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32349384 | He was the most senior figure to have evaded capture following the US-led invasion of the country, and most recently was the leader of the militant Naqshbandi Order.
The militia, which included loyalists of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party, played a key role in a Sunni rebellion which helped Islamic State seize large swathes of Iraq in the summer of 2014.
After Saddam Hussein's execution in 2006, the Baath Party named Douri - by now in hiding - as its new leader.
The US military, which marked him as the King of Clubs in its deck of playing cards featuring former members of the regime, later said Douri was the "single most significant regime figure" still at large.
They accused him of co-ordinating some of the attacks on US-led forces and offered a $10m reward for his capture.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was one of the key plotters in the coup that brought the Baath Party to power in 1968.
In later years, he served as Saddam Hussein's number two in the powerful Revolution Command Council, as vice-chairman.
Douri was deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and held a senior post on the committee responsible for northern Iraq when chemical weapons were used in 1988, killing thousands of Kurds.
War crimes charges were issued against him in Austria.
When the first Gulf War broke out in 1991, The New York Times newspaper quoted Douri as warning the Kurds not to cause trouble.
He allegedly reminded them of the chemical attack with the words: "If you have forgotten Halabja, I would like to remind you that we are ready to repeat the operation."
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was born the son of an ice-seller in 1942 near Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town.
He joined the Baath Party, rising swiftly through the ranks after the coup. In the 1970s, he served as both agriculture and interior minister.
He travelled abroad frequently as the Iraqi leader's envoy and was sent to woo neighbouring states during the pre-war stand-off with Washington.
At the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut, Douri broke the ice by publicly shaking hands with the Kuwaiti foreign minister - whose country Iraq invaded in 1990 - and embracing the Saudi crown prince, whose kingdom Saddam Hussein had threatened to attack.
Douri had several narrow escapes - one an assassination attempt in Karbala in 1998, and managing to avoid arrest in Vienna in 1999 for suspected crimes against humanity while on a private visit for medical treatment.
He was also reported killed several times in the years following 2003, but each proved to be false.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri's daughter was briefly married to Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday, who - together with his brother Qusay - was killed by US forces in Mosul in July 2003.
Four of Douri's nephews were captured in January 2004, two months after the arrest of his wife and daughter. | Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was one of Saddam Hussein's most trusted allies, and one of his most ruthless enforcers. |
37863772 | The 48-hour strike comes a day after the RMT union announced there would be six days of strikes in the run-up to Christmas and over the new year.
It coincides with the Lewes Bonfire Night celebrations on Saturday, when no trains will stop in the town or at neighbouring stations after midday.
More action over the role of conductors is planned in the coming weeks.
The current stoppage, which began at midnight, had been due to start on Thursday but was postponed following a request from the British Legion as it clashed with London Poppy Day, where uniformed personnel collected money at Tube and railway stations.
Southern Rail strikes: Eight things you wanted to know
A bitter row over the introduction of driver-only operated (DOO) trains has led to months of delays and cancellations for passengers, with Southern saying the union had "caused misery and hardship to people's work and family lives".
The RMT has said it was left with "no choice" but to fight to retain a "safety critical" conductor, in addition to the driver, on all services.
RMT members have mounted picket lines at stations including Brighton and London Victoria.
Southern said there would be a restricted service over the two days, with some routes having no trains at all.
"We're sorry to our passengers that we won't be able to provide a full service because of the RMT's pointless and wholly unjustified strike action," the firm's passenger services director, Angie Doll, said.
On Monday, members and supporters of the RMT protested outside the Houses of Parliament.
Announcing strike action over the festive period, RMT general secretary Mick Cash accused Southern and the government of "sheer pig-headedness", meaning members "are being forced to take further industrial action in a bid to maintain a safe and secure service".
A spokesman for Southern said the union had "hit a new low" and was "determined to cancel Christmas for the travelling public".
Two bus companies have stepped in to provide extra services to Lewes on Saturday.
Tom Druitt, from The Big Lemon bus company, said six coaches had been provided, which was "three times more than any other year", but added all the coaches were now sold out.
"That was pretty much all the vehicles we had available once we heard the strike was on," he said.
A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove buses, which has provided nine extra buses to provide additional services between Brighton and Lewes, said: "There are more services going towards Lewes because we want to make sure any residents get home with no issue."
Mick Symes, from Lewes Bonfire Society, said members were "aghast" when they heard about the rail strike.
"We were expecting 35,000 people to come into Lewes by train, being as it's a Saturday," he said.
"It's a treble whammy. There are no trains, we are relying on the bus companies, and they are not even being allowed into the town."
Lewes District Council has said road closures will be in place around the town and the A26 will also be closed through the Cuilfail Tunnel as part of enhanced security measures. | Hundreds of commuters are facing fresh travel disruption in the latest strike by Southern rail workers. |
30538313 | Newly published figures from regulator Ofgem showed that 1.5 million electricity accounts and 1.4 million gas accounts in Britain were in debt.
This was a slight rise on 2012, but the amount owed was unchanged.
The figures come shortly after the industry opened a new scheme aiming to return credit to customers.
In February, Ofgem revealed that the suppliers held at least £202m from 3.5 million former domestic customers whose accounts had been closed but who had made payments for unused gas and electricity.
It has also reported that the number of free gas safety checks by suppliers for customers who are elderly or have long-term health problems has fallen from 40,000 in 2009 to 17,000 in 2013.
The regulator said that suppliers should do all they could to support customers struggling to pay.
Customers in debt typically owed £323 on gas bills, and £306 on electricity bills.
The number of people repaying debt rose in England, but fell in Scotland and Wales.
Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, said that nearly one in five callers to its National Debtline advice line had energy bill debts.
"This is part of a dramatic shift in the type of debt problems we are seeing in the UK, with fewer people falling behind with traditional credit products and more and more struggling to repay household bills," she said.
"If you fall behind with your energy bills, it is important to stay in contact with your supplier, who have a duty to support customers who are struggling to pay. You can also seek free advice from a debt charity such as National Debtline."
Earlier in the month, the big six suppliers who owe money to customers who may have moved home launched a nationwide campaign aiming to hand back overpayments averaging £50 on closed accounts.
Meanwhile, the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee has opened an investigation into price comparison websites.
MPs said that the way these websites operated, when householders were looking to switch suppliers, had been a source of concern in recent months. | About 6% of domestic energy customers were in debt to their supplier in 2013, figures show, but energy firms still owe money to customers too. |
36119790 | Pupils from 23 schools joined students at Wellesley House School in Broadstairs to speak to the astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS).
It was the seventh in a series of UK-wide events designed to inspire scientific interest in pupils.
The astronaut is on a six-month mission for the European Space Agency.
On Sunday, he is set to run the equivalent of the London Marathon on a treadmill on board the ISS.
Initially, the group struggled to make audio contact with the astronaut, whose face appeared on a screen on the stage.
Victoria Neilson, spokeswoman for Wellesley House School, said: "It was extraordinary... like one of those movies when they are trying to make contact."
She added: "It was very exciting for everyone".
The project is a collaboration between Amateur Radio on the ISS (ARISS), the Radio Society of Great Britain, the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency. | Schoolchildren in Kent have quizzed astronaut Tim Peake about space in a live webcast. |
36572851 | The world champions' 36-22 win in Wellington means Steve Hansen's side have an unassailable 2-0 lead going into the final Test in Dunedin.
Wales have adopted a more expansive approach in New Zealand as they try to evolve their game.
"We've got to keep working at it and keep being bold and brave," said Owens.
"We've played some good stuff on this tour so far and we've just got to keep our heads up and keep plugging away.
"There's still one game to go and hopefully we can get a result."
Media playback is not supported on this device
Wales finished second behind a rejuvenated England in the 2016 Six Nations, and came in for criticism at home for their style of play during the championship.
But Warren Gatland's side have added more variety to their game in New Zealand as they look to be more expansive and have scored five tries in their two defeats by the All Blacks so far.
"You've got to try it sometime. We've been criticised for having one style of play and we've worked hard since the Six Nations and during the Six Nations to evolve and adapt our game and I think we've done that," said Owens.
Wales led the first Test after an hour in Auckland after tries from Taulupe Faletau and Rhys Webb, only for Hansen's men to score 21 unanswered points on their way to a 39-21 victory.
In Wellington, the visitors finished on a high with Liam Williams and Jonathan Davies scoring late on to ensure Wales only lost by 14 points - the narrowest losing margin they have ever achieved against the All Blacks in New Zealand.
Wales have now lost 28 consecutive matches against the All Blacks, with their last win coming in 1953.
But captain Sam Warburton says Wales must continue with their expansive approach.
"I think the one big learning point we've got from this is that our attack is better than we think it is," he said.
"We should back ourselves more often. I think we were guilty in the Six Nations of perhaps playing a little bit too conservatively. The Six Nations is a little bit more chess than when you play the southern hemisphere teams.
"We need to back our attack because we are comfortable with ball in hand.
"We just need to show that a little bit more often so I think that's the big learning we'll take back." | Wales must remain bold in attack against the All Blacks on Saturday as they look to avoid a series whitewash in New Zealand, says hooker Ken Owens. |
37325293 | The hosts had the better of the first half but, once again, struggled to turn that dominance into goals.
Jodi Jones had a couple of efforts miss the target, while Marvin Sordell finished the best move of the game with a scuffed shot that drifted wide as the home side tried to break the deadlock.
Oldham midfielder Paul Green saw his low-range strike deflected wide 10 minutes before the break and then fired the ball over the crossbar from the resulting corner.
The best opportunity of the period fell to Coventry's Marcus Tudgay on the stroke of half-time - but he headed Lewis Page's inch-perfect cross wide of the target.
Impressive Sky Blues full-back Jamie Sterry was carried off on a stretcher at the start of the second half after taking a horrible blow to the head and that cleared the way for Oldham to have their best spell.
Ollie Banks and Green both fired over for Latics, while striker Lee Erwin, who was quiet in the first half, smacked against the bar from the edge of the box.
Banks had two efforts saved by Reice Charles-Cook as the visitors sensed they could claim a late win but Coventry finished the stronger of the two as eight minutes were played out with each side awarded a point.
Reports supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Coventry City 0, Oldham Athletic 0.
Second Half ends, Coventry City 0, Oldham Athletic 0.
Attempt missed. Gael Bigirimana (Coventry City) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right.
Attempt missed. Jodi Jones (Coventry City) left footed shot from outside the box is too high from a direct free kick.
Hand ball by Peter Clarke (Oldham Athletic).
Attempt blocked. Ben Stevenson (Coventry City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Jodi Jones (Coventry City) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
Attempt saved. Lee Erwin (Oldham Athletic) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Corner, Coventry City. Conceded by Brian Wilson.
Attempt blocked. Jodi Jones (Coventry City) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
Corner, Oldham Athletic. Conceded by Jordan Turnbull.
Attempt missed. Marvin Sordell (Coventry City) header from the centre of the box misses to the right.
Corner, Coventry City. Conceded by Brian Wilson.
Jordan Willis (Coventry City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Darius Osei (Oldham Athletic).
Substitution, Oldham Athletic. Ryan Flynn replaces Marc Klok.
Attempt blocked. Jodi Jones (Coventry City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Lewis Page (Coventry City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Oliver Banks (Oldham Athletic).
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Peter Clarke (Oldham Athletic) because of an injury.
Delay in match Lewis Page (Coventry City) because of an injury.
Foul by Dion Kelly-Evans (Coventry City).
Lee Erwin (Oldham Athletic) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt saved. Marvin Sordell (Coventry City) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Ruben Lameiras (Coventry City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Brian Wilson (Oldham Athletic).
Attempt saved. Oliver Banks (Oldham Athletic) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Attempt blocked. Darius Osei (Oldham Athletic) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Marc Klok (Oldham Athletic) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right.
Corner, Oldham Athletic. Conceded by Lewis Page.
Corner, Oldham Athletic. Conceded by Jordan Willis.
Attempt blocked. Darius Osei (Oldham Athletic) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Attempt blocked. Marvin Sordell (Coventry City) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Substitution, Oldham Athletic. Darius Osei replaces Freddie Ladapo.
Gael Bigirimana (Coventry City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Lee Croft (Oldham Athletic).
Gael Bigirimana (Coventry City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Lee Erwin (Oldham Athletic).
Charles Dunne (Oldham Athletic) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. | Coventry are still looking for their first win in League One after being held to another goalless draw by Oldham. |
36163626 | Michael O'Neill's team finished top of qualifying Group F and will take on Poland, Germany and Ukraine at Euro 2016.
But who would you pick to face the Poles in NI's opening game on Sunday, 12 June?
Who does O'Neill select in place of the injured Chris Brunt? And what about the forward berth alongside Kyle Lafferty? Is Jamie Ward the man for the job?
Now you can pick your Northern Ireland team, selecting from the whole squad and slotting them into the formation of your choice.
And after you've done that you can share them with your friends or post them on your social media accounts.
It couldn't be easier - and you never know, O'Neill might just be reading...
Step into Michael O'Neill’s shoes and pick your XI as Northern Ireland bid to go far at Euro 2016 - and then share it with your friends using our team selector. | Northern Ireland will make history in France this summer when they compete at a European Championship finals for the first time. |
29342177 | The 71-year-old, who lives in Canada, will head up the Swansea Bay City Region following the departure of Swansea council leader David Phillips.
It covers Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea and Neath Port Talbot.
Sir Terry will advise the government on issues concerning the region. | Celtic Manor boss Sir Terry Matthews has been appointed chairman of a Welsh government body which aims to draw inward investment to south Wales. |
35844129 | Rose Macefield, from Dudley, West Midlands, spent 200 hours carefully crafting the comic heroes for the three-day event.
She said: "I did consider several movies as a source of inspiration, but the new Batman v Superman movie will be released just a week after the show.
"I thought it would be perfect timing."
More than 30,000 people are attending the exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.
There are more than 400 exhibitors at the show, many of whom have spent weeks creating their intricate cakes.
Among the designs is a cake of the star of BBC's Poldark, a Game of Thrones Direwolf and Star Wars characters.
The annual event has attracted a huge following, with visitors travelling from across the world to attend.
In 2013, amateur baker Lara Clarke made headlines after she baked a lifesize Johnny Depp cake, as his Pirates of the Caribbean character Jack Sparrow. | Caked crusaders Batman and Superman are among hundreds of stunning sweet treats on display at the annual Cake International exhibition. |
24333109 | Swansea-based Abertawe Bro Morgannwg (ABM) was third with 283 attendances and Cardiff and Vale fifth with 221. The other three were all in Scotland.
The UK figures showed 6,500 underage drinkers went to A&E in 2012-13.
Alcohol Concern Cymru said the figures were "concerning" but the statistics needed to be treated cautiously.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran - 483
NHS Grampian - 304
Abertawe Bro Morgannwg UHB - 283
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde - 272
Cardiff and Vale UHB - 221
BBC Radio 5Live made a freedom of information request to all NHS health boards or trusts in the UK asking for information on the number of under-18s attending A&E in the past five years for drink or drug related illnesses. Out of 189 health bodies, 125 responded.
Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board, which serves north Wales, had 163 attendances in the past year. The other four health boards did not respond or were unable to supply the appropriate data.
Public health bodies and charities said fewer children overall were drinking but those who did may be drinking more.
Andrew Misell, director of Alcohol Concern Cymru, said the figures had to be treated with care as not all boards had replied and organisations had different ways of recording data.
"It's interesting that two relatively small cities in the UK [Swansea and Cardiff] have come up so high but I think we need to be a bit cautious before we start saying there's a bigger problem here," he told BBC News.
"We'd need to know that everyone was measuring intoxication in the same way.
"I'm sure that people in the various health boards will be looking at this with some interest and concern and I think it's probably not helpful to start pointing the finger at individual towns in Wales."
However, Mr Misell added: "It's obviously concerning that children under the legal drinking age are, by whatever means, getting hold of alcohol.
"I think there's a number of things going on here.
"There's of course teenagers who have managed to get get into an off-licence because they look old enough or the shopkeeper wasn't bothered about their age.
"It will also include children who have managed to get hold of their parents' alcohol, ranging from teenagers to small children who have got hold of it accidentally, to children who have been given it by adults.
"Unfortunately, some adults mistakenly believe that if you give your child alcohol at home, they are insulating them from the dangers of having it outside the house. There is no evidence for this."
He said the official advice was not to give alcohol to children aged 15 and under.
ABM, which serves Swansea, Bridgend, Port Talbot and surrounding areas, said in a statement: "We are not getting reports from A&E doctors that they feel the problem in our area is any worse than in other parts of the UK where they have worked.
"A&E alcohol-related attendances for under-18s in the ABM area have been on a downward trend since 2008/09 when they were 432. Last year they were 281 (229 of these were 15-17 year olds).
"However we would like to see that figure come down much further and we are working on wellbeing programmes with schools which help to educate and inform youngsters about issues around alcohol misuse.
"As part of the Healthy Schools Scheme we raise awareness of risky behaviours among young people, social norms, attitudes and knowledge in relation to alcohol.
"We also have the Swansea Healthy Nightlife action plan which reduces the ability of youngsters to purchase alcohol from bars/clubs.
The Cardiff and Vale board has also been asked to comment. | Two Welsh health boards were in the top five in the UK for under-age drinkers visiting A&E units in the past year, a BBC investigation has found. |
36403974 | Defender Doe, 27, made 266 appearances for Daggers, scoring 11 goals, before leaving the club last summer.
Midfielder Howell, 29, returns to the club after playing 37 times for Boreham Wood during the 2015-16 season.
"For whatever reason they left a year ago, but have made every effort to reunite with this football club," boss John Still told the club website.
Dagenham & Redbridge and Boreham Wood will face each other in the National League next season after the former finished next to bottom in League Two, having won only eight of their 46 games. | Relegated Dagenham & Redbridge have re-signed Scott Doe and Luke Howell after a season with Boreham Wood. |
35870005 | He had powder paint smeared on his face as part of the festival of Holi.
He was visiting Okhari, a village in the mountains, to see the Gurkha Welfare Trust's efforts to rebuild a school wrecked by an earthquake.
On his arrival Harry received a rapturous welcome by the villagers who decked him with garlands and scarves.
The prince had spent the previous night as the guest of Mangali Tamang, the 86-year-old widow of a former Gurkha rifleman.
He described the experience of sleeping under the same roof as the Nepalese family as "peaceful, actually. Lots of dogs barking, but it didn't seem to bother them."
The prince visited the Gauda Secondary School in the village, to see how the British-based Gurkha Welfare Trust is helping to fund the rebuilding after it was damaged during last year's earthquake.
The prince's trip is celebrating 200 years of relations between Nepal and Britain. His tour comes as the country is rebuilding after last year's devastating earthquake which killed more than 8,000 people. | Prince Harry has joined in a Hindu festival of colour in Nepal during the fourth day of his five-day trip to the country. |
39218715 | The award is part of local growth fund money being given to the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
It has received £29.45m for a range of projects and brings the total allocated to the region since 2014 to over £126m.
Ministers said the funding would create jobs, improve skills and support businesses.
Read more about this and other stories from across Lincolnshire
The new health science centre will have clinical places for teaching and professional development across a range of health professions, the government said.
Prof Mary Stuart, vice chancellor of the university, said: "This investment will help us to develop a centre that will address some of the many challenges and opportunities facing health and medicine in our region, from supplying workforce skills to developing new medical innovations."
She said the university would be seeking further funding to move the project forward.
The government claims the total funding provided to Greater Lincolnshire could help "create or safeguard" more than 7,000 jobs over 10 years.
Local growth minister Andrew Percy said the funding would "make a real difference".
Other projects to benefit include: | A proposed new health science centre at the University of Lincoln is to receive £5m in government cash. |
37928387 | Vaughan Gething told BBC Wales that the NHS will have to confront "difficult challenges" within the first part of the assembly term.
Mr Gething said there were "big gains" to be made in quality, and that service change was not just about money.
An extra £240m was announced for the NHS in the Welsh budget last month.
Total Welsh Government spending is to rise by 2.7% to £14.95bn in 2017/18.
Ministers have faced opposition in previous years over proposals to change some NHS services - such as over the moving of maternity care from Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen.
On Wednesday, Mr Gething told The Wales Report on BBC One: "Local politicians often get dragged in to try to stand up for a service model that doesn't really deliver the sort of efficiency and quality that all of our citizens should be entitled to expect.
"That level of innovation and reform has to be delivered otherwise we don't get to the point we can make those really difficult choices, if we ever have to, about money driving different choices in health care.
"But we're not there yet."
When asked if "difficult, tough choices" would have to be made soon, Mr Gething said: "I'd prefer it to happen within this term."
He said he had been "really clear" with the health service about his expectations that "some of those difficult challenges are confronted and dealt within the first part of this term".
"That requires a conversation within and between clinicians and a conversation with the public about why services will change," he said.
"Because there's a really big gain to be made there, its not just about money. There's really big gains there in quality, outcomes and patient experience."
He said part of the challenge is "how we understand, in a hospital setting, does every hospital need to do what it does at the moment?"
"This is difficult for the public," he said. "Because often when we talk about moving services around, when a health board proposes, either on its own or with another health board partners to change the pattern of services, people instantly think this is about money, even if it is really about quality."
Mr Gething warned that discussions would have to be had over the "limits of the health service" if there was no change in position from the UK government on public finances.
"If we don't see a broader investment... then we could end up in a position where we have to have an incredibly difficult conversation about the limits of the health service and money being the driver, not simply about how we make best use of money", he said.
The Wales Report, BBC One Wales, 22:40 GMT, Wednesday 9 November | Local politicians often get "dragged in" to stand up for NHS services that do not "really deliver", Wales' health minister has said. |
37219433 | Not this time. Not in this mean-spirited race. Not when the undercurrent is race in America.
Who could imagine in 2016 that a vice-presidential candidate from one side would accuse the man running for president from the other side of pushing the "values of the Ku Klux Klan?" But that is what Tim Kaine said of Donald Trump, denouncing him, in effect, for wanting to restore white supremacy.
And this was not an isolated moment of campaign rhetoric.
Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of wanting to take the "hate movement mainstream".
And we have also had presidential candidate Donald Trump being asked by a television interviewer whether he wants white supremacists to vote for him. And yes this is 2016.
