id
stringlengths 7
11
| dialogue
stringlengths 15
174k
⌀ | summary
stringlengths 1
399
|
|---|---|---|
30069240 | The police said most of the 90 people were arrested for protesting in a non-designated area in the city of Gouda.
While surveys show most Dutch people do not want to change the tradition, Black Pete is increasingly viewed as an outdated stereotype.
The Dutch version of the St Nicholas legend depicts him arriving by boat from Spain with armies of Black Petes.
Trouble broke out in Gouda, selected as the city to kick off this year's festivities, during a re-enactment of the arrival of Nicholas and his Black Petes.
State TV showed footage of scuffles as protesters unfurled banners reading "Black Pete is racism".
Police said protesters had been forbidden from demonstrating at the re-enactment, but refused to move away.
The Black Pete character is causing mounting controversy in the Netherlands.
Last year, hundreds of people staged a protest in Amsterdam.
Earlier this year, Amsterdam's regional court said the image of Black Pete "with his thick red lips, being a stupid servant, gives rise to a negative stereotyping of black people".
The court ordered Amsterdam's authorities to review the festival. However, this ruling was overturned by a higher court.
Correction 3 December 2014: This report has been amended to make clear that the Amsterdam court's ruling was later overturned. | Dutch police have arrested dozens of people during a protest over Black Pete, a controversial black-faced sidekick to the local St Nicholas. |
38868480 | It would be a record-breaking Games for Team GB in Pyeongchang if they win more than the four medals they have taken home on two occasions, in 1924 and 2014.
UK Sport has doubled its investment in Olympic winter sports from £13.5m for the four-year cycle to the 2014 Sochi Games to £27.9m for the South Korea event.
And with a year go until the 2018 Games begin, UK Sport has agreed a total target of between four and eight medals across the various Winter Olympic disciplines at their respective World Championship events this year.
"The money that UK Sport have put in is a real confidence boost to our winter athletes," Hay told BBC Sport.
"We've got to go in with high hopes and there are some early indicators that our athletes are going to be competing for podium places."
Great Britain may have won 67 medals in one Games at the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio but Winter Olympic medals have been harder to come by because of a lack of natural facilities and smaller talent pools to select from.
In the 97-year history of the Winter Olympics, Great Britain have won only 26 medals but Hay believes the country is becoming more accepted on the world stage, especially in freestyle skiing and snowboarding, short track speed skating, curling and skeleton.
"It's very difficult to challenge the alpine nations but we're making progress into that second tier, if you like, and getting credibility," Hay said.
Meanwhile, to mark a year to the event, British Ski and Snowboard has announced it plans to become one of the world's top five skiing and snowboarding nations by 2030.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Great Britain will send about 60 athletes to the Games.
Ski and snowboard: It took 90 years for Britain to win a first Winter Olympic medal on snow, courtesy of Jenny Jones' snowboard bronze in 2014 but in Pyeongchang there could be podium ambitions for athletes in freestyle skiing, snowboarding and even alpine skiing.
Snowboarder Katie Ormerod has been a model of consistency on the World Cup stage, winning the Moscow big air and claiming two other podiums as well as an X Games bronze medal. Her cousin Jamie Nicholls, Billy Morgan and Aimee Fuller have also won World Cup medals and could threaten the podium in slopestyle and big air in 2018.
James Woods finished fifth in ski slopestyle in Sochi and will be a medal contender in South Korea. He won the season-opening World Cup slopestyle in New Zealand and just missed out on an X Games slopestyle medal, coming fourth. Woods did win the big air title in Aspen but only snowboard big air will make its debut in the Winter Olympics.
In the alpine world, slalom specialist David Ryding became the first Briton for 36 years to claim a World Cup medal when he finished second in Kitzbuhel, Austria, in January and has backed that up with three other top 10s this season.
British Ski and Snowboard has an ambitious target of being a top-five performing nation by 2030. It says it has a strategy to raise more funds and put a world-class coaching structure in place.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Short track speed skating: After the heartbreak of being penalised in all her races in Sochi, Elise Christie will be determined to leave Pyeongchang with a medal. She is leading the world 500m standings this season and has also won World Cup medals in 1000m and 1500m. Charlotte Gilmartin could also claim a medal.
Skeleton: Since skeleton was reintroduced into the Winter Olympics in 2002, Great Britain have won a medal at each of the four Games. Lizzy Yarnold won gold in Russia and is aiming to become the first Briton to retain a Winter Olympic title. She took the 2016 season off but is back and building up to South Korea. Laura Deas has had World Cup success and will also be in contention.
Curling: Great Britain won silver and bronze in Sochi and will again be challenging for the medal matches in 2018. The introduction of mixed doubles boosts GB's chances even more.
Snowboard big air: Snowboarders will head down a ramp and perform a trick off a large jump called a kicker. The new addition is great news for Britain's medal aspirations as there are podium potential athletes in the men's and women's competitions. Meanwhile, it is goodbye to snowboard parallel slalom, which has been dropped from the Games.
Curling mixed doubles: Each team is made up of a man and a woman and they play with six stones, rather than the usual eight and there are only eight ends, instead of the traditional 10. Great Britain finished fourth at the 2016 World Championships and compete in the 2017 competition at the end of April. Performances from the 2016 and 2017 World Championships will be taken into account with the top seven ranked nations, plus hosts South Korea, qualifying for the Games.
Speed skating mass start: This will take place on the long track and will be a 16-lap race where all skaters start simultaneously. There will be four sprints where points are awarded. The first three athletes to cross the finish line will be awarded the medals.
Alpine skiing team event. Teams will consist of two men and two women and they will compete against other nations in head-to-head slalom races.
The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held between 9 and 25 February and it is the third time Asia has held a Winter Olympics after Japan hosted both the 1972 Games in Sapporo and Nagano in 1998.
Pyeongchang will be split between the coast and the mountains, similarly to Sochi. The coastal cluster will host curling, ice hockey, figure skating, short track and speed skating, while the mountain area will host skiing, snowboarding, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge.
The winter Paralympics will run from 9 to 18 March. | Great Britain should be excited about its medal chances at the 2018 Winter Olympics, according to chef de mission Mike Hay. |
32913375 | On Wednesday, 14 people were charged by US authorities for racketeering, fraud and money laundering. Seven of them were top Fifa officials.
Fifa's president Sepp Blatter, who is not among those charged, has been under pressure to resign. He is seeking a fifth term as president, although is being challenged by Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.
The second investigation was launched by Swiss authorities and will look into the bidding processes related to the hosting of the World Cup in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
Football fans from Qatar and Russia gave us their reaction.
Elena Selezinka, Moscow, Russia
Leonid Fedyakov, Russia
Alexander Volynsky: Doubtless, considering new circumstances, decision about hosts of World Cups should be reviewed. Look how Russian bureaucrats started running about like mad, seems like they have reasons to worry.
Sergey Borzov: Now 2018 World Cup in Russia could be cancelled. Next time they will know how to behave.
Tweets to @BBCRussian
FilatoF @filat61 tweets: It should be noted that this international scandal was initiated by the US right before elections of Fifa head. Interesting to know why?
Татьяна Чернова @chernova_57 tweets: So many years they were not noticing corruption among themselves. It had to be 2018 WC in Russia for them to notice it.
Tweets to @BBCArabic
Tahani alhajritweets: I'm from Qatar, and Qatar deserves to host the World Cup. It has made a strong bid to host it, so it doesn't need to bribe anyone.
@Optimistic_eye tweets: It won't affect it because the independent investigation has cleared the Qatari bid of any wrongdoing. As a Qatari citizen, I believe our bid is strong.
@q6rtweets: I'm from Qatar and at the start, I was unsure about Qatar hosting the World Cup due to the potential negative effect that hosting might have on my country, but our government has proved that it can deal with any obstacle it faces.
Patrick Costigan in Moscow emails: Sepp Blatter has presided over Fifa for 17 years and no financial transparency during all that time. It's time Fifa was sorted out and time for this greedy man to go.
Anon, an English expat in Doha emails: As these investigations unfold and increase in their intensity, I believe that even Blatter will be implicated. He had to know what was going on within the top echelons of Fifa. He is therefore either implicated or not doing his job properly.
Kenneth Udemgba, a Nigerian living in Qatar writes via Whatsapp: Fifa president Sepp Blatter should step down. I am really disappointed by what is happening in Fifa. However, Qatar should host the 2022 World Cup. It's a beautiful and peaceful country.
Sheeroh in Qatar emails: I think Blatter should stay, that is democracy. Rotate the game and stop the bidding that is how you end corruption. All those corporations pointing fingers should first admit they exploit poor countries.
Produced by Dhruti Shah and Nana Prempeh | As members of football's governing body, Fifa, vote for their new president, the organisation remains mired in crisis following the launch of joint criminal investigations earlier this week. |
37640399 | It's being seen as a financial windfall for the government and also being described as an unqualified success at tackling the country's long-standing underground economy or black money problem.
Cash transactions are a way of life in India. They could involve simple purchases on the street, or large-scale ones involving suitcases stuffed with used notes to buy automobiles or even property.
A significant part of this cash flow is hidden from the government, to avoid paying tax.
Cleaning up this system and cracking down on black money has been a stated goal for India's Narendra Modi-led government.
From June this year, the government ran a highly visible campaign, entreating citizens to use a four-month window to declare previously undisclosed assets and incomes in exchange for complete immunity from prosecution as well as anonymity, so long as they paid 45% in taxes and penalties.
"We conducted a series of town-hall meetings all over the country," says Hasmukh Adhia, India's revenue secretary.
"All the top officials as well as local-level tax commissioners attended. People had a lot of doubts about the scheme but we assured them of the secrecy aspect," he added.
All sorts of people took advantage of the amnesty scheme.
A group of street food vendors from Mumbai are said to have contributed $7.5m. A real estate developer from Gujarat, Naresh Agrawal, who says he has an annual turnover of $45m, declared the equivalent of $6m.
"The rules have become much more stringent now. If you get caught using black money to strike a real estate deal, you have to pay 100% tax and penalties. No builder wants to take that risk," Mr Agrawal said.
"Earlier you were always nervous of getting caught. Now that I have disclosed everything, I can sleep easier."
That's the reason why many believes this scheme has worked so well, especially when compared to previous attempts, because the government is making it harder for people to conduct large cash transactions.
"A lot of black money would get exchanged as part of property deals," says Shalini Jain, a tax consultant with global financial services company, Ernst and Young.
"Now the government has made it mandatory to cut tax at source in these transactions, so it brings to attention any property transaction. This has discouraged many from going ahead with it."
By some estimates, the government could raise nearly $4.5bn from the scheme. But it may not be as good as it sounds.
Only 3% of India's 1.2 billion strong population are said to pay income tax, yet less than 65,000 people came forward during this amnesty programme.
Economist Arun Kumar points out that it's only a fraction of the country's undisclosed wealth.
"You have to account for not just undeclared income but also the wealth it generates after it is invested, used to buy property etc," he says.
"By my estimate, India's undisclosed wealth is about 60% of its GDP, which makes it around $1.35 trillion."
And, the big fish may have got away.
"We have to wait for the final breakdown but it appears that most of those who came forward are small business owners or relatively small players. The big hoarders have either not taken part or have only disclosed a nominal amount of their holdings," Prof Kumar adds.
The government says it plans to use the money to fund public welfare programmes, so in effect it will plough the recovered wealth back into the economy.
It's already been described as a resounding success. But it's unlikely that it will make India's black money problem go away. | Earlier this month, the Indian government announced that tens of thousands of people had taken advantage of a tax evasion amnesty scheme to declare more than $9.5bn (£7.3bn) in undisclosed incomes and assets. |
32631681 | 7 May 2015 Last updated at 19:28 BST
It is one of five commissioned around the UK by The Landmark Trust, to mark the charity's 50th birthday.
The iron sculpture weighs 1,543lbs (700kg) and is the only one that has been placed in a village, the other four have been positioned by the coast.
Sir Antony said the sculpture in Lowsonford, near Henley-in-Arden, looks most impressive when "you look up at it against the sky".
Caroline Stanford, from the Landmark Trust, said it was fitting that it has been placed in "the heart of the Midlands". | A new sculpture by the artist and sculptor Sir Antony Gormley has been unveiled on a Warwickshire canal. |
36024492 | A so-called "Brexit" would disrupt established trading relationships and cause "major challenges" for both the UK and the rest of Europe, it said.
The IMF said the referendum had already created uncertainty for investors and a vote to exit would only heighten this.
Vote Leave said the IMF had been "consistently wrong" in past forecasts.
The IMF, one of the main pillars of the global economic order with a mandate to oversee the international monetary and financial system, also cut its UK growth forecast.
It now expects 1.9% growth in the UK this year, compared with its January estimate of 2.2%. For next year, it expects 2.2% growth, unchanged from its earlier forecast.
If the 23 June referendum in the UK were to produce a vote in favour of leaving the EU, the IMF would expect negotiations on post-exit arrangements to be protracted, which it warned "could weigh heavily on confidence and investment, all the while increasing financial market volatility".
It also believes a UK exit from the EU would "disrupt and reduce mutual trade and financial flows" and restrict benefits from economic co-operation and integration, such as those resulting from economies of scale.
However, the Fund said that domestic demand, boosted by lower energy prices and a buoyant property market, would help to offset the impact on UK growth ahead of the EU referendum.
Chancellor George Osborne said the IMF's comments reinforced the case for staying. "The IMF has given us the clearest independent warning of the taste of bad things to come if we leave the EU," he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "The IMF is right - leaving the EU would pose major risks for the UK economy. We are stronger, safer and better off in the European Union."
Maurice Obstfeld, economic counsellor to the International Monetary Fund and the organisation's chief economist, says there could be "severe regional and global damage" if Britain were to vote to leave the European Union.
An exit would present "major challenges" and a prolonged period of uncertainty which would "weigh" - that is have a negative effect - on confidence and investment.
Market volatility could increase, trade could be damaged and economic growth undermined.
Mr Obstfeld, an expert in international finance, is a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama.
And, as one of the top 40 economists cited in the world for his research, has muscle in this arena.
Read more by Kamal here
Vote Leave, the group campaigning for the UK to leave the European Union, criticised the IMF's findings saying it had "been consistently wrong in past forecasts about the UK and other countries".
"The IMF has talked down the British economy in the past and now it is doing it again at the request of our own Chancellor. It was wrong then and it is wrong now," said Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott.
"The biggest risk to the UK's economy and security is remaining in an unreformed EU which is institutionally incapable of dealing with the challenges it faces, such as the euro and migration crises."
UKIP leader Nigel Farage also criticised the IMF, saying it had "lost its way" in recent years and had been "effectively hijacked" by pro-EU bosses.
Former chancellor Lord Lamont also dismissed the IMF's concerns as "assertions… for which there is no real evidence".
He said the IMF was "very closely connected to the European Union" and was therefore "bound to reflect their views".
"The idea that we wouldn't continue trading on a perfectly normal basis is just fantasy," he added.
In contrast, Britain Stronger In Europe, which is campaigning for the UK to remain within the EU, said businesses and families should heed the IMF's warning.
"This is the clearest evidence yet about the danger of Britain leaving Europe from the word's most respected financial body," said former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, speaking at an event held by the group.
Other major bodies' assessments on the impact of a possible Brexit have been less severe than the IMF's.
Credit ratings agency Moody's recently said the the impact of the UK leaving the EU would be "small" and was unlikely to lead to big job losses.
But the CBI has warned a British exit from the EU - known as a "Brexit" - could cost the UK economy £100bn and nearly one million jobs. | The UK's exit from the European Union could cause "severe regional and global damage", the International Monetary Fund has warned in its latest outlook. |
35026887 | The show, which was a hit 2003 film starring Jack Black, is about a wannabe rock star who poses as a teacher, forming a band with his students to enter a music contest.
The Guardian said the musical had "lost its mojo" and was "innocuous".
The Hollywood Reporter, however, described it as a "crowd-pleaser".
"In terms of screen-to-stage remakes, this is neither the most imaginative nor the most pedestrian of them, falling somewhere in the respectable midrange," it said, praising the children in the show as "junior dynamos", adding: "The kids get the show's most poignant moments".
The New York Times said the musical would rejuvenate Lord Lloyd-Webber's career, saying while it was "unlikely" to restore him to the heights of Evita and Phantom of the Opera, it was his "friskiest in decades".
Speaking to the BBC, Lord Lloyd Webber insisted: "We've had some rave reviews here - neither Cats or Phantom did anything like this. The reviews here are ninety percent positive, it's the best set of reviews I've ever heard in America by far.
"I'd forgotten what it was to have a night like that in New York, I haven't had one like that for a long time."
The Guardian also praised the show's youngsters, saying: " The children are universally adorable and several of them are staggeringly accomplished musicians. It is an absolute treat to hear them."
But the newspaper was not entirely complimentary about Lord Lloyd-Webber or Lord Fellowes and his co-writer Glenn Slater.
"Lloyd Webber knows how to do this. Or he used to," it said. "Jesus Christ Superstar, for all its 70s noodling, remains a quintessential rock musical. Here any hard electric edges have been sanded away. Slater's lyrics are serviceable as is Fellowes's book, though it would be helped by more of his cutting wit."
Variety was more positive, saying it was an exuberant feel-good musical, praising Alex Brightman's "appealing brand of scruffy charm as [teacher] Dewey Finn", ending its review by saying: "Rock on, kids, rock on."
Lord Lloyd Webber said: "The universal feeling is that Alex has absolutely nailed it, he's just phenomenal, he's just a fantastic rock tenor, a great comedian but also brings great pathos to it as well.
"It's got a real message that, quite simply, music has the power to transforms peoples lives."
According to the LA Times, the show was "saved by the students" because it "squeaks by with the lowest of passing grades, but each and every young actor in the cast deserves to be on Broadway's honour role".
"'Rock' is surprisingly easy to swallow, in large part because everyone involved seems to be having such a fine time," it said.
Lord Lloyd-Webber announced after the show's opening that it is opening at the London Palladium in autumn 2016. Dates for the West End run will be confirmed in the New Year.
He said: "I am thrilled to announce that we are confirming a West End production of School of Rock - The Musical. We have had such a great time in the US staging the world premiere and now that we have opened on Broadway, I am delighted to be focusing on the next chapter in the show's journey."
The composer added that a National Company of School of Rock - The Musical will launch a US Tour in the autumn of 2017, playing coast-to-coast engagements across the US. | Broadway musical School of Rock, written by Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, has opened to mixed reviews. |
39918697 | It wants to tap in to demand in the country, which is set to overtake the US to become the world's biggest aviation market within the next decade.
Based in the central eastern city of Zhengzhou, the airline will be run in partnership with the Everbright Group.
AirAsia already has operations in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and India.
"This Chinese venture represents the final piece of the AirAsia puzzle," said chief executive Tony Fernandes, adding it "closes the loop" in the region.
Once for the privileged few, flying domestically within China has boomed. Civil Aviation Administration of China figures suggest that in 1982 there were fewer than four million air passenger journeys within the country. By 2016, that number had reached 487 million.
AirAsia said that as well as running the airline, it would invest in aviation infrastructure and set up an academy to train pilots, crew and engineers.
There would also be new facilities to service and maintain aircraft in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province.
AirAsia already has a presence in China, flying to 15 destinations there, making it the country's largest foreign budget airline.
"China has been good to us and we want to give back in a big way, and this is just the start of an enduring partnership that will benefit both China and Malaysia," said AirAsia executive chairman Kamarudin Meranun.
He added the airline had "started exploring" the prospect of eventually buying Chinese-made Comac C919 planes which are currently in development. | Budget airline AirAsia has signed a joint venture agreement to set up a new low-cost carrier in China. |
35800643 | Marvin Rees pledged to rid the city of sexual entertainment venues if he is elected, arguing they could "feed into" wider inequality.
But stripper Esme Worrell branded the idea "short-sighted" and "patronising".
Mr Rees said he would work with the council's licensing committee.
He was criticised after he announced the pledge on via Twitter on International Women's Day, along with a promise to make half of his cabinet women and to prioritise abuse victims for social housing.
Strippers took the site to accuse him of "trying to destroy the livelihood of hundreds of women", "bandwagon jumping" and "criminalising" women in the industry.
Ms Worrell, from Bristol, said Mr Rees should investigate the clubs himself to see how they are run.
She said: "I think a man storming in and telling us that he's going to ban our work ... it is patronising because why should somebody be telling me what I should be doing with my body?
"In a consensual adult environment...you shouldn't be able to police other people's work choices, if they are legal."
The committee, not the mayor, decides on the policy around venues - which offer lap dancing, pole dancing, and strip shows.
Mr Rees said his pledge was backed by the mayor's women's commission.
"In the last election, all mayoral candidates supported a 'nil cap' on sexual entertainment venues. We've just listened to what women have said," he said.
He said a "real concern" was whether the venues "feed into wider inequalities that are faced by women". "Is the price paid by wider Bristol very very high for this?"
Mr Rees will go up against the current, independent mayor George Ferguson in May. Other candidates selected so far include Lib Dem Kay Barnard, Conservative Charles Lucas, Green candidate Tony Dyer and UKIP's Paul Turner.
In 2012 Swansea and Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, banned sex entertainment venues. | A Labour mayoral candidate has defended his promise to try to ban strip clubs from Bristol - after a social media backlash from women working in the industry. |
36507206 | Since first attending in 1947, she's been an enthusiastic participant in the biggest flat-racing week of the year, as a racehorse owner and breeder and simply as a fan of the sport, arriving amid the famous pomp and circumstance of the horse-drawn carriage procession down the course.
Over 60-plus years, the Royal silks have been carried to victory 22 times, a list started by Choir Boy in the Royal Hunt Cup of 1953.
The mare Estimate was the most recent addition after a breathless win in the 2013 Gold Cup, when her owner became the first reigning monarch to taste victory in the historic centrepiece race, first staged in 1807.
It's expected there will be up to half a dozen Royal runners this year, including the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Dartmouth, a fast-improving winner at Chelmsford City and Chester during the spring, and fancied for the Hardwicke Stakes on the fifth and final day.
But the Queen won't be the only member of the Royal family chasing a slice of the record £6.58m prize money, spread across the 30 races. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall are due to have Carn Top (second in the Lingfield Derby Trial) and Pacify - both bred by them and trained by Ralph Beckett - in action during the week.
A spectacular nine-winner spree at Royal Ascot 2015 by jockey Ryan Moore made him the most successful rider at a single modern-day staging of the flat racing fixture, breaking the record of eight previously held by Lester Piggott (1965, 1975) and Pat Eddery (1989).
However, three-time champion Moore plays down any talk of comparisons between himself and two of racing's great jockeys, saying their achievements were "in different eras, on different days, at different meetings".
This time, some of the week's most sought-after mounts will once again be taken by the 32-year-old, many of them in the ownership of the Irish-based Coolmore racing operation and trained by Aidan O'Brien, notably the French 2000 Guineas winner The Gurkha in day one's St James Palace's Stakes.
Moore is also dismissive of any suggestion he could surpass last year's total, describing his book of rides - The Gurkha apart - as "solid…there's nothing like last year". That said, he's hot favourite to be leading rider ahead of changing-room colleagues Frankie Dettori and James Doyle.
Nineteen years after his first-ever winner at Royal Ascot, in 1997, Aidan O'Brien is already within touching distance of reaching his half century.
But as the trainer of stars including St James's Palace Stakes winners Giant's Causeway, Rock Of Gibraltar and Gleneagles, and four-time Gold Cup hero Yeats, prepares to challenge with another powerful raiding party, he faces potential competition from very close to his own home.
O'Brien's 23-year-old son Joseph, once jockey of choice for his father's powerful string, is now a rival having taken out a trainer's licence of his own.
He made an instant impact with four successes on his very first day, one of which saw him defeat a runner of his Dad's.
Their first Royal Ascot skirmish will come on Day One when both County Tipperary-based Aidan and Joseph, who's operating from the family farm in County Kilkenny, have runners in the Coventry Stakes and then the Windsor Castle Stakes.
Meanwhile, O'Brien senior's best chances of reaching the 50 could be The Gurkha - well-touted for the clash against fellow Guineas winners Galileo Gold (Newmarket) and Awtaad (Irish) in the St James's Palace Stakes - Found (Prince of Wales's Stakes, Wednesday) and Order Of St George in Thursday's Gold Cup.
From endurance ponies to champion sprinter, the Mongolians are coming.
It's expected six countries apart from Britain and Ireland will be represented as Royal Ascot continues to hold its own as one of global flat racing's go-to destinations.
Just the one runner from Australia - the sprinter Holler - is perhaps a bit of a disappointment, but organisers say they're delighted at the high-calibre level of contenders from Hong Kong, Japan (including brilliant Prince of Wales Stakes hope A Shin Hikari) and the US, as well as France and hopefully Germany.
From the US, Tepin is a major player in the opening Queen Anne Stakes, Miss Temple City will have plenty of supporters in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes (day two) and trainer Wesley Ward is looking for back-to-back victories in the fifth day-feature, the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, with Undrafted.
But no overseas challenger will make more of impression than sprinter Mongolian Saturday, plus those around him.
The six-year-old challenger for Tuesday's Kings Stand Stakes, and possibly the Diamond Jubilee Stakes too, is trained in America, but by a Mongolian, Enebish Ganbat, and the horse's owner is a fellow countryman and multi-millionaire businessman, Ganbaatar Dagvadorj.
They and their friends turn up at the races in national dress, including Genghis Khan-style cone-shaped hat and colourful tunic; it's within Ascot's famously strict dress code, although the outfits clearly surprised locals at the Breeders' Cup in Kentucky last autumn, where Mongolian Saturday won the Turf Sprint, as the entourage were mistaken for being part of Hallowe'en celebrations.
Ganbat, who used to train endurance ponies that raced for miles across the rugged Mongol terrain, believes the horse he calls "Champion" can achieve a top-three finish, after which he hopes to meet the Queen.
He told BBC Sport: "I like the English Queen because England and Japan are two of the few countries who keep Kings [monarchy]. I like this because this is tradition and tradition is very important - England is an old traditional country, [the] same [as] Mongolia."
