label
stringlengths 5
984
| text
stringlengths 76
235k
|
|---|---|
The trunk of a giant oak tree, thought by experts to be more than 5,000 years old, has been unearthed in a field in Norfolk.
|
The 44ft (13.4m) Fenland Black Oak, or bog oak, was found buried in farmland at Methwold Hythe, near Downham Market.
Planks cut from the trunk will be dried over seven months in a specialist kiln.
A spokesman said the tree would make "a breathtaking table for public display giving an insight into the grandeur of these ancient giant forests".
Bog oak is generally found buried in farmland.
One of the rarest forms of timber in England, when dry it is said to be "comparable to some of the world's most expensive tropical hardwoods".
Experts believe the Norfolk bog oak is "the largest-ever intact 5,000-year-old sub-fossilised trunk of an ancient giant oak", but think it could be just a section - possibly as small as a quarter - of the original tree.
Standing trees began to perish as water levels gradually rose starting about 7,000 years ago and when they died they tumbled into silt that built up on the forest floor and this led to their preservation.
Hamish Low, of specialists Adamson and Low, said: "This one is so special in that it is intact and, as far as I can tell, sound along its full 44ft length.
"Along with the fact it is impossible to know how long Fenland Black Oaks will continue to rise out of the soil, and their inherent fragility, this one is worthy of preserving for the interest of the nation."
Having taken a team of experts a day on Tuesday to unearth the tree and mill on site to 10 planks, the wood is being transported to London for drying.
Working as the Diamond Jubilee Fenland Black Oak Project, Mr Low will lead a team of apprentice carpenters, in collaboration with the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, to create a 44ft table from the dried oak with the intention of putting it on show to the public.
"Most people in the woodwork business will think it's a ridiculous thing to try and attempt, but they are digging up less and less bog oak and there is very little of it on public display," said Mr Low.
"It's only by developing techniques over 20 years we've even dared to try and attempt this."
|
When the invite-only app Clubhouse was launched last April, it was envisaged as the online equivalent of Soho House: an exclusive space where the well-connected could gather.
|
But for a few days, it became something else: a tiny gap in Beijing's "great firewall", allowing millions in China a glimpse of an unfiltered, uncensored internet. A place where people could openly discuss issues like the treatment of the Uighur minority, the crackdown in Hong Kong, and relations with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.
"It's the first time I've logged on to the real internet in [the] Chinese language," a young woman from mainland China declared in one of the sessions.
It was short-lived: on Monday, the app some described as the Chinese version of the "Enlightenment Salon", went offline in mainland China - but not before the BBC listened in on a series of conversations which, just a week ago, would have been unimaginable.
'We are the same people'
When thousands of Mandarin speakers from mainland China and Taiwan joined a Clubhouse chatroom called "Everyone asks Everyone" last weekend, astute observers immediately sensed something unusual.
The conversation was no-holds-barred, ranging from the pros and cons of democracy in the Chinese-speaking world, and the possibility of unification of Taiwan with China, to occasional heart-warming personal stories.
"I was born and raised on the mainland, and I have never been abroad," a Chinese man said on Friday.
"We mainlanders say we are from the People's Republic of China; whereas in Taiwan you call your land the Republic of China. But why do we have to argue who this China belongs to? We should live peaceably with each other."
It is rare, because, amidst propaganda and tensions from both China and Taiwan in recent years, such sustained freewheeling discussions on a single digital platform are all but impossible usually.
Political content is normally filtered by China's sophisticated "great firewall" censorship system, with those daring to speak out on platforms like the micro-blogging site Weibo and messaging platform WeChat risking getting in trouble with authorities.
But there were no censors on Clubhouse, and speakers' confidence was apparently further buoyed by the fact the audio of users' chats in the app is not recorded, allowing some measure of privacy.
"I'm so delighted to hear these views," one woman from Taiwan chimed in during the conversation, which at some point attracted 5,000 participants.
"To be frank, there is propaganda on both sides. Why don't we try to understand each other a bit more; sympathise with each other and offer support when needed?"
The conversation was not all political, though. At times, people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait shared fond memories visiting each other's cities, while one mainlander pointed out that his favourite song from a Chinese indie rock band is in fact called About Taipei.
This was exactly the kind of conversation the group initiator Yaya Tsao was looking for on Friday.
"Despite the different rhetoric on both sides, there is still a diversity of views out there," Ms Tsao, 28, told the BBC from her home near Taipei.
After hours of moderating on Friday, she passed the responsibility on to a young mainland Chinese woman who calls herself GG.
"I'm very touched by these conversations," the finance professional said from her home in Shenzhen.
"I go to Hong Kong and Taiwan quite often for work, and I know how difficult it is to communicate on a single digital platform like this, let alone being rational and understanding of each other.
"I hope this kind of discussion can be the first step in helping both sides understand each other a bit more - after all, we are the same people with the same dreams and aspirations."
'Is there a concentration camp in Xinjiang?'
The discussions which were watched closest, however, were those on Xinjiang, the region where China is accused of locking up a million of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in internment camps. Beijing insists they are "vocational schools" which combat "terrorism and religious extremism", and has accused the West of spreading lies and propaganda.
On Saturday, a chatroom named "Is there a concentration camp in Xinjiang?" hosted a 12-hour discussion between Uighurs and Han Chinese, China's majority ethnic group.
The Xinjiang chatroom's founding moderator Francis - not his real name - told the BBC the room title was chosen not to cast doubt on whether the camps truly exist, but to attract listeners with different views about China's Xinjiang policy.
"Many Han listeners, who used to have doubts about the authenticity of the camps, were touched by the Uighurs' personal stories and finally understood the scale of the atrocity. This may be the biggest achievement of the chatroom," said the 33-year-old Los Angeles-based filmmaker, who is ethnically Han Chinese.
One Han Chinese man said he had to stop driving as he was crying so much while listening to the discussion.
But there was also pushback, and trolls interrupted multiple times.
One Han Chinese woman defended China's Xinjiang policy by saying the US and Europe also took extreme anti-terrorism measures, asking: "Isn't education a good response?"
She noted some European countries have demanded immigrants learn their languages to assimilate. She was quickly reminded that Uighurs are not immigrants, but native to the Xinjiang region.
Some described her behaviour as "Hansplaining", which is when a Han person explains China's Xinjiang policy to Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in a condescending manner.
"The Hansplainers don't seem to care about how the policy affects the Uighur individuals," said UK-based Alex, not her real name.
The 27-year-old called on her fellow Han Chinese to educate themselves on what's happening in Xinjiang, rather than blame the victims.
'Anti-Chinese battleground'
Of course, Clubhouse's invite-only model, which saw some pay for access, as well as the fact it is only available on iPhones and iPads, means those who took part were likely overwhelmingly well-educated, affluent and urbanised Chinese elites.
Many pointed out that this setting may exacerbate the social media echo chamber, with popular Chinese blogger Ren Yi, who goes by the pen name Chairman Rabbit, noting that most mainland Chinese would never use Clubhouse.
"The content and trends will become increasingly one-sided," he wrote on Weibo, adding Clubhouse will turn into "another anti-China public opinion battleground".
But any chance for people on the mainland to sway the discussion has now gone. The app is offline - whether permanently, no one knows.
Yet Alex hopes the light she saw "shining through a crack" - however briefly - will be the first of many.
"Clubhouse is banned in China now, but as long as people have not lost their desire to communicate with each other, discussions will sprout up again on the next new platform."
|
A move to roll back devolution by the UK Government in Brexit legislation would be "anti-Welsh in the extreme", according to a Labour front-bencher.
|
By James WilliamsBBC Wales Brexit correspondent
Shadow Brexit Minister Jenny Chapman made the comments during a debate in the Commons on the EU Withdrawal Bill.
MPs are discussing amendments proposed by the Welsh and Scottish governments, who have criticised the bill.
But former Conservative Brexit minister David Jones rejected the move was a "power grab" during the debate.
The Clwyd West MP said the powers in devolved areas that are due to flow back from Brussels after Brexit "have never been exercised".
The bill currently proposes to transfer powers in devolved areas currently held in Brussels initially to Westminster rather than to Cardiff.
The UK government said the functions should initially be held at Westminster to allow UK-wide frameworks in areas such as farming to be developed.
Amendments are being put forward which would ensure the UK government seeks the consent of Welsh and Scottish ministers before making any changes in such policy areas.
Mr Jones said the Welsh Assembly would have "not one iota less power" and if there was to be any diminution in power it was a "theoretical one".
Fellow Tory David Davies, MP for Monmouth, did recognise it as a "power grab - grabbing powers from Brussels and bringing them back to London".
Labour's MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, Stephen Doughty, expressed "incredulity" that ministers are seeking to "undermine" the devolved administrations.
He argued the bill could enable London to "step in and make laws for Wales on devolved matters".
Earlier on Monday, Plaid Cymru called on Westminster's opposition parties to work together to change the proposed law and protect Welsh sovereignty.
'Crying outrage'
In his opening remarks, Plaid's Brexit spokesman Hywel Williams said: "Devolution demands all parts of the UK have a say."
Mr Williams said: "All opposition parties must work together to protect Welsh sovereignty.
"Labour's habit of crying outrage in the media only to abstain when it comes to voting is not good enough.
"Every Labour MP must join Plaid Cymru MPs in voting against the Westminster government tonight and if every opposition MP does so, the government will be defeated."
MPs are expected to vote on certain amendments at about 01:00 GMT on Tuesday.
Last week, Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones said he was "encouraged" to hear UK ministers conceded that changes would need to be made to the bill.
The Welsh Government supports the principle of the bill but is opposed to its potential effect on devolution.
|
Glasgow council has banned the Orange Order from walking past the church where a Catholic priest is alleged to have been attacked.
|
Police Scotland welcomed the council's decision to re-route Saturday's march away from St Alphonsus' Church.
They said riot police would have been deployed to combat a counter-protest if had gone past the church.
But the Grand Orange Order of Scotland branded the decision "discrimination in its purest form".
The move follows a previous Orange march on 7 July, when Canon Tom White said he was verbally abused and spat on.
Canon White told BBC Scotland he was called "Fenian scum", a "beast" and "paedophile" during the incident.
A 24-year-old man appeared in court accused of an assault on Canon White, aggravated by religious prejudice.
The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland said its members were not responsible for the incident.
The outcry led the Orange Order to postpone its next march, but this weekend's march, organised by Orange and Purple District 37, had planned to maintain its route past the Catholic church.
Supt John McBride told members of the council's public processions committee that intelligence had led him to believe there was the potential for nasty scenes if the Orange Order walked down Stevenson Street on Saturday.
He said Police Scotland was not asking for the route never to be used again but he had intelligence that Saturday's march could be seen as "an opportunity to cause disorder".
He said "specially-trained public processions officers" would be required if the parade was allowed to go ahead.
"In your mind's eye think of riot police without the helmets.
"They would ensure that any unsavoury element of protest or counter-protest would not lead to disorder. It would be at least five times the usual number of officers."
Ronnie Convery, representing the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Glasgow, said: "On Saturday St Alphonsus' will be open for prayer and religious services just as it was a month ago when clergy suffered shameful violence and intimidation. People are afraid.
"The police report highlighted tensions in the area and on social media. These tensions have ramped up in the last 24 hours. The potential for public disorder is extremely high.
"We want to live in peace. Our people must feel secure. The city of Glasgow has 1,000 streets on which a march could take place. Only 50 have a Catholic church.
"While we all respect the rights of people to march and demonstrate, those rights cannot be seen in isolation. They cannot be exercised come hell or high water."
'No-go zones'
The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland condemned the move.
A spokesman said: "We are extremely concerned at the decision today to re-route a parade and effectively ban us from certain streets.
"It is discrimination in its purest form.
"Glasgow City Council has now established the first 'no-go zones' in Glasgow based purely on your religion."
The spokesman said several concessions were offered, including moving the parade to a different day and avoiding a clash with services at the church, but these were rejected.
He added: "We were offered no concessions or negotiations in return.
"Instead we now have entire streets in Glasgow closed off at the request of one religion over another."
'Peaceful organisation'
James G MacLean, representing the Orange Order, condemned the events of 7 July but questioned the need to ban the parade going past the church this weekend.
He added: "We have a number of concerns with the suggestion that the parade be re-routed because it happens to be on the route of a particular Roman Catholic church.
"We've already made it clear that we deplore the obscenity that took place previously.
"St Alphonsus' Church has never been attacked by an Orange march and I don't think there is any danger of that happening.
"It is an entirely peaceful Christian organisation which condemns thuggery and does not in any way support violence or any attack on clergy or people of different faiths."
Committee members unanimously agreed to stop the march going past the church this weekend but insisted that this was not a blanket ban.
Ken Andrew, who chaired the committee, said: "This should be in no way read that the Orange Order is responsible for the incident involving Canon White."
Anti-sectarian charity Nil by Mouth said the decision was "correct and responsible".
Director Dave Scott said: "There is in excess of a hundred loyal order parades each year in Glasgow so talk of 'no-go' zones in the city hardly stands up to serious scrutiny.
"The parade was rerouted because of the serious incident just a few weeks ago not because of some vendetta against the Orange Order.
"Going forward the Order need to sit down together with the council, police, Catholic Church and local residents and businesses to discuss legitimate concerns on all sides and plot a way forward."
|
Pudsey Bear returned with a host of celebrities on Friday night for the 40th anniversary of the BBC's fundraiser Children in Need.
|
More than £37m had been raised by the end of the programme on Friday evening.
This year's show was shorter and had no audience, due to Covid-19, but there were still plenty of treats in store.
Peter Crouch and Andy Murray went head-to-head in a game of Paddle Tennis, and an all-star cast covered Oasis's Stop Crying Your Heart Out.
One of four hosts of Friday night's live show, Mel Giedroyc, thanked viewers for supporting the fundraiser.
"Children In Need has been going for an astonishing 40 years and we have only been able to do so because of you," she said.
"Despite the challenges that we have come up against this year, and will continue to face while this pandemic plays out, we are strong because the hearts of the people who keep these projects alive are strong."
The charity Oasis single features Cher, Kylie, Bryan Adams, Robbie Williams, Nile Rodgers, Gregory Porter, Lenny Kravitz, Paloma Faith, Ava Max and Jess Glynne.
It got its first airing on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Radio 2.
"Children in Need is such a special charity and so loved by everyone, including me," said Kylie.
"It was a privilege to take part in this recording with so many amazing artists."
Earlier in the day, Joe Wicks completed his 24-hour workout challenge for Children in Need.
He was joined by stars including Louis Theroux, Melanie C, Sam Smith and Dame Kelly Holmes as he completed a range of activities, from cycling to yoga, boxing to rowing and his signature high intensity workouts.
Appearing on the live show, Wicks - who was presented with a gold Blue Peter badge - described it as "the longest day and night of my life".
"My body aches, my bum, my feet, everything, but I'm so proud of what we have done," he said.
"We have come together, people have been so kind and generous, and raised so much money through that challenge."
It was announced that his workout marathon had raised £2,108,229 for the charity.
A special edition of DIY SOS, which saw a group of volunteers build a new, all-inclusive surf school in Swansea, has also raised £844,000 after being screened on BBC One on Thursday.
Host Nick Knowles wiped away tears when he was informed of the total on the BBC's Morning Live on Friday.
"It's a big deal," said the presenter. "We understand that times are tough, Covid times are tough and people are worried about their finances and we were up against the football, all those things."
He added the total had been expected to be "not as massive as normal times".
In fact, it was the highest sum ever raised by the show's annual Children in Need episode.
'Incredibly challenging times'
The main Children In Need show kicked off at 19:00 GMT on BBC One, hosted live in London by Mel Giedroyc, Alex Scott, Chris Ramsey and Stephen Mangan.
Ahead of the show Giedroyc told BBC News the format was "a bit stripped back" but that as for the vibe, the famous faces and comedy elements, "nothing has really changed".
The telethon, which raises money for disadvantaged children in the UK, raised an "on the night" total of £47.9m last year.
The show also included a special clip from the Doctor Who team, while TV presenter Emma Willis has narrated Life in Lockdown - a film showing youngsters living through difficult circumstances during the coronavirus pandemic.
The feature follows research commissioned by the charity, which found that 94% of children and young people have had cause to feel worried, sad or anxious in the last six months.
"The current pandemic has affected all of our lives, but some families have additional and complex needs and challenges outside of Covid-19," said Willis.
"Being part of this documentary, I was able to see just how vital BBC Children in Need's funds are to families across the UK in times of crisis
"People are facing incredibly challenging times, but I hope the public tune in and donate if they can to a much-needed cause."
Children in Need was on BBC One on Friday from 19:00 to 22:00 GMT. Catch up on iPlayer.
Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
|
The economies of emerging markets grew at a slower pace in February than the month before, according to HSBC's monthly purchasing managers' index.
|
The PMI recorded a level of 52.3, down from from 53.8 in January, its lowest since August.
However, the index remained above the 50 level which indicates growth.
The index covers 16 leading emerging markets, including India, Brazil and China, which all saw their rate of growth fall.
Rates of economic growth in these countries have been far higher than in developed nations, often coming in at about 10% a year.
The eurozone and the UK have barely grown in recent years, while US growth has been in low, single figures.
Investors have questioned whether emerging markets, whose growth depends in part on exports to mature markets, can continue to expand at such fast rates.
Murat Ulgen, chief economist at HSBC, said: "The slowdown appears to be broad-based across manufacturing and services, with BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India and China] activity moderating after a promising start to the new year."
New orders and employment levels both fell.
Mr Ulgen said there were two possible outlooks for emerging economies: "Either the emerging markets will wobble along, buffeted by worries in the developed world.
"Alternatively, the current slowdown will prove temporary, as the inventory cycle works its way through and improved underlying fundamentals bring back the days of strong growth."
|
Many papers lead on the resumption of Brexit talks tomorrow in Brussels, with pictures of Boris Johnson speaking on the phone to European Commission president, Ursula von Der Leyen.
|
By BBC NewsStaff
The Sun on Sunday says it was a "caustic" call in which the prime minister said the EU's "unrealistic demands" had reached their limits.
"Boris won't budge" says the Sunday Express, which is among the papers with the headline, "Final Throw of the Dice".
A government source tells the Sunday Times the chances of an agreement are no better than 50/50 - and that Mr Johnson could announce no-deal in a televised address to the nation. The paper says he'll blame the EU - in particular the French.
The paper has spoken to thirteen cabinet ministers who say they would back Boris Johnson if he concludes no-deal is necessary. One - who voted Remain - says, "we can't be seen to sell out on sovereignty issues".
The Observer reports that millions of doses of the Pfizer Biontech vaccine could be flown to the UK from Belgium on military aircraft - to avoid delays at ports caused by Brexit. The paper says ministers are not prepared to allow the vaccine to the held up, whether or not a deal with the EU can be agreed.
Queen to get Covid jab 'within weeks'
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will be vaccinated against Covid-19 "within weeks", according to the Mail on Sunday. Senior sources tell the paper they won't get preferential treatment, but rather "wait in line" to be vaccinated as part of the first wave of people aged over 80.
The paper says their example could help to combat misinformation about the jab. The Sunday Times remembers that in 1957, the Queen let it be known that Prince Charles and Princess Anne had been immunised against polio, helping to ease public concern about the vaccine.
In a similar vein, the front page of the Sunday Mirror features 15 celebrities, all of whom say they're ready to "give the jab a stab".
Among them, the former Today programme presenter John Humphries, who says "you'd have to be completely insane not to take it".
The Sunday Times reports that Roald Dahl's family has "discreetly apologised" for his anti-Semitism, with a statement on an obscure section of the writer's website.
The paper says he was a self-professed anti-Semite and had made comments sympathising with Adolf Hitler's animosity towards Jewish people. The apology was published by his family, explains the Sunday Times, because of concerns that Roald Dahl's racism could tarnish his legacy and brand.
Iceberg threat to seals and penguins
The Mail on Sunday sounds the alarm about a trillion-tonne iceberg that's drifting towards the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia, in the south Atlantic.
If the berg runs aground it would be devastating for the island's penguin and seal population, the paper says, blocking off feeding grounds and causing major environmental damage. It's said to be moving at less than one mile per hour - and breaking up as it enters warmer waters.
Sign up for a morning briefing direct to your inbox
|
It's more than seven weeks since the first care home resident in Scotland received her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
|
Annie Innes said she hoped it meant life could "get back to normal very soon".
Since then almost every elderly person living in a Scottish care home has been given the jab.
Yet care homes are still reporting Covid outbreaks and residents are still dying with the virus. Why?
How many people have died with Covid in Scotland's care homes?
Covid deaths in care homes reached their peak in April 2020, when more than 300 residents died with the virus in a single week.
The death toll during the second wave has been lower but still makes up a significant proportion of all coronavirus deaths.
Since Annie Innes received her first jab, 619 people have died in Scotland's care homes.
There have been outbreaks in homes in Stranraer, Invergordon,Aberdeenshire, Fife and even in the Hamilton home where Mrs Innes was immunised.
The following chart shows how many people have died with Covid in care homes, compared to places like hospitals and people's own homes.
It is based on statistics from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) which record how many people had Covid-19 listed on their death certificate, whether or not they tested positive for the virus.
When were the vaccinations rolled out to care homes?
The first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were administered at Abercorn House in Hamilton on 14 December last year.
Residents - including Annie Innes and Margaret Keating - posed for the media as they were vaccinated.
Inevitably it took time to reach every care home resident in Scotland.
Seven weeks after the first jabs were administered First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that 98% of Scottish care home residents had received their first dose of the vaccine.
The following chart shows that the week before Christmas and the first week of the new year were the busiest for care home vaccinators.
So why aren't care home deaths falling?
The vaccine does not provide instant immunity from the worst effects of Covid-19.
Public health expert Professor Linda Bauld said protection starts to build up in the body about 10 days after a person has the first jab.
Most people will have a "reasonable level of protection" after 21 days but it might take even longer in older people with complex immune systems, she added.
"So we can say that people are still vulnerable to infection if it gets into care homes prior to having that level of protection," Prof Bauld said.
That lag means it could be a couple of weeks before we see the real impact on care home deaths.
"I expect outbreaks to decline rapidly very soon," she said. "In a couple of weeks' time we would expect these numbers to be going down hugely."
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also spoke about the lag effect at the Scottish government's coronavirus briefing on Monday.
She said care home residents and staff were a top priority of the vaccination programme and first doses have been administered "as quickly as possible".
But she added: "Unfortunately there will continue to be some people [who] after they are vaccinated... will become ill and unfortunately potentially die with Covid."
England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty said the vaccine was already having an impact on the total Covid death rate across the UK.
"The number of deaths in people who have had Covid is beginning to come down but... the numbers are still extremely high," he told Wednesday's UK government briefing.
He predicted they would stay high "for quite some time" before coming down.
"The first effects we will see of vaccination are likely to be on these death numbers," he added.
Prof Bauld also pointed out that the first dose of either the Pfizer or the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine do not provide full protection.
Most care home residents will receive a second dose of the vaccine within 12 weeks of the first.
And neither vaccine is 100% effective.
Trials showed the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was 62% effective, while the Pfizer jab was 95% effective. Both produced a better result than the best flu jab, which is about 50% effective.
Prof Bauld said: "The vaccine is not going to completely eliminate risk. There might still be some cases - but there will be large reduction."
|
China's latest five-year plan for 2011 to 2015 seeks to achieve a more balanced approach to growth and development, focusing attention on the environment, livelihoods and what officials call "administrative reforms".
|
By Sarah WangBBC Chinese
The 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP) is to be approved by the National People's Congress at its annual session beginning on 5 March.
The FYP is a key element in central planning. Copied originally from the Soviet system, it is an overarching strategy that shapes the nation's economic and social development.
It determines the allocation of resources among different sectors and industries, and sets rules for redistribution.
Since 1953, a total of 11 FYPs have been made and have expired, the targets they set for each period met or missed, and China's economy has grown to become the world's number two.
The Chinese policy-makers decided to replace the word "plan" with "guideline" in the previous five-year plan (2006 to 2010), to "reflect the transition from a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy".
Replacing the word "plan", however, did not change the fact that it is still a model based on the political system of one-party rule.
It is still a state development programme initiated, formulated, implemented and managed by the government.
Environment focus
The latest FYP continues to advocate objectives set out in its three predecessors, such as to improve the quality of growth and to lay down the foundation for a moderately prosperous country.
In the current draft, environmental protection and energy conservation are identified as investment priorities.
This is backed up by specific targets: non-fossil fuel consumption should increase to account for 15% of the nation's total fuel consumption.
A projected $600bn (£370bn) is committed to growing sectors such as information technology, clean energy, environmental protection and scientific research and innovation, for example.
These steps are in line with the message from Environment Minister Zhou Shengxian earlier this week warning against unsustainable economic growth.
Mr Zhou said that the pursuit of rapid growth led to severe pollution and excessive demand for resources, two factors which in turn would become obstacles to economic and social development.
He suggested that the Ministry of Environment Protection be empowered to assess the environmental impact of future development projects.
Political will?
The 12th FYP also seeks to improve people's livelihoods, social infrastructure and safety nets, and to tackle rising inequality.
Expanding domestic consumption is seen by many as a key part of China's economic structural adjustment and achieving more balanced growth.
This is where many observers repeat a familiar line: the roadmap is clear but the political will to ensure targets are met is yet to be seen.