And then Donald Trump rounds on his opponent: "Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of colour only as votes."
And then, in the midst of this, Donald Trump takes a page out of his book, The Art of the Deal. He decided to make an extraordinary offer to black Americans. "You're living in poverty," he tells them. "Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. What the hell do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump?"
And, unsurprisingly, many black Americans have expressed outrage that their lives and struggles can be so easily dismissed.
There has been progress. More than 60% of black Americans have white-collar jobs, and 22% have graduated from college.
Yet despite real progress, 41% say there is still discrimination.
Eight years ago, in 2008, I stood in Grant Park, Chicago, when Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech.
I wrote at the time "an African-American had denied the weight of history, and become the most powerful man in the world". Mr Obama spoke of "many voting for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different". He spoke of change coming to America, of reclaiming the American Dream.
And on inauguration day 2009, at 04:00 on a bone-chilling night, I saw thousands of people on the move, many of them black Americans, trekking from distant places to claim their place on the Mall and witness history being made.
So what happened? Inevitably hopes raised were disappointed.
The economy spluttered and the dream of attaining a middle-class lifestyle receded. Inequality rose. The levels of incarceration for black Americans, although diminishing, remain high. On the streets, many attempted arrests ended in police shootings.
And then I recalled too that some Americans never accepted Barack Obama as a legitimate president. I remember a Sarah Palin rally in Ohio in 2008 at which she declared: "Obama doesn't feel like us." There were references to the "real America".
On the cable television channels and in Congress, a mean-spiritedness has stained the political debate. Bipartisanship and collegiality and compromise have been ditched in favour of ideological battles.
And it seeps into this political season. At a Trump rally in Milwaukee a few weeks ago, several men had T-shirts with the slogan "Trump that Bitch!"
And in the maelstrom of this campaign Colin Kaepernick, a San Francisco 49ers quarterback, remains seated during the national anthem. It is a protest, he says, against the nation's oppression of people of colour.
"There are a lot of things going on that are unjust," he said afterwards. "I mean," he continues, "you have Hillary who has called black teens 'super predators'. You have Donald Trump who's openly racist."
Both candidates would dispute this but race is one of the undertones of this campaign.
Martin Luther King's central hope was that people someday would be judged by "the content of their character" rather than the colour of their skin.
But this election is far from being colour blind. It is littered with references to college-educated "whites" or "black" women or Hispanics - as if what mattered was skin colour.
Back in 1964, the then Republican candidate Barry Goldwater agreed with the sitting president Lyndon Johnson that they would keep race out of the campaign and not exploit it for electoral purposes.
They were different times. | Election time in America usually resonates with boundless optimism, with candidates, in their own way, promising "morning in America", as Ronald Reagan once did. |
38424726 | Scott Wilson scored the only goal two minutes after half-time at Meadow Park to help the Spitfires leapfrog their opponents and climb to eighth place in the table.
Wilson's goal came from a defensive mistake, with the 23-year-old striker seizing on an under-hit back pass and rounding Grant Smith.
Boreham Wood had grabbed a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw between the sides on Tuesday, but this time keeper Mark Childs came to Eastleigh's rescue with fine saves from Femi Ilesanmi and Bruno Andrade.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Boreham Wood 0, Eastleigh 1.
Second Half ends, Boreham Wood 0, Eastleigh 1.
Substitution, Eastleigh. Ben Strevens replaces Ross Stearn.
Substitution, Boreham Wood. Bruno Andrade replaces Kenny Davis.
Substitution, Eastleigh. Ryan Bird replaces Scott Wilson.
Substitution, Eastleigh. Connor Essam replaces Jai Reason.
Substitution, Boreham Wood. Ricky Shakes replaces Ben Nunn.
Ben Nunn (Boreham Wood) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Goal! Boreham Wood 0, Eastleigh 1. Scott Wilson (Eastleigh).
Second Half begins Boreham Wood 0, Eastleigh 0.
First Half ends, Boreham Wood 0, Eastleigh 0.
Jai Reason (Eastleigh) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Angelo Balanta (Boreham Wood) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up. | Eastleigh defeated Boreham Wood to give manager Martin Allen his first National League victory since taking charge at the start of December. |
33680049 | But Nato's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, speaking to the BBC, says "there has been no request for any substantial NATO military support," ahead of the gathering.
So what's it for and what, if anything, is likely to come out of it?
Meetings under Article 4 of the Nato founding treaty (when members feel their "territorial integrity, political independence or security...is threatened") are unusual.
This is only the fifth such occasion in the alliance's history - all meetings except one were called by Turkey.
Coupled with Turkey's recent decision to attack so-called Islamic State (IS) and Kurdish targets and an upsurge of violence inside Turkey, this feels like a consequential moment.
Turkey's long-awaited involvement in the international coalition against IS, flying combat missions and making its vital airbases available to US jets has been described as a possible "game changer."
There are now reports that the US and Turkey are working together on plans to clear IS from parts of northern Syria near to the Turkish border.
But if the government in Ankara continues to see no difference between IS and the Kurdish PKK - a position repeated on Monday by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu - then its latest move presents the rest of the coalition, in particular the Americans, with a dilemma.
For almost a year, Kurdish rebels (the YPG, closely allied with the PKK) have represented Washington's best hope for confronting IS on the ground in Syria.
Since the battle for the border town of Kobane, late last year, the Pentagon has forged a successful working relationship with the YPG.
But Turkey has no interest in promoting Kurdish success along its southern border, at a time when its own unresolved Kurdish conflict threatens to explode once more.
In response to Kurdish accusations that Turkish forces shelled YPG positions east and west of Kobane, Turkish officials said the Syrian Kurds were "outside the scope" of current military operations.
But the suspicion lingers that Ankara may be looking to exploit its new status as an active participant in the campaign against IS to win support for - or at least mute criticism of - its ongoing battle with the Kurds.
Having requested a Nato meeting, it hopes its concerns about renewed PKK violence, including the killing of two police officers, will fall on sympathetic ears.
But Mr Stoltenberg has indicated that Nato's support cannot be unconditional.
Self-defence, he told the BBC on Sunday, "has to be proportionate."
US officials, too, seem anxious to dispel the impression that Washington might have given Ankara a green light for its actions against the Kurds.
Brett McGurk, the deputy special presidential envoy to the coalition against IS, said there was "no connection" between Turkey's airstrikes on PKK positions in Iraq and recent understandings on how to tackle IS.
But there's the rub: the only Nato member with a front row seat in the war in Syria has always had a very different take on how how to handle the conflict.
Its "connections" are not necessarily that same as everyone else's "connections."
Earlier this year, President Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, told Congress that Turkey had "other priorities and other interests" and could not be relied upon to join the fight against IS.
Despite an apparent change of heart, Turkey still sees President Assad as the main problem, not IS.
And after decades of bloody conflict with its own Kurdish population, it's almost pathologically opposed to anything that serves Kurdish interests across the border.
The recent agreement between Washington and Ankara raises the possibility that some of these differences may now be narrower.
But tight-lipped American and Turkish officials are still working on the details.
Presumably these will also be discussed in Brussels. | Turkey's foreign minister says his country expects "solidarity and support from our Nato allies," when alliance members meet in Brussels on Tuesday. |
35354273 | Some images showing suspects allegedly stealing bikes and vandalising cars were recorded in Clifton, Nottingham, on residents' own CCTV cameras.
They claim they resorted to social media because police "aren't bothered".
Nottinghamshire Police warned if events escalated away from social media, people ran the risk of arrest.
Updates on this story and more from Nottinghamshire
There have been about a dozen posts from residents, detailing alleged shed break-ins, bag and bike thefts, as well as criminal damage.
Lucci Del-Gaudio is one of a number of people who has posted on the closed Clifton Community Group.
Mr Del-Gaudio uploaded CCTV images of people he believed stole two of his children's scooters, estimated to be worth £400.
"I had a full CCTV image of the guy's face and I took it to the police in Clifton that same evening but there was no officer to see me, " Mr Del-Gaudio said.
He said he posted the images on Facebook and within hours he had messages and the post was viewed 5,000 times.
"Every single day, for the last 14 to 15 days, something's been stolen in Clifton," he said.
"That's why the residents are doing this, because the police aren't getting their finger out."
Mr Del-Gaudio, who insists no posts have named would-be thieves, also said there was a lack of police patrols in the area.
A police spokesman said the force had "excellent community relations" in Clifton.
"If a crime is not reported, then we cannot respond," he said.
"If members of the public decide to take the law into their own hands then they risk the possibility of being arrested themselves." | Residents posting pictures of suspected thieves on Facebook have been told by police they face arrest themselves if they take the law into their own hands. |
34590554 | Fishlock, 28, was left out of manager Jayne Ludlow's first squad in February 2015 and was replaced as captain.
Despite her commitments with Seattle Reign in National Women's Soccer League, Fishlock wants to continue with Wales.
"If I'm fit to play for my club I can travel to play for my country," she said.
Fishlock, who has won 87 caps since making her senior debut in 2006, will join Melbourne City on loan as player-coach during Seattle's off-season.
She expressed disappointment after being left out of the Wales squad for February's Istria Cup tournament in Croatia but returned for back-to-back friendlies against Slovakia in April.
The former Bristol Academy player is in Wales' squad for Friday's Euro 2017 qualifier in Norway but says she was close to retiring from the international stage.
"I was umming and ahhing this year after the World Cup whether it was time to just focus on my club career and prolong that a little bit," Fishlock added.
"There's no doubt that the flights will shorten my career, because that's what it does.
"I sat down and spoke with my family and I don't think I'd be ok with myself knowing that I could play for a club and choose not to play for my country."
Hear the full interview with Jess Fishlock on Radio Wales Sport, BBC Radio Wales on Wednesday from 19:00 BST | Wales women's midfielder Jess Fishlock has revealed she considered quitting international football. |
35272883 | The Serb continued his recent dominance of the 14-time Grand Slam title winner with a ninth victory in 10 meetings - the last five in straight sets.
The 28-year-old broke twice in both sets as Nadal had no answer to the pace and power of his groundstrokes.
Djokovic is preparing to defend his Australian Open title from 18 January.
More to follow. | World number one Novak Djokovic claimed his first title of the year with an impressive 6-1 6-2 win over Rafael Nadal in the Qatar Open. |
29886963 | His reworking of Batman - the Dark Knight trilogy - has also earned him a popular fanbase. The British film-maker seems to be able to do no wrong in Hollywood so can his latest release Interstellar help him sustain that lofty status?
Interstellar is a three-hour space epic, set both in distant galaxies and on a devastated Earth.
It stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and a Nolan regular, Sir Michael Caine, marking the sixth time the pair have worked together.
As Hollywood's most commercially successful director since Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, Nolan, whose production company Syncopy is still based in Britain, was handed a budget of £100m to make Interstellar - with almost no studio input into the final product.
As on past productions, the director co-wrote the original screenplay with his brother Jonathan, and produced it with his wife Emma Thomas.
Anne Hathaway, who also worked with Nolan on 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, says "this is treatment that very few directors receive these days. But Chris Nolan, to me, is the perfect marriage of blockbuster and independent film-making.
"There was a large amount of money behind us, but there was no waste. Every choice that was made was intelligently and carefully considered by Chris and Emma.
"There were no extra frills, we all had to share trailers, and nobody got luxury accommodation when we went to shoot on location in Iceland.
"Chris has his own way of doing things, there's no green screen, he builds sets instead; he prefers to shoot on IMAX film and doesn't care for digital; but every dollar he's given ends up on screen.
"In the end, we wrapped on Interstellar two weeks early and I believe he came in under budget. Who else does that?"
McConaughey, who won the best actor Oscar earlier this year for The Dallas Buyers Club, says Nolan's independent film-making background has stood him in good stead.
Before he was chosen to make Batman Begins in 2005, the director, who studied film in London in the 1990s, made indie cult hits such as 1998's Following and Memento in 2000.
His first film that was studio funded was 2002's Insomnia, a thriller starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams.
"He's earned his stripes and he knows how to deliver bang for his buck," says McConaughey. "It's a rare skill.
"I'd say Christopher has a healthy ego and an incredibly ambitious mind. His reach is always exceeding his grasp and he gets obsessed with every film he does, like it's the only one he'll ever do. It's wonderful to see."
Nolan's mass appeal seems more extraordinary given the difficult subjects he tackles - and in Interstellar, they involve complicated astrophysics.
When the earth is devastated by an agricultural crisis, the last spaceships are used to find new habitats for humankind, after a wormhole is discovered which allows different dimensions of time and space to be explored.
McConaughey's character Cooper must choose between his mission to save the planet and missing his two children growing up.
The director, who rarely gives interviews, has described Interstellar's main theme as "the relationship between a father and his children.
"It's all about being a father to me, and what it means to be one - I have four children. I just like to contrast it with the cosmic scale of the universe around us".
McConaughey says "the film manages to be deeply personal, despite its grandeur" but admits he still grapples with concepts like relativity, gravity, five dimensional time, wormholes and black holes - terms which pepper nearly all his lines.
"I am a complete beginner at this," he says.
"I wouldn't dare to describe myself as an intermediate, even after shooting the movie.
"But Chris's worlds are very original and it's not just abstract theories that he's coming up with, they are based on scientific fact. It's not condescending to audiences."
Jessica Chastain, who plays an astrophysics genius in the movie, admits her ignorance too of the concepts she speaks of, and calls Nolan "one of those people that if you have a conversation with him, you feel inadequate - he knows so much".
Reviewers have noted the complexity of Interstellar, and compared it - mainly favourably - to another hit set in space, Alfonso Cuaron's Oscar-winning Gravity, released a year ago.
McConaughey says, despite its complexities, working on Interstellar "has made me think that the backyard is bigger than I thought it was. Chris has made me more curious about the practicalities of heading out into space, and what's out there. I look up a lot more now".
Michael Caine has different opinions: "I'd do anything for Chris," he says. " I'll work with him on any project he wants me to, it's literally a family atmosphere on set. But I won't actually ever contemplate going into space for him. I prefer gardening."
Interstellar is released in the UK on 7 November. | Director Christopher Nolan's films have made more than £2bn worldwide, while the themes of his directing - time, memory, non-linear storytelling - have maintained his reputation as an auteur with films such as Memento and Inception. |
33667046 | The petition insists the public beach in Vallauris should be "available for the benefit of all".
Authorities sealed off the beach early on Saturday to prevent any protesters from occupying it as King Salman was due to arrive in the area.
The Saudi monarch is expected to stay at his villa for three weeks.
He and his entourage of about 1,000 people arrived at Nice airport on Saturday on board two Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747s.
The king's inner circle is staying at the villa - between Antibes and Marseille - while about 700 others will stay at hotels in Cannes.
Michel Chevillon, president of an association of Cannes' hotel managers, said the visit was "clearly good news" for hotels and the local economy.
"These are people with great purchasing power," he said.
However, the closure of a section of La Mirandole beach beneath the king's villa has outraged many local residents.
"We recall that this natural zone, like all maritime public estates, is an intrinsic public property that should be available for the benefit of all, residents, tourists, French, foreigners or people passing through," the petition says.
"We ask the state to guarantee the fundamental principle of the equality of all citizens before the law."
The mayor of Vallauris has also written to President Francois Hollande in protest at unauthorised work carried out at the property.
A cement platform has been poured on to the beach to provide a lift up to the king's villa, although the Saudis have promised to remove it when they leave.
"We understand the security reasons and the nation's greater interest. But nobody can exonerate himself from the laws of the land," Mayor Michelle Salucki wrote.
There is also a ban on coming within 300m of the villa by sea.
"We're sick and tired of this messing around," one local woman said, quoted by AFP news agency.
"I can see it's normal that you need to guarantee their security, but they should let us go for a swim." | More than 100,000 people have signed a petition against the closure of a beach on the French Riviera to allow Saudi King Salman to holiday in private. |
26167619 | The UK bank is 33% owned by the UK government.
The bank has increased its overall pool of bonuses for all staff to £395m, up from £365m the previous year.
Lloyds Bank also reported a pre-tax profit, of £415m, for the first time since its £20.5bn bailout.
Lloyds made a loss of of £606m in 2012.
In all, 78% of the bonus pool is in the form of shares. Mr Horta-Osorio's shares cannot be cashed in until 2019.
Mr Horta-Osorio told the BBC: "I strongly believe you should link compensation with performance, and having increased our underlying profits by 140%, we thought it was appropriate to increase the bonus pool of the bank by 8%.
"I have also agreed to have additional conditions to my bonus... which is fully paid in shares, which aligns my interests with the interests of the taxpayer, so if the strategy we are pursuing proves itself wrong, that money can be clawed back."
The Unite union said Lloyds had given staff at branches and call centres a 2% pay rise this year and cut more than 35,000 jobs since its bailout.
Unite national officer Rob Macgregor said: "The chief executive's £1.7m bonus, on top of shares worth millions awarded at the end of October, is a kick in the teeth to the taxpayer, and to hard-working staff who don't know if they will be next in line for the chop."
Alastair Blair, head of consultancy group Accenture's UK and Ireland banking practice, disagreed: "Clearly the shareholders are more comfortable with this - the government approved it. And secondly, this bonus won't be paid for another five years, so there's a lot of water to pass under the bridge."
Underlying profits in 2013 for the banking group rose 140% from £2.6bn to £6.2bn.
The bank put aside another £1.8bn in the fourth quarter of the year to cover compensation to customers for the past mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) plans.
That brings the total provision made last year for PPI compensation to £3.5bn. Since new rules were introduced in 2011 to tighten up the selling of PPI, Lloyds has put aside a total of £9.8bn - more than any other bank - to cover compensation claims or "legacy" issues.
Mr Horta-Osorio said: "The legacy issues were much higher than we had anticipated or than the regulator thought then, and we were absolutely committed to cleaning them and doing the right thing for customers... It is not a matter of financials, it is a matter of principle."
The bank said it expected to apply to the Prudential Regulatory Authority in the second half of this year to restart dividend payments "at a modest level". Investors have not had a dividend from Lloyds shares since 2008.
UK Financial Investments, which manages the government's 33% stake, sold a 6% shareholding in the bank last September.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has said he wants to sell more shares in the bank to the public before the election in 2015.
Mr Horta-Osorio said: "We have continued to improve the bank and the price [of Lloyd's shares] is substantially above the price at which the first tranche was sold in September - 75p - and the bank is ready to sell another tranche, but it is absolutely up to the UK Treasury to decide when and how to do it."
Alex Potter, equity research analyst at Mirabaud Securities, said the latest numbers suggested "a decent dividend payout".
He said: "The management is clearly dropping the hint that it'll move fairly sharply to a big payout ratio, which could imply a £3bn annual payout, which would give a yield near 5% in 2015-16."
Lloyds rebranded and separated its other retail banking business, TSB, last September.
It is negotiating with the European Commission over issues of state aid before selling it in a public share offering this year, and admitted the cost of the separation and rebranding was some £1.6bn.
Lloyds Bank Group is registered in Scotland and owns the Bank of Scotland brand. Mr Horta-Osorio said that the vote on Scottish independence was strictly a matter for Scottish people.
"That decision goes far beyond economics," said Mr Horta-Osorio.
"If the final vote is a 'Yes' vote, given that there will 18 months before a separation takes place, we believe we have more than enough time to assess the consequences." | Lloyds Bank chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio says in an exclusive interview with the BBC that his bonus, worth £1.7m, is aligned with taxpayers' interests. |
37451054 | Fishermen on the River Don in the Stoneywood area had raised the alarm.
A Scottish SPCA officer and the fishermen then rescued the bird, which was upside down about 10ft above the water, and almost 100ft down a steep slope.
The buzzard was taken to a local vet to have the fishing line removed. The bird was not seriously injured. | A buzzard found hanging from a tree after getting caught up in fishing lines in Aberdeen has been rescued. |
36378092 | Speaking at his first Mayor's Question Time, he said £37.7m of the £60m pledged by Transport for London and the government had already been spent.
If the project was scrapped now, this amount would be lost in full.
If built the Bridge's Trust would repay its £20m loan to TfL, plus £22m in tax, meaning taxpayers would have paid £18m.
He said: "I will support the building of the Garden Bridge, but I am demanding that the project is made more accessible and open to all Londoners in return."
The total cost of the bridge is £175m - £30m each from TfL and the government and the rest from private finance.
Questions were raised in March when it was revealed Transport for London officials met the designer of the planned bridge four times before the procurement process began.
Some Labour members of the London Assembly are unhappy as they wanted the bridge cancelled but Mr Khan said officials were drawing up a report for him on any further risks to the taxpayer.
Speaking to Assembly members, Mr Khan said he would ensure that no more public money would be spent on it.
The Garden Bridge Trust has said: "We share the mayor's desire to have the Bridge open to everyone for as long as possible.
"Balancing this and the need to raise the required private funds to operate the Bridge is important."
It added that it had set up a youth board of more than 40 students who would be involved in developing its education and schools programme.
•The bridge to be closed for fewer than 12 days each year for private fundraising events
•The Bridge to be closed for fewer hours when it closes for fundraising events - the current plans are for it to be closed from midnight to midnight
•A guarantee children from local schools will get to visit and be involved in planting and maintenance
•The Garden Bridge Trust to build a strong working relationship with all of London's parks so that plants grown on the bridge can be replanted elsewhere | London mayor Sadiq Khan claims cancelling the Garden bridge across the Thames would cost the taxpayer twice as much as to complete the £175m project. |
34313629 | The 30-year-old skippered England to a 3-2 Ashes win over Australia this summer, but has not played since the final Test at The Oval in mid-August.
England will soon travel to the UAE for a three-match Test series against Pakistan, starting on 13 October.
Ian Bell is in Warwickshire's squad but Joe Root will not play for Yorkshire.
Root, England's leading run-scorer during their Ashes win, was rested for the limited-overs series against Australia and will not play for Yorkshire against Sussex.
But Jonny Bairstow and Adil Rashid, who both appeared in the shorter-form series, are included in the champions' squad.
Fast bowler Stuart Broad, meanwhile, is set to make his first Championship appearance for Notts since June in their game against Hampshire.
And new-ball partner James Anderson will continue his comeback from a side strain in Lancashire's game at Essex.
However, Worcestershire's Moeen Ali and Middlesex's Steven Finn will not play in the Division One match between their respective sides at New Road.
