document
stringlengths 0
39k
| summary
stringlengths 1
329
| id
stringlengths 8
8
|
|---|---|---|
RWE Innogy wanted to use water from the River Conwy to supply its proposed hydro power project at Betws y Coed.
The firm said it would have had a positive impact on the environment but campaigners were worried half an acre of the centuries-old Fairy Glen Wood would be destroyed by the build.
Snowdonia National Park Authority rejected the proposals on Wednesday.
The project would have taken water from the river above Penmachno bridge and diverted it through more than half a mile (1km) of pipeline around Fairy Glen to generate electricity, before returning it to the river near the River Lledr junction.
It would have been capable of generating enough power for about 3,200 homes a year.
Billy Langley, of RWE Innogy UK, said he was "extremely disappointed" with the authority's rejection of the plans, which he said would have had a positive impact on the local environment and economy.
"In light of this decision, we will now take some time to consider our options," he added. | Controversial plans to build a £12m hydro electric scheme at a beauty spot in Conwy Valley have been refused. | 35708521 |
The 37-year-old finished sixth in the T54 800m - his final individual track race at Rio 2016 - after coming fifth in the 400m and fourth in the 1500m.
"That's my last individual race on the track," Weir told Channel 4.
"I want to retire at the London Marathon next year. I'll give it one more winter's training and bow out where it all started."
Weir's decision means he will not compete at the IPC Athletics World Championships in July, which will be staged at London Stadium, the scene of his 2012 Olympic successes.
The Londoner said he would race in the marathon at Rio and may make himself available for the T53/54 4x400m relay team.
However, he suggested his preparations for the Paralympics had been disrupted by problems behind the scenes.
Weir won the first of his record-equalling six London Marathon titles in 2002 and will go for a seventh on 23 April 2017. | Britain's six-time Paralympic gold medallist David Weir will retire from the track after Rio 2016. | 37376489 |
The firm has been told that its assets would be seized in case it failed to pay the tax.
Vodafone has been fighting Indian tax authorities since its 2007 takeover of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa's Indian mobile unit for $11bn.
The company has said that it doesn't owe any taxes in India because the transaction was conducted offshore.
Correspondents say that the income tax department's notice to Vodafone has again raked up the controversial retrospective taxation.
India's top court ruled in favour of Vodafone in 2012, but the government changed laws later that year to allow firms to be taxed retrospectively.
The move was heavily criticised by investors at the time.
But since coming to power in May 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have repeatedly assured foreign investors of a stable tax regime.
In a strongly worded statement, Vodafone said India had promised that tax disputes "would be resolved through existing judicial process".
"In a week when Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi is promoting a tax-friendly environment for foreign investors [through Make in India week] - this seems a complete disconnect between government and the tax department," it said. | India's tax department has sent a renewed tax notice of $2.1bn (£1.4bn) to telecom giant Vodafone. | 35584980 |
Maxwell, 18, who has been loaned back to Harriers for the rest of the season, has made 22 appearances this term.
Harriers have confirmed that the fee will be paid in instalments.
"It's a move he's delighted to make. He's earned a lot of admirers," said Harriers chief executive Colin Gordon.
"Birmingham have been a pleasure to deal with," added the former Blues striker. "They know they are getting a player who has the potential to really succeed in the game."
Harriers sit bottom of the National League, 13 points adrift of safety with 20 games of the campaign to go.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Birmingham City have signed teenage midfielder Luke Maxwell from National League strugglers Kidderminster Harriers for £75,000 on a three-and-a-half-year contract. | 35352787 |
England failed to progress beyond the group stages of the World Cup on home soil and coach Stuart Lancaster left the post by mutual consent last week.
Cheika led the Wallabies to the World Cup final at Twickenham where they lost 34-17 to New Zealand on 31 October.
"I'm an Australian coaching Australia. It's the dream. There is nothing that would change my mind," Cheika said.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, he added: "No-one has contacted me, and they know they can't contact me because I'm committed to Australia."
Cheika was only appointed Australia coach in October 2014 and in a year turned a side then in disarray into World Cup finalists.
The 48-year-old coached Leinster to the Heineken Cup title in 2009 and has also been in charge of French club Stade Francais and Australian state side NSW Waratahs.
Despite the Rugby Football Union being linked with approaches for a big-name, foreign Test coach, Cheika believes there is coaching talent in England good enough for the role.
"I just think there are good coaches coaching in the Premiership," he said.
"Exeter's Rob Baxter and the guys at Northampton [Jim Mallinder, Dorian West and Alex King], [Newcastle's] Dean Richards... there are heaps of guys coaching the same England players on a day-to-day basis in the Premiership, who given the right support could do a really good job.
"There are a lot of guys who have good quality here. They just need to be given the chance." | Australia boss Michael Cheika has ruled himself out of the vacant England head coach position. | 34834783 |
Jose Mourinho's side needed three points to complete the triumph that has become an inevitability in recent weeks as they moved out of sight of their rivals to reclaim the crown from Manchester City, who are 13 points adrift despite their win at Tottenham.
Victory was secured by Eden Hazard's goal on the stroke of half-time, the Belgian heading past Julian Speroni after the Palace goalkeeper had saved the PFA Player of the Year's penalty.
Media playback is not supported on this device
That gave Mourinho his third title as Chelsea manager, and the first of his second spell in charge. It is the club's fifth top-flight title and comes five years after their last and 60 years since their first.
The celebrations that swept around Stamford Bridge at the final whistle were fully deserved for a Chelsea side who have set the pace since the start of the season.
They played with flair and verve to make an all-conquering start then showed the ruthless efficiency that is the hallmark of all Mourinho sides after losing leading scorer Diego Costa for a crucial closing phase of the campaign.
At the head of it all was the master strategist Mourinho, adding the title to the Capital One Cup won against Tottenham at Wembley and vindicating Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's decision to turn, once again, to the manager who brought him his first successes with titles in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Banners were draped from the Shed End at Stamford Bridge in honour of Mourinho, bearing slogans such as: "The Special One - He's One Of Us." And while the Portuguese may be a divisive figure elsewhere, there is no doubting his heroic status at Chelsea after the successes he has engineered.
The statistics back up Mourinho's brilliance as this was his eighth title in 12 years with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid.
This decisive victory over Palace may not have been achieved with sparkling football but the title win was closed out with the nerveless professionalism of a team that knew what needed to be done and did it - as they have so often.
And when it was done and hundreds of blue streamers littered the Stamford Bridge turf before Chelsea's elated players took a lap of honour with Abramovich looking on, the challenge was laid down to the chasing pack to respond to the domination Mourinho has now re-established in west London.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Chelsea's title win has been built on a mixture of the old guard, such as inspirational captain John Terry, who has rolled back the years magnificently, and the newer breed, such as the brilliant Hazard and those key summer signings Cesc Fabregas and Costa.
The chants of "Boring Boring Chelsea" - started by Arsenal's fans and repeated here by Palace supporters - carry a hollow ring as Mourinho's side have proved without question that they are the Premier League's outstanding side led by the Premier League's outstanding manager.
They were forced to make a late adjustment to their starting line-up when Ramires was taken ill and Juan Cuadrado was drafted in.
For all the energy on the pitch and expectation off it, the first half was a non-event until Hazard's penalty - apart from some wayward handling from Palace keeper Speroni, who fumbled Didier Drogba's free-kick having almost let in Nemanja Matic with a wild punch.
The deadlock was broken right on half-time when Hazard surged into the area before tumbling theatrically under James McArthur's challenge.
Palace clearly felt Hazard made the most of slight contact - which he certainly did - and their frustration increased when the Belgian reacted first after his penalty was saved by Speroni, heading the rebound past the stranded keeper.
Media playback is not supported on this device
There was the sense of the inevitable about proceedings as Chelsea moved towards a triumphant conclusion after the break, with only a Jason Puncheon shot that flew inches wide and a Wilfried Zaha effort that was blocked by Thibaut Courtois threatening to delay the coronation.
All the tension and pressure of the final few weeks were released when referee Kevin Friend blew his whistle, the normally impassive Abramovich punching the air as Chelsea returned to the pinnacle of the domestic game.
Match ends, Chelsea 1, Crystal Palace 0.
Second Half ends, Chelsea 1, Crystal Palace 0.
Foul by Didier Drogba (Chelsea).
Martin Kelly (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Substitution, Chelsea. Filipe Luis replaces Eden Hazard.
Delay in match John Terry (Chelsea) because of an injury.
Corner, Crystal Palace. Conceded by John Terry.
Corner, Crystal Palace. Conceded by Kurt Zouma.
Attempt blocked. Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Yaya Sanogo.
Corner, Crystal Palace. Conceded by Nemanja Matic.
Foul by John Terry (Chelsea).
Glenn Murray (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Eden Hazard (Chelsea) left footed shot from the left side of the box misses to the right. Assisted by César Azpilicueta.
Substitution, Chelsea. Kurt Zouma replaces Willian.
Attempt missed. Yannick Bolasie (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Glenn Murray.
Attempt missed. Willian (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Cesc Fàbregas.
Corner, Crystal Palace. Conceded by Thibaut Courtois.
Attempt saved. Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Yaya Sanogo.
Attempt missed. Yaya Sanogo (Crystal Palace) with an attempt from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Yannick Bolasie with a cross.
Attempt missed. Didier Drogba (Chelsea) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Willian.
Attempt missed. Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea) left footed shot from the right side of the box is too high.
Attempt blocked. Gary Cahill (Chelsea) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Branislav Ivanovic.
Willian (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by James McArthur (Crystal Palace).
Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Yaya Sanogo (Crystal Palace).
Offside, Chelsea. César Azpilicueta tries a through ball, but Didier Drogba is caught offside.
Substitution, Crystal Palace. Yaya Sanogo replaces Jason Puncheon.
Attempt missed. Jason Puncheon (Crystal Palace) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right following a set piece situation.
Foul by César Azpilicueta (Chelsea).
Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Chelsea. Conceded by Joel Ward.
Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace).
Eden Hazard (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Martin Kelly (Crystal Palace).
Substitution, Crystal Palace. Glenn Murray replaces Jordon Mutch.
Substitution, Crystal Palace. Martin Kelly replaces Adrian Mariappa.
Attempt missed. Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Branislav Ivanovic. | Chelsea secured the Premier League title by beating Crystal Palace at an ecstatic Stamford Bridge. | 32471261 |
The Lions created the better of the chances, with Jed Wallace forcing Robins goalkeeper Frank Fielding into a fine safe after half-time.
Left-back Joe Bryan went closest for the hosts, hitting the crossbar after exchanging passes with Bobby Reid.
Bristol City are now without a victory in their past three matches.
Having snatched a last-gasp draw at Brentford on Tuesday, Lee Johnson's side were again short of their best against a hard-working Millwall side.
Steve Morison and Conor McLaughlin missed further opportunities for the Lions, who have two draws and two defeats from their first four games.
Millwall manager Neil Harris:
"I was delighted with the way we nullified Bristol City's strengths and kept them under pressure. All we lacked was a bit of luck in front of goal.
"Our defending as a team was terrific and my strikers also looked dangerous going forward.
"If they keep playing like they have been this season victories will come soon. It is only a matter of time before we get the right reward."
Bristol City head coach Lee Johnson:
"I'm slightly disappointed, but still proud of my players for the commitment they showed to achieve our first clean sheet of the season.
"It was a very tough game for us and Millwall deserve credit for that.
"The fans will probably be disappointed that we weren't as creative as in our previous home games, but it was asking a lot to maintain that standard."
Match ends, Bristol City 0, Millwall 0.
Second Half ends, Bristol City 0, Millwall 0.
Attempt blocked. George Saville (Millwall) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Attempt saved. Fred Onyedinma (Millwall) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Eros Pisano (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Tom Elliott (Millwall).
Corner, Millwall. Conceded by Nathan Baker.
Foul by Gary O'Neil (Bristol City).
Shaun Williams (Millwall) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Steve Morison (Millwall) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Bailey Wright (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Steve Morison (Millwall).
Attempt saved. Bailey Wright (Bristol City) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jamie Paterson with a cross.
Corner, Bristol City. Conceded by Shaun Williams.
Attempt blocked. Cauley Woodrow (Bristol City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Jamie Paterson.
Gary O'Neil (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Shaun Williams (Millwall).
Bailey Wright (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Steve Morison (Millwall).
Attempt missed. Tom Elliott (Millwall) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by George Saville.
Bobby Reid (Bristol City) is shown the yellow card for dangerous play.
Dangerous play by Bobby Reid (Bristol City).
Jordan Archer (Millwall) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Bobby Reid (Bristol City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Shaun Hutchinson (Millwall).
Corner, Millwall. Conceded by Callum O'Dowda.
Foul by Eros Pisano (Bristol City).
Tom Elliott (Millwall) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Callum O'Dowda (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Shaun Hutchinson (Millwall).
Substitution, Millwall. Shane Ferguson replaces Jed Wallace.
Foul by Gary O'Neil (Bristol City).
George Saville (Millwall) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Substitution, Millwall. Tom Elliott replaces Lee Gregory.
Offside, Millwall. James Meredith tries a through ball, but Lee Gregory is caught offside.
Gary O'Neil (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Fred Onyedinma (Millwall).
Callum O'Dowda (Bristol City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by James Meredith (Millwall).
Bailey Wright (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half. | Millwall continued their winless start to the Championship season despite holding Bristol City to a hard-fought goalless draw at Ashton Gate. | 40907806 |
The Home Affairs Select Committee said that only three boats were available to patrol 7,000 miles of shoreline.
Royal Navy vessels should be made available to plug any gaps, it said.
The Home Office says it makes use of radar and aerial surveillance and has ordered eight more boats.
The UK has a total of five Border Force vessels, but one has been deployed to the Mediterranean and another is in dock for maintenance.
The Border Force has been given a "key role in implementing strengthened coastal security measures", but it is "experiencing problems in gaining access to a sufficient number of patrol boats", the committee said.
Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee, told BBC Radio 5 live: "The government has done the right thing in ordering more vessels but this should have been done much earlier and criminal gangs are not going to wait until order books have been fulfilled.
"They are making huge amounts of money and they are the ones we are going to be targeting - we need to ruthlessly deal with them."
The MPs also called for security to be stepped up at smaller ports, after the National Crime Agency warned earlier this year that they were being targeted by people smugglers.
The report also:
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Our priority is to offer humanitarian support to those most in need while maintaining the security of our borders."
She said refuge had already been provided for more than 1,800 Syrians under the scheme, while the government was "on track" to deliver on its pledge to resettle 20,000 by the end of the Parliament.
On councils' role in resettlement, David Simmonds, of the Local Government Association, described the report as "out of date" and said: "We are confident that there will be sufficient places that will support the government's pledge to resettle 20,000 people by 2020."
Martyn Underhill, the police and crime commissioner for Dorset, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are in a lot of trouble and I've been raising this with the government now for a year.
"Talk to the public and they will tell you they don't know who's coming in and out. We know that organised crime groups will always go for the weakest link and we know that Calais has been strengthened and they are starting to come in in other ways."
In May ministers announced measures to bolster maritime security, including new patrol boats for the Border Force to supplement the existing five-vessel fleet, but full deployment is not expected until the end of next year.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, said: "We have said for years that the Border Force doesn't have enough resources, but successive governments have continued to cut budgets and staff."
In May, 18 Albanians were rescued from a sinking inflatable boat off the Kent coast and in April two Iranian men were found floating in a dinghy in the English Channel.
Earlier this year, an ex-Border Force manager said Britain's coastal security was under threat from people smugglers because its fleet of patrol vessels was too small. | Britain's Border Force has a "worryingly low" number of boats to patrol the UK's coasts, MPs have said, amid concerns that coastal security is under threat from people smugglers. | 36960905 |
They take on Leinster on Saturday in what is their first pool game following last Sunday's postponement in Toulon following the Paris attacks.
"I'd be lying if I said we didn't think we could win it," Watson told BBC Radio Bristol. "We've got everything we need to be able to do it.
"It's about us showing European rugby what we can do."
Watson, 21, has returned to the Bath set up after being involved in England's doomed World Cup campaign.
The hosts failed to make it out of the pool stages of the competitions and Watson admitted he was still hurting after the tournament.
"It's massively disappointing," he added. "I feel like we let the country down."
"To come so close against Wales and then lose so soundly to Australia was massively disappointing. We've got to collectively learn from it."
And he admitted with a new head coach in place, following the appointment of Eddie Jones, he already had one eye on next year's Six Nations Championship.
"Our only option is to build on it and go forward as a country and hopefully we'll get to do the nation proud at the Six Nations," he said.
"It's massively important for us to right some wrongs and put on some good performances to reward the fans for their continued support." | Bath back Anthony Watson believes his side can win the European Champions Cup this season. | 34879688 |
The investigation relates to the conflict in 2008 centred on South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia.
The ICC says it has "a reasonable basis to believe" that crimes against humanity and war crimes were committed.
More than 6,000 alleged victims made representations to the court in December 2015.
In October 2015, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced she had evidence suggesting both sides had killed peacekeepers, which is a war crime.
It also suggested that South Ossetian forces had killed ethnic Georgian civilians.
The ICC said the types of crimes allegedly committed included:
It said the crimes allegedly happened between 1 July and 10 October 2008.
This will be the ICC's first investigation into a conflict outside Africa.
What is South Ossetia?
South Ossetia, officially part of Georgia, is separated from the North Ossetia region of Russia by an international border. It is inhabited mostly by Ossetians, who are ethnically and linguistically distinct from other peoples in the region. Most ethnic Georgians have been displaced from South Ossetia by conflict.
Georgia, including South Ossetia, was part of the Russian empire in the 19th Century. After the 1917 communist revolution, Georgia became independent but it was declared part of the Soviet Union in 1921.
After the 2008 war, Moscow recognised South Ossetia as an independent state and began a process of closer ties that Georgia views as effective annexation.
The war began after an escalation of clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Georgian forces, who tried to seize back South Ossetia.
But Russian troops quickly retook the area and pushed deeper into Georgian territory, stopping just short of the capital, Tbilisi.
Nearly 1,000 people were killed while tens of thousands of Georgians living in the disputed areas were forced out of their homes.
Prosecutors have said there is evidence that up to 18,500 people were uprooted as part of a "forcible displacement campaign" conducted by South Ossetian authorities, and that the ethnic Georgian population in the conflict zone was reduced by at least 75%.
Russia is not a member of the ICC, which is based at The Hague.
Correction 28 January 2016: An earlier version of this story was amended because it wrongly implied that South Ossetia existed as a Russian territory before its incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1921. The amendment also clarifies how the war erupted. | The International Criminal Court (ICC) has authorised an investigation into possible war crimes perpetrated during a conflict between Russia and Georgia. | 35422437 |
The military said the test of the Shaheen 1-A, an intermediate-range missile capable of reaching targets in India, was successful.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947.
They conduct regular missile tests and inform each other in advance.
Both countries carried out nuclear weapons tests in 1998.
By M Ilyas KhanBBC News, Islamabad
The Pakistani test is seen by many as a message that Islamabad is not behind in upgrading its weapons in terms of both range and delivery capacity.
The nuclear arms race in South Asia has been one of the most persistent in the world, and is known for such tit-for-tat tests.
The latest tests indicate that this race continues despite recent ground-breaking trade talks between India and Pakistan that promise to normalise relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
India has been building its defences against China and has developed missiles that can threaten a vast region from eastern Europe to Australia.
Pakistan's missile programme, which is in the hands of the military, is more India-specific. It strives for a capability to threaten as many major Indian cities as possible.
Defence experts say that while the exact range of the Pakistani missile has not been revealed, it is capable of hitting targets up to 2,500 to 3,000km (1,550 to 1,850 miles) away - putting arch-rival India well within reach.
The Agni-V long-range intercontinental ballistic missile launched by India last week has a range of more than 5,000km (3,100 miles), potentially bringing targets in China within range.
Pakistan's last test was last month, when it launched the short-range nuclear-capable Abdali missile.
The missile tested on Wednesday landed in the sea, the military said. It is a version of the Shaheen-1 - with improvements in range and technical capabilities - and is able to carry nuclear and conventional warheads.
The military say that the missile - which successfully hit its target in the Indian Ocean - further consolidates and strengthens Pakistan's deterrence abilities.
Pakistan's missile arsenal includes short, medium and long range missiles, all named after Muslim conquerors. | Pakistan has test fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile, military officials say, less than a week after India also test-launched a long-range missile. | 17836625 |
Economy Secretary Ken Skates said the Heads of the Valleys Development Company (HOVDC) should make "faster progress" with the scheme in Ebbw Vale.
It is claimed the project could create up to 6,000 jobs.
A spokesman for the Circuit of Wales said it welcomed Mr Skates' "desire for a speedy resolution".
In July 2016 Mr Skates said the firm had to find at least 50% of the budget and underwriting from private sources.
But on Wednesday, he told AMs he was "concerned" the scheme had been "publicly debated for many years" without sufficient private finance being found.
"The people of Ebbw Vale deserve to know if this project is going ahead and crucially if so when," he added.
Brian Meechan, BBC Wales business correspondent
It is a very significant move because ultimately it is the latest sign of growing frustration from the Welsh Government about how this company has been approaching this project.
Initially the company came to the Welsh Government and said it wanted 100% of the project, over £400m, underwritten by taxpayers.
The Government said to go away and look at that again as it may look at potentially underwriting half of it.
But it is believed ministers still haven't heard anything concrete from the company about who its investors are and whether it has the money in place.
The company has been trying to get that extra funding - it brought in a merchant bank to find that extra investment.
With this deadline, the ball is very firmly in the Circuit of Wales' court.
There are many people in the business community, including investors, that privately are not sure about the strength of the business case for this project.
"I am keen to avoid more opportunity costs associated with the project that does not have a final date.
"I have therefore written to the Heads of Valleys Development Company today asking them to make faster progress on this project and asking for evidence to be provided to me of named investor term sheets within the next two weeks."
The partners claim the development could attract 750,000 visitors a year and inject an estimated £50m into the Welsh economy annually.
Although insurers Aviva have been named as the scheme's likely financial backers, HOVDC has been in negotiations with ministers over the taxpayer shouldering some of the risk.
Earlier this year the firm announced Extreme Sports Company as its new business partner.
A spokesman for the Circuit of Wales said it welcomed Mr Skates' "desire for a speedy resolution which ties in with our own proactive timetable". | The firm behind the £425m Circuit of Wales race track in Blaenau Gwent has been given two weeks to show it has enough financial backing. | 38751116 |
The owner believed the "exceptionally sized" stone was a piece of costume jewellery when she bought it at West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth, west London, in the 1980s.
Unaware it was a 26 carat, cushion-shaped white diamond from the 19th Century, she wore it daily for decades.
The stone goes under the hammer at Sotheby's in July.
The head of the auction house's London jewellery department, Jessica Wyndham, said: "The owner would wear it out shopping, wear it day-to-day. It's a good looking ring.
"But it was bought as a costume jewel. No-one had any idea it had any intrinsic value at all. They enjoyed it all this time.
"They'd been to quite a few car-boot sales over the years. But they don't have any history of collecting antiques and they don't have any history of collecting diamonds. This is a one-off windfall, an amazing find."
Ms Wyndham said the owner - who does not want to be identified - assumed it was not a genuine gemstone because it was in a "filthy" mount and it did not have the sparkle of a diamond.
She added that because the older style of diamond cutting was "slightly duller and deeper" than nowadays "it could trick people into thinking it's not a genuine stone".