Asked about his runner's chances, he added: "I think he has a chance of coming in first, second or third. It's a dream, a long-time dream."
In his unbeaten racing days, champion racehorse Frankel, trained by Sir Henry Cecil and ridden by Tom Queally, wowed two Royal Ascots with success in the St James's Palace Stakes - just - in 2011 and, a year later, in the Queen Anne Stakes, that time with a stunning display.
Since his retirement later that year, the winner of 14 races from 14 starts has set about passing on his brilliance to future generations as a stallion, and has made a stunning start, with all but one of his progeny that have raced so far not just winning, but doing so impressively.
At this year's Royal meeting, Frankel, still owned by Saudi prince Khalid Abdullah and commanding fees of £125,000 for a mating, is set to be represented by Newbury winner Cunco in the Chesham Stakes (Saturday) and by Queen Kindly, his first daughter to be successful, in the Queen Mary Stakes on day two.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | There's probably no 90th birthday present the Queen would rather receive than success in a race at her beloved Royal Ascot. |
28048866 | The 18-year-old's fee could rise to £31m, depending on his performance. An initial £27m offer was rejected in May.
He has developed immensely during his time at Southampton and has all the attributes to become a top player
The left-back has agreed a four-year contract with United, with an option to extend for a further year.
"I want to continue to progress my career and joining United is the ideal place for me to do that," he said.
Ryan Giggs, United's assistant manager, added: "Luke is a very talented young left back with great potential.
"He has developed immensely during his time at Southampton and has all the attributes to become a top player."
Shaw told Saints at the end of last season that he wanted to join United.
He became the youngest player to feature at the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil when he played the entire 90 minutes of England's 0-0 draw with Costa Rica on Tuesday.
He is United's second summer recruit - and second in as many days - after they signed Spain midfielder Ander Herrera, 24, from Athletic Bilbao for a fee believed to be £29m.
Manchester United's Wayne Rooney was the world's most expensive teenager when he moved to Old Trafford in September 2004 for an initial fee of £20m.
Shaw's signing eclipses that and matches the £27m Paris St-Germain paid Roma for 19-year-old Marquinhos in July.
The youngster also becomes the fourth most expensive defender in world football.
Southampton insist the money they have received from United will be reinvested in the team.
"While we are sad to see Luke depart the club, we fought to ensure that we got the right deal for a player in whom we have invested a great deal of work over the past decade," said executive director Les Reed.
"This deal is a good one for Southampton Football Club and hopefully sends a clear message to other clubs wishing to bid for our players.
"Luke's transfer fee will be reinvested into the team as our new manager, Ronald Koeman, builds for the new season and for years to come."
Meanwhile, Saints midfielder Adam Lallana is set to have a medical ahead of a proposed £25m move to Liverpool.
The 26-year-old England international is expected to complete his transfer within the next 24 hours.
England striker Rickie Lambert has already moved from Saints to Anfield. | England defender Luke Shaw has joined Manchester United from Southampton for £27m, making him one of the world's most expensive teenagers. |
38759960 | In December, it was announced that half of Glasgow's 16 jobcentres would shut to save money and to reflect a rise in the use of online and phone services.
The Department for Work and Pensions said it expected affected employees to move to other sites, adding that any redundancies would be "very small".
Scottish Employability Minister Jamie Hepburn said Scotland was being disproportionately affected.
Union officials said the wider announcement would mean that more than one in 10 jobcentres in Scotland, England and Wales would shut, putting thousands of staff jobs at risk.
UK Employment Minister Damian Hinds said: "We will always make sure that people have the support they need to get into and progress within work, that's why we are recruiting 2,500 more work coaches to help those who need it most.
"The way the world works has changed rapidly in the last 20 years and the welfare state needs to keep pace.
"As more people access their benefits through the internet many of our buildings are under-used. We are concentrating our resources on what we know best helps people into work.
"The changes we've announced today will help ensure that the way we deliver our services reflect the reality of today's welfare system."
Aberdeen, Greyfriars House - DWP administration centre
Alexandria - Jobcentre
Benbecula, Jobcentre
Broxburn - Jobcentre
Coatbridge - DWP administration centre
Cumnock - DWP administration centre
Edinburgh, St Andrew Street - Jobcentre
Glasgow Portcullis House - DWP administration centre
Glasgow, Corunna House - DWP administration centre
Inverness - DWP assessment centre
Inverness, Church Street - Jobcentre and DWP administration centre
Lanark - Jobcentre to move to South Lanarkshire Council office, South Vennel
Larkhall - Jobcentre
Paisley, Lonend - DWP administration centre.
Port Glasgow - Jobcentre
Wick, Girnigoe - Jobcentre to move to Caithness House
A spokeswoman for the DWP said some of the jobcentres being closed were very close to other sites.
The latest changes include:
The spokeswoman said two jobcentres where the distance people would need to travel would be more than three miles - which will be consulted on - were Broxburn which is planned to move to Livingston Jobcentre and Grangemouth which is planned to move to Falkirk.
Mr Hepburn told BBC Scotland: "This will obviously be a very concerning time for the communities served by the particular jobcentres to be closed.
He said there were also a number of back office closures proposed and that it was unclear if there would be any compulsory redundancies.
"It's been a somewhat shambolic process," he said. "The drip feed of information has not been very clear which has caused further confusion."
He added: "What's been absolutely unacceptable is the failure to consult with those communities directly affected but also with the Scottish government, despite the fact that the Smith Commission talked of a greater role for the Scottish government in terms of governance for Jobcentre Plus here in Scotland.
"We've had no prior warning about the specific closures we've been hearing about today. That's unacceptable.
"It looks as though there's been a disproportionately high number of closures here in Scotland and given the issues of rurality and deprivation in some of the communities served by these jobcentres, that again, is unacceptable."
Mr Hepburn has already written to the DWP over the plans to close half of Glasgow's jobcentres and said he would also be voicing his new concerns.
Alison Johnstone, Social Security spokeswoman for the Scottish Greens said: "The UK government appears determined to punish the very people who need the most support in our society. They should be making it easier, not harder, to find employment.
"Not everyone has reliable access to the internet or can afford to make the numerous phone calls needed to speak to prospective employers. There's also the cost of travelling longer distances to job centres. It's simply wrong-headed.
"These changes will be hugely disruptive and while the DWP says that most staff will have the option to relocate or take alternative roles, that won't suit everyone." | The UK government is planning to close a further 16 jobcentres in Scotland. |
32319194 | All 42 Scottish Professional Football League clubs will vote on 23 April on a motion from Hibs, their Edinburgh rivals, Hearts and Motherwell.
The three clubs want to halve the amount of Premiership play-off gate receipts going to the league.
League bosses have recommended that the clubs vote against the proposal.
Motherwell, who are second bottom in the top flight, and Hibs, who sit second in the Championship, could both be involved in a series of play-offs for a place in the Premiership next season.
But Hibs chief executive Leeann Dempster said: "No club will receive less from the play-off levy this season than they did last season.
"This is possible because the board of the SPFL has negotiated a live TV broadcasting deal for the Premiership play-off matches - all six games could be broadcast - at a match fee which is just 10% of what clubs receive from televised Scottish Cup ties.
"The TV deal has been approved by the Premiership clubs, but only one Premiership club will feature and the Championship clubs whose home gates could be affected by live TV were not consulted and didn't have a vote.
"All clubs benefitted from the levy last season and will continue to benefit this season."
The rules governing the play-offs were agreed by clubs - including Hibs, Hearts and Motherwell - two years ago, when the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League merged to form the SPFL.
Current rules state that 50% of the cash generated through gate receipts goes to the SPFL, with every club not involved in the games getting a share.
It was designed to reduce the financial impact on the 42 clubs by paying parachute payments for a possible two clubs being relegated from the Premiership.
Hibs' proposal would reduce that to 25% and the difference in cash distributed could be as much as £500,000.
Dempster said: "The debate began in October when the board of the SPFL sought to introduce minimum pricing for play-off matches and to change the rules to state that season tickets were not valid.
"We disagree, because we believe clubs should be allowed the flexibility to deal with their season ticket holders as they think best."
Dempster pointed out that the Scottish FA was presently funding the parachute payment and said: "In those circumstances, all the levy does is take money paid by supporters to watch the team they support and redistribute that to every other team in the league.
"Any club which can imagine itself in that situation would say that was unfair."
The SPFL says that, as result of opposition from clubs, it will withdraw its proposal to prohibit admission via season tickets and impose minimum prices.
However, its board recommends rejecting Hibs' proposal, arguing that it is wrong to make a change that benefits only a few clubs at such a late stage in the season.
Meanwhile, Hibs say that Premiership clubs benefit most from the levy, with the champions earning 50 times as much as the winners of League Two. | Hibernian insist that they are not involved in a "cash grab" with a proposal to change the rules over the distribution of play-off funds. |
39962552 | The 45-year-old mother-of-two suffered a punctured lung and permanent damage to her sight following the crash on the Firth of Forth last summer.
The woman had been part of an organised trip to the Isle of May seabird haven.
She was crushed after being seated on an inflatable tube on the boat, used when passenger numbers were high.
The accident happened onboard the Osprey II, which normally carried eight passengers to the Isle of May from Anstruther Harbour.
However, on 19 July 2016, the vessel was carrying 11 passengers, including seven adults and four children.
The boat's sister craft, Osprey, was also in the water and was carrying 12 passengers, including 11 adults and one child.
Investigators were told that passenger spaces on Osprey II were normally limited to the eight spaces available on its four bench seats, but in good weather two additional spaces were sold, with the extra passengers sitting in designated positions on its inflatable tubes.
On the day of the accident, the skipper of each boat - known as rigid inflatable boats (RIB) - had increased speed and started a power turn away from each other with the intention of passing each other in the course of completing a round turn.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report said that as the vessels turned towards each other, it became apparent to both skippers they were in danger of colliding. Despite skippers both acting quickly to reduce their speed, they were unable to prevent the collision.
The report said: "Passengers not sitting on suitable inboard seating have an increased risk of falling overboard, are at significant risk of musculoskeletal injuries and are more exposed to serious injury in the event of a collision."
The injured woman, who was on the vessel with her husband and two children aged eight and 12, was taken to hospital after the incident and was put into an induced coma, having suffered two broken collar bones, five broken ribs, a punctured lung and lacerations and bruising to her back and torso.
The internal injuries she sustained in the accident also resulted in permanent damage to her sight in both eyes.
There are currently no regulations to prevent people on RIBs from sitting on the inflatable tubes, but the MAIB said they are at increased risk in that position.
The MAIB has recommended the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's (MCA) forthcoming recreational craft code includes the stipulation that the certified maximum number of passengers carried on commercially-operated passenger-carrying RIBs should be limited to the number of suitable seats designated for passengers.
Isle of May Boat Trips Ltd, which owns and operates the two vessels, has banned passengers and crew from sitting on the inflatable tubes of Osprey and Osprey II, and has limited passenger numbers to 12 and eight respectively.
It has also issued an instruction that twin RIB operations are not to take place except in an emergency and has reviewed its risk assessments to ensure they incorporate all activities undertaken by Osprey and Osprey II.
Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, Steve Clinch, said the MAIB had investigated several accidents in which people had been injured as a result of inappropriate seating on RIBs, and the faster the RIB was travelling, the greater the risk.
He confirmed passenger limit recommendations have been made to the MAC, and added: "We have also made a recommendation to the Royal Yachting Association and Passenger Boating Association aimed at improving the guidance available to the operators of commercial passenger-carrying RIBs." | Marine accident investigators have issued new safety instructions after a woman was seriously injured in a collision between two inflatable boats. |
39151192 | General Sir Adrian Bradshaw told the BBC that the West needed "a grand strategy" to counter these threats.
He said much of Russia's aggressive behaviour was about Mr Putin "protecting his own political power".
Russian officials have repeatedly denied cyber hacking accusations.
General Bradshaw, who next month steps down as Nato's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said the combination of Russia's military activity, political agitation and interference in Western elections posed a threat to the alliance that had to be met.
Nato is already stepping up its military response following Russia's intervention in Ukraine.
Some 5,000 troops are being stationed in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe, including hundreds of British troops who will soon be arriving in Estonia.
General Bradshaw warned that they too should expect "some provocation… a desire to develop stories to our disadvantage and we must be wary".
General Bradshaw described the likelihood of a military confrontation with Russia as low.
But he added because "there is a very small risk and because the consequences would be catastrophic, we have absolutely got to deal with the risks".
Those risks, he believes, have increased because of Russia's willingness to use "all the levers of the state" to achieve its goals.
The West, he said, must respond by using all the tools at its disposal - economic, political, diplomatic as well as military - to deter Russian aggression.
He said Russia's use of so-called "hybrid warfare" required "hybrid deterrence".
General Bradshaw was short on detail. He said economic sanctions imposed on Russia following its intervention in Ukraine had had an effect.
He also suggested the West needed to provide large Russian-speaking populations living in the Baltic states with an alternative to the Russian television channels they watched.
But he said that Nato and its allies needed to take the moral high ground and uphold international rules.
It comes as UK, French and Danish troops have been taking part an intensive two-week training exercise in Northumberland in preparation for joining Nato's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force.
The UK troops include regular and reserve units from across the country - including Newcastle, North Yorkshire, Edinburgh, Wiltshire and Somerset.
Around 1,500 personnel are taking part, with the 1st Artillery Brigade also hosting visitors from the US, Estonia, France and Poland. | Britain's most senior Nato commander has called on the alliance to step up efforts against Russian cyber attacks, propaganda and political agitation - to keep President Putin in check. |
36683487 | Vishal Chopra, an accountant from Glasgow, is believed to have been on the Indonesian island to attend a family wedding.
He reportedly died after getting into difficulty while swimming offshore.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in Bali, and have provided bereavement information at this difficult time." | A 42-year-old man from Scotland has died after a swimming accident on Bali. |
39684092 | The world-famous locomotive Flying Scotsman was joined by an HST and InterCity 225 from Virgin Trains' fleet, and one of its new Azuma trains.
They lined up on the East Coast Main Line at Tollerton, North Yorkshire, at 06:00 BST before travelling to York.
Hundreds of people lined the route to witness the unique event.
Paul Kirkman, director of York's National Railway Museum, which owns the Doncaster-built Flying Scotsman, said: "The East Coast Main Line has long been famed for speed and style.
"In the 19th Century elegant locomotives were designed to haul trains on this route, cementing its reputation as a railway racing stretch operated by thoroughbred engines.
"The four-train line-up epitomises the evolution of the later generation of fast, elegant and stylish trains - all with a shared bloodline - that epitomise the history of the route from the 1850s to today." | Four trains from different eras have travelled side by side in a special event celebrating the past, present and future of Britain's railways. |
37588732 | The 25-year-old was 4-0 down in the opening set, but won the final 12 games to deflate Zhang in front of her home fans.
Konta also recorded a straight-set win over Zhang at the Wuhan Open last week.
She will play American eighth seed Madison Keys in the semi-finals.
The victory also increases the chances of Konta qualifying for the season-ending WTA finals in Singapore.
The tournament, which begins on 23 October, will feature the year's top eight players. Three spots are still up for grabs and world number 14 Konta's progress to the semi-finals will take her up to 10th at least before her participation in next week's Hong Kong Open.
Zhang, who beat world number five Simona Halep in the previous round to make the China Open last eight for the first time, started well but folded in dramatic style as Konta found her range.
The Chinese player won just 11 points in the final set.
On the other side of the draw, Ukrainian 16th seed Elina Svitolina will play either Agnieszka Radwanska or Yaroslava Shvedova in the other semi-final. | British number one Johanna Konta recovered from losing her first two service games to sweep to a 6-4 6-0 win over China's world number 36 Zhang Shuai in the China Open quarter-finals. |
38748821 | Tigers were knocked out of the European Champions Cup earlier this month, and are fifth in the Premiership.
They have lost all three games under head coach Aaron Mauger since sacking director of rugby Richard Cockerill on 2 January.
"We could have left that decision until the end of the season, but we didn't because we want to win," Cohen said.
"This board has got a pretty good record of getting it right over a number of years. There's a lot of rugby expertise on the board.
"Leicester Tigers will be challenging for trophies and I don't see any reason why we can't challenge for trophies this season."
The Anglo-Welsh Cup resumes on Saturday, with Tigers having two wins from two as they prepare to host Northampton Saints in their third of four Pool matches.
Victory over fierce rivals Saints, and Saracens the following week, would guarantee them top spot and a place in the semi-finals.
Tigers are also still in contention for a top-four finish in the Premiership, sitting five points behind fourth-placed Bath.
Cohen confirmed that the search for a new director of rugby is being led by the external consultancy firm which recommended Eddie Jones to the Rugby Football Union for the England head coach's job.
"We've got a rugby group within the board who will review those recommendations and then make a recommendation to the board," he told BBC Radio Leicester.
"The processes are pretty good to ensure we get the best possible person and I'm sure that Aaron will be a candidate in that process." | Leicester Tigers chief executive Simon Cohen says the club can win trophies this year despite recent poor form. |
29805717 | Thousands of women with terminal breast cancer are being denied extra time with their loved ones due to the high cost of new drugs, it said.
The charity called on drugs firms and government to make medicines more accessible.
Drugs firms said more drugs needed NHS approval.
NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said it approved drugs based on clinical and cost effectiveness.
Over the past few years, NICE has not recommended at least seven breast cancer treatments, with cost being a factor in the rejection of over half of those treatments.
Life-extending drugs that are not available on the NHS can currently be paid for through the £200m per-year Cancer Drugs Fund.
The fund is due to be available until the end of March 2016.
Many drugs have been rejected for approval by NICE on the grounds of cost, Breakthrough Breast Cancer said.
The charity has called for action from the government, the pharmaceutical industry, drugs approval body NICE, and charities to bring down the costs of new treatments and sort out funding issues.
"The Cancer Drugs Fund was only supposed to be a temporary solution and, while it should remain until a workable alternative is found, it is merely papering over the cracks of a system which is no longer fit for purpose," said Chris Askew, chief executive of Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
"Whilst there will be no quick fix solution to this problem, the pharmaceutical industry will need to get serious about its pricing and whoever forms the next government will need to get a grip on the problem and take action to resolve it," he added.
The NICE drugs approvals process takes into account the cost of the drug, as well as how it effects a patient's quality of life, and how long they live.
NICE uses a measure called a "quality adjusted life year" - a "QALY" - to gauge how much it would cost to give patients a year of healthy life using a treatment.
Drugs that cost up to between £20,000 and £30,000 per QALY can get NICE approval, but end-of-life drugs that cost almost double that can also be approved.
However, some innovative cancer treatments can cost up to £100,000 per QALY, so are dropped by NICE, Breakthrough Breast Cancer senior policy manager Caitlin Palframan said.
"We understand it costs money to develop new treatments," she said. "It's not that we believe that pharmaceutical companies don't have a right to make a profit.
"However, it doesn't do anybody any good if the treatments aren't available on the NHS," she added.
The charity gave the example of breast cancer drug Kadcyla, which is not routinely available in England and Wales, due to its cost.
Cancer drugs that are rejected by NICE can be funded through the Cancer Drugs Fund, but only in England, Ms Palframan said.
In Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, terminally-ill patients must get cancer specialists to apply for funding for non-approved treatments.
It was "unacceptable" that some terminally-ill patients "are having to fight for their treatment", she told the BBC.
The high costs of new cancer drugs mainly reflect research costs, drugs industry body the ABPI said.
"The price of development is high," said ABPI director of value and access Paul Catchpole. "It can cost more than £1bn and 10 to 12 years to research and develop a new medicine."
In addition, only one third of new medicines end up covering research and development costs, he said.
"The issue is - who decides what 'high' and 'appropriate' is?" he added.
Mr Catchpole said there were "no upper limits" on what the Cancer Drugs Fund was willing to pay, and called for "evolution" in how NICE assesses cancer drugs.
"We need to make sure [NICE] is taking into account the full costs and benefits of proposals," on the wider economy, he said.
The approvals body said it "makes recommendations for treatments based on the clinical and cost effectiveness of each drug."
"For NICE to recommend a treatment it must work at least as well as, or better than, currently available NHS treatments for the price that the NHS is being asked to pay," it said.
The body said that so far this year it had recommended five cancer treatments, and one drug had been recommended for a specific group of patients.
It has rejected two cancer drugs this year. | A fund to pay for cancer drugs that are not available on the NHS "papers over" deeper drugs pricing issues, according to charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer. |
39935976 | Goxhill was the first RAF site handed to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in 1942. The station was used by the Americans as a training base.
The site's watch office was later acquired by the Military Aviation Museum in 2003, before being taken down brick by brick and shipped to Virginia Beach.
It is due to open on Saturday.
Museum Director Mike Potter said the tower was "something of a shrine to many visitors, and it is a distinct honour to be able to offer guests the only experience of its type in our country".
"The entire control tower was taken apart and transported, right down to the brickwork and the loos. The door and window frames were rusted beyond re-tasking, but the original manufacturer in the UK, Crittall, was able to remake those designs from the original specifications."
He said the components were kept in storage and after three years of "painstaking" reconstruction using original features, the building is to welcome visitors in a special event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the station's US handover.
Mr Potter said the interior would also be returned to its original condition with the rooms displaying wartime memorabilia including photographs and letters from RAF and USAAF servicemen.
But he expects it to "take several years" before it is fully completed.
The reconstruction was aided by the Airfield Research Group (ARG) charity, which sent architectural details including plans, drawings and photos.
Chairman Paul Francis said: "It is brilliant, the museum should be applauded for what they have achieved.
"We are proud to have been involved with its restoration."
The airfield was transferred back to the RAF in 1945 and the tower remained derelict after it closed in 1953. | An RAF building which was dismantled and moved to the US is to reopen after it was rebuilt in Virginia. |
38778145 | The Bafta-winning star, known for his roles in Alien and The Elephant Man, had been treated for pancreatic cancer in 2015.
Sir John's wife said he had brought "joy and magic" and it would be a "strange world without him".
He recently starred as Father Richard McSorley in Jackie, the biopic of President John F Kennedy's wife.
Despite being given the all-clear from cancer, he last year pulled out of Sir Kenneth Branagh's production of The Entertainer on the advice of his doctors.
Lady Hurt confirmed Sir John had died on Wednesday at his home in Norfolk.
"John was the most sublime of actors and the most gentlemanly of gentlemen with the greatest of hearts and the most generosity of spirit," she said in a statement.
"He touched all our lives with joy and magic and it will be a strange world without him."
US director Mel Brooks described Sir John as "cinematic immortality", as tributes poured in for the star.
Brooks paid tribute to Sir John, who had starred in his comedy Spaceballs, saying on Twitter: "No one could have played The Elephant Man more memorably."
He added: "He carried that film into cinematic immortality. He will be sorely missed."
Sir John also played the part of wand-maker Mr Ollivander in the Harry Potter films.
Author of the books, JK Rowling, tweeted: "So very sad to hear that the immensely talented and deeply beloved John Hurt has died. My thoughts are with his family and friends."
By Nick Higham, BBC correspondent
John Hurt was an unusual actor, instantly recognisable, yet never typecast. He seemed to take every part he was offered and make a success of them all.
Other star actors enjoy a decade or two in the sun before their reputation fades. John Hurt continued entertaining new audiences to the end. It made compiling his television obituary difficult: what on earth to leave out, when it was all so good?
He was the deranged Caligula in I, Claudius and those two brave but ostracised outsiders, the gay Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and the hideously disfigured John Merrick in The Elephant Man. To a younger generation he was the War Doctor in Doctor Who and the wand-maker Mr Ollivander in Harry Potter.
He was blessed with a distinctive voice, gravelly and honeyed, and a characterful face, which as the years passed grew increasingly lined and craggy - the legacy of his years as a hell-raiser.
He was good at complex characters - at once confident and vulnerable, or arrogant yet sympathetic.
And he lived life to the full: four times married, he lived at various times in Oxfordshire, Ireland, Kenya and Norfolk and (having briefly been to art school in his youth) took up painting again towards the end of his life though it's hard to know how he found the time.
Director Guillermo del Toro tweeted: "John Hurt was nothing if not movingly human. Loyal, loving and incredibly intelligent and kind. He was family."
Stephen Fry praised Sir John for being "great on the stage, small screen and big".
The veteran actor's last cinematic role was in That Good Night, in which he played a terminally ill playwright, Ralph.
Despite "his own personal battles with illness" during filming in Portugal last year, the producers said Sir John was "proud" and "keen" to work on the "extremely poignant" project.
Producers Alan Latham and Charles Savage said in a statement: "We watched John in awe during filming and feel privileged to have had this opportunity to work with him."
Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood said: "It was such an honor to have watched you work, sir."
British actor Alfred Molina said Sir John was "a gloriously talented actor, one of the best, of this or any era."
John Hurt was one of Britain's best-known and most versatile actors.
He was born on 22 January, 1940 in Chesterfield in Derbyshire. Over six decades, he appeared in more than 120 films as well as numerous stage and television roles.
He went to St Martin's School of Art in London, but dropped out. He then gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960 but said he had been so hungry, he could hardly deliver his lines.
It was not until 1978 that Hurt was recognised as one of cinema's best character actors, gaining an Oscar nomination for his performance as a heroin addict in Alan Parker's Midnight Express.
In 1979, he then starred as Kane in Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror Alien. in The death of his character has often been voted as one of cinema's most memorable moments.
The film critic and historian Geoff Andrew once asked Hurt how he managed to regularly turn in such memorable performances.
"The only way I can describe it is that I put everything I can into the mulberry of my mind and hope that it is going to ferment and make a decent wine," he said.
"How that process happens, I'm sorry to tell you I can't describe."
Read more about Sir John Hurt's life here
Sir John was also known for his off-screen antics, with his drinking splashed across newspapers.
He once even lunged at a pack of paparazzi at a Bafta awards ceremony.
But he said that age had mellowed him and he admitted to being happier sitting with his painting easels than being out on the town.
Sir John was married four times. His first marriage to actress Annette Robertson lasted two years in the 1960s. In 1968 he started a relationship with the "love of his life" Marie Lise Volpeliere-Porrot - it ended 15 years later when she was killed in a riding accident.