The final County Championship fixtures start on Tuesday. | England captain Alastair Cook has been named in Essex's 14-man squad for their final County Championship game of 2015 against already-promoted Lancashire. |
36573467 | The injured white and brown Cob-type yearling, called Widget, was discovered in a field in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire on Saturday evening.
The arrow was found in a wound close to its eye.
The RSPCA believes it will survive the injuries, although a spokeswoman said it had a "lucky escape". Police are hunting the attacker.
A £1,000 reward has been put up by the owner of the yard where the horse was kept for information leading to a conviction.
The horse is currently at the Royal Veterinary College, near Hatfield, for treatment.
Updates on this story and more from Hertfordshire
RSPCA deputy chief inspector Mel Fisher said: "It seems this poor boy has had a very lucky escape, though the next 48 hours will be crucial.
"The arrow has gone through his eye socket and into his nasal cavity, miraculously without hitting anything vital. It's hoped he won't lose his eye but it's too early to know for sure.
"This was a wicked attack on a friendly and sociable little chap."
Det Sgt Dan Stoddart from Hertfordshire Police said: "This appears to be senseless, cruel crime and we are doing all we can to find the person responsible." | A horse was shot in the head with an arrow in what the RSPCA described as a "wicked attack". |
36867241 | His single One Dance is now only two weeks away from breaking the record for the longest uninterrupted reign at the top of the chart.
Bryan Adams's single Everything I Do (I Do It For You), which held the number one spot for 16 weeks in 1991, is the current record holder.
The last single to notch up 15 weeks at number one was Wet Wet Wet's Love Is All Around, released in 1994.
One Dance owes much of its continued success to its popularity on streaming sites.
The song received 4.33 million streams this week - equivalent to 43,300 sales.
It has also been boosted by its absence from YouTube, which has prompted music fans to download or stream the song in order to hear it.
Cover versions of the song are available to listen to on the video sharing website, but Drake's original version has yet to be uploaded by his official account.
Drake's closest competitor this week was Jonas Blue ft Cooper's single Perfect Strangers - which climbed one place to number two.
Don't Let Me Down by Chainsmokers ft Daya dropped to number three - while Calum Scott's Dancing On My Own and Kungs vs Cookin' on Three Burners' This Girl held their positions at numbers four and five respectively.
This week's highest new entry was Katy Perry's Rise - which landed at 25.
Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer also scored a new entry, with Girls Talk Boys, taken from the new Ghostbusters movie, debuting at 28.
On the album chart - which celebrates its 60th birthday this week - Michael Kiwanuka debuted at number one with his second record Love & Hate.
His previous peak on the album chart was in 2012, when his first album Home reached number four.
Adele's album 25 held its number two placing this week, while Christine & The Queens leapt five spots to hit a new peak at number three with Chaleur Humaine.
Drake's album Views and Coldplay's A Head Full Of Dreams both dropped a place to numbers four and five.
This week's other new entries included Good Charlotte, who reached number 13 with Youth Authority, and Jeff Beck's first album in six years Loud Hailer - which entered at 27.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or email [email protected]. | Drake has retained the UK number one spot for the 15th consecutive week. |
13491445 | A southern military spokesman told the BBC the North had attacked the area with 5,000 troops, killing civilians and southern soldiers.
South Sudan is due to become independent in July, but Abyei's status remains to be determined after a referendum on its future was shelved.
The UN has called for an end to fighting between the two sides.
Some 20,000 people, almost the whole population of the town, have fled, aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has told the BBC.
Spokesman Raphael Gorgeu said residents had moved to Agok, about 45km (28 miles) south of Abyei, and were fleeing further south.
He said 42 people wounded in the fighting in Abyei had been treated at a local MSF hospital.
The seizure of Abyei followed two days of skirmishes, artillery fire and at least one air raid.
UK condemns violence in Sudan
A UN Security Council mission is in the capital, Khartoum, and was due to visit Abyei on Monday, but this has now been cancelled.
The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says that in a clear demonstration of who is now in charge of Abyei, President Omar al-Bashir issued a decree dismissing the region's administration.
Abyei had been governed by a joint body comprising northerners and southerners, led by a southerner.
The security council will undoubtedly raise this, and the surprise northern military action, in its meetings on Sunday with senior northern officials, including the Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, our correspondent says.
Southern military spokesman Col Philip Aguer said the North had committed an aggression, and called for the international community to step in.
"If the international community do not intervene quickly to rescue the situation then this is a complete violation of the comprehensive peace agreement, a complete violation of the ceasefire, and it is a declaration of war by Khartoum," he told the BBC.
Southern 'ambush' criticised
The north says it acted after 22 of their men were killed in a southern ambush on Thursday.
By James CopnallBBC News, Khartoum
This is a convincing northern military victory, making use of its greater resources.
The key question now is whether the north has, in seizing Abyei, fulfilled its objective.
A northern general, Ahmed Abdalla, told the BBC his men would go up to the river at the south of the region of Abyei.
If this is the case, the north will have de facto control over Abyei.
But southerners must be nervous that this is the start of a larger attack.
Some of the south's most valuable oil fields are just over the border from Abyei.
The UN Security Council is in Sudan, and will surely make it clear no-one wants a new north-south war.
But these are dangerous times in Sudan.
The UN said the northern troops who were ambushed were being escorted out of Abyei by UN peacekeepers.
UN officials described the incident as "a criminal attack" and the US called on South Sudan to "account" for the assault.
Washington said the attack was "in direct violation" of the agreement signed by the north and south in January to "remove all unauthorised forces" from Abyei.
South Sudanese forces denied responsibility for the incident.
Tension over Abyei - claimed by a southern group, the Dinka Ngok, and northern nomads, the Misseriya - has been rising since a referendum on its future scheduled for January was postponed.
Since then there have been fears clashes in Abyei could spark a new north-south war, which this latest incident will do nothing to dispel, our correspondent says.
Under a 2005 north-south peace deal, which ended 22 years of civil war, Abyei was granted special status and a joint north-south administration set up in 2008. | South Sudan has denounced as an act of war the takeover by north Sudan forces of the contested border town of Abyei. |
30932891 | Mr Johnson, who has dual nationality, faced a demand from the US authorities to pay capital gains tax on profit from the sale of his house in North London.
American law requires all citizens to pay US taxes even if they live abroad.
The mayor, who is due to visit Boston, New York and Washington next month, had rejected the demand, saying he had not lived in the US since he was a child.
Mr Johnson, who was born in New York, revealed last year he had received a bill from the US Internal Revenue Service. Unlike the UK, the US levies capital gains tax on proceeds from the sale of a main residence.
Asked whether he would pay the demand, Mr Johnson said then: "No is the answer. I think it's absolutely outrageous. Why should I? I haven't lived in the United States since I was five years old."
A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: "The mayor won't be saying anything more on the subject. The matter has been dealt with."
The Financial Times reports, on the size of the tax bill, that the mayor's "allies say it is nowhere near the £100,000 estimated by some tax experts".
The newspaper also says a house Mr Johnson used to live in was bought for £470,000 in March 1999 and sold for £1.2m in May 2009. | London Mayor Boris Johnson has settled a US tax bill he had previously described as "absolutely outrageous". |
36737374 | At the same time, however, one of the persistent features of voting in any contest is that younger people are less likely to go to the polls.
Consequently, one of the key challenges facing the Remain campaign was whether it could persuade young people to turn out to vote.
There have been divergent claims about how successful they were.
Much attention was attracted by a tweet from Sky Data that seemingly implied that only 36% of 18-24 year olds had turned out to vote.
In practice, it seems the figure referred to people's likelihood of voting rather than whether they had actually voted.
In contrast, Prof Michael Bruter and Dr. Sara Harrison of the London School of Economics have suggested that as many as 70% of 18-24 year olds might have voted, only slightly below the official figure of 72% for all voters.
In truth, reliable information on the level of turnout among particular groups of voters is currently not available.
True, five polls that asked people whether they voted on 23 June have been conducted.
However, opinion polls struggle to secure the participation of people who do not vote. Unsurprisingly, the reaction of many non-voters to a request to answer a poll about politics is to say: "Thanks, but I am not interested."
In four of the five polls, on average only 11% of respondents said that they had not voted, well below the official figure of 28% (though even that figure is not 100% reliable, as some people were not registered to vote, while others may have died or be registered at more than one address).
In the fifth case the polling company in question, BMG Research, weighted their data to match the official figure.
In practice, much like the other polls, only 12% of their original sample had not made it to the polling station either.
If the polls are underestimating the overall level of abstention among voters as a whole, they will also be at risk of underestimating the differences in the level of abstention between those in different age groups.
That certainly seemed to be one of the lessons of the difficulty that the polls had in anticipating accurately the outcome of last year's general election.
However, one point does seem to be clear about turnout in the referendum. Younger voters were, once again, less likely than older voters to cast a vote.
All of the post-referendum polls find the same pattern. The older a respondent, the less likely they were to say that they did not vote.
The four polls that did not weight their data to the actual level of turnout report on average that 16% of 18-34 year olds abstained, well above the 11% figure for respondents as a whole.
Meanwhile, after weighting their data to the official result, BMG estimate that those aged 18-34 were twice as likely to abstain (40%) as those aged over 65 (20%).
A more difficult question to answer is whether young voters were more likely or less likely to have abstained in the referendum than they were in last year's general election?
To address that issue we need to compare the reported levels of abstention in polls conducted since the referendum with those in polls undertaken in the same way by the same company immediately after the general election.
Whatever the limitations of a particular poll in estimating turnout, those limitations are likely to be similar on the two occasions.
That comparison is possible for just one poll. Survation's post-referendum poll, conducted online for the Mail on Sunday, can be compared with a poll that the company undertook (also online) immediately after last year's general election.
Sources: Survation 8-9/5/15 & 24-25/6/16
As the table shows, the differences in the pattern of abstention this year look very similar to those of last year; statistically, they are certainly too small for us to rule out the proposition that the difference between younger and older voters in their level of turnout was much the same in the referendum as in last year's general election.
When might we get more reliable information on who voted?
The best (though by no means perfect) evidence comes from academic surveys that are conducted face-to-face over a long-period of time with respondents who have been chosen for interview at random.
Such surveys are more successful in making contact with those who have little interest in politics, especially if the survey is not all about politics.
One such survey is the annual British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey conducted by NatCen Social Research.
When it asked its respondents after last year's general election whether or not they voted, the proportion saying they did so (70%) was not far adrift from the official turnout figure (66%).
However, it will be several months before the interviewing for this year's BSA is completed and the results made available.
In the meantime, the best advice is to examine critically any claims that young people were particularly likely or unlikely to have voted this time around. | One of the key voting patterns in the EU referendum was that younger people were keener than older people on remaining in the EU. |
34454391 | The air campaign began a week ago, with Moscow declaring it was targeting positions of so-called Islamic State (IS) and other Islamists.
But Turkey and other Nato allies fear the principal targets are Syrian opposition groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
Russia's Muslims tend to fall into three camps: those who support the Kremlin campaign, those who condemn President Assad and his allies but back actions against IS, and those who support IS.
More than 11 million Russians are Muslim, according to official figures that date back to 2011. But experts believe the true figure could be as high as 20 million - nearly 14% of the population.
Russia has more than 80 muftis who lead its Muslim community, but their influence and attitudes vary significantly.
Almost 6,400 of Russia's 7,000 mosques are controlled by muftis who are more or less loyal to state officials.
They supported President Vladimir Putin's decision to start air strikes on Syria - though in their statements pro-Kremlin muftis did not comment on Western allegations that many of the operations targeted moderate opposition groups.
High-stakes gamble Risks of air forces from Russia, Syria and Nato operating in close proximity
Why? What? How? Five things you need to know about Russia's involvement
What can Russia's air force do? The US-led coalition has failed to destroy IS. Can Russia do any better?
The close ties behind Russia's intervention
But some religious leaders in Russia do question Mr Putin's decision to strike.
"We don't know exactly where the bombs landed, so we can't be sure of anything," mufti Nafigulla Ashirov told the BBC. "However if Russian planes were targeting one of the sides of the civil conflict rather than IS positions - this can't be justified."
"IS is a force which came to Syria from abroad and people should resist it. However others shouldn't interfere in the civil war between pro-government troops and the opposition. This is an internal matter for the Syrian people.
"And this conflict should not be mixed up with resistance to IS," Mr Ashirov explains.
Most of Syria's opposition fighters are Sunni Muslims - like most of the Muslims who live in Russia.
Meanwhile, the forces supported by Moscow consist either of Alawites, who dominate the Syrian army, or Shias, who include Hezbollah forces from neighbouring Lebanon.
These are uncomfortable truths for some within the Russian Muslim community.
"Bashar al-Assad is well known for his actions against the Muslims of Syria," complains Muslim activist Ali Charinsky. "All Muslims are one community, one body - that is why we can't be happy about Russia's decision. None of my friends or the Muslims I know are happy about it."
But the idea of anyone openly protesting against Russia's action is highly unlikely, according to religious activist Ayrat Vakhitov, because of the fear of prosecution by the authorities.
He was himself arrested on several occasions by Russian security services in response to allegations of extremism.
However, the court ruled in his favour and the Russian security service, the FSB, even sent him an apology. Mr Vakhitov has since emigrated and supports the Syrian opposition while opposing IS.
According to the security services, nearly 2,500 Russians are currently fighting for IS and thousands more have gone to join IS from other former Soviet states.
But Mr Vakhitov insists few Russian Muslims support IS and their number is declining.
"Those whose friends or relatives have already joined IS support the radicals. They prefer to share their friends' positions," Mr Vakhitov explains.
"However, overall IS is losing support in Russia."
He believes the country's Muslims have begun to understand the reality of the Islamic State militant group. "The beautiful stories they tell are fake." | Russia's Muslim community has never been united, and Russia's air strikes in Syria are threatening to stoke existing tensions. |
39789852 | Matthew Bryce from Glasgow was picked up by a coastguard helicopter 13 miles off the Argyll coast on Monday night after going surfing on Sunday morning.
The 22-year-old is quoted in the News Letter describing his rescuers as "heroes" and said he was grateful to be receiving treatment in hospital.
The Belfast Telegraph reports that his father, John, had doubted he would see his son alive again.
"The past 48 hours have been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions for our family and we are so grateful that Matthew has been found safe and well," he said.
"Matthew means the world to us; he is such a strong character both mentally and physically and we are looking forward to being reunited with him."
Both newspapers also report about the possibility of an Irish language officer being appointed at Belfast City Council.
The Belfast Telegraph reports that councillors gave the green light for a public consultation on a draft policy on Linguistic Diversity - which will include plans for a staff member dedicated to promoting Irish.
It says that, if appointed, they would train council staff in Irish, support them in translations and provide services in Irish.
DUP councillor Lee Reynolds' proposal to take the draft policy back to committee was defeated.
Mr Reynolds is quoted in the News Letter as saying "the number of people using the council Irish telephone line is only a handful a year" and that Irish was the fourth most popular in terms of Google translation of the council website.
Alliance's Michael Long named a list of notable Presbyterians who were Irish enthusiasts. The SDLP's Tim Attwood as well as Sinn Féin's Matthew Collins and Seanna Walsh also spoke in favour of a new Irish language post.
The Irish News front page reports on two children who were critically injured when a car struck them as they crossed a road near Randalstown, County Antrim, in January.
The newspaper says Fintan O'Neill, 14, is now recovering at home and is back at St Patrick's College Maghera. His 11-year-old sister Mary's injuries mean she faces more months in hospital but she is pictured on a visit home in the colours of Kickham's Creggan GAC.
The family has thanked the community for its support: "Today was a great day for us, Mary got home for a few hours this morning," they said in a statement.
It also covers the appeal by a former British soldier turned priest for the IRA to say where murder victim Captain Robert Nairac is buried.
Captain Nairac was abducted from a bar at Drumintee in south Armagh in May 1977 before being killed.
His former colleague Fr William Burke says Captain Nairac's family want him to have a proper burial.
The Daily Mirror reports on a campaign that has been launched to help a pregnant woman forced to leave her home after a racially-motivated attack.
It says the Sudanese woman has been forced to flee her home in east Belfast with her husband and two young children after bricks were thrown through the windows of the property. One man has set up a fundraising page to help the woman.
In April, the couple had the windows of their car broken and have also previously had eggs thrown at their house and rubbish thrown into their yard.
In a separate story, the newspaper claims that swimmers used a pool at Andersonstown Leisure Centre in west Belfast unaware it contained human excrement.
It says lifeguards raised the alarm after a child suffered a bout of diarrhoea while in the pool on 21 February. Protocols employed by GLL, the firm which runs leisure facilities in the city, say people should have been moved from the pool with it being flushed six times.
In response, GLL says "full investigations" have been taken into the allegations and that "appropriate action was taken and health and safety guidelines adhered to". | Dramatic photographs of the rescue of a Scottish surfer after clinging to his board in the Irish Sea for 32 hours make the front pages of the Belfast Telegraph and the News Letter. |
39338946 | It quoted regional interior minister and drought committee chairman Abdirahman Mohamed Hussein as saying the deaths were in the past 36 hours.
He appealed for emergency aid to curb hunger, Radio Mogadishu reported.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who was in Somalia this month, said nearly six million needed aid there.
The country has been gripped by a devastating drought that has killed livestock and caused rivers and wells to dry up and crops to fail.
Hundreds of families have now left Jubaland and sought refuge in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Ibrahim Abdow, 62, told Reuters news agency he had travelled by donkey and bus out of Jubaland.
"Our cows and farms have perished. The rivers have dried and there are no wells there," he told the news agency, while camping in the outskirts of Mogadishu.
Some of the new arrivals have been given food by residents, who have said larger and more organised food supplies by aid agencies are needed.
In addition to the international humanitarian agencies, Hollywood actor Ben Stiller has been among those trying to raise funds to help those starving in Somalia.
He has teamed up with social media stars to raise almost $2m (£1.6m) in less than a week.
The Love Army for Somalia campaign, which initially asked for $1m to fly supplies to Somalia, includes prominent social media figures Jerome Jarre, Casey Neistat and Chakabars, as well as American football quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
After their first goal was reached within 24 hours, they decided to raise their target through an ice bucket challenge-style campaign.
Ben Stiller has nominated Cara Delevingne, Emma Watson, Lewis Hamilton and American actress Alyssa Milano to donate to the cause.
An initial flight is due to take off next Monday with 60 tonnes of food, which will be distributed by the American Refugee Committee. The donations will also fund water supplies to drought-hit areas.
The group, which is raising money online, said Turkish Airlines had agreed to offer a full cargo plane as well as further deliveries to Somalia.
"This is the story of what can happen when the power of social media is leveraged for something good," Mr Neistat said in a YouTube video. | At least 26 people have died of starvation in Somalia's southern region of Jubaland, the government-owned Radio Mogadishu website has reported. |
32896374 | The Broadway League said takings in 2014-2015 were up 7.6% to $1.36bn (£883m).
Attendance also climbed with 13.1 million theatregoers watching a show - a rise of 7.3% on the previous season.
The bumper figures were helped by musicals such as The Lion King - which set a sales record for a show over one season - Wicked and The Book of Mormon.
The Lion King took $101.9m (£66.1m), with sales for Wicked reaching $91.7m (£59.5m) and The Book of Mormon, $84.2m (£54.6m).
The rise in total box office takings comes as less of a surprise, due to more seats being sold at "premium" prices and general ticket price increases.
The current top average ticket price for a musical is $177.30 (£115) for The Book of Mormon. For a play it is $153.40 (£99.50) for The Audience.
A number of plays starring Hollywood A-listers also helped drive audiences to Broadway.
Bradley Cooper's turn in The Elephant Man, Helen Mirren reprising her role as Queen Elizabeth in The Audience and Hugh Jackman's The River all featured limited runs over the past year.
The League said Broadway attendance surpassed that of the 10 professional New York and New Jersey sports teams combined by more than 2.6 million - the largest difference since 2005.
Overall, 37 productions - including 10 new musicals and five revivals, as well as 11 new plays, nine play revivals and two specials - opened during the season.
"It's been an extraordinary season on Broadway and I'm thrilled that we have broken all records," said Charlotte St Martin, president of the Broadway League which represents theatre owners, operators, producers, presenters and general managers.
"We've been saying for several years now that there is something for everyone on Broadway. To have audience growth of over 13% in two years clearly proves our point." | New York's theatreland has enjoyed its best ever season, breaking box office and attendance records. |
36090124 | That is the first increase since the May-July period of last year.
The unemployment rate remained at 5.1%, which is still down on the same time last year, when it was 5.6%.
Earnings, including bonuses rose by 1.8% in the three months to February, which is a slowdown from the 2.1% rate for the previous three-month period.
"It's too soon to be certain, but with unemployment up for the first time since mid-2015 - and employment seeing its slowest rise since that period - it's possible that recent improvements in the labour market may be easing off," ONS statistician Nick Palmer said.
There were 31.41 million people in work in the three months , a rise of 20,000 on the September to November period.
Some economists believe uncertainty linked to the 23 June referendum on EU membership could be deterring companies from taking on new staff.
"Last week the Bank of England said that concerns about the EU referendum had begun to affect the real economy," said Ben Brettell, senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"The increase in unemployment announced today adds some weight to that hypothesis. It's possible businesses are delaying decisions about hiring and investment until after June's vote, which could lead to a slowdown in the first two quarters of this year.
"Nevertheless, the bigger picture is that the UK labour market remains in reasonable health," he added.
The increase in unemployment was too low to change the rate when expressed to one decimal place, which stayed at a decade low of 5.1%.
The figures also show that there were 5.35 million people employed in the public sector for December 2015. This was scarcely change compared with September 2015 but it was down 50,000 from a year earlier.
The ONS said the number of people employed in the public sector has been generally falling since March 2010.
In the private sector there were 26.07 million people employed for December 2015 - that is 113,000 more than for September 2015 and 529,000 more than for a year earlier.
In the October to December 2015 period the number of UK nationals working in the UK increased by 278,000 to 28.2 million compared with the same time in 2014. At the same time the number of non-UK nationals working in the UK increased by 254,000 to 3.22 million. | UK unemployment rose by 21,000 to 1.7 million between December and February, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says. |
18904467 | Media playback is not supported on this device
BBC Sport commentator Colin Bryce: "When you have a nailed-on favourite like Wu you really thought he was going to take it away but in the Group B session this relatively unknown North Korean stepped forward with 168kg in the clean and jerk. He hit such an enormous clean and jerk that he takes it on total. It's unheard of for a B Group lifter to do this. It's bizarre to say the least."
