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41062280 | Hamilton rarely led Vettel by more than two seconds in a tense battle until a late safety car added further jeopardy.
As all the drivers pitted, Ferrari put the fastest ultra-soft tyres on Vettel while Mercedes put Hamilton on softs.
But after fending off an attack by the German on the restart, Hamilton took back control and led to the flag.
Hamilton had not been happy with the decision to bring out the safety car, after a collision between the two Force India drivers on the run down the hill from La Source to Eau Rouge.
He said it was "a BS call from the stewards", clearly worried that with the extra grip from the ultra-soft tyres, Vettel would have an advantage.
For a few seconds after the restart, Hamilton appeared to be in trouble, as Vettel sat right behind him through Eau Rouge and appeared to be lining up to pass the Mercedes up the long Kemmel straight.
But Hamilton - taking part in his 200th race - used all the power advantage of his Mercedes to fend him off and he reeled off two consecutive fastest laps to pull 1.4 seconds clear and give himself a more comfortable margin.
The race settled back into the pattern that had been set soon after the start.
Hamilton was in front, Vettel was more than capable of staying right with him, but in evenly matched cars could not get close enough to attack.
In many ways, the race was a microcosm of the season.
The Mercedes and Ferrari have very different characteristics, excelling in different parts of individual circuits and the advantage swinging one way or another from race to race.
But so tight is the performance between them in general that victories hinge on small twists of fate or tiny details.
In this case, Mercedes' advantage with their extra engine boost in qualifying, allied to a stellar lap from Hamilton, put the the Englishman on pole. Vettel, equally impressive in qualifying, could manage only second.
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On the first lap, just as after the restart, Vettel challenged out of Eau Rouge and towards Les Combes, but Hamilton fended him off, laying the foundations for a crucial win.
Hamilton becomes the first man to win five races this season, with Vettel on four.
Had the Ferrari driver won, Hamilton would have slipped to 21 points adrift, and with Singapore, where Mercedes expect the red cars to dominate, just two races away, it could have been a tough ask to close that.
But now with seven points in it, and Monza next weekend, another race Hamilton has a strong chance to win, the fight remains as finely poised as ever.
The race also further underlined the impression of this being a two-horse race.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas was only 19 points behind him before it, but the Finn finished fifth and slipped to 34 points behind and 41 off the lead.
Bottas had been cruising to third but was passed on either side by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen at the restart after the safety car and could not make up the ground he lost by running wide at Les Combes as they swept on either side of him.
Raikkonen recovered well after a 10-second stop-go penalty for not slowing for yellow caution flags, while Ricciardo's podium was some consolation for Red Bull after yet another retirement for his team-mate Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman managed only eight laps before his Renault engine failed, sending him into retirement for the sixth time in 12 races.
There will recriminations at Force India after the crash between their two cars on lap 28, not the first time Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon have crossed swords this season.
Ocon was trying to pass Perez and had a run on him out of La Source, but as he closed on the Mexican down the hill, Perez squeezed the Frenchman towards the inside wall
The two cars touched, Ocon's front wing being damaged and Perez suffering a puncture.
The incident followed Ocon questioning why Perez had been allowed to pit first, against convention, a few laps beforehand, despite Ocon being ahead.
The two had had a close call at Les Combes on the previous lap - as well as banging wheels at the starts of the race - before the controversial incident at the start of the next lap.
The two cars collided in Baku four races ago, where Ocon was arguably more at fault. This time it was more at Perez's instigation.
But the bosses will be more concerned about their drivers' magnetic attraction for each other costing them points. They were both warned after Baku that collisions were unacceptable for exactly that reason and the partnership is looking increasingly untenable.
F1 moves on quickly to another historic track at Monza in Italy next weekend. Hamilton could do with another win to consolidate his position before the seemingly inevitable Vettel victory that is coming at Singapore two weeks after that.
"It has been a strong weekend for myself and the team," said Hamilton. "Really grateful for all the hard work.
"Vettel did a great race, he was very consistently throughout and it was fun to be racing against Sebastian at his best and the car at his best, we were within half a tenth every lap and that is what racing is about.
"They were able to keep up so I think they had better pace but fortunately I was just about able to stay ahead."
Vettel said: "It was good fun, it was really intense. I was waiting for him to make a mistake, he didn't.
"He was waiting for me to, I didn't. The restart is maybe why I am not entirely happy. I was on the outside and nowhere to go. We had good pace compared to Silverstone - I'm looking forward to our home race."
Belgian Grand Prix results
Belgian Grand Prix coverage details | Lewis Hamilton cut his championship deficit to Sebastian Vettel to just seven points with a closely fought victory in the Belgian Grand Prix. |
35741713 | The 23-year-old lost the first set but came back to defeat her 30-year-old Belgian opponent 3-6 6-2 6-3.
Flipkens threatened a revival in the deciding set, forcing two break points as Watson served for the match.
But the British number two and world number 84 held her nerve to add the title to the Japan Open in 2012 and Hobart International in 2015.
"It was really tough," said Guernsey-born Watson.
"I was so nervous coming into the match because I'd never beaten Kirsten before. She's a great player and really makes you work.
"I thought she was pretty flawless in the first set and I was getting frustrated, but I just had to stay calm and try my best."
Watson beat former world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the last eight.
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller:
"Watson won her third WTA title without the benefit of a coach, although her mum came onto court to give her a pep talk during the first set of the final.
"She was working with Pat Harrison while training at the IMG Academy in Florida before travelling to Mexico but has been without a full-time coach since splitting with Diego Veronelli at the end of last year.
"Projected to rise to 53 in the rankings, she now heads to Indian Wells. Her ranking had been too low to gain direct entry, but she was granted a wildcard having reached the fourth round last year." | Britain's Heather Watson claimed her third WTA title by beating Kirsten Flipkens to win the Monterrey Open. |
36670689 | The youngsters were inches from tragedy - only saved by the quick-thinking 21-year-old's decision to hide them under her long skirt.
As Horrett Campbell was detained by a judge indefinitely in a mental hospital five months later, a tearful Ms Potts told the BBC she could never forgive him for inflicting the injuries on her pupils.
Two decades on, and now a married mother of two boys, aged nine and 12, she feels differently about a crime that shocked the nation.
More recollections of nursery attack: "I often think about him"
"I've forgiven him now for what he did. I had to move on," she says.
"I never had any hate, even in my darkest moments, when I had to relearn everything (because of my injuries). I wasn't angry at him.
"As time went on, I felt sorry for him. I've learned a lot about mental health over the years and I feel sad that he went unnoticed in the community and didn't get help or treatment."
Ms Potts has replayed the events of 8 July, 1996, in her mind countless times.
She and her class of three and four-year-olds were enjoying a teddy bears' picnic in the grounds of the school in the Blakenhall area of the city when Campbell struck.
A paranoid schizophrenic who had been planning his attack for two months, he attacked three mothers waiting outside the school before entering the grounds and threatening the children with his knife.
He slashed Ms Pott's head, arms and back, but despite her injuries she managed to grab a child under each arm while others cowered under her skirt. Three children were also hurt.
Campbell was found hiding in a nearby block of flats a short while later by police.
"It only lasted eight minutes, but it changed the course of my life forever," she says.
"From the moment it happened my life took a different path, one full of media opportunities, dinners and awards. It was crazy."
She became an overnight celebrity and one of the most recognised faces in the country. "I used to joke that I was a professional machete heroine. I was so young and I felt like public property.
"For five years I felt like I was on a merry-go-round. Journalists would camp outside my house. I felt like a goldfish."
In 1997, she received the George Medal for bravery from the Queen. But while she described it as a "great honour" at the time, she now says she hid a lot of her true feelings.
"I felt a lot of guilt. Here I was, getting all these awards after such a horrific experience. There were times when I wanted to run away from it all."
Ahmed Malik was the youngest of those injured. Just three years old, he suffered a fractured skull and elbow in the attack. Now 23, he's an electrical engineering graduate and living in Basingstoke, Hampshire.
"The main thing I remember is the aftermath," he says.
"My parents were always being interviewed, cameras were constantly in my house."
He says his parents were cautious not to "wrap him in cotton wool" after the ordeal, and helped him to live a normal life.
"I don't think there were any lasting effects on me," he says. "I don't know if it's linked, but I'm left-handed - it was my right arm that was injured.
"When I read about it, it's strange - it's like it didn't happen. I told some of my friends at university after our last exam. I was like, 'beat that'. They couldn't believe it."
Francesca Quintyne was aged four. Campbell's machete slashed her face, leaving her with a deep scar. She has two metal plates holding her jaw together.
"When I was younger people used to stare at me a lot and ask me what had happened," she says.
"But it's faded a lot now I'm older. I used to hide it, but the older I'm getting I don't notice it so much.
"I don't remember anything from the time - it's like I've deleted it. But I've got a big box of news clippings at home and when I read them, I can't believe it happened."
Now working in mental health with children and adolescents, Ms Quintyne says it has helped her understand what led Campbell to launch his attack.
"It's given me such an insight into why people do those kinds of things," she says. "I can't fully understand it, but I can reason with him. It's helped me to forgive him."
Ms Potts has stayed close to Ms Quintyne and Mr Malik since their ordeal. The former was one of her bridesmaids when she married police officer Dave Webb in 2002.
"I'm so proud of them, and what they've become," she says. "It's when I see them grown up I realise how much time has gone by.
"I saw Ahmed in Asda the other day and I just gave him a big hug. Seeing them as adults makes you realise that life goes on."
It was having her own children, Alfie, now 12, and Jude, nine, that finally made her come to terms with the gravity of her actions.
"Eight years later when I had Alfie, I started to realise the extent of what happened that day.
"And I was so upset when he first went to school. Would it happen to him? All these fears came up.
"We've always been really open with the children about what happened right from the start. Alfie used to call my arm 'my hurty'.
"I didn't want to frighten them about going to school. By knowing what happened, they understand life is not always easy. Not just about what happened to me, but Horrett Campbell too."
The attack at St Luke's came four months after the Dunblane massacre, where 16 pupils and a teacher were killed.
The events sparked a transformation in security at schools across the UK, with the government publishing new guidelines for local education authorities and head teachers about how to safeguard their pupils and staff.
Schools identified as "low risk" were advised to reassess visitors' access, limit the number of entrances and install intruder alarms.
"High risk" schools were encouraged to issue staff with personal attack alarms, install CCTV, employ security guards and consider grilles on windows.
As the nation reacted to what happened at St Luke's, Ms Potts - while very much still in the public eye - was trying to overcome post traumatic stress disorder and depression.
She gave up her job as a nursery nurse and turned her attentions to charity work, starting her own organisation Believe to Achieve, helping children in Wolverhampton with low self-esteem to realise their potential.
"I thought we'd only be going for about three years but it's been 15 now and we're helping children in Dudley schools now," she says.
"It's great to think that from such a terrible event something so positive happened."
She went on to train as a nurse and is now working as a health visitor, combining her skills as a nursery nurse and her extraordinary life experience to help families.
"It's nice that I can use what happened in a positive way. It's part of my life experience - it's who I am.
"So many things came out of what happened, but the biggest thing was survival.
"Nobody died that day. When you think about Dunblane, we were so lucky." | It is 20 years since a machete-wielding attacker stormed into St Luke's Infant School in Wolverhampton, slashing at young children and nursery nurse Lisa Potts. |
25240792 | Ateeq Latif, from Middlesbrough, was found guilty a day after the jury at Teesside Crown Court found taxi driver Shakil Munir, 32, guilty of charges involving girls aged 13 and 14.
A third man, Sakib Ahmed, 19, pleaded guilty to exploiting five victims. The men, all from Middlesbrough, were "loosely connected", the court heard.
Two 18-year-old men were cleared.
Judge John Walford lifted orders banning Ahmed's guilty pleas and Latif's identity being reported.
The court heard allegations relating to seven victims, some of whom were known to each other.
The "vulnerable" girls were groomed with offers of free lifts, takeaway food and in some case drugs, prosecutors said.
Latif, of Abingdon Road, and Ahmed, of Cambridge Road, will be sentenced alongside Munir, of Tollesby Road, at a later date.
Latif was found guilty of two counts of arranging or facilitating commission of a child sex offence. His victims were both aged 14. He was cleared of another count of the same charge.
Ahmed admitted five counts of sexual activity with a child before the six-week trial of the other defendants.
Munir was found guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a child and one of child abduction.
Speaking after the case, Det Insp Dino Carlucci, of Cleveland Police, said: "These men preyed on young, vulnerable girls by befriending them and securing their trust and then exploited it.
"This has been an arduous and protracted inquiry for all involved and particularly for the young victims, who I commend for having the strength to see this through until the end.
"It hasn't been easy for them, or their loved ones, but hopefully now they can put this behind them and look forward to bright futures." | A 17-year-old boy has been found guilty of grooming and sexually exploiting teenage girls on Teesside. |
38663022 | Brookes will be joined by fellow Australian David Johnson, with both riders using the all-new SG6 in both the Superbike and Senior TT.
The bike is undergoing development in the hands of two-time TT winner Steve Plater.
Brookes said: "I couldn't ride at the TT over the last two years and I've been desperate to get back and race."
He added: "It's always hard to predict results, especially around the island so I think it's important that I let it come to me.
"I like the history of the Norton and it will be so great to be a little part of the Norton story."
Brookes was the fastest newcomer at the 2013 TT and finished seventh in the Senior the following year.
The 2015 British Superbike champion and his Norton team are also in discussions with North West 200 organisers with a view to possibly competing at that event in May.
Brookes, who will compete for the TAG Yamaha team in British Superbikes this year, is a former lap record holder at the North West.
He endured a frustrating season with the SMR Milwaukee BMW team in the World Superbike Championship series in 2016. | Australian racer Josh Brookes is to return to race at the Isle of Man TT with Norton, after a two-year absence . |
37154407 | This year's event featured a tribute to 30-year-old Inverness DJ Ross Lyall, who had type one diabetes and died in March after five days in intensive care at Raigmore Hospital.
Acts at Groove included a DJ set by Leftfield.
Photographer James Roberts captured some of the scenes during the weekend's festival. | Dance music festival Groove Loch Ness was held on Saturday. |
23239066 | The luge, which translates as 'sled', sees competitors travelling feet-first down an icy track at up to 85mph - with only a helmet for protection.
The competitor lies on a pod made of moulded fibreglass, designed to match the contours of the slider.
The pod sits on two metal runners called steels which curve upwards. These are attached to 'kufens' at the front which steer the pod. Kufens and steels are longer on the doubles luge.
There are no brakes. To slow down, the slider drags their feet along the ice and grips the kufens.
Luge has many benefits, though they may not initially be clear to you when standing at the top of the run for the first time.
Given the confined space in which lugers operate, any small movement is key - so the sport encourages strong movement skills along with improved agility, balance, and coordination.
Strength and conditioning are essential to withstand the speeds and G-forces encountered as you progress in the sport.
Yes, you can learn to luge in Britain. Chill Factor-e in Manchester now offers a dedicated luge facility. It's only 60m long and far removed from the Olympic event, but it will offer you a taste.
Beyond that, anyone keen to pursue luge in the UK will have to be prepared to travel abroad to improve. Britain's only Olympic luger of recent times, AJ Rosen, was born and trains in the United States.
Luge takes it influence from early sled competitions in Scandinavia, as well as the inception of sports like skeleton and bobsleigh in Switzerland and St Moritz.
Team GB's website explains that an Australian student, George Robertson, won what is reputed to be the world's first international sled race in 1883, on a 4km stretch of Swiss road.
Luge events were introduced to Olympic competition for the first time in 1964, when Thomas Kohler of East Germany became the first gold medallist. The programme hasn't changed from its original Olympic format, although luge competitors now use the same course as the bobsleigh.
Are you inspired to try Luge? Or maybe you are a keen enthusiast already? Get in touch and tell us your experience of the activity by tweeting us on @bbcgetinspired or email us on [email protected].
See our full list of activity guides for more inspiration. | Luge is a relatively new form of one of the oldest winter activities in the world. |
32365830 | The outbreak started in the Ode-Irele town, Ondo state, and spread rapidly.
The disease - characterised by blurred vision, headache and loss of consciousness - killed the victims within 24 hours of falling ill.
Local health officials and World Health Organization experts are now in the town to try to identify the disease.
Laboratory tests have so far ruled out Ebola or any other virus, Ondo government spokesman Kayode Akinmade was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
He described the illness as "mysterious".
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told AFP that all of those affected started showing symptoms between 13-15 April.
The unidentified disease appears to be attacking the central nervous system, state health commissioner Dayo Adeyanju told Nigeria's Premium Times. | A "mysterious" disease has killed at least 18 people in the past several days in south-western Nigeria, local officials say. |
33477046 | While much of our focus has been on the court, with the odd dash to Murray Mound to see what the punters have to say, it hasn't gone unnoticed that there are some Scots also working behind the scenes at SW19.
Olwyn Roy, from Tullibody, is one. She has been working at the championship for 30 years, mostly as a line judge.
The home economics teacher is a keen tennis player herself.
As an umpire she has seen some of the world's top seeds when they were youths, and jokes of her failure to recognise the talent of a certain teenager named Roger Federer.
The Swiss is now her favourite player.
"This is my 30th Wimbledon, I even did one where I was working in Australia for a year and I came back just for Wimbledon, so I've done 30 consecutive," she said.
She added: "We work hard all year to make certain we are selected to come down here.
"With grass, there's a special technique where you have to wait for the chalk, because sometimes if you're used to working on hard courts you'll call that bit more quickly and then you find you have a puff of chalk coming up, which obviously proves the ball is not out."
Another Scot who enjoys working at Wimbledon is Martin Swan, a former bank employee from Edinburgh.
Wearing his luminous orange vest, he is in charge of running a large section of the queue at the All England Club.
"As a member of the public, I think probably my second year living in London, I started queuing and I have been in the overnight queue," he commented.
"I have camped in the street when you could camp in the street in the old days.
"I've been involved in Wimbledon either as a customer or working here for nearly 30 years now."
Martin also managed to get closer to the action this year, with some work on the gangway of centre court.
"I'm pleased to have been on centre court I think for two of Andy Murray's matches," he said. "It's a great atmosphere."
So apart from the obvious - the internationally renowned tennis tournament, the sunny weather, the manicured grounds where you can rub shoulders with many celebrities, and, of course, the strawberries - what is it that keeps volunteers like these Scots coming back, year after year?
"There's an incredible sense of camaraderie amongst the stewards here," said Martin.
"|We generally only see each other once a year but as soon as we are back together we work really well as teams, we have a good laugh and the public like us as well."
Over the years, Olwyn has officiated some great matches including the 2008 final between the Williams sisters, and the 2007 final between Federer and Rafael Nadal.
And after seeing so many champions come and go, there are bound to be many stand out moments, which Olwyn savours when she can.
"It's everybody's dream to do a final so if you are lucky enough to get selected for the final those are the ones that are very memorable," she said.
"Occasionally it can be other matches where possibly it's just been an absolutely terrific match. You'll never forget them."
Asked if she planned on travelling back down in 2016 for the 31st consecutive year, Olwyn responded: "Definitely." | Andy Murray, his brother Jamie, Colin Fleming, Jocelyn Rae, Gordon Reid - just a few of the Scots players who have appeared at this year's Wimbledon championships. |
36090368 | The collapse killed four workers - one body has been recovered - and injured five others.
Thames Valley Police say 20,000 tonnes of material remain, but the recovery operation was progressing to schedule.
The plant was set for demolition when it collapsed on 23 February.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), together with the police, are carrying out a joint investigation into the cause of the collapsed boiler house.
The recovery mission by RWE Npower began on 19 March and is being supported by forensic archaeologists, metallurgists and structural engineers, with drones and cameras gathering information.
Specialists from the police, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue's Urban Search and Rescue, and the South Central Ambulance Service Hazardous Area Response Team are also at the scene.
A police spokesman said: "The absolute priority of the multi-agency response to this incident remains the recovery of the missing men so they can be returned to their families.
"These debris removal works are ongoing seven days a week, from dawn to dusk.
"Whilst to date everything is progressing to plan, due to the complex nature of the collapse the recovery phase will still take some time."
The standing structure remains in an unsafe condition, he added.
He said officers were supporting the families affected, providing them with regular updates.
The bodies of Christopher Huxtable, 34, from Swansea; Ken Cresswell, 57, and John Shaw, 61, both from Rotherham, have not yet been found.
The body of Michael Collings, 53, from Brotton, Teesside, was recovered from the site. | A 40m (131ft) pile of rubble has been cleared from the collapsed Didcot power station site but finding the three missing men will take time, police have said. |
34534378 | The full-back, 18, suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in England U21s' 3-0 win over Kazakhstan.
Gomez had made five Premier League appearances since joining the Reds in a £3.5m move from Charlton in June.
He was replaced with 10 minutes remaining of England's European Championship qualifying victory at Coventry's Ricoh Arena on Tuesday.
England U21 manager Gareth Southgate had initially played down the injury as "nothing too serious".
But new Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp looks set to be without the defender for the duration of his maiden campaign at Anfield. | Liverpool defender Joe Gomez looks set to miss the rest of the season after suffering a serious knee injury. |
35055498 | The agreement was announced at a regional conference in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said the foreign secretaries of both countries would meet to set an agenda for meetings on "peace and security".
Talks are to include Kashmir, the spark for two of the rivals' wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
The region, claimed by both countries in its entirety, has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years.
"The foreign secretaries of both countries will meet and chart out the agenda for the meetings," Ms Swaraj told reporters after meeting her counterpart, Sartaj Aziz.
Pakistan is said to have assured the Indian side that it is taking steps to expedite the early conclusion of trials of those accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks of 2009, the BBC's Shahzeb Jillani in Pakistan reports.
Ms Swaraj's visit came in the aftermath of a dramatic rise - and then a rather sudden easing - in tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistan wants to discuss Kashmir, claimed by both countries in its entirety.
India wants Pakistan to allow greater commercial interaction, liberalise visa regimes, grant transit rights to traders between Delhi and Kabul, and stamp out militant groups which it believes Pakistan has fostered to destabilise Kashmir and Afghanistan.
This is a complex situation, and talks in the past have often broken down, underlining a trust deficit on both sides.
A measure of success will be if they can draw up a road-map for more substantive talks in the near future - and then make progress on the many long-running issues which divide them. | India and Pakistan have agreed to resume high-level peace talks which stalled in 2012. |
26062757 | But amid all the pomp and ceremony of this, the first Olympics behind the Iron Curtain, there was one thing Brezhnev failed to mention in his welcome speech: just a few years earlier, he had seriously considered ditching the whole project.
