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32974358 | The seasonally adjusted figure is at its lowest level since a year after German reunification in 1990.
The head of the Federal Labour Office, Frank-Juergen Weise, said strong consumer consumption was helping to drive the downward trend.
A recent survey showed Germans are feeling more optimistic than at any point since October 2001.
The chief economist at the government-owned KfW Development Bank, Joerg Zeuner, said demand for staff was rising in almost every sector, although it was weaker in manufacturing.
Private consumption has overtaken exports as the main impetus behind Germany's growth.
The government is hoping household spending will help the economy to expand by 1.8% this year, but economists at Deutsche Bank have lowered their forecast to 1.6%, because of weaker-than-expected first-quarter growth. | Germany's jobless rate has fallen by 6,000 to 2.78 million, as Europe's biggest economy continues to recover. |
40685361 | "It was like a miracle," said Narcis Bardalet, who was in charge of embalming Dalí's body 28 years ago, adding that the hair was also intact.
The body was exhumed in the north-eastern Spanish city of Figueres to settle a paternity case.
A woman says her mother had an affair with the world-famous artist.
If María Pilar Abel Martínez is proved right, she could assume part of Dalí's estate, currently owned by the Spanish state.
Dalí's body was exhumed from a crypt in a museum dedicated to his life and work on Thursday evening.
"When I took off the silk handkerchief, I was very emotional," Mr Bardalet told RAC1 radio station on Friday morning.
"I was eager to see him and I was absolutely stunned. It was like a miracle... his moustache appeared at 10 past 10 exactly and his hair was intact," he added.
Lluís Peñuelas, the secretary of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, said that it was "a moving moment".
DNA samples have been taken from the artist's teeth, bones and nails in a four-hour operation, the officials say.
It may take weeks before the results of the tests are known.
The exhumation went ahead following a court order on behalf of Ms Martínez.
This was despite the objections of the local authorities and the Dalí Foundation, both of which said that not enough notice had been given.
Ms Martínez, a tarot card reader who was born in 1956, says her mother had an affair with Dalí in the year before her birth.
Her mother, Antonia, had worked for a family that spent time in Cadaqués, near the painter's home.
Ms Martínez's action is against the Spanish state, to which Dalí left his estate.
Ms Martínez says her mother and paternal grandmother both told her at an early age that Dalí was her real father.
But the claim has surprised many, including Ian Gibson, an Irish-born biographer of Dalí, who said that the notion of the artist having an affair that produced a child was "absolutely impossible".
"Dalí always boasted: 'I'm impotent, you've got to be impotent to be a great painter'," the biographer said.
Photo gallery of Dalí's work | Salvador Dalí's moustache is intact in the "10 past 10" position, the surrealist painter's foundation has said, a day after his body was exhumed. |
36527323 | The claim: People receiving funding from the European Union would continue to get it until 2020 if there was a vote to leave the EU, and more money could be spent on the NHS and tax cuts.
Reality Check verdict: There would be the money to fund these spending promises as long as economic growth was not reduced - which most economists believe it would be - and the UK outside the EU did not continue making contributions to the EU budget. The people making these promises would not necessarily be in power following a Brexit.
This is important because of the £276m the UK contributes to the EU budget each week about £115m comes back to the UK to be spent on things such as:
Vote Leave is saying that those groups will continue to be funded until 2020, unless the programmes for which they were receiving the money were due to finish before 2020.
After that, there would be £161m a week left over, of which, the letter says, £100m a week would be spent on the NHS and another £33m a week would go on abolishing the 5% value added tax (VAT) currently charged on domestic fuel.
There are a few caveats about this promise.
The first is that if, following a vote to leave the EU, the economy grows by about half a percentage point less than it would have done - and most economists believe leaving the EU would reduce economic growth - then the reduced tax take for the government would wipe out the savings from budget contributions.
If that was the case, then the funding for these projects would have to be found from elsewhere.
The letter says: "There is more than enough money to ensure that those who now get funding from the EU - including universities, scientists, family farmers, regional funds, cultural organisations and others - will continue to do so while also ensuring that we save money that can be spent on our priorities."
But while some of the signatories of this letter are ministers in the government, they are not currently in a position to make spending pledges.
Finally, it is possible that if a post-Brexit UK wanted to retain preferential access to the single market, it might still have to contribute to the EU budget, as Norway does, which would reduce the amount of money left over.
Read more: The facts behind claims in the EU debate | Vote Leave campaigners sent out a letter on Tuesday saying that if the UK left the European Union, then people who were receiving EU funding would continue to do so until 2020. |
34897946 | David Cumming, head of equities at Standard Life Investments, said that HSBC was being put at a "competitive disadvantage" by "ever-increasing capital requirements".
"Logically, we would be supportive of a move if they chose to do that," he told Radio 4's Today programme.
Standard Life owns 1% of HSBC.
Mr Cumming said a UK exit would result in "better growth, earnings and dividend prospects unless the regulator changes tack".
The warning came as the Bank of England prepared its latest set of stress tests, designed to assess whether lenders could withstand another financial crisis.
HSBC said earlier this year that it was considering moving its headquarters out of the UK.
At the time, the bank said the decision was sparked by "regulatory and structural reforms" since the financial crisis.
HSBC has said it will make a decision on a possible move away from London by the end of the year.
The bank has not yet said where it may consider moving to, although many expect Hong Kong to be high on the list.
It has had its headquarters in the UK since 1992, but makes most of its money overseas, with Asia accounting for about 80% of its profit.
HSBC has threatened to exit the UK before. In 2010, it said it might move from London if the UK government decided to break up big banks. | Shareholders would back banking giant HSBC if it decided to move its headquarters out of the City, according to one of its bigger investors. |
34285548 | Media playback is unsupported on your device
17 September 2015 Last updated at 18:43 BST
She is now settled in Cardiff with her baby son Nabil, although her husband is still a refugee in Jordan.
Her story starts in 2011 with bombing in her home city of Daraa, when the couple fled.
Asmaa spent three years as a refugee, but under pressure to return to Syria, she took a journey via Turkey, Italy and France before arriving in Kent as a stowaway in the back of a lorry.
She said she looked to the UK as a place where she could be safe with her baby. | Syrian refugee Asmaa Al Fashtaki, 29, arrived in the UK last November and was five months pregnant. |
40407054 | The woman, who police have not named, was subdued by a police officer who had joined the force two weeks earlier.
A passenger on Southwest Airlines Flight 4519 told KHOU-TV that the woman was behaving erratically throughout Sunday's morning flight.
"She wrote 'Help me' and her name" on napkins, the traveller said.
"I knew something wasn't right," the passenger said, adding the woman's behaviour drew attention even before she had boarded the flight at LAX airport.
"It was weird, something like you see on TV. You never expect to think you'd be on that same flight."
Southwest Airlines said in a statement that the pilot chose to divert to Corpus Christi, Texas, after crew members reported "a potential threat in the cabin".
Corpus Christi Airport Police told Houston's KTRK-TV that the FBI is investigating the situation.
Henrietta Mokwuah, who was also aboard the flight, told the network that the woman came close to opening the emergency door located near the rear of the plane.
"Oh yeah, she tore off a piece of it. There was the frame, that was on the door. She ended up breaking it off," Ms Mokwuah said.
The woman refused to stay in her seat and made remarks about being treated unfairly by the government as she paced in the aisles, passengers say.
Cleveland Independent School District Police identified the off-duty officer who detained the woman as Pamela Minchew, who had joined the police force only two weeks earlier.
Officer Minchew had been on holiday with her children, and was returning home to Texas, according to Police Chief Rex Evans.
Due to differences in air pressure, experts say it would be almost impossible for a passenger to open the door of an aircraft during a flight. Added to that, the doors are locked during flight. | A plane travelling from Los Angeles to Houston was diverted after a woman tried to open an emergency exit near the end of the flight, passengers say. |
35391520 | David Warner (122) and Mitchell Marsh (102 not out) helped Australia set a daunting total of 330-7 in Sydney.
But Pandey's 104 not out led the charge to guide the tourists to victory by six wickets with two balls to spare.
India opener Rohit Sharma had earlier scored 99 on his way to claiming man of the series.
Rohit hit 441 runs in the five matches at an average of 110, including two centuries.
Australia had looked likely to add to their 18 consecutive ODI victories on home soil with another impressive batting display.
Opener Warner smashed his 122 off 113 balls and Marsh claimed his first ODI century with 102 off just 84 balls.
Once again in the series, India's bowlers struggled with only debutant Jaspit Bumrah giving some measure of control with figures of 2-40 off his 10 overs.
India got their reply off to a solid start with Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan (78) putting on 123.
Rohit was eventually caught behind by Matthew Wade off the bowling of John Hastings just one short of another century, but this time India avoided the batting collapse that had characterised the previous matches in the series.
Pandey, in only his fourth ODI, kept pace with the run chase and with support from skipper MS Dhoni (34) saw them home in a thrilling finish. | Manish Pandey scored a maiden one-day international century as India beat Australia with a ball to spare to avoid a whitewash in the five-match series. |
39279647 | The top two sides in the world are not due to meet until the autumn of 2018.
However, the RFU are understood to be interested in a fixture between the two sides this November, despite the fact the fixture schedule has already been finalised.
England will play Argentina, Australia and Samoa in the international window.
The match could take place if various obstacles, such as the distribution of match-day revenues, can be overcome.
Meanwhile the All Blacks are pencilled in to face the Barbarians on 4 November.
"We are playing New Zealand in 2018," said an RFU spokesperson.
"If there is an opportunity for us to play NZ before then - ie this year - then we will pursue that opportunity."
Eddie Jones' men can surpass New Zealand's record of 18 consecutive victories if they beat Ireland in the Six Nations on Sunday. | The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has confirmed it is looking into arranging an "out-of-window" match between England and New Zealand this year. |
39203198 | Out of 724 test purchases carried out by London Trading Standards, 96 retailers sold knives and blades to the volunteers.
It is illegal to sell knives to anyone under the age of 18.
As a result, 19 traders have been prosecuted while others received warnings and compliance advice.
London Trading Standards spokesman Steve Playle said: "Whilst it is commendable that 87% of shops refused to sell, it is concerning that children as young as 13 were actually sold knives."
The tests were carried out as part of the Metropolitan Police's Operation Sceptre initiative, aimed at reducing knife crime.
Ch Insp of the Met's Trident Central Gangs Command, Gary Anderson, said although the force had "reduced the volume of gang-related knife crime" through education programmes and "targeted work on boroughs", more needed to be done.
"We remain committed to working in partnership with Trading Standards to prevent knives from reaching dangerous hands and to reduce the number of families devastated by knife crime in London," he said.
The government said more work needed to be done and that it would continue to work with other agencies to keep children and communities safe.
Minister for Vulnerability, Safeguarding and Countering Extremism Sarah Newton said: "Selling knives to children is illegal and I am delighted that London Trading Standards are taking action to enforce this and have found that the vast majority of retailers are complying with the law.
"Knife crime can have devastating consequences and this government is acting against it, including banning the sale of so-called 'zombie-knives', supporting Operation Sceptre and expanding our work with retailers to stop the underage sale of knives." | Children as young as 13 bought knives in London when teenage volunteers were used to test if shops were complying with the law. |
31069005 | While Scotland's Martin Laird led on 10 under, former world number one and 14-time major champion Woods was last in a field of 132 and missed the cut.
The 39-year-old was playing in his first PGA Tour event of the season.
"I've got to keep this in perspective. Sometimes that's hard to do," said Woods, who finished on 13 over.
Struggling with his chipping, he carded six bogeys, two double bogeys, a triple bogey and two birdies in his second round at TPC Scottsdale.
Woods duffed one chip from greenside rough and flew another straight over the flag and into a bunker. He also struggled from the fairway, leaving a chip from 20 yards off the green short.
His previous worst round was an 81 in the 2002 Open at Muirfield, a round completed in a storm that made scoring difficult.
Woods, who carded a two-over-par 73 in his opening round, missed much of last season, including the Ryder Cup, after having back surgery in March 2014.
"We all have days like this," he said. "Unfortunately mine was in a public forum and a public setting, but we all have days like this and we take the good with the bad."
Laird, 32, who shot a second straight 66 in wet and windy conditions, said: "It was a very Scottish day today with the misty drizzle. The big thing was I drove well."
American Daniel Berger is two shots behind Laird on eight under, while another tour rookie, Justin Thomas, is third on seven under.
Phil Mickelson, a three-time winner in Phoenix, missed the cut after carding a second-round five-over 76. | Tiger Woods recorded the worst round of his professional career with an 11-over-par 82 in the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open. |
35262705 | The special recognition award will honour his 50-year career and will be presented by his friend, actor Dustin Hoffman.
Connolly, 73, has just performed the first of 16 nights at the Apollo Hammersmith in London.
In 2013, he was treated for prostate cancer and Parkinson's Disease.
The comic, whose career began in a folk band with Gerry Rafferty called The Humblebums, first performed comedy in the early 1970s.
In the decades since, he has toured the globe and was voted number one in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand Ups poll.
His acting career began on the BBC's Play for Today in 1975, and he has gone on to host a number of TV specials and travelogues, including Billy Connolly's Route 66, in which he travelled from the east to the west coast of the US.
He was nominated for a best actor Bafta in 1998 for his role opposite Dame Judi Dench in the 1997 film Mrs Brown, and was presented with an outstanding career award by Bafta Scotland in 2012.
Broadcaster and fellow Scot Armando Iannucci said: "It's unbelievable and yet no surprise that we're celebrating fifty years of Billy Connolly.
"Because he doesn't compromise, because he doesn't fit a label, he has no shelf life, he's not part of a phase. He's unique. You can't really sum him up."
The National Television Awards will be held on 20 January and will be broadcast on ITV from 19:30 GMT. | Comedian Billy Connolly is to be presented with a special prize at the National Television Awards later this month. |
40941341 | Due in part to some cosmic geometry, the Moon will momentarily obscure the Sun and cast a lunar shadow across the Earth's surface, blanketing parts of the US in darkness, causing temperatures to drop and illuminating stars and planets in the middle of the day.
The last time the US experienced a solar eclipse was 1979, but it has been 99 years since the celestial event crossed the entire continent. The 2017 eclipse will also mark the first solar eclipse exclusive to the US since before the nation's founding in 1776, experts say.
The Moon travels between the Earth and Sun about once a month.
However, due to its tilted orbit - compared to the Earth's orbit around the Sun - the Moon is usually too high or too low in the sky to directly block the Sun's light.
But once about every 18 months during the new Moon phase, it lines up directly between the Earth and Sun, creating the conditions for a solar eclipse.
The celestial phenomenon, or coincidence, occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth all align at just the right point in the Moon's orbit, giving the Moon the appearance of being the same size as the much larger Sun.
The Sun is actually 400 times wider than the Moon and also 400 times farther away.
As the Sun's powerful rays disappear, its outermost atmosphere, known as the corona, becomes visible to the naked eye and creates a ring of fire around the Moon's disc.
The darkest part of the moon's shadow - the umbra - causes a total solar eclipse. The lighter part - the penumbra - is where only a portion of the sun's light is obscured, causing a partial eclipse.
Why do we associate eclipses with the end of the world?
The Sun's rays are so powerful you can feel their warmth from 150 million km away, which is why staring into the Sun too long could cause serious eye damage.
It allows ultraviolet (UV) light to flood the retina and burn the light-sensitive cells, and since there are no pain receptors in the retina to trigger what is happening, it could cause permanent blurry vision and blindness.
A Pennsylvania school district has gone as far as scrapping recess during the solar eclipse over concerns that students could suffering eye damage from looking at the sun.
Scientists have cautioned that anyone watching the eclipse should wear protective eyewear.
Take measures to make sure you are not causing long-term damage by purchasing a pair of special eclipse glasses, which block out more than 99.9% of the Sun's light, or a pair of binoculars fitted with a specialised solar filter.
You can also construct a pinhole viewer, which projects the light onto a piece a paper, by using a cardboard box, a sheet of white paper, aluminium foil, a craft knife, scissors, a drawing pin, duct tape and glue.
But glasses can - and should - come off during totality, when the Sun is completely blocked. Onlookers can spot the corona, the crown around the Sun as it radiates from the Moon's black disc, and Regulus, a nearby bright star.
If conditions are perfect look for Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury, which could be visible, as well as surrounding sunset colours.
Read more about safe ways to watch the eclipse
An estimated 12 million people live in the eclipse's path totality, a 70-mile (112 km) swath of land between Oregon and South Carolina during which the sun's disc is completely masked by the Moon and the day slips into night.
Another 18 million people are within a short drive of catching the view while an additional 500 million people will be able to glimpse a partial eclipse from other areas in the US, Canada, Mexico, parts of South America and north-western Europe.
The total eclipse is scheduled to begin at 10:16 local time (17:16 GMT) in Government Point, Oregon, travelling across Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina, where it will end at 14:48 local time (18:48 GMT).
But the celestial show really begins earlier than that - viewers in Oregon will start to enjoy the partial eclipse at 09:05 local time (16:05 GMT).
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The amount of time each place in the eclipse's path of totality will be shrouded in complete darkness depends on the speed of the shadow at that time.
For those watching on the edge of the path, the duration of totality will be shorter. For example, those standing on the very edge of the path may only experience seconds of darkness.
The tiny of town of Carbondale, Illinois, will be treated to the longest eclipse duration - about two minutes and 41 seconds of total darkness.
But even the best spots to watch the eclipse depend on good weather and clear skies.
If it is too cloudy to spot the eclipse or you are stuck inside during the cross-country sweep, the BBC will be showing the celestial show on its Facebook page, with Ben Rich from the Royal Astronomical Society on hand to answer your questions.
Nasa is streaming the event live on its website, Facebook, Periscope, Twitch, UStream, NASA TV and the NASA YouTube channel.
Students from the Eclipse Ballooning Project, a group of high school students, colleges and universities and Nasa scientists, are planning to place 57 cameras on weather balloons for a high altitude view.
Meanwhile internet-connected telescope service, Slooh, which partners with observatories worldwide, will stream the event from a telescope in Stanley, Idaho - which stands directly in the path of totality.
Startled by the dramatic shift in light and temperature, some animals have reportedly changed their behaviour to reflect the twilight hours during a solar eclipse.
Owls may start to call, crickets could start chirping and birds may go to roost.
But much of what is recorded about animal behaviour is anecdotal evidence, making it unclear exactly how certain animals may react.
A study published in the Journal of Fish Biology in 1998 found that daytime fish in reefs near the Galapagos swam to shelter during totality while nocturnal fish were more likely to emerge.
A study observing orb-weaver spiders during a 1991 eclipse found the insects taking down their webs during totality, only to re-spin them once again after the eclipse.
Doug Duncan, an astronomer at the University of Colorado-Boulder, witnessed a flock of llamas appear during a 1994 eclipse in Bolivia before they disappeared once daylight returned.
Mr Duncan, who has experienced 10 total solar eclipses, also said he watched a group of whales and dolphins surface during an eclipse over the Galapagos.
Typical house pets like cats and dogs work on a body clock, which means they likely will not be affected by the Moon's shadow.
With the fleeting cosmic event lasting a mere few minutes, the darkness is likely to cause nothing more than a moment of confusion for domestic pets.
In 1932 the Boston Society of Natural History observed animals during a total solar eclipse that lasted 10 minutes and found half of dogs observed appeared frightened.
Since solar eclipses occur roughly once every 18 months, the next one is slated to appear on 2 July 2019 over a wide stretch of the Southern Pacific, before crossing Chile and Argentina.
The next total solar eclipse on US soil is scheduled to occur on 8 April 2024, but it will not stretch from coast to coast. Instead, that eclipse will stretch from Texas to Maine. | On 21 August, more than seven million people across the US are expected to witness the first total solar eclipse to cross the North American continent from ocean to ocean since 1918. |
39869009 | The Italian musician topped the charts in 12 countries with the track, which was first released in 1995 and reached number two in the UK in 1996.
Miles's radio station OpenLab confirmed he died "after a courageous battle with stage four metastatic cancer".
Pete Tong led the tributes to the DJ, tweeting: "Sad to hear Robert Miles passing. RIP, thanks for the music."
Singer Boy George wrote: "R.I.P Robert Miles. Very sad news!"
The news was broken by producer and longtime friend Joe T Vannelli, who said: "The tragic news of the death of a very talented artist of our time makes me incredulous and upset.
"I will miss the fights, brawls, criticism, judgements but especially your talent in finding sounds and melodies unparalleled."
Miles won the Brit Award for best international breakthrough act in 1997.
Vannelli's statement continued: "I remember 1997 Brit Awards ceremony very well. Robert Miles was the best international newcomer award, introduced by Gary Barlow. Miles was the only one Italian artist winner in BA history.
"Children is an instrumental and dance anthem, one of the most ever loved tracks. With Robert Miles a part of my life dies with him."
Miles was born Roberto Concina in Switzerland on 3 November 1969 to Italian parents.
After finding mainstream success with Children, he had two further UK top 10 singles - Fable and One & One - and went on to release five albums.
Miles also launched a Balearic radio station Open Lab in 2012, which plays experimental music.
In a statement, the station said: "Robert was more than just an artist, he was a pioneer, a creator, an inspiration, a son, a father, our friend."
It added: "Throughout [his illness] he was strong, determined, incredibly brave and did everything he could to fight this horrendous disease."
Other figures in the dance music community to pay tribute included Darude, who tweeted: "RIP Robert Miles. Thank you for the inspiration, direction & courage!"
Armin van Buuren said: "Really in shock to hear the news of the passing of Robert Miles," while Chicane wrote: "I only played 'Children' 2 weeks ago on Sun:sets.... I wished I had written it."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | DJ Robert Miles, best known for his trance hit Children, has died at the age of 47 after a short illness. |
29216611 | He said his father and the Paisley family had been hurt by the way some in the Free Presbyterian Church and in political life "took him for granted".
He quoted Edward Carson talking about a friend who used him as a ladder only to kick him away at a convenient moment.
The North Antrim MP was writing in the Ballymena Guardian.
Ian Paisley Jr's article is primarily a personal recollection of his relationship with his father and an account of how he was called to the family home on Friday.
He said happier memories overshadowed the darker moments.
A private funeral service was held on Monday at the former first minister's east Belfast family home.
As a mark of respect, assembly business was suspended as MLAs remembered the former first minister and DUP leader.
