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Shirley and John Hanson have cared for up to five children at a time while running their farm in Leominster, Herefordshire, with their two sons.
Mrs Hanson, 69 and her 73-year-old husband, are showing no signs of slowing down.
"I love my job," said Mrs Hanson. "I want to keep going as long as I'm able to. Since 1976 I've never, ever not had children."
Updates on this story and more from Hereford & Worcester
The couple, who foster for Hereford Council, were recognised for services to children and families in the New Year Honours list.
Mrs Hanson said: "I have fostered for so long it's a way of life for us.
"I feel I have been very fortunate, so this has come as a real surprise.
"I'm always here on the farm so the children feel secure and I'm here if I'm needed to turn cattle."
She said some of their foster placements now had children and grandchildren of their own and still visited.
Janet Rees, from Redditch, Worcestershire, was appointed OBE for services to children and families.
She is the co-founder of Foster Care Associates and non-executive director of Core Assets Group.
A police officer for more than two decades has been recognised for his tireless efforts in supporting the homeless.
Ian Northcott, who served with West Midlands Police for 23 years, has been named as a recipient of the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the New Year Honours List.
The 51 year-old from Bromsgrove set up the Socks and Chocs charity, which helps to distribute thousands of items across the UK.
It was launched five years ago and in 2015 alone there has been more than 12,000 pairs of socks, 5,500 bars of chocolates and thousands of sleeping bags, hats and gloves sent to the homeless and those in need. | A couple who have fostered 300 children over 39 years have been appointed MBEs. | 35199696 |
Philip Edwards used Midlands-based speedyproperty.co.uk to sell his three bedroom house in Hawarden, Flintshire, after seeing an advert in a newspaper.
But he said he only received £68,000 from the £165,000 sale.
speedyproperty.co.uk has not responded to requests for a comment. West Midlands Police is investigating.
Mr Edwards, 69, contacted the firm after he saw a newspaper advert which offered a fast-cash quick-sale house selling service.
He decided to use the firm to sell the semi-detached house which had belonged to his parents.
Despite being sold for £165,000, Mr Edwards said he was only paid £68,000.
The former funeral mortician said the rest, £96,000, was paid to two other companies. BBC Wales understands the founder of speedyproperty.co.uk is a director and shareholder of these two companies.
Mr Edwards said he was not told any money from the proceeds of the sale would be made to any other companies.
He said he had no knowledge of what the companies were and it was only on completion that he became aware of the payments.
He said he was told the money would be invested for his future - but he said he had not been able to contact either of the companies since and has had no further correspondence from them.
Mr Edwards used £64,000 from the sale to pay off a debt.
He remained as a tenant in the property paying the new owner £600 a month but he fell into arrears while in hospital being treated for cancer and was evicted in 2016.
He now lives in sheltered accommodation with his second wife and her son.
"I'm mortified really," said Mr Edwards.
"It's as if everything that my parents worked for and what I've worked for, and at the end of the day there's nothing.
"It was explained to me as an investment, and it would ensure my wellbeing for years to come.
"I've had to graft like anyone else, to have it all disappear..."
West Midlands Police said it was looking into a number of complaints from homeowners who sold their houses through speedyproperty.co.uk - which operated through a website which is no longer accessible.
Police are currently looking into a number of similar incidents.
It is believed a number of different named companies with the same directors and shareholders received large sums of money from each of the house sales.
The force said its Economic Crime Unit was involved in the inquiry which is looking at cases from 2013 to June 2017 and it is believed that there may be many more people who have been affected.
Nigel Cole, a solicitor with Portsmouth firm Verisona Law, is preparing to issue a claim for negligence against a firm of solicitors based in the Midlands which handled some of the speedyproperty.co.uk sales.
"My clients say they didn't know the payments were being made to these companies, they didn't authorise them and were shocked to see such vast amounts of money having disappeared on completion," said Mr Cole.
"Mr Edwards isn't a well man… he had inherited that house from his parents and it was really his only asset in life, and he's lost that asset.
"The clients are very vulnerable, they're elderly, two of them have cancer… they're not sophisticated people and I think they've been taken advantage of and had these massive sums deducted and paid to these organisations.
"They've lost their life savings in these transactions… they've had to leave the houses and go into other houses and temporary council accommodation."
speedyproperty.co.uk did not respond to numerous requests to comment. | A man who used a "quick sale" firm to sell his home claims he received less than half of what the property was actually sold for. | 40876068 |
The cause of death was announced by the office of the medical examiner after Scott's body was discovered in her flat by her assistant on Monday.
Police earlier said there was no sign of foul play and no note was found.
Scott's long-term boyfriend, Sir Mick Jagger, postponed forthcoming Rolling Stones tour dates in Australia and New Zealand after her death was announced.
Sir Mick earlier said he failed "to understand how my lover and best friend could end her life in this tragic way".
He said they had spent "many wonderful years together".
On Wednesday, Jagger's bandmates also expressed their shock at the news of Scott's death.
Drummer Charlie Watts said supporting Jagger was the band's priority.
"Needless to say we are all completely shocked but our first thought is to support Mick at this awful time," he said.
"We intend to come back to Australia and New Zealand as soon as it proves possible."
Keith Richards said "no-one saw this coming" and that Jagger had "always been my soul brother and we love him".
"We're thick as thieves and we're all feeling for the man," he added.
Ronnie Wood said: "This is such terrible news and right now the important thing is that we are all pulling together to offer Mick our support and help him through this sad time.
"Without a doubt we intend to be back out on that stage as soon as we can."
Tributes have poured in for Scott, 49, with fans including supermodel Naomi Campbell, Vogue editor Anna Wintour and singer Madonna eulogising the fashion designer.
Wintour described Scott as "a total perfectionist... always unbelievably generous, gracious, kind and so much fun."
Scott was found in her Manhattan apartment by her assistant at 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Monday.
She had sent her assistant a text message 90 minutes earlier asking her to come to the apartment, without specifying the reason why, the Associated Press news agency reported.
It has since emerged that the fashion label founded by Scott had been heavily in debt. | The death of fashion designer L'Wren Scott has been ruled suicide by hanging, New York City authorities say. | 26657641 |
The Italian side stated that his birth certificate is "absolutely legitimate".
Lazio added: "We reserve the right to take action against those responsible for the protection of the good name of the company and the footballer."
The midfielder also issued a statement via the club's website denying he told an African website he was 41.
He said: "I have read the alleged statements posted on the website senego.net in which it says I confessed my real age which was different to what was stated in my [official] documents.
On his face there is sign of his previous life, which was not a happy life. That is it. Period. There is nothing else that makes you think he is 41
"They are false statements that have been attributed to me by people who do not know."
Minala joined the Rome club last summer and recently played for them in the Viareggio Cup youth tournament.
Italian journalist Max Evangelista, who reports on Lazio's youth team, said any suggestions the player was 41 were "unbelievable".
He said Minala had scored five goals and made six assists this season for Lazio's youth team, who are the holders of the national title.
"He is a very reactive player. You could never say he is 41," he told BBC World Service." When you are surrounded by players running like devils around you, in my opinion it is very tough to be 41. He runs, he is fast. It is unbelievable news, that is why Lazio felt the need to deny it.
"He was in an orphanage for a couple of years in Cameroon, then he had to face the situation here by himself. It is a controversial story because the face of the player is not that of a 17-year-old guy.
"On his face there is sign of his previous life, which was not a happy life. That is it. Period. There is nothing else that makes you think he is 41.
"He is a kid with the head of a kid. He only wants to play football as he did on the road years ago barefoot. That is the only thing he is focused on and being a talent because he is a talent." | Lazio have threatened legal action against those who have questioned the legitimacy of the age of their 17-year-old Cameroonian player Joseph Minala. | 26162408 |
Bilbao won the first leg 4-0 but Barcelona threatened a comeback with Lionel Messi's close-range finish.
Barca defender Gerard Pique was sent-off after the break and Aritz Aduriz struck late on to seal it for Bilbao.
The visitors had Kike Sola sent-off late on, but the celebrations for Bilbao had already begun.
It was ultimately a disappointing display for Barcelona who, despite plenty of possession, failed to threaten often enough.
After Barcelona's humiliating defeat in the first leg, Athletic Bilbao knew Luis Enrique's side would be determined to make amends.
The reigning European champions lined up with Messi, Luis Suarez and Pedro in attack but the visitors had done their homework and the trio were well marshalled throughout.
Whenever Messi had the ball, at least two players crowded round the Argentina international and his inability to get into the game left Suarez isolated.
Pedro, a reported target for Manchester United, had Barcelona's better opportunities in the opening stages but was unable to make them count.
The forward was full of running but his finishing let him down when it mattered, most notably when he missed the ball completely when a corner routine was worked to him on the edge of the area in the first half.
Pedro failed to find the target with another chance after the break and was eventually replaced in the 68th minute.
Enrique heads into the new season with some concerns at the back. Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was named on the bench after conceding eight goals in his last two games, with Chile international Claudio Bravo starting in his place.
Barcelona's attacking intent often left them exposed at the back, and any hopes of getting the goals they needed ended when Pique was needlessly sent-off midway through the second half. The defender angrily remonstrated with the linesman and the referee produced a straight red.
After a brief spell of Barca dominance, Jeremy Mathieu gifted possession to Aduriz, leaving the forward one-on-one with Bravo and, after his initial effort was saved, Aduriz side-footed home the rebound to put the game beyond Barcelona. | Athletic Bilbao won a first trophy in 31 years as a 1-1 draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp secured the Spanish Super Cup with a 5-1 aggregate victory. | 33969001 |
French planes destroyed a training camp in the eastern town of Deir al-Zour, President Francois Hollande said.
A US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq for more than a year.
Speaking in New York, Mr Hollande said a political solution was needed to end the Syrian crisis, but President Bashar al-Assad could not be part of it.
France, like the UK, has previously confined its air strikes against the Islamic State group to Iraqi airspace.
The UK announced earlier this month it had carried out a drone strike against two British citizens in Syria but has yet to fly manned operations in Syrian airspace.
France had previously maintained that international law prevented it from attacking targets in Syria - Paris was adamant that it would do nothing to help, even indirectly, the Assad government, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.
But the French government has now accepted that getting rid of Mr Assad is no longer the priority and the fight against IS trumps everything else, our correspondent says.
Two factors have put Syria on the priority list for the leaders gathering in New York for the UN General Assembly. One is the threat posed by the jihadists of Islamic State. The other is the refugee emergency, which means that the reverberations of the Syrian war have reached Western Europe.
Now, the military priority is hitting IS.
The British hope that their new stance on President Assad might help to break the deadlock over Syria in the UN Security Council, which has crippled diplomatic attempts to find a way to stop the war.
If the rift in the Security Council over Syria cannot be repaired, Mr Cameron's call for a new diplomatic initiative to end the war won't change anything.
Diplomatic goals behind Putin's Syria build-up
Migrant crisis: Fleeing life under Islamic State in Syria
Syria's civil war explained
The battle for Syria and Iraq in maps
More than 200,000 Syrians have been killed since the country erupted into civil war in 2011, and Islamic State took control of swathes of the country in 2014. Mr Assad has been accused of killing tens of thousands of his own citizens with indiscriminate bombing in rebel-held areas.
European leaders gathering at the UN are intensifying calls for a diplomatic push in Syria in the wake of a massive influx of refugees heading for Europe.
Approximately four million Syrians have fled abroad so far - the vast majority are in neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan - and more are on the move.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron - along with US President Barack Obama and Mr Hollande - has previously demanded that Mr Assad be removed from power as a condition of any peace deal, a position consistently rejected by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In order to secure Russia's continued support, Mr Cameron is expected to soften that position this week by telling the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York that Mr Assad could remain temporarily in power at the head of a transitional government.
Speaking as he arrived in New York on Sunday, Mr Cameron said: "[Bashar] Assad can't be part of Syria's future. He has butchered his own people. He has helped create this conflict and this migration crisis. He is one of the great recruiting sergeants for Isil [IS]."
The urgency of finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict has also been reinforced by Russian military build-up in Syria in support of Mr Assad's regime.
Iraq on Sunday announced that it had signed an agreement on security and intelligence co-operation with Russia, Iran and Syria to help combat IS.
Reiterating his support for President Assad, Mr Putin said Russia was co-operating with countries in the region, "trying to establish some sort of co-ordinating structure".
In an interview with CBS television, he said Mr Assad's troops - "the only legitimate conventional army there" - were fighting terrorist organisations and Russia "would be pleased to find common ground for joint action against the terrorists".
US Secretary of State John Kerry, however, said the efforts were "not yet co-ordinated" and the US had "concerns about how we are going to go forward". | France has carried out its first air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria. | 34372892 |
Matthew and Nawwar Bryant said Zachary, a "loving, happy, and perfect little baby", was the light of their lives.
"He leaves us with the best three months and 14 days of wonderful memories spent in this world," they said in a statement.
A man has been charged with five murders over the incident on Friday.
Dimitrious Gargasoulas, 26, was remanded in custody on Monday to face a court hearing in August.
Police allege he deliberately drove a car into pedestrians in Bourke St Mall in central Melbourne, killing five people and injuring 37 others.
Three of those killed have been identified as Thalia Hakin, 10, Jess Mudie, 22, and Matthew Si, 33. Another victim, a 25-year-old man from Japan, has not been named.
Zachary's two-year-old sister, Zara, was also injured in the incident and remains in a stable condition.
"Zac, Mummy and Daddy love you very much, and always will," the Bryants said, as they released photos of their two children.
Thousands of mourners attended a public vigil in central Melbourne on Monday night.
The city's Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, thanked the crowd for its support following "an unthinkable act".
"Melbourne is our home," he said. "When it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us." | The parents of a three-month-old boy killed in an allegedly deliberate attack by a motorist in Melbourne have paid tribute their son. | 38713958 |
He had a boarding pass and had cleared security, but had missed boarding for his flight to Gran Canaria.
A video posted on Facebook showed him jumping from 10ft (3.5m) in the air, then shouldering two bags and running.
The Associated Press news agency reports that he broke through fire escape doors to get to the tunnel.
The man could face a fine of up to €45,000 (£38,400) under airport security laws.
The airport worker who posted the mobile phone footage to a union Facebook page wrote: "We're talking level 4 security! You can't even be safe with that..."
Spain operates a five-point security alert scale. Last year it moved the alert level from three (middling) to four (high) after a jihadist attack near Lyon in France.
A spokesman for Ryanair, the airline whose aeroplanes are visible in the video, said it was a matter for airport security.
Local media are reporting that the man is from Bolivia, but beyond that he has not been identified.
One newspaper said he broke through a fire door to reach the disconnected passenger boarding bridge, after he saw a plane start to move and panicked. | A man who jumped out of a disconnected jet bridge and ran across tarmac at an airport in Madrid caught his flight, but was arrested when it landed. | 37033281 |
Michelle Kiss, from Whalley in Lancashire, was among 22 people who died when a suicide bomber attacked concertgoers on Monday.
In a statement, the family said she was a "loving" wife, mother and daughter to whom "family meant everything".
They said they hoped to draw from her strength to carry on.
Manchester attack: Latest updates
The victims of the Manchester Arena bomb attack
In a statement, her relatives said: "[Michelle] tragically died during the horrible event that occurred on Monday night.
"Family was her life and we are all obviously devastated by her loss.
"We hope to draw from the courage and strength she showed in her life to get through this extremely difficult time."
Fourteen of the 22 victims have been named so far, including an eight-year-old girl and a Polish couple.
A further 64 people, including children, were injured and taken to hospital after the concert by US singer Ariana Grande. | The "devastated" family of a woman who died in the Manchester Arena attack said she was "taken away... in the most traumatic way imaginable". | 40035936 |
It happened at Coed Cae, Pontardawe, Neath Port Talbot, at about 18:20 GMT on Saturday.
South Wales Police said children in the house at the time. It is thought at least one of the gang had a knife.
Det Insp Phil Sparrow said: "This is a concerning incident which has left the victims traumatised and shocked."
An unknown number of men walked into the house and demanded the family's car keys but they put up a fight so they did not get them.
The masked man with the weapon is described as being black with a slight build. He spoke with a soft English accent which was possibly from Birmingham.
He was wearing a dark hooded top or jacket, a ski mask which covered his face except for his eyes and black gloves.
The family raised the alarm and neighbours called the police. No-one was seriously hurt.
"They put up an extremely brave resistance which I am in no doubt caused the men to make off without the car they were looking for," said DI Sparrow.
Meanwhile, officers in Swansea are investigating a break-in at a flat in Cromwell Street at about 10:30 on Saturday when two men attacked the occupants with what is thought to be a baseball bat.
One was wearing a grey hooded top and the other was wearing a brown hooded jacket.
Officers believe there was a third man driving a blue Ford Focus who dropped them in Rhondda Street before the attack.
They stole two mobile phone. Nobody was seriously hurt. Police are not linking the cases. | A knife-wielding gang threatened a family in their own home before stealing a mobile phone and cash. | 38952113 |
An apparent link between alcohol abuse and suicidal behaviour was also identified.
In all, three studies into the suicide and alcohol abuse were commissioned by the Public Health Agency.
Key findings on suicide showed rates were higher in Belfast and other larger towns and cities.
Almost half of those who take their own lives in Northern Ireland have made a previous attempt or have had a history of suicidal thoughts, the research suggests.
When it comes to alcohol abuse, families often felt a stigma when trying to get help and GPs said time and a lack of coordination led to problems accessing services.
A study carried out over 10 years from 2001, involving 1,000 children and 1,097 parents, found that one in five parents were "problem drinkers".
Those families experienced more separations and divorces. Their children were found to spend more time outside the home and felt less attachment to school.
The report also showed that children developed clear strategies to help them cope with their parents' drinking.
It stresses that schools and teachers should be more aware of these problems.
The three research studies were carried out by teams at the University of Ulster and Queen's University, Belfast.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said it was "vitally important" that policy makers listened carefully to the messages in the research studies.
"Doing so will ensure that future service delivery improves the care of people impacted by either of these devastating problems," he said.
"More importantly, we must all ensure we work together towards eliminating these problems from society altogether."
Dr Janice Bailie from the PHA said: "The research we are publishing today is testament to the commitment in Northern Ireland of individuals and organisations trying to understand more about these emotive and important issues.
"For anyone who has been affected by the suicide of a loved one or by the misuse of alcohol we hope that today's conference reinforces the message that we are all committed to tackling these issues and in ensuring that all the invaluable information being gathered is available and being used to translate into visible and beneficial actions." | Research involving 1,000 children in Northern Ireland has suggested that one in five parents were "problem drinkers". | 35748145 |
The Prince also presented medals to outstanding pupils at Duke Of York's Royal Military School, near Dover.
The first clue students had as to the identity of the guest was when the band started playing the national anthem.
"I didn't believe it, I was so shocked," said 14-year-old Megan Davidson, a drummer with the school's military band.
Sean Dunoo, 11, who was on parade when the Prince walked past, said: "I thought 'Is that Prince Harry?', then I asked my friend next to me and he said 'Probably not' but I said 'Yes, it's him'."
Prince Harry, dressed in his Blues and Royals uniform and peaked cap, was also given a private tour of the school's chapel and met with staff and sixth formers.
The military school was established in 1803 in Chelsea by Frederick, Duke of York to care for the orphans of soldiers.
The Prince met Simon Daglish, an ex-pupil and current governor of the school, when he took part in the first stage of a polar expedition to raise funds for charity Walking With The Wounded, which supports injured ex-servicemen and women. | Prince Harry surprised students at a military school when he made an unannounced parade ground inspection. | 34378222 |
The 20-year-old full-back has agreed a two-year contract with the Seagulls.
Hornby-Forbes, who scored two goals in 21 appearances for Fleetwood last season, will initially join the Championship club's development squad.
"We are looking forward helping him to develop so he can challenge for a place in the first team," Brighton under-21 coach Simon Rusk said.
Hornby-Forbes is Albion's fourth signing of the transfer window. | Brighton & Hove Albion have signed defender Tyler Hornby-Forbes from Fleetwood Town for an undisclosed fee. | 36777177 |
There are few similarities between the outlook of Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, and Marine Le Pen of the far right.
Their differences over foreign and defence policy are stark, underscoring that this is not so much a traditional political battle, as a struggle over a new cleavage: between nationalism and internationalism.
Marine Le Pen, by definition, is a nationalist. This is the prism through which she sees all political choices.
She wants to make France stronger by reinforcing its sovereignty and reducing the scope of its entanglements with other countries and institutions. Her National Front (FN) party's slogan "Les Français d'abord" (loosely translated as "the French First") is as appropriate a summary of its approach to foreign affairs as it is for its domestic outlook. Ms Le Pen - like the FN itself - sets herself up as the champion of "eternal France" against the forces of globalisation.
Emmanuel Macron by contrast, at least in foreign policy terms, is a man of the status quo and of continuity, an ardent advocate of the EU and of internationalism.
Here are their fundamental differences on key issues:
MACRON. Opposes any rapprochement with Russia and backs sanctions against Moscow as long as the Minsk accords (to resolve the Ukraine crisis) are not honoured. Has described Russian foreign policy as "dangerous" and one that "doesn't hesitate to break international law". Cyber attacks on computers used by Mr Macron's En Marche movement have been linked by some to Russian-based hackers.
LE PEN. Met Vladimir Putin in Moscow recently and sees nothing illegal in Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Wants to develop a strategic partnership with Moscow to fight so-called Islamic State. French media have revealed that the FN has received significant loans from Russian banks or banks associated with Russian financiers. Marine Le Pen denies the money has any bearing on FN positions towards Russia. As French banks would not lend the FN money, she was obliged to seek funding abroad, she said.
Who's funding France's far right?
Le Pen visits Putin in Moscow
MACRON: President Bashar al-Assad should answer for his crimes before an international tribunal.
LE PEN: In the wake of the chemical attack in Syria in April, a National Front spokesman said that it was not clear who had carried out the attack and that President Assad, despite everything, remained the only defence against jihadist group Islamic State.
MACRON: An advocate of developing the EU further - giving the eurozone a budget and its own finance minister. He wants to mount a campaign to counter anti-EU sentiments and launch a rejuvenated European project.
LE PEN: Has campaigned for France to leave the euro and has proposed a referendum in which French voters will have an opportunity to vote to leave the EU. Describing the euro as "dead", she wants France to go back to the franc with the single currency becoming a common currency for trade. However, she has said negotiations with the EU could take some time.
MACRON: Eager to increase France's foreign aid budget; will review France's military bases in Africa; eager to help African nations stand more on their own two feet in defence terms.
LE PEN: She, too, is eager to increase France's foreign aid budget but this is largely seen through the prism of security - a desire to stem the tide of immigration and terrorism, two things the FN tends to link together.
MACRON: He would raise defence spending to the Nato benchmark of 2% of GDP by 2025. Nato remains the bedrock of French defence but he is eager to see a much more significant European defence dimension, not least due to some of the uncertainties surrounding the Atlantic Alliance prompted by President Donald Trump's comments.
LE PEN: She has described Nato as an organisation whose reason for being - the Soviet threat - no longer exists. She would withdraw France from Nato's integrated military command. She says that she would increase French defence spending to 2% of GDP by 2018 and to 3% by the end of her five-year term.
The foreign policy debate serves a wider purpose of acting as a kind of litmus test for the transformation of Marine Le Pen and the FN.
She has invested a huge amount of time and effort to try to "de-toxify" the FN; to soften its image and to distance the party from its far-right roots. She has had some success, broadening the party's appeal and drawing upon a wider current of populist revolt against economic inequality and the status quo. Nonetheless, on occasions during the presidential campaign, the mask has slipped.
Indeed it is in the area of foreign policy where Marine Le Pen's approach is closest to that of her father, FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. He was hostile to the EU, Nato and the US; a firm supporter of the Assad regime and, indeed, that of Saddam Hussein in Iraq as well.
Foreign policy, of course, has never been the determining factor in any French presidential election but the conduct of foreign policy remains very much the president's reserved domain. He or she will have the dominant role in setting out France's approach to the world in the years ahead. | This is a presidential contest of opposites. | 39778211 |
Cyclone Debbie has intensified into a Category 4 system and is due to make landfall early on Tuesday local time.
Some people have refused to leave despite warnings the destructive core could be as wide as 100km (62 miles).
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the storm would rival the devastating Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
Late on Monday, Ms Palaszczuk urged 25,000 residents in low-lying areas of Mackay to immediately find safer ground. More than 5,000 other Queenslanders were already evacuating their homes.
"The time for people to move is now," she said.
In its latest update, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said the cyclone could "intensify further" as it moved towards the Queensland coast.
It is expected to make landfall sometime after 07:00 on Tuesday (20:00 GMT Monday) anywhere in a 265km zone from Townsville to Proserpine.
"That is the uncertainty of cyclones," said Bureau of Meteorology regional director Bruce Gunn.
Authorities warned the cyclone could coincide with high tide, which is expected to peak at 3.2m. The storm surge could add an additional 4m, Ms Palaszczuk said.
She said this would bring dangerous risk of flooding, especially around Mackay.
"I am just pleading to everyone, please, listen to authorities," she said. "I do, you must as well. This is about your safety, it is about the safety of your family and the safety of your children.''
Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said the weather contributed to the death of a woman in a car crash.
Queensland authorities have closed 102 schools, 81 early childhood education centres and two ports.
All flights have been cancelled at Townsville Airport and Mackay Airport.
Mr Stewart warned that emergency crews would not provide help during the storm's peak.
"[It] will get to an extent where all emergency services will not be able to respond to calls for assistance, because obviously, we have got to maintain the safety of our staff," he said.
Ms Palaszczuk said residents should be prepared for power outages.
"Now is the time to charge your phone," she said.
"These winds are going to be severe and we are going to see structural damage."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Australian Defence Force would help with the cyclone response.
"Time and time again, Australians show grace under pressure, bravery in the face of danger, and rally without a second thought to help each other," Mr Turnbull said in parliament.
"These virtues will be on display over the next few days where Australians face the worst that nature can throw at us." | About 25,000 people have been told to evacuate as a cyclone carrying winds of up to 275km/h (170 mph) moves towards the Queensland coast. | 39402106 |
Police called fire crews at 10:31 GMT over concerns of a potentially "noxious substance" at a detached house in Gleneldon Road in Streatham.
A 57-year-old man was found dead on the third floor. No-one else was hurt and 15 people were evacuated for safety.
The substance was assessed and readings from within the house were normal. The case has not been linked to terrorism.
A spokesman for the Met Police said the death was being treated as unexplained and formal identification had yet to take place.
Officials have declined to comment on the nature of the substance they suspected may pose a chemical hazard and residents were allowed to return by 12:19 GMT. | A converted house in south London has been evacuated amid fears of a possible chemical hazard. | 39021282 |
The company launched its first local service, STV Glasgow, in June, and an Edinburgh channel is to go live in January.
Each station is run in partnership with local universities and colleges.
The broadcaster says the stations would deliver "local news and current affairs content" while helping media students train in a live TV environment.
The Aberdeen application has been submitted in partnership with Robert Gordon University and North East Scotland College, the Dundee bid with Abertay University and Dundee and Angus College, and the Ayr proposal with the University of the West of Scotland.
Bobby Hain, director of channels at STV, said: "We have demonstrated our ability to engage with local communities and deliver relevant, local content across STV's multi-platforms, including the current STV Glasgow licence and our apps serving Scotland's largest cities.