"With an old style of cutting, an antique cushion shape, the light doesn't reflect back as much as it would from a modern stone cutting. Cutters worked more with the natural shape of the crystal, to conserve as much weight rather than make it as brilliant as possible."
After about 30 years of wearing the ring, the owners took it to Sotheby's when a jeweller told them it may be valuable.
"They came in with the idea that it might be real and they had no idea of its value," Ms Wyndham said.
"We had a look and... got it tested at the Gemological Institute of America."
She added: "The majority of us can't even begin to dream of owning a diamond that large." | A diamond ring bought for £10 at a car-boot sale 30 years ago is expected to fetch £350,000 at auction. | 39995908 |
A landslide in February caused substantial damage on Undercliff Drive in Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
The OnTheWight website reported that a new road appeared over the weekend and was being used by residents.
The Isle of Wight Council and contractor Island Roads said the road was "unauthorised and unapproved" and access was being blocked.
A letter to residents from Island Roads, which maintains the island's highways under a Public Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme, said Hampshire Constabulary had been notified about potential trespassers on the site.
Gary Smedmore, whose caravan park business has been affected by the lack of access, told OnTheWight: "We're not prepared to just sit back, the council have been so lax."
He said 150 tonnes of material had been used in building the new road and dismissed accusations of it being unsafe.
Homeowner Barbara Wright who has been in rented accommodation since February, said the new road was built with the "best of intentions" and reflected the residents' frustrations with a local of action from the council.
The landslide happened during reconstruction of the road.
A four-mile detour was put in place. Eight families are still living in rented accommodation after being evacuated from their homes.
Last month Isle of Wight Council agreed to spend £500,000 researching a solution to the repairing the road, which is on a still-active landslip.
Mrs Wright, who was not involved with building the makeshift road, said: "They're not giving us any information - we have no confidence in them, we don't think they can afford the work needed."
A joint statement from the council and the road operator about the makeshift road said: "Its safety cannot be verified.
"We cannot allow vehicular access to the site. Therefore we will, as a matter of urgency, take the necessary steps to once again prevent vehicular access whilst we conduct a full safety assessment.
"It remains the intention to undertake a scheme to provide long-term access to these properties."
Further discussions are taking place between councillors, council officials and contractors to decide how to deal with the makeshift road. | Residents whose homes have been cut off for eight months have built a new road without the council's knowledge. | 29753356 |
Painted advertisements for products and services that have long gone, but the signs have remained.
Cataloguing and photographing them before they fade completely is Teessider John Rymer's passion.
His Facebook page - Ghost Signs UK - is an indication of how far interest has spread.
"The biggest viewers are from the UK, then the United States," he said.
"But we go all the way down to China, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Turkey.
"Virtually every country in the world has appeared on there."
The sign Mr Rymer spotted first, and which got him hooked, is a huge painted advertisement overlooking Redcar bus station.
The paint is flaking, the letters are becoming more indistinct, but it is still possible to make out the 1940s message urging travellers to use the United bus service.
"I just like the fact that somebody 70 years ago would be looking at that and there it is, still here, after the person who painted it is long gone," he said.
One so called ghost sign in the north of England has recently been repainted.
Displayed on a gable end on York's Lord Mayor's Walk, the 1920s sign proclaims the efficacy of bile beans.
The money needed to repaint the sign, about £2,000, was raised by the people of York in less than a week.
"When we decided to repaint it the public response was absolutely overwhelming," said Sir Ron Cooke, former chairman of York Civic Trust.
"There were hundreds of people who expressed an interest in it.
"It brings a smile to people's faces, everybody driving along this very busy road tends to look at it and grin."
A lot of the signs are fading and some argue they should be listed, like buildings of architectural merit.
"Unfortunately you would have to have an agency that would be responsible for them," Sir Ron said.
"At the moment nobody owns them, so it's public goodwill that keeps them going."
Fifty miles north of York another sign, from the 1930s, is still trying to persuade Middlesbrough's motorists to buy Esso petrol.
Like many others it too is fading and, if it cannot be listed and no-one is really responsible for it, the question remains as to how long it will last for future generations. | They are reminders of another age and, if you start to look, so called ghost signs seem to be everywhere. | 21352439 |
The 30-year-old, who made the last of his 16 appearances for Wales in 2012, has been unable to recover from a third operation to cure the problem.
Bishop joined Ospreys in 2005, making 209 appearances for the region.
"If there is ever a player who illustrates everything that an Osprey should be, it's Andrew," said coach and former team-mate Steve Tandy.
"It's been a privilege to work with him, both as a coach and playing alongside him from when he first came into the squad as a youngster."
Tandy described Bishop as a "tough cookie".
He added: "His consistency was his trademark, which is why he made such an impact and managed so many appearances, year in, year out, despite having to compete with some great players in his position.
"It's a sign of his quality that despite that competition for places, he was such an influential member of the squad over 11 years, playing a big part in our various successes on and off the field."
Bishop was capped at all age-grade levels by Wales before winning his first senior cap on the South Africa tour of 2008. | Ospreys and Wales centre Andrew Bishop has been forced to retire because of a back problem. | 34472719 |
The meeting in Aberystwyth was organised by campaign group Traws Link Cymru which revealed its hopes for a 90 minute service between the two towns.
The line closed in 1965 and at that time the journey took almost three hours, stopping at over 20 stations.
But reinstating the 56-mile line could cost around £650m. The group is trying to get funding for a feasibility study.
The meeting heard that around 3% of the track bed has been built on but Traws Link Cymru said that was no obstacle to reopening the line.
Ceredigion AM Elin Jones was at the meeting and said she would arrange for members of the group to meet with Economy, Science and Transport Minister Edwina Hart during the next few months. | Over 100 people attended a meeting amid hopes a rail link between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen can be reopened. | 30844784 |
The Blues were ahead inside seven minutes when Nemanja Matic flicked on Eden Hazard's corner for Diego Costa to smash home.
A David Luiz free-kick struck the post, before Pedro played in Hazard, who rounded Kasper Schmeichel to slot in.
Luiz hit his own post when clearing a cross, but Victor Moses' finish after a one-two with substitute Nathaniel Chalobah completed the scoring.
Leicester, who left Riyad Mahrez on the bench for the first time in 36 league games, failed to register a shot on target as they struggled to cope against Chelsea's aggressive pressing and quick passing.
Defeat leaves Claudio Ranieri's side with eight points from their first eight games - the joint second lowest haul by a defending Premier League champion, along with Chelsea's team of last season.
Relive Chelsea v Leicester
Since joining Chelsea from Leicester this summer, N'Golo Kante has found himself doing slightly less of the defensive work that established him as such a prized midfielder at the King Power Stadium.
But he continues to enjoy the gift of being in the right place at the right time and this was another excellent performance from the France international - who is clearly missed by Claudio Ranieri's side.
However, much of Chelsea's success in stifling the visitors came courtesy of their wing-backs. When Marcos Alonso - making his home debut - harried Danny Drinkwater high up the pitch to win the ball back and deliver a dangerous low cross, he was repeating the pattern set by Moses on the opposite right flank.
Instead we saw the other side of Kante's game. The 25-year-old would have scored Chelsea's third had it not been for Foxes captain Wes Morgan, who made a brilliant block after a Costa cross spilled off Schmeichel's legs to leave the goalmouth exposed.
And his perfectly weighted through ball deserved a better finish from Moses, who eventually did settle the points for certain when latching on to a delightful flick by 21-year-old English midfielder Chalobah - making his senior home debut after six loan spells away from the club.
On Thursday, several bookmakers suspended betting on Chelsea boss Conte being the next Premier League manager to lose his job.
The Italian laughed off the rumours in his news conference on Friday -"I am trying to find out who put the money on" - but some may have wondered if there would be a sign of weakness in his side's performance.
There was not. Chelsea began with real swagger and Costa's early goal was the end product. The Premier League's top scorer gambled on a late move to the back post and, as Morgan did not stay with him, was left with an easy finish for his seventh of the campaign. It took the 28-year-old Spain striker until January to reach that total last season.
The dipping Luiz free-kick that crashed against the post would have been a fitting second, so when Hazard found himself through on goal after a slightly lucky bounce it was hard to deny a 2-0 lead was deserved. The Belgium winger showed superb composure for his third goal from eight matches this season - compared to four from 31 last term.
And one of the finest flourishes came from Conte himself. There was a huge round of cheers from the home crowd when he brilliantly trapped a misplaced long pass that plummeted down into his technical area.
The fans will have found it hard not to have been incredibly impressed by their team's performance - especially after what they witnessed over 2015-16.
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri: "When you concede a goal from a corner again it is clear: you come to Chelsea and your attention must be at the maximum. We made mistakes. We tried to react and the second half was much better. Now we must react because we have the Champions League on Tuesday.
"If we scored the goal when we create a chance we can re-open the match. But our approach to the match was not good. Maybe we were a little nervous.
"It is better that this happens now and we can react than at the end of the season. We must concentrate more.
"We miss him [N'Golo Kante] - but we have to play better."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte: "It was a good game. From the start I asked them to play well with intensity and to try to do what we are doing in training.
"I am very happy because I had a good reply. This is the best game for us. I saw good commitment. When you work hard it is important to have a good performance.
"In the week, we tried a lot to find a solution that gave us more compactness. For this team and squad this system is the right fit. The coach must understand and find the right suit. We are like a tailor."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 live:
"It's a very worrying time for Leicester. They've found out that getting to the top is one thing but staying there is quite another."
Former Leicester captain Matt Elliot on BBC Radio Leicester:
"It was a very, very bad day at the office for Leicester. Chelsea looked likely victors from the absolute start."
Leicester return to the Champions League on Tuesday with a home match against FC Copenhagen of Denmark (19:45 BST kick-off), before hosting Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday (15:00).
Chelsea entertain Manchester United in the Premier League at 16:00 next Sunday.
Match ends, Chelsea 3, Leicester City 0.
Second Half ends, Chelsea 3, Leicester City 0.
Foul by Marcos Alonso (Chelsea).
Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Marcos Alonso (Chelsea) left footed shot from the left side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Diego Costa.
Corner, Leicester City. Conceded by Nathaniel Chalobah.
Corner, Leicester City. Conceded by César Azpilicueta.
Attempt blocked. Daniel Drinkwater (Leicester City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Foul by Marcos Alonso (Chelsea).
Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Substitution, Chelsea. Ola Aina replaces Victor Moses.
Substitution, Chelsea. Ruben Loftus-Cheek replaces Eden Hazard.
Goal! Chelsea 3, Leicester City 0. Victor Moses (Chelsea) right footed shot from the right side of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Nathaniel Chalobah with a through ball.
Eden Hazard (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Daniel Drinkwater (Leicester City).
Corner, Chelsea. Conceded by Daniel Amartey.
Corner, Chelsea. Conceded by Kasper Schmeichel.
Attempt saved. Nemanja Matic (Chelsea) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Eden Hazard.
Foul by Nemanja Matic (Chelsea).
Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Leicester City. Andy King replaces Marc Albrighton.
Attempt missed. Diego Costa (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Nathaniel Chalobah following a corner.
Corner, Chelsea. Conceded by Wes Morgan.
Attempt blocked. N'Golo Kanté (Chelsea) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Hand ball by Islam Slimani (Leicester City).
Substitution, Chelsea. Nathaniel Chalobah replaces Pedro.
Substitution, Leicester City. Riyad Mahrez replaces Jeffrey Schlupp.
Substitution, Leicester City. Islam Slimani replaces Ahmed Musa.
Diego Costa (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Daniel Drinkwater (Leicester City).
Pedro (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Christian Fuchs (Leicester City).
Attempt saved. Victor Moses (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by N'Golo Kanté.
Corner, Leicester City. Conceded by Marcos Alonso.
Attempt missed. Marc Albrighton (Leicester City) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Daniel Drinkwater.
Attempt missed. Ahmed Musa (Leicester City) right footed shot from outside the box is too high following a set piece situation.
César Azpilicueta (Chelsea) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by César Azpilicueta (Chelsea).
Ahmed Musa (Leicester City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Victor Moses (Chelsea) wins a free kick in the defensive half. | Chelsea condemned defending Premier League champions Leicester to a fourth consecutive away defeat with a dominant display at Stamford Bridge. | 37594219 |
Most of us know someone who has had to cope with a diagnosis of cancer, with the treatment, and then with the worry that it might return.
In recent years, treatments have made real improvements, but often it is still a matter of prolonging life by just a few months.
Now, at last, some scientists are daring to hope that one approach might lead us to our best hope of a cure.
In the last two years, attention has turned to a form of cancer treatment called immunotherapy. This aims to turn the power of our own immune systems against tumours.
Until recently, immunotherapy has been a poor relation to more traditional approaches, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Results in the last couple of years have excited cancer specialists. But the timing could hardly be worse.
Positive results have begun to come in just as the world's financial systems started to wobble, and the usual sources of money have become less easy to find.
Venture capitalists, charities and governments not only have less money to spend, but they are less prepared to spend it on "risky" bets - including unproven cancer therapies.
In the US last year, a team at the University of Pennsylvania reported a major breakthrough for immunotherapy - dramatic improvement in three leukaemia patients. Two appeared to be cancer-free a year after treatment.
Results in the UK have been similarly dramatic.
Newsnight has had exclusive access to a groundbreaking immunotherapy trial, in Manchester.
The trial, led by Professor Robert Hawkins at the Christie Hospital, is at the cutting edge of work on one part of the immune system - so-called killer T cells that can attack and kill cancer cells.
These killer T-cells are in the body's frontline of immune defences.
Scientists have already found that they can stimulate their production using drugs, but the approach under trial at the Christie involves taking killer T-cells from a patient's own tumour, and growing these up to form a colony of millions in the laboratory.
The idea is to create an attacking army of killer T-cells to safely re-inject into the patient.
Ben Perdriau, and his wife Joanne, flew from Australia to take part in the trial.
He was diagnosed with melanoma in 2010.
Last year he found it had spread to his brain, and now his body has developed resistance to conventional drugs. He is only the third person to try this pioneering new treatment here in the UK.
"The goal is to look to something with a more promising and durable response and complete response that can last for several years, if not indefinitely," said Mr Perdriau.
"So the therapy that's being developed and being administered is something that does hold that promise. So that's why I'm here, putting my hand up for it," he added.
The treatment matters so much for him because his tumour has developed resistance to the best that chemotherapy can offer.
The operation to remove a part of his melanoma went well.
The team found relatively few killer T-cells in Ben's sample, but these grew well in the lab, and will be ready to re-inject into Ben in early August.
Prof Hawkins says that whilst nothing is certain, the treatment does have a 50/50 chance of working.
Funding hurdles
Head of London's Institute of Cancer Research, Prof Paul Workman explained that although there was a great deal to be excited about in the latest cancer research, getting it out of the laboratory was still difficult.
Scientists at his institute recently published exciting work on one form of immunotherapy, making use of a virus that can hitch a ride on red blood cells, so that it travels straight to a tumour, kills the cancer cells, and also triggers the immune system to attack - a bit like a vaccine.
The problem is, not only is it increasingly hard to find money to pay for such research, but also to find the money and the partners to make sure it gets out in to small and large scale trials in patients, and beyond into the commercial world as treatments.
"Right now we've got a combination of the most exciting science and the most frustrating financial situation," said Prof Workman.
"We've got the cancer genome, we've got immune approaches. We've got incredible science and incredible ideas and we can't fund it. So we have to come up with creative approaches," he added.
He said there needed to be a partnership between industry, government and non-profit organisations - charities and philanthropy to bridge the "'valley of death between excellent basic science and pharmaceutical development."
Prof Workman thinks while "good efforts" are being made by the government, funding basic science, universities and research institutes as well as making it easier for the biotech industry to operate would help ensure the UK stays at the cutting edge. "I think more can be done," he added.
Britain's largest cancer charity has found it so hard to secure money and partners that it has set up its own cancer investment fund.
Cancer Research UK's commercial arm is spending ??25m, with equal funding from Europe, on this new investment strategy.
One of the major problems facing cancer treatment today is that patients develop resistance to even the best in cancer drugs.
They need a new weapon, and many scientists believe that harnessing the power of our immune systems is their best hope.
Watch Susan Watts' report on the promise of immunotherapy in cancer, and the funding "crunch", on
Newsnight
tonight at 10.30pm on BBC Two. Or afterwards on BBC iPlayer or the Newsnight website. | Immunotherapy aims to use the body's immune system against tumours, but a struggle to find funding might hamper this cutting edge research. | 18874083 |
New results from a trial in Devon show muddy water entering a beaver wetland is three times cleaner when it leaves.
The farmers' union, NFU, warns that beavers brought back to Scotland have damaged fields and forestry.
But Prof Richard Brazier, who runs the Devon trial, says farmers should thank beavers for cleaning up farm pollution.
Unpublished preliminary results from his tests for Exeter University showed that a pair of beavers introduced six years ago have created 13 ponds on 183m of a stream.
The ponds trapped a total of 16 tonnes of carbon and one tonne of nitrogen - a fertiliser that in large quantities harms water supplies.
During heavy rains, water monitored entering the site has been thick with run-off soil from farm fields - but the soil and fertilisers have been filtered out of the water by the network of dams.
"We see quite a lot of soil erosion from agricultural land round here (near Okehampton)," he told BBC News.
"Our trial has shown that the beavers are able to dam our streams in a way that keeps soil in the headwaters of our catchment so it doesn't clog up rivers downstream and pollute our drinking and bathing waters.
"Farmers should be happy that beavers are solving some of the problems that intensive farming creates.
"If we bring beavers back it's just one tool we need to solve Britain's crisis of soil loss and diffuse agricultural pollution of waterways, but it's a useful tool."
He said beavers could also play a part in natural flood protection. "The public is currently paying people to build leaky dams to keep storm waters in the uplands," he said. "The beavers can do it free of charge and even build their own homes. They are busy as beavers. It's a no-brainer."
Another soil expert, Professor Jane Rickson from Cranfield University, is yet to be convinced about the multiple benefits of these hard-working, continental night workers.
She told BBC News any beaver dams must be "leaky" - so they don't hold back large volumes of water that might be released all at once in an extreme flood event.
She agreed that in some places the UK was suffering a crisis of soil loss, and said new policies were urgently needed.
But, she said, beavers might reduce the river channel, increasing the risk of flooding - or, in areas of poor cover, they might remove vegetation, expose soil and thus increase erosion.
A spokesperson from the Environment Agency was also lukewarm about beavers, saying: "Natural and hard flood defences both have an important role in keeping communities safe - though introducing beavers does not form part of our approach."
The authorities are wary of mass beaver re-colonisation of England, following the controversy over beaver re-introduction in Scotland - where they are now protected species after a trial by the Scottish government.
In Tayside, some land owners have angrily complained about beaver damage to commercial forests and fields, and others objected to the £2m cost of the trial.
The NFU's Mark Pope told BBC News that the right policies must be put in place for any widespread beaver re-introduction in England.
"The knowledge of the impacts beavers have had to farmland, riverbanks and flood defences in Scotland is concerning. We await the (formal) results of the Devon trial and will analyse the outcomes then," he said.
Prof Brazier said the benefits of beavers would become more clear over time.
Meanwhile, Mark Elliott from Devon Wildlife Trust told BBC News the two beavers in north Devon had massively improved the habitat for other wildlife.
He said: "They have been marvellous. In 2011 when we put the beavers in, we had 11 clumps of frogspawn in the wood; this year we had 681. Obviously that supports herons and grass snakes that are feeding on the frogs.
"We shouldn't be surprised - beavers were part of our landscape and so many creatures evolved alongside them."
Beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK for their pelts and for a gland near the anus which produces a secretion that was used in traditional medicine.
The Cornwall Wildlife Trust has joined with a farmer to bring back beavers in the hope of controlling storms flows into the flood-prone village of Ladock. They are trying to raise cash for the project through crowd-funding.
Follow Roger on Twitter. | Beavers should be re-introduced to England to improve water supplies, prevent floods and tackle soil loss, a researcher says. | 40048762 |
The 24-year-old was confronted by specialist firearms officers on Bankfaulds Avenue in Kilbirnie.
Armed officers were called after locals reported smashed windows and a man waving a machete. Police Scotland said a crossbow was fired at them.
The injured man is being treated in hospital for injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening.
It is believed to be the first time officers have used their guns since the formation of Police Scotland.
Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said: "A 24-year-old man has been shot by police following the alleged discharge of a crossbow at officers around 12:15.
"The man had earlier - around 05:30 - barricaded himself within a property in Bankfaulds Avenue, Kilbirnie, Ayrshire.
"He has been taken by ambulance to Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, for treatment. At this time it is not considered that his injuries are serious nor life threatening."
Mr Graham said the incident would be referred to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC).
He added: "No other people were injured in the incident which concluded at 12:20.
"Police are not seeking anyone else in connection with this incident. Inquiries are continuing." | Police have shot a man following a siege in North Ayrshire which started in the early hours of Saturday morning. | 35794085 |
In an interview for the Associated Press, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said her son told her in a phone call that he and his brother, killed in a police manhunt after the blasts, were innocent.
Mr Tsarnaev, who was shot and injured during the manhunt, is currently being held in a prison hospital.
Last month's bombings left three people dead and more than 260 others injured.
Mrs Tsarnaeva told AP that it was the first conversation she had had with her 19-year-old son since he has been held in custody.
He told her he was getting better but was struggling to comprehend what had happened.
"He didn't hold back his emotions either, as if he were screaming to the whole world: 'What is this? What's happening?'" she said.
"I could just feel that he was being driven crazy by the unfairness that happened to us, that they killed our innocent Tamerlan."
The Tsarnaev family has continued to claim the men's innocence in the bomb attacks, which targeted the finishing line of the Boston Marathon on 15 April.
The family, who are ethnic Chechen Muslims from Russia, spoke from an apartment in the Russian republic of Dagestan which reportedly belonged to 26-year-old Tamerlan, who was hit in a shoot-out with police in the aftermath of the bombings.
The suspects' father, Anzor, said they bought the apartment in anticipation of Tamerlan and his family moving to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.
"All I can do is pray to God and hope that one day fairness will win out, our children will be cleared, and we will at least get Dzhokhar back, crippled, but at least alive,'' he told AP.
Meanwhile, the father of a Chechen immigrant who was shot and killed during a violent confrontation with Boston Marathon investigators has accused agents who killed his son of being "bandits".
Ibragim Todashev, 27, admitted a role in a triple murder near Boston in 2011 and implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the crime, authorities said.
However, no evidence has emerged to link Mr Todashev to the bombings.
On 22 May, he was shot and killed in Orlando, Florida.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, his father, Abdul-Baki, showed 16 photographs that he said were of his son in a Florida morgue.
He claimed his son had six gunshot wounds to his torso and one to the back of his head. However, the photos have not been authenticated.
There are conflicting reports about the events that led to Todashev's death, with law enforcement officials initially saying he was shot after attacking an FBI agent with a knife but later saying they were not clear about what happened.
Ibragim's father says his son was "100% unarmed" and has called for an investigation into his death.
"These are not FBI agents but bandits - I cannot call them anything else and they must be tried," he said.
His son met Tamerlan Tsarnaev at a boxing gym in Boston in 2011 but they were "not particularly close friends", he adds. | Surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has recovered enough to walk, his mother says. | 22725542 |
Ward took Ben Osborn's pass and slotted past Dimi Konstantopoulos to give them the lead against the run of play.
The home side had long spells of possession, but missed key chances as Emilio Nsue headed over from close in, while Grant Leadbitter hit the bar.
