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38,290,396 | Chris Hazzard made the statement after local residents said they feared human error or equipment failure could lead to a cyanide spill.
The claim has been rejected by the company.
No planning application has yet been submitted but is expected to be put in early next year.
The chemical is used in part of the processing system but Dalriadian, the company planning the mine said it will be heavily regulated and does not pose a risk to the public or the environment.
Some people living near the proposed facility remain vehemently opposed.
Patrick Anderson, the chief executive of Dalradian, said he would welcome a public inquiry.
"I think it would be a further forum to engage locally and hear more fully what the complaints and the support is for the project so you could have a more informed decision for the minister when it comes to deciding whether to grant planning permission or not," he said.
Dalradian had said it can get millions of ounces of gold from the Sperrins over the 25-year life of the mine, creating hundreds of jobs in construction and operation.
The minister added that his department had been in meetings with Dalradian over the last year as part of "pre-application discussions to scope the extent of information that will be needed should they decide to submit a planning application for the proposal".
"It is already clear that the planning application, if submitted, will be both complex and controversial involving a wide range of views and in depth information to assess the potential socio-economic and environmental impacts, both positive and negative, of the proposed development," Mr Hazzard said.
The announcement has been welcomed by Sinn Féin MLA Declan McAleer.
"The proposal is only 1,200 metres from the local primary school and GAA ground and there is a real concern in the local area about the lack of public consultation in Greencastle village, which would have made it more accessible for local people.
"Hopefully, this move by the minister will allow people to get answers to their questions and to voice their concerns," he said.
A planning application will be lodged in 2017 if a feasibility study proves the project is economically viable.
The company said it would have between five and 20 tonnes of cyanide on site at any time with at least one delivery a week.
A diluted cyanide solution will be used to separate tiny gold particles from a portion of the crushed ore.
It will be transported and stored in solid briquettes in which form it is inert.
A number of groups have been set up to oppose the plan.
The Save Our Sperrins group said it is worried about potential water and air pollution.
However, Dalradian said the use of cyanide will be heavily regulated.
The company said the 10% of crushed ore that is treated with it will go through a final process to destroy most of the cyanide.
It will then be pumped back underground in the form of a cement paste to backfill the blast holes.
It claims that paste will contain only "trace" amounts of the toxin and that there would be more naturally-occurring cyanide in "a handful of chewed almonds". | The Department of Infrastructure has said there should be a public inquiry into a proposal for a goldmine near Greencastle, County Tyrone. |
35,697,972 | Joel Moon was first to cross but the Giants hit back through Danny Brough and Jermaine McGillvary.
The Rhinos levelled when Liam Sutcliffe stormed over and Jordan Lilley converted, before Michael Lawrence instantly restored Huddersfield's lead.
Jimmy Keinhorst stretched to score and Lilley secured Leeds' first Super League victory from the tee.
The champions have struggled in 2016 so far, having lost in the league to Warrington, Widnes and Catalans and suffered a heavy defeat by North Queensland Cowboys in the World Club Challenge.
Brian McDermott's side, who have also suffered injuries to several key players, including captain Danny McGuire and talismanic winger Tom Briscoe, next face a trip to Wigan, who they defeated in last season's Grand Final.
Daniel Smith hobbled off early on for an injury-hit Huddersfield, while Moon and Ash Handley failed to complete the game for Leeds.
The result sees the pointless Giants drop to the bottom of the table, with Leeds moving to ninth.
The shock of both sides lying in the league's bottom two before kick-off added extra spice to an already passionate local derby.
Two of Super League's recent high achievers were already without key personnel through injuries, and Huddersfield will have been further frustrated by the loss of Dan Smith early on.
Despite tricky conditions, the game was played at a furious pace but peppered with errors, while Danny Brough and former Giants team-mate Brett Ferres were involved in several spats throughout as tempers flared.
However, Leeds weathered the visitors pressure to finish the game in the ascendancy and pick up their first points.
Leeds Rhinos boss Brian McDermott:
"I didn't think the half-backs did anything special although ultimately Jordan Lilley's kicking and Liam Sutcliffe's try probably got us the game.
"But it shouldn't have been that hard. It was two committed teams who were almost trying too hard at times.
"I think it's too early in the season for me to be saying, 'A win's a win'. I don't think it's about that. We need to string some passages of play together that we're working on but it isn't happening on game day.
"I don't think we're lacking confidence or are overanxious, I just think we're desperate. I thought we worked our rocks off defensively but were disjointed in attack."
Huddersfield Giants head coach Paul Anderson:
"I think we gifted it away. We talked at half-time about completing some sets - you complete to compete.
"But we gave a sheer weight of possession away to Leeds who have got some good players.
"We were on the wrong end of an 8-1 penalty count in the second half which was embarrassing, not from our point of view but from the officials'.
"They want the ruck quick then they want it slow - they just need to make their minds up. It's pathetic at the moment.
"We have to be disappointed but the reality of it is we'll be fine. That wasn't a bottom-of-the-league performance."
Leeds: Hardaker, Handley, Watkins, Moon, Hall, Sutcliffe, Lilley, Galloway, Burrow, Cuthbertson, Delaney, Ferres, Singleton.
Substitutes: Baldwinson, Keinhorst, Mullally, Walters.
Huddersfield: Murphy, McGillvary, Cudjoe, Lawrence, Foster, Connor, Brough, Rapira, Hinchcliffe, Smith, Ta'ai, Roberts, Patrick.
Substitutes: J. Johnson, Leeming, Mason, Dickinson. | Leeds secured their first Super League win of the season after the defending champions beat Huddersfield. |
32,281,155 | Non-EU citizens settling in the UK for longer than six months are also being required to pay a "health surcharge" as part of their visa applications.
The new rules from the Department of Health came into force on 6 April.
Primary care and A&E care continues to remain free.
Permanent residents of 32 European countries qualify for NHS treatment, which is then billed to their country of residence, but this new ruling applies to foreign migrants or visitors based in other countries, mainly those outside the EU.
These patients can be treated in an NHS hospital but are expected to repay the cost of most procedures afterwards.
But up to now, the DoH has only sought to reclaim the actual costs, without adding any extra charges.
The DoH hopes the changes will help it recoup up to £500m a year by 2017-18.
The new guidelines do not require patients on trolleys in hospitals to produce passports before getting access to urgent care. Nor do they apply to accident and emergency or a visit to a GP.
What is covered is ongoing treatment on the NHS after an initial diagnosis or referral - for example an outpatient appointment.
The Department of Health is incentivising hospitals to be more vigilant in checking patient credentials by allowing them to charge more for treatment of people "not ordinarily resident" in the UK.
The department can recoup those costs from the patient's member state if they are from the European Economic Area.
In the paperwork filled in by the patient before the appointment they will be asked for proof they are "ordinarily resident".
This could be a utility bill, national insurance number or passport details. Some hospitals were doing this already but many were not.
The guidelines are designed to increase the chances that the treatment costs for a non-UK resident can be recovered. Critics may ask why it has taken so long for the initiative to be launched.
The charges are based on the standard tariff for a range of procedures, ranging from about £1,860 for cataract surgery to about £8,570 for a hip replacement.
Similar charges can be imposed by the NHS in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for hospital care received by non-EU residents.
Patients using hospital services have been required to show their passports and other immigration documents if their UK residence status was in doubt.
The "health surcharge" on visa applications for non-EU citizens comprises an annual fee of £200-a-year, which is reduced to £150 for students.
Certain individuals, such as Australian and New Zealand nationals, are exempt from the surcharge.
And non-EU citizens who are lawfully entitled to reside in the UK and usually live in the country will be entitled to free NHS care as they are now.
Andrew Bridgen, the Tory MP for North West Leicestershire in the last Parliament, told the Daily Mail: "This is not the International Health Service, it's the National Health Service.
"Non-UK nationals seeking medical attention should pay for their treatment.
"The NHS is funded by UK taxpayers for UK citizens and if any of us went to any of these countries we'd certainly be paying if we needed to be treated."
Dr Mark Porter of the British Medical Association questioned the feasibility, saying a doctor's duty was to "treat the patient that's in front on them, not to act as border guard". | Visitors from outside the EU who receive treatment in NHS hospitals in England are now being charged 150% of the cost under changes brought in to discourage "health tourism". |
38,331,885 | The first minister was responding to a query from Moray MSP Richard Lochhead, who said rural constituents were being "fleeced" with such charges.
Ms Sturgeon called on the UK government to act to prevent delivery charges that were "vastly out of proportion".
Halfords said the fee was "exceptional" for an "online exclusive" product.
During First Minister's Questions at Holyrood, Mr Lochhead said his constituent had been treated with "contempt".
He said: "To make matters worse, they have implied that the high charge is to put off customers in the north of Scotland from ordering. So much for the season of good will.
"Would the first minister agree that as more and more rural residents buy online in the run up to Christmas, that they should not be treated with this contempt or fleeced by greedy companies or discriminated against for living in the north of Scotland."
Nicola Sturgeon said her government had played an "active role" in developing a statement of principle for delivery charges, which reputable companies should adhere to.
She added: "The level of charge that Richard Lochhead has outlined today is shocking. Certainly based on what he has said today, it seems vastly out of proportion and, yes, I am in full agreement that excessive charging for parcel deliveries is unacceptable."
In a statement, Halfords said it was working with its suppliers to review its delivery charges.
The statement said: "When ordering from Halfords.com normal postage to the Highlands and Islands region applies in over 95% of cases.
"The exception to this is if a customer purchases an online only exclusive product on Halfords Marketplace, which is an online platform that Halfords hosts for smaller independent retailers who deliver direct.
"We are currently working with our Marketplace suppliers to review this to help reach a more cost-effective resolution for customers ordering from those Marketplace suppliers. "
Nicola Sturgeon said the UK government had the power and the "obligation" to prevent over-the-top charging for delivery and that she would continue to press for action on the issue.
A study by the Citizens Advice Bureau in 2015 found consumers in the Highlands and islands were paying substantially more for delivery charges. | A £50 delivery charge imposed by Halfords to send towels costing £5.99 to Speyside has been condemned as "shocking" by Nicola Sturgeon. |
27,128,902 | Hamas and Fatah split violently in 2007. Previous reconciliation agreements have never been implemented.
The deal comes amid troubled peace talks between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel.
Following the announcement, Israel said it would not attend a negotiation session planned for Wednesday evening.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said Mr Abbas would have to choose between peace with Israel and peace with Hamas.
By Rushdi Abu AloufBBC News, Gaza City
It is not easy to find a Palestinian who is optimistic about the latest, announcement, long overdue, about a reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.
Dozens of similar meetings have been held at home and abroad over the years. Two agreements were signed - in Qatar and Cairo - but none of these saw the light of day and nothing changed on the ground.
So what is new in this round?
Observers and analysts say there are new developments in the region.
Hamas has lost a strong ally in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and the leadership has also lost a key base in Damascus.
Fatah, meanwhile, is looking to strengthen its position as peace negotiations with Israel stall.
Media divided over Palestinian unity deal
"You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace; so far he hasn't done so," he warned.
Israel - along with the US and the EU - views the Islamist Hamas group as a terrorist organisation.
Palestinian officials responded by saying reconciliation was an internal matter and uniting Palestinian people would reinforce peace.
In a statement, Mr Abbas said there was "no incompatibility between reconciliation and the talks" and that they were committed to peace on the basis of a two-state solution.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington was "disappointed" by the announcement and warned it could seriously complicate peace efforts.
"It's hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist," she added.
Mr Abbas sent a delegation from his Fatah party to Gaza for reconciliation talks earlier this week.
The factions said they planned to form an interim unity government - headed by Mr Abbas - within five weeks and hold parliamentary elections within six months.
"This is the good news we tell our people," Ismail Haniya, prime minister of the Hamas-led government in Gaza, told reporters. "The era of division is over."
Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed said they had "agreed about everything we discussed, so we will forget what happened in the past".
The news brought thousands of Palestinians out on to the streets of Gaza City in celebration.
Ordinary Palestinians have long hoped for an end to the split between their political leaders but previous reconciliation deals in Doha and Cairo were never implemented, says the BBC's Yolande Knell in Jerusalem.
The agreement will strengthen the position of Mr Abbas - whose Fatah movement dominates the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank - and should also make Hamas feel less isolated as it continues to face border restrictions imposed by Israel and Egypt, our correspondent adds.
Fatah has historically been the dominant faction in the Palestinian nationalist movement, but Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006.
In early 2007, Fatah and Hamas agreed to form a coalition to end growing factional violence, but in June of that year Hamas seized Gaza by force and set up a rival government.
Shortly after Wednesday's reconciliation deal was announced, five people were injured in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza, Palestinian medics said.
Israel said it had targeted militants preparing to fire rockets. On Monday, seven rockets were launched from the territory into southern Israel. | Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have announced a reconciliation deal, saying they will try to form a unity government in the coming weeks. |
33,105,800 | Declan Kearney, the party's national chairperson, made the comments in a newspaper article.
It would cost an estimated £300m a year to cut the tax rate from its current 20% to 12.5%.
Mr Kearney said that under current austerity plans that would not be affordable.
The DUP's Peter Weir said Mr Kearney's comments and others recently by other Sinn Féin members "expose their naivety on economics".
"The only reason there is dust being thrown in the air regarding corporation tax is because Sinn Féin decisions, through southern influences, have landed us with a black hole in the budget," he said.
"Sinn Féin can spin and try to distract from the facts, but their best way forward would be just to implement what they agreed in the Stormont House Agreement."
Mr Kearney's article states that the executive's block grant from Westminster fell by £1.5bn in real terms in the last parliament.
It adds that it will fall by a further £800m by 2018 under the current Conservative spending plans.
Mr Kearney states: "The local private and public sectors are already too weak to withstand such a virtual economic tsunami.
"One direct consequence of the ongoing austerity crisis is that, in these circumstances, the regional economy will not be able to afford the introduction of corporation tax even if a date and rate were to be agreed."
The block grant would fall if the tax is cut because it would mean less revenue is collected for the Treasury, and under European rules Stormont would have to make up the shortfall.
The legislation to allow Corporation Tax powers to be devolved to Stormont was published in January.
However, it includes a 'commencement clause' which means the power will not be devolved until the Treasury assesses that the executive's finances are on a sound footing.
The Northern Ireland parties had agreed a deal on Westminster's welfare reform measures in the Stormont House Agreement last December.
However, Sinn Féin withdrew its support in March.
The current UK rate is 20% whereas in the Republic of Ireland firms pay 12.5%. | A senior Sinn Féin member has warned that the NI Executive may be unable to afford a cut in corporation tax. |
32,648,129 | David Cameron will be continuing as our prime minister.
It's not yet clear whether the Conservatives will manage a small overall majority or fall just short, but four other things are very clear:
So, what is all this likely to mean?
A referendum on whether the UK stays in, or leaves, the European Union, within the next two-and-a-half years.
A race to be the next leader of the Labour Party.
A race to be the next leader of the Liberal Democrats.
And a huge new presence of Scottish National Party MPs at Westminster.
They will be the third biggest party in the Commons - just months after losing a referendum that defines what the party exists to promote.
And so here's another thing we know for certain this morning: Politics ain't going to be boring any time soon. | After weeks of chatter about an election too close to call, it wasn't that close at all. |
36,687,856 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Martin, who won quadruple sculls silver in 2012, came back at Drysdale in the closing stages with both men stopping the clock at six minutes 41.34 seconds.
Find out how to get into rowing with our special guide.
Only a photo could separate the pair.
Czech two-time silver medallist Ondrej Synek took bronze, finishing 3.24 seconds behind Drysdale and Martin.
The win is New Zealand's second rowing gold of the Games, out of a total of eight Kiwi medals in Rio.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Defending champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand retained his Olympic title by the tightest of margins as he was given gold in the same time as Croat Damir Martin in the men's single sculls. |
26,553,571 | Over 500 complaints have been made to the Environment Agency about the site in Cormongers Lane, Redhill, Surrey.
The agency said it would consider taking action against operator Biffa if it found it had breached its permit.
Biffa said it was working in accordance with its permit and claimed improvement work to tackle the smell had been hampered by the wet weather.
The managing director of Biffa's landfill division, Mick Davies, said: "We want to get ourselves so we're a good neighbour so we don't create a problem in the area and that's what our focus is.
"We're obviously aware of the odour complaints and we are apologetic to the public."
Residents have been complaining about the smell emanating from the site for several weeks.
Green Party councillor Sarah Finch said the stench seemed to be at its worst earlier in the month.
Environment Agency officers are sending data about gas emissions to Public Health England, which will rule on whether there is a health risk.
Biffa has said it does not believe the levels of hydrogen sulphide at the site pose a threat to human health.
As a temporary measure the company has installed a flare stack, a type of combustion device, to burn off the excess gas. | The operator of a rubbish tip has apologised for the smell of rotten eggs that is coming from the site. |
30,076,477 | The Oxfordshire-based team have missed the last two races due to financial problems, but will compete at the season-ending race thanks to a successful crowdfunding project.
"It will be nice to be back in the car," Kobayashi said. "This team is working hard and never gives up."
Caterham say they will announce their second driver "in due course".
Kobayashi, 28, has raced 14 times this season, but was dropped for the Belgian Grand Prix, and also criticised Caterham over repairs made to his car during the Russian Grand Prix weekend.
Finnbarr O'Connell, the team's administrator, said: "The team are delighted to have Kamui on board for the race weekend in Abu Dhabi."
Swede Marcus Ericsson, who has driven alongside Kobayashi for most of the season, terminated his Caterham contract with immediate effect earlier this week. | Caterham have announced that they will retain Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. |
17,054,150 | Lu Jun - who officiated at the World Cup - was one of nine people convicted of charges related to corruption inside Chinese football.
The defendants were arrested following an investigation launched to try to clean up the game in China.
A number of other cases are still pending.
Lu Jun, once dubbed the "golden whistle", was the first Chinese referee to take charge of a World Cup match, at the 2002 event hosted by Japan and South Korea.
He was also twice named referee of the year by the Asian Football Confederation.
But now he has been sent to prison after admitting taking bribes worth more than $128,000 (£82,000) to fix the results of seven league football games, some in 2003.
These bribes involved four clubs, including Shanghai Shenhua, which has just signed French soccer star Nicolas Anelka.
The court, in the north-eastern city of Dandong, heard how the Shanghai club had spent nearly $1m bribing officials and referees, including Lu Jun.
The referee was one of a group of nine people - including other referees and officials - convicted following a trial. They were given sentences ranging from no time in jail to seven years behind bars.
There were tales of a wrongly-awarded penalty, the fixing of international friendly matches and gambling.
In China, corrupt referees have become known as "black whistles".
Dozens of people - referees, players, officials and coaches - have been arrested following a campaign to clean up Chinese football, launched in 2009.
Corruption has blighted the beautiful game here for some years, leading many Chinese fans to support European teams instead.
Last season, though, there was new investment - and enthusiasm - for football in China. That has been heightened with the arrival of Anelka.
But the trials of two former senior officials in the Chinese Football Association - the two bigger fishes, as the state-run news agency Xinhua calls them - have yet to start. | The man who was once China's top football referee has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for taking bribes to fix matches. |
34,288,835 | Shanon Loveridge, 22, and Johnny Murphy, 25, both of Watford Road, St Albans, are to appear before St Albans Magistrates Court on 27 October.
They are charged with holding a person in slavery or servitude and requiring another person to perform forced labour between April 2010 and September 2014.
The pair were arrested in March following reports of human trafficking.
They have been released on bail until their court appearance. The alleged offences are said to have been committed in St Albans.
A 62-year-old woman has been released without charge. | Two people have been charged with slavery and forced labour offences in Hertfordshire. |
33,457,569 | "We currently suspect Mastercard is artificially raising the costs of card payments," said the EU statement.
Those fees harm consumers and retailers in the EU, competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.
The credit card company said it was "working with the European Commission on the issue" and was preparing a formal response.
"Throughout this procedure we have kept the needs of both consumers and merchants in mind," Mastercard said.
The EU is focusing on what is known as 'interchange fees' - the fees retailers pay banks to process card payments.
Officials say they are concerned that Mastercard violates competition rules by requiring retailers to pay artificially inflated fees to process credit card transactions.
They say this practice leads to higher prices for retailers in the EU, which they then pass on to consumers.
The charges from the EU are part of a long-running investigation.
The maximum fine that the EU can impose for antitrust infringements is 10% of the company's annual sales, according to the EU.
A separate investigation into Visa's interchange fees is also being carried out by the EU. | European Union officials have accused Mastercard of overcharging consumers with the fees the company charges. |
21,496,790 | Within Italy, though, the former prime minister remains a potent political force. His centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party has been gaining ground, and he may well be in the reckoning when this weekend's election results roll in.
So, what is the secret of his enduring attraction? Some of his faithful followers in Italy's affluent north explain why they have stayed loyal, despite all the scandal. Another, meanwhile, explains why he has finally had enough.
Mr Bianchi describes himself as one of life's "gypsies". He's travelled the world during a career that's included the Italian diplomatic service, shipping and finance industries. He now works as a training consultant to big firms from his home in Milan. Mr Bianchi has been a Berlusconi fan since the former cruise-ship crooner exploded onto the political scene in 1994 - and he remains one to this day. He even supports Mr Berlusconi's AC Milan.
"This was a man who'd come from virtually nothing to be a big success in building, finance, the media - and had spotted a gap in the political market. He also opened up politics - to businessmen, academics and managers. And I like his easy way with people. What he's found, though, is that the Italian political system is very difficult to change, because of the resistance of the political system and vested interests.
"The way he's been attacked over the years has infuriated me. They started out trying to attack him on issues that seemed important - and when that didn't work, they ended up talking about the girls and the parties.
"What he has now - in addition to his business expertise - is 20 years' experience of politics. And that could be invaluable at this difficult time. In fact, I believe in him now even more than in the past."
Mr Ferri is single, and a marketing graduate. Home is a small village called Comun Nuova, in the Po valley. His day starts at 06:00 in the morning, when he sets off for work at the nearby Tenaris steel plant. Four evenings a week he studies for his masters degree in international marketing.
"Berlusconi's no saint, we all know that. But there's a saying in Italian - 'ci mette la faccia' - which basically means someone's not afraid of a fight, of taking a risk. And that's Berlusconi all over. He has no fear.
"Before he came back as leader - just before the election - the PDL was down and out. Now it's back and fighting hard. The PDL might still lose - but it would have been a lot worse without Berlusconi.
"Berlusconi is the only one who knows how to talk to people about their real problems. You know, we've businessmen round here who've lost everything they've worked to build up over the past 40 years - men who can't even afford a decent meal any more.
"And the other parties - on the left - they want to talk about gay weddings. I mean - what planet are they on? They've no experience of the real world. The only world most of them know is the world of politics."
Ms Birolini is running for election to the Lombardy regional council on the PDL ticket. A 43-year-old mother of two, she's passionate about culture, the importance of rooting out corruption and the role of women in Italian society. How does that sit with her place in a party led by a man known for constant corruption allegations - and a taste for dancing girls?
"Berlusconi is not the PDL. The reason I'm in the PDL is because it represents freedom of choice - and it's only by the exercise of choice that you become a better citizen. Berlusconi did a lot for the country in his first 10 years. But after that, I think he got misled by some of those around him.
"It's really difficult to be a woman in the centre-right at the moment because some of the examples in the past were so bad. We're all 'messo nello stesso cappello' - thrown together in the same hat. It's my personal battle to show that a woman can make a valid contribution politically, that there's a different way to be a woman in politics on the centre-right. It's a heavy responsibility - especially at a time like this.
"But the top priority after the election has to be to tackle corruption. The worst thing is the way it's insinuated its way into society - so that ordinary people end up thinking it's not really criminal behaviour, just a way of doing business."
Mr Marieni is a property owner and retired manager, whose family home is in the town of Bergamo, just outside Milan. He's a firm believer in free-market liberalism - and had great hopes for Silvio Berlusconi when he first appeared on the political scene. But this time, he says, he won't be voting PDL.
"I voted for him because he seemed to be the only person who could prevent Italy being taken over by the communists or ex-communists. I think he had a genuine desire to renew the country - to slash bureaucracy and shake up the public administration, education and health.
He also saw the need to modernise our infrastructure in order to catch up with the rest of Europe - everything from high-speed train networks and motorways to nuclear power plants and high-speed internet access.
"But the establishment - most of it on the left - was against all this - and so started the battle against him - like antibodies fighting off alien intruders in the body.