Mr Paisley moved from a political "never man" to become Northern Ireland's first minister in 2007.
He ended up leading a power-sharing executive at Stormont - although he had supported the strike to bring one down 30 years earlier.
A year after becoming first minister of Northern Ireland with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness as the deputy first minister, he stepped down and handed over the reins to Peter Robinson, who also succeeded him as leader of the DUP.
Mr Paisley would subsequently claim that he was forced out by the party, blaming Mr Robinson and DUP MP Nigel Dodds for ousting him. Both men denied this.
Mr Paisley was a founder of the Free Presbyterian Church in 1951. He resigned as moderator in 2008.
In 2011, he told the congregation at Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church in south Belfast that he was stepping down from ministry. | Ian Paisley Jr has described critics of his father, the former DUP leader and first minister who died last Friday aged 88, as "pygmies in his shadow". |
37762007 | Real and Atletico are banned from registering players in the next two transfer windows after losing an appeal against their own punishments.
Fifa has given the Spanish FA six months to improve its transfer system.
It has strict rules restricting Under-18 players moving to foreign clubs.
Fifa's investigation concerned youth players who played for Atletico between 2007 and 2014, and Real from 2005 to 2014 with the clubs respectively fined £622,000 and £249,000 for breaching rules.
Barcelona were banned from registering players for two transfer windows in April 2014, but bought Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal in 2015, finally registering them to make them eligible to play when their suspension was lifted in January 2016.
Real and Atletico are banned from registering new players until January 2018. | The Spanish football federation has been fined 220,000 Swiss francs (£180,940) for violating youth player transfer rules in the case involving Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. |
38658259 | The winner earns a place in qualifying for April's World Championship.
Hendry, 48, has consistently said he has no intention of entering qualifying for the Crucible, and has declined previous opportunities to participate.
"It is certainly not a foray back into the full-time arena," said Hendry.
He is the top seed for the Seniors event and will be joined by the likes of Cliff Thorburn, John Parrott, Dennis Taylor, Joe Johnson and Willie Thorne.
The Scot, who reached the quarter-final at his last World Championship in 2012, told the BBC: "I am looking forward to it, it will be fun.
"It can be a fantastic story for someone because anyone who is an amateur over 40 could qualify and beat one of us.
"I have to win the thing before I can even start to think about playing at the Crucible. I miss playing because it is what I am best at." | Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, who retired from the professional snooker tour five years ago, is to play in the World Seniors Championship in Scunthorpe in March. |
25411182 | Lord Hanningfield made the claim when challenged to explain his own attendance record.
The Daily Mirror alleges on 11 of 19 occasions he attended the Lords in July he spent less than 40 minutes there.
There is no suggestion the peer broke any rules.
Members of the House of Lords are not paid a salary but can claim a daily allowance of £300 if they attend a sitting.
Lord Hanningfield, a former leader of Essex County Council, claimed £5,700 in total for his 19 days of attendance during July and the Mirror reports his shortest attendance that month was 21 minutes.
During July, Lord Hanningfield did not speak in any debates or attend any committee hearings.
When confronted by the Mirror about the claims, Lord Hanningfield said "at least half" the members of the Lords checked in to claim expenses.
He said he spent half of the £300 daily fee on expenses and so did not really make any profit. He was a full-time peer who needed the money to pay his electricity bills and buy food, he said.
Since October Lord Hanningfield has spoken twice and submitted four written questions.
He told BBC Essex's Tom Barton: "Doing work in the Lords is not just working in the chamber, unless you are going to speak.
"During July I was preparing myself for what I'm doing now and during this term I've been speaking and asking questions. I'm really back to an active life in politics and I don't appreciate the Mirror following me around in July."
The Conservative Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Hill, said in a statement on Lord Hanningfield's comments that he was "dismayed about the behaviour and dismayed about the shadow it casts over the whole House".
He said steps were "already in train" to deal with peers "whose behaviour falls below the standards we rightly expect".
In the New Year, members of the Lords would be asked to approve proposals to stop allowances to peers who breached the code of conduct, he added.
The BBC understands that the Labour leader in the Lords, Baroness Royall, wants to amend the code of conduct for peers to take action against those who bring the House of Lords into disrepute.
She is also suggesting the rules should be amended so that peers claiming the attendance allowance would have to be in Parliament for a minimum of four hours.
Liberal Democrat Lord Steel, who himself put forward proposals earlier this year to force peers who do not attend regularly to retire, said the current system of allowances was a "bit daft".
He told Radio 4's The World at One peers should have to swipe in and out of Parliament to show how much time they had spent in the building - as this would "stop the sort of thing of which Lord Hanningfield is accused".
"The attendance allowance is supposed to represent work in Parliament," he said.
"I have to admit it is not a very good system... Sometimes it works the other way around. Last Tuesday I was in from about 10am to 10pm but because I did not go into the chamber - I was in six different meetings and by the time I went down to the chamber the House had risen - I got nothing for that day."
There are currently 779 "eligible" members of the House of Lords. More than 40 other peers have taken a "leave of absence" for health or professional reasons, meaning they cannot attend.
A voluntary retirement scheme was introduced in 2011 but so far only three peers have chosen to use it.
In 2011, Lord Hanningfield served nine weeks of a nine-month sentence for parliamentary expenses fraud totalling nearly £14,000.
During his trial, a court was told he had submitted false claims for hotel bills including one when he was actually on board a flight to India at the time, and that he had fraudulently claimed for train fares and car mileage.
But Lord Hanningfield, who entered the Lords in 1998, told BBC Essex he had "drawn the short straw" during the expenses scandal and that "most" MPs and peers had been allowed "to pay the money back without any problem".
He added: "I got treated rather badly, I think. I didn't do anything more than anyone else and most peers know that."
Lord Hanningfield, who had the Conservative whip withdrawn in 2010, said he might "hopefully" return to the party one day, adding: "I still do a lot of work and I still tend to support the coalition government's politics.
"The effects of the last four years traumatised me. I had virtually a nervous breakdown."
He added: "I don't think I should have been convicted... I think it was a travesty of justice." | Half the members of the House of Lords clock in and out of Parliament for a few minutes a day in order to claim a £300 daily attendance allowance, a former Conservative peer has said. |
35440517 | Knights in Bell Street, Reigate, is closing after 130 years, with its owners blaming an "increasingly competitive market place".
Manager Eric Shields said many customers had expressed disappointment.
"A lot of them have been coming here since they were small children - their mothers brought them in," he said.
"There is a sadness in the town, but also I think there is a realism that nothing stays forever."
Part of the store is housed in a former coaching inn, originally known as The Bricklayers Arms, that was a stop-off on the way from the coast to London.
It later became The Grapes until the pub closed in 1910.
"You can still see the last orders bell and the grapes sign outside," said Mr Shields.
"We are part of the fabric of Reigate, but new challenges lie ahead for us all."
Owner Tudor Williams Holdings said selling the store would enable investment into the site it had not been able to afford.
"The business has been sold to a private, family-controlled company which has a history of investing and upgrading properties in the South East and in creating vibrant environments and employment opportunities," it said.
Knights staff have been offered jobs in the group's stores in Dorking, Cobham, Farnham and New Malden. | One of Surrey's oldest department stores is to shut its doors for the final time. |
36304198 | Wilkinson was part of a Stevenage side that lost just one of their last nine games in League Two as they finished 14 points clear of relegation.
The 25-year-old former Portsmouth trainee joined the Boro from Luton in the January transfer window.
Wilkinson, who had already made 24 appearances for the Hatters during the 2015-16 season, then played 19 games for Stevenage. | Stevenage defender Luke Wilkinson has signed a new contract at the club. |
36166925 | The central bank - People's Bank of China (PBOC) - fixed the yuan rate at 6.4589 to the US dollar on Friday.
That is the biggest increase in nearly 11 years.
China only allows the yuan to rise or fall 2% on either side of the PBOC's daily fix, to avoid volatility and maintain control over the Chinese currency.
Analysts have pointed out the move is not a reflection of future yuan policies.
Some have argued the PBOC's move is a knee-jerk reaction to US dollar weakness overnight. The US dollar had fallen sharply against the yen after the Bank of Japan surprised markets and decided against any extra monetary easing.
"The expectation for a stronger yuan fix was laid by the gains for the yen after the Bank of Japan announcement," said Patrick Bennett, a strategist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Hong Kong.
According to data compiled by financial news network Bloomberg, Friday's increase is the strongest daily move by the PBOC since July 2005.
China spooked global investors with a surprise devaluation in August last year, when it guided the currency down by nearly 5% in a week.
Market reaction to the move, however, has been muted. The Shanghai Composite index closed down 7.26 points at 2,938.32, while in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index ended the day down 320.98 points at 21,067.05.
South Korea's Kospi index closed down 0.3% at 1,994.15.
In Australia the benchmark S&P ASX 200 headed higher towards the end of the trading session and closed up 0.5% at 5,252.22.
The region's biggest market, Japan, was shut on Friday for a national holiday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index ended the shortened trading week down 5%. | China has raised the exchange rate for its currency, the yuan by 0.56% against the US dollar, from the previous day. |
33960213 | The 44-year-old's departure follows quarter-final defeat in both the One-Day Cup and T20 Blast.
He was promoted from second-team coach in July 2007 and guided them to Friends Provident Trophy victory in 2008.
Essex have since failed to win any silverware, and are sixth in County Championship Division Two with four games left to play this season.
Assistant head coach Chris Silverwood, a former England pace bowler, will take temporary charge until the end of the season.
"I have had 19 wonderful years at Essex, both as a player and as a coach, but I now feel the time is right for a new challenge," Grayson told the club website.
"I have always been a strong supporter of the club's policy of developing our own players into first-class cricketers and it is a pleasure to see so many doing well in the game.
"I would like to thank the players for their hard work and dedication, particularly the three captains I have worked with; Mark Pettini, James Foster and Ryan ten Doeschate." | Essex head coach Paul Grayson has left the county by mutual consent after eight years in charge. |
38880431 | Twenty slopes across the country will offer taster ski and snowboard sessions as part of the Snowsport England initiative, which encourages schools to introduce their pupils to snowsports.
The week is targeted at individual pupils or full classes at primary and secondary schools, as well as sixth form colleges across England.
I wish every child could have the chance to give snow sports a go and enjoy that feeling of sliding down a slope, adrenalin rushing through your body
"National Schools Snowsport Week is a great way to give young people who may not have considered skiing or snowboarding before the chance to give them a go," said GB Olympic snowboarder Aimee Fuller.
"Both sports have so much to give socially and are a great way to stay active."
The initiative aims to develop schoolchildren's skills and abilities and increases school participation in snowsports at all levels. For some it will be their first time on skis or a snowboard. For others it could be an opportunity to try racing, freestyle or skicross.
Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards is another ambassador for the week. The ski jumper competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics and went on to become a national hero, with a film about his story released last year.
"I started skiing when I was 13 and have lived and breathed it for my whole life," he said.
"Trust me, it is worth giving it a go and having fun with your friends. Speak to your teacher and get them to sign your school up to National Schools Snowsport Week."
Find out more about how you can get involved here. | Snow slopes across England are set to offer free or heavily discounted activities as part of the second National Schools Snowsport Week, which runs from 24-30 April. |
32125357 | Specialisterne Northern Ireland plans to link people with high functioning autism with employers.
More than 50 digital content and film production companies will be attending.
Young people and adults on the autistic spectrum from across Northern Ireland and university staff are to take part.
The audience at the Skainos Centre in east Belfast will gain insight into the abilities of people with autism to organise and make systems.
Specialisterne has traditionally helped people with autism get jobs in IT and software development.
The initiative is the final and flagship event of Creativity Month in Northern Ireland.
Autism and Asperger syndrome are part of a range of conditions known as autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). They affect the way the brain processes information.
Since its launch in April 2014, Specialisterne NI has identified 120 people who are on the autistic spectrum and who have the skills and talent for IT and creative roles. | An initiative aimed at matching the specific skills of people with autism with the creative industries is to be launched later. |
39730977 | The 28-year-old has nine caps for his country, appearing in the 2015 World Cup and as a replacement at Twickenham against England in November.
Tight-head Alec Clarey, 23, will join from Bristol, with Jordan Brodley, 23, and Roy Godfrey, 27, also signing.
Meanwhile, fellow prop Jake Armstrong has signed a new deal after initially joining Jersey last summer.
South Africa-born loose-head Godfrey has played for French side Perpignan, while Brodley has represented a number of lower league sides while completing his studies in Bristol.
"Jersey has become known for having a strong pack, and although we've developed more of an all-court game this season, our forwards still play a vital role in what we do," said head coach Harvey Biljon.
"There is a great mix of experience in Roy and Lee Roy, and younger players like Alec and Jordan with genuine potential."
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter. | Jersey Reds have signed four props for next season, including Fiji international Lee Roy Atalifo. |
40273939 | 14 June 2017 Last updated at 15:16 BST
They're a type marine fish, related to a sea horse, and can be found in the ocean around Australia.
Nick-named 'Weedies', scientists are now worried that the little seadragons might be endangered.
So, they are asking divers to take photographs of them and send them in for research.
Then they use a special type of facial recognition software to identify each seadragon. | This colourful little creature is a Weedy Seadragon, and scientists are worried they might be endangered. |
35278651 | The 22 year old cruised to an eight-shot win over Patrick Reed after a six-under-par 67 at the Kapalua Resort on the island of Maui.
Spieth won the Masters and the US Open in 2015 and wants more success.
He said: "I'll try and continue exactly what we were doing last year."
Spieth held a five-shot lead going into Sunday's final round and was never troubled, hitting seven birdies to post a 30-under total of 262.
He became only the second player to finish a 72-hole event on the PGA Tour at 30-under par or lower, emulating South African Ernie Els who won the 2003 Tournament of Champions with a 31-under score.
Asked how he felt after matching 14-times major winner Woods with a seventh PGA Tour victory, Spieth said: "I don't think there's any reason to compare. What Tiger's done, I can't imagine ever being done again, but it's nice to be in that company." | World number one Jordan Spieth matched Tiger Woods by winning his seventh PGA Tour event before the age of 23 with a dominant victory at Hawaii's Tournament of Champions. |
40760637 | The former US Open winner is ranked 101st in the world and outside an automatic qualifying place, but he has been invited by the PGA of America.
McDowell has missed four of his past five cuts and the 37-year-old Northern Irishman exited the Canadian Open at the halfway stage on Friday.
A one-over 73 left McDowell on three over par, seven shots shy of the cut.
He carded five bogeys and four birdies in the second round in Ontario.
Shane Lowry, who will also play in the US PGA, which starts on 10 August, missed the cut after a 73 left him on two under par.
However, fellow Irishman Seamus Power did survive after a 70 meant he goes into Saturday's third round on six under par, six shots behind American leader Martin Flores.
Power, who is 140th in the Fedex Cup standings, is sharing 37th place.
McDowell, who has slipped to 101st in the world rankings and did not earn a place at last week's Open Championship, is 119th in the PGA Tour's Fedex Cup standings. | Graeme McDowell has received an invitation to play in next month's US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. |
34583290 | In the build-up to the World Cup and through the tournament, I never believed Ireland were good enough to win the Webb Ellis Cup, but I was certain their campaign would not end in a hammering.
Coach Joe Schmidt just would not let that happen.
Alas it did, in hugely disappointing fashion in Sunday's 43-20 quarter-final defeat by Argentina.
Injuries to talisman and captain Paul O'Connell, Johnny Sexton, Peter O'Mahony and Jared Payne, plus Sean O'Brien's suspension, were huge factors in Ireland's collapse.
Looking back, Sexton's withdrawal from the team on Saturday morning was probably the tipping point.
In terms of morale, it cannot have been great for the squad to see him ruled out so late in the week given that Johnny calls every attacking play.
Everybody had confidence in Ian Madigan after the performance he put in when he came on against France, but it is a completely different ball game starting a World Cup quarter-final with everything on the line.
Since Sunday's game, Schmidt and the rest of the players have not gone down the road of using the absentees as an excuse.
But let's face it, a team like Ireland are going to be up against it when missing such influential performers.
Ireland's defensive structure was just far too narrow and passive during the opening 13 minutes as they found themselves 17-0 down.
Argentina took a leaf out of the New Zealand book by playing the wide-wide game and Ireland just could not cope.
As soon as Argentina went wide, their outstanding flankers, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe and Pablo Matera, and hooker Agustin Creevy were causing carnage.
The Pumas had so much width and Ireland did not know how to deal with it.
To Ireland's credit, Luke Fitzgerald's brilliance helped get them back into the game and when they recovered to 20-17 and 23-20 in arrears, I thought they were going to complete the greatest comeback in World Cup history.
At that stage, Argentina were looking seriously rattled with their discipline starting to go, but the third Pumas try in the 68th minute - after Ireland were yet again caught napping out wide - ended the game as a contest.
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It was sad to see the heroic Rory Best, Ireland's best player on the day, having to leave the fray before the end looking absolutely punctured.
He gave it absolutely everything but unfortunately the other forwards were unable to match him despite trying manfully.
I felt for Iain Henderson, who should have been in the back row, trying to pick up the ball and run through opponents like Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe and Pablo Matera did in the opening 20 minutes.
You want your big ball-carriers in the game but, playing in the second row, Henderson did not have a chance to make an impression with much of his energy being expended in a kind of secondary tight-head prop role in the scrum.
Knowing that they were missing so many key players will not reduce the sense of frustration that the Ireland players will feel for some time.
This one is going to hurt because they will believe that they have seriously under-achieved.
But World Cups are hard. Just ask England.
With no northern hemisphere teams making the last four for the first time in World Cup history, there is inevitable talk of a crisis in European rugby and how we now should rip up the existing tactics manuals and start from scratch.
But all that is a little bit knee-jerk.
But for a bad refereeing decision, Scotland would be in the semi-finals and Wales would probably have got to the last four themselves if they had not had such diabolical luck with injuries.
Ireland were severely under-strength as well as they got a bit of a hammering against a very good Argentina side.
Ireland should have beaten the All Blacks in Dublin two years ago and a repeat of that form and the performances that saw off Australia and South Africa last autumn might have been good enough to get them to a first semi-final.
But they were unable to match that and it has to be a concern that Ireland could not perform when it really mattered.
It is about peaking at the right time. The southern hemisphere teams just seem better prepared heading into World Cups after playing all those high-octane games in the Rugby Championship in July and August.
The European teams are playing phoney war warm-up games in August and early September and it is just not the same preparation.
Stephen Ferris was talking to BBC Sport's John Haughey. | Well, what an anti-climax that turned out to be. |
35959684 | 4 April 2016 Last updated at 11:16 BST
Philby then fled to Russia in 1963 and when he died in 1988, he was given a burial in a Moscow cemetery with full military honours.
Now, the BBC has uncovered previously unseen footage of Philby describing his career as a Soviet agent to the Stasi, the East German Intelligence Service, in 1981. | Kim Philby denied being a Soviet agent while working for MI6 during the 1950s and early 1960s. |
40436002 | Right-back Purkiss, 33, spent most of his career at York and Walsall, before moving to Vale in 2015.
Centre-half Lancashire, 28, has signed a two-year deal after having his Shrewsbury contract cancelled.
The former Rochdale man made his senior debut for Southampton in 2008 and played 16 League One games last season.
"The target this season will be to get promoted. We'll be grafting and working with that in mind," said Purkiss, who has signed an undisclosed-length deal.
Lancashire added: "You want to win silverware as a footballer and the last time I was in League Two I won promotion with Rochdale, so I'll be looking to do the same here."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Swindon Town have signed defenders Ben Purkiss and Olly Lancashire on free transfers from Port Vale and Shrewsbury respectively. |
34572432 | Consequently, a fist can strike with twice the force of an open-handed slap.
Prof David Carrier from the University of Utah said this supports his argument that fighting, as well as dexterity, drove the evolution of the human hand.
Other researchers are sceptical about Prof Carrier's "pugilism hypothesis".
Writing in the Journal of Experimental Biology, he suggests that our hands, with short fingers and meaty thumbs compared to other primates, evolved to satisfy two needs: "These are the proportions that improved manual dexterity while at the same time making it possible for the hand to be used as a club during fighting."
This is an argument Prof Carrier has previously put forward in a study of the force delivered by athletes hitting punching bags.
That work attracted criticism, partly because the data primarily showed that a clenched fist is a very effective weapon; it remained unclear whether the "buttressing" afforded by the thumb - the key advantage of a human fist - could actually save inner hand bones from breaking.
After all, the "metacarpals" of the palm are frequent casualties in human fist fights: the so-called "boxer's fracture".
"The real question was whether or not the buttressed fist provides protection," Prof Carrier told BBC News.
The latest experiments, while a little gruesome, allowed his team to measure the strain on specific bones.
"It is a little macabre and strange, but there was no other way to really get this data. You can't implant strain gauges on living subjects."
They took arms from cadavers, attached them to wooden boards and tied fishing wire to the tendons of the forearm. This allowed them to control the hand - clenching the fist, for example - by tightening those wires on guitar pegs.
The whole board was then mounted onto a large pendulum, which could swing the hand into a padded dumbbell.
Instruments attached to bones inside the hand, and to the dumbbell, measured the forces involved. And sure enough, strain on the metacarpals was greatly reduced when a clenched fist, rather than a loose fist or an open palm, slammed into the pad.
"This is relatively strong evidence that there is a performance advantage," Prof Carrier said.
"Whether or not natural selection ever acted on that advantage is something we can't answer directly. But at the same time, given this evidence, you can't argue that selection on aggressive fighting behaviour was not relevant."
So alongside the more widely accepted idea of dexterity as an evolutionary driver, this fist-fighting advantage "has to be included on the list of possible factors that could have influenced the evolution of the hand".
Dr Tracy Kimmel, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of Kent who specialises in the wrist and hand, said it was a credit to Prof Carrier's team that they had found a way to test part of the hypothesis. But she disagrees with his assertion that fist fighting "must be relevant".
"Overall, it's not a hypothesis that I would support," she said.
"I think the way they've done it is creative and seems to be biomechanically sound. And the fact that the metacarpals experience less load when they're in a fist - I don't disagree with those results. But that's probably a side-effect of having hand proportions that have evolved for other reasons."
Dr Kimmel said that "a much more realistic idea" was the established one, of our hands evolving to manipulate tools. "You can address that hypothesis from multiple directions and it makes sense," she said - noting that fossil evidence of tools goes back more than three millions years, and aligns with changes to hominid anatomy."
