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A father accused of killing six of his children in a fire said in a recording made in a police van he "didn't mean to do it", prosecutors have claimed.
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The secret recording was played at Nottingham Crown Court during the trial of Mick Philpott, who is charged with manslaughter, along with his wife Mairead and their friend Paul Mosley.
But a defence witness said the phrase was obscured by background noise.
The three defendants deny the six separate counts of manslaughter.
The prosecution said Mr Philpott, in a quiet whispered exchange, was heard to say: "You definitely sticking to the story. I didn't mean to do it on my life."
Dr Martin Barry, a forensic speech analyst, giving evidence on behalf of the defence, told the court that the phrase was too obscured to determine what was said.
999 call
He said he had listened to the recording "several thousand times".
In the tape, Mr Philpott, 56, was also heard saying: "There's no evidence. They have got nothing. No petrol on me, on my trousers."
The court was told that recording equipment was placed in the police van and also in the couple's hotel room four days after the fire.
The jury also heard an audio tape of the 999 call the Philpotts made to emergency services during the fire.
The court heard Mr Philpott shouting out: "I can't get in the bedroom, my kids are upstairs."
A short time later, he was heard sobbing and shouting: "There's no noise from me children."
Video clips from a press conference held by the couple five days after the blaze were also played in court.
During the conference, led by Derbyshire Police, the couple thanked friends and emergency services staff for their attempts to rescue their six children.
Afterwards, Mr Philpott fell to the floor in the corridor and lay in the recovery position, the court was told.
'Sort them out'
In the tape recordings from the hotel room played to the jury, Mr Philpott said a number of times that the room might be bugged and told Mr Mosley to "shush" when they were discussing the night of the fire.
Mr Philpott was also heard asking his 31-year-old wife about what she had told her colleagues about the fire. He was heard saying: "You haven't told the truth, have you?"
In the tape, Mr Philpott said to his wife: "I love you so much. Look at me. We will walk free and prove our innocence, right? And then we'll sort them out, promise you."
A few minutes later he asked his wife: "You definitely sticking with the story?"
Mr Philpott then asked: "What did you say? You didn't do it? Don't you worry, we'll walk through it, I promise you that."
'Deliberate emission of petrol'
Later, the court heard from Mat Lee, from Derbyshire Fire Service, who said the blaze started in the hallway in front of the door and quickly spread upstairs to the three bedrooms.
He said: "The most likely cause of the fire was, in my opinion, the deliberate emission of petrol vapour by a naked flame or spark on the ground floor by a person."
Mr Lee said the blaze quickly spread into the living room, melting polystyrene ceiling tiles which dropped on to the carpet, setting it and a curtain alight.
It spread up the stairs to the bedrooms where the six children were asleep in their beds, he said.
The jury heard that most of the UPVC front door, which had been locked during the fire, had been burnt away by the intense heat.
Mr Lee also said the smoke patterns suggested the flames came from inside the property and not outside.
Jade Philpott, 10, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five, died in the fire at their home on Victory Road in Allenton, Derby, last May.
Their brother Duwayne, 13, died in hospital.
The trial continues.
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A total of 24 people have received letters asking them to attend interviews in respect of the funeral of IRA man Bobby Storey in June, the PSNI chief constable has revealed.
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Simon Byrne said the investigation into potential breaches of social distancing rules should be completed within the next number of weeks.
He appeared before Stormont's justice committee on Thursday.
Deputy First Minister Michele O'Neill was among those contacted.
Her Sinn Féin colleague Linda Dillon, a member of the committee, said she was another of those who received a letter after attending the funeral.
She said she was there for "the funeral of a very close friend of my family for over 20 years".
'Hypocrisy'
There has been criticism that the large gathering at the funeral was in contravention of the NI Executive's coronavirus guidelines.
Ms Dillon told members that rules were broken at many funerals and said "the blatant hypocrisy in this room would actually sicken you".
Earlier this month, Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill conceded that the executive's public health messaging had been "undermined" by what happened.
The investigation is being led by Mark Webster, the deputy chief constable of Cumbria Police.
Simon Byrne said the inquiry is "reviewing different types of footage to see where there are potential breaches to regulations at a number of different places".
"Twenty-four people have now received letters inviting them to make arrangements for interview with us in the next 14 days, well the clock's ticking, it's probably about the next seven now," he confirmed.
The chief constable's comments followed a request for an update on the investigation from Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie.
During the remarks, committee chair Paul Givan asked "is it likely" that a report will be sent to the public prosecution service.
Mr Byrne replied: "The way the law works here, there has to be."
Linda Dillon asked the chief constable if other funerals faced the same level of investigation.
He said there were 20 investigations into other funerals during "the Covid period" and 13 of them have already closed "in terms of the fleeting nature of the breach".
However, he said he believed from memory that six funerals are currently under investigation.
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A re-formed Black Sabbath brought this year's Download rock festival to a close at Donington Park.
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By Del CrookesNewsbeat reporter at Download Festival
The band included three of the four original members, with only drummer Bill Ward not appearing on stage.
Singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and Tommy Clufetos played a set packed with Black Sabbath hits including War Pigs, Paranoid and Sweet Leaf.
The band are bringing out a new album next year with a world tour planned.
'Best shows'
Seattle band Soundgarden, who reunited in 2010, performed their first UK show for 15 years as second headliners on the main stage at Download.
The band played songs including Spoonman, Black Hole Sun and Rusty Cage but left out some well known tracks like Superunknown.
Front man Chris Cornell said on stage that he was almost more excited about seeing Black Sabbath play than performing with his band.
He admitted every American band wanted to play at Donington Park once.
He said: "If you're in a rock band or you're a fan, it's pretty well documented as being the big hard rock festival worldwide. It's the one.
"I played Download three years ago on a solo tour and it was great. It stood out as being one of the best festival shows I'd had, certainly that year."
Other acts who appeared on Sunday (10 June) included Rise Against, Megadeth, Anthrax, Ugly Kid Joe, Lamb of God and Black Label Society.
2013 headliners
Download organiser Andy Copping said the 10th anniversary festival had been the best yet.
He also backed the inclusion of Chase & Status on the line-up after some negative fan reaction.
"We've got to take risks now and again otherwise the festival is just going to roll over and die," he said.
"What we've had to do with the line-ups over the years is make sure that we do push the boundaries a little bit.
"We're a rock festival but every now and again we have to widen the scope."
Andy Copping also revealed that one of next year's headliners had already been signed up with the second due to be finalised in the next few weeks.
He said the line-up would be revealed when all three headliners were in place.
Next year's festival will take place between 14 and 16 June.
A new deposit scheme has also been launched for 2013 which will allow festival-goers to pay in instalments for the first time.
More than 100,000 people attended this year's event.
Listen to a Download special on Radio 1 from 9pm tonight (11 June) with Daniel P. Carter
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Freezing the £21,000 earnings threshold for repaying student loans in England would cost graduates an extra £2,800 over 30 years, the Sutton Trust warns.
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By Katherine SellgrenBBC News education reporter
The Trust says women would be more affected than men, while those from poor backgrounds would be hit hardest.
It says the freeze would compromise government pledges on social mobility.
In July, Chancellor George Osborne announced a consultation on freezing the threshold for five years, rather than linking it with average earnings.
This would affect those who took loans from 2012, when annual tuition fees were raised to a maximum of £9,000 in England.
From next April these so-called "repayment plan 2" graduates whose earnings exceed £21,000 will start to repay the loans.
But the government says updated forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility show fewer are likely to start paying than was expected when the policy was introduced, increasing the burden of higher education on the taxpayer.
Uncertainty
The Sutton Trust report, by higher education consultant John Thompson, says freezing the loan repayment threshold - alongside other changes such as replacing maintenance grants for poorer students with loans - will significantly increase the cost of going to university.
It says this risks undermining pledges by successive governments to improve social mobility, as well as raising uncertainty in students' minds over the terms of their borrowing.
The study calculates that the overall extra repayment for a typical borrower taking out a loan of £36,000 over three years would rise by £2,800 over 30 years - up from £30,650 to £33,400.
The study also notes that women would be affected more adversely than men by any future freeze.
It calculates that if the £21,000 threshold was not frozen, the average male who borrowed £36,000 over three years would pay back £34,900 over 30 years; the average female would pay £26,400.
However, if the five-year repayment threshold freeze came into force, a typical male borrower would pay £37,100 (£2,200 more) over 30 years, while the typical female borrower would repay £29,700 (£3,300 more).
The research says this is because women tend to have lower earnings and are more likely to be paying back money across the full 30-year borrowing period, after which loans are written off.
The Trust says the freezing of the threshold, alongside the changes to maintenance grants, will have a major impact on students from lower income groups, who could see their average debt rise to more than £50,000.
It says loan terms for current borrowers should not be altered and that new borrowers should be given definite terms that will apply to the full repayment period.
"The danger is that this will have an adverse effect on the willingness of young people to take out the student loans," it says.
'Financial burden'
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust said: "The fact that this measure will adversely affect low earners and graduates from low income homes, who are already being penalised by the budget shift from grants to loans, is a serious cause for concern."
The University and College Union said the findings strengthened the case for a proper review of university funding and particularly how the loans system would affect different groups of graduates.
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "We want our world-class higher education system to remain financially sustainable and welcome responses to our current consultation on the threshold for student loan repayments.
"Our reforms to student finance will mean that students from low-income backgrounds receive a substantial increase in the cash-in-hand to help with living costs whilst at university."
In the July Budget, Mr Osborne also announced the scrapping of the university maintenance grants for lower income students and said the government would link the £9,000 student fee cap to inflation for those institutions that could show they offered high-quality teaching.
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An SNP MP whose email address was among the millions released after a data hack on adultery website Ashley Madison said it was "harvested" by hackers.
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Michelle Thomson, who represents the Edinburgh West constituency, said she had never contacted the website.
The online dating agency, which specialises in affairs, was hacked by a group calling itself The Impact Team.
The hackers said they would publish what they claimed was a database of 37 million members.
The information has reportedly been posted on the Dark Web, described as the "underground of the internet" or the "internet black market".
Avid Life Media (ALM), which runs Ashley Madison, has branded the hackers as criminals and said it was investigating the latest claims "to determine the validity of any information posted online".
Ms Thomson, who was newly elected to Westminster at May's General Election, said: "Along with potentially millions of others, an out-of-use email address seems to have been harvested by hackers.
"I am not aware of or in contact with either Avid Life or Ashley Madison and look forward to finding out more about what has actually happened.
"However, having a personal email address linked to an account doesn't mean that person is really a user of Ashley Madison.
"Users are able to sign up to the site without responding to an email verification, meaning anyone's email address could have been used to create an account."
The Impact team said it had posted names and personal details of some of the 37 million people signed up to the site, including 1.2 million Britons.
The hackers claim that the parent company of Ashley Madison had failed its users by having lax security measures, and the service itself was a "scam" with "thousands of fake female profiles".
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Protesters have been arrested after defacing government buildings and super-gluing themselves to the gates of Downing Street.
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At least 27 environmental campaigners, including NHS staff, were arrested, police said.
Campaign group Extinction Rebellion said more civil disobedience was planned.
A number of activists were arrested earlier this week at the headquarters of the Business Department.
The activists tried to block the entrance to Downing Street, holding up food containers reading 'food shortages coming', with some lying on the ground and one gluing himself to a railing.
The protesters then moved on to a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs office.
A wall was spray painted with the message: "Climate emergency. Frack off. Climate breakdown equals starvation."
A Met Police spokeswoman said the 27 people had been arrested for "various offences".
A number of climate change activists were arrested earlier this week inside the headquarters of the Business Department in Westminster.
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A former Nasa engineer spent six months building a glitter bomb trap to trick thieves after some parcels were stolen from his doorstep.
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By Zoe KleinmanTechnology reporter, BBC News
The device, hidden in an Apple Homepod box, used four smartphones, a circuit board and 1lb (453g) of glitter.
Mark Rober, who is now a YouTuber, caught the original thieves on his home security camera.
He decided to take action after the police said they were unable to investigate the case.
Smelly surprise
He designed the elaborate bomb so that it would be activated when the package in which it was hidden was opened by thieves. The phone cameras and microphones would record the moment.
The device contained an accelerometer to detect motion.
When the parcel was jostled, the device would check the GPS signal to see if it had been moved from its spot.
If it had, then it would send a signal to activate the phones and start recording.
The glitter was in a cup that spun round on a motor when released as the box was opened.
The device was also engineered to squirt a tube of strong-smelling fart spray every 30 seconds.
The package was left on Mr Rober's porch with a label saying it had been sent by "Kevin McCallister" - the boy played by Macaulay Culkin in the 1990 movie Home Alone.
It was stolen on several occasions and re-set to explode and capture the footage every time. On every occasion, the thieves abandoned the package once it had been triggered and they or their property had been doused in glitter.
Mr Rober's YouTube video has so far had more than six million views.
The former Nasa engineer said: "If anyone was going to make a revenge bait package and over-engineer the crap out of it, it was going to be me."
Last week, Amazon announced that it is working with police in New Jersey to combat parcel theft crime.
Officers are planting dummy boxes fitted with GPS trackers, and hidden doorbell cameras outside homes in areas identified by mapping data of theft locations supplied by Amazon as well as local crime data.
One of the parcels was stolen within three minutes.
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Users could soon be asked to pull a series of faces to unlock their Android phones or tablets.
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By Leo KelionTechnology reporter
Google has filed a patent suggesting users stick out their tongue or wrinkle their nose in place of a password.
It says requiring specific gestures could prevent the existing Face Unlock facility being fooled by photos.
The Jelly Bean version of Android introduced the need for users to blink their eyes as a check, but users soon demonstrated it could be fooled.
A spokesman for Google was unable to comment on when the suggested technology might be implemented.
Fooled by Facebook
The document - which was filed in June 2012 but has only just been published - suggests the software could track a "facial landmark" to confirm a user not only looks like the device's owner but also carries out the right action.
It says examples of the requests that might be made include:
It says the check would work by comparing two images taken from a captured video stream of the user's face to see if the difference between them showed the gesture had been made.
The filing also notes several ways the software might check that the device was being shown a real person's face rather than doctored photographs.
These include studying other frames from the captured video stream to check that the person had made a sequence of movements to achieve the commanded gesture, and confirming all of the frames actually showed the person's face.
In addition it says the software could monitor if there were changes in the angle of the person's face to ensure the device was not being shown a still image with a fake gesture animated on top.
Such efforts might help address criticism that its current face detection software is insecure.
Last year Google introduced a "liveness check", requiring users to blink at their device to prevent its facial recognition program being fooled by a photograph.
However, a group of security researchers from the University of British Columbia posted a video online showing the feature could still be tricked.
They showed that an image of one of their members could be copied from Facebook, then - using graphics editing software - treated so that his eyes were painted over with colours matching his skin tone, and fake eyelashes were drawn on top to make it appear that he had his eyes shut.
By holding a screen up to the targeted Android device and flicking back-and-forth between the original and doctored images, they showed Android was fooled into believing it was being shown the subject blinking.
Laser beams
The latest patent says the additional checks should prevent such a spoof working, adding that a combination of specific gestures - such as a request for a blink followed by a half turn of their head and then a wink - could be issued at random to make it even harder to deceive the ID feature.
However, Google acknowledges even this might not be enough, envisaging a situation in which a device could be programmed to generate a video showing the user making the requested facial expressions.
To tackle this it says the device could also "emit light beams having different colours or frequencies, that are expected to induce in the eyes of a user a reflection of light having a corresponding frequency content".
In other words, the software could use the device's screen and flash to shine different coloured light into the user's face and then check for related glints in their eyes as he or she made the requested facial gestures.
In the future it adds that a "3D-rangefinder" built into a phone or tablet might also use lasers to study the contours of the person's face as an additional check.
Despite all this, one cybersecurity expert said it might still be years before it became advisable to use facial recognition passwords.
"The problem with biometrics in the past has been that you have always been able to find a way to work round the requests to deliver what's needed," Prof Alan Woodward, chief technology officer at the consultancy Charteris, told the BBC.
"It sounds like Google is thinking about how try and counter this with randomness and movement.
"But there's a long way between writing a patent about an idea and delivering it as a reliable security measure. I would expect people will still use traditional passwords for some time to come."
A spokesman for Google said it did not discuss individual patents, but noted that it filed a variety of ideas that its employees came up with.
"Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't," he added.
"Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications."
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Nigeria's largest airline, Arik Air, says it has cancelled all domestic flights because aviation officials tried to stop passengers flying.
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Officials from the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) blocked check-in counters and chained doors leading to a boarding gate, Arik Air said.
Hundreds of passengers are stranded in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos.
Arik Air has denied reports that it has not been paying fees to FAAN.
Captian Ado Sanusi, director of operations at Arik Air, told the BBC claims that the airline owes FAAN billions of naira in unpaid airport fees are "fictitious".
"We said there's a lot of evidence that we've shown that we've been paying. Passengers know that we've been paying," Sanusi told the BBC's Umar Shehu in Lagos.
"(With) the hostilities we've been receiving, the threats, we can't operate safely," Mr Shehu said, adding that the company had appealed to the Nigerian government to intervene.
At a press conference earlier, the company said it owed money to FAAN, but not as much as the body claimed.
FAAN were not immediately available for comment.
Mr Shehu said all passengers will be refunded the cost of their tickets and transit passengers in Lagos will be offered hotel accommodation.
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Seal pups left exhausted by the recent tidal surge along the East Coast are making good progress, staff at an animal hospital have said.
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Skegness Seal Sanctuary said the pups were found washed-up after "battling some really big seas".
Owner Richard Yeadon said the pups were underweight and in desperate need of help when they were found.
Three seals are receiving treatment, including one named Donald because of the Trump-like fur on his head.
Donald is a common seal and is making good progress.
The other two are grey seals and are still having to learn how to feed themselves.
"It is at a crucial point in their lives - particularly for grey seals who are just leaving their mums at this time of year," said Mr Yeadon.
"They are a bit weak and not quite prepared for life in the big sea."
He said the plan was to "fatten them up" and release them back to the wild, a process which normally takes about 12 weeks.
Other current residents at the sanctuary are called Dick, Dom, Dippy, Dot and Doris.
Donald was named after his likeness to new US president was suggested by a visitor to the hospital.
Many of the grey seals rescued by the charity come from the Donna Nook Nature Reserve.
Common seals in the hospital tend to come from the area around the Wash.
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Reported sightings of leatherback turtles are increasing off Wales, with the reptiles thought to be drawn by high numbers of jellyfish.
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Three sightings have been reported in recent days, in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, north Pembrokeshire and Anglesey.
Dr Peter Richardson, of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), said Wales' waters were currently "turtle heaven".
The turtles nest in the Caribbean before travelling to UK waters to feed.
Dr Richardson said there had been high numbers of jellyfish - the food source of the leatherback - reported in the Irish Sea this year.
He added: "The waters around Wales are absolutely perfect at the moment for turtles - turtle heaven."
"What we have seen in the last few weeks is a sudden increase in the number of leatherbacks reported off the coast of the UK, mostly the south west, but in the last few days we have had three reports of leatherbacks off Wales."
Describing the leatherback as a "spectacular animal," he added: "Wales boasts the largest leatherback ever recorded anywhere on the planet.
"In 1988, a dead one washed up at Harlech... and it measured just under 3m (10ft), nose to tail, and weighed just under a tonne."
In 2002 and 2005 there were about 70 sightings of leatherback turtles around the British coast, but since 2007 there have been 20 or fewer reported annually, according to the MCS.
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The Scottish parliament has just voted to stop the Brexit process by revoking article 50 unless there is an extension to allow for a second referendum on Brexit
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Sarah SmithScotland editor@BBCsarahsmithon Twitter
"So what?," you might say. They can't legally force the UK government to do anything.
But there is something else deeply significant happening here. Read between the lines and you can see the case being made for another referendum on Scottish independence. as well as for another Brexit vote.
Today's vote was proposed by the Scottish Greens. The SNP added their own amendment which "calls on the UK government to stop ignoring the views of this parliament and overwhelming majority of people in Scotland who wish to remain in EU".
In that sentence you can see how they hope to build support for independence on the back of Brexit. By telling Scottish voters they are being ignored by a government in London which does not respect their opinion or their elected representatives.
Is Scotland being ignored?
I'm not trying to suggest the SNP are being entirely cynical. They sincerely believe that Brexit will significantly damage the Scottish economy and is the wrong path for the whole of the UK.
They genuinely want to see a "people's vote" that could potentially reverse the result in 2016.
But they know the result could mirror the 2016 referendum - with Scotland voting to remain but the UK as whole voting to leave. Voters in Scotland could be, once again, "ignored".
As the Europe and External Affairs secretary Fiona Hyslop said in the Holyrood chamber today: "A second referendum is an opportunity and not a guarantee for the wishes of Scotland to be respected.
"It is only by becoming an independent country that we can guarantee the votes of people in Scotland will not be ignored."
The argument for independence is being quite deliberately fused with the idea that Scotland, its people and its parliament are being callously ignored by Westminster.
Scottish government warnings about how many jobs could be lost after any kind of Brexit have not yet produced any kind of "Brexit bounce" in opinion polls that ask people if they support Scottish independence.
So might they respond better to the argument about a democratic deficit? That's clearly what the SNP hope will happen. As they argue that the views of the DUP or the ERG seem to matter far more than the 62% of Scottish voters who voted to remain in the EU.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will not update us on her plans for another indyref until the Brexit chaos has died down.
As we wait, expect to hear the arguments about Scotland being unfairly, outrageously, ignored get louder and louder.
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The chief executive of Shropshire's two main hospitals has said it would be unrealistic to assume both will keep their accident and emergency units.
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The A&E departments at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal have struggled to hit waiting time targets over recent years.
Peter Herring, from the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, said he wanted to encourage debate on the subject.
He said no decision had been made and wanted as many views as possible.
Mr Herring said: "We want to look at how we provide urgent care in an entirely different fashion - maybe we need to stop thinking about traditional A&Es.
"There are a whole group of patients who could potentially come directly into our inpatient wards and not go anywhere near A&E and that's potentially the best care for them."
BBC Midlands Today health correspondent Michele Paduano said that about 110,000 patients went through both hospitals' A&E departments last year and that both were "rammed as it is".
'Nothing more devastating'
In February, two patients were left on trolleys in A&E at the Royal Shrewsbury for more than 12 hours.
The following month, it was revealed that both hospitals had failed to treat and discharge 95% of patients within four hours since the start of 2013.
The hospital trust said at the time a whole system review of urgent care was under way.
It also revealed, at that time, that hundreds of routine operations were being cancelled because of pressures on A&E and bed shortages.
The Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard said he feared lives could be lost if one hospital lost its A&E unit.
Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski said he could not think of "anything more controversial or devastating for one of the places" as proposing to lose an A&E unit.
Dr Caron Morton, from the Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which represents the county's GPs, said: "We need to design a model alongside our clinicians which is fit for the future.
"We've not come up with any decisions about what that model looks like - whether it would be [an A&E department at] one hospital or two hospitals - we're being very clear, this is a consultation process and it needs to be clinically led."
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A severely ill 10-year-old girl to whom a US judge granted a prime spot on the adult transplant list despite her youth has received a new set of lungs.
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Sarah Murnaghan's family said they were "thrilled" the six-hour surgery to implant adult lungs went smoothly and that she had done "extremely well".
The family had challenged a US policy relegating under-12s to the bottom of the adult organ donation list.
Analysts have warned the judge's decision set a dangerous precedent.
The Obama administration declined to intervene in Sarah's case, arguing transplant policy should be made by doctors and scientists rather than the government.
Children under 12 have priority for paediatric lung donations, but far fewer paediatric lungs are donated than adult lungs.
'Close to the end'
Sarah's surgery began around 11:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
"Her doctors are very pleased with both her progress during the procedure and her prognosis for recovery," the family said in a statement about seven hours later.
Her aunt Sharon Ruddock told reporters the lungs had been resized to fit her small body, but her recovery time would probably be extensive because the girl had been unconscious and breathing through a tube since Saturday as her condition deteriorated.
Complications from lung transplants can include rejection of the new lungs and infection.
Since Sarah's case came to light, the national organisation that sets organ transplant policy has created a special appeal and review system for young patients.
About 30 children under the age of 11 are on the waiting list for a lung transplant, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, out of a total of 1,650 potential lung recipients.
Last week, US District Judge Michael Baylson, who is independent of the Obama administration, ruled Sarah and another child at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, 11-year-old Javier Acosta, eligible for a better spot on the adult list.
He found that the US policy amounted to improper age discrimination.
Both children suffer from with cystic fibrosis, a chronic lung disease. Sarah's condition had worsened significantly in the last 18 months, diminishing her lung capacity to 30%.
Last month she was admitted to the intensive care unit in hospital. Doctors told the Murnaghans that if Sarah were an adult, she would probably be at "the very top" of the lung transplant list.
Ms Ruddock said she was sure that had Sarah not been put on the adult list, "we would have lost her".
"She was very close to the end," she said.
Let the system decide
Some analysts warned the intervention of politicians and judges in the cases would set a dangerous precedent.
Dr Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University Langone Medical Center, said children fared worse than adults after lung transplants, one of the reasons for the existing policy.
"In general, the road to a transplant is still to let the system decide who will do best with scarce, lifesaving organs," Dr Caplan said.
"And it's important that people understand that money, visibility, being photogenic... are factors that have to be kept to a minimum if we're going to get the best use out of the scarce supply of donated cadaver organs.''
Before Sarah, only one lung transplant from a donor older than 18 to a recipient younger than 12 had taken place in the US since 2007, according to US government data.
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George Formby fans from around the British Isles are descending on Douglas to mark the 80th anniversary of his Isle of Man TT film No Limit.
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The Wigan-born ukulele legend, who died in 1961, was one of the country's best-paid stars during his heyday in the 1930s and 1940s.
Chairman of the UK George Formby Society, Caroline Stewart, said the film put him on the "road to stardom".
In it, Formby crashes his bike around the course, performing his own stunts.
The film, his third, is widely regarded as one of his funniest.
Formby plays George Shuttleworth, a chimney sweep from Wigan who dreams of winning the Isle of Man motorcycle races.
It was shot against the backdrop of the 1935 TT races in locations including Douglas beach and the Palace Ballrooms.
A star of the stage and screen, Formby did much to keep spirits high during World War Two.