The fact that objectives such as "green growth" as set out in the previous FYPs reappear in the current one suggest that some administrative reforms are needed.
The authors of the 12th FYP admitted to local media that all goals spelt out in the plan pointed towards a more mature market economy and a more clearly defined, significantly reduced role of the state in the economy.
One of the reasons GDP growth has been less green than expected over the years, some argue, has to do with the state monopoly on resources and the single-minded pursuit of high GDP growth figures.
These have long been the only meaningful measurement of local government performance.
|
The Nottingham tram system should be extended to Kimberley, a government planning inspector has said.
|
A line to the town has been suggested in the past but campaigners have said the latest comments are a boost.
The inspector made the reccommendation in a report allowing an appeal for 116 homes on the potential route through Nuthall.
Broxtowe Borough Council rejected the application because it found insufficient provision for a new line.
Planning inspector Mrs K Ellison wrote in the report: "I consider that the potential extension to Kimberley should be regarded as both desirable and enjoying reasonable prospects of being brought forward."
She added that there was enough room for a tram to travel along residential streets in the development, known as Hempshill Hall.
'Neglected area'
The Kimberley Eastwood and Nuthall Tram Action Group, has been campaigning for an extension from Phoenix Park since 2009.
Chairman Andy Cooper said: "It's definitely a boost to the campaign.
"But there are quite a few areas in Nottingham hoping for the next phase of the tram."
The group is hoping to fund a feasibility study into the route this year.
"This area is crying out for regeneration - it's a neglected area," said Mr Cooper.
"Not only that it would cut down on traffic congestion - the Nuthall island on the A610 is a nightmare."
Chris Deas, Nottingham Express Transit project director told the Nottingham Post: "We are pleased that the planning inspector recognises the need to safeguard the potential tram route towards Kimberley."
But not everyone in the town supports the possible extension.
Roy Plumb, who owns a hardware store, said it was more likely to take shoppers out to Nottingham.
"Apart from improving the traffic situation, I can't see any benefits for the town," he said.
A £500m tram extension to Chilwell and Clifton is set to be completed by the end of this year.
Suggested future extension routes in the past have included to Toton, Ilkeston, Long Eaton and Gedling.
|
Former superbike racer Sean Emmett has been fined for an alcohol offence in Dubai, where his wife died in a fall from a balcony during their honeymoon.
|
Sean and Abbie Emmett, from Addlestone, Surrey, were staying in Dubai after marrying in South Africa in February.
Mr Emmett, 43, who won 19 British Superbike events during his career, was arrested when he went to a police station to complete paperwork.
He was fined 2,000 dirham (£350) for drinking alcohol without a licence.
Mr Emmett did not attend court.
His 27-year-old wife fell to her death from the couple's hotel room in Dubai on 19 February.
Dubai police do not believe there were any suspicious circumstances.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been providing consular assistance since Mr Emmett's arrest and has confirmed that it is continuing to offer help to him and his family.
Dubai prosecutors told Dubai Misdemeanour Court that Mr Emmett had been drinking alcohol when he entered the police station in Al Rashidiya to complete paperwork relating to his wife's death.
The judge sentenced him in his absence.
The consumption of alcohol in the United Arab Emirates is only permitted in designated areas, such as licensed restaurants and bars attached to hotels.
|
Sightings of basking sharks, the world's second largest fish, have fallen this year, according to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.
|
The Mull-based organisation has recorded 11 reports involving 15 sharks while far larger numbers of sightings have been made in previous years.
HWDT's Morven Russell said one reason could be that plankton, the sharks' food, was in deeper water.
She said the fish could still be present but out of sight.
Ms Russell said: "It is a very poor year for sightings of basking sharks - it may have a lot to do with the weather.
"Where it has been unsettled the plankton on which they feed may not be coming to the surface.
"They may be here but lower down in the water column - we just don't know at this stage."
No teeth
Basking sharks are the world's second biggest fish - the whale shark is the largest - and can grow to 11m (36ft) and weigh up to seven tonnes.
They have no teeth and feed on microscopic plankton with their huge, wide-open mouths.
Every summer the sharks gather in large numbers around small islands between Skye and Mull off Scotland's west coast.
They are also off the islands of Coll, Tiree and Hyskeir before later migrating south to waters around Madeira and the Canary Islands off west Africa.
In 2013, HWDT reported an increase in encounters with basking sharks.
Fifty sharks were counted over just nine days.
Up until 20 years ago, basking sharks were hunted in the seas off Scotland for their liver oil.
|
Researchers have found some of the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease, more than two decades before the first symptoms usually appear.
|
By James GallagherHealth and science reporter, BBC News
Treating the disease early is thought to be vital to prevent damage to memory and thinking.
A study, published in the Lancet Neurology, found differences in the brains of an extended Colombian family predisposed to develop an early form of Alzheimer's.
Experts said the US study may give doctors more time to treat people.
Alzheimer's disease starts long before anyone would notice; previous studies have shown an effect on the brain 10-15 years before symptoms.
It is only after enough brain cells have died that the signs of dementia begin to appear - some regions of the brain will have lost up to 20% of their brain cells before the disease becomes noticeable.
However, doctors fear so much of the brain will have degenerated by this time that it will be too late to treat patients. The failure of recent trials to prevent further cognitive decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease has been partly put down to timing.
Early start
A team at the Banner Alzheimer's Institute in Arizona looked at a group of patients in Colombia who have familial Alzheimer's. A genetic mutation means they nearly always get the disease in their 40s. Alzheimer's normally becomes apparent after the age of 75.
Brain scans of 20 people with the mutation, aged between 18 and 26, already showed differences compared with those from 24 people who were not destined to develop early Alzheimer's.
The fluid which bathes the brain and spinal cord also had higher levels of a protein called beta-amyloid.
The researchers said differences could be detected "more than two decades before" symptoms would appear in these high-risk patients.
Dr Eric Reiman, one of the scientists involved, said: "These findings suggest that brain changes begin many years before the clinical onset of Alzheimer's disease.
"They raise new questions about the earliest brain changes involved in the predisposition to Alzheimer's and the extent to which they could be targeted by future prevention therapies."
Prof Nick Fox, from the Institute of Neurology at University College London, said some of his patients had lost a fifth of some parts of their brain by the time they arrived at the clinic.
He told the BBC: "I don't think this pushes us forwards in terms of early diagnosis, we already have markers of the disease.
"The key thing this does is open up the window of early intervention before people take a clinical and cognitive hit."
However, he said this raised the question of how early people would need to be treated - if drugs could be found.
Dr Simon Ridley, the head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "Although early-onset inherited Alzheimer's is rare and may not entirely represent the more common late-onset form, the findings highlight changes can take place in the brain decades before symptoms show.
"Mapping what changes happen early in the brain will help scientists to improve detection of the disease and allow potential new treatments to be tested at the right time.
"New drugs are being developed and tested to stop amyloid from taking hold, but studies like these show that timing could be crucial for whether these drugs are successful."
|
When it comes to Indian investment in the UK, among the most high profile is Tata Motors' ownership of carmaker Jaguar Land Rover.
|
By Peter ShadboltBusiness reporter
Yet this is just the tip of an iceberg when it comes to UK firms owned by Indian businesses.
The visit to the UK by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which starts on Thursday, comes at a time when India is emerging as perhaps the strongest player among the so-called Bric nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China.
While the Brazilian, Chinese and Russian economies are all showing signs of slowing, India is booming.
Shielded from China's slowdown thanks to its huge domestic market, India's economy is growing at a rate of 7% per year, putting it neck and neck with the Chinese.
And some of that Indian growth is finding new markets in the UK.
According to a report earlier this year from government department UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), India is now the third-largest source of foreign direct investment into the UK.
In 2014 alone, investment from India into the UK increased by 64%, and is now almost level with France, the UK's second-largest investor after the US.
Throughout last year, India invested in 122 projects in the UK, compared with 124 for France and 564 for the US. This meant that Indian investment created 7,730 new UK jobs in 2014, and safeguarded a further 1,620, said UKTI.
Meanwhile, the UK India Business Council, the non-profit body that aims to boost trade and business links between the two countries, estimates that the total value of Indian investment in the UK in the 2013 to 2014 financial year totalled £1.89bn.
Overall there are now more than 800 Indian-owned businesses in the UK, employing more than 110,000 people.
In addition to Tata Motors, Indian IT firms Infosys and Wipro have UK operations. Meanwhile, sister Tata business, Tata Global Beverages, owns best-selling Tetley Tea; and Tata Steel has significant UK operations, despite recently announced job cuts due to falling demand and cheaper steel from China.
'Ease of business'
Alpesh Patel, of London-based private equity business Praefinium Partners, says that while the success of companies such as Tata and Infosys is well known, the quality of Indian small to medium-sized enterprises has improved significantly over the past 10 years, and many are looking to enter EU markets using the UK as their gateway.
He adds that the ease of doing business in the UK, as well as the English language and familiarity with UK institutions, also makes the UK an attractive proposition for Indian investors.
"Ease of business here is often overlooked and taken for granted," says Mr Patel.
"We're used to comparing things in absolute terms - we might say it took ages to fill in a tax return for example - but we don't compare it with the same thing in India where it really is a pain."
He adds that one area that particularly appeals to Indian investors is the ease with which they can raise finance in the UK.
"They're often not looking for money from the UK to go into their company in India, but looking for UK money going into their UK operations. We really overlook the size and strength of our angel investor and venture capital community.
"Relative to companies in India, we're seen as an absolute haven in terms of access to capital if you've got a good business."
Joint ventures
Mukesh Rajani, UK India business group leader at accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, says that besides the EU, the UK's historical connections with the rest of the world, including Africa, are key in attracting Indian investment.
He adds that Indian firms are also keen to tap into British hi-tech expertise.
"Advanced engineering is a big strength for the UK," says Mr Rajani. "High-end engineering, high-end advanced services, high-end pharmaceuticals are very interesting areas for Indian companies.
"Clearly at the high-end what is on offer in Britain is in a different league, and these things would take time for India to develop as it acquires its own talent."
Richard Heald, chief executive at the UK India Business Council, says that most of the investment in the UK is in the IT sectors and driven by Mr Modi's policy of making India the world's hub for IT industries.
He says: "A lot of the growth in indigenous Indian industries has to be sustained through technological development.
"If Modi's policies are to succeed then it needs to have exposure and involvement with a lot of the technological development, incubation, catapult centres, upstream technology companies that we have here.
"The Indians naturally look to us for that in the form of joint ventures, or acquisitions, or just investment."
Mr Heald highlights pharmaceutical firms Piramal and Cipla as two other Indian businesses that have made significant moves into the UK.
Indian businesses in the UK
110,000
people are employed by Indian companies operating in the UK
13 Indian companies each employ more than 1,000 people in the UK
65,000 people work for Tata Group, which owns 5 of those 13 companies
28,000 of those work for Tata Motors, which owns Jaguar Land Rover
'Huge acceleration'
But what about UK investment going into India?
Between 2000 and 2015, the UK invested $22.2bn (£14.5bn) in India, accounting for around 9% of foreign direct investment in the country, according to a report by UK business group the CBI.
This makes the UK the largest foreign investor in India after Singapore and Mauritius.
The CBI study added that in total UK companies are estimated to employ 691,000 people in India. That is 5.5% of the organised private sector workforce.
Mr Heald says: "We estimate that there's been a 300% increase in the number of British companies setting up there in the past 10 years… there's been a huge acceleration.
"And the type of company is changing too - it's more e-commerce, services, IT and education."
Under India's federal system, individual states are now more competitive, and are seeking inbound investment by cutting red tape, and simplifying the country's notoriously arcane state tax systems.
Mr Heald adds: "The term 'competitive federalism' is now being bandied around… these states really have to compete for the investment pound."
|
The firm at the centre of the NHS clinical waste scandal has announced it is suing 17 health trusts in Yorkshire which terminated its contracts.
|
North Lanarkshire-based Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) is seeking "upwards of £15m" in damages.
The company was stripped of the contracts after reports that tonnes of clinical waste piled up at its sites.
The Environment Agency has taken enforcement action against HES and launched a criminal investigation.
Bosses at HES, which has its headquarters in Shotts, have denied claims of mismanagement and insist the company has been unfairly "vilified".
Managing director Garry Pettigrew said: "We feel that we have been left with no choice but to take legal action against the trusts after the terms of the agreed contracts were broken.
"Our contracts were terminated without first discussing any performance issues with the company and we were given no opportunity to fulfil our obligations.
"We are now taking this action to safeguard the company and our employees' future, and to give us an opportunity to correct some of the misinformation that has been reported in the media."
Last month, UK Health Minister Stephen Barclay told Parliament that NHS Improvement had concluded that HES "failed to demonstrate that they were operating within their contractual limits".
Environmental permits
As a result, a number of NHS Trusts in England had served notices to terminate their contracts with the firm, he said.
The contracts it has with more than 30 other trusts in England are still ongoing.
The Environment Agency, which operates in England, previously said HES was in breach of its environmental permits at four of its six sites which deal with clinical waste - by having more waste on site than their permit allows and storing waste inappropriately.
HES has retained its NHS contracts in Scotland.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) confirmed that it issued enforcement notices at HES sites in Dundee and Shotts in September, where its officers are conducting "ongoing monitoring".
|
A flagship concert in Londonderry has been dealt a blow after the cult dance band Massive Attack pulled out of the event.
|
They were to headline the Peace One Day concert in June, which is designed to put Ebrington Square on the map.
But Derry's Culture Company has revealed that the event would now go ahead without them.
The full line-up is expected to be announced on Tuesday, 24 April.
There is confusion about what happened.
Yesterday, Culture Company chairman Martin Bradley appeared to contradict what the organisation said last September, by saying that the act had never been booked.
"Massive Attack were actually never confirmed, as far as I know, in the first place," he said.
"They may not have Massive Attack but they will have a massive line-up.
"There will be chart-topping and headlining acts coming to the city on 21 June. I don't thing anybody's going to be disappointed when they hear the line-up that's going to be announced."
Niall Stokes, editor of Hot Press magazine, said he felt the programming for the Peace One Day concert was running very late.
"You have to ask, in the first place, why were Massive Attack announced, if the word now is that they never really were confirmed?" he said.
"If really experienced, professional promoters were involved, they do know that to put a band's name out there before the contract is agreed and signed, puts them in a very weak position in terms of any negotiations that may ensue.
"Two months before an event and the big act, the marquee act, it now emerges were never contracted to do the event - that doesn't send out a great signal."
|
A woman who slit a seven-year-old's throat has been cleared of murder after the prosecution offered no further evidence and withdrew the charge.
|
Eltiona Skana, 30, had admitted the manslaughter of Emily Jones on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Skana, who has paranoid schizophrenia, had been on trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court after pleading not guilty to murder.
Mr Justice Wall will sentence Skana for manslaughter on Tuesday.
The jury had been directed to formally return a not guilty verdict.
After hearing evidence from a consultant forensic psychiatrist treating Skana at high-security Rampton Hospital, Michael Brady QC, prosecuting, told the court there was no realistic prospect of a conviction on the murder charge.
Riding scooter
The court heard how Emily was in Queen's Park in Bolton with her father Mark Jones on the afternoon of Mother's Day on 22 March.
She was riding her scooter when she spotted her mother Sarah Barnes, who was jogging.
The youngster was calling out to her mother as she scooted past a park bench where Skana was sitting, alone and armed with a craft knife.
Skana got up, grabbed Emily and slit her throat before running off.
The defendant, originally from Albania, was later detained under the Mental Health Act.
During the trial, the prosecution alleged that it was for the jury to decide whether this was a case of murder rather than manslaughter and questioned whether Skana's poor mental health was a "convenient excuse" for her actions.
The court heard about a conversation between Skana and a nurse while in Rampton, which pointed to the attack being planned and therefore a calculated killing rather than manslaughter.
But the jury was also told the conversation took place when Skana was not taking her anti-psychotic medication as part of a change in treatment at the hospital.
Dr Victoria Sullivan, who treated Skana at a medium secure mental health unit in Manchester after her arrest, said the defendant's sister Klestora told them she had not been taking her anti-psychotic medication before the attack.
Skana came to the UK in 2014 and had been having injections of anti-psychotic drugs each month since 2017, the court heard.
But she also told medics this medication had caused her mental health to deteriorate and she began taking tablets instead.
When police raided her flat in Bolton, they found a stash of untaken, anti-psychotic drugs, which amounted to around a month's worth of medication.
From mid-December of last year until March 11, the defendant had no face-to-face contact with her mental health workers, the jury heard.
Earlier, in 2017, Skana had stabbed her own mother and in another incident attacked her sister and had been admitted to psychiatric hospitals three times.
Dr Syed Afghan, her consultant at Rampton, agreed Skana became psychotically violent when not taking her medication.
Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [email protected]
|
South African police say they are investigating the illegal donkey skin trade after seizing 5,000 hides in a recent raid east of Johannesburg.
|
Police suspect the skins found at a farm in Benoni last week came from illegally slaughtered animals whose hides were destined for China.
They described the raid as a major breakthrough against smugglers.
Trade in donkey skins is worth millions of dollars, with hides prized in China for supposed medicinal properties.
The gelatine in the hides is used as a medicinal tonic, with some believing it can slow down menopause in women.
It is also used to try to treat conditions such as insomnia and poor circulation.
The raid in Benoni followed a tip-off from a woman who had complained about the smell of rotting meat.
Police did not make any arrests at the farm but have said the raid provided important new information about a syndicate suspected of slaughtering the animals and transporting the meat and hides, without them being certified disease-free.
South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper said Chinese nationals were suspected of involvement.
'Bludgeoned with hammers'
On Monday, the paper reported that a site where more than 100 donkeys were illegally slaughtered had been discovered on a farm in Olifantshoek, in the Northern Cape.
The South African National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) spoke of animals there "being bludgeoned with hammers and being skinned alive".
It called practices there "barbaric and inhumane" and criticised the government for "doing very little to end this illegal practice".
The Mail & Guardian quoted NSPCA inspector Mpho Mokoena as saying a suspect arrested at Olifantshoek had said skins there were transported to Benoni, suggesting a link between the two sites.
Police say donkey theft, slaughter and animal skin sales have been rising in South Africa since 2015.
Last year, Burkina Faso banned the export of donkey skins and Niger the export of donkeys saying a sharp increase in trade to Asian countries was threatening their donkey populations.
|
More near misses between drones and aircraft over the UK were reported in the first six months of 2016 than the whole of the previous year.
|
New figures show there were 34 reported near misses between January and June, compared with 29 for all of 2015.
Most were reported close to major airports including London Heathrow.
Aviation experts said the near misses were concerning, but research needs to be done to determine how much damage a drone could actually do to an aircraft.
Sion Owen Roberts, who flew manned and unmanned aircraft in the RAF but now trains people to fly small drones as Head of RUSTA, believes drones are potentially dangerous because their batteries are explosive.
"Whilst I was serving in the RAF, it was always dangerous when we accidentally hit a bird," he said.
"A bird can cause significant damage to an aircraft and the same sort of damage could occur from a drone strike, LiPo batteries are extremely volatile and you wouldn't want one disappearing down an aircraft engine."
He believes the "proliferation" of drones among the public is a "huge worry", as many people are "blissfully unaware" of how dangerous they can be.
Drones accounted for the vast majority of the 43 incidents recorded between January and June by the UK Airprox Board. An airprox is a situation in which a pilot or air traffic personnel believe the safety of an aircraft may have been compromised by the proximity of another aircraft.
Eight near misses involved A320 Airbus planes, which typically carry about 150 passengers. A further five involved the A319 model, which seats about 156.
Other planes in reported near misses involved a Boeing 737, two Boeing 738s, a Boeing 757 and a Boeing 787.
Of the 34 drone incidents, 14 happened near London Heathrow, two near Gatwick, two near Stansted and two near Manchester.
Kent Law School associate lecturer Alan McKenna, a researcher on drone issues, said the new figures were likely to increase fears of a manned aircraft being brought down.
However, he said it was important to keep the fears into perspective.
"We don't have the necessary research results yet as to the dangers that relate to what will happen when drones of different sizes hit an aircraft or different parts of an aircraft," said Dr McKenna.
"Yes, we should be concerned and should be looking to identify pilots who are infringing the regulations but we need to keep a balance.
"What is very concerning is that with this rise in near misses we are still not able to identify who the drone pilots are. If you can't identify the drone pilots there is no way you are going to be able to enforce the regulations."
The first person prosecuted in the UK was Robert Knowles from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria who was fined £800 and ordered to pay £3,500 costs after admitting to flying a small unmanned surveillance aircraft within 50m of the Jubilee Bridge on the Walney channel. His drone was recovered from water near a nuclear submarine facility operated by defence company BAE Systems.
The first collision between a drone and a passenger plane was reported in April, but Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin later told MPs it was not thought to be a "drone incident".
Air accident investigators said they had not ruled out a drone but had no evidence to support the suggestion.
Click here for an interactive map of reported near misses.
Craig Lippett, chairman of ARPAS-UK, the trade association for the UK drone industry, said some of the reported near misses may not have involved drones at all.
"A lot of these encounters were at heights you are unlikely to encounter drones; there are some reports at above 7,000 or 10,000ft," he said.
"Most commercially available types have limited battery power and can probably only reach 1,500ft."
Mr Lippett said his members operate legally, professionally and safely, but he is concerned that recreational users do not understand the law.
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said: "There has been an exponential rise in the number of incidents and unfortunately they are still coming in on a weekly basis.
"We work with retailers and manufacturers to educate users of drones about the risks and to remind them that it is not appropriate to fly them near airports."
The CAA warns people on its website not to fly a drone above 400ft (121.1 metres) and to always keep it within sight, otherwise they risk being fined for dangerous flying.
A Department for Transport spokeswoman add said: "Tough penalties are already in place for misuse of drones, including up to five years' imprisonment for endangering an aircraft. We are also leading international efforts to develop a stringent regulatory framework, working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority, industry and airline operators.
"We will be consulting on proposals, including registration and licensing options, before a government strategy is published later this year."
|
Residents of a town have been urged to "act now to reduce the spread of coronavirus" as infection rates reach almost double the national average.
|
In the past seven days, 53 new cases were recorded in Hadleigh, Suffolk.
Babergh District Council said data suggested the virus was spreading in the community and between households.
A spokesman told residents: "This is a serious risk and you have a vital role to play to protect yourselves, friends, family and neighbours."
The current infection rate in Hadleigh is 475 cases per 100,000, while the figure for England is 252 per 100,000, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
The council said although many of the cases were linked to outbreaks at a care home and a school, the virus was also being shared in the community and between households.
A council spokesman said to residents: "You must act now to reduce the spread of the coronavirus if we are to avoid the possibility of further restrictions becoming necessary after the national restrictions."
The authority urged people "not to assume" they are "safe" if they or anyone in their household does not have symptoms.
Public Health Suffolk director Stuart Keeble said the organisation was "working with partners and local health professionals to control this outbreak".
"We must follow the guidelines - stay at home as much as possible, and remember Hands. Face. Space," he said.
"Contact the council if you need help, support is in place for those who need it. Together we can help Hadleigh recover."
Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]
|
The owner of property website Zoopla and comparison site Uswitch has agreed to be bought by a US private equity firm.
|
Silver Lake is paying £2.2bn for ZPG, which also owns the PrimeLocation and SmartNewHomes websites.
Investors in ZPG will receive 490p a share - almost a third higher than its closing price on Thursday.
"ZPG is a great growth technology company," said Silver Lake managing director Simon Patterson.
"It has established strong positions in property classifieds, home and financial services markets by innovating in product and marketing."
Alex Chesterman, founder and chief executive of ZPG, said: "Silver Lake is the global leader in technology investing and I am firmly of the belief that ZPG will benefit from their technology expertise and global network which will help accelerate our growth."
The deal was agreed with the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) which holds a near-30% stake in ZPG.
Counter-bid?
DMGT has held a substantial stake in ZPG since 2012 when its own online property business, the Digital Property Group, merged with Zoopla. The company floated in London four years ago and agreed to buy the Uswitch website in 2015.
ZPG shares jumped 30% to 486.2p, while shares in rival property website Rightmove rose nearly 5%.
The directors of ZPG, who own just over 1% of the company, also backed the takeover.
Ian Whittaker, an analyst at Liberum, said the offer indicated that buyers were prepared to pay significant premiums for high quality assets.
"The question now is whether there is a counter-bid. If there is one, we think the most likely candidate is Axel Springer, which has a collection of online property classified assets throughout assets but nothing in the UK," he said.
|
Upland and marginal farmers will benefit most from £160m of backdated subsidy for the agriculture sector.
|
By Kevin KeaneBBC Scotland's rural affairs correspondent
The money is the first half of EU convergence funding which was meant to increase support levels in Scotland but was instead distributed across the UK.
Scottish ministers insist the new allocation adheres to the spirit of where the original money was intended.
But NFU Scotland said the funding allocation is a "missed opportunity" which is just plugging a funding gap.
The chancellor agreed in September to finally hand over the funds but it is up to the Scottish government to decide how it is distributed.
All basic payments will be topped up but those with the largest amount of "less favoured" land will receive the most.
Some money will also be distributed through incentives like the suckler beef support scheme.
Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: "I believe this approach gets the money to where it needs to be and will result in all eligible farmers and crofters either increasing or significantly increasing the money in their bank accounts.
