-under-par 65 to win his first PGA Tour title in 11 years at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. |
40,870,551 | The Olympic champion and world record holder clocked 43.98 seconds to take gold ahead of Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas and Qatar's Abdalelah Haroun.
Van Niekerk, 25, will continue his 200m campaign in Wednesday's semi-finals.
Britain's Kyle Langford narrowly missed out on a surprise medal in the 800m final as he finished fourth.
The 21-year-old from Watford was in last place heading into the home straight but almost overtook Kenya's Kipyegon Bett on the line for bronze.
Langford set a personal best of one minute 45.25 seconds, with Frenchman Pierre-Ambroise Bosse taking gold and Poland's Adam Kszczot the silver.
Van Niekerk retained his 400m title in dominant fashion but ran alongside an empty lane as Botswana's Isaac Makwala was ruled out after an outbreak of the norovirus bug.
More to follow. | South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk completed the first leg of his attempt at a World Championships double with victory in the 400m at London Stadium. |
34,574,982 | Unions say cheap steel imports may be responsible for its financial problems.
Reports of 1,800 redundancies are wide of the mark and workers will be paid, according to BBC sources.
The UK steel's sector is under extreme pressure, with Tata Steel expected to announce major job losses on Tuesday and the UK's second-largest steelmaker, SSI, going into liquidation.
PwC has taken over 16 out of 20 units within the group, the accountancy firm said.
SSI's collapse had been associated with the loss of over 2,000 jobs and thousands more indirectly related to steelmaking.
"Employees across these entities of the Caparo Industries group totalling just over 1,700, will be briefed on the impact of administration at the businesses. Staff are attending work as normal and will be paid as normal, so in these respects it is business as usual while the administrators' review gets underway," PwC said.
Matt Hammond, lead administrator and partner at PwC, said: "This is a significant business with a wide range of interests across steel, engineering, vehicles products and technologies. Its scale and reach into significant customers and its importance to suppliers cannot be understated. We will be rapidly assessing all options for the businesses through this week and beyond."
A collapse in steel prices and movements in exchange rates has had an impact on some parts of the Caparo Industries group, said PwC.
"However there are businesses in the group that are not directly affected by steel prices, and likewise many where there is both strong customer demand and critical supplier support," said the administrators.
"Our focus for the next 36 hours is on briefing staff across the group and working closely with their management teams to ensure that every opportunity for these businesses is considered. We will be working with all parties to ensure the best outcome for all creditors of each business."
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "One in six UK steelworkers face losing their jobs. At this rate there won't be a British steel industry in a year's time. Ministers cannot afford to stand on the sidelines and watch this crisis unfold. They must step in now with a rescue package."
Caparo was founded in 1968 by Indian-born industrialist Lord Swraj Paul of Marylebone, who remains the chairman.
He came to the UK in 1966 and was made a peer in 1996. | Administrators from PwC have been appointed to parts of Caparo Industries' steel operations. |
32,379,253 | The latest film in the Fast and Furious franchise took just 17 days to break the $1bn barrier, compared to 19 for Avengers and the final Harry Potter.
The blockbuster, starring Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker, has also topped the US box office for a third week with $29.1m (£19.5m).
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, starring Kevin James, was second with $24m (£16.1m).
The film, which moved the shopping centre policeman's segway adventures to Las Vegas, was savaged by critics giving it a 0% score on aggregate reviews site Rotten Tomatoes.
Low-budget, social media-themed thriller Unfriended took third place over the weekend with $16m (£10.7m) - 16 times the film's modest production budget.
It marks another success story for production company Blumfeld, which has already made the highly profitable but low budget films The Purge, Ouija and The Boy Next Door.
At the other end of the scale, Tom Hardy's Soviet thriller Child 44 took just $600,000 (£402,000) across 510 cinemas.
With a budget of $50m (£33.5m) it means the film could be one of the year's biggest flops.
Rounding out the weekend's top five were Home with $10.3m (£6.9m) and The Longest Ride with $6.9m (£4.6m).
According to box office tracker Rentrak and studio estimates, top film Furious 7 has already taken almost $300m in the US and Canada alone.
Rentrak's Paul Dergarabedian said the film "set a new standard" for this time of year, adding: "These are summer-style numbers in April."
He said Furious 7 had "truly become part of movie folklore with its record setting numbers, strong reviews, spectacular word-of-mouth and of course the outpouring of support for late star Paul Walker".
A song from the Furious 7 soundtrack - Wiz Khalifa's See You Again, featuring Charlie Puth - has also been breaking records.
It got more Spotify streams in 24 hours than any other track in the US, and also topped the UK singles chart on Sunday as the fastest-selling single of 2015 so far. | Furious 7 has broken box office records as the fastest film to take more than $1 billion (£669.5 million) worldwide. |
36,241,874 | McGregor fuelled speculation with a tweet showing him head to head with Mayweather, who retired last year.
Five-weight world champion Mayweather, 39, said he would want $100m (£69.3m) to fight the 27-year-old Irishman.
"Keep your fingers crossed, it may be a boxer versus an MMA fighter," Mayweather told fighthype.com.
"It was a name that was shot at me. It may not be a rumour."
Mayweather's father recently said his son had told him he would face "some kind of MMA fighter", while McGregor told BT Sport he wants a "billion-dollar fight" against the American.
McGregor, who lost to Nate Diaz in his most recent fight, was pulled from the UFC 200 card last month after refusing to fulfil promotional duties.
Mayweather's 49th and last fight was a unanimous decision over Andre Berto in September, after which he said: "My career is over, that's official." | Former boxer Floyd Mayweather says he "started the rumour" about a potential bout with a mixed martial arts fighter - thought to be Conor McGregor. |
27,610,788 | Shakespeare depicted Richard as physically and mentally grotesque, a view rejected by modern supporters.
When his skeleton was found under a Leicester car park in 2012, the marked curve in its vertebrae was the first clue it could be the infamous monarch.
But the University of Leicester believe his spine's subtly spiral twist could have been disguised with clothing.
After Richard III died at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 and was hastily buried under a Leicester church, his name was blackened by the new Tudor dynasty.
But the University of Leicester said the study meant "now everyone can explore the true shape of one of history's most famous spinal columns".
The findings, published in The Lancet, detail how CT scans of the vertebrae were used to create accurate copies from a 3D printer.
Dr Piers Mitchell, from the University of Cambridge, explained how these showed the exact nature of the curve, known as a scoliosis.
"The bones are all a slightly different shape at the most curved part of his spine (compared to) that you would expect to see.
"We have been able to put those bones back together because the only way those bones could fit together in life would be in the form of a scoliosis," he said.
University of Leicester osteoarchaelogist Dr Jo Appleby, of the university's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, concluded: "Although the scoliosis looks dramatic, it probably did not cause a major physical deformity.
"This is because he had a well-balanced curve. The condition would have meant that his trunk was short in comparison to the length of his limbs, and his right shoulder would have been slightly higher than the left, but this could have been disguised by custom-made armour and by having a good tailor.
"There is no evidence that Richard had a limp as his curve was well balanced and his leg bones were normal and symmetric."
Dr Phil Stone, chairman of the Richard III Society, said: "History tells us that Richard III was a great warrior.
"Clearly, he was little inconvenienced by his spinal problem and accounts of his appearance, written when he was alive, tell that he was 'of person and bodily shape comely enough'". | Richard III's bent spine would have left him inches shorter, but able to function well, researchers have found. |
25,296,412 | A pugnacious outlier called the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or Common Man's Party, born out of a strong anti-corruption movement and tapping into popular disenchantment with the major political parties, has made a spectacular debut in state elections in Delhi.
It has picked up 28 of the 70 seats and more importantly, over 30% of the votes, routing the ruling Congress party and putting the single largest BJP party under watch. Thanks to the AAP's bravura performance, the capital may be headed for a hung assembly and forced into a re-election. "AAP proves," an analyst told me, "the people are desperately looking for alternatives, not merely an option."
Even its critics concede the Delhi result is a stunning feat for a year-old party in a country where barriers to political entry are prohibitively high.
Arvind Kejriwal, a once-taciturn civil servant-turned popular leader, has emerged as the giant killer, routing Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, a veteran Congresswoman, who was eyeing a fourth consecutive term in office. Not since the emergence of the regional Telugu Desam Party in southern Andhra Pradesh state in the 1980s has India seen such a striking political debut.
Analysts say the AAP has offered itself as a credible alternative to people fed up with corruption, unresponsive politicians and high inflation.
They believe that the party changed the political discourse of the elections. It forced the BJP to change a lacklustre chief ministerial candidate, put out separate manifestos for 70 constituencies, skilfully used social media, successfully garnered the support of the traditional media and promised to pursue "honest, people's politics". It also radically altered the debate on the blight of corruption. The new party projected itself as "pro-change, anti-establishment and anti-politician", as an analyst succinctly put it.
However, the AAP's emergence also points to an inflection point in India's stodgy politics dominated by identity, caste, patronage, sycophancy, dynastic impulses and opaque financing.
What makes the party unique?
For one, unlike new parties in the past that had their origins in region and identity-based movements, AAP was not identifiable with either.
Also, it is the first party to emerge entirely out of urban India with its leaders mainly belonging to the middle class. "The party," analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta told me, "is the creation of urban, middle class imagination."
Moreover, AAP is the first party that has impressed with an innovative use of political techniques. It was clearly demonstrated in its poll spending model - transparent, open donations from the public - and volunteer workers who took time off from their jobs and businesses to work for the party.
Though born out of a vigorous anti-corruption movement that captured the people's imagination, the party's identity is forged around the notions of accountability and governance, something unprecedented in India's parties.
The party is also forcing other parties to rethink their strategies.
"They showed a lot of creativity and imagination. They took risks - the act of Mr Kejriwal taking on Sheila Dixit, for example. The AAP thought out of the box," says Mr Mehta.
Will the party now capitalise on its sterling performance in the capital and go national?
Historians like Dipankar Gupta feel that the party should entrench itself locally - by contesting municipal elections, for example - before venturing to the national stage. "It should play within its limits," he says.
But Mr Kejriwal's party clearly has other ideas: senior leaders tell me that they have opened more than 300 offices all over India and the party plans to contest next year's general elections "wherever we stand a chance".
It believes its time has come and it has to capture the zeitgeist: many believe most cities and states have a substantial population of floating voters who are now desperate for credible alternatives.
But can Mr Kejriwal's party replicate its success outside of Delhi?
Politics is the art of the possible. Many believe that to become successful outside India's most urbanised state, the AAP will need to forge tactical alliances in India's fractious and complex politics. Will Mr Kejriwal's party do that? How will it navigate challenges of language and local contexts in an dizzyingly diverse country and build local networks? (The party is largely seen as a Delhi-centric phenomenon, and most of its existing leadership hail from the city.) Or will it, like other parties, easily become a prisoner of India's politics and bureaucracy? Will Mr Kejriwal, its charismatic leader, end up fostering a cult of personality, a bane of India's political parties? Will it be able to marry its idealism and pragmatism?
AAP activists are fond of saying that they are not in politics "mainly to seize power but to change a compromised and corrupt political system".
But changing a system in a country of high aspirations and fraying institutions requires the party to participate and work it from within. The outlier needs to become the insider. There are questions over the party's institutional proposals. The AAP's manifesto is a mixed bag of promises ranging from participatory decision making to cheap electricity and free water.
More seriously, many say, the AAP's rising is a loud and clear warning to India's political parties to return to their ideological moorings, be imaginative, engage in a battle of ideas and begin a conversation with people fed up of their grandstanding and rabble rousing.
"I am not sure Delhi's people voted for an alternative party in the strictest sense. It was more a vote in anger and protest against the existing parties and how they have been conducting themselves," says analyst Mohan Guruswamy.
If India's main parties don't change, the Common Man's Party could become a formidable national political force faster than many would imagine. | India's political waters are stirring after a long time. |
21,855,609 | At least 100 parents were also briefly detained for helping their children cheat in the senior school exams.
Over 1.3 million students from 4,000 schools sat the exams.
Cheating in exams is fairly common in Bihar, but the number of students and teachers caught this time is unprecedented.
Officials said improved vigilance by teachers, police and surprise visits by "flying squads" of officials headed by area magistrates to examination centres were the main reasons why such a large number of students and parents were caught cheating.
Bihar is one of India's poorest states with a 64% literacy rate, one of the lowest in the country. India's literacy rate is 74%.
The five-day examination, held by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), ended on Monday.
"Students have been expelled on charges of using unfair means or cheating in the examination halls," Lallan Jha, a senior BSEB official said.
He said the parents were detained for passing on answers and other "study material" at the examination centres.
Mr Jha said the expelled students could be barred from taking an examination for up to three years.
The students and parents can also be fined 2,000 rupees ($36; £24) or jailed for six months, or both, for the offence.
But such punishment has been rarely reported in the state.
Most of the incidents of cheating in the latest exam were reported from Chhapra, Motihari, Vaishali, Sheikhpura, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Jehanabad districts.
Officials say students smuggled in textbooks and notes into the examination centres despite tight security for "fair and peaceful examinations".
Some of their parents and relatives also threw into classrooms answers written on paper planes or "simply passed them on to other people walking in and out of the classrooms".
At some schools, parents helping their children cheat also clashed with the police, officials say.
In the past years, local newspapers have published photographs of students caught cheating and parents found to have been helping them in a bid to shame them. But this does not appear to have deterred those caught this year.
"What to do? It has been happening here for a long time. Everybody does it here," said Permeshwar Sharma, a resident of Motihari.
He said his young brother had passed on textbooks to his son who sat for the exam through a classroom window while standing on the perimeter wall of a school building.
In 2008, India's Supreme Court said students caught cheating during exams deserved "no leniency... and should be severely punished".
"If our country is to progress we must maintain high educational standards, and this is only possible if malpractices in examinations are curbed with an iron hand," the court said. | More than 1,600 students have been expelled for cheating in school examinations in the northern Indian state of Bihar, officials say. |
36,765,854 | Chairman Ron Dennis says he will not consider whether to choose Button or reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne until the Italian Grand Prix.
"We're not even talking about it until Monza," Dennis told BBC Sport. "Why should we decide now?"
Button, the 2009 world champion, is out of contract at the end of the season.
Dennis said there was no advantage in deciding now because, among other reasons, "you just disenchant a driver".
The team are believed likely to choose Belgian Vandoorne, who out-qualified the Briton and scored a point on his grand prix debut in Bahrain this year, where he was standing in for the injured Alonso.
But the decision could yet go in favour of Button, who has strong marketing appeal, vast experience and proven capability.
Alonso and Button are 14th and 15th respectively in the drivers' championship standings.
If McLaren did choose Button, they would likely try to retain a contractual relationship with Vandoorne and perhaps farm him out to another team to gain experience and better judge his potential.
Dennis said in May that he considered the Belgian "an integral part of McLaren-Honda's future", adding: "Any team that imagines they may be able to poach him is very much mistaken. You may rest assured Stoffel is not for sale."
Vandoorne, who is considered the hottest prospect not yet in a full Formula 1 seat, is of interest to Renault, whose team principal Frederic Vasseur rates the 24-year-old extremely highly having run him in the GP2 feeder series, of which he is the reigning champion.
But Vandoorne cannot sign for another team until an option date in his McLaren contract lapses in the autumn.
Button is also of interest to Williams, who are likely to drop Brazilian Felipe Massa for next season.
Button's manager Richard Goddard said the 36-year-old had not yet decided what he wanted to do next season.
Williams have an option on Finn Valtteri Bottas and are likely to retain him, but have made no final decision on their driver line-up.
Alonso is under contract to McLaren until the end of 2017 and has said he will not make a decision on his future beyond that until he has experienced the new cars and Pirelli tyres that are being introduced next season.
These are aimed at making the cars a greater challenge to drive with the tyres able to withstand being driven much harder for a longer period than the current design, which have to be managed extensively.
The two-time champion told BBC Sport earlier this year that the tyres would be "a big factor" in his decision but added that if he stays in F1 into 2018 it will be with McLaren. | Jenson Button will have to wait until at least September to find out whether McLaren want to retain him alongside Fernando Alonso in 2017. |
35,958,741 | Scientists caught the pied flycatcher in the act using tiny light-logging tags, which recorded sustained periods of sunlight during its seasonal trek.
The findings appear in Biology Letters.
Previous evidence painted an unclear picture of whether small birds like this use daytime rests or non-stop travel to negotiate the desert.
"It was a bit of a controversy, as to what was going on," said Janne Ouwehand, a PhD student at the Unviersity of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Many birds, including small songbirds like the flycatcher, breed in Europe during summer and spend their winters in central Africa. So twice a year, they must cross the vast and inhospitable Sahara Desert.
Back in the 1970s, British ornithologist Reginald Moreau suggested that a non-stop flight of 40-60 hours was the obvious solution.
But more recent observations have suggested that breaks are involved. Groups of birds can be seen resting in the heat of the day, for example, and radar measurements have spied many more small birds traversing the region's skies at night than during the day.
The radar data, however, cannot track individuals or identify different species. That sort of detailed observation is made much more feasible, even for small birds, by new logging and tracking technology.
Ms Ouwehand and her colleagues attached tiny loggers to 80 pied flycatchers at a breeding ground in the Netherlands, late in the summer of 2013.
These birds are smaller than a house sparrow and weigh about 12g - less than three one-teaspoon sugar cubes. In the summer they nest right across Europe and this particular population spends its winters in the Ivory Coast and Guinea.
The 0.5g loggers are like "a very tiny backpack" for the birds, Ms Ouwehand said, and make no measurable impact on the little animals' performance. They record the light level and the temperature every 5-10 minutes, for months on end.
A lot of information can be gleaned from those light cycles.
"You can make a nice daylight curve, and you can get a rough indication of their position," Ms Ouwehand told the BBC News website.
"You have the day length, which gives you an indication of the latitude, and the midpoint of the day and the night gives you an indication of the longitude."
The following summer, she and her colleagues retrieved 27 of the gadgets and started to look at the data.
"It's always extremely exciting when they return - how many will return, which birds do we see back. And you have to wait for a whole year; you don't get any data in the meanwhile so you just hope everything will be fine."
Of the 27 returned loggers, 15 contained data on both the spring and autumn migration periods. But as it turned out, the pied flycatchers' distinctive behaviour made the light curves rather messy and it was difficult to glean coordinates from them.
"You get a lot of spikiness in your data: very bright periods and very dark periods. That's because they're in the shade, in woody habitats and things like that," Ms Ouwehand explained.
On two occasions however, coinciding with the migrations, something odd happened in the data. For up to two whole days, that up-and-down, light-and-shade spikiness was completely absent.
"We discovered this very clear pattern twice a year and we thought, what are the birds doing here?"
At the same time, the temperature readings were cooler than during the days on either side.
This can only mean one thing, Ms Ouwehand says: a long-haul, high-altitude flight that traverses the Sahara in one hit. These tiny birds, which usually do their migrating under cover of darkness, are crossing the desert in broad daylight.
"We see not only that they can make these flights, but also they use a different strategy in autumn than in spring."
The pattern of light and temperature changes is very different in the spring, she explained, suggesting an alternative route for the birds' return flight to Europe - possibly going a longer way around to spend more of the journey over the ocean.
This is not among the longest of bird migrations, which can span whole oceans in a single flight. But it is perhaps the clearest indication yet of the different strategies small birds use to cross the world's biggest desert.
As technology continues to improve, Ms Ouwehand said, and more researchers enlist individual small birds to gather their own backpacks full of data, we will learn more and more about those specific strategies.
"We are just at the moment when we are really able to show these patterns," Ms Ouwehand said.
"I find that pretty exciting and I'm very curious about what we will see in other, comparable species. Which are the individuals that do stop? Is it age differences, ecological differences, species differences?
"That's really now what we can start to understand."
Follow Jonathan on Twitter | To cross the Sahara every autumn and spring, a little songbird snaps out of its nocturnal travel habits and flies for 40-60 hours, a study has found. |
40,053,163 | The world's fifth-richest person, worth $62.3b (£48.1b), famously dropped out of Harvard after launching the global social-networking website.
Mr Zuckerberg called for students to "not only create new jobs, but create a new sense of purpose".
Political experts think he may be positioning himself to run for office.
During his remarks on Thursday, Mr Zuckerberg told graduates that "we live in an unstable time".
"There's pressure to turn inwards," he said about those that feel left behind by increased globalisation.
"This is the struggle of our time. The forces of freedom, openness and global community against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism."
With his wife, Priscilla, in the audience, he pointed to the dormitory where he launched Facebook, and remarked that meeting her there was the best thing to happen to him at the university.
Before giving remarks, he received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree during Harvard's 366th graduation ceremony.
On Wednesday, he did a Facebook Live broadcast from his old dorm room.
"This is literally where I sat," he says, pointing to a small wooden desk and chair inside Kirkland House, which is due to be renovated over the summer.
"I had my little laptop here. And this is where I programmed Facebook," he tells the camera.
During his commencement address, Mr Zuckerberg told students: "There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in ten years when millions of students can't afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business."
"When you don't have the freedom to take your idea and turn it into a historic enterprise we all lose," he continued.
He told stories of meeting "children in juvenile detention and opioid addicts, who told me their lives could have turned out differently if they just had something to do".
The 33-year-old appeared to get choked up at one point during a story about an high school student who feared he would not be able to enroll in university because he was an undocumented immigrant.
More than 1.9 billion people log onto Facebook every day.