The George Formby Society will attend a series of events over the weekend including a screening of the film at the Manx Museum on Saturday at 15:15 BST.
They will also perform a ukulele recital at his statue in Douglas on Sunday at 11:00.
Finally, a Shuttleworth Snap motorcycle - on which he rode to victory in the film - will make an appearance.
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There was no record of any complaints about animals at the address where a girl died after being attacked by dogs, council officials said.
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Jade Anderson, 14, was found alone with five dogs at a house she was visiting in Chaucer Grove, Atherton, Wigan, on Tuesday afternoon.
Wigan Council chief executive Donna Hall said the council was not aware of any animal issues at the property.
Police are investigating whether any criminal offences have been committed.
Jade's death has prompted MPs to call for for urgent reform of dog control laws.
Police are continuing inquiries to determine the particular breed of the dogs but said they initially appear to be legal.
Friends of the teenager released lanterns outside Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley earlier.
About 200 people gathered for the vigil, which included the lighting of candles spelling "Jade RIP".
Head teacher Jan Garretts said staff and students were "all shocked and saddened by Jade's tragic death".
Speaking outside the school, friends described the 14-year-old as "a really nice girl who got on with everyone".
One said "she was always there for you if you needed a shoulder to cry on", while another said she "never had a bad bone inside of her".
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A massive power cut has caused disruption across northern India, including in the capital, Delhi.
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It hit a swathe of the country affecting more than 300 million people in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan states.
Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said most of the supply had been restored and the rest would be reinstated soon.
It is unclear why the supply collapsed but reports say some states may have been using more power than authorised.
Mr Shinde said he had appointed a committee to inquire into the causes of the blackout, one of the worst to hit the country in more than a decade. The committee will submit its report within 15 days, he said.
The power cut happened at 02:30 local time on Monday (2100 GMT Sunday) after India's Northern Grid network collapsed.
Mr Shinde told the BBC that he had been informed about the problem at 05:30.
"Within two hours we tried to restore the railways, airport and Delhi Metro services and power supply to essential services, including the railways and hospitals, was restored by 08:00."
The minister said the exact reason for the collapse had not yet been pinpointed but, in the summer, "states try to take more power from the grid" and at the time of the collapse, the grid frequency was "above normal".
"That is one of the reasons why the grid failed," he said.
By early afternoon, 80% of the supply had been restored, Mr Shinde said.
'Worried'
Monday morning saw travel chaos engulf the region, with thousands of passengers stranded when train services were disrupted in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
The Rajdhani train from Jammu to Delhi was more than five hours late.
"The train stopped near Panipat station [in Haryana] at about 02:30. For a long time we had no idea what was holding us up," passenger DK Rajdan said.
"Rajdhani is air-conditioned so it was not uncomfortable. But for six or seven hours we couldn't get anything to eat or drink and people were beginning to get worried," he said.
Delhi Metro railway services were stalled for three hours, although the network later resumed when it received back-up power from Bhutan, one official said.
Traffic lights on the streets of the capital were not functioning as early morning commuters made their way into work, leading to gridlock.
Water treatment plants in the city also had to be shut for a few hours.
Officials said restoring services to hospitals and transport systems were a priority.
Power cuts are a common occurrence in Indian cities because of a fundamental shortage of power and an ageing grid. The chaos caused by such cuts has led to protests and unrest on the streets.
Earlier in July, crowds in the Delhi suburb of Gurgaon blocked traffic and clashed with police after blackouts there.
Correspondents say that India urgently needs a huge increase in power production, as hundreds of millions of its people are not even connected to the national grid.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has long said that India must look to nuclear energy to supply power to the people.
Estimates say that nuclear energy contributes only 3% to the country's current power supply. But the construction of some proposed nuclear power stations have been stalled by intense local opposition.
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The fire safety guidance for what materials could be used on Grenfell Tower was "confusing", the director of the company which installed the cladding has told an inquiry.
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Ray Bailey, director of Harley Facades, said there was "quite widespread" confusion in the building industry at the time of the refurbishment.
The cladding has been blamed for fuelling the fire at the tower block.
The inquiry into the fire, which killed 72 people, is in its second phase.
It is now looking into how the 24-storey tower in west London came to be covered in such cladding during its refurbishment between 2012 and 2016, before the fire on 14 June 2017.
The inquiry is investigating whether the confusion about fire ratings was one of the reasons dangerous cladding and insulation was used to refurbish the tower.
Mr Bailey said he had a "misunderstanding" about which materials were approved for use on tall buildings.
One section of the guidance for meeting the government's building regulations stated that materials used on towers above 18m needed to have a Class 0 (zero) rating, though another European classification was equally acceptable.
The government has always insisted that another section of the guidance required the insulation used in cladding systems to be of "limited combustibility" as well.
Under questioning, Mr Bailey said he had believed at the time that if the materials were Class 0 "throughout" this also meant they were also classed as being of "limited combustibility" - in other words, less likely to burn.
However, Class 0 is only a classification of the way the surface of a product such as cladding resists the spread of flames, not its overall combustibility.
The insulation panels used on Grenfell Tower were rated Class 0, but were not of limited combustibility. Neither was the cladding, Reynobond PE, which had a core made from flammable plastic.
The inquiry also heard that the manufacturer of the cladding - Arconic - had tested various configurations of its product in 2013, and found they had achieved poor ratings for fire safety.
The product performed worse when it was shaped into "cassette" boxes, the design used at Grenfell Tower.
According to a manager's statement, shown at the inquiry, one test had to be stopped due to a 'flash-over', meaning the cladding could only be rated E, out of a possible A to F.
The tests were first revealed following a BBC investigation in 2018, which found the company did not pass the results to the body which issues product certificates in the UK, relied on by the building industry.
The certificate for Reynobond PE, the cladding used at Grenfell, stated it had a class B rating.
Arconic sent Mr Bailey this certificate in April 2014, as the materials for Grenfell were being chosen, but made no mention of the poor test results in the covering email.
Mr Bailey told the inquiry he was unaware of the tests.
The role of the manufacturer will be examined when it gives evidence later in the inquiry.
The inquiry continues. A separate government consultation on plans to improve fire safety regulations is due to close on 12 October.
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Cardiff University has announced plans to cut 380 posts over five years as part of moves to address a budget deficit of more than £20m.
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In an email to staff, university bosses said compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out but hoped the reduction could be achieved through voluntary severance and recruitment controls.
Its document Transforming Cardiff also proposes changes to departments.
Unison said it would "inevitably harm the quality of student provision".
The plans were approved by the university's governing body on Monday.
It comes after the university posted a £22.8m deficit in 2017-18, when expenditure increased by 5.2% but income only rose by 2.5%.
Its aim is to get back into surplus by 2019-20 and it wants to cut staffing costs from 59.6% of total income to no more than 56% of income by 2022-23.
"The university plans to reduce current staff levels by 7%, or 380 full-time equivalent over five years," said vice chancellor Colin Riordan in an email to staff.
"This is manageable when compared to an average annual voluntary staff turnover of more than 6%."
He described Transforming Cardiff as a programme for change that "allows us to align financial imperatives with innovative ways of delivering teaching, research and our civic mission".
Proposals include new courses in "areas of global challenges that really matter to Wales", such as data science and environmental science.
There are also plans for a new School of Literatures, Languages and Creative Practice.
But the university also wants to reduce the current campus footprint and associated rent and utilities costs and reconfigure its School of Healthcare Sciences.
The Cardiff branch of the University and College Union called on members to vote for strike action, in part to "fight compulsory redundancies when they come".
Katie Hall, Unison Cardiff university branch secretary, said they were concerned the number of job cuts announced would "inevitably harm the quality of student provision at Cardiff university".
"There is a lack of transparency and we don't believe the university is giving the trade unions the full story.
"University support staff work as hard as they can to make Cardiff a success. They are absolutely critical to the performance of the institution and we will completely oppose compulsory redundancies."
Analysis by BBC Wales education correspondent Bethan Lewis
Almost all of Wales's universities have been looking closely at their finances and making decisions about "restructuring".
Bangor University and the University of Wales Trinity St David are the most recent to look at savings - and other universities over the border have been struggling too.
There are some common concerns, including the lower level of grant money universities are receiving from government as they wait for welcome changes to student finance to work through the system.
Fierce competition for students is another common thread, but as Wales's highest profile university, Cardiff should be better placed than most to keep attracting applicants.
However unions claim the situation is a symptom of bad management and question how a top university found itself £23m in the red.
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Three members of a notorious grooming gang are still living in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, despite being stripped of their British citizenship.
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Abdul Aziz, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf were jailed for running a child sexual exploitation ring in 2012.
The trio lost an appeal in 2018 against the decision to strip them of their citizenship and could be deported.
Greater Manchester's deputy mayor said it was "completely unacceptable" that the men were still in Rochdale.
"Their continued presence in the community will doubtless be very distressing to those affected by the appalling crimes they perpetrated," said Bev Hughes.
Rape and trafficking
"Greater Manchester should have been rid of them a long time ago."
Aziz, Khan and Rauf, who are Pakistani nationals, were among nine jailed for crimes including rape and trafficking of girls as young as 13 in Rochdale.
In some cases their victims, aged in their early teens, had been raped and pimped out to paying customers in Rochdale and Oldham.
The three men were given jail sentences of between six and nine years.
The deputy mayor and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, have written to successive home secretaries "calling for assurances that the deportation of these three men is still a priority for the Home Office".
"In light of these latest revelations, we again call on government to prioritise the processing of their departure from the UK as swiftly as possible," said Ms Hughes.
'Removing offenders'
"When they are finally out of this country it will be not a moment too soon."
A Home Office spokesperson said it was "committed to removing foreign national offenders wherever possible".
"Since 2010 we have removed more than 52,000 criminals," the Home Office said.
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Archaeologists hope to find out more about people living in Wales 1,000 years ago as they excavate an early medieval chapel on a beach.
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Almost 50 skeletons dating to the 7th and 11th centuries have already been uncovered during two previous digs at St Patrick's Chapel in Pembrokeshire.
Dyfed Archaeological Trust will carry out a final excavation of the site in the dunes at Whitesands Bay, St Davids, from 9 to 27 May.
It will also be offering free tours.
Many of the skeletons found were in 'cist' graves - long graves lined with stone slabs.
Child graves were also found, decorated with layers of quartz pebbles and limpet shells.
Ken Murphy, of Dyfed Archaeological Trust, said bone preservation in the first two digs had been very good.
He also said a stone cross was found standing at the end of one of the graves - the first time in Britain that an upright stone cross had been found in association with a long cist grave.
"Bone analysis by the University of Sheffield will provide information on the diet of the people who are buried at St Patrick's Chapel, and even on where they were born," he added.
"The results of the excavation will greatly advance our knowledge of the lives and the beliefs of the people who lived in Wales over 1,000 years ago."
The chapel, from where St Patrick is said to have set sail for Ireland in the 5th century AD, was a ruin over 400 years ago.
But its location has never been forgotten and graves with human remains have regularly been exposed by storms.
The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority placed boulders against the site of the chapel to halt erosion 12 years ago, but they were washed away in the winter storms of 2014, exposing more burials.
"So we then decided to excavate the parts of the site most vulnerable to erosion and the aim of these digs is to ensure no more archaeology will be at risk for the next 50 years," added Phil Bennett, the park authority's culture and heritage manager
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Lawyers for the jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko have begun putting her complaint against imprisonment to judges in Strasbourg.
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Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, says Ukraine's prosecution of her was politically motivated and her detention unlawful. She is now being treated for acute back pain in a state hospital.
Last October she was convicted of abuse of office and jailed for seven years.
President Viktor Yanukovych has been her arch-rival for nearly a decade.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg held a half-day public hearing before embarking on an in-depth study of her case behind closed doors.
If Ukraine's judiciary is found to be at fault the court can impose penalties on Ukraine, a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights.
With her distinctive plaited, blonde hair Tymoshenko was a key figure in Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution. Since then she has twice served as prime minister.
Many EU politicians have echoed her criticisms of the Ukrainian authorities and in June European leaders boycotted Euro 2012 football matches in Ukraine, to show their displeasure at her detention.
Tymoshenko argues that her detention was politically motivated and that there has been no judicial review. She also says the authorities neglected her medical needs and kept up round-the-clock surveillance after moving her to a hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Run-up to election
On Wednesday the Ukrainian high court is expected to rule on her appeal against conviction.
She was found guilty of abuse of office over a gas deal she signed with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Lawyers for the state of Ukraine dispute her complaint, and will argue in Strasbourg that it was just a normal criminal trial, the BBC's Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford says.
The Tymoshenko case is likely to loom large in Ukraine's parliamentary election on 28 October, when Mr Yanukovych's Party of the Regions will seek to maintain its grip on parliament.
In a separate trial, Tymoshenko is accused of embezzlement and tax evasion in connection with business deals she did in the 1990s.
In the Orange Revolution pro-Western opposition activists angry at official corruption and cronyism prevented Mr Yanukovych taking office after an election widely condemned as rigged.
Mr Yanukovych has sought to renew the close ties with Russia that existed in Soviet times - a stance that alarms many Ukrainian nationalists.
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An injured paratrooper from Doncaster, who lost both legs in combat, has been appointed an MBE.
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Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson received the honour from the Prince of Wales at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
L/Bombardier Parkinson, who carried the Olympic flame last year, said he was moved to be described as an "inspiration" by Prince Charles.
The paratrooper suffered more than 40 injuries in a bomb attack in Afghanistan in 2006.
As well as brain damage which affected his memory and speech, he also broke his pelvis, his back in four places, shattered his arm and chest, and lost both legs.
'Feel so proud'
After receiving the honour, he said: "I was surprised at how much Prince Charles knew about me.
"He said I was an inspiration. It made me feel so proud."
In July he took a turn in carrying the Olympic flame through his hometown on his prosthetic legs. The paratrooper was flanked by hundreds of people as he walked for nearly half an hour with an assistant, who supported his arm.
He was also one of a group of injured veterans who took part in a charity trek in Norway earlier this year.
Along with other amputees and severely injured servicemen, he travelled 65 miles (105km) across the Hardangervidda mountain in winds of up to 80mph (130km/h) and temperatures of -30C.
The expedition, organised by the charity Pilgrim Bandits, retraced the footsteps of World War II heroes of Telemark to mark the 70th anniversary of the mission.
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Forensic experts have been brought in to recover CCTV footage from Eastbourne Pier after the system's hard drives were damaged in last month's fire, Sussex Police have said.
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Officers believe the blaze may have been started deliberately.
The fire on 30 July destroyed about a third of the 144-year-old, Grade II-listed pier.
Det Ch Insp Mark O'Brien said retrieving the footage could take weeks, if not months.
He said the force's technical support unit had been unable to retrieve material from the CCTV's hard drives.
A forensic science company in Wales would try to rebuild the hard drives, but that work would depend on whether the disks were corrupted or damaged by fire, he added.
"At the end of that process we'll know whether or not we'll be able to get the material because from my point of view the CCTV within the arcade is a significant line of inquiry for us," he said.
"It could take weeks, it could take months, depending on what the forensic science providers say."
But he said the force still had third-party material to work on.
A dedicated team of officers would be spending weeks examining CCTV footage from both the police and external cameras on the pier, and pictures sent in by members of the public, he said.
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Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths knew how to treat gold to make it appear more golden, fresh research has revealed.
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Analysis of the Staffordshire Hoard showed goldsmiths knew how to remove alloyed metals such as copper and silver from the surface of objects.
The finding exposes the flaws in archaeological methods used to calculate an object's gold content by analysing its surface, experts said.
It comes as a new display of the items opened in Birmingham.
"Relatively little is known about Anglo-Saxon goldsmithing, but achieving this surface treatment would have been a skilled task, one we now know they were familiar with," a museum spokesman said.
About 200 objects were scanned using X-ray technology to determine their elemental composition during the British Museum study.
Gold was highly valued in Anglo Saxon society and may also have been believed to have magical or sacred qualities.
It is not known how the inferior metals were removed.
About 300 items from the 4,000-piece collection - the UK's largest find of Anglo-Saxon objects - have gone on show at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
The museum received £700,000 in lottery funding last year to create the display.
It explains the history behind the items and how they were used before they were buried 1,400 years ago.
Birmingham Museums director Ellen McAdam said: "The Staffordshire Hoard is one of Birmingham's most popular collections and this new gallery will give visitors an even greater access to this unique find."
The original hoard was discovered in a field near Hammerwich in 2009 by Terry Herbert before further items were excavated by archaeologists in 2012.
It consists of gold, silver and garnet decorative fittings dating back to the 7th Century, including pieces of swords and other weaponry.
The complete collection - which was valued at £3.2m - is jointly owned by Birmingham City Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
A selection of items from the hoard drew large crowds when it first went on display in September 2009.
Other items are on display at the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent, Lichfield Cathedral and Tamworth Castle.
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On Saturday evening in Washington, Barack Obama will attend his last White House Correspondents' Association dinner as president.
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The black-tie affair is an annual gathering of politicians, journalists, celebrities and other notables from Washington and beyond. The highlight of the evening is the president's speech, during which he makes fun of himself, his allies and his opponents, often in equal measure.
Mr Obama has not spared many from his zingers in past years - and that includes current Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.
He's also returned to a few common threads throughout his presidency: jokes about his "birth country" (Kenya, as some critics falsely claim), and the challenges of facing a hostile Republican Congress.
Here's a look at some of Mr Obama's best lines and sharpest jabs from the past seven White House Correspondents Dinners, and the political context in which they were delivered.
2015: Political opponents
"Welcome to the fourth quarter of my presidency," Mr Obama said in 2015, noting his wife, Michelle, was cheering the loudest.
Mr Obama spent a good portion of the speech picking on conservatives and their efforts to block him in the last two years of his presidency.
"[Former Republican representative] Michele Bachmann predicted I'd bring about a Biblical end-of-days," Mr Obama said, shaking his head. "Now that's a legacy."
2014: Midterms
As races in Congress heated up in spring 2014, Mr Obama made reference to his sinking poll numbers and Democrats worrying about a negative effect on their own elections.
"Sasha needed a speaker at Career Day and she asked Bill Clinton," Mr Obama said of his youngest daughter. "I was a little hurt."
He also made the first reference to a likely presidential run by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
2013: Healthcare.gov and "rookie mistakes"
In the middle of a problematic roll out for the website for Mr Obama's healthcare law, Mr Obama needled himself about "rookie mistakes" - including commenting on California Attorney General Kamala Harris's looks.
Mr Obama also mocked some media companies, saying "BuzzFeed" used to be "something I did in college at 2am" and comparing his recent horrendous free throw session (two out of 22) as less reliable than broadcaster NBC's record with successful programmes.
2012: Re-election
While the Republican candidates for the presidency in 2012 were still battling in the primaries, Mr Obama singled out front-runner (and eventual nominee) Mitt Romney to compare educations. Two degrees from Harvard instead of one? "Snob" Mr Obama joked.
The president also opened his 2012 speech with a nod to the year before.
"In fact this very weekend last year, we finally delivered justice to one of the world's most notorious individuals."
Mr Obama had announced the death of Osama bin Laden the day after the 2011 Correspondents Dinner. But the picture on the screen behind him in 2012? Donald Trump.
2011: Long-form birth certificate
After Donald Trump pressed Mr Obama for his long-form birth certificate (three years after Mr Obama had been elected), Mr Obama did so, and then took it to Mr Trump at the 2011 dinner.
The businessman was in the audience - and he wasn't laughing.
2010: Bad 'ratings'
In year two of Mr Obama's administration, he noted his approval ratings were dropping from highs right after his election, but was still using material that referred back to the 2008 campaign.
The president also made reference to struggling banks and the US attempt to shore them up after a market crash. "All our jokes tonight are brought to you by Goldman Sachs," He said. "They make money whether you laugh or not."
2009: First Hundred Days
Mr Obama's first correspondents dinner came shortly after he had finished his first 100 days in office - a milestone which many campaigns use to fulfil promises.
He took the opportunity to remind people what the new Obama administration had already done - and make light of an expensive situation for the US - the government bailout of General Motors, a major automotive firm.
"Just last week, Car and Driver named me auto executive of the year," Mr Obama said.
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The number of companies contacting Scotland's national business advice service - Business Gateway - has fallen in the past year.
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A total of 9,083 start-up businesses used the service in 2018, down 0.5% on the previous year.
There was also a 6.8% drop in the number of so-called growth firms using the service, down from 3,166 to 2,951.
Business Gateway said the drop was the result of Brexit uncertainty and polarised position on global trade.
'Reduced investment'
The scheme, which is delivered by local authorities, is one of the main support systems for business in Scotland.
In its annual report, Business Gateway said half of the start-ups were led by women, while 7% were led by people from ethnic minorities.
Chairman Steven Heddle said: "Over the past year, the global economy has been dominated by the uncertainties arising from Brexit, polarised positions on world trade and diverging views on the important issue of climate change. That uncertainty seems to be playing out in reduced investment in growth by businesses."
He added: "It is good, therefore, to see Business Gateway continuing to deliver the support and make the connections which enable our businesses to realise their potential and achieve their ambitions."
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The inquest into the death of Hull student Libby Squire has been opened and adjourned.
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The 21-year-old's body was found in the Humber estuary on Wednesday, seven weeks after she went missing following a night out.
Giving evidence at Hull Coroner's Court, Det Supt Martin Smalley confirmed the case was being treated as a "homicide investigation".
Proceedings were adjourned pending further investigation.
The court heard that due to continued forensic investigations Ms Squire's body cannot yet be released to her family.
Det Supt Smalley said a man remained under investigation after being arrested on suspicion of abduction last month.
More than 500 people took part in a vigil on Monday at the University of Hull campus where Ms Squire was studying philosophy.
Her parents joined the crowd to observe a minute's silence.
Ms Squire, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, disappeared after a night out on 31 January.
Police believe she got a taxi from the Welly Club to her home in Wellesley Avenue at about 23:30 GMT.
She was spotted 10 minutes later on CCTV near a bench on Beverley Road, where it is thought a motorist stopped to offer her help.
Her body was recovered at around 15:30 on Wednesday close to Spurn Point, near Grimsby Docks.
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Theresa May is embarking on a second cabinet reshuffle in a week after Priti Patel resigned over her unauthorised meetings with Israeli officials.
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The international development secretary - who was in charge of the UK's foreign aid budget - admitted her actions "lacked transparency".
Mrs May is facing calls to replace her with another MP who voted for Brexit.
Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the PM would want to keep a "balance" of views on the EU in her top team.
He predicted she would not make "big changes" to the cabinet line-up and although Ms Patel's replacement would have to be "capable", their views on Britain's future relationship with the EU would also be a factor.
"We are all Brexiteers now," the leading Leave campaigner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"So the question is to what degree do you want someone in that job to be in support of (Brexit Secretary) David Davis and others, and I think therefore the balance on having strong Brexit views is one that in all probability the prime minister will certainly look for."
Ms Patel is the second cabinet minister to quit in the space of seven days, after Sir Michael Fallon resigned as defence secretary last week. He was replaced by one of Mrs May's closest allies, Gavin Williamson.
According to The Times, European Union leaders are preparing for the possible "fall of Theresa May before the new year" and either "a change of leadership or elections leading to a Labour victory".
Mr Duncan Smith said it was "a bit rich" for EU leaders to suggest Mrs May's position was precarious, at a time when the Netherlands and Germany faced difficulties forming governments, there was "chaos" in Italy and arrests of Catalonian separatists in Spain.
Priti Patel's difficulties began last week, when the BBC revealed Ms Patel arranged a number of private meetings with business and political figures during a family holiday to Israel in August.
It later emerged that after Ms Patel's visit to Israel, she asked her officials to look into whether Britain could support humanitarian operations conducted by the Israeli army in the occupied Golan Heights area.
But Foreign Office officials strongly advised against this as the need for humanitarian aid was greater elsewhere and giving aid to the military broke aid rules, BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale said.
Ms Patel, who has served as the Tory MP for Witham in Essex since 2010, was formally reprimanded in Downing Street on Monday and had to correct her initial media statements about the August meetings.
But on Wednesday two further meetings arranged without government officials present came to light, one with Israeli public security minister Gilad Erdan in Westminster early in September and one with Israeli foreign ministry official Yuval Rotem in New York.
Asked if Ms Patel had been foolish or had made a concerted attempt at freelance foreign policy, the BBC's James Landale told the Today programme: "I think it's pretty clear that the view within the government is there was an attempt to try to shape British policy within the Middle East."
Ms Patel was accused of breaching the ministerial code - which sets out the standards of conduct expected of government ministers.
In her resignation letter, she said: "While my actions were meant with the best of intentions, my actions also fell below the standards of transparency and openness that I have promoted and advocated."
In her reply, Mrs May said: ''As you know the UK and Israel are close allies, and it is right that we should work closely together. But that must be done formally, and through official channels.
''That is why, when we met on Monday I was glad to accept your apology and welcomed your clarification about your trip to Israel over the summer.
"Now that further details have come to light it is right you have decided to resign.''
Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested disgruntled Remainers could be behind the leak that led to the downfall of Ms Patel.
He told BBC's Newsnight that some people were "still very bitter" about the referendum result and "inevitably that colours their behaviour".
Meanwhile, Labour deputy leader Tom Watson has suggested there were more questions to answer: "I have been informed that while she was in Israel, Ms Patel met officials from the British consulate general Jerusalem, but that the fact of this meeting has not been made public.
"If this were the case, then it would surely be impossible to sustain the claim that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was not aware of Ms Patel's presence in Israel."
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Protesters who were prevented from accessing an HS2 drop-in event claim unnecessary force was used by security in blocking their entry.
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It is claimed a man suffered a back injury when he was "violently flung" during a "peaceful protest" at Bramley Parish Hall, Rotherham.
The event, on Friday, was to inform the public about proposed changes to the HS2 rail line route in the area.
HS2 said the event was closed "for a short while" due to crowd numbers.
Richard Dickinson said his shirt was ripped when he was grabbed by a security guard.
"He grabbed hold of me, pushed me against the wall into a door, scraped me across the wall and just chucked me into the people who were coming inside the building," Mr Dickinson said.
"It was totally out of order, we were protesting peacefully and this guy just suddenly lost his temper for no reason at all."
'Witnesses in tears'
A formal complaint was made and a statement was given to police.
Robert Foulds, clerk to Bramley Parish Council, wrote to the HS2 chairman claiming some witnesses were "in tears" when Mr Dickinson was "violently flung across the lobby".
