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22225953 | A "technical baccalaureate" is to be introduced showing young people's abilities in maths, literacy and a high level vocational qualification.
This will be a performance measure for schools and evidence of credible skills for students to show employers.
Skills minister Matthew Hancock said the technical baccalaureate would be a "mark of achievement".
But Labour's education spokesman Stephen Twigg said: "Seven months after Labour announced plans for a technical baccalaureate, the government is today trying to catch up."
The "Tech Bacc", launched on Monday by Mr Hancock and Education Secretary Michael Gove, is intended to reinforce the value of technical and vocational training and qualifications taken by 16 to 19-year-olds.
It is aimed at teenagers who might want qualifications for jobs in areas such as information technology, construction, retail, hospitality and digital media.
It will not be another separate qualification, but will be evidence that a young person has a particular set of employer-friendly skills.
The Tech Bacc will require students to have three elements - qualifications in maths and literacy and a "high quality" vocational qualification.
These vocational qualifications could be in anything from engineering to hairdressing, but will be taught at a level of difficulty which is meant to show that pupils are able to carry out "complex and non-routine" skills, on a par with A-levels.
These so-called Level 3 vocational qualifications were taken by about 185,000 students last year.
There is a consultation taking place to decide which vocational qualifications should be retained - after complaints that there were too many insubstantial qualifications, which carried little weight with employers.
For schools and colleges, the Tech Bacc will become a league table performance measure from 2017, in the way that schools are measured by the percentage of pupils who have achieved academic English Baccalaureate subjects.
A proposal for a Tech Bacc has previously been put forward by Labour's education spokesman, Stephen Twigg.
Responding to the government announcement, he said that Labour's version would have been a "gold standard" available to all pupils.
"David Cameron and Michael Gove have spent the last three years undermining technical education - damaging the quality of apprenticeships, downgrading the engineering diploma and narrowing the curriculum so skills are side-lined.
"The government should be judged on their actions so far, not on their words today."
The idea of a Tech Bacc has also been supported by former education ministers Labour's Lord Adonis and the Conservatives' Lord Baker.
Neil Carberry, the CBI's director for employment and skills said this was a "big step in the right direction".
"Including the Tech Bacc in existing league tables will help put vocational subjects on a par with academic A-levels.
"Business prefers this approach, rather than creating another new qualification which would struggle for recognition - like the Diploma did. We hope this will prove to be a staging point towards our ultimate goal of rigorous vocational A-levels."
Christine Blower, head of the National Union of Teachers, said that "vocational qualifications should be part of a wider 14-19 integrated system of education where the emphasis is on the opportunity to study general education, specialist areas and vocational learning. This constant tinkering with 14-19 education perpetuates unnecessary divisions."
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said: "We want an education system in which everyone can reach their potential.
"Our reforms to post-16 qualifications, including the introduction of the new Tech Bacc will do that. They will incentivise the development of high-quality courses and incentivise schools and colleges to offer the courses that get young people on in life.
"We expect all bright students who want to go into technically-skilled jobs or apprenticeships to aim for the Tech Bacc." | Plans to raise the status of vocational courses in sixth forms and colleges in England have been announced. |
18456746 | The price was more than double Sotheby's high estimate and sets a new record for the collector's item.
A memo written by the firm's co-founder Steve Jobs when he worked at Atari sold for $27,500 at the same New York event.
The original estimate for the four-page handwritten note was up to $15,000.
Only about 200 Apple 1s were ever created. The computers were hand-built by Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak and originally sold for $666.66 (£426) as a fully assembled circuit board.
He later said he picked a sum with a repeating number "because it was just an easier way to type".
Only about 50 Apple 1s are still believed to be in existence.
The auctioned model
is one of the very few that still works.
Sotheby's said there was a battle between two parties for the item which also included the original manuals. A set of bids was executed by the auctioneer on behalf of an absentee collector, but a telephone bidder proved more persistent and eventually clinched the sale.
Their identity has not been revealed.
The Atari memo
was written in 1974 and consists of four pages detailing the late Steve Jobs' thoughts on how to improve its arcade football game World Cup.
He was 19 years old at the time. The pages include circuit drawings and diagrams showing how the paddle-based game could be made more fun to play.
The notes are stamped with Mr Jobs' Los Altos home address and a Buddhist mantra - "gate gate paragate parasangate bodhi svahdl".
It translates as: "Going, going, going on beyond, always going on beyond, always becoming Buddha."
Sotheby's said there had been "at least three bidders" for the item.
The high sums are the latest confirmation of demand for memorabilia connected to Steve Jobs, who died last October.
Apple's founding papers, featuring Mr Jobs' signature, sold at auction in December for close to $1.6m. | A rare functioning Apple 1 computer - the company's first product - has been sold at an auction for $374,500 (£240,929). |
26114894 | The company said it might scale down the operations of its development and technical centre in Australia as well.
Last year, Ford and General Motors' Holden unit also announced plans to stop producing cars in Australia.
About 2,500 jobs are set to be lost as a result of Toyota's decision, which it attributed to high manufacturing costs.
"We believed that we should continue producing vehicles in Australia, and Toyota and its workforce here made every effort," said Toyota president Akio Toyoda.
"However, various negative factors such as an extremely competitive market and a strong Australian dollar, together with forecasts of a reduction in the total scale of vehicle production in Australia, have forced us to make this painful decision."
The Japanese auto giant, which first began making cars in Australia in 1963, said it "intends to provide the best support it can, including employment assistance" to those affected by the decision.
Vivek Vaidya, an automotive analyst at consultancy Frost & Sullivan, said he was not surprised by Toyota's decision.
"Toyota was the last producer in Australia after exit of Mitsubishi, Ford and Holden," he said. "Labour cost in Australia is too high to be price competitive in production."
Mr Vaidya also said rival car-producing countries such as Thailand and the US were more attractive in terms of manufacturing costs.
Toyota's decision comes despite appeals from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has been looking to keep the carmaker operating in the country.
According to Australian public broadcaster ABC, upon hearing the news Mr Abbott said that "there will be better days in the future".
"Nothing we say or do can limit the devastation that so many people will feel at this point," he said.
"The important thing to remember is, while some businesses close, other businesses open, while some jobs end, other jobs start."
ABC also reported that Australian opposition leader Bill Shorten called Toyota's decision an "unmitigated disaster".
"The car industry has died under the Abbott government - it's a disgrace," he said.
Car manufacturers have been pulling out of Australia as the rising cost of doing business in the country has hit profits.
Last May, Ford said it would close its car lines in Australia in October 2016 with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs.
General Motors' Holden unit has also announced plans to stop production in 2017, affecting nearly 3,000 jobs.
Japan's Mitsubishi Motors sold its last Australian-made car in 2010.
Australia's carmaking industry has traditionally received billions of dollars in subsidies from the government.
However, a national commission recently recommended that the financial support should be ended and that car companies should cut costs instead.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) called Toyota's decision "devastating" and warned the move could cause an economic recession.
"The magnitude of this decision in the community cannot be underestimated," AMWU National Vehicles Secretary Dave Smith said.
"We are looking at a potential recession all along the south-eastern seaboard.
"The government's lack of support for manufacturing workers and the communities they support is contrary to the national interest, will harm our economy and devastate communities," Mr Smith said.
Last year, Toyota - the world's top global car maker by sales - found itself in a dispute with Australian car plant workers over proposed changes to their contracts, in an attempt to reduce costs.
This included changes to overtime requirements and the removal of additional allowances to trained first-aid officers and workers who make blood donations.
In December, Australia's Federal Court blocked a vote on the contractual changes, which Toyota said it would appeal against.
A Toyota spokesman said there were no plans to withdraw that appeal, as it believed it had not violated any laws concerning the issue.
The Australian government weighed in last month, saying it would intervene in the dispute. | Toyota is to end its vehicle and engine production in Australia by the end of 2017, effectively marking the end of the country's carmaking industry. |
36299242 | Alberta's municipal affairs minister, Danielle Larivee, warned that the images could be traumatic.
She said the aim was to give homeowners the most accurate information possible.
More than 80,000 people were forced to flee when a devastating wildfire swept through the town two weeks ago.
The fire, which has now moved away from the city, destroyed more than 2,400 structures.
Thousands of evacuated residents continue to live in temporary shelters, with no possessions, as they wait to hear when they can go home.
Officials say a plan should be ready within two weeks to get residents back to their homes, although fire conditions could worsen in the coming days.
Ms Larivee said she had lived through a devastating fire and evacuation herself and knew how stressful it was to have to wait for updates on which homes had been lost.
"These images will help us begin to answer the questions you have about the state of your homes and community," she said in a statement.
She warned that structures that appeared to be standing should not be considered undamaged.
"These images should not be used for official damage assessments, determining the status of individual structures, or planning re-entry to the city," she said.
On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Fort McMurray for the first time since the evacuation.
He said that despite having seen images on television, the scale of the disaster had not hit him until he had seen it for himself.
The wildfire still covers about 2,410 sq km (930 sq miles) and is expected to burn for a few more weeks. | A smartphone app has been released by the government of the Canadian province of Alberta to let people evacuated from the fire-hit town of Fort McMurray to see satellite images of their homes. |
36687853 | American Ledecky, 19, took nearly two seconds off her own world record to win in eight minutes 4.79 seconds, nearly 12 seconds clear of the rest.
Welsh star Carlin, 25, was her nearest challenger, securing her second silver of the Games after finishing second in the 400m freestyle earlier in the week.
Hungary's Boglarka Kapas took bronze.
Ledecky's dominant display rounded off a stunning debut Olympics with a world record nearly 14 seconds faster than what it stood at when Rebecca Adlington set it at the Beijing Olympics.
Media playback is not supported on this device
"I had a lot of fun tonight," Ledecky said. "I just wanted to push myself and see what I could do."
Carlin secured Britain's fifth swimming medal in Rio.
Siobhan-Marie O'Connor in the 200m individual medley and the men's team in the 4x200m freestyle relay also won silver.
Adam Peaty is Britain's only gold medallist so far after winning the 100m breaststroke gold.
"I couldn't do it without my family," said Carlin after the race. "They have been there through the tough times and it is nice that they can be here.
"Two silver medals, it is an incredible feeling. I'm finally believing in myself."
Find out how to get into swimming with our special guide.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Jazz Carlin won Olympic silver for Great Britain in the women's 800m freestyle, as Katie Ledecky secured her fourth gold medal of the Rio Games. |
40170016 | Mr McHugh made clear that, during his year as mayor, he will not be attending Remembrance Sunday events.
"It's unlikely that I'll be there, and I've said previously and been quite frank and honest about it," he said.
He received his chain of office on Monday and succeeds the DUP's Hilary McClintock.
It is the first time someone from County Tyrone has held the position since the super council was formed in 2015.
John Boyle, of the SDLP, is the new deputy mayor.
An Irish language enthusiast, Maolíosa McHugh - who is the first male mayor of the council - has politics in his blood.
He accepted the chain of office after being nominated by his nephew, Councillor Ruairí McHugh.
He is also the brother of the late Strabane councillor Charlie McHugh, who died suddenly in 2008 after having served in the Derg area from 1985.
Maolíosa McHugh explained that he would not be attending a "poppy day ceremony and so on" because it is "so much presented as a British military event."
"I would say that to people who wish to commemorate their dead should go along and do that in a dignified and respectful way," he added.
Mayor McHugh said that one of his main priorities would be to "open up the North West" to confront the "structural issues" relating to the region's high unemployment.
In 2015, following discussions with the Royal British Legion, Sinn Féin Mayor Elisha McCallion decided not to attend the remembrance day service at the war memorial in the Diamond in Londonderry.
Reflecting on her year in office, Hilary McClintock said it had been "full of positives".
"I think there was very little criticism of me during the year because I did seek to represent people to the best of my ability," she told BBC Radio Foyle.
Councillor McClintock was criticised, by some, for not attending the funeral of the former Bishop of Derry Edward Daly.
"Well at the time I thought it was the right thing to do but you know, I'm not looking back at the negatives from my year.
"I maybe didn't realise the importance of that to so many people in our community but we have moved on from that," she added. | Sinn Féin's Castlederg-based councillor Maolíosa McHugh has been elected mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council. |
33127323 | Mr Corbyn reached the 35 MP threshold just two minutes before the noon deadline, helped by colleagues wanting to widen the range of candidates.
He joins Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall in the contest.
Ms Kendall's campaign team has complained to Mr Burnham and Ms Cooper about media briefings against her.
Labour MP Toby Perkins, who chairs Ms Kendall's campaign, wrote to the two candidates saying he was "sad" to see negative reports about her based on anonymous briefings.
He said a description of her supporters as "Taliban New Labour" reported in the Daily Telegraph was "inappropriate and offensive", adding: "It was particularly surprising that your campaigns have chosen to do something that, predictably, had the effect of taking precedence over the speeches that both of you were making today."
Mr Burnham and Ms Cooper's teams have distanced themselves from the "Taliban" quote, which was attributed to a source in one of their campaigns.
The contest will involve a series of public and televised hustings over the coming weeks, with the winner announced before the party conference in September.
Mr Corbyn told BBC 2's Daily Politics he "fully acknowledged" that some of his nominations came from colleagues who did not support his candidacy, but who wanted to ensure a full debate.
"I will take part in that debate and hope that at the end of it the Labour Party emerges stronger and more resolute in opposing the principles behind austerity and impoverishment of the poorest in Britain," he said.
The election was sparked by Ed Miliband's resignation in the wake of the party's electoral defeat in May.
Mr Burnham topped the list with 68 nominations, followed by Ms Cooper on 59, Ms Kendall on 41 and Mr Corbyn on 36.
This leaves 28 Labour MPs who did not nominate anybody.
Mr Corbyn's appearance on the ballot paper was criticised by Labour MP John Mann, who tweeted: "So to demonstrate our desire never to win again, Islington's Jeremy Corbyn is now a Labour leadership candidate."
But it was welcomed by other Labour figures who said it would ensure a wider range of candidates.
Former shadow cabinet minister Sadiq Khan - who is running for the London mayor - said he would nominate Mr Corbyn, without voting for him in the ballot, to ensure the "widest possible debate".
Labour MP and another London mayoral hopeful, Diane Abbott, who stood for the leadership in 2010, told the BBC the way the party elected its leaders must change, claiming the 35 MP threshold "artificially narrows the choice".
"And it doesn't just lock out the left, it locks out newer candidates and younger candidates," Ms Abbott said.
BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said there was some "unease" among MPs - both that the party had rushed into a contest and about the calibre of the line-up.
Former Labour minister Frank Field has written to Labour Party chairman John Cryer to request a rule change to make it easier for the party to get rid of a failing leader.
Mr Field told the Mail on Sunday: "We cannot hide from the fact that we made catastrophic errors in the choice of our two most recent leaders, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband.
"Having chosen them, it was then impossible to change them when we were hurtling towards election defeat."
He said the Conservative Party "would not have hesitated for a moment" to ditch their leader if they had been in the same "predicament".
Under his proposal, a vote of confidence in the leader would be called if it had the support of 30 anonymous Labour MPs. A vote on his proposed changes is expected next week.
Margaret Hodge, who backs a change in the rules, said that now was the right time to do it, before a new leader was elected.
"Our rules are just too cumbersome, unlike the Conservative Party's," she told BBC2's Daily Politics programme, adding that the aim was to "mimic" the Tories in this area.
Put to her that it suggested a lack of confidence in the current candidates, Ms Hodge disagreed, saying: "This is entirely about putting in place a mechanism that we can use, because of our experience in the past, without actually passing judgement on any individual."
Mr Burnham and Ms Cooper both made speeches on Monday setting our their pitch.
Mr Burnham said he wanted as many people as possible to be involved in the leadership election, saying it had to be "a campaign for Labour to reach out to every corner of the country and win again".
The shadow health secretary also said Labour would need to "look again" at the tuition fees system.
Ms Cooper, shadow home secretary, set out her background as a "comprehensive girl" whose first job was picking fruit on a farm before she went on to secure a place at Oxford University.
She said the UK should invest 3% of GDP on "science, technology and innovation".
The winner will be decided by a vote of Labour Party representatives, members and affiliates, to be conducted on a one-member, one-vote basis.
The result will be announced at a special conference on 12 September.
A vacancy has also arisen for the deputy leadership, after Harriet Harman announced she would be stepping down once the posts were filled.
Nominations for that election close on Wednesday, with seven candidates in the race.
15 June: Nominations for leader will close at midday
17 June: Nominations for their deputy will close at midday
12 August: Deadline for people to join the Labour Party
14 August: Ballot papers sent out by post
10 September: Polling closes at midday
12 September: Winners announced at special conference
27 September: Labour's party conference begins | Four candidates will compete to become Labour's new leader, after left-winger Jeremy Corbyn secured enough nominations to get on the ballot. |
33250822 | It comes after the arrest of senior American executive Julie Hamp on suspicion of importing a controlled substance into Japan.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda said last week that he believes she did not intend to violate the law.
It is unclear what authorities were looking for in the raid, which is common after an arrest.
Toyota spokesman Ryo Sakai told Reuters news agency that the company would not comment because an investigation is ongoing.
Ms Hamp is Toyota's newly appointed head of public relations, the highest ranking female executive in Toyota's history.
She was arrested on 18 June on suspicion of importing oxycodone, a narcotic pain killer, into Japan. The substance is tightly controlled in the country.
Police said the drugs were in a parcel that Ms Hamp had posted to herself.
She told police she brought the drugs into Japan to help with pain in her knees, Kyodo News reported. | Police have raided the headquarters of Toyota Motor in Toyota City, as well as its office in Tokyo. |
38858898 | Data from JustGiving shows that 2,348 appeals were set up by cancer patients or their loved ones in 2016, a seven-fold rise on the number for 2015.
Over £4.5m was raised by these appeals in 2016 compared with £530,000 in 2015.
Doctors say the number of patients bypassing the NHS is "very worrying".
Liz Sheppard, a mother-of-three from Mansfield, was diagnosed with small cell stomach cancer - a rare form of the disease - in November 2015.
She has now raised over £135,000 online to help pay for immunotherapy, which she is receiving at a private centre in London.
She has already spent around £60,000 of the money on immunotherapy, and says she is responding well to the treatment.
She told the BBC: "I'm able to get out and lead as normal a life as possible. Certainly I'm not bedridden.
"If it wasn't for people's generosity and kindness, I wouldn't be where I am now. It's not something I could have self-funded. Without that money I wouldn't be here. It means everything.
"I'm a mother. I look at my children every day and they keep me going.
"And the messages people leave when they make a donation can be motivating in themselves. You can draw a lot of strength from them."
A spokesman for NHS England said: "More people than ever before are surviving cancer thanks to improved NHS care… and together with NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) we have also launched a new-look cancer drugs fund, meaning patients will be able to access promising, new and innovative treatments much quicker."
According to the detailed figures released by the platform JustGiving, USA, Germany and Mexico topped the most popular destinations for patients travelling abroad for treatments last year.
More than a fifth of those looking for treatment (404 people) raised £1,393,490 in donations to travel to the United States for care.
Germany followed in second place with 142 people crowdfunding £368,530 (a 461% increase from 2015), whilst 23 people raised £69,660 to travel to Mexico for treatment (a 224% increase from 2015).
Immunotherapy was the most popular treatment crowdfunded on the JustGiving platform in 2016.
The therapy uses the body's own immune system to fight off cancer. It has been shown to work in certain cases, but not all. And some are still in the very early stages of research.
The treatments people have funded are not always considered to have the backing of sufficient scientific evidence by NHS experts.
Charles Wells, chief operations officer for JustGiving, said: "Over the last 12 months, we've seen more and more people crowdfunding on JustGiving to raise money for cancer treatments that aren't available on the NHS.
"It can be a practical way for friends, family and the community to come together and help, as well as providing a lifeline for people by giving them access to pioneering treatments when they've been given a cancer diagnosis."
Consultant oncologist Dr Clive Peedell expressed concern about the rise in the number of patients bypassing the NHS to fund their own treatment.
He told BBC Radio 5 live: "The NHS is clearly financially under pressure at present, but cancer therapy has received preferential funding compared with other diseases and conditions.
"The system for approving effective new cancer drugs is not perfect, but is much improved.
"The vast majority of proven effective treatments for cancer are funded by the NHS.
"This includes immunotherapy for a number of indications including lung cancer, which is my own field.
"However, funding pressures are likely to pressurise the current system even further and we could see it break down in future.
"It is therefore very worrying to see this trend of crowdfunding for cancer drugs.
"It would be interesting to review all the cases to find out how many are genuinely appropriate.
"I worry that some patients may be trying to access treatment that may not be beneficial.
"Worse still, there may be significant extra costs involved, especially if patients pay privately or travel abroad."
The NHS England spokesman said it was investing £130m in state-of-the-art radiotherapy equipment, alongside £200m of funding over two years to improve local cancer services. | There has been a big leap in the number of cancer patients turning to crowdfunding to pay for treatments not available on the NHS, figures seen by BBC Radio 5 live suggest. |
33844633 | A shed, including eco-garden equipment, was destroyed in the blaze at St Paul's Primary School on Saturday night.
A nearby sports club in the Bloomfield Park area was also attacked.
Principal of St Paul's, Catriona McFeely, said: "The shed and equipment has been totally destroyed.
"Play resources and garden equipment has been destroyed and an extension was built to it recently.
"It's hard to believe that someone would do this.
"P1 and P2 pupils come up here rain, hail or snow because they love the gardening club.
"The local community also helped us out so it's a real shame that this has happened."
SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood has condemned those behind the attack on the school and the sports club.
"Those behind it have attacked vital community facilities and have left local people to pick up the pieces," said Mr Eastwood.
"I visited St Paul's recently and was hugely impressed by the fantastic community work which the school, its staff and pupils have undertaken.
"That includes the eco-garden project which had given children a real sense of community pride.
"The equipment for that project has now been destroyed and it's local children who have lost out.
"Those responsible for these attacks have only harmed their own communities."
The police and the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said they were aware of the incidents. | The principal of a primary school in Londonderry has described fire damage at the school as "disgraceful". |
34742361 | The defence secretary told BBC News he was appealing to MPs to reconsider the case for airstrikes.
It comes after a Russian passenger plane crashed in Egypt's Sinai desert last Saturday, which the UK government suspects was caused by a bomb.
In 2013, MPs rejected possible UK military action in Syria.
The vote two years ago was on potential airstrikes against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, amid reports he had used chemical weapons, rather than militants from Islamic State (IS or ISIL).
The government is now making the case for Islamic State to be targeted, given its links to attacks on Western targets around the world, including the killing of 30 British holidaymakers in Tunisia in June.
The four-year civil war in Syria has ground to a stalemate, with President Bashar al-Assad's regime, so-called Islamic State, an array of Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters all holding territory.
Mr Fallon told the newspaper that IS was a direct threat to the UK's national security and it was "very odd" that the UK was among a coalition of countries - including the US, France and Australia - fighting IS militants in Iraq but was not doing the same in Syria, where the group is based and co-ordinates its wider military operations from.
"That is morally indefensible that our streets should be protected by French, Australian and American aircraft, when we are not prepared to bite the bullet and get the Tornados dealing with these supply routes," he said.
Asked whether it would strengthen the case for British if IS was found to be responsible for bringing the Russian airliner down, he replied: "We don't know whether it was Isil. If it turns out to be Isil, of course."
Last year, Parliament approved UK airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq but ministers have said they will only seek MPs' approval to extend the action to Syria if there is a political "consensus" behind the action.
For more than a year, the US and coalition forces have been carrying out air strikes against IS, which controls a large part of northern Syria and parts of neighbouring Iraq.
And Russia began bombing rebels in Syria in September, with President Vladimir Putin saying the aim was to "stabilise the legitimate authority" of President Assad.
In a separate interview with the BBC, Mr Fallon dismissed recent media reports that a new vote on Syria has been dropped, saying it would be held when "we are pretty sure we can win".
"We've had 30 British holidaymakers slaughtered on a beach in Tunisia, and it's not right morally to rely on French or Australian or American aircraft to keep our streets safe," he told the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Beale.
"In the end, we have to be prepared to strike at ISIL headquarters, which is in Syria and not in Iraq... This is a new parliament, and we are continuing to work to build a consensus that would give us the authority to strikes at the heart of ISIL in north-east Syria."
