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Properties in Nantwich, Crewe, London, Bristol, Stoke and Preston were targeted by more than 100 officers.
Eight women, believed to be originally from Eastern Europe, were found at several of them, Cheshire Police said.
A 49-year-old man from Nantwich and a 37-year-old woman from Crewe were arrested in connection with the investigation.
They are currently being questioned on suspicion of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
The raids involved officers from the Metropolitan Police, Avon and Somerset Police, Staffordshire Police and Lancashire Police, along with the National Crime Agency.
Det Insp David Brown, who has led the operation for Cheshire Police, said the warrants were executed after "months of hard work" and formed part of a larger inquiry.
He said human trafficking and sexual exploitation stemmed from "organised crime" and targeted "some of the most vulnerable people in our society".
Det Insp Brown said the women found at the addresses were being offered support. | Two people have been arrested after police raids across England in connection with sex trafficking. | 32813722 |
Goalkeeper Foderingham, 25, who arrived last summer after being released by Swindon, has committed himself to the Ibrox side until 2019.
Kiernan's new deal takes the 25-year-old up until the summer of 2018.
They join captain Lee Wallace and manager Mark Warburton in extending their contracts with the club. | Rangers duo Wes Foderingham and Rob Kiernan have signed one-year extensions to their contracts with the newly-promoted Scottish Premiership club. | 36839183 |
Paul Massara, who was in charge of Npower from 2013 to 2015, told BBC Radio 5 live Drive that Ofgem needs to do more to protect consumers.
At the weekend, GB Energy Supply ceased trading.
It said recent energy price rises had made its business untenable.
Around 160,000 people are affected by its collapse.
GB Energy Supply said that, as a small supplier, it was unable to "forward buy" energy to allow it to access the best wholesale price.
Ofgem said: "Applicants have to go through a rigorous process to secure a supply licence. We carry out a number of checks before issuing a licence."
Mr Massara said not a lot of money was needed to set up a new energy supplier, saying: "You can get an off-the-shelf system for about £100,000 and get a licence within one month and get a full licence within five [months]."
"There are players that have entered the market who have been around for three or four years now that have built up sizeable businesses and I think they are secure and safe, but I think that some of the new entrants who have come in in the last year that possibly consumers need to look at." | A former chief executive of one of the UK's biggest energy suppliers has said that greater scrutiny of new entrants to the market is needed before they get their licence. | 38138584 |
As a commanding centre-half he appeared in more than 500 games for Barnsley, Manchester City, Celtic and Lyon, and retired while playing for Millwall in 1992 to become the London club's manager.
As a boss, he took the Republic of Ireland to the knockout stage of the 2002 World Cup, and has guided Sunderland and Wolves to the Premier League.
Now, with his current club Ipswich Town second in the Championship, he has told BBC Radio Suffolk why he thinks promotion with Town is his only way back into the top flight, and gives an insight to his managerial career.
You can hear the full interview on Saturday on BBC Radio Suffolk following commentary of the top-of-the-table clash between Ipswich and Derby (kick-off 12:15 GMT).
"I could say I was thrust into it - that when Bruce Rioch left it was a bolt out of the blue, but I'd be lying slightly.
"When I left Celtic I went to France in 1989 and I had a bad knee. I loved it and wanted to stay. Lyon's a beautiful place.
"I had that thought if I wanted to be a manager in England I needed to have my foot in the door somewhere, so I went back to Millwall."
"I start by treating people the way I would like to be treated. It sounds like a bit of a cliche, but how true is it? As a manager I work hard and I expect everyone who works for me to work hard.
"I work very hard with players who cause me problems. Not necessarily just on the pitch, but off the pitch too. I think I have a lot of tolerance and patience for that.
"If you went and asked the players they wouldn't be saying they are my mates or that Mick's a soft touch."
"Sir Alex Ferguson without a doubt. Look at the longevity he had at Manchester United.
"I liked the time Alex Ferguson had for everybody else, the younger managers. I remember getting a note from him when I got my first job 22 years ago. That was lovely. That's a little bit special from a guy who had so much success.
"I don't think that I'm at his level to think I should give someone my number. But lads I know - like Gary Waddock back at Portsmouth - I sent him a text saying 'welcome back to the asylum'."
"The word 'sacked' has a resonance to it that doesn't sound particularly nice. It's like an Exocet missile, you know it's coming, you just don't know where from and when.
"I'm not knocking the media, but the speculation starts and it's a story. It grows legs and goes further.
"At Sunderland, we were 1-0 down and Daryl Murphy equalised in injury time and I was convinced I was getting the tin tack if we lost. I never saw so many sad faces considering we had just got a point.
"Getting the sack is a horrible day. There's tears, some of them are mine because I don't want to go.
"At Wolves we lost 5-1 to our nearest and not so dearest rivals West Brom. I still think we would have stayed up with me and [assistant] Terry Connor at the helm. But it's always embarrassing. Everybody knows you've been sacked."
"My wife Fiona has been my real rock, my support all the time. Not only has she looked after our lovely home and family, she's gone to the games and been all over the world watching matches.
"She loves the football by the way. (If) We were in the house and someone asks, 'what's Tranmere's nickname?' I say, 'Fiona will tell you'.
"We've been married 35 years next year.
"If your family are there and you're getting stick - 'Oi there big nose, you're getting sacked in the morning' - that's tough for them. But they know dad is big enough and daft enough to put up with that."
"I get out on my bike, I love that. It's something I've done for the last 20-odd years.
"I started when I was at Millwall at the end of my career because I was struggling with my knees. Cycling just takes the impact out of it.
"I prefer cycling in the wet and cold than I do golf."
"You're suddenly on the outside, looking in. It really is a horrible feeling.
"A lot of players have struggled with that and struggled with gambling, alcohol, drugs. Or they start businesses that they have no idea about and lose a chunk of money.
"At least football is something they know and love and they get protected by it."
"I would love to take Ipswich to the Premier League.
"Personally, I'd love to do it because I don't think I'd ever get another job in the Premier League. If they're not going to give me one, I'm going to have to boot the door down and gatecrash."
"The first time I did it was with Jon Champion. He said, here's a bit of advice, 'I'll tell everybody what's happening and you tell them why it's happening'. I thought that was great advice.
"I obviously did it OK because I got asked to do it more and more. And I enjoy doing it.
"I didn't find it a challenge. I hear some commentators and think 'you've not got a clue pal, that's a 5-3-2 or there's one in in behind'. I don't find talking about football difficult - why would I?"
Mick McCarthy was speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk's Brenner Woolley | Mick McCarthy, whether he is being loved or loathed, is one of British football's great characters. | 30716855 |
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21 January 2015 Last updated at 03:57 GMT
Shipments were suspended six months ago after some consignments were found to be infested with fruit flies.
But Indian mango exporters have been fighting the ban, arguing that additional pest-control procedures have been put in place.
Sameer Hashmi reports from the Ratnagiri region of Maharashtra, in western India.
Watch more reports on Asia Business Report's website. | India has been given the all clear to resume exports of mangoes to the European Union. | 30910140 |
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The Reds beat Manchester City 1-0 at Anfield on Saturday to remain six points behind leaders Chelsea.
"We have to win our games and see where it leads us," said Klopp.
"When you are still there with five, six or seven matches to go you can think differently - but at the moment you only have to collect points."
Chelsea lead the way at the halfway stage of the season after a record-equalling 13-match winning streak.
"The league is unbelievably difficult," said former Borussia Dortmund boss Klopp. "We cannot look at Chelsea, they are unbelievably strong with 13 wins in a row. Not bad.
"But can you imagine how annoying it is when you win 13 games in a row and there is one team only six points behind?"
Liverpool's win over City came thanks to an early Georginio Wijnaldum header, one of only three efforts on target from either side.
"It was difficult," said Klopp. "We couldn't create too many chances and we defended really well.
"We probably had the bigger chances. I don't know of any real chances for them."
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City are 10 points adrift of Chelsea in manager Pep Guardiola's first season in charge at Etihad Stadium.
"In these kind of games the little details make the difference," said the Spaniard, who has won six league titles in spells in charge of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
"We have to focus on the next game against Burnley, not on the Premier League. Now we start the second road and see what can happen." | Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says he will not think about winning the Premier League title until nearer the end of the season. | 38480656 |
The incident occurred in Alexander Street at about 19:20 on Thursday.
Emergency services attended and she was taken to Monklands Hospital, where she later died.
The driver and two passengers in the car were uninjured. Police would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the incident. | A 79-year-old woman has died after being struck by a car as she was crossing a street in Airdrie in North Lanarkshire. | 35906987 |
Janissa Valdez's classmates are heard yelling and laughing in the footage as she is thrown by the policeman, who handcuffs her and leads her away.
She told media in San Antonio that the other children were expecting a fight between her and another girl.
The officer has been placed on leave and is yet to comment.
The incident happened late last month but the footage went viral after being posted on a local blog.
A spokeswoman for the San Antonio Independent School District, Leslie Price, called the video "alarming", saying they were still gathering all the facts but that excessive force would not be tolerated.
The girl's mother Gloria told News4SA.com: "You could just hear where she hits the ground. And it's nothing but concrete, cement.
"I talked to the officer. He did what he had to do at the moment - those were his words."
Almost 31,000 police officers are based at US public schools, recent figures show.
Last year, a school resource officer was fired in South Carolina after he was seen throwing a female student across a classroom. | Texas school officials are investigating a video apparently showing a police officer body-slamming a 12-year-old girl to the ground. | 35994750 |
Ganesh Joshi, a legislator from the northern state of Uttarakhand, allegedly beat the animal with a stick.
Veterinarians told reporters they had no choice but to amputate as gangrene was spreading in the animal's body.
Police told the BBC they were searching for others involved in beating the horse, named Shaktiman.
Mr Joshi denies assaulting the animal.
"The footage which the electronic media is showing by linking with an old clip - in which I am lifting a stick in front of the horse - has no connection at all [to the incident]," Mr Joshi told the BBC.
"The horse fell down when someone pulled its saddle and the animal sustained a fracture on its leg," he added.
Mr Joshi's arrest on Friday sparked protests in the state.
The incident took place near the legislative assembly in the state capital, Dehradun, on Monday when the BJP was holding a protest against the Congress party-led state government.
An earlier surgery was believed to have saved the leg, but rapid infection necessitated the amputation, vets said.
The Uttarakhand state government has vowed to give Shaktiman the "best possible treatment".
The incident caused outrage in India with many taking to social media to express their anger.
On Twitter, the hashtag #IsHorseAntiNational - prompted by a tongue in cheek newspaper headline that read, "BJP MLA beats up a horse. No confirmation whether the horse was anti-national" - was trending for most of Tuesday. | An Indian legislator from the ruling BJP party has been arrested for "assaulting" a police horse, forcing vets to amputate its leg. | 35839771 |
The motorway had been closed between junctions two and three in west London since last Friday after a crack was found in the Boston Manor viaduct.
It was shut by the Highways Agency following the discovery in a "sensitive area" of the road structure.
Earlier, the agency said it expected all work to be finished before the start of the London Olympic Games.
By Tom EdwardsTransport correspondent, London
The Highways Agency certainly dampened down expectation when it came to reopening the M4.
Having giving no indication last night that the guidance had changed from a reopening within "the next few days", this morning it was open (for cars only).
Of course, once bitten twice shy. Putting a deadline of Thursday on the reopening did not help when it was missed.
There will be huge relief amongst the Highways Agency and the Department for Transport. While the story has been drowned by the G4S security debacle, by Monday it would have become a huge embarrassment.
The image of an Olympic vehicle stuck in traffic on the A4 could have been beamed around the world.
The aftermath is harder to assess. When I asked the Roads Minister if a national audit was needed of our infrastructure he brushed it off as unnecessary. But many of our road structures are of a similar age and seem to be failing - for example the Hammersmith Flyover.
More public and political scrutiny of London's roads infrastructure is long overdue.
Restrictions on vehicles weighing more than 7.5 tonnes had been in place since March, when hairline cracks were discovered in some of the steel beams.
Problems began when workers "found a further crack in a sensitive location which requires us to keep the viaduct closed until the repair is complete".
Transport Minister Justine Greening said of the travel situation for the upcoming Games: "Obviously there will be disruption - it's almost impossible to have three million visitors in London on some days without it being a lot busier than normal.
"But I think we're well prepared, and hopefully we'll be able to have a fantastic Olympics."
John Woodcock MP, shadow transport minister, urged the authorities to ensure the problem was fixed permanently.
He said: "This is not just an Olympic highway.
"Millions of people use this route.
"They will want to to know the problem has been fixed properly, for good."
The M4 is the main route between Heathrow Airport and central London.
It is vital for transporting visitors into the city for the Games.
It is also the major road link from London to the West Country and south Wales, as well as being a heavily-used commuter route.
Just before Christmas, the Hammersmith Flyover - part of the same route in and out of the capital - was closed for five months after structural defects were found. | The main M4 motorway link between central London and Heathrow Airport has reopened in both directions. | 18823897 |
The 4-0 win over Moldova put Wales top of Group D after the opening qualifiers.
With Austria, Serbia and the Republic of Ireland also in their group, Hartson urged Wales to stay focussed
"I think it's a very open group. Serbia away is a very difficult place to go, two years ago we went there and lost 6-1," said ex-Wales frontman Hartson.
"The Republic of Ireland are a very decent team now under Martin O'Neill too. Martin's teams are always very difficult to beat.
"They showed great character last night to come back for a 2-2 draw in Serbia which was result which suited Wales, of course, because you want teams to take points off each other.
"But Austria beat Georgia 2-1 and Austria have got some really good players themselves. Next month we go to Vienna, then a few days later play Georgia at home, there is still an awful lot of work to do.
"It's such an open group, but Wales have had a great start."
Wales head to Vienna on October 6 and then entertain Georgia at Cardiff City Stadium three days later.
The national side, who are looking to qualify for a World Cup for the first time since 1958, has in the past struggled against some of the so-called smaller nations.
And despite his warnings about complacency following Wales' epic surge to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 back in July, Hartson, who earned 51 caps in his international career, believes that, under Coleman, Wales are a very different side from the one prone to fall short in the past.
"We are a confident team now and we should be with the players we have," Hartson told BBC Radio Wales.
"But there is that warning of complacency and Chris will be drumming into the lads that that won't be accepted and the players themselves will know that over the years in games like Georgia away and Moldova away we have struggled.
"But there is a different mentality in this group." | John Hartson has warned Wales to avoid complacency after their winning start to the the 2018 World Cup campaign. | 37288497 |
Conservative MSP Brian Whittle said it was important to hold a "proper inquiry" to ensure similar incidents can not happen again.
It came as prosecutors confirmed they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the boxer's death.
He died in hospital after being knocked down twice during a bout with Welsh fighter Dale Evans in Glasgow.
It has since emerged that Towell complained of headaches in the lead up to Thursday's fight, before dying in hospital the following night.
Mr Whittle, a former Olympic athlete, told BBC Radio Scotland that the 25-year-old boxer's death had been a "real tragedy".
He said banning the sport would be "silly" but it was clear that "something has gone very wrong".
"Obviously it's a high contact sport but there should be safeguards in place to prevent this kind of tragedy," he told the John Beattie programme.
"I do think we need to have a proper inquiry about this to ensure it doesn't happen again."
He added: "In my view, this is a place of work and the young man has died at his work which would then mean you should really have a full fatal accident inquiry into this.
"We need to make sure that the proper expertise is brought in because there are some anecdotal things that are being said around the fact that he wasn't particularly feeling well before he stepped into the ring.
"He was complaining of headaches etc so, to me, that sounds like there's something been missed here.
"I think it's really important that we call for a fatal accident inquiry."
Meanwhile the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service confirmed it was investigating Towell's death after receiving a report.
A spokesman said: "The investigation into the death, under the direction of Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit (SFIU), is ongoing and the family will be kept updated in relation to any significant developments." | A fatal accident inquiry should be held into the death of Dundee boxer Mike Towell, an MSP has said. | 37552822 |
Venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft said in a report on boosting growth that bosses should be able to fire staff without giving a reason.
At a noisy prime minister's questions, Mr Miliband said the report showed the "nasty party is back".
Mr Cameron accused Mr Miliband of being "in the pocket of the trade unions".
The Beecroft report suggested "some people will be dismissed simply because their employer doesn't like them" but that was a "price worth paying", Mr Miliband told MPs.
He asked Mr Cameron: "Are you really telling us that, with record numbers out of work, sacking people for no good reason is a price worth paying?"
Mr Cameron said unemployment was falling, inflation was coming down and the government had cut the deficit by 25%.
He told the Labour leader: "We are taking all of these steps which have led to the greatest number of small business start-ups last year in the country's history.
"Of course, you cannot support any changes to employment regulation because you are in the pocket of the trade unions."
The prime minister said the Beecroft report contained excellent ideas but the government was consulting on the idea of no-fault dismissal only for "micro-businesses".
Mr Beecroft earlier hit back at Business Secretary Vince Cable who had dismissed his proposals to make it easier to fire workers as "nonsense".
The
Conservative donor told the Daily Telegraph Mr Cable's objections
to his suggestions, published in a report this week, were "ideological not economic" and he accused Mr Cable of being a "socialist" who had done very little to support business.
No 10 said it was doing everything possible to support business.
Downing Street said "some of (Mr Beecroft's recommendations) are being taken forward and some are not".
Asked if the prime minister objected to Mr Cable being described by Mr Beecroft as a socialist, the spokesman said: "I thought Vince Cable was a Liberal Democrat."
The businessman was asked to review employment law by Downing Street after David Cameron called for British industry to be freed from "red tape".
His recommendations were broadly supported by Conservative MPs but Mr Cable said plans for so-called no-fault dismissals were "the wrong approach", and it was not the job of government to "scare the wits" out of people.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Mr Beecroft said of Mr Cable: "I think he is a socialist who found a home in the Lib Dems, so he's one of the Left.
"I think people find it very odd that he's in charge of business and yet appears to do very little to support business."
Mr Beecroft blamed the Conservatives' coalition partners, the Lib Dems, for blocking his plans, accusing leader Nick Clegg of always "threatening to go nuclear and dissolve the whole thing if he doesn't get his way with this, that and the other".
He also criticised the Treasury for failing to "drive growth".
Mr Beecroft told the Telegraph that if all of his recommendations were introduced there would be a 5% increase in growth.
He confirmed he backs the delay of new family friendly rules, such as flexible parental leave, although that proposal did not appear in the final version of his report and suggested that key Conservative figures - including former No 10 adviser Steve Hilton - initially backed all his recommendations.
"I'm talking about Steve Hilton, that group and they assured me that David Cameron wanted to do the whole thing. Whether that's right or not I'm not sure but that was the strong impression I got," he told the newspaper.
His report, which was published on Monday, proposed making it easier for firms to sack under-performing staff.
It suggested ending a mandatory 90-day consultation period when a company is considering redundancy programmes and instead called for a standard 30-day period and an emergency five-day period if a firm was in severe distress.
The report said outdated regulations were harming the economy and preventing companies from creating jobs.
Changes to employment law, it has been argued, would improve the supply of suitable staff to firms, who would be less afraid of having to make large payouts or face legal action when laying off those who were no longer needed. | Prime Minister David Cameron has clashed with Labour leader Ed Miliband over proposals to make it easier for businesses to sack workers. | 18170333 |
Environmentalist Chris Murphy is opposing plans to dual the A6 at Toome.
The proposed road is close to Lough Beg, a protected habitat for migratory birds including overwintering swans.
The plan has also caused controversy as it runs through a landscape celebrated in the poetry of Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney who was raised nearby.
Mr Murphy, who is representing himself in court, described himself as "a bird watcher not a lawyer"
He is contesting the decision to proceed with the work on the basis that the proper assessment of its impact has not been done in line with EU legislation.
The case is being contested by the Department for Infrastructure which wants to build the £160m stretch of road.
Mr Murphy told the court the department had picked a route that was "most engineeringly difficult and most culturally and environmentally damaging".
He added: "They couldn't have picked a worse route."
Mr Murphy is making the case that environmental information underpinning the decision to proceed was way out of date.
He said the surveys were based on information more than a decade old.
The department ought to have conducted a fresh assessment of the potential impact of the project before going ahead, he added.
For such environmental information to have value it had to be the "best available science" and "up to date".
He said the department for infrastructure had tried to "circumvent" the strict procedures in such cases.
Department officials had been told, he said, but had ploughed on "recklessly".
The A6 at Toomebridge is a major bottleneck on the main Belfast-to-Derry road.
Supporters of the development say the dual carriageway is needed for economic development and safety reasons. | Planners could not have picked a worse route for a dual carriageway near a protected wetland, a court has been told. | 39028161 |
The roof of a detached property at Barlows Reach, Chelmsford, was fully alight after being hit at 22:45 BST on Friday.
The roof collapsed in the blaze, which spread to the first floor through cavity walls. Nobody was injured.
Crews also attended a fire at two semi-detached bungalows in Holland-on-Sea at 04:25.
One of the properties was set alight by lightning leaving "a family of four homeless", said Essex Fire and Rescue Service.
The roof space of the second became heavily smoke logged.
A neighbour who saw the Chelmsford fire told BBC Essex the sound of the lightning strike was "like a bomb going off".
"We just heard the family screaming the house was on fire, but she [the mother] managed to get the children out.
"They were in bed when she found a piece of fire on the landing, something had fallen and then the loft collapsed. She just got everybody out thank goodness and everybody is safe."
Nobody from the family was available for comment.
Forecaster and storm-chaser Chris Bell, from Norwich-based Weatherquest, warned more storms are on the way for East Anglia.
"We're expecting from late Saturday into Sunday for there to be lots of potential for thunderstorms across the region," he said.