"STV believes that, working closely with our education partners, we can successfully deliver compelling services in these three additional areas across the 12-year licence."
STV Glasgow is run in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University, and reaches a monthly audience of more than 500,000 people. | Broadcaster STV has applied to industry regulator Ofcom to run local TV services in Aberdeen, Dundee and Ayr. | 29754656 |
The hit and run happened in Jamaica Street on Wednesday 11 January.
A 32-year-old man was left in a critical condition.
The arrested man is expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday. | A 23-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an attempted murder in Glasgow city centre. | 38695675 |
A study, in the British Medical Journal, showed a sudden fall in antidepressant prescriptions and a rise in suicide attempts after media reports of the connection.
The team at Harvard Medical School said the unintended effect was "disturbing".
Experts said similar changes had been seen in other countries.
In 2003, there were concerns about an increased suicide risk from some antidepressants. It led to the US Food and Drug Administration changing the medicine warnings and widespread media reports.
However, there was concern that the reports were exaggerated and missed out the benefits of antidepressants.
The study, which followed 2.5 million teenagers and young adults between 2000 and 2010, showed an immediate impact of the warnings.
Prescriptions fell by a third in teenagers and by a quarter in young adults.
The number of suicide attempts increased by 22% in teenagers and 34% in young adults. Overall it led to an additional 77 attempts, the researchers estimated.
The report concluded: "It is disturbing that after the health advisories, warnings and media reports about the relation between antidepressant use and suicidality in young people, we found substantial reductions in antidepressant treatment and simultaneous, small but meaningful increases in suicide attempts."
One of the researchers, Prof Stephen Soumerai, said: "This is an extraordinarily difficult public health problem, and if we don't get it right, it can backfire in serious ways.
"These drugs can save lives. The media concentrated more on the relatively small risk than on the significant upside."
Prof Keith Hawton, the director of the centre for suicide research at the University of Oxford in the UK, said: "The results of this study are important.
"Such findings illustrate the powerful impact that such announcements can have on clinician behaviour.
"Until now there has not been convincing evidence that such changes in practice have affected suicidal behaviour.
"The US study suggests that this may have happened, although fortunately without evidence of an increase in actual suicides."
Dr Christine Lu, of Harvard, told the BBC: "There are several lessons for us to consider. Drug risk communication is a big field and we need to be better next time. Any communication can have intended and unintended consequences.
"And I think a key message is to remind ourselves not to consider only the new evidence on any drugs, but also consider its risk and the benefits, and undertreating the original condition itself." | US warnings about the risk of suicide in young people prescribed antidepressant medication may have backfired, research suggests. | 27904749 |
Also on Sunday, South Africa opened their World Cup bid with a 2-1 defeat to Japan in Group D in Suwon.
Zambia, who were crowned African champions on home soil earlier this year, frustrated Portugal with two impressive goals.
A 51st minute strike by Edward Chilufya gave Zambia the lead.
The Junior Chipolpolo added a second after 76 minutes through Fashion Sakala.
Portugal got a consolation goal late in the game when Helder struck just before the final whistle.
Click here for U-20 World Cup results from the Fifa website
Zambia go top of Group C after Iran's 1-0 win over Costa Rica.
South Africa tasted defeat to Japan despite taking an early lead in their first Group D match.
Grant Margeman scored for the South Africans in the 7th minute to put Japan on the back foot.
Amajita had chances to build on that lead but failed to take them, allowing Japan back into the game.
The equaliser came from Koki Ogawa just after the break, with Ritsu Doan hitting a winner for Japan after 72 minutes.
Japan lead Group D following Uruguay's 1-0 win over Italy.
On Saturday, Guinea began their World Cup campaign with a 3-0 defeat to hosts South Korea.
Senegal, the fourth African nation competing at the U-20 World Cup, begin their Group F bid against Saudi Arabia in Incheon on Monday. | Zambia stunned twice-former World champions Portugal at the Under-20 World Cup in South Korea, winning their opening Group C match 2-1 in Jeju. | 39989090 |
Fr Paul Symonds stepped aside from ministry in County Antrim in 2009 to facilitate a police investigation.
After a decision was made to not to prosecute him, the Catholic Church resumed its internal inquiry.
The Down and Connor diocese said this concluded he will "live as a retired priest without any public ministry".
Fr Symonds is originally from England, but was working as a priest in Ballymena, County Antrim, when the police investigation began.
The BBC tried to contact Fr Symonds on Friday, but without success.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Diocese of Down and Connor said: "In 2011, after statutory investigation, with which the Diocese and Fr Symonds co-operated fully, and during which Fr Symonds was never charged with a criminal offence, the determination of the Prosecution Service was not to prosecute.
"Thereafter the Church's own internal canonical inquiry resumed.
"The canonical investigation has reached the decision that Fr Paul Symonds will live as a retired priest without any public ministry." | A priest who was investigated but never charged after concerns were raised about the safeguarding of children is to retire after a Church inquiry. | 35388046 |
Caroline Lucas accused Theresa May of running an "arrogant and insulting" campaign focused on "extreme Brexit".
With one constituency undeclared, the prime minister says she will work with the DUP to form a government after failing to secure a majority.
Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley said it would be "a coalition of chaos".
Ms Lucas took the Green's one seat in the election, out of 457 candidates.
She said: "What is very clear is that Theresa May did not get the bigger mandate she was asking for, for the kind of extreme Brexit that she has been pursuing.
"I'm hoping very much the progressives across Parliament will work together to challenge that kind of a Brexit which is brutal, damaging and wrong."
The Tories are forecast to be the biggest party with 319 seats out of 650, ahead of Labour on 261, the SNP on 35 and the Lib Dems on 12. The DUP won 10 seats.
Mr Bartley, who did not stand in the election, said it was "extremely worrying" that the DUP could be "holding sway" over the government.
"The DUP I don't think are the kind of people you want calling the shots," he told BBC News.
"Now what's going to happen with the DUP and their climate change scepticism," he added. "Are they going to exact a very serious price for the Government being propped up in this way?"
Throughout the campaign, the Greens have called for a "progressive alliance", writing to Labour and the Liberal Democrats in an attempt to do deals and oust the Tories.
Although the parties shunned the idea nationally, some local activists have supported it and saw candidates step aside for one another.
In Ms Lucas's own seat of Brighton Pavilion, the Lib Dems stepped aside, while the Greens decided not to contest Labour-held Ealing Central and Acton, and Brighton Kemptown.
Some prominent figures have also backed the plan, including Lib Dem Sir Vince Cable, who was re-elected in Twickenham.
But after the exit poll was published, former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell told the BBC that the difference in approach to Brexit between the Lib Dems and Labour would stop any progressive alliance being formed.
Ms Lucas had tweeted on Thursday night - when exit polls indicated a disappointing result for the Conservatives - "hardly dare hope this is right. To be clear, Greens will *never* support a Tory government #HopeoverHate".
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Enter a postcode or seat name | The co-leader of the Green Party has called on "progressives" in Parliament to challenge "brutal" Tory policies, having held her Brighton Pavilion seat. | 40209837 |
The figures, compiled by consumer organisation Which?, showed nearly half of Southern's passengers said their last journey was delayed.
The rail operator has seen months of strikes in a long-running dispute with two unions, the RMT and Aslef, over the roles of guards on trains.
Parent company Govia Thameslink (GTR) said the firm was "sincerely sorry".
In the annual survey of all UK train firms, Southern scored 21% and received one star for punctuality, reliability, seat availability, frequency and value for money - 46% of passengers said their most recent journey was delayed.
Southeastern was the second-worst performer with a rating of 31%, including one star for seat availability - the rail firm said it valued all feedback, understood passengers' concerns about seats, and was committed to improving services.
Thameslink and Great Northern, whose parent company is also GTR, scored 32%, with one star for frequency and condition of carriages.
Merseyrail came top with 72%, followed by Virgin Trains West Coast with 69% and East Midlands Trains with 67%.
Researchers surveyed 2,218 commuters and Southern's results were based on the views of 256 passengers.
Which? campaigns director Vickie Sheriff said: "After months of disruption, it's no surprise to see Southern at the bottom.
"Though Southern have performed particularly badly this year, the whole sector is continually failing passengers.
"Overcrowding, delays, short trains, carriages in poor condition - many services aren't providing even the basics.
"Enough is enough. We need rail services that finally deliver."
The GTR spokesman said: "Our passengers deserve better and together with Network Rail and its £300m funding package to improve track signalling and overall performance, we're working hard to improve the service."
He said the survey reflected the "wholly unjustified" industrial action being taken by Aslef and the RMT, knock-on delays from the redevelopment of London Bridge station, and performance issues on Great Northern caused by weather, signal failures and ageing trains.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the report showed Southern was the "worst of a bad bunch".
He said: "The responsibility for the catastrophic mismanagement of this crucial rail operation lies fairly and squarely with the government and their contractors GTR."
The next strike action by Aslef, which represents train drivers, is planned for 24, 25 and 27 January.
The RMT, which represents conductors and also 12 drivers, has been involved in industrial action since last April and has announced a 24-hour strike for 23 January.
The union has also given a deadline for assurances over Merseyrail's plans for driver-only-operated trains.
Jan Chaudhry Van der Velde, managing director of Merseyrail, said: "We are lucky here in Merseyrail that we have one of the top performing train companies in the country.
"The foundations of that I think are because of our local, special and close relationship with the authority and with Merseytravel, who run the concession, so it's a devolved franchise agreement not run from London.
"There's the danger that a protracted dispute with the unions could put some of those things at risk. We are determined to do everything we can to prevent that."
RMT is seeking assurances that guards will be retained as part of Merseyrail's plans to introduce a new fleet of 52 driver-only-operated trains from 2020. | Strike-hit Southern rail has ranked lowest in a UK-wide survey of customer satisfaction. | 38641566 |
The pair debuted alongside each other in Saturday's 19-14 win at Twickenham.
Lancaster is expected to name four centres in his squad on 31 August, with the hosts beginning their World Cup campaign on 18 September.
"There are a lot of decisions to be made but we still have two weeks to make them," he told BBC Radio 5 live.
Brad Barritt and Jonathan Joseph are considered Lancaster's first-choice pairing at centre, with Luther Burrell also expected to make the final cut.
It has been thought that would leave Slade, 22, Burgess, 26, and Billy Twelvetrees contesting the final berth.
But the England boss said: "I've never really bought that. That's been created in the last week or so."
Former rugby league player Burgess put in a tough-tackling performance on his England debut, but showed he is still adjusting to life in union when he was yellow-carded for pulling back France's Morgan Parra after a quick tap penalty.
"Obviously he was disappointed to be sin-binned. It was an instinctive reaction," said Lancaster. "I've seen rugby union players who have played for years do the same thing."
Sam Burgess (Club: Bath, Position: Centre/flanker, Caps: One, Age: 26)
"You can't take him to the World Cup for me," said former England scrum-half Dawson.
"The great thing about Burgess is he doesn't make mistakes with ball in hand.
"But unfortunately, if you're going to be really picky, positionally he wasn't great. He played like a six rather than a 12. There are things that are instinctive that he doesn't know what to do."
Henry Slade (Club: Exeter, Position: Fly-half/centre, Caps: One, Age: 22)
"Henry Slade looks like a young Brian O'Driscoll. He's talking to everyone. He fits really well," said Dawson.
"If Henry Slade is not in the World Cup squad I will call Stuart Lancaster and say 'what are you doing man?'"
Alex Goode (Club: Saracens, Position: Full-back/fly-half, Caps: 18, Age: 27)
"Alex Goode is pure class. He has an ability to dance on his feet and still see what is going on," said Dawson.
"There are players that have to impress and step up and Alex Goode has definitely made Stuart Lancaster think 'he's doing things that Mike Brown doesn't do'." | England head coach Stuart Lancaster has insisted centres Henry Slade and Sam Burgess are not battling each other for a place at the World Cup. | 33950593 |
The most serious incident took place at about 16:00 BST on Saturday when a car taking part in the motor racing event came off the road near Coldstream.
Two men and a woman died. Another man is in hospital in a critical condition.
A collision two hours earlier left five people injured, one of them seriously.
Organisers of the event - the only closed road rally on mainland UK - said they were "devastated" and were working with police to "establish the facts".
Police Scotland said the rally was cancelled with immediate effect after the second incident, and that investigations into both collisions were "ongoing".
One eyewitness of the second incident, Tony Cowan, told the BBC how the car "lost control".
"It went sideways one way and then to the other side of the road and ploughed into four people.
"It was terrible, absolutely terrible. I ran to help but there was little I could do. The air ambulance arrived after about three quarters of an hour. There were police cars and ambulances. It was chaos, just chaos," he said.
Another eyewitness wrote on Facebook: "Huge accident at rally. Not far from us. About 15 emergency vehicles here now and about 40 people stood working on the injured. Not good."
Race marshal Anne Reay said it was the "worst outcome you could have asked for".
Laura Bicker, BBC Scotland correspondent, said several witnesses had since contacted the BBC to say they were concerned about spectators standing in dangerous areas along the rally route.
"Clearly that is something the organisers will be looking at and something the police will be investigating as part of their inquiries," she said.
Supt Phil O'Kane, from Police Scotland, said four men and one woman were injured in the first crash - which happened at 14:05 BST - after a vehicle came off the road near Eccles.
He said one man remained in intensive care at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, while two men suffered fractures and were being treated at Borders General Hospital.
The two other patients have been discharged.
Supt O'Kane said the second crash happened at 16:07 BST.
Three people were pronounced dead at the scene, while another man was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in a critical condition.
Supt O'Kane said the force was co-ordinating a "multi-agency" investigation into both incidents.
A statement on the Jim Clark Rally website extended organisers' "heartfelt condolences and sympathy" to all those affected by the "tragic events".
A statement added: "Berwick and District Motor Club, Border Ecosse Car Club and the governing body, the Motor Sports Association (MSA), are co-operating fully with the police investigation,"
"As with any serious incident on a motor sport event, the MSA will conduct its own thorough inquiry once the police investigation is concluded."
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond called the tragedy "desperately sad and difficult news".
He added: "The Jim Clark Rally is a long-standing event of over 40 years. It is much loved in the Borders and by the rally driving community who I know will share in our sadness at what is a black day for the Borders and for Scotland."
Local MSP John Lamont said his "thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families".
"I know the rally organisers place considerable emphasis on the safety of the spectators and drivers but, with any event of this nature, there will always be an element of risk," he said.
Mr Lamont said it was "appropriate that questions are asked and investigations are carried out to ensure that in the future nothing like this happens again".
The annual rally takes place over three days on closed roads in the Duns and Kelso areas of the Borders, attracting thousands of people from across the UK.
It is held in honour of Scottish former Formula 1 champion Jim Clark, who died in a 1968 motor racing accident in Germany. | Three people have been killed and several are seriously injured after cars collided with spectators in two incidents at the Jim Clark Rally in the Scottish Borders, police have said. | 27651504 |
Forecasts were for quarterly growth of around 0.8%.
On an annual basis the economy expanded 3.1% in the three months to March.
Service-based industries also contributed to the first quarter growth, along with finance and retail trade industries.
The economy has been struggling for growth since the mining boom tapered off, mainly due to slowdown in demand from one of its largest trading partner, China.
The Australian dollar shot up by nearly half a US cent following the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, which took many by surprise.
Economists say the latest growth figures should reduce the need for further interest rate cuts.
Last month, the country's central bank - the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) - cut its benchmark interest rate to a historic low of 1.75%. The RBA cited lower-than-expected inflationary pressures for the reduction from the previous rate of 2%.
Australians will go to the polls on 2 July after one of the longest election campaigns in the country's history.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called the election several months early after the country's upper house repeatedly blocked legislation. | Australia's economy grew at a better-than-expected 1.1% in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the previous quarter, boosted by exports and a rise in household spending. | 36423205 |
Lilian Lepere stayed under a sink for eight hours after the gunmen began a siege at the printing shop in which he worked in a Paris suburb in January.
The men - Said and Cherif Kouachi - had killed 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo magazine the day before, and were later shot dead at the printing shop.
Mr Lepere says his life was endangered by details revealed on TV and radio.
The initial allegation of a man hiding at the factory in Dammartin en Goele was made on the RMC radio station by the area's French assembly member, Yves Albarello.
The claim was then repeated by the TF1 and France 2 television networks, two of France's largest.
Mr Lepere's whereabouts were also confirmed to France 2 by his sister, although it was never stated exactly where he was hiding.
After Mr Lepere's boss was freed by the gunmen, he continued to hide under the sink until the siege ended.
Mr Lepere then gave a detailed interview about his ordeal to France 2.
He lodged a complaint with prosecutors in Paris last month, and an investigation against the networks was launched last week, French media say.
"The divulging of information in real time, while the Kouachi brothers - armed and dangerous - were able to follow how the operation was going, presented a real risk to Lilian," his lawyer, Antoine Casubolo Ferro, told Le Parisien newspaper.
The networks have not responded to the investigation.
In April, another lawsuit was lodged by survivors of a siege at a Jewish supermarket in Paris, that took place two days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Gunman Amedy Coulibaly killed four people at the Hypercacher Jewish store on 9 January before police shot him.
Six of the survivors filed a lawsuit against television networks, saying live images broadcast from the supermarket scene "lacked the most basic precautions". | A man who hid from the Charlie Hebdo gunmen is suing French media who revealed his whereabouts. | 33983599 |
Aisha Chithira, 32, died after having an abortion at a Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing on 21 January 2012.
Dr Adedayo Adedeji, 63, and the nurses Margaret Miller, 55, and Gemma Pullen, 32, have been accused of manslaughter by gross negligence.
They denied the charge at the Old Bailey and will stand trial on 7 March.
Dr Adedeji, from Hornchurch, Essex, Ms Miller, from Camberley, Surrey, and Ms Pullen, from Stoke-on-Trent, were not arraigned on further charges of failing to take reasonable care of the health and safety contrary to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
All three have been granted bail. | A doctor and two nurses have pleaded not guilty to causing the death of a woman who travelled from Ireland for an abortion at a west London clinic. | 34945514 |
The visitors went close in the opening minute, Charlie Kirk's low effort flying into the side-netting, before Chris Dagnall's shot from close range was parried by goalkeeper Christian Walton, who also turned aside Billy Bingham's daisy-cutter.
Cameron McGeehan tested Ben Garratt from distance midway through the first period before Luton went ahead just before half-time when Pelly Ruddock released Jake Gray and his volley was turned home by Danny Hylton.
In the second period, Tom Lowery dragged wide for the visitors and Bingham's half-volley from distance flew narrowly past the post, with Geroge Cooper's free-kick landing on the roof of the net.
The visitors were deservedly level in the 64th minute when Cooper's exquisite cross was headed beyond Walton by Alex's top scorer Ryan Lowe.
Alan Sheehan sent a free-kick harmlessly over the top for the hosts, with Hylton also stabbing off target from Scott Cuthbert's header, while sub Josh McQuoid could not keep his ambitious effort down as Luton had to settle for a third straight draw in the league.
Reports supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Luton Town 1, Crewe Alexandra 1.
Second Half ends, Luton Town 1, Crewe Alexandra 1.
Alex Gilliead (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Zoumana Bakayogo (Crewe Alexandra).
Attempt missed. Josh McQuoid (Luton Town) right footed shot from the left side of the box is just a bit too high.
Attempt missed. George Cooper (Crewe Alexandra) left footed shot from long range on the right is close, but misses to the right.
Foul by Jake Gray (Luton Town).
Tom Lowery (Crewe Alexandra) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Danny Hylton (Luton Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box is just a bit too high following a corner.
Substitution, Luton Town. Josh McQuoid replaces Olly Lee.
Substitution, Luton Town. Glen Rea replaces Jack Marriott.
Corner, Luton Town. Conceded by Jon Guthrie.
Attempt blocked. Jake Gray (Luton Town) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
Corner, Luton Town. Conceded by Oliver Turton.
Attempt blocked. Cameron McGeehan (Luton Town) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Dan Potts (Luton Town) left footed shot from a difficult angle and long range on the right is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.
Zoumana Bakayogo (Crewe Alexandra) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
James Justin (Luton Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Zoumana Bakayogo (Crewe Alexandra).
Attempt saved. Billy Bingham (Crewe Alexandra) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Attempt blocked. George Cooper (Crewe Alexandra) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Jack Marriott (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Danny Hollands (Crewe Alexandra).
Attempt blocked. Chris Dagnall (Crewe Alexandra) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
Goal! Luton Town 1, Crewe Alexandra 1. Ryan Lowe (Crewe Alexandra) header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by George Cooper with a cross.
Substitution, Luton Town. Alex Gilliead replaces Pelly Ruddock.
Corner, Crewe Alexandra. Conceded by Scott Cuthbert.
Attempt missed. George Cooper (Crewe Alexandra) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Pelly Ruddock (Luton Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Pelly Ruddock (Luton Town).
Zoumana Bakayogo (Crewe Alexandra) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Danny Hylton (Luton Town).
(Crewe Alexandra) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
James Justin (Luton Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Billy Bingham (Crewe Alexandra).
Attempt missed. Billy Bingham (Crewe Alexandra) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Scott Cuthbert (Luton Town) because of an injury.
Corner, Crewe Alexandra. Conceded by Scott Cuthbert.
Attempt blocked. Tom Lowery (Crewe Alexandra) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. | Crewe fought back from a goal down to earn a deserved point at fellow promotion hopefuls Luton. | 37526914 |
Ms Hasina said their attempts to leave had made them "mentally sick".
Describing them as fortune-seekers, she said they should be punished alongside middlemen who arrange their travel.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have seen an exodus of people fleeing south by boat through the Bay of Bengal towards Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Thousands of people - economic migrants from Bangladesh and Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar - are thought to be stranded in boats.
Also on Sunday, several mass graves thought to contain bodies of migrants were found in Malaysia, authorities there said.
Ms Hasina said: "Side by side with the middlemen, punishment will have to be given to those who are moving from the country in an illegal way.
"They are tainting the image of the country in the international arena and putting their life into danger."
She said: "There is sufficient work for them; still they are leaving the country in such disastrous ways."
Ms Hasina said measures were needed to prevent migrants handing money to middlemen and "falling into a trap".
The prime minister was addressing senior labour and employment officials.
She said those trying to leave think they will "earn a huge amount of money if they go abroad", but this showed a "mentally sick" attitude.
In addition to migrants stranded at sea, thousands have landed in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to stop towing boats out to sea and will provide temporary shelter to those who have landed. Thailand has only said it would stop rejecting boats.
On Sunday, Malaysian Home Minister Zahid Hamidi was quoted by Malaysia's Star newspaper as saying graves had been found in 17 abandoned trafficking camps near Padang Besar and Wang Kelian, close to the Thai border.
He did not know how many bodies had been recovered.
Several mass graves have also been found in Thailand along a route used to smuggle Rohingyas, but these graves would the first discovered in Malaysia.
An investigation by the BBC's Jonathan Head has found entire communities in Thailand helping the traffickers.
The Thai trafficking networks, he found, bought boatloads of migrants from other smugglers and held them in the jungle until their families paid a ransom. Many migrants are believed to have perished from disease or starvation.
Why are so many Rohingya stranded at sea?
The perilous journey of a migrant boat that made it
The Indonesian villagers saving migrants | Migrants trying to leave Bangladesh illegally are tainting the country's image, its prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has said. | 32867221 |
Team GB won 47 medals at the Beijing Games four years ago and UK Sport wants 48 medals from at least 12 sports from the home London event.
UK Sport has invested £300m in Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes in the past four years.
"I have no doubt that our athletes will do us proud," said Baroness Sue Campbell CBE, chair of UK Sport.
"I am confident that we have created a sustainable high performance system set to ensure that London 2012 marks the beginning, not the end, of our ambitions for British Olympic and Paralympic sport," she added.
The Paralympic performance targets will be outlined in August.
Although UK Sport has high ambitions for London 2012 based on its performance programme, it did not specify the number of gold medals it hoped to achieve.
London 2012 medal target range:
Cycling: Beijing (14 medals). London target range: 6-10.
Sailing: Beijing (6). London target range: 3-5.
Rowing: Beijing (6). London target: 6.
Swimming: Beijing (6). London target range: 5-7.
Athletics - Beijing (4). London target range: 5-8.
Canoe/Kayak: Beijing (3). London target range: 3-4.
Boxing: Beijing (3). London target range: 3-5.
Equestrian: Beijing (2). London target range: 3-4.
Modern Pentathlon: Beijing (1). London target range: 1-2.
Gymnastics: Beijing (1). London target range: 1-2.
Taekwondo: Beijing (1). London target range: 1-3.
Triathlon: Beijing (0). London target range: 1-2.
Hockey: Beijing (0). London target range: 1-2.
Diving: Beijing (0). London target range: 1-3. | UK Sport has set the target of a top four finish in the medals table for the 2012 Olympics. | 18704285 |
Valerie Amos said more people would die in Syria because charities feared prosecution if they worked in areas controlled by the jihadist group Isis.
Aid agencies say the complexity of laws banning support for designated terrorist groups had produced a "chill factor" that slows their operations.
Baroness Amos said the law must change.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), renamed the Islamic State on Sunday, has just been listed by the UK as a banned organisation. The group now controls large parts of northern Syria and neighbouring Iraq.
Baroness Amos told the BBC's File on 4: "A couple of the charities that are able to operate in those areas are now extremely fearful that the fact that they are having to engage with Isis will have an impact on their funding, not just for Syria, but for other places as well.
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"We have reports of people being on the brink of running out of food. People certainly have run out of medical supplies in many of these areas. So as the needs rise, we're having fewer people in the ground able to meet those needs and ultimately, people will die."
Many aid agencies depend on funding from the United States, the UK, and other states which ban even unintentional support for terrorists.
Charities fear individual aid workers could face prosecution if payments are made for access, or goods fall into the wrong hands.
A London-based charity, Human Care Syria, says it is unable to deliver water filters to Isis-controlled Deir al-Zour, in north-eastern Syria, where people have no clean water, until it can find "safe access which doesn't involve engaging with the proscribed groups".
Its programme development manager, Marwa Kuwaider, said: "This legislation is like an elephant walking through small plants. It's difficult for us as a small organisation, trying to work in a transparent and accountable way, to meet all the requirements in the UK."
Another charity, Hand-in-Hand for Syria, says it is being forced to close a hospital it runs near Aleppo, featured in the BBC Panorama documentary Saving Syria's Children, because it cannot find a well-established, mainstream partner agency through which foreign donors would be prepared to channel funding.
Omar Gabbar, a British doctor who has worked at the hospital in Atareb, said: "It will be devastating to the whole area, they will struggle to maintain care to about 500,000 people.
"There is something called a 'money trail' and this is where international NGOs are starting to get a bit worried. If you are giving salaries to doctors, and if one of those doctors is at some stage labelled as a terrorist, it can have an effect on them."
Hand-in-Hand for Syria's former partner decided not to seek further funding for the hospital because of security fears, including for its own staff. But the BBC understands it also had concerns about the proportion of fighters being treated at the hospital, though Dr Gabbar said these had not been raised directly with his charity.
He said: "If you deprive a whole area on the excuse that I'm worried about 10% of services going to this group, you're depriving 90% innocent people. They didn't ask for Isis to come into this area."
International humanitarian law requires anyone in medical need to be treated.
Fear that aid would fall into the hands of the Islamist group al-Shabab severely reduced help to Somalia during the famine there between 2010 and 2012.
The risk of engaging with banned groups has also limited relief and development work in Gaza, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and other places.