Since it's launch in 2004, Facebook has inspired many other social media competitors, including Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
In 2007 another Harvard drop-out returned for an honourary degree.
Bill Gates addressed students shortly after stepping down from the world's largest software company, Microsoft, to launch to focus on his charity. | Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has returned to Harvard University under rainy skies to give a graduation speech and receive an honourary degree. |
35,759,738 | Warriors led 15-10 at the break after two first-half Bryce Heem tries, either side of Bill Meakes' Gloucester try.
A second-half pile-up by the posts earned Warriors a third try, credited to hooker Niall Annett.
James Hook's try was part of a 15-point haul, but could not prevent a rare derby defeat for Gloucester.
While Hook also landed both his conversions, as well as kicking two penalties, Tom Heathcote was busy with the boot for the hosts, landing three penalties and two conversions for a successful kicking ratio of five out of seven.
Worcester never trailed after taking a second-minute lead when a speculative kick ahead by Gloucester old boy Ryan Mills bounced kindly for Heem, who brushed aside weak tackles from Rob Cook and David Halaifonua to score.
Despite the setback of losing injured scrum-half Will Heinz, Gloucester levelled when Hook's neat chip ahead was picked up by Meakes, who scored under the posts.
But, within a minute of gaining an extra man when Ross Moriarty was sin-binned, Worcester took advantage again by moving the ball wide for Heem to force his way over.
After Worcester's third try was awarded to Annett, Hook made it tight for the final 15 minutes when he twisted his way over but Heathcote's third penalty put Warriors back to two scores in front.
And Dean Ryan's men saw it through for a third league win in four games - and only a second defeat in six Premiership matches for Gloucester.
Worcester had won only once in their previous seven meetings with Gloucester, having already lost three times against the Cherry and Whites this season (having also met twice in the European Challenge Cup).
But, having won 28-27 on the final day of the Premiership season in May 2014, when Warriors had already been condemned to relegation, this was a second successive Premiership victory at Sixways for Warriors boss Dean Ryan against his former club.
Worcester now stand 13 points clear of bottom club London Irish, who play against Saracens in New Jersey on Saturday night.
Warriors director of rugby Dean Ryan told BBC Hereford & Worcester:
"Sometimes we've had to go outside the group to make it better. The signing of Francois Hougaard has acted as a catalyst and given us confidence.
"We look a decent team now and wins are coming more regularly now.
"That's the first time we've won two on the bounce in the Premiership in four years - and nobody can find the records for when we last did three in a month.
"That's a big challenge for us, going into next week's trip to Harlequins."
Cherry and Whites director of rugby David Humphreys told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"Everything that was good last week was bad. We weren't at the same level as last week. Right from the first minute we were a little bit off the pace. We conceded early, which gave Worcester and their crowd momentum.
"We know in this league whoever you play it'll be a tough afternoon but credit to Worcester.
"The opportunities that came their way, they took. A couple of individual errors meant we conceded a couple of soft tries.
"We've built our game against our set piece and not conceding those soft tries. But we'll have to go away and look at why and make sure that, when we turn up to London Irish, we're in a much better place."
Worcester: Pennell; Heem, Olivier, Mills, Vuna; Heathcote, Hougaard; Rapava Ruskin, Annett, Schonert, O'Callaghan, Barry, Dowson, Kirwan, van Velze (capt).
Replacements: Sowrey, Leleimalefaga, Johnston, Sanderson, Betty, Baldwin, Lamb, Symons.
Gloucester: Cook; Sharples, Meakes, Twelvetrees (capt.), Halaifonua; Hook, Heinz; Wood, Hibbard, Afoa, Savage, Thrush, Kalamafoni, Kvesic, Moriarty.
Replacements: Dawidiuk, Thomas, Doran-Jones, Galarza, Ludlow, Braley, Trinder, McColl.
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter. | Worcester claimed successive Premiership wins for the first time in four seasons as they hung on to beat local rivals Gloucester at Sixways. |
38,412,611 | Specialist "Tornado" teams were sent into HMP Swaleside, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, after a disturbance at about 19:00 GMT on Thursday.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said all those involved at the category B jail had "surrendered and were back in cells by 1am".
No prisoners or staff were injured, she added. A police inquiry is under way.
Live updates
Do England and Wales lock up more people than other countries?
Call to halve prisoner numbers to 45,000
The disturbance happened less than a week after inmates at HMP Birmingham rioted for 12 hours - the latest in a number of disturbances in the past two months.
Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and former home secretaries Ken Clarke and Jacqui Smith have said the incident at Birmingham should act as a "wake up call".
In a letter to the Times, they said jails had become unacceptably dangerous and called for inmate populations to be reduced by about half from their present levels to 45,000.
The Prison Service said "challenges in our prisons are longstanding and won't be solved overnight".
But, it added, Justice Secretary Liz Truss was "committed to making sure our prisons are stable while we deliver wholesale reforms to the prison estate to help offenders turn their lives around and reduce reoffending".
'I lived in fear every day'
HMP Swaleside is a category B jail, which houses 1,100 male prisoners serving terms of more than four years. It has eight wings made up of single cells.
During the disturbance, the Prison Service said the incident had been "contained to one landing on A Wing".
The A wing of the prison houses the Open Academy, a study centre with a computer suite.
The rest of the jail was put on "lockdown" while the prison was brought back under control.
Earlier, Prison Officers Association (POA) chairman Mike Rolfe said fires had been lit.
Mr Rolfe described Swaleside as "a particularly difficult place to work".
He said: "Staff recruitment and retention there has been poor.
"In the last few years they've lost lots of experienced staff and new recruits haven't wanted to stick the job out due to the toxic nature of the job."
Gordon Henderson, Conservative MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, said prison officers are better off financially if they get a job in a local warehouse than if they stay in the prison service.
"They've got to pay prison officers what they're worth," he said.
A man claiming to be an inmate at the jail contacted the BBC and said the unrest had been sparked when officers raided cells.
He made further claims, which have not been verified, that the use of inexperienced staff and a reduction in certain privileges had caused "tension" between prison officers and inmates.
An HM Inspectorate of Prisons report in July said the centre was used by 50 of the 126 prisoners on the wing, who were enrolled on open and distance learning courses.
The report described the prison as "dangerous" and found levels of violence at the jail were "far too high" with many incidents classed as serious.
Some 550 prisoners were moved to other jails after last week's Birmingham riot was quelled, but the Ministry of Justice did not say whether any had been sent to Swaleside.
Richard Burgeon, Labour's shadow justice secretary, told the BBC: "In July the Independent Monitoring Board said this prison is not safe and staff shortage is the major cause.
"As with Birmingham prison, the public will once again wonder what action the justice secretary actually took in response to the board's concerns.
"She needs to tell us."
John Podmore, a former prison governor at HMP Swaleside, said: "We should be sending fewer people to jail in absolute terms but we need to be looking at who we are locking up, why we are locking them up and how we deal with the way in which they are offending against society.
"We need a much more subtle approach than what we have at the moment."
A clearer sense of what happened is coming to light. The Prison Officers Association said there were disputes between inmates and prison staff over how many hours people would be locked up over Christmas.
There were raids of cells where personal possessions were then confiscated.
After that a riot broke out and prison officers lost control and retreated.
Prisoners were brandishing snooker balls which are often used as weapons and they let off fire extinguishers.
Tornado squads were brought in and by 01:00 the wing was under control. | Part of a prison wing that was taken over by about 60 inmates has been reclaimed, the Prison Service has said. |
33,210,407 | The fire, at Devonshire Close, was reported to police at about 23:00 BST on Friday.
Group commander Geoff Somerville said quick reporting by the local community reduced the damage caused.
"The roof of one house was well alight, causing a significant smoke plume which covered a wide area and move into the Westlink [motorway] area," he said.
"We discovered that the cause of the fire was arson and a total of three fire appliances attended and 15 personnel." | Two houses under construction in west Belfast have been badly damaged in an arson attack. |
30,068,817 | England have a 100% record in qualifying going into their first visit to Scotland since a Euro 2000 play-off in 1999.
"It will be a massive test, huge. If the England team and supporters think this is going to be comfortable, a nice quiet friendly, they have got another thing coming," Butcher told BBC Sport.
"I think that this will be, without a shadow of a doubt, the most hostile environment England will face before they get to Euro 2016."
England have been handed a comfortable draw in their European qualifying campaign and have already won away in Switzerland and Estonia, as well as beating San Marino and Slovenia at Wembley. They still have to face Lithuania in Group E.
Scotland face a more difficult passage to France but enhanced their prospects of qualifying from Group D with a 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland in Glasgow on Friday.
And the mettle of Hodgson's players will face a fierce examination against the Scots, according to Butcher, who was a pillar of England's defence for the best part of a decade as well and won three Scottish titles and two League Cups with Rangers, before managing Motherwell, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and latterly Hibernian.
He also had a spell as assistant to erstwhile Scotland manager George Burley.
Butcher said: "There are not going to be any games like this in England's Euro 2016 qualifiers for atmosphere. This is a friendly but England and Scotland don't do friendlies in any sport at any level.
"It is going to be an unbelievably hostile night. Celtic Park will be bouncing with the Tartan Army buoyant on the back of a Scotland team they are very optimistic about.
"Roy Hodgson may throw a line out that he may rest some players but he will need all his most experienced players in this one. It won't be for the faint-hearted."
Butcher believes the experience of facing a fired-up Tartan Army and a rejuvenated Scotland side determined to beat the 'Auld Enemy' on their return to Glasgow will provide perfect preparation for tests ahead.
"It will be excellent for the younger players in the England squad who play week in, week out in the Premier League. They won't really have a hostile environment like they will have in Scotland on Tuesday," he added. | Former England captain Terry Butcher says Tuesday's friendly against Scotland at Celtic Park will be the most hostile test manager Roy Hodgson's side will face before Euro 2016. |
31,695,866 | In the item on 3 February hosts Phillip Schofield and Christine Bleakley looked at bondage equipment and sex toys with "sex expert" Annabelle Knight.
Ofcom said it received 120 complaints about the item, which was inspired by the film Fifty Shades of Grey.
Product demonstrations with scantily clad models featured in the piece.
A "Bondage for Beginners" segment examined products including an eye mask, a "feather spanker" and a crystal-encrusted vibrator.
ITV said it would be responding to Ofcom. "This Morning is a lifestyle programme that covers a diverse range of human interest topics," said a spokesperson for the show, which is broadcast at 10:30 on weekdays.
"The programme has dealt with advice on sexual matters many times in the past, and a suitable announcement was given at the start.
"Many of our items spark debate and we welcome feedback from our viewers about our content."
The regulator is also investigating a scene on ITV's Emmerdale involving a character being sexually assaulted, which drew 47 complaints following its broadcast on Thursday. | Media watchdog Ofcom is investigating ITV's This Morning over complaints that a segment about bondage was unsuitable to be broadcast before the watershed. |
23,565,298 | New United boss Moyes has spent most of his summer discussing the future of Wayne Rooney, but back on the pitch it was last year's top scorer Van Persie who again proved the difference.
The Dutchman took just six minutes to open his account for the new season, steering a powerful header into the corner from Patrice Evra's clipped cross.
"It was an excellent performance from Manchester United. They dominated Wigan, who did not put David De Gea in the Manchester United goal under any pressure. There were many positives for David Moyes. The win has relieved a little bit of pressure on him."
And while Championship side Wigan impressed for periods, Van Persie settled the contest after the break when he fired in via a deflection.
In truth, a victory against last season's surprise FA Cup winners was the minimum required from Moyes's meaningful debut in the United dugout as he began the ominous task of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson.
And while his side looked sharp in spells - with veteran Ryan Giggs particularly impressive in the opening stages - Moyes may have been concerned by the ease with which Wigan controlled the ball either side of half-time.
Owen Coyle's team were comfortable during that period and, had summer signings Grant Holt and James McClean linked up with more accuracy, could have caused United more problems.
Once Van Persie found a second goal for United, though, the game was won, leaving Moyes to contemplate his first managerial honour since guiding Preston North End to the Division Two title in 2000.
The discussion will now inevitably return to the status of Rooney, who was deemed unfit to feature with a shoulder injury sustained in his sole pre-season run-out for United, but fit enough to play at least some part for England back in this stadium on Wednesday against Scotland.
Robin van Persie has scored seven goals in his last six games against Wigan Athletic.
United started like champions, with the first goal of the Moyes era coming from a predictable source.
Van Persie started the move by spinning a pass out to Evra on the left wing before making his way into the area. Evra looked up and picked out the Dutchman, who evaded his markers to power in a wonderful header from 15 yards.
It was a fabulous finish and threatened to all but end the contest before it had really begun.
For the following quarter of an hour Wigan - with Holt left increasingly isolated up front - were left chasing shadows as the impressive Wilfried Zaha, Giggs and Danny Welbeck interchanged at will behind Van Persie.
But the storm was weathered by the Latics, who ended the half on top with McClean twice putting in testing balls across the face of goal which Holt could not reach.
When David De Gea flapped at a set-piece to allow Emmerson Boyce and then Leon Barnett a chance to head at goal, Wigan will have felt hopeful of getting back into the game.
And it was the Championship side who continued to set the agenda after the break until Van Persie struck again in the 59th minute.
Again Evra started the move, linking with Tom Cleverley on the left before finding Welbeck on the edge of the area. The England man could have shot but played it to Van Persie, who, despite having four defenders in close attendance, was able to turn on to his left foot and fire in a low shot which took a deflection off the heel of James Perch and wrong-footed Scott Carson.
That signalled a comfortable end to proceedings, with both sides making changes and former Latics midfielder Antonio Valencia going closest to a third goal when he shot wide.
United will face a sterner test at Swansea on Saturday, while for Wigan it is back to life in the second tier at Bournemouth.
Wigan manager Owen Coyle:
"We always knew that it would be a tough afternoon, we conceded an unbelievable finish. The header could only go in one place. But we had a good spell either side of it and United got a fortuitous second goal which finished the game.
"We are trying to get back to playing these elite teams every week. We are building a good side here, I am still looking to add to that, though my chief executive may not want to hear that!
"There is a lot we can take from today's game. James McClean wants to focus on his football and he was pleasing on the eye. He caused them problems and could have scored."
Manchester United manager David Moyes:
"I class that as another piece of silverware for Sir Alex. It was his team that won the league by 13-15 points so it's his team. The ones going forward will be down to me.
"Wilfried Zaha has done well in pre-season and it was right for him to feature today. He picked up an injury. We are looking forward to using him as the season goes on."
Full Time The referee ends the match.
Adnan Januzaj takes a short corner.
Clearance made by Nouha Dicko.
The ball is crossed by Adnan Januzaj.
Clearance made by Nemanja Vidic.
The ball is swung over by Stephen Crainey.
Jordi Gomez takes a short corner.
Short corner taken by Jordi Gomez.
Jordi Gomez restarts play with the free kick.
Tom Cleverley shown a yellow card.
Booking
Unfair challenge on Jordi Gomez by Tom Cleverley results in a free kick.
Emmerson Boyce makes a clearance.
Clearance by Michael Carrick.
Free kick crossed by Jordi Gomez.
Foul by Antonio Valencia on Jordi Gomez, free kick awarded.
Scott Carson restarts play with the free kick.
Free kick awarded for a foul by Adnan Januzaj on Leon Barnett.
Michael Carrick takes the free kick.
Roger Espinoza receives a yellow card.
Booking
Foul by Roger Espinoza on Tom Cleverley, free kick awarded.
Clearance made by Antonio Valencia.
Stephen Crainey manages to make a clearance.
The ball is crossed by Patrice Evra.
Scott Carson restarts play with the free kick.
Substitution (Wigan) makes a substitution, with Nouha Dicko coming on for James McCarthy.
Unfair challenge on Emmerson Boyce by Chris Smalling results in a free kick.
Shinji Kagawa takes a weak shot and went wide right of the goal.
The ball is delivered by Michael Carrick.
Short corner worked by Adnan Januzaj.
Michael Carrick restarts play with the free kick.
Substitution Adnan Januzaj is brought on as a substitute for Robin van Persie.
Substitution Shinji Kagawa joins the action as a substitute, replacing Danny Welbeck.
Foul by Jordi Gomez on Oliveira Anderson, free kick awarded.
Free kick taken by Michael Carrick.
Leon Barnett gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Danny Welbeck.
Phil Jones restarts play with the free kick.
James McCarthy gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Phil Jones.
Leon Barnett restarts play with the free kick.
Danny Welbeck concedes a free kick for a foul on Emmerson Boyce.
Marc-Antoine Fortune manages to make a clearance.
A cross is delivered by Antonio Valencia.
Shot by Roger Espinoza went wide of the left-hand post.
Clearance made by Patrice Evra.
A cross is delivered by Callum McManaman.
Nemanja Vidic makes a clearance.
Stephen Crainey takes the free kick.
Michael Carrick challenges Roger Espinoza unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Substitution Roger Espinoza replaces Ben Watson.
Substitution Jordi Gomez is brought on as a substitute for Shaun Maloney.
Clearance by Marc-Antoine Fortune.
Scott Carson takes the free kick.
Unfair challenge on Callum McManaman by Nemanja Vidic results in a free kick.
Clearance made by Stephen Crainey.
Corner from the taken by Tom Cleverley.
Antonio Valencia takes the chance to get an effort at goal. Stephen Crainey gets a block in.
Clearance made by James Perch.
Callum McManaman manages to make a clearance.
Shaun Maloney makes a clearance.
Substitution Oliveira Anderson replaces Ryan Giggs.
James Perch makes a clearance.
Clearance by Stephen Crainey.
Centre by Antonio Valencia.
Ryan Giggs manages to make a clearance.
Substitution (Wigan) makes a substitution, with Callum McManaman coming on for James McClean.
Clearance by James McCarthy.
Substitution (Wigan) makes a substitution, with Chris McCann coming on for James McArthur.
Clearance made by Chris Smalling.
The ball is swung over by Antonio Valencia.
Substitution Marc-Antoine Fortune comes on in place of Grant Holt.
Substitution Antonio Valencia joins the action as a substitute, replacing Wilfried Zaha.
Danny Welbeck provided the assist for the goal.
Goal! - Robin van Persie - Man Utd 2 - 0 Wigan Robin van Persie slots the ball left footed into the goal. Man Utd 2-0 Wigan.
Clearance by Leon Barnett.
Ryan Giggs makes a clearance.
Clearance by James Perch.
Clearance made by Leon Barnett.
Centre by Wilfried Zaha.
Stephen Crainey restarts play with the free kick.
Phil Jones challenges James McClean unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Robin van Persie makes a clearance.
Corner taken by Ben Watson.
James McClean sends in a cross.
Clearance made by Chris Smalling.
James McClean produces a cross.
Ryan Giggs makes a clearance.
The ball is sent over by Ben Watson.
Ben Watson restarts play with the free kick.
Ryan Giggs challenges Emmerson Boyce unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Shot by Tom Cleverley went wide of the right-hand upright.
Free kick taken by Michael Carrick.
Booking
James McArthur receives a yellow card for unsporting behaviour.
James McArthur gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Danny Welbeck.
Clearance made by Phil Jones.
Chris Smalling manages to make a clearance.
Ben Watson crosses the ball in from the free kick.
Wilfried Zaha concedes a free kick for a foul on James McClean.
Ben Watson takes the free kick.
Wilfried Zaha gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on James McClean.
The referee blows the whistle to start the second half.
Half Time The half-time whistle blows.
Clearance made by Chris Smalling.
Clearance by Nemanja Vidic.
The ball is swung over by Shaun Maloney.
Clearance by Robin van Persie.
A cross is delivered by Shaun Maloney.
Free kick crossed by Ben Watson.
Patrice Evra gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Shaun Maloney.
Clearance made by Ryan Giggs.
Clearance made by Michael Carrick.
Clearance by Robin van Persie.
James McClean crosses the ball in from the free kick.
Free kick awarded for a foul by Nemanja Vidic on Shaun Maloney.
Header at goal by Danny Welbeck misses to the right.
Corner from the right by-line taken by Robin van Persie.
James McClean makes a clearance.
Danny Welbeck takes a shot. Parried by Scott Carson back into danger.
Michael Carrick takes the free kick.
Free kick awarded for a foul by Grant Holt on Chris Smalling.
The ball is crossed by James McClean.
Free kick taken by David De Gea.
James McArthur concedes a free kick for a foul on Nemanja Vidic.
The ball is crossed by James McClean.
Clearance made by Phil Jones.
The ball is sent over by Wilfried Zaha.
Leon Barnett makes a clearance.
Clearance by Ben Watson.
Clearance made by James Perch.
James Perch manages to make a clearance.
Phil Jones takes the free kick.
Unfair challenge on Phil Jones by James McCarthy results in a free kick.
The ball is swung over by Phil Jones.
Grant Holt makes a clearance.
Phil Jones manages to make a clearance.
The ball is sent over by James McClean.
Michael Carrick restarts play with the free kick.
Foul by James McClean on Wilfried Zaha, free kick awarded.
The ball is swung over by Stephen Crainey.
Chris Smalling makes a clearance.
Free kick taken by Ryan Giggs.
Grant Holt gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Patrice Evra.
Clearance made by Nemanja Vidic.
James McCarthy manages to make a clearance.
Phil Jones restarts play with the free kick.
Unfair challenge on Phil Jones by Grant Holt results in a free kick.
Clearance by Emmerson Boyce.
Corner taken by Ryan Giggs.
Substitution (Man Utd) makes a substitution, with Chris Smalling coming on for Rafael Da Silva.