In 1975, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party Brezhnev had written to a colleague in the Politburo complaining of the costs involved and warning of possible scandals if Moscow hosted the Olympics.
"Some comrades have suggested to me that if we pay a small fine we could get out of this," he wrote.
Vladimir Putin has taken a very different approach to his Olympic Games.
From the outset, President Putin has been heavily involved in Sochi 2014 - from lobbying the International Olympic Committee to bring the games to Russia, to inspecting construction sites and, more recently, testing out completed sports facilities.
Sochi is his pet project: to show Russia as a great world power, and himself as a great leader.
Yet, curiously, the two things Leonid Brezhnev had feared - spiralling costs and scandals - are now a feature of Vladimir Putin's Olympic Games.
The estimated bill for venues and accompanying infrastructure is an estimated $50bn: Sochi has been described as the most expensive Olympics ever.
As for the list of scandals making headlines in the West, it is almost as long as the ski slopes of Sochi.
It includes allegations of corruption, complaints from unpaid construction workers, concern about the rights of sexual minorities in Russia and worries over security.
"The Russian Olympics is already a scandal," says Liliya Shevtsova, a senior associate at the Moscow Carnegie Centre.
"It is the embodiment of corruption, inefficiency, irrationality, extreme vanity and megalomania. It is a waste of money in a country that cannot afford a decent life for ordinary people. It reminds me of Mussolini and Ceausescu. They also built glamorous projects that are now monuments to absurdity."
The Russian authorities reject accusations that Olympic funds have been mis-spent or stolen.
"The Russian Audit Chamber and the Russian Tax Service have uncovered no cases of corruption linked to Sochi," the President of Russia's Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov informs me.
Mr Zhukov also maintains it is wrong to include the cost of infrastructure projects in the Olympic bill.
"Sochi used to have just one road. Now around 20 new ones have been built. There's a new sewage system, a new power station, new gas pipes. But these are not Olympic costs. This is the kind of infrastructure which a city like Sochi has to have if it is to attract tourists. This is, after all, the main resort in Russia."
When the USSR hosted the Summer Olympics in 1980, more than 60 countries stayed away in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
This time around, there will be no international boycott to spoil President Putin's party. Many Western leaders, though, have decided to not to go to Sochi.
"It would be strange if all international leaders were to attend an Olympics," Russian State TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov points out.
"They don't have anything better to do? This isn't about politics and politicians. It's about sport. If President Obama was a participant in the games, if he was competing in the figure skating, then him not coming to Sochi would spoil the pleasure."
On Friday Russian Television will broadcast a documentary about Vladimir Putin's personal contribution to the Sochi Olympics.
In a sneak preview aired this week, the president revealed how he personally had chosen the site for what became the Olympic site.
It reminded me of Peter the Great, the tsar who 300 years ago selected the location for his grand new capital, St Petersburg.
For Tsar Peter, moving the capital from Moscow to St Petersburg was an attempt to move Russia closer to Europe. The new city was his window on the West.
President Putin has said he hopes the Sochi Games will help "build bridges". But these Olympics are unlikely to bring modern Russia and the West closer.
"Putin cannot change the doctrine of his own survival," believes Liliya Shevtsova, "and his doctrine is containment of the West and building Russia as a centre of the traditional civilisation with a galaxy all around. His doctrine already is making us distant from the West, an antithesis to Western civilisation. Sochi cannot change anything."
I drive a few miles north of Moscow to the town of Mytishi, where there is a street called "Olympic Prospekt" - the name dates back to 1980.
A street cleaner is scraping ice off the pavement and local residents bundled up in fur coats are hurrying past grey Soviet-era apartment blocks on their way to the shops or to work.
I get chatting to people here and discover how little interest there is in Sochi scandals.
"I can't wait for the Games to start, especially the ice hockey," says Viktor. "I know that a lot of money has been spent on them. And that might be why the rouble has taken a bit of tumble. But it's probably worth it. The Olympics are a good cause."
"It's not corruption I'm worried about," Elena tells me. "I'm more concerned with how our athletes are going to do. I'm so used to hearing about money being stolen. It's just not news."
President Putin knows that his Olympics have sparked controversy abroad. He is well aware that many Western leaders will not be attending.
But he knows, too, that most Russians will be glued to their TV sets - more concerned with how many medals their country will win, not how much money it cost to put on the show. | It was July 1980 and in the packed Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow, the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev declared the Summer Olympic Games open. |
35190676 | The boy's aunt, uncle and their five children will arrive in Vancouver on Monday.
Alan, 3, died with his mother and brother trying to reach Greece.
The family is just a few of the tens of thousands of people that the Canadian government has promised to resettle.
They are being sponsored by Alan's aunt, Tima, who has become an advocate for refugees fleeing the conflict.
Alan's father, Abdullah Kurdi, now lives in Iraq and said after the death of his family that he would not move to Canada.
Images of Alan Kurdi's body washed up on a beach near Bodrum in September caused an outpouring of sympathy for those fleeing to Europe to escape Syria's civil war.
After Alan's death, Tima Kurdi said Canada had rejected the family's request for refugee status, but later acknowledged it had never been submitted.
She told BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday that she was unable to look at the photo of the toddler, which became a symbol for the refugee crisis. However, she said that she understands its power.
Hundreds of asylum seekers have died this year trying to reach Europe by sea. Greece and Turkey have become a major transit points.
The admittance of refugees from war-torn nations including Syria has become highly contentious in governments around the world, with leaders attempting to balance security and humanitarian concerns.
In Canada, the newly-elected Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on the promise to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February.
The government, which came to power in early November, said that 10,000 of the refugees would arrive by the end of the year.
Last week, the minister of immigration and citizenship said the country's resettlement programme would be expanded in 2016 to take 50,000.
The first military plane carrying Syrian refugees to be resettled in Canada arrived in the country in early December, with Mr Trudeau personally greeting many of them upon arrival.
Since early November, hundreds of Syrians have already arrived in Canada via commercial aircraft. | Family members of Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, whose drowning off the coast of Turkey triggered an international outcry, are expected to arrive in Canada as refugees. |
40934331 | The video was posted on a Dutch porn website earlier this year.
Dutch authorities said the pornographic film was offensive but there was no longer a law in the Netherlands against blasphemy.
The priest at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church, Fr Jan van Noorwegen, said he was unhappy with their decision.
Another church official complained that there was something deeply wrong with the legal system.
The film appeared on Dutch porn star Kim Holland's website in January. She apologised and said the video had been made by an external producer and would no longer appear on her site, according to local broadcaster Omroep Brabant.
Fr Van Noorwegen then held a Sunday Mass seeking forgiveness for the desecration of his church. The church authorities took the case to the public prosecutor, which has now explained its decision not to take the matter further.
"We find it offensive and disrespectful, but we had a good look at the legal code and do not really see a criminal offence. Blasphemy is not a crime and there's no question here of anyone trespassing," said a spokesperson.
It is now up to the church to decide whether to take out a civil case over the video. While that is unlikely, one senior official at the church, Harrie de Swart, was astounded by the prosecutor's decision, arguing that the film-makers would clearly have had to climb over a fence to reach the confessional box.
"The justice ministry said we should have hung a no-entry sign on the church entrance. Then we could prosecute people who do this sort of thing. But it's absurd to stick that sort of sign on the door of a church," he told Omroep Brabant.
Fr Van Noorwegen was also worried about a precedent being set. "Just imagine, if it happens now in a church, a town hall or restaurant, clearly it can happen anywhere," he was quoted as saying. | Prosecutors have rejected a complaint from a church in the Dutch city of Tilburg after two actors were filmed having sex in the confessional box. |
36717432 | Belle Vue Nursing Home was judged to be "inadequate" by the health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) after an unannounced inspection in May.
It was ordered to improve but, after further complaints, was visited again in June and found to be "inadequate".
If it does not improve steps will be taken to close it down, the CQC said.
At the time of the latest inspection, the home - which has three units - was caring for 60 people with dementia and young disabled adults.
It was told that failing to report deaths and serious injuries was a breach of CQC rules.
Staff then began sending notifications to the CQC, which concluded: "We identified occasions when people had died unexpectedly or been injured.
"We were concerned that the information indicated that the home may have neglected people's care and treatment needs."
Inspectors also found residents' weights were not being monitored, running the risk of them becoming malnourished.
The CQC also found medication was not being administered "in line with prescriptions".
Its report concluded that if the home was found to be inadequate when next inspected, steps would be taken to prevent it "operating". | A Middlesbrough care home has been placed in special measures over concerns its residents had suffered from neglect. |
38640487 | Sharbat Gula now lives with her five-year-old son and three daughters in Kabul, where she says she wants to live a normal life after years of tragedy and hardship.
Her portrait as a 10-year-old became an iconic image of Afghan refugees fleeing war.
The only time she has spoken to the media before now, her family says, was for a 2002 documentary after Steve McCurry, who took her original photo, tracked her down in Pakistan and found out who she was.
Sharbat Gula had no idea that her face had been famous around the world for almost seventeen years.
Like many Afghans, she sought refuge in Pakistan and lived there for 35 years - but she was imprisoned and deported last autumn for obtaining Pakistani identity papers "illegally".
"We had a good time there, had good neighbours, lived among our own Pashtun brothers. But I didn't expect that the Pakistani government would treat me like this at the end," Sharbat Gula told me at her temporary residence in Kabul.
Her case highlighted the arbitrary arrest and forced deportation of Afghan refugees in the current spat between the two countries.
It has been illegal for non-Pakistanis to have IDs since they were first issued in the 1970s, but the law was often not enforced.
Now sick and frail in her mid-40s, Sharbat Gula's haunting eyes are still piercing, full of both fear and hope.
She says she had already sold her house in Pakistan because she feared arrest there for "not having proper documents to stay".
Two days before a planned move back to Afghanistan, her house was raided late in the evening and she was taken to prison.
Pakistan's government has ordered all two million Afghan refugees on its soil to leave.
Sharbat Gula believes the Pakistani authorities wanted to arrest her before she left.
"I told the police that I have made this ID card for only two things - to educate my children and sell my house - which were not possible to do without the ID card."
She served a 15-day prison sentence, the first week in prison and the second in hospital where she was treated for hepatitis C.
"This was the hardest and worst incident in my life."
Realising the reputational damage, Pakistan later offered to let her stay - but she refused.
"I told them that I am going to my country. I said: 'You allowed me here for 35 years, but at the end treated me like this.' It is enough."
Her husband and eldest daughter died in Peshawar and are buried there.
"If I wanted to go back, it will be just to offer prayer at the graves of my husband and daughter who are buried in front of the house we lived in."
The "Afghan Girl" picture was taken by Steve McCurry in 1984 in a refugee camp near Peshawar, when Sharbat Gula was studying in a tent school. Published in 1985, it became one of the most recognisable magazine covers ever printed.
For years she was unaware of her celebrity.
"When my brother showed me the picture, I recognised myself and told him that yes, this is my photo."
How did she feel?
"I became very surprised [because] I didn't like media and taking photos from childhood. At first, I was concerned about the publicity of my photo but when I found out that I have been the cause of support/help for many people/refugees, then I became happy."
‘Green eyed girl’ in quest for new life
None of Sharbat Gula's six children - another daughter died too at an early age and is buried in Peshawar - share the colour of her eyes.
But her brother, Kashar Khan, does, and the eyes of one of her three sisters were also green.
She says her maternal grandmother had eyes of a similar colour.
Sharbat Gula was a child living with her family in Kot district of eastern Nangarhar province when Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
"There was war between Russians and Afghanistan - that is why we left. A lot of damage/destruction was done."
Her mother died of appendicitis in the village when she was eight. Like hundreds of thousands of other Afghans, her family (her father, four sisters and one brother) migrated to Pakistan and started living in a tent in a refugee camp called Kacha Garahi, on the outskirts of Peshawar.
She was married at 13. But her husband, Rahmat Gul, was later diagnosed with hepatitis C and died about five years ago. Her eldest daughter also died of hepatitis three years ago, aged 22, leaving a two-month-old daughter.
Sharbat Gula met President Ashraf Ghani in the presidential palace on her return, and later former President Hamid Karzai.
"They gave me respect, warmly welcomed me. I thank them. May God treat them well."
The government has promised to support her financially and buy her a house in Kabul.
"I hope the government will fulfil all its promises," she told me.
Kot district is a stronghold of militants linked to the so-called Islamic State group, so she can't go home to her village. Her green-eyed brother and hundreds of others have fled the area, fearing IS brutality.
"We cannot even visit our village now because of insecurity and don't have a shelter in Jalalabad. Our life is a struggle from one hardship to another," he says.
But Sharbat Gula's priority is to stay in her country, get better and see her children be educated and live happy lives.
"I want to establish a charity or a hospital to treat all poor, orphans and widows," she says.
"I would like peace to come to this country, so that people don't become homeless. May God fix this country." | An Afghan woman made famous by a 1985 National Geographic cover has spoken exclusively to the BBC of her hope for a new beginning, after being deported from Pakistan. |
39040774 | The French fizz has been included as one of the items in the basket of goods used to calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation.
Contents are updated every five years to keep pace with shopping trends.
After falling out of the basket in 2012, champagne was popped back in for 2017 by the Central Statistics Office.
The basket contains a wide-ranging selection of goods or services that are seen as a representative sample of current consumer spending habits.
The inclusion of new product in the CPI basket, or the reintroduction of an item, means it "has become popular enough to warrant inclusion in a sample of representative items", according to the CSO.
Other goods making the 2017 list were avocados, sweet potatoes, larger TVs and even stockbrokers' fees.
Following a trend seen in the UK in 2015, craft beer and e-cigarette refills have also been added to the Irish CPI basket.
CSO price checkers have calculated that prices of the goods rose by 0.3% over the year from January 2016 to January 2017.
Items that were struck off the latest shopping list include clock radios, camcorders and disposable cameras.
But is return of the luxurious tipple that has caught most attention, with CPI Champagne being hailed by the Irish broadcaster Newstalk as "a clear sign that recessionary times are behind us".
The Republic of Ireland experienced years of austerity after its economy crashed during the global downturn in 2007/2008
After being forced to seek an international bailout in 2010, the state has turned around its economy.
And after years of belt-tightening and "make do and mend", one of the services deleted from the CPI basket due to declining popularity was "alteration to trousers". | Champagne is making a comeback in the Republic of Ireland, a decade after the bubble burst in spectacular style for its Celtic Tiger economy. |
35086289 | Adam Bogdan dropped a corner with the very first touch of his league debut, allowing Nathan Ake to stab the home side ahead after just three minutes.
Odion Ighalo doubled the lead, firing in off the post from a tight angle.
And the Nigerian sealed a deserved victory with his 12th of the season, nodding in from Valon Behrami's cross.
The Hornets, promoted from the Championship last term, move to within a point of the Champions League places.
Defeat for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, who are now without a win in their last three league games, leaves them ninth - four points behind Quique Flores' side in seventh.
With regular goalkeeper Simon Mignolet absent from the squad with a hamstring injury, 28-year-old Bogdan - who had previously only played in the League Cup since his summer arrival - was called in.
Just over two minutes into the match, he bounced Ben Watson's corner at his own feet rather than making what looked like an easy catch. Replays suggested he might have had two hands on the ball when Ake pounced, but nonetheless it was a poor error.
Bogdan said: "I had both hands on the ball but we are talking about a split-second. It's not easy for the referee to see. If I catch the first ball, there is no second one.
"Something went wrong, I have to think about it again. It was a mistake and I will learn from it."
Hungarian Bogdan didn't cover himself in glory when punching a through ball into Lucas' face either though, and his nervousness seemed to spread through the Reds defence.
Martin Skrtel, who came off injured before half-time, was arguably too weak when trying to steer Ighalo away from goal for Watford's second and his fellow centre-back Mamadou Sakho was dangerously ponderous in possession.
Sakho, returning after six weeks out, also fell over under no pressure to allow Ighalo in on goal in the second half, with Bogdan making partial amends via a fine reflex save.
Troy Deeney and Ighalo have created more goalscoring chances for one another than any other pairing this season. They were at it again for Watford's second as a simple Deeney ball over the top put Ighalo through with only Skrtel for company.
The 26-year-old brushed off the Liverpool defender's weak challenge and fired in off the post from a tight angle, before adding his second with a simple header to bring his tally for 2015 to 28 goals - the best return in England's professional leagues.
If Watford were surprised to have gone ahead so early and so comfortably, the rest of their performance showed no sign of it. The Hornets were composed and committed as they outplayed a disappointing Liverpool side.
There was none of the high-intensity, slick interplay that has characterised the best performances of Klopp's time at Anfield so far, and instead it was Watford who claimed a deserved victory.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: "If you watch the TV, you see Bogdan had the ball under control and both hands were on the ball.
"It should not be allowed but first of all he should not drop the ball. That is the mistake of the referee but the biggest mistake was our reaction.
"It was a deserved win for Watford. Not because of our faults, but more because of the reaction to our faults."
Watford manager Quique Flores: "Of course we want to dream but we want to remain humble. This is our one advantage, because the Premier League is very tough.
"We have a lot of matches and we never underestimate the teams we play. We are completely happy with the performance. It was an amazing victory against an amazing team."
Watford play Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City in their next three fixtures over Christmas and New Year, while Liverpool host leaders Leicester on Boxing Day before away games against Sunderland and West Ham.
Match ends, Watford 3, Liverpool 0.
Second Half ends, Watford 3, Liverpool 0.
Attempt missed. Jordon Ibe (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Alberto Moreno.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Ikechi Anya.
Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Nyom (Watford).
Offside, Liverpool. Alberto Moreno tries a through ball, but Christian Benteke is caught offside.
Substitution, Watford. Adlène Guédioura replaces Odion Ighalo.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Miguel Britos (Watford) because of an injury.
Foul by Jordan Henderson (Liverpool).
Valon Behrami (Watford) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Goal! Watford 3, Liverpool 0. Odion Ighalo (Watford) header from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Valon Behrami with a cross.
Offside, Liverpool. Philippe Coutinho tries a through ball, but Christian Benteke is caught offside.
Foul by Mamadou Sakho (Liverpool).
Odion Ighalo (Watford) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Nyom (Watford).
Substitution, Watford. Valon Behrami replaces Almen Abdi.
Attempt missed. Christian Benteke (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Jordan Henderson following a set piece situation.
Miguel Britos (Watford) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Christian Benteke (Liverpool) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Miguel Britos (Watford).
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Nyom.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Miguel Britos.
Attempt blocked. Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Substitution, Watford. Ikechi Anya replaces Jurado.
Delay in match Emre Can (Liverpool) because of an injury.
Attempt blocked. Jordon Ibe (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.
Substitution, Liverpool. Christian Benteke replaces Roberto Firmino.
Substitution, Liverpool. Jordon Ibe replaces Adam Lallana.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Heurelho Gomes.
Attempt saved. Emre Can (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Foul by Lucas Leiva (Liverpool).
Odion Ighalo (Watford) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Heurelho Gomes.
Attempt saved. Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Philippe Coutinho.
Corner, Watford. Conceded by Adam Bogdan.
Attempt saved. Odion Ighalo (Watford) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jurado with a through ball. | Watford profited from Liverpool's calamitous opening at Vicarage Road to continue their remarkable rise with a fourth consecutive Premier League win. |
37134775 | The rails, which would have been part of the city's first network in the early 20th Century, are set to be removed later.
The city council have offered the tracks to Crich Tramway Village, in Derbyshire, home of the National Tramway Museum.
The museum's curator, Laura Waters, said it was a wonderful discovery.
She said: "They are always exciting to see because not all systems buried their tracks so we never quite know who did what with them.
"Some ripped them up, some buried them and obviously it's a reminder of Nottingham's transport history."
Nottingham reintroduced a tram network in 2004, with a line stretching from Nottingham Station to Hucknall.
A second line running from the city to Chilwell and Beeston, began operation in 2015.
Ms Waters said: "It's interesting that often, towns and cities got rid of their trams because they got in the way of cars which were increasing in popularity.
"Now they are being reintroduced to help reduce the number of cars on the roads."
A spokesman for Nottingham City Council said: "Last year there was a gas leak in Station Road and when the engineers dug up the road they found the track, which was a bit of a surprise.
"It's all a bit hit and miss where the track is. We've got major works coming up near Broadmarsh [shopping centre] and it may be we find some more there.
"There could be lots under Market Square which was the old hub for the trams." | Tram tracks dating back about 100 years have been uncovered during work near to Nottingham's railway station. |
38640430 | Together with Gerry Adams, he was the main republican architect of the move towards a political solution to Northern Ireland's problems.
His life followed an extraordinary trajectory between violence and politics, moving from being a senior commander in the IRA to helping broker talks that eventually led to the peace negotiations of the 1990s.
Eventually, he became Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, forging an unlikely alliance with Ian Paisley, the DUP leader who was the fiercest - and loudest - critic of the republican movement.
They developed such a rapport in their years in government that they became poster boys for modern politics, earning the nickname The Chuckle Brothers.
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness was born into a large family living in the deprived Bogside area of Londonderry on 23 May 1950. His unusual third name was a tribute to Pope Pius XII.
He attended Derry's St Eugene's Primary School and, having failed the 11-plus exam, he went to the Christian Brothers technical college, known locally as Brow o' the Hill.
He did not enjoy his time at college and his failure to qualify for grammar school rankled.
"It is my opinion," he later said, "that no education system has the right to tell any child at the age of 10 and 11 that it's a failure."
He was working as a butcher's assistant when Northern Ireland's Troubles erupted in the late 1960s. Angry about the rough handling of protesters demanding civil rights for Catholics, McGuinness was quickly drawn into the ranks of the IRA.
By January 1972, when soldiers from the Parachute Regiment killed 14 people in his hometown on what became known as Bloody Sunday, McGuinness was second in command of the IRA in the city.
The Saville Inquiry concluded he had probably been armed with a sub-machine-gun on the day, but had not done anything that would have justified the soldiers opening fire.
In April 1972, BBC reporter Tom Mangold walked with McGuinness through the "no-go area" then known as Free Derry.
Mangold described McGuinness as the officer commanding the IRA in the city and asked if the organisation might stop its bombing campaign in response to public demand.
The 21-year-old McGuinness made no attempt to contradict the reporter, explaining that the IRA "will always take into consideration the feelings of the people of Derry and those feelings will be passed on to our general headquarters in Dublin".
Together with Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness was part of an IRA delegation that held unsuccessful talks with the British government in London in July 1972.
The following year he was convicted of IRA activity by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court after being caught with a car containing explosives and nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition.
Security chiefs were in no doubt that he was a key figure in the IRA as it reorganised and rearmed in the 1980s.
Among its most high-profile attacks was the attempt to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at the Grand Hotel in Brighton in 1984.
