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SNP ministers had asked for a motion letting Holyrood block the bill north of the border but Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick rejected the move.
Labour asked Ms Marwick to change her mind, with one MSP ejected from the chamber while protesting.
A motion on the matter is also to go before the further powers committee.
Labour and the SNP have both stated opposition to the UK government's Trade Union Bill, which would clamp down on the powers of unions.
Minsters asked Ms Marwick to approve a legislative consent memorandum, which would have allowed Holyrood to block the Westminster bill from applying north of the border, claiming that it infringed on devolved matters.
Ms Marwick rejected this, siding with the UK government which asserts that the bill covers fully reserved matters.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale wrote to the presiding officer urging her to change her mind, and fellow Labour representative James Kelly tried to raise a point of order on the matter before being ejected from the chamber for refusing to sit down.
Scotland's Fair work secretary Roseanna Cunningham has said it is "essential that the Scottish Parliament is able to express its opposition" to the "poorly thought-out piece of legislation".
Mr Findlay called for the SNP to unite with Labour in continuing to fight the bill.
He said: "We believe the presiding officer's interpretation of standing orders is wrong. She has applied an overly restrictive interpretation.
"The Tory Trade Union Bill will have an impact on workers in local authorities and other devolved areas like the civil service and police as well as many Scottish businesses. This is not an issue for Holyrood to wash its hands of.
"The SNP government must not give up the fight at the first hurdle. All parties that want to block this bill should unite on this matter. " | Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay has lodged a motion calling for a change in parliamentary rules to let Holyrood oppose the Commons' Trade Union Bill. | 35134801 |
He was appearing in public in the capital Bujumbura for the first time since a failed coup bid against him was launched on Wednesday.
Mr Nkurunziza made no mention of the coup attempt, which came after weeks of sometimes violent protests against him.
A spokesman for al-Shabab called his remarks "dumbfounding".
Sheikh Ali Mahamud Rage said Burundi's problems were "clearly domestic".
"We think that this is an attempt by him to appease his people, who are standing in the streets protesting against his dictatorship, or to divert the world's attention from him while he possibly prepares his mass revenge," the spokesman told Reuters news agency.
On Saturday 18 people appeared in court on charges of helping the attempted coup.
The alleged ringleader, Godefroid Niyombare, is still on the run.
Activists say they are planning more protests for Monday against Mr Nkurunziza's decision to seek a third term in office in elections due next month.
The BBC's Karen Allen, who is in Bujumbura, says the president's claims have been met with scepticism from many, who fear they could provide a pretext for the security services to crack down hard on Monday's demonstrations.
On Saturday, our correspondent saw evidence of a retaliatory attack at a hospital where soldiers involved in the coup were being treated. Three soldiers were taken from the building and bundled into a police van.
Mr Nkurunziza was out of the country when military officers launched their coup bid against him on Wednesday. He returned on Friday after forces loyal to him had regained full control.
The president said he came to his office to speak on the telephone with the leaders of Kenya and Uganda regarding a specific threat from the Islamist group al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab, which is battling the UN-backed government in Somalia, has carried out a string of attacks in neighbouring Kenya and is allied to al-Qaeda.
Burundi has troops fighting al-Shabab, as part of the African Union mission in Somalia.
The UK Foreign Office and the US state department say al-Shabab has threatened to carry out attacks in Burundi because of its role in the African Union-led peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
The US has advised its citizens to leave the country because of the deteriorating political situation, and had previously warned about the threat from al-Shabab.
10.4m population
50 years - life expectancy for a man
2nd poorest country in the world
85% are Hutu, 14% Tutsi
300,000 died in civil war | Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza has said his country faces a specific threat from the Somali Islamist movement al-Shabab. | 32772108 |
The incident happened at about 16:40 on Saturday during the SPFL game at Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh.
Police said a 48-year-old man had been charged with offensive behaviour at football and an offence under the Threatening Communications Act.
He has been released on bail and will appear in court at a later date.
Police Scotland said the man had been given special bail conditions not to enter within half a mile of Tynecastle Stadium, or any other ground where Hearts are playing, for two hours before the match until two hours after it has finished.
PC Gavin Stupart said: "Since Kilmarnock FC reported this matter we have been carrying our extensive inquiries alongside Hearts and I would like to thank them for their assistance and support now that we have made an arrest.
"Offensive behaviour at football matches will not be tolerated and whenever we identify those responsible we will ensure they are brought before the court.
"We will also seek special bail conditions and banning orders to prevent offenders from attending further football matches."
Magennis, 25, a striker for Northern Ireland, is in his second season at Kilmarnock and has scored 10 goals this term. | A man has been arrested following alleged "xenophobic comments" against Kilmarnock player Josh Magennis during a game with Hearts, police have said. | 35695855 |
The company has made losses in every year but two since it was bought by the government for £5m in 2003.
The debt to be written off is £19.9m accumulated between 2003 and 2014 with a further £5.3m set aside to cover expected losses up to 2017.
The Treasury and Resources Department expects Aurigny to return to profit in 2018.
In agreeing the payment out of the island's capital reserve the States also agreed to look at setting long-term strategic objectives, including which routes are operated and the capacity and frequency of flights.
It will also look at measuring the airline's success through its social and economic contribution, rather than just its balance sheet.
The States also commissioned a report giving "serious consideration" to rebranding to a name that "clearly positions it as a Guernsey airline".
Deputy Darren Duquemin was behind the move for change, which he has raised again after it was sidelined in 2013.
"It's not fit for purpose, it is a name that does not help to pay the bills, moreover it is a name that hinders.
"They spend up to £500,000 each year on off-island marketing - how much of this investment is wasted... because of the handicap of what Aurigny admits on its own website is 'not the easiest of names'."
The name is the Norman word for the Channel Island of Alderney.
The report into whether or not a rebrand should take place is due to return to the States before February 2017 with any change due to coincide with the airline's 50th anniversary on 1 March, 2018.
A spokesman for the airline said: "Aurigny is delighted that the States has agreed to recapitalise the Aurigny Group, which will help position us towards a break-even position.
"We also welcome a decision by the States to more clearly define our objectives going forward." | The Aurigny airline's 15 years of accumulated debt are to be repaid in full by the Guernsey's government. | 34933466 |
2 May 2016 Last updated at 07:17 BST
It's home to the largest population of rhino in the world, but poaching is driving these amazing creatures to the brink of extinction.
They're hunted illegally so that poachers can sell their horns, which are worth more gram-for-gram than diamonds and gold.
Ayshah meets the people risking their lives to defend the species, as well as two rhino that are lucky to be alive.
Here's your first look at Defending the Rhino: A Newsround Special.
You can watch the full film on Wednesday 11 May on CBBC. | Newsround's travelled thousands of miles to look at the fight that rhino are facing in South Africa. | 36182574 |
In an email, he said he was leaving because the ENO was "evolving now into something I do not recognise".
The company, which has faced a period of turmoil, said he would depart at "the end of the current season".
"He will continue to honour his contractual commitments as a conductor and looks forward to continuing to work with the wonderful musicians of ENO."
Wigglesworth was announced as the company's new musical director in 2014. He said at the time he considered his appointment a "huge privilege".
He later said the company would continue to take risks and do adventurous work despite funding cuts.
In the email, which he sent to colleagues, the 51-year-old said the ENO's "plan for the future is one that the board and chief executive have always known I cannot support".
"As hard as I have tried to argue to maintain what I believe to be the fundamental pillars of our identity, I have failed to persuade others of this necessity," he said.
"I believe in efficiencies that increase our value for money and do not lose the opportunity of performing the highest quality opera to the largest number of people."
Wigglesworth has been a regular at the Proms since 1991, conducting works by composers including Olivier Messiaen and Richard Wagner.
His departure comes after a series of troubles at the English National Opera.
In February last year, the Arts Council of England cut the ENO's core funding to the company by £5m as it dropped the company from its national portfolio of organisations for 2015-18.
Two months later, the ENO announced it was cutting ticket prices in an attempt to secure its financial future.
Earlier this year, the company asked members of the chorus to move from a 12-month to a nine-month contract.
The proposal led to the ENO chorus voting to strike over the changes, which they said amounted to a cut in pay.
The chorus said it would not appear in part of a performance of Akhnaten at the London Coliseum as part of the strike action.
The ENO argued at the time that it risked bankruptcy if the proposed changes were not implemented.
The pay dispute was later resolved and the strike action called off. | Mark Wigglesworth has resigned as musical director of the English National Opera. | 35876053 |
The Saints exploited a slow start by Montpellier as Calum Clark muscled over out wide in the third minute.
But Francois Steyn crossed before half-time and added two kicks to put the visitors 14-13 up inside the last 10.
Harry Mallinder missed a long-range penalty before Myler stepped up to seal victory with the last act of the game.
Northampton spent big to bring France international number eight Louis Picamoles from Toulouse last season for evenings such as this.
The 30-year-old brings heft and experience to the Saints back row, but it was his pace and handling skills that did the damage to his former club.
In persistent rain, a precise offload foxed the cover defence and opened up a route to the corner for Clark inside three minutes.
After the interval, a fleet-footed burst made 40 metres to put Saints into a position for Mallinder to slot a penalty to make it 13-8.
Throughout the match, he flew into the fray with relish and his leadership saw the hosts through a nervy final quarter.
Montpellier, who won the second-tier Challenge Cup last season and are second in the Top 14 this season, have vowed to make the most of their return to Europe's top table after a two-year absence.
They could easily have taken victory at Franklin's Gardens but for a couple of routine, but costly, mistakes.
In the first half, Steyn accompanied his attempt to charge down Myler's conversion kick with a shout in attempt to put off the Northampton fly-half. Referee Nigel Owens ordered a retake and Myler, having missed his first attempt from the touchline, landed his second.
Myler's match-winning shot at goal came partly through an error by visiting scrum-half Nic White, who failed to find touch after gathering Mallinder's wayward kick, allowing Saints to re-establish field position.
Montpellier's defeat means they join fellow French side Castres in the bottom half of Pool Four after their compatriots' defeat by Leinster earlier on Saturday.
Northampton Saints: Ben Foden; Ken Pisi, George Pisi, Harry Mallinder, George North; Steve Myler, Nic Groom; Alex Waller, Mikey Haywood, Kieran Brookes, Courtney Lawes, Michael Paterson, Tom Wood (c), Calum Clark, Louis Picamoles
Replacements: Charlie Clare, Ethan Waller, Paul Hill, Sam Dickinson, Teimana Harrison, Lee Dickson, Rory Hutchinson, James Wilson
Montpellier: Benjamin Fall (c); Marvin O'Connor, Alexandre Dumoulin, Frans Steyn, Nemani Nadolo; Ben Botica, Nic White; Mikheil Nariashvili, Shalva Mamukashvili, Davit Kubriashvili, Konstantine Mikautadze, Paul Willemse, Jacques Du Plessis, Antoine Battut, Pierre Spies
Replacements: Romain Ruffenach, Yvan Watremez, Jannie Du Plessis, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Akapusi Qera, Cameron Wright, Vincent Martin, Joffrey Michel
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter. | Stephen Myler's injury-time penalty snatched victory for Northampton against French high-fliers Montpellier in a hard-fought Champions Cup opener. | 37617541 |
Media playback is not supported on this device
There are 46 places between the clubs but John McCombe's header enhanced the Silkmen's giant-killing reputation, having beaten Swindon and Cardiff in the cup in recent seasons.
Walsall could have led after nine minutes as Joe Edwards ran half the length of the pitch, but was denied a superb solo goal by Craig Ross's low save.
Macclesfield's winner came in the 23rd minute when Walsall goalkeeper Neil Etheridge rushed from his box to foul Paul Lewis out wide and McCombe glanced home the resulting free-kick from Danny Whitaker.
Etheridge redeemed himself with a superb fingertip save to claw Danny Rowe's 20-yard strike away from the bottom corner.
Walsall ended the half strongly but could not find an equaliser as Erhun Oztumer's fierce strike was kept out by the strong palm of Ross.
Etheridge's poor clearance almost gifted Macclesfield a second goal in the first minute of the second half but Jack Sampson struck the post from a tight angle.
The miss never looked like proving costly, though, as Macclesfield defended superbly and almost grabbed a late second as Whitaker curled inches wide.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Walsall manager Jon Whitney told BBC WM 95.6:
"You're always wary of a bit of complacency and whether we can handle the expectancy of the occasion and the pressure because we've got a young team, and some of us didn't today.
"We need to just keep the ball better and our players need to brave and get on the ball, and decision making wasn't good from some of our younger players today.
"A goal changes it because they can can sit in. We had chances, you can say that, but I don't think we did enough to deserve it.
"Credit to Macclesfield and credit to John Askey and his team, I wish them all the best in the second round."
Match ends, Walsall 0, Macclesfield Town 1.
Second Half ends, Walsall 0, Macclesfield Town 1.
Attempt missed. Kingsley James (Macclesfield Town) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Attempt missed. Simeon Jackson (Walsall) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Attempt missed. Simeon Jackson (Walsall) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
Attempt missed. Danny Whitaker (Macclesfield Town) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Attempt blocked. Paul Lewis (Macclesfield Town) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Andreas Makris (Walsall) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by George Pilkington (Macclesfield Town).
Foul by Adam Chambers (Walsall).
Danny M. Rowe (Macclesfield Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Corner, Walsall. Conceded by Craig Ross.
Attempt saved. Scott Laird (Walsall) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Attempt missed. Paul Lewis (Macclesfield Town) left footed shot from the centre of the box is just a bit too high.
Substitution, Walsall. Andreas Makris replaces Josh Ginnelly.
Corner, Macclesfield Town. Conceded by Matt Preston.
Foul by Josh Ginnelly (Walsall).
Jack Sampson (Macclesfield Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Joe Edwards (Walsall) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by David Fitzpatrick (Macclesfield Town).
Foul by Scott Laird (Walsall).
Danny M. Rowe (Macclesfield Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Erhun Oztumer (Walsall) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
Joe Edwards (Walsall) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Danny M. Rowe (Macclesfield Town).
Attempt missed. Erhun Oztumer (Walsall) left footed shot from the left side of the box misses to the right.
Corner, Walsall. Conceded by Kingsley James.
Attempt blocked. Danny M. Rowe (Macclesfield Town) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
Substitution, Walsall. Amadou Bakayoko replaces Franck Moussa.
Attempt missed. Paul Lewis (Macclesfield Town) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Josh Ginnelly (Walsall) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Paul Lewis (Macclesfield Town).
Foul by Jason McCarthy (Walsall).
Paul Lewis (Macclesfield Town) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Adam Chambers (Walsall) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Paul Lewis (Macclesfield Town).
Attempt saved. Simeon Jackson (Walsall) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Corner, Walsall. Conceded by John McCombe.
Attempt missed. Paul Lewis (Macclesfield Town) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Corner, Walsall. Conceded by Mitch Hancox. | National League side Macclesfield produced an FA Cup shock as they dumped out League One Walsall. | 37807481 |
He also said labour commitments at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port and Luton plants would be honoured.
PSA Group, which makes Peugeot and Citroen cars, wants to buy General Motors' Vauxhall and Opel businesses.
Vauxhall's 15,000-strong pension scheme is one of the UK's largest.
Mr Clark, who had a meeting with Mr Tavares on Friday, said: "The meeting was reassuring. We discussed how PSA's approach is to increase market share and expand production, rather than close plants.
"I was assured that the commitments to the plants would be honoured. There was also recognition that members of the Vauxhall pension fund will be no worse off."
Company filings to the end of 2014 - the latest available - peg the Vauxhall pension scheme with assets of about £1.8bn and liabilities of about £2.6bn, leaving a deficit of £840m.
Mr Tavares told Mr Clark that no deal has been done and that discussions continue.
"This is a very important company and workforce which has been successful and we all want it to be just as successful in the future," Mr Clark added.
Vauxhall employs 4,500 staff at plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton. About 23,000 people work in Vauxhall's retail network and 7,000 in its UK supply chain.
Unite union leader Len McCluskey, who also had a meeting with Mr Tavares on Friday, said he was optimistic.
"He [Mr Tavares] was very pro-union. He talked in terms of not being here to shut plants. That's not his nature.
"He pointed out that since being chief executive of Peugeot, he hasn't shut a single plant. So I'm going to take him on face value at the moment and hope that I am not disappointed in the future."
Unions in Germany and the UK have been concerned that a takeover of Opel and Vauxhall could lead to job losses.
Should the PSA deal go ahead, GM would leave the UK and Europe, while PSA Group would become Europe's second-largest carmaker - behind VW - supplanting Renault-Nissan.
The French state has a 14% stake in PSA, as do the Peugeot family and Chinese company Dongfeng Motor. | The boss of France's PSA Group, Carlos Tavares, has told Business Secretary Greg Clark that members of Vauxhall's pension scheme "will be no worse off" should his firm buy the brand. | 39077654 |
The offence centred on games which took place before the player's move from Glenavon to Carrick last month.
An Irish FA statement said McKeown, 32, had admitted the breach at the outset of Wednesday's disciplinary hearing.
McKeown was not involved himself in the games in question but was found to have given information to his grandfather.
The games involved are understood to have included Irish Premiership and Reserve League matches.
"Mr McKeown was legally represented at the hearing yesterday evening and admitted to the breach from the outset," said Thursday's Irish FA statement.
"He confirmed that he was unaware that providing friends and family with inside information was a breach of Irish FA and NIFL rules as well as a breach of his contract with Glenavon (his club at the time).
"He did not bet himself on the matches but set up an account for his grandfather using his name and account information."
McKeown joined Carrick after losing his regular starting place at Glenavon.
First up, McKeown, 32, will miss Carrick's Premiership game against Dungannon at Seaview on Thursday.
McKeown has the option of appealing against the penalties to the Irish FA's appeals board.
The defender's suspension is a further blow for Carrick after the well publicised pitch problems at their home venue which has forced them to move their next three home games to Seaview.
Carrick are currently 11th in the Premiership table and are now only three points ahead of Warrenpoint Town following the county Down club's recent impressive run. | Carrick Rangers defender Gareth McKeown has been banned for the rest of this season and handed a £1000 fine for a breach of the Irish FA's betting rules. | 35551888 |
Mohammad Hafeez's unbeaten century helped Pakistan successfully chase England's 216 to record a six-wicket win in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
England played one warm-up game against Hong Kong before the four-match series.
"We're not making excuses about schedules, it's down to the fact we did not play well enough," said Farbrace.
"It was the same before the Test series (which England lost 2-0). Everyone said two two-day games wasn't enough but we proved during that first Test we were ready to play.
"We didn't take opportunities in that match, we had opportunities to win the first one-day game and we didn't take them."
On Wednesday, director of cricket Andrew Strauss said England needed "more separation" between the Test and one-day sides.
Prior to the one-day series, opening bowler David Willey said he was worried about those not involved in the Tests being "undercooked" while captain Eoin Morgan admitted after Wednesday's defeat that his team have been "slow starters" in recent series.
Willey formed an inexperienced opening pair with fellow left-arm bowler Reece Topley in Abu Dhabi after Mark Wood and Steven Finn were ruled out of the series through injury, Ben Stokes was rested and Test opening bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad were not included.
Topley impressed by taking 3-26 but the rest of England's attack, including Chris Woakes and spin duo Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, struggled to test Pakistan's batsmen.
Farbrace said his side were still taking shape after a disastrous World Cup campaign earlier this year and added there will still be opportunities for those not selected for the current series to establish themselves as regulars.
"We have got Stokes, Broad, Wood and Finn who can come into this side and will add to our bowling attack," he said.
"So it's up to the guys here to show they have the ability and that they've also got the nous, the intelligence to learn quickly and deserve to stay in the side when we get closer to the Champions Trophy in 2017 and the World Cup in 2019.
"But we're not saying we're happy to lose series - nobody took any pleasure from losing on Wednesday. There were strong but honest words spoken afterwards as there will be whether we win or lose."
The second ODI is on Friday in Abu Dhabi with Sharjah and Dubai hosting the final two matches the following Tuesday and Friday. | England's defeat by Pakistan in the first one-day international cannot be blamed on a lack of warm-up games, says assistant coach Paul Farbrace. | 34801142 |
Crowds of people, including those who remember standing for days in queues and teenagers who were not even born in the 1980s, lined up at the state-run Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) to buy the game.
"I'm too young to remember, I'm just trying to find a way to explore this period of time. I'm interested in the history of the country and my parent's history," said Anna Moronczyk, as she queued with her 17-month-old son to get a copy.
The IPN is the home of Poland's communist-era archives and investigates crimes from that period. It also promotes awareness of that time and devised the game as an educational tool, to teach young Poles about history in an entertaining way. Half of the first batch is being reserved for schools.
"We hope it will show young Poles how difficult it was to buy everyday supplies like sugar, bread or furniture," said Karol Madaj, the game's designer. He was only nine years old when communism ended in Poland in 1989, so he had to seek tips about those days from his older boss.
"Some young Poles don't believe there were queues in those days. You can see it written on the internet forums. They think queues only started when department stores began the sales," he added.
To prove queues did exist, minutes earlier Karol screened black-and-white documentary footage of people lining up in butchers' shops in the hope of getting a cut of meat.
A Polish education ministry spokesman, Grzegorz Zurawski, acknowledges that currently there is too little focus on recent history in schools. Only the last few weeks of a student's final year is devoted to it.
"We are changing our way of teaching modern history because we know now that many young Poles know nothing about this period," he said. The ministry plans to introduce a new curriculum in 2012 which reflects greater emphasis on 20th-Century history.
The game comes in a box designed to look like it was wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. On top is a coupon, which the communist authorities issued so they could ration items like meat.
Between two and five players compete to be the first to buy the 10 items on their shopping list. Players send out family members, represented by coloured wooden figures, to line up outside different shops for the authentic 1980s products, such as a tape recorder with two spools of tape, tinned ham or "Popularna" tea, which promised "heaven in your mouth".
The problem is that the shelves in the neighbourhood shops are empty and players must queue without knowing which store will soon get a delivery.
Once a delivery arrives, there is only enough stock for people at the front of the queue to make a purchase. Special cards help players to queue-jump, such as one showing a mother carrying a baby or another which gives insider delivery information from a friend in the local Party apparatus.
There is also a black market, where everything is twice the normal price.
Some of those who had queued to buy the game and could not wait to get home to play it sat down at specially-prepared tables in the IPN building to test it out.
"It was exactly like this," Piotr Zochowski, 44, told me as he played the game with his wife and three children.
"Then you had to queue for everything. I remember when I bought shoes with coupons. The only ones I could buy were about half a size too small - but there were no others, so I had to buy them," he said.
At the next table, students Ania, Lukasz and Maria, who were happy to describe themselves as "board game geeks", said it surpassed their expectations.