"Now, though, I think his time is over. He eventually came to see himself as almighty. He lost his sense of proportion - and of the ridiculous: all those alleged red-light parties, Ruby and the rest. And as a result, he's simply not credible anymore." | To many in the outside world, Silvio Berlusconi is the clown prince of politics - better known for his bunga-bunga parties, outrageous comments and courtroom battles than for any obvious political nous. |
39,944,520 | "I hope you can let this go," Mr Trump reportedly told Mr Comey after a White House meeting in February, according to a memo written by the ex-FBI director.
The memo was written immediately after the meeting, a day after Michael Flynn resigned, according to media reports.
The White House has denied the allegation in a statement.
"The president has never asked Mr Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn," it said.
An influential Republican congressman has called for the FBI to hand over all relevant documents within a week.
Jason Chaffetz, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, demanded all correspondence relating to communications between Mr Comey and the president be presented by 24 May.
Mr Flynn was forced out in February after he misled the vice-president about his conversations with Russia's ambassador before Mr Trump took office.
The latest Russian twist, first reported by the New York Times, comes a week after Mr Trump fired Mr Comey over his handling of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while at the state department.
Mr Comey's dismissal sent shockwaves through Washington, with critics accusing the president of trying to thwart the FBI investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the US election and any Moscow ties to Trump associates.
Mr Comey reportedly wrote a memo following a meeting with the president on 14 February that revealed Mr Trump had asked him to close an investigation into Mr Flynn's actions.
He reportedly shared the memo with top FBI associates.
"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," the president told Mr Comey, according to the memo. "He is a good guy."
Mr Comey did not respond to his request, according to the memo, but replied: "I agree he is a good guy."
In response to the report, a White House official pointed out that acting FBI director Andrew McCabe had testified last week that there had been "no effort to impede our investigation to date".
The "I" word - impeachment - has already been broached by politicians as moderate as independent Senator Angus King of Maine. If this were a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, articles of impeachment would likely be in the drafting process.
Republicans still call the shots in Congress, however, and it's a significant leap to get them to abandon the Trump presidency and any hope of advancing their agenda for the foreseeable future.
But some, like Senator John McCain - who said this has become a scandal of "Watergate size and scale" - are clearly wavering.
The former Republican presidential nominee is a bit of a wild card, of course.
For the rank-and-file to turn on the president will require them to admit their complicity in a failed presidency.
Read in full - How damaging is this for Trump?
Trump 'asked FBI to drop Flynn inquiry'
Mr Flynn's departure in February came months after suspicions were raised among intelligence officials.
He resigned as White House national security adviser after just 23 days on the job over revelations that he had discussed lifting sanctions on Moscow with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, before Mr Trump was sworn in.
It is illegal for private citizens to conduct US diplomacy.
Since Mr Flynn stepped down, the Pentagon has launched an investigation into whether he failed to disclose payments from Russian and Turkish lobbyists for speeches and consulting work.
Mr Flynn's Russian ties are under investigation by the FBI and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, as part of wider inquiries into claims Moscow sought to tip the election in favour of Mr Trump.
Adam Schiff, the highest ranked Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said this intervention by Mr Trump, if correct, amounted to "interference or obstruction of the investigation".
Senator John McCain reportedly said at a dinner that the Trump scandals had now reached "Watergate size".
The key legal statute is 18 US Code Section 1512, which contains a broad definition allowing charges to be brought against someone who "obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so".
Section 1512 requires a person not only to attempt to obstruct justice but to do it with "corrupt" intent, and legal experts have told the Washington Post that is not clear in this case. | President Donald Trump asked FBI chief James Comey to drop an inquiry into links between his ex-national security adviser and Russia, US media report. |
33,755,230 | An excellent save by Craig Gordon denied Qarabag's Richard Almeida midway through the first half.
Stuart Armstrong and Stefan Johansen fired shots wide for the visitors after the break as openings remained scarce.
Ronny Deila's side are now two legs away from the group stage and will discover their opponents on Friday.
Dedryck Boyata's headed goal from the first leg sealed Celtic's seeded place in the draw, while Qarabag dropped into the Europa League play-off round.
There had been concerns about the pitch at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium following reports the surface had been badly damaged by the heat.
However, Deila had dismissed suggestions that either the pitch or the heat in the Azerbaijan capital would hamper his side's chances.
Celtic, fielding an unchanged starting line-up from last Wednesday, absorbed pressure from the hosts in the opening half-hour but had few direct efforts at goal to deal with.
Gordon flapped at a cross and Rydell Poepon could not take advantage but the goalkeeper was much more convincing when he beat away Richard's effort.
The Brazilian lined up his left-foot shot from 22 yards and curled the ball towards the inside of Gordon's right-hand post only to be left frustrated by the Scotland international's stretching save.
In attack, the visitors were restricted to breakaways and rarely got into dangerous areas.
Nir Bitton attempted to catch Ibrahim Sehic out with an audacious shot from near the centre circle, the keeper clutching after a momentary panic.
Alharbi El Jadeyaoui tried a chip of his own early in the second half but Gordon comfortably caught the 20-yard shot.
Though Qarabag's attacking continued to stutter, Celtic became less and less able to mount meaningful advances and their passing often let them down.
However, Armstrong sought to break the malaise with a shot from the left that had power but lacked accuracy.
As the game entered its closing stages, Johansen had only Sehic to beat as he latched on to an Armstrong pass but could not hit the target.
James Forrest injected fresh pace as a replacement for Armstrong and his forceful, driving run took him clear of the Qarabag defence, but he elected to pass instead of shoot and the hosts scrambled clear.
After five minutes of stoppage time, the Celtic players were celebrating and will now contemplate the challenge of overcoming their final hurdle to the Champions League group stage. | Celtic progressed to the Champions League play-off round as a goalless draw in Baku allowed them to complete a 1-0 aggregate win over Qarabag. |
31,383,182 | He is accused of "aggravated pimping", or helping to procure sex workers for a prostitution ring based at a hotel in Lille. Thirteen other people are on trial with him.
DSK, as he is widely known in France, was once seen as a leading contender for the French presidency, but if found guilty he could end up in jail.
The "Carlton affair" - named after the hotel in the northern French city of Lille that sparked the initial investigation - erupted in 2011. An anonymous tip-off alerted officials that the hotel was being used for prostitution.
Further investigation uncovered an international prostitution ring involving prominent local businessmen.
It emerged that some of the suspects had close links to Mr Strauss-Kahn and that he took part in sex parties organised by them in France and Washington in late 2010 and early 2011. Prostitutes have said they were paid to attend those parties.
The 13 other people also facing the charge of "aggravated pimping" include:
Using prostitutes is legal in France.
However under article 225-5 of the criminal code, the definition of pimping includes not just procuring, but also facilitating prostitution "in any way".
Investigators, who have found SMS (text) messages between Mr Strauss-Kahn and the other co-defendants, believe that the sex parties were organised specifically for the benefit of the former head of the International Monetary Fund.
Prosecutors therefore believe he played a major role in instigating the orgies. Some have described him as the "party king".
He and his co-accused are accused of "aggravated" pimping because the prostitution activities were allegedly organised by a group of people.
If convicted he could face a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of €1.5m (£1.13m; $1.72 million).
Two former prostitutes have agreed to help the prosecution, Mounia and Jade, and both believe he must have known they were prostitutes. Both attended sex parties at the Hotel Murano in Paris between 2009 and 2010, but never together.
Mounia told the court that she was chosen especially for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but acknowledged no mention of money was ever raised in his presence. She said she was paid €900 (£690) by David Roquet, for what she had been told would be a "small party".
She also says DSK forced her to commit an act "against nature" at a party in Paris, which he denies.
Jade worked for brothel owner Dominique Alderweireld and had attended lunchtime sex parties in Lille. She is also believed to have travelled to Washington to take part in a sex party there. In her testimony, she said she had been introduced to a "public figure", and said she was paid either by Dominique Alderweireld or Rene Kojfer.
Mr Strauss-Kahn has never denied taking part in sex parties. But, he insists: "I committed no crime, no offence."
His main line of defence is that he had no idea some of the women there were prostitutes. One of his lawyers once said: "I challenge you to tell a naked prostitute from a naked society lady."
Giving evidence on 10 February, he also accused prosecutors of having greatly exaggerated the frequency of his "licentious evenings". He said: "There were only 12 parties in total - that is four per year over three years."
It was the prostitutes who said it was obvious what they were, he told the court. "But many other witnesses say they didn't see any prostitutes. I maintain that I neither knew nor suspected there were prostitutes."
Strauss-Kahn: A profile | The former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has told a French court that he attended orgies, but would never have done so if he had known they involved prostitutes. |
36,472,099 | A labour court said the bank, Societe Generale, had dismissed him not because of his actions, which it must have known of, but for their consequences.
The court ordered the bank to pay him €450,000 (£350,000) in damages.
A lawyer for the bank said it would be appealing a "scandalous" decision that ran counter to the law.
Mr Kerviel, 39, served a three-year jail term after being convicted of breach of trust and fraud in October 2010.
He was charged with gambling €50bn (£39bn) of Societe Generale's money on trades without the bank's knowledge, which nearly brought down the business.
Although he had originally generated more than €1.4bn (£1.09bn) in profits in 2007, within months that had turned into enormous losses.
Mr Kerviel had argued at his trial that Societe Generale had known what he was doing but turned a blind eye.
One of the judges at the tribunal said that the bank could not pretend it was unaware of Mr Kerviel's fake operations and said he was fired "without genuine or serious cause".
His lawyer, David Koubbi, told Reuters news agency on Tuesday that the court's decision "tore apart the story which Societe Generale has presented from the beginning".
Mr Kerviel had appealed against his conviction but it was upheld in March 2014. He spent two months walking from Rome to France before going to jail. He was later let out on condition he wear an electronic tag.
Mr Kerviel has requested a retrial of the original criminal case. He is contesting an order to repay his losses to the bank. | The French ex-trader Jerome Kerviel, whose unauthorised transactions lost his bank €4.9bn (£3.82bn), has won a claim for unfair dismissal. |
34,162,719 | The bank carries the A170 up an extreme gradient. The county council said the £250,000 programme of works needed to be carried out before the winter.
Traffic will be diverted along the alternate caravan route through Coxwold and Ampleforth.
A further six weeks of work will follow the closure, with temporary traffic lights controlling vehicle movements.
The council said it was impossible to complete the work, which also includes reinstating crash barriers, without the closure. | Sutton Bank is to be closed for two weeks from Monday for maintenance work. |
37,766,919 | Ministers from both governments are meeting the prince to discuss how to improve soil health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming.
Typically the focus of cutting greenhouse gases has fallen on transport and industry, but France says agriculture must play its part.
Ministers will debate how to store more carbon in soils.
They will also discuss how to restore degraded soils, improve fertility and increase food security.
The French farm ministry says farming and forestry can contribute between 20% and 60% of potential cuts in greenhouse gases up to to 2030.
It says changes to farming methods can save 12-15 million tonnes of CO2 through livestock farming alone. It lists the need for:
Previous attempts to nudge Britain's farmers into cutting emissions have largely failed. The Committee on Climate Change noted that emissions from agriculture have been broadly level since 2008 while industry and power generation emissions have dropped sharply.
The French farm ministry quotes statistics from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projecting that farming and forestry can contribute between 20% and 60% of potential cuts in greenhouse gases up to 2030.
Peter Melchett from the Soil Association told BBC News: "The French initiative is extraordinarily important. It has put greenhouse gas emissions from farming on the global climate change agenda for the first time since Kyoto (the first climate agreement in 1997).
"It highlights the desperate need to stop emissions of greenhouse gases from soils - especially lowland drained peat - and the huge potential for sequestering carbon in agricultural soils."
The Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) recommended in May that in order to implement an initiative from last year's Paris climate summit to increase soil carbon levels by 0.4% per year, the government should set out specific, measurable and time-limited actions.
The government agreed the importance of the initiative and said it was investigating what action to take.
Lord Krebs from the Committee on Climate Change said: "The health of the UK's soils is of critical importance for the productive capacity of our agricultural land.
"A combination of population and economic growth are expected to increase global demand for food in the future. At the same time, climate change could reduce the capacity of the land globally to keep pace with growing demand.
"It is, therefore, essential that we are doing all we can to protect the long-term productive capacity of our agricultural soils."
The Anglo-French meeting has been organised by The Prince of Wales' International Sustainability Unit in collaboration with both governments.
Follow Roger on Twitter. | The Prince of Wales is joining an Anglo-French government initiative to improve the condition of global soils. |
36,415,412 | Zbigniew Ziobro, who is also Poland's prosecutor general, said he would make the appeal in the Supreme Court.
A judge rejected Polanski's extradition in October as "inadmissible".
The director, who lives in France, fled the US ahead of sentencing in 1978 after admitting having sex with a girl aged 13.
Polanski's victim, Samantha Geimer, described the ordeal of giving testimony against Polanski in an interview for the BBC's HARDTalk programme in 2013.
Polanski has French and Polish citizenship. France does not extradite its own citizens but the director occasionally visits Poland, attending a press event in Katowice just last week.
Swiss authorities turned down a US extradition warrant in 2010, after placing Polanski under house arrest for nine months. | Poland's justice minister says he will appeal against a decision not to extradite film director Roman Polanski to the US for statutory rape. |
39,614,356 | Matuidi headed home in the 93rd minute after PSG had allowed Metz to come back from 2-0 down to level late on.
Edinson Cavani and Matuidi had put the reigning champions in charge during a three-minute first-half spell.
Yann Jouffre curled in a free-kick before Cheick Diabate levelled for Metz but Matuidi had the final say.
PSG move to 77 points, level with Monaco who have a vastly superior goal difference and a game in hand.
Match ends, Metz 2, Paris Saint Germain 3.
Second Half ends, Metz 2, Paris Saint Germain 3.
Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Chris Philipps (Metz).
Goal! Metz 2, Paris Saint Germain 3. Blaise Matuidi (Paris Saint Germain) header from the centre of the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Javier Pastore with a cross.
Attempt blocked. Maxwell (Paris Saint Germain) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
Attempt blocked. Marquinhos (Paris Saint Germain) header from very close range is blocked. Assisted by Edinson Cavani.
Corner, Paris Saint Germain. Conceded by Matthieu Udol.
Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Yann Jouffre (Metz).
Presnel Kimpembe (Paris Saint Germain) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Cheick Diabaté (Metz).
Yann Jouffre (Metz) hits the bar with a left footed shot from outside the box from a direct free kick.
Presnel Kimpembe (Paris Saint Germain) is shown the yellow card.
Foul by Presnel Kimpembe (Paris Saint Germain).
Ismaila Sarr (Metz) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Goal! Metz 2, Paris Saint Germain 2. Cheick Diabaté (Metz) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Ismaila Sarr with a cross.
Attempt saved. Gonçalo Guedes (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Thomas Meunier.
Attempt saved. Thomas Meunier (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Gonçalo Guedes (Paris Saint Germain) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Opa Nguette (Metz).
Attempt missed. Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.
Javier Pastore (Paris Saint Germain) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Chris Philipps (Metz).
Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Cheick Diabaté (Metz).
Attempt missed. Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint Germain) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Marco Verratti with a through ball.
Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Chris Philipps (Metz).
Corner, Metz. Conceded by Maxwell.
Foul by Thomas Meunier (Paris Saint Germain).
Opa Nguette (Metz) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Gonçalo Guedes (Paris Saint Germain).
Ismaila Sarr (Metz) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Paris Saint Germain. Conceded by Jonathan Rivierez.
Goal! Metz 1, Paris Saint Germain 2. Yann Jouffre (Metz) from a free kick with a left footed shot to the bottom right corner.
Foul by Presnel Kimpembe (Paris Saint Germain).
Cheick Diabaté (Metz) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Gonçalo Guedes (Paris Saint Germain).
Matthieu Udol (Metz) wins a free kick in the defensive half. | Blaise Matuidi scored in injury time as Paris St-Germain sealed a remarkable win at Metz to go level on points with Monaco at the top of Ligue 1. |
40,612,191 | A total of 1,186 people waited more than 12 months for hospital treatment in 2016 compared to 228 in 2015.
The Scottish Conservatives said it was evidence of "shoddy planning" by the Scottish government.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said they were committed to ensuring patients get quick access to services.
The figures were obtained by the Scottish Conservatives through Freedom of Information requests.
They found that, of those waiting more than a year in 2016, 16 faced a two-year wait and two waited four years.
Most outpatients waiting more than 12 months were getting urology treatment (303), followed by people waiting for trauma and orthopaedic surgery (277) and gastroenterology patients (170).
The number of people treated in under a year fell by more than 28,000 in the same period from 1,462,989 in 2015 to 1,434,813 last year.
The Conservatives' health spokesman Miles Briggs said it was evidence of "shoddy planning" by the Scottish government, adding "nobody should have to wait longer than a year for care".
He said: "This is just another measure which shows a real collapse in the standard of service being offered to patients.
"That's not the fault of hardworking staff - this is all on an SNP government whose shoddy forward planning has led to these unacceptable delays.
"To see these statistics shoot up by more than 400% in the space of just a year is remarkable."
Ms Robison said: "We remain committed to ensuring patients get quick access to the services they require.
"We announced an extra £10m to deliver 40,000 more outpatient appointments immediately between November 2016 and March 2017, and have also provided an additional £50m to improve waiting times at all stages of a patient's journey through the NHS.
"In December 2016, we published a new strategy for responding to the rising demand in outpatient appointments, aiming to free up 400,000 appointments.
"We have recently completed the consultation exercise and will be pushing ahead with this over the next year.
"To meet increasing demand, we are investing £200m in a network of five new elective treatment centres across Scotland as well as expanding the Golden Jubilee National Hospital." | There has been a sharp increase in the number of NHS outpatients who have waited more than a year for treatment, according to new figures. |
37,237,523 | Jakubiak, 20, signed a new four-year deal with the Hornets on Wednesday.
Versatile left-back Wallace, 21, has made 24 Blades appearances since signing from Ilkeston in 2014 and is a former Nottingham Forest trainee.
Meanwhile, Fleetwood's Dutch midfielder Ricardo Kip has joined Dutch club SC Cambuur on a season-long loan.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Fleetwood Town have signed Watford striker Alex Jakubiak and Sheffield United defender Kieran Wallace on season-long loan deals. |
32,996,809 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) said Tebbutt's remarks, made to jockey Katie Walsh, were unacceptable.
Walsh believed the comments were tongue in cheek but fellow rider Lizzie Kelly said Tebbutt should be "ashamed".
Tebbutt said: "I apologise if I have caused any offence, to anyone in Britain or across the world. That was never my intention."
He added: "My comments were misjudged.
"I spend a lot of my time coaching young jockeys - both male and female - and, while many of them have different strengths and weaknesses, I always treat them all as equals, exactly as they should be."
Walsh was commissioned by BBC Sport to look at equality in racing for Women's Sport Week.
She asked Tebbutt, a coach at the British Racing School in Newmarket, what the main difference was between a male and female jockey.
Tebbutt replied: "They go through the exact same training programme, with females knowing they have to put more in, so they will go the extra yard, knowing they have to catch the male up."
Walsh responded: "That's women for you."
Tebbutt fires back: "Still can't ride though."
It intends to speak to Tebbutt about his conduct, insisting his views "are not views that anyone involved in racing would endorse or share".
It added: "Racing is a unique sport, in that women and men compete on entirely equal terms as jockeys and trainers, and female riders have the full respect of their male counterparts in the weighing room."
The winner of the Irish Grand National in April on Thunder And Roses, she genuinely believes Tebbutt's comments were been made in jest and felt he was "trying to get me going".
She added: "I don't dispute the fact that male jockeys are stronger, but I was trying to say to him that it is not just strength which comes into play in a race. He didn't execute what he was trying to say very well."
Jockey Martin Lane defended Tebbutt on Twitter, pointing out that he had successfully coached several female jockeys.
But Kelly, who won the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton on Tea For Two in January, said: "Michael Tebbutt; be ashamed of yourself - a jockey coach whose opinion is 'girls still can't ride'. He actually said that."
Camilla Henderson, the daughter of leading jumps trainer Nicky and a prominent point-to-point rider, tweeted: "Amazed those high up have these views! Says a lot."
Sally Rowley-Williams, chair of the Women in Racing group, said her organisation would contact the BHA to ask for "clarification on their diversity and equality policies".
Almost a third of apprentice jockeys were women in 2014, according to BHA statistics.
Current leading riders include Walsh, Hayley Turner, who has won two Group One races on the flat, and Nina Carberry, who has been successful at the Cheltenham Festival
In 2012, Turner became only the second female jockey to ride in the Derby when she partnered Cavaliero. | Jockey coach Michael Tebbutt has apologised after giving a BBC interview in which he said women "can't ride". |
21,756,005 | A 40m-high marquee has been installed to cover the Chester Road square to enable training on outdoor wickets.
"You've basically got an indoor facility that is outside with grass nets," coach Steve Rhodes told BBC Hereford and Worcester.
"That's wonderful really as you're getting used to the conditions that you will be playing on in a match."
Four other first-class counties are understood to have adopted similar plans to prepare for the 2013 county cricket season.
Rhodes first witnessed the idea when Worcestershire travelled down to Chelmsford this time last year for a pre-season friendly.
I'm confident it'll be ready for the season. It's already 10 times better and there's no home game until May
And, with New Road in its customarily rain-affected state for this time of year, they have activated their usual Plan B button by switching to Chester Road, to play in the marquee under a clear polythene roof, with nets erected inside.
"We played in that marquee when we went down for the game at Chelmsford and I thought it was a very good idea," added Rhodes.
"It's nice to go away on pre-season tours in different climates but actually getting your body ready for bowling when it's cold and wet on English wickets may well be the best way of preparing,"
Worcestershire's home is under reconstruction as the county press on with their plans to build a hotel at the New Road End of the famous old ground, which has involved the demolition of the offices used by their administration staff.
But the main concern is the effect of this winter's persistent flooding, the ground having been under water four times in the past three months.
"The New Road square was re-seeded 10 days ago and the plan is to return in early April," added Worcestershire chief executive David Leatherdale.
"I'm confident it'll be ready for the season. It's already 10 times better and there's no home game until May." | Flood damage at Worcestershire's New Road has forced the county to move pre-season training to Kidderminster. |
39,959,844 | It also pledges there will be no vote on the issue "until the Brexit process has played out".
But the manifesto, which was launched by Theresa May in Halifax, does not specify what "public consent" means.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wants a referendum to be held in the autumn of next year or spring of 2019.
Her call was formally backed by the Scottish Parliament in March - although it was opposed by the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats, with the Scottish Greens backing the SNP in the final vote.
The prime minister has repeatedly said that "now is not the time" for another vote on the issue, arguing that the focus should instead be on negotiating the best Brexit deal for the whole of the UK.
But Ms Sturgeon argues that the Scottish people should be able to choose which path to follow in the wake of the Brexit vote, and that blocking a referendum would be a "democratic outrage".
The Conservative manifesto claims that "some would disrupt our attempts to get the best deal for Scotland and the United Kingdom with calls for a divisive referendum that the people of Scotland do not want".
It goes on to say: "We have been very clear that now is not the time for another referendum on independence.
"In order for a referendum to be fair, legal and decisive, it cannot take place until the Brexit process has played out and it should not take place unless there is public consent for it to happen.
"This is a time to pull together, not apart."
Mrs May said the manifesto contained proposals that would "see us through Brexit and beyond", describing it as a "plan for a stronger, fairer, more prosperous Britain".
She has promised a "mainstream government that would deliver for mainstream Britain" if she wins the election on 8 June.
The manifesto includes a fresh pledge to curb immigration, and says the government will deliver a balanced budget by the "middle of the next decade".
On Brexit, it pledges to negotiate a "deep and special partnership" which will allow free trade between the UK and the EU's member states, but with the UK leaving the single market and customs union.
It also says there will be no increase in VAT, and promises to increase the national living wage to 60% of the median earnings by 2020.
And it says the so-called "triple lock" on pensions will be reduced to a "double lock" with the state pension to rise by the higher of average earnings or inflation - but it will no longer go up by 2.5% if they are both lower than that.
The manifesto says Scotland's economic growth has lagged behind the rest of the United Kingdom in recent years, but that the Conservatives "take seriously our duty to secure prosperity for the whole of the United Kingdom".
The document pledges: "We will, therefore, take concerted action to help secure the long-term sustainability of the Scottish economy. Scotland and Scottish industries will be central to our industrial strategy."