Thatcher wanted to starve the IRA of what she called the "oxygen of publicity", so was furious when the BBC broadcast a Real Lives documentary in 1985 featuring McGuinness, who was unashamed of his reputation.
Driving a car through the Bogside, he told the documentary makers that reports suggesting he was chief of staff of the IRA were untrue, "but I regard them as a compliment".
He was later accused of having advance knowledge of the 1987 Enniskillen Remembrance day bombing - something he denied.
The mother of an alleged IRA informer claimed McGuinness had played a role in luring her son home to his death.
He was also thought to have approved proxy bombings, such as the murder of army cook Patsy Gillespie, in which hostages were forced to drive car bombs which were then detonated before they could get away.
But behind the scenes, Martin McGuinness engaged in secret contacts with British agents which laid the groundwork for the IRA ceasefires and peace negotiations of the 1990s.
When the Good Friday Agreement led to the creation of a devolved government at Stormont, he became education minister. One of his first acts was to abolish the 11-plus examination which he had failed many years before.
Devolution proved an on-off affair, but in 2007 the hardline Democratic Unionists were persuaded to share power with Sinn Féin.
The public witnessed the almost unbelievable sight of Martin McGuinness forging not just a political partnership, but what looked like a genuine friendship with one of his erstwhile enemies, the DUP leader Ian Paisley.
"Ian Paisley and I never had a conversation about anything - not even about the weather," he said in 2007.
"And now we have worked very closely together over the last seven months and there's been no angry words between us.
"This shows we are set for a new course."
His relationships with Ian Paisley's successors appeared cooler.
But as dissident Irish republicans tried to derail the peace project, the now deputy first minister denounced them as "traitors to the island of Ireland". He left no doubt that he believed violence could no longer serve a purpose, declaring: "My war is over."
Martin McGuinness failed in his bid to become Irish head of state in the presidential election of 2011.
But he later struck up an apparent rapport with the British head of state, shaking hands with the Queen on more than one occasion.
In 2012, he announced he was standing down as the Member of Parliament for mid-Ulster although, in common with other Sinn Féin MPs, he had never taken his seat at Westminster.
He unexpectedly quit his post as deputy first minister in January 2017 following a row over a botched scheme, overseen by then First Minister Arlene Foster, to provide renewable energy for Northern Irish households which could end up costing the taxpayer £500m.
Ill health was also a factor in his decision to stand down. When he arrived at Stormont to hand in his resignation, he looked visibly frail.
He told the BBC it was "a big decision" and he would not stand for re-election.
"The honest answer is that I am not physically capable or able to fight this election, so I will not be a candidate," he said.
His resignation triggered an election in Northern Ireland as, under the peace agreement, the executive cannot function if one side walks out. In the event, the 2 March poll saw Sinn Féin making gains that ended the unionist majority in Stormont.
Martin McGuinness married Bernadette Canning in 1972 and the couple had four children. Away from politics he enjoyed Gaelic football and hurling, both of which he had played in his younger days.
He was also keen on fly-fishing and cricket.
As an IRA leader, there is no doubt Martin McGuinness was hated and feared. But as a peacemaker, he possessed a personal charisma that he used to win over at least some of those who had viewed him with suspicion.
Moreover, his reputation as a hard man gave him the authority among Irish republicans to deliver major concessions, such as IRA disarmament and acceptance of a reformed police service. | Martin McGuinness was the IRA leader who became a peace negotiator - a committed Irish republican who ended up shaking hands with the Queen. |
36015797 | Sajid Javid told the Commons that the government was working very hard to find a buyer for the South Wales plant, which is being sold by Tata Steel.
Among options being considered was "the possibility of co-investing with a buyer on commercial terms", he said.
Earlier, Tata announced the sale of its Scunthorpe plant to Greybull Capital.
The Long Products Europe business was sold to the investment firm for a token £1 or €1. The move will safeguard 4,400 UK jobs, but workers are being asked to accept a pay cut and less generous pension arrangements.
The future of the larger Port Talbot is still in doubt, however, although at least one potential buyer has expressed an interest. The government has resisted calls from unions and opposition politicians to nationalise the Port Talbot plant, Britain's biggest steelworks, to safeguard thousands of jobs.
Mr Javid said that the sale process for Port had only just started, but all options are still being explored.
This included "investment or funds from government," Mr Javid said. "But it has to be on commercial terms." He added: "I've been in contact with potential buyers, making clear that the government stands ready to help."
Mr Javid said: "Several weeks ago Tata told me in confidence that they were seriously considering an immediate closure of Port Talbot, not a sale, a closure.
"That would have meant thousands of hard-working men and women could already be out of a job. Thousands more would have been facing a very bleak future. I was not prepared to let that happen."
Tony Burke, assistant general secretary of Unite, said the union would be holding Mr Javid to his commitment to co-invest if necessary. "The penny appears to have dropped that there should be an active government supporting steel and manufacturing as the best best hope of securing the future of the industry.
"We look forward to sitting down with secretary of state to hear more of his plans for co-investment," Mr Burke said.
MPs will hold an emergency debate on the steel industry on Tuesday, called for by Labour's shadow business secretary, Angela Eagle.
She complained that the government had refused to recall parliament from its Easter break to discuss the news that Tata was selling its UK steel operations.
Tata Steel is losing millions a week and today's deal with Greybull took six months to conclude. Group Executive Director Koushik Chatterjee told me that the process would be given "due time" without specifying what that might be.
He also said workers should take comfort from the fact that the company had already waited two weeks before starting the process to sell Port Talbot and other assets and that he saw potential buyers in "the tens".
There has already been tentative interest from the steel company Liberty House but the vision outlined by its chairman, Sanjeev Gupta, would require a radical and time consuming restructuring of operations at Port Talbot along with significant government support.
That appeared to be on hand as the Business Secretary Sajid Javid said the government would be prepared to co-invest with a buyer on commercial terms to secure a sale of Tata's remaining assets. This is a step further than the government has gone before, and, while giving extra hope, also shows just how difficult it may be to find a buyer.
Read Simon's blog in full
'Substantial support' needed for steel
Who might buy Tata in Port Talbot?
What's going wrong with Britain's steel industry?
Tata Steel UK: What are the options?
Is China to blame for steel woes?
Tata's sale of its European long products unit, announced earlier in the day, comes at a time when European steelmakers are struggling to survive amid a wave of cheap imports from China.
Greybull said it was arranging a £400m investment package as part of the deal.
The business will be rebranded as British Steel once the deal is completed in eight weeks, it said.
The new business would include the Scunthorpe works, two mills in Teesside, an engineering workshop in Workington, a design consultancy in York, a mill in Hayange, France, and sales and distribution facilities.
The token sale price reflects the difficulties involved in turning around the loss-making business, but Greybull partner Marc Meyohas said he was "delighted" with the agreement and believed the division could become a "strong business".
"At its core, it's a very, very good business," he said.
He also said Greybull had not ruled out buying other parts of Tata's UK steel business.
The Long Products Europe business makes steel for the rail and construction sectors.
The division was put up for sale in 2014. Greybull, whose interest was widely known, has been in talks with Tata Steel for the past nine months over a possible deal.
Greybull is backing a turnaround plan, which aims to return the loss-making business to profitability within one to two years, but will involve significant cost savings.
Staff are being asked to accept a 3% pay cut for one year and reductions to company pension contributions. A staff ballot on the changes will be completed on 19 April.
But Greybull said its plan "to reset the cost base of the business" had already been agreed with both trade unions and key suppliers.
Greybull also said it did not expect further restructuring beyond the 1,200 job losses announced last October.
That involved the closure of one of the two coke ovens at Scunthorpe and the mothballing of three plate mills, reducing annual production capacity to 2.8 million tonnes.
Unions welcomed the deal.
GMB national officer Dave Hulse said negotiations had taken "a long period of time", but said the deal would "safeguard members' jobs".
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community union, said the announcement "demonstrates that with the right investors, UK steelmaking can have a positive future".
Mr Javid said the agreement was "a step in the right direction for the long-term future of British steel manufacturing in Scunthorpe".
The Indian steel giant said at the end of last month that it was exploring "strategic alternatives" for its UK business.
Thousands of workers in England and Wales risk losing their jobs if a buyer cannot be found.
Tata Steel directly employs 15,000 workers in the UK and supports thousands of others, across plants in Port Talbot, Rotherham, Corby and Shotton.
So far, the only company to have publicly expressed an interest in buying Tata's UK steel business is Liberty House, owned by Sanjeev Gupta.
Mr Javid, who was on a business trip to Australia when Tata first announced it was planning to sell its UK steelworks, is under pressure over his handling of the crisis. | The government would consider co-investing with a private sector partner to help save the Port Talbot steel works, the business secretary has said. |
19946373 | Net income for the three months to the end of September fell to $468m (£291m) from $3.8bn in the same period of 2011.
Citigroup took a $4.7bn hit from reducing the value of its stake in the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MSSB) joint venture, which it is selling.
But the results were still ahead of analysts' expectations and the bank's shares rose 5.5% in New York.
Citigroup reported improved revenues from mortgages in North America.
Excluding one-off items, Citigroup's net income came in at $3.3bn.
The profitability of the bank's loans, excluding credit losses, rose as Citi cut its funding costs by taking in more low-cost deposits.
Deposits rose 11% to $945bn at the end of September from a year earlier.
Analyst Todd Hagerman from brokerage Sterne Agee said Citi now had enough capital to make a case to regulators that it should be allowed to pay 15 cents a share in its quarterly dividend next year, up from its current, nominal one cent.
In September, Citigroup announced that it had agreed a price to sell its 49% stake in MSSB to Morgan Stanley.
As a result, it said that it would reduce the value it attributed to the holding by about 40%.
The joint venture was established in 2009 as a way for Citi to shrink its balance sheet during the financial crisis by transferring its Smith Barney brokerage to Morgan Stanley.
Announcing its results, Citi said it had increased its "buffer" against risk so that it now held 8.6% of assets in almost risk-free form.
Citigroup's chief executive, Vikram Pandit, said that the uncertain economy meant the bank was taking a cautious approach to business: "We are managing risk very carefully, given global economic conditions, so we can continue to grow our businesses safely and soundly."
In August, Citigroup paid $590m to shareholders who had accused the bank of hiding the scale of its exposure to sub-prime mortgages.
Citi denied the allegation but said it wanted to avoid further legal costs.
The payout is one of the biggest settlements connected to the global financial crisis which began four years ago. | Citigroup's three-month profits have dropped after the bank wrote down the value of its stake in a brokerage. |
25884560 | Northamptonshire County Council was inspected in February 2013 and arrangements for protecting children were found to be "inadequate".
The council has restructured children's services and pledged an extra £12m.
Director Alex Hopkins said he wanted to replace more than 60 agency staff with professionals employed directly.
Of 260 social worker posts in children's services 25% are agency workers and half of these are in senior qualified positions.
Mr Hopkins said it was relatively easy to recruit newly-qualified social workers but they required intensive training and heavy supervision until their skills were built up.
"I am looking for staff that can hit the ground running," he said.
"Last year, the county's arrangements for the protection of children were judged by Ofsted to be inadequate."
The council then restructured its social care services and changed working procedures.
Mr Hopkins described it as a period of "significant change" when the council used agency staff to fulfil safeguarding duties.
"Currently one in every four posts in children's social care is filled by an agency worker," he said.
"We have laid the groundwork for a new working culture.
"The council is focusing on recruiting experienced permanent staff so that new practices can be fully embedded consistently across the county's child protection and safeguarding teams.
"This is a great opportunity for experienced staff to contribute." | A children's services department criticised by Ofsted has launched a recruitment drive for experienced social workers. |
38042813 | The 23-year-old American was two shots behind leader Geoff Ogilvy after three rounds but recovered from three bogeys in four holes to card a three-under 69.
It put him level with Australians Cameron Smith and Ashley Hall at 12 under, with Ogilvy two shots back.
Find out how to get into golf with our special guide.
Hall was closer with his approach at the first extra hole but could not match Spieth's 12-foot birdie putt.
The two-time major winner became only the second American, after Jack Nicklaus, to win the title more than once.
Smith and Hall had the consolation of securing places in next year's Open Championship at Royal Birkdale along with compatriot Aaron Baddeley, who finished in a five-way tie for fourth.
We've launched a new BBC Sport newsletter, bringing all the best stories, features and video right to your inbox. You can sign up here. | World number five Jordan Spieth won his second Australian Open title, with a play-off victory at Royal Sydney. |
37898203 | The lunchtime action is supported by four teaching unions, and it comes after 13 months of talks with the Education Authority ended in October.
The unions walked out over an offer of a 1% pay rise for 2016-17, and no pay rise last year.
Education Minister Peter Weir said he was "disappointed" by the action.
"We have to realise we are in tough economic circumstances in which the support needs to be for schools," he said.
The teaching unions involved are the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), the Ulster Teachers' Union (UTU) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).
The schools impacted include six in County Armagh, seven in County Tyrone, 16 in County Down, eight in County Londonderry and 22 across County Antrim and Belfast.
Gerry Murphy, INTO's northern secretary, said teachers in Northern Ireland are paid 16% less than in some areas of the UK.
"It's a postcode lottery for Northern Ireland teachers," he said. "To be paid 16% less than their UK counterparts is more than disheartening."
UTU chairperson Avril Hall-Callaghan said the Scottish Parliament awarded teachers a 2.5% staged pay deal last year and the union has asked that the education minister consider a staged deal as a way forward in the dispute.
She urged Education Minister Peter Weir not to take teachers for granted.
"They have suffered for five years of all the cutbacks that there have been in the education service, they've worked in schools where maybe their colleagues have been made redundant," she said.
"They've taken up the slack, they have kept the education system running for him and I think it's now his turn to put something back for them."
Director of ATL, Mark Langhammer, said his was traditionally a "moderate teaching association" but that 51% of members backed a strike and 89% were in favour of industrial action.
"The case for decent pay for teachers is an unimpeachable case," he said.
"It is just a matter of priorities, not money." | Hundreds of teachers at 60 schools across Northern Ireland are forming picket lines to protest against an "insulting" pay offer. |
41036236 | This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
If you want to receive Breaking News alerts via email, or on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App then details on how to do so are available on this help page. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts. | Net migration to Britain down 81,000 to 246,000 in year to March 2017, lowest for three years - official estimates |
36026468 | The home side were set to resume on 223-4, 300 runs ahead, with opener Keaton Jennings on 105 not out.
Rain during the morning meant that a prompt start was impossible.
And umpires Rob Bailey and Nigel Cowley took the decision to abandon play for the day shortly before 14:45 BST after inspecting conditions in the middle. | Durham were denied the chance to press home their advantage against Somerset as bad weather prevented any play on day three at the Riverside. |
29824854 | The 20-week pilot study is thought to have been the first of its kind in the UK, although similar experiments have been carried out elsewhere.
It used five years worth of historic data, but the idea would be to analyse up-to-date details if it is deployed.
Civil liberty campaigners have voiced concerns.
But Accenture - the firm that developed the software - highlighted the potential benefit it offered.
"You've got limited police resources and you need to target them efficiently," said Muz Janoowalla, head of public safety analytics at the company.
"What this does is tell you who are the highest risk individuals that you should target your limited resources against."
The software works by merging together data from existing systems already used by the Metropolitan Police and carrying out predictive calculations.
Types of information ranged from previous crimes to social media activity.
"It's previous offending and various different sources that are used for intelligence, in terms of who they are involved with and who they associate with," explained Sarah Samee, a spokeswoman for the Met's Trident Gang Crime Command.
Mr Janoowalla added: "For example if an individual had posted inflammatory material on the internet and it was known about to the Met - one gang might say something [negative] about another gang member's partner or something like that - it would be recorded in the Met's intelligence system.
"What we were able to do was mine both the intelligence and the known criminal history of individuals to come up with a risk assessment model."
The study used data gathered about known gang members across London's 32 boroughs across a four year period to forecast their likelihood of committing further violent acts.
This was then compared to known acts of aggression that took place in the fifth year to give an indication as to whether the software was accurate.
Mr Janoowalla said the intention was to identify groups of gang members that were at the highest risk of reoffending rather than singling out specific individuals.
He said that he was confident the experiment had been a success, but added that he was not allowed to disclose the exact criteria on which the software was being scored.
Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch has asked for more information to be made public.
"The police need to be very careful about how they use this kind of technology," said research director Daniel Nesbitt.
"Big data solutions such as this can run the risk of unfairly targeting certain groups of people and potentially making them feel stigmatised as a result.
"The Metropolitan Police must ensure that they are fully transparent about how they intend implement this technology and what type of information will be used in the process."
In response Mr Janoowalla noted that the Ministry of Justice already operated the Offender Assessment System and Offender Group Reconviction Scale (Oasys) - a computer-based system used to predict the likelihood of different types of released criminals reoffending.
He said the key difference with Accenture's software was that it was specifically tailored to tackle gang violence.
While Accenture and the Met believe this is the first test of its kind in the UK, the company has carried out other crime-prevention analysis elsewhere.
In Spain it has tried to identify locations where crimes are most likely to happen, and in Singapore it has tested software that monitors video feeds of crowds, traffic and other events to alert the authorities to potential risks.
Other companies are pitching rival tools. IBM has explored how factors including weather patterns, past crimes, and surveillance efforts can be combined to predict threats.
And police in Kent, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Yorkshire have all trialled software from PredPol, a US start-up, to help tackle street crime.
However, campaign groups have warned against the danger of police gathering too much personal data.
"It is clear that harnessing and analysing vast data sets may simplify the work of the police," said European human rights group Statewatch earlier this year
"However, this in itself is not a justification for their use. There are all sorts of powers that could be given to law enforcement agencies, but which are not, due to the need to protect individual rights and the rule of law - effectiveness should never be the only yardstick by which law enforcement powers are assessed.
"The ends of crime detection, prevention and reduction cannot in themselves justify the means of indiscriminate data-gathering and processing." | Police in London have tested software designed to identify which gang members are most likely to commit violent crimes. |
32728531 | Devon and Cornwall Police said the men were hurt when they responded to reports of a man making threats to another resident in Kingsbridge, Devon, at about 17:00 BST.
A 53-year-old man, named locally as Stephen Yabsley, was arrested on suspicion of assault.
Both officers sustained arm injuries and had operations in hospital.
The injuries were said to be non-life-threatening.
Armed officers from the force were involved in negotiations with a man at a house in Retreat Close, which ended at about 20:30 BST.
A spokesman said they "safely brought the incident to a close". Police said a total of 35 officers were involved in the operation.
The road was cordoned off and people in the "immediate vicinity" were evacuated from their homes.
One of the police officers was taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and the other to Torquay Hospital. | Two police officers have been injured - one seriously - in an attack involving "electrical power tools". |
33303234 | Crosby said the singer-songwriter had suffered a brain aneurysm and faced a long struggle.
"She is home, she is in care, she is recovering," he told Huffington Post. "How much she's going to come back, and when, I don't know."
There has been no official confirmation of Mitchell's condition.
The 71-year-old was found unconscious in her Los Angeles home on 31 March and taken to hospital.
A statement released on her website several days later said the singer was "resting comfortably" and continued to "improve and get stronger each day".
Her representatives later denied Mitchell was in a coma, saying "she's alert, and she has her full senses".
"She took a terrible hit," said Crosby on Saturday. "She had an aneurysm, and nobody found her for a while. And she's going to have to struggle back from it the way you struggle back from a traumatic brain injury.
"To my knowledge, she is not speaking yet."
Crosby and Mitchell dated in 1967, when he was still a member of the Byrds. They have remained close friends ever since.
"She's a tough girl and very smart," he said. "I love her. She's probably the best of us — probably the greatest living singer-songwriter.
"[But] I think we're all holding our breath and thinking of goodbye, you know? And hoping it's gonna turn out ok." | Joni Mitchell is still unable to speak after being found unconscious in her home in March, according to her friend David Crosby. |
35356550 | He also claimed fixing is not just limited to lower-ranked professionals and is "a secret that everybody knows".
The player, who requested anonymity, said tennis authorities "know who is doing it" but are unwilling to stop it.
The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) said it rejects "any suggestion that evidence of match-fixing has been suppressed".
"We invite the player behind the allegations to make contact with the TIU and to share the information he claims to have," the TIU added in a statement.
The allegations come after a BBC and BuzzFeed News investigation revealed suspected illegal betting in tennis over the past decade.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC's World Have Your Say team, the player, who featured in several tour matches last year and is now a coach, detailed how the fixers operate and the lengths they go to in order to remain undetected.
"This is like a secret on the tour that everybody knows, but we don't talk about it," said the player, whose identity is known by the BBC. "We just see it and keep working."
The player claimed "three big groups" control betting in tennis and that any payments to players are made using cash, with no bank-to-bank transfers allowed.
"Each group has many guys who go to talk to players," he said. "They have many guys inside the circuit.
"Also, they have many accounts. They have 50-60 accounts where they place small money. At the end, it's huge money. It's really big."
The BBC subsequently attempted to contact the player again to ask for clarification on exactly how much a player could earn from match-fixing in a year, but he was unavailable.
"You know who is doing it and who is not," he continued. "As a player, I know who is missing on purpose or returning a shot in the middle on purpose... who is trying, and who is not. So we work on this. We know."
He also claimed players exchange knowing smiles and make comments that indicate they have fixed a match.
"I started to believe [top players were involved] a few years ago, when a guy told me the result of the next two tournaments" he said.
"He told me exactly who was going to win and how it was going to happen.
"In the beginning, I thought he was just bragging about it to make me fall for his game. But then I was laughing that every match was happening the way he had been telling me it was going to happen... and I'm talking about a Masters series, where there are just big names."
Not just that, added the player, but "exactly" how they would win.
"When I was watching it myself," he said, "I couldn't believe it. It's not easy knowing that you have to lose. You start hitting it and, trust me, everything goes in… it can make you panic.
"So when I see the guy winning so easily and then he's missing absolutely on purpose, every ball, and the other guy wins... I just couldn't believe it."
Media playback is not supported on this device
"We could co-operate with Tennis Integrity if we wanted to, but they don't want it to be stopped," he said.
He claimed fewer players would be tempted to fix if they were getting paid more, insisting a player ranked 400 in the world cannot make a living out of tennis.
"They [the authorities] know exactly who is doing it and, if they wanted to stop it, they could stop it today. It's super-easy. They just don't want to do it."
In response, the TIU said it has a "zero-tolerance approach which is enforced with the full powers of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program that includes lifetime bans and punitive financial penalties".
It added: "The TIU works closely with players to prevent corruption through education programmes and confidential reporting systems.