Downing Street said the prime minister's position had not changed.
"The prime minister has set out very clearly his view that there is a clear rationale for taking military action in Syria but equally, he has always made clear that to do that would require the consensus of the House," a spokesman said.
The Russian Metrojet Airbus A321 was flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg when it crashed, killing all 224 people on board, on Saturday.
UK investigators believe a bomb was put in the hold prior to take-off, the BBC has learned.
On Tuesday, the influential Foreign Affairs Committee - which has a Conservative majority - urged David Cameron not to press ahead with a vote on UK air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria.
The committee of MPs said no vote should take place on Syria until the government presents a "coherent international strategy" to defeat IS and end the country's civil war.
The Labour leadership is currently opposed to extending air strikes, as are the SNP, while several Tory MPs harbour doubts about the move - making it unlikely that the government could win a vote. | It is "morally indefensible" for Britain to rely on other countries to tackle the so-called Islamic State in Syria, Michael Fallon has said. |
38392752 | A group of about 10 men were involved in the brawl on The Causeway in the town centre at about 02:40 GMT, police said.
The 31-year-old victim was found with serious head injuries. He died later in hospital.
Two men, aged 25 and 22, have been held on suspicion of murder, assault, affray and possession of an offensive weapon. | A man has died of injuries he sustained in a "gang fight" outside a bar in Altrincham. |
40371873 | The deceased foetus, named Wally, has been held at a public hospital in the city since April.
"We're really happy and relieved," the father, Kevin, told BBC News.
"It's bittersweet, of course, but I'm relieved that we've been able to get closure," he said.
"We will finally be able to bury our baby with the dignity and respect that he deserves."
Under current rules, deceased foetuses younger than 24 weeks are not routinely released to their families for burial.
Instead, they are considered to be "clinical waste" and disposed of accordingly.
Kevin and his wife Angela, who are using pseudonyms to protect their privacy, were only allowed to take their son for burial after the Catholic Diocese agreed to step in.
The Church has agreed to set aside space in its private cemetery in eastern Hong Kong for foetuses born before 24 weeks of gestation.
Called "Angel Garden", the space is only available to Roman Catholic families.
Kevin said Angela miscarried at home in April and after arriving in hospital, he held his son for seven hours.
He recalled the nurses as being sympathetic and kind, offering to dress the child in tiny dolls' clothing.
The trouble started when the couple tried to claim their child for burial.
"When the hospital said our son was hospital property, our jaws dropped," he said.
"If you have a relative die, and the government confiscates the body, it wouldn't make you feel very good unless you have some kind of resolution."
In a statement to the BBC, the hospital authority, which manages all public hospitals in Hong Kong, said foetuses born without signs of life before 24 weeks of gestation were handled according to the legal requirements of the Environmental Protection Department.
It added that parents were entitled to approach hospitals for release of the body.
In the past year, the authority said it had received 18 such applications, of which 14 had been approved.
But Kevin and Angela's lawyer, Michael Vidler, accused the authorities of taking directions from abortion law which stipulates that 24 weeks is the gestational age above which the foetus is considered stillborn and is allowed to be released for burial.
Currently, abortions in Hong Kong cannot be performed after 24 weeks unless it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman.
Kevin said the hospital had previously agreed to release his son's body, but without the documentation required for a proper burial.
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"I had nowhere to take him," he explained. "If you take a baby that is considered to be clinical waste, you can't just dispose of it any which way you like. I could bury him in my garden, or hold a bonfire at the beach, but it wouldn't be a legal burial. If someone discovers it, they could call the police."
He said that in May, weeks after the miscarriage, the hospital agreed to release the body and suggested the couple go to a pet crematorium - an offer which they quickly rejected.
He said the solution offered by the Roman Catholic Church mirrors what Hong Kong's Islamic cemetery had been allowed to do for decades.
Roman Catholics believe that life begins at conception, while most Muslim scholars say a foetus in the womb is recognised as a human life.
But Kevin wants all families in Hong Kong, regardless of religion or background, to have the option of taking their deceased children for burial or cremation.
"I don't think it should be available only to people of certain religions or certain backgrounds," he said. "I want to see the government change this policy, or for lawmakers to change the law." | A grieving couple in Hong Kong have finally been granted permission to pick up the body of their son for burial after he died during a miscarriage in the 15th week of pregnancy. |
35343985 | Gayle hit seven sixes to equal the mark of India batsman Yuvraj Singh against England at the 2007 World Twenty20.
He was out five balls later for 56.
Needing to surpass Adelaide Strikers' 170-5 in 15.5 overs or less to reach the BBL semi-finals, the Renegades were bowled out for 143.
The Strikers, including England leg-spinner Adil Rashid and coached by Yorkshire's's Jason Gillespie, top the group and advance to the last four, where they will face Sydney Thunder on Thursday.
In the other semi-final on Friday, up to four England internationals could be on show as Melbourne Stars face Perth Scorchers.
Kevin Pietersen and Sussex all-rounder Luke Wright are fixtures in the Stars side, while the Scorchers' squad includes left-arm seamer David Willey and Hampshire batsman Michael Carberry.
The semi-finals and final will be played as double-headers with the Women's Big Bash League.
For Gayle, the Renegades' exit ends a Big Bash campaign in which he attracted criticism for comments he made to TV reporter Mel McLaughlin.
The former West Indies captain asked McLaughlin out on a date during a live interview and later apologised.
The 36-year-old already holds the record for the fastest T20 hundred, made off 30 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League in 2013. | Chris Gayle hit a 12-ball half-century to equal the record for the fastest fifty in Twenty20 cricket, but could not prevent Melbourne Renegades from going out of the Big Bash League. |
35615595 | The regulator said that 6.1m gas and electricity accounts had been transferred during the year - about 800,000 more than in 2014.
The news was welcomed by consumer groups, which said competition in the market was improving.
"It's encouraging to see switching levels at their highest level for four years," said Ofgem's Rachel Fletcher.
The big six energy companies have all cut prices for their gas customers this year by at least 5.1%, but there have been no reductions to electricity tariffs.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) - whose report on the energy market is due next month - has said that householders could save up to £234 a year by switching.
However, Ann Robinson, from the price comparison site Uswitch, said that recently consumers had been making much larger savings than that.
In the last three months of 2015 the average switcher's dual fuel saving was £337, she said.
For 10% of people, they were saving as much as £567 a year.
Earlier this year Ofgem accused the energy companies of overcharging many of their customers.
But for the industry, Energy UK said there was a competitive market.
The CMA is due to release its provisional remedies report in March, with a final report to be published on 25 June.
Among other options, it is considering a possible price cap on the most expensive tariffs. | The number of UK households switching their energy provider rose by 15% in 2015, Ofgem said. |
34416989 | Teenagers rarely meet online but do use technology for flirting, asking out, meeting up and parting, American think tank, the Pew Research Center, found.
A survey of 1,060 US teenagers aged 13 to 17 revealed that technology brings them closer but also breeds jealousy.
"Digital platforms are powerful tools for teens," said Amanda Lenhart, lead author of the report from Pew.
"But even as teens enjoy greater closeness with partners and a chance to display their relationships for others to see, mobile and social media can also be tools for jealousy, meddling and even troubling behaviour."
Of the 1,060 teenagers surveyed:
What gets discussed during all those frequent social media enabled check-ins?
According to the survey, it is mostly "funny stuff" followed by "things you're thinking about" as well as other information such as where they are and what their friends have been doing.
And forget having to meet up to resolve a conflict - 48% of dating teenagers said that could be done by texting or talking online.
Online tools, with their accessibility and ease of use, also showed some signs of giving this group relationship anxiety.
Females are more likely to be subject to unwanted flirting and 25% of teenagers surveyed said they have blocked or unfriended someone because of uncomfortable flirting.
And 15% of teenage daters said a partner had used the internet to pressure them into unwanted sexual activity.
Nearly half the respondents admitted to concentrating on their phone ahead of their partner when together with 43% of dating teens saying that had happened to them.
"I don't think this survey reveals much that is surprising. But it is affirming. Humans are social animals and we build tools to connect with each other," wrote Julie Beck, an associate editor at The Atlantic news site, of the survey's findings.
"It's not all heart emojis all the time, no, but the tools that facilitate relationships facilitate all aspects of them, good and bad.
"Connecting with others is scary, hard, sometimes dangerous, but usually, hopefully, good. The teens get it." | Technology plays a key role in teenage romance from initial encounters to eventual break-ups, says a US study. |
34664203 | Analysts said the closely watched cash profit measure, which strips out some one-off items, would be welcomed by investors despite expectations for profits of A$7.29bn.
"The core parts of the bank's results were a pass mark," said IG's Evan Lucas.
ANZ's shares were rising on the news.
The result for the year to September marks a 1% rise on cash profits from a year earlier.
The lender, which is the nation's third-biggest bank by market value, also said its after-tax profit rose 3% to A$7.5bn.
The results follow National Australia Bank's full-year profit report on Wednesday, which failed to impress investors after it missed expectations.
Australia's banking sector, particularly the so-called top four, which includes National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac, is regarded as being highly profitable.
The sector made it through the global financial crisis relatively unscathed, but is now facing tighter regulatory controls. Banks have been told to increase the amount of capital they put aside in order to protect their mortgage businesses.
ANZ has also been focused on its operations in Asia in recent years, but its latest results in the region "had declined substantially for the period", said Mr Lucas.
"We've seen a 32% decline in the bank's international and investment banking division in Asia, and the bank seems to have eased its tone on growth in that area," he said.
The bank's chief executive Mike Smith remained relatively upbeat, however, about the bank's business in Australia and New Zealand.
"In a constrained environment, we have continued to see growth in our core customer franchises in Australia, in New Zealand and in key Asian markets, partly offset by the effect of macro-economic headwinds on the international and institutional banking division," said Mr Smith. | One of Australia's biggest lenders, ANZ, has posted a record annual cash profit of 7.2bn Australian dollars ($5.1bn; £3.34bn). |
33065383 | The Commission on Housing and Wellbeing was established two years ago by the charity Shelter.
Its latest report called on the Scottish government to increase the number of new homes being built to 23,000 a year.
The Scottish government said housing "is at the heart" of its ambitions.
The commission said ignoring its recommendations would lead to a deepening of the current "crisis".
Some 15,500 homes were constructed in 2013-14, according to government figures.
The commission claimed a wider house-building programme would create jobs and bring significant health and education benefits.
Its chairman Robert Black, the former auditor-general for Scotland, said there was already a "homes crisis."
He added: "There are some stark statistics in the report about numbers of households on the waiting list, which is more than 150,000.
"More and more families are living on short-term tenancies in the private rented sector, so we think there's a real issue."
The report, launched on Wednesday, called for a "modest" increase in the number of houses built by 2020.
But Mr Black dismissed suggestions that tight public finances meant such an increase was unachievable.
"By making that investment, there's a 'spend to save' issue because a good home is essential to the quality of life of everybody living in Scotland," he said.
"It can help with issues as diverse as providing a base for kids to do their learning well, to the difficult issue of freeing up people who are blocked in hospital beds because their homes aren't suitable."
Anne Jarvie, former chief nursing officer for Scotland, who also sat on the commission, said improving the housing stock could help cut costs for the NHS.
"Having to live in cold, damp and completely unsuitable properties, or not having a permanent home, risks the long-term physical and mental health and wellbeing of many people, particularly children," she said.
"By acting now we can help end this inequality and create an environment where current and future generations in Scotland can prosper and flourish."
Shelter Scotland's director, Graeme Brown, said he had no doubt the government could meet the targets the report had set.
"We have set a challenging and ambitious set of priorities for the government through this report. However, obviously we are in constrained times," he added.
"We will be looking to the finance secretary and the spending review which the Scottish government will be announcing later this year as an indication that they are seriously going to try to tackle these problems."
The report highlighted the close links between inequality, poverty and poor housing.
It said new homes need to be built in areas where jobs exist, and recommended possible tax changes to improve the supply of land for housing.
Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil MSP welcomed the publication.
He said: "Housing is at the heart of the Scottish government's ambitions to create a fairer and more prosperous country, and it is our aim that everyone should have a safe, warm home which suits their needs and they can afford.
"Access to good quality housing is a vital part of this government's drive to secure economic growth, promote social justice, strengthen communities and tackle inequality." | Scotland's housing policy needs radical action to help deal with poverty and inequality, an independent commission has said. |
38795937 | Eastwood stopped an Aleksandar Mitrovic spot-kick in Oxford's impressive 3-0 fourth round win with the game at 1-0.
"He (the analyst) told me after the game that Mitrovic had gone the other way with his two previous penalties," Eastwood told BBC Radio Oxford.
"If he'd told me that before, I'd have definitely dived the wrong way."
Former Blackburn goalkeeper Eastwood put in a man of the match performance as League One club Oxford outfought their Championship opponents.
Media playback is not supported on this device
He denied striker Mitrovic with two smart one-on-one saves in the first half before diving low to his right to thwart the Serbia international from the spot.
"Sometimes it's just about trusting your instincts with a penalty," Eastwood added, after Oxford progressed to the last 16 for the first time since 1994.
But manager Michael Appleton, who has signed Eastwood three times in his career, chose to take some of the credit for the penalty save himself.
"I keep telling him in training to stand still and just wait for the player to actually kick it and place it," he said.
"I'm a believer that if you go once it's been hit and it's not within a couple of inches of the post, you can get there." | Oxford United goalkeeper Simon Eastwood was relieved the club's analyst chose not to speak to him before his FA Cup penalty save against Newcastle United. |
38045421 | The woman, who is in her 30s, was driving on the Pembroke Loop Road in the west of the city at about 07:00 GMT on Sunday morning.
A man ran out in front of her car, forcing her to stop.
Another man approached the vehicle and opened the driver's door before forcing the woman out of the car.
The two men got into the black Citroen C5 estate, along with a third man, before driving off.
The car has not yet been recovered. | A woman has been left badly shaken after her car was hijacked by three men in Belfast. |
35188050 | The benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.6% to 18,873.35 despite economic data painting a gloomier picture of the world's third-largest economy.
Figures showed Japan's factory output fell 1% in November from the previous month, the first drop in three months.
Retail sales also fell below forecasts and declined 1% from a year ago.
Japan's economy narrowly avoided a recession in the third quarter and economists are expecting only modest growth in the current one.
Shares of Sharp, however, were up 7.3% on reports that the struggling consumer electronics firm had received a purchase offer from Taiwan's electronics supplier Hon Hai Precision.
Chinese shares were lower, with the Shanghai Composite ending the day down 2.6% at 3,533.78, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed 1% lower at 21,919.62.
Economic data released on Sunday showed that profits earned by Chinese industrial firms in November fell 1.4% from a year ago, marking the sixth month of declines.
Hong Kong-listed shares of China Telecom also fell 1.6% after the country's anti-corruption watchdog said it was investigating its chairman, Chang Xiaobing.
In South Korea, the Kospi index ended down 1.3% at 1,964.06 points.
The Australian market was closed for a public holiday. | It was a mixed picture for Asian shares at the start of a week shortened by holidays, amid quiet trade as Japanese shares ended a five-day losing streak. |
37506158 | Ronnie Coulter, 48, from Wishaw, denies murdering the 32-year-old in Overtown, North Lanarkshire, on 4 November 1998.
In his closing speech, prosecutor Alex Prentice QC told jurors: "The person responsible is Ronnie Coulter."
Mr Coulter's QC Donald Findlay told the jury that witnesses for the prosecution has been "atrocious" and told "deliberate and despicable" lies.
Addressing the jury in the fourth week of the trial, Mr Prentice said: "On 4 November 1998 Surjit Singh Chhokar made his way home from his work with a bottle of juice and a takeaway meal, doubtless looking forward to a pleasant evening.
"He was confronted in the dark by three men. He was attacked, stabbed, killed, murdered and left in the street."
Mr Prentice added: "I say to you the person responsible for that is Ronnie Coulter.
"I ask you to convict Ronnie Coulter of the murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar."
Mr Prentice told the jury that they perform an important public function and urged them to put aside any emotion and not to speculate, but decide the case on the facts.
He added: "This is a tragic tale. This man's death occurred simply because Surjit Singh Chhokar's flat was broken into and his Giro cheque stolen. The incident which led to his death lasted only a couple of minutes if that, yet we have occupied four weeks exploring the events."
The QC also urged the jury to ignore the fact that there have been two previous trials.
He told the jurors: "There are some unusual features about this case. You have heard quite properly that there have been two previous trials. Ronnie Coulter, Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery have all been tried for murder and all have been acquitted.
"In large part the previous trials are irrelevant. You have no idea what the evidence was or who the witnesses were."
The jury has heard that Mr Chhokar was stabbed three times. The fatal wound went through his heart and he died of massive blood loss.
Ronnie Coulter has blamed his nephew, Andrew Coulter, and another man, David Montgomery, for the killing.
Both have given evidence during the trial and admitted being there on the night Mr Chhokar died, but they denied murder.
Mr Prentice told the jurors that it would be suggested by the defence that there was a conspiracy against Ronnie Coulter in order to get him convicted of murder.
Referring to the two men Mr Coulter blames for the murder, Mr Prentice said: "Andrew Coulter is a killer who carries a knife. He pleaded guilty to culpable homicide of a man by stabbing him on the leg.
"Does that mean he stabbed Surjit Singh Chhokar? No it doesn't.
"There is a theme in cross-examination that he was seeking to divert blame from his uncle Ronnie for revenge or whatever.
"Andrew Coulter flatly denies having a knife that night and flatly denies stabbing Chhokar."
Mr Prentice asked the jury: "What was Ronnie Coulter's reason for being there? David Montgomery provided the lift and there was a dispute between Andrew Coulter and Surjit Singh Chhokar. Andrew Coulter had stolen and cashed his Giro."
Mr Coulter's QC, Donald Findlay, later began his speech to the jury.
He told the jury it was Mr Coulter's position that he did not stab Mr Chhokar.
Mr Findlay said race had no part to play in Mr Chhokar's death, adding: "It is wholly, completely and utterly irrelevant."
The QC claimed the trial had heard from "atrocious witnesses" who were "determined to say what they wanted to say for their own personal reasons".
The advocate insisted "not just white lies" had been told, but ones which were "deliberate and despicable".
The trial before judge Lord Matthews continues. | Jurors in the Surjit Singh Chhokar murder trial have been asked to convict the accused of the "tragic" stabbing. |
10547390 | At least 30 died when a suicide bomber targeted a crowd walking through the predominantly Sunni Adhamiya district to the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim mosque.
Eleven pilgrims were killed in other bombings across the capital.
Security had been stepped up to protect the thousands of pilgrims attending a festival that culminates on Thursday.
In pictures: Iraq pilgrimage
Vehicles had been banned in the mainly Shia area of Kadhimya, where the shrine is located, and 200,000 police officers and soldiers deployed along the pilgrims' main routes.
The authorities had also imposed a city-wide ban on motorbikes, bicycles and carts to help reduce the risk of vehicle-born attacks.
"We expect the terrorist groups to launch terrorist attacks against pilgrims during the coming hours, but our contingency plans will foil their vicious acts," Maj-Gen Ahmed al-Saedi had said earlier.
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad says that while the overall level of violence is much lower than in recent years, and sectarian tensions have eased, attacks of this kind are all too frequent, particularly during high-profile religious events.
The religious festival marks the anniversary of the death in the 8th Century of Moussa al-Kadhim, the seventh of the 12 Shia imams. It was outlawed under Saddam Hussein, and has attracted large crowds since being revived.
An Adhamiya resident said he had been drinking tea and watching the pilgrims walk by when the suicide bomber struck.
"We heard a big explosion and everybody rushed to the site to see bodies and hear wounded people, screaming for help," Saif al-Azami told the Associated Press. "We helped carry the wounded to the hospital before the ambulances arrived."
Some of his Sunni friends, he said, had been serving food and water to the pilgrims and were killed or wounded in the attacks.
Despite the attacks, many pilgrims said they would not be deterred.
"Even in the time of Saddam, I came across the fields despite it being forbidden to travel to attend," Hamid Talib told AFP news agency.
"I would make the pilgrimage whatever the situation is."
Layla Abbas, 63, who was being pushed in a wheelchair by her daughter toward the shrine, told Reuters: "I'm disabled, yes, but my loyalty to Shia imams is not."
In 2005, nearly 1,000 pilgrims were killed in a stampede on the Imams Bridge, which crosses the River Tigris between Kadhimya and Adhamiya, after rumours spread that a suicide bomber was walking among them.
Last year, two female suicide bombers blew themselves near the shrine, killing 65 people, including 20 Iranian pilgrims.
Wednesday's attacks come as the US military prepares to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by the end of August.
There are fears the long-planned move could be hindered by the failure of Iraq's major political parties to form a coalition government following March's inconclusive parliamentary election. | More than 40 people have died and some 100 have been wounded in bomb attacks on Shia pilgrims converging on a shrine in northern Baghdad, say police. |
36130194 | The adult bird was discovered in Chopwell Wood, near Gateshead, where the protected species was reintroduced in 2004.
Police are investigating the shooting, which has been condemned by the Friends of the Red Kite (FoRK) group.
Three red kites were found poisoned in the same area last year.
FoRK's welfare officer Allan Withrington said a red kite had also recently been shot and injured near Malton in North Yorkshire.
"That anyone could even think about shooting these beautiful, graceful birds is beyond my comprehension," he said.
"We are saddened by yet another wildlife crime and look forward to hearing the results of the police investigation."
Red kites are protected under schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and anyone found killing one can face up to six months in jail.
Mr Withrington said FoRK, which monitors red kite numbers, was working with police, the RSPB and Natural England to identify so-called "persecution hotspots" and encourage the public to report suspicious incidents close to 19 known nesting sites.
Last year about 25 red kite chicks were known to have fledged in the north east England, down from 35 the previous year.
There are about 1,000 red kites in England. | A red kite, one of the UK's most highly protected birds of prey, has been found shot dead and riddled with shotgun pellets. |
33001263 | The Conservative UK government plans to stop subsidies to onshore wind power - and policy details are expected soon.
Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to consult with Scotland before any change but that has not happened.
Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said he was concerned because onshore wind is so important to the economy.
In a letter to the UK Energy Secretary Amber Rudd, Mr Ewing said: "It is disappointing that I have not had the opportunity to engage with you on this ahead of it being a matter for speculation in the press.
"We have not received any information from your department on the possible options you are considering or what analysis has been done to assess the impact on projects in Scotland."
Mr Ewing warned that changing previously-agreed subsidies would cause a crisis of confidence with business.
His letter said: "Any lack of clarity on the UK government's intentions has the potential to stall a very substantial pipeline of investment in the UK and Scotland and dent (our) reputation with developers and inward investors."
Mr Cameron may be planning a strategy in which he appeases his own backbenchers by stopping subsidies in England and Wales - but then allowing them in Scotland, where the majority of wind farms are being planned anyway.
Mr Ewing wants to know whether this is the case. He believes it is irrational to end support for the UK's cheapest form of clean energy.
Experts have warned that choking off onshore wind energy would lead to higher bills as clean electricity is obtained from more expensive sources such as offshore wind.
Businesses are furious to hear rumours that a subsidy scheme known as the Renewables Obligation might be scrapped earlier than its planned end date of 2017.
They say it is unfair on firms which have invested in design, connectors and planning permission.
The row follows a previous dispute in which the UK government scrapped solar power subsidies early, while continuing support for nuclear power which has been subsidised for more than 60 years.
Ian Marchant, from the British Wind partnership, said: "The proposed approach contradicts the government's manifesto commitment to "meet our climate change commitments, cutting carbon emissions as cheaply as possible, to save you money" - as the cost of substituting more expensive technologies in place of onshore wind would add several hundred million pounds every year to bills.
"It surely cannot be the government's intention to deny local communities the chance to host onshore wind projects if that is what they want to do.
"Energy policy needs to honestly reflect the views of voters: the government's own polls show onshore wind is backed by 65% of the public - more than supported any political party at the election."
One possibility mooted in a recent report is that the government has run out of cash it allocated for renewables.
The decision on when to withdraw subsidies is a delicate one. If they are stopped too late, consumers will get needlessly charged; if stopped too early then the industry will fail to fulfil its potential - in the short term at least.