Follow Jonathan on Twitter | In macabre experiments which saw dead, severed arms swing punches on a large pendulum, US scientists have measured the extent to which a clenched fist shields fragile bones in the hand. |
36807403 | In all the fuss and dust surrounding the referendum, the Tory leadership campaign and the creation of a brand new cabinet it has been easy to lose sight of this fact.
George Osborne has been chancellor of the exchequer for six long years of austerity.
He and his government told us time and again that balancing the budget was their first and most important job.
Now without even an election that policy has been abandoned, the government's aim to bring in more in tax than it spends by 2020 has been dropped, but what has replaced it?
Mr Hammond has given us some clues but to be perfectly honest we will not have the complete picture until the Autumn Statement later this year.
However, the new chancellor has already declined to say when the government's budget will be in surplus, if ever.
Mr Hammond has also said that "increasing taxes is not the way to support the economy, maintain consumer confidence and to make sure that we continue to grow the economy in future".
Nor is it likely that a massive round of new spending cuts is going to help the economy at the moment.
In fact with falling business and consumer confidence, worries over delays or even the cancellation of private investment and a construction industry that looks to be slowing down; many would see an increase in government investment as the obvious solution.
Sajid Javid, the former business secretary, has called for the government to fund an extra £100bn of infrastructure spending over the next five years.
Unless there are huge tax rises or spending cuts that money will have to be borrowed.
Fortunately the chancellor can now borrow at historically low rates, for long periods of time. The markets are so jittery they are willing to put their cash into ultra-secure government bonds for little or no return.
But it is not just money for new infrastructure that the government will have to find, with the economy likely to slow or even go into a recession its existing borrowing targets are meaningless.
A cautious estimate is that the government will have to borrow another £50bn a year by the end of this parliament just to balance the books.
Any borrowing to help boost the economy will be on top of that. Just last month that would have been denounced by the chancellor and his cabinet colleagues as reckless, dangerous and counter-productive.
That is how much things have changed in the last few weeks.
To borrow one of George Osborne's favourite sayings "you have to fix the roof when the sun is shining", and these huge changes in economic policy suggest that the government's forecast is looking distinctly overcast. | Britain's economic policy has changed radically almost overnight. |
35042201 | The 31-year-old, who was the Team GB flag bearer last year in Sochi, made his Olympic debut at Turin 2006 and twice won world relay bronze medals.
He cites being a new father and "not wanting to just make up the numbers" at the next Games in Pyeongchang 2018 as being behind the decision.
He tweeted: "It's official, I have hung up my skates." | British Olympic short track speed-skater Jon Eley has retired, ruling out a bid for a fourth Winter Games. |
32091804 | Ten people have been killed in the gun battle at the Maka al-Mukarama hotel, including the Somali ambassador to Switzerland, Yusuf Bari Bari.
Other diplomats escaped by jumping from windows.
US-trained Somali special forces have been able to take back control of most of the hotel.
Latest reports say the militants are now on the top floors and the roof, firing guns and throwing grenades.
Police officer Major Ismail Olow told Reuters that he believed there were originally nine attackers, six of whom had been killed.
The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed car outside the building.
Hotels in Mogadishu are often targeted by al-Shabab militants, who were driven from the city several years ago but still control southern rural areas.
An al-Shabab spokesman told the BBC that the Maka al-Mukarama was attacked because of its popularity with government officials.
"We don't consider it to be a hotel - it's a government base," he said.
A car bomb went off outside the hotel earlier this month - the al-Qaeda-linked Islamists also said they were behind that attack.
Many politicians and businessmen stay at the hotel as it is on the main road linking the presidential palace to the city's airport.
Somalia has been ravaged by conflict for more than two decades.
But thousands of Somalis have been returning from abroad to help rebuild the country as security has improved in recent years.
African Union troops have been helping the UN-backed government retake territory from the militants. | Somali government forces are fighting to regain control of a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, which has been stormed by al-Shabab militants. |
37742215 | The 25-year-old left the field in the second half after prolonged treatment.
Scarlets were more hopeful about full-back Liam Williams who came off after 13 minutes, having rolled his ankle.
He left Allianz Park in a surgical support boot but Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac was hopeful he would be able to join up with the Wales camp this week.
Williams' injury was not connected to the ankle problems he has suffered previously.
Speaking to BBC Wales Sport about the pair, Pivac said, "Hopefully they won't be too serious. We'll know more tomorrow.
"Hopefully Liam will be alright, he feels good himself. He's in a moon boot at the moment just to give himself the best opportunity to recover and get into that Welsh camp.
"Jake's a bit sore at the moment, he's got a rib injury and we'll get that checked out."
Centre Scott Williams should also be fit for Wales duty despite being a late withdrawal from the Scarlets side with an ankle injury suffered against Sale.
"There's a bit of swelling there and it didn't quite recover in time. Another couple of days and he would have made it but it wasn't to be but he'll be fine for the Wales camp next week," he added. | Wales lock Jake Ball could be a doubt for their autumn internationals after sustaining a rib injury in Scarlets' 44-26 Champions Cup defeat at Saracens. |
39512198 | The blaze broke out at the property in Furrlongs, Newport, shortly after 05:20 BST.
Police said the death was being treated as "unexplained" and inquiries were being made by the joint services' Arson Task Force into the fire's cause.
Detectives said a police cordon would remain around the property for several days while investigations continued. | A 79-year-old man has been found dead following a fire at a bungalow on the Isle of Wight. |
36754570 | The first was at 22:00 BST in Faraday Square in which a woman was shot in the arm. She is currently in hospital.
Shots were then reportedly fired in Lovell Road at about 01:00 , Foxglove Way at 01:20 and in Romsey Way at 05:00 and are being linked by police.
Supt Mark Upex said: "We believe they may have been targeted attacks."
He said: "We have launched a thorough investigation into these incidents and are following a number of lines of inquiry to help find the people responsible.
"We have a number of dedicated officers working to establish the circumstances surrounding each incident and we have increased patrols in Bedford."
One woman has been arrested in connection with the incidents and is in police custody.
Road closures remain in place in Faraday Square, Titchfield Drive, and Romsey Way. | Police say they have mounted a "large scale investigation" after gun shots were reported at four properties in Bedford. |
36891902 | Differences in height across the globe can partially be explained by genetics, but healthcare, sanitation and nutrition also play an important role.
Research says there's a longer life expectancy for tall people, although they also face a bigger risk for certain cancers.
But a person's stature affects more than their health. Short and tall people face daily challenges from finding the right clothes, to fitting into plane seats.
On the whole being tall has been more advantageous that not.
I was pretty average until the penultimate year of secondary school. But I was self-conscious already, and then suddenly I became the really tall self-conscious teenager where I struggled to find clothes to fit. All I wanted to do was blend in.
I love it now. I still get all the same jokes. Most people are well-meaning. It's useful because people remember you.
Does being tall affect your work?
When I was a correspondent in Dubai I covered the opening of Palm Islands and I was meant to interview Kylie. It was a red carpet event, and I wanted both of us in the shot. She is much shorter than me so I was crouching so that we could both fit in the camera frame. But the interview went on too long. By the end I was physically shaking because my legs were giving way. The newsroom thought I was hyperventilating with excitement because I had met Kylie.
When I was at school it I would always beat the boys at running races because I had longer legs. At 13 I was already the same height as I am now. At that age, you already don't feel self-confident, so being much taller was difficult.
The real problem was with my feet because they are so large. At age 12 my shoe size was 44 (European). People would tell me I had to go to men's shops to find shoes.
In the past whenever I found shoes that fitted me I'd buy them, but now I have more choice and can order things online.
In primary school when we did a line up for gym I was always one of the tallest. But in the Netherlands, most people are tall so I wasn't very aware of my height. Some of the old buildings at home still have low doorways but now there is a new regulation which states they must be over 2m.
I did live in Madrid for a bit and I had a lot of trouble because the metro is short. Paris is better, although I can't stand up fully in the elevator at work!
I was always the smallest person in my class at school, but in Mexico many people are short. My whole family is tiny, we are like the "Polly Pocket" family.
As a teenager and throughout college I wore high heels to make myself taller. When I started working I felt like wearing heels gave me more authority.
When I arrived in the Middle East to study, I thought "Wow, these are the tallest people." I felt like I didn't fit in because even the kids were taller than me! In countries where people are short, I fit - but in the Middle East I felt out of place.
Once in Lebanon, I overheard a kid telling his dad how short I was. He said: "Dad she is so small even my sister who is 8-years-old is taller than her!"
My husband is 177cm (5ft 9in). Its never an issue unless we are dancing. I don't feel confident unless I'm wearing heels!
Growing up I was a smaller kid- short and skinny. Until my late 20s I had to buy clothes in the boys department instead of the men's because those were the only clothes that fitted.
Because of my size, I think I've had to work a little bit harder to prove I'm capable. So I always go above and beyond. For a while I looked quite young so some people didn't trust that I was old enough to do my job.
Now I am grateful. People always think I'm younger than I actually am!
Guatemala is much different than the United States. In my country my height is normal so I didn't face any obstacles in my childhood.
Since I moved here, I usually don't have problems. Sometimes people say things around me, and not to my face, like how I am short or a different colour than they are.
It's always difficult for me to buy shoes in America because I am a size 39 (European). Stores never have my size. I always have to shop in the boys' section.
Generally people aren't rude to me because I am short. Actually, as a short person I have an advantage over tall people because I can handle extreme climates much easier! | New research has confirmed that Dutch men are the tallest in the world and Guatemalan women are the world's shortest. |
39566572 | Lions coach Warren Gatland names his squad on 19 April and Pivac believes a number of players are in with a chance.
"I think we are in a position at the Scarlets where I am hoping we get a record number, I wouldn't be surprised if we get four," said Pivac.
Scarlets, formed in 2003, have never had more than two players on a tour.
Pivac added: "Certainly there are a group who put their hands up during the Six Nations."
A party of four players would equal the number who toured from the Llanelli club from which the Scarlets region was formed.
Those four on the 1974 tour of South Africa were Phil Bennett, JJ Williams, Roy Bergiers and Tommy David.
New Zealander Pivac would not specify which of his players he thought was in the running this time, but centre Jonathan Davies played in all three Tests against Australia in 2013.
Full-back Liam Williams, centre Scott Williams, hooker Ken Owens and prop Rob Evans all played for Wales in the Six Nations while flanker John Barclay captained Scotland during their campaign.
Pivac believes the Pro12 Judgement Day derbies at Cardiff on Saturday, when Scarlets face Newport Gwent Dragons, is a perfect opportunity to push Lions selection hopes.
"We have got one more game this weekend where players can show they are worthy of representing the Lions if not Wales, it's an exciting weekend," he said.
Centre Davies is likely to return after being rested for the 51-5 victory over Treviso but flanker Aaron Shingler (knee) and outside-half Rhys Patchell (calf) will miss the game through injury.
Pivac believes the Lions have a good chance of adding to the only test series win against the All Blacks back in 1971.
"It's all going to come down to selection and not only the squad but once the squad is together in New Zealand," he said.
Pivac, who coached provincial side Auckland before moving to Wales, says the home side's preparation will also have a bearing on the series.
"The All Blacks are vulnerable traditionally in June in the that first Test, so it will be interesting to see what they are doing," he added.
"I believe they are trying to get a [warm-up] game because they will be worried by the fact that the Lions do have some lead-in games.
"The Lions could have a bit of an advantage depending on the All Blacks preparation, certainly it's going to be a great series and everyone is looking forward to it." | Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac hopes the region could have a record number of players on the British and Irish Lions tour in New Zealand this summer. |
20345071 | With a distinct history stretching back to the early middle ages, many Catalans think of themselves as a separate nation from the rest of Spain.
This feeling is fed by memories of the Franco dictatorship, which attempted to suppress Catalan identity, and is nowhere more clearly expressed than in the fierce rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, Spain's top football clubs.
A roughly triangular region in Spain's far north-east corner, Catalonia is separated by the Pyrenean mountains from southern France, with which it has close historical ties.
Most of the region's population lives in Barcelona, its vibrant political and economic hub and a popular European travel destination.
Holiday-makers also flock to the Mediterranean beaches of the Costa Brava and Costa Daurada/Dorada, and the Pyrenees are popular with hikers, making tourism an important part of Catalonia's economy.
Profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
But it is manufacturing - traditionally textiles, but more recently overtaken in importance by the chemical industry, food-processing, metalworking - that make the region Spain's economic powerhouse, along with a growing service sector.
The area first emerged as a distinct entity with the rise of the County of Barcelona to pre-eminence in the 11th century. In the 12th century, the county was brought under the same royal rule as the neighbouring kingdom of Aragon, going on to become a major medieval sea power.
Catalonia has been part of Spain since its genesis in the 15th century, when King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile married and united their realms.
Initially retaining its own institutions, the region was ever more tightly integrated into the Spanish state, until the 19th century ushered in a renewed sense of Catalan identity, which flowed into a campaign for political autonomy and even separatism. The period also saw an effort to revive Catalan, long in decline by then, as a language of literature.
When Spain became a republic in 1931, Catalonia was soon given broad autonomy. During the Spanish Civil War, Catalonia was a key Republican stronghold, and the fall of Barcelona to Gen Francisco Franco's right-wing forces in 1939 marked the beginning of the end of Spanish resistance to him.
Under Franco's ultra-conservative rule, autonomy was revoked, Catalan nationalism repressed and use of the Catalan language restricted.
The pendulum swung back with the emergence of a democratic Spain after Franco's death. Catalonia now has is its own parliament and executive - together known as the "Generalitat" in Catalan - with extensive autonomy.
Until recently, few Catalans wanted full independence, but Spain's painful economic crisis has seen a surge in support for separation. Many Catalans believe the affluent region pays more to Madrid than it gets back, and blame much of Spain's debt crisis on the central government.
A regional government backed by the two main separatist parties - in power since snap elections in November 2012 - held an informal, non-binding vote on independence in 2014, with 80% of those taking part voting "yes". The Spanish government says Catalonia has no constitutional right to break away.
The use of Catalan - a language as close to regional languages of southern France like Occitan as it is to Castilian Spanish - has equal status with Castilian and is now actively encouraged in education, official use and the media. However, Castilian predominates in Barcelona, and is still the first language of a narrow majority of Catalans, who are nearly all bilingual.
Variants are also spoken in the region of Valencia to the south, and on the Balearic islands, leading many Catalan nationalists to regard all three regions- as well as the traditionally Catalan-speaking Roussillon region of France - as forming the "Catalan Countries". | Proud of its own identity and language, Catalonia is one of Spain's richest and most highly industrialised regions, and also one of the most independent-minded. |
39775103 | Three decades ago, it was referring to itself as part of the Muslim Brotherhood and laying out its aim to obliterate Israel, creating an Islamic state on "every inch" of historic Palestine.
In its 36 articles, the 1988 document often uses anti-Semitic rhetoric to describe its struggle as a confrontation between Muslims and Jews.
Now, after years of internal wrangling, Hamas has produced a new policy document, which softens some of its stated positions and uses more measured language.
There is nothing so dramatic as recognition of Israel.
In fact, Hamas restates the Palestinians' claim to all the land "from the River Jordan in the East to the Mediterranean Sea in the West".
However, the new document does formally accept the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - what are known as pre-1967 lines.
This idea has been the basis for previous rounds of peace talks with Israel.
At a press conference in Doha, where he lives in exile, the Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal also stressed a change in approach to the Jewish faith.
"Hamas believes our struggle is against the Zionist occupation, the Zionist enterprise. It's not a struggle against Jews or Judaism," he said.
The indications are that Hamas wants to improve its international standing.
It has dropped all references to the Muslim Brotherhood since Egypt and some Gulf Arab states decided to categorise the wider organisation as a terrorist group.
And yet, the new declarations will not see Hamas itself removed from the terrorist lists of the United States and the European Union any time soon.
They make clear that Hamas remains committed to what it calls "armed resistance" against Israel.
The Israeli prime minister's spokesman, David Keyes dismissed the new Hamas document.
"When you look at what they tell their own people on Hamas's TV stations, in their mosques, in their schools, they are calling on a daily basis to destroy Israel," he said.
There has been speculation that Hamas is seeking entry to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), an umbrella group for Palestinian political factions.
Its original charter states that on the day the PLO "adopts Islam as its way of life, we will become its soldiers."
Now, the body - headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - is described as "a national framework for the Palestinian people inside and outside of Palestine".
That shift could play well with many Palestinians - keen to see an end to the damaging division between their main political factions, Hamas and Fatah.
However, Fatah spokesman, Osama al-Qawasmi, criticised Hamas for not altering its stance earlier.
"Hamas should apologise to the PLO after 30 years accusing it of treachery and blasphemy and for causing a sharp split between the Palestinian people," he said.
Tensions have recently increased between Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority governing parts of the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls Gaza.
Hamas took over Gaza by force in 2007, a year after it won legislative elections.
The more moderate tone from Mr Meshaal comes as he is about to step down as leader of Hamas after serving two terms.
Some analysts suggest he hopes to alleviate the economic pressure in Gaza, which has long seen tight border restrictions imposed by Israel and Egypt.
This new document also comes as his political rival Mahmoud Abbas prepares to meet US President Donald Trump this week.
While Hamas officially criticises his diplomatic efforts, it may not want to be marginalised if the moribund peace process is revived. | There have long been reports of possible changes to the 1988 founding charter of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, best known by its acronym, Hamas. |
38610332 | The billboard, which has displayed electrical advertisements for more than a century, went dark at 08:30 GMT for work to take place.
It is the first time since World War Two the lights have gone off, except for power cuts and special events.
A temporary advertising banner will replace the lights.
A permanent single screen will be unveiled in autumn to replace the current six screens.
As well as being an advertising board, it will be able to provide live video streaming and give updates about events such as the weather and sports results.
Ros Morgan, chief executive of the Heart of London business alliance, said the new screen would "bring visitors an enhanced entertainment experience".
About 100 million people are estimated to pass through Piccadilly Circus each year.
The lights have previously gone out in 1939 to comply with World War Two blackouts. They were not switched back on until 1949.
Since then, they have only been turned off as a mark of respect, including during the funerals of Winston Churchill and Princess Diana, and in support of environmental campaigns.
The occasional power cut and the imposed three-day week in the 1970s have also plunged Piccadilly Circus into darkness.
The new display, which will be the same size as the current space, will be shared by six advertisers.
Coca-Cola has been advertising in Piccadilly Circus since 1954 and will continue its residency, while Samsung will also have a spot.
Vasiliki Arvaniti, portfolio manager at Land Securities, said the new screen would offer brands "pioneering new ways to connect" with people.
Light history | The iconic billboard lights at Piccadilly Circus have been switched off for renovations and will stay off until autumn. |
35644590 | The proposal, known as the "Enforcement Initiative", has been put forward by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP).
It is not the first such vote: in 2010, the Swiss backed proposals to deport foreigners convicted of murder or sexual violence. That policy has come into force, but the Swiss People's Party, believing it does not go far enough, now wants to strengthen it.
The new plan would also deport those who commit two minor offences, such as speeding, or arguing with a police officer, within 10 years. There would be no right of appeal: conviction would lead to deportation in every case, regardless of individual circumstances.
Supporters of the proposals say it will make Switzerland a safer place, and point to statistics indicating that foreigners take up more than their fair share of prison cells.
Opponents argue that those statistics reflect only a partial reality, because many of those in prison are illegal migrants awaiting deportation anyway, while the proposed new law would target the 25% of the population who are foreign, but permanently and legally resident in Switzerland.
The campaign has been emotional and divisive. An infamous black sheep poster, widely criticised as racist when it was first used by the People's Party several years ago, has reappeared.
Opponents of the new law have responded with blunt posters of their own, showing jackboots stamping on the Swiss parliament, and the figure of justice being smashed by a wrecking ball.
What seems to worry some voters most is not the idea that the Swiss government should be tougher on crime, which is in fact low by European standards, but that the new proposal would create a two-tier justice system, one for the Swiss, and one for foreigners.
Getting Swiss nationality remains a long, complicated, and relatively expensive process. Being born in Switzerland does not confer citizenship, so hundreds of thousands of Swiss residents may not have a Swiss passport, but have never actually lived anywhere else.
Hypothetical cases are being offered to try to give voters a picture of how the new law would work.
Take, for example, two young men born in the same village, who attended the same school, and have lived all their lives in Switzerland. But only one is Swiss, the other is third-generation Portuguese.
Both are convicted of petty offences, possession of cannabis perhaps, or being drunk and disorderly outside a nightclub. After they get their driving licences, both are booked for speeding.
Under the new law, the Portuguese would be automatically deported, irrespective of whether he had ever lived in Portugal, could speak the language, or whether he had dependants in Switzerland.
This prospect has struck real fear into Switzerland's foreign community, with some families even approaching their Swiss neighbours and quietly pleading with them to reject the proposal.
Others have lashed out, bitterly condemning the Swiss People's Party as dangerously discriminatory.
"How long before foreigners are forced to wear a sign so that the law-abiding Swiss know to steer clear of them? Maybe a big red A for Auslander (foreigner)?", wrote one.
A leading Swiss columnist has even described (in German) Sunday's vote as Switzerland's "Nazi moment", suggesting that the imagery and the language of the Yes campaign bear comparison with Germany in the 1930s.
The Swiss People's Party angrily rejects such comparisons, arguing that getting tough with foreign criminals will protect other law-abiding foreign residents who, the party line goes, currently risk guilt by association simply because they are foreign.
But the People's Party is well known for campaigning on one single issue: immigration.
Many political analysts see this vote as the latest in a clever strategy to keep that topic at the forefront of voters' minds, so that when parliamentary elections come around again, the Swiss People's Party can, it hopes, gain yet more seats. | Swiss voters are going to the polls on Sunday to decide on a proposal to automatically deport foreigners who commit minor crimes. |
32778425 | Zoran Zaev, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, had talked up the possibility of a crowd numbered in six figures angered by covert recordings that appeared to show ministers plotting vote-rigging and covering up a murder.
But half an hour before the start, only a few hundred people had gathered in front of government headquarters.
Then, with just minutes to go, the influx began.
They came from all directions - over the Stone Bridge in front of Skopje's controversial new neo-classical riverfront; past the main post office, a brutalist 1960s lotus flower overseen by Japanese master-planner Kenzo Tange.
There were curious juxtapositions in the crowd as well.