"That could produce localised flooding on the roads, lots of lightning and you want to take that seriously.
"Lightning safety is something that's probably underestimated in this country, but if you can hear thunder you're close enough to be struck by lightning." | Two families have lost their homes after properties in Essex were struck by lightning. | 28383232 |
According to his publicist, he died of heart failure on Monday at his home in Santa Barbara, California.
Weintraub started his career in the music industry, promoting tours for Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, before moving into film production.
Ocean's Eleven star Clooney and former US President George HW Bush are among those who have paid tribute.
"In the coming days there will be tributes," said Clooney in a statement. "We'll laugh at his great stories, and applaud his accomplishments.
"And in the years to come, the stories and accomplishments will get better with age, just as Jerry would have wanted it. But not today. Today our friend died."
"Jerry was an American original, who earned his success by the sheer force of his instinct, drive, and larger-than-life personality," said Bush.
"He had a passion for life. And throughout the ups and downs of his prolific career it was clear just how much he loved show business."
"So sad at loss of Jerry Weintraub, you were 1 of a kind, my friend," tweeted Ralph Macchio, who starred in the first three Karate Kid films.
The actor, now 53, described the producer as being the "last of a breed," adding: "So glad I got to be 'that kid.'''
Others to tweet tributes include actress Goldie Hawn, who described Weintraub as "a friend [and] a powerhouse of light that graced our lives with spirit and joy."
"So sad and shocked that a creative spirit like Jerry Weintraub's could EVER be silenced," tweeted Rob Lowe, who worked with the producer on Emmy and Golden Globe-winning TV movie Behind the Candelabra.
The producer's most recent credits include HBO comedy series The Brink and a new version of the Tarzan story, due out next year.
Jerome Charles Weintraub, a native New Yorker, was born in Brooklyn in 1937 and raised in the Bronx. As a teenager he served in the Air Force as a radio operator.
He went on to work in the mailroom at MCA Records and rose through the ranks before leaving to form his own management company.
Moving into films, he quickly enjoyed success as the executive producer of Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville.
Yet not all his films were hits, Weintraub suffering a notable flop in 1998 with the film version of TV show The Avengers.
"The secret to my success is the people that I associate myself with and work with,'' Weintraub said in 2010. ''I work with the greatest artists and I respect them."
He is survived by his four children and his longtime partner, Susan Ekins. | Jerry Weintraub, the Hollywood producer of the Karate Kid and Ocean's Eleven films, has died at the age of 77. | 33421099 |
The show, which ends this year after six series, has been a worldwide hit and helped launch the careers of Lily James, Joanne Froggatt and Dan Stevens.
It regularly achieves audiences in excess of 10 million in the US and the UK - and even featured in Iron Man 3.
However, the show has never won a major Bafta award.
It was recognised for best direction and best sound at the academy's 2011 ceremony, but has only been nominated for best drama once, also in 2011, when it lost to Sherlock.
None of the ensemble cast - led by Hugh Bonneville and Dame Maggie Smith - has ever won an award for their contribution to the show.
Downton's executive producer Gareth Neame said: "I speak for the entire cast and crew when I say how honoured we are that the Academy will recognise the show with this special award.
"Not only is Downton a much-loved show in Britain, it has had huge success in both the US and right around the world, waving the flag for Britain and our creative content and that's why the Bafta recognition means so much to us all."
Bafta's chief executive Amanda Berry OBE said: "I am delighted that Bafta is paying tribute to Downton Abbey, an extraordinary series that has flown the flag for British drama since 2010. Our tribute will take us backstage with the cast and crew to reveal what's made it both a national treasure and a global phenomenon."
The tribute, which takes place on 11 August, will be broadcast on ITV later this year.
The costume drama, written by Oscar-winner Julian Fellowes, follows the trials and tribulations of the Crawley family - and their staff - after the sinking of the Titanic leaves their estate without an heir.
It has won 11 Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe awards in the US. | ITV's hit period drama Downton Abbey will be honoured by Bafta with a special tribute night, attended by the cast and crew. | 33106747 |
Two heat lamps and about £120 in coins were also taken after the Perth Pet Centre in St Catherine's retail park was broken into.
The theft took place between 16:30 on Thursday and 11:30 the following day.
The owners of the pet centre have offered a reward for the safe return of the creatures and conviction of those responsible for the thefts.
A post on the centre's Facebook page said: "Despite being closed for business since the end of January we were broken into again.
"A reward will be paid for the recovery of our property and the conviction of the culprits." | A bearded dragon, three corn snakes and a copper tarantula have been stolen from a Perth pet shop. | 35629959 |
A Commons committee said the government had been "too reliant" on the World Health Organisation (WHO) system, which declared an emergency in August 2014.
Instead it should have listened to other groups that were warning about Ebola months earlier, the report said.
But the government said its "swift and effective action" saved thousands.
The WHO has since set out plans to reform after health experts said its response to the outbreak was too slow.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014.
Some 11,315 people are reported to have died from the disease in six countries: Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the US and Mali.
The Commons' international development committee said groups like Medecins Sans Frontieres had raised the alarm about Ebola months before the WHO did.
The committee said the Department for International Development (DfID) "must ensure it has the ability to listen and react to information and warnings from a range of sources".
Instead it was "still relying too much on improvements on the international system without improving its own ability to independently assess international public health risks", the MPs concluded.
Committee chairman Stephen Twigg said: "The international community relied on WHO to sound the alarm for an international emergency on the scale of Ebola. The organisation's failure to respond quickly enough is now well documented.
"DfID operated effectively once the international response began in earnest.
"However, the department should have been able to pick up on warnings from sources beyond the established international system."
The committee also said it should be made easier for small sums of aid funding to be allocated after hearing from a doctor who was refused £7,500 in the early stages of the outbreak.
An inability to deal with small sums "may have hampered" the response, the report said, cautioning that "playing catch-up" usually proved more expensive.
Mr Twigg added: "It is vital that these lessons are learned as every delay counts. We urge DfID to lead efforts and make this reform a priority."
A DfID spokeswoman said the UK was "at the forefront of tackling this unprecedented epidemic" and this was "months before the first cases of Ebola were confirmed in Sierra Leone.
"We simultaneously pushed the international system to respond more quickly," she said.
"From rapidly deploying NHS medics and military personnel to building treatment centres, our swift and effective action helped save thousands of lives and contain the spread of the disease.
"Our flexible response is now ensuring Sierra Leone can isolate and treat new cases of Ebola before they spread." | The UK government should have paid more attention to warnings about Ebola before a formal emergency was declared, a group of MPs has said in a report. | 35349081 |
As of 15:00 local time (07:00 BST), the waiting time was eight hours.
Officials are discouraging people from joining the queue but said the viewing will now be open 24 hours.
Mr Lee, who died on Monday aged 91, was Singapore's prime minister for 31 years and is seen as its founding father. His funeral is on Sunday.
Singapore is observing a week of mourning for his death. The viewing will end on Saturday night and his body will be moved the next day to a cultural centre for the funeral.
Officials said in a statement they were taken aback by the "overwhelming response" from the public. The viewing was meant to end at 20:00 local time but has since been extended twice.
The city's underground train network, the MRT, will also run 24 hours on Wednesday. Many organisations and businesses are giving employees time off to pay their respects.
The first in line had begun queuing on Tuesday night. By midday, the line was several kilometres long and wound through the heart of the city.
Ivy Chiam, 79, spent four hours lining up with her sister.
"We felt very tired, but we enjoyed it because we were there with all these people sharing the same feelings, talking about the same thing - Lee Kuan Yew," she told the BBC. "Standing in line for so long was nothing compared to what he did for us."
With daytime temperatures above 30C, officials handed out water to those queuing and created a separate line for the elderly, handicapped and pregnant women.
Mr Lee's body had been resting at the Istana - the official presidential residence - for a private family mourning period. Thousands have already left flowers and message at its gates and signed books of condolence.
Thousands gathered earlier on Wednesday to observe his flag-draped coffin accompanied by representatives of the military and government, as it was carried from the Istana through the main shopping and business districts, before arriving at Parliament House.
The BBC's Tessa Wong says the mood was expectant, even a little festive, along the Bras Basah Road thoroughfare, where hundreds of people - including schoolchildren holding handmade signs stating "RIP Mr Lee" - had gathered by the roadside and on rooftops.
On Tuesday, Singapore's current prime minster, Mr Lee's son Lee Hsien Loong, thanked all who had paid tribute, via his Facebook page.
He also announced that a new orchid - Singapore's national flower - had been named after his father. The orchid, named Aranda Lee Kuan Yew, is on display at Parliament House.
Lee Kuan Yew - widely known as LKY - oversaw Singapore's independence from Britain and separation from Malaysia and co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP), which has governed Singapore since 1959.
He was the architect of Singapore's transformation from a dependent, port city to a stable, prosperous independent state and a global financial hub.
However, he also introduced tight control. One of his legacies was a clampdown on the press - tight restrictions that remain in place today - while measures such as corporal punishment have been criticised as repressive.
Dissent - and political opponents - were ruthlessly quashed. Today, PAP remains firmly in control. There are currently six opposition lawmakers in parliament.
He was widely admired by world leaders, but criticised what he saw as the overly liberal approach of the US and the West, saying it had "come at the expense of orderly society". | A huge queue has formed in central Singapore as thousands wait to pay tribute to late statesman Lee Kuan Yew lying in state in parliament. | 32046137 |
The new "backpacker tax" proposal is lower than the government's original plan for a 32.5% rate, which angered tourism and farming operators.
They feared taxing temporary workers 32.5 cents on every dollar would make it unattractive to come to Australia.
About 600,000 backpackers travel to Australia every year, many of them finding work picking fruit.
At present backpackers, like Australian workers, do not pay any tax until their yearly income exceeds A$18,200 (£11,000, $13,500).
Treasurer Scott Morrison said the government had reached a compromise deal with independent crossbenchers.
"Today the government will be working to put in place a bill which will propose 15% on the backpackers' arrangement," he said in Canberra on Monday.
"We will honour the arrangement that we've come to with Senator (Nick) Xenophon and we appreciate his continued support on this, as well as Senator (Derryn) Hinch."
The announcement comes after more than a year of political manoeuvring between the government, opposition and minor parties.
Last week, independent senator Jacqui Lambie's proposal for a 10.5% tax rate was blocked by the House of Representatives.
Government MP Andrew Broad broke ranks on the weekend to suggest a 15% rate, declaring the issue had to be settled before the new year.
Mr Morrison said lowering the rate to 15% would cost the Australian budget A$120m over four years.
The opposition said it continued to support a 10.5% tax like New Zealand, arguing Australia risked turning away working holiday-makers.
"When European backpackers look towards Australia and New Zealand ... they just look at the headline rate," said opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon.
Australia granted 214,830 working holiday visas in 2014-15. British citizens, the programme's biggest constituency, were granted 44,730 visas.
Australian working holiday visas cost a minimum of A$440 (£250, $355). | The Australian government says it will support imposing a 15% tax rate on working holiday visitors from overseas. | 38126372 |
Darlington left Wrexham in May 2015 and re-joined Welsh Premier League champions New Saints later that year.
"I'm delighted to get Darlo in, as he's someone who can help me personally, someone I can learn from and develop," Wrexham boss Dean Keates said.
"He is a local lad, the club means everything to him."
Darlington will do the job part time, combined with his role as head of coach education for the Welsh Football Trust.
He was previously assistant manager at the Racecourse to Kevin Wilkin and was briefly caretaker following Wilkin's departure.
He left the club when Gary Mills was appointed in April 2015. | Wrexham have re-appointed Carl Darlington to their coaching staff as the Football Association of Wales coach returns to his hometown club. | 39923801 |
Emergency services were called to the incident on the A4232 near junction 33 of the M4 at 05:45 BST on Wednesday.
Repairs were carried out and both carriageways to Culverhouse Cross were reopened at about 11:55.
The Federation of Small Businesses said the incident "highlighted the fragility of Cardiff's transport infrastructure".
FSB Wales spokesman Rhodri Evans said: "Getting around Cardiff can be a challenge for our members on normal working days, but the crash today has had a significant knock-on impact for business across Cardiff.
"We need to find ways of reducing the strain on our roads network and finding other ways of getting people around our capital, particularly at peak times.
"Today's incident underlines why we need to start seeing progress on the proposed South Wales Metro system so that we have a more resilient transport system in Cardiff should this sort of incident occur in future."
The Welsh government said £77m was being invested in the first phase of the metro project and work was being carried out to develop the next phase.
A spokesperson added: "Securing additional investment from the European Structural Fund and private sector, together with the improvements to the Great Western Main Line and Valley Lines will deliver a step change in integrated transport for south Wales and provide a template for public transport across the whole of Wales."
The incident caused tailbacks in neighbouring counties, with motorists reporting delays of up to two hours.
Bus travel in and around the city was affected and pupils travelling to schools in Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan were caught up in the delays.
Nikki Boniwell, who was travelling to Cardiff from Swansea, said her normal one-hour journey took two-and-a-half-hours.
Earlier on Wednesday, Jennie Griffiths, head of South Wales Fire and Rescue Service's control room, said crews were using specialist absorbent materials to contain and secure further spillage of the tanker's load on to the road. | A tanker carrying corrosive chemicals, which overturned and caused traffic delays around Cardiff, has been recovered and the road has reopened. | 32603993 |
Chief executive Dr Andrew Goodall has launched his second annual quality statement for the health service.
Despite growing demands on emergency departments, frontline staff were "broadly able to meet these pressures".
He stressed a focus on the individual. "We need to change our question to 'what matters to the patient', rather than 'what is the matter?'"
Dr Goodall thanked staff for delivering in services with challenges in terms of demand and difficulties in recruitment in some areas, saying many "go that extra mile" to keep improving services.
84,000 staff
£18m a day budget
18m contacts in primary care a year
3m outpatient attendances
750,000 hospital admissions
78m prescriptions issued
He said the NHS could boast of many examples of world-beating services but where things could be better, staff were "working tirelessly" to make improvements.
Meanwhile, in a survey of nearly 8,000 patients, 98% felt that they were treated with dignity and respect and 95% felt they were given full information about their care.
The annual quality statement for NHS Wales is an overview of all the work going on to improve the quality of care.
Among the areas covered:
Good practice includes a pilot at Wrexham Maelor Hospital where patients are asked to give star ratings for how they were looked after in wards and departments, with weekly feedback to staff. The NHS is looking to extend it across Wales.
There is also praise for "virtual wards" in Powys, which allow elderly and frail people to be cared for in their own homes and has helped reduce emergency admissions to hospital by 12%.
A "one drink one click" app developed by Public Health Wales to help people monitor alcohol consumption has been taken up in England.
"Despite the challenges posed by increasing demand for our services, we remain fully committed to providing safe, compassionate care, focused on the individual and the core principles the NHS stands for," said Dr Goodall.
ON STAFF FROM EU COUNTRIES
Dr Goodall also promised the Welsh Government would do all it could to "look after" NHS staff from the EU working in Wales following the referendum result, saying they play an important part.
There are more than 500 doctors alone who were trained in EU countries.
"We have to wait and see the detail and the plans that emerge after such a significant decision," he said.
"We have very committed staff working in the NHS more generally who have joined us from both an European and international context.
"We've had very recent recruitment campaigns across Wales. I think it's important for us to just recognise the hard work they've put into making the NHS in Wales improve and the support they provide to Welsh communities."
ON RECRUITING DOCTORS FROM ENGLAND
Dr Goodall said the NHS in Wales would offer a "very warm welcome" to any staff who choose to work here after a bitter dispute in England about a new junior doctor's contract.
Ministers in England are paving the way to impose new work patterns on junior doctors in England after the profession rejected the deal that had been agreed between union negotiators and UK ministers.
The UK Government said the new contract will help the NHS in England become a truly seven day service, while critics claim it will lead to less safe services for patients.
The Welsh Government has said consistently it would not impose a new contract on junior doctors in Wales but would negotiate any future changes to work patterns in the spirit collaboration.
Asked about the impact on Wales of the dispute in England, Dr Goodall told BBC Wales: "Obviously we're going to have to take a serious look about what that means.
"But it's absolutely right to say the Welsh Government has not had any intention to impose a contract. I think we've worked in a very collaborative manner with our medical staff and doctors in Wales and the BMA as well."
Recent figures suggest a significant rise in junior doctors recruited by NHS Scotland but Dr Goodhall said the trend had not been replicated in Wales.
Vanessa Young, director of the Welsh NHS Confederation which represents health boards, said the achievements had been delivered while the NHS "continues to carry out a staggering level of activity each and every day".
"However we are not complacent. We know there are areas where improvements can be made and our members will continue to work hard to deliver great care to patients and meet the challenges ahead," she said. | The boss of NHS Wales has praised staff for providing quality services in the face of challenges. | 36724142 |
The incident happened on Sunday afternoon near Cefn Coed.
Three mountain rescue teams, the coastguard helicopter and the air ambulance were all involved in the two-hour rescue.
Mark Moran, from Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team, said the 13-year-old was playing with friends when he fell.
Mr Moran said he had been airlifted to the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, for treatment. | A teenager has been airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after he fell 40ft in a quarry near Merthyr. | 39993781 |
Juan Manuel Santos said the move put Colombia "in the group of countries that are at the forefront...in the use of natural resources to fight disease".
But, he said, the country would still fight illegal drug production.
Up until now, marijuana production in Colombia had fallen into a legal grey area.
While a 1986 law allowed for the manufacture, export, sale and medical and scientific use of marijuana, the practice was, until Tuesday, never formally regulated.
Anyone wishing to grow marijuana must now apply to the National Narcotics Council for a licence. Medical marijuana is used for medical ailments such as Crohn's disease, seizures, HIV and nausea.
Last year, Mr Santos, who has admitted smoking cannabis while a student in Kansas in the 1970s, said legalisation would take drug production out of the hands of drug traffickers.
A number of countries in Latin America have decriminalised or legalised marijuana use in recent years, as have US states such as Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Uruguay fully legalised the production, sale and recreational use of marijuana in 2013.
Colombia has been plagued by decades of drug-related violence, and is better known as the world's biggest producer of cocaine, along with Peru. | Colombia's president has signed a decree fully legalising medical marijuana in a shift away from preventing drug crop production. | 35165169 |
"A teenage heart is an unguided dart," sings the Derry-born artist on B a noBody. "We're trying to make something of what we are."
"The album is about growing up," explains the 19-year-old, "and I think the opening lines set the tone for the rest of the record."
Before We Forgot How To Dream has been five years in the making, collecting songs written throughout Soak's upbringing in Northern Ireland.
The husky-voiced singer, whose real name is Bridie Monds-Watson, still retains some of her teenage awkwardness. Her speech is littered with qualifiers - I think, I s'pose, maybe, dunno - and she cringes when discussing her lyrics.
But those wry, self-aware songs let her speak freely, winning legions of fans.
"I think people hear something that reminds them of themselves," she says of the songs, which tackle heartbreak, betrayal and her parents' divorce with a wisdom beyond her years.
As the album finally reaches shops ("I'm going to go into a store somewhere and move all the copies to the front"), she speaks to the BBC about her unlikely rise to fame.
The album includes some of the first songs you ever wrote. Why was that important to you?
The logic behind the album is that I had all these songs and I didn't want to get rid of them.
They all represent the moment they were written in. So, Sea Creatures was written by a 14-year-old and Blud was written by a 15/16-year-old. I wanted to showcase the logic you have at that age.
I wouldn't want anyone to see the things I wrote as a teenager!
It is weird looking back! But it wouldn't have felt right to release my first record and not have those songs.
When did you start playing guitar?
When I was 13. I wanted drums and I never got them - but then my brother got a guitar he didn't want. He wrote one song and I stole the guitar because he wasn't using it!
What's the first thing you played?
My dad taught me Everybody Hurts by REM and then I went onto the internet and taught myself using YouTube and UltimateGuitar.com
How long did it take for you to start writing your own songs?
Not very long. Sea Creatures is a two chord song because that's all the chords I knew when I wrote it.
Who was the first person you played one of your songs to?
Probably my GCSE music class but it might have been my parents. Both happened around the same time.
Did you get a lot of encouragement from them?
My parents didn't believe I'd written the songs! They were quite overwhelmed when I said, "genuinely, I wrote this and here's the proof and here's the demos," because I'd never shown any sort of interest in music.
They were like, "how did you know how to produce this? How did you know how to write it?"
It's a good question. How did you know?
Music was the first hobby I really had. It was the best way for me to talk about things without having to have a conversation with someone else.
I could sit and play and sing, then write down everything in my head. And from that, I could understand what I was trying to say a lot better.
Where did the name Soak come from?
I was trying to figure out a stage name and I knew I didn't want to use my own name. So my mum suggested Soak and I was like, "well that sounds cool". And then she said, "it's a combination of soul and folk," and I was like, "hmm, not that part!"
Is it true that Sea Creatures sparked a bidding war?
Not necessarily a bidding war. But when I was about 15, I started uploading things online to the BBC Introducing website and stuff, and that's when I suppose word got to London about what I was doing. A&R men started getting interested and they'd fly over to Derry to introduce themselves.
Did that turn your head?
It was kind of scary. I was 16 and being offered record deals lasting 15 years, which was double the age I'd lived.
But my parents were cool and had their heads screwed on. They told me I had time to decide what I wanted to do, and I didn't have to jump at the first thing that was offered.
What happened to school at that point?
I finished my GCSEs but I [lost] any involvement or enthusiasm for school.
Then I got into music college - but just as I started, everything started kicking off. We were getting offered really good support slots and festivals and I had to turn them down.
At one point I just decided, "I'm not going to let a potential career pass me by". I knew I'd have more fun going out and actually doing things, rather than sitting in school being told the correct, elegant way to sing.