"I have given careful consideration in deciding this approach and would like to thank everyone for their support and suggestions on how best to fairly allocate this money over the last couple of weeks."
'Missed opportunity'
NFU Scotland's president, Andrew McCornick, added: "It is important to say from the outset that we absolutely believe that Scottish farmers and crofters should have seen the full payment made in a single year rather than spread over two.
"In addition, we cannot agree with Scottish government's proposition to use any of the £160m pot to address the budget shortfall that has been created in the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) in 2019 or 2020.
"To strip this money from the £160m to fill the hole in the LFASS budget is a missed opportunity and a blow to beleaguered Scottish farmers and crofters."
The convergence uplift was meant to increase subsidies for those areas which were well below the EU average.
The UK qualified for £190m because of low funding levels in Scotland but only £30m was distributed north of the border.
Farming leaders and politicians have spent years trying to convince the UK government that Scotland was short-changed.
Speyside livestock farmer Robert Macdonald said the money would be a welcome boost at a time the industry was struggling.
He added: "Some will use it to invest in their holdings, others will use it to draw down debt which is an increasing problem in the industry.
"It's money that we have been due since 2015 and money which has been lost to the industry in that time."
|
Almost 75% of older children in England and Wales with diabetes are not getting key health checks, a study suggests.
|
Data from 27,682 children and young people showed 25.4% of those aged 12 and older had all seven recommended annual checks, such as eye screenings.
Diabetes UK said missed health checks for children were "very worrying".
However, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which carried out the audit, said the overall picture showed care was improving.
Health officials recommend all children with diabetes should be assessed to ensure they are managing their condition properly.
Guidelines from NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) state all children with diabetes should be encouraged to have their blood sugar levels checked four times a year in clinic and those over the age of 12 should also have six other health checks.
These include measurement of growth, blood pressure, kidney function and cholesterol, as well as eye screening and a foot examination.
Future complications
The report looked at data from children and young people with diabetes up to the age of 24 who attended paediatric diabetes units in England and Wales between April 2014 and the end of March 2015.
More than 70% had type 1 diabetes, which requires daily insulin injections.
Experts say the average blood glucose level (HbA1C) - a marker that measures overall diabetes control - in children with diabetes fell for the fifth consecutive year.
The report found that those achieving "excellent diabetes control" - equivalent to a blood glucose level of less than 7.5% - rose from 15.8% in 2012-13 to 23.5% in 2014-15.
It also found 98.7% of all children and young people had received the blood glucose checks.
The audit showed 23% were now reducing their risk of future complications from the disease.
However, the most commonly missed checks among children aged 12 and older included foot examinations, eye screenings and cholesterol testing.
The tests are designed to spot early signs of diabetes causing harm to organs. And experts say some of these complications - which can include blindness and kidney damage - could be less severe if spotted and treated at an early stage.
Dr Justin Warner, consultant in paediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the University Hospital of Wales and clinical lead at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said it was "completely unacceptable" that some of these checks were being missed or not recorded.
He said some service providers might not be writing the information down because of a lack of time and resources.
He said health staff should "strive further" to ensure all checks take place and are recorded, and commissioners should provide adequate resources.
Dr Warner also said children and young people living in the most deprived areas were found to have worse blood glucose test results than those living in more affluent areas.
'Huge responsibility'
Amber from Middlewich in Cheshire, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of six. Her mother, Helen Clayton, said it was "petrifying" at first and the right support was crucial.
Amber has regular checks at hospital and access to a 24-hour nurse helpline.
Her mother said: "You are told there is a part of your child's body that isn't working any more and you have to do the job of that part of the body. It is a huge responsibility as if not managed properly it can be life-threatening.
"But with time you learn there is a lot of help and support out there. It would be very difficult without the support network and checks - it gives you confidence."
Bridget Turner, director of policy and care improvement at Diabetes UK, said: "There remains considerable variation in the level of care provided.
"This is very worrying because if children and young people are not supported to manage their diabetes well in early life, they are more likely to be at risk of debilitating and life-threatening complications in adult life such as amputations, blindness and stroke."
Prof Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for obesity and diabetes at NHS England, said improvements in glucose control described in the report were outstanding.
He said NHS England was "working closely" with clinical commissioning groups to improve the provision of "effective integrated diabetes services".
A Welsh Government spokesperson said it was "encouraging" to see improvements in paediatric diabetes care in Wales.
"Our newly-established children and young people's diabetes network in Wales is working closely with both the diabetes implementation group and local health boards to continue this and to tackle areas where improvements can be made."
Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes can develop at any age, but usually appears before the age of 40, particularly in childhood.
About 10% of all diabetes is type 1, but it is the most common type of childhood diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is largely caused by poor lifestyle. About 90% of adults with diabetes have type 2, and it tends to develop later in life than type 1.
Source: NHS Choices
|
The winner of this year's Britain's Got Talent says she is still in shock.
|
By Maddii LownNewsbeat reporter
Ashleigh Butler, 17, and her dog Pudsey beat the bookies favourites, singers Charlotte and Jonathan to win the talent show.
Pudsey and Ashleigh performed a dance routine to the Mission Impossible theme.
The teenager from Northampton will now get the chance to perform with her pet at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the Queen.
She explained how she planned to spend the £500,000 prize money.
"First of all I will get Pudsey a new lead because we actually lost his backstage," she said. "I'll get him a bed too or whatever he wants."
What was it like to win?
"The whole series I thought Charlotte and Jonathan were going to win it. I was preparing myself to jump on them and congratulate them.
"It was just a massive shock to me. The last 24 hours have been very tiring but very exciting; I have had about three hours sleep."
Do you think it's fair a dog won Britain's Got Talent?
"The final was phenomenal. The acts were all so brilliant in their own unique categories. I couldn't believe I was performing and thought everyone was so brilliant.
"When I'm learning a new routine I spend about an hour with Pudsey going through the routine, practicing bits he's not sure at.
"I need to spend another hour practicing on my own and seeing what I can improve."
There's been a lot of competition between Britain's Got Talent and The Voice have you felt the pressure?
"No, I have just been going out there and doing my best. You can't ever do anything better than that.
"I've watched snippets of the voice but I've not really been following it."
What has Simon Cowell said to you?
"He was just lovely, he said he was really happy for me. He had a quick picture with Pudsey and a hug as well.
"He told me I that I have really grown as a person during the competition and he was just really nice."
How do you feel about performing in front of the Queen?
"It's amazing. It didn't really sink in that I would be performing for the Queen until I was having my photo taken with some random person.
"I'm so honoured and it's going to be an amazing experience, especially in the Jubilee year. Maybe I and Pudsey could help her corgies learn a trick or two."
What's next for you and Pudsey?
"It's been a dream of mine to have my own business for film work for dogs or animals.
"It's a massive dream of mine to invest in that. First thing though I have an AS exam on Friday, I haven't done much revision for that yet."
|
A fire service boss said he is "astonished" by large groups gathering for barbecues on the moors amid the coronavirus outbreak.
|
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said people were meeting to cook food despite a ban on moorland barbecues after huge fires in 2018.
It also flouts the government's instructions on social distancing.
Fire station manager Dave Swallow said their actions were "dangerous" and urged people to stick to the rules.
"It's just amazing how many people don't seem to be getting the importance of the social distancing guidelines," said Mr Swallow.
"It's astonishing when you to throw in the fact that people are taking disposable barbecues out there and cooking."
Oldham Council approved a public space protection order (PSPO) in September 2019 after moorlands in Greater Manchester were devastated by wild fires.
A large blaze near Saddleworth Moor took three weeks to be put out in the summer of 2018.
In April 2019, up to 50 firefighters were needed to tackle a blaze that broke out on Saddleworth Moor overnight.
In recent days, the fire service has already been called to a number of small grass fires and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service had to tackle a blaze at Deer Hill Reservoir in Marsden.
Mr Swallow has urged the public to "observe the restrictions the government has put in place" and to adhere to the PSPO.
"It's been so busy [on the moors] that you will struggle to adhere to the social distance guidance," he added.
|
With the release of the latest film adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd, the locations that inspired its famous writer will once again be seen on the big screen.
|
Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts and Michael Sheen are the latest stars to bring Thomas Hardy's characters to life against the backdrop of Dorset's villages, farms, homes and coastline.
Although the location names in his stories and poems were fictional, many of them were based on real places the author knew well.
Those locations still draw legions of Hardy enthusiasts.
With much of rural Dorset having changed little since Hardy's time, a sizeable proportion of the filming for Thomas Vinterberg's version of Far from the Madding Crowd was done on location the county, including at the 16th Century manor Mapperton House.
Hardy's romantic epic about Bathsheba Everdene unfolds from her farm in Weatherbury - thought to be Puddletown.
One of her suitors, Sergeant Troy, gambles in the port of Budmouth - what Hardy called nearby Weymouth.
The map of Dorset is peppered with other places which Hardy gave alter-egos to in his novels, short stories and poems.
Thomas Hardy's Wessex Place names
Dorchester - Casterbridge (The Mayor of Casterbridge)
Bridport - Port Bredy (Fellow Townsmen)
Beaminster - Emminster (Tess of the d'Urbervilles)
Melbury Bubb - Little Hintock (The Woodlanders)
Sherborne - Sherton Abbas (The Woodlanders)
Puddletown - Wetherbury (Far from the Madding Crowd)
Athelhampton -Athelhall (The Waiting Supper)
Kingston Maurward - Knapwater House (Desperate Remedies)
Bournemouth - Sandbourne (Tess of the d'Urbervilles)
Source: Visit Dorset's Hardy Trail.
Alistair Chisolm, Dorchester's town crier who also runs Thomas Hardy walking tours, said the author was reluctant to reveal the exact locations referred to in his works.
"Hardy described his locations as 'part real, part imagined',
"It's a great game to try and guess the places mentioned in the books."
His tour around Dorchester takes in the sights of Casterbridge - of Mayor of Casterbridge fame.
The Kings Arms pub appears in the novel and the Barclays bank branch in South Street even has a blue plaque commemorating it as the "home" of the mayor.
In Evershot - referred to as Evershead in Tess of the d'Urbervilles - a thatched cottage is still known as Tess' Cottage where the heroine stopped for breakfast on her journey from Emminster (Beaminster).
The Sheaf of Arrows pub mentioned in Interlopers at the Knap was one of the author's regular haunts.
Mr Chisolm said: "With hundreds of thousands of people seeing the film around the world, some will undoubtedly get hooked on Hardy and will inevitably come and visit the places and his houses."
Hardy was born in a secluded thatched cottage in Higher Bockhampton in June 1840 where he lived for most of the first 30 years of his life.
It was the inspiration for the inspired fictional village of Mellstock in Under the Greenwood Tree.
His later works were written at Max Gate, the Dorchester townhouse where he lived from 1885 until his death in 1928.
Both Max Gate and the Higher Bockhampton cottage are currently overseen by the National Trust.
The trust's Martin Stephen, said: "Hardy was a complex man as well as a brilliant writer. He managed to pack so much into his life and his writing is full of insights into human nature.
"It's not surprising that there is still so much interest in him."
Hardy was also a founder member of Dorset County Museum which holds more than 7,000 of his items, including a first edition of Far From The Madding Crowd from 1874.
Landmarks in Hardy's family life are also popular attractions - his parents married in Melbury village church 1839.
Hardy's first wife Emma was buried at St Michael's parish church in Stinsford, and following Hardy's death in 1928 his heart was also buried with her.
A stained glass window designed as a memorial to Hardy in 1930 can also be seen in the church, while a statue was erected in his honour in 1931 and is located at Top O'Town in Dorchester.
Secretary of the Thomas Hardy Society Mike Nixon said: "The film features some of the most stunning scenery in Dorset.
"When watching the film, you are made aware that the fields, hills and woods, become a further character in the story, just as Hardy wanted it to be."
With West Dorset already enjoying a boost from location-tourism following ITV drama Broadchurch, there are hopes the worldwide exposure will further increase visitor numbers.
In Sherborne, 10,000 leaflets have been printed for the influx of tourists expected after Sherborne Abbey and surrounding streets were transformed into a 1870s market square by the film crew.
Amanda Park, tourism development manager for West Dorset District Council said: "There is a real buzz about Sherborne at the moment with lots of media attention surrounding the release of Far From the Madding Crowd."
|
A senior Conservative politician has become the centre of Twitter jokes over part of her speech at her party's conference.
|
Liz Truss has been ridiculed for saying that all children will "learn the proper names for animals and trees".
The Environment Secretary speech at conference went viral last time.
Then she said in what was described as a dramatic voice that "we import two-thirds of our cheese. That. Is. A. Disgrace."
She was also mocked last time when she grinned and told delegates that "in December I'll be in Beijing, opening up pork markets."
The reaction on Twitter as you would expect.
Peter Smith tweeted: Inspired by Liz Truss and her wish to call animals their proper names I've baked a gallus gallus domesticus and allium porrum pie for tea.
That was a reference to chicken and mushroom if your Latin is not as good as Peter's.
Dave Merron tweeted: Liz Truss wants children to be taught the "proper names of animals" like when we were kids...
Some people decided to get a bit more surreal in their jokes.
Amusebarf tweeted: Liz Truss wants school children to learn the "proper names of animals". Perhaps starting with cats. For example, Steve the cat. #CPC15
The comments have come thick and fast for the Environment Secretary and some people have got behind her... if only because they seem to really like what is becoming an annual event at conference.
Tom Pride tweeted: If Labour win the next election, I'll lobby to keep Liz Truss as a minister. Just for the you know, comedy factor.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram, Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube and you can now follow BBC_Newsbeat on Snapchat
|
Until 2017, Tashpolat Tiyip was a model academic, head of Xinjiang University, globally connected, and with an honorary degree from a prestigious Paris university.
|
By Andreas IllmerBBC News
But that year, without warning, he disappeared, with no word from officials. His friends believe that after a secret trial, Prof Tiyip was convicted of separatism and sentenced to death.
Prof Tiyip is a Muslim Uighur, and rights groups say he was caught up in a wider persecution of Uighur intellectuals as China tackles what it says is a separatist, terrorist threat.
"There are hundreds of Uighur academics and professionals swept up into this mass internment campaign," Michael Caster, a researcher and author of The People's Republic of the Disappeared, told the BBC.
"This is targeting community, cultural, and intellectual leaders; it is tantamount to cultural genocide."
Fellow academics fear that if he is still alive and detained, Prof Tayip faces imminent execution.
Who is Tashpolat Tiyip?
Until his disappearance, Tashpolat Tiyip was an esteemed professor of geography at Xinjiang University, which like all Chinese universities is an official state institution.
A member of the local Uighur community in Xinjiang, he had studied geography in his home province, and after a stint in Japan, returned home to his alma mater to teach.
He'd been active in international academic circles - receiving a title from France's Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes - and was part of a tight-knit international network of scholars in his field.
He was also a member of the Chinese Communist Party and in 2010, he became president of Xinjiang University, a position he held until his disappearance.
How did he disappear?
The proceedings against Prof Tiyip were shrouded in secrecy and there's no official record of what happened to him.
Friends say that in 2017, he was on his way to Europe for a conference and to launch a co-operation with a German university. But at Beijing airport he was stopped and told he had to return to Xinjiang's capital Urumqi. That's where the trail ends, a former colleague of the professor told the BBC from the US.
He never returned home and his friends and relatives were soon questioned over corruption allegations around him.
Eventually, the family heard news he had been convicted of separatism and had received the death penalty, the former colleague explains - but China has never confirmed anything about his case.
Working as a researcher in the US, she is herself a Uighur originally from Xinjiang and asked to remain anonymous so as not to endanger her own friends and family back home.
China's hidden camps
She says the crackdown has created an atmosphere of horror where "everyone feel like they're being watched all the time".
"There is a huge sense of fear - people tell me they sleep in their clothes because no-one knows whether at night they might be taken away.
"A friend has described it to me as China waging a war of fear. And that friend has also disappeared since then."
Where is Tashpolat Tiyip now?
UN experts and rights groups say China is holding about one million Uighurs and other Muslims and minorities in detention camps.
China doesn't deny the massive operation, but says it is preventing terrorism and separatism by providing education to those detained, helping them to better integrate into mainstream Chinese society.
Prof Tiyip's friends say contacting loved ones in Xinjiang is difficult and only possible with code words to avoid alerting the authorities, who monitor communications. There are reports of people being detained for even having WhatsApp on their phone.
"When we talk to them, we can't use his name," the former colleague explains. "For instance we have to ask how the patient is, whether the doctors already gave a diagnosis, or whether he's been released from hospital."
"That's the only way that relatives can tell us anything."
Mr Tiyip's family believe he is still alive. They have also heard that he and other academics convicted of alleged separatism are used as scare examples in propaganda videos shown in detention centres.
Mr Caster says the pattern of vanishing into a secret justice system is typical.
"The Chinese State does not want people to know about him and his ongoing incommunicado detention fits the textbook definition of an enforced disappearance."
What's been the reaction?
Since the disappearance of Mr Tiyip, supporters have again and again tried to draw attention to his case.
They believe he was given a two-year suspended death sentence - if so that period would now be ending and amid the uncertainty there are new efforts to rally support.
Earlier this month, the American Association of Geographers (AAG) called for his release in a letter signed by more than 1,300 academics from around the world.
"Tashpolat Tiyip's arrest, detention and death sentence is a devastating threat to intellectual and scientific freedom in China and around the globe," according to Dr Gary Langham of the AAG.
The French university that had awarded the honorary degree also EPHE also urged for the release of Mr Tiyip, warning that it was part of a "wave of Chinese repression that few people in Europe know about".
Rights group Amnesty International in September described the trial as "secret and grossly unfair" and has called for urgent action to urge China to release them.
Scholars at Risk has also released a statement, urging China to "immediately intervene" to halt the execution and "secure his unconditional release".
The group warns that "in addition to the harm to Dr Tiyip and his family, such incidents have a chilling effect on academic freedom and suggest an attempt to undermine academic communities and limit free expression".
Last year, Pen America condemned the detention of the academic along with several other Uighur writers as "an outrageous abdication of the rule of law, and a clear demonstration of the government's broad-scale attack on Uyghur intellectual life under the guise of preventing 'separatism'".
"The fact that several prominent Uyghur intellectuals have disappeared only to re-emerge months later, sentenced to death or to life imprisonment, tells you all you need to know about the state of free expression in Xinjiang today," Summer Lopez, senior director of Free Expression Programs at Pen America, said.
Is Prof Tiyip the only one?
A wave of academics have vanished in China's Xinjiang province. Among the first high profile arrests was economist Ilham Tohti who was convicted of separatism and sentenced to life in prison in 2014.
Mr Tohti had been a moderate critic of Beijing's policies towards Uighurs, questioning the government's role in persistent violent confrontations between Uighurs and the dominant Han Chinese.
Last month, he was awarded the Council of Europe's Vaclaw Havel Prize for human rights.
Another example is anthropologist Rahile Dawut, also of Xinjiang University.
Like Mr Tiyip, she'd long been praised by Chinese authorities as a model academic, applauded for their integration within the Chinese and global academic context.
Ms Dawut disappeared in late 2017 and has not been heard of since. Efforts to understand what happened to her or what she might have been charged with, have been futile.
|
The Peak District National Park Authority says it needs to make further savings of £342,000 to cope with a reduction in funding.
|
In total, the authority's grant has fallen by £3.5m since 2010 - a cut of 36.5%.
Councillor Lesley Roberts, chair of the authority, said: "These are tough times and we need to balance the books."
The authority said it was looking at new ways of bringing in money, including offering sponsorship deals.
About 40 jobs have been lost to date but the authority said it would aim to make any further cuts on a voluntary basis.
Visitor spend
The authority's final budget for 2015-16 will be set at a meeting in February.
The Peak District recently featured in an ad campaign aimed at attracting tourists from the Gulf States and was also the first national park to appear on Google Street View.
The authority wants to increase the £365m visitors spend a year by providing better cafes and facilities and improving cycling trails.
The budget announcement follows a meeting in December at which members agreed to the savings.
The Peak District has also just appointed a new chief executive, Sarah Fowler, a senior official from the Environment Agency, who will replace Jim Dixon in the new year.
She said she would work with both staff and the local community to "tackle the challenges faced by the park".
|
The US has started withdrawing troops from Afghanistan as part of a deal with the Taliban aimed at bringing peace to the country.
|
The US agreed to reduce its troops from about 12,000 to 8,600 within 135 days of signing the agreement.
Drawing back troops was a condition of the historic peace deal signed by the US and the Taliban on 29 February.
The Afghan government did not take part in the deal, but is expected to hold talks with the Taliban.
Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani initially said he would not comply with an agreement to release Taliban prisoners as a pre-condition for direct talks with the militant group.
But reports say the president, who was inaugurated for a second term on Monday, will issue a decree for at least 1,000 Taliban prisoners to be released this week.
The peace deal appeared fragile last week after the US launched an air strike in response to Taliban fighters attacking Afghan forces in Helmand province.
The Taliban called for de-escalation and on Monday, Col Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, announced the first phase of the American withdrawal.
The US retains "all the military means and authorities to accomplish our objectives" in Afghanistan despite the withdrawal of troops, Col Leggett said in a statement.
The US and its Nato allies have agreed to withdraw all troops within 14 months if the militants uphold the deal.
Under the agreement, the militants have agreed to refrain from attacks as well as not allowing al-Qaeda or any other extremist group to operate in the areas they control.
US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power weeks after the September 2001 attacks in the US by al-Qaeda, then based in Afghanistan. The Taliban regrouped and became an insurgent force that by 2018 was active in more than two-thirds of the country.
More than 2,400 US troops have been killed during the conflict.
As the drawdown of US troops began on Monday, fresh political instability threatened any prospect of talks between all sides in the country.
Two separate swearing-in ceremonies took place on Monday for two different politicians after disputed elections last year.
Afghanistan's electoral commission says incumbent Mr Ghani narrowly won September's vote, but Abdullah Abdullah alleges the result is fraudulent.
Experts warned the current political rivalry would "gravely affect the government's position in the upcoming intra-Afghan talks", which are due to begin on Tuesday.
The Trump administration said it opposed "action to establish a parallel government" in an apparent show of support for Mr Ghani's presidency.
"Prioritising an inclusive government and unified Afghanistan is paramount for the future of the country and particularly for the cause of peace," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.
|
The number of people using a foodbank in Sheffield has gone up more than 1,000% since lockdown began, its organisers have said.
|
Spires Foodbank in Arbourthorne served about 30 people a week pre-lockdown, but now serves more than 360, according to Andru Keel.
He said food bills have rocketed because people are eating more at home.
Mr Keel said: "It's tough times. We want to always have a smile on our face but it is a tough situation.
"We have families very much reliant upon free school meals and things, and because kids aren't in school there isn't that.
"So a lot of families are all at home and eating more - the cost mounts up really quickly."
'Astounding' rises
Mr Keel said there has also been a rise in donations to the foodbank, including a weekly delivery from Sheffield City Council.
Labour councillor Ben Miskel said other foodbanks in the city had seen similar increases, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
In January, February and March combined S2 Foodbank handed out seven tonnes of food to 1,021 people.
But in April alone it supported 1,970 people with 15 tonnes of food.
Mr Miskell said: "It's absolutely astounding. It's gone up significantly and it's probably gone up again since April."
Find out how many confirmed coronavirus cases there are in your area:
A modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive.
How many cases and deaths in your area?
Enter a full UK postcode or council name to find out
If you can't see the look-up click here.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
|
Three Scottish police forces allowed specialist officers to routinely carry guns before the launch of the new single force, Kenny MacAskill has said.
|
The justice secretary told MSPs that Strathclyde, Tayside and Northern had officers who were routinely armed.
He said Police Scotland had adopted the approach across the country since its launch in April last year.
Lib Dem justice spokeswoman Alison MacInnes said Holyrood should have been told of the routine arming of police.
A political row over specially trained officers routinely carrying side arms started earlier this month when Independent Highlands and Islands MSP, John Finnie, raised concerns.
Mr Finnie said there had been a change of policy from firearms officers having to retrieve their weapons from locked safes in armed response vehicles with permission from a senior officer.
He said there had been occasions when firearms officers had supported unarmed police on routine duties, such as dispersing late night crowds from outside pubs and clubs.
'Unexpected threats'
Mr MacAskill told the Scottish Parliament that Police Scotland took a decision to follow an example previously set by Strathclyde, Tayside and Northern Constabulary.
He said it was necessary for trained firearms officers to be readily available to respond quickly to "urgent and unexpected threats".
Mr MacAskill said Police Scotland has 275 firearms officers - 1.6% of Police Scotland's personnel - and they were deployed on a shift pattern basis.
He added: "Consequently, only a small number will actually be deployed across our communities at any one time."
The justice secretary also said that the police authority and police investigation and review commissioner could review the deployment of firearms officers.
Ms MacInnes said the routine arming of officers represented a "substantial change of direction" and parliament should have been informed.
Police Scotland's Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins told BBC Scotland: "They are police officers first and foremost and it's only right that they contribute to the policing plan in addressing the greatest concerns of the community.
"The fact that they are carrying firearms and a Taser, to this point, there has been no negative public reaction to it."
|
A file is being prepared for the Public Prosecution Service on potential breaches of lockdown rules at a Republican funeral in County Tyrone, police have said.
|
Photographs on social media showed a large crowd at the funeral of Francie McNally on Wednesday.