"It's well-designed, it looks nice, it could be a commercially-produced game," Lukasz said. Of the three, only Lukasz had been born when communism ended in Poland in 1989, but they all remembered the products from those days.
"I had this cassette player," Ania said. "And I had that lamp," Maria said, pointing to an orange metal table lamp with a flexible stand. "Everybody had that lamp," she added. | Poles have been queuing to buy a new board game called "Kolejka" (The Queue), which recreates the tedious shopping experience of communist-era Poland. | 12380433 |
The 28-year-old Australian had been given the all-clear to resume his professional rugby league career, just 10 months after suffering a heart attack.
He admits he may still not play on for much longer, but counts every game he is able to play now as a blessing, after hearing the words from the specialist that he had been hoping for.
"I just thought get in," he said. "I expected the news as he told me in December that I was going well, but I knew his opinion, and my health could have changed since then."
I got a call from the Bradford Bulls centre as he walked through the doors of his home late on Wednesday evening after his train journey back from London. It is a home still covered in get well soon cards after a day last May that changed, and almost ended his life.
Those moments in Huddersfield were the worst. That was the worst time. I felt so lost and alone
Bradford had been beaten by rivals Leeds on a baking hot afternoon at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium - part of the sport's "Magic Weekend" that sees an entire round of fixtures played in one stadium over 48 hours.
Purtell had played and showered before starting to feel unwell as he left the changing rooms and boarded the team coach. "It is a blur," he recalls. "All I remember is a tough game, a disappointing game and then some pain in my chest. The next thing I know I'm in a hospital in Huddersfield and then in an ambulance back to the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI)."
He thought he was either severely dehydrated, feeling heartburn or suffering a random illness after a brutal 80 minutes of rugby league.
"The team doctor sat me down at the front of the bus and put me on a drip and oxygen," he stated. "I could see on the boys faces they were all shocked and worried but nobody could have expected what happened."
The coach got as far as Huddersfield before staff realised the extent to which his health had deteriorated. It pulled off the M62 at Huddersfield.
"All I remember is being in a hospital room and the doctor coming in, putting his hand on my shoulder and telling me I was having a heart attack," added Purtell. "They called an ambulance and took me back to Leeds."
The doctor's words came as an incredible shock. "Those moments in Huddersfield were the worst," Purtell added. "That was the worst time. I felt so lost and alone. I couldn't believe it. It was so hard to comprehend."
Purtell woke up the next day in the LGI to find his family were already flying over from Australia. His best mate, and room-mate Josh was the first to visit, followed soon after by his team-mates.
"I woke up feeling so healthy," he continued. "I couldn't understand it. I couldn't understand that I could be so ill when I felt fine.
"Then I started to think about my rugby and that my career might be over too. I couldn't understand that either but in hindsight I was just lucky to be alive. It has changed the way I view sport but more importantly life."
His recovery was slow and steady. Purtell was not allowed to train again until December. "It was a really tough period," he said. "My emotions were very up and down. I had some good days and some days when I thought I'd never play again. I thought I'd probably move home."
The Australian revealed the health scare has been a wake-up call for him and his team-mates. "I am young, fit and healthy; I train five times a week and play at weekends," he said. "If it can happen to me it can happen to anyone and the lads realise that."
Purtell is ready for an immediate return but admits he may have to be patient to break back into an in-form Bradford side who are third in Super League. The key, he says, is to try and forget that it ever happened.
"I have made some changes to my lifestyle, improving my diet and staying better hydrated," he added. "But when I play the specialist says I just have to put it to the back of my mind."
His only career goal now is to complete the Bulls contract that he signed. That runs until the end of next season when Purtell will be 29.
"Realistically that might be it for me," he reasoned. "I just want to focus on this season and next with the Bulls and then will reassess and see if I want to carry on.
"At the moment I would love to keep playing but my body may say otherwise. This has been very stressful and my body may not react to sport like it did before." | Adrian Purtell left the office of a top London cardiologist on Wednesday feeling like the luckiest man alive. | 21783785 |
Lancashire Police confirmed it had received a report of a rape allegation dating back to 2006.
A spokesman said: "We are in the very early stages of an investigation and inquiries are ongoing."
Last week the MP was suspended by the Labour Party after he admitted sending lewd texts to a 17-year-old girl.
Responding to the rape allegation, Mr Danczuk said: "These claims are malicious, untrue and extremely upsetting.
"The police have not been in touch with me but I will co-operate fully with any inquiries and am confident my name will be promptly cleared."
He has faced sustained calls for him to resign following the separate matter of the text messages he admitted sending to teenager Sophena Houlihan.
A small group of people staged a demonstration outside his constituency office on Monday.
However, Mr Danczuk, who blamed a "drink problem" for the sexually explicit messages, told the BBC he has no intention of standing down.
The embattled MP has also admitted receiving £1,100 from a photographic agency that sells pictures of him to tabloid newspapers and magazines.
Speaking to Newsnight, Mr Danczuk defended the arrangement with FameFlyNet.
He said it was a properly declared payment for "media advice and [to] give ideas about what they might or might not do."
He added: "I don't make any apologies for it." | Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk says a historical rape allegation made against him is "malicious, untrue and upsetting". | 35228812 |
Harjit Singh Dulai, 44, from Uxbridge, was attacked in Rosedale Park, off Albion Road, Hayes, on the evening of 27 January. He died later in hospital.
The accused is due before Wimbledon Youth Court later.
As well as murder, he is also facing a charge of possession of an offensive weapon.
Five other men were arrested on suspicion of murder. Four have been bailed and one released without charge. | A 16-year-old youth has been charged with the murder of a man stabbed to death near tennis courts in a west London park. | 35469598 |
A band of rain and cloud sweeping in from the west in the evening could leave skywatchers in the rest of the country disappointed.
The Moon is making its closest approach to Earth since 1948.
To observers, it will appear about 7% larger than normal and about 15% brighter - although the human eye is barely able to discern that difference.
The Moon will actually be at its closest - only 221,524 miles (356,509km) away - at 11:21.
Many skywatchers will be hoping to see the Moon as it rises, when it can appear bigger still.
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Mike Alexander, from the Galloway Astronomy Centre, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "What you get when it's rising is a thing called moon illusion when it appears much, much bigger than it does when it's high in the sky.
"At moonrise it will look bigger and be a nice effect."
However, Mr Alexander cautioned against too much excitement among moon-watchers in Scotland.
"I've been watching the weather all week for Scotland. If you're very lucky you might catch it," he said.
Forecasters are predicting cloud and rain to come in from the west from about 15:00 on Monday. A second front bringing rain will arrive a few hours later.
BBC Scotland Weather forecaster Judith Ralston said: "It looks like there's a band of rain coming in this evening, but it should miss Aberdeenshire and Moray.
"The best place to see it will be the north-east corner of the country."
The Moon will not be this close to Earth again until 25 November 2034. | The Moray coast could be one of the best places to see the "supermoon" in Scotland, forecasters have predicted. | 37973126 |
True, the odd big beast like Ken Clarke is still roaming around the parliamentary reservation savaging the occasional Eurosceptic straggler he might come across.
In characteristically robust fashion he took to the airwaves earlier to lambast some of his colleagues who "should obviously be in UKIP" and were pandering to "a wave of hysteria" over immigration. Ouch.
But by and large the pro-Europeans seem an unduly meek and cautious bunch, almost mole-like in their reluctance to come blinking into the daylight.
A far cry from their raucous, self-confident Eurosceptic colleagues, many of whom only have to see a camera to be rushing in front of it.
Which is not to say the pro-European Tories have gone away. Far from it. Most are biding their time. And many of them are as mad as hell at what they see as their party's remorseless drift towards UKIP.
One former pro-European minister noting the relentless pressure on the PM from Eurosceptic Tories observed, only half in jest: "The only thing that would satisfy them is bombing Berlin."
But they have a much more serious concerns than simply trading abuse with the sceptics.
Their fear is that the Conservative Party is being steadily dragged away from the centre ground, the ground on which they argue elections are always won and which David Cameron occupied at the last election.
They also point to the experience of the recent Newark by-election where the Tories - temporarily - halted Nigel Farage's bandwagon by appealing to disaffected Liberal Democrat and Labour voters rather than chasing the UKIP vote.
As one exasperated pro-European minister noted: "Why on earth should anyone bother voting for a pretend UKIP party when they could vote for the real thing?"
The prime minister, they insist, has a good story to tell on the economy, so why is he allowing himself to get sucked into a row about Europe? After all wasn't he the leader who said the party had to stop "banging on about Europe"?
Which begs the question: Why don't the pro-Europeans go public with their concerns? Why don't they take on the sceptics?
Here the pro-Europeans tend to shuffle, look at the ground and become more muted.
Their concern is this. Any public fightback, they fear, would tear the party in two. And divided parties, they argue, do not win elections.
Instead their hopes appear to centre on the Mr Cameron's instincts. They believe, at the end of the day, he accepts that Britain's national self interest is in remaining in the EU.
The Rochester by-election, they say, is a one-off. Mr Cameron has no option but to throw the Eurosceptic kitchen sink at it in order to win.
But afterwards they hope there will be an end to the appeasing of the sceptics.
And if there isn't?
Well, perhaps some of them will have to start taking some lessons from an old bruiser like Ken Clarke. | Where have all the pro-European Conservatives gone? | 29708604 |
The 25-year-old has made 97 appearances and scored four goals since joining the Baggies from Rochdale in August 2011.
Dawson's current deal still had a year to run but his new contract will keep him at The Hawthorns until 2018.
"I'm really enjoying my football, especially over the last year and a half when I've been a regular in the first team," he told the club website.
"I've been down here a few years now, the family is settled in this area, so it was a very easy decision to extend my contract.
"It means I can just concentrate on playing and doing everything I can to stay in the team and carry on contributing to things." | Defender Craig Dawson has signed an improved one-year contract extension at West Bromwich Albion. | 35604160 |
The Torbay-born forward is on a month's loan at Plainmoor from National League rivals Forest Green and has scored four goals in two games.
"That was my first hat-trick so I'm buzzing," Moore told BBC Radio Devon.
"I did have a good feeling, but it's a great start and hopefully I can continue this form."
The 24-year-old was part of Torquay's academy before it was disbanded in 2009, having also been a ball-boy at the club.
"I hope I can see the whole stint out and maybe more, you never know, but I'm enjoying it here, it's brilliant," he added.
"I was lacking that match sharpness, so a move to Torquay it was, but I don't think I was lacking that much."
Moore began playing football in the amateur South Devon League in Paignton before being picked up by non-league Truro City and eventually ending up at Yeovil Town.
He spent two years at Yeovil in the Championship and League One, before moving to Norway to play for Viking FK.
Moore said: "My career's taken a funny turn, maybe going out to Norway didn't help that, so in a sense I've had to rebuild myself and this is part of that.
"This is all for my career and hopefully I'll get back to those heights one day and prove that I am that Championship player and maybe better." | Kieffer Moore hopes he can continue his goalscoring form after getting a hat-trick for Torquay United against Solihull Moors. | 38083871 |
A car was driven "at high speed" on De Meir, the northern city's main shopping street, before it was intercepted. There were no reports of any injuries.
Knives, a non-lethal gun and some unidentifiable liquid were found in the car, prosecutors say.
Belgian PM Charles Michel praised the authorities for an "outstanding job".
The attack comes a day after a car was driven at high speed along London's Westminster Bridge, hitting many people, before the driver got out and entered the grounds of Parliament. He was killed after fatally stabbing a police officer there. Two other people died and 40 were injured in the attack.
Click here for all the latest on the London attack
It was also the day Belgium marked the first anniversary of the twin bomb attacks in Brussels, that killed 32 people and wounded more than 300.
The car was spotted at around 11:00 (10:00 GMT), Antwerp police chief Serge Muyters said.
"The vehicle was driving at high speed on De Meir," he said. "Our army colleagues spotted it and tried to bring the vehicle to a halt.
"But the driver broke free and drove through the red light towards the port quays."
Police were contacted, he said, and immediately sent a rapid response team, intercepting the vehicle and driver.
"The suspect, a man of North African origin, was immediately arrested," he said.
The federal prosecutor's office, which has taken over the investigation, named the suspect as "Mohamed R", a 39-year-old French national and resident of France.
"Different arms were found in the boot - bladed weapons, a riot gun and a container of liquid that is still unidentifiable," the prosecutor's statement also said.
An army bomb disposal unit was sent to the scene to inspect the vehicle.
The Belgian royal family were among those who joined a minute's silence at Zaventem airport and Maelbeek underground station in Brussels on Wednesday.
They were remembering those who were caught up in the suicide bombings at the two sites on 22 March 2016 - the worst such attack on Belgian soil.
Three suicide bombers also died. Several other men, some identified on CCTV as having been accomplices of the attackers, were subsequently arrested.
The gang was linked to those who carried out gun and bomb in the French capital, Paris, in November 2015 in which 130 people were killed. | A French national of North African origin has been arrested in the Belgian city of Antwerp on suspicion of driving at a crowd, officials say. | 39369202 |
The visitors soaked up early pressure and took an unlikely lead from Alan Goodall's header from a corner.
Scott Barrow scored his first Newport goal to level with a drilled effort into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
But substitute Mullin converted from the spot in the 94th minute after a foul on Kevin Ellison.
Newport County manager Terry Butcher told BBC Radio Wales: "I can't describe the feeling in the dressing room to be honest. It's one of devastation and huge, huge disappointment because we played so well in the game.
"We made enough chances to have won two or three games, especially in the first half. To go in a goal down at half-time was a travesty.
"To lose the game 2-1 is an even bigger travesty because it's one long ball over the top, two minutes to go in added time and we don't deal with it and we've paid a heavy price."
Match ends, Newport County 1, Morecambe 2.
Second Half ends, Newport County 1, Morecambe 2.
Aaron Hayden (Newport County) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Kevin Ellison (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Aaron Hayden (Newport County).
Goal! Newport County 1, Morecambe 2. Paul Mullin (Morecambe) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the top right corner.
Penalty Morecambe. Kevin Ellison draws a foul in the penalty area.
Penalty conceded by Aaron Hayden (Newport County) after a foul in the penalty area.
Foul by Andrew Fleming (Morecambe).
Medy Elito (Newport County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Lee Molyneux (Morecambe) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right from a direct free kick.
Kevin Ellison (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Mark Byrne (Newport County).
Attempt missed. Seth Nana Ofori-Twumasi (Newport County) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Lee Molyneux (Morecambe) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Medy Elito (Newport County).
Substitution, Morecambe. Paul Mullin replaces Tom Barkhuizen.
Attempt missed. Kevin Ellison (Morecambe) header from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right.
Substitution, Newport County. Medy Elito replaces Scott Boden.
Corner, Newport County. Conceded by Alex Kenyon.
Corner, Newport County. Conceded by Barry Roche.
Corner, Newport County. Conceded by Lee Molyneux.
Substitution, Newport County. Zak Ansah replaces Aaron Collins.
Goal! Newport County 1, Morecambe 1. Scott Barrow (Newport County) left footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Aaron Collins.
Attempt missed. Lee Molyneux (Morecambe) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Foul by Adam Dugdale (Morecambe).
Lenell John-Lewis (Newport County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Alan Goodall (Morecambe) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Lenell John-Lewis (Newport County).
Attempt saved. Lee Molyneux (Morecambe) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Tom Barkhuizen (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Aaron Hayden (Newport County).
Foul by Alex Kenyon (Morecambe).
Aaron Collins (Newport County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Adam Dugdale (Morecambe) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Adam Dugdale (Morecambe).
Lenell John-Lewis (Newport County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Second Half begins Newport County 0, Morecambe 1.
Substitution, Morecambe. Alex Kenyon replaces Jamie Devitt.
Substitution, Morecambe. Kevin Ellison replaces Shaun Miller. | Morecambe inflicted more misery on winless Newport County as Paul Mullin scored a stoppage time penalty to grab a third successive win. | 34160565 |
The publication, which will be available in English and Gaelic, will form part of a new project recalling the Iolaire disaster.
Iolaire, a Royal Navy yacht, was wrecked on a reef called the Beasts of Holm off Lewis on 1 January 1919.
There were 79 survivors of the sinking, which came after the end of WW1.
Every village in Lewis and Harris had a connection with those involved in the disaster.
Arts organisation An Lanntair, Western Isles publisher Acair Books and the new Museum nan Eilean at Lews Castle in Stornoway, Lewis, are working on the commemoration project.
As well as the book, there will be exhibitions and other events taking place in 2018 and 2019 - the year of the 100th anniversary of the sinking. | The stories of all 281 men, including 205 World War One servicemen, who died when their boat sank off the Western Isles, are to be told in a new book. | 36424593 |
The missiles were launched from the Hwangju region, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Monday, according to the Yonhap news agency.
There was no information on the types of missile fired or how far they flew.
North Korea is barred from testing nuclear or ballistic missile technology, but recent months have seen it carry out a string of missile tests.
It last fired a ballistic missile just two weeks ago from a submarine off its eastern coast, as South Korea and the US began annual military drills which routinely anger the North. On that occasion the KN-11 rocket that was fired flew for about 500km (300 miles) before falling into the Sea of Japan.
This latest test takes place as world leaders meet at the annual G20 economic summit, being hosted for the first time in China.
North Korea's missile programme
The August rocket launch was considered its most successful test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. A test of mid-range missiles in June was also considered successful.
Tensions have soared since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test in January. In July the US and South Korea said they would deploy an anti-missile system to counter the North's threats, but this has been met with anger from Pyongyang and opposition from China.
1. The enemy launches a missile
2. The Thaad radar system detects the launch, which is relayed to command and control
3. Thaad command and control instructs the launch of an interceptor missile
4. The interceptor missile is fired at the enemy projectile
5. The enemy projectile is destroyed in the terminal phase of flight
The launcher trucks can hold up to eight interceptor missiles. | North Korea has fired three ballistic missiles into the waters off its east coast, say South Korean officials. | 37241649 |
Rivers suffered a cardiac arrest while undergoing a procedure to examine her throat at the Yorkville Endoscopy centre in August 2014.
The legal claim alleges doctors were not adequately trained and performed unauthorised procedures on the star.
Rivers' family is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
In November, state health investigators said the clinic failed to follow standard protocols while treating Rivers, who died a week later.
The Department of Health cited multiple errors, including failing to detect the comedian's deteriorating vital signs during the procedure, but negligence was not suspected.
The New York medical examiner's office ruled Rivers died of brain damage due to lack of oxygen during the procedure.
The death was classified as a "therapeutic complication", meaning it was a known risk.
'Outrageous behaviour'
However Melissa Rivers claims doctors mishandled the endoscopy and performed another procedure - carried out by specialist Gwen Korovin who was not cleared to work at the clinic - without consent.
During the second procedure, gastroenterologist Dr Lawrence Cohen and Ms Korovin took pictures on their mobile phones of themselves with the sedated comedian. Ms Korovin later said she thought Rivers would have wanted to see the images. Dr Cohen has since resigned.
The legal claim alleges staff were not properly trained to detect Rivers' deteriorating vital signs or deal with the type of emergency airway obstruction she suffered before going into cardiac arrest.
It also claims Ms Korovin left the room at this point because she knew she was not permitted to be there and "wanted to avoid getting caught".
Melissa Rivers said filing the lawsuit was one of the most difficult decisions she had to make.
"What ultimately guided me was my unwavering belief that no family should ever have to go through what my mother, Cooper and I have been through," she said, referring to her son.
"The level of medical mismanagement, incompetency, disrespect and outrageous behaviour is shocking and frankly, almost incomprehensible."
The Yorkville Endoscopy centre said it was not appropriate to comment on the legal action.
"The Rivers family has, as it has always had, our deepest sympathies and condolences," it said. | Joan Rivers' daughter has filed a malpractice claim against the New York medical clinic that treated her mother days before she died. | 30999728 |
Sir Julian King, a career diplomat, was nominated by ex-UK PM David Cameron to replace Lord Hill, who resigned after the Brexit vote.
Lord Hill had been in charge of the financial services portfolio.
Downing Street said it welcomed the commission's decision, saying security was a "vital issue" for the EU.
Sir Julian - who has worked in the diplomatic service for 30 years, including most recently as Britain's ambassador to France - must be approved by MEPs and EU officials before taking up the position.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "The UK will continue to fulfil our rights and obligations as a member state until we leave the EU and the prime minister has been clear that we will be an active player, so it is right that we should continue to have a Commissioner role.
"Security is a vital issue for all member states and co-operation across the EU can help to better protect us all from the range of threats we face."
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker - who made the appointment - said security was a "pressing challenge" and the wave of terror attacks in France, Germany and Brussels underlined the need for "swift progress".
By Adam Fleming, BBC political correspondent in Brussels
The joke in Brussels was that the UK would be awarded the plum job of looking after paper clips until Britain leaves the European Union at some point in the next few years.
No-one's joking now because Sir Julian has been awarded a heavyweight portfolio.
He will be put in charge of the EU's efforts to tackle terrorism and organised crime. He will grapple with what to do about fighters returning from Syria and Iraq, cyber-security and the spread of illegal weapons.
No doubt this will please PM Theresa May whose main contribution during the referendum campaign was to say that the EU was useful for fighting cross-border crime.
But look more closely at the job description issued by the Commission President Jean Claude Juncker.
Sir Julian will report to one of the vice presidents, Frans Timmermans, and "support" the work of the commissioner responsible for migration, Dimitris Avramopolous. And many of the powers in these areas are jealously guarded by the member states themselves.
And of course, he will have to go through a grilling by a committee of the European Parliament, when MEPs return from their holidays in September.
All 28 EU countries have a European Commissioner, with each one taking responsibility for a different policy area, from telecoms to fish.
If Sir Julian gets the green light, he will take up his post at a time when the UK's relations with the EU are at an all-time low following the decision to end its 43-year membership of the organisation, previously known as the European Community.
He would be expected to play an important role as a "conduit" between the UK and the other 27 member states during the talks over the UK's exit.
Sir Julian will report to a series of vice-presidents who form Mr Juncker's top team.
During a career spanning decades in the diplomatic service, Sir Julian held a number of senior positions in Brussels, including acting as a senior aide to a previous EU commissioner.
Previous UK commissioners have included high-profile political figures such as Lord Patten, Lord Kinnock and Lord Mandelson. | Britain's new European Commissioner will spearhead EU efforts to tackle terrorism, organised crime and cyber-security, it has been announced. | 36946406 |
In a phone call with Sergei Lavrov, Mr Kerry said the US held Russia responsible for the use of incendiary and bunker bombs against the city.
The US state department said it was making preparations to suspend talks.
Aleppo has come under heavy aerial bombardment since the end of a ceasefire a week ago.