The following year he married US actress Donna Peacock but the couple divorced four years later, although they remained good friends. He married his third wife Jo Dalton in 1990 and they had two sons. They divorced in 1995.
In 2005, he wed Anwen Rees-Myers, a former actress and classical pianist, who was with him until his death.
Sir John was knighted in 2015 for his services to drama.
After his cancer diagnosis the same year, he told the Radio Times: "I can't say I worry about mortality, but it's impossible to get to my age and not have a little contemplation of it.
"We're all just passing time, and occupy our chair very briefly."
In 2013, he appeared in Doctor Who as the War Doctor, a hitherto unseen incarnation of the character.
He was still working up until his death, starring in Jackie Kennedy biopic Jackie, thriller Damascus Cover and the upcoming biopic of boxer Lenny McLean, My Name Is Lenny.
He was also filming Darkest Hour, in which he starred as Neville Chamberlain opposite Gary Oldman's Winston Churchill, scheduled to be released in December. | Sir John Hurt's wife, Anwen, has led tributes to the veteran actor after he died at the age of 77. |
40435353 | Sheryll Murray says she was branded a witch on social media, and somebody urinated on her office door during the recent general election campaign.
Swastikas were also carved into a promotional poster in her home constituency of South East Cornwall.
She says the police are investigating the attacks.
Raising the issue during Prime Minister's Questions, she told Theresa May: "Over the past month I've had swastikas carved into posters, social media posts like 'burn the witch'".
She asked Mrs May: "Can you suggest what can be done to stop this intimidation, which may well be putting off good people from serving in this place?"
The prime minister replied: "I believe this sort of behaviour has no place in our democracy.
"As I stand here and see the plaque that has been dedicated to the late Jo Cox, we should all remember what Jo said - we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than the things which divide us."
Mrs Murray also said people had put photographs online of Labour leaflets outside her home, leaving her concerned that people can find where she lives.
In a later interview, Mrs Murray said: "There are very strict rules around press reporting within an election period.
"Maybe we should look at social media being the same." | Social media users should be subjected to the same regulations as the press during election campaigns, a Conservative MP has said. |
22551401 | The chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge, said whistleblowers had told her that Google had sold advertising within the UK and invoiced customers in the UK.
Google had earlier said that UK customers paid Google in Ireland.
"No one in the UK can execute transactions," said Google's head of sales in Northern Europe, Matt Brittin.
"No money changes hands," he said, despite the fact that he employed sales staff in Britain.
But Ms Hodge said: "It was quite clear from all that documentation that the entire trading process and sales process took place in the UK."
She read from the official guide to parliamentary procedure, Erskine May: "A person prevaricating or giving false evidence can be considered to be in contempt of the House."
And she said: "We will continue to have whistleblowers until we get to the bottom of the truth about all this."
Google's sales in the UK are worth £3.2bn, but most are routed through Dublin. In 2011 it paid £6m in UK corporation tax.
Google is one of several multinational companies that have been strongly criticised in recent months for organising their tax affairs in ways that minimise the amounts they pay in the UK.
Amongst them is online retailer Amazon, whose UK subsidiary paid £2.4m in corporate taxes last year, despite making sales of £4.3bn, and Starbucks, which has also gone to great lengths to minimise its tax bills, though it has been pressured to agree to pay more than it used to.
All three, as well as others, have previously appeared before the Public Accounts Committee, and they have attracted much criticism in spite of their insistence that they are operating within the law.
Prime Minister David Cameron has described such "aggressive" tax avoidance as "immoral", while the leader of the Labour party, Ed Miliband, sees it as "evidence of a culture of corporate irresponsibility among certain firms which is totally unacceptable".
Mr Brittin maintained that any advertiser in Europe would deal directly with Google in Dublin, which employs some 3,000 staff.
"When we came to Europe, we set up Dublin as our European headquarters," said Mr Brittin
"We wanted to be able to contract with customers across the whole of Europe, not just the UK.
"Any customer that spends with us, they have to buy from Ireland, because that's where the intellectual property sits."
HMRC's director general for business tax, Jim Harra, would like to see the system changed.
"Corporate tax affairs are operated by an international framework that the UK and other countries are subject to," he said.
"That international framework has not kept up with changes in the economy, particularly in the digital economy. That affects companies like Google and Amazon.
"This, he said, had enabled companies to place their various activities in jurisdictions with favourable taxation systems, and thus they are able to reduce their tax burdens.
"Those international rules need to be looked at," he said. | The internet giant Google has been challenged by MPs over the way it reports its income for tax. |
38199047 | After conceding four in last weekend's loss at Bournemouth, Liverpool shipped two avoidable first-half goals on their way to ceding more ground to Chelsea and Arsenal in the title race.
Adam Lallana's smart low finish had put Liverpool ahead inside five minutes but the visitors were level before the half-hour when goalkeeper Loris Karius - at fault for Bournemouth's winner a week ago - failed to deal with Payet's saveable 25-yard free-kick.
Karius was less culpable for West Ham's second scored by Antonio, but it was a scruffy goal that did not reflect well on a Liverpool backline that has now conceded 20 goals in 15 league games - the worst record among the teams in the top six.
But errors were not the sole preserve of the Liverpool defence, and a big mistake by West Ham goalkeeper Darren Randolph, dropping a cross into the path of Divock Origi, gifted Liverpool the equaliser.
Randolph made amends with a quite stunning late save to keep out Jordan Henderson's equally sublime strike as West Ham held on for a point that sees them climb to 17th.
Until recently Liverpool's new goalkeeper had largely gone under the radar since joining from manager Jurgen Klopp's former club Mainz in the summer.
Media playback is not supported on this device
After missing the start of the season with a broken hand, Karius was installed as Klopp's number one at the end of September, replacing Simon Mignolet.
The German had a relatively untroubled time of it in his first nine games, although small mistakes were in evidence - but nothing as high-profile as the injury-time spill that allowed Nathan Ake to score Bournemouth's winner last time out.
And the pressure is sure to intensify on the 23-year-old after his part in West Ham's opener, with Payet's free-kick nicely struck but much too central to be considered unstoppable.
West Ham's second goal was also avoidable from Liverpool's perspective.
Havard Nordtveit's hopeful drilled pass from his own half struck the head of the retreating Henderson, deflecting the ball high into the air and wrong-footing Reds centre-back Joel Matip, allowing Antonio in.
The West Ham man might not have had the chance to score had Karius been further advanced in his area, but nothing should be taken away from the finish, a cute poke with the outside of his boot that just had enough force to cross the line.
Liverpool are the top scorers in the Premier League with 37 goals in 15 games, so it is perhaps uncharitable to point the finger at their forward line after this blip.
Yet for all their possession - 68% - they managed just three shots on target in the whole match, with two of those coming from West Ham errors.
The visitors were guilty of snoozing for Liverpool's opener as Sadio Mane picked up the ball in the middle of the park and made unchecked progress to the left wing.
His cross arrived at the feet of Lallana, who had time to control and finish under zero pressure from a static West Ham defence.
Their second was also a gift, Mane's cross inexplicably squirming out of Randolph's gloves and landing perfectly for Origi to score for a fourth successive game in all competitions - the first Liverpool player to do so since Daniel Sturridge in February 2014.
Mane was at the heart of everything good Liverpool did in attack, playing a part in an intricate passing move that ended with a blocked Henderson shot, and then twisting and turning on the edge of the area to create an opening for Georginio Wijnaldum that flew wide.
Wijnaldum also failed to get enough curl on his shot when advancing on goal down the left channel, while Roberto Firmino was guilty of missing the target after good approach play.
Indeed Liverpool's only other shot on target was Henderson's superb long-distance strike, which was reminiscent of his stunning winner against Chelsea in September but met on this occasion by the right hand of the flying Randolph.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp: "We tried everything. One West Ham goal was a free-kick and one was lucky. They were 2-1 up and we had some great offensive situations and should have had more. We tried everything. We were often in the box, a lot of situations.
"It felt like the whole time we were were in their box. We needed a bit of luck. A draw doesn't feel too good, doesn't feel too bad.
"The goals could have been avoided. For the first goal - don't make the foul, don't lose the ball. The second goal was unlucky. Joel Matip had a fantastic game and in this moment he couldn't clear the ball. Loris Karius was surprised and it was too late.
"Should Karius have saved the free-kick? For this I have to see it again - I only saw it in the match."
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic: "We showed a great reaction after they were one up. In the first half we were very good.
"I wasn't happy with the second half because I expected us to be better on the ball. In the end, well done for the players."
On Darren Randolph's mistake: "It's the nature of their job - when they make a mistake it is obvious. He made a mistake but after and before he showed real quality and he was crucial for us in moments when they had a chance or two."
Media playback is not supported on this device
It's a quick turnaround for these clubs with a round of midweek Premier League fixtures to come. Both teams are in back action at 19:45 GMT on Wednesday as Liverpool travel to Middlesbrough and West Ham host Burnley.
Match ends, Liverpool 2, West Ham United 2.
Second Half ends, Liverpool 2, West Ham United 2.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Aaron Cresswell.
Offside, West Ham United. Darren Randolph tries a through ball, but Mark Noble is caught offside.
Divock Origi (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Edimilson Fernandes (West Ham United).
Sadio Mané (Liverpool) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Aaron Cresswell (West Ham United).
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Håvard Nordtveit.
Attempt blocked. James Milner (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Sadio Mané.
Offside, West Ham United. Mark Noble tries a through ball, but Aaron Cresswell is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Adam Lallana.
Attempt missed. Dimitri Payet (West Ham United) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right.
Foul by James Milner (Liverpool).
Pedro Obiang (West Ham United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Offside, Liverpool. James Milner tries a through ball, but Sadio Mané is caught offside.
Substitution, West Ham United. Edimilson Fernandes replaces Manuel Lanzini.
Sadio Mané (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card.
Foul by Sadio Mané (Liverpool).
Aaron Cresswell (West Ham United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Aaron Cresswell.
Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Andy Carroll (West Ham United).
Hand ball by Winston Reid (West Ham United).
Attempt blocked. Sadio Mané (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Nathaniel Clyne.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Andy Carroll.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Darren Randolph.
Attempt saved. Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top right corner.
Attempt blocked. Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Adam Lallana.
Foul by Adam Lallana (Liverpool).
Pedro Obiang (West Ham United) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Offside, Liverpool. Sadio Mané tries a through ball, but Divock Origi is caught offside.
Substitution, West Ham United. Andy Carroll replaces André Ayew.
Attempt missed. Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by James Milner.
Attempt blocked. André Ayew (West Ham United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Manuel Lanzini.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Aaron Cresswell.
Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Roberto Firmino (Liverpool).
Mark Noble (West Ham United) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Winston Reid. | Goals by Dimitri Payet and Michail Antonio exposed Liverpool's defensive frailties again as West Ham climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone with a hard-fought draw at Anfield. |
36602256 | It is hard to comprehend now but in the 1970s Slade openly ran a helpline for child sex abusers from his parents' home in suburban Bristol.
As he was sentenced at the end of his recent trial, the judge said Slade had "boasted of his involvement" with PIE.
The group campaigned for "children's sexuality", calling on the government to axe or lower the age of consent so that adults could have sex with children without breaking the law.
It existed for more than 10 years and received invitations from student unions, won sympathetic media coverage and found academics who supported its campaign. It was even affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties - now Liberty.
Joining PIE was easy; according to a Times report in February 1977 just an application and a cheque for £4 was needed. By October 1976 it was reported that the group had 200 members.
But behind this questionable veneer of respectability, Slade was a "manipulative and dangerous man," who helped members of PIE groom vulnerable children; passing victims between themselves for sex.
Det Sgt Paul Melton, from Avon and Somerset Police, spent years building a case against Slade.
He said Slade "was one of the main instigators" of the group, seemingly impervious to the law, who were running a "helpline" for paedophiles, passing on advice to other members about how to groom and abuse children.
"They took advantage of the trends of the time," said Gabrielle Shaw, from the National Association for People Abused in Childhood.
"In the mid-70s it was all about the fight for civil liberties and the trend towards sexual freedom... what it was really about was to normalise sex with children."
Robert - not his real name - met Slade in 1980 when he was 15 years old. He was repeatedly raped and offered to other men during visits to Slade's Bristol home.
"I was in a desperate situation at home," he recalls, "I was looking for somewhere that would be a refuge for me."
But instead of a sanctuary, Robert unwittingly found himself at the centre of an organised network of paedophiles who systematically raped and abused him.
It was a combination of mistrust and conflicting emotions that prevented Robert reporting his abuser: "Slade showed me what I thought was affection and, because of my home life, it was something I was desperate for... he treated me very kindly.
"He groomed me so I was malleable and would be used for the sexual gratification of him and other men."
Slade's sexual abuse of boys was exposed in 1975 when a Sunday newspaper described him as one of "the vilest men in Britain".
They named him and two other men, linking them to PIE, but, despite the headlines, Slade continued abusing children and the group carried on campaigning.
A series of explosive investigations in the 1980s finally triggered the group's demise.
In 1983, Scotland Yard was handed a dossier about PIE by a headmaster, Charles Oxley. He said he had infiltrated the group, which he claimed had about 1,000 members.
Finally the authorities acted and PIE's chairman Tom O'Carroll was jailed for two years. By 1984 the group had disbanded.
However, Slade himself managed to evade prosecution and in 1985 moved to the Philippines. He boasted he could pay off anyone who became suspicious of him.
Avon and Somerset Police would later fight a six-year battle to have him deported, and he was finally arrested by Filipino immigration authorities.
In 2015, he arrived back in the UK to face eight charges of sexual abuse.
During police interviews, Det Sgt Melton said Slade "possessed a certain arrogance" and was in "complete denial" about his actions.
"He's an extremely manipulative man... he's a dangerous man."
For the victims of the PIE paedophiles, the conviction of Slade provides some form of closure.
"They are sexually driven and have no compassion, not for me or the many, many children they have abused," said Robert.
"I don't believe they have any thoughts for what they have done; they don't believe they have done anything wrong - for them it's perfectly natural." | As 75-year-old paedophile Douglas Slade is jailed for child abuse and rape, the BBC examines his links to notorious 1970s group the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), which campaigned to legalise sex with children. |
34555014 | The killings, in Saihat in Eastern Province on Friday, come two days after the start of Ashura commemorations, a holy occasion for Shia Muslims.
A group claiming links to Islamic State (IS) said it carried out the attack.
The interior ministry said a gunman opened fire at random before police intervened and shot the attacker dead.
Later, a group calling itself Islamic State-Bahrain State said that one of its "soldiers" had attacked "a Shia infidel temple" with an automatic weapon.
The group warned that "infidels will not be safe in the island of Mohammed".
Correspondents say the name of the group appears to be a reference to the historic area of Bahrain, which once encompassed parts of what is now Saudi Arabia.
Other, smaller attacks against the Shia community in the east of Saudi Arabia were also reported on Friday evening.
The Shia community in the kingdom is increasingly being targeted. Most live in the oil-rich east, and many complain of discrimination.
In May, IS said it had carried out a deadly bomb attack outside a Shia mosque in the city of Damman.
A week before, more than 20 people were killed in the village of al-Qadeeh when an IS suicide bomber struck during Friday prayers at a Shia mosque.
That attack was the first to be claimed by a Saudi branch of IS.
Hardline Sunnis regard Shia Muslims as heretics.
Saudi Arabia, which is part of a US-led coalition against IS in Syria and Iraq, has previously been threatened by IS.
The Saudis are also leading a coalition of Arab states in an air campaign against Shia rebels in Yemen.
In the Ashura commemorations, Shias mourn the death of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who is venerated by Saudi Arabia's minority Shia community. | Five people have been killed and nine wounded in an attack on a Shia gathering hall in eastern Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry says. |
40251725 | Marian Brown, 17, had just kissed her boyfriend goodnight when she was fatally wounded in the neck.
She was caught up in an exchange of fire between paramilitaries and an Army patrol at Roden Street in June 1972.
A fresh inquest was ordered after questions were raised over the velocity of the bullet that killed her.
Her brother, Richard Brown, told the inquest that for two years the family thought she had been killed by loyalist paramilitaries shooting up the street.
However, it was only at the first inquest they discovered soldiers had also been involved in the shooting incident.
During Monday morning's hearing, Mr Brown spoke emotionally about his sister and how he felt about what happened to her.
As her older brother, he said he "felt ashamed that he couldn't do anything" to help her and he was angry that whoever fired the shot "took her life and robbed us of a sister, a daughter and a friend".
Mr Brown said the 17-year-old "never got to bloom".
Other family members were also in court for the start of the inquest being heard by Judge David McFarland, which is expected to last more than two weeks. | The brother of a pregnant teenager shot dead in disputed circumstances in west Belfast 45 years ago has told an inquest she was completely innocent. |
35878819 | The Times says it has "evidence of an organised drugs culture" similar to the one in Russian athletics.
Earlier this month, Russian swimmer Yuliya Efimova was suspended after testing positive for meldonium.
Russia's athletes are currently banned from international competition.
Fina said it had taken a "particularly robust approach" to Russia after a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) independent commission report exposed widespread doping practices in Russian athletics.
It pledged to investigate any new doping claims "substantiated by evidence".
The Russian Swimming Federation has rejected the allegations that it was covering up positive tests for doping among its athletes, R-Sport news agency reported.
Fina has previously announced that the world's best swimmers will face up to seven anti-doping tests in the run up to August's Rio Olympics.
Wada said it was aware of the claims that appeared in The Times and added that the allegations come at a time when "trust in clean sport is already in a perilous state".
It said it had already written to Fina, with Wada president Craig Reedie adding: "There is no doubt that today's disturbing assertions of orchestrated doping in Russian swimming should be scrutinised."
British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes said the sport is taking a "strong position" on doping, shown by the number of cases reported. | Swimming's world governing body says it is "not aware" of any "concrete evidence of systemic doping" among Russian swimmers, despite allegations made in a newspaper investigation. |
29729697 | Media playback is unsupported on your device
22 October 2014 Last updated at 16:09 BST
The recommendations have been made because some children in England as young as five, have decayed, missing and filled teeth.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, say that teeth brushing in school should take place in certain areas with high levels of tooth decay.
They also say free toothbrushes and toothpaste should be handed out for use at school and at home in these areas. | Some primary schools and nurseries in England should supervise children brushing their teeth, say NICE, an organisation that gives guidance on health matters. |
30634906 | Syal, who is famous for comedy roles on television in Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No.42, becomes a CBE.
One of the pioneers for black footballers in the 1970s, ex-West Bromwich Albion defender Brendon Batson, is among those appointed OBE.
Former chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland Matt Baggott, of Solihull, is knighted.
Sir Matt, who retired from the job in September after five years, is honoured for services to policing in the United Kingdom.
He said: "This award is an acknowledgement of the courage, commitment and achievements of my policing colleagues without whose immense efforts I would not have been able to fulfil my responsibilities."
Syal, who is honoured for services to drama and literature, scripted the film Bhaji On the Beach and starred in the radio series Goodness Gracious Me, which later transferred to TV.
She used her experiences growing up in the West Midlands for her first book Anita And Me, which was later adapted for the screen.
Syal, who is married to her screen colleague Sanjeev Bhaskar, also scripted the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bombay Dreams.
Batson, previously an MBE, receives the OBE for services to football.
The former defender, from Birmingham, worked for the Professional Footballers' Association and has also been an adviser to the Football Association on equality.
Others recognised include ex-Cadbury chairman Sir Adrian Cadbury, of Solihull, who has become a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to business and the community in the UK, particularly Birmingham.
Walsall College principal and chief executive Jatinder Sharma is honoured for services to education while Denise Ellen Moreton, from Wolverhampton, is recognised for services to the Women's Institute Movement in Staffordshire. Both are appointed OBE. | Wolverhampton-born actress and writer Meera Syal has been recognised in the Queen's New Year Honours. |
37606356 | Gordon Highlander Alistair Urquhart said the bomb prevented a Japanese plan to massacre Allied PoWs.
He was blown off his feet by the Nagasaki bomb in 1945. That, and the Hiroshima atomic bomb killed up to 250,000 people, but are credited with hastening the end of World War Two.
Aberdeen-born Mr Urquhart, of Broughty Ferry, died in a Dundee care home.
His story began when Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942.
Serving with the Gordon Highlanders' Second Battalion he had arrived there just weeks earlier as the Allies strengthened the island fortress against the expected invasion.
He was among thousands taken prisoner and ended up helping to build the notorious Burma-Siam railway.
Mr Urquhart's detail was put to work in what became known as "Hellfire Pass", where men were forced to cut through solid rock using nothing more than hand tools and dynamite.
An estimated 13,000 Allied PoWs died on the railway. When it was completed, the surviving prisoners were taken back to Singapore to be put on ships to Japan.
The Americans, not knowing the cargo, torpedoed them. The ship Mr Urquhart was on sank.
For five days he drifted on the ocean in a raft, until he was picked up by a whaler.
He ended up in a labour camp 10 miles from Nagasaki where, on 9 August 1945, the second atomic bomb exploded.
He recalled: "I heard a plane, and I looked up. And it was quite clearly an American plane. No opposition.
"And it just droned over and away.
"Minutes later, I was just blown across the pathway - a big gust, which I thought was wind, hot air. But this was the bomb going off.
"There had been a directive from the Japanese Army that if the Americans put one foot on Japanese soil, the whole of the people who had been taken prisoner had to be massacred on 12 August.
"When was the bomb dropped? 9 August. Thank God. And here I am."
The Japanese surrendered nine days after the first blast, ending World War Two.
Mr Urquhart's son, Philip, said: "My father passed away peacefully with his family and friends around him on Friday.
"He only moved into the care home in February having looked after himself up to the age of 96 and he was happy there.
"He was 97 when he died so we cannot say he did not have a full life." | A former prisoner-of-war who credited the Nagasaki atomic bomb with saving his life has died at the age of 97. |
37255418 | Marco Gutierrez was explaining why he supports Donald Trump, a day after the presidential candidate's visit to Mexico.
"My culture is a very dominant culture and it's imposing and it's causing problems," he told MSNBC.
"If you don't do something about it, you're going to have taco trucks on every corner."
His warning led to ridicule on social media as people suggested the prediction sounded like a utopian vision of the US.
On Twitter, #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner became the top trend worldwide with almost 60,000 tweets using the hashtag since Gutierrez made his prediction.
"Hey, what's wrong with #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner?!", tweeted Mexican-American actress Eva Longoria while Democrat politician Eric Swalwell posted a map by depicting tacos all over the area he represents.
Comedian Akilah Hughes tweeted a gif of raining tacos and pledged: "I will vote for whoever promises #TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner."
And journalist Marcus Baram played on the Trump campaign phrase "Make America Great Again" by suggesting more tacos could help towards that aim.
Others shared images of Donald Trump enjoying the traditional Mexican dish - an image he originally posted to mark Cinco de Mayo, which celebrates Mexican heritage. | The founder of Latinos For Trump has been widely mocked for warning of a future with "taco trucks on every corner" in the US if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election. |
37541715 | Burton's film, based on Ransom Riggs' novel, took an estimated $28.5m (£22.1m) over the weekend.
Peter Berg's Deepwater Horizon, about the 2010 oil rig explosion and starring Mark Wahlberg, came in second with $20.6m (£16m).
Chess prodigy tale Queen of Katwe could only manage $2.6m (£2m).
Its release was expanded nationally having made a limited debut the previous weekend.
The Disney film, starring Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo, depicts the life of Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan chess prodigy who becomes a woman candidate master after her performances at the World Chess Olympiads.
Last week's top film The Magnificent Seven slipped to third spot with $15.7m in its second week.
The film, which stars Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, is a remake of the 1960 western film of the same name.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or if you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Tim Burton's film Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children has beaten disaster movie Deepwater Horizon to the top of the US film chart. |
38262019 | The Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank is currently the only heart transplant unit in the UK which cannot also offer lung replacement surgery.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said ministers were investigating whether the proposal could go ahead.
The Golden Jubilee is celebrating 25 years since its first heart transplant.
A decision on lung transplants is expected be made next year.
Ms Sturgeon said: "There's a scoping exercise being undertaken right now that will report in the first half of next year and then decisions will be made on the strength of the evidence that is available.
"What the exercise is looking at is the feasibility of carrying out lung transplants here as well.
"I completely understand the desire of clinicians who feel they have the capability, and also of patients who would prefer their operations here in Scotland rather than having to go to Newcastle which has been the case traditionally, but we've got to make sure we take these decisions based on the best possible evidence."
Prof Nawwar Al-Attar, Director of Scottish National Advanced Heart Failure Service, said surgeons were keen, and ready to be able to take on the extra work.
He appealed for more donors to come forward to enable the transplant programme to expand.
"Glasgow is the only transplant centre in the UK that only offers heart transplantation," he said.
"We are very keen on offering lung transplants to patients with advanced respiratory and lung disease."
"We are very much looking forward to coming up with recommendations to support our request to have lung transplantations."
Since the programme began in 1991, 367 heart transplants have been carried out with the longest surviving patient receiving his heart 24 years ago.
Chief executive of the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Jill Young, said: "Each year we hold an event dedicated to bringing together patients and families who have been treated by the service, letting them share their experiences and see that they are not alone.
"This year, however, is a very special occasion for the NHS in Scotland: celebrating a landmark for this life-changing, life-saving, service which has given patients all across Scotland a second chance at life."
She added: "Today is a chance to look back, celebrate and remember but it is also an opportunity to look forward at new developments and possibilities for the future to help more patients than ever before not only survive heart failure, but go on to live healthy, active, normal lives for years to come." | A request from surgeons to be allowed to carry out lung transplants in Scotland for the first time is being considered by the Scottish government. |
31833070 | A range of other drugs in the same class including ketamine and crystal meth became legal on Tuesday after a court challenge.
The new legislation will officially be signed into law on Wednesday afternoon.
It will come into force at midnight meaning many drugs remain legal until then.
Members of the Dail, the main chamber of Ireland's parliament, passed the emergency legislation on Tuesday night.
The Seanad, the upper chamber, approved it on Wednesday afternoon, and now it will be passed to the Irish president to sign into law.
When the law comes into force at midnight, possession of drugs such as ecstasy and crystal meth will have been legal for around 36 hours.