This action will include:
Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who was the only Conservative MP elected in Scotland in the 2015 general election, described the manifesto as a "plan that delivers for Scotland".
He added: "It shows that a re-elected Conservative government will continue to ensure that Scotland benefits from its membership of the United Kingdom."
The SNP said the Conservative manifesto was a "cruel and callous attack on families" with planned cuts that it said would hit pensioners, working families and public services.
The party's deputy leader, Angus Robertson, said: "The SNP already protect free personal care, free childcare, free school meals, and will stand up against these callous Tory cuts."
He went on to claim the Conservatives have "made a rod for their own back" over independence, because "if they now fail to win the election in Scotland they have no basis whatsoever on which to continue to thwart the will of the Scottish Parliament".
Meanwhile, James Kelly of Scottish Labour said the Conservative "ideological obsession with a hard Brexit" had allowed the SNP to kick-start a fresh campaign for independence.
He added: "This Tory manifesto means every Conservative candidate in Scotland is standing on a platform endorsing the abhorrent rape clause, the bedroom tax and swingeing cuts to social security payments.
"There is now a clear choice between a radical vision of a fairer UK with a Labour government, or Theresa May' Little Britain, closed off from the world and building borders as nationalist governments always do." | A second independence referendum will not be held unless there is "public consent" for it to happen, the Conservative election manifesto says. |
39,651,092 | The plan means up to 10 of its 176 UK stores may be closed over the next five years.
A central distribution warehouse and about 10 smaller warehouses could also be shut.
Meanwhile, the group said its half-year pre-tax profits fell by 6.4% to £88m.
Debenhams shares were down by nearly 5% following the announcement.
Chief executive Sergio Bucher, who joined the company last October, said its customers were changing the way they shopped and therefore Debenhams was also changing.
"We will be a destination for social shopping, with mobile the unifying platform for interacting with our customers," said Mr Bucher, who was appointed with a view to shaking up the business.
Debenhams said that leisure activities accounted for an increasing share of consumer spending and that the "leisure experience is an important part of shopping", while "mobile interaction" was growing fast.
In an effort to capture this market, Debenhams plans to step up investment in its in-store cafes, restaurants and beauty services.
Retail analyst Steve Dresser, of Grocery Insight, said it would be tricky for Debenhams to make its new approach work.
"Without a core reason to visit Debenhams, or a point of difference, footfall and sales fall, which in turn impacts profitability," he said.
"Shopping centre locations overcome footfall concerns, but in turn, rents are expensive."
Debenhams said it had no "tail of loss-makers" in its 176 UK store estate and, in fact, many were "highly profitable".
However, it added, it wanted to "ensure they are fit for the future".
The 10 stores under review for closure, if they are deemed not profitable enough, have not been named.
Debenhams said the rest would be "refreshed" and "remerchandised" to raise their profitability.
In January, it began "decluttering" its stores by reducing the number of lines for sale.
It is also switching about 2,000 of the stores' backroom staff to jobs where they deal directly with customers.
The group also has plans to open four new shops in the UK.
Debenhams has 82 stores in 26 other countries.
It said it would leave some "non-core" international markets, with details due to be announced in October.
The department store chain announced earlier this year that it had begun consulting on the closure of one central distribution centre in Northamptonshire which employs about 200 people.
It is hoped all staff will be redeployed.
Debenhams is also consulting on the closure of about about 10 smaller regional warehouses which are connected to stores.
Those staff will be moved into the stores.
Sir Ian Cheshire, the chairman of Debenhams, said "this is a strategy about growth", not job losses, and that the plans should lead to the creation of more jobs.
However, independent retail analyst Nick Bubb said he was "disappointed" that the strategy did not include any targets for sales and profits, despite the talk of growth and efficiency. | Department store group Debenhams has announced a turnaround strategy aimed at boosting its appeal as a "destination" shop and improving its online service. |
34,129,111 | The visitors took the lead through Marko Devic's stunning half-volley but had captain Oleg Kuzmin sent off for a second yellow card soon after.
Liverpool responded as Emre Can stabbed in following a free-kick.
Substitute Christian Beneteke hit the post late on as Liverpool were held to a third successive Group B draw.
Despite pressing late on, it was ultimately a difficult evening for Klopp and Liverpool as they struggled to break down their Russian opponents for large periods of the match.
The result leaves Liverpool second in their group on three points, four behind leaders FC Sion.
The arrival of Klopp has been greeted with excitement by Liverpool fans since he was confirmed as successor to Brendan Rodgers.
The 48-year-old's first appearance in a Liverpool dugout was at Tottenham last weekend but Thursday marked his first competitive appearance at Anfield.
In his programme notes, Klopp praised the "special atmosphere" the fans created, and they certainly extended a warm welcome for the German.
Stall traders sold scarves outside the ground boasting "the Klopp revolution", while fans waited eagerly for autographs and a photo with their new manager.
It was not only the fans who were keen to witness Klopp's first game in charge, with the club's owners having flown in for the game.
Klopp's appearance from the tunnel just before kick-off was met with rapturous applause, but any excitement about a new era gave way to frustration as Liverpool's familiar failings this season were once again on show.
Under Klopp, Dortmund reached the Champions League final in 2012-13 and climbed from 110th to 13th in the Uefa rankings.
Liverpool fans will hope he can have a similar impact at the Reds. They are currently ranked 54th in Europe, sandwiched between FC Genk and APOEL.
Europa League success is perhaps not the supporters' priority, but they will welcome improved displays in the competition after disappointing draws against Bordeaux and FC Sion this season.
Liverpool's early endeavour against Rubin Kazan was encouraging as they played quick, one-touch football and attacked at pace.
However, when Rubin took the lead, albeit against the run of play, Liverpool - along with the home fans' enthusiasm - faded.
Kuzmin's sending-off - he was shown a second yellow card for stopping Can - and Can's subsequent equaliser lifted Anfield again.
Liverpool, though, failed to build on that.
Despite a late flurry as Rubin Kazan's players retreated further into their own half to protect the point, the hosts lacked the creativity to score a winner.
Klopp felt Liverpool had their moments, but accepted the sending off made it more difficult for his side.
"It was a very interesting game, a big challenge because of the quality of Rubin," he said.
"Sometimes it is a big advantage against 10 men, most of the time they stop playing football and defend in a compact block.
"It was not a masterclass but it was not the worst day in my life."
Klopp was appreciative of the reception the Liverpool fans gave him, adding: "It was one of the best moments for me.
"I felt everything positive and then I concentrated on the game."
It is another home game for Klopp as Liverpool entertain Southampton on Sunday. Their next Europa League game is at Rubin Kazan on 5 November. | Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp endured a frustrating first game at Anfield as the Reds were held to a draw by 10-man Rubin Kazan in the Europa League. |
35,205,124 | Papers for the meetings of Scottish cabinet ministers throughout the year 2000 are among hundreds of pages of records declassified on 1 January.
Major events included Donald Dewar's death, the start of the Lockerbie trial and the repeal of section 28.
Under the 15-year disclosure rule, archived information is released annually by the Scottish government.
Since it brought in the rule in 2009, more than 13,000 files have been declassified.
One of the central events of 2000 was the death of Scottish First Minister Donald Dewar on 11 October after suffering a fall and a brain haemorrhage.
Known as the founding father of Scottish devolution, the files reveal the impact his death had on the business of government and the parliament.
Other key events that year included the sinking of the Solway Harvester trawler with the loss of seven crew members, and the opening of the Lockerbie bombing trial at a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands.
Later that year, the Scottish parliament repealed section 28 of the Local Government Act, a law which had prevented the "promotion" of homosexuality by local authorities.
The documents released by National Records of Scotland (NRS) in Edinburgh include papers and minutes for Scottish cabinet meetings and ministerial committee gatherings.
They also shed light on "cabinet strategy sessions" and the progress of various bills through the parliament.
Other files have been made available include the chief constable's annual reports for Stirling and Clackmannan police from 1962-1965 and inspectors' reports for Glenochil detention centre from 1965-1975.
Tim Ellis, chief executive of NRS and keeper of the records of Scotland, said the declassification was a way of "shedding light on the earliest days of the first administration".
Minister for parliamentary business Joe FitzPatrick said the files should make fascinating reading.
"Information made available at the National Records of Scotland as well as the wealth of information pro-actively made available on the Scottish government's website demonstrates this government's ongoing commitment to openness and transparency," he added. | Newly declassified records show the workings of the Scottish executive's first full year of operation. |
18,621,746 | Surjeet Singh was greeted at the Wagah border crossing by his son and other family members and well-wishers.
Wearing marigold garlands around his neck, Mr Singh admitted to reporters: "I had gone there for spying."
There was confusion this week when Pakistan said another Indian, Sarabjit Singh, would be freed, but later clarified it was to be Surjeet Singh.
Sarabjit Singh has been on death row for more than 21 years after being convicted of spying and bomb attacks he denies carrying out.
Campaigners are still pressing for him to be freed too as part of what is being seen as a recent thaw in diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan.
On Wednesday, Pakistan released more than 300 Indian fishermen being held in a Karachi jail as a goodwill gesture.
The fishermen are also expected to cross the Wagah border on Thursday.
TV pictures showed Mr Singh crossing the Wagah border, accompanied by Border Security Force personnel and police.
Family members greeted him by putting several marigold garlands around his neck and offered him sweets.
Nearly 250 people from his village had arrived in buses to receive him at the border.
"I am free after 30 years. I've met my family, I'm really happy," he told reporters.
Mr Singh said he had been treated well in jail.
He said he met his fellow prisoner, Sarabjit Singh, regularly in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat prison and that he had been well treated too.
Surjeet Singh said he would do everything possible to get his fellow prisoner freed. He said "media hype" had spoiled Sarabjit Singh's case.
Surjeet Singh now plans to go to the Golden Temple, Sikhdom's holiest place, "to pray and hug my children".
There are few details available of how Mr Singh came to be in Pakistan or when exactly he was arrested.
He was a resident of Phidde village in Punjab's Ferozepur district and his family says his real name is Makhan Singh and that he was a low-ranking government employee.
He is believed to be in his mid-70s.
Earlier this week, Pakistan's law minister conveyed to the government that Surjeet Singh had completed his life term and ought to be released and sent back to India.
That followed reports, which turned out to be wrong, that Pakistan was about to free Sarabjit Singh.
On Thursday, Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said he "welcomed" Surjeet Singh's release, but it was now "time for Sarabjit Singh to be freed".
Pakistan and India frequently arrest each other's citizens, often accusing them of being spies after they have strayed across the land or maritime border.
In recent years, several Indians returning from Pakistani jails have admitted to spying. Some have criticised India's government for abandoning them. | An Indian man has returned to his country after spending more than 30 years in jail in Pakistan for spying. |
31,617,738 | Along with Ant McPartlin, the pair return to present the music ceremony after a 14 year gap.
"They have asked us in between (now and 2001)," notes Ant. "And we've said 'no' but it just felt kind of right to do it this time."
It turns out the duo had that change of heart on a night out.
They also admit they "said never again" after the experience of presenting the Brits in 2001 when nerves got the better of them.
"The call came through and we said 'no'," explains Dec. "And we were out and had a few more drinks and started talking about it.
"We said, 'If we were going to do it we'd do it like this, and we'd do that', and a few more drinks later we said, 'All right let's change our mind, we'll do it.'"
"So here we are," grins Dec.
The pair say they haven't had any restrictions imposed on what they can say or do tonight, but admit some artists have been 'less forthcoming than others' when it comes to joining in the jokes they've got planned.
Ant and Dec haven't written their Brits script by themselves, there is a team of writers they use on Saturday Night Takeaway and I'm a Celebrity that they've collaborated with as usual.
"We all sit round a table and throw some ideas around," says Dec. "And we just spark off each other.
"The guys go away and come up with a draft script," he continues. "And then we all get together and read it through, spark off some more ideas, it will constantly change."
As you'd expect Ant and Dec aren't revealing any on stage shenanigans beforehand, apart from saying Ed Sheeran won't be as much of a target as he was on Saturday Night Takeaway last weekend.
"We put him through enough on Saturday night," laughs Dec.
"Standing next to us two with our lack of trumpet and trombone skills," smiles Ant, recalling how Ed Sheeran managed to keep singing live on TV while Ant and Dec played instruments, badly, at Ed's side.
"We've always known Ed had a good sense of humour, but he really showed it on Saturday night," says Ant.
There are "no fears" about hosting, just "excitement" at this point, say Ant and Dec, and they'll cope if a few jokes fall flat.
"That happens a lot," the pair laugh together.
"Anything can happen at this awards show," admits Ant. "And if they want to cause havoc those pop stars and get up to no good then let them do it, we'll just stand along and watch them."
Hey, seen our Brits year picker quiz? Test your knowledge of the year you were born
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | After "an instant decision to say no" Declan Donnelly says it took a "few drinks" to change his mind about hosting Wednesday night's Brit Awards. |
30,615,748 | It happened shortly before 08:00 GMT on Roman Road, causing several properties to flood around the junction with Upper Road.
Dozens of homes in the area were also left without water, but Severn Trent said they had since been reconnected.
The firm apologised to those affected and said the pipe would be repaired overnight.
Robin Philpott, from Pritchards vehicle rental, said it was the fourth time the road had flooded in recent years and something needed to be done to prevent future problems.
As well as damage to the property, Mr Philpott said repairs also meant diversions and road closures, leaving the area like a "ghost town".
Two weeks ago, Clive Pratt, the owner of E A Downes & Sons Ltd, said damage caused by the pipe was expected to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Sarah McArthur, from Severn Trent, said its loss adjustors would be in touch with businesses and roads would remain passable throughout repairs, although there would be lane closures.
Local resident Steven Kirby said: "We've got two kids and have no water at the moment.
"This is the third or fourth time it's probably happened in a year.
"Last time they said they would sort it out as soon as they can. And fair dos they did, within a day. But it keeps happening in the same place, so obviously there's an inherent problem there."
Ms McArthur said the latest burst was in the same section of pipe and there was a long-term plan to replace it. | Businesses in part of Shrewsbury have been flooded for the second time in as many weeks after a water main burst. |
32,436,961 | The UK off-shoot of the US independent film festival will take place at the new Picturehouse Central cinema, from 2016.
Sundance London was launched by Robert Redford in 2012 as an experimental, four-day festival at the O2 and was hailed as a "qualified success".
It returned in 2013 and 2014, but this year's festival was cancelled in January with no reason given.
At the time, a spokesperson for Sundance said, in a statement to trade paper Screen Daily, that they would continue to "explore options" for Sundance London.
On Thursday, John Cooper, director of the Sundance Film Festival, said they looked forward to returning next year and reconnecting with London film enthusiasts "after three hugely enjoyable years in London".
"The Sundance Film Festival: London, like our other events in Los Angeles and Hong Kong, allows us to extend the tremendous energy and excitement of our festival. "
"We are excited to build a 2016 program for London that is fuelled by a spirit of discovery and creativity."
The new venue, Picturehouse Central, is the redeveloped former Cineworld cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue.
Actor Robert Redford, president and founder of Sundance Institute, said the institute was "committed" to developing festivals outside the US.
"We've nurtured filmmakers around the globe for many years now and these experiences have brought a rich perspective to all we do.
"Exploring international opportunities for the diverse landscape of American independent storytelling is an exciting proposition, and something to which we are equally committed."
The original Sundance Film Festival takes place annually in Park City, Utah in January. | Film festival Sundance London is to return next year with a new venue. |
35,398,002 | Nine Protestant civilians were killed in the 1993 attack in Belfast, as well as one of the IRA bombers.
The newspaper said it had seen files stolen by the IRA from police special branch offices in Castlereagh on St Patrick's Day 2002.
It said the files had been decoded by IRA members.
This led them to discover the alleged informer's identity, the paper said.
In a statement, the police ombudsman's office said: "We have received a complaint.
"It centres on two concerns: Did the RUC have information which would have allowed them to prevent the bombing and was the subsequent investigation compromised; did the police fail to 'deliver justice to the families of those who lost their lives in the bombing?'
"We will now assess this complaint and speak to those who have made these allegations.
"We will seek to establish if this is something we should investigate, and if so, when we could begin this work."
The IRA bomb attack took place on a busy Saturday afternoon in October in the heart of one of Belfast's best known loyalist areas.
Among the dead were two children aged seven and 13. | The IRA leader who planned the 1993 Shankill bomb was working as a police informer, the Irish News has reported. |
34,485,496 | Prof Thomas Weber's book Hitler's First War, which was released in 2010, claimed his image as a brave soldier was a myth.
The producers of the Oscar-nominated film Downfall - also about the Nazi leader - will make the show after a French TV network purchased the series.
The show will be called Hitler.
Production of the 10-hour series begins next year.
Prof Weber said: "It is a privilege to see my book and the research behind it dramatised in this way for a large TV audience.
"Over the years a great deal has been written about Hitler but so little of this focused on his life in the years of the First World War.
"Hitler's First War uncovered many myths in regard to his service and motivations following the conflict. More importantly it demonstrated how Hitler's lies about his war years became political tools in his hands for the rest of his life.
"The series is a great opportunity to demask Hitler." | A book about Adolf Hitler by a University of Aberdeen historian is to be turned into a major television series. |
36,703,157 | Researchers found the accuracy of information varied significantly, and could result in the further spread of the non-native invasive plant.
Japanese knotweed is one of the most damaging invasive species, estimated to cost £166 million each year.
The findings have been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
"I was trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who had Japanese knotweed in their garden and thinking what I needed to know about it," said co-author Beth Robinson, a PhD student at the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute.
"I thought the first place I would look is on the web, and I wondered what information I would find," she told BBC News.
The team looked at information provided by NGOs, weed control companies, government bodies, the media and the property market.
"There were definite differences between how the different categories presented the information," Ms Robinson observed.
"The knock-on impacts, such as the cost of controlling or eradicating Japanese knotweed, problems with planning permission or a reduction in land value... was the element that varied most significantly."
The researchers stressed that tackling the invasive species needed to be considered on a case-by-case basis. They said some some occurrences would require professional assistance, but many small-scale cases in domestic gardens would not.
They warned that advice that concentrated or overemphasised the risks (such as fines and enforcement notices) could lead to "unnecessary anxiety and expenditure".
Guidance on the UK government web-page dealing with the issue of preventing the spread of invasive species begins by outlining an individual's obligations, which includes preventing non-native invasive plants from "spreading into the wild and causing a nuisance".
It then highlights the potential consequences of failing to do so: "You could be fined up to £5,000 or be sent to prison for two years if you allow contaminated soil or plant material from any waste you transfer to be spread into the wild."
The Royal Horticultural Society tells visitors to its website that "it is not illegal to have Japanese knotweed in your garden".
It then points out how amendments to 2014 legislation affected homeowners before providing a link to the source document from the Home Office.
Although Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) arrived in the UK in an unsolicited package of plant species in 1850, it was soon being cultivated and sold by an increasing number of plant nurseries.
Plant historians say the sharing of cuttings and the dumping of unwanted specimens were the primary cause of the spread of the plant through the country. This was compounded by the quick-growing species' ability to thrive on disturbed soil, allowing it to rapidly spread along watercourses and roadsides.
It is now estimated that the annual cost of the plant, which can grow one metre in a month, to the UK economy is £166 million.
Ms Robinson said the study highlighted a need for clear and consistent advice about the correct way to handle and dispose of Japanese knotweed.
"We recommend that local and national authorities collaborate and work towards disseminating more consistent messages," she suggested.
She said the technique used in her study could be used to assess the quality, consistency and reliability of advice for other non-native invasive plant species.
Follow Mark on Twitter: @Mark_Kinver | Gardeners searching the web for advice on the best way to tackle Japanese knotweed are likely to find confusing and contradictory advice, a study says. |
35,162,515 | "The blindness of those who attack Hungary could lead to the disappearance of European civilisation," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement.
He said the unprecedented joint statement by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Council of Europe and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) "is not true - Hungary is depicting reality".
Full-page paid advertisements in printed and online media, and audio and video spots on broadcast media, allege that, among other things:
The media campaign will last through Christmas until the end of January, and follows similar campaigns this year by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing government.
In the early summer, a "national consultation on immigration and terrorism" involved sending questionnaires to all Hungarian households.
In July, when the government began building a razor-wire fence along its southern borders, giant posters went up around the country, insisting on the need to "defend the country from the migrants".
Few have actually entered Hungary since 16 October, when the fence on the Croatian border was completed, but the propaganda has continued relentlessly.
According to the latest opinion survey by the Median agency at the end of November, the campaign is working: 63% of respondents found migrants "aggressive and demanding" in November, compared with 58% in September.
Meanwhile, 56% believed it was likely or very likely that Muslims would "sooner or later become the majority in Europe, and impose their religion and culture on us".
Dislike of Arabs and "blacks" also grew, while it stagnated towards Jews and gay people.
Mr Orban has led the government's anti-migrant chorus since the start of the year - and watched his Fidesz party's popularity grow in response.
"Mass migration is threatening the security of Europeans, because it brings with it an exponentially increased threat of terrorism," he told a recent Fidesz party congress.
"We know nothing about these people: where they really come from, who they are, what their intentions are, whether they have received any training, whether they have weapons, or whether they are members of any organisation. Furthermore, mass migration also increases crime rates."
Mr Orban's speech writers are careful to stress the phrase "illegal migrants" rather than "refugees". They also avoid or reject any comparison with Hungarians who fled the Soviet army in 1956, after the revolution was crushed, or with Hungarian migrants now in Western Europe, especially the UK.
Opposition leftist and liberal parties, already weak, have toned down or forgotten their own, initially pro-migrant rhetoric.
Privately, some senior Fidesz figures do express dismay, even disgust at the tone of the campaign. And in public, several conservative figures have taken a more humane stance.
"The main wave of the current flood of refugees passed us by, but… we were willing to embrace those who knocked on our door," said Varszegi Asztrik, Bishop of Pannonhalma Abbey in western Hungary, interviewed by the HVG weekly.
Some 50 Muslim migrants were given temporary shelter in his monastery.
"At a time when we hear so much about fear," wrote Gergely Prohle, deputy state secretary in the Human Resources Ministry, "about the decadence of European civilisation, about the difficulties of having children, and about the weakness of our faith, there is in this photograph a great and encouraging strength."
The photograph he chose to accompany his article in the Christmas edition of the centre-right weekly Heti Valasz shows an Afghan man holding up his 10-day-old daughter at Roszke, on the Hungarian-Serbian border, shortly before the government closed it on 15 September.
But such sentiments are few and far between in Hungary this Christmas. | The Hungarian government has fiercely rebuffed criticism from three top international organisations that its new anti-migrant media campaign is generating fear, intolerance and xenophobia. |
33,201,728 | Jacqueline Perry, 49, was caught after colleagues at Swansea's Morriston Hospital became suspicious about items disappearing.
Perry, from Morriston, had admitted nine counts of theft from semi-conscious patients at an earlier hearing.
She was jailed for 16 months at Swansea Crown Court on Friday.
Perry was caught after police set up a sting operation which involved placing marked bank notes around Ward G.
When one disappeared, officers searched staff and it was found in her possession.
Perry stole a total of £2,739, which included three gold rings worth £1,800 from an 89-year-old patient.
The thefts had a major impact on Perry's colleagues, the court heard.
In a statement, lead nurse Tina Smith said: "The patients were quite sick and quite vulnerable. It was busy and demanding work.
"The thefts had a massive impact on morale because staff were all under suspicion."
The court heard that Perry stole the money to pay for alcohol for her husband.
Stephen Rees, defending, said the offences were "not motivated through greed, but by financial hardship".
He also told the court a disciplinary hearing would follow the court proceedings and it was "inevitable" that she would lose her job.
Recorder Christopher Clee QC called her actions "a despicable offence".
Perry sobbed in the dock as Mr Clee told her he had no good reason to suspend the sentence.
He told her she will serve half of the sentence in prison and half on licence.
In a statement, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board said it hoped the sentence would "act as a deterrent" to others.
"Theft from patients or staff in hospitals is not only a serious criminal offence, but a severe breach of trust, which ABMU health board will not tolerate," the statement said.
"We can only apologise to the victims of these thefts, and the distress this former employee's actions have undoubtedly caused."
Perry's victims included: | A healthcare worker who stole cash and jewellery from vulnerable cancer patients has been jailed. |
39,086,832 | Christian Doidge's goal was the only difference between the sides at the halfway point, heading home Rob Sinclair's corner after 12 minutes.