The security firm, Churchill Security Ltd, said: "Our security staff are all highly trained and as a company we would never condone any inappropriate behaviour by any of our employees."
A spokesman for the firm said the security guard's conduct had been "vindicated" by police, but South Yorkshire Police said enquiries were ongoing.
An HS2 spokesperson said: "No restrictions were in place on those participating from the peaceful march from entering the event.
"However, due to the significant number of people, the room was simply not big enough to accommodate everyone inside the venue."
New route proposals see the HS2 line passing between Rotherham and Doncaster, with plans for a station in Meadowhall scrapped in favour of a stop in Sheffield city centre.
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When retired steelworker Phillip Dobbs started self-isolating in Tredegar during the coronavirus lockdown, he had nobody to turn to for help.
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By Chris WoodBBC News
A relative in Birmingham was so concerned they notified the police.
It was then they put him in touch with a group of volunteers that have now made 4,000 deliveries across Blaenau Gwent.
The Tredegar community taskforce has ensured people receive items including food, school meals and medicine.
After coronavirus started circulating in the UK, Mr Dobbs, 81, became "extremely nervous" about going out in public.
"They have helped me out of a very difficult situation", he said of help he has received.
With the work of NHS workers in the spotlight, Mr Dobbs also paid tribute to efforts in its founder's hometown, adding: "The spirit of Aneurin Bevan is alive and well in what these people are doing.
"I cannot thank them enough... I clap for these people every Thursday."
When lockdown began in March, it quickly became clear that Tredegar's Little Theatre would not be attracting large crowds for some time.
Rather than shut it down, members of a not-for-profit community projects team based there decided they would use the venue in a very different way.
Cymru Creations usually runs projects researching the area's history, including making educational films with schoolchildren.
But staff members Kevin Phillips, Alan Terrell, Richard Warner and Jay Sweeney - along with John Morgan -focused their skills on offering something very different locally.
The first job of the new taskforce was running errands for the 160 members of Tredegar's over-60s club.
Soon the town council got involved and leaflets were printed and sent to every house in the area.
From the original four, the team grew to 25 volunteers - they were soon fielding 200 calls a day from people asking for help.
The Little Theatre became the headquarters and was transformed with social distancing markers.
"It was clear by the first week that the taskforce was very much needed," said Mr Phillips.
"Soon the team were delivering all the free school meals for Tredegar Comprehensive, medicines and prescriptions for two of the local dispensing chemists, personal shopping, and supplying families in desperate need of support with free food parcels."
The effort was supported by local chapels, charities and organisations such as Cefn Golau Together and Sirhowy Community Centre, while Brace's Bakery, which is based a few miles away in the Gwent valleys, has been delivering 200 loaves every week for distribution.
The taskforce has now expanded across Blaenau Gwent, and is working with schools to distribute meals, education packs and sanitary towels.
With some volunteers working 15-hour days, Mr Phillips added: "What's amazing about this team of filmmakers, ex-teachers, steel industry workers, local councillors, and those who are self-employed, is how they have all risen to the challenge in a time of uncertainty and crisis.
"Every day the staff and volunteers continue to make deliveries and provide support to whoever requires our help."
At the beginning of May they completed the 3,500th delivery and hit 4,000 by the middle of the month.
Retired teacher and town mayor David Jones said: "It's truly humbling to see so many coming together to help the community.
"I am proud of our volunteers out helping so many."
The logistics are being co-ordinated by film student Ffion Cudlip and steel industry worker Jacqueline Thomas, who called efforts "truly humbling", adding: "We all feel we are serving and helping our community in these trying times."
People self-isolating have also praised the work, including Rhyanedd Price, 71, who said it was "like a lifeline to me".
Christine Jones, 64, said people like her had been helped "in their time of need" and Maria Phillips, 76 thanked volunteers for their "incredible help", adding: "I don't know how we would have managed."
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Sacked environment minister Alun Davies has apologised to his former civil servants after pressuring them for private information on opposition AMs.
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Mr Davies also says he supports First Minister Carwyn Jones, the man who fired him from his cabinet.
He was already under scrutiny over his handling of plans for a racing circuit in his Blaenau Gwent constituency.
The Welsh Conservatives leader has written to the Standards Commissioner about Alun Davies's behaviour.
Mr Davies had been told by his staff that the information he had requested on five AMs was not publicly available.
Despite this, he put pressure on them by asking again for it to be provided.
On Tuesday, he said he wanted to apologise to the civil servants "whom I placed in a very difficult situation".
He also said he was "sorry to be leaving government at this point in time," adding: "I will continue to support the first minister and the Welsh Labour government".
Mr Davies said his "focus in the future" would be his constituency.
The comments from the former minister were made in a statement, however Mr Davies rejected BBC Wales requests for an interview on Tuesday.
His portfolio has been divided up between three other ministers, and there are no plans to appoint another dedicated minister to his former role.
Tory AM Antoinette Sandbach - among those the Labour minister had sought private information on - described the handling of the issue as "scandalous".
During a heated exchange in the Senedd, First Minister Carwyn Jones said the actions were "poorly judged" and "inappropriate".
Opposition parties branded the minister's behaviour "disgraceful".
They accused Mr Davies of launching a "smear campaign" against political opponents and called for him to be removed from his position as an AM.
Mr Jones told AMs it was "quite wrong" that Mr Davies had made the information request.
But he rejected claims that the controversy had raised questions about his own judgement.
Mr Jones said his decision showed that 'the system works' and that the issue would not have come to light had the Welsh government not made it public.
Mr Davies previous ministerial duties have been divided between other ministers.
Rise and fall
As a minister, Alun Davies was never afraid to speak his mind, and that won him both political admirers and enemies.
BBC Wales' environment correspondent, Iolo ap Dafydd, takes a closer look at the background of the Blaenau Gwent AM.
Economy and Transport Minister Edwina Hart will look after agriculture, fisheries and food, Sport and Culture Minister John Griffiths has had environment added to his portfolio and Rebecca Evans is promoted from the backbenches to become deputy minister for agriculture and fisheries.
Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies called for an independent inquiry to examine whether such practice existed elsewhere in the Welsh government.
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said an independent adjudicator should look at alleged breaks in the ministerial code, saying it was wrong for the first minister "to act as judge and jury" on such matters .
Responding to his dismissal in a statement Mr Davies said: "I'm remaining absolutely focused on Blaenau Gwent. As I said when I was elected, Blaenau Gwent comes first, second and third."
Mr Davies, 51, was sacked after it emerged he had asked for details of farm subsidies paid to opposition AMs, including Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies and Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams.
He also asked for information on payments to the Conservative AM Antoinette Sandbach, Liberal Democrat William Powell and Plaid Cymru's Llyr Gruffydd.
Last week, the Blaenau Gwent AM apologised in the Senedd over a separate row in which he was judged to have broken the Ministerial Code while lobbying for a race track to be built in his constituency.
BBC Wales' political editor Nick Servini has been following the twists and turns as the ministerial sacking was announced.
He gave his view on what it all means for the first minister to BBC Wales Today's Jamie Owen.
Andrew RT Davies questioned Mr Davies' future as an AM.
"This, effectively, is gross misconduct, and we have today written to the standards commissioner, making the case that this person may not be a fit and proper person to hold elected office," he said.
He told BBC Radio Wales: "The first minister obviously had the opportunity to remove this minister last week. He didn't.
"He made the wrong call.
"This is a judgement call and ultimately I believe the only way we can get confidence back in the ministerial code is to remove the first minister from the ministerial code and have an independent arbitrator, which most people would say is fair and reasonable in a political environment."
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty William called Mr Davies's actions "atrocious" and "completely unacceptable for anyone serving in public office".
"The fact that Alun Davies used his ministerial office to start a smear campaign against those that dared to hold him to account is disgraceful," she added.
Already the opposition parties are calling for the way the ministerial code of conduct is overseen by the first minister to be overhauled.
Andrew RT Davies has written to the assembly's standards commissioner to raise his concerns.
Does this mark a sticky political patch for Carwyn Jones?
Welsh affairs editor Vaughan Roderick says the Welsh Labour leader may have lost his 'teflon' reputation.
Mr Gruffydd, Plaid Cymru's agriculture spokesman, said: "The public places great trust in our elected cabinet members and it is clear that Alun Davies played fast and loose with that trust.
He added: "Had Alun Davies had the courtesy to ask me in person if I received the single farm payment I would have answered him directly that I do not."
Alun Davies first tried to be elected to a Westminster seat in 1992, standing for Plaid Cymru in Blaenau Gwent, the seat he now represents as an AM.
He has previously been a lobbyist and a spokesman for the UK Atomic Energy Authority and S4C.
Elected to the assembly as a Mid and West Wales regional AM in 2007, he late gave up that seat to win back Blaenau Gwent for Labour.
Mr Davies backed Carwyn Jones for the Labour leadership and joined the cabinet as natural resources minister in March last year.
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Thomas Cook has said it is conducting a "strategic review" of its airline as it seeks to find funds to invest more in its hotels business.
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The travel firm stressed the review was at an early stage, but would consider "all options" including a sale.
The company's fleet of 103 jets is a mix of planes it owns and leases.
Airlines across Europe are struggling amid fierce competition. Budget airline Germania has filed for bankruptcy and Flybe needed rescuing last month.
In contrast, Thomas Cook's airline is largely profitable. It made earnings before financing costs and tax of £129m last year, although it reported a loss in the last three months of 2018.
News of a potential sale boosted the firm's shares by 13% in early trading.
The company said it needed "greater financial flexibility and increased resources" to invest in its own-brand hotels. The company wants more control over its hotels to make them more customisable, it says, such as offering a sunbed booking service.
Thomas Cook reported a wider operating loss in the three months to the end of December, up £14m from a year ago to £60m. Sales rose 1% to £1.66bn.
Lee Wild, head of equity strategy at Interactive Investor, said: "Net debt of £1.59bn is a millstone around Cook's neck, and it just does not have the money to make crucial and necessary improvements to the business."
If it wants to upgrade its hotels, it "explains the rationale" of potentially selling the airline business, he said.
Thomas Cook operates planes in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. Just under half of its airline seats are used by the tour operator's own customers, with the remainder sold to rivals and the public. A quarter of the fleet flies long-haul.
Norwegian loss
In a further sign of stress in the airline sector, Norwegian Air said on Thursday that its fourth-quarter loss had widened to $351m (£272m) from about $83m a year ago. The airline made a name for itself offering budget transatlantic flights, but it landed itself with high losses and large debts.
IAG, British Airways' owner, last month decided not to buy the firm, leading Norwegian to decide to raise funds from shareholders.
Earlier this week, Ryanair posted a net loss of €19.6m (£17.2m) for the last three months of the year, its first quarterly loss since March 2014.
While the company blamed too many airlines chasing too few passengers, costs may be the real problem, industry experts said.
Separately, shares in rival travel Tui sank 20% on Thursday after the company slashed its earnings forecast. blaming last year's "extraordinary hot weather" and the weak pound.
The firm said profits for the year to 30 September will be about €1.17bn, similar to last year. Previously it said 10% growth could be expected.
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Customers across Europe are getting broadband speeds 25% slower on average than that advertised by their service providers, a European Commission report says.
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The study suggests the average speed in Europe is 19.7Mbps.
Service providers routinely advertise speeds "up to" a certain amount, which most consumers will not get.
The EU wants to get all households on speeds of at least 30Mbps by the end of 2013 and half on 100Mbps by 2020.
Copper lines
The study analysed broadband speeds from nearly 10,000 households around Europe. It ran 75 million tests, generating three billion pieces of data.
Cable broadband services came the closest to advertised speeds, at 91.4%, while fibre users got 84.4% of advertised speeds.
Beefed-up ADSL services fared the worse - getting just 63.3% of advertised speeds.
This is because they are run on copper phone lines that offer slower speeds the further people live from the exchange.
The UK government has announced it wants to get fast broadband to 95% of the population by 2017 and will use wireless and 4G to extend this to 99% by 2018.
"Fast broadband is no longer a luxury and is now just as essential as a reliable electricity supply for UK consumers," said Dominic Baliszewski, from website broadbandchoices.
"We shall see exactly how realistic these targets are. With Ofcom putting current super-fast availability at 65% of the population, there is still a long way to go."
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Alistair Carmichael faces a "long road to recovery" after the leaking of a memo about Nicola Sturgeon, according to a Liberal Democrat colleague.
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Shetland MSP Tavish Scott said he felt "let down" by Mr Carmichael's actions.
However, he said his colleague should "walk that road" and continue as MP for Orkney and Shetland.
Mr Carmichael has faced calls to resign over the leak of the memo, which wrongly suggested that Ms Sturgeon wanted David Cameron as prime minister.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats have said that Mr Carmichael will not face any disciplinary action, and he has also won the support of his local party.
'Very disappointed'
The SNP have been calling on Mr Carmichael - the only remaining Lib Dem MP in Scotland - to consider his position.
An official Cabinet Office inquiry found he approved the leak of an official memo by his special adviser to a newspaper during the campaign.
The document, written by a civil servant in the Scotland Office, claimed Scotland's First Minister told the French Ambassador to the UK that she would prefer Mr Cameron as prime minister rather than Ed Miliband - comments Ms Sturgeon has always insisted she never made.
Mr Carmichael said the first he had heard of the memo was when he was contacted by a journalist.
He has since acknowledged that while he had not seen the document before it was published, he was aware of its content and agreed that it should be made public.
Mr Scott said on Wednesday that he was "very disappointed" by his colleague's actions.
'Political motivation'
He said: "We have worked together for 14 years for Shetland. People come to see both of us to solve problems. I too feel let down. No wonder many people across the islands do too.
"But Alistair's handling of this matter is not the Alistair I know."
He claimed there was a "political motivation" behind the calls for Mr Carmichael to resign.
And he added: "If he can demonstrate that he can get back to being a determined, effective local MP then people will accept that.
"Alistair has a long road to recovery with many people. But he should walk that road."
The executive committee of Shetland Liberal Democrats held a meeting on Tuesday night to discuss Mr Carmichael's involvement.
In a statement, it said members had expressed "surprise and disappointment at Alistair's actions and his lack of judgment.
"However, the members agreed that Alistair has rightly taken full responsibility and has apologised to all concerned, not least to the people of Orkney and Shetland.
"The members agreed that Alistair is an excellent constituency MP.
"He has achieved much for Shetland in the last 14 years, particularly during his five years in government, where his experience and expertise were used to great benefit for the Northern Isles.
"He has reinforced his commitment to carry on representing this constituency, as he was elected to do, and he retains the full confidence of the executive."
The parliamentary standards commissioner has received a number of complaints about Mr Carmichael's conduct and is considering whether they fall within her remit.
A member of the public has made a complaint to Police Scotland, who said inquiries were being carried out to establish whether there had been any criminality.
Meanwhile, an online fundraising campaign has been launched to raise money for legal representation to seek to overturn the election result in the seat.
It has reached more than half of its £60,000 target.
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Part of a tower and bridge at a brutalist bus station likened to the "mouth of hell" are to be removed by crane.
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The work, due to start on 16 January, is part of the demolition of Northampton's Greyfriars bus station and office building.
Lady's Lane will be closed for three days while the work takes place.
The destruction of the 1970s building will be completed in March when it will be flattened using explosives.
The process of decommissioning and demolishing Greyfriars started in 2013. Tons of material has already been removed in preparation for its demolition.
The bus station was due to be demolished by the end of 2014 but the discovery of higher than anticipated levels of asbestos found in the site pushed the date back.
'Unwelcoming sight'
Costing more than £40m in today's money, the 1970s building has been the subject of ridicule for decades as an over-ambitious example of bad planning
It was derided by Channel 4 presenter and designer Kevin McCloud as "like a great big mouth of hell".
The crane will work on the north side of the building to remove part of the tower and bridge.
Northampton Borough Council leader David Mackintosh said the demolition will create a "huge development opportunity".
He said: "The unwelcoming sight of Greyfriars will soon be removed from our skyline as the land is prepared for a bright new future."
The road will shut from 19:00 GMT on Friday, 16 January until 18:00 GMT on Monday, 19 January.
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Families of four soldiers killed in Iraq must wait to hear whether a High Court judge will allow them to seek compensation from the government.
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Pte Lee Ellis, of Greater Manchester, Lance Cpl Kirk Redpath, of Essex, Cpl Stephen Allbutt and Pte Phillip Hewett, of Staffs, died in separate incidents.
Relatives said the MoD failed to provide armoured vehicles or equipment which could have saved lives.
MoD lawyers have asked a judge to stop compensation claims going forward.
They said decisions about battlefield equipment are for politicians and military commanders.
Improvised bombs
Mr Justice Owen has reserved judgment after hearing arguments from all sides during a three-day hearing at the High Court in London.
Lawyers said he was unlikely to rule for at least a month.
The judge heard compensation claims had been made after a British Challenger tank opened fire on another British Challenger tank when an officer became "disorientated", and other incidents in which soldiers died after Snatch Land Rovers hit improvised bombs.
Cpl Allbutt, 35, of Sneyd Green, Stoke-on-Trent, was killed by "friendly fire" in March 2003 after his Challenger 2 tank was hit by another Challenger 2 tank.
Pte Hewett, 21, of Tamworth, died in July 2005 after a Snatch Land Rover was blown up.
'Reasonable steps'
Similar explosions claimed the lives of Pte Ellis, 23, of Wythenshawe, in February 2006 and Lance Cpl Redpath, 22, of Romford, in August 2007.
Solicitor Jocelyn Cockburn, who is representing relatives of soldiers killed after Snatch Land Rovers blew up, spoke outside court.
The solicitor said there was "nothing unreasonable or disproportionate" in asking ministers to take "reasonable steps" to protect soldiers from known risks.
Solicitor Shubhaa Srinivasan, who is representing Cpl Allbutt's widow Debi, said: "The tragedy happened because of a long-standing failure by the MoD to provide technological equipment."
James Eadie QC, for the MoD, asked the judge to "strike out" the claims.
He told the court: "Should the court decide this issue? My submission is plainly not.
"They are political decisions, not legal decisions."
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London could become the world's first "national park city" by 2019, under plans set out by the city's mayor.
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Sadiq Khan has unveiled a £9m greener city fund to help improve green spaces for communities, as he launched his draft environment strategy for the capital.
The funding will help make more than 50% of the capital's area green by 2050, he said.
Overall, 47% of London is currently green space.
Proposals include:
There are also plans to tackle air pollution and make London a "zero-carbon" city (producing a zero net of carbon emissions) by 2050.
Unveiling the draft strategy at Woodberry Wetlands, north London, Mr Khan said: "London is home to outstanding green spaces that I want to protect, invest in and improve as we aim to become the world's first National Park City.
"We can also increase the amount of greenery in the city by installing many more green roofs and making our streets greener."
Under the plans, a "challenge map" will highlight areas that should be priorities for green infrastructure investment.
Analysis: Tom Edwards, BBC transport correspondent
The national park city is really a new policy badge on an environment strategy to emphasise what the mayor wants London to look like and where his long-term priorities lie.
It's an unusual concept and it has already been dismissed as a meaningless slogan.
But City Hall says the strategy will emphasise and prioritise London's green credentials and make it easier to protect and increase green space.
Planning regulations will encourage green roofs and green walls for example and cleaning London's air will be a priority.
These are very early days - it's not clear yet what the criteria for a national park city are and who will decide them.
And it faces many challenges, not least increasing green space when there is a huge demand for new housing.
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Rare plants on the Welsh coastline are in danger of becoming extinct because of the way sand dunes have changed.
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By Nick DermodyBBC Wales News website
Experts say many types of orchids have disappeared because dunes have become more stable, eliminating the conditions necessary for some species to flourish.
They fear species relying on sand dune movement as part of their lifecycle have fewer opportunities to reproduce.
Plants such as fen orchids thrive on bare areas of damp ground left behind by moving sand blown by the wind.
A project is now being launched to halt the decline.
Plant experts are meeting to discuss how dunes at Kenfig Burrows, in Bridgend county, can be encouraged to "remobilise".
The shoreline location nature reserve is the last of seven sites around the Bristol Channel to host a particular variety of wild fen orchid.
Experts say the site has just 400 plants, while in the 1980s the orchid's overall population was nearer 100,000.
The Countryside Council for Wales is hosting a workshop on Tuesday to combat the "over-stabilisation" of sand dunes in Wales as a way to boost wildflower diversity.
Unstable systems
The Plantlife Cymru charity is leading the project to restore dune mobility, so that more open patches of sand are created and ground nearby is disturbed more often.
Just 2% of the dune system at Kenfig nature reserve is now bare sand, down from about 40% in the mid 1940s, according to the charity.
Landscape conservation manager Andy Byfield said: "Sand dunes are complex, unstable systems that are naturally mobile, supporting a specialist flora that prefers the bare, calcium-rich sand.
"Normally, when the sand blows away, it blows down to damp ground and then stabilises. It's those bare bits of damp sand that the fen orchid would have colonised.
"We're trying to replicate on a small scale some of those bare damp bits of sand that it so likes.
"We know from aerial photographs that in the 1940s nearly half of Kenfig Burrows was open, bare sand.
"It shows just how much the place has become overgrown and heavily vegetated.
Declining species
"Sadly some wild flowers and other coastal dune plants have declined drastically, some have already gone extinct."
Mr Byfield said the partnership of environmental groups hoped to see an increase in fen orchid numbers at the location, managed by Bridgend council, in five or six years.
As well as fen orchid, other declining species which would benefit would include round-leaved wintergreen, marsh helleborine and early marsh orchid, he added.
If the trial management work at Kenfig proves successful, it will allow similar strategies to be recommended at other sites around the Bristol Channel, said Mr Byfield.
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Virgin Media has suspended four members of staff and begun an investigation after it admitted overstating the expansion of its superfast broadband network, dubbed Project Lightning.
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According to parent company Liberty Global, Virgin Media originally said it had connected 465,000 new premises in the UK and Ireland in 2016.
But following a review, that number has been revised down to 314,000.
Liberty said Virgin had exaggerated how fast it could complete the connections.
In a regulatory filing, the US company explained that - under Virgin's own reporting standards - the figures included premises where installation work was "essentially complete" but not actually finished.
That included 142,000 sites that had been expected to be connected during the first three months of 2017.
However, Liberty said that in late February 2017, it had discovered that "the construction work necessary to connect a substantial number of [these premises] had not progressed as originally understood".
This prompted it to carry out a review, in which it found "the completion status" of some premises had been "misrepresented".
Liberty also said Virgin Media had "inadvertently" classified a further 9,000 unfinished premises as connected, when they had not been.
Dan Howdle, a consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk, told the BBC: "Clearly the way in which the numbers had been reported failed to preclude the possibility of jumping the gun, though there is no evidence an intent to mislead lay behind it."
He added: "Virgin Media appears to be dealing with the issue decisively, though mistakes resulting in stories of this nature are unlikely to leave a brand completely unscathed."
Four Virgin Media employees have been suspended in connection with Liberty's investigation and could face disciplinary action "including dismissal".
The company said the setback would affect the total number of premises Virgin Media connected during the first half of 2017.
However, it said it had taken steps to speed up Project Lightning, including appointing a new managing director, Robert Evans, to lead the scheme.
It also said Virgin would no longer include uncompleted connections in its figures.
Launched in 2015, Virgin's Project Lightning is designed to connect about four million more UK homes and businesses to broadband speeds of 300Mbs.
By the end of December it had reached 567,000 premises in total - down from the 718,000 previously reported.
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The SNP's Westminster leader has said he expects a "positive" outcome following talks with RBS officials over plans to close dozens of bank branches.
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Ian Blackford said "good progress" had been made in discussions, and he was hopeful a breakthrough could be found.
It comes after RBS revealed plans to close 62 Scottish branches, including some in remote and rural communities.
Last month senior officials from the bank told a Westminster committee that they stood by the move.
State-owned RBS has insisted it is responding to changes in customer behaviour, including a rise in digital banking.
The bank declined to comment on Mr Blackford's position.
Mr Blackford, who is MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, told the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland programme that he had had a number of conversations and meetings with Royal Bank of Scotland over the last few weeks.
He said he was "pleased to say that good progress has been made and I expect a positive announcement".
'Positive engagement'
He continued: "I have been encouraged by the positive nature of the talks that we have been having.
"These talks are ongoing but I hope that we are very close to a resolution that can give some hope to a number of communities that Royal Bank of Scotland branches can remain open.
"We have had very positive engagement."
He added: "I know that others have been involved as well - for example the Scottish (affairs) select committee.
"We are at the stage that in principle that we recognise that something has to be done in order to keep a number of bank branches open, but I want to wait until we are in a position that a formal announcement can be made."
Committee 'undermined'
Speaking on the same programme, Conservative MP Colin Clark, whose Gordon constituency is set to lose several RBS branches, accused Mr Blackford of "undermining" the work of the all-party Scottish affairs select committee.
He added: "It would appear that Ian Blackford is trying the take the headlines for this, whilst that committee has taken the lead on it.
"It is a bit of a reflection on Ian Blackford's security of his leadership."
Labour's shadow Scottish Secretary Lesley Laird, said there should be "no back room deals done with RBS".
She added: "I am astounded that Ian Blackford is cutting across a live investigation being undertaken by the Scottish select committee into RBS and its proposals to close vital high-street bank branches."
"The integrity of the select committee should not be undermined and if RBS is rethinking its position on closures then Ross McEwan (RBS chief executive) should come before the select committee and explain that, openly and transparently in the proper democratic fashion."
On the Sunday Politics Scotland programme, Mr Blackford was also asked about the SNP deputy leader role which was vacated on Saturday by Angus Robertson who announced he was stepping down.
The party's Westminster leader refused to be drawn on whether he would put himself forward for the job.
"What I'll be doing this week is getting back to my job in Westminster, leading the SNP group," he said.
"Of course I will reflect with colleagues over the coming days, but I am certainly content with the job that I have at the moment and it's one that I am very privileged to do."
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In Wael Ghonim, Egypt's anti-Mubarak street movement finally found a hero to rally around after a period of leaderless protest.
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The Egyptian-born Google marketing executive first played a role in organising the opposition through Facebook, only to disappear into police custody for 12 days.
Emerging again, he denied he had done anything heroic at all, instead paying tribute to the young activists who had been on the streets since 25 January.