Now, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) is preparing a report for the autumn meeting of the G20 group of major economies to work out ways to overcome banks' reluctance to work with charities in areas where designated terrorists are active.
Justine Walker of the BBA said: "We are incredibly concerned that banks are being put in a situation where we are not going to be able to facilitate money into some of the most fragile and needy areas of the world."
Listen to the full report on File on 4 on Tuesday 1 July at 20:00 BST on BBC Radio 4.
Or find out more in Assignment: Shaking Hands with the Enemy on Thursday 3 July on BBC World Service. See the schedule for broadcast times. | Anti-terrorism laws around the world are preventing aid agencies reaching people in desperate need, the UN humanitarian chief has warned. | 28086726 |
He said he had no intention of offending anyone and respected sexual diversity.
Ms Campero, a 29-year-old doctor, has been the subject of similar comments by other senior Bolivian politicians.
Mr Morales made the comments during an official ceremony in the northern province of Beni.
He noticed Ms Campero was talking to another woman and was not paying attention to his speech.
Mr Morales interrupted his speech and said: "I don't want to think that you're a lesbian. Listen to me."
His comments prompted reactions from gay and lesbian organisations in the Andean nation.
"And if the minister was a lesbian? What would be the problem?" questioned Bolivia's Network of Lesbian Women pressure group.
Mr Morales issued a statement saying he apologised "humbly and sincerely" if he had offended anyone, adding: "We respect diversity and that is clear in our constitution."
Bolivia has a gender equality law and many women occupy high-profile political posts.
But they have on several occasions had to deal with sexist comments.
Ms Campero was told by Vice-President Alvaro Garcia during a recent event to "get married".
In March, the mayor of a small town said during a rally that she should move in as a maid.
She responded by tweeting a picture of bisexual Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and a message: "I won't be silenced, I won't be submissive. It's a pity that there are still sexists in our ranks." | Bolivian President Evo Morales has apologised for joking about the possibility of Health Minister Ariana Campero being a lesbian. | 34851896 |
American firm wHY beat off competition from 125 teams from 22 countries to design the £25m project to revitalise West Princes Street Gardens.
The design will see a series of new green spaces connected by an undulating promenade linked to the Royal Mile.
There will be a new Ross Pavilion and indoor visitor centre.
During the five-month search, seven teams were shortlisted including Adjaye Associates, Bjarke Ingels Group, Flanagan Lawrence, Page Park Architects, Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, wHY and William Matthews Associate Architects.
Norman Springford, competition jury chairman, said he was delighted with the whole process. He said: "As is always the case with initiatives of this size and stature, the jury had a hard job.
"We are confident, however, that we have a winning concept that embodies an imaginative ensemble landscape approach, creating a wonderful stage for our iconic Edinburgh Castle.
"In addition, the design concept offers a creative energy and a series of unique elements which will all combine to create a new and contemporary landscape.
'We thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the shortlisted teams and understanding each approach.
"However with wHY, they demonstrated an impressive collaboration which respects and enhances the historical context and backdrop of the castle and the city, whilst creating new heritage and increasing the green space within the gardens.
"All of which were key aspects for us all and respected the importance of the space within a World Heritage Site."
Kulapat Yantrasast, founder and creative director of wHY, said: "wHY is built around an ecology of disciplines, the convergence of ideas, experience, nature and people.
"The Ross Pavilion and West Princes Street Gardens represent this convergence and this was the perfect ground to further our approach to design. To be selected from so many extraordinary thinkers is an honour.
"We felt a personal connection to the gardens and believe our design embodies how important collaboration and people are to making a place remarkable." | A design dubbed "The Hobbit House" has won the contest to create a new outdoor concert arena for Edinburgh to replace the Ross Bandstand. | 40790624 |
A dozen apprenticeships will be among the extra positions at The Village Bakery's three sites at the Wrexham Industrial Estate and in nearby Minera.
The increase will bring the firm's workforce up to 500.
Operations director Simon Thorpe said the firm was "very fortunate" to be going through "another period of significant growth".
The plan is separate to a proposal the firm submitted to Wrexham council last year for an expanded £16m "super bakery", which was linked to 100 potential new jobs.
Apprentices for the current expansion will be trained at the firm's £4m baking academy and innovation centre, which was officially opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2015. | A Wrexham-based bakery is to create 50 new jobs to help it cope with a "growing order book". | 40091833 |
Celtic had said they were "very disappointed" over "potentially" being allocated 700 tickets fewer than Aberdeen for the match on 27 May.
But the SFA said one reason for this is because of the number of seats in the club's "preferred" East Stand.
The SFA added that ticket allocation had been handled in "full consultation" with both clubs.
The Premiership champions had issued a statement on their website saying they were unable to secure a 50-50 split at Hampden.
"Clearly we are very disappointed that our attempts to ensure an equitable allocation of tickets have been unsuccessful," Celtic said.
"We have tried everything to ensure that this could be achieved."
Celtic said they suggested a number of proposals to the SFA that would "maximise the ticket allocation for our fans" including "reviewing the segregation arrangements", a "reconfiguration of the upper south stand" and "the creation of a neutral area to best accommodate supporters through the 'football family'", but that these were not accepted.
In response, the SFA said: "The allocation of tickets has been handled in full consultation with both participating clubs and the available seating at Hampden Park will be split on a 50-50 basis, as has been standard practice in previous cup finals where a sell-out crowd is anticipated.
"It should also be noted that one of the reasons Celtic will potentially receive fewer tickets than Aberdeen is that the East Stand, Celtic's preferred stand for Scottish Cup matches at the national stadium, contains fewer seats than the West Stand.
"In addition, the "football family", made up of Scottish FA members, commercial partners, other recognised football organisations and staff, have the right to buy match tickets for the final.
"This has impacted on the number of tickets the clubs will receive to sell to their supporters with demand for tickets in the Celtic areas outweighing that of the Aberdeen areas."
Celtic, who won the League Cup by beating the Dons in November's final at Hampden, are trying to win their first domestic treble since 2001.
A club spokesperson added in their statement: "With Celtic supporters attending matches at Hampden in such huge numbers across this season, an equal split in allocations is the least that we would have expected for such a prestigious and important match.
"The initial split of tickets means we will receive slightly less tickets than we did for the recent semi-final tie [against Rangers]. As it is a cup final there are a number of contractual rights which the club is tied to and these have to be fulfilled which naturally impacts on wider availability.
"We understand the significance of the match and this has again intensified demand for tickets and it is clear that we simply will not have anywhere near enough to accommodate the demand we are currently experiencing." | The Scottish FA has defended itself following criticism from Celtic over Scottish Cup final ticket allocations. | 39829048 |
The independent appeals were set up by the government five years ago.
The move was a response to the perception that banks were treating small business customers unfairly.
The successful rate of overturning bank decisions is now said to have reached 26% of the 3,229 cases handled.
Professor Russel Griggs, the Independent External Reviewer to the Banks' Appeal Process, outlined the figures in his fifth annual report.
Including business lending other than credit cards, that rate of overturned decisions began at nearly 40% in the first year. But Professor Griggs said banks had improved their handling processes.
Small firms still face a credit-scoring system which can be harsh, while companies seeking more than £25,000 in finance are more likely to be refused loans when banks assess the affordability of their plans.
The emphasis of the appeals process has been on encouraging banks to take more time to consider applications, and to be more flexible in applying their own guidelines.
Over the past five years, there have been nearly 16,000 lending application appeals. Of them, nearly a third have had the initial bank decision overturned.
Professor Griggs claimed that he had identified £60m in financing over five years that had been unlocked by the appeals process.
But he added that he could "safely estimate" that the total, including cases which were not fully documented and which led to continued discussions between banks and customers, could take that to £100m.
"All the banks realise now that taking that extra time can allow them to lend more and better," wrote Professor Griggs.
"The real benefit has been the change in processes which the banks have implemented leading to better and more fruitful conversations between banks and their small and medium-size business customers."
Banks involved in the appeals scheme include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank and NatWest, Santander, TSB, Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank, First Trust Bank, Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank. | Small businesses have unlocked an estimated £100m of additional bank finance over five years through re-applying for loans through an appeals system, it has been claimed. | 36982219 |
It would seem to be a bit of a challenge.
The New York billionaire said he doesn't know if he's ever asked God for forgiveness and referred to a communion wafer as "my little cracker" during a religious-affiliated presidential forum in Iowa. He won't cite a favourite Bible verse. He's been married three times. He was once avowedly pro-choice on abortion. And when an interviewer recently asked him about God, he spent more time talking about an oceanfront real-estate deal.
It's a far cry from the more detailed profession of faith made by competing candidates like retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Governor (and Southern Baptist minister) Mike Huckabee and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Even former Florida Governor Jeb Bush - a no-show at Friday's event - speaks openly of his adult conversion to Roman Catholicism.
And yet there was Donald Trump, childhood Bible in hand, making a play for the support of right-wing religious activists at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit in Washington DC on Friday.
"I brought my Bible," he said, noting it was from the First Presbyterian Church in New York City and pointing to an inscription on the inside cover. "This was written by my mother, with my name, with my address, with everything."
It took him a while to get back to religion in his speech - he first felt obliged to take swipes at departing House Speaker John Boehner (for which he was cheered) and fellow candidate Marco Rubio (for which he was booed), but he eventually tried to speak his audience's language.
"I believe in God," he told the crowd of over a thousand. "I believe in the Bible. I'm a Christian."
He followed it up by taking a firm stand in favour of Christmas.
"I love Christmas. You go to stores now, you don't see the word 'Christmas'," he said. "Remember the expression 'Merry Christmas'? You don't see it anymore. You're going to see it if I get elected, I can tell you right now."
And that was mostly it - the sum total of his appeal to his audience's evangelism in his nearly 30 minute address.
Many in the crowd weren't buying it.
"Only God knows his true relationship with God, but as the Bible says, 'you will know them by their fruit'," says Pam Orebaugh of Liberty Lake, Washington. "He's not a bad person, but he's definitely not one championing and being very verbal about being a Christian, religious freedom, being pro-life."
"Where was he 10 years ago?" she asks.
Damon Boyle of Eldersburg, Maryland, calls Mr Trump "very entertaining", but it would take more than that to win his support.
"He's an excellent businessman. He's an excellent executive," he says. "But in terms of a Christian, what has the man done?"
These sentiments were backed up by a straw poll of Values Voter Summit attendees released on Saturday, which put Mr Trump in fifth place with 5% - well behind Mr Cruz, who garnered 35%.
Mr Trump likes to boast that national opinion polls show him with strong backing from religious voters. A recent Fox News Survey had the New Yorker in first place among white evangelicals with 29%.
A Gallup poll from mid-September, however, found evidence of weakness in Mr Trump's support. He had a net favourability rating of 22% among "highly religious" voters, putting him 12th- well behind Mr Carson (56%), Mr Huckabee (49%) and Mr Rubio (49%).
"No sign here of any special appeal on the part of Trump to highly religious Republicans," writes Gallup's Frank Newport.
So does Donald Trump have a God problem?
White evangelicals made up 57% of the electorate in Republican Iowa Caucuses in 2012 and were essential to the former Senator Rick Santorum's surprise victory there. They're also a key voting bloc in the eight Southern states that are joining together to hold their primaries on 1 March 2016.
For a while, it appeared that Mr Trump was going to give the Values Voter Summit a pass, prompting Family Research Council President Tony Perkins to question his commitment to religious voters.
"I think that is going to send a message to evangelicals and values voters that he wants their support, but he is not really interested in having a conversation with them," Mr Perkins told the Christian Post.
When Mr Trump changed his plans, Mr Perkins changed his tune.
"It is part of beginning a conversation if he wants to build a relationship with evangelicals," Mr Perkins said in a Washington Times interview, adding that a fifth-place showing in the straw poll "is actually pretty good".
Mr Trump may not be a natural fit for this Republican constituency, but it appears he's not going to cede these voters to another candidate without a fight.
Candidates in (and out of) the Republican presidential field | Can Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump position himself as the candidate of the evangelical right? | 34365974 |
The claim: Migration to the UK puts a heavy burden on housing stock - we would need to build 240 houses a day for 20 years to cope.
Reality Check verdict: The sums add up. Note that the figures include migration from outside the EU and are a projection based on the past.
"We need to build around 240 houses every day for the next 20 years just to be able to cope with increased demand from future migration," he said.
That works out at a total of 1.75 million houses.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) makes assumptions about future levels of migration in its population forecasts. In the latest release, published last October, the suggested figure for population increase due to net migration over a 25 year period is five million. Over the 20-year period from 2014 to 2034, the figure is approximately four million.
The average UK household size is 2.3 people so four million people does indeed equate to about 1.75 million homes, or 240 a day.
There are a couple of caveats. One is that the ONS figure is for immigration from both inside and outside the EU. At the moment, the EU accounts for just under half of total net migration.
And second, the ONS numbers are not a forecast of what they expect to happen. They are an assumption made on the basis of what has happened in the past.
Read more: The facts behind claims in the EU debate | Iain Duncan Smith has been talking about the impact of migration on the availability of housing. | 36262372 |
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Britain, who lost 4-1 to Belgium in their opener, led inside two minutes when David Condon slotted in from close range after a goalmouth scramble.
Kane Russell's stunning strike and another goal from Hayden Phillips turned the game in the Kiwis' favour.
GB skipper Barry Middleton tapped in to level before half-time, with neither side able to find a second-half winner.
Britain, who are ranked fourth in the world, are fifth in Group A after their opening two matches.
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With the introduction of a quarter-final stage at Rio, they only need to finish in the top four of their six-team group to qualify.
They play host nation Brazil on Tuesday, face world champions Australia on Wednesday, then wrap up the group stage against Spain on Friday.
GB head coach Bobby Crutchley:
"It was disappointing not to win. We had some good opportunities we were better than against Belgium in our intensity and the way we played.
"Our execution was a bit off and we didn't deliver our corners but we showed better intent.
"There were glimpses of quality but it'll come in the coming games. The players are good at self evaluation so we know what we need to do.
"We need to win our next game. We're playing a team we haven't played before which doesn't happen often. We have to make sure we're diligent and prepare properly and put in the performance we need to get the win."
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Great Britain's men are still searching for their opening Rio 2016 win after drawing 2-2 against New Zealand. | 37005973 |
Ella Chadwick, of Whitworth, Rochdale, was born with a rare kidney disease and had 40 operations before she was six.
It was the second time she has taken part in the 1km (0.62 miles) Mini Great Manchester Run but the first time she has crossed the finishing line unaided.
Her mother Karen Hughes said it was "a huge step in her recovery".
Ella - who has congenital nephrotic syndrome - was running for the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.
Ms Hughes said crossing the finishing line without the use of a walking frame was a "fantastic moment and another huge step in her recovery".
Hannah Thomas, from the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital charity, said she was "thrilled" and "so proud" Ella finished the race without her walker.
"Ella is such an inspirational and cheerful little girl who never fails to put a smile on our faces," she said.
"Ella and her family are long-term fundraisers for our charity and we are very grateful for all of their continued support." | An eight-year-old girl who has had two kidney transplants has taken part in a race to raise funds for the hospital she was treated at in Manchester. | 36350957 |
Tom Thwaites had special prostheses made so he could walk like an animal.
The spoof awards, which are not quite as famous as the real Nobels, were handed out during their annual ceremony at Harvard University, US.
Other studies honoured during the event examined the personalities of rocks, and how the world looks when you bend over and view it through your legs.
On the surface, all the celebrated research sounds a bit daft, but a lot of it - when examined closely - is actually intended to tackle real-world problems.
And nearly all of the science gets published in peer-reviewed, scholarly journals.
It is unlikely, though, that the German carmaker Volkswagen will appreciate the point or humour of the Ig Nobels.
The firm has been awarded the chemistry prize for the way it cheated emissions tests.
Goat-man Tom Thwaites actually shares his biology prize with another Briton, Charles Foster, who also has spent time in the wild trying to experience life from an animal's perspective.
Clearly, the practice is fast-becoming a national trait.
Mr Thwaites concedes his effort was initially an attempt to escape the stress of modern living, but then became a passion.
He spent a year researching the idea, and even persuaded an expert in prostheses, Dr Glyn Heath at Salford University, to build him a set of goat legs.
Fascinating, if a little bizarre on occasions, was Mr Thwaites' verdict on the whole venture. He developed a strong bond with one animal in particular - a "goat buddy", but also very nearly kicked off a big confrontation at one point.
"I was just sort of walking around, you know chewing grass, and just looked up and then suddenly realised that everyone else had stopped chewing and there was this tension which I hadn't kind of noticed before and then one or two of the goats started tossing their horns around and I think I was about to get in a fight," he told BBC News.
The American science humour magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research, is the inspiration behind the Ig Nobels, which are now in their 26th year.
Thursday night's ceremony was reportedly as chaotic as ever, with audience members throwing the obligatory paper planes while real Nobel laureates attempted to hand out the prizes.
The full list of winners announced at Harvard's Sanders Theatre:
Reproduction Prize - The late Ahmed Shafik, for testing the effects of wearing polyester, cotton, or wool trousers on the sex life of rats.
Economics Prize - Mark Avis and colleagues, for assessing the perceived personalities of rocks, from a sales and marketing perspective.
Physics Prize - Gabor Horvath and colleagues, for discovering why white-haired horses are the most horsefly-proof horses, and for discovering why dragonflies are fatally attracted to black tombstones.
Chemistry Prize - Volkswagen, for solving the problem of excessive automobile pollution emissions by automatically, electromechanically producing fewer emissions whenever the cars are being tested.
Medicine Prize - Christoph Helmchen and colleagues, for discovering that if you have an itch on the left side of your body, you can relieve it by looking into a mirror and scratching the right side of your body (and vice versa).
Psychology Prize - Evelyne Debey and colleagues, for asking a thousand liars how often they lie, and for deciding whether to believe those answers.
Peace Prize - Gordon Pennycook and colleagues, for their scholarly study called "On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit".
Biology Prize - Awarded jointly to: Charles Foster, for living in the wild as, at different times, a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, and a bird; and to Thomas Thwaites, for creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs that allowed him to move in the manner of, and spend time roaming hills in the company of, goats.
Literature Prize - Fredrik Sjoberg, for his three-volume autobiographical work about the pleasures of collecting flies that are dead, and flies that are not yet dead.
Perception Prize - Atsuki Higashiyama and Kohei Adachi, for investigating whether things look different when you bend over and view them between your legs.
For those who cannot abide this sort of nonsense, the real Nobel Prizes are handed out the week after next.
[email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos | A British man who lived in the Alps as a goat for three days has won one of this year's Ig Nobel prizes. | 37443204 |
The men had no life jackets and ended up in the water after their 16ft (4.8m) boat overturned at speed before sinking off Seaton, coastguards said.
The anglers were rescued near the mouth of the River Axe by a passing boat at about 06:00 BST.
Coastguards said the three men were unharmed.
Portland Coastguard watch officer Roger Hoare said: "These three men are extremely lucky to be alive after making such a basic error as leaving their life jackets at home." | Three anglers are "extremely lucky to be alive" after being rescued from a capsized boat off the Devon coast, Portland Coastguards have said. | 14352781 |
In its central forecast, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said some households could lose up to £2,771 a year.
Falling national income might result in cuts to the welfare budget by 2020, the NIESR study said.
The Vote Leave campaign said the report was based on "dodgy" assumptions.
Using existing forecasts, NIESR assumed that national income will fall by up to 6% by 2020 if the UK leaves the EU, compared to what it otherwise would have been.
It also assumed that the government would stick to its promise to balance the books by 2019/20.
In that case, it said, the government would need to save £44bn by the end of the decade, a large proportion of which could come from the welfare budget.
However, the government could choose instead to cut other areas of spending or raise taxes.
The welfare budget represents about 28% of all current government spending, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
"Based on these assumptions, our results show that a disproportionately large share of the costs of Brexit is likely to fall on low income households," said Angus Armstrong, one of the report authors and a former Treasury official.
The NIESR report used existing forecasts from seven published sources, including the Treasury. But none of these use a "dynamic" model.
In other words they take no account of any policy changes that might be announced in response to a UK exit from the EU, such as a cut in base rates by the Bank of England.
If 25% of the necessary savings were to come from welfare spending, the biggest cut in benefit payments and tax credits would be £1386 a year, the NIESR study says.
That would be for a lone parent of working age who has two children.
The minimum would be £465, for a couple, both working, with no children.
If 50% of the savings were to come from the welfare budget, the biggest cut would be £2,771, and the smallest would be £930.
"The effect on low income families is likely to be large," said Katerina Lisenkova, another of the report's authors.
However the Vote Leave campaign said the findings were not credible.
"This is yet another report from a former supporter of the euro masquerading as new research that is simply recycling and repackaging previous reports," said Matthew Elliott, chief executive of Vote Leave.
"That means the same dodgy assumptions of establishment economists and the Treasury underpin the findings - it is the same people who predicted the world would end if we did not join the euro."
The NIESR study suggested that net migration from the EU into the UK would fall by two-thirds in the event of a UK exit.
It also found that the population profile of the UK would become older. | Low income families could receive hundreds of pounds less in benefit payments if the UK leaves the EU, according to an economic think tank. | 36488254 |
The Wiltshire adventurer became the first person to conquer both the North and South Poles and the highest peaks on all seven continents.
"I am very humbled and delighted to receive such a prestigious award," said Mr Hempleman-Adams.
Over the past 30 years he has visited the polar regions 30 times.
The award marks Mr Hempleman-Adam's achievement and service in polar research in both the Arctic and Antarctic up to 2012.
He has carried out several studies including medical research into patterns of behaviour before and after exposure to prolonged periods in polar regions. | David Hempleman-Adams has been awarded the Polar Medal from The Queen for services to the UK in the field of polar research. | 25333449 |
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has served six PCs with misconduct notices over their actions prior to 35-year-old Lisa Moller's death.
The supervision of the officers by two sergeants is also being investigated.
Her body was found at a house in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, on 31 August.
The night before her death, South Wales Police were called out twice by a neighbour to reports of domestic abuse at the house.
Officers attended again at about 09:30 BST but could not make contact with Ms Moller on any of the occasions.
Her body was discovered at 10:50 BST.
The IPCC launched its investigation in September following a referral from South Wales Police.
Investigators have completed house-to-house inquiries in Barry and identified witnesses. Call logs from 31 August and radio transcripts have also been examined.
IPCC Commissioner for Wales Jan Williams said: "We have kept Ms Moller's family updated and continue to have every sympathy for them at this difficult time."
The watchdog said serving a police office or staff member with a notice meant their conduct was subject to investigation but the move was not judgemental in any way.
Ms Moller's death is still being investigated by South Wales Police. | Eight officers have been put under investigation as part of an inquiry into the death of a woman following reports of domestic abuse. | 29706170 |
Nicola Sturgeon's bid to seek the legal authority to allow Holyrood to stage such a referendum will be voted on by MSPs next Wednesday.
The Scottish Parliament is due to spend next Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons debating whether the first minister should be given the authority to seek a Section 30 order from Westminster.
While the Conservatives, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats have all vowed to oppose a second referendum, a majority of MSPs support Scotland leaving the UK.
Although Ms Sturgeon's SNP lost its overall majority in 2016, the election of six Scottish Green MSPs means 69 of the 129 politicians at Holyrood back independence.
Speaking at Holyrood, in the first chance for MSPs to raise the issue since the first minister's announcement, Scotland's Brexit minister Mike Russell said: "If the Scottish Parliament seeks a section 30 order, then it would not be in any sense a democratic move to try and thwart that."
Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins said the first minister had "jumped the gun by issuing uncalled-for and unilateral demands for a second independence referendum to break Britain up".
He said: "Why should the UK government now take Scottish Government ministers into their trust at all about the UK Brexit negotiations?"
Mr Russell responded: "I don't feel...I've been taken into the UK government's confidence on any occasion but I'm quite happy to be taken into their confidence now if they choose to do so." | Scotland's Brexit Minister Mike Russell has insisted no move should be made to "try and thwart" a move for a second independence referendum. | 39271501 |
Sophie Taylor, 22, died when her car hit a block of flats in Adamsdown, Cardiff, in August 2016.
Cardiff Crown Court heard her BMW crashed while being followed by Melissa Pesticcio, 23, and her ex-boyfriend in separate cars.
Miss Pesticcio, of Llanrumney, denies causing death by dangerous driving.
She also denies causing serious injury by dangerous driving and two charges of dangerous driving.
Miss Taylor was allegedly being pursued by ex-boyfriend Michael Wheeler, 22, and Miss Presticcio, who was driving her own BMW, when she crashed into a wall.
Joshua Deguara, a passenger in Miss Taylor's car at the time, made a 999 call shortly before the crash which was played in court.
In the recording Mr Deguara, who spent a number of months in hospital after the crash, is heard saying: "We're being chased as we speak by a BMW One Series.
"Melissa Pesticcio is driving. Sophie is quite scared."
Mr Deguara claimed Miss Pesticcio had chased them from outside the home of Wheeler. He said she was "trying to cut us up" and "trying to make us stop".
Moments later Miss Taylor crashed into the wall after colliding at high speed with Wheeler's Vauxhall Corsa.
Wheeler has already admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury.
The trial continues. | A woman allegedly killed by a love rival in a car chase called 999 for help shortly before her death, a jury has been told. | 39750523 |
The CMA report recommended that price comparison websites should no longer be obliged to show deals on which they do not earn a commission.
Consumers would therefore be unable to see some of the cheapest deals available.
The CMA report was released on June 24, the day of the EU referendum result.
Angus MacNeil, the chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) said the CMA's recommendation would mean that price comparison sites would become advertising sites.
"This will lead to further consumer distrust of the whole edifice around energy," he said.
Luke Watson, the boss of a smaller supplier, GB Energy, joined in the criticism.
"To be really honest, I am quite staggered at that particular course of action."
Six small suppliers previously wrote to the energy secretary, Amber Rudd, to express their concern about the plans.
In response, Roger Witcomb, chair of the CMA's energy market investigation panel, said the job of price comparison sites was to provide better deals for customers.
He said they should do that by negotiating with energy suppliers, as currently happens in other markets.
"What we're doing is putting energy back where motor insurance and home insurance and broadband deals already are," he told MPs.
He said that Citizens Advice already runs a website which compares all the energy deals available.
"We only need one of those," he said.
In February 2015 a report by MPs on the ECCC criticised price comparison sites for "hiding" the cheapest deals. It said consumers who had been misled as a result should receive compensation.
The CMA report found that 70% of domestic customers using the big six suppliers were on expensive default variable tariffs.
As a result it said that such consumers could save £300 a year by switching. Overall consumers were paying £1.4bn more than they should be, a figure downgraded from the CMA's previous estimate of £1.7bn.
It recommended that:
Martin Cave, a member of the CMA's energy panel, told the MPs that the inquiry should have recommended that fuel bills should be capped in the short term.
He was listed as a dissenter in the report. | A two-year inquiry into the energy market by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been accused of "turning the clock back" by MPs. | 36712099 |
In a game with little riding on it, Marcel Sabitzer headed Leipzig ahead, before Robert Lewandowski levelled.
Timo Werner and Yussuf Poulsen scored for Leipzig, with Thiago pulling one back before Werner made it 4-2.
Lewandowski scored in the 84th minute, with David Alaba and Arjen Robben netting in injury time to turn it around for Bayern.
The visitors sealed their fifth consecutive Bundesliga title last month.