Early in the second half Kaiyne Woolery broke down the right and cut-back for Liam Noble to tap in a second for Mark Cooper's Rovers.
The New Lawn club put matters beyond doubt when defender Mark Ellis came up from the back to head in a third 20 minutes from time.
Match report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Forest Green Rovers 3, Macclesfield Town 0.
Second Half ends, Forest Green Rovers 3, Macclesfield Town 0.
David Fitzpatrick (Macclesfield Town) is shown the yellow card.
Andy Haworth (Macclesfield Town) is shown the yellow card.
Substitution, Forest Green Rovers. Marcus Kelly replaces Daniel Wishart.
Substitution, Forest Green Rovers. Sam Wedgbury replaces Rob Sinclair.
Goal! Forest Green Rovers 3, Macclesfield Town 0. Mark Ellis (Forest Green Rovers).
Substitution, Forest Green Rovers. Omar Bugiel replaces Liam Noble.
Substitution, Macclesfield Town. Andy Haworth replaces Connor Jennings.
Substitution, Macclesfield Town. James Thorne replaces Mitch Hancox.
Andy Halls (Macclesfield Town) is shown the yellow card.
Substitution, Macclesfield Town. Rhys Browne replaces Danny Whitaker.
Goal! Forest Green Rovers 2, Macclesfield Town 0. Liam Noble (Forest Green Rovers).
Ethan Pinnock (Forest Green Rovers) is shown the yellow card.
Second Half begins Forest Green Rovers 1, Macclesfield Town 0.
First Half ends, Forest Green Rovers 1, Macclesfield Town 0.
Luke Summerfield (Macclesfield Town) is shown the yellow card.
Chris Holroyd (Macclesfield Town) is shown the yellow card.
Goal! Forest Green Rovers 1, Macclesfield Town 0. Christian Doidge (Forest Green Rovers).
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up. | Forest Green Rovers closed to within three points of Lincoln City at the top of the National League, thanks to a resounding win at home against Macclesfield. |
36,132,905 | According to writer Steven Knight, the singer's "people" had told him "he was a big, big fan" of the period drama.
Knight said he had been played a copy of Bowie's Blackstar album shortly before the singer's death in January.
"It seems that his people were keen to establish that we could use it before he died," he told the Radio Times.
Knight said he learned of Bowie's interest in the show after the singer sent a photo of himself to the show's lead actor.
"[Bowie] sent a photo of himself with razor blades in his cap to Cillian [Murphy] about a year ago," the writer disclosed.
The drama takes its name from gang members who sewed razor blades into the peaks of their flat caps in 1920s Birmingham.
The Bowie connection has come to light just as the third series of Peaky Blinders begins on BBC Two.
Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Steven Spielberg are also fans of the show, this week's Radio Times reveals. | David Bowie liked Peaky Blinders so much he was apparently keen to have his music featured on the BBC Two crime series, its creator has revealed. |
40,959,293 | Fe wnaeth 8.3% o'r graddau gyrraedd y safon uchaf, gyda 25% o raddau hefyd yn cael eu dyfarnu'n A neu A*.
Roedd canran y disgyblion wnaeth lwyddo i gael gradd A*-E yn 97.7%, yr uchaf mewn degawd.
Dywedodd yr Ysgrifennydd Addysg, Kirsty Williams fod y canlyniadau yn dangos "cynnydd calonogol".
Cyn eleni doedd canran y myfyrwyr oedd wedi cael gradd A* yn eu harholiadau Safon Uwch ddim wedi bod yn uwch na 7.3% - llynedd roedd yn 6.6%.
Fe wnaeth y canran oedd yn cael A* neu A hefyd gyrraedd y lefel uchaf erioed, gan godi o 22.7% i 25% mewn blwyddyn.
Mae Cymru hefyd wedi cau'r bwlch ar weddill y DU o ran y canran sy'n cael y graddau uchaf, ond maen nhw'n parhau y tu ôl i bob rhanbarth yn Lloegr oni bai am orllewin y canolbarth a dwyrain y canolbarth o ran graddau A* i C.
Ond mae nifer y myfyrwyr wnaeth sefyll arholiadau Safon Uwch eleni wedi gostwng o'i gymharu â llynedd.
Mae nifer y Cymry sydd wedi gwneud cais i fynd i'r brifysgol, a'r nifer sydd wedi gwneud cais i brifysgolion Cymru, hefyd wedi gostwng.
Mathemateg oedd y pwnc ble cafodd y canran uchaf o ddisgyblion radd A neu A*, gyda 41.9% yn llwyddo i gyrraedd y safon a 63.3% yn llwyddo gyda Mathemateg Bellach.
Ymhlith y pynciau eraill ble wnaeth dros chwarter y myfyrwyr sicrhau'r graddau uchaf oedd Almaeneg, Cemeg, Economeg, Ffiseg, Ffrangeg, Bioleg, Cymraeg Iaith Gyntaf, a Chelf a Dylunio.
Fe wnaeth bechgyn wneud yn well na merched wrth gael graddau A ac A* (25.1% i 24.9%), ond ymysg graddau A* i E fe wnaeth merched barhau i wneud yn well (98.2% i 97%).
Dywedodd y Cyd-gyngor Cymwysterau (JCQ) fod y gwahaniaethau mawr o ran dewis pynciau yn golygu ei bod hi ond yn bosib cymharu canlyniadau merched a bechgyn o fewn yr un pwnc.
Ar Lefel AS, gwelwyd cynnydd yn nifer y disgyblion lwyddodd i gael gradd A, gyda'r canran yn codi o 18% y llynedd i 19.1% eleni.
Roedd y canran gafodd radd A-E hefyd wedi codi o 88.3% i 88.9%.
Wrth longyfarch myfyrywr ar eu canlyniadau dywedodd yr Ysgrifennydd Addysg, Kirsty Williams eu bod yn dangos "cynnydd calonogol yn y nifer sy'n ennill y graddau uchaf, a chanlyniadau gwell ar draws Mathemateg, Bioleg, Cemeg a Ffiseg".
Ychwanegodd ei bod am "adeiladu" ar y canlyniadau, a bod y llywodraeth "wedi ymrwymo i sicrhau bod ein system addysg yn darparu'r sgiliau a'r wybodaeth sydd eu hangen ar ddisgyblion yn y byd modern".
Eleni oedd y flwyddyn gyntaf ers newidiadau i drefn rhai o'r pynciau Safon Uwch, a bellach dim ond unwaith y bydd myfyrwyr yng Nghymru yn gallu ailsefyll unedau UG.
Ond mae prif weithredwr Cymwysterau Cymru yn dweud ei fod yn hyderus fod "safonau'n cael eu diogelu".
"Mae'r ffordd y mae ffiniau gradd wedi'u gosod ar gyfer arholiadau Safon Uwch newydd yr haf hwn yn sicrhau bod myfyrwyr yn cael eu trin yn deg," meddai Philip Blaker.
"Ni roddwyd mantais nac anfantais iddynt oherwydd y ffaith mai nhw oedd y myfyrwyr cyntaf i sefyll y cymwysterau hyn." | Mae mwy o fyfyrwyr wedi cael gradd A* yn eu harholiadau Safon Uwch nag erioed o'r blaen, yn ôl y canlyniadau sydd wedi eu cyhoeddi ddydd Iau. |
32,377,088 | The focus of spending is on building a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) - a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the long-time allies.
They will run some 3,000km (1,800 miles) from Gwadar in Pakistan to China's western Xinjiang region.
The projects will give China direct access to the Indian Ocean and beyond.
This marks a major advance in China's plans to boost its influence in Central and South Asia, correspondents say, and far exceeds US spending in Pakistan.
"Pakistan, for China, is now of pivotal importance. This has to succeed and be seen to succeed," Reuters quoted Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Pakistani parliament's defence committee, as saying.
Pakistan, for its part, hopes the investment will strengthen its struggling economy and help end chronic power shortages.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said ties with China had "remained robust" despite political changes and "major regional developments" over four generations.
"Our relations are based on the shared ideals and principles of mutual trust, mutual benefit and mutual respect," he said.
Is Pakistan on the verge of becoming the Asian Tiger Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said it would become when he was last in power in 1997?
China plans to inject some $46bn - almost three times the entire foreign direct investment Pakistan has received since 2008. Many say Mr Sharif's penchant for "thinking big" and China's increasing need to control maritime trade routes may well combine to pull off an economic miracle in Pakistan.
But there are questions over Pakistan's ability to absorb this investment given its chronic problems with militancy, separatism, political volatility and official corruption.
China is worried about violence from ethnic Uighurs in its mostly Muslim north-western Xinjiang region and fears hard-line separatists could team up with Uighur militants fighting alongside members of Pakistan's Taliban.
In Pakistan, a decade-old separatist insurgency in Balochistan province, where the economic corridor starts, makes that area extremely volatile. Many observers believe however that the incentive of an economic miracle may make Islamabad work harder to stabilise the situation.
China prestige projects around the world
Mr Xi will spend two days holding talks with his counterpart Mamnoon Hussain, Mr Sharif and other ministers.
He was expected to discuss security issues with Mr Sharif, including China's concerns that Muslim separatists from Xinjiang are linking up with Pakistani militants.
"China and Pakistan need to align security concerns more closely to strengthen security co-operation," Mr Xi said on Sunday.
Under the CPEC plan, China's government and banks will lend to Chinese companies, so they can invest in projects as commercial ventures.
Some $15.5bn worth of coal, wind, solar and hydro energy projects will come online by 2017 and add 10,400 megawatts of energy to Pakistan's national grid, according to officials.
A $44m optical fibre cable between the two countries is also due to be built.
Pakistan, meanwhile, hopes the investment will enable it to transform itself into a regional economic hub.
Ahsan Iqbal, the Pakistani minister overseeing the plan, told AFP news agency that these were "very substantial and tangible projects which will have a significant transformative effect".
Pakistan's neighbour and rival, India, will be watching developments closely. Delhi is wary of China's regional ambitions, despite relations improving markedly in recent years.
President Xi visited Delhi last year, after postponing his visit to Islamabad because of anti-government protests. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due in China next month. | China's President Xi Jinping has signed agreements with Pakistan promising investment of $46bn (£30.7bn). |
39,441,595 | PwC had taken responsibility for the "unacceptable" mistake which saw La La Land wrongly announced as the winner instead of Moonlight, the Academy said.
Its president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, wrote in a letter to members that new rules will also mean electronic devices are banned backstage.
PwC's Brian Cullinan was caught posting Twitter photos just before the mix-up.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers counts the votes and organises the envelopes being handed out at the ceremony. Mr Cullinan was the accountant who gave the wrong envelope to actor Warren Beatty, resulting in the blunder at last month's ceremony.
Ms Boone Isaacs said: "From the night of the ceremony through today, PwC has taken full responsibility for the mistake.
"After a thorough review, including an extensive presentation of revised protocols and ambitious controls, the board has decided to continue working with PwC."
The firm's US chairman and senior partner Tim Ryan will now take a "greater oversight role" at future ceremonies.
A third person will also become part of PwC's on-site team at the Oscars. This individual will have knowledge of the award winners and will sit in the control room with the show's director throughout the event, she added.
Just before the best picture announcement, Mr Cullinan tweeted a backstage photo of La La Land's best actress winner Emma Stone, minutes before handing presenters Beatty and Faye Dunaway the envelope for best actress in a leading role, rather than best picture.
Ms Boone Isaacs said Mr Cullinan's distraction caused the error.
Mr Cullinan and his fellow PwC accountant Martha Ruiz were told they would never work at the Oscars again. It was the awards' most high-profile error since they began in 1929.
PwC said the accountants made "a series of mistakes" and failed to follow established backstage protocols.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Oscars organisers are to continue using accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) despite the best film mix-up. |
34,136,790 | The figure is eight times as big as the previous best guess, which counted perhaps 400 billion at most.
The new total of 3,040,000,000,000 trees represents roughly 420 trees for every person on the planet.
A team from Yale University in America carried out the research and collected information from over 400,000 forest plots around the world.
The new number will now help with a wide range of research - everything from studies that look at animal and plant habitats to climate issues.
What is clear from the study is the influence humans now have on the number of trees on Earth.
The team estimates we are removing about 15 billion trees a year, with roughly only five billion being planted back. | There are just over three trillion trees on Earth, according to a new report. |
39,145,261 | Speaking to the former prime minister for Thursday's BBC News at Ten, I asked him why we need it, given the criminal trials that followed the first part and high cost to the public.
"There are so many unanswered questions about what the Murdoch News International group did… blagging, impersonation, email interception, breaches under the law itself... that unless there is a full and proper inquiry we'll never be able to clear the air," he said.
"And we'll always have suspicions about how the media was acting for a whole decade at the start of the 21st century."
Leveson Inquiry findings: At-a-glance
Q&A: Leveson Inquiry
Labour demands Leveson part two goes ahead
As things stand, there is a judicial review into the terms of a government consultation into both whether the second part of Leveson should happen and also if Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 (which imposes costs of legal actions against publishers on to those publishers if they don't sign up to an approved regulator) should be implemented.
The second Leveson Inquiry was to look specifically at allegations of unlawful or improper conduct within News International, other newspaper organisations and, as appropriate, other organisations within the media,
Most of the people I speak to in Westminster think it is unlikely that a government so focused on leaving the European Union will want the distraction of another inquiry.
For Brown, that is not good enough - and the fact that David Cameron promised it would happen counts for plenty.
"Leveson himself said this was only the first part of his inquiry, Mr Cameron when prime minister said there had to be a Leveson Two, the House of Lords has looked at this and agreed there has to be a second inquiry," he said.
"Mr Cameron said that was to happen when he was prime minister. It does seem strange that we're now not going to have it unless we keep pushing for it.
"Leveson One could only deal with part of the problem. The whole of the problem has to be dealt with, including the way Murdoch newspapers impersonated people, including the way there were breaches of the law, including also how email interception might have happened, as well as telephone interception. And the media itself should want an inquiry to clear the air."
Brown believes there is fresh evidence that has not been sufficiently raked over. And it was clear in speaking to him how personally he was affected by press intrusion.
"There is fresh evidence. We have the Daniel Morgan murder inquiry and that is revealing fresh evidence almost every month. We have the statements made by people who were in police at the time that have been sent to [Culture Secretary] Karen Bradley as a reason for taking action.
"We have the evidence that people like me have that I was impersonated, that my bank account was broken into, that my lawyer's office was besieged by calls impersonating me from the Murdoch newspapers.
"These are all things that happened and have not been properly accounted for by the Murdoch empire."
I asked Brown whether, as many of his critics contend, this was really the vendetta of a wronged man.
His response was: "I can only explain what happened to me. I know I was impersonated. My lawyer's office received questions by impersonation. My bank accounts and mortgage accounts were broken into.
"I am in a position to defend myself. There are thousands who don't know what happened to them. People who have less power to defend themselves than me deserve this inquiry."
Murdoch, with whom Brown was thought at one point to have developed a trustful relationship, deserted Labour at the 2010 election, endorsing the Conservatives in a manner timed to inflict maximum damage on Brown's ambitions.
The bid by 21st Century Fox for the 61% of Sky it does not already own is imminent. It is currently being bounced between Fox and the European Commission as part of what are known as "pre-notification talks". They are a formality.
Very soon, Fox will formally notify Karen Bradley of their bid and she will have 10 days to decide whether to refer the bid to telecoms regulator Ofcom.
I asked Brown specifically whether he thought that the Murdochs, and James Murdoch, were fit and proper to hold a broadcasting licence.
"Before you make a decision about the ownership of a very important media organisation, you should know all the facts.
"Because we haven't had Leveson Two there is always going to be doubt as to whether we know what is happening in this organisation, whether we know whether there are fit and proper people governing this organisation."
I asked him finally why he seemed to be targeting Murdoch particularly. After all, it was not just the Murdoch press that did wrong. But that is not really how Brown sees it.
"All the major instances of abuse that merit inquiry in recent years have come out of the Murdoch press. We have the fake Sheikh, we have the telephone hacking, we have issues about email hacking.
"Most of them resolve at least in the main around the Murdoch media and that's where the inquiry has got to start."
News UK declined to comment on these assertions. Their position is simple and has been made publicly many times: there have been extensive criminal trials into many of these accusations, with several journalists in the dock.
We don't need yet more flagellation of the press.
Watch the interview on BBC News at Ten at 22:00 GMT on BBC One on Thursday or on iPlayer for 24 hours afterwards. | Gordon Brown has called for the second part of the Leveson Inquiry to go ahead - and said the majority of press abuses in recent years were from the Murdoch press. |
34,151,271 | Media playback is not supported on this device
It was tight, tense and seemingly destined for a draw until Gareth Bale rose to the occasion to head in their Euro 2016 qualifier winner against Cyprus. It means the men in red are on the verge of qualifying for Wales' first major tournament since 1958 and a win against Israel on Sunday will do that.
Here are the thoughts of some of those who battled alongside Bale to put them on the cusp of reaching Euro 2016 in France.
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So says captain and defender Ashley Williams: "He didn't have his best game, you know, to his standard - a lot of things didn't go for him and he can't be perfect all the time.
"But [it was] an unbelievable goal. I don't think anyone else in the squad would have scored that. He jumped so high.
"When he's on the pitch, he can always do that for you."
Tottenham Hotspur defender Ben Davies: "It was a great header, but it's nothing we as players haven't come to expect from him, really."
Swansea skipper Williams: "We would like to do it at home [for the fans].
"I thought they were unbelievable with their support again… they made a lot of noise and they really backed us and we needed it again at times.
"I even heard my name being sung!"
Williams' fellow defender BenDavies: "It was unbelievable to see that many Welsh fans over here (Cyprus)."
Reading's ex-Cardiff City defender Chris Gunter: "Hopefully if we do our jobs, then we can join in with everyone [celebrating] on Sunday."
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Ashley Williams: "Hopefully. That's what we've worked so hard for over the last few years.
"It isn't done yet, so until it is done - that's when we'll celebrate.
"I've said it before, it would be my proudest achievement to lead this unbelievable group of lads to France and it's still the same.
"You can't help but think about the final whistle going and winning - that'll drive us on a little bit more and I'm sure we'll enjoy it if and when that happens."
Arsenal's midfielder Aaron Ramsey: "We know what's on the line for Sunday so hopefully we can have that opportunity and put on a bit of a show to gather the three points.
"It would mean the world to me to qualify.
"Hopefully [we'll] be a bit better with the ball than we were tonight… we're in a great position to do it."
Ex-Swansea player Ben Davies: "Sometimes we have to grind results out and that's what we did.
"As a back five we wanted to keep a clean sheet and we did. Luckily we've got the quality up top to get us games.
"We've been in situations, all of us really, where we've had games where we have to win, but never really to take us to that promised land.
"It's going to be tough. It's going to be nerve-wracking, but we can't wait."
Former Cardiff defender Chris Gunter: "We've never been in this position of being one game away from qualifying.
"I think every game as we've gone through the group has been bigger and bigger and I think we've dealt with it really well.
"Believe it or not through the week, we haven't once talked about the points we need or what's to come.
"We have just focused on performing. If we perform well, then we feel that the results will come and that's been the case so far." | It was a night on which Welsh sporting dreams began to be realised. |
40,650,500 | The 2011 result was confirmed on Tuesday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) dismissed Tatyana Chernova's blood doping ban appeal.
Chernova beat the Briton to gold in Daegu but her results are now annulled.
The Russian also won bronze medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
The 29-year-old has been told she must give up all three medals after twice testing positive when her anti-doping samples were later re-analysed. Her biological passport has also revealed years of blood doping.
World governing body the IAAF first stripped Chernova of her Daegu gold in November 2016 but the medal could not be reallocated until the appeal to Cas had been heard.
Several ceremonies to reallocate medals are expected to be held at the London World Championships, which runs from August 4-13.
Ennis-Hill, 31, announced her retirement from athletics in October but will now be able to celebrate her third world heptathlon title in front of a home crowd. | Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill will receive her record-equalling third world heptathlon gold medal in a ceremony at the World Championships in London - six years after the event in Daegu. |
36,993,966 | After Elias Kachunga struck the outside of the post for the Terriers, striker Nakhi Wells turned Rajiv van La Parra's cross into the bottom corner.
Mark Hudson's handball gave the hosts a penalty, and Dwight Gayle's effort was saved but he headed in the rebound.
Payne drilled home in the 82nd minute as Huddersfield won at Newcastle for the first time since 1953.
It was his first goal for Huddersfield since joining in the summer from Southend, as Championship title favourites Newcastle were booed off by their fans at the end.
Huddersfield's German boss David Wagner, who is in his first full season in charge, has guided his side to two wins from two to sit in second place, level on points with early leaders Bristol City.
Former Liverpool and Real Madrid manager Rafael Benitez, who has signed eight players so far this summer, handed Mo Diame his debut behind Gayle, and although his side created early chances, they were never totally dominant.
Moussa Sissoko was not included in the matchday squad in a week when the France midfielder spoke out about his wish to move to Real Madrid.
The Terriers - who lost 2-1 to League One side Shrewsbury in the EFL Cup in midweek - were at St James' Park for a league fixture for the first time in 33 years.
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez:
"We weren't expecting this kind of performance, we knew Huddersfield would be difficult to break down but we didn't play at the level we wanted to.
"We improved a lot in the second half but it's really disappointing. I've seen the team doing well in training but we have to show the same things in the match, the quality, the personality and the character.
"We've not seen that today. We made too many mistakes and we need to show that character and quality to improve things. The players on the pitch they were trying, they are good players.
"The players can do much better but we didn't play at the level we were expecting. The only positive today was the fans, they were behind the fans."
Huddersfield Town boss David Wagner:
"My first feeling is that I am proud for my players. It was an outstanding performance, in terms of togetherness. We were brave and we stuck to our match plan which was a lot different to what we played before.
"We scored with a transition twice and everyone helped each other. In the first half it was very good. In the second half, if we want to win against Newcastle away - like all teams here - then you need a bit of luck and we had that in the second half. It was a great moment for my players to celebrate with the away fans.
"The supporters will be a big help for us if we want to take a step forward as a team and club, they showed that. They have to help us and we have to deliver also. At the moment there is a great togetherness within the squad and it was great for me to see them celebrate with the supporters.
"All 24 teams can challenge in this division. We don't have any reason to dream. We have every reason to work and this is what we do. I was never a dreamer and I was always a worker which is why I am here at this club, this is a working club. We start again tomorrow."
Match ends, Newcastle United 1, Huddersfield Town 2.
Second Half ends, Newcastle United 1, Huddersfield Town 2.
Attempt missed. Dwight Gayle (Newcastle United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Ayoze Pérez.
Foul by Dwight Gayle (Newcastle United).
Jonathan Hogg (Huddersfield Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Matt Ritchie (Newcastle United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Hand ball by Aaron Mooy (Huddersfield Town).
Matt Ritchie (Newcastle United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Chris Löwe (Huddersfield Town).
Attempt missed. Isaac Hayden (Newcastle United) header from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Matt Ritchie with a cross following a set piece situation.
Chancel Mbemba (Newcastle United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Elias Kachunga (Huddersfield Town).
Corner, Newcastle United. Conceded by Christopher Schindler.
Substitution, Newcastle United. Adam Armstrong replaces Daryl Janmaat.
Goal! Newcastle United 1, Huddersfield Town 2. Jack Payne (Huddersfield Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Kasey Palmer with a through ball.
Substitution, Huddersfield Town. Jack Payne replaces Joe Lolley.
Foul by Jamaal Lascelles (Newcastle United).
Elias Kachunga (Huddersfield Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Substitution, Newcastle United. Ayoze Pérez replaces Mohamed Diamé.
Attempt missed. Daryl Janmaat (Newcastle United) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Mohamed Diamé.
Foul by Vurnon Anita (Newcastle United).
Tommy Smith (Huddersfield Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Huddersfield Town. Sean Scannell replaces Rajiv van La Parra.
Attempt missed. Matt Ritchie (Newcastle United) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Paul Dummett with a cross.
Attempt missed. Vurnon Anita (Newcastle United) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Matt Ritchie with a cross.
Attempt missed. Paul Dummett (Newcastle United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left following a corner.
Corner, Newcastle United. Conceded by Jonathan Hogg.
Substitution, Huddersfield Town. Kasey Palmer replaces Nahki Wells.
Attempt missed. Chris Löwe (Huddersfield Town) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Elias Kachunga.
Dwight Gayle (Newcastle United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Dwight Gayle (Newcastle United).