But his return to the public eye - marked by an emotional TV interview on 7 February which gripped Egyptian viewers - re-energised the movement just as it seemed to be losing steam.
The fact that hundreds of thousands of protesters returned to the streets of Cairo the day after he spoke testifies to his appeal.
He was hailed on Facebook and Twitter as a hero, Egyptian blogger Issandr el-Amrani noted.
"You know how this has been a leaderless movement and they're saying they want to designate him as a leader of the youth component in this movement," Mr Amrani told the BBC World Service.
Cyber activist
Mr Ghonim walked free after a campaign waged by Google on behalf of its marketing manager for the Middle East and North Africa.
The search engine giant may not have been aware that its Dubai-based manager had been running a popular Facebook page, with 400,000 Egyptian followers, outside of office hours, BBC technology correspondent Mark Gregory reports.
Named after Khaled Said, a businessman who died in police custody in Alexandria last year, the page played a crucial role in organising the protests.
The "We are all Khaled Said" website became a rallying point for a campaign against police brutality. For many Egyptians, it revealed details of the extent of torture in their country.
The 30-year-old executive says he was blindfolded for most of his time in custody, threatened with torture but not actually hurt.
Soon after being freed, he appeared live on one of Egypt's most watched talk shows, on the Dream 2 television channel.
"This is the revolution of the youth of the internet, which became the revolution of the youth of Egypt, then the revolution of Egypt itself," he said.
"I'm not a hero, I slept for 12 days," he continued.
"The heroes, they're the ones who were in the street, who took part in the demonstrations, sacrificed their lives, were beaten, arrested and exposed to danger."
He was shown video of some of those who had died during the protests, events he was seeing for the first time.
He burst into tears, insisting it was the fault of the authorities, not the campaigners, and left the studio - a human response that provoked a wave of sympathy.
"Ghonim's tears have moved millions and turned around the views of those who supported [Mubarak] staying," the website masrawy.com wrote two hours after the interview.
At least 130,000 people have joined a Facebook page titled "I delegate Wael Ghonim to speak in the name of Egypt's revolutionaries" since the interview, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Patriot
Addressing the giant rally on Tahrir Square on 8 February, Mr Ghonim declared: "We won't give up."
Fifi Shawqi, a 33-year-old upper-class housewife, said she had come to the square with her three daughters and sister for the first time after seeing the interview with Mr Ghonim, whom she had never heard of before the TV appearance.
"I felt like he is my son and all the youth here are my sons," she told AP.
During his TV interview, the Google executive came over as a passionate Egyptian patriot, who even expressed some empathy for the officers who had interrogated him because they, too, seemed to love their country.
"They were 100% convinced that foreigners are behind us, that someone manipulates and finances us," he said.
"But if I was a traitor I would have stayed in my villa with my swimming pool in the Emirates. We are not traitors."
Google issued a statement welcoming its employee's release, without commenting on his political role.
Mr Ghonim has thanked Google for its support, explaining that he tricked the corporation into allowing him to return to Egypt from Dubai last month, citing a "personal problem".
It is not yet clear what, if any, political ambitions the young executive harbours, beyond "putting an end to all the rubbish" in Egypt.
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Culture changes are needed at a fire service in order to rebuild trust in the organisation, a report has said.
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An investigation has taken place at Gloucestershire Fire Service after its former chief fire officer resigned over the sale of a Land Rover in July.
Audit Risk Assurance (ARA) was appointed to follow up on a number of whistle-blowing claims.
Gloucestershire County Council, which runs the service, said it has already begun acting on the recommendations.
Ex-chief fire officer Stewart Edgar stepped down from his role after he auctioned a "surplus" vehicle worth up to £8,000 for £500, then bought it himself, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
A council probe, triggered by a whistleblower, found Mr Edgar had demonstrated "poor judgement" over the sale of the Land Rover Discovery.
At the time of his resignation Mr Edgar told staff he was standing down to "give time to my family".
Recommendations from the ARA investigation include:
Council chief executive Peter Bungard said confidence in the GFRS must be "robust" behind the scenes.
He added: "Where a colleague raises a concern, they can be confident that it will be taken seriously and appropriately investigated.
"I have made this point to the service and indeed the wider organisation and encourage anyone to speak up, if they think something isn't right."
The council's audit and governance committee will meet on 12 October to discuss the report.
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Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino said on Sunday that a US plane had violated the South American country's airspace.
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Speaking on television, Gen Padrino said the plane had entered Venezuelan airspace near the Los Monjes archipelago on the Caribbean coast.
The general alleged that the plane belonged to the US Coast Guard.
But a US Coast Guard spokesman said none of their planes had been in the area at the time.
'Not ours'
"If there is an aircraft, it's not ours," Chief Warrant Officer Chad Saylor told Agence France Press news agency.
He also called the Venezuelan allegation "unfounded".
But Gen Padrino was adamant that the plane had "made circular search patterns and continued going southbound (...) violating Venezuelan airspace".
Ties between the United States and Venezuela have improved since reaching a low point in March 2015, when the US imposed sanctions on a number of Venezuelan officials for alleged human rights abuses.
However, Venezuela has repeatedly accused the US of meddling in its affairs.
Critics of the Venezuelan government say that officials are trying to stoke patriotic fervour ahead of legislative elections on 6 December.
President Nicolas Maduro said he would denounce what he called "unusual and extraordinary provocations" at the United Nations and other international bodies.
"Venezuela won't be cowed, Venezuela is standing up and building its own political, economic and social model, and no one should meddle with that," he said.
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The alarm on Mitsubishi's Outlander hybrid car can be turned off via security bugs in its on-board wi-fi, researchers have found.
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The loophole could mean thieves who exploit the bugs gain time to break into and steal a vehicle.
The vulnerability can also be used to fiddle with some of the car's settings and drain its battery.
Mitsubishi recommended that users turn off the wi-fi while it investigates the issues with the system.
Helping thieves
Security expert Ken Munro said the investigation started when he was waiting to collect his children from school and noticed an unusual wi-fi access point pop up on a list on his smartphone.
He realised it was on a nearby Mitsubishi Outlander that belonged to a friend who then showed him the associated app and how it could be used to control some aspects of the vehicle.
"I got playing with it and soon realised it was vulnerable so I stopped," he told the BBC.
Mr Munro then bought an Outlander and set about investigating how the car's owner communicates with their vehicle via the app.
Many other car makers use a web-based service that supports apps for connected cars so owners can lock them remotely or otherwise control them. Typically, commands sent to a car pass through these servers before being sent to the car over the mobile network.
By contrast, Mitsubishi has decided to only let apps talk to cars via the onboard wi-fi. Unfortunately, said Mr Munro, there were serious shortcomings with the way the wi-fi has been set up.
To begin with, said Mr Munro, the format for the name of the access point on the car is very distinct. This has led to the location of many Mitsubishi hybrids being logged on websites that gather the names of access points.
"Some were spotted while driving and others when parked at their owner's house," wrote Mr Munro in a blog outlining his findings. "A thief or hacker can therefore easily locate a car that is of interest to them."
Short-term fix
Although Mr Munro owned the vehicle, he and his colleagues at Pen Test Partners security firm carried out their investigation as if they had no special access to it. This involved using well-known techniques that let the researchers interpose themselves between car and owner and watch data as it flowed between the two.
The team used this access to replay commands sent to an Outlander allowing them to flash the lights, tweak its charging settings and drain the battery.
Mr Munro said he was "shocked" to find out that he could also turn off the car alarm via this replay attack.
A thief who is sure the alarm could not go off would have plenty of time to use other techniques to unlock a car and gain entry, he said.
A history of car hacking
The Mitsubishi Outlander is the latest in a series of cars that have been found wanting when it comes to security.
Chrysler's 2014 Jeep Cherokee, the Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf have all been shown to be vulnerable to hack attacks of different degrees of severity.
The most startling was the attack staged on the Jeep which allowed the researchers to take control of the vehicle remotely. The discovery led to 1.4 million vehicles being recalled for a software update.
Security researchers fear that the more cars get connected to phones and the web, the more holes will be found.
But car makers are always playing catch-up when it comes to security as it takes far longer to develop a vehicle than it does to find, expose and share the flaws in their onboard computer systems.
"Once unlocked, there is potential for many more attacks," he said. "The on-board diagnostics port is accessible once the door is unlocked."
Access to the diagnostics port could allow thieves to connect customised hardware that would let them start the car, suggested Mr Munro.
A demonstration of the problems with the on-board wi-fi was given to Mitsubishi in the UK on 3 June where the bugs were shown to still work on the latest version of the app.
Mr Munro said he had been impressed by the cooperation he had received from Mitsubishi in exploring the bugs and seeking ways to fix them.
In a statement, Mitsubishi said: "This hacking is a first for us as no other has been reported anywhere else in the world."
It said it "took the matter seriously" and was keen to get Mr Munro talking to its engineers in Japan to understand what he found and how it could be remedied.
It added that although the bugs were "obviously disturbing" the hack only affected the car's app and would give an attacker limited access to the vehicle's systems.
"It should be noted that without the remote control device, the car cannot be started and driven away," it said.
While Mitsubishi investigated it recommended that owners deactivate their onboard wi-fi via the "cancel VIN Registration" option on the app or by using the remote app cancellation procedure.
A longer-term fix would require some action from Mitsubishi, said Mr Munro.
"New firmware should be deployed urgently to fix this problem properly, so the mobile app can still be used," he said.
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A dispute over wage protection for more than 13,000 Welsh farm workers is being heard in the Supreme Court.
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Assembly members passed a law last year to set minimum wages, and the terms and conditions, of agricultural workers after the UK government abolished a board regulating the sector.
UK Attorney General Dominic Grieve blocked the law, saying it was not within the assembly's powers.
The court hearing into the Agricultural Sector Bill is due to last two days.
The Supreme Court's role includes hearing cases of public or constitutional importance.
The row follows a decision by the UK government to abolish the Agricultural Wages Board (AWB), established in 1949 to set the minimum rates of pay and other terms and conditions of employment for agricultural workers in England and Wales.
The UK government argues that removing the board would enable the industry to adopt flexible working practices and help ensure a sustainable and viable future for agriculture.
Opponents of the board's abolition say the move could deepen rural poverty by allowing pay cuts for thousands of rural workers, for whom living costs can be high.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own wages board.
The Welsh government opposed the abolition of the 65-year-old board, but was told by Whitehall it was not a devolved matter.
'Important questions'
Last August the attorney general wrote to the assembly raising objections to the passing of its Agricultural Sector Bill.
"I am not convinced that the bill is within the National Assembly's competence and I have therefore decided to refer it to the Supreme Court," he wrote.
"I hope that this reference will give us clarity in respect of important questions about the breadth of the National Assembly's competence."
In response, the Welsh government defended its bill saying it would "encourage new entrants into the agricultural industry and will help the sector to enhance and retain important skills in order to ensure the future prosperity of the sector".
Abolition of the AWB has divided farming unions, with the Farmers' Union of Wales saying the board was "vital" while the National Farmers' Union thought it "outdated and unnecessary".
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A male leopard that mauled six people at a school in India before it was captured has escaped its enclosure, officials said.
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The eight-year-old leopard strayed into a closed school in Bangalore on 7 February, injuring several people before being tranquilised.
It was taken to Bannerghatta National Park for medical treatment but on Sunday broke out of its cage.
But officials said there was no cause for public alarm.
"It is a myth that a leopard can turn into a man-eater. It's a very remote exception to the rule. On this count, there is no need for worry," Ravi Ralph, chief wildlife warden in the south Indian state of Karnataka, told BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi.
However, as a precautionary measure, forest officials have started visiting villages located along the periphery of the park to advise people not to panic.
Officials said the leopard escaped when attendants opened the cage to feed it, possibly when the cage door was not properly shut.
"They say that it could have got out through a gap in the railing. There is a lot of incongruity in the statements made by the staff there. So, we have ordered an inquiry. We should know the details in the next two or three days," Mr Ralph said.
The escape came one week after the leopard broke into the school in the Kundalahalli area.
A scientist and a forestry employee were among those mauled as it was cornered close to a swimming pool.
It took forest and police officials 12 hours to capture the animal.
A recent wildlife census estimates that India has a leopard population of between 12,000 and 14,000.
Leopards and other big cats have been known to stray into populated areas, and conservationists have warned that such confrontations may increase as humans encroach on animal habitats.
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Up to half of Suffolk's children's centres could close as part of a wide-ranging review of public services, the BBC has learnt.
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Suffolk County Council is reviewing the future of its 38 remaining centres.
Campaigner Anne Humphrys said the facilities, which offer advice, support and play sessions for pre-schoolers, provided a "lifeline" for parents.
The Tory-run council said its review aimed to provide "co-ordinated support for children in need".
Ms Humphrys, co-chair of Suffolk Parent Carer Network, said: "Families tell us that children's centres are often a very real lifeline to them.
"Parents have told us how they have stopped them being isolated, enabled them to access the right services and bond with their children."
Parent Victoria Proctor criticised plans which could see closures.
"It's quite disgusting children's centres are being targeted," she said.
"If you can't support families, who can you support?"
'True family model'
Children's Centres, originally called Sure Start Centres, were built by the last Labour government for vulnerable families, but were then opened up to all parents.
Suffolk originally had 47, but nine were closed during a round of cuts under the Conservatives in 2015.
One of the options being considered is to close up to half of the centres, while another is to keep them all open.
"We see this as an opportunity to develop a new family service offer and ensure any potential model of delivery provides co-ordinated support for children in need and their families," a council spokesman said.
"Therefore, a review of the current children's centre offer is required.
"This is to ensure we can meet the aspirations of a true family model whilst maintaining a relevant presence and offer to meet the needs of vulnerable families."
In January, Norfolk County Council rubber-stamped the closure of 38 of its 53 centres as part of a £5m package of cuts.
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Two scientists have won the Nobel prize in physics for their work on the theory of the Higgs boson.
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By James MorganScience reporter, BBC News
Peter Higgs, from the UK, and Francois Englert from Belgium, share the prize.
In the 1960s, they were among several physicists who proposed a mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe have mass.
The mechanism predicts a particle - the Higgs boson - which was finally discovered in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, in Switzerland.
"This year's prize is about something small that makes all the difference," said Staffan Normark, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
'On holiday'
Prof Higgs is renowned for shying away from the limelight, and he could not be located for interview in the immediate aftermath of the announcement.
"He's gone on holiday without a phone," his Edinburgh University physics colleague Alan Walker told the BBC, adding that Higgs had also been unwell.
"He is taking a break from all of this, taking some time to relax, because he knows when he comes back he'll have to face up to a media storm."
But the university released a prepared statement from Higgs, 84, who is an emeritus professor of theoretical physics:
"I am overwhelmed to receive this award and thank the Royal Swedish Academy," he said.
"I would also like to congratulate all those who have contributed to the discovery of this new particle and to thank my family, friends and colleagues for their support.
"I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research."
Francois Englert, 80, said he was "very happy" to win the award, speaking at the ceremony via phone link.
"At first I thought I didn't have [the prize] because I didn't see the announcement," he told the committee, after their news conference was delayed by more than an hour.
Higgs was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, but it was in Edinburgh in 1964 that he had his big idea - an explanation of why the matter in the Universe has substance, or mass.
His theory involved a missing particle in the Standard Model of physics, which has come to be known as the Higgs boson.
Within weeks, Francois Englert had independently published his own, similar theory, alongside his now deceased colleague Robert Brout.
Three other physicists - Gerald Guralnik, Tom Kibble and Carl Hagen - also made key contributions to the theory, and spoke at the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.
Hagen has long argued for the name of the particle to be changed, protesting at the .
And Higgs, too, has expressed his discomfort with the attention he has received, preferring to call the particle "the scalar boson".
In a statement on Tuesday, Kibble, of Imperial College London, said he was "glad" the Nobel prize had gone to the work of Higgs and Englert.
"My two collaborators, Gerald Guralnik and Carl Hagen, and I contributed to that discovery, but our paper was unquestionably the last of the three to be published.
"It is therefore no surprise that the Swedish Academy felt unable to include us, constrained as they are by a self-imposed rule that the prize cannot be shared by more than three people.
"My sincere congratulations go to the two prize winners, Francois Englert and Peter Higgs."
And the renowned physicist Prof Stephen Hawking added his praise: "In the early 60s, theorists were struggling to understand why particles have mass. Peter Higgs and Francois Englert proposed a mechanism called symmetry breaking. This mechanism also predicted a massive particle, the Higgs boson. The discovery last year at Cern of a particle with the correct properties confirms this prediction and is a triumph for theory."
Proving the theory correct took almost half a century and involved creating the biggest and most sophisticated machine humankind has ever built.
The LHC at Cern lies in a circular tunnel 27km (17 miles) round. It is so big it is partly in Switzerland, partly in France. It took 10 years and thousands of scientists and engineers to build it.
Cern director general Rolf Heuer said he was "thrilled" that this year's prize had gone to particle physics.
"The discovery of the Higgs boson at Cern... marks the culmination of decades of intellectual effort by many people around the world," he commented.
The Nobel prizes - which also cover chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics - are valued at 8m Swedish krona (£775,000; $1.2m). Laureates also receive a medal and a diploma.
The official citation for Englert and Higgs read: "For the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the Atlas and CMS experiments at Cern's Large Hadron Collider".
David Willetts, UK minister for universities and science, said the award was "an incredible endorsement of the quality of UK science".
Prime Minister David Cameron said: "This brilliant achievement is richly deserved recognition of Peter Higgs' lifetime of dedicated research and his passion for science.
"It is also a credit to the world-leading British universities in which this research was carried out.
"It took nearly 50 years and thousands of great minds to discover the Higgs boson after Prof Higgs proposed it, and he and all those people should be extremely proud."
Best explanation of Higgs boson?
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Denmark has triumphed at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Swedish city of Malmo.
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Emmelie de Forest, 20, had been the overwhelming favourite among the 26 entries, with her song Only Teardrops. Azerbaijan finished second.
The UK's Bonnie Tyler came 19th, an improvement on last year when Engelbert Humperdinck came second from last.
There was disappointment for Ireland's Ryan Dolan as he finished in last place with just five points.
De Forest won with 281 points and Azerbaijan's Farid Mammadov finished 47 points behind, followed by Ukraine in third and Norway in fourth.
Denmark, which will now have the job of hosting the 59th contest next year, had previously won in 1963 and 2000.
'It's amazing'
De Forest sang her up-tempo tune barefoot, saying before she performed: "It makes me feel closer to the ground, the earth and makes me feel more relaxed."
At the post-event news conference, she told reporters: "It has been quite stressful but it's also a wonderful thing that has happened to me. It's amazing.
"It was crazy when they put the butterfly [of the winning country's flag] on the dress. I didn't understand we had won at that point."
She added: "Of course I believed in the song, but that's the exciting thing about Eurovision you don't know what's going to happen. So I was surprised and shocked when it happened."
TV viewers across Europe were treated to the mix of high-energy pop and power ballads that have become synonymous with the contest, as well as some outlandish stage performances.
One of the more eccentric acts was Romania's Cezar, who mixed his operatic voice with a disco beat. He managed a respectable 13th position.
'Ready to party'
UK entrant Tyler, 61, who is best known for her 1983 hit Total Eclipse of the Heart, had high hopes for her chances.
But the Welsh singer scored just 23 points for her performance of Believe In Me.
Speaking afterwards, Tyler said that despite her final score the experience had been "a night to remember".
She said: "I got the feeling tonight that I got at the Grammy awards.
"I'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed on my behalf but I have really enjoyed my Eurovision experience.
"I did the best that I could do with a great song. I don't feel down and I'm ready to party."
Johnny Logan, the three-time Eurovision winner who represented Ireland, said the UK's entries had not been strong enough in recent years.
"I think over the years it's been slated so much in England and Ireland that the best writers don't take part in it any more. That's the reality," he said.
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Scottish novelist and poet Nan Shepherd will feature on the Royal Bank of Scotland's new £5 note when it comes into circulation later this year.
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The announcement came as the bank unveiled the designs for its new £5 and £10 polymer notes.
Scientist Mary Somerville had already been selected for the £10 note, which is due to enter into circulation next year.
They will be the first women to appear on the bank's main issue notes.
The decision to feature Aberdeen-born Ms Shepherd, who died in 1981, was taken by the RBS Scotland board.
Ms Somerville had already been chosen by the bank, despite finishing second to Thomas Telford in a public vote.
Who was Nan Shepherd?
Nan Shepherd was born in the village of Cults on the outskirts of Aberdeen.
In 1915, she graduated from Aberdeen University and spent the next four decades at Aberdeen College of Education, where she taught teachers how to teach.
Between 1920 and 1933, she published three novels set in small rural communities in north east Scotland.
The Scottish landscape and weather featured prominently in her novels and poetry.
She also wrote a non-fiction book on hillwalking - the Living Mountain - based on her experiences of walking in the Cairngorms.
The reverse of the £5 note features two mackerel, the Scottish fishing industry's single most valuable stock, as well as an excerpt from Sorley MacLean's poem The Choice.
Behind the portrait sits a picture of the Cairngorms, which she celebrated in her writing, as well as a quote from her book The Living Mountain.
The £10 note shows two otters at play on the reverse and an excerpt from the poem 'Moorings' by Norman MacCaig.
Burntisland Beach, where Mary Somerville lived as a child, features behind the portrait, along with a quote from her work The Connection of the Physical Sciences.
RBS Scotland board chairman Malcolm Buchanan said: "I am delighted that we have been able to involve the public throughout this process; from the workshops and surveys that helped to decide on the theme, right through to the public vote that resulted in Mary Somerville being chosen to feature on the £10 note.
"People in Scotland will be using this money every day and it is quite right that they got to play an important role in designing it. This truly is the people's money.
"The Royal Bank of Scotland has never before featured a woman on its main issue bank notes.
"It gives me enormous pleasure that we are able to celebrate the fantastic, and often overlooked, achievements of two great Scottish women. Both made huge contributions in their respective fields."
'Blazingly brilliant'
Robert Macfarlane, writer and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, welcomed the choice of Ms Shepherd for the £5 note.
He said: "It is thrilling to see Nan Shepherd celebrated and commemorated in this way.
"Nan was a blazingly brilliant writer, a true original whose novels, poems and non-fiction broke new ground in Scottish literature, and her influence lives on powerfully today."
Ms Shepherd and Ms Somerville are the latest women to feature on main issue bank notes.
Last month the US Treasury announced that anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman would be the first woman to appear on a US bank note for more than a century.
Ms Tubman, who was born a slave in about 1820 and helped hundreds of others escape, will feature on the new $20 bill.
On Friday, the Bank of England revealed that artist JMW Turner and his painting The Fighting Temeraire will feature on the new design of its £20 note, to enter circulation in 2020.
The note, to be made of polymer, will eventually replace the current £20 note featuring the economist Adam Smith.
The choice means all but one Bank of England bank note character will be men.
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Commons Speaker John Bercow has said there must be "zero tolerance" of sexual harassment in Parliament as ministers vowed action "within days" to improve the way complaints are handled.
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Claims about inappropriate behaviour by MPs were "disturbing", Mr Bercow said.
All parties, he said, must have "credible" staff grievance procedures.
Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said MPs must "put their house in order" quickly because everyone "had to a right to feel at ease" working in Parliament.
In a statement, she said recent allegations against MPs "risked bringing all our offices into disrepute" and Parliament "must take action in days not weeks".
She confirmed that the Cabinet Office was investigating specific allegations about whether individuals had broken the ministerial code and said the most serious allegations should be referred to the police.
She told MPs that the existing system for handling grievances was inadequate and that staff who felt mistreated must be able to come forward in a "safe" environment with the knowledge that their concerns would be handled initially by independent specialist teams and referred promptly for further investigation.
She promised a cross-party approach to establishing a contractually binding complaints procedure for all those working in Parliament, including MPs, peers, staff and interns.
The system, she suggested, could consider claims of bullying as well as sexual harassment and could be policed by a new body, "with an independent element", across both the Commons and the Lords.
"It is a right, not a privilege, to work in a safe and respectful environment," she said.
Asked about potential penalties, she said it would be up to Parliament to decide, but the withdrawal of the whip from MPs and the sacking of ministers were "within scope".
Addressing MPs, Mr Bercow said change was needed "swiftly" and there should not be "endless debate", suggesting that it was up to political leaders to drive the process forward.
'Not hysteria'
He said the existing code of conduct applying to MPs must be updated to require members to treat all those working in Parliament with "dignity, courtesy and respect".
"Make no mistake, there is a need for change," he said. "For my part as speaker I am happy to do whatever I can. Others must do likewise."
And Labour MP Harriet Harman called for an end to the "sleazy, oppressive" culture in Westminster, telling MPs that those bringing forward complaints must have their anonymity protected.
"This is not hysteria. This is something that has been long overdue for all the parties to deal with."
Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts said she had been told by an employee of an MP that "she reported being sexually assaulted to the proper authorities earlier this year, who did nothing".
"She is deeply disappointed and distrustful, and she tells me that distrust is endemic," she said.
What are the existing procedures?
People who work for MPs are legally employed by them and are not covered by the established grievance procedure for other Parliamentary employees.
Employment disputes have traditionally been handled in-house by the MPs concerned with, in some cases, the input of political parties.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which pays MPs and their staff, offers guidance on grievance procedures to MPs when they draw up employment contracts but these are not binding.
The guidance states anyone with a complaint against an MP should initially make it to their line manager, even though this could be the MP themselves. It goes on to set out the best practice procedures to be followed.
MPs are bound by rules set out in a code of conduct drawn up in the mid-1990s. They are expected to act with "probity and integrity" and "in accordance with the public trust" placed in them.
Parliament's standards commissioner has the power to investigate claims that MPs have undermined the "reputation" of Parliament - but the rules do not cover sexual matters.
At the moment, there is a 24-hour confidential helpline for all staff to report abuse claims and an HR advice service but MPs' staff are not covered by grievance procedures for other parliamentary workers.
No 10 said Theresa May, who sat next to Ms Leadsom as she made her statement, took the issue seriously.
Labour has written to its MPs setting out rules for dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and harassment, while the SNP said it had begun an investigation into two unconnected allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour.
In a letter sent to Mr Bercow on Sunday, Mrs May said the current system for airing grievances was not fair on employees, many of whom were young and in their first job.