In 2012, a Lithuanian man was prosecuted for possession of methylethcathinone, a substance once stocked by shops selling legal highs.
The government had put the drug on its list of outlawed substances the previous year, along with dozens of others.
The man brought a case to Ireland's Court of Appeal, arguing the outlawing of the drug was unconstitutional, because lawmakers had not voted in support of it.
The court agreed and on Tuesday morning it ruled methylethcathinone was not illegal.
This meant more than 100 drugs covered by the same section of law also became legal, including ecstasy, magic mushrooms, crystal meth and benzodiazepines.
It's legal to possess them but not to sell, supply, import or export them.
Laws relating to older, more established drugs such as heroin, cocaine or cannabis have not been affected.
Ireland's Health Minister Leo Varadkar said the government knew this might happen and had drafted emergency legislation in January.
He warned drug dealers they would be arrested if caught selling drugs and urged people to consider how harmful drugs were before considering taking them.
Newsbeat spoke to Ireland's police force, the Garda, and asked them what they would do if they found people in possession of drugs like ecstasy before midnight on Wednesday.
A spokesman said: "An Garda Siochána will continue to enforce relevant legislation. Any person found in possession of a substance deemed illegal under legislation will be subject to prosecution."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | The Irish parliament's passed an emergency law that will close a loophole which has left it legal to possess drugs such as ecstasy. |
37331760 | The 1960s-set drama, based on Philip Roth's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, premiered at the Toronto film festival.
McGregor also stars in the film, alongside Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning.
Speaking to the BBC, McGregor said: "On the one hand it's been the most incredible experience and I would long to do it again.
"And on the other hand, it's a very costly experience - 16,17,18 months of your life - carrying something very precious."
He highlighted the challenge of juggling directing with "trying to be a husband and a father and a human being".
"It's quite a costly thing to do," he said. "I can only assume that's why it's taken me 15 years of wanting to do it, to do it."
The Scottish star said he needed a story he was "burning to tell" to justify that commitment.
"I hope very much to find the next story. I'm not going to rush into it. I hope the story will find me or I find the story and that I do get the opportunity to do it again."
In American Pastoral, McGregor plays a successful businessman whose seemingly perfect family life falls apart after his daughter Merry (Fanning) becomes politically radicalised.
The actor admitted he had been "very nervous" about taking on the directing role but was sure he had the film-making experience to carry it off.
McGregor revealed that one tip he had learned from Danny Boyle, who directed him in Trainspotting, was to rehearse with the actors alone on the set before shooting.
McGregor will be seen in Boyle's Trainspotting 2 next year.
"As an actor we have a unique position in that we do witness lots of directors," McGregor said.
"Directors don't really get to see other directors' work. Danny Boyle doesn't spend an awful lot of time on Martin Scorsese's film sets."
The Toronto International Film Festival runs until 18 September. | Ewan McGregor says he has no plans to rush back to directing after making his debut with American Pastoral. |
35407477 | Chris and Ciara Boucher, from Antrim, told the Victoria Derbyshire Show that their daughter Lucy was taken care of by "brilliant medical teams".
Lucy had a successful kidney transplant last November. The kidney was donated by her father.
3D replicas of Lucy's abdomen and Chris' kidney were made before surgery.
The printed models helped surgeons at Guys and St Thomas' Hospital plan how to put an adult-sized kidney into the body of a toddler.
Lucy suffered heart failure at four weeks old. Her kidneys subsequently failed after being starved of oxygen.
She was put on kidney dialysis until she was old enough to go through with a transplant.
"There have been lots of ups and downs along the way," said Mrs Boucher. "The day that she took ill we were told when we were leaving our local hospital to say goodbye to her because she may not make the journey to Belfast.
"Thankfully for us, we have had brilliant medical teams in five different hospitals who have worked with her and got her to where she is today."
The transplant surgeon, Pankaj Chandak, said that the 3D models added an "additional layer of safety" for a complex type of surgery.
"So essentially, this [the 3D models] helps us with particularly planning that approach, but thinking about the incision, how to approach the vessels and the best lie of the kidney inside the abdomen."
Mr Boucher said he was "astounded" to see a 3D printout of his own kidney and that it helped underline the complexity of the surgery.
"It was phenomenal to see it and then to just hold it over Lucy's abdomen - you just think: 'How on earth can they fit that into this abdomen?'
"Again, it just highlighted even more how impressive what they do is."
Mr and Mrs Boucher said that Lucy is now an active and healthy young girl thanks to to the help of doctors and nurses over the past two years.
"She's so happy," said Mr Boucher. "She's smiled right through it and that's because of the nurses and the staff and the way they've been with her.
"She gets excited when she's going into hospital even when she's going into to get blood tests which she hates.
"She walks out with a smile on her face and we really are so grateful." | The parents of a three-year-old toddler who underwent an innovative kidney transplant that involved 3D printing have said they are "very fortunate". |
35923801 | Christopher James Wauchope, 40, was arrested following a search of his home at Strabane Road, Castlederg, on Tuesday.
He faces four charges relating to attempted importation and attempted possession with intent to supply.
The defendant will appear in court by video link on 21 April.
The court heard that on 15 March the Belgian authorities intercepted a postal package containing 3.2kg of a suspected Class B drug.
The National Crime Agency was alerted and they in turn spoke with the PSNI as it was addressed to a 'Christopher Walker'.
When police swooped on the defendant's home he immediately admitted knowledge of the package but said he did not know the identity of the sender.
He said his payment for receiving the package was to be a small amount of cannabis for his own personal use.
In court, police opposed bail on the grounds that Mr Wauchope could tip his contacts off about the investigation.
The District Judge said the defendant there was a "real and substantial risk of interference with the administration of justice and any further investigation".
Mr Wauchope will reappear at Strabane Magistrates Court next month. Bail has been refused.
On Wednesday, in a separate incident, police arrested a 40-year-old man in the Carnhill area of Londonderry, after herbal cannabis with a potential street value of £66,000 was also uncovered in Belgium. | A man has appeared at Strabane Magistrates Court, County Tyrone, after the seizure of an estimated £64,000 worth of herbal cannabis in Belgium. |
32926172 | Officials say nearly 1,700 people have died in the worst-hit states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where temperatures rose above 45C (113F).
Clouds have formed over some parts of the two states and weather officials say pre-monsoon showers are likely to provide some relief on Friday.
The monsoon is due to reach Kerala, in the south, by the end of May.
It will then sweep across the country.
In the worst-affected state of Andhra Pradesh, where temperatures have hit 47C (117F), more than 1,300 people are reported to have died since 18 May.
The state's top meteorological officer YK Reddy told BBC Hindi that heatwave conditions "have reduced considerably" and temperatures have fallen in all but two districts.
In neighbouring Telangana, where officials say at least 340 people have died from heat-related conditions, temperatures have declined.
"For all practical purposes, the heat wave has now ended in our state," BR Meena, Telangana's disaster management commissioner, told BBC Hindi.
Meanwhile India's public hospitals are struggling to cope with patients of the heatwave.
"I have been posted here for seven years, but I am feeling a lot of heat this year. We have been seeing a dozen patients of heat wave every day," Dr Anjaya of Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Medical Sciences in Andhra Pradesh told the BBC.
Hospitals in the Indian capital Delhi, where temperatures have soared to 45.5C (113.9F) have also seen a large number of patients.
"Hospitals are overflowing with heatstroke victims," Ajay Lekhi, president of the Delhi Medical Association, told AFP news agency.
"Patients are complaining of severe headache and dizziness. They are also showing symptoms of delirium," he said.
Reports said there were long queues outside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, one of Delhi's largest government-run hospitals.
"Last night there was no electricity for nearly five hours," Seema Sharma told AFP outside the hospital as she waited in line for her four-year-old son to be examined.
"You can imagine what we must have gone through. He just couldn't sleep and kept on crying. Now he has fever as well."
The Delhi-based research organisation Centre for Science and Environment said the high deaths this year could be because of the sudden onset of heat.
"This could be due to the sudden change in temperatures after a prolonged wet February and March that had kept the temperatures cool," said Arjuna Srinidhi, the group's programme manager for climate change.
Sources: National Disaster Management Authority of India and BBC | The massive heatwave sweeping India is starting to ease, with forecasts of rain in some affected states. |
29475566 | Computer security researchers wrote the code following the discovery of the USB flaw earlier this year.
The pair made the code public in an attempt to force electronics firms to improve defences against attack by USB.
One of the experts who found the flaw said the release was a "stark reminder" of its seriousness.
Details of the BadUSB flaw were released at the Black Hat computer security conference in August by Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell.
Their work revealed how to exploit flaws in the software that helps devices connect to computers via USB. The biggest problem they discovered lurks in the onboard software, known as firmware, found on these devices.
Among other things the firmware tells a computer what kind of a device is being plugged into a USB socket but the two cybersecurity researchers found a way to subvert this and install attack code. At Black Hat, the BBC saw demonstrations using a smartphone and a USB stick that could steal data when plugged into target machines.
Mr Nohl said he and his colleague did not release code in order to give firms making USB-controlling firmware time to work out how to combat the problem.
Now researchers Adam Caudill and Brandon Wilson have done their own work on the USB flaw and produced code that can be used to exploit it. The pair unveiled their work at the DerbyCon hacker conference last week and have made their attack software freely available via code-sharing site Github.
"We're releasing everything we've done here, nothing is being held back," said Mr Wilson in a presentation at DerbyCon.
"We believe that this information should not be limited to a select few as others have treated it," he added. "It needs to be available to the public."
Mr Wilson said cybercrime groups definitely had the resources to replicate the work of Mr Nohl and Mr Lell to produce their own attack code so releasing a version to the security community was a way to redress that imbalance.
Responding to the release of the attack tools Mr Nohl told the BBC that such "full disclosure" can motivate companies to act and make products more secure.
"In the case of BadUSB, however, the problem is structural," he said. "The standard itself is what enables the attack and no single vendor is in a position to change that."
"It is unclear who would feel pressured to improve their products by the recent release," he added. "The release is a stark reminder to defenders, though, that BadUSB is - and always has been - in reach of attackers." | Computer code that can turn almost any device that connects via USB into a cyber-attack platform has been shared online. |
39337707 | The Shetland Isles recorded the fastest house price growth in the 12 months to the end of January, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
However, the Orkney Isles saw the fourth biggest fall in prices over the same period, the ONS data showed.
UK property prices, on average, rose by 6.2% in the year.
This meant that the typical home in the UK cost £218,000.
The ONS figures record the UK local authority areas seeing the sharpest house prices rises and the biggest falls in the year to the end of January.
These show that the average house price in the Shetland Isles rose by 21.9% in the year to the end of January, to £182,184.
In contrast, the average price in the Orkney Isles was down 4.3% to £108,224 over the same period.
Relatively few homes are bought and sold in the Scottish isles, so the average price can fluctuate significantly.
Where can I afford to live?
Across the UK, the most expensive borough to buy a home was in Kensington and Chelsea, where the cost of an average house was £1.3m in January. The cheapest area to buy a property was Burnley, where an average house cost £73,000.
The figures show that, regionally, the highest annual growth was in the east of England with prices increasing by 9.4%. Growth in the south east of England was second highest at 8.7%, followed by London at 7.3%.
The lowest annual growth was in the north east of England, where prices increased by 2.2% over the year.
UK-wide house price growth accelerated in each of the two months since November, the latest ONS data shows.
Separate ONS figures found that the cost of living, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index inlfation measure, rose by 2.3% in the year to February.
Hello
I'm an experiment from BBC News Labs.
You can ask me questions about this story, like...
Ask an expert about this story
Ask BBC News about this story
Still got questions? Ask Newsbot | House prices in the Scottish isles have witnessed contrasting fortunes in the past year - putting them at extreme ends of UK property price movements. |
36144267 | Images posted on social media showed burning rubbish and parts of the Moria camp being evacuated.
The unrest came during a visit by the Greek migration minister and a Dutch minister.
The migrants are angry about the detention conditions and an EU deal to return economic migrants to Turkey.
Moria camp was visited by the Pope earlier this month.
The unaccompanied minors section of the camp was particularly affected by the unrest, AFP news agency reported.
About 3,000 people are being held in Moria, waiting to hear what will happen to them.
A spokesman for the UN refugee agency said the migrants were "angry and frustrated" and there had been a "surge in violence" in recent days.
Moria was turned into a closed detention centre after the deportation deal was announced.
Under the EU-Turkey agreement, migrants who have arrived illegally in Greece since 20 March are to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or if their claim is rejected.
For each Syrian migrant returned to Turkey, the EU is to take in another Syrian who has made a legitimate request.
Earlier, 49 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Myanmar became the third group of migrants to be returned to Turkey under the deal. | Clashes have broken out between police and stone-throwing migrants at a detention centre on the Greek island of Lesbos, police said. |
36496561 | Police said the Class A drug was found within a commercial property near a school and a house in the Livingston area.
It was estimated to have a street value of about £24,000.
The men, aged 34 and 23, were due to appear at Livingston Sheriff Court on Monday.
The teenager was also reported to the children's reporter. | A 15-year-old boy has been reported to the procurator fiscal and two men have been charged after half a kilo of cocaine was recovered in West Lothian. |
32216532 | Przemyslaw Kaluzny is facing a total of 12 charges over a series of alleged incidents at Toys R Us on Sunday.
The 41-year-old is accused of picking up the boy and trying to run out of the shop with him before attacking his 67-year-old grandmother with the bat.
He made no plea or declaration and was remanded in custody.
Kaluzny, of Watson Street, Dundee, is first alleged to have stolen a mobile phone from a neighbour's flat before intentionally exposing his genitals to her. He is then said to have stolen a cricket bat from the flat before taking and driving away a Renault Laguna car.
He is then alleged to have driven the car from the Baxter Park area of the city to the Kingsway Retail Park without insurance and without a licence.
Prosecutors say Kaluzny then went into the Toys R Us store and committed a breach of the peace by behaving in a disorderly manner and running into the store while in possession of a cricket bat.
He is then said to have removed his clothing, shouted, bawled, entered the toilets and adopted a menacing and aggressive attitude, brandished the bat, and placed staff and customers in a state of alarm by struggling violently with them.
Kaluzny is further accused of an offence of public indecency by moving through the store while naked.
He is then alleged to have abducted a six-year-old boy by picking him up and attempting to run out of the shop while carrying him and detaining him against his will.
Kaluzny is further alleged to have assaulted the boy's 67-year-old grandmother by striking her on the head with the bat to her injury.
A final charge alleges that he broke a pair of police handcuffs while he was being transported from the store to Dundee's police HQ.
He made no plea or declaration during a brief private hearing at Dundee Sheriff Court, and was remanded in custody by Sheriff George Way until a further hearing next week. | A man has appeared in court accused of abducting a six-year-old boy and hitting a woman with a cricket bat in a Dundee toy shop - while naked. |
34591989 | George Evans, 92, signed up on the advice of a young neighbour who saw him using bricks as weights outside his home in Skewen.
Mr Evans, a widower, has attributed his long life and fitness to never smoking, hardly drinking and good eating.
"My instructor can't get over it. They say I'm marvellous and they don't know how I can do it," he said.
"Most of my friends are either dead or walking around on sticks, so I must be doing something right."
He added: "Hopefully I will still be going when I'm 100. I will aim for that anyway." | A Swansea pensioner has joined a gym, working out three times a week, in a pledge to reach his 100th birthday. |
32941726 | Andres Pastrana of Colombia and Jorge Quiroga of Bolivia were not allowed to visit opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and former mayor, Daniel Ceballos.
Both prisoners started a hunger strike around a week ago.
State officials said the ex-presidents were part of an hostile campaign against the country.
President Nicolas Maduro has said Venezuela's judiciary is independent and those in jail are criminals.
However, their supporters and rights groups say the two men's imprisonment is politically motivated and accused Mr Maduro of cracking down on his opponents.
Mr Lopez is being held in the Ramo Verde military prison outside Caracas, while Mr Ceballos is in a civilian prison in the central state of Guarico.
The presidents attempted to visit both sites.
Leopoldo Lopez is on trial for inciting violence during three months of protests against the government of President Maduro during which 43 people died including some police officers.
Daniel Ceballos, who was mayor of the western city of San Cristobal near the border with Colombia, which was a focus of many of the protests, is accused of supporting street blockades and calling for violence at the protests.
Last month a group of former world leaders sent an open letter to the Venezuelan government urging the release of the opposition leaders.
In April a former Spanish prime minister, Felipe Gonzalez, who announced his intention to help in the legal defence of Leopoldo Lopez, was also denied access to him.
The Venezuelan attorney general said under the country's law Mr Gonzalez could not form part of Mr Lopez's legal team.
Mr Maduro has been scathing about international support for Venezuelan opposition leaders.
"In general, these former prime ministers are usually discredited. They don't even want them in their own countries and then they come over here to disturb us." | Venezuela has blocked two ex-presidents from visiting opposition leaders jailed on charges of inciting violence against the government. |
35755219 | The warning has been issued after nine sheep were killed in Afonwen, near Mold, Flintshire, on Monday.
PC Dave Allen, of the force's Rural Crime Unit, said: "This sort of thing is happening all the time now in north Wales."
He urged dog owners to "take responsibility" of their dogs and encouraged farmers to report attacks.
Since September 2013, there are believed to have been about 260 dog attacks on livestock in north Wales.
PC Allen explained that in more than 100 of these cases, police have identified "particular breeds of concern" - huskies and German Shepherds.
Referring to Monday's attack, he said: "The sheep had their ears bitten off and puncture wounds to their neck.
"The issue in this case is we don't know who the dog is, so there's a good chance farmers could become a victim of another attack.
"It's a tremendous worry to farmers. This is their livelihood."
Dog owners need to "be aware of their dogs' needs, have it under control in public places, and always use a dog lead", he added. | Dog attacks on sheep have become an "everyday occurrence", North Wales Police has said. |
35995797 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Victory at Sixfields for the Cobblers, who are 14 points clear at the top with six games remaining, would secure them at least an automatic promotion spot.
But Rovers, whose top scorer with 25 goals in all competitions this term is Taylor, have their own promotion hopes.
"We have a gameplan to try to execute a win," he told BBC Radio Bristol.
"It will be a tough game. But we'll be going there to ruin their promotion party."
Manager Darrell Clarke added: "Northampton are going to win the league and they thoroughly deserve it. We will go there with respect.
"But we'll be expecting to win. We'll have a gameplan to try and win a football match. The expectation will always be sky-high here, while I'm manager."
Clarke's third-placed side go into Saturday's game level on points with fourth-placed Plymouth and fifth-placed Accrington, and two points behind Oxford United. | Bristol Rovers forward Matt Taylor says they will go to Northampton Town on Saturday looking to "ruin the promotion party" for the League Two leaders. |
40693274 | The Dons host Apollon on Thursday evening in the first leg of the third qualifying round.
And 20-year-old Reynolds, who has been with Apollon for 10 years, says the Pittodrie men are in for a tough test.
"We have players that can definitely hurt Aberdeen, but we need to take our chances," Reynolds told BBC Scotland.
"We have a very strong team, our centre-back Valentin Roberge was in the Sunderland team three years ago, so he was playing in the Premier League.
"We have Alex da Silva, a Brazilian who has had a very good career and is technically very good. Our striker Anton Maglica is also a very good player.
"We need to go to Aberdeen and play our way, the way we have been playing the last couple of seasons.
"We like to build from the back, we're a possession-based team and when we don't have the ball we press to get it back. We like to keep the ball and try to make our opponents run."
Reynolds moved to Cyprus with his family after his father was posted there on military service. Having been with the Hibs Academy at the time, the Easter Road outfit helped him join up with Apollon and he signed a professional contract when he was 17.
The Scot has been immersed in Cypriot football and reckons the Dons will suffer if they take Apollon lightly.
"When I come home and mention Cypriot football, it's obviously really underrated," added Reynolds, who has had a loan spell at AO Ayia Napa and has featured 12 times for the Apollon first team.
"No-one really knows about it but last year APOEL went to the last 32 [of the Europa League], beating Athletic Bilbao and eventually being knocked out by Anderlecht.
"We know Aberdeen are a very good side so it will be very difficult to get a result, but we are confident and hopefully we can do something in the tie."
Reynolds, a Rangers fan who was named after Ally McCoist, has been impressed with what he has seen from Aberdeen in recent seasons.
And he revealed he could be seeing them more often with a loan move to Scotland a possibility.
"I had confirmation that I can come for a loan so my agent has been looking back home and is speaking to a few clubs on my behalf," he added. "You never know, I could be back in Scotland sooner than I thought."
Aberdeen, who reached the third qualifying round by winning 2-0 in Bosnia over Siroki Brijeg for a 3-1 aggregate victory, go to Cyprus for the return leg on 3 August. | Cyprus-based Scot Alastair Reynolds insists his Apollon Limassol side have the quality to trouble Aberdeen in their Europa League tie. |
35902860 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Alan Stubbs' side took the lead when Jason Cummings struck midway through the first half.
Rocco Quinn fired in for the Buddies amid claims of offside from the visitors but the goal stood, leaving the sides level at the break.
Lawrence Shankland's shot turned the match in St Mirren's favour only for Farid El Alagui to level for Hibs.
The Easter Road side are now six points behind second-placed Falkirk and 20 off leaders Rangers.
However, Hibs have three games in hand over the Bairns and have played two games fewer than Rangers, who can clinch the title and promotion with one more win.
Stubbs' men started brightly in Paisley and Cummings latched on to John McGinn's threaded pass to palce an effort underneath Jamie Langfield.
Quinn found space in the penalty area and steered his effort home from close range, to the dismay of the Hibs defenders hoping for the flag to be raised.
Shankland drilled his effort low into the bottom corner to put the Buddies ahead for the first time and went close again soon after when he blasted over from the edge of the area.
Anthony Stokes tested Langfield before setting up El Alagui for the equaliser in the penultimate minute. | Hibernian ended a run of four straight Scottish Championship defeats but could not force a win against St Mirren. |
32509054 | Australia's ambassador to Indonesia will return home this week after being recalled and ministerial contact with Indonesia has been suspended.
The government has also not ruled out cutting foreign aid to Indonesia.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the diplomatic changes after an Indonesian firing squad killed Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
Six people from other countries were also executed at the prison island of Nusakambangan early on Wednesday morning local time.
The bodies of Chan and Sukumaran have now been handed over to Australian authorities, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC).
The two Australians were a key part of the so-called Bali Nine drug ring that was busted in 2005.
Australia has waged a long diplomatic campaign for clemency for Sukumaran and Chan, who appeared to have rehabilitated themselves while in jail in Indonesia.
More recently, the Australian government urged Indonesia to delay the execution of the two men until a corruption investigation into their sentencing was complete.
Mr Abbott on Wednesday described the treatment of the Australians as "cruel and unnecessary" and said it was a "dark moment" in Australia's relationship with Indonesia.
"Cruel because both Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran spent some decade in jail before being executed, and unnecessary, because both of these young Australians were fully rehabilitated while in prison," said Mr Abbott at a press conference.
"Australia respects the Indonesian system. We respect Indonesia's sovereignty but we do deplore what's been done and this cannot be simply business as usual," he said.
It is the first time Australia has withdrawn an ambassador from Indonesia, and the first such action after a country has executed an Australian citizen.
For example, it did not withdraw its ambassador when Australian drug smuggler Van Tuong Nguyen was executed in Singapore in 2005.
"It is very unusual, indeed unprecedented, for an ambassador to be withdrawn so I don't want to minimise the gravity of what we've done," Mr Abbott said.
"Ministerial contacts have been suspended for some time. Once it became apparent that the executions were likely, ministerial contacts were suspended, and they will remain suspended for a period," he said.
In response to a question about foreign aid to Indonesia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said only that Australia's aid budget was under different considerations to diplomatic actions.
Australia gives Indonesia about A$600m ($480m; £313m) in aid annually.
The government has come under some pressure to divert that money to Nepal after it was struck by a devastating earthquake on the weekend.
Australia's opposition leader Bill Shorten and deputy leader Tanya Plibersek condemned the executions "in the strongest possible terms" and backed "a strong response from the Australian government".
"Our best hopes have been dashed and our worst fears realised," Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek said in a joint statement.
"Indonesia has not just robbed two young men of their lives but robbed itself of two examples of the strengths of its justice system."
In a statement, the families of Sukumaran and Chan said the two men had done all they could to make amends in the years since their arrest, including helping other people.
"They asked for mercy, but there was none. They were immensely grateful for all the support they received. We too, will be forever grateful," said the families.
Chan and Sukumaran, along with seven other Australians, were arrested in Bali in 2005 for trying to smuggle more than 18lb (8.2kg) of heroin from Indonesia to Australia.
The pair were later found to be the ringleaders of the group and sentenced to death. The other seven members of the "Bali Nine" are currently serving either life or 20 years in prison.
Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and ended a four-year moratorium on executions in 2013.
It says it takes a hard line because of the country's own drugs problem - 33 Indonesians die every day as a result of drugs, according to Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency. | Australia is rethinking its relations with Indonesia following the execution of two Australian drug traffickers. |
39297548 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Stuart Hogg's long-range penalty put the hosts ahead before Finn Russell finished off heavy pressure to score.
Replacement Matt Scott touched down the second for a 15-0 lead, with Italy's Carlo Canna missing three penalties.
The Azzurri botched two scoring chances before further tries from Tim Visser and Tommy Seymour sealed a bonus point.
Four tries brought Scotland's tally for the championship to 14, surpassing their record, set last year, of 11 for a Six Nations campaign.
Despite their three victories, the Scots had to settle for a repeat of last year's fourth-place finish, on points difference, after victories for France against Wales, and Ireland over England.
This was a 12th Six Nations defeat in a row for Italy, who finished with the Wooden Spoon for a 12th time in 18 seasons.
In the Edinburgh rain, mistakes were inevitable but the opening half was an error and penalty-fest, a grind that Scotland slowly but surely took control of.
Italy were a creative desert, a line-out horror-show, a goal-kicking nightmare. They lost four of eight line-outs in the first 40 minutes and missed three out of three kicks at goal. Two of those were straightforward, but Canna made a hash of both.
Scotland were ahead with a booming Hogg penalty, but the hosts had serious problems of their own despite having the lead.