Some energy experts say onshore wind will be competitive with new-build gas power by 2020.
The energy and climate department (Decc) said no decisions on the subsidies had been made, but that an announcement should be made soon.
A UK government spokesman told BBC News that Scotland would be consulted but could not say when. | The Scottish energy minister has complained to his UK counterpart that Scotland is being frozen out of key decisions on green energy. |
34551782 | Jessica Bruce completed the Abingdon Marathon with her seven-month-old son Daniel in a pushchair in three hours, 17 minutes and 52 seconds.
Guinness World Records said the current record holder for fastest marathon pushing a pram (female) was three hours, 31 minutes and 45 seconds.
Ms Bruce, from Headington, said she was awaiting confirmation from Guinness.
She said: "We did so much training on hilly courses so this was easier than I expected.
"We went off on an even pace and it was really good. Daniel was a star."
She said she had applied to Guinness for the record and was awaiting the signature of the race director to verify her time.
Ms Bruce entered the race shortly after having her son and said: "I thought I would be running slower than usual so I thought I'd set up another kind of challenge for it.
"Daniel loves it, he loves watching the trees and is absolutely happy when he's awake."
Her personal best in a marathon is two hours and 58 minutes and she kept running until she was seven months pregnant.
Her buggy is lightweight and has in-built suspension.
Guinness World Records said the current record holder was Allison Tai of Canada who set her time in September 2012 in British Colombia.
The Abingdon Marathon is in its 34th year and about 1,200 runners took part. | A mother is claiming a world record for running a marathon while pushing a buggy. |
37518489 | Sir Tom Winsor said Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings' decision was based on three "misunderstood" words in a press release.
Mr Crompton was suspended after the Hillsborough inquest verdicts in April.
He said the PCC's decision was wrong and he will be taking legal action.
Mr Crompton - who was due to retire in November - was suspended the day after the Hillsborough inquests concluded police conduct contributed to or caused the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans in 1989.
A statement he issued on 27 April, included the phrase "these [police] failures had to be put into the context of other contributory factors".
Dr Billings said the words "other contributory factors" showed insensitivity to the victims of the disaster.
Following the suspension, Dr Billings instigated dismissal proceedings against Mr Crompton under Section 38 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act, which required him to consult others on the proposal - among them, Sir Tom.
Speaking to the Today programme Sir Tom said: "Dr Billings is firing the chief constable for nothing other than three words in a press release which could not fairly mean anything other than he was not blaming the fans."
He said the PCC's interpretation of the statement was "mistaken and the High Court will correct him".
"The Police and Crime Commissioner cannot fire the chief because people have misunderstood what was said and, let's remember, the PCC was shown the statement before it was made an he did not say 'Do not issue that statement'."
In published documents relating to the dismissal proceedings Mr Crompton claims he took the statement to Dr Billings on the morning of 27 April but was told the PCC could not advise on it.
According to Dr Billings, Mr Crompton was told it was "unwise" to make a comment seeking to justify the force's legal stance at the inquests. | The decision to force South Yorkshire Police chief David Crompton to resign was a mistake which will be "corrected in the High Court", the Chief Inspector of Constabulary has said. |
29216243 | Police said Michael Carter, 49, from Salford, got into a row about football with two men on King Street West at about 03:10 BST on 31 August.
He was punched and fell to the ground, hitting his head on the pavement, said police. He died on 10 September.
The images show the two suspects outside Revolution Bar, Southgate.
The pictures were taken at about 1.50 BST on 31 August, before the incident.
A post-mortem examination concluded Mr Carter, who had four children, died from a head injury.
Det Ch Insp Richard Eales said: "It appears he was punched once in the face during, or after, an argument over football.
"We believe that two men came across Michael and his friend in the minutes before the incident and had football-related banter."
He added: "We know that Michael received a blow to the head outside the Cotswold Outdoor store on the corner of Deansgate and South King Street."
Police said one of the men was white, 6ft (1.8m) tall and of slim build while a second man was possibly Asian/mixed race, 5ft 7in (1.7m) tall and of medium build with black hair.
They said the suspects ran off towards Bridge Street after the incident.
A third man, not involved in the incident that led to Mr Carter's death, was with both men outside the Revolution Bar.
He was described as black with short dark hair.
Det Ch Insp Eales asked for anyone who recognised the men, including anyone working for a taxi firm that may have picked them up, to contact police or Crimestoppers. | CCTV images of men wanted in connection with the death of a man after a "single punch" on a night out in Manchester have been released by police. |
38380775 | The visitors twice led early on through Joel Hodgson penalties, but Sarries got the first try against the run of play when Marcelo Bosch went over.
Two Owen Farrell penalties put the hosts 13-6 ahead at half time, and he added a third late in the second half.
Ashton secured the win when he crossed in his first appearance since being found guilty of biting in September.
The England winger, who has agreed a move to French Top 14 side Toulon at the end of the season, played 30 minutes as a replacement and capped his performance when he went over untouched in the right corner.
Saracens were unable to earn a bonus point as Newcastle matched them for long periods of the game.
And second-placed Wasps are now only behind the reigning champions on points difference following their bonus-point home win over Bath.
Falcons spent much of the early stages camped on the Sarries line, but they were twice forced to settle for penalties and rarely troubled the hosts' impressive defence from then on.
And their inability to turn pressure into points meant they also missed out on a losing bonus point and remain eighth in the table.
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:
"It is good to have Chris back in the team and scoring tries. It wasn't the best game for him to come back for but he got his name on the scoresheet.
"His attitude in training has been fine. He's been waiting for this chance to play again and now he's keen to get a couple of starts.
"We now just want to see more of what he's given the club over the last four years."
Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards:
"We were our own worst enemy. We can moan about the referee's decisions but we had chances that we didn't take.
"It was disappointing not to get something because we matched them for most of the game."
Saracens: Maitland; Earle, Bosch, Tompkins, Wyles; Farrell (capt), Spencer; Barrington, George, Koch, Skelton, Kruis, Itoje, Rhodes, Wray.
Replacements: Brits, Lamositele, Figallo, Burger, Conlon, Wigglesworth, Lozowski, Ashton.
Newcastle: Tait; Watson, Burdon, Socino, Goneva; Hodgson, Takulua; Vickers, Lawson, Welsh, Green, Olmstead, Chick, Wilson (capt), Hogg.
Replacements: Sowrey, Harris, Ryan, Witty, Fonua, Egerton, Willis, Waldouck.
Referee: Matt Carley.
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter. | Chris Ashton scored a try on his return from a 13-week ban as Saracens beat Newcastle to stay top of the table. |
34931374 | The civilian Mi-8 helicopter was carrying the workers to state oil company Rosneft's Vankor oilfield. There were 25 people were on board.
Russian media said that the reason for the crash is unclear.
The helicopter is reported to have crashed on a frozen river. Snowmobiles evacuated injured people.
It came down 10km (6.2 miles) from the town of Igarka in Krasnoyarsk region. All three crew members were killed, officials said.
The helicopter was dropping off and collecting rotation workers at the remote Vankor site. In winter this can only be done by landing on ice. | At least 10 oil workers have been killed in a helicopter crash in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, Russian officials say. |
38522133 | Moshin Amin, 30, from Broomer Street, Dewsbury, has been charged with firearms offences related to a loaded semi-automatic handgun.
Yassar Yaqub, 28, from Huddersfield, was shot when police stopped a car near junction 24 of the M62 on Monday.
Mr Amin has been detained in custody and will appear before Leeds magistrates on Friday morning.
He was charged with possession of a firearm with intent to cause of fear of violence, possession of a sound moderator and possession of ammunition, said West Yorkshire Police.
Mr Yaqub was in the front seat of a white Audi stopped by police. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has said a gun was found in the car.
Earlier, the IPCC said post-mortem tests showed Mr Yaqub died of gunshot wounds
Five men were arrested in total during the police operation in West Yorkshire on Monday.
Two other men aged 37 and 26 have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.
Two men, aged 26 and 30, have already been released on bail.
The police operation is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). | A man has been charged in connection with a police operation on the M62 in which an officer shot a man dead. |
36868706 | A UK-based monitoring group said 38 troops died in the blast, which it said happened on Thursday.
The Thuwwar al-Sham rebel group posted a video online that appeared to show a building used by government troops being destroyed by a huge blast.
Aleppo is divided between the rebel-held east and government west.
Hundreds of thousands of people live in the east of the city, which was effectively cut off by government forces earlier this month.
Government forces backed by Russian air strikes have intensified their military campaign against the city's rebel-held areas in recent weeks.
The city has been divided between the two sides for the past four years.
Footage by Thuwwar al-Sham purported to show members of the group planting explosives inside the tunnel. The video then showed a building blowing up in a huge explosion in a cloud of rubble and ash.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) initially said that the death toll from the tunnel bomb was 14, but revised this upward on Friday. | Dozens of pro-government troops were killed when rebels blew up a tunnel underneath a building in the Syrian city of Aleppo, reports say. |
40749382 | The broadcaster said the programme had been a "hugely successful brand", but would not be shown at the same time as the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
The show sees celebrities take on challenges like speed skating and ski-jumping and has run for four seasons.
But 34 contestants, including actress Tina Hobley and Strictly Come Dancing star Ola Jordan, have been injured.
Jordan suffered a leg injury while former Coronation Street star actress Hobley broke her arm in two places.
There have also been injuries to:
Made In Chelsea star Spencer Matthews was the latest winner of the show, which has been presented by Davina McCall.
A spokeswoman for Channel 4 said: "The Jump has been a hugely successful brand for Channel 4 over the last four years.
"However, with such a huge amount of winter sport on screen at the start of 2018 we have decided to rest the show for the year."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Winter sports reality TV show The Jump will be taking a "rest" in 2018, Channel 4 has said. |
34144863 | The King's College London lecturers also fear relatives are sometimes excluded from "critical conversations" about the end of loved one's life.
And they say the NHS does not always have the capacity to provide "time and continuity".
NHS England said guidance stressed the importance of relatives' involvement.
The experts from the Cicely Saunders Institute, which examines palliative care policy, highlight a recent report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) that shows that most NHS complaints are focused on the last year of life.
Their modelling shows the number of people dying in the UK is likely to increase in the next several years by another 100,000 - added to approximately half a million people every year at the moment.
One of the lecturers, Dr Jonathan Koffman, said: "How will we identify these individuals and provide them with impeccable assessment?
"At the moment there's too much inconsistency and poor quality care meted out to people at critical moments in their life.
"They experience poor management of really distressing symptoms. This is not a vocal constituency - often they can't talk.
"And the family members who are subsequently bereaved are too wounded by those experiences to then talk and help us work out what to do better."
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is still consulting about its 266-page draft guidance on end-of-life care, which was published in July.
Two years ago, the government announced that previous care guidelines - called the Liverpool Care Pathway - were being phased out, after mounting criticism and distressing accounts that they had become a "checklist".
Another palliative care lecturer from King's College London, Dr Katherine Sleeman, said: "The NICE guidance is pretty thorough as a synthesis of scientific evidence.
"You can think of it as a reference manual for death. That's important and necessary within their remit, but not sufficient to ensure everyone who's dying is cared for well."
She said other essential factors included investment in education and training.
"Medical students graduate pretty much unprepared for this.
"An audit last year showed only one in five NHS trusts mandate training for doctors in palliative care - but 100% of them are going to have to care for someone who's dying."
Dr Sleeman said she was publishing research soon which shows how the Liverpool Care Pathway became misused.
She added: "It was intended as a guide but it became a protocol. It was used as a crutch because people simply didn't know any better.
"The review and phasing out was very hard for nurses on the wards. They told us they didn't know what to do.
"But that made me feel that getting rid of it was the right thing to do."
Prof Bee Wee, NHS England's national clinical director of end of life care, said: "These can be difficult issues for anyone to think or talk about, whether it's patients, their loved ones or the professionals caring for them.
"We made clear in our actions for end of life care guidance, published in November, how much importance we place on individuals and their loved ones being engaged, supported and empowered to make decisions about their own care." | More investment is still needed to improve the "inconsistent and often poor" care of dying people, say palliative care experts. |
25984238 | Known as Mez to her friends, Meredith saw her time in Italy as a dream trip. Her parents said she was excited about learning the language, meeting new friends and immersing herself in a different culture.
Miss Kercher had chosen the central Italian city for her exchange trip, over Milan and Rome because she believed it would be safer.
"She fought so hard to get out there," her father John has said.
"There were quite a few setbacks but she was determined to go and kept persisting and eventually got what she wanted."
But three months after leaving the University of Leeds to start her year-long exchange in Italy, she was found dead.
The European studies student was embarking on a course on modern history, political theories and history of cinema and had moved into a flat she rented with American Knox.
It was there that Italian police discovered her body - she had been stabbed to death.
Her flatmate and Rafaele Sollecito, Knox's then Italian boyfriend, were convicted of the murder in 2009.
At the time, prosecutors said the pair had been involved in a sex game with Miss Kercher that had gone wrong.
Prosecutors later alleged that the murder resulted from a heated argument over cleanliness in the Perugia apartment.
In 2011, an eight-member jury cleared both Knox and Sollecito of Miss Kercher's murder after doubts were raised over procedures used to gather DNA evidence and they were freed after four years in jail.
A retrial was ordered in 2013 after an appeal by prosecutors, who argued that important DNA evidence had been disregarded, and in 2014 the original guilty verdicts were reinstated.
But in March 2015, in a final ruling in the long-running case, Italy's top appeals court overturned the convictions again.
Miss Kercher was found in her bedroom, partially covered by a duvet. Her throat had been cut and the bedroom door was locked but the window had been broken.
She was, according to an Italian she was said to have dated, very different from her American flatmate.
"The two were like chalk and cheese - totally opposite in character," 24-year-old Giacomo Silenzi said.
"Meredith was calm, sweet and shy. Amanda was an extrovert and always showing off."
Described as sociable and loving by friends and family, Miss Kercher was often seen in photos smiling broadly.
She grew up in the suburb of Coulsdon, in the southern outer reaches of London.
Before heading north to university, she was educated at the £10,000-a-year private Old Palace School in nearby Croydon.
She was the youngest of four children, with older brothers John and Lyle and sister Stephanie.
The family have kept up a campaign to find out what happened in Perugia.
"It's very difficult being without my sister," Stephanie said in 2014 after hearing the news that Knox and Sollecito's guilty verdicts had been reinstated.
"There's so many things that happen that I want to tell her about or want to call her about."
She said at the time that she hoped the ruling would mean the end of their ordeal so her family could begin to "remember Meredith".
Only one person remains in jail for her sister's murder.
Rudy Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2008 but that verdict included a ruling that he did not commit the crime alone.
And for the Kercher family, there is still no closure.
"I think we are still on a journey for the truth and it may be the fact that we don't ever really know what happened that night, which is obviously something we'll have to come to terms with," Stephanie Kercher said. | The Kercher family have often said they may never know what happened to Meredith, who was 21 when she was found dead in the flat in Perugia she shared with Amanda Knox. |
34889315 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Caballero, 25, was stripped of the belt after coming in five and a half pounds overweight for the Las Vegas contest.
The American, unbeaten in 22 fights, has been out of the ring for more than a year because of an ankle injury.
Bristol's Haskins, 32, turned down a request for the fighters to meet in a catch-weight contest.
"It's a strange one to process," Haskins' manager Jamie Sanigar told Boxing News.
"Lee was disappointed when I told him what was happening. I told him the fight was off but then in the next sentence I'm telling him he's a world champion."
Media playback is not supported on this device
The fight was last month added to the undercard of the WBC middleweight title contest between Miguel Cotto and Saul Alvarez.
It is yet to be decided if Haskins, who claimed the interim title earlier in the year with victory over Japan's Ryosuke Iwasa, will keep his full purse. | Britain's Lee Haskins took the IBF world bantamweight title as Randy Caballero failed to make the weight for their fight on Saturday. |
28787714 | The Sheffield Half Marathon was abandoned on 6 April, but many of the 4,100 runners waiting at the start line ran the race anyway.
The organisers said they were "let down" by Water Direct who failed to deliver water supplies.
The firm claimed they had not been paid for the order by the race organisers.
A statement issued by the Sheffield Half Marathon said that they and Water Direct "have reached an agreement in conclusion of all matters arising under which a contribution will be made to The Sheffield Marathon Limited for distribution to each of the nominated charities".
The size of the donation has not been revealed.
The race has been held for the past 33 years and raises money for a number of South Yorkshire charities, including the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice.
In June, the members of the organising committee resigned claiming they had received abusive emails, calls and letters. | A firm accused of causing the cancellation of a Sheffield run by failing to provide water to the race has agreed to make a charity donation. |
30374520 | Soul singer Al Green, 9 to 5 star Lily Tomlin and ballet dancer Patricia McBride were also saluted at the White House ahead of a gala concert.
Sting, 63, said it was "rare" for an Englishman to receive the honour.
"I'm not sure when I'll wear it again, but I think I look rather fetching in it," he said of his rainbow ribbon.
The former Police frontman is set to join the cast of his Broadway musical The Last Ship, about shipbuilding in the north east of England.
Hanks, who won Oscars for his roles in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, said he "couldn't believe it" when he was told he was among the honourees.
Tomlin, 75, also admitted she had been surprised by her selection, saying she had "never been privy to the insider's circle".
Sunday's White House reception saw this year's recipients presented with their ceremonial ribbons by President Obama.
The event preceded a concert at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts which saw Lady Gaga, Bruce Springsteen and Bruno Mars sing Sting's hits.
The musician told reporters it was "quite something [to] have other people sing my songs and have to do virtually nothing but smile".
Jennifer Hudson and Usher kicked off proceedings with a medley of Green's hits, before film director Steven Spielberg described Hanks as "America's favourite son".
"Tonight, Washington puts the arts above politics," said host Stephen Colbert. "Because no matter what party you belong to, everybody wants a selfie with Tom Hanks."
The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has been honouring stars of the stage, screen and concert hall since 1978.
This year's concert, which also featured appearances by Earth, Wind and Fire, Jane Fonda and Glee actress Jane Lynch, will be broadcast on the CBS network on 30 December.
Hanks was joined in Washington by his actress wife Rita Wilson, who is set to follow her husband onto the Broadway stage.
Following Hanks' 2013 appearance in Nora Ephron's play Lucky Guy, Wilson will appear in Larry David's new comedy Fish in the Dark from 2 February. | British singer Sting and Oscar-winning US actor Tom Hanks have been feted in Washington as recipients of this year's Kennedy Center honours. |
36230820 | She increased her majority in Brecon and Radnorshire at the assembly election, but is now the only Lib Dem AM left after the other four lost.
Ms Williams said she had to "take responsibility" for the result, but said she would have stepped down anyway after eight years as leader.
Ceredigion MP Mark Williams will serve as acting leader, pending a decision on how to run any leadership contest.
"It's the right time for the party to have somebody new to pick up the challenge, bringing up new ideas and to drive the party forward," Ms Williams told BBC Wales.
"I also have to take responsibility for the result that we have had. So it seems only right that I make this decision, and make this decision now."
UK Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said he was "sorry" she had stood down and added he was "certain that Kirsty will play a key role in the future of our party".
A member of the Welsh Assembly since its creation in 1999, Ms Williams was elected Welsh Lib Dem leader in December 2008.
The Lib Dems finished fifth in the constituency vote on Thursday evening with 7.7%, down 2.9% on 2011 when they won five seats.
Their tally of one AM is their worst ever.
The Lib Dems have won five or six seats at every previous election, and had ministers in a coalition government with Labour from 2000 to 2003. | Kirsty Williams is stepping down as leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. |
32997669 | Kevin Caughey, 33, and Margaret McKellar, 31, admitted killing 41-year-old Scott McGuire at the suspension bridge at Carlton Place on 8 July 2014.
The attack happened after Mr McGuire hit McKellar with a bottle.
Caughey was jailed for eight years and one month and McKellar for six years and four months.
Jailing the pair at the High Court in Glasgow, judge John Beckett QC told them: "This senseless killing of a man of 41 has left his family bereaved. He is survived by his father and four grown-up children.
"While I accept he may have triggered the attack by initially using violence, you reacted with wanton violence.
"Mr McGuire was repeatedly struck on the head and body with a knife and pushed into the river where he hit his head on a rock. You left the scene doing nothing to help him yourself or seek help for him."
The court heard that the incident was sparked by a row which led to Mr McGuire hitting McKellar with a bottle.
The pair then attacked Mr McGuire, inflicting superficial stab wounds.
The victim hit his head on a rock as he was pushed in to the River Clyde and drowned. His body was found later that day.
Caughey and McKeller were originally charged with murder, but their plea of guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide was accepted by the Crown.
It emerged in court that Caughey has 74 previous convictions, including seven for possessing a weapon, and McKellar has 60 previous convictions, including assault. | A man and a woman have been jailed for stabbing a friend and then dumping his body in the River Clyde in Glasgow and leaving him to drown. |
30505407 | Susan Potts, 64, of Lodge Close, Uxbridge, Middlesex, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Potts was arrested after Gladys Allen, 93, was found dead at a house in Crimicar Lane, Sheffield, last January.
Her family said they were "grateful" the justice system had recognised the defendant's mental state.
A post-mortem examination of Mrs Allen's body had proved inconclusive, South Yorkshire Police said.
However, Sheffield Crown Court was told her body had a range of injuries. including head wounds and broken ribs.
The Potts family said Mrs Allen had been the central focus of the family and Potts had been a "loving daughter who was consumed by remorse".
The statement continued: "The tragedy that occurred in January was because at that time Sue had become severely depressed; it would have been unthinkable in any other circumstances.
"We are grateful that the justice system has recognised, that, but for her mental state, this tragedy would not have occurred, and that Sue will continue to receive treatment in hospital.
"The hope for all of us, including Gladys' friends and neighbours, is that with expert care, Sue will recover and eventually return to her family." | A woman who caused the death of her elderly mother has been given an indefinite hospital order. |
31575399 | Professor of transport at the University of South Wales, Stuart Cole, said experienced staff are needed.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, he said that while the "franchise system has not been performing" a public sector approach was not the answer.
Previously, Transport Minister Edwina Hart said not-for-profit firms could run Welsh train services.
Recently, Labour's shadow transport secretary, Michael Dugher, said more public control of the railways will result in a better service.
Prof Cole said: "Private companies run the railways under contract in the way Marriott hotels and McDonald's are run under contract - which have very strict guidelines.
"But what's been happening is that these guidelines have not been very strict [for the railways]."
He said the answer was a franchise system managed by "professional railway people rather than civil servants". | Calls by Labour to renationalise some train services have been deemed "unnecessary". |
29184664 | In this series, we are looking at those major questions and by using statistics, analysis and expert views shining a light on some of the possible answers.
Here, we focus on the issue of EU membership.
Do you have a referendum question? Let us know by....
Dozens of BBC news website users have been asking questions connected to the EU membership debate, including from Mark Fowles, Albert Richardson, David Munro, William Hill, Ross Wilson, Paul Cruise, Richard Newton, Craig Howarth, Owain Evans, En Rice, Gordon Wilson, Dr Carol Pudsey, Gordon J Aitken, James Ross and Chris Findon.
There was a time when the Scottish government said that "Scotland would automatically be a member of the European Union upon independence".
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon argued that case before a parliamentary committee in 2007.
But the Scottish government's position has changed over time.
The White Paper on independence acknowledges that "negotiations" would be required and that it would be for EU member states to decide how to proceed.
A process would need to be agreed.
Never before has part of an EU member state become an independent country and sought to remain in the Union.
There is no specific provision for this scenario in the EU Treaties.
The Scottish government believes that membership could be negotiated in the 18 months between a "Yes" vote and its target date for independence in March 2016.
It does not think a standard application under Article 49 of the Treaty of the European Union would be necessary because Scotland already applies EU law as part of the UK.
Instead it suggests the Treaty could be amended using the revising provision in Article 48.
The UK government thinks it is "unlikely" all 28 existing member states would agree to Article 48 being used in this way.
In an analysis paper it suggests that any process would be "lengthy and complex".
There are those who have suggested that a "Yes" vote in the referendum would put Scotland outside of the EU.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has taken that line as has the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy and the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.
In a letter to a House of Lords committee, Mr Barroso said: "A new independent state would, by the fact of its independence, become a third country with respect to the EU and the Treaties would no longer apply on its territory."