She said the Conservatives had offered their MPs a voluntary code of conduct in 2014 but that it had no legal force and therefore it was "not fit for purpose".
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which pays the salaries of MPs and their staff, has expressed concern in the past about the lack of HR support for MPs' staff.
But the watchdog said following a consultation with MPs and the Commons authorities last year, it was decided that it should have "little intervention" in staffing matters beyond payroll and it was not within its remit to set up a third-party body to do so.
Over the weekend, a Cabinet Office investigation was ordered into whether Conservative MP and international trade minister Mark Garnier breached ministerial rules after he admitted asking his secretary to buy sex toys and calling her "sugar tits".
And former Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb was reported by the Sunday Telegraph to have admitted sending "explicit" messages to a 19-year-old woman after a job interview at Westminster in 2013.
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A woman has been badly burned after acid was thrown in her face on a doorstep in south-east Edinburgh.
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The 37-year-old was attacked by a man in a dark hooded tracksuit when she answered the door of a property in Captain's Road at 20:40 on Friday.
Police said she suffered serious burns to her face and neck when she was hit by the "corrosive substance".
They believe she was the victim of a targeted attack and appealed for help to trace the man responsible.
He was in his early 20s, about 5ft 11in tall, and of slim build. His face was covered and he wore dark gloves and dark trainers with light reflective sections.
His victim is being treated in hospital.
Det Insp Stevie Rosie said: "We are still working to establish the motive surrounding this attack.
"However, we believe this to be a targeted attack. Police are supporting the victim, who has sustained some very serious injuries to her face and neck.
"Anyone who recognises him, or who has any other information relevant to this investigation should contact police immediately."
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Ofsted's approach to inspecting child protection services in England is "blinkered", say council leaders.
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By Judith BurnsEducation and family reporter, BBC News
The current system fails to assess the work of "crucial agencies" such as health services and police, says the Local Government Association.
Joint inspections of all the services involved in child protection would help ensure fewer children suffer abuse and exploitation, says the LGA.
Ofsted said it was evaluating pilot schemes of such integrated inspections.
The LGA says it wants the roles of all staff involved in protecting vulnerable children to be monitored and included in a judgement.
They are concerned that the overall quality of services for neglected and abused children is being obscured by the piecemeal way agencies are inspected.
'Narrow silos'
The warning comes as local government leaders and directors of council-run children's services meet in London to discuss how children can be better protected from sexual exploitation.
The LGA says it is concerned that without a major overhaul inspectorates will continue to work "in narrow silos, conducting separate inspections at the same time rather than adopting a fully multi-agency approach that assessed the contributions of all agencies together".
Instead all agencies should work together around the interests of the children and young people, and "the inspection of children's services must mirror this approach", it argues.
Cllr David Simmonds, chairman of the LGA's children and young people board said: "Keeping children safe is the most important thing that councils do - but we know we cannot do it alone.
"It is not fair to the children we are working to protect that Ofsted inspections only focus on council children's services, failing to properly assess the essential work done by other organisations."
Cllr Simmonds said it was only by agencies working together that child sexual exploitation could be eradicated and victims "given the confidence to come forward".
"We need scrutiny processes to adopt the same approach... so nothing falls through the cracks."
'Right experience'
Ofsted said it agreed that inspections should take into account all the different services involved.
A spokeswoman said the watchdog was evaluating recent pilots of integrated inspections with the Care Quality Commission and the criminal justice inspectorates - but warned that inspectors "with the right knowledge and experience" needed to take the lead in their own areas.
"Maximising the collaboration between inspectorates remains at the heart of how we believe we can continue to support improvement in the sector and contribute to sharing the best practice across all the agencies seeking to protect children from sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse and neglect."
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A shop owner was left "devastated" by flooding on his first full day of trading after lockdown restrictions were eased.
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Dale Street in Milnrow, Rochdale was "completely flooded" when the River Beal rose rapidly on Monday evening.
"This can't carry on - it is the fifth flood in five years since the Boxing Day floods in 2015," Philip Holt who owns Carpet Creations said.
Councillor Andy Kelly said it was the worst flood he had seen in 20 years.
The Lib Dem Milnrow and Newhey councillor said it was the "quickest and the deepest" flood he had witnessed, adding it was a "massive indication of climate change" made worst by the "very old Victorian sewages" in the village.
Councillor Irene Davidson, who also represents Milnrow and Newhey ward, said: "The river rose so fast and the bottom of Dale Street was completely flooded".
She said the area - near to the River Beal - was prone to flooding but a "lot of money" had been spent on clearing drains in the last few years.
However, she said this had "not worked".
Mr Holt, who employs six staff, said: "We're devastated but we'll dust ourselves down and reopen on Wednesday but we can't keep doing this."
The 55-year-old said previous floods had cost him about £10,000 and he was unable to get insured due to the premises being in a flood area.
He said seeing the damage was "emotional as I put every single penny back into the business".
"Something needs to be done. The drainage system can't cope," Mr Holt added.
"I think we get forgotten because we are a little village."
Local charity shop Village Treasures and the Tim Bobbin pub, which Mr Holt said had been refurbished during the lockdown, were also flooded.
Fiona Wilson, from the charity shop, said the floodwater backed up through the drains into the middle of the store.
"We've got what smells like sewage coming from our floor - it's pretty manky," she said.
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The European Commission has called on Turkey urgently to address significant failings on human rights and democracy.
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A delayed annual report on Turkish prospects for EU membership says there have been serious setbacks in the past two years on freedom of expression.
It also says the independence of the judiciary had been undermined and that new laws run against EU standards.
The report's publication comes at a time when the EU needs Turkey's help in trying to control the refugee crisis.
It also follows parliamentary elections in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) regained the majority it lost in June.
Responding to the report, Turkey's ministry for EU affairs called the comments "unfair and excessive", adding that they do not "duly reflect Turkey's reforms in these fields".
"Such comments overlook the balance between freedom and security which is a must for democracies where rules of law prevails," it added.
President Erdogan has stressed his support for a constitution centred on a strong presidency - something he says will be achieved in the next four years.
The report had been pushed back by several weeks because sensitive negotiations on the refugee crisis were taking place with leading Turkish officials, including the president, shortly before the 1 November elections.
'Serious backsliding'
The BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says the Commission's report seems to pull few punches.
Although Mr Erdogan himself is not named in the report's key findings, there are fairly direct criticisms of Turkey's powerful president, our correspondent reports.
After several years of progress on freedom of expression, the report warns of "serious backsliding" over the past two years.
"Ongoing and new criminal cases against journalists, writers or social media users, intimidation of journalists and media outlets as well as the authorities' actions curtailing freedom of media are of considerable concern," it says.
Changes to Turkey's internet law, allowing the authorities to block websites without a court order, were a significant step back from European standards, it adds.
The report says there has also been a severe deterioration of its security situation and that it is imperative that peace talks resume with the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by the Turkish government and the EU.
Hundreds have been killed in fighting between Turkish security forces and PKK fighters in the country's east and south-east since a ceasefire collapsed in July.
Since the election, Mr Erdogan has pushed forward with plans to "liquidate" the PKK and to hold a referendum on a new constitution with increased presidential powers.
However, the AKP, with 317 seats in the 550-seat parliament is short of the 330 seats needed to hold a referendum.
'Deep state'
The European Commission warns that the escalation in violence has given rise serious concerns over human rights violations, and that anti-terrorism measures taken in that context need to be proportionate.
It also says that the independence of the judiciary and the principle of separation of powers have been undermined since 2014, with judges and prosecutors placed under strong political pressure. The government's active pursuit of shadowy forces known as "deep state" is highlighted.
The influence by the executive in the investigation and prosecution of high-profile corruption cases continues to constitute a major concern for the Commission, which considers Turkey's track record inadequate in the fight against corruption.
Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987 and accession negotiations began in 2005, but only one of the 33 "negotiation chapters" has since been completed.
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He is one of Glasgow's favourite sons, but Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his architectural designs from 100 years ago are celebrated far and wide.
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By Paul KerleyBBC News Magazine
The Royal Institute of British Architects is hosting its first substantial exhibition devoted to his distinctive style, with more than 60 original drawings, paintings and models.
Mackintosh expert Pamela Robertson, from Glasgow's Hunterian Museum, says some people see the designer as a modernist, some view him as one of the last Victorian architects, while others think of him as Glasgow's art nouveau designer. All could be true.
As the 19th Century drifted into the 20th, Mackintosh drafted this design for a property - not to be built in his lifetime - known as the Artist's House in the Country.
The plans show his emerging pared down style - with fluid lines and artistic asymmetry.
It is very different from the historic revival look in Mackintosh's un-built grand designs that feature in the video above.
This next design was built in his lifetime.
The Hill House in Helensburgh, to the west of Glasgow, is now run by the National Trust for Scotland and is open to the public.
While he may have tried, but failed, to put his mark on a new cathedral for Liverpool, he did design a church which was built - at Queen's Cross in Glasgow.
The Glasgow School of Art - known as The Mac - is Mackintosh's most celebrated building.
Pamela Robertson says Mackintosh made sure there were some wonderful spaces inside - including a double-height timber-clad library.
Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire in May 2014 - but the school recently announced that the library will be restored to its original state.
In 1901, Mackintosh entered a European competition - organised by the art publisher Alexander Koch - to design a unique home.
There was a very specific brief - including the incorporation of a music room - for this "House for an Art Lover".
This is Mackintosh's pale vision - sparsely furnished with an elaborate piano at the back of the room.
The curved windows were a collaboration with his new wife - Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh - who designed the decorative panels.
A version of House for an Art Lover was constructed in the late 20th Century in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park.
This striking commission - Auchinibert - was built just outside the village of Killearn in Stirlingshire. It is notable for its almost English style.
There are very few photos of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This next image from the early 1890s is perhaps the most-recognisable.
Pamela Robertson describes it as compelling.
With his floppy bow tie and unstructured jacket, "it's as if he is saying he is an artist first and foremost" she says.
And this final image was painted by Mackintosh himself - a romanticised vision of Glasgow's medieval cathedral at sunset.
Mackintosh Architecture can be seen at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London until 23 May 2015. Admission is free.
Pamela Robertson - Mackintosh expert at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow - provides video narration and contributed to the text.
All images subject to copyright. Images courtesy Riba/Hunterian Museum Glasgow.
Mackintosh photo: 1893 by James Craig Annan (copyright: T&R Annan/courtesy: Glasgow Mackintosh)
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Eleven years after the demise of Top of the Pops, a live, weekly music show is coming back to the BBC.
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By Mark SavageBBC Music reporter
Promising "the hottest bands and artists in the world right now" the series is due to debut in the autumn.
It has yet to receive a title or a timeslot, but will be made by James Corden's company Fulwell 73, whose work includes the wildly-successful Carpool Karaoke series.
An initial run of six episodes has been commissioned.
Top of the Pops was also commissioned for half a dozen episodes in 1964 - but ended up running for 42 years, providing the BBC an unrivalled catalogue of performances by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Beyonce, David Bowie and Madonna.
It registered its highest audience in 1979, when more than 19 million people tuned in to see Dr Hook's When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman topping the chart.
But by 2002, it had lost millions of viewers to 24-hour music channels like MTV. The show was eventually shunted to BBC Two before being cancelled.
Re-runs of old episodes continue to be screened on BBC Four, while the brand is resurrected for Christmas specials every year.
However, the new show is not envisaged as a successor to Top of the Pops and its top 40 format. Instead, it promises "live music performances, sketches and interviews".
'Contemporary and relevant'
BBC Music's Jan Younghusband suggested it would be a successor to one-off specials like Adele at the BBC and Michael Buble at the BBC.
Both shows included live performances and shareable moments, such as Adele auditioning to play her own lookalike.
Speaking to Music Week last year, Fulwell 73's co-founder, Leo Pearlman, described how the company would approach such a show.
"[If Top of the Pops was on now] it would have moments that would have ended up having 20 million views over the course of a few weeks," he said.
"Whether it's a live music show or not, whether it's performances or not, I just think there's something amazing to do in that space.
"There's nothing aimed at that weekend audience, nothing contemporary and relevant. There should be a show like that and we'd love to be the ones to make it."
The new BBC series will have Fulwell 73's Gabe Turner and former TFI Friday producer Suzi Aplin as executive producers, with more details to be announced in the summer.
"The BBC is the biggest music broadcaster in the UK and we are always looking for new ways to bring music to our audiences," said Bob Shennan, director of BBC Radio and Music.
"This series will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase the biggest and best UK and international bands and artists."
The music industry, gave the show an enthusiastic welcome.
"The BBC are great champions of British artists and new music on radio, but it's been a different story on TV," said Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI and the Brit Awards.
"It's something the BPI cares passionately about, and we have been pressing long and hard to get more new music on our screens. That's why we're delighted by this announcement.
"We hope it's a sign of more to come, and we wish the series every success."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
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Nearly thirty public libraries across Wales face closure in March as councils insist they will still meet their legal duties to provide the service.
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Fourteen libraries are under threat in Rhondda Cynon Taf with nine in Neath Port Talbot and two each in Wrexham and Ceredigion, a total of 27.
The plans are now under scrutiny by the Welsh government.
Other councils, including Gwynedd, Flintshire and Monmouthshire, are reviewing their provision for 2015.
Questions are being raised as to whether councils which close libraries to save money can still meet their statutory duty to provide the service.
Council leaders argue that they can make savings and still provide a "comprehensive and efficient" library service.
Volunteer support
Neath Port Talbot council hopes to save £240,000 a year by closing nine of its 17 public libraries but says it is working with those communities affected to find ways for local volunteers to take them over.
Mike James, cabinet member responsible for libraries, told the BBC's Eye on Wales radio programme he was confident that the slimmed-down service will still meet the council's legal obligations.
"The work that has been done by our officers is fantastic," he said.
"They have taken the time to visit each of these libraries we intend to close, taken time with each of the members of the public that have raised issues.
"I'm confident that where we are going with this is the only way forward and I believe that at the end of it we'll find that we'll maybe have a better library system, run by the people for the people, than we had before."
Polly Davies, who chairs the village residents' association in Resolven near Neath, is hoping they and the community council can take over their local library and run it with volunteers after the county council announced its closure.
"The first reaction was shock; the second one was anger," she told the BBC's Eye on Wales radio programme.
"Everyone is very concerned right now. The one thing we do not want to do is lose that library service."
The library in Resolven has four computers, and people had become very reliant on that service, Ms Davies added.
"We're right across the street from Ynysfach Primary School - classes come over very week to get new books," she said.
"They have writing competitions. They have a thriving song and rhyme session once a week. They hold a monthly reading group for adults. They just never stop."
Core services
Under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 councils have a legal duty to provide a "comprehensive and efficient" library service.
But that phrase has never been defined or tested in court and, according to libraries expert Dr Steve Davies of Cardiff University, local government does not always fully appreciate its responsibilities.
"A lot of councils don't even appear to know that libraries are actually a statutory service," he told Eye on Wales.
"They have talked about defending the core education and social service budgets and then the others are no so important, apparently."
The responsibility to superintend library services in Wales rests with the culture minister John Griffiths.
He has announced an expert review of councils' current and future plans to deliver public library services.
The culture minister told Eye on Wales that his officials are still reviewing councils' library closure plans to ensure that they do not leave local authorities in breach of their legal duties.
"Any changes to services need to be evidence-based and they need to follow proper consultation with communities," John Griffiths said.
"My officials are working with local authorities to understand the process that has been gone through, to consider the statutory requirements and to make sure that what eventually emerges is within those requirements.
"Talks are on-going at the current time and that will continue now, before budgets are finally set."
Eye on Wales can be heard on BBC Radio Wales on Sunday, 19 January at 13:30 GMT.
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A market town in Somerset has topped a list of the 10 most difficult-to-pronounce place names in the UK.
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Frome is the most mispronounced town in England, according to a team of linguists behind a language learning app.
Ballachulish in Scotland, Beaulieu in Hampshire and Woolfardisworthy in Devon also made the top 10.
The list's makers said British English was "famous for some of the most confusing pronunciations on earth".
'How do you say?': The Top 10 'most difficult' place names
Source: Babbel
How would you pronounce these place names? See below to find out if you are correct.
The name Frome is thought to come from the ancient Brythonic word "ffraw".
It means fair, fine or brisk, and describes the flow of the river that runs through the town, which dates to the 7th Century.
Paul Wynne, of Frome Town Council, said the name was most commonly mispronounced as rhyming with "home".
He said: "We're not a town that toes the line. Now it seems that even the way we pronounce Frome is different too. Ours is the right way, obviously. We always know who is new to the town by the way they pronounce Frome.
Tourists 'struggle'
"But this is a good thing, as it's easy for us identify and welcome newcomers, who are then immediately part of the community."
Kent Barker, owner of Eight Stony Street wine bar and restaurant in the town, said: "It doesn't surprise me at all. We have a lot of tourists who visit in the summer, and certainly the majority struggle with the name.
"Probably more the Mediterranean visitors and all the Americans get it wrong.
"But I love them being here and don't mind what they call it as long as they come and visit Frome."
Woolfardisworthy in Devon also featured on the list, but which one? There are two places in Devon called Woolfardisworthy.
Woolfardisworthy West - the bigger of the two Woolfardisworthys near Bideford - has adopted the easier to say version of its name Woolsery.
However post office manager Andy Fryatt said people sometimes still struggled to pronounce the shortened version.
"When you know it and you use it every day, then obviously you wonder why people can't (say it), especially with the shortened version," he said.
Longer name
"Maybe it is just something that gets lost in translation over the telephone, or people just don't hear properly, or they think it is something that is spelt wrong and they are pronouncing it correctly."
The smaller Woolfardisworthy east near Crediton has kept the longer version of its name.
The two villages are just over an hour apart, and Alison Evans, who runs two holiday rentals in the village, said people used to get the two places confused.
"Thank God for postcodes," she said, adding that sat navs now meant people usually navigated to the correct Woolfardisworthy.
Ms Evans said she had been living there for 25 years, which was not that long in local terms.
"When we first arrived people would look at you blankly if you said Woolfarisworthy (phonetically)," she said.
Another place on the list, Babergh in Suffolk, is apparently so hard to pronounce that the district town council is planning to rename it at a cost of £10,000.
Council leader John Ward said: "Babergh has a proud history but we know that people from further afield are often unaware of exactly where Babergh is and even struggle over its pronunciation."
The top 10 has been compiled by the creators of language app Babbel.
One of its editors, Ted Mentele, said: "British English is famous for some of the most confusing pronunciations on earth.
"The main reason that these are difficult to pronounce is that they're not spelled phonetically - there are a lot of silent letters and letters that are pronounced differently depending on where they are in the word.
"Many people in the UK, particularly locals to these areas, have grown up hearing these names and naturally don't find them so hard to get their tongues around.
"Others attempt to pronounce them as they're spelled, and without knowing the origins of the word, can get it far from correct."
How to pronounce the place names in the top 10
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A 16-year-old motorcyclist who crashed into metal railings on a recreation ground has died.
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The boy was riding a pit bike on the field near Poole Rugby Club and the Turlin Moor estate when he crashed on Monday morning.
He died at Southampton Hospital on Friday, Dorset Police said.
Two boys, aged 13 and 16, arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice have been released under investigation, the force said.
When officers arrived at the scene in the Hamworthy area, the pit bike was not there. It was eventually found on Tuesday afternoon
Sgt Craig Tatton said: "Our thoughts are very much with the boy's family and loved ones at this very difficult time."
He appealed for any witnesses to come forward.
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The proportion of top A-level grades achieved by Northern Ireland students has risen significantly.
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By Robbie MeredithBBC News NI Education Correspondent
A* or A grades were achieved in 30.4% of entries, a rise of 0.9% on 2016.
More than 30,000 students received their A-level and AS-level results on Thursday and the overall A*-E pass rate was 98.3%.
However, the gap between girls and boys has widened: One third of entries (33.3%) from girls achieved A* or A grades - a significant rise on 2016.
That compared to 26.8% of entries from boys getting those grades, a fall of 0.4% on last year.
There was a fall of just over 1,000 in the number of A-level subject entries this year to 30,684.
However, that is mainly due to a drop in the Year 14 demographic.
Maths remains the most popular A-level subject.
Biology, history, religious studies and English Literature complete the list of the top five most popular subjects.
However, there have been steep falls in the number of A-levels taken in subjects like psychology, geography and physics.
Students were able to access their exam results from 07:00 BST on Thursday, but many went to their schools to discover their grades.
Many of those getting their results have already applied to university and will have their place confirmed if they get the grades they need.
Figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) show there has been a 4% fall in Northern Irish students applying to go to university this year.
Other pupils will go into further education, work or an apprenticeship.
Students can call UU's inquiry line on 028 7028 7028 on Thursday and Friday, and the university is holding an advice day at all four campuses on Friday.
As of Thursday morning, the university had a small number of places for approximately 39 courses available through clearing.
QUB's enquiry line is on 028 9097 3838 and it will operate on Thursday and Friday, and on selected days over the following weeks.
The university is holding advice sessions on Monday 21 August and Monday 28 August in the Whitla Hall between 14:00 and 17:00.
Many students getting their grades will also pursue other options including apprenticeships, entry into further education, employment or a gap year.
The Department for the Economy's careers service will run an extended online advice facility from 09:00 to 19:30 on Thursday and Friday.
Careers advisers are also available by phone on 0300 200 7820.
BBC News NI will also be hosting a special Facebook Live to answer any questions that students and parents might have.
Please join us on Friday 18 August at 10:00 and put your questions to our panel of experts.
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Privacy campaigners are seeking to stop GCHQ using "unlawful hacking" to help its surveillance efforts.
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Privacy International said the UK intelligence service has infected millions of devices to spy on citizens and scoop up personal data.
A 30-page legal complaint has been filed with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal which monitors whether the UK's spying laws are being observed.
GCHQ said it had no comment to make on the legal complaint.
In a statement, the Privacy International pressure group said the documents released by Edward Snowden had detailed the many ways that GCHQ was spying on people, many of which violated the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees a right to privacy and to freedom of expression.
GCHQ and NSA programmes uncovered by Mr Snowden let the agencies listen via microphones, watch through webcams and scoop up detailed web browsing histories, said Privacy International.
Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said the surveillance was the modern equivalent of the government entering someone's house and reading their diary, correspondence and journals.
The freedom GCHQ and the NSA had to carry out surveillance was equivalent to "covert, complete, real-time physical and electronic surveillance", he said.
"Arbitrary powers such as these are the purview of dictatorships not democracies," he said. "Unrestrained, unregulated government spying of this kind is the antithesis of the rule of law and government must be held accountable for their actions."
The IPT has yet to respond to the filing of the complaint.
Prof Richard Aldrich, a lecturer at the University of Warwick who has written a history of GCHQ, said the agency was much more worried about such legal challenges than ever before as judges had become "much more unpredictable in this area" than they were a decade ago.
The legal challenge comes only days after the Home Affairs select committee said oversight of the intelligence agencies was "weak".
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Major mis-selling scandals have failed to stop banks pressuring staff into pushing potentially unsuitable products, Which? has said.
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The consumer group found 65% of bank staff with sales targets said they were being placed under more pressure than ever to hit them.
The British Bankers' Association said staff incentives are now based on clear criteria related to customer service.
The research was carried out between October and early December.
Which? surveyed branch and call centre staff at HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Santander.
More than 550 bank staff were interviewed, of which 371 have a sales role. And, of those, 298 said they had sales targets to meet.
The consumer group said the findings were broadly similar across all five banking giants.
Which? said the findings indicated that many workers are still being driven towards putting "sales before service".
It comes as complaints about the payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal continue to rise beyond expectations.
In the first half of 2012, the Financial Ombudsman Service received 135,170 new complaints, of which 85,562 - or 63% - were about PPI.
The total bill is predicted to reach about £15bn across the industry.
PPI was originally sold alongside loans, mortgages and credit cards, wrongly in many cases, to cover repayments if people became ill or lost their jobs.
'Real pressure'
In September, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) gave High Street banks 12 to 18 months to rein in the bonus schemes they use to encourage staff to sell insurance, loans and bank accounts.
The following month, Barclays announced that it would no longer pay any commission to 18,000 staff in its High Street branches and call centres for selling financial policies.
Bonuses, it said, would depend only on giving customers good quality service.
Which? found that some 46% of bank staff it had surveyed knew colleagues who had mis-sold products just to meet their sales targets.
Of the staff surveyed who had a sales role, more than a third - 37% - said they were uncomfortable with the level of pressure placed on them to push a product.
"Senior bankers say the culture is changing, but this shows it just isn't filtering through to staff on the front line, who remain under real pressure to put sales before service, even after incentives are taken away," said Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith.
He added: "This proves the need for big change across the industry and for bankers to put customers first, not sales."
Only 6% of those surveyed who were told to sell more said this was because it was in the customer's best interest.
A spokesman for the British Bankers' Association said: "Selling people products they do not need is not putting the customer's interests first and therefore is ultimately bad for the bank."
"The banks will be looking at the findings of this small survey - along with their own internal research - to understand why any staff might feel otherwise."
Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group said: "So long as the banks are allowed to lend out their ill-gotten gains at up to 25% but are only obliged to repay it with 8% when they are found out, there will always be a good reason for them to keep on mis-selling."
Which? said it planned to hand in a dossier of evidence on the banking industry to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, the government and opposition MPs and the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
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Supermarket chain Morrisons says it will begin selling food online by the end of this year.
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It made the announcement as it reported a fall in profits and underlying sales over the past 12 months.
Morrisons is the UK's fourth largest supermarket, but unlike its rivals does not have an online retail presence.
Chief executive Dalton Philips called the move "an important step". A deal on technology with online food retailer Ocado is one option being discussed.
"We will be transacting online with food by the end of this year," he told the BBC's Today programme. "We've been studying the market for two years [and] it's a market that is accelerating very quickly."
A possible deal with Ocado was "one of the options available", he added.
Morrisons reported a 7.2% fall in pre-tax profits to £879m for the year to 3 February - its first fall in full-year profits for six years.
Like-for-like sales were down more than 2%.
More convenience stores
Other supermarkets have seen sales growth in their online businesses and in smaller convenience stores.
Rivals Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, the other members of UK's "big four" supermarkets, have been operating online shops for a number of years, and online food shopping is growing by about 20% a year.
Morrisons also said it would open 100 convenience stores in the coming months, adding to 12 "M Local" stores it had already opened.