Danny Ward (Huddersfield Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Chris Löwe (Huddersfield Town) is shown the yellow card.
Hand ball by Chris Löwe (Huddersfield Town).
Goal! Newcastle United 1, Huddersfield Town 1. Dwight Gayle (Newcastle United) header from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal following a set piece situation.
Penalty saved! Dwight Gayle (Newcastle United) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.
Penalty conceded by Mark Hudson (Huddersfield Town) with a hand ball in the penalty area.
Foul by Vurnon Anita (Newcastle United).
Tommy Smith (Huddersfield Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Newcastle United. Conceded by Chris Löwe. | Jack Payne grabbed a late winner as Huddersfield maintained Newcastle's losing start to the new season. |
39,120,332 | Media playback is not supported on this device
If the Royal and Ancient and United States Golf Association plans are adopted, golfers will see significant shifts in how the sport is played.
The two governing bodies want to make golf quicker and played under more simple, consistent and fair rules.
Their ideas have been made public for a period of consultation and are scheduled to be implemented from 2019.
The new rulebook will be drawn up in "a modern, plain style" that will be written from a "player's perspective".
Among the changes under consideration are plans to:
The proposals follow four years of detailed examination of the current set-up by officials from the R&A and USGA, as well as professional tours.
The game is governed by a rulebook that contains hundreds of regulations and sub-rules. There is also a 500-page 'Decisions book' filled with precedents and "hidden rules" dealing with the myriad eventualities that can be occur during a game of golf.
"This is the biggest set of changes in a generation," David Rickman, R&A executive director of governance, told BBC Sport.
"In recent history we had big changes in 1952 and then again in 1984 so we have done this sort of thing before.
"It seems in that in the 30-odd-year range we need to step back and think on a broader perspective and bring the rules up to date."
Rickman says the rulebook is difficult to understand and accepts that players need to be something of a "golfing lawyer" to understand them.
"I think that is a justifiable criticism," he said. "I think the rulebook is very cleverly constructed - perhaps I would say that - I've been doing this a while.
"But if it is not readily understandable to golfers then we've failed.
"We've ended up with a technical and complicated code, and that's not what we want, particularly as golf is largely self-regulating.
"So we needed to reduce that complexity and one of the ways we can do that is by putting a greater emphasis on player integrity.
"Golfers are expected to abide by the rules and by following through on all respects of that we can set the rules more simply and give greater guidance and make the game better to play."
The working party examined every regulation in the book before drawing up its proposals. "We've not been afraid to consider fundamental change," Rickman added.
Proposals on repairing spike marks and allowing the choice of leaving the flag in the hole for putts on the green would appear to fall into that category.
"Actually that one harks back to a rule that existed in the 1960s," Rickman said. "So as part of this extensive effort we have looked at the history of the rules."
Perhaps the most contentious proposal surrounds how penalty or free drops will be executed. The plan to abolish releasing the ball from shoulder height will cause many an eyebrow to be raised.
"I suspect this will be an area of the rules that we will talk about for sometime," Rickman said. "We really want to get the ball back into play more quickly and we wanted to move away from a procedural situation."
Hence allowing a drop from just an inch off the ground.
The entire package is aimed at speeding up the game and banning caddies from lining up players ahead of shots would surely help, especially on women's tours where this is common practice.
Now the proposals have been published there will be a six-month period when all golfers can provide their feedback.
Thereafter the new rulebook will be drawn up ready for implementation at the start of 2019. | Proposals have been unveiled for the biggest shake-up of the rules of golf "in a generation". |
37,113,020 | Ch Supt Lee Bruckshaw was accused of trying to intervene in the case of a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) sergeant accused of shoplifting.
He eventually received "management advice" after a charge of perverting the course of justice was dropped.
GMP said its inquiry "took too long".
In an email to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Mr Bruckshaw said the colleague accused, but subsequently cleared, of shoplifting in September 2014 had a terminally ill child.
The resulting disciplinary action - carried out by GMP but managed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) - was initially for gross misconduct.
The chief superintendent, who denied trying to influence the CPS's decision, eventually received "management advice" - the lowest form of sanction.
"I stand by what I did," Mr Bruckshaw, a police officer for 31 years, told the BBC.
"My barrister said a lot of judges would commend me for doing what I did because, as we saw a month later, he was acquitted of these offences."
Mr Bruckshaw questioned whether it was appropriate that the officer investigating him had a "previous grievance" after being removed by him from CID.
The chief superintendent said he raised this point in May 2015 with then Deputy Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, who "didn't see it as a problem".
Mr Hopkins succeeded Sir Peter Fahy as chief constable in September 2015.
"Appointing the investigating officer was a decision by GMP and supported by the IPCC," a GMP spokesman told the BBC.
When asked if police should be "absolutely squeaky clean", Mr Bruckshaw replied: "I agree that if an allegation is made an officer should be investigated and I do not have any problem with that."
But he said the investigation should have ended in May 2015 "when I had answered every single question" and added: "Why didn't it stop there, instead of dragging my name through the mud?"
Mr Bruckshaw, who said he now wants to retire from the force, said the overall estimated cost of the process, including the investigations, wages and legal fees, was about £500,000 - a figure not disputed by GMP.
He said this was a "waste of public money".
In a statement, GMP said it "accepts this investigation was not carried out in the effective manner that we always aspire to and that it took too long to reach the eventual conclusion.
"We are always working to ensure we can take learning from situations when things do not go as well as we would want and as such a full review will take place. We will be asking the Superintendents Association for its support with this work.
"Any recommendations identified will be acted on to ensure that future cases are managed in an effective manner."
The BBC asked for responses from Mr Hopkins and the officer who investigated Mr Bruckshaw, but no further statement was issued. | A senior police officer has criticised his own force and chief constable following a 15-month, £500,000 probe into claims he perverted the course of justice. |
35,580,272 | The 26-year-old South Korea international has featured just three times for the R's this season, with his last appearance coming on 28 November.
"Yun is a player that will bring us some of the experience that we need in our situation," Addicks boss Jose Riga told the club website.
"He knows the Championship and has a good knowledge of English football."
Suk-Young has scored one goal in 37 appearances for Rangers since joining from Chunnam Dragons in January 2013.
The Addicks, who are 23rd in the Championship and six points from safety, signed former Watford defender Marco Motta on Friday.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Charlton Athletic have signed Queens Park Rangers left-back Yun Suk-Young on loan until the end of the season. |
37,167,975 | Official Scottish government statistics showed the country spent £14.8bn more than it raised in taxes in 2015/16, including a share of North Sea revenue.
That figure represented a 9.5% share of GDP, the report said - more than double the 4% figure for the UK as a whole.
Revised figures for the previous year put the Scottish deficit at £14.3bn.
The UK's spending deficit is £75.3bn.
The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures estimated that Scotland's share of North Sea revenues fell by about 97% from £1.8bn in 2014/15 to £60m last year, reflecting a decline in total UK North Sea revenue.
But this fall was offset by Scotland's onshore revenues growing by £1.9bn.
Overall, Scottish public sector revenue was estimated as £53.7bn - the equivalent of £10,000 per person, and about £400 per person lower than for the UK as a whole.
£68.6bn
Total spend
£23.6bn Social protection
£12.2bn Health
£7.9bn Education
£2.8bn Policing
Meanwhile, total expenditure by the public sector was £68.6bn.
This was equivalent to 9.1% of total UK public sector expenditure, and £12,800 per person - which is £1,200 per person greater than the UK average.
The Gers figures for the 2014/15 financial year, which were published in March, estimated the Scottish deficit at £14.9bn, or 9.7% of GDP, including a geographic share of offshore tax revenue.
But the latest report revised that figure down to £14.3bn, or 9.1% of Scottish GDP.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted the "foundations of the Scottish economy remain strong".
She added: "The lower oil price has, of course, reduced offshore revenues, with a corresponding impact on our fiscal position - this underlines the fact that Scotland's challenge is to continue to grow our onshore economy.
"However, Scotland's long-term economic success is now being directly threatened by the likely impact of Brexit."
The UK's government's Scottish secretary, David Mundell, said the figures "show how being part of the UK protects living standards in Scotland".
Mr Mundell said: "Scotland weathered a dramatic slump in oil revenues last year because we are part of a United Kingdom that has at its heart a system for pooling and sharing resources across the country as a whole.
"It is important that continues and the financial deal between the UK and Scottish governments, struck last year as part of the transfer of new tax and welfare powers to Holyrood, means real security for Scotland."
Douglas Fraser: What do the GERS figures tell us about Scotland's finances?
This approach to estimating how much Scots pay in tax, and how much they benefit from spending at all levels of government, goes back to the early 90s.
Conservative ministers in the Scottish Office thought it would help inform the debate on devolution, or at least it would help them make their case against a Scottish Parliament.
The numbers would show, they thought, how much more Scotland gained from the Treasury than it sent south in tax revenues.
That was one of those times when the oil price was low.
Seven years earlier, it was very high and oil revenues were like a gusher.
Read more from Douglas
GERS: Extracts from Table E.2 (figures rounded to the nearest £100). The numbers listed refer to the difference compared with the rest of the UK.
GERS: Extracts from Table E.2 (figures rounded to the nearest £100). The numbers listed refer to the difference compared with the rest of the UK. | Scotland's public spending deficit stood at just under £15bn in the past financial year amid plummeting oil revenues. |
36,973,392 | The London-born actress told BBC Radio 5 live UK television "doesn't represent the country we live in".
She added the US has "huge race problems", but said she could find more work there because there were "more options for you to try".
"I would jump at the chance for there to be more parts for me here," she said, referring to the UK.
"It's not that I think [producers and casting directors] are racist or don't like me," she said.
"It's that we have an idea in our heads here of representation on TV, and it doesn't represent the country we live in, and it should."
The 30-year old revealed she had been told her mixed race background made her unsuitable for several roles she had auditioned for on British TV shows.
She said: "You get feedback from auditions - and they might say something along the lines of, 'We're only casting fully black or fully white people for this particular project, and because you're mixed [race] that doesn't work.'
"Or I've had, 'You were the absolute best person for the part but you don't fit with the family shade-wise.'"
The actress, whose mother is British and father Nigerian, is well known for her portrayal of lawyer Lucca Quinn in US drama The Good Wife.
She called for change in the UK television industry and referred to the "Oscars So White" movement, which saw several actors boycott the Academy Awards earlier this year in protest over the lack of nominees from ethnic minorities.
"I think we have to start from the top down," Jumbo said.
"If our producers and the people sitting on our boards and trusts and the people writing don't have different experiences, then of course the work that drips down is just of one or two or three experiences... not the experience of anybody else.
"It's a little bit like what happened with the Oscars where they made some huge changes very quickly because they realised they had to."
Nearly 700 entertainment figures have now been invited to become Academy members, with a focus on women and ethnic minorities.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram, or email [email protected]. | Cush Jumbo, best known for appearing in US series The Good Wife, has called for more ethnic diversity on British TV. |
40,121,406 | Ashton Tuckey, who had Down's syndrome, was found by his mother who initially thought he was looking out of the window at their Isle of Wight home.
He died as a result of "compression to the neck" following the incident in Binstead on 7 December 2014.
His grandmother described him as a "lovely child".
The two-day inquest in Newport was told Jodie Tuckey had called for help after bringing her son outside but despite the efforts of neighbours and paramedics, he died in hospital.
The boy's grandmother, Kathleen Tuckey, told the court Ashton had a "very high pain threshold" and "no ability to call out" for help.
She said the duvet cover had been attached to the window because Ashton would pull at the old black-out blinds, which they felt were unsafe. | The death of a 10-year-old boy who became tangled in a duvet cover which was being used as a curtain was an accident, a coroner has ruled. |
35,629,138 | Resuming on 363-4 on day three of the second and final Test, Australia posted 505, a lead of 135 despite Neil Wagner's 6-106 at the Hagley Oval.
New Zealand reached 121-4 by the close as James Pattinson took 3-29.
Kane Williamson, unbeaten on 45, is the hosts' best hope of salvaging anything other than defeat.
Australia, who lead 1-0, need only draw this match to regain the number one Test ranking.
McCullum, who scored the fastest Test century in the first innings, was superbly caught by a diving David Warner at mid-wicket as he charged at Josh Hazlewood.
The 34-year-old's last Test runs came from a characteristic six - the 107th of his career, more than anyone else in the format.
He received a standing ovation from the crowd at the start of his innings and again after he was dismissed.
McCullum, who made his debut in 2004, will retire with 6,453 Test runs at an average of 38.64 from 101 matches, a tally bettered only by Stephen Fleming.
Earlier, left-arm seamer Wagner claimed his second Test five-wicket haul as Australia lost their last five wickets for 39 runs.
Have you added the new Top Story alerts in the BBC Sport app? Simply head to the menu in the app - and don't forget you can also add alerts for the Six Nations, cricket scores, your football team and more. | Captain Brendon McCullum scored 25 in his final innings for New Zealand as Australia closed in on victory in Christchurch. |
38,574,793 | The four-floor construction would replace the institution's engineering block which is set to be demolished.
It will house the health and life sciences department and become the new site of the Cole Museum of Zoology.
The building planned for the Whiteknights campus is expected to be completed by summer 2019 subject to planning permission.
The university released an image of the plan on Tuesday ahead of submitting a formal application to Wokingham Borough Council.
It said the "world class" facility would contain 24,793 sq ft (7,557 sq m) of laboratory and teaching space.
The project forms part of a wider £400m capital investment programme. | Proposals for a new £50m academic building have been unveiled by the University of Reading. |
37,950,557 | Former Moderator Dr Sheilagh Kesting, received the award in recognition of her work to improve relations between the two churches.
Dr Kesting, was invested as a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great, only the second time it has been awarded to a non-Catholic in the UK.
The award was granted personally by Pope Francis.
Before becoming Moderator of the Kirk's General Assembly in 2007, Dr Kesting worked for 23 years as its Ecumenical Officer.
She said when she received the award at a private dinner given by the Archbishop of St Andrew's and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, to celebrate her retirement from the ministry, she was initially speechless.
"I am delighted that the relationship between our two churches has become strong enough that this kind of acknowledgement can be given from one to the other, and it means so much that it comes from Pope Francis," she said.
"We have been watching this new Pope with tremendous interest and excitement about the things that he is saying and the encouragement that he is giving to ecumenical relations.
"So to have this honour from Pope Francis just adds to its significance. It is wonderful."
Presenting her with the award, Archbishop Cushley said: "A few months ago when we learned of your retirement we thought we ought to mark it and we thought this would be a nice thing to do.
"So we wrote to the Pope and we asked him if we could have a papal decoration for you and he said yes. So this is from Pope Francis and it is a declaration making you a Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great."
He added: "We thank you for all you have done to promote better relations among the churches, especially with ourselves."
David Waterton-Anderson of the UK Association of Papal Honours said the Order of St Gregory was not a political award.
He said: "It is a very, very high honour and a very rare thing for a non-Catholic to receive the Order of St Gregory the Great.
"And this honour is something she can be really proud of because it is not political, but only given for good works."
Established in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI, it is given to recipients "in recognition of their personal service to the Holy See and to the Roman Catholic Church, through their unusual labours, their support of the Holy See, and their excellent examples set forth in their communities and their countries".
It is thought Lady Hazel Sternberg, who died in 2014, is the only other non-Catholic woman in the UK to have been invested as a Dame of the Order of St Gregory. | A leading Church of Scotland minister has been awarded one of the highest honours of the Roman Catholic church. |
39,830,475 | Cook hit 127 as Essex sealed a third straight win against Gloucestershire.
Glamorgan choose from an unchanged 14-man squad despite losing a third consecutive game against Somerset.
Essex rest Kiwi pace bowler Matt Quinn with Paul Walter coming into their squad.
Glamorgan batsman Colin Ingram has hit centuries in the teams' last two meetings, with Glamorgan victorious by 146 runs in Cardiff in 2015 while Essex won a high-scoring affair in Chelmsford in 2016.
Cook, who opened the batting for England in the first Test in Cardiff in 2009, is available for his county for the first half of the summer.
Glamorgan (from): Jacques Rudolph (capt), David Lloyd, Will Bragg, Colin Ingram, Kiran Carlson, Aneurin Donald, Chris Cooke, Owen Morgan, Andrew Salter, Craig Meschede, Marchant de Lange, Timm van der Gugten, Lukas Carey, Michael Hogan.
Essex (from): Nick Browne, Alastair Cook, Tom Westley, Varun Chopra, Dan Lawrence, Ravi Bopara, Ryan ten Doeschate (capt), Callum Taylor, Ashar Zaidi, Adam Wheater, Simon Harmer, Neil Wagner, Jamie Porter, Paul Walter. | Glamorgan will be up against former England captain Alastair Cook in prime form as they try to turn round their One-Day Cup campaign against unbeaten Essex. |
37,465,653 | With more than 70% of votes counted in Sunday's referendum, 99.8% supported the holiday, authorities said.
The court ruled the date discriminated against Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats and should be changed.
Serbs declared the creation of their own state within Bosnia on 9 January 1992, fuelling an ethnic conflict in which about 100,000 people died.
Bosnia is still split along ethnic lines between the mainly-Serb entity and a Muslim-Croat federation.
The Constitutional Court, based in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, banned the referendum.
About 1.2 million people were eligible to vote and authorities said turnout was more than 56%.
Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik said the referendum would go down in history as the "day of Serb determination".
"I am proud of the people of Republika Srpska, of all those who came out and voted," he said in the town of Pale.
Regardless of the result, the referendum has already damaged ethnic relations in Bosnia and, arguably, the credibility of the international officials who still oversee the country.
Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik has challenged the authority of the national court, which ruled the 9 January holiday unconstitutional and banned the referendum. He also ignored pressure from the European Union, the international high representative and Serbia.
This defiance has increased fears that Mr Dodik might follow through with his threat to hold a secession referendum.
The high representative has the ability to remove politicians from office if they threaten the terms of the Dayton Peace Agreement. But in recent years those powers have been used only rarely.
Referendum challenges peace terms
As well as being the anniversary of the declaration of a Bosnian Serb state, 9 January is an Orthodox Christian holiday.
The International High Representative to Bosnia-Hercegovina, Valentin Inzko, told the BBC that the vote was "illegal and unconstitutional".
"No mistake, decisions of the constitutional court are final and binding..., and the constitutional court was very, very explicit..., it suspended this referendum," he said.
Bosniak leader Bakir Izetbegovic, meanwhile, has accused Mr Dodik of "playing with fire".
The BBC's Guy Delauney in neighbouring Serbia says that the Bosnian Serb leader has been deliberately provocative by insisting on celebrating the national holiday on 9 January.
Analysts say by flouting the court, one of the federal institutions set up at the end of the war in 1995, Mr Dodik is threatening the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the conflict. | Bosnian Serbs have voted overwhelmingly to keep 9 January as a national holiday in defiance of Bosnia's highest court. |
38,681,403 | Dywedodd Mr Drakeford bod gan llywodraethau Cymru a gwledydd eraill "bryderon" am fforwm gafodd ei chreu i drafod Brexit.
Fe wnaeth y fforwm yma, Y Cyd-bwyllgor Gweinidogion - sy'n cynnwys llywodraethau'r DU a'r gwledydd datganoledig - gynnal cyfarfod "cadarn" yn Whitehall ddydd Iau, meddai Mr Drakeford.
Yn ôl Ysgrifennydd Cymru, Alun Cairns, roedd yn gyfarfod "adeiladol": "Fe wnaeth hyd yn oed Llywodraeth Cymru dderbyn heddiw nad yw'r iaith gafodd ei ddefnyddio gan y prif weinidog yn gynharach yn yr wythnos am gytundeb masnach rydd yn anhebyg i'r iaith maen nhw wedi ei drafod.
"Mae hyn yn profi bod llawer o dir cyffredin ond dydw i ddim yn tanbrisio'r heriau sydd yma."
Yn y cyfarfod, fe wnaeth aelodau drafod adroddiadau gan lywodraethau'r Alban a Gogledd Iwerddon, a dywedodd Mr Drakeford y byddai adroddiad gan Lywodraeth Cymru yn cael ei gyhoeddi ddydd Llun, a'i drafod fis nesaf.
Dywedodd bod y llywodraethau datganoledig angen sicrwydd bod y fforwm yn "cael effaith ar y ffordd mae Llywodraeth y DU yn paratoi ac yn mynd i mewn i'r trafodaethau ar ôl Mawrth".
Ychwanegodd bod angen cadarnhad gan weinidogion San Steffan "nad ydyn ni yma i roi ein barn yn unig, ond bod y farn yna yn mynd ymlaen i wneud gwahaniaeth".
Dywedodd ysgrifennydd Brexit y DU bod angen cydweithio i "fanteisio ar y cyfleoedd mae gadael [yr UE] yn ei gynnig".
Ychwanegodd David Davies: "Byddwn yn defnyddio'r syniadau a dadansoddiad o gyfarfod heddiw i baratoi ein gwaith i sicrhau cynllun i adael [yr UE] sy'n gweithio i'r DU gyfan."
Er i Sinn Fein ddweud y gallai aelodau adael y broses, dywedodd Mr Drakeford y byddai Llywodraeth Cymru yn parhau. | Mae angen i Lywodraeth y DU roi sicrwydd i weinidogion Cymru bod eu barn am Brexit yn gwneud gwahaniaeth, yn ôl Ysgrifennydd Cyllid Cymru, Mark Drakeford. |
35,952,228 | He is being questioned by police.
The stadium was hosting the Irish Cup semi-final on Saturday afternoon, between home side Linfield and Lurgan Celtic. | A 16-year-old boy has been arrested at Windsor Park in south Belfast on suspicion of possession of a firework or flare. |
39,861,092 | The poster depicts the reality star wearing a leotard alongside the text: "Can you keep up with a Kardashian?"
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 14 complaints about Protein World's "socially irresponsible" promotion.
But it ruled the campaign did not "encourage harmful dieting behaviour".
The firm told the ASA the overall response to the advert was that it was motivating and empowering, and it did not believe it was socially irresponsible.
It added that Transport for London had approved the poster.
The watchdog decided the poster "promoted Khloe Kardashian's body image as desirable and aspirational; this was supported by her pose and the airbrushed style".
"We did not consider that she appeared to be out of proportion or unhealthy."
The firm's 2015 ad campaign, which asked "are you beach body ready?", drew 380 complaints amid widespread social media outrage.
Then, the ASA had already ruled the advert could not appear again in its current form due to problems with its health and weight loss claims, but it concluded it was "unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence".
A spokesman for eating disorder charity Beat, said: "Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses with very complex causes.
"While we wouldn't say they are likely to be the sole and direct cause of eating disorders, adverts that do not promote healthy body image or encourage restrictive eating habits can exacerbate the problem in people who are suffering." | A London Underground advert featuring Khloe Kardashian, by the company behind the controversial "beach body ready" campaign, has been cleared for use. |
40,680,346 | Although the athlete represents the peak of human athletic prowess, he still can only swim at a top speed of 5-6mph (8-10km/h) an hour, slower than the shark.
To even things up, the US swimmer wore a "monofin" for the open water race in South Africa, increasing his speed significantly but still not taking it anywhere close to the at least 25mph a Great White is capable of in short bursts.
And - spoiler alert - the athlete has revealed they were not in the water "at the exact same time" for safety reasons.
But humans have long pitted themselves against dangerous animals, often ones they know are much faster.
They have done this for money, to draw attention to a cause, to create a spectacle, and perhaps also out of an inflated sense of what humans are capable of.
Here are four other times man has raced beast.
Bryan Habana, one of the fastest players in international rugby, decided to take on the world's fastest land animal in 2007 as part of an event sponsored by a conservation group.
Habana is quick, but not Usain Bolt quick - running the 100m in 10.4 seconds at his best (compared with Bolt's 9.58 world record).
Still, the then 23-year-old, keen to raise awareness about the decline of the cheetah, fancied himself in with a chance.
But tempting the cheetah was a dangling leg of lamb, which it chased during the race as Habana, who was given a significant headstart, gave it all he had.
The end was close - but the cheetah just got over the line first. Habana asked for a re-run and was soundly beaten.
Filippo Magnini, a former world champ in the 100m freestyle, took on two dolphins in a pool near Rome in 2011.
Given the animals' clear advantage, the Italian only had to swim one length of the pool, while they had to swim two.
But that didn't make a difference and the man nicknamed 'Superpippo' was pipped at the post.
He said later that he fell "a bit in love" with Leah, one of the dolphins.