Mr McNally was a former Sinn Féin councillor from Ballinderry.
Police said some mourners "blatantly ignored health advice", putting others "at risk."
Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill told the daily press conference at Stormont "no one is exempt" from the guidance on social distancing.
The PSNI said talks were held with Mr McNally's family and a local priest before the funeral to “stress the requirement for social distancing.”
'People put at risk'
Mid Ulster district commander Supt Mike Baird said: "The family had assured us only family members would be in attendance.
"It is very disappointing to see some people blatantly ignored health advice and breached current legislation by attending the funeral.
“In doing so, they not only put themselves at risk but also put at risk close family members of the deceased and those officiating at the funeral.”
Police said they are continuing to gather evidence.
Speaking to BBC News NI, Fr Peter Donnelly, parish priest of Ballinderry, said he was unaware of what happened before the remains of the late Mr McNally arrived at the church.
He said there was no church service because of the current Covid-19 guidance.
Fr Donnelly also stressed attendance at the committal service in the cemetery was limited to 10 immediate members of Mr McNally's family.
All current guidelines on funerals were strictly adhered to in the church grounds, he added.
First Minister Arlene Foster said it was right that the PSNI is investigating the case, while Chief Constable Simon Byrne said bereavement was not an excuse to behave in a selfish way.
|
Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of importing up to £6m of nitrous oxide for illegal human use.
|
Five men and three women were held in raids in Rutland and Yorkshire over the alleged plot and money laundering.
Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is used in the medical and catering industry but also as a so-called legal high.
All of those arrested have since been released under investigation.
A man and a woman, both aged 55, were detained in the Ketton area of Rutland, while two women and a man were arrested in Doncaster by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit.
The unit made a further three arrests in York and Selby.
Breathing the gas can cause dizziness and headaches but, if taken in quantity, can cause suffocation.
The unlawful supply of the gas was made an offence in 2016.
Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
|
An ex-Eton College teacher accused of assaulting pupils helped "boys flourish in their careers", a court heard.
|
Matthew Mowbray, 49, is accused of entering boys' rooms at night, under the guise of discussing schoolwork, to sexually touch them.
He denies nine counts of sexual activity with a child, involving four boys and one girl.
Ex-pupils told the jury at Reading Crown Court Mr Mowbray was dedicated to his job and was a "parental figure".
Former student Arthur Croft said the geography teacher had put an end to some traditions for new students, including one which involved them being made to dance in front of others while being shouted at.
"He made a decision that it should be outlawed on the basis it encouraged bullying, he put a stop to it," Mr Croft said.
He said of Mr Mowbray: "He took his duties seriously.
"He was entirely dedicated, basically helping boys flourish in their careers."
Another former student, Alexander Kintzer, told the jury Mr Mowbray was a "parental figure" to whom he could talk about personal issues.
He said Mr Mowbray would check on boys at night to "enforce bed time" and ensure "academically we were comfortable and on track".
The teacher, who was dismissed from the school following his arrest, will not be giving evidence in his trial, defence barrister Sallie Bennett-Jenkins QC said.
Jurors previously heard that Mr Mowbray, of Locks Heath, Southampton, had made pupils "freeze" as he allegedly fondled them in the dark during night-time visits to their bedrooms at the boarding school near Windsor, Berkshire.
He has admitted six counts of making indecent images of children and one count of voyeurism, jurors heard.
The trial continues.
|
Obesity is fuelling a major increase in the number of cases of kidney cancers diagnosed in Britain, experts say.
|
Cancer Research UK has published figures showing there were just over 9,000 cases in 2009, compared with just under 2,300 in 1975.
Obesity increases kidney cancer risk by about 70%, compared with smoking which increases it by about 50%.
Cancer Research UK says too few people understand the cancer risk of being overweight.
Kidney cancer is now the eighth most common cancer.
Blood in the urine can be an early sign that something is wrong.
But kidney cancer, if diagnosed early, can often be cured by surgery.
The experts say that being overweight increases the risk of this cancer, as well as others including breast, bowel and womb cancer, because it causes the higher levels of certain hormones to be produced, compared with those seen in healthy people.
Smoking rates in the UK have fallen over the last 35 years, but overweight and obesity levels are rising - with nearly 70% of men and almost 60% of women in the UK having a BMI of 25 or more - which means they are classed as being overweight.
However the five-year survival rate for kidney cancer has increased by 85% between the early 1970s and 2005-09.
Hormone link
Professor Tim Eisen, a Cancer Research UK kidney cancer expert based at the University of Cambridge, said: "Over the last 10 years, Cancer Research UK has helped to develop new drugs which destroy the blood supply to the kidney cancers. These drugs control the disease in most patients but do not cure it.
"It is best to prevent the problem in the first place - maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking are the best ways of doing that."
Sara Hiom, director of information at Cancer Research UK, said: "Too few people know about the significant cancer risks associated with being very overweight.
"While giving up smoking remains the best way to cut your chances of developing kidney cancer, the importance of keeping a healthy weight shouldn't be overlooked."
|
Viral infections in newborns "cripple" part of the immune system and increase the risk of asthma later in life, US researchers studying mice have said.
|
By James GallagherHealth and science reporter, BBC News
They showed infections by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) stripped immune cells of their ability to calm down inflammation in the lung's airways.
They say their findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, will help develop ways of preventing asthma.
The charity Asthma UK said the study had "really exciting" potential.
When something irritates the airways of a patient with asthma, the airways become tightened, inflamed and produce too much sticky mucus. All of this can make breathing difficult.
Previous studies have shown a link between repeated lung infections with RSV and developing asthma later in life.
One Swedish study showed showed 39% of infants taken to hospital with RSV had asthma when they were 18. However, only 9% of infants who were not ill developed asthma.
How the virus might be able to do this was, however, unknown. Now a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine believe they have an explanation.
Their experiments on mice showed the virus impaired the ability of a specific part of the immune system, called regulatory T cells, to calm inflammation.
Inflammation is an important part of dealing with an infection. However, for asthma patients, chemicals in air which come from ordinary things like dust mites, pets and mould can trigger an inappropriate inflammatory response.
Infection with RSV led to a "complete loss of suppressive function" of the regulatory T cells, after which the mice developed asthma-like symptoms," researchers Prof Anuradha Ray and Prof Prabir Ray told the BBC.
Early window
They said there might be a window in early life when the cells were vulnerable to being "crippled".
They think the finding could help scientists devise treatments which prevent some people developing asthma.
"We feel that both prophylactic and therapeutic approaches can be developed.
"This is especially desirable in infants who have a strong family history of asthma."
Malayka Rahman, from Asthma UK, said: "This research provides vital information on how viruses interact with our immune cells and why this might lead to an increased risk of asthma.
"What's really exciting is the potential of these findings to translate into new treatments for asthma in the future."
|
China has reported better-than-expected trade data, adding to optimism that growth in the world's second-largest economy may be rebounding.
|
Exports, a key driver of expansion, rose 14.1% in December from a year earlier. Most analysts had forecast a figure closer to 4%.
Imports also rose, climbing 6% and indicating stronger domestic demand.
There have been worries about the state of China's economy after growth fell to a three-year low.
"The export data especially is very good news as it shows that external demand for Chinese products is picking up," Dariusz Kowalczyk, a senior economist at Credit Agricole-CIB in Hong Kong, told the BBC.
"A slowdown in global demand had been one of the biggest concerns for China, and this does help alleviate some of those fears."
'Regained momentum'
China's slowdown, which saw growth decline to 7.4% in the July-September quarter, has hurt various sectors of the economy.
However, in recent weeks China has released a string of encouraging economic data which showed that a pick up in November continued into December.
Manufacturing activity in China expanded for a third month in a row in December. At the same time, the country's services sector, which includes construction and accounts for nearly 43% of China's overall economy, expanded at its fastest pace in four months in December.
Industrial production, retail sales and fixed-asset investment were all up in November, while new home prices rose in 53 out of 70 major cities in China in November, from the previous month. That was up from 35 cities which recorded price rises in October.
Credit Agricole-CIB's Mr Kowalcyzk said these numbers coupled with the latest data "confirm that the Chinese economy has regained momentum".
Growth hurdles
However, despite the optimism and indications of a rebound, China still faces potential hurdles that could derail its recovery, not least from ongoing issues surrounding its key trading partners.
The eurozone, one of its biggest export markets, is still grappling with a debt crisis with no long term solution in sight. The crisis has hurt consumer sentiment in the region and dented demand for Asian exports.
Meanwhile, the economic recovery in the US, the world's biggest economy and another key export market, continues to be fragile.
Analysts said that given these issues China's export growth may slow in the coming months.
"If you look at the fundamentals of the US and Europe, this could be a temporary rise," said Ma Xiaoping, an economist at HSBC in Beijing.
To make matters more complicated, Beijing is involved in a territorial dispute with Japan, and it has started to hurt bi-lateral trade between the two. The dispute is yet to be resolved and some even fear that it may flare up again in the coming months.
There are concerns that if the situation in any of these key markets deteriorates, then it may slow China's growth.
"The momentum may be lost if any of these issue spirals into a bigger problem," said Mr Kowalcyzk of Credit Agricole-CIB.
|
I drive a diesel car, eat meat and just a few months ago had a gas boiler installed in my house, that's quite an admission for an environment correspondent who reports on climate change.
|
By Kevin KeaneBBC Scotland's environment correspondent
The problem is that greener options are financially out of reach for me and - it seems - most Scots.
That is something I have been investigating for BBC Scotland's Disclosure.
We commissioned a survey of 1,009 Scots, conducted by Savanta ComRes, which suggests price is putting many people off making greener lifestyle choices.
Of the people who indicated that they had considered buying an electric vehicle in the past year, 71% said they had not bought one because of the cost.
Price was a factor too when it came to switching from gas and oil home heating to greener alternatives such as heat pumps. In that question, 64% of those who had considered the switch said the cost had put them off.
Both these changes and many others will be necessary over the next 25 years if Scotland is to meet its targets for reducing emissions.
But Dr Sarah Ivory from the University of Edinburgh, who has studied climate-related behaviour change, believes it will difficult to bring them about.
She says: "We're all a little bit sick of hearing about how bad it is, hearing that something needs to happen and really not knowing how to act.
"We have people say, 'why should we change now?'. I think the answer to that is, if we don't change now, we really are on a pathway to some catastrophic changes in our climate."
Wildfire and droughts
Those catastrophic changes are not just being felt in faraway countries.
Experts told Disclosure that Scotland would see more wildfires, droughts and impacts from rising sea levels.
But our survey suggests most people are unaware of the changes that are coming.
Only 16% expected more wildfires, despite Scotland already seeing a dramatic rise in these.
Even fewer, just 13%, thought increasing droughts would be a problem, despite more than 100,000 private water supplies being at risk.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service says it has seen a 30% rise in wildfires since 2010 and believes a similar rise is likely in the next decade.
In May 2019 fire spread across 22 square miles of peatland in the Flow Country in Sutherland.
Area Commander Bruce Farquharson said: "If things don't change in relation to where the climate is differing and to human behaviour then the fires we will see in the UK will be similar to those that are being seen in Portugal right now.
"If we look at the fire behaviour that we see in Portugal, unfortunately that will lead to loss of life."
In 2017, dozens were killed in their cars while trying to flee a wildfire in Portugal.
It often takes hundreds of firefighters to bring them under control.
Barriers preventing change
Our investigation suggests there are clear barriers preventing people making environmentally-beneficial lifestyle changes.
About 29% of respondents had considered buying an electric vehicle (EV) in the past year but most had been put off by the price which is still more than for a similar petrol or diesel car.
EV driver Elinor Chalmers has had her vehicle since 2015 and is a passionate advocate of them.
She says: "It's something completely new and it does require quite a habit change.
"We are used to driving up to the petrol station, standing there fuelling up. But most of our cars are sitting doing nothing the majority of the time so your car can be fuelling while it's stationary."
Giving up meat
Arguably the individual action with the greatest short-term benefit is reducing the amount of meat we eat.
That's because the greenhouse gas generated by livestock rearing, methane, is up to 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
But unlike CO2, which hangs around for centuries, methane is relatively short-lived, lasting just decades.
Government advisers have suggested we should cut our meat consumption by a quarter over the next 10 years.
But our survey suggests a reluctance, with 30% saying they would not follow the advice.
Most (79%) said it was because they liked eating meat while 39% said they did not believe eating meat was bad for the environment.
In Scotland, researchers also forecast that half of the country's private water supplies are at risk of regularly running dry because of drought.
That would affect more than 100,000 people in places such as the north east and Dumfries and Galloway.
New boreholes are now being drilled in areas which have never run dry before.
Dr Mike Rivington, from the James Hutton Institute, says: "It's not unusual to have localised areas suffering drought. What is increasing is the probability of that happening more often.
"We look at years like 2018, which was a fairly exceptional year, where (drought) was much more widespread across the country.
"We're going to see a lot more of years like 2018. In fact that's going to become the norm rather than the exception."
Before the pandemic, school strikes were being staged right across Scotland with young people protesting that governments were not doing enough to tackle climate change.
The idea came from the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg who held a weekly vigil outside the country's parliament.
But our poll suggests only 32% of people have been influenced by the protests to make lifestyle changes for the benefit of the planet.
And 29% believe the actions of individuals have only a minor impact, or no impact at all, on tackling the issue.
Disclosure: How You Can Stop Climate Change is on BBC One Scotland at 19:30 on Monday 29 March and on the iPlayer.
Related Internet Links
Savanta ComRes
|
The search for Police Scotland's next chief constable will formally get under way when the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) advertise the job in the coming weeks.
|
By Paul O'HareBBC Scotland news website
But if bookmakers were offering odds on a successor to Phil Gormley, who resigned, then some may already have paid out on the man who has been running the force since September.
Deputy Chief Constable Designate Iain Livingstone, who delayed his retirement after Mr Gormley was put on special leave, is the clear frontrunner.
Only officers who have reached the rank of chief constable or deputy chief constable will be considered for the £214,000-a-year post.
Once a shortlist has been drawn up, the candidates will then undergo an intensive selection process.
It will include up to two panel interviews, chaired by SPA boss Susan Deacon.
In the past they have also had to attend an assessment centre to take part in a scenario exercise and a mock media interview, with a few curveballs thrown in for good measure.
As well as SPA board members, Prof Deacon could invite an outsider, such as a senior business figure, to sit on the panel.
She may also decide to shake-up the process and make changes to the way it was conducted in the past.
When Prof Deacon has identified a preferred candidate, she will send her recommendation to justice secretary Michael Matheson.
He may request to meet the candidate before rubber-stamping the appointment.
The new chief will then be formally sworn in at Tulliallan Castle, the force's corporate headquarters near Kincardine, Fife.
A Scottish Police Authority spokeswoman told BBC Scotland: "The SPA will announce details about the process and timeline for recruiting a new chief constable in due course."
When Sir Stephen House announced he was standing down in August 2015, the post attracted applicants from across the UK.
'He will be anointed'
But this time round it feels like a one-horse race.
Mr Livingstone, who has been acting chief since September, is the overwhelming favourite.
One retired senior officer, who asked not be named, told BBC Scotland: "Iain Livingstone will not be appointed. He will be anointed. Everybody knows that.
"The position should attract the best candidates from across the UK but south of the border the big hitters will have watched what happened with Phil Gormley.
"They will carry out their own risk assessment and also take note of the mood music surrounding Iain Livingstone.
"When you put all that together it does not encourage people to enter the race.
"No one will want to apply just to finish second as the process takes a lot out of you."
Whereas Sir Stephen and Mr Gormley had experience at the highest level in England, including commissioner posts at the Met, Mr Livingstone has spent his entire career in Scotland.
As a result, former Grampian Chief Constable Colin McKerracher, who has criticised the national force, believes the acting chief will face stiff competition.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: "One of the difficulties that the new force throws up is that in Scotland we do not now have a breeding ground for new chief officers because in the past we had eight forces.
"We don't have the opportunity for people in Scotland so inevitably we are looking south of the border for our chief officers."
Mr Livingstone is in pole position but Mr McKerracher sounded a note of caution.
He added: "I know Iain and Iain is an excellent police officer and I am sure the experience he has had in that role will help him be prepared to take on the role of chief constable.
"But he has not run a force, he has not been involved at a political level locally, he has not dealt with a lot of the things he is now dealing with for the first time."
Under normal circumstances, officers of the calibre of Mark Rowley, the Met's assistant commissioner and the UK's national lead for counter terrorism policing, would seriously consider the Police Scotland job.
But our source said Mr Rowley, who is due to retire in March, is unlikely to apply.
Durham Chief Constable Michael Barton, who recently conducted an independent review into the force's Counter Corruption Unit and addressed a Holyrood committee, was another name mentioned to BBC Scotland.
And PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton, a former assistant chief constable with Strathclyde Police, may consider a return to Scotland after four years in Belfast.
Within the force, Deputy Chief Constable Johnny Gwynne - former head of the National Crime Agency's (NCA) Child Exploitation and Online Protection command - is highly regarded but may be put off by the momentum behind Mr Livingstone.
The SPA will be keen to attract a number of applicants and, behind-the-scenes, candidates such as Mr Gwynne may be encouraged to make it a contest rather than a coronation.
But many observers believe the support and goodwill Mr Livingstone has enjoyed since he replaced his embattled boss will comfortably carry him over the line.
|
The wife of Pakistan's ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced she is running for his parliamentary seat.
|
Kulsoom Nawaz will contest the seat her husband was forced to vacate last month after becoming embroiled in the Panama papers scandal.
Mr Sharif resigned after the papers revealed his children were linked to offshore companies that owned properties in London.
He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
But Pakistan's Supreme Court disqualified him from office after ruling Mr Sharif had been dishonest in not disclosing his earnings from a Dubai-based company in his nomination papers during the 2013 general election.
Kulsoom Nawaz's nomination papers for her husband's former constituency in Lahore were filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party.
She has never run for office before - but the party is hoping she will win "a big majority" in the by-election, which will take place in about 45 days.
This appears to be a change of plan for the family, who indicated originally that Mr Sharif's younger brother would run for the seat, and then the premiership.
But last week, the ruling party elected Sharif loyalist Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as prime minister.
It has been suggested he will hold office until elections next year.
|
Leanne Wood has said Plaid Cymru members need to stand "shoulder to shoulder" in order to dislodge Labour.
|
By Daniel DaviesBBC Wales political correspondent
At its spring conference in Llangollen, the Plaid leader said hers was the only party that could offer an alternative Welsh government.
But she said it needed to unite behind a "positive programme" to show voters it can offer an alternative.
It follows calls from two Plaid MPs to reposition the party in the centre and to be open to working with the Tories.
Ms Wood's speech was billed as an appeal to "build a new nation".
It included the offer of a right to mental health care for young people, with the threat of fines for health boards that cannot meet waiting times.
The speech began with an appeal for the party to "resist" a "power grab" by the UK government in a row over powers returning from Brussels after Brexit.
'Us or them'
But it ended with a rallying cry for Plaid to "take the next step towards being the Government of Wales".
"We are the only party that has ever had an alternative First Minister candidate to Labour," Ms Wood said.
"It's us, or them.
"But we need our own positive programme, and our own alternative.
"We will only get to where we want to be if we are all pulling in the same direction, standing hand-in-hand, and shoulder-to-shoulder."
Earlier Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards warned that the party would face "oblivion" if it lurched to the left, urging it to fill the "gaping void" in the centre of politics.
Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts told BBC Wales that Plaid should not rule out co-operation with the Conservatives in the assembly to unseat Labour, saying the party had to try something else or suffer "results you don't like".
|
Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge's daughter Princess Charlotte will be christened on 5 July, Kensington Palace has announced.
|
The christening will take place at St Mary Magdalene Church at the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
The princess was born on 2 May at St Mary's Hospital in London, weighing 8lb 3oz (3.7kg).
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said he was "delighted" to have been invited to conduct the baptism.
"It will be an extraordinary honour and privilege to help welcome the princess into the family of the church," he added.
The fourth in line to the throne, the princess's full name has been registered as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge.
On Monday, the Duke of Cambridge returned to work as a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance after taking a break over the birth of his daughter.
The family has been at their home Anmer Hall on the Sandringham estate since leaving London shortly after the birth of the princess, their second child.
The duke and duchess are expected to be based at Anmer Hall for the next few years as they raise Princess Charlotte and their first born Prince George, who is almost two, with the help of a full-time nanny.
Prince George's christening took place in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in London in October 2013.
The third in line to the throne wore a replica of the lace and satin christening gown made for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Victoria, the Princess Royal, in 1841.
His christening was private, with only senior royals, four members of the Middleton family, the seven godparents and their spouses among the 22 guests.
The prince's godparents are the Princess Royal's daughter Zara Tindall, Oliver Baker, Emilia Jardine-Paterson, Earl Grosvenor, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, Julia Samuel, William van Cutsem. The royal couple have yet to announce Princess Charlotte's godparents.
Following the christening, official photos were released including a picture of the Queen with three future kings - the first such image of royal succession for nearly 120 years.
The prince was born at St Mary's Hospital on 22 July 2013.
|
A day centre in Swansea attended by 34 people with learning and physical disabilities will close in the summer.
|
The charity that runs Longfields in West Cross says it is no longer financially sustainable.
It will now work with the city council to make alternative arrangements for those who use it.
Actress Catherine Zeta Jones and her husband Michael Douglas made a five figure donation in 2003 for a hydrotherapy pool at the unit.
The Swansea-born actress was a patron of the Longfields Association before it merged with the UK learning disability charity Walsingham last year.
The centre has been in the city for 59 years.
Walsingham chief executive Paul Snell said: "It is with much sadness that we have taken this decision.
"We merged with the full intention of continuing and enhancing the day service at Longfields.
"However, despite our substantial investment in the centre, we are no longer able to continue providing this service as the financial losses are too great.
"We understand that the people who attend Longfields and their families will be concerned about this decision."
The centre in West Cross employs 19 staff.
Mr Snell added: "In addition, we will support all of our employees working at Longfields by holding individual consultation meetings to discuss their options."
The charity said when the centre closed in the summer it may be sold.
"I would like to make it clear that Walsingham will not profit from the future sale of the Longfields site in any way whatsoever," said Mr Snell.
"As agreed with the Longfields Association at the time of the merger, the profits will be reinvested by Walsingham for the benefit of people with learning disabilities in the Swansea area."
Swansea council's cabinet member for social services Nick Tregoning said: "The number one priority for us and Walsingham now is to make the transition as smooth as possible for those who use the services.
"I am very pleased to hear from Walsingham that if Longfields is sold after the centre has closed all the proceeds will be ploughed back into services supporting people with learning disabilities in Swansea."
|
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats are promising to bring in a mansion tax if they win the election.
|
By Kevin PeacheyPersonal finance reporter, BBC News
Labour leader Ed Miliband said that owners of properties worth more than £2m would face an annual charge.
It is a similar idea to the proposal outlined in the Liberal Democrat's 2010 general election manifesto that was restated at their last conference.
So how could such a "tax" work and who would be affected?
Some analysts have pointed to the complexity of a mansion tax, debated how much would be raised, and discussed the effect on house building.
What is a mansion?
The image of a mansion for most people is a country home, in acres of grounds, perhaps with a tennis court or stables in view from the window of one of the many bedrooms.
However, owing to the significance of location, homes subject to a mansion tax would be of very different shapes and sizes.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats put the threshold of a tax at properties of £2m.
Properties advertised for sale on internet portal Rightmove with a price tag of £2m include a two-bedroom apartment in an Art Deco building in London, but also a six-bedroom, four-floor detached home in Hale, Greater Manchester.
Estate agent Knight Frank suggests that 36% of £2m-plus homes were detached, 31% were terraced, 22% were flats and 11% were semi-detached.
Yet, there is also a debate over how homes are valued. At present, council tax bands are still based on valuations of homes made in 1991.
How many homeowners would be affected?
The answer to this question tends to depend on who you ask.
Hometrack, which values properties for banks, builders and provides analysis for estate agents, says there are about 58,500 homes with a value in excess of £2m across Britain.
But estate agent Savills estimates there are about 97,000 properties in the UK. Internet portal Zoopla puts the number at about 108,000, and estate agent Knight Frank puts the total at about 110,000.
All are agreed that the vast majority of these properties - well over 80% - would be in London and the South East of England.
In 2010, the Lib Dems estimated that 70,000 properties would be affected.
What plans are on the table?
Labour are suggesting an annual charge for homeowners with properties worth more than £2m.
However, Labour says this would be a progressive tax, so those with the biggest homes would pay proportionately more than those just above the £2m threshold.
That threshold would also rise in line with rising house prices, so homeowners would not be dragged into the tax as a result of their existing home rising in value.
Labour also say there would be protection for cash-poor but equity-rich owners - likely to be the option of paying the charge from their estate when they die.
House price calculator
The proposed scheme would raise £1.2bn a year, Labour say.
In 2010, the Lib Dems proposed a mansion tax based on 1% of a property's value above £2m. This threshold would also rise in line with increasing house prices.
Under this plan, for example, a property worth £3m would face a charge of £10,000 a year. The party said the tax would raise £1.7bn a year.
At their 2014 party conference, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said that this tax would be incorporated into the Council Tax system, to cut bureaucracy. He said raising a Council Tax band would allow them to collect the extra money that would be used to cut the deficit.