"The great majority of the 21,000 active professional players are good people of high integrity who abhor the suggestion that the sport they love is tainted with allegations of corruption."
A study conducted on behalf of the International Tennis Federation in 2013 showed that 45% of the 13,736 players at all professional levels of the sport earned nothing from it and only about 10% covered their costs.
Of 8,874 male and 4,862 female respondents to the survey, 3,896 male and 2,212 female earned no prize money.
Other findings in the study, conducted by Kingston University and calculated here at the 2016 exchange rate, showed:
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British number one Andy Murray said he has never been approached to fix a match and called on the tennis authorities to be "proactive".
"As a player, you just want to be made aware of everything that's going on. I think we deserve to know everything that's out there," he said.
World number one Novak Djokovic says he rejected £110,000 to lose a match early in his career but said there is "no real proof" of fixing among the elite.
"From my knowledge and information about match-fixing, there is nothing happening at the top level, as far as I know," he said.
Seventeen-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer said he wanted more information about who might be guilty, saying: "I would love to hear names. Then at least it's concrete stuff and you can actually debate about it."
Women's world number one Serena Williams said that if match-fixing was taking place she "didn't know about it", adding: "When I'm playing, I can only answer for me. I play very hard, and every player I play seems to play hard."
In a statement released to the BBC, the TIU said: "The TIU and the tennis authorities absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match-fixing has been suppressed for any reason.
"The sport has a zero-tolerance approach which is enforced with the full powers of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program, which includes lifetime bans and punitive financial penalties.
"Since 2009 all professional players, support staff and officials have been subject to this stringent code, which makes it compulsory to report any corrupt approaches or knowledge of suspected corrupt practices to the TIU. Failure to do so is a breach of the Program which can be subject to disciplinary action.
"The TIU works closely with players to prevent corruption through education programmes and confidential reporting systems. The great majority of the 21,000 active professional players are good people of high integrity who abhor the suggestion that the sport they love is tainted with allegations of corruption.
"We invite the player behind the allegations to make contact with the TIU and to share the information he claims to have."
The Association Of Tennis Professionals (ATP) was also contacted for comment but did not respond.
Listen to the full BBC World Have Your Say interview. | An ex-tennis player from South America has told the BBC that match-fixing is commonplace and even some elite players are "a little bit dirty in some way". |
38321757 | Snowdonia National Park Authority has two wardens on the mountain with another on a seasonal contract.
Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team (MRT), which dealt with 202 callouts in 2016 compared to 193 in 2015, said more were needed to give advice to walkers.
The Welsh Government said £400,000 extra had been given to the authority since 2013.
Secretary of Llanberis MRT, George Jones, said having more wardens available would mean visitors could be spoken to and given safety tips, hopefully preventing some callouts.
"We react and there is only so much that we can do," he said.
"A successful year for us would be a decrease in the number of incidents, not an increase."
Snowdonia, like the other two national parks in Wales, has seen its funding cut in recent years.
But the park's chief executive Emyr Williams told Newyddion 9 the priority within the current budget was to "maintain the compliment of wardens" on Snowdon.
The number of people visiting the mountain has reached 600,000 per year and Llanberis MRT works with a team of 53 volunteers.
Its vice-chairman, John Grisdale, said: "If you turn back several decades we were turning out to 40 or 50 incidents a year.
"It has been quite a phenomenal growth over the last few years. Snowdon is like a honey pot - one of the busiest mountains in Britain."
A Welsh Government spokesman said: "Mountain rescue teams do great work and as the adventure sector continues to grow there is no doubt rescue teams will need the help of educators in minimising the risk of people needing their assistance.
"We will continue to work with partners and the industry so that people can enjoy Wales and be safe." | A rescue team wants extra cash for more wardens to work on Snowdon after its busiest year on record. |
40687023 | Denbighshire council is in talks with an unnamed party over the sale of the castle, which is currently run by a trust as a museum and art gallery.
In March the council said would be cutting the trust's annual grant of £144,000 from next year.
The council has been asked to comment.
This led to the trust having to sever its links with the National Portrait Gallery, with its collection of 130 paintings returned in April and seven trust staff being made redundant.
Set in 260 acres, the first castle on the site was built in about 1460 before it was rebuilt in the 1830s.
The freehold sale includes the castle, lawns and event arena.
The council will retain the woodland and parkland which includes the recently reconstructed World War One trenches.
Running alongside the castle's museum and gallery is the Bodelwyddan Castle Hotel which recently underwent a £6m upgrade.
It is run by the Warner Group, which is understood to be interested in taking over the whole complex.
A spokesman for Warner Leisure Hotels said: "We have spoken to the Denbighshire County Council about the future plans for the castle and those discussions continue". | One of Denbighshire's top tourist attractions, Bodelwyddan Castle, is expected to be sold by the county council. |
35027342 | 8 December 2015 Last updated at 11:16 GMT
Storm Desmond battered parts of northern England and some areas of Scotland at the weekend, leaving thousands of homes without electricity and forcing emergency services to use boats to get people to safety.
Newsround spoke to two kids who had to climb out of their bedroom window to reach a rescue boat because the flood water had filled the downstairs of their house.
Watch their incredible story here. | Kids in Cumbria have been explaining how they were rescued from the major floods that have hit the area. |
33761337 | Milton Keynes Council has estimated the case against Tina Beloveth Powerful will cost around £8,000.
Powerful has been found guilty of fraud, but has failed to turn up for sentencing on three occasions.
Milton Keynes North MP Mark Lancaster said taxpayers should not have to pay for the trial.
The case against Powerful is being brought by Milton Keynes Trading Standards.
The council told the BBC it will have cost "around £8,000" when finished.
Tina Beloveth Powerful timeline:
•17 October, 2014: Tina Beloveth Powerful was first listed to appear at magistrates' court, but failed to attend
•11 November, 2014: The case was adjourned three times, including two no shows, before Powerful pleaded not guilty
•24 April: On the seventh time the case had gone to court, the trial had to be adjourned after Powerful shouted at magistrates
•19 June: Powerful found guilty
•10 July: Powerful supplied a sick note to the court, case adjourned
•17 July: Powerful failed to attend sentencing for a second time. A warrant was issued for her arrest
•24 July: Despite being arrested and bailed to appear at the court, Powerful again failed to attend. An arrest warrant, without bail, was issued
During the trial, the court heard Powerful has no income.
Mr Lancaster, said: "Despite her best efforts to avoid it, justice has finally caught up on Tina Beloveth.
"It's clear the cost to the taxpayer has been disproportionately high as a result of her failing to turn up to court. I believe that she and not the taxpayer should pay for this."
Powerful, 47, from Milton Keynes, was described as "dishonest" at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court after being found guilty of fraud and false advertising.
£8,000
Estimated cost of the prosecution
11 times the case has come to Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court
3 times Tina Beloveth Powerful has failed to appear for sentencing
October 2014 when the case first came to court
She had offered courses and degrees that her Everest School of Transformational Management did not have the correct accreditation for and advertised facilities that did not exist, including a library.
The case went to court eight times before she was convicted.
On one occasion, the trial had to be adjourned after Powerful - representing herself - started to shout at the clerk and magistrates.
Since being found guilty, Powerful has failed to turn up for sentencing three times.
On the last occasion, a warrant was issued for her arrest without bail but Thames Valley Police confirmed this has not yet been executed. | The cost of a trial of a bogus business school owner which has gone to court 11 times is "disproportionately high," according to an MP. |
38325180 | The blaze erupted in a restaurant at Fleet services on the M3 at 22:30 GMT on Wednesday, leading police to temporarily close the southbound lanes.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) said 100 firefighters were sent to the scene.
Firefighters from Surrey were also called and crews stopped the blaze spreading to other buildings.
The fire was brought under control in the early hours. No-one was injured.
Crews have remained at the scene to dampen down and prevent any re-ignition.
The service station on the southbound carriageway and the slip road leading to it on the M3 remain closed.
The footbridge which runs over Fleet services on the M3, named after BBC Radio 1's Scott Mills, is also closed due to smoke logging.
Fleet Fire Station tweeted: "†| A large fire broke out at a motorway service station, causing part of the carriageway to close |
36963402 | Media playback is not supported on this device
The International Cycling Union's (UCI) WorldTour also includes the Grand Tour races of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana.
Belgian Tom Boonen won the 2016 RideLondon-Surrey Classic on Sunday.
"We are absolutely thrilled by this news," said event director Hugh Brasher.
Find out how to get into cycling with our special guide.
"It was set up as a legacy event from London 2012 and to rise to the top echelon of professional men's cycling after such a short period of time is truly outstanding."
The first London-Surrey Classic was held in 2011, as a test event for the London 2012 Olympics, and subsequent races have been based on the course used for the London Games.
The UCI has expanded the number of WorldTour races from 27 to 37, with the Tour of California becoming the USA's first event on the calendar. | The RideLondon-Surrey Classic has become the first men's race in Britain to achieve elite-level status after being added to the WorldTour calendar. |
39078680 | Proposals for the project in Duns were lodged with Scottish Borders Council last year.
It has now given planning permission for the £1.65m scheme to proceed.
A £300,000 crowdfunding campaign has been launched to complete the financial package required to take the project forward.
Scottish Borders Council has pledged £620,000 towards the museum with a similar sum being sought from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
It is hoped the public can supply the remaining funds necessary to meet the total costs of the scheme.
Concerns were raised about the new building being out of keeping with the area and the increased pressure on parking it would produce.
However, a council planning officer concluded it would have a "positive impact" on the town centre and not detract from its character.
Planning permission has been given subject to the work starting in the next three years.
It is hoped the development could be completed by 2018 - the 50th anniversary of Clark's death at Hockenheim in Germany, aged just 32.
The driver was born in Kilmany in Fife, but raised in the Borders, and was crowned Formula One world champion in 1963 and 1965. He won a total of 25 grand prix races. | A museum celebrating the achievements of two-time Formula One world champion Jim Clark has received planning permission. |
30323439 | The inquiry is currently examining what happened at the Haut de la Garenne children's home in the 1960s and 1970s.
On Wednesday, the panel was shown memos and letters between child care officers about a man accused of assaulting girls from the home.
They allege he sexually abused some children after giving them alcohol.
Documents, including statements given to police and the historical abuse redress scheme, show girls were assaulted by a man in his own home near Haut de la Garenne.
One document detailed a complaint of abuse against the man, who cannot be named, by two girls from the home.
No action was taken against him and the police considered prosecuting at least one of the girls for drunken behaviour, the document said.
Letters from the time show management at the home made the man's house out of bounds to children and told staff to report any occasions when children visited his house, the inquiry heard.
The inquiry was also shown a statement made to the police in 2008, in which a former male resident said he was raped by the head of the home after being accused of stealing.
Despite needing medical attention, he said nothing happened to his abuser.
Official documents made no mention of sexual abuse but refer to the witness's deteriorating behaviour and staff frustration at his inability to deal with his problems.
The inquiry heard that repeated requests for the boy, who moved to Haut de la Garenne in the 1960s, to be assessed by a unit in the UK were finally met in 1975.
The inquiry continues. | A girl who made allegations of abuse in the 1970s was nearly prosecuted for being drunk, the Jersey care inquiry has heard. |
32747545 | It depicted the official budget website with "science" typed into its search field, and the response: "A software error has occurred."
On Twitter, people from the country's scientific community also commented more seriously on the absence of the word "science" in Treasurer Joe Hockey's speech. Others noted the lack of any mention of climate change.
While medical research received a large injection of funds, university research funding was cut, as was financial support for co-operative research centres, which bring industry and scientists together to forge solutions to some of the biggest environmental, social and economic challenges facing the country.
The Australian Academy of Science was quick to point out that, although some scientific endeavours were singled out for cash injections, overall investment in science would continue to decline.
"As the mining boom slows, this should be a time of growth in science funding to allow us to better prepare for the knowledge economy we need. Instead our future prosperity is at risk," Academy president Prof Andrew Holmes said.
On the back of deep cuts to the nation's science agency, the CSIRO, in 2014 and consequent staff losses estimated at more than 20%, Australia's scientific community has been reeling from an increasing sense it is being sidelined.
Nowhere has this been more acutely felt than in the field of climate change research, which continues to be questioned even at the most senior levels of government.
On Sunday, Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce expressed his scepticism that the weather was affected by human-induced climate change in a television interview with conservative News Corp blogger and commentator, Andrew Bolt.
"There's an ebb and flow in temperatures all the time," he said, when questioned about climate forecasting from what Mr Bolt described as the "warmist" institutions of the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology.
The chief business advisor to Prime Minister Tony Abbott made headlines across the country last week when he penned a newspaper opinion piece arguing climate change was a ruse co-opted by the UN to take control of the world and end democracy.
Maurice Newman, the chairman of Mr Abbott's Business Advisory Council, was writing in The Australian, News Corp's conservative national broadsheet.
"This is not about facts or logic," he wrote. "It's about a new world order under the control of the UN. It is opposed to capitalism and freedom and has made environmental catastrophism a household topic to achieve its objective."
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt distanced himself from Mr Newman's comments.
"It's not been something that I've expressed," he said. "It's not something that I would express."
While the Australian government officially accepts that human-induced climate change is occurring, the prime minister has made a number of public statements on the phenomenon in the recent past, including that it is "absolute crap".
When the current administration came to power in 2013, Australia was without a science minister for just the second time in more than 80 years. The portfolio was finally teamed with industry more than a year later.
Leading climate change expert Prof David Karoly said fear of further funding cuts under the Abbott government was such that scientists within the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology were now self-censoring.
"There's considerable nervousness in the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO about making statements about climate change," the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report contributor and chapter editor said.
Prof Karoly said Australia had entered an era where only a "selective trust of science" existed.
The nation's chief scientist, Prof Ian Chubb, did not disagree. But he said he would be "appalled" if scientists were censoring their findings.
"I hope that we would never get to that position where scientists fear telling people what they need to know," he told the BBC.
The so-called climate deniers represented "a very small drum beaten loudly", Prof Chubb said. He described Mr Newman's recent opinion piece as drivel.
Speaking to the BBC before this year's budget was handed down, he expressed hope for a bright future for Australian science despite recent funding cuts.
"Of course I was disappointed in last year's funding cuts," he said. "No matter how you portray them they were disappointing."
It was inconceivable to be a prosperous country and responsible global citizen without high-quality science, even if research had to be strategically prioritised should funding continued to be rationed, he said.
The Minister for Industry and Science Ian Macfarlane said much the same - and denied any CSIRO scientists were censoring their findings.
"The Australian government continues to make strategic, targeted and smart new investments in Australia's science and research capacity, including almost $70m in the additional funding in the 2015-16 budget for the nation's leading scientific research organisations to build world-class infrastructure that will create stronger connections between research and industry," a spokesman for the minister said. | Shortly after Australia's annual government budget was handed down on Tuesday night, an image began circulating, tongue-in-cheek, on social media. |
38152644 | Paul Briggs, 43, of Wirral, Merseyside, suffered a brain injury in a crash in July 2015.
Lindsey Briggs told Manchester Court of Protection he would not have wanted to live as living without his independence would be "torture".
Doctors at the Walton Centre in Liverpool are opposing the application.
PC Briggs, a Gulf War veteran, suffered a bleed on the brain and five fractures in his spine in the collision and is being kept alive through medical intervention.
Specialist speech and language therapist Mary Ankers told the court there was still "potential" for him to emerge from the minimally conscious state.
"His responses in terms of command following... have certainly become more consistent."
The court heard staff would give PC Briggs a buzzer and ask him questions which he could respond to by pressing the buzzer once for yes or twice for no.
Ms Ankers said in 47 out of 64 sessions he had been able to respond to commands from staff at least once, an improvement on an assessment earlier this year.
But she told the court his response to higher-level tasks was "highly inconsistent".
Consultant neurologist Dr Shajufay Mahendran told the court she believed PC Briggs might benefit from going to a rehabilitation unit.
She said: "Unless we've given Mr Briggs that chance, we haven't actually explored the maximum we could for him."
"We haven't explored what potential rehabilitation has and what potential of recovery there is."
She said PC Briggs was only able to control movement of his head, eyes, the toes on his right foot and his right index finger.
Chelsea Rowe, 26, was given a 12-month prison term in July after admitting causing serious injury to PC Briggs by dangerous driving in Birkenhead.
The hearing is expected to continue until Thursday. | An injured police officer whose wife wants medics to end his life support has potential to come out of minimally conscious state, a court heard. |
35111133 | Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews has said cutting the 22 councils to eight or nine could save £650m over 10 years.
Prof Colin Copus of De Montfort University said 50 years of evidence contradicted the "stubborn, folk-lore" idea that bigger councils cut costs.
He said as councils become less local, trust in them also declines.
Writing for the Welsh think tank Gorwel, Prof Copus said the "cull of councillors" seen in England in 2009 left fewer councillors covering larger areas.
He said they were left trying to hold "large bureaucratic organisations" to account without being full-time salaried politicians like MPs.
Prof Copus added that the "implicit assumption" was that the purpose of local government was "to do what it is told by the centre". | Merging Welsh councils into larger authorities could damage local democracy, an academic has claimed. |
39931866 | Luis Alviarez, 17, was hit in the chest during clashes with police in the western state of Tachira.
At a separate protest in the state, Diego Hérnandez, 33, was also killed.
Near-daily demonstrations began seven weeks ago, demanding early elections and an end to the country's deep economic crisis.
President Maduro has accused the leader of the opposition-led National Assembly, Julio Borges, of inciting violence by calling people on to the streets.
About 40 people have been killed since the unrest began.
Protesters began taking to the streets from 07:00 (03:00 GMT) on Monday morning to set up road blocks to "paralyse the country".
Offices of the state-run power company, Corpoelec, were also set alight in the northern Carabobo state on Monday, with the government blaming the opposition.
Three policemen were injured during protests in the state, authorities said, with one mistakenly reported dead by the local governor.
Meanwhile, video emerged online of Hérnandez, lying in the street with blood pouring from his chest, apparently having been shot in the town of Capacho Nuevo.
Ombudsman Tarek Saab said he had contacted various authorities to instigate an "exhaustive investigation" into Monday's deaths.
Last month, Saab's son, Yibram Saab, posted a video on YouTube, calling for his father to do more to stop the violence.
"That could've been me!", he said in relation to a previous death of a young protester, Juan Pablo Pernalete.
The recent unrest began when the Supreme Court attempt to take over powers from the assembly on 29 March.
It reversed its decision a few days later but by then the opposition had seized the momentum.
Despite having the world's largest known oil reserves, Venezuela is facing a shortage of many basic items, including food and medicines.
Its economy has collapsed, with inflation expected to top 700% this year, and crime is rampant.
The opposition says the socialist governments of Mr Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, have mismanaged the economy since coming to power in 1999.
It is calling for early elections and the release of opposition politicians jailed over the past few years.
Mr Maduro accuses the country's business elite of boycotting the economy to create unrest and topple his democratically elected government. His term ends in January 2019. | Two Venezuelans, including one teenager, were killed on Monday during another day of mass protests against President Nicolas Maduro. |
29654069 | But in Northern Ireland, it can feel like God is a political player.
A number of our politicians, including ministers, have faith and talk about it.
That makes Northern Ireland different to many other countries in the Western world.
Professor John Brewer from Queen's University in Belfast has researched links between politics and religion.
"In most places, politicians keep their personal beliefs private - and they don't impact on their public role as a politician," he told BBC Northern Ireland programme The View.
"In Northern Ireland, the division between the public and the private has collapsed."
Recently, that has led to some controversy.
LGBT rights and abortion are two issues in particular where the relationship between politicians' beliefs and their decisions have come under scrutiny.
But a politician's faith can reach into many policy areas.
I have been speaking to three MLAs who profess to be believers about how they would deal with a clash between their Christian beliefs and public opinion.
DUP assembly member Sammy Douglas says: "I would talk to people - fellow members of my party, my family, people within the community - and I would pray about some of these issues as well."
He says he would make decisions after speaking to people in whom he had "a lot of confidence and trust".
Alliance Party leader David Ford suggests his beliefs would play a part, but he would not take a position based on that alone.
"I have to be conscious that I have responsibility to wider society - not all people have the views I have," he says.
The SDLP's Alban Maginness says Christianity has been "the inspiration" for his politics.
"It has created a hunger for social justice," he says.
But he adds: "You have to make a balanced judgement - you have to take into consideration your own party's point of view. If there's a collective view, you are generally supportive of that view."
This week at Stormont, religion has been perhaps more visibly central than usual.
A choir from First Baptist Concord Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, sang for MLAs and staff in the Great Hall on Wednesday lunchtime.
In their home country, the separation of church and state is enshrined in the constitution - as is freedom of religion.
Faith is often seen as playing a major role in US politics.
The Worship Pastor accompanying the singers, Jeff Lawrence, says it is almost inconceivable that a US president could be a non-believer.
"When you take an oath of office, you place your hand on the Bible," he explains.
"On all of our coins, it says, 'In God We Trust,' so it's the foundation of our country.
"It would be very difficult for the people of the US to elect somebody who could not say they believed in God."
In America, the 'Christian Right' is an influential - and high-profile - political phenomenon.
But does Christianity lead politicians to be right-wing, or would it encourage them to lean to the left?
Alban Maginness argues it's the latter.
"I believe that social justice is quintessentially Christianity in the world - you move to the left in order to achieve that," he claims.
Interestingly, Sammy Douglas also suggests Christian politicians should be oriented to the left.
"Jesus was left of centre, from what I see," Mr Douglas says.
"He would have big problems with some of the statements coming from the Tory party about disadvantaged people, and young people in particular."
But David Ford thinks being a Christian does not point you in one political direction or another.
"I'm not sure that if Christ was on this earth today he would be tied to any political party," he says.
The relationship between Christianity and politics has always been complicated - and controversial.
In many parts of the developed world, religion has become less politically influential with the spread of secularisation.
While the levels of churchgoing are still higher in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK, church attendance is declining.
The most recent Life and Times survey suggested that fewer than 30% of people are now attending services once a week or more.
But University of Ulster sociologist Dr Máire Braniff says that this does not necessarily mean Northern Ireland is becoming secularised.
"Secularisation is not a word that sits easily - perhaps a better term is 'unchurched'," she says.
"That means people in Northern Ireland continue to have their religious beliefs, but do not always have to practise them in the ritualistic way of attending church services on a regular basis."
So the link between politics and the pulpit may be becoming weaker.
But with the latest census showing 83% of people in Northern Ireland continue to identify with a religion, it seems faith will continue to be a force.
The View is on BBC Northern Ireland on Thursday 16 October at 22:35 BST. | Tony Blair's spin doctor Alastair Campbell once famously said: "We don't do God." |
40342122 | Research has been carried out and more money is being pumped in to try to finally find out why there has been a year on year decline since 2004.