The black US track and field athlete won a string of victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in front of Adolf Hitler, who had been hoping for a games that would demonstrate the Aryan superiority he believed existed.
Owens later struggled financially back home in a country where racism remained rife and his sport was not professional.
To make money, he competed against racehorses in front of dazzled crowds.
He is said to have had the starting gun go off close to the horse, stunning it and allowing him to get away ahead (he also had a head start). Though this strategy worked most of the time, he didn't always win.
Later, more opportunities became available to Jesse Owens and, among other roles, he served as Ambassador of Sports under President Eisenhower.
NFL wide receiver Dennis Northcutt easily beat an ostrich named Thelma in 2009 for a TV show called Sport Science.
But in that initial race, a fence separated the pair, and it was obvious the animal wasn't giving it her best.
In a second race, this time inside the ostrich's enclosure, Dennis was soundly beaten, as the ostrich leapt away and he was left chasing it through the dust. | Michael Phelps, the world's most decorated Olympian and a swimmer nicknamed the "Flying Fish", has gone head-to-head against a Great White Shark in a 100m race set to be broadcast by the Discovery network. |
34,469,322 | Mr Justice Mostyn made a written order stating efforts should be made to find the boy, whom he said was Polish and could be in Poland with his parents.
He granted an application, made by an NHS trust, allowing doctors to perform surgery on the boy to remove a tumour.
A doctor said the child - who was not named - will die a "brutal and agonising death" without surgery.
Details of the hearing emerged in a ruling following hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
Mr Justice Mostyn said doctors believed the boy, who had lived in England with his parents for two years, was at risk of "serious harm" and the risk was growing each day.
He said there was evidence the boy had left his home with his mother two weeks ago, and that the boy's father had boarded a ferry bound for France in the past few days.
One doctor said the prospect of him growing up was "completely impossible" without surgery.
The paediatric oncologist said the boy's parents were "very frightened and fearful", worrying that he would be disfigured by surgery and preferring to treat him with "Chinese medicine".
Surgery could last as long as 12 hours and would require skin and bone from the boy's leg to rebuild his jaw bone, the judge said in his ruling.
It could result in "lameness", would leave the boy needing false teeth, and he could develop a "lopsided appearance", he added.
Mr Justice Mostyn stated: "I give full weight to the wishes of (the boy) as well as those of his parents.
"It is a strong thing for me, a stranger, to disagree with and override the wishes of (the boy) and his parents.
"But I have absolutely no doubt that (the boy) must be given the chance, a very good chance, of a long and fulfilling life rather than suffering, quite soon, a ghastly, agonising, death."
Mr Justice Mostyn said the Polish embassy in London was being alerted of the need to find the boy.
The judge referred to the boy and his parents by initials only and did not name the NHS trust. | A 10-year-old boy who has jaw cancer and needs urgent surgery has vanished, a High Court judge has said. |
39,107,087 | Sunday's fixture was called off 64 minutes before the scheduled throw-in because of a waterlogged pitch.
Tyrone's hurling match with Donegal was also postponed - it will now be played at Healy Park on Sunday. 19 March.
Meanwhile, there is a 17:00 GMT throw-in for the All-Ireland club football final between Slaughtneil and Dr Crokes at Croke Park on 17 March.
The NHL Division 3A tie between Tyrone and Donegal, which was to have been the Healy Park curtain-raiser, was switched to Carrickmore but that too fell victim to the weather. | The postponed Division One game between Tyrone and Cavan has been rearranged for Sunday, 12 March at Healy Park. |
38,125,620 | The pilots' union, Vereinigung Cockpit, said the walkout would affect short-haul flights on Tuesday, and both short and long-haul flights on Wednesday.
It is the 15th strike since April. with 2,800 flights cancelled last week due to a four-day walkout by pilots.
Lufthansa spokeswoman Bettina Volkens said: "We have to talk."
She added "I hope very much that [Vereinigung Cockpit] finally changes its uncompromising stance. This cannot be forced via strikes."
Joerg Handwerg, board member at Vereinigung Cockpit, said: "Unfortunately, high-level talks held today at short notice failed to lead to an agreement on the wage contract.
"It is completely incomprehensible that (Lufthansa) has refused to put forward an offer that can at least form the basis of a negotiation."
Vereinigung Cockpit wants an average annual pay rise of 3.7% for its 5,400 members in Germany, backdated to 2012.
On Friday, Lufthansa offered to increase wages by 2.4% in 2016, with an additional 2% rise in 2017. It said it would also provide a one-off payment of 1.8 months' pay. The airline had previously offered a 2.5% pay rise.
But the union rejected the offer.
More than 350,000 passengers were affected by last week's action. The airline has estimated that the strike is costing it about 10m euros (£8.5m) a day.
Carsten Spohr, chief executive of Lufthansa, has said that the future of the airline would be threatened if it met the pilots' demands because it would make many routes unprofitable.
"We stand no chance to survive," he said. "There is no more leeway for even better offers when escalation is what is wanted, as opposed to a solution."
Despite a record profit last year, the company said it was forced to cut costs to compete with budget rivals such as Ryanair in Europe and the likes of Emirates on long-haul routes. | Lufthansa pilots have warned they will strike again on Tuesday and Wednesday after weekend talks failed to resolve a long-running row over pay. |
35,521,290 | Kenya's military has not yet said how many of its soldiers died at the el-Ade base in southern Somalia but it could be one of the biggest ever suffered by the AU force, known as Amisom.
That attack, and the more recent fight for control of the port town of Merca, have confirmed that the militant Islamists are not a spent force despite Amisom being on the ground since 2007.
According to its mandate, it was set up with United Nations backing to "reduce the threat posed by al-Shabab" and support the Somali government in regaining control over the country.
But there is still some way to go.
In the wake of the el-Ade attack Amisom troops withdrew from several towns in southern Somalia in what officials called a tactical move.
The region is where al-Shabab is believed to be concentrated and it appears to be filling the void.
The attacks on the force that should be protecting the fragile Somali state are a cause for concern for the AU's decision makers.
The losses suffered by the Kenyan contingent follow similar attacks on Amisom's Ugandan and Burundian troops last year.
At the recent AU summit in Addis Ababa, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta called for "more resources for the forces in Somalia".
The military men on the ground would no doubt welcome more support but do not shy away from what they are there for.
Visiting the scene of the el-Ade attack, acting force commander Maj Gen Nakibus Lakara emphasised the nature of the campaign.
"Amisom is not a peacekeeping mission [but] a war-fighting mission," he said.
"In a fight of course there are casualties, but what is important for Amisom is that those casualties are kept to the minimum acceptable."
But the bigger picture is for the politicians to worry about.
Despite the losses, President Kenyatta insists that his nation remains "unbowed" and will continue its mission in Somalia.
There are some voices in Kenya calling for a withdrawal from Somalia, but the president wants to avoid leaving behind a vacuum in which the jihadists could thrive and pose a greater threat to the region.
"This is not the time to waiver or to listen to the voices of defeat and despair," he recently said.
Some observers say it is not viable to base your foreign policy on trying not to look like a coward.
And there are questions about what the mission in Somalia will look like in the long term.
In its nine years, Amisom has been successful in winning territory by pushing the insurgents out of some regions, providing support for the government and creating an environment suitable for the resurgence of the local economy, but this has not stopped the violence.
"There needs to be a yardstick for measuring success in Somalia," argues Abdullahi Boru, a Horn of Africa security and policy analyst.
"Military might is not enough," he says, there also needs to be an effort to "win over the Somali population", if not then "this fight will be counterproductive".
The challenge is that not only does Amisom need to convince ordinary Somalis that it serves their interests, but that it is worth them cooperating even if it could make them potential targets for al-Shabab reprisals.
The mission also needs to enable the Somali government forces to fight al-Shabab on their own and that is "something it currently lacks the capacity to do", says David Wagacha from the Paradec research consultancy.
But apparent disagreements within Amisom also need to be addressed.
At the moment, Somalia is divided into different sectors - each the responsibility of a different country making up the intervention force.
This has led to some suggestions of there being a lack of harmony.
Mr Wagacha says "in spite of the gains made in liberating some towns from al-Shabab, there appears to be some kind of disconnect between some Amisom members, as well as mistrust and egotism.
"This will hinder a cohesive and effective fight against the common enemy."
There needs to be a thorough review ahead of the UN Security Council's discussion on extending Amisom's mandate, with the changes spurred by the deadly January attack. | The African Union force in Somalia is facing new questions following last month's attack on a Kenyan military base, which al-Shabab says killed more than 100 soldiers. |
35,688,060 | Havering's councillors recently voted by 30 to 15 that the UK would be better off out of the EU.
The 10 most Eurosceptic areas are all in England, with Peterborough and Bracknell Forest second and third.
Ceredigion, Aberdeen and Stirling are the most enthusiastic about the EU, followed by two inner London boroughs, Lambeth and Camden.
Havering has seven Ukip councillors, the highest number of any London borough.
Bromley councillors also voted in favour of leaving the EU last week.
The referendum on EU membership will be held on 23 June.
Matthew Goodwin, co-author of a book about Ukip and a professor of politics at the University of Kent, said coastal towns and eastern England - which Havering borders - were more Eurosceptic than average.
"You tend to have high numbers of working class residents," he said.
"Of all indicators of Euroscepticism, education is the strongest predictor, so if you leave school at 16 you tend to be far more Eurosceptic than people who went to university."
"Euroscepticism also has strongholds in the more wealthy, Tory shires," said YouGov.
"Apart from in Scotland (all Europhile and one mixed), parts of Wales and London many of the Europhile areas are university towns with lower median ages - Liverpool, Manchester, York and Bristol." | The London borough of Havering is the most Eurosceptic in Britain, according to a YouGov survey. |
34,846,264 | The 10ft (3m) deep "apocalyptic bunker" created by Colin Furze measures 16ft by 20ft (4.9m by 6m) and is accessed via a hidden hatch in his shed.
Mr Furze, a 36-year-old former plumber from Stamford in Lincolnshire, has kitted out the concrete-covered den with a flat-screen TV, drum-kit and several video consoles.
He said the "ultimate man cave" had been a childhood ambition.
The bunker, which is covered in 16 cubic metres of concrete, is a "fully functional" room complete with a kitchen and "party area".
It took Mr Furze two months to construct with the help of a friend and three-year-old son Jake.
"It's a metal box in a hole - if you can weld and cut bits of metal then you can make one - the actual mechanics of it is quite simple, but it's a huge project," Mr Furze said.
The inventor, who has almost 1.7 million YouTube subscribers for his videos, is the brains behind a variety of unusual creations, including an ejector bed, vacuum-cleaner shoes and "the world's fastest pram".
"This bunker is like my adult version of what I used to do as a child in a quarry near where I lived," he said.
"This has been a proper dream to build."
The plumber-turned-filmmaker said he had threatened his partner, who is expecting their second child, that "I'm in the bunker" if their baby does not sleep through the night.
"People have ideas, but don't have time to make them and that's where I come in," added Mr Furze, who describes himself as the "most famous inventor you've never heard of".
"I'm dedicating my life to making stuff we all want to see."
Speaking about his latest creation, which in the event of an apocalypse is kitted out with a variety of "weird self-defence" gadgets, he said: "If I do turn into an internet super-villain, it's my hideout and lair.
"If there's a massive disaster, it's there to be used, but in the meantime it's a set for more videos." | A madcap inventor has built an underground lair in his back garden. |
36,279,855 | And it's not just gamers who are benefiting from the immersive possibilities it offers.
Four experts, including Mark Bolas - former tutor of Palmer Luckey, who recently hand-delivered the first VR handset made by his company Oculus Rift - talked to the BBC World Service Inquiry programme about the future of VR.
Mark Bolas is a professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts and a researcher at the Institute for Creative Technologies. He has been working in virtual reality since 1988.
VR hits on so many levels. It's a real out-of-body experience, and yet completely grounded in your body.
People have always wanted to master their environment, to extend our agency. We want our hands to be able to do more; that's why we have hammers.
VR allows us to go beyond the limitations of physical tools to do anything that can be computed. If you want to create a two-mile high tower made out of toothpicks, you can do it.
I did a series of 14 different environments; one where you felt like you were very high and had to look down: that was the first time people found this sense of vertigo within a virtual environment. I did a world where you look up towards the sky and see fireworks exploding; that's just magical.
I wanted to build a tool so people could use it. The best way to do that was to stay away from the consumer market because it really wasn't ready, and to go after industrial uses.
So my company created a viewing system that actually meets the specs of modern VR.
Because it had such high resolution, commercial users could use it to solve real problems.
Automobile companies used it for car design. Oil and gas industry used it to visualise data to figure out the right place to sink a well.
The next step was to make these cheap. Consumer VR up until then had a really narrow field of view; it was like looking through a tube of paper. Peripheral vision is really important for a visceral sense, and that's what people really react to.
To find a way to make it low cost and still retain that field of view, we harnessed the power of mobile phones - the screens, tracking and processing - and we figured out a lens design that was extremely inexpensive.
It's been really fun playing all these years, but there's something more important now, which is making it a space that allows us to harness our emotions, our desire to connect with people.
I'm worried by our current computer interfaces. I watch people walking around like zombies with cell phones in their hands, and I have to manoeuvre a mouse to fill out little boxes on web forms in a horribly frustrating way. I think VR will allow us to transcend this.
I don't worry so much about where VR is going, I worry about where we currently are.
Maria Korolov is a technology journalist who has devoted her career to writing about virtual reality.
The biggest way [VR is changing the workplace] is training and simulations. If you have to train somebody on a very expensive piece of machinery, you want to do it in a simulator. The Army, for example, has been an extremely early adopter, as has the air force.
One recent example was a doctor [who] practised surgery on a tiny baby's heart. He took scans of the heart, uploaded them to the computer and toured it with this little virtual reality headset, was able to plan out his surgery ahead of time, and saved the baby.
In education, the biggest change has been Google Expeditions. Google has been seeding elementary schools with over 100,000 virtual reality headsets and lesson plans. Kids are able to go on a virtual reality field trip to, say, the surface of the moon.
Gamers want something visceral. When you're riding a roller-coaster and you go down a hill, your stomach drops out: even though you know it's not real, your body reacts as if it's there. When I showed a shark simulation to people and they screamed, I laughed because, "Ha ha, they're not real." Then I put it on and the shark came at me and I screamed, because it's a physical reaction.
The adult industry is jumping into this with everything they've got because it is so compelling. I have sampled it purely from a reviewer perspective, and it felt like you were in a locker room, and you don't know where to look because everyone's naked, and the lights are too bright, and they're interacting with you. This is going to be big.
The way the internet has changed the way we communicate information, virtual reality will change the way we communicate experiences.
If I wanted to show you what it's like to cook a meal, I could invite you to my virtual apartment and take you through a virtual cooking class. If I wanted to experience a walk in the woods with you, I could take you to my favourite virtual woods.
It will make the world even smaller than it is now. It will increase the ability of people to telecommute and work together across national boundaries dramatically. It's definitely going to bring us closer together.
Psychologist Skip Rizzo is director for medical virtual reality at the University of Southern California. He has been using VR since the 1990s when he became frustrated with the tools available to help rehabilitate people with brain injuries.
I noticed many of my clients were engaged in video games, and people that were very challenged in maintaining attention and focus in everyday activities could focus on those tasks and actually get better.
That was the first light bulb. Could we build virtual environments that represent everyday challenges that would help cognitive rehab?
We started off building virtual environments from video imagery that we had of Iraq and Afghanistan, and talked to a lot of veterans. The environments we created involved riding in a Humvee in a mountainous area, or a desert roadway.
We put somebody in a simulation that is reminiscent of what they were traumatised in, but at a very gradual level so they can handle it. The clinician can control the time of day, the lighting conditions, the ambient sounds.
The therapist tries to mimic what the patient is talking about in their trauma narrative. And eventually by confronting it with therapists, you start to see post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms start to diminish.
We've used VR to help people with high-functioning autism be more effective at job interviews. This involves having them practise their interviews with a wide range of interviewers - different age, gender, ethnic background, and different levels of provocativeness.
We know that the brain is quite good at suspending disbelief, so even though people know these aren't real people, they relate to them as if they are.
This is why VR is so compelling, because whatever is learned in those worlds hopefully will benefit how the person translates their behaviour in the real world.
Nick Yee is a social scientist who studies how people behave and interact in virtual worlds and online games.
We weren't interested in the technology for the technology's sake; the bigger question was using VR as a new platform to study human psychology.
Studies show when we step into virtual bodies, we conform to the expectations of how those bodies appear.
When we're in a more attractive body, we leverage stereotypes we have about how attractive people behave.
People perceive taller individuals as being more confident, and we adopt those norms when we too are given a slightly taller body in virtual reality.
You're more likely to be persuaded by and like a person if you share similar traits, even cues as arbitrary as having the same birthday, the same first name.
Our brains are wired with all these heuristics for who we like, how easily we're persuaded.
VR is uniquely powerful in terms of its ability to manipulate bodies and faces, and hijack a lot of the soft-wiring of how our brain makes sense of the world.
We ran another study where we had a virtual presenter mimic a participant's head movements at a four second delay, while the presenter was giving a persuasive argument, and we found that people are more likely to be persuaded when they are being mimicked.
You can imagine running into a computer agent in the virtual world that sort of looks like you, and has a bit of your mannerisms, and you can imagine how much more persuasive that computer agent could be.
This ability in VR to use algorithms to make [computer agents] more likeable, or their message more persuasive, that's definitely an interesting potential use of virtual worlds.
It absolutely does worry me. We thought about this a lot at the lab. Can people inoculate themselves against these strategies? We were pessimistic. We knew from our own studies that a lot of these manipulations can be subtle to the point of being undetectable, yet still have a measurable impact. It's hard to guard against them.
The Inquiry is broadcast on the BBC World Service on Tuesdays from 12:05 GMT. Listen online or download the podcast. | Virtual Reality (VR) has been with us for many decades - at least as an idea - but the technology has now come of age. |
40,299,129 | Leigh Halfpenny - who landed 20 points in all - kicked them into a 15-10 half-time lead, with Liam Messam crossing for the hosts' try.
The Lions forwards dominated the second half and they earned a penalty try when they took the Maori apart at a scrum.
Maro Itoje crossed four minutes later as the Lions laid down a Test marker.
Warren Gatland's side came into the game with two wins from four games, following Wednesday's 23-22 defeat by the Highlanders.
That made this a must-win game and Gatland went with power in a bid to neutralise the dangerous Maori attack.
And the tourists did just that with a combination of smothering defence and precise kicking pinning the Maori back.
A tight first half saw Messam pounce to score an opportunist try after George North had fumbled Nehe Milner-Skudder's grubber kick.
But that was a rare foray into the 22 for the Maori and the hosts barely got out of their own half after the break as the visitors' power up front told.
They scored in the 10 minutes the Maori were without Tawera Kerr-Barlow after the scrum-half was yellow carded for a dangerous tackle on Halfpenny.
Many of the Lions team that started the game in Rotorua played themselves into contention to start the first Test against the All Blacks on Saturday, 24 June.
It was no surprise that the Lions' two tries came from the pack.
They were imperious throughout the match, winning all of their scrums and line-outs.
The scrum brought the first try on 51 minutes as the Maori forwards, defending their 5m line, were forced to turn it illegally by the power of the Lions, with referee Jaco Peyper given no choice but to give the score.
Minutes later and it was another scrum, another score. This time Taulupe Faletau drove from the base but was held up just short of the line and lock Itoje, who had been outstanding all game, picked up and dived over from close range.
With his forwards excelling in the wet conditions, albeit against a disappointing Maori side, Gatland might be praying for rain in Auckland in a week's time.
Peter O'Mahony, who started as captain, was excellent in the back row alongside Faletau and Sean O'Brien and tour captain Sam Warburton will not be an automatic starter in Auckland.
With Owen Farrell an injury doubt for the first Test, England centre Ben Te'o produced the perfect audition to nail down the number 12 jersey.
The Worcester back was the visitors' most dangerous attacking threat, running for 70m in total and being able to break the gainline against a big, physical side.
His centre partner Jonathan Davies was another who excelled in the tricky conditions and both could start in midfield against the All Blacks.
Ireland half-backs Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton looked nailed on for the nine and 10 jerseys, while Halfpenny, with his metronomic kicking, will be hard to dislodge at 15.
While George Kruis looked one-dimensional in attack, his leadership of the line-out will be invaluable to Gatland, and Itoje's all-action game means he will surely start at lock.
Anthony Watson, despite being starved of possession, did enough to suggest he could start against the All Blacks, but doubts remain over North's form on the opposite wing.
Lions boss Warren Gatland: "It was pretty good. If you look at territory and possession we dominated things. A couple of stupid penalties in the first half but we managed the game well and squeezed the life out of them.
"We've been guilty of putting ourselves under pressure but we got some going forward - even the try they scored was a lucky, speculative kick through.
"We're benefiting from the experience of playing the quality of sides we are."
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Former Lions and England winger Ugo Monye
The Saturday team is unbeaten on tour and today's performance will have given them a huge shot of belief a week before the first Test. The fundamentals and foundations of the gameplan for the Lions were there for everyone to see, namely All Blacks boss Steve Hansen, who was an interested spectator in the stands.
Physicality, set-piece, line speed, work-rate and a top-notch kicking game are the hallmarks of a strong Gatland team, and these Lions are not going to deviate from what has brought him plenty of success before.
In saying all that, as impressive as tonight's victory was, you just know they'll have to be 10 or 20% better next weekend at least in order to win. Roll on next Saturday.
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Maori All Blacks: J Lowe; N Milner-Skudder, M Proctor, C Ngatai, R Ioane; D McKenzie, T Kerr-Barlow; K Hames, A Dixon (capt), B May, J Wheeler, T Franklin, A Ioane, E Dixon, L Messam.
Replacements: H Elliot, C Eves, M Renata, L Price, K Pryor, B Hall, I West, R Thompson.
Lions: L Halfpenny (Wales); A Watson (England), J Davies (Wales), B Te'o (England), G North (Wales); Sexton, C Murray (both Ireland); M Vunipola, J George (both England), T Furlong (Ireland), M Itoje, G Kruis (both England), P O'Mahony (capt), S O'Brien (both Ireland), T Faletau (Wales).
Replacements: K Owens (Wales), J McGrath (Ireland), K Sinckler (England), I Henderson (Ireland), S Warburton (Wales), G Laidlaw (Scotland), D Biggar (Wales), E Daly (England). | The British and Irish Lions gained a confidence-boosting win as their power told against the Maori All Blacks in wet conditions in Rotorua. |
33,341,648 | Media playback is unsupported on your device
1 July 2015 Last updated at 09:03 BST
The pair, from Sutton Coldfield, were found clinging to derelict Birnbeck Pier near Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday.
Helmsman Terry Wells said the "very rapidly" flowing water could have put them in "serious danger" and advised the public not to swim in the channel. | The RNLI has warned of the danger of swimming in sea after two people were rescued from the Bristol Channel. |
33,758,293 | "Vengeance can wipe out an entire generation," he said, in an address to the nation on Sunday, urging calm.
A presidential spokesman told the BBC it was too early to blame anyone for the killing of Gen Adolphe Nshimirimana in a rocket and gun attack on his car.
Mr Nkurunziza won a third term last month, amid deadly protests over his decision to run for office again.
Opponents argued this contravened the constitution and there was a failed coup attempt in May.
"Adolphe Nshimirimana was the regime's number two, not officially, but unofficially. This assassination is a very serious blow to Burundi's government," International Crisis Group analyst Thierry Vircoulon told BBC Afrique.
The attackers reportedly targeted the general's car with machine guns and rocket launchers in the Kamenge district of the capital Bujumbura.
Presidential spokesperson Gerve Abehayo rejected suggestions that the attack could have been carried out by elements within Burundi's own security apparatus, after witnesses reported four men in military uniform spraying the general's car with bullets.
"The government is not losing support... the army remains strong and united... one general was killed, but this does not mean the whole military has been wiped out of this country," he told the BBC's Newsday programme.
President Nkurunziza has called for an investigation into the general's killing to be concluded within a week.
The African Union, European Union and the US have all condemned the attack, with AU chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma describing it as a "barbaric act that is likely to further destabilise the country".
Prominent Burundian journalist Esdras Ndikumana, who works for AFP news agency and Radio France Internationale (RFI), says he was detained by intelligence officers and badly beaten after trying to take photos at the scene of the attack.