Hull's win at Fulham moved them above the Teessiders, who dropped to second.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Forest, who also saw Osborn's shot strike a post, started with a game-plan to stifle the home side and executed it to perfection to secure a first win on Teesside since February 1993.
Boro's impressive home defensive record, without a goal conceded in 851 minutes at the Riverside before kick-off, was in little danger during a first half lacking in action.
Jack Hobbs' mis-kick was the nearest the visitors came to a goal, as Boro enjoyed the best of the play, with David Nugent, Tomas Kalas and Cristhian Stuani all unable to connect with teasing deliveries into the box.
Dougie Freedman's side continued to frustrate Boro after the break, with occasional forays from Oliver Burke causing the home side some concern on the break.
Both sides struck the woodwork and then Nsue's miss from three yards out ramped up the anxiety around the Riverside, before Ward's finish eventually broke the deadlock.
Aitor Karanka's side tried to lift a sizeable home crowd, with roars for a penalty when Fernando Amorebieta went down under Gary Gardner's challenge, but they were unable to avoid a first league defeat since August.
Middlesbrough head coach Aitor Karanka:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"Losing at home is disappointing, but it's not just the game today it's the last three games now. They have been really poor.
"We've lost two games but we're still in the top two and I'm really optimistic.
"I know the reason for the problem but I prefer to fix it on the training ground. The problem is when you're in a bad run and don't know why - but I know the reason.
"With these players we're at the top of the table. We've got two weeks to work and I want to transmit a positive message. It's not by chance we're near the top of the table."
Nottingham Forest boss Dougie Freedman:
"It's a big result for us. The last time Forest won here Mr Clough was in charge, so it's been a long time.
"That was our toughest match of the season because they grind you down and never stop going.
"We stopped Middlesbrough in the right areas. They were not getting shots from the edge of the box or playing one-twos in front of the area.
"Give us credit for not letting them get time and space. We believed from the first 10 or 15 minutes that we could win this." | Jamie Ward's goal sealed victory for Nottingham Forest against pre-match leaders Middlesbrough, and extended their unbeaten run to 12 games. | 35330588 |
The home side were set to resume on 223-4, 300 runs ahead, with opener Keaton Jennings on 105 not out.
Rain during the morning meant that a prompt start was impossible.
And umpires Rob Bailey and Nigel Cowley took the decision to abandon play for the day shortly before 14:45 BST after inspecting conditions in the middle. | Durham were denied the chance to press home their advantage against Somerset as bad weather prevented any play on day three at the Riverside. | 36026468 |
The Bulls were condemned to a second year in the Championship after Wakefield won the play-off game 24-16.
Lowes, who also works as England assistant coach, said defeat may force the Bulls to become a part-time club.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"If this is the future of rugby league I won't be in it," he said.
"I just don't think it's the way forward for the game.
"We've got 17 blokes down there who could potentially lose their jobs in one game after they've worked so hard to put themselves in a good position.
"It's not guaranteed that we will remain full-time unfortunately. Marc [Green, Bulls chairman] is fantastic, but we're limited by a budget."
It is the first season that the play-off has been introduced to decide the final Super League spot.
Bradford earned their place in The Qualifiers - a group of eight teams consisting of four Super League and four Championship sides competing for four top-flight spots at the end of the season - by finishing second in the Championship after 23 games.
Wakefield coach Brian Smith said Super League's split format is a disadvantage to those teams outside the Super 8s.
"It's like going to the Olympics in the 400m and starting at the 450-metre mark," said Smith.
"From within it's thoroughly debilitating. It's almost impossible to talk about next season.
"The other eight clubs have been able to have a running start on us and they're going to get another running start next season.
"It's so much harder for clubs that don't have the finances to compete with those at the top."
All four Super League teams that featured in The Qualifiers have maintained their Super League status, with Wakefield joining Hull KR, Widnes and Salford. | Bradford Bulls head coach James Lowes threatened to quit rugby league after his side failed to win promotion back to Super League through the Million Pound Game. | 34434439 |
Eleven premises in Essex, Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, London and the West Midlands were raided by HM Revenue and Customs officers earlier.
Four men from Essex were detained, one from Hertfordshire and one from the West Midlands.
Vehicles and paperwork were also seized from the properties.
The premises - both business and residential - were searched simultaneously as part of a "wide-ranging investigation into suspected tobacco excise duty and VAT evasion, and associated money laundering", codenamed Operation Nipper. | Six men have been arrested in a series of raids by officers investigating a suspected £22m tobacco smuggling and money laundering operation. | 33539841 |
Vaughan Dodds, 45, who used to work for Durham Police, claimed he was housebound but spent the money on holidays and his children's private school fees.
Dodds, of Spennymoor, had denied a string of dishonesty charges when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court.
But he was convicted of nine charges and jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Dodds was a PC with Durham Police from 1993 until 2007 when he was dismissed for conduct reasons, a force spokeswoman said.
From February to November 1998 he was a member of the armed protection team based at Mirabella, the constituency home of the then Prime Minister and Sedgefield MP Tony Blair.
The hearing heard how Dodds claimed he could not walk more than 10 metres because he had myalgic encephalopathy (ME), and that his wife Mandy was also ill and hypersensitive to sound.
But a jury heard that the couple had gym membership and enjoyed a number of family foreign holidays.
The father-of-two was accused of fraudulently claiming income support, council tax relief and disability living allowance between 2005 and 2009.
Filling out forms to claim money, Dodds said that even the sound of toilet tissue being ripped was distressing for his wife, the hearing heard.
He claimed he had difficulty making main meals for himself and needed help getting out of bed.
But the court saw film footage of the pair at the gym and pictures of them on holiday riding a camel.
Graham O'Sullivan, prosecuting, said: "The prosecution make no bones about it. We say this money was dishonestly obtained.
"We say it was used by Mr Dodds and his wife to fund a comfortable lifestyle - a lifestyle this couple could not otherwise have afforded."
Judge Graham Cook said that the case was made worse because Dodds was a serving officer who should have known the difference between right and wrong.
Nigel Soppitt, defending, said prison would be "bleak and stark" for the former officer. | An ex-police protection officer for Tony Blair has been jailed after he swindled more than £50,000 in benefits. | 34551032 |
The Valiants negotiated a release from the remaining 12 months on McGivern's contract following Hibs' relegation from the Scottish Premier League.
The 24-year-old made 70 appearances for the Easter Road club after originally joining on loan from Manchester City in August 2012.
He signed a two-year deal last year under then Hibs boss Pat Fenlon.
But new Hibs manager Alan Stubbs has decided to let the full-back leave as he rebuilds for the new Scottish Championship season.
Newry-born McGivern's move to Hibs was his sixth loan deal since signing professional forms with City in 2008, having made 68 appearances in English league football with Morecambe, Leicester City, Walsall, Crystal Palace and Bristol City.
He is the second arrival of the summer at Vale Park, following the arrival of Colin Daniel from Mansfield Town. | Port Vale have signed Hibernian and Northern Ireland defender Ryan McGivern on a two-year contract. | 28093952 |
Engineer Peter Johnston has submitted the idea to the Lego Ideas website, which invites suggestions for new sets.
The skyline includes tenement flats, Finnieston Crane, Glasgow University, the Squinty Bridge and the Duke of Wellington Statue, famed for its cone.
To be successful, the project needs to reach 10,000 backers and then be approved for production.
So far it has only 160 supporters, but has a year to hit its total.
Mr Johnston's design also features the Glasgow Science Centre Tower, which he says is true to life because it "also doesn't rotate".
He told BBC Scotland he was optimistic that if his models get the support that the Glasgow skyline kits could make the grade.
Mr Johnston's enthusiasm for Lego has even seen him build a copy of his wedding venue, Cloghan Castle in Ireland, including favours for the guests on the big day. | A Lego fan from Glasgow has recreated the city's skyline in a bid to get his designs immortalised in plastic. | 35709803 |
Some find themselves self-employed because the people they work for prefer it that way.
When Norwich hair salon owner Barry Alan started out in the business, he was an employee. He's employed stylists in the past.
Not any more.
Today, all seven of the stylists working in Mr Alan's large central Norwich hair salon are what are called "chair-renters".
Instead of paying his stylists a weekly salary, Mr Alan shares the money customers pay with them.
You simply divide the money by whatever percentage you as the salon owner and the stylist have agreed, Mr Alan says. "If they are hungry to succeed and do well, the rewards are there."
Chair-renting is administratively simple for his business, Mr Alan says, and there are other advantages.
Because his stylists are freelance, Mr Alan doesn't have to pay Employers' National Insurance or in-work employee benefits such as paid maternity leave, sick pay, holiday pay or redundancy.
Most important of all, he doesn't have to worry about the weekly wage bill he'd have to find if his stylists were employees - particularly after the new £7.20 an hour Living Wage comes into force in April 2016.
"The happy-go-lucky Barry would be no more," Mr Alan says. "You would see a very stressed-out guy who is constantly looking at whether he can cover his overheads."
Mr Alan says he now provides extensive training, but having to pay staff as employees would make that harder.
"I'd be in a situation where I'd have to say 'sorry, Miss Young Graduate Stylist, we can't support you for two years because the minimum wage has gone up so we're going to have to let one or two of you go'."
Stylist Eden Spark was trained in Barry Alan's salon. Four years later, she is one of his "chair-renters".
"I think it's a good way to do it", Ms Spark says. "It makes you work hard and makes you ambitious."
Despite having none of the usual in-work employee benefits, Ms Spark says the chair-renting arrangement works for her.
"I like being my own boss," she says. "And I'm not really sick that much."
In this new class of freelancer, self-employed because they're not wanted as employees, some are far from happy.
When the national courier company Citilink suddenly collapsed last Christmas, the RMT union discovered that, despite the smart green-and-yellow livery people saw when parcels were delivered, most of Citilink's drivers weren't employees of the company.
"The public have a perception that these people are directly employed," RMT deputy general-secretary Mick Lynch says.
"But we found 78% of the drivers were in fact self-employed. They had to pay for their own vans, for the painting of the vans and for their uniforms."
Instead of wages, Mr Lynch says, self-employed Citilink drivers were paid a fixed fee per delivery.
"When there's low levels of work they get no pay, when there's high levels of work they get overworked," Mr Lynch says.
"The risk that Citilink had was exported to the workers and of course that makes them vulnerable."
Mr Lynch says Citilink's business model was based on employed drivers until the company embarked on a programme of making staff drivers redundant in the early 2000s.
"Drivers were given the choice of coming back as self-employed," Mr Lynch says.
"Many felt there was no choice because if they didn't take the self-employed basis they would have no work at all."
John Manners-Bell of the consultancy Transport Intelligence says the Citilink model is now commonplace in the courier industry.
"It all comes down to cost," Mr Manners-Bell says. "It's much cheaper for companies to use self-employed drivers than to have them on their payroll."
Mr Lynch says similar transfers, from staff to self-employment, are now commonplace in some sectors of British industry.
For some workers, being off the books can be financially beneficial.
Manchester-based IT support consultant Peter Meace is 58. He gets work through specialist recruitment agencies, which connect him with clients wanting to use his services, and travels to wherever he's contracted to work.
Mr Meace says he's better off self-employed because he benefits from another feature of the new British workplace: the so-called "umbrella company".
Umbrella companies stand between agency workers and their clients, processing client payments and dealing with tax and National Insurance.
They are also designed to save tax.
Mr Meace says the tax benefits his umbrella delivers more than justify the £35 a week it charges him.
"Things such as money I spend on mileage or accommodation become tax-deductible," Mr Meace says.
"In some contracts I've been spending £800 a month on expenses, but they go as tax-deductible items and I don't pay tax on them."
In a month where he spends £800 in expenses, Mr Meace reckons, the umbrella saves him approximately £300.
Employers hiring agency workers also benefit.
Not only do they not have to pay for in-work benefits and taxes, fierce competition between recruitment agencies also means some of the tax savings consultants like Peter make get passed on in the form of lower charges for their services.
Umbrella companies emerged in the late 1990s as a service for better-paid agency workers. But, because of their tax efficiency, umbrellas quickly spread though the IT industry encouraging employers to switch from employees to agency staff working through umbrellas.
Between 2013 and 2014 alone, the Freelancer and Contractor Services Association says, the number of people working through umbrella companies increased by almost 25%.
To deal with the growing demand, hundreds more umbrella companies sprang up, many offering services to employers in far lower-paid sectors.
Meredith McCammond, an expert in employment taxes for the lower-paid at the Institute of Taxation, says some umbrellas began adopting more aggressive tax avoidance strategies to compete for business and maintain their profit margins.
"Some employees have been encouraged to claim expenses that aren't legitimate or are over-inflated," Ms McCammond says.
"Not only does the worker make a tax saving when they use an umbrella company, but the umbrella company itself saves on their Employers' National Insurance in respect of any aspect of the worker's salary that can be attributed to those travel costs."
Ms McCammond says agency workers are often unaware of the potential danger they are in.
"We've seen cases where workers have come in with their payslips and haven't been able to understand what these various deductions are, and it's clear that the umbrella company has put through a flat amount of, say, £5 a day for a worker's lunch, even if the worker has taken a packed lunch from home," Ms McCammond says.
"It was fairly standard practice for some umbrellas to put through a flat sum of, say, £30 a day for subsistence costs," she added.
"Employers saved the National Insurance on that £30 a day, employees saved some tax and National Insurance and, if and when HMRC come knocking, it could be many years later."
Employment tax consultant Sue Ollerenshaw says competition between umbrellas and recruitment agencies is particularly intense in sectors like road freight transport.
"There's more and more downward pressure on margins," Ms Ollerenshaw says.
"Agencies are looking to be able to supply drivers at a rate where they can still make a profit. And, at the bottom of the market, the non-compliant agencies are putting intolerable pressure on the agencies that do want to comply because, by using non-compliant models, they are able to offer drivers at very, very competitive rates."
In his recent Budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne promised to take action against some of the more outlandish avoidance techniques some umbrellas have been using.
But, if recent history is any guide, the attractions to employers of keeping workers off the books will mean someone is likely, once again, to come up with a new tax ploy for avoiding employment taxes which nobody - including the UK tax authorities - has yet thought of.
Listen to The New Workplace at 12:00 BST on Saturday 15 August on BBC Radio 4, repeated on Sunday 16 August at 21:00 BST, or listen again on BBC iPlayer. | A desire to work for yourself is not the only reason the number of self-employed workers in the UK has been soaring. | 33886041 |
Essex Police were called to a holiday park in St Osyth, Essex, after reports of an assault at 00:10 BST.
The suspect, a man in his 20s, ran off when they arrived and waded out into deep mud where he became stuck.
Two police officers managed to get him back to nearby marshland where he could not be moved "due to his size".
Sgt Alex Southgate, who was called to the scene near Point Clear, said the man had gone out into the mud after running across a beach and marshland.
"PC Richmond and I waded out into the mud to detain him and prevent him from sinking further," he said.
"We were able to get [him] back to the marshes but due to the onset of hypothermia, he collapsed and due to his size, sat heavy in the mud."
Coastguards arrived shortly after 01:20 but it was still difficult to move the man, an Essex Police spokesman said.
When firefighters arrived, the emergency services worked together and managed to move the man to an ambulance which took him to hospital. | A police suspect who became stuck in waist-deep mud when he tried to run away from officers had to be rescued by firefighters and the coastguard. | 32912951 |
Vavra directed more than 50 films from the 1930s onwards, including 12 during the Nazi occupation of his country.
Golden Queen, winner of top prize at the 1965 San Sebastian film festival, and 1967's Romance for Bugle, are considered to be among his best works.
In the 1950s he helped to set up Prague's Famu film school.
Forman, who won two best director Oscars - in 1976, for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and in 1985, for Amadeus - was among his students there.
Vavra also taught Jiri Menzel who directed films including Closely Observed Trains, winner of the best foreign language film Oscar in 1968.
FAMU dean Pavel Jech hailed Vavra as "one of the most significant people in the history of Czech cinema and the teacher of the most important Czech film generation".
But Vavra's critics complained his films followed Communist ideology too closely. | Czech director and teacher Otakar Vavra, whose students included One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest director Milos Forman, has died in Prague aged 100. | 14947676 |
Between 10cm and 50cm of rain has fallen in seven provinces, and storms stretching 1,600km (1,000 miles) are sweeping across central and southern China.
At least 45 people are missing and 33 million are affected, officials say.
The rain has also washed away railway lines and shut down road networks.
The dead included 23 people who were killed in a mudslide in Guizhou Province and eight who died in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province when a section of a wall collapsed, state media said.
Heavy rain is forecast to continue until Wednesday across parts of southern and western China, the South China Morning Post reported. | More than 180 people have been killed in flooding along the Yangtze River in China following torrential rain, officials say. | 36702293 |
Defoe pounced on Lukasz Fabianski's mistake to score, but Swansea equalised with Gylfi Sigurdsson's penalty.
Kyle Naughton was controversially sent off for a foul on Yann M'Vila but Andre Ayew put the Swans ahead by half-time.
Patrick van Aanholt's deflected shot levelled and Defoe struck twice to secure a second successive league win.
Relive Sunderland's victory at the Liberty Stadium.
Sunderland have now leapfrogged arch rivals Newcastle into 18th in the Premier League table, just one point and one place below Swansea.
Despite Defoe's heroics, it was referee Graham Scott who found himself as the centre of attention, with doubts hanging over three of the six goals as well as the seemingly harsh dismissal of Naughton.
Joining the select group of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Harry Redknapp and David Moyes, Sunderland's Sam Allardyce became only the fifth manager to reach 450 Premier League games.
Media playback is not supported on this device
The former Bolton and Newcastle boss did not have to wait long to celebrate the landmark, as Defoe put Sunderland ahead after just three minutes.
Fabianski inexplicably hit his goal-kick straight to Adam Johnson and was then only able to parry Fabio Borini's shot, allowing Defoe to tap in from what appeared to be an offside position.
Allardyce's elation soon turned to anger, however, as Swansea equalised in similarly dubious fashion.
Referee Scott awarded the hosts a penalty for what seemed like a Wes Brown trip on Ayew, but replays appeared to show the Ghanaian forward had fallen over his own feet.
Sigurdsson confidently converted the spot-kick, much to Allardyce's visible fury on the touchline.
If Defoe's opener and Sigurdsson's equaliser were debatable, Naughton's dismissal was a controversial flashpoint which prompted a vitriolic backlash from the home crowd.
The Swansea right-back won the ball from M'Vila but, having done so with studs showing, Scott showed him a red card.
Swansea interim manager Alan Curtis - who waited to confront the official at the interval - claimed Scott got "all the major incidents wrong", adding Naughton "clearly won the ball".
Despite the setback, his side initially responded well to their numerical disadvantage as Ayew latched on to Fabianski's clearance and scored with a powerful drive.
The Swans were not ahead for long though, as four minutes after the restart Van Aanholt's 20-yard shot deflected off Federico Fernandez and flew into the top corner.
While Allardyce was presiding over his Premier League milestone, this was Curtis' first since being named Swansea's manager for the rest of the season.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Curtis' side defended raggedly throughout and there was a certain inevitability - and, once more, controversy - to Sunderland's third goal.
Defoe was offside as he collected Johnson's through ball but linesman Mark Perry did not raise his flag and the Sunderland striker finished calmly.
The England international striker was then perfectly placed to slide in from Van Aanholt's excellent cross to put the game beyond doubt with his fifth goal in two games.
Swansea, who are 17th in the Premier League table, remain just one point above Sunderland and Newcastle immediately below them.
Swansea manager Alan Curtis: "The first goal and third are clearly offside decisions. You can recover but when you play with 10 men for an hour, that's the one that killed us more than anything."
Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce: "We manipulated or played with the situation as it panned out. That's all we can do. We have taken the opportunity rightly or wrongly to win the game. For us it's an unbelievable win. Today it's an enormous, enormous, enormous three points to give us encouragement and hope going forward."
Sunderland will look to make it three Premier League wins from three when they travel to Tottenham on Saturday at lunchtime, while Swansea host Watford at the Liberty Stadium on Monday night.
Match ends, Swansea City 2, Sunderland 4.
Second Half ends, Swansea City 2, Sunderland 4.
Offside, Swansea City. Lukasz Fabianski tries a through ball, but Bafétimbi Gomis is caught offside.
Attempt saved. Bafétimbi Gomis (Swansea City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Jack Cork.
Substitution, Swansea City. Jack Cork replaces André Ayew.
Foul by Angel Rangel (Swansea City).
Danny Graham (Sunderland) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, Sunderland. Duncan Watmore replaces Jeremain Lens.
Goal! Swansea City 2, Sunderland 4. Jermain Defoe (Sunderland) right footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Patrick van Aanholt.
Foul by Angel Rangel (Swansea City).
Jermain Defoe (Sunderland) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Swansea City. Conceded by Patrick van Aanholt.
Substitution, Sunderland. Danny Graham replaces Fabio Borini.
Offside, Sunderland. Jeremain Lens tries a through ball, but Adam Johnson is caught offside.
Corner, Swansea City. Conceded by Patrick van Aanholt.
Patrick van Aanholt (Sunderland) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Modou Barrow (Swansea City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Patrick van Aanholt (Sunderland).
Substitution, Swansea City. Bafétimbi Gomis replaces Wayne Routledge.
Federico Fernández (Swansea City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jeremain Lens (Sunderland).
Corner, Sunderland. Conceded by Angel Rangel.
Attempt missed. Neil Taylor (Swansea City) left footed shot from the left side of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Substitution, Sunderland. Jack Rodwell replaces Lee Cattermole.
Ki Sung-yueng (Swansea City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Lee Cattermole (Sunderland).
Corner, Swansea City. Conceded by Adam Johnson.
Offside, Sunderland. Fabio Borini tries a through ball, but Jermain Defoe is caught offside.
Foul by Ashley Williams (Swansea City).
Jeremain Lens (Sunderland) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Vito Mannone (Sunderland) is shown the yellow card.
Modou Barrow (Swansea City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Patrick van Aanholt (Sunderland).
Neil Taylor (Swansea City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Billy Jones (Sunderland).
Offside, Swansea City. Gylfi Sigurdsson tries a through ball, but Angel Rangel is caught offside.
Attempt saved. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Swansea City) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Angel Rangel.
Goal! Swansea City 2, Sunderland 3. Jermain Defoe (Sunderland) right footed shot from the right side of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Adam Johnson with a through ball.
Corner, Sunderland. Conceded by Modou Barrow.
Corner, Sunderland. Conceded by Angel Rangel. | Jermain Defoe struck a hat-trick as Sunderland dragged 10-man Swansea closer to the bottom three in a game packed with refereeing controversy. | 35239701 |
The kidnapping was reported by Syrian state media and confirmed by a member of the official opposition leadership.
Yohanna Ibrahim is head of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo and Boulos Yaziji leads the Greek Orthodox Church in the city.
They are the most senior Christian clerics caught up directly in the war.
It was not immediately clear who had kidnapped them.
Christians made up about 10% of the mainly Sunni Muslim country's population before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began just over two years ago.
According to the UN, at least 70,000 people have been killed overall in the civil war and more than one million are now living as refugees in neighbouring countries.
State TV announced that an "armed terrorist group" had kidnapped the two bishops as they carried out "humanitarian work in Aleppo countryside".
Abdulahad Steifo, a Syriac member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, said the men had been kidnapped on the road to Aleppo from the rebel-held Bab al-Hawa crossing, which is close to the Turkish town of Reyhanli.
Asked who was behind their abduction, he said: "All probabilities are open."
Christian residents of Aleppo, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP news agency that gunmen had killed the bishops' driver.