In response to Mr Kerry's phone call, the Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Evgeny Zagaynov, said the "trend" of Russia being blamed for the attacks in Syria must stop.
"It's become a sort of unfortunate tradition that the majority of strikes on civilian facilities in Syria, without checking it ... is blamed on Damascus or Russia,'' he said.
But Moscow said on Wednesday they would send diplomats to Geneva to talk to the US about normalising the situation in Aleppo.
"On orders of the Russian president, we are ready to continue joint work with our American partners on the Syrian issue," the defence ministry said in a statement.
Some 250,000 people are trapped in the rebel-held east of the city. They are under siege from Russian-backed Syrian government forces, which have launched a fierce campaign to recapture the area. The bombardment has been among the worst in the history of the five-year conflict.
The US has accused Russia of taking part in strikes on civilian targets and possibly committing war crimes.
The two nations have been locked in talks in an attempt to revive a fragile peace agreement, but the US said last week that Russia had openly lied to the UN about its intentions.
At least 96 children have been killed and 223 injured in eastern Aleppo since Friday, according to the UN children's agency Unicef.
"The children of Aleppo are trapped in a living nightmare," said Unicef deputy executive director Justin Forsyth on Wednesday. "There are no words left to describe the suffering they are experiencing."
More than 170 people have been killed in east Aleppo since the beginning of the recent offensive, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.
Air strikes continued to hit Aleppo's besieged eastern neighbourhoods on Tuesday night. Local medical workers said that two major hospitals were put out of service by the bombardment.
International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) tweeted to say that both hospitals were out of service. Adham Sahloul, a spokesman for the US-based Syrian American Medical Society, which supports the two hospitals, said the two attacks took place at the same time, suggesting they were deliberately targeted.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the reported attacks on the two hospitals as "war crimes".
Addressing crowds in St Peter's Square in Rome on Wednesday, Pope Francis decried the bombing of Aleppo, saying those responsible for killing civilians would have to answer to God.
Aleppo, once Syria's largest city and its commercial and industrial hub, has been divided roughly in two since 2012, with President Bashar al-Assad's forces controlling the west and rebel factions the east.
In the past year, government troops have gradually broken the deadlock with the help of Iranian-backed militias and Russian air strikes. Earlier this month, they severed the rebels' last route into the east and placed its 250,000 residents under siege.
Children in Aleppo have made up a large proportion of casualties from air strikes, according to aid groups. At least 100,000 children remain trapped in the eastern part of the city.
In the government-held west, 49 children were killed by rebel shelling in July alone, the New York Times reports, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Tuesday, the US pledged to provide an extra $364m (£276m) in humanitarian aid to people affected by the Syrian war.
The World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile called for the "immediate establishment of humanitarian routes" into Aleppo, where hospitals are running out of supplies and rubble-strewn streets are preventing ambulances from getting through. | US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned his Russian counterpart that Washington will end Syria talks unless Moscow stops the bombing of Aleppo. | 37497220 |
Cadwaladers, established in 1927 in Criccieth, Gwynedd, has been bought out of administration in a deal that will see the business continue at nine of its 14 shops.
The company has coffee shops across north and south Wales, including Cardiff, Barry and Tenby.
Managing director Diane Brierley said the deal placed the company in a "strong position".
She added: "It has been a difficult few months, but... we believe Cadwaladers has the potential to come back stronger". | More than 90 jobs have been saved at a Welsh coffee and ice cream chain. | 34717368 |
Barkley, 23, was punched in a Liverpool bar last weekend in what his lawyer described as an "unprovoked attack".
In an article on Friday, Sun columnist Kelvin MacKenzie compared Barkley - who has a grandfather born in Nigeria - to a "gorilla at the zoo".
Police confirmed they were investigating the "full circumstances".
MacKenzie targeted both England international Barkley and the city of Liverpool in the article - which has since been taken off The Sun website - saying:
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson told BBC Sport he reported the article to the police for a "racial slur".
Speaking to BBC Sport, Anderson said: "Not only is it racist in a sense that he is of mixed-race descent, equally it's a racial stereotype of Liverpool. It is racist and prehistoric."
Anderson later tweeted to say he had reported the article to Merseyside Police and the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
Alongside the article, The Sun published adjoining pictures of Barkley and a gorilla on their website with the caption "Could Everton's Ross Barkley represent the missing link between man and beast?" The picture was later removed.
MacKenzie was editor of The Sun when it published a front-page article headlined 'Hillsborough: The Truth' in the aftermath of the 1989 disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's football stadium.
The article claimed Liverpool fans were to blame for the tragedy, in which 96 people died. MacKenzie apologised in 2012.
Last year's landmark Hillsborough inquests recorded that the 96 fans were unlawfully killed and that Liverpool supporters at the FA Cup semi-final had played no role in causing the tragedy.
This Saturday, 15 April, marks the 28th anniversary of the disaster.
Burnley midfielder Joey Barton, who was an Everton youth player, tweeted: "Those comments about Ross Barkley, a young working-class lad, are disgusting. Then add in the fact he is mixed race! It becomes outrageous."
Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore tweeted: "Implied racism at its finest."
A Sun spokesperson said: "Columnists are supposed to have strong opinions that provoke debate among the readers. However their views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper."
Football's equality and inclusion organisation Kick It Out said they had received complaints about the "insulting and offensive" comments.
"We will be contacting Everton and the PFA about their responses in providing support to Ross and his family," they said.
BBC Sport has contacted Everton and Barkley's representatives for comment. | Merseyside Police are investigating allegations that a newspaper article about Everton midfielder Ross Barkley constitutes a "racial hate crime". | 39601728 |
The public event at RAF Feltwell would have featured a display from the Red Arrows.
Col Robert Novotny, commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, said the two-day event had been cancelled "out of prudence... to make sure that our folks were safe."
He denied the decision played into the hands of "terrorists".
"We cancelled our picnic - we haven't cancelled a single combat sortie," he said.
"We haven't taken our foot off the throat of the enemy - none of that has changed.
"So if the terrorists consider us cancelling a picnic as a victory, I think they should readdress their calculus."
In 2013, the event was cancelled due to budget cuts.
This weekend's event was due to be hosted by US crew based at RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall.
It was cancelled a week after a gunman killed 38 people, including 30 Britons, in Tunisia.
Asked whether the cancellation related to the massacre, Col Novotny said: "There are some things which I can't share right now.
"They are not enough to significantly alter the way we do business, other than deciding having military personal from both the US Air Force and RAF is probably not the best thing to do this year.
"What we learned over the last 48 hours... gave us a great pause as to whether we wanted to have a large mass gathering on a military base.
"We decided out of prudence that we would cancel the event this year as far as to make sure that our folks were safe."
He said it was hoped the Red Arrows would return for a future display.
The Lincolnshire-based team said on Twitter: "We're sorry to say tomorrow's display and event has been cancelled by organisers." | The US Air Force has cancelled Independence Day celebrations at a base in Norfolk, citing security concerns. | 33381414 |
She was awarded a doctorate from the University of Zimbabwe last month.
But there has been confusion over when she enrolled, with some sources saying it was only two months ago - and students want the issue investigated.
The university authorities have not yet commented on the controversy.
"It [the award] removes the integrity of our academic standing the world over," Mr Hove told BBC Focus on Africa.
A graduate and faculty member of the University of Zimbabwe, the novelist and poet, who is living in Norway, said he had written to the vice-chancellor to demand an explanation.
"I have lost the pride and prestige of being a former student of the university which you head since our academic degrees have now become a laughing stock," he says in the letter.
His remarks come as the Zimbabwe National Students Union prepares to file a court application on Thursday demanding that the University of Zimbabwe provide details about how the first lady came to be awarded the degree.
Amongst the concerns expressed by students is the fact that the first lady's thesis is not available in the university's library, as would be usual.
Birth of a Mugabe dynasty in Zimbabwe?
Mrs Mugabe was awarded the doctorate in sociology by her husband - who is the chancellor of the university - at a ceremony on 12 September not long after she was endorsed to lead the governing Zanu-PF women's wing.
Mr Hove, an outspoken critic of President Mugabe's government, said the university needed to be more transparent about the apparent fast-tracking of the first lady's degree.
"Her degree is not an honorary degree, it's an academic degree for academic achievement," he told the BBC.
"She was supposed to have a research proposal, a supervisor, and then research and write for at least three years."
"[Grace Mugabe] should be a person of honour and say, 'I did not study for this, please take it back, I made a mistake'."
If Vice-Chancellor Levy Nyagura had come under pressure to confer the degree, he should resign on ethical grounds in protest, the author said. | Award-winning Zimbabwean writer Chenjerai Hove has called on Grace Mugabe, the wife of Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe, to hand back her PhD. | 29451239 |
The 21-year-old fired a bogey-free afternoon round of 67 to follow his morning score of 71 to grab one of the three spots at the Ayrshire coast.
He said: "I have always spoken about how amazing it would be to play in the Open, especially as an amateur and the experience you would gain from it.
"It's just a class event."
America's Julian Suri also qualified from the 72-strong field with a four-under tally at the event, one of seven final qualifying tournaments.
The 26-year-old is the current leader on the European Challenge Tour and insists his game is perfectly set up for the Lancashire links of Royal Birkdale.
"I'm excited but I'm there to win a tournament," explained the exuberant Floridian.
"I think the build-up will be exciting and there will be a lot of adrenaline going but once I get a club in my hand that's what I know what to do. From there it's just back to basics."
There was heartache, though, for Cambuslang golfer Paul Shields, who lost out in a four-man play-off along with Martin Bodel Oveson from Sweden and Mark Young from Clitheroe after Tasmania's Ryan McCarthy rolled in an eight-foot putt at the first extra hole to secure the final berth at Birkdale in two weeks' time.
"It was an absolute slog trying to keep dry," Syme told BBC Scotland after his rounds played in driving wind and rain.
"I had my caddy, Tim, on the bag and he helped keep me dry and positive when I had to be. I have been coming here (to qualify) for the last three years and I thought this was the best chance. I have been playing pretty solid this year without excelling."
Syme has had a stellar career in the amateur ranks and won the Australian Amateur Championship early in 2016 but insists he is in no rush to make the leap towards the professional game.
"I'm probably going to go to Tour School as an amateur this year," said the Drumoig player.
"I am not going to put a lot of pressure on myself to do it. If it happens, it happens. If I get some stats there then I will go professional. If not, I will look at next year where I will take more of an opportunity to play in a few more pro events if it's possible, then I would turn pro definitely at the end of 2018."
Syme was on the books of Queen of the South as a youngster but was drawn to golf over football because his father is a professional instructor.
"My dad is obviously delighted I made the decision for golf and he always thought I would do so," he said. "Hopefully I have made the right choice.
"I have been going to the Open since 2004 at Troon. Me and my dad always went, normally on the Friday as there are more golfers, and I always managed to get a T-shirt. It's special." | Fife amateur Connor Syme secured his place at this month's Open with a four-under-par score of 138 at the final qualifying series at Gailes Links. | 40499988 |
Albion Rovers' game at home to Queen's Park was called off due to a waterlogged pitch after a 09:30 inspection.
Leaders Livingston blamed "relentless overnight rain" for their game against Stenhousemuir following suit.
But games hosted by Berwick Rangers and Stirling Albion both survived.
Berwick, who are playing Elgin City in League Two, said their pitch passed an inspection at 11:00.
As did Stirling's Forthbank Stadium surface, where Edinburgh City are the visitors. | Two games have been postponed in Scottish League One, but two have survived pitch inspections in the division below. | 39089197 |
Careers, children and normal lives have been put on hold to enable Samantha Cameron, Justine Miliband and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez to hit the campaign trail to help their men secure the keys to Number 10.
But does their presence at key events - like the launch of a manifesto - or meeting candidates in marginal seats really work?
After all, why does it matter if the PM holds his wife's hand? Or that Ed and Justine have two kitchens? Or that Miriam decided refused to move into a grace and favour property?
Why do we care?
According to Joe Twyman, Head of Political and Social Research at pollsters YouGov, the partners of our leading politicians are there to make their other halves "look normal" to us, the voters.
And carrying out media interviews with them in a place we can all relate to - like the kitchen - only re-emphasises those "normal" credentials.
"All leaders are seen - to a lesser or greater extent - as slightly abnormal," he said. "Wives help, in all cases, make their husbands seem more like us."
"So it's to do with 'I have a wife - you have a wife'. 'I have a kitchen with a wife - you have a kitchen with a wife'. 'This is the way this politician lives.'
"Yes, these are all contrived photo opportunities, but the kitchen is about families - they wouldn't want us to see them in their dining room or drawing room," he said. "Regardless of how big or small your house or mansion is, we can all relate to a time when the family met in the kitchen.
You/Gov 1-2 April 2015 Sample: 1583 GB adults, including don't knows and would not vote
"Basically, it's a cost benefit analysis. Does the benefit of bringing out your wife outweigh the cost? These wives are very successful at what they do, so the parties consider them an asset. Secondly, the campaign is much closer than before and the results aren't certain, so they will want to get every possible advantage they can.
"The three men leaders are seen as professional politicians who are out of touch with society - they want to come across as normal and trustworthy. Bringing in the family, and seeing them with their wives, feeds into that."
And it would seem, for Samantha Cameron at least, her appearances and recent interviews - including how she believes, unsurprisingly, that her husband "is definitely for my mind the best man for the job" - have worked in her favour.
A poll conducted by YouGov suggests 71% believe Sam Cam is the best election asset for her party, compared with 19% for Mr Miliband's wife Justine and 10% for Miriam, Mr Clegg's wife. At 74%, Mrs Cameron is particularly popular among 25-39-year-olds, according to the survey, and men (74%) compared with women (68%).
So why haven't we been introduced to the partners of the smaller party leaders?
Twyman believes it's because Natalie Bennett (Greens) and Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru) are not well known. "They need to build up their profiles first," he said. "Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) is better known in Scotland, but she's not well known nationally. They don't want any stories talking about their husbands when the stories could be talking about them."
And, according to Laurence Stellings, opinion pollster at Populus, the smaller parties still have a novelty value that is lacking in their bigger counterparts. "When you've been around five years, people think they've heard everything you've got to say, so putting the focus on your wife is a welcome distraction," he said. "If you're a small party, you have got something new and exciting to talk about. You don't need to talk about your partner - they can be your secret weapon later, once you're well known."
But what about UKIP leader Nigel Farage. Do the same "rules" apply to him? Why is his wife kept behind the scenes? Twyman suggests that, if he was being cynical, it might be because she is German "which isn't exactly on message for UKIP". But he adds that might be doing Mr Farage a disservice "and he may be trying to protect his wife's privacy".
Philip Cowley, professor of parliamentary government at the University of Nottingham, co-author of The British General Election of 2010 and co-editor of Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box , says there has always been a tradition of leader's spouses accompanying them on big occasions.
But he claims the growth in media outlets, particularly online, has fuelled demand for a more personal focus on leaders and their families.
"There was definitely less coverage of elections in the past," said Cowley. "The BBC would've done radio programmes and TV broadcasts on the election, but they wouldn't have had space for any left-field questions about politicians' wives, even though many of them were fairly well known at the time.
"For instance, (Labour PM 1945 to 1951) Clement Attlee's wife Violet used to drive him around during election campaigns," said Cowley. "They would stop on the roadside to have their sandwiches with their detective before going on to the next event.
"Harold Wilson (Labour PM 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976) did some photo calls with his wife, Mary, even though she loathed politics - while Denis Healey's wife Edna and (Labour PM 1976-79) James Callaghan's wife Audrey were often present with them in the 70s. And of course Denis stuck with Margaret Thatcher, although he played a more low key role than the current leaders' partners.
"But the fact is we just don't know what effect partners/wives/husbands have."
The evidence suggests that being single is not a bar to being elected - Edward Heath was single and elected Conservative PM from 1970 to 1974.
Times have changed, and there have now been four decades without an unmarried person leading one of the two largest parties at Westminster. Indeed the party leaders spend considerable effort trying to give us the impression that they are everyday people who have families, kitchens and lives like ours.
Back to Mr Cowley: "The one thing I learnt when I was a schoolboy doing O-level film studies was that nothing in films happens by accident.
"It happens because the director has decided it's going to happen - in politics it's the same. If a leader's wife appears on stage - it's because someone has decided that would be a good move electorally. It doesn't mean the wife wants to do it, but that someone has decided it could make a difference." | Few people would ever consider asking their other half to join them at a job interview - yet that's exactly what the leaders of the three major parties have encouraged their wives to do in the run up to the 7 May General Election. | 32303119 |
In recent days that pressure has taken the shape of calls from the Liberal Democrats and Labour, and campaign groups like Save the Children, to open Britain's doors to 3,000 children, alone and potentially in danger on the migrant trail in Europe.
Today, just hours after the PM was accused of a "disgraceful" tone towards those in need, calling them a 'bunch of migrants', the government has given a partial answer to its critics.
There will be more cash and support for aid agencies to provide help for under 18s who are already caught up in the chaos and travelling across Europe.
The government is also open to resettling more child refugees in the UK. But they have stopped short of accepting more of those who are already in Europe, maybe even just across the Channel.
Instead, they are echoing the decision they took in the summer and may allow more refugees under 18 to come here directly from the war-torn areas around Syria. Crucially, the government won't put a number on how many extra children will be allowed to come.
Sources indicate that the number will not significantly increase the current commitment to resettle 20,000 refugees from the region over the next five years. There was even discussion inside government over whether the overall number should increase at all.
There has been nervousness in government about the precedent it would set to take many more refugees from Europe, that could encourage more people to make the dangerous journey in the first place.
But the fact that the government has shifted its position at all displays how the demands of this crisis are affecting political decision-making here.
And just as the tempo picks up in David Cameron's testing renegotiations of our relationship with the rest of the European Union, the government's attitude to dealing with migration is in sharp focus. Ministers fear a backdrop of a seemingly chaotic migration on the continent could make their deal-making, and the eventual referendum campaign, even harder. | The prime minister has been under pressure, just as in the summer months when the full scale of the migrant crisis became clear, to make more effort to help the most vulnerable among the hundreds of thousands of people on the move. | 35422780 |
The air quality in China can sometimes be so bad, that the government have to give people warnings about the level of pollution in the air.
When the levels are high they can close schools, stop planes taking off, close factories and limit the number of cars on the road.
In north and central China, cities like Beijing, are currently under a red alert air pollution warning - the highest level.
Millions of people, especially children and elderly people have been warned to stay indoors when the levels are high.
If they do go outside lots of people wear facemasks, to try to filter out the pollution.
Coal is used to power some Chinese factories and as it's winter now, more people are using it to heat their homes.
This means that more coal is burnt and this can increase the pollution levels in the air.
The weather can also have an effect on pollution.
As there is very little wind at the moment, the pollution is gathering in one area, rather than being blown away.
Pollution can be measured in different ways, but the World Health Organisation (WHO) use a scientific measurement called PM 2.5.
This measures the number of small particles in the air which can be breathed in.
They recommend that 10 micrograms is a safe amount in a year.
Recent recordings in China's capital city Beijing were higher than 400 micrograms per metre cubed, and around 600 in the city of Shijiazhuang.
According to weather forecasts a wind from the north should blow most of the pollution away on Thursday.
However for big cities like Beijing the air pollution levels can be high for most of the year.
In 2014 China's government said they were working hard to reduce the amount of pollution in the air.
Since then they've been trying to close down some coal-burning factories, and limit the amount of traffic on roads. | Parts of China have been covered under a thick blanket of smog for the last four days. | 38389844 |
Ibrox fans' group Club 1872 has bought half of them - 4.46% - for £1m from Ashley's company, MASH Holdings Limited, taking its holding to 10.71%.
The supporters' organisation says it is "a significant marker in our progress as a shareholder/investor".
Rangers chairman Dave King has announced further investment of £1m by 44-year-old Julian Wolhardt.
The chief executive officer of Dehong Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Hong Kong, has purchased the remainder from MASH Holdings Limited, who bought an 8.9% stake in RIFC when the company was floated by former chief executive Charles Green in 2012.
Earlier this week, Rangers announced a new £5m-a-year commercial deal with Ashley's company Sports Direct "on terms substantially different from the terminated agreements".
A Club 1872 statement said: "We are delighted that our members' support for Club 1872 has brought us to a point where we can acquire these shares and complete the process of restoring control of RIFC to those who view the footballing success of Rangers FC as being just as important as RIFC's careful stewardship financially.
"Club 1872 allows Rangers supporters to help safeguard the future of our club. Taking our shareholding above 10% puts us well on our way to that goal."
The fans' group did not state the value of its investment in RIFC but King, on the Rangers website, said that Wolhardt and Club 1872 had "each made a £1m investment in shares".
The chairman said the purchase "marks a significant milestone for Rangers and follows completion of the renegotiation of the club's retail deals earlier this week".
Investor Wolhardt spoke of his "long held love for Scotland and football" and said he was "keen to see Rangers FC unlock its considerable commercial potential".
He added: "With the successful restructuring of the retail operations, RIFC is now on a firm financial footing and I look forward to being a part of its exciting future." | Businessman Mike Ashley has sold his remaining shareholding in Rangers International Football Club Plc. | 40386013 |
A few days before the end of last year, West Australian teenager Jay Muscat was killed by a shark while he was spear-fishing on the state's far south coast. Authorities closed the beach and issued a kill order for the shark.
A fortnight earlier, when Western Australians would typically have flocked to the beach, one of Perth's southern beaches was suddenly deemed out of bounds after an electronically-tagged great white shark was detected.
The shark repeatedly returned to Warnbro Beach during daylight hours, prompting authorities to close the popular swimming and sunbathing spot, and to set baited lines in the hope of catching and shooting it.
The two incidents follow a spate of deadly shark attacks in recent years in Western Australia and a controversial decision by the state government in early 2014 to cull sharks.
That decision was eventually aborted after the government's own environmental regulator said it was scientifically unjustified.
But critics say government and media hype around so-called killer sharks is not just environmentally dangerous - it also strikes deep into the state's psyche, damaging its relaxed coastal lifestyle, and generating a sense of fear and anxiety.
Some psychologists have gone as far as to suggest that a climate in which sharks are deemed to be "rogue" killers that should be shot risks producing a generation of children who will grow up scared of the beach.
And it's not just children who are scared, says Shayne Hanks, the Perth-based chairman of the National College of Sport and Exercise Psychologists.
"There are adults saying that they won't go in the water or won't swim out very far or they'll stop some of those activities, and that's because their sense of threat is heightened," he said.
Mr Hanks says the heightened fear of sharks is discouraging people from taking part in popular activities such as surfing.
"I think it makes people less likely to go to the beach, which makes them less active, doing less exercise," he says. "That sense of where the beach fits into our culture is changing."