In a high-scoring afternoon in the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim won 5-3 at Werder Bremen, who mounted a mini-comeback after going 5-0 down within 59 minutes.
Mainz are effectively safe from relegation after coming from 2-0 down to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 4-2.
Third-placed Borussia Dortmund drew 1-1 at Augsburg, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring his 29th Bundesliga goal of the season. Lewandowski is now the top scorer with 30 after his double against Leipzig.
Ingolstadt have been relegated following a 1-1 draw at Freiburg.
Pierre-Michel Lasogga scored an injury-time equaliser for Hamburg at Schalke - the goal which sealed Ingolstadt's fate. Hamburg remain in the relegation play-off place going into the final day - where they host Wolfsburg, the team two points above them.
The Wolves drew 1-1 with Borussia Monchengladbach. Elsewhere, Bayer Leverkusen came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at Cologne and Hertha Berlin beat relegated Darmstadt 2-0.
Match ends, RB Leipzig 4, FC Bayern München 5.
Second Half ends, RB Leipzig 4, FC Bayern München 5.
Naby Keita (RB Leipzig) is shown the yellow card.
Goal! RB Leipzig 4, FC Bayern München 5. Arjen Robben (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Thomas Müller following a fast break.
Attempt saved. Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Jérôme Boateng.
Goal! RB Leipzig 4, FC Bayern München 4. David Alaba (FC Bayern München) from a free kick with a left footed shot to the top right corner.
Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Naby Keita (RB Leipzig).
Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Diego Demme (RB Leipzig).
Foul by Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München).
Naby Keita (RB Leipzig) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from long range on the left is close, but misses to the right from a direct free kick.
Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Benno Schmitz (RB Leipzig).
Attempt missed. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Philipp Lahm with a cross.
Goal! RB Leipzig 4, FC Bayern München 3. Robert Lewandowski (FC Bayern München) header from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal following a set piece situation.
Arjen Robben (FC Bayern München) hits the bar with a left footed shot from outside the box. Assisted by Thiago Alcántara following a set piece situation.
Arjen Robben (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Diego Demme (RB Leipzig).
Foul by Thiago Alcántara (FC Bayern München).
Bernardo (RB Leipzig) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, RB Leipzig. Rani Khedira replaces Timo Werner.
Foul by Arturo Vidal (FC Bayern München).
Naby Keita (RB Leipzig) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Jérôme Boateng (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Jérôme Boateng (FC Bayern München).
Davie Selke (RB Leipzig) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, RB Leipzig. Davie Selke replaces Yussuf Poulsen.
Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Benno Schmitz (RB Leipzig).
Corner, FC Bayern München. Conceded by Yussuf Poulsen.
Corner, FC Bayern München. Conceded by Péter Gulácsi.
Attempt saved. David Alaba (FC Bayern München) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Marvin Compper (RB Leipzig).
Offside, FC Bayern München. Thomas Müller tries a through ball, but Arturo Vidal is caught offside.
Thiago Alcántara (FC Bayern München) is shown the yellow card.
Douglas Costa (FC Bayern München) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Yussuf Poulsen (RB Leipzig). | German champions Bayern Munich came from behind to beat second-placed RB Leipzig in a high-scoring encounter. | 39908902 |
In 2014/15, 9.76 days per person were lost to illness, compared to 6.86 days in 2013/2014, the fire service said.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said it was "concerned" about the rise.
The fire service said the number of sick days had dropped between 2007/2008 and 2013/2014 and the rise could be attributed to "considerable changes" over the past year.
Trevor French, from the FBU, said: "We're trying to identify the cause, which could be linked to budget cuts.
"Cuts agreed in 2013 will see 159 full time firefighters leave, which is 25% of our workforce and 15 middle managers will also go by 2017.
"Sickness levels have been on a downward spiral in recent years, so we're surprised by the increase."
Jane Sherlock, from Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, said: "The people who work for us are the most important resource we have and we want them to be healthy and happy at work.
"Staff sickness had been declining since 2007 from 13 days to 6.86 days until last year which follows a year of considerable changes within the service.
"There is a strong performance management focus on sickness absence as we are determined to reverse this trend and to continue with the long-term progress we have made."
In February, the service, which claims it has seen a drop of £8.7m of grant funding from the government since 2012/2013, approved a total net revenue budget of £74.7m for this financial year.
It is the largest non-metropolitan fire and rescue service in England and employees 1,983 staff. | Sick days at Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service have increased by 42% in one year, figures have shown. | 32828641 |
The charity, Blyth Tall Ship, is using £777,200 of Heritage Lottery funding to restore the wooden ketch, Haabet.
It is hoped after a two-year renovation, it will recreate the voyage of Blyth's William Smith, who found the first land in Antarctica.
The Haabet completed its journey to the Port of Blyth on Saturday.
The Haabet, which travelled from Svendborg in Denmark, is of a similar size and design to the merchant brig, Williams.
The Williams, built in Blyth in 1813 and skippered by local Captain William Smith, discovered the first land in Antarctica in 1819, according to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
It is hoped the renovated ship will be able to mark the 200th anniversary of the discovery by recreating the original voyage.
Clive Gray, chief executive of Blyth Tall Ship, said: "This is a major step towards recognising Blyth as the launch point of Antarctic discovery and putting Captain William Smith back in his rightful place in history."
The Haabet will also be used as the host ship when Blyth welcomes the Tall Ships regatta in 2016.
A team of 50 young people and volunteers will carry out the vessel's refit. | A 100-year-old Tall Ship from Denmark is to be restored in Northumberland in the hope of recreating an historic Antarctic adventure. | 32944419 |
Murray D'Angelo, 28, died after being hit by a vehicle on the motorway, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, at about 06:15 on Saturday.
Police said a 23-year-old man had been charged with the attempted murder of a 34-year-old man.
A spokesman said the charge was in relation to an incident that happened immediately before the collision.
Mr D'Angelo had been travelling in a taxi with two other passengers.
He got out of the taxi between the Gogar and Hermiston junctions and was hit by a vehicle.
The motorway was closed for almost eight hours following the accident.
The arrested man is expected to appear at Edinburgh Sherriff Court on Tuesday. | A man has been charged with attempted murder following an incident on the M8 in which a third man died. | 30387619 |
My last night at the Toronto Film Festival was spent pretty much like the first: At a huge, noisy, well-liquored party.
In many ways the event - enormous, convivial and a little intimidating - felt representative of my festival experience as a whole.
The size and scale of this annual showcase can make it difficult to negotiate, especially to a first-time attendee like myself.
With a bit of luck, planning and persistence, though, it is possible to see, do and achieve pretty much anything to which one sets one's mind.
For example, I had more or less given up on catching The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, a three-hour, two-part drama starring James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain.
But a tip-off from a Toronto veteran alerted me to an early morning screening at an uptown venue less frequented than the festival's primary locations.
Two subway rides and a bit of queuing later, I found myself watching one - or should that be two? - of my personal festival highlights.
I left with an even firmer conviction that the pale-skinned, flame-haired Chastain is the Meryl Streep of her generation.
Subtitled Him and Her, the two halves of Eleanor Rigby tell of a young New York couple dealing with a devastating bereavement.
Each part works fine as a self-contained story. Seen in tandem, however, you get the whole story - one that is painful and poignant yet ultimately life-affirming.
McAvoy is excellent as the impulsive Conor, a struggling restaurateur bewildered when his wife deserts him to start her life afresh.
But Chastain is simply outstanding as Eleanor, transforming before our eyes from a tragic victim of circumstance into an independent woman with a renewed sense of purpose.
The unconventional structure and hefty running time of Ned Benson's film(s) may militate against her Oscar chances this time around.
Such accolades, though, are only a matter of time. And yes, the Beatles reference is intentional.
Next to Eleanor Rigby's ambition and audacity, festival closer Life of Crime struck me as a bit of a damp squib.
Based on a novel by the late Elmore Leonard, this darkly comic tale of a kidnapping gone awry has plenty of amusing moments but not much substance.
That its ne'er-do-well protagonists previously featured in Jackie Brown invites comparisons with Quentin Tarantino's 1997 film that do Daniel Schechter's no favours.
But I did like Mark Boone Junior's turn as a slovenly collector of Nazi memorabilia, who responds to another character's moral qualms by spluttering: "What, you don't like history?"
The festival comes to a close in a couple of hours with the presentation of this year's awards, so look out for my report on that later.
For now, though, I'll sign off this diary by thanking Toronto for making me feel so welcome over the last 11 days. Go Blue Jays!
With the festival drawing to a close, I thought I'd say a few words about some of the other films I've seen out here that I haven't mentioned so far.
US comedy Bad Words casts Jason Bateman as a middle-aged curmudgeon who finds a loophole that allows him to enter a national children's 'spelling bee'.
Sweeping aside the competition with his superior orthography, he finds himself pitted against a gifted young boy, with whom he forms an unconventional friendship.
Bateman's first film as a director sparked quite the bidding war in Toronto before finally being snapped up by Focus Features for a reported $7m (£4.4m).
With a central character reminiscent of Billy Bob Thornton's Bad Santa, it's amusing but nothing special.
Period drama Belle puts an interesting twist on the genre by making its heroine (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) the illegitimate bi-racial daughter of a white admiral and a Caribbean slave.
Raised as a lady in a wealthy household yet forbidden to dine with them, her unique place in the social hierarchy allows director Amma Asante to address some of the same themes as 12 Years a Slave.
Belle, though, is very much the PG version of Steve McQueen's film, being as interested in swooning romance as it is in historical injustice.
It's great to look at but a little stuffy, with a sneering turn from former Harry Potter star Tom Felton that's essentially Draco Malfoy in a frockcoat.
Philomena and Under the Skin both played in Venice, so they arrived in Toronto with a bit of wind in their sails.
The former finds Dame Judi Dench in potentially award-grabbing form as an Irish Catholic who sets out to find the son she was forced to give up for adoption 50 years earlier.
The latter sees Scarlett Johansson as an alien in human form who drives around Scotland looking for men she can feast on.
Philomena is a charmer with a fascinating story to tell and an unlikely hero in the form of former BBC journalist turned Labour spin doctor Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan).
Under the Skin, alas, is a pretentious snooze that would probably provoke titters of derision if it wasn't so boring.
Set in a British prison where violence and intimidation are commonplace, Starred Up feels like a homegrown version of the French film A Prophet.
Lurking beneath the thuggery, though, is a sentimental streak as new inmate Eric (Jack O'Connell) finds himself sharing a wing with his old lag of a father (Ben Mendelsohn).
David Mackenzie's powerfully-acted drama has a brooding intensity and feels grimly authentic. But I still found myself longing for an early release.
I was also distracted by Mendelsohn's accent, a curious amalgam of estuary English and his native Australian drawl.
Karen Gillan does a better job adopting an American twang in Oculus, a blood-splattered horror film about a haunted mirror.
Part of the festival's Midnight Madness strand, it's a predictably gory affair with some well-staged shocks that could go on to enjoy cult success.
The Stag, meanwhile, is a rambunctious Irish comedy about a group of male friends on a debauched stag weekend in the country.
Its best moment, though, comes when Sherlock actor Andrew Scott quietly performs a beautiful rendition of the old folk standard Raglan Road.
I didn't get a chance to see August: Osage County, a heavily-hyped family drama with Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Ewan McGregor heading a very starry cast.
I also missed All Is On My Side, a biopic about Jimi Hendrix that focuses on the early life of the legendary rock musician.
But there are only so many hours in the day, and you can't spend all of them inside a movie theatre.
With that in mind, I think I'll do a bit of sight-seeing.
Last week there was a lot of talk about Benedict Cumberbatch being "the man of the festival", thanks to his roles in three Toronto titles.
Daniel Radcliffe has also been feted for having three films in the line-up, prompting one publication to call him the event's "unofficial poster-boy".
Australian actress Mia Wasikowska also has three movies showing this year, all of which have been enthusiastically received.
Yet no-one to my knowledge has been calling her "the woman of the festival". Maybe I should start.
I've already written about Only Lovers Left Alive, in which the 23-year-old Canberran plays a flighty vampire who can't be trusted around humans.
I've since seen the other titles in which she appears, which show the Alice in Wonderland actress to be as versatile as she is prolific.
In Tracks, she plays Robyn Davidson, a real-life nomad who trekked 2,000 miles across the outback with only a dog and four camels for company.
Wasikowska effectively conveys Robyn's indomitable spirit in an unaffected and refreshingly ungroomed performance.
John Curran's film boasts awesome desert scenery that emphasises the solitude, hardship and danger its heroine willingly signed up for.
It also opens with an unusual warning, aimed at Aborigines, that it might contain the voices of people who have died.
I then saw Mia in Richard Ayoade's The Double, playing the elusive and ethereal object of Jesse Eisenberg's affections.
There are two Eisenbergs in this Dostoyevsky adaptation, set in a grimly mechanised vision of the future reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
One Jesse is a meek and downtrodden milquetoast, while the other is a smoothly confident doppelganger who invades and takes over his life.
The film as a whole is rather muddled. But I did like the cheesy Blake's 7 parody, starring Paddy Considine, that's always playing when any character turns on a television.
Wasikowska, by the way, will be next be seen alongside Robert Pattinson in David Cronenberg's 2014 release Maps to the Stars.
A few days ago you could hardly move for celebrities. As the festival nears its end, though, there's a distinct shortage in the star department.
Yet there are still a few familiar faces in the vicinity, with more to come as we enter the final weekend.
The most recent flash of glamour came courtesy of Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson, in Toronto to launch light-hearted heist caper The Love Punch.
The former James Bond and the two-time Oscar winner play a divorced couple who set aside their differences to stage a jewel theft on the French Riviera.
"Emma and I had met over the years and we always said 'let's work together'," said Brosnan on Thursday.
"This wonderful piece fit like a glove. It's a beautiful romp of a film and we hit the ground running."
"For us it was the best summer ever," agreed Thompson, adding that the stunt driving she performed for the film had made her keen to pursue similar opportunities.
"It really gave me a taste for it," she revealed. "I'd like to do an action movie one day and get really ripped, with tattoos."
One of the most popular and colourful sidebars at the Toronto Film Festival is the Midnight Madness section, a nightly orgy of culty thrills from the worlds of horror, fantasy and action.
I got my first taste of it the other night and was captivated by the exuberance and enthusiasm of an audience markedly younger than the ones I have been a part of elsewhere.
Midnight Madness takes place on the campus of Ryerson University, some way away from the festival's primary hub downtown.
I asked Colin Geddes, programmer of the section, whether this physical separation reflected the sidebar's outsider status, apart and distinct from the rest of the line-up.
"Very much so," he agreed. "It is a festival within a festival, with a very different energy.
"There's music playing, people are excited and sometimes there's a beach ball."
The night I was there, to see a low-budget alien abduction thriller called Almost Human, someone had brought an inflatable alien to be bounced around beforehand.
Yet once the movie started the audience became almost eerily quiet, at least until the first instance of extra-terrestrial hostility.
"The audience is respectful," Geddes nods. "They don't yell out at the screen. They're there for the experience.
"For the first five to 10 minutes, they're waiting to feel what the tone of the film is. And then they just slide right into it."
Midnight Madness was first held 25 years ago to cater for cinemagoers who were having difficulty relating to the festival's more serious fair.
"Back then it was mainly foreign-language, art-house cinema," Geddes explains. "If you'd never been to a film festival before, it was a little impenetrable.
"But everyone can relate to horror films, to black comedies, to martial arts movies. So in many ways it's been a gateway drug to get audiences into the festival."
According to Geddes, the careers of Peter Jackson, Eli Roth and Japan's Shin'ya Tsukamoto are among those to have been boosted significantly by Midnight Madness exposure.
He also recalled a few occasions when ticket holders found its offerings too hard to stomach.
"When we showed Eli Roth's Hostel in 2005 we had two people passing out," he says.
"Eli, of course, took that as a badge of honour."
"People in the music industry don't make good life partners," says a character in Can A Song Save Your Life?, which sees Keira Knightley play a budding singer-songwriter trying to make it in New York.
The irony is that Knightley recently tied the knot with a person in the music industry - the splendidly named James Righton, from indie rockers Klaxons.
There's been a lot of interest in John Carney's follow-up to the Oscar-winning Once, particularly after The Weinstein Company acquired its US distribution rights for a cool $7 million (£4.4m).
A lot of critics seem very impressed also that Keira can carry a tune, having apparently forgotten she displayed a perfectly acceptable set of pipes in 2008's The Edge of Love.
The story of a jaded music producer (Mark Ruffalo) who encourages the newly jilted Greta (Knightley) to make good on her potential, Can A Song… mirrors Once so closely one might almost call it Twice.
As before, the action involves an older man and a younger woman, their will they/won't they relationship and a veritable tsunami of poignant guitar ballads.
At one point James Corden, in his role as Greta's best friend, even appears to be imitating the angst-ridden performance style of Once's Glen Hansard.
As derivative as it is, though, it still works a treat, charming and disarming in equal measure with its humour, heart and honesty.
Corden cropped up again this week in One Chance, a trite comedy inspired by the overnight success of Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts.
On this occasion Corden lets Potts do the warbling in a heavily fictionalised version of his life story that it would be misleading to call a biopic.
Yes, Paul gets to sing Nessun Dorma for Simon Cowell. But he also gets to work in a foundry and have his hopes crushed by Luciano Pavarotti.
We're also told his first BGT appearance was broadcast live, something that could never happen given how the show's produced.
David Frankel's film was financed by the Weinsteins and is self-evidently aimed at a North American audience.
There's a song from Taylor Swift over the end credits, while at one point Corden pops into Boots to purchase adult diapers.
Ask for diapers down your local branch and you'll likely get an expression of bewilderment.
Let's hope they do a better job when they film the Susan Boyle story. Come to think of it, Corden could probably play her as well.
Remember that press screening of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom on Saturday that was abruptly halted about 45 minutes in?
Well, the scuttlebutt going around is that there might be more than meets the eye to the "unforeseen mechanical difficulty" blamed for its curtailment.
The rumour is that somebody on high wasn't too thrilled by the idea of potentially disparaging reviews appearing ahead of the film's world premiere that evening and took decisive steps to prevent it.
It's all completely unsubstantiated, as most good rumours are. But I must admit it did smell a little fishy at the time.
Tuesday, by the way, saw Toronto bask in a mini-heatwave that pushed the mercury up to a sweltering 32 degrees centigrade.
"I've got to get a beverage," I heard one local remark. "I'm sweating more than Nixon."
Yet a solution is on hand for those wishing to beat the heat: a labyrinth of subterranean malls and walkways that allow one to negotiate the heart of the city in air-conditioned comfort.
It certainly beats a simmering sidewalk or subway carriage - and you can pop into Urban Outfitters en route.
Three of my more unsettling minutes at this year's festival were spent watching Jude Law wax lyrical about his penis.
Not in person, of course. That would be unthinkable. No, I'm talking about his new film Dom Hemingway, which opens with its titular moustachioed hard man, played by Law, delivering a soliloquy in praise of his "exquisite" appendage.
Law continues in like vein in this violent, blackly comic crime caper about a volatile safe-cracker ("I've got anger issues!"), which I am tempted to call his Sexy Beast.
Back in 2000, that film gave Sir Ben Kingsley a perception-altering role as a psychotic headcase. It's conceivable Dom may do the same for Jude.
"I asked the director Richard Shepard if we could shoot that scene first," the actor told reporters in Toronto this week. "It set the bar at a certain height for the rest of the film."
According to the 40-year-old star, the festival felt like "exactly the right place" to launch his latest venture, which has its UK release on 8 November.
"I've been coming here for 12 years with films of all shapes and sizes, and this one seems like a very good fit," he said.
"It's a tough market place out there, and a film this size is fighting against films that are 200 times bigger. That's all the more reason for it to be embraced by a festival like TIFF."
It's easy to be seduced by the glamour, energy and hoopla of the Toronto Film Festival, now on its sixth, predictably hectic day.
It's refreshing, therefore, to see a group of enterprising film-makers seek to channel that energy into something a little more substantial than the promotion and selling of movies.
Canadian director Atom Egoyan, his countrywoman Sarah Polley and documentarian Alex Gibney are spearheading a campaign calling for the release of two individuals who were arrested in Cairo on 16 August.
According to the campaigners, film-maker John Greyson and doctor Tarek Loubani have been detained in prison ever since, without being formally charged.
"With so many people from other countries in town this week, it's a great moment to raise international awareness," Polley told me earlier.
"We just wanted to take full advantage of any opportunity to keep this story in the public eye."
Paul Giamatti and Emma Thompson are among the celebrities who are showing their support by wearing one of the bright red buttons - another word for badge - that are being used to promote the initiative.
There's more about the campaign on the website www.tarekandjohn.com
Monday night saw the likes of Nicolas Cage, Scarlett Johansson, Julia Roberts and Taylor Swift tread red carpets at various venues across Toronto.
But hey, why bother with those guys when you can hang out with Craig and Charlie Reid from The Proclaimers?
The Scottish twins travelled a lot further than 500 Miles to attend the world premiere of Sunshine on Leith, an Edinburgh-based musical that uses their songs to propel its narrative.
Their reward was by the far the warmest welcome I've seen a film receive at this festival, capped off by a prolonged standing ovation.
Based on a stage musical first presented at Dundee Rep in 2007, Sunshine tells of two squaddies returning from Afghanistan to an uncertain future in Scotland.
Work and family troubles make it doubly hard to readjust. But not to worry, because there's always a jaunty Proclaimers number waiting in the wings to buck up their spirits.
I suppose one could call it McMamma Mia. And in the hands of actor turned director Dexter Fletcher it's a recipe for joyous, uninhibited, unadulterated fun.
That fun continued at an after-party that saw Craig and Charlie perform a selection of their hits for a select gathering that included Andrew Scott of Sherlock fame.
The film's title proved prophetic last November when its shooting on location was blessed with day upon day without rain.
"They tell us global warming has no benefits," Charlie deadpanned after the screening. "Trust me: For Scottish tourism it's brilliant."
Sometimes even movie stars get upstaged. Just ask Sandra Bullock at last night's premiere of Gravity.
The audience cheered her robustly as she walked on stage to introduce the film, in which she plays a Nasa astronaut coping with a calamity in space.
But they went positively potty over real Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a man who had actually done the things we were about to see simulated on screen.
I can see why Alfonso Cuaron's movie was so warmly received in Venice. It's a gripping, pulse-quickening thrill ride with astounding 3D visuals.
Behind the spectacle, though, I couldn't help detecting a geopolitical subtext.
The disaster that cripples the shuttle Bullock shares with veteran spacewalker George Clooney is caused by the Russians blowing up one of their own satellites and the debris shower it causes.
Their salvation, meanwhile, hangs on a Chinese escape pod they must get to and pilot if they're to have any hope of returning home.
Is Cuaron saying that the Chinese are to be trusted in space while the Russians aren't? Or is China's heroic role in the story a sweetener aimed at that country's vast cinema audiences?
Then again, it could just be a really cool movie about astronauts...
Daniel Radcliffe made quite a stir a few years back when he bared all on stage in Equus.
He's at it again in The F Word, a romantic comedy that at one point sees him strip off to go skinny-dipping in a chilly Lake Ontario.
He'll catch his death at this rate. Yet it's all in the service of a witty depiction of a "let's be friends" courtship that, as well as providing its star an appealing post-Potter vehicle, happens to be set in Toronto.
It occurred to me afterwards that I had seen more of the city by watching it than I'd done in five days of actually being here.
Other Brits who've been flying the flag include a pregnant Kate Winslet, in town to launch her new film Labor Day.
It's not a reference to her condition, but to the American public holiday on which some of its action is set.
Based on a novel by Joyce Maynard, it tells of a single mother and her young son who are taken hostage in their home by an escaped convict.
Gruff at first, Josh Brolin's uninvited houseguest proceeds to win them over by teaching the kid to play baseball and Kate to bake a pie.
As a pilot for a cookery show, Jason Reitman's film shows promise. As a drama, it's missing a few ingredients.
Speaking after its screening on Saturday, Winslet revealed her current circumstances precluded her watching a distressing scene in which her character suffers a miscarriage.
Andrew Macdonald, the Scottish producer of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, is also in Toronto, along with his director brother Kevin.
The former is here to launch the Proclaimers-inspired musical Sunshine on Leith, while the latter is screening his apocalyptic war parable How I Live Now.
In a quirk of fraternal fate, the two titles are set be released in the UK on the same day - 4 October this year.
I asked Andrew if he and his brother would be comparing box office receipts to see which of them comes out on top. "No, but our kids will," he laughed.
Okay, so you know that Dallas Buyers Club premiere I mentioned earlier? Well, it turned out to be a big fat bust.
Matthew McConaughey wafted past us without so much as a word, for all our trumpeting of his Oscar-worthy performance.
Bad McConaughey. That's the last time I see one of your daft rom-coms.
But I was glad to have made the effort, if only to share a couple of minutes with his co-star Jared Leto.
The Requiem for a Dream actor is also the frontman for Thirty Seconds to Mars and, on clocking I was from England, was quick to mention the band's UK tour dates in November.
Here is a man who recognises the value of good publicity. McConaughey, take note.
Around this time I had hoped to bring you my reaction to Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, a hefty adaptation of the South African figurehead's autobiography starring Idris Elba in the title role.
Unfortunately, around 45 minutes into the screening, the movie stopped, the lights came up and we were told it could no longer continue due to an "unforeseen mechanical difficulty".
I should have read the runes from the fact that the escalator up to the cinema was broken. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty short walk to freedom.
But it is clear Elba gives a commanding performance in a biopic that, from what little I saw, may prove a little conventional for some viewers' tastes.
What's a reporter to do? Well, maybe tell you what I thought of some of the other titles that have screened so far.
Prisoners, an intense thriller about child abduction, boasts an angry, angst-ridden turn from Hugh Jackman as a father who will go to any lengths to locate his missing daughter.
If you thought he was miserable in Les Miserables, you ain't seen nothing. But the film as a whole, the work of the Canadian Denis Villeneuve, is too overwrought and improbable to boot.
The Invisible Woman, directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes, tells of Charles Dickens' mistress, an actress named Nelly Ternan, and the lengths the author took to keep their affair secret.
Partly funded by BBC Films, it's a lavish period drama with an accomplished cast that, try as it might, never quite catches fire.
Maybe it's the facial hair. It's hard to get caught up in a love story when you're being continually distracted by mutton-chop sideburns and beards.
And then there's Enough Said, a film that bears the poignant distinction of being the last to be completed by the late James Gandolfini.
The Sopranos actor is cast against type as a lonely divorcee whose new relationship with a masseuse - Seinfeld's Julia Louis-Dreyfus - is undermined when she unwittingly takes on his ex-wife as a client.
It's a slight yet charming piece from an American writer-director called Nicole Holofcener who specialises in female-oriented comedies of romantic misunderstanding.
I randomly bumped into Louis-Dreyfus's husband in a hotel elevator on Friday, something I'll be sure to bring up when I interview her next week.
After three days of blazing sunshine, Toronto woke up to rain on what is now the third day of an increasingly hectic film festival.
It doesn't appear to have dampened any spirits, though I suspect some attendees are wishing they'd remembered to pack an umbrella and sensible footwear.
After catching Parkland last night, a multi-stranded, rather exploitative drama about JFK's assassination 50 years ago and the Dallas hospital where his body was taken, I arose bright and early to see Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman in The Railway Man.