The 20-year-old, who lifted in the unfancied Group B, cleared 125kg in the snatch before setting a clean and jerk Olympic record of 168kg.
Om then looked on as Chinese favourite Jingbiao Wu failed to better his 293kg total and had to settle for silver.
Azerbaijan's Valentin Hristov picked up the bronze medal with a total of 286kg.
Om was included in the B Category on Sunday morning, which was supposed to act as a warm-up to the later session for the supposed medal contenders.
But he became just the fifth man in history to lift three times his bodyweight in the clean and jerk to set an imposing target.
Chinese lifter, Wu, who won the weightlifting world championships in 2010 and 2011, was in a strong position after lifting 133kg in the snatch.
But he could not lift more than 156kg in the clean and jerk, leaving him with a silver medal. | North Korean Om Yun-Chol pulled off a surprise victory in the men's 56kg weightlifting after equalling the world record for the clean and jerk. |
37380704 | Tiziana Cantone had already tried to take her own life twice before her third and final attempt, her mother said.
The 31-year-old was a "sensitive" girl who - despite moving home, changing her name and fighting through the courts to have the videos removed from the internet - could not escape the notoriety caused by the sex tape she featured in.
"She was hurting and at times took refuge in alcohol. But she was always a healthy and normal girl," her mother Maria Teresa told investigators, La Repubblica newspaper reported.
Tiziana had won a "right to be forgotten" ruling - but could not understand why the court had ordered her to pay €20,000 (£17,000; $22,500) in legal costs.
By then it was much too late - the video had been copied and republished thousands of times.
"She was suffering from everything she saw and heard and in particular from the outcome of the legal proceedings, because she believed justice had not been done," her mother said.
Her mother has been joined in grief by many Italians - but not all.
Some continued to condemn her, such as Walter Caputo, a Turin city councillor for the Democratic Party of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
Mr Caputo wrote on Facebook that Tiziana had in sending the video to acquaintances perhaps been "aiming for a certain notoriety" and was "certainly not a saint".
Mr Caputo later apologised for the remarks, which he said had been poorly considered, Fanpage.it website reported.
Author Roberto Saviano said the hostility towards Tiziana stemmed from what he described as Italy's "morbid" relationship with sex.
"I grieve for Tiziana, who killed herself because she was a woman in a country where uninhibited and playful sex is still the worst of sins," he wrote on Twitter.
Another commenter suggested that had Tiziana been a man - "if she were called Tiziano" - she would still be alive because men having sex do not attract the same kind of scandalised reaction.
One mourner at her funeral said she was surprised by how few men had attended.
"There were many women and very few men and this thing made me feel really bad," she told reporters.
Tiziana's suicide came just as friends thought she was finally putting the episode behind her.
"I wonder how anyone can be so fierce, how to rage against a girl who has not done anything wrong," Teresa Petrosino told Corriere della Sera.
"I think that they should be ashamed, all those who have filled the web with insults and meanwhile secretly watched the images." | In death she received some of the sympathy denied her while she was alive. |
38615280 | Cllr Peter Fox said the county must "rise to the challenge" of becoming a more popular place to live.
Fees will drop to £3 when the crossings go into public ownership by early 2018, under UK government plans.
Property prices have been rising in the county as Bristol workers "capitalise" on lower house prices.
"It's really exciting and unlocks a huge amount of opportunity for people and businesses in Monmouthshire as the gateway to south Wales," Mr Fox told the BBC.
"The bridge toll was like an economic barrier but now we have a huge chance of tapping into the booming Bristol market.
"But there are challenges - as this area will become very popular and desirable, pressure will be put on housing demands and our infrastructure."
Bristol is the UK's fastest-growing economy outside of London and its house prices are the fastest-growing in the country.
Chepstow, Caldicot and Magor in south Monmouthshire are becoming popular commuter towns and estate agents say around 80% of home buyers are now coming from the Bristol area.
As a result, property prices have been rising quicker than the Wales average, figures have suggested.
"We'll have to rise to the challenge as we've got a lot of thinking to do," said Mr Fox, who is also vice-chairman of the Cardiff Capital Region.
"One of the dilemmas we'll have to face is the need to increase housing in Monmouthshire to cope with the expected increased demand from commuters from Bristol.
"As house prices rise as a result, we'll need to deliver more affordable homes to ensure local youngsters can afford to remain here. That is a concern.
"We'll need extra infrastructure like doctors surgeries, schools and roads with extra capacity but that will be funded by developers."
Two large housing developments are planned at Chepstow's old dockyard and near its hospital while a new estate is heading for Undy, bordering the M4 motorway near Magor.
The Severn Tunnel Junction railway station in Rogiet has recently undergone an £8m refurbishment, while a new train station at Magor has the backing of Monmouthshire council and is part of the new South Wales Metro proposal.
Mr Fox said he hoped the toll reduction can attract business back to the county and keep local youngsters in Monmouthshire.
"I'm excited about the extra jobs we can possibly create," he said.
"We want our children to have the opportunity to remain here, bring up their family and have a high-paid job rather than leaving the county to fulfil their aspirations. | Monmouthshire could face pressure on housing and infrastructure after the Severn Bridge tolls are cut, its council leader has said. |
39138826 | Convicted rapist Derry Flynn McCann, 28, launched a two-hour assault "within sight" of his victim's front door in Hackney, east London, on 13 January.
He later married his partner having "recently" been released from prison.
McCann, of Hackney, pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court to three counts of rape, one count of sexual assault and one count of robbery.
Honorary Recorder Martyn Zeidman told the rapist he had carried out a "terrible" crime and faced a "very, very long time" in prison.
According to police, McCann beat, raped and humiliated the woman during the attack, then took photos of her and stole her mobile phone.
Detectives believe he had been following another woman but lost sight of her so began stalking his victim, eventually pulling her into undergrowth in Victoria Park.
It is understood the teenage McCann was jailed in 2006 for carrying out another prolonged rape.
Kate Bex, prosecuting, told the court McCann played "mind games" with the woman, taunting her by asking what she thought he would do next.
She said: "It was about midnight, just a little after, and the victim was walking a short distance home having been out to an art gallery, socialising with friends.
"She was almost within sight of her own front door when she skirted round the side of the park on her usual route home."
Andrew Held of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This was a terrifying, violent and prolonged attack involving rapes committed by a man intent on inflicting fear and psychological suffering.
"I would like to thank McCann's victim for her courage in helping bring this prosecution and hope his conviction provides some sense of justice for her."
McCann will be sentenced on 28 April. | A groom has admitted a "sustained and systematic" rape hours before he was due to marry his pregnant partner. |
37808791 | Ince pounced for Derby's opening goal from close range before Darren Bent doubled the visitors' lead with a stunning right-foot volley.
Wolves rallied after a dismal first half when Helder Costa pulled a goal back on the hour but Ince restored Derby's two-goal lead with a penalty.
Dave Edwards headed in Wolves' second but they were unable to force a draw.
Victory at Molineux enabled Derby to climb into the top half of the Championship table.
Wolves, who look set to appoint former Norwich, Aston Villa and Blackburn manager Paul Lambert as successor to Walter Zenga, slip to 19th - three points clear of trouble.
Caretaker boss Rob Edwards witnessed a poor first half from the hosts, who were indebted to goalkeeper Andy Lonergan keeping Derby's lead to just two goals at the break.
A much better second-half display saw an Ivan Cavaleiro shot cleared off the line by Richard Keogh before Costa's goal.
But a debateable penalty was awarded to Derby when Cavaleiro was adjudged to have fouled Ince and the forward added his second goal of the game from the spot.
Wolves had a strong penalty shout of their own turned down moments later when Ince appeared to trip Cavaleiro in the opposite box and Edwards' near-post header was not enough to rescue the game.
Wolves caretaker boss Rob Edwards: "There is a lot of quality here and it is about finding some consistency now.
"We all need to stick together and I am sure that when the new manager comes in and has a couple of weeks to work with the players, we can get a positive result.
"The second half was a real positive for us. That is how I love my team to perform, with that commitment and spirit and quality. At times it was all there.
"It was shame that we didn't put that into the first half and being a couple of goals behind is a mountain to climb."
Derby manager Steve McClaren: "It was a fantastic first half. We earned the right to play and played great football. That is the kind of football that we want to see.
"We should have scored more than two in the first half but it was good to see he progress that we have made in three weeks that they can play at that level.
"It is hard to maintain for 95 minutes and we knew that we needed a third goal but when it came we shot ourselves in the foot again.
"In the end it was frustrating, but you can't fault the attitude and commitment. You have to build confidence and then belief comes."
Match ends, Wolverhampton Wanderers 2, Derby County 3.
Second Half ends, Wolverhampton Wanderers 2, Derby County 3.
Matej Vydra (Derby County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by David Edwards (Wolverhampton Wanderers).
Attempt missed. Matej Vydra (Derby County) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Scott Carson following a set piece situation.
Cameron Borthwick-Jackson (Wolverhampton Wanderers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Tom Ince (Derby County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Cameron Borthwick-Jackson (Wolverhampton Wanderers).
Foul by Johnny Russell (Derby County).
Danny Batth (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Derby County. Craig Bryson replaces Will Hughes.
Substitution, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Jed Wallace replaces Conor Coady.
Attempt missed. Matt Doherty (Wolverhampton Wanderers) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by George Saville following a corner.
Corner, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Conceded by Richard Keogh.
Attempt saved. Bradley Johnson (Derby County) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Jamie Hanson with a cross.
Corner, Derby County. Conceded by Andy Lonergan.
Attempt saved. Matej Vydra (Derby County) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Will Hughes.
Scott Carson (Derby County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by David Edwards (Wolverhampton Wanderers).
Attempt blocked. Ivan Cavaleiro (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Cameron Borthwick-Jackson.
Substitution, Derby County. Matej Vydra replaces Darren Bent.
Corner, Derby County. Conceded by Dominic Iorfa.
Goal! Wolverhampton Wanderers 2, Derby County 3. David Edwards (Wolverhampton Wanderers) header from the left side of the six yard box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Ivan Cavaleiro with a cross following a corner.
Corner, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Conceded by Darren Bent.
Foul by Johnny Russell (Derby County).
Hélder Costa (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Conor Coady (Wolverhampton Wanderers) is shown the yellow card.
Matt Doherty (Wolverhampton Wanderers) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Johnny Russell (Derby County) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Matt Doherty (Wolverhampton Wanderers).
Goal! Wolverhampton Wanderers 1, Derby County 3. Tom Ince (Derby County) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.
David Edwards (Wolverhampton Wanderers) is shown the yellow card.
Penalty Derby County. Tom Ince draws a foul in the penalty area.
Penalty conceded by Ivan Cavaleiro (Wolverhampton Wanderers) after a foul in the penalty area.
Foul by Max Lowe (Derby County).
Hélder Costa (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Johnny Russell (Derby County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by David Edwards (Wolverhampton Wanderers).
Attempt saved. Tom Ince (Derby County) left footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Will Hughes.
Attempt saved. Tom Ince (Derby County) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Will Hughes. | Tom Ince scored twice as Derby County held on to win despite a spirited comeback by managerless Wolves. |
28248228 | The 28-year-old midfielder left the Addicks in May following a three-year spell at The Valley in which he scored four goals in 89 appearances.
The former Hayes & Yeading player has agreed a two-year deal with the O's.
Pritchard becomes the first player to join Orient following Francesco Becchetti's takeover of the League One club earlier this week.
Pritchard is Orient manager Russell Slade's second signing of the summer after the arrival of goalkeeper Adam Legzdins from Derby. | Leyton Orient have signed Bradley Pritchard on a free transfer following his departure from Charlton Athletic. |
37530791 | Four down with six to play against Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, the Spaniards claimed a valuable half.
Two European pairs - Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters, and Justin Rose and Chris Wood - had already secured foursomes wins at Hazeltine.
Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka gave the US their only victory.
It was another successful session for Europe, continuing a fightback from a 4-0 Friday morning whitewash that began with three wins in the following fourballs.
The icing came from Spanish pair Garcia and Cabrera-Bello, their half all the more valuable after Spieth and Reed's victory seemed guaranteed for so long.
In claiming a half, they ensured the American lead is one point, rather than two, as Europe look to claim a fourth successive Ryder Cup.
And the damage they have inflicted on Spieth and Reed may only be revealed when the Americans once again team up to take on Rose and Henrik Stenson in the Saturday's final fourballs contest - the third time those two pairs have met in two days.
McIlroy and Pieters, who have delivered two points from their two matches together, meet world number two Dustin Johnson and Koepka.
Danny Willett and Lee Westwood, who did not play on Saturday morning, face JB Holmes and Ryan Moore, while Garcia and Martin Kaymer reprise their partnership to face Phil Mickelson and Matt Kuchar.
For so long in the Minnesota sunshine it looked as though Spieth and Reed, beaten only once in five Ryder Cup contests as a pair, would deliver an American point.
As Spieth putted with perfection, the US were two up after three, and four ahead with six remaining.
However, it was at this point they began to wilt - American bogeys on 13 and 15, along with a European birdie on 16 cut the deficit to one with two to play.
On the par-three 17th, Cabrera-Bello holed a birdie putt from the fringe to square the match, right after Spieth saw his own 30-foot birdie chance finish millimetres short.
Amid great tension, and with the noisy, partisan home crowd reduced to silence, Garcia and Reed had to hole from within five feet on the last.
The pressure was ultimately on Garcia, who completed a half that felt like a European victory.
By this time, the European team had already continued to rally for captain Darren Clarke.
World number three McIlroy and rookie Pieters took advantage of some erratic early play by Mickelson and Rickie Fowler to open up a three-hole lead, one they did not surrender despite a wobble around the turn.
In order to shepherd rookies Wood and Matt Fitzpatrick, neither of whom played on Friday, Clarke opted to separate the regular pair of Rose and Stenson.
It galvanised Rose, who was below his best on day one but made a birdie putt on seven and a brilliant approach to set up a birdie on 10 on the way to giving Europe a three-hole lead.
Jimmy Walker and Zach Johnson chipped away, with Rose and Wood forced to halve the last for a one-hole win.
In contrast, Open champion Stenson, so impressive on the second afternoon, was often relying on 22-year-old Fitzpatrick, whose putt on the seventh and chip on the 11th clawed back a two-hole deficit against Snedeker and Koepka.
However, when Snedeker and Koepka holed on the 13th and 15th respectively, Europe could no longer cling on, the US sealing a 3&2 win with four successive birdies.
European captain Darren Clarke speaking to Sky Sports about Garcia and Cabrera-Bello's win: "It was huge, massive to have that heart. They two guys are just bouncing, but they worked hard. Every other pairing will be trying to do the same thing, to push it that bit further for the team was fantastic."
Europe's Sergio Garcia on Sky Sports: "This is the Ryder Cup, it's as simple as that. It was tough out there - they played so well. We were consistent giving ourselves chances but they had an amazing start. We kept saying, 'keep at it and they may slow down'."
Europe's Rafa Cabrera-Bello: "We didn't feel we had many options at the beginning; they were just cruising. We had to tell ourselves they would slow down. We saw a window of opportunity, played good and managed to snatch a tie."
Europe's Rory McIlroy on BBC Radio 5 live: "You want to set the tone for the rest of the team and when they saw us up early that's exactly what we were trying to do - put blue on the board. We delivered for Darren. It's a great atmosphere and it seems like we're playing it in the right spirit. It's competitive but still respectful."
BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter:
"It is all to play for. It is amazing these things boil down to a single hole. This is where Europe have traditionally in recent Ryder Cups been so strong. This is pivotal to the outcome of the Ryder Cup."
We've launched a BBC Sport newsletter, bringing all the best stories, features and video right to your inbox. You can sign up here. | Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera-Bello staged a remarkable comeback as Europe further cut America's lead to 6½-5½ on the second morning at the Ryder Cup. |
17624747 | Last month the government lost a Freedom of Information battle to keep its transitional risk register secret.
In a full ruling published on Thursday, the tribunal says why it believes the TRR should be published within 30 days.
The government, which can still appeal to an "upper tribunal", says it is examining the judgement.
Ministers had argued that to publish the register could have a "chilling effect" on how frank civil servants would be with them about risks in future.
The decision was made days after the tribunal hearing last month, but the government has been waiting for the reasons behind it to be published in full before deciding on its next steps.
In the meantime the controversial Health and Social Care Bill has completed its passage through Parliament and become law.
Labour MP John Healey put in an FOI request for the transitional risk register to be published in November 2010, when he was shadow health secretary.
At the time, the government had published a white paper outlining plans to overhaul the NHS.
Ministers cited a "section 35" defence under the FOI Act, which exempts information used in policy formulation and development from having to be released, and rejected the request in December 2010 - the month before the NHS bill was introduced in Parliament
But the section 35 defence is not absolute and must be weighed against the balance of public interest.
Because of the "exceptional" nature of the NHS overhaul, the timing of Mr Healey's request and the nature of the risk register itself - which dealt with "implementation/operational type risks" not direct policy considerations - the tribunal ruled it should be published.
But it said a second risk register relating to the NHS overhaul - a strategic risk register requested under FOI laws by Evening Standard journalist Nicholas Cecil and dealing with "risks which need to be brought to the attention of ministers" - could be kept secret.
The top civil servant at the DoH, Una O'Brien, told the tribunal hearing last month that risk registers were meant to allow civil servants to "think the unthinkable" about what might go wrong - however unlikely - and to publish them could lead to a "very distorted" view of possible risks.
But the tribunal said, having seen the registers, it found it "difficult to understand how they could be described in such a way".
"It seems to us that the TRR identifies the sorts of risks one would expect to see in such a register from a competent department," it said.
The government has argued that to publish could mean civil servants being afraid of being too candid in their advice in future.
But the tribunal said it was "entitled to expect courage and independence from such officials" and that was not a good enough reason to withhold the information.
It said research had suggested there was no evidence to back claims publishing could have a "chilling effect" on future risk registers and pointed out that a risk register had already been published in 2008 on plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport.
While it accepted the "very strong public interest" in allowing officials and ministers private space to develop policies, it said that did not mean there should be an "absolute exemption for risk registers".
Much depended on the timing of the requests - in the case of Mr Healey's request, it was made at a "time when consultation had ceased and policy seemed to be fixed", it said, thereby reducing the need for "safe space" for advice.
"We find in this case that there is a very strong public interest in transparency and accountability in relation to the risks involved in introducing the NHS reforms," the tribunal said.
It argued that the public interest in understanding the risks involved in this case "would have been very high, if not exceptional" and would have provided the public "with a far better understanding of the risks to a national institution which millions depended on".
Publishing it could have either "gone a long way to alleviating" concerns and reassuring the public or "demonstrated the justification for the concerns" to better inform public debate.
The information commissioner had already ruled that it should be published, but the government had appealed to the information tribunal.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We are now examining the judgment given by the information tribunal. We are working closely with colleagues across government and we will set out our next steps as soon as we are able to."
Mr Healey said: "What was the Health Bill is now law but the risks of the government's huge NHS reorganisation remain.
"The government used its big guns to defend its refusal to publish the risk register and this legal judgement demolishes their case for secrecy." | The public interest in publishing a risk assessment of the NHS overhaul in England is "very high, if not exceptional", a tribunal has ruled. |
40706804 | The Namibians won 5-4 on penalties after the match ended 1-1 on aggregate.
Zimbabwe were hailed as heroes just two weeks ago after winning the Cosafa Cup, the southern African championship.
"We haven't had a league running since April last year, so it's been very tough for us," Namibia coach Ricardo Mannetti told BBC Sport.
The Chan is contested by footballers playing in their own domestic league.
"80% of the squad have not been playing regularly and the only matches we had as a team were at Cosafa, where some played 1-2 matches," added Mannetti.
"So we had to take these players, put them in camp, feed them and get them mentally prepared and all that. For most of them, this was the (only) second or third match over a year."
The Namibian Premier League, which has lost its sponsorship, has not been contested since the 2015-16 season ended 15 months ago.
Rumours of backroom tussles between the Namibian FA and the local league have emerged in the media.
Unlike the Namibians, who had been in camp for three months to prepare for both Cosafa and Chan, Zimbabwe blamed their loss - which came despite winning Sunday's second leg 1-0 - on insufficient build-up.
"The only time we had the full squad in training was Friday," said Sunday Chidzambwa. "With these tournaments, you need a bit of time to prepare. You don't prepare a team well in a short space of time."
Namibia will meet Comoros in the next round, after the island nation knocked out Lesotho.
The Chan was introduced in 2008 to showcase local talent, with many senior national squads composed of Europe-based stars.
Qualifying is played on a regional basis in a bid to keep travelling costs to a minimum.
The final qualifying round will take place in August when the 15 teams that will join hosts Kenya in January's finals will become known.
DR Congo, who have won two of the four Chans contested so far and face Congo in August, are the reigning champions.
Mauritania 0 Liberia 1
Guinea 7 Guinea-Bissau 0
Senegal 3 Sierra Leone 1
Mali 4 The Gambia 0
Benin 1 Togo 1
Burundi 0 Sudan 0
Second leg to be played on 28 July
Uganda 5 South Sudan 1
Rwanda 0 Tanzania 0
Ethiopia v Djibouti
Lesotho 1 Comoros 0
Zimbabwe 1 Namibia 0
Mozambique 0 Madagascar 2
Angola 3 Mauritius 2
South Africa 1 Botswana 0
Zambia 3 Swaziland 0 | Namibia's footballers overcame over a year without a domestic league to knock Zimbabwe out of the 2018 African Nations Championship (Chan). |
36268734 | The chancellor told MPs there would be a "number of impacts" on the financial system that would have to be addressed.
Economists have warned of market volatility and a sharp fall in sterling should there be a Leave vote.
The chancellor said it would be up to the Bank of England to consider appropriate monetary responses.
Mr Osborne, a key figure in the Remain campaign, has previously refused to be drawn on whether the Treasury and other public bodies were, in any way, preparing for the possibility of a Leave vote in the referendum on 23 June.