Mr Hanks says the threat from sharks, while real, has been exaggerated.
"I think the reaction isn't commensurate with the risk," he says. "We don't see the same anxiety levels in terms of drowning; there are more than 10 times the number of people who drown each year in WA [Western Australia] versus shark attacks; and there's 200 times the number of fatalities by car.
"We don't get anxious though [about] getting into our car, and we don't get anxious when we go into a swimming pool."
Following Jay Muscat's death, the state's Premier Colin Barnett said he was concerned for the safety of people using the sea and feared more fatalities, "even young children".
His comments followed statements made ahead of the summer swimming season in September by then-Acting WA Tourism Minister John Day, who suggested tourists in the south-west may want to spend their holidays visiting wineries or scenic sights rather than venturing into the water.
"If it was me I would not be surfing or going swimming far off the coast," Mr Day said.
But critics say the idea that Western Australians who venture into the water will be hunted by killer sharks encourages lazy government policies.
In the December issue of the Australian Journal of Political Science, academic Christopher Neff wrote that the idea of "serial killer sharks" which must be culled was easier to peddle than explaining to the public that shark culls do not protect swimmers.
"A more scientific-based narrative meant telling the public that nothing can be done or that the government did not know what was going on," Mr Neff explains.
During an initial 13-week trial mid-last year, more than 170 sharks were caught by baited lines known as drum lines. However, none were Great White sharks, to which most of the recent fatal attacks had been attributed.
Premier Barnett reluctantly cancelled the program in September but a special agreement with the Federal Government means Western Australia can still hunt sharks that are considered a threat.
The cull attracted a lot of opposition and protesters are now planning a third rally at Cottesloe Beach since culling began, for 1 February.
Locals are still going to patrolled beaches in big numbers, says Surf Life Saving WA. However, the way people use the beach is changing, according to its chief executive officer, Paul Andrew.
"The beach usage first thing in the morning [when sharks are prevalent] has dropped significantly but beach usage at other times has increased, particularly at patrolled beaches," says Mr Andrew.
"Beach behaviours have also changed with swimmers staying closer to shore, swimming in groups and swimming in greater numbers at times other than dawn and dusk," he says.
For cultural studies academic Jon Stratton, narratives around shark attacks are feeding into a cultural myth of Perth as an isolated suburban paradise, constantly in danger of losing its laid-back way of life.
"There's this sense that once upon a time, Perth was this utopia, this Arcadia, and now we've lost that - there are these terrible creatures threatening our lifestyle," says the retired Curtin University professor.
Decades ago, Perth's small-town sense of safety was shattered by serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke. Nicknamed the "Night Caller", he terrorised Perth from 1959 to 1963, committing 22 violent crimes, including eight murders.
From then on, residents who usually left their homes unlocked at night and their car keys in the ignition changed their habits.
"This is the moment when people in Perth can no longer leave their doors and windows unlocked, can no longer allow their children to play in the streets," says Professor Stratton. "This moment keeps changing. It is always marked by some awful event."
There has always been a sense, he says, that nature has not been completely tamed.
"We get it here with bushfires, we get it with mosquitoes, sharks, but basically we are constantly under threat from nature, as if this city isn't securely anchored and could be wiped off the map almost at any time," he says.
"This is the point at which the myth of the threat of nature takes over from the myth of the laid-back, easygoing lifestyle of lying on the beach and swimming around in the blue sea." | Fear and loathing about sharks risk killing Western Australia's laid-back beach lifestyle and producing a generation of children too frightened to swim at the beach, writes Louise Burke. | 30790864 |
The Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) applies to parts of Bootle and Litherland.
The new power, brought in by Sefton Council, was a response to "high levels" of anti-social behaviour in the area, said a spokesman.
Groups of two or more causing trouble will be separated, it added.
The order covers areas including parts of the Leeds & Liverpool canal and along Merseyrail's Northern line.
The PSPO rules that:
Councillor Trish Hardy, cabinet member for communities and housing, said: "The majority of people who live here are good, law abiding citizens, but unfortunately we have been struggling with some high levels of anti-social behaviour.
"What we are attempting to do is help police tackle people causing problems and the community also gets reassurance that there is an active police presence happening."
She said the "strong and vibrant neighbourhoods" in Bootle and Litherland would find the the PSPO's introduction "positive".
The council will work with Merseyside Police to implement the order.
Police Commissioner Jane Kennedy said she welcomed Sefton's decision to take a "firm stance" by introducing it.
Sefton Council has already introduced a dedicated anti-social behaviour officer. | A ban on hoodies covering faces has been introduced in parts of Sefton in a bid to combat anti-social behaviour and organised crime. | 34590878 |
Metamaterials are engineered to have properties that don't occur naturally, such as getting wider when stretched instead of just longer and thinner.
These perforated rubber sheets made by a Canadian team do just that - and then remain stable in their expanded state until they are squeezed back again.
Such designs could help make expandable stents or spacecraft components.
"In conventional materials, when you pull in one direction it will contract in other directions," said Dr Ahmad Rafsanjani, from McGill University in Montreal.
"But with 'auxetic' materials, due to their internal architecture, when you pull in one direction they expand in the lateral direction."
He was speaking to journalists at the American Physical Society's March Meeting, where the research will be presented on Wednesday.
Dr Rafsanjani's search for new designs to create such "auxeticity" found inspiration in the stonework of two 1,000-year-old tomb towers in Iran.
"When you look at Islamic motifs, there is a huge library of geometries," he said.
"On the walls of these two towers, you can find about 70 different architectures: tessellations and curlicue patterns."
Two of those patterns in particular yielded an unusual combination of properties, when Dr Rafsanjani recreated them in a simplified form using a laser cutter and rubber sheets. Not only were these sheets auxetic - expanding in all directions when stretched - but they could snap easily back and forth between stretched and unstretched states.
Such "bistability" is unusual in these materials, Dr Rafsanjani explained. Only a few other examples have been described, and they mostly use origami-like folding techniques.
"These designs are easier to fabricate; all you need is a laser cutter. Depending on the resolution of the laser you could downscale your samples, probably to the micro scale.
"Or you could upscale it for larger components like satellites or solar panels."
He and his colleagues also found they could tweak the properties of the sheets by, for example, changing the basis of the patterns from straight lines to curved ones.
At the heart of the materials' reversible change are small sections of the sheet that rotate as the rubber is stretched.
Rotating units like this - highlighted with colours in the images and video above - have formed the basis of many previous auxetic materials. But Dr Rafsanjani's sheets are unique in the way they snap between configurations.
"We wanted to find structures for these rotating auxetic materials, [such] that when we deform it and it expands, it keeps its deformed shape," he said.
Follow Jonathan on Twitter | A new set of "metamaterials" has been created based on intricate, repeating patterns found in Islamic art. | 35818924 |
The crash happened at the junction of Camberwell Road and Albany Road in Camberwell just after midday.
The cyclist, who has not been named but is believed to be in his 60s, died at the scene.
His death is the sixth cycling fatality on London's roads in two weeks and the 14th death so far in 2013. HGVs were involved in nine of the fatal crashes.
In a separate incident, a cyclist was injured in a collision with a lorry in Camden High Street, close to Camden Town Tube station, just after 16:00 GMT, a spokesman for London Ambulance Service (LAS) said.
"Our staff treated one patient, an adult male, for a minor head injury. He is being taken to St Mary's Hospital by ambulance," LAS said.
The five other cyclists who died between Tuesday 5 November and 13 November are Brian Holt, 62; Francis Golding, 69; Roger William De Klerk, 43; Venera Minakhmetova, 24, and a 21-year-old man from St John's Wood whose name has not been released by police.
The number of cyclists killed so far in crashes in London this year is the same as the figure for the whole of 2012.
The fatality came as Metropolitan Police traffic officers gave road safety advice to cyclists and more than 70 lorry drivers at Vauxhall Bridge Road, Whitechapel High Street and Albert Embankment.
More than 100 cyclists were stopped at Vauxhall Bridge Road over "concerns about their behaviour" such as cutting corners or wearing headphones while riding.
Cyclists are also being encouraged to wear a helmet and a high-visibility jacket.
Assistant Commissioner Simon Byrne said all 2,500 officers from Traffic and Safer Transport Commands were now being deployed to speak to all road users.
"Our activity will be targeted at all road users, during morning and evening rush hours, who are using our roads dangerously, without consideration or care, to reinforce the point that we all have a duty to be safe on our roads," he said.
"Each and every death is a needless tragedy, the human cost of which should never be forgotten."
The latest death took place in the Southwark Council area where its leader, Peter John, has previously called for HGVs to be banned during rush hour to protect cyclists.
2010: 10 deaths, four involving HGVs
2011: 16 deaths, 12 involving HGVs
2012: 14 deaths, five involving HGVs
2013 so far: 14 deaths, nine involving HGVs
Source: TfL
On Monday Mr John said that while a ban on HGVs in rush hour "would not have prevented this tragic death", the incident, he said, would make him more determined to "to work with politicians across London to make our roads safer for cyclists".
The driver of the lorry involved in the latest crash stopped at the scene, police said.
Following the latest fatality, chief executive of the London Cycling Campaign, Ashok Sinha, told BBC London that Mayor Boris Johnson needed to address the issue of safety of cyclists "as a matter of urgency".
"We are in a situation where we have seen an unprecedented number of deaths in such a short period of time."
The campaign group has been calling for the adoption of continental or Dutch-style cycling provisions in the capital, but Mr Sinha said transport bosses have said that would slow down the traffic flow.
"In dangerous junctions in London safety has to be prioritised even if it means adding a few seconds to the journey times.
"Junctions are the greatest danger points in London."
Danny Williams, a cycling blogger who also sits on the Mayor's Roads Task Force, said: "People have moved from being sort of starting to get angry to getting incredibly angry and now they are scared."
Green Party London Assembly Member Jenny Jones tweeted: "6 cyclists dead in 14 days - stop blaming victims & fix the big problems. Get HGVs off roads at rush hour."
Leon Daniels, managing director for surface transport at Transport for London, said: "Our deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of the male cyclist who tragically died after a collision with an HGV which was turning left at the Camberwell Road junction with Albany Street.
"Cycling in London is growing, with almost double the number of cycle journeys on main roads in the capital than 10 years ago.
"We are investing heavily in our cycling programme and our aim is to make cycling as safe as possible, with measures such as improved cycle routes and junctions across London." | A cyclist has been killed in a collision with a lorry in south-east London. | 24989985 |
Karen Bradley's decision is a blow to the media mogul's hopes of having the £11.7bn deal waved through without further scrutiny.
Mr Murdoch already owns 39% of the satellite broadcaster.
An earlier attempt to take over Sky was abandoned in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.
Ms Bradley told the Commons that Ofcom's report into the deal found it risked the Murdoch family having "increased influence" over the UK's news agenda and the political process.
"On the basis of Ofcom's assessment, I confirm that I am minded to refer to a phase two investigation on the grounds of media plurality," she said.
The parties involved can make representations to the culture secretary until Friday 14 July, when she will make a further decision about referring the deal to the Competition and Markets Authority.
Ofcom said it had no concerns about Fox's genuine commitment to broadcasting standards, which Ms Bradley said was a second test for approving the deal.
As a result she told MPs she was "minded not to refer" the bid for a phase two investigation in relation to those concerns.
"While there are strong feelings among both supporters and opponents of this merger, in this quasi-judicial process, my decisions can only be influenced by facts, not opinions - and by the quality of evidence, not who shouts the loudest," she said.
Tom Watson, the shadow culture secretary, told the Commons that "nothing about this decision is a surprise" as he predicted the government would eventually allow the merger to go ahead.
He said if James Murdoch, who is both chairman of Sky and chief executive of Fox, could pass a "fit and proper" test, "then that says more about the rules than it does about Mr Murdoch".
"It's clear that the rules need to be reviewed and if the current Conservative government won't do that then the next Labour government will."
Mr Watson said undertakings from the Murdoch family were "not worth the newsprint they are written on" as he warned that lessons had not been learned from the phone-hacking scandal.
He also accused the Conservatives of forming "an implicit bargain" with the Murdochs as he pushed Ms Bradley to order part two of the Leveson Inquiry into phone-hacking.
The culture secretary claimed Mr Watson was making a "cynical" attempt to politicise the issue and to prejudge the decision.
Evan Harris, executive director of the lobby group Hacked Off, said it condemned Ms Bradley's failure to refer the bid on commitment to broadcasting standards grounds.
"The Secretary of State must now begin Leveson part two immediately, and allow that inquiry to report before considering this merger further," he said.
The deal was approved by European Commission competition authorities in April.
Shares in Sky closed 3.3% higher at 988p, valuing the company at almost £17bn.
Analysts at Citi said it was possible Fox could find a resolution to Ofcom's concerns before the 14 July deadline and avoid a lengthy inquiry.
"Ultimately this is a positive outcome for the Fox/Sky in the sense that it makes deal completion more likely," they said.
"Concerns about broadcasting standards would have been almost impossible to work around, while we believe the groups will be able to offer concessions that adequately address concerns about plurality." | The culture secretary has said she is "minded to" refer Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox takeover of Sky to the competition watchdog. | 40444654 |
"Brussels people do know there is a plurality of interests in the UK," he told the BBC in a phone interview.
"It's not a separate track, but... we reserve the right to do what we need to do, to speak to whoever we need to."
But he acknowledged that the UK could overrule Scottish wishes over Brexit.
Scotland does not have veto power to block UK withdrawal from the EU.
But under the Sewel Convention, Westminster is supposed to get Scottish consent to any UK legislation affecting Scotland's affairs.
Scottish voters backed remaining in the EU by a margin of 62% to 38% in June's referendum, while the UK as a whole voted by 52% to 48% to leave.
Mr Smith is one of two SNP politicians in the European Parliament and is on an expert panel advising the Scottish government about EU relations.
He said the SNP government was examining the EU's separate arrangements with various territories belonging to other EU member states. Among them are the Aland Islands (Finland), Faroes (Denmark) and Guadeloupe (France).
"Collectively, they demonstrate that a flexibility exists if there is political goodwill and a desire to find a solution," he said.
When asked if Scotland could stay in the EU despite Brexit, he said: "It depends what you mean by 'stay in'."
"European status, engagement, involvement could be as part of a member state, or a territory with a different relationship," he said.
"We are looking at all the options - independence is on the table of course, so we're looking at all options up to and including that."
Mr Smith is standing as deputy leader of the SNP alongside the party's Westminster leader Angus Robertson and Tommy Shepherd, the SNP MP for Edinburgh East.
The current deputy leader, Stewart Hosie, has said he will step down in the autumn. | A leading Scottish National Party politician, Alyn Smith MEP, says there is a recognition in Brussels that "Scotland is looking for something different" in relations with the EU. | 36862130 |
The shadow cabinet needed to develop sharper messages and do more to get itself heard, Mr Burnham said.
In an interview with Total Politics magazine, he said it wasn't an issue of leadership but one "of the team".
The Labour frontbencher said the party was "united" and "galvanised", despite recent reports of internal divisions over Ed Miliband's leadership.
Mr Burnham dismissed suggestions he had actively discussed Mr Miliband's exit, but told the magazine it would be "odd" for him to rule out a future leadership attempt.
Mr Burnham, who served as health secretary in the last government, contested the Labour leadership when Gordon Brown stood in 2010, but lost out to Mr Miliband.
Asked about reports of divisions over the leadership, Mr Burnham said: "It's never good, but it has galvanised people. The mood of the party is very resolute. People are gearing up now to fight the election.
"These things happen from time to time, but fundamentally we are united and in a pretty strong place. That's what matters. The mood of 99% of the Parliamentary Labour Party is very united and very positive."
He said of the shadow cabinet: "I think the time has come for us all to raise our game and support him.
"I don't make this an issue of the leader, I make this an issue of the team. We all have to really up our game, do more to get heard, get our messages sharper, get them over. I see it that way.
"I see it as an obligation. We're in the battle now and it's about fighting every single day."
Pressed on whether he had any future leadership ambitions, the shadow health secretary said: "I can't say what life will throw up in the future, but I'm focused on helping Ed, making Ed the next prime minster and getting back in."
Mr Burnham's comments come after some Labour MPs privately told reporters recently that Mr Miliband was not the right person to win the next general election, taking place in May.
Mr Miliband has admitted that his "mettle had been tested" by the speculation, but he denied that his leadership was a problem.
Mr Miliband said it was the party's "duty... not to shrink from the fight, not to buckle under the pressure but to win".
Asked why the Labour Party was struggling, Mr Miliband said many people were "deeply sceptical about mainstream politics and whether it can solve their problems". | Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has said Labour needs to "up our game" if the party is to win the election. | 30339421 |
He said US investigations should not operate on the basis of "innuendo" or "incomplete information".
The FBI is now investigating new emails that may be linked to its probe into Mrs Clinton's private email server.
Mr Comey has faced a fierce backlash for announcing the move just 11 days before the presidential election.
Mr Obama's remarks are his first public comments since Mr Comey's announcement on Friday that the FBI had discovered a new batch of emails that may or may not be relevant to an earlier, closed investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Mrs Clinton's handling of classified information.
"I've made a very deliberate effort to make sure that I don't look like I'm meddling," Mr Obama said in an interview with website NowThisNew.
But he added: "I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don't operate on innuendo, we don't operate on incomplete information, we don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made.
"When this was investigated thoroughly the last time, the conclusion of the FBI, the conclusion of the justice department, the conclusion of repeated congressional investigations was that she had made some mistakes but that there wasn't anything there that was prosecutable."
Who is ahead in the polls?
50%
Hillary Clinton
44%
Donald Trump
Last updated October 25, 2016
Later on Wednesday, at a rally in North Carolina, President Obama urged Democrats of all ethnic backgrounds to get out and vote for Mrs Clinton.
He said her Republican opponent Donald Trump was a threat to hard-earned civil rights, the country and the world.
"The fate of the Republic rests on your shoulders," President Obama told the rally.
"The fate of the world is teetering and you, North Carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction.
"I am not on the ballot, but I tell you what - fairness is on the ballot; decency is on the ballot; justice is on the ballot; progress is on the ballot; our democracy is on the ballot."
It emerged in March 2015 that Mrs Clinton had been breaking federal rules by operating a private email server while she was secretary of state from 2009-13.
Her lawyers combed through the server and provided the state department with 30,000 work-related emails, but her campaign deleted another 33,000 messages, saying they were personal in nature.
Mr Comey concluded in July that Mrs Clinton had been "extremely careless" in handling classified information, but there were no grounds for any charges.
The latest emails were found in a separate investigation into allegations that former congressman Anthony Weiner sent illicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Mr Weiner is married to one of Mrs Clinton's closest aides, Huma Abedin.
The FBI has reportedly obtained a warrant to search the cache of emails belonging to Ms Abedin, which are believed to have been found on her estranged husband's laptop.
There are reportedly 650,000 emails to search through on the laptop, but it is unclear who sent or received the emails or what they were about.
Mr Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch have said they are working quickly to sift through the newly discovered emails.
Democrats have angrily demanded that the embattled Mr Comey rapidly make public what the agency knows about the new email trove.
On Sunday, the Democratic leader in the US Senate Harry Reid accused Mr Comey of violating an act which bars officials from influencing an election by revealing the bureau was investigating emails possibly linked to Mrs Clinton. | US President Barack Obama has implicitly criticised FBI director James Comey over the new inquiry into Hillary Clinton's email use. | 37854392 |
They drag the small boy into a minibus - he is shoeless and wearing torn shorts and a dark blue shirt that is at least three sizes too large.
Ousseynou is one of an estimated 30,000 children who beg on the streets of the capital, Dakar.
"This is the emergency phase of our operation," says Niokhobaye Diouf, the national director of child protection.
In the past, Senegal's authorities have been accused of complacency over tackling child begging.
But in June the president ordered "the immediate removal of all children from the street".
Since then more than 500 children have been "extracted" from the streets by a child protection unit.
On the bus sit another 30 boys, aged between four and 13 years old, who are being taken to a shelter.
Ousseynou will not stop crying, saying that his marabout, or spiritual guide, is waiting for him at a Koranic school on the outskirts of Dakar.
It is common for Senegalese Koranic schools to send their students, known as "talibe", out to beg for food and money.
Alioune Badara Seydi, Koranic teacher
"A child's place is not on the street, but how else can we provide for them?"
In the poor suburb of Sica Mbao, about 75 talibe beg for food and money every morning, from between 07:00 and 10:00.
Koranic teacher Alioune Badara Seydi argues that poverty and lack of state support leave the schools with no other alternative.
"These children are sent to us by parents across the country who live in extreme poverty, but who want their children to learn the Koran," he says.
"A child's place is not on the street, but how else can we provide for them?"
He goes on to explain that the religious education they provide is valuable and begging teaches humility as well as reinforcing solidarity within a community.
"Many of the children that have been educated in this Daara [Koranic school] became important marabouts," he says.
When most of Senegal's population lived in villages, begging seldom led to exploitation, and did not expose the children to the hardships of a big city's streets.
In Dakar - which has a population of more than a million people - it is a different story.
Children have reported being beaten if they fail to earn the sums demanded by marabouts, which can range from between 350 CFA ($0.50, £.049) and 500 CFA.
At least five children living in residential Koranic schools died in the first half of 2016 allegedly as a result of beatings meted out by their teachers or in traffic accidents while being forced to beg, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published in July.
Dozens of other children have been severely beaten, chained and sexually abused or violently attacked while begging over the last 18 months, the report said.
Although arrests of abusive teachers have increased slightly over the past year, courts in Senegal have prosecuted only a handful of cases and prosecutions for forced child begging are almost never pursued, HRW says.
Activists say leaders have been worried about the potential political fall-out of such arrests.
"Politicians don't want to upset influential Muslim leaders," says Moussa Ndoye, who is in charge of a community project aiming to reduce child begging.
"I have yet to see any strong actions to support the president's recent declarations."
But authorities argue the "removal" operations which started in June have already had an impact.
"This is the first time the police have ever forcibly removed children from the streets to protect them," says child protection director Mr Diouf.
"Already there are visibly less children begging in the city's business centre. We know some marabouts are returning to their villages".
But Mr Ndoye believes these measures are insufficient.
"It makes no sense to just pull children off the streets, no thought has been put into this action, there is no plan," he says.
"The action must be clearly mapped out and funded and involve the entire community. The state and the marabouts must speak to each other."
Mr Diouf does concede that policing the streets in search of children will not be enough to end the practice.
He says the authorities are in the process of registering all of the Koranic schools so they can be properly regulated.
At the state-run shelter for rounded up children, Ousseynou is provided with clean clothes, medical care and food.
The children's guardians, either their parents or their marabout, will be summoned to pick them up.