Referee Pascal Gauzere got on their case early and he kept pinging them all day long. The Scots conceded five penalties in the opening 20 minutes, seven in the first 40 and a stratospheric 12 by the early minutes of the second half.
Of course, they also had a healthy lead by then. The first came at the end of mountainous pressure, Ali Price eventually put Russell over in the corner. The downside was that they lost Huw Jones to injury in the creation of the score, Scott replacing him.
Unlike poor Canna, Russell's kick was good and Scotland were ahead 10-0. Canna missed a second sitter and, soon after, Scotland had a second try when Price chipped over the top close to the Italian line for Hogg to win the aerial dual against Giovanbattista Venditti and bat the ball back into Scott's path. The centre had the easiest job in dotting it down.
Scotland had battled their way into the lead with the knowledge that Italy's second-half performances have been a calamity in this Six Nations. Before this game they conceded 70% of their points in the second half and an average of 20 points in the last 20 minutes of the second half.
It was Italy who came back strong, though. They camped themselves in the Scottish 22, forced Hogg into making a try-saver on Angelo Esposito, then went again. They won penalty after penalty. John Barclay disappeared to the bin and they won more penalties after that.
When it looked like they were about to break through, Edoardo Padovani knocked on with the line at his mercy. It was painful stuff for the visitors. They were undone by Scotland's defence, yes, but mostly by their own lack of wit. Italy had a chronic lack of imagination and accuracy.
Just after the hour, Scotland got their third try when Hogg scampered up the left wing, chipped ahead and Visser got the touchdown. Russell's conversion made it 22-0. For them, it was all about the four-try bonus point now.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Scotland started to hit their stride and the crucial fourth try came after multiple phases drained the life out of the tiring Italians, Russell's lovely hands finding Hogg who put Seymour over. Once again Russell, kicking beautifully, was successful with the conversion.
Job done for Scotland. A third win in a championship that has seen them score more points (122) and more tries than they have ever done in the Six Nations. A decent farewell to Cotter, a man who has done so much to take the Scots from despair to hope.
Scotland: 15-Hogg; 14-Seymour, 13-Jones, 12-Dunbar, 11-Visser; 10-Russell, 9-Price; 1-Reid, 2-Ford, 3-Fagerson; 4-Gilchrist, 5-J Gray; 6-Barclay (captain), 7-Watson, 8-Wilson.
Replacements: 16-Brown (for Ford, 66), 17-Dell (for Reid, 56), 17-Berghan (for Fagerson, 66), 18-Du Preez (for Wilson, 49), 19-Swinson (for Gilchrist, 57), 20-Pyrgos (for Price, 54), 22-Weir (for Scott, 73), 23-Scott (for Jones, 26).
Yellow card: Barclay (49)
Italy: 15-Padovani; 14-Esposito, 13-Benvenuti, 12-McLean, 11-Venditti; 10-Canna, 9-Gori; 1-Lovotti, 2-Gega, 3-Cittadini, 4-Fuser, 5-Biagi, 6-Mbanda, 7-Steyn, 8-Parisse.
Replacements: 16-Ghiraldini (for Gega, 41), 17-Panico (for Lovotti, 63), 18-Chistolini (for Cittadini, 41), 19-Van Schalkwyk (for Fuser, 54), 20-Ruzza (for Biagi, 75), 21-Minto (for Mbanda, 54), 22-Violi (for Gori, 54), 23-Sperandio (for Canna, 63).
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Touch judges: Nigel Owens (Wales) & Luke Pearce (England)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa) | Scotland won a third Six Nations match in the same campaign for the first time since 2006 to send departing coach Vern Cotter out on a high at Murrayfield. |
34454033 | First Minister Carwyn Jones published an update on a report by Dr Margaret Flynn into one of the owners, Prana Das, on Tuesday.
She concluded Dr Das "should and could" have been prosecuted.
Inquests into the deaths of Stanley Bradford, Megan Downs, Edith Evans, Ronald Jones and others known to the Gwent coroner have been recommended.
Dr Das had faced charges relating to neglect and fraud at two care homes - Brithdir Care Home in New Tredegar, Caerphilly county, and The Beeches in Blaenavon, Torfaen.
But the £15m case against him collapsed after he suffered brain damage when he was attacked during a burglary at his home in 2012.
Mr Jones said he had now been contacted by Gwent Coroner David Bowen and inquests would be held "where he does have jurisdiction and where the law requires" and "he is already working to that end".
The first minister said he was aware of the "very real frustration" among patients' families after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) refused to reconsider criminal proceedings following the publication of Dr Flynn's report.
"I know that the families were both surprised by the speed of the response - on the same day as the report was published in the media - and the refusal to reconsider the case," he said.
"I know the families continue to ask why so few have been held accountable. I hope they take can take some comfort from the reply from the coroner who indicates he is pursuing inquests, as Dr Flynn recommended, where he has jurisdiction," he said.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, has decided there is "no need" to refer the case back to the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division of the CPS, Mr Jones added.
Operation Jasmine was launched by Gwent Police in 2005 to look into alleged abuse at six care homes in south Wales.
It began after the death of an 84-year-old woman at one of the homes and involved 75 police officers over seven years.
Loraine Brannan was among several relatives in the Senedd on Tuesday to listen to the first minister, and later met Carwyn Jones to discuss Operation Jasmine.
"We do need to know where we can move on from here," she said.
"We're hoping now that this will provide us with the aim that we're campaigning for - that we will have justice for our loved ones and someone will be held accountable."
Mrs Brannan, who chairs the Justice for Jasmine campaign group, said inquests for families was a step forward.
"Really, we do need the CPS to reopen the case," she insisted. | Inquests will be held into the deaths of patients at care homes at the heart of an alleged abuse scandal. |
37782154 | He is one of nine athletes, including six medallists, disqualified by the International Olympic Committee after samples from the 2008 Games were retested.
The 33-year-old has lost the silver he won in the men's freestyle wresting.
Four years ago he was disqualified from London 2012 after winning bronze.
The IOC has been retesting more than 1,200 samples from Beijing and London.
The nine athletes disqualified on Wednesday are: | Uzbekistan wrestler Soslan Tigiev has been stripped of an Olympic medal for the second time, for failing a drugs test at the Beijing Games. |
40109321 | Naomi Long made the claim as she launched the party manifesto.
"Alliance has a real chance to be successful at this election in both East and South Belfast," she said.
"The party was only defeated in East Belfast at the last election thanks to a five-party pact, while we were just 700 votes behind in South Belfast at the most recent poll."
Naomi Long won the East Belfast seat in 2010 when she took it off the DUP's Peter Robinson.
She held the seat until the 2015 general election when she lost out to Gavin Robinson.
The Alliance leader launched the 37-page manifesto in front of candidates, party supporters and candidates at the CIYMS sports complex in east Belfast.
"By electing two MPs, Alliance can have a real say in delivering what this manifesto promises - positive, progressive and pro-European politics," she said.
The manifesto focuses on Brexit and the party says there must be a deal to "recognise the special circumstances in Northern Ireland".
Alliance says a special deal would include participation within the Single Market and the Customs Union.
The document says the party will argue for a fresh referendum so the public can "choose between the final deal and remaining in the European Union".
It says there must be legislation to enact any of the outcomes following Brexit.
Questioned by journalists about the prospect of a referendum on a united Ireland, Mrs Long dismissed the idea.
"It would be reckless to have a border poll at the moment," she said.
The Alliance manifesto also includes a series of commitments on Stormont, the economy, justice, welfare and the environment.
Mrs Long said her party's plans were about "ending deadlock, achieving open government, creating jobs and services, and having progressive politics".
The party says it wants to see the assembly restored and an end to what it calls "the abuse" of the petition of concern"
The manifesto document - entitled Change Direction - also calls on all parties to publish "large political donations" they receive, which Alliance says it does voluntarily.
The manifesto also advocates reforming the electoral system with voting from the age of 16; the party also says it will champion civil marriage for same-sex couples.
The party says it will oppose any repeal of the Human Rights Act, and will work with the Northern Ireland Executive so that cuts to school budgets can be reversed. | The Alliance Party has a "real chance" of securing two seats in next week's general election, its leader has said. |
37963786 | It leaves them two points behind Livi, having played a game more.
Meanwhile, Albion Rovers edged a five-goal thriller with Stranraer at Cliftonhill.
And, at Hampden, Queen's Park were held to a goalless draw by 10-man Peterhead, who remain one point ahead of the seventh-placed Spiders.
Airdrie were awarded a penalty against Brechin when Dougie Hill handled in the area.
Iain Russell stepped up to convert, with City's Paul McLean later dismissed for violent conduct.
At Cliftonhill, Albion Rovers opened the scoring on the quarter-hour through Ross Stewart, who coolly slotted home following a defence-splitting pass from Stevie Boyd.
Stranraer were back on level terms courtesy of a Willie Gibson effort from just outside the box, but the hosts regained the lead before the interval through Ryan Wallace's penalty following a foul by Scott Robertson.
The visitors equalised through on-loan Aberdeen striker Joe Nuttall before Wallace grabbed his second of the game from close range to wrap up the points for the hosts.
Peterhead earned a point away to Queen's Park despite being reduced to 10 men when Simon Ferry was dismissed late on.
The league leaders, third-placed Alloa Athletic and bottom two sides East Fife and Stenhousemuir were not in league action due to Alloa and Livi's Challenge Cup matches this weekend.
The Wasps lost their quarter-final tie against Queen of the South, while Livingston host Welsh side The New Saints on Sunday. | Brechin City missed the chance to climb above Livingston at the top of Scottish League One as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat against Airdrieonians. |
35857359 | Belfast was one of six UK cities to host the Sport Relief flagship games, but swimathons and mile-long runs were held in other local towns and cities.
Custom House Square was the starting point for the Belfast Mile - those taking part could walk, jog or run it.
Olympian Dame Mary Peters and boxer Carl Frampton took part in the event.
Frampton ran part of the Belfast mile with his young daughter and speaking before it began he said: "It's good to get people out, being active and getting involved in sport.
"Obviously it helps raise money for a lot of worthwhile charities that need it, and what better way to do it? It's a great turnout here already, I'm looking forward to this."
Other events including a family cycle through the city and an aerobics workout in Custom House Square. | People in Northern Ireland have been getting active for Sport Relief as a record-breaking £55m was raised for the charity throughout the UK this weekend. |
20483967 | Stephen Gleeson's superb strike broke the deadlock for the hosts in a game that was struggling to match its hype.
AFC levelled when Jack Midson headed in a rare attack for the visitors, as travelling fans ran on to the pitch.
But Jon Otsemobor's outstretched foot directed the ball over goalkeeper Neil Sullivan's head in a dramatic finale.
2000: Wimbledon are relegated from the Premier League.
2001: Wimbledon announce their intention to relocate to Milton Keynes.
2002: AFC Wimbledon are formed by fans who are furious at the proposed move and the club begin life in the Combined Counties League Premier Division, playing at Kingstonian's Kingsmeadow ground.
2003: With the club in administration, Wimbledon move to Milton Keynes, taking up residence at the National Hockey Stadium.
2004: Wimbledon come out of administration and are rebranded as MK Dons and are relegated to League One in the same year. AFC Wimbledon win promotion to the Isthmian League First Division.
2005: AFC Wimbledon promoted to Isthmian League Premier Division.
2006: MK Dons relegated to League Two.
2007: MK Dons move to Stadium MK.
2008: MK Dons promoted to League One; AFC Wimbledon promoted to Blue Square Bet South division.
2009: AFC Wimbledon promoted to Blue Square Bet Premier.
2011: AFC Wimbledon are promoted to League Two via the Blue Square Bet Premier play-offs - a fifth promotion in nine seasons.
2012: AFC Wimbledon announce plans to move to a stadium in their spiritual home of Wimbledon.
The fixture has been 10 years in the making, since AFC Wimbledon were formed by disgruntled Wimbledon FC fans in protest of their club's proposed move to Milton Keynes.
The move went ahead after an independent panel set up by the Football Association gave it the go-ahead and Wimbledon were uprooted 56 miles to Buckinghamshire and subsequently renamed MK Dons eight years ago.
MK and their chairman Pete Winkelman have endured criticism from most of football, being accused of ripping a club from its community and carrying around the tag of "Franchise FC".
For AFC Wimbledon, this was an opportunity to show how far they had come - how they had started in the ninth tier of English football and risen to League Two - and to remind the world there is a club that bears the Wimbledon name.
MK on the other hand had a chance to show that, regardless of how they came into existence, they are a club with designs of playing attractive football in front of a young, new fanbase.
Wimbledon performed one of the greatest FA Cup final upsets of all time when they beat Liverpool 1-0 at Wembley in 1988. MK boss Karl Robinson, a proud Liverpool fan, has admitted he cried after watching Lawrie Sanchez score the goal that handed the trophy to the Crazy Gang.
But, while both sets of supporters rose to the challenge at Stadium MK, the early action failed to match the build-up.
The most eye-catching moment in the first 30 minutes was above the pitch when a plane, chartered by AFC supporters, flew over tugging a banner reading "We are Wimbledon".
Angelo Balanta's shot wide of the post was all MK had to show for their dominance in possession.
It was no surprise when the League One side went ahead but the nature of the goal was out of keeping with the game up to that point. Gleeson's stunning 25-yard effort flew into the top-right corner and put the hosts ahead on the stroke of half-time.
MK would have expected an instant reaction from AFC after the break but could have been out of sight themselves, with Sullivan, who played 224 times for the old Wimbledon, getting a hand to Ryan Lowe's close-range effort and Dean Bowditch shooting into the side netting with the goal gaping.
Former Wimbledon player and manager Dave Bassett:
"When Wimbledon scored their goal you would have expected MK to change but they were slow and predictable. They were going backward and sideways with their passes too often. They didn't do anything quicker and it looked like Wimbledon would get their draw, in fact Wimbledon had a great chance to win the game. But that is Cup football."
The AFC response came from a rare burst forward when Toby Ajala's cross was nodded in tidily by Midson.
His celebrations were accompanied by a crowd of AFC supporters who had streamed on to the pitch, letting 10 years of emotion get the better of them in unsavoury scenes that were quickly calmed by stewards.
It was a series of events that raised the atmosphere in the ground from tense to boisterous and both sides reacted, feeling the urgency and the desire of their supporters to claim a memorable victory.
Ryan Lowe thought he had done just that for Robinson's side but his celebrations were cut short by an offside flag against Zeli Ismail, who had laid on the chance for the striker.
The League Two side then had a great chance of their own but Steven Gregory was unable to beat David Martin, another former Wimbledon keeper, when one-on-one having capitalised on Darren Potter's mistake.
And, just when it looked like a replay and a quickfire second encounter was on the cards, MK stole it in the dying minutes.
AFC failed to fully clear an MK corner, Ismail struck a shot into the ground that Otsemobor flicked his leg against and turned to see the ball loop over a helpless Sullivan.
A few MK supporters failed to resist the urge to celebrate on the pitch, but, when order was restored, Robinson's side managed to stand strong against a late onslaught to treasure a satisfying win and leave their opponents desolate.
MK Dons manager Karl Robinson said:
"It's been a tough week. It's been enjoyable but it's also been difficult.
"I thought the game typified two sets of teams with great hunger and passion for the club they play for. Two teams can walk away from this stadium very proud of each other.
"I wanted this game to go smoothly, I wanted it to be conducted in a manner that was right for the English game and I thought we all did that.
"Maybe I got a bit excited with the goal at the end but I'm not going to apologise for that.
"I love this club and the players who wear our shirt. I'm sure you'd rather see me celebrating like a lunatic than just stood there with a stone-face smile."
AFC Wimbledon manager Neal Ardley said:
"I've got mainly pride. Pride for the players. We worked hard on a game plan and we felt it was the best way we could cause an upset. Every single player to a man carried those instructions out.
"They got a great first goal and a bizarre second. But we were inches from going in front so we can't ask any more than that.
"My main fear was not doing the fans proud and I can sit here now, despite hurting from the defeat, and say we did that.
"We knew we would end up having very little possession. We knew we couldn't press them high up the pitch because they play between the lines very well.
"The game plan went to a tee but we were hoping for that stroke of luck and perhaps that wasn't with us."
Full Time The referee ends the match.
Substitution Mathias Doumbe on for Luke Chadwick.
Goal! - Jon Otsemobor - MK Dons 2 - 1 Wimbledon Goal scored by Jon Otsemobor from inside the penalty box to the top right corner of the goal. Milton Keynes Dons 2-1 AFC Wimbledon.
Corner taken right-footed by Dean Bowditch. The assist for the goal came from Zeli Ismail. Blocked by Will Antwi. Zeli Ismail takes a shot.
Inswinging corner taken from the left by-line by Stacy Long.
Substitution Pim Balkestein joins the action as a substitute, replacing Jim Fenlon.
Steven Gregory takes a shot. David Martin makes a brilliant save.
Free kick awarded for an unfair challenge on Shaun Williams by Charlie Strutton. Antony Kay takes the free kick.
Stephen Gleeson fouled by Jack Midson, the ref awards a free kick. Shaun Williams restarts play with the free kick.
Dean Lewington delivers the ball, clearance made by Will Antwi.
Shaun Williams has an effort at goal from 35 yards. Stacy Long gets a block in.
Direct free kick taken by Dean Lewington.
Booking Toby Ajala receives a caution for unsporting behaviour.
Toby Ajala challenges Dean Lewington unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Curtis Osano gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Stephen Gleeson. Free kick crossed by Dean Bowditch, clearance made by Yado Mambo.
Antony Kay delivers the ball, clearance by Yado Mambo.
Charlie Strutton is ruled offside. Indirect free kick taken by David Martin.
Substitution Huw Johnson comes on in place of Luke Moore.
Substitution Ryan Lowe leaves the field to be replaced by Alan Smith.
The ball is swung over by Dean Bowditch, Jim Fenlon manages to make a clearance.
The ball is sent over by Zeli Ismail, Curtis Osano manages to make a clearance.
Zeli Ismail crosses the ball, Will Antwi makes a clearance.
Substitution Charlie Strutton joins the action as a substitute, replacing Byron Harrison.
Jack Midson concedes a free kick for a foul on Stephen Gleeson. Stephen Gleeson takes the direct free kick.
The referee blows for offside. Neil Sullivan restarts play with the free kick.
Unfair challenge on Antony Kay by Byron Harrison results in a free kick. Antony Kay takes the free kick.
Substitution Zeli Ismail replaces Angelo Balanta.
Luke Chadwick sends in a cross, clearance by Will Antwi.
Stephen Gleeson fouled by Toby Ajala, the ref awards a free kick. Shaun Williams takes the free kick.
Luke Chadwick crosses the ball.
Booking Jack Midson is cautioned.
Toby Ajala provided the assist for the goal.
Goal! - Jack Midson - MK Dons 1 - 1 Wimbledon Jack Midson finds the back of the net with a headed goal from inside the area. Milton Keynes Dons 1-1 AFC Wimbledon.
Shaun Williams gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Byron Harrison. Direct free kick taken by Stacy Long.
The ball is delivered by Dean Bowditch, save by Neil Sullivan.
Effort from inside the area by Dean Bowditch misses to the left of the goal.
Inswinging corner taken from the left by-line by Dean Bowditch.
Angelo Balanta takes a shot. Curtis Osano gets a block in. Inswinging corner taken by Dean Bowditch, clearance made by Jack Midson. Shaun Williams delivers the ball, clearance by Byron Harrison.
Curtis Osano delivers the ball, David Martin makes a comfortable save.
Stephen Gleeson takes a shot from long range which goes wide of the right-hand post.
Dean Lewington shoots direct from the free kick, Neil Sullivan makes a save. Corner taken right-footed by Dean Bowditch.
Booking Luke Moore is shown a yellow card.
Unfair challenge on Stephen Gleeson by Luke Moore results in a free kick.
Luke Moore gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Dean Bowditch. Free kick taken by Stephen Gleeson.
The referee gets the second half started.
Half Time The first half comes to an end.
Byron Harrison is caught offside. David Martin takes the indirect free kick.
Assist on the goal came from Shaun Williams.
Goal! - Stephen Gleeson - MK Dons 1 - 0 Wimbledon Stephen Gleeson finds the net from 35 yards. Milton Keynes Dons 1-0 AFC Wimbledon.
The ball is sent over by Dean Lewington, save by Neil Sullivan.
Free kick awarded for an unfair challenge on Dean Lewington by Jack Midson. Dean Bowditch delivers the ball from the free kick right-footed from left channel.
Jon Otsemobor delivers the ball, Will Antwi makes a clearance.
Free kick awarded for a foul by Luke Chadwick on Jim Fenlon. Neil Sullivan takes the direct free kick.
The referee gives a free kick against Byron Harrison for handball. Darren Potter takes the direct free kick.
Corner taken right-footed by Dean Bowditch from the left by-line, clearance made by Will Antwi. Effort from just outside the area by Luke Chadwick goes over the bar.
Will Antwi gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Shaun Williams. David Martin takes the free kick.
The ball is crossed by Jack Midson, clearance made by Dean Lewington. Luke Moore takes a short corner.
Free kick awarded for a foul by Dean Bowditch on Jim Fenlon. Neil Sullivan takes the free kick.
Dean Lewington sends in a cross, Jim Fenlon makes a clearance.
Dean Lewington crosses the ball, Will Antwi manages to make a clearance.
Angelo Balanta has an effort at goal from just outside the box which goes wide of the right-hand upright.
Jim Fenlon concedes a free kick for a foul on Dean Bowditch. Direct free kick taken by Jon Otsemobor.
Unfair challenge on Toby Ajala by Dean Bowditch results in a free kick. Free kick taken by Neil Sullivan.
Free kick awarded for an unfair challenge on Dean Lewington by Jack Midson. Direct free kick taken by Shaun Williams.
Free kick awarded for an unfair challenge on Toby Ajala by Stephen Gleeson. Direct free kick taken by Yado Mambo.
Inswinging corner taken by Stacy Long, Antony Kay manages to make a clearance. Steven Gregory has a volleyed shot. Blocked by Shaun Williams.
Free kick awarded for an unfair challenge on Darren Potter by Jack Midson. A cross is delivered by Darren Potter, Jon Otsemobor takes a shot. Save made by Neil Sullivan. Shaun Williams gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Byron Harrison. Free kick crossed right-footed by Stacy Long, David Martin makes a comfortable save.
Dean Bowditch delivers the ball, clearance by Jim Fenlon.
The ball is delivered by Dean Lewington, Will Antwi makes a clearance.
Unfair challenge on Dean Lewington by Toby Ajala results in a free kick. Dean Lewington restarts play with the free kick.
A cross is delivered by Luke Chadwick, Curtis Osano manages to make a clearance. Effort from just outside the area by Dean Lewington goes over the bar.
The referee starts the match.
Live data and text provided by our data suppliers
Live text commentary | MK Dons stunned AFC Wimbledon with an injury-time winner to triumph in the first meeting between the sides and book a place in the FA Cup third round. |
40834024 | At the World Cup two years ago, a semi-final defeat by Japan was followed by a third-place play-off win over Germany as Mark Sampson's Lionesses left Canada on a high. This time, a last-four defeat by hosts the Netherlands left the players in tears.
Euro 2017 was a tournament that promised much for Sampson and his team, who have delivered record television audiences. But, by their own judgement, and after major investment in the team, losing in the semi-finals is a failure.
So how did the boss and the players rate individually?
Media playback is not supported on this device
Mark Sampson - 8
Sampson ripped his shirt in anger during the 3-0 defeat by the Netherlands after penalty appeals were ignored by the referee, but it was symptomatic of his frustration overall.
After a £14m investment in women's football from the Football Association and with 21 staff in the Netherlands, Sampson was under pressure to deliver, and admitted England "fell short".
The 34-year-old Welshman used the finest detail to prepare his team but there were question marks over his long ball approach, which was identified and countered by the Netherlands.
And while his selections were largely on-point, his insistence that all his players were "world-class" was misguided as the second string failed to make any telling impression. Choosing Fara Williams in a midfield role for the semi-final defeat might have been his biggest mistake.
He took risks with his pre-match barbs towards opposition managers yet they were soon forgotten once his team had won, especially with a first victory over France in 43 years to reach the semi-finals.
Sampson enhanced his reputation again by becoming the first England boss since Sir Alf Ramsey to reach two successive tournament semi-finals, but it will be of little consolation. And with whispers about another FA role in the pipeline, it may yet be his final tournament with the Lionesses.
Karen Bardsley - 7
Bardsley has been prone to the odd error in recent major tournaments, but she was more solid in the three games she played in the Netherlands and did not concede a goal.
Part of that was down to the defence in front of her, which former England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis called the "white wall". Yet she should also take credit for playing with a broken leg for 14 minutes in the win over France, which ended her tournament, before being replaced by Siobhan Chamberlain.
Siobhan Chamberlain - 7
Deputised well for the injured Bardsley, and the England defence seemed to prefer passing back to her given her superior kicking ability. She had little chance with the three goals against the Netherlands and was reliable when called upon against Portugal.
Lucy Bronze - 9
One of England's star performers and the real heartbeat of the team. The right-back was seemingly indefatigable as she combined barnstorming runs forward with goal-line clearances, and her desire to drive the team forward was always evident on the pitch, almost over-spilling at the final whistle against the hosts after her penalty complaints were turned down by the referee.
Bronze would comfortably get into any team in world football, and the only question is whether she would be able to make more of an impact further forward.
Millie Bright - 9
Another player who came away with huge credit, particularly as it was the 23-year-old's tournament debut. She was the only England player to start every game. A throwback centre-half, whose no-nonsense approach dug England out of many holes, Bright provided them with a platform to build on.
The only shame for the Chelsea defender is that she had a legitimate goal ruled out against Spain, and her own goal was the last act of England's tournament. That was totally undeserved, but she will be a rock in the centre of the defence for years to come.
Steph Houghton - 6.5
A mixed tournament for the captain, who was outshone in central defence by her younger partner. At times she looked ponderous, and with a lack of genuine speed, opposition teams such as France were quick to target her. The Manchester City captain also failed to contribute from her free-kicks but showed leadership when England were under threat against Spain and France.