More than 70 people have been killed since the unrest began in April, and 180,000 have fled the country, according to the UN refugee agency.
Mr Nkurunziza came to power in 2005, after 300,000 were killed in a 12-year conflict between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis. | Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has warned against vengeance following the assassination of a senior general. |
39,244,890 | Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly warned a fresh vote is "highly likely".
But Scottish Labour Kezia Dugdale has said her party would oppose any attempt to hold a referendum.
However, Mr Corbyn told the Press Association it was not the job of Labour "to prevent people holding referenda".
Senior Scottish Labour figures have strongly condemned Mr Corbyn - with the party's justice spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, describing his comments as "misguided and irresponsible".
She added: "They are an insult to the dedicated work of Scottish Labour MSPs, councillors, and thousands of activists who have campaigned against a divisive second referendum."
Labour's only MP in Scotland, Ian Murray, tweeted that Mr Corbyn was "destroying the party" - but Ms Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister and SNP leader, tweeted that it was "always a pleasure to have Jeremy Corbyn campaigning in Scotland".
Mr Corbyn's remarks come amid speculation that Ms Sturgeon is about to demand a Section 30 order from Westminster, allowing another legally binding vote on Scotland's place in the UK to be held.
Prime Minister Theresa May has so far avoided saying whether or not she would grant permission - instead saying only that she does not believe a second referendum should be held.
Mr Corbyn suggested he did not think Westminster should seek to block a referendum, and was quoted by PA as saying that Labour "wouldn't block it".
He added: "If a referendum is held then it is absolutely fine, it should be held. I don't think it's the job of Westminster or the Labour Party to prevent people holding referenda."
He also stressed the importance of the economic ties between Scotland and the rest of the UK, and on the issue of further devolution stressed any new powers transferred north as a result of Brexit should go further than just Holyrood.
Mr Corbyn said: "I do think we should set it within the context of the economic relationship with the rest of the UK and the question of devolution of EU to English regions and to Scotland, and to parts of Scotland rather than just to the government in Holyrood.
"The principle of regionalism is it goes to everybody within a region, not just to the central powers and the SNP have a bit of a tendency to centralise things around themselves."
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn later told the BBC: "Jeremy reaffirmed our position today that if the Scottish Parliament votes for a referendum, it would be wrong for Westminster to block it.
"Labour continues to oppose a further referendum in the Scottish Parliament and would campaign against independence if one were held."
Mr Corbyn was speaking ahead of a speech to Labour's economic conference in Glasgow.
His comments appeared to echo those of former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who told the Herald newspaper that it would be "very difficult for any government of any composition in London to try and impose a fatwa on any move towards a referendum, if that was something which was being pushed, however unwelcome that is."
However, Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie told ITV Borders that the party would vote against a referendum in both Holyrood and Westminster.
SNP MSP Stuart McMillan said Mr Clegg and Mr Corbyn had "both recognised the Scottish government's cast-iron democratic mandate for a second independence referendum if that is the chosen route to protect our national interests."
He added: "This was a specific manifesto commitment on which the SNP was re-elected just 10 months ago.
"Scotland voted clearly and decisively to remain in the EU: not for an economically disastrous Tory hard Brexit outside the Single Market, and yet Lib Dem and Labour MSPs will happily sit on their hands and let that happen.
"It's embarrassing that Lib Dem and Labour in Holyrood want to deny Scotland the opportunity to avoid a damaging hard Tory Brexit while Corbyn and Clegg agree that it would be wrong to block Scotland having a choice on our future if that is what is needed."
Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said: "Jeremy Corbyn clearly doesn't understand that most people in Scotland don't want another divisive referendum.
"A second referendum on independence should not take take place and, unlike Mr Corbyn, the Scottish Conservatives will not support the SNP in making it any easier to take place.
"The less he says on this issue, the better." | Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said that another referendum on Scottish independence would be "absolutely fine". |
35,100,977 | As one of the dance house's associate choreographers, and a local north London resident, Bourne is a familiar face at the leading venue. But at Christmas, he is the star of the show.
From Cinderella to Edward Scissorhands, a Bourne ballet has been the highlight of the Sadler's Wells Christmas bill for more than a decade - so much so he's been dubbed "Mr Christmas" by some.
This year he is presenting Sleeping Beauty. Despite Bourne's Santa pseudonym, though, there is very little that is Christmassy about his work.
He's made the well-known Tchaikovsky classic feel contemporary with his trademark fast-paced choreography - and completely new with the "shock" element of a gothic vampire twist.
Here the crowd-pleaser tells us about the importance of the audience, his love of a great story and his future plans.
How do you feel about being called "Mr Christmas"?
I've never seen myself as a Father Christmas figure, but I understand it sounds good although we're only in London over Christmas. We do 26 to 28 other venues in the rest of the year.
There are certain shows you can do at Christmas and others you can't, including at least half my repertoire. But anything with a fairy-tale background tends to work.
Do you feel the epithet encourages accusations from purists and the press of "dumbing down" for the sake of ticket sales?
I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the audiences that keep coming. Over the years their loyalty around the country has been brilliant.
There is a sense the critics want to take me down a peg or two because we are so much more successful than any other dance company in this country, in terms of numbers and the amount of shows. But they have come along with me over the years, so a lot of them accept me more now.
How have you experienced the effect of your work?
The other night I met a couple who hadn't seen much dance but had seen my Swan Lake and loved it so come back to see Sleeping Beauty. They said they'd been in tears 10 minutes in. It's lovely to hear. There's a level at which the public experience a piece that a critic just can't.
Is there also a freedom that comes from your status as a dance "maverick"?
Every company wants to please the public, but we can do it on a much wider scale as we are not tied to tradition. I do want the balletomanes and the critics to be happy and to understand how much I love these pieces and that I am telling the story in a different way.
Over the years, the standard of dancing in my company has gone up considerably. All our production standards are high, so if there is any criticism it can't be made on that level.
A lot of those you've worked with have described you as "generous".
I love audiences and in my own world of dance, where I've been now for a long time, I love promoting young dancers and choreographers so that's where I am generous. I don't see the point of making work if you're not thinking about the audience and if they are not reacting to it, I will keep on until they do.
I want my dancers to be generous with the audience. Curtain calls are very important. They smile and look genuine and are saying "thank you for coming". I want people to love the company and want to come back.
Do you tinker with productions for each new performance?
A lot, sometimes every day. We've done this show almost 330 times, but even earlier this month we put new things in. There are always new ideas. Fans of the company, who book for two shows over the weekend - yes, they really do that - know they are going to get something different.
What's different about your choreography and your overall production style?
My choreography always serves the show, the period I've set it in and the style. It's always about narrative, character and stories and it's acrobatic. Costumes look like they come from film rather than being dance-adapted because we want the audience to relate to the scene.
We'll sometimes use normal shoes or even bare feet to make it look appropriate to the period and the choice of dancers is important too. They need to be faces you can relate to.
People expect to see something spectacular and that's also what I enjoy; I want people to go "wow". On stage, even simple things people love, like just dropping confetti. It's delightful.
Aren't you tempted to do a show that is pared-down and simple?
I do think about it from time to time. I love the simplicity of things sometimes. I'd like to do something that is completely dancer-led about space and light.
It would have to be an experiment as I don't want to lose the audience. My job is to make pieces work and make them accessible for a modern audience, not just a ballet audience.
You love a great story but you always want to change a classic. Why?
If the audience didn't know the story, as of course they do with Sleeping Beauty, I'd have to spell it out but this way allows me to be creative within the existing structure. Everyone gets it but then you can surprise them.
I set Cinderella within the Blitz of World War Two to make it completely new and exciting, but the basic premise of the bad relations and out-of-reach love is infinitely transferable. With Sleeping Beauty, it just wasn't a very good story - Tchaikovsky's music is the attraction.
You've clearly got a vivid imagination so why don't you write your own original stories - or even a book?
It comes from years of watching lots of movies and plays; my head is full of imagery. But I feel I do write my own stories already. I write my scenarios like stories because it has to make sense to me and marry well to the music. You have to justify going off on a tangent. Every story ever written is based on previous stories.
Do you have a favourite among the work you've produced?
You need to love them all and want to do them again. Swan Lake changed my life and I am grateful: it made me well-known around the world, it was a news story rather than just an arts story. It wasn't my intention at all, though, and I was completely taken aback.
I believed in the idea - bringing in male swans since they do naturally exist but everyone assumes they should be female. It took a while to get used to, the success, the awards, the long run in the West End. It did huge things for us but put us back at first.
How did your upbringing influence you?
I grew up in north London and there was nothing in our household that you would call high-brow entertainment. I had to find a way to see a lot of things. I went to see an opera and ballet in my late teens as self-education.
My parents and I went to a lot of West End musicals and I loved it, but they didn't know ballet so when I got into it, they did too. So I reciprocated the education.
They were incredibly supportive and luckily lived long enough to see great things happen to me, such as going to Broadway and Los Angeles - they met lots of old movie stars and had a great time.
Your productions are performed all over the world. How is the reception different from country to country?
It varies a lot and that fascinates me, but that also applies from town to town in this country. Outside the UK, there are a lot of differences: humour and some themes can be a problem.
In Russia homosexuality is a problem, especially when it comes to keeping backers on side. We have done Swan Lake but they were worried about the gay element in The Car Man. They were okay with Dorian Gray as they said it was literature, which was odd to me.
Some audiences are very vocal, some very quiet. In Japan they are very silent but at the end you have to bow a lot - to the point of being embarrassing.
What's next?
I'm working on a new show for next year, brand new. I'm sworn to secrecy at the moment. But it will be opening in Plymouth and then Manchester. It's a fairly well-known story, I can say that, but I'm running out of titles.
Sleeping Beauty is at Sadler's Wells in London until 24 January. | Choreographer Matthew Bourne - known for his modern takes on such ballet classics as Swan Lake - is where we've come to expect him at this time of year: ensconced within the walls of London's Sadler's Wells. |
31,600,476 | The men were travelling by bus from Iran when they were seized in Zabul province, on the road to Kabul.
No group has said it carried out the abductions. Kidnappings for ransom are common in Afghanistan.
Unlike in Pakistan, Afghan Hazaras, who are mostly Shia Muslims, have been largely spared attacks by Sunni militants operating in both countries.
Eyewitnesses say gunmen wearing masks and black clothes forced a convoy of two buses to stop in Zabul, on the road between Kandahar and the capital, on Monday night.
The gunmen took money and phones from the Hazara men before driving them away, one bus passenger told BBC Persian.
"Their faces were covered and they were wearing military clothes."
He said he and another man had been left behind because the gunmen had no room for them in their vehicles.
"After five minutes police arrived. We could still see [the kidnappers]. We told the police and showed them to the police - they said they would find them but didn't chase them."
The gunmen took 30 men away but left behind women and children.
The passengers had travelled from Iran, via the western Afghan city of Herat.
District Governor Abdul Khaliq Ayoubi blamed the Taliban for the attack, Afghanistan's Tolo News reported.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said police were "doing everything to ensure their safe release".
Though tensions exist between Afghanistan's Sunni and minority Shia Muslims, most attacks in Afghanistan in recent years have targeted government officials or international forces, correspondents say.
An exception to this was an attack on a Shia mosque in Kabul in 2011 which killed 55 people.
Foreign troops ended their combat role in Afghanistan in December but some have remained in the country to support the Afghan military.
The nation still faces a bloody Taliban insurgency and US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said on Saturday that Washington was considering slowing its troop withdrawal as a result.
There are also fears that the influence of IS could be growing in Afghanistan, though Mr Carter said "the reports I've seen still have them in small numbers". | Masked gunmen in southern Afghanistan have abducted 30 men from the Hazara ethnic minority, officials say. |
17,907,947 | The end of the Union of Serbia and Montenegro marked the closing chapter in the history of the separation of the six republics of the old Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia which was proclaimed in 1945 and comprised Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.
Under Yugoslavia's authoritarian communist leader, Josip Broz Tito, the lid was kept on ethnic tensions. The federation lasted for over 10 years after his death in 1980, but under Serbian nationalist leader Slobodan Milosevic it fell apart through the 1990s.
The secession of Slovenia and Macedonia came relatively peacefully, but there were devastating wars in Croatia and Bosnia. Serbia and Montenegro together formed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1992 and 2003.
Population 9.8 million (UN, 2012, includes Kosovo; UN mission estimates Kosovo population as circa 2 million)
Area 88,361 sq km (34,116 sq miles) (includes Kosovo)
Major language Serbian
Major religion Christianity
Life expectancy 72 years (men), 77 years (women)
Currency Dinar
President: Tomislav Nikolic
Pro-EU nationalist Tomislav Nikolic beat the liberal Democratic Party incumbent Boris Tadic in the second round of the presidential election of 2012, confounding expectations.
Mr Nikolic founded the Progressive Party in 2008 as a break-away from the hard-line nationalist and anti-Nato Radical Party, in order to move closer to the centre ground, adopt a pro-EU course and distance nationalists from associations with the Milosevic era of war crimes and xenophobia.
The new party campaigned against unemployment, inflation and corruption to become the largest party at parliamentary elections in May 2012, building on this to achieve Mr Nikolic's win in the presidential vote a few weeks later.
Prime minister: Aleksandar Vucic
Aleksandar Vucic became prime minister after his pro-EU nationalist Progressive Party won a landslide victory in early parliamentary elections in March 2014.
On coming to power, Mr Vucic pledged a radical overhaul of Serbia's ailing economy and an accelerated drive towards EU membership.
The reforms would include squeezing the public sector, reforming the budget, privatising state-owned companies and expanding the private sector.
The new prime minister won popularity by promising to combat endemic corruption and widespread hardship.
He called early elections in April 2016, seeking a renewed mandate to push through the reforms required to join the EU, and again won a comfortable majority.
Television is, by far, the main source of news and information. The flagship public network, RTS1, is among a handful of outlets that dominate the market.
There are more than 90 TV channels and the average viewer spends more than five hours a day watching television, the highest figure in Europe.
Six TV stations are licensed to broadcast nationally; 30 have regional licences. The national TV broadcasters attract around 70 per cent of the audience.
RTS1 is the most popular channel in Serbia, attracting up to a quarter of the audience and providing strong competition for commercial stations, including leading commercial network TV Pink.
Some key dates in Serbia's history:
1389 - Serb nobility decimated in battle of Kosovo Polje as Ottoman Empire expands.
15th - 18th centuries - Serbia absorbed by Ottoman Empire.
1817 - Serbia becomes autonomous principality.
1878 - Serbian independence recognised by international treaties.
1918 - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes formed after World War I.
1929 - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
1945 - Together with Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro, Serbia becomes one of republics in new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito.
1980 - Tito dies.
1989 - Slobodan Milosevic becomes President of Serbia.
1991 - Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia break away from Yugoslavia.
1992 - Montenegro and Serbia form Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Rising nationalist and independence aspirations bring bloody conflict with Croats and Bosnian Muslims. UN imposes sanctions.
1995 - Dayton accords bring end to Bosnian war. Sanctions lifted.
1997 - Milosevic becomes Yugoslav president.
1998-99 - Kosovo crisis. Serb crackdown on separatists in Kosovo prompts thousands of ethnic Albanians to flee and Nato to intervene militarily. President Milosevic agrees to withdraw forces from Kosovo, which becomes UN protectorate but remains de jure part of Serbia.
2002 - Trial of Slobodan Milosevic on charges of genocide and war crimes begins in The Hague.
2006 - Milosevic found dead in his cell in The Hague.
2006 - Montenegro votes in a referendum to separate from Serbia and declares independence.
2013 - Serbia and Kosovo sign landmark agreement on normalising relations.
2014 - EU membership talks begin | Serbia became a stand-alone sovereign republic in the summer of 2006 after Montenegro voted in a referendum for independence from the Union of Serbia and Montenegro. |
39,059,988 | Richard Spencer's removal from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) came as one of the organisers attacked his views.
Dan Schneider called the alt-right "a sinister organisation that is trying to worm its way into our ranks".
"They are anti-Semites. They are racists," he said.
"They are not an extension of conservatism. They are nothing but garden-variety, left-wing fascists," Mr Schneider continued in Thursday's speech, titled The Alt Right Ain't Right At All.
As he was speaking, Mr Spencer got up from his seat and left the conference hall.
"They are not a part of us," said Mr Schneider, of the American Conservative Union.
Afterwards, during a nearly hour-long briefing with reporters in the hallway, Mr Spencer said he had paid money to attend the annual gathering outside Washington, and that his anti-minority views are "clearly resonating with people".
He condemned Mr Schneider's speech as "totally stupid", and in a tweet paraphrased a Mahatma Gandhi quote: "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."
As he was talking to reporters, a security guard approached to escort him from the conference.
Shortly after the election of Donald Trump, who Mr Spencer supports, he came to Washington where he led an alt-right gathering in making Nazi salutes while chanting: "Heil Trump!"
He was also punched in the face during protests that shook the US capital in the days after Mr Trump's inauguration as US president. | The leader of the so-called alt-right movement, a movement accused of racism and anti-Semitism, has been asked to leave a conservative event. |
36,789,688 | He told me when Mr Hammond was shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, the MP for Runnymede and Weybridge did "a lot of the heavy lifting" when it came to working out the Conservative plan for tackling the UK's economic challenges.
Cut the deficit and shrink public sector expenditure was the route alighted upon.
At the time a fiscal hawk of the George Osborne variety - and a big fan of the European Union single market to boot - Mr Hammond is going to have to find a new tone.
Theresa May has signalled a looser approach to borrowing to mitigate any effects of a post-Brexit economic downturn.
And membership of the single market versus a clampdown on free movement of people will be the defining battle of Britain's departure from the EU.
Mr Hammond will be a pivotal player.
As he will on whether Heathrow or Gatwick - or anywhere - gets the go-ahead for a new runway.
Or if the planned new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point continues to receive the government's support.
All eyes will be on his first big Parliamentary outing - the Autumn Statement later in the year.
By then he will have seen the first forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility on the state of the public finances post the referendum.
What will his approach be to tax and spending given many economists believe the next few months will be challenging?
And how will the former Foreign Secretary signal that he is not Mr Osborne Mark II?
Mrs May clearly wants some fresh thinking. | Speaking to a senior figure in the banking world this morning, he had nothing but praise for Philip Hammond, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. |
25,749,308 | A 12th person arrested - a Christian - would be tried under secular law, a BBC reporter says.
Under Islamic law, a person can be sentenced to death by stoning if convicted of homosexuality.
It is also illegal to have gay sex in Nigeria, according to its secular laws.
Earlier this month, President Goodluck Jonathan signed a parliamentary bill which tightens laws against homosexuals, banning same-sex marriages, gay groups and shows of same-sex public affection.
The new legislation applies across Nigeria, affecting all citizens.
Most states in the predominantly Muslim north of Nigeria have adopted Islamic law, known as Sharia, since the end of military rule in 1999.
Nigeria is a deeply conservative country, with an influential Christian evangelical movement in the south and strong support for Islamic law among many Muslims in the north.
Hostility towards gay people has escalated since parliament debated the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act last year, Dorothy Aken'Ova, a rights activist with the Nigeria-based International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, told the BBC.
She said that she was aware of 38 people being arrested in Bauchi state last month, and was trying to confirm reports of more arrests in both the north and south of Nigeria since the new law was approved.
"What this act is saying is that they [gay people] do not deserve to exist," she told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme.
"It is heartbreaking that we have come to this point in Nigeria."
Jibrin Danlami Hassan, the commissioner of Bauchi state's Sharia Commission, said the alleged homosexuals were arrested by residents of Bauchi city.
They were handed to the Islamic police force, which interrogated them, he said.
"They accept that they are doing that dirty game," Mr Hassan said.
Ms Aken'Ova said some of those arrested had been beaten up and tortured, but Mr Hassan denied this.
The BBC's Ishaq Khalid in Bauchi says the Sharia Commission confirmed to him that a Christian had been arrested with the 11 Muslims, and would be tried in a "conventional court".
The Muslims could be sentenced to death by stoning if they are convicted, but the court would decide, Mr Hassan said.
Several stoning sentences have been handed down by Sharia courts in northern Nigeria since 1999; however, none have so far been carried out.
The UK, US and UN human rights chief Navi Pillay have condemned Nigeria's Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act as discriminatory and draconian.
Mr Hassan said told the BBC he was "happy" that Mr Jonathan had signed it into law, despite threats by Western powers to cut aid to Nigeria.
"The threat they are doing cannot make us change our religion," he said. | An Islamic court in Nigeria's northern state of Bauchi has put on trial 11 Muslim men accused of being homosexuals in violation of their religion, a religious leader has told the BBC. |
37,804,844 | But Social Services Minister Rebecca Evans said it was important to first give other policies the "chance to bed in and have an impact".
Campaigners and charities have called on the government to introduce an Autism Bill in the assembly.
Similar legislation has been passed in England and Northern Ireland.
With the exception of Labour, every major party included a commitment to introduce such a law in their manifesto for May's assembly election.
Speaking to Sunday Politics, Social Services and Public Health Minister Rebecca Evans, said: "We are keeping an open mind as to whether there's a need for a specific piece of legislation for autism in future.
"But at the moment it's actually a really exciting time in terms of the services and support that we offer people with autism in Wales because we have the Social Service and Wellbeing Act, just six months old, and that's intended to transform the way that we deliver services and support for people who have care and support needs, whatever their condition might be."
She pointed to the government's integrated autism service, which she said would look at whether any "gaps" might require new legislation, and the "door is open to it".
However, she added: "We don't see the need to introduce a specific piece of legislation at this time."
Louise Quinn-Flipping, from Swansea, whose sons Mason, four, and Logan, six have autism, supports the proposal for an Autism Bill.
She said: "In the beginning it was really hard, you literally get a diagnosis and you get handed a book - "This is autism" - and sent on your way with nothing. You're on your own.
"It's really isolating and it was actually quite depressing. You see all the differences in your child and then you see other people's children and you think 'my children should be doing that' and 'my kid's not'.
"In Wales, at the moment, it's currently a postcode lottery really. It depends where you live as what services you can access and how good those services are."
Source: National Autistic Society Cymru
Ms Quinn-Flipping was in the Senedd earlier this month to listen to a debate brought forward by the Welsh Conservatives calling on the government to introduce an Autism Bill.
However, the motion was defeated because Labour AMs and Liberal Democrat Kirsty Williams voted against it.
BBC Wales understands Education Secretary Ms Williams is due to meet local autism campaigners to discuss the issue on Monday.
Wales was the first country in the world to introduce an autism strategy back in 2008.
Earlier this year, a new national autism service was launched in an attempt to improve the lives of autistic people in Wales.
But the National Autistic Society Cymru thinks an Autism Act is still needed.
Meleri Thomas, the charity's external affairs manager, said: "Ultimately we've had the strategy since 2008. People are still not getting the right services, they're not getting the right diagnosis, or a timely diagnosis, so I think there's only one way to go." | The "door is very much open" for the introduction of a law to guarantee the rights of autistic people in Wales, the Welsh Government has said. |
39,665,244 | People were delighted when online access was restored in both regions on Thursday at around 19:00 GMT, a BBC correspondent in Bamenda reports.
Before the ban, authorities had warned mobile phone users they faced jail for spreading false information.
Communications and the economy were badly affected by the shutdown.
Anglophone Cameroonians make up about 20% of the country's 23 million people. The other regions of the country are predominately French-speaking.
Excited groups gathered in the city centre to share the news with each other on Thursday night, as passing cars honked their horns in celebration.
Students, those working in the financial sector, and businesses who sell products online say they suffered hugely during the ban.
Cyber-cafes which were forced to close are now reopening.
My own work and family life were affected.
I had to make a four-hour round trip to a neighbouring region every time I wanted to send radio reports to my editors.
There are those who see this as the first step towards resolving tensions between the government and the Anglophone community.
Some are encouraging their friends to be less outspoken on social media to avoid another shutdown.
But others are still angry and say the release of three leaders of the Anglophone protests and 30 others who are still detained should be the priority.
Prominent Cameroonian entrepreneur Rebecca Enonchong welcomed the news on Twitter, using the #BringBackOurInternet hashtag, which had been employed by many to pressure the government to lift the ban.
Others celebrated being able to use social media once more:
Workers in Cameroon's tech hub, known as Silicon Mountain, had to relocate to areas where the internet was still available.
Anglophone Cameroonians in the North-West and South-West regions had been protesting over marginalisation and the imposition of French in their schools and courts.