In 2013, David Cameron ruled out imposing a mansion tax. He told the BBC that a "wealth tax is not sensible for a country that wants to attract wealth creation, wants to reward saving and people who work hard and do the right thing".
What has been the reaction?
In a study published in February, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that a mansion tax had a "sensible logic underpinning it".
However, it said the idea was misdirected.
"Rather than adding a mansion tax on top of an unreformed and deficient council tax, it would be better to reform council tax itself to make it proportional to current property values," the IFS report said.
Some housebuilders and estate agents fear that the mansion tax will curtail building of new homes in London and the South East of England, where a shortage of supply has been one of the factors pushing up prices.
"Any policy initiatives should concentrate on nurturing the embryonic buds of growth outside of London, rather than drastically pruning back healthier branches of the market," says Peter Rollings, chief executive of Marsh & Parsons estate agents.
|
Young people are being warned that faddy diets are putting their health at risk.
|
By Marie JacksonBBC News
The National Osteoporosis Society found that a fifth of under-25s were cutting out or reducing dairy in their diet, which can affect their bones.
One diet that - in its extreme form - recommends avoiding dairy is "clean eating".
What is clean eating?
The idea is to only eat "clean" foods by cooking from scratch, choosing foods in their natural state, and eliminating refined sugar.
More extreme versions might exclude gluten, grains, dairy - or even encourage a raw food diet.
What's on the menu?
Pippa Selby, a clean eater for three years, starts the day with a bowl of smoothie, frozen fruit, fresh fruit, oats and a nut butter.
Lunch might be a homemade soup or a mozzarella salad. For dinner a sweet potato bake or grass-fed, free range meat and homemade chips.
Other clean-eating classics are the kale smoothie, smashed avocado, chia seeds and quinoa.
Where does it come from?
It's been around for about a decade, says dietician Catherine Collins.
A-list celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow, Katy Perry, Miranda Kerr and Jessica Alba are all reportedly fans. But it's foodie vloggers and bloggers who have given the concept wings.
Clean Eating Alice, also known as Alice Liveing, has half a million Instagram followers and two cookbooks to her name.
In a recent interview with the Sun, she said she chose the term "clean eating" because it "perfectly encapsulated everything I wanted to do to my own diet - clean it up, get rid of a lot of the processed rubbish and begin eating real food again.
"I never once thought about restricting whole food groups from my diet, or placing metaphorical labels on foods and seeing them as either clean or unclean."
Food blogger Ella Mills - better known as Deliciously Ella - has distanced herself from the "clean-eating" label.
In BBC documentary "Clean Eating: The Dirty Truth" she said the word "clean" had become too "loaded".
"Clean now implies dirty and that's negative," she said.
"When I first read the term, it meant natural, kind of unprocessed, and now it doesn't mean that at all. It means diet. It means fad."
How widespread is it?
It's unclear. Catherine Collins says it's more of a lifestyle choice than a diet, which seems to appeal to teenage girls and women in their 20s.
It requires attention to detail and a certain attitude - you won't find many 40-year-old mums with children doing it, she adds.
Is it good for you?
Pippa Selby started clean eating after suffering joint pain and dizzy spells following the birth of her daughter.
The 29-year-old picture researcher from east London says it was expensive changing her diet, but it has made a difference to how she feels.
But there was a point when she had to "step away" from it.
"It's easy to become obsessive about it," she says.
"It can be so restrictive and there's so much on social media that you can feel under attack if you don't eat the right foods."
Collins says the inference of "clean eating" is that a vegetable-based diet will make you slimmer, fitter, more attractive, and make you live longer.
But she worries when bloggers recommend cutting out major food groups like dairy and wheat without suggesting an alternative.
If you don't look like Miranda Kerr now, says Collins, it's probably not going to happen - her looks are down to good genes, a strict diet and exercise.
"Outwardly, you can look vibrant and beautiful, but inwardly your body can be crying out for nutrition," she says.
Collins points to Gwyneth Paltrow saying in 2010 she had the early stages of osteopenia, a precursor to the brittle bone disease osteoporosis, usually seen in women after the menopause.
Osteopenia can occur when someone cuts out food groups such as dairy, especially if it is a lifelong habit.
The most recent National Diet and Nutrition Study found the calcium intake of one in six women under 24 was deemed to be worryingly low.
Collins advises young women to think about what's missing from those delicious-looking plates, posted on Instagram by the skinny and beautiful.
It's a snapshot of their diet, she says. "There might have been a load of chocolate biscuits and purging in between."
The best diet is a varied one, says Collins. A Mediterranean-style one of olive oil, vegetables, lean meat and a handful of nuts to snack on is a "nutritional blueprint for people of all ages".
The more restrictive and the more caveats, the less healthy the diet, she concludes.
What does the NHS say?
The NHS website offers eight tips for healthy eating:
|
Members of a pagan Icelandic religious movement based on ancient Sumerian beliefs are set to get a temple in the capital of Reykjavik, it's been reported.
|
By News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring
According to the Iceland Monitor news website, Zuists - people belonging to a modern pagan religious movement based on the Sumerian religion - have applied for permission to build a two-story "Ziggurat" as a centre for their growing congregation.
Zuism is a relatively new faith; it was registered as an official religion in Iceland in 2013, and over 2,800 people are members.
Zuist leader Águst Arnar Ágústsson told the paper that the group had always planned to have a place of worship for its followers, but given the movement's rapid expansion in Iceland, this had grown all the more urgent.
He says the movement needs space for name-giving, weddings and general worship, as well as "beer and prayer" meetings.
Iceland Monitor says that a surge of attraction in Zuism may be because members do not have to pay parish fees. Registered Zuists - also known as Zuistar - are being asked, instead of paying old-school parish fees, to contribute to a Ziggurat Fund to help build and maintain the planned temple.
Some may also have been drawn to ancient Sumerian beliefs through their worship of the 1984 film Ghostbusters, yet might be disappointed to find that Zuism recognises no Zuul, and no Gozer the Gozerian, and that civilisation is unlikely to be destroyed by a giant marshmallow man.
The movement claims its belief system is the oldest in the world, and is based around the Sumerian pantheon in that it recognises An, Enlil, Enki and other deities as worshipped in ancient Mesopotamia.
But despite is growing numbers, Zuism still has a long way to go before it challenges the established faiths for numbers.
According to Statistics Iceland, over 80% of Icelanders are registered as Christians, with around 230,000 identifying as members of the Lutheran Church of Iceland. Zuists account for some 1% of Iceland's population.
Reporting by Alistair Coleman
Next story: Ballet and football collide on Russian stage
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.
|
The government has rejected calls to intervene in plans to turn one of Brighton's oldest theatres into a £35m cinema and restaurant complex.
|
The plans for the Hippodrome theatre would see it turned into an eight-screen Vue cinema and four restaurants.
The Theatres Trust asked the housing and planning minister to look at the plans for the Grade II-listed building.
A government spokesman said: "This is a matter for Brighton and Hove City Council."
Mhora Samuel, director of the trust said: "Brighton and the Hippodrome have been let down by this decision.
"Unless the developers reconsider their scheme we will have lost the potential to stage lyric theatre and performance in the Hippodrome's unique theatrical space."
The minister, Brandon Lewis, rejected the trust's request to "call in" the planning application, together with a 2,700 signature online petition.
Changes 'reversible'
The government spokesman said: "Only a very few planning applications are 'called in' each year, as this involves the planning decision being taken away from the local council and community."
Councillor Phelim Mac Cafferty, chairman of Brighton and Hove planning committee, said: "I sympathise with campaigners who, along with councillors, would absolutely love to see the Hippodrome turned back into a theatre. But this has been looked at and the district valuer confirmed that a theatre was sadly unlikely to be viable.
"Given the important historic nature of the Hippodrome, I am happy that some of the historic features will be re-instated and the alterations inside the building are also reversible so should a proposal come forward in the future for a theatre, that would be possible," he said.
The now derelict building began life as an ice rink in 1897 before becoming a circus, which closed in 1902. It reopened as a theatre the following year.
|
People living in a group of 18th century windmills have found a novel way of protesting at the scale of tourism in their Dutch village.
|
By News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring
The millers of Kinderdijk have been handing out postcards with a welcome message and historic picture on one side and a message in English on the other saying: "Thank you for your visit. We've lived here for centuries. We get 600,000 tourists a year, and there are 60 of us. Ratio 10,000: 1 #overtourism," local broadcaster RTV Rijnmond reports.
The 19 windmills of Kinderdijk near Rotterdam, one of the country's top tourism spots, are listed as a national monument and UNESCO World Heritage site. The surrounding low-lying fields are protected by the European Union's Natura 2000 environmental programme.
The windmills were built to help drain water from the surrounding low-lying fields, and some of them are still used for this purpose, but the village now lives off tourism.
The local people are keen to make the point that they welcome visitors, but are concerned at the impact. "We are happy with the tourists, they bring in the money that helps to maintain our buildings, but this is too much," Kirsten Wensveen told RTV Rijnmond.
The polite postcard campaign has had an impact on tourists, with some telling the TV channel that they were "surprised" to find out that people actually live in the windmills. One visitor sympathised that it "must feel like living in a zoo".
Peter Paul Klapwijk says his fellow-villagers are also unhappy with what they see as a lack of consultation by the Kinderlijk World Heritage Foundation that runs the site.
"In the past year, for example, a new cruise boat has started sailing past the windmills, and the Foundation has extended public access hours without discussing it with us. Sometimes it feels like people are sitting right there in your living room," he complains.
The Foundation says the millers have skipped recent monthly consultation meetings, but Mr Klapwijk countered that the site managers "don't involve us, they just tell us about plans that have already been made, so no one shows up".
You may also be interested in:
In between handing out postcards, Anja Noorlander warned Molenwaard local council that "with elections coming up, we want to make it clear that 600,000 visitors are the absolute maximum".
The villagers also want the council to ensure they have a greater say in the Foundation's planning system.
They have had some success will their complaints about quality of life, as Molenwaard council now makes people apply for permission before using drones to photograph the windmills, "in order to protect the privacy of our inhabitants and of our wildlife".
Concern about the impact of mass tourism is not new in the Netherlands. Last year, a picturesque collection of old towns near Amsterdam issued a good conduct guide to try to make life easier for locals.
They asked visitors not to drop litter or wander through private gardens, and to ask permission before photographing people.
Reporting by Martin Morgan
Next story: Moscow beavers resist dam destruction
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.
|
Temporary work to repair a section of a reservoir dam which partially collapsed in the summer will begin next year, the Canal and River Trust has confirmed.
|
More than 1,500 people were evacuated from Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, in August over fears the dam would collapse and flood the town.
Residents returned home after emergency services pumped water from the reservoir and shored up the spillway.
Permanent repairs will not begin until 2021 and will take "several years".
However, temporary work will begin on the damaged auxiliary spillway on 6 January.
The reservoir will remain drained until the permanent repairs have been completed, meaning Toddbrook Reservoir is expected to be out of use until 2022 or 2023.
The charity said the permanent repairs will cost about £10m and it will have to cover the bill itself.
The trust has commissioned an independent inquiry into what caused the damage to the dam wall.
The government has separately ordered a review into the emergency. Both reports are expected to be published early next year.
Simon Bamford, the trust's asset improvement manager, said: "The intention will be to construct a new spillway or structure of some sort to take extreme storm events.
"We won't know exactly what we are going to do until the outcome of the inquiries."
In the final week before Christmas, weather permitting, the trust will undertake a third fish rescue to net as many of the remaining fish as possible.
This follows two rescues in August and October. It is estimated about 30,000 fish, or five tonnes, have been rehomed.
Residents have been invited to hear about the planned works at two briefings at the Palace Hotel in Buxton on Tuesday night.
Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
|
Japanese company Mitsubishi has unveiled a radiation-resistant robot aimed at cleaning up the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
|
By Katia MoskvitchTechnology reporter, BBC News
Other firms, among them Hitachi and Toshiba, have also rolled out their own remote-controlled bots recently.
The plant was damaged during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Robots are already working inside the plant, but none has been specifically designed for this kind of work.
One UK expert said that working inside a nuclear reactor was "a challenge for robotics".
Dubbed MEISTeR (Maintenance Equipment Integrated System of Telecontrol Robot), Mitsubishi's "tankbot" is about 1.3m (4ft) tall and has two arms, each able to hold loads of up to 15kg (33lb).
The robot is equipped with various tools and has electronics hardened to withstand radiation.
But Jeremy Pitt, deputy head of the Intelligent Systems and Networks Group at Imperial College London, said it was still a challenge for a remotely controlled machine to successfully replace humans in such harsh conditions.
"Operating in extreme environments requires a remarkable range of human skills that might otherwise be taken for granted," he said.
"Fundamentally, instead of programming a robot to follow a precise series of actions, in open environments the requirement is to programme it to improvise.
"This requires a fusion of conscious reasoning mechanisms, like learning, with subconscious sensing mechanisms."
Different design
Although currently there are several robots inside the plant, they have not been designed to repair a nuclear reactor.
For instance, the devices made by Qinetiq, introduced at Fukushima immediately after the disaster, were built to search for mines, said the firm's spokesman Mark Clark.
Using machines not made for such conditions was "always a compromise", he said, and better robots were needed.
"The operational environment within a large complex such as a power station poses high demands on these robots, which they were never designed to accommodate.
"If you are wishing to operate robots 24/7 inside a debris-filled power station in a radioactive area, it is much better to design the custom robot from the outset to meet specific tasks."
For instance, Toshiba says its robot has a wireless network that can be controlled in high radiation, looking for a better signal when reception is weak.
Mr Clark explained that the biggest problem associated with robots deployed into such zones was maintenance, because if repairs were needed, it would be difficult for humans to get anywhere near.
The solution would be to fix everything remotely, or while wearing heavy protective clothing.
To simplify the task, robots made to work inside a reactor would have to be "stripped of all unnecessary items", he said.
"If nuclear robots start leaking hydraulic fluid, they send an alarm before they fail so they can be quickly recovered. Others have the capability to shed or drop off parts of their manipulators so if they get caught up in debris they jettison the trapping section of robot, thus freeing them from the obstruction.
"Most nuclear robots operate on power provided by a trailing umbilical. This means there are no batteries to change and no refuelling issues to contend with."
|
There's a thin line between driving dexterity and recklessness.
|
By David ReidTechnology reporter, Delhi
Take a white-knuckle auto-rickshaw ride through Delhi's chaotic streets and that line, along with everything else, becomes very blurred indeed.
But at least you have found a ride and are going somewhere - catching an auto-rickshaw can often be a pain for Indian commuters.
If you can't find one where these three-wheeled taxis are swarming, you are forced to wait in monsoon rains or summer heat trusting your luck to a chance encounter. Not the best start to the day.
Now, in several cities across India, hailing an "auto", as they are known locally, is as simple as reaching for your phone.
Auto in your pocket
In Delhi, Pooch-O is an app developed by the city's transport department to smooth commuters' way to work, and help rickshaw drivers earn more.
It pinpoints nearby rickshaws, which are detected through vehicle-installed GPS, and displays them for you on Google Maps.
You click on the icon to call a free driver. If your Hindi is as hopeless as mine you can make yourself understood by text. The auto usually arrives within the next few minutes.
"We don't have to look for our passengers," says auto-driver Rajesh Sheena. "Wherever we are, they contact us or call us on the phone."
Before you set off, Pooch-O also helps with the awkward issue of price.
Whereas drivers in Mumbai are pretty good at agreeing to use the meter, Delhi drivers are not. The app includes a fare calculator, so meter on or meter off, you know roughly what you should be paying, making testy exchanges less likely.
"The public gets onto the scooter comfortably," says driver Ram Naran, "and they do not haggle when giving the money. There is no tension."
Pooch-O has experienced some problems, however, that its designers say they are ironing out.
Users have complained they have been put through to the wrong number, and driver Bashir Hussein grumbles "nobody has ever called me. It is of no benefit to me."
Pick and choose
Further south in Bangalore, a private initiative called mGaadi is attracting drivers tired of driving around wasting fuel looking for customers.
Profit margins are so tight here that most drivers are lucky to take home between 700 to 800 rupees - that's about £7.50 ($12) for a long day's work.
"Working from the morning, five o'clock until eight o'clock at night - it is a huge amount of time," says auto-driver Christie Thompson, "Fourteen hours a day, a man cannot sit in an auto. It is completely hot and even he is completely frustrated also."
Drivers can picky about their passengers - the battle to make a living means they have become particular about the jobs they take on.
If they don't think they will find another job at the end of a journey, they might insist on a fixed off-meter fare or simply refuse to take a client. The business imperative is simple: if they don't do this, they make a loss.
The company says its app keeps everyone happy. For a flat charge of five rupees (5p) per ride, it feeds drivers a stream of customers. The only condition is that drivers use their meters.
Kiran Raj, an app developer at mGaadi, says: "We end up giving continuous trips to drivers, so drivers will not spend time wasting gas, so they will not ask for extra money from customers."
The mGaadi app differs from the Delhi app in that drivers here do not need to have expensive GPS installed on their rickshaws, nor do they need a pricey smartphone.
Drivers with cheaper so-called feature phones call a pre-arranged mGaadi number, and hang up after two rings. The logged call is analysed, and the driver's position established by triangulating the phone mast positions recorded in the call's metadata.
Safety first
Considerable thought has also gone into the psychology of the relationships the app is forging.
Like Uber, mGaadi encourages app users to rate their journeys and drivers. These performance rankings help elevate the status of a driver from faceless operative to respected professional.
The app also allows users to track journeys by receiving text updates, enabling concerned parents, say, to monitor the progress of their children as they come home from school.
Vishy Kuruganti, mGaadi's co-founder, says: "Just the fact that someone is taking an mGaadi trip where the driver's name, identification, other details like phone number, vehicle and all that, is known, that itself adds to a lot of comfortable feeling.
"And then on top of that you add other things that will come on, such as tracking the location constantly, then it will give a whole lot of comfort to the commuter as well as the commuter's family."
India may be a country obsessed by smartphones and technology, but it is also a place where systems often often fray at the edges.
At least apps like Pooch-O in Delhi and mGaadi in Bangalore are trying to bring more order to a sometimes chaotic transport system.
In doing so they are raising the status and incomes of drivers and helping passengers to find transport, making it cheaper and safer for them as well.
|
A "Miss Hitler" contest entrant and her ex-partner have been convicted of being members of the banned far-right terrorist group National Action.
|
Alice Cutter, 23, and Mark Jones, 25, were found guilty of being members of the neo-Nazi organisation after a retrial at Birmingham Crown Court.
Garry Jack, 24, and 19-year-old Connor Scothern were also found guilty of being members of the group.
All four will be sentenced at a later date.
National Action, founded in 2013, was outlawed under anti-terror legislation three years later after it celebrated the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.
During their trial Cutter, from Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, was described by prosecutors as a "central spoke" among the organisation's hardcore members, while Jones, also from Sowerby Bridge, was a "leader and strategist".
Jurors heard how Cutter had entered the Miss Hitler beauty pageant under the name Miss Buchenwald - a reference to the Second World War death camp.
They were also told how she had exchanged hundreds of messages, many racist and anti-Semitic, and was still meeting other members months after the ban.
In an exchange with another National Action member a day after MP Mrs Cox was gunned down, Cutter wrote: "Rot in hell, bitch."
She claimed not to have considered herself a member, even before the ban, despite attending meetings with group leaders and posing for a Nazi-style salute on the steps of Leeds Town Hall in 2016.
Cutter also attended a demo in York in May 2016.
Jones, a former member of the British National Party's youth wing, told jurors of his "feelings of admiration" for Hitler, while the court heard he had a special wedding edition of Mein Kampf.
He also accepted that he posed for a photograph while holding a National Action flag and giving a Nazi-style salute in Buchenwald's execution chamber on a trip to Germany in 2016.
Cutter and Jones embraced in the dock before being taken down to the cells.
Also convicted of the same offence were two other men; Garry Jack, 24, of Shard End, Birmingham, and 19-year-old Connor Scothern, from Nottingham.
Self-confessed Nazi Jack was described as a foot soldier in the group, having joined six months before the ban.
Scothern, who was a one-time practising Muslim, and an Antifa - anti-fascist activist - before eventually joining National Action, did not give evidence at trial.
But in messages he sent following the ban in August 2017, he talked of setting up "a clear and openly fascist youth movement".
'Threat to the public'
A fifth man, Daniel Ward, 28 from Bartley Green, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to being a member of National Action last year and was jailed for three years.
Det Ch Supt Kenny Bell, of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit said: "Being convicted of membership of this extreme right terrorist group is the same as belonging to other terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda or Daesh.
"They share a real toxic extreme ideology which is a danger to the public, the same ideology that we have seen manifested in the tragic attack in New Zealand, the murder of Jo Cox MP and the attack at Finsbury Park mosque in 2017.
"This group was amassing weapons and recipes for bomb-making. They communicated through secret channels to recruit others to their cause. Left unchecked they presented a real threat to the public."
|
Twice as many Britons as previously thought could be carrying the human form of "mad cow" disease, variant CJD.
|
By Michelle RobertsHealth editor, BBC News online
Researchers believe one in 2,000 people in the UK is a carrier of the disease linked to eating contaminated beef.
Their estimate in the BMJ comes from studying more than 32,000 samples of human tissue removed during appendix operations carried out between 2000 and 2012 at 41 hospitals.
It remains unclear if any of these carriers will ever develop symptoms.
Early predictions of a vCJD epidemic didn't come to fruition.
To date, here have been 177 UK deaths from vCJD. Most of these occurred in the late 90s and early 2000s. There has been only one death in the last two years.
The rare, fatal disease progressively attacks the brain.
But it appears that relatively few who catch the infectious agent that causes the disease develop symptoms. People can be "silent" carriers for decades and not even know it.
The BMJ research identified 16 such carriers out of the thousands of appendix tissue samples studied.
Experts say many vital questions remain unanswered.
Since the link between vCJD and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as mad cow disease, was discovered in 1996, there have been strict controls to prevent meat from infected cattle from entering the food chain.
However, the average time it takes for the symptoms of vCJD to occur after initial infection is still unclear.
Preventing spread
This means people exposed to infected meat before the food controls were introduced continue to develop variant CJD, and may spread it to others.
Experience tells us that the disease could be transmitted from human to human via blood - in the UK, there have been three reported cases of vCJD associated with a blood transfusion.
Blood donor services take measures to ensure blood is not infected but there is no test to screen for vCJD, although scientists are working on this.
And there is currently no cure for the disease.
Prof Sebastian Brandner of University College London, who led the BMJ research, said: "We do not know what will happen.
"Will these people develop disease and can they transmit it? There are many questions we still do not know the answers to."
Prof Richard Knight, director of the National CJD Research and Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh, said the answers might not be known for decades.
In the meantime, surveillance was key, he said.
"You can see from the data available that its likely that we will get a secondary or tertiary wave of disease but its likely that these further waves will be small.
"Future clinical cases will be pretty small in number," he added.
Dr Graham Jackson, of the MRC Prion Unit at UCL Institute of Neurology, said: "Given the high levels of infection indicated by this research, it is now crucial we establish how many people in the UK harbour that infection in their bloodstream in order to adequately assess the risks of transmission through contaminated blood donations.
"Studies to develop new blood tests for CJD must remain a priority to assist with screening and protecting the UK blood supply."
|
A British climber on a mission to take an Olympic gold medal to the top of Mount Everest has reached the mountain's base camp.
|
Kenton Cool, 38, told his followers on Twitter his "special cargo is safe and sound".
Mr Cool, from Gloucestershire, wants to honour a pledge made in 1924 to carry the medal to the summit.
It is one of 21 medals awarded to members of the 1922 British Everest Expedition at the 1924 Winter Olympics.
The 1922 expedition came within 500m of the summit, but failed three times to reach the top.
At the 1924 Winter Olympics in France, members of the expedition were honoured with medals for mountaineering.
'So humbled'
Lt Col Edward Strutt, who was the expedition's deputy leader, pledged to place one of the medals on the summit of Everest, but the promise was never kept.
The following expedition in 1924 ended with George Mallory and fellow climber Andrew Irvine dead on the mountain.
Mr Cool has been loaned one of the original medals awarded to the team from 1922 by Charles Wakefield, the grandson of Dr Arthur Wakefield who was a member of the expedition.
He said on Twitter his team had reached base camp and he was "so excited to be here at last".
"Thanks to the Family Wakefield for making this expedition so special. I feel so humbled," he said.
It is hoped the expedition will reach the summit by the end of the month.
If successful it will be the 10th time Mr Cool has climbed Mount Everest, a milestone that will break his own British record.
Mr Cool has also been chosen to be an Olympic torchbearer in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.
|
X Factor runner-up Jahmene Douglas has topped the UK album chart with his debut solo album Love Never Fails.
|
The former supermarket worker, who came second to James Arthur in the 2012 series, has released an album largely made up of cover songs.
In the singles chart, One Direction failed to get their fourth number one single, as Best Song Ever was kept off the top by Avicii's Wake Me Up.
Also X Factor alumni, the quintet have built up a huge global fan base.
Despite being the only new release this week, One Direction could not match the appeal of Avicii's Wake Me Up, which is the fastest selling single of 2013, and spending its second week at number one.
The rest of the top five singles chart is made up of previous chart-toppers include Robin Thicke with Blurred Lines and Icona Pop's I Love It.