But during an appearance before the Commons Treasury committee, he said: "We are undertaking a lot of contingency planning for the immediate financial stability consequences if the country was to vote to leave."
It would, he said, be up to the Bank of England's monetary policy committee to decide whether there needed to be adjustments to commercial bank rates or a short-term injection of liquidity into the economy to mitigate the fall-out and help reassure markets.
Downing Street later insisted the government was not doing contingency planning on other policy matters such as trade negotiations.
This issue looks at the costs of membership and what the UK receives from the EU.
During the session, he also attacked the Leave campaign's arguments, saying claims the UK would save £350m a week by leaving the EU were "completely specious" and the "overwhelming opinion" was the UK as a whole and households would be "poorer" outside the EU.
Leave campaigners have made the £350m figure a centrepiece of their campaign, saying that by ending the UK's annual contribution to the EU's budget it could free up cash to be spent on the NHS and other public services.
The figure has been described as "potentially misleading" by the UK's statistics watchdog which says it ignores key factors, such as the country's existing rebate on its budget contributions and the amount of EU funds already spent in Britain.
Speaking during a visit to Cornwall on Wednesday, leading Leave campaigner Boris Johnson said much of the UK's funding to the EU was "never seen again", suggesting it ended up being spent on "Greek tobacco farming and Spanish bull-fighting"
If the UK votes to leave, he said he could "guarantee" Britain's EU contributions would be spent on domestic priorities.
"With that net money back in our country we could fund things like the NHS, our science base, our academic health science centres even more generously than we currently do," he said.
But Mr Osborne said the Leave campaign had been warned before about the claim and contrasted it with what he said were serious warnings from "every credible financial institution" in the world, including the IMF and OECD, about the economic risks of leaving the EU.
Mr Osborne said any savings from EU exit would be "dwarfed" by the hit to the public finances from lower growth and corporate profitability - a shortfall the Treasury has estimated could be as large as £36bn.
But Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said the IMF's analysis of the UK economy had been flawed in the past and Mr Osborne seemed to be "in favour of the IMF when it agrees with you and less so when it doesn't".
He quoted figures suggesting that the UK's economic productivity had not been enhanced by EU membership.
But the chancellor said there was evidence that foreign investment in the UK had been put on hold pending the outcome of the referendum and that some of it would be "cancelled" in the event of a vote to leave.
During the session, he also said major mortgage lenders such as Halifax and Virgin Money shared his analysis that house prices would fall after a vote to leave in what he has warned would be a significant short-term shock to the housing market. | George Osborne has said contingency planning is taking place to anticipate the likely impact on the UK's financial stability of a vote to leave the EU. |
28994862 | The Respect MP for Bradford West was posing for pictures in Notting Hill when he was assaulted on Friday night.
The MP suffered "severe" bruising to his head and appears to have broken some ribs, his spokesman said.
The spokesman said the attack on Mr Galloway seemed to have been prompted by the MP's views on Israel. A man has been arrested over the attack.
The attacker allegedly called Mr Galloway "a Hitler" during the assault.
The MP's spokesman said the assailant had made reference to the Holocaust.
"George was posing for pictures with people and this guy just attacked him, leapt on him and started punching him," the spokesman said.
"It appears to be connected with his comments about Israel because the guy was shouting about the Holocaust."
Mr Galloway was interviewed under caution by police earlier this month over remarks he made about Israel.
After Friday night's attack, the MP made a statement at Notting Hill police station before being taken to hospital for treatment. He left hospital at about 06:00 BST.
He was feared to have suffered a broken jaw but the MP's spokesman said this was not the case.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed police had been called to Golborne Road at about 19:40 on Friday after a man was assaulted in the street. | George Galloway has left hospital after being treated for injuries he suffered in a street attack in west London. |
35196624 | Kim Yang-gon, 73, was a secretary of the ruling Workers' Party and was in charge of ties with South Korea.
He was part of a high-level delegation from North Korea that helped ease a stand-off with the South in August, after an exchange of artillery fire.
The state news agency called him Kim Jong-un's "closest comrade and a solid revolutionary partner".
"Comrade Kim Yang-gon, a Workers' Party secretary and member of the party Central Committee Politbureau... died in a traffic accident at 6:15am, Tuesday, at age 73," KCNA said, without giving details.
It added that Kim Jong-un would lead an 80-member state funeral for Mr Kim on Thursday.
Tension between North and South Korea increased in August when a border blast injured two South Korean soldiers.
Meetings at that time eventually led to the two countries stepping away from a military confrontation. | A top aide to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has died in a car crash, state news agency KCNA has said. |
40338243 | Concerns were raised over leadership, patients being treated in corridors and a shortage of consultants.
The trust is already in special measures and must remain so for a further three to six months, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.
The trust said it accepted the findings and that a new leadership team was "determined to put things right".
The trust, which was placed in special measures in December 2015, runs Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Treatment Centre and Alexandra Hospital, Redditch.
More updates on this story
Inspectors said there had been "little evidence of improvement" adding, "rather than getting better, our latest inspection shows a noticeable decline in ratings".
However, it said generally, staff were hard-working, passionate and caring and because of that the trust was rated as good for caring.
The trust's chief executive, Michelle McKay, said: "We are working hard to make the necessary improvements to make our services consistently better and safer and ensure that quality improvement is part of our daily business."
Improvements had been made since the inspection, she said.
The trust was told to make significant improvements around staffing and governance in January and the result of further inspections around those issues is due in July, the CQC said.
Issues highlighted by inspectors: | Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has been rated as inadequate by government inspectors. |
37642722 | Exam board AQA has described the decision as "difficult".
In a letter to teachers, the board said it was struggling to recruit "sufficient experienced examiners" to mark and award specialist topics.
"Our decision has nothing to do with the importance of the history of art," said an AQA spokeswoman.
AQA's decision stems from government changes to A-levels in England which have required new syllabuses in all subjects.
Earlier this year, the board sent out a new history of art syllabus for consultation, which received widespread approval - but now it says that it has decided not to develop it for teaching in 2017.
Students taking the current course will be unaffected and will be able to take their AS-level exams in 2017 and A-level exams in 2018, says the board.
But this news means that once that course is phased out under government rules, they will be the last to take history of art for A-level.
Sarah Phillips, head of the subject at Godalming College, a state sixth form in Surrey, has 65 students enrolled for AS-level art history.
She says the subject is so popular that in some years she has to cap numbers.
She helped write the new syllabus and says it would have "offered students the potential insight into the problems and creative solutions found by past and present societies across the world".
She added: "It should, therefore, encourage empathy, tolerance and mutual respect as well as emphasising writing and communication skills and the ability to read and research widely and effectively."
Caroline Osborne, head of art history at the private Godolphin and Latymer School in west London, said the strength of the new course was that it would have been "global" rather than being a history of Western art.
It had gained "unanimous support from teachers, students and parents", said Ms Osborne.
It would have been suitable for students from a range of abilities in all types of school, allowing students to focus on art from countries, periods and cultures most relevant to them, she added.
"For example, a Muslim student could have studied representation in Islamic art."
But with only 839 students taking the A-level, and 721 the AS-level this year, (overall, more than 43,000 took A-levels in art and design), the combination of breadth and small entry numbers are a problem for the exam board.
In its letter to teachers, AQA said it was struggling to recruit enough experienced specialist examiners for the existing specification.
"We had hoped that we could reduce or remove these areas of difficulty in developing the new specification, but this has not proved possible," says the letter.
The spokeswoman said the wider specialist options under the new syllabus would have made it very difficult to set grade boundaries.
"Our number one priority is making sure every student gets the result they deserve - and the complex and specialist nature of the exams in this subject creates too many risks on that front. That's why we've taken the difficult decision not to continue our work creating a new AS and A-level," said AQA in a statement.
"Our decision has nothing to do with the importance of the history of art and it won't stop students going on to do a degree in it as we're not aware of any universities that require an A-level in the subject."
A spokeswoman for exams regulator Ofqual hinted that AQA's decision not to continue the development of the new syllabus need not necessarily mean the end of A-level art history.
"The option for AQA or another exam board to develop a specification... in future will remain open," said the spokeswoman. | History of art teachers say they are "devastated" after the last exam board to offer the subject at A-level decided to axe it. |
34261863 | The murals are to be unveiled across Northern Ireland as part of an anti-racism project.
They have been painted in areas which have suffered race hate attacks.
The project, called Band Of Brothers, focuses on the role of 303 (Polish) RAF Squadron, which was stationed in Northern Ireland from 1943 to 1944.
Band Of Brothers is the brainchild of Ballyhalbert-based journalist and RAF historian Pete Bleakley.
"Having worked closely with both the Housing Executive and loyalist communities during 10 years in community television, it occurred to me that perhaps events 75 years ago in the skies over Kent could help positively shape events on the ground in Belfast in 2015," Mr Bleakley said.
"The Battle Of Britain, and our freedom as a nation, was won in no small way by the bravery of those Polish pilots, whose wartime motto was, 'Love Demands Sacrifice.'
"They fought ferociously for their freedom and ours. The Poles were part of us then and they are part of us now."
The first mural is in the Shankill area of west Belfast and tells the story of 303 squadron and its performance and sacrifice in the Battle of Britain.
The Battle of Britain was fought between July and October 1940 between the RAF and the German Luftwaffe and is seen as a pivotal moment in Wold War Two.
"Historians now agree that Polish squadrons like 303 turned the Battle of Britain at a critical time," Mr Bleakley added.
"The RAF was on the ropes. They [303 squadron] had experience over Poland and in the Battle of France, so when they were unleashed against the Luftwaffe they went in very hard.
"On their first combat day - 1 September 1940 - they shot down six ME109s, so they had a very significant impact immediately.
"They were there to kill Germans in revenge for what the Germans were doing in their homeland. There's a very rich vein of shared history - the history of our two countries goes back a long way."
Vanda, the daughter of one of the Polish airmen, said the murals made her feel proud.
"My father came to Northern Ireland and was put into Ballyhalbert aerodrome along with 303 squadron and 315," she said.
"I'm very proud and when I look at these murals today of what they achieved, [the men] gave their all in defence of this country.
"But I will also feel very sad, because at the end of it all the goal was to go back to their war-torn country and start afresh, but they didn't really get that chance." | The heroics of a squadron of Polish airmen based in Northern Ireland during World War Two are being remembered through a series of murals. |
36642118 | Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny said the referendum was not the result his government wanted, but it respected "the UK voters' sovereign choice".
He said he will work to protect trade, travel links and Northern Ireland.
"There will be no early change to the free flow of people, goods and services between our islands," Mr Kenny added.
He said currency fluctuations would "present some challenges in the short-term" but that the trading relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland would continue "as normal" until Britain had concluded its exit negotiations with the EU.
After a nationwide referendum last Thursday, the UK electorate voted to leave the European Union by 52% to 48%.
Addressing the D??il (Irish parliament), Mr Kenny said: "I think that in other governments there is a full understanding that there has been a political earthquake in the UK, the consequences of which will take some time to work out.
"I expect that there will be broad consensus that we will need to await the entry into office of a new British prime minister before a formal exit notification can be made."
The taoiseach said the stakes "have always been higher" for the Republic of Ireland than for any other EU member state because of its shared land border with the UK, the common travel area between Britain and the Republic, and the Northern Ireland peace process.
"I fully understand why many people in Northern Ireland are deeply concerned that Northern Ireland will be outside of a project that has delivered so much for political stability, reconciliation and economic prosperity," Mr Kenny said.
"We will continue to work urgently and intensively with the British government and the Northern Ireland Executive to see how collectively we can ensure that the gains of the last two decades are fully protected in whatever post-exit arrangements are negotiated."
He added that he had begun to strengthen bilateral relations with Britain before the UK's general election last year, to identify the issues that could arise in the event of a Brexit vote.
Mr Kenny will travel to Brussels on Tuesday for a meeting of the European Council which he said would be the EU's "first opportunity for a collective response to the situation by all member states".
The taoiseach said: "A stable, prosperous, and outward-looking UK is clearly in our own interests and those of the EU as a whole.
"The closer the UK is to the EU, the better for all of us, and above all for Ireland.
"However, it will be up to the UK itself to work out what it wants to achieve, and how it sees its future." | The UK's vote to leave the EU caused a "political earthquake" the Irish prime minister has said, but he added his country was ready for challenges ahead. |
40477351 | The firm said the Note Fan Edition would "minimise the environmental impact" of its high-profile flop.
The handset will go on sale only in South Korea on 7 July, with a safer, smaller battery, the firm added.
Samsung stopped production on its iPhone rival late last year after an earlier botched recall and re-release.
About 2.5 million handsets have since been recalled. The new phone features components from those recalled devices, as well as unused parts Samsung has in stock.
Environmentalists had been putting pressure on the firm to reuse Galaxy Note 7 components to reduce the amount of so-called e-waste.
It is thought about 400,000 handsets will be made available from Friday. It will be priced about 30% cheaper than the Galaxy Note 7 at around 700,000 Korean won ($615; £472).
The devices will be fitted with 3,200 mAh batteries that Samsung says have passed strict safety tests. The Note 7 used 3,500 mAh batteries.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the successor to the original Note 7, is due for release later this year. | Samsung is releasing a new phone using parts from its Galaxy Note 7, which was axed after a battery fault led to some devices catching fire. |
40084681 | The 36-year-old joined the Mariners from Portsmouth in July 2016 and played 26 games in the 2016-17 season.
He suffered a number of injury problems during the campaign, which he told the club website was "one of the most difficult" of his career.
His only Grimsby goal so far came in a 2-0 win over Morecambe on the opening day of the season. | Grimsby Town midfielder Ben Davies has signed a new one-year contract with the League Two club. |
39135883 | Their places will be taken by Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Rentokil.
The companies included in the UK's top tier index are reviewed every quarter and reshuffled according to their market capitalisation.
Dixons Carphone shares have lost nearly 20% of their value over the past six months.
The domestic appliance to mobile phone retailer reported increased profits at the end of last year but is battling higher import costs due to the weaker pound as well as increased competition from online retailers.
"Dixons Carphone's share price has dropped off of late as a result of increasing competition within the sector, particularly from the likes of Amazon," said Helal Miah, an analyst at The Share Centre.
Shares in outsourcing giant Capita fell after a profits warning in September.
The changes, which will see the companies drop to the FTSE 250, will take effect on Monday 20 March.
Only 30 of the original FTSE 100 from 1984 still remain in the index. | Dixons Carphone and Capita are to be relegated from the FTSE 100 index after their shares fell sharply in the last quarter. |
35705555 | Becky, 16, was murdered by her stepbrother during a sexually-motivated kidnapping on 19 February last year.
Nathan Matthews was jailed for life and his girlfriend Shauna Hoare was given 17 years for manslaughter.
The Ministry of Justice said the figure reflected all of Matthews' costs but further bills were due for Hoare.
Becky was reported missing on 20 February 2015 and her remains were found in suitcases in a shed nearly two weeks later.
Her aunt, Sarah Broom, said the family was disgusted that Matthews and Hoare are seeking to appeal against their convictions and sentences, which would cost the taxpayer even more money.
Matthews was granted £324,549 in legal aid, which included £2,261 before the trial, £180,808 for a solicitor during the trial and £141,479 for an advocate.
Hoare received £1,044 before the trial, £6,987 for a solicitor during the trial and £69,668 for an advocate.
Anyone facing a crown court trial is eligible for legal aid, subject to a means test.
A spokeswoman for the Law Society said: "The purpose of the criminal court system is to ensure justice for all by convicting the guilty and protecting the innocent.
"Criminal legal aid is critical for ensuring that anyone accused of wrongdoing has a fair trial.
"Of those who plead not guilty in the crown court, well over half are acquitted, which is why people accused of wrongdoing must be given access to good quality legal help, whatever their means."
The UK spent £1.7bn on legal aid in 2014-15 and a major reform of the system was scrapped in January.
But a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said expenditure had fallen by more than 20% since 2010.
"Anyone facing a crown court trial is eligible for legal aid, subject to a strict means test, but may be required to pay significant contributions - up to the entire cost of their defence.
"The government has cut the fees paid to lawyers in criminal legal aid cases, such as these, to ensure legal aid represents better value for the taxpayer."
The trial of Matthews and Hoare, which included four other defendants, cost the Crown Prosecution Service £105,207.49. | The killers of Bristol teenager Becky Watts were granted more than £400,000 in legal aid, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. |
33381202 | A recording of the pair arguing during a phone conversation last October has recently been leaked and has caused a big stir in the country.
The two-minute discussion became heated and insulting words were used.
Sherington insulted the family of Kamara, who in turn abused the former Leone Stars coach.
The bad feeling relates to an incident during the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers last October when Kamara banned Sherington from entering the Freetown stadium after he led a rival technical team to Yaounde to take charge of Leone Stars for their two games against Cameroon.
SLFA spokesman Abu Bakarr Kamara told BBC Sport: "We decided to suspend Sherington to give a three-man committee set up by the SLFA the free hand to investigate the matter and he will remain suspended until the committee finishes its findings and come up with recommendations.
"Already Sherington has admitted in his report to the SLFA that the conversation (with Kamara) took place and he also gave names of people who were in possession of the recorded conversation.
"So the committee is not only going to look into the discussed in the leaked tape but will also investigate who leaked the audio and the motive behind it."
The SLFA last week issued a press statement denouncing the exchanges and completely disassociated itself from the behaviour of Sherington.
Sherington, who has publicly apologised for using insulting words, has refused to comment on his suspension.
The Sierra Leone parliament had summoned both Sherington and Kamara to investigate the issue but cancelled the meeting because the matter is also being looked into by the office of the President.
Sherington was the caretaker coach of Leone Stars for their opening fixture in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sudan in Khartoum last month.
The ex-Sierra Leone international has previously held the role on permanent basis. | The Sierra Leone Football Association has suspended its technical director John Jebbor Sherington over a row he had with sports minister Paul Kamara. |
39988923 | Media playback is not supported on this device
Lock Jones, who returned from injury for Saturday's 23-3 Pro12 semi-final defeat at Munster, believes Ospreys are missing out on success too often when well-placed.
He said: "There's plenty there to work on, but we've got to stop learning and get on with it."
Munster will meet Scarlets in the final on Saturday, 27 May.
Ospreys reached the top four play-offs in 2014-15, but missed out on the final.
They did not make European Champions Cup qualification at the end of 2015-16 and began 2016-17 strongly only for performances to dip as it drew to a close.
A home semi-final seemed likely at one stage, but an away defeat against Italian strugglers Treviso in March knocked them off course.
Jones, who will head to New Zealand with the British and Irish Lions in June, added: "I'm fortunate or unfortunate enough to be on the inside looking out.
"If I was on the outside looking in, I think - pardon the cliche - better to finish strong than start strong and falter at the end.
"But that's probably what we feel we've done, without being too down on ourselves, there've been some great parts to our season.
"But I'm comfortable saying we've got to a point now where we've got to stop learning at this time of year.
"I think you look at our season, the last three [seasons] in terms of play-off, falling out of the Champions Cup, then back in, then got to another play-off and faltered around this time of year.
"So something we'll probably definitely have to look at whether it's the health of the squad, sheer performance or just will the players (perform)?"
Jones had not played since injuring his shoulder in Wales' Six Nations loss to France in March and said he felt "fine" on his return.
He added: "Credit to Munster. The possession and territory will probably be the interesting stats for us.
"What we did with it in the 22 is probably disappointing aspect and the fact that we probably coughed up ball unnecessarily under perceived pressure.
"We were always going to be under pressure at set-piece, but when we did win the ball, we can't give it away that easy so I'm sure the Scarlets won't need to take heed of that.
"Credit to the team - we kept playing until the end. We're not going to take solace in the two (late) disallowed tries, but credit to the guys that still wanted to play out there." | Ospreys must stop "learning" the hard way about failure and find a way to succeed, says captain Alun Wyn Jones. |
40329793 | The 25-year-old former MK Dons man scored once in 21 league games for the Addicks but was released last month.
"When you are playing at Bradford and the crowd is jumping, you know it is a tough place for an opposition player," he told the club website.
"It is exciting now to be on the other side of that and have the fans on my side this time around.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page. | Bradford City have signed former Charlton Athletic full-back Adam Chicksen on a two-year deal. |
36215216 | Lawyers representing 22 families said the group would report directly to the home secretary and "provide scrutiny whilst maintaining independence".
Inquests concluded the 96 Liverpool fans who died were unlawfully killed.
The Crown Prosecution Service which is heading both the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Operation Resolve's inquiries is yet to comment.
Broudie Jackson Canter (BJC) solicitors said the families have agreed to meet Home Secretary Theresa May and the interim Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police Dave Jones following the conclusion of the fresh inquests.
BJC said the Hillsborough Article 2 Reference Group could comprise of two independent people appointed to go through documents in the investigations by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and Operation Resolve and raise any concerns to the home secretary on behalf of the families.
BJC said the group could also "preserve the right of a fair trial" for anyone facing charges after the findings of the criminal investigations while "maintaining independence".
Operation Resolve is investigating the causes of the disaster including the events on the day and those leading up to it. It is looking at a range of organisations and bodies involved in the preparation and planning of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final match.
The IPCC is looking into police actions in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster and investigating whether there was an alleged cover up.
The inquiries could finish by the end of 2016. | Families of Hillsborough victims are calling for a scrutiny group to oversee two police inquiries into the disaster. |
35356072 | Patrick Brazeau, 41, has been on a paid leave of absence since 2013 as a result of questionable expenses and charges of assault and sexual assault.
He underwent surgery on Tuesday and is now in a critical but stable condition, a hospital spokesman said.
When Mr Brazeau was appointed in 2008, he was the youngest ever senator.
His biography on the Canadian Senate website describes him as "a champion of the rights of Aboriginal peoples".
Also in 2008, he was re-elected as chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP). He resigned from CAP the following year because of allegations of sexual harassment.
In 2011, nine chiefs of Ontario signed a letter stating Mr Brazeau does not represent First Nations peoples in Canada.
Emergency services were called to Mr Brazeau's house at 22:00 (17:00 GMT) on Monday night. A police spokesperson says there is no criminal investigation.
Mr Brazeau's lawyer told CTV News he did not know the senator's condition in hospital.