They will be issued with a warning: If the same child is found on the streets again, they will face prosecution. | Four-year-old Ousseynou screams, struggles to breathe and uses all his strength to try to loosen the grip of the two plainclothes policemen who are part of a team cracking down on child beggars in Senegal. | 37109567 |
The 76-year-old ex-England spinner succeeds lifelong Worcestershire fan and former Governor of the Bank of England, Lord Mervyn King of Lothbury.
Lancashire-born Gifford takes up office, for two years, from 22 March.
"This club has always been close to my heart," said Gifford, who finished his playing days in 1988 with Warwickshire, including three years as skipper.
"For me it is a great honour to be asked to be president. This place has got fantastic memories.
"My enthusiasm for cricket is as strong as ever," added Gifford, who still has a part-time role with the county as spin bowling coach. "I still love coming down to the ground. I will do everything I can to ensure it is a successful two years as president and I hope the success I enjoyed as a player will be repeated by this talented squad we have here now."
As well being a key member of the 1964 and 1965 County Championship winning sides, Gifford captained Worcestershire to the title in 1974 - and to the first of the county's three Sunday League wins, in 1971. | Worcestershire have appointed former captain Norman Gifford as the club's new county president. | 38656233 |
Dzeko turned in Bruno Peres' cross from close range to give the hosts the lead after only five minutes.
Ever Banega equalised for Frank de Boer's side in the 72nd minute with a calm finish after Mauro Icardi's pass caught out the Roma defence.
Manolas restored Roma's lead soon after as his header deflected in off Icardi.
Inter pressed for a late equaliser but Dzeko nearly grabbed a second late on, only to be denied by Samir Handanovic's stunning save.
It was the fourth straight home win for Luciano Spalletti's side as they stayed within five points of leaders Juventus, who won 3-0 at Empoli, while Inter fall to ninth.
Match ends, Roma 2, Inter Milan 1.
Second Half ends, Roma 2, Inter Milan 1.
Miranda (Inter Milan) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Juan Jesus (Roma).
Attempt missed. Samir Handanovic (Inter Milan) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Éver Banega with a cross following a corner.
Corner, Inter Milan. Conceded by Bruno Peres.
Foul by Assane Demoya Gnoukouri (Inter Milan).
Edin Dzeko (Roma) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Roma. Radja Nainggolan replaces Alessandro Florenzi.
Foul by Assane Demoya Gnoukouri (Inter Milan).
Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Stevan Jovetic (Inter Milan) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Bruno Peres (Roma).
Attempt missed. Edin Dzeko (Roma) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the left following a set piece situation.
Attempt saved. Edin Dzeko (Roma) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Alessandro Florenzi with a cross.
Foul by Yuto Nagatomo (Inter Milan).
Alessandro Florenzi (Roma) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Éver Banega (Inter Milan).
Kevin Strootman (Roma) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Offside, Inter Milan. Éver Banega tries a through ball, but Stevan Jovetic is caught offside.
Substitution, Roma. Leandro Paredes replaces Diego Perotti.
Gary Medel (Inter Milan) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Diego Perotti (Roma).
Own Goal by Mauro Icardi, Inter Milan. Roma 2, Inter Milan 1.
Attempt missed. Kostas Manolas (Roma) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Alessandro Florenzi with a cross following a set piece situation.
Foul by Stevan Jovetic (Inter Milan).
Bruno Peres (Roma) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Miranda (Inter Milan).
Diego Perotti (Roma) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Mauro Icardi (Inter Milan).
Kostas Manolas (Roma) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Goal! Roma 1, Inter Milan 1. Éver Banega (Inter Milan) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Mauro Icardi with a through ball.
Substitution, Roma. Stephan El Shaarawy replaces Mohamed Salah.
Substitution, Inter Milan. Stevan Jovetic replaces Antonio Candreva.
Offside, Roma. Diego Perotti tries a through ball, but Mohamed Salah is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Assane Demoya Gnoukouri (Inter Milan) left footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Mauro Icardi.
Attempt missed. Ivan Perisic (Inter Milan) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right from a direct free kick.
Juan Jesus (Roma) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Antonio Candreva (Inter Milan) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Juan Jesus (Roma). | Roma moved up to third in Serie A as goals from Edin Dzeko and Kostas Manolas secured victory over Inter Milan at the Stadio Olimpico. | 37467855 |
As a young man he fished for sharks and spent up to three months at sea on a single trip. But now the 50-year-old says the waters are the most dangerous he has ever experienced.
"We're scared of going out without protection," he says, standing on his 30m wooden boat in the busy fishing port of Tanmen.
"A big boat like this costs a lot of money and I don't want to lose it."
Capt Wang is a battle-hardened veteran of the growing skirmishes on the South China Sea involving several Asian countries.
With a third of the world's shipping passing through its waters, the South China Sea is of vital strategic importance.
But increasingly, territorial disputes are flaring up over its potentially huge oil and gas deposits as well as the rich fishing grounds.
Countries including China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan all have competing territorial claims over various different rocks, reefs and islands.
But these growing disputes mean the fishermen of Tanmen need to operate on the frontline in order to make a living.
In his sparse wooden cabin, Capt Wang carefully lays out his charts to set out his roll call of clashes at sea.
Five years ago, he says, his fishing boat was seized by the Malaysian authorities following a confrontation. He then says he was thrown into jail for five months.
Capt Wang bought another boat and headed straight back out to sea.
In the latest incident last year, he says, the Vietnamese coast guard attacked his crew.
"The Vietnamese patrol deliberately sank one of our small boats," he said. "I was in Chinese waters."
"Three of my crew were left clinging to rocks. I managed to rescue them. But now the men are too terrified to return to sea."
Of course, fishermen from across the region report harassment, aggression and even detention at the hands of rival claimants to South China Sea areas.
But China is stepping up its patrols, it says, in order to protect its fishermen.
Beijing is also staking its claim to disputed territories and waters in the South China Sea in more concrete ways.
It is building a brand new city on an island in the heart of South China Sea.
Investment is pouring into the new city, Sansha, including funds for a new military base.
These moves are making China's neighbours nervous, says Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt from the International Crisis Group.
"Right now there's a risk of conflict because all of these competing claims," she said.
"The tensions are being shaped by regional apprehension about the growth of China's economic, political and military power and a lack of clarity over its intentions."
In response many smaller Asian countries are renewing old friendships with Washington.
But Chinese officials believe that the US is trying to use the issue to contain the rise of China.
Wu Shicun, president of the country's National Institute for South China Sea studies - a government-sponsored think-tank - blames American involvement for inflaming the tensions.
"Countries like Vietnam and the Philippines now believe that Washington will support them in any dispute," he said.
"That's the reason why they're provoking Beijing over the South China Sea issue."
Back on his boat, Capt Wang is running out of patience. He says that China should use force to end the disputes.
"We should send our troops to take back our territorial waters," he said, a portrait of Chairman Mao hanging on the cabin wall behind him.
"I'm prepared to fight. I've waited a long time for military confrontation."
It is this type of talk that makes China's neighbours extremely nervous.
Beijing insists its rise is peaceful. But China's growing power and confidence are sending ripples across the region. | Wang Chun Li knows the dangers of the South China Sea better than most. | 21008639 |
Evans has had surgery to repair a tendon in his wrist and could be sidelined until November.
The 24-year-old's most recent appearance was Wales' 46-6 defeat by New Zealand in the third Test in June.
"I don't think we will see Rob until near the autumn internationals," Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac told the South Wales Evening Post.
"He suffered the injury during the Six Nations and carried it through for the rest of the season." | Scarlets and Wales prop Rob Evans will miss the start of the 2016-17 season because of a wrist injury. | 36959321 |
Ex-England one-day keeper Mustard, 32, has scored just 51 runs in seven first-class innings for Durham this season.
Davies, 21, made 730 runs at an average of 40.55 as Lancashire secured promotion from Division Two.
"Alex has played tremendously well for us this season and to lose him at this stage is a blow," Lancashire head coach Ashley Giles said.
"But Phil has a tremendous pedigree and will slot into the squad seamlessly for two crucial games as we hope to finish the season with another trophy."
Lancashire are vying with Surrey for the Division Two title and they meet in their next game at Old Trafford, starting on 14 September. | Lancashire have signed wicketkeeper Phil Mustard on loan from Durham after Alex Davies suffered a knee injury. | 34226375 |
The Belgium midfielder was one of a handful of players Mourinho had deemed to have underperformed this season.
Mourinho has also been under scrutiny, with the champions 15th in the league, 14 points behind leaders Leicester.
"I don't have a problem with him. We hope we can win a lot of trophies together," said Hazard, 24.
"Maybe not this season because it will be difficult, but next season and on."
The Blues moved above Norwich into 15th with a 1-0 win over the Canaries on Saturday - it was only their fourth victory in 13 league games this season.
Hazard, who was recently linked with a move to Real Madrid, has yet to score for the Blues in 18 appearances in all competitions in 2015-16.
He managed 20 last season en route to winning the Professional Footballers' Association and Football Writers' Association player of the year awards.
On his own form, he said: "I didn't start the season well. I tried to find out why, but I don't know.
"Sometimes you don't know. You have to keep going. I gave everything in training, on the pitch when I played.
"I hope I can get a lot of form and try to help the team win games." | Eden Hazard has denied having a strained relationship with Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho and suggested he wants to stay at the Premier League champions. | 34895436 |
Bob Wellington said budget cuts in the past five years had been "horrendous".
He reserved his criticism for the UK government, saying the Welsh Government was "restrained" in what it could give councils.
The Labour councillor will stand down as Torfaen council leader next month.
Mr Wellington is Wales' longest serving council leader, having served for 13 years. When he leave his post, he will also stand down as leader of the Welsh Local Government Association.
Councils are set to get their first cash increase since 2013-14 in the funding they get from the Welsh Government next March.
However, once inflation is taken into account, the overall £4.1bn funding pot amounts to a real-term cut compared to the year before.
The Welsh Government gets most of its money for councils from the UK government through a block grant.
Asked what he thought the state of local government would look like in 10 years, Mr Wellington, who represents the Greenmeadow ward in Cwmbran, said: "The way we are going there won't be such a thing."
"There needs to be a change of heart on a national level, and if there isn't there will be local authorities in Wales that will go to the wall," he said.
"If we continue to have these cuts on a continual basis there will be serious problems stacking up in Wales," he said.
"I lay the blame on the national [UK] government with an austerity programme that's being passed down to the assembly.
"They are having difficulty and they are obviously restrained in terms of what they can give local government."
Mr Wellington added: "The last five years have been horrendous, not only for me but for all leaders of all local authorities in Wales."
Last month, Finance and Local Government Secretary Mark Drakeford said no council would "have to manage on less than 99.5% of the cash provided to them last year".
"When added to the other sources of income available to them, many councils will be able to increase their spending next year," he said. | Councils in Wales will "go to the wall" if there is no change of heart on austerity, the outgoing leader of the Welsh Local Government Association has said. | 38143635 |
Fortunately the apocalypse is not yet upon us.
A solar eclipse is when the moon moves directly between the Sun and the Earth. It's unusual because the Earth, Sun and the Moon all have to align.
It also rare because of the elliptical (oval) shape of the Moon's path, or orbit, around the Earth, meaning the Moon is sometimes further away from us.
Additionally the Moon's orbit is on a tilt, making it even more rare when the Sun, Moon and Earth align.
We haven't had a full solar eclipse since 1999 and the one happening this March is only a partial eclipse.
If you miss this one, it will be 2026 before you can catch the next partial eclipse.
It will be 2090 until the next total solar eclipse is seen in the UK.
As it's such an unusual occurrence, it's probably worth having a party.
It's going to be a breakfast affair as the eclipse begins in the UK at 8.45am.
The maximum eclipse, when the Moon is nearest the middle of the Sun, will be at 9.31am.
It will all wind down at 10.41am.
The further north you go, the greater the shadow over the Sun and the fuller the eclipse.
Up to 94% of the Sun's light will be blocked by the Moon in Scotland.
In places further south like London, the Sun will probably only be 85% obscured by the Moon.
According to Dr Edward Bloomer, an astronomer with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Faroe Islands is the best place to see it.
But if you can't make it that far north, you'll still get a "very good view indeed" in the UK.
All you need is a "nice clear horizon and view of the sky".
It's about not having tall buildings or trees blocking the view.
Eclipse glasses: Looking at the Sun directly damages your eyes.
These special specs are specially made to filter out harmful radiation and ultra violet light so you can gaze at the star without hurting your vision.
They are relatively cheap and you can buy them online.
Alternatively Dr Bloomer says you can make your own eclipse viewer at home with a "pinhole projection".
He told Newsbeat: "Get yourself a piece of card and cut a hole in it.
"Cover that with a piece of tinfoil, pierce a very small hole in it.
"If you point that towards the Sun and project the light coming through the pinhole onto a piece of white cardboard or paper then you can view the Sun and view the Sun's projection there, so you aren't looking directly at the Sun."
It's not just the fact that you get to see the "celestial mechanics at work" which makes eclipses interesting, according to Dr Bloomer.
You can see the atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona (yup, like the beer) during the eclipse.
This corona is super-hot, 100 times hotter than the already impressive 5,538C temperature of the sun itself.
Eclipses reveal aspects of the corona, such as streamers, (long bright pointy bits packed full of electrons) plumes (thin streaks from the Sun's north and south pole), and loops (shimmering active magnetic fields, often found above darker sun spots.)
If you're staring at the sky but feeling underwhelmed, indulge your fellow party-goers with some of these eclipse-related facts to get the party started.
1. Academics have tried to uncover the exact date for the crucifixion of Christ using astronomical calculations.
They take as their starting point the theory that the darkness that clouded the sky on Good Friday, when Jesus was on the cross, was actually a partial eclipse.
2. Those glasses are important.
You don't want to end up like 19th century psychologist Gustav Fechner, who partially blinded himself while doing experiments which involved staring at the Sun through a coloured lens.
3. In Romanian folklore Vârcolacs are wolf-demons that eat the moon and the sun during eclipses. They are often classed as vampire-hybrids.
Greek mythology borrows this notion for their 'vrykolakas'. However, these undead creatures drink blood and swell up like drums.
Korean folklore also links dogs with eclipses, saying that solar eclipses occur because mythical dogs are trying to steal the sun.
3. Muslims conduct special prayers during the eclipse. In them they thank Allah for his control over the Sun and the Moon.
4. There's a recurring myth that pregnant women can't go outside during an eclipse. Astronomers from the Griffith Observatory in LA say they get dozens of calls about it when an eclipse happens, even though it seems irrational. But if one of your friends is pregnant, don't worry, you can invite them along to your party. This myth has no basis in fact.
5. The word eclipse comes from the Ancient Greek word ékleipsis, which means abandonment.
6. The speed of the Moon as it moves across the Sun is approximately 2,250 km (1,398 miles) per hour.
Happy viewing!
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | Next Friday we'll witness a solar eclipse, an event people once thought heralded the end of the world. | 31746958 |
Danny MacAskill said he discovered that his blue Inspired Skye bike had been stolen from his van when he opened it at about 05:30 on Wednesday.
Posting on Facebook, MacAskill asked people to "keep an eye out for it around the Glasgow area".
But he advised that no-one should "go rugby tackling any kid" who was riding a bike similar to his.
MacAskill said on Facebook: "Went down to my van this morning at 5.30am to grab my bike (in its red EVOC bike bag) only to find my van had been broken into and bike and bag where gone which is less than ideal!!
"If you could keep an eye out for it around the Glasgow area that would be great!
"Mind and don't go rugby tackling any kid riding a blue Inspired Skye off there bike! Mine have a pretty specific set up which I will post later. Cheers Danny." | Scotland's best known stunt cyclist has appealed for help in finding his bike after it was stolen in Glasgow. | 29342844 |
Inch Cape Offshore Ltd wants to build up to 213 wind turbines off the Angus coast.
The project is a joint venture between energy firms Repsol Nuevas Energias UK and EDPR.
Industry body Scottish Renewables described the move as a "landmark moment" in developing Scotland's offshore energy potential.
If approved, the wind farm would cover an area of about 150 square kilometres (58 square miles) with have an estimated installed capacity of 1,050 megawatts.
Inch Cape spent three years developing the project. The company said it had undertaken a full environmental impact assessment, with the results available for public viewing at locations around East Lothian, Fife and Angus.
Repsol UK managing director Ronnie Bonnar said: "'The submission of the consent application is an important milestone for the Inch Cape project.
"It represents another major step towards development of offshore wind power in the outer Firth of Tay, delivering opportunities for communities in the surrounding area to benefit from the investment which is expected to deliver up to 1,600 Scottish jobs during construction.
"We look forward to working with the relevant stakeholders to ensure a positive outcome for the application."
Scottish Renewables senior policy manager Lindsay Leask said: "This announcement is a landmark moment in Scotland's progress towards unleashing its offshore energy potential, as today's news means that all the of the current offshore wind projects on the east coast of Scotland have now formally submitted planning applications.
"With a quarter of Europe's offshore wind resources, and a world-renowned expertise in the offshore sector already, Scotland has a huge opportunity to benefit from offshore wind development in Scotland and beyond."
Last month, Highland councillors decided to raise no objection to a proposal to construct up to 277 wind turbines off the Caithness coast in the Moray Firth.
The Scottish government, which has the final say in the scheme, had sought Highland Council's views on the Beatrice Offshore Windfarm project. | Plans for a major wind farm in the outer Firth of Tay have been submitted to Marine Scotland. | 23189588 |
The whales in Farewell Spit, Golden Bay, are being kept cool by conservation staff.
Officials are hoping that the whales will be able to refloat themselves when the tide rises in the evening.
Seven whales died in the same area earlier this month when 25 of them were stranded.
"We generally get one stranding a summer and we occasionally get two, but since I've been here in the past 10 years, we've never had three," regional conservation area manager John Mason was quoted by the New Zealand Herald as saying.
The whales were spotted by an aircraft pilot while flying over Farewell Spit, he added.
In November, 47 whales also died in the same area when a pod of 65 got stranded.
Pilot whales - which are mammals and belong to the dolphin family - can grow up to 20 feet and weigh up to three tons.
Scientists do not know what causes mass beaching of whales.
They are most common in New Zealand in the summer, when whales pass by on their migration to and from Antarctic waters. | A group of 90 pilot whales have beached on a spit at the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island - the second incident in the area this month. | 16675613 |
The draft see the NFL's 32 teams choose the best players from American college football teams across seven rounds.
As the league's worst-performing side last season, Cleveland were given the first pick and chose 21-year-old Garrett from Texas A&M.
British-born Obi Melifonwu is yet to be selected, with six rounds to come.
Melifonwu, 23, who moved to America aged three, was considered a fringe first-round prospect and should be selected on Friday when the second round begins, while fellow Londoner Jermaine Eluemunor could also be a day two pick.
The draft takes place up until Saturday with a total of 253 selections due to be made.
An estimated 70,000 football fans attended Thursday's first round outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The big surprise of the night came with the second pick of the first round when the Chicago Bears, who were due to have the third pick, traded with the San Francisco 49ers to leapfrog them and select quarterback Mitchell Trubisky from North Carolina.
TJ Onwuanibe, a 14-year-old from Baltimore, who is in remission after battling a rare form of brain cancer, was chosen to announce the Baltimore Ravens' pick of Marlon Humphrey.
UCLA's Takkarist McKinley, who was selected by the Atlanta Falcons, walked on stage with a picture of his grandmother, who he then dedicated his achievements to. McKinley was raised by his grandmother Myrtle who died in 2011.
He said: "I told her, before she passed away, I was going to win my dream. 'I'm going to get out of Oakland, I'm going to go to the NFL.'
"I made that promise to her. Thirty seconds later she passed away. And it's who I do it for, it's who I do it for." | Defensive end Myles Garrett was taken as the first overall pick by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the NFL Draft in Philadelphia. | 39742780 |
Sales for the past six months, down 5% on the same period in 2014, at £128m, were also depressed by tough price competition in the soft drinks market.
The Cumbernauld-based firm is no longer selling the Orangina Brand and Finlays water. Stripping out those brands means there was a decline of 3.5%.
AG Barr said it hoped to regain momentum in the second half.
In a update issued to the stock exchange, the company said trading had "remained subdued as anticipated".
The share price fell 4% on the news.
The firm, which also makes Tizer and Rubicon, said its performance compared to a period last year when it was buoyed by its sponsorship of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
It said this "along with poor weather, particularly in the north of the UK", had hit sales while a switch-over in IT systems had produced "short term customer service challenges which have also impacted our overall revenue performance".
Barr added: "Market conditions have remained competitive with ongoing deflation across the soft drinks market and continued high levels of price promotion.
"Despite these challenges our margins remain in line with management expectations."
In recent months, it has closed its site in south Wales, started new packaging lines at its new Milton Keynes plant and acquired the Funkin cocktail drinks business.
The statement went on: "Our objective for the second half of the year is to bring improved operational stability and growth to the business and to begin to realise the benefits associated with the changes we have made."
After a disappointing first half of the year, AG Barr said it expected its sales and profit targets to be made up in second half.
The group will publish half-year results on 22 September. | The cold, wet summer weather has taken the fizz out of sales at Irn-Bru maker AG Barr. | 33658654 |
Whatever the inconsistencies in Moscow's own policies, it has highlighted the deficiencies in Washington's approach - not least the collapse of its ailing "train and equip" programme for Syria, which was largely going nowhere.
Washington badly needs a new approach. US prestige in the region is at a low point.
Most of its allies are in one way or another negotiating with Moscow, and the clear message is that any new diplomatic path will run through the Russian capital rather than Washington.
Moscow's air strikes have overwhelmingly targeted non-Islamic State (IS) groups and to that extent have actually assisted the so-called IS.
Indicative of the ailing US policy is that the frequency of US air strikes against IS targets in Syria has slowed significantly since the Russian air campaign began in early September.
So US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter's appearance before the influential Senate Armed Services Committee provided an opportunity for the Obama administration to set out a new policy, to reflect the changing dynamics in the region.
What he delivered, though, was far from new - and his comments raise all sorts of questions about the scale and scope of any future US military involvement.
Two things should be clear from the outset.
The US can no more than Russia resolve the twin crises in Syria and Iraq from the outside.
That depends upon key regional actors and probably most of all upon the various factions engaged on the ground.
Secondly, the Obama administration is deeply conflicted on intervention in the Middle East.
After all - in the wake of Afghanistan and Iraq - US President Barack Obama cast his foreign policy as one that would withdraw US troops from foreign wars, not engage in new ones.
That policy has had to be modified in the light of the circumstances in Afghanistan.
And we are now seeing the start of the equivalent adjustment for Iraq and Syria.
Before the committee, the US Defence Secretary spoke of a policy guided by what he called the "three Rs", namely "Raqqa, Ramadi and raids".