Based on the story of Eric Lomax, a British prisoner of war forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway during World War II, it's an earnest but rather torpid affair that feels like a footnote to The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Firth plays Lomax in middle age, looking back on the traumatic ordeal he endured as a younger man (Jeremy Irvine) while nursing fantasies of avenging himself on his chief Japanese tormentor.
This latter element leads to some questionable melodramatic embellishments that detract from rather than bolster the film's central theme of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Kidman is good value though, in a relatively unshowy role that sees her sport a flawless English accent, a fetching brunette bob and a sturdy pair of Wellingtons.
Far superior to both of the above is Dallas Buyers Club, a showcase for resurgent star Matthew McConaughey that's practically guaranteed to secure him his first Oscar nomination.
The Hollywood heartthrob is a sight to behold as Ron Woodroof, an HIV positive rodeo cowboy in 1980s Texas who turns to illicitly obtained, alternative treatments to help him battle the onset of Aids.
Scarily emaciated, the actor nonetheless exudes charisma and defiance as he fights his doctors and the authorities over the "buyers club" he establishes for fellow patients.
An unrecognisable Jared Leto also shines as a flighty transsexual who becomes Ron's partner in crime, for all his homophobic tendencies.
The film, the work of Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee, runs out of gas before the end, but not before confirming McConaughey as one of this awards season's leading candidates for honours.
I'll be on the red carpet tonight at the film's premiere, so check back later to see how I got on.
With so many movies showing in so many different cinemas, the ever-present fear at Toronto is that you're missing the must-see.
That definitely wasn't the case on Friday evening, which I spent at a "special presentation" of the heavily Oscar-tipped 12 Years a Slave.
The "special" came courtesy of a dashing on-stage line-up featuring Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender and the ubiquitous Benedict Cumberbatch.
It was the "presentation", though, that made the night worthwhile. From the very beginning, I had no doubt I was watching one of the strongest titles in this year's programme.
Steve McQueen's gripping and gruelling saga tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free black musician from Saratoga, New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841.
His suffering and exploitation at the hands of a succession of slave owners is unflinchingly detailed in a film that lays bare the cruelty and barbarity of this heinous institution.
The whippings, beatings, kickings and lynchings make for a difficult watch, and one sudden act of unprovoked violence had the audience gasping in dismay.
Yet the harshness of such scenes is tempered by a lyrical beauty elsewhere that is enhanced further by the stirring Negro spirituals used to underpin the action.
At one point Solomon - the excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor - is forced to destroy a letter to his family that, if found by his "master", will surely result in his demise.
McQueen holds the camera on the paper as it burns, its smouldering embers mirroring the death of his hero's last slim hope of salvation.
Speaking after the screening, the Turner-winning artist turned award-winning film-maker said he had been drawn to make a drama about slavery because he felt no such drama existed.
"Steve was the first to ask the big question," said Pitt, who appears in the film (which he co-produced) as a Canadian abolitionist. "Why have there not been more films on the American history of slavery?
"It was a big question and it took a Brit to ask it. And I just have to say, if I never get to participate in a film again, then this is it for me."
Expect to hear a lot more about 12 Years a Slave as the movie awards season gets under way.
Though the focus was on The Fifth Estate last night and its black tie premiere, it certainly was not the only film to make its Toronto debut on Thursday.
So did Blue is the Warmest Colour, the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, which I caught in London last week.
Running three hours long and featuring some of the most graphic lesbian sex ever simulated on camera, it's being released in North America with an NC-17 certificate - the most restrictive rating there is for a mainstream release.
Controversy is swirling around this critically acclaimed coming-of-age story after its two lead actresses, Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulus, said the shoot had been "horrible" and that they would never work with director Abdellatif Kechiche again.
Kechiche was none too impressed with those comments, prompting Seydoux to tearfully issue a partial retraction.
Let's hope this sideshow does not impact on the film itself, a riveting and unflinching rite of passage built around two intensely committed performances.
The Toronto Film Festival's opening night party was an enjoyable if slightly rum do. Held partly on the street and partly in a shopping mall, it felt like several shindigs at once, united by a vaguely British theme.
The menu included such English culinary staples as Beef Wellington and good old fish and chips, while guests had the opportunity to pose beside a retro-style, bright red phone box.
Were they of a mind to, they could also munch on bags of popcorn bearing the name of The Fifth Estate, the festival's opening night film.
Bill Condon's drama was not half as corny as that dubious honour might suggest. But it was a little bland and lacking in texture.
Charting the swift rise of cyberspace renegade Julian Assange and his secrecy-busting WikiLeaks website, the film follows a similar template to that of Facebook movie The Social Network.
Again we see a brusque, not particularly likeable visionary sacrifice friends and ethics in his quest to make his pioneering internet venture a rulebook-rewriting phenomenon.
Sporting a white fright wig and a languid Australian drawl, Benedict Cumberbatch memorably portrays Assange as a single-minded iconoclast driven by a childhood trauma that is revisited obliquely in surreal flashbacks.
That element extends to a number of striking dream sequences that at one point conjure up 100 grinning Cumberbatches, each operating a laptop computer in a Kubrickian vision of an office.
The problem is that where The Social Network boasted an Oscar-winning script by Aaron Sorkin full of wit and one-liners, The Fifth Estate has a clunky and declarative one (by Josh Singer) that spells everything out in capital letters.
WikiLeaks, we are informed, is "a window into every government in the world", a "diplomatic nightmare" behind "the biggest leak of confidential information in history".
At times it almost sounds like a press release that wastes no opportunity to paint Assange as a heroic bastion for transparency and free speech, for all his egotism and personal foibles.
Assange himself has been dismissive of the project, calling the film the "anti-WikiLeaks movie" in an interview filmed at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has been residing since June 2012.
The film itself cheekily concludes with Cumberbatch quoting from that same interview, a self-referential touch that may not be enough to placate the critics.
I am told the movie - which I saw at a separate screening for the press and industry - drew a respectful but hardly ecstatic response at the opening night gala.
And Variety's reviewer appeared to concur, describing the film as "cluttered", "too busy" and "overly frenetic".
While we're on the theme of releasing sensitive information, I was intrigued to learn that Toronto has its own hush-hush equivalent of Nando's much-sought after "black card".
Only a hundred "Pronto" cards are issued, but those in possession of one have access to any screening no matter how "full" or "sold out" it supposedly is.
The owners have to pay an eye-watering sum for the privilege, but it certainly saves time that would otherwise be spent waiting in line with the riff-raff.
As far as we know, though, peri peri chicken is not included.
I'd heard great things about Don Jon, the directorial debut of Looper and Inception star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, from when it screened in Sundance in January, so when I saw it was playing in Toronto I was keen to catch it.
I'm glad to say this tale of a swaggering skirt-chaser secretly addicted to internet porn did not disappoint. It's a hoot.
Gordon-Levitt displays real presence as the New Jersey Don Juan who gets more than he bargains for when he initiates a courtship with gum-chewing vixen Scarlett Johansson.
The film has some smart things to say about the objectification of women in cyberspace and the different things men and women crave from relationships.
Mostly, though, it's just very funny, thanks in part to a resurgent Tony Danza as Jon's bullish Alpha Male of a father.
I laughed a few times during Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch's deadpan tale of centuries-old vampires brought together amidst the economic ruins of modern Detroit.
The critics were a bit sniffy when it screened in Cannes in May, but I found it something of a return to form for a director who infuriates as often as he satisfies.
The notion of a vampire (Tom Hiddleston) hiding out in the guise of a reclusive rock star is quite an appealing one, as is the idea of Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt) being alive, well and living in Tangier.
Tilda Swinton and Mia Wasikowska, meanwhile, make deliciously infernal sisters in an oddball story of dark desire and bloodlust that offers a mischievous spin on the Twilight series' teenage love triangle.
Things seemed rather quiet in Toronto when I arrived on Wednesday, but this morning things are buzzing.
Camera crews jockey for position on the sidewalk, queues snake outside screening rooms and box offices, and barriers have been placed on the street in expectation of huge crowds.
Tonight's big event is the opening night gala of WikiLeaks drama The Fifth Estate, but there are a bunch of other screenings too.
One that has caught my eye, possibly for sentimental reasons, is a 30th anniversary showing of baby boomer classic The Big Chill.
Lawrence Kasdan's comedy drama about college friends reuniting had its premiere in Toronto in 1983, so someone had the bright idea of reuniting its cast this year for a special reunion.
Glenn Close, Kevin Kline and Tom Berenger - remember him? - are among those expected at what is sure to be a premium exercise in celluloid nostalgia.
My morning began with one of the festival's fabulous publicists inviting me to this evening's opening night party. It's a tough job etc...
I don't know about you, but in my experience not every day begins with an air pilot imitating Elvis.
Apparently, though, that's how they make announcements on Air Canada. And our captain's Presley-style "Thank you very much" couldn't help put a smile on his passengers' faces as we commenced our seven-hour flight from London to Toronto on Wednesday.
Some turbulence en route left me all shook up, as did the shocking quality of one of the films I'd selected from the mid-air entertainment.
Here's hoping I won't see its equal among the film festival titles I hope to catch over the next 10 days.
The festival itself starts on Thursday. As a newcomer to the city, though, I thought it prudent to arrive the day before and get my bearings.
This was better thought than done. With its inflexible grid system and abundance of gleaming glass towers, a lot of Toronto thoroughfares look markedly similar to each other.
My first impression of the city was that it will look great when it's finished. I don't think I've ever seen so many building sites in such close proximity.
Luckily one is able to bypass a great deal of them by cutting through the spacious, multi-level shopping malls that appear to occupy every street corner.
My tasks for the day were simple ones. Pick up my press pass. Arrange some tickets. Attend a meet-and-greet organised by local film critics.
The latter event was a convivial affair that involved much speculation over what the opening night film, Julian Assange biopic The Fifth Estate, will be like.
The original plan had been to show the movie to the press a few hours before the official gala on Thursday, to be attended by leading man Benedict Cumberbatch and other cast members.
But the press screening was abruptly switched earlier this week to late on Thursday evening, a move that piqued the curiosity of several journalists I spoke to.
I've only been in town for half a day but I've already enjoyed a celebrity encounter. Walking down the street I was surprised to see Daniel Bruhl strolling in the opposite direction.
I felt compelled to congratulate him on his compelling performance as Niki Lauda in Formula 1 biopic Rush which is showing in Toronto this weekend following its premiere in London on Monday.
The busy German actor also appears in The Fifth Estate as Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the former spokesman for Assange's WikiLeaks website.
Check back here later to learn what Toronto makes of this hotly anticipated, ripped-from-the-headlines drama. | The BBC's Neil Smith reports from the 38th Toronto International Film Festival on the movies, stars and industry heavyweights that are making waves on the shores of Lake Ontario. | 23946794 |
Pep Guardiola suffered league defeats home and away to the same opponents in a single league season for the first time in his managerial career as City are left to fight for a top-four place.
Eden Hazard gave Chelsea a 10th-minute lead when his shot deflected off returning City captain Vincent Kompany past keeper Willy Caballero, who should have done better.
Chelsea keeper Thibaut Courtois was also badly at fault when his poor clearance to David Silva set up Sergio Aguero's equaliser after 26 minutes - but Chelsea were back in front before half-time.
They were awarded a penalty after Fernandinho tripped Pedro and even though Cabellero saved Hazard's spot-kick, the rebound fell kindly for the Belgian to score.
City, who stay in fourth, had the better chances in a tense second period, with Kompany's header bouncing back off the bar and John Stones shooting over from six yards in injury time. Chelsea, however, held on for a win that was even more vital given Tottenham's dramatic late comeback at Swansea City.
Chelsea's progress towards the Premier League title has been a tale of almost unbroken serenity since manager Antonio Conte reworked his tactical approach after successive losses at home to Liverpool and away to Arsenal in September.
This was arguably their biggest game since as it followed on from the shock home loss to Crystal Palace and it was against a Manchester City side with the talent and capability to make this night at Stamford Bridge a real test of nerve.
And so it proved as City, with Silva the orchestrator supreme, putting Chelsea's defence and their supporters on edge right until the final whistle.
Chelsea emerged triumphant thanks to the mixture of talent and resilience that has served them so well this season and the celebrations at the final whistle reflected just what a significant night this might prove to be.
Hazard provided the flourishes but manager Conte proved his pragmatism with the introduction of Nemanja Matic for Kurt Zouma at the start of the second half to attempt to lock down the win.
It worked to an extent but Chelsea also enjoyed good fortune as Kompany's header bounced back off the bar and Stones somehow scooped an injury-time chance over the top.
In the final reckoning, Chelsea showed the bloody-minded defiance of champions - and this is the sort of result that could earn them that crown.
If this meeting of two of the Premier League's superpowers and two elite coaches was meant to be an enjoyable experience, you would not have known from the body language of Chelsea coach Conte and his Manchester City counterpart Guardiola.
The Catalan, in particular, appears to lead an agonised existence in his technical area. The advocate of the joyous, beautiful game looks as if he is going through torture in almost every match.
He was slapping his thigh and remonstrating with backroom staff within 15 seconds of the kick-off and he was in regular dialogue with fourth official Bobby Madley, with Conte occasionally joining in.
It was, it should be stressed, another frustrating night for Guardiola when his team promised much and ended with nothing - although it concluded with a warm handshake for Conte, who also looked like he had endured a tough night.
Conte, by his standards, was relatively low key but the mask dropped at the final whistle as he pumped his fists in the direction of Chelsea's fans. This was a huge night for the Italian as he did the double over Guardiola.
Manchester City remain the great enigma of the Premier League - looking like they could score every time they attack but liable to concede at any moment.
Guardiola still has a goalkeeper conundrum, with Willy Caballero unconvincing and caught out by a routine deflection from Kompany for Hazard's first goal, while there is an air of permanent frailty at the back.
City's slim title hopes are now over and they must hunt a top-four place, aided by Bournemouth's late equaliser at Liverpool, and the FA Cup.
They must achieve one of both of those targets to stop this season ending unfulfilled before Guardiola tackles those goalkeeping and defensive problems in the summer.
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte told Match of the Day: "My look is tired because I feel like I played it tonight with my players. I suffered with them.
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"But we must be pleased because we beat a strong team - the best team in the league. I think they have a great coach - the best in the world. To win this type of game at this time of the season is great."
Man City boss Pep Guardiola told Match of the Day: "It's an honour to have the amazing players I have. We come here to Stamford Bridge and play the way we have, with huge personality. I'm a lucky guy to manage these guys."
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Chelsea travel to Bournemouth in Saturday's late kick-off (17:30 BST) while Man City host Hull City at 15:00.
Match ends, Chelsea 2, Manchester City 1.
Second Half ends, Chelsea 2, Manchester City 1.
N'Golo Kanté (Chelsea) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
David Silva (Manchester City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by N'Golo Kanté (Chelsea).
Attempt missed. John Stones (Manchester City) right footed shot from very close range is too high. Assisted by Vincent Kompany with a headed pass following a corner.
Corner, Manchester City. Conceded by Thibaut Courtois.
Attempt saved. Sergio Agüero (Manchester City) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Nolito.
Substitution, Chelsea. Ruben Loftus-Cheek replaces Eden Hazard.
Foul by David Silva (Manchester City).
Marcos Alonso (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Gary Cahill (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Willian with a cross following a corner.
Corner, Chelsea. Conceded by Gaël Clichy.
Substitution, Manchester City. Nolito replaces Leroy Sané.
Vincent Kompany (Manchester City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Vincent Kompany (Manchester City).
Eden Hazard (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by John Stones (Manchester City).
Diego Costa (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, Chelsea. Willian replaces Cesc Fàbregas.
Attempt missed. Sergio Agüero (Manchester City) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right misses to the right following a corner.
Attempt missed. John Stones (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by David Silva with a cross following a corner.
Corner, Manchester City. Conceded by N'Golo Kanté.
Attempt blocked. Fernandinho (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Raheem Sterling.
Substitution, Manchester City. Raheem Sterling replaces Kevin De Bruyne.
Hand ball by David Silva (Manchester City).
Fabian Delph (Manchester City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Fabian Delph (Manchester City).
Diego Costa (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Eden Hazard (Chelsea) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Pedro.
Attempt blocked. David Luiz (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Foul by Vincent Kompany (Manchester City).
Diego Costa (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Vincent Kompany (Manchester City).
Eden Hazard (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Manchester City. Conceded by David Luiz.
Fernandinho (Manchester City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Nemanja Matic (Chelsea).
Attempt missed. John Stones (Manchester City) header from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by David Silva following a set piece situation.
Vincent Kompany (Manchester City) wins a free kick in the attacking half. | Chelsea maintained a seven-point advantage over Tottenham at the top of the Premier League with a hard-fought victory over Manchester City. | 39426884 |
The move is to counter claims a Labour government would lack legitimacy if it won fewer seats than the Conservatives.
Senior Labour sources say such a coalition would have collectively more seats than the Conservatives.
They hope this might give an Ed Miliband-led administration greater legitimacy in the eyes of voters.
Labour could form the next government even if it has fewer MPs than the Tories and both parties have no majority.
What matters constitutionally is not which party comes first or second, but which can command the confidence of the House of Commons with the support of other parties.
Some Tory ministers have begun to argue that it would be illegitimate for Labour to form a government if it "came second" behind the Conservatives - in an attempt to shape the agenda for the day after the election if no party wins outright, the Tories win most seats and David Cameron tries to stay on in Downing Street.
But Labour sources say that a coalition with the Lib Dems would not only give an Ed Miliband minority government greater legitimacy, it would also give it greater stability.
They say that while coalition would not give Labour a majority in the House of Commons, it would give the government the ability to out-vote the Conservatives regularly whenever the SNP abstain.
They also say that coalition with the Lib Dems would make it much easier for a Labour-led government to get its business through the House of Lords where no party has a majority and where 102 Lib Dem peers are a key swing vote.
The inability to overturn defeats in the House of Lords has been one of the biggest difficulties faced by minority governments in the past.
There would be many hurdles to be overcome before any Labour-Lib Dem minority government could be formed.
It would be accused by opponents of being a "coalition of the losers".
Many Lib Dems would be opposed to minority coalition: not only would the party have to compromise yet again on its policies in return for power, but it would also have even less chance of getting its own policies implemented.
A Labour spokesman said: "This is post-election speculation. Every hour until polls close we are going to spend on winning a Labour majority.
"We are focused only on winning a Labour majority."
A Lib Dem spokesman said: "If there is a hung parliament we will do what we did last time: seek to work in the national interest to provide stable government and deliver the policies we believe will help to build a stronger economy and a fairer society.
"As last time, it is right that the party with the biggest mandate from the British people - the most votes and the most seats - should be given the first opportunity to reach out to other parties.
"It is clear that no party will win the election outright.
"Voting for Liberal Democrat MPs will keep Britain on track and not allow the Tories or Labour lurch off to the extremes of left or right."
The best of BBC News' Election 2015 specials | Senior Labour figures are considering the option of forming a minority coalition with the Liberal Democrats, the BBC has learned. | 32584903 |
Rodrigo Janot, told the Supreme Court Mr Cunha was using his political position to avoid investigation for alleged corruption.
Mr Cunha is being investigated over a massive kick-back scandal at the state-run oil company, Petrobras.
He is also the driving force behind impeachment proceedings against Brazil's President, Dilma Rousseff.
She faces accusations of breaking budget laws last year.
The Supreme Court has yet to rule on Mr Janot's request over Mr Cunha.
Mr Cunha is facing mounting pressure to resign. State prosecutors accuse him of lying about owning Swiss bank accounts and about having allegedly receiving bribes.
On Tuesday two of his properties, his official residence in Brasilia and a property in Rio de Janeiro were raided by federal police searching for evidence.
BBC Brazil correspondent Julia Carneiro quotes local reports as saying prosecutors have evidence that Mr Cunha received 52 million reais ($13m, £8.5m ) in bribes from companies paid into accounts in Switzerland and Israel.
Mr Cunha has responded by saying the investigation against him is an attempt to divert attention from the impeachment proceedings.
The Congressional ethics committee has also tried for months to begin investigations against Mr Cunha which he has blocked.
On Wednesday, the committee voted again to initiate its inquiry - an initiative, our correspondent says, that may now gain some impetus with the prosecutor general's request to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is meanwhile due to vote on Friday on whether to allow impeachment proceedings against President Rousseff to begin.
The move comes as rallies in 23 cities across Brazil began to show support for President Rousseff. | Brazil's prosecutor general has called for the lower house of Congress speaker, Eduardo Cunha, to be sacked. | 35118477 |
The attack on the beach near Sousse left 38 people dead, with the majority of the victims British.
Three of the men who died were Walsall FC fans and scarves have been laid at the team's stadium in memory of them.
Sandwell Council has opened two books of condolence for the men, who were members of the same family, as one worked for the council.
Council leader Darren Cooper said colleagues of Adrian Evans, a gas manager, were in a "state of shock".
"I've had staff on the phone in tears," he said.
Mr Evans' nephew, 19-year-old Joel Richards, was a student at the University of Worcester.
Staff and students were invited to gather at the flagpole on the university's St John's Campus for an act of remembrance for him.
University of Worcester vice chancellor Prof David Green said: "It's a real tragedy, we're all deeply affected. Joel was a particularly popular and outgoing student."
One of the women killed was 24-year-old Carly Lovett, a University of Lincoln graduate from Gainsborough.
West Lindsey District Council said a minute's silence would be held at its next meeting as a mark of respect.
Ms Lovett ran a beauty and lifestyle blog, and fellow bloggers including Lily Pebbles have paid tribute to her.
A candle was lit at St Petroc's Church in Bodmin on Sunday for Stephen Mellor, 59, and his wife Cheryl, 55.
Mr Mellor, from Bodmin in Cornwall, was killed as he tried to protect his wife from the gunman.
Mrs Mellor was left with gunshot wounds to her arm and leg and is being treated in hospital in Sousse.
Water company Severn Trent said it was "immensely saddened" by the deaths of its "much loved colleagues" Scott Chalkley and Sue Davey.
Mr Chalkley, from Chaddesden, Derby, and Ms Davey, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, were a couple and were on holiday together.
Ms Davey's daughter is the partner of Leicester City player Marc Albrighton and the club offered its "sincerest condolences" to the family.
Stuart Cullen, 52, from the Lowestoft area, is believed to have died instantly during Friday's attack but his wife survived.
She has been treated for her injuries and has now returned home, according to Suffolk Police.
Lowestoft mayor Stephen Ardley, who was holidaying in Sousse last week, said: "My heartfelt sympathy goes out to not only the Cullen family, but to all the families and friends that have been affected by this devastating act of cruelty."
Claire Windass, 54, from Hull, was sunbathing on the beach with her husband Jim Windass, 66, when she was killed.
In a statement released through Humberside Police, her family said Mr Windass had "miraculously managed to escape physically unharmed" and had now returned to his home in Hull.
The statement said Mrs Windass was "a warm, kind-hearted woman who made friends easily and was loved by everyone who knew her".
Another East Yorkshire victim was Bruce Wilkinson, 72, a retired power station worker from Goole.
In a statement, his family said: "We are devastated at the loss of Bruce, who was a devoted husband, father and grandfather.
"Bruce was a loving family man, and in his working life worked to support the care of others."
A granddaughter of Lisa Burbidge, from Whickham, Gateshead, left a tribute on the Facebook page of the Newcastle Chronicle.
"My angel, my best friend love you always grandma, rest in peace," it said.
Her family released a statement saying: "We have been left with a massive hole in our hearts. She leaves behind many family members including four fantastic grandchildren who were her world and will miss her tremendously." | Tributes have been paid across England to people killed by a gunman on a Tunisian beach. | 33310941 |
The move comes after investigators said his family had failed to account for the source of its financial assets.
The probe began when the Panama Papers leaks linked his children to offshore companies used to buy London flats.
This fuelled suspicion the companies were used to launder ill-gotten wealth, claims Mr Sharif strenuously denies.
He says the properties in London were acquired legitimately and that he personally does not own them.
But the issue is turning into a major challenge to him. Opposition groups accuse his family of using their political influence to amass wealth by unlawful means and are calling on him to resign.
So far Mr Sharif has refused, calling the investigators' report a compilation of "allegations and assumptions". His decision to stay in power was endorsed by the federal cabinet last week.
Hundreds of security personnel have been deployed around the Supreme Court, parts of which have also been fenced with barbed wire.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up in April, says it has found "significant gaps/disparity among the known and declared sources of income and the wealth" accumulated by Mr Sharif and his family.
It accuses Mr Sharif of concealing assets, overstating the wealth of his father with the aim of justifying his family's wealth, and of not reflecting in his wealth statement an "exorbitant hike" in his family's wealth during his first decade in power (1985-93).
It accuses his heir-apparent, daughter Maryam Sharif, of being the "beneficial owner" of offshore firms through which the London flats were acquired, and of forging documents to show she was a trustee for her brother, the real owner.
This allegation is based on a copy of a trust deed which she signed in February 2006. The JIT says the document was printed in Calibri font, which was not commercially available until January 2007.
The existence of the flats and the offshore companies linked to them was disclosed in the leak of 11 million documents held by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca.
The family said that the money for the flats, as well as the family's businesses in the UK and the Gulf region, came from the sale of their UAE-based Gulf Steel Mills.
The mill was set up by PM Sharif's father, the late Mian Mohammad Sharif, in the early 1970s, and he later invested the proceeds from its sale in a Qatar-based business.
The Sharif family have produced a letter from former Qatari Prime Minister Prince Hammad bin Jassim al-Thani explaining the money trail. He was not available to be interviewed by the JIT.
But the JIT says it found no evidence of a money trail leading from Pakistan through Dubai and Qatar to the London flats.
The JIT report has divided the nation - something very apparent in media coverage.
Audiences hooked to any of the pro-government TV channels would conclude that the JIT report was a pack of lies, but debates on pro-opposition channels leave no doubt in the minds of their viewers that they think Mr Sharif and his family are associated with corruption.
The report deals with complex issues of international finance, involving a labyrinth of financial regulations from a number of states and regulatory bodies.
Therefore, while much of what it states may be grounded in reality, experts have pointed out instances where the JIT appears to have either covered up for its lack of access or understanding, or has included opinions that do not have a sound basis.
Questions have also been raised over the Supreme Court's decision that the two military intelligence services, the MI and the ISI, would contribute one representative each to the six-member JIT, which should ideally consist of financial experts only.
Also, the Supreme Court's decision to let the ISI exclusively arrange secretarial services to the JIT has not gone down well with those who believe this service has been actively involved in political management of Pakistan's ruling superstructure since the 1980s.
Many suspect the ISI is meddling ahead of elections due in 2018 so it can retain its influence over the political establishment.
There are three options:
A disqualification would mean that Mr Sharif would be out of politics for life, as required under the "honest and sagacious" provision of the constitution. His daughter and political heir would face the same prospect.
It is not clear how the situation will be handled by the Supreme Court, which is itself under tremendous pressure.
Creating the JIT to look into the prime minister's wealth was an unprecedented move. The JIT is not a child of the constitution or the executive, but a child of the Supreme Court.
As such, few consider it likely that the court would reject the JIT's report entirely.
If disqualified, the prime minister is likely to announce a successor - possibly his brother Shahbaz, who is chief minister of Punjab - and let the government complete its term.
In any other event, analysts expect him to stay on and, if he must, to go down fighting. | Pakistan's Supreme Court is considering corruption allegations against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, amid mounting pressure over his family's wealth. | 40606167 |
Mr Hollande is the first Western leader to visit Russia since the start of the Ukraine crisis earlier this year.