In an interview with BBC Arabic's Saeed Shehada a week ago, Bishop Ibrahim said he was optimistic about the future of Christians in Syria:
"There is no persecution of Christians and there is no single plan to kill Christians. Everyone respects Christians. Bullets are random and not targeting the Christians because they are Christians," he said. | Militants in a rebel-held area of northern Syria have abducted two bishops travelling from the Turkish border back to the city of Aleppo. | 22259631 |
Media playback is not supported on this device
His side bounced back from the 16-16 draw in Ireland to beat Scotland 27-23 in Cardiff.
After France, Wales face England at Twickenham on 12 March before hosting Italy in Cardiff.
"If we can beat France then you're potentially playing England for the Championship," said Gatland.
"That's what it boils down to. That's taking nothing away from Italy in the last game, but if we win the next two the motivation will be there against Italy at home.
"But one step at a time."
Wales, who have won their last four matches against France, trailed until the 65th minute against Vern Cotter's Scotland team before tries from Jamie Roberts and George North broke the visitors' resistance.
The New Zealander singled out man of the match Roberts and winger North for special praise after their match-winning exploits.
"We had a couple of chances and we took those chances," he added.
"Jamie Roberts was man of the match and deserved to be, and we saw something special from George North too.
"Sometimes you need that in games, you need someone to do something special for you.
"It was a tough game - we had to dig deep and we had to grind out a victory.
"We had to use everything we had in the tank with the six day turnaround it was tough as well."
Gatland also praised the impact of the substitutes, with Gethin Jenkins, Bradley Davies and Dan Lydiate - all with more than 50 caps to their names - helping Wales see out the win.
Roberts says Wales need to produce a markedly improved performance to beat France.
"In every facet, we need to improve our defence certainly, we need to improve our attack," Roberts told BBC Wales Sport.
"But we did some good stuff, and we need to look at the positives, improve on the positives, and the negatives as well."
Roberts' midfield partner Jonathan Davies says the Harlequins centre's efforts are a barometer for Wales' performances.
"Jamie's showing great form at the moment - in a rich vein of form - and when he plays well, we play well we normally get the result," said Davies. | Wales coach Warren Gatland wants to set up a Six Nations showdown with England by beating France in Cardiff on 26 February. | 35571550 |
Dr Fiona Godlee has written to Jeremy Hunt about recent comments where, she says, he has implied the higher weekend death risk is due to poor staffing.
She says the study used to back this up - published in her journal in September - did not apportion blame.
But the government said there was enough evidence to support the claims.
The study has been repeatedly used by Mr Hunt.
He has found himself at loggerheads with the British Medical Association, which owns the BMJ, over the junior doctor and consultant contracts.
The research identified what it called a "weekend effect" in England.
It said over the year studied - 2013-14 - there had been 11,000 excess deaths from Friday to Monday.
This was based on an analysis of hospital records, which found an admission on Fridays led to a 2% increased risk of death compared with Wednesdays, on Saturdays it was 10%, on Sundays 15% and Mondays 5%.
But the study said it was not clear exactly how many of these could have been avoided as the researchers could not be sure they had fully taken into account the fact that patients admitted at weekends tended to be sicker than those admitted during the week.
It said it would be "misleading" to conclude all these deaths could have been prevented.
But it also said the findings raised "challenging questions" about weekend services that could not be ignored.
The research was carried out by seven leading doctors and statisticians, including NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh.
After the study was published, Sir Bruce said the "moral and social case for action is simply unassailable".
But Dr Godlee has taken issue with comments made by Mr Hunt recently.
In the House of Commons last week, he said the seven-day changes were "about the fact that someone is 15% more likely to die if admitted on a Sunday than on a Wednesday because we do not have as many doctors in our hospitals at the weekends as we have mid-week".
Asked about the junior doctors' protest on Saturday Mr Hunt told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What we want is to change the balance of pay between weekdays and weekends so we don't force hospitals to roster three times less medical cover at weekends and what that leads to is a 15% increase in your chance of dying if you're admitted at weekends compared to a weekday."
In the letter to Mr Hunt, Dr Godlee says: "I am writing to register my concern about the way in which you have publicly misrepresented an academic article published in The BMJ.
"This clearly implies that you believe these excess deaths are avoidable."
Dr Godlee calls on Mr Hunt to clarify his comments.
Responding on behalf of Mr Hunt, Health Minister Ben Gummer said: "Significant independent clinical evidence shows increased mortality in our hospitals at weekends linked to reduced clinical cover.
"The BMJ authors themselves acknowledge that - and any debate about precisely how many of the thousands of deaths are avoidable misses the point.
"What all doctors want is to provide the best care for their patients, and the public rightly expect the highest standards whichever day of the week they are admitted to hospital - the government is committed to supporting that." | The health secretary has misrepresented a key study used to back the case for more seven-day NHS care, the editor of the British Medical Journal says. | 34598335 |
Police said the driver crashed in Maidstone Road, Rochester, on Saturday after he failed to stop for officers in nearby Delce Road.
The road was closed for several hours following the accident shortly before 19:00 BST.
Kent Police said officers from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) attended the scene.
It is not yet known whether the IPCC will lead the investigation into the crash. | A man in his 40s was killed when his car crashed while being pursued by Kent Police. | 33667842 |
The High Court in Edinburgh was told Andrew Cairns, 40, was restrained by the officers in the incident in Inverness last July.
He has been jailed for five years and seven months for his part in an effort to supply £100,000-worth of drugs.
Another man, Mark Hammersley, 52, of Manchester, has also been jailed.
The father-of-six was sentenced to five years and three months.
Judge Lord Turnbull said both men would have faced seven-year sentences but for their guilty pleas.
Hammersley had earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and amphetamine on 15 July last year at a house in Inverness and elsewhere.
Cairns pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine at the house on the same date. | A man who jumped from a window in an effort to evade a police drugs raid in Inverness landed in front of several officers, a court has heard. | 35371036 |
The 32-year-old joined Hull in 2012 and played 22 times last season as they were relegated to the Championship.
He faces competition for a starting spot at Leicester from first-choice goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, 30.
"I'm going to fight and I'm here to push. A healthy competition is always good and that's only a positive thing," Jakupovic told LCFC TV.
The Bosnia-born keeper has flown out to Hong Kong to join the Foxes squad for the Premier League Asia Trophy.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Leicester City have signed goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic from Hull City on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee. | 40652822 |
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) owns the site, which includes Scotland's only funicular railway and the UK's highest restaurant.
The centre is managed by CairnGorm Mountain Ltd (CML), which became a subsidiary of HIE in 2008.
The enterprise agency said it had always been clear that it would not run CML long-term.
The site will remain in public ownership.
HIE's decision to advertise for a new operator follows an options appraisal, carried out last year by consultants Ernst and Young.
During the appraisal, nine organisations said they were interested in taking over the operation and developing the resort.
An advertisement has been placed in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Charlotte Wright, HIE's director of business and sector development, said the centre presented a great opportunity for the right operator.
She said: "CairnGorm is not only well established as one of the UK's premier snowsports centres, the funicular railway has helped make it a year-round attraction.
"It's important to stress that neither the estate nor the funicular is being put up for sale. HIE will retain public ownership of both the land and the infrastructure.
"What we're seeking is an operator with innovative ideas and the capacity to invest so that a sustainable future can be secured for this important local business."
HIE's handling of the snowsports centre has been criticised in the past.
In 2010, MSPs said the public agency's failure to take account of risks to the running of the funicular railway led to "spiralling" costs.
The Scottish Parliament's audit committee reviewed HIE's spending on the railway.
In a report, the committee said threats such as warmer winters' effect on skiing were not taken in account.
At the time, HIE said it recognised the MSPs' criticism of earlier decisions.
The agency had provided £19.42m - almost £5m more than expected - towards the £26m cost of building and running the funicular.
In 2010, HIE said it spent up to £4m over three to four years on maintaining the facility.
Audit Scotland also investigated HIE's backing of the railway.
In 2009, the public spending watchdog said a decline in skiers was among risks to a mountain railway not taken into account before it was built.
The funicular was opened in 2001 and connects a base station with the Ptarmigan Restaurant 1,097m (3,599ft) up Cairn Gorm mountain. It is used by skiers and tourists. | A new operator is being sought for the CairnGorm Mountain snowsports centre near Aviemore. | 21653741 |
The spokesman said President Maduro had ordered that any manager in five key ministries who signed the petition should be sacked.
The petition is the first step towards a referendum which could see Mr Maduro ousted.
Mr Maduro has been in power since 2013.
He is a supporter of the "Bolivarian Revolution", the socialist movement his predecessor in office, Hugo Chavez, founded.
Government critics argue that their socialist policies have driven Venezuela into a severe economic crisis.
They have called for a recall referendum to be held this year to remove Mr Maduro from the presidency and trigger fresh elections.
They handed in a petition to that effect in May signed by almost two million people, many more than the 1% of registered voters they needed.
On Monday, Socialist Party (PSUV) spokesman Jorge Rodriguez said that those in senior public positions who had signed the petition would have to leave their posts.
"Today, by order of the [governing Socialist] party president Nicolas Maduro, five ministries ... cannot have people that are against the Revolution and the president in management positions".
He said that President Maduro had given the ministries of food, basic industries and finance among others a deadline of 48 hours to dismiss those in senior positions who had signed the petition.
The announcement follows reports by pressure groups and opposition parties that public sector workers who had signed the petition were pressured and sometimes sacked.
Opposition politicians behind the drive for a recall referendum say the government is doing everything in its power to try to derail, or at least delay, the referendum.
The electoral authorities have told the opposition that they can only start collecting signatures in late October for the second petition needed to trigger a referendum.
Timing is key as the date when the referendum is held will determine what happens next.
If a referendum should go against the president before 10 January, new elections will be held, which the opposition hopes to win.
But if it is held after that date and Mr Maduro is recalled, his loyal vice-president will serve out the end of his term until 2019.
The opposition has called on its supporters to join a protest march on 1 September to demand that the electoral authorities allow the referendum to go ahead before the 10 January, which marks the day when Mr Maduro will have served four years in office. | Venezuelan public sector workers who signed a petition backing a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro could face dismissal, a spokesman of the governing Socialist Party said. | 37164447 |
Yangzhou, a city in east China, broke the record held by Turkey, cooking 4,192kg of fried rice.
But celebrations were short-lived after pictures emerged showing the rice being loaded into waste lorries.
Guinness World Records disqualified the attempt as humans did not eat the food.
The event organisers claimed the rice would be sent to local canteens, but Yangzhou's tourism bureau - which supervised the event - said that 150kg of "inedible" rice was sent to pig farms.
Sharon Yang, the Greater China marketing director of Guinness World Records, said: "Following a further review of the evidence, it is now clear that over 150kg of fried rice was not fit for human consumption.
"We will not be able to accept claims for large food items if they prove to be inedible, or if they are prepared in such a way as to make them unfit for general consumption."
Fried rice is Yangzhou's signature dish, combining rice, eggs, chicken, ham, shrimp, scallop and vegetables. | A Chinese city that broke the world record for the largest serving of fried rice has been stripped of its title after some of the dish was used as pig feed. | 34639641 |
The Dow Industrials climbed 83.55 points to 17,716.66.
The S&P 500 index rose 8.94 points to 2,063.95, while the Nasdaq index was up 22.67 to 4,869.29.
On Tuesday, Fed chair Janet Yellen said the central bank should "proceed cautiously" when it came to raising interest rates.
"Yellen's comments allowed investors to breathe a sigh of relief that the Fed will not be raising rates in April," said Sam Stovall, US equity strategist at S&P Global Market Intelligence in New York.
Shares in Apple rose 1.8% after analysts at Cowen raised their target price for the company's shares.
Yoga-wear maker Lululemon jumped 10.7% after it reported better than expected profits.
US insurer MetLife rose 5.2% after a court ruled that regulators could not label it "too big to fail".
The decision also boosted the shares of AIG 2.1% and Prudential Financial 2%.
Shares in Boeing fell 1.8% after it announced that 4,500 jobs would be cut. | (Close): Wall Street stocks had a second day of gains spurred by comments from US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen. | 35928318 |
Jacqui Beale, 48, from Derbyshire, suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung, and was left needing stitches to her face when she was attacked while walking her dog.
She and another victim, from West Yorkshire, are taking legal action.
The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said walkers "must be most aware of the issues" in the countryside.
Ms Beale said she thought she was going to die when she was attacked by eight cows in May.
The dog groomer, from Wirksworth, added: "I was bashed about by about eight cows. I remember being tossed from one to another and thinking I wasn't going to survive.
"All I could hear was snorting and breathing, it was terrifying."
Ms Beale, whose dog was on a lead at the time of the attack in May, managed to get herself to safety and now wants to warn others.
Source: National Farmers' Union
Grandfather-of-five Mike Pace, from Huddersfield, was trampled while walking along a public footpath with his wife Gill on holiday in Abersoch in Gwynedd, Wales, in August.
The 55-year-old said: "This black bullock that had been staring looking menacing charged me and threw me up in the air and then the other cattle just started trampling me.
"While on the floor I had a conversation with myself thinking I was going to die. I told myself I'd had a good life."
Mrs Pace escaped unharmed, but her husband spent more than a month in hospital and still needs crutches to walk.
Sally Gray, a personal injury specialist at Slater and Gordon, is representing a number of people who have been injured by cattle.
"When it comes to public liability and the risk owed to the public, farmers have been advised not to put calves and their mothers in fields that are open to the public together," she added.
A spokesperson for the NFU said: "The countryside is a working environment where animals graze so it's important that people are mindful of this.
"Spring and summer are when we love to enjoy the countryside, so it is this time of year when walkers must be most aware of the issues." | Victims of cow attacks are warning walkers of the dangers of cattle kept in fields with their calves. | 40638354 |
In a trading update, the firm forecast a slight dip in revenue, to £257m, for the 12 months to 28 January.
But it said second-half trading was boosted by new product launches, such as Irn Bru Xtra and Rubicon Spring.
AG Barr also said it maintained "tight control" of costs, while a company-wide overhaul helped cut overheads.
The Cumbernauld-based firm, which also produces Snapple and Strathmore water, is investing £10m in its production and distribution centre in Milton Keynes.
In September, AG Barr announced it was cutting 90 jobs and was grappling with a shift in consumer tastes towards low-sugar drinks after the UK government announced plans for a sugar tax in 2018.
The job cuts, which accounted for about 10% of the workforce, were part of a company-wide revamp expected to cost about £4m.
In its trading update, AG Barr said it did not expect market conditions to improve this year.
It said: "Looking ahead, the uncertain economic environment indicates that 2017 will be another challenging year for UK-based businesses.
"However our strong and flexible business model, our differentiated brands and our well-invested asset base ensure we are well placed to continue to deliver long-term value to shareholders."
The company is set to report full-year results on 28 March. | Irn Bru maker AG Barr has said it is on track to meet full-year profit guidance, despite a "highly competitive" UK soft drinks market. | 38828913 |
Gillian Sawyer owed £2,735 for various periods up to 2010 and had failed to adhere to seven court orders for payment, South East Northumberland Magistrates' Court heard.
Sawyer, 48, of Plessey Road in Blyth, was previously given a suspended sentence for failing to pay and was jailed for 12 days.
Northumberland County Council said prosecution was the only option.
Colin Logan, head of financial and customer services, said: "The council has a duty to its paying residents to take action against those who will not pay.
"The council has no alternative but to continue to bring council tax defaulters to court in order to ensure payment is received for essential local services.
"Whilst sending someone to prison is a rare occurrence and will usually only happen in the worst cases, it can and will happen."
He urged anyone with payment difficulty to contact the council. | A woman has been jailed for failing to pay her council tax. | 32240504 |
Tata Sons, the holding company, is now trying to force out its former chairman, Cyrus Mistry, from all parts of its vast business.
It is trying to remove him from the boards of several subsidiaries such as Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals, and Tata Steel.
Mr Mistry was sacked as overall chairman last month, out of the blue.
The surprising move soon exposed a saga of bitter disagreement at board level, with claim and counterclaim thrown around to the general astonishment of onlookers.
Among the latest developments - which have been compared to the plot of a Bollywood drama - Mr Mistry has rejected claims that he mishandled an allegation of harassment at the group's hotel business.
The allegation has gained widespread traction in the Indian media as one of the reasons for his sacking, though that claim itself has not formed part of the group's public explanation for Mr Mistry's sudden sacking.
A nine-page counterblast to Mr Mistry was published on Thursday which finally detailed some of the company's complaints against its former chairman.
It spoke of low profits, rising debts and poor management of key business projects, such as the sale of its UK steel businesses.
Mr Mistry was also removed from his post as chairman of one key subsidiary, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), on Thursday.
But a source close to him accused TCS of acting beyond its powers and in a "cloak and dagger" fashion.
The source claimed that no board meeting of TCS was called to discuss the proposal from Tata Sons to oust him, nor was there a formal discussion of the matter.
"In pre-mediated haste, by a letter of the same date, TCS has directly gone on to announce that Mistry stands replaced," said the source.
"The hasty actions appear to have been done at night.
"Cloak and dagger machinations with little regard to due process of law has come to define the angry strategy of the Ratan Tata camp."
Now, as part of further efforts to oust him from the wider empire, Tata Sons has called an extraordinary shareholder meeting at Tata Motors - which owns among others Jaguar land Rover - to remove him from the board there.
A similar meeting has now also been called at Tata Chemicals, Tata Steel and Indian Hotels.
Despite these moves, Mr Mistry retains support from some senior colleagues.
Some board members at Indian Hotels and Tata Chemicals have said he should stay in post as their chairman.
It has not yet been announced when the special shareholder meetings will be held. | The bitter feud at the top of India's giant Tata industrial empire is continuing in full spate. | 37952814 |
The 23-year-old woman was brutally assaulted on a bus and died two weeks later.
Her death led to days of huge protests across India in a wave of unprecedented anger.
The case forced the introduction of tough new laws to punish sexual offences. The four men are expected to be sentenced on Wednesday.
Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta denied charges including rape and murder, and lawyers for three of the men said they would appeal against the convictions.
By Dilnawaz PashaBBC Hindi, Delhi
Policemen had been deployed to guard the families of the accused on verdict day and there were many journalists on the streets of Ravi Dass Nagar colony in south Delhi.
Pawan Gupta's home had been locked from the outside, but his young sister was indoors. At one point she shouted out: "Why are you making our lives hell?"
A 20-year-old woman who lives close by said: "They should be punished within the law. Instead of setting examples the court would be better giving justice in all cases and not in some particular cases."
Another woman, a neighbour of Vinay Sharma, said: "All rapists should be punished like these poor boys." But she added: "He was never a bad boy. It is hard to believe that he committed such a heinous crime."
Many other local women expressed their concern, but said they did not want to be associated with the accused in any way.
Anger and calls for justice in Delhi
They face the death penalty over the attack on the physiotherapy student after being found guilty of rape, murder and destruction of evidence.
Dozens of reporters as well as protesters calling for harsh sentencing gathered outside the court to await the verdict.
"Hang Them! Hang Them! Hang Them!" the demonstrators chanted soon after the verdict was passed down.
"I convict all of the accused. They have been found guilty of gang rape, unnatural offences, destruction of evidence... and for committing the murder of the helpless victim," Judge Yogesh Khanna pronounced.
Arguments ahead of sentencing will begin on Wednesday morning, he said.
The rapists were on an out-of-service bus when they tricked the 23-year-old woman and a male friend into boarding it.
Police said the assailants beat both of them and then raped the woman. She died in a Singapore hospital on 29 December - 10 days after the attack - from massive internal injuries.
Before she died she was able to give evidence against her attackers from her hospital bed.
Her parents who were in court welcomed Tuesday's convictions.
"We are happy with the conviction. Now we expect the judge to sentence all of them to death," the victim's father told Indian media after the verdict.
Profiles: Delhi rapists
"We will get complete closure only if all the accused are wiped off from the face of the earth. This is what they did to our daughter most brutally."
The victim's male friend told AFP ahead of Tuesday's verdict that he "never imagined that one human being could treat another so badly".
"The rapists injured my friend in the most shocking ways while they beat me with a metal bar and dumped us near a highway.
"They wanted us to die. Now, I want them to die and she also wanted them to die... She wanted them to be set on fire."
But lawyers for the four convicted men say that their clients have been tortured and that some of their confessions - later retracted - were coerced.
Correspondents say that torture is a common occurrence in India's chaotic criminal justice system.
The case sparked a national debate on the treatment of women.
Tough new laws were introduced in March which allowed the death penalty - carried out very rarely in India - to be handed down in the most serious cases of rape.
Home Minister Sushul Kumar Shinde said the law should act as a deterrent for similar cases.
"Now if there is any such action [rapes] in future, the laws have been made very strict and those guilty of such crimes will surely be hanged," he said.
On 31 August a teenager who was found guilty of taking part in the rape in Delhi was sentenced to three years in a reform facility, the maximum term possible because the crime was committed when he was 17. He also denied all the charges.
Another suspect, Ram Singh, was found dead in his cell in March. Prison officials said they believed he hanged himself but his family allege he was murdered. | Four men have been found guilty of the fatal gang rape of a student in the Indian capital Delhi last December. | 24028767 |
The equinox occurs twice a year when the centre of the Sun passes directly over the equator.
But while many assume that day and night are equal in length on that day, this is not exactly the case.
At sunrise and sunset we clearly see the edge of the Sun for longer than its centre - so we are really seeing the star before the official sunrise.
Similarly, at sunset it is the edge of the Sun that we see last.
During these times and because of light being refracted by the earth's atmosphere when the Sun is below the horizon, we actually have light in the sky before sunrise and after sunset.
That gives us more light than dark during a 24-hour period.
So taking into account this twilight effect, the date on which day and night actually are equal in length, falls two or three days after the equinox in autumn and similar before the equinox in spring.
This date is the lesser known Equilux which fell on 25 September.
After the equilux, nights get longer in the autumn and days get longer in the spring.
Technically or astronomically, it means that during the period of a year, we should get a bit more light than dark.
However, what we actually get depends on another factor: The weather!
It's a big ask here in Northern Ireland, but could we have more clear skies than cloud please? | Most of us are familiar with the term equinox, indicating the start of spring in March and the start of autumn, which this year fell on 22 September. | 37482161 |
Speaking at a news conference in Sydney, the United boss said: "The club's position has not changed."
Moyes is also keen to discover how the bid to lure Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas to United is progressing.
Media playback is not supported on this device
He said: "I'm in contact with our chief executive who is dealing with the issue and hope to know more in a day or so."
Chelsea have already had one bid for Rooney rejected.
The 27-year-old has been left "angered and confused" by suggestions he is viewed as back-up to Robin Van Persie at United.
Blues boss Jose Mourinho has exploited the situation by issuing a World Cup warning to players who are "second choice" at their club, a statement widely viewed as a message aimed at Rooney.
The striker was at United's training complex on Thursday for ongoing treatment on his hamstring injury after flying home from the club's pre-season tour.
Manchester United are currently in Australia preparing for a match against the A-League All Stars in Sydney on Saturday.
The Premier League champions have yet to make any major summer signings, having missed out on Barcelona's Thiago Alcantara, although they continue to be linked with Everton duo Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines.
United have had a formal offer for Fabregas rejected by Barcelona, but executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has left United's pre-season tour to continue negotiations.
When asked what the latest position is, Moyes said: "I couldn't tell you exactly, the chief executive [Woodward] is dealing with it. Hopefully we'll know more in the next few days.