Leon Barnett makes a clearance.
The ball is delivered by Wilfried Zaha.
Patrice Evra makes a clearance.
James McClean sends in a cross.
Emmerson Boyce delivers the ball.
Ryan Giggs sends in a cross.
The assist for the goal came from Patrice Evra.
Goal! - Robin van Persie - Man Utd 1 - 0 Wigan Robin van Persie scores a headed goal. Man Utd 1-0 Wigan.
The ball is sent over by Patrice Evra.
Ben Watson makes a clearance.
Rafael Da Silva crosses the ball.
Stephen Crainey takes the free kick.
Phil Jones challenges James McCarthy unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Danny Welbeck manages to make a clearance.
Clearance made by Rafael Da Silva.
Clearance by James McCarthy.
Clearance by Stephen Crainey.
Michael Carrick makes a clearance.
The referee gets the game underway.
Live data and text provided by our data suppliers | Robin van Persie ensured the David Moyes era at Manchester United began with a trophy as Wigan were beaten in the FA Community Shield at Wembley. |
39,791,376 | Set amid the Aids crisis in 1980s America, Tony Kushner's "gay fantasia" lasts roughly the same duration as a flight from London to New York.
Over eight hours, it packs in angelic visitations, burning books and surreal trips to icy continents and, of course, heaven.
And let's not forget a stellar cast that includes Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane and Russell Tovey.
After weeks of previews, the play officially opened at the National Theatre in London on Thursday.
Spider-Man star Garfield told us after the show: "You don't often get to work on a character like this or on a story that has so much humanity in it.
"It's the whole human experience in one seven and a half hour play. No one would turn that opportunity down."
The critics seem to love it, with four and five star reviews appearing on Friday morning.
Here are eight reasons why Angels in America is such a heavenly show.
On Thursday, both parts of the play played back to back - and lasted seven hours and 32 minutes.
Part one - titled Millennium Approaches - kicked off at 13:00, but it wasn't until after 23:00 that the second part - Perestroika - had reached its emotional climax.
But it never dragged. Much of the interval chat was about how quickly it seemed to go.
The cast may disagree.
Speaking after the show, Russell Tovey admitted: "On a two-show day, it's insane. It's like a 12-hour Zumba class!"
The way the play is broken up gives it an episodic feel. Each part has two 15-minute intervals.
That makes watching the play feel a bit like you are working your way through a TV box-set.
With plenty of loo and coffee breaks.
The ex-Spider-Man is unforgettable as Prior Walter, a man who discovers he has Aids and is then abandoned by his boyfriend Louis Ironside (James McArdle).
We see him early on as an elegant drag queen, later he's a spectral hooded figure dressed top to toe in black.
In the harrowing hospital scenes, he can switch from rage to despair in the course of a single line.
Back in January, Garfield found out about his Oscar nomination for Hacksaw Ridge while he was starting rehearsals for Angels in America.
It would be astonishing if he's not nominated for more awards for this performance.
Nathan Lane plays foul-mouth lawyer Roy Cohn who is in denial about his sexuality. Told by his doctor that he has Aids, he storms: "No. Aids is what homosexuals have. I have liver cancer."
Tovey plays Joe Pitt, a closeted gay Mormon Republican whose Valium-addicted wife Harper is played with gusto by the Olivier-winning Denise Gough.
McArdle is excellent as Prior's tormented lover, as is Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as hospital nurse Belize.
With more than 30 characters in this play, all of the main cast play multiple parts and it's fun to try and spot them under the costume changes.
Marianne Elliott is the award-winning talent behind the National Theatre's West End hits War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Enough said.
The story begins quite modestly, with a simple revolving set showing us how the lives of the main characters connect.
Later it all goes much larger scale and a lot more surreal.
We get a fantasy Antarctica - complete with falling snow - and a neon ladder that ascends to a heaven filled with angels.
Yet many of the most memorable scenes are the intimate ones where Prior Walter and lawyer Roy Cohn are sick in their hospital beds and visited by both the living and the dead.
Angels in America had its British premiere at the National Theatre in 1992 (with a cast that included James Bond actor Daniel Craig).
The play is set in New York in the mid-1980s when Ronald Reagan was starting his second term as president and the world was in the grip of the Aids crisis.
While there is much that is upsetting, Kushner's script is packed with zinging comedy lines.
"It's very funny," said Garfield after the show. "You need to laugh to keep from crying in a situation as devastating as these characters are going through.
"It was amazing putting it in front of an audience for the first time because we were all surprised how funny it was.
"On the first preview it was shocking how many times we had to stop for the audience laughing."
You won't forget Amanda Lawrence's Angel in a hurry.
She crashes dramatically through Prior's apartment ceiling on massive wings that are operated - War Horse style - by six people.
She flies, she swoops and she even has sex with Prior.
Little wonder he later introduces himself to Harper Pitt as "an angel-ologist".
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is at the Lyttelton Theatre until 19 August.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Plays don't come much more epic than Angels in America. |
34,758,791 | A cycle of violence began in April with protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's third-term bid.
Mr Nkurunziza gave a deadline of midnight on Saturday for Burundians to hand in illegal firearms or face being "dealt with as enemies of the nation".
Earlier this week, the UN secretary-general condemned the "inflammatory rhetoric" in Burundi.
And the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said the language was "chillingly similar" to that used in Rwanda before the genocide of 1994.
Agencies reported that many people were leaving Cibitoke and Mutakura, two neighbourhoods of the capital, Bujumbura, that have seen anti-government protests.
"Now I decide to leave as everyone is leaving," one elderly Mutakura resident, Marguerite Bigira, told the Associated Press news agency.
"There is fear everywhere. But I still believe in God and all this will end."
Another fleeing resident, Marie, told Agence France-Presse: "I was terrified, I understood that this time they would kill every last one of us."
The violence, in which close to 200 people have been killed, began in April when the president said he would stand again.
He argued that his first term as president did not count towards the constitutional two-term limit as he was chosen by MPs.
Mr Nkurunziza was duly re-elected to a third term with 70% of the vote in July.
10.4m population
50 years - life expectancy for a man
2nd poorest country in the world
85% are Hutu, 14% Tutsi
300,000 died in civil war
The weapons ultimatum has led to a spike in killings.
On Friday, the body of Welly Nzitonda, the son of a leading human rights activist, was discovered.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said the killing, which he called an assassination, "reinforces fears that there is a systematic policy of targeting members of the opposition, journalists, human rights defenders and ordinary citizens perceived to be opposing the government".
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the discovery of bodies in Bujumbura was now a regular occurrence - and many victims showed evidence of summary execution.
Mr Ban said Burundian authorities had a responsibility to protect civilians.
The International Crisis Group and others were commenting on remarks by Burundi's Senate President Reverien Ndikuriyo - who threatened to "pulverise" opponents who did not lay down arms.
Uganda is leading regional efforts to broker peace talks and the UN Security Council is expected to discuss the violence at a meeting on Monday. | Scores of people are leaving their homes in Burundi's capital ahead of a promised government crackdown. |
37,831,644 | Bold or underwhelming celebrity appearances, out-there fashion, and the spectre of bad weather are perennial talking points outside the two-mile gallop.
This year did not disappoint.
Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, sent photographers into a spin when she arrived at Flemington Racecourse dressed entirely in white.
A wild scrum produced a stream of images, with photographers seemingly undeterred about how far away they were from the magnate, who recently made headlines for upping her bid for Australia's largest private landholding.
She quickly moved to spend her day inside the exclusive Birdcage zone, prompting some to muse that she and fellow billionaire Anthony Pratt were "probably the last people requiring a free lunch".
But her exit from the marquee was less glamorous than her entrance.
In a moment captured by some quick-fingered photographers despite the best efforts of her security detail, she tripped down the stairs.
The jostle to get the crucial shot is de rigeur come Melbourne Cup time, and of course, everyone wanted a slice of the famed three-pronged, 18-carat gold prize.
Early on, it seemed the weather gods were smiling on Flemington...
Then, true to Melbourne's highly changeable weather, the first sign of gloom appeared.
Rain finally arrived to spoil the party just as the race finished.
The most important day of the year did not go well for one betting company, with its site going down for at least 90 minutes.
Betfair tweeted it had a "technical glitch preventing bet placement", prompting mockery online.
"Betfair exchange has gone down on Melbourne Cup day. LOLZ," one user tweeted. "Terrible terrible terrible," wrote another.
Television and musical star Rob Mills found a unique way to celebrate, turning up in perhaps the day's most eye-popping wear.
Mills donned a blue blazer covered in Melbourne Cup pins to raise money for the Starlight Foundation,
Of course, no Melbourne Cup would be complete without the customary snaps of race-goers entertaining themselves after a few too many glasses of champagne.
Nine people were arrested and 78 punters evicted from the racecourse this year. A 75-year-old woman was also reportedly fined after being caught drink-driving the wrong way through a roundabout in Hastings, after attending a cup function. | The Melbourne Cup may be Australia's biggest horse race, but it's almost as famous for everything that surrounds it. |
28,276,739 | Crowds greeted the boats as they arrived at Tower Bridge at 12:45 BST.
Twelve teams, largely made up of novices, tackled hurricanes and tornadoes as they raced between six continents.
The crew from the winning vessel, Henri Lloyd, was presented with a trophy at St Katharine Docks.
The race was founded by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who became the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world in 1968-69.
He said: "It is a tight race, but in racing with a tight crew that is teamwork and that's where you learn you can do things you didn't realise you could do.
"You work together and you trust your lives to each other on a boat."
Most of the crew members - 670 from more than 40 nations - were novices, although each boat was skippered by a professional.
The Clipper Race took in South Africa, Western Australia, Sydney, Singapore, China, San Francisco, Panama, Jamaica, New York, Derry and the Netherlands before returning to London.
During the challenge, one man was rescued from the Pacific Ocean after going overboard for 90 minutes, the organisers said.
It was the first time that London had hosted the event, which left the capital on 1 September. | Hundreds of sailors have returned to London 11 months after setting off on the 40,000-mile (64,000km) Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. |
39,417,642 | Economy Secretary Keith Brown told MSPs that the bridge's contractors had indicated that strong winds had affected the estimated completion date.
He will give an update on the revised timescale on Wednesday.
The bridge was originally due to open in December but bad weather had already delayed the completion date until May.
Mr Brown said he would provide an update to the Scottish Parliament's rural economy and connectivity (REC) committee on Wednesday.
The £1.35bn link will replace the Forth Road Bridge as the main road route between Edinburgh and Fife.
The final section of the deck was lifted into place last month.
Mr Brown was pressed for clarity on the opening date by Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser following press reports that the bridge was facing further delays.
Mr Brown said he had asked contractor FCBC to carry out "a thorough review of their programme" following his appearance at the REC committee on 8 March.
The structure is 207m above high tide (683ft), equivalent to about 48 double decker buses stacked on top of each other.
It is 50m (25%) higher than existing Forth Road Bridge
The steel required for the bridge deck weighs a total of 35,000 tonnes - equivalent to almost 200 Boeing 747s
The combined steel required for North and South viaducts weighs 7,000 tonnes - enough to make another 23 Kelpies.
The bridge has windshielding to almost entirely eliminate the need for closures during the frequent periods of high winds in the Forth estuary.
"That work has indicated that adverse weather conditions, particularly wind, has had an impact on the removal of the construction cranes and, therefore, on the estimated completion date," he said.
"Transport Scotland is currently assessing that review carried out by FCBC and I expect to receive a report from them this evening.
"I've agreed to provide a detailed update to the committee tomorrow morning."
Mr Fraser said this would be the second delay in the completion of the bridge.
"We were promised by the first minister previously it would be completed by the end of last year, we were then told by the cabinet secretary it would be completed by the end of May, we are now looking at a further delay.
"When will it be ready?" he asked.
Mr Brown would not be drawn on reports that contractors had asked for the completion date to be extended to September.
He said the seven-year project was about a quarter of a billion pounds below budget "and that won't change".
"This bridge will be there for 120 years, it's very important that we both get it right and that we do it safely," he added.
He added that as a result of high winds, it had taken 65 days to take down one of the cranes - a process which would normally have taken 15 days. | The opening of the new Queensferry Crossing is set to be further delayed due to "adverse weather conditions", it has been confirmed. |
38,906,591 | A study of the attitudes of 15- to 21-year-olds in 20 countries examined levels of optimism, confidence and a sense of being loved.
Japan was the only country lower than the UK on this wellbeing ranking, published by the Varkey Foundation education charity.
Only 15% of young people in the UK said they got enough sleep and exercise.
The study looked at the views and expectations of so-called Generation Z, born in the years around the new millennium, based on a survey of more than 20,000 people in countries including the UK, the United States. France, Germany, India, China and Argentina.
And it suggested that there was no clear link between material wellbeing and mental health.
While the UK was almost at the bottom of the rankings for wellbeing, along with countries such as Japan and South Korea, the top places were taken by young people in Indonesia, India and Nigeria.
South Korea, with a reputation for a fiercely pressurised education system, was the only country where young people actively disliked where they lived.
Young people across this global sample, including the UK, reported that they were more pessimistic than optimistic about the future.
Although young people in China and India both bucked these gloomy expectations - with their young anticipating a more positive future.
The perception of risk from extremism, terrorism and conflict was widespread - more so than worries about climate change or inequalities between rich and poor.
In the UK, extremism and terror was identified as the biggest single reason for being "fearful for the future", followed by the threat of "conflict and war".
There were big differences in attitudes towards the principle of free speech - and whether it should be protected even for views might offend.
Only about a third of young people in Nigeria supported the right to free speech, if it was likely to offend some ethnic groups or religious beliefs.
In contrast, more than two-thirds of young people in Argentina supported free speech, regardless of who it might antagonise.
But there was a common global trend for these young people to hold broadly liberal views on issues such as migration, religious tolerance, equal rights for men and women and acceptance of same-sex marriage.
"At a time of nationalist and populist movements that focus on the differences between people, the evidence shows that young people - whatever their nationality or religion - share a strikingly similar view of the world," said Vikas Pota, chief executive of the Varkey Foundation.
"Teenagers in Nigeria, New Delhi and New York share many of same priorities, fears, ambitions and opinions.
"There is far more unity among young people than a glance at the headlines would suggest.
"Young people are passionate believers in the right to live the life that they choose, whatever their background, free of prejudice of all kinds."
But Mr Pota said that this was also a generation that was "deeply pessimistic about the future of the world". | Young people in the UK have some of the lowest levels of "mental wellbeing", according to an international survey. |
35,498,357 | The proposed funding will also support de-mining, humanitarian and counter-narcotics projects, he said.
The aid was announced after President Obama held talks at the White House with his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos.
He told Mr Santos the US would be "your partner in waging peace".
It was "an incredible moment of promise" for ending the long-running conflict in Colombia, he said.
The new plan is called Peace Colombia, but the fact is that even if a final agreement to end 50 years of internal conflict with the Farc is achieved - which looks extremely likely - the negotiations with the second largest rebel group in the country, the ELN, seem stalled.
Although much smaller in size, with about 1,400 armed fighters, the ELN has shown it can still do damage.
They are still kidnapping civilians, capturing soldiers and killing members of the security forces in confrontations.
Although an agreement with the Farc would be an accomplishment that should not be underestimated, if the ELN do not follow suit Colombia can hardly yet speak of peace.
That is, unless the government launches such a strong offensive that they defeat the ELN militarily.
Mr Santos has said he expects his government to sign a peace deal with the Farc next month. Both sides have agreed a 23 March deadline to reach an agreement.
It comes after Farc rebels said they were willing to lay down their weapons after five decades of conflict.
Peace negotiations were launched in Cuba in November 2012.
The post-conflict period "is more difficult than the process itself", said Mr Santos.
The Farc, which was founded in 1964, will give up its armed struggle and join the legal political process.
Last week, the United Nations Security Council voted to accept a request from the Farc and the Colombian government to appoint a mission to oversee the end of the conflict.
"This is really a step that makes the process irreversible," Mr Santos told the BBC on Wednesday.
He added the rebels also agreed to "cut every link that they have with drug trafficking", as part of the accord.
"They recognise that they have financed themselves through drug trafficking, or taxing the drug traffickers. That's what they say.
"And they will in a way help us, especially in those remote areas, to convince the peasants to switch to legal crops," he said.
Colombia is the world's top producer of cocaine. | President Barack Obama has said he will ask the US Congress for $450m (£309m) in aid to help Colombia implement a peace deal with the Farc rebel group. |
32,909,887 | Mr Hatton, the former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council, was thrown out of Labour in 1986 for belonging to the left-wing Militant faction.
The 67-year-old told ITV Granada he had rejoined the party two days after its general election defeat.
"I just felt I should do something," he said, saying there was now "no difference between the parties".
However he will need to appeal against the objection, from general secretary Iain McNicol, if he wants to continue with his application.
The Militant Tendency, which emerged from a Trotskyist group called the Revolutionary Socialist League, held key positions in the Liverpool Labour Party as it battled the Conservative Thatcher government in the 1980s.
After the then party leader Neil Kinnock condemned the council's actions, Mr Hatton, a former firefighter who had been elected to the city council in 1979, was expelled when a disciplinary panel found him guilty of membership of the Militant Tendency and of manipulating the rules of the district Labour Party.
Explaining why he had recently decided to rejoin, two days after Labour's election defeat to the Conservatives, Mr Hatton said the party had "drifted and drifted and drifted", with "the same type of Eton/Oxford person going forward" from the different parties.
"People now need to see that there is a clear choice when they go to the booth," he said.
He said he did not "for one second" expect his past to be a barrier to membership, because "the world is a different place, the Labour Party is a different place, Derek Hatton is a different person".
A Labour spokeswoman said: "The general secretary of the Labour Party has objected to this application to join." | Labour's general secretary has objected to a bid by former firebrand councillor Derek Hatton to rejoin the party. |
40,023,488 | The move came after investigators were unable to rule out whether Manchester bombing suspect Salman Abedi acted alone, the prime minister said.
Military personnel will now be deployed to protect key sites.
Twenty-two people were killed and 59 injured when a suicide bomber attacked Manchester Arena on Monday evening.
The prime minister said soldiers would be placed in key public locations to support armed police in protecting the public.
Military personnel may also be seen at other events over the coming weeks, such as concerts, Mrs May said, working under the command of police officers.
The prime minister said she did not want the public to feel "unduly alarmed" but said it was a "proportionate and sensible response".
The highest threat level, which is decided by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre - a group of experts from the police, government departments and agencies - has only been reached twice before.
Met Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, who is the national counter-terrorism policing lead, said the investigation was "fast-moving and making good progress".
"However, a critical line of inquiry is whether the dead terrorist was acting alone or part of a group," he said.
"We still have critical lines of inquiry they're chasing down which has led to a level of uncertainty."
The first time the threat level was raised to critical was in 2006 during a major operation to stop a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners with liquid bombs.
The following year, security chiefs raised it once more as they hunted for the men who had tried to bomb a London nightclub, before going on to attack Glasgow Airport.
Former Salford University student Salman Abedi - understood to be a 22-year-old born in Manchester to parents of Libyan descent - is thought to have blown himself up in the arena's foyer shortly after 22:30 BST on Monday.
Fans were beginning to leave a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.
Three of his victims have been named - Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, Georgina Callander - thought to be 18 - and John Atkinson, 28.
So-called Islamic State has said - via IS channels on the messaging app Telegram - it was behind the Manchester attack, but this has not been verified.
This is a major and very rare move by the UK's security chiefs.
For the past few years, ministers, police chiefs and others have been at pains to try to warn the public that the threat faced by the UK was severe.
But they have steered clear of warning, even when a major plot was being tracked, that an attack could be close. This time, they feel they have no choice other than to say it may be imminent.
In short, nobody at this stage can say for sure whether Abedi acted alone or with the help of others. They can't rule out if there are other people out there.
What does it mean for us, the public?
Some of us will see the Army in key locations that need guarding so that armed police can be freed to focus on policing rather than guarding.
We should expect additional time-consuming security checks at ports and so on.
The aim for security chiefs is to ratchet up the security while keeping the country moving.
The wounded, who include 12 children aged under 16, are being treated at eight hospitals across Manchester.
Several people are still missing, including Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from Barra in the Outer Hebrides, 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19.
Eilidh's friend, Laura MacIntyre, 15 - who was also reported as missing - was later identified as one of the seriously injured in a Manchester hospital.
Thousands of people turned out for the vigil in Manchester and to hold a minute's silence to remember those who died.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Commons Speaker John Bercow stood on stage alongside Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins.
Vigils have been held elsewhere, including in Birmingham, where the event was interrupted after a man apparently armed with a large knife and a baseball bat was detained nearby.
The arena bombing is the worst terrorist attack in the UK since the 7 July bombings in 2005, in which 52 people were killed by four suicide bombers.
Witnesses at the arena described seeing metal nuts and bolts among the debris of Monday's bomb, and spoke about the fear and confusion that gripped concert-goers.
Andy Holey, who had gone to pick up his wife and daughter, said: "An explosion went off and it threw me about 30ft from one set of doors to the other set of doors."
Emma Johnson, who was waiting for her children, aged 15 and 17, said: "The whole building shook. There was a blast and then a flash of fire afterwards. There were bodies everywhere."
Teenager Abigail Walker told the BBC: "I had to make sure I had my sister. I grabbed hold of her and pulled hard. Everyone was running and crying.