There was only a handful of new entries in the album top 40, with former Disney Actress Selena Gomez achieving the second highest new entry with Stars Dance at number 14, followed by the Rolling Stones live album from Hyde Park at 16.
Now That's What I Call Music 85 has become the fastest selling album of the year, selling 317,000 in its opening week, easily beating the previous record of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, which sold 165,000 in May.
But Now..... does not qualify for the main album chart because it is a compilation, instead having to settle for topping the Compilation Album Chart.
Jahmene Douglas wowed the X Factor judges when he auditioned for the show in 2012 singing the Etta James song At Last. The song does not feature on his album but other covers include Halo, Titanium and Fix You. He also recorded The Greatest Love with Nicole Scherzinger, who acted as his mentor in the series.
Douglas, who used to work for Asda in Swindon, has become a youth ambassador for domestic violence charity Women's Aid and has spoken openly about the abuse his mother faced at the hands of his father, who was later jailed.
|
Patients with a rare form of cystic fibrosis will be given access to a new drug that has not been approved for use on the NHS in Scotland.
|
Ivacaftor - or Kalydeco, as it is also known - will be paid for through the new £21m fund to help improve access to drugs for people with rare conditions.
The fund was announced by the Scottish government on Monday.
On the same day, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) decided not to recommend Ivacaftor for use in the NHS.
Ivacaftor was made available on the health service in England at the start of the year.
But a discount on the drug given to the NHS in England was not offered to its counterpart in Scotland - leading to the SMC to recommend against its use largely on cost grounds.
Despite this, Heath Secretary Alex Neil on Thursday said that the Scottish government would take "swift action" to ensure there was no barrier for clinicians who wanted to prescribe it.
Guidance will be issued
Following a meeting with the Ivacaftor Patient Interest Group, Mr Neil and the group released a joint statement, which said: "Access to these rare medicines is currently available through the Individual Patient Treatment Request (IPTR) process.
"However, we recognise the fact that, as Ivacaftor benefits 100% of the patients with the 'Celtic gene' or G551D genetic mutation, it presents a challenge to the IPTR process as it stands.
"That is why the Scottish government will take swift action to address how best to ensure that, where specialist clinicians are supportive of prescribing Ivacaftor, the IPTR process does not present a barrier to accessing it.
"Guidance on the prescribing of Ivacaftor will be issued to all NHS boards.
"The cabinet secretary was clear that patients with the G551D gene mutation should not end up competing against each other for access to medicines."
Ed Owen, chief executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, said: "We had a very positive meeting with Mr Neil and I am delighted that, with his commitment, all patients with the G551D mutation will get access to Kalydeco under the Individual Patient Treatment Request (IPTR) process in Scotland.
"Mr Neil recognised the unique nature of the Kalydeco issue and said the process would ensure that all patients benefit from the beginning of March.
"We very much welcome Mr Neil's commitment and we look now to ensure that all concerned work together to deliver this effectively for all eligible patients."
Separate review
Holyrood's health committee heard last year that the IPTR system was an "inequitable process" that favours young, middle-class and articulate applicants over more suitable vulnerable people who cannot speak up for themselves.
In November, Mr Neil said a review would be carried out to look at current systems for making new medicines available across the NHS in Scotland.
As well as the new fund, a separate review is currently examining if the IPTR arrangements can be improved.
Ivacaftor treats people who have the G551D cystic fibrosis mutation, which affects about 11% of people with cystic fibrosis in Scotland, compared with about 4% in the UK, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
About 80 people in Scotland would have been eligible for treatment with Ivacaftor, the trust estimates.
|
Amanda Gorman, the young poet who found global fame after performing at President Joe Biden's inauguration, has shared her experience of alleged racial profiling by a security guard.
|
The 22-year-old said on Twitter that she was accosted on a walk home on Friday and told "you look suspicious".
"This is the reality of black girls: One day you're called an icon, the next day, a threat," she wrote.
Gorman received widespread acclaim for her reading of The Hill We Climb.
Her poem was seen as a rousing and timely call for national unity - delivered at the US Capitol just weeks after it was the scene of deadly riots.
Tweeting about her experience, Gorman described being "tailed" by the security guard who she said offered no apology after she was able to prove she lived in her own apartment building.
In revealing her experience, she re-shared a post she made in February which said: "We live in a contradictory society that can celebrate a black girl poet & also pepper spray a 9 yr old" - in reference to a recent incident in Rochester, New York.
"Yes see me, but also see all other black girls who've been made invisible. I can not, will not, rise alone."
In a second tweet about the incident, Gorman added: "In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance."
Later, she returned to Twitter to thank people for their support.
The BBC has contacted her for further comment.
Gorman's social media posts have been widely shared - highlighted as an example of the everyday prejudice faced by black people in the US.
"Let this story sink in," Mark Keam, a state legislator in Virginia, tweeted. "And realise how - while I'm glad it ended safe for @TheAmandaGorman - this type of confrontation is an every day occurrence for millions of our fellow Americans."
In her inauguration poem, Gorman described herself as "a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother [who] can dream of becoming president, only to find her self reciting for one".
Born in Los Angeles in 1998, Gorman became the city's youth poet laureate at 16. Three years later, while studying sociology at Harvard, she was named the first ever National Youth Poet Laureate.
She was the youngest poet to ever perform at a presidential inauguration and her performance was praised by influential national figures, including former First Ladies Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton.
|
The situation in hospitals has "stabilised" and staff are no longer having to plan for extra capacity, an intensive care doctor says.
|
But Rupert Pearse, from the Intensive Care Society, said it was going to be "another very hard year" and warned of the mental health impact on NHS staff.
"I've never been in the Army but I imagine it's a little bit like a second tour of duty," he said.
The second wave has seen higher numbers of Covid patients in UK hospitals.
There are currently 34,783 people in hospital in the UK. In the peak of the first wave in April 2020 there were 21,684 Covid patients in hospital.
There are 3,832 people on ventilators, according to the latest government data.
Prof Pearse, a consultant in intensive care medicine at a London hospital, speaking on behalf of the Intensive Care Society, told BBC Breakfast the situation had "stabilised in most areas", calling it a "big step forward".
"We are no longer having to plan to build extra capacity - extra ICU beds, extra ward beds, and we can focus all that mass of energy on building extra capacity on improving the standards of care for the patients that we've already got," he said.
"And as time gradually progresses, new hospital beds, new ICU beds, become available as patients get better and go home, so the system gets less strained as we move forwards and as you can imagine it's always easier walking downhill."
Prof Pearse said the UK's first wave of coronavirus lasted about eight weeks before "calming down", but the second wave has gone on "for more than three months now" and it could be a further three months before admissions "settle".
He said it had been an "endless struggle" to maintain high standards of care for hospital patients as a result of the pressure put on the NHS during the current wave of Covid infections.
Earlier this month, figures showed that a record number of seriously-ill Covid patients were being transferred from over-stretched hospitals because of a lack of bed space.
Prof Pearse added that he was worried about the long-term impact on health workers, saying: "We're so busy trying to look after the patients that we have in hospital - we don't have time to pause and think about ourselves just yet."
A study has suggested that many hospital staff treating the sickest patients during the first wave of the pandemic were left traumatised by the experience.
The UK government said on Saturday that a further 1,200 people had died within 28 days of a positive Covid test and there were another 23,275 cases recorded.
A total of 8,378,940 people have received their first dose of a vaccine.
|
A British tourist has been killed by a wild elephant while on safari in India.
|
The man, from Havant in Hampshire, was killed by an elephant he had been trying to photograph while on a jungle tour in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, police officers told the BBC.
The Foreign Office named him as Colin Manvell and said it was providing consular assistance to his family.
Police said he and two guides had illegally entered a sectioned-off area, reported the BBC's Natalia Antelava.
Officers said the lone animal had charged the men and hit the British man on the head with its trunk. The guides - who managed to escape the elephant - would be arrested, the police added.
Our Delhi correspondent said the area - which lies on the border between the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu - is popular among tourists and home to large wildlife reserves.
Such incidents are rare, but resorts operating in the area are often criticised for disturbing animals and driving tourists to parts of the jungle that are not designated for safari tours, she said.
Meanwhile, the Times of India reported that police had not yet inspected the area of the Masinagudi National Park where the man, who is thought to have been 67 years old, was killed.
'Lovely guy'
He is believed to have arrived in India from London.
He was treated at the local Masinagudi Hospital before being moved to Gudalur Government Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead, the Times said.
Mr Manvell, a retired geography teacher at Warblington School in Havant, also worked at the town's Avenue Tennis and Squash Club.
Paula Fuge, of Portsmouth Tennis Academy, who knew Mr Manvell, said: "He was a lovely guy.
"He has always been a part of the tennis scene, he's really nice, he was always there for the kids.
"I didn't believe it when I heard what had happened, you never expect that to happen."
Headteacher Julia Vincent said: "Mr Manvell retired from head of geography at Warblington School a number of years ago. Although I did not know him personally, he was well-known to the school community and has kindly donated a trophy for academic achievement in geography.
"We were saddened to hear of this tragic accident and our thoughts and prayers go out to his friends and family at this sad time."
|
The US economy saw a surge in hiring in March as vaccination increased, officials eased restrictions and people pushed to return to their pre-pandemic activities.
|
Employers added more than 900,000 jobs driven by re-openings at restaurants, bars, construction sites and schools.
The gains were the biggest since August and helped lower the unemployment rate to 6% from 6.2% in February.
However, overall employment remains far lower than before the Covid pandemic.
Speaking on Friday, US President Joe Biden said people must remain vigilant when it comes to taking precautions against coronavirus. He said that millions have not yet been vaccinated and that many parts of the economy hit by closures remain weak.
"I plead with you, don't give back the progress we've all fought so hard to achieve," Mr Biden said. "We need to finish this job. We need every American to buckle down and keep their guard up."
"That's how we're going to beat the virus and cast off the weight of the pandemic that's holding our economy back."
The US lost more than 20 million jobs last spring as the virus led to widespread lockdowns. It has regained more than half, but the number of jobs is still more than 8 million down from February 2020, the US Labor Department said.
In response to the crisis, Washington has approved trillions of dollars in recovery aid, including a $1.9tn (£1.4tn) package last month that contained $1,400 stimulus cheques for many Americans, extended unemployment benefits, and funded the re-opening of schools.
Analysts are expecting a strong rebound later this year, as families emerge from lockdowns with pent-up demand and, in many cases, savings put away during the pandemic.
Estimates suggest the growth rate in 2021 could hit 6% or higher. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said she is hopeful that near full employment could return next year.
'Real light at the end of the tunnel'
"The better than expected 916,000 rebound in non-farm payrolls in March still leaves employment 8.4 million below its pre-pandemic peak from just over a year ago, but with the vaccination program likely to reach critical mass within the next couple of months and the next round of fiscal stimulus providing a big boost, there is finally real light at the end of the tunnel," said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.
The jobs report showed nearly every sector in the economy adding positions in March.
More people entered the labour force, encouraged by the signs of rebound, and jobless rates fell for most groups.
Officials also said employers added 156,000 more jobs in January and February than previous estimated.
"The broader re-opening of the economy, growing optimism that the end of the pandemic is in sight and a reversal of last month's unseasonably cold weather generated broad gains in hiring," Wells Fargo economist Sarah House said.
"While there is still a lot of ground to make up, the labour market is on track for a relatively quick recovery," she added.
|
The identity of a Suffolk teenager was used in a "computer-related fraud" about a year after his disappearance, a detective has revealed.
|
In an appeal on BBC Crimewatch, the detective leading the search for Luke Durbin said his identity was used in London in August 2007.
Mr Durbin, 19, went missing in May 2006 after a night out in Ipswich.
His mother, Nicki, from Hollesley, near Woodbridge, said his disappearance was out of character.
Det Supt John Brocklebank, who is leading the investigation, said: "There's a chance he may be in some sort of debt having got in with the wrong crowd.
'Found direction'
"In August 2007, somebody has used his name and date of birth in a computer-related fraud. That e-mail address was used and it was in the Brixton area of London. Who used that?"
Mr Brocklebank said officers feared Luke might have been "held against his will" and "unlawfully killed".
Speaking on the show, Ms Durbin said: "At the point Luke went missing I really thought he had found direction in life.
"He wanted to travel, he just seemed driven.
"My imagination has become my best friend and my worst enemy. No parent should lose their child, but to lose your child to an unknown entity just eats me up."
Officers have said they have a clear idea of Mr Durbin's movements after he left the Zest nightclub, up until his last confirmed sighting in Dog's Head Street in Ipswich at 04:00 BST on 12 May 2006.
Police said CCTV images of him at the railway station, a taxi rank and crossing the road towards the cattle market bus station suggest he was trying to get home.
Two men were arrested earlier this year but later released.
|
Gavin Williamson has "done his best in very difficult circumstances", the health secretary has told the BBC.
|
Matt Hancock defended the education secretary amid ongoing criticism over A-level grading in England.
The government was forced into a u-turn on Monday after an algorithm to moderate teacher-assessed results led to lower grades for thousands.
Mr Hancock said the government was facing "massive unprecedented operational challenges".
The decision to allow students to use the grades estimated by their teachers - or stick to the grades provided by the algorithm if they were higher - followed similar decisions in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Algorithm 'illegal'
It will also apply to GCSE results, which are due to be published on Thursday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is currently on holiday in Scotland, held crisis talks with Mr Williamson and senior officials on Monday to discuss the change in policy.
Labour has now claimed the algorithm - which saw 40% of A level results downgraded - was "unlawful", saying both Mr Williamson and regulator Ofqual would have "been fully in the knowledge" it breached rules when it was agreed.
A head teacher's union, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), has written to Mr Williamson calling for a review into the "flawed" original plan, saying "public confidence has been badly shaken".
After announcing the change on Monday, Mr Williamson told the BBC he was "incredibly sorry for the distress" caused to students, but he repeatedly refused to say if he would resign.
He has been accused by Labour and the Lib Dems of trying to shift the blame for the debacle on to regulator Ofqual.
The Tory chairman of the education committee, Robert Halfon, has called for Ofqual to be abolished so that ministers can have "proper control and accountability".
But on Wednesday, the Department for Education (DfE) gave the organisation its backing.
A spokesman said: "We have full confidence in Ofqual and its leadership in their role as independent regulator and we continue to work closely with Ofqual to deliver fair results for our young people at this unprecedented time."
The statement also said the decision to change to teacher-assessed grades was taken by the regulator, and the department "agreed" with it - despite Mr Williamson telling the BBC on Monday he "made the recommendation".
A source close to the education secretary suggested to the BBC Mr Williamson did not claim to have made the decision - which rested with Ofqual - but made the recommendation to the government.
But Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, and leadership contender, Layla Moran said Mr Williamson had "claimed credit for the U-turn while throwing the regulator under the bus".
She reiterated her call for the education secretary to step down, tweeting: "If he has been dishonest as well as incompetent, surely the PM must accept his resignation."
A DfE spokesman said: "Our focus remains on working with Ofqual to ensure students receive their final GCSE, AS level and A-level results this week so that they can move on to the next stage of their lives."
'Difficult challenges'
After reports Mr Williamson had tendered his resignation, Mr Hancock was asked whether he would have stood down.
The health secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "All of us are dealing with unprecedented challenges and unprecedented circumstances. There has never been a year when we haven't been able to do the exams.
"Gavin has faced these very difficult challenges and done his best in very difficult circumstances.
"The huge focus now is on making sure they can get to university in only a few weeks time and also that the schools reopen in a fortnight."
How did Gavin Williamson survive the exams U-turn?
The career aspirations of many teenagers were delivered a blow last week. So why are the career prospects of Gavin Williamson not in tatters?
It's not just some students, teachers and parents who are scratching their heads over this question - but some Conservative MPs too.
One of them said to me: "Any minister who makes children cry is not in a good place."
Another pointed out that he had plenty of time to prepare for how students should be assessed - exams were cancelled five months ago, on 18 March.
Yet Downing Street maintains the prime minister has full confidence in Gavin Williamson.
Read Iain's full analysis
However, Mr Williamson is still facing pressure from opposition parties, parts of the education sector and students to step down - as well as from some unnamed Tory backbenchers and normally supportive newspapers, such as the Daily Mail.
Conservative former minister George Freeman said the "exam shambles" raised "worrying" questions about leadership at the Department for Education.
Fellow Tory ex-minister and former MP Sir Nicholas Soames tweeted on Monday: "What could have been in the prime minister's mind that led him to appoint so mere, so unreliable, so wholly unsuitable a man to one of the most important jobs in government?
"A catastrophic misjudgement, Williamson must go."
In his letter to Mr Williams, general secretary of the ASCL, Geoff Barton, said: "It seems to be clear that the statistical model for moderating centre-assessed grades was flawed and that it produced many anomalous results.
"But how did this happen, why were the problems not foreseen, and why were ministers not on top of this?"
No 10 has said the prime minister has full confidence in the education secretary.
|
UK Coal has warned that its Daw Mill mine in Warwickshire remains under threat.
|
The company said in March it was considering closing the pit, with the loss of 800 jobs.
The firm, which owes £138m and has a pension fund deficit of about £430m, has now said it is "unlikely" the mine will remain open after 2014.
Workers at the pit have recently rejected new shift patterns in a ballot, a spokesman for UK Coal said.
UK Coal chairman Jonson Cox said he felt discussion with workers would continue despite them rejecting the ballot.
"While the ballot at Daw Mill has been rejected I don't think that's the end of the matter," he said.
"I think there's probably a will at the mine to reconsider."
The company announced a restructuring plan on Friday to help secure its future.
It also said it had made losses of £20.6m in the six months to 30 June, with Daw Mill contributing to a 20% fall in production.
In March plans were announced to cut up to 200 jobs at Daw Mill to help reduce costs and regulate production to keep it open, the Union of Democratic Mineworkers said.
|
Non-medical staff at a hospital in Sussex have not been paid properly since a private company took over the contract, according to a union.
|
The GMB union said cleaners, porters and caterers at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, have had issues with contractor Sodexo.
Staff should be paid weekly, however, some have been missing extra hours and basic pay.
Sodexo said it was "committed to resolving any pay issues".
Mark Turner, from the GMB, said staff have had to queue at the company's office to get emergency cash for the last two paydays.
'Low paid workers'
"It's been horrendous, there's no other word for it," he said.
"There has not been one week since the company took over where all the staff have been paid.
"Payments used to be made fortnightly, the company wanted to pay them weekly and were confident they could do that.
"These are low paid workers who have their bills like the rest of us."
A spokeswoman for Sodexo said: "We remain committed to resolving any pay issues as quickly as possible through our on-site payroll clinic and are communicating directly with our employees to keep them informed.
"We have made cash and BACS payments available at all times and have made immediate payments based on individual preferences."
The hospital said it was "monitoring the situation" closely and was in regular contact with Sodexo.
|
More people are using their cars despite the coronavirus lockdown, the RAC motoring group says.
|
By Simon ReadBusiness reporter
Its analysis suggests there are 11% more vehicles on the road this week than in the second week of lockdown.
Meanwhile, the number of emergency callouts rose 18% over the same period.
"There is now mounting evidence that people are venturing back out in their vehicles," said RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes, who blamed it on "lockdown fatigue".
He also said boredom and "the sunny spring weather might also be enticing drivers back into their vehicles".
"Additionally, some who are indoors might have chosen to carry out home maintenance and DIY, so have taken an opportunity to visit DIY stores that are now open."
The report follows comments from AA boss Simon Breakwell, who told the Financial Times: "Far more cars are getting back on the road."
He said about half the current AA call-outs are for people unable to start their cars on the driveway, often with flat batteries after weeks of vehicles sitting idle.
The RAC analysed "black box" driving data, breakdown numbers and route planning figures since the lockdown began to come up with its figures.
Comparing the second week of lockdown with last week, 11% more cars were on the road and 23% more daily miles were driven.
Vehicle breakdowns attended by RAC patrols climbed nearly a fifth across the same period.
The number of routes planned via the RAC Routeplanner is also increasing, suggesting a rise in trips being taken by drivers.
More routes were planned on Monday 5 May 2020 than on any other day during the lockdown, with 16% more planned on that day than just a week earlier.
"Our data clearly shows a slight, but nonetheless steady, rise in the number of drivers using their vehicles, and the distances they are travelling in them on a daily basis, compared with earlier in the lockdown," said Mr Lyes.
Essential journeys
A new survey by the RAC suggests that two out of five drivers are now using their vehicles more frequently than earlier in the coronavirus lockdown.
The top reason given for using a car more was for food and grocery shopping, with almost a quarter of drivers naming it.
Around one in 10 said that they were driving more to pick up essential supplies or for trips to a pharmacy.
But worryingly, one in 20 said they were using their vehicle more now to specifically purchase alcohol, or going out in the car specifically to visit DIY stores.
"The current advice remains to only go out when necessary for essential purposes, or where you cannot work from home," pointed out Mr Lyes. "The question drivers should ask themselves before venturing out is, 'Do I really need to?'
"By only using the car for essential journeys at this time, we're not only helping prevent the virus spreading, but are also reducing the risk of being involved in a road collision and avoiding putting any further pressure on the NHS."
|
An increasing use of supply teachers to cover sickness absence is affecting pupils' learning, two critical reports have warned.
|
By Arwyn JonesBBC Wales education correspondent
Reliance on temporary cover when teachers are absent means pupils are often given work which is not demanding, said the Wales Audit Office and watchdog Estyn.
They said secondary school pupils were worst affected by the issue.
The Welsh government said it will consider the findings of the reports.
The problem stems from teacher absence in Wales - with nearly 10% of lessons being covered by supply teachers.
On average, each teacher in Wales is absent for seven days a year in Wales, compared to 4.5 days in England.
Half of teacher absences were due to sickness, a fifth were due to teacher training and development and 10% were because of teachers attending meetings.
The Wales Audit Office (WAO) said schools in Wales spent an estimated £54m on supply cover in 2011-12.
Of this, £22.0m (41% of total) was spent on cover supplied by recruitment agencies and £31.75m (59% of total) on cover from those employed by the school or through a local authority pool where one existed.
If the absence levels in Wales could be reduced to that in England, it is estimated Welsh schools could reduce the number of days requiring cover by around 60,000, saving over £9m a year in the cost of teacher cover.
According to Estyn: "The greatest negative impact of teacher absence on pupils' learning occurs in secondary schools.
"Supply staff who do not normally work at the school do not know the needs of the learners as well as their usual classroom teachers and the work set is often too undemanding and does not engage learners."
'Ever moving goalposts'
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "We asked Estyn to carry out a review of supply teaching in Wales so we could see the impact on learner progress of schools' strategies to cover the absence of teachers.
"The work the Wales Audit Office has carried out complements this review with regards to the wider aspects of value for money.
"Both reports published raise a number of recommendations for us, local authorities and individual schools that we will now consider and respond to in due course."
Shadow Minister for Education Angela Burns AM, said: "The lives of teaching staff have been made almost intolerable by successive Labour ministers and it is no surprise that so many are being forced away from the classroom.
"Over-burdened with red tape, demoralised, stressed, and dealing with ever-moving goalposts, our teachers are not being allowed to do the very thing we need them to do - teach.
"It is these staff who know what's best for our children and these staff who should be allowed to work with them freely - and permanently.
"Instead, both teachers and children are treading water in a sea of Labour mistakes and inaction that is inevitably leading to unacceptable attainment levels."
Mrs Burns added: "The current Labour minister must act on this report immediately and investigate the real causes behind teacher absence.
'Huge pressures'
NUT Wales policy officer Owen Hathway said: "The report's findings will need to be carefully digested and will no doubt throw up a lot of questions for the Welsh government, local authorities and the wider teaching profession.
"The two key issues to address are how do we limit the number of days that cover is provided and how do we support supply teachers in respect of ensuring high quality, consistent practice.
"On the first point it is important we look at the stress and workload placed on teachers. There will, of course, be occasions where teachers, like anyone in any walk of life, become ill.
"Equally, it is essential to standards that teachers do have time off on occasion to undergo training to improve their skills and share best practice with other practitioners.
"However, there is no doubt far too many individuals who are off work because the huge pressures placed on them are causing stress-related illnesses.
"Tackling the causes of stress will hopefully reduce the amount of teaching days lost in this way."
Mr Hathway added: "There exists far too many examples of supply agencies that hit morale and motivation by depressing wages, terms and conditions.
"Aside from this, individuals operating through supply agencies are not provided with access to professional development as they would be if employed through a school or local authority directly.
"This is a crisis in education standards."
The Welsh teaching union Ucac called for a full review of the supply teacher system in Wales.
A spokeswoman said the more than 40 supply agencies in Wales were undercutting each other on price, resulting in teachers losing out on pay and conditions.
She said: "It's bad for the teachers but its also bad for the education system because it's bound to affect standards.
"The teachers don't know what the needs of the learners are because there's no relationship with the school."
Neil Foden, head teacher at Friars Comprehensive School, Bangor, and a member of the national executive of the NUT, blamed the pace of change in Wales.
"There are far too many innovations, far too many new policies. They give us far too little time to bed in," he told BBC Radio Wales.
"Things like that have far more of an impact than the use of supply teachers which has always happened in schools."
|
A seven-year-old girl who is waiting to hear if she can be treated with medicinal cannabis oil has been admitted to intensive care.
|
Sophia Gibson, from Newtownards, County Down, suffers from a genetic condition which can lead to frequent fits.