The convenience stores market, which includes Sainsbury's Local and Tesco Express stores, is seeing annual growth of 6%.
The changes come at the end of what Morrisons described as "a difficult year".
"The sustained pressure on consumer spending was reflected in our like-for-like sales performance, which was not as good as it should have been," Mr Philips said.
"We have implemented a range of measures to address this. Today's announcement that we are launching an online food offer... is another important step."
Investors responded positively. Shares in Morrisons rose by more than 3.5% in early trading.
Ocado saw its shares jump 24.5% in the first hour of trading, after it reported a strong rise in sales over the Christmas and New Year period, on top of news about a possible technology-licensing agreement with Morrisons.
It said gross sales for the 12 weeks to the end of February were up 14.4% compared with the same period a year ago.
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New Broadway musical Holler If Ya Hear Me, inspired by the music of late rapper Tupac Shakur, has received a mixed reaction in New York.
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The jukebox show features his hits but does not tell the story of Shakur, who died after being shot in 1996, aged 25.
Variety called it a "generic gangland saga" that was "predictable" with "clumsy characterisations", although praised its "soaring performances".
Deadline described lead actor Saul Williams as "rivetingly charismatic".
Directed by Kenny Leon, who won a Tony Award for his recent revival of A Raisin In the Sun, Holler If Ya Hear Me is billed as a non-biographical story about friendship, family, revenge, change and hope.
Shakur died following a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, thought to be the result of gang wars.
The musical sees slam poet Williams play John, newly released from prison and hoping to stay out of trouble, although his friend Vertus, a drug dealer played by Christopher Jackson, has other ideas.
"The beats are sweet, and the words often have an electric charge," said Charles Isherwood for The New York Times.
"Unfortunately, much else about this ambitious show feels heartfelt but heavy-handed, as it punches home its message with a relentlessness that may soon leave you numb to the tragic story it's trying to tell," he added.
Mark Kennedy from AP credits the show with "some inspired moments" but adds "that full-throttle energy can't sustain itself through the 2 1/2 hour show."
"The high-energy, deeply felt but ultimately overwrought production opened in a blaze of N-words, proving both that rap deserves its moment to shine on a Broadway stage and that some 20 Shakur songs can somehow survive the transformation - barely," said Kennedy.
Featuring 2Pac tracks such as California Love, Me Against the World and Keep Ya Head Up, the musical is the first time hip hop classics have been performed on the Broadway stage.
New York Daily News reported the show at New York's Palace Theater has so far struggled to sell tickets and several critics hinted it may struggle to find an audience.
Jason Bisnoff wrote: "Many rap fans wish the show was simply a bio of Shakur, much as songwriter Carole King has her life on stage in Beautiful.
"To such fans, Broadway has again missed a big opportunity to expand its limited repertoire of storytelling."
Deadline's Jeremy Gerard found the show "slow to get going", likening it to "a 45 RPM musical playing at 33 1/3, to use an analog analogy."
"The show may disappoint rap fans and bewilder Broadway musical regulars. That's too bad, because it's better than merely well-meaning."
He added: "Holler if Ya Hear Me brings Broadway into the 1990s. Believe it or not, that's progress."
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Two of Northern Ireland's politicians are spitting nails after a trip to visit troops in Afghanistan was called off because they were too portly for Army flak jackets.
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Lord Ken Maginnis and David Simpson, DUP, had been due to fly out this week to meet soldiers from the Royal Irish and the Irish Guards but the Army couldn't find flak jackets large enough to fit them.
"To be told at the last minute that the British Army has not got two flak jackets with a 54" chest was just a bit thick," said Lord Maginnis who weighs in at about 18 stone.
"I wanted to go out and meet the troops and made considerable efforts to clear my diary.
"So this made me very cross. I am no giant, neither is Davy Simpson. We are both reasonably normal, although we are bigger than most."
Lord Maginnis said the cancelled trip made him "absolutely furious".
"The reality is that we have young men and women out there fighting for us. They are putting their lives on the line. They deserve a little bit of consideration," he said.
Lord Maginnis said he had made the trip two years ago - and he has got lighter since then.
However, in a statement, the Ministry of Defence said: "Nobody is allowed to board an aircraft to Afghanistan without correctly fitting body armour.
"The MoD provides a wide range of sizes but regrettably none was suitable on this occasion.
"We recognise the importance of politicians visiting Afghanistan but this trip has been postponed while we try to source sufficiently sized body armour."
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Boris Johnson has come under fire for reportedly telling Conservative MPs devolution had been a "disaster" in Scotland.
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But what is devolution, and how does it work?
What is devolution?
For many years England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were run by the UK government, based in Westminster, in London.
But the way the UK is run was changed by devolution, which meant some powers were passed from Westminster to elected bodies in Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh.
Public votes about devolution were held in 1997 in Scotland and Wales, and in both parts of Ireland in 1998, as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
This led to the creation of new elected institutions: the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
What powers does the UK government still have?
The UK government in Westminster remains responsible for policy for England, and national policy in a number of areas.
These include defence and national security, foreign policy, immigration, citizenship and tax - though Scotland has its own powers to raise income tax.
The way it shares power with the institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland varies.
How does devolution work in Scotland?
The Scottish Parliament sits at Holyrood in Edinburgh. There are 129 elected Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).
Scotland already had its own legal and education system. After devolution, it has become responsible for many areas:
Its powers were extended in 2012, and again after the 2014 referendum on whether Scotland should become independent.
The Scottish National Party (SNP), which has formed the Scottish government at Holyrood since 2007, continues to argue for full independence.
How does devolution work in Wales?
Since May 2020, the National Assembly of Wales has been known as the Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament). It meets in Cardiff Bay, and is made up of 60 elected Members of the Senedd (MS).
The Senedd's responsibilities include:
How does devolution work in Northern Ireland?
The Northern Ireland Assembly sits at Stormont in Belfast. There are 90 elected Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs).
Devolution in Northern Ireland is different to Scotland and Wales, with government powers divided into three categories:
The main powers of Stormont are:
In addition, the power-sharing agreement between the nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ireland is vital.
The First Minister and Deputy First Minister jointly lead the government - one representing each of the two largest parties in power, in a mandatory coalition. Despite different job titles, they have the same powers.
Northern Ireland's government was dissolved for three years after relations broke down between the governing parties - the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin in January 2017.
But in January 2020, the two parties re-entered the devolved government after agreeing to work together again, alongside three smaller parties - the Ulster Unionists, SDLP and Alliance.
What powers do mayors have in England?
Over the past 20 years, more powers have been given to local and regional mayors, in areas like transport and housing.
There are now 24 directly-elected mayors across England.
The first was the mayor of London. The position was created, alongside the London Assembly, after a referendum in 1998.
The mayor of London has the most powers - and a budget of more than £18bn.
The London mayor, currently Sadiq Khan, oversees Transport for London, policing and the fire brigade. The position has previously been held by Boris Johnson.
Most of the other mayors were added following referendums held in 2002 and 2012.
Some are in charge of a single local authority, as in Doncaster, Bristol and Middlesbrough. Others control an authority made up of several local councils.
The powers the mayors have differ.
In Liverpool City Region, for example, the mayor, Steve Rotherham, controls planning and strategy for transport, regional economic development and skills training.
In Greater Manchester, the mayor Andy Burham's powers extend to social care, children's services and housing.
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More than 30,000 low paid workers will receive a pay rise worth up to £400 a year after a rise in the voluntary "living wage" rate.
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The UK Living Wage rate, which is not binding on employers, has been increased by 20p to £7.65 an hour. It is much higher than the legal UK minimum wage of £6.31 an hour.
In London, the Living Wage rate has been increased by 25p to £8.80 an hour.
A total of 432 employers have signed up to pay the rate, up from 78 last year.
Firms signed up to the voluntary scheme include Barclays, Oxfam, Legal and General and the National Portrait Gallery.
Rhys Moore, director of the Living Wage Foundation, said the living wage had become "a must-have badge of honour for employers".
"By looking out for the Living Wage badge, you can now choose to support businesses that are doing right thing. It works just like Fairtrade and will grow even faster with consumer support," he added.
Dominic Johnson, employee relations director at Barclays, said paying the rate had improved retention rates for its cleaners.
"Early research on the impact of the Living Wage for cleaners on Barclays' contracts shows our suppliers have a 92% retention rate versus an industry average of 35%," he said.
The Living Wage is set independently each year, based on the basic cost of living in the UK.
The new rates were announced at the start of Living Wage Week.
Last week, Labour leader Ed Miliband said if his party won the next election, it would offer firms a 12-month tax break in 2016 if they agree to pay the living wage.
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A student who was accused of taking drugs while using a disabled toilet at a Wetherspoons pub is calling for better awareness of invisible disabilities.
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By Monica RimmerBBC News
Amber Davies, 21, from Builth Wells, has a stoma after being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis aged 13.
While on a night out in Birmingham, she was "grabbed" by a bouncer after coming out of the disabled toilet.
Wetherspoons said staff apologised for the "confusing situation".
Amber posted an open letter on her Instagram account detailing her experience, saying the door staff "very happily and very openly accused me of snorting, dealing and having sex in the disabled toilet for 'there is no other reason I would need to visit it so often'".
"I got grabbed by a female bouncer and my boyfriend by a male bouncer, we were accused of using them [the disabled toilet] for the wrong reasons," Amber told the BBC.
"She [the bouncer] was quite reluctant to listen to my side of the story, I said it bluntly and I didn't raise my voice once."
Despite gaining access to the locked disabled toilet using a radar key, staff "kept shouting" and her boyfriend, who had gone in the toilet with her, was taken outside.
"I was upset at the time, we hadn't done anything wrong, I spoke well considering. I was more annoyed that people were allowed to behave that way," she added.
"[It's] just completely unacceptable and they're such a big chain, you'd think they'd have training or be knowledgeable before grabbing us."
Amber, who is about to start her third year at Cardiff University, said she had come to expect "funny looks" but not the kind of treatment she received at the Dragon Inn in Birmingham.
In her post she said her stoma "needs constant care" and can be emptied up to 15 times a day, "it can make going out, especially on nights out, a pretty daunting prospect".
The 21-year-old described her disability as a "chronic, debilitating, lifelong illness".
She contacted the chain to complain about her treatment and has been offered a gift card in response.
A JD Wetherspoon spokesman said: "A female member of door staff spoke with Ms Davies, who explained her disability.
"Staff expressed that if this had been known beforehand, or an explanation given sooner, the situation could have been avoided.
"Staff listened at length to Ms Davies' points, never once questioning her disability and apologised for the confusing situation on both sides."
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A Hampshire power station has closed after more than 40 years in operation.
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Oil-fired Fawley Power Station, on the western side of Southampton Water, was commissioned in 1971.
The firm said Fawley was "state-of-the-art" when it was built, but now falls foul of EU emissions rules, which meant it had to close by 2015 at the latest.
The decommissioning and demolition of the plant is expected to take several years, the future of the site remains undecided.
Some of the 60 staff at the plant, capable of powering one million homes, will remain during decommissioning, others will move to other jobs within the RWE Group.
Nick Stockdale, Fawley Power Station Manager, said: "We have a fantastic team at Fawley and I would like to thank them for their hard work and dedication over the 40 plus years we have been operational."
The firm said the power station's open cycle gas turbine will remain operational.
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A coroner has criticised the probation service's "woefully inadequate" management of a case worker supervising a man who beat a teenager to death.
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David Braddon, 26, mistook Conner Marshall, 18, for his estranged partner's former boyfriend.
Braddon was jailed for life for Mr Marshall's murder in 2015.
In a narrative conclusion at the Pontypridd inquest on Friday, assistant coroner Nadim Bashir said Braddon's case worker was "overwhelmed".
He described how Kathryn Oakley accepted a number of times she could have done more with the supervision of Braddon.
When the attack happened Braddon was under supervision for drug offences and assaulting a police officer.
Probation reforms took place in 2014, with privately-run community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) taking on the work.
Following this, some staff were behind with their work, the inquest in Pontypridd had heard.
Mr Bashir described Braddon's probation officer Ms Oakley as being "brand new to her role" after starting in January 2014.
"She should have been supervised by a team manager once every six to eight weeks," he said.
"She had weak team managers with no team manager oversight of her case work load.
"The management and supervision of her was woefully inadequate."
"The failures, however, must have a direct and clear causal connection with Conner Marshall's death and must contribute in a more than minimal way," he added.
"But I am satisfied there was no possible or even probable evidential link that led to Conner Marshall's death.
"Put simply, his death could not have been foreseen or predicted, let alone prevented."
Following the inquest, Mr Marshall's mother Nadine said his death had followed the "chaos" after the privatisation of probation services.
"Today is the culmination of almost five years of struggle to obtain truth and justice for Conner and find out why our much loved son was the victim of a callous and unprovoked attack," she said.
She added the supervision of Braddon was "not robust" and the management system in Wales "wholly inadequate".
Mrs Marshall said "we will never know if our son would still be here today" if things had operated differently.
Following the inquest, the trade union for probation and family court staff Napo said it had raised "serious concerns" about the firm responsible for probation services in Wales.
It said staff had complained about excessive workloads, exacerbated by Working Links' decision to make 40% of staff redundant when it took over operations in 2014.
'Scapegoated'
General secretary Ian Lawrence said: "Time and time again we are seeing our members being scapegoated by management across both the public and private arms of probation when a serious further offence occurs.
"This is especially relevant in this tragic case when there is so much empirical evidence to suggest that Working Links were incapable of running a safe and effective operational model."
He said before Working Links went into administration last year, Napo warned ministers that its contract was "failing on every level".
National Probation Service Wales director, Ian Barrow, said: "This was an awful crime and our thoughts remain with Conner Marshall's family and friends.
"While the coroner found Conner's death could not have been avoided, there is no doubt David Braddon's probation supervision was not good enough.
"We have now taken responsibility for managing all offenders on licence in Wales from the Community Rehabilitation Company and 800 more probation officers are in training across England and Wales which will help to improve public protection."
Analysis by BBC Wales home affairs correspondent Jenny Rees
If nothing else, this inquest has highlighted how difficult probation's role is.
On a daily basis, officers juggle supervision of a number of people living chaotic lives.
Processes are put in place to try and manage that, but in this case the needs of a junior probation service officer weren't adequately supported.
Managers were aware she was feeling overwhelmed but an online tool suggested her workload was fine - others were coping, after all.
And so somewhere in the midst of a changing structure, the needs of Kathryn Oakley were overlooked.
It has taken a coroner looking at the inner workings of a service to see this was "woefully inadequate".
It is now down to the Ministry of Justice and National Probation Service to give reassurance that the new way of working is different.
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A long-standing vegetarian, Jeremy Corbyn is now apparently considering becoming a vegan.
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By Richard WarryBBC News
The Labour leader is a committed defender of animal rights, who joined the League Against Cruel Sports at school, and became a vegetarian at the age of 20 after working on a pig farm. He grows a fair proportion of his food on his allotment.
Mr Corbyn now says he is "going through the process" of changing his diet because dishes that do not include eggs or milk have improved.
In the notoriously bloodthirsty world of politics, leading vegetarians have been surprisingly rare over the years, but Mr Corbyn isn't the first high-profile politician to forego the culinary pleasures of the flesh.
Bernard Weatherill
A moderate Conservative politician who became a noted Speaker of the House of Commons, Weatherill was unafraid to stand up to Margaret Thatcher when she dominated the House of Commons with a landslide majority.
He became a vegetarian after serving as a soldier in India during World War Two. Based in Bengal, Weatherill embraced the local culture, learning Urdu and taking up meditation.
His vegetarianism was a reaction to the great suffering he witnessed during the Bengal famine of 1943, in which an estimated 2.1 million people died, some from starvation and others from diseases such as cholera, malaria, smallpox and dysentery.
Sir Stafford Cripps
Cripps was chancellor in Labour prime minister Clement Attlee's government, which took power in the immediate aftermath of World War Two.
He was famous not only for his austere policies, designed to help Britain recover from the ravages of war, but for his equally austere lifestyle. Despite being a wealthy man, he led a frugal existence and coupled his vegetarianism with being teetotal. He also gave up his one known vice - smoking.
Winston Churchill was unimpressed, remarking as Cripps passed by one day: "There, but for the grace of God, goes God."
Cripps suffered for many years from colitis, an inflammation of the lower bowel that was aggravated by stress. In 1950, his health broke down and he was forced to resign, dying from cancer two years later.
Tony Benn
Jeremy Corbyn's close friend and political soulmate, Tony Benn served as a cabinet minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, and came very close to winning the deputy leadership of the Labour party in the early 1980s.
He became a vegetarian in his 50s - following the example of his son and fellow Labour politician, Hilary.
"I never liked meat - and my son Hilary, 30 years ago, said, 'If the world ate the grain instead of feeding it to animals and killing them, there would be enough food for everybody,'" Benn told the Independent in 2006.
"That moment my wife and I became vegetarian and I have never touched meat since."
Alan Clark
A junior minister in the Thatcher governments, but more famous as a political diarist, for his interesting love life, and as a man with an extremely pithy turn of phrase.
He was a committed vegetarian and campaigner for animal rights, whose individual take on life was perfectly captured in a brief exchange with left-wing campaigning journalist John Pilger:
Pilger: "I read that you were a vegetarian and you are seriously concerned about the way animals are killed."
Clark: "Yeah."
Pilger: "Doesn't that concern extend to the way humans, albeit foreigners, are killed?"
Clark: "Curiously not."
Fenner Brockway
One of the most significant figures in the Labour movement, the radical pacifist served as general secretary and chairman of the Independent Labour Party in the 1930s.
He gave up meat as a young man in 1908, but found that the practice was not widely embraced by the Labour movement, noting in the 1930s that most people were too busy trying to ward off hunger to pay much attention to the source and ethics of their food.
Speaking in a House of Lords debate on animal cruelty decades later, he said: "I am a vegetarian and I have been so for 70 years. On the whole, I think, physically I am a pretty good advertisement for that practice."
Brockway went on to live for another decade, dying just months before his 100th birthday.
Bill Clinton
What? That Bill Clinton? The former President of the United States with a particular weakness for fast food? (Who can forget his sneaky trip to McDonald's while visiting the Labour conference in 2002?).
Well, yes. Mr Clinton adopted a vegan diet in 2010 on medical advice after undergoing emergency surgery for chest pains and credits it with giving him a new burst of energy.
"I have more energy. I never clog. For me, the no dairy thing, because I had an allergy, has really helped a lot. And I feel good," he has been quoted as saying.
"I like all the Italian stuff. Lasagne. I like the chilli enchiladas - they nailed the meat substitute stuff. It used to be when I started this, it was inedible. It's so much better now."
Vegans, though, were unimpressed by his admission that he still occasionally eats fish: "Eating salmon and avoiding most animals food products does not make you a vegan, it means you eat less animal products."
Other prominent vegetarian politicians past and present include Tim Farron, the former Liberal Democrat leader, whose diet didn't necessarily go down well with some of the farmers in his rural Cumbrian constituency, Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party, her predecessor as party leader Natalie Bennett and Conservative MP Henry Smith, who chaired the all-party parliamentary group for animal welfare.
And the vegans...
If Mr Corbyn does decide to become a vegan (which means avoiding all animal products including milk, cheese and honey) he won't be alone...
Among his comrades will be Labour MP Kerry McCarthy - who spent a year as shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary after being appointed by Mr Corbyn despite being a vegan in 2015 - current shadow Wales Secretary Christina Rees is also a vegan, as is shadow minster Chris Williamson and new Labour MP Darren Jones.
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This should have been the start of the busiest time of the year for Les Amis d’Onno.
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By Giancarlo RinaldiSouth Scotland reporter, BBC Scotland news website
The professional jousters – based at a farm near Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders – are regulars at events recreating the spirit of medieval times across the country.
Although, with its long lances, it might seem like a pursuit made for these days of social-distancing, the team have been badly affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
“Our summer season of events usually starts around the end of March with a local event in Hawick," said Sue Zacharias, who runs the family business.
The number of bookings usually increases over the following months. Sue says the alarm bells started ringing when the first event of the year was cancelled.
After that, she started to receive calls every couple of days, calling off various events across the UK.
Sue is now stuck on the farm with four other members of the jousting team and 22 horses.
"Everything has been put on hold," she said.
“We have to keep our horses fit and our team fit and ready to go. If they lift the ban for us, we have to be ready to do that.
“At the moment the team that are here – the core team – can exercise the horses, which is good."
The team has been involved in horse stunt events for the past 10 years – initially in France, before returning to the family farm in the south of Scotland.
Sue said the lockdown happened at the worst time for their business.
“For us, this is a disaster – we make all our money to last us for the year in the summer season,” she explained.
“It is really, really bleak. If we don’t get some kind of help or funding it’s the type of thing that would make our business fold.
“We have 22 horses to look after and some of them are retired horses which need special care.”
Despite the difficulties they face, they are hopeful that the backing of their fans might be enough to see them through.
Les Amis d’Onno have made some mini-films for their followers, and may try to hold a "virtual tournament” on their own land if it could be arranged safely.
"We are a resilient group, we have had a lot of support from our fans,” said Sue.
“We will try and make it through and see what we can do.”
She said the only option was to try to survive the lockdown and be ready to lift up their lances and return to action when restrictions are lifted.
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People in Powys have been trying to save parts of a rare tree which was uprooted by the recent floods.
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By Caroline EvansBBC Country Focus
One of the last mature specimens of European black poplars was ripped from the banks of the River Usk in Crickhowell.
Storm Dennis brought the worst flooding the town had seen for 40 years.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, residents took cuttings in the hope of propagating hundreds of new trees.
It is part of an ambitious plan by the town to plant a million trees in the Brecon Beacons and the surrounding area.
The European black poplar is one of Europe's rarest types of tree, so when the recent floods destroyed the last full-sized specimen on the Usk, people in Crickhowell decided to take action to try to save what they could of it.
John Gibbs, a former tree pathologist with the Forestry Commission, said the native poplar was once "highly regarded" for its timber but fell out of fashion when hybrid poplars were introduced 200 years ago.
From Crickhowell himself, he said he had often admired the town's tree, but only realised it was special when he came across some research.
"In my time with the Forestry Commission I had noticed a paper had been written about clones of black poplar and to my delight one of its strongholds was in Crickhowell," he said.
"I particularly think of the tree in late winter when the catkins are just coming into full flowers and it's the most wonderful orange and when the whole tree is covered with these catkins it's as if a golden glow is cast over the tree."
Together with others, he has now cut about 200 shoots which local people hope to grow and then plant back out on the river bank once they are strong enough to take hold.
These efforts are part of a much bigger initiative which has taken hold in the town - a plan to plant a million trees in the Brecon Beacons and surrounding area.
Some have already been planted on land donated by farmers, with the public given access to the new woodland.
Farmer Keith Powell, from a scheme called Stump Up For Trees, believes he has found a way to plant the rest.
"We don't want to plant trees on prime agricultural land, so we have identified so far steep bracken banks - very common in Wales, some estimates say there are 100,000 hectares of them - bracken only grows on good soil so if bracken is growing there trees will grow there," he said.
He estimates that to plant a million trees will cost £4.5m and he hopes to get corporate sponsorship - but in the meantime the town is busy raising money.
"I think the whole zeitgeist of the population has changed now. People are really into planting trees, people are looking for ways to take responsibility.
"Coffee shops have got loyalty cards and instead of getting a free cup of coffee you get a tree planted for you," he said.
Listen to Country Focus on Sundays at 07:00 GMT on BBC Radio Wales and subscribe to the podcast on BBC Sounds.
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The death of a cat found cut in two is being linked to a series of other gruesome cat killings around England, an animal rescue centre has said.
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South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (Snarl) said the mutilated remains, found in Bracknell, Berkshire, bore similarities to feline deaths in other parts of the country.
The charity has suggested a single culprit is behind the killings.
Thames Valley Police said the latest death was an "isolated incident".
The force suggested a fox may have killed the tortoiseshell cat found in Bracknell.
But Tony Jenkins, from Snarl, disagreed with police, adding: "Not unless the fox was carrying a large knife."
'Keep indoors'
He said the cat, which was not micro-chipped and had not yet been identified, was cut below its front legs and only its rear had been found, in a manner is similar to a series of mutilations across London and other parts of the country including Manchester and Birmingham, believed to have been carried out by one person.
He added it was also common for there to be no blood at the scene.
Snarl said it had collected about 90 bodies since October last year, and post-mortem examinations had confirmed 30 of the deaths as being linked.
Mr Jenkins has advised cat owners to keep their pets indoors, particularly at night, "because it's the only way we can guarantee their safety".
"If needs be get a harness and a lead and walk them round," he added.
Snarl urged anyone who finds a cat's body or sees anyone mistreating a feline to get in touch.
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A famous rock formation off the Galapagos Islands known as Darwin's Arch has collapsed.
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The Ecuadoran Ministry of Environment said it was due to "natural erosion".
"The collapse of Darwin's Arch, the attractive natural bridge found less than a kilometre from the main area of Darwin Island, was reported," the ministry said.
The formation, named after the English biologist Charles Darwin, is considered a top diving location.
The Galapagos Islands, 563 miles (906km) west of continental Ecuador, are a Unesco World Heritage site renowned worldwide for their unique array of plants and wildlife.
The archipelago is made up of 234 islands, inlets and rocks. Four of them are home to some 30,000 people.
Tourists across the globe travel there to see the islands' biodiversity, which inspired Darwin's theory of evolution.
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More passengers are needed to ensure the long term future of Wales' bus industry, a meeting in Wrexham heard.
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The industry is worth about £80m a year to the economy, employs about 4,000 workers, with 105 million journeys taken in Wales each year.
Economy Secretary Ken Skates said 2016 had been a "mixed year" with the "demise" of some service providers.
He told Wales' first bus summit some communities had been left "vulnerable" and longer-term solutions are needed.
Mr Skates added more young people should be encouraged to travel by bus, and services must work for both rural and urban areas.
Between 2011 and 2014, nearly 100 subsidised bus routes were scrapped by local councils in Wales.
Passengers and transport providers attended Monday's summit, which was one of five steps the Welsh Government recommended to strengthen the industry.
Bus coordinators have also been appointed in north and south Wales to develop good practice.
Mr Skates said: "It's a tough task but I'm positive we have the expertise and the will in Wales to deliver it.
"I'm keen, amongst other things, to explore with others whether new legislation can play a role in this.