Much of this remains highly tentative and subject to the same limitations US policy has suffered from the outset - apart from the Kurds, the US lacks effective allies on the ground.
Furthermore, many of the anti-IS forces also opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are either linked to al-Qaeda or more heavily influenced by Turkey or the Gulf States rather than by Washington.
Then there is the question of how much additional military force the US itself is willing to bring to bear.
There is talk of deploying a small number of Apache attack helicopters to Iraq.
That could involve hundreds of extra US personnel.
The question of deploying forward air controllers to maximise the air campaign's impact is also being raised again.
And the new "raiding" policy similarly has many uncertainties.
The mission last week that freed dozens of IS-held prisoners cost the life of one US serviceman, and the Pentagon has been far from clear as to the precise role of US forces in that mission.
A more active policy could well lead to further US casualties, with perhaps only limited tactical results.
Why is there a war in Syria?
Anti-government protests developed into a civil war that, four years on, has ground to a stalemate, with the Assad government, Islamic State, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all holding territory.
Who is fighting whom?
Government forces concentrated in Damascus and the centre and west of Syria are fighting the jihadists of Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, as well as less numerous so-called "moderate" rebel groups, who are strongest in the north and east. These groups are also battling each other.
What is the human cost?
More than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and a million injured. Some 11 million others have been forced from their homes, of whom four million have fled abroad - including growing numbers who are making the dangerous journey to Europe.
How has the world reacted?
Iran, Russia and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement are propping up the Alawite-led Assad government, while Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the more moderate Sunni-dominated opposition, along with the US, UK and France. Hezbollah and Iran are believed to have troops and officers on the ground, while a Western-led coalition and Russia are carrying out air strikes.
Iran's growing role in Syria's war
Syria crisis: Where key countries stand | Russia's intervention in Syria has changed the military and diplomatic dynamic in the crisis and left the US struggling to catch up. | 34656711 |
The men, who had gone to Belgium for United's Champions League match on Wednesday, were on Thursday's 20:40 BST service from London to Manchester.
British Transport Police (BTP) said a 51-year-old man was arrested after he was reported by a witness as making racist comments to a fellow passenger.
Another 51-year-old man was later detained for kicking the witness.
He was arrested at Manchester Piccadilly station on suspicion of common assault.
The first man was held at Crewe station on suspicion of committing a racially aggravated public offence. He has been bailed until 17 September.
Manchester United beat Club Brugge 4-0 to seal their place in the group phase of the Champions League. | Two Manchester United fans have been arrested after a train passenger was racially abused, police have said. | 34089370 |
David Webb, 43, from Cambridgeshire, was injured when the crane tilted and fell at a site in Crewe, Cheshire on 21 June. He died on 25 July as a result of his injuries.
David Newall, 36, from Bradford, and Rhys Barker, 18, from Castleford, West Yorkshire also died in the accident.
The Health and Safety Executive and Cheshire East Council are investigating.
More from Staffordshire and Cheshire
Mr Webb was originally from Northampton but was living in St Neots. His father died six days before he did.
His family said he died doing a job he loved and was passionate about.
"Dave was a fun loving character who lived his life to the full. He was known for his large personality and sung his way through life," a family statement said.
The building site, which was formerly part of the Bombardier works complex, belongs to Seddon Homes.
A nearby resident said he had seen the crane being used to lift tools when it started to tilt and then fall.
The HSE said it is aware of the incident and is working fully with Cheshire Police in its investigation. | A third man has died as a result of a crane collapsing at a building site. | 40802452 |
Re-live those unique moments at Tales of the Misunderstood - a live storytelling event this summer.
Maybe the witty story you told about losing your leg in a shark attack back-fired, when your boss - having believed it to be true - retold it at a conference.
The time the waiter gave you a children's menu at a dinner because you're a person with restricted growth.
Or how friends and colleagues awkwardly edit out words like mad or crazy because they know you see a therapist.
We know your story is likely to be more fascinating than our examples here and we're looking forward to hearing them.
Whatever the tale, we're interested. All we ask is that the story is true, you are disabled or have a mental health difficulty, and that your story incorporates this.
If chosen, you'll get to work with a top comedy script producer and perform it in front of an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August.
Want to give it a go?
Write up your story and send it to us - by 9 July - along with some information about yourself.
If you just want to do a summary for now, that's fine, but the people who got through last time mostly submitted long stories in their first email.
Email [email protected] or direct message us on Facebook.
If you have a great story, but need some "access" to tell it, we'll work with you to improve and communicate it.
The final story will need to last about seven minutes. It could be funny like stand-up or an engaging insight into something the audience may not have thought about.
As well as performing it to a friendly crowd, we'll also be filming it for the BBC.
This is the second time we've put on a storytelling event, the first was in March 2017.
Have a look at two of the acts from the first show in London - where many of those taking part had never performed on stage before.
Remember the deadline for your stories is 9 July.
If we like yours we'll be in touch to let you know the next step.
Accommodation is available if you are coming a long way, and travel funding is available if you are based in the UK.
We will endeavour to assist with all access needs. And we can answer any questions via the aforementioned email address too.
Please share this on social media - especially with those you know who can tell a good story.
Bookmark this page and keep across Facebook for updates about being an Ouch storyteller and how to get free tickets.
What Ouch's storytelling team said about being part of our first live event:
"Performing for the all-embracing BBC Ouch! audience has encouraged me to be courageous and creative in response to my difficulties, opening up a whole world of opportunities. The experience has taught me that sharing stories about our disabilities is something we owe not just to ourselves, but to each other."
(John Servante)
"Disabled people are uniquely placed to tell stories about people, kindnesses and weirdness ... but often these stories remain within disability circles and don't get out there for everyone to wonder at."
(Damon Rose, Ouch editor) | BBC Ouch wants your funny, confusing or embarrassing stories about those awkward situations which occurred because you're disabled or have mental health difficulties. | 40307727 |
The party urges Labour supporters to vote Communist on the regional lists at the assembly election in May to ensure socialist representation in the Senedd.
Leader Robert Griffiths said it wanted a Welsh Assembly with "real powers and resources to make a big difference".
He called for a federal Britain which would redistribute the wealth "hoarded" by the richest 10% of the population. | The Welsh Communist Party is calling on the next Welsh Government to nationalise the steel industry. | 36111691 |
Mr Morgan, who served nine years at the helm of Welsh Government from 2000 to 2009, died in May at the age of 77.
Hundreds of people attended a celebration of his life at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay on Wednesday.
Thursday's service took place at the Wenallt chapel, Thornhill crematorium in the city. | Family and friends of the former first minister Rhodri Morgan have paid their final respects at a service of committal in Cardiff. | 40110004 |
The 31-year-old joined the Tigers from Birmingham City in June 2013 and has made 105 appearances for the club in all competitions.
The former Luton, West Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa man helped Hull reach the 2014 FA Cup final and scored their second goal in their 3-2 defeat by Arsenal at Wembley.
Steve Bruce's side are currently fourth in the Championship. | Hull City defender Curtis Davies has signed a two-year contract extension. | 35823629 |
Some employers were worried about being fined if they did not register before a deadline next week.
One business owner told the BBC he had been unable to get onto the website since Monday.
However, the regulator said the website was now up and running again.
A spokesperson said that customers should be able to get onto the website without difficulty, but anyone facing problems should call the helpline, on 0345 600 1011.
Thousands of small businesses with between one and 19 employees are currently having to tell the regulator how they are conforming to the new pension rules.
Under the law, anyone over the age of 22 and earning more than £10,000 a year has to be offered a pension. | A computer glitch at The Pensions Regulator - which prevented employers from registering for auto enrolment pensions - has now been fixed, the regulator has said. | 40057025 |
The Mercedes driver will start 13th after penalties for other drivers but faces major damage to his title hopes with rival Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari on the front row.
Asked to explain why he was so slow, Hamilton said: "I can't at the moment. I did everything I could in the car.
"It is going to be a real struggle to get into the points."
Hamilton added that he was "devastated, to the point that I could not get out of the car" when he returned to the pits.
He said the problem was "a tyre issue - I didn't get the grip from the tyre".
He added that it was "similar problem" to the Russian Grand Prix a month ago, when the three-time champion was also off the pace because of overheating tyres.
"Other people are making them work," he said. "We just have to get our head around it. It's a mystery. None of us can understand it."
Hamilton had two out-of-control moments during the second session when he just managed to avoid a crash.
His final attempt to get into the top-10 shootout was thwarted when McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne crashed but the 32-year-old felt it made little difference.
"I think I would have struggled," Hamilton said.
"That lap may have just got me into the top 10 and then I probably would have struggled to be in the top five with whatever issue I was having with the car."
Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas is third on the grid, just 0.045 seconds slower than the time set by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to take pole position.
Hamilton said: "It's great to see Valtteri was able to extract one sense of what the performance was.
"It shows we were not terrible here and we will just have to figure out why I was not able to be up there with him."
Mercedes non-executive director Niki Lauda said: "I cannot explain because we do not know yet. We have to analyse everything. Both cars were the same, Bottas' car worked fine and his [Hamilton's] did not.
"I feel terrible for Lewis, he certainly knows how to drive around Monte Carlo, so it is not his fault. But nevertheless we have to find out the reason."
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Bottas said: "Ferrari definitely were quicker today. They have been strong all weekend and we have been struggling a little with the set-up.
"The car seems very sensitive to set-up changes. In second practice we were way off, we got it better through P3 and qualifying but it was still not an easy car to drive.
"But I felt I was able to get more confident in qualifying and extract more and the last lap was mega - the best I have ever done around here.
"Pole was 0.05secs away, but there was no more in the car, I tell you. We thought Ferrari would be further away, at least 0.2secs.
"It's a shame they locked out the front row because now they have the upper-hand with strategy and everything. But it will be an extremely long race here, we look for opportunities." | Lewis Hamilton said he was at a loss to explain why he could qualify only 14th on the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix. | 40072050 |
Stanley missed out on automatic promotion on goal difference and then lost 3-2 on aggregate to AFC Wimbledon in their play-off semi-final tie.
"The last three weeks have been an absolute nightmare," he said.
"We'll go again next year but it will be more difficult. Teams will be wise to us and we won't be the surprise package."
Accrington finished the regular campaign with a 12-match unbeaten run, but a goalless draw at home to Stevenage on the final day meant they finished fourth in the table.
Having lost the first leg of their semi-final tie 1-0 to the Dons on Saturday, Stanley led 2-0 with half an hour remaining in the second leg at the Wham Stadium thanks to a penalty from Josh Windass and a long-range effort from Piero Mingoia.
However, Adebayo Akinfenwa's header set up extra-time and Lyle Taylor's 104th-minute strike settled the tie in AFC Wimbledon's favour.
"I'm sick at the moment but you've got to accept in life there are winners and losers. I've had my fair share," Coleman told BBC Radio Lancashire.
"We've played some unbelievable football this year - Piero's goal deserves to win the World Cup, never mind a play-off semi-final.
"The fact that we've been brought to the brink [of promotion] and each time it gets snatched away, it can be cruel.
"The thing that's annoying me at the moment is the ability to win big games is disappearing. Wins at Wycombe, Oxford and Orient mean nothing now."
Reaching the final against Plymouth Argyle at Wembley on Monday, 30 May means AFC Wimbledon are one match away from reaching the third tier for the first time in their 14-year history.
The phoenix club were formed in 2002 in protest at the decision to allow the old Wimbledon FC to relocate to Milton Keynes, and the Dons won five promotions in nine years to reach the Football League in 2011.
Ardley, who played over 300 games for Wimbledon, has accomplished a boyhood dream to manage a side at the national stadium.
"Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a manager," he told BBC Radio London.
"I always dreamt of the possibility of one day walking my team out at Wembley. I've succeeded on something on the bucket list.
"After what they have been through over the last 14 years, to take the fans to Wembley and give them this excitement is immense.
"The connection between our team and our club has never been greater in my time here." | Boss John Coleman has warned Accrington may not be able to repeat a promotion challenge in League Two next season. | 36332264 |
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Vicente del Bosque's side staged a compelling claim to be the greatest international side of all time as the Euro 2012 final was transformed into an exhibition with Italy - who performed creditably for long periods - passed brutally into submission.
David Silva's header was reward for Spain's early supremacy and new Barcelona recruit Jordi Alba doubled the lead just before half-time with a blistering run and finish.
"We've seen a masterclass today. Spain have been the best team in the world for the last four or five years. They deserved it tonight again, even with 11 v 11. Italy gave a lot of effort, but unfortunately they'd played too many hard games. They felt the pace and Spain, with that superior technique and movement and talent on the ball have run out easy winners. The Spanish have been criticised but they are the best team in the world without a shadow of a doubt."
The scoreline was emphatic at the conclusion but Italy performed with great resolve. Once they were reduced to 10 men after losing third substitute Thiago Motta to injury, however, they were ruthlessly exposed by masters of the passing art.
Fernando Torres emerged as a late substitute to make a powerful impact; steering home Spain's third then setting up Chelsea team-mate Juan Mata to inflict the final wound on a bedraggled Italy.
Spain's virtuoso performance was a decisive answer to a growing band of critics who had forced coach Del Bosque and his players to defend themselves against allegations that they had been "boring" throughout Euro 2012 at the pre-match media conference.
And even Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, in an ill-timed contribution, wrote that Spain "have betrayed their philosophy and turned it into something more negative".
Not on this night.
Every quality that has led to them dominating world football since they won Euro 2008 and the World Cup in South Africa two years later was brought to bear.
It was a heartbreaking night for Italy and coach Cesare Prandelli but there was no shame in being beaten by a team of such quality. They can reflect with satisfaction on their work before this chastening evening.
Spain, perhaps stung by the words of criticism aimed in their direction, started with a pace and tempo of passing that the Italians found impossible to live with.
The warning signs were posted for Italy when a long spell of possession ended with Xavi shooting just over - but it was not long before they were ahead.
Cesc Fabregas was employed in the so-called "False Nine" role as Del Bosque played without a conventional striker. The former Arsenal star proved the tactic is a positive force rather than a negative one.
He collected the masterly Andres Iniesta's pass and outflanked Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini before delivering perfectly for Silva to head beyond keeper Gianluigi Buffon.
It was Chiellini's final contribution as he swiftly succumbed to the thigh injury that has been troubling him in the later stages of the tournament and was replaced by Federico Balzaretti.
Italy's response to Silva's goal and the early Spanish onslaught was commendable as Antonio Cassano twice had shots saved by keeper Iker Casillas but a goal of brilliance in creation and execution made their task mountainous.
Alba demonstrated exactly why Barcelona were so keen to bring the graduate of their famous La Masia youth academy back to the Nou Camp from Valencia when he finished a blurring run on to Xavi's perfect pass with a composed finish past Buffon.
Prandelli acted during the interval, sending on Antonio Di Natale for Cassano. Twice he almost got the goal that could have halted Spain, heading just over before bringing a fine save out of Casillas.
Italy's third and final change came when Motta replaced Riccardo Montolivo but Italy's luck was summed up when he suffered a hamstring injury within minutes and the Azzurri were reduced to 10 men.
Spain were now winning with something to spare and Del Bosque took the opportunity to remove the outstanding Fabregas and introduce Chelsea striker Torres for the closing stages.
It was an opportunity he took, adding the final flourishes by steering home Spain's third and unselfishly setting up Mata's finish to round off a spectacular performance. | Spain made history in magical fashion as they outclassed Italy and claimed a successive European crown to add to their 2010 World Cup triumph. | 18355496 |
Odeon & UCI is currently owned by private equity firm Terra Firma, and has 242 theatres with 2,236 screens.
Dalian Wanda, the world's biggest movie theatre operator, is led by China's richest man Wang Jianlin.
Odeon & UCI will continue to be based in London and will operate as a subsidiary of AMC.
Adam Aron, AMC's chief executive and president said in a statement: "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire Europe's leading cinema chain and create the world's biggest and best theatre operator."
He said there were uncertainties created by Brexit, but added "we are encouraged that current currency rates are highly favourable to AMC with the pound falling to a three decade low versus the dollar".
The addition of Odeon & UCI will mean AMC has 627 theatres and more than 7,600 screens in eight countries.
The sale is still subject to competition clearance from the European Commission.
David Hancock, head of film and cinema at IHS Technology, said: "AMC is part of the Wanda group, which includes screens in China, AMC in the US, Hoyts in Australia and now Odeon UCI in Europe: all major exhibitors in their part of the world and making Wanda the largest global cinema exhibition group.
"In addition, Wanda has built the world's largest film production studio in China and acquired Legendary Entertainment, a US producer of blockbuster features, as well as assets in big data, entertainment marketing and gaming distribution."
Wang Jianlin was born in 1954 and spent 16 years in the People's Liberation Army before moving into property.
He founded Wanda in 1988 and built it up to become China's biggest commercial real estate firm.
Wanda's expanding entertainment and tourism sector spans movie cinemas, theme parks and film production.
The company owns a share in a US film studio, Legendary Entertainment, the maker of blockbuster hits such as Jurassic World and the Dark Knight Batman trilogy.
As well as AMC, the Chinese giant has picked up a slew of other foreign companies - with a focus on investing in hotels and big foreign brands - including luxury British yacht maker, Sunseeker.
Mr Hancock said the Odeon & UCI sale had been a long-running saga.
Terra Firma paid €650m (£475m) for Odeon in 2004 and bought UCI the same year for €350m, merging the two groups.
The group, chaired by Guy Hands, is best known for its ill-fated £2.4bn takeover of record company EMI in 2007.
It tried to sell Odeon & UCI in 2011, but abandoned the process after failing to attract bids close to its £1.2bn valuation.
There was a second attempt in 2013 that also proved unsuccessful.
AMC was bought by Dalian Wanda Group in 2012.
AMC is still in the process of trying to buy US movie theatre operator, Carmike Cinemas.
It said the Odeon & UCI sale did not affect its ability to complete the Carmike deal.
But Mr Aron said there was a risk the purchase could fall through because some of Carmike's shareholders had an "unrealistic view" of the company's value to AMC. | Odeon & UCI Cinema Group has been bought by AMC Entertainment, a US chain owned by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, in a deal worth £921m ($1.21bn). | 36771596 |
Valentin Stocker opened the scoring for Hertha six minutes after the break.
Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a penalty saved for the hosts, but then converted Ousmane Dembele's cutback 10 minutes from time to earn a point.
Emre Mor was sent off for Dortmund after a push on Sebastian Langkamp, with goalscorer Stocker also dismissed.
The Swiss forward was sent off for a dangerous tackle in the final seconds.
The draw was a club-record 25th successive unbeaten home game for Dortmund, but the second game in a row they have failed to win after defeat by Bayer Leverkusen last time out.
Thomas Tuchel's side are third behind Hertha and leaders Bayern Munich, who play Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. | Borussia Dortmund were held to a draw by second-placed Hertha Berlin in a Bundesliga match featuring two red cards and a missed penalty. | 37663060 |
Their study, reported in Science, found exposure to high concentrations of polystyrene makes perch larvae favour the particles over more natural foods.
As a result of exposure to plastic, the young perch are smaller, slower and more susceptible to predators.
The researchers called for plastic micro-beads to be banned in cosmetics.
Concerns have been growing about the amount of plastic in the seas in recent years.
A study that came out last year estimated that about 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the oceans annually.
When exposed to UV radiation, chemical degradation and the movement of the waves, this plastic breaks down into tiny pieces. Those smaller than 5mm are referred to as micro-plastics. The term also covers plastic micro-beads from personal care products.
Scientists have been worried that these tiny fragments can build up in the guts of marine creatures and can also leach toxic chemicals.
To look at the impact of micro-plastics on the early life stages of fish, Swedish researchers exposed perch larvae to different concentrations of polystyrene in water tanks.
In the absence of micro-plastics, about 96% of the eggs successfully hatched. This dropped to 81% for those exposed to large quantities.
The fish that did hatch in these waters with high quantities of micro-plastics were "smaller, slower, and more stupid" than those that hatched in clean waters, lead author Dr Oona Lonnstedt, from Uppsala University, said.
When exposed to predators, about half the young perch from clean waters survived for 24 hours. Those that had been raised with the strongest plastic concentrations were all consumed by pike over the same period.
Most surprising for the research team was the way that plastic changed food preferences.
"They all had access to zooplankton and yet they decided to just eat plastic in that treatment. It seems to be a chemical or physical cue that the plastic has, that triggers a feeding response in fish," Dr Lonnstedt told BBC News.
"They are basically fooled into thinking it's a high-energy resource that they need to eat a lot of. I think of it as unhealthy fast food for teenagers, and they are just stuffing themselves."
In the study, the researchers link the decline of species such as perch and pike, observed in the Baltic Sea over the past two decades, to increased deaths at the juvenile stage. They argue that if plastics are impacting young fish across species, it could have "profound effects" on ecosystems.
Other researchers said the new study was an important step forward in understanding the mechanisms of impact on marine species.
"The observations we have so far are about the amount of plastic we find in the seas, and the amount we find within animals," commented Dr Erik Van Sebille from Imperial College London.
"Your intuition would say it is not good for a fish to eat plastic, but scientifically you want to prove it, you want to be able to show what the impacts plastic are having, and that has been very hard to determine until now, and that's why this is such a big paper."
The US has banned the use of plastic micro-beads in cosmetic and personal care products and there is growing pressure in the UK and Europe to do the same.
"It's body care products, it's not just toothpaste and scrubbers; some mascara and some lipsticks have plastic in them too," said Dr Lonnstedt.
"It's a silent threat that we haven't really thought about before. We need to ban the products that have micro-beads in them."
Ministers in the UK have already said that if the EU cannot adopt a common position on the issue then Britain is prepared to ban them unilaterally.
The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee will be questioning witnesses about micro-plastics next week.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc and on Facebook. | Young fish become hooked on eating plastic in the seas in the same way that teenagers prefer unhealthy fast food, Swedish researchers have said. | 36435288 |
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) was alerted at 06:49 and two appliances were sent to the city centre building.
A SFRS spokesman said firefighters quickly traced the fire to the basement. The incident has not been treated as deliberate.
The Scottish Courts Service said the building's power had been shut off.
A spokesperson said the court would be re-opened "as soon as possible". | Inverness Sheriff Court has been closed temporarily following a small early morning fire. | 32897146 |
The pair drove in a pedestrianised zone in the Puerto Banus area of Marbella, running down three people.
Police said the men, aged 28 and 29, left the scene and crashed their car into two other vehicles, injuring five more people, and then tried to run off.
The local force said the men were under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
None of those involved in the incident on Sunday evening suffered life-threatening injuries, but some received hospital treatment.