"It was absolutely terrifying." | The UK terror threat level has been raised to its highest level of "critical", meaning further attacks may be imminent, Theresa May has said. |
17,955,805 | 1492 - The Christian Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon conquer the Emirate of Granada, ending nearly 800 years of Muslim rule in the south and founding modern Spain as a united state.
Christopher Columbus arrives in the Americas, heralding the conquest of much of South and Central America. Jews and later Muslims are expelled from Spain during the Inquisition.
16th-17th centuries - Spanish Empire at its height, with Spain the predominant European power. The rise of Protestant states in northern Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean begin the country's gradual decline.
18th century - The War of the Spanish Succession loses Spain its European possessions outside the Iberian Peninsula. Bourbon dynasty, originally from France, centralises the Spanish state, shutting down many regional autonomous assemblies and modernising government and the military.
1807-1814 - Napoleon's France occupies Spain, which has been a French satellite since 1795. Fierce nationalist resistance and British intervention in the Peninsular War gradually force French troops out.
19th century - Napoleonic legacy of political division and economic dislocation leaves Spain weak and unstable, with frequent changes of government and a low-level insurgency by Carlist supporters of a rival branch of the royal family. All Latin American colonies win their independence, with Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines in Asia lost during a disastrous war with the United States in 1898.
1910s - Spain sought compensation in conquering colonies in Africa, most significantly northern Morocco and the Spanish Sahara.
1920s - The trade boom achieved by neutrality in the First World War is squandered through fighting Moroccan rebels and the financial mismanagement of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship at home.
1931 - The return of democratic government leads to an electoral backlash against the monarchy and its allies, and a republic is declared. Radical policies of land reform, labour rights, educational expansion and anti-Church legislation deepen the political divide.
1936 - After two years of right-wing government, a Popular Front coalition of left-wing and liberal parties narrowly wins parliamentary elections and seeks to reintroduce the radical policies of 1931. A coup by right-wing military leaders captures only part of the country, leading to three years of civil war.
Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy actively support the Nationalist rebels, while only the Soviet Union provides highly conditional assistance to the Republic. Britain and France support an arms embargo that effectively dooms the Republic, despite enthusiastic volunteers from all over Europe and the Americas who join the Communist-run International Brigades.
General Franco's dictatorship spanned nearly four decades
Spanish Mass marks Franco death
Franco's ghost still haunts Spain
1975: Franco's 36-year reign ends
1939 - General Francisco Franco leads the Nationalists to victory in the Civil War. More than 350,000 Spaniards died in the fighting, and Franco purges all remaining Republicans. Spain remains neutral throughout the Second World War, although the government's sympathies clearly lie with the Axis powers.
1946-50 - Francoist Spain is ostracised by United Nations and many countries sever diplomatic relations.
1950s - As the Cold War deepens the US gradually improves relations with Spain, extending loans in return for military bases. Spain is admitted to the UN in 1955 and the World Bank in 1958, and other European countries open up to the Franco government.
El Milagro Espanol - the economic miracle of the late 1950s - sees Spain's manufacturing and tourism industries take off through liberalisation of state controls over the next two decades.
1959 - The Eta armed separatist group is founded with the aim of fighting for an independent homeland in the Basque region of Spain and France. Its violent campaign begins with an attempt to derail a train carrying politicians in 1961.
1968 - West African colony of Spanish Guinea gains independence as Equatorial Guinea.
1973 December - Eta kills Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in retaliation for the government's execution of Basque fighters. Subsequent attempts to liberalise the Franco government founder on internal divisions.
1975 November - Franco dies. Succeeded as head of state by King Juan Carlos. With Juan Carlos on the throne, Spain makes transition from dictatorship to democracy. Spain withdraws from the Spanish Sahara, ending its colonial empire.
King Juan Carlos, pictured in 1975 with General Franco, left, supported moves toward democracy
1978: Spain set to vote for democracy
1977 June - First free elections in four decades. Ex-Francoist Adolfo Suarez's Union of the Democratic Centre manages a relatively smooth transition to stable democracy.
1978 - New constitution confirms Spain as a parliamentary monarchy. Eta's political wing, Herri Batasuna, is founded. 'Galaxia' coup plot uncovered.
1980 - 118 people are killed in Eta's bloodiest year so far.
1981 February - Coup attempt; rebels seize parliament and tanks take to the streets of Valencia in an attempt to prevent the appointment of a new Union of the Democratic Centre government. Plotters surrender after King Juan Carlos makes a televised address demanding an end to the coup.
1982 - Another coup plot by right-wing extremists discovered shortly before Socialists win large majority and form a government. Spain joins Nato.
1986 - Spain joins the European Economic Community, later to become the European Union.
1992 - Summer Olympic Games held in Barcelona. Seville hosts Expo 92. Celebrations mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage to America.
1995 - Leader of opposition rightwing Popular Party, Jose Maria Aznar, survives a car bomb blast.
1996 March - Jose Maria Aznar becomes PM following a stability deal with moderate Catalan and Basque nationalists, who hold the balance of power, after a general election in which his Popular Party emerges as the largest party but without an outright majority.
1997 July - Eta, demanding that Basque prisoners be transferred closer to home, kidnaps and kills Basque councillor Miguel Angel Blanco. Killing sparks national outrage and brings an estimated 6 million Spaniards onto the streets in protest.
1997 December - 23 leaders of Herri Batasuna jailed for seven years for collaborating with Eta - the first time any members of the party are jailed as a result of Eta links.
1998 April - Crops destroyed and wildlife wiped out when an iron pyrite mine reservoir belonging to a Canadian-Swedish company bursts its banks causing toxic waste spillage. Waterways feeding Europe's largest wildlife reserve, the Donana national park, are severely contaminated.
1998 September - Eta announces its first indefinite ceasefire since its campaign of violence began. It calls the ceasefire off in November, claiming lack of a response from the government.
2000 - Madrid car bombs mark return to violence. Aznar's Popular Party (PP) wins landslide in general elections.
Eta's campaign for a sovereign Basque state has cost many lives
Timeline: Eta campaign
2002 January - Peseta replaced by Euro.
2002 June - Eta suspected of being behind bomb blasts in several tourist resorts as EU summit held in Seville.
2002 July - Naval standoff with Morocco over disputed rocky outcrop of Perejil ends when foreign ministers agree to restore status quo.
2002 November - North-west coastline suffers ecological disaster after oil tanker Prestige breaks up and sinks about 130 miles out to sea.
2003 March - Indefinite ban imposed on Basque separatist Batasuna party.
2004 March - 191 people killed in explosions on packed rush-hour trains in Madrid in near-simultaneous pre-election attacks by an Islamic group with links to al-Qaeda.
With Spain still in mourning, the Socialists under Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero defy earlier opinion polls and win a general election.
2004 April - Prime Minister Zapatero orders Spanish troops withdrawn from Iraq in May.
2005 February - Voters approve the EU constitution in a referendum.
2005 May - Government offers peace talks with Eta if the group disarms.
2005 June - Parliament defies Roman Catholic Church by legalising gay marriage and granting homosexual couples same adoption and inheritance rights as heterosexual ones.
2005 September-October - At least 11 die and many more are injured in a series of mass attempts by African migrants to enter the enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta from Morocco in a bid to reach Spain. Spain reviews decision to deport those who do get through back to Morocco after expressions of international concern.
2006 January - Lt Gen Jose Mena Aguado sacked as head of army ground forces after suggesting that the military might take action in Catalonia if the region gains too much autonomy.
2006 March - Eta declares a ceasefire. In June, Prime Minister Zapatero says the government will hold peace talks with the group.
2006 June - Voters in Catalonia back proposals to give the region greater autonomy as well as the status of a nation within Spain.
2006 December - Prime Minister Zapatero suspends moves to seek dialogue with Eta after a car bomb attack at a Madrid airport.
2007 June - Eta calls off ceasefire.
2007 October - Twenty-one mainly North Africans are found guilty and given long jail sentences for the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
2007 November - Parliament passes a bill formally denouncing Franco's rule and ordering the removal of all Franco-era statues and symbols from streets and buildings.
2008 March - The Socialists win re-election with an increased margin, but falls short of an absolute majority.
2009 January - Spanish economy enters recession for first time since 1993.
2009 March - Unemployment soars to 17.4%, with over 4 million people jobless.
2009 May - The parliament of the Basque region votes in the first non-nationalist regional government in more than 30 years under Socialist leadership, following elections in March.
2009 July - Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visits Gibraltar - the first visit by a Spanish minister in 300 years.
2010 February - Thousands of workers demonstrate against government spending cuts and plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 67 - the first mass labour protests since the Socialists came to power in 2004.
2010 May - Unemployment rate climbs to over 20% for first time in nearly 13 years. Parliament approves 15bn-euro (£13bn) austerity package.
2010 September - Eta declares new ceasefire. Spanish government dismisses the move, saying there can be no political settlement until Eta renounces violence for good and disarms.
2011 September - Parliament approves constitutional amendment setting legally binding cap on public sector borrowing.
2011 November - Conservative Popular Party wins resounding victory in parliamentary election.
2011 December - New government headed by Mariano Rajoy takes office. Announces new round of austerity measures to slash public spending by 16.5bn euros (£14bn) and nearly halve the public deficit from about 8% of GDP in 2012.
2012 January - Unemployment total passes the 5 million mark. This represents a jobless rate of 22.8% - the highest in the eurozone. Almost half of all 16-24 year-olds are out of work.
2012 April - Spain slips back into recession as economy contracts by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2012, and by 0.4% in the second.
2012 June - Spain formally requests assistance from the eurozone financial emergency facility to bail out its struggling bank sector. The eurozone had offered to provide up to 100bn euros in help, following an audit.
2012 August - Unemployment climbs to 25.1% of the workforce, with a youth (under-25s) joblessness rate of 52.9%.
Catalonia, which produces a fifth of Spain's economic output, seeks a 5bn-euro (£4.2bn) bailout from the central government, which has set up a 18bn-euro public fund to help the 17 heavily-indebted autonomous regions.
2012 September - Government creates "bad bank" to off-load toxic property assets of indebted banking sector. Eurozone countries demand this as one of a number of conditions for any bail-out loan for Spain.
2012 November - Catalan regional elections held to provide support for a referendum on independence see Artur Mas's governing Convergence and Union alliance losing ground to the left-wing ERC party.
Both support the independence referendum, but the ERC opposes the Catalan government's spending cuts. The Spanish government says it will not recognise a referendum vote for secession.
The European Commission approves the government's plans to restructure the troubled banks Bankia, Banco de Valencia, NCG and Catalunya Banc, which were nationalised after experiencing heavy losses on loans to homebuyers and property developers.
The Basque armed group Eta issues a statement that it is ready to disband, disarm and enter talks with the French and Spanish governments.
2013 March - European Court of Justice rules that Spanish law does not do enough to protect homeowners who default on their mortgages from being evicted. The ruling comes in response to the eviction of an estimated 350,000 families from their homes in the wake of the 2008 property crash.
2013 April - Spain's unemployment rate soars to new record of 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter, passing six million figure, although the rate of increase slows.
Recession ends
2013 September - Economy registers 0.1% growth in July-September, formally lifting it out of recession.
2014 June - King Juan Carlos abdicates a month after announcing his attention to do so. Succeeded by the crown prince, who reigns as Felipe VI.
2014 November - Spanish government dismisses the result of a symbolic referendum on independence held in Catalonia.
Earlier plans by Catalan regional government to hold formal independence referendum ruled unconstitutional by Spanish courts.
2014 December - A judge orders that Princess Cristina de Borbon, the sister of the Spanish king, be tried on tax fraud charges. No member of the Spanish royal family has ever sat in the dock before.
2015 May - New populist anti-austerity movement Podemos makes dramatic gains in local and regional elections, robbing governing conservative Popular Party and opposition Socialists of majorities in many areas.
2015 December - Popular Party government loses majority in general election that sees Podemos and new liberal Cuidadanos movement perform well. Main opposition Socialist Party declines to join Prime Minister Rajoy in a coalition.
2016 June - Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy claims right to form a government after his Popular Party wins more seats but falls short of a majority in a repeat general election.
2016 August - Mr Rajoy forms a political pact with the centrist, anti-corruption Ciudadanos (Citizens) party, but this still does not give him the absolute majority that he needs in order to become prime minister.
2016 October - Opposition Socialists agree to abstain in a parliamentary confidence vote on which will allow acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to form a minority government and end 10 months of political deadlock. | A chronology of key events: |
35,455,081 | Mohamed Ali Moncer (pictured) gave Tunisia the lead in the first-half.
But a second-half penalty from Aliou Dieng and a goal with 10 minutes left to play from Abdoulaye Diarra sealed the win for Mali.
The victory sets up a semi-final against neighbours Ivory Coast on Thursday.
Moncer stooped to head home the opener for Tunisia after 14 minutes from a cross by Saad Bguir.
Six minutes later Abdoul Toure came close to a Malian equaliser but Tunisian goalkeeper Rami Jeridi made the save.
Tunisia had chances to extend their lead including a fierce shot from Ali Maaloul which was parried away by goalkeeper Diarra Djigui.
After the break Tunisia seemed happy to try and soak up the pressure from Mali and hold on for the win.
Mali got back into the game with 20 minutes left to play when they awarded a penalty after Zied Boughattas handled in the area, Dieng converted from the spot to level the scores.
The winner for Mali came in the 80th minute when Diarra cut into the penalty area from the left wing and placed his low shot beyond Jeridi into the opposite corner.
The final of the tournament for locally-based players only, will be in Kigali next Sunday. | Mali came from goal down to beat Tunisia 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the African Nations Championship in Rwanda. |
38,459,772 | The suspected green mamba was found on a ship that had docked in Aberdeen from west Africa in November.
The snake died after it was placed in a freezer by the animal charity. It was later identified as a harmless snake.
Police Scotland received a complaint, but it has now been decided that no further action will be taken.
The snake - which turned out to be a green tree snake - was put in a freezer after attempts to rehome it with specialist reptile keepers failed.
The Scottish SPCA said staff had genuinely believed it was a green mamba, and safety had to be paramount.
The group Animal Concern contacted Police Scotland after receiving complaints from members of the public.
Animal Concern's John Robins has now received an email from Police Scotland explaining that the matter would not be taken further.
It stated: "The decisions made and actions taken at the time were done with their primary consideration being public safety.
"The chief inspector from Scottish SPCA took the decision using the information she had at the time which pointed to the fact this was a deadly green mamba.
"With this in mind the decision has been made that there will be no criminal proceedings in relation to this incident."
Mr Robins said: "We were surprised about the case. A review of procedures would be positive."
The western green mamba feeds on small animals and rodents and is mainly found in the coastal tropical rainforests of western Africa.
Experts say its bite can be fatal in as little as 30 minutes. | No criminal action will be taken after the Scottish SPCA killed what was thought to be one of the world's most deadly snakes. |
34,628,397 | Ayew, 25, scored a late winner against Aston Villa on Saturday to end Swansea's six-match run without a win.
The Ghana midfielder has now scored five goals in 11 appearances since joining Swansea on a free transfer from Marseille over the summer.
"I believe if I continue to work hard I can do much more," he said.
"It's about getting to know the league better, getting to know my players better. They are helping me with that and giving me the confidence.
"I'm sure with time I can even get better."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Ayew was disappointed not to have given Swansea the lead at Villa Park when a slightly heavy touch allowed on-rushing goalkeeper Brad Guzan to smother his shot in front of goal.
The miss proved even more significant as Guzan's save set Villa on their way to a counter attack that brother Jordan Ayew finished to put Villa ahead.
"It's good for him, but it's even better for us because we got the three points. I'm happy for him but I'm happier for us," added the elder Ayew brother.
Swansea's visit to Villa had been billed as a meeting between two managers under pressure.
Garry Monk's position at Swansea had been brought into focus after failing to win since August, while Tim Sherwood was under far greater scrutiny with just one win to Villa's name all season.
Doubts over Sherwood's future will intensify, as he acknowledged after the match, but Ayew insisted there has been no tension within the Swansea camp.
"The manager never showed any pressure," he said.
"He stayed confident and believed in us. We also believe in what we do and believe in what he proposes to us in training.
"We have great confidence in our manager. That wasn't an issue at all. We just wanted to win because we are all like a family.
"When things are difficult in a family you need to stay united and fight together. That's what we did."
While happy to accept the plaudits for his winning goal, Ayew described Gylfi Sigurdsson's equaliser as the "real match-winner".
Sigurdsson scored a trademark free-kick six minutes after Swansea had fallen behind, giving the visitors fresh impetus to believe a first away win of the season was possible and fuelling Villa's fears of losing again.
"If we hadn't have scored that it would have been a whole different game. But we got the goal and the game changes," said Ayew, already a contender for the best signing of the season.
"We're happy and we hope we're going to continue you like that." | Swansea City match-winner Andre Ayew says there is better to come from him as he grows more accustomed to the Premier League. |
30,541,605 | The robber stole a three-figure sum from the Niddrie Licensed Grocers in Niddrie Mill Drive during the incident, which occurred around 13:10 on Thursday.
Police have appealed for three customers who were in the shop moments before the robbery to get in touch.
The suspect has been described as a white man aged around 30.
He is around 5ft 10in - 6ft tall (1.8m) and of gaunt appearance.
The man was wearing a black hooded top, a black scarf covering his mouth, black jogging trousers and white trainers.
He was carrying a black and white polythene shopping bag and fled the shop on foot.
Police have said he used a handgun during the incident.
Det Sgt Robbie Wallace said: "While the shopkeeper was not physically harmed, this was a very distressing experience for her.
"We are keen to trace the suspect as quickly as possible, and ask that anyone with information should contact police immediately." | A shopkeeper was threatened by a man with a gun during an armed robbery in Edinburgh. |
40,095,235 | Thousands of people have descended on the Borders for the first week of events in the TweedLove Bike Festival.
A trail run, mountain bike marathon and family day in Peebles were among the opening attractions.
Children's events were a particular focus with hundreds of riders taking part.
Now in its eighth year, TweedLove describes itself as the UK's biggest cycling festival with more than 40 events over a three-week period.
Its second "big weekend" - from 9 to 11 June - includes a "mega bike demo" with bicycles worth up to £10,000 available for the public to try. | All images courtesy TweedLove Festival. |
37,132,568 | In a ballot of 3,500 members, just over half took part and 83% voted to strike.
Union officials said the Post Office was "on the path to extinction" and the government must now intervene.
In April, the Post Office announced plans to move up to 61 more branches into WH Smith stores over the next year.
The move is part of a 10-year agreement to relocate more branches into the retailer's stores.
Dave Ward, CWU general secretary, said: "Staff in the Post Office face 2,000 job losses this year, the closure of their pension scheme and a strategy of slash and burn from the board of the company.
"The Post Office is at crisis point and the government has to step in." | Post Office staff have voted for strike action over planned cuts to jobs, services and pensions, the Communication Workers Union has said. |
39,281,900 | The Germany and Borussia Dortmund midfielder, 24, has been limited to nine Bundesliga starts because of muscular problems since re-signing from Bayern Munich last summer.
Gotze is on a rehabilitation programme and could be training by early summer, but it depends on how he responds to treatment, said the German club.
Dortmund added: "The long-term target for the player is to be fully fit and ready to play for the start of next season".
"BVB wish Mario Gotze a fast recovery, also in the name of their 10 million fans," said Borussia Dortmund's chief executive officer Hans-Joachim Watzke.
Gotze, who scored Germany's extra-time winning goal against Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final, has played 24 minutes of Bundesliga action in 2017. | World Cup winner Mario Gotze has been ruled out for the rest of the season as he recovers from a "metabolic disorder" but is expected to be "fully fit" for the start of next term. |
33,035,787 | About 400 people took part in the event, held on Freshwater West beach near Castlemartin in Pembrokeshire, on Saturday afternoon.
The record attempt was organised by Keep Wales Tidy in a bid to raise the profile of the Welsh coast ahead of the summer season. | Hundreds of people have attempted to break the world record for the most people making sand angels simultaneously. |
39,569,984 | Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the government will put forward a passenger rights law this spring.
It is expected to include compensation rules for those denied boarding due to factors within the carrier's control.
Mr Garneau announced the plan last year, but restated it as footage of a US passenger being forcibly removed from a flight made global headlines.
The incident on Sunday evening's flight from Chicago to Louisville has been a public relations disaster for United Airlines.
A spokesman for Mr Garneau said he could not get into the specifics of the Air Travellers Passenger Rights Regime legislation before it is introduced to Parliament.
But in a November 2016 speech to Montreal's Chamber of Commerce, Mr Garneau said Canadian travellers report a sense of frustration at both the cost of air travel and confusion about their rights when flight problems arise.
The measure would "ensure that Canadians' rights are protected by rules that are both fair and clear", he said.
In 2008, Canada introduced Flight Rights Canada, a voluntary code of conduct for airlines around passenger rights related to tarmac delays, flight cancellations and overbooking.
Under that code, if a plane is overbooked or cancelled, a carrier must either find the passenger a seat with another flight, buy the passenger a seat on another carrier with whom it has an agreement, or refund the unused portion of the ticket.
The Canadian Transportation Agency receives an average of about 50 complaints a year from passengers saying they were denied boarding.
Ambarish Chandra, with the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, says that airlines bumping passengers is an "unavoidable" fact of air travel.
"I don't think the goal of legislation should be to eliminate bumping," he said, noting that having full flights helps keep ticket costs in check.
"But legislation does need to protect passengers and make very clear what passengers rights are in various situations."