Not just in the mix of young and old or male and female - but in the collection of flags the participants were waving.
The Albanian eagle flew next to the Macedonian sun; the Turkish crescent alongside the spoked wheel of the Roma people.
Macedonia's ethnic groups have not always rubbed along happily.
A brief but violent insurgency in 2001 resulted in improved rights for the country's large ethnic-Albanian minority.
And a deadly shoot-out earlier this month between police and an armed ethnic-Albanian group in Kumanovo, Macedonia's third city, was an unwelcome reminder of those times.
But, by standing together at the rally, people from different ethnic groups were sending a message that they were united in their aim to force the resignation of long-serving Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
"No matter what religion or political party, we're here - to give support to the opposition and people who think about more than money," said Vladimir, a young protester who had travelled with his friends from Valandovo, a small town about 130km (80 miles) from Skopje.
They held small placards printed with articles of the Macedonia constitution, which the protesters claim the government has violated.
Macedonian protesters vow to continue
Macedonia's power struggle
Macedonia's makeover divides nation
"If we claim to be democratically-conscious citizens, then it's our responsibility to protest against a non-democratic and criminal government," said Ivana, a protester from Ohrid.
"We don't protest only for them to resign, but because we want criminals to go to jail."
Placards portrayed Mr Gruevski behind bars or crossed out in red, like a prohibitory traffic sign. Some simply read: "Goodbye, Nikola."
But the prime minister has so far shown no willingness to leave.
His responses to the protests and the scandal caused by the release of the covert recordings have been defiant, promising to "face down" demonstrators, who he says are trying to destabilise a democratically-elected government.
The authorities made a point of their own on Sunday by allowing the rally to go ahead in front of government headquarters, complete with temporary stage, big screen and massive sound system.
Policing was restrained and no serious incidents were reported.
"It's a democratic right to assemble and protest, a constitutional right to express your views - and when that happens in a non-violent manner it's very good, because that's how democracy works," Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki told the BBC.
But he insisted that the governing coalition had won last year's general election fairly - and should not be expected to stand aside because of the protests.
"We gained a strong victory at the election - people put their trust in us to run the country and we have to follow that path. The opposition's job is to challenge the government - but it has to be within institutions and in a peaceful manner."
The government is planning a rally of its own on Monday evening - an attempt to show that the protesters do not speak for everyone in Macedonia.
Meanwhile, a number of anti-government activists are planning to camp out in front of government headquarters until the government resigns.
Whatever happens to Mr Gruevski, long-term solutions for Macedonia remain elusive.
A seemingly farcical dispute with Greece over the very name of the country has had serious consequences: Macedonia's bigger neighbour has repeatedly vetoed its prospects of joining the EU or Nato.
Diplomats acknowledge that is a disincentive to make reforms - for whichever party takes power in the future. | At first it seemed that the protest movement, building in Macedonia for months, was heading for an anti-climax on what was supposed to be its big day. |
28083889 | Some 22 survivors have so far been pulled from the rubble, and 40 others are feared trapped in the debris.
More than 70 workers were in the 11-storey building which was under construction when it toppled in heavy rain late on Saturday.
India has seen frequent building collapses, many blamed on lax safety and substandard materials.
At least six people, including construction company officials, have been arrested in connection with the collapse in Chennai (Madras), the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
"It appears they have not adhered to approved plans. The building appears to have serious structural defects," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said.
Hundreds of rescue workers, including personnel from India's National Disaster Response Force, are working with cutters, shovels and other equipment to search for survivors.
"Clearing the debris is a huge challenge. This would take almost two to three days and we are hopeful of saving many lives, going by our previous experiences in other places," senior police official SP Selvan told the NDTV news channel.
While the cause of the latest collapse is still under investigation, a lack of construction codes, leading to lax safety, is one reason for frequent collapses of buildings and other infrastructure projects in India.
There is also a high demand for housing, pushing up costs and forcing less affluent people to risk their lives in decrepit or badly constructed buildings.
Earlier on Saturday, a four-storey building came down in the capital Delhi, killing 10 people, including five children.
In January, at least 14 people died when a building under construction came crashing down in the western state of Goa.
At least 42 people died after a four-storey building collapsed in Mumbai last September. | At least 17 people are now known to have died when a building collapsed in the southern Indian city of Chennai. |
22270716 | Clenching the right hand for 90 seconds helps in memory formation, while the same movement in the left improves memory recall, say US psychologists.
In an experiment, 50 adults performed better at remembering words from a long list when they carried out these movements.
The researchers think clenching a fist activates specific brain regions that are associated with memory processing.
Lead scientist Ruth Propper, of Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, said the research suggests simple body movements can improve memory by temporarily changing the way the brain functions.
"Clenching your right hand immediately prior to learning information and clenching your left hand immediately before recalling it would be helpful to improve memory," Dr Propper told BBC News.
Past research has shown that right hand clenching activates the left hemisphere of the brain, while left hand clenching activates the right hemisphere.
This has been associated with emotions - for example right hand clenching with happiness or anger, and left hand clenching with sadness or anxiety.
Memory processing is thought to use both sides of the brain - the left for encoding memories and the right for retrieving them.
Future research will examine whether hand clenching can also improve other mental processes, for example verbal or spatial abilities, and memory of pictures and places, as well as words.
However, more work needs to be done in more subjects to be certain of the results.
Prof Neil Burgess, of University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, said a larger study was needed to be certain of a specific effect on memory.
This should include brain scans to look at blood flow to the left or right hemispheres of the brain.
Commenting on the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, he said: "Ideally replication would use a more powerful design (i.e. more people or a within-subjects design) and include fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging to measures brain activity) verification of the effect on blood flow." | Memory can be improved simply by clenching the fists, a study suggests. |
14215425 | Derek Slade, who set up a school in Asia and worked at one in Africa, stole a dead boy's identity to hide his past.
The findings are featured in a BBC documentary by journalist Roger Cook.
An Abuse of Trust is being screened almost 30 years after the veteran reporter first exposed Slade's sadistic activities at a school in Suffolk.
The revelations about the headmaster's excessive use of violence at St George's in Great Finborough were broadcast as part of Radio 4's Checkpoint programme in 1982.
He hit boys with objects including a slipper and a wooden bat, leaving many with bruises.
Slade was forced to resign soon afterwards, but was not jailed until 2010 when it emerged that he had also sexually abused pupils.
The 61-year-old, from Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was found guilty of more than 50 sex assaults and beatings, as well as possession of 4,000 indecent images of children.
He was sentenced to 21 years.
But new evidence shows that in the intervening years, Slade used his connections to people such as Derek Sawyer - former leader of Islington Council - to help him get a job as director of education at a school in Africa.
The job was not supposed to involve contact with children, according to Mr Sawyer, who said he was unaware that Slade was a paedophile.
The two men, friends in their school days, set up an organisation called International British Education Projects (IBEP), which won a contract to run four schools in Swaziland.
Slade also successfully bid for £85,000 in funding from a Leicester charity to set up a school for the victims of India's Gujarat earthquake.
While working at a school in Swaziland, he used the pseudonym Edward Marsh - an identity he had falsely acquired using the birth certificate of an eight-year-old boy buried at a Derbyshire cemetery.
The six-month BBC investigation has revealed that pupils in both countries were abused.
The Swaziland school's doctor told the programme he had seen evidence of "excessive corporal punishment and fondling", while children in India said they were beaten and photographed.
Former Labour councillor Mr Sawyer, who has been chairman of the London Courts Board and director of the youth offending charity Catch 22, said he had been led to believe Slade had legally changed his name.
He also said he was kept "in ignorance" about the violent disciplinarian's true nature.
"I was shocked by Derek Slade's conviction for sexual abuse but I am glad that justice has been done for his many victims," he said.
"Like many others, I have been taken in by Mr Slade and used by him. I knew nothing of any allegations of sexual abuse by Mr Slade, nor did I know that he should not have been put in a position of trust with children.
"I have had intermittent contact with Mr Slade over the past 40 years, which I now regret, but if I had known or believed that he was a risk to children I would obviously have had no association with him whatever."
An Abuse of Trust is on BBC One at 22:35 BST on 2 August, and will also be available on iPlayer. | A paedophile exploited his friendship with a prominent politician to get a job which he then used to gain access to vulnerable children abroad. |
39012072 | Pools goalkeeper Joe Fryer made an 11th-minute save to deny Brennan Dickenson, who also fired straight at Fryer midway through the first half.
Chris Porter had an effort disallowed for offside and Sean Murray's deflected effort whistled just over for Colchester, for whom George Elokobi came close to converting at the far post before half-time.
Pools striker Padraig Amond steered Brad Walker's curled ball into the area over from close range early in the second half.
But Colchester went ahead just after the hour mark when Kurtis Guthrie headed home Richard Brindley's cross at the near post after a fine attacking move.
Porter doubled Colchester's lead from the penalty spot with 12 minutes remaining after Guthrie had been fouled by Liam Donnelly in the area.
Pools halved the deficit four minutes later through Nathan Thomas, who burst into the area and planted a low shot past Colchester goalkeeper Sam Walker, but the hosts held on.
Match report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Colchester United 2, Hartlepool United 1.
Second Half ends, Colchester United 2, Hartlepool United 1.
Foul by Tarique Fosu-Henry (Colchester United).
Lewis Alessandra (Hartlepool United) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Substitution, Colchester United. Rekeil Pyke replaces Kurtis Guthrie because of an injury.
Delay in match Kurtis Guthrie (Colchester United) because of an injury.
Attempt blocked. Nathan Thomas (Hartlepool United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Corner, Hartlepool United. Conceded by Matthew Briggs.
Drey Wright (Colchester United) is shown the yellow card.
Attempt missed. Nathan Thomas (Hartlepool United) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Corner, Colchester United. Conceded by Joe Fryer.
Attempt saved. Drey Wright (Colchester United) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is saved in the centre of the goal.
Goal! Colchester United 2, Hartlepool United 1. Nathan Thomas (Hartlepool United) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner.
Substitution, Colchester United. Tarique Fosu-Henry replaces Chris Porter.
Substitution, Hartlepool United. Lewis Hawkins replaces Lewis Alessandra.
Substitution, Hartlepool United. Louis Rooney replaces Rhys Oates.
Goal! Colchester United 2, Hartlepool United 0. Chris Porter (Colchester United) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the top left corner.
Penalty Colchester United. Kurtis Guthrie draws a foul in the penalty area.
Penalty conceded by Liam Donnelly (Hartlepool United) after a foul in the penalty area.
Attempt missed. Chris Porter (Colchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left following a fast break.
Foul by Tom Lapslie (Colchester United).
Lewis Alessandra (Hartlepool United) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Substitution, Colchester United. Drey Wright replaces Richard Brindley.
Foul by Tom Lapslie (Colchester United).
Lewis Alessandra (Hartlepool United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Chris Porter (Colchester United) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right following a set piece situation.
Corner, Colchester United. Conceded by Nicky Featherstone.
Corner, Colchester United. Conceded by Liam Donnelly.
Goal! Colchester United 1, Hartlepool United 0. Kurtis Guthrie (Colchester United) header from very close range to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Richard Brindley.
Corner, Colchester United. Conceded by Joe Fryer.
Attempt missed. Tom Lapslie (Colchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Michael Woods (Hartlepool United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Matthew Briggs (Colchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Nathan Thomas (Hartlepool United).
Attempt missed. Padraig Amond (Hartlepool United) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high.
Second Half begins Colchester United 0, Hartlepool United 0.
First Half ends, Colchester United 0, Hartlepool United 0.
Foul by Kurtis Guthrie (Colchester United).
Liam Donnelly (Hartlepool United) wins a free kick on the right wing. | Colchester boosted their play-off hopes with a win over struggling Hartlepool. |
35593444 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Uefa general secretary Infantino, 45, is one of five candidates looking to replace Sepp Blatter on 26 February.
Blatter, 79, announced in June he would resign, amid a corruption scandal at world governing body Fifa.
The FA had supported ex-Uefa president Michel Platini, who in December was banned from football for eight years.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Both he and Blatter - who was given the same punishment - are appealing.
Fifa's ethics committee found Blatter and Platini had demonstrated an "abusive execution" of their positions over a payment made to Platini in 2011.
Infantino, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, Tokyo Sexwale and Jerome Champagne are vying to replace Blatter, who became Fifa president in 1998.
Switzerland's Infantino and Sheikh Salman of Bahrain are frontrunners to win the election in Zurich.
Speaking on the FA website, chairman Greg Dyke said: "We decided that we would back Gianni Infantino.
"I spoke to every candidate either in person or on the phone.
"We were impressed by Gianni. We were also impressed by Prince Ali but in the end we decided to go with the Uefa candidate."
Last month, Infantino said he intended to include in his manifesto plans for a World Cup to be held in a whole region rather than one or two countries.
Meanwhile, Dyke's proposals to reform the FA were also discussed at the board meeting on Wednesday and will be voted on in May.
Dyke wants to modernise the organisation, but will stand down in the summer at the end of his four-year term because he believes his plans will be strongly opposed.
BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent Richard Conway:
"It was widely expected that the FA would back Infantino, but they did get their fingers burnt over Michel Platini - they backed him last summer before they even knew anybody else was in the race.
"This time, they've been a bit more reticent, but good relations with Uefa are important to the FA, and they've gone for the man who stepped into Platini's shoes.
"Infantino's camp are increasingly confident that he's got a good shot at winning the election. Voters are looking at the Swiss technocrat and wondering: 'Is he the safe choice?' Sheikh Salman has allegations hanging over his head that he was complicit in human rights abuses in Bahrain - which he vigorously denies.
"It's going to be a very close vote." | The Football Association agreed to back Gianni Infantino's candidacy for the Fifa presidency, at a board meeting on Wednesday. |
36343956 | Northampton Borough Council initially prevented the sale of the house in an attempt to recover some of the £10.25m it loaned to Northampton Town Football Club while Mr Cardoza was chairman.
The house can now be sold and his wife Christina, its legal owner, is entitled to keep half the proceeds.
The council said it was satisfied.
The court papers for the hearing name Mr and Mrs Cardoza as well as Anthony Cardoza, David's father.
David and Anthony Cardoza were directors of Northampton Town Football club when it received the loan to build a new east stand at Sixfields. The stand was not finished and the money was not repaid.
A spokesperson for the council said: "We have reached an agreement about the proceeds of the sale of the house that protects the interests of the borough council and the taxpayer.
"We are satisfied with the agreement reached today, which is part of our continuing efforts to find out what happened to the loan made to Northampton Town." | Solicitors are to keep half the proceeds of any sale of David Cardoza's £1.2m family home in case of further legal action, a court has ruled. |
39578212 | In 2015-16, 20 churches in Caerphilly, Newport and Swansea opened their doors and, since 2014, parishes have given land to create 30 affordable homes.
The Church in Wales launched a project to help more homeless people, ex-offenders and migrants.
Housing Justice Cymru gathered data ahead of a road show in April and May.
It will start in Wrexham, where 61 rough sleepers were recorded over a two-week period last October - the highest number outside Cardiff.
The Bishop of St Asaph, Gregory Cameron, said: "Homelessness is not a problem that effects individuals, it effects communities and society more widely.
"It is something that can really only be addressed through all of the community acting together to tackle the causes of homelessness." | Churches provided shelter to 135 homeless people last year with volunteers giving 18,000 hours to help them, new figures have shown. |
35405416 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Hartley, 29, succeeds Harlequins flanker Chris Robshaw, who has been the national side's skipper for four years.
The Northampton hooker has had a controversial playing past, having been banned for a total of 54 weeks for gouging, biting and striking.
"My rap sheet is well documented and I will get reminded of it daily," Hartley told BBC sports editor Dan Roan.
Hartley's longest ban of 26 weeks came in 2007, when he was punished for eye-gouging.
He also received an 11-week suspension in 2013 after being sent off for verbally abusing referee Wayne Barnes in the Premiership final.
It meant he missed the British and Irish Lions' tour to Australia that year. He also missed last year's World Cup as a direct consequence of a four-week ban for headbutting.
Although Hartley said he "always had faith" he would play for England again, he admitted to his "surprise" at being given the captaincy.
"I am confident in myself as a player at Test level," he said. "I have captained my club for six years and have learned a lot there.
"I sometimes get it wrong, but it has gone well for me at Northampton, too. You need to get yourself at a level to be competitive and confrontational."
Asked if he will get it wrong again, Hartley replied: "No, of course not. I have learned from my lessons and it is for me to live with. Now I have to lead by example and answer the critics. I am a motivated person."
He added: "I'm well aware of the perception and the reputation that comes with it, but I play my best when I'm on the edge. I just know to not go over the edge."
When asked about Hartley's disciplinary record, coach Eddie Jones insisted he was not taking a gamble.
"The image of English rugby has been damaged enough," he said.
"Our job is to repair the image of English rugby which is by playing really good rugby which produces positive results."
Jones insisted he was "not worried" about Hartley's previous offences, adding: "The only risk is to not take a risk.
"People mature. We all make mistakes as young people. I made a hell of a lot as a young coach.
"If he is an opposition target, then great, because it takes the emphasis away from what the other team needs to do to win. "If they spend half their time baiting Dylan, they are going to be wasting their time."
Former England captain Will Carling said he was "excited" by Hartley's appointment.
"It is a statement, it is about winning," Carling told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"Eddie Jones wants a guy who will go out with an edge, not one who is possibly politically correct and safe.
"Winning at rugby or in sport is not about being safe. That is why I like it. Real leadership is about how you act, commit and show passion."
He added: "When I was captain, it was about how we started winning games and the mentality to win games.
"There is a huge amount of pressure on sportsmen to be role models. Is it more important for a professional sportsman and woman to be a role model or a winner?" | Dylan Hartley says he has "learned from his lessons" after being named England captain for the Six Nations. |
28921814 | Intermune, which is based in Brisbane, California, makes a medicine for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a deadly disease which scars the lungs.
The deal is the latest in a string of mergers in the drugs sector.
It is also the largest by Roche since 2009 when it bought the remainder of Genentech for about $47bn.
Roche will pay $78 per share in InterMune, which is a premium of 38% on top of the value of the shares at the end of last week.
Recent deals in the drug sector include US drug firm AbbVie's purchase of the UK pharmaceutical company Shire for £32bn.
UK High Street chemist Alliance Boots was bought up by US pharmacy giant Walgreens in an agreement earlier this month.
In May, pharmaceutical company Pfizer dropped a bid for UK company AstraZeneca. | Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche has said it will buy maker of lung disease therapies InterMune for $8.3bn (£5bn). |
35304471 | You can also take a look at the nominees for best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress and best director.
Director: Adam McKay
Cast includes: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
What's the story? Four investors make billions betting on the 2008 financial crisis after spotting what big banks, media and government failed to see.
Fact: Celebrities (among them The Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie) make cameo appearances to explain financial jargon to the audience.
What the critics say: "All four stars are smart, fascinating and funny in their respective ways, so much so that their performances - and the script's solid moral structure - sweep away any concerns about asking us to root for people who get unimaginably rich by betting against the health of the American economy." Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast includes: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, Austin Stowell
What's the story? Based on a true story and set during the Cold War, the film sees American lawyer James B Donovan (Hanks) recruited to defend arrested Soviet spy Rudolf Abe; (Rylance) and help facilitate his exchange for U2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers (Stowell).
Fact: In real life, when Powers' plane was hit by a Soviet missile barrage, he did not eject as the size of the U2 cockpit would have made this impossible. Instead he climbed out of the aircraft. He was carrying maps, which he later destroyed, and a poisoned suicide pin hidden inside a silver dollar.
What the critics say: "Storytelling this proficient is never something we see every day. Spielberg is so good he makes us forget that Bridge of Spies is basically two separate films, one a courtroom drama, the other a spy thriller, with unexpected dark humour thrown into the bargain courtesy of Joel and Ethan Coen, who did a credited rewrite of Matt Charman's script." Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Director: John Crowley
Cast includes: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters,
What's the story? Based on the novel by Irish writer Colm Toibin and set in the 1950s, it tells of a young Irish girl who leaves her provincial life for one in Brooklyn, New York. There she embarks on a new life of romance and opportunity despite suffering from homesickness.
Fact: The lead character's story was a poignant one for Ronan. Her parents were migrants to the US and she was later born in New York. She was, however, brought up in rural Ireland and part of Brooklyn was filmed 20 minutes from her home.
What the critics say: "Tapping into a rich seam of emigre cinema, Brooklyn beautifully evokes the sense of being torn between time, place and identity... At the centre of it all is Ronan, who hasn't taken a false step since earning an Oscar nomination for Atonement in 2008." Mark Kermode, The Observer
Director: George Miller
Cast includes: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
What's the story? In a dusty post-apocalyptic world, Imperator Furiosa (Theron) leads the five wives of tyrannical leader Immortan Joe (Keays-Byrne) across a desert wasteland in a bid to escape his clutches, with the help of escaped captive Max (Hardy).
Fact: After coming up with the original idea, it took Miller 17 years to make the film. Original Mad Max star Mel Gibson was initially set to reprise the title role.
What the critics say: "The film is almost nothing but chase, with each high-octane action sequence shunting into the next at breakneck speed... With its spare dialogue and dazzlingly choreographed and edited stunts, Miller's film often feels like a great silent movie - albeit a very loud one." Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast includes: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Mara
What's the story? Astronaut Mark Watney (Damon) is presumed dead on a manned mission to Mars following a fierce storm and is left behind by his crew. Stranded on the planet, he must use all his wits and ingenuity in order to survive.
Fact: The film has a 1970s disco soundtrack featuring hits from Abba, Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer and the late David Bowie.
What the critics say: "[The Martian] revels in the down-to-earth details of making a meal out of a potato when you've run out of ketchup, and the sheer absurdist pleasure of watching human beings outwit the universe with Sellotape and string." Mark Kermode, The Observer
Director: Alejandro G Inarritu
Cast includes: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter
What's the story? Frontiersman Hugh Glass fights for survival after his hunting team leaves him for dead following a brutal bear attack.
Fact: Only natural light was used for the film, which was largely shot in northern Canada.
What the critics say: "The Revenant must be appreciated first and foremost as a sensory and aesthetic marvel, a brutal hymn to the beauty and terror of the natural world that exerts a hypnotic pull from the opening frame. Its deficiencies as a human drama and a metaphysical meditation will take a bit longer to emerge." Justin Chang, Variety
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Cast includes: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, William H Macy
What's the story? Adapted by Emma Donoghue from her own novel, it tells the harrowing story of Ma (Larson), a young mother held captive with her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) in a 10-by-10-foot space.