In a news conference, the local police chief, Javier Martin, said one of the British men had been treated at the Costa del Sol hospital, but had been discharged.
Both men tested positive for alcohol, he said. One also tested positive for cocaine and the other for cannabis.
He said that both men had been involved in an altercation in a nightclub in Puerto Banus but had then left in the car.
Dashcam footage from a nearby driver shows a black Audi Q7 driving in the wrong direction on a dual-carriageway, before crashing head-on with another vehicle.
The two Britons, one of whom police say is a Marbella resident, are currently being questioned by police in southern Spain.
The mayor of Marbella, Jose Bernal, described the events as "exceptional" and said "Marbella is a safe city". | Two British men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and reckless driving in the Costa del Sol, Spanish police have said. | 40086859 |
But now one man has successfully claimed back the cost of his time from a firm which called him when he had specifically asked them not to.
Richard Herman from Middlesex felt like he was being hounded by calls and texts from companies telling him they could help him claim compensation after an accident or claim back money spent on mis-sold payment protection insurance, or PPI as it's known.
He has not had an accident and he has never taken out PPI.
And he is also registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), which should stop unwanted sales calls.
So he decided to take action.
Back in July, Mr Herman answered a call from an overseas call centre inviting him to make a PPI claim, he decided to stay on the line.
He answered the caller's questions until he was eventually passed through to a UK operation, called PPI Claimline, and told them he wanted to be taken off their sales list.
"I said to them, you need to stop calling me and, I said, if you keep calling me, I'll charge you £10 a minute for my time to be talking to you," Mr Herman said, speaking to Radio 4's Money Box programme.
"I presumed that would be the end of it, but to my astonishment they called me again."
During the second call - which came only two days later - Mr Herman waited 19 and a half minutes to be put through to the UK operation, to confirm that it was the same company as before, and to explain that he was now charging for his time.
So, when he got off the phone, he sent an invoice for £195 to PPI Claimline.
Listen to the full report on Money Box on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, 27 October at 12.00 BST.
Listen again via the Radio 4 website
Download the Money Box podcast
Got a story? Contact the Money Box team
At first, he got no response. So Mr Herman sent the invoice again, this time by recorded delivery. PPI Claimline then wrote to him.
The company said it itself did not cold call, but it purchased introductions from other marketing companies including AAC, a UK company based in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, which uses the overseas call centre that had first called Mr Herman and passed him on to PPI Claimline.
The company said there was no record of Mr Herman's number in its database or that of any of its partner companies.
But Mr Herman had recorded the phone calls. So, stepping up his consumer assertiveness another gear, he filed a case in the small claims court.
And that seemed to do the trick and the case was settled before it went to court.
AAC, the company which had called Mr Herman on behalf of PPI Claimline, paid him £195 for his time and electricity, as well as his £25 court costs.
It has been a cathartic experience for Mr Herman:
"It cheered me up to think that actually instead of being the victim of these calls I can actually defend myself against them to put the boot onto the other foot."
Both PPI Claimline and AAC declined to be interviewed by the BBC, but issued statements saying they are sorry that Mr Herman was called after he had asked for the calls to stop.
They say they only contact people who have opted in to receiving marketing calls, and they say Mr Herman had done so via a website he visited, which requires you to tick or untick a box to agree to be contacted by other companies. Mr Herman says he has not.
But even if he had, AAC is still breaking the law in this case, according to John Mitchison from the Telephone Preference Service.
"If Mr Herman had given specific consent for a named company to contact him, then that would have overridden TPS, but it would have to have been as blatant as that.
"General third party opt-in does not override TPS. The company should have been screening against TPS. It's a legal requirement to do that."
If you are registered with the TPS, and receive a cold call, you can complain to the TPS who will do a first round of investigations and pass the company's details on to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
But the ICO has not been doing enough to stop rogue companies, according to Mr Mitchison:
"They haven't made any serious enforcement action for quite some time. At the beginning of this year, the ICO were given increased powers.
"They can now enforce a civil monetary penalty of £500,000, but they haven't done anything in the area of the TPS as yet.
"It's very frustrating. We obviously receive a huge number of complaints each month and we receive telephone calls from people that are being deluged by this type of call - particularly in the area of PPI and accident claims."
Ofcom figures show that complaints about cold calls trebled in the first half of this year, with nearly 10,000 complaints lodged in July alone.
But the ICO is taking the problem of nuisance calls seriously according to its director of operations, Simon Entwhistle.
"In the past five or six years, we've taken action against 19 different companies for making calls that breach the electronic communications regulations," he said.
"The power to fine has only been in force for the last year. We have issued our first notice of intent to fine someone and the fines are totalling over £250,000.
"That's actually for people who've been sending spam texts, but these people don't just send one medium…they send several different mediums."
And what does he think of Mr Herman's success in taking matters into his own hands?
"It raised a wry smile. I think the people that make these calls are a nuisance and it's really good to see the public joining in the fight back against them."
And other sales companies would probably do well to take Mr Herman's details off their databases, because he's ready for their call:
"I continue to receive further telemarketing calls, albeit from other companies. And I say to them every time now, that I will charge them £10 a minute if they call again.
"I would like to think that it will help other people because every friend and family member I speak to all feels very under the cosh of these telemarketing companies."
AAC of Bishop's Stortford is not connected to AAC Direct of Cardiff.
Listen to the full report on Money Box on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, 27 October at Listen again via the Radio 4 website or the Money Box download. | Complaints about unsolicited calls and texts from sales and marketing companies have reached an all-time high. | 20068927 |
RTÉ said the report also found that no one single event or decision led to the failure of the banks in the lead-up to the crisis.
It found that the introduction by the banks of tracker mortgages to the Irish market was based on a "false presumption by banks of the stability of available funding at or near the European Central Bank rate".
The report also concluded that the banks became over reliant on the wholesale markets in borrowing short term to lend long term.
It stated that this made banks more vulnerable to a liquidity risk which was not recognised.
The report found there was a culture of "excessive executive remuneration in the banks".
It also recommends that all members of bank boards should have requisite financial skill sets and experience.
The report said they should "undergo ongoing compulsory continuing professional development appropriate to banking, to include risk and governance".
The report has recommended that risk appetite in banks should be clearly defined at board level and should be the key driver for defining overall strategy.
It has asked for a full risk assessment of new bank products on both the lending and deposit side and approved by the full board, prior to being introduced to the market.
The Republic of Ireland experienced a catastrophic financial crisis in 2008 from which it still has not fully recovered.
The country's banking sector had to be almost entirely nationalised when the bursting of a property price bubble coincided with a global downturn.
The inquiry, which began hearing from witnesses in December 2014, has been looking at the political, economic, social, cultural, financial and behavioural factors that contributed to the crisis, as well as the preventative reforms which followed. | The banking inquiry in the Republic of Ireland has found that senior executives and directors across financial institutions were responsible for the failure of banks during the financial crisis. | 35425495 |
The company, which took over naming rights of the former Millennium Stadium in January 2016 on a 10-year deal, will then cease to sponsor the competition.
That will bring an end to 13 seasons supporting the semi-pro league.
However, next season Principality will enter a new agreement putting its name to the WRU National Youth Leagues.
Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Martyn Phillips said: "Everyone involved in Welsh rugby's semi-professional league will be delighted by the prospect of another year of Principality Premiership action and, perhaps even more significantly, we welcome Principality Building Society on board as the new title sponsors of the WRU National Youth Leagues.
"Principality's commitment to Welsh rugby plays a vital role in helping us to safeguard the future of our national game and their direct interest in the grass roots and community end of the game is particularly significant."
This season's competition reaches its peak this weekend, when Aberavon face Merthyr in the 2017 Principality Premiership final at the Talbot Athletic Ground on Sunday, 21 May (ko 1530 BST).
The Tier Two final between Neath and Newport takes place at the Gnoll on Saturday night (ko 1930 BST). | The Welsh Premiership will continue to be sponsored by the Principality Building Society, which has extended its deal for the 2017/18 season. | 39948565 |
The 17-year-old from Dewsbury was questioned in April on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.
The North East Counter Terrorism Unit confirmed he will not face any charges under section 5 of the Terrorism Act.
Hassan Munshi and Talha Asmal, both 17, are feared to have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State.
West Yorkshire Police and counter-terrorism officers are investigating.
Speaking at the time of their disappearance in March, the boys' families said they were praying for the safe return of the "ordinary Yorkshire lads".
Hassan's brother, Hammaad Munshi, was arrested in 2006 at the age of 16 after police found a guide to making napalm on his computer.
He became the youngest person to be convicted under the Terrorism Act. | A teenager arrested in connection with the disappearance of two boys believed to have gone to Syria has been released without charge. | 33052600 |
That's the challenge Sia issued to Kanye West, hours before he unveiled his latest fashion collection.
The pop star tweeted her question to Kanye, linking to a YouTube video that contained harrowing scenes of rabbits being slaughtered for their coats.
"This is the reality of fur ," said Sia. "It's so sad."
West's Yeezy Season 5 appeared to include both fur coats and accessories.
The most striking item was a floor-sweeping fur coat, showcased by hijab-wearing model Halima Aden, who was the first Miss Minnesota contestant to compete wearing a hijab and burkini.
Vogue magazine said the garments were faux fur, although the BBC has been unable to verify that report.
It is not the first time that Sia - who worked with Kanye on songs including Wolves and Reaper - has challenged celebrities over animal rights.
Last June, she tweeted the same video at Kanye's wife, Kim Kardashian, writing, "Hey @KimKardashian I think you're lovely. Would you consider going fur free? This is what animals go through for it."
In December, after rapper Azealia Banks posted an Instagram video apparently showing the remains of several chickens killed in a witchcraft ritual, Sia tweeted, "Sacrificing animals for your gain is the wackest [thing] I've ever heard."
The Australian singer is a vegan and supporter of animal rights' group Peta.
Kanye's show won praise from critics, who called it his most "demure" show yet and welcomed the fashion range's expanding colour palette - he added blues and reds to the line's traditional black and brown colour scheme.
Unlike last year's show - a massive production that required models to stand still for hours in the middle of a New York heatwave, causing some to faint - the Season 5 launch was decidedly low-key, with images projected one by one onto the surface of a giant black rectangle, from a live feed of models standing on a turntable backstage.
Photographers were not allowed - and Kanye didn't even appear to take a bow at the end of the 13-minute spectacle.
The audience, apparently conditioned to expect more drama at the rapper's fashion shows, remained seated for almost five minutes after the lights went up before finally shuffling out to their next appointment at New York Fashion Week.
Among those watching the launch were Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Hailey Baldwin, Zoe Kravitz, ASAP Ferg, Anna Wintour, Pusha T and Teyana Taylor.
The collection itself featured a lot of denim, paired with knee-high boots and a new shoe dubbed the Yeezy Runner.
Hoodies and bomber jackets also featured heavily, many sporting the Adidas stripes, while sweatshirts were stamped with the phrase Lost Hills - the name of Kanye's forthcoming album with Drake.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | "Would you consider going fur free?" | 38983569 |
Northern Ireland's McIlroy, who carded a four-over-par 74, missed a 12-foot eagle putt at the last to win outright.
American Russell Henley won a play-off, which also featured compatriot Ryan Palmer and Scotland's Russell Knox, with a birdie at the first extra hole.
Woods was forced to withdraw on the 13th hole because of back pain.
The American hit a five-under-par 65 on Saturday to move into contention but was five over in his final round when he quit.
His withdrawal comes six weeks before the Masters at Augusta - the first major of 2014 - which takes place from 10-13 April.
"It's going to be hard to get over because I had a great chance to win my first tournament of the season and I didn't.
"It's my lower back with spasms," said Woods, 38. "It started while I was warming up."
McIlroy admitted he was fortunate to have reached the play-off after dropping six shots in 11 holes from the seventh, including a double-bogey six on the par-four 16th where he hit his ball out of a bunker and into water.
He followed that with another bogey on the 17th, which left him needing a birdie on the last to get into the play-off at eight under.
The 24-year-old gave himself a chance of victory though with a stunning second shot on the par-five hole that finished 12 feet from the hole but he was unable to hole the eagle putt that would have won him the title.
"I didn't play well enough to deserve to win," McIlroy told the PGA tour website.
"It's very disappointing. It was a perfect opportunity to win. No one was really coming at me.
"There's a few positives to take, but obviously it's going to be hard to get over because I had a great chance to win my first tournament of the season and I didn't."
Henley, who qualified for the Masters, won at the first extra hole with a two-foot birdie putt.
"I was so nervous coming down the stretch," said Henley, who won his first PGA Tour title at last year's Sony Open in Hawaii.
"I hope I can have a bunch more Sundays just like that in my career. It was a rush to be out there playing with Rory and the crowd.
"I've never been part of a crowd so big cheering for me. It was an amazing feeling. It was so much fun." | Rory McIlroy let slip a two-shot lead and lost in a play-off at the Honda Classic in Florida while world number one Tiger Woods withdrew injured. | 26411766 |
In a tradition as established as turkey curry on Boxing Day, swims were held across Wales, including Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, and Abersoch in Gwynedd.
However, high winds meant the dip in Morfa Nefyn, Gwynedd, was cancelled.
Abersoch RNLI chairman, Phill Brown said the swim was "well supported by dippers and spectators alike".
Organisers of the Morfa Nefyn swim said it would be rearranged for Easter.
Barry organisers said between 400 and 500 people braved the cold water, with 1,856 taking part in Saundersfoot and a further 500 in Abersoch.
Saundersfoot Festivities chairman Martyn Williams said: "The village and wider community has done us proud again. We could not have conceived 33 years ago we would be here now hosting such a major event."
A spokeswoman for the swim in Barry said: "It was brilliant." | Thousands of hardy souls got their 2017 off to a chilly start with a New Year's Day swim in the seas around Wales. | 38483568 |
The 53-year-old signed a deal until the end of the season when he replaced Claudio Ranieri in February.
He steered last season's Premier League champions away from relegation danger and also led the Foxes to the Champions League quarter-finals.
"I expect it in the following days after Sunday," he said. "Of course, in my head, I have ideas on that."
Shakespeare's contract as assistant manager - the position he held under Ranieri - runs beyond June and he would revert to that position if nothing is finalised by then. He did, however, attend a meeting about player transfers last week.
Regarding his involvement in summer deals, he said: "That's the head of recruitment and the director of football's job to deal with that and I'm fairly optimistic and pleased with how far they've got."
Shakespeare offered no further update on his future after Thursday's 6-1 defeat at home to Tottenham, saying his only focus was on the Foxes' final game of the season against Bournemouth at the King Power Stadium on Sunday (15:00 BST).
BBC Radio Leicester sports editor Jason Bourne:
No one else is being linked with the job, and Craig Shakespeare has been part of the planning for pre-season and for the recruitment process for next term. He's also popular with the players, with many of them coming out and saying they'd welcome it if he was given the job on a longer-term basis.
Will the owners look to appoint a bigger or more marketable name? That's always at the back of your mind, but why change something that's been working well? | Craig Shakespeare says he expects to be told within days whether he will remain as Leicester manager. | 39956997 |
In western Maharashtra state, they have been on strike for a week in some seven districts now, spilling milk on the streets, shutting down markets, protesting on the roads and attacking vegetable trucks. In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, curfew has been imposed after five farmers were killed in clashes with police on Tuesday. Last month, farmers in southern Telangana and Andhra Pradesh staged protests and burnt their red chilli crop.
The farmers are demanding waivers on farm loans and higher prices for their crops. For decades now, farming in India has been blighted by drought, small plot sizes, a depleting water table, declining productivity and lack of modernisation.
Half of its people work in farms, but farming contributes only 15% to India's GDP. Put simply, farms employ a lot of people but produce too little. Crop failures trigger farm suicides with alarming frequency.
The present unrest is, however, rooted in a problem of plenty.
In Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, the farmers are on the streets because a bumper harvest fuelled by a robust monsoon has led to a crop glut. Prices of onions, grapes, soya-bean, fenugreek and red chilli, for example, have nosedived.
In most places, the governments have been less than swift in paying the farmer more for the crops - the government sets prices for farming in India and procures crops from farmers to incentivise production and ensure income support.
So why has a bumper crop led to a crisis in farming?
Some believe that the price crash is the result of India's controversial withdrawal of high value banknotes - popularly called demonetisation - late last year.
The ban, surprisingly, did not hurt planting as farmers "begged and borrowed" from their kin and social networks to pay for fertilisers, pesticides and labour, Harish Damodaran, rural affairs and agriculture editor at The Indian Express newspaper told me.
So more land was actually cropped, and bountiful rains led to a bumper crop. But traders, Mr Damodaran believes, possibly did not have enough cash to pick up the surplus crop.
"Although the chronic cash shortage has passed, there is still a liquidity problem. I have been talking to traders who say there's not enough cash, which remains the main medium of credit in villages. I suspect the price crash has been caused by a lack of cash."
A prominent trader in Lasangaon, Asia's biggest onion market in Maharashtra, a state which accounts for a third of India's annual production, told me that concerns over shortage of cash leading to crop price crashes were "exaggerated".
"There has been a good crop for sure, but a lot of traders have picked up crop, paying cash, issuing cheques and using net banking. Some of the glut and wastage has been due to the ongoing strike, when trucks of vegetables have been attacked on the highways," Manoj Kumar Jain said.
Still others believe the main reason for the ongoing crises actually rooted in India's chronic failure of coping with surplus harvests because of lack of adequate food storage and processing capacity.
"If the rains are good, you end up with a glut of crops and prices crash. The glut only highlights the inefficiencies of the farming value chain and hits farmers," Ashok Gulati, an agriculture specialist at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, told me.
Take onions, for example. The vegetable is 85% water and loses weight quickly.
In Lasangaon, traders buy the crop from farmers and store the onions on concrete in tarpaulin-covered sheds. If the weather stays right, 3-5% of the stored crop is wasted in storage. But if the mercury soars, more onions dry up, lose weight and 25-30% of the stored crop could be wasted.
In a modern cold storage, however, onions can be stored in wooden boxes at 4C. Crop wastage is less than 5%. Storage costs about a rupee (less than a US cent) for every kilogram of onion a month.
So the government needs to make sure - or even subsidise - to keep the vegetable affordable to consumers once it reaches the retail market.
"We need to make the supply storage chain so efficient that the customer, farmer and the storage owner are happy. Unfortunately India hasn't been able to make that happen," Dr Gulati said.
For one, India just doesn't have enough cold storages.
There are some 7,000 of them, mostly stocking potatoes in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Resultantly, fruits and vegetables perish very quickly. Unless India hoards food effectively, a bumper crop can easily spell doom for farmers.
Secondly, there's not enough processing of food happening to ensure that crops don't perish or go waste.
Take onions, again.
One way to dampen volatility in onion prices is to dehydrate the bulb and make these processed onions more widely available. Currently, less than 5% of India's fruit and vegetables is processed.
Thirdly, farmers in India plant for new harvest looking back at crop prices in the previous year.
If the crop prices were healthy, they sow more of the same, hoping for still better prices.
If the rains are good, a crop glut can happen easily, and lead to extraordinary fall in prices. Farmers hold on to the crops for a while, and then begin distress sales.
"You need to allow future prices through contract farming, not cropping based on last year's prices," says Dr Gulati.
Clearly, farming policies in India need a radical overhaul.
Punjab, India's "granary", is a perfect example.
At a time when India does not suffer food shortages, water-guzzling wheat and rice comprise 80% of its cropped area and deplete groundwater.
Rising production of cereals has meant that government has been giving paltry rises to the farmers while buying paddy and wheat, eroding their profitability.
"They [the policies] are distorting the choices that farmers make - those who should be finding ways to grow vegetables, which grow more expensive every year, are instead growing wheat we no longer need," says Mihir Sharma, author of Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy.
But the best that the governments here do is to quickly raise crop buying prices and alleviate the farmers' suffering.
Faced with a crop glut at home, the newly appointed BJP government in Uttar Pradesh was smart enough to promptly raise the procurement price of potatoes - and announce a controversial farm loan waiver - and quell a simmering farmers' revolt .
The government in Madhya Pradesh, ruled by the same party, failed to act in time. Now it says it will pay more to buy off the surplus onions. The more things change, the more they remain the same. | Farmers are on the boil again in India. | 40184788 |
27 November 2015 Last updated at 00:55 GMT
Few of those ever get the chance to visit the lands of their ancestors, fewer still choose to return to live in Africa.
But some of those born and raised in the US have gone back to their "roots" in Ghana.
Chekesha Aidoo spoke to journalist Nancy Kacungira about why she moved her life thousands of miles. | There are more than 40 million Americans descended from those taken from Africa and forced into slavery. | 34935373 |
Hannah Waters was one of 13 people on the balcony in Berkeley, California, when the structure gave way on 16 June.
Five Irish students and one Irish-American died in the accident. Seven other Irish students, including Ms Waters, were critically injured.
Consulate staff tweeted a Seamus Heaney poem, along with a photo of her plane.
Quoting the final line of the poem, they wrote: "A postscript for Berkeley as the last of our students heads home. Our hearts caught off guard and blown open. Godspeed."
The work of the Consulate General of Ireland, based in San Francisco, extends across the western United States and includes California, where the accident took place.
It has been assisting the Irish students affected by the tragedy, who had travelled to the US as part of a work exchange programme.
The friends were holding a 21st birthday party in the apartment when the balcony collapsed.
The critically injured students spent time in US hospitals before they were considered well enough to fly home.
All seven received part of their medical treatment in San Francisco.
Some of them have sustained life-changing injuries. | An Irish Consulate in the US has bid a poetic farewell as the last of the Irish students critically injured in a balcony collapse flew home to Ireland. | 34333843 |
The 23-year-old was taking part in the squad's first session at their base in France when he suffered the injury.
"A decision on a new player has yet to be taken," said a Germany statement.
The absence Rudiger, who plays for Roma in Serie A, is a blow with fellow centre-back Mats Hummels not fully recovered from a leg muscle injury.
Germany had arrived at their tournament base in Evian only hours before Rudiger was injured.
They are in the same group as Northern Ireland, Poland and Ukraine.
Create leagues and play against your friends in BBC Sport's new Euro 2016 Predictor game | Germany defender Antonio Rudiger has been ruled out of Euro 2016 after tearing cruciate knee ligaments in training on Tuesday. | 36475145 |
"A big fat zero," he replied, before saying that things were going to improve at Tynecastle - and quickly.
He urged fans to get on board because they wouldn't want to "miss this part of the journey" only to turn up at the station later on when Hearts, rebuilt and successful, arrived at Nirvana. "I know very clearly where we want to go," said Cathro.
Throughout his time in the capital, even when the funeral march was playing at Tynecastle on Saturday, he sounded like a man who knew, as a matter of fact, that he would get it right in the end.