The sexual assault charges against Mr Brazeau were dropped due to a lack of evidence, but Mr Brazeau pleaded guilty to assault and possession of cocaine. He received an absolute discharge (a finding of guilt with no jail time or criminal record).
His salary has been reduced to repay nearly CA$50,000 (£24,000; US$34,000) in Senate expense claims.
He is due to stand trial on charges of fraud and breach of trust in March.
In 2012, Justin Trudeau - now prime minister of Canada but at the time a rookie MP - challenged Mr Brazeau to a charity boxing match.
Mr Brazeau was widely tipped to win but was defeated in the third round - a milestone on Mr Trudeau's route to power.
In 2013, the Senate audited four members' expenses, including Mr Brazeau's.
Parliamentary rules say senators living more than 100km (60 miles) outside Ottawa can claim the allowance.
Mr Brazeau allegedly claimed the allowance for his father's home in the town of Maniwaki, 135km north of the capital, while he lived full-time in a rented home within the Ottawa area.
Mr Brazeau addressed the Senate to reconsider his case.
"It is very important that you understand that I am not guilty of what some of these people are accusing me of," he said. "I am not a thief, a scammer, a drunken Indian, a drug addict, a failed experiment or a human tragedy."
In October 2015, Mr Brazeau left the Conservative caucus to sit as an "independent First Nations senator."
Canadian senators are not elected, but are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister, to serve until they are 75 years old. For years, there has been talk about amending the constitution to make the process more democratic. | A controversial Canadian senator who is due in court on fraud charges in March has been found seriously injured at his home near the capital, Ottawa. |
41002412 | Yn 2015 ac yn 2016 roedd lefel nitrogen deuocsid ar yr A472 yn Hafodyrynys yng Nghrymlyn yn Sir Caerffili yn uwch nag unrhyw le arall ar wahân i ganol Llundain.
Roedd y lefel hefyd yn uwch na'r lefelau derbyniol gan Fudiad Iechyd y Byd.
Mae Cyngor Caerffili yn ymgynghori ar gynlluniau i wella ansawdd yr aer.
Mae cynllun drafft Cyngor Caerffili yn cynnwys sawl argymhelliad ar leihau'r nitrogen deuocsid yn yr ardal, sy'n cynnwys:
Opsiynau eraill sy'n cael eu hystyried yw ail-gyfeirio loriau trwm HGV o'r ardal ac annog cwmnïau bysiau i ddefnyddio cerbydau allyriadau isel.
Fe allai arwyddion gael eu gosod hefyd yn gofyn i fodurwyr ddiffodd yr injan wrth aros ger goleuadau traffig.
Mae'r cyngor hefyd yn ystyried hyrwyddo defnydd trafnidiaeth gyhoeddus er mwyn lleihau nifer y cerbydau ar y ffordd.
Fe ddaw'r argymhellion wrth i flwch monitro llygredd aer ar yr A472 ger Swffryd gofnodi lefelau yn uwch nag unrhyw le arall yn y DU oni bai am ar Marylebone Road yn Llundain.
Roedd y lefelau yn uwch na'r blychau fu'n cofnodi llygredd awyr ym Mhort Talbot, Caerdydd ac Abertawe.
Mae tua 21,400 o gerbydau yn defnyddio'r ffordd pob dydd, ac o ganlyniad fe gafodd yr ardal ei chofnodi yn Ardal Rheolaeth Ansawdd Aer ym mis Tachwedd 2013.
Yn ôl Martin Brown, wnaeth brynu ei dŷ yno 48 mlynedd yn ôl, mae'r tagfeydd traffig yn "annioddefol" ac mae hi "bron yn amhosib croesi'r ffordd".
"Mae'r traffig yma trwy'r dydd, bob dydd. Mae'r ffordd fel trac rasio ac mi fydd rhywun yn cael ei lladd yn croesi'r ffordd," meddai.
Dywedodd Barbara Smith sydd hefyd yn byw yn yr ardal: "Dwi'n gweld pobl yn peryglu eu bywydau yn ceisio croesi'r ffordd. Mae'r sŵn a'r llygredd aer yn anghredadwy."
Dywedodd y cynghorydd Eluned Stenner, aelod cabinet ar yr amgylchedd ac amddiffyn y cyhoedd: "Gyda chefnogaeth y gymuned leol a gyda'n partneriaid, i ni wedi ein hymrwymo i wneud popeth posib i wella sefyllfa'r ansawdd aer, a dwi'n annog y bobl sy'n byw yna i ddweud eu dweud ar gynnwys y cynllun gweithredol drafft, a chymryd rhan yn yr ymgynghoriad."
Bydd yr ymgynghoriad ar agor nes 31 Awst. | Gallai tai gael eu dymchwel a ffordd osgoi gael ei adeiladu o dan gynlluniau i wella ansawdd aer ardal yng Nghymru sydd â'r lefelau uchaf o lygredd aer yn y DU. |
36411898 | Police were called to Hallamford Road, Shepshed, at about 22:45 BST on Saturday.
The 57-year-old victim, who has not been named, died at the scene of the collision with a red-coloured Honda, said Leicestershire Police.
Anyone who was in the area at the time of the crash is asked to contact the force. | A motorcyclist has been killed in a collision with a car on a country road in Leicestershire. |
37368826 | Two MPs have made formal complaints after they were named on the list, which was compiled by Mr Corbyn's team and sent to the Press Association.
Mr McDonnell apologised, saying it was a briefing note and he was "furious" it had been sent out by mistake.
One of the MPs to complain said this amounted to "harassment and bullying".
Deputy leader Tom Watson, who also featured on the list, said he had received an apology.
The latest row comes just over a week before Labour announces its new leader, with Owen Smith challenging Mr Corbyn.
Relations between the two campaigns have soured, with both sides accused of abusive language towards the other.
The briefing from Mr Corbyn's team accused Mr Smith of being the "real disunity candidate", citing comments by Smith-supporting MPs Jess Phillips, Tristram Hunt and John Woodcock, as well as by Mr Watson.
It urged Mr Smith to "explicitly condemn those who have threatened to split the party and tear it apart, as well as condemn the abuse instigated by his high-profile supporters".
Mr Watson said he had been told the list had been released by mistake by a junior press officer in Mr Corbyn's campaign team.
The BBC understands Mr Woodcock is one of the MPs to make a formal complaint to the party's chief whip and its general secretary.
"It is my clear view that targeting individuals like this amounts to harassment and bullying by the leader of the parliamentary party who is supposed to have a duty of care towards his fellow Labour MPs," Mr Woodcock's letter says.
Another of the MPs named, Neil Coyle, tweeted: "Desperate, trial by troll, victim-culture claims from an anonymous source backing Corbyn this eve. Fuming."
But asked about it at Bloomberg HQ in London, following a speech by Mr Corbyn, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said: "That release came from the campaign, it didn't come from Jeremy. We have apologised, it was just inappropriate.
"One of our researchers saw a bit of incoming flak and then did a list of all the statements that have been made by other MPs, some of which were not particularly kind... it was a briefing note, it shouldn't have gone out and we apologised for that.
"It certainly wasn't a list in any way to attack anyone, it was just a factual report."
He said he felt progress had been made over the summer to improve unity in the party - evidenced, he said, by support for Mr Corbyn at this week's Prime Minister's Questions - and there was "no dispute at all" over its economic policy, so he felt the release of the list had "set us back and I was furious about it, to be frank".
"Just at a time when we were, I think, really rebuilding relationships very very well throughout the summer - I hope it hasn't set us back and we will certainly have a conversation with all those involved."
Mr Corbyn was asked about the row during a leaders' debate on Sky News.
He said: "There was information put out there which is statements that colleagues made on the record and it's all stuff that is out there on the public record."
Mr Smith said the list was "deeply divisive". | Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has apologised about the release of a list of MPs accused of "abuse" towards Jeremy Corbyn and his allies. |
38263863 | Mumtaz Member, 56, died from head injuries at her home in Holmfield Avenue, Leicester, on 12 December 2015.
Her sons - Mohammed Member and Shafiq Member - together with Shafiq's partner Fatima Patel were charged with murder but the charges were later dropped.
Police believe there are people with information who have not come forward.
They have also released CCTV images of potential witnesses who were in Holmfield Avenue on the night of 11 December and early hours of 12 December.
Det Ch Insp Mick Graham from the East Midlands Major Crime Unit said it was "a rather brutal case" and it was important to get justice for Mrs Member.
He said: "Sadly we are 12 months down the line and we are still looking at all lines of inquiry.
"We are seeking support and information from the community because I think the answer is in the local community.
"There are people that know key information who feel they can't come forward."
Det Ch Insp Graham said Mrs Member was killed in a bedroom at her home between midnight and 09:30 GMT. She was found by a family member.
He said: "I don't want people to forget that Mumtaz was a loving mother, grandmother, sister and wife, and this has devastated the family."
The Leicester Mercury said Mrs Mumtaz's family is well known in the business community which "reacted with shock" to the death.
The reward is being offered to people who contact Crimestoppers directly with information which leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. | A £10,000 reward has been offered for information about the "brutal" murder of a grandmother on the first anniversary of her death. |
27964719 | The 35-year-old managed a leap of 16.37m to finish fourth in the German city of Braunschweig on Sunday, as he represented GB for the first time since the 2012 London Olympics.
Idowu, who took a break from the sport last year, said: "It's always an honour to put on the red, white and blue."
Germany won the event from Russia.
Britain finished third when the competition was staged at Gateshead last year but fielded a developmental squad this time.
The 2009 world champion and 2008 Beijing Olympic silver medallist competed just once in 2013 before deciding to "take a step back from athletics".
There was doubt as to whether he would compete again after he lost his lottery funding, but Idowu is hoping to jump at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships this summer.
"Today didn't go as well as I would have liked," he told BBC Sport. "I still feel I have a lot in my legs. I haven't quite really nailed it yet but I'll keep pushing on.
"I'm enjoying it here and just want to keep going."
Idowu fell out with former GB head coach Charles van Commenee in the build-up to London 2012, where he failed to qualify for the final despite being favourite for gold.
"I needed a break and time to myself to freshen up," he said.
"I have no plan - I am just winging it right now. It's exciting for British athletics now and I'm happy to be part of it."
There were no GB winners on the final day of the competition, and the team were overtaken by Poland in the overall standings having been in fourth position overnight.
William Sharman, 29, set a new personal best of 13.21 secs as he finished second in the 110 metres hurdles, just 0.01 behind Russia's Sergey Shubenkov.
Sharman's time makes him the third-fastest British 110m hurdler of all time, behind Colin Jackson and Tony Jarrett.
James Ellington was third in the 200m in 20.60 secs, while Anyika Onuora also came third in the women's race, running 23.24 secs.
There were fourth-place finishes for Sophie Hitchon (hammer), Jonny Mellor (3000m), plus the men's and women's 4 x 400m relay teams.
Team captain Hannah England finished fifth in the 1500m and then watched her husband, Luke Gunn, place fifth in the 3000m steeplechase. Late replacement Beth Potter came fifth in the 5000m.
There were eighth-place finishes for Serita Solomon (100m hurdles), Brett Morse (discus), while Lee Doran (javelin) and Jazmin Sawyers (javelin) both came ninth.
Isobel Pooley (high jump) and Mukhtar Mohammed (800m) were 11th, with Rachel Wallader (shot put) 12th.
Steve Lewis failed to register a height in the pole vault. | Triple jumper Phillips Idowu said he was happy to be back in a Great Britain vest as GB finished fifth at the European Team Championships. |
37929939 | An independent commission found that from September 2014 to April 2016 Bunyard placed 45 bets against Frome and his former club Paulton Rovers.
Football Association rules prohibit "all those involved in the game" from betting on football "that takes place anywhere in the world".
Frome suspended Bunyard in April when made aware of the FA's investigation.
The FA also fined Bunyard £3,000.
Bunyard became Frome manager in August 2015 and his suspension by the club arrived late in a campaign where the Robins lost just two of their last 14 matches to avoid relegation.
Assistant manager Josh Jeffries took charge as they ended the 2015-16 season 16th in the Southern League - England's seventh tier.
The commission examined 97 bets made by Bunyard but dismissed an FA charge that he had allegedly breached an interim ban placed on him on 24 June.
Frome Town expect to make a statement on Thursday. | Frome Town boss Nick Bunyard has been banned from football until July 2019 for betting against teams he managed. |
29566664 | The plans to reshape the Conservative-led council by 2016 include shutting seven of its eight youth centres and four of its six children's centres.
The council also plans to lose a third of school crossing patrols and stop paying for Christmas decorations.
Labour councillor Tom Ross said the message from the plans was "don't be young in Trafford."
A council spokesman said total savings of £24.3m were needed due to a reduction in central government funding, inflation, increased waste disposal charges and "some under-achievement in savings targets in 2014/15 being rolled over to 2015/16".
The authority closed 10 children's centres as part of an effort to save £34m between 2013 and 2015.
Under the latest proposals, youth centres in Partington, Davyhulme, Lostock, Sale West, Broomwood, Old Trafford and Gorse Hill and children's centres in Urmston, Altrincham, Sale and Old Trafford would close.
The plans, which have been opened to public consultation, have identified 199 council staff at risk of redundancy - 107 from front line services, 68 from back office roles and 24 management positions.
The proposals would also mean up to 37 of the borough's 97 school crossing patrols are cut and allotment fees are raised by 50p a week.
Source: Trafford Council
Mr Anstee said some of the authority's libraries could also close as a £700,000 saving needs to be made in that area, though he was open to ideas including voluntary groups running them in the future.
"Clearly, if nothing is forthcoming, then we need to make that saving somehow. How we do that is what we're going to try and find out over the coming weeks."
Labour councillor Tom Ross said while he accepted the savings had to be made, he believed they were being made in the wrong areas.
"I think there'll be an impact on life chances. The message I'm getting here is don't be young in Trafford.
"From birth to teens, services that young people used to access [will be] disappearing within the next year. I think that's horrendous."
The council said final decisions would be made over the proposals in early 2015 after "feedback from the various consultations has been evaluated". | Almost 200 staff could lose their jobs at Trafford Council as part of budget proposals to save £24m. |
39797126 | The US Embassy in the UK has not been singing from the same hymn sheet as the White House in recent days as it tries to soften the blow of Mr Trump's rebuke of how Khan has handled the London Bridge attacks.
While Mr Trump branded Khan's appeal for calm a "pathetic excuse" on social media, America's top diplomat to the Court of St James's - Chargé d'affaires ad interim and former Deputy Chief of Mission Lewis Lukens - praised the mayor's leadership.
The lack of co-ordination between the Trump administration and the US Foreign Service transpired without an ambassador spearheading America's diplomatic efforts in the country.
So how is the lack of a top US diplomat playing out in London?
The ambassador traditionally advocates for American interests in the UK, deciphers British politics and policies for the federal government and offers consular services to citizens, according to former US Ambassador to the Czech Republic, John Shattuck.
In times of crisis, however, the ambassador becomes a fulcrum between the two countries as they take part in intelligence sharing meetings and strategic planning sessions around cross-national issues like security.
"An ambassador, fully accredited by their country, may be able to enter meetings at a higher level than lower, professional staff," says Mr Shattuck, now a professor at Tufts University.
Without a proper ambassador in place, the flow of information could be impaired, he says, "but that's not a foregone conclusion. A second-in-command may well be given access."
After events like the London Bridge attack, an ambassador would usually express US sympathy and solidarity and ensure affected Americans were cared for - as Chargé d'affaires Lukens did, says W Robert Pearson, former US Ambassador to Turkey.
What was potentially missing at the weekend was an ambassador who was able to immediately reach high-ranking officials at the White House, the National Security Council or the Department of State to manage communications and set a tone moving forward.
"With such work in the moments after the tragedy, the transatlantic conversation might not have ended up characterised as an exchange between the president and Mayor Kahn, which now has gone so far as to bring about a rebuke of Mr Trump's comments from Prime Minister May," Pearson says.
"Not to put too fine a point on it, that missing piece allowed the exchanges to end up obscuring the message of solidarity which the American people would have wanted to convey, was owed to the UK and which the UK would have welcomed."
Trump put strains of special relationship
Seven ways the world has changed in Trump's 100 days
Still, there are limits to an ambassador's influence, especially in the age of Trump.
"How much that person would have been able to do to manage the intelligence leaks we'll never know," Mr Pearson says.
"To the White House, I doubt that having an ambassador present would have persuaded them to make maximum use of the embassy at such a critical moment."
The post has remained vacant since former Ambassador Matthew Barzun left on 18 January.
Mr Trump lashed out at Senate Democrats on Monday via Twitter for stalling confirmation hearings that would appoint key people to his administration, including ambassadors.
However, despite stating his intention to nominate businessman and New York Jets football team owner Woody Johnson as UK Ambassador, Trump has not yet done so - meaning there is no one for the Senate to confirm.
An official from the US Department of State referred queries about nominations to the White House, but said embassy and consular staff abroad were ready to help Americans in need of assistance.
Although gaps in foreign service coverage are not unusual during presidential transitions, the problem has been exacerbated by holes in the State Department's upper echelons, according to Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Professor Erik Jones - including the absence of a permanent Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
While missions can operate under a chargé d'affaires, Jones said the White House was "not in sync" with its diplomatic corps thanks to the limited number of political appointees, as opposed to career professionals, who align with the president's views and can form effective conduits for his priorities.
May says Trump 'wrong' to criticise Khan
Trump renews feud with mayor of London
"That doesn't mean we don't have organisation," Mr Jones said. "It means we don't have a high-profile representative who is personally close to the president."
But it remains to be seen whether "hurt feelings and miscommunication" translate into institutional decisions with serious ramifications, such as a vacuum of power on the world stage, Mr Jones says.
"I think the obvious question is whether a president acting alone is capable of having a foreign policy - a complex beast that builds on multiple and overlapping relationships - and it seems as though one person cannot have all these relationships at the same time effectively," Jones said.
It is unclear if an ambassador will be appointed before Trump makes a landmark state visit to the UK, slated for later this year. | The war of words between US President Donald Trump and London Mayor Sadiq Khan following Saturday's terror attack in the UK has exposed chinks in the so-called "special relationship". |
38421241 | Kinghorn, 19, has made 13 appearances for the club this season, scoring 24 points, and follows team-mate Magnus Bradbury in agreeing a new deal.
"I'm really looking forward to the next couple of years and contributing to the team," said Kinghorn.
"This club is a great place with a good bunch of guys involved and a great squad."
A product of Edinburgh Academy, the full-back - who can also play at stand-off - has made 28 appearances in black and red, and has scored 46 points, including three tries.
"I was delighted when I was offered a new deal, so I'm happy that I'm staying here and looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead," he said.
"The young lads are getting a good shot here and we're all coming up through the team.
"There's great depth in the squad and we're a close-knit group which adds to the enjoyment of it all - it's great to play with your mates.
"I'm looking forward to getting out there and kicking-on for another couple of seasons."
Acting head coach Duncan Hodge added: "We're delighted to have secured Blair - a young, Scottish talent - at the club for another two seasons.
"Blair is maturing and fully understands the work ethic needed on and off the field to succeed.
"There are many areas for Blair to keep progressing, but he is striving to better himself and we look forward to him benefitting the club in years to come." | Full-back Blair Kinghorn has signed a new two-year contract with Edinburgh until 2019. |
40367555 | The move would pave the way to shut the facilities at Ae, Garlieston and Kirkbean.
The three schools currently have 37 pupils in total with combined capacity for nearly 200.
If the consultation is given the go-ahead they could be shut by July next year.
Dumfries and Galloway Council's education committee agreed last year that officers should engage with schools where the pupil roll has fallen below 50% of capacity.
It said the process would serve to "identify and rationalise" the use of its buildings.
A report earlier this year identified more than 20 schools operating at less than half of their capacity. | Councillors are being asked to agree to start statutory consultation on the closure of three rural primary schools in Dumfries and Galloway. |
35343220 | The 25-year-old prop, who has won 37 caps for England and featured at last year's World Cup, was captain of the club during the 2014-15 season.
The Premiership side have not disclosed the length of Marler's new deal at the Twickenham Stoop.
"When he develops into the player he can be, he will become one of the great loose-head props in world rugby," director of rugby Conor O'Shea said.
"I am staggered that Joe is still only 25. He already has a wealth of experience. This is a massive re-signing for us."
Marler has scored six tries in 131 appearances for the south-west London club since making his senior debut in 2009.
"After a tough 2014-15 season, both personally and as a team, I took some time to think about my future," Marler said.
"It quickly dawned on me that this is exactly where I want to be." | England international Joe Marler has signed a new contract with Harlequins. |
35880232 | The Wales international was jailed in 2012 for raping a 19-year-old at a hotel near Rhyl, Denbighshire.
The judges at the two-day hearing reserved their judgement after hearing submissions from Evans' legal team.
Evans, 27, was released from jail in 2014 after serving half of his five-year term.
The panel of three judges heard submissions from both Evans' legal team and the Crown Prosecution Service, with new evidence being considered.
The court was told a decision and reasoning would be given "as soon as possible in April", with reporting restrictions imposed at the start of the hearing kept in place until then.
The former Manchester City, Norwich and Sheffield United player has not been signed by a new club since his release from prison. | The Court of Appeal will not give its decision on an appeal by footballer Ched Evans against his conviction for rape until April, judges have said. |
37385565 | The 53-year-old, caretaker boss since Steve Bruce's departure in July, was named Premier League manager of the month for August.
But, with a takeover of the club pending, Phelan's long-term future at the club has been uncertain.
"It's a case now of sifting through the offer and getting down to what hopefully will be further discussions," he told BBC Radio Humberside.
"I don't want to talk about the money, I don't want to talk about what the contract entails because, to be frank, it's nobody else's business.
"You do want parity with the Premier League, and going forward hopefully that's what will happen."
Despite starting the season with just 13 fit first-team players, Phelan guided the Tigers to an opening-day win over champions Leicester City, followed by a victory at Swansea.
Only an injury-time Marcus Rashford goal prevented Hull getting a point against Manchester United, before last week's draw at Burnley.
Phelan said there was "no great rush" to agree the deal, adding he was focusing on Saturday's Premier League game against Arsenal (15:00 BST).
"I would like to have got it done weeks ago," said Phelan.
"But it's only in this last 24 hours we've ended up in this state of affairs with pounds, shillings and pence."