A ceasefire was signed in September but there have been constant breaches.
Russia has been angered by Western sanctions imposed for its support of pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Hollande made his unscheduled stop in Moscow on his way back from a visit to Kazakhstan and met Mr Putin in the diplomatic terminal of Vnukovo airport, south-west of the capital.
Mr Putin said they had held detailed discussions on ending the violence in Ukraine.
"It is a tragic situation. We can see that people are still getting killed," he said.
"But I hope that a final decision will be reached soon to cease fire. We have just discussed this in great detail with the French president."
Mr Hollande urged all parties to respect the truce deal, signed in Minsk, Belarus, on 5 September.
"France's role is to search for solutions and prevent problems from degenerating," he said.
"I wanted today, alongside President Putin, to send a message of de-escalation. Today that message is possible."
Mr Putin told journalists afterwards that he and Mr Hollande had not discussed the delayed delivery of two French warships for the Russian navy.
But he said he expected France to return the money that Russia had paid so far for the vessels.
Meanwhile in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, President Petro Poroshenko said new talks were planned on Tuesday on implementing the steps agreed under the shaky ceasefire.
He said that the two sides meeting in Belarus would try to "confirm the timetable for implementing the (original) Minsk agreements".
More than 4,300 people have died and almost one million have been displaced, the UN says, since the crisis in Ukraine began in April. | Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he hopes a permanent ceasefire will soon be agreed in Ukraine, after talks in Moscow with French counterpart Francois Hollande. | 30365714 |
UK Coal said its business remained viable, despite claims a fire at its Daw Mill colliery in Warwickshire has left it with cash-flow problems.
Most of Daw Mill's 650 staff will be made redundant at the end of May but could lose benefits if UK Coal begins insolvency proceedings.
UK Coal said all options were being considered as part of restructuring.
In a statement, Kevin McCullough, chief executive of UK Coal Mine Holdings, said: "Daw Mill represented a significant part of the business and discussions have been under way since the fire to find a way forward for the rest of the business.
"The remaining deep mines in Kellingley in North Yorkshire, Thoresby in Nottinghamshire and six surface mines, remain viable and discussions continue with a wide range of interested parties."
Jeff Wood, national president of the UDM, said if UK Coal went into voluntary liquidation, Daw Mill staff could receive state payouts instead of enhanced benefits if they were not transferred over to a new company, one option he believes the company is considering.
"Our members are very concerned [about the plans]," Mr Wood said.
"The Daw Mill men are sat at home wondering if they are going to get to the end of May and get their redundancy.
"Our pensioners are very concerned because if the company did go down the insolvency route, the pension scheme would fall into the UK Pension Protection Fund which only protects 90% of the benefits they would have previously enjoyed."
Mr McCullough said: "Our main focus has been on preserving 2,000 jobs and securing the future of UK coal mining.
"Our remaining mines have been performing well since the fire at Daw Mill and we continue to work closely with our employees, government, pension funds, the Pensions Regulator, suppliers and customers.
"There will undoubtedly be some difficult decisions as we have had to look at all possible options, but there is a good business here with 2,000 families depending on our workforce and I am confident we will be able to announce more news in the coming days."
Over the past year, the company has announced restructuring programmes at Daw Mill and in August it said it was "unlikely" the mine would remain open after 2014.
At the time, UK Coal said it had made overall losses of £20.6m in the six months to 30 June, with Daw Mill contributing to a 20% fall in production. | A union fears hundreds of miners could lose out on redundancy pay if UK Coal applies for voluntary liquidation. | 22365848 |
A 27-year-old Polish man was taken to hospital after he was discovered at a property in Boston on Saturday.
The men, aged 25 and 32, of Larkspur Croft, were charged with grievous bodily harm and false imprisonment. The 32-year-old was also charged with possession of a firearm.
They appeared at Lincoln Magistrates' Court on Wednesday and were remanded.
They will next appear at Lincoln Crown Court on 29 June.
Three other arrested men remain on police bail until August.
The injured man is recovering in hospital. | Two men have been charged after a man was found with gunshot wounds in Lincolnshire. | 33180026 |
It happened in the car park at Morrisons in King Street in Aberdeen at about 13:10 on Sunday.
The woman was loading her shopping into a car when the man grabbed her purse.
Det Insp Allen Shaw said: "This is an absolutely despicable robbery. Thankfully she has sustained fairly minor injuries but is understandably extremely upset."
The suspect is described as being in his 20s, about 5ft 7in tall, and was wearing light-coloured trousers and a hooded jacket with a light upper half and darker lower half. | A 72-year-old woman was pulled to the ground in what police described as a "despicable" robbery. | 38882471 |
Owner UK Coal said it would oversee the rundown of the Kellingley mine before the site was redeveloped.
Unions said it was a "very sad day" for the country as well as the industry.
The last 450 miners at the pit are to receive severance packages at 12 weeks of average pay.
Keith Poulson, 55, branch secretary for the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said: "It has been like being a convicted prisoner on death row.
"We can basically hear the governor coming down the corridor and he's about to put the key in the cell door to take you to meet your fate."
Mr Poulson said the workers' morale was "absolutely rock bottom, to be thrown on the industrial scrapheap".
"Since it was announced, I feel like somebody's stuck a pin in me and I'm eventually deflating. I feel completely let down," he said.
Neil Townend, 51, said: "There's a few lads shedding tears, just getting all emotional. It's a bit sad really. I've been here 30 years, I don't know what to expect now, got to get another job."
Stephen Walker, 50, who has worked at Kellingley since 1988, said: "I never thought I'd see this day come but it has, and times move on, and we have to now, and that's that."
"We've lost an entire industry, we've lost a way of life."
Nigel Kemp, a miner who has worked at the pit for 32 years, said he would be part of the team capping the shafts his father had sunk in 1959.
He said: "Everything I've had in my life has come from this mine here.
"I wish my dad was here today, because he'd have a lot to say about it. What's happened here is absolutely a travesty."
Mr Kemp said he could hear the miners singing Tom Jones's Delilah on their last journey to the coal face.
The National Union of Mineworkers, which used to have more than 500,000 members, is left with just 100 following the closure of Kellingley.
Miners' memories of Kellingley
Mining machines buried in last deep pit
Phil Whitehurst, national officer of the GMB union, said: "The final 450 miners, the last in a long line stretching back for generations, are having to search for new jobs before the shafts that lead down to 30 million tons of untouched coal are sealed with concrete.
"This is a very sad day as our proud industrial heritage is destroyed [by the government]."
In 2014 Michael Fallon, Conservative MP and the then business minister, said: "There is no value-for-money case for a level of investment that would keep the deep mines open beyond this managed wind-down period to autumn 2015."
Official figures from the Department for Energy and Climate Change show the UK imported more coal than it produced for the first time in 2001 - a trend repeated every year since 2003.
In 2003 the UK produced 28.28m tonnes and imported 31.89m The graph below shows how output and imports have changed, with the big dip in 1984 due to the miners' strike.
Miners at Kellingley are expected to join a march planned to take place on Saturday at nearby Knottingley, West Yorkshire, to mark the closure.
Seventeen miners have lost their lives at the 58-hectare site since production began in April 1965.
A memorial to the dead miners is being transferred from the colliery to the National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield.
Photographers meet Kellingley staff at their Christmas party
Updates on this story and more from around the region
Known locally as the Big K, the largest deep pit in Europe was hailed as the new generation of coal mining and could bring up to 900 tonnes an hour to the surface.
At its height, Kellingley employed more than 2,000 workers. At the same time, up to 500,000 people were working in the coal industry nationally.
Analysis
Danni Hewson, BBC Look North Business Correspondent
The cold truth is that the way our economy works made the closure of our last coal mines inevitable.
No matter the murmurings of an ideological campaign, market forces are the main axe wielder here.
The US's dash for shale created a glut of cheap imports that Kellingley coal simply couldn't compete against.
But, of course, that's not the whole story. Environmentally, coal could only have had a long-term future if we'd developed and perfected Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and plans for that were shelved earlier this year. And that's where it does get interesting.
The current government is pushing shale as the potential stop gap, but the industry-backed Task Force on Shale has said gas, like coal, has no real longevity without CCS.
And so the wheel goes round, the UK is perusing a relationship with gas, other countries are still flirting with King Coal - both fossil fuels. All seem to agree that relying on renewables alone is still a somewhat distant dream. | Miners at a North Yorkshire colliery have finished their final shifts as the closure of the pit brings an end to centuries of deep coal mining in Britain. | 35124077 |
The findings came to light during a study into the host range of the bacteria, which reached Europe in 2013.
The findings offer hope of limiting the impact of Xylella fastidiosa that experts described as one of the "most dangerous plant pathogens worldwide".
If it is not controlled, it could decimate the EU olive oil industry.
The study, carried out by Italian researchers and funded by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), began in 2014 and consisted of two main types of experiment: artificial inoculation (via needle) and inoculation via infected vectors (insects) collected from the field.
The tests were carried out on a variety of species, including a range of olive, grape, stone-fruit (almond and cherry) and oak varieties.
"The first results are coming from the artificial inoculation because the field experiments began in the summer so it is only six months old, therefore only part of the results are available," Giuseppe Stancanelli, head of the EFSA's Plant and Animal Health Unit, told BBC News.
"The key results are that, 12-14 months after artificial inoculation on different olive varieties, the team found that young plants typically grown in the region displayed symptoms of the dieback.
"The research team also found evidence of the bacterium moving through the tree - towards it root system as well as towards the branches."
But he added: "What has also been shown is that some varieties have shown some tolerance. They grow in infected orchards but do not show strong symptoms, as seen in more susceptible varieties.
"They are still infected by the inoculation but this infection is much slower so it takes longer for the infection to spread, and the concentration of the bacterium in the plant is much lower.
"This shows the potential for different responses (to the pathogen) in different varieties."
Dr Stancanelli added that these results were important in terms of providing information for tree breeders.
However, it was too early to say whether or not the olive yields from the varieties that have displayed tolerance to the infection are nonetheless reduced or adversely affected, he observed.
The EFSA Panel on Plant Health produced a report in January warning that the disease was known to affect other commercially important crops, including citrus, grapevines and stone-fruit.
However, the results from the latest experiments offered a glimmer of hope.
"Olives seemed to be the main host of this strain while citrus and grapes did not show infection, either in the field or by artificial inoculation," Dr Stancanelli said.
He added that the infection did not spread through the citrus and grape plants that were artificially inoculated, and the bacterium was not found beyond the point it was introduced to the plant by injection.
But he added that more research was needed on stone-fruit species.
"The tests on the artificially inoculated varieties of stone-fruit need to be repeated because there is a mechanism in the plants that makes artificial inoculation difficult," Dr Stancanelli explained.
"Another uncertainty we had was about (holm) oak. Quercus ilex is a typical Mediterranean oak that grows in the landscape and is natural vegetation.
"At the beginning of the outbreak in 2014, some symptoms were found on oaks and the tests were positive but this was never confirmed so this was probably a 'false positive'.
"The artificial inoculation test appears to have shown that the holm oak is resistant (to the disease)."
The Xylella fastidiosa bacterium invades the vessels that a plant uses to transport water and nutrients, causing it to display symptoms such as scorching and wilting of its foliage, eventually followed by the death of the plant.
Since it was first detected in olive trees in Puglia, southern Italy, in October 2013, it has been recorded in a number of other locations, including southern France. To date, it has yet to be recorded in Spain, the world's largest olive oil producer.
Experts warn that should the disease, which has numerous hosts and vectors, spread more widely then it has the potential to devastate the EU olive harvest.
Globally, the EU is the largest producer and consumer of olive oil. According to the European Commission, the 28-nation bloc produces 73% and consumes 66% of the the world's olive oil.
Recent reports suggest that the X. fastidiosa outbreak has led to a 20% increase in olive oil prices during 2015.
In November 2015, the European Commission announced it was providing seven million euros (£5m) from the EU Horizon 2020 programme to fund research into the pathogen.
One of the areas of the Horizon 2020-funded research will be on plant selection to strengthen tolerance and resistance to the disease.
Dr Stancanelli explained that the experiments established in this study would continue as part of the EU-funded Ponte programme.
"The experimental field realized within the pilot project will serve as unique source of plant material for future project actions aiming at investigating the host-pathogen interactions," he said.
"Investigations will be extended to an additional panel of 20 cultivars which will be planted in... April in the same plot."
The disease plagued citrus farmers in North and South America for decades. It remained confined on these continents until the mid-1990s when it was recorded on pear trees in Taiwan.
According to the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO), which co-ordinates plant protection efforts in the region, the pathogen had been detected prior to 2013 by member nations on imported coffee plants from South America. However, these plants were controlled and the bacterium did not make it into the wider environment.
The arrival of the disease in Italy and its spread to southern France led to the European Commission issuing EU-wide control measures in 2015.
Earlier this year, when a cold-tolerant subspecies of the bacterium was identified in the southern France outbreaks, UK government plant health officials published information for horticulture professionals, especially those importing plants. They were advised of their obligations - such as obtaining the necessary plant passports - and given details of the visible symptoms to look out for on potentially infected plants.
Follow Mark on Twitter | Tests suggests some varieties of olive trees appear to be resistant to an invasive pathogen posing a serious risk to Europe's olive industry. | 35917107 |
Passengers threw water over the male rail worker and female commuter after the attack on an overground service near South Tottenham station on Wednesday.
British Transport Police (BTP) said officers were hunting for suspects.
The type of substance used in the attack has yet to be identified. Police said it caused eye irritation.
A BTP spokesman said: "This did not result in any serious injuries although both the male staff member and the female passenger were taken to a local hospital as a precautionary measure and have since been released." | Two people were treated in hospital after a "substance" was thrown over them on a train in London, police said. | 33266924 |
Mel Morrell and Steve Hill went on a climbing trip to Skye shortly after first going out six years ago.
The pair had hoped to tackle the Cioch, a block of rock on cliffs in the Cuillin, but could not complete the climb at that time.
They returned last Thursday and completed the ascent.
The Hills, who live in Swansea, were married two years ago, but only last week were able to return to Skye for the climb.
While on the Cioch they recreated a famous sword fight scene from 1986 film Highlander that featured Scots actor Sean Connery.
Mr Hill said: "We found the plastic swords in a crack once we were on the Cioch. It felt wrong not to use them."
The Hills, who are members of South Wales Mountaineering Club, made their trip to Skye with climbing friends.
Mrs Hill made her ascent in her climbing gear before putting on her dress.
Her husband put on his suit at a safe point just before finishing his climb via another route so as not to hold up others waiting to make the same climb. | A couple from Wales have fulfilled their ambition to stand atop one of Scotland's best known mountain features - in their wedding attire. | 36537243 |
He has selected four candidates: adviser Keith Kellogg; former UN ambassador John Bolton; Lt Gen H R McMaster; and Lt Gen Robert Caslen.
The role became vacant when Lt Gen Michael Flynn was fired after just three weeks and three days in the job.
Mr Trump's first choice, Retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, turned down the role, citing "personal reasons".
Gen Flynn stepped down after misleading Vice-President Mike Pence over his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the US.
When asked about speculation that he was not allowed to bring his own staff at the National Security Council, Mr Harward told the Associated Press: "I think that's for the president to address."
Retired general and former CIA chief David Petraeus is also no longer a candidate, Mr Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer said on Saturday.
Mr Petraeus retired as CIA director in 2012 after it emerged he had given top-secret material to his biographer, with whom he was also having an extramarital affair.
Keith Kellogg, a retired three-star lieutenant general who became a security consultant for software giant Oracle Corp, and has been acting national security adviser for the past week.
H.R. McMaster, a lieutenant general with the Army who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he worked on a government anti-corruption drive.
Robert Caslen, an Army lieutenant general who is the superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point.
John Bolton is a career diplomat and lawyer rather than a military man, and served as George W Bush's hawkish ambassador to the United Nations from August 2006 to December 2006.
Five big questions after Flynn's resignation
President Trump deflected accusations that he was struggling to find a replacement for Gen Flynn, telling reporters on Air Force One on Saturday that he had "many, many that want the job".
The president is spending the weekend at his properties in Florida for the third week in a row. He has called his Florida Mar-a-Lago club the "Southern White House".
On Saturday, Mr Trump held what the White House called "a campaign rally for America" in Florida in which he again attacked the media, saying they did not want to "report the truth".
The comments came two days after he held a press conference criticising the media, whom he later referred to as "the enemy of the people".
In response, the Republican senator John McCain told NBC: "If you want to preserve democracy as we know it you have to have a free and, many times, adversarial press and without it I'm afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started." | US President Donald Trump is interviewing candidates for the position of national security adviser. | 39020804 |
From that very first sip of beer, wine or vodka, the alcohol travels to your stomach and into your bloodstream.
It then makes its way around the whole body: your brain, your mood and your muscles. The process starts within minutes of your first sip.
The level of alcohol in your blood will peak about 45 to 90 minutes later, according to the NHS.
Your body sees alcohol as a poison. It can't store it, so wants to break it down and get rid of it. This is where the liver comes in.
Your liver converts alcohol into a number of different chemicals to allow your body to break it down, and get rid of it.
Enzymes do this.
In this case, the liver uses an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase to convert the alcohol into what is actually a pretty toxic substance called acetaldehyde (sometimes the production of this substance is what can make you feel hungover).
At least acetaldehyde doesn't make you feel intoxicated though, and it can be worked on more easily to shunt the rest of the alcohol from your system.
Acetaldehyde is then broken down into acetic acid (the ingredient in vinegar).
After this it's broken down into fatty acids, carbon dioxide or water, all of which the body likes.
However if you drink more than your liver can process, you start to get drunk.
This makes your blood-alcohol level rise. It is this that helps decide drink-drive limits.
Currently, the drink-drive limit is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in England and 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in Scotland.
Forensic toxicologist Dr Hazel Torrance says that on average, it takes a person an hour to clear between 15mg and 18mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
In real terms, that 50mg limit would mean an average man can drink just under a pint of beer or a large glass of wine and women could drink a half a pint of beer or a small glass of wine.
Having zero tolerance is not thought to be practical because alcohol can be found in things like mouthwash and desserts. However alcohol does not occur in the body naturally.
Who you are and what you do alters the effects of alcohol has on your body.
Eating a large meal before you drink slows down the effects of alcohol. This is because when you eat the combined alcohol and food stays longer in the stomach.
This means the booze isn't released into the bloodstream as quickly.
Fizzy alcohol will make you feel the effects of alcohol more quickly as the bubbles increase the pressure in your stomach, forcing alcohol into your bloodstream faster.
The other thing that can affect how alcohol is absorbed is your sex.
This is because men tend to have more muscle tissue than women.
Muscle has more water than fat, so alcohol will be diluted more in a person with more muscle tissue.
Women are also thought to have less of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol, so they will get drunk more easily.
Dr Nick Knight told Newsbeat: "Age can affect how you process alcohol too.
"Alcohol tends to be processed quicker by older people.
"People don't really know why but I suspect it's something to do with the fact that the more exposure to alcohol you have, the more the key enzymes that break down alcohol in your liver increase.
"That's why people talk about having an increased tolerance to alcohol, because the liver has adapted to cope with it.
"Stress can also affect how quickly you get drunk as when you are more stressed you get an influx of different hormones in the body including the stress hormone cortisol.
"This can increase the metabolism of alcohol in the liver. It can mean it is metabolised faster."
Particular effects of alcohol on the body make drinking dangerous for drivers. Alcohol affects the brains 'neurotransmitters', the chemicals in the brain which carry messages to other parts of the body and tell it what to do.
Alcohol makes these neurotransmitters go a bit haywire.
Dr Knight said: "There's one key neurotransmitter called Gaba (Gamma-Aminobutryric Acid). What Gaba does normally is dampen down the responses. When you get drunk and have more alcohol, you increase the amount of Gaba and that slows down your brain cells."
"A number of processes slow down. You get a reduction in your executive function, so judgement, your decision making.
"You become less inhibited and you are tempted to take more risks than you would usually. In the case of driving, you think you can make that corner, you think there is enough space between you and the car in front, and so on.
"There's the physical aspect too: the motor skills. This is how we use our arms and legs and our hands: how we make that decision to turn the wheel when we drive.
"Essentially what happens is you have that increase in that chemical Gaba and that reduction in communication in your brain cells.
"It means what your eyes see and what it tells your brain slows down. Then what your brain tells your muscles to do is also slower. Your reactions are poorer."
If you are affected by the issues in this article, helplines and additional information can be found on Radio 1's advice pages.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | Drinking alcohol can make humans feel pretty good, at least in the short term. | 30350860 |
However, it will proceed with the sale of its speciality steel-making business, which employs 2,000 people in Hartlepool, Rotherham and Stocksbridge.
Tata is less concerned about the speed of the sale due to rising steel prices and a raft of government incentives.
But it leaves the future of the rest of the 9,000-strong workforce unclear.
After an initial sense of urgency to offload the loss making business, Tata has recently adopted a more relaxed approach to determining its future, as government incentives to keep the business going have come in thick and fast.
In addition to consulting on special legislation to lower pension benefits for many of the 130,000 members of the old British Steel pension fund, the government has offered hundreds of millions of pounds worth of loans and the taking of a potential 25% stake in the business.
In the meantime, the price of steel has increased, reducing pressure on its Indian owners to sell.
One of the biggest obstacles to a sale is the legacy of the British Steel Pension fund, which Tata inherited when it bought the business in 2007. It has 130,000 members and a deficit of £700m.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid will meet Tata chairman Cyrus Mistry in Mumbai on Friday ahead of a Tata board meeting.
Tata says it is pausing to consider the options and assess the impact of the UK's vote to leave the European union.
One potential bidder fears that a delay now will see the UK business "wither on the vine" while Tata refocuses its investment on its plants within the EU.
German engineering conglomerate Thyssen Krupp and Tata have held talks on combining their continental European steel operations, as global overcapacity weighs on prices and profits. | Tata Steel is expected to announce on Friday that it will pause the sale of most of its UK business, including Port Talbot, the BBC understands. | 36730759 |
Walker, 40, was a passenger in a Porsche sports car driven by a friend - who also died - when it crashed north of Los Angeles.
Walker was said to be attending a charity event at the time.
He starred in all but one of the films in the Fast & Furious franchise, the sixth of which opened in May.
Walker also starred in the suspense drama Hours, a movie that is set for release this month.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department said the crash happened in the community of Valencia.
It said deputies found a car engulfed in flames when they responded to a report of a collision. Two people found in the car were pronounced dead at the scene.
Images showed the burned-out wreckage of a red Porsche by the side of the road.
"It is with a truly heavy heart that we must confirm that Paul Walker passed away today in a tragic car accident while attending a charity event for his organisation Reach Out Worldwide," the statement on the actor's Facebook page said.
"He was a passenger in a friend's car, in which both lost their lives. We... are stunned and saddened beyond belief by this news.''
Universal Pictures also issued a statement, saying studio staff were "heartbroken" by Walker's death.
"Paul was truly one of the most beloved and respected members of our studio family for 14 years, and this loss is devastating to us, to everyone involved with the Fast & Furious films, and to countless fans.
"We send our deepest and most sincere condolences to Paul's family."
Walker played undercover agent Brian O'Conner in the Fast & Furious movies.
The first film of the franchise was released in 2001 and the seventh is in development.
Walker was one of the leading protagonists, along with Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez.
Diesel said in a post on Instagram: "Brother I will miss you very much. I am absolutely speechless. Heaven has gained a new Angel. Rest in Peace."
Another Fast & Furious star, the rapper Ludacris, wrote: "Your humble spirit was felt from the start, wherever you blessed your presence you always left a mark, we were like brothers."
Walker began acting as a young boy when his mother, a model, took him to auditions for commercials.
After drifting away from acting, he got his big break when a casting director remembered him from years before, tracked him down and gave him a role in the TV series Touched by an Angel.
Walker later won a recurring part in the soap The Young and the Restless before moving on to supporting roles in teen films in the late 1990s with Varsity Blues, She's All That and The Skulls.
After the success of the first Fast & Furious film, Walker became the leading man for the second instalment when Vin Diesel dropped out.
Diesel later returned, however, and the six-film franchise has earned an estimated $2.4bn (£1.5bn) at global box offices. The series has not lost its appeal, with the latest instalment, the sixth, the most lucrative so far.
The seventh instalment began filming in September but has not been completed. It had been scheduled for release in July.
Walker has also filmed Hurricane Katrina drama Hours, which is due to be released on 13 December.
Another forthcoming film is Brick Mansions, a remake of the French action film District B13, for film studio Relativity.
Relativity President Tucker Tooley said in a statement: "Paul was an incredibly talented artist, devoted philanthropist and friend."
A selection of your comments appear below | US actor Paul Walker, who starred in the Fast & Furious series of action films, has been killed in a car crash in California. | 25173331 |
Older People's Commissioner Sarah Rochira said she was "disappointed" with their responses to a 2014 review.
It found elderly residents "quickly become institutionalised" in homes seen as places of "irreversible decline".
The Welsh government said it was taking "strong action" with new laws to improve the regulation of care homes.
Ms Rochira's report in November followed unannounced visits by experts to 100 care homes, and more than 2,000 questionnaires completed by care home residents and their families.
All public bodies involved in the sector were asked to submit action plans setting out how they would ensure improvements in residents' lives.
While health boards and local councils were praised for their "strong commitments" to improve quality of life, Ms Rochira was critical of the Welsh government and the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW).
"In my review I made very clear the impact of not taking action and the price that is paid by older people when public bodies fail to uphold people's rights and protect them," she said.
"I am therefore extremely disappointed that the responses from the Welsh government and CSSIW in many instances failed to provide adequate detail or acknowledge the change that needs to take place to assure me that action will be taken that will deliver real and positive improvements for older people living in care homes."
The Welsh government said it continued to take "strong action" in relation to the care of older people, citing "significant new legislation" on regulation of the care sector.
"We have also set up a Care Homes Steering Group to provide leadership and ensure action is taken to improve care and support for older people," a spokesperson added.
Imelda Richardson, chief inspector for Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales, said it completed thousands of inspections a year to ensure people receiving care in Wales were safe and last year it saw a 64% reduction in the number of services considered to be of concern.
"We want to re-assure the public that we are an effective inspectorate and regulator - we always put the quality of the care that people receive at the heart of our work," she said. | Care inspectors and ministers have been criticised for failing to explain in detail how they will improve life for elderly people in care homes. | 33853282 |
If the Senate confirms her appointment, Ms Lynch will be the first African-American woman to head the US justice department.
Mr Obama said she would bring "passion and intelligence" to key priorities such as reforming criminal justice.
Mr Holder was the first African-American to serve as attorney general.
He resigned from the post six weeks ago.
Announcing the new nomination, Mr Obama said: "Loretta might be the only lawyer in America who battles mobsters and drug lords and terrorists and still has the reputation for being a charming people person."
He said that Ms Lynch "doesn't look to make headlines, she looks to make a difference. She's not about splash, she is about substance".
Correspondents say that Ms Lynch, 55, is known for her low-key personality and has stirred little controversy during her two tenures as US attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Her nomination comes after Republicans won control of the Senate in Tuesday's mid-term elections.
Ms Lynch - a North Carolina native and Harvard-trained lawyer - was one of several candidates Mr Holder had recommended to succeed him.
She has experience in both civil rights and corporate fraud cases.
Mr Holder led the justice department for six years, earning praise from President Obama who called him "the people's lawyer".