Losing Vivianne Miedema for the Netherlands' opening goal in the semi-final left a lasting impression.
Demi Stokes - 6.5
Another major tournament debutant but, unlike Bright, did not breed confidence at left-back. Stokes is renowned for being a keen gym-goer but at times, it appeared as if her powerful build restricted her speed.
By and large she was solid in defence, but with Bronze bombing down the other side, Stokes contributed little going forward, and perhaps only a recent injury to Alex Greenwood prevented the Liverpool full-back making more starts.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Jordan Nobbs - 8
Nobbs had a lot of catching up to do after a World Cup in which she was injured and then caused confusion with a Twitter announcement hours before the quarter-final against Canada that an injury had ended her tournament - a post that was then swiftly deleted.
For the most part, she redeemed herself, producing superb performances against Scotland and Spain, before coming on to steady the ship against Portugal. Her influence dipped slightly in the knockout stages but she still formed a brilliant partnership with Bronze down the right flank, which was consistently England's best attacking outlet.
Jade Moore - 8
A real workhorse in the England midfield, Moore was part of the Under-19 team who won the 2009 European Championship and once again proved her pedigree following an impressive 2015 World Cup. Perhaps she lacked a genuine creative presence alongside her but, in terms of breaking up play and feeding others, Moore was a success.
Jill Scott - 7
Sorely missed in the semi-final defeat, where she was replaced by Fara Williams because of suspension. Scott and Moore provide real energy and tenacity to the midfield, hallmarks of Sampson's team. Although the Manchester City midfielder did not score at Euro 2017, she played her part in several goals. It was just a shame she missed England's biggest game of the tournament.
Fara Williams - 6
England's most capped player with 165 appearances only made two starts at Euro 2017 and both coincided with a dip in the team's performance. Williams can still drill a pass 50 yards better than anyone in the team, but her lack of pace means she cannot press for sustained periods and she was pulled apart by her Arsenal team-mate Danielle van de Donk in the semi-final.
Her misguided header led to England's downfall in that game as Van de Donk took advantage to score the Netherlands' second goal, but any thoughts of quitting the national side have been dismissed. "I'll never give up my international career," she says.
Fran Kirby - 7
Kirby is the best player in the team running at defenders, and she showed her finishing instinct with a well-taken goal against Spain. But, as a number 10, she didn't often get a grip on the game and it was left to her team-mates to feed striker Jodie Taylor from deeper areas. Kirby played well in patches but lacked the consistency to be deemed world-class yet. It isn't through lack of talent, though.
Ellen White - 7
Another player who deserves her place in the side because of her workrate. She scored against Scotland and had several chances to add to that against the Netherlands, where she was also denied what appeared a clear penalty. White provided plenty of cover for left-back Stokes and a threat going forward, but maybe she could have been replaced by Toni Duggan earlier in games to freshen up the attack.
Toni Duggan - 7
The Barcelona-bound forward took her chances when they came, with a late goal against Scotland and another against Portugal in her only start, but she would be justified in feeling frustrated at not getting more game time.
Jodie Taylor - 9
An undoubted success. Taylor only made her England debut at the age of 28, and after being injured during the 2015 World Cup - where she scored - she finally made her mark on a major tournament with five goals to make her a shoo-in for the Golden Boot.
She had two good chances to score against the Netherlands, but her historic hat-trick against Scotland and further goals against Spain and France lit up Euro 2017 for England. The team will hope that she remains fit and in form to make a similar impact at the 2019 World Cup in France.
Nikita Parris - 6.5
The Manchester City youngster had a mixed game against Portugal, where she struggled to hold on to the ball in the first half and then scored a fine goal in the second, where the enormity of the occasion made for a charming celebration.
She showed she is far more adept at playing with the ball in front of her, which made it a strange decision that she was picked behind Duggan for the final group game. Lessons were learned in the Netherlands; Parris is one for the future.
Laura Bassett 6
Looked like a defender who hadn't played much competitive football this season, having remained unattached since Notts County Ladies folded on the eve of the Women's Super League Spring Series.
Karen Carney 7
Set up Nobbs for a well-taken volley against Scotland, but was limited to cameo roles in games.
Izzy Christiansen 6
Tipped to break in to the first team at some point during the tournament, but gave the ball away several times in her only start against Portugal.
Alex Greenwood 6
Probably deserved a second chance after a decent showing against Portugal, although failed to find her range from set-pieces after returning from a recent foot injury.
Jo Potter 7
Assured in midfield against Portugal, and added presence in defence when moved back there in the second half.
Alex Scott 6
Only played against Portugal but was never going to replace Bronze unless she was injured. This could be her last tournament.
Casey Stoney - did not play | After inspiring plenty of fans, but falling short of their stated goal of winning the European Championship, England are heading home. |
39720232 | The 34-year-old has been fined £30,000 and warned about his future conduct after being charged with breaking FA rules for placing 1,260 bets on matches between 26 March 2006 and 13 May 2016.
Barton said he is addicted to gambling.
He plans to appeal against the length of the suspension, calling it "excessive".
"I have fought addiction to gambling and provided the FA with a medical report about my problem - I'm disappointed it wasn't taken into proper consideration," he said.
The midfielder bet on some matches in which he played but he stressed in a statement on his website that "this is not match fixing" and that at "no point in any of this is my integrity in question".
He added: "I accept that I broke the rules governing professional footballers, but I do feel the penalty is heavier than it might be for other less controversial players.
"The decision effectively forces me into an early retirement."
Later on Wednesday, Barton tweeted: "Thanks for the many messages of support. I have breached FA rules. I have been honest with the reasons. Many agree the punishment is OTT."
The PFA echoed those sentiments, saying that "sanctions for breaches must always be proportionate".
In a statement, they added: "We hope sufficient weight is given to the sanctions handed down in other cases of a similar nature."
Barton also called on the FA to do more to tackle the culture of gambling in football.
He added: "If the FA is truly serious about tackling the culture of gambling in football, it needs to look at its own dependence on the gambling companies, their role in football and in sports broadcasting, rather than just blaming the players who place a bet."
Players in England's top eight tiers are banned from betting on football but Ladbrokes is an FA partner and 10 Premier League clubs have betting firms as shirt sponsors.
The former Manchester City and Newcastle player rejoined Burnley in January, having left Scottish Premiership side Rangers in November.
In the same month, he was given a one-match ban for breaking Scottish Football Association rules on gambling.
Barton admitted the Scottish FA charge of placing 44 bets between 1 July and 15 September 2016, while he was a player at Ibrox.
Barton said that since 2004, on an account with Betfair, he placed "over 15,000 bets across a whole range of sports" - of which 1,260 were on football - staking an average of £150 per bet.
Between 2004 and 2011 Barton said that he also placed several bets on his own team to lose matches but added he was not involved in the match-day squad in any of those instances.
"I had no more ability to influence the outcome than had I been betting on darts, snooker, or a cricket match in the West Indies," said Barton.
"On some of those occasions, my placing of the bet on my own team to lose was an expression of my anger and frustration at not being picked or being unable to play.
"I have never placed a bet against my own team when in a position to influence the game, and I am pleased that in all of the interviews with the FA, and at the hearing, my integrity on that point has never been in question."
Barton's bets on matches he started include a £3 stake on himself to be first goalscorer for Manchester City against Fulham in a Premier League game in April 2006. Then City team-mate Richard Dunne scored the first goal in a 2-1 defeat.
It is understood that the FA was only made aware of the bets by the betting company in December 2016, which led to its investigation.
The high number of bets has resulted in a detailed and complex investigation and the timing of the charge was not related to Barton rejoining Burnley.
He was expected to have been charged even if he had remained a free agent.
Barton began his career at Manchester City in 2001, joined Newcastle six years later and then signed for QPR in 2011. He had a loan spell with Marseille in France for 12 months, before joining Burnley for the first time in August 2015.
The FA brought in new rules in 2014 banning players and staff at clubs down to as far as the eighth tier of the English men's football pyramid - as well as at clubs in the Women's Super League - from betting on any football match or competition anywhere in the world.
Players and staff are also prohibited from betting on football-related matters, such as player transfers, the employment of managers or team selection.
That outright ban on football-related betting applies to all involved in the game from Premier League level down to - and including - the Northern Premier, Southern and Isthmian Leagues.
Previously, participants were prohibited from betting on a match or competition in which they were involved or which they could influence.
Barton was charged with offences allegedly committed under both the new and old rules.
His Rangers contract was terminated following a training ground row which led to a falling-out with manager Mark Warburton and he played only eight games for the club. | Burnley midfielder Joey Barton has been banned from football for 18 months after admitting a Football Association charge in relation to betting. |
38185645 | Mr McKay stood down from the assembly in August over claims he coached a loyalist blogger to give evidence to a Stormont inquiry into Nama.
Nama is the Republic of Ireland's "bad bank", set up to deal with toxic loans after the 2008 property crash.
A Sinn Féin councillor and 17 party activists quit in protest at how Mr McKay had been treated.
In his first broadcast interview since his resignation, Mr McKay said he "regrets nothing".
"People always make mistakes," he told BBC Radio Foyle.
"I think that's important to realise but there's nobody out there who hasn't made a mistake in their work or life.
"I moved on from all this the day after I resigned and I think most of the public have moved on from this as well, so I don't dwell on it and I don't think there's any need to dwell on it."
A spokesperson for the party said: "Daithí McKay served as a Sinn Féin MLA from 2007 to 2016 and was a talented and respected public representative.
"He acknowledged that he made a serious error of judgement over his involvement with loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson and took the correct decision to stand down as an MLA.
"His membership of Sinn Féin was also suspended at this time.
"He has now decided to leave Sinn Féin and we wish him well in the future." | The former North Antrim MLA Daithí McKay has revealed he has quit Sinn Féin. |
29355027 | But I am actually sitting in a New York hotel room, just a few blocks up - and a hundred lines of security away - from the United Nations.
I could be writing this from the press area at the UN on the East River, but to be honest the internet connectivity is what you might expect in a developing world village, not the epicentre of the global village.
I hope the 180 or so presidents and prime ministers are finding it easier to communicate with each other. So I have retreated to my room, and on the TV the US president has started chairing a meeting of the UN Security Council.
I am struck by the topsy-turvy nature of this presidency. It started with him being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for which he had done nothing, and is ending with him committing to precisely the sort of military action that he had so studiously sought to avoid.
The critique of Barack Obama is that he is the commander-in-chief who wishes that he wasn't, that he's dithered over military action.
I've heard former generals argue that if only he'd done this a couple of years ago, the incubator that has allowed Islamic State to grow would have been shut off.
And the other much vaunted criticism is Mr Obama does not listen to advice. His cabal is small and tight, and if you are on the outside, your voice will not be heard.
One former senior Obama administration official confessed to feeling schadenfreude when he heard the US president had had to call in the grandees of yesteryear to advise on how to tackle Islamic State (IS).
But having listened and pondered (arguably too long) and defined a strategy, there is a clarity of thinking on IS.
On Wednesday, Mr Obama was passionate - these were people beyond the reach of rationality and diplomacy.
"No god condones this terror," he said. "No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning, no negotiation with this brand of evil.
"The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death."
Yes, munitions have rained down on IS targets. But what Mr Obama and his administration have sought to do is put in place something more than just a plan of military attack.
The US treasury department is working on staunching the pipeline of money that is keeping IS awash with cash.
The session of the Security Council that the president is chairing now is all about stopping the foreign fighters going to fight in the Middle East, but Mr Obama also urged Muslim communities to challenge the corruption of young minds by violent ideology.
But perhaps the most significant thing this reluctant warrior has done is assemble a broad-based coalition. Forty countries at the moment, but rising all the time. And most significantly, he has brought in several Arab countries to fly alongside US jets.
This allows the US president to say to the international community the strikes are not America acting as global policeman. It allows him to say to his domestic doubters, this is not going to be another war where tens of thousands of American soldiers are bogged down in a protracted, morale-sapping conflict.
He said he wanted the world to unite in this battle. And it just might. | Seeing as this is my first blog post since becoming North America editor, I feel I should be writing this from the midst of some important historic event. |
37084240 | Kelly Turner, 16, from Dover, Kent was diagnosed with desmoplastic small round cell tumour in 2015 and has been told she has two years to live.
Her family is trying to raise £1m to pay for specialist treatment in the US.
The cash was raised at Adams' concert at Kent County Cricket Club's ground in Canterbury on Saturday.
Canadian star Adams posted on his Facebook page: "People power!
"Last night we did something different at the Canterbury concert.
"We passed a bin around between the audience and the band, and spontaneously raised around £10,000 for 16-year-old Kelly Turner who is suffering from a rare form of cancer.
"The bin came back twice!
"I'm so proud of the audience tonight."
Kelly has been receiving chemotherapy at the the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, south London but her family wants to take her to New York for surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre.
So far they have raised £102,309 of their £1,000,000 target on JustGiving.
Last month a charity box set up to help raise money was stolen from a newsagent's in Hythe, Kent.
An anonymous donor who regularly uses the shop later gave £100 towards the appeal and the shop's owner Mikin Patel said he would match the amount. | Singer Bryan Adams has helped raise £10,000 for a teenager with a rare form of cancer after a collection bucket was passed round the audience at a concert. |
12344261 | In future all airlines flying to and from destinations in the EU will have to transfer passenger data to national authorities on request, the plan says.
The US, Canada and Australia already get such data from the EU.
The European Commission proposals will be studied by the European Parliament and EU governments before becoming law.
The Commission stresses that stringent safeguards will be in place to protect privacy, in line with European human rights standards.
"Common EU rules are necessary to fight serious crime such as drug smuggling and people trafficking as well as terrorism, and to ensure that passengers' privacy is respected and their rights fully protected in all member states," said the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstroem.
The proposals are likely to be amended - perhaps substantially - as lengthy negotiations will take place before they become law.
Last year Euro MPs got extra privacy safeguards incorporated into a deal allowing US anti-terror investigators to check data on European bank transactions.
In the new airline data package the Commission proposes that: | The EU plans to expand transfers of air passenger data in a drive to prevent terrorism and other serious crimes such as drug trafficking. |
40025243 | They cater to different audiences and sometimes take conflicting editorial and political stances when reporting the same events.
But today is one of those rare days in which they stand, like the rest of the UK, united in sympathy for the families of the children and young people killed in the Manchester attack.
The angelic face of Saffie Rose Roussos shines out from the front pages of each of the papers.
The heartbreaking news of the eight-year-old's death emerged yesterday.
She is the youngest known victim of the suicide bombing.
"Children weren't just victims - they were the targets," reads the headline in the Irish News.
"I have two daughters of my own and remember well the drama of taking them to their first concerts," writes Allison Morris, who was in Manchester yesterday.
"The chatter in the car - the highlight of their wee lives to that point.
"For those who attended Monday's concert there was no cheerful journey home, only a night of terror that will stay with them forever."
Inside, there's the news that venues in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are tightening security, including the 3Arena in Dublin, where Ariana Grande performed two nights before her Manchester gig was bombed.
The paper quotes a tweet from someone who was at that gig: "I was at Ariana's Dublin show and it was so full of children too. It's hard to think about the terror endured. So sad."
Both the Belfast Telegraph and the News Letter carry pictures of both Saffie Rose and Georgina Callander, who was another victim of the attack.
The Belfast Telegraph's front page story begins with the news that troops are to be deployed onto UK streets and that the terror threat has been raised to its highest level - critical.
This means that another attack could be imminent.
It reports that security was stepped up last night at a Brian Cox show at Belfast's SSE Arena and also shows pictures from a vigil in Belfast.
Inside, there are the stories of arena workers from Northern Ireland who were caught up in the terror attack.
Andy Breslin, 26, was working in a bar and said he was convinced a gun attack was imminent when he heard the blast.
"I got my staff around the back of the bar, locked the door and turned off the lights," he said.
"Britain on red alert for another terror attack," reads the front page of the News Letter.
It also reports on how the atrocity has curtailed what was already a shorter-than-normal start to election campaigning in Northern Ireland.
Politicians here followed the main British parties in suspending campaigning yesterday as a mark of respect to the victims - and tonight's leaders' debate has been called off.
"Electoral weariness among many politicians, the media and the public has contributed... unlike Labour the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, whose manifestos were all launched last week, only one manifesto has been launched in Northern Ireland - Sinn Féin's on Monday."
A spokesperson for UTV told the News Letter: "Following consultation with the larger parties... we have decided to postpone recording of the UTV General Election debate."
Politicians here were among those to sign a book of condolence for the victims of the Manchester attack - but Sinn Féin's northern leader, Michelle O'Neill, is criticised in one of the News Letter's letters to the editor today.
"If Michelle O'Neill is genuinely concerned for the people of Manchester then... there is something that may bring a level of healing that she could do - apologise unreservedly to the people of Manchester for the IRA's attacks on the city in 1993 and 1996," it reads. | More often than not the papers in this review have different stories on their front pages. |
38539336 | John Akinde gave Barnet the lead after just 13 minutes with his 18th league goal of the season, pouncing on Niall Mason's back-pass.
But the league leaders were level almost immediately when Matty Blair split the Bees defence with a low cross and James Coppinger finished to equalise with 18 minutes on the clock.
Akinde might have put Barnet back in front when he attempted to round the keeper for the second time, but it was Rovers who took the lead.
John Marquis stabbed the ball home to end an almighty goalmouth scramble in the 28th minute and give Rovers the lead before Coppinger curled the ball into the bottom corner three minutes later.
Interim Barnet boss Rossi Eames threw on Simeon Akinola and Nana Kyei after the break but it was to no avail.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Barnet 1, Doncaster Rovers 3.
Second Half ends, Barnet 1, Doncaster Rovers 3.
Attempt missed. Jordan Houghton (Doncaster Rovers) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Michael Nelson (Barnet) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Michael Nelson (Barnet).
John Marquis (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Ricardo Santos (Barnet).
Alfie May (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, Doncaster Rovers. Alfie May replaces Andy Williams.
Substitution, Doncaster Rovers. Paul Keegan replaces James Coppinger.
Corner, Doncaster Rovers. Conceded by Elliot Johnson.
Foul by Elliot Johnson (Barnet).
John Marquis (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Substitution, Doncaster Rovers. Joe Wright replaces Mathieu Baudry because of an injury.
Attempt blocked. Nana Kyei (Barnet) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Jordan Houghton (Doncaster Rovers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
David Tutonda (Barnet) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Jordan Houghton (Doncaster Rovers).
Attempt saved. Ricardo Santos (Barnet) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
John Akinde (Barnet) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Andy Butler (Doncaster Rovers).
Attempt saved. Andy Williams (Doncaster Rovers) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Simeon Akinola (Barnet) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jordan Houghton (Doncaster Rovers).
Substitution, Barnet. David Tutonda replaces Harry Taylor.
Attempt missed. Tommy Rowe (Doncaster Rovers) left footed shot from the left side of the box is too high.
Mauro Vilhete (Barnet) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Mauro Vilhete (Barnet).
Niall Mason (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner, Doncaster Rovers. Conceded by Jack Taylor.
Attempt missed. James Coppinger (Doncaster Rovers) right footed shot from the right side of the box is just a bit too high.
John Akinde (Barnet) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Mathieu Baudry (Doncaster Rovers).
Corner, Doncaster Rovers. Conceded by Michael Nelson.
Substitution, Barnet. Simeon Akinola replaces Jamal Campbell-Ryce.
Substitution, Barnet. Nana Kyei replaces Tom Champion.
Foul by John Akinde (Barnet).
Andy Butler (Doncaster Rovers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Andy Williams (Doncaster Rovers) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high.
Foul by Curtis Weston (Barnet). | Doncaster came from behind to stay four points clear at the top of League Two, beating Barnet 3-1 at the Hive. |
36779116 | Contador pulled out of the Tour during Sunday's ninth stage and says his recovery will take four weeks. The Olympic road race begins on 6 August.
"To reach them in optimal condition looks like it will not be possible," said Contador.
He is now targeting the Vuelta a Espana on 20 August for his comeback. | Spain's Alberto Contador has ruled himself out of the Rio Olympics after injury forced him to withdraw from the Tour de France. |
40205691 | It follows raids across Conwy county on Tuesday and Wednesday, in an operation led by Dyfed-Powys Police.
The men all face class A heroin and cocaine drug conspiracy offences at Aberystwyth Magistrates' Court.
The police said the arrests were "part of an ongoing" operation.
In total, eight people have been arrested over the two days, five of them in the Llandudno Junction area.
Police said one of the men charged was from Colwyn Bay, while the other Welsh suspect lived in Penmaenmawr. | Two men from north Wales and three from Liverpool are in court after being charged as part of a drug trafficking investigation. |
25433594 | Each member of a household will have to register to vote individually to help cut fraud.
At the moment, the "head of the household" supplies details of other people living at the address.
The Electoral Commission welcomed the announcement by minister Greg Clark, saying it would "lead to a more secure electoral register".
But Labour called for the new system to be put on hold over concerns some voters will be left out.
In a written ministerial statement, constitution and cities minister Greg Clark said the new system would replace the "outdated" current system with "a secure, modern way to register to vote".
"People will be individually registered, with their identity being confirmed either automatically, through a check against existing government databases, or by submitting their date of birth and national insurance number, or if this is not available, other approved evidence.
"Initial testing has established that over three quarters of voters will automatically be included in the electoral register without any requirement to fill in a form.
"It will be possible, for the first time, to make an online application to be on the electoral register."
People who are on the electoral register but who have not registered to vote under the new system will still be able to cast a ballot in elections, including the 2015 general election under transitional arrangements.
Shadow minister for constitutional reform Stephen Twigg said: "The importance of the issue of voter registration cannot be underestimated.
"The implementation of the Individual Electoral Register is the biggest change to the way we enable people to vote since the introduction of the universal franchise. It's also how we organise jury service, a key civic function that must be representative of our whole population.
"The government are rushing ahead with implementation when there remain serious concerns that some groups will be left out.
"Currently, 8.7 million of the electorate are on course to fall off the register. We have called on the government to delay these changes and to set up a cross-party group to monitor progress during the transition." | Individual voter registration for British elections will come into force as planned in June 2014, ministers say. |
40189120 | Smith originally joined Wrexham in 2014 but moved to Gateshead in May 2016 after being released by former Dragons boss Gary Mills.
The 28-year-old scored five goals in 47 games for Gateshead, who have agreed to cancel his contract.
"Fans here know what he's about and I'm looking forward to working with him," Wrexham manager Dean Keates said.
"In his first season here, he didn't miss a minute of any game. So for the club and the squad we are building, it's massive to have another character like Manny."
Gateshead said they had cancelled the Halesowen-based player's contract early due to family reasons.
"It was an incredibly tough decision to let a player like Manny leave the Gateshead under such circumstances," the club said in a statement.
"We'd like to thank him for his fine contributions to the club and wish him the very best for the future." | Wrexham have re-signed defender Manny Smith on a two-year contract from fellow National League club Gateshead. |
35586970 | Callard, who spoke to the BBC as part of the In The Mind mental health season, described collapsing on the soap's set in 2009 after feeling unwell for 18 months.
"I knew I wasn't myself and I knew I wasn't firing on all cylinders," says the actress, who plays Liz McDonald in the soap.
"I just didn't think anyone like me would have [depression] because I'm a strong, feisty female."
She added that, prior to her collapse, she would get dressed to go out but then suddenly "didn't want to socialise".
"Because, first of all you feel unlovable - not that you're unloved," she continued.
"And you also find it difficult to love anybody else because you are in this black hole but you can't get yourself out of it."
She first collapsed while driving to the Coronation Street studios in Manchester in 2009 but said she "waited till I felt better, didn't tell anyone - then got back in my car".
"I drove to work at 6.30am and filmed till 8.20pm that night, and then I collapsed."
Medical staff told her that her "body had just gone on shutdown", she says, an indication she had ignored the symptoms for too long.
"I think clinical depression is a curse of the strong - I think you tend to be a people-pleaser, and a perfectionist. If something goes wrong, you try and remedy it yourself and, of course, you can't make yourself better," she says.
As a result of delaying treatment, she became a patient at The Priory centre in London - where she underwent the course of electroconvulsive therapy [ECT] having "left it far too late" for anti-depressants to work.
Her husband Jon McEwan had to give consent for the ECT - where an electric current is sent through the brain, triggering an epileptic fit that helps relieve severe depression - as she was not then considered by staff to be able to make a decision.
"The whole thing is frightening but it can make people better," she says.
"I had to undergo 12 of those [sessions] and then of course you lose your short-term memory.
"So, then I would think I'll never be able to do my job again… Jon virtually became my carer for a while and so he lost his own identity as well."
He trained as a counsellor to support her and explained the condition's impact was "all-consuming" for their family, including their children.
"I had no experience of depression in any way," he said. "I'm ex-Army - very much 'adapt and overcome'.
"I think the big thing is it's good to talk, and you should always talk... The help is out there, but you have to seek it out, it won't come to you."
Callard, who is now an ambassador for the mental health charity Mind, said: "For the first six months out of hospital, I couldn't write my own name."
She still takes medication, adding: "I occasionally fight the demons but, more often than not, I'm doing very well."
Stephen Buckley, head of information for Mind, said a "combination of therapies" often works best.
"It's important to remember that people can and do make a full recovery from depression," he said.
Callard said the response from colleagues was "amazing" but remembers a person "way behind the scenes" suggest she should not take part in the live episodes marking the soap's 50th anniversary in case she became "flaky and unreliable".
"Anybody who really knows me knows I'm not flaky and unreliable - even on the day I collapsed I was still filming till 8 o'clock at night but some people don't understand," she said.
A ITV spokeswoman said the organisation took "their duty of care as an employer extremely seriously" and would "always strive to help any employee who is suffering from ill health or is dealing with personal issues".
Callard welcomes NHS England's plan to commit £1bn extra a year by 2020 to mental health but has criticised the practice of sending patients to hospitals away from where they live.
"I get letters from people whose relatives have been taken to Sunderland or Plymouth or Portsmouth and how can they get better when they are away from their family," she says.
Monday's report from NHS England said it has been "sending people out of area for acute inpatient care" because of local bed pressures, which it hopes to eliminate by 2021.