Mr Garneau expects the rights legislation to be in place by 2018. | Canada has said it is taking steps to tackle airline overbooking, following an incident involving United Airlines. |
37,015,236 | The former Barcelona and Spain striker joined the Cookie Monster and Rosita to film a segment for the television show's Love to Learn campaign.
The 34-year-old, now playing for MLS side New York City FC, taught the two furry characters the importance of sportsmanship and teamwork.
"I grew up watching the show and now my children watch the show, so to me, it's a great honour to join the long list of notable people who have been a part of the historic program," he said.
Villa was part of the Spain squad that won the European Championship in 2008 and World Cup two years later.
He won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2011.
Former England captain David Beckham and basketball legend Kobe Bryant are among the sportspeople to have appeared on Sesame Street. | David Villa's impressive CV boasts a World Cup, a European Championship, the Champions League... and now an appearance on Sesame Street. |
39,489,942 | The 21-year-old and three others were allegedly involved in a disturbance in the VIP section of Livello in October.
Newcastle Magistrates' Court heard an amateur footballer, Wesley Erskine, was hurt during the incident.
Geoffrey Forrester, defending, said the allegations would be "seriously contested".
The court heard Mr Erskine, had been on a night out in Newcastle with his teammates when violence broke out.
Keith Laidlaw, prosecuting, said: "Mr Wesley Erskine suffered injuries when bottles were smashed and bottles where thrown around by a number of the defendants in this case."
Jamar Collins, 21, from Bristol, Jean Coly, 23, from Liverpool, and Joan Jacob, 45, from Newcastle, also appeared in court.
All three are charged with violent disorder and Coly an additional charge of wounding with intent.
All four were granted unconditional bail and will appear at Newcastle Crown Court on 3 May.
The Jamaica-born winger joined the club in 2012. | Newcastle United winger Rolando Aarons has appeared in court charged with violent disorder over a bar brawl in the city. |
34,923,388 | Cais said the focus was on the older generation who had been long-time drinkers.
The charity's chief executive Clive Wolfendale added the next task was to stop younger people turning to alcohol.
He pointed to positive signs on that front but said teenagers were experimenting with newer substances like "legal highs".
"The alcohol problem is going to be with us for the next decade," said Mr Wolfendale, who is a former acting chief constable of North Wales Police.
"We can't give up on people who have got themselves in a mess and we'll certainly treat them. We've got to stop the next generation from becoming fixated with the stuff.
"If you look at drinking patterns among teenagers, it's reducing and that's to be welcomed.
"That's down to lifestyle education and skills and a new awareness of fitness and keeping well but I think young people will be experimenting with newer substances.
While north Wales-based Cais has seen the balance shift towards dealing with more alcohol cases than drugs over the last few years, Mr Wolfendale believes "legal highs" are the main problem going forward.
Earlier this year, his charity, along with Sands Cymru in south Wales, opposed UK government plans for a blanket ban on the drugs.
They argued the Psychoactive Substances Bill would only drive the drugs underground.
Mr Wolfendale said dealing with "legal highs" would be the "biggest challenging area" going into 2016.
"It's a huge problem that is present across the board. These things come on to the streets at alarming speeds and can be a significant problem.
"Over the next few years, the impact will really hit home." | Alcohol abuse centres will be dealing with the problem "for the next decade", one of Wales' biggest charities warned. |
34,664,926 | Air France-KLM reported a better-than-expected improvement in third quarter earnings while Germany's Lufthansa raised its full year profit target as a result of strong demand and low fuel prices.
There have been strikes at both airlines as they tried to compete with lower-cost rivals.
Shares in both airlines have fallen.
"We cannot expect to fly for too long with a tailwind of low oil prices," said Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr.
While it raised its full year profit forecast, it stressed that "does not incorporate any strike-related costs which might be incurred between now and year-end".
For the first nine months of the year it reported a net profit of €1.75bn ($1.92bn; £1.26bn), up from €482m in the same period of 2014.
Meanwhile, Air France-KLM reported a net loss of €158m for the first nine months, compared with a loss of €533m for the corresponding period last year.
"This improvement is however not sufficient to bridge the competitiveness gap with our competitors or to generate the financial resources required to finance the group's growth," said chairman Alexandre de Juniac, inviting union representatives to resume negotiations.
Lufthansa shares fell 2.9% in Frankfurt, while Air France shares fell 1.5% in Paris.
Last month a German court ordered the end of a strike at Lufthansa, which affected 1,000 flights and was the 13th stoppage in 18 months.
Earlier this month, two Air France managers had their shirts torn as they were forced by angry workers to flee a meeting about job cuts . | Two big European airlines have reported improved results but warned more cost-cutting is needed. |
39,570,119 | Tries from Harvey Livett, Daryl Clark and Kurt Gidley gave Wire a slender 16-12 half-time lead.
Danny Brough then converted his own try, adding a penalty, as the Giants hit back to lead 20-16.
But two late Wire tries turned it round and, although Jermaine McGillvary scored in the corner, Brough could not add the extras from the touchline.
Having started the season with two wins from their first three games, the Giants have not won now in eight games since - and they drop to 11th, while last season's beaten finalists Warrington, who failed to win any of their first seven matches, rise two places to ninth.
Against his old club, Tony Smith's Warrington were ahead inside two minutes, in their first attack, when centre Livett scooped up a wayward Declan Patton pass and stepped inside the Giants cover for his first Super League try.
Fine handling between Brough and Jake Mamo allowed Darnell McIntosh to squeeze over in the corner to level at 4-4, but, having earlier been placed on report for a late challenge on Lee Gaskell, Warrington hooker Clark's try restored the hosts' lead, Patton converting.
Six minutes later the Giants were level again, with a try from Mamo after Kruise Leeming's fine midfield break - and Brough not only landed the conversion but also added a penalty to edge the visitors 12-10 in front.
Warrington finished the half the stronger when Gidley crashed over, Patton converting to extend their half-time lead but that was wiped out seven minutes after the restart when the artful Brough sneaked over from dummy half, to tie it up at 16-16.
Brough added the conversion to edge the Giants back in front with a penalty on the hour mark before two tries in three minutes from Rhys Evans and Toby King, who collected Patton's crossfield kick to score, made it 26-20.
But, in a thrilling climax, King lost possession on his own line and, from the last play of the game McGillvary went over in the corner, only for Brough to just fail from the touchline with his bid to claim a third Huddersfield draw in six matches.
Warrington Wolves coach Tony Smith:
"It was ugly but it was two points. It wasn't the prettiest of games by a long shot but we hung on.
"It's been a while I would suggest since we won both our games over Easter so, because of where we are placed in the table, it was probably important to pick up the two points.
"In terms of performance it was very much a second-game-over-Easter performance from both teams. The big men looked tired today and came up with some stuff they normally don't come up with."
Huddersfield Giants coach Rick Stone:
"It was a toss of the coin sort of kick from the touchline, probably on Danny's right side being a left-footer. He had one in the first half which he struck a fraction left and this one went a bit right - but there's no dramas.
"We are not getting a lot of luck or 50-50 decisions and it tends to happen when you are not winning games.
"You have to make your own luck and be energised and be in a position where hopefully we are going to get the rub of the green because in the last couple of weeks we've not had too much."
Warrington: Ratchford; Evans, T King, Livett, Lineham; Patton, Gidley; Hill, Clark, Sims, Jullien, Hughes, Cooper.
Replacements: Philbin, Dwyer, G King, Savelio.
Huddersfield: Mamo; McGillvary, S Wood, Murphy, McIntosh; Brough, Gaskell; Ikahihifo, Hinchcliffe, Wakeman, Mellor, Roberts, Clough.
Replacements: Rapira, Leeming, Mason, Dickinson.
Referee: Ben Thaler (RFL). | Warrington maintained their resurgence with a third straight win as they twice came from behind to beat Huddersfield. |
34,240,921 | Whether you call it a 4-2-3-1 or 4-5-1 formation, there were question marks over the tactics that Reds boss Brendan Rodgers went with at Old Trafford because they left Christian Benteke so isolated up front.
It is easy to say in hindsight that they should have tried something different, but I would suggest that being without the suspended Philippe Coutinho was the biggest reason they offered so little going forward.
You cannot keep making excuses for Liverpool, and some people might respond by saying they just have to be able to adapt when some players are unavailable, no matter who they are.
The fans want to see results now, but there are a few reasons why I don't think it is time to panic - it is extremely early days for a start.
This is a big season for Liverpool and for Rodgers and you certainly cannot judge this team and their prospects of making the top four after only five games, because they have got plenty of time to improve.
I actually feel positive about how Liverpool look in terms of going forward and creating chances, something which was a huge problem for them last season.
They only scored 52 goals in 38 Premier League games, compared to 101 in 2013-14.
When I look at all the attacking players that Rodgers has now got, I think that come the end of the season their goals tally will be fine.
Creativity was an issue at Old Trafford, but Coutinho's absence was a big factor because when he is in the side, they always look a threat.
You could say the fact they missed him so badly means there is a problem with a lack of depth in the squad, but some players are just so good they cannot be easily replaced.
Also, you have to remember they were playing a United team that does not charge forward in the way they did when Sir Alex Ferguson was manager.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Instead, under Louis van Gaal, United look to keep the ball. They are very well organised and their focus is keeping their back four solid and intact.
To go to Old Trafford and open them up and create chances, you need your best players and Rodgers did not have them on Saturday. And there were too many poor performances.
It is not all doom and gloom, though. Daniel Sturridge is close to returning, with Rodgers saying he is the 'fittest he has been in 18 months'. When he plays up front with Benteke, Liverpool's attack will look very different.
If Coutinho is behind them at the tip of a midfield diamond, or cutting in from the left with Sturridge coming in from the right as part of a front three then they will frighten any team.
It is actually defensively where I have more concerns about this Liverpool team, because that is where they could come unstuck.
It was only down to a loss of concentration that Liverpool went a goal down at Old Trafford, but I would still describe it as a terrible goal to concede.
It was such an easy thing to spot, I think everyone could see what was going on when the United players charged into the box for the free-kick and left Daley Blind in space, but no-one took responsibility out there on the pitch.
Ultimately I think it is whether they can defend well enough for long enough to compete that will decide whether they will get into the top four.
I am still not convinced by Simon Mignolet in goal, and I think he spreads nervousness around the back four.
At centre-half, Dejan Lovren started the season reasonably well but has looked shaky again in the last couple of games, which will be a worry for Brendan.
And of course in front of them in the midfield area you are looking for someone to help your defenders out a little bit.
On Saturday, Lucas Leiva played that role but for me he is probably past his best. If Lucas is playing then it is important to have Jordan Henderson in the team for his athleticism and his ability to break up play, but he was injured.
I do not know how far Henderson is off returning, but Liverpool will be much stronger when he does.
Then they could have a midfield three of James Milner, Henderson and Emre Can, who are all very solid and have good legs.
Benteke is not firing on all cylinders yet but he has still got two goals in five games so he is still contributing, and there is definitely more to come from him.
He will be full of confidence now after his wonder-goal against United but probably the most positive aspect of Liverpool's start to the season has been that a couple of Rodgers' other new signings have done really well.
Nathaniel Clyne has been terrific at right-back, and he had Memphis Depay in his pocket on Saturday.
And Joe Gomez looks a real talent too. He is not a left-back but his performances have been impeccable, other than the penalty he gave away at Old Trafford.
That defeat is all that their fans will be talking about at the moment, though. I've lost to United as a Liverpool player and there is always a big reaction.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Your pride is hurt, and so is that of the fans. Everybody feels the pain because those games are the biggest in the club's season.
Saturday's result came off the back of a bad result against West Ham, and two defeats in a row when you are going for the top four is damaging for confidence and morale.
The fixture list has not been kind to Rodgers with trips to Emirates Stadium and Old Trafford in Liverpool's first five games but now they have two home games against Norwich and Aston Villa.
Let's not beat around the bush - Liverpool have to be winning those games if they want to get back into the Champions League. I would imagine Rodgers and the players will tell you exactly the same thing, and all the fans will expect it.
It is never quite as easy as it looks on paper, but two home games is exactly what Liverpool need and I think they will go for the jugular against Norwich - look to dominate and score goals.
If they do win that game comfortably and beat Villa too, then they will have 13 points from seven games and their start to the season looks a lot healthier.
The United game would not be forgotten, but it would be put to bed.
Danny Murphy was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan. | Liverpool's approach in their defeat by Manchester United on Saturday has been criticised because of their lack of attacking threat. |
35,954,116 | Amtrak's Train 89 was heading from New York City to Savannah in Georgia when it struck a mechanical digger - known in the US as a backhoe - that was on the track at Chester.
Some 341 passengers and seven crew members were on board.
All Amtrak services between New York and Philadelphia have been suspended.
An Amtrak statement said the impact with the backhoe had derailed the lead engine of the Palmetto train in Chester, 15 miles (24km) from Philadelphia.
The two people killed are believed to have been construction workers who were unable to get off the track in time.
The statement said local emergency responders were at the scene and an investigation was ongoing.
Chester fire department commissioner Travis Thomas provided the figures on casualties.
Amtrak released an emergency hotline number - 800 532 9101.
In May last year, seven carriages of an Amtrak train derailed on the Philadelphia-New York line, killing seven people and injuring more than 200.
And about 20 people were injured when an Amtrak train derailed 20 miles west of Dodge City, Kansas, last month. | A train has derailed south of the US city of Philadelphia, leaving two people dead and more than 30 others injured. |
38,470,861 | Conservation groups hailed the decision as "historic" and a "game-changer" for the future of elephants.
The move follows a resolution at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in South Africa in October.
China has the biggest ivory market in the world - some estimates suggest 70% of the world's trade ends up there.
The war on elephants
Why elephants are seeking refuge in Botswana
Ivory can reach $1,100 (£850) per kilogram in China.
China's State Council announced the details of the ban on Friday.
The commercial processing and sale of ivory will stop by 31 March, and all registered traders will then be phased out, bringing a full halt to the market by the end of the year.
Conservation group WWF welcomed the latest news, calling it a "historic announcement... signalling an end to the world's primary legal ivory market and a major boost to international efforts to tackle the elephant poaching crisis in Africa".
Elly Pepper, deputy director of wildlife trade for the Natural Resources Defense Council, praised China for its "great leadership" on the issue.
"Setting such an aggressive timeline to close - once and for all - the largest domestic ivory market in the world is globally significant.
"It's a game changer and could be the pivotal turning point that brings elephants back from the brink of extinction," she said.
While the international market in ivory has been closed since 1989, legal domestic markets have continued in many countries around the world.
A surge in the killing of elephants over the past seven years has seen populations across Africa shrink by a third, according to the recently published Great Elephant Census.
China had backed the Cites resolution in October, surprising participants with the strength of its support for a ban.
Some delegates said Beijing had wanted an even stronger resolution. | China has announced a ban on all ivory trade and processing activities by the end of 2017. |
34,900,167 | It tells the story of young dinosaur Arlo who has lots of fears. But with the help of a new friend, he goes on a journey where he learns to be more brave.
The film's director, Peter Sohn, has worked as a writer and animator but has never directed a full length film before.
He was the voice of Squishy in Monsters University and the character of Russell in UP was even based on Peter's face.
Martin has been speaking to Peter to find out more about The Good Dinosaur and what it was like making the movie. | The Good Dinosaur is the next Disney Pixar animation to hit the big screens this Friday. |
36,713,890 | The incident happened at Dun Emer Place in Lusk, about 15 miles (24km) from Dublin city.
The man, who is in his late 30s, was shot a number of times.
He has been taken to Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, where his condition is described as critical.
The Garda SÃochána (Irish police force) said a Volkswagen Golf was seen leaving the area and was discovered burnt out at Kilhedge Lane in Lusk a short time later. | A man is in a critical condition in hospital after he was shot in north County Dublin shortly before 10:00 local time on Tuesday. |
34,656,711 | Whatever the inconsistencies in Moscow's own policies, it has highlighted the deficiencies in Washington's approach - not least the collapse of its ailing "train and equip" programme for Syria, which was largely going nowhere.
Washington badly needs a new approach. US prestige in the region is at a low point.
Most of its allies are in one way or another negotiating with Moscow, and the clear message is that any new diplomatic path will run through the Russian capital rather than Washington.
Moscow's air strikes have overwhelmingly targeted non-Islamic State (IS) groups and to that extent have actually assisted the so-called IS.
Indicative of the ailing US policy is that the frequency of US air strikes against IS targets in Syria has slowed significantly since the Russian air campaign began in early September.
So US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter's appearance before the influential Senate Armed Services Committee provided an opportunity for the Obama administration to set out a new policy, to reflect the changing dynamics in the region.
What he delivered, though, was far from new - and his comments raise all sorts of questions about the scale and scope of any future US military involvement.
Two things should be clear from the outset.
The US can no more than Russia resolve the twin crises in Syria and Iraq from the outside.
That depends upon key regional actors and probably most of all upon the various factions engaged on the ground.
Secondly, the Obama administration is deeply conflicted on intervention in the Middle East.
After all - in the wake of Afghanistan and Iraq - US President Barack Obama cast his foreign policy as one that would withdraw US troops from foreign wars, not engage in new ones.
That policy has had to be modified in the light of the circumstances in Afghanistan.
And we are now seeing the start of the equivalent adjustment for Iraq and Syria.
Before the committee, the US Defence Secretary spoke of a policy guided by what he called the "three Rs", namely "Raqqa, Ramadi and raids".
Much of this remains highly tentative and subject to the same limitations US policy has suffered from the outset - apart from the Kurds, the US lacks effective allies on the ground.
Furthermore, many of the anti-IS forces also opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are either linked to al-Qaeda or more heavily influenced by Turkey or the Gulf States rather than by Washington.
Then there is the question of how much additional military force the US itself is willing to bring to bear.
There is talk of deploying a small number of Apache attack helicopters to Iraq.
That could involve hundreds of extra US personnel.
The question of deploying forward air controllers to maximise the air campaign's impact is also being raised again.
And the new "raiding" policy similarly has many uncertainties.
The mission last week that freed dozens of IS-held prisoners cost the life of one US serviceman, and the Pentagon has been far from clear as to the precise role of US forces in that mission.
A more active policy could well lead to further US casualties, with perhaps only limited tactical results.
Why is there a war in Syria?
Anti-government protests developed into a civil war that, four years on, has ground to a stalemate, with the Assad government, Islamic State, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all holding territory.
Who is fighting whom?
Government forces concentrated in Damascus and the centre and west of Syria are fighting the jihadists of Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, as well as less numerous so-called "moderate" rebel groups, who are strongest in the north and east. These groups are also battling each other.
What is the human cost?
More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and a million injured. Some 11 million others have been forced from their homes, of whom four million have fled abroad - including growing numbers who are making the dangerous journey to Europe.
How has the world reacted?
Iran, Russia and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement are propping up the Alawite-led Assad government, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the more moderate Sunni-dominated opposition, along with the US, UK and France. Hezbollah and Iran are believed to have troops and officers on the ground, while a Western-led coalition and Russia are carrying out air strikes.
Iran's growing role in Syria's war
Syria crisis: Where key countries stand | Russia's intervention in Syria has changed the military and diplomatic dynamic in the crisis and left the US struggling to catch up. |
27,031,180 | "It is the right of every human being to choose their gender," it said in granting rights to those who identify themselves as neither male nor female.
It ordered the government to provide transgender people with quotas in jobs and education in line with other minorities, as well as key amenities.
According to one estimate, India has about two million transgender people.
In India, a common term used to describe transgender people, transsexuals, cross-dressers, eunuchs and transvestites is hijra.
Campaigners say they live on the fringes of society, often in poverty, ostracised because of their gender identity. Most make a living by singing and dancing or by begging and prostitution.
By Geeta PandeyBBC News, Delhi
Members of the third gender have played a prominent role in Indian culture and were once treated with great respect. They find mention in the ancient Hindu scriptures and were written about in the greatest epics Ramayana and Mahabharata.
In medieval India too, they played a prominent role in the royal courts of the Mughal emperors and some Hindu rulers. Many of them rose to powerful positions.
Their fall from grace started in the 18th Century during the British colonial rule when the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 categorised the entire transgender community as "criminals" who were "addicted" to committing serious crimes. They were arrested for dressing in women's clothing or dancing or playing music in public places, and for indulging in gay sex.
After Independence, the law was repealed in 1949, but mistrust of the transgender community has continued. Even today, they remain socially excluded, living on the fringes of society, in ghettoised communities, harassed by the police and abused by the public. Most make a living by singing and dancing at weddings or to celebrate child birth, many have moved to begging and prostitution.
It is hoped that the landmark court ruling will help bring them into the mainstream and improve their lot.
Rights groups say they often face huge discrimination and that sometimes hospitals refuse to admit them.
They have been forced to choose either male or female as their gender in most public spheres.
"Recognition of transgenders as a third gender is not a social or medical issue but a human rights issue," Justice KS Radhakrishnan, who headed the two-judge Supreme Court bench, said in his ruling on Tuesday.
"Transgenders are also citizens of India" and they must be "provided equal opportunity to grow", the court said.
"The spirit of the Constitution is to provide equal opportunity to every citizen to grow and attain their potential, irrespective of caste, religion or gender."
The judges asked the government to treat them in line with other minorities officially categorised as "socially and economically backward", to enable them to get quotas in jobs and education.
"We are quite thrilled by the judgement," Anita Shenoy, lawyer for the petitioner National Legal Services Authority (Nalsa), told the BBC.