In a BBC interview, Mr Barroso went further, suggesting that it would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible" for an independent Scotland to secure membership.
Scottish Finance Secretary, John Swinney, described that as a "pretty preposterous" position.
It has also been challenged by the former British judge at the European court of justice, Professor Sir David Edward.
In his opinion "EU law would require all parties to negotiate in good faith and in a spirit of cooperation before separation took place".
Scotland will still be in the EU as part of the UK if there's a "No" vote.
However, the Conservatives are promising to hold an in/out referendum on EU membership in 2017 if they win next year's general election.
The prime minister, David Cameron, wants to renegotiate the terms of UK membership before then. He intends to advocate continued membership.
The first minister, Alex Salmond, argues that growing support for the anti-EU party UKIP suggests there is still a significant risk of a vote for withdrawal.
All 28 EU countries would need to approve Scottish membership.
The prime minister, David Cameron, has said he would "absolutely" support an independent Scotland's application if the referendum does not go his way.
It has been suggested that a country like Spain might make it difficult for Scotland to discourage the independence movement in Catalonia.
In an address to the College of Europe in Bruges, Mr Salmond set out why the Scottish government thinks it would be in the interests of all EU countries to grant Scotland membership.
Mr Salmond said that the alternative was....
The terms would need to be negotiated and agreed.
The Scottish government argues that it should be allowed to retain a share of the UK's rebate from budget contributions and all the UK's existing opt-outs.
That would mean staying out of the Euro and the Schengen travel area.
It also believes that it can negotiate a deal to allow an independent Scotland to continue to charge students from the rest of the UK tuition fees.
Their critics argue that international negotiations involve give and take and that Scotland is unlikely to get all that it wants. | As the people of Scotland weigh up how to vote in the independence referendum, they are asking questions on a range of topics. |
40047496 | The 25-year-old forward is one of several high-profile players omitted by Kwesi Appiah in his first squad since his second coming as Black Stars coach.
Atsu, who signed for newly-promoted English Premier League side Newcastle United this week, is joined on the sidelines by Mubarak Wakaso, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu and Razak Brimah.
No official explanation has been given for the decision to drop Atsu, Wakaso, Badu and Brimah but Appiah has made it clear that he will cast his net far and wide in search of new talent to take Ghana forward.
Appiah has included seven players from the domestic league in a squad that will also play friendly internationals against the United States and Mexico.
Abdul-Majeed Waris, the striker overlooked by former coach Avram Grant for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon, has been given a chance to revive his international career as a Black Star.
Appiah has also kept faith with regulars such as captain Asamoah Gyan and the Ayew brother, Andre and Jordan.
The Nations Cup qualifier against Ethiopia will take place on 11 June in the second city of Kumasi.
The Black Stars will travel to the US for a date with Mexico in Houston, Texas, on (28 June) and the US in Connecticut (1 July).
Goalkeepers:
Richard Ofori (Wa Allstars); Adam Kwarasey (Brondby, Denmark); Felix Annan (Kotoko); Joseph Addo (Aduana Stars)
Defenders:
Harrison Afful (Columbus Crew, USA); Daniel Amartey (Leicester City, England); Lumor Agbenyenu (Munich 1860, Germany); Daniel Darkwah (Aduana Stars, Ghana); John Boye (Sivasspor, Turkey); Rashid Sumalia (Al Gharafa, Qatar); Nicholas Opoku (B.Chelsea, Ghana); Jonathan Mensah (Columbus Crew, USA); Jerry Akaminko (Eskiserhispor, Turkey); Samuel Sarfo (Liberty, Ghana)
Midfielders:
Mohammed Abu (Columbus Crew, USA); Afriyie Acquah (Torino, Italy); Isaac Sackey (Alanyaspor, Turkey); Thomas Partey (Atletico Madrid, Spain); Ebenezer Ofori (Stuttgart, Germany); Kingsley Sarfo (Sirius, Sweden); Winful Cobbinah (Hearts of Oak); Yaw Yeboah (FC Twente, Holland); Godsway Donyoh (Nordjaelland, Denmark); Andre Ayew (West Ham, England); Frank Acheampong (Anderlecht, Belgium); Thomas Agyepong (NAC Breda, Holland)
Forwards:
Asamoah Gyan (Al Alhi, UAE); Jordan Ayew (Swansea City, England); Majeed Waris (Lorient FC, France); Raphael Dwamena (FC Zurich, Switzerland) | Christian Atsu has been left out of the 30-man Ghana squad for next month's Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia. |
27667473 | The relationship is now a much more textured one, with this year's World Cup sponsors aware of the growing non-commercial, and social and political, nuances around their role as financial backers of this huge sporting event.
This can be seen by the way Sony has involved itself in the furore around the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Fellow sponsor Adidas says the ongoing issue is "neither good for football nor for Fifa and its partners".
And another massive backer, Coca-Cola, says it is prepared to tone down its branding message in the face of the re-emergence of social unrest in Brazil during the tournament.
"Companies and brands are becoming increasingly aware, and have an added push and impetus towards showing ordinary people they are aware that there is a social aspect to being a sponsor," says Nigel Currie, from sports sponsorship agency Brand Rapport.
"When firms are involved in major sporting events like the World Cup there has to be an increased awareness of the outside world, and to take a more realistic approach to the world that people can respect."
He says that with such a high-profile tournament protest groups in Brazil were realising the potential of targeting not only the event itself but also sponsors. For instance, hacker group Anonymous has said it is preparing a cyber-attack on sponsor websites.
"The sponsors have to be ready for any potential banana skins that might come their way," he says.
So, with the 2014 tournament just days away, it means it is not just the 32 countries taking part that are fine-tuning their plans, but also the 22 corporate backers.
And according to one Brazilian expert, the big name sponsors are playing a more defensive game than usual.
"There is no disputing that the sponsors are a really important part of the World Cup," says Rio de Janeiro-based sports marketing consultant Amir Somoggi.
"However, some of the people and protesters on the streets are trying to put some of the guilt around the World Cup costs onto the sponsors.
"So sponsors are not launching their usual type of marketing strategies in case they are targeted by protesters. They are being slightly cautious, and for me, not being as major a part of the World Cup experience.
"But for me the blame for the increased costs should not be put on Fifa or the sponsors, but our politicians."
The sponsors have paid anything from an estimated £8m to £120m to have their names associated with what is one of the two biggest events in global sport.
And even if they are being more passive then usual, they will be getting their wares and services seen across most of the planet. During the last World Cup in South Africa there were reported to be more than 3.2 billion global TV viewers.
Meanwhile, Fifa has also benefitted. By selling the rights for firms to be associated with the event, it is estimated to make some £850m over a four-year World Cup cycle, making up the majority of its non-TV revenues during such a period.
As was the case in South Africa, Fifa this year is operating three tiers of sponsorship:
Mr Currie says if the sponsor roster was a "merry-go-round or revolving door of changing names", firms might question the value of being involved. Rather there is a steady roster of big names staying on board for a number of tournaments.
"When you count the number of renewals you can see the value of the World Cup to big brands - Adidas has signed up for the next four World Cups until 2030, and Visa, Coca-Cola and Hyundai-Kia until 2022," says Mr Currie.
Despite the lower-key approach, the main aim for sponsors will be to persuade football lovers to spend cash on their brands.
According to sports marketing research firm Repucom's World Football Report, which launches on 12 June, during the 2010 event about $4.12bn (£2.46bn) was generated globally for sponsors.
Some $907m of that amount was generated via the final alone.
This year is also expected to see a big increase in brand promotion via social media.
"Digital consumption... will be central to this World Cup. Brazil is also Facebook's second largest market and provides YouTube with its second most unique visitors," says Paul Smith, founder and chief executive of Repucom.
"Because of this, we could well see a perfect storm of fan engagement this tournament. Sponsors will of course be positioning themselves to take advantage of this."
Brands expert Anastasia Kourovskaia, of Millward Brown Optimor, agrees that social media "offers uniquely more intimate engagement", but in return "it requires a more well-designed and considered approach".
However, she says it is important that brands stop differentiating between online and offline media. "We live in an increasingly seamless world and successful social media campaigns are seamlessly integrated campaigns." she says.
She says a McDonald's food box campaign linked to the GOL! App is a good example of a successful integrated campaign.
But she adds that while campaigns have to be integrated, it is also important to understand how each platform works and tailor content to the specifics of each platform.
Looking to individual sponsors, she says Budweiser has plenty of initiatives around the tournament, including a "Rise as One" micro-site campaign, use of Twitter cards for voting for Man of the Match, as well as programmes for Instagram and Facebook.
Meanwhile, she also points to Adidas's initiative in providing a football match perspective from the point of view of @Brazuca, its official match ball.
"Cutting through the noise becomes ever more difficult, and if previously this could have been resolved by throwing more money in the pot, unfortunately it is no longer the case," says Ms Kourovskaia.
"Nowadays a bigger budget does not necessarily translate into higher reach and impact - creativity plays an enormous role." | Global football sponsorship is now much more than firms just handing over money to governing bodies such as Fifa for pitch-side promotion on billboards. |
39603819 | Edmund, ranked one place below Evans at 45 in the world, recovered from a slow start to win 7-5 6-1.
The 22-year-old from Yorkshire, who rates clay as his favourite surface, will play nine-time Monte Carlo champion Rafael Nadal in round two.
Andy Murray, who watched compatriots Edmund and Evans from courtside, plays his opening match on Wednesday.
The world number one will take on Luxembourg's Gilles Muller or Tommy Robredo of Spain.
Edmund and Evans were Davis Cup team-mates in Britain's quarter-final defeat by France earlier this month, but were pitted against each other for the first time on the ATP Tour in Monte Carlo.
The surface made the big-hitting Edmund a heavy favourite against Evans, who has just two main draw wins to his name on the surface.
However, Edmund opened with two double faults and looked nervous, slipping 4-1 down as Evans capitalised on the errors.
The 26-year-old from Birmingham could not maintain his advantage though, with Edmund fighting back to claim the set with the seventh break of serve in 12 games.
Edmund had to save break points again at the start of the second but, despite some wayward smashes, went on to dominate, sealing it with an ace after one hour and 20 minutes. | Kyle Edmund saw off Davis Cup team-mate Dan Evans in straight sets in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters. |
38954891 | The Ulster Bank surveys private sector activity monthly and it is considered a reliable indicator of the economy.
It shows retailers have begun to pass on higher costs to consumers while manufacturers are absorbing some of their increased costs.
A weaker pound is pushing up the cost of imported goods and materials.
The flip side of the weaker pound is to make exports more competitive and the survey shows a surge in new export orders is continuing.
Ulster Bank's chief economist, Richard Ramsey, said the sterling exchange rate continued to be a significant factor in the local economy.
"Overall, the positives of the weak sterling, which have been prominent for a number of months, continue to be evident," he said.
"But the negatives of the exchange rate are also starting to feature more and more prominently.
"This will be a major feature of the year ahead as inflationary pressures continue to intensify and indeed accelerate." | The Northern Ireland economy saw solid growth in January although inflationary pressures are continuing to build, a bank survey has suggested. |
37527656 | Shots had enjoyed an eight-match unbeaten run prior to their 4-0 defeat against Forest Green on Tuesday and they got back on track thanks to second-half goals from Shamir Fenelon and Scott Rendell.
The hosts broke the deadlock in the 64th minute when Cheye Alexander played in Fenelon and he found the bottom corner from 15 yards, before Rendell headed in Jim Kellerman's cross from close range to seal the win in the 82nd minute.
Solihull had scored four goals in each of their last two matches but created very little as their five-match unbeaten run was ended.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Aldershot Town 2, Solihull Moors 0.
Second Half ends, Aldershot Town 2, Solihull Moors 0.
Substitution, Aldershot Town. Idris Kanu replaces Bernard Mensah.
Goal! Aldershot Town 2, Solihull Moors 0. Scott Rendell (Aldershot Town).
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Darryl Knights replaces Omari Sterling-James.
Substitution, Aldershot Town. Jim Kellerman replaces Charlie Walker.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Andy Brown replaces Jamey Osborne.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Harry White replaces Akwasi Asante.
Goal! Aldershot Town 1, Solihull Moors 0. Shamir Fenelon (Aldershot Town).
Substitution, Aldershot Town. Shamir Fenelon replaces Iffy Allen.
Jake Gallagher (Aldershot Town) is shown the yellow card.
Second Half begins Aldershot Town 0, Solihull Moors 0.
First Half ends, Aldershot Town 0, Solihull Moors 0.
Ryan Beswick (Solihull Moors) is shown the yellow card.
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up. | Aldershot bounced back from their midweek thrashing with a victory at home against Solihull Moors. |
38951892 | McColgan was runner-up to Sarah McDonald in the 1500m, but had already edged out Steph Twell to win the 3000m.
Eilidh Doyle looks certain to be racing at the Belgrade event in March as she won the 400m on Sunday in Sheffield.
Guy Learmonth won the 800m and Allan Smith leapt to the high jump title for the second time in three years.
Lasswade's Learmonth led from start to finish and crossed the line in one minute 48.19 seconds, while Paisley-born Smith's jump of 2.25m earned him the British indoor title once again.
Three other Scots were on the podium, all winning bronze medals - Mhairi Hendry in the 800m, Courtney MacGuire in the pole vault and Grant Plenderleith in the 200m.
The team announcement is not due until 21 February, after next weekend's Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham. | Eilish McColgan won gold and silver medals at the British indoor team trials, which help to determine places for the European Indoor Championships. |
40053797 | Vunipola pulled out of the summer trip because of an ongoing shoulder injury.
Lions boss Warren Gatland was keen to manage the number eight through it, but Jones says that was not an option.
"He is such an honest boy - he didn't want to fudge it," the Australian told BBC Sport. "It was a very brave and courageous decision."
Vunipola aggravated a shoulder problem in Saracens' Premiership semi-final defeat by Exeter on Saturday.
And Jones revealed that when the 24-year-old texted him on Sunday it was clear "he had his mind made up" not to tour.
Another England international, scrum-half Ben Youngs, withdrew from the squad earlier this month after the wife of his brother Tom learned she is terminally ill.
"For me, it's a good indication of the ethics of our players," Jones said.
"They don't feel emotionally or physically right to play and, rather than go there and try to fudge their way through the tour, they have done the right thing."
Jones also rejected the notion that Vunipola is prioritising England and Saracens, reiterating that "it is about him being a very ethical rugby player".
Vunipola's withdrawal led to a summons for experienced flanker James Haskell, who Jones believes will force his way into the Test side after having "an absolute stormer" in one of the opening three tour matches.
Haskell was to tour Argentina with a youthful England squad next month, but instead joins an entire team of players unavailable to Jones.
The Australian will field a host of uncapped players against the Barbarians at Twickenham on Sunday.
"We asked these young guys: 'Who are going to be the three or four involved in holding the World Cup up in 2019?
"'It's not going to be all of you so you have a choice now to make about how desperate you are to be one of those players.'" | Billy Vunipola's "ethics and honesty" led to his withdrawal from the British & Irish Lions' tour of New Zealand, says England head coach Eddie Jones. |
36309783 | Editor Betsan Powys said it was important the station "exploits all the opportunities" as digital platforms continued to develop.
It will be available online, via the BBC iPlayer Radio and on digital radio in south east Wales.
The station's existing schedule on FM and digital radio will not be affected.
The three-month trial starts in the autumn.
The station will also offer a new online "digital space" for its youth audiences, a collaboration with partners to find new voices, and use the new BBC Music app which allows users to select their favourite music, including Welsh artists.
Ms Powys said: "After three months we'll consider the next steps in light of the trial results, technological developments and the reality of the BBC's financial position."
The trial service will be available on weekday mornings.
The station marks its 40th anniversary in 2017.
As the only Welsh language station, Radio Cymru has to provide programming to meet every taste.
When, in 2013, Radio Cymru asked its audience what it wanted from the service, a second Welsh language station was a surprisingly popular request.
Its core audience is loyal but ageing. Launching a new service on digital radio and via the iPlayer app acknowledges that the station has to try harder to reach younger audiences, without alienating its existing listeners.
But it launches its pop-up station at a time when attracting younger audiences is a challenge facing all media providers.
Capturing this elusive market for a Welsh-language outlet could be trickier still. | Welsh language broadcaster BBC Radio Cymru is to trial a "pop-up radio station" to extend services to listeners. |
21016122 | Armstrong made the personal apology during private conversations in Austin, Texas, a foundation spokeswoman said.
His interview with Oprah Winfrey is due to be broadcast on Thursday.
Armstrong, 41, was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by the sport's governing body last year. He has maintained his innocence.
"He had a private conversation with the staff, who have done the important work of the foundation for many years," Livestrong Foundation spokeswoman Katherine McLane was quoted as saying by Reuters.
"It was a very sincere and heartfelt expression of regret over any stress that they've suffered over the course of the last few years as a result of the media attention," she added.
Armstrong, who also received a lifetime ban from governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), was reportedly close to tears.
It was not quite a confession of sustained cheating, but that is what many in the cycling world and across America are expecting to hear when they tune in to the cyclist's interview on 17 January, the BBC's Paul Adams in Washington reports.
The recording of the TV interview - his first since being stripped of his wins - took place on Monday.
After recording the interview, Winfrey tweeted: "Just wrapped with @lancearmstrong. More than 2 1/2 hours . He came READY!"
A spokeswoman for the Oprah show said last week that Armstrong was not being paid to appear and that Winfrey was free to ask him any question she wanted.
The choice of America's favourite agony aunt to conduct the interview suggests that Armstrong is prepared to make some kind of confession, our correspondent says.
At the weekend, Armstrong told the Associated Press: "I'm calm, I'm at ease and ready to speak candidly." He declined to go into further details.
Armstrong ended his fight against doping charges in August 2012.
In October, Usada released a 1,000-page report saying he had been at the heart of "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme" ever seen in sport.
Armstrong also later resigned as chairman of the Livestrong Foundation, the cancer charity he created.
His lawyer, Tim Herman, has described the Usada report as a "one-sided hatchet job" and the cyclist himself has accused the agency of offering "corrupt inducements" to other riders to speak out against him.
It is believed he is considering an admission because he wants to resume his athletic career, and has shown an interest in competing in triathlons.
The BBC understands Armstrong has held recent discussions with other cyclists who have themselves confessed to doping.
But there are a number of obstacles to a full confession.
The New York Times has reported Armstrong's supporters are concerned he could face perjury charges if he confesses to using performance-enhancing drugs, because he made sworn testimony in a 2005 court case that he had never done so.
In addition, the cyclist faces a number of legal cases. | Lance Armstrong has apologised to the staff at his Livestrong Foundation, amid reports that the US cyclist may admit doping in a TV interview. |
39126179 | The Rams have picked up just two points during a six-game winless run and are 11th in the table, 10 points adrift of the Championship play-off places.
Derby, who were fifth after beating QPR on 14 December, have not scored in their past three matches.
"We have two home games and we need a reaction," McClaren told BBC Radio Derby after defeat at Blackburn Rovers.
"We have challenged the players to give us a reaction."
McClaren's side face Barnsley at Pride Park on Saturday and Preston North End on Tuesday, 7 March.
The former England boss wants a return to the form which saw them climb from fifth from bottom when he took over following the 1-1 draw with Reading on 1 October.
The 3-0 away win over struggling Ipswich Town on 31 January, four days after drawing with Leicester in the FA Cup, was their last victory.
"These are home games that we have to win," McClaren said.
"We are not performing individually and collectively the way that we did up until the Leicester replay. Has that taken too much out of us? I don't know.
"We are not getting the rub of the green and we were doing that before. We are not scoring the first goal and we are not scoring goals. We have to start again on Saturday."
Blackburn's 1-0 victory on Tuesday was just their eighth in the league this season, but they remain in the relegation zone.
"It's another frustrating game we shouldn't have lost," McClaren added. "We've had 18 attempts on goal and only two on target. We should be coming here and keeping a clean sheet.
"When we play teams we should be beating, we have to beat them." | Manager Steve McClaren says Derby County's standards have dropped and he has demanded an immediate response. |
36171075 | They also have multiple entries in the singles chart, where Drake remains top.
Beyonce's "visual album" sold 73,000 copies, making it the second-fastest selling artist record of 2016, behind David Bowie's Blackstar.
Fifteen of Prince's albums made it into the chart as fans rushed to buy his music following his sudden death.
Six are in the top 40 with The Very Best Of, Ultimate and Purple Rain at two, three and four.
In the midweek chart Prince had held every spot in the top five, but many retailers ran out of physical stock at the start of the week and could not keep up with fan demand. The singer's catalogue is also only available on streaming service Tidal, limiting its reach.
Record label Warner Music, which published most of his classic albums, said more CDs were being pressed this week.
Ultimate, which was released in 2006, reached a new peak at three after first only making it to number six when it was first released in 2006.
The Purple Rain soundtrack at four, is up on its previous peak of seven when it was first released in 1984. Dirty Mind, which entered the chart at 61, did not previously chart in the UK.
Beyonce's Lemonade sold 10,000 copies via streaming - which is the biggest streaming sales since they were introduced into the chart last year.
In the singles chart, Beyonce has six tracks in the top 40 - the highest being Hold Up at 17. Formation, Sorry, 6 Inch, Don't Hurt Yourself and Freedom also made the top 40.
Six Prince tracks entered the top 100, with Purple Rain the highest entry at number six. The track peaked at eight when it was first released in 1984.
When Doves Cry, Kiss, Raspberry Beret, 1999 and Little Red Corvette also all charted.
Drake remained at number one for a third consecutive week with One Dance with sales of 129,000, which include 50,000 downloads and a record-breaking 7.86 million streams.
It is the highest number of track streams in a week ever recorded, beating Adele's Hello which reached 7.32 million plays on its release week in October.
Elsewhere in the album chart Adele's 25 fell out of the top five for the first time since its release in November.
Katherine Jenkins was at seven with Celebration, her album commemorating the Queen's 90th birthday. It is also number one on the classical album chart - giving the singer a record 12th UK classical number one, ahead of violinist Andre Rieu's 11.
Three other new entries in the album chart top 40 were Katy B's Honey at 22, Sandy Denny's I've Always Kept A Unicorn at 31, and Julian Ovenden's Be My Love at 37. | Beyonce and Prince have dominated the UK album chart this week, with Beyonce's Lemonade at one and Prince albums taking the next three places. |
37496738 | A broken-down trawler with six fishermen onboard was towed to Lochinver in Sutherland by Lochinver RNLI on Wednesday night.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kyle of Lochalsh RNLI went to the aid of a man stuck on his small boat in rough conditions in Glenelg Bay.
A Met Office warning of high winds is in place until 13:00 on Thursday.
Forecasters warn that winds could gust to 75mph across the Hebrides, Sutherland, Caithness and Orkney.
Gusts of 50-60 mph are likely in many areas of Scotland during that period of the warning, which started from 01:00 on Thursday.
High winds have already been affecting large parts of Scotland west coast and the Highlands.
Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne said poor weather conditions has been causing disruption on many of its routes.
Kyle of Lochalsh RNLI's call-out on Wednesday afternoon saw the crew help a man get to shore from where his small boat was tied up in Glenelg Bay.
The man was safely dropped off at the ferry slipway at Glenelg. | RNLI lifeboat crews have been involved in a number of call-outs in stormy conditions off Scotland's west coast. |
37209280 | The first minister, Formula One driver Susie Wolff and Scottish women's football captain Gemma Fay are backing the Girlguiding Scotland initiative.
It encourages girls and young women to highlight good role models around them.
Ms Sturgeon said: "That's how they are inspired to be the leaders, scientists and Olympians of the future."
The launch of the WOWwoman campaign follows Girlguiding research which showed that less than half (49%) of girls aged 11 to 16 regularly feel inspired by a role model.
Only 35% of those aged 17 to 21 believe men and women have the same chance of career success.
Ms Sturgeon said: "I hope seeing so many inspiring women in their communities and beyond will empower a new generation of girls and young women to believe in themselves."
Ms Wolff said: "I'm proud to be named a Girlguiding Scotland WOWwoman and have the chance to back this new campaign.
"From my own experience, I know how important a role model can be in empowering girls and young women to aim high, discover new talents and take the lead. Sometimes you just have to see it to believe it."