When it came to making the album, did you re-record the old songs?
Oh, yes. The original recordings would have been ridiculous! But I kept most of the lyrics true to when they were originally written.
The opening line, "a teenage heart is an unguided dart", is very striking.
I think it's the defining lyric of the whole record. Being a teenager is an important time for everyone. It's the stage where you grow up, where you realise a lot of things.
What were your teenage years like?
I don't know what to compare it to, but for me, it was a relatively normal teenage upbringing. I had the usual ups and downs. My parents divorced at one stage but overall it wasn't ridiculously terrible.
Is Blud about your parents?
Yeah - hearing an argument and lying on the floor of my room so I could hear what was going on.
How do they feel about that?
I don't know! I've never asked them properly. My dad's never said anything and my mum jokes about it - "oh, I have to hear that song about me and your da on the radio all the time".
But they get that I write because I have to and I'm just being honest about it.
On the other end of the scale, you've got a few upbeat, poppier songs like Garden.
Garden's like a classic pop song. It's a classic summer romance idea - which I hate because it sounds lame.
So lyrically it's a bit generic - but it's supposed to be. It's about when you're 16 and it's summer and you're off school and everybody's a bit romantic and delirious.
And now that you're touring with a full band, do you finally get to play those drums you wanted when you were 13?
I've had access to a kit for about five years because I bought one when I started gigging. So on the album I drummed on Blud and a few of the other tracks.
So will we see you going full Dave Grohl and drumming on stage?
Potentially! Maybe! It could happen.
Before We Forgot How To Dream is out now on Rough Trade records. | The opening lines of Soak's debut album perfectly capture the ambiguities and anxieties of adolescence. | 33012459 |
The survey, carried out on behalf of the BBC by polling company Populus, marks the start of the first day of the company's renewed four-year franchise.
The franchise, run by Govia, covers Kent, and parts of Sussex and London.
Neville James, who commutes from Ebbsfleet, said it was costing him £2 a minute to use the service.
"I have to stand on the train... frequently they're cancelled," he told BBC Radio Kent.
The survey also found 70% of people were satisfied with the experience of using Southeastern.
It was carried out by Populus and sampled 1,000 commuters. It found:
Tunbridge Wells MP Greg Clark said: "Across the whole region... people feel the biggest problem is the sheer value for money.
"If you're paying £4,000 a year that is a huge sum of money and you quite rightly expect a good service for that.
"People are right to be critical when they're paying a fortune and things go wrong."
David Statham, managing director of Southeastern, said: "It's important we address those things that have come up through your survey and the national passenger survey and we start to deliver on things that passengers think are really important - better information, better train services, better punctuality and an upgrade of our stations and our train fleet."
Annual season ticket prices to London terminals vary, depending on which part of Kent a commuter is travelling from, and whether they choose to use the high-speed service.
From Deal it could cost up to £5,996, while from Sevenoaks a passenger would have to pay up to £3,252. The prices would be higher if travel on the underground was required.
Richard Dean, Southeastern's train service director, said fares were mandated by the Department for Transport, and it would be unaffordable to set them any lower.
He said: "The reality is that the profit that Govia can make out of the franchise is capped.
"Obviously if we make more profit we give it back to the government, if we make less profit then we effectively go out of business... we are capped at a very low level of profit."
Mr Dean explained that the government's objective was "to get taxpayers to pay less and fare-payers to pay more for using the trains, and it does mean that fares have gone up". | Nearly half of commuters believe that Southeastern trains does not offer "good value for money", a BBC survey has found. | 29566377 |
Leicestershire County Council wants to close part of Snibston Discovery Museum to save £9.4m over 25 years.
But consultant Graham Black said the county council was "manipulating" the public by not revealing enough details about the impact of closing the centre.
A council statement said it cannot continue to subsidise the museum.
Mr Black, who has experience advising museums across the UK and lives in Leicestershire, said the attraction would bring £80m to the local economy over the same 25-year period.
"This is an exercise in trying to look as if you are giving choices but is actually manipulating people to agree with your point of view," Mr Black said.
He said the council had a responsibility to "store, care and maintain" the collection, which is located in Coalville, and includes a major quarry extractor, a bus, two aeroplanes, carts and horses.
The cost of removing and storing the materials would cost more than the money saved in closing it, he said.
The county council statement said the authority "needs to save over £110m and cannot afford to keep subsidising Snibston by more than £800,000 per year".
Mr Black suggested forming a charitable trust and applying for a £10m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to save the museum.
The chairman of the Friends of Snibston group Brian Voller said he was "increasingly concerned about the consultation process" and was planning to ask county council leader Nick Ruston to scrap the consultation, which ends on 7 July.
Councillor Rushton said earlier the Conservative-led council had "run out of time" and the only realistic alternative to scaling back the attraction was "complete closure". | A consultation on plans to scale back a Leicestershire museum has been criticised as misleading by an independent museum expert. | 27763432 |
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the allegation was an "official accusation" and a "total fabrication".
Adam Szubin, who oversees US Treasury sanctions, told BBC Panorama that the US government had known Mr Putin was corrupt for "many, many years".
It is thought to be the first time the US has made such a direct accusation.
Washington has already imposed sanctions on Mr Putin's aides, but has stopped short of levelling corruption allegations at the president himself.
US restrictions were placed on a number of Kremlin insiders in 2014, after President Putin ordered the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine. The EU imposed similar measures against Russian companies and individuals, focusing on sectors of the Russian economy that were close to the elite.
The US government stated at the time that President Putin had secret investments in the energy sector.
Mr Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the Panorama allegations would have looked like "another classic case of irresponsible journalism, if not for an official comment from a representative of the US finance ministry".
As such it was an official accusation. "It clearly shows who is directing this," said Mr Peskov, who added that such an allegation required proof, to show that the statements were not unfounded slander.
In the programme, Mr Szubin spoke of how "we've seen [Mr Putin] enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalising those who he doesn't view as friends using state assets", whether it concerned Russia's energy wealth or state contracts. "To me, that is a picture of corruption," he said.
US government officials have been reluctant to be interviewed about President Putin's wealth, and Mr Szubin would not comment on a secret CIA report from 2007 that estimated it at around $40bn (£28bn).
But he said the Russian president had been amassing secret wealth. "He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year. That is not an accurate statement of the man's wealth, and he has long time training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth."
President Putin declined to be interviewed for Panorama but the Kremlin denies such allegations.
In 2008, President Putin personally addressed claims that he was the richest man in Europe, saying: "It's simply rubbish. They just picked all of it out of someone's nose and smeared it across their little papers."
The Panorama programme came days after a UK public inquiry said Mr Putin had "probably" approved the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Mr Peskov pointed out that the programme had coincided with "quasi-court proceedings" and said that the Kremlin was used to such "false-reporting", whether it was the result of incompetence or an orchestrated campaign.
Litvinenko, a former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agent and fierce critic of Mr Putin, was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium in 2006.
Sir Robert Owen's report found that Mr Putin was likely to have signed off the attack in part due to personal "antagonism" between the president and Litvinenko. The Russian foreign ministry rejected the report as neither transparent nor unbiased.
The recent tensions between Moscow and London have seen pro-Kremlin media invoke a colourful phrase that harks back to the 19th-Century rivalry known as the Great Game.
"Anglichanka gadit" or "The Englishwoman does the dirty" is the Russian equivalent of the French term "perfidious Albion ".
The female gender possibly refers to Queen Victoria or Britannia.
TV presenter Dmitriy Kiselev used the phrase no fewer than nine times in his commentary on the Litvinenko inquiry on Sunday.
He suggested the affair was the latest in a long line of British double-crossings, including the murder of Tsar Paul I in 1801 and Winston Churchill's call for a nuclear attack on the USSR after World War Two.
Russian derision at 'joke' inquiry report
Key findings of Owen inquiry
Alexander Litvinenko: Murdered Russian agent
Panorama: Putin's Secret Riches is available to watch via BBC iPlayer. | The Kremlin has called on the US Treasury to come up with proof after it told a BBC investigation it considered President Vladimir Putin to be corrupt. | 35407795 |
The Rugby Football Union is giving full-time contracts to 20 players.
They include 12 members of the squad that won the 15-a-side Women's Rugby World Cup in Paris earlier this month, beating Canada in the final.
England's World Cup-winning captain Katy Mclean, one of the players awarded a contract, described the deals as "fantastic news for the sport".
The RFU said the one-year contracts would be awarded on an annual basis.
All 20 contracted players will train full-time at Twickenham and at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford, starting in September.
They will compete in the 2014-15 IRB Women's Sevens World Series, at which England will attempt to qualify for the Rio Olympics on behalf of Great Britain.
Rugby sevens will be included at the Olympics for the first time in 2016, and the RFU said it had decided on a professional set-up in order to allow England to compete effectively against full-time opponents.
England's squad at the Women's Rugby World Cup in France was made up entirely of part-time players, including a plumber, Marlie Packer, and a vet, Sophie Hemming. All of the players trained in their spare time for no pay.
They won the tournament by beating Canada 21-9 in the final in Paris on 17 August, to become world champions for the first time since 1994.
Danielle Waterman, who scored one of England's two tries in the final, gave up her job at an RFU academy for 16-18-year-olds in Gloucester last November to focus on the World Cup.
She told BBC Radio 5 live: "These contracts haven't happened overnight. The RFU has been working towards this for at least as long as I've been involved with England, which is 11 years.
"It has cost a substantial amount of money to do it and the RFU is providing that support, which is brilliant."
Waterman and Packer have been awarded full-time contracts along with primary school teacher Mclean, who said: "This is fantastic news for the sport and exactly what we need as an England squad to continue to be at the top of our sport on a global scale."
In addition to their Sevens commitments, the full-time players will also be expected to play 15-a-side internationals and Women's Premiership rugby.
Their training programme, led by Sevens coach Simon Middleton and RFU head of women's performance Nicola Ponsford, will include strength and conditioning work, as well as medical, nutritional, lifestyle and psychological support.
Ponsford declined to reveal how much players would be paid, but told Radio 5 live that those giving up their jobs would receive adequate financial support.
She said: "The RFU doesn't disclose salaries, so we're not going reveal amounts. But we are going to work with every player to make sure everyone is sorted out financially and can focus on training.
"We want the players to be able to commit to this without having to worry that they're not going to make ends meet."
The development comes six months after the England women's cricket team announced it would be turning professional.
A total of 18 female cricketers were awarded professional contracts in May by the England and Wales Cricket Board. | England's top female rugby players will be paid for the first time as the Women's Sevens squad goes professional. | 28924321 |
PC Neil Doyle, 36, died and two of his colleagues were injured on a night out in the city centre on 19 December.
Within a floral tribute, his wife wrote: "Good night and God bless, babe. My heart is with you always. All my love, broken-hearted Sarah xxx".
The service was held at Liverpool Parish Church Our Lady and St Nicholas, where the couple got married last July.
They had been due to go on their honeymoon this month.
Mr Doyle was on a Christmas night out when he was assaulted along with Michael Steventon and Robert Marshall, who were treated in hospital for facial injuries.
A post-mortem examination found the cause of Mr Doyle's death was bleeding around the brain.
Mourners including Jon Murphy, Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, the Rt Rev Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool, and Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson stood in silence as the funeral cortege arrived with the fallen officer's police cap on top of his coffin.
Rev Canon Bob Lewis, who also presided at their wedding, said: "Only a few months ago at the very place where now he lies, she and Neil expressed their love as they exchanged their vows.
"It was, as they both wished, a wonderful, happy family moment shared by their friends and blessed by God."
He described Mr Doyle as an "outstanding young man" and a much loved husband, son, brother and friend. His wife even received sympathy cards from people he had arrested, praising how he had treated them.
His widow had been left "raw" with grief over his "tragic and senseless" killing, mourners heard.
They gathered in their hundreds to say goodbye. Not just police officers, but church-goers and people from a community still coming to terms with the loss of a young man. A young man who was a husband, son and brother, and a friend to so many.
The mourners stood silent as the coffin was carried inside, but there was applause as the procession left to the sound of a Green Day song, the words "I hope you had the time of your life" ringing around the church.
The Rev Canon Bob Lewis, who married Neil and Sarah at the church last year, said he "embodied within him the heart and soul of the city."
A written tribute from Neil's brother Greg was also read out: "So from my heart a sad farewell - it hurts to let you go. I'll miss your smile and also your touch in ways you will never know."
Two men have been charged with Mr Doyle's murder and a third, Huyton man Timmy Donovan, has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of the same offence.
Andrew Taylor, 28, of Cherry Tree Road, Huyton, and Christopher Spendlove, 30, of Brandearth Hey, also in Huyton, have appeared in court accused of murder and two counts of causing grievous bodily harm.
On Wednesday, Mr Donovan, 30, was arrested as he tried to board a plane back to the UK at Dusseldorf Airport. | More than 400 mourners have paid their respects to an off-duty police officer who was killed in Liverpool. | 30934578 |
Eileen Garas, of Hampers Lane, Storrington, was struck by a Honda outside the Millford Grange housing development in the village on Saturday.
She died of her injuries at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
Her son Anthony said he "loved her dearly" and she would be "missed by all who knew her".
Mrs Garas, who was born in Staffordshire, moved to Sussex from London in 1973, shortly before the death of her husband.
She was well known in Storrington and enjoyed being in her "beloved garden, tending the flowers and feeding the birds", according to Mr Garas.
"We are deeply shocked and saddened by our sudden loss."
The rider of the motorbike, a 67-year-old man from Worthing, suffered minor injuries in the crash. | A 90-year-old woman who died after being hit by a motorbike in West Sussex has been described as a "loving, devoted mother and wife". | 35168443 |
The friends, aged 18 to 23, were each given an eight month custodial sentence after admitting causing more than £21,000 worth of damage.
Using a crowbar, a bent blade and a screwdriver they slashed tyres and smashed windscreens and windows.
The attacks happened overnight between 1 and 2 January in two towns and 19 villages.
Adam Guy, 23, Kieran Painter, 18, Lewis Watts, 22, and Tyron Cotterill, 20, all pleaded guilty to criminal damage and were sentenced at Leicester Crown Court.
Recorder Justin Wigoder described it as "a spree to cause criminal damage over much of the county".
In total, 86 cars were damaged between about 22:00 on 1 January to 06:30 on the following morning.
In sentencing, Recorder Wigoder said: "I don't know why you all decided to do this. Whether is was because you intended to damaged one car and then damage others to simply cover your tracks, or whether it was the severe enjoyment of hearing the glass smash."
He said it was the length, breadth and scale of the criminal damage which made the offending so serious.
"The sentence needs to be one of immediate imprisonment."
Guy, of Stirling Road, Melton, and Painter, of Morley Close, Melton, were given eight months in prison.
Watts, of Nottingham Road, Melton, was handed eight months plus an additional four for breaching an existing community order.
Cotterill, of Butterwick Drive, Beaumont Leys, was given an additional three months to his eight-month sentence for dangerous driving. He was also banned from driving for 17 months.
Some of the worst affected areas were Thurmaston, where 15 vehicles were damaged, Syston, where five were vandalised, and East Goscote where eight vehicles were targeted. | Four men who vandalised more than 80 vehicles during an all-night rampage across Leicestershire have been jailed. | 40254898 |
Two-month-old Daisy Mae Burrill died three days after John Burrill fractured his daughter's skull in Fleetwood, Lancashire.
The prosecution said her injuries were consistent with being gripped by the legs and swung against a hard surface.
The 31-year-old had admitted manslaughter at Preston Crown Court but a jury found him guilty of murder.
He had initially told medical staff and police the infant became limp but he could not explain why.
The court heard the child's mother, Ashlee Cox, described her then-partner as "moody" when he got up to feed the baby at their home in Gordon Road on the morning of 11 March.
Burrill told the court the baby had initially gone back to sleep but began to cry again.
He admitted to jurors he lost his temper "quite a lot" and added: "I think the tiredness just took over and I really lost my rag and I threw her down on to the couch."
The baby was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital and later transferred to Manchester Children's Hospital where her life support was switched off on 14 March.
Burrill could not explain the extent of her injuries.
In his closing speech, prosecutor Andrew O'Byrne QC, said the defendant had lied repeatedly to "save his own skin".
"Poor Daisy Mae made the fateful error. The child cried and irritated her father. He lost his temper and he hurt her and he killed her.
"I am sure that he now regrets it, but that is the cold and brutal truth," he added.
Burrill will be sentenced on Wednesday. | A father who admitted throwing his crying baby onto the sofa in a fit of temper has been convicted of murder. | 37755696 |
The minority Labour government struck a deal worth around £100m with Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Liberal Democrats to get the budget passed.
The Conservatives accused the other opposition parties of propping up a "failing Labour government".
Finance Minister Jane Hutt told AMs it was not possible to "shield" all services from UK government cuts.
She said: "Our final budget has been shaped by the Welsh government's priorities for Wales, which has been set in the context of the most difficult financial times since devolution - the total Welsh budget in 2015-16 will be 10% lower in real terms than in 2010-11.
"Despite these challenges, we are determined to promote and progress policies which boost growth and jobs, protect our health service and invest in our children and young people, and this is reflected in our spending plans."
The NHS in Wales will receive an extra £570m over three years but money for local government will fall by 5.81%.
Labour has 30 of the 60 seats in the assembly so did not have a majority in order to win the budget vote.
However the plans were certain to pass following a deal reached in October.
Some £50m will be spent on a fund to treat more patients in the community rather than in hospitals - a key Plaid Cymru demand - while the Lib Dems secured £35m to increase the value of the pupil deprivation grant paid to schools which have pupils eligible for free school meals.
Earlier Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats had defended the decision to sign a deal with Labour.
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said she was "confident we've made the right decision", and said it did not follow there would be a further deal to cover the following year's budget. | The Welsh government's £15bn budget for next year has been approved at the Senedd. | 25313500 |
Hussein Abdullah, vice president of the country's mosque council, told the BBC the team gathered samples of noise from places of worship in about 10 cities.
They found loudspeaker volumes set too high, the call to prayer broadcast at different times and sermons at hours there shouldn't be any, he said.
There are approximately 800,000 mosques in the country.
They become particularly active during the holy month of Ramadan, which began in mid-June.
Mr Abdullah said part of the problem was that mosques were competing with one another at such loud volumes that "Muslims couldn't focus on what was being broadcast".
He said the authorities would appeal to mosques to ensure they were only heard in their immediate area and not beyond.
"They should agree on the time and duration. Say for the morning there's a prayer for 5 to 7 minutes, then the call to prayer. That's enough. Don't broadcast a prayer loudly from 4 o'clock in the morning," he said.
The new team would complement a previous initiative, which saw around 100 groups of technicians deployed across the country to help fine-tune mosque loudspeakers and give advice on how best to arrange speakers to reduce noise, the AFP news agency reported.
"This is not to limit the freedom to pray. We just want to manage the noise, so the sound that comes out of mosques is more harmonious and soothing and people can pray better," Mr Abdullah said. | Indonesia has set up a team to investigate complaints that its mosques are too noisy. | 33285910 |
Mitsubishi Motors' shares have lost some 50% of their value since the scandal. On Tuesday shares rose 1.9%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 2.2% higher at 16,565.19 points.
Takata shares shed 7.4% on reports of an additional seven million recalls of its faulty airbags.
On Monday, Takata had also said it was expecting a loss instead of a profit for the fiscal year until March due to the soaring costs of their global airbag recall.
In China, markets were reacting to fresh inflation data showing April's price increases steady from the previous year.
The consumer price index (CPI) was up by 2.3% on the same month the previous year.
The Shanghai Composite index was flat at 2,832.59 points at the close of Tuesday's session. Meanwhile Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed higher by 0.4% at 20,242.68.
Australia's ASX/200 finished trading 0.4% higher at 5,342.80, despite the country's commodity giants suffering from lower iron ore prices.
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto both lost around 3%.
In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi index closed 0.8% up at 1,982.50 points. | Shares in Mitsubishi Motors have risen on media reports the Japanese car maker will compensate customers after it admitted falsifying fuel efficiency data. | 36253592 |
The Prison Lions FC - a team consisting of inmates and prison officers - has played several friendly matches but this season marks their league debut.
David White, the physical educator at Guernsey Prison, said: "They're really buzzing about it. It's a good vibe for the prison."
All the team's 15 matches - 'home' and 'away' - will be played at the prison.
Mr White said participation would be on a reward basis, meaning the league would provide additional incentive for some prisoners to display good behaviour.
"They love their football and it's their 90 minutes of freedom," he said.
He said his side would be aiming to win the six team league and he was looking forward to seeing prisoners and officers playing together, as opposed to against each other, as they do for an annual charity match.
Rod Hamon, the president of the Sunday Soccer League, said some of the rules had had to be bent in order to accommodate the prison team.
Registration of new players is not normally permitted after 31 December but Mr Hamon said: "If players are released after Christmas, they might be left with no squad, so we've got to make a few allowances."
Mr White said visiting teams would need to follow all the prison's usual security procedures, meaning they would be searched as they arrived for the game.
The Prison Lions were granted entry into the league by a unanimous vote of delegates from the other teams.
Mr Hamon, who is also a referee in the league, said they were "delighted" to welcome them and said there had been no concerns expressed about any behavioural issues.
"If they misbehave, they've got more to lose than the people coming in from outside and to be honest, we get more stick from the players outside than from the prisoners," he said. | Guernsey's Les Nicolles Prison has had its football team entered into the island's Sunday Soccer League. | 24035372 |
After struggling for first-team football, the England international has been linked with a January move to Premier League rivals West Ham.
Sturridge has yet to score in his nine top-flight appearances this season, of which only four have been starts.