Her parents have applied for a licence to use the oil.
However, they said that a new review of its benefits has created more red tape and called on the Home Office to grant the licence immediately.
The parents of Sophia, Danielle and Darren, said the medication relieves the symptoms of Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy.
She was previously treated with the medication when her family took her to the Netherlands.
They said she is now in intensive care in the Royal Victoria Hospital after suffering a severe seizure that led to her being put into an induced coma.
"How much more Sophia can take of this, I just don't know," said Danielle Gibson told the Press Association.
"I am just praying that she makes it though the night.
"I just hope she has enough fight in her to keep going.
"No parent wants to see their child like this, and there are so many other children like Sophia, something needs to be done, there has been too much stalling (around medicinal cannabis)."
In a statement earlier on Tuesday evening, Sophia's family said she has been placed on life support.
"Sophia needs everyone's prayers and well wishes more than ever," they said.
Boy allowed medication at home
"This afternoon Sophia had a very bad seizure lasting near an hour which has resulted in Sophia being sedated and placed on life support.
"Danielle is currently with her at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where Sophia is critical.
"We can't reply to everyone individually that have already sent messages or phone calls but we appreciate it and will up date you as we and the family know more."
The review on the use of medicinal cannabis was prompted by the case of Castlederg boy Billy Caldwell.
Earlier in July, a licence was granted for the 12-year-old, who is severely epileptic, to be treated with medicinal cannabis.
On Tuesday, the Belfast Health Trust announced that Billy Caldwell will be able to receive the medication at home instead of making visits to hospital.
Hannah Deacon, who legally brought medicinal cannabis oil through the UK border for the first time after being given a special licence, said she was concerned for the Gibsons.
Her son Alfie, 6, has a rare form of epilepsy.
"I'm urging the Home Office today to issue an emergency licence for her. She's proven that it works," said Ms Deacon.
"We need to act quickly. We've suffered so much, these people shouldn't suffer.
"It's horrendous that another child is suffering again because of bureaucracy."
|
The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland fell last year but still remains high, according to new figures.
|
There were 545 drug-related deaths in 2009 - 29 fewer than the previous year and the second highest on record.
Heroin and morphine were linked to more than half of the total.
The Registrar General for Scotland warned the number had risen in seven of the past 10 years, with the long-term trend heading upwards.
Heroin and morphine were the biggest contributor, linked to 322 deaths, while heroin substitute methadone was implicated in 173 deaths.
Benzodiazepines, such as diazepam, were involved in 154 deaths, while cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines were implicated in, or potentially contributed to 32, two and six deaths respectively.
Alcohol was linked to 165 deaths in the Scottish government-published figures.
Scotland's three-year £94m Scottish drug strategy focuses on helping addicts into recovery, and ministers said they had provided record investment for drug treatment services.
Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing said the government was doing all it could to tackle problem drug use in Scotland.
He said: "Fewer people lost to drug use is always good news, but we must acknowledge that these figures remain high.
"It is clear we continue to face a challenge to help steer people away from problem drug use and towards recovery."
Mr Ewing also announced a two-year national trial of naloxone, which reverses the effects of heroin overdoses, providing more time for an ambulance to be called and treatment to be given.
The opiate will be supplied to key drug workers and to all prisoners likely to be vulnerable to an overdose before they are released.
Labour community safety spokesman James Kelly called for greater use of drug treatment and testing orders, while Deputy Scottish Conservative leader Murdo Fraser demanded the new national drug strategy, spear-headed by his party, be put into action.
And Lib Dem health spokesman Ross Finnie said addicts were still waiting too long for treatment.
But Dr Roy Robertson, chairman of the National Forum on Drug-Related Deaths, said he hoped several drug initiatives set out in 2010 would have an impact in future years.
He added: "Taking into account what we have experienced in the past concerning the general upward trend in figures, this year's drug related deaths show a similar pattern to previous years.
"Any reduction is, however, welcome as each death is a personal tragedy and a family and community disaster."
|
More patients could die at a hospital unless health bosses review the way serious incidents are investigated, a coroner has warned.
|
Blackpool coroner Alan Wilson raised his concerns over the internal review into a woman's death following routine surgery at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
He said Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's probe into care given to Pamela Briggs was "flawed".
The trust said it has "already begun" a review of its serious incident process.
Missed opportunity
Mrs Briggs' lawyer, Diane Rostron, said she began to suffer with chest pains a week after her operation.
"An ECG showed irregularities and that was a clear sign she had had suffered a heart attack. Unfortunately she didn't receive any interventional treatment for that.
"The heart attack was caused by a blocked stent and a simple procedure could have relieved that blockage and may well have ensured Pam survived."
Ms Rostron said the 69-year-old then suffered a second heart attack at St Catherine's Hospice in Preston and died on 13 February after a "crucial window of opportunity" to treat her was missed.
Mrs Briggs' sister, Chris Walton, said her sibling would still be alive if "appropriate treatment been given" and criticised the trust's investigation for "papering over very serious cracks".
Mrs Walton said the trust took almost seven months to produce its report - contrary to the 60 days in NHS guidelines - and she was "appalled" to discover the probe had been conducted by the doctor and matron responsible for her sister's care - while a key witness was ignored.
"I was dumbfounded; I felt that we were being laughed at," she said.
The coroner has now issued a "regulation 28 report" - a document aimed at preventing future deaths - to the trust and to the chief coroner of England and Wales.
Coroner's concerns
A spokesperson for the trust said the coroner was "not critical of the care given" and found evidence given by staff "extremely helpful" but acknowledged he "expressed some concerns regarding the quality of its incident report".
The trust, which has until January to respond, said a review is under way and "any proposals for changes" will be given to the coroner.
Mrs Walton said: 'This can't all be for nothing. Pam's death has to at least make them look at their actions and change their ways so that future deaths are avoided."
|
A hockey coach has said the prolonged closure of a south of Scotland ice rink is proving "difficult to take".
|
Guidance to allow sites like the Ice Bowl in Dumfries to reopen after lockdown was issued in August.
However, Dumfries and Galloway Council has said it is unable to open until 2021 due to ventilation issues.
Jamie Thomson, a coach with Scotland Under 17s and Solway Sharks, said the closure was "hugely frustrating" for players who used the facility.
Ice rinks across Scotland were cleared to reopen in September but some - including the Dumfries one - remain shut.
Mr Thomson said he believed there was no need for the south of Scotland site to stay closed.
"I think the main frustration comes from the fact that we have known about these guidelines and problems for several months but they haven't been acted upon until such times as the building could actually be open," he said.
"It has sat for the bones of nine or 10 months now and not a stitch of work has been done to it.
"I think that is the main frustration - we were all under the impression that as soon as the government said that it was OK to do so we would be open and we could come back to the facility."
Watch online
He said the situation had been aggravated by watching hockey games in other parts of the country.
"Our kids had to sit and watch them on the TV on the online stream," he said.
"That is very difficult for them to take."
He said the additional delay was "unnecessary" as the ventilation issue had been known for some time.
"If this was in the private sector you could have that work completed in a matter of days," he said.
Dumfries and Galloway Council said the Ice Bowl was not expected to reopen before the end of the calendar year.
"The safety of our customers, club members, and staff is paramount and must be our key priority," a spokesman said.
"Unfortunately, the council isn't currently in a position to safely reopen Dumfries Ice Bowl until we can fully comply with national guidelines.
"We are working with specialist ventilation and ice contractors to ensure that the building can reopen safely."
It said it was following national guidance and would keep customers and clubs updated on progress.
|
A mural by Banksy has been given a face mask in a nod to the coronavirus pandemic.
|
Girl with a Pierced Eardrum - a parody of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer - appeared in the street artist's home city of Bristol in 2014.
The mural in Hanover Place has been given a mask similar to those worn by NHS staff and key workers during the crisis.
It is not known who put it on the wall.
Banksy has been contacted for comment.
Banksy's latest work includes a series of pictures he posted on Instagram showing rats wreaking havoc in what is assumed to be his bathroom.
The caption on the picture read: "My wife hates it when I work from home."
|
Wales will receive tens of millions of pounds in extra funding as a result of the High Speed 2 rail link, the Treasury has conceded.
|
It had initially rejected Finance Minister Jane Hutt's announcement that Wales would get extra cash stemming from spending on the project in 2015.
The Welsh government said it was "pleased the position is now clear".
But the spending commitment of around £35m in that year is not guaranteed for the lifetime of the project.
The Treasury suggested it may change the funding formula in the future.
HS2 is a controversial new high speed rail link proposed to run from London to Birmingham from 2026, with branches to Manchester and Leeds via Sheffield planned for 2033, at an estimated cost of £42.5bn.
UK government ministers have always maintained that the project is of UK-wide significance.
This would mean the devolved nations should not get extra payments which are normally due to them for transport projects in England.
The 2015 extra cash will put pressure on the Treasury to maintain the payments throughout the next decade - which could bring in up to £2bn for the Welsh budget.
'Very clear'
But the Chancellor is able to change the funding formula at his discretion, which means that in future years the system could be adjusted to exclude any additional cash for Wales.
The Welsh government is likely to campaign strongly to continue to receive the extra funding beyond 2015.
It confirmed it had received a share of £832m to be spent on the HS2 scheme by the Department for Transport in 2015-16.
Speaking to BBC Wales on Thursday, Finance Minister Jane Hutt said the Welsh government was "very clear" on the matter.
She said that this episode demonstrated how the way the Welsh government is funded "needs reform".
The Welsh government receives a slice of the extra money that is spent in England on services that are devolved in Wales, such as health or education, what is known as "Barnett consequentials".
That process would normally include transport spending, but Treasury officials had always maintained Wales would not get more cash as a result of extra spending on HS2 because they say the project benefits the entire UK.
Political wrangle
The issue of Wales receiving part of this money has been at the centre of a bitter political wrangle in recent years.
Ms Hutt's statement to the assembly's finance committee on Monday - where she informed members of the extra cash coming to Wales - was welcomed as a breakthrough by campaigners from across the political spectrum.
She told AMs there would be £84m extra in 2015-16, because of a £2bn increase in the Department for Transport's overall budget, which includes £832m spent on HS2.
A Treasury spokesperson said the Welsh government had received a "capital consequential" of £84.5m.
"This was based on a £2bn increase in the total Department for Transport capital budget," said the Treasury.
Figures obtained by the BBC under a freedom of information request showed that Cardiff could potentially lose £70m in economic output once a high speed rail link opened between London and the north of England.
|
Sales of new cars have risen sharply in Scotland, taking the motor trade by surprise.
|
There were 15,369 new car registrations in April - a 26% increase on the same period last year.
The rise north of the border outstripped the UK as a whole, which recorded a 14.8% increase to reach more than 163,300 units for the month.
The Scottish Motor Trade Association (SMTA) said the figures confirmed that consumer confidence was returning.
SMTA chief executive Douglas Robertson said: "It goes without saying that we are delighted that the good start to 2013 has continued into April though we are a little surprised at the extent of the growth in Scotland.
"Private demand has increase by 33% over April 2012, confirming that consumer confidence is returning.
"We are currently running at 13.7% ahead of last year and we are sure this reflects the increasing consumer demand."
He added: "The availability of many new models in our members' showrooms, together with the reduced costs of running a new car, has increased footfall in these showrooms and has resulted in more enquiries being converted into sales."
The monthly sales figures were compiled by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
|
Data on parking spaces across the UK is set to be standardised, in the hope that it will make finding and paying for parking easier.
|
From Thursday, local councils are now able to release parking data in the same format.
This means that apps could potentially collate such data and allow drivers to find spaces before they leave home.
However, one expert said he did not feel this would increase parking payments in town centres.
The government hopes that local councils and companies that publish parking data will switch to the standardised format.
Apps could then gather that data and allow road users to find convenient spaces or pay for their parking online.
Such apps could also highlight the cheapest spaces, or those that are located next to electric car charging points, for example.
The new standards will first be tested in Manchester, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and parts of Essex, where councils will be given a share of a £1m fund for research projects.
'Intelligent parking'
"Hunting for a parking space and then checking if you have the right change to pay for it isn't the best start to any shopping experience, but it can be the reality more often than not," said local government minister Rishi Sunak.
"An intelligent parking system will not only make life easier for commuters, but could also improve footfall to our town centres - meaning both people and local businesses benefit."
A government report, published in March, into transport innovation in towns and cities said that new technology could help provide more green spaces by reducing the number of parking spaces.
Announcing the new project, Future of Mobility Minister Michael Ellis said new technologies could bring a transport "revolution" and help make for "cleaner, cheaper, safer and more reliable journeys."
It was not a given, though, that apps built with the newly standardised data really would revolutionise parking, said Steve Vollar, a parking consultant at consultants Hill Cannon.
People are seldom deterred from driving into a town centre over parking availability, he explained.
He also said there would be privacy concerns: "There will be a lobby who will object to online payment details and knowledge of their movements."
|
The Humber Bridge could become the UK's first musical road under plans to turn it into a tourist destination, bosses claim.
|
Car-activated rumble strips - which play a tune when driven over - could be installed on the crossing by 2022.
Other proposed additions include a cradle ride below and a "thrilling ride over the suspension cables".
Previous plans for a visitor centre and glass lift at the bridge were rejected by councillors in 2016.
Musical rumble strips could be installed alongside "melodic balustrades" for pedestrians and cyclists, according to the plans.
The 12-year, £30m plan also includes tours to the top of the north tower, opening the north anchorage to the public, virtual reality tours and an LED lighting scheme for the bridge.
The scheme is forecast to generate up to £29m during the development, it said.
Dr Kevin Moore, from the board, said: "It is not coming from the toll payers, I absolutely guarantee that.
"The money is from external investors plus a return on the attractions that we bring in, there will be charges for them."
Councillor David Watson, chair of the board, said the plan "outlined a fantastic visitor experience" including educational aspects to inspire new engineers.
He said the plan had many different ideas and attractions but only those able to pay for themselves would be taken forward.
The bridge, about 6 miles (10km) west of Hull city centre, runs between Hessle and Barton-upon-Humber over its 1.4-mile (2.2 km) length.
Wider development could take in the nearby country park and both foreshores, said organisers.
|
A river taxi service is being earmarked for Taunton town centre.
|
It follows the success of a 30-minute boat tour on the River Tone run for the past six years by the Somerset Waterways Development Trust.
Ken Bussell, trust chairman, said: "I believe there's a demand for [the taxi service], it but we won't know until we try it."
Taunton Deane Borough Council said it was "not yet formally involved" but was "supportive in principle".
Taxi stops
The trust's Brewhouse to Brewhouse round trip boat tour currently runs every half an hour, five hours a day between Easter and October.
But this year, after adding French Weir Park as a pick-up and drop-down point, the trust now wants to add a further four "taxi stops" and a second six-passenger boat.
"Our tour boat seating capacity is only seven but going through the summer we've carried 1,000 people - that's a lot of people for a little boat," said Mr Bussell.
"We had quite a few people doing just a single short hop so I think there is potentially a market for it [a water taxi]."
Running six days a week at its peak, the new service is expected to ferry passengers between Firepool Lock and French Weir Park at a cost of £1 per stop or £2 for up to three stops.
A spokeswoman for the borough council said making the river the "focus" of Taunton was a "priority" for the authority.
"It's a tremendous asset right in the heart of the town," she said. "The council would be keen to explore any proposals for a river taxi with the operator."
|
Two ambulance services are looking to merge to form a single trust for the South West.
|
Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS) said it was working with South Western Ambulance Service (SWAS) to create the partnership by October 2012.
GWAS chairman, Peter Carr said the move would bring the benefits of combined resources and would provide more capacity to improve and innovate.
The new trust will cover an area from Gloucestershire down to Cornwall.
Mr Carr said he was confident the decision was right for staff and patients and offered the best future for GWAS.
"We have found a potential partner that shares our values and our strategic agenda which will ensure that patients continue to receive excellent services in the future," Mr Carr said.
Ken Wenman, chief executive of SWAS Trust, will become the interim chief executive for GWAS on 1 November.
GWAS provides emergency care and patient transport services across Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, the greater Bristol area, and parts of Somerset.
The trust employs more than 1,680 staff across 33 operational sites.
South Western Ambulance Service covers parts of Dorset and Somerset, and Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
It employs some 2,200 staff.
|
Pine martens are being relocated from areas of the Scottish Highlands to Powys and Ceredigion in a bid to save them from extinction in Wales.
|
The first of 20 have been released into the wild by the Vincent Wildlife Trust and 20 more will follow in autumn 2016.
The mammal is so rare in Wales, conservationists are unable to give population estimates.
Loss of habitat, fur hunting and a cull by gamekeepers in the early 1900s have been blamed for their decline.
Natalie Buttriss, the trust's chief executive, said: "My team of mammal conservationists has been working tirelessly over the last two years to make this happen.
"We have left no stone unturned to ensure that our approach is rigorous, and we have involved a wide range of people in the planning of this project including numerous experts in the field of mammal conservation."
Pine martens need a woodland habitat as they nest in trees and den in tree cavities. They also need an abundance of small mammals and fruit to eat.
The mammals mate in July and August and give birth the following March or April.
|
A third man has been charged with murder following a double killing.
|
Khuzaimah Douglas, 19, and Waseem Ramzan, 36, were shot with a crossbow in the aftermath of a cannabis factory robbery on 20 February in Brierley Hill, Dudley.
Sageer Mohammed, 33, of Gorsty Avenue, Brierley Hill, was arrested on Monday and has since been charged with two counts of murder.
He will appear before Wolverhampton Magistrates Court later.
Two other men, aged 23 and 46, were previously charged with murder and are in prison on remand.
Det Ch Insp Jim Munro said: "This remains a very active investigation more than two months on from that fatal early morning.
"Two men sadly lost their lives and we believe there are still people out there who have information to tell us about what happened. Our inquiries have not finished here."
Four men have been previously been charged with conspiracy to burgle.
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]
|
A lifeboat volunteer was "assaulted" in a row over parking in a seaside resort.
|
St Ives lifeboat station in Cornwall said a crew member and the son of a crew member were assaulted when they asked a driver parked in a space reserved for them to move his car.
A spokesperson said they had repeatedly had to ask people not to park on the slipway.
Staff said everyone at the station was "appalled and shocked" by the incident at about 23:30 BST on Thursday.
A spokesperson said the incident was "completely unacceptable in every way".
They said: "Parking on our slipway is restricted for Lifeboat Crew and RNLI only. This is so our crew can quickly make their way to the lifeboat station and park and respond to save lives.
"Our crew continue to provide a voluntary lifesaving service to the public in very busy, challenging and difficult conditions particularly right now, and should be able to do so without concerns to their physical safety."
It is not yet known which type of emergency the crew was responding to.
The lifeboat station is in the harbour in the middle of the popular seaside resort which sees huge visitor numbers in the summer.
Devon and Cornwall Police said officers were called to reports of an assault on Wharf Road in St Ives.
A spokesperson said a 45-year-old man from Plymouth had been arrested on suspicion of assault and was in custody.
|
An MP is calling on the media regulator to "make sure" a local television station is abiding by the terms of its broadcasting licence.
|
By Paul MoseleyBBC Norfolk
The Ofcom licence for That's TV Norfolk says it should broadcast 90 minutes of news and current affairs programming per weekday.
It appears to be producing less than 20 minutes per day and Clive Lewis MP says Ofcom needs to "get a grip on this".
The television company has yet to comment.
Mr Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich South, said: "There is a duty - an obligation from Ofcom - to make sure these licences are doing what they say on the tin."
'Quite bizarre'
Tim Dawson, president of the National Union of Journalists, questioned why That's TV Norfolk regularly broadcasts material made for its sister station in Cambridge.
"You don't have to scratch the surface of most towns and cities to find more stories than you know what to do with," he said.
"The idea that you'd need to go to Cambridge to fill things in a broadcast in Norwich is quite bizarre."
The terms of the station's licence were set when Mustard TV, which began broadcasting in 2014, was owned by newspaper publisher Archant.
Mustard TV received funding from the BBC licence fee, however, accounts registered at Companies House show the station lost more than £2m over five years.
Archant sold Mustard to the That's TV group last year.
Local television franchises
The That's TV group holds 14 licences, for cities including Swansea, Preston and York.
In 2017 a complaint was made about That's TV Cumbria's news programme, after the screen remained blank whilst a presenter was heard swearing.
Ofcom also investigated the technical quality of the firm's services in Manchester, Southampton and Oxford, following complaints about sound and video problems.
A spokesperson for Ofcom said it would assess whether That's TV Norfolk is "complying with its programming commitments in accordance with our procedures".
That's TV has been repeatedly approached for comment, but has yet to do so.
|
A young man with severe cerebral palsy who uses his eyes to play music will have his debut single played at a festival this weekend.
|
Jac Richards, from Carmarthenshire, was starved of oxygen at birth, leaving him brain damaged.
He uses a computer operated by his eye movements to write and play music, and even film and edit videos.
Jac said he is "proud but nervous" for his song Only Love to be played at RawFfest in Cardiff.
"I feel happy and excited to write and play music. I am finally using my brain properly," said Jac, from Llangennech near Llanelli.
"I can play and arrange lots of instruments using eye gaze."
The 22-year old has been studying music and film for the past three years and says his biggest influences are Gary Barlow, Michael Buble and Emma Bunton.
He has gained 10 qualifications with Forget Me Not Productions, an organisation which specialises in making the arts accessible to all through the use of assistive technology.
His debut single will be played at RawFfest - a youth arts festival for 14 to 25-year-olds - which is being held at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay this weekend.
Jac said he was happy to be part of the festival and paid tribute to his teachers.
"I discovered my talent through Forget Me Not Productions and I've learnt a lot about what I can do with the help of Clary and Mel [at Forget Me Not]," he said.
"I think people can expect to be impressed and entertained by my music."
'Original and creative'
Jac's mother Joanne Richards says he has always been a big music fan and the technology has allowed him to be creative.
"With Jac he can't use his hands, he has no speech so he has this creativity locked inside of him," she explained.
"So what this eye gaze technology is doing is enabling him to express his love of music by being original and creative."
Ms Richards added: "He loves all music and it has enriched his life and it makes him so happy, and that makes us happy."
|
About 100 teenagers have been moved from a YMCA recreation centre in County Down after a suspected arson attack.
|
A fire was reported at Greenhill YMCA site in Newcastle at about 19:00 GMT on Saturday.
The fire was at a log cabin, used as a "shelter or relaxation-type area", the PSNI said.
"Unfortunately the cabin has been completely destroyed by the fire, which is believed to have been started deliberately," PSNI Sgt McIlveen said.
"Thankfully, there are no reports of injuries and no damage to the nearby main property."
John Peacock, the national secretary of YMCA Ireland, said the teenagers were having dinner in the dining hall when they were moved outside.
He added that while it has been reported that the fire was malicious, there was no evidence to indicate what caused it.
The police have appealed for information.
|
A man attempted to rape a woman he met through Match.com then contacted her saying "Boo! xx" 24 hours later, a court has heard.
|
Jason Lawrance is accused of raping five women he met on the dating website, attempting to rape a sixth woman and sexually assaulting another.
He is alleged to have assaulted victims from five counties between June 2011 and November 2014.
The 50-year-old, of Liphook, Hampshire, denies the charges.
On the second day of his trial at Derby Crown Court, jurors heard the account of a woman who met Mr Lawrance at her home in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in July 2013.
She said the pair had chatted online and had good "banter", and he asked to drive over and meet her in person.
Mr Lawrance asked the woman if he could have a bath at her house - which she described as "a bit upfront" - and she said the pair went out for a drink before returning and drinking more.
He asked if he could stay the night and the woman told police she had agreed on the condition that he stayed on the sofa.
The woman then went to bed and was awoken by an "awful weight" on top of her, she said.
She said: "I realised it was him. I told him 'No, what are you doing?'.
"At that point I realised I had my [pyjama] bottoms off. He was smothering me and got my arms back and told me to be quiet.
"The more I was saying no, the more he was aroused."
Her 16-year-old son was asleep in a nearby bedroom, and the woman said she managed to shout for him after moving Mr Lawrance's hand off her face.
Mr Lawrance then left the house, she said, but contacted her through Match.com the following day with the message "Boo! xx".
She reported this to Match.com - making her one of four women to have made a complaint to the site about Mr Lawrance.
The woman told police: "I did not quite understand it. Was he trying to scare me?
"Trying to pretend that nothing had happened? I don't know."
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
|
UKIP leader Henry Bolton has said he will not stand down, despite calls for his resignation over racist comments reportedly made by his girlfriend.
|
Jo Marney apologised in the Mail on Sunday for saying black people were ugly and Prince Harry's fiancee, Meghan Markle, would "taint" the Royal Family.
Senior party members have questioned Mr Bolton's judgement, calling his private life an "unhelpful distraction".
But in a video obtained by the Daily Mail, he said he would not resign.
Ms Marney, a 25-year-old model, claimed her texts, published by the Mail on Sunday, were taken out of context.
More offensive comments alleged to have been written by her have appeared in Monday's papers.
Mr Bolton is due to speak to the media on Monday morning.
The former army officer took over as UKIP leader in September. If he were to quit, it would leave UKIP seeking its fifth leader in 18 months.
Meanwhile five UKIP members - including MEP Bill Etheridge and former leadership candidate Ben Walker - have drafted a proposal for transforming the party, which includes the removal of Mr Bolton in order to "save the party from imminent insolvency".