"The court order gives legal sanctity to the third gender. The judges said the government must make sure that they have access to medical care and other facilities like separate wards in hospitals and separate toilets," she said.
Prominent transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who was among the petitioners in the case, welcomed the judgement, saying the community had long suffered from discrimination and ignorance in the traditionally conservative country, reports the Agence France-Presse news agency.
"Today, for the first time I feel very proud to be an Indian," Ms Tripathi told reporters outside the court in Delhi.
In 2009, India's Election Commission took a first step by allowing transgenders to choose their gender as "other" on ballot forms.
But India is not the first country to recognise a third gender. Nepal recognised a third gender as early as in 2007 when the Supreme Court ordered the government to scrap all laws that discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. And last year, Bangladesh also recognised a third gender.
Tuesday's ruling comes after the Supreme Court's decision in December which criminalised gay sex by reversing a landmark 2009 Delhi High Court order which had decriminalised homosexual acts.
According to a 153-year-old colonial-era law - Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code - a same-sex relationship is an "unnatural offence" and punishable by a 10-year jail term.
Legal experts say Tuesday's judgement puts transgender people in a strange situation: on the one hand, they are now legally recognised and protected under the Constitution, but on the other hand they may be breaking the law if they have consensual gay sex. | India's Supreme Court has recognised transgender people as a third gender, in a landmark ruling. |
30,037,020 | He said he was confident that they are safe and fit for purpose.
The four constables died when the armoured vehicle crashed and caught fire in County Down in November 2008. They were travelling down a dark, wet road to help a colleague.
The drivers family said the vehicles are unsuitable.
ACC Todd stated that he did not think that the driver of the Shogun, Constable James Magee, had been driving beyond the safe limits of the car or that particular road, and that the Shogun was not an unsuitable choice for him to make that night.
He said: "If I'd been the driver on that night, I would have acted in the same way."
He was unable to confirm whether the non-driving officers had received training in the use of the vehicle's escape hatches.
"I can't look at any of the families here today and tell them hand on heart that the officers who died were trained in the those escape hatches. I'm not able to do that," he said.
ACC Todd confirmed that there was no evidence of testing the Mitsubishi Shoguns when they were first purchased and modified with armour, but that testing since the accident has reassured him of the vehicle's safety.
He said that he would not have continued to allow officers to use those vehicles if he had any remaining concerns.
Due to the rural nature of policing in Newry and Mourne, combined with the high threat level, armoured saloons are simply not appropriate a lot of the time, he said.
The following steps had been taken since the accident, he said:
ACC Todd was the district commander covering Newry and Mourne at the time, and was responsible for 700 officers.
He was the final witness to the Coroner's inquest, and told the court that he had been present for most of the evidence because "these were my people".
Constables Kevin Gorman, James Magee, Kenny Irvine and Declan Greene were killed by a fire in their 4x4 after it crashed.
The crash, near Warrenpoint was the single biggest loss of life in the PSNI's history, and the exact cause of the accident has not yet been established.
A lawyer for Kevin Gorman said that Mr Gorman's family believe the officers were in a vehicle that was unsuitable for the task and which could have contributed towards the accident.
A verdict is expected on Friday. | The police are still using the type of 4x4 in which four officers were killed, Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd has told an inquest. |
40,850,460 | Some of the eggs, which originated from the Netherlands, were also found in France, the country's agricultural ministry said.
The UK's Food Standards Agency say the risk to the public is very low.
The agency is "urgently investigating" the issue, but to the best of their knowledge, the affected products are no longer on shelves.
It says there is no need for people in Britain to avoid eating eggs and any potential exposure is unlikely to harm.
The revelations come after the supermarket chain Aldi withdrew all eggs from sale in its stores in Germany last week.
Tests had shown the chemical fipronil, which can harm kidneys, liver and thyroid glands, was found in the eggs.
It is feared that farmers in the Netherlands may now need to cull millions of birds as it seeks to eradicate traces of the insecticide from production, according to LTO, a Dutch farming organisation.
On its website, the FSA said: "Our risk assessment, based on all the information available, indicates that as part of a normal healthy diet this low level of potential exposure is unlikely to be a risk to public health and there is no need for consumers to be concerned.
"Our advice is that there is no need for people to change the way they consume or cook eggs or products containing eggs."
Belgian officials have already admitted that they knew in June that eggs from Dutch farms might be contaminated with the fipronil insecticide
Fipronil can treat lice and ticks in chickens, but should not be used on food-producing animals because of its toxicity.
Shops in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, have removed the eggs from sale as a precaution.
About 180 poultry farms in the Netherlands have also been temporarily shut in recent days while investigations are held.
The FSA says approximately 21,000 eggs were distributed to the UK from implicated farms in the Netherlands between March and June of this year.
But it says this is a very small proportion of the 1.8 billion eggs the UK imports each year. Around 85% of eggs consumed in Britain are home-produced. | A very small number of eggs contaminated with a toxic insecticide reached the UK earlier this year. |
39,192,645 | The incidence of Lyme disease on Uist was found to be far greater than that on neighbouring islands, according to figures gathered by BBC Gaelic News.
The infection can be transmitted to humans through a bite from a tick.
NHS Western Isles is to hold the events later this month at Stoneybridge Hall in South Uist.
On 30 March, the health board said local experts would give "a snapshot of the current situation" with regards to ticks and what actions can be taken to avoid bites and what to do if bitten by a tick.
The second event on 31 March will explore incidence of Lyme disease and how this affects land management and use of land.
NHS Western Isles said evidence of the presence of ticks would be presented at this event. People who want to attend have been asked to register their interest with the health board.
Lyme disease and ticks
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is spread to humans by infected ticks.
Flu-like symptoms and fatigue are often the first noticeable signs of infection. An untreated bite often shows as a distinctive red circle-like mark on a person's skin.
Diagnosed cases of Lyme disease can be treated with antibiotics, but, if left untreated, neurological problems and joint pain can develop months or years later.
Ticks are small arthropods related to spiders, mites and scorpions and Britain has a number of different species.
People are most likely to come across sheep ticks, which feed on mammals such as deer and also birds, in open spaces with long grass or bracken.
Hillwalkers and climbers organisation, Mountaineering Scotland, regularly issues advice on how to avoid and deal with ticks.
It suggests people can protect themselves better by tucking trousers into socks or wearing gaiters, and also by making thorough checks of their bodies once back home. It recommends that these checks should be repeated over several days.
If a tick is found attached to a person's skin, it can be removed with a tick hook. If in doubt, seek advice from a doctor, Mountaineering Scotland says.
Last year, the investigation by BBC Alba suggested that over four years a total of 165 individuals on North Uist, South Uist and Benbecula were diagnosed with the disease.
In that same period, Lewis and Harris have recorded just one case and Barra three.
The figures for incidence of Lyme disease on the Western Isles were provided by medical practices across the islands.
NHS Western Isles and other groups have been investigating the reason for the higher numbers on Uist. | Events raising awareness about the risk of ticks and Lyme disease are to be held in part of the Western Isles where problems with both were indentified. |
29,975,077 | Belgium bossed the first half as Nacer Chadli was denied by Wayne Hennessey and Nicolas Lombaerts hit a post.
But Wales defended stoically and had chances of their own after the interval as Gareth Bale shot narrowly wide.
The point briefly kept Wales top of Group B, before Israel took their place with a 3-0 win over Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Having made their best start to a campaign since winning their first four qualifiers for Euro 2004, Wales entered this match with renewed hope.
Despite the raised expectations, however, Chris Coleman's men were undoubtedly the underdogs against a Belgian side fourth in the Fifa world rankings.
Welsh hopes rested on Bale, and it was no surprise that it was the world's most expensive player who had the visitors' first shot on target.
The Real Madrid forward unleashed a swerving free-kick from 25 yards, but it was palmed away by Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
The Chelsea man's opposite number, Wayne Hennessey, was also called into action early on and made an excellent low save to deny Tottenham's Nacer Chadli.
With another Chelsea player, Eden Hazard, a constant threat as he drifted infield from the left, Belgium began to dictate and put their opponents under pressure.
From Kevin de Bruyne's in-swinging corner, defender Lombaerts struck a post with a powerful shot and, from the rebound, Divock Origi could only slide the ball wide.
For all of Belgium's Hazard-inspired domination, Wales held firm to keep the home side at bay in the first half.
Coleman's side were close to taking the lead against the run of play 12 minutes after the restart, as Bale skipped past Belgium's static defenders before flashing a shot narrowly wide of the far post.
Having brought Fulham's fast young winger George Williams on for David Cotterill at half-time, Wales posed more of a counter-attacking threat as the match wore on.
Although Belgium continued to control possession for long periods, they seemed wary of the visitors' threat and were careful not to commit too many players forward.
The Red Devils' apparent trepidation made for a tense atmosphere, and the sense of anxiety increased when Hal Robson-Kanu had a shot saved by Courtois.
Dries Mertens then required lengthy treatment after being knocked out following a collision with teenager Williams and the six minutes of injury time that followed were nervous for the Welsh.
A header by Aston Villa's Christian Benteke was cleared off the line as Belgium poured forward in the closing moments, but Wales remained resolute to claim a potentially priceless point. | Wales dug in for a gutsy goalless draw in Belgium to maintain their unbeaten start to their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. |
38,265,735 | The migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, stormed different points of the 6m-high (19ft) barbed-wire fence from 06:15 local time (07:15 GMT) on Friday.
It is the biggest single breach of the border in a decade, local media report.
Two border guards were injured in the surprise assault on the border, according to Spanish authorities.
Local TV footage showed dozens of migrants celebrating their crossing, while others appeared exhausted, lying on the pavement with visible cuts to their feet and hands.
Most of those who made the crossing have now been detained, with 20% still unaccounted for, Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said.
Ceuta is a major crossing point for those seeking work or asylum in Europe.
Together with a second Spanish enclave, Melilla, it is the European Union's only land border with Africa. | At least 400 people have broken through the border fence between Morocco and the enclave of Ceuta, which is part of Spain. |
35,791,487 | Jack Redshaw headed the Seasiders in front on 34 minutes before being sent off for a rash challenge on David Fox.
Crewe levelled through Marcus Haber's neat flick on 83 minutes before Tom Aldred's deflected shot restored Blackpool's advantage 60 seconds later.
Brad Potts then fouled Tom Hitchcock in the box, but top scorer Inman blazed the resulting penalty over the bar.
Blackpool climb two places to 20th, one point above the drop zone, while Crewe stay 23rd, now eight points from safety, having not won in eight matches. | Brad Inman's last-minute penalty miss handed 10-man Blackpool a vital League One win over fellow strugglers Crewe. |
37,701,597 | Mr Uribe, leader of the right-wing Democratic Center party, had previously ruled out such talks.
But after a referendum rejected the peace accord between the rebels and the government, he said his group might now take part in the "national interest".
The deal was four years in the making and its rejection was a shock.
It failed to pass by a narrow margin in the popular vote on 2 October.
Opponents of the accord to end 52 years of conflict thought it was too lenient on the Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
They were angered that Farc guerrillas were offered congressional seats and non-custodial sentences such as clearing landmines in return for ending the conflict.
Mr Uribe said on Tuesday: "We think that at this time, in the interest of a national deal, spokespeople from 'No' could at some point speak with the Farc."
President Juan Manuel Santos, who spearheaded the accord and won the Nobel Peace Prize this month for his efforts, has been talking with the opposition to try to salvage it.
He said he would take opposition proposals into discussions with the Farc later in the week.
Mr Santos last week extended a ceasefire with Farc rebels until the end of the year to give more time to save the deal.
The UN Security Council agreed on Tuesday that its mission for Colombia could continue to monitor the truce.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the council had received a request "from all parties" to do so and that council members "encourage the parties and all political actors to continue momentum in the peace effort".
An estimated 220,000 people have been killed during the Colombian conflict. | Colombia's ex-president Alvaro Uribe, who led the successful campaign to reject a peace accord with Farc rebels, says he may now be open to talks. |
40,555,493 | Officers have described the chain of events that led to the pile-up on the A38 in Cornwall on Sunday.
They said a 53-year-old Plymouth man died after getting out of the stopped car and being hit by a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction.
A 32-year-old Saltash woman and her six-year-old son in another car also died.
Her four-year-old son has "potentially serious head injuries" but is said to be improving at Bristol Children's Hospital.
More on the fatal crash and other stories from Cornwall
Ch Insp Adrian Leisk from Devon and Cornwall Police said the families involved are "devastated".
One officer at the scene tweeted that it was the "most heartbreaking shift" in her six-year police career.
End of Twitter post by @Adrianleisk
End of Twitter post by @DevonCmdr
The pile-up happened between Tideford and Landrake on the busy main road at about 11:15 BST.
Ch Insp Leisk said a vehicle pulled over and stopped on the single-lane section of the Plymouth-bound carriageway.
"Someone has got out of that vehicle and has been struck by a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction," he said.
"Then a number of other vehicles have become involved and sadly two occupants of another vehicle have died.
"Every road death is a tragedy but it brings it into sharper focus and really hits home when there are children involved."
The driver of the car that stopped was "in a state of shock" and being questioned by police, he added.
The road, which was closed for most of Sunday, has reopened.
Six further people were taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth with minor injuries. Two others were treated at the scene by paramedics. | Two adults and a child died in a five-vehicle crash after a car stopped at the side of the road, police said. |
34,490,822 | The England striker put the visitors ahead after two minutes, heading home Alex Greenwood's free-kick.
She netted her second after connecting with Danielle Buet's impressive cross and was denied a hat-trick when another effort was ruled out for offside.
Liverpool's best chances fell to Rosie White and Natasha Dowie.
The Lady Magpies will face Arsenal in the final at Rotherham on 1 November, having already finished FA Cup runners-up in August.
Rachel Williams looked a constant threat for County and the midfielder forced the Liverpool defence into two last-ditch clearances following a couple of powerful headers.
The defeat marked the return of Liverpool midfielder Fara Williams, who came on for the last 10 minutes following three months out with a hamstring injury.
Notts County striker Ellen White:
"This is another milestone, obviously we wanted to do a bit better in the league but this is a massive cup for us.
"We want to go to the final and put in a big performance and do it for our coaches more than anything. Rotherham's an incredible stadium and we'll look forward to facing Arsenal."
Liverpool Ladies manager Matt Beard:
"I felt we gave a good account of ourselves but Notts County deserved to win it.
"I thought especially in the second half we were good and created some chances but we've got 10 players who have come through our centre of excellence and nine players out injured.
"All nine of them probably would be in the starting XI and you can't legislate for that."
Liverpool Ladies: Gibbons, Ryland, Beckwith, Murray, Pacheco, Dale (Staniforth 60), Ormarsdottir, Zelem (Williams 81), Hodson, Dowie, White (Green 72).
Substitutes not used: Darbyshire, Wild.
Notts County Ladies: Telford, Walton, Turner, Bassett, Greenwood, Buet, Scott, Crichton; Clarke, Williams, White (Whelan 87).
Substitutes not used: Chamberlain, Whelan, Plumptre, Hassall, O'Neill.
Referee: Ian Hussin
Attendance: 538 | Two first-half goals by Ellen White ensured Notts County beat Liverpool 2-0 to set up a Continental Cup final with Arsenal. |
39,856,238 | Chris Murphy had gone to court to contest the route of the A6 dual carriageway at Toomebridge.
A High Court judge ruled in March that work could proceed on a section of the £160m new road that skirts Lough Beg.
Mr Murphy said it was an area of "enormous cultural heritage".
Last week, it was announced that major construction work on the A6 would begin within weeks.
However, only minor work will take place along the contested section as Mr Murphy had previously indicated that he intended to challenge the decision.
In his initial challenge, Mr Murphy had claimed that the proper environmental checks had not been done and the decision to proceed had been based on out-of-date surveys.
But lawyers for the Department for Infrastructure had argued that the assessments were based on accurate and regularly-updated information.
They said the chosen route did not cut through the protected wetland.
The judge found the appropriate assessments had been carried out and the decision to proceed with the road had been rational and lawful.
Announcing that he had lodged his appeal on Tuesday, Mr Murphy said: "I am not 'anti-road' as some recent comments have portrayed me, I support dualling of the A6 and smoother travel between Belfast and the north west.
"What I cannot support is the destruction of internationally important wetlands and an area of enormous cultural heritage.
"The area that would be impacted is a designated Special Protection Area due to its ecological value. It is the most important site in Ireland for the Whooper Swan and many other rare species of wildlife.
"In terms of history and heritage, the government's chosen route would impact significantly on a landscape made famous by Seamus Heaney. This should be an area to conserve and promote, not bulldoze and destroy."
Lough Beg is an important habitat for birds, including migratory swans, and has international protection. | An environmentalist who lost a court case challenging the route of a major road scheme close to landscape made famous by poet Seamus Heaney has lodged an appeal against the ruling. |
34,979,158 | He will give evidence to the culture, media and sport select committee, which is investigating doping in the sport.
Before the hearing, committee member Damian Collins MP said: "There needs to be more humility from the IAAF."
Russia was banned from international events after an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report alleged "state-sponsored doping".
Collins said that Coe "needs to recognise that there have clearly been problems with the way doping issues have been dealt with in the past".
The Conservative MP said he wanted to hear whether Coe will "set up an independent body to manage doping as cycling has done".
Coe ended an ambassadorial paid role with US sportswear giant Nike last week after conflict of interest claims.
It follows the awarding of the 2021 World Athletics Championships to Eugene, Oregon - which has close connections to Nike - without a bidding process.
On Monday three Kenya Athletics officials, including president Isaiah Kiplagat, were provisionally suspended by the ethics commission of the IAAF, which is looking into allegations of "subversion" of the anti-doping process in Kenya and "improper diversion" of funds received from Nike.
Coe was elected International Association of Athletics Federations president in August, succeeding Lamine Diack who is being investigated by French police over allegations he took bribes to cover up positive drugs tests when in charge of the sport's governing body.
Media playback is not supported on this device
The IAAF president will be questioned about the organisation's response to doping allegations, including Lord Coe's claim that a Sunday Times investigation into suspicious blood results amounted to "a declaration of war on my sport".
Coe's delay in ending a 38-year association with Nike is almost certain to be discussed, while Collins says "there are still questions to answer about the awarding of the Eugene 2021 World Championships".
A BBC investigation on 24 November revealed emails suggesting that when Coe was vice-president of the IAAF, he lobbied former president Diack with support for Eugene.
Coe has told the BBC he "did not lobby anyone" over Eugene's bid, but "encouraged them to re-enter another bidding cycle as they had a strong bid".
Collins told The Times: "The big question is, given he is part of the old guard, is he the right man to lead the IAAF in a radical, new direction? He has to demonstrate that, although he was an IAAF insider for a long time, he is prepared to do whatever it takes."
Coe will also be questioned about receiving £63,000 from UK Sport to pay for his PR team as part of his IAAF presidential campaign.
The select committee called Coe to Parliament after his "declaration of war" comment.
In August, the Sunday Times published data of 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 athletes, which it had reviewed by scientists and said revealed an "extraordinary extent of cheating".
The IAAF called the allegations "sensationalist and confusing" and denied it had failed in its duty to carry out effective blood testing.
Coe, in the run-up to the IAAF presidential election, said: "The fightback has to start here. It is a declaration of war on my sport. There is nothing in our history of competence and integrity in drug testing that warrants this kind of attack."
Media playback is not supported on this device
The hearing on Wednesday will be covered by parliamentary privilege, which gives MPs and Coe the freedom to give evidence and make allegations without the risk of civil or criminal proceedings as result of what is said.
The select committee chairman, Jesse Norman MP, was accused by women's marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe of implicating her in blood doping allegations in September when he suggested London Marathon winners and medallists and "potentially, British athletes" were under suspicion.
Radcliffe, who was not named by Norman, said at the time it was "profoundly disappointing that the cloak of parliamentary privilege has been used to effectively implicate me".
Norman said his comments were "taken out of context".
Last week the IAAF and the UK Anti-Doping agency found Radcliffe innocent of blood doping.
The IAAF said Radcliffe had been "publicly accused of blood doping based on the gross misinterpretation of raw and incomplete data".
The committee has previously taken evidence from Dr Michael Ashenden, one of two scientists used by the Sunday Times and German broadcaster ARD to analyse the leaked IAAF data.
He and Dr Robin Parisotto concluded that hundreds of athletes had recorded suspicious results between 2001 and 2012 which were not followed up.
Last week the IAAF said the allegation it ignored suspicious results was "based on bad scientific and legal argument".
Dr Ashenden responded to the IAAF statement by describing it as a "disgraced federation" and said of Coe: "He was particularly vocal about my criticism of the IAAF, and defended its anti-doping department. I say the IAAF failed their athletes. Let's wait and see who is sitting on the right side of history."
Conservative MP Norman said: "Recent events have further underlined the seriousness of the issues raised by blood doping in sports, and the depth of public concern about them."
Collins, who has also campaigned for reform at football's world governing body Fifa, tweeted last week: "The IAAF should spend less time declaring war on their critics and more recognising the scale of the crisis world athletics faces."
The committee hearing is due to start at 14:15 GMT. | IAAF president Lord Coe is to be questioned by MPs on Wednesday about blood doping in athletics. |
36,686,891 | World champion Gwak Dong-han of South Korea defeated Sweden's Marcus Nyman by an ippon to win bronze.
Find out how to get into judo with our special guide.
And in the the other bronze medal contest, China's Cheng Xunzhao beat Mongolia's Otgonbaatar Lkhagvasuren by a yuko.