"There is absolutely no thought to sell any player from the first-team squad," said Klopp.
"I don't think it would make sense."
The 27-year-old forward has scored four goals in the EFL Cup and two for England, but is sidelined with a calf injury and will miss the Reds' trip to Bournemouth on Sunday.
"Unfortunately Daniel is not in training now and that is what I am more concerned about than any transfer rumours," Klopp added.
"But I am prepared for everything you could ask me in January." | Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has insisted striker Daniel Sturridge is not for sale. | 38185956 |
James Douglas had last been seen leaving his home in Stobshaw Place, Tweedbank, at about 04:00 and had not returned.
However, he was eventually traced near to the bowling club in the town's industrial estate.
Police thanked the public for their assistance after an appeal for information to help find Mr Douglas. | An 87-year-old man with dementia reported missing in the Borders has been found safe and well. | 38568681 |
On social networks many people made fun of the popular saying, "God is Brazilian".
"If God is Brazilian," asked one person, "then why is the Pope from Argentina?"
In St Peter's Square in Rome, Brazilians danced and waved their national flag and insisted they were happy over the choice of Pope Francis, despite much speculation that Sao Paulo's Archbishop Odilo Scherer was the leading Latin American candidate.
One of the first engagements of the new Pope will be to come to the city of Rio de Janeiro to help celebrate World Youth Day from 23 to 28 July.
At the headquarters in Rio, where they are preparing for the event, volunteers shouted: "Long live the Pope" when Francis appeared on TV, and joined with him in prayer at the start of his papacy.
The church in Brazil is under enormous pressure due to the growth of evangelical churches and a rise in secularism.
There had been a hope that a Brazilian pope would help to stem that challenge, and it is likely that expectation will extend to a pope from neighbouring Argentina, a Church leader who clearly understands the region well.
Pope Francis is the first pontiff from Latin America, where four in 10 Catholics live.
Brazil and Argentina are longstanding rivals, especially on the football pitch, so there was a lot of humour on social networks.
On Twitter, one person claimed that atheism was certain to rise in Brazil now that the Pope was from Argentina, while another said it would certainly boost the evangelical church.
Another tweet, in a reference to the famous "hand of God" episode involving footballer Diego Maradona in a match against England in 1986, claimed the new Pope would be likely to allow football "hand goals".
Prompted by the same incident, another Brazilian on Twitter said the new Pope shouldn't be called Francis I, but Diego II.
There is also a hash tag running on Twitter #PopeIsArgentineanButGodisBrazilian.
Despite all the humour, there is certain to be a general welcome for a pope from South America which has sometimes been dubbed "the forgotten continent".
Flavio Scherer, brother of Cardinal Odilo Scherer, said he was "relieved" by the decision.
"I am not disappointed," the retired university professor told BBC Brasil. "On the contrary, if elected the pressure on my brother would have begun immediately.
"The Catholic Church needs to act as quickly as possible to stem the loss in followers," he added.
The secretary general of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, Leonardo Steiner, said that the choice of a pope from the Americas was a result of the opening up of the Catholic Church.
"No longer is the Church only turned towards Europe," he said.
"If it had been a Brazilian, we would have been happy, but we are happy," he said. | Brazilians reacted with a mixture of disappointment that the papacy had not come to their country, pride that it was a Latin American, and a fair bit of humour that it had gone to old rivals Argentina. | 21779590 |
30 September 2016 Last updated at 00:00 BST
Mr McCall Smith's detective books are set in the southern African country, which gained its independence on 30 September 1966. | To mark 50 years of Botswana's independence, author Alexander McCall Smith has written an exclusive short story featuring the two main characters from his No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. | 37504838 |
Morgan Schneiderlin could return from a calf problem but James McCarthy and Aaron Lennon are still unavailable, along with long-term absentees Seamus Coleman and Ramiro Funes Mori.
Leicester City remain without captain Wes Morgan and midfielder Papy Mendy because of injuries.
Manager Craig Shakespeare has hinted at making changes to prevent fatigue.
Steve Bower: "After their remarkable run of six straight wins under Craig Shakespeare, Leicester's form will face a stern test at Goodison Park.
"Everton have lost just once at home in the league under Ronald Koeman and have won all six so far in this calendar year.
"The Everton boss has given younger players opportunities and that has given them a freshness and energy that they hope will help them finish the season strongly.
"Leicester went into the weekend in their highest league position since September, a sign of the turnaround since Claudio Ranieri's departure.
"Another challenge will be to focus fully on a seventh win in a row with a Champions League quarter-final in Madrid on the horizon."
Twitter: @SteveBowercomm
Everton manager Ronald Koeman: "We are fighting for European football. I expect if we get six points from our next two home games, we will fight for fifth and sixth place in the table.
"I don't understand the difference [in Leicester's form since Claudio Ranieri was sacked]. It's the same players. Maybe the manager is keeping the team the same as last season. We expect a tough opponent."
Leicester manager Craig Shakespeare: "There hasn't been any Champions League talk. It hasn't been banned, it's just all about keeping the run going against Everton.
"It'll be a tough game. They're a good side, strong at home, well organised and have a goal threat too."
This is not a good time to play Leicester, who look unstoppable at the moment. The Foxes have got their swagger back and I think they will win.
Prediction: 0-2
Lawro's full predictions v singer Amy Macdonald
Head-to-head
Everton
Leicester City
SAM (Sports Analytics Machine) is a super-computer created by @ProfIanMcHale at the University of Salford that is used to predict the outcome of football matches. | Everton defender Ashley Williams is suspended as a result of his red card at Manchester United on Tuesday. | 39470449 |
Cafodd y gwasanaethau brys eu galw i ardal oddi ar ffordd Mynydd Caerffili yn dilyn pryderon am iechyd merch o'r ardal, ond bu farw yn fuan wedi iddyn nhw gyrraedd.
Dyw amgylchiadau ei marwolaeth ddim yn hysbys ar hyn o bryd, ac mae'r ymchwiliad yn parhau.
Mae pedwar person yn y ddalfa yn cynorthwyo'r heddlu gyda'u hymchwiliad. | Mae Heddlu Gwent yn dweud eu bod wedi eu galw i ddelio a digwyddiad yng Nghaerffili yn gynnar fore Sul wedi i ferch 15 oed farw. | 40319214 |
The ferry operator, owned by the Scottish government, said passenger traffic went up by 2% and vehicles 9% during 2015/16 while total turnover increased from £172m to £190m.
The company said the losses were down to a number of factors.
They included planned investment in new technology and becoming involved in new tenders.
The company's chairman David McGibbon said: "This has been another hugely successful year for David MacBrayne Ltd. It has been particularly satisfying for me personally to be at the helm during such transformational and exciting times for the company. We really are going from strength to strength.
"Among a year of highlights, winning the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS) contract is the stand-out experience for me. The uncertainty that has surrounded the company since the tender process began has been unsettling for everyone connected to the CalMac family.
"But our bid was recognised as both compelling and innovative in meeting the needs of communities, customers, stakeholders, our partner agencies and the Scottish government, while offering best value to the taxpayer. In summary, we were simply the best company for the job."
The company made a loss of £4.6m for the year, up from £2.3m in the red over the previous 12 months.
It said this was driven by planned investment in new technology to improve customer service and business development activities, including the team to secure the successful CHFS tender.
It also supported the bid and transition costs to run Marchwood Military Port in Hampshire, as part of a new joint venture, Solent Gateway Ltd.
"Winning the Marchwood deal will provide a regular income stream for the company over the long term and is a great marker for the future expansion ambitions of the company," Mr McGibbon said.
"We were up against some of the biggest port and harbour operators in the UK and I'm delighted that we have secured what is a 35-year concession from the Ministry of Defence to support the army and to develop commercial opportunities at the port.
"It is huge endorsement of our harbour handling and logistics management expertise."
Total numbers employed by the company rose from 1,482 to 1,568 over the course of the year. | Caledonian MacBrayne passenger numbers hit five million last year but its losses doubled to just under £5m. | 37956996 |
A study following more than 37,000 Swedish men showed those eating the most chocolate were the least likely to have a stroke.
It follows on from other studies that have suggested eating chocolate can improve the health of the heart.
However, researchers and the Stroke Association warned the findings were not an excuse to overeat chocolate.
Everyone taking part in the study was asked about their eating habits and their health was monitored for a decade.
They were split into four groups based on the amount of chocolate, with the bottom group eating, on average, no chocolate each week and the top group having 63g (2.2oz) - slightly more than an average bar.
Comparing the top and bottom groups showed those eating the most chocolate were 17% less likely to have a stroke during the study, published in the journal Neurology.
One of the researchers, Prof Susanna Larsson, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said: "The beneficial effect of chocolate consumption on stroke may be related to the flavonoids in chocolate.
"Flavonoids appear to be protective against cardiovascular disease through antioxidant, anti-clotting and anti-inflammatory properties.
"It's also possible that flavonoids in chocolate may decrease blood concentrations of bad cholesterol and reduce blood pressure."
The study also noted that while dark chocolate had been linked to benefits for the heart in the past, milk chocolate was the preferred option in Sweden and in the study.
Dr Clare Walton, from the Stroke Association, said: "Past research has shown that eating dark chocolate might go some way to reducing your stroke risk if it is eaten as part of a healthy, balanced diet.
"This study suggests that eating a moderate amount of other types of chocolate could also be beneficial in men.
"However, a lot more research is needed and these results should not be used as an excuse for men to eat chocolate as an alternative to regular exercise or eating a healthy diet to reduce their risk of stroke."
The authors of the study warned of the high sugar and fat content of chocolate.
"It should be consumed in moderation," they said. | Chocolate might not be the healthiest thing for your waistline - but research suggests it may protect against stroke. | 19402143 |
Dave Marchant, of Henley, found them in the engine compartment of his Toyota Land Cruiser when he checked the oil.
He believes the nesting female and six chicks travelled more than 250 miles (402 km), before being found.
Mr Marchant, said he will not use his car until the chicks have fledged.
Mr Marchant said he had initially found the nest of unhatched eggs after clocking up more than 80 miles (128 km) in one day.
"I didn't think they'd be any good. I thought the mother must have flown away, so I carried on driving it," he said.
After driving for up to another 170 miles (274 km), he checked the nest again.
"When I looked again there were a whole heap of chicks in there and they'd all hatched out," he said.
As soon as he saw the young brood, Mr Marchant said he "stopped driving the car" and "won't use it again until they have flown the nest".
"I've heard of birds nesting in old vehicles but not in one that's in use," he added.
"Just goes to show how steady a driver I am." | A pair of robins and their chicks are thought to have been driven for at least 250 miles after setting up home under the bonnet of a car in Somerset. | 32826291 |
"Uluru is sacred in our culture," state its Aboriginal owners. "It is a place of great knowledge. Under our traditional law climbing is not permitted. Please don't climb."
While thousands of tourists disregard the sign and scale the World Heritage-listed rock every year, their numbers are dwindling.
Under a plan announced in 2010, once fewer than 20% of visitors venture up the steep path, which has claimed at least 35 lives since the 1950s, climbing will be officially banned.
Not everyone, though, supports the move, with some tourism operators warning it will deter people from visiting the national park containing Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, and Kata Tjuta, or the Olgas - another massive rocky outcrop.
Now the Northern Territory's chief minister, Adam Giles, has stirred the pot, comparing the rock to the Eiffel Tower and Sydney Harbour Bridge - both routinely scaled by visitors - and dismissing a ban as "ludicrous".
"We should explore the idea of creating a climb with stringent safety conditions and rules enforcing spiritual respect," Mr Giles, who is Aboriginal, told the Territory's parliament. That would bring "significant economic benefits" to indigenous locals, he said.
His remarks unleashed a storm of criticism, with Francis Kelly, chairman of the Central Land Council, which represents the area's traditional owners, calling them "completely wrong" and "offensive".
"Uluru is for everyone in the world to enjoy, but we are the caretakers," says Leroy Lester, whose father, Yami, a celebrated land rights activist, officiated at the ceremony where Uluru was handed back to its Aboriginal owners in 1985.
Mr Lester told the BBC: "The climb is dangerous and the people going up there leave a snail trail (of erosion marks) on the rock. It also goes against the spiritual beliefs of the oldest living culture on the planet."
A tourism draw since the mid-20th Century, Ayers Rock gained international notoriety in 1980, when Azaria Chamberlain disappeared from an adjacent campsite. Her mother Lindy was found guilty of murdering her, but the conviction was overturned in 1988 and in 2012 a coroner ruled that a dingo took the baby.
After regaining ownership of Uluru - a move bitterly opposed by the Northern Territory, which had previously controlled it - Aboriginal elders leased it to the federal government for 99 years, with the land to be jointly managed by them and the national parks service.
Although traditional owners receive a portion of the entry fees, hopes that jobs would be created for locals in the park and at the resort in nearby Yulara have largely been dashed. The Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu, at the foot of the rock, is one of Australia's poorest.
The sight of tourists climbing Uluru - the site of an important ancestral story - rubs salt in the wound. "This is a very special place to us and we want to protect it for the next generation, and the generation after," says Alison Hunt, an elder and former member of the board which manages the park.
She adds: "The chief minister should consult the custodians of the land before issuing his public statements. We're getting tired of people making a political issue out of this."
With the Northern Territory still enviously eyeing Uluru, some suspect Mr Giles of a hidden agenda. He told parliament that the question of whether the rock should be climbed was "a decision for Territorians, not bureaucrats in Canberra".
The chief minister recently visited Uluru with the Australian golfing legend Greg Norman, who wants to open a golf course at Yulara. That idea is anathema to Mr Lester. "The place is going the way of a theme park," he says. "It seems to be all about making money these days."
Last year, an opponent of climbing on the rock - which the parks service already bans when it is too wet, windy or hot - cut the safety chain which runs along the ascent.
Earlier in the year, a Taiwanese tourist had to be airlifted off Uluru after falling 20m into a crevice and suffering head injuries, earlier in the year.
Aboriginal people are keen to develop small-scale tourism ventures which could offer an alternative to the climb. "Visitors can sit down with us around a campfire and learn about the rock and our culture, hear the stories and history of ourselves and the land," says Ms Hunt.
"They should do more than just race in, climb the rock, go back to the resort and then fly out," says Donald Fraser, a former chairman of the board of management.
Local people, Mr Fraser adds, "only get a bit of money from the (park) gate... It's like we've got a hole in the pocket instead of money going into the bank." | The prominent sign in seven languages at the base of Uluru, the giant red monolith in Australia's dusty red heart, could hardly be clearer. | 36263849 |
The defender powered home a Tony McMahon corner with 13 minutes to go to give the home side a vital goal.
Bradford went closest to scoring in the first half when Billy Clarke's low half-volley hit the foot of the post.
Uwe Rosler's Fleetwood side will need to improve in Sunday's return leg if they are to reach Wembley.
McArdle's header gave Stuart McCall's men, who went the whole regular season unbeaten at home, a win they richly deserved in a game they dominated throughout.
Bradford were able to make 10 changes to the team who had drawn 1-1 at Rochdale on Sunday and their added freshness certainly contributed to the win.
Bantams forward Charlie Wyke miscued from 10 yards after a sliced clearance dropped to him, Nicky Law tested visiting keeper Alex Cairns with a long-range effort and Clarke hit the post in a first half where the hosts had 72% possession.
In contrast the visitors struggled to create anything but were nearly gifted the lead when home keeper Colin Doyle mis-kicked to David Ball who chipped the ball over Doyle and the crossbar from 20 yards out.
Home midfielder Josh Cullen drew a fine save from Cairns with a 25-yard free-kick after the interval before home skipper Romain Vincelot hammered a clear chance over from 12 yards.
Just when home fans were starting to voice their growing frustrations McArdle thumped a header past Cairns to give Bradford what could prove to be a vital advantage.
Match ends, Bradford City 1, Fleetwood Town 0.
Second Half ends, Bradford City 1, Fleetwood Town 0.
Nathaniel Knight-Percival (Bradford City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Ashley Hunter (Fleetwood Town).
Attempt missed. Nathaniel Knight-Percival (Bradford City) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Timothee Dieng with a headed pass following a corner.
Corner, Bradford City. Conceded by Conor McLaughlin.
Substitution, Bradford City. Timothee Dieng replaces Nicky Law.
Attempt missed. James Meredith (Bradford City) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Tony McMahon with a cross.
Attempt missed. Nicky Law (Bradford City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila.
Offside, Fleetwood Town. Alex Cairns tries a through ball, but Ashley Hunter is caught offside.
Foul by Nicky Law (Bradford City).
Bobby Grant (Fleetwood Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Charlie Wyke (Bradford City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila.
Substitution, Fleetwood Town. Wes Burns replaces David Ball.
Attempt saved. Mark Marshall (Bradford City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Nicky Law.
Goal! Bradford City 1, Fleetwood Town 0. Rory McArdle (Bradford City) header from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Tony McMahon with a cross following a corner.
Corner, Bradford City. Conceded by Nathan Pond.
Foul by Charlie Wyke (Bradford City).
Ben Davies (Fleetwood Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Ashley Hunter (Fleetwood Town) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.
Attempt blocked. Charlie Wyke (Bradford City) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila.
Attempt missed. Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila (Bradford City) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by James Meredith with a cross.
Attempt blocked. Josh Cullen (Bradford City) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Nicky Law.
Mark Marshall (Bradford City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Amari'i Bell (Fleetwood Town).
Substitution, Bradford City. Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila replaces Billy Clarke.
Attempt missed. Ashley Hunter (Fleetwood Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Amari'i Bell with a cross.
Hand ball by David Ball (Fleetwood Town).
Substitution, Fleetwood Town. Ashley Hunter replaces Devante Cole.
Attempt missed. James Meredith (Bradford City) left footed shot from the left side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Charlie Wyke.
Attempt blocked. Tony McMahon (Bradford City) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Nicky Law.
Tony McMahon (Bradford City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Devante Cole (Fleetwood Town).
Foul by Nathaniel Knight-Percival (Bradford City).
Devante Cole (Fleetwood Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Corner, Fleetwood Town. Conceded by Tony McMahon.
Attempt saved. Romain Vincelot (Bradford City) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Tony McMahon with a cross.
Attempt blocked. Devante Cole (Fleetwood Town) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Amari'i Bell.
Attempt missed. Romain Vincelot (Bradford City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high following a corner.
Corner, Bradford City. Conceded by Ben Davies. | Bradford City will take a narrow lead into the second leg of their League One play-off semi-final against Fleetwood thanks to Rory McArdle's header. | 39765839 |
The country's Privacy Protection Commission (CPP) also accused Facebook of tracking the browsing habits of non-users, as well as its own members.
The action follows criticism of Facebook by the same body in May.
Facebook said it was surprised that the CPP had taken the "theatrical action" because it was due to meet the watchdog this week to discuss its concerns.
The CPP said it took the decision because Facebook did not provide "satisfactory answers" to the questions it raised last month, according to a spokeswoman.
The commission, which is working with German, Dutch, French and Spanish counterparts, accused Facebook of trampling on European privacy laws.
A Facebook spokesman said: "We were surprised and disappointed that, after the [CPP] had already agreed to meet with us on 19 June to discuss their recommendations, they took the theatrical action of bringing Facebook Belgium to court on the day beforehand.
"Although we are confident that there is no merit to the [CPP]'s case, we remain happy to work with them in an effort to resolve their concerns, through a dialogue with us at Facebook Ireland and with our regulator, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner."
The commission has asked the court for an immediate order banning Facebook from monitoring non-users in particular, which it may do via plug-ins or cookies.
In the past, Facebook has claimed that the Belgian commission's jurisdiction is "unclear" because the American firm is regulated in Europe by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner.
It also defended its actions when the Belgian commission released its report last month, saying that most websites used cookies, which it said has been an "industry standard for more than 15 years". | Facebook is being taken to court by the Belgian privacy commissioner over claims it tracks people across the web. | 33149889 |
Stephen Beadman told officers he became a "totally different person" after downing about 12 shots of spirits.
The 29-year-old, of Ibstock, Leicestershire, has admitted raping and murdering Kayleigh Haywood.
However, he and his friend Luke Harlow, 27, also of Ibstock, deny falsely imprisoning the schoolgirl.
According to Beadman's account, elements of which are disputed by the prosecution, he attacked Kayleigh after she struck him with a brick as they walked across a field.
"She literally just pushed me and I just switched," Beadman told interviewing officers.
"I fell to the floor and got up and went after her and basically just hit her over the head with a brick.
"I just threw the brick on top of her and she died. Then I panicked and ran off.
"I do know what I did was wrong. There is no ifs and buts. I will pay the consequences."
Describing his state of mind on the night of the killing, Beadman told detectives: "This other Steve, when I have alcohol, get stressed, is a totally different person. It's like I black out.
"When I drink I just switch. But when I switch I get violent. I wasn't in full control because I had been drinking."
Harlow has admitted grooming Kayleigh and also admitted two counts of sexual activity with her.
The jury has been told that Kayleigh, from Measham, Leicestershire, was raped by Beadman in a car park after "escaping" from Harlow's home in George Avenue, Ibstock.
Beadman, also of George Avenue, then killed the schoolgirl, whose body was found in a hedgerow on the outskirts of Ibstock on Wednesday 18 November.
The sixth day of the trial at Nottingham Crown Court heard that Beadman confessed he had been involved in Kayleigh's death hours before her body was found.
Beadman told police he was telling them what had happened because he wanted "closure" for Kayleigh's family, and offered to take police to her body.
The trial continues. | A court has heard how a man confessed to police that he had killed a 15-year-old girl by hitting her head with a brick after getting drunk. | 36555003 |
Ryan Lamb, 20 and of St Helens, had been left in a critical condition in the attack on Canal Street at about 17:25 BST on Sunday.