Phelan was Manchester United's first-team coach until 2008, when he became assistant manager to Sir Alex Ferguson.
He left Old Trafford in 2013 and spent a year with Norwich City before joining Hull in 2015 as assistant manager.
A takeover of the club by a Chinese consortium recently fell through but Chinese-American businessman Chien Lee is reportedly interested.
Owner Assem Allam, who took charge in 2010, put Hull up for sale in 2014.
"There's still the takeover in the background and I find myself in the middle of that, trying to sort out my future," Phelan added.
"I don't know who is involved any more and how far discussions have gone. It is possibly a frustrating thing from my point of view." | Mike Phelan says he has been offered the manager's job at Hull City. |
35487304 | But instead of being the main event, it was merely the warm-up act for his statement in which he told MPs the government had reached an "important milestone" in its attempts to change Britain's relationship with Europe.
He called for them to support his draft deal on reforms to the European Union.
But David Cameron is under no illusions about how difficult his task of winning over Conservative MPs will be.
Recent research for BBC South East showed that even in the Conservative heartlands of Kent and Sussex only two Tory MPs at this stage would vote for the UK to remain part of the EU.
The Ashford MP Damian Green is one of them.
He said Mr Cameron's deal would help Britain prosper.
But many more are not convinced. Six said they were most likely to vote to leave and many others were still undecided.
After hearing about Mr Cameron's package of proposed reforms to Britain's relationship with the EU, Lewes MP Maria Caulfield said she still intended to vote for Britain to leave the EU.
She said the issue of immigration had not been dealt with and the introduction of the living wage in April would encourage more people to come.
But it has to be said she is not alone - I also spoke to another Sussex MP this morning, Tim Loughton, who said he is not happy with the deal negotiated and is now also more inclined to vote out.
And the South Thanet MP and former UKIP founder Craig Mackinlay said: "The emergency brake sounded so hopeful some weeks ago.
"But the concept of 28 feet reaching for the pedal all wanting an influence really means that when a hazard is seen, indecision will mean that an accident will surely happen."
What we still don't know is when this referendum will take place.
The First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have written to David Cameron urging him not to hold the EU referendum in June.
They said the campaigning would clash with their campaigns for parliamentary elections on 5 May.
But the Prime Minister would only confirm he would not hold it within six weeks of those May elections.
That still leaves the door open for the referendum to be held in June.
If that is the case, it gives the PM just four months to persuade some members of his cabinet, backbench MPs and - more importantly - the voters of the benefits of remaining part of the EU. | David Cameron was in the Commons today for his regular showdown with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions. |
35657021 | Military spending will grow by A$29.9b ($21.4b, £15.4b) over next 10 years, the 2016 Defence White Paper outlined.
The largest investment will be made in submarines, with investment also being made in additional naval vessels, fighter jets and personnel.
Under the plan defence spending will comprise 2% of Australia's GDP by 2021.
The report outlines the government's defence priorities to 2035.
Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the threats faced by Australia were not limited to foreign conflicts, but also included terrorism, cyber-warfare and climate change.
"[This] is a plan to become more powerful on land and in the skies, and more commanding both on the seas and beneath them. It is a program to be more resilient in the cyberspace, to be more innovative with technology, and to have greater situational awareness thanks to our advanced intelligence capabilities," Mr Turnbull said.
It says that about 25% of the additional spending will be put towards the most "comprehensive regeneration of our Navy since the Second World War".
Construction of 12 "regionally superior" submarines at a cost of more than A$50b represents Australia's largest-ever defence procurement.
The submarines, which will have a "high degree of interoperability" with US forces, will begin to enter service from the early 2030s.
In addition to three Hobart class air warfare destroyers already scheduled to enter service in the early 2020s, nine new warfare frigates optimised for anti-submarine warfare will be built by the late 2020s.
The white paper also provides for an increase in personnel of around 2,500 to a total of 62,400 across the Australian Defence Force.
The purchase of unmanned drones, plus previously announced plans to buy seventy-two Joint Strike Fighters and 12 Growler electronic warfare aircraft, were also outlined in the paper.
The white paper identified three strategic defence interests for Australia: securing Australia's northern borders and communication lines, ensuring security in its immediate region, and maintaining a "rules-based global order", particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.
It reaffirms Australia's commitment to the US but expresses ambivalence on China, calling on it to be "more transparent about its defence policies.
The paper also reiterates Australia's opposition to the reclamation of land in the South China Sea and urges ASEAN and China to agree on a code of conduct for the area as soon as possible.
Dr John Blaxland, a senior fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at Australian National University, said the language on China was more robust than in the 2013 Defence White Paper.
China's economic muscle meant that it was more likely to ignore rules that didn't suit its interests, which was evident both in territorial disputes and in developments in the cyber domain, Dr Blaxland said.
"It's not that concerned about the rules, about a global order that it didn't write."
He said the government's defence plan was "not an unreasonable insurance policy" and would have a strong impact on capacity if implemented properly.
"The global average spend on defence is between 2.1% and 2.3% of GDP, depending on what measure you use, so Australia's plan to spend 2% is not unreasonable," he said. | Australia has announced a surge in defence spending, a move that reflects concern over military expansion in the region. |
39258896 | The self-confessed "edgy" card retailer Scribbler has 35 stores across the UK - all of which display a "PG" sticker in their windows.
The fashion and lifestyle chain Joy - based mainly in the south-east of England - also carries PG signs.
Some cards are shocking, rude and downright offensive, yet there is "huge demand" for profanities, according to retailers.
"Customers love it," said Eliot James, a card buyer for Scribbler. "It's normally the ruder end of humour which are the bestsellers."
And the offending greetings are not, he said, limited to a certain demographic or age group.
"It's really quite widespread," he added.
Warning: Some readers may find the images below offensive
As well as having PG signs at the front of their shops, Scribbler says cards featuring swear words should only be found on the top two shelves.
Joy said offending cards are not kept at till level - but above children's heights.
Sharon Little from the Greeting Card Association said there was "huge demand" for rude cards.
"They've always been popular," she said.
"You send a card to show that you care about someone - it's sharing a sense of humour.
"But you have to know someone really well to choose a card like that for them."
But not everyone is happy.
Earlier this year, Paperchase - which stocks more than 4,000 cards - was forced to pull a line of sexually explicit Valentine's cards after some shoppers complained.
The cards appeared behind a sign stating "rude cards here - you have been warned!"
But that wasn't enough to satisfy all customers - especially those with young children.
"Adult cards can undoubtedly polarise customer opinion and this Valentine's Day we took the controversial decision to remove some of the more risqué cards from our stores so that we didn't cause unnecessary offence to customers," a Paperchase spokeswoman said.
"While this decision proved popular with some, we also had many customers who were disappointed."
Paperchase said their adult cards are only sold in select stores where teams are asked "to position them on the top shelf, out of sight of children and with a sign".
But the cards certainly don't seem to be putting a dent in the tradition of card sending.
In fact, the British public are buying more cards than ever before - with the UK market worth an estimated £1.7 bn.
So if you're feeling adventurous this Mother's Day, perhaps go for a more edgier take on the classic. Just make sure you inherited your sense of humour from your mother. | They are usually seen on the covers of films or computer games - but some of the UK's card shops have started carrying parental guidance signs. |
37194250 | More than 2,500 riders snaked through the glens around Aviemore on Saturday, on day two of the three-day Thunder in the Glens event.
When it first started, the gathering involved about 200 riders.
The event is hosted by Edinburgh's Dunedin Chapter of Harley-Davidson owners.
The chapter's George McGuire told BBC Radio Scotland that the riders, many of whom live in cities, enjoyed the "freedom" of the Highlands' "open, twisty roads".
He said the riders were welcomed by the community in Aviemore.
Making reference to the 1953 outlaw biker gang film The Wild One, Mr McGuire said: "I'm sure in the beginning the local residents would have thought 'we have got Marlon Brando and his crew coming into town to wreck the place'.
"In reality, when they saw it happen, they saw we were here for a good time, to share that good time, and not to close it off and keep it to ourselves."
Businesses in Aviemore said the annual gathering was important to the local economy.
Samantha Faircliff, of Cairngorms Brewery, which produces a beer specially for the occasion, said thousands of people come to the village to see the bikers.
Aviemore businessman Alex Burns-Smith said when locals heard of plans for the first Thunder in the Glens there were some concerns it would involve "headcases on motorbikes".
He said these worries were dispelled after the first event when villagers found that the bikers were "incredibly well behaved" and were contributing to the local economy. | Bikers have been taking part in one of Europe's largest annual gatherings of Harley-Davidson motorcycle enthusiasts in the Highlands. |
29364837 | The Northern Rock Foundation has handed out more than £200m since it was created in 1997, when its namesake was demutualised to become a bank.
Trustees said they had failed to agree future funding with Virgin Money, which took over Northern Rock in 2011.
Current grant programmes will stop at the end of 2014 as the charity prepares for its likely eventual closure.
In a different announcement, Virgin Money said it would make a £1m investment into community projects designed to make a positive difference to young people in the region.
Northern Rock Foundation said in a statement: "In May 2014, Virgin Money made a generous offer to the Northern Rock Foundation of £1 million per year for five years, to be matched by the foundation raising £3 million per year from the private sector locally.
"This was considered very seriously by the Foundation's trustees.
"Virgin Money and Northern Rock Foundation together looked at many different ways in which this offer could help to generate an income, including reviewing the current funding environment and canvassing views from private, public and voluntary sector bodies.
"Eventually it was concluded that, given the existing charitable commitments and links with other local funders of many other businesses in the region, this was not a viable option.
"Trustees believe there are now no funding routes left to pursue, (although they would be open to viable approaches) and will therefore proceed with the scaling down of the foundation's work." | A bank-funded charity supporting good causes throughout the North East and Cumbria is to be wound up. |
34507229 | Assistant Chief Constable Rebecca Sutcliffe said shots fired on Saturday in Salford and Bolton, and the shooting of a man in Salford, were linked.
There was no link with a fourth shooting in Bolton which happened later, she added.
Ms Sutcliffe appealed for local people to give police information.
"We absolutely need the community to come forward," she said.
A long-running investigation revealed a dispute between two "serious and organised crime groups" over the past 12 months, said ACC Sutcliffe of Greater Manchester Police (GMP).
In the first incident, a man was wounded in the back when he was shot through the window of his house in Mossbrook Drive, Little Hulton, at about 00:15 BST on Saturday. His condition is not known.
Later that day, two houses were sprayed with bullets in attacks at an address in Worsley Road, Bolton, at about 22:00 and one in Gorse Drive, Little Hulton nearly 90 minutes later. No-one was hurt.
Patrols had been stepped up but the shootings were "targeted" and there was no threat to the wider community, she added.
The three incidents are not being linked with a fourth shooting on Saturday afternoon in Bolton when a man was shot in the stomach outside a pub in Cannon Street, Bolton. | Three shootings in the space of 24 hours are part of a year-long "escalating" gang feud, said a senior Greater Manchester police officer. |
34909149 | Joyce top-scored with an unbeaten 33 as Ireland made a relatively modest 108-5 in their innings.
Scotland looked on course for victory as Rachel Scholes and Fiona Urquhart put on 30 for the opening wicket but the Scots then collapsed to 33-6.
Scotland finished on 81-8, with Irish captain Joyce taking two wickets.
Veteran Ireland leg-spinner Ciara Metcalfe started the rot by dismissing both openers in her first over.
Teenagers Robyn Lewis and Lucy O'Reilly also both took two wickets while player-coach Kari Anderson (14 no) and Sam Haggo (10) were the only other Scotland players to join Scholes (20) in reaching double figures.
The Scottish total was helped by the concession of 13 wides by the Irish.
Joyce's twin sister Cecelia contributed 21 in the Ireland innings.
The Joyce twins are sisters of Ireland and Sussex star Ed Joyce.
Ireland are back in action on Thursday when they take on Thailand in Bangkok before they start the tournament proper on Saturday against the Netherlands.
The top two teams in the eight-strong qualifying tournament will progress to next year's World T20 in India. | Skipper Isobel Joyce starred as Ireland defeated Scotland by 27 runs in a warm-up game for the World Twenty20 qualifying tournament in Bangkok. |
33691919 | Stephen Mellor was among 30 Britons killed in Sousse on 26 June.
The 59-year-old from Bodmin, Cornwall, was on holiday with his wife, Cheryl, when he was killed by Seifeddine Rezgui, a Tunisian student with links to Islamic State extremists.
Mrs Mellor, who lost a hand and suffered gunshot wounds, said Mr Mellor was killed trying to protect her.
She said in a tribute read by the vicar that he was her "soul mate" and would love him forever.
Mr Mellor was killed when Seifeddine Rezgui, a Tunisian student with links to Islamic State extremists, opened fire on the beach last month.
His coffin was led into St Petroc's Church to an accompaniment of Funeral For A Friend sung by Elton John.
An inquest into the killing has been opened and adjourned in London.
The Reverend Graham Minors said before the funeral: "Cheryl loved him dearly and that will be the theme today, about love of family and the love they had together." | A funeral has taken place of a victim of the Tunisia beach attack who shielded his wife from the gunman. |
30665356 | The attack happened in Stembrook, Dover at about 04:00 GMT, Kent Police said.
Detective Inspector Lee Whitehead urged anyone who recognised the men to contact the force.
Two men, aged 26 and 21, were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and released on bail pending further enquiries. | Police have released CCTV images of two men they want to speak to after a woman was sexually assaulted on Christmas Day. |
39127090 | Some are worried about being seen as informants, while others fear being implicated if something bad happens to the person who attacked them.
Frontline workers who deal with gang violence in Nottingham said they know people who have paid a vet to treat a stab wound.
The "going rate" is said to be £200.
Sources told the BBC the practice has been going on for years.
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons said vets are not legally permitted to prescribe medicines for humans, but it does not have specific advice on whether they can treat wounds.
Former gang member Marcellus Baz, winner of the Unsung Hero award at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, said he knew a qualified vet who stitched up knife wounds.
Mr Baz, who runs an anti-knife crime programme, said: "They've got to get healed, they've got to get stitched and they know if they go to hospital, they're going to get police involvement."
Nathan Kelly, a youth mentor for the Nottingham School of Boxing, said he was aware of people who had sought treatment outside hospital because "they don't want to go to the hospital and get it down on record they had been slashed or whatever".
Mr Kelly said he lied to medics after he was slashed in the face in an unprovoked attack several years ago.
"The first thing they want to do is get the police involved," he said.
"For me that wasn't an option because I don't want to get seen as being an informant. And you know what they say, snitches get stitches."
The BBC has been told that some victims hop out of ambulances to avoid going to hospital, while others look for people who can stitch them up at home.
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons said no concerns have been raised about vets treating human wounds, but anyone with a concern can raise it confidentially.
Nottinghamshire Police has been asked to comment. | Stab victims are paying vets to stitch their wounds because they fear police will get involved if they go to hospital, the BBC has been told. |
35174777 | Keen's side are bottom of League One, having leaked 55 league goals.
"We need to make sure defensively we are tighter and at the same time express ourselves," he told BBC Essex.
"If it means we lose a fraction going forward that might have to be so. The only priority is to win against Southend, Gillingham, then Oldham."
The U's take on a Shrimpers side who are just one place outside the play-off places having won promotion from League Two last season.
Southend boss Phil Brown, who takes charge of his first Essex derby match, said: "We're preparing for this game the same as any other game.
"The importance of it is the fact that we're knocking at the door of the play-offs and they're bottom of the league, and they'll be smarting from that.
"It's a massive game for both clubs - it's a local derby and we just want to give it our best shot."
Keen took his first permanent role in management by replacing Tony Humes at the Weston Homes Community Stadium on Monday after leaving his post as Reading assistant manager earlier in December.
"It's a fantastic game to come in to," added the former Stoke player. "I went to Southend on Friday and was really impressed with them, in the first half especially.
"It's a great challenge for the players and myself to get our teeth into.
"And I think it's tremendous there will be a full house and I hope the Colchester fans get behind the team because we're currently sitting bottom of the league.
"It's time for the true supporter to stand up and say 'come on, we're behind you, let's get going'." | New Colchester United manager Kevin Keen wants more solidity from his side against local rivals Southend United, his first match in charge. |
20124979 | Dr Matt Edwards' screenplay for horror South of Sanity was inspired by stories of night watches Antarctic staff carry out alone during the long winters.
The Londoner also created the make-up for the feature.
Shot by Aviemore-based Kirk Watson, the film's cast and crew were all British Antarctic Survey (BAS) staff.
A premiere for South of Sanity is being held at the Spey Valley Cinema in Aviemore later.
Dr Edwards, who was brought up in New Malden and is a paediatric emergency physician at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, has flown north for the screening.
Rated 18 by the British Board of Film Classification, the movie follows 14 staff at an Antarctic station as they are stalked by a killer.
The film started out as a project for 21 BAS personnel and contractors to help occupy their free time during the winter when the continent is locked in darkness and freezing conditions.
It was shot by Mr Watson, a climber and documentary film-maker originally from Torphins in Aberdeenshire.
Dr Edwards, who was medical officer for BAS at the time it was shot two years ago, had planned to spend his time writing scientific research papers for medical journals.
He said: "Instead I wrote the script for the film. I love horror films, but other ideas came from discussions about the night watches staff have to do when everyone else at a base is asleep.
"Some of the buildings that are checked are pretty old and creaky and there is usually the wind howling outside."
Dr Edwards' mother, freelance make-up artist Anne Edwards, supplied him with recipes for making fake blood and gore.
He said: "Back in the day she worked for the BBC on Doctor Who. But she refuses to watch South of Sanity, I don't think she likes the idea that her son has written a horror film.
"I also did some paintings of penguins while I was out there. She likes those." | A physician who wrote the script for the first fictional film to be shot entirely in Antarctica said his make-up artist mother refuses to watch it. |
37151409 | Defender Raggett, who arrived from Dover during the summer, headed home Alex Woodyard's left-wing cross as the Imps raced into a sixth-minute lead at Sincil Bank.
City goalkeeper Paul Farman denied Ryan Bowman from point-blank range to preserve the advantage.
Nathan Arnold doubled the lead, finishing neatly past keeper Sam Johnson after being played through on goal by Woodyard five minutes into the second period.
Striker Adam Marriott blasted home left-footed to seal a convincing victory seven minutes from time, leaving Gateshead without a win in three.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Lincoln City 3, Gateshead 0.
Second Half ends, Lincoln City 3, Gateshead 0.
Manny Smith (Gateshead) is shown the yellow card.
Terry Hawkridge (Lincoln City) is shown the yellow card.
Substitution, Lincoln City. Alan Power replaces Adam Marriott.
Goal! Lincoln City 3, Gateshead 0. Adam Marriott (Lincoln City).
Substitution, Lincoln City. Terry Hawkridge replaces Nathan Arnold.
Substitution, Gateshead. Sam Jones replaces Danny Johnson.
Substitution, Lincoln City. Jonathon Margetts replaces Matt Rhead.
Substitution, Gateshead. Reece Styche replaces Ryan Bowman.
Substitution, Gateshead. Toby Ajala replaces George Smith.
George Smith (Gateshead) is shown the yellow card.
Goal! Lincoln City 2, Gateshead 0. Nathan Arnold (Lincoln City).
Second Half begins Lincoln City 1, Gateshead 0.
First Half ends, Lincoln City 1, Gateshead 0.
Goal! Lincoln City 1, Gateshead 0. Sean Raggett (Lincoln City).
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up. | Sean Raggett scored his first Lincoln goal as they beat Gateshead to record a third successive National League win. |
38015909 | Nigel, 66, from Swansea, was diagnosed in 2012 but began experiencing problems in 2007.
Prior to diagnosis, he said there was no support available but the effects were already taking their toll.
The Welsh Government said dementia was a priority and an extra £8m had been invested in the past two years.
Earlier this week, it was revealed dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, had overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in England and Wales.
Nigel said once a person has gone through all the necessary steps to get a diagnosis, it could be in excess of four years.
"They tend to wait and see, but dementia doesn't wait and see," he said.
"I'd like the Welsh Government to look at a national pathway from pre-diagnosis to end of life for people diagnosed with dementia and their relatives."
Nigel worked as a media officer but left his jobs as the condition started to affect him more in his day-to-day life.
"I'd put the Today programme on [in the mornings] and sit in the chair in my living room and the next thing it was 11:45," he said.
He also said people who relied on benefits could suffer if they have symptoms but have yet to be diagnosed as there are sanctions for missing appointments.
Nigel, a member of the Dementia Engagement and Empowerment Project, said there was a lack of direction in the system.
He also said post-diagnosis care was "under resourced and under funded" with care often being carried out by family members.
"We need somebody who delivers care around the needs of the individual - not the bathing, feeding, washing regime - and the same person every day - that continuity helps the carer and the person."
A Welsh Government spokesman said: "We are currently working closely with key stakeholders, partner organisations and service users and carers to develop a new dementia strategic action plan which we hope to publish for wider consultation before Christmas.
"The plan will focus attention on what service users and carers are telling us about what is particularly important to them - for example, early diagnosis and the provision of support following a diagnosis." | Faster diagnosis and a change in approach to the care provided to people with dementia is needed, a man with the condition has said. |
34406574 | Prosecutors accuse Blatter, 79, of making a "disloyal payment" of £1.6m to Uefa president Michel Platini.
Both men deny any wrongdoing.
The staff match, which Blatter would usually travel to European governing body Uefa's headquarters in Nyon to watch, was scheduled for Friday.
Fifa did not give a reason for the cancellation, but said: "In a joint decision it was agreed to postpone the Uefa-Fifa Challenge 2015 until further notice."
Blatter is accused by Swiss prosecutors of signing a contract that was "unfavourable to Fifa", but says he will not stand down as Fifa president.
In a statement released through his lawyers, Blatter said a £1.5m payment made to Platini in 2011 was "valid compensation and nothing more".
Platini, 60, is being treated as "in between a witness and an accused person" by investigators.
The former France captain has written a letter to Uefa members denying any wrongdoing. | An annual football match between the staff of Fifa and Uefa has been postponed after criminal proceedings were opened against the world governing body's president Sepp Blatter. |
25578348 | Bible Society officials told Reuters that two of their members were briefly detained following the seizure.