Cathro and the Hearts support were as one in the beginning. The fans embraced him in part because he was young and had coached in some exciting places. It appealed to them that their club were appointing a fresh face rather than one of the old guard. They were doing things differently. That went down well at Tynecastle.
They loved the narrative of Cathro's young life. "Leaving home, going to Portugal (to Rio Ave), not a word of Portuguese, a young guy, 24 or 25 at the time," he said in January. "Not an awful lot of life experience. Probably more football experience than life experience at that point. Every aspect of life there demanded that you grow up. That was a very valuable thing."
They also railed against those who criticised the appointment. There was a proper hubbub - the "laptop manager" debate.
Everybody saw Cathro's appointment as a gamble, but some thought it worth taking and others didn't. There was a lot said about his lack of personality and his likely inability to command a dressing room as a manager, as opposed to his previous life as a coach working under a manager.
When Robbie Neilson left Hearts for MK Dons in December, the Edinburgh club were sitting in second place in the league. It was a bit of a false position. Few at Tynecastle would have wagered a brass farthing on them finishing in the top two or three.
Cathro came in and change happened around him. If he's deserving of sympathy, then here it is. Callum Paterson, one of Hearts' best players and one of their chief providers of goals, got a serious injury and never played under his new manager. Igor Rossi, who played in Neilson's last match, a 2-0 win over Rangers, left the club in January, as did Alim Ozturk. Faycal Rherras, another member of the defence against Rangers, exited for the Africa Cup of Nations. So, too, Arnaud Djoum, the most forceful midfielder at the club.
Whatever stability Hearts had went out of the window. They signed players in great flurries. Few worked out.
As director of football, Craig Levein has to take a share of the blame for what the club became in January.
For four days in February, there were signs of hope when Hearts beat Rangers 4-1 and then beat Motherwell 3-0, but that respite didn't last. When Hearts drew 0-0 with Hibs in the Scottish Cup on 12 February they had seven January signings in their starting line-up. When they got knocked out 3-1 in the replay, those same seven newcomers started again - and an eighth new player came off the bench.
This was a club in an unfocused mess. In the aftermath of that horrendous loss to Hibs, a senior figure at Hearts expressed fear that the fans would never forgive Cathro for losing to their city rivals.
The environment at Tynecastle, with its conveyor belt in and out of the dressing room, can't be ignored in the Cathro post-mortem. Managing Hearts was always going to be a monumentally hard job - their fans are ruthlessly demanding - but managing them through this turbulence would have tested a veteran never mind a rookie.
Cathro knew that he was a poor communicator in front of the cameras. He was uncomfortable and prone to extremely odd comments. He backed his own ability to get the job done on the training ground, though. That's where he said he was most at ease. That's where he thought he was going to make a difference.
Had that been the case, and discernible improvement resulted on the pitch in matches, then he would have bought himself time to improve his shortcomings, to mature as a manager. There was no sign of any improvement. After such a grim time of it last season he needed a fast start to this campaign. Hearts have been awful.
Out of one competition already, booed off on Saturday, lacking in all parts of the pitch - there was no case for him, no hope of survival.
The attention now turns to the next appointment. Hearts' preference with Neilson and Cathro was for young managers trying to make their way. That model might change now. Hearts can't afford to take another Cathro-esque risk on a novice.
There's been much talk about whether the new manager "can work with Levein as director of football", but Levein knows he has to make it work. His neck is on the line as well. If it's Peter Houston, Tommy Wright, Michael O'Neill, Paul Hartley or anybody else on the shortlist then Levein will have to adapt to the new manager. He can't allow himself to become a barrier.
In January, Cathro spoke about his football philosophy, then checked himself mid-sentence and said: "Without winning, everything else is a waste of time." So true.
Hearts have a big and loyal support, a magnificent stadium in development and a clear focus in all areas bar the stuff that happens on the grass at Tynecastle. It's not just a new stand they need to construct - it's an optimism among those who are going to be sitting in it. | After five games of his reign as Hearts coach - one win, one draw and three losses - Ian Cathro was asked to give himself marks out of 10 in the job so far. | 40792493 |
Dara De Cogan, 57, is accused of 12 counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.
The offences are said to have occurred between 2007 and 2009 while Mr De Cogan, of Kilburn, North Yorkshire, was working at Ampleforth College.
He appeared before magistrates in Scarborough but did not enter a plea.
Mr De Cogan was released on bail ahead of his next appearance at York Crown Court on 13 February. | A former music teacher at one of England's top Roman Catholic public schools has appeared in court charged with sexually abusing a teenage girl. | 38639786 |
England's semi-final hopes were ended with a 3-1 defeat by Italy in their final group game in the Czech Republic.
"I'm contracted to stay on, I'd like to stay on," said Southgate, whose deal runs until 2017.
"I think we've had some massive success stories in terms of individuals that have come through the programme."
For a third successive tournament, the Young Lions have failed to progress beyond the group stage.
They lost their opening game of this year's competition against Portugal before beating Sweden on Sunday.
Southgate accepted there "is going to be an inquest" but said work was going on "behind the scenes" to address the lack of first-team football played by young English players.
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"That's the nature of the landscape we've got," he said.
"We need to expose our players more to this type of environment, where there is intense pressure, where they have to produce.
"They need more of it at club level and that would help internationally but, collectively and individually, they would have learned a lot from the last 10 days."
Southgate was without injured striker Saido Berahino, while the likes of Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling, Everton playmaker Ross Barkley and Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere were left out, despite being eligible, because they have been relatively regular members of England's senior squad.
England had qualified convincingly, dropping just two points as they topped their six-team group beore beating Croatia 4-2 on aggregate in a two-legged play-off.
And Southgate argued the squad would be stronger for their experience in the finals.
"They've learned so much over the past two years but also in the last couple of weeks about tournaments, about themselves and life and everything," he added.
"And ironically, in terms of style of football, it was probably the best that they've played tonight."
England goalkeeper Jack Butland said England need to be more "ruthless" in both attack and defence.
He said: "This was completely avoidable, stuff we knew they would do. Italy are crafty and lively, we played better football between the boxes but you can't excuse that at either end.
"It doesn't matter how well you prepare, you have to be able to bring it when needed.
"There are fine margins in these tournaments and we conceded two sloppy goals in two minutes that have cost us our tournament."
Former England striker Alan Shearer: "If that is progress, I'm even more worried than I was."
Former Manchester United and England striker Andrew Cole: "England and the FA need a bit more character. Think outside the box! Step forward Rio Ferdinand. Younger generation can relate to him! #respect. A lot of people saying its poor management?! Who would you want in charge? Is the FA too political in its manager choice?!"
QPR midfielder Joey Barton: "The less said about England's current footballing predicament the better. Just a mess from top to bottom."
Ex-England cricket captain Michael Vaughan: "It's official... England sporting teams really are pants in tournaments... Apart from the women of course."
Ex-England captain Michael Owen: "Painful. Back to the drawing board." | Gareth Southgate says he wants to stay as England Under-21s coach despite their group-stage exit from the European Under-21 Championship. | 33265324 |
In an hour-long special I am presenting with Stephen Nolan, almost 200 18-year-olds will voice their opinions and put the parties on the spot about their policies.
We spoke to politics students at Belfast Met who were born in 1998, and they said they appreciate the significance of the year in which they were born.
It was a year that saw fundamental change in Northern Ireland with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.
Student Stuart English said the the agreement is "better than the alternative... if it means we live in peace".
"I didn't experience the Troubles but my father did, and I might hear a bit about it from him," he said.
"But personally, I don't know what it would be like.
"We hear about it but we don't know what it must have been like day to day."
Courtney Girvin, a product of integrated education, agrees.
"I'm pro-Good Friday Agreement and I have a lot of friends who say it's useless and it hasn't done anything," she said.
"It can be improved, yes, but it's so important because we live in relative peace."
Hannah Kennedy said she will be voting and believes it is important that others do too.
"We've come through the Good Friday Agreement and I think we've different opinions from the older generation," she said.
"So if enough young people don't vote then there won't be the opportunity for this new era of politics to come about."
Stephen Nolan said he wants the young people to "pull no punches" when they face the political parties.
"Politics isn't boring - it's incredibly important if you want to shape the country you live in," he said.
"So let's make this an exciting night where we hear new voices telling out politicians what they want their Northern Ireland to be."
On the night, young people from schools, colleges and those not in education or training will be putting these questions to representatives political parties fighting the election.
Kathleen Carragher, the head of BBC News NI, said the programme is an "exciting opportunity" to find out what Northern Ireland's young people want to ask politicians.
"It will be a chance to hear about the issues that matter to today's young voters and potentially the policy makers and politicians of the future.
"This is just one part of BBC News NI's extensive election coverage in which we are bringing all the passion, the drama and the debate to our audiences, across radio, television and news online."
Election 2016: The Good Friday Agreement Generation will air at 21:00 BST on Wednesday 20 April on BBC One Northern Ireland and on the BBC News Channel. | First-time voters in next month's Northern Ireland Assembly election are getting the chance to challenge politicians live on BBC One next week. | 36039594 |
It was carried out by two independent consultants and strongly criticised the NILA and NINA tests
Several factors were said to have contributed to the problems.
These included the test being brought in too quickly, with too little consultation with schools.
The aim of the review was to identify the factors that had contributed to the problems associated with the implementation of the tests.
It said there was little evidence of checks being carried out to see if schools had enough computers to run the tests successfully.
The review also said that when technical support was needed, it was very slow in coming, almost 18 months.
The report also said there was resistance and concern in schools because principals and teachers feared the tests would be used for selecting pupils for grammar schools, when the 11-plus was scrapped.
The assessments were introduced in 900 primary schools in September, 2012, but hundreds of primary schools complained about the online tests.
The Department of Education paid almost £1m in that year to run the tests, which were designed to check on pupils' literacy and numeracy progress. | New computer-based assessments of primary school pupils between 2012 and 2013 were fraught with problems, according to a review. | 26525370 |
He is facing a 16-year jail sentence for drug trafficking and is seen by investigators as a key figure in a war for control of the mafia drug trade.
Riccio was seized outside the city and police said he did not resist arrest.
Separately, 29 suspected Camorra members have been arrested in Rome in connection with fraud and extortion.
They have been linked to the Zaza clan in the western Fuorigrotta area of Naples.
The Camorra is a formidable mafia network based in the Naples area, which is believed to have extended its influence to Rome and as far north as Florence.
Mario Riccio, believed by police to head another clan called the Amato-Pagato, has been on the run since 2011. He was reportedly arrested at a house north of Naples, where he was staying with his wife and baby daughter.
He is wanted for his alleged role in a drug feud in the Scampia area of northern Naples.
Beyond its role in the drugs trade, the Camorra has been active in illegal waste dumping around the city and the government said last month it would consider sending in the army to tackle the problem. | Police in Naples have detained Camorra clan boss Mariano Riccio, aged 23 and described as one of the 100 most wanted men in Italy. | 26031009 |
It's no secret that the SNP has hoovered up former devotees of other parties, in the wake of the referendum campaign - even some of the speakers debating resolutions on stage admitted having recently been Labour Party members.
But on top of these relative political veterans, more than a few new attendees among the 3,500 conference delegates profess having little direct engagement previously.
One man said he had taken a "plague on all their houses" approach to political parties all his life, until joining the SNP after he retired from a career in financial services.
This is typical of the activists roaming the halls of the AECC in Aberdeen.
The delegates at the conference are, in a word, enthusiastic; they hang on every word uttered on stage, laugh and boo at the appropriate pantomime moments at mention of the Labour and Conservative punching bags, and roared with approval at the very sight of party talisman Alex Salmond.
While there remains a strong element of the more traditional, grey-haired conference delegate among the party faithful present, there are also quite a few younger faces present, albeit often hunched over smartphones.
Members have also taken to the fringe meetings with relish, packing out conference rooms and decimating tables of complimentary nibbles.
And despite a light-hearted atmosphere pervading amongst the weighty policy debate - with selfies being snapped left right and centre and one group dressed up as the "Sexy Salmond" character, complete with pink berets - they take their politics very seriously.
Activists old and new have come to the table with strong opinions; a motion commending the moratorium on fracking was very nearly sent back by members hungry to demand a full ban on the industry, after a hotly contested vote.
And a second motion on radical land reform was sent back, to be made still more radical.
Another area where activists may be more enthusiastic than their leadership is the issue of independence.
In her opening address, Ms Sturgeon made efforts to underline the broader appeal of the SNP, across a range of policies from social justice to housing, even pitching to 'No' voters - a line her deputy John Swinney repeated in his speech.
Party leaders have refused to be drawn on when there might be a second referendum or what the "triggers" for it would be - but their footsoldiers, especially the new members invigorated by last year's referendum campaign, make no secret of the strength of their feelings.
They joined the SNP because of independence. It was the issue which attracted them to the party, and remains priority number one.
Many want to press the advantage currently held in the polls - one man told me he believed there should be a new referendum within three or four years. "It's only a few percent of a difference, it could come down to a few hundred thousand people," he said.
The biggest cheer Ms Sturgeon received during her opening address was when she underlined her dedication to Scotland going it alone, and even during the fracking debate one speaker summed up the mood of activists by saying "independence is the prize we want".
So, while the SNP has a diverse and vast new membership, those members remain committed to the party's traditional core issue, independence - despite attempts to broaden the appeal. | At one fringe event, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson asked for a show of hands to see who was at their first conference, and at least half of the (packed) auditorium responded. | 34553158 |
Sean Raggett had the chance to put the home side ahead in the first half but he volleyed over from close range.
The game failed to improve after the break and the most excitement came when referee Dean Treleaven limped off with an injury.
Lois Maynard had the best chance of the second half but his late effort was comfortable for Dover's Mitch Walker. | Play-off hopefuls Tranmere Rovers and Dover Athletic played out a drab 0-0 draw in the National League. | 35733580 |
The result is expected to be evenly poised between the Yes and No camps.
Denmark's centre-right government, backed by the opposition, wants to abandon some Danish opt-outs from EU home affairs legislation which were secured in 1993.
They say a No vote will mean losing membership of the Europol crime agency.
But the anti-immigration Danish People's Party (DPP), which props up Liberal Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen's government in parliament, was calling on voters to reject the proposals, to avoid giving away further sovereignty to Brussels.
The referendum is being seen as a test of whether the Danes will accept or reject greater integration within a 28-member bloc that is being tested more than ever by the migrant crisis, the BBC's Gavin Lee reports from Copenhagen.
Although a Yes vote would not affect Denmark's opt-out on immigration, the DPP argues that it could eventually lead to immigration policies being dictated by the EU. The No campaign's logo is "More EU - No Thanks!"
Thursday's vote comes less than three weeks after jihadist gunmen launched co-ordinated attacks on Paris, murdering 130 people.
Yes campaigners say that cross-border terrorism and the refugee crisis cannot be solved without EU co-operation.
The government believes that without scrapping 22 exemptions on cyber crime, human trafficking and child sexual abuse, Denmark would have to leave Europol because the agency's legal basis changes in 2016.
Unlike Denmark, the UK and Ireland have opt-ins on justice and home affairs legislation, which enable them to choose whether to accept or reject legislation on a case-by-case basis.
Danes voted in 1992 to reject the Maastricht Treaty expanding the EU's powers. The Danish government then negotiated a series of exemptions from EU legislation. In 2000, Denmark also voted not to adopt the euro.
In August, Mr Rasmussen brought the vote forward to December to prevent it becoming caught up in the debate surrounding the UK's referendum which will decide whether it stays in or leaves the EU.
Days after the Danish referendum date was announced, the influx of migrants into northern Europe began, with hundreds crossing from Germany into Denmark. | Danes are going to the polls in a referendum on whether to adopt EU justice and policing laws, in a vote overshadowed by the Paris attacks. | 34993051 |
Charity Commission figures show that less than 15% of the £18.9m raised has been given to people who lost their homes and loved ones.
The commission said there were initial difficulties contacting those affected, and others had yet to come forward.
The commission regulates charities and charitable funds in England and Wales.
Millions of pounds worth of donations were pledged by concerned members of the public in the days following the Grenfell fire in the early hours of 14 June, which claimed at least 80 lives.
The funds were intended to help people who had lost family members in the blaze as well as Grenfell residents who survived but had lost their home and possessions.
With so much money given, and several charitable groups working to provide immediate support for those caught up in the aftermath, the commission stepped in to advise how best to distribute funds to those affected.
The latest Charity Commission figures, eight weeks on from the fire, show only £2.8m has been handed out.
The body said charities now want to work with survivors to discuss how the remaining funds should be spent long-term.
But in the Grenfell community there is growing anger and frustration, as many believe some charities are not being completely transparent.
Yvette Williams, of the Justice 4 Grenfell group, said: "It's definitely not been fast enough.
"The survivors are raising it more and more: where's the money, who's distributing it, why aren't they distributing it, how have they been chosen to distribute it, what's the criteria for distribution, and how are you communicating with the people who should be receiving that money?
"Information isn't transparent. They have to beg for information and it's still not clear the background of it, or how they're going forward with it."
The Red Cross and the Kensington and Chelsea Foundation each raised £5.75m, and the Evening Standard newspaper fund collected more than £6.7m.
The London Emergencies Trust, which was overseeing the channelling of those funds, announced in July that it was processing three types of interim payment. They were:
A "fresh start" grant of £10,000 per family when they are permanently rehoused is also being distributed by the Rugby Portobello Trust.
Charity Commission chief operating officer David Holdsworth said: "We have been working to help charities co-ordinate their response so that those affected know where to go to get access to the funds that have been raised for them.
"As the regulator, we also ensure that funds are protected for those they are intended for." | Donations made since the Grenfell Tower fire in west London two months ago are not reaching survivors quickly enough, campaigners have said. | 40895134 |
Nemesis, a heavily-modified Lotus Exige body, will be driven by estate agent Nick Ponting, 21, from Gloucester.
Dale Vince said he had built the car to "smash the stereotype of electric cars as something Noddy would drive - slow, boring, not cool".
The record attempt is due to be made at Elvington Airfield, near York, on 27 September.
Nemesis was designed and built in under two years by a team of British motorsport engineers in Norfolk.
It can travel from 100-150 miles between charges, depending on driving style, and can be charged from empty in about 30 minutes using a rapid-charger.
The team believes theoretically the motors are capable of about 200mph but "real world" constraints like aerodynamic lift have to be addressed before the attempt.
Mr Vince, who runs the electricity company Ecotricity, said he was quietly confident the team would break the record.
The current record of 137mph (220km/h) was set by Don Wales, from Addlestone, Surrey, in 2000.
A separate attempt to beat the record last August was thwarted after the vehicle's suspension was damaged by a pothole.
The Bluebird Electric was being driven along Pendine Sands in Carmarthenshire by Mr Wales's son Joe, who suffered mild whiplash as a result. | A battery-powered car will attempt to beat the UK land-speed record for electric vehicles later this month. | 19510051 |
The North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is one of nine in England found to have higher than predicted mortality rates last year.
The figures include deaths in hospital, or within 30 days of discharge.
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust medical director, Dr David Emerton, said it was "reviewing the care of all patients who die".
Dr Emerton said the figures - higher than expected for the second year running - were skewed by the number of patients treated without being admitted to hospital.
Some patients, such as those in care homes nearing the end of their lives, where sent to hospital "when not much really can be done", he said.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), who compiled the data, says the categorisation does not mean a hospital is failing or unsafe and does not take levels of social deprivation into account.
Its figures should "instead should be viewed as a 'smoke alarm' which requires further investigation by the trust", a spokeswoman said.
The SHMI is available from April 2010 and the latest data covers July 2013 to June 2014.
The expected risk of the patient dying in hospital, or within 30 days of discharge, is estimated based on the patient's condition, age, sex and how they were admitted to hospital.
Dr Mike Smith, from the Patients Association, said the figures should be viewed in the context of the area's poverty and unemployment rate.
"If people have, locally, a high mortality and morbidity rate, that means to say people are dying more than the rest of the nation and/or are sicker than the rest of the nation, then you mustn't necessarily think it's the hospital's fault," he said. | More people than expected have died at a Teesside hospital trust, latest figures show. | 31035720 |
The new goals recommend adults eat 30g of fibre a day - a 25% rise on previous levels.
And they suggest eating no more than of 5% added or natural sugars per day - roughly six teaspoons - a cut of 50%.
The changes have been based on evidence and advice from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and Food Standards Scotland.
Fibre helps prevent heart disease, diabetes and weight gain - as well as improving digestive health - and can reduce the risk of some cancers.
The "free sugar" guidelines refer to sugars added to food, or those naturally occurring in fruit juices, honey and syrups.
Eating too much sugar can lead to health problems including obesity and diabetes.
There is also a new goal that carbohydrates should make up around 50% of a person's total energy intake.
Minister for Public Health Maureen Watt said: "Despite some improvements in recent years, obesity levels are still too high in Scotland.
"Also, in common with most of western Europe, we have seen continued increases in the levels of Type 2 diabetes.
"It's clear that, as a nation, we need to improve our diet and think more about reducing our sugar intake and eating more fibre."
Earlier this week, Food Standards Scotland launched the new Eatwell Guide, which replaces the previous 'eatwell plate', and shows people in Scotland how they can achieve a healthy balanced diet.
In Wednesday's Budget, Chancellor George Osborne unveiled a new sugary drinks tax - to be in operation by 2018 - aimed at fighting childhood obesity. | Guidelines on an ideal Scottish diet have urged people people to eat more fibre and less sugar. | 35851172 |
Dominic West, who starred in US crime drama The Wire, said the facility near Foston would wreck the area, where he grew up.
He believed protesters needed support to fight the interests of big business.
Midlands Pigs Producers (MPP) said the premises would have 2,500 sows and 20,000 piglets and observe the highest welfare standards.
Mr West, who had roles in films such as 300 and Centurion, said: "My uncle was a small-scale pig farmer of the sort that would be put out of business by huge factory farms like this.
"I became interested in this through a film called Pig Business about the vast factory farms in eastern Europe, so I was quite concerned it was coming here to Derbyshire."
He added: "The protesters here are up against a very big business that is interested in not just pig farming but all sorts of money making ventures.
"So I hope to raise awareness of what is going on and create a bigger amount of support for the locals whose lives are going to be ruined by this."
MPP produces more than 100,000 pigs each year. It controls 30 farms in eight counties and employs more than 150 people.
A spokesman said they welcomed debate on the project but pointed out there was already a unit in the UK containing 3,500 sows.
The site would also use biogas from the slurry to produce electricity.
South Derbyshire District Council handed over duties for dealing with the application to the county council because of its waste implications.
The county council confirmed it had received the application but that no date had been set for it to be considered. | A TV and film actor has backed campaigners opposed to a large scale pig farm in Derbyshire. | 13776256 |
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