It was a good day for Japan in the Carioca Arena, with Haruka Tachimoto winning gold in the women's -70kg.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Japan's Mashu Baker beat Georgia's Varlam Liparteliani by a yuko to win the men's -90kg judo gold at Rio 2016. |
38,483,392 | Helina Kotlarova, 12, was killed by the driver in Oldham on New Year's Eve with Zaneta Krokova, 11, critically ill in hospital.
The girls had left a shop near their homes when they were hit by a black VW Golf in Ashton Road at about 19:15 GMT.
Greater Manchester Police said the driver of the car did not stop.
Family members have visited the crash site to lay floral tributes
Helina's sister Sylva, 19, told how her mother Sylva and father Robert raced to the scene 300ft (90m) from their home seconds after the crash.
She said: "When we went there she was on the floor. I've seen her face and it was all bleeding.
"I was trying to see if she could breathe or something but she couldn't breathe
"Mum was touching her hair."
She added: "She had asked mum for £2 as she just wanted to buy some food."
The family of seven sisters and one brother came to England from the Czech Republic eight years ago.
Miss Kotlarova said the girls were with a larger group of family and friends who had already crossed the road, one of the main routes into Oldham town centre, and the larger group was waiting on the opposite pavement.
The two cousins then started to cross the road outside the shop.
Miss Kotlarova said: "But as they came to the other side of the road the car ran them over. They were holding hands."
She added: "It is just hard to believe she has gone, she was just too young."
Witnesses said the car was driven fast and "flying away" after the collision. Seconds later friends ran to Helina's home to alert the family.
She said Helina attended the Collective Spirit free school in Oldham.
She added: "She liked dancing and she was always singing."
Her injured cousin is critically ill in hospital in Manchester.
Miss Kotlarova added: "I did speak to her family but they said she's still fighting for her life." | Two cousins were holding hands crossing the road when they were knocked down in a fatal hit-and-run crash, one of the victim's families has said. |
32,616,085 | Sam and Chris Ogrizovic's grandfather Nicola escaped Brlog when he was 14 years old.
He was kept prisoner in Italy for five years and later moved to Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire, for mining work.
Now his grandsons have hitchhiked the journey in reverse in five days without consulting a map or spending money.
The pair set off on on 1 May. Along the way they spent a night at a service station in the Austrian Alps and hitchhiked to Zagreb with a lorry driver who spoke no English.
As they walked through rural Croatia they met a couple who took them in for the night.
"We explained our story and they took us to their home in Ogulin and we started on the raki [alcoholic drink]," the pair wrote on their Facebook page.
"The hospitality shown has gone beyond kindness.
"Sounds gushy, but a truly life changing night!"
The couple, Toni and Goga, drove the cousins to Brlog and acted as translators as they discovered relatives they had not previously known about.
"We went to the cemetery and found the graves of my Papa's father, mother and sister, then we got taken to someone that knew my Papa and as we were sat talking through the translator they mentioned we were sat in his old house!" they said.
"After that we were told we had family in the village who had been trying to contact us but failed.
"So emotional.....celebrating with family we never knew we had and Papa has returned home!"
Nicola Ogrizovic, known as Nick, died from Alzheimer's disease last year, aged 86.
Sam, 30, from Nottinghamshire and cousin Chris, 31, son of former Coventry City goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic, decided to take on the challenge at their grandfather's funeral.
The pair have so far raised more than £5,300 for the Alzheimer's Society. | Two cousins who set off on a 1,100-mile (1,770km) trek in honour of their late grandfather who fled Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia have reached Croatia. |
31,971,743 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Far-fetched it may seem, but in domestic hockey one second-tier club is splashing the cash on the country's very best players.
In 2013, England captain Barry Middleton became one of a number of internationals to drop out of the Premier Division and sign for Holcombe, a small club based in Rochester, Kent.
The club's spending model has drawn criticism from local rivals, but is investing in what remains a largely amateur sport a positive development or creating an unfair playing field?
In 2013, Holcombe's men's and ladies' sides were playing in the Conference East, the second tier of English hockey.
With ambitions to climb to the top of the domestic game, the club altered their spending strategy from focusing on facilities and youth to attracting the country's best players.
To achieve this, the club invested heavily, with the money coming predominantly from the club's millionaire chairman David South, founder and chairman of Faithdean, a building construction management firm that turns over just under £60m a year.
Having been at the club for 49 years, and chairman for 37, the success of South's business has enabled him to put his own money into the club.
"We had to do something to give us a boost," he explains. "Our vision is not just the Premier Division; we aim to be a top-four club trying to get into Europe.
"We're just an unfashionable mid-Kent club. We needed some good players and a robust junior system parallel to that. You have to set your sights very high."
The 'boost' has brought instant success with the ladies achieving consecutive promotions in 2013 and 2014, narrowly missing the Premier Division play-offs in 2015.
And having spent seven years in the Conference East, the men are unbeaten this season, winning 17 of 18 league matches, scoring 110 goals and topping the table.
They are now taking part in the Promotion Tournament play-offs with Canterbury, Bowdon and Team Bath Buccaneers, as the four clubs fight for the two spots available in the top flight.
So why would a bunch of England internationals drop down a division from the top clubs in England?
Several of the star signings have had to withstand accusations that their moves were motivated purely for financial gain.
Barry Middleton is one of the most sought after players in the world, fetching over £35,000 at the 2014 Hockey India League auction. But he denies Holcombe's chequebook was the main factor in signing.
"It was a decision based on hockey as well as everything else," explains the 31-year-old.
"We have a team that can push to go up. It was not to play in the Conference for the last 10 years of my career.
"It stopped me going to Holland or Germany, meaning I can live in England, training full-time with GB."
Centrally-contracted internationals only earn up to £20,000 per year. Most supplement their income through sponsorship, coaching and public speaking.
"The England central contract is not enough to survive on," explains hockey journalist Rod Gilmour.
"They do coaching and to have this (money from Holcombe) is good for them. You can't blame the players at all.
"If the England central contracts were more, I think players would stay at Bisham Abbey (home to England Hockey) and find other ways to keep themselves busy."
South adds: "They have to earn a living. Without family support, if they try just to survive on their England contracts, they can't.
"We have to get money into the game. The only way that'll happen is with a few individuals and a few companies, that's the bit that isn't sustainable."
Across the country, the Holcombe approach has divided opinion with some clubs happy at investment in the game but others frustrated that they cannot compete with the riches on offer.
"It has caused considerable friction within the hockey fraternity," continues Gilmour.
"The underlying problem is that other clubs are now becoming jealous because Holcombe have a lot of money."
One of England's most successful sides, Premier Division leaders East Grinstead, will be looking over their shoulder as Holcombe begin to climb the ladder.
They pay some players too, but admit financing a club, where even replacing a pitch costs up to £250,000, can be a struggle.
"We are all to a certain extent in a hand-to-mouth model," says East Grinstead chairman Simon Longhurst. "We have to work hard every month, every year."
When asked if the club would turn away a wealthy investor, Longhurst replied: "It would depend on who they were, what their DNA was and their core values, let's put it that way."
For a sport that is largely amateur, even in the Premier Division, is a club willing to spend big beneficial in the long run?
"I don't criticise Holcombe or their chairman," says England Hockey chief executive Sally Munday.
"I think the more investment we can get is good for the sport."
Gilmour argues: "The main concerns are, one, whether the Holcombe model is sustainable and, two, whether the money is going to benefit Holcombe.
"The club's sponsor is David South's company. Is that sustainable? I don't think so."
With the majority of Holcombe's investment reliant largely on a sole benefactor, a downturn in the economy could have more serious consequences for the Kent club than others.
However, South makes no apologies for the upset his investment has caused, saying he wants to return Holcombe to its community foundations in the coming years.
"It's not win or bust. It must be sustainable," he says.
"Each year, we need to drop away a paid player and replace them with our own so we get back to a sustainable proportion." | Imagine Charlton Athletic signing Wayne Rooney or England rugby captain Chris Robshaw moving to Moseley. |
33,302,750 | No British victims have been officially identified but the names of some were confirmed by friends and family.
It comes as the relatives of others still missing since the gun attack near Sousse desperately await any news of their loved ones.
More than 1,000 British tourists have returned to the UK, while it is thought 2,500 more could fly home on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Theresa May is to chair a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee later.
Tunisian student Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, who has links with Islamic State, opened fire on tourists at noon on Friday.
Rezgui fired shots on the beach at the Imperial Marhaba and Bellevue hotels. The attack ended when he was shot dead by police.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered close to the scene a day after the attack for a rally against terrorism, with some holding candles and others carrying flags of the UK and Tunisia.
Further details have been emerging about those who lost their lives in the shooting, which was described as the most significant terrorist attack on British people since 52 were killed in the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
The UK government has warned the death toll will rise in the Tunisia attack.
Among those so far confirmed dead by family or friends are:
One Belgian and one German have so far been identified among the dead, the health ministry said. There were also thought to be Tunisians and French killed in the attack.
At least 36 people were injured, some seriously.
'Only just sinking in'
Adrian Evans, from the West Midlands, was described as popular by his long-standing employer.
"Adrian was a lovely man. I've already been inundated from members of the council and other officers offering condolences to the family. He was well liked. He worked with us for a very, very long time and it's frankly only just sinking in," said Darren Cooper, leader of Sandwell Council, where Mr Evans worked.
Joel Richards, a student at the University of Worcester, was described as a "talented" local football referee, who had "the world at his feet".
"He was highly thought of and will be sadly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this tragic time," added Birmingham County FA.
Walsall FC said both Mr Evans and Mr Richards were fans of the club, and tweeted that those fellow supporters who wished to could lay scarves at the stadium from Monday.
Tributes were also paid to couple Sue Davey and Scott Chalkley, whose sons had taken to Twitter in the aftermath of the attack in a bid to find them.
Ms Davey's son Conor Fulford, posting on Twitter on Saturday night to confirm the death of his mother, said: "Love you always Mom, I've got my teddy bear you got me tonight, Rest easy xxxx"
Mr Chalkley's son Ross Naylor wrote: "I want to say thanks to everyone who has helped, you have all been amazing. One love to all and rest in peace dad."
Other relatives of those still missing continue to face an agonising wait for information.
Daniel Welch, from Swindon in Wiltshire, has not heard from his grandfather John Welch, 74 and his partner Eileen Swannack, 70 since the attack.
He said the hardest thing was "not knowing", adding: "We are at a bit of a loss and we can only expect the worst."
The family of Denis and Elaine Thwaites, from Blackpool, Lancashire, are appealing for information about their whereabouts.
The retired couple, aged 70 and 69, arrived in Sousse on Wednesday and had been staying at the Marhaba.
Their son-in-law Danny Clifford said news the family had received telling them Mr and Mrs Thwaites were in hospital was proved to be misinformation. "We are absolutely frantic," he added.
The UK government has warned the death toll is likely to rise because several people had been "seriously injured" in the attack.
It also warned further terrorist attacks in Tunisia, including in resort areas, were possible, "including by individuals who are unknown to the authorities".
It previously emerged that the gunman - who began his attack by posing as a swimmer but was carrying a rifle under a parasol - was not known to the authorities beforehand.
His parents, sister and close friends have been detained by the Tunisian authorities.
Many of the tourists in the affected hotels have left the country or are waiting for specially arranged flights - however others said they would stay.
Thomson and First Choice said some 5,400 of their customers remain in Tunisia, with up to 2,500 expected to return to the UK on Sunday.
An additional 11 Thomson flights as well as one third-party flight with Nouvelle Air are currently due to leave later.
Some holidaymakers decided not to take earlier flights to allow others to leave first.
Laura Hepple, from Runcorn, who escaped the gunfire by hiding in a hotel bathroom, said: "We had a flight booked for Sunday anyway and we decided we would stick with that, have the last day of the holiday. [We're] probably [in] the safest place at the moment with armed guards around and... let the people with families who're actually got another week left to take the earlier flights." | Tributes are being paid to victims of the Tunisia beach attack which left 38 dead, including at least 15 Britons. |
35,880,229 | Alun Cairns met UK mobile phone providers on Wednesday to try to address patchy mobile phone reception.
The UK government announced new powers to allow construction of taller phone masts without planning permission in England in the Budget.
Around 4% of users in Wales could not get voice coverage, Mr Cairns said.
He wants the Welsh Government to introduce similar powers, which would allow masts up to 25m in height to be erected in areas with low coverage, without planning permission. The current limit is 15m.
He said: "While I appreciate the success of progress so far and scale of challenge around improving mobile connections in Wales, there remain areas in rural parts of Wales that have no network coverage.
"The UK government used the Budget to announce greater freedoms and flexibilities for the deployment of mobile infrastructure - I'd like to see the Welsh Government consider something similar."
The Welsh Government has been asked to comment. | Taller phone masts, which are to be brought in in England, could help tackle 'not spots' in rural Wales, the new Welsh Secretary has said. |
32,232,608 | The exchange rate for dollars fell by almost a third on the first day that Blizzard let people swap real cash for game gold.
At launch, players could spend $20 (£13) to get 30,000 gold coins to spend on gear in the fantasy game world.
But 24 hours later the same amount of cash netted players about 20,000.
Before now the only way that World of Warcraft players could artificially boost the fortunes of their characters was by visiting a grey-market site and surreptitiously buying gold from unlicensed vendors.
The practice was fraught with peril because it was technically a violation of the WoW terms and conditions. Anyone caught buying gold this way could have their account closed down.
Late last year Blizzard announced plans to introduce a $20 "game time token" that could be converted into WoW's internal currency. Currently only North American players of WoW can buy the token.
The tokens can be traded on the game's internal auction house for gold - effectively giving people a way to turn real money into virtual cash. Those with lots of WoW gold can buy the token and use it to pay for their subscription to the online game.
The token trading system went live on 8 April and initially the exchange rate for each one climbed past the 30,000 starting point. But within hours the dollar exchange rates fell sharply and are now hovering around 22,000 for $20.
Some speculated that the dollar exchange rate would fall further to reach those seen on grey-market sources of WoW gold, which currently offer 10,000 to 15,000 coins for $20.
Before the launch Blizzard said the exchange rate for tokens would be set by internal game metrics.
Alec Meer, of the game news site Rock, Paper, Shotgun, told the BBC that there had been some initial "overreaction" to the drop in value of each token.
"It doesn't spell doom," he said. "Blizzard is trialling something new. They went in high to see what would happen, and there's going to be a whole lot of fluctuation as a game with a population of several million adapts to it.
"I'm sure the long-term plan is simply to bring more transactions within Blizzard's purview, and in doing so potentially reduce the influence of gold farmers and keep people playing for longer," he added. | The introduction of a way to use real money to buy virtual cash for World of Warcraft has prompted a big change in the value of the game's gold. |
37,050,490 | Ayling, who played 33 league games for the Robins last season as they finished 18th in the second tier, has signed a three-year contract at Elland Road.
The 24-year-old joined Bristol City in July 2014 from Yeovil, where he had played in 162 league matches.
He started his career at Arsenal, but failed to make a senior appearance before joining the Glovers in 2010.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Leeds United have signed right-back Luke Ayling from Championship rivals Bristol City for an undisclosed fee. |
38,358,773 | Two fine goals from Ethan Rafferty and a Conor White strike proved enough for Kieran McGeeney's side to triumph.
The Orchard men held out to claim the trophy despite having White and Aidan Forker sent-off in the second half.
Armagh led 2-5 to 0-7 at the break and their third goal 90 seconds into the second half gave them a vital cushion when their numbers were reduced.
Each time the Red Hands went level, the Orchard men hit them with a goal.
Harry Loughran had just tied it up at 0-3 each when White collected Oisin MacIomhair's pass to fire a low, angled shot past Mickey O'Neill.
And in the 36th minute, moments after Cathal McShane's point had made it 1-4 to 0-7, Rafferty set the game alight with a brilliant strike, smashed into the net from 12 yards from Rory Grugan's assist.
The Tyrone defence was caught cold after losing a kick-out, and Rafferty raced through to slot a low shot to the net for his second.
Points from Oisin MacIomhair and Anthony Duffy opened up a massive nine points gap, before White and Forker were both sent off on second bookings.
Tyrone fought back with scores from Declan McClure, Ronan O'Neill and Lee Brennan, but they had too much to do, and Armagh claimed the trophy with six points to spare.
Armagh scorers: Ethan Rafferty 2-3 (0-1 free, 0-1 '45), Conor White 1-0, Rory Grugan 0-2 (2 frees), Oisin MacIomhair (free), Anthony Duffy, Ben Crealey, Paul Hughes, Stefan Campbell 0-1 each.
Tyrone scorers: Ronan O'Neill 0-6 (5 frees), Declan McClure 0-2, Cahir McCullagh, Michael Cassidy, Harry Loughran, Lee Brennan, Cathal McShane 0-1 each
Armagh: Paddy Morrison, Paul Hughes, Brendan Donaghy, Ruairi McCaughley, Joe McElroy, Shea Heffron, Ciaran Higgins, Ben Crealey, Stephen Sheridan, Aidan Forker, Conor White, Rory Grugan, Anthony Duffy, Ethan Rafferty, Oisin MacIomhair.
Subs: Matthew McNeice for Morrison, Stefan Campbell for Duffy, Aaron McKay for Heffron, Charlie Vernon for Higgins, Aaron Findon for Rafferty, Jemar Hall for MacIomhair.
Tyrone: Mickey O'Neill, Ruairi Mullan, Hugh Pat McGeary, Michael Cassidy, Harry Loughran, Johnny Munroe, Conor Meyler, Conor Clarke, Cathal McShane, Declan McClure, Ronan O'Neill, Cahir McCullagh, Darren McCurry, Niall McKenna, Ronan McHugh.
Subs: Peter Harte for Clarke, Niall Sludden for Mullan, Aidan McCrory for McCullagh, Lee Brennan for McKenna, Frank Burns for McHugh
Referee: Martin McNally (Monaghan). | Thirteen-man Armagh won the O'Fiaich Cup with a six-point win over holders Tyrone, 3-10 to 0-13, at Crossmaglen. |
14,419,663 | Animal researchers say that it will be impossible to stop all animal tests.
But most scientists accept that it is extremely important to minimise the suffering of laboratory animals, and to use as few animals as possible.
Some companies and shops offer products that have not been tested on animals. They often put information about this on their website. You can also write and ask the makers of your favourite products for more information. | Alternatives include: |
24,617,904 | In a phone conversation with US President Barack Obama, he said this was "unacceptable between friends and allies", demanding an explanation.
The White House said the claims "raise legitimate questions".
The NSA spied on 70.3 million phone calls in France between 10 December 2012 and 8 January 2013, it is claimed.
Officials, businesses and terror suspects are among those believed to have been tracked.
The allegations were carried in France's Le Monde newspaper and are based on leaks from US ex-intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.
They prompted President Obama to call his French counterpart to discuss the issue on Monday.
Mr Hollande said that such practices "infringe on the privacy of French citizens" and demanded "explanations" from Mr Obama, according to a statement issued by French presidency.
A White House statement said the two presidents had discussed the latest disclosures, "some of which have distorted our activities and some of which raise legitimate questions for our friends and allies about how these capabilities are employed".
It said: "President [Obama] made clear that the United States has begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share."
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would continue "bilateral consultations" to address the issue, describing France as "one of our oldest allies".
"Protecting the security of our citizens in today's world is a very complicated, very challenging task... because there are lots of people out there seeking to do harm to other people," Mr Kerry said.
In an earlier statement, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said that "all nations" conducted spying operations.
"As a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations," she said.
Le Monde says the NSA intercepts were apparently triggered by certain key words.
The agency also apparently captured millions of text messages.
It was unclear whether the content of the calls and messages was stored, or just the metadata - the details of who was speaking to whom.
And the paper did not say whether the operation, codenamed US-985D, was still in progress.
France's foreign ministry summoned US ambassador Charles Rivkin over the allegations.
The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says the outrage is largely for public consumption, because the French government has been accused of running its own snooping operation similar to the US.
Who is Edward Snowden?
Leaks timeline
Le Monde reported in July that the French government was storing vast amounts of personal data of its citizens on a supercomputer at the headquarters of the DGSE intelligence service.
The latest revelations follow claims in the German media that US agents hacked into the email account of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
Mr Snowden, a former NSA worker, went public with revelations about US spying operations in June.
The information he leaked led to claims of systematic spying by the NSA and CIA on a global scale.
Targets included rivals like China and Russia, as well as allies like the EU and Brazil.
The NSA was also forced to admit it had captured email and phone data from millions of Americans.
Mr Snowden is currently in Russia, where he was granted a year-long visa after making an asylum application.
The US wants him extradited to face trial on criminal charges. | French President Francois Hollande has expressed "deep disapproval" over claims the US National Security Agency secretly tapped phone calls in France. |
36,038,793 | The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced the measures in its final UK air show safety regulation review following the fatal disaster in 2015.
It will also strengthen the requirements of post-display reports to "reflect the importance of feedback".
A vintage Hawker Hunter jet crashed on to the A27 on 22 August, killing 11.
The aircraft had been performing aerobatics at the annual Shoreham Airshow when it plummeted to the ground.
This year's show has been cancelled.
The head of the CAA, Dame Deirdre Hutton, said the measures were being brought in so the public had "every confidence that UK air shows meet the highest safety standards".
She added: "We began this review immediately after the accident at Shoreham last summer with the sole purpose of doing all that we can to make UK civil air shows even safer.
"It has been an extensive review, looking closely at all aspects of air show safety to identify any areas where the system can be strengthened.