"In the meantime, of course, we will continue to support local authorities and communities wherever possible, whether it be through taking on new services like the T1C between Aberystwyth and Cardiff or providing further financial support to areas affected by loss of service providers."
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Sam Smith will miss out on Radio 1's Big Weekend because he has to have an operation on his vocal cords.
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In a message to fans on Instagram, the singer said: "Bad news. I have my operation booked for next week, so getting really nervous.
"But by doing this in 8 weeks time I'm gonna be able to sing like never before so it's worth it. I am so sorry to all."
Smith was due to perform a number of gigs in the US and Europe as well.
It's not clear which ones will go ahead.
Sam Smith's told fans via his Instagram account
Radio 1's Big Weekend in Norwich takes place on 23 and 24 May, so he'll have to miss that out.
In a statement Radio 1 said: "We are really sorry for all the fans who were looking forward to seeing Sam perform live. Everyone at Radio 1 wishes him a speedy recovery."
He's also due to play at Brighton's Wildlife Festival on 7 June.
Last week Smith had to cancel his Australian tour which included four dates and a performance at the TV Week Logies, the annual Australian television industry awards.
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A judge has halted the sex abuse trial of a former Labour peer, accusing prosecutors of "sabotaging" proceedings.
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The trial of Lord Ahmed, 63, who appeared at Sheffield Crown Court under his real name, Nazir Ahmed, was stopped on 22 February.
Judge Jeremy Richardson QC ruled all proceedings against Lord Ahmed should stop due to prosecution errors.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) plans to appeal against the decision.
Lord Ahmed went on trial in February accused of two counts of attempting to rape a girl under 16, indecent assault of a boy under 14 and raping a boy under 16.
The offences, which he denied, were said to date from the 1970s when he was a teenager.
Judge Richardson ordered a permanent stay be placed on proceedings, bringing the prosecution to a halt, on Monday.
He said he was "shocked and appalled" by prosecutors' disclosure of evidence after he found the defence was still being supplied with new information during trial.
He said this was despite the allegations dating back almost 50 years, hearings being postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the allegations being made five years ago.
"This disgraceful situation has sabotaged this trial and caused it to abort. I do not use this adjective lightly," he said.
'Enough was enough'
Judge Richardson said he was "extremely concerned" about apparent failures by the police to follow up reasonable lines of inquiry, saying the case had been handled "as if we're in a different era".
Despite the prosecution's "massive and fundamental failure" to stick to disclosure rules, he said, it was normal to let them "put it right and have another go".
But he had decided to take the unusual course of action for the first time in his career due to a number of factors, he said, including the weakness of the case.
He said the "calamity" had gone from "bad to worse" and he had come to the conclusion that "enough was enough".
Judge Richardson said that it was not a "not guilty" verdict and that the complainants "may feel cheated."
Prosecutors had "blown this case apart", he said, and forcing him to put a stop to the "the agony of it continuing".
A CPS spokesperson said it would seek another trial if its appeal succeeded.
He said it would consider the judgement and the issues in the case to help to "drive lasting improvements in our handling of disclosure to ensure that we provide the service the public rightly expect".
The Crown remained committed to prosecuting sex abuse cases of this nature, he added.
Lord Ahmed's brothers Mohammed Farouq, 70 and Mohammed Tariq, 65, also from Rotherham, were accused of indecent assault of a boy under 14, but were deemed unfit to plead and faced a trial of the facts during the same proceedings.
Lord Ahmed resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020 after a conduct committee report found he had breached its code.
It said he had sexually assaulted a member of the public who was seeking his help in making a complaint to police over a faith healer she believed was exploiting people.
If found he had "failed to act on his personal honour, as evidenced by his dishonesty and lack of integrity."
In a statement issued through his lawyers at the time of the report's publication, Lord Ahmed disputed the findings and said he would appeal.
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Outsourcing group Mouchel has rejected takeover bids from construction firm Costain and services company Interserve and reported a half-year loss.
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Shares in the company fell 34% as a result.
The firm dismissed Interserve's bid for undervaluing the business, and said that Costain's offer was too risky.
It also reported a pre-tax loss of £1.5m for the six months to 31 January, an improvement on the £3.5m loss a year earlier. Revenue fell 13% to £270.3m.
"It has been another challenging period for Mouchel. Our clients have been impacted by the tough economic climate," said Richard Cuthbert, the group's chief executive.
Double offer
The board said it was not in the company's interests to proceed with any further discussions with its two suitors.
In January, Costain raised its shares plus cash offer, valuing Mouchel's shares at 153 pence each.
A month later, Interserve offered 135p per share, including 50p in cash.
Mouchel said there could be no certainty about whether the two firms would make further offers.
The company also said it expected results for the year ending 31 July to be broadly in line with earlier expectations.
It said its performance depended to some degree on winning public sector business at a time when the government is making big spending cuts.
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A family of Romany gypsies might have to leave a temporary site in the Brecon Beacons after a planning application to extend their stay was refused.
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The national park authority turned down the application by Powys council to allow the family to live at Cefn Cantref, near Brecon, until April 2012.
The family moved to the site in 2008 while the council worked on plans for a permanent camp at nearby Llanfilo.
But Powys councillors voted on two occasions to reject plans for Llanfilo.
The council might now have to find an alternative temporary location for the family.
In 2008, the park authority accused the council of a "flagrant disregard of planning policy" when it moved the family to Cefn Cantref without planning consent.
An agreement was finally reached to allow them to stay for two years, but the park has refused a two-year extension to the deal.
'Further action'
A spokeswoman for Brecon Beacons National park Authority said: "Members supported the officer's proposal to refuse permission for a two-year extension to temporary consent for a gypsy traveller site at Cefn Cantref, near Brecon.
"The original permission for the temporary site in the open countryside of the national park was granted on the understanding that Powys County Council would find a permanent site and relocate the family before the temporary permission expired.
"With no likelihood that Powys County Council can offer an alternative gypsy site in south Powys, members of the national park authority took careful consideration and accepted the officer's recommendation to turn down the request to extend temporary permission."
Powys council said it was "disappointed" with the decision.
A spokesman added: "Approval would have provided security for a gypsy family who have established long standing local connections in south Powys and would have provided an opportunity for the council to establish a suitable alternative permanent site for this family.
"Once we have formally received the decision it will be reported to the council's board to consider what further action is appropriate."
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More than 2,700 schools in England will need to improve kitchens to provide free meals for infant school children, according to new figures.
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Freedom of Information figures obtained by the BBC found this to be about one in three schools assessed so far.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced the policy at last year's Liberal Democrat conference.
The Department for Education has provided funding for improvements and said it is offering support to schools.
According to the most recent figures from January 2012, there are more than 16,800 state primary schools in England.
Outside providers
The work needed ranges from a new microwave or dishwasher to a full refurbishment.
The figures also showed that more than 1,700 schools had no kitchen at all.
These will have hot meals delivered by external caterers, or cooked at neighbouring schools and transported in as many currently do.
Some of the 152 local authorities who provided information said their funding allocation was adequate to make necessary improvements, others said it fell short of estimated costs.
In many schools lunchtimes will be staggered or extended in order to seat all pupils in small halls.
Schools Minister David Laws told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was "not complacent" about the problems, but a service set up to help introduce the policy was "yet to find a school that with the right support and advice cannot actually deal with these issues".
"The anecdotal evidence and the noise that you tend to get will tend to be from what can sometimes be a small minority of schools, and I take their concerns seriously," he said.
"But what you don't hear about, and what I do hear about, is the vast majority of schools that are on track to deliver this."
Critics say the deputy prime minister's policy was rushed through and is proving to hard to implement. Some schools may have to offer sandwiches in September instead of hot meals.
'Shown to work'
A Department for Education spokesman said: "School lunches for all infant children will save parents money, improve children's education and make sure more children eat a healthy and nutritious meal at least once a day.
"Universal free school meals have already been shown to work in the pilot schemes run by the Department for Education and Department of Health in 2009.
"Indeed, schools have had longer to prepare for the introduction of universal free school meals this September than schools in those pilot areas had in 2009.
"Schools are receiving a huge amount of support to provide free school meals. We are providing £150m to improve kitchens and dining facilities, as well as an additional £22.5m specifically to help smaller schools to provide these meals."
Under the scheme, all Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children in state-funded schools in England will be entitled to free school meals from September.
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The new £150m hospital for children in Edinburgh may have to be "ripped down" amid safety concerns, a senior trade union official has warned.
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Tom Waterson said drainage at the building is a more pressing matter than the ventilation issues which saw the postponement of its official opening.
He also claimed NHS Lothian had paid millions of pounds in a settlement to help resolve some of the problems.
The health board said reviews into the delay are already under way.
As well as focusing on ventilation they will also look at drainage and water systems as a priority.
The development comes after BBC Scotland revealed NHS Lothian is paying millions of pounds to a private consortium for a hospital it cannot use.
Mr Waterson said: "I've been speaking to senior staff within NHS Lothian over the last two or three weeks and more and more have been coming to speak to me.
"They are telling us that they have concerns primarily over drainage at the site. People are unable to confirm whether the drainage that has been put in, is in fact fit for purpose.
"We need to find out what's happening before everyone moves in. We can't wait to find out later on and just keep our fingers crossed."
Mr Waterson said the problems date back 18 to 36 months when senior staff were "alerted to shortcomings in the drainage".
But despite that the contractors continued to press ahead with construction.
He added: "There is a school of thought that they might have to rip it down.
"How do you fix drainage in a building when it's "x" number of feet beneath the building? I'm not an engineer, but it's not going to be easy.
"I'm extremely worried."
The father-of-two said he is also speaking as a parent.
He added: "My daughter had to use the Sick Kids last year and the service was excellent.
"My concern is that we can't use the new building until we know that it's 100% safe.
"The Scottish government had three people on the project board from day one. They would have been fully aware of this issue 36 months ago."
The new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, which will have over 200 beds, was supposed to open in July, but health secretary Jeane Freeman overruled NHS Lothian after last-minute inspections found safety concerns over its ventilation system.
The project has been marred by disputes between the local NHS board and IHSL Lothian, the consortium responsible for building the hospital.
Although the investigation is expected to be finished this year, no date has been offered by the Government or NHS Lothian for when the hospital will open.
Mr Waterson, who is the chair of Unison's Scottish health committee, represents 12,500 members in NHS Lothian, including staff who were expected to switch from the existing facility in Edinburgh.
A Scottish government spokeswoman told The Herald: "The health secretary has made clear that her greatest responsibility is the safety of patients, and for this reason decided to delay the move of patients, staff and services to the new hospital.
"Patients and carers have been contacted directly to confirm appointment arrangements and a dedicated helpline remains in place.
"She recognises that many staff share her frustration following the announcement of the delay."
The spokeswoman confirmed Ms Freeman will meet again with NHS Lothian staff representatives in the coming weeks.
Independent reviews
Prof Alex McMahon, nurse director at NHS Lothian, said: "There are a number of independent reviews and investigations underway to verify and provide assurance that all aspects of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services meet the appropriate standards before it becomes operational.
"The decision to delay the move followed the identification of a problem with ventilation in critical care. Given the pause in occupation, the commissioned reviews will focus on ventilation and will also look at drainage and water systems as a priority.
"An Oversight Board, made up of Scottish government, NHS Lothian, National Services Scotland and Scottish Futures Trust, has been established in order to provide co-ordinated advice on the readiness of the hospital to open and on the migration of services to the new facility.
"The reviews and subsequent reports will be provided to the cabinet secretary for health and NHS Lothian."
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An "extraordinary" University of Oxford student who avoided jail for stabbing her boyfriend is trying to appeal against her suspended sentence.
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Lavinia Woodward, 24, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding at Christ Church college after drinking heavily.
Judge Ian Pringle QC suspended her 10-month jail sentence and at an earlier hearing said he believed immediate custody would damage her career.
She has now applied for permission to take her case to the Court of Appeal.
The case prompted a debate about inequality in the criminal justice system after Judge Pringle deferred her sentence to give her a chance to prove she was no longer addicted to drugs and alcohol.
He had described Woodward as "an extraordinarily able young lady" and said sending her to prison would damage her hopes of becoming a surgeon.
In his sentencing remarks he said there were "many mitigating features" of the case, and she had shown "a strong and unwavering determination" to rid herself of her addictions.
Woodward has voluntarily suspended her studies at Oxford until the end of her sentence, when she will face a disciplinary procedure if she decides to return.
Oxford Crown Court heard Woodward attacked her then boyfriend, whom she met on dating app Tinder, while he was visiting in December 2016.
She became angry when he contacted her mother on Skype when he realised she had been drinking.
She threw a laptop at him and stabbed him in the lower leg with a breadknife, also injuring two of his fingers.
Woodward then tried to stab herself with the knife before he disarmed her.
Judge Pringle said Woodward faced a possible maximum sentence of three years in prison for a "category two" offence of unlawful wounding.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) rejected three complaints against Judge Pringle in connection with the case.
A judge must now look at Woodward's application and decide whether to grant her permission to appeal.
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A teenager has admitted driving offences after knocking down a dog walker and killing her pet in a crash.
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Patricia Faulkner suffered a broken leg in the collision in Doe Bank Lane, Great Barr, in the West Midlands on 22 July, but her dog Millie died at the side of the road.
Kallum Aish pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Birmingham Magistrates' Court.
The 18-year-old is due to be sentenced at the city's Crown court next month.
The court was told Aish had been at the wheel of a Renault Clio when it came off the road, hitting the victim and her Staffordshire bull terrier.
CCTV footage released by West Midlands Police last summer showed the car hitting undergrowth before three people got out and left on foot.
Aish's solicitor said his client denied racing with another car at the time of the accident.
Prosecutor Richard Purchase told the court Miss Faulkner had suffered a fractured leg, needed stitches and still had difficulty walking.
"Having seen the footage, Miss Faulkner is very lucky to still be alive, having been hit by the car in that way," he said.
Aish also pleaded guilty to failing to stop after an accident, driving without third party insurance, driving other than in accordance with a licence and criminal damage in relation to the death of the dog.
He has been given unconditional bail ahead of sentencing on 25 February and an interim driving ban.
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The number of cases of child poverty in Wales will increase by 6,000 next year as a result of changes to the tax and benefits system, the Welsh government estimates.
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It says it has "grave concerns" about welfare changes being introduced in Westminster.
It comes on the day that charities warned "the vast majority" of benefits claimants will see their incomes cut.
The UK government said its reforms would "restore fairness" to the system.
Welsh Conservatives said dependency on welfare was "ingrained" in some communities.
In a statement, Education Minister Leighton Andrews revealed the findings of ananalysis by the Welsh government into the impact of the changes.
He said Wales was more dependent on welfare benefits than Britain as a whole: 18.4% of the working-age population claim welfare benefits, compared to a British average of 14.5%.
The main reason for the higher claimant rate is the higher proportion of people on disability and sickness benefits.
The Welsh government provisionally estimates that the reforms could increase the cases of relative child poverty in Wales by around 6,000 in 2012-13.
The proportion of poor children fell between 1997 and 2003 to 28%,but has since risen to 33%- about 200,000. This compares to 30% for the UK. Poverty is classed as living on less than 60% of the median income.
Mr Andrews said: "The Welsh government is not opposed to the principle of welfare reform.
"We would welcome a simpler, more transparent benefit system that makes work pay; and provides genuine support to individuals to help them find and keep work.
"But as I have previously said, the power to create jobs does not generally lie with the unemployed."
'Cliff edge'
Also on Tuesday, a coalition of charities warned tens of thousands of people in Wales "are unwittingly standing on the edge of a cliff" because of impending reforms to welfare.
Areportby the Cuts Watch Cymru says people on out-of-work benefit will face "tough sanctions" if they do not look for work at a time when unemployment is already high.
It says: "People in Wales face the toughest challenge to their well-being for decades from a combination of economic crisis, job losses, a squeeze on earnings and rising prices."
The UK government has lost votes in the House of Lords as its reforms, which include capping benefits at £26,000 a year per household, make their way through parliament.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "Our reforms will restore fairness to a welfare system that just isn't working, while ensuring that those who really need support will always get it.
"Just about everyone accepts that work is the best route to a better future, rather than a life on benefits, and through the introduction of Universal Credit we're ensuring that work will always pay - lifting 350,000 children and 550,000 adults out of poverty in the process.
"People who are too sick or disabled to work will continue to receive our unconditional support, while those who are able to work will get specialist employment support through the Work Programme."
Speaking before Mr Andrews's statement, Conservative assembly group leader Andrew RT Davies said: "What the reforms need to achieve is to break a cycle of welfare dependency that has ingrained itself in many communities across the whole of the United Kingdom and in particular communities here in Wales."
The system should "support the vulnerable... but obviously offers a route back into an active and participant role in our society".
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Italian investigators have obtained the computer and mobile phone of a Cambridge University lecturer whose student was murdered in Egypt in 2016.
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They received the items from UK police, who searched Dr Maha Abdelrahman's Cambridge home on Wednesday.
The body of her student Giulio Regeni was found dumped in the outskirts of Cairo in February 2016. He had been researching independent trade unions.
There is no suggestion Dr Abdelrahman was involved in his death.
However, investigators want to find out how Regeni came to his research subject and whether anyone put him in harm's way.
Egypt has cracked down hard on unofficial protest movements since the 2011 Arab Spring, a revolution which toppled then-president Hosni Mubarak.
"Yesterday we, Cambridgeshire police, did carry out a search of Dr Abdelrahman's home on behalf of the Italian authorities. Dr Abdelrahman fully co-operated and voluntarily handed over everything which was requested," police told the BBC. Her university office was not searched, they added.
Italian investigators want to examine Dr Abdelrahman's phone data for the period January 2015-February 2016.
The Rome Prosecutor's Office said the items seized "will be useful to bring definitive clarity, in an unequivocal and objective way, to the tutor's role regarding the facts of the investigation".
The case has caused tension between the governments of Italy and Egypt.
Italian officials want to determine Dr Abdelrahman's role in Regeni's research. She is Egyptian and was a professor of sociology in Cairo before joining the Cambridge Centre of Development Studies in 2007.
Media reports quote her as saying Regeni had freely chosen his PhD research topic.
Egypt has denied accusations that Regeni died in custody. However, officials have admitted that the security services were monitoring him.
Italy's Ansa news agency says Italian prosecutors have asked UK police to identify all students supervised by Dr Abdelrahman who were sent to Cairo in the period 2012-2015.
Cambridge University says "both the university and Dr Abdelrahman are co-operating fully" with the investigation.
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Maternity services across the UK need a radical rethink, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says.
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By Branwen JeffreysHealth correspondent, BBC News
It wants the number of hospital units cut to ensure 24-hour access to care from senior doctors and says more midwife-led units are needed for women with low-risk pregnancies.
The National Childbirth Trust welcomed the report but says the proposals do not go far enough.
NHS managers said maternity care desperately needed to be reorganised.
'Serious complications'
Too many babies are born in traditional hospital units, says the college, which also warns the current system is neither acceptable nor sustainable in its report on maternity care.
RCOG president Anthony Falconer told the BBC that most out-of-hours care was being provided by junior doctors.
The college estimates there are about 1,000 too few consultants to provide adequate round-the-clock cover for hospital units.
Dr Falconer said: "There is no doubt if you look at the worst scenario of serious complications, you need the right person, a senior person, there immediately."
Previous attempts to re-organise maternity care around a smaller number of hospital units have proved controversial, but Dr Falconer said if women could be convinced of the greater safety they would be prepared to travel to have their babies.
The need for change would be largely in cities or large towns, because in rural areas it might be more important to support smaller units.
The report estimates that across the UK there are 56 units with fewer than 2,500 deliveries of babies a year.
In order to take the pressure off busy hospitals, the college is also calling for an increase in the number of midwife-led units.
'Joined-up care'
Midwives have welcomed the report, saying it could improve the experience for about a third of women who have straightforward deliveries.
The proposals for maternity are part of a wider vision of delivering all women's gynaecology and obstetrics care in networks, similar to the model which has helped improve cancer treatments in England.
The National Childbirth Trust said the idea of having a network to provide joined-up care for women was one it could support but it would prefer care during pregnancy and maternity to be concentrated in one NHS organisation in each area.
The NHS confederation, which speaks for managers, described maternity care as a classic example of a service which desperately needed to be reorganised.
Chief executive Mike Farrar said politicians needed to be prepared to speak up for change.
"Where the case for change is clear, politicians should stand shoulder-to-shoulder with managers and clinicians to provide confidence to their constituents that quality and care will improve as a consequence of this change."
That has not always been the case, with two ministers in the last Labour government campaigning against the closure of units in Greater Manchester.
Hundreds of people turned out to a rally to oppose the closure of maternity services in Salford last autumn. After a review under the coalition, the NHS is pressing ahead with plans to reduce the number of units across the area from 12 to eight.
Although Scotland has reorganised some of its maternity services, there are likely to be pressures for change elsewhere in the UK.
In North Wales maternity care across three hospitals is expected to change after an initial review recently concluded improvement was needed.
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The "circus" of the Dominic Cummings row has led to a "loss of public trust", Wales' Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said.
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The prime minister's chief adviser said on Monday he did not regret driving 260 miles from London during lockdown.
Mr Cummings said he acted "reasonably" and within the law.
The health minister said he would have resigned if he had been caught in a similar row to Dominic Cummings.
On Monday, at a press conference, Mr Cummings revealed he had not told Boris Johnson when he decided to take his family to County Durham after his wife developed Covid-19 symptoms.
Mr Cummings said he realised the family would have been left without childcare in London if, like his wife, he had fallen ill.
Conservative junior minister Douglas Ross resigned on Tuesday, saying Mr Cumming's view of the government guidance was "not shared by the vast majority of people".
In Wales, Preseli Pembrokeshire Conservative MP Stephen Crabb accused Mr Cummings of behaving "arrogantly" when the allegations first appeared.
Vaughan Gething has himself been involved in a lockdown row after he was photographed sitting eating chips in Cardiff Bay with his family.
It came days before Welsh Government advice changed, allowing people to sit and eat while exercising.
The Labour health minister what mattered to him was "not so much the fate of Dominic Cummings and his job".
"It's actually whether people across all four nations, including here in Wales, are going to continue to follow the rules to keep all of us safe", he told the daily Welsh Government press conference.
"And my real concern is the loss of public trust that comes from the ever changing circus of the last few days.
"And that's what really concerns me, so some clarity in the rules and expectations [is needed], and a clearer understanding the rules are there for all of us."
Mr Cummings has said that he drove to Barnard Castle to test his ability to drive back to London, after experiencing loss of vision due to coronavirus.
Asked if Mr Gething would recommend driving 30 miles to test his eyesight, he replied: "No."
The health minister said if it had emerged that he himself had driven a long way because he was worried about his son, he would have had to resign or would have been sacked.
He told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast with Claire Summers: "Say my mum lived in Barmouth and I had driven from just outside Cardiff to Barmouth, because I was worried about my son, and I'd stayed on the edge of her property to do so."
"I don't think I'd have lasted the end of the day once that story had broken."
After Mr Gething was photographed eating chips in Cardiff Bay, First Minister, Mark Drakeford defended Mr Gething saying that subsequent changes in the exercise guidance allowing eating had nothing to do with the story.
Conservative Senedd member Darren Millar had asked Mr Drakeford when Mr Gething would be removed. Mr Gething said he broke no rules.
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has stood by his advisor. Conservative Wales Office Minister David TC Davies tweeted at the weekend that Mr Cummings had given a "full explanation" and had acted "within the rules".
Robin Millar, Tory MP for Aberconwy, said he expressed constituents concerns to the PM. "He has made a decision and I respect that and support him."
Rob Roberts, Conservative MP for Delyn, said: "I believe that he seemed to be entirely acting in the best interests of his child as a responsible husband and father."
'Damaging'
But Stephen Crabb said he thought "Dominic Cummings was wrong to arrogantly brush away the allegations when they first appeared. He just made matters worse".
"I would have preferred to see the Cabinet Secretary do a proper inquiry into the allegations and for Cummings to step aside to allow that to happen. But that hasn't happened," he said, adding he would be sharing "the strength of feeling that exists in Pembrokeshire" with the PM.
One Welsh Conservative source questioned why so much political capital was being spent on Dominic Cummings, saying his position was being called into question with the passing of "each minute and hour".
"Every man, woman and child can get their head around it," he said. "That's why it's so damaging, it's so simplistic".
The source did not see how the prime minister could sack Mr Cummings, but speculated it could be "his position becomes untenable and Cummings walks away".
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Indian President Pratibha Patil has rejected mercy pleas from three Tamils convicted of the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
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In theory, the ruling paves the way for their execution, officials say.
However, there are a growing number of people on death row who have exhausted all legal appeals but whose sentences have not been carried out.
Correspondents say bureaucratic delays and a shortage of hangmen have contributed to the backlog.
"The rejection [of the clemency petitions] happened last week after the president returned from a foreign tour," presidential spokeswoman Archana Datta told AFP news agency.
The appeal was filed to the president by three Tamil men convicted for the assassination - Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan.
It was their last formal hope of escaping capital punishment.
The condemned men belonged to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers militant group and were convicted for plotting the May 1991 killing of Mr Gandhi by a female suicide bomber as he addressed an election rally in the southern Indian town of Sriperumbudur.
In 2006, the Tamil Tigers expressed "regret" for the murder.
The Supreme Court in 1999 confirmed the death sentences of the three men, but commuted the capital punishment to life imprisonment for Nalini Sriharan, an Indian Tamil woman who was also convicted.
Mr Gandhi's mother, former Premier Indira Gandhi, was assassinated in October 1984. One of the surviving killers for that killing was hanged.
The last execution in India was in 2004 when a 41-year-old former security guard was hanged for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
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Heavy rain is likely to lead to "life-threatening" flash flooding in southern Texas and north-eastern Mexico even as Hurricane Hanna weakens, US officials have warned.
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The hurricane made landfall on Saturday but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.
But the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) says that rains and strong winds "remain a threat".
Texas Governor Greg Abbott had issued a disaster declaration for 32 counties.
He said coronavirus would complicate the work of emergency services, although a storm surge warning on the Texan coast was later cancelled by the NHC.
Hanna was initially classified as a Category One hurricane, the lowest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, before being downgraded.
It made landfall on Padre Island on Saturday, and on Sunday moved into Mexico.
With wind gusts of up to 90mph (145km/h), the storm was earlier tearing roofs off homes.