"We are trying very hard to make some additions. Hopefully there will be some good news in the not too distant future." | Manchester United manager David Moyes has again insisted Wayne Rooney is not for sale after Chelsea said the England striker is their sole transfer target. | 23371300 |
Jack Adcock, from Glen Parva, who had Down's syndrome, was admitted to Leicester Royal Infirmary on 18 February 2011 suffering vomiting.
He later suffered a heart attack and efforts to revive him failed.
Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba, Theresa Taylor and Isabel Amaro are due before Leicester magistrates on 23 January.
An inquest into Jack's death was adjourned in 2013.
Fiona Morrison, specialist prosecutor with the CPS Special Crime Division, said: "Having completed our review, we have concluded there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Dr Bawa-Garba, Sister Taylor and Staff Nurse Amaro to each face charges of gross negligence manslaughter."
A spokesperson for University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said: "We have been informed that three members of staff have been charged and will appear before magistrates in January.
"The staff concerned are not on clinical duties. The CPS have advised all concerned that further comment on this case will be prejudicial to a fair trial and hence there is nothing more we can say whilst these proceedings are in train." | A doctor and two nurses have been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence over the death of a six-year-old boy. | 30516542 |
Morata, who rejoined Real in June after a two-year spell at Juventus, finished after Celta Vigo goalkeeper Sergio had parried Marco Asensio's attempted chip.
The visitors quickly equalised through Fabian Orellana's powerful finish.
But Real, who hit the woodwork three times in the match, won it late on with Toni Kroos' composed finish.
The victory maintains Real's winning start to the season after they defeated Sevilla 3-2 in the Uefa Super Cup and Real Sociedad 3-0 in their La Liga opener last weekend.
Barcelona will move above Real Madrid on Sunday if they beat Athletic Bilbao.
Real dominated the game at the Bernabeu but were given a fright by a Celta Vigo side who finished sixth in La Liga last season.
Luka Modric hit the bar from 25 yards, before Gareth Bale's long-range free-kick also hit the woodwork as a Real side, without the injured Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, looked to make their dominance count.
Morata, who helped Real win La Liga in 2012 and the Champions League in 2014 during his first spell at the Bernabeu, put the hosts ahead before hitting the post moments later.
Real were ahead for six minutes before Orellana equalised in a rare Celta attack, but Kroos scored only his fourth La Liga goal in his third season at Real to win it.
Despite Ronaldo and Benzema missing through injury, there was still no place in Real's starting line-up for Colombian James Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, who joined Real in 2014 in a transfer that could be worth up to £71m, has failed to start a game this season and was only introduced after 69 minutes with the score at 1-1.
On Friday, Real coach Zinedine Zidane admitted Rodriguez's lack of playing time "could prove a problem" and admitted "some players" could leave the Bernabeu during the transfer window.
Zidane's quotes came after Spanish sports newspaper AS reported that Rodriguez would seek a move from the club if he did not start against Celta.
The transfer window closes on 31 August, with Real next in action on 10 September when they entertain Osasuna.
Match ends, Real Madrid 2, Celta de Vigo 1.
Second Half ends, Real Madrid 2, Celta de Vigo 1.
Attempt missed. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) left footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Mariano.
Attempt saved. James Rodríguez (Real Madrid) left footed shot from a difficult angle on the left is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Gareth Bale.
Corner, Real Madrid. Conceded by Facundo Roncaglia.
Attempt blocked. Lucas Vázquez (Real Madrid) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Mariano.
Corner, Celta de Vigo. Conceded by Raphael Varane.
Lucas Vázquez (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Pablo Hernández (Celta de Vigo).
Substitution, Celta de Vigo. Pione Sisto replaces Nemanja Radoja.
Attempt missed. Theo Bongonda (Celta de Vigo) header from the centre of the box is too high following a corner.
Corner, Celta de Vigo. Conceded by Marcelo.
Goal! Real Madrid 2, Celta de Vigo 1. Toni Kroos (Real Madrid) right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Lucas Vázquez.
Marcelo (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Orellana (Celta de Vigo).
Attempt saved. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Lucas Vázquez with a cross.
Corner, Real Madrid. Conceded by Facundo Roncaglia.
Marcelo (Real Madrid) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Orellana (Celta de Vigo).
Attempt blocked. Mariano (Real Madrid) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Lucas Vázquez.
Substitution, Real Madrid. Mariano replaces Álvaro Morata.
Substitution, Celta de Vigo. Pape Cheikh replaces Daniel Wass.
James Rodríguez (Real Madrid) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Cabral (Celta de Vigo).
Substitution, Celta de Vigo. Iago Aspas replaces John Guidetti.
Corner, Real Madrid. Conceded by Hugo Mallo.
Substitution, Real Madrid. James Rodríguez replaces Luka Modric.
Foul by Lucas Vázquez (Real Madrid).
Theo Bongonda (Celta de Vigo) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Goal! Real Madrid 1, Celta de Vigo 1. Orellana (Celta de Vigo) right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by John Guidetti.
Attempt missed. Gareth Bale (Real Madrid) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Lucas Vázquez with a cross.
Offside, Celta de Vigo. Sergio Álvarez tries a through ball, but John Guidetti is caught offside.
Substitution, Real Madrid. Lucas Vázquez replaces Marco Asensio.
Offside, Real Madrid. Luka Modric tries a through ball, but Daniel Carvajal is caught offside.
Álvaro Morata (Real Madrid) hits the right post with a right footed shot from the centre of the box. Assisted by Toni Kroos following a fast break.
Attempt missed. Casemiro (Real Madrid) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Goal! Real Madrid 1, Celta de Vigo 0. Álvaro Morata (Real Madrid) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner.
Attempt saved. Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Luka Modric.
Offside, Real Madrid. Luka Modric tries a through ball, but Álvaro Morata is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Marco Asensio (Real Madrid) header from the centre of the box is too high. | Alvaro Morata scored his first goal since returning to Real Madrid as he helped his team beat a stubborn Celta Vigo side and go top of La Liga. | 37179134 |
20 January 2017 Last updated at 09:50 GMT
Mr Paisley, son of former first minister Dr Ian Paisley, said Mr McGuinness's "remarkable journey not only saved lives, but made the lives of countless people better".
Mr McGuinness forged a friendship with the late Dr Paisley when they shared power at Stormont, despite previously being sworn enemies.
When Dr Paisley died, Mr McGuinness said he had lost "a friend".
On Thursday, Mr McGuinness confirmed he would not stand in the Northern Ireland Assembly election citing health issues. | Democratic Unionist Party MP Ian Paisley praises Martin McGuinness, former IRA leader turned politician, who is retiring from front-line politics. | 38686420 |
Voting closed on Thursday afternoon in the race to replace Nick Clegg, who resigned after a disastrous general election that left the Lib Dems with just eight MPs.
The winner, who will be announced on social media, is expected to address a party rally later in the evening.
Mr Farron, the former party president, is the bookmakers' favourite.
The left-leaning Westmorland and Lonsdale MP has said he wants to focus on rebuilding the party from the grassroots up, and on issues such as human rights, the environment, and building a "fairer and more equal society".
Mr Lamb, a health minister under the coalition government, said he wanted the party to be a "consistent and clear voice" standing up a liberal society.
After a post-election surge in membership, over 60,000 Lib Dem members were eligible to vote.
Former Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, who lost his seat in May, used a New Statesman article to urge the winning candidate to occupy the centre ground, and not become a "sort of soggy Syriza in sandals" - a reference to Greece's anti-austerity government.
Mr Alexander said the party should not make George Osborne's Budget a "political dividing line" but instead should attack the Conservatives over civil liberties and the environment. | The Liberal Democrats are preparing to announce whether Tim Farron or Norman Lamb will be the party's new leader. | 33545779 |
The Labour MP for Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire was killed in Birstall, on 16 June.
Mrs Cox had cut the turf at a ceremony at the start of construction on the £1.38m unit at Dewsbury District Hospital, in December 2015.
Her parents and sister took part in a short ceremony and unveiled a plaque dedicated to her.
Jean Leadbeater, Mrs Cox's mother, said: "Jo was an MP, a humanitarian, a wife, a sister and a daughter but most of all she was a mum and she would have been amazed at the birth unit.
"She knew how important it was to have units like this in our local community."
She also reminded staff at the hospital that both Mrs Cox and her sister, Kim, had been born there.
"This is my third visit and on the last two occasions we left with two amazing babies," Mrs Leadbeater said.
"Hopefully there won't be a third," she added, to much laughter.
Jules Preston, chairman of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust which runs the hospital, said: "When Jo came and cut the first turf it was always envisaged she would come back and open the place.
"To have that promise delivered through her parents and sister is just so gratifying." | The parents and sister of the late MP Jo Cox have opened a new birth centre at a hospital in her constituency. | 37787828 |
Thai Union, which owns the 'John West' and 'Chicken of the Sea' brands, is looking to increase earnings overseas to offset slowing sales at home.
The purchase comes days after it bought French smoked salmon producer MerAlliance, for an undisclosed amount.
The deal is expected to close later this year pending regulatory approvals.
Thai Union president and chief executive Thiraphong Chansiri called it a "relatively small, but highly strategic acquisition for our group".
"It will give us a unique position and an opportunity to build 'King Oscar' brand in the market worldwide and into our global brand portfolio," he said in a statement.
"In addition to organic growth, mergers and acquisitions will continue to be the company's key strategy for business expansion in both short and long term."
Thai Union said it was aiming to increase sales to $8bn (£4.9bn) by 2020 following the purchase of King Oscar, which is one of the world's largest suppliers of canned fish such as premium-quality sardines.
King Oscar has two factories in Poland and Norway that help churn out 90 million cans per year. The privately-owned company logged sales worth $80m last year.
Geir-Arne Asnes, chief executive of King Oscar said the deal marked an "expansive phase" for the brand globally.
"Now we will be part of one of the strongest seafood companies in the world," he said. | The world's biggest producer of canned tuna, Thai Union Frozen Products, is buying Norwegian seafood firm King Oscar, for an undisclosed sum. | 29206256 |
Playing their first League Cup game since 2008, Luton went ahead through Luke Rooney's penalty after Nathan Thompson handled in the area.
Michael Smith then levelled from the spot, after Nathan Byrne was brought down by Andy Drury, before slotting home his second from inside the box.
Former Swindon winger Rooney was sent off late on for a second booking.
Luton Town boss John Still told BBC Three Counties Radio:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"They're a good side and they played very well.
"I was really pleased with what we've done. We played a new system today which we wanted to try and which I was pleased with.
"The performance was OK, I was quite happy. I've got no problems - I was happy with the game."
Swindon Town manager Mark Cooper told BBC Wiltshire:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"The main thing we can take from the win is that we kept going and stuck to our principles.
"Even though we were a goal down, we kept going and stuck to our beliefs.
"It looked a dubious penalty but we kept passing the ball and we made Luton run.
"In the end I thought we wore them out." | Swindon came back from a goal down to beat 10-man Luton and reach the second round of the League Cup. | 28652358 |
The punishment from the Football Association has been suspended for four weeks and will not start until 8 July.
The 47-year-old was charged with misconduct by the FA in March after allegedly referring to Stephen Smith as a "retard" when the fan criticised him.
Oyston admitted five charges of breaking FA Rule E3 last Thursday.
The ban, which was handed out by an independent regulatory commission, will last until 18 August - 10 days after the start of the League One season.
Oyston was also ordered to attend a mandatory education session and warned about his future conduct.
He had previously admitted sending the "unacceptable" texts in response to "a barrage of abuse" he received after his phone number was put on social media.
Oyston has also apologised "unreservedly" for the messages, which were sent last November.
During the text exchange, he is said to have used a number of swear words and also allegedly called Smith "educationally subnormal" and a "sad act".
It is also claimed he told Smith to "enjoy the rest of your special needs day out".
In April, Championship side Blackpool became the first team from any of the top four divisions to be relegated.
The next day, their fans threw fireworks and eggs before their 1-1 draw against Reading in a protest against the club's owners. | Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston has been banned from all football activity for six weeks and fined £40,000 for sending abusive texts to a fan. | 33076683 |
It said that a "small number of coins" were affected when they were struck at a rapid rate during production.
The Royal Mint is striking 1.5 billion new 12-sided £1 coins, introduced to help crack down on counterfeiting.
Out of shape versions of the coin, considered collectors' items, are appearing on internet auction sites.
The Sun newspaper has spoken to a number of people reporting warped coins, although doubts have been raised about the cause of reported highly-damaged coins.
A spokeswoman for the Royal Mint, which produces three million new £1 coins a day at its headquarters in Llantrisant, South Wales, said: "The Royal Mint produces around five billion coins each year, and will be striking 1.5 billion new £1 coins in total.
"As you would expect, we have tight quality controls in place, however variances will always occur in a small number of coins, particularly in the striking process, due to the high volumes and speed of production."
The Mint has claimed the new £1 is the "most secure coin in the world", replacing the previous £1 coin, of which about one in 40 are thought to be fake.
Philip Munsell, director of Coin News magazine, told the BBC that only a tiny minority of these new coins would be affected, but that fact made them highly collectable.
"The thing about the Royal Mint is that they are very, very good with their quality control, so therefore if you have something that has passed through without being quality checked then it is likely to be collectable, it is likely to therefore be worth more than one pound," he said.
He said that if the middle of the two-piece £1 coin was missing, it would not get through the quality checks.
The new coin has a string of anti-counterfeiting details, including material inside the coin itself which can be detected when electronically scanned by coin-counting or payment machines.
Other security measures include an image that works like a hologram, and micro-sized lettering inside both rims.
However, it is not the first currency launch to have hit problems in recent months.
Vegans and some religious groups have voiced concerns about the new polymer £5 note introduced in September last year, as it contains a small amount of tallow, which is derived from meat products.
Meanwhile, the old £1 coin remains as legal tender until 15 October this year, after which shops are under no obligation to accept it.
Thickness: 2.8mm - thinner than old coin
Weight: 8.75g - lighter than old coin
Diameter: 23.43mm - larger than old coin
Number to enter circulation: 1.5 billion - about 23 per person. Old £1 coins will be melted down to make new ones
Outer ring: gold-coloured, made from nickel-brass
Inner ring: silver-coloured, made from nickel-plated alloy | Some new £1 coins - introduced into circulation last month as the "most secure coin in the world" - may be defective, the Royal Mint has admitted. | 39790777 |
Appearances at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association in Washington on 27 September and 18 October will earn him £69,992.
He was also due £28,454.40 for a speech on 17 October to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California.
Mr Osborne signed up with a US speakers agency after being sacked in July.
The total earnings of £98,446.40 was for four-and-a-half hours of work.
The parliamentary register also shows travel and accommodation expenses were covered by Mr Osborne's hosts.
Mr Osborne, who was chancellor between 2010 and 2016, is also paid £74,962 a year as the MP for Tatton in Cheshire.
He returned to the back benches after new Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet reshuffle.
Former prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Sir John Major, as well as ex-US president George W Bush, are also on the books of the Washington Speakers Bureau.
The company, which offers after-dinner speeches, describes Mr Osborne on its website as "a principled leader who served as the chief financial minister in the British Government" who was responsible for a "dramatic improvement" in the UK economy.
It says he is a "modern and renowned global leader" who offers audiences "authentic and forward-thinking analysis of the world's most complex economic issues, and the way forward for Britain and the world economy". | Ex-chancellor George Osborne has earned almost £100,000 for three speeches in the last two months, the parliamentary register of interests shows. | 37866413 |
As the Queen marks this milestone we asked you to share your "moments" with her from the past 63 years.
Here is a snapshot of 63 of your memories, one for each year of her reign.
1.
2. I met the Queen in 2000. I handed her a bunch of sweet peas that I picked from my garden. She said thank you and Prince Phillip gave me a wink! James Townson, Preston, England
3. I met the Queen in 1999 in Portsmouth for an Easter parade. I gave her the biggest egg and she asked me if there were any jewels inside. I just shook my head not really knowing what to say! Natasha Standley, Portsmouth, England
4.
5. I was four, I still remember having to practise curtsying before giving her some flowers. Jessica Mullett, Plymouth, England
6. I was two feet away from Her Majesty and I just pointed and shouted "Oh my [expletive] god, it's the Queen!" Mark Malik, London, England
7.
8. I was 10 when the Queen came to Paris in 1957. I remember she wore a blue dress with a hat that looked like a bathing cap. Alain Roger-Ravily, Paris, France
9. I met the Queen when I was at school at RAF Marham. My mum and dad had lunch with her. Apparently she eats slowly because when she finishes, they clear away everyone's plates! Barney Durrant, East Grinstead, England
10.
11. I was three or four. I ran up and gave her some flowers. My mum told me off because I didn't curtsy, but I pointed out I was wearing dungarees so couldn't. Heather Emerton, Bournemouth, England
12. I was in Pennsylvania to see the Liberty Bell. A man in a suit with an ear phone walked up to me and requested I leave as the Queen was going to view the bell. I was shocked and preceded down to the corner of the road. At this point a limousine stopped where I was standing as the Queen was right next to me. Robert Eldridge, Florida, US
13. I had been told not to look at the Queen when she speaks to you, but I just couldn't help it because she spoke to me! Henry Tavoa, Port Villa, Vanuatu
14.
15. Jo-Ann Mandat from Ontario, Canada was dancing at a show in Toronto in the 1980s when she met the Queen. After the show she said Prince Philip offered to take her back to England in his suitcase!
16. I was invited to an afternoon tea at Margam Abbey with Her Majesty and some 400 guests. She came in looking rather tired, looked straight at me and broke into a wide grin. Megan, Cheshire, England
17.
18. I met Her Majesty during a private audience. It was an amazing experience to sit and chat with her in Buckingham Palace. She clearly had a genuine interest in and concern for my regiment - The Calgary Highlanders. Russ Meades, Victoria, Canada
19. We played "Isn't she lovely" by Stevie Wonder as she arrived at Burton Train Station in 1977. She stopped and told us our playing was lovely. Ed, originally from Barton under Needwood, England
20. We travelled out to the highway from our house on Lake Muskoka to see the Queen and Prince Philip during their 1959 tour of Canada. I remember them waving at us as they drove by. Elvina Campbell, Toronto, Canada
21.
22. Anna Powell from Manchester, England says she was almost run over by the Queen as a five-year-old, while walking with her parents in Windsor Great Park in 1985.
23. Rosie Atkins met the Queen at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2000, when a borrowed mobile phone rang in her pocket. The Queen said: "You had better answer that, it might be someone important!"
24. I met her as a Girl Guide. She asked "How many badges have you got?" I was completely flustered and answered "Lots! I have lots more at home too!" It was the worst answer in history. Erin Jackson, Dumfries, Scotland
25.
26. On returning to the US after a trip to England, the passport officer asked if I had met the Queen. When I said yes, he was astonished. He told me he asked everyone who went through his line after a trip to the UK and I was the first to say yes. Carol Williamson, Pennsylvania, US
27. I met the Queen when I was teaching at Llanelli Boys Grammar School. I stood very close to her and was surprised that she was about my height, so not very tall! Pamela Evans, Swansea, Wales
28. We were told if Her Majesty stops to speak to you, reply "Mam" or "Your Majesty". As the Queen approached sure enough I hear: "How long have you been in the army?" Proudly I say: "Three years sir!" Kenny Owen via Facebook
29.
30. I met the Queen on a state visit to Brunei Darussalam. Upon leaving I heard her say to the sultan: "Well toodle-pip! If you are in London, do drop in." Richard Harbord, Norfolk, England
31. Jack Irwin from Dublin met the Queen when she visited Ireland in 2011. "She wished me the best of luck with my studies, while the Duke was his cheeky self getting laughs galore with his commentary."
32.
33. In the autumn of 2005 she visited the hospital where I was working and wanted to meet staff caring for patients after 7/7. She was softly spoken, very chatty and quite knowledgeable. Michaela Davies, Bromley, England
34. The smile she gave me was that of a grandma who hadn't seen her grandchild for 20 years. It lit up the room says Dr Julia Malkin from Leicester on receiving her MBE in 2011.
35. I met the Queen when I was an acting student. After the performance she asked me how long the play was going to run, I spluttered out "Two years... I mean months... weeks!" She looked at me as if I were completely deranged, smiled and passed graciously on. Hayward Morse, England and Canada
36.
37. Her Majesty visited Delhi and inaugurated a 14ft high ceramic mural I designed. I spoke to her at length. My encounter was recorded in a video, which, at the time, I could not afford to buy. Sumita Sinha, London, England
38. We all got a big smile from the Queen when she visited Maltby Comprehensive School in 1977 during the Silver Jubilee tour. Barry Porteus, Doncaster, England
39. Can you lie to a Queen? Paul Harman from St Albans faced that dilemma: "The Queen asked me if the rose I had given her came from my garden. It hadn't - someone in the crowd had given it to me to pass to her. Can I lie to the Queen and say yes? Because otherwise I'd have to admit I hadn't brought anything to give her!"
40.
41. Elisa Boccara comments on Facebook that she saw the Queen driving around in the grounds in Windsor, she added "I did not meet her as such but still it was cool".
42. I had the honour of seeing the Queen up close during the parade when she visited Bromley High Street in Kent. It was a surreal moment seeing her in reality rather than on a TV screen. Rebecca East, Bromley, England
43. Jessica Ferris's dad wrote about their meeting with the Queen. Jessica and her sister started wailing in stereo just as the Queen walked past on a visit to Portsmouth. The Queen gave a look and a sympathetic smile that only a mother can give.
44.
45. I was in the Cubs in Shetland when she came to visit. I really wanted to speak to her so we had a conversation about my friend's dad's hang-gliding accident. She was incredibly polite and listened to the story. Neil Ruddiforth, Balmedie, Scotland
46. I had no idea where England was, or who Elizabeth was. But I figured that the beautiful lady I saw for a few fleeting moments in a cavalcade in Kolkata must be the one who everybody was waiting to see. Basistha Basu, Kolkata, India
47. Roger Davey met the Queen in Adelaide, Australia said "After meeting her I wanted to explore beyond the very remote sheep ranch that had been my life up to that point."
48.
49. I welcomed the Queen to a state banquet in 1995 hosted by President Nelson Mandela at The Cape Sun Intercontinental Hotel in Cape Town where I was managing director. Harry Murray, Bath, England
50. Annette Holden said on Facebook that she had met the Royal Family on many occasions: "In the mid to late 1970s my parents ran the King's Head in Great Bircham, near Sandringham. There was a Lodge on our grounds they used for shooting parties."
51. We were out on my great aunt's front yard when the Queen and Prince Philip drove past. She waved, we waved, it was all very exciting. Sheree Adams, Austin, Texas, US
52.
53. On the anniversary of the Falklands War Her Majesty visited Pangbourne College where I was a student as it holds the memorial chapel. She came up and asked about our military uniforms. Calum Steele, Oxford, England
54. While we were waiting to meet the Queen, a plain-clothed policewoman, presumably trying to entertain me while we were waiting, showed me her gun in her bag. I was terrified. But I do remember my brother gave her some flowers and she said "thank you young man". Emma Heron, Bristol, England
55. The Queen came to our school's quarter centenary in 1984. At the time I was the editor of the "Alternative" which was the school's magazine. She asked: "Is it scandalous?" Simon Clark, near Cambridge, England
56.
57. I met the Queen during her state visit Hull in 2008. I was part of the "Royal Guard" presented by Hull Trinity House School, as a member of the school. Sam Piercy, Hull, England
58. When the Queen was introduced to me she responded "Oh we have a Commonwealth Association of Architects too?" Tony Godwin former executive director for the Commonwealth Association of Architects.