In the meantime, cockle fishers there are fearing for their futures in what used to be a thriving multi-million pound industry which dates back to Roman times.
The once 24/7 operation which saw exports across Europe is now a situation of less work and little financial reward.
The annual mortality rate sees most stocks wiped out but it is not the only problem. The average size of a cockle used to be up to 19mm but can now be as small as 8mm.
And there is no sign of improvement on either front any time soon.
Haydn Hughes, who has held a licence to fish for cockles for 50 years, said: "When I started in 1967 it was 24/7. Now we are only working four or five months a year.
"In 1967, it was 350kg of prime cockles. We are still getting to 250-350kg now but they are worthless. They are too small.
"They are worth like 30p per kilogram whereas years ago it was £1.50 to £2 per kilogram."
He said at one time in the late 1990s his team was exporting up to four lorry loads of cockles to Spain while others were sending to the Netherlands.
Fishermen have been critical of the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) for how the situation has been handled, including lack of progress in pinning down the problem.
A three-year investigation ending in 2012 ruled out pollution from sewerage works with the finger being pointed towards a likely combination of parasites, overcrowding and conditioning of cockles after spawning.
In a separate report released in 2015, scientist Matthew Longshaw said it was "highly likely" the diseased cockles at the root of the problem may have come from Europe to be processed at the Burry Inlet, with the parasites washed into the estuary.
However, the exact cause is still unknown and as a result a solution yet to be found.
Cockle fisher Neal Page said he has lost about £50,000 a year.
"I saw on a BBC programme the other evening that the TB outbreak has cost the Welsh Government £150m in compensation for the farmers," he said.
"In the 14 years, I've never had a single penny compensation when my stock is dying year on year. Why?"
The owner of one of Wales' biggest cockle processors, Selwyn's Seafood - a family business running for more than 100 years - is also concerned for the future.
Ashley Jones said: "The cockles are so small at the moment, the UK market is the only market for them. The European market does not accept them.
"We feel the cockle is substandard because of the size and customers are not buying them.
"I am very concerned for the processors and the gatherers because I can't see how we can introduce young blood into the industry when fishermen are earning less than £9,000 per annum.
"We've certainly had to diversify, going into other areas looking for cockles, travelling the country and into Europe to keep our factories running and also looking to diversify into other products.
"We simply can't sit still otherwise we'll be out of business before we know it."
Huwel Manley, operations manager for NRW, said a new investigation announced on Tuesday aimed to address "unanswered questions" from the 2012 study.
The Welsh Government has been asked to comment. | A blame game has been rumbling on for years over why cockles on the Burry Inlet near Llanelli are dying, but there is still no definitive answer. |
32062714 | The band performed on Wednesday night in Indonesia as news of their bandmate's decision to quit was still breaking around the world.
Harry walked around on stage, head in hands as he started to cry.
A statement released by Zayn Malik on Wednesday said "it's time for me to leave".
It began: "My life with One Direction has been more than I could ever have imagined.
"But, after five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band. I'd like to apologise to the fans if I've let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right in my heart.
"I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight.
"I know I have four friends for life in Louis, Liam, Harry and Niall. I know they will continue to be the best band in the world."
The footage of Harry was taken as the band performed on stage in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, the latest stop on their On The Road Again Tour.
Last week it was announced Zayn had been signed off from the current tour with "stress".
It is unclear from the footage whether Harry, 21, was crying because of the news of Zayn or because fans were showing support by shouting his name.
At one point in the concert Liam Payne reportedly comforted him.
In a black T-shirt and with his hair up in his trademark man bun, Harry wandered around the stage with his head in his hands and wiping away tears.
Liam Payne told his 19.7 million Twitter followers: "So glad to be in bed after a long and strange 24 hours."
Bandmate Harry Styles sent a simple message to his 24.1 million Twitter followers, which read: "All the love as always. H."
Louis Tomlinson has also tweeted: "Your support has been incredible , truly incredible so thank you so much!
"Been a crazy couple of days but know that we are going to work harder than ever to deliver the best album we've ever made for you guys!"
Niall Horan was the last to tweet. He said: "Been a mad few days and your support has been incredible as per usual ! This in turn Spurs us on to make the best music we possibly can.
"Put on great shows / tours for you guys. You are the best fans in the world and you deserve nothing less from us!
"The lads and I arrived in South Africa this morning . We cannot wait to see all you SA fans for the first time and have great shows."
It's not the first time Harry has appeared to cry on stage.
Footage showed him snivelling at a gig in Melbourne, Australia, in 2013 while singing Over Again.
The band, minus Zayn, released a statement on Wednesday confirming to fans that the band would continue as a four-piece.
They will record their fifth album in Zayn's absence and will continue with the remaining dates on the band's world tour.
They were offered words of comfort from Take That's Gary Barlow.
Take That went from a five-piece to a four-piece in 1996 after Robbie Williams left to go solo.
Jason Orange also left the group last year.
Barlow tweeted: "Sending my best to all the 1D boys ! #thatters we've all been there haven't we ? !!!!!"
Cowell's fellow X Factor judge Louis Walsh said he'd heard rumours for a number of weeks that "everything wasn't happy in paradise".
He told Irish radio station RTE Radio One: "The problem with these guys is they've been in a bubble for the last five years, pressure, working, a lot harder than people think, so something had to give.
"So Zayn was the first person just to crack up a little bit."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | Harry Styles broke down in tears as One Direction took to the stage without Zayn Malik. |
34701448 | The plan for six wind turbines at Cam Burn, near Coleraine, was voted down at a council meeting in September.
But now Mark H Durkan has told the council he has decided to approve it.
And the timing means it got planning permission just before an important deadline that affects such developments.
It had to have approval by 30 October 2015 to qualify for subsidies before Northern Ireland's renewable scheme was closed to on-shore wind.
Those opposed to the proposal had raised concerns about its visual impact on the landscape, proximity to homes and potential environmental implications.
There had been 524 letters of objection.
Supporters had pointed to the construction benefits, that it would reduce carbon emissions by more than 320,000 tonnes over 25 years, and generate power for 6,482 homes.
There had been 896 letters of support.
Mr Durkan told the assembly he had called in the decision "due to the particular difficulties" arising from the closure of the on-shore wind farm scheme.
In an answer to a written assembly question by TUV leader Jim Alister, he said he had "also noted the potential economic and environmental contribution from this project".
The current minimum target is for Northern Ireland to generate 40% of its energy from renewables by 2020.
Northern Ireland currently produces 19.76% of its energy requirements from renewable sources, mostly on-shore wind.
Cam Burn wind farm is being built by Oxford-based TCI Renewables, which develops projects across the UK and North America.
It has around 20 in Northern Ireland, some of which are at the planning stage. Existing schemes include single turbines and wind farms. | An £18m wind farm, rejected by councillors, has been approved by the environment minister after the decision was reviewed by his department. |
38561507 | The Sinn Féin MLA's resignation will take effect from 17:00 GMT.
He cited the Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) conduct over the scandal surrounding the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme as the reason.
He said First Minister Arlene Foster has a "clear conflict of interest" in the scandal.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
If you want to receive Breaking News alerts via email, or on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App then details on how to do so are available on this help page. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts. | Martin McGuinness has said he will resign as Northern Ireland's deputy first minister in protest against the handling of a botched heating scheme. |
36603269 | Harrison, 23, who made his debut against Wales in May, replaces the injured James Haskell in Sydney.
The rest of the England 23 is unchanged with wing Jack Nowell fit to start after passing concussion protocols.
England beat Australia in both Brisbane and Melbourne to secure their first ever series win down under.
Wasps back-row Haskell performed impressively in those historic victories, but the Wasps player has failed to recover in time from a foot injury sustained in Saturday's 23-7 win in Melbourne.
England head coach Eddie Jones said: "You have to work extremely hard to earn an England cap so there was no temptation to make changes for the sake of change.
"Teimana has trained well throughout the tour and deserves his spot. He's an excellent defender and his robustness will be important to us at the start of the game."
England are unbeaten under Jones' tenure, winning all eight of their matches in 2016, sealing a first Grand Slam since 2003 and moving from eighth in the world rankings to second.
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Meanwhile, Australia have made three changes to their starting line-up.
Leicester-bound Matt Toomua replaces Samu Kerevi at inside centre, while Will Skelton partners Rob Simmons in the second row, meaning locks Rory Arnold and Sam Carter drop out.
Australia head coach Michael Cheika said the fit-again Toomua could have played in the second "but he needed more running in his legs".
Cheika added: "There's a long way to go yet in this season so I didn't want to burn him early. He's an experienced player, he plays in that role as second playmaker for us, so it was a logical choice."
England: Mike Brown; Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell, Jack Nowell; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Mako Vunipola, Dylan Hartley (captain), Dan Cole, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Chris Robshaw, Teimana Harrison, Billy Vunipola
Replacements: Jamie George, Matt Mullan, Paul Hill, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Jack Clifford, Danny Care, Elliot Daly
Australia: Israel Folau, Dane Haylett-Petty, Tevita Kuridrani, Matt Toomua, Rob Horne, Bernard Foley, Nick Phipps; James Slipper, Stephen Moore, Sekope Kepu, Will Skelton, Rob Simmons, Scott Fardy, Michael Hooper, Sean McMahon
Replacements (one player to be omitted): Tatafu Polota-Nau, Scott Sio, Greg Holmes, Adam Coleman, Dean Mumm, Wycliff Palu, Nick Frisby, Christian Lealiifano, Taqele Naiyaravoro
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox. | Northampton flanker Teimana Harrison will start for England in Saturday's third Test against Australia as Eddie Jones' men aim for a whitewash. |
35924468 | Blackwell is in an induced coma after a small bleed on his brain was found.
Ex-super-bantamweight Oliver suffered life-threatening head injuries in a European title fight in 1998, aged 22.
"The swollen eye effectively brought the doctor in and the doctor stopped the fight. That probably saved his life," Oliver told BBC Wiltshire.
"In round seven, Eubank had a big round and that is when maybe the referee could have jumped in and stopped the fight.
"But there was never any time that Blackwell looked in any serious trouble so the referee let it go on [until the swollen eye]."
Referee Victor Loughlin stopped Saturday's fight in round 10 on the advice of the ringside doctor.
The British Board of Boxing Control said it was satisfied with how Saturday's bout was handled, after suggestions from Eubank Jr's camp and some pundits that the fight should have been stopped sooner.
At the end of the eighth round, Chris Eubank Sr - a former world champion - told his son to aim his shots at Blackwell's body rather than his head.
Oliver was defending his European title at London's Royal Albert Hall in May 1998 against Ukraine's Sergei Devakov, who knocked him down in the 10th round.
He was given oxygen by paramedics in the ring and, after 15 minutes of treatment, was taken to Charing Cross Hospital, apparently unconscious and wearing a neck brace.
The British fighter later had a blood clot removed from his brain and went on to make a full recovery, but retired from boxing.
As well as wishing 25-year-old Blackwell a full recovery, Oliver also hopes the Wiltshire middleweight will find "direction in life" in the future.
"This is a young kid who is at the top of his career and it's going to all be taken away from him," Oliver said. "He's a kid that is on his way up. It's going to be very difficult for him.
"For me, to be told I could never box again was very, very difficult. Every boxer wakes up, trains, trains again and then goes back to sleep, so there is a massive hole in your life that you have to fill."
Oliver continued: "For Nick, who is currently in the biggest fight of his life there battling away in hospital - and please God, he comes through and makes a full recovery. He will need to then find some direction in life." | The swelling over Nick Blackwell's eye that ended his fight with Chris Eubank Jr may have saved his life, according to former boxer Spencer Oliver. |
32158096 | Security sources say 15 soldiers and two civilians died when gunmen attacked checkpoints around the town of Sheikh Zuweid on Thursday.
Egyptian forces have been fighting a faction affiliated to the Islamic State group, known as Sinai Province.
Dozens of soldiers and civilians have already been killed this year in northern Sinai.
In the latest incident, gunmen fired on soldiers with automatic rifles and rockets as part of a co-ordinated set of attacks, police officials say.
The army claimed to have killed at least 70 suspected militants in March.
Sinai Province was known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis until it pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in November.
It said it was behind most of the major attacks in Sinai, including a series of strikes that left at least 30 people dead on 29 January.
Militants based in Sinai have killed hundreds of soldiers and police since the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013. | Militants have reportedly killed 17 people in the north of Egypt's Sinai peninsula, near the Israel-Gaza border. |
36092671 | Judith Thompson also told a committee of MPs at Westminister that national security should not be used to hide uncomfortable facts.
Ms Thompson was giving evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
She testified about the issues affecting victims of the Troubles.
She also addressed the efforts to secure a political agreement on how best to deal with the past.
One of the hurdles surrounds the government's use of national security when it comes to deciding what information can be made public.
The victims commissioner described the controversy around national security as the "elephant in the corner" which needs to be addressed.
Ms Thompson told the committee that 500,000 people in Northern Ireland- equivalent to about one third of the population - have been affected by the Troubles
She said about 200,000 of those have mental health issues, while 40,000 have suffered injuries
The victims commissioner said that only 18,000 people have come forward for help
She was challenged by DUP MP Gavin Robinson about remarks she made in March about government hiding behind national security. Mr Robinson asked her whether she thought such language was helpful.
"Do you believe that government is using national security issues as a rock of convenience to hide uncomfortable truths?" Mr Robinson asked Ms Thompson.
Ms Thompson replied: "I believe that there has not yet been full openness and disclosure on anyone's part about the past and yes government, as other players, would be part of that."
However, she said she believed a way could be found to break the deadlock.
"It should be possible to find a mechanism that is seen as sufficiently impartial to determine if something is a matter for national security or personal safety and to do so without compromising the government's right to be in control of that," she said.
"That is the conversation which needs to be happening right now.
"One of the big issues for many on both parts of the community is a loss of trust in each other and in government.
"Re-establishing trust is essential and so therefore having an oversight mechanism which people can accept as being impartial so that national security and people's safety can be preserved, but people know it's not something anyone can use to hide uncomfortable facts."
The commissioner said the package of measures for dealing with the past in the Stormont House Agreement should be implemented as soon as possible. But she warned that the financial resources may not be in place to fully implement the package.
It also emerged during Wednesday morning's session that 30 UDR widows have lost their pensions after remarrying. Ms Thompson said this needed to addressed in the interest of equality. | Northern Ireland's victims commissioner has said the government, like others in Northern Ireland, have not been open about their activities in the past. |
37513322 | Kenichi Phillips, 18, was targeted as he sat in a parked car driven in Birmingham on 17 March.
His brother Kwamae Phillips, who was driving, and passenger Khaleel Johnson, narrowly missed being injured by a second shot, the jury heard.
Disharn Downie, 18, and Dean Silvera, 37, are on trial charged with murder.
Birmingham Crown Court heard there had been a conversation between those in the car and the accused about "who was staring at whom".
A shot was fired and Mr Phillips staggered out of the car and collapsed in an alleyway where he was "left to die alone in a pool of blood", prosecutor Karim Khalil QC said.
A mobile hairdresser found the teenager by following a trail of his blood, having spotted the shattered window of the car.
A "significant quantity" of drugs were found both on the victim and in the vehicle.
Mr Khalil said both men who survived the shooting will deny the group were at the scene in St Marks Crescent, Ladywood, to deal drugs.
They fled on foot after the victim's brother crashed the car in a panicked attempted to get away.
Mr Downie, of Gravel Bank, Birmingham, and Mr Silvera, of Stamford Grove, Perry Barr, deny murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Mr Silvera is also said to have assisted Mr Downie and a third man, Isaiah Mr Wright-Young, by driving them away from the scene.
The court was told the latter is "on the run".
The trial continues. | An 18-year-old was shot in the throat and killed because he strayed onto a rival drug dealer's turf, a court heard. |
39323196 | Sammon struck a late equaliser in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Partick Thistle, his second goal in two games and third since joining from Hearts.
And interim Kilmarnock manager Lee McCulloch said: "If he keeps playing and scoring goals, he should be going away on international duty.
"He's brilliant to work with."
Sammon, who joined Hearts from Derby County last summer, has won nine caps but has not featured for his country since 2013.
The 30-year-old failed to shine at Tynecastle, scoring once in 22 games, but he has found the net three times in seven appearances in his second spell at Rugby Park.
"He's really enjoying his football again," said McCulloch.
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"At his previous club, his confidence was shot to pieces, for maybe a number of reasons, I don't know.
"But he knows this is sort of his second home.
"He's been here before, he's fired goals in here before."
Sammon won a move to Wigan Athletic after impressing in his previous spell with Kilmarnock, scoring 25 goals in 76 appearances.
He moved to Derby, but fell out of favour at the Rams and spent time on loan with Ipswich Town, Rotherham United and Sheffield United before joining Hearts.
"He's got everything, he scores goals, he's quick, he's strong, powerful, he's got a good strike on him," added McCulloch.
"He's keen to keep improving and he's brilliant for the young boys in the dressing-room.
"I'm delighted for him." | On-loan striker Conor Sammon is being backed to earn a Republic of Ireland recall thanks to rediscovering his goalscoring touch with Kilmarnock. |
40384129 | The body of 88-year-old Janet McKay, who had dementia, was found in Clydebank on 24 September 2015.
The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner was asked to review the handling of the case after it emerged a possible sighting was not passed on.
The Pirc report found "procedural and investigative failings".
It said officers had failed to take a statement from Mrs McKay's carer, who had visited her home in the Knightswood area of Glasgow on the day she went missing and would have been able to describe what she had been wearing.
The following day, police supervisors failed to act promptly in response to a reported sighting of Mrs McKay on the day she had gone missing.
Two days after Mrs McKay went missing, officers failed to pass on "significant information" about a sighting.
When this failure was recognised four days later, an officer failed to pass on the address of the person who had seen Mrs McKay - causing a further delay in progressing the information.
The report also said many officers had not followed standard procedures because they had were not fully aware of the guidance for missing person inquiries.
Although police had conducted a "timely" search for Mrs McKay, officers failed to obtain initial statements from key witnesses and failed to accurately record some of the initial information gathered.
Commissioner Kate Frame made a number of recommendations.
These included making all officers and staff aware of the procedures to be followed in such cases, and putting measures in place to ensure that the failings did not happen again.
She also said police should consider setting up a major incident room in high risk, vulnerable missing person investigations.
In a statement, Mrs McKay's family said: "We are aware of the findings of the Pirc report and are pleased to note that a number of recommendations have been made.
"We hope that going forward Police Scotland will look carefully at these recommendations and that valuable lessons have been learned.
"This has been a difficult time for our family. Janet was a loving mother and grandmother and we are thankful for the support we have received, but would ask for our privacy to be respected to allow us to come to terms with her loss in peace."
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams apologised on behalf of Police Scotland and offered his "heartfelt condolences" to Mrs McKay's family and friends.
"I fully accept the findings from the review by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) and Police Scotland will continue to work with them to ensure all the lessons identified are addressed and built into our missing person investigations," he said. | A report has highlighted "failings" in how police handled the case of a woman who was found dead eight days after she was reported missing. |
38252086 | The man coerced children in Norway and the Philippines to engage in filmed sex acts.
He was convicted of sending cash to a family in the Philippines so they could arrange for the abuse to take place.
Some of the sex involved children under the age of 14 and was streamed live on the internet. NRK said he abused 62 children, 20 from the Philippines.
It said that he was found guilty of six counts of child sex abuse.
The man, who has not been named but is from Bergen, transferred his disability benefits to a family in the Philippines who then arranged for the children to be abused, TheLocal.no reported.
The other 42 children in the case were tricked by the man on various internet chat services when he pretended to be a young teenager in order to win the trust of his victims and then manipulate them into carrying out sex acts, Local.no said.
In November, Norwegian police carried out "Operation Darkroom", arresting more than 50 men who were suspected of taking part in a separate online paedophile network.
Those held by police came from all sections of society, NewsinEnglish.No reported. | A court in Norway has sentenced a 66-year-old man to eight years in jail for child sex abuse via Skype. |
35138170 | Mr Sullivan, 53, was discovered on Abbey Green on Wednesday afternoon and was taken to hospital with serious bruising and internal injuries.
A post mortem proved inconclusive and police say his death is being treated as unexplained.
Three men, aged 44, 60 and 63, have been arrested in connection with his death and remain in custody. | Police have named a man found dead in Bath as Patrick Sullivan. |
15203281 | The thin layer, hundreds of times less dense than the Earth's, was discovered by the European Space Agency's (Esa) Venus Express craft, researchers report in the journal Icarus.
Until now, ozone layers have only been detected in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars, and the discovery on Venus came as a surprise.
The find could help astronomers refine their hunt for life on other planets.
The European spacecraft spied the ozone layer when focusing on stars through Venus' atmosphere.
The distant stars appeared fainter than expected, because the ozone layer absorbed some of their ultraviolet light.
The paper's lead author Franck Montmessin, of the LATMOS atmospheric research centre in France, explained that Venus' ozone layer sits 100km up; about three times the height of our own.
The ozone - a molecule containing three oxygen atoms - formed when sunlight broke down carbon dioxide in the Venusian atmosphere to form oxygen molecules.
On Earth, ozone, which absorbs much of the Sun's harmful UV-rays preventing them reaching the surface, is formed in a similar way.
However, this process is supplemented by oxygen released by carbon dioxide-munching microbes.
Speaking of the international team's find, Hakan Svedhem, ESA project scientist for the Venus Express mission, said: "This ozone detection tells us a lot about the circulation and the chemistry of Venus's atmosphere.
"Beyond that, it is yet more evidence of the fundamental similarity between the rocky planets, and shows the importance of studying Venus to understand them all."
Some astrobiologists assume that the presence of oxygen, carbon, and ozone in an atmosphere indicates that life exists on a planet's surface.
The new results negate that assumption - the mere presence of oxygen in an atmosphere is now not enough evidence to start looking for life.
However, the presence of large quantities of these gases, as in the Earth's atmosphere, is probably still a good lead, the scientists said.
"We can use these new observations to test and refine the scenarios for the detection of life on other worlds," said Dr Montmessin. | Scientists have discovered that Venus has an ozone layer. |
34365723 | The Swede, 39, shot a steady two-under 68 to record a sixth straight round under par at the East Lake course.
Stenson is one of five players for whom victory would mean he would win the FedEx Cup, and with it a £6.6m bonus.
Masters and US Open champion Spieth is another, and his 66 was the best score of the day.
World number one Jason Day is also in contention for the FedEx Cup and is one-over after a level-par second round.
Making up the quintet are American's Rickie Fowler (one under) and Bubba Watson (one over), who shot rounds of 69 and 71 respectively.