Ms Fay added: "I hope this campaign will show girls and young women across Scotland just how much they can achieve." | Nicola Sturgeon has joined sports stars to launch a campaign aimed at inspiring girls and young women to "fulfil their leadership potential". |
33322431 | Dozens of people were injured, reports say. An unconfirmed report says many people were killed.
The blast happened near a military hospital in Sanaa on Monday night.
It is the latest attack by IS against Houthis in Yemen, where the Sunni extremist group declared its presence in November.
Houthis have been fighting forces loyal to Yemen's exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi for several months.
A Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes in March, claiming to target Houthi positions. The strikes have had a devastating impact on civilians.
In a separate development on Monday, the rebels said in a statement that they had launched a Scud missile across the border at a Saudi military base. They said the missile was fired "in response to the crimes of the brutal Saudi aggression".
If confirmed, it would be the second such attack since fighting began.
A Scud missile fired from Yemen earlier this month was shot down by Saudi Arabia before it could reach its target.
Monday's car-bomb attack appears to have targeted a funeral attended by two brothers who are leaders in the Shia Houthi rebel movement.
The number of casualties is unclear, with reports saying at least 28 were injured, including women and children.
IS posted a statement online saying its Yemeni affiliate was behind the attack. The group has carried out a number of attacks in the capital in recent weeks.
Separately on Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a full investigation after a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a UN compound in the southern city of Aden on Sunday, injuring one guard.
Yemen has been in turmoil since Houthi rebels overran Sanaa last September, forcing President Mansour Abdrabbuh Hadi to flee.
Three months ago, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia began targeting the rebels with air strikes. Since then, well over 2,000 people have been killed in the conflict, including at least 1,400 civilians, according to the UN. | The Islamic State (IS) militant group say its Yemeni affiliate carried out a car-bomb attack at a funeral attended by Shia Houthi rebels in the capital. |
27866327 | About 28,000 people took part in the event, run by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), on Sunday.
Police said the man crashed into a telegraph pole near Reigate, Surrey, at about 07:25 BST. At about 10:00, the woman crashed near Redhill.
The BHF said an investigation would be carried out in conjunction with police.
Officers said the man, who is in his 30s and from London, was taken to St George's Hospital in south London where he remains in a serious condition.
The woman, also in her 30s, was airlifted to St George's with head and eye injuries. Police said her condition was stable.
Louise Parkes, director of fundraising at the BHF, said: "We are saddened to hear that two cyclists have been injured while taking part in today's British Heart Foundation London to Brighton Bike Ride.
"An investigation will be carried out in conjunction with the police, ride managers and other agencies.
"As soon as we're in a position to comment further we will do so. Our thoughts are with those involved and their families."
Some people have raised questions about the safety of the 54-mile ride on social media.
One tweeted: "@TheBHF very well organised event , but you need to address rider safety .#toomanyaccidents"
The BHF wrote back that it was always trying to improve safety and would be looking at issues for next year's bike ride.
Another cyclist wrote: "Pleased with my achievement today. An hour off my PB, but can't get the injured man's face out of my head. Update? @TheBHF @LDNtoBrighton"
Those who took part in Sunday's bike ride included Masterchef presenter and chef John Torode, Olympic gold-medal winning rowers Mark Hunter and Tom James and TV presenter Aggie Mackenzie. | One cyclist was left fighting for his life and a woman was airlifted to hospital after two crashes in the London to Brighton charity bike ride. |
36148338 | Afarin Chitsaz, Ehsan Mazandarani, Saman Safarzai and Davud Asadi were found guilty of charges including acting against national security.
The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Iran to change laws that it says allows journalists to be harassed.
The four were arrested in November as part of a crackdown by hardliners.
Writers, artists and other cultural figures were also detained in the run-up to February's elections for parliament and the Assembly of Experts, in which supporters of moderate President Hassan Rouhani made gains.
The journalists were convicted by a court in Tehran on Tuesday on various charges, including "spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic" and "acting against national security and contacting foreign governments", the Tasnim news agency reported.
A lawyer for three of the journalists, Mohammad Alizadeh-Tabatabai, told Tasnim that Davud Asadi, whose brother co-founded the Rooz Online opposition website, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Ehsan Mazandarani, the managing-director of the Farhikhtegan newspaper, was jailed for seven years, Mr Alizadeh-Tabatabai said.
Afarin Chitsaz, a columnist for the government-owned Iran newspaper and actress, and Saman Safarzai, a columnist for the Andishey-e Puya magazine who is also known as Ehsun Sarfarzai, were handed five-year sentences, the lawyer added.
They have 21 days to appeal against their sentences.
The four were accused of "paving the way for US infiltration of the country" after being arrested along with veteran journalist Isa Saharkhiz last year by the intelligence unit of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.
"Convicting journalists for 'acting against national security' underlines the need to change the overbroad laws that lead to the harassment and jailing of the media," said the CPJ's Sherif Mansour. "Iranian authorities must cease imprisoning journalists."
President Rouhani, who criticised the journalists' arrests, has called for greater media freedom in several speeches. | A US-based media advocacy group has condemned the sentencing by a court in Iran of four reformist journalists to between five and 10 years in prison. |
35217546 | The 50-year-old died in hospital after suffering a head injury at The Boat in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton.
He walked to the Royal Tiger pub on High Street where an ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
A 22-year-old man has been arrested and bailed. Police are appealing for witnesses to contact them.
The attack happened "in the beer garden or smoking area of The Boat pub in Church Street at around 22:30 GMT on 31 December" a statement from West Midlands Police said.
Det Insp Ian Iliffe said: "The pub would have been busy with people out to celebrate the start of the new year and we need any witnesses to come forward as soon as possible." | A man attacked outside a pub on New Year's Eve has died, sparking a murder investigation. |
36391896 | Those athletes are from five different sports and six different countries.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) retested 454 selected doping samples from the 2008 Games in Beijing and a further 265 from London 2012.
It said the retests, conducted using the latest scientific methods, were focused on athletes who could take part at this year's Rio Olympics.
"These re-analyses show, once again, our determination in the fight against doping," said IOC president Thomas Bach.
"We want to keep the dopers away from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro."
The re-analysis programme remains ongoing.
UK Anti-Doping's director of operations Pat Myhill said: "The ability to retest samples, as a result of new intelligence or the development of new testing techniques, is a vital tool in the fight against doping in sport.
"It sends a clear message to those who dope - if you chose to make that choice, and think that you've got away with it, think again. We can, and will, catch you."
Last week, the IOC announced 31 athletes from the 2008 Games had tested positive following re-examination of their samples.
Russia confirmed 14 of those positive retests from Beijing concerned their athletes and included some medallists.
High jumper Anna Chicherova, who won bronze in 2008, vowed to clear her name after learning she was one of them.
"It's the most complete shock," she said. "I can't explain how it could have happened. I was always sure what supplements and medicines I was using." | Olympic chiefs have announced 23 competitors at the London 2012 Games have failed retrospective doping tests. |
34687529 | Three men entered a house in Parkgate Drive at about 01:20 GMT on Saturday, ordering the occupant into the living room and demanding money.
They ransacked the property and took two mobile phones and a tablet computer.
The occupant was not injured but he was left badly shaken. | Masked men armed with a gun have stolen a black Volkswagen Passat car during a burglary at a house in east Belfast. |
35024812 | Works, which began in February, are due to finish next week but users have complained there are no controlled crossing points.
The £5.7m scheme included the removal of signals to improve traffic flows.
The council said it would make the contrast of tactile paving more pronounced and add signs encouraging motorists to give way to pedestrians.
Joel Young, who is registered blind, said: "I wouldn't want to take that risk of trying to cross on my own without the support of someone else because there are no controlled crossing points.
"Taking away the traffic lights and pedestrian-controlled crossing points has taken away my ability to cross independently."
David Deriaz, vice chairman of Oxfordshire Transport and Access Group, said: "You need to watch out for cyclists, which I can do, and I am also concerned that crossing the narrow dual carriageways - there isn't enough space for pedestrians to wait in the central reservation."
The county council said it had met Mr Young and Mr Deriaz to discuss their concerns.
A spokeswoman said: "Any new design needs to be road-tested by users. In particular, innovative designs such as that at Frideswide are likely to require tweaks.
"Following our meeting, we will be improving the contrast of the tactile paving by introducing a band around its perimeter in a contrasting colour to further highlight their presence.
"The design of the square takes into account the needs of a range of people, including those with disabilities.
"There are contrasting and ridged paving stones leading to the crossing points where the tactile paving is.
"Clutter, such as seating and bins, is kept to a minimum and situated away from areas that could pose a problem for people with disabilities." | Changes are being made to Oxford's Frideswide Square amid concerns it could be dangerous for blind people. |
21828245 | The swine flu strain has learned how to dodge the antiviral drug Tamiflu and is emerging outside of hospitals.
The team who have studied it say the virus is "fitter" than other drug-resistant strains and the world should be on alert for outbreaks.
UK experts say they have seen a handful of similar cases.
The UK's Health Protection Agency said it would be closely monitoring the situation.
The Australian investigators presented their findings at a meeting on major infectious diseases.
Why can’t we beat viruses?
Experts at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases heard how the 'H1N1pdm09' swine flu virus is still sensitive to another antiviral drug Relenza (zanamivir).
But Tamiflu (oseltamivir) is now powerless against the strain that has been found in people in the community rather than sick patients with serious underlying conditions and weak immune systems.
Vaccines can prevent infection occurring in the first place.
Lead investigator Dr Aeron Hurt, from the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne, said: "The greatest concern is that these resistant viruses could spread globally, similar to that seen in 2008 when the former seasonal H1N1 virus developed oseltamivir resistance and spread worldwide in less than 12 months."
The new strain that they have been examining is emerging among people who have never been treated with Tamiflu, suggesting it is very good at spreading from person to person.
Dr Hurt says animal studies by his team confirm this.
Although the Tamiflu-resistant strain is still relatively rare, affecting about 2% of people with swine flu in the Australian population that they studied, Dr Hurt is concerned that it has the potential to turn global.
Similar resistant strains have been detected in Europe but at this stage only on an ad hoc basis, says Dr Hurt.
"The widespread transmission and circulation of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1pdm09 viruses remains a risk in the future.
"Close monitoring of resistant viruses in both treated and community patients remains important."
In the UK, the HPA has recorded eight cases of oseltamivir-resistant H1N1pdm09 in the community setting.
The HPA's head of flu surveillance Dr Richard Pebody said: "While the frequency of oseltamivir resistance in community settings has increased slightly since the 2009-10 pandemic from 1-2% in the 2012/13 flu season, rates of detection remain low."
Swine flu (H1N1) infected a fifth of people during the first year of the pandemic in 2009, data suggest.
It is thought the virus killed 200,000 people globally.
Although the pandemic has been declared by officials as over, the virus is still circulating.
During the pandemic, the H1N1 virus crowded out other influenza viruses to become the dominant virus. This is no longer the case. Many countries are reporting a mix of influenza viruses. | Australian experts are concerned about the threat of a new type of drug-resistant pandemic flu that is circulating in the population at large. |
40624266 | The 20-year-old Barcelona native impressed while on trial at the Welsh Premier League club.
"Anderson is an exciting prospect and another good signing for the club," Bangor manager Kevin Nicholson said.
The former CE Artesa De Segre player is the third Bangor recruit within the last week, along with ex-Wrexham striker George Harry, 20, and York City defender Danny Holmes, 28. | Bangor City have signed Spanish forward Anderson Cayola. |
33093164 | Gayle's final game will now be Friday's game against Surrey in Taunton.
The 35-year-old has scored 328 runs in three T20 Blast matches for Somerset, including 151 not out against Kent.
"Although slightly disappointed, his contribution to Somerset CCC during his stay has been immense," said Somerset director of cricket Matt Maynard. | Somerset's West Indies star Chris Gayle is to miss the T20 Blast match against Glamorgan on Saturday and return home early because of an "immense workload". |
38739301 | Renard guided his team to the last eight with a 1-0 win over Ivory Coast, who he led to the 2015 title.
He said: "I was very lucky to work with Ivory Coast and we share the same spirit. But now I have to continue and try to take Morocco far.
"We are not favourites to win the tournament, there are better teams than us. But we are still in it."
The Frenchman can achieve an unprecedented third title with a third different nation, having also lifted the trophy with Zambia in 2012.
But he was cautious after Tuesday's win over the Ivorians and suggested the shocking pitch at Oyem was a contributing factor to their success.
"I feel very good and give congratulations to the players. They did very well tactically, they didn't do very well technically - but the pitch is very difficult.
"Today we beat the Ivory Coast on a bad pitch that proved to be a leveller.
"But at the end when you win the game 1-0 against the African champions you are very happy. "
He also revealed that he gave his team a harsh reality check at the interval, even though they appeared comfortable in holding the Ivorians to 0-0 - a scoreline that would have put the Atlas Lions through.
"I told my team during half-time that if we continued to play as we were then we would go out, it was not good enough in the first half," he said.
"We were scared of facing the Ivory Coast and when you are scared of your opponents you cannot achieve anything."
Morocco remained defensively resolute after the break but also carried more of a threat going forward and in the 64th minute, substitute Rachid Alioui struck a spectacular winner from long range.
Assistant coach Mustapha Hadji revealed the Morocco bench "had a feeling" Alioui could have a decisive influence.
"It was a great goal," he said. "Football can be magic, sometimes you have a feeling and you don't know why, but it worked for us and it was great."
Morocco will find out who they will face in the quarter-finals when Group D reaches its conclusion on Wednesday.
Whether they come up against Ghana, Egypt or Mali, Renard wants his players to be prepared.
"Now a new competition begins with the knockout matches, and we will need a winning mentality," he said. | Morocco coach Herve Renard says there are better teams than his in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals. |
38094869 | The UN's 16 days of activism start on Friday and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) wants its 10 million members to take part, campaigning in their own schools and colleges.
Many girls "face violence and harassment on a daily basis", according to Nicola Grinstead, chairwoman of the association.
"The severity of the issue is significant.
For girls at school, "the fear of violence will stop many of them from reaching their full potential", said Ms Grinstead.
The WAGGGS, #16Ways in #16Days campaign includes:
The UN campaign will last from November 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women until December 10 UN Human Rights Day.
According to the UN, women across the world are subject to physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence, regardless of their income, age or education.
UN figures show:
Ahead of the campaign, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: "Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation, public health pandemic and serious obstacle to sustainable development. It imposes large-scale costs on families, communities and economies. The world cannot afford to pay this price."
A poll of more than 2,000 young people in 60 countries for WAGGGS suggests that more than half of girls are deterred them from studying or taking part in hobbies by the threat of sexual harassment.
And too often the perpetrators are fellow students or teachers, the figures suggest.
In the UK, MPs have called for action to tackle sexual harassment and violence in England's schools.
It followed a 2015 Radio 5 live Freedom of Information investigation which showed more than 5,500 alleged sex crimes in UK schools had been reported to police in the past three years
And Girlguiding UK has launched a petition calling for "urgent action to end this widespread and often hidden scandal" in England, Scotland and Wales.
The petition, from Girlguiding's advocate panel of women aged 14-25, warned of daily sexual harassment of girls at school. | Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 146 countries will enlist boys as part of a United Nations campaign against gender violence. |
38171982 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has long been aware of that truism, and after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix he heads into the off-season this winter with another problem on his hands - what does he do about Hamilton's actions at Yas Marina?
In attempting to win the championship by driving slowly to bring rivals into the private battle between himself and team-mate Nico Rosberg, Hamilton repeatedly disobeyed team orders not to slow down too much.
From Mercedes' point of view, it all ended well - Hamilton won the race, Rosberg finished second to clinch the title, having navigated his way through what he described as an "intense" 90 minutes or so.
But it leaves the team with a conundrum - what to do about Hamilton's disobedience, and how does it affect them going into next season?
There is one central issue that Wolff has not addressed in public - he and Mercedes need Hamilton.
For one thing, he is F1's biggest star and he gives the Mercedes brand an appeal to an audience demographic it otherwise struggles to reach.
For another, he is the fastest driver in the world and F1 is heading into a season with a major regulation change and no guarantee that Mercedes will continue to have such an advantage over their rivals.
One can argue that if you give the best team of the past three years, with demonstrably the best engine, new aerodynamic rules that increase drag and therefore make power even more important, they are likely to continue on top.
On the other hand, history suggests that when rules change, the man who gets it right more often than not is Adrian Newey - the design chief of Red Bull. And after three years, with a major engine redesign coming from the French company, their partner Renault could catch up Mercedes.
Hamilton is an emotionally driven character, who has been on a personal roller coaster this year because of his reliability problems, and who has admitted he reached "rock bottom" after his crash with Rosberg at the Spanish Grand Prix, when he was 43 points off the championship lead.
With the threat of a resurgent Red Bull, and their ultra-strong driver line-up of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, Wolff needs his team in the best possible shape in 2017.
And that means finding a way to handle this while keeping Hamilton happy.
On the eve of the race, Wolff pledged "not to interfere" in the battle between Hamilton and Rosberg "as long as they are not overstepping the mark in terms of what we see as sportsmanlike driving".
What he meant - although he did not say it at the time - was that he did not want to see Hamilton backing Rosberg up to the extent that it could affect Mercedes' ability to win the race.
Many observers, including senior insiders from other teams, feel Hamilton never actually stepped over that line, in that he was always in the lead and always in control and the victory was never in doubt - a point Hamilton himself made over the radio to the team.
But the team insist that was not the case. They say there were two moments when the win was at risk - when Red Bull's Verstappen was running second to Hamilton and ahead of Rosberg and it became clear the Dutchman was on a one-stop strategy; and later in the race when Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was closing in rapidly on fresh super-soft tyres.
Rivals feel Mercedes' claims that the win was under threat were disingenuous - Hamilton had so much pace in hand he could simply have sped up.
However, Mercedes say their strategy software said otherwise, hence their interventions to Hamilton - which went as far as executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe coming on the radio with an "instruction" to "pick up the pace to win this race". Lowe's intervention is the "highest escalation" of team orders, Mercedes say.
Hamilton's response? "I'm in the lead right now. I'm quite comfortable where I am."
From the perspective of a racing driver, Hamilton did nothing wrong. He had two options going into the race - disappear into the distance to make a point about him being the fastest driver whose season had been affected by bad luck; or try to get rivals in between him and Rosberg.
He chose the second and in doing so he broke no rules. It could be argued - indeed it was argued by Mercedes insiders - that taking the first choice would have been to claim the moral high ground. But what does Hamilton care about that when a world title is at stake? His view was: it's not cheating, so it's not a problem.
Even those inside Mercedes would admit that Hamilton was relatively gentle with Rosberg. He drove slowly all race, but could have done so much more aggressively and much earlier on.
Even during the closing laps, when he began to turn the screw, he only just managed to get Vettel on to Rosberg's tail on the final lap - although the suspicion is that Vettel had already made a decision not to get involved, which raises its own questions of morality.
Ask any racing driver and he would tell you there were many other options Hamilton could have chosen that would have had a much more dramatic effect.
It's almost as if he was fighting his own moral battle in his head while he was out there - do something, just don't do too much.
If so, it would be in keeping with his racing character. Hamilton is a hard racer but through his career he has generally been scrupulously fair. Not for him the darker arts of someone like Michael Schumacher, or even Ayrton Senna.
Mercedes view his actions through the prism of what they call their "team values and ethics".
"Undermining a structure in public means you are putting yourself before the team. And anarchy doesn't work in any team or company," Wolff said.
However, he added: "It was his only chance of winning the championship at that stage and maybe you cannot demand a racing driver who is one of the best - if not the best out there - to comply in a situation where his instincts cannot make him comply.
"It is about finding a solution how to solve that in the future because a precedent has been set."
Others would contend that there was no place for team orders in this context. Mercedes were already assured of the drivers' and constructors' titles, it was just a question of which driver was champion. Not even a crash that took both out of the race would have affected any of that.
But the team say you cannot pick and choose when to apply those values - it's no different at the last race than the first. After all, every race counts for the championship.
The issue is what to do now? Wolff is taking his time to think the matter over and as he does so, a number of factors will come into play.
The first is that Mercedes are facing here a situation with which no team has been confronted since McLaren with Senna and Alain Prost in 1989.
Ron Dennis' inability to handle that dynamic led to an implosion - Prost signed for arch-rivals Ferrari and the title was decided in a collision between the two drivers in Japan.
A not dissimilar situation arose when Dennis failed to handle the tensions created when Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were team-mates in 2007.
Wolff is keen to avoid falling into that trap. But, realistically, what can he do?
After Rosberg and Hamilton collided in Austria for the second time in five races, he threatened both with suspension if it happened again. However, that's not what happened in Abu Dhabi.
So a suspension can surely be ruled out - despite Wolff's post-race remark that "everything is possible".
In time, Wolff will probably sit down with Hamilton and discuss it. But what then?
Wolff said: "Throughout these last three years we have really tried to create an environment and a set of values in the team and one of the reasons is the individuals in this team are very much part of it.
"They bought into these values. You cannot invent a rule for every single situation. This is motor racing and it would make it the most boring sport ever if we would have a corporate solution for every single situation.
"The tricky bit here is what does that mean for the future of the team and how can we progress and not be over-corporate and boring but allow them to race?
"It wasn't acknowledged that we have let them race over the last three years.
"We could have had a much smoother run and decided that 'you are going to win or you are' and this is how it happened in Red Bull and in Ferrari many years ago and how it happened many years in other teams.
"We are not here in the credit-taking business because it needs headlines - but I think we have coped quite well with this situation the last three years." | There is no such thing as an easy ride when it comes to dealing with Lewis Hamilton. |
36794430 | John O'Neill, 45, from York, was cleared of rape at a retrial last year but was made the subject of an interim sexual risk order (SRO).
An order prohibiting his identity from being made public has been lifted at York Magistrates Court.
North Yorkshire Police has applied for the SRO to be made permanent after Mr O'Neill allegedly breached it.
The single father-of-two has said he had an interest in sado-masochism and used to visit a fetish club.
He said the order violated his human rights and meant he could not have an intimate relationship.
"It's absolutely devastating. I don't have a life," he said.
SROs were introduced in England and Wales last year and can be applied to any individual who the police believe poses a risk of sexual harm - even if they have never been convicted of a crime.
The order requires Mr O'Neill to disclose any planned sexual activity to the police or face up to five years in prison.
Mr O'Neill is accused of breaching one of the conditions of the order by not giving police the Pin number to his mobile phone.
He has threatened to go on hunger strike in protest of the SRO.
A judge is to decide on the police's application at a hearing at the same court next month. | A man who must notify police 24 hours before he has sex can be named, a district judge has ruled. |
29876259 | Posting on Facebook, police said they had the "sad task of removing a number of underaged children from licensed premises in Waringstown" on 28 October.
"Sad because some of these teenagers (as young as 15) were quite clearly drunk."
Police have said they are investigating the matter.
The post added: "We do not want to spoil anyone's fun but the fact is that it is illegal to consume alcohol when you are under the age of 18 and it is illegal for licensed premises to serve alcohol when you are under 18.
"While at the premises we were able to see adults dropping teenagers off.
"We were then tied up and unable to respond to other calls as we waited with the children for parents to pick them up.
"The licensee of the premises was asked to close proceedings immediately."
Police said this "may seem like a harmless event for teenagers but when alcohol is involved, everyone becomes a little more vulnerable and events can take place that spiral out of control quickly".
"In this instance a number of those attending used fake identification to gain entry - this is an offence and criminal convictions can have long lasting consequences on work, travel and education opportunities," the post added. | Police in a County Down village have said they were unable to respond to other calls because they were monitoring drunken teenagers. |
37737740 | The game appeared to be heading for a draw until Hull captain Michael Dawson deflected in Daryl Janmaat's cross on 82 minutes.
Watford dominated the game with Younes Kaboul and Roberto Pereyra hitting the woodwork in the first-half, but they failed to muster a shot on target in the match.
Hull stay in 18th and are without a league win since 20 August, while Watford move up to seventh.
Watford are now above Manchester United and champions Leicester in the Premier League table after 10 games.
Hull meanwhile, are on their worst run in the top flight since January 2009, when they last lost six in a row.
Hull manager Mike Phelan said his players were "depressed" after the game, which he described as a "cruel defeat".