59.
60. I was chosen to be the staff representative in the Letters to the Future project, where 800 people wrote letters to be opened on the 900th anniversary, it was part of the Queen's visit to the University of Cambridge's 800th year celebrations. Rebecca Holmes, Cambridge, England
61. I remember how exciting it was to see her close up. I have had a countdown to her becoming the longest-reigning British monarch on my phone. Suzie Rishworth, Hampshire, England
62.
63. And finally... Carol Boyd hasn't met the Queen yet but she's hopeful: "I'm hoping to see her open the Borders Railway on 9th September (when she becomes the longest reigning British monarch)." Watch this space!
Produced by Natalie Miller | On 9 September 2015 Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning monarch in British history, breaking the record held by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria. | 34075344 |
In 1992 Kym Gambie underwent what was considered to be a routine procedure performed by obstetrician Rob Jones.
He was later the subject of numerous safety reviews and expressions of concern over his working practices.
Cornwall Live reported Mrs Gambie's death was linked to the hysterectomy, but there was no evidence the procedure was substandard.
Mrs Gambie, from Bodmin, died in 2015 having never regained her health after the operation at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, the inquest in Truro heard.
A post mortem found the cause of death was chronic renal failure contributed to by sepsis and multiple surgeries.
Consultant pathologist Dr Ian Chandler said the multiple surgeries commencing with her hysterectomy and the need for major surgery following had "set off a train of major disability complications which has ultimately led to her premature death".
But Simon Jackson, a gynaecologist at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, said: "In my opinion there is nothing in this particular case to indicate a substandard hysterectomy."
The inquest, which recorded a narrative verdict, heard that when Mrs Gambie was still alive, Mr Jones had written a letter to her saying the procedure had been "entirely straightforward".
Mr Jones was part of a team that delivered former Prime Minister David Cameron's daughter in 2010.
It later emerged he has been the subject of a string of complaints and despite eight reviews, he did not stop working at the hospital until May 2012.
Mr Jones voluntarily removed himself from the General Medical Council register, but his practice is the subject of ongoing litigation from dozens of women. | A woman died after complications linked to a hysterectomy performed by a disgraced surgeon, an inquest heard. | 40712121 |
Crowds gathered at the waterfront to watch the Queen Mary 2 appear on the horizon at about 09:00 BST.
The three queens are paying homage to the city which was once home to the company's headquarters to mark Cunard's 175th anniversary
The Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Victoria liners will arrive on Monday before all three sail down the Mersey.
The Queen Mary 2 is a classic black and white luxury liner, famous for her red and black funnels.
At Liverpool's waterfront one excited spectator said: "It's absolutely amazing and I think she's a beautiful ship, very traditional looking, different to the new cruise liners.
Another added: "It's a wonderful day for Liverpool and it's a wonderful day for us all to celebrate being a Liverpudlian."
The three ships are also due to feature in celebrations at the start of July, when Queen Mary 2 will replicate the line's first transatlantic voyage.
Cunard was founded in 1840, with Sir Samuel Cunard's mail steamship RMS Britannia beginning its transatlantic service to Halifax and Boston from Liverpool.
The shipping company moved its headquarters from Liverpool to Southampton in 1965.
An exhibition celebrating the liner era has been on display in Southampton to mark the anniversary. | The first of Cunard's three liners, known as the "three queens", has docked in Liverpool. | 32863997 |
The Audit Commission report said 31 trusts posted a deficit - more than one in 10 of the hospital, mental health and community trusts in the NHS.
The figure is up from 13 the year before.
However, overall the health service posted a £2bn surplus - about 2% of its budget.
The development comes amid an unprecedented savings drive.
The health service has been told to save £20bn by 2015 - the equivalent of 4% a year.
This has never been done before in the history of the health service.
Prof John Appleby, chief economist at the King's Fund, said: "It seems like the squeeze is tipping trusts over into deficit. The chances are this will get worse in the coming years."
The Audit Commission report revealed "stark differences" in health finances around the country with the majority of the deficits focused in London and the south-east.
The trust with the highest deficit was South London Healthcare, which posted a £65.1m deficit. It has been put into administration because of its long-standing problems.
Andy McKeon, of the Audit Commission, said: "While nationally the NHS appears to be managing well financially and preparing itself for the changes and challenges ahead, a number of PCTs and trusts are facing severe financial problems.
"The Department of Health and other relevant national authorities need to focus their attention on the minority of organisations whose financial position is deteriorating."
A Department of Health spokesman acknowledged there were pressures in the health service, but said services were still being maintained.
"The NHS is delivering great results for patients. Waiting times have been kept low, infections have been reduced, there are more doctors, more diagnostic tests and more planned operations." | The number of NHS trusts in debt in England has more than doubled in a year - although overall the health service finished 2011-12 in surplus. | 19650963 |
The Electoral Reform Society and the UK's Changing Union project researched the assembly's size.
They found it had a much smaller number of AMs compared to similar law-making bodies around the world.
The Welsh government said it would be premature to speculate ahead of a decision on extra assembly powers.
The Scottish Parliament has 129 members, while Northern Ireland's Assembly has 108.
The report, Size Matters - Making the National Assembly more effective, says the backbench AMs are badly overstretched and are struggling to effectively scrutinise a "powerful and well-resourced" government.
It is not the first time the number of AMs has been questioned.
In 2004, the Richard Commission, which looked at expanding the assembly's powers, recommended 80 AMs once it received law-making powers.
Those recommendations were not implemented.
The Silk Commission, set up by the UK government, is currently looking at the devolution settlement in Wales and has already said ministers in Cardiff should be given the power to vary some tax rates.
The new report found 80 was "an arbitrary number", and said after an international comparison of similar bodies, the number of AMs should be 100.
An assembly expanded to this size would cost taxpayers about £10.1m per year, but the report's authors argued that with the number of MPs and local councillors both likely to be reduced, it was time for a "mature debate" about the balance of political representation.
Presiding officer Rosemary Butler has previously called for the number of AMs to increase, but the Welsh government said at the time there was "no appetite" among the public for more politicians.
Deputy presiding officer David Melding AM said: "I welcome this report which has, for the first time, provided us with some relevant international comparisons and analysis of the demands on assembly members.
"I am sure this report will play an important role in informing the current debate as we move towards the publication of the Silk Commission's inquiry."
Steve Brooks, director of the Electoral Reform Society in Wales, said: "As more and more powers are added to the assembly, AMs are buckling under the weight of devolution."
Chair of the UK's Changing Union project, Professor Richard Wyn Jones, said: "Few, if any serious observers would argue that just over 40 backbench assembly members is enough to do the job effectively.
"Indeed the evidence clearly shows that even without the additional financial powers already recommended by the Silk Commission, the National Assembly is overstretched."
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "It would be premature for us to speculate on what any additional powers might mean for the size of the National Assembly, given we do not yet know what the Silk Commission will recommend."
The Welsh Conservatives said: "Job creation for politicians would rightly be questioned by the public at what remains a challenging time for the Welsh economy.
"What is urgently needed is more scrutiny of legislation, better engagement with the public and more topical and extensive assembly proceedings."
Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas said with the prospect of financial and taxation powers becoming more real, there was a need to ensure that the assembly was able to "meet the increased demands".
Eluned Parrott AM said the Lib Dems supported a rise to 80 AMs.
"While I understand that increasing the number of politicians is never going to be popular, it's right that we should have an open and honest debate about the issue," she said, adding the people of Wales would get more capacity to scrutinise with additional AMs. | The number of AMs in the Welsh assembly needs to be increased from 60 to 100 in order for them to properly scrutinise the government, a report has said. | 24540091 |
The county will be in charge of bus services and local investment, while health and social services will integrate.
Ministers said it was a key part of the government's One Nation commitment to devolve powers to local authorities across the country.
Cornwall Council had however requested a much wider range of powers.
Prime Minister David Cameron said it "marks a major shift for the people who live and work in Cornwall - putting power in their hands."
The government says the devolution deal will:
Cornwall Council leader John Pollard sad it was brilliant news.
"This gives Cornwall greater powers over public sector funding. This is the first stage of a longer journey towards delivering the full case for Cornwall," he said.
It's been clear over the last week or so that the government was very keen to finalise a devolution deal for Cornwall, but the agreement reached between Cornwall Council and ministers has been driven through by the government before the council had submitted its "Case for Cornwall" - a document, months in the preparation, asking for a much wider range of powers. Will the government still consider the more ambitious Case for Cornwall? Or does this announcement represent Cornwall's devolution settlement for the foreseeable future?
Cornwall councillors approved the plans in a private meeting on Tuesday.
Council members gave leader Mr Pollard a mandate to sign off an agreement with the government but both UKIP and Labour members voted against the deal.
Cornwall Council said it would now work with local partners and civil servants in London to develop detailed plans to implement the proposals. | Cornwall is to become the first county to gain historic new powers after a devolution deal was announced. | 33542592 |
Zaha's inclusion follows his decision to switch international allegiance from England, where he grew up.
The 24-year-old was born in Ivory Coast but has two England caps, having played against Sweden in November 2012 and Scotland the following year.
As both were friendly matches, he is permitted to commit his international future to his country of birth.
The tournament in Gabon, which starts on 14 January, could see Zaha miss up to six weeks of the season for Palace.
Manchester United defender Eric Bailly has also been called up to the 24-man squad by French coach Michel Dussuyer, as has veteran forward Salomon Kalou, who is set to appear in his fifth Nations Cup.
However former Arsenal forward Gervinho - who now play for Hebei Fortune in China - will be absent after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament.
One player will be cut from the party before the tournament starts.
"Gervinho's absence weighs down on us, for sure. But we have had several weeks to get used to the idea," Dussuyer said. "The arrival of Zaha is therefore great news. His profile is similar to Gervinho's."
The defending champions have a training camp in Abu Dhabi starting on 2 January.
"One of the challenges facing us in camp will be that some of the players will be rested and others - those playing in England - will be tired and in need of some rest," Dussuyer said.
Ivory Coast kick off the tournament against Togo on 16 January, before facing DR Congo and Morocco in the group stage.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Sylvain Gbohuo (TP Mazembe, DR Congo), Badra Sangare (AS Tanda, Ivory Coast), Mande Sayouba (Stabaek, Norway)
Defenders: Serge Aurier (PSG, France), Mamadou Bagayoko (St Trond VV, Belgium), Eric Bailly (Manchester United, England), Simon Deli (Slavia Prague, Czech Rep), Ousmane Viera Diarrassouba (Adanaspor, Turkey), Wilfried Kanon (ADO, Netherlands), Lamine Kone (Sunderland, England), Adama Traore (Basel, Switzerland)
Midfielders: Victorien Angban (Grenada, Spain), Cheik Doukoure (Metz, France), Franck Kessie (Atalanta, Italy), Yao Serge N'guessan (AS Nancy, France), Geoffroy Serey Die (Basel, Switzerland), Jean Michael Seri (Nice, France)
Forwards: Wilfried Bony (Stoke City, England), Max Gradel (Bournemouth, England), Salomon Kalou (Hertha Berlin, Germany), Jonathan Kodjia (Aston Villa, England), Nicolas Pepe (Angers, France), Giovanni Sio (Stade Rennes, France), Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace, England) | Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha has been named in Ivory Coast's provisional squad for the Africa Cup of Nations. | 38451141 |
The document does not say whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should remain in power during that time.
It says certain Syrian opposition groups should take part in key talks on the crisis in Vienna on Saturday.
The Syrian army meanwhile has broken a siege in the north.
Army units fought their way to Kuwairis airbase, east of Aleppo, and eliminated large numbers of Islamic State (IS) militants, reports said.
The facility had been under attack by IS jihadists for nearly two years.
It represents a victory for regime forces which have struggled to advance even since Russia added its firepower to the conflict at the end of September, flying hundreds of sorties in that time.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg is embedded with Russian forces at their air base near Latakia, sending the following tweets among others on Wednesday:
Russian planes targeted IS-controlled areas in Aleppo province and other targets in the Damascus countryside on Wednesday, reported the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
At least 22 people were killed and many more wounded by rebel shellfire in the Mediterranean city of Latakia on Tuesday, state media and activists say.
Latakia, which lies in the heartland of President Assad's minority Alawite sect, has largely escaped the conflict that has devastated most of Syria and killed more than 250,000 people.
A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said that the priority ahead of next Saturday's meeting should be to establish which Syrian opposition groups are to be regarded as partners in the process, and which are "terrorist" and unacceptable.
Two fundamental problems are immediately apparent:
First, there is the position of President Assad himself. The leaked document makes no mention of Mr Assad standing down during the transitional process, though it does say: "The president of Syria will not chair the constitutional commission".
The second problem is that of inclusivity - who actually will be asked to participate in the eventual peace talks?
The Russian proposal speaks of the launching of a political process between the Syrian government and "a united delegation of opposition groups".
But what exactly does this mean? Will it include many of the rebel groups backed by Turkey, the Gulf Arab states and the West, some of who have taken the brunt of Russian air strikes? How can these diverse and in many cases highly fragmented and localised groups be pulled together into a delegation that can speak with a common voice?
Read more from Jonathan
The eight-point proposal drawn up by Russia is reported not to rule out President Assad's participation in the elections - something his enemies say is impossible if there is to be peace.
"[The] popularly elected president of Syria will have the functions of commander-in-chief of the armed forces, control of special services and foreign policy," the leaked document is quoted by news agencies as saying.
It says that the reform process should not be chaired by President Assad, but by a candidate agreed upon by all sides.
It also calls for UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura to launch a political process between the Syrian government and "a united delegation of opposition groups" on the basis of the June 2012 agreement between major powers in Geneva, which calls for the formation of a transitional government for Syria.
Mr de Mistura on Tuesday urged world powers to build on the "momentum" of new international talks to help devise a roadmap to end the four-year war.
"The momentum in Vienna needs to not be missed," he told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council.
About 20 countries and international groups will attend the talks which have as their central objective a ceasefire between President Assad's forces and some opposition groups.
The successful assault to relieve Syrian government forces holed up inside the Kuwairis base by IS comes a week after the Syrian army battled jihadists to regain control of a road south-east of Aleppo and took back control of the government's only supply route into the city.
Areas around Aleppo have seen weeks of heavy fighting after Syrian troops, backed by Lebanese and Iranian fighters, launched an offensive to retake surrounding territory from rebels and jihadist fighters.
The regime offensive has so far focused on clearing rebel-held areas south of Aleppo, rather than targeting the city itself. | A Russian document circulating at the United Nations has proposed a constitutional reform process in Syria, lasting 18 months, to be followed by presidential elections. | 34784276 |
Media playback is not supported on this device
But at 31, the top scorer at Women's Euro 2017 has joined Sir Geoff Hurst and Gary Lineker in becoming the only England players to score hat-tricks at major tournaments.
After a nomadic career which has taken her to 12 clubs in five countries and tested her self-belief to the limit, Taylor is now sleeping with the match ball after her treble in the famous 6-0 win over Scotland.
She also scored the winner as England finally beat France after a 43-year wait to move into the last four.
So why did it take so long for the Arsenal striker to belong in such elite company, and how did she get here?
Media playback is not supported on this device
While Taylor has looked a natural so far in the Netherlands - scoring five goals in three starts - it is only four years since she was in the international wilderness.
Consistently overlooked by then England manager Hope Powell, an uncapped Taylor watched Euro 2013 from the stands.
The tournament was a low point for the Lionesses - they finished bottom of their group and had the worst record of any side in the competition - but it proved a defining moment for Taylor.
"I was playing in Sweden at the time for Goteborg FC and a lot of my team-mates were representing Sweden. I remember sitting and watching in one of the stadiums and thinking, 'I know I should be at the Euros'," Taylor said.
"In the past I maybe didn't feel quite so valued by certain people but it was probably the first time where I thought, regardless of what anyone else says, I know I deserve to be here."
Fast forward four years and that judgement has proved right.
Two constants run through Taylor's career: travel and injury.
But while injury was sometimes unavoidable, the desire to travel was her choice.
Having started her junior career at Tranmere Rovers, Taylor decided to broaden her horizons by taking a four-year scholarship at Oregon State University, and once she sampled the higher standard of football in the United States, returning to England was less appealing.
Unfortunately for Taylor, who has played for professional teams in the United States, Australia, Canada and Sweden, playing elite club football overseas did not impress Powell.
"Back then, being out of the country didn't help [my England career]," Taylor said. "That was made clear to me from the beginning in college, but playing over there was something I knew I had to do."
Despite playing at what she considered the highest standard possible, her chances of an England call-up were not improved in 2010 when an enquiry by Powell coincided with Taylor taking a rest from the game, leading to a silence between the pair.
"I emailed her and tried to get feedback, but it was like drawing blood from a stone," said Taylor.
That all changed when Mark Sampson was appointed head coach in December 2013, and the striker, who has 14 England goals from 28 appearances, can now look back without regrets.
"All those experiences have helped me become the player and the person I am today so I wouldn't change any of it," she told BBC Radio 5 live. "In some ways I appreciate not being selected back then because I had some amazing opportunities abroad."
Media playback is not supported on this device
When Sampson replaced Powell, he wasted little time in calling up those who had been shunned, including Taylor and fellow striker Lianne Sanderson, for a training camp in La Manga, Spain.
The Welshman talked of a "new dawn" and how "the door would be open for every player". Suddenly, for Taylor, a club career overseas and an England spot were not mutually exclusive.
What also helped was the belief Sampson had in Taylor, something which had been missing previously and which has since taken her to the heights she now occupies.
"Ever since I've known Jodie, I think everyone has known she is a world-class player," Sampson said after her hat-trick against Scotland.
"I've not seen better in the game at anticipating passes in behind and moving into positions to receive the ball. Of course, you need the service, but what Jodie has added to her game in the past 12 months in particular is her ability to be an instinctive finisher."
After making her debut for England against Sweden in 2014, Taylor began to shine when she chalked up her first England hat-trick as the Lionesses went on to win the 2015 Cyprus Cup.
And, despite being injured in the build-up to the 2015 World Cup, she still scored a vital goal in the quarter-final win over hosts Canada, as England finished third.
That was all before making her mark on Euro 2017 with a first hat-trick by an Englishwoman in a major tournament, and further goals against Spain and France.
"I think I always had the belief I'd be at the Euros, and it's been a credit to the staff with England," Taylor said. "I've really felt the belief, confidence and trust in me from Mark and that has been huge through the tough times - knowing I'm still valued."
Injuries have been a subtext to Taylor's journey ever since she broke her leg as a 15-year-old at Tranmere.
But, after starting her England career so late, she has shown the physical and mental fortitude to get back to full fitness on many occasions.
One example came before the 2015 World Cup, when she injured her knee six weeks before what would have been her first major tournament for England.
"It was minor knee surgery, a lateral meniscus tear which I just got in a training session at Portland Thorns, and I was given an eight-to-10-week recovery timeframe," she explained.
"I certainly pushed through it but that was 100% my call because I was not missing that tournament after not getting an England call-up for years."
Another knee injury looked set to derail Taylor's chances of playing at the European Championship - she tore her anterior cruciate ligament after signing for Arsenal at the start of 2016.
But, after an intense period of rehabilitation, she scored on her return later in the year, and gave Sampson a reminder of her ability when scoring in a 1-0 over semi-final opposition the Netherlands in a friendly last October.
"The last two years have been a tough ride and just to be here fit and healthy is a huge achievement for me," Taylor said after the victory over Scotland.
"I have been unfortunate with some injuries but I'm in a really good place right now. Someone said recently that I looked 24 years old, so I was buzzing! Most people think I'm 26 or 27, which is sweet because that's how I play, or that's how I see it.
"Physically there's still more to come from me, I think, which is quite exciting for a 31-year-old. I certainly don't feel anywhere near the end of my career."
And Taylor has proven that. She needs one more goal to match the European Championship record of former German striker Inka Grings, who scored six at Euro 2009, including two in the 6-2 win over England in the final.
"Ask any forward and they'll say they want to win a Golden Boot but I just want us to win," Taylor added. "I would take a gold medal over a Golden Boot, 100%."
The way Taylor and England have performed in this tournament, she may have to make room for both in the trophy cabinet. | After being overlooked by England for almost a decade, the chances of Jodie Taylor proving herself a "world-class" striker at a major tournament seemed remote. | 40759335 |
Catherine Johnston went missing on Tuesday. Her car, a white Seat Leon, was later found in the Ballintoy Harbour area.
Police and Ms Johnston's family said they are becoming increasingly concerned for her safety.
Initial searches were suspended in the early hours of Wednesday due to poor light.
It is understood that the search operation, involving police and the coastguard, is concentrated around the Dunseverick Castle and Carrick-a-rede areas.
Insp Sammy McConnell said: "A white Seat Leon car, which we believe Catherine was driving, has been found in the Ballintoy Harbour area. There is currently a joint police and coastguard search under way.
"I would appeal to anyone who saw this white Seat Leon car travelling between Belfast and the North Coast or anyone who has any information to contact police."
Ms Johnston is described as being approximately 5'9" tall, of average build and with light brown shoulder length hair. | A major air and sea search is under way in County Antrim for a missing 39-year-old woman from east Belfast. | 38312553 |
It is the second serious injury in 2016 for the 2010 Olympic downhill champion.
The 32-year-old broke her leg in March while leading the Alpine skiing World Cup and missed the rest of the season.
"While I am beyond frustrated by this latest setback, at least my knees are ok," Vonn said in a post on her Facebook page on Friday.
The four-time overall World Cup champion added: "I had successful surgery last night in Vail and everyone took great care of me."
Vonn says she will return to action "as soon as possible". | American skier Lindsey Vonn has undergone surgery after "severely" fracturing her right arm in a crash while training in Colorado. | 37957835 |
Late entries are not admitted - so you must mail [email protected] before 1230, and we try and draw the winner on Wednesday's show (if not, we do it on Thursday).
Entries submitted via twitter, Facebook or any other email address will not count!
- Guess The Year and other Daily Politics competitions for which a mug is the prize are open to all residents of the UK, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, except BBC employees and anyone connected with Guess The Year and other Daily Politics competitions.
- The competition for the mug is open from the announcement of the question until 1230 (on special shows, this time may differ and will be specified above). Emails must be sent to the correct quiz address. Any emails that have not, for whatever reason, arrived by that time will not be included. Entries cannot be returned.
- All entrants must supply their name, address and a daytime telephone number. The BBC will only ever use personal details for the purposes of administering this competition, and will not publish them or provide them to anyone without permission. You can read more about the BBC Privacy Policy.
- At 12.30pm all correct answers will be entered into an electronic draw and the winner picked at random. The winner's name will be announced on-air at the end of the show, or a later show.
- The BBC reserves the right to: (i) amend these terms and conditions, including but not limited to, varying the competition opening and closing times; (ii) disqualify any entrant who breaches the rules or has acted fraudulently in any way; and (iii) cancel the competition, at any stage, if in its opinion it is deemed necessary or if circumstances arise outside its control.
- The BBC, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries and/or agencies cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any internet service access, system, server, provider or otherwise which may result in any entry being lost or not properly registered.
- Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them when entering this competition. | Watch the film, guess the year and mail us your entry with your name and town before 1230 on Wednesday 22 March, if you want to win the mug. | 12620807 |
The film, which features blind amateur actors as massage therapists, won best feature film, best cinematography and best sound effects.
Zhang Lei won best new performer, while the film also picked up the honours for best adapted screenplay and editing.
The film centres on the lives of the workers at a massage parlour in Nanjing.
The Golden Horse awards are considered to be the Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars.