Announcing the lifting of the ban, the government said it reserved the right to "take measures to stop the internet once again becoming a tool to stoke hatred and division among Cameroonians". | Internet services in Cameroon's English-speaking regions have been turned back on three months after they were cut off following protests. |
36,401,150 | The group says new findings about the virus make it "unethical" for the games to go ahead in an open letter to the World Health Organization.
They call on the WHO to revisit its guidance on Zika, which is linked to serious birth defects.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in May it sees no reason to delay or move the games due to Zika.
The outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease began in Brazil a year ago, but now more than 60 countries and territories have continuing transmission.
While Zika's symptoms are mild, in the letter the experts say it causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and may also cause a rare and sometimes fatal neurological syndrome in adults.
The letter is signed by 150 international scientists, doctors and medical ethicists from such institutions as Oxford University and Harvard and Yale universities in the United States.
They cite the failure of a mosquito-eradication programme in Brazil, and the country's "weakened" health system as reasons to postpone or move the Olympics in "the name of public health".
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"An unnecessary risk is posed when 500,000 foreign tourists from all countries attend the Games, potentially acquire that strain, and return home to places where it can become endemic," the letter says.
The biggest risk, it adds, is if athletes contracted the virus and returned home to poor countries that had not yet suffered a Zika outbreak.
They also express concern the WHO has a conflict of interest through its partnership with the IOC.
The Rio Olympics take place between 5-21 August.
The WHO, which has declared the Zika virus a global public health emergency, is yet to comment on the letter.
Several public health experts had previously warned that having hundreds of thousands of people arriving in Rio will speed up Zika's spread and lead to the births of brain-damaged babies.
But on Thursday, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose advice is quoted approvingly in the letter, said the threat did not warrant halting the games.
"There is no public health reason to cancel or delay the Olympics," Dr Tom Frieden said.
He however urged the US to act more quickly to prevent pregnant women contracting Zika, amid congressional deadlock over the release of $1.9bn (£1.3bn) in funding. | More than 100 leading scientists say the Rio Olympics should be moved or postponed over the Zika outbreak. |
40,115,716 | Future reefs will be defined by corals able to adapt to rapidly changing ecosystems, according to a paper published in the journal Nature.
In April, surveys showed two-thirds of Australia's Great Barrier Reef had been severely bleached within two years.
Governments can sustain reefs with immediate action, the researchers said.
Lead author Prof Terry Hughes, from James Cook University, said he was optimistic that reefs would exist into the next century.
"But the reefs of the future are going to look quite different," he told the BBC.
"Restoring things to what they used to be is no longer tenable. There will be a different mix of species."
However, annual bleaching in many locations by 2050 was likely if emissions continued on their current trajectory, the scientists said.
Future sustainability would rely on significant shifts in how reefs were managed.
This would involve international co-operation, such as with the Paris climate deal, but also policy co-ordination at a national level.
The researchers said coral species had shown capacity to adapt rapidly on a huge scale, something they described as "an asset".
"When bleaching happens it changes the mix of species," Prof Hughes said.
"There are so-called winners and losers."
If normal conditions return, then corals could recover, but it may take decades.
"If you tell somebody that something is doomed, they are likely to give up on it," Prof Hughes said.
"There is hope for reefs, but there is a narrow window of opportunity to deal with global warming. The sooner we enact the transition to zero net carbon emissions, the better." | The world's coral reefs can be saved by addressing climate change but they will not resemble those of the past, a new study has said. |
39,726,171 | A new city-based eight-team tournament has been given the go-ahead to start in 2020.
Glamorgan was one of 15 first-class counties that voted in support of staging the proposed competition.
"We firmly believe that it is the only way in which we're going to generate a new audience," said O'Brien.
He continued: "The reality is that [cricket's] audience is getting smaller and smaller and more and more elderly by the day
"Unless we can engage a new generation of cricket lovers of any form of the game, cricket will simply disappear."
The proposals were approved by 38 of the 41 England and Wales Cricket Board members, with Essex and Middlesex were the only two counties to vote against the proposals, while Kent abstained.
O'Brien thinks the new tournament would be successful in attracting new fans to the sport.
"You're going to get best versus the best. I mean, you will be getting three overseas players per team and they are going to be the best overseas players," O'Brien added.
"If you see [Chris] Gayle and {AB} de Villiers performing the way they're performing at the moment in the Big Bash and IPL when you could turn up to the Swalec Stadium you are going to turn up.
"It's the equivalent of going to watch [Lionel] Messi or Gareth Bale. That is going to be an important part of it."
O'Brien said he recognises the "traditionalists' point of view" and that those who enjoy the longer form of the game "feel threatened by T20."
But he added that a city-based Twenty20 tournament "could rescue the game in the long form."
"If we can engage this new generation of kids that pick up the cricket bat and ball, some of them will be told that they are white ball, short-form cricketers and others are going to be told you're actually better off in the longer form of the game," O'Brien said.
O'Brien, Glamorgan chairman since 2011, believes Cardiff would be an ideal host for one of the teams if the tournament goes ahead.
"I think we're ready, we're set up, we have the facilities, we are a city centre, we are a capital city and we've got a great track record.
"We will be pressing the ECB very hard that we should be one of the venues."
"There are various meetings taking place at the ECB over the next couple of months to get stuck into the detail so there's a long way to go before we have the final terms of the tournament." | Glamorgan chairman Barry O'Brien believes a city-based Twenty20 tournament is "the only way" to stop domestic cricket from disappearing. |
35,793,622 | The 41-year-old victim died in hospital after the crash, which happened near Windermere Avenue, Burnley, at about 14:23 GMT on Friday.
The collision occurred after a BMW 335 turned into Blacker Street, where a Yamaha 600cc motorcycle was travelling in the opposite direction, police said.
Lancashire Police is appealing for anyone who may have seen either vehicle before the collision to contact them. | A motorcyclist has died after a collision with a car in Lancashire. |
36,968,962 | A gold medal in the race gives an athlete global recognition. Breaking the world record over the distance ensures sporting immortality.
American Donald Lippincott and Czech Marie Mejzlikova were the first, with Jamaica's Usain Bolt and Florence Griffith-Joyner of the United States the current holders of the crown.
Before the 2016 Games in Rio, at which Bolt and compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will defend the 100m titles they won in London four years ago, BBC Sport presents a chronological history of world records in the event, showing each time it has been broken and when.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | The 100m is arguably the Olympic Games' most iconic event. |
33,862,449 | Conley Thompson died after entering a vertical pipe on the construction site near his home in Worsbrough on 26 July.
His body was found the following day after a search involving 50 police officers. His death is not being treated as suspicious.
Hundreds of mourners lined the streets around St Thomas and St James' Church, Worsbrough to pay their respects.
They were asked to wear bright colours and superhero t-shirts in Conley's memory.
The youngster's coffin arrived at the church in a white horse drawn carriage and a dove was released at the end of the service.
An appeal launched to help pay for the funeral raised £2,890.
A little boy arrived at church in a white coffin, emblazoned with superheroes. A large green fist of the Hulk on the coffin stood out, its impact never more strong as it was today.
Carrying the coffin was a white carriage drawn by two white horses - on any other day it would have seemed bizarre to see Spider Man sitting next to the driver, but today it was perfect.
The superhero theme of the funeral was adopted by many of the hundreds of people who turned out to line the streets.
His family said they have to somehow come to terms with his loss. Unthinkable for anyone, and given his age, all the more laden will their hearts be.
Conley was reported missing about four hours after leaving his home in Underwood Avenue.
South Yorkshire Police is continuing to piece together his last known movements.
His family said: "To describe Conley you would have to say he was cheeky, mischievous and loud, but also loving and caring, with a heart of gold.
"As with most boys his age, Conley lived life large and loud, with a zest for adventure and curiosity." | The funeral of a seven-year-old boy who died on a building site near Barnsley has been held. |
38,440,283 | Colombian officials said there was no technical failure and blamed the pilot, the airline and Bolivian regulators.
A recording had already indicated the aircraft had run out of fuel.
The plane, operated by Bolivian company LaMia, plunged into a mountainside near Medellin. Only six people survived.
Preliminary results of the Colombian investigation said the pilot failed to refuel en route and was too late in reporting engine failures caused by the lack of fuel.
Colombia's Secretary for Air Safety, Col Freddy Bonilla, also said that aviation authorities in Bolivia and the airline accepted conditions presented in the flight plan that were "unacceptable".
"No technical factor was part of the accident, everything involved human error, added to a management factor in the company's administration and the management and organisation of the flight plans by the authorities in Bolivia," he told journalists.
The plane was also over its weight limit by nearly 400kg (62 stone) and was not certified to fly at the altitude at which the trip took place, Col Bonilla added.
The conclusion, officials said, came from the plane's flight recorders and other evidence. A Bolivian investigation had already blamed the pilot and the airline for the accident.
LaMia's chief executive, Gustavo Vargas Gamboa, and his son, Gustavo Vargas Villegas, a former official with Bolivia's aviation authority, had already been detained pending trial. They deny any wrongdoing.
The pilot, Miguel Quiroga, who was also a co-owner of the airline, died in the crash. In a leaked tape, he can be heard warning of a "total electric failure" and "lack of fuel".
The aircraft had been transporting Chapecoense to the biggest game in their history, the final of the Copa Sudamericana. | The plane crash that killed 71 people in Colombia last month, including dozens of players from Brazil's Chapecoense football team, was caused by human error, an investigation says. |
38,341,149 | null | A selection of the most striking news images from the African continent this year: |
39,378,305 | The WRU has confirmed it intends to take control of the region and buy Rodney Parade by 1 July.
But the deal has to be ratified by 75% Newport RFC shareholders, and Hazell is calling for them to back the plan.
"I am hopeful people see common sense. I would urge them to vote for the proposal," he told BBC Wales Sport.
The deal has been ratified by the boards of the WRU, Newport rugby club and the Dragons.
But without the backing of three quarters of the more than 1,000 rugby club shareholders, the deal cannot go ahead.
There is set to be an extraordinary general meeting in April and Hazell has warned of the dangers of the deal not going through.
"The details have to be explained to the supporters exactly how things are," he added.
"The ones I have spoken to don't like the thought of it but realise there is no alternative and will support it.
"The alternative is financial disaster and receivership. If you haven't got the money to pay the wages that would be that.
"It would be the end of 150 years of rugby at Rodney Parade. That would be a disaster."
The Dragons have been negotiating with the WRU over the takeover for the last six months.
"I find this a good deal after months of negotiations," said Hazell.
"We have handed over Rodney Parade and the Newport Gwent Dragons to the Welsh Rugby Union.
"They are going to put some money into the pitch, take over the running of the Dragons and give Newport the chance of staying at Rodney Parade.
"Regional rugby has not really worked for the last 14 years, but this is giving it a chance."
Hazell says he and fellow benefactor Tony Brown have kept the Dragons afloat over the last decade.
"Myself and Tony have given millions in some ways to try and keep rugby going at Rodney Parade," he added.
"Without us there wouldn't be any rugby here now, but we can't keep it going any longer, we are getting on in years.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"When people decry what we are doing I think that's disgraceful."
Hazell insisted the duo would not be able to recoup their overall debts from the new deal.
"The money the union are paying would just about cover the Dragons debts, it would not cover mine and Tony's debts," said Hazell.
"We have to keep it running until 1 July which is going to be difficult." | Newport Gwent Dragons chairman Martyn Hazell has warned there is no alternative to the Welsh Rugby Union's proposed takeover of the region. |
30,547,245 | Bassett Green Primary School in Honeysuckle Road is due to reopen after the Christmas holidays on 6 January.
In a letter to parents, headteacher Deb Sutton said the decision to close 380-pupil school was "not taken lightly" and that it was a "disappointing end to the Christmas festivities".
"We have had a very infectious sickness bug in school for the last two days," she said.
"Unfortunately, levels of sickness are now so high, that we need to close the school."
She said there will be a "deep clean of all affected areas" to "ensure that the building is safe" before pupils return. | A sickness bug has closed a primary school in Southampton. |
40,160,612 | Glen Scobbie also wrote a threat on the social media account of Mr Sheppard, who was a sitting MP at the time.
Scobbie's comment was posted on 21 September 2016 beneath a video of a speech by Mr Sheppard.
The 26-year-old, of Falkirk, will be sentenced later in June.
Falkirk Sheriff Court was told that Scobbie wrote "shoot the bastard" beside the pistol emojis.
The court heard that the speech had been "promoting the MP's political work".
Scobbie's post was noticed by an aide some time later, and drawn to Mr Sheppard's attention.
Depute fiscal Graham McLachlan said Mr Sheppard was "concerned" about the post and decided to report the matter to police.
Scobbie pleaded guilty by letter to making a "menacing" post, abusive in nature, and uttering a threat of violence, contrary to the 2003 Communications Act.
Sheriff Derek Livingston deferred sentence and ordained Scobbie to appear before him in person. | A man has admitted posting pistol emojis on SNP politician Tommy Sheppard's Facebook page three months after the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox. |
27,053,536 | Media playback is unsupported on your device
19 May 2014 Last updated at 16:49 BST
"No, no, no," Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher defiantly declared in the House of Commons amid calls for greater central control in Europe.
She was responding to a call by European Commission president Jacques Delors' for the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the European Community, the commission to be the executive and the Council of Ministers to be the senate.
The now infamous soundbite by the Conservative premier came during a time of increasing divisions within her party over the issue of Europe.
And it proved too much for Sir Geoffrey Howe who resigned from government two days later. Mrs Thatcher herself was ousted from Downing Street by her party a few days later. | This is part of a series of clips from the BBC archives on the subject of the UK and the EU - this clip taken from BBC News, was first broadcast on 30 October 1990. |
35,696,804 | So it comes as a surprise to discover that Ministers have quietly abandoned the idea of a formal consultation process in advance of a new drugs strategy later this month.
Traditionally, these five-year plans are put together after weeks of discussions and submissions from experts and the general public.
In 2010 there were 1,850 responses to the drug strategy consultation, including from health professionals, charities, lobby groups, local authorities, government advisors, police and service providers.
Individuals with a close interest in drug policy, often because of the death of a close relative, were also encouraged to participate.
But not this time.
The new five-year strategy has been written with hardly any public discussion at all. You won't find any details on the Home Office website. Nothing.
It is almost as though the department doesn't want to consider alternative options - which is odd because next month UK ministers will be attending the most important United Nations meeting on global drug strategy for decades.
The UN General Assembly will gather in New York to try and agree a new global drug policy.
It will decide whether the "war on drugs" should be consigned to history and a new people-centred approach adopted. In short, it is reviewing the international treaty obligations that will frame everything this country does on drugs.
So one might have thought ministers would be keen to get the views of everyone touched by drugs policy in Britain as they prepare for this historic United Nations meeting.
I understand that just two meetings specifically about the new UK drugs strategy have been held by the Home Office. They were behind closed doors and there were no votes, no reports and no minutes published.
Around the table were representatives of some of the large organisations that get paid by the government to provide drug treatment. But what about everyone else? Where were the other agencies? Where were the campaigners? Where were the victims?
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has been sent a draft of the new strategy and a response will be published. But members are doubtful as to whether the council's concerns at record levels of drug deaths and "disinvestment" in treatment services will have much effect on minister's minds.
The Cabinet Office recently published its "consultation principles", guidance for Whitehall on what kind of consultation process they should conduct ahead of introducing policy or legislation.
The "governing principle" is that the type and scale of the consultation should be in proportion to the potential impact of the proposal.
One must assume that in having no formal consultation process, the Home Office has decided the new drugs strategy will have little or no impact. Given record numbers of drug-related deaths in England, with many more people now dying from illicit drug use than in road traffic accidents, this might seem unfortunate. Interestingly, in Wales where they have a different strategy, deaths have been falling.
When I asked the Home Office about all this, their response suggested ministers don't think there is anything to be gained from listening to alternative voices.
"Drugs are illegal where they are harmful to health and society. The UK's approach on drugs remains clear: we must prevent drug use in our communities, help dependent individuals recover, while ensuring our drugs laws are enforced."
"We are currently developing a refreshed drug strategy in line with this approach - working across government and with our external partners. This includes treatment providers, commissioners, service users and our independent experts, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs."
There you have it. Britain doesn't need a "new" drugs strategy. It just needs to "refresh" the old one - presumably because ministers believe the current approach is operating well.
The Home Office puts out the same line whenever asked about alternative approaches: "Our drugs strategy is working and there is a long-term downward trend in drug misuse in the UK".
But while the second half of the sentence is true, there must be questions about the first half. On an average day, coroners now examine six corpses where cause of death could be described as the failure of the UK's drugs strategy. | With deaths from illegal drugs in England and Wales at the highest rate ever recorded one might imagine the Home Office would be desperate to ensure it had a robust and effective strategy for dealing with this current crisis. |
34,570,563 | There was a giant papier mache version of the prime minister waving a "be afraid" sign, a group of placard-carrying Marxists and a small band of folk singers led by Tony Turner, who performed a song he penned for the election.
"Harperman, it's time for you to go," was the refrain.
Mr Harper, Turner says, "has undermined government in so many different ways".
And if the prime minister's Conservative party loses on Monday night?
"I'll crack open a bottle of champagne," Turner laughs.
But Mr Harper isn't going to go down without a fight. On Saturday night, he and fellow Conservatives offered some of the most pointed attacks on Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau and his plan to run a budget deficit and raise taxes on the wealthy to fund new spending.
Mr Trudeau and his fellow Liberals "will absolutely destroy this country," said Doug Ford, the former Toronto city councillor who hosted the Harper rally. He was joined by his his controversial brother, former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who infamously admitted to smoking crack cocaine in 2013.
Although Mr Harper had distanced himself from the Ford brothers in the past, their support in the final days of the campaign could be the key to winning closely contested parliamentary races in the suburbs of Toronto.
A black-track-suit-clad Rob Ford watched from the crowd as Mr Harper took the stage and wasted little time continuing the attack, explaining what he saw as the Liberal philosophy: "You make it, they'll take it, and they'll spend it".
He then brought out Sanjib Bhattacharya, who made headlines after mocking Mr Trudeau for having "nice hair" in a Conservative campaign commercial.
While Mr Harper detailed what he said were the high costs of Mr Trudeau's tax proposals, Bhattacharya handed over piles of money to the sound of a cash register clanging.
Mr Harper's sketch-comedy criticisms of Liberal economic policy go fist in glove with the closing theme of his campaign - that Mr Trudeau is "just not ready" to be prime minster, as Bhattacharya's television advert bluntly put it.
After the rally, Conservative supporters in attendance echoed that line of attack - although they did confess some unease.
"You hear the polls, and you hope they're all wrong," says Eli Kantor. "We can't have a Liberal government. Trudeau is just not ready."
Nelly Eiven says Mr Trudeau is a good drama teacher, referring to the Liberal leader's career before he followed in the political footsteps of his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. "But to run the country? I don't think so."
"I hope we win, but I feel that there were some mistakes made in the campaign and some of these things that they're bringing up now should have been brought up a little earlier," she continues.
And how are these themes playing out among a broader Canadian public that is less involved in the political process?
Earlier on Saturday, a crowd gathered in Toronto for a different reason - to watch a play-off baseball game between the home town Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals on a jumbo television screen set up in front of city hall.
Some attendees said they were more emotionally invested in who won the game than which political party triumphed in Monday's general election - but among those who cared, their allegiances were split.
"I think this election is more about change than who is ready," says Bryan Loubert of London, Ontario. "Maybe the real question should be; is Stephen Harper ready to continue for another four years?" Mr Loubert says he's voting for change.
Lisa Tiqui of Whitbey, Ontario says that while she thinks Mr Trudeau is ready to lead and she likes him personally, she's still leaning toward Mr Harper and the economic leadership he displayed during the 2008 global recession.
"I can't seem to get that out of my mind that Canada did so well during the bad times," she says.
Despite challenging poll numbers, could the Conservatives pull out an upset on Monday night? Eric Grenier, founder of the polling analysis website ThreeHundredEight.com, writes for CBC News that Mr Harper's closing gambit may still pay off.
Opinion surveys could be under-representing the prime minister's vote due to a "shy Tory" effect - where those polled are unwilling to express their true Conservative allegiances. John Major's surprising win in the 1992 UK general election is cited as a prime example of this phenomenon.
A well-funded Harper-backed get-out-the-vote campaign and Conservative-backing elderly voters who cast ballots in disproportionately high numbers could also prove decisive, he writes.
But if Mr Harper does accrue enough votes to win a plurality, he'll still likely have to confront a parliament where Liberal and left-leaning New Democratic Party MPs could unite to topple his government.
As Mr Harper left the stage on Saturday night, Collective Soul's song Better Now blared over the loudspeakers - an interesting choice that could be viewed as revealing a bit too much about the Conservative prime minister's closing strategy.
"Oh, I'm newly calibrated," the lyrics go. "All shiny and clean. I'm your recent adaptation. Time to redefine me."
But after nine years of Harper rule, it may be too late for redefinitions.
If there is a path to victory on Monday for the prime minister making his last stand, it will be a long and narrow one. | As Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper prepared to address a crowd of blue-clad, thunderstick-banging supporters gathered at a Conservative Party rally in a conference hall on the outskirts of Toronto Saturday night, a small band of protestors gathered in the near-freezing temperatures to offer him a different sort of welcome. |
38,821,868 | Krul, 28, was contracted to stay with the Amsterdammers until the end of the season but that move was cut short after just six games.
The Netherlands keeper has now moved to Alkmaar until the end of the season.
"It's fantastic we can get a keeper of Tim's qualities," AZ director of football affairs Max Huiberts said.
Krul's initial move to his native Netherlands was prompted by his recovery from a cruciate ligament injury to gain first-team football at top-tier level following Newcastle's relegation to the Championship.
Since making his debut in the Uefa Cup in 2006, the former Den Haag keeper has made 184 appearances in all competitions for Newcastle.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page or visit our Premier League tracker here. | Newcastle United goalkeeper Tim Krul has joined AZ Alkmaar on loan following the termination of his previous spell at Ajax. |
36,793,561 | He began his shooting spree at 05:20 local time (04:20 GMT) at a police station in north-western Kenya.
Earlier, Kenya's police chief had said the gunman was a suspected recruiter for al-Shabab Islamist militants.
An officer who was part of a police special unit sent to retake the station in Kapenguria town was also killed.
A police source has told the BBC that the gunman was unhappy that his request to resign from the police had been denied as he had not served the requisite 10 years of service after his graduation in 2013. | A disgruntled Kenyan policeman who shot dead six of his colleagues has been killed in a shootout after an eight-hour siege. |
34,719,997 | Olly Martins told the Home Affairs Select Committee the force's "desperate financial plight" left him "no option".
The Bedfordshire commissioner said he was "actively looking" at ways to generate more money.
The Alliance of British Drivers called his comments "utterly obnoxious".
Mr Martins said the county's force was "stretched to the limit" with 169 officers per 100,000 population against a national average of 232 and 388 in London.
The county has the fourth highest level of gun crime per head, fifth highest level of burglary, robbery and vehicle crime, seventh highest level of knife crime, and a high terror threat, he said.
The commissioner has already lost in a council tax referendum asking for the public's permission to increase the police precept and launched a petition calling on the government to ensure the force is adequately funded.
He told the committee that unless the force's grant funding was "realigned to the reality of the county's policing challenges" he would have to use his powers to permanently turn on the cameras between junctions 10 and 13, one of the busiest stretches of the motorway.
Asked whether easyJet could sponsor the county's "panda cars", Mr Martins said: "I'd welcome it because that's an alternative to reducing our police numbers below a level that I think is already putting our force in a position of not being viable."
The speed cameras are linked to variable limits, which can be reduced to below 70mph when there is congestion, a crash or bad weather.
The majority of speed fine revenue goes to the government, but Mr Martin's office said a proportion goes to the local force.
"Strict enforcement of the speed limit could raise £1m and to me that's better than losing 25 more police officers," Mr Martins said.
"I am running out of levers to pull to keep Bedfordshire Police financially viable," he said.
Hugh Bladon, from voluntary lobby group group the Alliance of British Drivers, criticised the idea of making money from speed cameras.
"These cameras are alleged to make roads safer, they are not to make money for the police or government or anyone and to suggest that it is... I'm lost for words," he said.
"It is completely contrary to anything to do with road safety and utterly obnoxious." | Turning on M1 speed cameras permanently and having sponsored uniforms and cars could help bolster a cash-strapped force's coffers, a police and crime commissioner has said. |
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