Fact: As well as meeting psychologists to gain insight into the trauma of captivity, Larson wrote three diaries as Ma at the ages of 10, 14 and 17 to help her get into character.
What the critics say: "Room asks an enormous amount of its audience, dragging you further into darkness in the journey to find some distant light. It's a mark of how well Abrahamson has told his story that by the end, which takes you to places once unimaginable, you'll likely be willing to go through it all again." Olly Richards, Empire
Director: Tom McCarthy
Cast includes: Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci
What's the story? The true story of how investigative reporters at the Boston Globe uncovered child abuse by Catholic priests in Massachusetts.
Fact: The Boston Globe's Spotlight team won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for their work.
What the critics say: "Spotlight never hits the heights of passion, but capably and decently tells an important story." Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian | A look at the best picture nominees at the 88th Academy Awards, announced on 14 January 2016. |
22548886 | Two of four reaction wheels are now faulty. At least three are needed to orient the telescope correctly.
"I wouldn't call Kepler down and out just yet," said Nasa administrator John Grunsfeld, saying scientists were working on the problem.
Kepler was launched in 2009 and last month identified two distant planets that Nasa said could be habitable.
So far, the $600m (£395m) mission has identified 132 "exoplanets" outside our solar system, and another 2,700 possible candidates.
How does the Kepler telescope work?
How rare is our blue planet?
But last July one of the spacecraft's four reaction wheels broke down, leaving scientists aware that a further failure was likely and would prevent the telescope operating as it should.
In a statement, Nasa said the problem had been detected on Tuesday, when the telescope went into a pre-programmed "safe mode" which kicks in "if the observatory has trouble knowing where it should point", Mr Grunsfeld told AFP news agency.
The team's priority now is to put the craft into "Point Rest State" - reducing fuel consumption so the craft has enough left to last months or years, giving scientists the time to decide how to proceed.
Kepler completed its primary three-and-a-half year mission last November, Nasa says, and is now in an extended mission phase.
The US space agency says the telescope has generated a wealth of data which could generate new discoveries for years to come.
Last month, scientists announced that Kepler had discovered two of the most intriguing candidates yet in the search for Earth-like exoplanets.
They orbit the Kepler-62 star in the Constellation Lyra - 1,200 light-years from Earth. | The planet-hunting space telescope Kepler has been hobbled by a broken wheel, say scientists at Nasa. |
35675006 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The Uefa secretary general succeeds fellow Swiss Sepp Blatter, polling 115 votes, 27 more than closest rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, at Friday's election.
Blatter quit in May amid allegations that led to a six-year ban from football, which he is contesting.
"I said today we have to build bridges, not build walls," said the 45-year-old.
"Football can certainly do that. I want to focus on football," he added.
The resignation of Blatter, who denies any wrongdoing, prompted the extraordinary congress at Fifa, which has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since summer 2015.
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Infantino is a lawyer from Brig in the Valais region of Switzerland, less than six miles from Blatter's hometown of Visp.
"Today it was an election, but not a war," he said. "It was a competition, but not a fight. It was a sporting contest. An election you win, you lose and then life goes on.
"Now we turn the page, we start to work, we work good together and I show the whole world I'm not a candidate of Europe or wherever. I'm a candidate of football and football is universal.
"This is what we'll start to do now in Fifa to work with everyone for the development of football and not to do politics, to speak about divisions, to speak about barriers."
The first round of voting failed to determine an outright winner, though Infantino led with 88, three more than pre-vote favourite Sheikh Salman.
A simple majority of more than 50% - 104 of 207 available votes - was sufficient for victory in round two.
To help the new president tackle the crisis at Fifa, key reforms were passed to help make it a more transparent and accountable organisation. | Gianni Infantino wants to reunite football after becoming president of world football's governing body Fifa. |
37259407 | The six-month-old girl "died peacefully in her mother's arms" on Wednesday, a lawyer involved in the case confirmed.
Mr Justice Keehan's ruling meant the girl could be moved to a palliative care regime, allowing her to die.
She was in the care of Nottingham City Council - which opposed the medics' request to move her to palliative care.
The girl had been born about 14 weeks premature and suffered brain damage during birth, a two-day hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London heard.
Specialists said she had a "complex pattern" of medical problems and would have no meaningful sight, would not be able to communicate, would have no significant voluntary muscle movement and would not be able to feed herself or enjoy food.
She had never left hospital and doctors thought she would die before she was five.
One specialist also told Mr Justice Keehan that the little girl did not seem able to smile.
He said babies initially acted on instinct and the emergence of a smile was an indicator of cognitive function.
The girl's mother wanted her daughter to "pass away peacefully", while her father wanted a judge to decide.
Medics who work for Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust had treated the girl and wanted her life support to be withdrawn.
The council did not agree the burden of treatment outweighed the likely benefit. They said it was "far too early" to conclude that she would not be able to "derive benefit from continued life".
The judge concluded: "I am completely satisfied that the only course to be taken in [her] best interests is to withdraw her current life-sustaining treatment and to move her to a palliative regime and allow her to die peacefully in the arms of her loving parents." | A seriously ill baby - who doctors said did not seem able to smile - has died after a High Court judge ruled medics could stop providing life support. |
34916497 | Sean Cronin's 37th-minute try was the difference between the teams in a dour game dominated by defences.
Jonny Sexton and Paddy Jackson traded penalties with Leinster leading 8-3 at the interval, and neither side scored in a slow-paced second half.
Ulster had their best spell late in the game and despite a losing bonus point dropped down to seventh in the table.
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Both sides were under pressure for a victory after poor results in the European Champions Cup.
Leinster, coming off back-to-back defeats to Wasps and Bath, started brightly in front of a sparse home crowd with Sexton nailing a sixth-minute penalty to put his side 3-0 up.
Paddy Jackson missed a simple penalty attempt three minutes later but converted a more difficult effort from nearer the sideline to level the scores after 14 minutes.
Leinster dominated possession and showed their intent when Sexton turned down easy points in favour of a kick to the corner.
Leo Cullen's side had a number of attacking lineouts in the second quarter, with Robbie Diack stealing Sean Cronin's throw as Ulster's defence held firm.
Eventually the pressure told with Cronin rumbling over from close range in the 37th minute after another lineout.
Ulster failed to commit enough bodies to the maul and Cronin crossed to put Leinster 8-3 ahead, Sexton missing the conversion.
Leinster found another gear after the restart and went close to breaching their Irish rivals' defence for a second time.
Rhys Ruddock made a great break straight through Ulster's porous midfield and when the ball was recycled to Sexton, his fast past was fumbled by Ben Te'o with the try line at his mercy.
It was a let-off for Les Kiss' side and in the 49th minute, Rory Best held up Josh van der Flier on the line to keep Leinster at bay.
Ulster's strike runners were starved of possession but Andrew Trimble made one penetrating break to put the visitors into the Leinster half for the first time in the second period.
Pienaar turned down a penalty as Ulster went looking for a try, but after going through several phases Diack conceded a penalty allowing the home side to clear.
Leinster dictated the pace of the game but Ian Madigan missed a drop-goal attempt as the home side struggled to put Ulster away.
Ulster: P Nelson; A Trimble, D Cave, S McCloskey, C Gilroy; P Jackson, R Pienaar; K McCall, R Best (capt), W Herbst, I Henderson, D Tuohy; R Diack, S Reidy, N Williams.
Replacements: C Henry for Reidy (43), R Lutton for Herbst (55), R Wilson for Diack (61), P Marshall for Pienaar (74), L Ludik for McCloskey (74), R Herring for Best (76).
Leinster: I Nacewa; Z Kirchner, B Te'o, I Madigan, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, L McGrath; J McGrath, S Cronin, T Furlong; D Toner, M McCarthy; R Ruddock, J van der Flier, J Heaslip (capt).
Replacements: E Reddan for L McGrath (32) M Moore for Furlong (51), J Tracy for Cronin (60), P Dooley for J McGrath (60), R Molony for McCarthy (67), N Reid for Sexton (67), G Ringrose for Reid (73). | Ulster failed to break Leinster's firm defence and slipped to a disappointing Pro12 derby defeat at the RDS. |
34570604 | From the beginning of the year, boats had to start landing unwanted fish which were caught in their nets.
Incidents of throwing dead fish back into the sea had increased due to EU quotas on which fish could be landed.
UK Fisheries Minister George Eustice has unveiled the chance to bank or borrow quotas.
Mr Eustice said: "If we want a profitable fishing industry and thriving coastal communities in the future it is vital that we fish sustainably today.
"That is why the reforms we have secured to the Common Fisheries Policy, which will put an end to the shameful practice of throwing perfectly good fish overboard, are so important.
"It is essential that we ban the practice of discarding fish, but we are also committed to introducing new flexibilities to help fishermen manage their quotas."
Bertie Armstrong, chief Executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF), said the measures were welcome, but warned there was still a lot of hard negotiating to be done.
Scottish Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead said: "No-one wants to see dead fish being thrown back into the sea - least of all our fishermen.
"That's why we are working closely with the industry to ensure the discard ban is implemented effectively and proportionately in Scotland, and to help make sure fishermen are fully prepared.
"We published a consultation paper in June about the allocation of the 'discard transfer' - the additional quota that fishermen will receive when the landing obligation commences for each species. We will announce the outcome of that soon."
The ban came into force in January for species such as herring and mackerel, and takes effect next January for species including haddock. | Measures to ease pressure on boats which will be affected by a European discard ban have been welcomed by Scottish fishing leaders. |
24458783 | Apple's feted design chief teamed up with industrial designer Marc Newson to create the device as a bespoke item for a charity auction.
While some may want to see it go into wider production, the amount of work that went into it means that the price would be out of reach for most.
It is expected to fetch between $500,000 (£312,000) and $750,000.
The special edition Leica M camera features an anodised aluminium case with tens of thousands of individual perforations.
The camera took 85 days and more than 735 hours to manufacture.
During that time more than 550 models and 1,000 prototype parts were made and tested; 55 engineers worked on the process.
As for the specifications under the bonnet, it is similar to the standard $7,000 Leica and features a 24-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor and comes with a 50mm f/2 aperture lens.
The RED charity, founded by U2's Bono, will host the auction in New York on November 23. All proceeds will go to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Other items to be auctioned include a grand piano picked by the two designers, gold Apple earbuds and a cosmonaut suit. | If you've ever wondered what an iCamera might look like, a Jony Ive-designed Leica might offer a few hints. |
40126149 | Craig Levein, the club's director of football, said earlier this week that the 23-year-old wants to leave Hearts.
In a statement on Thursday, Hearts aimed to "correct some misinformation" surrounding Walker's contractual situation.
"It would seem that the player would prefer to see out the remaining year of his contract."
Walker came through Hearts' development system, has been a first-team regular at Tynecastle since 2012 and is under contract until 2018.
Levein said head coach Ian Cathro had "been through quite an extensive discussion with Jamie to try to get him to stay".
The director of football added: "Jamie said he has been here a long time and feels it is time to move on."
On Thursday, Hearts addressed "ill-informed and potentially damaging stories relating to Jamie Walker and his contractual position with the club".
"Naturally, the club wants him to stay and made earnest efforts to secure his long-term future here at Hearts," the statement added.
"Those efforts were reflected in the new three-year deal offered to the player in February 2017, one which would've made Jamie the highest paid player at the club.
"Despite Jamie initially agreeing to sign this contract, the club was then informed that he had changed his mind and would not be signing the new deal.
"Despite the club doing everything in its power to hold onto, and reward, one of its top youth products, it would seem that the player would prefer to see out the remaining year of his contract, leaving the club in a no-win situation.
"The club has no desire to lose a talent such as Jamie. He is a firm favourite both with the fans and indeed the management. Nor would it stand in the way of any player who does not want to sign a contract and play for Hearts.
"We must protect the interests of the fans and the business when faced with such a scenario.
"Hearts totally refute any suggestion that a member of the club board or senior executive would be less than honest with any information provided to the media or the fans and it was insulting to see such accusations and falsehoods spread across social media." | Hearts have sought to address social media speculation over the future of attacking midfielder Jamie Walker. |
37550468 | They went to the rescue after a Nissan 370Z GT Nismo crashed into trees in Harrier Lane, Battle, at about 14:30 BST on Monday.
A 29-year-old man who was in the passenger seat managed to get out despite being seriously injured.
The driver, a 49-year-old man from Battle, was freed by firefighters.
He was flown to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton where he remains in a serious condition, having suffered multiple injuries and burns.
The passenger was taken to the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards by ambulance where he remains in a stable condition, Sussex Police said.
Tom Jones, 35, who was working nearby, said: "I heard a huge bang. There was no skidding before that. It was a really weird bang. It was massive and then it was dead quiet."
He said: "When I looked over a high fence I could see smoke. I climbed the fence and realised there was a car on fire.
"I got to it and managed to pull someone out, thinking that they were the only person inside it, but the person said someone else was in there.
"I then went into panic mode. There was a fire underneath the bonnet," Mr Jones said.
"The man was unconscious and I couldn't see his face."
He said three other men, and a woman who brought out a hosepipe, came to help,
"I was filling up buckets of water to try to keep the flames from this man who was trapped," Mr Jones said. | Onlookers formed a chain with buckets and a hose to douse a blazing sports car after it crashed and burst into flames. |
28892393 | Blaenau Gwent's Nick Smith said "troubled families" has got many adults in work and children in education.
But one expert said the initiative tended to "stigmatise" families.
The Welsh government said it funds job projects and ones keeping children out of care and families together.
David Cameron announced this week that the scheme would now look to help a total of 500,000 families.
Mr Smith helped to scrutinise the UK government's programme as a member of the public administration committee.
"We're all sick of anti-social behaviour and it costs £70,000 to put a young person in jail," he said.
"We don't want to be spending that sort of money and we don't want youngsters in jail. We want them in school, educated and in good employment.
"What does happen, of course, is that people work in silos and it can be quite difficult to look around you and see what you do can have an impact on other agencies.
"You can't solve that overnight, but if you've got this one person that does have both the bigger picture, understands the needs of the families and is quite hard at making sure those things are turned around, I think that can make a big difference and can help negotiate with all these agencies that are out there."
Mr Smith said the UK programme has shown it can turn lives around.
"They've gathered more evidence, worked out what works, I think that's worth looking at in Wales to see if all the different things that are happening in Wales could be pulled together, integrated and really make a difference for these families.
"There's no problem at all from learning from your neighbours and if there's something next door that's a good initiative let's take a peek at it and see if it can work round here."
But Cardiff University Prof Sally Holland said the "troubled families" initiative had tended to "stigmatise" families and the UK government's budget cuts for preventative work was in contrast to the Welsh government's approach.
"There are still going to be families falling through the gaps - we're facing unprecedented spending cuts," she said.
"A few families are always in any society going to need additional help and we need to be able to help them as well, but it's got to be about the early preventative services and in the long run investing in those will save money."
A Welsh government spokesperson said it already supports families through different projects.
"Our Lift programme provides training and employment opportunities for households where no-one is in work and Communities First is narrowing the economic, education and health gaps between our most deprived and more affluent areas.
"Families First plays a key role in addressing child poverty and Integrated Family Support Services helps keep children out of care and families stay together." | A scheme which is tackling anti-social behaviour in England and has turned around the lives of 53,000 families could work in Wales, the MP for one of its most deprived areas said. |
32230793 | According to UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service), more than 500,000 applicants successfully secured places in UK universities and colleges in 2014, up nearly 3.4% on the previous year with the overall acceptance ratio steady at around 73%.
This represents a significant increase over the last decade.
In 2006, some 506,305 applicants applied for a university place whereas in 2014, that number had increased to nearly 700,000.
Overall, applications have risen by around 20% with around 2.4 million applications in 2007 and 2.8 million applications in 2014 (each person can make five applications).
But which courses are students applying for and how have patterns of applications to different subjects changed over the years?
And what, if anything, do such patterns tell us about the way young people and others view what they want from a university degree? Are patterns in the UK similar to elsewhere?
Nursing: 238,000 applications
Psychology: 106,000
Law: 103,000
Design studies: 97,000
Pre-clinical medicine: 85,000
Computer Science: 77,000
Management: 71,000
Sport and exercise: 67,000
Business: 66,000
Social Work: 64,000
In terms of changes since 2007, the largest growth has been observed in nursing, rising from 58,435 in 2007 to 103,550 applications in 2008, when the admissions system was centralised and unified, to 237,990 in 2014.
This increase in nursing reflects increases in the commissioning of nurses for the NHS through workforce planning.
However, this area remains a hotly disputed political issue with manifesto commitments being made on increasing the number of trained nurses entering the NHS and reviewing the way places are made available.
Over the period, both chemistry and physics have grown by 50% to around 30,000 each.
Starting from a much lower base, chemical, process and energy engineering has risen 135% from 8,450 in 2007 to 19,830 in 2014.
Both mechanical and general engineering have risen by around 80% over the last decade.
By contrast, modern languages and associated studies have fallen by 24% to around 26,000.
This, in part, reflects a shift away from full degrees to short courses in the area.
Many subjects suffered a downturn in 2012 when fees of £9,000 were introduced.
Some subjects have bounced back from that dip better than others, though UCAS indicates that current demand levels are slightly lower than they would have been without the fee hike.
In the humanities there were fears of a gradual structural decline as students became more vocationally orientated in their preferences.
Law: 92,000 applications
Psychology: 80,000
Pre-clinical Medicine: 70,000
Design: 70,000
Management: 62,000
Social work: 60,000
Nursing: 58,000
Business: 55,000
English: 54,000
Computer Science: 54,000
English, for example, lost around 10% of its applications in 2012 and has not been able to fully recover the lost ground since.
By contrast history, which was enjoying its highest ever level of popularity prior to the introduction of fees, only suffered a 4% fall, but has recovered quickly to rise 4% higher than the pre-fees level.
This might be taken to imply that while there is a significant core level of interest in the humanities, driven in part by A-level familiarity, some of the applicant constituencies who might otherwise have chosen humanities remain deterred by fees.
While the overall patterns of gender have tended to follow the general ebb and flow of application profiles over the last decade, the headline figures occasionally mask interesting trends.
In civil engineering, for example, although the total number of applications has remained steady at just over 20,000 for the last decade, this hides a 25% increase in applications by females and an 8% fall in applications by males.
In nutrition, the 10% increase is attributable almost entirely to the rise in applications from males.
While computing science has grown 44% since 2007 to 77,000, this reflects an increase in both male (43%) and female (36%) applications.
What are the factors affecting the popularity of subjects? Clearly, a wide range of influences affect subject choice including the level of supply.
Some areas such as medicine, dentistry and nursing have limited places and competition is fierce, with around 10 applications for every place, and this ratio has generally remained steady since 2007.
It is probable that one other driver of choice is the availability of A-level courses in the same topic.
The continued popularity of psychology at degree level, for example, can, in part, be attributed to the growth of psychology A-levels.
The effect of television in giving visibility to new types of careers is also often highlighted as a factor.
The popularity of TV series Silent Witness and Cracker and the film Silence of the Lambs, has been cited as boosting the number of courses and applications for forensic science in the 1990s and subsequently - even if the dramas in fact depict pathologists, clinical psychologists and detectives.
The lure of high potential earnings associated with specific degrees has always been a driver of subject choice to some extent, but this has become more complex recently as long-term career patterns become more fragmented and most jobs not degree specific.
Overall it would appear that the £9,000 fees, the recession and changes in the job market generally have not made huge differences to the pattern of course choices.
However, it is not clear whether the choices students make are always the right choices.
Computer science is consistently in the top 10 for applications - but also has one of the highest dropout rates.
In the US, lifetime earnings are seen as a key driver for degree choice, especially in the context of the fees and commercial loans.
Total student loan debt in the US has now passed $1tn, with student debt outweighing credit card debt for the first time in history.
Overall in 2010, US graduates left college owing an average of more than $26,000.
The patterns indicate some interesting differences against a backdrop of similarity in the popularity of subjects compared with the UK.
According to the US National Centre for Educational Statistics (NCES) of the 1,716,000 bachelor's degrees conferred in 2010-11, the most popular areas were business (365,000), social sciences and history (177,000), health professions and related programs (143,000), education (104,000), and psychology (101,000).
US data analysts, Media Factual, who host the CollegeFactual.com website, identify business as the most popular current degree programme followed by psychology, nursing, biology, teacher training, criminology, accounting, humanities, English and history.
According to NCES, business studies has been accounting for around 20% of all undergraduate degrees in the US since the mid-70s.
For comparison, the corresponding figure for business and related areas in the UK is around 10% and has been steady at that rate for nearly a decade.
Education-related degrees in the US have fallen from around 21% in 1970 to approximately 6% now.
However, the largest rises have been in the miscellaneous catch-all category of "other fields" which has risen steadily from 9% in 1970 to 25% in 2012.
This category includes, amongst others, courses related to health professions, law enforcement, and leisure and fitness studies.
For those who are really driven by earnings potential then a recent analysis of the degrees taken by 50 billionaires globally found that engineering and economics had the highest ratings with 14 each with business and finance having 11.
The authors of the report note that among the 50 billionaires, three had degrees in philosophy.
Looking ahead at future trends in the UK, UCAS has stated that the 2012 fees hike led to a temporary 5% decline in demand overall and that in the future, variation in fee levels could well affect application levels.
They further expect total applicants from UK/EU to rise by a modest 1% to 2% between 2016 and 2018.
Given that the 18-year-old UK population is on a downward trend, the number of A-level entrants are correspondingly declining, with much of the growth in demand coming largely from applicants with vocational qualifications such as BTECs.
It is possible that this will boost courses with an explicit vocational element which tap into this emerging pattern.
Whatever the changes to fees, university provision, student numbers and the debate over different ways of assessing the "value" of a degree, it is clear that underlying the general stability in degree choices in the UK and the US is a great deal of nuance and subtle variation which hints perhaps at the shape of bigger changes to come. | With the deadline for university applicants to indicate their final course preferences looming, it is interesting to review how the patterns of degree choice have changed over the last decade or so. |
33220553 | He was attacked alongside his brother in the Donegall Road area at about 21:30 BST Saturday night.
A band parade was taking place in the area at the time, but police are not treating the attack as sectarian.