Chinese actor and director Chen Jianbin was also a big winner on the night - the 40-year old won best new director and best lead actor for A Fool, a film about a Chinese farmer who takes in a homeless man.
He also picked up best supporting actor for his role in Taiwanese military drama Paradise in Service.
Ann Hui won her third Golden Horse for best director for Golden Era, based on the life of Chinese writer Xiao Hong.
Chen Shiang-Chyi won the coveted best actress award for Exit.
"I feel like I have made it, to be able to win this award for Taiwan. I love Taiwan films and I dedicated this for Taiwan,'' said Chen in her acceptance speech.
But Black Coal, Thin Ice, a detective thriller that won Berlin's prestigious Golden Bear prize earlier this year, could only manage one win for art direction. It was nominated in eight categories. | Chinese-French film Blind Massage has picked up six awards at Taiwan's 51st Golden Horse awards. | 30167527 |
Transport Minister Edwina Hart said she also wanted to introduce measures to streamline the system and cut fraud.
Tough new guidelines to tackle abuse, introduced in 2013, were suspended by one council in February 2015.
Neath Port Talbot council had received complaints that genuine cases were being rejected.
It was one of a number of local authorities reporting a big rise in rejections, after being told not to just rely on evidence from GPs.
A consultation on Welsh ministers' latest proposals has been launched. | The blue badge disabled parking scheme could be extended to people with temporary conditions restricting their mobility. | 35360841 |
Tesla will raise the money by selling bonds to professional investors, despite the company having $3bn in cash.
The company says it has 518,000 orders for its new car, whose price starts at $35,000.
Initial production of the Model 3 started in July, with a target of 400,000 to be made next year.
Tesla, which also makes batteries and solar panels, has been burning through its cash at a rapid rate.
The company's founder and boss, Elon Musk, said at the vehicle's formal launch in July that making the Model 3 would lead to "six months of manufacturing hell", as it tries to make 100,000 of the cars this year at its California factory.
Some observers have predicted that the company, which has yet to make a profit, will use up at least $2bn this year, hence the need for more cash.
The Tesla bonds will have to be repaid to investors in eight years but the interest rate on offer to investors has not yet been decided.
Tesla has $3bn in its cash pile, but it is easy to see why it wants more.
The company has already proved that it can build high-performance, long-range electric cars.
The Model S and Model X have an enthusiastic following.
Now it has begun delivering its new, more basic and more affordable Model 3.
But building luxury premium cars for a small, wealthy and enthusiastic market is one thing.
Becoming a viable, mass-market manufacturer is quite another - especially when the mass market for electric cars does not actually exist yet.
Tesla built just under 84,000 cars last year and it hopes to be producing 520,000 annually by 2018.
That is a huge step forward, particularly for a company which saw production in the first half of this year slowed because of a shortage of batteries.
Tesla is throwing money at the problem, and is expected to burn through $2bn this year.
But why is Tesla being so ambitious? Why not build up production more slowly?
Well, the electric car market is about to get a lot more crowded.
Major manufacturers such as VW, Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover all have high performance electric vehicles in the pipeline, while Renault-Nissan already dominates the more affordable end of the market.
Tesla's brand has a Silicon Valley cachet that other manufacturers cannot match, for the moment.
But if it is to become a high-volume manufacturer, it needs to use that cachet to build its market share - or risk being sidelined when the more established auto giants roll out their new models. | US electric car manufacturer Tesla plans to raise $1.5bn (£1.15bn) to fund production of its new Model 3 car. | 40850187 |
29 August 2015 Last updated at 08:15 BST
Like our farms in the UK, Australia has farms especially for crocodiles where the animals are looked after and raised in a similar way to cows or sheep.
Recently lots of big fashion companies have been buying up the crocodile farms, and now around 80% of them are owned by the fashion industry.
This is because they want to use the crocodile's skin to make things like handbags, shoes and belts, which can sell for thousands of pounds.
The crocodiles in these farms are not endangered or protected at the moment.
Ricky has been investigating this one. | There's been an increase in the number of fashion companies buying up crocodile farms in Australia. | 34085951 |
The IEA said lower oil prices were likely to last well into 2016.
The agency added the world oil market was unable to absorb the huge volumes of oil now being produced.
It follows the massive drop in prices which started last summer.
The price of Brent crude fell sharply last year from $115 a barrel in June to $45 a barrel in January.
The current price of Brent crude is $59 a barrel.
The fall in prices has led oil firms to cut back investment in exploration, while North Sea oil has come under significant pressure.
All seven major global oil firms have also reported annual declines in profit as a result of lower oil prices.
Only last month the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast North Sea oil and gas revenues would fall to below 0.1% of GDP over the coming decades.
It said the tax take from North Sea oil and gas had already fallen by 80% in the last three years.
"The oil market was massively oversupplied in the second quarter of 2015, and remains so today," the IEA said in its monthly report.
"It is equally clear that the market's ability to absorb that oversupply is unlikely to last. Onshore storage space is limited," it said, adding: "Something has to give."
"The bottom of the market may still be ahead."
Core members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) have continued to produce the same level of oil in the past year despite falling oil prices in an attempt to regain market share.
US oil production has also soared in recent years, as fracking - or the process of extracting oil from shale rock by injecting fluids into the ground - has revolutionised oil production in the country.
Opec's response to the fall in prices was to refuse to cut production. Many Opec nations are able to tolerate a lower oil price despite losing money.
For other nations such as Russia the lower oil price is doing substantial harm to economic growth
Last month, official figures showed the impact of international sanctions over Russia's continued involvement in east Ukraine and the lower oil prices had led to a 4.9% contraction in the Russian economy in the 12 months to May.
The IEA said Opec crude oil production rose 340,000 barrels per day (BPD) in June to 31.7 million barrels a day, a three-year high, led by record output from Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It said Saudi Arabian crude oil supply rose 50,000 barrels per day to a record high of 10.35 million BPD in June, while Iraq crude oil output surged 270,000 BPD in June to its highest-ever rate of 4.12 million BPD.
However, increases in production have come just as demand for oil in economies across the world from Europe to China - the world's second-largest consumer of oil - has slowed.
The IEA trimmed its forecast for global oil demand growth this year slightly to 1.39 million BPD and said it expected global demand growth to slow to 1.2 million BPD in 2016.
The agency added non-Opec supply growth was expected to grind to a halt in 2016 as lower oil prices and spending cuts take their toll. It forecast zero growth in non-Opec oil supply in 2016 after an increase of 1 million bpd in 2015. | Oil prices may have further to fall despite stabilising in recent months - and even beginning to rise modestly - because of a massive oversupply the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said. | 33476508 |
The Ravens are 14th in the table, 12 points off the play-off places and 10 points above the relegation zone.
"This is not a decision that has been taken lightly," chairman Jerry Dolke told the club website.
"The club has new investors who have higher expectations than current performances on the pitch are showing."
Neil Smith, Goldberg's assistant, has been named as interim first-team manager at Hayes Lane.
Goldberg was re-appointed Bromley boss in 2011 for his third spell in charge of the club, and led the club to the Conference South title last season.
He told BBC Radio Kent he had "agreed to step down in the best interests of the club".
"It has all been done extremely amicably," he added. "It was a harder decision for me than the board but I am proud of the fact I am leaving the club in much better shape than when I first came in.
"We have had a bit of a wobble recently but my belief and ambition has never wavered.
"I had ambitions to take Bromley to the Football League but football is all about opinions, and the opinions are I am not the man for the job." | National League side Bromley have parted company with manager Mark Goldberg following a run of one win in 10 league games. | 35492955 |
Rhydymwyn Valley History Society has been working for years to get safe access to the tunnels near Mold that stored mustard gas in the 1940s.
The UK Government, as the site owner, carried out work to allow the tunnels to open over the weekend.
Rhydymwyn Valley Works was used for the early development into the atomic bomb.
Society chairman Colin Barber said the tunnels had been a "mystery" to local people for many years.
But on Saturday a public tour is taking place along a newly laid pathway with visitors asked to wear hard hats and high-visibility jackets.
The guided tour - one of five due to be held this year - will follow a formal opening ceremony by Ken Skates, the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure.
"It has been a long time coming," said Mr Barber.
"There are people who have lived here all of their lives who have never been inside."
During the height of the war, the tunnels, near Mold, housed 48 storage tanks, each containing up to 65 tonnes of mustard gas.
In the intervening years they remained closed, leading to rumours about what might have been left behind.
That was until an independent expert was given access and confirmed they were empty in 2006.
Since then the heritage group, which helps to manage the site and its archives, has been trying to create access to the tunnels following safety assessments.
Munitions workers like Caroline Bellis, aged 100, worked at the site in a myriad of buildings that still pepper the complex.
In an interview in 2008, Ms Bellis, who is due to visit the site again for the opening ceremony, explained how she helped carry shells into the tunnels for storage.
Other work at the site included evaluating early atomic bomb research, codenamed Operation Tube Alloys.
Many of the scientists involved worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb. | Tunnels at a former top secret World War Two chemical weapons site in Flintshire are being formally opened to the public. | 39660296 |
Media playback is not supported on this device
The Wales and Ospreys stand-off, who starts against the Highlanders on Tuesday, says he has "a tough ask" to make up ground before the first Test against New Zealand on 24 June.
"It's not nice to be probably the third choice at the minute," said Biggar.
"It's my job to try and force the order [to be] a little bit different."
Biggar has been cleared to return to action having gone through the return to play protocols after he failed a head injury assessment (HIA) when he was injured in the loss to the Blues on Wednesday.
England's Farrell and Ireland's Sexton are the subject of debate over who should start for the Lions, and Biggar described his rivals as "world class".
Media playback is not supported on this device
Farrell switched to centre and Sexton took over at 10 following Wales centre Jonathan Davies' departure during the Lions' 12-3 win over Crusaders on Saturday.
Davies later failed an HIA.
Biggar, who starts alongside Wales and Ospreys half-back partner Rhys Webb against the Highlanders, said: "I think those two [Sexton and Farrell] probably deserve to be just that fraction ahead at the minute.
"That's being brutally honest.
"But my nature is not to sort of want that to happen. My nature is to sort of really try and close that gap and put some pressure on the two of them.
"And that's the chance that I've got on Tuesday night."
Biggar failed his HIA after leaving the field following a heavy tackle in the tourists' 22-16 loss against the Blues.
"It's a tough ask for me to make up ground," he said.
"I suppose I'm a little bit frustrated at having to come off after 35 minutes on Wednesday when we were going OK.
"So it's just up to me really to try and just do the basics well enough and bring the other guys into play as well outside me [on Tuesday]."
The fixture against the Highlanders in Dunedin (kick off 08:35 BST) is the Lions' fourth of the tour, with matches against Maori All Blacks and Chiefs to follow before the first of three Tests against New Zealand on Saturday, 24 June. | Dan Biggar says British and Irish Lions fly-half rivals Owen Farrell and Johnny Sexton deserve to be a "fraction" ahead of him in the race for Test selection. | 40239166 |
Weeks after details of the US Prism programme first leaked, some of the details of what it entails have been confirmed but others have yet to be clarified, and may not do so for years to come.
What is Prism?
A surveillance system launched in 2007 by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
A leaked Powerpoint presentation, dated April 2013, states that it allows the organisation to "receive" emails, video clips, photos, voice and video calls, social networking details, logins and other data held by a range of US internet firms.
One of the slides names the companies as: Microsoft and its Skype division; Google and its YouTube division; Yahoo; Facebook, AOL, Apple and PalTalk - a lesser known chat service owned by AVM Software.
The presentation says the programme costs $20m (£13m) a year to run and is designed to overcome earlier "constraints" in the NSA's counterterrorism data collection efforts.
Details of the initiative were first published by the Guardian and the Washington Post newspapers on 6 June.
Late that day the US director of national intelligence confirmed the initiative's existence and declassified some information about it.
James Clapper said that there were "strict, court-imposed restrictions" on how the data was handled and that only a "very small fraction" of the information was ever reviewed as most of it was not "responsive" to anti-terrorism efforts.
A 1978 law - the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (Fisa) - had set out the conditions under which a special three-judge court would authorise electronic surveillance if people were believed to be engaged in espionage or planning an attack against the US on behalf of a foreign power.
Following the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration secretly gave the NSA permission to bypass the court and carry out warrantless surveillance of al-Qaeda suspects and others.
After this emerged in 2005, Congress voted to both offer immunity to the firms that had co-operated with the NSA's requests and to make amendments to Fisa.
The relaxation to the rules, introduced in 2008, meant officials could now obtain court orders without having to identify each individual target or detail the specific types of communications they intended to monitor so long as they convinced the court their purpose was to gather "foreign intelligence information".
In addition they no longer had to confirm both the sender and receiver of the messages were outside the US, but now only had to show it was "reasonable" to believe one of the parties was outside the country.
Details of the programme were leaked by Edward Snowden, a 30-year-old who had formerly worked as a technical assistant to the US Central Intelligence Agency.
He has since been charged in the US with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence.
Mr Snowden initially moved to Hong Kong, but its government says he left the city voluntarily on 23 June. There have been conflicting media reports about where he has gone.
Officials say that Prism cannot be used to "intentionally target any US citizen, any other US person, or anyone located within the United States".
According to the Washington Post, the NSA identifies suspect communications using search terms designed to give it a 51% confidence rating that the target is foreign.
The paper says the queries are then checked by the FBI to ensure no US citizen is named as a target.
Once this is done and a suspect identified, it says that anyone that person has contacted or been contacted by can also become subject for review and then, in turn, everyone in the inbox and outbox of this extended group may also be targeted.
On 20 June the Guardian published a document spelling out the precautions the NSA is supposed to take to minimise the risk of inadvertently examining data about US citizens and residents.
It says that if officials discover details about US persons they should either pass them onto domestic law enforcement or destroy them "at the earliest practicable point". The exception to this is if the data is encrypted.
But some experts have questioned whether such safeguards are effective.
"The only way you can be reasonably be sure that somebody is a resident of a particular country from their email is to go and read all of their stuff," says Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory.
"The NSA appears to be claiming magical powers for itself with claims it can search automatically through large numbers of webmail inboxes and pull out the right material, because even the webmail companies have said in most cases they can't figure out the nationality, residence and domicile of a user without getting a person to look through their stuff."
Even assuming the NSA checks are adequate, that still leaves overseas residents who use services provided by the named tech companies as potential targets.
President Barack Obama has sought to offer reassurance by saying US security services are not "rifling through the ordinary emails" of German, French or other citizens, but are rather following a "circumscribed, narrow system".
One of the leaked slides says that "collection [of data was] directly from the servers" of the US tech firms.
Initial reports suggested that the NSA did in fact extract the data via special equipment they had installed on the companies' computers which acted as a "back door".
However, the tech firms issued statements denying that they provided "direct access".
The New York Times then suggested that the companies had created the digital equivalent of "locked mailboxes" - secure areas on their networks onto which they copied the requested files for the agency to inspect.
However, Google later denied this in an interview with Wired magazine.
It said it had complied with court-ordered requests by either sending data over secure FTP (file transfer protocol) - an encrypted transmission sent from its computers to the authorities' - or by physically handing over the information "in person".
The other tech firms have not been as specific.
Although several of the tech firms involved said they had never heard of Prism before the newspaper reports, they have provided limited information about how they handle national security requests.
Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Facebook have all published figures giving a rough indication of the total number of requests they have received from law enforcement agencies over a period of time.
However, they say they are not able to provide a figure for Fisa-related requests alone as this data remains classified.
By contrast, Google declines to provide an aggregated figure saying this would mark a "step back" for its users.
The firm already sub-divides the different kinds of government requests it receives into different groups - including the number of national security-related letters received from the FBI.
Its figures do not include requests from the NSA. It says to do so would involve "lumping together" the Fisa requests with those related to other cases which it says would be less transparent.
Security researcher Ashkan Soltani has posted a blog saying there are still five key unanswered questions about Prism:
NSA director Keith Alexander says that his agency's communication surveillance programmes have helped prevent more than 50 "potential terrorist events" since 9/11.
He adds that at least 10 of those had been set to take place in the US, but says that some details need to remain classified to ensure the efforts remained effective.
President Obama adds that: "You can't have 100% security, and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience."
The Guardian says it has obtained official documents that state "special programmes for GCHQ exist for focused Prism processing" - suggesting that spies at the UK's Government Communications Headquarters are making use of data sourced from the US tech firms.
The newspaper says that in the year to May 2012, the British agency was able to generate 197 intelligence reports as a result. These would normally be passed on to the MI5 and MI6 intelligence agencies, it says.
Foreign Secretary William Hague says that law-abiding citizens have "nothing to be worried about".
The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg adds that there are "exacting checks and balances in the way in which all intelligence agencies access information".
But Labour's shadow defence secretary Douglas Alexander says the government needs to be more open about the subject.
Professor Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity consultant who has worked for the UK government, suggests at the very least it should put limits on how long the information can be stored.
"Regimes do change and you don't want your data to be misused by any future government," he says.
"The key to that is how long the data is kept for. The reassurance needs to be that the data is not kept for any more than a reasonable amount of time - perhaps a couple of years."
Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee says it will receive a full report on the matter from GCHQ shortly and will then decide what action to take.
The EU's justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, says she has concerns that firms complying with Prism-related requests might be handing over data in breach of European citizens' data privacy rights.
As a consequence the US has agreed to set up a joint working group to examine the issue.
China's government says it is "gravely concerned" by other recently disclosed US "cyber attacks" on its citizens. The country's official news agency, Xinhua, says the affair proves the US is the "biggest villain in our age" while the South China Morning Post accuses Washington of "hypocrisy".
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin says that this kind of surveillance is "becoming a global phenomenon" and a practical way to fight terrorism.
Freedom Watch, a Florida-based activist group, is suing various government agencies and the tech companies involved, claiming that Prism violates the US constitution.
But the White House says that the programme is legal under the Fisa amendments first passed by Congress in 2008 and then renewed in 2012. These are not due to expire until 2017.
There have, however, been suggestions that US firms could face lawsuits in the EU for complying with the requests.
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office has issued a statement saying: "Aspects of US law under which companies can be compelled to provide information to US agencies potentially conflict with European data-protection law, including the UK's own Data Protection Act."
Finland's communications minister Pia Viitanen has also raised concerns.
However, researchers at the University of Amsterdam suggest that national security exemptions mean the firms have a valid legal defence.
Far from it.
The Guardian has published details of another Fisa-sanctioned programme which demanded US phone network provider Verizon hand over phone records belonging to millions of its customers to the NSA. The US director of national intelligence says this was limited to "telephony metadata" including the numbers dialled and length of calls but not the contents of the conversations. Even so, the American Civil Liberties Association has filed a lawsuit against the government claiming it was in breach of the US Constitution.
The leaked Powerpoint slides also point to a separate effort to collect "communications on fibre cables and infrastructure as data flows past", in other words as it travels across the internet. The Guardian has reported that GCHQ is doing something similar as part of a project codenamed Tempora, and says the agency is storing collected data for up to 30 days. Germany's justice minister describes the claims as "nightmarish".
And Reuters has reported that the US government is now the biggest buyer of malware, noting that the NSA declines to comment on its own role in buying such tools because of the "sensitivity" of the topic.
Richard Cox - a security specialist who previously worked in the UK's telecoms industry - warns the appearance of being over-zealous could prove self-defeating.
"Trust is vital - if the intelligence agencies appear to be overstepping the bounds of trust then there will be distrust," he says.
"We need greater oversight of the mechanisms being used so that we know they are being used in accordance with the law and so that we don't have to restrict officials' capabilities which might harm our security."
Several websites have published advice on how to avoid Prism's reach. Suggestions include:
But the University of Cambridge's Prof Anderson says the NSA can still overcome such measures.
"It won't break the encryption, but will put malware on your phone or laptop," he says.
"If you come to the attention of the NSA it will simply compromise the end devices."
Security consultant Prof Woodward agrees a certain amount of paranoia is justified, but adds that concerns need to be put in context.
"You should assume other countries are trying to spy on you - that's what they do," he says.
"Because of the way the internet has developed much of it is based in the States, so Americans have a prime opportunity.
"One of the comforts that the British have about the Americans and vice-versa is that we've been working hand-in-glove since 1946 sharing the material.
"But this doesn't mean the British intelligence services can get round local legislation and go to the Americans for information they've gathered on a UK citizen.
"That is still illegal. If they want information collected by an ally they still have to go through the legal process." | It has been described by its critics as a spying scandal and by its supporters as a justified and effective effort to head off the threat of terrorist attacks. | 23027764 |
Simon Clark from Forest made the remark while giving evidence to Holyrood's health committee.
Hospitals have banned smoking in their grounds, but it is being flouted.
Sheila Duffy, from anti-smoking group Ash Scotland, said in a 2014 survey, 73% of Scottish adults agreed smoking around hospitals should be outlawed.
She added that smoking continued to cause the early deaths of 13,000 people.
Mr Clark told MSPs: "Going to hospital as a patient or a visitor can be a very stressful experience. It's also quite stressful for many members of staff.
"To ban smoking on all hospital grounds, we think, is totally inhumane, it's totally vindictive, it's petty, far pettier actually than banning smoking in pubs. At least people can still go outside.
"To extend it to entire hospital sites, we think, is absolutely outrageous."
Mr Clark agreed that smokers congregating outside entrances to hospital buildings was "not a nice sight" but suggested designated shelters or a 100-yard no-smoking zone would be more appropriate.
However, Ms Duffy said the "myth" that smoking relieved stress was something perpetuated by tobacco companies.
In her evidence to the committee, she said: "I think the aim in Scotland is to put tobacco out of sight, out of mind and out of fashion, and as part of that, of course, you have to be compassionate with people who are used to smoking and who may have a physical addiction, and the NHS is very good at offering all kinds of support to people to try and manage that."
Linda Bauld, professor of health policy at the University of Stirling, also came before MSPs who are discussing the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Bill.
She said: "I think that most of us would agree that having smoking in the very place where people go to get well, even if it's outside the building, is not compatible with the NHS. We are spending millions of pounds trying to treat smoking-related disease.
"Although I welcome this in principle, it's not clear who's going to enforce this extension."
Andy Morrison from the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) said it was important to ensure advertising of e-cigarettes was aimed at current smokers to get them off cigarettes . "It must not be aimed at non-smokers or children," he added.. | Plans to make smoking in hospital grounds a statutory offence have been branded "inhumane, petty and vindictive" by a pro-smoking group. | 34115133 |
Three senior IAAF officials were banned for life for alleged doping breaches.
And Russia is currently banned from all athletics competitions following accusations of widespread doping.
Asked how the scandal facing athletics compared to that of Fifa, Johnson told the BBC: "If you think about the victims, it is absolutely worse."
Fifa, the body that governs world football, is also in crisis following a series of damaging corruption claims.
Its president, Sepp Blatter, has been banned for eight years for breaching ethics rules.
In an interview with Mishal Husain, Johnson said that those athletes cheated out of medals by dopers "never had the opportunity to stand on the podium - and they should have".
However, he stopped short of backing an Olympic ban for Russian athletes later this year.
"Do you ban an entire country that ostensibly could include clean athletes, from participating in Rio?" asked the American, who still holds the world and Olympic records for the 400m.
"That is a very difficult decision to make."
Johnson was also cool on the idea, floated by chairman of UK Athletics Ed Warner, of resetting all world records so athletics could start afresh with a level playing field.
"It doesn't make sense to me how a reset of all the world records is going to deal with the issue of people cheating," Johnson said.