He was taken to hospital but died in the early hours of Wednesday. Two other men also found injured, aged 18 and 21, remain in a stable condition.
An 18-year-old man from Kensington, arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, has been bailed.
A 17-year-old boy from Rainhill, also held on suspicion of attempted murder, has been released on bail.
A 21-year-old man, from Huyton, remains in custody on suspicion of assault. | A man who died after being stabbed in the street has been named. | 39716295 |
Exam passes are high by historic standards, more youngsters are staying on at school and going to college or university.
Is this a good thing in itself? Or is the education system simply having to adapt to the fact that in the modern world there are fewer good jobs for young people, and that unskilled jobs are disappearing?
It is an interesting philosophical question to contemplate - one quite distinct from the question of ensuring all young people can achieve their potential in education, regardless of wealth or family background.
The suspicion of some has always been that the education system has had to soak up youngsters who might otherwise have been unemployed - either because of economic problems or the gradual disappearance of some unskilled jobs.
In the 1970s the school leaving age was raised from 15 to 16 but it took a further 10 years for a qualifications system which had been designed with the more academically-able in mind to evolve.
For many years, youngsters who were not able to study for a full suite of O grades filled their third and fourth year timetables with "non certificate" courses - seen by some as a waste of effort. The boredom these students experienced was blamed by some teachers for indiscipline.
Standard grades were designed to make sure all youngsters could get a meaningful qualification. This underlying ethos has been carried into the current National qualifications.
But in the 1980s it was still unusual for a youngster who was not studying for Highers to stay on until S5. When someone who was not doing Highers stayed on past their statutory leaving age, again the suspicion of some was that the youngster was only at school to "stay off the dole".
In Scotland the official school leaving age is still 16, but the majority of pupils, regardless of their academic ability, stay on until S6. It is now unusual to leave at the end of S4 and schools would be genuinely concerned if a youngster wanted to leave early without a good reason for doing so.
S4, S5 and S6 are now classed as the "senior phase". The emphasis is on the qualifications a youngster has at the time they leave - not on what they have achieved by a particular stage.
The number of so-called Neets - youngsters who are not in education, employment or training - is at a very low level by historic standards.
The Scottish government guarantees youngsters who are not in a job a place in education or training. It is often the case that a pupil classed as a Neet has a long back story which helps explains the situation.
If a pupil leaves school before the end of S6 because they have secured an apprenticeship or a place at college or university it would be deemed to be a "positive outcome"; if a youngster simply wanted to leave school for a dead-end job a school might worry this was a failure on their part as the pupil may not have been enjoying their education.
The senior phase is designed to offer a flexible system where any youngster can achieve something of value.
For the most academically-able, the question may be what Highers or Advanced Highers they leave school with. For others, it might be about the number of National 4s and 5s they obtain - even one Higher might represent a big personal achievement.
Colleges have been through a huge shake-up in recent years and now concentrate primarily on full-time courses which lead to a recognised qualification - these are mostly taken by students in their teens or early 20s.
Privately, some in the college system warn that colleges are having to accommodate youngsters who might otherwise have been unemployed, as well as those who positively want to be studying a subject. This may be reflected in the drop-out rate for some courses.
So we return to the question: is a school system where it is unusual for a youngster to leave early and a college system which has to find places for those who would otherwise be unemployed achieving something positive in itself?
Or is it merely parking the youth unemployment problem, just like non certificate S4 classes in the 1970s?
Few in the mainstream would seriously argue that educational opportunities should not be as widely available as possible.
But the issue touches on an intriguing question. Once, it was possible to leave school with O grades and get a job with prospects. Not so long ago, many good jobs were available to youngsters with good Highers.
Today, other than modern apprenticeships, most good jobs for young people require a college or university qualification first.
So is the education system having to deal with the practical effect of economic change?
De-industrialisation and automation mean many of the unskilled, entry level jobs once filled by school-leavers no longer exist.
Or are the changes positively helping to provide the workforce the economy needs?
The argument is that Scotland, like every advanced country, needs as skilled a workforce as possible to compete internationally and fulfil its potential.
A skilled workforce does not just mean turning out scientists and surgeons - it means hairdressers and staff for the hospitality industry too.
Once, fewer people in those industries would have received any formal college training and might simply have learned on the job or served a traditional apprenticeship. But the argument is that a proper course and training raises standards and allows the best to shine.
Anecdotally, of course, many of the genuinely unskilled jobs which those with few qualifications may once have done - say stacking shelves in the supermarket - are now done by students or those with college or university qualifications who find themselves "underemployed" .
Indeed, while the number of young people at university is close to a historic high, a significant proportion of graduates do not secure what would be seen as graduate-level jobs even if few would do unskilled work for long.
None of this is to suggest a good education is not of value in itself - even if it does not lead to someone getting a better job than they may have got otherwise.
But perhaps it is interesting to reflect on how in the space of barely 40 years, the time someone routinely spends in education has increased. Once, a basic education ended at 15; now few teenagers are completely out of the system. | On exam results day, education correspondent Jamie McIvor asks a fundamental and unfashionable question: is it a good thing that more youngsters than ever before stay on at school or go to college and university? | 40852696 |
Its star, Timothy Spall, is up against The Imitation Game's Benedict Cumberbatch in the best actor and best British actor categories.
Michael Keaton and Edward Norton, who star in black comedy Birdman, also received nods for their performances.
The dark satire has been nominated for six awards including best film.
The movie, which tells the story of a former superhero actor attempting a Broadway comeback, led the field at the recent Golden Globe nominations.
Emma Stone received a nod for best supporting actress in director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's film.
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones have been recognised for their roles in the Stephen Hawking drama The Theory of Everything.
Redmayne plays the famous physicist while Jones plays his first wife, Jane Wilde, on whose book the screenplay is based.
It has received five nominations along with The Imitation Game, coming-of-age drama Boyhood, Wes Anderson's comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel and science fiction film Under The Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson.
The actress, who stars in the British independent production as an alien serial killer, has been nominated for best actress alongside Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard, Essie Davis and Julianne Moore.
Moore is nominated twice for playing a woman with early onset Alzheimer's in Still Alice, and for her work in David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars.
Nightcrawler, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an ambulance-chasing freelance cameraman, has four nominations including best film and best actor.
The awards will be announced at a London ceremony on 18 January.
A full list of this year's nominations can be found on the Critics' Circle website.
Elsewhere, the US Critics Choice film nominations have been announced with Birdman leading the flock again with 13 nods including best picture and best director.
But it was the darkly whimsical The Grand Budapest Hotel that surprised with 11 nominations including two for actor Ralph Fiennes in the best actor and best actor in a comedy categories.
Cumberbatch and Redmayne were also recognised for their performances, leading to further speculation both will receive Oscar nominations next month.
The full list of nominations are on the Critics' Choice website. | Mr Turner, the biopic about British landscape painter JMW Turner, has been nominated for seven awards by the London Film Critics' Circle. | 30495263 |
Zakuani, a Democratic Republic of Congo international, has agreed a one-year contract at Sixfields.
The 30-year-old, who was a £1m signing for Fulham from Leyton Orient in 2006, left Peterborough in May after seven years at the club.
McCourt, 20, has signed a two-year contract having been released by Barnsley earlier this month.
The Liverpudlian came through the youth ranks at Leicester City and made his professional debut on loan at Torquay United in 2013.
"Gaby is a huge character and is an excellent addition," manager Rob Page told the club website.
"For a central defender he is an excellent age, he has only just turned 30, but he has a wealth of experience playing in League One and the Championship and that is important for us.
"We now have four senior central defenders in the squad and they will provide excellent competition for each other. I am looking forward to pre-season, to getting down to work and giving the players the opportunity to show me and the rest of the staff what they can do."
On McCourt, who made just two substitute appearances for Barnsley after joining them in January 2015, Page said:
"I think he will fit in well, he is a player with a lot of potential with a fantastic attitude and is someone who I think is very talented.
"He will provide competition in central midfield and has had a taste of playing at this level both at Port Vale and Barnsley and that will stand him in good stead."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | League One Northampton Town have signed defender Gabriel Zakuani and midfielder Jak McCourt. | 36620966 |
The truth, however, is markedly different.
As a preface to this latest turn in the Obama "birther" row, it should be noted that the location of Mr Obama's birth is generally considered irrelevant to whether Mr Obama is eligible to serve as US president. As long as he has one parent who was a US citizen, as Mr Obama's Kansas-born mother was, he is considered by the US government to be a "natural born citizen". That - along with being at least 35 years of age and resident in the US for 14 years - is the only necessary constitutional requirement for the presidency.
Now, according to fact-checkers and contemporary media reports, questions about Mr Obama's birthplace began circulating among disgruntled Clinton supporters in the last months of her ill-fated campaign against the then-Senator Obama in 2008.
It was desperate times in the Clinton camp, and the candidate did not always acquit herself well, such as when she said that Mr Obama was not a Muslim "as far as I know". But there is no evidence of ties between her and her campaign staff and the Obama birthplace allegations.
In June 2008 the Obama campaign released a photocopy of his short-form "certificate of live birth" showing that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on 4 August, 1961. (Reporters also unearthed a contemporaneous birth announcement published in a Hawaiian newspaper.)
This was not enough for some conspiracy-minded Obama critics, however, who questioned the authenticity of the document and demanded the "long-form" certificate from the Democrat's birth hospital.
During the general election campaign the rumours spread to the fringes of the right - evidenced most notably when a woman at a John McCain rally told the Republican candidate that Mr Obama was an "Arab".
Senator McCain took away her microphone and informed her she was wrong.
"Senator Obama is a decent person and a person you don't have to be scared of as president of the United States," he said.
From there, the conspiracy theories continued to simmer on the right in the early days of Mr Obama's first term in office. Orly Taitz, a conservative activist, filed lawsuits challenging the president's eligibility to serve - but all were quickly dismissed from US courts.
Enter Donald Trump.
In March 2011, he first began mentioning that he had "real doubts" about whether Mr Obama had a US birth certificate.
In the days that followed, he said he was sending a team of private investigators to Hawaii to learn the truth and promised to donate $5m to charity if anyone could convince him Mr Obama was born on US soil.
On 27 April, 2011, the Obama White House released his original "long-form" birth certificate.
In a press release on Thursday night and on stage in Washington, DC, on Friday morning, this is the moment Mr Trump pointed to as the "great service" he performed in laying to rest questions about Mr Obama's birthplace.
The truth here, however, is also markedly different.
Over the following years, Mr Trump continued to raise questions and express doubts.
In 2012 he tweeted that he had an "extremely credible source" who told him the birth certificate was a fraud.
In 2013 he raised suspicion about the death of a Hawaiian health official who verified copies of Mr Obama's "birth certificate".
In 2014 he asked hackers to access Mr Obama's college records and check his "place of birth".
As recently as this month, Mr Trump did not back away from his past support of the "birther" cause.
"I don't talk about it because if I talk about that, your whole thing will be about that," Trump said. "So I don't talk about it."
Mr Trump did talk about it on Friday - and he's right, it's all anyone is going to write about. | Republican Donald Trump asserted that Democrat Hillary Clinton and her campaign team first raised questions about Barack Obama's birthplace in 2008 - and that he was the man who settled the issue in 2011. | 37391652 |
Property consultants Knight Frank said the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals increased by 6,340 to 193,490 worldwide in 2016, making up for a similar decline the year before.
Researchers put the turnaround down to strong performances on stock markets.
The report counted individuals with more than $30m (£24.2m) in net assets.
Last year saw political surprises and economic uncertainties from the UK's Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump, but many developed economies still performed well.
Stock markets in the US and UK also hit record highs in the final weeks of the year.
"There may be widespread uncertainty, but there are also strong fundamentals in many economies, with signs of real progress being made around regulation and policy which will help economic growth to flourish in some places," said Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, the research company which provided the data for the report.
Knight Frank said it expected the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals around the globe to grow by 43% over the next decade, but suggested wide variations between regions and countries.
The number of ultra-wealthy is expected to increase slightly more quickly in the US than in the UK over the next ten years, but the rest of Europe is set to see only 12% growth.
However the biggest rise - 91% - is due to take place across Asia.
By 2026 Asia will have almost caught up with the US: the region is set to boast just 7,068 fewer super-rich individuals than in the US in ten years' time. Currently the US ultra-wealthy headcount is 27,020 ahead of Asia's.
The researchers also found Asian cities, including Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing would eclipse current concentrations of wealth such as in San Francisco, as their wealthy populations rose.
Several African countries including Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania were also predicted to see big increases in their wealthy populations. | The UK will boast 30% more super rich individuals in 10 years' time, keeping it ahead of other European countries, a report has found. | 39117838 |
Footage from Queensland Police shows a speeding car erratically crossing lanes on two major Gold Coast roads.
After several minutes the car stops due to a flat tyre, and a man emerges holding a large knife and a dog.
The man appears to threaten a motorist with the knife before running off the motorway in Thursday's incident.
Still clutching the dog, the man rushes into a residential area near Gold Coast Airport and enters a house.
Police said they confronted the man and he surrendered to them without incident.
A 24-year-old man was charged with a number of offences over the incident, including attempted robbery, dangerous driving and entering a dwelling with intent.
Local media named the man as Kayne Selfe and said he had been remanded in custody after a court appearance.
Police said the dog was found safe and well. | Australian police have released footage of a man who allegedly threatened a motorist with a knife while carrying a dog. | 34864863 |
The Local Government Ombudsman issued the ruling after adjudicating a case involving Tameside Council.
Tony Cryer, 43, from Droylsden, complained about having to pay £88 per week when the council threatened to move his mother, 80, to another home.
Tameside Council said it "strongly disputed" the ombudsman's findings.
"It has come too late for my mum [she died in March] and dad. All I can hope is that there will be justice for the other 160 [affected] residents in Tameside," said Mr Cryer.
He was told by the authority in March 2013 that his mother Jean, who had dementia, would be moved if she could not pay more towards her care.
Mr Cryer said Age Concern had advised him that it was not in his mother's best health interests to move.
As a result, he paid nearly £4,000 for his mother's care in the 12 months until her death.
"We were given an impossible choice really," said Mr Cryer, who said he felt obliged to pay.
Local Government Ombudsman Jane Martin said: "I urge all authorities to look very closely at their plans, if they are changing care commissioning in their area, to ensure that no vulnerable residents are placed in a similar position."
A Tameside Council spokesman said: "The report is fundamentally flawed in a number of respects, and there are question marks around whether the ombudsman has unlawfully exceeded her powers in issuing the report."
The council also rejected the ombudsman's call for 160 residents to have their cases reviewed, saying only 10 were affected. | Local authorities across England have been warned not to expect residents to have to pay some of their own care-home fees if they cut council funding. | 29472041 |
The area in the capital city, designed by British architect Edwin Lutyens in the 1920s, houses India's parliament, central administrative blocks and the presidential palace.
Most Indian and foreign journalists often visit the area for stories and interviews.
And now social media too seems to be reaping the benefits of Lutyens' Delhi's popularity.
Unverified Twitter accounts like "Lutyens' Spice", "Lutyens Masala" and "Lutyens Insider" are dishing out a good dose of gossip and rumours about Delhi's politicians, journalists and businessmen.
Lutyens' Spice has more than 20,000 followers, while its "rival" Lutyens Masala has 12,000, and Lutyens Insider is at the top with 27,000 followers.
They tweet about "secret meetings" between politicians, business deals, journalists and their ties with political parties, and sometimes even rumours about personal lives of prominent people.
And some of their tweets get re-tweeted hundreds of times.
Senior journalist Girish Nikam says gossip has always been a part of random conversations between journalists who cover the Lutyens' zone.
But he finds the trend of such unverified gossip being published on social media platforms disturbing since it makes it easy for people to post slanderous information without being held accountable for it.
"Gossip on dinner table is fine among fellow journalists. But the kind of information these anonymous Twitter accounts are releasing is defamatory and disturbing," he says.
But then why are so many prominent journalists following these accounts?
Mr Nikam says journalists love gossip and that too mostly about their colleagues and politicians.
"But these accounts have set a dangerous trend. A slanderous piece of information can easily destroy somebody's career," he says.
Madhu Trehan, editor of media website newslaundry.com, agrees with Mr Nikam.
"There is an unwritten rule in Indian journalism that we stay away from politicians' personal lives. But what these accounts are doing is just gossip. They are posting just anything," she says.
But some say that these accounts provide comic relief in an otherwise charged political atmosphere of Delhi.
Ms Trehan, however, disagrees with the thought.
She says that such accounts do not offer any satire and mostly post information that may or may not be true.
Ms Trehan runs her own online media satire show, and feels that Indian journalists are slowly getting used to the craft.
"They [journalists] were not comfortable when I started my show. But now most of them have become used to it. That happened mainly because we are not anonymous," she says.
She adds that her show is all about using satire to hold journalists accountable to their stories.
But not many Indian TV channels allow such independent media satire shows.
Mr Nikam says politicians, journalists and media owners are very cautious about their image in the times of constant media spotlight.
"So it's natural that we do not have many good satire shows based on media outlets and journalists," he says.
So are these Twitter accounts filling that absence?
Both Mr Nikam and Ms Trehan disagree.
"These Twitter accounts are popular among journalists. But they will disappear sooner than later because gossip has a shelf life," says Mr Nikam. | Lutyens' Delhi is often described as India's power centre. | 29983947 |
About 400 former employees who had worked for more than 25 years at Wirral Council were told in March their passes would be withdrawn due to funding cuts.
The local authority aims to save £28m from its budget this financial year.
Paddy Cleary, from the union Unison, said it was "encouraging" that the council had listened to concerns.
The passes for long-serving retired workers cost about £144,000, a council spokesman said.
In a letter to retired staff, council leader Phil Davies said "the decision to withdraw these passes may have made sense from a purely business perspective" but the authority "should honour" its commitment.
"It is my view that the council got this one wrong," he added.
He said the initial decision to remove the passes was due to the "pressures local authority budgets are currently under".
Wirral Council runs eight leisure centres, which receive a total council subsidy of £4m.
In March, former employee Mike Garbett called the original decision "unfair" as he was using the gym to help recover from a brain injury.
He chose the leisure pass as his retirement gift instead of a cash payment or high street voucher after 34 years working on the authority's parks.
A council spokesman confirmed the removal of gym concessions for Wirral residents aged over 65 would remain.
People under the age of 18 - who are not eligible for pupil premium funding - can no longer swim for free during the school holidays after the popular concession was also withdrawn. | A Merseyside council has said it "got it wrong" when it asked former staff to return their retirement gifts of free lifetime leisure passes. | 36289685 |
Footage recorded by one of the students shows a bouncer agreeing they were being barred "because they were black".
A statement from Ghost Nightclub said it welcomed people "from all walks of life" and had suspended the doorman.
In the mobile phone video, the bouncer says he was enforcing the club's rules and claimed it was not his decision.
Kosi Orah, a 19-year-old University of Leicester student from Essex, who was celebrating his birthday on a night out with friends, said they were turned away from the nightclub.
But the owners of Ghost Nightclub said: "We reiterate that we only have a shoes-only, 18-plus door policy.
"I urge people to take a look at our Facebook page to see that we welcome people from all walks of life.
"This is a 45-year-old business - the oldest nightclub in the city - which has been owned by the same family for all that time.
"We urge the group of students who were turned away to get in touch with the management of Ghost Nightclub so that we can resolve this."
Leicestershire Police said it took hate crime seriously and was looking into the complaint.
"The incident has been reported and recorded and inquiries are ongoing," a police statement said.
"We take reports of racism extremely seriously and would encourage anyone who has been a victim of such a crime to contact us."
In the video, the doorman, who has not been identified, is heard to say: "I have no problems with you guys at all, but that is the rules of the club."
One of the group asks: "It is because we're black?", followed by the doorman's reply of: "Yes, that's what I am saying."
Mr Orah said he was shocked by what happened and the experience had "tainted my view of the city as a whole". | A doorman at a Leicester nightclub has been suspended after a group of students alleged he refused to let them in because of their race. | 32827888 |
Bill de Blasio said the relevant municipal agencies had backed the idea.
The bronze Fearless Girl statue was placed on 8 March to draw attention to gender inequality and the pay gap in the corporate world.
The statue - which has become an instant tourist draw - had been due to be removed on Sunday.
Appearing next to the 4ft-tall (1.21m) statue in Manhattan on Monday, Mr de Blazio said it "means so much to the people of New York".
The statue was "standing up to fear, standing up to power, being able to find in yourself the strength to do what's right", he added.
"She is inspiring everyone at a moment when we need inspiration."
The work, by artist Kristen Visbal, was commissioned by asset managers State Street Global Advisors (SSGA).
The company said the girl represented the future.
It added that one in four of the 3,000 largest traded US companies did not have even one woman on their board.
Wall Street's Charging Bull statue was originally guerrilla art by Italian-born artist Arturo Di Modica.
Installed in 1989, the bronze sculpture was meant to represent the "strength and power of the American people" in response to the market crash in 1987.
But it become a popular attraction and was allowed to stay. | The globally popular statue of a young girl staring down Wall Street's iconic bull will stay in place until next March, New York's mayor has said. | 39414780 |
Perhaps our experience as a university in Yola, north-eastern Nigeria might add something to the global debate.
Yola, desperately poor, sits on the edge of the Sahara Desert, and for the past three years on the porous border between safety and security, at the edge of the territory seized by Boko Haram terrorists.
The American University of Nigeria (AUN) was established in this unlikely spot, founded by the former Nigerian Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who was orphaned in this area as a young boy.
"Be a development university," he said when the university was established a little over a decade ago.