However, Mr Holder frequently clashed with Republicans in Congress over issues including gun control and same-sex marriage. | US President Barack Obama has nominated New York federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as US attorney general. | 29964071 |
The 21-year-old is currently out on loan at Rotherham United, for whom he has yet to feature because of a hamstring injury.
Morris spent last season with Scottish Premiership club Hamilton Academical, scoring eight goals in 33 games.
Canaries boss Alex Neil said: "Carlton is a young player who we believe has plenty to offer us in the years ahead." | Norwich City striker Carlton Morris has signed a new three-and-a-half-year contract with the Championship side. | 39141040 |
Jeremy Feinberg, of Rutgers University in New Jersey, who led the study, first reported the discovery when he heard their "very odd" chorusing call.
Teaming up with genetics experts to confirm the finding, Mr Feinberg has now published the discovery in the journal Plos One.
It is the first new frog species found in the region for nearly 30 years.
Mr Feinberg told BBC News he knew he might be on to something when he heard a group of them calling in chorus at a wetland study site on Staten Island.
"Frogs have very stereotyped calls within a species, so I knew this was different," the ecologist told BBC News.
"But it took me two years to find someone to partner with me on the genetics side."
He believes the frog, named Rana kauffeldi - a leopard frog - probably once inhabited Manhattan, so it had been seen before. But it was assumed to belong to a similar-looking, previously known species of leopard frog (so named because of its spots) found in the same area.
Mr Feinberg's familiarity with the known species meant that its call finally gave it away.
When his colleagues tested samples of tissue taken from the frogs, they confirmed that he was right - this urban-dwelling amphibian was a genetically distinct species.
BBC Nature - Frogs and toads videos, news and facts
It is a rare finding in North America: the continent's frog species are well documented.
"This is only the third new species of frog to be discovered north of Mexico since 1986," said Mr Feinberg.
"What also makes this crazy is that it's in a urban area - [that's] what makes it a double whammy."
But he explained: "You wouldn't find it hopping around Times Square" - or even in the ponds in Central Park.
"[These frogs] probably require wetland areas of something on the average minimum of 10 acres or more," said Mr Feinberg.
"If I took you to this site on Staten Island [where he found the frogs], apart from the fact that you could see the Manhattan skyline in the distance, you wouldn't know you were in the city."
Dr Gerardo Garcia, a specialist in conservation of rare amphibians and reptiles, based at the UK's Chester Zoo, described the discovery as "big news".
"[This] comes thanks to the combination of new technologies and advances in techniques in genetic analysis," he said.
"Elsewhere though, in places such as Madagascar, taxonomists and conservationists are racing against time to describe species before they become extinct.
"There is a huge backlog of species to describe and find out about that we do already know of, but sadly we're late because the speed of extinction is faster than the capacity to protect them."
Mr Feinberg said that the species' need for expansive wetland habitats in such a developed area could make it vulnerable.
"This frog is entitled to live. and we're entitled to our houses, too," he said. "So I think we have to consider that this is a planet that we share."
He added: "Imagine we moved forward 50 years and this frog had never been discovered. We might have destroyed its habitat and never known it was there.
"But this gives me hope that the species could be protected."
Follow Victoria on Twitter | Scientists have confirmed that a frog found living in New York City wetlands is a new species. | 29792309 |
Daniel Spencer-Tonks, a former England Under-16 rugby union player, tested positive for the steroid stanozolol in an out-of-competition test in February.
He was playing for the University of Gloucestershire All Golds in rugby league's third tier at the time.
"It is hugely widespread through all levels of rugby - loads of people are on it," the 20-year-old told the BBC.
Rugby Football League chief operations officer Ralph Rimmer said its "comprehensive testing system" had carried out 507 tests this season to try to catch the "small percentage" of cheats.
Spencer-Tonks told BBC Radio 5 live Investigates: "More people are taking it at the lower level because obviously there is testing at the higher level and there is more support and gym work."
He claimed to have spoken to some former Premiership rugby union players who said it was a problem at the higher level too.
Spencer-Tonks said: "I've spoken to ex-professional players and people who represented their country at senior level and they have said they knew people on their team who were on it.
"They have all said it is massive at the higher levels and I was one of the unlucky ones who got caught."
Both codes rely heavily on intelligence-led testing and no player has tested positive in top-flight rugby union for more than four years.
Rugby league tests at professional level and there is mandatory testing in rugby union at senior levels, but players can be tested at all levels.
Spencer-Tonks said he used the steroid for body-image reasons rather than to improve his performance.
He said: "I just wanted to look good, lose a bit of weight, have a better body really.
"I know it was stupid but I was young and naive and just took it."
He said he took the drug while he was playing abroad, before returning to the UK.
"There is a lot of pressure on players to be bigger, faster and stronger as they are the players who get picked," he said.
"I wouldn't say it was coaches saying you should take something, more the fact the players want to be the best at their sport."
Since UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) was set up six years ago, 63 players and coaches from rugby union and league have been banned, the vast majority from the lower tiers in both codes.
Ukad has carried out more than 40,000 tests, about a quarter of which were in rugby. It boasts a 50% success rate when using intelligence-based testing.
Players in Northern Ireland, who are governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), are tested under a system run by the Irish Sports Council.
"It's had a harsh effect on me and my family. I would definitely say, 'don't take it'," said Spencer-Tonks, who is banned from all sport until 2019.
"It can mess your body up, your mind up, and can have harsher effects than just ruining your rugby career."
Spencer-Tonks was the second person in the UK to receive a mandatory four-year ban under new World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) rules brought in this year.
The first was 26-year-old Welsh weightlifter Andrew Riddiford, who tested positive for steroids in an in-competition test at the Welsh Senior Championship.
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"The new tougher sanctions ensure that those who consciously choose to cheat, and ultimately keep clean players from their rightful place in the team, will be removed from sport for a longer period of time," said a Ukad spokesperson.
"I hope this will act as a greater deterrent to those who are considering cheating in the future."
Stephen Watkins, the Rugby Football Union's anti-doping illicit drugs programme manager, said: "The messaging across the board on body size and playing rugby is that it's all about skills first and foremost.
"The RFU does more testing that any other rugby nation, and education around doping is delivered to players from a wide range of ages and levels, including England squads, professional clubs, regional academies, schools and other education providers.
"At the elite end of our game, our testing programme underlines that there is not a culture of systematic doping but we are not complacent."
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Rimmer, meanwhile, said: "The RFL works closely with Ukad, which in turn ensures that all of its tests are deployed effectively, using a combination of intelligence-led and random testing.
"We have a comprehensive testing system in place, having conducted 507 tests already this season, and work hard to ensure players and staff are also provided with the necessary education they need to avoid taking prohibited substances.
"The RFL takes the issue incredibly seriously and will continue to work with Ukad to ensure the small percentage of those who choose to cheat in our sport are caught and dealt with accordingly."
Listen to the full programme on 5 live Investigates on Sunday, 4 October at 11:00 BST | The first British rugby player given a four-year ban for taking steroids says doping in the sport is widespread. | 34419249 |
Police Scotland have confirmed that a 65-year-old man was charged on 15 February and a report has been sent to the procurator fiscal.
Mr King is a teacher at Glasgow's St Martha's Primary School.
He has been suspended from teaching duties by Glasgow City Council pending the outcome of the investigation.
There is no information to indicate that the charges relate to any alleged activities at the school. | Gerry King, who has been chairman of Celtic Boys Club, has been charged in connection with historical sex abuse offences. | 39595626 |
Engineers at Airbus in the UK have finally managed to bolt together all the elements of the satellite after overcoming major technical challenges.
Aeolus is now set for several months of testing before being sent into orbit next year.
That will be 10 years on from the originally envisaged launch date.
“It’s been a long time coming but it’s a hugely important mission,” said Dr Ralph Cordey from Airbus.
“Operating lasers in space is not easy, but I’m pleased we’ve persevered with this technology in Europe because it has many potential applications, not just in measuring the wind."
The European Space Agency (Esa) has stuck with the project because of the nature of the data it will return.
It promises to give a big fillip to weather forecasting. Even with the delays to the programme, the meteorological agencies still regard its information as a priority.
Aeolus carries a laser instrument (lidar), called Aladin, that will probe down through the atmosphere to see which way the wind is blowing and how fast.
Today, we have multiple ways of measuring the wind, from whirling anemometers and balloons to satellites that infer wind behaviour by tracking cloud movement or sensing the choppiness of the seas.
But these are somewhat limited indications, telling us what is happening in particular places or at particular heights.
Aeolus, on the other hand, will attempt to build a global, 3D view of the way the wind blows on Earth, from the surface of the planet all the way up through the troposphere into the stratosphere (from 0km to 30km).
The models used to forecast tomorrow’s weather will clearly benefit from this, but so too will the simulations that investigate future climate scenarios.
Circling the globe, the satellite’s ultraviolet beam will pulse the air below it.
The time taken for the light to scatter back off molecules, dust and moisture particles will reveal where the big wind streams are in the atmosphere.
Small shifts in the frequency of the light will betray the speed at which those various markers - and the winds that carry them - are moving.
The concept is well established. Lasers like this are routinely fired into the sky from the ground to retrieve similar data at a single location.
The difficulty for the Aeolus team has been in developing an instrument that will work in space. Esa approved the mission back in 1999 and contracted industry to start building it in 2003. That’s when the trouble started.
The first problem was in finding diodes to generate a laser source with a long enough lifetime to make the mission worthwhile.
With that fixed, the mission looked in great shape until engineers discovered their laser system could not work in a vacuum - a significant barrier for a space mission. Tests revealed that in the absence of air, the laser was degrading its own optics.
“Inside the instrument there are over 100 optical surfaces - lenses and mirrors to prepare the laser beam - and they were becoming contaminated,” explained Aeolus Airbus project manager Richard Wimmer.
“There were two sources of contamination. If there were particles on the optical surfaces, the laser would burn them and blacken the surfaces. But the laser was also dragging particles on to the surfaces that were outgassing from the spacecraft.”
The solution was to introduce a means to flush Aladin with oxygen at a very gentle rate. Its implementation has, of course, elongated the programme and added significant extra cost.
What was supposed to have been a €300m mission is now estimated at €450m.
For many years, I would pass through the Airbus cleanroom in Stevenage and see the spacecraft bus - that part of the satellite which holds its computers, avionics, fuel tanks, and the like - sitting idly in the corner, waiting on experts in Italy (Leonardo) and France (Airbus) to solve the instrument issues.
But on Thursday, the British engineers were finally able to lower a completed Aladin laser instrument - together with the telescope it will use to spy the scattered light signal - on to the rest of the satellite.
The spacecraft must now undergo a series of tests prior to riding its Vega rocket into orbit next year.
Richard Wimmer has stayed with Aeolus throughout its trials and tribulations and was clearly delighted to see the full satellite come together.
“It’s one of those bizarre things where you wait and wait and wait, and then it comes and it seems like just another event. But it’s a major milestone for sure because now we’re on a more standard assembly, integration and testing sequence.
“We’ve got one very important and complex procedure to do in Liège in Belgium, where as well as putting the satellite in a thermal vacuum chamber we’ll also operate the whole instrument system and measure its performance. Then we’ll be ready.”
For Europe, Aeolus is an important step. The hard lessons learned are being applied to the next Esa laser mission called Earthcare, which will study the role clouds and atmospheric particles play in a changing climate.
But having this technology opens up other possibilities as well, such as making very precise surface height measurements. The Americans, for example, have done this with ice sheets and forest canopies. | Europe’s Aeolus space laser mission, which is designed to make unprecedented maps of Earth’s winds, has reached a long-awaited key milestone. | 37133834 |
Hence the need to provide the people of North Korea with a certain reassurance.
The elaborate choreography of the funeral parade and the emotional crowd-scenes as Kim Jong-il's coffin was driven round the centre of Pyongyang were intended to unite the country in grief, and make the change of power more secure.
It was also intended to emphasise that Kim Jong-un is the latest member of the family firm established by his grandfather, Kim Il-sung. His strongest point is who he is, not what he has done.
Many people in the crowd will have taken comfort from it, just as the North Korean authorities wanted.
Many people in the noisily mourning crowds were quite well dressed by North Korean standards. They also looked reasonably well fed.
A recent defector who escaped from North Korea to the South told the BBC he thought such people might well feel a twinge of sadness over Kim Jong-il's death, because they had done comparatively well during his 17 years in power.
But he had spoken by phone to several people in the countryside, who told him openly that they hated Kim Jong-il for the devastating poverty they had suffered as a result of his policies.
Travellers who have succeeding in getting beyond the poor but more or less adequate suburbs of Pyongyang often tell stories of hungry, gaunt country-dwellers. Such people have no reason to give any support to the regime.
Even so, in a country where the labour-camps are overflowing with prisoners, it is dangerous to show signs of resentment.
As Kim Jong-il's funeral cortege passed through the streets, anyone in the large crowds who did not seem to be sorry would have been asking for trouble.
You could sometimes see clearly that people were waiting for their cue to start weeping.
And twice at least the live television coverage accidentally showed policemen or other officials holding up cameras to get shots of the crowd standing close to them. It seems unlikely they were simply getting mementos of the occasion.
The young Kim Jong-un will have the backing and guidance of his uncle, Chang Song-taek, a senior figure in the leadership who is married to Kim Jong-il's sister, Kim Kyung-hee - a general in her own right.
Will the new team try to keep the lid on North Korea as firmly as his father did? It is much too early to tell, of course, but it is a historical truism that a dictatorship is at its most vulnerable when it tries to ease up.
Yet if North Korea maintains its ferocious grip on the lives of its citizens, there is always the possibility that they will finally be pushed too far.
People who visited Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania as late as the summer of 1989 believed that the ferocity of his rule had wiped out the very instinct for personal freedom among ordinary people. But by late December that year they had risen up, and he and his equally tough wife had been executed.
It is a great deal easier to set up a dictatorship than to change the way it operates.
Kim Jong-il, having inherited the autocracy from his father, Kim Il-sung, kept it going intact under some pretty terrible conditions. But can Kim Jong-un repeat the trick, in a world which suddenly has several fewer dictatorships?
His public relations team is already trying to build him up as a caring leader. The North Korean press is running stories that he has sent out hot drinks to mourners in the streets.
China, North Korea's giant neighbour and virtually its only friend, will have an important say in the way the new regime in North Korea develops.
During his lifetime Kim Jong-il was sometimes an embarrassment to the Chinese leadership. The Chinese understand the importance of peace in Asia; he, after 2008, seemed determined to pick a fight with South Korea.
China's leaders hate being isolated, and though they are closely linked with more than one rogue state, they prefer to look good in the eyes of the world.
If Kim Jong-un and his team were to try settling themselves on power by threatening South Korea, perhaps with nuclear weapons, China would be intensely angry. Still, it might prove hard to stop them.
China is trying to perform its own balancing act between liberalisation and keeping the lid on protests. It is not proving easy.
And the way North Korea develops may well have an effect on China's future, too. | The handing on of power from an old dictator to a new one can be a moment of great tension, especially if the new one is under 30 and has no political or administrative experience of any kind. | 16344532 |
With nearly 850 people still missing, the toll is likely to rise further, Civil Defence chief Benito Ramos said.
The storm struck the Philippines on 4 December, with the southern island of Mindanao worst affected.
Many of those still unaccounted for are fishermen who went to sea before the storm hit.
"The death toll will go higher," Mr Ramos told AFP news agency. "We found a lot of bodies yesterday, buried under fallen logs and debris."
The number of people known to have died now stands at 1,020, the national disaster relief agency said.
The storm displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused severe damage to property and infrastructure.
A large relief operation continues.
More than 27,000 people remain in evacuation centres, with many more sheltering at the homes of friends and family.
The Philippines is hit by several typhoons each year but they usually strike further to the north.
Last year, Typhoon Washi left about 1,300 people dead when it struck northern Mindanao, causing rivers to burst their banks. | The number of people killed after Typhoon Bopha struck the southern Philippines has risen to more than 1,000, officials say. | 20745450 |
After three lost days following heavy rain, a noon inspection was planned for Wednesday's scheduled final day.
But umpires Richard Illingworth and Ian Gould had no option but to abandon, with both teams awarded five points.
Neither side will now play any Championship cricket until 24 April.
They do not have games in the second round of fixtures, which start this Sunday.
Worcestershire have England's Moeen Ali available for the trip to play Gloucestershire at Bristol, while Kent are again on their travels - against Leicestershire at Grace Road.
It is the first time New Road has seen a complete washout in the County Championship in nine years when, in mid-summer, following the 2007 flood, Worcestershire lost successive games against Kent and Lancashire.
They then decamped 14 miles to Chester Road, Kidderminster for the remainder of that season's four-day fixtures. But that option is no longer open to them as the county made the decision that they wanted to stay within the city of Worcester.
Flagge Meadow, home of Worcester Royal Grammar School, situated across the city on the other side of the River Severn, is now their 'second home' - and has suffered the same amount of rainfall this week.
It was the second earliest ever start to a Championship season at Nee Road (the home game with Yorkshire in 2012 began on 8 April). But it is the first time in more than a century that Worcester's opening fixture has been totally abandoned, although a meeting with Bill Lawry's Australian touring team also failed to get under way in May 1968.
Worcestershire director of cricket Steve Rhodes told BBC Sport:
"Let's make sure we get things right here. This is nothing to do with the river. There is a water table that is incredibly high. That is what is affecting us at the moment, the saturation of the whole area.
"When we practised, this ground was looking good, ready for Sunday. Everything was all stations go. Sadly for us, we then had a lot of overnight rain.
"But I'm very disappointed. I've got a different view to the way the umpires read it. It doesn't matter what I think, but I think we could have played some cricket.
"In the older days, I'm not saying it was right, but if you got the two captains to agree, then generally we played but that rule is no more. Now it's totally down to the umpires and, if they don't agree, we don't play."
Umpire Richard Illingworth, ex-Worcestershire spinner, told BBC Sport:
"The ground needs a few more days like this to get it into a starting position.
"Both Ian Gould and myself turned up on the first day and didn't think there would be any issues.
"We unpacked and got ready for the start of play. It was only when we went out at half past nine, when we realised that the ground was not fit for purpose." | Worcestershire suffered their first complete abandonment since New Road's great flood of 2007, as their opening County Championship game of the season against Kent was called off as a draw. | 36035718 |
Carwyn Jones said it was "hugely important" an equivalent system to the EU's Protected Food Name (PFN) was developed.
Fourteen food products from Wales have been granted the status, with more currently being assessed.
A meeting takes place in Leicestershire on Tuesday to discuss the matter.
Anglesey sea salt, Welsh lamb and coracle-caught salmon are amongst the products from Wales which are part of the PFN scheme, designed to promote heritage foods and prevent cheaper imitations.
Other examples from across the EU include champagne and Parma ham.
Mr Jones said there was a "big question mark" about how food designations would work once the UK leaves the EU.
He said: "We need to have an equivalent status that operates across the whole of the UK and that is actually recognised by other markets such as the EU.
"It will require a mutual trade agreement where each side would recognise the other side's protections."
So far this year, six new Welsh products have been awarded protection by the EU Commission, including Carmarthen Ham, laverbread, Welsh cider and perry.
Caerphilly cheese and Cardigan Bay prawns hope to secure the same status soon.
Welsh lamb and beef have enjoyed Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) since 2002 and 2003 respectively.
Rhys Llywelyn from Meat Promotion Wales said: "It is essential to sustain the status that we already have.
"It shows consumers that our lamb and beef is reared in a traditional manner and it enables us to achieve a premium for our product."
Mr Llywelyn said he was hopeful the designations could be preserved after Brexit.
"There is some precedent here - coffee from Columbia has PGI status awarded by the EU.
"What we need is an equivalent system in the UK where we can register and note the traditions and processes behind the way we produce our food."
The UK PFN Association, which represents industries including Cornish pasties and Scottish salmon, are due to meet officials from the UK Government at Melton Mowbray - home of the famed pork pies.
Owen Roberts, representing Meat Promotion Wales, said: "Our last meeting... explored the options for a seamless transition, to ensure continuity in marketing efforts in Britain, Europe and beyond."
The Welsh Conservatives said a post-Brexit scheme to protect iconic food products was "achievable" if both governments worked together "constructively".
Paul Davies AM, the party's spokesman on agriculture, said: "Ultimately, we all want the same thing, which is to ensure a seamless transition to a new set of arrangements which lock in the premium that products like Welsh lamb, Anglesey Sea Salt and Caerphilly cheese have."
He added it was "not beyond the wit of man to design a similar scheme which recognises the unique quality and origins of Welsh food and drink products". | The protected status of Wales' most iconic food and drink must be maintained after Brexit, the first minister has said. | 40722525 |
Elizabeth Stokes was jailed for four-and-a half-years in 2014 for attacking John, 71, after wrongly believing he was having an affair.
Now the order banning her from contacting him has been lifted at Gloucester Crown Court.
Mr Stokes said he had forgiven his wife and fully recovered from his injuries.
The pair from Cheltenham will be able to visit each other under supervision of the probation service for the next two years before possibly being allowed to live together again.
During the hearing, Mr Stokes said: "I honestly believe her when she says she is very remorseful about what happened.
"She realises she made a terrible mistake.
"We want to carry on with our marriage and our relationship as soon as possible and I honestly believe it will work and things will be better in the future."
She said: "I had been suffering from stress for a long, long time. Of course, I am sorry for what I did."
Mrs Stokes was released from prison on parole on 26 October.
She was cleared of attempted murder in July 2014 but found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
At her trial, Gloucester Crown Court heard her son had been killed in a car crash a year before the attack and her first husband was "an abuser and philanderer".
Mr Stokes was attacked as he made his way back to their bed from the toilet in the early hours of the morning.
At the trial, Judge Jamie Tabor said it had been a deliberate and planned ambushing and she had put her sewing scissors in the bedroom in readiness for the attack.
A kitchen knife was also found in the bedroom and there had to be suspicions about why that was there, he added. | An 84-year-old woman jailed for stabbing her husband can reunite with him after a restraining order was lifted. | 37859167 |
Hirst had 463,087 visitors, while 467,166 went to 2002's Matisse Picasso.
Almost 3,000 daily visitors saw the works of conceptual artist Hirst, beating Edward Hopper (429,909) in 2004 and Paul Gauguin (420,686) in 2010-11.
Works by Hirst on show included a shark suspended in formaldehyde.
The exhibition was the first substantial survey of Hirst's work, spanning 20 years of his career.
It also featured In and Out of Love, a two-room installation involving live butterflies and his diamond skull, titled For The Love Of God.
Chris Dercon, the gallery's director, said: "We are delighted that so many people came to see and discuss the Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate Modern.
"It was wonderful to see such iconic works brought together in one place and to offer our visitors a chance to experience them first-hand."
The retrospective was open to the public from 4 April to 9 September as part of the London 2012 Festival.
The festival, billed as an "explosion of arts and creativity", ran alongside the London 2012 Olympics. | Tate Modern's Damien Hirst retrospective was the most visited solo show and second-most visited exhibition in the gallery's history, it has revealed. | 19623072 |
The swarm, which gathered on the Mitsubishi Outlander in Castle Square, Haverfordwest, on Sunday, was spotted by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park ranger Tom Moses.
He managed to reach some beekeepers who rounded up the insects.
Mr Moses said the sight of the swarm was "spectacular".
The 41-year-old said he was travelling through the town at about 17:00 BST when he spotted a "big brown splodge" on the back of the vehicle.
"It was quite spectacular to see. There was a lot of people in town and when they were coming past they were really amazed by it, cars [were] slowing down and people [were] taking pictures of it."
Mr Moses, of Haverfordwest, said he often talks to people about the struggles bees face as a result of pesticides and habitat destruction.
"I was a little bit concerned, with it being in the middle of town, on a Sunday, outside a pub, that someone might do something stupid and get hurt or do something stupid and hurt the bees," he said.
Two beekeepers helped to round up the swarm, after Mr Moses contacted the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers' Association.
And despite being stung while assisting, Mr Moses said he was glad to have intervened.
"At the national park, we like people to be aware of how important bees are and how people should be looking after them," he added. | A car became the buzz of a Pembrokeshire town after hundreds of bees swarmed on its boot. | 36362474 |
Officials have admitted the Museum of Modern Art's alarm system had not been fully functioning for several weeks.
One masked intruder was spotted by security cameras, climbing into the museum through a broken side window, having cut through a gate padlock.
The paintings are estimated to be worth just under 100m euros (£86m; $123m).
But experts say the thieves would struggle to sell the paintings on the open market because they are so well known.
The five missing paintings are Dove with Green Peas by Pablo Picasso (painted in 1911), Pastoral by Henri Matisse (1906), Olive Tree near l'Estaque by Georges Braque (1906), Woman with Fan by Amedeo Modigliani (1919) and Still Life with Candlestick by Fernand Leger (1922).
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe admitted one of the museum's alarms had been "partly malfunctioning" since the end of March, and had been awaiting repair when the theft happened.
He called the incident "an intolerable attack on the universal cultural heritage in Paris".
Analysis: What the works tell us
In pictures: Stolen masterpieces
Officials said that the burglar entered the museum at just before 0400 local time (0200 GMT) on Thursday, and took just 15 minutes to remove the canvases from their frames and slip out of the building again undetected.
Three security guards were on duty during the night, but the theft was only discovered at around 0700 local time (0500 GMT), Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall said.
Mr Girard added that investigators were trying to determine whether the theft was carried out by one burglar or a gang.
"This looks like an operation by a professional gang, by organised criminals," he said. "We are dealing with an extremely high level of sophistication.
"To get into the museum by disassembling a window, choose five specific works and then slip out unnoticed by the guards. That is quite impressive."
The museum, across the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower, has been cordoned off by investigators. | French police are hunting the burglar or burglars who made off with paintings by Picasso, Matisse and other great artists from a Paris museum. | 10136767 |
Tadesse Kersmo was charged with eight counts of possessing material useful to someone preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
The 51-year-old was is also accused of attending "a place used for terrorist training", Police said.
He was arrested at Heathrow by counter terrorism officers on 4 January, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday. | A man from north London has been charged with nine terrorism offences. | 40501260 |
Joshua Follin was seen being hoisted into the air by Jonjo Shelvey amid the celebration of the Magpies' 4-3 win against Norwich.
The midfielder visited Shanklea Primary School to present him with a signed copy of a photo that went viral.
"I was over the moon when he came and picked me up," the nine-year-old said.
Joshua, who was working as a ball boy for the first time at last week's match, said: "I was jumping up and down, going crazy, when we scored. It was really good and I was really excited to see him come into school today.
"He's my favourite player now!"
Newcastle United came from 3-1 down to win the game at St James' Park in stoppage time.
Former Liverpool and Swansea player Shelvey said: "Games like that don't come around too often so it was an unreal moment. Joshua was smiling and jumping around so I just thought I'd get him involved in the celebrations.
"You always try to relate to fans and I know little things like this go a long way. It has meant a lot to him and his family." | A ball boy who celebrated with a Newcastle United star after a last-minute goal had a surprise visit at his school from his new "favourite player". | 37546733 |
The government won the backing of MPs by 312 to 270 votes. A series of amendments by Lib Dem and Labour MPs were also defeated.
Commons leader Chris Grayling dismissed objections to the new law as "nonsense" during a bad-tempered debate.
The SNP's Pete Wishart said the "stupid" plans would make Scottish MPs "second class citizens".