Englishman Paul Casey is handily placed in third on five-under after a level-par round, while Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy is tied fifth on three-under after a 71.
Former US Open winner Justin Rose remains in contention after a 68 left him two under. | Henrik Stenson has a three-stroke lead over American Jordan Spieth after a rain-hit second round of the Tour Championship in Atlanta. |
22114102 | Dennis Green, 81 and his wife Doreen, 80, died in the two-vehicle smash on 5 April at Gate Helmsley, near York.
The couple were described as "treasured and much loved parents, grandparents and great-grandparents".
In a statement released after the crash, their family said: "We will all miss them more than words can say."
Relatives said Mr and Mrs Green, from Strensall in York, loved sequence dancing, took frequent holidays and enjoyed a "very active social life".
They described the couple as "well known and respected" in the village where than had lived for more 50 years, adding "their loss will be keenly felt both there and amongst their wide circle of friends".
The family said: "They had celebrated 60 years of marriage the day before the tragic accident, and a family party had been planned for the weekend.
"Their loss will leave a huge empty space at the head of our close family, but we will draw strength from each other and from the happy memories we all have of them.
"They had a wonderful and happy marriage and we draw some small comfort from the fact that they are still together."
The crash happened at about 13:20 BST, on Northgate Lane, Gate Helmsley.
Mr Green was driving their Citroen Xsara and his wife was a passenger at the time of the collision with a Land Rover Defender travelling the other way.
The driver of the Land Rover, a man in his 20s, was treated for minor injuries at the scene. | A "treasured" elderly couple killed in a car crash the day after they celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary have been named. |
30960826 | A review by Action on Hearing Loss Cymru found test waiting times at three of the seven health boards were up.
Meanwhile, patients in two areas did not always get two hearing aids because of restrictions on the number they give out.
The charity said demand would continue to increase given the aging population.
Cwm Taf, Hywel Dda and Powys health boards said patients were waiting longer for hearing tests and reassessments because more people needed help.
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg and Hywel Dda boards both restrict the number of hearing aids they issue, while Aneurin Bevan and Hwyel Dda said they had reduced follow-up appointments because of pressures.
Hwyel Dda also reported reduced staff numbers and reduced aftercare service, at a time when it is planning to reduce its budget for the next year.
Action on Hearing Loss Cymru, formerly RNID, supports 1,300 hearing aid wearers across Wales.
But the free service, which costs £150,000 a year to run, will be cut in 2016 if funding cannot be found. | Health boards across much of Wales are struggling to cope with the demand from people who are deaf or have hearing loss, a report has found. |
40630521 | Vaughan, 29, scored 24 goals for the Shakers last term and joined the Black Cats on a two-year deal on 13 July.
Bury signed 33-year-old Beckford in May after his release by Preston North End.
"If you look at the way the team plays, it operates not just around one player. This season there will be goals coming from everywhere," Beckford said.
Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, he continued: "We've got players who are really good attacking midfielders, we've got good wing-backs, good wingers, we've got goalscorers up top and it's going to be exciting.
"I don't feel that pressure now."
Beckford, who scored for Bury in their 3-1 pre-season friendly defeat by Huddersfield Town on Sunday, acknowledged the loss of Vaughan after they struggled to stay in League One last season.
"It's obviously a huge loss. Somebody like his scoring record, especially last season, no disrespect to a team that was struggling quite a bit, was phenomenal," he said.
"Who scores 24 goals in the league and just about avoids relegation? It's unheard of. To have had interest in him is normal for something like that.
"He'll be missed and all of the boys wished him well. It's sad to see him go but I've no doubt that he'll do well." | Bury striker Jermaine Beckford says he does not feel under pressure to score goals after top scorer James Vaughan's move to Sunderland. |
27699859 | She set out plans for better childcare facilities, new furniture, better internet access in barracks and more flexible working hours for some.
The five-year plan will also see extra computers and an easing of the practice of moving service people around.
She said the Bundeswehr (army) needed to compete with civilian employers.
"We want the best," Mrs von der Leyen was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying. "People who are young and qualified have a multitude of offers today... and they choose the employer who, among other things, makes the most interesting offers."
Germany abandoned conscription three years ago and is aiming to recruit about 60,000 young applicants a year, she said.
Critics accuse the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) minister, who is seen as a potential successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, of neglecting more important areas of investment, such as armour development.
Retired General Harald Kujat, once Germany's top military officer and chairman of the Nato Military Committee, said last month that the plans appeared to have been "drawn up by people who don't know the Bundeswehr".
"Rather than kindergartens, it would much more helpful to a soldier's family if they knew that everything is being done for his safety in deployment," he told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. | The German army is to spend 100m euros (£81m; $136m) on making itself a more attractive employer, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen has said. |
40300559 | Emergency services were alerted to the crash on Essich Road in Inverness at about 17:30 on Thursday.
The 37-year-old cyclist was taken to the city's Raigmore Hospital by air ambulance.
Insp Gus Stewart asked any potential witnesses to get in touch with the police, if they have not already spoken to an officer.
The road was closed for five hours to allow for a police investigation but has since reopened. | A cyclist is receiving treatment in hospital after being seriously injured in a collision involving a lorry. |
33073683 | They targeted Land Rovers belonging to the Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team (LMRT) in Nant Peris.
North Wales Police is investigating the attack.
On Sunday, LMRT was involved in a rescue near Llanberis waterfall after four swimmers got into difficulty and two men died.
Police said that as well as battery cables being cut, bolts to doors were removed.
Officers said it was only "by chance" that no emergency calls were received on Tuesday, as the rescue teams would not have been able to respond. | Vandals have put mountain rescuers in Gwynedd temporarily out of action by cutting battery cables in three of its 4x4s. |
34958877 | Bryony Page finished fifth and Kat Driscoll seventh at the Trampoline, Tumbling and Double-Mini Trampoline World Championships on Sunday.
It is the first time GB have earned two female trampoline spots at an Olympics.
Nicole Short then added to her team silver on Saturday with an individual double-mini trampoline silver medal.
"I wanted to carry on the pattern of three, two, one, but I'm thinking about retiring after this one so it's a little bit emotional," said the 21-year-old from Liverpool, who previously won bronze and silver medals at the Worlds.
Sheffield-based Page, 24, briefly led the women's individual trampoline on 55.295 points while team-mate Driscoll, 29, scored 52.935 as China's Li Dan took gold. | Britain have secured two places in the women's trampoline event at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio after two gymnasts made the world final in Denmark. |
39751858 | On Thursday, 7.3% of Welsh local authority seats will be uncontested, with 92 councillors returned without any votes being cast.
One county councillor in Powys has gone unchallenged for his seat for 37 years.
Prof Roger Scully, of Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre, said it made a "mockery of democracy".
Yscir, in Powys, is the only ward in Wales with no one standing for election as its councillor of 27 years is retiring.
When there is no challenger, no votes are cast and the incumbent councillor is returned to their position.
Half of Wales' 22 local authorities have at least one such ward.
Gwynedd has the largest number of uncontested seats in Wales, with 21, while Powys comes second-highest with 16.
Michael Williams has been a councillor in Powys for 37 years and has not faced an opponent since he was elected.
Now aged 74, the independent councillor for Machynlleth will be re-elected again, uncontested, on 4 May.
Mr Williams, who has also been a Machynlleth town councillor for 43 years, said he had not faced any challengers as he was doing a good job.
"I have always looked at my being a councillor as a partnership with the people of Machynlleth," he said, and added he has no plans to step down any time soon.
But the lack of choice for the electorate in such seats has led to concerns.
Prof Scully, who is an expert in politics, said: "Democracy depends on people having a choice, having no candidates means there is no choice.
"We do have quite a large number of uncontested seats: it's a disaster in terms of democracy, that people don't have a choice.
"It makes a mockery of democracy, it is disastrous for everyone that we have this sort of situation."
Prof Scully said the proportion of uncontested seats in Wales had only slightly improved since 2012, despite not a single seat going uncontested in Scotland at the nation's last local elections.
Twyn Carno
Llanddarog
Llanfihangel ar arth
Llanybydder
Trelech
Beulah
Llanarth
Llandysiliogogo
Llanfarian
Llanwenog
Trefeurig
Troedyraur
Bryn
Caerhun
Eglwysbach
Llansannan
Llysfaen
Pandy
Corwen
Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd Llanfihangel
Llandrillo
Rhyl West - two seats
Bagillt West
Broughton North East
Ffynnongroyw
Flint Castle
Flint Coleshill - two seats
Holywell Central
Holywell West
Mold East
Penyffordd - two seats
Treuddyn
Arllechwedd
Deiniolen
Glyder
Llanrug
Pentir
Llandygai
Y Felinheli
Abererch
Llanbedrog
Llanystumdwy
Nefyn
Porthmadog West
Aberdyfi
Brithdir/Llanfachreth/Ganllwyd/Llanelltyd
Corris/Mawddwy
Llandderfel
Llangelynin
Llanuwchllyn
Penrhyndeudraeth
Teigl
Bala
Briton Ferry West
Port Talbot - three seats
Burton
Cilgerran
Clydau
Haverfordwest: Priory
Lampeter Velfrey
Llangwm
Manorbier
Milford East
Narberth Rural
Newport
St Ishmaels
Tenby North
Tenby South
Old Radnor
Llanafanfawr
Llanwrtyd
Yscir - no one standing
Maescar/Llywel
Abercraf
Ystradgynlais
Cwmtwrch
Ynyscedwyn
Tawe Uchaf
Talybont-on-Usk
Llangynidr
Bwlch
Churchstoke
Meifod
Machynlleth
Newtown East
Little Acton
Marchwiel
Minera | Nearly 100 councillors in Wales will be reappointed without being challenged at the local elections. |
33726450 | It said its study showed male solicitors being paid up to 42% more than their female counterparts at some stages in their careers.
The law society said there was little difference between male and female earnings when they started out.
But from the age of 36 onwards, women generally appeared to be paid lower salaries than men of the same age.
The society compared average full-time and full-time equivalent salaries for women and men at all career stages.
There are as many women as men among the society's 11,000 members and a quarter of those eligible responded to the survey.
The research showed women were more prevalent in the salary bands up to £65,000 and men in salary bands over £65,000.
It found that women tended to remain associates or assistants rather than be promoted to partner level.
Janet Hood, convener of the body's equality committee, said: "A 42% gender pay gap reflects very badly on what is otherwise a modern and forward-thinking profession - with some female solicitors effectively working for free for five months of the year.
"There are many and nuanced reasons why the gender pay gap exists and the legal profession is certainly not alone - figures from November 2014 show that the overall UK gap was 9.4%.
"However, we have seen little change in the past decade compared to other professions such as accountancy or dentistry and it is a major concern that such a substantial gap persists 45 years after the UK Equal Pay Act."
"Quite simply it is not something we can afford to ignore, for either ethical or business reasons."
There appears to be an issue around assumptions made about women, the society said.
Its report indicated that women earned less than their male counterparts whether or not they had children. | A large pay gap between men and women solicitors has been found in research by The Law Society of Scotland. |
38292758 | Lord O'Donnell pointed out that areas which voted for Brexit were those with the biggest inequalities in well-being.
He added if ministers did not take account of constituents' satisfaction levels, people would just "vote against what they feel is the status quo".
He was speaking at a conference in London on improving well-being.
The former cabinet secretary told academics gathered at the London School of Economics that most philosophers and politicians shared a view that they should be striving to improve the quality of people's lives.
This meant trying to enhance their "long-running, sustainable well-being", he told Monday's conference, organised jointly with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Well-being was a very subjective concept, Lord O'Donnell said, describing it as "a democratic measure based on people's feelings, not something handed down on stone from the statistical office".
He praised David Cameron for initiating a process for measuring well-being, but suggested the former prime minister might have conducted a better Brexit campaign if he had used some of the resulting statistics.
"Take the recent referendum on leaving the EU, the Remain case was mainly that leaving would damage economic prospects," he added.
"The leavers said it would give us back control of our country.
"Hillary Clinton argued that her greater experience would lead to better government, growth and reduced inequality: [Donald] Trump said he would make America great again.
"In both cases, and more recently in Italy, people are arguing that the results reflect the rise of populism," he said.
"Yet one common feature is a feeling that the gains from globalisation and technology are not evenly spread.
"The answer is not less globalisation or technical progress - indeed we need more to raise productivity - but better ways of spreading the gains .
"The gainers are not compensating the losers. In the UK, the greater the inequality in well-being, the more likely an area was to vote leave."
He said the trick for politicians was to "get ahead" of their voters' sense of a lack of well-being, "otherwise they will vote against whatever they feel is the status quo".
He urged politicians in France, the Netherlands and Italy, who were facing elections, to study this carefully.
"The relationship between well-being and the future of political incumbents is as you would expect," he added.
Lord O'Donnell also urged ministers to take on board the importance of children's well-being in schools.
He said: "If you want to enhance long-run, sustainable well-being then help children to become more resilient, more fulfilled adults.
"That means focusing teachers and parents on the well-being of their children, yet today we spend all our time measuring exam results." | Politicians need to pay more attention to voters' sense of well-being if they want to win elections, says the former head of the British civil service. |
20724621 | The Tour heads through Yorkshire on 5 and 6 July, before moving south for a third stage, finishing in London.
The race last visited the UK in 2007, when London hosted a prologue ahead of a road stage from the capital to Canterbury, attracting two-million spectators.
Not long ago the idea Yorkshire could host the Tour de France may have seemed fanciful in the extreme.
The region faced serious international competition from the likes of Barcelona, Berlin, Venice and Scotland.
So how did Yorkshire persuade the French to bring the Tour to the north of England?
Much of the credit must go to the tourism body Welcome To Yorkshire. Among the many tactics they employed to sway the tour's organisers in favour of Yorkshire was a stunning promotional film highlighting the dramatic Yorkshire landscape.
Yorkshire beat off the challenge of bids from Florence and Edinburgh to host the prestigious event.
However, Edinburgh remains in the running to host the Grand Depart at a future date.
It will be the fourth time the Tour has visited Britain after previous visits in 1974 and 1994.
Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, hosted the 2010 Grand Depart, while the 2012 race started in Liege in Belgium and next year's 100th race will begin in Corsica.
Full details of the route will be announced at a news conference in Leeds and Paris on 17 January.
Leeds will host a festival of cycling and the arts to coincide with the arrival of the Tour.
British Cycling president Brian Cookson said: "Like every other cycling fan, I am thrilled the world's biggest bike race is coming back to this country.
"The huge numbers who turned out to support the 2007 Grand Depart and the London 2012 road races show the passion we have for cycling.
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"I'm sure Yorkshire will give the 2014 Tour de France a welcome which will stand out in the race's rich history."
Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, the agency behind the county's bid, said: "Today is a proud day for everyone involved in the bid and the county as a whole.
"We are honoured that the race organisers have selected Yorkshire to be the host location of the 2014 Grand Depart.
"It will mean that, less than two years after hosting the Olympics, the British public can look forward to another of the world's biggest sporting events coming to the country.
"I am in no doubt they will come to Yorkshire in their millions, lining the length and breadth of the route to cheer on the champions of world cycling and our home grown British heroes."
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Race director Christian Prudhomme added: "Since the resounding success of the Grand Depart in London in 2007, we were very keen to return to the United Kingdom.
"Bradley Wiggins's historic victory last July and the enormous crowds that followed the cycling events in the streets of London during the Olympic Games encouraged us to go back earlier than we had initially planned." | Leeds will host the start of the 2014 Tour de France. |
29126451 | Mr Ahmad claims he is owed £500,000 for an unpaid bonus and another £120,000 for legal costs from the Ibrox club.
He had cash ring-fenced after the club said it would be unable to pay bills if a planned £4m rights issue failed.
A judge said granting Rangers the right to appeal would help raise fresh cash and ultimately "benefit both parties".
Rangers are still legally obliged to have the cash set aside.
Mr Ahmad, who had twice lost court bids to have Rangers' assets ring-fenced, claims he is owed £500,000 for negotiating deals and wants another £120,000 to cover legal expenses.
His third attempt was successful at the Court of Session on Friday.
Following the judgement, Rangers said there had been an "error of law" and would appeal the decision.
During a hearing at the same court on Tuesday, Lord Stewart decided that granting Rangers the right to appeal would "facilitate the raising of fresh capital" through the open offer and ultimately "benefit both parties".
He also urged Rangers to come to a deal with Mr Ahmad over security for the sum while the sides wait for the case to return to court.
The club's QC Alan Summers told the court that Lord Stewart had taken a different view to two other law lords who have already examined the case and found there was no "substantial risk" of the club going bust.
He also questioned the decision to ring-fence the club's assets when it claimed it would be in a position to pay any costs by the time the case is ultimately resolved in the new year.
But Mr Ahmad's lawyer Kenny McBrearty argued that Lord Stewart should ignore those claims because, by the club's own admission, its financial circumstances had changed since the case was heard earlier this year.
In the end, it was Mr Summers' claim that the decision to ring-fence cash may "inconvenience" this month's share issue which persuaded Lord Stewart to grant appeal, although he stressed that decision in "no way" implied any judgement about the strength of Mr Ahmad's claim or the eventual outcome of the case.
The judge said: "The granting of the right to appeal may facilitate the raising of fresh capital through the upcoming rights issue and that would only benefit both parties."
The appeal hearing, however, may not take place until November unless an earlier date can be found.
The full hearing for Mr Ahmad's claim to a 5% bonus for setting up the club's £10m kit deal with Puma is due to take place either that same month or in the following January.
Following Tuesday's decision, Rangers said: "The company confirms that the Court of Session in Edinburgh has granted the company leave to appeal the court's decision to grant an order allowing Mr Ahmad to arrest funds in Rangers bank account or the accounts of others who may be due to pay sums to Rangers.
"This is a procedural step in the appeal process and the court has not yet considered the merits of the appeal.
"If the appeal is successful, the court's decision of 5 September 2014 will be overturned and the funds arrested will be released." | Rangers have been granted leave to challenge a decision to freeze £620,000 of club assets in a legal dispute with former commercial director Imran Ahmad. |
33379491 | The hosts put on 48 for the first wicket before seamer Jamie Porter (2-24) struck twice in one over to remove Paul Horton (25) and Karl Brown (18).
Liam Dawson trapped Alviro Peterson (14) lbw and then bowled Ashwell Prince (21) to leave Lancashire in trouble.
Only two more overs were played before the weather halted proceedings with the Division Two leaders on 96-4.
All-rounder Dawson's two wickets were his first for Essex since he joined them from Hampshire in a month-long loan deal.
Lancashire wicketkeeper Alex Davies:
"It's been eventful so far but we're probably not in the position we would have liked to have been.
"There were a couple of good balls in there but all in all it was a pretty frustrating day. We scored at a decent rate and the job now is to look to rebuild and get a decent first-innings total.
"The team are a few points clear at the top and we are in a pretty good position but there's a lot more work to be done yet."
Essex bowler Liam Dawson:
"It was nice to make an impact straight away and nice to get a bit of spin out of the wicket as well.
"It was a decent day for us to get four wickets on day one in only a few overs.
"Hopefully, we'll get a full day tomorrow and try to bowl them out as quickly as we can and then try and get a decent score ourselves." | Lancashire's batsmen struggled against Essex before rain ended play early on the first day at Old Trafford. |
35147047 | Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Norwich was United's third in a row and saw them slip to fifth in the Premier League.
Moyes was sacked in April 2014 after nine months at the club, as they headed for a seventh-place league finish.
"I wouldn't say it's the lowest moment," said Jones, 23. "I think it became pretty glum under David Moyes."
United's league finish in 2014 was their lowest since 1990, and it was the first time they had ended the season outside England's top three since 1991.
But under Louis van Gaal, who replaced Moyes, they are winless in their past six games, a sequence that has included their elimination from the Champions League at the group stage.
Van Gaal's side were booed off the pitch at Old Trafford following the Norwich defeat and the Dutchman has admitted he is "worried" about his job.
But Jones has backed the former Netherlands coach and said the players need to take responsibility for improving form.
"The manager is doing all he can and is doing a terrific job," said the England international.
"It's not even questionable in the dressing room. The lads are absolutely fully focused on performing well for the manager, the fans, ourselves - week in, week out.
"The players in there aren't hiding behind anyone." | Defender Phil Jones believes the mood at Manchester United is not as bad as it was during David Moyes' ill-fated reign as manager at Old Trafford. |
34985148 | The 40-year-old former Manchester United and England defender, part of manager Roy Hodgson's backroom team with the national side, was finalising details of his surprise appointment as head coach of La Liga side Valencia until the end of the season.
Neville, who replaces Nuno Espirito Santo, will not be in charge when Los Che face Barcelona in La Liga on Saturday but will be in the technical area when they host Lyon in the Champions League next Wednesday.
The new Guardiola? Listen to one journalist's opinion on 5 live.
Neville's decision to move away from television punditry, where his forensic analysis has marked him out as an outstanding exponent of the art, into coaching is the clearest signpost that he sees his long-term future in full-time management.
And no-one could accuse him of making an easy start. No easing in down the leagues. Not only straight in with a club of rich pedigree and ambition, but also abroad.
It is a sign of Neville's confidence in himself that he has accepted the challenge at the Mestalla. And in many respects he has served the perfect apprenticeship to start this phase of his career in such pressurised surroundings.
He spent 19 years under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson, arguably Britain's greatest manager, at Manchester United, winning 20 trophies and establishing himself as a figure of significance and influence in a dressing room packed with powerful personalities.
Neville also won 85 England caps and his coaching education has been rounded off even further by his association with the national team, where he has been at Hodgson's side along with Ray Lewington since his appointment in 2012.
With England, he has worked alongside elite players and travelled to major tournaments such as Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine and the World Cup in Brazil last summer. Neville is the sort of character who will have been soaking up vital information like a sponge.
It hardly takes someone close to Neville to work out that this is a man of strong opinions, convictions and deep football intelligence, as well as searingly high standards in all matters involved with football from his days at Old Trafford, where nothing but the best was good enough on and off the pitch.
Listen to his punditry and read his column in a national newspaper and it is easy to detect a single-minded deep-thinker who will have the courage to put his plans and beliefs into practice, whether that is behind the scenes at Salford City - the non-league club of which he is co-owner - or in Spain with Valencia.
He has not entered an easy arena, trying to revive a Valencia side who have been strong in defence but poor in attack this season, and who must beat Lyon in his first game to maintain an interest in the Champions League.
They are also five points off the top four places in Spain, winning only five of their opening 13 league games, but by acting now Valencia believe Neville can correct that shortfall.
He has to start his club career somewhere. He has served his apprenticeship and as with the rest of his career he will not regard failure as a palatable option.