When it comes to coping with depression, the actress advises talking to loved ones and a GP.
"You can get better and you will get better - given the right help. I think you've got to come round to the idea that you've got to be strong enough to ask for help and that's hard."
Source: Mind | Soap actress Beverley Callard has described depression as the "curse of the strong" after revealing she underwent electroconvulsive therapy to treat her own symptoms. |
37243211 | 1 September 2016 Last updated at 09:24 BST
Forty robots entered the competition and after six weeks of battles, just one emerged victorious.
We went to meet the team behind mean-machine Apollo to find out what made it a winner. | Robot Wars reached it's epic conclusion on August 28. |
32150374 | He met shepherds and hill farmers and those who are trying to help find sustainable ways of living high in the fells.
Among them were members of the Herdwick Project - an initiative designed to raise the profile of Herdwick Meat and to encourage wider trade links.
Later he spent more than an hour talking to local employers at the Westmorland County showground and praised the work of the organisers.
He ended the day with a visit to furniture maker Peter Hall and Son in Staveley near Kendal. | The Prince of Wales has been in Cumbria meeting people who make a living from some of the most remote parts of the county. |
34735063 | This is what he said. And, to be clear, I gave his remarks prominence here because the Bank of England was wholly unambiguous about the weight we should attach to them.
Admittedly he couched it as the Monetary Policy Committee's meeting in just a few weeks would be the decision-making moment of truth. He never actually said there was a racing certainty of rates rising.
But the implication was unambiguous: we should prepare for the end of the era of near-zero interest rates, that has prevailed since early 2009.
Well today the Bank of England gave an equally unambiguous signal that the moment of truth for an interest rate rise has been delayed by ten or 12 months, to the latter months of 2016.
Which is why I today asked the Bank's governor whether he regretted conditioning us for a tiny rate rise in coming weeks that will now not materialise.
He said he didn't, for two reasons.
First he said he was speaking only for himself, and of course he is only one vote on the MPC, the body that sets rates.
And second, the serious weakening of half the world's economies - China and emerging markets - has dampened UK prices and global growth prospects more than most supposed experts, including those at the Bank, had expected.
Or, by implication, he would like us to excuse him, because we can't hold him accountable for events, thousands of miles away in Asia, well beyond the influence of a British central bank.
Those external events mean inflation, currently slightly negative, will - the Bank thinks - stay one percentage point or more below the official target of 2% well into the back end of next year.
And on the basis of market expectations of interest rates not rising also till the back end of 2016, inflation is not forecast to return to 2% until the end of 2017.
In other words, and to paraphrase master Yoda, bonkers it would be to raise interest rates in December, or January, or February - or not for some considerable time.
The reason I mention Yoda is that central bank governors, like Jedi masters, are supposed to be infallible.
Maybe that is a ludicrous conceit in this age of institutional transparency.
But for City traditionalists, Mark Carney's predilection for giving so-called "forward guidance", which seems to date to have habitually gone awry, may have damaged his authority a bit.
And another thing.
We are a nation of obsessives about the value of our homes and the mortgage rates we pay.
So a good number of people will have chased supposedly cheap and never-to-be-repeated remortgaging deals after Mr Carney's apparent warning that it would soon call time on free money.
Some of those taking out new fixed-rate mortgages may have incurred refinancing costs earlier than strictly necessary. | Mark Carney gave what many would see as a bum steer in July that interest rates would be going up around the turn of the year. |
35808738 | Defence officials said Omar Shishani died from injuries sustained in a recent US air strike in north-eastern Syria.
Earlier reports had suggested Shishani, a Georgian whose real name was Tarkhan Batirashvili, may have survived the attack on a convoy.
Several of his bodyguards were killed in the same bombing.
The strike took place on 4 March near the north-eastern town of Shaddadi, where Shishani had reportedly been sent to bolster local IS forces.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed to the BBC that the latest assessment was that "he is dead".
On Sunday, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the IS leader had been "clinically dead" for several days.
Last year, the US offered a $5m (£3.5m) reward for Shishani.
It said he had held numerous senior military positions within the group, including "minister of war".
Last week, the observatory's director, Rami Abdul Rahman, quoted sources saying that Shishani had been badly wounded and had been taken to a hospital in Raqqa province where he was treated by "a jihadist doctor of European origin".
US officials have said they believe Shishani was sent to the Shaddadi area to reinforce IS militants following a series of military defeats.
Shaddadi was captured last month by the Syrian Arab Coalition, an alliance of Arab rebel groups which joined forces with the Kurdish YPG militia to battle IS. | A senior commander of so-called Islamic State (IS) is dead, the Pentagon has confirmed. |
17264442 | Although there had been previous warnings linking smoking and lung cancer, it was the 1962 study by the Royal College of Physicians, Smoking and Health, that really broke through to the public and politicians.
Attitudes in the intervening 50 years have changed enormously.
But in 1962, very few people took the dangers posed by smoking cigarettes seriously.
That view is captured perfectly by some footage from the BBC archive, a report on the Tonight programme into the RCP study.
One man who says he smokes between 20 and 25 cigarettes a day is - by today's standards - amazingly fatalistic.
"Quite honestly, I think that the end of one's life is probably more in the hands of almighty God you know, than in my own hands or the hands of the tobacco manufacturers."
The reporter asks another man whether the enjoyment he gets from smoking is worth the risk.
"I think so, yes. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die, so I might as well enjoy life as it is now."
Watching the footage now, it seems impossible that people could have been so blase about the risks smoking poses to their health.
The 1962 RCP report was launched in a blaze of publicity, using what was then a new technique - the press conference.
But the report's authors needed to be innovative to get their message across to a public - and politicians - who probably didn't want to hear it.
After all, most of them were smokers
In 1962, about 70% of men and 40% of women in the UK smoked.
And they smoked everywhere - on trains and buses, at work, even in schools and hospitals.
Fast forward 50 years and how times have changed.
The busy street outside the pub or office is now the smokers' domain.
And today about 21% of men and women smoke.
Smoking has become a minority occupation.
Prof John Britton, chair of the the present-day RCP's tobacco advisory group and director of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, says the 1962 report has had a lasting legacy.
How does smoking affect health?
How long does it take to suffer withdrawal symptoms?
"Modern tobacco control policy as promoted by the World Health Organization and used internationally, is really based on recommendations that are in that report.
"So 50 years later we're still, in many countries in the world, just starting to deal with recommendations that were made there.
"It really set the scene for effective tobacco policy and led the world."
The landscape changed profoundly and relatively quickly.
In 1965, cigarette advertising on television was banned in the UK while in 1971 health warnings appeared on cigarette packets.
Further restrictions followed, culminating in the ban on smoking in enclosed public places like bars, pubs and restaurants, introduced in 2006 in Scotland and the following year in the rest of the UK.
But there has been a social change in smoking too, says Dr Penny Tinkler of the University of Manchester.
"If you go back to the 60s for men, it was cross-class, and for women, it was cross-class but with particular emphasis among those who were comfortably off.
"It's really shifted over the decades in terms of who is smoking so now instead of being associated with affluence, it's more associated with disadvantage.
"In part it's because people who can afford to give up, or people who have a better quality of life, can give up.
"It's always been harder to give up if things have been difficult so it's not surprising those people in difficult circumstances are less inclined to give up."
Smokers, once comfortably in the majority, now find themselves on the outside.
A small group huddled in front of a Manchester office block reflected the feeling among many smokers that they are now marginalised.
"Sometimes you do feel a bit of an outcast if you're out in a restaurant or in a pub or something," said one woman.
"I'm not happy, I'm not proud of it. I won't encourage my children to do it - I go outside at home," said her colleague.
How alien those views would have seemed to the smokers of the 1960s.
But more change is coming.
From next month tobacco products will be banned from public display in big supermarkets. Ministers are seriously considering plain packaging for cigarettes.
And 50 years on, tobacco still has a powerful hold over millions of lives. | Fifty years ago on Tuesday, a key report was published that marked the beginning of a change in our relationship with smoking. |
36576957 | Mitch Claydon caused havoc in the afternoon session on day two with a hostile three-wicket spell as Glamorgan slumped to 137-6.
But Wagg (83) and Meschede (78) launched a counter-attack, adding 160 for the seventh wicket.
Claydon completed his five-wicket haul late in the innings, before Kent reached 10-0 at the close.
There were also five victims for Kent wicketkeeper Adam Rouse, a late call-up.
The partnership between Wagg and Meschede was a record for Glamorgan's seventh wicket against Kent, beating the previous mark of 107 between Arthur Francis and Eifion Jones in 1982.
Meanwhile, David Lloyd provided a Championship rarity as he got off the mark with a hooked six off Claydon with the first ball he faced.
Glamorgan all-rounder Graham Wagg told BBC Wales Sport:
"We were under pressure with six down but they went off their strategy of line and length, and it did give us a few scoring options- we had to put the bad ball away, and Meschy (Craig Meschede) played really well.
"Disappointed not to get three figures, it was quite a loose shot, but at the start of the day we would have bitten their hand off to be in this position.
"There's plenty in that wicket, plenty of seam movement, and I think if we bowl as partnerships, there's ten wickets to be taken." | Graham Wagg and Craig Meschede salvaged Glamorgan's innings as they reached a respectable score of 351 against Kent. |
39293910 | Neither the government nor the Irish police had taken "any meaningful steps" to help the inquest, said a lawyer for the group.
Instead, he argued, they had paid "mere lip service" to the idea of handing over information about the murders.
Ten Protestant workmen were killed in the attack in January 1976.
Speaking at a preliminary hearing , the lawyer said: "The system that has been established to deal with this aspect of legacy in Northern Ireland is being obstructed by the failure of the Irish Republic to do anything meaningful to assist."
He said the apparent difficulty in getting information from the south stood in contrast to the apparent ease with which the gang was able to cross the border and escape 40 years ago.
"That soft border which allowed that has been replaced by a hard border of failing to provide meaningful cooperation and disclosure to the inquest.
"The entire intelligence framework, the information concerning the suspect, information relating to weapons, issues relating to the palm print, those are just a few matters that we would certainly be wanting more information."
Karen Armstrong, who lost her brother in the attack, said the families were in no doubt that there was much more information to be handed over.
Most of the small number of documents which have been provided are newspaper cuttings.
Mrs Armstrong said: "There are two scenes there. It's where the van was hijacked and also where the gang escaped to over the border.
"So they have more material, undoubtedly."
Another preliminary hearing is due to be held next month with the inquest itself set to resume in May. | Relatives of men killed in the Kingsmills massacre have accused Republic of Ireland authorities of failing them in the search for justice. |
33546194 | A terrific new exhibition has opened in Washington DC's National Museum of American History, and in it, a section dedicated to the area on the US west coast which is synonymous with cutting-edge technology.
The display details the trailblazing chip companies blending with hippy counter-culture to make the ideal mix for innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive.
It was this secret sauce - pushed on by military investment and subsidies for companies making technology that helped the US armed forces - that provided the spark for the biggest and most powerful technology hub in the world.
But for how long?
"San Francisco, centre of the universe," said Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, as we sat down to film a BBC interview that will air soon.
"Rome also felt like that one day. Everything has a time."
He's perhaps slightly biased - Microsoft is based in Seattle, not San Francisco - but he does share the sentiment of many who wonder if the elements that made Silicon Valley happen no longer exist.
"You should go to Shanghai," Mr Nadella said, on my first day in the new job. Ah.
But Silicon Valley has a track record of keeping things going strong. The late nineties dotcom crash hit the companies here hard, but many - like Amazon and Cisco - are still here, surpassing all valuation expectations.
Here, the talk is of "unicorns", start-ups that are valued at more than $1bn. How this is judged is as mysterious as the unicorn itself - it's not about profit, just simply how much money others are willing to throw at a company.
Calling these firms unicorns is perhaps pretty apt - their numbers are often complete fantasy, built on excitement and buzz and not much else. But still the money comes, fuelled by a paranoia here of missing the "next Facebook" (although these days they're more likely to say the "next Snapchat").
Warnings of another crash have been in the air ever since the last one - but those fears haven't been realised.
More likely is that Silicon Valley will be a victim of its own success - products created here have given us the ability to communicate and work over long distances better than ever before. Geographical location is becoming somewhat irrelevant.
And so other parts of the world are muscling in, and have been for some time. There's Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New York, to name a few. London finds itself with an advantage given the proximity of its tech hub, in east London, to the City of London and its bankers. No wonder the British government is putting extra effort into supporting the development of financial technology - Fintech.
And then of course there's China - a place that is increasingly turning to technology design and innovation rather than simply manufacturing.
But not so fast.
Never a place to be outdone, Silicon Valley is again heading in a new direction. Some of the most exciting, and indeed terrifying, innovations are being worked on here. It's the testing bed for driverless cars, for new types of trains, for robotics.
It's a place that is perhaps slowly learning to laugh at itself, shedding some of its image as somewhere that operates in a different reality. HBO's sitcom, Silicon Valley, has nailed the "it's funny because it's true" approach.
Silicon Valley will be in good health as long as good people with good ideas flock here.
"The American sense of hope and enthusiasm is extremely contagious and when you're beginning your start-up you're trying to pull off the impossible," said Robyn Exton, a Brit who took her start-up, Her, to San Francisco in 2015.
I'd met Robyn in 2014 at a London tech event, where she was trying to get her lesbian dating app, then called Dattch, off the ground. Even with London's efforts in building its start-up scene, it's a sign of Silicon Valley's continued power that means people like Robyn will continue to make the move.
This is, if you hadn't noticed, a rather elaborate way of welcoming you to this blog - a place where I'll be covering the twists and turns of the technology industry in North America. Based in the beating heart of it all, San Francisco.
For while there are contenders for Silicon Valley's crown, there's still no place quite like it.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC | Silicon Valley didn't happen by accident. |
38220167 | Among other offers, punters at Yarmouth Stadium will be charged just five pence for their first pint of beer at Wednesday's meeting.
The Norfolk stadium has bucked the national trend of greyhound stadium closures over recent years.
The number of venues in England has dropped from around 80 to 25 over the past 65 years
Well-known venues such as Harringay, Walthamstow and White City are among those to have shut their door.
But Yarmouth owner Stephen Franklin believes the sport is again gaining a growing audience.
He said: "Races starting in the mornings and being streamed for an international audience and online betting will lead to more future success."
Yarmouth Stadium has provided a livelihood for four generations of the Franklin family.
Built in 1939, just a handful of races were held before World War Two - but on 7 December 1946, the crowds flocked back for its first proper meet.
The year also saw the launch of the first East Anglian greyhound derby, the competition rapidly evolving to be a 'must win' event.
The prize money for this year's race was £12,000, considerably more than in 1947.
Speedway also became part of the sporting mix in 1949 and when the Yarmouth Bloaters team raced against Coventry in a league meeting it was watched by 11,000 spectators, according to records.
Non league speedway gave way to stock car racing in 1963 and races are still held at the stadium today on the tarmac raceway.
The 1960s proved to be a pivotal time for greyhound and horse racing after High Street betting shops were licensed.
Stephen Franklin said their rapid growth saw punters move away from racecourses and into the shops.
Mr Franklin said "without the financial support of a levy on bets placed in the betting shops, which were given to horse racing, more greyhound tracks succumbed to property developers."
He added that temptation to sell is not really there for the Yarmouth Stadium as the site is on marshes and is not prime development land.
The 1970s brought several changes including the refinement of sand racecourses. Originally racing took place on grass.
New rules were adopted at Yarmouth in 1975 under the auspices of the National Greyhound Racing Club, now known as the Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
Holiday makers were the back bone of the business then and today Yarmouth Stadium is still one of the town's biggest evening attractions.
Improved bar and restaurant facilities were part of an 80s re-vamp while the 1990s saw the introduction of the hare system developed in nearby Swaffham and now virtually universal in Britain and Ireland.
In 1999 the family set up Homefinders for retired greyhounds and Mr Franklin says this is of great pride to him having begun his career tending the dogs.
He is still involved with the business but has handed over day-to-day running to his sons Justin and Simon.
Today his grand-daughter Paige is keeping it a family affair and is the fourth generation working for the business in its 270 seat restaurant and executive lounges which Mr Franklin says has made a huge difference to the stadium's success as an entertainment venue.
Racing at Yarmouth saw a first in 2007 when Sky Sports asked it to host the Television Trophy, a marathon race originated on the BBC.
It was also the start of a contract to broadcast races live to betting shops.
Looking ahead to the next 70 years Mr Franklin envisages more digital involvement if greyhound racing to continue to succeed.
But he believes the uniqueness of the seaside town will still attract punters looking for live interactive entertainment. | A greyhound stadium is charging 1946 prices to celebrate its 70th anniversary. |
32380223 | Sections of sites owned by the European Union, the BBC and Wikipedia currently fail the search giant's Mobile Friendly Test developer tool.
"Mobile friendliness" will affect how prominently websites appear in Google search results pages from 21 April.
Criteria includes text size, the amount of space between links and whether the content fits across a mobile screen.
A Google representative said mobile friendliness was "one of many" factors used by the search engine to rank results, but in a blog post the company said it would have "a significant impact" on search results.
"As people increasingly search on their mobile devices, we want to make sure they can find content that's not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens," the representative said.
Google is also offering developer tools for making websites compliant with the mobile-friendly guidelines.
Kevin Dallas, chief product officer at global payment processor Worldpay eCommerce, welcomed the changes.
"This move by Google should send a message to companies whose websites are poorly configured for smartphone users that optimising for mobile is no longer a matter of choice," he said.
"This is particularly relevant for online retailers."
The BBC said that while its bbc.co.uk domain failed the test, mobile users would soon be automatically redirected to a mobile version of the site, m.bbc.co.uk, which did pass the test, and was responsive, meaning it should adapt to fit the device on which it is being accessed.
The EU and Wikipedia have also been contacted by the BBC for comment.
The European Union's home page appears to be the only part of its site to currently fail the test.
Google clashed with the EU last week when European Union competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced a complaint had been filed against Google over alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
Google has denied the allegations, which include promoting links to its own shopping services above those of rivals. | Google is updating its search algorithms to favour websites that work well on mobile devices. |
35741360 | With 91% of the vote counted, Vermont Senator Mr Sanders is polling 64%, while former Secretary of State Mrs Clinton has 36%.
In the Republican race, Marco Rubio easily won Puerto Rico's primary, beating billionaire Donald Trump.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump remain overall leaders in the nomination campaigns.
Sunday night saw Mrs Clinton and Mr Sanders clash on a number of issues in a CNN-hosted debate in Michigan.
They traded accusations on economy and trade, with Mrs Clinton saying her rival voted against a bailout of the US car industry in 2009.
App users: Tap here for full results
Clinton v Sanders: The progressive battle
Trump and Cruz seek "one-on-one" battle
How radical are Trump and Cruz?
"I went with them. You did not. If everybody had voted the way he [Sanders] did, I believe the auto industry would have collapsed, taking four million jobs with it," Mrs Clinton said.
Mr Sanders countered by saying: "I will be damned if it was the working people of this country who have to bail out the crooks on Wall Street."
Bernie Sanders has rarely been so aggressive, losing his calm a few times on the debate stage. He attacked Hillary Clinton as a long-term supporter of free trade and talked about her friends in Wall Street who destroyed the economy.
She criticised him for not supporting the bailout that helped save the automobile industry, describing him as a one-issue candidate.
The debate took place in Flint, Michigan, which is facing a public health emergency because of lead-tainted water. The state will hold its primary on Tuesday.
Mr Sanders described the measures taken at the time as "the Wall Street bailout where some of your [Mrs Clinton's] friends destroyed this economy".
In Saturday's round of voting, Mr Sanders took two states - Kansas and Nebraska - but Mrs Clinton maintained her Democratic front-runner status after a big victory in Louisiana.
While the win in Puerto Rico - a US territory - will boost Florida Senator Mr Rubio's campaign, it sends just 23 delegates to the Republican convention which nominates a presidential candidate.
Republican hopefuls need the votes of 1,237 delegates to get the nod for the presidential race proper.
Mr Rubio still trails well behind Mr Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Speaking after wins in the Republican Kentucky caucuses and Louisiana primary vote on Saturday, Mr Trump told a news conference: "I would love to take on Ted Cruz one on one."
"Marco Rubio had a very very bad night and personally I call for him to drop out of the race. I think it's time now that he dropped out of the race. I really think so."
Meanwhile, Texas Senator Mr Cruz - who won Republican caucuses in Kansas and Maine - said he believed that "as long as the field remains divided, it gives Donald an advantage".
The full primary calendar | Bernie Sanders has beaten Hillary Clinton in the Maine caucuses, the latest contest in the battle to be the Democratic presidential candidate. |
37029507 | Both leaders expressed dissatisfaction with UK-Russian relations, and pledged to improve ties, the Kremlin said.
A Downing St spokeswoman said they agreed that co-operation on aviation security was a vital part of efforts to fight terrorism.
The pair will meet at the G20 summit of world leaders in China next month.
Relations between the two countries have been strained, particularly following the UK inquiry which blamed the 2006 poisoning death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko on Russian agents and said it was "probably" approved by Mr Putin.
Other contentious topics have included Russia's support for the Syrian regime, the annexation of Crimea and fighting in Ukraine, and western sanctions against Russia.
The Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed that the leaders discussed common security threats faced by both countries.
She said: "The prime minister noted the importance of the relationship between the UK and Russia and expressed the hope that, despite differences on certain issues, they could communicate in an open and honest way about the issues that mattered most to them.
"The prime minister and president agreed that British and Russian citizens faced common threats from terrorism, and that co-operation on aviation security in particular was a vital part of the international counter-terrorism effort."
The leaders agreed to develop a dialogue between their security agencies on issues relating to aviation security, the Kremlin said.
The Russian government also said Mrs May confirmed the UK's intention to participate in the 75th anniversary of the first arrival of wartime aid by British convoys to the Russian city of Arkhangelsk, later this month. | Theresa May has spoken on the phone to Russia's President Vladimir Putin for the first time since she became PM, Downing Street has confirmed. |
16965620 | Frozen canals, rivers and lakes have transformed the Netherlands into one enormous ice-rink.
Sports shops have sold out of skates, bike suppliers are swapping their cycles for sledges and all over the country people are having their blades sharpened ready to take advantage of the ice generated by exceptionally cold winter.
"It's in our genes. We've been skating for centuries," explains Bert van Voorbergen, who runs an online skating museum in the town of Almere.
"Every year when frost comes, there's something indescribable released inside. As soon as there is ice, everyone is the same, everyone is equal. Maybe that's why we love it so much."
What stirred most excitement in the Netherlands was the chance that this year, for the first time since 1997, it might be cold enough to hold the ice race to end all ice races: the "Elfstedentocht" or Eleven Cities Race - the biggest competition held on natural ice in the world.
It covers 200km (124 miles) of land, features 16,000 skaters and can attract more than two million spectators.
The nation was buzzing, Dutch media covering every twist and turn in a story that filled much of the main evening news broadcasts on national TV.
A tweet from Olympic speed-skating Gold medallist Mark Tuitert summed up the sentiments of skaters across the country who say they've been struck by "Elfstedentocht fever".
Bike shop owner Martin de Vries told me he was in school when it was last held 15 years ago.
"We didn't have internet then, only radio, and everywhere you went everyone was tuned in to the race. It was crazy, everyone rushing home to try and catch it on TV. Or if you were lucky enough to get tickets, of course, you'd be up there cheering on the skaters."
But on Wednesday night came the news millions had been dreading - the organisers announced: "It's not on."
For the Elfstedentocht to go ahead, the temperatures must stay below freezing and for the past few days in Leeuwarden my thermometer's mercury has been bobbing around the -3C mark.
But it is also essential that the ice remains thick so as not to crack under the pressure of 16,000 skaters.
The Frisian Eleven Cities Association - set up to measure the ice and monitor the conditions - says it needs 15cm (6in) of ice covering the entire track before they can say those mythical words "it's on".
At the moment some parts of the route have only half the depth required.
Every year the "will-they-won't-they" speculation surrounding this legendary race starts to swirl around towns, villages and all over the media at the first signs of a frost.
The race tradition began in 1909. The last contest was won by a turnip farmer.
And this year the Netherlands recorded its lowest temperatures in 27 years.
Preparations have been underway for days.
A team of eager volunteers - assisted by a small army of soldiers based near the Friesland route - has been helping to shovel away the snow to give the ice the best possible hope of staying strong.
But in the end it seems their best efforts were in vain.
After the decision, the association's "ice master" Jan Oostenbrug urged skaters not to despair and instead get out on the ice and skate their disappointment away.
There is a small chance the race will still go ahead later in the season.
But with a thaw forecast for Sunday, hopes are fading like the frost. Many are resigning themselves to the cold hard fact that they may have to wait another year before Elfstendentocht fever strikes again.
However, skaters have been turning up in their hundreds in the village of Giethoorn, just outside Friesland, to race on a shorter course that runs for more than 25km between villages and does not have the same stringent regulations as the official Eleven Cities race.
Although the skaters are still holding out hope that the main contest can go ahead, for now they are making the most of the freezing conditions. | While much of Europe has been forced indoors by a fierce cold snap, the Dutch have been elevated to a state of euphoria as skating fever grips the nation. |
41062551 | The incident was alleged to have happened after Raheem Sterling's 97th-minute goal gave City a 2-1 win.
Sterling then ran to celebrate in front of the away supporters, and several City fans went on to the pitch.
Aguero was then seen to be involved in an exchange with a steward.
Police had earlier taken a statement from a steward but the Cherries later said it had been withdrawn and "no assault took place".
Sterling, who had already been booked, was sent off after being shown a second yellow card for his celebration.
In a statement, Dorset Police said two male spectators from Manchester were arrested following the incident.
The statement added officers were "reviewing CCTV of the pitch encroachment as part of an ongoing investigation to establish whether any other offences may have been committed". | Bournemouth say a "misunderstanding" led one of their stewards to allege he was struck by Manchester City's Sergio Aguero during Saturday's Premier League game at Vitality Stadium. |
37349229 | The footage of her water birth in Orange County, California has stunned social media users because the baby seemingly pops out after only a few contractions.
The clip, uploaded to Instagram and Facebook, has had more than 16 million views since it was posted on September 3.