There will now be a new stage added to the usual law-making process at Westminster allowing MPs for English constituencies to vote on issues deemed to only affect England.
These MPs would be able to veto the legislation before all MPs from across the United Kingdom voted in the bill's final readings.
Speaker John Bercow will decide whether a Bill only affects England, and all MPs in the Commons will still have to pass legislation at other stages of the process.
The Speaker will be able to explain his reason for certifying an issue as English or English and Welsh only and call on two senior MPs to help make the ruling.
The idea is to eliminate the anomaly where Scottish MPs in Westminster can vote on matters such as health or education in England, but English MPs cannot do likewise on issues devolved to the Scottish Parliament. This is known as the West Lothian question and has tormented MPs for decades.
Mr Grayling told MPs: "These proposed changes enable us to give an answer to the West Lothian question, they enable us to give an answer to our constituents, to say England will have its own piece of our devolution settlement."
He rejected as "nonsense" claims that it would create "two classes of MPs" adding that the measures were "fair, sensible and I'm entirely comfortable as a unionist presenting them to this House".
He added: "It can't be in anyone's interest to see English people becoming cynical about the union... it isn't tenable to have devolution for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and for England to have no powers at all."
The SNP's Pete Wishart told MPs: "Scotland is watching this and the mood is darkening. If this is an exercise in saving the Union you could not have contrived of a more inept way to save the Union.
"Support for independence is actually increasing."
Labour's Chris Bryant said Mr Grayling's plans were so complicated that they resembled a "bowl of soggy, overcooked spaghetti" and claimed they would hasten the break up of the United Kingdom.
Labour backs "an English voice in Parliament" but does not want "an English veto," which would set England against Scotland.
DUP leader Nigel Dodds said: "The proposals neither deal with the problem they diagnose" and threatens the "fabric of our union".
Lib Dem Alistair Carmichael said the government "was still inviting" MPs "to do the wrong thing".
Heather Wheeler, Conservative MP for South Derbyshire, said she was "delighted" the plans are being introduced - telling MPs it is a matter of utmost importance to her constituents who object to MPs from devolved nations voting on England-only matters.
Senior Conservative MP John Redwood, who wants an English Parliament, backed the "very mild and moderate" proposals which he said would "start to put right some of the injustice to England".
He said English MPs had "always been at the bottom of the heap" and that it was wrong that Scottish MPs could vote on matters in his constituency, such as hospitals and schools, but that he didn't have the right to vote on these matters in Scotland.
When Scotland voted last year to remain part of the UK, David Cameron promised significantly increased powers for the Scottish Parliament, including the ability to set some tax and benefit levels.
At the same time, he promised English MPs they would get more power too - they would be able to legislate in areas such as health and education without any input from MPs representing Scottish seats.
Getting the balance of power between the different legislative bodies right is seen as important to the future of the UK.
If the Westminster Parliament is going to have any authority, voters from all parts of the country must feel they are being fairly represented.
A beginners' guide to 'English votes for English laws'
How 'English votes' will affect Westminster decision
English votes for English laws: Should Wales care? | Plans to introduce "English votes for English laws" for MPs have been voted through in the House of Commons. | 34599998 |
The victim, 17, was left blind in one eye after he was hunted down by three youths at Riverside College, Widnes, in December following a "trivial" scuffle.
Michael Jones, 18, of Widnes, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.
He has been detained for nine years.
Seventeen-year-old Jamie Grimes, who had "bad blood" with the victim, admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent and was detained for five years for his part in the attack.
He denied knowing that Jones had the scissors, which was accepted by the prosecution.
Lewis Connor, 18, of Lune Way, Widnes, who was also with the pair, was given a 12-month community order after admitting putting a person in fear of violence.
Judge Neil Flewitt QC told the trio there was "no justification or excuse" for the "appalling" attack.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the victim, who has undergone four operations, may yet lose the eye itself and feels his "whole life has been destroyed".
The court heard the trio went from classroom to classroom hunting for their target following an altercation between him and Grimes.
When they found him in his maths class, the door was locked but the teacher Ken Wong heard a loud bang and the defendants burst in.
Grimes, of Steward's Avenue, Widnes, threw "forceful punches" on the boy before Jones, of Caldwell Road, stabbed him in the eye, chest and hand with decorating scissors in front of horrified pupils.
All three boys then fled.
Judge Flewitt, QC said Jones "has a propensity for violence... and for carrying serious weapons".
"You are clearly and will continue to be for some time a dangerous young man," he said.
On sentencing Grimes, the judge said it was "your fight... and you whipped up that group to look for the victim".
"You set loose the mayhem that followed," he added.
In an impact statement, the victim said he had given up his college course, lost his friends and was conscious of his appearance and feared that he would never work again.
Insp Chris Adkins, of Cheshire Police said it was a "pre-meditated, extremely violent attack, leaving the victim with horrific life-changing injuries". | A "dangerous" teenager who blinded a student by repeatedly stabbing him with scissors in front of his teacher and classmates has been detained. | 40491874 |
The travel company said pre-tax profits fell to £42m from £50m last year.
It said the fall in demand for holidays in Turkey had been offset by the rise in popularity of other destinations.
Chief executive Peter Fankhauser told the BBC: "We are pleased with what we have achieved."
"We have had to follow the demand of our customers, who are choosing to go to the Spanish islands and mainland."
Questioned about the impact of the falling pound on the company's future profits, Mr Fankhauser added: "We don't see a noticeable impact so far and don't expect one next summer."
The company's underlying earnings fell by £2m to £308m, but the board recommended a dividend payment, of 0.5p a share, for the first time in five years.
Its UK market continued to strengthen while it made record profits in northern Europe.
Thomas Cook said it was "a cautious approach to the year ahead".
It added that trading for the winter was in line with expectations, while bookings for next summer had made "an encouraging early start". | Thomas Cook's profits have fallen after a tough year for the tourism industry, with trading affected by terror attacks in Europe and political instability in Turkey. | 38075005 |
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But when he hosts an IAAF council conference call on Friday evening at a secret location in London, he will be aware that not only is his reputation on the line, but that of his sport.
Coe and his 26 council colleagues must decide whether to suspend Russia from international athletics as punishment for the World Anti-Doping Agency's (Wada) damning report. They are almost certain to do so.
This is not a decision to take lightly. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the sport's governing body, has never before banned a nation for cheating.
A few countries have been suspended for government interference, but not for state-sponsored doping. And this is Russia, one of the richest and most powerful sporting nations on earth, both as host and medallist.
Next year alone, Russia is meant to be hosting May's World Race Walking championships in Cheboksary, and the Junior World Championships in Kazan in July. Both may have to be staged elsewhere if the threat of a suspension is carried out. And what sort of message would isolation send out with the 2018 World Cup on the horizon?
But given that the IAAF itself is reeling from devastating accusations that it was an accomplice to the cheating, the pressure to be seen to act decisively, to set a proper example and to establish a real deterrent - as requested by one of the Wada report authors Dick Pound - has become intense.
The IAAF's Constitutional Objects include "eradicating doping from the sport and safeguarding the authenticity and integrity of athletics". Russia appears to have flouted such a pledge, so a suspension seems certain.
And with Pound admitting that all this is merely "the tip of the iceberg", if a precedent is set, then further bans in other countries and in other sports could well follow.
A hearing will have to be held before any provisional suspension is fully signed off, but with that regarded as a formality, the main question of course is when such a ban would be lifted. The IAAF may well make the suspension indefinite, but set out conditions that Russia must meet before it is allowed to be reinstated.
The sense is Russia will simply do what is required, say it has cleaned up its act, and be back in time for the big one - the Rio Olympics - next summer, making it look like a mere slap on the wrist. That is hardly something that will help win back confidence in the sport - or its new leader.
Many will want the Russian federation to receive the same punishment that athletes get for cheating - a four-year ban. But International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has already said he expects to see Russia participating in Rio.
Even Pound suggested something similar. And with Russian President Vladimir Putin striking a rather conciliatory tone, it is easy to see where this is heading. In March 2016, the IAAF council will meet again in Cardiff.
Do not be surprised if that is when Russia is able to prove it is now Wada-compliant again, and allowed back into the fold, to the inevitable howls of protest that athletics has not been tough enough.
But whatever the IAAF decides to do, for its president Lord Coe, a dream job as the most powerful man in athletics risks becoming a nightmare.
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The fact he was an IAAF vice-president for eight years before taking over from Lamine Diack - now under investigation by French prosecutors for accepting bribes to cover up doping - has led many to question whether he was either complicit in the wrongdoing, or, as he insists, just ignorant of it.
Either way, it does not reflect well on a man who must now somehow rebuild trust in his sport. The last thing Coe needs is to appear like track and field's version of Fifa's Michel Platini or cycling's Pat McQuaid - an insider tarnished by association.
Those close to Coe say his role as vice-president involved just a few meetings a year at the IAAF, that for most of that time he was far too busy organising the London 2012 Olympics to be across all that was going on in Monaco and he is genuinely stunned and horrified by what has been exposed.
They also point out the criminal investigation into extortion allegations restricts what he can say and he should be judged on what he does now he is in power, rather than during his election campaign, when winning votes was the priority.
All this may be true. But others make the point Coe has not helped himself. Why, they ask, did he lavish praise on his "spiritual" leader Diack in August when he succeeded him, despite plenty of warning signs - the outgoing president's son (along with other senior IAAF officials) had stood down last December, already under investigation by the IAAF's own ethics committee.
Why did he describe media reports of a cover-up as "a declaration of war", and pour scorn on the "so-called experts" used by German broadcaster ARD and the Sunday Times to analyse leaked blood samples?
Coe has said "it was not a criticism of any journalism or any media, it was simply a reaction to the selective use of data to call into question the reputation of clean athletes".
But why does he continue to refuse an interview with Hajo Seppelt, the German investigative journalist who exposed the scandal?
And why - when the IAAF had already charged several senior officials (including its anti-doping chief), and when it was already widely known that Wada's report would be terrible news for Russia - did he tell the BBC's Sportsweek programme on Sunday he would rather not ban countries - before hearing the full commission report?
He was then forced into a humiliating U-turn the following evening, when a windswept Coe arrived at TV studios in Millbank, Westminster, and was put through a series of media grillings.
During a long and overwhelmingly successful career as an athlete, politician and administrator, Coe has faced plenty of challenges, from chairing Fifa's ethics committee to advising former Conservative party leader William Hague. But nothing quite like this. The aura appears to have gone. The judgment seems, at times, to be missing.
Despite concerns over a potential conflict of interest, Coe continues to refuse to give up his £100,000-a-year role as a special ambassador for sportswear giant Nike. Coe insists the arrangement is merely to support a corporate social responsibility project. And it is important to note the IAAF presidency is an unpaid role, so he has to earn a living elsewhere.
But it does not help that Nike supplies Russian athletes with their kit, or that Coe appears to have a permanent parking bay at the company's headquarters. It does not help that their leading coach Alberto Salazar is under investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) over alleged doping violations, which he denies. It does not help that they sponsor two-time doper, US sprinter Justin Gatlin. It does not help that Eugene, a city with close links to the company, was awarded the 2021 athletics World Championships without a vote.
Paul Sinton-Hewitt is the founder of Parkrun, the increasingly popular, non-profit running movement, that boasts two million registered members and 125,000 weekly runners. He describes Coe's Nike links as "unbelievable and bizarre".
"Seb says he is doing everything in his power to clean up the sport," he told the BBC.
"I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and to support him if he disinvests himself from any organisations which might have an influence over any decision that he may have to make. This means he should remove all personal ties with Nike - and with (sports marketing company) CSM.
"Without this break I will continue to question his independence. He has to be whiter than white. It is absolutely wrong he should be getting income from anyone who could force him to be compromised. He now has very little time to prove he's the right man for the job."
Others are equally critical. Renee Anne Shirley, the whistleblower who exposed Jamaica's lack of testing levels told the Herald that Coe "had his head in the sand".
British 400m runner Martyn Rooney - Team GB's captain at the World Championships in Beijing this summer - told the BBC: "It is pretty disrespectful to everyone involved in athletics to believe that the vice-president did not know what was going on within IAAF.
"That is his job and if he believes he did not know what was going on he has not been doing his job properly."
Coe is not responsible for the crisis athletics finds itself in. It is not his fault that the worst doping scandal in sports history has been exposed so early in his tenure, or that athletics was already struggling for fans and sponsors with competition from much bigger and more popular sports, let alone now. It is not his fault that doping is a global problem.
He is not to blame for the fact Wada seems drastically underfunded, and chronically compromised by a lack of independence from the very sports it has to get tough with.
He is not to blame that the IOC signed a $7.75bn (£5.1bn) deal with NBC last year but only gives about $15m (£9.9m) a year to Wada (half its budget), or that Wada is not responsible for the testing of samples, with many labs under the jurisdiction of national governments or federations, with the obvious potential for a conflict of interest.
It is not his fault that lifetime bans are not legally enforceable, and that in so few countries is doping a criminal offence. To be fair to Coe, he has been calling for an independent body to handle drug testing in track and field for some time.
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It was Wada who failed to act on the information offered to its officials by Russian whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov back in 2013, and then an expose about Russian doping in the Mail on Sunday the same year. Coe cannot force the anti-doping community to follow UK Anti-Doping's lead and place more emphasis on intelligence and investigation.
It is not down to him that the resources for testing regimes around the world are so inconsistent, and so simple for the cheats to evade, or that sports appear so incapable of running themselves properly, so vulnerable to people for whom power and wealth seem more important than integrity.
It is not down to him that the boom in the money and status of sport has so incentivised cheating and political exploitation.
In time these issues must be addressed but right now they offer Coe little comfort. He got his way and was elected to the job he wanted. Now it is his responsibility to salvage whatever credibility is left in his sport. He owes it to the clean athletes around the world who dedicate their lives to honest competition.
He owes it to the volunteers who give up time for the sport they love and to the fans who will watch the action in Rio and wonder whether they can believe what they are seeing any longer.
Athletics is yet to hit rock-bottom. That will come in due course when Wada's commission reveals more sordid details of this unbelievable scandal. This goes beyond Russia. But at least this week's events could just be a catalyst for change. Coe said he wanted to help his sport. Now he has the chance.
Once, Coe may have thought he would be remembered for winning races. Later, that the triumph of London 2012 was how he would be judged. Instead, it turns out his days of reckoning are now.
Sadly the task is proving harder than he could ever have imagined. | As the man responsible for organising London 2012, Lord Coe is used to chairing important meetings. | 34789003 |
Archie Darby was snatched from Jade Rogers' arms as she tried to stop the Staffordshire bull terrier-type dog from attacking her other son.
Four-month-old Archie died and 22-month-old Daniel-Jay was badly hurt at their home in Colchester on 13 October.
Police told an inquest Miss Rogers had done a "heroic job".
She barricaded the dog, owned by the boys' police officer aunt, inside a conservatory and held the door shut to prevent it from getting out.
Recording an accidental death conclusion, coroner Eleanor McGann also praised Miss Rogers for her "bravery" in fighting off the aggressive animal during the attack.
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In a statement to police, Miss Rogers said she had been speaking to her partner on Facetime when the dog, named Bailey, had "growled and immediately attacked" Daniel-Jay.
She was trying to pull the dog away from her older son when it grabbed Archie and shook him around the room, causing fatal head injuries..
"Jade said she knew instantly that Archie was dead. She decided to save Daniel, thought 'I can save Daniel', ran into the kitchen with him, grabbed the phone and dialled 999," said Det Insp Gary Biddle, of Essex Police.
"The dog was still having a go at Daniel, grabbed him off the kitchen counter.
"On the 999 call you can hear him attacking Daniel and you can hear Jade shouting and screaming, trying to get the dog off."
While delivering her conclusions, Coroner Eleanor McGann directly addressed Miss Rogers. She said there was nothing she could say could that could comfort the mum of two over the loss of Archie, but praised her efforts to save Daniel-Jay.
"Nobody here is to blame," she said.
"It's just one of those hideous things that comes out of the blue, can't be predicted and, Miss Rogers, I commend you for your bravery fighting off a dog attacking both of your children and you carried on fighting until you were able to catch the dog and get it away from your children.
"It took a number of officers with specialist equipment to catch it afterwards.
"All I can say is it's heartening that you managed to save one child and I understand that he's now recovering and I hope he's able to live a happy life, untouched in the future by what could have been appalling injuries," she said.
"I hope you have some happy memories of his very brief life and I hope you try to remember the happiness of your family."
The inquest heard Miss Rogers' sister, Clare Ferdinand, and her husband John had owned rescue dog Bailey for about four years.
No previous concerns had been raised about his behaviour and a post-mortem examination found the animal was healthy and well-kept.
Miss Rogers and her children had moved into her sister's house in Harwich Road, where the attack happened, the week before Archie was killed.
Det Insp Biddle said it had taken several dog handler officers to remove the animal when they arrived at the property.
"We had to use specialist equipment to do that because of his continued aggressive behaviour," he said.
"It never stopped for the whole time until it was put to sleep."
In a statement, Essex Police said: "Nothing was identified in the dog's history, or in the care of the dog, to suggest there had ever been any concern to predict an incident of this nature could occur."
Following a "thorough investigation", the force said, and after consulting the Crown Prosecution Service, it was established no criminal offences had been committed. | A mother who tried to fight off a dog that mauled her four-month-old son to death and seriously injured his brother has been praised for her bravery. | 38264421 |
The WAO found too much focus on social care at the expense of other support, information and housing services.
The older people's commissioner said cutting "preventative services" would "continue to isolate our older people".
The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) said councils needed "realistic" funding to make the changes suggested.
The review said such other services could help to reduce pressure on more expensive health and social services.
Older People's Commissioner for Wales Sarah Rochira said: "We need to enable our older people and shift the reliance away from care services and look more closely at the value of services that maintain independence and promote wellbeing.
"To do that, councils in Wales need to get better at speaking to older people, gathering the right information and then providing services based on current needs rather than future demand."
Auditor General for Wales Huw Vaughan Thomas said the idea that older people were "primarily recipients of health and social care services" needed to be challenged.
"As this report states, there is an imbalance in the emphasis we place on prevention and, in line with my recommendations, I would be keen to see this addressed in order to allow people in Wales to maintain their independence into older age," he said.
WLGA spokesman Huw David welcomed the WAO's findings.
He said: "This report highlights exactly what local government leaders have been arguing since the onset of austerity - that sustained cuts are forcing local councils to scale back or cut their wider community support services in order to balance the books on their statutory duties such as education and social care.
"Since the onset of austerity councils in Wales have already made cuts of over £700m, and can expect to face a further £941m budget shortfall by 2019.
"The stark financial reality is that the service realignment called for in this report will only be possible if local public services are provided with a fair and realistic level of funding." | Important services that help older people live independently are being cut as council budgets shrink, a Wales Audit Office (WAO) report has warned. | 34530780 |
Millions of pounds will be paid to heavily polluting diesel farms and coal plants instead, critics said.
The scheme, called a capacity market, awards contracts to encourage new power plants and ensure existing stations are available.
The government says it has secured future capacity at a low price.
The capacity market is designed to ensure enough power is available four years from now.
An auction this week secured 46.35 gigawatts of power at a price of £18/KW. That was lower than the price achieved during the first capacity auction last year.
Existing gas, coal and nuclear plants received contracts. For the first time operators of large cables or interconnectors that carry power between the UK and mainland Europe won contracts too.
But the auction cleared a price too low to attract those planning to build new power plants, which are key to government plans to phase out coal in 10 years.
National Grid estimates that the auction will cost £834m in subsidies in 2019/20, which could add to household bills.
The environmental think-tank Sandbag says that £80m will be paid to subsidise old coal power stations.
It estimates that contracts worth £155m have now been awarded to owners of small heavily polluting diesel farms in the auction over the past two years.
"The capacity mechanism has failed to attract any new efficient gas plant... and it is paying coal to stay open longer than it would otherwise", said Dave Jones, a policy analyst at Sandbag.
The campaign group Greenpeace said that the auction demonstrated that the gap between what the government preaches and what it does on climate change is widening.
"The energy secretary is in the thick of crucial climate talks in Paris yet her department has just lavished million-pound subsidies on some the dirtiest energy sources on the planet," a spokesperson said.
Centrica, SSE and power generator Drax received contracts, as did all of EDF's nuclear plants.
Some new gas plants will be built, but these will be small-scale operations.
Independent generator UK Power Reserve said it had secured contracts for 160MW of this sort of plant.
But no new large gas-fired plants won contracts, other than a new station at Carrington in Greater Manchester which is nearly complete.
"If the government wanted new build gas, it's not happening," an executive at one of the big six energy suppliers told the BBC.
The government has already said that it will reflect on the results of the auction.
Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom said: "This result represents a good deal for customers - fierce competition in the capacity market has driven down costs, meaning future capacity has been secured the lowest price possible." | No new large gas plants will be built as a result of a key government mechanism to ensure the lights stay on in the future. | 35073538 |
The pair were arrested outside a nightclub near the Champs Elysees on Saturday and spent a night in jail.
Williams, 35, will appear in court at a later date having accepted a charge of buying cocaine, judicial sources say.
O'Connor, 26, faces a charge of possession. They were found with 2.4 grams of the drug.
Police, quoted by AFP, alleged Williams was seen in a car with two suspected drug dealers. O'Connor was allegedly spotted outside the car acting as a lookout.
Williams plays for the French team Racing 92 and O'Connor is at Toulon.
The two suspected dealers were also arrested.
Racing 92 said in a statement (in French) that it had suspended Williams "temporarily".
"If the investigation confirmed the possession of cocaine and the transaction, it would not only be against the law but also a serious breach of our ethics," the club said.
Toulon is still deciding whether to take action against O'Connor, who made 44 appearances for Australia between 2008 and 2013.
Williams earned 77 New Zealand caps between 2002 and 2012.
Last October two other New Zealanders playing for Racing 92 were cleared of doping charges.
The side are current champions of French rugby. | Two former rugby internationals, New Zealander Ali Williams and Australian James O'Connor, have been charged with drug offences in Paris. | 39102181 |
Preston took a surprising lead two minutes before half-time as Andy Little netted from close range.
Neil Kilkenny doubled Preston's lead in the 48th minute, reacting quickest to a loose ball in the area from a corner.
Rochdale captain Oliver Lancashire limped off after all three substitutes had been used forcing the home side to finish the match with 10 men.
Rochdale manager Keith Hill told BBC Radio Manchester:
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"The first 42 minutes of the game - I'm really pleased. The manner in which we conceded the two goals - I'm really disappointed with.
"They were elementary mistakes, not League One mistakes.
"We should have dealt with the two goals better, and then we might have caused a few problems."
Preston manager Simon Grayson told BBC Radio Lancashire:
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"We always knew this was going to be a tough game.
"We were comfortable enough but we needed to do a little bit better in the second half, in terms of getting closer to them and stopping them from playing.
"Once we got the second goal, it was quite a comfortable evening and it was nice to keep a clean sheet as well." | Two goals in five minutes saw Preston defeat Rochdale and earn a place in the second round of the League Cup. | 28652547 |
Cyclone Giri hit western Rakhine state on Friday packing winds of up to 110mph (177km/h), with the major town of Kayaukpyu hard hit.
There are unconfirmed reports of dozens of villagers and fisherman missing but the military rulers have given no estimate of casualties or damage.
Aid groups have set up temporary camps to shelter more than 5,000 people.
Residents in Rakhine (also known as Arakan) say they are facing a shortage of drinking water and food after flood waters and falling trees destroyed homes.
Communications have also been hit, with power lines and telephone poles badly damaged, reports say.
More than 130,000 people were killed when Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008.
The military government was widely criticised for what was described as an inadequate warning and initial response to the disaster.
However, state-run media have provided coverage of Cyclone Giri.
There has been no official announcement about the scale of the damage or any casualties.
The worst-hit coastal areas included Kayaukpyu, Myebon, Pauktaw, Myanaung, and Ponnagyu, where many poor families live in huts made from bamboo.
Three temporary camps have been set up in Kayaukpyu by the Myanmar Red Cross and the Social Welfare Ministry, said Andrew Kirkwood, of aid group Save the Children.
On Kyunthaya island, located between Myebone and Kayaukpyu, only seven houses out of 622 houses were still standing, Mr Kirkwood was quoted by the AP news agency as saying.
"The whole town of Kayaukpyu has been hit hard," a local resident told The Irrawaddy, which is based in Thailand.
"There are fallen trees everywhere, and many houses right on the coast have been swept away. All the shops are closed, so there's nowhere to buy food or drinking water."
Meanwhile, there are reports of a fire at an oil pipeline in central Burma. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties. | Thousands of people have been displaced in Burma following a powerful cyclone, residents and aid agencies say. | 11617613 |
The Labour leader told students in London he wanted a society "where we don't automatically criminalise people", The Guardian reported.
Ex-Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman said prostitution was "exploitation and abuse" not "an industry".
Labour sources said Mr Corbyn had been answering a direct question, not making a policy announcement.
They added that he believed sex workers should not be seen as criminals.
The Labour leader had been taking part in a question and answer session at Goldsmiths University, in London, on Thursday.
According to the Guardian, he said: "I am in favour of decriminalising the sex industry. I don't want people to be criminalised. I want to be [in] a society where we don't automatically criminalise people.
"Let's do things a bit differently and in a bit more civilised way."
In 2014, Northern Ireland became the first part of the UK to pass legislation making the purchase of sexual services illegal.
In the rest of the UK, paying for sex is not against the law but many activities linked to it, such as brothel-keeping, kerb-crawling and soliciting sex in a public place, are outlawed.
Backbench Labour MP Jess Phillips criticised Mr Corbyn's comments on Twitter.
"Man says we should decriminalize a known violence against women. Why did it have to be this man," she wrote.
But the English Collective of Prostitutes, which campaigns for decriminalisation, voiced its support for Mr Corbyn's comments.
Supporters of decriminalisation include Amnesty International, which says it would mean sex workers are "no longer forced to live outside the law".
Ms Harman tweeted: "Prostitution's exploitation and abuse not "work/an industry". Women should be protected and men prosecuted."
An attempt by former Labour Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart to change the law to criminalise paying for sex was defeated in 2014.
Sex workers had criticised the proposal, saying criminalising their clients will make their work more dangerous. | Jeremy Corbyn has attracted criticism from Labour MPs for saying the "sex industry" should be decriminalised. | 35724897 |
The survey by Which? found that 60% of 2,000 adults questioned online had changed how they shop, with many now buying less processed meat.
It also suggested that public trust in the food industry had declined.
Horsemeat has been found in a number of processed beef products across Europe, raising questions about the food chain.
"The horsemeat scandal exposed the need for urgent changes to the way food fraud is detected and standards are enforced," said Which? executive director Richard Lloyd.
Some 68% of those surveyed do not think the government has been giving enough attention to enforcing labelling laws, with half of consumers not confident ingredient information is accurate.
"These serious failings must be put right if consumers are to feel fully confident in the food they are buying once more," Mr Lloyd said.
The scandal began in January when Irish food inspectors announced that they had found horsemeat in frozen beef burgers made by firms in Ireland and the UK, and sold by a number of UK supermarket chains, including Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl.
Since then beef products containing horsemeat have been found in a number of European countries, including France, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliamentary select committee chairmen and women on Tuesday that the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the government and retailers all had lessons to learn. | More than half of UK consumers have changed their shopping habits as a result of the horsemeat scandal, a consumer group survey suggests. | 21765737 |
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