"One of our task-force is confident he has already persuaded Henry to do the right thing," the proposal reads.
Mr Etheridge had previously said Mr Bolton, 54, should step aside "quickly", calling him a "naive political lightweight" whose personal life was distracting from policy.
He cited several other complaints including a rise in membership fees, adding that Mr Bolton did not have the "experience or the political nous or the correct advice to deal with the issue that he faces".
"He must go, he must go quickly, he must go as quietly as possible," he said.
Former UKIP leadership candidate Suzanne Evans told BBC News it was "scandal after scandal with Mr Bolton".
Analysis: By BBC political correspondent, Alex Forsyth
UKIP was riding high after the EU referendum result, but since then the party has struggled with internal divisions.
When elected last September, Henry Bolton became its fourth leader in little over a year. Many had hoped he'd unite the party and restore its focus on Brexit.
Now, as his future hangs in the balance, five UKIP members have come up with what they call a proposal for the party's transformation.
MEPs Stuart Agnew and Bill Etheridge join Freddy Vachha, Ben Walker and Catherine Blaiklock to lead what they call an interim task force.
It's stark in its assessment of UKIP's current standing - saying it doesn't deserve to run anything and is rightly perceived to be incompetent.
The group suggests radical financial and structural changes - including an all-new managerial team, a new leader and a crackdown on rental costs and expenses. Whether their idea is adopted or not, most in UKIP recognise it needs a drastic solution to its current problems.
The party chairman, Paul Oakden, said on Sunday that the leader had "some difficult decisions" to make.
"He intends on making those decisions today, and I'm sure whatever he does will be in the best interests of the party," he told BBC's Sunday Politics.
Mr Oakden declined to give his own views on Mr Bolton's situation, but said the party needs to be "behind our leader 100% in taking that battle (for Brexit) forward".
"Whether or not the party decides it is willing to give that support to Henry is for the party to decide," he said.
The Mail on Sunday said Ms Marney sent the messages three weeks before her relationship with Mr Bolton started.
When a reply to one of her texts suggested her comments were racist, she added "so what?" and said she did not want other races invading her culture.
In a statement to the newspaper, Ms Marney said: "I apologise unreservedly for the shocking language I used.
"The opinions I expressed were deliberately exaggerated in order to make a point and have, to an extent, been taken out of context. Yet I fully recognise the offence they have caused."
Mr Bolton earlier replied to a party member online who urged him to call for Ms Marney to have her membership removed.
"She has to go or he and @UKIP are doomed if we let this behaviour happen in the party," the teenage activist said.
In replying, Mr Bolton tweeted: "Jo was suspended immediately upon us receiving this information."
Mr Bolton confirmed his relationship with Ms Marney in a letter to UKIP supporters earlier this month, after splitting up with his wife.
He denied he had been involved in a "clandestine affair".
|
Campaigners against a plan to build 13,500 homes in South Oxfordshire have launched legal action to take the proposals to the High Court.
|
A coalition of Liberal Democrat and Green councillors at South Oxfordshire District Council approved the area's Local Plan in December.
Raising concerns over the impact on the environment, the group Bioabundance has now begun legal action.
The authority said it had received the challenge but refused to comment.
'Un-needed housing'
Bioabundance director and South Oxfordshire councillor Sue Roberts, who represents the South Oxfordshire Residents Team party, said the plan "grossly over provides for housing".
She added the legal case was the "last chance to put our environment before housebuilder profit".
"Un-needed housing is no rationale for worsening climate breakdown and the collapse of the natural world," she said.
South Oxfordshire's Local Plan - a blueprint for development up until 2035 - has cost more than £3.6m.
It proposes building thousands of homes on green and brown belt sites, including Grenoble Road, Culham and Chalgrove Airfield.
Campaigners have said councillors had been "under pressure" to accept the plan after the government intervened.
The council had wanted to scrap it due to the amount of homes proposed and green belt development.
However, when the authority approved the plans last year, cabinet member for planning Anne-Marie Simpson said the council was "faced with no real choice but to adopt the plan" due to a "very real possibility of the government removing planning powers from South Oxfordshire if the plan was not adopted".
The council first drafted a Local Plan in 2014 and has conducted about 120 studies and seven public consolations on various versions.
In March last year, communities secretary Robert Jenrick ordered South Oxfordshire to adopt its plans by December or face further government intervention.
The plan earmarks sites for more than 30,000 homes in total, but many houses have already been or are due to be built.
The government said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
Related Internet Links
South Oxfordshire District Council
|
A British Airways flight destined for Düsseldorf in Germany has landed in Edinburgh by mistake, after the flight paperwork was submitted incorrectly.
|
By Katie HopeBusiness reporter, BBC News
The passengers only realised the error when the plane landed and the "welcome to Edinburgh" announcement was made.
The plane, which started at London's City Airport, was then redirected and landed in Düsseldorf. WDL Aviation ran the BA flight through a leasing deal.
BA said it was working with WDL to find out why it filed the wrong flight plan.
"We have apologised to customers for this interruption to their journey and will be contacting them all individually," BA said in a statement.
On its final flight on Sunday, the plane flew to Edinburgh and back so it seems that someone at WDL mistakenly repeated the same flight plan for the next day, according to BA.
When the crew arrived at London City airport on Monday it is thought that they saw Edinburgh on the flight plan from the day before and followed the old flight route.
German firm WDL said it was "working closely with the authorities to investigate how the obviously unfortunate mix-up of flight schedules could occur".
"At no time has the safety of passengers been compromised. We flew the passengers on the flight with number BA3271 to Düsseldorf after the involuntary stopover in Edinburgh," it said.
BA declined to say how many passengers were affected by the mistake.
'The toilets were blocked'
Sophie Cooke, a 24-year-old management consultant, travels from London to Düsseldorf each week for work.
She said when the pilot first made the announcement that the plane was about to land in Edinburgh everyone assumed it was a joke. She asked the cabin crew if they were serious.
The pilot then asked passengers to raise their hands if they wanted to go to Düsseldorf.
Everyone raised their hands.
"The pilot said he had no idea how it had happened. He said it had never happened before and that the crew was trying to work out what we could do."
Sophie said the plane sat on the tarmac at Edinburgh for two-and-a-half hours, before flying onto Düsseldorf.
"It became very frustrating. The toilets were blocked and they ran out of snacks. It was also really stuffy," she said.
Analysis:
By Simon Browning, BBC transport producer
It is hugely unusual for passengers to board a flight and then arrive at the wrong destination - and it presents lots of uncomfortable questions about procedure and standards.
The flight was operated by a German aviation business on behalf of BA. Do they follow the same operational protocols that BA passengers would expect?
Why wasn't a passenger announcement made before take-off saying "the weather in Edinburgh is fine and the flight will last one hour". If it had, they could have saved a lot of complication.
For the passengers involved, will they get compensation for the delay? And ultimately - what does this do for trust in BA that such a mistake can be made?
Passengers complained about the error on Twitter, with one person called Son Tran saying it felt "like an honest mistake".
BA responded saying it did not "currently have any information" as to why the flight had gone to the wrong place.
The airline said its customer service team in Düsseldorf had met all the passengers on arrival and would follow up with them "in due course".
More wrong airport mix-ups
|
A senior Swiss border guard faces prosecution over the failure to get medical help for a pregnant Syrian woman who later had a stillbirth.
|
The Syrian migrant family's ordeal happened after they were turned back at the French border in 2014.
The woman was allegedly left bleeding at a station in Brig, without medical help, despite her husband's pleas.
The train later reached Domodossola in Italy, where she was rushed to hospital but the baby girl was already dead.
According to Italian doctors, the baby could have been saved if Swiss authorities had acted right away.
The family were on a Milan-Paris night train, but were taken off at Pontarlier, in France.
Then Swiss border guards escorted them on a long bus journey from the border to Brig train station in Switzerland, not far from the Italian border.
Reports say the 22-year-old woman's waters broke during that bus journey. Seven months pregnant, she was travelling with her husband and three small children.
The family eventually got asylum in Italy. Most Syrian migrants are entitled to asylum in Europe under international humanitarian law.
It is not yet clear what charges the guard will face. He was in charge of the border guard team at the time.
The charges depend partly on whether prosecutors can determine where the unborn child died.
The Swiss Border Guard Service says it has improved medical assistance for migrants since the 2014 incident.
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.
|
The chairman of Southern Cross care homes has reassured residents they will continue to receive care and defended the business model that many argue has pushed the company towards collapse.
|
Christopher Fisher told the BBC care "will be sustained" across its homes, by Southern Cross or another operator.
He added that the company would be in a worse position if it had borrowed money to buy homes, rather than renting them.
Southern Cross is having a meeting with its landlords on Wednesday.
The Department of Health will also be present at this week's meeting, while the GMB union, which represents many of the company's 42,000 staff, has called for a role in the discussions.
The company cannot afford to pay its rent and is negotiating with its landlords to find a solution.
Home closures
"Utmost priority is being given to continuity of care in the homes and people should not fear any widespread programme of closures," Mr Fisher said.
"Care will be sustained. In respect of some of our homes, some of our landlords, who are themselves operators, may wish to take back the effective operation of some of those homes."
However, he said there were a "number of homes whose medium-term future does have some concerns".
A "relatively small" number could possibly close over the next five years, he said, but any decision to close lay with the landlords.
'Low margins'
Mr Fisher said the main reason why the company was in trouble was because "occupancy levels and the charges we can levy on local authorities have both come under pressure".
Some authorities are cutting back on the fees they are willing to pay care homes since the government announced its spending cuts.
"We operate on relatively low margins. A typical care home has 50 beds - with 46 occupied we are in a good place, but with 43 occupied we are in a difficult place," Mr Fisher said.
Most commentators say the rents Southern Cross pays for its homes are the reason the company is struggling. This is the direct result of the company's decision to sell its homes and then lease them back a number of years ago.
However, Mr Fisher argued that continuing to borrow from banks would have caused greater problems.
"We could have borrowed money, but lease structures create greater stability than bank borrowing, that might typically have a five-year term," he said.
GMB national officer Justin Bowden said it was an "unpalatable fact" that the rents for Southern Cross properties were £100m a year above market rates.
"The landlords will have to take the hit to enable Southern Cross to provide a decent standard of care for the 31,000 elderly and vulnerable residents," he added.
Care standards
Some observers have also suggested that a lack of investment has affected the quality of care on offer at Southern Cross homes, which has in turn reduced occupancy levels.
At the end of September last year, the number of homes run by the company in England rated as good by the Care Quality Commission, expressed as a percentage of the total number run by Southern Cross, was in line with the national average - 67.7% against 68.6%.
However, it underperformed the national average in the percentage of homes ranked poor (2.8% against a national average of 0.5%), adequate (14.6% against 8.6%) and excellent (14.6% against 20.8%).
Mr Fisher said the company had given "complete priority to improving standards of care" in the past two years.
"I'm very sorry that the difficulties we are experiencing at corporate level are creating a degree of uncertainty and concern for our residents and their relatives, and for our staff and their relatives," he said.
Southern Cross is by far the largest care home operator in the UK and currently runs 752 homes with 31,000 residents and has been struggling with high rents of about £200m a year.
It has already deferred 30% of its rent to its 80 landlords for four months.
|
A Nottinghamshire sports centre could close as part of £3.1m of council budget cuts.
|
Campaigners were already fighting to save the swimming pool at Meden Sports Centre in Warsop but the latest plan would shut the centre completely.
Mansfield District Council says the closure would save £135,000 per year.
A total of 77 cost-cutting measures, proposed in response to the government's Spending Review, will be discussed by councillors next week.
Nottinghamshire County Council owns the sports centre building, which was built in 1969 on the site of Meden School.
The district council hires the premises on a lease.
Warsop Parish Council has been coordinating the fight to save the swimming pool at the centre since its closure was announced in January.
A county council spokesman said it was too early to comment on the proposal.
|
Children unable to prove their religious beliefs could lose free bus travel to school after controversial plans were approved by council leaders.
|
Flintshire council's cabinet has voted to axe free transport for pupils attending faith schools.
Children will be exempt from the move if they can prove their beliefs with such evidence as baptism certificates.
The council has said that withdrawing the discretionary funding could save up to £100,000 a year.
Flintshire's cabinet was asked to approve the new home to transport policy for denominational schools on Tuesday.
The authority is believed to be one of the first in the UK to impose charges for transporting children who cannot prove they are of the denomination of the school.
The charges will apply to new admissions to faith schools from September 2014.
The authority is also looking at other ways to cut its £6m school transport bill.
Councillors recently agreed to introduce new charges for post-16 students from September as part of its plan to reduce the school transport bill.
It said in January that it would continue to honour minimum statutory requirements but now it was reviewing some of the additional discretionary assistance it provided.
This included changing its policy on providing free transport to denominational schools, which had been granted irrespective of whether pupils could provide evidence of their faith.
The Church in Wales has criticised the proposals saying that a change of policy in the county will disadvantage some families.
'Divided'
The council says an increasing number of students are travelling to Cheshire and Lancashire to study so it is also considering providing free transport to specified local places only in a move expected to save about £51,000 a year.
The authority held a consultation with parents, schools and and other interested parties.
Affected schools were asked to comment, including St Richard Gwyn in Flint, as well as the Catholic diocese of Wrexham.
The council received a total of 638 responses, with 542 (85%) strongly disagreeing with the proposals.
A report before the cabinet on Tuesday said: "A high proportion of the responses disagreed with the proposed changes to discretionary entitlement to transport.
"However the reasons for opposition were divided with some opposing all provision of transport to denominational schools - except where they happen to be the nearest school - and those wishing to retain entitlement for all irrespective of their faith."
|
Greggs, the UK's largest bakery chain, blamed "challenging market conditions" and wet weather for a fall in full-year profits.
|
Pre-tax profits fell 2.2% to £51.9m for the 52 weeks to 29 December 2012, the company said.
While total sales rose 4.8% to £735m, like-for-like sales, which strip out the effect of new stores, fell 2.7%.
Chief executive of the Newcastle-based firm Roger Whiteside said the group had opened 121 new stores during the year.
"We saw no let-up in the pressure on our customers' disposable incomes during 2012," he said, with the wet weather also proving to be a "significant deterrent" to shoppers.
Greggs is opening stores closer to people's workplaces and leisure venues, the company said, as well as developing partnerships with other retailers, such as Iceland and Moto.
Its breakfast deal was "by far our most successful offer in 2012", said Mr Whiteside.
|
No charges are to be brought over the death of a woman injured in a May Day festival in Cornwall, police say.
|
Laura Smallwood collapsed with a neck injury during the annual Obby Oss celebrations in Padstow and died three days later.
Devon and Cornwall Police investigated reports she may have been hit by a hobby horse costume during the event, or that she may have been assaulted.
The force has now referred the death to the coroner.
The 34-year-old suffered a neck injury and was found unresponsive at the festival at about 19:30 BST on 1 May. She was airlifted to hospital in a critical but stable condition but later died.
The exact origins of the centuries-old Obby Oss celebration is unknown but it is thought it could be connected with the ancient Celtic festival of Beltane.
During the event, two hobby horse - or obby oss - costumes are worn by a number of people and paraded through the town, accompanied by dancers, drums and accordions.
Police investigated reports she may have been hit by the blue ribbon oss and looked into claims she may have been assaulted by a woman earlier that evening.
The latest stories from Cornwall
The force said officers had "decided that there would be no criminal charges brought against any person linked to Laura's death".
"Laura's family are aware of this decision and have worked closely with detectives throughout the investigation," it added.
Related Internet Links
Devon and Cornwall Police
|
Concern has been expressed that the dry, mild weather is threatening Jersey's native insects.
|
Beekeeper Bob Tompkins said he had noticed an increasing number of European species were moving in and competing with local insects.
He fears the conditions are changing the insects' behaviour and could have a knock-on effect on other wildlife.
He said he had found an unusually large number of Harlequin ladybirds in his hives recently.
'Still late summer'
Mr Tompkins said it was an invasive species that preys on the local ladybird population and is not good for the local environment.
He said: "It is really tilting the balance on a whole series of insects, this weather, as well things like bumblebees which would normally be going into hibernation.
"The Queens which are the ones you can see around now are still active and... they're eating into their fat supplies that would see them through the winter months."
He is also concerned the breeding patterns of insects will be affected by the mild autumn.
Mr Tompkins said: "All these insects need a specific time of cold weather so they can get themselves ready for the early spring for their particular breeding time.
"It's the cold weather that should really trigger them, so they're not really actually into that mode at all yet; to them it's still late summer."
|
The People's Bank of China is cutting its one year deposit rate to 2.75% from 3.0% to try to revive the flagging economy.
|
The cut, which took the markets by surprise, was the first since 2012, and comes into effect on Saturday.
The one-year lending rate will also be reduced from 6% to 5.6%.
On Thursday figures showed China's factory output contracting for the first time in six months.
Economic growth slowed to a five-year low of 7.3% last quarter.
Many economists had expected China to stimulate economic growth through fiscal spending rather than lowering rates.
To offset the effect of lower rates on savers the bank said it would give banks the flexibility to offer higher deposit rates, up to 1.2 times the benchmark level, rather than 1.1 times.
Miners jump
Shares in mining companies jumped by 3-4% after the cut on the hope that better growth would help sales of raw materials to China.
Shares in Rio Tinto surged 3.9% percent and BHP Billiton rose 2.9%.
The Australian and New Zealand currencies also strengthened reflecting their dependence on trade with China.
President Xi Jinping told chief executives at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit this month that the risks faced by China's economy were "not that scary"
He said the government was confident it could head off the dangers.
He said even if China's economy were to grow just 7%, that would still be at the forefront of the world's economies.
In June the World Bank said China was undergoing structural changes as the "drivers of economic growth continued to shift from manufacturing to services on the supply side, and from investment to consumption on the demand side."
|
A major retailer in Guernsey is calling for an "informed debate" on a proposed Sunday trading trial.
|
Colin McCleod, chief executive of the Channel Islands Co-Op, said it should be up to the customer to decide.
Deputy Mike Hadley leads the requete, which calls for a 12-month trial scrapping of the Sunday trading laws.
Permission to open is decided by the retail categories defined in the laws and at the discretion of the constables and douzaine of each parish.
Consumer choice
Mr McCleod said that as far as his business was concerned it was up to the customer to choose but people should be aware of the consequences if the 12-month trial was given the go ahead.
"At the society we have no strong view to be honest, we are a consumer owned organisation and if the consumers are strongly supportive then we will do our best to provide that choice they want," he said.
"It is important the debate is informed and the consequences understood because I believe once the genie is let out of the bottle there will be no putting it back."
Earlier this year the Commerce and Employment department announced it was dropping plans to carry out a consultation on the issue.
Commerce and Employment Minister, Deputy Kevin Stewart, said he was standing by the decision not to put Sunday trading as a priority for his department.
He said he did not know why Deputy Hadley was going against the decision of the board.
|
The body for five of NI's teaching unions has "significant concerns" about the process for awarding GCSE, AS and A-level results in 2021.
|
By Robbie MeredithBBC News NI Education Correspondent
As summer exams were cancelled for a second year, schools will calculate grades to be awarded to pupils.
The NI Teachers Council (NITC) has criticised the workload for schools and said the process was "bureaucratic".
Some pupils' representatives had previously expressed concerns over how their grades will be decided this year.
The Northern Ireland exams board, CCEA, recently sent guidance to school and college principals on how their staff should award pupils' results.
The evidence schools can use to decide grades includes mock exams, results of class tests, work completed at home during lockdown or performance in past exam papers.
CCEA is also going to send schools exam papers in each subject which pupils can sit when they return to school.
Schools have not yet received those tests and CCEA have said they are optional, but some school pupils have previously told MLAs on Stormont's education committee they are "exams by the back door".
Cormac Savage from the Secondary Students' Union for Northern Ireland told MLAs that many pupils felt "anxiety and fear" over being asked by their schools to sit numerous tests when they return to school on 22 March.
Similar worries were also expressed by young people from the youth mental health organisations Pure Mental and Crisis Cafe.
The NITC - which represents the NASUWT, INTO, UTU, NEU and NAHT unions - is to informally brief MLAs on the committee about their concerns on Tuesday.
In a statement to BBC News NI, the unions said they recognised the "challenges" faced by CCEA in awarding grades in 2021.
"However, NITC have significant concerns regarding the higher than expected levels of administrative accountability," they said.
"We strongly urge both CCEA and the minister to reduce the workload for school leaders and teachers with regard to the bureaucratic nature of the process that is required after a grade has been determined.
"NITC believe the paperwork required for each individual student and subject department is unnecessarily burdensome."
Support for mental health
CCEA has said that no more than three pieces of evidence are needed for each student's grade in each subject, and that there will be "flexibility" for schools.
But NITC said that teachers would have to help pupils returning on 22 March readjust to school and support their mental health and well-being.
They also pointed out that teachers would continue to provide remote learning for pupils in years eight to 11, who do not yet know when they will go back to school.
"NITC fully appreciate the necessity to have appropriate evidence that demonstrates students have met the assessment objectives to be awarded a particular grade," NITC said.
"We do, however, call for immediate guidance outlining a reduction in the post-award administrative burden, communication from CCEA and the minister permitting schools greater flexibility within the established guidance."
They also said pupils in years 11 and 13 taking GCSEs and AS-levels needed to know now how any results they are awarded in 2021 will contribute to their final GCSE or A-level grades in 2022.
Schools and colleges have to provide AS and A-level grades to CCEA by 21 May and GCSE grades no later than 4 June.
Pupils will then receive their AS and A-level results on 10 August and GCSE results on 12 August.
|
Cleaning and security staff will be tasked with informing on doping cheats during next summer's Olympics games.
|
By Matt McGrathScience reporter, BBC World Service
Anti doping officials say they will be educating cleaners and other staff to report suspicious behaviours or materials.
A record 5,000 tests for performance enhancing drugs will be carried out during the period of the London games.
But researchers believe that testing based on intelligence from law enforcement, customs and cleaners would be more effective.
Anti doping officials say that even with what they term a "world record" amount of testing at the 2012 Olympics, the chances of catching determined cheats would still be low.
Speaking at a meeting in London, Jonathan Harris anti-doping medical services manager for the organisers said that gathering as much information as possible on doping athletes was crucial to the success of testing.
"There will be intelligence sources coming from security and from cleaning for example - these are functional areas that have been involved in anti-doping in previous games, we will be educating those personnel in those functional areas so that if they should come across behaviours that are untoward they share that information with us"
There have been several instances in past Olympics of cleaning staff coming across materials that may have been evidence of doping. At the winter games in Salt Lake City in 2002, cleaners found blood transfusion equipment in the rubbish of a house rented by the Austrian ski team - several members of the team were subsequently banned.
In London, anti-doping officials will meet daily during the games to analyse the intelligence and decide where to focus their tests.
The chief executive of UK anti doping, Andy Parkinson, said intelligence was playing an increasingly important part in the testing process.
"Perhaps the most important bit from our side, is that we utilise the gateway we have into law enforcement to protect the integrity of the games. We can share information with the serious organised crime agency, with the UK borders agency. Our role is to provide that channel if you like so that we can advise and support the IOC to make sure there is public confidence in the games."
Scientists are also hoping that as well as extra intelligence they will also have another test for human growth hormone ready in time for the Olympics.
The first test, called the "isoform approach" was introduced in 2004. The test detects synthetic hgh as it differs slightly from the natural hormone produced in the pituitary gland.
However this test can only catch dopers within 72 hours of an athlete using hgh. The new approach, called the biomarker test looks for indirect evidence of hgh use. The major benefit of the new test is that it can detect hgh doping up to 14 days after use.
At a meeting on science and ethics in sport in London, Dr Larry Bowers, chief scientist for the US anti-doping agency said that while the new test was not yet validated, it was fit for purpose.
"The two tests are complementary, we're still at the final stages having WADA validate and approve the second one. Both tests will exist in parallel, the give us different information at different times so I think both will be used for a long time."
|
The Supreme Court in Panama has voted in favour of investigating former President Ricardo Martinelli over corruption allegations.
|
The court said it would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate claims that Mr Martinelli had inflated multi-million dollar contracts during his time in office from 2009 to 2014.
Mr Martinelli denies the allegations.
His successor in office, Juan Carlos Varela, campaigned on a promise to clean up Panamanian politics.
'Pressure'
The Supreme Court made the decision on Wednesday after a former government official accused Mr Martinelli of pressuring him to sign "anomalous" contracts worth $45m (£30m).
The former official, Giacomo Tamburelli, ran a government social programme and is himself under investigation for alleged corruption.
The probe centres on accusations that the government paid highly inflated prices for dried food it handed out to students as part of its social programme.
Mr Martinelli, a wealthy supermarket tycoon, said the allegations were part of a political vendetta against him by President Varela.
Mr Varela has in the past accused Mr Martinelli of taking kickbacks, but this is the first time the former leader faces a formal investigation.
Mr Martinelli travelled to Guatemala on Wednesday to attend a session of the Central American parliament, a regional political body with headquarters in Guatemala City.
The former leader did not say whether he would return to Panama.
"I will make that decision in the future, but I am not going to go for a trial arranged by Mr Varela," he said.
During his presidential campaign, Mr Varela, a former Martinelli ally turned bitter rival, said he would root out widespread corruption within Panama's political system.
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.