A court ruled in October that non-Muslims could not use the word Allah to refer to God.
The appeals court said the term Allah must be exclusive to Islam or it could cause public disorder.
People of all faiths use the word Allah in Malay to refer to their gods.
Christians argue they have used the word, which entered Malay from Arabic, to refer to their God for centuries and that the ruling violates their rights.
The October court ruling overturned a 2009 ruling which said that a Catholic newspaper, The Herald, could use the word Allah in its Malay-language edition to describe the Christian God.
The 2009 ruling sparked tensions, with churches and mosques attacked.
Critics accuse the government of tacitly condoning Bible seizures as a way of deflecting anger against Prime Minister Najib Razak's government from poor Malay Muslims who are angry over subsidy cuts likely to force up electricity, petrol and sugar prices.
The Malay language Bibles were seized from the Malaysian Bible Society in the state of Selangor near the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
"We were told that we were under investigation for breaking a Selangor state law banning non-Muslims from using the word Allah," Bible Society of Malaysia Chairman Lee Min Choon told Reuters.
The main political party within Mr Najib's ruling coalition, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), said its Selangor members would protest at all churches in the state on Sunday against the unauthorised use of the word Allah.
"There are laws in Selangor and there was a decree by his Royal Highness the Sultan. So what they are doing is carrying out the Sultan's decree," Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin was quoted by media as saying.
"They are not doing anything against the law."
But in a statement the Council of Churches of Malaysia said it was "alarmed" by the raid and urged the government to "protect religious rights as provided under the Federal Constitution".
The 2009 dispute began when the Home Ministry threatened to revoke the publishing permit of The Herald for using the word Allah.
Malay Muslims make up almost two-thirds of the country's population, but there are large Hindu and Christian communities.
Mr Najib's coalition won elections in May, but it was the coalition's worst result in more than half a century in power. | Islamic authorities in Malaysia have seized more than 300 Bibles from the Bible Society because they use the word Allah to refer to God, officials say. |
38391557 | However, the concussion review panel concluded that the 24-year-old should not have returned to the field of play after he fell in a mid-air tackle against Leicester on 3 December.
The panel's 17-page report stated that head injury assessment (HIA) protocol was followed correctly, but the Saints medical team have accepted that North may have lost consciousness.
"The Concussion Management Review Group's (CMRG) view is that there was sufficient evidence to conclude not only from the video evidence but also George North's history and risk stratification that he should not have returned to the field of play," said the report.
"The CMRG considered the welfare of North was always at the centre of Northampton's actions, and does not consider that the medical team [or the club] failed to complete the HIA protocol nor intentionally ignored the player's best interests."
The report states that, although North appeared to lie motionless after the incident, he told medics he had stayed still because he was "concerned about his neck".
North also "continued to deny any loss of consciousness with immediate recall of events", with the "only symptom recorded being neck pain".
The Northampton back suffered four head blows in five months between November 2014 and March 2015, leading to a spell on the sidelines that lasted from 27 March until 29 August.
The review - the first of its kind since the concussion management system was introduced in the Premiership at the start of this season - also made nine recommendations.
These include consideration being given to the introduction of a pitchside video reviewer to ensure video feeds continue to be monitored throughout the match.
It has also recommended that the entire HIA assessment must be completed off field, even if part of it had already taken place on the pitch.
And it re-enforced "the necessity to review footage before starting the HIA assessment and the criteria in respect of permanent removal from the field of play".
Since the concussion review panel first met to assess the incident on 6 December, it has taken 15 days for their findings to be published - with North having been stood down from playing in the meantime.
"We wanted the review - which was primarily around the medical management and treatment of George North - to be thorough and rigorous to ensure that we fully understood the circumstances of this case," said the group's independent chairman Dr Julian Morris.
"While the challenges in the consistent delivery of best practice in the on-field management of head injuries in professional sport are recognised, player welfare is paramount to the game of rugby."
North has since resumed training and, according to Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder, is set to return to the Northampton side for their league match against Sale Sharks on Friday.
After the report was published on Wednesday, Northampton said in a statement that they "accept the conclusion that George should not have been allowed to return to the field of play, but are pleased that the CMRG has reflected our concerns about the current technologies and processes available to medical teams when assessing concussion".
The statement added: "The club believes that this is now an opportunity for the whole rugby community to reflect on the CMRG's recommendations to ensure the highest levels of player safety and well-being.
"In the meantime, the club continues to offer George its full support and looks forward to seeing him on the pitch again as soon as he is ready."
BBC Radio 5 live's rugby union reporter Chris Jones
"The decision not to sanction Northampton will inevitably be met by widespread scepticism, especially as it is accepted that the club didn't manage the incident properly.
"The Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby have long vaunted their approach to concussion and head injuries, and there is no doubt they have been at the front of the field.
"But for a situation like this to occur is highly unsatisfactory and, while the governing bodies will want this to be a line in the sand when it comes to managing such injuries, it is clear there is still some way to go.
"And amongst it all is a lingering feeling that while players are culpable for their actions - especially when it comes to acts of foul play - other bodies in rugby are not being held to account in the same way."
Meanwhile, Northampton have also discovered they will receive no punishment for fielding an under-strength team in their 60-13 European Champions Cup defeat by Leinster on Saturday.
European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) officials have assessed the matchday squads and ruled that Saints did not break any tournament regulations.
"It is the obligation of the participating clubs to select the best possible squads for matches," said an EPCR spokesman.
"EPCR reserves the right to take action in the interests of the integrity of the tournaments." | Northampton Saints will face no sanction following the investigation into their treatment of Wales wing George North's latest head injury. |
36863788 | Hundreds of thousands of fans are flocking to cinemas across India with frenzy also mounting around the world.
Some businesses gave employees time off to avoid "sick" days, a jumbo jet was repainted in honour of the film and Twitter India "broke" several times.
It made $30m (£20m) in film rights sales even before it released.
The film is being shown on more than 12,000 screens in India alone from Friday. The term "blockbuster" doesn't even come close.
Watch on Facebook Live: What Chennai's filmgoers think
Read our review of Kabali
Rajinikanth is an Indian film actor who works mostly in Tamil cinema. He is one of Asia's highest paid actors with a notoriously devoted fan base.
Screaming fans throng cinema halls hours before his films and prayer ceremonies for their success are held.
Watching a Rajinikanth film is an experience in itself. He lights cigarettes with his pistol, catches grenades with his eyes closed, leaps to unfeasible heights and knocks out rooms full of bad guys in mere seconds.
People cheer, clap, whistle and stomp their feet every time he comes on-screen.
Off the screen he is so revered that any news of ill health has been known to have serious consequences. In one incident, a fan from Tamil Nadu attempted to overdose on sleeping pills and later told doctors and his family that he had been trying to "end his life" and donate his kidneys to the actor.
Kabali has been described as a gangster revenge drama. Some reports say a trailer for the movie is the most watched teaser in Asia.
The film is being released in a number of countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the US, France and Japan, where tickets are said to be selling out fast.
Srinivasan Jayaseelan, a self confessed "super fan" in the south Indian city of Chennai (Madras) has told reporters that he plans to spend all of 22 and 23 July inside a cinema hall, because he will be watching Kabali ten times in a row.
Sports cars, buses and even India's ubiquitous "auto rickshaws" in south India are driving down the streets with Kabali imagery emblazoned all over them.
One car dealer in Tamil Nadu is even repainting brand new cars with graphics from the film and has told reporters that they are selling out quickly. One report suggests a businessman in Malaysia has also followed suit, getting a Kabali wrap for his Lamborghini.
Budget airline Air Asia laid on a special Kabali flight from Bangalore to Chennai, featuring Rajinikanth's favourite food. The special flight carried 180 Rajinikanth fans to watch the film.
Fans paid 7,860 rupees ($116; £79) return fare to fly from Bangalore to Chennai to watch the "first day, first show" of the film at a Chennai theatre, pick up movie merchandise and return home after lunch.
In Chennai and Bangalore, some companies have declared a holiday on Friday and given their employees free tickets for the film.
They say it is to avoid people calling in sick, turning off their phones or simply failing to turn up for work. One firm said it had declared a holiday to "avoid piled up leave requests to the HR department".
A group of Japanese fans have flown all the way to Chennai to catch the "first day first show" of the movie.
Wearing "Kabali" t-shirts and waving placards to the delight of fellow fans and reporters, they lined up outside cinemas in the city ahead of the film.
In 1999, Newsweek magazine compared Rajinikanth's fame in Japan to that of Leonardo DiCaprio. | Indian film superstar Rajinikanth, who has the kind of following most Hollywood actors can only dream about, has released his latest film, Kabali. |
38091858 | The claim: The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that the government will have to borrow an extra £58.7bn as a result of the UK's vote to leave the European Union, a forecast that is too gloomy according to some commentators.
Reality Check verdict: All forecasts are uncertain. The OBR is predicting a considerable amount of extra government borrowing as a result of the vote to leave the European Union, but its overall forecast is more optimistic than the Bank of England and the average of independent forecasters.
Much of the gloominess comes in the early years of the forecast, which are likely to be more reliable than later years. The OBR has a record of being too optimistic in its borrowing forecasts, especially in the later years of its forecasts.
The OBR uses much the same forecasting methods as were used by the overwhelming majority of economists who warned during the campaign that the vote to leave would be bad for the economy.
The £58.7bn extra that the OBR predicted would have to be borrowed by the end of 2020-21 is broken down into five parts:
Of those, the lower interest rates are good for the economy, while the other four are bad.
The OBR was given extracts from two of the prime minister's speeches to guide it on the government's policy on Brexit.
They included the line "we are not leaving the European Union only to give up control of immigration again" so it is not unreasonable for the OBR to think migration would be lower as a result of the Brexit vote.
Orthodox economic thinking is that migration, and especially new migration, is good for the economy.
Slower productivity growth is based on uncertainty surrounding the process of Brexit leading to lower investment by companies.
The cyclical slowdown also comes from uncertainty hitting investment by businesses and higher inflation hitting the spending power of consumers.
Higher inflation is caused by the weaker pound increasing the cost of imports.
Professor Sir Steve Nickell, one of the three heads of the OBR, said at its press conference: "In so far as our forecast is gloomy it's based on stuff that's already happened.
"The exchange rate has already fallen and that is the key to our forecast of weakness in the economy next year.
"Investment growth is already being lower this year than it was last year."
So the OBR forecast is broadly based on what has happened so far continuing to happen, which is not unreasonable, and that is why the OBR finds a negative effect from the Brexit vote.
Is it too optimistic or too pessimistic? The OBR is forced to put numbers to these things - that is its job - and it is important to the government that it does so in order that it can have a central idea of what its current policies will do to the economy.
The OBR's forecasts are based on the same sort of economic modelling that we talked about during the referendum campaign. It is not an exact science and it gets less precise the further in the future you look.
The OBR is very open in this set of forecasts in warning that the later years of the predictions are particularly sketchy, because it does not know what sort of deal will be done governing the UK's future relationship with the EU.
It assumes that Brexit will happen at the end of March 2019 because that is government policy, but predicting what will happen in the two years after that is almost impossible.
Interestingly, it is in the two years before Brexit that the reductions in the forecasts for economic growth happen - there has been no change to the forecasts for 2019 and 2020.
The editor of the Spectator, Fraser Nelson, said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Even the growth is expected to get back to normal in 2019 and 2020 so the idea of an enduring Brexit-related lag on growth isn't taken seriously by the OBR."
That's not quite right - the two years of slower growth would represent an enduring Brexit-related lag - growth is indeed permanently lower.
But the point is that the gloomy bits of the forecast come in the early years, based on the assumption that things already happening will continue to happen.
It may turn out to be too gloomy - the £58.7bn of extra borrowing is the central point of the forecast. The OBR publishes fan charts to illustrate this.
Fan charts illustrate the probability attached to parts of the forecast. The darker the colour the more likely an outcome. Each level of shading represents a 10% probability, with a 10% chance of the outcome being completely outside the fan.
So, for example, there is still a 35% chance that the government will balance the budget in 2019-20. On the other hand, the outcome could be considerably worse than the OBR has predicted.
The OBR's forecasts are slightly less gloomy than those of the Bank of England, more optimistic than independent forecasters in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and considerably less gloomy than those of the Treasury during the referendum campaign.
The OBR, like other forecasters, has not been right every time. But if anything, its forecasts have been too optimistic, especially in the later years of its forecast periods.
In its first set of forecasts for the June 2010 Budget, for example, it predicted that the deficit in 2015-16 would be £20bn. It was actually £76bn.
Find other Reality Checks here | It is no surprise that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said that the vote to leave the European Union would mean the UK economy would grow less and the government would have to borrow more. |
21755941 | The existing Castle Station in Northampton will be replaced by a £20m glass and steel building in 2014.
In medieval times a royal castle was situated on part of the site, and last year items from Saxon times were unearthed in an initial trench.
The dig will be done by experts from Northamptonshire Archaeology and will take about 12 weeks.
It will record any remains before the new station is built.
Councillor Jim Harker, leader of Northamptonshire County Council said: "Northampton's unique selling point over many of its neighbours is its long and important history and heritage.
"It had one of the first universities in England and its castle was the scene of many important historical events."
Last October, a 12th Century ironstone wall, pottery fragments and a Saxon brooch were unearthed during a preliminary investigation on the site.
During the next two weeks hoarding will be put around the site and it will be prepared for the dig.
The short-stay car park will be relocated to a new area alongside the station. | Preparations for an archaeological dig at a site earmarked for a new railway station are due to begin. |
34777835 | The director of banned Radio Biafra was arrested last month and is still being held despite a court order to free him, his mainly ethnic Igbo supporters say.
There are reports of violence during a protest in Port Harcourt.
Biafran secessionists fought a three-year civil war that ended in 1970.
More than one million people lost their lives before the uprising was eventually quelled by the military.
Secessionist groups have attracted the support of many young people in the south-east in recent years.
The BBC's Abdussalam Ahmed in the south-eastern city of Enugu says in reality they do not want a repeat of the civil war but are keen to draw the attention of the central government to some developmental challenges the region faces.
Activists told the BBC that five people were killed and several others injured after police fired shots and teargas to disperse the protesters in Port Harcourt - the largest city in the region.
But police spokesman Ahmad Muhammad said this was untrue.
"Measures have been put in place to handle the situation in such a way that public peace is not disrupted and to ensure life and property are protected," he told the AFP news agency.
Protests were also held on Tuesday in the city of Owerri in Imo state, a day after the region's biggest market in the city of Aba was reportedly shut down by protesters.
Our correspondent says the protests started peacefully on Friday in the oil-rich Delta state and has since taken place in five other major cities in the region.
The demonstrators are mostly young men holding Biafra flags and banners with pictures of Mr Kanu, who is also a leader in the secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
"We won't give up until our director Nnamdi Kanu is released," one protester told our reporter during a protest in Enugu.
It is not clear where Radio Biafra is based but it mainly broadcasts to the Igbo-speaking south-east of the country.
The Nigerian government says it has been operating without a licence and began jamming its signals in July, but its broadcasts are still available online and via mobile phones by a dialling a local number.
An IPOB leader, Uchemna Madu, told the BBC that the group was fighting against the "injustice and inequality" ethnic Igbos faced in Nigeria.
"We believe in Nigeria, we have businesses everywhere in the country but we are getting nothing apart from political and social marginalisation," he said.
"Our lives and properties are not secured, we want to live on our own."
The Nigerian authorities have always maintained that most of the issues the Biafra activists are complaining about are not unique to southern part of the country. | Hundreds of people in southern Nigeria have been protesting about the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, an activist who supports the creation of a breakaway state of Biafra. |
27299259 | The Independent Placenta Encapsulation Network (IPEN), based in Herts, makes smoothies and capsules that it claims have health benefits.
Dacorum Borough Council prevented IPEN from trading in October last year over concerns about bacterial contamination.
The case, believed to be the first of its kind, was heard before Watford magistrates and judgement reserved.
District Judge Annabel Pilling heard that IPEN founder Lynnea Shrief, of Berkhamsted, set up the company after her own struggle to provide enough breast milk for her baby.
She claims eating the raw placenta can increase breast milk supply, help reduce the impact of post-natal depression and improve general mood and a sense of well-being.
IPEN had been trading for two and a half years when it was given an Emergency Prohibition Notice by the council in October.
The council's barrister Nicholas George said the bacteria staphylococcus aureus, present in the vagina of 10% of women, could be passed on to the placenta.
This presented a "hazard" and a risk to health in what he described as a "significant proportion" of women.
He added that the production process was out of the control of IPEN, which relied on the mother or partner to properly look after the placenta before it came to IPEN to be processed.
IPEN argued that the placenta should be cooled to 8 degrees Celsius within four hours of birth, is cool when they receive it and therefore presented no threat to health.
The placenta is an organ attached to the lining of the womb during pregnancy, and linked to the baby by the umbilical cord.
It passes oxygen and nutrients from the mother's blood supply to the baby.
Waste products from the baby, such as carbon dioxide, pass back along the umbilical cord to the placenta.
After the baby is born, more contractions will push the placenta out - or it will be lifted from the womb during a Caesarean.
Source: NHS Choices
Bradley Say, for IPEN - which is challenging the prohibition notice - said the company always asked for a history of each placenta and would refuse any that had been left at room temperature for 24 hours.
He said all IPEN could do was issue good advice and trust the consumer to look after their own health.
"The law does not need to step in and protect people when what they are eating is a product of themselves," he told the court.
The court heard that women asked to complete feedback forms after consuming placenta products from IPEN had not reported any ill-effects.
District Judge Pilling said she was unlikely to hand down her judgement before the end of next week. | A company that processes raw placentas for new mothers to eat could be shut down over health fears. |
33645145 | The new owner is the Schivo Group which works in the medical technologies, aerospace and oil and gas sectors.
MPE supplies parts to major aircraft manufacturers Bombardier, Airbus and Boeing.
It employs 133 staff who will continue to be based at the Derry factory.
Schivo said the deal would expand its interests in the "buoyant" aerospace engineering sector.
The firm's chief executive, Seamus Kilgannon, said it creates "a significant indigenous supplier to the global aerospace industry".
MPE's managing director Sean Phelan said that by becoming part of a larger organisation they would be able to better serve customers and invest further.
The sale price was not disclosed. | The Londonderry-based aerospace engineering firm Maydown Precision Engineering (MPE) has been sold to a Waterford-based company. |
37763549 | Ms Nickolds, 43, will begin the role in January 2017, taking over from interim lead director Dinos Rocos.
She will replace Andy Street, who is stepping down this month to run as Conservative candidate for Mayor of the West Midlands.
Ms Nickolds will be the retailer's first woman managing director.
She joined John Lewis in 1994 as a graduate trainee.
She held a number of senior roles before joining the board in 2013 as its buying and brand director.
She is currently the company's commercial director and was responsible for "innovation" in John Lewis's product range and the look and feel of its shops.
"As a partner with 22 years service, I know just how special the John Lewis Partnership is," she said in a statement.
"Driven by our unique business model, and with innovation in our DNA, I am immensely excited to lead John Lewis on the next stage of our journey."
Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, said: "At a time of transformation in the retail sector, Paula's progressive and dynamic leadership is just what's needed for the next phase of modern retailing."
According to a spokesperson, all previous John Lewis managing directors have been appointed from within the company.
Mr Street joined in 1985, initially working in the firm's department stores, head office and manufacturing units.
He became director of personnel in 2002 and managing director in 2007. | Retailer John Lewis has announced that Paula Nickolds will become its new managing director in 2017, replacing Andy Street. |
38928620 | Primus, the Most Rev David Chillingworth, is to retire in July after nine years at the helm.
His departure will take place one month after the Church Synod - its ruling body - holds a vote on whether to allow same-sex marriage within the Church.
Bishop Chillingworth, who supports the concept of gay marriage, denied that he was leaving a "poisoned chalice" for his successor.
If the Scottish Episcopal Church votes in favour of same-sex marriage, the move would leave the Scottish church at odds with the Church of England and most of the 85 million strong Anglican Communion.
US Episcopalians have already been ostracised over their support for gay marriage.
Bishop Chillingworth, who is also Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that clergy in his church who were opposed to same-sex marriage would be able to opt out under a conscience clause.
He said: "Nobody should take for granted what the outcome of that vote will be."
However, the 66-year-old, who has served with the ministry for 41 years, said Scotland has moved on as a society and it was time for the Church to do the same.
When asked if his the vacancy left by his retirement was a poisoned chalice, the Primus said: "I have felt that it was proper to remain in office until we reached the point where that decision was made.
"Getting to that point has involved a lengthy process of conversation and exploration and expression of views and people sharing with one and other right across the life of the church, and I have been with others providing the leadership to make that happen.
"If we can come to a decision in the summer, which makes clear where we are, but also makes clear that in our diversity we remain a unified community of faith, I shall go into retirement content leaving the next generation of leadership to work out what that means in practice." | The head of the Scottish Episcopal Church has announced he will step down. |
11993049 | Mr Wilson was 21 when he went missing from his home in the Falls Road area of west Belfast in 1973.
He is believed to have been abducted and murdered by the IRA.
On Tuesday, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR) said results of DNA tests confirmed the remains were Mr Wilson's.
His body will now be released to his family.
Members of the Wilson family had just attended a walk at Stormont in memory of the Disappeared on 2 November when a call came through to say his remains had been found.
His sister, Anne Connolly, said it was a shock to learn recently that he might be buried in Waterfoot as her mother, Lily, who died three years ago, often sat on village beach.
She spoke of a "mixture of relief, and great sadness" to learn that his body had been found so soon after the dig began.
Archaeologists and other experts had been examining the beach at Waterfoot in the Glens of Antrim after a tip-off to the ICLVR.
The commission has now overseen the discovery of seven bodies and numerous searches since it was set up in 1999 to locate those murdered and buried in secret graves by republican paramilitaries during the troubles.
Remains found in County Monaghan in July were confirmed as being those of Crossmaglen man Charlie Armstrong, a 57-year-old father-of-five who went missing on his way to Mass in 1981.
In October, the remains of Mr Armstrong's neighbour, Gerry Evans, were found at a site in County Louth. | Remains found at Waterfoot beach, County Antrim, last month were those of Peter Wilson, one of the "Disappeared", it has been confirmed. |
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