Four years ago, with a growing number of unemployed youth just outside the gates of the university, and the hungry and hopeless in flight from Boko Haram flooding into our small city, the American University of Nigeria (AUN) began to implement our vision of a "development university."
We reached out to local religious and community leaders to see how we might partner with them in peace, food security, and education programmes.
More stories from the BBC's Global education series looking at education from an international perspective and how to get in touch
The AUN-Adamawa Peace Initiative (AUN-API) was born. All major local Muslim and Christian leaders, traditional rulers, and local community leaders actively participate.
Our goals are simple: educate and feed as many people as we can.
In the process, we were guided by a number of principles - make sure women and girls are included in all projects; join with religious leaders in all efforts; involve AUN students, faculty and staff in all of these efforts; and make sure our local vulnerable youth know that they have a network of people who care about them.
The tsunami of hungry frightened people began arriving in Yola in 2014. The first 5,000 had few relatives in the area, no food and no access to school.
The next wave of 20,000 arrived by foot and by bus. Their hungry faces were seen everywhere in town. The Catholic cathedral and Muslim Centre became the major feeding areas.
Our peace initiative members developed comprehensive lists of where people came from, their names, ages, and gender so we could provide the most accurate food and supplies.
For example, women needed sanitary supplies; some young children needed life saving oral rehydration. At the university, we held classes all day and raised funds and fed hungry people the rest of the time.
By early 2016, the university's peace initiative had fed close to 300,000 people. One young woman and baby, who had been held in the Sambisa forest by Boko Haram and were severely malnourished, died in our local hospital. We all mourned.
What have we learned here that can be applied to other cities and countries?
First is the centrality of local leaders in any development effort. These conscientious and concerned religious and community leaders know which youth are particularly at risk to be radicalised.
Second, find out what these young people really want. Our peace network identifies the youth who need literacy education, tools to start a business, training to learn about information technology (which our youth want as much as any around the world). Then the university designs programmes and projects to meet these needs.
The young people told us they wanted to play sports. Thousands have joined our Peace Through Sports programme, which not only gives young people a chance to compete with each other in soccer, basketball and volleyball, and something to do during the day, but also teaches them to think about peace and cooperation.
We begin each programme with a discussion of peace, led by members of the peace initiative. We listen to them talk about their challenges.
Most of the games occur on our campus, where students and staff welcome them and make them feel they are part of our community. Every team is made up of members of different religious and tribal communities. They forge teams with people they would otherwise never encounter, much less befriend.
While it's impossible to pinpoint which of our programmes have kept youth from joining the terrorist group in our back yard, more than one young man has said to me: "It is either you or Boko Haram - there is nothing else." Peace initiative leaders can document that none of the youth they identified and brought into our various programmes joined the terrorist group.
As the threat from Boko Haram fades, the problems local people face have not diminished.
Thousands of very young children have been orphaned, left in our city to live with non-family members. Hunger has increased, as thousands of farmers were not able to plant their crops. The university is trying to deal with this next phase of the humanitarian crisis. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and university founder Atiku Abubakar provided seed, which we distributed.
With assistance from USAID, we established Technology Enhanced Literacy for All, which employs tablet computers and radio broadcasts to extend learning to 22,000 out-of-school children.
Many of the students walk up to three miles each way to participate. If for some reason a session is cancelled, children are visibly upset. When a radio failed to materialise recently, children went house-to-house in a village until they found someone willing to lend them one.
The university feeds and provides literacy and numeracy education to hundreds of children who are homeless, orphans, and Almajiri (Muslim religious school) boys.
The programme, Feed and Read, has just expanded to include Feed and Read for Girls. These children are out of school and are among the millions of Nigerian children who comprise the largest out-of-school population in the world.
Currently, about 500 children receive instruction and a meal through these two programmes. The plan is to expand to help 2,000 children by 2017.
The demand for our projects far exceeds the number of places and available funding. At every session, hundreds of children crowd around the learning centres in hope of participating.
The children in the Feed and Read programmes share their meal with children who are not. It's heartbreaking to know that we can't help so many children who are hungry for learning, and just plain hungry.
It is essential that these modest efforts be replicated and expanded immediately. Otherwise, the most vicious cycle will begin again, devouring youth who are uneducated, destitute, with no family, no support, and nothing else in their lives. We all know where that leads.
The debate in the West about terrorism is usually presented in stark and defensive terms: increase security, curtail civil liberties and reduce the number of refugees allowed to emigrate. Is there another solution that would prevent angry and hopeless youth from joining terrorist groups? | As the world searches for methods to keep young people from joining radical groups, and new ways to prevent violence and foster development, this university may provide an example. | 36925993 |
The final-day mass dress-up has become a ritual, with outfits including Oompah-Loompas, Smurfs and penguins.
Last season, following their League Two survival, Pools fans headed to Carlisle on the final day dressed as Bob Marley.
They also adopted Marley's song 'Three Little Birds' as a terrace anthem.
Pools fans have become a source of pride for the club with their efforts and organisation to turn up to games in such a mass mob of unusual guises.
"Every year I look forward to seeing what they go in," boss Craig Hignett told BBC Tees.
"The spotlight is on us last game of the season because of what the fans do but I hope for their sakes it's not 300 degrees and they're all stuck in plastic suits because we can't be seeing a mass collapse.
"I think they'd had to pay another £8 to get flaps put in their Stormtrooper outfits, which is something I never thought about with Star Wars.
"If a Stormtrooper needs the toilet he has to take the whole lot off whereas our lads have got one over of them and put flaps in so fair play to them."
Ex-Hartlepool player Peter Hartley, now a Plymouth player, has a link with the club beyond his career and is excited by the reunion.
His Argyle side are already assured of a play-off spot but there is no sentiment despite the affection he has for Pools.
"I've got friends and family coming to the game," he told BBC Radio Devon.
"I had a season ticket from 13 to 16, I would go with my uncle before that. They do it every season.
"My fiancee's dad and brother are coming down, they're getting the train as Stormtroopers and there were 200 fans at Charlton away the other year.
"It's brilliant, for the size of the club they've got a good following." | Plymouth Argyle's Home Park was invaded by the Dark Side on Saturday after Hartlepool United's supporters turned up for the last game of the League Two season in Stormtrooper outfits. | 36214766 |
The Japanese conglomerate said it had sold its 4.6% stake in the elevator maker for €864.7m ($946.2m; £607.6m).
The deal comes a day after Toshiba's president resigned amid an accounting scandal regarding overstated profits.
In a statement, the firm said the sale would help "efficient use of the company group assets" and "improve its balance sheets".
Kone on Wednesday announced the resignation of board member Kazunori Matsubara, formerly president of Toshiba Elevators, who had joined the board in February 2015.
The Finnish company said the sale of the shares and the resignation had "no other effect on the strategic alliance" between the two companies.
On Tuesday, Toshiba chief executive and president Hisao Tanaka and vice-chairman Norio Sasaki both stepped down after an independent panel found the firm had overstated its operating profit by a total of 151.8bn yen ($1.22bn, £780m) over a six-year period from 2008.
The overstatement was roughly triple an initial estimate by Toshiba.
The computers-to-nuclear conglomerate's shares dropped by 1.7% on Wednesday after their rally of 6% on Tuesday, the day the resignations were announced. | Toshiba has sold its stake in Finnish firm Kone in a bid to bolster its books amid the recent accounting scandal. | 33618724 |
Four wins, four bonus points, a bucket of tries. Top spot in the Pro12. Easy.
Saturday at the Sportsground in Galway was like entering a different dimension. This was rugby, but not as Glasgow have known it against their most recent, and most compliant, opposition. What they ran into in the west of Ireland was a lot of rain and whole pile of belligerence.
Glasgow scored seven points - their lowest total in a Pro12 game since October 2013. They lost for the first time in 10 games.
Their discipline went at critical times and it hurt them almost as much as those howitzer hits that kept coming at them from a Connacht side that had a voracious appetite for work and a thunderous quality in the collisions.
"All the big games we've won have come down to physicality," said Connacht coach Pat Lam in the aftermath of victory. "It's about the way we impose ourselves."
"That came through in bucketloads against Glasgow. There's a blank canvas now, though. The weather conditions might be different the next day. The game could be a total contrast. Glasgow are a phenomenal team."
To explain the Cinderella story that is this Connacht side you have to look at the record books going back a dozen years. They were even lucky to be alive back then given that the IRFU wanted to kill them off.
From 2004 to 2015 Connacht never finished above seventh in the table. Now they're taking down the champions in front of a packed, and tumultuous crowd, including the president of the country, Michael D Higgins, and the newly elected Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. Both are Connacht men. Both were waving the flag as Glasgow fell on Saturday.
This was brutal rugby. Both sides wanted to play but the rain made it impossible.
How much of a gauge it will be for the semi-final depends, in part, on what kind of day it is. If it's dry and the ground is hard then the game will be completely different. Both these teams want to take risks and make things happen. Saturday's grunt-fest in the wet didn't suit either of them.
What was compelling about it, though, was that Glasgow met a version of themselves in Galway. For some of them, it must have been like looking in a mirror.
The Sportsground had a similar edge to it as Scotstoun, the same kind of numbers, the same kind of intimacy, the same kind of railing against decisions that went against their team, the same kind of joy at victory.
The team inspired the supporters and the supporters inspired the team. The bond between them reminded you of what it's like in Glasgow these days. It was powerful.
Connacht dug deep, hit hard and won out. We've seen this kind of thing so often in Glasgow's own place - a team being lifted by the noise of their home crowd and dragging themselves across the winning line.
Connacht's reward is a rematch with Glasgow in the semi-final in a fortnight. Back to the dog track we go in the knowledge that an away team has never won a Pro12 semi-final. Twelve attempts and twelve losses. That's the kind of history that Glasgow are trying to break now.
That curious run of failure for the away semi-finalists will be part of the narrative ahead of the knockout tie, though Gregor Townsend was of a mind to play it down a tad.
"Last year, we played Ulster at Scotstoun in the final game of the league proper and we beat them convincingly," he said. "A week later, we played them at Scotstoun in the semi-final and they were all over us for 50 minutes.
"If all these home wins in all these semi-finals were by 20 points then I'd say that home advantage was a massive factor, but last year we only won our home semi by two points and Munster only won theirs by three. The year before that we had Munster in a home semi and beat them by a point. Leinster won their home semi by four points."
It's true that a lot of these games have been settled by a single score. Five of the last six Pro 12 semi-finals - and seven of the 12 - have been won by four points or less.
Why does the home team keep on winning tight matches? Townsend accepts that the crowd can make the difference.
"We had a lot of support in Galway but when they have 7,000 people then that's an advantage. We didn't cope as well as we should have. We learned a lot about ourselves.
"We have to be more disciplined and more accurate. Connacht are really well-coached, they show innovation, they've got character and they defend well. We've just got to be better."
Townsend said that the big thing that his team took away from the west of Ireland was a sense of "determined disappointment."
Saturday would have hurt them physically and mentally, but it wasn't a knockout blow. We get to see the heavyweights collide again in a fortnight. | Glasgow have spent recent weeks engaging in rugby's equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel; a 70-point annihilation of Zebre, a 45-point deconstruction of the Scarlets, 43 more points put on Zebre the week before, 38 put on Treviso before that. | 36241346 |
That is the message from a business lobby that wants its voice heard after an election campaign from which it had felt excluded.
Two reports out this morning show the level of frustration and anxiety business leaders feel at a messy and damaging political process.
The head of the Institute of Directors, Stephen Martin, warned of the "disastrous consequences" of the current political uncertainty, after a survey conducted since Friday found 57% of members pessimistic about its impact on their business.
A separate survey by the Harvard Kennedy School of Business - under the auspices of fellows Ed Balls, the former shadow chancellor, and Peter Sands, the former boss of Standard Chartered bank - shows that firms are sceptical that unfettered access to the UK's biggest export market, the EU, can easily be offset by trade relationships with new markets.
The study concludes that even a small reduction in exports to Europe of 5% would require a massive 28% increase in exports to the rest of the world.
Of the 50 companies surveyed, most highlighted practical concerns such as customs checks, access to skilled labour and the additional regulatory burdens that a split from the EU might involve.
Business leaders are hoping that - post-election - the political wind that becalmed them for many valuable weeks of Brexit negotiating preparations could be blowing back in their direction.
Business leaders were summoned to see the Business Secretary Greg Clark on Friday and although they have been tight-lipped about what was discussed, they are privately hopeful that the election aftermath will usher in a more collegiate cabinet which will take wider soundings on policy - including the hopes and fears of business.
However, any optimism that this is the right moment for business to raise its voice may be tempered by the appointment of Michael Gove as the Environment Secretary.
As a prominent campaigner for Brexit he has so far shown no sign he is in favour of watering down what business leaders consider Theresa May's aggressive approach of leaving the single market, the customs union and her belief that no deal is better than a bad deal. | Enough with the politics - we have work to do. | 40245047 |
A baton representing the regiment's history is being taken around the world. It was handed over on the summit by 32 Regiment Royal Artillery.
Newport's 104 Regiment Royal Artillery are responsible for the Welsh leg of the journey.
The two-tonne gun was fired three times at 05:20 BST on Friday.
Cadets from Clwyd and Gwynedd Army Cadet Force took the baton from Snowdon to Blaenau Ffestiniog via the zipwire at Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda.
The next stage of the journey will see the baton travel via bicycle to St Davids, Pembrokeshire.
The Welsh tour will also take in Brecon, Powys, Pen y Fan and Rhondda Heritage Park before ending with a gun salute in Cardiff on Sunday. | Soldiers fired a gun from the top of Snowdon at sunrise as part of the 300th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. | 36285114 |
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The Cardiff-born forward, who scored 11 goals in a loan spell at the club in 2010-11, will wear the number 39 shirt.
He said his main motivation for joining the Bluebirds was to be able to live at home with his family in Cardiff.
"I wanted to wake up every day with my kids," said 33-year-old Bellamy, who has taken a significant cut in wages. "There's more to life than football."
Cardiff chief executive Alan Whiteley added: "I am sure that Liverpool will agree that their loss is this football club's gain."
Rumours of Bellamy's return were fuelled this week when Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers confirmed he had given the Welshman permission to move closer to his family in south Wales.
Bellamy played and scored for Great Britain at the Olympics this summer. His talents are well known to the current Bluebirds manager Malky Mackay.
"We've known each other our whole careers," said Mackay. "We were together a long time ago at Norwich City. He's a proud lad from the area and he's a top player, a top talent."
Cardiff captain Mark Hudson thinks Bellamy can have a positive affect on his side's bid to win promotion to the Premier League.
"He's an international and he's been at the top level for a long time," said Hudson, who said Bellamy's influence had been evident during his loan spell at the club.
"To be able to work with someone like that was beneficial to everyone that was playing with him at the time," added Hudson.
"I learnt a lot from him, the way he conducted himself and went about his day-to-day business. You look at him now, he's a role model."
Cardiff have won three of four pre-season friendlies as they prepare for the Capital One Cup first-round tie at Northampton Town on Tuesday.
They also face Newcastle United at home on Saturday in their final warm-up match as they attempt to go one better than last season's play-off final defeat.
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"Top two is the main aim for us," said Hudson. "I don't think anyone wants to see us go through the play-offs again. I definitely don't.
"But with the squad we've got this year and the way we've gelled over the last 12 to 13 months, as a group we're a lot more solid now."
Mackay has also confirmed that defender Darcy Blake is still in his plans for next season, even though the youth team product has not signed a contract extension.
"We offered Darcy a contract extension and he's turned that down," said Mackay. "Darcy probably feels he needs first-team football." | Craig Bellamy has joined Cardiff City on a free transfer from Liverpool, signing a two-year contract. | 19190650 |
The Bolton midfielder was "in effect dead" for 78 minutes after suffering a cardiac arrest during his club's FA Cup tie with Tottenham.
Here, four doctors re-live the critical moments as they fought to restart the 23-year-old's heart.
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Tottenham club doctor Shabaaz Mughal (SM):
"I was watching the game and saw Fabrice collapse. It didn't look like from my view that there was anyone around him. No-one had made contact.
"I immediately felt I had to get on to the pitch and grabbed our resuscitation bags and shouted across to the paramedics, Peter Fisher and Wayne Diesel, our head of medical.
"He'd already mobilised the paramedics so we ran on to the pitch and Jonathan [Tobin] and I found him face down, with the Bolton physiotherapist Andy Mitchell."
Bolton Wanderers club doctor Jonathan Tobin (JT):
"As I was running on to the pitch I was thinking, 'Oh my God, it's Fabrice.' I know his family and consider him a friend.
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"I wasn't aware that players had gathered round and didn't know that Owen Coyle, the gaffer, had come on."
Tottenham fan Dr Andrew Deaner (AD), consultant cardiologist at London Chest Hospital, ran on to the pitch to help:
"I am a Spurs fan and I was there with my brothers. We were watching and then the game stopped. I noticed that Fabrice Muamba had collapsed and I saw people running on and starting CPR.
"As soon as I saw that, I turned to my brothers and said 'I should help' and they agreed. I managed to persuade one of the stewards, who we know because we sit in the same place, to take me down.
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"Going down, there were two young stewards who didn't want to know but an older one let me through when I said I'm a cardiologist.
"I could see they were doing very good CPR. They had the defib ready."
SM: "We turned him over and he appeared to take a couple of gasps and became unresponsive. Immediately you're focused on the CPR and that training just kicks in.
"The chest compressions are helping to pump the blood around the body, the oxygen and the ventilation aims to oxygenate the organs, and the defibrillator is to shock the heart into its normal rhythm.
"We do extensive training for this scenario - the worst-case scenario. You have no real awareness of the crowd because you're so focused on the actual resuscitation."
JT: "It wasn't until 35,000 voices united to start singing Fabrice Muamba's name that anything from the outside environment penetrated the focus."
SM: "The players were very upset."
AD: "Very soon after that we decided to take him off the pitch."
AD: "He was scooped up by the paramedics and we ran into the tunnel.
"I think there was another shock in the tunnel."
JT: "He had two shocks on the pitch and one further shock in the tunnel."
JT: "Fabrice had, in total, 15 shocks. He had 12 shocks in the ambulance.
"There was [paramedic] Peter Fisher, who was maintaining the airway at one end. Andrew was putting in IV access and giving drugs while the ambulance was swaying from side to side at speed.
AD: "Throughout the resuscitation period, you are worrying.
"You know the longer the resuscitation goes on, the less chance there is of survival.
"Jonathan and the paramedic carried on doing the CPR while I got access to two veins.
"We had some drugs available and I was able to give those."
JT: "I had a paramedic braced against the back of the ambulance and holding my hips because I had my football boots on.
"With all of these things you adapt but it was pretty intense all the way through."
AD: "We had the London Chest Hospital ready for us. They'd been listening to the match on the radio and had been wondering whether he'd be arriving.
"We went straight into the lab and I put a bigger line into a vein under his shoulder blade and quickly scrubbed up.
"We got access to arteries and a bigger vein and carried on giving shocks and drugs."
JT: "Once we got to the hospital I was no longer part of the hands-on crew and it was when I took a step back that everything that just happened hit me.
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"I went into the corridor and cried, and then I came back in to watch what these guys were doing. They were phenomenal."
AD: "It's very unusual to look after a very fit 23-year-old, who's been playing football for 40 minutes before he collapsed, and having CPR started almost immediately by people who are trained.
"All his blood vessels were already dilated and he had all the enzymes that help muscles perform to their absolute optimum, and maybe that protected him.
"Something happened that meant he survived."
JT: "It was a further 30 minutes in the hospital that they were working on him - without his heart beating and without him breathing. In effect he was dead at that time."
AD: "If you are ever going to use the term miraculous, I suppose it could be used here."
Cardiologist Dr Sam Mohiddin, who is treating Muamba
"We've heard lots of superlatives, I think it's fair to say his outcome has been extraordinary and I'm sure that's because of the extraordinary care he received at White Hart Lane and from the ambulance service.
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"We've seen some very encouraging signs but we still have to talk about a spectrum of possible outcomes. One of those possible outcomes is a return to normal life.
"Almost everybody who comes into us with a cardiac arrest, who has been successfully resuscitated, would be considered for a defibrillator [pacemaker] because they're life-saving devices.
"What has happened may happen again and, therefore, if there's any risk you want a safety net." | When Fabrice Muamba collapsed in front of thousands of spectators at White Hart Lane, medics ran on to the pitch to begin life-saving treatment. | 17469449 |
The lock in Buckland, Buckinghamshire, collapsed on 28 March, leaving boats in the nearby town of Aylesbury unable to connect back to the main waterway.
The Canal and River Trust said the boats would be pulled out this week and reunited with their owners.
The cause of the collapse is unknown, but the charity estimated the damage at "several hundred thousand pounds".
The trust said it was called about the lock by a passing member of the public, but no boat was using it at the time.
Work began earlier to move the boats, which are being taken by lorry to the Willowbridge Marina in Bletchley.
Jeff Whyatt, senior waterways manager for the Canal and River Trust, said: "We are still working on how and why the towpath and lock wall at Buckland Lock collapsed and hopefully we'll have a clearer idea in the next few weeks when our investigations are complete.
"Thankfully, no-one was hurt and we are working as quickly as we can to get the lock and the Aylesbury arm back open as soon as possible."
It is hoped the repair work would be completed by the August bank holiday weekend. | About 20 boats are being recovered by a crane after a lock off the Grand Union canal collapsed, leaving them stranded. | 22165326 |
Stewart Greene, 65, of Danes Court, Grimoldby, is accused of murdering Alex Robinson two days before Christmas last year while the boy's mother was out.
The prosecution alleges that when his daughter returned, he told her: "I've drowned Alex in the bath."
Mr Greene, on trial at Lincoln Crown Court, denies murder.