The badly hurt man, who is in his 20s, sustained a serious head injury and was treated in the Royal Victoria Hospital.
The second man suffered injuries to his face that were not believed to be life-threatening.
A spokesman for the Belfast Health Trust said the critically injured victim's condition stabilised on Sunday evening before he left hospital.
UKIP councillor Bob Stoker told BBC Radio Ulster it was his understanding that the assault was in no way connected to the band parade.
"It seems that this young fellow was standing actually watching the band parade with his girlfriend and an altercation, with people going down the Donegal Road, took place.
"His brother went to intervene and he was also assaulted," Mr Stoker said.
"It's not sectarian, it's not racist, it's one of these incidents that just happened and it happened as there was a band passing at the location where it actually took place.
"But the attack and assault has absolutely nothing to do with the band or the band parade, I think we need to make that very clear," he added.
The councillor said a vehicle was being forensically examined as part of the investigation and he appealed to anyone with information to contact police. | A man who was critically injured in a weekend assault in south Belfast has left hospital after his condition improved on Sunday evening. |
40413041 | Now they've seen the details, they haven't changed their tune.
There is actually a fair amount of common ground between the two sides, but the details - naturally - matter.
The EU's goal on citizens' rights, said its chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, is "the same level of protection as [is offered] in EU law".
"More ambition, clarity and guarantees needed than in today's UK position," Mr Barnier tweeted.
This is a crucial point for the European negotiating team.
However pleased it may be that the UK has finally produced a detailed policy document on one aspect of Brexit, this proposal falls short of what it wants in several respects.
The EU's Essential Principles on Citizens' Rights argued that the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and British citizens elsewhere in the EU, should not change as a result of Brexit.
All their rights should be respected.
The British proposal, on the other hand, entails the loss of some of those rights - the legal protection of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), for example, or the unconditional right to bring family members into the UK from third countries.
The cut-off date for eligibility for settled status also needs to be clarified. The UK proposal suggests that the cut-off could be as early as 29 March 2017, the day when Article 50 was triggered.
But it is unlikely that the EU would be willing to agree to any date that has already passed. It would mean - in effect - that some citizens would lose some of their rights while the UK was still a member of the EU.
Opposition to such an idea would be seen in many EU capitals not just as a point of principle, but as a matter of EU law.
It is more likely that British negotiators will eventually agree to settle on their other suggested date - the date on which the UK actually leaves the EU, which is currently due to be 29 March 2019.
If the UK shows flexibility on the cut-off date, it will expect equal flexibility on other matters from the EU. But trust between the negotiating teams appears to be in rather short supply.
It will need to be established quickly because a similar mood of compromise will be needed to reach agreement on the legal system that will underpin any agreement.
The British side insists that the ECJ will have no jurisdiction in the UK after Brexit. The EU insists that the ECJ must continue to offer legal protection for their citizens in the UK, just as it does now.
The obvious answer to this conundrum is to create a joint UK-EU arbitration panel that will ensure that the terms of an agreement are respected under international law. But this will require both sides to alter fairly entrenched positions.
Well, the UK proposal does contain a few carrots.
It accepts that child benefit payments will still be paid for the children of EU workers in the UK whose families live abroad. This was a right that David Cameron tried but failed to abolish.
It advocates a "grace period" of two years to allow EU citizens to get their status in order. It is an idea that could dovetail conveniently with the need for transitional arrangements, to ensure that the British exit from the EU takes place without sudden shocks.
As for British citizens who have retired abroad, the UK proposal offers the reassurance that the government will continue to export and "uprate" the UK state pension within the EU.
So if, for example, you live in Spain, you will still get annual pension increases - something that is not always guaranteed if you live elsewhere in the world.
There is also a promise to simplify bureaucratic procedures for people applying for settled status in the future. But many of them will be furious that they have just spent time and money to obtain permanent residence in the UK, only to find out that they need to start again from scratch.
"How can you promise to give people certainty and then tell tens of thousands that their permanent residence is going to be invalidated?" says Ian Robinson, a partner at the immigration law firm Fragomen.
"It would have been just as easy to continue to recognise permanent residence already granted but just stop accepting new applications," Mr Robinson adds.
The UK may argue that its proposal at least tries to offer something to everyone. But so far it doesn't do enough to satisfy the EU.
So even if the basis for a deal can be envisaged on this one aspect of Brexit, there is plenty of bridge-building still to be done.
When the UK proposal was first trailed, it was described as a generous offer. That was quickly amended to a "fair and serious" one.
Because the EU doesn't see this as a generous offer, and it has been prepared to say so. It involves millions of EU citizens losing some of the rights they currently enjoy, and for EU leaders that is no cause for celebration.
Read more from Reality Check
Follow us on Twitter | When British Prime Minister Theresa May first trailed the Conservative Party's proposals for EU citizens living in the UK at last week's EU summit, the initial response from her fellow leaders was hardly enthusiastic. |
33329554 | Philip Spriggs, 51, from Oxford, was found guilty of a total of 20 charges including 11 counts of rape, sexual assault and making indecent photos.
Oxford Crown Court was told the offences took place in Headington over seven years between 2007 and 2014.
Thames Valley Police praised his victims for being "brave" and "speaking out".
Spriggs was given an additional seven years on licence and placed on the sex offenders' register for life.
Det Sgt Tracey Shepherd said: "The victims in this case have been very brave at speaking out against their abuser.
"They can now begin to rebuild their lives knowing they do not have to suffer further abuse."
Spriggs, who was arrested and charged last October, was found guilty of 20 charges following a trial in April.
The charges were 11 counts of rape, two counts of assault of a child under 13, one charge of attempted rape, two charges of sexual assault of a child under 13, two counts of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, one charge of assault by penetration, and one count of making indecent photos. | A man has been jailed for 17 years for a string of sex offences against two children. |
24218141 | The Jamaican, 27, has been with Puma since 2003, and last renewed what is considered to be the biggest sponsorship deal in athletics in 2010.
Bolt said he was proud to continue with Puma "for the years ahead".
He had earlier indicated he may retire after the 2016 Games, but recently said he may compete for a year after that.
There was no mention in the Puma announcement about any retirement plans.
Bolt has won six Olympic gold and eight World Championship gold medals to date. In addition, his time of 9.58 seconds in the 100 metres is the fastest run to date.
Puma chief executive Bjoern Gulden said the firm had supported Bolt since he was 16.
"He will play a crucial role in our future product concepts, as well as brand communications leading towards the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 and beyond," Mr Gulden added.
In addition to its contract with Usain Bolt, Puma has a longstanding commitment to Jamaican Track & Field.
The deal is a boost for Puma as it continues to take on bigger sportswear rivals Adidas and Nike. | Multiple Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt has renewed his sponsorship deal with German kit-maker Puma until after the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. |
39451262 | The 21-year-old completed a four-under-par 68 on Friday, resuming after high winds stopped play on Thursday.
France's Karine Icher, American Cristie Kerr and Germany's Caroline Masson are tied for the lead.
Teenage amateur Seong Eun-jeong hit a hole-in-one to help move her into early contention on day one.
The 17-year-old South Korean carded an impressive four-under 68, and is joined by Hull in a six-way tie for fourth place.
Seong, who last year became the first player to win the US Women's Amateur and US Junior titles in the same season, birdied the first two holes before her hole-in-one at the 182-yard par-three fifth.
Almost half the field were forced to complete their first rounds on Friday, with winds of 25mph and gusts of 35mph blowing when the players were taken off on day one at Mission Hills Country Club in California.
World number 16 Hull hit six birdies and two bogeys in her round. Compatriots Mel Reid and Jodi Ewart Shadoff finished level par and one over respectively.
Scotland's Catriona Matthew shot a three-over 75 and is in danger of missing the cut.
Full leaderboard | England's Charley Hull was one shot off the lead after the first round of the ANA Inspiration, the first women's major of the year. |
37551378 | The North East county were also given a 48-point deduction for next season.
Collingwood, who has been with the club for 21 years, is currently part of England's coaching staff in Bangladesh.
"The players are seriously unhappy, a lot of anger, a lot of 'whose fault is this?'" the 40-year-old former England all-rounder told journalists in Dhaka.
"The fact is that the players are 100% innocent here. We get asked to win things, and give our best, and stay in the first division, and that's what the club is all about.
"That's why it's such a kick in the teeth because we know how hard it's been to continue our first division status with all the strains that have been on our team in the last few years."
Collingwood, who signed a one-year contract extension with Durham in July, is in Bangladesh with teammate and England all-rounder Ben Stokes.
He admitted that the extent of the club's problems had come as a shock to the players, who had been unaware of the seriousness of the situation.
"I can't believe we are in this position. I don't understand how it can go so far down this road for us to be penalised like this, and how it hasn't been picked up and brought into a sustainable business like it should be," he said.
The ECB have also stripped Durham of the right to host Test cricket at the Riverside as well as imposing a revised salary cap from April 2017-2020, with the level determined annually by the governing body.
However, Collingwood sought positives in the knowledge that Durham had maintained their first-class status and the club can now look forward.
"When I first heard about it I thought it was the end of the world but in some ways you have to understand that the ECB have given us an opportunity to rebuild and refocus."
Durham's director of cricket and former first-team coach Geoff Cook said the severe punishment handed out the club was harsh.
They had to invest a large amount of money to ensure their Riverside ground was up to the standard required to host Tests but have now lost that right.
"This is one of the real tragedies of it," Cook told BBC Radio Newcastle. "In all innocence, all Durham County Cricket Club have tried to fulfil its commitment to the area and provide a great international venue and top-class sport.
"I'm not sure how the club has got itself into this position, but no matter how it has got there on the surface the punishment is extreme." | Durham's relegation from County Championship Division One over financial issues is a "kick in the teeth", says captain Paul Collingwood. |
24232896 | "Cedric" is only a basic prototype but could be developed into a machine which is smaller, faster and more efficient than today's silicon models.
Nanotubes have long been touted as the heir to silicon's throne, but building a working computer has proven awkward.
The breakthrough by Stanford University engineers is published in Nature.
Cedric is the most complex carbon-based electronic system yet realised.
So is it fast? Not at all. It might have been in 1955.
The computer operates on just one bit of information, and can only count to 32.
"In human terms, Cedric can count on his hands and sort the alphabet. But he is, in the full sense of the word, a computer," says co-author Max Shulaker.
"There is no limit to the tasks it can perform, given enough memory".
In computing parlance, Cedric is "Turing complete". In principle, it could be used to solve any computational problem.
It runs a basic operating system which allows it to swap back and forth between two tasks - for instance, counting and sorting numbers.
And unlike previous carbon-based computers, Cedric gets the answer right every time.
"People have been talking about a new era of carbon nanotube electronics, but there have been few demonstrations. Here is the proof," said Prof Subhasish Mitra, lead author on the study.
The Stanford team hope their achievement will galvanise efforts to find a commercial successor to silicon chips, which could soon encounter their physical limits.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are hollow cylinders composed of a single sheet of carbon atoms.
They have exceptional properties which make them ideal as a semiconductor material for building transistors, the on-off switches at the heart of electronics.
For starters, CNTs are so thin - thousands could fit side-by-side in a human hair - that it takes very little energy to switch them off.
"Think of it as stepping on a garden hose. The thinner the pipe, the easier it is to shut off the flow," said HS Philip Wong, co-author on the study.
But while single-nanotube transistors have been around for 15 years, no-one had ever put the jigsaw pieces together to make a useful computing device.
So how did the Stanford team succeed where others failed? By overcoming two common bugbears which have bedevilled carbon computing.
First, CNTs do not grow in neat, parallel lines. "When you try and line them up on a wafer, you get a bowl of noodles," says Mitra.
The Stanford team built chips with CNTs which are 99.5% aligned - and designed a clever algorithm to bypass the remaining 0.5% which are askew.
They also eliminated a second type of imperfection - "metallic" CNTs - a small fraction of which always conduct electricity, instead of acting like semiconductors that can be switched off.
To expunge these rogue elements, the team switched off all the "good" CNTs, then pumped the remaining "bad" ones full of electricity - until they vaporised. The result is a functioning circuit.
The Stanford team call their two-pronged technique "imperfection-immune design". Its greatest trick? You don't even have to know where the imperfections lie - you just "zap" the whole thing.
"These are initial necessary steps in taking carbon nanotubes from the chemistry lab to a real environment," said Supratik Guha, director of physical sciences for IBM's Thomas J Watson Research Center.
But hang on - what if, say, Intel, or another chip company, called up and said "I want a billion of these". Could Cedric be scaled up and factory-produced?
In principle, yes: "There is no roadblock", says Franz Kreupl, of the Technical University of Munich in Germany.
"If research efforts are focused towards a scaled-up (64-bit) and scaled-down (20-nanometre transistor) version of this computer, we might soon be able to type on one."
Shrinking the transistors is the next challenge for the Stanford team. At a width of eight microns (8,000 nanometres) they are much fatter than today's most advanced silicon chips.
But while it may take a few years to achieve this gold standard, it is now only a matter of time - there is no technological barrier, says Shulaker.
"In terms of size, IBM has already demonstrated a nine-nanometre CNT transistor.
"And as for manufacturing, our design is compatible with current industry processes. We used the same tools as Intel, Samsung or whoever.
"So the billions of dollars invested into silicon has not been wasted, and can be applied for CNTs."
For 40 years we have been predicting the end of silicon. Perhaps that end is now in sight. | The first computer built entirely with carbon nanotubes has been unveiled, opening the door to a new generation of digital devices. |
31432512 | Not normal parliamentary language, but those are the words and phrases Ed Miliband used today in the Commons to allege that David Cameron's Tory party takes money from tax dodgers.
Even by the standards of Prime Minister's Questions it was pretty strong stuff and it has led one donor to warn that if the allegations against him are repeated outside, Ed Miliband will end up in court facing a libel action.
The Labour leader's aides say that he sees this as another Milly Dowler moment - the moment when he spoke out against phone hacking and took on Rupert Murdoch.
They see this row as an opportunity to be seen standing up to the rich and powerful and to be seen to be, in their political strategists' favourite phrase, "on your side".
The Conservatives respond that Mr Miliband's got his facts wrong and is guilty of hypocrisy - since today's list of party donors with Swiss bank accounts includes Labour donors too
You might think this is a row about banks and tax avoidance. You might want it to be. It is, though, yet another act in the pre-election drama. | Dodgy...bang to rights...up to his neck. |
33153486 | The NSPCC said the reasons were not clear, although greater awareness of sexual abuse, arising from historical cases, may be a cause.
It said this showed the Scottish legal system must become more sensitive.
It has called for a "bold approach" to reform the way child sex abuse cases are handled.
The figures were published as the NSPCC prepared to launch its third "How Safe are our Children?" report measuring the extent and nature of child abuse across the UK.
Scottish government figures showed that in 2013-14 there were 3,742 sexual offences against children including rape, sexual assault and grooming - a 10-year high.
The charity said that in the following year, 2014-15, the number of contacts to its helpline from adults in Scotland worried a child was being sexually abused rose by 19% from 341 to 407.
Almost half (203) were considered so serious they were immediately referred to the police or children's services.
The NSPCC said it was not clear why the number of offences had risen.
But it said more victims may have the courage to come forward following the reporting of historical cases and the police may also have improved their recording methods.
The charity praised the Scottish government for establishing an inquiry into historical abuse in children's institutions.
But Matt Forde, NSPCC Scotland's head of national services, said as more children spoke out, the Scottish legal system needed to develop a more sensitive and effective response to ensuring justice was served.
He said: "The nation has been horrified by the revelations of decades of horrendous child abuse. But while the Scottish government's inquiry is historical, child abuse is not.
"For too many children, our court system adds further trauma to their earlier experiences of abuse. We need a bold approach to reform our legal system."
A Scottish Courts Service report "Evidence and Procedure", published in March, agreed changes were necessary.
It said: "In recent decades the number of child and vulnerable witnesses being called to give evidence has increased dramatically.
"They have, however, been introduced into a system that was ill-equipped to accommodate them, with the result that there have been a series of adjustments to the law and practice that, at best, only partially address their needs."
The NSPCC said a Scandinavian system, called Barnehus, had helped free children from further suffering, allowing the therapeutic support they needed to begin more quickly.
In specialist centres, designed to be non-threatening and reassuring for victims, a team, including a criminal investigator and prosecutor, a health expert, a senior social worker, a judicial counsellor and forensic expert worked together to support the child.
The aim was to help victims through possible trauma and to make sense of official procedures to reduce long-term problems. | The NSPCC in Scotland has revealed a 19% rise in the number of calls to its helplines from adults worried about children being abused. |
29907546 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The Stones came close to claiming an upset but Frannie Collin was denied by the feet of keeper Chris Day.
Boro almost won it late on with Roarie Deacon's strike from a narrow angle before Chris Beardsley's header came off the outside of the post.
The replay will now take place on a 3G pitch - just days after Football League clubs voted against their introduction. | Non-league Maidstone earned an FA Cup first round replay after a goalless draw at League Two side Stevenage. |
35742282 | Whatever your record, it's unlikely that you have beaten Satabdi Mishra and Akshaya Ravtaray.
The two friends are on an ambitious 10,000 km (6,213 miles) road trip in their minivan, and have taken an eye-popping 4,000 books with them.
They say they are on a "mission" to promote book reading across towns, cities and villages because they believe that "more Indians need to read books".
The duo began their journey in early December 2015 from Bhubaneswar in the eastern state of Orissa.
The BBC caught up with them in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh which was the 16th stage of their trip.
It has been an tiring but exhilarating ride for the two, who told the BBC they "achieved what we set out to do".
They have met hundreds of people, ranging from writers to book lovers to first-time book buyers.
"We have sold around 2,000 books so far. And we keep getting our stock replenished in big cities," Ms Mishra says.
But selling books is not their primary goal. They also lend them out, and say their biggest ambition is actually to engage people in conversations about the importance of reading.
"We see so much happening around us, things like intolerance. That mainly happens because people don't read. Reading books opens your mind and allows you to appreciate different thoughts," Mr Ravtaray says.
He talks about a school teacher he met "who had only read 15-20 books related to his curriculum in his 20 years of teaching".
"Now clearly there is a problem. People, teachers, have to read more for their students, much beyond the subjects they teach. We need more libraries than shopping malls, but the reverse is happening," he says.
Ms Mishra says books have become too expensive, and independent book shops are increasingly closing down.
"The situation is much worse in small towns. We found that many don't have even a single library," she says.
"It's not that people don't want to read. But books have become inaccessible for many people."
Mr Ravtaray and Ms Mishra want to change that. Apart from travelling to promote reading, they also run what they call "a simple book store" in Bhubaneswar.
"We give 20-30% discounts throughout the year because our store is simple and we don't have many expenses. We don't have air conditioning or even electricity, we use solar power," Ms Mishra says.
"And we provide a space where people can read all day, without having to pay or buy anything."
Their minivan is stocked with books written in English and also regional languages.
"I felt that people are more drawn to books in their own language. I just hope more regional writers prosper and the writing becomes better," Mr Ravtaray says.
They made a similar journey around Orissa in 2014 and were surprised by the response.
"Just like this journey, most people who came to us in Orissa were first-time book buyers. We had kept the cost low. No book was more than 200 rupees."
Ms Mishra said that they usually choose public spaces like bus and railways stations in Orissa's tribal areas to showcase books.
"That works because people in smaller towns feel intimidated by big shops."
Mr Ravtaray is of the opinion that books have to reach India's "remote corners if we are to prosper as a society".
"We as a country need to know more about the world we live in and that can only happen through reading. We have a funny situation these days, rich people write about poor people, but poor people don't get to read their work."
"Our journey is a tiny effort to change this situation. We are trying to make books available to as many people as possible." | What is the most amount of books you have carried while travelling? |
40724692 | While traditionally the wafer snack has been made using milk chocolate, dozens of different flavours are proving popular in Asia.
Flavours like wasabi and green tea have helped Kit Kat sales in Japan grow by 50% since 2010, Nestle said.
The factory will focus on the more expensive versions of the snack which have been a hit with tourists.
Spending by visitors on confectionery has more than tripled in the past four years, according to government figures, to about $1.2bn (£922m).
"Over the past few years, Nestle was able to demonstrate good growth in Japan despite a challenging environment", a Nestle spokesman said.
"This good performance can be explained with our strategic focus on innovation and premium, for example with Kit Kat." | Nestle is to open its first factory in Japan in more than 25 years because of demand for exotic flavours of Kit Kat. |
34167290 | Police were called to reports of a fight at a block of flats on Turnham Road, Brockley, on Thursday and found two 17-year-old boys with stab wounds.
Shaquan Mario Fearon died shortly after arriving at hospital, police said.
Two boys, both aged 15, have been charged with murder and wounding with intent and are due to appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court on Monday.
A post-mortem examination found Shaquan died from a stab wound to the leg.
The second victim, who also suffered a stab wound, was taken to hospital and has since been discharged, officers said. | Two teenage boys have been charged with the murder of a 17-year-old who was stabbed in south-east London. |
40703996 | Torrential rain had affected parts of south-west Scotland.
Pretoria Road and Delhi Place in Eastriggs were waterlogged on Saturday afternoon.
Fire crews were called in to pump water away from the area in an attempt to protect local properties. | The village of Eastriggs has been clearing up after flash flooding on Saturday. |
34658848 | Nathan Matthews, 28, admits killing his 16-year-old stepsister but denies murder and conspiring to kidnap her.
Under cross examination, prosecutor William Mousley asked him how he felt about "cutting her body into pieces" with a circular saw.
Mr Matthews told Bristol Crown Court he "did what I had to".
Mr Mousley asked if his attitude changed after he killed her, to which he replied: " I didn't have any attitude after."
Referring to 15 stab wounds delivered to Becky's abdomen after her death, the prosecutor asked Mr Matthews: "What about how you treated her after you killed her?"
He responded: "That's got nothing to do with how I felt about her."
Mr Matthews admitted being attracted to teenage girls and watching pornography after having sex with his long-term girlfriend Shauna Hoare, 21.
The defendant, who is accused of murdering Miss Watts in a sexually-motivated kidnap plot with Ms Hoare, denied he fancied his stepsister.
He admitted he did not like the teenager because she was rude to his mother, Anjie Galsworthy, her stepmother, but refuted suggestions he had wanted to harm her.
Earlier, Bristol Crown Court was told Mr Matthews denied downloading a pornographic film found on his laptop about the rape of a young girl.