It is a daunting leap from punditry into coaching and management, but Neville is someone who always seemed destined to make his long-term career in the latter, even if this current time away from the studio turns out to be only temporary.
Many modern pundits, such as Ruud Gullit and Alan Shearer, have had mixed careers in management.
Alan Hansen, the celebrated BBC Sport pundit, made it plain he never once considered moving into coaching and, when offering any critique of managers, either on screen or in his website column, always made the point that any comment he made must be shaped by the fact he never took on the job himself. He was never over-critical of those brave enough to take on a job he never did himself.
One of the questions asked of elite players who make the move into management is whether they can they cope with handling players who may not have the same drive, attitude and approach as themselves.
Neville has his standards but will also be a realist. He will accept honest failings but not a lack of professionalism. He speaks the language of players so relating to them should not be a problem.
Media playback is not supported on this device
As David Moyes pondered his recent sacking from Real Sociedad, one of the criticisms aimed in his direction was that he had failed to grasp the Spanish language during his 12 months in Spain.
Neville, for now at least, only has five months to make his message clear so he has to hit the ground running on and off the field.
His brother Phil arrived at Valencia as a coach in July, having also left his job as a football pundit with BBC Sport. He has been having Spanish lessons to immerse himself in the culture so will no doubt be able offer early help, as will the Salford connection at the club.
Peter Lim, Valencia's Singaporean owner, has a stake in Salford City, which Neville co-owns. He will, no doubt, make every resource and assistance available to make sure his new manager gets his thoughts across.
Neville will also be a firm believer that football is a universal language and maybe even some of the technological and tactical wizardry he used in the television studio might help to bridge the barrier.
Neville has not yet got his feet under the desk at Valencia, but already the future is rich with possibilities should he make a success of his stint in Spain.
If it does not work out, he has an open invitation to return to Sky, such has been the scale of his success since becoming a pundit.
If he succeeds, then many doors will open, from staying in Spain to returning to England and perhaps serving clubs or even his country. There would be no shortage of suitors.
England manager Hodgson regards Neville's move as "another string to his bow" and will benefit the national side as they prepare for Euro 2016 in France.
If England fail to shine in France and the Football Association decides on a change of direction, then success in Spain could put Neville in pole position to succeed Hodgson, especially with Gareth Southgate blotting his copybook with failure at last summer's under-21 Euros.
And what about Manchester United? Ryan Giggs would appear to be primed to succeed Louis van Gaal, whose pragmatic approach is drawing criticism from many supporters and former players such as Paul Scholes.
A reunion of "The Class Of 92" - which would bring the Nevilles back into play - would be seen as the dream ticket in Old Trafford's line of succession and if he comes through this tough Spanish test with flying colours his stock will only increase. | As the odds on Gary Neville taking charge at Fulham tumbled on Tuesday, the bookmakers - for once and along with everyone else - were looking in the wrong place. |
39814368 | The authority previously had no overall control, with a power struggle between the Tories and Independents.
The Tories retained control of Hampshire, winning 56 of the 78 seats with a turnout of 36 per cent.
UKIP failed to win a single seat across the region, losing two seats on the Isle of Wight and 10 in Hampshire compared to the last election in 2013.
Councillors across all parties on the Isle of Wight said the majority result would be good for the island.
Election 2017: Full results from across England
Conservative council leader Dave Stewart said: "I'm very pleased.
"The problem with a no overall control council is you're always trying to please everybody and you can't always do that. This shows democracy in action."
In the 2013 election Independents won 20 seats and the Tories 15, while UKIP took two seats, the Liberal Democrats one and Labour two.
Independents now hold 11 seats with Jonathan Bacon - a former leader of the council who resigned in January - among those to miss out.
He said: "Obviously I'm disappointed. Our problem with the previous council was that it was run largely as a no overall control council and the majority of the councillors on the other side eventually chose to abuse that and stop work being done, so a majority council will be a good thing."
In Hampshire, Liberal Democrats won 19 seats, while Labour won two and the Community Campaign group took one seat.
UKIP lost all representation on the authority. | The Conservative Party has seized control of Isle of Wight Council after winning 25 of the 40 seats. |
39751666 | Australia, Canada and Malaysia are also interested in hosting the Games, which was stripped from Durban in March.
Liverpool, London and Birmingham are the English cities to have declared an interest in staging the event.
The Commonwealth Games Federation says a final decision is unlikely until early Autumn.
"We are delighted with the level of initial interest expressed by nations across the Commonwealth and look forward to working with all parties as plans develop for a Games to be proud of in 2022," said CGF chief executive David Grevemberg.
"An expert CGF Review Team will work with each country in the evaluation of proposals of potential host cities."
The expression of interest has been submitted by the UK government, who have been canvassing interest from cities around the country.
The Commonwealth Games are held every four years and feature athletes from more than 50 countries, mostly former British colonies.
Britain last hosted the Games in Glasgow in 2014, while the 2002 event was staged in Manchester. The next edition takes place on Australia's Gold Coast in 2018. | England has been confirmed as one of four competing countries to have submitted an expression of interest in hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games. |
40669950 | Men who have sex with men can now give blood three months after their last sexual activity instead of 12.
And sex workers, who were previously barred from donating, now can, subject to the same three-month rule.
Experts said the move would give more people the opportunity to donate blood without affecting blood supply safety.
The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs - which advises UK health departments - recommended the changes after concluding that new testing systems were accurate and donors were good at complying with the rules.
All blood that is donated in the UK undergoes a mandatory test for Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, plus a couple of other viruses.
Scientists agree that three months is a comfortably long window for a virus or infection to appear and be picked up in the blood.
Prof James Neuberger, from the committee, said: "Technologies to pick up the presence of the virus have greatly improved, so we can now pick up viruses at a much earlier stage in the infection, and therefore it's much easier to tell if a blood donor has the virus."
The rule changes will come into force at blood donation centres in Scotland in November, and in early 2018 in England.
The changes affect groups including men who have sex with other men, people who have sex with high-risk partners - for example, those who have been in areas where HIV is common - and commercial sex workers.
They will now all be able to donate blood after abstaining from sex for three months.
The UK government is also considering relaxing the rules for people who have undergone acupuncture, piercing, tattooing and endoscopy, and for those with a history of non-prescribed injecting drug use.
But these also need changes to current EU legislation.
Deborah Gold, chief executive of National Aids Trust, welcomed the changes to the blood donation rules.
"It's a huge advance for gay and bisexual men to now be able to donate three months from their last sexual activity," she said.
"We are also delighted that NHS Blood and Transplant have said they will now investigate how possible it is for some gay men, depending on degree of risk, to donate without even the three-month deferral."
Alex Phillips, blood donations policy lead at Terrence Higgins Trust, said representatives of the organisation were delighted the ban on sex workers had been lifted.
She said: "The lifetime blood donation ban on anyone who works or used to work in the sex industry in the UK is based on preconceptions rather than evidence, and the rules needed reviewing to fit the facts."
NHS Blood and Transplant said there was not currently a shortage of blood in the UK but 200,000 new donors were needed every year to replenish supplies.
It said there was a particular need for more people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to give blood. | Blood donation rules for sex workers and gay men are being relaxed in England and Scotland after improvements in the accuracy of testing procedures. |
37554872 | It was the first alcoholic drinks reception the DUP had ever organised at a party conference and it attracted widespread interest on social media.
Under the late Ian Paisley's leadership the DUP had a tee-total reputation.
Mrs Foster brushed off suggestions the event had embarrassed the party, saying she was pleased with the large turnout.
The lunchtime reception was held in an art gallery at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham.
It was packed and it proved so popular there were long queues to get inside.
Mrs Foster was joined at the reception by DUP MPs Nigel Dodds, Gavin Robinson, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Ian Paisley - the party founder's son - and many party activists.
A number of senior Conservative MPs also attended the event.
The DUP leader told the BBC the event was not originally meant to be billed as a champagne reception but something had been "lost in translation" during the booking.
She said she was pleased with the amount of people who attended and said it "was all good PR". | A champagne reception hosted by the DUP at the Conservative Party conference has been hailed as a success and "all good PR" by DUP leader Arlene Foster. |
37962966 | Ibrahim Halawa, 20, the son of Ireland's most senior Muslim cleric, was arrested during anti-government protests in Cairo in August 2013.
He was due in court on Saturday.
Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said his priority was to see Mr Halawa return to Ireland as soon as possible.
Mr Halawa was due to appear along with 463 others, charged with inciting violence, rioting and sabotage relating to the protests in Cairo.
Mr Flanagan said: "Our understanding is that the trial has been adjourned until 13 December as a number of the defendants were not present in the court. This is linked to heightened security concerns in Cairo, following planned protests in recent days."
The minister said the Irish Ambassador to Egypt, Damien Cole, led an embassy observer team at the hearing on Saturday and said officials from the embassy had attended all hearings to date.
Mr Flanagan said the Irish government would continue to use "every possible opportunity to underline our concerns" about this case to the Egyptian authorities, both "bilaterally and with the EU and other partners".
"Ibrahim's lawyers have submitted an application for his return to Ireland under Egypt's Decree 140 Law, and the government is giving this initiative its full support," he said.
"The Taoiseach [Irish prime minister] has been in direct contact with President al-Sisi asking him to give positive consideration to the Decree 140 application. I have had a number of contacts with my Egyptian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, endorsing the application for Ibrahim's immediate release.
"I discussed the case with Minister Shoukry most recently on November 1st, when I once again repeated our call for this citizen's immediate return to Ireland."
Mr Flanagan said "in light of today's developments", the Irish government would be pursuing further contacts at the highest levels with Egypt to address Mr Halawa's continued detention and to again call for his immediate return to Ireland.
"I want to reaffirm the government's and my own personal commitment to secure Ibrahim Halawa's return to Ireland as soon as possible and we will be continuing to examine and explore all possible options for action that can help to achieve that objective," he added.
Mr Halawa's solicitor, Darragh Mackin, said it was "deeply disappointing" but "entirely unsurprising" that his trial had been adjourned again.
"This is indicative of the fact that Ibrahim cannot get a fair trial, and therefore it makes the outstanding application for a presidential decree even more important," he said.
Mr Mackin said he had been in contact with the Irish department of foreign affairs and the taoiseach's office to "ensure that urgent action is taken to ensure that maximum pressure is brought to bear in the resolution of the outstanding decree".
Three months ago, Egypt rejected a call from the Irish government for the immediate release of Mr Halawa, whose family live in Dublin, under presidential decree.
The Egyptian government has also rejected allegations by the United Nations about his treatment in prison.
Mr Halawa's trial has now been postponed 16 times.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International held a vigil at Stormont to show support for a campaign calling for Mr Halawa's immediate release.
Mr Halawa's sister, Khadija, attended and called on the Irish government to do more to put pressure on the Egyptian authorities to release her brother.
The family has denied claims that Mr Halawa is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest and largest Islamist organisation.
The Egyptian government has declared it a terrorist group, a claim the organisation rejects.
More than 1,000 people have been killed and 40,000 are believed to have been jailed since President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi led the military's overthrow of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected head of state, in 2013. | The Irish foreign minister has expressed concern after the trial of an Irishman, who was been imprisoned in Egypt for more than three years, has been adjourned again. |
40940007 | A video shows the tree crashing down on a crowded square in a suburb of the main town, Funchal, spreading panic among people enjoying the festivities.
Two children are reported to have been killed, and some of the injured are said to be foreign nationals.
Reports suggest the tree which fell was an oak that was about 200 years old.
As the island declared three days of mourning, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa arrived in a display of solidarity, telling reporters that "all Portuguese people" shared their shock.
He was due to visit the scene of the disaster as well as a hospital and a civil defence facility.
Madeira, a popular destination for European tourists, is the largest of a group of Portuguese islands in the north Atlantic Ocean, south-west of the Portuguese mainland.
People had gathered outside a church in a village in the hills overlooking the town to celebrate the Roman Catholic Feast of the Assumption, which takes place on Tuesday and is a public holiday. The Lady of the Mount festival is the island's biggest.
The tree came down just after midday (11:00 GMT) on Fountain Square, which has a Catholic shrine and other monuments, and is shaded by plane trees, according to the Funchal town website.
"I heard a great noise and when I looked at the tree it was already falling but was too fast and people started to run and those who couldn't run stayed under the tree," one unnamed eyewitness said.
"It was something we will never forget," said another. "It sounded like shots and it just gave us time to look and run away when we realised there were people under the tree."
Emergency services flooded the area after the disaster, tending to the injured.
Pedro Ramos, health secretary of the local government of Madeira, said the injured included German, Hungarian and French citizens, the Portuguese news site Publico reports.
Witnesses quoted by Portuguese broadcaster RTP say the tree that fell had been shored up for at least two years because the trunk was hollow.
President de Sousa said it was not for him to give an opinion on responsibility for the disaster as that was a "matter for the regional authorities".
"The president of the republic is conveying the clear, total and unconditional solidarity of the Portuguese," he said.
This year's festival would have been all the more special because, Portuguese news site Publico notes, last year's event had to be cancelled due to forest fires.
Danny Savage, BBC News
High above Funchal, looking out across the Atlantic, is the village of Monte. Last night, the Catholic church, which attracts thousands of tourists, stood out like a beacon above the town, floodlit for the Feast of the Assumption.
The cable car linking the town and the church worked late into the night taking thousands of people to and from the festivities. When we visited last week, parishioners were decorating the church altar in beautiful flowers.
Friendly, cheerful, trying to make this year's festival special after wild fires destroyed the surrounding countryside last year leading the event to be cancelled.
Today, thousands of people had gathered around the church again for a procession. A small square, close to where buses drop visitors, was busy when the tree came down.
The crowd would have been mainly Portuguese but there are thousands of people from many other countries here at the moment, some of whom may have been caught up in this disaster. | A falling tree has killed at least 13 people and injured 49 at a religious ceremony on the Portuguese island of Madeira. |
35333366 | The Met Office has issued a yellow warning to "be aware" of snow and ice.
A corridor of snow 100 miles (160km) wide is moving from western Scotland, through the English Midlands, to London and south-east England overnight.
BBC Weather's Jay Wynne said a few centimetres (one inch) of snow were likely on low levels, with up to 10cm possible at higher levels in Scotland.
Parts of rural Scotland may see temperatures drop to -10C (14F) for a second night, he added.
The Met Office says clear skies will allow temperatures to fall widely to below freezing on Saturday evening, making untreated footpaths and cyclepaths turn icy.
There were further warnings of freezing fog on Sunday morning, which is expected to be slow to clear.
Latest local information from the BBC
Between one and three centimetres of snow are likely at low levels, with between five and 10cm possible above 200m across western Scotland and Cumbria.
In Scotland, all five snow sports centres were able to open their slopes for skiing and snowboarding.
Climbers and hillwalkers, however, were warned that the risk of avalanches in Scotland's highest hills and mountains was "considerable".
All areas of the UK are affected by the Met Office's yellow "be aware" warnings for either ice or snow or both, except Wales, Northern Ireland, the Grampian region, north-east England and the islands of Orkney and Shetland.
The warning is in place until mid-morning on Sunday.
The Met Office has three categories for its warnings - red, amber and yellow - with red as the most severe.
It said less cold conditions should start to develop during Sunday, allowing some snow to start melting. | Drivers are being warned to take care on the roads as many people across the UK see their first snow this winter. |
35855497 | The world champion started from pole position after dominating qualifying but fell back through the field after a bad start. Team-mate Nico Rosberg won.
"I've had much worse in the first race," Hamilton said. "I take this as a real bonus to come back from seventh.
"There's a long, long way to go. I bagged good points today. I'm happy."
Listen to BBC Radio 5 live commentary as Hamilton gets swamped at the start of the Australian Grand Prix
Hamilton was third running into the first corner after Rosberg and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel made better starts than him and then immediately dropped to sixth after being pushed wide by his team-mate.
Hamilton's team then switched his strategy to do just one pit stop rather than the conventional two, which meant he was seventh when the race was stopped for a massive accident from which McLaren's Fernando Alonso emerged unhurt.
Hamilton gained places as those ahead of him stopped and held off a challenge from Vettel in the closing laps.
"Generally for me it was a great race," he said. "It was really exciting.
"Having to fight back from behind, it's very, very hard to follow [other cars] as we all know from the history here. I'm just really proud of what the team have done.
"Ferrari are obviously there and in the battle so hopefully we have some exciting races coming up ahead of us.
"I did the best I could after a difficult start and I'm just grateful I got back. It was damage limitation really because Nico could have had a lot more points than me."
His remarks are a reference to the start of the 2014 season, when Rosberg won in Australia and Hamilton had to retire with an engine problem.
That meant he started the season with a 25-point deficit which it took him some time to claw back and put him on the back foot for much of the season.
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said Hamilton lost about two metres to Rosberg in the first 100m of the race. He said the team did not yet know whether the slow start was down to a systems error or a driver error.
Rosberg said: "It was a great race and I'm really pleased. To win the first race of the season was awesome. It was a good kick-start to the season."
Australian GP results
Australian GP coverage details | Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said his second place in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix was a "bonus" after a difficult race. |
35578636 | A former senior call adviser for the non-emergency hotline claimed in a Daily Mail article staff at the Dorset site were "overworked".
The centre has recently been criticised after the death of a baby in Cornwall.
South Western Ambulance Service, which runs the service, said it "strongly refuted" allegations in the article.
Doubts have been raised about the 111 service, where non-medically trained call handlers work alongside a limited number of clinicians, after the death of baby William Mead in 2014.
A report on his death said he might have lived if call handlers realised the seriousness of his condition.
Whistleblower Sarah Hayes, who is a former member of staff, told The Daily Mail there was "frequently" no on-call clinician at the trust's call centres in Dorset or Devon.
She told the newspaper: "The nurses and paramedics we did have were so exhausted and overworked that some would fall asleep on shift.
"I was angry, of course, but I don't feel it was their fault. Put simply, they were exhausted.
"I think anyone with experience of 111 would say it has problems for young babies, and it's really hard to get a good assessment done."
She said she repeatedly raised her concerns with management but was branded a "troublemaker".
Ken Wenman, chief executive of South Western Ambulance Service, said the organisation had worked to "put the necessary measures in place to prevent something similar from happening again".
He said: "There are a number of allegations made in the Daily Mail that we strongly refute, however, there are actions that Sarah Hayes says she took, for which we can find no paper trail or audit, and therefore an investigation into these allegations has been commissioned.
Joyce Guest, chair of Healthwatch Dorset, described the claims as "very disturbing".
She added: "The service needs to be adequately staffed at all times. Exhausted staff are more likely to make mistakes. And there needs to be enough medically trained staff available at all times, in addition to call handlers."
A spokesperson for NHS regulator Monitor said it would work closely with the trust while it looks into the "issues". | The NHS has started an investigation after pictures emerged showing "exhausted" medics at a 111 call centre seemingly asleep on duty. |
37646992 | After Gary Mills' sacking earlier this week, caretaker boss Joey Jones' side went ahead on six minutes through Shaun Harrad.
But a second-half penalty, converted by Lee Beeson, means a replay is needed at The Racecourse on Tuesday, 18 October.
Stamford, who are three divisions beneath Wrexham, were not overawed and created numerous chances. | Managerless Wrexham were held 1-1 at Northern Premier League Division One North side Stamford in the FA Cup. |
26338912 | Former Newcastle United striker Nile Ranger, 22, denies rape in January last year.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that the alleged victim sent him a text message calling him a "predator".
The player, who is now with League One Swindon Town, responded by saying she made him sound like Jack the Ripper.
The jury was read an exchange of text messages Mr Ranger sent the women in the weeks prior to the alleged incident.
He repeatedly asked her to be his girlfriend, or to meet him or go out for a drink, but she refused, saying she already had a boyfriend.
In one exchange she said: "No, you're a sex pest, told you I would be mates, nothing more."
Another read: "You're like a crazy sex pest animal let out of its cage on a monthly cycle."
She also referred to him as "a predator, can't deal with that" and described him as "Nile Ripper".
The trial had earlier heard that the pair had been out together in Newcastle, and she woke up naked next to Mr Ranger not knowing where she was.
CCTV footage has also been shown of the pair arriving in a taxi at the Carlton Hotel in Jesmond, Newcastle, where the alleged victim could be seen falling out of the car.
After being arrested, Mr Ranger told police they had had sex twice and she had consented "wholeheartedly" and "enthusiastically".
The prosecution had earlier said that on previous occasion she had gone back to a hotel with him as he said he wanted to talk to her, but she left after he started kissing her neck and touching her leg, the court heard.
The trial continues. | A former Premier League footballer accused of raping a woman in a hotel acted like a "crazy sex pest animal let out of his cage", a court has heard. |
34501664 | Werner Hoyer told Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the EIB gave loans to the German carmaker for things like the development of low emissions engines.
He said they could be recalled in the wake of VW's emissions cheating.
The paper reported that about €1.8bn (£1.3bn) of those loans are still outstanding.
Mr Hoyer is quoted as saying that the EIB had granted loans worth around €4.6bn to Volkswagen since 1990.
"The EIB could have taken a hit [from the emissions scandal] because we have to fulfil certain climate targets with our loans," the Sueddeutsche Zeitung quoted Mr Hoyer as saying.
Mr Hoyer was attending the International Monetary Fund's meeting in Lima, Peru.
He added that the EIB would conduct "very thorough investigations" into what VW used the funds for.
Mr Hoyer told reporters that if he found that the loans were used for purposes other than intended, the EU bank would have to "ask ourselves whether we have to demand loans back".
He also said he was "very disappointed" by Volkswagen, adding the EIB's relationship with the carmaker would be damaged by the scandal.
Volkswagen admitted that about 11 million of its vehicles had been fitted with a "defeat device" - a piece of software that duped tests into showing that VW engines emitted fewer emissions than they really did.
Mr Hoyer's comments come days after VW's US chief Michael Horn faced a Congress panel to answer questions about the scandal, which has prompted several countries to launch their own investigations into the carmaker.
On Monday, VW's UK managing director Paul Willis is due to appear before members of parliament at an informal hearing. | The European Investment Bank (EIB) could recall loans it gave to Volkswagen, its president told a German newspaper. |
21326831 | Lost in the middle of Tegharghar mountains in the far north-east of Mali, Esel is a an eerie and magical place.
It is dominated by a vast, smooth boulder, as high as a five-storey building and as long as 10 double-decker buses, that sits on top of a warren of caves.
The rock itself has been split neatly in two by the heat of the Saharan sun and the cold of the Saharan night.
The ground leading to it is strewn with ancient stone arrowheads and axes.
In prehistoric times, those caves were home to hunter-gatherers. Now they could very well be sheltering Islamist militants fleeing the advancing forces of France and its African allies.