Michael Evans QC, prosecuting, said Alex, who was on the autistic spectrum, had been playing on his Xbox when his mother, Joanne Greene, left to go to Tesco.
The court was told that when Ms Greene returned, he told her what he had done and "the fear began to rise within her".
The judge heard she rushed to the bathroom where she saw her son in the water, surrounded by his sister's toys.
Mr Evans told the court: "She dragged Alex out of the bath and remembers his lips were blue and he was lifeless."
The jury heard Mr Greene told the first police officer to arrive that he had drowned Alex.
He was then arrested and later said at the police station: "I can't do prison. Am I going to hospital?"
The jury was also told Mr Greene had a history of admissions to mental health establishments and hated the idea of living independently at accommodation arranged for him.
He had previously assaulted medical staff before he was released, the prosecution said.
Giving evidence, the boy's mother said she had pleaded with staff at a mental health unit not to let her father out.
Asked what she told the staff, she said: "If you let him out he's going to do something.
"He's done it before. He's attacked a doctor. He's had a knife to an old woman.
"He will do something to get himself put in somewhere.
"I'm telling you now, if he does something I'm going to go ballistic. You can't let him out."
The trial continues. | A man drowned his nine-year-old grandson in the bath and sat calmly on the sofa until his family returned home, a court has been told. | 34846166 |
Mrs Long said that "there is very little evidence of any tangible progress" and that Tuesday 27 June is the "real deadline" for the talks.
Sinn Féin said on Thursday that time is "fast running out" for the negotiations to be successful.
The parties have officially until 29 June to reach agreement.
The deadline was set by Secretary of State James Brokenshire.
The parties have been warned that if they cannot reach agreement, direct rule could follow.
However, Mrs Long said that the two largest parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin, "appear to finally be buckling down to try and close the gaps between them".
"It needs to be remembered if they run the clock out on those issues, there will be no time left to deal with the issues other parties have raised as part of this process.
"If the DUP and Sinn Féin truly want a multi-party executive, they need to deal with all the issues on the table thoroughly and treat all parties in the process equally," she added.
Northern Ireland has been without a power-sharing executive since March and without a first and deputy first minister since January.
The institutions collapsed amid a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Féin about a botched green energy scheme.
The late deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, stood down, in a move that triggered a snap election.
Meanwhile, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said it is possible a deal will be made before the deadline, but that it will require "courage and accommodation".
He also said there is no possibility of the Thursday deadline being pushed back. | The ongoing talks aimed at restoring power-sharing at Stormont are "frustratingly slow", the Alliance Party leader Naomi Long has said. | 40384293 |
Reaper aircraft were first brought in by the RAF for surveillance and reconnaissance missions over Afghanistan, but were later armed so they could also fire missiles and drop bombs.
The Ministry of Defence insists that they do so only rarely, and that the vast majority of missions - believed to be about 95% - remain surveillance for UK and coalition troops.
It also stresses that the UK's Reapers are used solely over Afghanistan as part of the war there - unlike US drones, which are also used under the controversial doctrine of "pre-emptive self-defence", for targeted killings over countries such as Pakistan and Yemen.
The RAF is not keen on the term "drone". It prefers the use of Remotely Piloted Air Systems to make clear that these are not autonomous systems: they still need a human being to fly and command the mission - and crucially, decide whether or not to use weapons, and whether a strike can take place under the UK's rules of engagement.
But drones are playing an increasingly important role in air warfare, with many saying the Joint Strike Fighter is likely to be the last manned fighter aircraft bought by the UK.
Armed drones operating from Britain
After that, there will be no more "magnificent men in their flying machines", as the song had it.
"If you want precision and discrimination, these surveillance machines offer it," says aerospace analyst and former RAF pilot Andrew Brookes of the Air League.
"They can stay in the air for 16 hours at a time, and allow you to watch for hour after hour to make sure you are getting the right guy. And the UK is very strict about its rules of engagement."
However, he worries that drones such as Reaper will have more limited uses for the RAF after British combat forces leave Afghanistan by 2015, as they require air superiority to operate without being shot down.
"This could mean that we're buying 'fashion items' that will end up in the remainder bin after Afghanistan," he says.
But it is the idea of being able to use a machine to kill other human beings from the comfort of a chair thousands of miles away, using a screen reminiscent of a video game, that has galvanised campaigners in the US and Britain against drones.
Many feel that they have been introduced with little public debate.
They worry about the international legal framework and what will happen when their use becomes even more widespread.
Others fear future warfare in which much more autonomous machines could be used, with far less human decision-making at the point of taking a life.
The debate over which laws govern the use of drones and the taking of lives far away from a recognised international conflict has raged ever since the CIA used an armed Predator drone in Yemen in 2002 to kill al-Qaeda members, who were not fighting on any recognised traditional battlefield.
Although it was not made clear to the public at the time, the US had indeed designated Yemen as a conflict zone over which it was able to conduct CIA drone missions to defend America.
President Obama's administration has used legal opinion to allow it to continue the use of drones against those it deems suspected threats to the US in places ranging from Pakistan and Yemen to Somalia.
The UN is due to report back later this year on the US use of drones but has already made clear its belief that US strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan violate international law.
The UK has used its military drones and pilots only in areas acknowledged as conflict zones such as Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, while RAF drones do not take part in the CIA programme.
However, there are questions over whether British intelligence agencies helped offer targeting information to the US agency.
The laws of armed conflict have developed over centuries but the clear-cut distinctions of international state on state warfare, in which uniformed combatants are bound by the Geneva Conventions and face each other on battlefields, are not as easy to draw in an age in which the enemy may not wear uniform, be on any defined battlefield and can switch rapidly from civilian to fighter and back again. | Drones have been used by the US and British military for many years, but are now fast becoming the focus for anti-war campaigners in both countries. | 22320767 |
The men's rugby club at the London School of Economics (LSE) will no longer take part in competitions.
An investigation had been launched, after the university received complaints about the leaflet.
The club has admitted it contained "offensive and stigmatising language".
"These decisions are not easy," said General Secretary of LSE Students' Union, Nona Buckley-Irvine, about the team's ban.
In a statement she added: "We hope that this will enable our community to draw a line under this incident, and focus on the overwhelmingly positive contribution that other sports clubs have on our time at LSE."
She said there had been a "thorough investigation" into the leaflet.
"Not one person within the club was willing to take personal responsibility for the booklets," she explained.
"In this case, responsibility does have to fall onto both individuals and the club as a whole, and individuals will be sanctioned separately in addition to this decision concerning the club."
The team will be launched again next year, creating the "opportunity to start anew".
The men's rugby club had previously apologised for the leaflet and said it contained "inexcusably offensive and stigmatising language".
"We would like to make it clear that this absolutely does not reflect the views and values of our club."
The leaflets were withdrawn on the second day of LSE's Freshers' Fair.
Dozens of students complained on Twitter and LSE launched an investigation into the seven-page leaflet, which also contained homophobic language.
On a page titled "Social Events" the rugby club said of initiations: "We assure you that we do not tolerate Poly (Polytechnic) activities that involve faeces, genitalia, and outright homosexual debauchery."
Another section called on club members to "see off a whole jug of vodka red-bull, get accustomed to the bouncers' hospitality, and do your utmost to pull a sloppy bird".
Nona Buckley-Irvine earlier told Newsbeat that the language used wasn't banter.
"What we have in this leaflet is content that mocks women, mocks women in sport, mocks people for their sexual orientation and these are really serious things," she said.
"We have these prejudices in our society and we can't tolerate things that seek to perpetuate the existing culture of misogyny and sexism.
"I'm so glad that this has come to light because it's actually something we can act on."
A statement, published in LSE Students' Union newspaper Beaver Online, said: "The Men's Rugby Club would like to extend a full and unreserved apology for the recent decision to publish a leaflet at the LSESU Freshers' Fair 2014.
"LSE Men's Rugby does not tolerate misogyny, racism, homophobia or prejudice of any description and the club remains committed to the LSE's equal opportunities policy. Clearly, on this occasion we not only failed ourselves, but the university which we are so proud to represent.
"We take full responsibility for what has happened and it has highlighted the need for any previously used club literature to be properly scrutinised before being reproduced.
"We want our club to be a safe and welcoming environment for all people - this is why we actively encourage social members.
"We have a lot to learn about the pernicious effects of 'banter' and we are organising a workshop for all our members."
The women's rugby club at LSE said it was "outraged" by the contents of the leaflet after its members, and the hockey and netball teams, were described as "beast-like women".
A statement from LSE said it was unacceptable and that the university valued its culture of "diversity and tolerance".
"LSE has received complaints that a group of students has been distributing offensive leaflets which include unacceptable misogynistic and homophobic slurs," it said.
"This incident is being investigated as a matter of priority.
"The school values its culture of diversity and tolerance; and seeks to uphold the highest possible standards of openness and respect.
"Should the behaviour of any individuals or groups be found to have fallen short of those standards, disciplinary action will be taken."
Last month universities were accused of ignoring laddish culture on campuses by the president of the National Union of Students, Toni Pearce.
A survey of 2,000 students commissioned by the NUS suggested a quarter of those polled had experienced unwelcome sexual advances.
Two-thirds had heard rape or sexual assault jokes on campuses.
LSE was recently ranked 34th in the top 200 of a global higher education league table.
American president John F Kennedy attended the university in 1935 and a host of current MPs including Ed Miliband, Stephen Pound and Stella Creasy went there.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | A university sports team has been suspended from playing for the rest of the academic year after calling female students "slags" and "mingers" in a leaflet handed out at a Freshers' Fair. | 29530810 |
The opposition accused the government of misusing public funds, calling for a review by the chief auditor.
PM Tony Abbott has refused to deny allegations that officials handed over thousands of dollars to people smugglers trying to reach Australia.
The UN has expressed its alarm at the allegation, if indeed true.
It said UN staff had received reports that the crew of the boat had been given thousands of dollars last month by an Australian naval vessel to turn around to Indonesia.
On Saturday, the Indonesian government said that if Australia did pay to turn a boat full of asylum seekers back to Indonesia, it would mark "a new low" in its handling of immigration.
Foreign ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir also said Australia was on "a slippery slope" with regard to its push-back policy.
On Monday the Sydney Morning Herald reported that opposition Labor leader Bill Shorten had written to the auditor general to request an investigation. The auditor general, if he takes up the case, can only review the financial propriety of the use of public funds.
What happened on the boat?
The migrants - from Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka - were reportedly heading to New Zealand and are being held on the remote Rote island about 500km (310 miles) north-east of Australia.
They told police that an Australian navy ship intercepted them at sea, and an immigration official on board paid them each A$5,000 ($3,900; £2,500) to turn back to Indonesia.
Local police chief Hidayat told AFP news agency: "I saw the money with my own eyes. This is the first time I'd heard [of] Australian authorities making payments to boat crew."
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Radio New Zealand reported similar allegations from passengers.
What Tony Abbott's boat rhetoric is really about
Ministers in the Australian government have come out with varying responses. Some have denied the allegations, others refused to comment, while Immigration Minister Peter Dutton at first denied the allegation but then said the government did not comment on specific cases.
The leader of the Green Party has asked police to investigate whether bribing people smugglers would be in breach of Australian or international law.
Although the controversy continued through the weekend, the government has denied acting illegally. | Pressure is growing for an inquiry into whether Australian officials used tax payers' money to turn back a boat carrying asylum seekers. | 33130476 |
Nine men are accused of smuggling 3.2 tonnes of cocaine on the Hamal.
UK Border Force officers, with Royal Navy support, boarded the tug in an operation about 100 miles east of Aberdeen in April last year.
An expert told the High Court in Glasgow the "unprecedented" haul had a maximum street value of £512m.
Det Con Jurgen Wahla, of Police Scotland, was asked by advocate depute Ashley Edwards: "What is the potential maximum street value of the cocaine?".
Det Con Wahla replied: "If sold in the UK it would be £512m if sold in gram deals and adulterated to 15 to 20 per cent pure."
Prosecutor Miss Edwards then said: "Just over half a billion pounds" and Det Con Wahla responded: "That's correct. It is a massive, massive importation, unprecedented in what I've seen in my experience."
The jury has heard the Hamal was taken to Aberdeen harbour to be searched.
Kayacan Dalgakiran, 64, Mustafa Guven, 48, Mustafa Ceviz, 55, Umit Colakel, 39, Ibrahim Dag, 48, Mumin Sahin, 46, Emin Ozmen, 51, Abdulkadir Cirik, 32, and Muhammet Seckin, 27, deny the charges against them.
The trial, before judge Lord Kinclaven, continues. | Cocaine found on a tug which was stopped in the North Sea was potentially worth more than half a billion pounds, a court has heard. | 36520631 |
Prince William, the president of the FA, made his comments during a speech before the cup final at Wembley.
He urged sponsors and other backers to use their influence with Fifa to support reform.
It comes after Fifa's president Sepp Blatter was re-elected, following the arrests of seven people linked to Fifa.
The seven, arrested in Zurich earlier this week, are among 14 indicted on charges of bribery, racketeering and money-laundering, involving tens of millions of dollars since 1991.
Meanwhile, Swiss authorities have launched a separate criminal investigation into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar.
In his speech the prince compared the crisis engulfing Fifa to the 2002 Salt Lake City corruption scandal which prompted the International Olympic Committee to reform.
He said: "There seems to be a huge disconnect between the sense of fair play that guides those playing and supporting the game, and the allegations of corruption that have long lingered around the management of the sport internationally.
"The events in Zurich this week represent Fifa's Salt Lake City moment, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) went through a similar period of serious allegations.
"Fifa, like the IOC, must now show that it can represent the interests of fair play and put the sport first.
"Those backing Fifa, such as sponsors and the regional confederations, must do their bit to press these reforms - we are doing football and its fans no favours if we do not.
"I have no doubt that when Fifa reforms, its mission to spread the benefits of the game to more people, especially those in developing countries, can only be enhanced."
He also used his speech before match - which saw Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 - to back a decision by former Manchester United chief executive and newly-elected Fifa vice-president David Gill to quit the position almost immediately in protest at Mr Blatter's re-election.
Mr Blatter is not named in the indictment, and denies having anything to do with an alleged $10m (£6.5m) bribe.
Prince William said: "I know I join with all of you in commending David Gill for his decision to stand down from the ExCo [executive committee], and to lead by example by doing so."
And he said that the Football Association, the sport's governing body in England, had been "taking a critical look at itself under Greg Dyke's leadership" and could become the "gold standard of sporting governance".
The duke added: "We must ensure that the quality and the richness of the game at the highest levels is shared more generously at the grassroots; we must ensure that home-grown talent is better nurtured; and we must continue to kick out racism for good from our game.
"I feel we need to ensure that we become the gold standard of sporting governance. A modern, transparent and inclusive organisation - representative of the broad and diverse society who play and love our game.
"Over the next few years, if we want credibly to influence the debate on reform in Fifa, we must continue to strive for excellence in our own organisation.
"It's not easy to do so, but it is worth it - and, to that end, I commend the process you are on, and I'll be watching it closely."
Meanwhile, Football Association chairman Greg Dyke has said that England would back a European boycott of the 2018 World Cup.
A boycott will be considered by European football's governing body Uefa when it meets next week in Berlin.
Mr Dyke said: "There's no point boycotting on our own, but if the rest of Europe decided to boycott we would join them."
He also said England would not bid to host the World Cup under Blatter. | The Duke of Cambridge has urged world football governing body Fifa to "show that it can represent the interests of fair play and put the sport first". | 32949145 |
Mr Passmore won the role after "second choice" votes were taken into consideration.
In his acceptance speech, the former leader of Mid-Suffolk District Council said he felt "humbled" and "honoured" to be re-elected with a big majority.
The second round was between Conservative candidate Tim Passmore and Labour candidate Cath Pickles.
Read this and more Suffolk stories
Turnout in the election was higher than expected, with the figure at 24.47% over all, up from 16% in 2012.
As Mr Passmore did not secure a clear 50% of the vote, "second choice" votes had to be taken into account.
Candidates are listed alphabetically by surname. BBC News App users: tap here to see the results.
More information is available on the Choose my PCC website. | Conservative Tim Passmore has been re-elected as Suffolk's police and crime commissioner. | 36018176 |
Axminster Hospital's inpatient unit in east Devon was to close and merge with Seaton Hospital, eight miles (12km) away, it was announced in October.
A four-week consultation would now be carried out, the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust said.
The merger was due to patient safety risks after inspectors ruled there were not enough nurses for both sites.
Both community hospitals currently provide 10 inpatient beds and a range of other services.
From January, Seaton was due to host one 18-bed inpatient unit.
The trust said it was holding the consultation, until 30 December, because it had "become apparent .... that there is a great deal of confusion about the proposals and that we needed to do more to involve people in the decision we were making".
A public meeting would be held in January to discuss the consultation, it added.
The trust had insisted the merger would only be temporary, but could not confirm any end date for the arrangement. | Plans for a temporary merger of inpatient beds at two Devon hospitals have been halted, health bosses said. | 30292752 |
30 September 2016 Last updated at 22:45 BST
The BBC News website asked the independent Money Advice Service to deliver a calendar of month-by-month tips for those trying to keep their personal finances in order.
Kat Hodgkinson, from the service, says that people should review their spending as the nights draw in.
Video Journalist: Kevin Peachey | Charity campaigns urge people to give up smoking in October, but money can be saved by cutting out other unnecessary extras, an advice service says. | 37506045 |
Shopkeeper Alice Wheeldon was found guilty of a poison plot against David Lloyd George in 1917.
But a campaign to clear her name, which saw her former home get a commemorative plaque, has continued.
Now, her great granddaughter Chloe Mason has said a submission to the Court of Appeal is being prepared.
Known for their anti-war views, Mrs Wheeldon, daughters Nellie, Hetty and Winnie and son William were the focus of government attention.
On 31 January 1917, they were arrested and accused of plotting to kill Lloyd George with poison darts.
Mrs Wheeldon, Winnie and son-in-law Alfred Mason were convicted. Mrs Wheeldon served only nine months of a 10-year sentence but died soon after release.
Supporters have insisted the family were set up by an MI5 agent who was known for dishonesty.
Ms Mason, granddaughter of Mrs Wheeldon, said: "It is an ugly burden to carry that the family were not only convicted and went to prison but suffered terrible persecution subsequently for something we think they did not do.
"We need a criminal justice system that is fair and does things properly, so it is about the credibility and integrity of the system itself."
She has now met a legal team to begin work on a submission to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which will decide whether the case can go before the Court of Appeal. | An appeal to clear the name of a Derby suffragette jailed for plotting to kill a British prime minister is moving forward. | 27292105 |
Jenny Beattie, Rachel Corsie, Jo Love and Caroline Weir return to the fold after missing the defeat by Belgium.
Erin Cuthbert is also named having captained Scotland Under-19s at the European Championships.
Signeul said: "I'm really pleased that we have a good squad selected and three players still to be selected."
The Scots will take on Romania at Falkirk Stadium on 9 June before facing Sweden at the Myresjohus Arena, Vaxjo, four days later.
The two games offer final preparation ahead of the Scots featuring in the Euro 2017 finals in July and August in the Netherlands.
Signeul believes the upcoming friendlies will help gauge how well prepared the team is ahead of Euro 2017.
The game against Romania, ranked 36th in the world, offers the Scots the opportunity to give a positive performance, but the match against sixth-ranked Sweden will be a far sterner test.
"Romania is a team we want to show we can play good football against," Signeul told BBC Scotland. "Against Sweden, we really need to have our defence working well.
"It's a good test for us in both ways, in training attack and training defence."
The friendly opposition were chosen in part to try to mirror the type of opponents Scotland will face in the Netherlands.
Romania are ranked just two places higher than Portugal, who Scotland face in their second group match.
Sweden are comparable in quality to Scotland's first opponents, England, and Signeul believes it is helpful to warm up against such a strong side.
"We want to know where we stand right now because then we can see what we still need to focus on with a month to go," she said.
Although Signeul believes the final group match against Spain "could be the decisive game" for Scotland's prospects of qualifying for the latter stages of the competition, she is by no means resigned to losing the opening game against England.
"We go into the England game and we absolutely want to win that game, of course," said the Scotland boss.
"We're going to do everything we can in the first game - we're not going to save ourselves for the third game.
"It would be fantastic if we had already qualified after two games."
Signeul hopes the England match can generate sufficient "hype" to help promote women's football in Scotland.
Although midfielders Kim Little, of Arsenal, and Joelle Murray, of Hibernian, will miss the next two games having played relatively little football recently, she is optimistic both will see more action ahead of the Euros.
They, along with defenders Beattie, of Manchester City, and Corsie, of Seattle Reign, and midfielders Love (Glasgow City), Weir (Liverpool) and Cuthbert (Chelsea), also missed April's 5-0 defeat by Euro 2017 rivals Belgium in Leuven.
Another stalwart of Signeul's squad is Gemma Fay, who has moved to Stjarnan in Iceland from Glasgow City in search of regular first-team football, and the goalkeeper could win her 200th cap in the Netherlands.
She has 197 to her name already, but former City team-mate Shannon Lynn has been preferred in recent games and Signeul says she can't afford to be sentimental if Scotland are to be successful.
"This is not about caps," she added. "It's about playing the best team and if that is Gemma then she's getting a cap and, if it's not, she's not getting a cap. That stands for every player."