The Tigers had defended resolutely for 82 minutes until Dawson's own-goal and the devastation was plainly written on the former Tottenham defender's face at full-time.
In their past five games, Phelan's side have conceded 19 goals so a clean sheet and a draw would have been the perfect tonic.
For all Watford's dominance and their 22 shots, they failed to muster a single effort on target and Hull's defence worked hard with seven shots being blocked.
After being anonymous in attack in the first-half, Hull pressed forward after the break with Abel Hernández having their best effort, but his shot was straight at Heurelho Gomes.
Hull missed their injured attackers Adama Diomande, Dieumerci Mbokani and Robert Snodgrass, and with only three goals in their last six league games are clearly lacking an edge to their forward play.
Dawson's own goal was unfortunate - as Phelan said afterwards: "It could have gone anywhere."
Watford are the first team to win a Premier League game without directing a single shot on target since Sunderland beat West Brom in January 2006.
Not that Walter Mazzarri will care after his side moved up to seventh in the table.
His side have certainly impressed this season with wins over Manchester United and West Ham and they have only lost once in their last seven league games.
Speaking after the game Mazzarri said he was "happy" and felt his side's performances this season deserved two or three points more.
They looked comfortable against Hull and were unfortunate not to have scored through Kaboul and Pereyra, while captain Troy Deeney had a hatful of chances to score his 100th goal for the club and Odion Ighalo went close late on.
Hull boss Mike Phelan: "It's very hard to take. I've got a depressed dressing room after the efforts and the work they put into the game. It's cruel. If it is a worldy then you can hold hands up.
"We were competitive enough in the game, we created probably the best chances in the game, but were are on the end of another defeat. We have to react to that and I am sure we will do next week.
"When I think about it we could have done better at defending. It is a cruel one, it flashed across the box and hit someone on the leg and has gone in. It could have gone anywhere.
"To win a football match, you have to score goals and try and get that from forward play and forwards. Everyone has to weigh-in with goals and at the moment it is not happening. We have to keep positive, on the front foot and I'm sure it will change."
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Watford manager Walter Mazzarri: "We played well in the first half an hour. We deserved to lead. We had patience on the counter-attack and finally scored, the victory is deserved.
"They defended well, we knew they would defend. We were unlucky, we should have scored at the beginning.
"I am very happy with how the team is playing now, giving me satisfaction. With how they are playing on the pitch, we deserve two or three points more at this stage."
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Match ends, Watford 1, Hull City 0.
Second Half ends, Watford 1, Hull City 0.
Attempt missed. Curtis Davies (Hull City) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Ryan Mason with a cross.
Corner, Hull City. Conceded by José Holebas.
Foul by Troy Deeney (Watford).
Jarrod Bowen (Hull City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, Hull City. Jarrod Bowen replaces Markus Henriksen.
Foul by Etienne Capoue (Watford).
Jake Livermore (Hull City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Watford. Christian Kabasele replaces Sebastian Prödl because of an injury.
Attempt missed. Odion Ighalo (Watford) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Juan Zuñiga.
Substitution, Watford. Juan Zuñiga replaces Nordin Amrabat.
Own Goal by Michael Dawson, Hull City. Watford 1, Hull City 0.
Valon Behrami (Watford) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jake Livermore (Hull City).
Attempt blocked. Daryl Janmaat (Watford) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Substitution, Hull City. David Meyler replaces Will Keane.
Foul by Nordin Amrabat (Watford).
Sam Clucas (Hull City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Valon Behrami (Watford) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Abel Hernández (Hull City).
Attempt blocked. Nordin Amrabat (Watford) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt blocked. Daryl Janmaat (Watford) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.
Corner, Watford. Conceded by Michael Dawson.
Substitution, Watford. Daryl Janmaat replaces Younes Kaboul.
Attempt missed. Younes Kaboul (Watford) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Valon Behrami.
Attempt missed. Odion Ighalo (Watford) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Nordin Amrabat with a cross.
Etienne Capoue (Watford) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Will Keane (Hull City).
Foul by Valon Behrami (Watford).
Ryan Mason (Hull City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Ahmed Elmohamady (Hull City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Abel Hernández.
Foul by José Holebas (Watford).
Markus Henriksen (Hull City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Etienne Capoue (Watford) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Jake Livermore (Hull City).
Offside, Hull City. Ahmed Elmohamady tries a through ball, but Abel Hernández is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Etienne Capoue (Watford) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by José Holebas following a corner.
Corner, Watford. Conceded by Curtis Davies.
Sam Clucas (Hull City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. | Hull City suffered their sixth straight Premier League defeat as they conceded a late own-goal against Watford at Vicarage Road. |
39686065 | Graham was on course for the Games standard of 2:37 at 30km but finished in 2:42.38 - 44 seconds outside her PB.
Rio Olympian Seaward reached halfway in 67.07 but came home in 2:17.08, with the Gold Coast standard 2:16.30.
Scullion took almost three minutes off his previous best as he clocked 2:17.59 in the British capital.
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Seaward's time was only eight seconds outside Athletics Ireland's world championship standard but the Loughborough-based schoolteacher has already indicated that he doesn't plan to compete in London.
However, the Commonwealth Games are on Seaward's radar so he is likely to have another crack at the Gold Coast standard in the autumn.
Seaward booked his place at the Rio Olympics when he clocked a personal best of 2:14.52 at the Berlin Marathon in September 2015 and he may try his luck in the German capital again in five months time.
Sean Hehir almost certainly booked himself a place at the World Championships with a 2:16.18 time on Sunday.
Holywood man Paul Pollock has already qualified for the worlds after clocking 2:15.30 in Japan in February.
After heading his fellow Rio Olympian Seaward as he reached halfway in 66:41, Raheny's Mick Clohisey struggled over the second half with his finishing time 2:18.34.
Up ahead, Mary Keitany of Kenya broke Paula Radcliffe's women's-only world record as she crossed the line in 2:17.01.
That was 41 seconds quicker than four-time British Olympian Radcliffe ran in winning the event in 2005.
In 2003 when Paula Radcliffe set her world-record time of 2:15:25, she ran with two male pacemakers.
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Kenyan Daniel Wanjiru, 24, won the men's race in 2:05:56, with Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia second.
Bekele - the 5,000m and 10,000m world record holder - looked to be mounting a challenge in the final stages, but Wanjiru found enough pace to finish strongly and eventually win by nine seconds.
Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia was the runner-up in the women's race, clocking a time of 2:17:56.
Meanwhile, a brilliant run by in-form Emma Mitchell helped Queen's beat defending champions Leevale to win the women's title at the Irish Road Relays Championships at Raheny.
After Sinead Sweeney's opening leg, Mitchell clocked a brilliant 10 minutes and 18 seconds for her two-mile leg which set up Rebecca Henderson to clinch QUB's victory as they clocked a cumulative 20 minutes and 58 seconds, which left them six second ahead of the Cork club.
All three Queen's athletes are coached by Eamonn Christie.
In the men's race, the Dooney brothers Kevin and Conor helped hosts Raheny clinch a thrilling one-second victory over Donore Harriers. | Northern Ireland trio Laura Graham, Kevin Seaward and Stephen Scullion were all outside the Commonwealth Games standards at Sunday's London Marathon. |
34050214 | Michael Jones, the Conservative leader of Cheshire East Council, said he would back plans to drill for shale gas if the process is found to be "safe".
Labour Councillor Sam Corcoran accused Mr Jones of making a U-turn, going back on "assurances" he gave last year.
The government last week awarded licenses for oil and gas exploration in Cheshire as part of a national policy.
The process of fracking - where water, chemicals and sand are blasted at shale rocks to release the gas trapped within - has proved deeply controversial in recent months.
Opponents have voiced concerns about earth tremors, water contamination and disruption to rural communities.
The industry, meanwhile, insists many of these fears are overblown, and that fracking can be carried out safely under the right regulations.
Leaving the safety issue aside, Mr Jones stressed he did not believe fracking would be "viable" in Cheshire East.
He told BBC Radio Manchester: "Most of our county is geothermal which is up to 5km deep and I believe if you go below 5km to find shale deposits they will evaporate.
"We don't think it is viable here. Our experts don't think it is viable.
"If they can get the evidence to say it is safe, if they can show people it is a good, viable entity, then I'm sure we'll pass it."
"We are in difficult times. National security, having our own energy is key. Geothermal in Cheshire East yes. If fracking works elsewhere and it is safe, I'm for it. But let it be safe."
Mr Corcoran said: "The problem is with the bombastic style of the statement made last year. It was a promise that was never in the power of Councillor Michael Jones to keep.
"So the current U-turn comes as no surprise to me."
Cheshire East will remain "fracking free", said the council in January last year. Leader Michael Jones told residents he was committed to exploiting much less controversial reserves of geothermal energy instead.
That caused problems though as councils are legally obliged to consider any planning application on its merits.
Today's dispute comes down to a battle of research - with Mr Jones claiming his research shows fracking just won't be viable in many parts of his borough.
But there does appear to have been one major concession made - Mr Jones said if fracking can be proven to be safe "then I'm sure we'll pass it".
Mr Corcoran agreed that the onus should be on those who want to frack to prove that it is safe.
He claimed government pressure meant instead that "local authorities have to prove it is dangerous before they reject planning applications".
In June, Lancashire County Council refused permission for Cuadrilla to frack at two sites. The company is appealing against the decision.
Ministers recently announced plans to fast-track fracking applications, saying they could take over the power to decide if councils repeatedly take longer than the 16-week statutory timeframe to evaluate plans. | Fracking could happen in parts of Cheshire after all, a council leader who previously ruled it out has said. |
39665542 | RNLI Loch Ness was alerted to the incident near Invermoriston just before 18:30 on Thursday.
Police, ambulance and fire service personnel were also called to the scene.
The casualty, who was seriously injured, was lifted from the gorge on a stretcher and airlifted to hospital.
The biker's condition in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness was not known. | Lifeboat and coastguard volunteers have been involved in the rescue of a biker who crashed and landed in a gorge near Loch Ness. |
40485634 | Lincolnshire Police said it was called at about 11:00 BST after an "industrial accident involving an HGV and an employee" at Stainby Quarry on Crabtree Road in Buckminster, near Grantham.
The 57-year-old man, who has not yet been named, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Health and Safety Executive have been informed and have started an investigation, the force said. | A worker has died following an incident at a quarry in Lincolnshire. |
37852471 | More than 20m tablets of the banned drug Mandrax, with an estimated street value of $450m (£365m), were seized in the western city of Udaipur in October.
Subhas Dudhani, a Bollywood producer, was arrested in Mumbai in connection with the find, an official told reporters.
It is believed the drugs were bound for South Africa and Mozambique.
Najib Shah, head of the central board of excise and customs, revealed the arrest on Wednesday in New Delhi.
"The total consignment was about 23.5 metric tons with an international value of 3,000 crore (rupees) [1 crore equals 10 million]," Mr Shah said.
The pills - discovered hidden in a secret room - are the largest synthetic drugs haul Indian officials have ever intercepted, according to Mr Shah.
But they are still trying to track down other people involved in the operation.
A customs officer told AFP on condition of anonymity: "We are on the lookout for several people involved in the drug syndicate."
The recreational drug, commonly known as M-Pills, buttons or smarties, is popular on the rave scene in parts of Africa and Asia.
But overdosing on Methaqualone, the chemical name of Mandrax, can be fatal or leave the user in a coma. | Officials say they have discovered one of India's largest-ever drug hauls concealed in a fizzy drinks factory. |
38692970 | Ms Bailey, 51, was found dead in a cesspit under the garage of her home in Royston, Hertfordshire, in July. She had been missing for three months.
Her partner Ian Stewart, 56, denies murder.
Det Con Hollie Daines, who interviewed him at the Royston home, said: "It was odd when he appeared to turn his head to the side and look at us and grin."
LIVE: Updates on this and other stories from Hertfordshire
She said he had refused to be interviewed at the first attempt on 21 April, claiming to be "feeling unwell" and he "couldn't be bothered".
"He seemed quite blasé and non-committal," Ms Daines told St Albans Crown Court.
When he was interviewed the following day, she said he was "really anxious", "restless" and was "pacing around" while the property was searched.
Earlier Sgt Stephen Oliphant told the court how he had prodded the surface of the cesspit with a garden hoe and the body floated to the top.
"I realised I was hitting a different object that felt slightly softer.
"Solid matter was moved away and the body came to the surface," he said.
The body of Ms Bailey and her dog Boris were recovered three months after Mr Stewart had reported her missing.
It is alleged she was killed on 11 April.
Sgt Nicole Goodyear told the court Mr Stewart followed police "everywhere" during a search on 15 April.
She said: "He was very interested in what we were doing, he wanted to know what we were doing and why."
Mr Stewart also denies preventing a lawful burial, fraud and three counts of perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues. | The man accused of murdering children's author Helen Bailey "grinned" when questioned by police, a court heard. |
37992573 | With one state left to count, Mrs Clinton has nearly a million more votes than him but lost last week's election due to the electoral college system.
Mr Trump said on Sunday the system was unfair and he preferred a simple vote.
But on Tuesday he insisted he would have still won a straight vote because he would have focused more on the big states won by Mrs Clinton.
"I would have campaigned in N.Y. Florida and California and won even bigger and more easily" the president-elect said on Twitter. He lost New York and California.
Meanwhile, retiring Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer from California has filed legislation to abolish the electoral college, saying the system was "outdated, undemocratic".
It is unlikely that the bill will be passed at it would involve a constitutional amendment, which would require passage by two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate, and then in three-quarters of states.
Was Trump's election democratic?
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In an interview on Sunday with the 60 Minutes programme Mr Trump complained about the electoral college system, in which each state is worth a different number of votes, saying that he preferred the popular vote method.
He said that he has "respect" for the electoral college system "but I would rather see it where you went with simple votes".
"You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win," he told interviewer Lesley Stahl.
It's not the first time Mr Trump has lashed out at the voting system.
On election night 2012, he incorrectly tweeted that Mitt Romney had won the popular vote but lost to Barack Obama: "He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!"
In a subsequent post from that night he added "the electoral college is a disaster for a democracy" and "the phoney electoral college made a laughing stock out of our nation".
Bernie Sanders, the populist candidate who ran against Mrs Clinton in the Democratic primary, has also questioned the electoral college system.
When asked by USA Today if the electoral college should be changed, he responded "I think you ought to think about this... I think we want to rethink that."
Mr Trump has set up a transition team to help assemble his cabinet.
He is meeting top aides, and his vice president Mike Pence on Tuesday at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan.
According to media reports, he is considering former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or former UN Ambassador John Bolton for the role of Secretary of State, the top US diplomat.
The BBC's Gary O'Donoghue in Washington said the Pentagon has still not been contacted by the Trump transition team to discuss the handover of operations. | Donald Trump says he could have won the popular vote against Hillary Clinton if he had campaigned differently. |
37067858 | The home side went in front inside 10 minutes as Gareth McAuley headed in a Craig Gardner corner at the far post.
Everton carried more threat once Romelu Lukaku came on as a first-half substitute, and Kevin Mirallas rolled in an equaliser just before the break.
Barry then forced the ball in after Mason Holgate's touch from a corner.
Koeman said after the match that Lukaku would be staying at Everton - good news for Everton fans concerned that the striker may return to former club Chelsea.
The Belgium international, bought by Everton for a club-record £28m from Chelsea in 2014, was his team's top scorer last season, and his power up front played a significant part in turning the game around.
Koeman's team were flailing in attack for much of the first half, with the 5ft 9in stature of Gerard Deulofeu proving little match for Albion's 6ft 5in centre-half Jonas Olsson.
Lukaku, still straining for fitness after a recent heel problem, was thrown on to give Olsson a rougher time, with Deulofeu switched to the right flank. It worked, even though the Belgian did not score himself.
Everton, who dominated possession throughout, began to create more openings - and made them count. Lukaku passed up a great late chance to make sure of victory, as he was denied by a fine Ben Foster save, but his job was done.
Before kick-off Koeman was asked in a television interview if he had made special plans to counter West Brom's threat from set-pieces. He said that he had not.
When McAuley headed in Gardner's corner early on, it looked as if Everton would pay for that approach.
It certainly raised hopes for Guochuan Lai, the Chinese businessman who led a takeover at Albion earlier this month, and who was watching his new club in person for the first time.
Albion were managing to make life uncomfortable for Everton's three-man central defence, despite having only around a third of the possession.
Yet if the loss of a goal seconds before half-time knocked the home side off their stride, it was the manner of Everton's second that was something of a surprise.
Head coach Tony Pulis prides himself on having well-drilled teams, yet they were caught out defensively from a corner, with Barry getting free of his markers to turn in a loose ball that should have been dealt with.
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Pulis expressed concerns before the match about the strength of Everton's bench - which included Lukaku, Yannick Bolasie and Ashley Williams.
"It's a top-six bench," said the West Brom coach, who has struggled to strengthen his own squad during the summer, bringing in only winger Matt Phillips from QPR for £5.5m.
The fact that Koeman had options in reserve undoubtedly helped. Winger Bolasie, signed from Crystal Palace during the week, was excellent after coming on, racing past Jonny Evans down the right to deliver a cross that Ross Barkley somehow headed wide with under 20 minutes to go.
Yet Everton's willingness to mix up their approach - not always the case when they played a possession-based game under Roberto Martinez last season - was also a factor in changing the game.
Their equaliser was straight out of the Martinez playbook, with Barry and Barkley exchanging quick passes to feed Mirallas, whose shot had just enough on it to beat Ben Foster.
Yet they were prepared to go direct to Lukaku when needed, and carried a threat at set-pieces, with Foster reacting well to save Ramiro Funes Mori's header from a free-kick seconds before Barry's winner.
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The EFL Cup is next up for both teams on Tuesday: Everton host League Two side Yeovil, while West Brom go to Northampton, of League One.
Match ends, West Bromwich Albion 1, Everton 2.
Second Half ends, West Bromwich Albion 1, Everton 2.
Attempt missed. Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right following a set piece situation.
Hand ball by Mason Holgate (Everton).
Jonny Evans (West Bromwich Albion) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Yannick Bolasie (Everton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jonny Evans (West Bromwich Albion).
Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Everton) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Ross Barkley.
Maarten Stekelenburg (Everton) is shown the yellow card.
Corner, West Bromwich Albion. Conceded by Leighton Baines.
Attempt blocked. Rickie Lambert (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by James McClean.
Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Everton) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Yannick Bolasie.
Foul by Mason Holgate (Everton).
Gareth McAuley (West Bromwich Albion) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Salomón Rondón (West Bromwich Albion) left footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Rickie Lambert with a headed pass following a corner.
Corner, West Bromwich Albion. Conceded by Romelu Lukaku.
Corner, West Bromwich Albion. Conceded by Mason Holgate.
Ross Barkley (Everton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Rickie Lambert (West Bromwich Albion).
Phil Jagielka (Everton) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Darren Fletcher (West Bromwich Albion).
Ross Barkley (Everton) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Claudio Yacob (West Bromwich Albion).
Attempt saved. Craig Dawson (West Bromwich Albion) with an attempt from the centre of the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by James McClean with a cross.
Foul by Leighton Baines (Everton).
Jonathan Leko (West Bromwich Albion) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Substitution, Everton. Ashley Williams replaces Kevin Mirallas.
Attempt blocked. Rickie Lambert (West Bromwich Albion) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by James McClean with a cross.
Substitution, West Bromwich Albion. Rickie Lambert replaces Saido Berahino.
Attempt missed. Yannick Bolasie (Everton) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Romelu Lukaku.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Kevin Mirallas (Everton) because of an injury.
Foul by Kevin Mirallas (Everton).
Craig Dawson (West Bromwich Albion) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Gareth McAuley (West Bromwich Albion) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by James McClean with a cross following a corner.
Corner, West Bromwich Albion. Conceded by Gareth Barry.
Foul by Romelu Lukaku (Everton).
Jonas Olsson (West Bromwich Albion) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Ross Barkley (Everton) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Yannick Bolasie with a cross.
Attempt missed. Leighton Baines (Everton) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top left corner. Assisted by Idrissa Gueye. | Gareth Barry's close-range header secured Ronald Koeman's first victory as Everton manager as they came from a goal down to win at West Brom. |
35576032 | Taylor, ranked 447 in the world at the start of the week, only got into the tournament on Monday as first reserve.
The 39-year-old American secured victory when overnight leader Phil Mickelson missed a five-foot birdie putt on the 18th to force a play-off.
"I don't even have my tour card - now I am playing in the Masters," said Taylor, who finished on 17 under par.
The victory means Taylor qualifies for the first major of the year in Augusta in April.
Overnight leader Mickelson was trying to win his first tournament in 50 starts since the 2013 Open Championship but a level par final-round 72 left him one shot off the pace.
"It never crossed my mind that I wouldn't make that one," said Mickelson, who missed out on a fifth career victory at Pebble Beach.
A three-under 69 took England's Justin Rose into a tie for sixth, while world number one Jordan Spieth finished tied for 21st. | Vaughn Taylor hit a seven-under-par 65 to win his first PGA Tour title in 11 years at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. |
40870551 | The Olympic champion and world record holder clocked 43.98 seconds to take gold ahead of Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas and Qatar's Abdalelah Haroun.
Van Niekerk, 25, will continue his 200m campaign in Wednesday's semi-finals.
Britain's Kyle Langford narrowly missed out on a surprise medal in the 800m final as he finished fourth.
The 21-year-old from Watford was in last place heading into the home straight but almost overtook Kenya's Kipyegon Bett on the line for bronze.
Langford set a personal best of one minute 45.25 seconds, with Frenchman Pierre-Ambroise Bosse taking gold and Poland's Adam Kszczot the silver.
Van Niekerk retained his 400m title in dominant fashion but ran alongside an empty lane as Botswana's Isaac Makwala was ruled out after an outbreak of the norovirus bug.
More to follow. | South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk completed the first leg of his attempt at a World Championships double with victory in the 400m at London Stadium. |
34574982 | Unions say cheap steel imports may be responsible for its financial problems.
Reports of 1,800 redundancies are wide of the mark and workers will be paid, according to BBC sources.
The UK steel's sector is under extreme pressure, with Tata Steel expected to announce major job losses on Tuesday and the UK's second-largest steelmaker, SSI, going into liquidation.
PwC has taken over 16 out of 20 units within the group, the accountancy firm said.
SSI's collapse had been associated with the loss of over 2,000 jobs and thousands more indirectly related to steelmaking.
"Employees across these entities of the Caparo Industries group totalling just over 1,700, will be briefed on the impact of administration at the businesses. Staff are attending work as normal and will be paid as normal, so in these respects it is business as usual while the administrators' review gets underway," PwC said.
Matt Hammond, lead administrator and partner at PwC, said: "This is a significant business with a wide range of interests across steel, engineering, vehicles products and technologies. Its scale and reach into significant customers and its importance to suppliers cannot be understated. We will be rapidly assessing all options for the businesses through this week and beyond."
A collapse in steel prices and movements in exchange rates has had an impact on some parts of the Caparo Industries group, said PwC.
"However there are businesses in the group that are not directly affected by steel prices, and likewise many where there is both strong customer demand and critical supplier support," said the administrators.
"Our focus for the next 36 hours is on briefing staff across the group and working closely with their management teams to ensure that every opportunity for these businesses is considered. We will be working with all parties to ensure the best outcome for all creditors of each business."
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "One in six UK steelworkers face losing their jobs. At this rate there won't be a British steel industry in a year's time. Ministers cannot afford to stand on the sidelines and watch this crisis unfold. They must step in now with a rescue package."
Caparo was founded in 1968 by Indian-born industrialist Lord Swraj Paul of Marylebone, who remains the chairman.
He came to the UK in 1966 and was made a peer in 1996. | Administrators from PwC have been appointed to parts of Caparo Industries' steel operations. |
32379253 | The latest film in the Fast and Furious franchise took just 17 days to break the $1bn barrier, compared to 19 for Avengers and the final Harry Potter.
The blockbuster, starring Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker, has also topped the US box office for a third week with $29.1m (£19.5m).
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, starring Kevin James, was second with $24m (£16.1m).
The film, which moved the shopping centre policeman's segway adventures to Las Vegas, was savaged by critics giving it a 0% score on aggregate reviews site Rotten Tomatoes.