Midwife Lisa Marie Sanchez Oxenham filmed the birth and said it was "an incredible moment".
"It's an amazing, uneventful delivery," Lisa Marie said.
"What you cannot quite see in the video is that the head is already out. So I tell Audra to wait for the next contraction, and that's when the baby flies out.
"The mother's joy is so moving. When she says 'my baby son', it makes many people cry. It is such an incredible moment."
The footage has been shared more than 100,000 times on Facebook and attracted 23,000 comments, like these:
Karena Sezawich writes: "She gave birth like a boss."
Shene McCoy posts: "She was kinda calm, I hope I can be that tough."
In another post Philip L. King Sr writes: "Wow I've never seen it done in real life only in movies. That's real life right there."
Lisa Marie says she's not surprised the video has been so popular.
"I believe the video has gone viral because it's such a beautiful moment, in an intimate, private and relaxed atmosphere," she said.
"That is something we just don't associate with childbirth anymore and certainly don't see enough of."
By Rozina Sini, BBC's UGC and Social News Team | Giving birth is never easy - but for mum Audra Lynn it was a textbook delivery. |
40722879 | More than £850m has been spent by top-flight sides in the transfer window, which ends on 31 August.
But Tottenham, who sold Kyle Walker to Manchester City for £45m this month, have not made any signings.
"We have a duty to manage the club appropriately," said Levy.
"Some of the activity that is going on at the moment is just impossible for it to be sustainable.
"Somebody spending £200m more than they're earning, eventually it catches up with you. And you can't keep doing it."
Accountancy firm Deloitte said Premier League sides are on course to surpass the record £1.165bn they spent last summer.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho said last week: "I'm used to clubs paying big for big players. Now everybody pays big money for good players."
Walker's departure aside, Spurs have retained the same squad that finished second to Chelsea in the league last season.
The club are in the process of building a new 61,000-seat stadium, which is expected to cost £750m and is scheduled to open next year.
Speaking at a Nasdaq Q&A in New York, Levy said: "Obviously when you're building a stadium of this magnitude and it all has to be privately financed - there's no state help whatsoever - it is a challenge.
"We have to find the right balance but I can honestly say it is not impacting us on transfer activity because we are not yet in a place where we have found a player that we want to buy who we cannot afford to buy."
Mauricio Pochettino's side, who are in the United States on their pre-season tour, beat French champions Paris St-Germain 4-2 at the weekend, with 17-year-old midfielder Tashan Oakley-Boothe playing 45 minutes.
Levy said: "Our position on transfers is that we have a coach who very much believes in the academy, so unless we can find a player that makes a difference we would rather give one of our young academy players a chance.
"The academy is important because if we produce our own players we don't have to spend £20m or £30m on a player.
"An academy player has that affinity with the club and that's what the fans want to see." | Chairman Daniel Levy has defended Tottenham's lack of transfer activity this summer and claimed the spending by other Premier League clubs is unsustainable. |
37353028 | The visitors led 17-6 at the break, with Niall Annett and Dean Hammond crossing for tries, while George Ford kicked two penalties in response.
Tries from Anthony Watson, Matt Banahan, Semesa Rokoduguni carried the hosts into a 30-17 lead before Perry Humphreys went over for Worcester.
Houston try sealed Bath's bonus-point win to put them top of the table.
Bath, already struggling with injuries to Taulupe Faletau and David Denton, lost David Sisi early on in a first half when they failed to contain a industrious Worcester side.
While the hosts, who had beaten the Warriors on 11 previous visits to The Rec, struggled to create openings before the break, they were hard to stop in the second half as England international Watson, in his first match of the season, went in for their opening try.
Banahan did well to gather a Ford kick to help put the hosts ahead for the first time, before linking up with Rokoduguni as the winger added a third.
Humphreys gave Worcester renewed hope, but Rokoduguni went close again before Houston completed the win.
Bath director of rugby Todd Blackadder: "I knew there was no better way to get Leroy engaged than just go out there and play and enjoy himself.
"We were certainly put under the pump.
"Worcester were outstanding in that first half. We let them play around us too easily but we'll take a lot out of that.
"It wasn't a rant and a rave at half-time, just about simple things to put our game right - to carry hard and have really good clean-outs and quick ball."
Worcester head coach Carl Hogg: "I thought in the first half we were excellent.
"Ball in hand, we showed real enterprise and caused Bath some issues defensively.
"The game obviously swung on a 10-minute window in the second half when we made back-to-back errors and someone of George Ford's quality exploited it.
"In the second half we didn't get so many opportunities. I think we did enough to get something out of the game."
Bath: Homer; Rokoduguni, Banahan, Bowden, Watson; Ford (capt), Fotulai'i; Auterac, Batty, Thomas, Charteris, Attwood, Ewels, Sisi, Houston.
Replacements: Dunn, Catt, Palma-Newport, Stooke, Mercer, Homer, Brew, Williams.
Worcester: Shillcock; Hammond, Olivier, Willison, Humphreys; Heathcote, Arr; Ruskin, Annett, Johnston, O'Callaghan, Barry, Mama, Kirwan, Dowson (capt).
Replacements: Bregvadze, Leleimalefaga, Daniels, Scotland-Williamson, Cavubati, Baldwin, Eden, Adams. | Leroy Houston scored a try on his return for Bath as they fought back to beat Worcester Warriors at The Rec. |
36933411 | A 42-year-old woman was left with serious injuries after the collision on Captain's Road on 14 July, while a 41-year-old man was also hurt.
Police said that following inquiries to trace a driver involved in the crash, a 30-year-old man had been arrested and charged.
He is scheduled to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. | A man has been charged following a serious crash in Edinburgh which left two pedestrians trapped under a car. |
34981246 | The army has been deployed to rescue thousands of stranded people after two days of heavy rain.
At least 188 people are now known to have died in floods in Tamil Nadu state since last month.
A depression in the Bay of Bengal has triggered rains in coastal areas.
Last month, non-stop rain for nearly a week brought the city to a standstill.
Two days of fresh rains have again led to massive flooding, so much so that flights from the city's airport have been indefinitely suspended after flood waters entered the runway and tarmac areas on Tuesday evening.
Reports say some 400 passengers are stranded at the airport, and all flights have been cancelled.
More than a dozen trains have also been cancelled after flood waters inundated the tracks.
The army and the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed in the city's worst-affected southern suburbs to rescue people stranded in their flooded properties.
At least 10,000 policemen and swimmers have also been employed in the rescue effort, Chennai police chief JK Tripathy told the AFP news agency.
"The police want to help but there are no boats. We are trying not to panic," Ramana Goda, who took refuge at a police station, told Reuters.
Reports say that power supply has been suspended in nearly 60% of the city's neighbourhoods.
Most of the main streets are waterlogged and schools were closed for the 17th day since November, reports say. Schools and colleges have been shut in six districts due to the rains.
Patients have been evacuated from a government hospital in the Tambaram area after flood waters entered the building.
Residents have taken to social media to offer accommodation, food and mobile phone recharges to citizens who are being forced to evacuate their properties.
"We only saw rains like this some 25-30 years ago when there was no electricity for almost a week. It has been raining since Monday night and there has been no respite. Everywhere you look, there is two to three feet of water,'' Ashok Modi, a resident of Sowcarpet area told BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi.
All the reservoirs around Chennai are full and the rivers are flooded with the excess waters released from the reservoirs, says the BBC Tamil's Muralitharan in Chennai.
Thousands of people who were living on the banks of these rivers have been moved to temporary shelters.
The meteorological office says "scattered to heavy" rains are expected to continue for the next three days.
India suffers severe flooding every year during the annual monsoon rains from June to September. The retreating monsoon has been particularly vigorous over south India and more so in Tamil Nadu, our correspondent says. | Fresh rains in the southern Indian city of Chennai (Madras) have caused serious flooding, with flights and trains suspended and hundreds of people without power. |
41040013 | Mother-of-two Mavis Wanczyk, 53, bought the ticket at a Chicopee, Massachusetts, petrol station.
The winner - whose lucky numbers were 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26, and 4 - told reporters she had already quit her job.
The biggest ever US Powerball jackpot was $1.6bn, although that was shared by three ticket holders in January 2016.
Massachusetts State Lottery told reporters the ticket in Wednesday night's draw had been validated.
"The first thing I want to do is just sit back and relax," said Ms Wanczyk, chewing gum.
"I had a pipe dream.. and it came true."
She told journalists she had picked her lucky numbers based on relatives' birthdays.
Ms Wanczyk said of her 32-year job at a medical centre: "I've called them and told them I will not be going back."
She added that she was "going to go hide in my bed".
Reporters asked if she had plans to treat herself to something nice, such as a fancy new car.
But Ms Wanczyk replied she just bought a new car less than a year ago, and now plans to pay it off in full.
One lottery official described the woman as "your prototypical Massachusetts resident".
He added that she seems like "a hard-working individual" and "clearly she's excited".
The $50,000 prize awarded to the business that sells the winning numbers will be donated to charity, said Pride petrol station owner Bob Bolbuc.
The jackpot payout, which can be made in 29 yearly payments or a lump sum, is estimated to be about $443m after taxes.
Powerball Product Group chairman Charlie McIntyre said in a statement that six other tickets - sold in Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands - won $2m each.
Thirty-four other tickets across the US scooped $1m.
Massachusetts lottery officials initially said the jackpot ticket was sold at a convenience store in the Boston suburb of Watertown, but corrected the location on Thursday morning.
It is not clear how the error was made.
Odds of winning the jackpot are one in 292.2 million. | The winner of the biggest jackpot in North American history - $758.7m (£590m) - has come forward to collect her prize. |
34499387 | None of three other candidates in Sunday's election achieved more than 5%. The turnout was 86.75%.
But observers from the OSCE security body said it fell far short of the country's democratic commitments.
There were "significant problems" in the counting and tabulation of votes, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe complained.
Mr Lukashenko, 61, has governed the former Soviet republic almost unchallenged for 21 years.
No veteran opposition leaders stood, as they were not allowed to register. A Belarusian human rights group also said the vote fell far short of democratic norms.
Aleh Hulak, head of Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections, criticised "mass early voting" and "non-transparent vote-counting".
The OSCE's chief observer, Kent Harstedt, said "it is clear that Belarus still has a long way to go towards fulfilling its democratic commitments".
He described the recent release of political prisoners and welcoming of election observers as "positive developments", but said "the hope that this gave us for broader electoral progress was largely unfulfilled".
Dozens of opposition supporters held a protest march in the capital Minsk after the polls closed.
They carried slogans that read "Boycott the dictatorship!" and "Lukashenko - go!"
Earlier Belarusian TV showed Mr Lukashenko casting his vote at one of the polling stations, as his youngest son Nikolai stood by. Nikolai has accompanied his father on numerous public occasions in recent years.
Critics accused the president and his supporters of preventing the main opposition parties from building any public profile and restricting their access to the all-powerful state-owned media.
This year's Nobel Literature Prize laureate, Svetlana Alexievich, has warned that her country is a "soft dictatorship".
She said Mr Lukashenko was a man connected to the Soviet era and was untrustworthy. None of her books has been published in Belarus.
US officials have described Mr Lukashenko as "Europe's last dictator".
However, there have recently been signals - including the pardoning of six opposition leaders - that suggest Mr Lukashenko is seeking to improve relations with the West.
He has hosted several rounds of Ukraine ceasefire talks in Minsk, welcoming EU leaders and ending his diplomatic isolation.
Still Europe's last dictator?
Why does President Lukashenko take his son to work?
Belarus country profile
Last time a presidential election was held in Belarus - in 2010 - seven of the nine presidential candidates were arrested.
One of them was only released this year following widespread international pressure.
The candidates were accused of various offences, including the encouragement of violent protest and attempting to overthrow the state. | Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has won his fifth term with a landslide 83.5% of the vote. |
36129408 | Customers and businesses are becoming more trusting of secure internet connections - and the idea of valuable data being stored and accessed remotely.
Almost nine in 10 financial institutions now run at least one application in the cloud, according to research from Swiss software company Temenos. That's up from just 57% in 2009.
And many financial technology start-ups are building new businesses on the back of the three major cloud platform providers - Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
For example, Dutch-based tech start-up Ohpen has built a "software-as-a-service" product to allow firms to administer investment funds and savings accounts, with AWS handling all the data in the background.
And Norwegian firm Auka has developed the first mobile payments platform run entirely on Google Cloud.
Meanwhile, customer relationship management specialist Salesforce now allows banks to offer personalised financial advice on any device.
The advantage of such off-the-shelf products is that firms can easily plug into them, and begin offering financial services quickly and without huge capital investment.
And cost is the number one reason for tapping into the cloud.
"There's a 20 cents in the dollar saving by moving data to the cloud," says Dave Richards, chief executive of global big data specialist, Wandisco.
"Building your own data centre is difficult - it can take one or two years if you need thousands of servers.
More Cloud Computing features from Technology of Business
"But if you use a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services you can have 1,000 servers at your disposal in about 30 minutes."
For big institutions, that's a huge potential saving in time and money, with a big chunk of IT responsibilities outsourced to a specialist provider.
Tesco Bank's head of transformation, Allan Brearley, says: "The adoption of cloud technology allows us to respond to the needs of our customers more quickly and efficiently, while also offering the security standards our customers and regulators rightly expect from a financial services provider."
The potential cost savings became apparent very quickly for the bank.
"When we evaluated the solutions for a new [web] page using our traditional on-premise delivery model, it was going to cost about £3,500 and take around three months to deliver," he says.
"However, we evaluated the AWS option using exactly the same design solution and it cost £66 a month and took less than a week. We later realised we could just host these things as a static page costing 13p a month."
Another advantage of the cloud is that it is flexible - you generally just pay for the storage and services you use for a monthly subscription - cutting out waste.
For example, accounting software firm Sage offers small and medium-sized businesses access to real-time business data on all devices - including the Apple Watch - and starts at just £30 a month. Xero operates a similar model for its cloud-based accounting software.
And Salesforce's wealth management platform for banks and advisers costs from $150 (£106) a month.
With ready-to-go cloud-based solutions, you can be up-and-running within a matter of months or, in some cases, minutes.
Auka claims its cloud-based mobile payments platform for retail banks can be ready to launch within three months.
Less complex services, like accounting or sales management software, can be available to customers much faster.
Klaus Michael Vogelburg, chief technology officer at Sage, says: "Small companies can start using our software within minutes, and the longest any company would wait to get started is a matter of days."
Not all financial companies are ready to fully embrace the cloud, though - just 1% of banks are running core processing in the cloud today, the Temenos research shows.
"There is a perception that there must be some compromise on security given the cost savings. But this is simply not the case," says Ben Robinson, chief strategy and marketing director at Temenos.
"Cloud platform providers such as Amazon and Microsoft clearly have more money to spend on security than smaller or even medium-sized financial services companies.
"They also remove the need for human involvement, which is the cause of 70% of banking fraud."
But concerns about security linger on.
Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research, says: "The cautious nature of the banking sector has definitely slowed its adoption of cloud-based services such as data storage.
"In the past, there have also been some security challenges that have played to their fears, which remain despite big efforts on the data security front."
Mr Vogelburg, meanwhile, expects more financial services companies to take up cloud-based services as the benefits to their customers become clear.
"The aim of any new technology should always be to improve the customer experience," he says.
"We are already doing that, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much yet to come."
Technology of Business will explore cloud security in the next feature in this series.
Follow Technology of Business editor Matthew Wall on Twitter | From mobile payments to accounting apps, cloud-based services are changing the financial landscape. |
37320561 | Gwydion Rhys, from Bethesda, made such an impression at a workshop earlier this year, he has been invited back for the main event.
It is the first time Proms in the Park has been held in north Wales.
Tony Hadley, Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Amy Wadge, and opera singer Wynne Evans will all perform.
"I am feeling a little nervous but I hope I'll be all right on the night," said Gwydion, who also plays the cello and piano.
"I'll be having a rehearsal with the orchestra beforehand, and I'm really looking forward to that.
"I hope I'll get lots of support from the orchestra members - and I hope they're also looking forward to the experience."
Gwydion will take the conductor's podium for a special performance of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", but for the rest of the evening, the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales will be under the baton of American conductor Edwin Outwater.
Highlights will be shown on BBC Two Wales on Sunday, 11 September. | A 13-year-old boy will conduct the orchestra for part of the final night of BBC Proms in the Park in Colwyn Bay on Saturday. |
21614722 | The increased risk is limited to communities and some emergency workers exposed to radiation after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, analysis shows.
For those living in the rest of Japan there is no health risk, it said.
Experts stressed the increased lifetime risk of cancer remained small.
The report is part of an ongoing assessment by international experts on the fallout from severe damage to the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
In March 2011, a powerful tsunami generated by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake out at sea slammed into the nuclear power plant in north-eastern Japan, damaging four of six reactors at the site.
Around 16,000 people were killed by the impact of the earthquake.
A substantial amount of radiation was released into the environment and a 20km (12 miles) evacuation zone was set up.
The latest analysis has found that those living in the most contaminated areas around Fukushima are expected to have a small but higher than expected risk of cancer.
The biggest lifetime risks were seen in those exposed as infants, compared with children or adults.
For girls exposed to radiation from the accident as infants, the report found a 4% increase above the lifetime expected risk of solid tumours and a 6% increase above that expected for breast cancer.
Boys exposed as infants are expected to have a 7% increased risk of leukaemia above that expected in the normal population.
The biggest risk was seen in thyroid cancer, which for infant girls could be up to 70% higher than expected over their lifetime.
But the WHO was keen to stress that these risks were relative and remained small.
For example, the lifetime risk of developing thyroid cancer over a lifetime for women is 0.75% and the additional risk for those exposed as infants in the most affected area is 0.50%.
The report also found that a third of emergency workers working in the plant after the disaster are at an increased risk of cancer.
Radiation doses from the damaged nuclear power plant are not expected to cause an increase in the incidence of miscarriages, stillbirths or congenital disorders.
Dr Maria Neira, WHO director for public health and environment, said: "The primary concern identified in this report is related to specific cancer risks linked to particular locations and demographic factors."
She added that the report underlined the need for long-term health monitoring of those who were at high risk, along with medical follow-up and support.
"This will remain an important element in the public health response to the disaster for decades."
Prof Richard Wakeford, visiting professor at Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester and contributor to the WHO report, said: "The release of radioactive materials into the environment during the Fukushima nuclear accident was substantial but based on measurement data, the radiation doses received by the surrounding population are small, even for the most exposed communities.
"These doses produce an extra risk of cancer over a lifetime of about 1% at most, in addition to background lifetime cancer risks from all other causes of, on average, 40% for men and 29% for women."
He added: "Radiation exposure from the Fukushima accident has had only a small impact on the overall health of the nearby population, and much less outside the most affected areas." | People living near the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have an increased risk of developing some cancers, the World Health Organization says. |
32006464 | Three men were arrested following the clash outside the Railway pub, said to have involved about 15 people, and one man suffered serious head injuries.
Essex Police arrested two men on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm and one for criminal damage.
The pub is less than a mile from Roots Hall stadium where Southend United and Cambridge United had drawn 0-0.
Police said they were called to the pub in East Street at about 19:20 GMT on Saturday. They said a man in his 40s from Suffolk was found on the ground with serious head injuries and was taken to the Royal London Hospital.
A 33-year-old man from Southend and a 23-year-old man from Westcliff were arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.
A 47-year-old man from Cambridge was held on suspicion of causing criminal damage, relating to damage to the pub door.
Police said East Street was likely to be closed for most of Sunday. | Police used CS spray to break up a fight between rival football fans outside a pub in Southend. |
30878568 | Former British Davis Cup player Jamie Baker, who'd once been ranked number two in the British game, made his decision to quit in June 2013.
However, his career earnings over nine years of competition totalled a more modest £360,000.
Both players had battled significant injury and fitness problems during their time on tour, but their future prospects were worlds apart.
Li Na, 32, one of the most recognised, inspirational figures - not merely in China but throughout Asia and beyond - commanded huge off-court commercial value.
In contrast, Mr Baker, 26, had achieved a career high ranking of 186 in 2012, but had nothing like the sponsorships and endorsements enjoyed by the Chinese player to show for his dedication.
So, looking for a new job took him completely out of his comfort zone, having previously given little thought to anything else except succeeding at tennis.
"I knew there would be a life [outside tennis]. But I definitely didn't know what that was going to be," he says.
We are sitting in the same London head office where he was interviewed last autumn for a role - one that he now holds - within the UK corporate division of bank Santander.
Unlike many players confronted by such a stark change in circumstances, Mr Baker had actually made moves in the months before he stopped playing.
"I knew who I was going to speak to, and how I was going to get in front of as many people as possible, to assess the options," he says of those job hunting days.
And, importantly, he sought advice from the British game's governing body - the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) - where he was introduced to its senior performance lifestyle advisor, Rachel Newnham.
She says: "Most tennis players have few qualifications. They left school early on. Education is looked on as if it's 'tennis or nothing'.
"They think they're going to stay in tennis. They think that coaching is the next thing they're going to move on to."
For Mr Baker, however, coaching was never the goal. With a brother already working as a trader in the City, he had an inkling of another, off court, world.
But it was Ms Newnham's contact at a recruitment agency that properly set him on his way into banking.
"Part of the reason I wanted to stop [playing] was to give something else a go," he says. "It was just a question of when."
He said he was made aware of the many different jobs in finance, not just City trading, and that such knowledge helped enable him to "give this a shot and get into the business world".
Mr Baker, now 28, has become a role model for Ms Newnham in her drive to make other UK players appreciate what is possible outside of the sport that has consumed them all their lives.
Making such a change involves a change in attitude and culture among players, says Ms Newnham.
She continues: "There is no shame in having a plan B - the smart ones have one. Usually it's the lower ranked players who are aware that they are going to have to do something else after tennis."
Ms Newnham says although players' CVs may be short of formal qualifications such as GCSEs, the skills they pick up as tennis competitors are transferable and hugely in demand in a lot of jobs.
"Motivation, leadership skills, teamwork, having the commitment, the drive, and focus are hugely thought of by employers these days," she says, referring to these attributes as "life skills that you can't teach".
These words offer encouragement to Tara Moore, 22, who's currently ranked number six in Britain. Her funding was among that cut under LTA reforms announced last December.
She's still keen to make her way in the sport she's played since she was six years old, but understands that her plans may have to change unless her fortunes improve on court.
"I'm finding ways to continue playing tennis but if you're not in the [world] top 100 or 200, you're not earning money. We're barely breaking even," she says.
"If I was to stop today then I would have nothing. I would have to start from zero. And that's incredibly tough, incredibly scary.
"But Rachel shows us that there other things besides tennis, there are so many other things we can do and skills we can use from tennis."
Ms Moore's house-mate in London is another who appreciates Newnham's expertise.
Oliver Golding, the 2011 US Open Boys' Champion, announced his retirement just before Christmas - at the age of just 21 - and has consulted her on what he might do next.
Currently he's working at his mother's tennis coaching company while working out his next move.
Around 80% of British players choose to stay in the game either coaching or working in administration.
Martin Lee is among them. Now 37, he runs his own coaching business in Buckinghamshire with another former player Paul Delgado.
Mr Lee, who reached a career best world ranking of 94, always knew he wanted to work in tennis, following his father who was a coach for 40 years.
Initially after retiring he tried his hand at sports management, but missed the court environment.
His company, Living Tennis, offers tuition from community to elite levels, including coaching a thousand children each week at its eight venues.
Three years after their launch, turnover has increased to £500,000. Their office is now at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, where they won the contract to run the tennis facility.
Mr Lee admits it's been a daunting venture. He says he's permanently tired, regularly working 12 hours per day, seven days a week.
"When you're a tennis player, you only think of one person and that's yourself," he says. "You have to be selfish because it's your career and it's your job.
"Now it's totally the opposite. The last person we think about is ourselves. We've got to get enough money in to pay everyone and we've got to make sure everybody gets the most out of their time."
The same commitment which qualified him to play in Grand Slam tournaments during his ten years on tour now earn him a living in a very different way.
Mr Lee and Mr Baker find it hard to replace the camaraderie and thrill of competition in their new roles.
Both make time to play the game when they can and enjoy the familiar, instant feedback of winning or losing.
But for Mr Baker, who's working as a commentator at the Australian Open, there is a strong connection between the past and the present which bodes well for the future.
"I feel like my tennis life has prepared me for what's happening now," he says.
"I hope that in 10 or 15 years I will feel I am making a big difference, and I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to go through that journey." | When Li Na announced her retirement from tennis last September, the two-time Grand Slam champion had banked as much as $24m (£16m) in the 12 months preceding her decision. |
31805544 | The pilot scheme will see 2,000 houses have waste collected every four weeks, with another 2,000 having general rubbish picked up every three weeks.
The council has said the year-long trial will begin in September in locations which have yet to be decided.
A review of the findings will go to the council's executive committee.
Chris Ewing, of Fife Council's resource efficient solutions, said: "What we're going to do is give a couple of options a try in 4,000 homes.
"Just to make it clear - no decision has been taken yet to change everyone's bin collections, we're just piloting this in some homes to get more information.
"The trial won't start until September and we've yet to decide where in Fife but we've decided to find out more because it could improve recycling figures and save the council money.
"In the sample homes, we're increasing how often we collect plastics because when we asked, our customers told us that bin fills up fast.
"We'll also be trying to find out if houses that are provided with increased collections for cans and plastics are able to accommodate fewer collection of landfill waste.
"For houses that receive a four weekly collection of landfill waste individual arrangements will be made for the collection of nappies and other similar products." | Fife Council has confirmed it will become the first local authority in the UK to trial once a month bin collections. |
29014359 | 1 September 2014 Last updated at 13:07 BST
49 year-old Craig Jeeves said the quick-thinking feline managed to wake him up when the house caught fire.
"She jumped on my head and sort of like was screaming at me and woke me up otherwise I wouldn't have got up," Jeeves said.
Jeeves said he adopted Sally from a cat's home several years ago and now she had returned the favour.
The fire service said he was lucky to have got out alive. | A tabby cat called Sally is being hailed a hero after she saved her owner from his burning home in Melbourne, Australia. |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.