"It doesn't create a clean competition and that does not deter anyone from cheating."
But he does believe the International Association of Athletics Federations must be "completely restructured".
"It is the governing body - and the very structure of the governing body - that has allowed this type of corruption," he said.
A report by the World Anti-Doping Agency's independent commission was scathing of former IAAF president Lamine Diack, whose 16-year reign came to an end in August 2015 when he was replaced by Lord Coe.
It claimed that "corruption was embedded" in the organisation and said it could not be ignored or dismissed as attributable to "the odd renegade acting on his own".
It concluded: "The IAAF allowed the conduct to occur and must accept its responsibility."
Johnson said he hoped the crisis would be the catalyst for "a fresh look" at all the problems facing athletics and would help rebuild trust with fans. | The corruption scandal plaguing athletics is worse than the one faced by football, says four-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson. | 35348906 |
A listener complained Evans' references to the first of his then-upcoming series of TFI Friday on Channel 4 had been inappropriately promotional.
Evans talked several time about the return of his 90s entertainment show in his 12 October radio programme.
The ECU said the frequency of comments was considered "largely promotional".
"As the producers of TFI Friday profit from its sale to Channel 4, it comes within the scope of the editorial guidelines dealing with references to commercial products, organisations and services," the BBC's ECU said of the audience member's complaint.
"Contrary to those guidelines, the references to TFI Friday were largely promotional in character, and more numerous than was editorially justifiable."
At a meeting following the finding, the management of BBC Radio said it had "spoken to Evans about the issues connected with commercial products and the editorial justifications for mentioning them".
Evans, who hosted the popular Channel 4 evening show TFI Friday from 1996 to 2000, returned to front a special 10-part series in October last year.
The revival of the anarchic entertainment programme was prompted by the success of an earlier one-off episode in June.
The new series, which began on 16 October, was co-produced by Evans's own production company Zimple TFI Friday.
In his 12 October Radio 2 show, which Evans has hosted since 2010, the presenter told listeners about what TFI would be featuring, including the names of celebrity guests.
Once the TFI revival ended, Evans said he would not be resurrecting the show again.
Evans will be back on BBC Two in May as the chief host of the reinvented Top Gear. | The BBC's editorial complaints unit (ECU) has upheld a complaint over comments made by broadcaster Chris Evans on his Radio 2 breakfast show. | 35746002 |
A carpenter and builder by trade, Mr Doherty, from Londonderry, was strongly active in the civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He went on to work with the Irish Foundation for Human Development in the city and founded the Inner City Trust.
In 2010, Mr Doherty received an honorary degree for his services to community development.
He was on the front line during the so-called 'Battle of the Bogside' in 1969.
Three days of rising tensions between the nationalist residents of the Bogside in Derry and the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) over an Apprentice Boys parade brought British troops on to the streets of Northern Ireland for the first time.
After three days of fighting, a truce was called and the barricades surrounding the Bogside were replaced by a white line.
Mr Doherty went on to work with the Irish Foundation for Human Development in the city.
This led to the establishment of the Derry Youth and Community Workshop, the North West Centre for Learning and Development and the Inner City Trust.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he will be remembered by the older generation for his central role in the Derry Citizens Defence Association.
"It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of my good friend and legendary Derryman Paddy 'Bogside' Doherty.
"The younger generation will remember him as the driving force behind the many projects designed to regenerate our city and provide much needed employment to hundreds of young people."
SDLP MP Mark Durkan said he was a lion of civic ambition and community ethic.
"I mourn the sad death of Paddy Doherty after an illness which he bore so bravely.
"The whole city will join Paddy's family in their loss of a man of such warm inspiration and fond care.
"He was a true pioneer of methods of engagement and enablement which found wider practice with the development of the peace process." | The veteran civil rights activist Paddy Doherty, better known as Paddy Bogside, has died at the age of 89. | 35249786 |
Construction output rose 1.6% compared with the same month last year, and by 3.9% compared to February 2015, the Office for National Statistics said.
Private sector house building grew 2.3% in March, after five successive months of contraction.
UK construction growth slowed at the end of 2014 and remained sluggish through the start of this year.
Overall, output in the first quarter of 2015 was down 1.1% compared to the last quarter of 2014.
"Following the fall in output over January and February, today's figures represent encouraging news," said Gareth Hird of property consultancy McBains Cooper.
"However, it would be premature to call this a recovery just yet. In all likelihood it is fragile at this stage," he said. | UK construction picked up in March, suggesting that the sector is reviving after a slow start to 2015. | 32748432 |
17 November 2016 Last updated at 08:16 GMT
The little monkey was found on a farm in Yichun city in China getting a piggyback from a goat.
No-one knows where the little monkey came from, but local wildlife protection authorities have said they will send the monkey to the city's zoo first, then release it back into the wild when it gets a bit bigger. | Here at Newsround we love unlikely friendships like this one - A monkey and a goat in China seem to be inseparable. | 38010232 |
Brendan Rodgers' side - who play FC Astana on Wednesday - dominated possession for large periods against the Premier League champions.
Riyad Mahrez put Leicester ahead with a superb goal only for Eoghan O'Connell to curl in from 25 yards.
Kasper Schemichel then saved a James Forrest penalty in the shootout.
Celtic still have potentially four qualifiers to play before reaching the group stage of the Champions League, beginning with a 3,000-mile trip to Astana, in Kazakhstan, this week. But Rodgers played a strong side for this International Champions Cup friendly.
Mahrez won the Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year award last season and the Algerian showed his qualities again by cutting inside from the right wing and curling superbly into the top corner in the 46th minute.
Leicester - who named three new signings in their starting XI - will be desperate to keep Mahrez at the King Power Stadium. He has been strongly linked with a move to Arsenal, but manager Claudio Ranieri says "it will be better for him to stay with me".
Mahrez, 25, was signed by the Foxes from Le Havre for £400,000 in 2014 but reports in France on Saturday suggested he was set to join Arsenal for up to £50m.
He was the outstanding player on display in Glasgow, and after the match Ranieri again repeated that the winger would be staying.
"Did you see how Riyad is happy?" said Ranieri.
"He played so well, worked so hard for the team, he scored a goal and he stays with us.
"It is very important (to keep him); he is one of our stars.
"Other teams maybe have more stars and maybe he doesn't play at the same level, because maybe is on the bench so it is much better he stays with me."
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers saw 20-year-old centre-back O'Connell guide in off a post in the 59th minute after Scott Brown's shot had been blocked to level the game, which went straight to penalties after 90 minutes.
The first 10 spot kicks were converted before Forrest saw his effort saved and Daniel Amartey scored to give Leicester a bonus point in the competition.
Celtic have their important Champions League tie in between a friendly game with Barcelona in Dublin next weekend, while Leicester face Paris St-Germain in California next Saturday.
Rodgers was impressed with his side's display and is also confident of finalising the signing of former Liverpool defender Kolo Toure this weekend.
"It was an excellent game," he said. "For a pre-season game, it was at a good level and good intensity. Leicester looked fit and strong and ready for another challenge.
"We were excellent. Mahrez scored a fantastic goal but our reaction was really good. The mentality we have tried to create is a winning one. Even in pre-season, that's important.
"We came from a goal behind and that is important."
Rodgers also indicated that a deal is close to sign former Arsenal and Manchester City defender Kolo Toure, released by Liverpool at the end of last season.
"Hopefully Kolo Toure will be signed by Sunday and he will be great for us," Rodgers said. "I bought him to Liverpool and he did great. He looks after himself and is in good condition. He will be a valuable player for us."
Celtic: Gordon (Fasan 62); Janko, Lustig (Ambrose 46), O'Connell; Roberts (Forrest 62), McGregor (Johansen 62), Brown (Allan 75), Armstrong (Rogic 75), Izaguirre; Griffiths (Christie 75), Dembele (Ciftci 62).
Leicester: Zieler (Schmeichel 46); Amartey, Hernandez (Okazaki 62), Morgan (Wasilewski 62), Chilwell; Mahrez (Fuchs 70), Mendy (Simpson 46), Drinkwater, Albrighton (Schlupp 46); Ulloa (Huth 62), Gray (Musa 46) | Celtic prepared for their Champions League trip to Kazakhstan next week by losing a friendly 6-5 on penalties to Leicester after a 1-1 draw. | 36875875 |
And it appears as though patients at the renal unit of Wrexham Maelor Hospital would agree.
Kidney patients undergoing dialysis treatment there are being offered personal performances by members of the locally-based NEW Sinfonia orchestra.
Numbers requested have ranged from The Beatles and Frank Sinatra, to musicals and traditional Welsh tunes.
The project, part of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board's arts in health and wellbeing' programme, is led by violinist Robert Guy and his clarinettist brother Jonathan, who established NEW Sinfonia to make classical music more accessible to audiences across north Wales.
Robert, who is also a critically-acclaimed conductor, said: "We really enjoy coming and we find it's quite a humbling experience for us.
"We always have two musicians and vary the players who come along. Today it's been myself on violin and my brother Jonathan on clarinet but other times we'll have someone playing cello or flute."
His brother Jonathan, who has also played with the BBC Philharmonic, said: "We like to play anything that helps to lighten the atmosphere and we also do requests.
"In fact, one patient recently asked for something by an English jazz clarinettist called Monty Sunshine who worked with some of the big names back in the 1950s and 1960s.
"I had to work quite hard to find it but when I did we played it for him and he really enjoyed it."
Last year a study by Brunel University found music could reduce some post-operative pain by up to 77%.
But for others the performances are more about adding quality of life.
Gwendoline Evans, from Llay, has been on dialysis for seven years and says the music helps make her sessions more enjoyable.
"The dialysis sessions, which I have three times a week, are essential but they can be boring, so I look forward to hearing the musicians when they come in," she said.
"I ask for requests and they always try to play them for me. I really like songs from the shows and I try to sing along with them." | Bob Marley once said: "One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain". | 37980320 |
Independent Rosemarie Harris was the only nominee for the position after Barry Thomas announced he was standing down.
She said she hoped to put Powys "more on the Welsh stage" but warned of further austerity.
She received 49 votes in favour, one ballot was spoiled and there were 20 abstentions.
"I recognise the challenge that we all face," she told the meeting on Thursday.
"We've had to take a lot of money out of the budget in the last few years and austerity is still with us so there will be more to take.
"There are tremendous opportunities available, all we need to do is grasp them."
Ms Harris, who represents Llangynidr, added she hoped to better promote Powys, particularly on social media.
"We have so much to offer in this county," she said.
Meanwhile, Berriew councillor Dai Davies will succeed retiring chaiman Keith Tampin, who was praised for his hard work and fairness during his time in office.
The council offers the title to councillors from different areas, with Montgomeryshire having been due its "turn" this coming year. | Powys council has elected its first woman leader, following the local elections earlier this month. | 39962182 |
Khalid Mohamed Omar Ali, 27, from north London, was also charged with two counts of making or having explosives.
Those two charges, under the Explosive Substances Act, relate to alleged activity in Afghanistan in 2012.
Mr Omar Ali, who was arrested on Parliament Street on 27 April, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
Knives were recovered from the scene after his arrest, which followed a stop and search as part of an ongoing operation.
Mr Omar Ali is believed to be a UK national who was born overseas and went to school in Tottenham. | A man arrested near Downing Street last month has been charged with preparing terrorist acts, Scotland Yard says. | 39863389 |
Lee, who rarely gives interviews, said: "I'm still old-fashioned. I love dusty old books and libraries. This is Mockingbird for a new generation."
The writer celebrated her 88th birthday on Monday, the same day as the announcement was made.
The e-book and audiobook will be published by HarperCollins on 8 July.
To Kill A Mockingbird was first published on 11 July in 1960 by JB Lippincott and Co, a company which went on to become part of HarperCollins.
It tells the story of small-town lawyer Atticus Finch's battle against racial prejudice as he defends a black man who is wrongly accused of raping a white woman.
Lee's only published novel, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and has sold 30 million copies in English worldwide.
It has also been translated into 40 languages.
The novel was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1962, with Gregory Peck picking up the best actor Academy award for his portrayal of Finch.
Considered to be a modern classic, it is regularly taught in schools in the UK and the US.
"Every home has a dog-eared copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, and now readers will be able to add this favourite book to their digital libraries," said Michael Morrison, president and publisher of HarperCollins US General Books Group and Canada.
"Although today is Nelle Harper Lee's birthday, she is giving readers around the world the gift of being able to read or listen to this extraordinary story in all formats."
The audiobook will be a downloadable edition of the existing CD, narrated by Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek.
HarperCollins said the e-book will feature "extra exclusive content". | Author Harper Lee has granted permission for her classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird to be issued as an audiobook and e-book. | 27203069 |
In a statement to shareholders, new chairman John McFarlane promised "a leaner and more agile" business.
Aviva's South Korean arm will be sold off, while its UK bulk-buying annuity unit will not take on any new business.
Mr McFarlane also set a target of cutting costs by £400m by 2014.
Aviva also said 27 other businesses required "significant improvement".
Chief executive Andrew Moss was ousted in May following shareholder unhappiness at the company's poor performance.
Aviva's share price has fallen 35% over the past year.
Mr McFarlane took day-to-day control as executive chairman and launched a review of the group's 58 businesses.
The review revealed that shareholders thought the group was "difficult to understand", too complex and too exposed to the eurozone, he said.
And despite £1.3bn of restructuring charges over the last five years, the company was still perceived as "bureaucratic and inefficient".
"I genuinely believe our new approach will largely address stakeholder concerns," he said, "although we will need patience particularly from shareholders, as our plans are subject to execution risk and to the economic environment."
Aviva, which has 43 million customers worldwide, expects to complete its restructuring plan by 2014.
The company's share price closed up 1% at 284.2 pence. | Aviva, the giant UK insurance group, has announced plans to jettison 16 "non-core" underperforming businesses in an attempt to boost revenues and its share price performance. | 18719659 |
Monitoring of seagrass meadows off the North Wales coast found areas damaged by the likes of boat moorings, anchors and vehicles crossing at low tide had reduced value to the ecosystem.
Fewer species of fish were found where seagrass was degraded, according to research published in PeerJ journal.
The seagrass studied was near the village of Porthdinllaen, in Gwynedd.
Researchers at Swansea University studied areas with both high and low cover over a 28-hectare stretch of sea bed.
They also sampled fish living in the underwater meadows of flowering plants.
There was a three-fold reduction in the diversity of fish species and invertebrates, such as prawns, shrimp, juvenile cod and juvenile plaice, in areas of low cover, said lead researcher Dr Richard Unsworth.
He said that in the areas that had become damaged, there was "a reduction in diversity of the species and in the value of the habitat for juvenile fish".
The seagrass is in a special area of conservation, which is a strictly protected site under the European Habitats Directive.
However, despite this protection it was still being degraded, he said.
"We have a lot of legislation in the UK already to conserve a lot of marine habitats but these mechanisms do not have enough financial clout," said Dr Unsworth.
Dr Jean-Luc Solandt of the Marine Conservation Society said the study reaffirmed that seagrass meadows are important habitats that should be protected.
"This research shows that disturbance to seagrass beds negatively impacts on ecosystems, and the capacity for these habitats to support a wealth of species.
"It is further evidence that protection measures are needed to preserve these diverse but fragile places."
Seagrasses are also found in several marine conservation zones off England.
Some marine conservation zones have already designated, with others due for consideration next year.
Conservation groups, backed by MPs, have been calling for a full network of protected zones to be created around the coastline of the UK.
Follow Helen on Twitter | Seagrasses - the underwater plants that act as nursery grounds for young fish - need more protection, say scientists. | 33244000 |
The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining the accounting methods the company uses for Singles Day sales.
Last year's event generated record-breaking sales of more than $14bn for Alibaba's sites such as Taobao.
Singles Day, held every year on 11 November, is also referred to as Double Eleven because of its date.
Alibaba said in late May that the SEC had begun its investigation earlier this year.
Some merchants in China have questioned whether results from Singles Day, where consumers are offered big discounts, are as high as Alibaba has reported.
Last year's total exceeded the combined sales of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events in the United States.
The SEC had told the company that its investigation did not mean it had breached any laws.
Former English teacher Jack Ma founded Alibaba, which floated on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014. Its shares soared 38% on the first day of trading to $93.89, valuing the business at $231bn.
The stock fell below $60 in September last year, but has since recovered. Shares were 1.7% higher on Wednesday at $102.67 after Alibaba reported a better-than-expected 55% rise in revenue to $5.14bn for the three months to September, while net profit rose 41% to $1.94bn.
That was the second successive quarter of strong results, suggesting the company can still generate robust growth despite concerns about the Chinese economy slowing down as consumers curb spending.
Alibaba - by far China's biggest online retailer - said e-commerce sales rose 41% to $4.27bn compared with the same period last year.
Revenue from its digital media and entertainment division soared just over 300% to $541m, while the cloud computing unit posted a 130% rise in sales to $224m.
Daniel Zhang, chief executive, said the group saw "huge potential" in the newly integrated media business, which includes Youku, the third most popular online video site in China.
"By combining engaging online experiences with highly relevant content, we delivered impressive financial and operational results in the quarter," he said.
Maggie Wu, chief financial officer, said Alibaba expected the two divisions, along with its "innovation initiatives" unit, to "drive long-term value for both our customers and shareholders".
The company has also been seeking growth outside China as that market becomes increasingly saturated. It bought south-east Asian online retailer Lazada Group for about $1bn in May. | Alibaba, China's biggest online retailer, said a US investigation would not affect next week's Singles Day - its biggest shopping day of the year. | 37847973 |
It was compiled by the fleet's senior medical officer as a ninth birthday gift to his son in 1943.
Autographs include Flight Commander Henry Melvin "Dinghy" Young, second in command of the raid, who was shot down and killed on his return.
The book will be sold at auction in Newark, Nottinghamshire, on November 27 with a guide price of £3,000 to £5,000.
The seller's father collected the signatures at the RAF base at Scampton, Lincolnshire, where Squadron 617 - better known as the Dambusters - was formed in March 1943.
Bombing raids on three major dams in Germany's industrial Ruhr Valley took place in May using Barnes Wallis's bouncing bomb technique. Of the 19 planes that went, eight were lost.
Henry Young - known as "Dinghy" because he survived two crashes into the sea in an inflatable boat - flew an Avro Lancaster, codenamed A-Apple, in the first wave, which attacked the Möhne Dam.
There are signatures from members of other squadrons based at Scampton, including Group Captain Robert McFarlane, who later led a Lancaster Bomber squadron at the height of the Battle of Berlin, and Flying Officer Chas Walker, an Australian professional cricketer who was killed in action in December 1942.
Some added illustrations to their signatures, including a detailed drawing of a Lancaster in flight, a picture of a kangaroo by an Australian airman and a pair of cartoon airmen, captioned, "Jolly good show, what?!!"
James Brown, who is selling the album, is also selling a silk map which was rescued from a burnt-out Lancaster bomber and the official warrant appointing his father as flying officer.
The autograph book and map are on show every day until Wednesday at Nicholas Mellors Auctioneers, who have estimated a figure of up to £5,000 when bids are accepted on Friday. | An album of signatures by members of the World War Two Dambusters squadron has gone on show. | 34878692 |
The brothers, 33 and 27 respectively, will arrive from Japanese club NTT Shining Arcs and Newport Gwent Dragons.
Both players can play across the three-quarter line, at wing and centre.
"Alesana and Anitelea are quality acquisitions, and have bags of experience at the very highest level," said director of rugby Dean Richards.
"They have physicality and pace, which is what you need to be successful."
Older brother Alesana won three Premiership titles with Leicester - where sibling and England centre Manu still plays - while Anitelea also represented the Tigers and Sale Sharks at Premiership level.
"I'm extremely excited at the prospect of returning to the Premiership with Newcastle," said Alesana.
"Newcastle is a big club with huge potential, and under Dean Richards there is an exciting vision for rugby in the North East which I want to be a part of." | Samoa internationals Alesana and Anitelea Tuilagi have joined Newcastle Falcons for the 2014-15 Premiership season on two-year deals. | 27325863 |
The error on Friday caused the social network to show a memorial banner on user profiles for people who were still alive.
Users posted status updates to reassure friends and family they were not dead, despite Facebook's message.
"This was a terrible error that we have now fixed," a Facebook spokesperson said. "We are very sorry that this happened."
The message, intended for "memorialised profiles", erroneously appeared on the profile pages of a large number of users - including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
"We hope people who love Mark will find comfort in the things other share to remember and celebrate his life," the banner on his page read.
Both technology reporters and Facebook users, however, saw a humorous side to the story.
"Why Is Facebook Saying I'm Dead?" asked the New York Times' Katie Rogers. "At first, I was indignant. I was definitely not dead. (Was I? It had been a long week.)"
"Facebook is capping one of the longest weeks in American history by telling everyone that they are dead," quipped The Verge, a technology website, in reference to the presidential election.
The memorial feature was introduced by Facebook in 2015 after a number of high-profile cases where family wanted to access the social accounts of deceased loved ones.
User can opt to have their account turn into a memorial page upon their death, where Facebook contacts can leave message and share memories.
An alternative option is to have your account deleted after your death. | An unusual bug on Facebook briefly labelled many people as dead. | 37957593 |
According to court documents, Michael Sandford, 20, told police he wanted to shoot Mr Trump.
His mother Lynne said she feared her son may try to take his own life if he is detained in a US prison.
She said she want him to be deported "so he could be back in this country and get psychiatric help".
If convicted, Mr Sandford, who has Asperger's syndrome, could face up to 30 years in prison.
Speaking on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, Ms Sandford said she did not want her son to "escape punishment" but did not want him to be incarcerated abroad.
Mr Sandford has a history of contact with mental health services, she said, and had previously tried to take his own life.
There was "no way" he would cope with the conditions in a US prison if he received a lengthy sentence, she said.
His family had been told he was being held "in isolation 22 hours a day with no window to the outside world".
"He is really closed off to society, to everything," she added.
"He is very gentle, calm person" and would think "there is no point," she added.
"Why would he live the next 30 years in these situations? So yes I think he would attempt to commit suicide again."
Mr Sandford travelled to the US around a year ago.
His mother said she "desperately" tried to stop him from leaving the UK, but despite support from medical professionals was unable to do so.
"We were basically told because he's 18 unless you have him declared mentally incompetent, there's nothing you can do," he said.
"And because he is very articulate, very bright, we could not stop him."
His mother said she would go from hearing nothing at all to receiving 10 calls a day from him. He would refuse to answer questions about what he had been doing or his lifestyle, she added.
"Next thing I knew, on 18 June, I was woken at midnight by a call from the Foreign Office - it shocked me," Ms Sandford explained.
"They said he had been arrested. My world fell apart, I was shaking head-to-foot and burst into tears. I couldn't believe it."
"I need to know what happened to him in the last year in America. Who put these ideas in his head?"
According to court documents, Mr Sandford told the secret service that he had driven to the rally in Las Vegas from California in order to kill Mr Trump and he had been to a gun range the day before to practise shooting.
He also said he expected to die in the attempt, which he had been planning for a year.
Ms Sandford said her son "had never mentioned politics in any way in his entire life and never taken an interest in politics."
The Foreign Office said in a statement: "We have offered advice and information to the family in this case and will continue to do so. We remain in contact with Mr Sandford's legal representatives and have submitted a request to visit him."
The Federal Bureau of Prisons says it works to provide education to staff and inmates on suicide prevention.
The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays from 09:00-11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel. | The mother of a British man who allegedly snatched a policeman's gun at a Donald Trump rally has called for him to be returned to the UK. | 36706996 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.