Low-budget, social media-themed thriller Unfriended took third place over the weekend with $16m (£10.7m) - 16 times the film's modest production budget.
It marks another success story for production company Blumfeld, which has already made the highly profitable but low budget films The Purge, Ouija and The Boy Next Door.
At the other end of the scale, Tom Hardy's Soviet thriller Child 44 took just $600,000 (£402,000) across 510 cinemas.
With a budget of $50m (£33.5m) it means the film could be one of the year's biggest flops.
Rounding out the weekend's top five were Home with $10.3m (£6.9m) and The Longest Ride with $6.9m (£4.6m).
According to box office tracker Rentrak and studio estimates, top film Furious 7 has already taken almost $300m in the US and Canada alone.
Rentrak's Paul Dergarabedian said the film "set a new standard" for this time of year, adding: "These are summer-style numbers in April."
He said Furious 7 had "truly become part of movie folklore with its record setting numbers, strong reviews, spectacular word-of-mouth and of course the outpouring of support for late star Paul Walker".
A song from the Furious 7 soundtrack - Wiz Khalifa's See You Again, featuring Charlie Puth - has also been breaking records.
It got more Spotify streams in 24 hours than any other track in the US, and also topped the UK singles chart on Sunday as the fastest-selling single of 2015 so far. | Furious 7 has broken box office records as the fastest film to take more than $1 billion (£669.5 million) worldwide. |
36241874 | McGregor fuelled speculation with a tweet showing him head to head with Mayweather, who retired last year.
Five-weight world champion Mayweather, 39, said he would want $100m (£69.3m) to fight the 27-year-old Irishman.
"Keep your fingers crossed, it may be a boxer versus an MMA fighter," Mayweather told fighthype.com.
"It was a name that was shot at me. It may not be a rumour."
Mayweather's father recently said his son had told him he would face "some kind of MMA fighter", while McGregor told BT Sport he wants a "billion-dollar fight" against the American.
McGregor, who lost to Nate Diaz in his most recent fight, was pulled from the UFC 200 card last month after refusing to fulfil promotional duties.
Mayweather's 49th and last fight was a unanimous decision over Andre Berto in September, after which he said: "My career is over, that's official." | Former boxer Floyd Mayweather says he "started the rumour" about a potential bout with a mixed martial arts fighter - thought to be Conor McGregor. |
27610788 | Shakespeare depicted Richard as physically and mentally grotesque, a view rejected by modern supporters.
When his skeleton was found under a Leicester car park in 2012, the marked curve in its vertebrae was the first clue it could be the infamous monarch.
But the University of Leicester believe his spine's subtly spiral twist could have been disguised with clothing.
After Richard III died at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 and was hastily buried under a Leicester church, his name was blackened by the new Tudor dynasty.
But the University of Leicester said the study meant "now everyone can explore the true shape of one of history's most famous spinal columns".
The findings, published in The Lancet, detail how CT scans of the vertebrae were used to create accurate copies from a 3D printer.
Dr Piers Mitchell, from the University of Cambridge, explained how these showed the exact nature of the curve, known as a scoliosis.
"The bones are all a slightly different shape at the most curved part of his spine (compared to) that you would expect to see.
"We have been able to put those bones back together because the only way those bones could fit together in life would be in the form of a scoliosis," he said.
University of Leicester osteoarchaelogist Dr Jo Appleby, of the university's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, concluded: "Although the scoliosis looks dramatic, it probably did not cause a major physical deformity.
"This is because he had a well-balanced curve. The condition would have meant that his trunk was short in comparison to the length of his limbs, and his right shoulder would have been slightly higher than the left, but this could have been disguised by custom-made armour and by having a good tailor.
"There is no evidence that Richard had a limp as his curve was well balanced and his leg bones were normal and symmetric."
Dr Phil Stone, chairman of the Richard III Society, said: "History tells us that Richard III was a great warrior.
"Clearly, he was little inconvenienced by his spinal problem and accounts of his appearance, written when he was alive, tell that he was 'of person and bodily shape comely enough'". | Richard III's bent spine would have left him inches shorter, but able to function well, researchers have found. |
25296412 | A pugnacious outlier called the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or Common Man's Party, born out of a strong anti-corruption movement and tapping into popular disenchantment with the major political parties, has made a spectacular debut in state elections in Delhi.
It has picked up 28 of the 70 seats and more importantly, over 30% of the votes, routing the ruling Congress party and putting the single largest BJP party under watch. Thanks to the AAP's bravura performance, the capital may be headed for a hung assembly and forced into a re-election. "AAP proves," an analyst told me, "the people are desperately looking for alternatives, not merely an option."
Even its critics concede the Delhi result is a stunning feat for a year-old party in a country where barriers to political entry are prohibitively high.
Arvind Kejriwal, a once-taciturn civil servant-turned popular leader, has emerged as the giant killer, routing Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, a veteran Congresswoman, who was eyeing a fourth consecutive term in office. Not since the emergence of the regional Telugu Desam Party in southern Andhra Pradesh state in the 1980s has India seen such a striking political debut.
Analysts say the AAP has offered itself as a credible alternative to people fed up with corruption, unresponsive politicians and high inflation.
They believe that the party changed the political discourse of the elections. It forced the BJP to change a lacklustre chief ministerial candidate, put out separate manifestos for 70 constituencies, skilfully used social media, successfully garnered the support of the traditional media and promised to pursue "honest, people's politics". It also radically altered the debate on the blight of corruption. The new party projected itself as "pro-change, anti-establishment and anti-politician", as an analyst succinctly put it.
However, the AAP's emergence also points to an inflection point in India's stodgy politics dominated by identity, caste, patronage, sycophancy, dynastic impulses and opaque financing.
What makes the party unique?
For one, unlike new parties in the past that had their origins in region and identity-based movements, AAP was not identifiable with either.
Also, it is the first party to emerge entirely out of urban India with its leaders mainly belonging to the middle class. "The party," analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta told me, "is the creation of urban, middle class imagination."
Moreover, AAP is the first party that has impressed with an innovative use of political techniques. It was clearly demonstrated in its poll spending model - transparent, open donations from the public - and volunteer workers who took time off from their jobs and businesses to work for the party.
Though born out of a vigorous anti-corruption movement that captured the people's imagination, the party's identity is forged around the notions of accountability and governance, something unprecedented in India's parties.
The party is also forcing other parties to rethink their strategies.
"They showed a lot of creativity and imagination. They took risks - the act of Mr Kejriwal taking on Sheila Dixit, for example. The AAP thought out of the box," says Mr Mehta.
Will the party now capitalise on its sterling performance in the capital and go national?
Historians like Dipankar Gupta feel that the party should entrench itself locally - by contesting municipal elections, for example - before venturing to the national stage. "It should play within its limits," he says.
But Mr Kejriwal's party clearly has other ideas: senior leaders tell me that they have opened more than 300 offices all over India and the party plans to contest next year's general elections "wherever we stand a chance".
It believes its time has come and it has to capture the zeitgeist: many believe most cities and states have a substantial population of floating voters who are now desperate for credible alternatives.
But can Mr Kejriwal's party replicate its success outside of Delhi?
Politics is the art of the possible. Many believe that to become successful outside India's most urbanised state, the AAP will need to forge tactical alliances in India's fractious and complex politics. Will Mr Kejriwal's party do that? How will it navigate challenges of language and local contexts in an dizzyingly diverse country and build local networks? (The party is largely seen as a Delhi-centric phenomenon, and most of its existing leadership hail from the city.) Or will it, like other parties, easily become a prisoner of India's politics and bureaucracy? Will Mr Kejriwal, its charismatic leader, end up fostering a cult of personality, a bane of India's political parties? Will it be able to marry its idealism and pragmatism?
AAP activists are fond of saying that they are not in politics "mainly to seize power but to change a compromised and corrupt political system".
But changing a system in a country of high aspirations and fraying institutions requires the party to participate and work it from within. The outlier needs to become the insider. There are questions over the party's institutional proposals. The AAP's manifesto is a mixed bag of promises ranging from participatory decision making to cheap electricity and free water.
More seriously, many say, the AAP's rising is a loud and clear warning to India's political parties to return to their ideological moorings, be imaginative, engage in a battle of ideas and begin a conversation with people fed up of their grandstanding and rabble rousing.
"I am not sure Delhi's people voted for an alternative party in the strictest sense. It was more a vote in anger and protest against the existing parties and how they have been conducting themselves," says analyst Mohan Guruswamy.
If India's main parties don't change, the Common Man's Party could become a formidable national political force faster than many would imagine. | India's political waters are stirring after a long time. |
21855609 | At least 100 parents were also briefly detained for helping their children cheat in the senior school exams.
Over 1.3 million students from 4,000 schools sat the exams.
Cheating in exams is fairly common in Bihar, but the number of students and teachers caught this time is unprecedented.
Officials said improved vigilance by teachers, police and surprise visits by "flying squads" of officials headed by area magistrates to examination centres were the main reasons why such a large number of students and parents were caught cheating.
Bihar is one of India's poorest states with a 64% literacy rate, one of the lowest in the country. India's literacy rate is 74%.
The five-day examination, held by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), ended on Monday.
"Students have been expelled on charges of using unfair means or cheating in the examination halls," Lallan Jha, a senior BSEB official said.
He said the parents were detained for passing on answers and other "study material" at the examination centres.
Mr Jha said the expelled students could be barred from taking an examination for up to three years.
The students and parents can also be fined 2,000 rupees ($36; £24) or jailed for six months, or both, for the offence.
But such punishment has been rarely reported in the state.
Most of the incidents of cheating in the latest exam were reported from Chhapra, Motihari, Vaishali, Sheikhpura, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Jehanabad districts.
Officials say students smuggled in textbooks and notes into the examination centres despite tight security for "fair and peaceful examinations".
Some of their parents and relatives also threw into classrooms answers written on paper planes or "simply passed them on to other people walking in and out of the classrooms".
At some schools, parents helping their children cheat also clashed with the police, officials say.
In the past years, local newspapers have published photographs of students caught cheating and parents found to have been helping them in a bid to shame them. But this does not appear to have deterred those caught this year.
"What to do? It has been happening here for a long time. Everybody does it here," said Permeshwar Sharma, a resident of Motihari.
He said his young brother had passed on textbooks to his son who sat for the exam through a classroom window while standing on the perimeter wall of a school building.
In 2008, India's Supreme Court said students caught cheating during exams deserved "no leniency... and should be severely punished".
"If our country is to progress we must maintain high educational standards, and this is only possible if malpractices in examinations are curbed with an iron hand," the court said. | More than 1,600 students have been expelled for cheating in school examinations in the northern Indian state of Bihar, officials say. |
36765854 | Chairman Ron Dennis says he will not consider whether to choose Button or reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne until the Italian Grand Prix.
"We're not even talking about it until Monza," Dennis told BBC Sport. "Why should we decide now?"
Button, the 2009 world champion, is out of contract at the end of the season.
Dennis said there was no advantage in deciding now because, among other reasons, "you just disenchant a driver".
The team are believed likely to choose Belgian Vandoorne, who out-qualified the Briton and scored a point on his grand prix debut in Bahrain this year, where he was standing in for the injured Alonso.
But the decision could yet go in favour of Button, who has strong marketing appeal, vast experience and proven capability.
Alonso and Button are 14th and 15th respectively in the drivers' championship standings.
If McLaren did choose Button, they would likely try to retain a contractual relationship with Vandoorne and perhaps farm him out to another team to gain experience and better judge his potential.
Dennis said in May that he considered the Belgian "an integral part of McLaren-Honda's future", adding: "Any team that imagines they may be able to poach him is very much mistaken. You may rest assured Stoffel is not for sale."
Vandoorne, who is considered the hottest prospect not yet in a full Formula 1 seat, is of interest to Renault, whose team principal Frederic Vasseur rates the 24-year-old extremely highly having run him in the GP2 feeder series, of which he is the reigning champion.
But Vandoorne cannot sign for another team until an option date in his McLaren contract lapses in the autumn.
Button is also of interest to Williams, who are likely to drop Brazilian Felipe Massa for next season.
Button's manager Richard Goddard said the 36-year-old had not yet decided what he wanted to do next season.
Williams have an option on Finn Valtteri Bottas and are likely to retain him, but have made no final decision on their driver line-up.
Alonso is under contract to McLaren until the end of 2017 and has said he will not make a decision on his future beyond that until he has experienced the new cars and Pirelli tyres that are being introduced next season.
These are aimed at making the cars a greater challenge to drive with the tyres able to withstand being driven much harder for a longer period than the current design, which have to be managed extensively.
The two-time champion told BBC Sport earlier this year that the tyres would be "a big factor" in his decision but added that if he stays in F1 into 2018 it will be with McLaren. | Jenson Button will have to wait until at least September to find out whether McLaren want to retain him alongside Fernando Alonso in 2017. |
35958741 | Scientists caught the pied flycatcher in the act using tiny light-logging tags, which recorded sustained periods of sunlight during its seasonal trek.
The findings appear in Biology Letters.
Previous evidence painted an unclear picture of whether small birds like this use daytime rests or non-stop travel to negotiate the desert.
"It was a bit of a controversy, as to what was going on," said Janne Ouwehand, a PhD student at the Unviersity of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Many birds, including small songbirds like the flycatcher, breed in Europe during summer and spend their winters in central Africa. So twice a year, they must cross the vast and inhospitable Sahara Desert.
Back in the 1970s, British ornithologist Reginald Moreau suggested that a non-stop flight of 40-60 hours was the obvious solution.
But more recent observations have suggested that breaks are involved. Groups of birds can be seen resting in the heat of the day, for example, and radar measurements have spied many more small birds traversing the region's skies at night than during the day.
The radar data, however, cannot track individuals or identify different species. That sort of detailed observation is made much more feasible, even for small birds, by new logging and tracking technology.
Ms Ouwehand and her colleagues attached tiny loggers to 80 pied flycatchers at a breeding ground in the Netherlands, late in the summer of 2013.
These birds are smaller than a house sparrow and weigh about 12g - less than three one-teaspoon sugar cubes. In the summer they nest right across Europe and this particular population spends its winters in the Ivory Coast and Guinea.
The 0.5g loggers are like "a very tiny backpack" for the birds, Ms Ouwehand said, and make no measurable impact on the little animals' performance. They record the light level and the temperature every 5-10 minutes, for months on end.
A lot of information can be gleaned from those light cycles.
"You can make a nice daylight curve, and you can get a rough indication of their position," Ms Ouwehand told the BBC News website.
"You have the day length, which gives you an indication of the latitude, and the midpoint of the day and the night gives you an indication of the longitude."
The following summer, she and her colleagues retrieved 27 of the gadgets and started to look at the data.
"It's always extremely exciting when they return - how many will return, which birds do we see back. And you have to wait for a whole year; you don't get any data in the meanwhile so you just hope everything will be fine."
Of the 27 returned loggers, 15 contained data on both the spring and autumn migration periods. But as it turned out, the pied flycatchers' distinctive behaviour made the light curves rather messy and it was difficult to glean coordinates from them.
"You get a lot of spikiness in your data: very bright periods and very dark periods. That's because they're in the shade, in woody habitats and things like that," Ms Ouwehand explained.
On two occasions however, coinciding with the migrations, something odd happened in the data. For up to two whole days, that up-and-down, light-and-shade spikiness was completely absent.
"We discovered this very clear pattern twice a year and we thought, what are the birds doing here?"
At the same time, the temperature readings were cooler than during the days on either side.
This can only mean one thing, Ms Ouwehand says: a long-haul, high-altitude flight that traverses the Sahara in one hit. These tiny birds, which usually do their migrating under cover of darkness, are crossing the desert in broad daylight.
"We see not only that they can make these flights, but also they use a different strategy in autumn than in spring."
The pattern of light and temperature changes is very different in the spring, she explained, suggesting an alternative route for the birds' return flight to Europe - possibly going a longer way around to spend more of the journey over the ocean.
This is not among the longest of bird migrations, which can span whole oceans in a single flight. But it is perhaps the clearest indication yet of the different strategies small birds use to cross the world's biggest desert.
As technology continues to improve, Ms Ouwehand said, and more researchers enlist individual small birds to gather their own backpacks full of data, we will learn more and more about those specific strategies.
"We are just at the moment when we are really able to show these patterns," Ms Ouwehand said.
"I find that pretty exciting and I'm very curious about what we will see in other, comparable species. Which are the individuals that do stop? Is it age differences, ecological differences, species differences?
"That's really now what we can start to understand."
Follow Jonathan on Twitter | To cross the Sahara every autumn and spring, a little songbird snaps out of its nocturnal travel habits and flies for 40-60 hours, a study has found. |
40053163 | The world's fifth-richest person, worth $62.3b (£48.1b), famously dropped out of Harvard after launching the global social-networking website.
Mr Zuckerberg called for students to "not only create new jobs, but create a new sense of purpose".
Political experts think he may be positioning himself to run for office.
During his remarks on Thursday, Mr Zuckerberg told graduates that "we live in an unstable time".
"There's pressure to turn inwards," he said about those that feel left behind by increased globalisation.
"This is the struggle of our time. The forces of freedom, openness and global community against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism."
With his wife, Priscilla, in the audience, he pointed to the dormitory where he launched Facebook, and remarked that meeting her there was the best thing to happen to him at the university.
Before giving remarks, he received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree during Harvard's 366th graduation ceremony.
On Wednesday, he did a Facebook Live broadcast from his old dorm room.
"This is literally where I sat," he says, pointing to a small wooden desk and chair inside Kirkland House, which is due to be renovated over the summer.
"I had my little laptop here. And this is where I programmed Facebook," he tells the camera.
During his commencement address, Mr Zuckerberg told students: "There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in ten years when millions of students can't afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business."
"When you don't have the freedom to take your idea and turn it into a historic enterprise we all lose," he continued.
He told stories of meeting "children in juvenile detention and opioid addicts, who told me their lives could have turned out differently if they just had something to do".
The 33-year-old appeared to get choked up at one point during a story about an high school student who feared he would not be able to enroll in university because he was an undocumented immigrant.
More than 1.9 billion people log onto Facebook every day.
Since it's launch in 2004, Facebook has inspired many other social media competitors, including Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
In 2007 another Harvard drop-out returned for an honourary degree.
Bill Gates addressed students shortly after stepping down from the world's largest software company, Microsoft, to launch to focus on his charity. | Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has returned to Harvard University under rainy skies to give a graduation speech and receive an honourary degree. |
35759738 | Warriors led 15-10 at the break after two first-half Bryce Heem tries, either side of Bill Meakes' Gloucester try.
A second-half pile-up by the posts earned Warriors a third try, credited to hooker Niall Annett.
James Hook's try was part of a 15-point haul, but could not prevent a rare derby defeat for Gloucester.
While Hook also landed both his conversions, as well as kicking two penalties, Tom Heathcote was busy with the boot for the hosts, landing three penalties and two conversions for a successful kicking ratio of five out of seven.
Worcester never trailed after taking a second-minute lead when a speculative kick ahead by Gloucester old boy Ryan Mills bounced kindly for Heem, who brushed aside weak tackles from Rob Cook and David Halaifonua to score.
Despite the setback of losing injured scrum-half Will Heinz, Gloucester levelled when Hook's neat chip ahead was picked up by Meakes, who scored under the posts.
But, within a minute of gaining an extra man when Ross Moriarty was sin-binned, Worcester took advantage again by moving the ball wide for Heem to force his way over.
After Worcester's third try was awarded to Annett, Hook made it tight for the final 15 minutes when he twisted his way over but Heathcote's third penalty put Warriors back to two scores in front.
And Dean Ryan's men saw it through for a third league win in four games - and only a second defeat in six Premiership matches for Gloucester.
Worcester had won only once in their previous seven meetings with Gloucester, having already lost three times against the Cherry and Whites this season (having also met twice in the European Challenge Cup).
But, having won 28-27 on the final day of the Premiership season in May 2014, when Warriors had already been condemned to relegation, this was a second successive Premiership victory at Sixways for Warriors boss Dean Ryan against his former club.
Worcester now stand 13 points clear of bottom club London Irish, who play against Saracens in New Jersey on Saturday night.
Warriors director of rugby Dean Ryan told BBC Hereford & Worcester:
"Sometimes we've had to go outside the group to make it better. The signing of Francois Hougaard has acted as a catalyst and given us confidence.
"We look a decent team now and wins are coming more regularly now.
"That's the first time we've won two on the bounce in the Premiership in four years - and nobody can find the records for when we last did three in a month.
"That's a big challenge for us, going into next week's trip to Harlequins."
Cherry and Whites director of rugby David Humphreys told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
Media playback is not supported on this device
"Everything that was good last week was bad. We weren't at the same level as last week. Right from the first minute we were a little bit off the pace. We conceded early, which gave Worcester and their crowd momentum.
"We know in this league whoever you play it'll be a tough afternoon but credit to Worcester.
"The opportunities that came their way, they took. A couple of individual errors meant we conceded a couple of soft tries.
"We've built our game against our set piece and not conceding those soft tries. But we'll have to go away and look at why and make sure that, when we turn up to London Irish, we're in a much better place."
Worcester: Pennell; Heem, Olivier, Mills, Vuna; Heathcote, Hougaard; Rapava Ruskin, Annett, Schonert, O'Callaghan, Barry, Dowson, Kirwan, van Velze (capt).
Replacements: Sowrey, Leleimalefaga, Johnston, Sanderson, Betty, Baldwin, Lamb, Symons.
Gloucester: Cook; Sharples, Meakes, Twelvetrees (capt.), Halaifonua; Hook, Heinz; Wood, Hibbard, Afoa, Savage, Thrush, Kalamafoni, Kvesic, Moriarty.
Replacements: Dawidiuk, Thomas, Doran-Jones, Galarza, Ludlow, Braley, Trinder, McColl.
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter. | Worcester claimed successive Premiership wins for the first time in four seasons as they hung on to beat local rivals Gloucester at Sixways. |
38412611 | Specialist "Tornado" teams were sent into HMP Swaleside, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, after a disturbance at about 19:00 GMT on Thursday.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said all those involved at the category B jail had "surrendered and were back in cells by 1am".
No prisoners or staff were injured, she added. A police inquiry is under way.
Live updates
Do England and Wales lock up more people than other countries?
Call to halve prisoner numbers to 45,000
The disturbance happened less than a week after inmates at HMP Birmingham rioted for 12 hours - the latest in a number of disturbances in the past two months.
Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and former home secretaries Ken Clarke and Jacqui Smith have said the incident at Birmingham should act as a "wake up call".
In a letter to the Times, they said jails had become unacceptably dangerous and called for inmate populations to be reduced by about half from their present levels to 45,000.
The Prison Service said "challenges in our prisons are longstanding and won't be solved overnight".
But, it added, Justice Secretary Liz Truss was "committed to making sure our prisons are stable while we deliver wholesale reforms to the prison estate to help offenders turn their lives around and reduce reoffending".
'I lived in fear every day'
HMP Swaleside is a category B jail, which houses 1,100 male prisoners serving terms of more than four years. It has eight wings made up of single cells.
During the disturbance, the Prison Service said the incident had been "contained to one landing on A Wing".
The A wing of the prison houses the Open Academy, a study centre with a computer suite.
The rest of the jail was put on "lockdown" while the prison was brought back under control.
Earlier, Prison Officers Association (POA) chairman Mike Rolfe said fires had been lit.
Mr Rolfe described Swaleside as "a particularly difficult place to work".
He said: "Staff recruitment and retention there has been poor.
"In the last few years they've lost lots of experienced staff and new recruits haven't wanted to stick the job out due to the toxic nature of the job."
Gordon Henderson, Conservative MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, said prison officers are better off financially if they get a job in a local warehouse than if they stay in the prison service.
"They've got to pay prison officers what they're worth," he said.
A man claiming to be an inmate at the jail contacted the BBC and said the unrest had been sparked when officers raided cells.
He made further claims, which have not been verified, that the use of inexperienced staff and a reduction in certain privileges had caused "tension" between prison officers and inmates.
An HM Inspectorate of Prisons report in July said the centre was used by 50 of the 126 prisoners on the wing, who were enrolled on open and distance learning courses.
The report described the prison as "dangerous" and found levels of violence at the jail were "far too high" with many incidents classed as serious.