He told the jury he would not have downloaded or watched the film and would have deleted the 17-minute clip "straight away".
Mr Matthews said he looked at online pornography "at least every two days" with his interest starting with magazines before moving on to internet videos.
However, Mr Matthews insisted his girlfriend did not share his interest in pornography.
Mr Matthews' defence lawyer, Adam Vaitilingam QC questioned him about a series of text and Facebook messages in which he and Ms Hoare talked about kidnapping teenage girls.
Mr Matthews said the messages were "just taking the mick basically" and not serious.
He said he was "open" with her about if he found someone attractive.
"Sometimes she would catch me looking and she would slap me, or smack me, not violently and tell me off, saying I'm looking at her or whatever," he said.
Mr Matthews also told jurors he had a "fear" that Ms Hoare would leave him.
He had previously admitted there was violence in his relationship with his partner and he had "anger issues" and would "bottle things up" and would "flip" when he got "overwhelmed".
However, he denied that when he tried to knock Becky out on the day he killed her at her home in St George, Bristol, it had been a "violent attack".
Becky went missing on 19 February and her body was found in a shed several days later.
Asked how he was able to dismember Becky, Mr Matthews told the court: "It was like a bad dream, it is hard to explain exactly."
Shortly afterwards he said he realised he needed to remove her remains from the home he shared with Ms Hoare because he "knew the police were coming".
Asked why he finally confessed to the killing after days of repeatedly lying about being involved in Becky's disappearance, Mr Matthews said her family "deserved to know the truth and have a burial and say goodbye".
Mr Matthews, of Hazelbury Drive in Warmley, South Gloucestershire, also admits perverting the course of justice, preventing lawful burial and possessing a prohibited weapon.
Ms Hoare, 21, of Cotton Mill Lane, Bristol, denies murder and conspiracy to kidnap, a weapons charge, perverting the course of justice and preventing a burial.
Two other men, Donovan Demetrius, 29, and James Ireland, 23, deny assisting an offender.
The trial continues. | A man accused of murdering teenager Becky Watts has denied taking any pleasure in dismembering her body. |
25633647 | It records when a user speaks to friends, receives emails, watches a movie and other smartphone actions.
In addition the Android app receives data from a new, small piece of wearable hardware called the Core that acts as an activity tracker.
The software then uses this information to try and determine if the user was walking, resting or in a vehicle.
It is likely to raise privacy issues coming so soon after revelations about how spy agencies have forced tech companies to hand over information stored about their users.
However, the Japanese firm attempted to play down the issue.
"Sony treats the security and privacy of our users' personal data with the utmost stringency and integrity, adhering to legalities and ensuring it remains protected under appropriate technological procedures," it told the BBC.
"Upon first sign-in to Lifelog app, we make it clear absolutely clear what data users are submitting, how it is being used and provide them with option of opting in or out before proceeding."
Sony did, however, acknowledge that younger users were more likely to be willing to let their activities be logged with the service than older ones.
The announcement was made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Lifelog is Sony's take on what is termed "the quantified self" - the ability to better understand and change behaviours by gathering data about ourselves.
"Today's alternatives can log your sleep and steps," Jun Makino, a senior product manager at Sony told the BBC.
"But there's more to life. We want to help you rediscover the best memories from the past as well as make smarter decisions for the future."
The kinds of data collected by the app from Android phones include information about when and where:
Sony is also releasing an application programming interface (API) to allow other apps to share information.
The Core is a plastic device containing an accelerometer that is supposed to be worn around the clock. It will provide data about the user's movements, which can then be used to try to work out what they were doing and how many calories were burned.
Sony said its algorithms would be able to distinguish between whether the user was on a train, using a bicycle or resting.
The device also features LED lights and a vibration motor to alert the owner to notifications sent to their phone. A "life bookmark" button can also be pressed to highlight special moments on the timeline.
It will initially be sold with a waterproof wristband.
But in time Sony aims to release accessories letting it to be worn around the neck, in shoes or even attached to a tennis racket among other options.
The firm added it also envisaged information being gathered from its other products, including Smart TVs and PlayStation 4 games consoles, to build up a more detailed record.
Those who sign up to the app will be able to get information telling them how much time they spent carrying out different activities to help inform their choices.
"If you have not reached your daily goal perhaps you should take a walk rather than a taxi," Mr Makino gave as an example.
This is a similar to the idea behind other wearable activity trackers made by companies including Jawbone, Fitbit and Nike.
However, one wearable tech expert attending CES suggested that what was needed were more insights rather than just more information.
"The end goal for these companies is to provide actionable advice and not just data logging," said Daniel Matte from the tech consultancy Canalys.
"I don't think the average user frankly cares if, for example, they slept eight or nine hours. What they want to know is whether that was adequate and what they can do to sleep better, eat better etc.
"Creating change should be the primary goal these technologies are striving for."
Sony said it might also make use of the data gathered by the app to help it better understand how people used their phones and to spot bugs.
However, it said that it would make users' identifies anonymous before carrying out this analysis to protect their privacy. | Sony has unveiled a "life logging" software that charts a person's activities on an interactive timeline. |
33196587 | In the 17,000 word document, written a year after the war, she laments the loss of "our bravest and best".
The document also highlights concerns about media coverage of the conflict.
It is among a selection of private papers given to the nation by the ex-PM's estate in lieu of inheritance tax.
Other material released include her personal account of the Fontainebleau Summit of European leaders in 1984, when she secured the UK's budget rebate, the final draft of her remarks when she entered Downing Street for the first time in 1979 and the text of her "lady's not for turning speech" at the 1980 Conservative Party conference.
The donation of the papers to the Churchill Archives Centre, which already holds the bulk of the former Conservative leader's personal and political files, has settled an inheritance tax bill in excess of £1m that was owed by her estate.
Lady Thatcher, who died in 2013, was Britain's long-serving post-war prime minister, serving between 1979 and 1990.
The 1982 Falklands conflict, in which a British taskforce recaptured a group of British overseas territories in the South Atlantic after their invasion by Argentine troops, was a defining moment in Margaret Thatcher's premiership.
The 128-page memoir, written at Chequers over the 1983 Easter holiday, is a candid and, at times, highly personal account of the political and diplomatic manoeuvrings in the run-up to the conflict and the conduct of the military campaign itself.
The account of the war, which she described as a "miracle wrought by ordinary men and women with extraordinary qualities", reveals:
Among the most striking passages in the memoir are the former prime minister's reactions to military successes and setbacks during the hostilities, which cost the lives of 255 British servicemen and 655 Argentineans.
Reacting to the attack on HMS Glamorgan, 14 of whose personnel were killed when it was struck by an Exocet missile, she wrote:
"It is impossible to describe the depth of feeling at these times. It is quite unlike anything else I have ever experienced."
It is impossible to describe the depth of feeling at these times. It is quite unlike anything else I have ever experienced. In fights for liberty - we lose our bravest and best..."
"In fights for liberty - we lose our bravest and best. How unjust and heart-breaking. Now we know the sacrifices that previous generations made for us. And at No 10 one was protected and safe - one felt so guilty at the comfort."
Reflecting on the "bitter battle" for Darwin and Goose Green, the most fiercely fought infantry engagement of the war, she praises the personal sacrifice of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert 'H' Jones, who was awarded a Victoria Cross posthumously after leading the attack on Argentine positions.
"At one point it seemed impossible to break through. At that time 'H' made his famous courageous advance. His (Victoria Cross) life was lost but his bravery was the turning point in the battle."
While recognising the contribution made by other ministers, including the "splendid" defence secretary John Nott and deputy prime minister Willie Whitelaw, the prime minister lays bare the differences between her and Mr Pym, who became foreign secretary after his predecessor Lord Carrington's post-invasion resignation.
She notes that she had to overcome his "objections" on a number of occasions, over the establishment of an maritime exclusion zone around the islands and over her belief that any diplomatic solution that rewarded aggression and did not respect the wishes of the islanders for self-determination should be rejected out of hand.
Their differences came to a head after Mr Pym recommended the UK sign up to a US-brokered agreement to avert war which she described as "complete sell-out" and which would lead to a "complete takeover" of the islands by the Argentines.
Mr Pym, she suggested, agreed with the US government which was "sceptical about our capacity to achieve a satisfactory military solution and thought international support would evaporate quickly after the first shot had been fired".
Many of the public (including me) did not like the attitude particularly of the BBC and I was very worried about it. They were sometimes reporting as if they were neutral..."
Mrs Thatcher suggested she would have had to have resign if the war committee sided with Mr Pym rather than her.
"I repeated to Francis that we could not accept them. They were a total retreat from our fundamental position. He said he thought we should accept them. We were at loggerheads.
"A former defence secretary and present foreign secretary of Britain recommending peace at that price," she added. "Had it gone through the (war) committee I could not have stayed."
In the memoir, Lady Thatcher elaborates on her "trouble" with the reporting of the war by the British media, particularly the well-documented battles between the government and broadcasters over the content and tone of their coverage.
"Many of the public, including me, did not like the attitude particularly of the BBC and I was very worried about it. They were sometimes reporting as if they were neutral between Britain and Argentina.
"At other times we felt strongly that they were assisting the enemy by open discussions with experts on the next likely steps in the campaign. This applied to ITV as much as to BBC.
"This of course was the first conflict we had fought without censorship. The media and the government took totally different views. My concern was always the safety of our forces. Theirs was news."
However, she complimented the work of one of the BBC's most senior correspondents, Brian Hanrahan, whose description of a sortie by Royal Navy harrier jets from HMS Hermes was among the most famous of the war.
"The Argentineans were in a position to send photographs to the outside world - we weren't," she wrote.
"They claimed many of our planes were shot down but Brian Hanrahan in a famous broadcast put the record straight when he said 'I counted them all out, and I counted them all back'. What a relief - there was some damage but not a lot." | A private memoir of the Falklands War written by Margaret Thatcher, detailing disagreements with ministers and her "guilt" over British casualties, has been published for the first time. |
38138865 | Press Secretary Josh Earnest dismissed the president-elect's unsubstantiated allegations that millions of people had cast illegal votes.
Mr Trump also alleged voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California, states which Hillary Clinton won.
Mr Earnest deferred to Mr Trump's team for further comment.
Could US election recounts change result?
US election results
"What I can say, as an objective fact, is that there has been no evidence produced to substantiate a claim like that," he told reporters at a White House briefing.
Mr Trump, who won the all-important electoral college count, aired his grievances with the election result in a tweet on Sunday.
"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally," he wrote.
Analysis: Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter
It's a classic Donald Trump move. Take an accusation, and turn it on an accuser. His opponents want a recount in states he won? Then he'll allege massive voter fraud in states carried by Hillary Clinton.
There is, of course, no evidence of the "millions" of illegal votes that Mr Trump says were cast for Democrats. If there were, it would merit a full investigation and not a series of Sunday-morning tweets from the president-elect. The veracity of these accusations seems of little import to Mr Trump.
What matters is that by going on the offensive, he turns a story about the legitimacy of his narrow wins in key states into a muddled mess. As he has done in the past, he raises the volume in hopes of drowning out a negative story.
The irony is that, in this case, it seems a pointless undertaking. The Green Party-funded recounts will almost certainly fail to reveal electoral malfeasance. Mr Trump could have let them proceed without comment and avoided any controversy.
Then again, for this president-elect, controversy is like water to a fish. It surrounds and sustains him. Perhaps he can't function without it.
The president-elect's Twitter outburst comes after the Clinton camp said it would support a vote recount in Wisconsin initiated by Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Ms Stein also notified the elections board in Michigan, where Mr Trump's 16 electoral votes were certified on Monday, that it would seek a statewide recount of the presidential election results.
Her campaign moved to do the same in Pennsylvania.
Mr Trump won by two-tenths of a percentage point out of nearly 4.8 million votes, making it the closest presidential race in Michigan in more than 75 years.
He is the first Republican presidential nominee to win Michigan since 1988.
Ms Stein's recount effort was driven by the #recount2016 social media campaign, which has raised over $6.3m (£5m).
During her entire presidential run, Ms Stein's campaign only raised $3.5m.
Results would need to be overturned in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to alter the outcome of the November presidential election - something analysts say is highly unlikely.
Mrs Clinton's campaign's general counsel, Marc Elias, said there was no evidence to conclude the election had been sabotaged.
But, he added, "we have an obligation to the more than 64 million Americans who cast ballots for Hillary Clinton to participate in ongoing proceedings to ensure that an accurate vote count will be reported".
Also on Monday, Mr Trump met with former CIA Director and retired Army General David Petraeus, who was convicted of sharing classified information with his lover in 2012.
Mr Petraeus is reportedly being considered for the role of Secretary of State, the nation's top diplomat.
Mrs Clinton was criticised by Mr Trump during the campaign for her handling of classified information during her time as Secretary of State.
Despite calling her handling of the classified information "extremely careless", the FBI never found Mrs Clinton's behaviour to be criminal.
Here's how some of the main news outlets reacted to Mr Trump's claims on Twitter: | The White House says there is no evidence to support Donald Trump's claim of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 US presidential election. |
37516465 | It is the first time in South East Asia that the disease has been linked to the condition, which causes abnormally small brains and heads.
Several countries in the region have reported Zika cases. The virus is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito which also spreads dengue and chikungunya.
The current outbreak of the disease was first detected in Brazil last year.
Cases have recently been reported across South East Asia.
Zika outbreak: What you need to know
"To summarise we have found two cases of small heads linked to Zika, the first cases in Thailand," said Prasert Thongcharoen, from the Department of Disease Control.
The WHO said these were first cases of Zika-linked microcephaly in South East Asia.
Thailand has confirmed about 350 cases of Zika since January - including 25 pregnant women - one of the highest numbers in the region. | Thai health officials have confirmed two cases of microcephaly, a severe birth defect linked to the Zika virus. |
36817846 | Williams knocked the Londoner down with a huge right hand as Corcoran suffered the first loss of his five-year career.
The 24-year-old's first defence of both belts, the first time he had been past eight rounds, was a grudge match.
Williams' trainer Gary Lockett said: "That is one of his worst performances. He lets his emotions get to him."
And Williams admitted: "I was one of my worst performances and I knocked him out. I wasn't even tired."
Both boxers suffered cuts above the right eye but Williams' class ensured he extended his unbeaten professional record to 17 fights as the fighter from the Rhondda Valley hopes for a world title shot.
And his promoter Frank Warren acknowledged: "This young man has a big future ahead of him." | Unbeaten Welshman Liam Williams has defended his Commonwealth and British super welterweight titles with an 11th round knockout of Gary Corcoran. |
37426559 | The bank kept interest rates unchanged, but said it would aim to keep yields on 10-year government bonds at around current levels of zero percent.
The BoJ is also aiming push inflation above the 2% target rate, which was set more than three years ago.
It will continue to buy assets such as government bonds, at the rate of 80tn yen ($787bn; £605bn) a year.
Negative interest rates have squeezed Japan's financial sector and keeping 10-year bonds at zero percent - as opposed to allowing them to slip into negative territory - should help bank earnings and improve returns for insurers and pension funds.
Japan's Nikkei share index rose after the announcement, while the yen weakened to about 102.5 yen against the dollar.
Karishma Vaswani: Is the Bank of Japan running out of options?
Outrage and irony on Twitter as the BoJ meeting dragged on and on and on
Analysts were sceptical about whether the policy changes would be successful.
"They seem to be determined to get the message to the market that they are going to stay on course and continue to buy bonds until they get the inflation rate above 2%," said Tim Condon, chief economist for Asia at ING.
"I don't think it's going to be easy to get the 2%. It's an Abenomics problem, not the Bank of Japan's problem."
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "Ultimately while these actions may well help the banks, it's doubtful they will to help the Japanese economy that much, and in some ways it shows how little flexibility the central bank has, given how experimental policy is now becoming.
"To sum up, this morning's actions by the central bank are not so much an easing as a tinkering around the edges of a failing policy."
The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark rate on hold at -0.1%. It introduced negative interest rates in January this year, hoping that commercial banks will use their reserves to lend to businesses, in an attempt to counter the country's economic stagnation.
There was an expectation that Japanese interest rates would fall even further below zero to boost spending in the world's third largest economy, which has been plagued with low growth for the past two decades.
But the negative interest rate policy was considered a failure by some in Japan's financial circles because it pushed the Japanese yen higher against the US dollar, making the price of Japanese goods more expensive overseas, which threatened Japan's economic recovery.
It also hurt the profitability of banks because their excess reserves were hit by a charge.
So the decision NOT to lower rates further has in itself been seen as a short term boost for markets and the yen - which is now trading lower against the US dollar.
But some analysts are telling me that this won't last - and in fact, the modifications that Japan has made to its monetary policy in place of lowering interest rates further below zero won't be that effective in the long term.
The new policy measures are being dubbed by some critics as approaching the limits of what monetary policy can do to fix economic problems.
But these measures aren't supposed to operate within a vacuum.
The central bank's moves are meant work in tandem with the government's Abenomics policies - the three pillars which include structural reform. Japan's government must do more to deliver the goods on structural reforms as part of its Abenomics policy to boost growth, rather than continue to rely on the central bank.
Is the Bank of Japan running out of options?
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy, which quickly became known as "Abenomics" is based on three arrows: | The Bank of Japan has made changes to its stimulus programme, in its latest attempt to spur economic growth. |
37674038 | Scarlets beat Sale 28-11 in Phillips' return to Wales while Sale face the 2014-15 champions at home on Friday.
"We weren't there at all [at Scarlets], but we play against Toulon and that's a massive fixture for us," Phillips said.
"There were some positives and if we take that into next week, we've a good home record so maybe we can do well."
Phillips signed for Sale in summer 2016 following a five-year spell playing domestic rugby in France with Bayonne and Racing 92 and knows Sale's next opponents well.
"Toulon are a great team, they've got stars and it's a great test for us really," he told BBC Wales Sport.
"It's a chance for us to show what we can do and hopefully we can play a bit better than against Scarlets."
After half a decade playing rugby outside of Britain, Phillips is pleased to return and is enjoying his time in the English Premiership.
"I love the club and the boys have been great. I've been settling really well, there's friendly people and it's a great place to live so I've been enjoying that aspect of it and hopefully we can be successful on the field and that will make life much easier," he continued.
"Every game is tough [in the Premiership]. Every team is stacked with stars and really physical and it's a great league to be in to test yourself. I've enjoyed it so far and hopefully we can be successful and win our home games and see what we can do." | Sale Sharks scrum-half Mike Phillips says his side can use the positives from their European Champions Cup loss to Scarlets when they face Toulon. |
32377069 | Victory over Bolton took the Cherries three points clear of third-placed Middlesbrough with just one game left.
Only defeat, a Boro win and a 20-goal swing on the final day of the season can deny them a top-flight spot.
Goals from Marc Pugh, Matt Ritchie and Callum Wilson sparked wild scenes of celebration amongst the home fans.
Bournemouth's impending promotion marks an amazing rise through the Football League for the club, who were in administration and close to liquidation in 2008.
They only just avoided relegation in 2009 - Eddie Howe's first season as manager - but promotion to League One followed the season after.
Former Cherries defender Howe then led them into the Championship in 2013 after returning to the south coast from Burnley.
Howe's contribution cannot be overstated, with the 37-year-old set to join an elite band of managers to guide a club through the Football League and into the top flight.
"This club was on its knees six years ago," Howe told BBC Radio 5 live.
"We had nothing. A group of supporters put their money in their pockets to keep the club alive and they are reaping the rewards. It is the club I watched as a kid, the club that gave me an opportunity in the game as a player and a manager.
"It shouldn't be them thanking me, it should be me thanking them. It is a family club and deserves its moment in the sun."
Bournemouth's success this season owes much to the goals of record signing Wilson, a £3m capture from Coventry at the start of the season.
Both Wilson and Ritchie went close to giving the Cherries the lead several times in a frenetic opening.
But after several fine saves from Adam Bogdan, the opener arrived on 39 minutes, when Pugh beat the Bolton goalkeeper with a left-foot shot.
It prompted joy in the stands of the 11,700-capacity Goldsands Stadium - and there was better to come just four minutes later, when Ritchie latched onto Yann Kermorgant's lay-off to drive home from 12 yards.
Bournemouth's fans started signing the theme tune to Match of the Day as the realisation hit home that they would be seeing their side in the top flight of English football for the first time in the club's history.
Kermorgant had the chance to make the final 20 minutes a formality, but he blazed over the bar from the penalty spot after Dorian Dervite was dismissed for hauling down Wilson.
Wilson made it 3-0 after he spun and shot smartly past Bogdan to turn the remaining 12 minutes into a carnival.
The final whistle sparked a pitch invasion from home fans, who could yet be celebrating the Championship title if results go their way on Saturday. | Bournemouth effectively sealed a £100m promotion to the Premier League - just seven years after the south-coast club almost went out of business. |
21353635 | The generosity of the Judicial Pension Scheme is being reduced along with most other schemes in the public sector.
But judges who were within 10 years of retirement, in April 2012, are excluded from the changes.
The new scheme, starting in 2015, will provide lower pensions for new and younger judges, and will abolish the large lump sums they receive.
"The new pension arrangements will continue to provide a good way of saving for retirement and the new judicial pension scheme will remain among the most generous in the public sector," said the Justice Minister, Chris Grayling.
Under the far-reaching and controversial government changes to most public sector pensions, all judges started making modest contributions for the first time in April 2012, but will have to increase those contributions substantially in 2013 and 2014.
Their scheme, one of the most generous in the country, currently offers them a pension of half their final salary, at age 65, but after a maximum of just 20 years' service, plus a lump sum of two and a quarter times their annual pension.
The Ministry of Justice said currently a High Court judge, who retired after 20 years, might earn a pension of £86,500 plus a lump sum of £173,000 after tax.
Under the rules of the new scheme - which will be a career average arrangement rather than a final-salary one - that would be cut to £75,000 with no lump
The judges would also have to pay an annual allowance tax charge each year while they were working, of £11,000.
That is because the rate at which their notional pension pot builds up will probably exceed the forthcoming limit of £40,000 a year, and land them with a personal tax bill.
A Circuit Court judge who retired after 20 years might, under present rules, receive an annual pension of £64,000 plus a lump sum of £144,000 after tax.
In the new scheme this would be cut to £55,000 and with no lump sum.
These judges too would have to pay an annual allowance tax charge of about £3,000 a year while employed.