Goalkeepers: Gemma Fay (Stjarnan), Lee Alexander (Glasgow City), Shannon Lynn (Vittsjo)
Defenders: Jennifer Beattie (Manchester City), Frankie Brown (Bristol City), Rachel Corsie (Seattle Reign), Ifeoma Dieke (Vittsjo), Kirsty Smith (Hibernian), Rachel McLauchlan (Hibernian)
Midfielders: Leanne Crichton (Glasgow City), Erin Cuthbert (Chelsea), Lisa Evans (Bayern Munich), Hayley Lauder (Glasgow City), Joanne Love (Glasgow City), Leanne Ross (Glasgow City), Caroline Weir (Liverpool)
Forwards: Fiona Brown (Eskilstuna United), Lana Clelland (Tavagnacco), Christie Murray (Doncaster Rovers Belles), Jane Ross (Manchester City) | Scotland women's head coach Anna Signeul has named a 20-strong squad for next month's double header against Romania and Sweden. | 40015651 |
Mr Santorum launched his campaign on Wednesday at an event in his home state, Pennsylvania.
The former senator won several key races in 2012, emphasising social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
But he may have trouble standing out in the crowded the field of 2016 Republican candidates.
Santorum stuck to his key themes of traditional family structure, increased support for middle-class working families and lower taxes in his speech.
"As middle America is hollowing out, we can't sit idly by," Santorum said. "We don't need another president who is tied to big government or big money. Today is the day we begin to fight back."
He also talked about supporting US war veterans and getting them access to healthcare quicker.
Santorum said if he is elected president, the US "will defeat ISIS".
If history were a good judge, Rick Santorum's 2012 second-place campaign performance should have left him well positioned for a 2016 bid to capture the party's top prize.
Mitt Romney went from runner-up in 2008 to nominee in 2012. John McCain took silver in 2000 and gold in 2008. George HW Bush, Bob Dole, even Ronald Reagan - all turned earlier losing efforts into eventual Republican nominations.
And yet Mr Santorum is already being treated by much of the media as a 2016 also-ran, and he registers toward the bottom of the pack in polls and money raised.
In early appearances he's tried to blend his trademark evangelical conservatism with foreign policy experience gained during his tenure in the Senate and a blue-collar pitch to working Americans. It's a combination that could distinguish him in this crowded field - but he's up against a formidable assortment of well-funded fresh faces and established names this time around.
Mr Santorum will compete against candidates like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who have all been actively courting Mr Santorum's base of socially conservative and religious voters.
The sheer number of candidates for the White House has created logistical issues for debate moderators.
Fox News, which will host the first Republican debate, has decided to the limit the field to 10, based the candidates' standings in recent national polls.
Mr Santorum, who would just qualify for the debate based on recent polling, took issue with the Fox News decision, calling it arbitrary. | Rick Santorum, a Christian conservative who came second in the 2012 Republican primaries, has launched a second campaign for the US presidency. | 32909413 |
The Republican-controlled chamber rejected proposals to allow regular scheduled flights to the island.
It also said a rule should remain requiring Americans to get a special licence before going to Cuba.
The House was voting on a transport funding bill which has provisions related to Cuba.
President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the bill.
New rules issued by the Obama administration in January were aimed at easing travel restrictions to Cuba and allowing scheduled flights for the first time.
But Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart said the White House was wrong to lift the restrictions.
He said it would mean flights landing at an airport that was partially owned by US interests when it was seized by the Cuban government.
"What you are saying is, 'It's OK to do business on property that was stolen from Americans'," said Mr Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American.
The thaw in relations between the US and Cuba was announced late last year in simultaneous televised speeches by President Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro.
President Obama, a Democrat, used his executive powers to ease the embargo that has existed for more than 50 years, defying hardline critics.
However, the issue is caught in a battle between Republicans who control Congress and the White House. | The US House of Representatives has voted to keep restrictions on US citizens travelling to Cuba, despite a recent thaw in relations. | 33017334 |
A 44-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of GBH after police were called to Hailey Avenue at 17:00 BST.
The woman was taken to John Radcliffe Hospital by South Central Ambulance Service where she remains in a serious condition, Thames Valley Police said.
The road has been closed while officers investigate, and the air ambulance attended. | A woman has been taken to hospital with "life-threatening" injuries after an alleged assaulted in Chipping Norton. | 36135933 |
His suspicious death on 6 June, just days after he vowed to press ahead the fight for universal suffrage, has caused an uproar in Hong Kong, where public opinion has forced the Chinese government to promise to re-open a criminal investigation into his final moments.
Mr Li's death at a hospital in the central province of Hunan was initially ruled a suicide, before it was re-classified as an accident.
He was reportedly found hanging from the hospital window with a strip of cloth around his neck.
But the public, as well as Mr Li's friends and supporters in China, believes the disabled activist, who was in his 60s, may have been murdered because of his politics.
His death has special resonance in Hong Kong, where the 1989 Tiananmen Square killings highlighted the former British colony's fears about Chinese rule, and because one of his last interviews was with a Cantonese-language cable television station.
"Each ordinary man has a responsibility for democracy, for the well-being of the nation. For China to enter a democratic society sooner, for China to realise a multi-party political system sooner, I will not look back even if I have to risk my head," he was quoted as telling Hong Kong's iCable.
Mr Li's supporters doubt whether a fair, objective assessment will be made.
That is why volunteers gathered in Hong Kong on Sunday to urge passers-by in the busy commercial district of Mongkok to sign a petition demanding a proper, transparent investigation.
A steady stream of people stopped to sign the petition, which has garnered 50,000 signatures.
The youngest signatory was five-year-old Christopher, who scribbled his name alongside his mother Coris Leung.
"We are from Hong Kong, but we are also Chinese. I want him to understand our culture, our history and what really happened to this man," she said.
Don Mak, who describes himself as largely apolitical, said he felt angered and frustrated by Mr Li's death.
"One of the fundamental rights of a human being is the right to live and the right to free speech. He was deprived of both," said the 22-year-old university graduate.
Volunteers plan to gather 100,000 signatures before presenting the petition to Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is expected to visit Hong Kong at the end of June to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the city's return to China - again highlighting the case's potential sensitivities.
Hong Kong is a city split between two political camps: the pan-democrats who are generally critical of the authoritarian rule of the Communist Party in Beijing, and the pro-establishment lawmakers who generally support the central government.
But in the Li Wangyang case, the two sides have largely come together to demand accountability.
Lee Cheuk-yan, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China and head of the pan-democratic Labour Party, believes anger from all strata of Hong Kong society has put pressure on the pro-establishment lawmakers.
In September, the members of Hong Kong's parliament, called the Legislative Council, will face re-election. All eligible voters are allowed to participate.
On 10 June, Mr Lee led 25,000 people on a protest march that culminated in a gathering at Beijing's Liaison Office in western Hong Kong.
He said it was the biggest-ever protest at the central government's representative office. Police, who fired tear gas to keep the protesters at bay, said 5,000 people attended the march.
"We protested over the jailing of Ai Weiwei and Chen Guangcheng," said Mr Lee, referring to two of China's best-known dissidents.
"But this case is different. This time somebody died. Li Wangyang is obviously a victim of Tiananmen. He was maimed, blinded and made deaf during his imprisonment. His death is a very clear case of the high-handed, tyrannical way the government dealt with a citizen. We are demanding justice."
Rita Fan, Hong Kong's delegate to the elite Standing Committee in China's parliament, has written to the National People's Congress to express the people's doubts.
And over the past week, senior civil servants in the Hong Kong government, from Food and Health Secretary York Chow to Chief Executive Donald Tsang, have made rare public statements saying Mr Li's death was indeed suspicious.
Civil servants are meant to be above the political fray, so their comments demonstrate the amount of official support for a thorough investigation.
A report last week from the Beijing-backed Hong Kong China News Agency quoted a public security official in Hunan province as saying forensic experts from outside the province had been commissioned to carry out an autopsy.
Experienced criminal investigators were also now involved, the spokesman said.
But Mr Lee, the pan-democrat lawmaker, said there was widespread doubt on the mainland and in Hong Kong whether the investigation would be effective. Most of the evidence seems to be gone.
Mr Li's body was taken away by police just hours after it was found, according to his family and friends. The body was reportedly cremated a few days later on 9 June, against the wishes of the family.
It is unclear how, without the body, a new autopsy can be conducted.
But even with little evidence left, Mr Li's supporters in Hong Kong demand an investigation. They fear democratic rights in their own city may someday be curtailed if they do not make a stand now.
Even though this city is part of China, it is guaranteed the right to free speech and free assembly, both of which are unknown on the mainland.
"In Hong Kong, we have a saying, 'Today's mainland is tomorrow's Hong Kong'," said Claudia Mo, a politician for the pan-democratic Civic Party, who helped to gather signatures on Sunday.
"Some people ask us, 'What's the point? He is already dead!' Well, we may or may not win this fight. But we are here to answer to history. We are here to answer to the next generation." | Blind and deaf after two decades of imprisonment as a Tiananmen Square activist, Li Wangyang was a defiant symbol of the unrealised promises of democracy in China. | 18478631 |
The Perth man is accused of running the alleged paedophile ring involving men he knew, aged 35 to 47.
The girl suffered the alleged abuse over two-years before being saved after a tip-off from the public in April.
"She was rescued from this horrible situation... and is safe," Detective Superintendent Glenn Feeney said.
Police seized several computer storage devices which allegedly contained 149 videos of the girl.
"To give an idea of the scope, one of these storage devices contained 200,000 videos and four million photos," Det Superintendent Feeney said. "It's disgusting material. There's no words to describe it."
The eight men have been charged with a range of offences including sexual penetration of a child, sexual servitude, stupefaction of a child, and child pornography offences. | An Australian father is one of eight men charged with 503 child sex offences, including sexual slavery, against his 13-year-old daughter. | 33699127 |
Helen Habblett claimed to be living as a single mother after separating from her husband in 2009.
However, Dundee Sheriff Court heard the couple reunited the following year and her husband was in full-time employment.
Social media profiles, bank records and covert surveillance confirmed the couple were living together.
The court heard that Habblett told the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC that she was still a single mother and fraudulently claimed £48,792.75 in tax credits and £7,603.50 in income support.
Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told the court: "She claimed child and working tax credits in 2003 and in 2009 informed HMRC that she had separated from her husband and was living solely with her children.
"In 2011 and 2013 she confirmed there were no changes.
"She claimed for income support in 2009 and again stated she was living only with her children."
Miss Robertson said confidential information was received that Habblett had reunited with her husband, prompting an investigation.
She said: "Examination of bank records, employment records, Facebook profiles and car insurance applications suggested she was in fact co-habiting with him.
"Interviews with neighbours and surveillance further suggested they were living together."
Habblett, 51, pled guilty to charges under the Tax Credits Act and Social Security Administration Act, committed between September 2010 and July 2014.
Defence solicitor Jim Caird said: "She has a family of five children and has never been in trouble before."
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael deferred sentence until October for social work background reports and released Habblett on bail. | A Dundee mother-of-five's £56,000 benefit fraud was uncovered through her Facebook page, a court has been told. | 37360710 |
The H5N8 strain was detected in a greylag goose at the nature reserve near Ormskirk, in Lancashire on Friday.
Peter Morris, who works for the site, said it is "not a strain... that has ever transmitted to humans" and the centre remains open to visitors.
He said it had spread from Europe, adding: "This isn't a case of anyone closing or culling anything."
"We get up to 60,000 wildfowl - wild ducks, swans, geese, waders - a day on peak days in winter, of which one has died of avian influenza."
Vehicle restrictions and disinfectant mats have been placed at the site's entrances and exits as precautionary measures. About 200,000 people visit Martin Mere every year.
"We are very, very mindful that a lot of people locally keep, or farm, birds or go to other nature reserves," said Mr Morris.
"So, we're making sure we stop anyone inadvertently transporting the disease in or out on their footwear, hands or equipment.
"We've taken all practical steps to separate wild birds from our collection of wildfowl.
"The government is relying on wardens at nature reserves including Martin Mere to be out at first light every day looking hard for unusual signs."
The H5N8 strain has been found in about 40 wild birds in England, Scotland and Wales after circulating in Europe for several months, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
In January, about 63,000 birds were culled at a Lancashire pheasant farm to prevent the spread of bird flu, which had already been found at two premises nearby in Wyre. | A single case of bird flu has been confirmed at the popular tourist attraction, Martin Mere. | 38907726 |
Having won the first match in Beckenham by seven wickets, the Scots were all out for 166 in the 43rd over.
Sri Lanka wasted no time chasing down the runs, reaching 170 in the 23rd over, with Kusal Mendis 74 not out and Upal Tharanga 53 not out.
Craig Wallace top scored for Scotland with 46, with Lakshan Sandakan taking 4-39.
The series was not given full one-day international status, with Sri Lanka preparing for for the ICC Champions Trophy, taking place in England and Wales from 1-18 June. | Scotland suffered a nine-wicket hammering in the second of two warm-up games for Sri Lanka in Kent on Tuesday. | 40025650 |
US researchers have discovered that some people who are overweight have hidden fat inside their bones that could make them weak and prone to fractures.
The Harvard Medical School team in Boston did body scans on 106 obese but healthy men and women.
The findings are published in the journal Radiology.
The scans reveal some people carry fat in hidden places like the liver, muscles and bone marrow as well as their belly, hips or thighs.
Dr Miriam Bredella, who carried out the work, says apple-shaped people who carry weight around their waist may be at greatest risk.
The bone marrow is where the cells responsible for new bone formation - osteoblast cells - live.
Dr Bredella reasons that if more of the marrow is taken over by fat cells then this will weaken the bones.
She said: "If you have a spine that's filled with fat, it's not going to be as strong.
"Obesity was once thought to be protective against bone loss. We have found that this is not true."
Given that none of us can choose where we put on weight, the only answer is to stay slim, say the researchers.
Almost three million people in the UK are estimated to have osteoporosis. The condition is normally associated with being slight of frame and frail.
Bone marrow fat has been found in higher-than-normal levels in people who have osteoporosis. | Obesity may be a risk factor for the frail bone disease osteoporosis, a study suggests. | 23313047 |
Ingram (101 not out) reached his century off 46 balls, smashing eight fours and seven sixes.
Jacques Rudolph (49) and Chris Cooke (37 not out off 17) lent valuable support in their 198-3.
But Wright (101) kept Sussex in the game until he fell in the 19th over, as they finished on 180-6.
His runs, off 53 balls, came almost as fast as Ingram's, but with Michael Hogan claiming two early wickets and Ingram taking two in mid-innings with his leg-spin, Sussex could not find enough support for Wright.
Ingram also thought he had bowled Ben Brown (14) before his dismissal to a boundary catch, but he was recalled by the umpires who were not sure how the bails were dislodged.
A packed crowd at Arundel saw Sussex get off to a fine start with Glamorgan 7-2 in the fourth over as Danny Briggs (1-28) bowled tightly, but the rest of the game proved to be a run-feast in the sunshine.
Glamorgan's Colin Ingram told BBC Wales Sport:
"After the last game when I missed out on a good wicket, it was great to get a bit of flow today, get in and enjoy the sunny conditions. I'm not too phased with records but it was great to get the win.
"We put together some nice partnerships after losing wickets early, myself and Jacques Rudolph rebuilt and got some momentum to the innings then Chris Cooke finished really well.
"I enjoy my bowling and it was nice to contribute there. The way I saw (the Ben Brown incident), it hit off-stump and then bobbled off Chris Cooke's gloves, but the umpire saw it another way and his word stands.
"Luke Wright batted nicely as well as I thought he was playing an innings that could take it away from us, but our death bowlers closed it out."
Sussex batsman Luke Wright told BBC Sussex:
"A hundred at any time is always nice personally, especially in T20 where they're pretty rare, so to add another one is nice. But it's bitter-sweet when you don't win the game, when you get a hundred and win it's a great feeling though hopefully this'll set me up for the rest of the tournament.
"We probably needed another cameo, they had Ingram who batted unbelievably well but Rudolph made the difference with his innings.
"We should have bowled better after a great start, Danny Briggs was outstanding but they probably just out-bowled us, though we fought well to get close." | Colin Ingram struck Glamorgan's fastest T20 century to earn them an 18-run victory over Sussex despite Luke Wright's hundred in reply. | 40545967 |
Dr Upton was the driving force behind the early design of the credit-card sized computer and founded the charity that oversees its development.
The Pi has proved hugely popular with electronics hobbyists and many children are using the devices to get a taste of computer coding.
In April 2016, the Pi became the most popular British computer ever made.
More than eight million have been sold since the tiny device was launched in early 2012. The small computer has gone through several revisions and the most recent update, version 3, has a 64-bit processor and wi-fi and Bluetooth built in.
Dr Upton said he was "shell-shocked" to receive the honour. He said it was a tribute to the team of people at the Raspberry Pi Foundation and its electronics partners who were working on the device and the educational projects it has kicked off.
In total, he said, 200 people at the Foundation, chipmaker Broadcom, electronics suppliers Farnell and RS Components and Sony were involved with the Pi.
"We're starting to make real progress on our mission," he told the BBC "There are over 4,000 Code Clubs in UK schools, nearly 800 Raspberry Pi Certified Educators and more applicants for computer science at Cambridge than at the height of the dotcom boom."
Several other technology industry veterans were also honoured in the list. Dr David Grant, head of Welsh electronics firm IQE Semiconductors, was made a knight for services to engineering and technology.
Dr Jo Twist, head of the games industry body UKIE, was made an OBE, as was Sarah Wood, chief executive of video ad firm Unruly.
Sarah Bestwick from games publisher Team 17, Shazam boss Andrew Fisher and Tech Crunch editor Mike Butcher all became MBEs in the list. | Eben Upton, pioneer of the Raspberry Pi bare-bones computer, has become a CBE in the Birthday Honours list. | 36498605 |
Tantum Rosa is an anti-inflammatory medicine manufactured in Poland.
The raids by health officials, thought to be the UK's first for the product, followed police reports of teenagers allegedly high on the drug vandalising a local cemetery.
Southampton Trading Standards said the medicine was safe if used correctly.
But it was not licensed for sale in the UK.
Danio Polish Shop, in St Mary's Road, Southampton, had been found selling Tantum Rosa by the police, Trading Standards and the government's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Other shops visited were told to remove other medical products.
Hampshire Constabulary called the operation "a success".
Southampton resident Ella Porawska, from Poland, said she was "shocked" Tantum Rosa, a soluble powder, was being misused by teenagers.
She said: "I was really surprised that somebody can sell them these products."
Danny Lee-Frost, from the MHRA, said he was "concerned" the medicine was being used as a recreational drug.
He said: "Because it is labelled in Polish, people who get hold of it won't be aware of what the ingredients are if they do attempt to misuse it."
He added: "We'd like to see this product removed from all shelves in the UK and this is the first step in our efforts in doing that."
Police said shopkeepers found selling the product could face prosecution. | An unlicensed female sanitary drug which has a hallucinogenic effect if misused has been seized in raids on Polish shops in Southampton. | 17182292 |
Secret World, near Highbridge, said it had taken in up to 200 gull chicks, which it described as a "record intake of orphans".
They were mainly rescued from coastal towns including Weston-super-Mare, Burnham-on-Sea and Bridgwater.
The charity is now appealing for "fishy cat food" to feed its "glut" of gulls.
CEO David Foulds said: "Urban gulls nest on roofs and when they get too hot, the chicks do a bit of a dance and fall off and can't get back."
He said the birds - mainly herring gulls - were "growing steadily" and should be ready for release in a "month or two".
"We do normally get busy in hot weather but this year it's been madness - it was just gulls everywhere.
"The heat wave brought them down off the baking roofs and now we've got a glut of gulls.
"We're getting through lots and lots of cat food so we're appealing for any sort of fish-based cat food."
The gull chicks - once they have fledged - will be released back into the areas they were found. | Hundreds of gull chicks are being cared for by a Somerset wildlife centre after falling off the "baking roofs" of houses during the recent heat wave. | 40520275 |
The Edinburgh-based firm said revenues also fell by 29% to £14.5m.
Its Asia Pacific market was hardest hit, following a record performance in the previous period.
Latin America also saw a "significant decline", after "rapid" spending cuts by the Brazilian oil and gas market.
IndigoVision manufactures IP video security equipment for end-users such as airports, ports, casinos, police, prisons and governments.
On a positive note, the firm reported a 22% increase in sales in the UK market, which was boosted by police and safe city projects.
The company also said it secured "major" project wins in Colombia, as well as with a leading bank in Egypt and a large casino in the USA.
Chief executive Marcus Kneen said: "As we announced in April, trading in the first half has been challenging, but Latin America and the Middle East are now starting to show an improving sales trend.
"The group's activity is weighted towards enterprise markets where revenues are materially impacted by project timing and the wider economic backdrop, and these factors affected the first half performance.
"The group has a stronger pipeline of large projects for the second half of the year, predominantly from the Middle East and the Americas.
"Exciting new products were launched this period including FrontLine, the first body-worn video to be fully integrated into core video management software, giving users synchronised playback of both their fixed and body worn cameras from any location.
"Although the first half was disappointing, IndigoVision is in a good position to progress in the second half." | Video security firm IndigoVision has reported a pre-tax loss of £810,000 for the first half of this year, after being hit by "economic and political challenges" in a number of countries. | 34278095 |
The two men, aged 19 and 24, were arrested on Daggers Lane soon after the shooting in Dartmouth Street at about 14:30 GMT on Tuesday, West Midlands Police said.
The 33-year-old male victim was a passenger in a stationary car. He died after being shot in the head.
The scene of the incident is cordoned off for forensic investigations.
Officers are appealing for anyone who saw a grey Audi Q5 being driven away from the scene shortly after 14:30 on Tuesday to come forward. The car has been recovered.
Det Insp Martin Slevin said: "We have increased patrols in the area to reassure residents, however we do believe this to be a targeted attack and there is no risk to the general public."
One nearby shopkeeper said he heard five shots. | Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man was shot dead in West Bromwich. | 38451504 |
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