I visited Esel a few years ago with Ibrahim, the lead singer of Tinariwen, a group of Tuareg guitarists and poets that I was managing at the time.
For him and for many Tuareg, it is a place of reverence and contemplation, like Ayers Rock in Australia or the Grand Canyon in the US.
It also happens to be on the frontline of Operation Serval, France's continuing mission to rid northern Mali of militant Islamist groups.
The Tegharghar mountains give the word "remote" new meaning.
Nearby Kidal, the largest town in a region that is sometimes known as the Adagh des Ifoghas, or The mountains of the Ifoghas tribe, is 1,400 km (900 miles) from the Malian capital, Bamako.
It has been at the epicentre of every single Tuareg rebellion against the central government since 1962.
Until the latest rebellion broke out in October 2011, precipitating an exodus of refugees, about 40,000 people lived in the low-slung buildings that sprawl around Kidal's 90-year old French Foreign Legion fort.
The surrounding landscape is desiccated and featureless, encrusted with black rocks that bake under a merciless sun.
It is the perfect place to fake a moon landing.
Unfortunately for the French, the Tegharghar mountains are also a perfect place for a guerrilla army.
Why Mali's nomads are lying low
The rise of Islamist militants in the Sahara
The annual rains fill up the gueltas, or ponds, with drinking water for nomadic animal herds and insurgents.
The numerous caves offer shelter from sand storms and helicopter gunships.
Impoverished local nomads can easily be persuaded to part with the goats and camels needed to feed a rebel force.
The Algerian border is close and porous enough to keep supplies of food, diesel and ammunition flowing in - as long as corrupt local officials can be bribed or forced to turn a blind eye.
As I write, the French air force is bombing militant positions and arms dumps on the northern edge of the Tegharghar, around the village of Tessalit, a beautiful little oasis located next to a river that floods every June and July, if the rains are good.
France has its eye on the nearby military airbase, a highly strategic facility which it built in the 1950s. It is unclear why its troops have not yet captured the base.
From there, it will be able to fan out and patrol the region from the air.
Any ground convoy of more than three 4X4 vehicles is likely to be targeted, unless it can identify itself in time. The potential for collateral damage is high.
But al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and their allies know the area all too well.
They first set up base here in 2003, using the Tegharghar mountains and the endless desert plains to the north-west as an ideal bolthole in which to hide Western hostages and train new recruits.
Apart from one skirmish in 2009, the Malian army left them to it. Mali has paid the price for that laissez-faire policy.
Until 2009, when AQIM made it too dangerous for Westerners to travel north up the vast flat Tilemsi valley, an ancient riverbed which serves as the region's north-south highway, I was planning to build a holiday home in Tessalit.
In the black basaltic hills that surround the village there are endless little valleys that turn green and verdant after the rains.
Some of the hillsides are littered with pre-historic rock art. The all-pervading sense of timeless calm and abundant space is quite intoxicating.
It is a landscape in which you can feel free and it is that freedom that the Tuareg have been fighting for, these past five decades.
The ultimate mission for Mali, France and the international community, beyond Operation Serval and the global war on terror, is to restore some of that magic and peace to the Adagh des Ifoghas.
It will involve not only ridding the region of Islamist gunmen, but finding long-term solutions to northern Mali's political, social and economic problems.
Right now, those problems seem as huge and immovable as the rock at Esel. | Journalist Andy Morgan describes the remote mountains in the deserts of northern Mali, where Islamist rebels are believed to have fled after French-led forces chased them out of the region's main towns, possibly taking several French hostages with them. |
31153964 | Six years on, not only has the 26-year-old learnt how to walk, he won a couple of gold medals at the recent Invictus Games.
And one of the Liverpool fan's reasons for his success? A recent edit on one of his tattoos.
While having his leg amputated, Andy lost the word 'alone' from his 'You'll never walk alone' tattoo by his knee.
Andy told the Metro: "I am a huge Liverpool fan so had the Liver bird and the words to the song You'll Never Walk Alone on my leg.
"The tattoo that I have been left with has always been a bit of a joke. I use it in my motivational speeches."
Now the Royal Marine has his sights on a running world record.
"It is ironic that it says I will never walk as I have gone on to run 10 km in 40 minutes.
"At the moment I am just two minutes off a record for the 10 km for a single leg amputee and I have that in my sights."
Andy recently posted this photo to mark six years since he was injured, it has the caption "Six years ago me + my best mate were blown up in Afghanistan".
As the 26-year-old continues to rebuild his life, he's grown quite attached to his altered ink.
"It is bizarre and I just laugh about it. But it adds to my story I guess.
"The fact is that regardless of what the words says, the operation allowed me to walk and run and do so much else. You have got to see the funny side of it."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | While serving as a Royal Marine in Afghanistan, Andy Grant lost his leg after standing on a mine. |
38842671 | The ex-councillor, who was raped by her brother, has become a patron of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood.
Ms Danczuk found fame posting self-portraits on Twitter - though she now believes these were a "cry for help".
She said she hopes to use her media profile to help remove the "stigma" suffered by abuse victims.
Ms Danczuk waived her right to anonymity following the sentencing of Michael Burke in December.
He was jailed for 15 years for a series of sex attacks on his sister and two other victims over an 18-year period.
Ms Danczuk said her fondness for sharing selfies with her 72,000 followers may have been linked to her abuse, which began when she was aged six.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, she said: "I think I wanted to be normal. I wanted people to look at me in a way that I probably hadn't been looked at before.
"It was a mental thing, it was a confidence thing.
"I feel quite embarrassed. It was a massive cry for help.
"Now when I look back I think, goodness me, I really was ill, and I really feel sorry for me back then."
Ms Danczuk, who is no longer with her Rochdale MP husband Simon Danczuk, said she now wants to offer support to sexual abuse victims and use her Twitter account to debate mental health issues.
"What drives me is I feel I'm an underdog, and there are millions of people out there like me," she said. "It takes just one person to say 'I'm going to fight this and we're going to take it on'.
"There is a stigma that you should be ashamed if you've been raped.
"I think they're really harsh words and actually, by me coming out and saying actually there is no shame in this, it just helps other people."
Ms Danczuk, who was a Labour councillor from 2012 to 2015, said she would like to get back into politics.
She said: "I've been thinking this past week... I would love to be an MP.
"I genuinely would and I just hope I can get the support out there to enable that, because I think my voice is important. Mixed views should be taken into account."
She added she would stand for Labour but said she would not stand against her former husband. | Karen Danczuk has said she wants to shed her "selfie queen" tag and become an MP to help sexual abuse victims. |
35608182 | As part of the 12-month pilot, the company would employ two enforcement officers to target problem areas.
Income from fixed penalties, as well as existing council budgets, would pay for the scheme, according to local authority officers.
The plans were drawn up as reports of dog fouling in the region increased by 16% in 12 months.
People who fail to clean up after their dogs can be issued with a fixed penalty fine of £40.
From 1 April, it will be brought into line with other littering offences and it will rise to £80, or £100 if it is not paid within 28 days.
However, since Scottish Borders Council withdrew their warden service in March 2013, only police and designated council officers can enforce the fines.
Under the proposed scheme, the external contractor's staff would be recruited locally and work from council offices.
As well as enforcing fines for dog fouling, littering and fly-tipping, they would work with schools to educate youngsters about related issues.
Councillor David Paterson said: "During the extensive research carried out by council officers, it has become clear that in order for dog fouling to be tackled properly, a strategy around the wider issue of dog ownership is needed.
"Like many councillors, I know dog fouling is a major concern for members of the public and in the last year I have asked officers to consider a more robust way to combat the issue."
Councillors will be asked to support the proposals at a meeting on 25 February. | A private contractor could be appointed by Scottish Borders Council to tackle dog fouling in the region. |
40846542 | Police say the man's body was found near the East Lorengau refugee transit centre on Monday morning.
Australia's Immigration and Border Protection department said Papua New Guinean (PNG) authorities are investigating the death.
PNG police said the man, who is from Iran, took his own life, though reports say other residents contested that.
The man's name has not been released.
Asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat are detained at the Manus Island centre and on the nation of Nauru as part of the government's long-standing policy.
Australia agreed to close the Manus Island centre last year after a PNG court ruled that detaining asylum seekers and refugees there was unconstitutional.
Rights groups say conditions in the PNG and Nauru camps are inadequate with poor hygiene, cramped conditions, unrelenting heat and a lack of facilities.
The controversial centre is due to close by 31 October. | An asylum seeker who was being held at the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island has been found dead. |
39101489 | Some 500,000 documents containing medical information, including cancer test results, were mistakenly put in storage rather than being sent to the GP or filed in the patients' records.
An investigation is under way, focusing on the estimated 2,500 patients who may have been adversely affected and need further medical checks.
So far, no harm has been reported.
The error occurred when a mail redirection company hired by the NHS failed to pass on documents that had either been incorrectly addressed or needed re-routing because the patient had moved to a new GP surgery.
The company, NHS Shared Business Services, has expressed regret for the failings, which occurred between 2011 and 2016 in the East Midlands, the South West and north-east London.
An NHS England spokesperson said: "A team including clinical experts has reviewed that old correspondence and it has now all been delivered wherever possible to the correct practice."
Speaking in the House of Commons, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed that 2,000 of the higher risk cases had now been reassessed by doctors - at a cost of £2.2m - with no harm detected. The remaining 500 are still being assessed.
He said it was "completely extraordinary" that so much data had gone missing unnoticed for so long.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth described the "astonishing" failure as an "absolute scandal".
"The news is heartbreaking for the families involved and it will be scarcely believable for these hospitals and GPs who are doing their best to deliver services despite the neglect of the government. We urgently need to know how this was allowed to happen, how many patients were involved and how many have been harmed, and whether patients remain at risk."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt first disclosed the data error in July 2016, but, at that time, did not say how many primary care patients had been affected.
Dr Richard Vautrey of the British Medical Association said the error would have meant some GPs were treating patients without all the relevant information that they needed.
"That might mean repeat prescriptions, which would be unnecessary, as they have been taken before. And it might mean delay in diagnosis. If that happened it's at best an inconvenience to the patient, and at worst there's a risk of patient harm."
Katherine Murphy of the Patients Association said the episode had the potential to be hugely damaging to patient care and trust.
"Patients trust the NHS to look after their confidential information and this confidence is now eroded."
Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Patient care and safety must always be the number one priority when awarding private companies contracts for any work in the health service. What we are seeing here is companies bidding for, and being awarded, contracts for work that is much more complex that they originally thought.
"We must learn lessons from this - as we must learn from any errors - and ensure that any initiatives to increase efficiency in the NHS are undertaken with caution, and in the long term best interests of general practice, the wider NHS, and our patients." | NHS England is investigating whether any patients have been harmed by an administrative mix-up. |
40225600 | The swoon weighed on US markets, offsetting gains in financial and energy stocks.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq index fell 113.84 points or 1.80%% to 6,207.92.
The broader S&P 500 dipped 2.02 points or 0.08% to 2,431.77, while the Dow Jones edged up 89.44 points, rising 0.42% to 21,271.97.
US markets had seen limited movement earlier this week, as markets waited to see the results of the UK election and reaction to the testimony by former FBI director James Comey in Washington.
Mr Trump's firing of Mr Comey, who had been leading the FBI investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, has drawn a political backlash, threatening the prospects for key business initiatives in Washington.
But the testimony contained little new information and Republicans appeared confident in plans to press forward on key initiatives, such as loosening financial rules.
Financial stocks gained nearly 2% on Friday, while energy stocks rose more than 2% as oil prices stabilised.
But those increases couldn't overcome the fall in technology stocks.
Netflix fell 4.7%, Apple sank 3.9%, Google-owner Alphabet dropped 3.4% Facebook declined 3.3% and Amazon fell 3.2%.
The firms' weeks of success on Wall Street had won it an acronym - FAANG - and led to a steady drumbeat of commentary about possibly inflated values, but it wasn't clear what triggered the widespread sell-off.
It wasn't all bad for internet companies.
Pandora shares jumped 1.2% on Friday, after the music streaming service said it would receive a $480m cash infusion from Sirius XM.
Pandora said the investment by Sirius XM, a satellite radio company, would give it money to grow. It also gives Sirius exposure to the market for online radio. | After weeks of seemingly unstoppable rises, US tech stocks turned sharply down on Friday. |
20266662 | "I was more scared of the weather than the enemy," said 86-year-old veteran Herbert MacNeil, from Manchester.
Yet most of the medals adorning Mr MacNeil's crisp blue blazer as he stands at the Middleton war memorial on Remembrance Day have been awarded by the former USSR and the Russian Federation.
He has been honoured four times by the Russians in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2010.
Winston Churchill said the convoys carried out "the most dangerous journey in the world".
Yet veterans believe they have received scant recognition from the British government for their sacrifices and the enormous risks they ran.
The Arctic sailors received the same medal as those who served on the Atlantic convoys.
"The Arctic was totally different to the Atlantic - somebody needs to tell them in Whitehall," said Mr MacNeil.
"They gave us an Atlantic medal it was like giving us something from a corn flake packet."
Mr MacNeil, who joined the Royal Navy in 1941 age 16, served as an anti-aircraft gunner but a lot of his time was spent battling the elements.
"If you didn't shift the ice the ship could capsize, it was in danger of overturning," he said. "We had to try and chip it off with hammers and scrapers - anything you could lay your hands on.
Source: National Maritime Museum
How an Arctic Convoy helped sink the pride of Germany's battle cruisers
Listen to veteran describe 'absolute hell' of Arctic convoy
"They were terrible conditions. You daren't touch any metal rail on deck as your hand would stick to it.
"When the bows [of the ship] went into a wave you thought they were never going to come out again, you would breathe a sigh of relief and say that's it until the next comes. It was shocking, you did four hours on deck unless it was action stations."
He added: "When you got down below, it was mayhem. All the asbestos had come off the deck heads - the floors were swamped, everything was wet.
"You had no dry clothing and hoped the first lot you had worn had dried out but it never did it stayed wet all the time. You daren't go on the upper deck as it would have frozen to you."
Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday he had "every sympathy" with the case of the Arctic convoy veterans.
He said a review would look at the general issue of medals, with the Arctic convoys "probably the most pressing".
Mr MacNeil and other veterans believe the Cold War was responsible for their lack of recognition.
"It was a political thing because of the Cold War. We were all for the Russians during the war," he said.
The unspoken hope is that the honour will not be posthumous for those surviving vets.
He added: "It's about time them at the top took their fingers out and did what was right and give us what we're due.
"All it needs is somebody with a bit of common sense to say the Russians have recognised their men it's time for us to recognise our men.
"It would be thanks for a job well done." | For the Arctic convoys of World War II that took supplies to the Soviet Union - braving 70ft (21m) waves and temperatures as low as -50C - the weather and seas were just as deadly as the U-boats. |
39102976 | It was taken from the Skippers Bridge in Langholm at about 18:20 on Wednesday.
The scaffolding had been dismantled following the repairs and two men were seen loading it onto a lorry with a white cab at the side of the road.
The value of the scaffolding has been estimated at about £5,000. Police are appealing for witnesses. | Thieves have stolen scaffolding worth thousands of pounds from repair works on a bridge in Dumfries and Galloway. |
31040614 | "The poppy, an iconic feature of the rural Tasmanian landscape, has been developed as a tribute to those who fought in World War One," the Rupertswood Farm in Hagley wrote on their Facebook page.
The maze has been created in a field of sorghum, a grass crop which is used for food and animal fodder.
It opens to the public on 21 February.
"It's probably more to reflect all of the people who fought in the First World War," farmer Rowan Clark told ABC News in Australia.
"We grow poppies on our farm, it's our main crop so we thought it was a good fit."
Mr Clark and his wife Anna used GPS technology and a ride-on mower to create the design.
They believe the maze would grow to up to eight feet (2.5m) high.
"Hopefully at the opening, it will probably be about four, five feet high, and then it'll get even bigger after that. I think at the end of last year, our crop maze was about seven or eight feet high," he said.
After the attraction closes, the sorghum crop will be baled for silage.
Last year the pair designed a maze in the shape of a tiger, which more than 2,000 people are thought to have visited.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube | A massive maze cut in the shape of a poppy has been unveiled on a farm in Tasmania, Australia. |
32810383 | It marks the 75th anniversary of the detention of more than 3,500 women and children in the south of the island during World War Two.
Organiser Pamela Crowe, of Rushen Heritage, said the exhibition was of "international importance".
It was opened at St Catherine's Church by former internee Kathleen Hallgarten.
A baby when she was interned with her mother Ruth Borchard, she spent 18 months in the Rushen camp.
The now 76-year-old, whose parents were from Hamburg, said: "I remember an awful lot from the stories my mother told me - she recalled it as an enormously happy time."
Ms Hallgarten's father was interned separately in the north of the island.
All three were sent to the Isle of Man at short notice because her father worked in the shipping industry in the UK.
She said it is an exhibition of "great historic importance" and an opportunity for those detained to thank the Manx landladies and residents.
"My mother said the worst thing was not knowing when we would be released and the best thing was the friendships forged with both fellow internees and locals.
"In London it was the Blitz and they were sharing half a bedroom with family - here it was tranquil and the hottest summer on record. We just played on the beach".
The Isle of Man was asked by the UK government to accommodate thousands of enemy aliens at camps in Douglas, Ramsey and Peel.
According to Mrs Crowe, the majority of those interned in Port Erin and Port St Mary were refugees who had fled from Nazi Germany.
Even German nationals who had lived in Britain for decades were arrested, as were those who held passports from the Axis powers.
Women were sent to a specially built camp in the south of the island.
Hilda Wolfgang, who was an ordinary housewife and completely loyal to Britain, recalls: "I was interned. Just like that two policemen came and fetched me. People stood lining the streets, throwing stones at you, spitting at you and shouting spies!
"That was horrible. Everyone thought it would be a concentration camp like it is in Germany. Several of them wanted to jump in the water, because they didn't know what was in front of them. When we arrived in the Isle of Man, we had pictures taken with our number on. We already had the feeling that we were criminals."
Mrs Crowe said the Rushen camp was "unique in Europe" as it was a "camp of women, run by women for women."
She said: "It was a wonderful time in so much as they had escaped the bombings in London and arrived in the beautiful towns of Port Erin and Port St Mary with their glorious beaches.
"The women were well-occupied and shared their skills which included sculpture, typing and dress-making. Some beautiful work was produced."
Rushen Heritage Director Hugh Davidson agreed that as the camp was run by the Home Office rather than the military, there was great freedom.
He said: "The local people were within the barbed wire perimeter as well as the internees.
"It was basically a unique form of government by women of women because it was run by the landladies".
Mrs Clarke continued: "We are not suggesting that Rushen Camp was Utopia, since many women internees had wrongly lost their freedom and were loyal to Britain."
All other Manx camps like Knockaloe, which housed 23,000 internees near Peel, were just for men.
During the internment the population of the villages of Port Erin and Port St Mary doubled with the camp remaining occupied for five years.
It eventually closed in 1945 with many choosing to stay on after the war and remaining firm friends for life with the families who had looked after them.
Mrs Crowe added: "From grand hotels to humble homes - all spare bedrooms were requisitioned to house the thousands of women that arrived."
The research for the exhibition was undertaken by volunteers from the Rushen Heritage Trust.
The display is open daily from 10:00-16:00 BST until 14 June. | An exhibition which reveals the previously untold stories of detainees at Europe's only all-female internment camp has opened in the Isle of Man. |
30853342 | The problem, as always, is that the figures are not in synch - Wales and Northern Ireland data for accident and emergency waiting times are for the month of December, while NHS England has come up with its latest weekly figures, up till Sunday, 11 January.
And what's happening in Scotland? Well we have no new figures since September and they will not be updated until February.
So what do we learn? There is confirmation, if it were needed, that the pressures on hospitals are being felt around the UK and posing challenges for both Westminster and the devolved administrations which run health.
Wales, like England, is recording the worst outcomes relative to four-hour waiting-time standards since current data-recording protocols were introduced over the last decade.
It is worth noting that in the week ending 11 January, the number of attendances at English A&E units fell slightly and the proportion seen within four hours was up by three percentage points compared with the previous week.
This was the week which saw a dozen hospitals declaring "major incidents" in a bid to clear the backlog in A&E and discharge as many patients as possible to free up beds.
But there will still major pressures on the service and the number of delayed transfers of patients was the highest this winter.
What is described as an "unprecedented increase in demand for ambulance services" has been given as a reason for a change in ambulance response policy in parts of England.
A row blew up in December after a leaked memo suggested that ambulance priorities might be changed because of pressure on the system.
An option under discussion was to reduce the number of conditions labelled as "Red 2", the second most urgent category. The government has now announced its plans.
The statement from Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt sets out a new a policy to be piloted in the South West of England and London.
The conditions branded "Red 1" and "Red 2" will remain the same, with a few actually moving up to "Red 1".
But the length of time before an ambulance is dispatched will be increased from 60 to 180 seconds.
The logic is to give more time to decide on priorities and avoid dispatches to cases which turn out to be less urgent than first believed.
Mr Hunt has made clear the changes have been made purely on clinical advice. NHS England and ambulance chiefs argue they will eliminate " inefficiencies" and "distortions" created by attempts to hit the eight-minute response time national target.
But Labour's response was that in the worst winter for the NHS in years it was the wrong time to experiment or relax operational standards.
A letter to the Health Secretary from Keith Willett, NHS England's director of acute care, suggests he would have liked to go further and downgrade some conditions from "Red 2" because those patients didn't derive clinical benefit from the arrival of an ambulance within eight minutes.
This was the thrust of the leaked memo last month. He acknowledges that the idea needs further discussion and could not be introduced short-term.
Reading between the lines, the Health Secretary seems to have decided that the changes to ambulance protocols flagged up in the December memo are too controversial.
What remains to be seen is whether the more limited shift in policy flagged up today becomes a political hot potato. | The latest news gives us an updated snapshot of the state of the NHS in different parts of the UK at a time when the service is under intense pressure and the subject of heated political debate. |
40002218 | The fire service said that a "significant quantity" of material is on fire at the Castlebawn site on Portaferry Road.
The advice has been issued to those in the Court Street and Castlebawn areas.
The fire in the County Down town has been burning for four days, according to the Newtownards Chronicle.
In a statement, the fire service said that it had extinguished one area of the fire.
"We have been liaising with environmental health from Ards and North Down Borough Council and the site owners, and are awaiting a digger to arrive on site to separate the rubbish and rubble to enable us to continue with firefighting operations." | Residents in Newtownards have been told to keep their windows and doors closed against a plume of smoke coming from a "rubbish and rubble fire". |
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