The normal pension age for judges in their new scheme will rise in line with the state pension age: to 66, 67 and probably 68 in the coming decades.
However judges will in future not have their pension accrual capped at 20 years and will be credited with pension for as many years as they work. | Three-quarters of judges will avoid forthcoming cuts to their pensions, the government has revealed. |
37230696 | 31 August 2016 Last updated at 10:44 BST
Figures released today show that Nigeria is officially in recession for the first time in more than a decade. But why is it struggling and how are people coping? | Nigeria is one of Africa's leading economies but it is now suffering from its worst economic crisis in years. |
32216738 | In Russia he has become a focus of accusations that "fascists" and extremists control the government in Kiev.
However, the nature of his duties, and the extent of his influence in the armed forces, remains to be seen.
Mr Yarosh is the head of Right Sector, which first burst to prominence as an ultra-nationalist umbrella organisation, battling riot police and helping man the barricades during anti-government protests last year.
After the February revolution, which brought a new pro-Western government to power, Right Sector morphed into a political party.
However, Mr Yarosh received less than 1% in presidential elections, and his party failed to pass a 5% barrier to enter parliament - though he himself was elected as a deputy.
From there, Right Sector created from its numbers one of the many volunteer battalions, fighting alongside regular government forces against Russian-supported insurgents in eastern Ukraine.
And now Mr Yarosh and his group have made yet another leap in legitimacy: Ukrainian officials announced at the weekend that the Right Sector leader would serve as an adviser to the army chief of staff, Viktor Muzhenko, acting as a liaison between the military and the volunteer battalions.
Russian media were quick to condemn the move. "Neo-Nazis are strengthening their positions," proclaimed Russia's state-owned Rossiya 1 TV. "Radical armed groups will become a separate assault brigade, led by Yarosh."
Russia accuses him of incitement to terrorism and at Russia's request he is listed as wanted by Interpol. He denies the charges.
The claim that Mr Yarosh comes from neo-Nazi ranks, or represents them, is a distortion.
"He is a nationalist - though there is a discussion, among experts, on whether labels like 'ultra-nationalism', 'fascism' or 'extreme right' should be applied to him," wrote Andreas Umland, an expert on the far right in Ukraine.
Mr Umland points out that Mr Yarosh, unlike many other far-right activists, defines nationality according to citizenship. That is, not just ethnic Ukrainians are considered to be, so to speak, "true Ukrainians", but Russians, Jews, Tartars or any other group living on Ukrainian territory.
That said, Mr Yarosh's political beliefs fall firmly to the right of the political spectrum.
"In the past, he has made critical statements about Western liberalism and European integration," Mr Umland said.
Mr Yarosh's appointment could simply be a bit of canny public relations: the promotion of a popular combat leader, one who received serious injuries in the battle of Donetsk airport and was subsequently photographed, bruised and bandaged in his hospital bed.
The big question is what his position portends for the future of the volunteer battalions, which previously operated free of direct government control. Now, however, Ukraine's leaders are making concerted efforts to limit their autonomy.
Right Sector was the last prominent battalion to resist joining a government structure. Now, officials said the group would "submit to the military leadership over questions of national defence."
That is also significant, given that it potentially removes Right Sector from under the influence of the Ukrainian billionaire, Ihor Kolomoisky.
Mr Kolomoisky showed himself willing to use armed groups in what appeared to be a power struggle last month with Kiev authorities.
But the extent of their subordination to the government could also be open to debate.
A Right Sector spokesman was quoted as saying that his organisation would now be funded by the defence ministry, but it would still remain operationally independent.
"Our combatants will be well-armed from now on, as up until now equipment was supplied by volunteers," said Artem Skoropadskiy, quoted by the AFP news agency.
Still, with Mr Yarosh now a part of the general staff - but crucially not in a deciding role - he and his fighters may now be subject to a degree of oversight. And the volunteer battalions in general may now be better controlled by those who, by law, should be in charge. | The recent appointment of a nationalist leader, Dmytro Yarosh, to a high military position in Ukraine has sparked controversy. |
31640986 | Jack has been the most popular name for boys over the past 15 years, holding the top spot on 13 occasions.
Emily was joint first with Grace in 2013 for the most popular name for girls. Grace fell back to second spot in 2014.
The figures, compiled by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), showed that 285 babies were named Jack and 261 named Emily.
James and Daniel also made the top 10 boys' names in 2014, and also featured among the top 10 a decade ago.
Sophie was the only girl's name to make it into the top 10 in 2014 that featured in the list a decade ago. Emily has taken top place twice in the past decade.
But not all of the names given to babies in Northern Ireland in 2014 were so popular.
The figures revealed some less common names given to girls included: Blessing, Piper, Coco, Suri, Texas and Maisie.
Some unusual boys' names included: Devin, Kanye, Peanut, Princeton and Rocco.
Other names moved up the list to join the top 100 names for the first time. Kian jumped from 171 in 2013 to 78 in 2014 for boys, while Aria jumped from 218 in 2013 to 89 in 2014 for girls.
Top 10 boys' names in 2014: Jack, James, Daniel, Charlie, Harry, Noah, Oliver, Ethan, Jacob, Thomas.
Top 10 girls' names in 2014: Emily, Grace, Sophie, Amelia, Ella, Olivia, Anna, Lucy, Sophia, Eva. | Jack and Emily were the most popular baby names in Northern Ireland in 2014. |
30716002 | Ikram Ullah Khan, 28, was stabbed in the neck in the Stratford Road area of Sparkbrook on 2 July.
Seven men deny murder and conspiring to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent.
The two groups, of Afghan and Pakistani men, were armed with bats, sticks, knives and swords, the court was told.
The Pakistani group had at least one firearm, a shotgun, with them, the jury heard.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Timothy Spencer said the defendants drove to the scene - Grantham Road and surrounding streets in Sparkbrook - in four cars.
"The other group - the opposition if you like - come mainly from the Pakistan community," he said.
"The prominent antagonists of that group were members of the same family, known as the Khan family."
He said the Pakistani group of men knew the defendants were coming and was "armed and ready for them".
Mr Spencer said the Afghan group was also armed.
"Both sides were armed with bats, sticks, knives and swords and the Pakistan group had at least one firearm, a shotgun.
"One man died from the Pakistan side and others were injured and seriously injured.
"Amongst those were two of the men in the dock."
He said it was likely that other people were injured in the disorder but they "melted away" afterwards.
The jury was told the motive for what happened was "frankly unclear" but as a matter of common sense, Mr Spencer said there must have been something behind what went on.
"This was not spontaneous violence," he said.
"There must have been some feud, some dispute, some grievance that lay behind the drastic outbreak of violence that took place."
The jury was shown CCTV footage of cars arriving at the scene at about 19:30 BST.
Two shots could be heard along with shouting and men walking and running in the road.
It was initially thought father-of-four Mr Khan, known locally as Ikram Elahi, had been shot, but post-mortem tests found his death was the result of a stab wound.
The seven men, who deny the charges, are: | A man died during an outbreak of "extreme, planned violence" between two groups of men in Birmingham, the city's crown court has heard. |
32932351 | She joined campaigners in Brussels calling on the German government to properly compensate survivors born with deformities in the 1950s and 1960s.
The German-developed drug, withdrawn in 1961, had been prescribed to pregnant women for morning sickness or insomnia.
Ms Evans said she was backing the survivors' "fight for justice".
More than 10,000 babies worldwide were born with limb deformities and other problems linked to thalidomide before it was withdrawn by its German manufacturer Grunenthal.
The drug's UK manufacturer Distillers agreed in 1973 to pay more than £20m compensation to families affected, and in 2009 the then Labour UK government issued an apology and promised a further £20m compensation.
But campaigners want the German federal government to explain whether it had a role in curtailing a criminal trial in 1970 of nine Grunenthal directors and staff without anyone being convicted.
Survivors claim they have been denied adequate compensation as a result.
"We must maintain pressure on the German federal government to be open about what has gone on, and properly compensate thalidomide survivors," said Ms Evans.
Sources: Grunenthal, Thalidomide Trust and World Health Organisation | Welsh people left disabled by the thalidomide drug scandal are being backed in their fight for compensation by Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans. |
34870598 | Here we pay tribute to some of those famous faces who have left us in the last 12 months.
January was marked by the loss of a trio of actresses who were defined by the roles they played.
Anne Kirkbride, who died after a short illness at the age of 60, will forever be remembered as Coronation Street's Deidre, who endured multiple marriages and wrongful imprisonment during her 42 years on the soap.
Despite a long and varied career on stage and screen, Geraldine McEwan captured the public's imagination with her controversial, waspish Miss Marple. And Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg - aka The Iceberg - was scarcely mentioned without a reference to her iconic role in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita.
In the same month, we also bade farewell to Thorn Birds author Colleen McCullough, conductor Israeli Yinon, actor Rod Taylor and The Avengers scriptwriter Brian Clemens.
President Obama led the tributes to Leonard Nimoy in February after the Star Trek actor died in Los Angeles at the age of 83. "Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy," said the US president of the man who played Mr Spock.
The same month saw the untimely death of New Romantic pioneer Steve Strange at the age of 55. The Fade to Grey singer was hailed by his friends and fellow music stars as "a major face of the '80s" and "a maverick to the end".
Other notable deaths in February included veteran US news correspondent Bob Simon, composer and pianist John McCabe (whose recordings of Joseph Haydn's piano sonatas are considered definitive), pop singer Lesley Gore, of It's My Party fame, and Octopussy actor Louis Jourdan.
March was dominated by the death of fantasy author and creator of the Discworld series Sir Terry Pratchett at the age of 66. The author, who campaigned for assisted suicide after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2007, wrote more than 70 books in a career spanning 44 years. "Nothing was beyond his powers of imagination," said fellow author Val McDermid. "He made you look at the world around you differently."
German architect Frei Otto, Free bassist Andy Fraser - co-writer of the 1970 hit All Right Now - and Swedish poet and Nobel laureate Thomas Transtroemer passed on in March. So did Richard Glatzer, co-writer and director of Still Alice, for which Julianne Moore picked up an Oscar in February.
April saw the departure of two inspirational figures from the world of arts and entertainment. Author and Nobel Prize-winner Guenter Grass - a cultural giant in his native Germany - died at the age of 87, while soul singer Ben E King, best known for the classic song Stand By Me, died aged 76.
Meanwhile, 67-year-old ventriloquist Keith Harris left behind fluffy green duck Orville, with whom he became a household name on British television in the 1980s; and fans of Everybody Loves Raymond mourned the tragic loss of former child star Sawyer Sweeten (pictured above with his twin brother Sullivan), who took his own life at the age of 19.
Singer Percy Sledge, famed for the song When a Man Loves a Woman, and actor James Best, best known as Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane in The Dukes of Hazzard, also died this month at 73 and 88 respectively.
Ruth Rendell - who last year led the tributes to her friend and fellow crime author PD James - died in May, at the age of 85, following a stroke earlier in the year. The writer penned more than 60 novels. Her best-known creation was Inspector Wexford, a character that spawned a highly successful TV series.
May also saw the death of two musicians, though their styles were very different. King of the Blues, singer and guitarist BB King was mourned by musicians the world over, including Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Richie Sambora. Hot Chocolate star Errol Brown, who co-wrote chart smashes including You Sexy Thing, died from liver cancer at the age of 71.
Comedian Anne Meara, mother of actor Ben Stiller, also died in May, as did Star Trek actress Grace Lee Whitney and Bond costume designer Julie Harris.
June saw the deaths of a trio of great British screen stars and three memorable contributors to the musical world.
Sir Christopher Lee, a legend of the big screen who was forever stamped on cinemagoers' minds as Count Dracula, died aged 93. Character actor Ron Moody, best known for playing Fagin in Lionel Bart's musical Oliver!, died aged 91, and fellow nonagenarian Patrick Macnee - aka John Steed of the cult TV series The Avengers - died aged 93.
Hollywood reeled at the death of Oscar-winning composer James Horner, who perished in a plane crash at the age of 61. Best known for his score to the James Cameron blockbuster Titanic, he also wrote the music for Apollo 13, Braveheart and Avatar, among other films.
Big Band leader James Last - who made millions recording upbeat versions of pop and classical favourites with his orchestra - died aged 86, while Chris Squire, bass guitarist and co-founder of '70s prog rock band Yes, died at 67.
It was brooding good looks that catapulted Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, who died in July at the age of 83, to stardom. The winner of three Golden Globes for his roles in both Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, Sharif died of a heart attack in Cairo.
Val Doonican - the crooner in the rocking chair who became a mainstay of Saturday night television in the '60s and '70s - was remembered for his colourful knitwear, good humour and consummate professionalism.
Tragically, July also saw the death of 22-year-old Bobbi Kristina Brown - the only daughter of Whitney Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown. In an uncomfortable echo of her mother's death in 2012, the aspiring actress was discovered face down and unresponsive in a bath on 31 January and placed in a medically induced coma. She never regained consciousness.
US country singer Lynn Anderson, producer Jerry Weintraub - whose hits included both the Ocean's Eleven and Karate Kid franchises - and opera tenor Jon Vickers also passed away this month.
The loss of Cilla Black left the British showbiz industry in shock, after the TV singer, presenter and all-round entertainer died suddenly at the age of 72 in August. The death of Cilla, a '60s singing star and host of hit '80s shows Blind Date and Surprise Surprise, prompted an outpouring of tributes from the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Des O'Connor and Sir Bruce Forsyth.
The death of Minder star George Cole marked another significant loss for British television later that month. The actor - defined by his roles as Arthur Daley and St Trinian's spiv Flash Harry - died in hospital following a short illness, aged 90.
The dance scene went into mourning after the untimely death of Jonathan Ollivier in a motorbike accident at the age of 38. Choreographer Matthew Bourne called him "one of the most charismatic and powerful dancers of his generation".
Also in August, the broadcasting world paid tribute to Stephen Lewis, who played officious inspector "Blakey" in 1970s sitcom On the Buses; Emmerdale actress Kitty McGeever, the first blind actress to star in a British soap; Yvonne Craig, best known for playing Batgirl in the 1960s Batman TV series; and Susan Sheridan, who appeared in the original Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series.
British-born novelist Jackie Collins was described as "one of a kind" in a statement announcing her death from breast cancer at the age of 77 in September. The writer, famous for such raunchy novels as Hollywood Wives, Lucky and The World is Full of Married Men, was the sister of actress Joan Collins.
In the same month, Hollywood bade farewell to director Wes Craven, who was credited with re-inventing the teen horror genre with his hit Nightmare on Elm Street film franchise. The 76-year-old, who died from brain cancer, also created the Scream films, which grossed more than $300m (£195m) in the US alone.
Actor Dean Jones, star of The Love Bug and one of Disney's major stars of the '60s and '70s, also died in September. His role in the popular Herbie films made him a household name, but he was also remembered for his striking vocals in Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical Company. He was 84.
Art critic Brian Sewell, singer Joy Beverley - one of the Beverley Sisters trio - and conductor Sir David Willcocks also died in September.
Henning Mankell, the man who gave us Swedish detective Kurt Wallander, died in October at the age of 67. Sir Kenneth Branagh, who starred in BBC adaptations of his crime novels, hailed the author's "immense contribution to Scandinavian literature" as well as his "provocative intelligence and great personal generosity".
Irish-American actress Maureen O'Hara was part of the golden era of Hollywood. A glamorous redhead and talented singer, she starred alongside John Wayne in five films as well as family favourites Miracle on 34th Street and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Actress Jessica Chastain paid tribute on learning of her death at 95: "From one tough redhead broad to another. Thankful for the light you shared."
Antiques Roadshow host Hugh Scully, Towering Inferno director John Guillermin, Three Dog Night singer Cory Wells, newsreader Gordon Honeycombe and Coronation Street's Derek Wilton, aka actor Peter Baldwin, were also mourned in October.
Two actors who became stalwarts of British television in the 1970s and '80s died in November. Warren Mitchell - best known for playing the curmudgeonly Alf Garnett in Till Death Do Us Part - died aged 89, just before Saeed Jaffrey, whose eclectic career encompassed Shakespeare, Bollywood, Stephen Frears' film My Beautiful Launderette and Coronation Street. Jaffrey, who also appeared in ITV's The Jewel in the Crown and Channel 4 sitcom Tandoori Nights, was 86.
US R&B musician Allen Toussaint, who suffered a heart attack shortly after coming off stage in Madrid, was credited with "bringing the New Orleans sound to the national stage". Steven Spielberg paid tribute to Oscar-nominated ET screenwriter Melissa Mathison, saying she had "a heart that shined with generosity and love".
Other figures to pass away included Peter Donaldson, the newsreader dubbed the "quintessential voice of Radio 4"; former Motorhead drummer "Philthy Animal" Phil Taylor; Colin Welland, who famously declared "the British are coming" at the 1982 Oscars; and Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
December began with the tragic death of Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland. The grunge star died on tour at the age of 48. He was saluted by colleagues from the music scene including Slash, who played with him in the supergroup Velvet Revolver.
Actor Robert Loggia, whose career spanned more than 50 years, was best known for films including Scarface, Big and Jagged Edge, for which he was nominated for an Oscar in 1986. He was still working up to his death, at the age of 85, in early December.
In the same month, British TV fans bade farewell to two familiar faces - Are You Being Served?'s Mr Rumbold, aka actor Nicholas Smith, who passed away aged 81, and Emmerdale's Shirley Stelfox, best known for her role as Edna Birch in the ITV soap, which she had played for the last 15 years. She died following a short illness, at the age of 74.
Finally, the world of rock and roll mourned one of music's true originals.
Ian 'Lemmy' Kilminster, singer, bassist and lyricist of legendary metal band Motorhead, died of cancer at the age of 70.
Motorhead's 1980 hit Ace of Spades is rightly regarded as one of the most popular and influential rock singles of all time, and musicians queued up to pay their respects on Twitter.
"Lost one of my best friends today," stated Ozzy Osbourne simply. "He will be sadly missed. He was a warrior and a legend." | The world mourned legends of screen, stage, literature and music including BB King, Sir Christopher Lee, Leonard Nimoy, Cilla Black, Sir Terry Pratchett and Anne Kirkbride in 2015. |
35886088 | Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures showed the number of incidents in prisons across Wales and England had risen by more than 200% since 2012.
Parc Prison in Bridgend had the highest number of "concerted indiscipline" incidents, with 13 in 2014 and 25 last year.
New standards for reporting incidents were brought in last summer.
An incident is recorded as "concerted indiscipline" if it involves two or more prisoners acting together to defy instruction or against the establishment regime. This includes major disturbances, such as riots.
There were two incidents in Cardiff and Swansea prisons over four years and none in Prescoed, Usk.
Prisons charity the Howard League for Penal Reform said building more prisons was not the answer.
Chief executive Frances Crook said: "Evidence shows that building additional prisons only compounds overcrowding and its consequent problems as the courts send more people to prison every day." | Welsh prisons have dealt with 53 incidents of rebellion in four years, a report has said. |
37468040 | Asked if he would travel to Doha for this year's World Championships, Sagan said: "We will see."
The Slovakian, speaking after finishing third overall in the Eneco Tour, added: "I still have to think about it. It's been a long season."
His absence could help British 2011 world champion Mark Cavendish, who would be suited to the flat course.
Sagan, who rides for Saxo-Tinkoff, added: "I'm tired. I have a lot of things to do. I'm happy the season is almost finished."
The UCI Road World Championships take place between 9 and 16 October in Doha. | World champion Peter Sagan says he is unsure if he will defend his title in Qatar in October. |
39469347 | Steve Law's side secured the first silverware of the season thanks to tries from Patric Lewis and Mike Callow.
Bedwas' victory came after they were beaten by Pontypridd in the inaugural final of the competition in 2016.
They had beaten Bridgend 55-14 in the semi-final. | Bedwas beat Carmarthen Quins 23-18 to secure the Foster's Premiership Challenge Cup in the final at Bridgend's Brewery Field. |
37696409 | Scrum-half Walsh, 29, played 64 games for the Saints in a three-year spell, scoring 466 points.
Former Hull KR and Hull FC full-back McDonnell, also 29, made 56 appearances in two spells at the club.
The news comes after back-rower Andre Savelio left Keiron Cunningham's side to join Warrington.
Meanwhile, forwards Olly Davies and Matt Haggarty are also set to leave St Helens to sign for Championship sides, while Frenchman Levy Nzoungou has joined Melbourne Storm Under-20s. | Luke Walsh and Shannon McDonnell have left Super League side St Helens to return to their native Australia, the club have confirmed. |
36558640 | The company will manufacture 26 offshore jacket substructures for the scheme, which involves installing 84 turbines in the Moray Firth.
BiFab said the work would involve its sites at Arnish on the Isle of Lewis and Burntisland and Methil in Fife.
Ten of the structures are to be delivered next year and 16 in 2018.
Bowl, which involves energy giant SSE, will also mean work for Wick Harbour in Caithness and the Nigg Energy Park on the Cromarty Firth.
Construction of the wind farm is expected to start next year.
SSE said it would generate 588MW of power once operational in 2019.
The Scottish government gave the project consent in March 2014 and it was granted an investment contract by the UK government in May that year.
The wind farm site in the Moray Firth already has two test turbines, which BiFab built.
John Robertson, BiFab managing director, said: "We are delighted that BiFab has been selected as part of the supply chain for this major UK infrastructure project.
"BiFab manufactured the two Beatrice demonstrators in 2006, and we have been monitoring closely the development of the Beatrice project over the last 10 years.
"We are very pleased that SSE and their partners are moving forward with the full development of the Beatrice project." | Fife-based Burntisland Fabrications Ltd (BiFab) has secured work on the £2.6bn Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (Bowl) project. |
33121455 | The double shooting at a youth project in Clonsilla was reportedly carried out by a man who was dressed as a woman.
Gardaà (Irish police) were called to the scene on Shelerin Road shortly after 18:00 local time on Friday.
A 32-year-old man was arrested in County Meath on Saturday morning and taken to Blanchardstown Garda station.
Irish broadcaster RTÉ has reported that the 36-year-old who died after the attack "may not have been the intended target".
He was father-of-two Keith Walker from Tir Na Ri Road in Clondalkin in Dublin.
The second victim, who was shot in the arm, is being treated in Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, for non-life threatening injuries.
It is understood the men were members of a pigeon club who were meeting in a yard. | An arrest has been made by detectives investigating a fatal gun attack in Dublin in which one man died and another was injured. |
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