Hanna hit Texas as the southern state struggled to contain the spread of coronavirus.
More than 380,000 cases have so far been confirmed, with nearly 5,000 deaths.
"Any hurricane is an enormous challenge," Gov Abbott said on Saturday. "This challenge is complicated and made even more severe, seeing that it is sweeping through an area that is the most challenged area in the state for Covid-19."
AT 22:00 local time on Saturday (03:00 GMT Sunday), maximum sustained winds were near 75mph, the NHC said.
It added that "rapid weakening is expected as Hanna moves farther inland" over Texas and into north-eastern Mexico on Sunday.
Separately, Hurricane Douglas - with maximum winds of up to 90mph - was approaching Hawaii in the Pacific, the NHC said, warning of damaging winds, flooding rainfall and dangerously high surf.
US President Donald Trump tweeted that his administration was closely monitoring the storms. "We continue to closely co-ordinate closely with both states," he said.
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A man has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder after a fatal firework attack in Birmingham.
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Tony Nicholls, 56, died several days after the arson attack in Tile Cross at about 23:20 GMT on 2 November.
His home was gutted by fire after an industrial-sized firework was let off by a group of men that burst into the property as he and his partner ate a Chinese takeaway.
West Midlands Police said a 29-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday.
It comes two days after a £10,000 reward was offered to help find the attackers.
Midlands Live: Men charged over Aldi pickpocketing; Fire at listed cinema 'deliberately started'
Mr Nicholls' 50-year-old partner suffered life-changing injuries after leaping from a first-floor window at the property in Birchtrees Drive. She is now out of hospital, police said.
It is thought the firework contained about 200 tubes of explosives and would have taken about two minutes to fully discharge.
Daughter, Fiona Nicholls, paid tribute to her "fun-loving" father who she said had "worked hard all his life".
She described the death of the former Land Rover worker, who was kept in an induced coma after the attack, as "horrendous".
She said her father "made no enemies" and was "hard-working".
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Welsh councils could be acting unlawfully by continuing to invest in companies involved in fracking, a report has claimed.
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By Steffan MessengerBBC Wales Environment Correspondent
More than £600m was provided by council pension funds to firms with fracking operations overseas in 2016-17.
Campaigners argued the situation appeared "to fly in the face of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act".
Council leaders said "great consideration" was given to making responsible investments.
The Welsh Government is currently consulting on its position not to grant new licences for fracking in Wales, having had a moratorium on the practice in place since 2015.
In October it is set to receive control over the consenting process from Westminster.
"At exactly the same time as the Welsh Government is proposing to effectively kill off any prospects of fracking in Wales, the news that Welsh local authority pension funds are investing money in companies who continue to frack in other countries around the world is shocking," said Friends of the Earth Cymru spokesman Bleddyn Lake.
"Welsh councils won't be faced with fracking applications in their areas when the effective ban on fracking comes into Wales, so they shouldn't be profiting from fracking in other people's backyards.
"We need to see a clear commitment from them to remove all investments, direct or indirect, from fossil fuel companies."
The charity's report, worked on jointly with Platform and 350.org, suggests Welsh pension funds are supporting companies which are fracking in Argentina, USA, Canada, Australia, China and Oman.
They claim the controversial technique - designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock - is simply distracting energy firms and governments from investing in renewable sources of energy, and encouraging continued reliance on fossil fuels.
But supporters - including the UK government - argue it has the potential to provide the UK with greater energy security, jobs and growth.
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Wales's Future Generations Commissioner has previously called on Welsh councils to demonstrate how mitigating the risk of climate change is being incorporated into their pension funds' investment strategy.
Speaking in March, after it was revealed £1bn of pension fund investment in Wales was being spent on fossil fuel companies, Sophie Howe said: "Under the Well-being of Future Generations Act public bodies need to demonstrate how they are thinking about the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales for now and for future generations."
"In line with the Paris Agreement, the Environment (Wales) Act and the Well-being of Future Generations Act, pension funds should be demonstrating how they are considering climate risk in their investment decisions. I want to know how they have done this and what action has been taken; in particular, has any formal advice been sought and a climate risk investment strategy been developed and implemented?"
The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) said that all Welsh funds were members of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) which considers and advises on ethical and climate-related investment issues.
"The WLGA encourages the development of ethical investment principles," said a spokesman.
"The pooling of the eight funds in Wales offers an opportunity to share good practice under the Welsh pension partnership joint committee in relation to responsible investment including fossil fuels."
"This should complement the primary fiduciary duty of each fund which is to invest for the benefit of over 300,000 members of the local government pension scheme in Wales."
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Judging by the press coverage, the US primary elections on Tuesday were as much about the powerful political celebrities who endorsed the candidates as the candidates themselves.
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By Katie ConnollyBBC News, Washington
The battle between Michael Bennet and Andrew Romanoff to be the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Colorado seemed as much a proxy showdown between their presidential supporters: Barack Obama and Bill Clinton respectively.
With Mr Bennet triumphant, it seemed Mr Obama's blessing was more potent.
Or did it? Are endorsements pivotal game-changers, or merely incidental?
'Vote cues'
For political analysts, the answer is complicated. For the most part, endorsements, regardless of how important the benefactor is, are of limited use when voters step inside the polling booth.
But in certain circumstances they can profoundly alter a race.
Stuart Rothenberg, editor of non-partisan election analysis newsletter the Rothenberg Report, puts it this way: "Endorsements matter when the voters don't know anything else about the candidates."
He says that when candidates are well-known or voters seem very engaged with a race, there are other "vote cues" or factors that matter significantly more.
That perhaps explains why President Obama's endorsement has been far from decisive over the past year, even holding little sway among those Democratic voters with whom he has remained extremely popular.
President Obama very publicly threw his weight behind New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley and Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, all of whom lost.
But each of those races had intensive media coverage and unique issues which crowded out the importance of an endorsement.
In races where voters are paying little attention - such as mid-terms or local elections - endorsements matter more, even if they don't necessarily yield new votes.
Palin appeal
For a candidate struggling to find ground in a crowded primary field, or an insurgent candidate taking on an incumbent, an endorsement can be powerful.
In the competitive race to be governor of Georgia for example, Sarah Palin's active campaigning for Karen Handel buoyed the candidate and turned people out at her public events.
Ms Handel conceded the race on Wednesday, but it was very close, with just 2,500 votes separating her and her opponent, Congressman Nathan Deal.
Mr Deal matched Ms Handel's conservative credentials by receiving endorsements from the NRA (National Rifle Association) and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. So, like the Colorado race for the Democrats, the Georgian Republican primary has become shorthand for the internal power struggles of the party.
The two are neck-and-neck in a run-off election that is currently too close to call.
Ms Palin's endorsement of Nikki Haley in the South Carolina governor's contest earlier this summer is another case in point.
Mr Rothenberg says Ms Haley was having difficulty breaking out in a field that included well-known local politicians like the lieutenant governor.
"The endorsement was significant in getting her a lot of publicity in the state," he says. It yielded significant press coverage and brought Ms Haley to the attention of Ms Palin's myriad devoted fans.
Michael Dimock, an associate director with the Pew Research Center, has found that Mrs Palin has a fairly unique appeal.
According to Pew's research, many more people say that a Palin endorsement would make them less likely to vote for a candidate than those who say the endorsement is a positive factor.
But their polls also suggest that for people who are drawn to Mrs Palin, her endorsement counts a great deal.
"The intensity of feeling really matters," Mr Dimock says. "The people who like Sarah Palin are right now very mobilised and active people. An endorsement from her carries a stronger credibility and intensity from that very active part of the electorate."
Mrs Palin's endorsement has a brand-like power for certain Republicans, who see it as a proxy for her particular set of conservative values. She helps them connect the dots.
"Palin matters when you have lots of candidates in the race and voters are scratching their heads and they can't quite figure out which one they want. She appears to be the cue that they use," Mr Rothenberg says.
No ordinary Joe
An endorsement alone rarely sways votes, but it can lend credibility to a relatively unknown candidate. That is why Bill Clinton's backing mattered to Mr Romanoff's campaign - even if it didn't result in a win, it helped make the race competitive.
His opponent, the incumbent Mr Bennet, had the support of most of the Democratic Party establishment, including Mr Obama. Having an elder statesman such as Mr Clinton vouch for his candidacy helped Mr Romanoff establish his viability as an alternative.
"In cases when you have candidates who are not well-known to the voters individually, those endorsements lend an air of seriousness to a candidate that people may not be familiar with," Mr Dimock told the BBC.
"When a major national figure endorses you, you're obviously not just some Joe off the street at that point."
But the timing of an endorsement is often the secret to its success.
When Florida Governor Charlie Crist held out on endorsing a Republican presidential candidate until just days before the 2008 Florida primary, he maximised both the impact of, and interest in, his choice, John McCain, who ultimately won the nomination.
When television magnate Oprah Winfrey told the world in May 2007 that she was backing a little known Illinois senator, Barack Obama, for president, almost 70% of Americans told Pew that her endorsement mattered little to them.
But, at a time when Hillary Clinton was the odds-on favourite for the nomination, Ms Winfrey's seal of approval generated a frenzy of media attention, lending his candidacy a new sheen of plausibility.
She also held fundraisers for Mr Obama - another perk of having wealthy supporters, and one that matters early in a race.
But once an endorsement has bought media attention, it's up to the candidate to capitalise on it.
"It will get the candidate some attention but then that candidate must have the skills to sell him or herself to those voters who are now going to be looking more closely," Mr Rothenberg says.
Mr Dimock says that the scenario in which endorsements matter most is in the case of a referendum.
Often, the issues under consideration are complex and the wording of the question can be confusing.
For example, a proponent of gay marriage in California would have had to vote "no" on Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot question which would have permitted gay couples to marry in that state.
A "yes" vote on Prop 8, as it is known, would mean the voter favoured restricting marriage to between a man and a woman.
In the case of a referendum, an endorsement from an organisation with a clear agenda, for example Friends of the Earth or the Human Rights Campaign, is usually a trustworthy marker for voters.
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Unemployment in the UK is at the lowest level since records began in 1975.
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By Steve DuffyBBC News
But what is it actually like to be out of work in 2017?
Gone are the days of the old fashioned job centres, with boards of vacancies to trawl over.
These days job-seekers are on lap-tops and have to prove they are applying for work before they get any benefits.
Cardiff is seemingly booming with building work across the city and promises of more jobs in the city centre. But there are still parts of the capital which seem miles away.
CARDIFF UNEMPLOYMENT - IN FIGURES
Cardiff's city-wide unemployment claimant rate stands at 2.1% - 1.3% less than it was in 2014.
But this varies depending on where you live in the city.
In Ely, the unemployment claimant rate has fallen from 7.1% to 4.5% in three years - an improvement - but it is still the highest rate in the city.
Figures just released for July show 395 people there are claiming unemployment benefit out of 5,230 across the city.
The outlying estate with 6,000 homes on the western edge of Cardiff also has five of the 10 most deprived neighbourhoods in the city, according to the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation.
One Ely neighbourhood is ranked the second poorest in Wales for income.
Reports of anti-social behaviour are higher than the city average but crime is overall lower than it was a year ago.
It also ranks better for access to services and physical environment.
LOOKING FOR A JOB FOR EIGHT YEARS
Andrew Way, 47, has lived in Ely all his life and has been unemployed for eight years since losing a leisure assistant job. He had also done warehouse work.
For the last two and a half years, he has volunteered three days a week for the New Life charity restoring furniture; he's also recently got a qualification in maths to add to a City and Guilds certificate, and will soon start an English course.
To get job seekers' allowance he has to show he is regularly applying for work and fills in applications online but has not had an interview - or even an acknowledgement.
For those claimants who have been moved onto universal credit, they have to show they are spending up to 37 hours a week applying for jobs or they risk being sanctioned and losing benefits.
"I've gone for warehouse work, barman, cleaning, night porter - maybe I apply for 20 jobs a week," he said. "I check my emails - nothing. It's frustrating sometimes."
There were about six warehouse jobs going in a five mile radius when we check and Andrew said he was happy to travel as far as Newport if he had to. He is applying for cleaning and kitchen assistant jobs too.
"I think it is harder now because all the new rules are brought in. Fair enough they're trying to put people back to work. I just about manage."
He is happy with the support from advisers at his local job centre, who helped him get the voluntary work. But the lack of interviews frustrates him, as does the dearth of any feedback.
Andrew is at the Dusty Forge, a converted pub, which is home to Action in Caerau and Ely (Ace).
This provides training, drop-in support, a workshop and computer centre.
The Communities First team there are looking into "up-skilling" Andrew to get over the hurdles and making him more employable, but share his frustration at the system.
"He deserves employment, it's about getting him over the barrier," says training officer Simon Murray.
"The biggest issues are finding credible, contracted jobs paying more than the minimum wage."
Simon, who has worked in Ely for 10 years, said: "There's not enough decent work locally - there are supermarkets and retail, all offering - if you're lucky - eight or 16 hours contracts, predominantly minimum wage. It's cheaper to employ people that way.
"There's no industry within the area, and people can be reluctant to travel. People will get one bus and travel across town. With people coming in here it's about skills and their CVs are a bit light, I think 89% of the local population will not go to university. Our schools are ranked low in terms of achievement. It's a classic scenario."
Simon said: "It's depressing in some capacities but you get little victories along the way. We like the community a lot, when you watch people grow up and do well it's nice to see that.
"It's the perception, perpetuated by programmes like Benefits Street that people are having a good time. They manage, but then you get people who prey on them and get them into debt."
"People come in here in a terrible state, upset, last resort because they've been sanctioned or got mental health issues," said Simon.
"We feel we're seeing more people and can do more for people, but then our remit's changed, we're losing staff. Communities First will be gone by next March. I don't want to just end up being a training organisation - I'd like to do stuff because we can, not because we have to. It's whether we can still deliver a service when we essentially become self-sustaining."
Has it got better with unemployment falling?
"It doesn't feel any better because Trussell Trust will report food banks are continuing to rise," said Simon.
He picks up bread from a friend's bakery in Pontcanna to give out and they are also making their own mobile pizza ovens in the workshop, which are out in the community as part of outreach work, to talk to people about what they can offer.
"It's not necessarily about people being in employment but it's about people being out of poverty - which are two different things."
The centre has helped 63 16-to-18-year-olds into work in the last year but the biggest focus is with the over 24s. Ace offers training in basic health and safety - green cards to get people onto construction sites. There is also training to get people into jobs - from security to lifeguards at leisure centres.
Eve, who has childcare and beauty qualifications, has been in and out of work since 2013.
"I have to apply for 30 jobs a week," she said. "It's horrible when you get a knock-back. I think there are so many people applying for one job. It's tough out there. You have to apply online you can't just walk in anywhere."
Lynne, another who did not want to be pictured or her real name used, is in her 30s and has four children. She wants part-time cleaning work around her childcare needs.
She has no qualifications because her first child was born when she was 17. Lynne has been looking to return to work, with her youngest child now in school.
"I'd like to work while they're in school," she said. "It's been hard but I've been on courses at the Dusty Forge and it's given me more independence and confidence to get back into work."
"I apply for 10 jobs a day when I'm online - and you don't get that full response back, it's awful, I thought it was down to my age or experience."
Employment mentor Maisey Edwards, who is trying to help her, said there was a lot of competition for jobs and it was about working on confidence and skills.
"Childcare is a major issue with women, but a few are coming through with no qualifications at all, so we try to get them into training and work on employability skills - whether CV writing, job applications and interview skills - especially those who have been out of work for a while."
There have been modern homes built on the fringes of the old pre-war council housing over the last 20 years but bigger developments are taking place to the south.
The most dramatic is the £100m Ely Mills housing development that will see the site of a former paper mill transformed into an 750-home "urban village."
There is a also a new £36m Cardiff West high school which got the go-ahead on Wednesday and will be built at Trelai Park.
Both of these projects potentially provide job opportunities on the doorstep. Links are already been made with contractors.
But employment is often through agencies, which can also apply to jobs in leisure. Some jobs can also involve cumbersome application processes, even for relatively low level jobs.
"Agency work is in everything - what used to be council work or in health," said Simon. "Trying to do the application for one supermarket chain - even the managers said they can't do it, we tried and we failed - that's for any job there.
"The vast majority will get some work but they'll be back, it's a little bit of work here and there. One of my lads had arrangements and was on his way to work - they texted him to say he wasn't wanted, it's soul destroying."
Gareth Dawe, customer services lead for Job Centre Plus in Cardiff said there were opportunities in retail, care and also with companies like Cardiff Bus that were being taken by people from Ely,
"The expectation is that customers do what they reasonably can to look for work," he said.
"For universal credit customers, the expectation is they're looking for full-time work and that will be a full-time job looking for their job.
"That could be a couple of hours a day looking on a computer, that could be applying for jobs - that can be a couple of hours, it could be contacting employers."
He admitted it was challenging but said people were not being pushed into areas that were not right for them and were being supported in a number of ways.
Mr Dawe said people had to apply in a "constructive way" but those on universal credit tended to find work sooner and stayed in work longer.
Eve is waiting to hear back about four applications, all for minimum wage jobs. She can still hope but adds: "You're going around in circles. It's disheartening."
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A Turkish court has sentenced a man to life in prison for carrying out a gun attack on an Istanbul nightclub that left 39 people dead.
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Abdulkadir Masharipov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, was handed the equivalent of 40 life sentences on Monday.
It follows a three-year trial over the shooting, which happened at the exclusive Reina nightclub just minutes into New Year's Day in 2017.
The Islamic State group (IS) said it was responsible for the attack.
Masharipov was sentenced for "deliberate murder" and "violating the constitution", Turkey's Anadolu news agency said. He will not be eligible for parole.
He also received an additional 1,368-year sentence for the attempted murder of 79 people who were injured in the attack and for carrying a weapon without a licence.
Another man, Ilyas Mamasaripov, was sentenced to more than 1,400 years in prison for helping plan the shooting.
Forty-eight defendants were sentenced to jail for being members of a terrorist organisation, local media reported, and 11 others were acquitted.
What happened in the attack?
At about 01:30 local time (22:30 GMT), as revellers marked the new year, a gunman opened fire at the Reina nightclub in the north of the city.
Masharipov had arrived at the club by taxi, before rushing through the entrance with an automatic rifle he had taken from the boot of the car.
Surveillance footage showed bullets ricocheting off parked cars as he opened fire and entered the club.
Masharipov fired randomly and threw stun grenades to allow himself to reload. He shot injured people on the ground before fleeing the scene.
Citizens of Israel, France, Tunisia, Lebanon, India, Belgium, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were among the victims, and dozens of people were injured.
The Uzbek national was eventually detained on 17 January 2017 after a lengthy manhunt.
Police in Turkey have carried out numerous raids against IS in recent times. In July, 27 people suspected of planning an attack in Istanbul were detained in the city.
And last week, the government said the top IS commander in the country had been detained.
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A knife-obsessed man who went to the pub after "ferociously" stabbing his mum and stepfather to death has been found guilty of murder.
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Anmol Chana, 26, killed Jasbir Kaur, 52, and husband Rupinder Bassan, 51, in the "horrendous attack" at their home in Oldbury, West Midlands, in February.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court heard both victims suffered more than 20 injuries.
Chana, of Hamilton Road, Smethwick, is due to be sentenced on Friday.
During his trial, the court heard how the defendant had stolen money and a car from the couple after he murdered them, before contacting an escort and calmly playing pool in a pub.
Det Insp Hannah Whitehouse, from West Midlands Police, said it was a "horrendous attack".
'Horrific scene'
"I think it is quite chilling that having murdered these two people in cold blood he then stole money from them, took their car and stole that as well and then used that money to try to buy a plane ticket and leave the country," she said.
"In amongst that he went for a drink in a pub and made phone calls to escorts as well, and that just really compounds the violence of the crime by virtue of its lack of remorse."
The court heard Chana had previously made threats against his mother and sister and had a "fascination with knives" dating back to when he was 16.
"The violence that has been used in committing these murders was really, really horrific, the scene was horrific," Det Insp Whitehouse said.
"Having pieced together his actions... just reinforces the cold-blooded nature of what he did."
Mrs Kaur was described as the "toughest... most loving" person, by the couple's daughter who said they were "a perfect match".
"I am sad that their lives were ended so quickly without a second thought by a person whom they both loved dearly," she said.
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]
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Silence of the Lambs actress Jodie Foster is to receive the Cecil B DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes next year.
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Organisers said the Oscar-winner would be honoured for her 40-year career as an actress, director and film producer.
"Her ambition, exuberance and grace have helped pave the way for budding artists in this business," said the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
She will be presented with the award at a ceremony on 13 January.
"Jodie is a multifaceted woman that has achieved immeasurable amounts of success and will continue to do so in her career," HFPA president Aida Takla-O'Reilly said in a statement.
"She's truly one of a kind."
Foster, 49, began her career in television commercials at the age of three and by the age of 10, had appeared in a string of TV shows.
She found international fame in 1976 for her Oscar-nominated performance as teenage prostitute Iris in Taxi Driver, and roles as Tallulah in Bugsy Malone and the lead in Freaky Friday.
She has since appeared in more than 40 movies, winning best actress Oscars for her role as a rape victim in 1988 film The Accused and as the FBI agent Clarice Starling in 1991's The Silence of The Lambs.
The actress also branched out into directing, with projects including Little Man Tate in 1991 and last year's The Beaver, starring Mel Gibson.
She also produces for both film and television through her production company, Egg Pictures.
Previous winners of the Cecil B DeMille Award - named for the famed director of The Ten Commandments and The Greatest Show on Earth - include Robert DeNiro, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Al Pacino and Morgan Freeman, who was awarded the honour earlier this year.
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British computer hacker Gary McKinnon will not be extradited to the US, Home Secretary Theresa May has announced.
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Mr McKinnon, 46, who admits accessing US government computers but claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs, has been fighting extradition since 2002.
The home secretary told MPs there was no doubt Mr McKinnon was "seriously ill" and the extradition warrant against him should be withdrawn.
Mrs May said the sole issue she had to consider was his human rights.
She said it was now for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, to decide whether he should face trial in the UK.
Mrs May said: "Since I came into office, the sole issue on which I have been required to make a decision is whether Mr McKinnon's extradition to the United States would breach his human rights.
"Mr McKinnon is accused of serious crimes. But there is also no doubt that he is seriously ill.
"He has Asperger's syndrome, and suffers from depressive illness. The legal question before me is now whether the extent of that illness is sufficient to preclude extradition.
"After careful consideration of all of the relevant material, I have concluded that Mr McKinnon's extradition would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life that a decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr McKinnon's human rights."
Mrs May also said measures would be taken to enable a UK court to decide whether a person should stand trial in the UK or abroad - a so-called forum bar.
It would be designed to ensure extradition cases did not fall foul of "delays and satellite litigation", she said.
"I believe extradition decisions must not only be fair, they must be seen to be fair. And they must be made in open court where decisions can be challenged and explained," she said.
"That is why I have decided to introduce a forum bar. This will mean that where prosecution is possible in both the UK and in another state, the British courts will be able to bar prosecution overseas if they believe it is in the interests of justice to do so."
Mr McKinnon, from Wood Green, north London, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, faced 60 years in jail if convicted in the US.
Mr McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp was delighted with the decision, saying: "Thank you Theresa May from the bottom of my heart - I always knew you had the strength and courage to do the right thing."
His MP, David Burrowes, who had threatened to resign as a parliamentary aide if Mr McKinnon was extradited, welcomed the decision.
Mr Burrowes, Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate in north London, tweeted: "Compassion and pre-election promises delivered today."
BBC legal correspondent Clive Coleman said it was a dramatic decision - the first time a home secretary had stepped in to block an extradition under the current treaty with the US.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, said: "This is a great day for rights, freedoms and justice in the United Kingdom.
"The home secretary has spared this vulnerable man the cruelty of being sent to the US and accepted Liberty's long-standing argument for change to our rotten extradition laws."
Mark Lever, chief executive of the National Autistic Society, said he was "delighted that the years of waiting are finally over for Gary and his family".
But Labour former home secretary Alan Johnson criticised the decision and claimed Mrs May had made a decision which was "in her own party's best interests but it's not in the best interests of this country".
He said: "Gary McKinnon is accused of very serious offences. The US was perfectly within its rights and it was extremely reasonable of them to seek his extradition."
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper asked Mrs May about the implications of her decision: "Clearly other people subject to extradition proceedings or immigration proceedings do cite medical conditions as a reason not to extradite so it would be useful for Parliament and the courts to understand the tests you have applied and whether that will set precedent in other cases."
American lawyer, David Rivkin, a former White House adviser, said the decision was "laughable", adding, "Under that logic, anybody who claims some kind of physical or mental problem can commit crimes with impunity and get away with it."
US extradition expert Douglas McNabb said the US Attorney's Office would be furious and he suspected it would ask Interpol to issue a red notice - making other nations aware there was an outstanding arrest warrant for Mr McKinnon in the US - which would mean he could be arrested if he left the UK.
The family of terror suspect Babar Ahmad said while they welcomed the decision not to extradite Mr McKinnon, questions had to be asked.
Mr Ahmad was one of five terror suspects, including radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, extradited to the US earlier this month. His co-accused, Talha Ahsan, who was also extradited, was diagnosed with Asperger's in June 2009, according to a European Court of Human Rights judgement.
Both are accused by US authorities of running a pro-jihad website.
Mr Ahmad's family said: "Why within the space of two weeks, a British citizen with Asperger's accused of computer-related activity is not extradited, while two other British citizens, one with Asperger's, engaged in computer-related activity are extradited. A clear demonstration of double standards."
US authorities have described Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon's actions as the "biggest military computer hack of all time" and have demanded he face justice in America.
They insisted his hacking was "intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation and coercion".
The Americans said his actions caused $800,000 (£487,000) worth of damage to military computer systems.
Mr McKinnon has previously lost appeals in the High Court and the House of Lords against his extradition, but two years ago a High Court judge ruled Mr McKinnon would be at risk of suicide if sent away.
Earlier this year Mrs May put the decision on hold to allow Home Office appointed psychiatrists to conduct an assessment.
They also concluded Mr McKinnon would be likely to take his own life if he was sent to face trial in the US.
Mr McKinnon was arrested in 2002 and again in 2005 before an order for his extradition was made in July 2006 under the 2003 Extradition Act.
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