Some 550 prisoners were moved to other jails after last week's Birmingham riot was quelled, but the Ministry of Justice did not say whether any had been sent to Swaleside.
Richard Burgeon, Labour's shadow justice secretary, told the BBC: "In July the Independent Monitoring Board said this prison is not safe and staff shortage is the major cause.
"As with Birmingham prison, the public will once again wonder what action the justice secretary actually took in response to the board's concerns.
"She needs to tell us."
John Podmore, a former prison governor at HMP Swaleside, said: "We should be sending fewer people to jail in absolute terms but we need to be looking at who we are locking up, why we are locking them up and how we deal with the way in which they are offending against society.
"We need a much more subtle approach than what we have at the moment."
A clearer sense of what happened is coming to light. The Prison Officers Association said there were disputes between inmates and prison staff over how many hours people would be locked up over Christmas.
There were raids of cells where personal possessions were then confiscated.
After that a riot broke out and prison officers lost control and retreated.
Prisoners were brandishing snooker balls which are often used as weapons and they let off fire extinguishers.
Tornado squads were brought in and by 01:00 the wing was under control. | Part of a prison wing that was taken over by about 60 inmates has been reclaimed, the Prison Service has said. |
33210407 | The fire, at Devonshire Close, was reported to police at about 23:00 BST on Friday.
Group commander Geoff Somerville said quick reporting by the local community reduced the damage caused.
"The roof of one house was well alight, causing a significant smoke plume which covered a wide area and move into the Westlink [motorway] area," he said.
"We discovered that the cause of the fire was arson and a total of three fire appliances attended and 15 personnel." | Two houses under construction in west Belfast have been badly damaged in an arson attack. |
30068817 | England have a 100% record in qualifying going into their first visit to Scotland since a Euro 2000 play-off in 1999.
"It will be a massive test, huge. If the England team and supporters think this is going to be comfortable, a nice quiet friendly, they have got another thing coming," Butcher told BBC Sport.
"I think that this will be, without a shadow of a doubt, the most hostile environment England will face before they get to Euro 2016."
England have been handed a comfortable draw in their European qualifying campaign and have already won away in Switzerland and Estonia, as well as beating San Marino and Slovenia at Wembley. They still have to face Lithuania in Group E.
Scotland face a more difficult passage to France but enhanced their prospects of qualifying from Group D with a 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland in Glasgow on Friday.
And the mettle of Hodgson's players will face a fierce examination against the Scots, according to Butcher, who was a pillar of England's defence for the best part of a decade as well and won three Scottish titles and two League Cups with Rangers, before managing Motherwell, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and latterly Hibernian.
He also had a spell as assistant to erstwhile Scotland manager George Burley.
Butcher said: "There are not going to be any games like this in England's Euro 2016 qualifiers for atmosphere. This is a friendly but England and Scotland don't do friendlies in any sport at any level.
"It is going to be an unbelievably hostile night. Celtic Park will be bouncing with the Tartan Army buoyant on the back of a Scotland team they are very optimistic about.
"Roy Hodgson may throw a line out that he may rest some players but he will need all his most experienced players in this one. It won't be for the faint-hearted."
Butcher believes the experience of facing a fired-up Tartan Army and a rejuvenated Scotland side determined to beat the 'Auld Enemy' on their return to Glasgow will provide perfect preparation for tests ahead.
"It will be excellent for the younger players in the England squad who play week in, week out in the Premier League. They won't really have a hostile environment like they will have in Scotland on Tuesday," he added. | Former England captain Terry Butcher says Tuesday's friendly against Scotland at Celtic Park will be the most hostile test manager Roy Hodgson's side will face before Euro 2016. |
31695866 | In the item on 3 February hosts Phillip Schofield and Christine Bleakley looked at bondage equipment and sex toys with "sex expert" Annabelle Knight.
Ofcom said it received 120 complaints about the item, which was inspired by the film Fifty Shades of Grey.
Product demonstrations with scantily clad models featured in the piece.
A "Bondage for Beginners" segment examined products including an eye mask, a "feather spanker" and a crystal-encrusted vibrator.
ITV said it would be responding to Ofcom. "This Morning is a lifestyle programme that covers a diverse range of human interest topics," said a spokesperson for the show, which is broadcast at 10:30 on weekdays.
"The programme has dealt with advice on sexual matters many times in the past, and a suitable announcement was given at the start.
"Many of our items spark debate and we welcome feedback from our viewers about our content."
The regulator is also investigating a scene on ITV's Emmerdale involving a character being sexually assaulted, which drew 47 complaints following its broadcast on Thursday. | Media watchdog Ofcom is investigating ITV's This Morning over complaints that a segment about bondage was unsuitable to be broadcast before the watershed. |
23565298 | New United boss Moyes has spent most of his summer discussing the future of Wayne Rooney, but back on the pitch it was last year's top scorer Van Persie who again proved the difference.
The Dutchman took just six minutes to open his account for the new season, steering a powerful header into the corner from Patrice Evra's clipped cross.
"It was an excellent performance from Manchester United. They dominated Wigan, who did not put David De Gea in the Manchester United goal under any pressure. There were many positives for David Moyes. The win has relieved a little bit of pressure on him."
And while Championship side Wigan impressed for periods, Van Persie settled the contest after the break when he fired in via a deflection.
In truth, a victory against last season's surprise FA Cup winners was the minimum required from Moyes's meaningful debut in the United dugout as he began the ominous task of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson.
And while his side looked sharp in spells - with veteran Ryan Giggs particularly impressive in the opening stages - Moyes may have been concerned by the ease with which Wigan controlled the ball either side of half-time.
Owen Coyle's team were comfortable during that period and, had summer signings Grant Holt and James McClean linked up with more accuracy, could have caused United more problems.
Once Van Persie found a second goal for United, though, the game was won, leaving Moyes to contemplate his first managerial honour since guiding Preston North End to the Division Two title in 2000.
The discussion will now inevitably return to the status of Rooney, who was deemed unfit to feature with a shoulder injury sustained in his sole pre-season run-out for United, but fit enough to play at least some part for England back in this stadium on Wednesday against Scotland.
Robin van Persie has scored seven goals in his last six games against Wigan Athletic.
United started like champions, with the first goal of the Moyes era coming from a predictable source.
Van Persie started the move by spinning a pass out to Evra on the left wing before making his way into the area. Evra looked up and picked out the Dutchman, who evaded his markers to power in a wonderful header from 15 yards.
It was a fabulous finish and threatened to all but end the contest before it had really begun.
For the following quarter of an hour Wigan - with Holt left increasingly isolated up front - were left chasing shadows as the impressive Wilfried Zaha, Giggs and Danny Welbeck interchanged at will behind Van Persie.
But the storm was weathered by the Latics, who ended the half on top with McClean twice putting in testing balls across the face of goal which Holt could not reach.
When David De Gea flapped at a set-piece to allow Emmerson Boyce and then Leon Barnett a chance to head at goal, Wigan will have felt hopeful of getting back into the game.
And it was the Championship side who continued to set the agenda after the break until Van Persie struck again in the 59th minute.
Again Evra started the move, linking with Tom Cleverley on the left before finding Welbeck on the edge of the area. The England man could have shot but played it to Van Persie, who, despite having four defenders in close attendance, was able to turn on to his left foot and fire in a low shot which took a deflection off the heel of James Perch and wrong-footed Scott Carson.
That signalled a comfortable end to proceedings, with both sides making changes and former Latics midfielder Antonio Valencia going closest to a third goal when he shot wide.
United will face a sterner test at Swansea on Saturday, while for Wigan it is back to life in the second tier at Bournemouth.
Wigan manager Owen Coyle:
"We always knew that it would be a tough afternoon, we conceded an unbelievable finish. The header could only go in one place. But we had a good spell either side of it and United got a fortuitous second goal which finished the game.
"We are trying to get back to playing these elite teams every week. We are building a good side here, I am still looking to add to that, though my chief executive may not want to hear that!
"There is a lot we can take from today's game. James McClean wants to focus on his football and he was pleasing on the eye. He caused them problems and could have scored."
Manchester United manager David Moyes:
"I class that as another piece of silverware for Sir Alex. It was his team that won the league by 13-15 points so it's his team. The ones going forward will be down to me.
"Wilfried Zaha has done well in pre-season and it was right for him to feature today. He picked up an injury. We are looking forward to using him as the season goes on."
Full Time The referee ends the match.
Adnan Januzaj takes a short corner.
Clearance made by Nouha Dicko.
The ball is crossed by Adnan Januzaj.
Clearance made by Nemanja Vidic.
The ball is swung over by Stephen Crainey.
Jordi Gomez takes a short corner.
Short corner taken by Jordi Gomez.
Jordi Gomez restarts play with the free kick.
Tom Cleverley shown a yellow card.
Booking
Unfair challenge on Jordi Gomez by Tom Cleverley results in a free kick.
Emmerson Boyce makes a clearance.
Clearance by Michael Carrick.
Free kick crossed by Jordi Gomez.
Foul by Antonio Valencia on Jordi Gomez, free kick awarded.
Scott Carson restarts play with the free kick.
Free kick awarded for a foul by Adnan Januzaj on Leon Barnett.
Michael Carrick takes the free kick.
Roger Espinoza receives a yellow card.
Booking
Foul by Roger Espinoza on Tom Cleverley, free kick awarded.
Clearance made by Antonio Valencia.
Stephen Crainey manages to make a clearance.
The ball is crossed by Patrice Evra.
Scott Carson restarts play with the free kick.
Substitution (Wigan) makes a substitution, with Nouha Dicko coming on for James McCarthy.
Unfair challenge on Emmerson Boyce by Chris Smalling results in a free kick.
Shinji Kagawa takes a weak shot and went wide right of the goal.
The ball is delivered by Michael Carrick.
Short corner worked by Adnan Januzaj.
Michael Carrick restarts play with the free kick.
Substitution Adnan Januzaj is brought on as a substitute for Robin van Persie.
Substitution Shinji Kagawa joins the action as a substitute, replacing Danny Welbeck.
Foul by Jordi Gomez on Oliveira Anderson, free kick awarded.
Free kick taken by Michael Carrick.
Leon Barnett gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Danny Welbeck.
Phil Jones restarts play with the free kick.
James McCarthy gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Phil Jones.
Leon Barnett restarts play with the free kick.
Danny Welbeck concedes a free kick for a foul on Emmerson Boyce.
Marc-Antoine Fortune manages to make a clearance.
A cross is delivered by Antonio Valencia.
Shot by Roger Espinoza went wide of the left-hand post.
Clearance made by Patrice Evra.
A cross is delivered by Callum McManaman.
Nemanja Vidic makes a clearance.
Stephen Crainey takes the free kick.
Michael Carrick challenges Roger Espinoza unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Substitution Roger Espinoza replaces Ben Watson.
Substitution Jordi Gomez is brought on as a substitute for Shaun Maloney.
Clearance by Marc-Antoine Fortune.
Scott Carson takes the free kick.
Unfair challenge on Callum McManaman by Nemanja Vidic results in a free kick.
Clearance made by Stephen Crainey.
Corner from the taken by Tom Cleverley.
Antonio Valencia takes the chance to get an effort at goal. Stephen Crainey gets a block in.
Clearance made by James Perch.
Callum McManaman manages to make a clearance.
Shaun Maloney makes a clearance.
Substitution Oliveira Anderson replaces Ryan Giggs.
James Perch makes a clearance.
Clearance by Stephen Crainey.
Centre by Antonio Valencia.
Ryan Giggs manages to make a clearance.
Substitution (Wigan) makes a substitution, with Callum McManaman coming on for James McClean.
Clearance by James McCarthy.
Substitution (Wigan) makes a substitution, with Chris McCann coming on for James McArthur.
Clearance made by Chris Smalling.
The ball is swung over by Antonio Valencia.
Substitution Marc-Antoine Fortune comes on in place of Grant Holt.
Substitution Antonio Valencia joins the action as a substitute, replacing Wilfried Zaha.
Danny Welbeck provided the assist for the goal.
Goal! - Robin van Persie - Man Utd 2 - 0 Wigan Robin van Persie slots the ball left footed into the goal. Man Utd 2-0 Wigan.
Clearance by Leon Barnett.
Ryan Giggs makes a clearance.
Clearance by James Perch.
Clearance made by Leon Barnett.
Centre by Wilfried Zaha.
Stephen Crainey restarts play with the free kick.
Phil Jones challenges James McClean unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Robin van Persie makes a clearance.
Corner taken by Ben Watson.
James McClean sends in a cross.
Clearance made by Chris Smalling.
James McClean produces a cross.
Ryan Giggs makes a clearance.
The ball is sent over by Ben Watson.
Ben Watson restarts play with the free kick.
Ryan Giggs challenges Emmerson Boyce unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Shot by Tom Cleverley went wide of the right-hand upright.
Free kick taken by Michael Carrick.
Booking
James McArthur receives a yellow card for unsporting behaviour.
James McArthur gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Danny Welbeck.
Clearance made by Phil Jones.
Chris Smalling manages to make a clearance.
Ben Watson crosses the ball in from the free kick.
Wilfried Zaha concedes a free kick for a foul on James McClean.
Ben Watson takes the free kick.
Wilfried Zaha gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on James McClean.
The referee blows the whistle to start the second half.
Half Time The half-time whistle blows.
Clearance made by Chris Smalling.
Clearance by Nemanja Vidic.
The ball is swung over by Shaun Maloney.
Clearance by Robin van Persie.
A cross is delivered by Shaun Maloney.
Free kick crossed by Ben Watson.
Patrice Evra gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Shaun Maloney.
Clearance made by Ryan Giggs.
Clearance made by Michael Carrick.
Clearance by Robin van Persie.
James McClean crosses the ball in from the free kick.
Free kick awarded for a foul by Nemanja Vidic on Shaun Maloney.
Header at goal by Danny Welbeck misses to the right.
Corner from the right by-line taken by Robin van Persie.
James McClean makes a clearance.
Danny Welbeck takes a shot. Parried by Scott Carson back into danger.
Michael Carrick takes the free kick.
Free kick awarded for a foul by Grant Holt on Chris Smalling.
The ball is crossed by James McClean.
Free kick taken by David De Gea.
James McArthur concedes a free kick for a foul on Nemanja Vidic.
The ball is crossed by James McClean.
Clearance made by Phil Jones.
The ball is sent over by Wilfried Zaha.
Leon Barnett makes a clearance.
Clearance by Ben Watson.
Clearance made by James Perch.
James Perch manages to make a clearance.
Phil Jones takes the free kick.
Unfair challenge on Phil Jones by James McCarthy results in a free kick.
The ball is swung over by Phil Jones.
Grant Holt makes a clearance.
Phil Jones manages to make a clearance.
The ball is sent over by James McClean.
Michael Carrick restarts play with the free kick.
Foul by James McClean on Wilfried Zaha, free kick awarded.
The ball is swung over by Stephen Crainey.
Chris Smalling makes a clearance.
Free kick taken by Ryan Giggs.
Grant Holt gives away a free kick for an unfair challenge on Patrice Evra.
Clearance made by Nemanja Vidic.
James McCarthy manages to make a clearance.
Phil Jones restarts play with the free kick.
Unfair challenge on Phil Jones by Grant Holt results in a free kick.
Clearance by Emmerson Boyce.
Corner taken by Ryan Giggs.
Substitution (Man Utd) makes a substitution, with Chris Smalling coming on for Rafael Da Silva.
Leon Barnett makes a clearance.
The ball is delivered by Wilfried Zaha.
Patrice Evra makes a clearance.
James McClean sends in a cross.
Emmerson Boyce delivers the ball.
Ryan Giggs sends in a cross.
The assist for the goal came from Patrice Evra.
Goal! - Robin van Persie - Man Utd 1 - 0 Wigan Robin van Persie scores a headed goal. Man Utd 1-0 Wigan.
The ball is sent over by Patrice Evra.
Ben Watson makes a clearance.
Rafael Da Silva crosses the ball.
Stephen Crainey takes the free kick.
Phil Jones challenges James McCarthy unfairly and gives away a free kick.
Danny Welbeck manages to make a clearance.
Clearance made by Rafael Da Silva.
Clearance by James McCarthy.
Clearance by Stephen Crainey.
Michael Carrick makes a clearance.
The referee gets the game underway.
Live data and text provided by our data suppliers | Robin van Persie ensured the David Moyes era at Manchester United began with a trophy as Wigan were beaten in the FA Community Shield at Wembley. |
39791376 | Set amid the Aids crisis in 1980s America, Tony Kushner's "gay fantasia" lasts roughly the same duration as a flight from London to New York.
Over eight hours, it packs in angelic visitations, burning books and surreal trips to icy continents and, of course, heaven.
And let's not forget a stellar cast that includes Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane and Russell Tovey.
After weeks of previews, the play officially opened at the National Theatre in London on Thursday.
Spider-Man star Garfield told us after the show: "You don't often get to work on a character like this or on a story that has so much humanity in it.
"It's the whole human experience in one seven and a half hour play. No one would turn that opportunity down."
The critics seem to love it, with four and five star reviews appearing on Friday morning.
Here are eight reasons why Angels in America is such a heavenly show.
On Thursday, both parts of the play played back to back - and lasted seven hours and 32 minutes.
Part one - titled Millennium Approaches - kicked off at 13:00, but it wasn't until after 23:00 that the second part - Perestroika - had reached its emotional climax.
But it never dragged. Much of the interval chat was about how quickly it seemed to go.
The cast may disagree.
Speaking after the show, Russell Tovey admitted: "On a two-show day, it's insane. It's like a 12-hour Zumba class!"
The way the play is broken up gives it an episodic feel. Each part has two 15-minute intervals.
That makes watching the play feel a bit like you are working your way through a TV box-set.
With plenty of loo and coffee breaks.
The ex-Spider-Man is unforgettable as Prior Walter, a man who discovers he has Aids and is then abandoned by his boyfriend Louis Ironside (James McArdle).
We see him early on as an elegant drag queen, later he's a spectral hooded figure dressed top to toe in black.
In the harrowing hospital scenes, he can switch from rage to despair in the course of a single line.
Back in January, Garfield found out about his Oscar nomination for Hacksaw Ridge while he was starting rehearsals for Angels in America.
It would be astonishing if he's not nominated for more awards for this performance.
Nathan Lane plays foul-mouth lawyer Roy Cohn who is in denial about his sexuality. Told by his doctor that he has Aids, he storms: "No. Aids is what homosexuals have. I have liver cancer."
Tovey plays Joe Pitt, a closeted gay Mormon Republican whose Valium-addicted wife Harper is played with gusto by the Olivier-winning Denise Gough.
McArdle is excellent as Prior's tormented lover, as is Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as hospital nurse Belize.
With more than 30 characters in this play, all of the main cast play multiple parts and it's fun to try and spot them under the costume changes.
Marianne Elliott is the award-winning talent behind the National Theatre's West End hits War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Enough said.
The story begins quite modestly, with a simple revolving set showing us how the lives of the main characters connect.
Later it all goes much larger scale and a lot more surreal.
We get a fantasy Antarctica - complete with falling snow - and a neon ladder that ascends to a heaven filled with angels.
Yet many of the most memorable scenes are the intimate ones where Prior Walter and lawyer Roy Cohn are sick in their hospital beds and visited by both the living and the dead.
Angels in America had its British premiere at the National Theatre in 1992 (with a cast that included James Bond actor Daniel Craig).
The play is set in New York in the mid-1980s when Ronald Reagan was starting his second term as president and the world was in the grip of the Aids crisis.
While there is much that is upsetting, Kushner's script is packed with zinging comedy lines.
"It's very funny," said Garfield after the show. "You need to laugh to keep from crying in a situation as devastating as these characters are going through.
"It was amazing putting it in front of an audience for the first time because we were all surprised how funny it was.
"On the first preview it was shocking how many times we had to stop for the audience laughing."
You won't forget Amanda Lawrence's Angel in a hurry.
She crashes dramatically through Prior's apartment ceiling on massive wings that are operated - War Horse style - by six people.
She flies, she swoops and she even has sex with Prior.
Little wonder he later introduces himself to Harper Pitt as "an angel-ologist".
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is at the Lyttelton Theatre until 19 August.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | Plays don't come much more epic than Angels in America. |
34758791 | A cycle of violence began in April with protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's third-term bid.
Mr Nkurunziza gave a deadline of midnight on Saturday for Burundians to hand in illegal firearms or face being "dealt with as enemies of the nation".
Earlier this week, the UN secretary-general condemned the "inflammatory rhetoric" in Burundi.
And the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said the language was "chillingly similar" to that used in Rwanda before the genocide of 1994.
Agencies reported that many people were leaving Cibitoke and Mutakura, two neighbourhoods of the capital, Bujumbura, that have seen anti-government protests.
"Now I decide to leave as everyone is leaving," one elderly Mutakura resident, Marguerite Bigira, told the Associated Press news agency.
"There is fear everywhere. But I still believe in God and all this will end."
Another fleeing resident, Marie, told Agence France-Presse: "I was terrified, I understood that this time they would kill every last one of us."
The violence, in which close to 200 people have been killed, began in April when the president said he would stand again.
He argued that his first term as president did not count towards the constitutional two-term limit as he was chosen by MPs.
Mr Nkurunziza was duly re-elected to a third term with 70% of the vote in July.
10.4m population
50 years - life expectancy for a man
2nd poorest country in the world
85% are Hutu, 14% Tutsi
300,000 died in civil war
The weapons ultimatum has led to a spike in killings.
On Friday, the body of Welly Nzitonda, the son of a leading human rights activist, was discovered.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said the killing, which he called an assassination, "reinforces fears that there is a systematic policy of targeting members of the opposition, journalists, human rights defenders and ordinary citizens perceived to be opposing the government".
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the discovery of bodies in Bujumbura was now a regular occurrence - and many victims showed evidence of summary execution.
Mr Ban said Burundian authorities had a responsibility to protect civilians.
The International Crisis Group and others were commenting on remarks by Burundi's Senate President Reverien Ndikuriyo - who threatened to "pulverise" opponents who did not lay down arms.
Uganda is leading regional efforts to broker peace talks and the UN Security Council is expected to discuss the violence at a meeting on Monday. | Scores of people are leaving their homes in Burundi's capital ahead of a promised government crackdown. |
37831644 | Bold or underwhelming celebrity appearances, out-there fashion, and the spectre of bad weather are perennial talking points outside the two-mile gallop.
This year did not disappoint.
Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, sent photographers into a spin when she arrived at Flemington Racecourse dressed entirely in white.
A wild scrum produced a stream of images, with photographers seemingly undeterred about how far away they were from the magnate, who recently made headlines for upping her bid for Australia's largest private landholding.
She quickly moved to spend her day inside the exclusive Birdcage zone, prompting some to muse that she and fellow billionaire Anthony Pratt were "probably the last people requiring a free lunch".
But her exit from the marquee was less glamorous than her entrance.
In a moment captured by some quick-fingered photographers despite the best efforts of her security detail, she tripped down the stairs.
The jostle to get the crucial shot is de rigeur come Melbourne Cup time, and of course, everyone wanted a slice of the famed three-pronged, 18-carat gold prize.
Early on, it seemed the weather gods were smiling on Flemington...
Then, true to Melbourne's highly changeable weather, the first sign of gloom appeared.
Rain finally arrived to spoil the party just as the race finished.
The most important day of the year did not go well for one betting company, with its site going down for at least 90 minutes.
Betfair tweeted it had a "technical glitch preventing bet placement", prompting mockery online.
"Betfair exchange has gone down on Melbourne Cup day. LOLZ," one user tweeted. "Terrible terrible terrible," wrote another.
Television and musical star Rob Mills found a unique way to celebrate, turning up in perhaps the day's most eye-popping wear.
Mills donned a blue blazer covered in Melbourne Cup pins to raise money for the Starlight Foundation,
Of course, no Melbourne Cup would be complete without the customary snaps of race-goers entertaining themselves after a few too many glasses of champagne.
Nine people were arrested and 78 punters evicted from the racecourse this year. A 75-year-old woman was also reportedly fined after being caught drink-driving the wrong way through a roundabout in Hastings, after attending a cup function. | The Melbourne Cup may be Australia's biggest horse race, but it's almost as famous for everything that surrounds it. |
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