"Air shows are enjoyed by millions of people up and down the country and we want them to be successful."
The "enhanced measures" include:
The CAA said restrictions introduced following the crash in August would remain in place until the Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) had published its final report.
These measures saw Hawker Hunter jets grounded, ex-military jets restricted to fly-pasts over land and air shows subject to enhanced risk assessments.
The CAA also increased its air show charges from 1 April - by up to £2,695 for larger displays - to fund the measures.
Sywell air display in Northamptonshire will not go ahead because of the "likelihood of much higher CAA fees" and the people behind a display at Thockmorton in Worcestershire have threatened to cancel their event.
Organisers of the Manchester Airshow have blamed the timing of the review on the cancellation of its event this year.
Dame Deirdre said the CAA was working with the air-show community to make sure the "measures are implemented" for the upcoming display season and beyond".
The CAA is responsible for allowing air shows to go ahead and monitoring their safety. | Ex-military jets will have to perform aerobatic stunts at higher altitude and further away from crowds following a Shoreham crash report. |
33,578,174 | The Sun has published the film which shows the Queen aged about seven, with her mother, sister and uncle.
The palace said it was "disappointing that film, shot eight decades ago... has been obtained and exploited".
The newspaper has refused to say how it got the footage but said it was an "important and interesting story".
The black and white footage, which lasts about 17 seconds, shows the Queen playing with a dog on the lawn in the gardens of Balmoral, the Sun says.
The Queen Mother then raises her arm in the style of a Nazi salute and, after glancing towards her mother, the Queen mimics the gesture. Prince Edward, the future Edward VIII, is also seen raising his arm.
The footage is thought to have been shot in 1933 or 1934, when Hitler was rising to prominence as Fuhrer in Germany but the circumstances in which it was shot are unclear.
A Palace source said: "Most people will see these pictures in their proper context and time. This is a family playing and momentarily referencing a gesture many would have seen from contemporary news reels.
"No-one at that time had any sense how it would evolve. To imply anything else is misleading and dishonest."
The source added: "The Queen and her family's service and dedication to the welfare of this nation during the war, and the 63 years the Queen has spent building relations between nations and peoples speaks for itself."
BBC Royal correspondent Sarah Campbell said Buckingham Palace was not denying the footage was authentic but that there were "questions over how this video has been released".
Dickie Arbiter, a former Buckingham Palace press secretary, said the Palace would be investigating.
"They'll be wondering whether it was in fact something that was held in the Royal Archives at Windsor, or whether it was being held by the Duke of Windsor's estate," he said.
"And if it was the Duke of Windsor's estate, then somebody has clearly taken it from the estate and here it is, 82 years later.
"But a lot of questions have got to be asked and a lot of questions got to be answered."
Sun managing editor Stig Abell said he did not accept Buckingham Palace's accusation that the footage had been "exploited".
He said the newspaper had decided to publish the story because it was of great public importance and the involvement of Prince Edward gave it "historical significance".
The then Prince of Wales faced numerous accusations of being a Nazi sympathiser and was photographed meeting Hitler in Munich in October 1937.
BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt
It's an arresting, once private image on the front of a national newspaper.
Its publication has prompted Palace officials to talk about a breach of privacy and the Sun to argue it's acting in the national interest.
Apart from the obvious anger on one side, it's striking how both sides have talked of the need to put the home movie in its "proper context".
From the Palace perspective this is a six-year-old princess who didn't attach any meaning to the gesture. Such an explanation doesn't, of course, explain the thinking of her mother.
Those around the royals are also keen to focus on the war record of the then King, Queen and their two daughters.
What they're less keen to focus on - and what the Queen would like not to be reminded of - is the behaviour of her uncle.
A man, who was briefly King, and whose fascination with Nazi Germany is well documented.
Read Peter Hunt's blog here
Mr Abell said: "We are not using it to suggest any impropriety on behalf of them. But it is an important and interesting issue, the extent to which the British aristocracy - notably Edward VIII, in this case - in the 1930s, were sympathetic towards fascism.
"That must be a matter of national and public interest to discuss. And I think this video and this footage animates that very clearly."
Mr Abell told the BBC the video was a piece of "social history" and said the paper had set out the context of the time and explained that the Queen and Queen Mother went on to become "heroes" of World War Two.
He denied the video had intruded into the Royal Family's privacy.
"I think this is a piece of social history. One of the most significant events in our country's history, the Second World War, the rise of Nazism, one of the most pernicious movements in human history, and I think one is entitled to have a look at some of the background to it."
He added: "We're very clear. We're of course not suggesting anything improper on behalf of the Queen or the Queen Mum."
The Queen was 13 when World War Two broke out and she later served in the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service.
In June she made a state visit to Germany where she visited the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and met some of the survivors and liberators. | Buckingham Palace has said it is disappointed that footage from 1933 showing the Queen performing a Nazi salute has been released. |
37,474,396 | It arrived amid a fierce debate about the future of fracking in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
The tanker, carrying 27,500m3 of ethane from US shale fields, is bound for the Grangemouth petrochemicals plant owned by Ineos.
Ineos said the gas would secure the future of the plant's workforce.
But many politicians and environmental groups have criticised the shipment.
They claim the process of injecting water, sand and chemicals into the rock at high pressure damages the environment.
Drilling for shale gas is only at an exploratory phase in the UK.
The Scottish government has placed a moratorium on all fracking in Scotland while a study into its impact is carried out.
It said ministers were "unavailable to attend" the arrival of the shale gas shipment.
The tanker had been due to dock at midday. A fresh attempt will be made at about midnight.
By John Moylan, BBC employment and industry correspondent
Ineos says access to cheap US shale gas will transform the economics of Grangemouth.
And it believes that the creation of a chemical and manufacturing hub around the plant could pass that competitive advantage on to others.
But cheap US ethane won't just help Grangemouth.
Ineos has also signed a long term supply agreement with the Exxon Mobil/Shell Ethylene plant in Fife.
A pipeline will also carry ethane from Grangemouth to Ineos's plant in Hull where it recently announced a multi-million pounds investment to take advantage of shale gas economics.
Now rivals are responding. US shale gas will soon be coming to another petrochemicals plant on Teesside, where the Saudi chemicals firm SABIC has also announced a "very significant" investment.
Some say this could amount to a renaissance for our chemicals industry which provides key products for manufacturers across the UK.
At the very least it should boost its global competitiveness and help safeguard jobs for years to come.
Jim Ratcliffe, Ineos founder and chairman, said shale gas had helped to secure 10,000 jobs.
He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that the chemicals industry was "not perfect" and that there would be the "occasional" environmental issue.
Mr Ratcliffe added: "What I am saying is I don't think it is any different to the chemical industry - there isn't a product that you buy or consume that doesn't require a chemical of one form or another.
"And the chemical industry is extremely good at managing environmental issues and safety issues, but it is not perfect. It is like a puncture in your car - occasionally you get a puncture and occasionally we have an accident in chemicals."
The company said the shipment aboard the carrier Ineos Insight was the culmination of a £1.6bn investment resulting in eight tankers forming a "virtual pipeline" across the Atlantic between the US and the UK and Norway.
Ineos argues that with the North Sea's supply of ethane dwindling, the shipments from the US are the only way of bringing in sufficient gas at low enough prices to maintain its olefins and polymers business at Grangemouth in the face of global competition.
It believes the US shale gas will provide sufficient raw material to run its manufacturing site at full rates, something that has not been possible for many years.
By BBC Scotland energy and environment correspondent Kevin Keane
Most people imagine shale gas as something you burn to create electricity and energy. What Ineos will do with it at Grangemouth is take ethane from the gas and create plastic pellets for general manufacturing.
It's something that's already being done at the plant and up until now Ineos has been getting that ethane from North Sea natural gas.
The company says that previously there have been plentiful supplies in the North Sea, but for the past three or four years it's been diminishing and the pellet-making process has been running at half speed.
The US shale gas means Ineos can push Grangemouth back up to full production with weekly deliveries creating a "virtual pipeline" that will allow them to keep supplies topped up.
The Grangemouth facility is home to Scotland's only crude oil refinery and produces the bulk of fuels used in Scotland, with the site said to contribute about 3% of Scottish GDP.
It is also home to Europe's biggest ethane tank, which is capable of holding 60,000m3 of gas after it arrives by tanker.
Ineos has said the shale shipments should safeguard the future of Grangemouth's 1,300 workers.
The company has signed 15-year contracts with suppliers to pipe ethane from the shale fields in the US to purpose-built export facilities on the east and Gulf coasts of America.
From there, the gas will be shipped across the Atlantic in a fleet of eight specially-designed Dragon-class ships commissioned by Ineos.
Ports in Norway, Portugal, and Spain have all received shale gas shipments this year following the lifting of a ban on the export of US oil and gas, but the arrival of the Ineos Insight will be the first to the UK.
Unconventional oil and gas extraction remains controversial in the UK, with the UK Labour Party following Scottish Labour in backing a ban on fracking if it wins the next general election.
Despite pleas from Ineos to embrace shale gas drilling, the Scottish government moratorium on the practice remains in place, in contrast to the pro-fracking stance of the UK government.
The Scottish Parliament voted to support an outright ban on fracking in June after SNP MSPs abstained.
The Scottish government said it had commissioned a series of independent research projects into unconventional oil and gas to examine potential environmental, health and economic impacts to inform its "evidence-led approach" to the issue.
A spokesman said these projects were due to report later this year, with the public consultation taking place during winter 2016-17.
He added: "The moratorium will remain in place throughout this process and the Scottish government will use the results of the consultation to inform its decision on the way forward."
Mary Church, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "It is completely unacceptable to attempt to prop up Ineos's petrochemicals plants on the back of human suffering and environmental destruction across the Atlantic.
"The fact that Scottish public money is tied up in this project is disgraceful.
"Setting aside the devastating local impacts of fracking, the climate consequences of extracting yet more fossil fuels are utterly disastrous." | The first shipment of US shale gas to be delivered to the UK remains anchored in the Firth of Forth, unable to dock because of strong winds. |
40,325,035 | Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna are testing the safety of their experimental treatment in 72 volunteers.
The jab is designed to stop fatty deposits from clogging the arteries.
It would offer patients an alternative to taking daily pills to cut their risk of stroke, angina and heart attacks.
It will take years more of testing to know if the treatment will be safe and effective enough for human use, Dr Guenther Staffler and colleagues from The Netherlands Organisation of Applied Scientific Research say in the European Heart Journal.
Even if it does become available, in six years' time, it should not be seen as an excuse for people to avoid exercise and eat lots of high-fat food, they add.
The jab helps the body's immune system to attack a protein, called PCSK9, that would otherwise allow "bad" low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol to build up in the bloodstream.
The researchers envisage that patients could have a yearly booster shot to top up their immunity.
In mice, the treatment cuts LDL cholesterol by up to 50% over 12 months and appears to protect against the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries (atherosclerosis).
Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in the blood. We all need it, but too much "bad" LDL cholesterol increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
"Good" high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, on the other hand, is beneficial because it helps transport other types of cholesterol from the blood to the liver, where it can be broken down.
Some people have high cholesterol because of an inherited condition called familial hypercholesterolaemia.
Poor diet, high alcohol consumption, smoking and inactivity are also linked with high cholesterol.
People with high cholesterol can take cholesterol-lowering drugs, called statins, to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease.
But although these are very cheap and effective, they will not work for everyone.
Some people dislike taking daily medication or forget to take it because they are feeling well. Rarely, there can be side-effects.
Researchers have been looking at alternative treatment options that they can give to patients alongside or instead of statins.
The first phase of testing on 72 human volunteers should be completed by the end of the year.
This will check if there are any safety issues or side-effects before more studies in people can begin.
There is a concern that the therapeutic vaccine might increase the risk of diabetes.
The researchers at the Medical University of Vienna who are conducting the human studies will be on the look out for this.
Dr Tim Chico, a cardiologist from the University of Sheffield, said: "Many questions remain about whether this approach could work in man.
"This is yet more proof that cholesterol causes heart disease, and lowering cholesterol reduces risk of heart disease, so it confirms the importance of a healthy lifestyle for everyone and medications such as statins for some people to reduce risk of heart disease."
Prof Sir Nilesh Samani, from the British Heart Foundation, said: "Finding new ways to manage people's cholesterol levels is absolutely vital.
"Although only tested in mice, this vaccine could lead to a simple way to target high cholesterol and ultimately reduce people's risk of heart disease."
Follow Michelle on Twitter | Human trials of a cholesterol-lowering vaccine to help prevent heart disease are under way after successful studies in mice. |
39,103,970 | Since the 1920s, people have come here from across the UK and around the world to look for work.
The town's enormous trading estate welcomed them all.
And everyone has benefited.
Today, Slough has one of the most successful economies in the country.
Unemployment is just 1.4%, and the average wage is £558 per week.
But Slough is not quite the model of integration it seems.
Ten years ago, I came to the town to make a BBC Panorama programme about immigration.
Back in 2007, Slough had seen thousands of new arrivals from Central and Eastern Europe.
Many of the older residents didn't like it.
"If you go to the shop, you can't buy Kingsmill," one woman told me. "It's all Polish bread."
"They're very angry around here," another said.
"Not being disrespectful to the Polish, but they're moving in and they give them houses."
The Poles weren't getting all the houses and you could buy English bread, but you could feel a resentment that immigration had gone too far.
Ten years on, immigration is now a national debate.
So, where does that leave the town that made its fortune with the help of migrant workers?
In a noisy workshop on the outskirts of the town, Salvatore Caruso and his workers cut and polish marble.
Mr Caruso, son of an Italian migrant, was using Polish workers when I came here 10 years ago, and he still is now.
He tells me his workforce has tripled in size in the past decade.
"If you take the migrant workers out of it, who's going to do the work?" he asks.
Slough's economy relies on migrant workers.
So many new arrivals might make a town successful, but they also change it. For some here, the change was too much.
Slough voted for Brexit. The town that made its fortune with migrant labour wanted out of Europe.
Sylwia Leszczynska is Polish and came to Slough 11 years ago to work as a carer for elderly people.
She planned her future in the UK.
She bought a house with her husband, Konrad.
Their children go to British schools.
But she doesn't believe in the dream anymore.
''Immigration, it's not so good an idea, like we thought before," she says.
"I now think more about going back to Poland.
"I've got a feeling they don't want us here.'
Her husband nods, and adds quietly: "Mr Farage opened Pandora's box.
"And now it's just worse really, worse than it was before."
Slough is an extraordinary mix.
It's the most ethnically diverse area outside London.
There are 150 different languages spoken there.
The last census found that two in every five of the town's residents had migrated to the UK.
But something else is happening here.
White British people are abandoning Slough.
Bernie and Ann Downes are moving out.
Mr Downes is deep in his garage, digging out the things he wants to take to their new home in Norfolk.
He and his wife have lived in Slough for most of their lives.
But they say it has changed too much.
"I feel quite sad," says Mrs Downes.
"I just loved Slough and everything about it.
"But now I can't find anything I like about Slough."
In 2001, there were 69,441 white British people living in Slough.
By 2011, that figure had dropped to 48,620.
White British people are now a minority.
Mr Downes says he is not a racist, but immigration is an issue.
"I don't feel any antipathy against the people," he adds.
"What I am against is the uncontrolled immigration."
There are plenty of people in Slough who are unhappy about immigration.
"Strain on the resources" is the most common complaint you hear.
But despite the pressure, research suggests most communities still get along.
Rob Deeks runs a charity that works with children.
"When we ask them if they've experienced racism, they have, but not in Slough," he says.
"They say, 'In the town up the road,' or, 'On the train.'
"This place is diverse, but it gets on."
Slough is about change, and it never stops.
The reason migrants came here in the 1920s is the reason they come here now - jobs.
On an icy Slough morning, a father and son brave the chill to walk to work.
They are from Seville in southern Spain, but Arturo Benjumeda and Arturo Jr are both now working at a printing company.
Arturo Sr moved to Slough after the Brexit vote.
The 60-year-old says he needed to work.
In Seville - a city where almost a third of the population is unemployed - he faced losing his home.
"I arrived here at night time, and I was already working in the morning," he says.
"Everything was new for me, so I felt quite stressed and very nervous."
His wife, Maria, has also found work, in a pub.
She says the Brexit vote didn't put them off.
"Our situation was so desperate, we had nothing to lose by coming here," she says.
Slough's story is driven by economics: the town that built its success on immigration, where some have had enough of the change it brings.
Richard Bilton's report, Life in Immigration Town, is on Panorama on BBC One at 20:30 on Monday 27 February and will be available to watch later via BBC iPlayer. | Walk down Slough's High Street, and you can see how the town has made its money: this place is built on immigration. |
32,395,923 | Emergency services were called to the scene near Gower View Foods factory, Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, at 08:05 BST. The man died at the scene.
A second man was taken to Llanelli's Prince Philip Hospital as a precautionary measure, said the Welsh Ambulance Service.
The Health and Safety Executive is assisting police with their inquiries.
The incident was on the site of a new factory being built for Gower View Foods and next door to its original plant.
Gower View Foods director Jon Lewis said: "We are devastated for the builder and for the family. It's a very sad situation."
A digger has been cordoned off at the scene.
An ambulance service spokesman said: "We sent a rapid response car and two emergency ambulances to the scene, where sadly a man was pronounced dead."
An HSE spokeswoman said: "There was a fatality this morning at Gower Foods in Cross Hands. The HSE is aware and we are assisting police with their enquiries at this stage." | A 22-year-old man has died after an incident involving a digger-type machine, say Dyfed-Powys Police. |
32,100,125 | But that didn't stop Lewis Hamilton taking pole position for Mercedes.
He finished 0.074 seconds ahead of Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, whilst Nico Rosberg came in third.
It's Hamilton's 40th finish in pole position; he'll be hoping to win again on Sunday. | Lightning, thunder and heavy rain delayed the start of the Malaysian Grand Prix for more than half an hour. |
31,790,574 | The network ran a slate referring to the film's title, during the hour-long slot when it should have aired.
The film, which features an interview with one of the men convicted of the Delhi bus rape, was due to be broadcast by the channel on Sunday night.
But it was outlawed by the Indian authorities on the grounds of "objectionable content".
Explaining its decision not to broadcast an alternative show from 21:00 to 22:00 local time (15:30-16:30 GMT), editorial director Sonia Singh said in a tweet: "We won't shout, but we will be heard."
Other Twitter users praised the decision. One comment read: "Kudos @ndtv for the #IndiasDaughter protest. A surprisingly mature decision in a mediascape that seems to deteriorate by by the day."
Another said: "@ndtv they may not always be right, but this time they are."NDTV
Filmmaker Leslee Udwin, who directed India's Daughter, has rejected claims by the authorities that the documentary contained offensive remarks towards women, and could cause a public outcry.
She also denied allegations that she broke a contract with the prison by airing the interview with rapist, Mukesh Singh.
He is facing the death penalty for his part in the rape and murder of a medical student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, which sparked protests across India.
The BBC's director of television, Danny Cohen defended the corporation's decision to show the film in the UK, despite a request from the Indian government that it shelve the broadcast.
"We do not feel the film as currently edited could ever be construed as derogatory to women or an affront to their dignity," he said. | India's NDTV has halted programming in protest at the banning of the BBC documentary India's Daughter. |
37,271,002 | Placards reading "save our A&E" and "Our NHS is here to stay" were waved along the route from Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI) to Greenhead Park.
Under the proposals, all emergency acute and high-risk planned care would be brought together at Calderdale Royal Hospital in neighbouring Halifax.
NHS Greater Huddersfield CCG said no decision had been made on the plans.
The proposals, which could save the NHS £31m, would see a new site developed in Acre Mills, Huddersfield, as a hospital for planned care, but with no A&E.
A public consultation recently revealed 60% of 7,500 respondents felt they would be negatively hit.
Karl Deitch, from the Hands off HRI group, said the march was to show the town "won't take it lying down".
"We're not stopping, they need to take a look and think - we have to go to a plan B, we need another alternative," he said.
Speakers at a rally at Greenhead Park included Barry Sheerman, Labour MP for Huddersfield, and Jason McCartney, Conservative MP for Colne Valley.
Several demonstrations against the proposals have now been staged, with a petition signed by more than 63,000 supporters.
A spokesperson for NHS Greater Huddersfield CCG said: "The CCGs' governing bodies will make the decision on the outcome of the consultation and next steps regarding the proposed changes to local hospital and community health services at a meeting in parallel on 20 October." | Hundreds of people have marched in Huddersfield against the proposed closure of the town's A&E department. |
37,960,809 | They responded to seven incidents last weekend and five first responders are using pedal-power again on Saturday as the city hosts big crowds with Wales' rugby and football teams in action.
The service could be rolled out in other areas, according to the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust.
"I'm sure this will save lives in the city centre," said boss Richard Lee.
It could also help to avoid sending an emergency ambulance if suitable treatment can be administered on scene in city centre locations like pedestrianised areas.
Bob Tooby, head of the ambulance's operations in Cardiff & Vale, said: "We have tested the bikes across the Vale of Glamorgan and are already in discussion to expand their use across other areas around Wales over the next three years.
"Early results are promising with the new bikes having been tested last weekend during the Wales v Australia international, and the team responded to seven calls in the busy city centre and Cardiff Bay."
The service is already in operation elsewhere in the UK and St John Ambulance have had cycle responders for several years. | Paramedics are using bicycles to get to callouts quicker in Cardiff city centre. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.